Matthew 5:6

Hungry/Thirsty for Righteousness

As we come to this next Beatitude, I find these getting better and better as we go. You would think that it would be tough to find 45 minutes worth of something to talk about from one verse, but somehow when I start digging in these verses - there’s no bottom to the treasure that can be found. The Bible really is an endless supply of treasure if we would just seek it.

What are you hungry for argument with your spouse.

What happens when you go to the grocery store when you are hungry?

What happens with me is that I go and I end up with all kinds of crazy things that I really don’t need and then they wind up going to waste because my appetite was bigger than I could fill.

This is especially true if you take hungry kids...

The premise tonight that I want to tell you tonight is that you have a spiritual appetite that is longing to be filled. Do you realize that? Each person has a spiritual appetite. The question we have to ask ourselves is - what are we doing with that appetite? What are we filling it with?

Spiritual Appetite

Did you know that your soul has an appetite just like your physical body does?

It’s just as important if not more important than your physical appetite.

Righteousness

What is the righteousness that is being discussed here? What is meant by this?

Let’s look at this as it is used in scripture.

Isaiah 55:1 ESV

1 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Come - everyone who thirsts! Everyone has an appetite for something greater than they are. We will talk more about this later.

He who has no money - We just said in the first Beatitude that we have nothing to bring right? “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling”

Come buy wine and milk without money and without price - this is a righteousness that is GIVEN, not EARNED.

Psalm 42:2 ESV

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

Righteousness here as it is described by Jesus is a “holy discontent”

It is an absolute desire to be holy. It is a passionate concern that God’s law be kept in our lives, both in action and in our hearts.

Listen folks, this is the best spiritual test that you can give yourself.

Do you have a desire to be HOLY? Are you content with your current spiritual condition?

If you answered yes to either of those questions, then you are filling yourself with the wrong things.

God wants us to be righteous. He YEARNS for us to be righteous. It is His utmost desire that He would get glory from our righteousness.

Righteousness NOT Happiness

You’ll notice it doesn’t say, “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for blessedness, or happiness”!

You don’t get happiness by seeking after it. You don’t get blessing by seeking after it.

Seeking happiness is a temporary fix that tries to put a band-aid on our real desire for God.

It’s kind of like a doctor treating the pain, but never seeking the cause of the pain.

He can treat the pain, and it feels better for a little while - but all the while the real cause isn’t dealt with.

That’s why the world is always seeking happiness, but never finding it!

They’re looking for love in all the wrong places LOL!!!

Happiness and Blessedness is a by-product of hungering and thirsting after RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Matthew 6:33 ESV

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Hunger/Thirst

Do you realize that you have all of God that you want?

Honestly - you have all of God that you want right now. If you want more of God, all you have to do is seek Him and He will never turn you down.

But the problem is that most of us don’t want more because we are spiritually malnourished.

We are feeding our souls junk from the world.

Have you heard that saying - “You are what you eat.”

Well - I heard of a man who ate McDonald’s for a month straight without anything else. He gained 25lbs in 30 days and began to have all sorts of medical issues. Why is that? Because it’s junk! Don’t get me wrong - it tastes good. I totally agree with the taste, but it’s lasting effects are detrimental to our health.

So, if we equate that same thing to our spiritual diet, then we are constantly feeding ourselves the junk that the world offers and getting fat off the world’s diet, when we could be thriving off what God offers.

A physically hungry or thirsty person has but one thing on his mind. To eat or drink. Nothing else matters to him. Nothing else will satisfy his needs but to eat or drink. We really don’t know what it is to be hungry, at least I don’t.

Ever seen an animal that has been abandoned and they’ve been without food for awhile - what do they do? They don’t want to be held or play with a toy! They want to eat!

Remember how hungry the prodigal son was? The Bible says that his job was to feed the pigs. And it says that he was so hungry that he longed to fill his stomach with the pig’s slop. That’s hunger. Serious hunger. A hungry person - really hungry has just one thing on his mind. He doesn’t care about sports scores, or the stock market, he doesn’t care what he looks like, he just wants to eat.

Let me tell you something very plainly. If you fill your spiritual appetite with what the world has to offer, you’ll never live a victorious Christian life. And I don’t mean you’ll never have trouble. We all have trouble. The main issue is how we are able to respond to the trouble. If you are feeding on the husks of the world, you won’t have the strength to respond to the trials that come your way.

What quenches our spiritual appetite?

Ever eat junk food between meals?

Satisfied/Filled

Look at the world around us, do you see a lot of satisfaction?

What about professional athletes? They should be the most satisfied people on the planet right? They’ve got everything they could ever want - fame, fortune, friends, houses, cars, and everything else to go along with it. But you read story after story about these athletes that reach the top of their career in sports, they win it all in their sport and then after they win it all they are left with the question - WHAT’S NEXT?

What’s next? Why do they still have that question - What’s next? Why doesn’t all that fame and fortune satisfy them?

Because they were made with a soul that can only be satisfied by the CREATOR of that soul.

You and I were made to seek after God and satisfy ourselves in God.

You weren’t meant to be satisfied with all the world has to offer!

Satisfied, yet always longing for more.

So when we taste what God has to offer and we come and feed ourselves on the Word does that mean that we aren’t hungry later on?

Remember back to the last time when you ate way too much. For me it is when we get together on a holiday or with family or something and we eat a noon meal. And we go sit down and I say “Holy cow, I won’t be able to eat for a week” - then guess what happens? I’m rummaging around for leftovers about 7pm that night. We still get hungry. We are perpetually hungry for righteousness.

We constantly want more because we know how good the things of God are. We see how sweet his Word is and how deep his love for us is and we want as much of it as we can get.

I got a pecan pie for my birthday last year. And I’m telling you it was good. Not just good, really good. And I had one piece the first night. And the kids and I had a piece the second night. And then the third night… You get the idea. I couldn’t leave the stuff alone. It was that good. God’s word should be the same way to us. Only we won’t get physically fat off of God’s word like I do off of the pecan pie. That is a fringe benefit.

We are filled/satisfied in 3 ways

When you were saved you were filled with righteousness.

While you are on this Earth you are being filled with righteousness.

And when you get to Heaven, you will be completely filled with righteousness.

1. Are you dissatisfied with yourself? Are you constantly trying to be more like Christ in every way, or are you satisfied with where you are right now? If you are satisfied with where you are right now, then you don't have much of an appetite for God. Remember - you have all of God that you want right now.

2. How bad do you want to grow spiritually? I've heard people say before "Oh, this preacher is such and such and that song leader is so and so, or I can't worship in that place because of so and so that goes there.

Or they say “I just don’t get fed in that church”. Well, let me tell you folks - the preacher is meant to serve you a meal once a week. If you treat your physical body to one meal a week what happens?

LISTEN - If you are hungry, none of that matters. NONE of it matters. You are here for God. You are here to worship and glorify HIM and HIM only. Don't forget that.

3. Do you have a great appetite for the Word of God? Do you long to fill yourself with his Word? Is God's Word a greater treasure to you than anything on this earth? I've never seen anybody have to beg a hungry man to eat. If you are hungry, you'll eat. If you want to read the Word, you'll find time, you'll make time. Do you have an appetite for God's word?