RJ - Hungry & Thirsty
Rachel Jones
There's A New Thing Coming • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Have you ever felt like if you didn’t eat right now you would die?
Have you ever felt so thirsty, that if some one blew on you you’d turn to a cloud of dust?
The dissatisfaction I was feeling over Christmas - devil tried to say..it’s because you’ve been busy, you’ve wandered from God etc etc
Hungry for the presence of God
Thirsty for a move of His Spirit
Hungry for the New
Thirsty for a deeper revelation of His word in my life
HUNGRY & THIRSTY!!!
Hunger and thirst make us seek and consume food and water to maintain survival, triggering physical sensations like stomach growls or dry mouth and mental states like irritability- MAKES SOME OF US HANGRY
Called HOMEOSTASIS - which is the ability of a living organism to maintain a stable, relatively constant internal environment (like temperature, pH, and glucose levels) despite changes in external conditions, crucial for survival and proper functioning, achieved through self-regulating processes and feedback loops involving receptors, control centres, and effectors. It's a dynamic equilibrium where the body continuously adjusts to keep internal conditions within a narrow, optimal range, preventing imbalance that leads to disease or death.
It starts in the womb - baby’s natural reflex to move up a mothers chest to latch on to the breast
Hunger and Thirst drive us to do dynamic things - BOY AT THE FRONT DOOR THIS WEEK
It makes us drive across town for that thing we are craving.
Hunger will make me get up on a Saturday morning to drive across town from Parkhurst to the La Petite Boulangerie on Southside to pick up a french baguette I love so much…or the amazing Pain au chocolat (which literally "chocolate bread"… don’t judge me
It motivates us to satisfy what we desire
1. Spiritual Hunger Is a Sign of Life
1. Spiritual Hunger Is a Sign of Life
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.
Jesus says blessed—favoured by God—are those who hunger and thirst.
“Hunger and Thirst”
“Hunger and Thirst”
These are strong, visceral metaphors, not casual desires.
Hunger = ongoing, painful need
Thirst = life-threatening deprivation
Jesus is describing a desperation, not a preference.
➡ This is not “those who like righteousness”
➡ It is “those who cannot live without it.”
Essentially means : A desperation for God and the reality of His Kingdom!
Hunger & Thirsting means you are alive!
A dead person feels nothing!
Praise God for Hunger and Thirst!
Praise God that hunger & thirst leads us to desire God!
David knew the reality of thirsting for God, as he longed to gain new ground in experiencing the presence and grace of God.
1 As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. 2 I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him?
1 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.
The more He was in God’s presence, the hungrier he got
This morning we have been singing “There’s just something about your name - that makes me cry Holy!”
God responds to Hunger & Thirst!
2. Lack of Hunger is an Amber Light
2. Lack of Hunger is an Amber Light
Jesus speaks to the Laodicean Church, who had become self satisfied, dispassionate, indifferent and lukewarm. Essentially they had become satisfied with other things and their hunger had diminished. They no longer heard the knocking on the door
20 “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.
Hunger & thirst are part of the dashboard of our spiritual life
Just as a lack of hunger & thirst can indicate sickness
Read page 35 & 36 of John Bevere’s book “Drawing Near”
The promise we have that even at an amber light, God is waiting to respond to new found hunger & thirst.
Some wandered in the wilderness,
lost and homeless.
Hungry and thirsty,
they nearly died.
“Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble,
and he rescued them from their distress.
He led them straight to safety,
to a city where they could live.
Let them praise the Lord for his great love
and for the wonderful things he has done for them.
For he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things.
But he also turns deserts into pools of water,
the dry land into springs of water.
He brings the hungry to settle there
and to build their cities.
3. Protect your Hunger
3. Protect your Hunger
The responsibility is yours!
Spiritual hunger is protected when we refuse cheap satisfaction and keep returning to the true source.
God I am going to hunger and thirst after you and your kingdom
8 Come near to God and he will come near to you.
Come: God says we can initiate this step any time we want
Resist substitutes of satisfaction
Feed hunger with the right Food: Hunger grows by being fed properly.
Jesus said: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
You don’t protect hunger by ignoring it—you protect it by responding to it.
Read Scripture not just to learn—but to listen.
Pray not to perform—but to encounter.
Walk with Other Hungry People
Hunger is contagious.
If you surround yourself with people who are comfortable with spiritual apathy, hunger will feel extreme—or unnecessary.
24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
“Stir one another up…”
Practice:
Stay close to people who:
Pray honestly
Worship deeply
Confess quickly
Desire God visibly
Conclusion
Conclusion
Team up to play “Jesus Be the Name”
Going to pray for people
1 The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones. 2 He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. 3 Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?” “O Sovereign Lord,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.” 4 Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! 6 I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ ” 7 So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. 8 Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’ ” 10 So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army.
What I felt prophetically when Nathan read Ezekiel 37:1-10:
That God is about to do a New Thing
A fresh wind and breath of His Spirit is coming
To bring the dead back to life
To bring order and function to the body
Get ready, Get Ready, Get Ready, it is coming
18 “But forget all that— it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. 19 For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. 20 The wild animals in the fields will thank me, the jackals and owls, too, for giving them water in the desert. Yes, I will make rivers in the dry wasteland so my chosen people can be refreshed. Literally means to drink
