Snacking vs. Starving for God (Matthew 5:6) | Field Notes Day 1

Welcome to a brand new week of Field Notes! Today, we are kicking off a 5-day devotional series called "Happy Are the Hungry" by looking closely at Matthew 5:6.

We throw the word “starving” around a lot in our culture, but most of us are just grazing. There is a massive difference between the mild inconvenience of wanting a midnight snack and the wilderness-level desperation of true hunger. This morning, we talk about the danger of trying to satisfy our eternal souls with temporary earthly things—which makes about as much sense as trying to eat the sun for breakfast. If you want genuine happiness, you have to change your appetite.

Today's Challenge: Take a piece of paper and write down the top three things you turn to when your soul feels stressed, tired, or empty (scrolling social media, venting, overeating, etc.). Draw a heavy line through them and write Matthew 5:6 over the top. Every time you feel the urge to reach for one of those "snacks" today, force yourself to stop and spend three minutes in prayer instead.

Resources Mentioned:

• Listen to the full weekend sermon here: missionscent.org/church
• Subscribe to the Mission Sent podcast feed so you never miss a daily Field Notes drop!

Transcript

Welcome And Where To Listen

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope the storms last night weren't too bad if you're in the Central Florida area. Welcome back to Field Notes. I am Josh, and we are looking at a brand new week as we look at Happy Are the Hungry. As always, if you haven't heard the full sermon, you can always go to missioncent.org forward slash church and listen to it there. Just look up Mission Scent wherever you find or listen to podcasts like this one. So let's jump right into day one

Matthew 5:6 And Real Happiness

SPEAKER_00 0:30

today. That is snacking versus starving. Our scripture reading is going to be this Matthew 5, 6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. A lot of good promises that Jesus gives us in these beatitudes. And remember, beatitudes, the the blessed, the word for that really just translates into happy. Jesus is trying to show us through these beatitudes, if we want real happiness, if we want genuine happiness, and we are a citizen of heaven, we are found in Christ, then these are the things that will actually bring us happiness. And today we're going to start by this something that makes most of us happy, looking at food.

Snacking Vs Starving For Christ

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Because especially here in America, we throw that word starving around a lot in our daily lives. Like, think about it. But if we're honest, most of us, we really don't know what it means to truly be starving. We mistake, for the most part, the mild inconvenience of seeking a snack for the desperate reality of what starving actually is. See, because someone who's legitimately starving, they will go to extreme lengths to find food. They will lose all of their pride, they'll crawl inside a dumpster, and they'll sort through discarded trash just to find something that will keep them alive for one more day. That's starving. That is visceral, desperate image that Jesus is trying to evoke in this beatitude. When Jesus talks about hungering and thirsting for righteousness, he isn't talking about a casual preference. He's not talking about a spiritual snack, as you will. Like last night I was watching TV and you know, I just had a hankering for you know something sweet, so I got up, walked to the kitchen, and got a fruit roll-up. I wasn't starving. I just wanted something to eat. And a lot of us, that's how we we treat our Christian walk. We we have a little bit of guilt when we miss a day from reading the Bible. We we feel a little bit bad because we we know we just sat down and watched three hours of the latest Netflix show. But what Jesus is talking about here is a deep wilderness level desperation. He is asking if we are willing to sit here and say, I will do whatever it takes to get to Jesus today, because if I don't have Jesus, I am not going to survive. And yet again, like we talked, we we fill our spiritual hunger with the most absurd and temporary things. I remember years ago, this was the illustration I gave at church on Sunday. I was watching a reality show, and there was a woman who talked about eating the sun, that she would just get all the vitamins and everything she needed from just absorbing the sunlight. And I'm gonna tell you, having spent a lot of time working outside in the construction industry, I know exactly what the rising sun actually does to a person. So one morning on a job site, I was like, you know what? I'm hungry. This lady did it. Let me see. I'm gonna go try to absorb the sun for my breakfast. And instead of feeling full, the intense heat here in Florida just made me sweat profusely. And then not only was I hungry, but now I was incredibly thirsty. And that's exactly what happens when we try to satisfy our souls with anything other than Christ. We stand in the world trying to absorb fulfillment from money and success and relationships or good vibes or the universe or good karma or whatever the case may be, but we we realize that the world cannot feed an eternal soul and it leaves us exhausted, sweating, and hungry and thirsty.

Evaluate Your Appetite And Pray

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So today, evaluate your spiritual appetite. Are you actually starving for God or are you just grazing on spiritual snacks and little tidbits of knowledge when it's convenient? Take a piece of paper today and write down the top three things you immediately turn to when your soul feels tired, stressed, or empty, and be honest. Like, for example, do you mindlessly scroll through social media? Do you, you know, pick up the phone, invent to a friend? Maybe, maybe it is food you are running to. Are you an overeater? Do you obsess over a hobby? You know, anything, what is it that you're running to? And then draw a heavy line through them and write down Matthew 5, 6 over the top of them. Today, every time you feel the urge to reach for one of those spiritual snacks, force yourself to stop, get quiet, and spend three deliberate minutes in prayer asking God to become your primary appetite. So I hope you have a great day. We can't wait to see you tomorrow morning right here on Field Notes.