Happy Are the Hungry

Introduction:

Hangry - adj. - a state of anger caused by lack of food; hunger causing a negative change in emotional state.

Tahsha bought it for me a few years ago, and I don't know if she meant it to be funny, or if she just wanted to warn people that came to talk to me...

If you believe the commercials from the early 2000's, you will know that "you are not yourself when you are hungry" and that the only way to get rid of that "hanger" is to... "eat a Snickers."

So maybe the title of this sermon may sound a bit strange: Happy Are the Hungry.

I don't think that's a phrase that many people say.

Our sermon today, however, tells us that, "happy are those that hunger."

For sake of time, we will not read the whole passage of Matthew 5:1-12, but we will read verse 6.

Matthew 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

All other Beatitudes that we have seen so far flow into this one, and all the other Beatitudes flow out of this one.

If "blessed are the poor in spirit," the first Beatitude, is the foundation for all other Beatitudes, "blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness" is the keystone of the Beatitudes.

The first of the Beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are they that mourn, and blessed are the meek, have caused us to self-examine. We have looked at our own helplessness and weakness, our utter poverty of spirit; we have looked at the sin that is within; and because of those things, we come to the Lord in a meek and lowly spirit.

We have been concerned primarily with the terrible problem of self in the first three Beatitudes. Self-concern, self-interests, self-reliance, self-centeredness, and all around selfishness. This leads us to our many miseries personally and globally.

We have seen that the Christian, the citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, is a person who truly hates all of this; it causes him to mourn, and in that emptiness and humility of mourning, we find 'happier-than-happy' happiness, for it is only in that condition that we can enter the Kingdom of Heaven, be comforted, and have the one thing that the world desires above all things, satisfaction.

That satisfaction comes only when we deal with the issue of self for what David Lloyd-Jones says is ultimately the "cause of all unhappiness."

And if we are willing to admit we have a problem, and see that this problem is the deeply spiritual problem of sin in our selves. If in that recognition of our sin, we come meekly before the Lord, God will give us something only He can give, if we hunger and thirst for it, and that is righteousness.

Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

This singular verse contains in it the whole essence of the previous three Beatitudes, for it is only the soul that realizes that it is spiritually bankrupt, the souls that realizes that all that it can bring to the table is corrupted by sin, that soul that understands that one's self-desires and sensitivities cannot bring a a single bit of lasting satisfaction, that soul is the soul that has a hunger and a thirst for a righteousness that cannot be found in anyone other than Jesus.

Let's proceed to breaking this passage down and analyzing it as we prepare our lives to apply it.

What Does It Mean to Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness?

It means, as we have discussed over the last 4 or five weeks, that blessed people are not hungering after blessedness. The only truly happy people are those that are not hungering for it. Most everyone is chasing happiness in one way or another, and all are failing miserably at it. But not the happier than happy people. No, the happier than happy people have set the desire for happiness aside, and instead they are those that are pursuing a close relationship with God.

Those that put happiness and blessedness as the number one pursuit of their lives will miss it every time.

Happiness is never something that should be sought directly; it is always something that results from seeking something else.

This pursuit of happiness is found, not only outside the church, but in so many inside the church as well. It is often the driving force behind everything we do. We work so that we can get money so that we can spend on things and entertainment that will hopefully bring us happiness, only to find that when the money runs out and the new wears off, we are right back to where we started so we go back to work, to get money, so we can spend it... and the cycle goes on and on.

This cycle of treating the symptom, lack of happiness, but not treating the root issue, is a dangerous one. We wouldn't accept it anywhere else. I was reading about a woman who went to the ER because of chest pain. They treated her symptoms, relieving the pain, but did not do tests on her before sending her home. Once back at home, the woman suffered a heart attack and died.

We would all denounce these caregivers as bad, because the treated a symptom and did not look for, much less treat, the root issue.

But that is what so many people in the world do. The symptom is a lack of happiness or joy, and it gets treated with work, money, drinking, drugs, entertainment, and so many other things. But eventually the pain and the unhappiness come back because those are merely symptoms of a deeper problem.

This behavior is found within the church as well, though modified slightly. There are Christians the world over that are chasing happiness and can never seem to find it. They go from meeting to meeting, convention to convention, hop from one church to another, all the while looking for that one experience that is going to give them joy. They hunger and thirst for the ultimate experience when Jesus tells us, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled."

This hunger is something that many of us would probably not be able to easily relate to in terms of physical hunger. Most of us here have probably not had to endure the a starvation-level of hunger. We use the phrase, "I'm starving," nonchalantly as we refer to a feeling of slight discomfort because we haven't eaten in the last two hours, but few of us here probably know what it means to be starving.

This unquenchable hunger and thirst is similar to the addict's draw toward his drug or drink of choice. Many of us may well know because of either personal experience or because of witnessing someone close to us fall prey to addiction what it is to witness someone throw their life away for a chemical.

A drug addict will sell everything, abandon all, and betray anyone so that he can get his next hit. He holds no possession nor relationship and not even his own life even remotely as high as he does his drug of choice. His whole world revolves around it.

How many people have gone to prison because of their addiction, been locked up and clean for years, only to fall prey to the exact same thing hours after their release?

This is a hunger and a thirst that many of us have witnessed.

This is the level of hunger and thirst that is described in this verse. This is the way we should hunger and thirst for righteousness. We must hunger and thirst after it in this way because we cannot produce it ourselves.

So knowing that....

What Is Righteousness?

If we are to truly be happier than happy people, we must then hunger and thirst, absolutely crave, after righteousness. But if we are going to do that, then we must first understand what righteousness means.

This is not merely a general morality and respectability.

For the unsaved person, this is a hunger and thirst for the righteousness of salvation, of justification. It cannot be attained by any means other than through Jesus Christ. To be saved, one must have the desire to be freed from the curse and the power and the presence of sin, because it is sin that separates man from God.

The man who hungers and thirsts after righteousness is the man that has seen that his sin has separated him from the Lord and desires to enter into that relationship for which man was originally created.

Beyond this, for the Christian, this righteousness is synonymous with our sanctification. This righteousness is the freedom from the power of sin in us. It goes even further to a point where it becomes a desire to be free even from the desires of sin.

Sin is such a tricky thing. Even after we see that it is wrong, even after we have seen the havoc that sin wrecks on all those who indulge in it, the heart of man still desires it. But a Christian, a citizen of the Kingdom of God, is one who desires to be rid, not just of sin in his life, but even the desire of sin.

That desire is replaced by the desire for righteousness. This righteousness is the right-standing with God. It is a desire to be right and pleasing to the Lord, and as we have already studied quite a bit, this cannot come from us.

Our own "righteousness," our own good works are nothing. The book of Isaiah tells us that our righteousness is like filthy rags. These were the rags that the lepers would clean their sores with. They could not be washed and reused, they could not be recycled. The only thing that they were fit for after having been used in this manner was to be thrown in a fire and burned. Nobody wanted to get close to them; nobody wanted to touch them. They were filthy, they were abominable, and this is the way our good works, our own righteousness is described by God.

No, we could never attain this righteousness on our own, which is the reason a Christian will crave it incessantly. The righteousness that this means is Jesus himself. The Bible well tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:21 21 that ...he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin [speaking of Jesus]; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

The person that hungers and thirsts after righteousness is the person who longs to be like Jesus. Jesus is the only one who in-an-of-himself can stand before God. He is the only one who walked on this world as a human that can approach God of his own merit. As Christians, we are imputed God's own righteousness because of Jesus Christ the moment we are saved, but as we discussed the previous 2 weeks, while we are here on earth in this body corrupted by sin, we still fight the pollution of sin within us.

The man who hungers and thirsts after righteousness craves to be like Jesus, without even the desire ever sin again. It is a person whose supreme desire is to know Jesus and be in fellowship with him.

This hunger and thirst cannot be just a passing desire, it is something that keeps going until fully satisfied. It is deep, painful even. It continues increasing to a point of desperation.

To often Christians attempt to quench this hunger and thirst with self-righteousness, but as we have seen in the past 4 weeks, self-anything (-centeredness, -pity, -selfishness, or self-righteousness) cannot attain any sort of satisfaction.

This hunger and thirst for that deep relationship with God, for the righteousness of Him to be manifested within us is probably best put into words by the writer of Psalm 42

Psalm 42:1-2 As the hart panteth after the water brooks,

so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God:

when shall I come and appear before God?

Jesus captured the essence of this hunger and thirst in a relationship when he spoke of the prodigal son.

A rich man had 2 sons, and the younger went to the father and said, "Give me the portion of my inheritance." The father was hurt, but divided up the inheritance to both his sons. Not many days later, the younger son took the money and ran to a distant country.

There, he experienced freedom from the authority of his father. He spent his money on everything his heart desired. He wasted it on luxurious lifestyles and on prostitutes. And as often happens to those that just throw their money around like fools, one day this young man ran out of money. When he ran out of money, he ran out of friends.

It so happened that as he found his bank account empty, their also came a famine in the land and food became scarce. To be able to afford enough food just to survive, this young man had to resort to feeding pigs. He was so hungry that the Bible says that he desired to eat the husks that the pigs were eating.

But the story continues. There came a day when he came to his senses, and he remembered his father. He remembered how that even the servants in his father's house had better food than what he had access to right now. So he got up and made his way back to his Father's house. On his way back, he rehearsed a speech for his dad. "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you, and I am no longer worthy to be called one of your sons. But would you please take me as one of your servants?"

As he came into town and started making his way up the street where his father's house was located, his father was watching from the gate. He recognized his son and while he was still a long ways off, he ran toward him. When he reached him, the son began his speech, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you..." But his father cut him off with a hug and with a kiss. Dad started to call out to the servants to bring his son shoes and a robe and a ring. He cried out that the fatted calf should be slaughtered and prepared for a feast, because his son, who was once lost, had come back home.

When the prodigal son was hungry, he desired the husks that the pigs ate, but when he was starving, he turned to his Father.

He was not allowed to eat the pigs' food, and even if he had, there would have not been satisfaction. But what happened when he turned to his father? There was a feast! More food than he could have ever eaten in one sitting! But it would have never happened if he would not have turned to his father. The son was absolutely unable to fill his own belly.

We are built to crave God's righteousness, and nothing besides Jesus will ever satisfy that hunger. It has been said by many that there is a God shaped whole in every person that cannot be filled except with God.

We can never be satisfied until we get to a point that we hunger for God' righteousness.

What Does a Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness Look Like?

It is manifested in several ways. There are ways to test ourselves to see if we are actually hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

Can we see through our own, false self-righteousness? All the good things that we or others could say about us, can we see through all of that and see it for what it actually is? Paul gave a long list in the book of Philippians of all the things in which he could glory himself in. And when it came down to it, he realized it was all a heap of manure. That is exactly what he calls it - dung. We do not hunger and thirst after righteousness if we hold on to any sense of self-satisfaction. We hunger and thirst after righteousness when we see that we are starving, dying even, because we do not possess ourselves that righteousness we so badly need.

Do we have a desire to be like the great saints of the past? Do we wish to have the faith of Abraham, the courage of David, the relationship that Moses had with God, the power of the disciples? Don't get me wrong, I believe most Christians would love to enjoy the blessings these individuals enjoyed, but too few actually desire to be like them.

Take Balaam, for example. Balaam wanted to die like the righteous and that he would be remembered as the righteous were remembered. But Balaam did not want to live like the righteous. He wanted the deathbed blessings of the righteous, but he was not hungry enough for that righteousness himself to live righteously.

People that are truly hungering and thirsting after righteousness avoid everything that is opposed to righteousness. Are you avoiding sin? These are the things that are absolutely against God, but there is also a sense of avoiding the things that deaden the appetite for righteousness. We are well aware that there are certain things that can ruin our appetite for lunch or dinner. We don't often let our kids eat 15 cookies 10 minutes before lunch because when they get to the table, they won't be hungry for it. Do they need the nutrients that the meat and vegetables will offer them? YES, but will they have a desire to eat it? NO, because they have over-indulged in the sweetness of the cookies. Are cookies bad? No, but too many of them can spoil the appetite for what is truly good for you. In the same way, we understand that sin is bad. But there are things that are neither good nor bad. But when we over indulge in games, social media, entertainment, sleep, etc., it can lessen our appetite for godly righteousness.

Do you put yourself in the way of righteousness? Do you give yourself opportunities to be influenced by righteousness? Blind Bartimaeus could not possibly heal himself. But he did what he could: he put himself on the road that Jesus was walking. When Jesus approached the area, he relentlessly cried out for Jesus to have mercy on him. Bartimaeus did everything in his power to be in the presence of Jesus, and Jesus gave him his sight.

What are you doing to get yourself in the presence of Jesus? Are you coming to the services? Are you worshipping during the songs? Are you paying attention to the Bible studies and the sermons? Are you reading your Bible at home? Are you taking time to pray and be in God's presence that way? Are you looking to be in the presence of other Christians that would influence that hinger for righteousness in you outside the church? How about this: Have are you signing up for a home group where you can have discussions with other Christians about the application of God's word in your life?

A person who hungers and thirsts after righteousness is a person who does not miss an opportunity to be in the places and with the people that are concerned with finding this righteousness as well.

Lastly, do you ask God for his righteousness to be made ever more perfect in your life? He is, after all, the only one that can give it, so it would make sense to ask from the source. Be like Bartimaeus, who would not stop shouting until Jesus approached him. Be like Jacob who would not release the Angel of the Lord until he had received a blessing. And when we become like those men in our prayer life, like them, our lives will change and we will not return the same way.

Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Filled with what? With the fulness of God.

Invitation:

Are you filled this morning? If you were to examine your life, can you honestly say, I am satisfied. I am hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and I am constantly being satisfied by the Lord.

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