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How to Increase our Hunger for God | Pastor Matt Keller

Next Level Church Podcast

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  1. What's up next level church? Hey, I want to say welcome to

  2. all of our locations today. We are a multi site church,

  3. which means we are one house with many rooms.

  4. And so that means there's a whole bunch of us worshipping

  5. Jesus all across Southwest Florida right now.

  6. So I actually want to say a quick welcome to our E location,

  7. downtown location, Cape Coral here Fort Myers if you're an

  8. additional seating. Also, I want to welcome so many

  9. of you who are listening to me right now in Espanol via

  10. Veniros. Yes, and so church family.

  11. Let me just remind us at all four of our locations that we

  12. have Spanish translation of the message UN Mensahe every single

  13. weekend, Todos fiende Semana. And so church family, if you see

  14. someone with headphones in, they're not listening to the

  15. newest and latest thing on Spotify.

  16. They're listening to me in or one or whoever's our teaching

  17. team, they're listening to us in Spanish.

  18. So come on one more time. Just welcome everybody who's

  19. listening in Spanish. We're so thankful for you and

  20. fam, let me say this, if you've got friends or family members,

  21. maybe coworkers who Spanish is their heart language or is their

  22. preferred language, don't be afraid to invite them to church.

  23. Just stop at our welcome center on the way into church and our

  24. team will do the rest and help them hook up their headphones

  25. and listen to us in Spanish. So we're so thankful that we can

  26. serve our Spanish speaking family.

  27. Also want to say real quick, welcome to all of our our ladies

  28. from Saint Matthew's House at our downtown location.

  29. Yeah, Church. I was able to go down to our

  30. downtown location because this past week we celebrated one year

  31. of our Saint Matthew's House women and children's shelter and

  32. listen to this church, fam, just in the first year of that

  33. ministry, our partnership with Saint Matthew's House, an

  34. incredible ministry. They they have.

  35. We have served together over 340 women and 142 children through

  36. our women and children's shelter.

  37. Yes. So ladies, welcome want you to

  38. know we love you. We're so thankful for you.

  39. Ophelia, I see you. I'm so thankful for the

  40. conversation we got to have this week.

  41. You mean the world to us ladies? And we are covering you in

  42. prayer. Well, hey, Speaking of prayer,

  43. we are in the middle. We're on day 7.

  44. Come on. See that Day seven.

  45. I'll get there. I'll get there. 7 something Day

  46. 7. We're in day seven of our 21

  47. days of prayer and fasting. And can I just tell you how

  48. thankful I am for all of you that just hundreds and hundreds

  49. of you who are diving in and just going hard for God.

  50. The church, between our four locations yesterday and our

  51. Saturday morning 8:00 AM prayer meeting, we had over 400 people

  52. in the house praying. Yeah, come on, let's celebrate

  53. that. That's awesome.

  54. And but here's what I know. What I know is all of us are 7

  55. days in and we're going OK, this is good.

  56. But like, what else? Like am I missing something like

  57. is there is like, like what else do I need to be doing?

  58. So today what I want to talk about for the next few minutes

  59. is how to increase our hunger for God.

  60. Maybe we want to write some things down.

  61. Maybe we want to take some notes.

  62. I want to talk about how we increase our hunger for God

  63. because I get it. I've been there in seasons in

  64. the past where I've, where I've, I've looked on, I've went, OK

  65. God, I'm praying, I'm fasting, I'm turning down the noise of

  66. the world turning down, you know, so many desires of the

  67. flesh and I'm, I'm trying to turn you up.

  68. But but how do we increase that? How do we, how do we do that?

  69. How do we increase our hunger for God?

  70. That's what I want to talk about one more time before we turn to

  71. God's word. Let's pray.

  72. Father, I thank you, thank you for your Holy Spirit.

  73. We ask you like the song fall like rain, fall like rain.

  74. Even in the midst of these consecrated 21 days, Jesus, fall

  75. like rain. We pray.

  76. We give you permission to speak. Your sons and daughters are

  77. listening. And everyone who agreed with

  78. that prayer said Amen, Amen, Amen.

  79. So as many of you know, last August and September, Pastor

  80. Sarah, my wife and I, we took 50 day sabbatical.

  81. Every seven years we take a sabbatical in leadership and

  82. just are able to disconnect and get away and just focus on Jesus

  83. and just rest and hear from him. And it was such a such a

  84. powerful time when we started our time in Europe, as most of

  85. you have heard us talk about. Well, the last three days we

  86. were in Europe, we were in Paris.

  87. And so one of the days that we were in Paris, we were we were

  88. on this guided tour, walking tour and seeing the different

  89. sites of Paris. And so as we're walking, all of

  90. a sudden our tour guide stops and he goes, oh, and hey, by the

  91. way, I want all of you to see this.

  92. And, and while we were approaching this window of this

  93. storefront, not only are we hearing our guides say, I want

  94. you to see and experience something, but we started

  95. smelling what I can only describe as the fragrance of

  96. heaven because he was walking us up to the window of a bakery.

  97. And in the window of this Parisian bakery, we saw this.

  98. That, my friends, is what I would call the world's.

  99. Or at least biggest mats. Ever seen croissant in the

  100. world? OK, this is a normal pastry down

  101. here. Look, this is the these are the

  102. handheld ones you and I are used to in our life.

  103. Us plebs, right? Us.

  104. Right. This.

  105. OK? These are the ones we're used

  106. to. Look at this thing.

  107. I know what you're thinking, Pastor Matt.

  108. We can barely see that. OK.

  109. I got you. And now you're thinking, what

  110. are you doing to us? We're trying to fast.

  111. OK, €37. By the way, did you buy it?

  112. We did not, no, because we wanted to pay our mortgage at

  113. the end of the month. That is pretty much actual size.

  114. I mean, that thing was probably 20 to 24 inches, 2/3 of a meter

  115. wide. So we so, so our tour guide kind

  116. of walks up, shows us this and is like, yeah, yeah, so and just

  117. keeps right on walking. And I'm like, that's it.

  118. Like we don't get to like we don't get to go in and like

  119. sample some pastries. Like what are we all of a

  120. sudden? Sure enough, there were several

  121. of our people on our tour who like 3 minutes later, started to

  122. lag behind and then about 8 minutes later showed up with a

  123. handful of pastry. Right.

  124. Why? Because something had gotten

  125. awakened. A hunger had gotten awakened in

  126. them. And here's what I think, Church,

  127. I think that this week, these first seven days of our 21 days

  128. of prayer and fasting, for many of us, something is getting

  129. awakened. Can you get rid of the picture,

  130. please? Pastor, I got you.

  131. Let's do that. Something has gotten awakened in

  132. US and what I want to do today is I want to see if we can't

  133. take that to the next level. Anybody ready?

  134. So let's ask and answer the question.

  135. How do you and I increase our hunger for God?

  136. How do you and I increase our hunger for God?

  137. Let me give you 4 thoughts. And again, maybe we want to

  138. write some of these down. Here's the first thought.

  139. Number one, we have to examine what we're eating.

  140. Everyone say that with me. Examine what we're eating.

  141. Anybody grow up with a mom or a teacher or a gym coach somewhere

  142. in your life who used to tell you you are what you eat?

  143. Anybody heard that phrase, right?

  144. Here's another one I remember from childhood.

  145. Garbage in, garbage out, right? And listen, that's true,

  146. obviously, in terms of our nutrition and our bodies.

  147. But church family, here's where I want to go today.

  148. I want us to slow down for a couple minutes because that you

  149. are what you eat and garbage in, garbage out is true on a soul

  150. level as well. In church.

  151. I'm I'm so burdened for us and I'm so thankful for my wife,

  152. Pastor Sarah's message last weekend.

  153. And we heard from so many of you about how that was, as she

  154. prayed at the beginning of her message, an awakening moment for

  155. us that we we cannot, I'm we're where's your pastors?

  156. We're so burdened right now by by by the content that is

  157. contaminating our souls. It's not neutral social media,

  158. the news, the alerts that you get that we get on our phone,

  159. although I've minimized most all of them, the hate, the division.

  160. Here's my wife and I, we find ourselves saying now to the

  161. young generation, and if you're under the age of 30, hear me,

  162. 'cause we used to, we, we used to find ourselves saying this to

  163. the young generation. It didn't used to be like this.

  164. It didn't used to be the vitriol, the hate, the division

  165. of our culture, the fear. It didn't used to be this way.

  166. And so church, listen, when we eat this stuff consistently, we

  167. have to not be naive to think that it is not absolutely

  168. affecting us at a soul level. As all of you know, we have not

  169. only we lead next level church here in Southwest Florida, but

  170. we also lead the next level relational network of churches.

  171. And so we have a whole network of churches, 192 churches now

  172. across the United States, Canada, over 20 churches now in

  173. Europe. Come on, somebody.

  174. And one of our pastors from Europe is actually right here in

  175. the service I'm in from Zurich. They're planting the church.

  176. Come on, somebody. That's awesome.

  177. Welcome. We're glad you're here.

  178. I don't know that language, Spanish.

  179. I'm working on that one. I got nothing.

  180. OK, here's here's the deal though.

  181. I I lead a brotherhood group in our we have brotherhood and

  182. sisterhood groups for pastors as well.

  183. And so in my brotherhood group, we have one of our pastors in

  184. Phoenix, AZ. His name is Pastor Justin

  185. Hamilton. And in December, we were talking

  186. about this subject about how what we eat at a soul level,

  187. what we're consuming, it does affect us.

  188. And he said, he talked in our group and he said, I, I have, I

  189. just preached about this. And the message he preached was

  190. a revelation from God's. I watched it, I listened to it.

  191. And he in it, he had this quote. I want you to see this quote.

  192. We will eventually be consumed by what we consistently consume.

  193. I want us to get that. I actually quoted a version of

  194. that in week 1 of this series. Some of you caught it.

  195. I wanted to say it again. We will eventually be consumed

  196. by what we consistently consume in church family.

  197. The Bible has a ton to say about this.

  198. Let me show us. The Apostle John said it this

  199. way. He said do not love the world or

  200. anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, look

  201. at this. Love for the Father is not in

  202. them, for everything in the world.

  203. The lust of the flesh. Should I hold it up or did you

  204. get the point? The lust of the flesh, the lust

  205. of the eyes, the pride of life. Look at this comes not from the

  206. Father, but from the world. James, the half brother of Jesus

  207. takes it up another notch. He says this.

  208. You adulterers, you cheaters, don't you realize that

  209. friendship with the world makes you look at this an enemy of

  210. God? I say it again.

  211. He's like, maybe you didn't hear me the first time.

  212. Let me say it a different way. Look, if you want to be a friend

  213. of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.

  214. Now, church, I'm not telling us to give up all social media.

  215. Never be. I'm not telling you to go join a

  216. commune. What I'm telling us is we have

  217. to be aware of what we're eating.

  218. So what's the remedy? Well, Paul gives us the remedy

  219. in Romans chapter 12. He says this, well, here's what

    Romans 12 chapter mention

  220. we got to do then, in light of what is coming at us, do not

  221. conform to the pattern of this world, but be, look, a whole

  222. different word, transformed. There is a way to be in the

  223. world, not of the world. That's what we're gonna talk

  224. about next Sunday, by the way, be in the house.

  225. Come on, somebody, do not be conformed to the pattern of this

  226. world. Instead, be transformed.

  227. Live different, live higher, live better.

  228. How? By the renewing of your mind.

  229. Then you'll be able to test and approve.

  230. In other words, you're gonna know what God's will is, His

  231. good, pleasing and perfect will. Church, we have to examine what

  232. we're eating. OK, so how do we increase our

  233. hunger for God? Number one, we got to, we got to

  234. examine what we're eating #2 we got to examine why we're eating

  235. it. We got to examine why we're

  236. eating it. Of in different seasons of my

  237. life, I've seen a, a mental health therapist, a counselor,

  238. which by the way, counselors aren't for crazy people, they're

  239. for normal people. So you and I all qualify.

  240. We got to take that stigma out. So for several years after we

  241. moved here 24 years ago, I, I saw a counselor once a month.

  242. And man, oh man, it was just the best money I could spend, best

  243. investment in me and just loved it.

  244. And my counselor would say to me often when I start to describe

  245. something, oh God, why do I do this?

  246. You know, whatever, help me, man.

  247. And he would, he would always say to me, He'd always say,

  248. Matt, every action in your life is linked to something deeper

  249. within you. And I remember, like, being in

  250. my late 20s at the time and like, hearing that and being,

  251. like, really like everyone. I even asked him that a couple

  252. times, like, really like, like, like everyone.

  253. Well, now at 50, looking back on five decades of life, yeah, he

  254. was right. He was right.

  255. See church family. If we're going to increase our

  256. hunger for God, we have to examine what we're eating.

  257. But secondly, we have to examine why we're eating it.

  258. Here's why. Because everything we consume is

  259. motivated by something. And we have to slow down and ask

  260. the question, why am I consuming this?

  261. Why am I? Why am I eating this?

  262. Why am I putting this in my mind, my body, my soul, my

  263. spirit? Everything we consume is

  264. motivated by something. Am I avoiding something with the

  265. scroll? Some of us are medicating pain

  266. and it's time we get honest about it.

  267. Some of us, we are addicted to it.

  268. We crave the dopamine hit of it. We got to get honest because

  269. everything we consume is motivated by some, by something.

  270. Some of us. We, we, the reason we scroll

  271. like we do, the reason we engage with all of that like we do, is

  272. because we're trying to find people who agree with our point

  273. of view to fuel something in us. Some of us, we're, we're trying

  274. to fuel our anger toward the others, whoever they are who

  275. aren't like us, who don't believe like us, who don't think

  276. like us, who don't see the world like us, who don't vote like us.

  277. And we're, we're engaging, we're eating this, we're consuming

  278. this to fuel. So we got to examine what we're

  279. eating, but we got to examine why we're eating it.

  280. Some of us, it's just to distract ourselves.

  281. We don't know how to be quiet anymore.

  282. We don't know how to be still and know like we talked about in

  283. week one, that he is God Church. When was the last time we asked

  284. ourself why am I consuming this from food and junk food?

  285. And all the nutritionists in the room said Amen to social media

  286. and news headlines because everything we consume is

  287. motivated by something. In my prayer for these 21 days

  288. is God open our eyes to why we're doing what we're doing.

  289. Let me show you scripturally. Proverbs 16 verse 2 says this

    Proverbs 16:2

  290. all a person's ways seem pure to them.

  291. Here's what I know because I've preached on social media before.

  292. Here's what I know. The vast majority of us

  293. listening to me right now are a Manning on the outside and on

  294. the inside going. That's so good for them and we

  295. have a picture of whoever they are.

  296. We don't think we have the problem.

  297. I can't tell you how many older generation people I talk to who

  298. go, yeah, that's right, those young people.

  299. And I can't tell you how many young people I talk to who go,

  300. yeah, wow, those old people in their Facebook.

  301. Thank God I'm in the middle. So it's clearly it's not me.

  302. And all the Gen. X said it's never been us.

  303. All a person's ways seem pure to them.

  304. But look at this. But motives are weighed by the

  305. Lord. In other words, the Bible says

  306. we don't even know our own motives.

  307. What if this 21 days church, we said, God show me my motives.

  308. Stop texting me. Some of you are like, oh, watch

  309. this. You're blowing up my phone man.

  310. I live on do not disturb. Just so you know, God, show us

  311. our motives. The Lord says the motives are

  312. weighed by the Lord, which means what do we have to do?

  313. We have to pray. Psalm 139.

  314. Search me, God, know my heart. Church, I challenge you to pray

  315. this prayer. Search me, God, test me.

  316. Know my anxious thoughts. No, God, reveal to me why I'm so

  317. anxious. God, show me what's going on in

  318. me. You are what you eat.

  319. See if there's any offensive way in the church.

  320. Jesus is going to return one day.

  321. We believe soon and he's coming back for a pure and spotless

  322. bride. That's my heart's desire that we

  323. as next level church and we'll talk more about this in March.

  324. Don't miss he's coming back for for purity any offensive way in

  325. me and then he says, and then leave me in a different way.

  326. Is it possible the way we've been doing, it's not working.

  327. Let me read it like I wrote it and you receive it.

  328. We're not mindless animals who don't have the ability to

  329. control our impulses. We can and must examine our why.

  330. Well, it's just how it is. Well, everybody's on social

  331. media. No, they're not.

  332. No, they're not. Well, everybody spent two hours

  333. and 20 minutes a day is the new average for Americans on social

  334. media. And again, right now you're

  335. hearing that going, well, that's not me, OK?

  336. On the count of three, here's what I want you to do.

  337. I want you to turn to the person sitting next to you, look him

  338. straight in the face. Just choose one, it's fine.

  339. And just tell him, wow, that's intense.

  340. Ready, 123. Go.

  341. Now look at the other person and say, wow, that was a lot, 123-GO

  342. and a collective deep breath. Ready 123.

  343. All right, let's move on #3 How do we increase our hunger for

  344. God? We got to examine what we're

  345. eating #2 we got to examine why we're eating and #3 let's have a

  346. little fun. We got to pray around the

  347. fridge. Come on, say it with me.

  348. We got to pray around the Now here's what I'm not telling you

  349. to do. Some of you're like, OK, first

  350. the croissants, now you're telling me I have to go pray

  351. around my fridge? You're killing me, Smalls.

  352. Right, OK, here's, here's here's I'm not telling you to go do

  353. prayer walks around your refrigerator in, in your, in

  354. your, your kitchen. OK, But if the Lord leads you

  355. that way, do whatever you want, do whatever he says actually,

  356. But here's here's what I'm talking about, K.

  357. So you'll notice that it's, it's this.

  358. So in June of last year, I woke up 1 morning and, and this

  359. happens often to me. I woke up and the first thought

  360. I had was I heard what I believe the Holy Spirit said Matt pray

  361. the fridge. And I saw the word fridge in my

  362. mind FRIDGE. And I just got up and I went out

  363. to my living room and I started to pray and I'm like, Lord, what

  364. does that mean? And the Lord started to break

  365. down for me the acronym of fridge.

  366. And so this is just how my brain works.

  367. It's a gift. You're welcome.

  368. So here's here's what I want to do.

  369. I want to help you for the next couple of minutes because some

  370. of you we're we're always looking for new ways to stir up

  371. this prayer thing in US. And maybe even though you go

  372. over these first seven days, you've been like, I want to fast

  373. and pray, but got it. Got a latest tool?

  374. I do. It's called the fridge.

  375. Ready. Here you go.

  376. So let's break it down. So the F is forgive.

  377. Everyone say forgive. So watch this every day ask this

  378. question Lord, who do I need to forgive from yesterday?

  379. Bible says keep short accounts. Can I just tell you this is so

  380. important. You know why 'cause there's so

  381. much to be offended by. Every day I'm amazed that when I

  382. pray the fridge it literally I'm like F forgive.

  383. Who do I need to forgive from yesterday?

  384. And like, just kidding, but there's usually several.

  385. Here's the R repent, everyone say repent.

  386. So we're going to start, Lord, where do I need to?

  387. Who do I need to forgive yesterday from yesterday?

  388. Repent though, says where do I need to repent from yesterday?

  389. This is a moment for us to just pause in His presence and

  390. examine our own hearts. Say God, search me, is there

  391. anything in me? God forgive me when I lost my

  392. cool yesterday, God forgive me. When I misspoke yesterday.

  393. God forgive me. When I exaggerated the truth

  394. yesterday. God forgive me when I lied to my

  395. spouse yesterday. God, is there anything in me?

  396. God forgive me. This is where we repent.

  397. Then the eye is invite. Everyone say invite.

  398. Now we turn it to today. What do I need to invite God

  399. into today? So now watch this forgive from

  400. yesterday, repent from yesterday.

  401. Now we turn it forward and we say, God, in terms of today, we

  402. start to zoom forward and we say, where do I need to invite

  403. God into today? God, I've got this lunch meeting

  404. today and it's with a client and it's really, really important.

  405. And so God, I invite you into that.

  406. Lord, would you move on their heart?

  407. God, would you touch them? God, I've got this meeting today

  408. with my boss, this presentation. Would you help me with that?

  409. God, I'm, I'm meeting with someone.

  410. So God, my wife and I are headed out on a date night tonight.

  411. God, would you be with us and be in the middle of our marriage

  412. because a three stranded cord is not easily broken.

  413. We invite God into our day. Then D is discern.

  414. Everyone say discern. And here's the question we ask,

  415. Where do I need God's wisdom and discernment today?

  416. So we forgive, we repent, we invite, but then watch we go.

  417. God, I'm facing this decision today.

  418. Give me your wisdom beyond myself.

  419. God, business leaders, this is for you, for you, God, give me

  420. wisdom on this. Parents, I've got this situation

  421. with my teenager, with my preteen.

  422. God, I need your wisdom. God, I need your discernment.

  423. Where do I need God's wisdom and discernment today?

  424. Then the G is gratitude. Who and what am I thankful for

  425. today? So watch.

  426. We forgive, we repent, we invite, we discern, then we

  427. praise God. God, I thank you for my family.

  428. God, I thank you for my wayward teenager that you're bringing

  429. them back. God, I thank you for my

  430. marriage. God that it is blessed in you

  431. and it is holy before you got to thank you for my job.

  432. God, I thank you for my car. It gets me back and forth even

  433. if I don't have air conditioning.

  434. Got to thank you for do you see it?

  435. We move to gratitude. Then lastly is encounter.

  436. So forgive, repent, invite, discern, praise him gratitude,

  437. and then just pause. Here's what I encourage you to

  438. do church family, just pause in God's presence and just say,

  439. God, I need to encounter you right now.

  440. How do you how do you want me to encounter you?

  441. Maybe you just need to encounter his love.

  442. Maybe you just need to encounter his peace and his hope.

  443. God, I want to encounter you. Do you see it?

  444. Is that helpful, everybody? Did you take a picture of it?

  445. Did you get it? Because it's going to be gone in

  446. a second fridge. Forgive, repent, invite, discern

  447. gratitude, encounter. Since last June, I've been

  448. praying this way often. And man, it's been so helpful.

  449. It's just brought a new freshness to my prayer life.

  450. So I hope that helps you today. See, it wasn't all intense.

  451. There you go #4 I want to say #4 how do we increase our hunger

  452. for God? We have to examine what we're

  453. eating, examine why we're eating it.

  454. We got to pray around the fridge.

  455. And then #4 we have to ask God to make us hungry for better

  456. things. Everyone say better things.

  457. I'm invite the worship team to come back before we move on with

  458. our time together today. There's a story in John chapter

    John 4 chapter mention

  459. 4 where Jesus has this encounter.

  460. He's in Samaria, just the wrong side of the tracks.

  461. And he's has this encounter with this woman at the well, a lot of

  462. us know the story and they have this incredible conversation and

  463. she tries to pin him on some stuff.

  464. And he obviously being God, you know, knows better and

  465. eventually reveals that he himself is the Messiah, that

  466. he's the chosen, He's the savior of the world.

  467. Well, this woman is overcome by this.

  468. And so the Bible tells us in John four that she runs into

  469. town and she essentially tells the whole town the Savior of the

  470. world is at the well, you got to come and talk to him.

  471. So the whole town starts to come out and Jesus is there.

  472. Well, what I failed to tell you was the beginning of the story.

  473. Jesus sent his disciples into town to get some lunch.

  474. So now this whole crowd is back and the disciples come back to

  475. Jesus and they see him just ministering.

  476. And clearly this is, we've gone through the lunch hour here and

  477. these guys are not OK. And in verse 31, look at what

  478. they say to Jesus. They looked at Jesus and they

  479. said, meanwhile, his disciples urged him, rabbi or teacher, eat

  480. something. But he said to them, I have food

  481. to eat that you know nothing about.

  482. Look at his disciples love this. Then his disciples said to each

  483. other, did somebody bring him Taco Bell?

  484. Guys, you so are missing the point.

  485. Jesus says I'm on a different wavelength.

  486. You're looking at things on this level.

  487. I'm up here church, can I just tell you I want to be on that

  488. wavelength. That's what I want for these 21

  489. days. That's what these are all about.

  490. So I just want to encourage you today, fast food this week, not

  491. go get fast food, fast food. And of course, as always,

  492. consult your medical professional, of course, fast

  493. food this week and pray instead. Fast social media in the news

  494. and pray instead. Several weeks ago I was praying

  495. and the Lord said to me, Matt the faith of your 40s isn't

  496. going to be enough for your 50s and church.

  497. Can I tell you what I've been praying since I heard the Lord

  498. speak that to my heart. God increased my faith.

  499. God put me on a new level. God take me higher.

  500. God, I don't want to settle as and we sang this in the song a

  501. minute ago that fall like rain song.

  502. I don't want to settle for lesser things when you have

  503. better things. So my challenge question for you

  504. this week is this. What better thing should you be

  505. after rather than a lesser thing?

  506. This week, what better thing should you be after instead of

  507. chasing the scroll or chasing a headline and following it down

  508. some rabbit trail? That's a lesser thing.

  509. Let's be about a better thing. Amen.

  510. Amen. Can we stand together at every

  511. location, examine what we're eating, why we're eating it,

  512. pray the fridge, Ask God to make you hungry.

  513. That's how we increase our hunger for God.

  514. Here's what I want to do. I want us before we move on

  515. together. We're not anywhere close to

  516. being done. You're fine.

  517. You don't have to rush out. God wants to speak.

  518. I believe God wants to speak to every single one of us.

  519. For some of you, the closest thing you get to stillness is

  520. when you attend Next Level Church every Sunday.

  521. And that's OK. We're happy to provide that for

  522. you. Let's make the most of it then,

  523. shall we? Maybe you just want to open your

  524. hands in front of you like this, just as a posture and symbol of

  525. openness, readiness to receive from the Lord.

  526. So, Father, right now we just thank you for your word.

  527. We thank you, Lord God, but you want us to increase our hunger

  528. for righteousness, our hunger for you.

  529. And so, Lord, right now we just pause in this moment.

  530. We don't mind taking time, God, we're just going to pause in

  531. this moment and just give you space to speak.

  532. The Holy Spirit, would you turn on your Searchlight in our heart

  533. and in our mind? Would you show us with the

  534. precision that only your Holy Spirit can give to us when

  535. you're doing that, when you're engaging, that when you're

  536. reading that son, daughter, it doesn't please me.

  537. that we might be consumed. Filled is Matthew 5-6 word

  538. filled with better things. God, would you fill us as we

  539. hunger and thirst for you this week we pray, staying in this

  540. atmosphere of prayer right now. You can just keep listening to

  541. Jesus, to Jesus as he's the Spirit speaking to your heart.

  542. If you're in one of our locations today, our online

  543. family, you 2 and you're not in relationship with Jesus, I want

  544. to give you an opportunity to do that right now.

  545. It's as simple as acknowledging you're a Sinner, believing that

  546. what Jesus did on the cross was payment for your sin, and then

  547. confessing on the outside. So with every head bowed, every

  548. eye closed, nobody's looking around.

  549. It's just between me, you and Jesus.

  550. If you every location, if you're ready to surrender your life to

  551. Jesus. You've never said yes to Jesus,

  552. but you're ready to go his way. You've tried everything else,

  553. but you want to go God's way. I'm going to count the three.

  554. And when I hit the three, when I hit 3 in just a moment, would

  555. you throw your hand up whatever room you're in right now?

  556. 123, Pastor Matthews, Me. Awesome.

  557. Thank you. Yeah, thank you.

  558. Keep it up, just for a second. Yeah.

  559. That's it all over the room, young and old, front to back,

  560. it's happening. That's it.

  561. Pastor Matt. Thank you.

  562. Pastor Matt. That's me.

  563. I'm ready to surrender my life to Jesus.

  564. I want to say yes to him. Awesome.

  565. You can put your hands down. Listen, for the sake of those

  566. who lifted their hand, can we all repeat this prayer after me

  567. just to make them feel comfortable?

  568. And if you raise your hand, I want you to pray this prayer

  569. from your heart. And God's going to hear and come

  570. in and and begin to transform your life from the inside out.

  571. Come on, let's pray. Say, dear Jesus, thanks for

  572. loving me and bringing me here today.

  573. I acknowledge that I'm a Sinner, that I've missed the mark and I

  574. need a Savior. Thank you Jesus for dying on the

  575. cross from my sin. I receive you now and right now

  576. I surrender my life to you. Help me to go your way because

  577. it is the best way for all of my days.

  578. In Jesus name I pray Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen wow wow wow, wow hey

  579. listen, if you just pray that prayer with me, raise your hand

  580. and that you know we want to we want to help you don't leave

  581. your location today. Just go out to the welcome

  582. center and at your next steps area at your location, we have a

  583. Bible we want to give you for free and inside this Bible

  584. there's AQR code that in my wife pastor Sarah and I have recorded

  585. videos to help you take your next steps in this new

  586. relationship with Jesus. So don't leave your location

  587. today without grabbing this free gift.

  588. Amen. Hey, let me pray one more prayer

  589. over his Father. I thank you.

  590. Let your word God continue to come alive in our hearts this

  591. week. Lord, as we hunger and thirst,

  592. as we fast and pray for more of you.

  593. I bless your people today in Jesus name.

  594. And everyone who agreed to that prayer said Amen.

  595. Come on, let's give God praise.