A Hunger For God

A Hunger for God

Introduction: Last week we heard the preaching about the fig-tree and when we abide under the fig-tree God will know our name. Today I want to speak about having a hunger for God.

Hunger defined – The Discomfort, weakness, or pain caused by a lack of food; to have a strong desire or craving. Think about when you have been fasting for some days and then you pass by the Uyghur when they stand and barbeque lamb. Your stomach start to ache and you want to buy 20 of them and throw them into your mouth because you are so hungry.

Our text today is Phil 3:7-10 (Read it).

1. Paul

We read about Paul and he was looking back on his life, telling the church in Philippi that if someone had accomplished something in this life it was he; he was a Jew, raised to be a Pharisee. In his life as a Pharisee he was fulfilling the Law and he was opposed to the sect of Christianity. But, something happened in his life that changed everything. HE MET JESUS! From that day on, everything that had value for him lost its worth. He is telling us that he considers everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord.

When he is writing these words, he is in prison in Rome. He is probably not so comfortable and probably not so well fed. But he is not complaining to the church in Philippi. His mind is occupied with Christ. In some chapters before, he was telling the church that, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). In the first chapter of the letter to the Philippians he is mentioning Christ 18 times. When Paul met Christ on the Road to Damascus everything changed. He fell in love with Christ and everything that was a profit to him he started to count as rubbish.

10 “(For my determined purpose is) that I may know Him (that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His person more strongly and more clearly) , and that I may in the same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection (which it exerts over believers), and that I may so share his sufferings as to be continually transformed (in spirit into His likeness even) to His death, (in the hope).”

Paul wasn’t satisfied but wanted more. He wasn’t looking for a big ministry, an easy life or high salary. He was content with life. He could be hungry and thirsty; he could be in prison and cold. But there was one thing he wasn’t satisfied with. He always wanted more of Jesus. He wanted to know Him more, more than He ever had known Him.

I have to ask myself: Do I love Him? Am I satisfied or do I hunger for Him more? Many times, I think, I am not content with what I have when it comes about life; money, clothes, gadgets and so on, but satisfied with what I’ve already known about Jesus. This can’t be so. We can never be satisfied: It says in Ephesians 5:18 “...be filled with the Spirit.” KEEP on being filled with the Spirit. We can always know Him more, He wants to meet with us every day; speak to us, fill us, listen to us. Let us look on Paul and follow his example.

2. David:

Ps 63:1-5 “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld you’re your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.”

The background of this Psalm is that David’s son Absalom has turned himself on him. It is a hard time for David. Because of the threat from Absalom, David had to flee the city of Jerusalem in a hurry. Once again, as years before, David is thrown out into the wilderness.

In the face of this crisis there is only 1 person that David wants and that is God. Are you able to identify with David in verse 1? Have you ever cried out: “I need You God!!!!!”

Have you ever prayed as David did? “My soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”