Big-God Preaching for God-Hungry People

0:00 We indeed have such a great shepherd. who leads hungry sheep into green pastures, thirsty sheep and thirsty under shepherds beside still waters and restores our souls, restores our souls in worship as we see your grandeur, restores our souls in the fellowship of such brothers who also hunger after our God.

0:34 who leads us in paths of righteousness for his namesake. so father now as we come to your word would you freshly satisfy us would you freshly thrill us with this calling to feed hungry souls when you our god are so eager and ready to feed your son's a good shepherd he knows where the green pastures are where the still water is and Father would you first and foremost feed us to make us good dignified limited role players in your great feeding of your flock in Jesus name we pray amen you may be seated Thank you.

1:36 well my task here at the end of this conference is to freshly remind you or convince you or deepen your conviction that despite what the world says and what your people themselves may say, our people are desperate for God. They hunger for God. Every time we preach, our hearers, whoever they are, men and women, teens, children, middle-aged, elderly, they are God-hungry people.

2:33 some of them perhaps many of them don't know that they're starving for him it's been so long since they've eaten or their feeding has been so shallow and thin and irregular or they have a core emptiness in their soul that has not yet been fed for the first time Amen. many of them don't know how hungry they are or what they are really hungry for, who they're really hungry for. The lead article in The Atlantic this month is called The Antisocial Generation. It's interesting from many standpoints as a pastor charged to lead a flock and a fellowship.

3:30 We know the power of fellowship for our hunger for God in gathering with the brothers like this. But the article includes this line. This is not new to preachers, but this is good reinforcement for us as preachers. Preachers need to be aware of this. Here's the quote. A consistent finding of modern psychology is that people often don't know what they want or what will make them happy. They may think and say they need life hacks and mainly practical advice. They may say they would enjoy movie clips and images on the screen while you're preaching. They may say they like shorter sermons.

4:26 They want more stories. they may say they need the preaching to meet them where they are and they may be half right about many of these evaluations of their need and expressions of their desire, but in them all, beneath them all, whether they realize it or not, they are hungry for God, and many, perhaps most of them, are out of touch with their hunger. They are hungry for the bread of life. They are thirsty for living waters. Brothers, our people are hungry for God, and I pray it will do our own souls well and our preaching well to linger this morning over the God-hungry people with which we're entrusted. And of course, that includes the God-hungry pastors who lead them.

5:35 Twenty years ago I was a student in John Piper's preaching class, and we read this book. This is the old cover from 1990. This looks like the late 80s and the early 90s, right? I read it 20 years ago. I read it again this fall with the preaching class they've entrusted me at Bethlehem College Seminary. And I found this even better than I remembered.

6:09 It's even more up to date than I was expecting. You know why? Hunger for God is timeless. It cuts right across cultures. It cuts right across generations. Anywhere you go, you know what the people need? Need God. we used to do the missions message in this Wednesday morning slot at the conference. And now we do the missions time on Tuesday afternoon.

6:44 Brothers, I'm no missionary, but this is a missions message. Because nothing's more cross-cultural than hunger for God. This has been through some different covers in the decades. So if you've got your 80s and 90s right here, you've got an early 2000s version. Many of you may have it. You may have seen it. It's got an up-to-date look. A little later, we did a 20 teens version. It's got a little more up-to-date look. Most recently, Crossley did that beautiful hardback. It's out there. There's still copies available. though the cover changes from decade to decade, brothers, the need does not change. The hunger has not changed. I was tempted to say, people are even more hungry now, but I don't think they're more hungry. I think they're always hungry. Anywhere you go, any culture, any people, any generation. They hunger for God.

7:49 So here's how this book starts. This is the introduction. First paragraph. Then I'll read a paragraph from page 2 and 3. Just kind of a couple pages here. people are starving for the greatness of God, but most of them would not give this diagnosis of their troubled lives. The majesty of God is an unknown cure. There are far more popular prescriptions on the market, but the benefit of any other remedy, any other remedy is brief and shallow. Preaching that does not have the aroma of God's greatness—brothers, oh, don't you want that?

8:41 Don't you want the aroma of God's greatness in your preaching? Preaching that does not have the aroma of God's greatness may entertain for a season, but it will not touch the hidden cry of the soul, show me your glory. Next page. The greatness and the glory of God are relevant. Mark that. It does not matter if surveys turn up a list of perceived needs that does not include the supreme greatness of the sovereign God of grace. That is the deepest need. Our people are starving for God. Next page. Last one here. It is not the job of the Christian preacher to give people moral or psychological pep talks about how to get along in the world. When that is needed, somebody else can do it.

9:39 but most of our people brothers hear this most of our people have no one no one in the world to tell them week in and week out about the supreme beauty and majesty of god so brothers it was true in the 80s and the 90s and the 2000s and today because it is timeless in every decade, in every generation, in every place in the world that you go, people are starving for God. And so the urgent task in every generation, in every culture, in every church is to expound God's Word and to manifestly rejoice in Christ's majesty so that the people can join the preacher as he feeds on Jesus and is helped by the Spirit so that they might glorify him by depending on him and delighting in him.

10:49 brothers in essence all i want to do in this message is linger over this truth we can be so quick to forget it that our people are hungry for god no matter what they verbalize their hearts ache for him through your words you know what dignity this gives to preaching through your words. Their hearts are aching to be satisfied that will be met through words. You get to play a little part. No matter how much they say they want stories, they want pro tips for life, no matter how much their appetites have been dulled with their endless nibbling at the table of the world, they still ache deep down for real food.

11:45 There's a hunger there, a hunger for God, which he means to feed with himself. And he does it through his infallible word, the scriptures. In his incarnate word, his son. Through his preached word, the gospel. By his breath, the Holy Spirit. and, amazingly, through your fallible but faithful and Spirit-empowered preaching. So this morning is kind of a commission. This is the last big session of the conference. I want this to be a kind of send-off to preachers. I want to send you off to your churches to preach the big God of the scriptures and do so in such a way that it might feed the hungry souls of your people. Now, the Bible gives us many texts that we could rehearse about the hunger of our souls, our thirsting.

13:01 I think of David, King David, how much you talk about his thirst. Psalm 63 and Psalm 42. but I want to limit the field to two voices. I'm trying to narrow this down. So many good things to say about hunger and thirst. Let's narrow it to two voices. The prophet of hunger and the apostle of thirst.

13:30 I wonder if you'd know who they are. Who's the prophet of hunger? Isaiah, the prophet of hunger. And we're going to be in his 55th chapter to begin. How about the apostle of thirst? Who's the apostle of thirst? In a Bethlehem conference, you might assume the answer is Paul. How are you supposed to say Paul? The apostle of thirst is John.

14:01 Brian was showing us the many connections between Isaiah and John. Boy, John loved Isaiah, said so much that was channeling Isaiah. And then along the way here, we'll gather some help from John in John 4 and John 6 and John 7 and finish with John's vision and revelation where Brian had us yesterday. So limiting ourselves to just these two voices, I want to send you home with four convictions for feeding hungry souls with big God preaching. Four convictions for me, for you, for feeding hungry souls with big God preaching conviction number one all my hearers hunger for God and need to eat.

14:55 All my hearers hunger for God and need to eat. Brothers, there will never be a hearer in any message you give who doesn't hunger for God. He made our souls to hunger for Him. Every hearer hungers for Him even if they don't know it. And in Isaiah 55, he offers soul-satisfying food and drink to all indiscriminately. Amazing invitation. no matter how much the luxuries and the decadences of modern life have conditioned the souls of our people to two-bit low-yield momentary pleasures creature comforts our people all of them are hungry for God not only has he put eternity into man's heart but hunger for the eternal three in one and John's going to show us how the three in one meets that hunger.

16:02 Now, we often talk about preachers being heralds. And so we are. But Isaiah 55 gives us another image. I don't know if you've thought about this image as a preacher image. It can be a humbling one in some way. The image is of the street vendor.

16:25 Have you seen any street vendors recently in downtown at a ball game? We have them outside the State Fair in Minnesota. This one was so memorable. He's outside the State Fair selling water. You got a thirst? Come to me first. I'm your water guy. I'm like, yeah, if I want water, I'm gonna buy it from him. He rhymes. I like him. I like that kind of street vendor. He's a preacher. Preach it, brother. But before you think too lowly of the street vendor image, brothers, remember who's talking in Isaiah 55. Isaiah's writing, God's talking. God's willing to humble himself to be a street vendor and make an appeal like this. But brothers, do you stoop like this?

17:21 Often, hearers come awake to their hunger when we talk about their hunger for God, or when we describe our God in hunger-satisfying terms. It's an amazing dignity of preaching. God's pleased to awaken a recognition of hunger through words of a preacher about hunger. So let me encourage you, brothers.

17:48 Go street vendor mode. on your people. Do you ever sound like this?

18:57 for David that hungry thirsty king David so God's appeal here through Isaiah is to all to everyone in the context here, not just Jews, Gentiles, and preachers, all thirst for him, all hunger for him. The question is not whether they, we hunger and thirst, but whether we might awake to it and heed the call and come to the only one who can satisfy. someone might ask here in Isaiah 55 what is it what is it that satisfies the soul in Isaiah 55 I think the street vendor is sufficiently clear about this verse 3 come to me he says verses 6 and 7 seek Yahweh while he may be found Call upon him.

20:05 Return to the Lord, to our God. he's not giving out vouchers. Come to me, get your voucher. Go over there and eat. He's not sending them away to eat. Come to me. Come to me and eat. Jonathan Edwards said, The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. That's hunger, brothers. That's hunger. The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends are but shadows. God is the substance. They are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. They are but streams, but God is the ocean. You may remember Blaise Pascal talking about the infinite abyss in the human soul that can only be filled by the infinite object, namely God himself. This is why this topic assigned to me.

21:22 Thank you, Brian. About the God-hungry people fit so well under this banner of big God preaching. Our people have a God-sized hunger that will not be fed by a domesticated deity or anything else. That's why we preach the book, brothers. Any departure, any minimizing, any pulling back from the book reduces the size of the God that does not feed the soul. You can't think of a better God, a bigger God, than the God who reveals himself in his book.

22:05 So if you want to have the big God to preach to the God-sized hunger of your people, you steep in, you meditate on, you feed them from the book, you won't make up a bigger, better God than the one in the book. the preacher's privilege is not to announce the food he made the preacher's privilege is to be like a starving leper in second king seven the Assyrians have wandered off they've left all their provisions and the starving lepers go back and say we found food We found it. Street vendors, heralds, preachers, food found hungry souls come eat. Thirsty souls drink.

22:58 and brother as we play street vendor and say come eat rich fare amazingly we offer this free of charge see that freeness why do you spend your money your labor come eat free without money without price? we hear that may think oh if it's free it must be cheap this is not cheap this is rich fare it's free of charge to the hearer because the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 has paid the price that the invitation of the street vendor might go out in Isaiah 55 to all people indiscriminately The price has been paid.

23:55 It is rich, fair, paid by the servant. And we brothers, we just get to play a part. We get to be an instrument. Like the disciples in Matthew 14. There's a great crowd, 5,000 strong. And evening comes. The people are clearly hungry. so a worldly wise disciple suggests you know this is a desolate place and the day is now over Jesus how about if you send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves Does that sound like Isaiah 55? Buy food for themselves?

24:49 So what does Jesus say to his disciples? They need not go away. You give them something to eat. Brothers, you give them something to eat.

25:12 And the disciples don't turn their backs on Jesus and go work on making something. What do they do? They bring the people to Jesus. He's going to feed them. and the disciples get to play a part, bringing them to Jesus and the dignity of food distribution that Jesus gives them. So conviction number one, all my hearers are hungry for God and need to eat. And we brothers, we preachers, we want to do our level best not to send them away hungry. Conviction number two, I myself hunger for God and need to keep eating. I myself hunger for God and need to keep eating. Brothers, all preachers hunger for God, including you.

26:12 You need the bread of life. You are thirsty. You need living waters. In fact, let me think of it this way. We preachers should be the biggest and most mindful eaters in our congregation. I'm a Southern Baptist. I'm careful here. I'm not talking about physical food being the biggest eaters. I'm talking about the biggest eaters of spiritual food in our congregation. Jonathan Edwards would encourage us to have no moderation for spiritual appetites.

26:57 Persons need not and ought not set any bounds to their spiritual and gracious appetites. Rather, they ought to be endeavoring by all possible ways to inflame their desires and to obtain more spiritual pleasures. Endeavor to promote spiritual appetites by laying yourself in the way of allurement.

27:26 Brothers, are you laying yourself in the way of allurement? or better maybe the question for us is Am I laying myself in the way of allurement enough? brothers our own hunger and feeding is vital in the feeding of our people for two reasons you have to stay alive spiritually to be able to feed other people you got to secure the oxygen mask before you help somebody else with theirs

28:05 and we won't know what's good food what's refreshing water unless we're enjoying it ourselves Let's go. we will leave the wrong pieces on the cutting room floor as we're working on our sermon if we're not tasting ourselves.

28:26 I suspect one of the reasons, perhaps the main reason, that a pastor's sermons don't feed his people is that he's losing or has lost his sense of taste. he himself is not really eating apart from sermon prep he's not getting alone with the word just to enjoy Jesus and drink the spirit and commune with the living God frankly I wonder if in gatherings like this and seminaries and in pastors fellowships we might be prone to undersell the importance of a preacher's own private feeding assume it's happening mention it at a glance But how long do we linger on it?

29:24 I'm not sure I've heard it overdone yet. Not for pastors. You can't help others breathe long if you're not breathing. Or feed well when you're not feeding. this book habits of grace a few years ago on spiritual disciplines. And so I'll travel around at times and talk to congregations about it. One thing that's been surprising to me in doing that is how often pastors talk to me about their own needs in engaging the means of grace, the pressures of ministry. Got that sermon to prep.

30:11 I gotta preach at 10 o'clock. Just commune with the Lord over my sermon rehearsal. it's been surprising to hear how many pastors expressed the need for this just to be alone with jesus to enjoy him feed on him in his word no ministry preparation not a means to anything this is end he made me a hungry creature my soul is starving for him i need to feed on him end worship him end Thank you. it's not the same as study studying is a distinct thing i meet plenty of pastors who study plenty i'm talking about communion with god i'm talking about devotional reading and engagement and meditation and private prayer enjoying god as an end not as a means to ministry preparations which brings to mind George Mueller.

31:20 God bless George Mueller. I hope you've read his 1500 word journal entry from 1841 where he talks about the discovery he made and has been at now for some years. I forget whether it's 13 or 14 years when he's writing this and he's editing the journal entry. If you haven't read it, read it. If you have read it, let me just say, it rewards rereading. I read it over and over again regularly and typically get something else from it that I didn't see or appreciate in the same way previously. Let me give you four things from Mueller's insight that I have found helpful to me over the years. First, word first. He talks about how he used to pray and how empty his prayers were.

32:16 And then he switched and made the discovery that word first. First thing each day. So that's part of the first. Before breakfast. breakfast for pastors pastors need to eat you need the word more than you need breakfast so first bible and then prayer god speaks first in his word and then we respond in prayer and this he says is our first job every day here it is pastor it's your job first job The first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day is to have my soul happy in the Lord. Brothers, what a business. What a task.

33:12 What a job. Anything else is burdensome. But have your soul happy? What a duty. get your soul happy in God brothers you have that job take it go with it second Mueller uses our eating and feeding analogy there's one way I got to Mueller here he keeps talking eating and feeding Thank you. He says, the first thing the child of God has to do in the morning, morning by morning, is obtain food for his inner man. brothers when the outer man wakes up hungry for breakfast that's a reminder that the inner man needs food all the more muller comes to god he says for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul and as he lingers in god's presence he says he aims to continually keep before me that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation.

34:30 I wonder if you'd do that. Jonathan made reference yesterday to the I-O-U-S, the I-O-U's that John discovered and talked about all these years. A way to pray over the word before getting into the word. It leads into prayer. I incline my heart to your testimonies. Oh, open my eyes. You unite my heart. Then the fourth one. This is really significant. I don't know if I realized this until preparing for this message, how that fourth one has shaped me by being fourth. I'm so glad you put it fourth. Because the thing you pray last is in, we call this in the editorial world, the emphatic physician. The S, satisfy me in the morning that I may rejoice and be glad all my days. Satisfy me comes last in those I-O-U-S's.

35:30 Brothers, if you don't know the I-U-S is and you don't pray through the whole sequence, pray the S. It's a really good focus. That's Mueller's focus. He's, in a sense, praying the S every morning. Satisfy me. Give me food for my inner man. This is a really good way to approach God's work. Many ways. But the prayer and that conscious thought of, I want to feed. I'm after food for my soul. satisfy me with food for my soul that I may rejoice and be glad all day Mueller uses this word nourish again and again I won't read them all but he used it so many times let me give you a few of the ways he's using this word nourish it's our feeding language right the first thing to be concerned with each day is not about how much I might serve the Lord not how I might glorify the Lord in ministry but how I might get my soul into a happy state and that my inner man might be nourished.

36:44 So he's learned, he says, to approach his daily spiritual feeding in such a way that my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened. And that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful, if not a happy state of heart. I wonder if when you hear them say, almost invariably, and when you hear him say, sensibly, he can sense it, he can feel it, he can taste it. I wonder if you say, oh, that's impossible. That's not my experience. Almost invariably. That's not my experience. My experience has been maybe a couple times a week. it's not always happening brothers your soul is shaped over time you learn to do this you learn to take hold of your heart John Owen is very fortunate but I didn't bring the Owen quotes Amen.

38:01 brothers stick with it your soul will be shaped and formed i can testify to this almost invariably that's really helpful that's possible it is possible for you maybe not just a few days but months and years your soul will be reformed by what you put it to first thing every day Okay. so that you will sensibly, sensibly taste in communion with him, his goodness, his strength, his mercy, his love.

38:43 How does it relate to prayer then? Mueller says that my heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experiential fellowship with God, I then speak to my father and friend about the things that he has brought before me in his precious word. This is how it's a relationship. It's not just read the passages, check the boxes, whoop, hard pivot, pray your lists, done, soul empty, and go try to get it filled from other people all day. Rather, it's God's feeding me by his spirit in his word. I'm hearing his word, his precious word. And now in prayer, I'm responding to him about his word. What he just said, not forgetting, not closing my ear to what he's saying to me in his living word. I want to pray in light of what he's saying to me in his word.

39:38 It's a relationship. This is communion. And so he says, prayer can be most effectually performed after the inner man has been nourished by meditation on the word of God. where we find our Father speaking to us, to encourage us, to comfort us, to instruct us, to humble us, to reprove us.

40:03 Brothers, if you're wondering what the different forms of spiritual feeding might take, what might be like? Spoken to. That's one he says, spoken to. You can be feeding and being spoken to by your Father, the living God, encouraged by his words, comforted by his words, instructed by his words, humbled, he said. There's feeding and humbling. Reproved is not just encouragement and comfort. There is feeding in divine correction and reproof. Thank God he's pulling me off the path of death back onto the path of life. Third then, Mueller emphasizes meditation. I mentioned meditation right there in the last quote.

40:58 What do we say about meditation? He mentions meditation 14 times in a 1,500 word journal entry. If we're editing this at Desiring God, we probably would have written back to him, said, Mr. Mueller, thank you for the contribution. Use the word meditation too many times in 1,500 words. I don't think he did. I'm not going to read you all the mentions of meditation.

41:29 But brothers, other than the importance of private feeding, this might be the most important thing I have to say to us preachers. I don't know how many of us heard much about meditation in seminary. probably even fewer of us learned how to actually do it in seminary because we had so much to read and then outside jobs and maybe you already got a family seminary can be such a busy time seminary so often doesn't teach you to engage god's word at the pace it was designed to be engaged it's an amazingly intentionally written book every word matters every word was put down thought about reviewed edited copy it was so expensive to make books in the ancient world they didn't rattle off emails and hit print this is expensive intentional work everything we have in the bible is meant to be engaged deeply slowly it's not like reading screens it's not like browsing overlong seminary assignments that's where spiritual feeding happens not fast food spiritual feeding not quick reading and box checking not merely sermon prep and study but real feeding deep feeding comes in slow reading and rereading and chewing on and unhurriedly following the text and steeping your soul in it You follow where the Spirit leads in the Word.

43:21 And you've got to carve out enough space. that you can follow his leading. Moving through your text. Oh, that reminds me of something. Go over there. Oh, yeah, that's over here too. I love those cross references.

43:42 Meditation, Mueller says, means searching as it were into every verse to get blessing out of it. That's good. And remember, rebuke is a blessing. Humbling's a blessing. Searching in every verse to get blessing out of it for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul. And by meditation, he says that he means not the simple reading of the word of God. Brothers, are you just, are you simply reading? Something you'll ever ask. Meditation that he's commending, and I'm commending, not the simple reading of the word of God so that it only passes through our minds just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering it over and applying it to our hearts. It can go 60 miles an hour through here, and it doesn't go 60 miles an hour through here.

44:40 You've got to slow down. Give the heart time to be shaped, to feed on the text. I think that's the closest that Mueller gets to what meditation is. Considering what you read, pondering it over and applying it to your own heart. trying to feel what God means for you to feel in this text that's before you. Do you know what Hudson Taylor's spiritual secret was? this podcast I love called Ask Pastor John episode maybe even this week it was last week and he mentioned Hudson Taylor's spiritual secret which doctrinally is union with Christ and then there's the communion there's the daily practice of the doctrine there's the application the use of it. The spiritual secret wasn't just knowing it, the spiritual secret was using it.

45:51 Here's what he says about his daily soul feeding practice. Communion with Christ requires our coming to him. Meditating upon his person and his work requires the diligent use of the means of grace. And especially the prayerful reading of his word.

46:17 I hear Hudson Taylor saying there what Mueller was saying. Not the simple reading, not the normal reading. Don't read this book like you read everything else, but meditative reading, prayerful reading. And then he says, many fail to abide because they habitually fast instead of feed. Brothers, have you been habitually fasting? or feeding on God's word.

46:54 Hungry pastors, habitually fasting, will not feed their people well, not for long. So fourth then, last thing here in Mueller, Mueller says that his daily unhurried seasons of communing with Christ through meditating on his word is, he says it explicitly, not for the sake of public ministry. he's forceful about this daily communion with God he says is not for the sake of public ministry of the word not for the sake of preaching what I had meditated on but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which either very soon thereafter or at a later time I found to become food for others that's gonna happen God don't take care of that I just can give you food for others. Though it was not for the sake of public ministry of the word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man.

47:57 One of the most precious lessons from getting to travel with John from 06 to 2012. I'm just about every trip from 06 to 2012. Stay in the same hotel room. See the man, his real life, and to know that he's going to be speaking to thousands the next morning. And to see him get up and not go right to the message. Not go right to reviewing, preparation, getting the message ready. But the next reading in the Bible reading plan, communion with the Lord. That's the first priority. I've got to get my soul happy in God first. That message will happen later. That's not the first concern. That's not the first job. job number one meet with the living christ so brothers let's eat like george muller let's get our souls happy in god by feeding on him in his word through daily meditating on it not for the sake of public ministry daily communion with god is not sermon prep not yet this is communion with the risen christ through his word by his spirit as an end in itself to enjoy Him to feed our own souls in Him. Conviction number three, my people need to eat and keep eating.

49:22 My people need to eat and keep eating. There is in the Christian life this punctiliar moment, this original moment when the Spirit brings us awake and we say, ah, now my soul is satisfied. And then our soul aches. Oh, how I want to keep feeding. This is just already not yet. to the Christian's hunger. And that relates very much to our preaching. So hopefully we're aiming to feed both hungers every week. We want people to come awake for the first time, to realize their core emptiness, to be satisfied for the first time, and then to keep feeding the flock, people who need to keep feeding. This core emptiness is how Jesus talks in John chapter 4, verses 13 to 14.

50:21 He says to the woman at the well, Everyone who drinks of this well water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. So there's this core emptiness to be fed, a core thirst to be quenched. See that again in John 6 verse 35. Jesus says to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. Never. so how do we square not hunger and never thirst again how do we square that with our ongoing hunger with our ongoing thirst I got some help from Carson, as is often the case in the Gospel of John.

51:28 His comment on John 6, 35. He says, The hungry and thirsty person who comes to Jesus finds his hunger satisfied and his thirst quenched. This does not mean there is no need for continued dependence upon him, for continued feeding. There we go. Feeding upon him. It does not mean there is no longer. But what it does mean, it does mean there is no longer that core emptiness. that the initial encounter with Jesus has met. I got help from that. There's a core emptiness, and there's a crust, shell. What's the external part of the emptiness? There's a core emptiness, satisfied, never to thirst again. Now I know where to get the water.

52:24 And then every morning I'm thirsty. Every morning I'm hungry. That's John 7. John 7 37 and 39 on the last day of the feast the great day Jesus stood up and he cried out this is street vendor mode this is Jesus the street vendor channeling Isaiah 55 if anyone thirsts let him come to me and drink oh that's awesome he embodies Isaiah 55 and brings it home to himself. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now, verse 39, this he said about the spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive for as yet the spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified.

53:25 so brothers this is a huge piece here for us as preachers we got jesus is the bread of life you don't bake the bread we talk about our feeding of the sheep the dignity of having our having a part in it brothers you don't have to break the bake the bread you don't make him he is made he is hot and ready to feed the people's hunger and we have another helper he pours out this is fitting for water he pours out his Holy Spirit on his people that he might be in his people a spring of living water in them welling up to eternal life living waters flowing out of their hearts Brothers, you are not alone.

54:23 Even if you are alone in your church, lone preacher, even if you're a lone pastor, you are not alone in feeding the people. Not just because you have Carson to reference. You are not alone because Jesus is the bread of life and his Holy Spirit is in you and in his people that they might drink and eat. it's an awesome thing to get to be part of that.

54:55 And brothers, we just play a little street vendor part in God's feeding of his people. He loves to feed his people. So we finish with conviction number four. full satisfaction is coming. that's understated full satisfaction is coming I loved President Tab's Edwards quote yesterday about pre-libations I had never heard pre-libations that's what we're doing in our preaching let's help them with some pre-libations of the feast to come So let me finish with the apostle of thirst in the last book of the Bible about our coming, culminating satiation.

55:55 we read from revelation seven earlier we stopped at verse 12 this is verse 14

56:47 and then revelation 21 verse 6 the next verse after our passage last night yesterday afternoon verse 6 it is done i am the alpha and the omega the beginning and the end to the thirsty i will give the spring of the water of life without payment. That's Isaiah 55. You don't pay because the servant paid. He bought it. And then one more. It's the last one. Revelation 22, verse 17.

57:30 As a Christian hedonist, I love that the Bible ends like this. It's the end of the Bible right here, Revelation 22, right at the end. I love that the Bible ends with a reprise of Isaiah 55.

57:50 The spirit and the bride say, come. And let the one who hears say, come. And let the one who is thirsty come let the one who desires to take the water of life take it without price Brothers, the day of full satisfaction is coming. And even then, get this, even then our satisfaction will not be final. rather we might say an endless age of ever increasing satisfaction is coming something different than having the core met and then daily needs at the crust there won't be any more needs at the crust. So how will there be growing satisfaction? Our capacity for satisfaction will grow and thicken and enrich and deepen and strengthen.

58:57 So, brother preacher, do you love Jesus? feed his sheep. I say, brother preacher, do you love Jesus? feed his sheep. They're hungry for him, thirsty for him. Some are starving and don't know it. I say, brother preacher, do you love him?

59:36 Are you grieved that I asked a third time? Feed his sheep. keep feeding your own soul on him seek to satisfy your soul in him drink him, eat him, feast on him delight yourself in the bread that came down from heaven and feed his sheep I finished with the conclusion of the supremacy of God in preaching. people are starving for the grandeur of God and the vast majority do not know it most do not discern that they were made to thrill at the panorama of God's power and glory they seek to fill the void in other ways next page Christian preachers Christian preachers more than all others should know this truth that people are starving for God if anyone in the world should be able to say I have looked upon you in the sanctuary beholding your power and glory it is the herald of God and street vendor and as we look out over the wasteland of our secular culture must we preachers not ask who but us will say to this people, behold your God.

1:01:07 Who will tell the people that God is great and greatly to be praised? Who will paint for them the landscape of God's grandeur? Who will remind them with tales of wonder that God has triumphed over every foe? Who will cry out in every crisis, your God reigns? Who will labor to find words that can carry the gospel of the glory of the blessed God? last paragraph if God is not supreme in our preaching where in this world will people hear about the supremacy of God if we do not spread a banquet of God's beauty on Sunday morning will not our people seek in vain to satisfy their inconsolable longing with the cotton candy pleasures of pastimes and religious hype.

1:02:05 If the fountain of living water does not flow from the mountain of God's sovereign grace on Sunday morning, will not the people hew for themselves cisterns on Monday, broken cisterns that can hold no water? If we love our people, if we love the other sheep that are not yet gathered in the fold, if we love the fulfillment of God's global purpose, we will labor to spread a table for them in the wilderness. People everywhere are starving for the enjoyment of God.

1:02:39 Brothers, they need not go away. You give them something to eat. Let's pray. So Father in heaven, feed us. we are hungry as pastors as preachers feed us we need to keep hungry we need to keep feeding and father what good news it is for us that we're not alone in this work your sons the bread your spirits the living water you are a father who loves to satisfy his children you love to smile on your people on sunday mornings and throughout the week by satisfying them in yourself which fulfills your very purpose in creation in the universe to glorify you.

1:03:39 So Father, as these brothers go back to their churches, would you send us back with fresh resolve to first be satisfied, to work on our souls, to take cues from Mueller. and then father to be those who humbly with all of our inadequacies all of our imperfections to humbly offer the food and say come eat come eat with me in Jesus name we pray amen