Hunger | Pastor David Diaz | Venture Church

Well, good morning church. How's everybody doing today? Come on,

how's everybody doing today. It's a good day to be

in the House of God, good day to be at church.

If I haven't met you yet, my name is David

and one of the pastors on the team. I'm our

worship pastor here and they gave me the microphone without

music happening at the same time. So that's oh, might

be right, But so so thankful for the opportunity to

share what God has put on my heart over the

last couple of weeks as I've been able to prepare

before we dive in. I want to just thank Pastor

Brandon and Pastor die for their leadership in our church

and in my life. They're incredible pastors, incredible leaders. They're

my spiritual mom and dad, and so hopefully they're watching online.

I feel like good spiritual mom and dad would be

watching online. So PB pe Die, I love you. Thank

you guys for the gift that it is to be

on your team, to look up to you guys, and

to share the word of God. Is we are in

the midst of our Holy Spirit series. It's called More

and the idea behind the series is this that if

there's more of the Holy Spirit to be had that

we should want it. Who wants it? Come on? Come on.

So the title of my message is simple hunger. Somebody

say hunger, hunger, and it's this idea that God pours

himself out on hungry people. Not perfect people, not people

with a title, not talented people, not pastors, not people

that show up to the four walls of a church

just to be at church and to check a box

on their spiritual to do list, but people that are hungry.

I love what's been shared so far in the series.

Pastor Eileen did a great job at unpacking who the

person the Holy Spirit is. The person of the Holy

Spirit is a part of the Trinity. Amen, and the

Holy Spirit dwells around us. I believe the Holy Spirit's

already in the room, Thank you Jesus. The Holy Spirit

dwells within us. I meant. Pastor Brandon did an amazing

job over the last couple of weeks sharing on people

in the Bible, people in history who have been marked

by and filled with the Holy Spirit. What that has

looked like, what it looked like before, what it looked

like after the transformation that occurs, How God uses them,

and what it looks like to walk in that, and

what it looks like to observe that from around. And

then this week I want to talk about hunger, spiritual hunger.

So when I open up by just talking about hunger,

everybody can relate to hunger. Right, who here gets hungry?

Everybody gets hungry, All right, raise your hand if you

get angry. Come on, I get angry, and only I

get angry because I forget to eat and then and

then I pretty much only eat boiled or grilled chicken.

And that's just the secret, that's my secret. But anyways,

boiled or grilled chicken. So I'm always angry because of it.

But bear with me. When you're hungry, you're looking for

You look for food, you think about food, you make

time for food, you walk into your pantry. You're looking

for your snacks. Whether you're on a healthy kick, whether

you're not on a healthy kick. I'm a chips guy.

I love chips. I live for a good spicy, spicy chips.

I've been changed by the chips that the naked chips

that don't have any diet. Whoa I said naked at church?

All right, everybody relaxed, the naked chips, Doritos and Cheetos

without die. Nobody needs red forty in their life, right.

I love those in moderation, But we all relate to hunger,

some of us in here. We're in the greater Seattle area.

Who's a foodie? Come on, the foodies in the room.

You'll go great lengths to get your little craving fellow

jet Pastor Jonathan's going as I love it. He is

a foodie. He's a real foodie, probably the realest foody

on staff. Foodies do crazy things so much so they

go the extent of driving to Seattle for food, which

I won't ever do. I like it in Snahomish. I

prefer it on the avenue D's. It's good right there.

The I went to a tie spot that was pretty good,

but the Snahomies get it. There you go. But crazy

people drive to Seattle even for food. Where I'm going

with this is that nobody has to convince a hungry

person to eat. Hungry people don't need motivation, They simply

need access. Somebody say access. So let's think about that

for a second. In the context of church and faith,

I wonder if the church today has confused hunger and obligation.

You know, sometimes we go to church, we read our bibles,

we worship, we pray, and we participate in these spiritual

activities without a spiritual appetite. And I wonder if what

God is looking for isn't people participating in spiritual activities alone,

but that people that do that beyond a checklists, that

people that do that with an appetite for more. That's

I believe what God is looking for for us to

desire more, for us to long for more, for us

to hunger and yearn for more of Him. Matthew five six.

It says, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they shall be filled. I want you to notice this.

There is a promise from Jesus to those who seek

him hungry that they wouldn't leave empty. But to understand

what Jesus is referring to here, I feel like we

need to unpack what hunger means in this text, in

addition to what righteousness means in this text. So, according

to the Miriam Webster's Dictionary, hunger is the uncomfortable or

painful physical sensation and weakened state caused by lack of food.

Representing your body's natural cue that it needs energy and nutrients,

that if you lack energy your nutrients, it triggers a

desire and a response, a need from your brain to

your stomach, your whole body. It aligns broadly. It can

be described as a strong craving or intense desire, including

things such as a desire or hunger for power. So

how many of us here beginning to understand where this

spiritual hunger thing is going? We don't lack hunger in

our lives when it comes to physical sustenance or even

mental sustenance. We love food. We sometimes idolize it, We

like it more than we should. We elevate it above

other things in our lives that it shouldn't be elevated over.

Let's move that onto something else. What else? What other

things do we hunger? Foreign life, power, status, being noticed,

likes on a social media platform. We idolize and we

elevate these things. We're hungry for, these dopamine hits, whatever

it might be for you. Over a spiritual hunger, a

spiritual appetite that God desires for us to have. But

we know this that God pours himself out on hungry people.

People who are hungry for what? What does the text say?

It said people that are hungry for Him in His

fullness through righteousness. And so I looked into the Greek

and I was gonna pretend like I knew how to

say these Greek words. And I leaned over to Pastor

Connor earlier and I was like, hey, bro, how do

you say this? And he was like, Bro, I just

don't even try. I like people who try, like Pastor

Christian can try and die and Peep and Morgan, but

I'm not going to There's a gull in the church

that was like, I feel like the word you're looking

for is And then she said it, and I'm convinced.

I mean, she could be right, could be wrong. I'm

not gonna try to say it. But she was like, yeah,

it was like in my sorority, we like, you know,

in the Greek life. So I said, Okay, she probably

knows it more than I do, but let's bring it

back around the word for righteousness in the Greek the

root word has a meeting of just or right. In

both classical and Biblical contexts. It refers to the state

of one ought to be living in moral integrity, acting

justly and maintaining right relationship. So that leads me to

the first thing I want to leave you with this morning.

And if you're taking notes, youn, feel free to write

this down that hunger always comes before filling. You know,

where is this series leading to? Where are we going

with this thing? We want our church to be filled

with the Holy Spirit and marked by the Holy Spirit.

But we're in Assemblies of God church, and we believe

in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We believe that

in the gifts, we believe in order. But we believe

that the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the

dead is still active in moving into life today, is

within us. He's in our church. Amen, And we should

desire for that. We should hunger for that. You know.

Pastor Brandon shared that what we are into that we

accept that, we embrace that. We aren't looking for people

that scream and services just to scream and that are

hyper pentecostal and charismatic just to be that. But we

are open to a move of God whatever that looks like.

We're going to lean into that. We want to lean in.

Hunger always comes before the filling. God pours himself out

on hungry people. But for this to happen, we need

to embrace hunger before the filling comes. Now, every move

of God in scripture begins with people dissatisfied with where

they're at. We see Israel cry out. We see that

Hannah longs for God. David the Psalmist, one of my favorites, wrote,

as the deer pants for streams of water. We'll never

do that one here for as long as I'm the

worship pastor. But it's a good one. It's a good one.

There were just better ones. We see the disciples wait

in the upper room. But one of my favorite stories

is the story of blind Bartimaeus, and I want to

read this out of Mark tenh forty six through fifty two.

It says this, Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus

and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving

the city, a blind man named Bartimaeus which means son

of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard

that Jesus of Nazareth was coming, he began to shout, Jesus,

son of David, have mercy on me. Many rebuked him

and told him to be quiet, but he shouted, all

the more, son of David, have mercy on me. So

Jesus stopped and said, call him. So they called the

blind man, cheer up on your feet. He's calling you.

The same people that told him to quiet down, that

shut him out then were instructed by Jesus. I thought

that was really interesting to tell him. Cheer up on

your feet, he's calling you. Throwing his cloak aside, he

jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. What do

you want me to do for you? Jesus asked him.

The blind man said, Rabbi, I want to see. And

Jesus' response is what stands out to me. Here go,

said Jesus, your faith has healed you. Immediately he received

his sight, followed Jesus along the road church. His faith

is what healed him. Jesus used his faith to heal him.

Jesus used his hunger to heal him. Hunger always comes

before a filling, before your healing, before your miracle, before

the touch of God on your life, before the miraculous,

before that promotion you've been waiting for, before provision. Hunger

always comes before the filling. The interesting thing about all

these stories Israel Hannah David, the blind blind Bartimaeus. Is

this the disciples in the upper room. It's not that

they're gifted, It's not that they were disciples. I mean

Bartimaeus was the blind beggar for crying out loud, the

guy that we would probably all pass by. It wasn't giftedness,

It wasn't anything special other than this, his desperation, his hunger. Amen.

So when was the last time that we wanted more

of God? When was the last time we leaned into

that hunger? Not because a pastor asked or said that

you should, not because the church series was in that

or because the church service started and all of a

sudden you're spiritually hungry because it's nine or ten forty

five am, or because Pastor Cole Hasey was in the

house leading worship. Come on, thank you, Pastor Cole. But

I love how aw Tozer once said it. Complacency is

the deadly enemy of spiritual growth church. The Holy Spirit

doesn't force himself on indifferent people. The Holy Spirit isn't

just going to radically change your life with you just

waiting around passing by. The Holy Spirit is going to

fill those who are hungry, those who are hungry, not

just for the gifts, not just for the evidence, but

for the righteousness of God. Right, Kwana, do we desire

the righteousness of God in our lives? The Holy Spirit

does not force himself on in different people. You're going

to experience more if you want it. You're not going

to experience more if you're indifferent, if you're passive. The

Holy Spirit responds to hunger and Jeremi twenty nine thirteen.

It says this, you will seek me and find me

when you seek me with your whole heart. It doesn't

say half, it doesn't say leftovers. It doesn't say when

you're in the mood for it, it doesn't say when

it's convenient. It says with your whole heart. Somebody say

whole heart. And so it's with our whole heart that

hunger leads to repentance. If you're taking notes, it's point

number two. Hunger leads to repentance. God pours himself out

on hungry people. But we need to allow hunger to

turn into repentance. And repentance is a scary word for us.

Sometimes we're gonna talk a little bit about repentance and revival.

So how many of us in the room get excited

when we hear the word revival. God is moving. We

believe that God has been moving in our church. I'm

in we are are part of a spirit filled church.

God has been moving. We've seen healings. We just got

brought back from youth camp and we shout out the

youth section for a little bit. Come on, come on,

we so will you show us? We show us your

fingers real quick, No, just you, everybody goes. That was amazing.

We saw many things happened at camp. We saw someone

who was hearing voices, who's hearing voices of evil and

of discouragement, be freed from those loud voices that were

impossible to get rid of. We saw a physical healing.

We saw a youth student who had shattered their finger

in our youth ministry be healed. Praise God for that, right.

But what's cool about that is that that's evidence that God,

God has been moving in our church. He's moving in

our youth ministry. He moves here on a Sunday morning.

But Revival isn't the loud church services that are extended

with a big sound system and big lights and all

that stuff. Revival is actually really simple when we strip

it back to what is revival biblically, so return to life,

to be brought back from a state of spiritual sleep, dormancy,

or death. Real revival includes repentance, not because we serve

an angry God. You know, the word repentance is intimidating,

but because hungry people remove anything in their way to

get to get to what it is that they're hungry for. Right, so,

hungry people remove anything that keeps them from the table.

Repentance is us removing what's in the way between us

and getting to the table that Jesus has prepared for us.

It's not a punishment, it's simply making room. Doesn't that

make that word just a little less intimidating, that repentance

that we're called to repent, And we hear the guy

at the Mariners Stadium with the megaphone repent or you

shall go to hell, you know all that stuff. But

it's actually not that deep, it's not that scary. God

just wants us to make room for him. So are

we willing? Do so? Have an illustration for us? Who

loves Gordon Ramsey. Everybody knows Gordon Ramsey, Michelin Star Hell's kitchen.

I just said hell in Church. Wow, he's known for

what's my favorite Gordon Ramsey saying is it's bloody raw,

really good at accents. Just imagine this. You're going to

Gordon Ramsey's restaurant. You're starving before, you've been fasting leading

up to it, not because you're spiritual, because you wantn't

have enough space to put it all away. But then

you give in an hour before. You're so hungry that

you decided to go to McDonald's and you get some

Big Max, or if you're peeb you go to Dix Burgers,

which is not good, and you get a couple of

deluxe Dix Deluxe burgers. But here's the deal, Church, The

problem wasn't Gordon Ramsay's meal. The problem is your appetite, right,

Something was in the way. Your appetite was in the way.

You weren't hungry for this great meal that was prepared

for you. Instead, you caved in for the whatever was

in front of you at the time, whatever was put

placed in front of you. The craving. Sometimes we crave

things that we shouldn't. Right, repentance is pushing away lesser

things because you've discovered something infinitely better. So let's talk

about the history of revival for a second. Major revivals

Yazuzu Street Revival, the Brady's Revival, Welsh Revival, the Brownsville Revival.

Our church has a little bit of history with the

browns Will Revival. Pastor Brandon pastor and I took a

youth team to that revival. They ended up and they

ended up ministering at that revival, which is really cool. Uh.

But we're alying we're charismatics, PB, dime, I include myself

in that. The Seu Revival just occurred this year. A

couple of years back, the Asbury Revival went down. PB

and I actually had the opportunity to go to Wilmore, Kentucky,

and he is right. There are only three things in

that town, Asbury University, a gas station, and a subway.

And so it was easy to make room when we

were out there because there was nowhere to go. But

bear with me, the Asbury Revival. I want to share

testimony with you. You know, I grew up a pastor's

kid in a Pentecostal charismatic home, charismatic Pentecostal church. The

worship was two hours. We'd start with the worship set

and then we'd flow, and then we'd go into prophetic worship,

and then the altar would open during worship, and you

had all the charismatic Pentecostals with their long skirts, you know,

and the men with their suits, and by the end

of worship they were so sweaty they use their tie

as a headband to keep the sweat back, and you know,

people are falling and the catcher, you know, come. Not

everybody knows what I'm talking about, but those those were

the days, and hey, I believe God still moves that way.

But you know, I had this idea that revival was hype.

It was energy. It was great worship and a loud

sound system and lights and an incredible you know, rich

Will Christen Junior or Peple would get mad if I

didn't say, doctor Brandon Beale's is the preacher and revival

is gonna break out, Uh the church. What Asbury taught

me was this that it has nothing to do with

the worship, has nothing to do with the sound system,

has nothing to do with the lights, has nothing to

do with Hayes in the air, has nothing to do

with worship being good. Because the worship there it was

not that good has nothing to do with the preacher.

The preacher also wasn't that good. But what marked the gathering,

what marked the gathering was this, there was hunger in

the room, and that hunger led to people being willing

to repent. So we talk, let me unpack a little

bit of that story, that hunger. What did that look like?

What does hunger look like? It's desperation, it's it's desires.

So in the context of this and faith, hunger, it

started with a couple of the students on campus. They

completed the chapel gathering, the guest speaker spoke, He did

a call for salvation, They saw a couple of salvations.

They broke off. Everybody went to class, went to lunch

and whatnot, and students just began to have this sense

of like, I need to go back to the chapel,

I need to pray, I need to press sin, I

want to worship. So they started, one by one getting

up out of their seats. They started leading class heading

to the chapel, and one of them ended up in

being one of the worship leaders. He just started leading worship,

and then another one showed a testimony of what God

was speaking to them, and then another one, and then

another one, and then they offered prayer. People started to repent,

people started to make space for a move of God,

for a touch of God in their lives. It was beautiful,

taught me so much. We love our lights, we love

the sound, we love pastor coal leading worship, we love

all these great things. But it's not about who, it's

not about what. It's about him. And it's simple hunger.

Desire to actually worship, to actually pursue the throne of

Christ and repentance. Repentance always comes before power. Always people

confess sin, people forgiving others, relationships being made right, idols

being destroyed. Why because hunger naturally creates repentance and acts

three nineteen says this repent that times of refreshing may come.

Refreshing follows repentance. Always are you with me this morning? Church?

So if hunger leads to repentance, then kind of the

next step here is the fact that revival is personal

before its corporate. It took those students each getting up

out of their seats and heading to the chapel because

God was doing something in their mind and in their heart,

and the Holy Spirit was speaking to them, and then

God had one person share of testimony, and then one

more shared a testimony, and then one decided to pray

for people, and then one decided to repent, and that

one shared the testimony. God pours himself out on people

who are hungry. But if we want God to pour

himself out around us, we need to let it start

with us, happen in us to us, so that then

it could lead to it happening through us. It starts

with one before any one or anything else. It's one

of my favorite things that I have to share this morning.

So often we pray. God said revival, But revival isn't

something that God drops on cities and churches alone. Doesn't

just happen like that. He does something inside of people.

A church revival, a revival in a university, a revival

in a nation, is simply hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands

of personal individual revivals and moves of God God changing lives,

impacting lives. I had the picture of dominoes popping on

my mind. Who has seen dominoes fall? Now, if you

scroll on social media, you doom scroll. You see the

video of the guy talking about the MLM and he's

he like starts talking all high pitched. Listen to how

I made a million dollars and twenty four hours and

then down in the corner you see the video of

the dominoes. And what you're watching is the video of

the dominoes because it like stimulates your brain. But then

you're listening to the MLM infection. So just a marketing

tip for you and something to watch out for it,

but be with me. The dominoes, it starts with one,

so the first domino falls over, followed by another, followed

by four more, and then ten more and then twenty more,

and then one of them knocks a ball that swings

and then it goes like this, and then it knocks

over twenty and then they start going side to side

and they fall over and it's this really cool thing

and it's really engaging, and we're all like, wow, that

was really cool. I feel like Revival is similar to

that starts with one that one, it has an impact

on another, and then has an impact on another. You see,

Revival is personal before it becomes corporate. Starts with one

and then another and then another, and Luke fifteen, we

see this the paratable of the prodigal Sun is story

that a lot of us know. One son comes home, one,

not two, not ten, not hundreds one. What does heaven do?

Heaven celebrates. Heaven throws a party. When God transforms one,

he celebrates. When God transforms one marriage, that's revival. When

God frees one addict, that's revival. When one student comes

home with a fired up prayer life from camp, that's revival.

When a businessman starts living generously, that's revival. Corporate revival

is simply individual awakenings colliding together. Are you with me? Church?

So if corporate revival is simply individual moves with God

that leads us to this, it's evidence that hunger is contagious.

God pours himself out on hungry people. But we need

to recognize that if it starts with us, we need

to actually allow it to overflow and impact the people

and circumstances around us. Let's not be ashamed of a

move of God. Let's break that down. Let's not be

ashamed of faith of us have struggled to actually invite

someone to church, or to talk about what your belief

is at work, or even the courage to post, hey,

it's eat happy Easter? You know. But church, let me

say this, hunger being contagious is where we see it

start to impact our homes, our families, our marriages, our workplaces,

our church. Faith spreads, passion spreads, worship spreads, prayer spreads,

expectation spreads. I've heard it said this way. Prayer, worship, faith, passion,

those aren't things that are taught. Those are things that

are caught, something that are cultivated. When you observe it,

when you're around it, it's irresistible. It's irresistible to pray

out loud or to sing out loud when you're around

people that are praying and singing. Right, one hungry believer

has the power to give another individual to become a

believer with permission to become hungry for the Holy Spirit.

And I was encouraged by a story this week. I

was talking to my friend Michelle Chastain. She goes to

church here, and Michelle joined us every day for early

morning prayer on Holy Week. We did it at seven am.

We prayed and we sought the Lord in the morning

every day leading leading up to Easter. And so she

was one of the prayer warriors that was here. She

was here this week helping with some stuff around the church,

and she said that. I told her I was leading

worship at camp, and she said, I just want to

go to camp. I just want to go to the

youth services. And I was like, whoa sign up to

be a youth leader. She's like, well, I just want

to go. I just want to be in the room.

It's that hunger. That hunger fuels me, it encourages me,

it touches me. It's contagious. And she nailed it. I

was at youth camp. You guys are all at youth camp.

It was just beyond hunger is contagious. Next two, we

see one hundred and twenty people, all hungry, all praying,

all expectant. The Holy Spirit falls, and what happens. Thousands

are se It started with one hundred and twenty. Imagine

this if every person in this room actually spent time

with God, actually spent time with God every day. We're

willing to repent, quickly, loved others, radically shared what God

was doing, expected the Holy Spirit to move. I bet

venture would change, huh. I bet Snahomish County would change.

I bet our workplaces would change. I bet our homes

would change. Hunger is contagious, Amen. And with hunger being contagious,

it's important that we recognize that God still responds to

hunger today. That if history tells us these revivals where

people would respond to an inkling the Holy Spirit speaking,

that one would respond, and then another, and then another,

and then hundreds and thousands would respond. States would find out,

cities would find out, nations would find out, the world

would hear about it. The same God that rose Jesus

from the dead is the same God we serve today.

The same spirit that rose Jesus from the dead is

still alive, It's still active, still moving, dwells within us,

is in the room. Amen. The same spirit still responds

to hunger. God pours himself out on hungry people. But

we need to trust that if he did it then,

if he did it with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,

if he did it with Mary, if he did it

with Martha, that he can do it with me, that

he can do it with you, That he can do

it in the prodigal, That he can do it for

your coworker, you're believing for your neighbor, the addict in

your life, your spouse, your kids, you name it, God

can do it. Luke Eleven's and Luke eleven Jesus says,

if earthly fathers know how to give good gifts, how

much more would your heavenly father give? What is it?

It's the Holy Spirit? And that text says this to

those who ask, those who ask, Hungry people ask, Hungry

people seek. Hungry people knock on the door. They're desperate,

they need something, something's missing, and quite literally, you don't,

you don't do something about it leaves to starvation. What

does that lead to? And one of my friends growing up,

Pastor Connor knows one of my friends, Derek Derek Hamer,

grew up in an orphanage, lived a lot of life.

He would share stories of what life was like for

him in Kenya, and there were a couple of stories

that stood out. There was a season where him and

his brother they were on the streets. They were starving.

He would he would go great lengths to go to

restaurants to eat from the garbage. His brother was super malnourished.

His brother caught malaria. He ended up slitting the rest

of his brother to to help get the infection out

of his system. He share stories about how he like

held onto his brother's wrist for weeks out of fear

that he wouldn't make it, so he would end up

going a traveling long ways for food just out of

a garbage. He stopped eating himself so that he could

bring it to his brother from fear of actual death.

We go great lengths when we're hungry, but do we

have a spiritual appetite? The earthly Father knows how to

give a good gift. How much more would does your

heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?

Hungry people ask? Hungry people seek, Hungry people go through

great lengths, hungry people knock. James four eight says this

draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.

A question we all ask is, so when will revival?

When will it break out? When is that move going

to happen? When is it going to hit our church again?

When are we going to have another service where the

Holy Spirit breaks out? And then you know, the worship

doesn't stop, and then we add extra worship emprayer gatherings

that evening or the next night and the next night

and the next night. That's incredible, But we ought to

be asking God, when when will my personal revival start

when will I become hungry? Or even as far as

what's holding me back? We love the gifts, we love

a move of God, we love the evidence, but it's

important that we have faith without sight. We can't have

faith without site, without a spiritual appetite. So what are

we doing? What are we doing to cultivate a spiritual

appetite within ourselves? What are we doing to cultivate alonging

in a desire for God. Let's just think about that

for a second. What needs to be cut out? What

needs to be removed? What do we need to put

into the light? What sin is holding us back? What idols?

What belief? What pain? Maybe you've gone through something? What insecurity?

What limiting beliefs? Revival doesn't begin on stage. A touch

of God doesn't start with someone here. It doesn't start

with with me. Because I have a microphone in my hands,

I pray that God would use me. But it starts

with hunger. There's nothing I can do for you for

hunger to be stirred in your life, in your heart,

for a spiritual appetite to be cultivated. There's nothing I

can do. It's up to us as individuals to make

room to make space. So how do we do that?

It starts. It starts at five am in the morning.

Maybe you go to work, it's at seven am. You

got a family, You've got kids to make lunches for,

you have responsibilities, you make plans in the evening, you're

hanging out with people. You don't trying to read your

Bible or any of the day. Horrible excuse starts at

five am or your kitchen table or in your bedroom alone,

opening your Bible day after day and doing it again

and again, and praying again, repenting again, worshiping again, until

it's undeniable that the Holy Spirit has noticed that the

Holy Spirit has started to speak to you, that the

Holy Spirit has started to touch your life. All of

a sudden, you start to hear the voice of God.

You have a sense that God is speaking to you.

He's giving you peace about things, He's removing, He's closing

doors for you, He's opening up other doors. Certain things

are brighter in life, certain things you have a good

feeling about. All of a sudden, All of a sudden,

you feel closer to your spouse. All of a sudden,

your kids starts to fall in love with Jesus. Why

because of your spiritual appetite, because you've cultivated something. We've

taken a posture of being hungry, of making space. It

starts with one, and then the Holy Spirit notices. The

Holy Spirit touches you, the Holy Spirit fills you, and

then others notice, one after another, after another and after another.

Let me say this, sometimes we don't even need to

know who is noticing. Some of the coolest stories are, hey, yeah,

this one person in my life showed the gospel. I

can't even remember their name. But then I showed up

to church and then I had a radical encounter with

the Lord, and all of a sudden, now my family's

at church, and God saved my marriage and we were

able to you know, we started giving, and we started

giving generously, and then all of a sudden, you know,

we got a random tax return check in the mail

and something hit my account. We were able to buy

a house, Like who wants That story starts with Hunger's Church.

We can't keep praying God send revival. We need to

pray and do God start revival in me. And then

the due part is taking the steps. Signs don't follow, sorry,

signs follow faith. Faith doesn't follow the signs. So this morning,

if we leave here with anything, let it be this.

It's remembering that God pours himself out on hungry people.

But if you have a desire, you have a longing,

it's gonna take some work. It's gonna take sacrifice, it's

gonna take choices. Maybe you're going to your friend's lake

house in Shechlan next Sunday, Well maybe cancel that trips

that you could be in the room to hear about

what it is that you need to do to be

filled with the Holy Spirit, and then come back to

the night gatherings that you can actually pray for the

Holy Spirit to touch your life and feel you Maybe

you've already, you know, done your Christianese. I was at

church twice this month, so I'm good and you don't

have to count or all this. There's you know, four

Sundays in August. I don't got to go on the second.

Maybe you need to make the choice to be here.

Maybe it's waking up early and spending time with the Lord.

Maybe there's something in your life, whether you know it

or not, that you need to cut out of your life.

Maybe you need to repent. You don't want to bring

it back to Maybe you just need to make some room.

God forced himself out on hungry people. People that make space,

not perfect people, not talented people, not church attenders alone,

but people that are hungry. Son't invite everybody to stand up,

close your eyes and by your heads this morning. You

might be in this room today thinking I'm as hungry

as as they get. You might be here comfortable. You

might sit here and identify as hungry. You might be curious,

You might even be skeptical. But I want to pray

a prayer together. But if you are on the skeptical, skeptical, unsure,

maybe you haven't given your life to Jesus. I want

to give you the opportunity to do that. Or maybe

you're in this room and you need to repent. You

need to make room. You need to make room, you

want to get right with Jesus. I want to encourage

us all to repeat this pray after me, but so

that I know who we're believing for and praying for

only kind of three. I want you to raise your hand.

One if you don't know Jesus but you want to. Two,

if you want to make room in your life and

you want to get right, leave here, today, knowing that

you're right with Jesus. I want you to raise your hand. Three.

I see that hand, Thank you. I see that hand.

I see that hand. I see that hand. Yeah, I

see the hand. Hands up all over. You can go ahead,

up your hands. Now, let's all repeat this together. Say,

dear Jesus, I stand before you today, and I admit

I've messed up. I've made mistakes, But today I choose

to serve you with my life. Thank you for forgiving

me and for saving me in Jesus' name. Amen, Now

with your head's bowed still and your eyes closed. I

really just want us to respond if we mean it today.

But who's here and desires a new, a refreshed spiritual appetite,

Who here wants to be marked by and filled with

the Holy Spirit? Who here has a desire that says God?

If there's more of you to be had, I want it.

So if that's you, I just want you to raise

your hand right now, raise your hand, hands up all

over this room. Will you repeat this prayer with me? Jesus, Lord,

I surrender have your way with my life. I give

you my heart, I give you my mind. Holy Spirit,

do something in me? Give me an appetite for you.

I surrender what's not of you, and I make room

for more of you. I know there's more of you

to be had, and I want it. Thank you Jesus. Amen, Hey, can.

We just give Jesus thanks this morning that he is

a god who responds when his people call to him.

Thank you Jesus. Hey, as you guys are taking your seat,

can we just give Pastor David a big thank you

for that message. He'll be hanging around if you want

to say hello, ask him any questions, they'll follow up.

He'll be here. He'd love to see you.

One of the things that we have available for you

that I just want to direct your attention to is

we have a What's Next page available to you. So

if after today's message, you've got questions, if you're wanting

to dig deeper into this topic, if you want resources

to go and read. What happens here does not stay here,

but it goes into the week with us back at home,

and so if you're wanting to continue to learn, if

you're wanting to continue to dig in, we have an

amazing team of people here who take the notes from

these Sunday morning messages and put together a bunch of resources,

helpful reflection questions, a whole guide of resources for so

I want to invite you.

In your app you can find.

The What's next tab there, or on our website you

can find the What's Next page for you and your

family to continue to explore, continue to seek and dig in.

Hey, amazing.

What I want to do now is I want to

invite our offering team or our ushers to come on

up to take today's tithes and offerings. We celebrate the

opportunity to worship through our giving. If you came prepared

to give in person today, there are some envelopes in

the back of your seat in front of you. You're

also able to give through our app or this QR

code there. You're going to see two different ways to give.

The first is you're going to see are tithes and offerings,

those that go to the day to day ministry work

happening here at the church. And you're also going to

see Kingdom builders. And that is really our way to

partner with the Lord and what he's doing here locally,

in our community and globally around the world. I forgot

to mention this earlier this morning but there's going to

be an opportunity to further support our kids in a

show or excuse me, our youth ministry and that team

that's going to Puerto Rico at Bob's Corn, there's gonna

be a dun tank. Come on, we love a good

dunk tank. There's gonna be a dune tank. I hope

there's an opportunity to dunk Pastor Johnny in support of

our Puerto Rico team that's heading out pretty soon here,

and so there's some opportunity there as well as this morning,

Would you join me in a prayer as we bless

today's ties and offerings. Lord, we love you, We thank

you for the opportunity to come before you with everything

that you've given us to give back to you. Pray

that you would do more with the offering what's given

today than we could ask or imagine.

Would you bless the offering, and would you bless every giver.

It's in your name, we pray. Amen.