Sunday Praise & Worship Message - What are You Hungry For?

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, my health is slowly improving. However, I am still unable to record the message for those who wish to listen to our message. As soon as I am well enough, I will start recording all of the messages that I have been unable to record.

I want to thank each of you for your prayers, words of encouragement and well wishes. They have been a boost to my spirit

Yours in Christ,
Chaplain Jesse

There is one question that frequently pops up between friends and family members. This one question tends to drive a conversation for what seems like hours and tends to go around in circles. Everyone has an opinion or item to share regarding the question. Those conversations are driven by a desire for something. You are probably wondering what question could drive people to such discussion and active participation.

If your family and friends are like mine, then you already know what the question is. It is “What do you want to eat?” My wife and I often have the same discussion on the weekends around lunch and dinner time. I would ask her, “What are you hungry for?” Nine times out of ten, she would say, “Nothing in particular.” Without missing a beat, she would turn the question around and ask me the same thing. I would answer with the same answer and turn the question back to her. This “ping-pong” questioning could go on for a couple of minutes and then sudden stop. Like an unresolved question, it quickly comes back.

All around the world, people have one thing in common, their love for good food and fine drink. No matter where you go in the world, people enjoy sharing their food and drinks with those who visit. The ultimate expression of hospitality is the sharing of food with others. If you watch food programs on television, you see people sharing with others. It is that hospitality that brings people together.

If you go to a sporting event, you see people in the parking lot sharing their food and enjoying the company of others. People call that tailgating and everyone comes together to share. You see similar things occurring in other places as well. People coming together and sharing their food. I would say with a certain level of confidence that there isn’t one culture that does not share food with others as well as strangers. Everyone shares and enjoys the company of others when it comes to eating.

This desire to eat and share goes beyond just food. As a species, mankind hungers and thirsts for other things as well. Knowledge, adventure and the desire to advance man’s state are key ingredients in seeking out those items that satisfy their desire to better mankind in general.

As Christians, we have the same hunger and thirst for certain things as well. Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, tells us this in the section of the scripture called the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes are eight blessings recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. These proverbs are statements or proclamations that result in a blessing or an achievement of happiness in our lives. 

The one statement made by Jesus that struck me the most and ties closely to the question I mentioned earlier is in Matthew 5:6. Reading from the New American Standard Bible, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

It is our desire as Christians to hunger and thirst for righteousness. We should be seeking this out daily. We should be active in our search for righteousness and once we receive it, we are satisfied and filled by it. In Psalm 63, we see a wonderful verse about David being in the wilderness. The words beautifully capture the essence of our hunger and thirst for righteousness. Reading verse 1 from the New Living Translation, David writes, “O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water.”

We live in a weary land filled with hate, war and sin. The things that this world has to offer will not fill or satisfy us. It will leave us wanting more. There are empty calories in our diets that will leave us empty on the inside. We should be seeking only those things that fill us to overflowing. When we walked in the weary world, we sought those things that only left us empty and desiring more of what the world had to offer. The world can only offer us material things that will not fulfill us. When we heard the Good News, we sought after the living water. We wanted the manna from Heaven to fill us. Let us look at the passage in the Gospel of John about the Samaritan Woman at the well. Jesus, in John 4, comes upon a woman who must go to a well to get water daily. Jesus tells her that drinking the water from the well will leave her thirsty in a short period of time. He tells her about a different water, a living water, that will bubble up into her life and leave her satisfied. Starting with verse 13 and continuing to verse 14, Jesus says, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. 14 But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

When the woman hears this, she wants this living water. She had been unsatisfied for so long and now she has a new source of water that gives eternal life. All of her life she sought after water from a well that just left her more thirsty. It left her empty and just wanting more. The living water is fresh and it bubbles up within and never leaves us thirsty.

Our desire for God and His righteousness is truly a hunger and thirst. We should be seeking out that living water and spiritual food daily and know that there is more than enough to share with others. Like Jesus, we should tell others of this water and let them know that they, too, can find that spring that bubbles up and provides eternal life.

When we seek God, we know that His righteousness will fill us and sustain us in this weary land. It is only when we seek Him out daily that we, like the children of Israel, be fed and given water to drink by God. When we ask ourselves the question, “What are you hungry for,” we can answer without hesitation, thought or belabored bantering, “I want the living water and spiritual food from God.” Once we receive those blessings, we know we are satisfied and can stand firm in His grace.