10/02/2026
STILL HUNGRY: WHEN WHAT WE CONSUME CANNOT SATISFY
John 6:25–35
You know, being a Texas Longhorn fan teaches you something about satisfaction.
Texas can go on the road, walk into Tennessee, and win a football game—and somehow, before you even make it home, somebody is already telling you why it wasn’t good enough.
“They should have won by more.”
“The offense didn’t look good enough.”
“They’re still not where they need to be.”
And I’m thinking, “We won the game!”
Apparently, even winning isn’t enough anymore.
There is always another expectation. Another criticism. Another reason not to be satisfied.
And the truth is, that’s not just college football.
That’s life.
We spend so much of our lives chasing something we believe will finally satisfy us.
If I could just make more money.
If I could just lose the weight.
If I could just have that relationship.
If I could just eat this.
If I could just drink this.
If I could just feel different for a little while.
We keep consuming things hoping eventually something will say:
“That’s enough. You’re full now.”
But somehow, we are still hungry.
And that is the title of my message:
“Still Hungry: When What We Consume Cannot Satisfy.”
Our passage is John 6:25–35.
To understand what Jesus says here, we need to understand what has just happened.
Jesus has just performed one of His most famous miracles. Thousands of people are hungry. Jesus takes five loaves and two fish and feeds the crowd.
They were hungry.
Jesus fed them.
Their stomachs were full.
And the next day, they went looking for Jesus again.
But Jesus understood something about them that they didn’t understand about themselves.
They weren’t necessarily looking for Jesus.
They were looking for what Jesus had given them.
Jesus says in verse 26:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”
In other words:
You’re following Me because yesterday I filled your stomach.
And that brings us to the first truth.
1. WHAT FILLS YOU TEMPORARILY CAN STILL LEAVE YOU EMPTY
The crowd had eaten.
But they were hungry again.
And one of the greatest mistakes we make is trying to satisfy a spiritual hunger with something temporary.
I understand that personally.
Food has been a major part of my struggle.
There was a time in my life when I weighed over 500 pounds.
And you don’t get there because you’re physically hungry all the time.
Sometimes you eat because you’re stressed.
Sometimes because you’re lonely.
Sometimes because you’re hurting.
Sometimes because food has become comfort.
Addiction works the same way.
For somebody else, it may be alcohol.
You take the drink because you want something from it:
Relief.
Comfort.
Escape.
Numbness.
Just a few hours where you don’t have to feel whatever you’ve been feeling.
And for a moment, it may actually deliver something.
That’s why temptation works.
The problem is that what it gives us doesn’t last.
Eventually the plate is empty.
Eventually the bottle is empty.
Eventually the feeling wears off.
And the hunger comes back.
Jesus tells this crowd:
“Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life.”
He isn’t saying food is evil.
He is saying:
Stop asking temporary things to do an eternal job.
Some things can fill your stomach.
Some things can change your mood.
But they cannot satisfy your soul.
2. WHATEVER YOU FEED CAN EVENTUALLY MASTER YOU
There is a progression with appetite.
At first:
I want it.
Eventually:
I need it.
And finally:
I can’t function without it.
The thing you were consuming becomes the thing controlling you.
That is addiction.
And one of the lies addiction tells us is:
“You need me to feel okay.”
I’ve experienced that battle with food and alcohol.
And freedom doesn’t necessarily happen because one day every craving disappears.
Freedom begins when you learn:
I don’t have to obey every hunger I feel.
That lesson has become very real in my weight-loss journey.
In fact, today was my 600th CrossFit class.
Six hundred.
And I promise you:
I did not feel motivated 600 times.
There were days my body hurt.
Days I was tired.
Days the scale didn’t move.
Days when staying home would have been much easier than walking through the door of that CrossFit gym.
But somewhere during those 600 classes, I learned:
Obedience cannot depend on how I feel today.
For years, I looked to food—and at another point in my life, alcohol—to give me satisfaction.
I consumed something because I wanted it to change how I felt.
CrossFit is almost the opposite.
It doesn’t always give me what I want in the moment.
Sometimes it hurts.
Sometimes it exhausts me.
Sometimes halfway through a workout I’m wondering why I showed up.
But when I finish, there is satisfaction.
Not because I indulged an appetite.
But because I honored a commitment.
There is a difference between the satisfaction that comes from feeding an appetite and the satisfaction that comes from obedience.
Six hundred CrossFit classes didn’t happen because I was motivated 600 times.
They happened one class at a time.
One decision at a time.
One act of obedience at a time.
And that has become part of my weight-loss journey.
You don’t have to obey every hunger you feel.
Sometimes obedience means telling your appetite:
“No. You don’t get to make the decision today.”
That’s true with food.
That’s true with alcohol.
That’s true with addiction.
And that’s true spiritually.
3. JESUS DOESN’T JUST CHANGE WHAT WE CONSUME—HE CHANGES WHAT WE CRAVE
The people say to Jesus in verse 34:
“Sir, give us this bread always.”
And Jesus responds with one of the greatest declarations in John’s Gospel:
“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
Notice what Jesus doesn’t say.
He doesn’t say:
“I will give you the bread.”
He says:
“I AM the bread.”
The ultimate gift isn’t something Jesus gives us.
The ultimate gift is Jesus Himself.
Christianity isn’t simply behavior modification.
It isn’t:
Stop drinking.
Stop overeating.
Go to the gym.
Lose the weight.
Try harder.
Be disciplined.
Those things may be good.
But you can change behavior without ever changing the deepest hunger of your heart.
Jesus wants something deeper.
He wants to change what we hunger for.
I’ve discovered that during my own journey.
Things I once thought I couldn’t live without don’t control me the way they once did.
And things I once avoided have become things I pursue.
I never imagined celebrating 600 CrossFit classes.
But there is satisfaction in pursuing something that produces life instead of something that destroys it.
And spiritually, that is what Jesus offers.
Freedom isn’t merely saying no to what is destroying you.
Freedom is discovering something greater to say yes to.
4. THE DEEPEST HUNGER OF YOUR LIFE HAS ONLY ONE ANSWER
I’m incredibly grateful for what has happened in my life.
I’m grateful for the weight I’ve lost.
I’m grateful for CrossFit.
And today, I’m grateful for 600 classes.
But none of those things can become my identity.
Because I could reach every physical goal I’ve ever set...
and still be spiritually starving.
I could reach my goal weight.
I could become stronger than I’ve ever been.
I could completely transform what I see in the mirror.
But if I do all of that and never learn where my soul finds its satisfaction, I’ve only changed what is on the outside.
Jesus says:
“I am the bread of life.”
Not another plate.
Not another drink.
Not another accomplishment.
Not another number on a scale.
Not even another CrossFit class.
Jesus.
Food makes a terrible Savior.
Alcohol makes a terrible Savior.
Success makes a terrible Savior.
Fitness makes a terrible Savior.
Even weight loss makes a terrible Savior.
Only Jesus can carry that weight.
And that is the good news.
Jesus doesn’t stand at the finish line and say:
“Fix yourself, and when you’re finally good enough, come see Me.”
He says:
“Come to Me.”
Come hungry.
Come struggling.
Come addicted.
Come ashamed.
Come when you failed again.
Come when you’ve made progress.
Come when you’ve gone backward.
Come to Me.
Because the answer to our deepest hunger isn’t simply greater discipline.
It is a Person.
CONCLUSION
So maybe the question today isn’t:
“What are you eating?”
Or:
“What are you drinking?”
Maybe the deeper question is:
“What are you asking it to do for you?”
What hunger are you trying to satisfy?
What pain are you trying to silence?
What emptiness are you trying to fill?
And what if the thing you’ve been feeding isn’t actually the thing that’s hungry?
Today was my 600th CrossFit class.
Those 600 classes have taught me that transformation usually doesn’t happen in one giant moment.
It happens one decision at a time.
One workout.
One meal.
One surrender.
One act of obedience.
And tomorrow, you do it again.
You don’t have to obey every hunger you feel.
But ultimately, even obedience isn’t the Savior.
Jesus is.
So when that hunger comes—and it will—don’t just ask:
“How do I make this feeling disappear?”
Ask:
“What am I really hungry for?”
Because Jesus is still saying:
“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
So bring Him the appetite.
Bring Him the addiction.
Bring Him the bottle.
Bring Him the food.
Bring Him the shame.
Bring Him the struggle.
Bring Him the weight.
Bring Him the hunger.
Because the satisfaction you’ve been looking for was never ultimately found in something you could consume.
It is found in Christ.
You don’t have to obey every hunger you feel.
But you can obey the One who truly satisfies.
Amen.
