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Stay Hungry For More
In this powerful message, Pastor Mirek Hufton calls the church to refuse spiritual complacency and press deeper into God's presence. Drawing from Matthew 5, he unpacks what it means to be "poor in spirit", not weakness, but humble dependency on God, and challenges believers that hunger for God is a choice, not a feeling. Using the life of Stephen from Acts 6-7, Pastor Hufton shows how an ordinary table-server became so consumed with God that his face literally glowed like an angel. Stephen's secret was simple: relentless hunger. He pressed past the "doorway" of the baptism of the Holy Spirit into the ocean of God's presence. Pastor Hufton recounts the story of Azusa Street pioneer William Seymour, who prayed five to seven hours daily for years before revival broke out, a vivid reminder that extraordinary moves of God flow from extraordinary hunger. The bottom line: how close you get to God is your decision. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is a door, not a destination. Press in.
Related Sermons
Small Group Guide
Stay Hungry For More
Small Group Discussion Guide
Based on the message by Pastor Mirek Hufton
1. SERMON RECAP
In this message, I challenged us to look at the life of Stephen — an ordinary man who simply waited tables — and see how his relentless hunger for God transformed him into one of the most extraordinary figures in the entire New Testament. Stephen pressed so deeply into God that his very face shone like an angel, and when he faced death, Jesus Himself stood up in heaven to honor him. The invitation is simple but life-changing: stop settling for ordinary Christianity and start pressing in for everything God has for you.
2. KEY SCRIPTURE
Acts 7:55-56 (NKJV) "But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, 'Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!'"
3. ICE BREAKER
Think of someone in your life — past or present — who just seemed to glow with something different about them. What was it that stood out, and what do you think produced it?
4. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. The Ordinary Made Extraordinary Stephen's original assignment was simply to wait tables and be a person of good reputation filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 6:3). Why do you think God often starts us in humble, unseen roles before expanding our influence? What does faithfulness in small things reveal about a person's heart?
2. Pressing In vs. Showing Up I mentioned men like T.L. Lowry and Ted Shuttlesworth who spent hours every single day in the Word and in prayer. Most of us would say we don't have that kind of time. Where do you honestly think the gap is — time, priority, or desire? What does "pressing into God" actually look like in a real, everyday life?
3. Cut to the Heart — Two Very Different Responses When Peter preached at Pentecost, the people were "cut to the heart" and asked, "What shall we do?" When Stephen preached, the people were also "cut to the heart" — but they gnashed their teeth and stoned him. Both groups felt the same conviction. What made the difference in how they responded? Have you ever felt genuinely convicted by God and chosen to justify yourself instead of repent? What happened?
4. The Glory on Stephen's Face I talked about how Stephen's face looked like the face of an angel — something his accusers could visibly see. That kind of presence doesn't come from a weekend of good feelings; it comes from sustained time with God. What do you think people currently see when they look at your life? And honestly, what would you want them to see?
5. Releasing Others in the Spirit As Stephen was being stoned, he knelt down and prayed, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin." I believe there's a direct connection between Stephen's act of forgiveness and Saul's eventual transformation on the Damascus road. Is there someone in your life — someone who has genuinely hurt you or opposed what God is doing in your life — that you need to release in prayer? What makes that so difficult?
6. Jesus Stood Up Normally, Scripture tells us Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father. But when Stephen was martyred, Jesus stood up. That detail is not accidental. What does it mean to you personally that Jesus stands in honor of those who press in, pay the price, and stay faithful under pressure? How does that image change the way you face hard seasons?
5. APPLICATION CHALLENGE
This week, add 15 intentional minutes to your time with God — and protect it.
Don't just add it to your schedule — guard it. Put your phone in another room. Close the door. Use 10 of those minutes in the Word (consider reading Acts 6–7 in full) and 5 minutes in quiet, unhurried prayer. At the end of the week, journal one honest sentence about what shifted — even slightly — in how you felt, thought, or treated someone. Come back next week ready to share it.
6. PRAYER POINTS
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Pray for genuine hunger — Ask God to stir a deep, unsatisfied longing in each group member that won't be quieted by religious routine or comfortable Christianity.
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Pray for courage under pressure — Lift up anyone in the group who is currently facing opposition, criticism, or a situation where the easy road is compromise. Ask God to let His glory show on their face the way it did on Stephen's.
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Pray for those who need to repent — Without naming names, ask the Holy Spirit to give each person the grace to respond to conviction the way Acts 2 describes — with an open, surrendered heart rather than a hardened, self-protective one.
7. MEMORY VERSE
Acts 6:8 (NKJV) "And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people."
Leader's Note: Don't rush question 5 — it often opens the most meaningful conversation of the night. Give people room to sit with it. Silence is okay. The Holy Spirit does His best work in the unhurried moments.
Daily Devotional
Press In For More
2 Corinthians 3:18 — "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."
I want to tell you something that has stayed with me for years. The first time I saw T.L. Lowry walking down a hallway, his face literally glowed. I stopped and asked, "Who is that man?" There was something so different about him — and it wasn't his title or his reputation. It was that he had pressed into God. He paid the price in hours of prayer, hours in the Word, hours of quiet waiting. That glow wasn't manufactured. It was glory. And here's what I want you to hear this morning — that same transformation is available to you. Scripture says we go from glory to glory. There is no ceiling. There is no level where God says, "That's enough for you." The more you press in, the more the ugly in us begins to leave. You are not stuck where you are.
Lord, I don't want to be satisfied with where I am — I want more of You. Transform me from glory to glory today. Let Your presence be so real in my life that people notice something different about me.
Don't Resist The Truth
Acts 7:51 — "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you."
Stephen stood before his accusers, full of the Holy Ghost, and he didn't flinch. He laid out the entire history of Israel, building his case line upon line, and then he went for the jugular — "You always resist the Holy Spirit." I want to ask you something personal this morning. When God deals with your heart in a sermon, in your quiet time, in a moment of conviction — what do you do with it? I've watched people get cut to the heart and instead of repenting, they justify. "I'm doing enough. I'm okay. I'll be fine." But here's the truth — if you resist when God shows you something, it gets harder to repent the next time. You slowly drift toward becoming a Pharisee. Don't let that happen. When God cuts you to the heart, do what Acts 2 says. Repent. Let Him do the work.
Holy Spirit, I don't want to resist You — not even a little. When You show me something in my heart that needs to change, give me the courage to say yes to You immediately. Do a deep work in me today.
An Ordinary Person With An Extraordinary God
Acts 6:8 — "And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people."
I love this about Stephen — he wasn't a pastor or an apostle. He was chosen to wait tables. That was his job. His only qualification was a good reputation and being filled with the Holy Ghost. And yet he became one of the most outstanding individuals in the entire New Testament. That tells me something powerful — God isn't looking for impressive credentials. He's looking for a hungry heart. You don't need a theology degree to carry the glory of God. You don't need a platform or a title. You need one thing — a passion for God that pushes you to press in further than you pressed yesterday. I want to be a Stephen. I really do. Full of the Holy Ghost, full of wisdom, full of power. And I believe you do too. God takes ordinary people and makes them supernatural. That's just who He is.
God, I give You my ordinary life today. I'm not waiting until I feel qualified — I'm pressing in right now. Take what I have and make it extraordinary for Your glory.
When Heaven Stands Up For You
Acts 7:55-56 — "But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, 'Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!'"
Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father — that's the normal picture Scripture gives us. But in this moment, as Stephen is being stoned, Jesus stood up. He stood up. I want you to feel the weight of that. All of heaven took notice of one man who chose to press in, who gave everything, who walked so close to God that his face shone like an angel. And in his final moments, heaven honored him. I believe with everything in me that the days we are living in right now are parallel to what Stephen faced. There is opposition to the move of God everywhere. But I also believe that God is looking for people — right here in this church — who will press in so deeply that heaven stands up and takes notice of them. That could be you. That should be you.
Jesus, I want to live in a way that moves heaven. Not for my own glory, but because I love You and I want to be close to You. Let my life be one that You stand up and honor.
Release Them And Rise Higher
Acts 7:60 — "Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, 'Lord, do not charge them with this sin.' And when he had said this, he fell asleep."
As the stones were hitting Stephen, he knelt down and said, "Lord, don't hold this against them." In the middle of his own death, he stepped into the role of Jesus — the same grace, the same release, the same love. And I believe what he did in the spirit that day had everything to do with what happened next. God took the worst persecutor of the church — Saul — and one Damascus Road experience flipped him into the greatest Christian leader the world has ever seen. Forgiveness released something. And I want you to hear me clearly — you cannot carry offense and carry glory at the same time. The more filled with God you are, the more the flesh — including unforgiveness, bitterness, and hurt — has to go. I'm not satisfied where I am. I want to come up higher. I want to be so full of the Holy Ghost that releasing people becomes a reflex.
Lord, show me who I need to release today. I don't want to hold anything that is holding me back from Your glory. Fill me so full of Your Spirit that forgiveness flows out of me naturally.