Appetites and Cravings

Amen. The notes are on the app. As always. I want you to go there and get ready to jot a few things down or to follow along in the notes on the app. It might seem a little bit cruel and maybe heartless on the part of your pastor.

Just a week removed from really, basically six weeks of overindulgence as it relates to food and eating from Thanksgiving until January 1st. How many of you know what I'm talking about? It makes it. Come on. Is anybody.

I mean, come on, now you guys know what I'm talking about. Might seem a little cruel. Just a week removed from that for me to talk to you about the topic that I feel like God has put on my heart for today. But I really feel from the Lord that I am to talk to you about appetites and cravings. I read earlier this week that 400,000, approximately Americans every single year undergo bypass surgery.

Here's the interesting thing. All of them are told by their doctors that they need to make some type of lifestyle change. They need to exercise, they need to eat better, whatever it might be. And statistics say that 90% of them, 90% of those that have undergone open heart surgery make no changes to their lifestyle whatsoever. I find it interesting that people can watch a family member die of lung cancer and they continue to smoke, or that they lose a family member or friend a drug addiction, and yet they don't seek help for their own addiction.

We've all probably somehow been impacted by the fact that alcohol can wreck families and wreck lives. Yet the pattern is repeated over and over. Why? I think it centers around this topic of appetites and cravings. People will rob stores, they'll steal from family members, they'll lose jobs, they'll commit white collar crimes, they'll cheat on their spouse, they'll lose their home or their car, all because they have failed to crucify their flesh.

We've all experienced it at some level. We're all familiar with the battle that the apostle Paul talks about when he's speaking to the Roman church. And he talks about this war between the flesh and the spirit, like we've all experienced that probably on a daily basis. We read in Genesis 27 about a young man who had a very promising future and he gives up his birthright, which represented his inheritance and his authority, all because he would not crucify his flesh.

It's so important in 2023 that you understand this. Now you understand this. In fact, I put it in your notes. I want it up on the screen because I want you to See, this, here's the truth, here's the reality that a failure to consistently, consistently. And I put that word in there on purpose because it's not just a 21 day thing, it's not just a Selah thing, it's not just a January thing.

It needs to become a lifestyle to us that we consistently feed our spiritual appetites and, and consistently starve our fleshly cravings. And if we do not do that, listen to me, it will lead us to spiritual death. And I'll show you that from the Word of God. We're going to go to numbers, chapter 11. If you've got your device, you've got your Bible.

If you have neither, we're putting the verses up on the screen for you. But I want you, as we do always, to stand to honor the greatest book on the planet. As I read a few verses from Numbers, chapter 11, beginning in verse 4.

And it says this, the rabble, kind of an interesting word, not a word that we commonly use in conversation, but the rabble, which simply means the multitude or the crowd with them, meaning the Israelites began to crave. There's the word other food. And again, the Israelites started wailing and said, if only we had meat to eat. We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost. Also the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlic.

Watch verse six. But now we have lost our appetite. We've lost our appetite. We saw the word crave earlier. We're craving other food now we've lost our appetite.

Watch what it says. We never see anything but this manna. We never see anything but this manna. How many of you would be courageous enough this morning to just give the Holy Spirit permission to do whatever he desires to do in your heart over the next three hours while I'm preaching this?

Listen to me. I have no desire to preach for three hours.

But seriously, how many of you in the next few moments?

Well, just give the Holy Spirit permission to say whatever he needs to say to you and do whatever he needs to do inside of your heart related to this topic of appetites and cravings. Can I see your hand? Let's make some declarations before you're seated today. Everybody out loud, even those watching online. You ready?

Go. I will hide this word in my heart that I might not sin against God. This word is life to my body.

I will be a doer of the Word. And I am confident of this, that he who has begun a good work in me. Come on, church. In Jesus name Amen. You can be seated.

If you look in the dictionary at the word appetite, you're just going to find a simple definition like this. A desire for food or drink, a desire to satisfy any bodily need. I want you to focus on that word need. If you look at the word crave or craving in the dictionary, you're going to find a definition like this. To long for, to want greatly, or to desire eagerly.

Now if you look in the thesaurus under the word crave, you're going to find words like this. Longing, greed, lust, ache or yearn. And there's a principle, there's a reality that you need to grab hold of as it relates to these two words, appetites and cravings. Appetites really have to do with or directly connected to the needs of the body, the needs of the body. The long term needs that you have, and we're specifically speaking of your spiritual needs and cravings are directly connected to short term desires.

There's a big difference. Appetites, long term needs, cravings, short term desires. Chances are we all know about cravings.

And every year when we approach Selah, there are people that have never participated in Selah that fast for the first time in their lives. And it's incredible. We hear great testimonies from people about what God does through their obedience. And if you've never fasted, you're going to be introduced to this thing of cravings, probably at a new level over the next 21 days. We're all familiar with cravings.

Maybe you've experienced or you've heard stories. Maybe it was you yourself or maybe your spouse when they were pregnant and they had these strange cravings. When my oldest daughter was pregnant with our oldest grandson, she started having this strong craving for raw onions.

She never liked onions, she never wanted onions, but she would take a raw onion and eat it like an apple, right? It grossed me out. Kind of grosses some of you out just hearing about it. But I mean regularly, like her body was craving this thing. It was the weirdest thing.

Cravings can lead you to do some weird things, right? They can lead you to do some irrational things. I read a story the other day, it happened three days after Christmas up in Bismarck, North Dakota. This 36 year old guy by the name of Brentley Road gets arrested and charged with a felony because he's in a convenience store and he's waving a hatchet around, threatening the store clerk, threatening to kill him because a store clerk had caught him trying to steal a box of donuts. Crazy.

Reminds me of the guy in Genesis 27, he was a 36 year old guy that basically threw his future away over a stinking box of donuts. And I don't even think they were Krispy Kreme doughnuts because we all know Krispy Kreme has an anointing. Oh, Jesus, I promise you, during Selah, I will not talk about Krispy Kreme doughnuts. But there's a curtain of anointing. Y' all know what I'm talking about.

What can we learn from the Israelites in numbers, chapter 11? Four things I want to share with you quickly and I put them in your notes. And the first one is this, that they followed the way of the crowd. The Israelites followed the way of the crowd. We see that in verse four.

Then the foreign rabble or the multitude or the crowd who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. Let me just pause right there and say this. In 2023, it is really important who you hang out with. Do you understand?

Like bad company, the scripture says, corrupts good morals. And it is so important the people that you choose to spend time with. The crowd will almost always lead you away from a right thing, from the right thing and incite cravings in you for short term fulfillment. We remember that it was the crowd that stoned Paul in Acts chapter 14 and left him for dead. We remember that it was the crowd that demanded that Barabbas be released and Jesus be crucified.

It was the crowd who accompanied Judas to arrest Jesus in the garden. It was a crowd that had Paul and Silas thrown into prison. I was reading this morning early, just in my devotional time, and I read Matthew 7. There's a couple of verses there, verse 13 and 14, 14 that says this. Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate.

Broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate. Narrow is the road that leads to life. And only a few find it. Listen, one of the things that you can do in 2023 that I believe will set you up for success is to decide right now, January 8, 2023, I will not go the way of the crowd.

Because oftentimes we find, especially in our culture, that the crowd will say things like this. It's okay for you to view pornography. And they'll give you reasons to justify that. It's okay if you drink socially, even though there's a history of alcohol abuse in your family. It's okay for you to watch certain channels or binge watch certain things on Netflix or Hulu.

It's okay if you treat people with a form of disrespect or to cheat or to lie on your resume or to cater to any cravings that you have because you deserve, you deserve those things. It's okay if you don't take care of your body. Listen, those are the messages that the crowd saying to people over and over. That's why I would admonish you as your pastor in 2023, that you decide, I will not go the way of the crowd. Because listen to me, the crowd will always lead you away from things of the things of God culture.

What they deem is okay, what they say, what they put their stamp of approval on, rarely lines up with the standards and the principles of the Word of God because they're not walking towards the things of God. I really felt like the Holy Spirit told me to challenge you in 2023 to ask three questions in regards to every activity of your life. Three questions. The first one is this. Is there anything in the Word of God that.

That says this is wrong? Does the scripture say that what I'm doing is wrong? There are things that maybe you're involved in activities or things that you decide that you're going to do and the scripture doesn't address it. And you might not be able to find an answer that says this is just blatantly wrong. I use example, not because I've got a personal vendetta against this at all.

I know nothing about it really. But I said, you know, if you binge watch 14 Hours of Yellowstone, I've never seen an episode of Yellowstone. I know very little about it. Except Kevin Costner is in it, I think. Is that correct?

Somebody that watches it, Kevin Costner, when I said that, somebody in the nine o' clock service said, leave me alone. Like shouted that out, leave me alone.

So it's not that I have a vendetta against you, it's just an example. You might not be able to find anything. You can go to the concordance and you probably will not find the word Yellowstone in the Bible. So there might not be anything specifically about the activity or the thing that you're doing. Which leads to the second question is this is the Holy Spirit telling me that what I'm doing is wrong?

Because you might not find it in scripture. But I promise you, if you ask the Holy Spirit, the Bible says that he makes known to you and I the heart of the Father, and he will guide you into all truth. And if you ask him, I believe that he'll give you a straight up answer about what it is that you're doing. Now, you might not like it and a lot of people choose to not follow what the Holy Spirit says. That's a whole different thing.

But I believe if you'll ask him, he'll reveal to you because he's great at what he does. He'll convict you if something you are doing will lead you to death and not to life. Here's a third question I felt like the Holy Spirit told me to challenge you to ask about any and every activity this year. Is the activity producing satisfaction, comfort, or pleasure that would displease the Lord?

Is that activity? Because here's what I've noticed that amongst the body of Christ, amongst believers, and I believe this has increased over the last few years. In particular, that we self medicate through activities and things that will numb us to the things going on around us. And that thing that we're involved in becomes a source of comfort or source of pleasure that should be derived from Jesus. In other words, you're accepting substitutes for what Jesus wants to provide for you.

Come on, I'm preaching. You guys are mighty quiet, but I'm preaching truth to you this morning. Like truth to you this morning. I didn't say that until you clap. I want you to understand, and I've been there before, that we do things at times we accept substitutes and it's always lesser than what Jesus will provide.

We accept substitutes and we lose ourselves in activities that provide some type of comfort or satisfaction or pleasure for us that really we should be finding in Jesus. Now. Just because something is popular according to culture does not mean it's productive. Hello, somebody? Just because it's acceptable by the majority does not mean that it's advantageous to you.

Just because it's fun does not mean it's fruitful. Just because it's convenient does not mean that it's character building. Listen to me, church. I'm a pastor who loves you and I want to tell you the truth and I always endeavor to do that. But God's goal for you is holiness, not happiness.

Well, the Lord just wants me to be happy and I deserve it.

No, I believe the Lord wants to give you joy. But God's goal for you is not for you to be happy. But how many of you know if you pursue the holiness of God, you will be happy?

Why? Because you look more like him and less like the world and that brings real joy. That brings Genuine joy into your life. So go after the holiness of God in 2023 and quit this thing of going, well, I deserve it. God wants me to be happy and I'm going to do what I want to do.

It'll lead you to death, my friend. And the world will come right along and say, yeah, yeah, do whatever you want to do. You deserve it. You should be able to do that. Oh, forget what somebody says, forget what the word says.

And you're going towards the broad way that leads to death. Are y' all still with me? Have I ticked anybody off yet? Maybe I don't care because I love you. I love what James Merritt says.

He said there's a spiritual hunger in the human heart and an eternal hunger in the human soul that can never be satisfied with anything other than Jesus Christ, the bread of life. That's what Selah is about. It's about developing this appetite, long term need for the things of God. It's not just a 21 day thing. This is meant to be a springboard into a lifestyle, a lifestyle of going after the things of God.

Here's the second thing. Their cravings shorten their memory. Shorten their memory. Let me show you. Verse 4 and 5.

They said, oh, for some meat. We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic that we wanted. We know cravings are a powerful force. They were only days out of Egypt at this point.

Days out of Egypt. And they longed for the fish and the food of Egypt. Days out of Egypt.

Watch the influence of the crowd that starts saying things like, oh man, if we just had some of that fish. We had cucumbers, all you can eat. We had melons. Eat till your heart's content. We had onions.

Gross. We had leeks. I've never had a leak in my life. I don't know what that means, taking a leak. I've never had a leak.

Sorry, sorry. Shouldn't have gone there, shouldn't have done that, my wife. I will hear about that.

But listen.

They longed for the fish of Egypt, days out of Egypt. But their cravings shorten their memory because they're longing for the fish. And somehow they forgot about years of beatings, centuries of slavery, and the enemy will try to do the same thing to you. And I cater to your flesh, cater to those short term desires. And all of a sudden you lose sight of the goodness of God.

You forget the blessing of God in your life and what obedience does. Look, Psalm 106, 13, 14 says, but they soon forgot what he had done and they did not wait for his plan to unfold. In the desert they gave in to their craving and in the wilderness they put God to the test. The word craving in Numbers 11 and in Psalm 106 translates from the original language, lust. That's what it means.

They gave into that short term craving, they gave into the lust of the flesh and they forgot 400 years of beatings and slavery. First John, chapter 2, verse 15 through 17 says, do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the Father, but from the what? Church comes from the world and the world and its desires pass away.

But the man who does the will of God lives how long Church? Forever. Again, it leads us back to that statement that I started with, that the failure to consistently feed our appetite and to consistently starve the cravings of the flesh will lead us, according to first John, chapter five, will lead us to spiritual death. Spiritual death. How quickly we forget the shame, how quickly we forget the emptiness and the misery and the bondage of living in a lifestyle of sin, a lifestyle that is ruled and governed by the flesh.

And the reason for that, the reason the enemy is so intent on you catering to your fleshly desires, is that he wants to convince you that where you came from better than where God is taking you. And I declare over you in 2023 that the places that God desires to take you is so much better than what you ever had in the past. Does anybody receive that today? Here's the third thing. They despised God's provision.

They despised his provision. Verse 6. But now we have lost our appetite. Verse 4 said they craved the things of Egypt because of the influence of the crowd. And now look what happens.

Verse 6. Now we've lost our appetite, but it goes further. We never see anything but this manna. Are you serious? This was supernatural provision from God.

The journey across the desert should have only taken them two weeks and they would have ended up in the land flowing with milk and honey. All they had to do was eat quail and manna for two weeks. And I think the manna represented something unlike anything they had ever tasted or ever seen. But because of the influence of the crowd and because they catered to their short term cravings and desires, all of a sudden, now not only do they not have an appetite for the thing that God was providing? But they are despising that thing.

Despising that.

Listen, I know in our lives as we journey with the Lord, that things, the provision of God at times can seem mundane and routine. We probably have all been there at some point or another. And it's in those times that we, if we're not careful, we can become vulnerable to the lies and the deception of the enemy of saying, hey man, you're doing Salem again. Nothing's going to change. Here you are at the beginning of the year starting a Bible reading plan.

It's not going to do anything for you. It's just mundane. It's just this same old, same old, just this routine of what you've done in the past. And nothing really major came as a result of that. And we'll start despising the word of God, the presence of God, times of intimacy and communion with him.

And if you're not careful, you'll even begin to despise the spouse that God has provided for you, or the job that God has provided for you, or the church, or the life giving church that you're a part of. You'll start despising those things when you give in to those short term cravings that cause us to resent and consequently to abandon the faithful provision of God. Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5, verse 6, you're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink and the best meal you'll ever eat. The best meal you'll ever eat.

Proverbs 16:26. The laborer's appetite works for him. His hunger drives him on. His hunger drives him on. Verse 6 We read that says, now we've lost our appetite.

That phrase in the original language translates like this. Our souls are dried up. Our strength is dried up. And I'm just telling you as straight up as I know how in 2023 that a failure to consistently feed your appetite for spiritual things, to starve your craving for fleshly things will lead you to death. It'll lead you to a place that your soul will dry up.

It'll lead you to a place that your strength will be dried up. Here's the last thing. Number four. Cravings will lead you in circles. Appetites will lead you to destiny.

Cravings will lead you in circles. Appetites will lead you to destiny. I think it's interesting that this place of their first rebellion coming out of 400 years of slavery was at a place called Kadesh.

Two weeks should have just been two weeks. Could have been in the land flowing with milk and honey. But how long did they spend in the wilderness? 40 years. 40 years just wandering in circles.

And I think it's interesting, before they could ever move into the promised land, that they ended up right where the rebellion started 40 years later, right back at Kadesh. Listen, God will always bring you back to the last place of disobedience in order to move you into a lifestyle of obedience. So here they are. They've wandered in circles. And I've talked to so many people through the years, four decades of ministry that have said, I don't understand.

I keep doing the same thing over and over again. I never seem to make any progress in my relationship with the Lord. I never seem to really feel the presence of God anymore in my life. And it's because they have failed to crucify their flesh. They have thought it was all about their happiness.

They said, I deserve these short term cravings. I deserve to party with my friends or to be in this relationship or to buy that car even though I can't afford it. And they just keep wandering in circles. Giving into the cravings will always lead you away from your destiny and away from your God given purpose into seasons of wandering. It's part of the reason Pastor Jacob did a great job of telling you about Selah.

For 18 years, in the month of January, we've done this. The word selah, it's a musical term. It means a deliberate pause in a score of music, like a breath note. So every January, for 21 days, we encourage you and challenge you to hit the pause button and to fast and pray. We don't try to mandate or dictate what type of fast that you do.

We just tell you about different possibilities. Now, the word fast in its raw form means to give up food. And I understand, I've done this myself. People will fast different things like social media or like sweets or caffeine or television or whatever it might be. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I encourage you, if the Lord's telling you to do that, that that's what you do. But I also want to challenge you and encourage you that every person, maybe you've never fasted a day in your life. I had a conversation with somebody yesterday who's never fasted a day in their life and they're going to do selah for 21 days. And I just told them what I'm telling you. Don't do it as some religious thing.

You don't do it to try to arm twist God or to try to manipulate God. You do it because you want to be like God. You do it because you want to draw closer to him. You do it because you understand that there's a vein of the power of God and of intimacy with God that I believe according to scripture, you cannot access in any other way except through fasting and prayer.

So ask the Lord, what is it that I'm supposed to do? What would you have me do? And I believe the Lord will tell you. Maybe it's to fast a meal a day for 21 days. Maybe it's liquids only for 21 days.

Maybe it's what some would refer to as a Hezekiah fast, sun up to sundown. Maybe it's a Daniel fast. Basically, no breads, no meats, no sweets. Just ask the Lord, what would you want me to do? Consecrate yourself before him.

I'm a firm believer that to have what you've never had, you have to do what you've never done. I really want to challenge you beginning tomorrow. And you can get that devotional, that little podcast on the app that our pastors and leaders have recorded for you. It's about a seven to eight minute devotional, usually in the morning, just to start your day. But don't just go hungry now.

Don't just go hungry. If you fast and it's just a weight loss plan for you, you're going to be mad at me, you're going to be mad at God, and you're going to be mad at everybody around you and really difficult to get along with. So don't just go hungry. No, replace that physical food with spiritual food. John said I have to decrease so that he might increase.

Like I'm deliberately denying myself of things that usually bring me satisfaction or pleasure or comfort so that I can really develop my appetite for the things of God. You'll be amazed at what God does in your life. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse or chapter 8, verse 2 through 4 says, Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these 40 years to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled to you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known to teach you that man does not live on bread alone, or on pizza alone, or on steak alone, or on burgers or McDonald's alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. I want to close with this and then we're going to pray.

John Piper says this, the key to Christian living is a thirst and a hunger for God. And one of the main reasons people do not understand or experience the sovereignty of grace and the way it works through the awakening of sovereign joy, is that their hunger and thirst for God is so small. He goes on to say, the greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison, but apple pie. It's not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It's not the X rated video, but the prime time dribble of triviality that we drink in every night.

Just want to challenge you. Just go after God. Allow him to develop your appetite for the things of God, for the presence of God, for the word of God, for the Holy Spirit. I believe if you'll do so, it'll be the greatest year you've ever had. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes?

Father, thank you for your word that feeds our souls. And thank you that you prepare a table, O God, that gives us everything we need pertaining to life and godliness. You provide every form of nourishment, every form of satisfaction and comfort and pleasure that we could ever need. And Lord, in a day and in a time where the flesh so wants to dominate, so wants to call the shots, I pray that there would be men and women of God, true followers of Jesus, that are in this auditorium or watching online that would say, I'm willing to do what I've never done, or I'm willing to do it again in order to have the things that maybe have been absent in my life. I want to tap into that vein of power.

I want to tap into that vein of intimacy with the Lord. I want to say yes to you, whatever it is that you would require of me for 21 days. I can give up a meal, I can give up sweets, I can give up social media, I can give up those things up in order to draw closer to you and to launch me into a lifestyle of pursuing the holiness of God. Lord, I pray that you would stir our hearts, stir our hearts today, do something so powerful in us that it would literally change the trajectory of our lives. I thank you, Holy Spirit, that you're faithful to lead us into a deeper relationship with the Lord with your heads bowed and your eyes closed.

I just sense in my heart that there's some of you that are experiencing inside of you, just a real stirring, like there's something that's you feel like it's being awakened inside of you. There's a drawing, like the Lord is just pulling you towards himself. Some of you that are like, man, I don't know if I can do this. I want to so badly. I want to know him like I've never known him before.

I'm telling you, if you'll just say yes to him, he's going to give you the power and the ability to walk it out for the next 21 days.

If you're here in this place and you would just say, I want to hunger and thirst for him like never before, you feel something stirring on the inside. Maybe you've served God for decades, or maybe you're brand new in the things of God. You just know, man, God's calling me to a new place. God's calling me higher. And if that's you, I just want you to stand to your feet right where you are.

Come on. Without any hesitation. Don't try to talk yourself out of it. You just know, man, something stirred in my heart. I want more of him.

I want to decrease. I want to pursue him. I want to go to a deeper place in my relationship with him. Come on, if that's you, stand to your feet right now. Lord, I want more of you.

God, this year has to be different for me. Has to be different for my family.

When I believe some of you, when you say yes to the Lord, there's going to be some generational patterns that are going to be broken with you. They're going to stop with you.

Come on, if that's you, stand to your feet. You're saying, no more. We're not going to allow this to be repeated in my kids or my grandkids.

Come on, anybody else. You feel the stirring of God inside of you? I would never try to talk you into anything. Listen, all I'm saying is just obey what the Lord is saying to you. I believe the Holy Spirit's faithful this week.

I just see every person who's standing saying, I just want more. I want more. I want more of you. I need to die. There's areas of my flesh that I know need to be killed and crucified.

There's appetites that I want to see developed in 2023. There's things that I'm craving that I know don't line up with the word of God. There's activities that I'm involved in that I know are displeasing to the Lord. The Holy Spirit's already shown that. But I don't know that I can do it on my own.

I'm just telling you today the Holy Spirit's gonna come alongside of you and he's gonna help you. He's gonna help you. Oh, God. I pray right now that the work would begin right now.

Not tomorrow, not 21 days from now, but right now. You would set into motion something that the enemy cannot stop.

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. I just want to mention this to you. Next Sunday, I'm going to preach on the person of the Holy Spirit. And as we begin Selah this week, there may be some of you, and I understand there's a diversity of backgrounds here at the refuge, and I love that and we celebrate that.

But there might be some of you, and maybe the way that you were raised, maybe you have heard different things about the Holy Spirit that have just left you in a place that you're just not sure. You're just not sure about the Holy Spirit. You're not sure about the work of the Spirit of God or the activity of the Spirit of God. Or maybe you were just raised to say, stay as far away from that stuff as you can, because if you go anywhere near that, the Holy Spirit's going to make you do some really weird stuff.

Here's what I want to ask you to do over this next week in preparation for the message that I'm going to bring next Sunday. I want you to just ask the Lord, Father, just help me to be open to the work of the spirit. To the work of the Spirit. Just give him permission.

I'll tell you a quick story. When I was back in college, I was exposed to some things that I had never seen before, some things that I had never experienced before. And because I had never seen or experienced those things, my initial response was, that's not of God. That's not of God. And I wrote it off and I just took a big step back and said, that's not of God.

And the Lord spoke to me one day, this is while I'm in college, and he said, hey, son, do you want more of me? And I said, absolutely, I want more of you. He said, how do you know those things? Things are not of me? And I said, well, because.

Because I've never seen them before. He said, do you trust me? And I said, yes, sir. He said, if there's anything that is not of me, I'll protect you from that. But if your desire is to have more of me, then I will only lead you into things that are going to take.

Take you deeper And I'm telling you, from that moment on, I said, God, even if I don't understand it, if it's of you, I trust that you will lead me into those things that will take me deeper in my relationship with you. That's what I'm asking you to do. You say, I don't understand this thing of speaking in tongues. I don't understand this thing of lifting my hands in worship. I don't understand this, whatever it might be, as it relates to the Holy Spirit.

But God, if it's of you, all I know is I want more of you. Would the rest of you just stand to your feet and all across this place, I'm just gonna ask you right now to lift your hands. Just begin to surrender to the Lord, Father. We surrender our lives. We surrender this year.

We surrender our appetites. We surrender our cravings. We surrender our addictions. We surrender our shortcomings. We surrender our fears.

We surrender it all to you. And we say, oh, God, I want. I want more of you. I need more of you today. Come on, church.

Come on, church. In these last couple of minutes, I need you right now just to begin to cry out to the Lord. Come on. Where's your hunger for God? Where's your thirsting for God?

David, the psalmist said, as a deer pants after water, my soul longs for you, God. Come on. Are you longing for the things of God today? Maybe you recognize there's no hunger in me whatsoever. Come on, just ask him right now.

God, give me a hunger for the things of you. Lift your hands and begin to cry out just for a moment. The team's going to lead us. I want you to make this your prayer today. Set a fire down in my soul, God, because I want more of you.

Come on, lift your voice and sing it.