Christmas party!

On Wednesday, December 17th, we will be having our Impact Christmas party!

When?
during our normal impact times, from 6:30-8:30

What will we do?
We will be having a short devotional, singing some songs together, and then having our annual white elephant gift exchange. If you have not done this before with us, what we do is all bring in a small (Very small, $1 or so) gift, wrapped, and you will put it in a pile, and through the course of the game, get the another present in exchange. Mostly we are looking for gifts that would be funny or goofy. You can bring a nice one, if you want! If you don’t have time to get one, don’t worry, we will have extra gifts on hand! But if you can, bring something out! Maybe someone will get stuck with whatever you bring!

You are also welcome to bring a snack or baked good for us to feast on, and a donation for our sponsored child.

Service Project!

On Saturday, December 13th, High Impact and Impact 678 will be combining for a service project. For those of you who are 678 parents, it is similar to the one we did last Christmas. We will meet at the Firehouse at 10 AM and begin working on 2 projects. 1 team will be tasked with shopping for and wrapping presents for a family that has a great need. We will probably split the shopping team into guys and girls and let them shop for their own gender (that way they get things that people will actually like :). The other team will stay at the Firehouse (and church) and bake cookies to make trays for our neighbors that we will deliver later in the day. We will be done around 2:00.

Here is what we need from you:

1. We need to know if your child/children will be in attendance.
2. We need cookie dough! In order save time and mess, we ask you the parents if you would be willing to send a batch of dough. If so, when you email me, let me know what kind of cookies - we try to keep the variety limited. I recommend chocolate chip, peanut butter, snickerdoodle, chocolate with peanut butter chips, something traditonal. If you have your heart set on something else, I guess that's ok :)
3. We need baking supplies! If you are willing to send cookie sheets, cooling racks, spatulas, etc. that would be great. we understand the fear of not getting those things back, so we will be sure to keep a close inventory of them.
4. We would like it if any child who comes and is able would bring a donation toward the purchase of gifts.

Next Steps:

Please email us as soon as possible and let me know in what ways you or your children will be involved. If you have any questions, let me know. Thanks so much!

Concert!

Parents!
We are going to the Shane and Shane concert, December 5th! Cost is $12. We are leaving at 4:30. We need to know who is going by this coming Wednesday so we can order tickets, so leave a comment if your child is going. Details are here-
http://www.itickets.com/events/211298/Barnegat_NJ/Shane_and_Shane_Christmas_Tour.html

Message for Oct 29

Mark 8, 9:2-8

Seeing His glory

22 And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. 23 And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” 24 And he looked up and said, “I see men, but they look like trees, walking.” 25 Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”

Peter Confesses Jesus As the Christ

27 And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28 And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” 29 And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” 30 And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection

31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

34 And he called to him the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? 37 For what can a man give in return for his life? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

9 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.”

The Transfiguration

2 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3 and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. 4 And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. 5 And Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. 7 And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” 8 And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only.

Mk 8:22-9:8

Who likes a show off?

Typically we don’t like it when someone tries to show off. We look down on people who seek to make themselves look good all the time. When someone is trying to gain praise for themselves we are offended, aren’t we? In fact, we consider it a bad thing to be proud in that way. They are so self consumed, so wanting to see themselves exalted. Self-exaltation is not something good, is it? If someone came over your house and said “Let me do you a favor for the next hour. Let me talk to you about how great I am”, you would quickly find a excuse to end the visit. There is nothing worse than someone who is just all about themselves.

Now, if that is true, if we hate it when someone tries to gain praise for themselves, and see it as a bad thing, then when we come to God we should find Someone who never seeks praise for Himself, right? I mean, we don’t like it, it is looked down upon and even forbidden to gain our own praise. So God certainly is not all about just gaining his own praise, right?

But we find the opposite. Why? God is not just always, it seems, concerned about his own praise, but he seems to even demand that we praise him. What are these demands for praise? What kind of a God runs around saying “you better praise me, you better worship me, you better say nice things about me, you better say how good I am!”- what is that about? It could seem, well, kind of pathetic, couldn’t it? Why does He need our praise?

Here we have in this passage Jesus showing off His glory. Why? It’s an odd thing to do- “Come up here to the top of this mountain with me so I can show you how great I am.” Isn’t this exactly what we should not do? Why does He do it?

I want to explain to you why Jesus does this, and why this act here is one of the most loving things Jesus can do. It is not selfish, it is not unloving- this is extraordinarily loving of Him! Why?

Reviewing the truth about our hearts

Last week we talked about our hearts. We said or hearts all do three things. Do you remember?

1- they seek something of value to be near

2- they want to get more of that thing of value, and enjoy it, and will sell everything to get it.

3-they want to proclaim the greatness of the thing they find.

And I said that this is exactly what God created us for. He created you with hearts that work this way for a reason. Your hearts are built to seek value and want it and enjoy it and proclaim it.

In fact, I would say this- the greatest happiness any human can have, in fact the happiness you long for and try and get- is a happiness that comes from your heart doing these three things. You desperately want to be happy by finding something of value, getting and enjoying it, and proclaiming and singing it’s praises. You are made for this- you all are worshipers. You were made to be. You were designed to exalt the worth of valuable things.

What valuable thing this week did your heart show it was wanting, and near, and valuing?

What did you talk about?

What did you spend your time on?

What did you think about all alone?

These are the things our heart values, these are the things we worship. We value them, we enjoy them, we want to praise them. This is the design of our hearts.

The greater the value, the greater the joy

And get this; the greater the value of the thing you find, the more joy you will have in it, and in expressing it’s value. Think about that. For instance, there is a measure of joy in valuing baseball and being excited over a team doing well and praising that team. There is a greater joy in valuing a person that we are in love with, and gaining joy from being near them, and in talking about them, and that joy is much greater than the joy of valuing baseball! But what if we found something of the greatest value, of such a value that it made even the people we love seem insignificant and small? What if we could find that thing of great value, and enjoy it, and praise it?

And of course you know I am speaking of God- and this is what our hearts were designed to do. And if the amount of joy we will have is equal to the worth of the thing we are valuing, then the greatest joy we can have is if we have hearts that value God, and enjoy Him, and praise Him. You see this? It is life changing to get this!

So to sum up- we have hearts that long to find something of value, and get and enjoy that thing, and praise it. The greater the value of the thing we find, the greater the joy our hearts will have in getting and enjoying and praising it. God has the greatest value, so to have God as the object of our heart’s valuing, to have Him as our treasure, this would bring the greatest joy.

A loving thing to do – giving us Himself

So, keep thinking. If I really love you, if I really really do- what should I help you do if I want to see you really happy? Yes, I should help you see the value of God, so that you can value Him, want to get more of Him, enjoy Him, and praise Him. That is what I need to do. If you love those near you, if you really love them, what will you do? Will you help them value you most? Value lust most? Value popularity most? What will you help them value most? God, right? That would be the most loving thing you could do- to get them to tie their hearts to God- to get them to see the real value that He has, because for as long as they are setting their hearts on things much less valuable than Him, they are destined to never have joy as they were meant to have it. So, the most loving thing I can do, and you can do, is to try and show how valuable God is to others so that they set their hearts on Him and enjoy Him and praise Him. Right?!

So then, what is one of the most loving things that God can do?

You see, God is in a unique position. God knows that your heart was designed to find something of great value and enjoy it, and the greater the value of what it finds, the greater the joy that you will have, he knows that. And so if God seeks to make you happy, and then sets out to search the universe for the most beautiful, valuable thing He can find, what does he end up finding? Yes, Himself! So the greatest gift God can give you is Himself.

This is why it is good for Him to exalt Himself, but not good for you to do it. You are not that valuable, compared to God! It is wrong- even sick- to exalt ourselves and put ourselves in places to get others to latch their hearts to us. But it is not wrong for God to do it. God should do it- it would be unloving of God to give us anything but Himself. Think about that! The most loving gift He can give is Himself.

If a great chef came up with this really great recipe for this wonderful desert, and then decided they never wanted to share it, that would not be loving, would it? In the same way, God, when he sees that He is the most valuable thing in the universe, and that we have the greatest joy when we find the thing of the most value, would be unloving to hide from us His beauty.

He must show off His greatness to us, He must display His beauty. This is loving of Him.

We have this weird idea of love- we get the wrong idea that love is when someone makes a big deal over us- they love us when they make much of us. Think about it- when we do think someone loves us? They make a big deal over us, they think about us, they want to be with us, etc. But that is not true for God- for God it would be unloving of Him to make much of you. For God to love is to make much of Himself.

Taste and see!

This changes how you see God’s commands in the bible to worship. He is not a sad old man, wishing someone would say something nice about him. He is actually doing something nice for us when he commands us to worship Him, because a command to worship Him really is a command to enjoy Him! God is always working for His own glory-

9 “For my name’s sake I defer my anger,

for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,

that I may not cut you off.

10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;

I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.

11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,

for how should my name be profaned?

My glory I will not give to another.

Is 48:9-11

25 “ I, I am he

who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,

and I will not remember your sins.

Is 43:25

4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. Eph 1:4-6

And this working for His glory comes out in His commands as well- we are commanded to praise Him, to worship Him alone. From the commandment to have no other Gods before Him to the commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

These are not the commands of a God who is afraid he will lose the love of those he needs and have no one left to praise Him! This is a God who is commanding us to do what will bring us the most joy- to enjoy Him! This is right- to admit His worth. This is just. Understand, it’s not just the fact that it is for our joy that he does this. He DOES really deserve to be honored, and as a just and honest God he MUST demand that we praise Him. To demand we praise anything else would be idolatry! But it wonderfully is not just the right thing to do- but He has set up the universe in such a way that the right thing to do is the thing that would bring us the most joy! It is for our joy!

Our heart’s long to do this, because this is where we will find joy-

11 You make known to me the path of life;

in your presence there is fullness of joy;

at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Ps 16:11

4 One thing have I asked of the Lord,

that will I seek after:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord

and to inquire in his temple.

Ps 27:4

This is what we want- to find that which has the greatest value- Him! And then enjoy Him forever, and make Him known forever! And he invites us to enjoy Him! Do you see the love in this? When He puts on display his value, He is doing what is most loving!

Think of all the ways he has put in display His greatness! For you to enjoy it! Think of how the world around you constantly shows you Him! Think about the fact that He gives you His word to see Him in! Think about His Son coming to earth to reveal to us the Father! Think about this very night- God is at work to show you His worth, that you would be able to enjoy Him more!

8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Ps 34:8

This is what we are called to do- taste, and see!

Having no taste for Him

But- what if you don’t see it?

What if we understand this, but when we look at God, when we taste, we don’t seem to find anything of all that much worth. This is where most of the world is. They see Him every day all around them in creation. They hear of His Son’s work. And they don’t see that he is good. What then?

All is not lost if that is you. You don’t see His value like you should? Neither did these disciples.

That is what this text is about tonight. And what God does in response. Look with me at Mark 8 and all that is going on.

First, we have Jesus feeding the crowds miraculously. After this, the Pharisees, who don’t see who Jesus is, demand a sign. As if the feeding was not enough. Jesus, in disgust, leaves them, telling them they will get no sign. He has just put on display His greatness, and they missed it- and they want him to perform for them. They cant see his value. They wont believe.

Next he gets into the boat with the disciples, and that is who this section is really all about. His followers don’t understand. He is in the boat and he warns them not to be like the Pharisees- he says “watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees.” They are confused, and Jesus says to them “Do you not yet understand?”

Then we have this really weird story- Jesus heals this blind guy, but it’s not normal. There he is, surrounded by the disciples, the disciples he just said still do not see who He is, they don’t see His true worth. And so he takes the blind man, and touches him- and he sees- but not completely-only in part. Then he touches him again, and the man is fully healed. This is just like the disciples- they see in part, but not all the way. This is shown in the rest of the section. Next, Jesus asks “who am I”, and Peter seem to get it right- you are the Christ. But then just sentences later is telling Jesus that he will never suffer on the Cross, and Jesus calls him satan. He still doesn’t see. He sees in part, but not the whole. He understands some of the worth of God, some of who Jesus is, but not the whole thing.

Seeing only in part

This is some of you- you see in part, but not completely. You understand it, and you believe it- but you don’t taste His goodness. Are you like that tonight? You see in part? You hear this talk about his value, and enjoying Him, but that part you don’t see. You see the part that he is God, and that He died for you, but there is no good taste, no real valuing?

Do you want to see the whole truth of who He is?

Understand, Jesus healed the man, and he saw in part. But how was he healed all the way? Yes, by Jesus! Jesus finishes the opening of the eyes.

And the same with the disciples-

He takes peter, James and John, and just literally shows them. He reveals His glory to them. He continues to show Himself to them, He continues to show His worth.

Jesus is this day willing to continue to put on display His value to you. The way to be healed of your blindness is to keep being exposed to His glory, until finally your eyes see it.

4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.2 Co 4:4-6

The light is shining, he constantly shines it- keep seeking it out. He will open your eyes. Beg Him to do that tonight.

Look upon his value now-

Understand- God is so loving that he puts on display his worth to us- but not just that- we would be cut off from his worth forever. Just think of how sad it is that you right now might not even be able to see His worth, the worth of the one your heart is designed to see the worth of. How messed up we are! What penalty do we deserve for having spent our lives enjoying the value of other things, and thinking that He has little value at all? This has put us under his wrath. We are cut off from Him, separated because of sin.

The sad thing is, even if we see his worth, we cant do number two and three- we cant get more of Him and enjoy Him. We are cut off! We were kicked out of the garden- we can not get to the one who is most valuable- and so we can never get the thing that would bring us the most joy. Can you imagine what joy would be ours if we could get him- his worth is infinite- and so our joy would be infinite as well! And the amazing thing about the Cross, it isn’t that it gets us out of hell, it is that he brings peace between us and Him, so that we can once again have him- we can get to Him, we can have what our hearts now see the value of- we can enjoy Him forever!

The cross! The good news is that you don’t have to do anything to fix this, he does. And the very way he fixes it shows His worth! The fact that He would die for you while you did not value Him, this is love, because it shows off His worth! The Cross shows the worth of God- it puts on display how beautiful His love is, and his mercy, and his justice. And the Cross makes a way for you to have Him forever!

Keep looking!

Where is he at work to show you His worth? Are you looking for it? Are you trying to see it? For your joy, I beg you- look for it! Seek to see it! Have you even looked tonight?

Jesus is transfigured before us- He is showing His worth to us. Where can we go to see it? To His word! I beg you, friends, flee to His word, and seek to see his beauty and worth- seek to see Him! Look to the Cross and see how beautiful He is- then, let your heart go to Him, and believe the truth- the truth that He really is welcoming you to have more and more of Him forever, and to enjoy more and more of Him forever!

What a great gift He has given you! He has given you the greatest gift that could ever be offered to anyone- the most valuable thing in the universe is offered to you right now- Himself- and it is not free for Him, to offer it to you took the cross! This is the love of God! This is His value!

Taste and see that the Lord is good! And live in such a way that you show the world that you value Him most, and live in such a way that you help them value Him most too!

Worth the time!

If you have time to read or listen to

this message it is well worth it!

Not making Pharisees...

Oftentimes we hear of "church kids" being accused of being very hypocritical. Sadly, we know that sometimes church kids do fall into this trap. When the wrong things are applauded in a child's life (often with well meaning intentions), and the right things not addressed, we can end up with Pharisees- children who are living a "shell" of religion, but have no real heart change, and do not know it. They think they have it all together because outwardly they can make themselves look really good.
Over at Pulpit Magazine's website some suggestions for not raising Pharisees were given that i thought were very helpful-

We can certainly teach and militate against hypocrisy in the following ways:

- Instead of just dealing with external behavior issues, we should seize every opportunity to help children understand that it is their hearts that generate their actions (Mt. 15:19). In His judgment of man, God looks at the heart (1 Sam.16:7). We should never equate occasions of good behavior (professions of love for Jesus, acts of compliance, et cetera) with saving faith in Jesus. We need to go beyond fixing wrong behavior to helping the child understand that his evil heart can only be changed by the Lord in regeneration.

- Emphasize the affections of NT religion. Make sure that we are not just aiming at a young person’s understanding, but that we reach for the heart and its affections.

- Do not encourage children to exhibit their talents and gifts to impress others. They should be reminded that all that they are and have are gifts of grace from God (1 Cor. 4:7), and they should not regard themselves more highly than they ought (Rom. 12:3).

- Teach the truth about integrity — which comes from the word for “integer” or “whole.” For a child with integrity, whichever way you turn them, they look they same. Who they are at church, is who they are in school, is who they are at home. This is what our kids should be.

- Do not be afraid to share our spiritual and moral failures with children in instances where they can identify with our shortcomings. This allows us to be authentic with them. It also allows us to demonstrate our response to God when we have done wrong, and our reliance on Him to continue molding our hearts.

- Be authentic in your love for Christ. Genuine desire for Christ is not easily faked. Let your zeal be a barometer by which they measure their own affection for Christ.

Hypocrisy is an insidious danger in Children’s Ministries today. It also threatens each individual home. As parents, it is our job to honor the intention of Psalm 78:4-6:

We will not conceal [the Word of God] from their children, But tell to the generations to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength and His wondrous works that He has done, that they should teach [the law] to their children, that the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, That they may arise and tell them to their children.

Take up your cross...

Upcoming...

As the side bar shows, this friday night we have a hayride! It is at the Bowers home from 6:30-8:30 PM. We plan on meeting Every Friday night after this week at the Firehouse from 6:30-8:30 as well, for a time of hanging out together!
If you have any questions about these events, feel free to ask!

Message for Oct 22

Mark 8:34-38

Finding out what our hearts treasure

34 And he called to him the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? 37 For what can a man give in return for his life? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Mk 8:34-38

Tonight you will find out what your heart is close to.

And a warning- there will be some hard stuff to hear first, some tough stuff, but get through it, stay with me- there is wonderful, amazing, glorious news at the end!

This passage is one of the hardest passages in the Bible. Think about it- do you hear what Jesus is calling you to? He is saying this: unless you are willing to pick up the instrument of your death- the Cross- and carry it, you can not be His follower. He is saying that unless you are willing to this moment lay your entire life, all that you are and have down, for Him, and the sake of His good news- you can not be His follower.

This passage really makes us stop and consider- what in the world are we living for? To what end are we doing what we do? Jesus is making it clear- it must be that you are living your life for Him. He says this- if you want to save your life- and I assume you do?- then you will have to lose your life for His sake.

So I ask- have you lost your life for Christ? What does that mean? How could you ever even do that?

What does it even look like to live that way?

Let me tell you my goal tonight- my goal is that many of you in here would lose your life because of what I say. That you would die because of these words. My goal is that you would understand this text and it would become your very life. But my goal is that you would understand how your heart relates to this passage. If you do not understand how your heart relates to this idea of dying and giving up your life for Christ, you will do something tragic, something I never want to see for any of you- you will do one of two things-

1- you will get frustrated with the demands that God has for you, and you will walk away from God. You will see God as a slave driver, and you will hate him, and you will walk away, and you will feel so free and good when you do.

Or

2- you will spend your life making yourself do something you hate- sacrifice for a God you do not love.

So, it is essential that you understand how your heart factors into this idea of giving up your life for Christ.

So let me explain that to you.

Your heart and worship

The concept is a bit hard, but really it’s something you already know.

Three things your heart longs to do-

1 Your heart longs to find something of great value

Your heart wants to find something of value, it longs for valuable things to latch itself too. Listen to me- this is it’s design. It wants to find something valuable that it can be near. It is always seeking something beautiful, satisfying, something that it can be in awe of, something that will feed it the food it has been searching for it’s whole life. Our hearts are made to be near valuable things. Jesus points this out in Matthew 6.

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Mt 6:19-21

Where does your heart reside? Near your treasure. It always is the case- never forget this – your heart will always be near what it treasures. It is longing to find something of value. What has it found? Has it found something of value to place itself near? Where is your heart? What do you see as most valuable? You might say “well God is most valuable”, but is that where your heart is? Your heart will be near what it values.

2 Your heart longs to have and enjoy the thing of great value it has found

Oh, how much more of your life would make sense if you would learn this.

Your heart does not just want to find something of value, but it wants to enjoy what it finds. It wants to get more and more of it. Jesus teaches us this in Matt 13-

44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.Mt 13:44

Your heart wants to get this thing it treasures, in fact it will sell everything to get it- it will even give your very physical life if that will guarantee getting what you see as most valuable. This is how we know what our heart is valuing most- we only have to ask “what is my heart trying to get, what am I willing to do most anything to have more of?”

Think about it. You all do this, so do i. We have hearts that try and get more of what they are treasuring. We are even willing to enslave ourselves to things to get what we see as valuable. Think about it. Every high school boy that tries to impress the crowd, he has enslaved himself to them, he longs for their approval, he longs for them to think he is something he is not- and that is the treasure, that approval, that love, that acceptance, and he will sacrifice anything to get it. Consider the girl who gets up extra early every day and spends tons of time getting ready to look a certain way at school. Why? Because the treasure is the love and the applause she gets, this is valuable to her, and she will be the slave of the crowd- asking what they want to see her look like, asking what they want her to act like, and then she will do it, all to get what her heart treasures- their smiles, their love, their approval.

This is what we do- this is why we do all we do- our hearts treasure, they value, and we want to get and enjoy what they value, and we are willing to do whatever is needed to get it.

Now, there is a word that describes this. There is a word that describes what it is when we think something will satisfy us, and we will do whatever we can to get it, because we value it and love it. That word is “worship.”

That is what worship is- seeing the value of something so much that we are willing to trade away anything else to get it.

And why do we want this thing we value? Because we want to enjoy it. We want to get more of it because it brings us joy and happiness. God knows that this is what our hearts do, because he made them that way, and he also knows that He alone is what should be the object of that desire, because He alone is most valuable. To value anything else in His place is an insult to him, and leaves our hearts looking like this plant. He knows this, that is why he says this-

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;

and he who has no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without price.

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

and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,

and delight yourselves in rich food.

Is 55:1-2

His appeal to you is to consider what will most satisfy. He tells you it will be Himself. He is telling you that He is the most satisfying most valuable thing, and that your heart should latch on to Him, and when it does, you will stop spending yourself on that which does not satisfy, and will instead spend yourself on getting more of Him.

Do you want to know how to worship or glorify something? Seek it most. Believe it will most satisfy. God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him. Do you believe He is most satisfying?

3 Your heart longs to tell the world of the value of the thing it has found.

The third thing your heart will do is speak and proclaim the value of what it has found. Our hearts take great joy in doing this, our hearts long to do this. This is why we like to sing together, this is why fans love to celebrate a team together. We do dumb things that express this need all the time. Think about a graduating class- they get all proud about their graduation- “yeah, class of 2000 man! Woo! We rock! 2000 all the way!” What does this even mean? What are they celebrating? That they happened to be born in the same year? It’s just something to praise together, because we long to do it- we long to find something we can praise together, it is how we are made. The problem is if we praise that which is not worthy of praise, our hearts grow sick. They are not meant for that.

When we tell the world of the value of the thing we have found that is called “praise.” You praise things all the time- your spending of your time, of your energy, of your thoughts, of your words, they all tell the world what you value most.

This is why in this passage Jesus says this-

38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

He knows that we are never ashamed of the things we treasure. We will with all our might- in the face of any shame or pain- live to show their worth. So if we are ashamed of Him, if we are not willing to even suffer losing the approval of people in order to gain Him, we show we value the approval of people more than Him, and that we really do not love Him.

So we have another test. We might fool ourselves into thinking we value Him, or that we would even enjoy Him, but does our life and all we do show His worth? What is the goal of what you do? To what end do you do it? Is it to show how much He is worth to you?

The right motive

So your heart longs to find something valuable, to enjoy the valuable thing it has found, and then to let the world know of this valuable thing. You are made to do this, this is what you will do, this is what you are doing. The problem is that many of you are not doing it with God. And so when we come to this passage you think “that cant be, I cant give up everything in order to follow Christ.” You think that because He is not your treasure, because you will give up everything for what your heart finds most valuable.

And if you do not realize that this is what God wants to be behind your giving your all for him, you will be so frustrated trying to live like someone who loves God most when you really don’t. you will try and obey, and you might even be able to make yourself do right things, but you will not be happy. You will not be doing it out of love for Him.

God does not want you to do the right thing and not love Him, he wants you to give up your life for Him because you love Him.

3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

1 Co 13:3

You can give your life, but if you have no love, you are gaining nothing.

I fear some of you would try and live Christianity but have no love for Him, or certainly not love Him most.

Are you willing today to lay down your life if it would get you Him? Do you value Him most? Do you think of Him as what you want to enjoy forever- enjoy being with Him, seeing Him, being loved by and loving Him? Do you proclaim that to the world?

How could you ever come to have a heart that values Him?

This is a work that He must do in your heart. You have to understand this is about your heart, not about what you do. This can quickly become about rules and trying to sacrifice and give, and not about love, and that would be wrong. God must do a work to change your heart.

He does this work through people hearing the message I am about to share with you. Perhaps He will do this work in you today? Do you want to value Him most?

Listen-

You will only love him when you understand his love for you.

You will only understand his love for you if you understand the gospel.

This is how we learn to value Him, by hearing the message of the gospel, and loving Him because of the love He is showing us there.

So listen, and consider.

Your sin. Think of the ring in Lord of the rings. The deep value it had for all who wanted it- how sick a valuing it was. This is like us- we have a sick valuing, an obsession, but not with God. But with what He made. That obsession was made to be for Him, but we have not had hearts that have valued Him. Let’s admit that together- our hearts do not value Him anywhere near what He is worth. We should be honoring Him by wanting Him more than anything- and we don’t.

We insult His worth by having hearts that say other things are worth more than Him, and we show this by what we spend ourselves to get and enjoy, and by what our lives show the worth of.

Worst of all, we have simply ignored Him. This great king of kings, the most valuable Being that exists, we have forgotten him. We have pushed him out of our minds and our lives.

“They have forgotten me” he cries out in Hosea. We have abandoned Him.

Every day he still pours out so many blessings on us, even while we forget him. You this day had food, and a home, and clothes, and love, and comfort, you probably smiled or laughed or had pleasure, and all of that was a gift that He provided. While He is forgotten, and while His name is used as a curse, he still blesses and gives good things. And still we ignore Him.

The penalty. Because of this, because we have so neglected and dishonored Him, because we live in a world where every day we should all sing songs of praise to Him together, but instead we curse Him, we are to be punished. What punishment seems fair to you?

We have insulted and ignored a God who is eternally worthy of praise, who has infinite value. We have continued to disobey and ignore Him and value other things more than Him while He has been simply being kind to us.

His infinite goodness and value has been ignored, and our punishment will be infinite as well. So we have this punishment over us.

And not only that, even now when we think of these things we know that even if we tried our hardest we could not for one day honor Him like he deserves. We cant be good. So we have this problem- the punishment we have to pay, and not just that, but even if it was gone, two minutes from now we would dishonor Him again and need to be punished again.

What he did about it.

Doesn’t it make you just want to give up? Doesn’t it make you want to say “please, please, cant some one do this for me? Can’t someone just take over, and be good for me, and cant someone come and do something about this anger that hangs over my head? Cant someone help to make peace between me and the perfect Judge, this One of such great value that I have so ignored and offended? Can’t someone come and obey Him perfectly, and honor Him perfectly for me?”

I need someone to rescue me, and you need someone to rescue you.

Let me tell you what my Jesus did for me.

Isaiah 53 tells the story of what my Jesus did for me. While I hated Him, and while I ignored Him, while I was bringing more and more anger down upon myself, He loved me.

Let me explain to you how much He loves me- I am about to read to you about His being punished in my place, and my heart will be barely moved. This room should erupt into applause, into cheering at the reading of these words, and it wont. After I read this we all should be completely transformed forever, and yet we wont be. I should never sin again after hearing what I am about to tell you. I should never again want anything else more than Him after I see this truth, and yet, tonight, I will sin. And He will still love me. And he will still save me. This is love, this is love!

2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,

and like a root out of dry ground;

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

and no beauty that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men;

a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Do you understand what this means? This should undo me. My Jesus, this King who is so glorious in heaven that you could not look at Him, he set aside all the beauty, and all the majesty. Where was Jesus’ majesty on earth? Where was His beauty? He left it behind, and not only that, but this Jesus who I could not look at because He beauty was too much, He became so ugly and so vile that I would have hidden my eyes from Him. So would you have. On the day he picked up that cross and walked up that hill he was like one that we hide our eyes from, it says- why? Because all of my sin and all of my shame was on Him. And just as you want to hide your eyes from your sin and shame and all the ugly parts of you, you would have wanted to hide your eyes from Him. This one of perfect beauty was deformed and ugly under the burden of my ugliness. He carried my ugliness and shame, and it deformed his beauty. All the while I was hating Him, ignoring Him. Yet He still did it.

Do you understand how this section should read?

It should read like this-

3 I am despised and rejected by men;

I am a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

I am one from whom men hide their faces

I was despised, and I was not esteemed.

4 I should bear griefs

I should be carrying sorrows;

I should be stricken,

I should be smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 I should be wounded for my transgressions;

I should be crushed for my iniquities;

That is how it should read, that is how it should be. You see, it does not read that way- listen, it does not say that! Praise God, friends, it does not say your name in there- it does not say your name! Rejoice, friends, rejoice, it does not say your name, it is HIS name, He is the one-

3 He was despised and rejected by men;

a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his stripes we are healed.

How amazing is this verse- with His stripes, we are healed. Do you know what stripes are? Stripes are the scares you get when you are whipped. When he was whipped and tortured, he was purchasing your healing. Your mercy. His punishment brings you peace.

All of God’s anger at you is poured out on Him, he takes it for you.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned every one to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

It is all laid upon Him. All of our sin. Carried away. He does it for you.

God the Father speaks in verse 11-

11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;

by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

make many to be accounted righteous,

and he shall bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,

and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,

because he poured out his soul to death

and was numbered with the transgressors;

yet he bore the sin of many,

and makes intercession for the transgressors. Is 53

Do you see what verse 11 says, that he will make us be counted as righteous. That is, though we still do not honor Him as we should, He will not see it, he will consider us perfect! The son will make intercession for us- what does that mean? It means that the very one we offended and ignored will stand before God in our defense, and argue that we should be set free, and forgiven. And when the Father asks “Why”, Jesus will show the scars on his wrists, and point to His perfect life of obedience, and say “these count for them.” And the father and son will smile, and welcome you forever.

See His worth in this, friends. See it. Who is like Him? Who would do such a thing for you? He has taken away all your sins, and he has dressed you in His goodness. He loves you, perfectly.

Believe that this mercy is for you- that is what you must do- it takes faith- you must believe that this mercy really is for you, that He really will wipe away your sin, and give you new life. And you will know if you really believe it, because your heart toward Him will change!

What this looks like if you get it

Have you ever heard of John Leonard Doper and David Nitschman? I am going to explain this text we read tonight by telling you their story. Their story IS this text, they get it- if you want to know what it looks like, this is it.

John Doper was an ordinary guy. He was a potter. He was a Moravian, a group of German descent that lived in Europe. They had a tight, very religious community led by a man named Count Zinzendorff. Zinzendorff was a neat man, totally on fire for God, in love with His savior. His life’s statement was something like “Jesus, only Jesus!” That is what made this man tick- Jesus Christ, and his love for him. They were experiencing a revival in their midst, God moving powerfully, and they as a church committed to pray 24 hours a day every day, and they did, the church did this for 100 years! And out of this prayer and devotion to God John Doper’s heart was stirred with love for God.

One day Zinzendorff met a man named Anton, a former African slave, and was so moved by his testimony that one day in 1731 he sent Anton to speak at Hernut, the town in which John Doper lived. And when John Doper heard Anton speak, it changed his life forever. Anton had been a slave on an island called St Thomas before his escape, (the island today is a resort), where he and 3000 other slaves lived. Their master was an atheist, who swore that no one bearing the gospel or the name of Christ would ever set foot. Here, on this island, were 3000 souls that would never hear the name of Jesus. And Anton said to the congregation that his sister remained on the Island, and she was eager to hear about Christianity, but she had no one to teach her. At that moment John Doper knew he would be the one to go and teach her.

How could he do this?

He decided that he would seek out a brother to go with him to the island, that they would sell themselves to the landowner as slaves, and serve alongside the 3000 who were there, in order to share with them the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that they would know how much God loves them. The church was not sure about this idea, and it took a year for them to give him permission to go. Even then, his family (he had a wife and 2 children) were not sure if it was the right thing. David Nitschman, a carpenter, volunteered to go with him. He had to write a letter to the church explaining why he should go. He wrote this-

“Since it is desired of me to make known my reason for going, I can say that my desire was never to travel during this time in my life, but only to ground myself more steadfastly in my Savior. But when the gracious count came back from his trip to Denmark and told me about the slaves, it gripped me so that I could not get free of it. I vowed to myself that if one other brother would go with me, I would become a slave, and tell everyone what I had heard from our Savior: that the word of the cross when shared in suffering and humiliation shows a special strength to the lost and perishing. As for me, I thought: even if helpful to no one in it I could still give witness through it of obedience to our Savior! I leave it to the good judgment of the congregation and have no other reason to offer you than this thought: that on the island there still are souls who cannot believe because they have not heard.”

The two gained permission, and sold themselves as slaves. They left on August 21, 1732. They were not going on a 30 day trip, or a 4 year tour, they were going for life. They were sold, not their own anymore. And as the ship pushed away from the dock, the congregation on shore, still not sure this was the right thing, and John’s family weeping bitterly, never to see their husband and father again, the two men stood on the deck, and joined arms, and as boat slipped into the sunset, John, the slave, raised an arm to the sky, and at the top of his voice he said these amazing words that changed the hearts of all who were on shore- his words were these; “May the Lamb who was slain receive the reward of His suffering!”

There were many more missionaries that went after them, and they called the same words- it has become the call of the Moravian missions. And those who went after these two went with just as much love for the Lamb, just as much desire to see Him honored. Because they valued him above all else, and because they wanted more of Him, they wanted to enjoy Him, and they wanted to show the world how much he is worth.

What about you? To what end are you doing what you are doing? What is your heart treasuring? What do you love most? What is your life showing the worth of?

Do you understand the gospel, and His love for you? If so, go live in such a way that the Lamb would receive the reward of His suffering. This is all that is worth living for, this is all that we exist to do. May the Lamb receive, even tonight, even in your life right now, the praise and love and longing and worship that He alone is worthy of! Give up your life, let tonight be your funeral. Those men who went to the west indies, they brought with them a slab of stone apiece. You see, there was no stone on the island out of which to carve a gravestone. They planned on dying there. They were already dead to themselves. They lived for one thing only- the Lamb, and seeing Him exalted. That was their joy. Tonight, deny yourself. Deny yourself the empty dreams of the world, and deny yourself the polluted water of the world, so that you can get the pure water and satisfying food that He is. Believe that His mercy is for you, trust Christ, and live a life of worship, finding your joy in Him.

Does everything you do in front of your children make God look great?

Paul Washer's secret...

Boys this week....

For the boys this week-
This week you will be meeting at the Firehouse at 6:30 for pizza and some hanging out. Bring $5 to cover the cost of dinner. Have fun!

Good advice...

J.C. Ryle has an old little book called “The duties of parents.” Dealing with parents and children for a long time now I have seen a lot of the same mistakes made over and over. Ryle has a good few quotes that I think address a number of them directly. For instance-
“Kindness, gentleness, long-suffering, forbearance, patience, sympathy, a willingness to enter into childish troubles, a readiness to take part in childish joys, these are the cords by which a child may be led most easily, these are the clues you must follow if you would find the way to his heart.”
“Try hard to keep up a hold on your child’s affections. It is a dangerous thing to make your children afraid of you.”
“Instruction, and advice, and commands, will profit little, unless they are backed up by the pattern of your own life. Your children will never believe you are in earnest, and really wish them to obey you, so long as your actions contradict your counsel.”
A lot of problems families face could be fixed if those few, simply pieces of advice were taken to heart and lived out. I find parents, in the busyness of life, and facing the pride, selfishness, and lack of patience that we all sometimes struggle with, often miss out on that first bit the most. Do you seriously consider (and let your heart ache over) the very real struggles and troubles that your children have? Do you long to partner with your children to help them, to “enter into childish troubles” as Ryle says? If not, you will find your child is not “led most easily”, but will instead find trouble finding “the way to his heart.”
His whole book can be read for free online here-
http://www.biblebb.com/files/ryle/parentsjc.htm

Plan for girls to meet next week...

Trish posted this message to the girls-

Hey Girls,
Since and is away we are not having Impact this wed but Jane and I thought it would be nice to meet together at 6:30 at Friendly's. Bring money for what you want either dinner and/or ice cream--whatever. Call or email me or Jane and let us know if you need a ride otherwise just meet us there. Hope to see you and that you are all doing well.
--Trish

Impact message this week. Ben spoke, and did a great job!

This semester we have been talking about the life of your heart. Guess what we will be talking about this week? That’s right the life of your heart. Where have you been putting your heart this week? Have you been putting it in the light of God’s love or have you been giving it to the world? Is the heart growing or is it dead? Is your heart attached to living things or perishing things? Tonight we are going to be talking about Jesus Christ the satisfier of hungry souls.

Mark 8:1-30

1 In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, 2"I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away." 4And his disciples answered him, "How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?" 5And he asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" They said, "Seven." 6And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. 7And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. 8And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 9And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. 10And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.

11The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. 12And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, "Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation." 13And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side.

14Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. 15And he cautioned them, saying, "Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." 16And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. 17And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? 19When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" They said to him, "Twelve." 20"And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" And they said to him, "Seven." 21And he said to them, "Do you not yet understand?"

22And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. 23And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, "Do you see anything?" 24And he looked up and said, "I see men, but they look like trees, walking." 25Then Jesus^[c] laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26And he sent him to his home, saying, "Do not even enter the village."

27And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" 28And they told him, "John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets." 29And he asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Christ." 30 And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

You are Hungry

Two examples: what two things do they have in common?

1.Look at verse 17-20. If I could ask this group a question, this is the questions I would ask. Jesus asks the disciples why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Answer: They are hungry. They only brought one loaf so they need to get more food. Now the disciples have two options at this point. Keep in mind they have just seen Jesus feed 4,000 people on one occasion and 5,000 people another. They could one, go to Jesus and say, “Hey, we’ve seen you turn a little bit of bread into a lot of bread and we are hungry. Can you do that again?” –OR- they could do what they did: discuss how to get themselves more bread. Maybe some were saying we need to turn around. Or maybe some were saying we need to get to the other side quicker. Which do you think would have been more effective?

2.What is this plant? What is it doing? It’s starving! It has no food! Remember the first week we said that the plant died because it didn’t like sunlight or water. It only wanted to be in the closet.

1.) They are both hungry.

2.) They are both rejecting their source of food.

Everyone of you has come in here tonight as one or both of these things and I’d be willing to bet that there are a lot of you who think you are only hungry but have also rejected your source of food. Your all hungry and looking for someone or something to feed you. And look we’ve talked about this…Your hearts are hungry. There is a spot in your heart that longs to be filled and satisfied. But here is where we really start to lie to ourselves. Our hearts are hungry for the wrong things. We run from one thing to another trying to fill it up. And you fill it up with friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, popularity… and after its all over you realize, you’re still hungry. You are still hungry. . It’s like drinking salt water. You drink and for one brief second it feels good going down your throat but in a quick moment it makes you thirstier than before. And so you drink again just for a brief moment of satisfaction until eventually the salt sucks all the water out of your body and you die of dehydration. And on and on it goes one thing to another trying to fill up this hunger inside of you. All the while you fail to realize that God was meant to be that satisfier of the soul. That Jesus stands next to us asking, “why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread?” As if to say, “the thing you are hungering for is right in front of you.”

Now let me ask you a question. Do you think all Jesus came to do was feed people’s mouths with food? Do you think Jesus is some kind of cosmic dispenser of worldly and fleshly comfort? A lot of people think that way. Do you think that when He fed the crowds and put His power on display for all to see that He wanted them to worship their own comfort and filled bellies? Do you think Jesus wanted people following Him because He could give them some bread? No, but that’s what He got wasn’t it? After Jesus feeds the five thousand in John 6 a group comes running to Jesus. But He knows why they are there. “Truly, truly I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of loaves.” Unfortunately that is how many of you relate to Jesus. Listen, Impact is wonderful but I wonder how many of you come here thinking about who will be here? How many think about who will notice you? How many spend all their time, even now, thinking of ways to get someone’s attention. So we listen to the bands, and we carry around our Bibles and we throw in a couple Christian catch phrases. But what we are really after is someone to think that we are important. What we really want is someone to acknowledge how cool we are. Or maybe your like the Pharisess. You use Jesus to prop up your own self-righteousness.Your Christianity is tied up in all the things you do. It has nothing to do with Jesus Christ. Do you see what we’ve done with this Jesus? Do you think Jesus is some kind of fast food mart that exists to simply fill your fleshly desires?! NO! He came to satisfy the hunger of your heart! But many of you don’t want your heart to be satisfied by Jesus. When you here things like being satisified by Jesus you think, “That’s boring.” Now listen…don’t forget the plant. Why is the plant starving? Why is your heart starving?

Jeremiah 2:13

For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

The Jews would use cisterns to catch water to drink when it rained. But sometimes the cisterns would break and along with water, mud would seep in creating a kind of muddy soup. God says, the sin that people have committed is that they have looked at the fountain of living water that can satisfy the thirst of their soul and they said “not good enough.” I’d rather drink this muddy water. That’s what you’ve done. Do know that about yourself? Do you know that you have passed your heart around to drink and feast upon muddy water while the God of universe offers living water that will satisfy? And listen… I know some of you are thinking, “what is all this talk about drinking and eating and being hungry?” Look at Jesus words in John 6:53

“Truly, truly I say to you unless you eat the flesh fo the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:53

“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14

It’s serious. If we feed on anything but Jesus, (the world) we have no life. We are dead. If we have drank the dirty water and ate the food that does not satisfy we are dead. But those who feed upon Christ will live. This is life and death here. Do you want to know what it is to live? Feed upon Christ.. Am I calling you to become cannibals? No. I am calling you to fill that longing of your heart with what it was meant to be filled by…Jesus Christ. But Jesus is boring to you.

God Is Just to Let You Die in Your Hunger

Listen you are not victims here. You are the furthest thing from it. You’re starving and deserving of destruction because you have chosen mud over water. You chose it. There are many of you in this room longing for the food of this world, but listen…when you eat the food of this world there is no life in you. When you eat the food of the world you get death. When you eat the food of the world (sin) you get God’s wrath.This is what you deserve. It’s what I deserve. Let me remind you of a little story…Do you remember Adam and Eve? What did they get when they satisfied their craving for the fruit? Separation from God and death. Let remind you of another story. How many remember the story of the exodus?

Psalm 78:10-32

10They did not keep God’s covenant,
but refused to walk according to his law.
11They forgot his works
and the wonders that he had shown them.
12In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders
in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
13He divided the sea and let them pass through it,
and made the waters stand like a heap.
14 In the daytime he led them with a cloud,
and all the night with a fiery light.
15He split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
16He made streams come out of the rock
and caused waters to flow down like rivers.

17Yet they sinned still more against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
18They tested God in their heart
by demanding the food they craved.
19They spoke against God, saying,
"Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
20He struck the rock so that water gushed out
and streams overflowed.
Can he also give bread
or provide meat for his people?"

21Therefore, when the LORD heard, he was full of wrath;
a fire was kindled against Jacob;
his anger rose against Israel,
22because they did not believe in God
and did not trust his saving power.
23Yet he commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven,
24and he rained down on them manna to eat
and gave them the grain of heaven.
25Man ate of the bread of the angels;
he sent them food in abundance.
26He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens,
and by his power he led out the south wind;
27he rained meat on them like dust,
winged birds like the sand of the seas;
28he let them fall in the midst of their camp,
all around their dwellings.
29And they ate and were well filled,
for he gave them what they craved.
30But before they had satisfied their craving,
while the food was still in their mouths,
31the anger of God rose against them,
and he killed the strongest of them
and laid lowthe young men of Israel.

32In spite of all this, they still sinned;
despite his wonders, they did not believe.

And some of you are saying in your head I don’t deserve that. “So I want a b/f and so I want everyone to like me…”

The reason you don’t understand that you deserve to destruction is that you don’t know what you’ve passed up. I say living water and you have no idea what that means. Look…how valuable is God? He is really valuable right? More valuable than anything you’ve every even conceived of in your brain. Understand that in going after your own way, you’ve said to God, “You are not good enough.” You have said in your heart that the things your feeding yourselves with are more valuable than God! It’s and insult like no other. Remember Jeremiah 2:13. Look at the verse before it. “Be appalled O heavens, at this. Be shocked be utterly desolate, declares the Lord.” Who in here hasn’t gone after the desires of their own heart? Who in here hasn’t stubbornly followed your own way and fed yourselves with the things of this world. You went after the muddy water instead of the living water. You went after idols instead of the living God. Let me sum it up for you. Because you have sought to feed yourselves with the food of this world and thus declared that God is less valuable than those things, you have chosen to starve to death and thus earned God’s destroying wrath.

God is Merciful in Jesus Christ

There are some of you that need to go home tonight without the rest of the message. Some of you don’t think you earned destruction. You’re just fine. You don’t deserve that. But there are those who understand that you are hungry and that there is nothing in this world that can satisfy that hunger but you know you need to be filled. And you want the answer. You understand the hopelessness of your situation. I’m here to tell you tonight that there is a God of mercy who longs to fill you. Despite the fact that you have turned away and satisfied yourself with the food of the world, God longs to redeem you to Himself so that you might truly be satisfied with the food He offers, Himself. Look what Jesus says when He sees the hunger of the crowd. “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.” Now listen, Jesus is not obligated to feed these people. It’s not his job. But he has compassion. They are hungry and he longs to fill them. Now again, Jesus is concerned with their physical hunger but do you really think that in that moment all Jesus wanted those people to know about Him was that he could do a cool magic trick and make lots of bread? But listen there is a problem. People that have passed up true food (God) and thus life, didn’t earn food. You don’t deserve to be given food that leads to life. Listen…your soul deserves to be forever unsatisfied running from one thing to another being disappointed over and over and over again for all eternity. That’s what you chose remember?

If God is going to give you food that leads to life, someone is going to have to die hungry. Someone has to take your place. And you may say, “O I know where he’s going with this.” Listen! This isn’t a cute story. This is the life of your heart. Someone has to die left completely apart from the satisfying power of God to be punished on your behalf. To receive your destruction. And not just anyone. God Himself in the form of Christ Jesus has to become hungry and thirsty. And thus did Jesus cry on the cross, “I thirst.”

When Christ was hanging on the cross, when God was pouring out all His wrath that you deserved on Jesus, what does Jesus say? He’s hanging on the cross and what does He say? He say’s in John 19:28 “I thirst..” I thirst! And the soldiers mock Him by giving him sour wine meant to prolong His torture. Do you understand what happened on the cross? Do you understand what was going on? Jesus comes to the earth to become hungry and to become thirsty in your place! We said earlier that God was meant to fill the hunger in your soul. That’s all Jesus knew. He had never been unsatisfied before and rightfully so. He never knew what it was for His heart to hunger or thirst. He is the King! Perfectly satisfied by the Father for all eternity. And the king becomes the poor begger dieing of hunger and thirst on the cross. Not only physical hunger and thirst but God takes away His satisfying power from Christ and He is left hungry and thirsty and then God crushes Him. And here is the amazing thing. For those that believe, God on that cross put to death your hunger and your thirst for the world leading to death. He puts to death His Son and destroys for all time the endless hunger and thirst of the heart. And Christ rises in victory and says:

“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

And as a result of His death He can now say to poor hungry souls that have in their sin filled themselves with the food of this world…and for those of you that have filled yourselves with the food of the world and you have seen that it has left you hungry, despite your unsurpassed sin against Him, He says:

Isaiah 55:1-3

1"Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
3Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.

Read with me again…

Mark 8:14-21

14Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. 15And he cautioned them, saying, "Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." 16And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. 17And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? 19When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" They said to him, "Twelve." 20"And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" And they said to him, "Seven." 21And he said to them, "Do you not yet understand?"

They didn’t know who He was. They didn’t know that He was the one that could fill them. Do you see? Do you see what they were doing? Jesus puts His power to feed them on display and they begin talking about how they will fill themselves. What will they do? How will they get more bread. And Jesus says, “Don’t you know who I am. I just fed four thousand with table scraps. I am able to feed twelve people. But you are hard of heart.” He’s not rebuking them because they are hungry. He’s rebuking them because they don’t get that He is the Christ. He’s the one that will satisfy. They don’t know who He is. And I know tonight there are some of you that will see this work of Jesus on the cross. You will see that He died on the cross, bore your hunger and your thirst and your death…. You will see that He took your hunger and he took your thirst and destroyed it so that if you would believe, you would never have to hunger again. But you will leave here tonight and start looking for ways for the world to satisfy your heart. You will take your heart and give to the person sitting next to you or the crowd at your school or some boy or girl that thinks your special.

The Blindness of Your Hungry Heart

I don’t think that it’s coincidental that in the text directly after Jesus asks Peter, “Do you not understand” he goes on to heal a blind man. We are people that need to have our eyes opened. Listen…the dead heart, the heart that feeds on this world hates true food right. It can’t see Jesus as true food because it hates him. When Christ died on the cross, for those that believe, He put that heart to death and gave a new heart that longed to be filled by Him and so live. Maybe you see that your heart is starving and you see Christ but you don’t love Him. You see that heart wants to give itself away to worthless things and that your heart longs to feed on the world. Go to God, ask for a new heart, ask Him to open your eyes to see who Christ is: son of God, sin on our behalf, the satisfier of our souls.

After Jesus heals the blind man He is walking with Peter and Jesus asks him, “Who do people say that I am.” John, Elijah, a prophet. There are many things this world tells you Jesus is. Some of you use Jesus and this group Impact that is about worshipping Him as a method to gratify your hungry hearts with the attention of men. But the real question is not who people say Jesus is. Who do you say He is? Do you believe it? Did Jesus starve in your place so that you would be filled?