My pleasure and privilege to be back with you tonight.
I thought that I was going to be speaking about the works of the flesh tonight, but then the Lord at the last minute switched that around. But I do want to say something about that Galatians Chapter 5 go home and read it. The works of the flesh.
And the Bible says, and they, which do such things.
Shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. They are death penalty, sins. You want to know what will cause you to miss Heaven, the works of the flesh as part of that.
And and I wanted to say that because my sister Sue Payne and I are going to be doing a small group. The title of it is Living Right In A World Gone So Wrong.
And in that in that small group, we’re going to be covering the works of the flesh. But this is what I want to say about that. This is just a little teaser that maybe I’ll get you to come to our small group 19 works of the flesh. Four of them are sins of the body. Adultery for an occasion lasciviousness.
Uncleanness 9 works of the flesh more than half of the works of the flesh, and this is what the church doesn’t know are sins of the temper.
How many of you knew that already?
Being Satisfied With God Stops Hunger Pains – Matthew 5:6
I talked about this in another small group not too long ago, and one of our deacons was in that class and he came up to me and said Sister Cindy, I have never heard that before in my life.
But it’s something the church needs to know. You think you’re bad attitudes, OK. Oh, no.
You think you don’t have to apologize when you’re wrong? Ohh no. My sister and I are like, why are we the only two people in the world that have to say we’re sorry?
We know we’re not, but sometimes it seems like that. So I thought I was. I have a whole PowerPoint presentation on the works of the flesh, but we’ll be covering that in our small group. So I just wanted to say that, but as I was getting ready for the service, the Lord.
Begin to change my mind and to kind of stay in the same vein that we were in last week and I want to also say about that. I talked about football and how you know you you learn the rules of the game and when your foot goes out of bounds, what happens?
The game stops, but I want to also say.
You don’t have to start the game over.
You can come right back in at the same place.
But the game has to stop.
Until you realize you’ve gone out of bounds.
And then the game.
You opened it up. I think that works better. Thank you. And then the game can continue. What are you saying, Sister Cindy? What I’m saying is.
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We all make mistakes. We all mess up sometimes, and when we do, and when we get out of the boundary lines, the games got to stop. You’ve got to say wait.
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In it. Oh, God. I’m so sorry. You know, I was wrong. I had the wrong attitude. I did the wrong thing. But, Lord, I’m asking you to forgive me. That’s what you do when the game stops. OK? I don’t. I didn’t want to leave you with the impression that you know. Oh, my goodness, the game stops. And no, you don’t have to start over.
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You can come right back in, but you’ve got to correct that somebody say Amen. Sister Cindy, you can’t just keep going.
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When you’re out of bounds, you’ve got to stop. There has to be a time of correction, and I wanted to be very careful to make that clear. But tonight?
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I feel like this is the way the Holy Spirit has led me and I want to speak to you about hunger pains. If you have your Bibles.
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Matthew 5-6.
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And then we’ll be also reading in Luke the 6th chapter.
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But if you have your Bibles and you want to follow along, Matthew 5-6 says do we have the ability to show it?
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On the screen.
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Matthew 5-6.
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Matthew 5-6 blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
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Here is the sermon on the Mount. We all know what that is, where Jesus gave so much instruction and the word in this scripture means to have a strong desire in Luke 6, verse 21, it says.
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Blessed are ye that hungered now, for you shall be filled.
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In Luke 625 it says woe unto you that are full, for you shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh. Now, for you shall mourn and weep. And in Luke six he is speaking specifically to his disciples.
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Let’s bow our heads. We love you, Lord.
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God, I am completely dependent on you Holy Spirit tonight in my flesh is no good thing. God, I can’t speak good enough or or perfect enough Lord to see it accomplish anything but Holy Spirit, if you will anoint this sacred word.
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Then we will see it go forth and accomplish that, which lips in it forth to do.
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I ask you, God help me not say too much or too little, but guide every word that is spoken from this sacred place and will forever give you the praise in Jesus name and every one says.
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Amen. I’m speaking on hunger pains. Webster defines hunger this way.
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A craving or urgent need for food or nutrient.
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A weakened condition brought about by a prolonged lack of food.
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It also defines it as a strong desire. Did you know that of all human appetites and desires, hunger is #1 even greater than sexual desire? Hunger is the number one human appetite. It takes first place.
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No one needs to tell me when I’m hungry.
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You can tell by looking at.
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And I can tell by looking at some of you.
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When this body is hungry.
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It’s going to search for and provide for itself what it needs.
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The scripture I read to you, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Then I think we can safely turn that scripture around and say it this way, if we are not hungry.
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For the things of God.
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It’s because we are all ready.
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You get that?
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When something is full, it cannot contain anything else. There’s no more room.
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If we’re not hungry for God, then our lives have already been filled with other things that temporarily satisfy.
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I heard John Kilpatrick, the pastor of the church in Florida, Brownsville, Assembly of God in the 1990s, that had that great revival. Some of us still remember.
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That, but I heard that great man of God say this revival did not just come to Brownsville.
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But rather, this congregation had been earnestly seeking God infesting in prayer for two years prior to the great outpouring that God sent.
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Somebody in Brownsville got hungry for God. They came to the sober realization that the things of this earth do not satisfy. They begin to look around and realize there were things that needed to change, and I think we can all testify to that today.
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Something has got to change even in the spiritual realm.
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God’s people have got to come to the realization.
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And empty ourselves of this world and its lust.
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In this great nation of ours, the greatest downfall that we has is our appetites and where they lead us.
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Where are your appetites leading you? What app? What direction is your appetite taking you in? I’m gonna be sharing a story out of the book of Ruth tonight, starting in chapter one. But before that book opens, we’ve got to go back to the.
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Book and the last verse of the book of the Last Chapter of the Book of Judges that says, and every in those days there was no king in Israel and every man did that which was right.
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Thank you in his own.
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As Ruth Chapter One opens, we have the story of a precious family that yielded themselves to their passions and appetites.
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And I want you to go with me. Just for a few minutes tonight and see where that led them. The father’s name was Elimelech.
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His name means my God is king. The rabbi say that Elimelech was a close relative of Salman, who is believed to be one of the spies that entered into Jericho. Remember Jericho? They walked, walked around the walls and the walls came down.
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He’s believed to be one of the spies that entered Jericho and would later marry the prostitute Rahab.
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So we’ve got to know that Salman was a man of God. He’d seen God do great and mighty things. Elimelech had been taught the things of God he knew very well what they were. His wife was Naomi and her name Means Pleasant one.
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They lived in Bethlehem, Judah.
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Bethlehem means place of bread, and Judah means praise and verse. One opens in Ruth chapter one and it says and there was a famine in the land.
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They’re usually, and typically in the word of God, where there’s a famine in the land, it’s followed by a time that God’s people had been far away from him.
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Elimelech and Naomi make a decision concerning their family. Now. Keep in mind there’s a family famine in Bethlehem. Judah. These two people knew the law of God. Make no mistake, their knowledge of God was great. They clearly understood the commandments of the Lord.
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But they were not content to stay in Bethlehem and ride out the famine, but rather they chose to go into the country of Moab.
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We know that the Moabites were longstanding enemies of Israel. The Israelites were forbidden to have anything to do with the Moabites, but yet the limelight and Naomi together. Maybe he led the family alone, but the decision was made to take the family into Moab during the famine.
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You can look at any Bible map and you clearly understand that to get to Moab from Bethlehem Judah you had to cross the Jordan.
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You could have crossed the Dead Sea, but I would think the Jordan River would have been the smarter, smarter plan.
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We know that the Israelites crossed the Jordan River on dry ground when God was taking them into Canaan.
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But here we see a family.
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A family of of the Israelites crossing the Jordan River, but they’re going in the wrong direction. Does anyone beside me see a problem with that?
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They knew they weren’t supposed to have anything to do with the Moabites. They knew that God had brought them this way into the land of Canaan, but now times are hard. Things are are are bleak, and it’s not as fun as it used to be. So they’re turning around and going into Moab in the wrong direction.
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This is a type of leaving God Church.
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Going the wrong way, let me tell you something in your Christian walk, no matter how hard it gets, no matter how hard things get in the church, no matter if you disagree with leadership, no matter what the circumstances are, turning back is never.
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Is an option.
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No, no matter how many things are going on that you don’t understand, there is nothing for you in Moap God never intended that you travel to Moab once you experienced.
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I’m sure Elimelech had good intentions for his family.
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He probably thought my boys will get a better education in Moab. They’ll be better suited to make a good living.
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He probably thought I can go there and our business will flourish until this famine is over. He was certain that he could provide for his family a whole lot better.
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In my way.
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And I promise you that they probably thought we’re just going to be here for a little while. We’re not going to be here long at all. But in verse two, it says.
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And they came into the country of Moab.
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And continued there. They may have had the intentions to stay just a little while, but the connotation of that word remained. It means to existence exist. They took up residence in Moab.
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They got comfortable in Moab.
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They began to fit in with the crowd. They made friends in Moab. They were content there. They just seemed to forget their former lives in Bethlehem, Judah. They began to forget about Jehovah God, and they took on the appearance and the customs.
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Of Moab. What are you saying, Sister Sidney, I’m saying they got out of the boundary line.
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And then in verse 3.
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We’re only in verse 3.
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And the Bible says Elimelech died. Naomi’s husband died.
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That should have been the wake up call that should have prompted Naomi to take her boys and go back to the land of Jehovah God, but it didn’t because they had begun to blend in in Moab.
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They liked it in Mohab.
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They had no thoughts.
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Of going back home.
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And then in verse four it says that the her two sons took wives of the women of Moab. Doesn’t look to me like they’re going home anytime soon, does it?
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They took wives in Moab and they lived there. The word of God says for 10 years.
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Whatever Leveled’s intentions were.
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If he only thought he’d take his family for six months or a year or two, he he had them in Moab long enough for Moab to influence them.
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Be careful. Mom and dad. How many parents are in the room? Be careful. Mom and dad. What? You allow? Because what you allow you are encouraging.
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Sometimes you’ve just got to say no.
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That’s not where you’re going. That’s not what we believe. That’s not what you’re going to do.
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We have soft parents today.
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And I remember raising my kids and doctor Dobson said say yes as much as you can.
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But there are times parents when you just have to say no.
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Get a backbone, Daddy, get a backbone. Husband. Don’t leave it to your wife to make those decisions. The responsibility is heavy on your shoulders.
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Be careful what you allow because what you allow you are encouraging.
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You may allow your children to flirt with the world long enough.
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To get caught in Satan’s web.
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When you have to say no, find the courage.
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To say no.
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Now Elimelech is dead in Moab.
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There’s still no attempt to return to Bethlehem, Judah.
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They have taken up residence there. They have made a life in Moab, a place where God never intended them to be.
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And they like it here.
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When I ask you a question, parents, grandparents, if we gain the whole world.
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And lose our children.
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And our grandchildren, what have we gained?
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Isn’t always the way to go, if ever.
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I pray all the time God puts steel in the backs of your people so that they will stand up and declare the whole Council of God, whether they here or they for bear. If the word of God says it’s wrong, it’s wrong.
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And then the word of God says in verse five that both of their sons, Mahlon and Kilion die.
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In Moab.
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I have a cousin who’s a rank Sinner.
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This is her. This is her phrase that she says all the time.
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You pay a high price to live a low life.
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You see, sin will always take you further than you wanted to go. Keep you longer than you wanted to stay and cost you far more than you ever thought that you would pay. There’s a song we used to sing years ago.
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That went something like this.
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The world may try to satisfy this longing in your soul.
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You may search the whole world over, but you’ll be just as before. You’ve never known true satisfaction if you know it sang it until you found the Lord only Jesus.
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Can satisfy.
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Your soul only.
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Jesus can satisfy your soul. Only he can change your heart and make you whole. He’ll give you peace.
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You never knew sweet love and joy.
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Heaven too.
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Only Jesus can satisfy.
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You see, the Bible says of Moses. Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the children of God than to enjoy the pleasure of sin.
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For a season, is there fun in sin? Ask any sin or sure there is.
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But it just last.
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For a fleeting moment and the consequences and the price is higher than you ever want to realize.
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Here’s Naomi.
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She’s still in Moab.
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Her husband is dead.
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Her two sons are dead, and here she is, despondent.
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Depressed. Lonely.
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No self esteem. She has nothing. No finances left. Here she is in this place that God never intended her to be.
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This isn’t the way that story was supposed to end.
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There was supposed to be a happily ever after.
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But here she is left.
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With nothing, the result of sin in your life is grief and sorrow. The word of God says if you sow to the wind, you reap the whirlwind.
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And the wages of sin is death. I encourage you, Saints of God. Why? Where are your passions? Where are your greatest desires? Leading you? What is that pulling you? Where’s it pulling you too? You see, if you’re hunger and your desire is for him.
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You have a desire for his house. You have a desire to be on a prayer call when the opportunity arises.
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You have a desire to gather with God’s people or just give it. Let me tell you something. There is nothing like being in the presence of Almighty God one-on-one.
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Yes, yes.
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In thy presence is fullness of.
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Joy and at your right hand are pleasures. This world holds nothing for me. There’s nothing that I want, Steve, except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And to do everything that I can do to win every one that I can to the Lord.
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In my remaining days.
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What direction is your appetite leading you in?
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Hunger for God will lead you to the secret place.
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It won’t be a chore.
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Hunger for God will lead you to his word.
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Hunger for God will lead you to his house.
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Hunger for God will cause you to reach out to a world that is lost and dying without him.
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Hunger for God will drive you to care for the shepherds, sheep.
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Let me say it another way.
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What’s taking your time?
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It’s whatever it is that is taking your time.
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Is what is filling you.
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Is it your work?
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Is it your play?
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TV reading activities with the kids, shopping aerobics crafts, art class, school cooking. What is it that’s taking your time?
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I want you to ask yourself that question. What is taking my time? What is it that takes so much of my time that I don’t have time to pray that I don’t have time to get a loan with the Lord? What is it? Because whatever is taking your time is what is filling you.
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Here’s Naomi in Moab.
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Nothing left.
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But then the word of God says.
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But then she arose.
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For she heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited his people and giving them breath. The famine was over. She’d seen enough of Moab, she’d had enough of Moab and their music and their food and their.
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Influence. She was up to here. She couldn’t take anymore.
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And she could not get back to the place of her Jehovah God.
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She arose from the place where she is, like I said before. When I’m hungry, it moves me to action.
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I get up and I go to find the provision that she got up because she heard good news from afar land.
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She made another deliberate decision, she said. I’m going home.
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Nothing about Moab satisfies me anymore. She got hungry for him. Hallelujah.
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Several years ago.
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An Assembly of God pastor in Cincinnati called me and he said, Cindy, I have to be out of town. Would you come and take care of my church on Wednesday night? I said sure. So I went and we had the service, and while I was ministering while I was up giving the word, I noticed two people come in the back of the church.
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A man and a woman. And they sat all the way in the back. They were very quiet. Nothing happened. I finished preaching and gave the ultra call and while I was praying with some people at the altar, one of the deacons came and got me and he said, Sister Cindy, would you come to the back?
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With me and I went to the back and he the man and the woman were standing there. It was one of the men from the church and the woman was his sister.
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They were crying. She was crying hysterically and and I said how can I help? How can I pray for you? And one of them said you didn’t see it on the news tonight. And I said no, I I haven’t seen anything.
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Thing and they said her name was Brenda and they said her husband and her two sons were involved in a drug deal gone bad, and all three of them are apprehended and they’re going to prison. Someone was killed in the process.
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And that woman stood there, and as soon as that left, whoever’s mouth was telling the story, she began to wail, and she began to scream like I had never heard anyone scream before. Out of her mouth, she said, God, you’ve got to help me.
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I would learn later that the whole family were members of that church at one time, but they got attracted to go across the boundary line and wander over into Mohab. This is the result of that kind of a journey. When you make that decision on your own.
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You’ve got to help me God. And she screamed and prayed.
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Thank God she gave her heart to the Lord that night and and God came to her.
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But the far country experience is a costly 1.
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Be careful. Hold on to your children. Don’t let them wander across the boundary line so easily.
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Verse 19 said.
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So they went until they came to Bethlehem. You know the story. Orpha went home. Ruth went with Naomi.
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At what price?
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Is the hunger for God going to return to his people?
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What’s it gonna take?
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How much loss?
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Are we going to have to suffer?
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Until we’re willing.
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To empty it all out and hunger and thirst after him.
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Nothing would stop Naomi at this point.
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That hunger for the place of bread and the place of praise was real.
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And there was a craving deep down in her soul for the former things of God that she once knew. You know the story when they came into the city of Bethlehem, they all began to to come around her. And they said they owe me. Is that you?
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It had taken such a toll on her and changed her very appearance to the place where they didn’t even know if it was her or not.
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And she said to them.
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Don’t call me Naomi.
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Because that name means pleasant one, she said. Call me Mara.
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Which means bitter.
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She went on to say for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.
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I went out.
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And the Lord has brought me home again.
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Woe to those who are full.
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For you shall hunger.
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I want to stay as close to him as I know how to in these last days.
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I don’t want to wander away. I don’t wanna live on the line. I want to be. I want to be a vessel of honor in the hands of the master in a great house. There are many vessels, vessels of wood.
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And of stubble. But I want to be a vessel of honor that can be useful.
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In his hands.
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But thank God she did come back.
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Now she’s back in Bethlehem. Judah, I’m so glad that we serve a God of such grace and mercy.
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And that he is a God.
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Of second chances and third chances and fourth chances if need be.
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She came back and you know the story. Most of you how Ruth had to go out and glean in the field of Boaz, and that Boaz would become their kinsman, Redeemer and ultimately Boaz, who I believe at that time was 80 years old and Ruth was around 40.
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But he became her husband, and God gave them a child.
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And they named the child Obed, which means.
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Worshipper do you know? Know who Obed in the Bible was?
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The grandfather of.
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He was the grandfather of King.
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He was the father. He would be the father. Boaz Obed, Jesse and David.
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We’re talking about being hungry for God.
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Simple message.
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With a profound truth.
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Church that we need to get a hold of.
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It’s too easy to cross boundary lines. Would you stand with me?
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All over the room, somebody come to the music. Bev.
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Can we just get real?
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With ourselves and with God for just a moment.
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Ask ourselves just a couple of questions. What is it that takes all my time?
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What is it that takes all my time?
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Where are my desires and my passions leading me?
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Are they leading me to God?
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Or are they leading me away from God?
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Can you sing chorus of something? I want you to ponder that just for a moment.
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What is it that’s taking my time?
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And my strongest desires, where are they leading me? Are they leading me closer to him? Are they leading me away from him? I just want you to bow your head with me tonight and ponder that for a moment.
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Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus.
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Only you, Lord.
