Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

Introduction: Snickers had arguably the greatest series of adds series ever. They got actors to act all angry and mean. And then someone would give them a snickers and say eat a snickers and say “Better” and the person goes back to who they really are and the tagline comes up:

You’re not you when you’re hungry.

Hunger makes us do some weird things.

I saw a t-shirt that said, “I’m sorry for the things I said when I was hungry.”

We even have a word of it, “Hangry.”

But hunger is the most primal of urges and it leads us to do whatever is necessary to satisfy that urge.

We’ll kill to satisfy the urge.

We’ll beg, plead and even steal. And that’s not even to say what happens when our children are hungry.

And this primal urge to feed ourselves is one of the clearest analogies for what God has called us to.

Transition to the Text: Turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 5:6. Today we continue our study of the Beatitudes. If you have been here for the first 3, you know that these are the attitudes necessary for the greater life a part of God’s kingdom.

They are not independent of one another. They build off of one another. And they get harder. And I’ve argued that they have built up to today’s beatitude. So let’s get to it.

Read: Matthew 5:6

Matthew 5:6 ESV

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

Beatitude 4: BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HUNGER AND THIRST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

For they will be satisfied. And this is a reminder that…

1. We don’t LIVE on BREAD alone.

Explanation: When Jesus was first beginning His ministry, after His baptism, He was led into the dessert for 40 days to be tempted by the devil. To be fair, it wasn’t until after He had fasted for 40 days that He was tempted. The devil tempted Him at what should have been His weakest moment.

Matthew 4:1–4 ESV

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

Jesus had a different kind of hunger that overruled that pain in HIs stomach that each one of us has that reminds us to eat.

To be fair Jesus was fully human as well as fully God. He got hungry. But more than physical hunger there was a hunger to do what God wanted Him to do.

There is a story in John that shows this:

John 4:31–34 ESV

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

Doing the will of God satisfies us in a way that words can’t explain.

Illustration: We have a mission team in Thailand right now doing the will of God. And something I know and have experienced is that when you come home from those types of trip, you are riding high because you have been to the mountaintop.

People get changed on the mission field because they taste of a feast that words can’t describe.

That’s one of the reasons that we want to send young people on mission. It establishes their spiritual appetite that no cheeseburger will satisfy.

But that feeling can fade. And you walk around trying to satisfy that hunger. We don’t realize that we don’t have to go across the world. There is work here to do. There are people in our own community that need to know Jesus.

Application: There is nothing like a good steak (or whatever food you crave). But it takes time, effort and money to get that steak. Sometimes it’s easier to just grab junk food. But it’s not the same.

Each one of us needs to fill ourselves with the Spiritual food of God.

Prayer.

Feasting on God’s Word.

Being on Mission for the kingdom.

When your appetites align with God’s, you will be satisfied. But when they are not, you will fill your hunger with everything that doesn’t satisfy.

John 6:27 ESV

27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

John 6:35 ESV

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

2. True RIGHTEOUSNESS is rooted in God.

Explanation: So what is righteousness? We use this word a lot often without knowing what it means.

Some people look at the english word and say, “It’s about being right.” But how do you know what is right and wrong?

Today, people think that right and wrong are relative and culturally dictated.

But biblical righteousness finds it’s definition in the Bible. Because it is rooted in who God is.

We know that God is perfect in His nature and His actions.

So true righteousness is measured by how closely our heart and actions align with God’s nature and His will.

We don’t get to decide what is right and wrong. We must yield to what God has already said, from Genesis to Revelation.

We get it messed up when we try to go against God’s Word and do whatever we want.

Romans 10:3 ESV

3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

On the other hand, Paul tells us what happens when your values align with Jesus.

Philippians 3:8–9 ESV

8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

When Jesus and the Apostles hungered and thirsted for righteousness, they weren’t chasing good vibes or feelings. They were unapologetically sold out for God and His glory.

Righteousness always comes down to 2 very important parts.

Right belief.

And right actions.

These go hand in hand with one another.

Illustration: Some people want to maximize one or the others.

Some churches in the past and present have gone hard in the paint about what you have to believe.

They even go beyond the basics of the creeds to adopt tradition about songs you can sing and what Bible translation you can use. What color the carpet has to be.

They create check lists for righteousness.

Read your Bible, Pray, condemn someone to hell. Go to church, tithe 10 percent.

This is what Jesus condemned in the Pharisees. Because while each of those things is good (I’d say we should warn people of the coming judgement instead of condemning them to hell), if our actions don’t reflect God’s heart we are out of alignment.

Matthew 23:23–24 ESV

23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

On the other hand some will do what they think of as good works, feeding the poor, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, looking after widows and orphans, but don’t share the truth of God’s Word and call people to right belief in who God is and what He has commanded.

Even in our warning there must be grace and truth.

John 8:3–11 ESV

3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

So many people miss Jesus’ final words to her. Go and sin no more. He also said it to a man He healed who couldn’t walk.

John 5:14 ESV

14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”

Sin was a big deal to Jesus and it should be for us.

Be cause at the end of the day, Jesus was killed for both His beliefs and His actions as they related to sin.

Application: Hungering and thirsting for righteousness is about the desire to believe the right things.

And this means that you poor over your Bible to see what is true. You don’t care what the world says. You believe the Bible. And it means that you have faith that God’s Word is understandable. And anyone who says that it’s unclear or open to a variety of interpretations are just wrong and should be avoided.

Sure the end times are difficult to understand, but the principle is clear….be ready. You don’t have to know what a 7 headed dragon means to be ready for Jesus to return at any moment.

And how do we stay ready? By staying hungry for righteousness. Right belief and right actions.

3. The PURSUIT and DESIRE for righteousness is NEVER-ENDING.

Explanation: Later in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus will make a haunting statement.

Matthew 5:48 ESV

48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Your first reaction to this should not be, “Ok, got it. I’m going to be perfect from here on out!”

We know that we fall short of God’s standard in the easiest of commands. We can’t be perfect because we are not perfect. So what do we do?

We pursue perfection. We never settle for good enough. We never get to the point where we’ve read our Bible and say it’s enough.

We read it and we read it again.

We never stop praying.

Too many people say, “I prayed but God didn’t answer.” How many times did you pray?

It’s not about getting what you want but about understanding the will of God. God in prayer, will change our hearts and desires to conform to Him.

As you read God’s Word, you will inevitably find things that are continuously confirmed in your walk with Christ.

God is loving, kind, good, compassionate.

But He is also a God of justice and wrath.

I spent all of last year preaching through the minor prophets. It was the hardest year of preaching I’ve ever done and I have a suspicion that some even left the church over that series because God’s wrath and justice makes us uncomfortable. When in reality, the knowledge of God’s wrath and justice makes His grace and mercy all the more sweeter.

So don’t skip over the difficult passages. Sit and be uncomfortable and pray that God will open your eyes to His truth and righteousness.

Illustration: The greats throughout history, in sports, music, business, art, literature, were never satisfied that they had made it.

Leonardo di vinci painted the mona lisa like 50 times and what we now call a masterpiece, he thought was barely ok.

Kobe was never satisfied.

Hemmingway was never satisfied in his pursuit of the perfect sentence.

Beethoven was never satisfied.

They were hungry for greatness and we would say they acheived it, but they were never satisfied.

So what of our hunger for righteousness?

Application: Jesus says, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.

When? We will get pictures of this each and every time we do the will of God.

We will be satistied every time we open God’s word to feast.

Every time we pray.

Every time we open our eyes to God’s plan for the world and reach out and pull a lost soul into the kingdom of God.

Every time we are available.

Response: Do you HUNGER AND THIRST for righteousness?

Summation:

Beatitude 4: BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HUNGER AND THIRST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

1. We don’t LIVE on BREAD alone.

2. True RIGHTEOUSNESS is rooted in God.

3. The PURSUIT and DESIRE for righteousness is NEVER-ENDING.

Closing Illustration: I had an experience last week that showed me what spiritual hunger looked like.

Tell the HPB story….

May we never lose our hunger for God and His Word.

If today you feel that hunger deep in your soul that no food wills satisfy. That aching for something that words can’t explain, would you take that first step in crying out to Jesus.

Admit that you are a sinner and repent. Turn to God where you may find grace and mercy.

Believe in your heart the right things about Jesus.

Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and follow in the water’s of baptism.

And let your hunger lead you to Jesus and to follow Him all the days of your life.

Let’s pray.