What does hunger look like? King David had a deep hunger and it got him into trouble. But David gave us the book of worship in Psalms. Peter had the same hunger and trouble but he recognized Christ as the Messiah. Paul had the same hunger and trouble.

His hunger did not change when converted but served the Lord from that hunger.

Augustine was enamored by the pleasures of Rome and suffered for it. But his hunger made him a latter-day Noah creating a safe haven for the church in a dark period of history.

Don't kill the hunger. Physician's years ago would bleed you by leach or a cut to cure you. But the blood was the very thing that carried the cure. To extract the hunger out of your life is to extract the very thing that every Christian needs to live. The message today is to have a partial hunger that is managed and content. Knowing great joy and great sorrow is a classed as a mantel illness. Nice is what we should be. It is the believer's highest virtue to be nice and cause no offence. But when you take the stuff that is 'hunger' out of your life how can you hunger and thirst for God. You no longer know how to hunger. A stallion is what every horse breeder prizes the most. A gelding is a stallion that has been castrated. It's desire, passion, hunger and drive is gone. The gospel does not create nice geldings but potent and passionate stallions.

You cannot have a church filled with geldings and ask them to be fruitful. What does Christ look like? Christ was no gelding. His hair was not neatly parted in the middle with clasped hands. He was extraordinary and lurid. He spoke about casting mountains into the sea as 101 in faith. He turned tables over to make a point and cast demons out if they dare get in the way.

What is this consuming fire?

Your marriage is meant to be so much more than functional. It is more than yesterday's oatmeal. Why are you a Christian in terms of this present life? Is there something you are hoping to really enjoy as a result of your salvation? The geldings are well behaved and nice because they have had the hunger taken from them. They are sterile. The stallion is dangerous but he has life. Jehoash was the King of Israel in the days of Elisha. The prophet told him to take arrows in his hand and strike the ground.

The king's heart was not in it. God will respond every time with 'if your heart is not in it neither is mine.' It is not a matter of duty and obligation but hunger and desire. How many women want to be the object of duty and obligation? How many want to be the object of desire? God waits to be wanted by you.

'Tell me what to do God and I will do it for you' is the worst question a believer can ask God. This is a killer statement. God wants to hear what your desire is and what you hunger for. Christ told a parable of a persistent widow who was relentless in knocking on the door of a magistrate. He concludes with a statement of hunger.

God invites you to keep asking him. Christ prayed with tears, pleading and loud cries but our prayer is sanitized, nice, modest and reverent. When you read the book of Psalms they are desperate. Another killer statement is 'Show me what I should be doing and I will do it.' But your heart is crying out with tears, pleading and loud cries. You are hungrier than your prayers will allow you to be. You hide the hunger in what you call maturity. Without a deep desire from your own heart the desire of others will rule over you. Go to a yard sale and say in a loud voice 'that's a great price' and see how many more people want what you are looking at. The world of advertising plays on this. Have you ever met a professional man in his middle years still looking for what he wants to be when he grows up? Have you met a young lady who desperately wants to be married but is so out of practice she does what is right instead of what her heart desires. Have you met a graduating student who focused so much on the grades they lost their heart? People take their cues from other people now and live out someone else's script but the price is too high.

What is so strange about these words of Peter is that no one is asking. Is there anything about your life worth asking about? You hope to pay your taxes. You hope your kids do well in school. You hope your sports team makes it to the World Series. You hope your health holds up. There is nothing wrong with all these hopes but there is nothing unusual about them either. Sanctified resignation is the doctrine of today. Do you want the life of a certain Christian you know? The sign over the head of the believer is like a line from Dante's Inferno: 'Abandon all hope, all ye who enter here.' People are hardly ripping off the roof of the church just to get a crippled man in the hands of God anymore.

In 1492 Columbus unleashed something on Europe called the New World. First there was the Fountain of Youth a mythical Island called Bimini. It was said a spring flowed whose waters gave eternal youth. The King Ferdinand actually backed a search party to find it. Failing to find it they discovered Florida and the natives killed him. Then there was El Dorado the Lost City of Gold. Enchanted by the lure of great riches in 1553 Sebastian set out on a three-year search. He dies in the process. Two years later Francisco set out down the Amazon River to find it. He died in the process. Coronado marched into Mexico only to find nothing. Sir Walter Raleigh went in search of El Dorado twice in 1616 violating King James I orders not to attack the Spanish. He was beheaded when he got back to England. And the quest continues even today. Why is this? Because your address used to be Paradise called the Garden of Eden. You long for another shot at it. Look through the photograph album of your heart and you will see it. Of all the songs, films, TV shows, musicals, drama and novels can you could on one hand where love is not the pinnacle of the story? Something deeper is happening in these stories on the level of worship. Psalms takes a story of love into worship.

It is not a misguided expedition for El Dorado or the Fountain of Youth but a more modest adventure shopping. With 1.5 billion credit cards in circulation with an average of $5000 debt per card it appears we worship money. But this is not true. The money is a means to an end. Clothes give us our image. The SUV was the top selling vehicle in the past ten years but only 5% are taken off the road. You want the illusion of adventure without the risk. You want the look of adventure without the adventure. In the same way you want the look of Christian without the hunger. You want it vicariously.

Everyone should get drunk at least once a year because if it does not do you any good the repentance will. (This is only an example. I am not condoning drunkenness) There is nothing more alive than waking up to what you have done. The truth is that the absence of hunger brings you more satisfaction than to deeply hunger. The powerful drug on the market today is called distraction. Most of the distractions have a legitimate place in your life.

There is nothing wrong with this. But look what he does with the same thing.

Your distractions become the very means by which you forget who you are. Your hunger is not hard wired to God. Remember David, Peter, Paul and Augustine. Hunger is dangerous but in the hands of God you find out who you really are. Mick Jagger: 'I can't get no satisfaction.' Who blames the man who stays in the office working long hours to provide for his family? Who blames you for looking forward to the next meal more than most? Sure your recreational life can be a problem sometimes but to say any of this is addiction is out of the question. If this is the case: give them up. When you let go of anything that provides security, comfort, excitement or relief you will find the tentacles of attachment deep in your heart. You will make a distraction out of anything. Hunger for men is not the same as women

God cursed you where it hurts the most - in the field. It is your strength. You draw a sense of worth from it. It is not about weeds growing out of the dirt or anyone who is not a farmer would not be hit. It cursed you in your labors with failure. A man hates to fail so got set it all up so you would fail in whatever chosen career you have. But women are not cursed this way.

This is not about babies and marriage or every single woman is not included. God cursed every woman with relational heartache called loneliness. If a woman fails in her career and knows she is greatly loved she pulls through but a man is crushed. The culture today is that a woman is as tough as a man, competitive, achieving and conquering. But it is like Lady Macbeth in an attempt to deal with the way God cursed you by unsexing yourself. There is a contempt for tenderness and vulnerability among women revealing how much you fear both and how deeply the curse of God affects you. Your worst fear is to be abandoned.

Men no longer play the role of masculinity because they fear failure. God set you up for that. Women fear the role of femininity because of its vulnerability but God set you up for this. God promises every man failure and every woman heartache. You cannot outrun the curse of God. You see your friend's children rebel and do crazy things. Your conclusion is they did not pray enough for their kids and you redouble your effort to pray for yours. Your friend suffers a financial setback. Your conclusion is that he did not handle money well and you redouble your budgeting efforts. You cannot outrun the curse. People change their friends, jobs, marriages and churches rather than facing the truth.

God is trying to take away the heaven you are attempting to create on earth or it will become hell to you. No career is like heaven for a man. No relationship is like heaven to a woman. 'Last of the Mohicans' is the story set in 1757 about a vanishing tribe. Three men of this rare tribe are running through the deep forest with speed and grace. They leap across ravines bounding over rocks on an obvious mission. Nathaniel is the hero. There is something dangerous about him that draws us to him and we are not afraid of him. Then there is Cora the heroine. She is wearing a beautiful white dress fringed with lace. A summer hat with a large brim covers her eyes that are rich and deep. She is mysterious but not forbidding. Her lips are deep red and alluring. An entire colony could not stop Nathaniel but he is held captive by Cora's beauty. The scene is masculinity and femininity that Paul calls a mystery referring to the marriage of a man and woman. Christ is the stallion, gazelle and stag that is leaping through the forest on a great mission but is held captive by the beauty of his church. He can take you by force but this would not be true love. So he gives you the freedom to reject him.

No transcript available.

If you would like to see previous transcripts or hear audio available you can find them here.: