Blessed Is A Healthy Spiritual Appetite
Notes
Transcript
Intro; Most of us in America have no idea what it means to go hungry. Now we get hungry but we have the means by which to fill those hunger desires. Matter of fact, obesity is at an all time high in America.
CDC 2020, 2 out of 3 adults are obese [75 %]
CDC 2023, 1 out of 5 children are obese [20 %] 14.7 million children
The main cause of obesity are, poor diets; too much television watching; too little physical activity and sleep
Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer. These are among the leading causes of preventable, premature death.
While physical obesity is overwhelming in our society today, the flip side is that America is spiritually malnourished!
When a person is malnourished it begins to take a toll on their body.
Vital organs such as the heart and lungs begin to shrink. Muscle mass is depleted, the body temperature is lowered, and the body swells from fluid under the skin. The person also suffers from chronic diarrhea and irritability.
Dehydration creates intense thirst because of the loss of water and salts that are essential for your body to function normally. If we become severely dehydrated, we can go into hypovolemic shock. Our skin becomes pale, cool, and clammy. Our breathing becomes shallow and our heart beats rapidly.
Our mouth suffers from inflammation that is caused by sores and infections.
The eyes become sunken and have difficulty producing tears
Malnutrition leads to starvation, and often even with proper nourishment and medication, the affects often cannot be reversed
These physical symptoms are similar to what takes place in the lives of people that are spiritually malnourished, starving and dehydrating.
Their hearts are affected, becoming cold, small, and hard.
They are usually irritable and difficult to be around because they are so cranky.
Their vision is affected. They have difficulty in seeing the Lord, His blessings in their lives and shedding tears of compassion for others and tears for their sin.
Their mouth many times is inflamed with either filthy talk or selfish, angry, argumentative words.
Physical starvation and dehydration are devastating; Spiritual starvation and dehydration are destructive, deadly, and can lead to eternal damnation.
Tonight I want us to look at “Blessed Is A Healthy Spiritual Appetite”
Text; Mt. 5:6
Matthew 5:6 (NKJV)
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.
1. Hunger and Thirst; 6a
1. Hunger and Thirst; 6a
Hungering and thirsting is a natural part of the physical condition that God placed in all creatures in creation.
Hunger is a desire or craving for food to sustain the natural body; there are endorphins in our brain that tell us we are hungry because the body is in a weakened condition and needs to be strengthened, therefore we eat.
Thirst is a desire for drink to refresh the body; Our bodies are comprised of about 60 percent water and they are constantly at work in maintaining that balance. When the balance is low, the brain stimulates the nerve centers to encourage a person to drink more water. God has created the kidneys for maintaining our water balance by eliminating waste products and excess water.
We hunger and thirst for our physical needs often throughout the day. At least three meals a day and sometimes more.
Madison Avenue is in the business of creating in you certain hungers. I mean, they will advertise things, and you will look at them, and you didn’t even know you wanted it until you see that ad. Have you ever—I have—watched something on television—maybe it will be a glass of iced tea—and I have to go into the kitchen and get one right after I watched that. I didn’t even know I was thirsty. And yet, I’m watching something there. And, they create in you … That’s their business—to create hungers in you. And, many times, because of Madison Avenue, we’re buying things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like—because Madison Avenue has just created in us a certain kind of hunger.
Rogers, A. (2017). The Secret of Satisfaction. In Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive (Mt 5:6). Rogers Family Trust.
God, through the Holy Spirit, wants to create in us a hunger and thirst for something we desperately need, something we cannot live without, RIGHTEOUSNESS!!
2. Righteousness; 6b
2. Righteousness; 6b
What is righteousness? Many will say “to be right and to do right”
Righteousness in the bible is not necessarily an attitude or action, but more-so a Person!
30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
John 17:25 (NKJV)
25 O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me.
17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Only when we hunger and thirst for the Person, Jesus Christ, will we have attitudes and work actions of righteousness in our lives!
If we are going to hunger and thirst for righteousness we have to order from God’s spiritual menu.
I like doughnuts. Southern Maid Doughnuts. They are the best doughnuts in the world in my opinion. But a dozen Southern Maid Doughnuts will not meet the physical needs of my body. They simply distort it’s shape.
It works the same way spiritually. Worship once a week is nice but it will not satisfy the spiritual needs for righteousness in my life. I need a constant diet of spiritual food and drink to stay spiritually healthy.
John 6:35 (NKJV)
35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
We must come to Jesus for spiritual sustenance just like we go to the fridge to satisfy our physical hunger.
In the physical realm, a good appetite indicates good health and a poor appetite is an indication that something is wrong with a person. The same analogy holds true for our spiritual appetites. A good appetite for righteousness indicates that spiritually one is in good spiritual condition. It says that the faith of that person is strong and healthy. When the spiritual desire is deficient, it reveals spiritual weakness and lack of spiritual maturity. It reveals that one’s faith is weak and anemic.
How do I increase my spiritual appetite?
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
Paul is not saying “to work for your salvation”, but the salvation that is in you in Christ Jesus, that righteousness is the starting point of your hungering and thirsting spiritually!
This beatitude is a turning point in Jesus’ sermon. It moves from the change that took place in our lives through salvation in vv. 3-5;
Becoming poor in spirit realizing our total dependance upon God
Mourning over our sin to be comforted in Christ
Meek in attitude, humbly yielding to Christ
Now hungering and thirsting for righteousness, something we didn’t do before faith in Christ
[Ills.] If you have a gas burning car and you go fill it up with diesel, your gas gauge will register full, but you ain’t gonna get very far before you start having engine problems. The reason why is your putting the wrong fuel in the tank. Many christians are trying to satisfy spiritual needs with worldly fuel. You may seem happy for a while but then your gonna begin to have problems. You have a new nature in Christ and it only runs off of righteousness. Anything else will cause problems under the hood!
1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,
2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,
3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
When a baby comes into this world the first thing he learns to do is eat! And the more he eats the more he grows. But there comes a time when that milk is not enough to satisfy his hunger. Now he wants real groceries [beans, taters, fruit, meat]. That’s the same way a christian is to hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Many christians aren’t spiritually satisfied because they are not spiritually hungry. They’re drinking spiritual milk but still eating worldly snacks! Paul alludes to this;
1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.
2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able;
3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
When we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we hunger and thirst for Jesus!
Matthew 3:13–17 (NKJV)
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.
14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”
15 But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.
16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.
17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Righteousness is pleasing the Father. And the only way to please the Father is to imitate His Son! And the only way to imitate the Son is to have a hungering and thirsting for Him!
Close;
Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled”, “satisfied”.
Wretched are those who foolishly seek the world, for their efforts will be in vain.
1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.