Hunger

All right. Good morning morning. Welcome to Legend Church. Glad you're here. It is the summertime who hears excited for summer. Yeah. So some of you might be excited because school is out which means that you get to do whatever the heck you want for three whole months or like two and a half for like 2 months. It keeps getting shorter, right? But some of your excited because you're not going to have to slow down in the school zones anymore. You can just speed on by which is awesome. I'm kind of excited for the summer because my daughter goes to school downtown and we live in Sayler Park, which is way over on the other side of Cincinnati. So, I don't expect, you know, where that is, but it's about 20 minutes from her school one-way, right? And so, to take her, there takes about 20 minutes. If I have to go back home after that, it's another 20 minutes that the 40 minute drive, right? Either to take her to school or to pick her up from school. Now, I don't have to do that all the time, but but sometimes I do and it'll be nice not to have to take that drive, right?

But if I'm honest, I'm honest. That the thing that bothers me about the drive more than the time. Is that when I when I when I go to take my daughter, I go 50 East, and then I turn onto 6th Street and it turns into 5th Street and there's this corner. Right at 5th, Street and Central Avenue that, I hate to go hate to go by. There's always a red light, right?

But not only not only is there always a red light, but I always have to get into the left-hand lane, cuz I got to turn left on Central.

But it's not just that I have to sit in the left-hand Lane, it's that there's always somebody standing there with a sign. Says, I'm hungry. I need food. I need help, right?

and whenever I go by that corner, whenever I sit there in the left-hand Lane, right next to somebody who's in need, I'm kind of embarrassed to say that,

I look at that person or I try. Not to look at that person. And I just think, well, I mean, if I gave them a couple of dollars, would it really do anything? Like maybe they could get a bite to eat but then they'd be hungry again and so I kind of feel powerless in that moment. Like, there's nothing I can do right, there is something I can do but I feel like there's nothing I can do. I feel powerless and so I start to rationalize it to myself. I say, well, if I gave them two bucks, maybe they would go and spend it on something that I don't want them to spend it on instead of spending it on food.

I didn't like judgy to justify my own feelings, right? Not right. Should I start to feel guilty?

And I a start to feel overwhelmed.

Sinus problem. That's right next to me. So I try to ignore it. I pay attention to my suddenly, my, my center console in, my car is really interesting suddenly with the updates to the to the Convention Center is really interesting to me. Like I normally don't care anything about that, but in that moment, I'm just looking anywhere else where there's not a person who's hungry and in need and I'm embarrassed to say that, Because when I think about that, I feel this great discontent. Between who I'm supposed to be as a Jesus follower. And what my actions say about, who I am. Because I do nothing because I am overwhelmed. I feel powerless. I feel guilty.

And I feel this great discontent between not just not just who I'm supposed to be and who I'm not, but also between between this gap between what the world is supposed to be, and what the world is not, what God created this world to be, where there was no hunger. He created a garden with lots of fruits or nobody ever had to go hungry, right? Do we live in a world where hunger is a huge problem? It's a huge problem. answer this week as I was getting ready for my sermon, I was like, Curious. About hunger. And so, I followed my curiosity, I read this journal article, by this guy named John Teton and he says, There Is No Death more avoidable than death, from Hunger Hunger isn't lung cancer. As a public health problem, hunger is less daunting than the common cold because there's a preventive regimen and cure for it called food. And experts agree that there's more than enough of it to go around.

There's more than enough of it to go around and so if I'm honest with you, It will be nice. not to have to drive past 5th and Central this, this this summer And I know you're thinking loud got really heavy really quick. I'm sorry about that the gold. My sermon today is not to make you feel guilty or to increase your anxiety or to make you feel overwhelmed. That's not it at all. I just want you to see that as Christians, we are called to some degree. The discontent. With who we are compared to who we should be discontent with what the world is compared with what it should be. But this problem isn't just happening at 5th and Central. In fact, it's a problem that the world has dealt with, for a long time. And so as I was, I was, as I was curiously. Looking at what? What, what the problem is actually like I wanted to see what the world has done over the last fifty years, or so to see what they have done to solve this problem. And a lot of stuff has happened in 1974 between 1972 and 1975. There was a world food crisis and so a bunch of countries came together for a conference and they're like we've got to solve this problem and they said there's five hundred million people in the world that are going hungry in 1974. There like we need to solve this problem but they looked at that number and they got a little overwhelmed and they really did not a whole lot. Like they said, oh we should solve this problem at some point, but we don't know how to do it. They just kind of rolled up their Windows like I do at 5th and Central right. But then in 1996, there was another world Foods on it where 185 countries came together and they pledged to half the number of people in the world that deal with food insecurity and hunger have to have it by 2015. And they, they, they, they reinstituted that go at the MDG one and two thousand. And so, they're there on the track there. They're like, we're going to have to world hunger by 2015, but there was a world food crisis, in 2008, that kind of got that off of track. And until by 2015, when they were going to half the world hunger, They have not accomplished that goal. In fact, in 2015, about 564 million, people were still hungry more than in 1974. 564 million people were still hungry.

But in 2015, there like, well, we, we still want to solve this problem, and so they made a goal, not to half hunger, but to completely eliminate it at least to bring it down to about 5% of the world's population instead of instead of what it was at like 564 million, right? So they like by 2030 we're going to eliminate the problem of hunger in the world. They found that it was going to take about 25 billion dollars to solve the problem. And when you hear the word 25 billion dollars would I immediately think is so this is a government fraud is a big problems of governments need to solve it 2023. 757 million people are hungry, Global my 2023, right? So the world didn't solve it but 25 billion dollars, if that's all it took to solve The World's hunger problem. That's all it took every church is every Church in the world. Every Church in the world said, we're going to donate 74% of our budget towards this problem. For solving this problem. You got 25 billion dollars.

but the church's haven't done that, but if every Christian 2.4 billion people in the world, call themselves Christian, if every Christian in the world, donated $2 a month,

$2 a month for 24, $25 a year. That's twenty-five billion dollars.

If not, it's not necessarily something that governments need to solve it, something that churches could solve, it's something that that we could solve individually but it's complex right. We haven't because it's not just a money problem, it's a coordination problem. It's a political problem Global Wars and famines things like that. Complicate the problem so much. And so we get overwhelmed and we say it's too complex of a problem and we fall into We fall into what John's? He's on the guy that had that quote earlier. He calls a, a, a, a, a DS. Avoidable acceptance of avoidable, death syndrome, acceptance of avoidable death syndrome. We could avoid death from Hunger. Do we get overwhelmed? And we say it is what it is. It is what it is. So even our global leaders, they make their promises, they wash their hands. That's why I'm thinking you know, as I'm looking at the sun like what even is hunger? Cuz I don't even know what hunger is when I was a kid. I would say, I was starving right after I ate a popsicle, right? Like I don't know what hunger is in the closest I can get to is one year in college. I decided, you know what? I'm going to do. It was a foolish decision, but it was also an awesome decision. I said I'm going to drive across the country. I had very little money in my pocket when I left, right? I'm going to drive cross-country, I'm going to play at coffee shops along the way. I'm going to play some music and I'm going to earn enough money through tips, and whatever else will give me not to go all the way to Seattle down to Sacramento and back. I ran out of money in Salt Lake City, but my friend had given me these McDonald's coupons for free cheeseburgers. There's like a whole sheet of 20 to 30 of these free. Cheeseburger, the two, every once in awhile when I hadn't had food for a couple of days, I would go to McDonald's. And Get a cheeseburger. And I remember one, one instance, in particular I was sitting there and I was shaking as I was about to eat this burger but that's as hungry as I've gotten. That's about all I know about Hunger. That's why I wanted to know what it's like to be hungry. And that's why I went in and I started reading books. I read a book by a historian and scientist that talked about Hunger. What happens when you're hungry, what, what you go through? I read a book by Kafka call the Hunger Artist, that didn't really give me any good information. But then I read another book by the new Samson, that was written in 1890. As it's like one of the first stream-of-consciousness, novels out there, right, and Newt Hansen was, was an author or writer? Who actually went through a period of hunger and starvation. And so this, this novel is kind of a semi-autobiographical novel about his experience and Psychologists and Physicians have have read this book and they said all this is a very accurate. Portrayal of what somebody goes through when they're hungry. That's what I was looking at it. And one of the things that that hampson talks about in the book, is his main character is going through these periods of hunger and then he'll get a little bit of money and then he'll eat for a little bit. But then he'll go through another. Of hunger. And during these periods of hunger, he got really good at ignoring the hunger, it would come and it would go, but he got pretty good at ignoring at the more, he ignored it. The more he was able to ignore, it is kind of like he was getting good at a skill of ignoring his hunger. And every once in a while he would get some money until he would spend the money. And then one time he got a bunch of money and he went and he bought like a bunch of bread and cheese and he ate it right away cuz he was really hungry and his body got overwhelmed. And so he just vomited right? Until he he said his hunger but he was worse off than when he started his body. Got overwhelmed and he just threw up all over the place.

And then other times. He was walking down the road one day and there was some wood shavings on the ground. We picked him up and they put him in his mouth and though, it wasn't nutrition. It kind of took the place of eating for a minute, right? It kind of felt a little bit satiated. But what happened when he did that or when he got a little bit of money in and bought a little bit of food and made it slowly so that his body could handle it is. If you would you, would you not feel hungry for a little bit? But then the hunger would come back worse than it was before. Like he feel it more than he did before because that food or that that wood shavings would awaken his nervous system to the fact that he needs nutrients and they would go into emergency mode and I would say we need food, we need food.

I can't, I can't imagine living like that. I can't imagine living in such a way that you're hungry. but if you eat, you become more hungry. aren't you might be satisfied for a minute, but you get more hungry afterwards, but if you don't eat if you ignore the hunger, You died, right? That's the eventually. What happens when you ignore your hunger? I can't imagine living like that.

But I can. I can't imagine living with discontent. I can't imagine living it with with this discontent about myself, the gap between who I am and who I should be. I am familiar with the with the, with the idea of living with discontent with what the world is and what it should be.

And I can imagine what it's like to try and ignore that discontent. To get good at ignoring that discontent.

When I ignore it, it goes away. But it doesn't solve the problem. I can imagine that I can imagine living with that.

Jesus says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And they will be satisfied.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied. When I read this verse, I ask myself will what is righteousness? Righteousness means right with God. And it kind of has a double meaning here in Matthew. Righteousness means being right with God personally, And also looking at the world and seen that it is right with God, is this the way the world should be? Is this the way I should be the external righteousness? We call Justice? I said there's a dual meeting here, righteousness and justice, justice blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and justice. For they will be satisfied. And then I ask myself. Well, what is hunger? Hunger. Is a holy discontent? A? Holy discontent. Now, when you're hungry, you don't feel guilty because you're hungry, it's just naturally a part of you. How your body is made, right? Until a holy discontent isn't isn't an anxiety or a guilt thing. A holy discontent is just saying, man, I messed up and the world is messed up. This is not the way it should be. I want to do something. Blessed. Are those who have a holy discontent?

For righteousness and Justice in the world. For they will be satisfied.

Set a question. I have to ask myself is MI hungry and thirsty for righteousness. Are we hungry and thirsty for righteousness? Are you hungry and thirsty for righteousness? Do you feel a holy discontent with the gap between? Who God made you to be and how you live in this world? Do you feel a holy discontent with wow? The world should be. And how it is.

And I think the answer for all of us, Is yes. Sometimes. Yes. There are times that we feel this. Holy discontent. I think the real question for us today is not. Do we feel do we hunger and thirst for righteousness? It's do we let ourselves feel that? Holy discontent, or do we ignore it? We try to let it go and try to not think about it. Do we get good at ignoring it?

Do we try to put it out your mind so that we don't feel the hunger pangs as badly or do we feed our hunger and our discontent. Let me feel it more so that we feel it more.

Feeling of discontentment will grow. Until the world is made completely right again. That's what I'm saying here today is not a pleasant blessed. Are those who feel the holy discontent for righteousness and Justice in the world? It's not pleasant, right? I don't want to feel discontent, but as a follower of Jesus I feel like I must

Because as a follower of Jesus, I know how it should be. I know how I should be and I see all around me. That it's not that way at all that, I'm not that way at all. It won't be pleasant, but what Jesus promises Us in that verses there is satisfaction when we feed our hunger. What we feel full for a minute, right? We feel we feel satiated. We feel happy and and not hungry anymore. That hunger will always come back and if we're starving, it will come back with a vengeance, right? You, if you feed your hunger, you will feel the weight of the Injustice of the world more acutely. But you'll also get to participate in, making it a little bit more like it should be, like it should be.

If we ignore hunger pangs. We nor it. Well, forget that the world is even broken, will forget that we are broken. Well then that's what the Bible calls hardening our hearts, right?

And when we Harden our hearts, we create more Brokenness in our wake.

What do we do about it? What do we do about it? This is, this is what I want you to do. This is what Jesus I think once you to do. feed your hunger speed it And again the point of the sermon is not is not to make you feel anxious or guilty for what you haven't done cuz we all haven't done a lot of things. We all have done a lot of things that create more Brokenness in the world. That's not what I'm saying. When I'm saying, is start Where You Are. Feed the hunger that you feel feed the holy discontent that you feel feed the holy discontent that you have between the gap between who you are, and who you should be, what the world is and what the world should be. Seen it but start where you are, not where you want to be. Don't go and try to raise 25 billion dollars tomorrow, right? That's how you're going to get overwhelmed. That's like bee sting. When you're at, when you're starving, your body will get overwhelmed. You'll be worse off than you started to start where you are, not where you want to be and suffer. Some of you, maybe you've been ignoring the hunger pangs for a long time.

so, maybe what you need to ask yourself is just Where do I feel this discontent? Where is it that I roll up my windows and put a blind eye towards Injustice. Where do I see Injustice? But feel powerless to stop it. And I like the wood shavings, right? It gives you a little bit of nutrition but not a whole lot and makes you a little bit more hungry. And when you get a little bit more hungry, after you've asked yourself this question, I'm and there is Injustice. I see in front of me all the time then you ask yourself another question.

Am I numb? And I know, and if you are, if you feel that hardened heart, I think the next step for you to take his like Bross right, just a little bit of of nutrition, it is to confess to God and maybe to somebody else and say, hey, look, I have messed up. I haven't seen the Brokenness around me, I haven't looked at this thing and look hunger is not the only problem in the world, right? It's a hugely hugely complex problem but it's not the only problem it. So I'm not saying that you you have to necessarily tackle that problem but there might be something that you grown numb to that's right in front of you and confess that to God. And then after you've done that continue to feed that hunger by taking some solid food by taking some solid. First small steps toward solving the problem not for everybody in the world. But for the person that's sitting right next to you, or whoever that is that needs the light in their Darkness, right? Your job isn't to solve the problem. That's not our job as Christians. God is going to solve the problem fully and finally later. But for right now our job is just to do our part and being faithful to what he has placed in front of us.

And what'll happen is the more you feed your hunger for righteousness, the more you'll feel a holy discontent. For the lack of Justice in the world. But what Jesus says is blessed, are you for? You will be satisfied both now in a small way and later in a big way, you'll get to experience True Justice and righteousness.

So I don't know where you go from here. but I think for maybe me, What I need to do. Is maybe the next time. I'm at 5th and Central. I need to feed my Hunger. Well, I seed somebody else's. I don't know what that step is for you. But I think that maybe the Des, the discontent that I've been trying to ignore his Jesus calling me to participate. In making this world a little bit more like it's supposed to be at least in a small way. I'm going to pray and then the band's going to come up and we're going to text me and you let me pray God. I pray that you not weigh us down with anxiety and guilt right now. But that you would lift us up and remind us that we are dearly loved. That that we are your prized possession. That you love us so much that you're willing to feed your hunger for justice and righteousness all the way to the cross. And God I pray that you would help us to do the same. It's in Jesus name that I pray. Amen. So right now we're going to sing a song. We're going to take communion come down, the center, aisle is going back. The the Isles on the, on the edges. But this bread and this cup remind us that our Polly discontent Finds Its ultimate satisfaction in Jesus. Here are hunger for righteousness, meets the righteousness of God. So, come, as we staying, Taste and see that the Lord is good.