Stay Hungry

I am going to apologize for what I am about to do, because it is a little cruel.

It is the day of the Big Game, so a lot of people will be getting together and chowing down on all kinds of snacks and junk foods.

What are your go to snacks?

I tell you what is one of my favorite, not for a party, but just in general: good, old fashioned popcorn.

Let’s make some this morning, shall we?

<Microwave the popcorn>

Mmmm…can you smell it? Is your mouth watering yet?

There is nothing quite like the smell of a good bag of popcorn, is there?

If you weren’t already there, I bet this was more than enough to make you hungry.

You know what else popcorn makes you?

Thirsty!

The salt makes you want to pay $17 for a large drink and drink the whole thing before the movie even starts.

Nothing like a good, ice cold Coke or sweet tea to slake your thirst after eating all that buttery, salty goodness.

How are you feeling right now?

Getting hungry? Feeling thirsty?

Good. I want you to stay that way.

In fact, if you catch nothing else out of this message, I want you to remember this: stay hungry.

Wondering what popcorn has to do with the Bible?

Open up to Matthew 5:6.

We are covering the next beatitude in the list this morning, which are the lists of attitudes and attributes that Jesus tells us are characteristic of those who live the blessed life.

Those who are living this life are a part of God’s kingdom and have the unshakeable joy of knowing that they are in close relationship with the God of the universe.

No matter what takes place, we have a relationship with him.

We have seen so far in our study that our relationship to God, our entry into his kingdom, isn’t based off what we can accomplish on our own.

In fact, we have seen the opposite. We are spiritually poor and full of sin, which breaks our hearts and leads us to submit to God’s control.

This morning, Jesus is going to give us another principle of the blessed life.

Look at the verse with me...

If you and I are going to live the blessed life, then we have to stay hungry.

As Jesus has said, it is the hungry and thirsty who both are and will be satisfied.

Now, the majority of time that these words are used, they are talking about normal hunger and thirst that is solved when we take in something to eat or something to drink.

Like with the first beatitude, though, Jesus isn’t just giving us a principle about physical realities. He isn’t saying that going without food or water is good; instead, he is using that physical hunger pang and dry mouth to point us to a spiritual reality.

That’s why we popped popcorn this morning: to make us hungry.

When your stomach growls, when your tongue sticks to the roof of your mouth, let that be prompt to check your heart to see what your heart is really hungry for.

We mentioned last week that, apart from Christ, our heart is usually hungry for one of three things: something to make our bodies feel like we want, something that someone else has, or for someone to recognize us for who we are.

No matter how much food you eat from the table of physical pleasure, materialism, or pride, you will still be hungry. There isn’t enough water in those wells to satisfy.

However, if we allow God to cultivate in us a different hunger and thirst, we will find ourselves satisfied like never before.

What is it that we are hungering for?

Jesus says that citizens of his kingdom, those who live the blessed life that only Jesus can give, have a hunger for righteousness.

That means that, at the core of who they are, they want to see, know, and reflect the righteousness of God.

Righteousness isn’t a word that gets talked about a lot, so let’s take some time to define what we mean here.

Here is a formal definition of God’s righteousness:

“God’s righteousness means that God always acts in accordance with what is right and is himself the final standard of what is right.” (Wayne Grudem)

[1]

If you notice, there are two different sides to that definition. First, God’s righteousness means he always does the right thing and never does the wrong thing. Everything God does is always the right thing, at the right time, in the right way.

Well, who determines what is right and what is wrong in a given context? That’s the second part of the definition: what is right and wrong is based off the character and nature of God, not just some arbitrary system.

For instance, lying is wrong because Jesus said that he is truth. Therefore, God will not lie, because that would violate his own character and nature.

The writer of the biblical book of Hebrews says the same in Hebrews 6:18 — it is impossible for God to lie.

Some people would argue that this is a circular argument, but let’s think through it: If God is the source of everything in the universe, then God is also the source of what is right and wrong. We aren’t saying that he arbitrarily makes up things; instead, this is based off his unchanging character and nature.

The person who is blessed, those who are in the kingdom of God, then, have a hunger and thirst for that righteousness: God’s righteousness that is based off who he is and always does what is right.

By the way, I know we are using the popcorn as an example here, but the hunger Jesus is referring to here isn’t the “It’s almost lunch time and I have a rumbly in my tumbly,” kind of hunger.

Most of us have never experienced the kind of hunger and thirst he is talking about here. It is the hunger and thirst that happens on the brink of death.

This is the sharp, stabbing pangs of hunger that are almost debilitating and impossible to think through.

This is the kind of hunger you experience as your body starts shutting down in preparation of laying down and never getting back up.

Jesus says the way to the blessed life is to be so desperately hungry for God’s righteousness that we feel as though we would die without it.

You may want some of this popcorn, but can you honestly say you are this hungry for righteousness?

Maybe we can answer that question better as we work through what it means.

That hunger works itself out in at least three different ways through our lives.

To keep with the illustration Jesus uses, let’s think of this a three different hunger pangs we feel as we grow in our walk with Jesus.

The first hunger pang we receive is when our hearts come to the realizations we have already covered in the beatitudes.

When we realize that we are spiritually poor and allow our hearts to break under the weight of our own sin, driving us to surrender to God to control our desires, then we find with it a...

1) Hunger to receive God’s righteousness.

We have seen over and over again that the Bible teaches us that we have nothing good to offer God in and of ourselves.

The kingdom is given to us as God’s gift. We do not earn it or deserve it.

That reality would have flown all over many in the audience that day, because the scribes and the Pharisees thought they had done so well that they had their own righteousness to boast in.

Jesus is making it clear, though, as we will see over and over through these passages, that you and I cannot save ourselves.

We are poor, we are broken, and we cannot control our own desires.

Acknowledging that leaves us with a hunger for something more.

We see the goodness of God, we see how bad we are, and we long to be able to be right with God and have our sin removed.

The cry of the lost heart who has come to the place of longing for God is, “God, I need you!”

Let’s see an example of this in the Bible.

In Acts 16, you find the apostle Paul and his ministry partner Silas in the city of Philippi.

One particular day, they were able to cast a demon out of a slave girl who had used the demonic influence in her to make her owners a lot of money.

The owners got mad that their money-making scheme was done, so they accused Paul and Silas of trying to disrupt the city and undermine their allegiance to Rome.

In an attempt to appease the mob, the city magistrates had Paul and Silas beaten and thrown into prison.

About midnight that night, an earthquake struck and shook the foundations of the doors. The cell doors opened and the chains fell off the prisoners.

The commotion woke the guard, who saw the doors open and immediately assumed all the prisoners had escaped.

That was something punishable by death, so he was going to save the city the trouble and end his own life.

What would you have done in this moment if you were Paul and Silas? Taken off through the open door?

Instead, they demonstrate the love of God for this man in an incredible way.

Here’s where we pick up the text:

Acts 16:28–34 CSB

But Paul called out in a loud voice, “Don’t harm yourself, because we’re all here!” The jailer called for lights, rushed in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. He escorted them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him along with everyone in his house. He took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds. Right away he and all his family were baptized. He brought them into his house, set a meal before them, and rejoiced because he had come to believe in God with his entire household.

What happened?

The Philippian jailer knew who Paul and Silas were. He knew they had been preaching, and he may have even been involved in the beatings. It would have served him right to die for what he had done.

Yet, in a matter of moment, he was confronted with something he couldn’t shake.

He saw the power of God shake the jail and open the chains as the earth beneath him trembled and jolted him awake.

Then, he saw the goodness of God in Paul and Silas, who were willing to sacrifice their own freedom so this man’s life could be spared.

He came in trembling, knowing that he didn’t deserve to be spared, knowing he wasn’t good enough, and he simply asked, “What must I do to be saved?”

They explained the gospel to his hungry heart and that of his household, and they came to a saving knowledge of Christ.

Their hunger to have the righteousness of God was immediately satisfied as they received the gift of salvation.

Isaiah would say it like this:

Isaiah 61:10 CSB

I rejoice greatly in the Lord, I exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a groom wears a turban and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

This man realized how empty he was, and how desperately he needed to be saved, and God filled his soul with his very righteousness.

That’s what the Bible says happens to us when we surrender to Christ:

2 Corinthians 5:21 CSB

He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus became sin in our place so that he could clothe us in the righteousness of God.

Blessed are those who hunger for righteousness, because they will be satisfied.

There is a hunger for the righteousness of God that goes away the moment God draws us to himself. It is the comfort we spoke of when we talked with mourning, and it is the satisfaction we long for.

However, have you ever eaten something that has made you full, but left you hungry?

A few years ago, we were eating at a Chili’s restaurant in Greensboro, NC. We had been at the zoo all day, it was late, and I was hungry.

I had ordered something I have never had before or since. It was a spicy chicken and waffles that was one of the best meals I have ever tasted.

I was full when I finished it, but it left me wanting to eat that meal over and over and over again.

That’s what we see in the second hunger pang we list this morning:

2) Hunger to live out God’s righteousness.

There is a hunger that should remain in us after we have received the righteousness of God.

That hunger is the desire to live out what God has placed in us, and this is something that should follow us through the rest of our lives on this earth.

Listen clearly: God gives us his righteousness as a gift and an act of grace. You and I do nothing to deserve it.

However, once he gives us that gift, we partner with him to see it lived out in every aspect of our lives.

That’s why Paul would say it this way to that same church in Philippi:

Philippians 2:12 CSB

Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

We are called to live out that righteousness that God has placed in us.

This is where too many of us have become complacent and satisfied.

We have God’s righteousness, given as a gift, and we changed here and there, but honestly, we think we are better than most of the people we know, so we just settle in and coast the rest of our lives.

That doesn’t fit at all with the commands we are given or the examples we find throughout the Bible!

The Christian life should be marked with a continual hunger to know God better and reflect his righteousness in the way I am, think, and act.

That’s what David expressed:

Psalm 63:1 CSB

God, you are my God; I eagerly seek you. I thirst for you; my body faints for you in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water.

David wasn’t satisfied with what he knew of God; he wanted to know him more.

Paul expresses the same thing. A chapter after the last passage we looked at in Philippians, he says this:

Philippians 3:12–14 CSB

Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

Even as closely as Paul walked with Jesus, and even with as much as he honored Christ with his life, Paul still wasn’t satisfied.

He stayed hungry to see God’s righteousness worked out into every nook and cranny of his life.

If you are here and saved today, think about the answer to this question: on a scale of 1 to 10, with 7 not being an option, how hungry are you for righteousness?

Have you had enough of Jesus to make you a good person and think you are good to go, or is there a fire burning in your soul that wants him more than anything else in the world?

Are your actions backing up what you said?

Are you picking up on the tension yet, by the way? How is it that I can be both spiritually hungry and satisfied at the same time?

Here’s how John MacArthur puts it:

“The person who genuinely hungers and thirsts for God’s righteousness finds it so satisfying that he wants it more and more.” (John MacArthur)

[2]

The more I see God’s righteousness working out in the way I am, think, and act, the more I realize how greatly God has blessed me, which then leads me to want to see him work in me in greater and greater ways.

However, that hunger works itself out a third way this morning. Not only do we hunger to see God’s righteousness in ourselves, we also...

3) Hunger to see God’s righteousness in the world.

We know that Jesus was inaugurating a new era in his kingdom with his ministry on earth.

As he is outlining the expectations of those in the kingdom in this passage, we recognize that there is still some of this truth that hasn’t been fully realized.

Our hunger to see God work in our hearts in greater ways should move us to desire to see him do the same in others, and one day, in every corner of creation.

We should desire to see others come to the saving knowledge of Christ so they can both have and live out God’s righteousness.

We should desire for Jesus to return and bring his righteousness into every relationship and government system.

Can you imagine what it will be like when there is no more corruption in government, and everyone does the right thing at the right time in the right way?

Our hearts should long for this!

What are you hungry for today?

With the smell of popcorn in the air, and the rumble in our stomachs, I hope you can feel it.

Are you hungry because you have never received the righteousness of God? Why not surrender to him today?

Are you still hungry to grow in Christ-likeness, or are you satisfied with where you are at?

If you are complacent about where you are, would you ask God to shake you and wake you to all he desires to do in you as you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling?

Could that complacency be what it causing you to feel so “meh” about your life and the world around you?

Ask God to shake your heart again today.

What about the rest of the world? Are you hungry to see the righteousness of God reflected in other people? If so, what are you doing about it?

Are you living like God really will bring his kingdom to bear fully over all creation, or are you just going through your life? Do you long for his return?

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Endnotes:

[1] Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan (1994/2000). 204.

[2] MacArthur, John. Jr. Matthew 1-7. Chicago: Moody (1985). 183-184.