Hungry for Jesus
Pastoral | October 15, 2026 | By: Ethan Clark
I’m 16 years old, walking the streets of Reynosa, Mexico, at the end of a mission trip and one particular street vendor catches my eye. A blue tarp littered with bootleg movies that won’t be available for purchase for another six months. Jackpot! I decide to grab a copy. Not only will I be granted early access, but the cost is significantly lower than I would pay retail. In my youthful mind, there’s no wait, and I’m getting a deal! I have come out on top.
Reality sets in when I get north of the border and pop it in the DVD player.
You get the storyline, and it does allow you to see what’s only in theaters and still requires a ticket stub to experience. But it’s distorted, the camcorder is never quite still, the angle on the screen is wrong, and it’s pixelated from the zoom. Occasionally you can hear someone crunching on popcorn or opening up candy, and some words and moments are lost outside the theater experience.
I can’t be upset when I knowingly settled for a counterfeit version. I don’t have the right to give a bona fide review. In fact, if someone asked me if I had seen the movie, I could answer yes, but there would most certainly be a qualifier, “well sort of.” And quite frankly, the lower quality movie experience makes me long for the real one. Surround sound, high-definition projection, a dark room, a giant screen. I want to be immersed in the story and witness it as intended.
The lower quality movie experience makes me long for the real one.
Many young people, as a recent Barna study concludes, are coming back to church and returning to faith because they want to witness and experience the living God. They aren’t looking for answers or solutions to their problems first; they are looking to encounter Jesus. The number one spiritual reason young adults gave for attending is “to pray,” followed closely by a desire to partake in “corporate worship.”
Gen Z is not a complacent, spiritually disinterested generation set on following the world. In fact, they are attending Sunday morning gatherings at a higher rate than ANY other demographic. They attend 1.9 times per month, with Millennials attending 1.8/month. Boomers and Elders are attending at a rate of 1.4/month. The average is 1.6. I share this to put it into perspective. Young people are hungry for a REAL encounter with Jesus. This is fantastic news.
But it also raises the question: what type of encounter are we in the church modeling? Are we approaching God on our own terms and at a cost we’re willing to pay? Or do we, with fidelity, approach God on HIS terms and at the price HE sets?
Young people are hungry for a real encounter with Jesus.
God desires for people to draw near to Him, otherwise He wouldn’t command it in James and promise His reciprocation. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…” (James 4:8).
It is not the exception but the right and expectation of the Christian that we live in close union with our Savior and experience His nearness as daily grace. But for many of us, God feels distant.
We may worship on Sundays, attend Bible studies, tithe, serve, have faithful relationships, give to the poor, practice sound doctrine, read the Bible, and pray, yet still struggle to sense God’s presence in our lives.
None of these are unrighteous actions, but they can be like striking a nail with the wrong end of a hammer if we neglect the crucial steps God has revealed to us for drawing near to Him.
The Lord has “personhood.” He has preferences like you and me, but He differs from us in that His desires and preferences and personhood are unchanging and revealed to us through His divine Word.
James, the early church leader, commands his listeners to draw near to God, not in an arbitrary or self-defined manner, but in a God-directed order.
“‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:6b–8).
Walking with Jesus is not complicated, but it is not easy. If we lack the felt presence of God in our lives as Christians, we must turn inward and apply James’ wisdom. Am I proud? If I am, God will set up camp against me until I find myself again as a humble student, ready to learn and receive everything from my good Father (James 1:17). Am I stubborn or defiant? Is there any thought, action, decision, or piece of my will I have not submitted to God? Anyone who refuses to submit to God will find themselves against Him (James 4:6). Am I resisting evil? Do I give space and entertainment to what I know is rebellion? God will not dine with Satan (1 Cor. 10:21).
Walking with Jesus is not complicated, but it is not easy.
The terms and cost of drawing near to God are humility, submission, and resistance of evil. If, with a clear conscience, I have observed these areas of my life, it is by the grace of God that with full assurance I know God is drawing near to me.
A generation of young people are drawing near to God. Some have realized, as one young man I sat with recalled in his own recent conversion, that humility and submission are the way into the presence of the King. But many come, toil, struggle, and labor, only to conclude that this God is not available to them or worse, believe the lie that a nominal experience of God is all there is.
They need true followers to tell them that Jesus Christ is better than life.
They need saints to show them the way into the presence of our gracious King.
They need a church to preach and proclaim that to draw near to God is worth whatever the cost.
They need the God who is available, able, and willing to pour out His love through the blood of the Savior on all who would receive Him.
Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.
Ethan Clark
Central Young Adults Pastor
God is moving among our Young Adults and many of them are seeking mentors. If you’d like to learn more or get involved, contact us at ya@scottsdalebible.com.
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