Hungry for Holiness?

Story about mom taking son in to a specialist — “just make sure he puts something in his belly.”

English Standard Version Chapter 55

Come, everyone who thirsts,

come to the waters;

and he who has no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without price.

2  Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,

and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,

and delight yourselves in rich food.

3  Incline your ear, and come to me;

hear, that your soul may live;

and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,

my steadfast, sure love for David.

Butter vs. Margarine

A lot of health foundations have really given butter a bad rap. We’ve been taught that things like saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease and cancer, yet there are actually studies which show that the kind of saturated fat and cholesterol in butter can halt the growth of tumors & cancer cells. We’ve also learned that saturated fat does not cause heart disease (but trans fat does).

it is rich in short and MCTs (oleic and myristic) which actually prevent the growth of tumors

Some types of butter (depending on the diet of the cow) also contain conjugated linoleic acid, which is another powerful cancer-fighting acid

There are also studies which show that people who eat butter are less likely to develop type-2 diabetes!

People who eat butter are less likely to get type-2 diabetes

This particular doctor didn’t account for the lack of nutritional content that this growing child would need, but focused instead on simply satisfying hunger. Filling a void. And keeping it filled.

Butter is also high in vitamin K-2 which prevents and even reverses osteoporosis.

Butter is high in cholesterol, which is actually not bad. Cholesterol is necessary for good brain function.

There’s also this really cool sounding fatty acid in butter that protect against gastro-intestinal infection, especially in the very young and the elderly. These acids protect against pathogens and have strong anti-fungal effects.

Butter thus has an important role to play in the treatment of candida overgrowth.

Margarine, on the other hand, contains trans fat (the heart-disease causing fat), does not contain vitamins that can be assimilated into the body, and has absolutely no qualities in it that protect the gastrointestinal tract. But, hey, it tastes pretty close to butter!

We all know it! I grew up eating it out of the tub!

The benefits of butter out-weigh the flavor of margarine, yet most of us have grown up in a culture where margarine is marketed and promoted as “better for you.” It is a preferred topping for foods, and is even called-for in baked goods. We all know it! I grew up eating it out of the tub!

Margarine comes in a tub. Or in bars for baking.

Most don’t know that margarine is produced through a process that involves adding enzymes, artificial vitamins, lye, bleaching, and manufactured, artificial flavors to resemble and imitate the natural food that is created when you emulsify the fattiest part of a cow’s milk.

It was developed intentionally, as a way to give travelers on ships something like butter that would not spoil. Upon successful production, margarine was later marketed as a less-expensive and “healthier” alternative to butter. You’ve all seen the commercials - “I can’t believe it’s not butter!”

The truth is, though: Margarine was never intended to be consumed as a permanent replacement for real, pure, natural butter. And it can never offer the satisfaction, holistically, that real butter offers.

Margarine was never intended to be consumed as a permanent replacement for real, pure, natural butter.

Other foods that have similar stories are refined sugar vs. honey, and some would even argue, vegan substitutes vs. pasture-raised beef or chicken. And even bread, as we commonly encounter it on the shelves, is nothing compared to what great-great-great grandma would make with her own homemade yeast that was fermented on the counter-top for weeks at a time.

Other foods that are like these two would be refined sugar vs. honey, and some would even argue, vegan substitutes vs. pasture-raised beef or chicken.

Our culture seems to have inundated us with foods that promise nutrition and benefits — yet actually rob us of those things, all for the sake of flavor.

So, when we read a passage like this one in Isaiah, it may seem odd to us, to read the question, “Why do you spend your money on that which is not bread?”

Yet, what the prophet is presenting is not simply a problem of food.

He’s asking the people why they are investing in things that are not real or lasting, essential - things that really matter.

And he’s doing so, using the analogy of resources that would have been all too familiar to them.

Story about mom taking son into doctor — “just make sure he puts something on his belly.”

This is a mindset that comes about when you’re facing one of two two extremes: scarcity or abundance.

At certain points in America’s history, we can point to seasons of scarcity.

Most notably, the Stock Market crash of 1929 and the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s.

As a nation, we found ourselves struggling to make ends meet right about until World War II in the 1940’s and on into the 1960’s (baby boomers & such).

From there, for the most part, and the rest of the developing world would agree: America has lived in an almost luxurious state of abundance.

We don’t just have corner stores with small amounts of food. We have wholesale warehouses FILLED with bulk.

We don’t just have corner stores with small amounts of food. We have wholesale warehouses FILLED with bulk.

It’s because of Depression-era thinking (survival mode), passed down from our parents and grand-parents.

That has led us to culturally collect household goods and foods as though we may one day run out again.

It’s simply a part of our day-to-day culture. Do you ever think about that?

We have a full-pantry kind of culture.

Looking at the average American household, someone from Thailand or India today might be inclined to call us “hoarders.”

The concept of storing food for weeks or months on end is completely foreign to families who do not know whether they will see a scrap of bread TODAY.

Yes, today, we enjoy the benefits of convenience stores, groceries that can be delivered to your front door in almost every metropolitan area (Nashville Amazon Fresh), as well as restaurants and services that seem to promise us that we will never have to be hungry.

As culturally acceptable as this is, and even helpful at times, there are times where this reality really convicts me, as an American.

We have so much food that throwing food away after it sits out for an afternoon is common in our culture. Rejecting food for being a little stale is actually a point of capitalism — BB’s/Sharp Shopper

Not only do we have abundance and excess, but we have, at the same time, a greedy and wasteful mindset when it comes to food.

We would rather throw something away, than have to go without.

At the same time, in a weird way, we tend to believe that our ability to possess so much and have the freedom to discard it for any hint of imperfection, makes us somehow “blessed” as a nation.

Yet, is this how Christ would describe us?

Yet, is this how we are to be identified, as Christians?

In Luke chapter 6, Jesus is preaching what Luke describes as “The Sermon on the Plain.” He says, “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.”

What does it mean to be hungry?

What does it mean to be hungry?

When was last time you were hungry? And what were you hungry for?

“When we say somebody is hungry...we mean they probably missed lunch by fifteen minutes...But when the Bible talks about hunger and thirst, it’s talking about an [urgent need] for which there is no immediate solution...”

In other words, true hunger is not something that can just be filled with whatever is most readily available. We can’t just “put something in our bellies.”

When it comes to the kind of hunger that the Bible references, it is more than just the growling sensation we feel when we have missed a meal.

It is, rather, a deep desperation that results from a severe lack.

“The people who come into God’s kingdom come because they have a deep desperation. The person whose heart is moved by the gospel has been awakened to, by the work of the Holy Spirit, an immense compulsion toward holiness that nothing else can satisfy.”

So let me ask you - does that sound like your life?

Do you have an immense compulsion toward holiness that nothing else can satisfy?

It’s talking about a certain level of desperation. And the people who come into God’s kingdom come because they have a desperation. The unsaved person whose heart is moved, who hears and understands the message of the gospel has awakened in him by the work of the Spirit of God an immense compulsion toward righteousness that nothing else can satisfy.

Before you can answer that, we need to first identify what holiness is.

Before you can answer that, you need to first identify what holiness is.

Holiness is usually described as being set apart for God, by God. And that is very true.

Holiness is also part of God’s character - his Holiness is his absolute power and purity.

Holiness is, though, as we are to understand it as a holiness people, practical. And it is living in God’s Kingdom NOW, by the power of His Spirit.

It’s not only avoiding certain things or maintaining certain traditions, it is pursuing that which is truly Good.

Kyle Idleman says, “Holiness is not just what you don’t do, it’s what you chase after.”

Living a life of holiness involves so much more than what I can describe in one teaching. In fact, it’s so vast a topic, that there are thousands of books, sermons, devotionals, classes, and blogs devoted to the subject.

But there are three things I have found in my study of the Word that we need to look at in light of being a holiness people.

1) Living a life of holiness unadulterated relationship (agape love, sacrificial giving, forgiveness, kindness compassion),

2) Possessing unhindered joy (happiness that is unshaken by bad circumstances), and

3) Walking in complete fulfillment (confidence and security in who you are because of who God is)

These are features of holiness that, most of us would agree, do not characterize the rest of the world.

unhindered joy

The world is all about adulterating and manipulating relationships, and our culture thrives on complaining, comparison, and complacency.

And we know that the world is increasingly insecure, intimidated, and lacking confidence.

Which is why these things, when pursued through following Jesus, do set us apart.

complete fulfillment

So, let me ask a personal question — is your life characterized by those things?

Or, are you like the mother who took her child to the doctor, and walked away satisfied with simply putting anything in his belly?

Or, are you like the mother who took her child to the doctor, and walked away satisfied with simply putting anything in his belly?

Or, are you like the mother who took her child to the specialist, and walked away satisfied with simply putting anything in his belly?

Are you, in your spiritual walk, merely getting by with whatever is most easily accessible, or what you have in abundance? Are you wasteful with the good things God has given you?

Do you have so much other junk to fill the void with - are you hoarding so much artificial spiritual nutrition - that you don’t actually know what it means to be satisfied or even truly hungry, for that matter?

When you feel the grumbling of loneliness in the pit of your stomach, do you seek to satisfy it with the junk food of social media, looking for old girlfriends or boyfriends, scrolling the news feed, posting a pic for likes and comments — or do you allow your lack of social validation to turn into a hunger that actually leaves you desperate for the Lord’s companionship?

comparison

When the pang of sadness or disappointment or entitlement comes over you, are you more inclined to reach for the literal refrigerator or the bottle or the pipe, the pill, or the needle, to find joy? Or do you let yourself get hungry enough to find joy in the Lord’s presence?

When you lose the job,

when the kids won’t listen,

when the bills are piling up…do you reach for the next snack of human approval, affirmation, validation, respect, or financial gain?

Or, do you let your insecurity make you hungry for His holiness, which can actually fill you to overflowing?!

See, the point of eating to fullness in our culture is to feel satisfied. To feel, if even for a few hours, as though everything is okay.

We’ve all had that cinnamon roll or that plate of fried fish that just sets the night off RIGHT, amen?!

But ultimately, we know that we are going to want more again. The fullness fades, so then, eating to the point of being full stops there.

Yet, being satisfied by the holiness of God - his pure and absolute power, love, and grace - fills us not to the point of being full, but to the point of OVERFLOWING.

But - and it’s a BIG BUT - we have to get there. Nobody gets to start in the middle.

A good

God knows that.

Isn’t that cool, how God knows what we need in order to really receive what He has for us?

God knows that what his people need, in order to become satisfied, is to truly become hungry. and hungry for the right things.

And because He is infinitely all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-sufficient, He knows exactly how to make us hungry.

English Standard Version Chapter 8

And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you. 6 So you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.

“And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Nobody gets to start in the middle.”

Nobody gets to start in the middle, my friends.

Nobody ever gets to wake up full. Do you ever think about that?

We go to bed - most of us in this country, full - but we all wake up…hungry.

Beyond that, nobody even enters this life full.

Every human being, from first cry, is hungry. The very first reflex that a typical baby is born with, is the reflex to satisfy hunger.

Which is why the very best thing for a baby, as soon as they are born, is his mother’s milk - which, just as a side note, is perfectly formulated to satisfy hunger and provide what is needed to nourish and protect that child’s body as it grows.

Yet, because we live in a broken world, where, FROM CONCEPTION, every aspect of our existence is fractured by sin — even that reflex to satisfy hunger can become sin for us.

It becomes sin in the way we try to fill ourselves to numb pain, to awaken numbness, and to numb it all over again.

It becomes sin in the way we seek to stuff our bellies with substances that give us even a hint of a high, just a moment of a happy feeling, only to come crashing down again and have to start the cycle with another bite, another hit, another drink.

It becomes sin in the way we hoard our resources and seek to provide our own feast of religious righteousness, when all we are really doing is snacking on crumbs of morality.

Yet, Jesus, being fully God and fully man, in His perfect holiness, his perfect power and love and grace - HE BECAME SIN, who knew NO SIN, that we might become HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Jesus the Christ - HE BECAME SIN, who knew NO SIN, that we might become HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS.

That we might be made HOLY.

And what Jesus did, when he became sin, was fulfill every promise and prophecy and reference of eternal satisfaction.

And what Jesus did, when he became sin, was fulfill every promise and prophecy and reference of eternal satisfaction.

See, Jesus wasn’t just fulfilling the Scripture to check it off a list. He was fulfilling Scripture to BECOME YOUR FULFILLING DESIRE, that you might be filled to overflowing, and so go out and desire to see others filled!

That’s why Paul wrote, in , We IMPLORE YOU, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. On behalf of what He did for you.

On behalf of how he took up the Cross, for which he committed NO SIN, and became sin, and bore the curse of shame in the flesh for YOU — be reconciled to God. Be restored to God. Bring yourself BACK to God.

He doesn’t just let us feel hunger because he wants us to go without - he does it so that we might know that He is the only one who will ever satisfy like He can!

See, when you know true hunger, when you know desperation, when you know how utterly broken and hard-pressed you are for being good on your own - because you can’t be - you can finally HUNGER AND THIRST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. You can finally KNOW what it is to be blessed, and to walk in holiness.

No bread, no snack, no nothing can fill you to overflowing like the power and absolute holiness of God in Jesus Christ!

You can finally see that no bread, no snack, no relationship — no nothing can fill you to overflowing like the power and absolute holiness of God in Jesus Christ!

So, I want to present something to you.

What if — what you thought was holiness, was just American cultural religion?

And what if TRUE holiness was coming to the table HUNGRY for God’s absolute power and love and grace — His holiness?