Man, listen, we wanna welcome you today, wherever you are at all of our campuses. Ah, man, I was at the Hunt Club campus last week, and man, it was incredible to get to be with you guys on a Sunday morning. Uh, but it's so good to be back at Lincoln Road. And I don't know what worship's been like at, at your venue, at your campus or in your home this morning, but I'm gonna tell you, I was down here on the front Road, Lincoln Road and I caught myself like hooping. I don't know if y'all do that.

I, I just, I looked over like, I hope he didn't hear me. Like I just went, woo. And, uh, so do this. Let's just give our worship team a hand. Those guys do such a good job.

I, I can't lead worship, but they can. And man, it was really good. This, this was a big week for us that all of our campuses, because we launched out house church, and man, it was so good to get back in, in my host home, like the, the, the family that hosts me had a brand new baby girl over the summer, baby Rose, I wanna tell you, it was so good to be, to be around her and to see her. And we prayed over that family and their three little girls. We had two new families join our house, church.

And man, we ate good. I'm gonna just tell you, we, we can compete when it comes to food. And so it was tailgate theme on Wednesday night, and man, I ate so good. So man, I hope you have that and said, if you don't, it's okay. But we want to help you connect in that way because the wheat gets long.

And man, we just want those relationships where it's really kinda simple. You just, when you laugh together, pray together. We, well, I'll tell you what we did on Wednesday night. We opened up God's word to Acts chapter two, and it's the very first church. And we just read about what that church did and we decided this semester that's what we were gonna do.

We're gonna eat together, we're gonna pray together, and we're gonna meet each other's needs and we're gonna encourage each other. So that, that's the whole idea for Wednesday. If you haven't filmed one yet, uh, to perfect Day Forward, it's Venture 1 0 1 is today. And that's where we welcome new partners. It's our chance to share a little bit of our story, but it's really our chance to hear your story and we get to know you and we're introducing our staff.

And so don't miss that today 'cause that's happening at every one of our campuses. Venture 1 0 1, so you can become a partner with us to bring hope and help to all of these communities that God's given us. Okay? Here's how I wanna start. There's a, uh, there's a question that I ask a lot, and I, there's been seasons in my life where I couldn't get past this question.

And it's really funny. Now, it's a pastor. I get this question a lot here. It is, it's real simple. It's what is God's will for my life.

It's like we're all asking the same question sometimes because we want what God wants, but something weird happens and we begin to think like God's, God's will is like a, like a treasure that's buried out there and we think, oh, I'm gonna miss it. Or we think it's a mark. Like there's a, there was a mark out here and I drove right by it in that season of life, and I missed God's will. If that's where you are today, man, I hope that this message really encourage you because I've been in that place where I've been fearful. Like I don't wanna miss what God has.

I know it's good. I just, I just don't know what it is. I wish God would text me sometimes his will. I mean, I would wait for that text, like even if it was one of the green text. I hate to, I hate to hate on you if you're a green texter, but we all feel that way.

But if God were to text me, and if it was green and if it was bubbles, I would wait. 'Cause I wanna know. Well, knowing God's will, knowing God's will starts with knowing God's heart and knowing God's heart. That's the beatitudes, that's what we've been studying in Matthew chapter five. And this is, this is the sermon on the mouth.

It's, it's Jesus's big moments. It's his first lesson, it's his first message, and he starts it with the beatitudes. And we've been kinda walking through these week by week. We we're about halfway through it, okay? If you're like, Hey, we've been here for a while.

Well, it helps, you can know the next few weeks we're gonna be in Matthew five. We started August the very first week of August. Lemme go you back to the very first Beatitude, okay? The very first one was blessed or the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That's where we started.

If you remember, that was the first weekend of August. I preached that message, and then we got into our teaching team. Now, I'm so thankful for a team, couldn't do this without a team. And the next week, I believe was Kyle and, and Kyle preached on. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.

It's such a good job. I remember that, that passage. And then Grace spoke last week. And man Gray did such a good job. And I remember his story about him riding a bull.

Y'all remember that? Anyway, Y ought go back and watch it. But, uh, his, his, his was, his, it was, blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth. He did such a great job last week. Now, here's the beatitude for this week.

Week four, here's the one we're on. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Alright? That's one we're gonna study today. And there's two words right outta the bat that you, you've gotta kind of get comfortable with.

Because if you assume you know what these words mean, you're gonna miss the heartbeat behind this beatitude. Here's the first one. The first one is this one. It's righteousness. Now, when I first hear and see righteousness, I think, oh, no, no, they're too good.

They think they're perfect. They're so righteous. You know that church, they're righteous over there. I don't fit in. That's not the idea with righteous, righteous just take, and this helped me because I'm, I'm, I'm not really great at the Greek stuff, but I can break a word down, right?

Righteous just means getting right with God. He said, you're gonna be blessed, full, complete, satisfied when you begin to hunger and thirst. And I, and I, listen, I said this on Instagram this week. I hunger and thirst for a lot of different things. But this beatitude says, listen, here it comes.

If you'll hunger and thirst to be right with God, you will be filled. Now field, let's look at field. Field just means to be satisfied. And here's what I know about you, because I know this about me. There's a lot of us up in here that we ain't satisfied anybody in the house do this.

You walk in after a long day, come in, you walk up to the fridge, open up the fridge, you start looking. You got a full fridge, man, I, I live for a full fridge, love a full fridge. And I'll say, man, nothing in the fridge. And it's a full fridge, but nothing looks good. It's like I, it's like we got all these different options, but I still can't be sad as fine.

Maybe you've gone to a restaurant and I've done this. A lot of times I'll go to a restaurant and I'm talking about one of those that's got days long of a menu, like front back, lunch, specials, extra handy and extra out, all the whole thing, the board. Here you go. And I'll still be like, I've sing thing I want today. It's like, I can't be satisfied.

You two sing a song about it, real popular one, because you and me are like that. There's moments in our life, there's seasons in our life where we just feel like we can't be filled, we can't be satisfied. And here's what I wanna do, because I love this. If you go to a restaurant with somebody and you're with someone that loves that restaurant, they've been there before and they have tried everything on the menu. When I'm in that moment, I just say, I'll take what he's getting.

He knows what to order. He's tried it all. He's already been there. He's lived that, that's what I wanna do today, because King Solomon is that guy for you and me. King Solomon tried it all.

King Solomon was the wisest king. Solomon had everything you could ever desire. And he tried it all. And he wrote about it in the book of Ecclesiastes. And I'm gonna tell you about this book, it's depressing.

I would not run home and read Ecclesiastes, but if you do, here's what you're gonna find. The first thing that, that, that King Solomon does is he thinks he would be satisfied if he could get more education. Now, that's not the first place I would go, but that's where Solomon went. And then here's what he says in chapter one. Here's what he says about it.

He says, the greater my wisdom, the greater my grief that didn't work to increase knowledge, only increased my sorrow. Well, since, since education didn't work, Solom begins to think a little bit more like me. And he says, well, I'm gonna go for pleasure vacation. I'm gonna go for work. Like, I'm gonna just pour all of myself into this.

And I get this one. Like this is more where me and Solomon are clicking because I, it's so funny when, when Katie and I first got married and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do in my life, like, God, what is your will for my life? That question again, and it's a, it's a really interesting, the way God does this. He, he put me with, with the most incredible person for me to be with. But her dad is an amazing man.

He's watching, I gotta be real careful. Uh, and he, he, he, he started a, a banking career right outta college. And he stayed with the same employer from the day he graduated to the day he retired. People don't do that anymore. I, that's not the way I was rolling.

I thought I was calling people. I was thinking maybe I want to go do this. Maybe if I go and do this, maybe if I get a job over here and do this, maybe if I tried this career and I was just, I was exhausting to my wife, I was scaring her. She was so tired of me, but I was looking for satisfaction. I was looking for fulfillment in all the wrong places, right?

I was trying this or trying that. Here's what Solomon says. He tried the same thing. He says, anything I wanted, I would take. Sounds kind of selfish.

I hate that. That reminds me of me. I denied myself. No pleasure. Maybe you've been in that place, just left it all out there.

I even found great pleasure and hard work. Nothing wrong with that. I mean, come on. Like, I mean, maybe I can, maybe that's where I can earn a dollar. Maybe that's the, a reward for all of my labors.

Here's what he says. But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, this is depressing right here. It was all so meaningless, like chasing the wind. And some of you, you need to hear this part of the message because you've put all of you into your career and you're going to end up like Solomon. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.

I'm telling you, it's depressing. So Solomon says, if it's not education, if it's not work, if it's not pleasure, maybe it's women. My man had 700 wives and 300 mistresses ain't even gonna talk about all that up in here. He tried art. He filled his palace with some of the best pieces of art.

Everything you could think of. I'm just telling you, he tried it. Skip to the very end of the book. Here's what Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 12. That's the whole story.

I'm telling you, I've done it all here. Now is my final conclusion. Fear God and obey his commandments for this is everyone's duty. So my man tried it all. And the summary statement of a life trying everything is all.

I'm telling you, this is the only place you will be satisfied. This is the only place you would be filled if you will fear God and obey his commandments. Now, when you see this, you don't think you're not thinking right? 'Cause when I see fear, I think about the way my golden retriever looks at me when I raise my voice at her. That's not, that's not the context that Solomon's saying.

He said, no, no, this is what I mean by fear. I I want you to do this. I got, I've got a little definition for you. I think I do. Yeah.

Uh, fearing God simply means being in awe of him. I love this one. Watch this one. It means, uh, letting his awesomeness be the biggest factor of your life. Do you feel that little ground right there?

'Cause some of you're like, man, listen, if you know me, then you need to know my kids. I'm telling you, they are awesome. If you know me, let me tell you about my business, man. And man, it's incredible. Here's what's happening.

If you know me, me, I need to tell you about my hunting land because where I hunt, oh, if you could go with me, he said, no, no. Listen, all those things are great, but they're not gonna get you satisfied. The way for you to be satisfied is for the biggest thing in your life, to be the awesomeness of God, for you to live in a place where you are in awe of him. I dunno, when was the last time you were in that place where you were just in awe of him? I've got a family at the Hunt Club.

I talked to him a little bit when I was there this past week. And it's one of our, one of our best. It's Mike Devereux been part of our church for a long time. And he had, he had diagnosis of cancer in his eye, and he went to the doctor and he found out it was gone. Two doctors, here's your problem.

You need to go to this specialist. He drove all the way to the specialist. The specialist looks in his eye and he says, it's not here anymore, brother. There's a moment where we were in awe. But here's what I'm doing in this message.

I wanna do something a little bit different this week because I, I wanna give you, I wanna go at it kinda at, at a different angle because the goal is that you would hunger, you would desire, you would thirst for God to be in right standing with God, because that's where you'll be satisfied. Here's the angle we're gonna take. I'm gonna give you two things that keep you and me from pursuing God. Here's the two things that I found in my life, typically kinda stop me from being hungry and thirsty for God. Here's the very first one.

Uh, we fill up on the wrong things. I I'm gonna take you. There's, I, it's, it's like a bad joke. But on my way home from school, when I take my kids on my way home from soccer practice and on my way home from church, that's kind of where we go everywhere. I mean, that's kind of the three places.

There's Sonic at every one of those. I have to drive by a sonic everywhere I go. And I've got one of my kids that she, she cannot pass a sonic without going to it. And this child will eat cheese sticks, uh, pretzel and a mini Oreo blast. And then we'll walk into our house on Taco Tuesday and it's the biggest letdown because we just filled up on Sonic.

But it's Taco Tuesday. It's my favorite meal, and it's all right there waiting on me. But I'm not hungry anymore because I'm filled up on Sonic. You know how disappointing that is? I don't know if you're feeling the weight of that.

Here's what I'm asking you. What do you fill up on that's not filling you up? What do you go to instead of going to God? Because it's not leaving you filled up. It's not leaving you satisfied because we're running to the wrong things.

Solomon just gave you a whole book about it. Uh, the Scripture calls it the, the fleeting pleasure because I'm not telling you sins doesn't taste good. Sometimes those, those cheese sticks pretty dang good. I'm just telling you, it doesn't satisfy you. It's the fleeting pleasure of sin.

We've all been there. I mean, come on, don't look, don't, don't look up here like you hadn't chased after some things. I know I have. And I'm not even telling you, I'm not even telling you it wasn't fun. I'm just telling you it, it didn't last.

And so the first thing we gotta come to grips with is we gotta quit running after the wrong things because they're not gonna fill us up. I want you to see the way David in Psalms describes running after God. Here's what he says is gonna happen if you'll do this. I just, he's, it is like he's begging you. Like, listen to me, church, here's what I want you to do.

And instead running over there to Sonic. Would you just taste and see that the Lord is good? Uh, blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Some of you, this is, this is kind of the big moment. One of them in this message, there's a couple.

So this is just the first one. Some of you are rejecting God based off of someone else's bad cooking. You following me? You putting, you, putting you, you here, here's what I'm thinking when I say that. I'm, I'm thinking about the person that grew up in church and you were a child of the nineties and you were all about true love weights.

And I'm not telling you true love shouldn't wait, I believe that. But you made a mistake and you feel shame. And you walked back in that church, the same church where you, where you made a pledge to not make a mistake and you weren't received with grace. You were judged. And I'm just telling you, that's not your fault.

That's bad cooking. You, you, you walked into a place at some point in your life and you were divorced or you were depressed, or you were down, you got spoken down on. And I'm telling you, that's not on you. That's bad cooking. There's enough people watching today.

And this happens every time we do venture 1 0 1. And we tell our stories about where we came from. And you have been church hurt. That's not just like a fun mega church word. Like that's real.

And I'm not telling you that this is the perfect church because it's not. I'm just pleading with you not to judge Jesus on someone else's bad cooking, but to give this thing a chance. And let's see what it means to begin to walk with Jesus and begin to become more like Jesus and begin to push away from, I hate to man, I'm sorry. If you on sonic, begin to push away from sonic and begin to lean towards what maybe Jesus wants to do in your life. This whole series has been about who we're becoming.

And we wanna become more like him. We wanna be hungry and thirsty for the right things. Look how, look how I love the way that Paul, we read this. If you're doing the Bible reading plan with us, we, I'm a little behind, but we, we were in Ephesians not long ago, and there's a verse in Ephesians that when I, when I, if I had to describe to you God's cooking, like tell me what it's like. I mean, come on.

I mean, like I've, I've done church and I've done legalism and I've felt guilt and I've done shame. But what would it be like to really sit at the table and taste and see how good God's cooking is? Gimme something. Well, here's, here's the way Paul describes it. And may you have the power to understand, I want you to understand this maybe for the first time, as all of God's people should, I mean, everybody needs to know this.

You gotta know this. If you, if you're following Jesus, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is, his love is his grace is his compassion is the way that he sees you. That's his cooking. Here's the second reason I think we, we miss out on just how good God is. And, and here, here it is.

It's the second reason I think it's gonna be up here in a minute. Second reason we overcomplicate this is this one's so good 'cause I've, I've done this one. We overcomplicate God's will and we underestimate his goodness. Man, we do that all the time. Like God, who in the world am I gonna marry?

Who am I gonna marry? Who am I gonna marry? I really wanna know who I'm gonna marry. Who should I marry the whole, while we we're not, we're not really willing to date God's way. I I, God bless me financially, I mean, I'm really, I wanna be blessed financially.

I mean, I wanna, I wanna have margin. Like I want to, I, I I want these things like I want your blessing on my finances, but I'm, I'm really not willing to, to give, like, come on God, I need the dream job. Like I want the job, like the dream job, the one that would satisfy me and fill me. But I'm, I'm really not willing to be present and faithful where you have me today. It's like we want God's blessings.

We just really aren't willing to live God's way. And I think that's overcomplicating. God's will see. God's will is just to live by his word. It's his will.

You say, man, you're making that awful simple. Well, I don't, I don't, I I think that's the whole idea is that we begin to discover his word, which helps us understand his heart, which helps us become more like him and be satisfied and full. So let's go back to his heart because that's the whole idea here of discovering his will. Look at this in Psalms about his heart for you, I will instruct you. Yes, I've been looking for that.

I mean, I may not text you, but I'm, I'm gonna instruct you. I'm gonna use the Holy Spirit to come and, and, and move and guide you. I will instruct you and oh my goodness, this is such good news because I wasn't discipled. Maybe that's your story. Like I didn't grow up in a Christian home.

I only have a bad taste in my mouth when I think about all this. But it's okay because I'm gonna teach you. I'm gonna teach you right here in my word. That's why I gave it to you. And the way that you should go and look at this, oh man, I've been looking for a good counselor.

I've been desiring someone that could counsel me. I'm desperate for that. I need a mentor. Okay, well good. That's who I'm gonna be for you.

The Holy Spirit. And then this last one, this is the one that just wrecks me because I don't think you see him this way. And the biggest, the most important thing about you is how you see God with my loving eye on you. That's the way he looks at you. That's the way that he sees you.

He doesn't have this evil eye, he doesn't have this judgmental eye. He doesn't have this. I'm gonna get even with you eye. He doesn't have this. You missed my will and now I'm so fired up and angry at you.

The wrath of God was met with the blood of Jesus. And so it's a loving eye that is looking at you. I I I love what we've tried to do with these messages is, is we've, we've given you a beatitude hunger and thirst, right? That's, that's our, we're in the fourth one today, but we hadn't, we don't wanna stop there because I wanna give you a picture of it. Like what does it look to really hunger and thirst for Jesus and to be filled?

And, and the story that came to my mind when I thought about, and, and our team kind of thought about this, I don't need to take credit for this. I'm just telling you, are we kinda brainstorm, like what's a moment in Scripture that shows what it looks like to hunger and thirst for righteousness and to be filled. And the one we thought about, it's in John four, and it's, it's a story about the, the woman at the well. I dunno if you know the story and, and I'm, I'm, because of time, I'm not gonna be able to really read it, but I'm just gonna summarize it to you and then I'm gonna help you see it. This is one of the rare moments in Scripture where we find Jesus alone.

Okay? The disciples have gone to get food and Jesus is at this, well, it's the middle of the day. And, and, and he's approached by this Samaritan woman. Now, here's the beautiful part of this passage. Jesus breaks all the barriers.

I mean, here he is a Jew talking to a Samaritan. Here he is a man talking to a woman. Now contextualize that here he is not giving up on me. Here he is not judging me. Here he is so in love with me still.

And he says to her the most logical thing to say outta, well, would you give me a drink of water? Pretty powerful moment. Jesus, will you, you know, I, I, yeah, yeah, I'll give you some water, but well, Jesus then says to her, well, the water that I'm gonna give you, it's gonna, it's gonna allow you to never thirst again. And she says exactly what you would say. Like, bring it on.

I need that. It's 12 o'clock in the middle of the day. I'm thirsty. I don't know really what all you're talking about, but let's give it a shot. Jesus says, well then, then go get your husband and you, you'll see it all there.

I just don't have time to read it to you. Exactly. Go get your husband. And then you feel her disappointment in that moment. Like, oh shoot, you must not know.

And he said, no, no, I know, I know you've had five and the one you're with now, he's not your husband. And she meets him. He meets her in the midst of all that disappointment and pain, in the midst of that appetite that she's fed, that's left her unsatisfied. And she says, listen, I, I don't know what in the world's going on here, but I know I'm waiting on the Messiah. And when the Messiah gets here, I'm just telling you, when Jesus comes, when the Messiah comes, it's gonna get better.

And then he looks at her in the middle of that day, in the middle of that moment after exposing all of that that she's been through. And he says to her, I am he. Such a powerful moment in Scripture. But here, here's what I wanna do for you. Because I, I don't know if I can bring that to life without showing you it.

Now, I'm just telling you, I'm a, I I really like the chosen. I don't know if you watch the chosen, but the chosen takes all of these moments. And the chosen is not perfect. Okay? I know.

I mean, they don't quote Scripture exactly, but they take these moments and they bring them to life. And I want you to see it because there's something in her face that this, it's, it's every time. I just wanna watch the clip again and again and again. Because finally you see someone who has tried relationships and she hasn't been satisfied. And then she begins to get this idea that, no, maybe there's hope for me.

Maybe he's not dumb with me. Watch this clip. Watch this. And you know these things because you are the Christ. I am going to tell everyone I was counting on it.

Spirit and truth. Spirit and truth. It won't be all about mountains or temples Soon, just the heart You promised. I promise this man tells me everything I've done. Oh, he must be the Christ.

Hey, wait, you walked in. You forgot your now you told me everything you ever did. Did you see in that clip how Jesus' plans for her? There were so much bigger than her mistakes. Did you, did you see in that clip something in her eyes that told you she was now hungry and thirsty for God again?

Can I just tell you, can I be honest with you? I I, I really want a church that's that way. Like, I mean, there's lots of places you can just kinda walk in and sit and walk back out. But I dream about like, I mean really, like, this is kind of weird. It like keeps me up.

Like what would it be like if this platform that God's given us if we began to be hungry and thirsty for God to like move in our hearts and in our lives? Again, I'm gonna tell you something I've learned and I've, I've, I've, I I, I hadn't been a parent. Like I, my kids are just getting into this teenage stage. I've learned that it's not that much fun to feed kids that aren't hungry. In fact, it's kind of disappointing.

You know, you go to the grocery store and you plan and you cook and then you put it all out there and it's like they're not interested. But I'll tell you what is fun. You get you some hungry teenage boys and you cook for those suckers and you bring them in and you just sit back and go, I cook those burgers I provide. Look, look what is going on here. It is so good to get to cook for people who are hungry.

I think it's that way when it comes to our life spiritually. It's so much fun to be a place where you look around and you're around people that are seeing God work. And I'm just telling you, we're getting to see that. Like, I walk in here to movement at our campuses and I see these students all jammed up in these small spaces and they're, and they're worshiping and they're like, they're hungry for God to move. They don't even know it's hot in the room.

They don't even care. Like I see it on Wednesday nights. Like I'm just telling you, when I go to Wednesday nights and we're all out there in the garage, we met outside in the garage 'cause baby Rose was asleep Wednesday night and we didn't care because we were opening up God's word together and we were praying over our children because we want something more for them because we're hungry to see it. That's the kind of church we want to have. That's the kind of church each one of these community needs.

That's who God's called us to be for the next generation. It's like a light on a hill, say, no, no, you can run over there because they're gonna receive you and they're gonna love you and they may end up challenging you, But man, it's not your past. It's gonna be a barrier. God's love is alive there. But here's where this started, and I'm at the very end of the message.

But this, this is a really important part of the message because when I started planning and I started writing this message, and I walked into movement and I watched all of our students worshiping, I was convicted. If they were hungrier than me, I'm the, I'm supposed to be the leader. I had to ask myself, am I really that into God moving anymore? Am I hungry to see God move? Am I asking God to still work and save?

Am I have the faith to see God do a miracle like he did in Mike Devereux life? And so here's the question I wanna ask you. And this is the very end of the message. Here it is. It's on the screen.

Are are you still hungry? For God goes, man, I'm telling you, he is hungry for a relationship with you. He desires that he wants that. Have you maybe underestimated just how good God is? What want you to do?

I want you to stand up at all of our campuses. Come on, stand up with me. And you've made it, you've made it to the end. And we're gonna end on time. But I'm gonna give you a prayer that you can pray right where you are at your campus.

And I'm gonna put it on the side screen so you can see it. And this is, this is a little unique for us because I'm gonna be quiet for a minute and I'm gonna let you just read this prayer and begin to maybe pray this over your life and your family. I want you to read this and then I'm gonna pray for us. You read it on your own. Come on, let's pray together.

God, I thank you so much that there's room at your table, that there's an open spot and it is got my name on it and God, you're just waiting there. In fact, I, I think the more I read Scripture, the more I understand you're not just waiting there. You're coming after me, you're pursuing me. And God, you just, you have this reckless love for us that you would meet us in the middle of the day in our broken relationships and you would give us water where we would never thirst again. God, we wanna be hungry for you again.

God, we don't wanna just settle into a routine where we show up at a venue and we walk in and we walk out. We want more. God, we want you to work in our life. We wanna lay down our agenda and we wanna pick up yours. God, we wanna become more like you.

We wanna experience your love and your grace. God. We wanna share that. We wanna offer that we want to taste and see just how good you are. So God, I pray that we would be a church that's hungry again for you to move.

In your name we pray, amen.