BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HUNGER AND THIRST.

A. SCRIPTURE:

Matthew 5:1–6 ESV

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

B. PRAYER:

C. WELCOME:

01. Greetings

In person and online

We are king’s church lowercase k

02. Icebreaker

Pastor David absolutely demolished us at Mortal Kombat the other night. I was genuinely impressed but also deeply frustrated by how good he is. The man went 36 and 0—undefeated. We clearly need a church game night (maybe co-ed) so someone can finally dethrone him and I and the Engelhardt boy and I can feel vindicated.

D. MESSAGE:

01. Recap

We’re now in week four of our series on the Beatitudes. Anyone been enjoying this series so far?

Pastor David’s message last week beautifully unpacked the third beatitude: meekness. He illustrated it with the image of a warhorse—power under submission.

Today, we move to the fourth beatitude: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

Before we dive in, let’s remember this key idea we’ve emphasized at the start of every message:

The Beatitudes are not transactional. They’re not saying, “If I do this, God will bless me.”

It’s not “IF you are poor in spirit, THEN you receive the blessings.”

The beatitudes describe identity before they describe ethics.

They describe the identity of those who belong to the kingdom of God’s kingdom. They are transformational: descriptions of who you are in Christ.

MAIN POINT: The Beatitudes Are the Family Traits of God’s People

Have you given much thought to how children naturally resemble their parents? As they grow, you begin to see more of yourself or your spouse in them. Every parent in this room can attest to this truth. Even if you’re not a parent, you have parents—that’s how you entered this world—and you can see that you mirror certain aspects of your parents.

These are descriptions and characteristics of those who belong to Christ. Just as children bear the likeness of their parents’ likeness without effort, those born of God begin to resemble Christ through the Spirit of God working within us to transform our lives.

Peter Kreeft says:

“These are not natural virtues. The Beatitudes are not what we can produce by our own moral effort. They are what God produces in us by grace.”

As we continue through the beatitudes, I want us to see that they aren’t isolated traits. They are connected virtues that reveal God’s divine logic and the moral progression of those in Christ.

Poor in spirit → recognizing your dependence on God

This humility leads to mourning → godly sorrow over sin

Mourning produces meekness → humble submission to God’s will, no longer insisting on your own way

When you’re not filled with your own strength and will, you naturally desire to be filled with His. This describes those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Meekness clears the soil of the soul so that spiritual hunger can grow.

This brings us to today’s verse: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”

02. EXPOSITION

I. Hungry for Righteousness: The Blessing of Spiritual Thirst

Matthew 5:6 ESV

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Have you ever been so hungry you felt like you were going to die? Probably no one listening online or here in person actually has. You may think you’re going to die because we can be dramatic.

Like fasting for the first time.

I’ve only fasted for three and a half days max.

I’ve only met one person who fasted for 40 days. He’s here right now.

No, not Pastor David, but our Lord Jesus Christ.

That feeling you get when you’re severely hungry—the sharp pangs in your stomach—now add being severely thirsty. It’s an unpleasant combination.

Jesus could have said, “Blessed are those who hunger for righteousness,” or “Blessed are those who thirst,” but he deliberately paired these two distinct experiences together. This combination creates a powerful metaphor for earnest longing—a priority so intense it displaces our most basic bodily needs.

What is Righteousness?

It’s not simply that you hunger and thirst—it’s where you direct that hunger and thirst. Do you aim it toward feeding an insatiable desire that leaves you empty, or toward the desire that truly satisfies?

Righteousness becomes the object of our desire, but in this context, it’s not about seeking justification before God. It’s about living in God’s will, but it goes even deeper than that.

The world overflows with false appetites. We hunger for status, pleasure, control, and validation. Yet all of these leave us empty.

In the deepest sense, to hunger and thirst for righteousness means to hunger and thirst for Jesus Himself, for He is the righteousness of God.

And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

Righteousness isn’t just a principle—it’s a person. Right living flows not from obligation, but from our desire to be with Him and like Him.

It’s a desire for God, as the Psalmist declares:

Psalm 42:1–2 ESV

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

Psalm 63:1 ESV

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Psalm 107:9 ESV

For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.

My salvation moment:

When I first became a Christian, the Lord set me ablaze. I went from spiritually dead to alive, and incredible joy filled me. For the first time, I truly felt that deep satisfaction the human heart longs for. I desired nothing but Christ.

My first month as a Christian, life was amazing—until a Debby Downer came along and said to me.

A Debby Downer friend told me it was great that I’m experiencing this level of joy, but warned it was just because I was in the “honeymoon phase.”

There’s no such thing as a honeymoon phase:

I think it’s evil to try robbing a new Christian of their joy in the Lord. Zeal for God isn’t a phase—it’s a mark of spiritual life.

It’s evil because it suggests that spiritual passion is temporary, something we inevitably outgrow. But Scripture tells us to grow in passion for the Lord and fan the flame.

2 Timothy 1:6 ESV

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands,

What did Jesus rebuke the church of Ephesus for? Abandoning their first love.

Being charitable, I understand wanting to prepare new Christians for suffering. But hardship doesn’t cancel hunger or joy—it purifies and deepens it.

Paul wrote an entire letter encouraging the church to rejoice while he sat chained in prison.

So yeah.

There’s no such thing as a “honeymoon phase.” Telling someone that is just an excuse to project your own indifference onto someone who’s still burning bright.

Don’t try to tame someone’s fire for Jesus because you’ve lost your own. We were never called to graduate from joy in the Lord.

In the kingdom, we need people who’ve tasted the goodness of Jesus and want more. That’s not immaturity. That’s health. That’s life.

Jesus

II. Spiritual Thirst vs. Sloth: The Tragedy of Samson

This indifference, this coldness toward God—this is what we call slothfulness.

It’s the opposite of the Beatitude: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”

every one of these grace

When you hear the word sloth, what comes to mind? Lazy, tired, or maybe you picture an actual sloth. They’re ridiculously slow.

Define Slothfulness:

In the most basic sense of the word: Sloth is the spiritual apathy that makes us indifferent to God, avoiding the effort to seek Him even when we know we need Him.

Sloth isn’t just laziness.

it’s indifference to God. It’s when our hearts stop caring about the things of God, even while we stay busy with everything else.

Sloth feels like spiritual apathy.

We know we should pray, read, worship, repent—but we delay, drift, and grow cold.

Sloth refuses love’s demands.

It’s a resistance to the effort required to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

🔥 Illustration: The Fire That Goes Unfed

Picture a campfire at night. It starts strong—flames crackling, warmth radiating. But no one adds more wood. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, it dies down—not from a storm, but from neglect.

That’s sloth. Not a violent rebellion, but the quiet dying of spiritual desire because we stopped feeding the flame.

It’s what happens when your heart stops caring about God’s things. When you go through the motions but don’t seek the Master.

Illustration: A young man I discipled in 2017

In 2017, I led a small group at a church I previously attended. One of the young men was deeply involved in church life—faithful every Sunday, present at almost every meeting. But as he began confiding in me about his personal struggles, I sensed something deeper was wrong.

I gently asked him, “When was the last time you read the Bible?” He paused, then admitted, “It’s been months.”

“How often do you pray?”

“Honestly… I barely do anymore,” he said.

I wasn’t asking to suggest that the more you read, the more spiritual you are. Plenty of people read the Bible while their hearts remain far from God. The point was to see if he still engaged in a relationship with God at all.

Do you know how long the human body can go without food and water? an average of 3-5 days

What i was trying to explain to him is that When we neglect the soul, it’s like refusing food and water—and expecting to live.

As St. Thomas Aquinas stated, “Those who find no joy in spiritual pleasures turn to pleasures of the body.”

The contrast between spiritual hunger and sloth is vividly illustrated in the scriptures through the life of Samson, who was set apart for God's work yet chose to pursue worldly pleasures.

You probably never heard a sermon about Samson in the context of slothfulness.

Samson’s story (Judges 13–16) serves as a cautionary tale who desires are misdirected. Who hungers and thirst for the wrong things.

make him an archetype of a man consumed by lower appetites rather than driven by holy hunger. He shows us what happens when spiritual sloth goes unchallenged—it becomes a playground for lust and pride.

Timeline of his life:

Miracle Birth - Judges 13

Before Samson even takes his first breath, God dedicates him as a Nazarite—set apart to live holy before God.

This vow required three commitments: no wine, no cutting of hair, and no contact with anything dead.

Moral digression - Judges 14-16

He eats honey from a dead lion’s carcass (breaking his Nazarite vow), chases after Philistine women, gets tangled up with Delilah, and pursues personal revenge.

What you hunger for will shape you:

Samson built his life around worldly pleasures and indulgence. As St. Thomas Aquinas observed, “Those who find no joy in spiritual pleasures turn to pleasures of the body.”

His moral compromise left him blind, broken, and chained to a grinding mill.

Do we not see our society:

“If the moral character of a people degenerate their political character must soon follow”

Elias Boundinot

Here’s what’s striking about Samson: God called him to be consecrated and appointed him as a judge over Israel, yet Scripture reveals that in his entire life, he called upon God only twice.

Judges 15:18 ESV

And he was very thirsty, and he called upon the Lord and said, “You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”

He cries out to God from physical thirst, not spiritual thirst—from desperation, not adoration

A pastor friend once asked a group of leaders: “What kind of Christian are you—a good-time Christian or a bad-time Christian?”

Good-time Christian: Do you only seek God when life is smooth sailing?

Bad-time Christian: Do you only seek God when everything falls apart?

Despite this, God still used him.

Here’s the thing: We assume that being used by God means we’re right with God. But just because God uses us doesn’t mean we’re walking in intimacy with Him.

God sometimes uses flawed vessels to accomplish His will, but that doesn’t mean He approves of their lifestyle.

The real question isn’t “Is God using me?” The question you and I both face is this: Do I hunger and thirst for Him? Do I crave His presence? Am I walking in communion and fellowship with God?

III. The Promise of Fulfillment

Matthew 5:6 ESV

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

“They shall be satisfied”—not maybe, but guaranteed.

This isn’t just future fulfillment in heaven, but present satisfaction in knowing God.

This promise extends beyond eternity. God satisfies now. In Christ, you’re filled with what your soul was created for: truth, beauty, righteousness, communion.

But here’s the question: Are you feeding your soul with what truly satisfies? Or are you full of the world yet empty of God?

Jesus is both the righteousness we hunger for and the one who satisfies that hunger.

IV. Cultivating Hunger in a Slothful Age

01. Discern your gauge:

Every car has a dashboard with gauges. Each gauge helps the driver identify which part needs attention when something’s wrong.

APPLICATIONS:

In prayer:

Am I satisfied with the things of the world or with God?

Ask yourself: What am I hungering and thirsting for?

Am I spiritually numb, or is there a longing for God in me?

God is a person and how he may lead in a particular season may be different for you.

He may leave you into spiritual discpliine.

If Jesus regularly withdrew from the crowd to spend time in prayer, how much more do we need to as well?

Fast from distractions that numb desire—entertainment, shallow comfort.

Feast on what stirs spiritual appetite: God’s Word, worship, prayer, service.

The satisfied life is the Christ-filled life.

Augustine’s test: Would you still want heaven if God weren’t there?

CLOSING:

Call the band up.

I’ve been like Samson in many ways, trying to medicate my soul with worldly things.

Maybe you feel like Samson in your posture of indifference. What’s the silver lining?

I mentioned that Samson called on the Lord only twice—first to quench his physical thirst, and second at the end of his life.

Judges 16:28 ESV

Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.”

Samson, in his final moments, calls out to God, and God hears and responds to his prayer.

I don’t know your circumstances, but even if you’re feeling spiritually distant, you can always call out to God and find deep joy in His presence. If you are a Christian, you are a son or daughter who can cry out for Him.

You don’t have to wait still things are crashing around to ask the Lord to help develop in you a hunger and thirst for Him.

PRAYER

Altar call moment:

If you are here today and have never made a decision to surrender to Christ, here’s both the hard truth and the good news. The hard truth is there’s no real life apart from Christ. All your efforts to be good enough for God amount to nothing but filthy rags. The beatitudes start with humility and recognizing your emptiness—acknowledging your need for God. But here’s the good news: Christ isn’t just upgrading your life—He’s giving you a completely new one.

Only God can truly satisfy our spiritual hunger. St. Augustine captured this truth perfectly: “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you” (Confessions 1.1). C. S. Lewis expressed the same idea: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”