- What about you? When is a time in your life that you have been utterly obsessed with something? Something that consumed every thing about you; watched it on tv all the time, missed sleep for it, sacrificed other things to feed your obsession, spent money, energy, and let other things go just to feed your obsession.
- Talk about different times in my life when I was consumed by different things.
- 2000-2002 Huskers/ college football
- VV sports when I was single
- Presidential politics every couple of years.
- My weight loss journey
- My girls and Frozen
- Today in our journey through the beatitudes we come to “Hunger and Thirst”, this idea of being consumed by something feeds into what we are going to be looking at today!
- Stop and Pray
- Talk about the series that we are currently in.
- Quickly define what Beatitudes
- The word “beatitude” comes from the Latin word “beatus,” but the name “beatitude” also is commonly used to describe how each of these attitudes should “be” part of our behavior. They are the “Be-Attitudes” that should be in each of our lives.
- Quickly talk about what it means to be blessed
- It reflected an inward contentedness that was not affected by circumstances. The word “blessed” has the sense of being approved. Not only does God approve of these people and bestow Divine happiness upon them, he also favors them. He lavishly bestows grace, mercy, and peace upon their lives. He favors them in a myriad of ways.
- We started a couple weeks ago talking about being poor in spirit, and what that means.
- It is the first thing that must happen in the life of anybody who enters God’s kingdom. Nobody entered God’s kingdom on the basis of pride. Poverty of spirit is the only way in. One commentator says: “The door to the kingdom is very low and you must crawl in”
- Three weeks ago we talked about those who mourn.
- Blessed is the man who is desperately sorry for his own sin and his own unworthiness. Blessed is the man who is intensely sorry for his sin, the man who is heart-broken for what his sin has done to God and to Jesus Christ, the man who sees the Cross and who is appalled by the havoc wrought by sin.
- Two weeks ago we dove into the subject of meekness.
- What is this complex somewhat hard to understand idea? It is impossible to translate this ancient Greek word praus (meek) with just one English word. It has the idea of the proper balance between anger and indifference; of a powerful personality properly controlled; and of humility.
- Read the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:1-12
- Today we are going to be in the 6th verse of this great chapter.
- Quickly define what Beatitudes
- The fact is, most of us in the Western world have no idea what it is to be hungry or thirsty. However, In the ancient world it was very different. A working man’s wage was the equivalent of $.25 a day, and, even living frugally and skimping and saving, no man ever got fat on that wage. A working man in Palestine ate meat about once a week, and in Palestine the working man and the day laborer were never far from the border-line of real hunger and actual starvation.
- For most people thrust was an even bigger problem. It was not possible for most people to turn a tap and find the clear, cold water pouring into their house. In the conditions of modern western life there is no parallel at all to that.
- So, the hunger here is no gentle hunger which could be satisfied with a mid-morning snack; the thirst is not thirst which could be quenched with a cup of coffee or an iced drink. It is the hunger of the man who is starving for food, and the thirst of the man who will die unless he drinks.
- This beatitude is a question and a challenge.
- In effect it demands. “How much do you want righteousness?
- Do you want it as much as a starving man wants food, and as much as a man dying of thirst wants water?”
- How intense is our desire for righteousness?
- Looking at this beatitude from that perspective it is the most demanding, and frightening, of them all. But not only is it the most demanding beatitude; in its own way it is also the most comforting.
- At the end of it t the man who is blessed is not the man who achieves this righteousness, but the man who desires it, chases it, pursues it. If blessedness came only when we got to a Godly level, none of us would be blessed.
- There is one further point in this beatitude, a point which only emerges in the Greek. The structure and the form which the words take, helps us to understand more clearly what the exact point is here. Jesus here is not saying I want a slice of bread, he instead says I want the whole loaf. Also, he is not saying that he just wants a drink, he instead is saying that , He wants the whole pitcher. There the correct translation is:
- Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for all righteousness, for complete righteousness.
- This beatitude says, it is not enough to be satisfied with a partial goodness. Blessed is the man who hungers and thirsts for the goodness which is total.
- What does Righteousness mean?
- It is a desire to be free from sin because it separates me from God.
- The desire to be right with God
- It is a desire to be free from the power of sin
- sees world controlled by satan
- sees himself under this control.
- he desires to be freed from tyranny of sin.
- It is a desire to be free from desire to sin.
- not only in bondage, he likes it
- not only do things worthy of death, take pleasure.
- wants to get rid of desire
- It is a desire to be free from sin because it separates me from God.
- What does it look like to Hunger and Thirst to be “Right” with God?
- We should stop with the cheap substitutes.
- So many Christian people fill our lives with other things, trying to find cheap substitutes for God and we treat God as an after thought. It is sad, that so few Christians deeply crave righteousness. We are somewhat like children who have spoiled their dinners with junk food. We’re satisfied with recognition, busyness, entertainment, and emotional stimulation. And because we allow such things to fill us, we are distracted from this deeper desire. Because of this, we have lost our impact in our society. We are often neither salt nor light, but merely another option for good work or social activity.
- Tell story of how unhealthy, “healthy” food is. The calories per ounce method.
- So many of us think that “playing” at our relationship with God will be good enough
- If I just read my bible every day
- If I just show up at church
- If I just write my check
- If I just pray some.
- God should be the only thing in our life. Stop filling your life with cheap substitutes, and hunger after God.
- Set up I Peter 2:1-3
- In chapter 1, starting in about verse 13, Peter has a stern warning for his readers about this same idea, and that we should pursue holiness, and prepare for action. HE says you have been brought with a price, you are not in your forever home, pursue truth. After all of that, he gives this great command at the beginning of the next chapter.
- Read I Peter 2:1-3
- What do you crave? What if you filled up on just God? What if you stopped trying to fill your life with other Junk and instead just went after God with everything that you have? What if you sought after Him first, and not last?
- In chapter 1, starting in about verse 13, Peter has a stern warning for his readers about this same idea, and that we should pursue holiness, and prepare for action. HE says you have been brought with a price, you are not in your forever home, pursue truth. After all of that, he gives this great command at the beginning of the next chapter.
- God should not only be the main course, he should be the only thing in our life that we search after. Nothing can satisfy us like a relationship with God can.
- The longer that we are content with the junk food this life has to offer the longer it will be before we are truly satisfied.
- We must never be satisfied in our standing with God.
- Have you ever been pasty mouth thirsty? You know the kind I am talking about, the kind of thirst that makes you slam a 20 oz bottle of water almost instantly. That is an intense thirst, when we get that thirsty, satisfying that thirst is about all we think about.
- Just as intense as this is thirst we just talked about, is the idea of incredible hunger that is talked about here. There is a specific type of hunger that is talked about here in this passage. It is the kind that is never satisfied.
- Read Matthew 4:1-2
- The word Hungry that is used to describe how Jesus felt after not eating for 40 days, is the same word that is used here to talk about how we are to hunger and thirst for “right-ness” with God.
- That illustration changes the depth and seriousness of this hunger.
- Psalm 119:17-20
- David had such reverence for the word, and such a desire to know it, and to be conformed to it, that his longings caused him a sort of heart break, which he here pleads before God. Longing
- Note that both hunger and thirst are in the present tense which calls for these pursuits to be our lifestyle. Think for a moment – if you eat only one meal, does it satisfy you for the rest of the week? Of course not. Even though that meal might have satiated you for the moment, your body naturally grows hungry again as time passes. In the same way, as genuine believers we will continually hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness. One day we will see Him and we shall be like Him in glory but until that day we are all David in his Psalms talks about the kind of longing that he had God the law of God
- We should hunger for God alone
- What does it look like to go all in and commit to something 100%? There is no limit to the amount of things that we can accomplish, if we will just go all out.
- Read Psalms 42:1-2 and Isaiah 55:1-2
- In both cases, we see an example of someone who comes to God for their very sustenance
- In this beatitude, God calls us to hunger after “right-ness” with Him, just like someone who is dying of hunger craves a loaf of bread. Do you search after God like that?
- So many Christian people fill our lives with other things, trying to find cheap substitutes for God and we treat God as an after thought. It is sad, that so few Christians deeply crave righteousness. We are somewhat like children who have spoiled their dinners with junk food. We’re satisfied with recognition, busyness, entertainment, and emotional stimulation. And because we allow such things to fill us, we are distracted from this deeper desire. Because of this, we have lost our impact in our society. We are often neither salt nor light, but merely another option for good work or social activity.
- We should stop with the cheap substitutes.
- So here is the bottom line… Do you crave, more than anything else, to live a life that will please God? A life in pursuit of Righteousness?
- So many of us have this deep hunger for righteousness, however we try to satisfy it with substitutes, or cheap replacements. We are satisfied with:
- recognition for doing all the “churchy” things
- being super busy serving, attending, and talking about “God Things”
- coming to church and being entertained by good music and games
- feeling emotionally touched by the message or prayer.
- Because we fill ourselves with these things, we miss out on the deeper option, the option to come to God alone, and let Him, His mercy, His word, His grace fill us!
- To truly hunger and thirst for righteousness is to have a perpetual, never ending, appetite for the things of God.
- Do you wake up thinking about your relationship with Him, or do you only come to Him when it is convenient?
- Do you seek ways to flee sin, or do you simply hope to stay on the right path?
- Do you chase after the throne of heaven with more tenacity you chase after a promotion, that new toy, or your fitness goals?
- So many of us have this deep hunger for righteousness, however we try to satisfy it with substitutes, or cheap replacements. We are satisfied with: