An Appetite for More

Andy Stanley

The Power of an Appetite

To continue on with what I learned from Passion 2011, I wanted to go through Andy Stanley’s message next. He spoke about our appetite and just how powerful it really is. He suggested that your response to your appetite will actually determine the direction and the quality of your life. When he is referring to your “appetite” we often associate this with food, but it could really be anything that an individual craves.

Examples of Appetites:
• Food
• Acceptance
• Responsibility
• Sex
• Fame
• Recgonoition
• To be envied
• Things
• Love
• To win
• Respect
• Progress
A few things about appetites that we must remember:
1.) God created appetities and sin distorted them.
2.) Appetites are never fully and finally satisfied
3.) Appetites always whisper now and never later.
Biblically speaking, the story of Esau and Jacob is a perfect example of this whole appetite image. Genesis 25: 29-34 reads:
Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. 30 He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.)
Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”
“Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”
But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. 
Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.
So Esau despised his birthright.

After reading this, ask yourself this…Who would trade their birthright for a bowl of stew??? Honestly, I would. I mean, I have! Haven’t you? Really, anytime that we choose to put something else…food, sex, money, recognition…in front of Christ, we are selling our birthright for a bowl of stew. How often do I find myself idolizing something other then Christ? How often must I fall to me face in disgust for the way I have placed something above Him? I guess the better question is probably how often does that appetite actually get fulfilled by the food or the love of a man or by things? Never. I mean, it never brings lasting satisfaction. Not like Jesus does. In fact, it usually always brings destruction. So why do we do it? Well, we are flesh-driven sinners being called to live in this world, yet not of it. The battle rages on. We must choose daily to refuse to sacrifice the ultimate for the immediate. Often we are ruled (in our flesh) by instant gratification. At least I am. Every day honestly.
So now I must ask myself: Do you want to trade all of that (Christ’s lineage) for a bowl of stew? The answer is obvious. No, I don’t want to. The two don’t even deserve to be compared in a single sentence because they are incomprehensibly incomparable. And yet every morning I wake up tempted to trade my birth right for a stupid worthless bowl of stew. As Stanley phrased it, “your appetite only wants MORE and only at one time- NOW.” So what do we do about it? Two Words…REFRAME AND REFRAIN. Difficult? Without a doubt. Doable? Definitely.
Practically speaking, Stanley suggested each person make a list. A list with the heading that reads “Five Years From Now…”
List anything you want to be doing. Your dreams. Your passions. What you want your life to look like. Goals you want to accomplish. Places you want to see. Ways you desire to further the Kingdom. Anything that you foresee in your life five years from now. This provides us with perspective. It helps us to get our eyes off the appetites of our flesh which are ruthlessly demanding MORE NOW, and focusing our attention instead on PURSUING LATER.
I am working on my list. I will post it later. I challenge you to do the same! Perspective is a beautiful thing.