Moved By Hunger - Tim Timberlake

In Moved by Hunger, Pastor Tim Timberlake unpacks Acts chapter 7, highlighting Stephen’s retelling of Joseph’s story before the Sanhedrin. This powerful message reveals how God uses spiritual hunger, famine, rejection, and delay—not as punishment, but as divine preparation. Through the lives of Abraham, Joseph, and Jacob, we are confronted with a life-shaping truth: provision without God’s presence can become a prison. This sermon calls believers to stay hungry for God, surrendered to His presence, and fully dependent on Jesus for true fulfillment.

Transcript

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Hey, I'm Tim Timberlake, and I want to thank you so much for listening to the Celebration Church podcast. I hope this message encouraged you, strengthened your faith, and gave you something you can carry into your week. If you'd like to stay connected, I encourage you to join us live every Sunday at 9 a.m. or eleven A.M. on YouTube. We would love to have you there. And if you're ever in the Jacksonville, Florida area, come see us in person. We have a seat safe for you. Thanks again for being with us. We're so grateful for you. And see you next time. Grab your words. He is great and greatly to be praised. He is good. Acts chapter seven. We're going to pick up from where we left off last week. We're going to back up one verse, verse number eight. We're going to read on down to verse number 15. Scripture says, and he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac fathered Jacob and Jacob, the twelve patriarchs. The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with them and rescued him from all his afflictions. Granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And he made him governor over Egypt and his entire household. Now a famine came over all of Egypt and Canaan, great affliction with it, and our fathers could find no food. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there for the first time. And on the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph's family revealed to Pharaoh. Then Joseph sent word and invited his father, Jacob, and all his relatives to come to him, with 75 people in all. Jacob went down to Egypt, and he and our fathers died there. For a moment, I'm going to utilize this text as we continue to travel through the Acts of the Apostles for a message that God has given me for our time together entitled Moved by Hunger. I believe God is going to speak. Let's open our hearts, open our minds, open our spirits to hear from the Word of God. Lord Jesus, we thank you for this word. We ask that you would speak to us. We ask that you would change, transform, renew our minds by the Word of God, and that our faith may be built, and that we may become more like you. It is in your name we pray in the name that is above every other name. The name of Jesus, the Christ, our King. And everybody that's glad he's still alive and well. Come on, what time real loud can you stop? Amen. Come on, we can stop loud. Amen. You can take your seats. And also our family that are watching online via Celebration Everywhere. Welcome to Celebration Church. We've been traveling through the Acts of the Apostles, and we have found ourselves in chapter 7, beginning at verse number 8 today. As we continue to trek through this incredible chapter, we see Stefan standing in front of the Sanhedrin Council. And instead of defending his own life, instead of talking about what he thinks, instead of giving his opinion, he begins to give the Sanhedrin Council the word of God by telling them what God did for Abraham, what God did for Joseph. We learned last week that God made Abraham a promise and he gave him a covenant through circumcision, according to Acts chapter 7, beginning at verse number 8. And Stephan continues to go down the strain of thought with the Sanhedrin Council in telling them what God also did for Joseph. And he starts off by giving them this very explicit description of what happened to Joseph because of his obedience to God. It teaches us in Genesis that Joseph was sold into slavery by his own brothers. It says that he was thrown into a pit. And right here from the very beginning, I don't know what season you may be in, but I believe whether you're in the palace or whether you're in the pit, if you depend on Jesus, he can make good out of both of those situations and circumstances. Amen? And we find Joseph, we find him in this particular passage being sold into slavery by his brothers. Now, this passage of scripture calls the brothers patriarchs because they are leaders. And these patriarchs get jealous of Joseph because Joseph begins to share with them a dream. And this dream that he begins to share with them is the dream that God gave him. And we see throughout the life of Joseph, the very thing that gets him thrown into the pit is the very same thing that gets him in prison, and the very same thing that gets him released to become one of the greatest men in Egypt's history. And so God will take the very thing that you thought was restriction for greater release in the next season if you're obedient to his word and his plan and his purpose for your life. And I believe that Stefan is teaching this to the Sanhedrin Council because he identifies that they are a generation obsessed with possessions and setting roots, but being allergic to responsibility. We find ourselves like that today in 2026. We obsess over our truth, we obsess over our possessions, we obsess over our influence, but we are allergic to responsibility. When in fact, everything that you steward, whether it's possessions, whether it's influence, whether it's increase, whether it's affluence, God has allowed you to steward for his glory. He did not give those things to you to steward for you to consume glory. He allowed you to steward those things so that you can reflect his glory. Simply put, you are not built for glory. Did you hear what I said? You are not built for glory. However, you are built for victory. And so when you give God glory, God gives you victory. There was never a season of Joseph's life where he did not give God glory. He gave God glory and season after season, no matter what the pain was, God continued to give him victory and continued to move him from faith to faith and glory to glory. In this particular society and culture we live in, we want inheritance without initiation. We want blessing without breaking. We want calling without knowing the cost. And we preach identity, but we resist formation. We celebrate promise, but we panic when it comes wrapped in delay, or when it comes wrapped in famine, or when it comes wrapped in displacement. And the reality is, is God never said that I'm good when things are going good. He says, I'm good regardless of what's happening around you. I'm good regardless of what's happening in you. I'm good because I am just good and I am God all by myself. So the goodness of God is not predicated upon what happens to you. The goodness of God has been consistent before you even got here. Yet God was with him. Right here from the very beginning, I want you to know in your good seasons, God is with you. In your bad seasons, God is with you. In your great days, God is good with you. In your bad days, God is with you. When your body has no pain, God is with you. When your body is racked with pain, God is with you. And the reality of your life is God's promise to you is that I'll never leave you, nor will I forsake you. I'll be with you until the very end of all time. Yet God was still with him. He was with him when he was in the pit. And something I think that we don't give God enough credit for is how faithful he is when we don't feel like he's faithful. How he's protected us when we don't feel like he's protected us, how he's covered us when we don't feel like he's covered us, and how he's prepared us even when we are in the pit or in the prison of the season that we may find ourselves in. What God's nearness did not do, God's nearness did not change Joseph's location, however, it did change his destiny. If God was with him in the prison, and if God was with him in the pit, then the pit in the prison was not punishment, it was preparation. God's nearness to Joseph did not shorten Joseph's suffering, but it guaranteed that it would not be wasted. And some of you, you need to find God in that moment and time in your life right now because you think that you're wasting time and you think that the pain that you've experienced day in and day out is wasted. And God is saying, No, there is no pain that is wasted with me. When you bring that pain and you place it in my hands, I am the only one that can get purpose out of it. But if you keep it in your hands, it will continue to pain you for the rest of your life until you relinquish that pain back to me. Jesus is the only one that can take pain and get purpose out of it. He's the only one that can take pain and make a promise out of it. When you think about pain, I want you to think about what he endured on the cross for you and the pain that he endured on the cross for you, it served the purpose. And the purpose of the pain was that you wouldn't have to spend eternity in pain if you give your life back to him. And so God never tells you it would be easy, but he always says that I'll be with you. Yet God was with him. And just as God was with him, God is with you. I believe Stephan is identifying and uplifting the story to the Sanhedrin Council. And we uplift this text today to demonstrate that Joseph's story, it teaches us something. The story of Joseph, it teaches us that if God is with you, even betrayal becomes a bridge for greater purpose. And some of you, you feel betrayed today. You you feel betrayed by your friends, and you feel betrayed by your family. And some of you, you even feel betrayed by God because you you thought that you were not qualified to go through pain. You thought that were you too good to be tested and to go through the trials and the tribulations that you're going through. And the reality is, is if Jesus went through you, through them, who are we to think that we won't go through them as well? And God will dig a well in you to make you so thirsty and so hungry that you become dependent on Him and you find no satisfaction in anything else. And that's why you can get everything that you prayed for and still not be satisfied because you got provision, but you don't have his presence. So meticulously to the Sanhedrin council. He's giving them so much truth and so little text, and he's telling them, listen, Jacob, he got word that there was provision in Egypt, so he got all of his relatives and he went there. But the scripture says that he died there. He died in a place that he was only supposed to visit. Some of us are so comfortable. We made life so convenient that provision has become a prison. And we are dying in a place that God has never called for us to stay in. Because it's everything we pray for, it's everything we long for, it's everything we want, but it's not what God promised. It is. It's just the provision. But if it lacks in his presence, it will not sustain or fulfill you. And one of the greatest dangers is to settle in provision that God is no longer in. I don't want to jump ahead, but I do want to identify and uplift. And in verses one through seven, we see God demonstrating the same truth through the life of Abraham. Well he promised Abraham a plot of land, and Abraham he was partially obedient, and so he made a habitation in a place that God never called him to stay or dwell. And it says his father died there, and then he moved. And so often it's not until something dies that we're close to that we begin to move into the very place God has called us into. And it is possible that you are not moving because you are still alive, Pastor. What do you mean by that? Or not supposed to be alive. You are supposed to be dead so that Christ can live through you. And if people still see you, if they still hear you, if they still feel you, and they don't hear Jesus, they don't see Jesus, they don't feel Jesus, then you are too much alive, and he is still not resurrected on the inside of your life. And when Jesus is not resurrected on the inside of you, when he's not using you, when he's not working through you, you are living in provision without the presence of God, and that is one of the most dangerous places that you could ever be in. And Jacob. Instead of grace. That's why fasting is so important. Because hunger will decide who you are submitted to as your Savior. How many of you fasten right now?

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So it's okay if you're not fasting, it's no shame. We're not here to guilt you, we're not here to shame you. I am here to encourage you.

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Scripture teaches us that there's significance to fasting. And when I say fasting, I'm not talking about this 2026 American fasting that's like I'm a fast social media for a day. When Isaiah says, this is the fast that I have chosen for you. When I say fasting, I mean you killed this flash. You you you push back your plate long enough for your stomach to tell you we hungry. And then you push back on your stomach and you tell yourself we okay. See, some of our stomachs have become our gods. Our flesh determines what we eat, our flesh determines when we sleep, our flesh determines who we sleep with. Our flesh determines what we say. Y'all act like I ain't telling you the truth. And we're led by this flesh because this flesh is full of itself. It's not until you're hungry that you become more reliant on the source of your strength. See, if you are your own source, you're not reliant on the source. It's not until you are depending on him for every single moment of your life that you bring yourself to the place that if he does not fulfill me, I will not be fulfilled. If he does not satisfy me, I won't know what satisfaction is. If he does not fill my spirit, my spirit will be empty until it is filled by him. And the reality is, is some of us have settled for unfulfilled lives because we don't know what his presence is. And we get stuck in Egypt. What does Egypt represent? Egypt represents everything that you long for. Egypt represents everything that you've been putting on your little goal list and your 2026 dream board and what you've been interesting, and what you've been Google searching, and everything that you have put on your wish list that is absent in the presence of God. And here's the truth about God God will let you occupy the possession, and his presence won't be there. How do I know? Look at the life of Saul. Saul remained king, but the anointing of king rested on David. So God will, in fact, let you occupy a title and strip you of your anointing. And some of us carry the title, but we don't carry the weight with it. Some of us have the look, but we don't have the influence that goes behind what it is that God has called us to steward. Some of us have the possessions, but we don't have the priorities in order, so we won't keep them. And Stefan is utilizing the life of Joseph to demonstrate and model to us that if you don't have the presence of God, you in fact can have the provision. And think that the provision is the promise. When in fact the promise is his presence. When you stay surrendered and submitted to the feet of Jesus. Point number one, I encourage you to take note is because life is going to press you, and when life presses you, what's on the inside of you will come out of you. And if you're not prepared for it, your flesh will speak for you instead of your spirit, man. Point number one is this God will starve what you refuse to surrender. I love you too. God will use famine to finish what circumcision started. See what the knife began, famine completes. Look at the text. Joseph is sold, and Jacob remains comfortable. His son is placed into a pit and is lost by his undersons, and Jacob remains comfortable. And so what happens around his comfort, famine. And God has a way of using famine to move you when your faith gets lazy. And so God will starve what you refuse to surrender. When famine shows up, it forces movement that your faith has not yet produced. So the covenant of circumcision, it marked Abraham, but it was hunger that mobilized Jacob. And in this passage, we understand and see that famine is not punishment, it is pressure applied to unfulfilled obedience. And some of you, you're in a season of famine right now, not because God is penalizing you, but because God is positioning you for greater purpose. And God will leave you there long enough to starve you to the point where you depend only on Him and on nothing else you find satisfaction and fulfillment in. So God will in fact remove provision to reveal direction. I'll say it again. God will remove provision from your life to reveal direction. Because if you get hungry enough, you'll look for substance somewhere. You get thirsty enough, you'll look for water somewhere. See, we don't know what it is to really be hungry here in America. To really long and search for clean water here in the States. Because we have it in abundance. But you go with me to Africa, one of these other third world countries where water is not a luxury, it is an essential. Because it is hard to come by. When you discover it, you're grateful for it, and you you you relish in what it is that you receive because you understand that this is not something you just want, this is something that you need. And when you get hungry enough for the things of God, it drives you to find his presence. And the reality is, is some of us are not hungry enough because we're so full of ourselves. You want to know how I know you're full of yourself? Because you pick and choose when you spend time with God. Like your soul and your spirit don't depend on it. You want to know how I know you're full of yourself? Because if I was to ask you, why should you make it into heaven, you probably would start the conversation off by saying, Because I. How do you know you're gonna make it into heaven? Because I, because I did this, and because I'm not a bad person, and because I'm okay, and because I had this many days where I didn't sin. And the reality is if that conversation does not start with because he's not hungry enough. And guess what God will do? He will continue to let life squeeze you until you are empty and starving for the only thing that can fulfill your soul and nourish your spirit. Stefan is teaching the Sanhedrin Council. If comfort could mature you, then Egypt would have never been necessary. But God will let hunger preach when his voice remains ignored in your life because you're too full of yourself. Point number two. God doesn't protect you from rejection, he redeems you through it. Rejection did not counsel Joseph's purpose and assignment, it positioned him for it. Scripture says they sold him into slavery. They sold him, but look at what God does. God stationed him in the prison. They threw him in the pit and God stationed him in the prison because God understands what promotion looks like beyond your pain, and you won't understand it if you allow pain to speak louder than his promise. I said, if Joseph would have complained in the prison, he never would have got an opportunity to prophesy. What happened? He interpreted the dreams of a baker and a butler. What is the significance of this for us? A baker prepares something, a butler serves it. Hear me. If you think that this season of isolation, if you think that this season of confinement, if you think that this season of restriction is God punishing you, then you never will continue to proclaim the purpose that God has placed in you because it's so focused on yourself. But when you see the current season that you're in, it's God prepping you for a greater purpose. Then everyone that comes across your path, you'll call out what God has called out on the inside of them. Because God's purpose for your life is not just for you, it's for everyone that comes into contact with you. And this is what Joseph understood. Although I may not know what they do, I understand who's at work on the inside of them. So I have to interpret what it is that they're carrying because maybe God will activate the gift in them by my gift being activated, even when I feel like I'm hidden and restricted and enslaved to the very thing that got me here. And so Joseph begins to interpret the dream of a baker and a butler. The baker prepares and a butler serves. The point in this for us is you never know who God will position you in front of when you feel hidden and overlooked. Hear me? The very thing that got Joseph thrown into the pit is the very thing that got Joseph imprisoned, and is the very thing that got him promoted to the place of honor in Egypt when he was not an Egyptian. So God will take what you have looked past, and he will take what you deem as punishment, and he will promote you in the very season that you feel restricted in. Before anyone knows who you are, before anyone sees anything different, before you even feel different, God will elevate you in pain so that you don't think you are the one that pulled yourself out of the prison that you've been stuck in for all these different years. You know what God was doing with Joseph? He was digging a well in him that only he could fill. You want to know what God was doing in Joseph? He was cultivating a home, a hunger that only could be fulfilled by the presence of God. He was developing a dependence in Joseph that can only be relieved by the power of God. What would have been a great story would have been, and Joseph was freed from Egypt, and God promoted him. Joseph was released out of prison, and he went back home. And he lived the rest of his days with his family. But scripture does not say that. Joseph did not rise after Egypt, he rose inside of Egypt. And it is possible that the very place you're trying to escape is the very place God is wanting to promote you. Because God will use hunger to move you. And Stephan is saying to the St. Hedron Council, you've always rejected the deliverer, but you have freely received deliverance. And if we're not careful, we will try to manipulate our relationship with Jesus to get what we want instead of depending on him for what we need. And I want you to hear me when I tell you this. Any spirit you try to manipulate for your own personal gain is witchcraft. When you rely on the presence of God and every season, whether you find yourself in the pit, in the prison, or in the palace, you understand that rejection is often God's transportation system that gets you from the current season to the season he's calling you into. What they meant to bury you with, God will use to build through you. Hear me? The pit was not an interruption to God's plan. It was the itinerary that God had drew up to get Joseph to the place that he wanted for him to be. God will remove provision. When provision becomes the goal instead of his presence. When provision replaces the presence of God, salvation is created for slavery. And no one has to put shackles on you. Because you place them on yourself. That's why some of you can't lift your hands today. Because you're stuck in provision. That's why some of you can't worship. Because you're thinking about all the things instead of the one who allows you to do it. Let me dig a little bit. Point number three. Anything that God uses to save you, that you don't refuse to release will eventually rule you. Anything God uses to save you, that you refuse to release will eventually rule you. What does it mean? God will keep you hungry long enough to the point where you don't depend more on food than you do Him being your source. God intentionally delayed the resources so that he could develop a hunger on the inside of Jacob and the rest of his sons. Why did God do this? It's the same reason God does it in your life. Because God's focus is not just on grain, it's on him getting glory. God's focus is not so that you would confuse safety with sonship. If you're a daughter, you're still a son, according to the text. God will create a well on the inside of you. He will dig a ditch on the inside of you that only he can fill because he does not want you to confuse rescue with relationship. The reality for some of our lives is that God knows that if he pulls you out of the pit now, he'll never hear from you again. So he'll leave you there until you know that you know, that you know I can't get myself out of the mess. I am in right now. Only God can do that, and I will make a covenant with God that if he brings me out of the pit, I won't forget the promise and the provision and his presence. And so rescue, it did not come for Joseph. Through Joseph's hunger being met, rescue, it came from relocation. The pit got too small, so God moved into a prison. When the prison got too small, God promoted him to the palace. And here's my question for you. Is does your obedience to the plan of God in your life make your environment too small for you to settle in? Egypt wasn't the promise. Egypt was the preservation. Egypt was awarded to Joseph to Stuart because of what he remained obedient in. But it was not awarded to Jacob and the rest of Joseph's brothers. It was told to them that they could find grain there, but scripture says they went there, they settled there, and they died there, which is an indication to us that they settled in provision instead of the purpose that God had for them. They didn't move because God spoke again. They moved because they got hungry. Isn't it crazy that hunger has a way of moving you? On this fast, specifically those that have been fasting food for any extended amount of time, you smell everything, don't you? And Chick-fil-A ain't even open on Sunday. As soon as we break this fast, I believe the Lord wants me to have it. Amen. I believe. Because hunger has a way of giving you direction and leading you to the very place that you think you can be nourished and fed. And if your soul and spirit is not hungry for the things of God, then your flesh will lead you into greater selfishness and greater ambition and greater identity in yourself and being so consumed with who you think you are that you never discover who God made you to be. And look at the life of Joseph. Joseph never identifies himself as a pit master, he never identifies himself as a prisoner. He doesn't even identify himself as a dweller in the palace, he just identifies himself as a son of God. Why is this important? Because if you identify yourself by the season that you're in, when the season changes, you lose your identity. Some of you think you are what you do, you are not what you do. You are a daughter and the son of the Most High God. And if your identity is not anchored in that, when what you do changes, you lose your identity. You lose who you think you are because it was not rooted and anchored in Christ Jesus. And sometimes God will lead you into what you fear to save you for what you can't see. You know what we made a practice of doing in the westernized uh church and in westernized uh culture? We we thank God for what we we we get. We praise God for all the possessions, we praise God for what we can see, we praise God for the things that He's blessed us with, but we don't praise God for what He kept us from. We thank God for the arrows that we could see, but we don't thank Him for the arrows He protected us from that we didn't even know were angled towards us. When we get to the point where we're grateful to just be in His presence, then we find fulfillment and satisfaction there. And Scripture teaches us that in His presence there is fullness of joy and pleasures that is right here forevermore. But if we're so full of ourselves, then we miss an opportunity to get full of joy in his presence because we think we don't need it. And if we chase happiness, we miss an opportunity for his joy. And if we chase fleshly fulfillment, we miss an opportunity for his joy. And if we chase selfish ambition and selfish gain and selfish will, then we miss an opportunity to experience the fullness of his joy. And God will let you survive in a system that starves you just to reveal whether you love provision more than you love his presence. Some of you feel starved right now. Some of you feel desperate right now. If I'm being honest, that's the greatest place you could ever be. Never get to the place in your mind where you've arrived. Never get to the place in your mind where you have made it. Stay hungry. It's an analogy of two lions. The analogy teaches that there are two lions in search for food on the side of a mountain. One lion finds it and he settles at the top and he stays there. The other lion, he finds it and he continues to climb higher. And he finds more and he continues to climb higher. And he finds more and he continues to climb higher. Because his hunger did not cause him to find comfort. His hunger drove him to greater dependence on what it was that he knew was out there. And when you greatly depend on the presence of God, it drives you to want to experience more of his presence and more of his glory and more of his grace and more of its power and more of his love and more of his mercy and more of its virtue and more of its healing and more of its redeeming power. When you understand that you are not your own God, it should develop a greater dependency in your spirit and your soul to know if it had not been for the Lord on my side, where in the world would I be? So what saves you in a season can enslave you if you stay too long. Stefan is teaching the Sanhedrin Council that provision without promise always turns survival into captivity. What was once a place of provision became a casket because they stayed too long. I want to encourage you today, family, don't get stuck in the place God used to be. Stay hungry, stay thirsty, stay yielded, stay submitted, stay humble, stay open, stay flexible, stay pliable to the will that God has for your life. Point number four is this. God will feed your hunger without healing it if you continue to act like you are your source. What led them to Egypt? Hunger. But it was dependence on provision that kept them there instead of the promise in the presence of God. If you hear nothing else I say today, I pray you hear this next statement. Egypt answered their appetite, but only God could answer their ache. And some of you are full, but you're still empty. Some of you are full, but you're still aching. Some of you are full, but you're not satisfied. It is because you have settled in Egypt and you have gotten your appetite quenched, but you have not allowed the presence and the power of God to ease the ache that you've been carrying all this time. And the reality is it is only God can do. When you've been looking at other places and other people. Here is how I know God is with you because his word promises that he'll never leave you, nor will he forsake you. And yet, God is with you. And the reason God stays with you is because God will develop a hunger before he moves you to the place he desires for you to be. So God will feed your hunger without healing it if you continue to act like you are your own source. God keeps using hunger because hunger reveals the Lord. God will let you be hungry long enough. What are you hungry for today? If you got what you prayed for, who would have blessed? If God answered all your prayers, what promises would be fulfilled? If you got everything that your heart desired and longed for, would you still crave his presence? Would you still crave his purpose? Would you still crave his power? My prayer is that you remain hungry so that you never settle in provision. And so my prayer for you today, a strange prayer request, but one I pray marks you for the rest of your life. I pray you fail. Say, well, that's cold, Pastor. No, no, I pray you fail. I pray you fail at everything God never intended for you to succeed in. You know what else I pray for your life? I pray you encounter a closed door. I pray you encounter every closed door that God never intended for you to walk through. I pray, hear me. I pray you get rejected. I pray you get rejected in every relationship that God never purposed for you to be in. And I pray that you only find fulfillment in his presence through his power because of his purpose and plan that he has for your life. And so it's not until you fail that you realize you can't succeed without him. Scripture teaches us that there are some things that are possible without him, but all things are possible to those that believe. And so if you feel you feel like you don't know where to turn, you feel like you don't know which way is up, which way is down, you feel like you have no idea where your next spiritual meal is coming from because you have been searching and you found yourself hungry in a dry land and thirsty in a desert. I'm telling you, you will find fulfillment and satisfaction only in Jesus. So look to him. Look to him, he'll never leave you. Look to him, he'll never let you down or disappoint you. Look to him because he is the only one that can do for you what you can never do for yourself. Turn your eyes, fix your gaze on him, and watch how Jesus provides for you, even if you are in a season of the pit. Scripture doesn't say and Joseph died in the pit. It says and Joseph was brought out of the pit and sold into slavery. It doesn't say he died as a slave, it says that he was then put in prison. Scripture does not say and he died in that prison cell. It says that as he utilized his gift, even when he was in shackled, even when he was captured, even when he was in chains, he utilized the gift and the purpose of God or the inside of him. And utilizing his gift in obedience, freed him from the very place that would have killed other people in disobedience. And so God did not allow him to die without fulfilling his purpose. God allowed him to stay long enough for his purpose to be refined, and God will keep you long enough in a season of hunger to develop a dependency on him that cannot be satisfied by anyone else. And it is hunger that moves you. By your heads. Close your eyes. Right now. Because you know you've been occupying your time with things and possessions and people and circumstances and situations. And those things have not satisfied and fulfilled you. And you need to return back to Jesus. Because only He can satisfy, only He can make whole. Only He can purify, cleanse, and make righteous. And so if you need Him, and all of us need Him as our Lord and our Savior. You've never prayed that prayer. If you you need Him as your Lord and your Savior right now, I want you to lift your hands. If you need to repent for something, you need Him to cleanse you. I want you to lift your hands. Lift them high. Keep your heads bowed, your eyes closed. Lift those hands high. Everyone, repeat this prayer after me. Lord Jesus, come into my heart, cleanse me, heal me, keep me, and lift me. Right now in the name of Jesus, I ask that you would take my sin, wash it white as snow. I repent. I ask for forgiveness. And I accept you not just as King, but as Lord and my master. So right now in Jesus' name, I confess that you are my Lord. You are my master. And I believe within my heart of hearts that you saved me, you redeemed me, and you restored me. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.