The Hunger

The Hunger

Psalms 84:1-84:3

6, November 2005

Dakota Community Church

The Hunger

When do we first recognize it? Is it in our early twenties, late teens, earlier perhaps?

That sense that something is missing, that there must be more to life than what we are experiencing.

Quote:

"All men seek happiness. This is without exception.

Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end.

The will never takes the least step but to this object.

This is the motive of every action of every man, even those who hang themselves."

Blaise Pascal

C. S. Lewis said it this way:

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy,

the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."

King David knew the longing.

Psalm 84:1-3

How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty!

My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young - a place near your altar, O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.

The hunger is the central driving force in our lives.

When we don’t realize that it is a desire for eternity that God has put in our hearts, we can really mess things up trying to deal with it.

Here are four of the ways:

1. The escape artists.

Some of us deal with the hunger by trying to escape from it.

- We try to drown it in drink.

- We try to sedate it with drugs.

- We suffocate it with sugar and salt.

- We try to indulge it with pornography or gambling.

All of these provide momentary escapes; short bursts of pleasure that carry long range pain, these temporary fixes only serve to fuel the fire of what our hearts are really longing for.

If you have been using one of these or some other distraction to escape from your longing, to fill the space then please stop!

Ephesians 5:18

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life

2. The sleepwalkers.

Some of us deal with the hunger by trying to ignore it.

Is there really a special purpose for my life?. Does God really care what happens to me?

After a while event after event that we do not like or understand begins to eat away our belief that we are special, that we are a part of some great and grand design of God.

If we were really special wouldn’t God have - fill in the blank.

We convince ourselves to settle.

We begin to believe that this is all there is to life.

Quote:

"The glory of God is man fully alive."

Saint Irenaeus

God has staked His reputation on us coming fully alive! - John 10:10

Have you made the mistake of confusing a water hole for the ocean?

Ephesians 5:13-14

But when anything is exposed and reproved by the light, it is made visible and clear; and where everything is visible and clear there is light.

Therefore He says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon you and give you light.

3. The runners.

Some of us deal with the hunger by getting full bore into the rat race.

One thing after another we try to satisfy the hunger with things.

- A partner

- A family

- More money

- A new car

- Bigger house

Runners are on the move to the thing that will satisfy the hunger and from the last thing after it didn’t.

Luke 12: 22-26

Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

Matthew 11:25-30

At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.