This is our second week in our new series that is all about trying to get the most out of the Christian life - rather than just getting the T-shirt - we want the whole enchilada, we want everything! Tonight we are talking about intensity.
We are in the middle of a campaign season. I am already tired of the commercials... I’ll be honest, I’m not voting yet. I will probably vote in the election, but I don’t do primaries. But, you know, in watching the commercials, it amazes me how politicians offer the world. Here are our problems, and here is my ten step solution... Honestly, I think they will say anything to get elected. They’ll change their position, they’ll say anything to make you like them. But tonight I want us to look at a passage of scripture, where Jesus did the opposite...
In John 6 - Jesus has just fed 5,000 people with 2 fishes and 5 loaves. It’s an amazing miracle, and the next day the crowd of people want a repeat - but Jesus saw through them... (read vs.26) Then he starts getting a little over-spiritual (read vs.35) Okay, then he starts going crazy (read vs.53-56) Well you can imagine the outcome... (read vs.66)
This is one of those passages where you begin to see that Jesus is no normal guy - as a matter of fact, you could look at this passage and say, “That guy is nuts...” Or maybe he wasn’t. Maybe he was so passionate about wanting people to experience life with God that he described in the best way that he could... Maybe he’s right. If we really want to know God then we have to hunger after him - and long for him - and get him in us...
Very few of us have really ever been hungry. If we are honest, one of the reason’s we don’t get this passage is that we don’t understand what it really means to be hungry. So maybe for you there is something that will work - something that you have really longed for that is hard to get - maybe it’s sleep. How many of us have been there... Or maybe it’s love. I’ve been there too - wanting a relationship so bad...
A few years ago I took a trip to Bangladesh (the poorest country in the world). It was an amazing trip on a whole lot of levels. I went with a group from Houston, and there were different tasks for the whole group. My team went into some new areas - new villages - and we were looking for the man of peace. When we found that person, then one of us would start testing their water. The other one would start sharing the gospel. The way we did it was to start with the Koran. There are actually verses in the Koran about Isa, or Jesus. So we would start there, and they would be like, “Tell us more.” All week, we ate whatever was presented to us. I ate some pretty scary things. The honest truth though was that they didn’t have a lot of food. Even their chickens were skinny. I remember sitting down at this one house, and they brought out this bowl of meat. Bones sticking out everywhere, and stuff that I didn’t like looking back at me... I ate very little. Kevin had told us that they got meat once a year, so this was a big deal. I met a young man who sums up what it’s like to be hungry. He was a christian. He was probably 14. He had accepted Christ through an online Bible course - and we were the first people he had ever told. We met with him, and gave him some stuff to read, then we were leaving. he handed me a note. It asked me if I would take him. Can you imagine the desperation? Most of us have no idea what it’s really like to hunger...or to want.
Most of us have roving appetites. We have so many options that we just move from one thing to the next trying to get filled. If we don’t like option A, we just move on to option B. It’s actually a pretty big problem, because if you talk with a marriage counselor, they will tell you that they see people all the time who are willing to end a marriage on the hope that the next relationship is better. But that’s not the only place we see it... Americans are looking everywhere for things to fill the void that is within. If we are honest, many of us have tried some pretty wild stuff, just hoping that it would fill us up.
Sometimes we get wanting hunger and being filled mixed up... We get it in our head that if we want something bad enough then it will come. If we focus on it - or if we want it really really bad, then we’ll get it. The truth though is that wanting it is not enough.
If I can switch metaphors for a second, let me open up about something. there is something that I can relate this to and I bet you’ll get where I am going. I want to be skinny. I grew up being pencil thin. Then in college I got busy and stopped working out. I also became a minister - and they really do feed you all the time. So I got fat. A few years back I lost 30 pounds - but I still want to lose more. I want to be thin... But wanting it and getting it are too different stories. I can really really want it, and still not pass up the doughnut. I can want it and want it and paste pictures of thin guys on my mirror and read books about it, but if I don’t develop some discipline about what I eat, if I don’t start exercising more - then it won’t happen... So I’ve had to learn my weak spots. i have had to learn what motivates me. I’ve had to figure out how to make myself work out...
Some of us say we want God. We even think we do...but the proof is not in the pudding. You have to create the right circumstances/environment. You have to learn what it is that you need to find God. For instance, some of you are using the Bible you had when you were a kid. Maybe it was a graduation gift...but you read it and it makes no sense. Well get a new Bible! The translation that we give away is really good. It’s easy to read - it makes sense. But you still have to read it!!
Then there’s also the possibility that we were hungry once, but we just don’t stay that way. Maybe you had some kind of experience before, but now it’s gone... I’ve been there. You have an encounter with God, and you are on this high - but then it fades...
I heard a great story about this guy who took a trip to Africa. He went to Kenya on a safari, and one day they were out and they saw a lion on a hill off in the distance. One of the guys on the trip asked, “Hey do lion’s ever kill people.” Their guide said, once in a while it happens but not very often. “Why not” they asked, and the guide said, “We’ll if a lion ever kills a person the whole village will come together to hunt it down and kill it - because once a lion gets a taste for man, nothing else will satisfy.”
That’s what I want...I want a hunger for God that will not be quenched until I die.
Yeah, but I’ve been there - but it’s gone... It’s almost like you’ve given up hope. You used to do all that stuff, but the hunger is gone.
Eat even if you are not hungry. If you go long enough without food, you will lose your appetite. You could be starving, but you still need to eat. maybe you need to make yourself. Force yourself...do it anyway.
Second thing is this... You have to understand that if you ask - God will answer - so maybe you need to start asking...
I am not a morning person, but for some reason the one meal I do well is breakfast. Here’s the deal though, it doesn’t happen often. I don’t just wake up and make breakfast - but you know what always gets breakfast made... If my daughter comes and says, “daddy, I’m hungry” It gets me every time...
maybe you think there’s no hope. maybe you’ve never really been hungry, maybe you’ve chased after everything else... Here’s what I suggest, “Look up to heaven and cry out”
Do you know that God wants to know you as much as you know him...? (prodigal story if there is time)
