Alright. Hey, everybody, welcome to Valley Creek. Come on, whatever campus you're at today, Denton, Flower Mound, Gainesville, Lewisville, Online – can we just welcome each other together? We are so glad that you are here with us. And I say to you today, wherever you've been, whatever you've done, whatever's going on, whatever you're wrestling with, whatever you're dealing with, Jesus is here, Jesus is real, Jesus is good. And He sees you, and He's for you, and He's with you, and He loves you. And we have been praying for you and preparing for you, that you would have an encounter with the love of God today. So, welcome to Valley Creek Church. We really believe that God can change your life. And it is back-to-school season. August is here, the fall has come. Ready or not, here it is. And whether you feel overwhelmed and anxious, or excited and let's get on with this, either way, I say to you that God's grace is sufficient for you, and His divine power is going to give you everything you need for life and godliness in the days to come. And so, we're excited about the fall in our lives and here at our church, what God is doing and how He's moving. And last week, we started a new series, not series, called A Collection of Talks on Movement, Mission, and Maturity. It's a series, but it's not a series. It's a collection of talks. And you say, "Well, why did we call it that?" Because all I'm trying to do is break up the routine and the rhythm and the habits of your life and the coming and the going, so that we kind of awaken to what God wants to do in our life in this time and this place. Because we want to move with Jesus. We want to be on mission with Jesus, and we want to experience maturity in Jesus. 

And so, if this was a series, I would have a theme verse for it. But since it's a collection of talks, not a series, I still have a theme verse for it. And it may be the longest verse that I've ever put on the monitor. So, here's what I want you to do. Jason told me it's like half the Bible on one slide. I just want you to close your eyes, and I just want to read this to you. This is kind of the theme verse for this collection of talks. This is the Apostle Paul towards the end of his life. Just close your eyes; just listen to this. Here's what he says to the Philippians. He says, "Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him. I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him. Not that I have already obtained all of this or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Paul says, "I'm forgetting what's behind; I'm pressing on towards what's ahead. I'm straining to what's in front of me. I'm letting go of all the things that I thought were valuable, because what I want is Jesus. I want to become like Him, I want to know Him." He says, "I want to move with Jesus, I want to be on mission with Jesus, I want to experience maturity in Jesus." And that's really our heart in this season. And we talked about last week how we can't make God move. But, boy, we can prepare for when He does. And I can't make God come, but I can live my life in such a way that attracts His presence. And so, we said that we want to just start this whole season by preparing our hearts for the word that God wants to plant inside of us, for the thing that God wants to do within us. And so, this week we are starting our week of fasting and prayer. A week of fasting and prayer to simply prepare our hearts for that which God wants to do. And this is an invitation, not an obligation. There's no duty. There's no religion. If you don't want to do it, no big deal. Fasting is simply abstaining from food in order to feast on God. It's denying our flesh to hunger and thirst for God. It's breaking our dependencies on the things of this world because we want to hunger and thirst for Jesus himself. And so, as we go through this week of prayer and fasting, just so you're clear, this is not "not eating food" for the next seven days. This is asking God about how you can fast in your life. It might be a lunch. It might be lunch every day. It might be a three-day fast that you just do a juice. It might be you fast dinners. I don't know. And if you've never done this before, the best thing I can tell you is simply this. If you have an inkling to do it, just pick one day and fast from sun up to sundown. One day. Just one day where you abstain from food, drink lots of water. And every time you're hungry, and every time you would have gone to make yourself a meal, and every time you would have gone to that restaurant, use that time for that one day to say, "God, I just want to hunger and thirst for you. God, I don't even know how to do this, and I don't understand it all, but I know there's more. And this hunger and thirst that I feel in my body, would you make that in my soul? And would You give me the grace to find my satisfaction in You?" That's all this is about. That's why it says, "Declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly, summon all who live in the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord." "Even now," declares the Lord, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, and rend your heart. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in love." Fasting is a way we turn our heart to the love of God. So, we're declaring a fast, we're summoning you and all of us to return to the Lord, because we can't make Him move. But, boy, we can prepare for when He does. 

You see, a question you have to ask yourself is: what is it that I really want? Like, what is it that I really want? How about just this fall? This fall, back to school, in your life, this new collection of talks, wherever you're going, whatever you do, what is it that you want? Because whether you realize it or not, you arrange and rearrange your entire life around getting that which you want. You order and reorder your life around getting that which you want. Your entire life is in alignment to get that which you want, so it's probably pretty important that we actually identify and acknowledge that which is what we want. And what I think is so interesting is we all start on this journey with Jesus by coming to Him because there's something that we want. In fact, in John 1, the beginning of the Gospel of John, the beginning of the story of Jesus. One day Jesus is walking by, and two men see Him and intuitively know there's something different about this Man. So, they start following Him from a distance, and eventually Jesus stops and He turns around and He asks them a really simple question. He just says, "What do you want? What do you want?" He knows they're following Him because they want something, and He isn't bothered by what they want. He's asking them what it is in their soul that they actually want. We don't know what they wanted. They might have wanted forgiveness. They might have wanted freedom. They might have wanted a breakthrough. They might have wanted a religion. They might have wanted a rabbi. They might have wanted prosperity, success, significance, being a part of something bigger than themselves. We don't know. We just know there was something that they wanted that drew them towards Jesus. My question for you today is: what is it that you want? Why are you here today, taking a step towards Jesus? There's something that you want that moves you towards Him. So, they wanted something, and they began to follow. And Jesus said, "Come and see." And over the next three years, what they figured out is what they wanted helped them discover who they needed. They came to Jesus with a want, thinking, "If this Guy can give me what I want, all will be well." But over the next three years, they figured out what they wanted led them to who they needed. And this is the journey that we go on with Jesus. We come to Him with something that we want. But over time, He helps us discover who we actually need. This is why in John 20, at the end of the Gospel of John, at the end of Jesus's time on this earth, the resurrected Jesus is gone. There's the empty grave, and Mary, another one of His disciples, is weeping at the empty grave. And Jesus is standing there; she doesn't recognize that it's Him. And as she's crying, He looks at her and He says, "Who are you looking for?" She says, "Sir, I'm looking for Jesus. Have you seen Him?" And when He says her name, "Mary," everything is made right in her soul. See, it starts with what you want, but it ends with who you need. We come to Jesus with what we're looking for; it ends with who we're looking for, and His name is Jesus. What you want is meant to help you discover who you actually need. This is the journey that we are all on. 

And part of my job and my role, doing what I do, is to pay attention and call attention to that which I see God doing among us. It's part of my job, pay attention and call attention to how I see God moving among us. And as I've been paying attention, and I want to call attention to that which I see God doing among us. As I look around, I see a great divine discontent in people's souls right now. I see a divine discontent. I see an unsettled soul. I see a restless heart. I see a stormy inner world. And this is like across everyone. This is students and young adults, and singles and young families, and middle age and empty nesters. Everywhere I look, I see this divine discontent, this unsettled soul, this restless heart, this stormy inner world. It's like we have all these things that we want, but we're not seeing them come to pass, so we're discontent. We're discontent in our marriages and with our children. We're discontent with our parents and our relationships. We're discontent with our job and our finances, and our hobbies, and our house, and our vacations, and our travel or our lack thereof. Or the disappointment of our lack of social media engagement and interest. We have this discontent around our situations and circumstances, and we're convinced that if we could just change it out there, everything would be good in here. But what if that divine discontent was the grace of God drawing you unto Himself? What if that divine discontent of what you want is meant to help you discover who you actually need? What if it's the grace of God knocking on the door of your heart, calling you by name, waiting for you to open the door so that He can come in and eat with you and you with Him? Discontentment is God's grace drawing you unto Himself, from what you want to who you need. I mean, do you remember the story of the woman at the well? Here's this woman with this massive divine discontent. She's been married five times. She's living with a sixth man. She keeps trying to satisfy the thirst of her soul, but there's no man who can never give her what she truly needs. And one day, after a long day of ministry, Jesus comes. He sits at the well; He's exhausted. Because remember, He took on flesh, and He faced all the same trials and realities and limitations that you and I have. And His disciples go into town to get some food and some water. And while Jesus is sitting there, here comes this woman, a sinful Samaritan woman, and Jesus, a Rabbi Jewish Man. And when she gets to the well, Jesus looks at her and He says, "Would you give Me a drink?" And she looks at Him with shock, like, "How is it that You can even talk to me? Because Your kind of people hate my kind of people." And Jesus looks right back at her and He says, "Woman, if you knew who I was and what I offered, you would ask of Me, and I would give you springs of living water." And she looks at Him and she says, "You don't even have a pail to draw from the well. And the well is deep." He says, "Oh, woman, you're looking at the wrong thing." And they engage in this conversation, and she makes all these excuses about why she is the way she is, and why her life looks the way she looks, theological excuses and people excuses, and complaints and situations and circumstances. But finally, at the end, she looks at Jesus and says, "Would You give me that spring of living water, that I may never thirst again?" And He satisfies her soul. She leaves her pail, runs back to her town. And for the first time in her life, her discontent has been satisfied. "If anyone is thirsty, let him come and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from him." Jesus is the spring of living water, and the discontent of a thirsty soul is meant to drive us to Jesus and only Jesus. What she wanted helped her discover who she actually needed. Or how about the Israelites? You remember them, Old Testament people of God. If you ever want a 30,000-foot view to look at what your life probably looks like, just read the story of the Israelites. Not a flattering example, but they are a perfect kind of example of what the human experience actually looks like. Four hundred years of being slaves, God sets them free. Bringing them on a journey to the promised land.<br>And a little bit into the journey into the desert, they have no food. They cry out to God, so He gives them manna, bread from Heaven, every single morning. All they have to do is come outside of their tent and go out and pick up all of the manna, the bread from Heaven, that's scattered all over the ground. And they can cook it in any way they like. They call it manna because it means what is it because they've seen it before. They didn't know what it is. But it's a bread from heaven that comes every single day. But you can only cook manna in so many different ways. And after a while, they got tired of the different ways of cooking manna, and they wanted something else. They had a discontented soul. And so, it says, "The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing, saying, 'If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost, also cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, garlic. But now we have lost our appetite. We never see anything but this manna!'" Help us, God. Bread from Heaven. The goodness of God, and yet it didn't satisfy their soul. And I love that they say, "We think Egypt was so good. We ate all this food in Egypt when we were slaves at no cost." Yet it only cost you your soul. What often happens is, Satan, when you're discontent, wants to take you back to the past, and he wants to make you think that what you were feasting on is no cost, but it cost you your very soul. Jesus, with our discontent, wants to lead us into the future. And at first, it feels like it costs everything because I've got to deny myself, pick up my cross, in order to follow Him. But in the end, He gives me life itself. And so, they had this gift from God, but this gift from God wasn't meant to totally satisfy them.

See, God gave them manna so that they could taste and see that He was good but also to draw them on further into Him. Manna was never supposed to satisfy their discontented soul. This is why it says, "He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." If you can catch it, God gave them manna so they could taste and see that He was good, not to satisfy their soul. He gave them manna so they could taste that He was good, so they would press on and realize that, "I need more than this bread. I need every word that comes from the mouth of God. I need the face of God, the voice of God, the presence of God." So, they were invited to go to Mount Sinai and meet with God, but they turned away because they wanted onions and melons and leeks and meat from Egypt. Sometimes the things that God gives us in our lives, even the good things, are not meant to satisfy our soul. They're meant to draw unto Him, Jesus, the bread of life. "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." Manna was supposed to lead them to Jesus Himself. And the good things God has given you, that you find yourself feeling discontent in, are supposed to lead you to Him. You with me on this? One more. You remember King Solomon? King Solomon, he's the wisest man other than Jesus to ever live on the face of the earth. King Solomon has this profound kingdom, he personally sees God twice. He sees God twice. He builds the temple for the Lord. I mean, this guy has these amazing experiences and encounters with God. But as he ages, his heart starts to turn away from God, like so often happens to all of us. And as he ages, he starts to be attracted to wealth, women, and worldliness. And he denies himself nothing that he wants. He is the richest man on the face of the earth. He has more than a thousand wives and concubines. He does everything you could possibly do in the world, every accomplishment, every achievement, every success, everything that we would define as significant, he actually did it all. And at the end of his life, his discontented soul says, "I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. All man's efforts are for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied." All that discontent in Solomon was meant to draw him not to what he wanted, but to who he needed. And the problem is, as he went and got everything he wanted, but it still didn't take away the discontent of his soul.<br> It still didn't satisfy. The more he drank, the thirstier he got; the more he ate, the hungrier he got. He didn't realize that what he needed was God Himself. And God put that discontent in his soul to draw him back to Himself. In fact, this is why I love, do you know the name of Jesus? One of His names is "The Desire of All Nations." It's one of the names of Jesus. He is the Desire of all nations. Do you know what that means? Nations, people groups, ethnos. That means beneath every single tribe, tongue, nation; every single language; every single history; every ethnicity; every socioeconomic group; every country; every citizenship; every people; every generation, the deepest desire of every one of those people groups is Jesus. And their desire will never be satisfied until they find Him. And what I love is that God says, "I will shake the nations." In other words, sometimes God shakes it up and creates a divine discontent in your soul to draw you to Him. Discontentment is meant to draw us to the Divine, not to the things of this world. We start with what we want, but what we want is meant to help us discover who we need. God uses what you want to show you who He is and to satisfy your soul once and for all, because only He is the Spring of Living Water, only He is the Bread of Life, and only He is the Desire of the nations. So, can I ask you a question, as I'm even talking about this, do you have divine discontent? You have an unsettled soul, a restless heart, a stormy inner world. And I get it. We look, and we're convinced it's just all out here. Like my marriage. "It's just my marriage. I'm discontent in my marriage." But what if the discontentment in your marriage isn't about fixing your marriage, what if it's about drawing you through that to find intimacy with Jesus? You say, "I'm discontent with my finances." Right. What if it's not about solving your finances? What if that discontentment is about drawing you through the finances to discover that God is Treasure Himself? What if the discontentment that you have in the relationships, or the loneliness in your life, isn't about getting married or finding a new friend? It's about drawing through that to discover that Jesus is your best friend and will never leave you nor forsake you? What if the situation or circumstance that you're discontented in, what if it's not about calming that storm, but what if it's about God drawing you through that to discover that He is the Prince of Peace? What if you're just discontent with your life? What if, instead of having a different life, God is trying to draw you through that discontentment, what you want, to discover who you need that He is life itself. He is the Bread of Life, the Spring of Living Water, the Desire of all nations. And He's stirring us up to seek after Him.<br>Because inherently, every one of us in this room, you know it. You know it. You know that if you got everything you wanted right now; it still wouldn't satisfy the discontent in your soul. Oh, it would feel good, and it might make you happy, and it might cope and numb and put some things at bay for a while. But let's be honest, until you drink the Spring of Living Water and you eat the Bread of Life, and you discover the Desire of all nations, you know no money, no sex, no person, no thing, no hobby, no vacation, no travel, no social media is actually going to settle that thing deep inside here. Because that's how God made you. And that's why you can never shake it. And that's why without Him, you can never satisfy it. Just look at these verses: "You will show me the path of life; because in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore." It's only in His presence that we find the joy that we're looking for. It doesn't say, "In a perfect world, we find fullness of joy," or "When I get everything I want, then I have fullness." No. Just Him, who I need. How about when the psalmist says, "My soul yearns for the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the Living God?" Your soul, your heart, your flesh, they were created for God Himself, and they will always be discontented until they find their rest in Him. How about this: "My heart says of You, 'Seek His face.' Your face, Lord, I will seek." Do you realize your heart was created with this need to seek the face of God? This is why the human heart always goes on a quest. This is why we're always on a journey. This is why we're always pioneering and trying to discover and seek and find and pursue and unearth. Why? Because your heart was literally created to seek the face of God. And until you see the face of God in Jesus Himself, your heart will never be settled.

It can't be settled. But we look in all the wrong places, and this is why, at the bottom of every bottle and on the other side of every pill and on the back end of every illicit sexual encounter and on the other side of all the accomplishments and the more money and the prestige and the fame and the success, and the significance, there's this empty hollowness. Because what we're actually looking for is the face of God. And until we see the face of God in Jesus, we keep looking in the wrong places to satisfy that which is discontent within us. So, all that searching, don't see it as bad or as a rebuke; see it as misplaced. You're looking in a bottle or in that person or in those pills or in that job or in that money, because your heart wants the face of God, and He has revealed it to you in Jesus. And what you want is meant to help you discover who you need. That's why He's shaking the nations, shaking the people groups, shaking the Valley Creekers, shaking your family so that you will come to the Desire of All Nations. Or how about the apostle Paul, when he says: "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength." You know that last verse? It means you can score a touchdown. No, it doesn't. But it's nice, it's cool, it's good, but focus on God. That's always a win. Here's Paul. He says, "I have learned," so you have to learn this; you don't naturally know how to do this. "I have learned the secret of being content. I know what it is to have a lot, I know what it is to have nothing. I know what it is to be well-fed, I know what it is to be hungry, but I've learned to be content in all that." How? Because Paul understood that when you have who you need, it's okay if you don't have what you want. As long as I have who I need, through Him, I can do all things through Him who gives me strength. As long as I have who I need, it's okay if I don't have what I want. See, Paul understood that contentment wasn't about seeing God move out there. Contentment was about the fact that God has already moved in here. Contentment is not about watching God move in the situations and circumstances of my life. Contentment is the fact that God Himself has taken up residence and moved inside of me. I have who I need. It's okay if I don't have what I want. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. So, once I have who I need, the Shepherd, I'm going to be okay. Because He's going to make me lie down in green pastures and lead me beside still waters, and He's going to restore my soul. And it's not saying that Paul didn't have things that he wanted. Oh, read this. Read the epistles. He cries out. He wants to see God's kingdom come; he wants to see His will be done; he wants to see people get saved; he wants to see the move of God. Oh, he was grateful for what was, but he was longing for more. That's contentment. See, here's how I define contentment to you. Here's that contentment is being joyfully grateful for life just as it is. That's contentment, being joyfully grateful for life just as it is. Joyful: sense of well-being. Grateful: I'm moved by the grace of God in my life for life just as it is. Because even if I don't have what I want, I have who I need. And so, contentment is the ability to enjoy God and the life that He's given me right here, right now, without needing anything to change, because I already have who I need, and His name is Jesus. Does this make sense to you? And this is something we learn over time. 

See, as I've been thinking about this this week, I've been thinking about my life and my journey of discontentment and contentment, and my journey of what I want to who I need. And I've been just thinking about different seasons of my life, and I've realized that the more discontent I've been in a season, the more it was actually God's grace trying to draw me unto Himself. Like, I look back at college, I was so discontent in college. I had an unsettled soul. I had a restless heart. I couldn't… I had a stormy inner world, and sometimes I just wanted to crawl out of my own skin. Like, I just couldn't find it. And all of that, I look back now, was God's grace calling me to Him. I just didn't see it. And then, I remember when I graduated from college, and the girl I thought I was going to marry broke up with me out of nowhere, and my life kind of fell apart, and I had these tragedies, and everything just kind of came unglued and unwound for me. And I was so broken and so lost and so stormy inside that I remember just saying, "God, I'm going to give You six months. If You're real, I'm going to seek You with everything I've got. Six months. If You're real, You can have the rest of my life, and if You're not, I'm done." And it was God's grace and that discontentment drawing me unto Himself, because for the first time, I found Jesus, and no longer was it about what I wanted, it was about who I needed. But He used what I wanted to help me discover who I needed. And I think back to the first three or four years of living in Texas and being here, oh my gosh, I was discontent. I wanted to get out of here. If you've been around here for 20 years, you may remember some of these moments, encounter with me. I just didn't want to be here. I was so discontent, so unsettled. "Take me back to the frozen north. But it was not about changing where I lived, it was about God drawing me to Himself. And I can think about seasons where I've been discontent with our church, and wanting and longing so much more for us. And for you, that might be hard to compute. Like, for you, this might just be a place you come and go, but this is the garden I tend. This is my whole life. This is my assignment from God. So, I have a deep desire to see things happen in this place. But even in those moments, it's not about changing out there, it's about God drawing me to Himself in here. Or even in marriage, when I'm discontent at times with Colleen, it's not about God changing Colleen, she's perfect anyways. It's about God wanting to shape and form me more into His image and His likeness. So, the more angst I have about what I want, what I'm learning is that those are the moments where God's trying to show me more of who I need. And the more I look for what I want, the less I see who I need. But the more I look for who I need, the less controlled I am by what I want. It's not saying wants go away, it's saying I'm not controlled by them. And they don't dictate my life, and they no longer have an authority over me. You see, I think we get lost. We fix our eyes; this is what we're supposed to do. Fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, and what is unseen is eternal. The problem is, instead of focusing on the unseen, eternal, the Desire of Nations, the Bread of Life, the Living Water that we need, we focus on what is seen and what is temporary. And we will do whatever we need to do to find quick satisfaction for deep discontent. And every time you try to find quick satisfaction for deep discontent, you probably regret that choice somewhere down the road. Because you hurt yourself, and you hurt everybody else. Because there is no contentment in the things of this world. In fact, there's a great story, and I don't have time to get into it, but Saul is one of the kings of Israel, and God told him specifically what to do, to wait for Samuel to come to offer the sacrifice. And he watches as his army starts fleeing, and the Philistines, the enemy, start coming. So, he panics, right? He's got this deep discontent in his soul, and he panics, and look what happens. He offers the sacrifice, does the opposite of what God tells him to do. That's all you need to know. And Samuel shows up and says, "What have you done?" asked Samuel. Saul replied, "When I saw that the men were scattering, and that the Philistines were assembling, I thought, 'Now the Philistines will come down against me,' so I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering." Don't worry about anything except that which is highlighted. "When I saw, I thought, I felt compelled." This is life in the flesh. I saw, I thought, I felt compelled. I saw the discontent, the unsettled soul, the restless heart, the stormy inner world, so I thought, "This is how I am going to handle it." So, I felt compelled, and I went and got exactly what I wanted. And then, later, the people in my life say to me, "What have you done?" And even sadder, we say to ourselves in that quiet little voice. "What have you done?" We leave our spouse in our marriage because we're discontent. We leave our family because we're discontent. We leave our job. We move. We quit. We buy the thing. We sell the thing. We take the thing. We numb. We cope. We find comfort. We make our lives convenient. When I saw, I thought, so I felt compelled because I've got to deal with this discontent, and I don't know how else to do it, so I'm going to go and get me what I need for me. As opposed to saying, "When I saw, I cried out, and I waited on the Lord. When I saw this discontent, I cried out, 'God, this is what I want, and I don't know what to do, so I'm going to wait on You, because I know what I want is meant to help me discover who I need.'" This is even why Moses, on the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, says, "If Your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here." In other words, Moses understood that the Promised Land without God is a desert, and the desert with God is the Promised Land. So, if I get what I want but I don't have who I need, I'm in a desert. But if I have who I need, even if I don't have what I want, I'm in a Promised Land. This is why you can live in an unending, perpetual Promised Land, regardless of your situations or circumstances. Because if I have who I need, I'm okay. And it doesn't mean there aren't things you don't want. No. God knows, and He cares, and He actually wants you to cry out, to delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Just understand that the order matters. When I have who I need, He can give me what I want. Because if He gives me what I want without who I need, I will use what I want to hurt myself and others. But once I delight myself in Him, you know what happens? My desires change. My desires become His desires, and now He can give me that which I do desire, because I'll use it for the good of others and the glory of God. So, there's this amazing thing that takes place, and what I want you to just understand is, desire is meant to lead you to the Divine. All desire is meant to lead you to the Divine. So, therefore, the discontent of not getting my desire is meant to lead me to the Divine. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and everything else will be given unto you. See it? See, here's the great problem with the Israelites: they just wanted what they wanted. And so, God would bless them, and they lived in this terrible cycle. God would bless them, and as they had a good life, they would turn away from God. As they turned away from God, sin would steal, kill, and destroy their life. And when sin stole, killed, and destroyed their life, they would cry out to God, "Oh God, where are You? Rescue us!" And God, in His mercy and His grace, would rescue them and bless them. And they would have a good life, and they would turn away from God. And when they turned away from God, sin would steal, kill, and destroy. And when sin stole, killed, and destroyed, they would cry out to God, "Oh God, where are You?" And then, God would come and rescue them. Catch what I'm saying? Okay. That's how I think a lot of us live.

See, some of you are sitting in this room and you would say, "I've been a Christian for 20 years," but you don't have 20 years of maturity. You have one year of maturity 20 times. God blessed me 20 years ago, I turned towards the things of this world, sin showed up, stole, killed, and destroyed my marriage, my health, my job, my peace, my mind, my body, something. I cried out to God; God was so gracious and moved and blessed me, and then I turned away from God. And sin showed up, stole, killed, and destroyed my marriage, sometimes the marriage for the third, fourth, fifth time. Sometimes the child for the third, fourth, fifth time. Sometimes the finances, the business, the hobby, the thing… you know what I'm saying? And we live in this cycle. What if this moment right now that you're in this room is because there's something, you're on this side of the cycle, and there's something that you wanted, and God brought you here today to say, "This time when I pull you out of the pit, let's go this way. Let's go this way. Let's press on. Let's press on to maturity and not repeat over and over again that which I've created you for so much more than." What you want is meant to help you discover who you need. And that is at different gradients at all times, because we never get to the end of the discovery of the Desire of all Nations. So, what we learn to live with as people who walk with God is, "I am grateful for what is, but I have a hunger for more. Not more of the world, more of Him, who I know how wide, how deep, how long, how high is His love. So, I will never discover all of it in this lifetime or in the one to come, but that's what I want more of." In fact, one more thing, and this is for some of you who feel like, "Man, I feel like I walk with God, and yet I still have this longing, this ache, this discontent in my soul. But I walk with God. Why do I still feel like this?" In Hebrews 11, this is the heroes of the faith, okay? This is people like Moses and Abraham and Joseph and David. "All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had the opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them." There are people who walk with God and yet still feel discontent in this world. Because as they look around in this world, they realize there's nothing in this world that can actually satisfy my soul. They realized they were an alien and a stranger here on this earth. And they didn't get all the things that they wanted, but they knew instinctively that even if I got everything I wanted, that perfect marriage, the finance, the situation, the circumstance, the job, success, whatever the thing was, that wouldn't satisfy me anyway. Why? Because I'm longing for a heavenly city. I am longing for the dwelling place of God. I am longing for union with Christ. I am longing to abide in Him. I'm longing to literally be the very temple of God, where the dwelling place of God will be with man and we will be with Him forever. And so, if you walk with God and yet you still feel an ache on this earth, and you look around and you realize, "Even if I had everything I wanted, it still wouldn't satisfy." The only conclusion then is that you are created for something more than this world. And you are. You are created for the glory of God, a heavenly city, to be the very dwelling place of God, for union with Christ, to be brought into the very Trinity itself. That's what's in your soul. So that ache, that longing, that loneliness is us crying out, "Come, Lord Jesus, come. Your kingdom come, Your will be done." I am so grateful for what is, but I long for so much more, not of this world, but of You and Your kingdom and Your will and Your reality in Jesus' name. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Discontentment is God's grace drawing you to Himself. Hunger and thirst is a blessing because it is God drawing you unto Himself, that He may fill and satisfy you once and for all with Himself. "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened. Come, those with a divine discontent, an unsettled soul, a restless heart, or just a stormy inner world, and I'll give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. I will be your Spring of Living Water. I will be your Bread of Life. I will be your Desire of all Nations. And I am using that which you want to help you discover who you need. And My name is Jesus." It's what I believe He says to you today.

What if this fall, you took all that energy that you're using to get what you want, and just for this fall, tried it, turned it, to pursue who you need, and let God do what only He can do in the midst of that? If this is a collection of talks on movement, mission, and maturity, you say, "Connect that for me." God uses divine discontent to move us towards Him. And as I look around across every generation, I see it everywhere, and I get it. Real things. Real pain. Real desire. Real issues. Jesus isn't afraid of them. He's not bothered by them. He's not telling you to forget about them, but He is using them to turn your attention to Him.<br>That you might find who you need, even if you don't have what you want. So, close your eyes with me. Can I just ask you, "What is the Holy Spirit saying to you today? What's God whispering to you right here, right now? Is there a stirring of your soul? A shaking of your life? A storm that's been brewing inside of you? And whether you believe in Jesus or not, either way, I believe He's using that divine discontent to draw you to Him. May today be a day you have the courage and the faith to acknowledge that, to confess that, to speak it out, to share it with someone even in your life: "I do have a divine discontent. I haven't got what I've wanted, but I'm realizing that is God's grace drawing me to who I need." 

So, Jesus, I just pray, God, I pray that You would shake us. The way You say You will shake the nations to draw the nations to the Desire of all Nations. Shake us, stir us up, allow a storm to brew, allow things in life to kind of get to this point where we can't get what we want, but we can have who we need. And I believe that as we find who we need, as we delight ourselves in You, You will give us the desires of our heart, and You will bless us. I believe that today, some people are breaking out of the insanity cycle. That as they cry out to You and You bless and give grace and goodness, that they're going to stay on a trajectory of walking with You on the narrow road that leads to an ever-widening life. Jesus, thank You that You help us discover who we need. You are the Bread of Life, the Spring of Living Water, and You are the Desire of our hearts. So, may we seek Your face, and may we see it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.