When You Can't Get No Satisfaction

The Sermon on the Mount-5

When You Can’t Get No Satisfaction

In 1965, the Rolling Stones released their hit song, Satisfaction. The chorus describes someone who can’t get satisfaction from just about anything in life.

I can't get no, satisfaction

I can't get no, satisfaction

'Cause I try, and I try, and I try, and I try

I can't get no, I can't get no (satisfaction)

And you know, there are a lot of people in our world that could say the same thing—they just can’t seem to ever get any satisfaction. So, if you’ve had that feeling yourself, if it seems that try as you might, you just can’t get no satisfaction, then take a look at what Jesus said about that. He said, Mat 5:6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

If you hunger and thirst for righteousness—you will be satisfied! That word that’s translated “*satisfied”, it means to fatten, gorge, (or supply food in abundance), to fill or satisfy. So, what it’s speaking of is to be really, or completely satisfied. And when it comes to being satisfied like that, how many people really are? How many do you know?

I ask this because it seems to me that there are a lot of people out there who are always seeking, but never finding. They’re always chasing, but never catching. They’re like me when I go fishing because I’m never catching! And about that—there are a lot of variables involved with my inability to catch fish, variables like the weather, the depth of my line, the wrong part of the lake, or the time of day.

But something I discovered from a friend of mine who lives on a lake and fishes (and catches) every single day of the year is that my biggest problem is that I’ve got the wrong bait. If you want to catch fish, you really need to have the right kind of bait for the kind of fish you want to catch. And that’s what I want to talk about today. If you have been trying to find satisfaction, but like the song says, you “can’t get none” then maybe it’s because you’re using the wrong bait for the wrong fish.

In other words, you’re going about it all wrong, because most people, or let’s say man in general, they look for satisfaction in having things. They think if they have more stuff, or the latest gadget, then they’ll be satisfied. Some others think that if they have wealth, or if they have prestige, or power, or a lot of friends they’ll finally be satisfied, or these things will make them happy.

They usually find that all these things are just empty holes that never seem to get filled. They’re not happy. They’re not satisfied. Matter of fact, most of the time they’re miserable because the pursuit of happiness or satisfaction never ends. They more they get, the more they want—it’s a never-ending pursuit because these things can not and do not truly satisfy. They’re trying to catch the wrong fish, so therefore, they’re using the wrong bait.

But Jesus tells us in our verse today that a person can be truly satisfied, and we can find that kind of satisfaction when we use the right bait. Mat 5:6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Folks, instead of pursuing wealth, prestige, or power—or any of the things that this world tells us will satisfy us—we should pursue righteousness. And the bait we need to use to find that righteousness is our hunger and thirst for it.

I. Food of the Spiritual Man

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst” after what? Righteousness, right? If you are hungering and thirsting after righteousness, then righteousness is that spiritual food you seek because Jesus told us that it will satisfy us.

So, what is righteousness? What is this righteousness that will satisfy us? We need to know this, because if you’ll remember, our key verse to understanding the Sermon on the Mount tells us Mat 5:20 …that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

So, we want to know what righteousness we’re talking about because obviously, the Pharisees didn’t find it. They didn’t find it because they weren’t looking for the right kind. Because righteousness isn’t based on, or determined by something we do, it’s something we receive—or rather, Someone we receive!

Paul told us in, Rom 3:22 …the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. And then we read in his second letter to the Corinthians that God, 2Co 5:21 …made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

The righteousness we hunger and thirst after—the righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees—is Jesus! So, if you’ll allow me to take a little liberty with God’s Word… our verse today could easily be translated, or interpreted… “*Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after Jesus, for they shall be completely satisfied!”

And you know, I don’t think I’ve done any damage to the Word of God there at all, because the truth is that Jesus is the Bread of Life—*He is heaven’s bread for earth’s hunger! So, satisfaction isn’t something you find by looking for it, or working for it (like the Pharisees did)—satisfaction is a by-product of the righteousness we receive when we believe in Jesus Christ! And that’s why the Pharisees couldn’t find it—because they didn’t believe.

You know, right now, if you are hungering for something—if you are thirsting for something—but you really didn’t know what it was that you were hungering and thirsting for, well let me tell you—it’s Jesus! It’s Jesus because it is God who put that hunger and thirst in you. That desire didn’t originate in you—it came from God. Jesus told us that Joh 6:44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; Well that hunger and thirst you’ve been trying to satisfy is God’s way of drawing you to His Son.

You may have gotten off track for a while and tried to fill that desire with other things—things that this world has to offer—things that could never satisfy that desire you have because worldly things can only satisfy fleshly desires. That which is of the flesh is flesh, but that which is of the Spirit is Spirit! Only spiritual things can satisfy spiritual desires.

Let me illustrate like this: Let’s say you’re really sick. You’ve got a killer headache, high fever, and you’re aching all over. Like you’ve got a super flu bug or something. And so, you go to the doctor and tell him how miserable you’re feeling. So, he tells you that he can fix you right up and he goes to get a syringe and fills it with some super high-powered drug like morphine. After he gives you that shot, you immediately start feeling really good, and you say, “Thanks doc” and then you go floating out the door.

You’re not feeling any pain, but let me ask you, “Was that high-powered drug what you really needed?” You didn’t feel sick anymore, but you were too high to even care. Would you say he was a good doctor? Did he give you what you really needed? No, of course not. All he did was mask, or cover whatever it was you had. He treated a symptom and not the disease, so whenever that dope wears off, you’re still going to be sick.

When you go to a doctor, instead of covering up whatever it is that’s got you sick, you want him/or her to figure out what the problem is then fix the problem, don’t you? You want the illness treated, not the symptom, right? All your focus is on fixing the problem itself.

Well, let’s say you’re hungry. And when I say you’re hungry, I mean you’re really hungry! You’re not just hungry, you’re HONGRY! Have you ever been HONGRY? I have. I can remember a time when I was much younger and working a job that couldn’t pay my rent or hardly even feed me. My brother, David, was farming at the time and he gave me a sack of potatoes, and I ate potatoes—nothing but potatoes for a long time. Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes. I’m telling you, I got sick of potatoes.

Well, there was a time when Jesus was really HONGRY too. He had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. Now, all that time, He had been communing with the Father and resisting with the Devil. At some point in the wilderness fast and temptation He told the Devil that Mat 4:4 …MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD. But after 40 days and 40 nights of communing with the Father, He was really HONGRY, wasn’t He?

Why was that? He had spiritual food, so why was He hungry? Well, because spiritual food cannot satisfy the physical body. And the flip side of that is just as true—physical food cannot satisfy or meet the needs of your spirit. He also said, Joh 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

Folks, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. There is a part of you that is flesh, and only physical food will satisfy your body’s needs to survive. You can go 40 days or more without food and live. But I don’t think you much beyond that.

But another part of you is spirit, and only spiritual food will satisfy your spiritual needs. Jesus is the spiritual food that will satisfy your soul, and until you feed on that food that God has given to meet that spiritual need you have, you will starve. In other words, you will continue to be dissatisfied and miserable because you are not feasting on the Bread of Life or drinking of the Living Water!

Isa 55:1-2 "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy, and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. (2) "Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance.

II. Focus of a Starving Man

The spiritual food of man is Jesus. But now I want to take a look at the focus of a starving man, because when Jesus spoke about hungering and thirsting, He wasn’t talking about an appetite, He was talking about a person who needs food. We all need food, don’t we? Food isn’t a nicety, it’s a necessity. It’s not something that’s a luxury, it’s something we absolutely have to have, or we will die.

Now, like I said a minute ago—you can live for 40 days without food, but probably not for much longer than that. That’s because God designed our physical body to require certain things for it to live. It’s said that we can go 3 days without water, and we can go about 8 minutes without air. But in the spiritual realm, we can’t live for even one second without Jesus. The apostle John said that Joh 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. And Jesus Himself said Joh 14:6 …I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

Mat 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Those who hunger… those who thirst—what He’s talking about here is something that’s ongoing, it doesn’t stop. The word for hunger means to be famished, or to crave, with the idea of it being a continuing action. And the word for thirst doesn’t simply mean to have a thirst, but to be thirsty for. Again, a continuing action. So, the focus of a starving man is food, but the food of a spiritual man is Jesus!

Our focus is to be the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One we hunger and thirst for, continually, exclusively, and earnestly. Because you see, a man who’s famished and craving—someone who is starving is dead serious about getting some food. He’s interested in one thing, and one thing only—food. Not popularity, not society, not position, and not entertainment—he wants food, and he’ll do everything he can to get it.

The focus of a starving man is food, and the focus of a starving man spiritually is Jesus. You’ll seek after Jesus like a hungry man seeks food! And understand this—I’m not talking about a one-time event here. Like when you get saved—born again, and that’s all you ever need, ever again. No, you continue to hunger for Jesus—you continue to be thirsty for Jesus.

It’s kinda like Thanksgiving. When Thanksgiving comes around at our house, Terri always goes all out with fixing all sorts of traditional food. The table gets so full of food, there’s hardly any room for us to eat there. A lot of times, we have to go into the other room. She’s got turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, dressing, gravy, sweet potatoes, those green beans we all love so much, with the creamy cheesy sauce and bacon on top. She’s got all that and a veggie platter with dipping sauce, and at least two, but probably more pies.

And then we eat, and eat, and eat. If we were at a table, we’d sit about 4 inches away from it, and then eat until our bellies touched it. And then, oh, so full, we’d go watch a movie or something (we don’t do football in our house), and have a good time just spending time with family.

But you know what? Just a few short hours later, we’re back in the kitchen getting another plate of something. That’s the way our bodies are. We eat and get stuffed, and then we eat some more. And this is how we should be with our spiritual food, Jesus. We got filled when we believed, but we keep going back to the feeding trough and getting filled again, and again, and again.

That’s called hungering and thirsting after righteousness—hungering and thirsting after Jesus! You keep going back, for more, and more, and more, over and over and over again.

But you know, there’s a lot of people who say they’re Christians, who don’t seem to be very hungry for Jesus. They don’t want to go to a Church where the pastor preaches the Bible. They’d rather go somewhere where they’ll listen to someone sing a duet, a rock band thrash out some tunes with some awesome lead guitar licks, maybe even a light show, and then the preacher who gives a 10-15 minute sermonette, then “bam” out the door they go.

They’re not hungering and thirsting. They don’t want the Word of God. They have no appetite for the things of God or the people of God beyond a few minutes on Sunday mornings.

I would to God that we would see a mighty moving of Jesus among us and that we would start to really hunger and thirst after Jesus again. Mat 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

III. Fullness of a Satisfied Man

We’ve talked about the food of a spiritual man, and the focus of a starving man, but now I want to say a little something about the fullness of a satisfied man. The fullness of a satisfied man, because Jesus said that those who hunger and thirst for Him would be satisfied, or filled, right? And of course, like I said earlier, to be satisfied, or to be filled means to be completely satisfied…completely filled.

Remember the Thanksgiving illustration? People tend to get completely full on Thanksgiving, don’t they? But, after a little break, they go back for more, again and again usually.

Well, God doesn’t want you to feast on Jesus, just one time, and that’s it. If you’ve trusted in Him as your Lord and Savior, then you’ve already participated in that welcome to the family of God feast. But guess what? Just like God gave us an appetite for food which keeps us going after our 3 squares a day—He also gave us a spiritual appetite. And that spiritual appetite, keeps us full. Full of Jesus.

And brother, sister, if you are a Christian and you don’t have an appetite for Jesus, then you’ve got a real problem. We are supposed to hunger and thirst after Him, and if you’re really not doing that, if the thought of getting more Jesus doesn’t excite you, if it doesn’t wet your appetite for more of Him, then you’re sick—spiritually sick. Because folks, a man or woman of God should have a lumberjack appetite for Jesus, not a hummingbird.

And my recommendation for you would be to honestly seek God’s help with this. Talk to Him plainly and tell Him how you’re feeling and what you’re wanting. Pray this verse to Him and ask Him to restore your appetite so that you can hunger and thirst for Jesus again. If you honestly seek Him in this, and you’re sincere, I know He’ll bring you back to where you need to be.

But it could be that your lack of appetite is because you really haven’t given your life to Christ. You know, there are a lot of people in the church that never really met Jesus. They may know a lot about Him, but they don’t know Him, but worse than that—they’ve never been known by Him. And if this is a description of where you are, then I’d love to talk to you about it. If you want to know more about giving your life to Christ and becoming a Christian, then let’s talk.

But if you’ve reached the point where you’re ready to commit—believe in Jesus Christ, and receive Him as Lord and Savior, then why don’t you come down front during our closing song and make that public declaration today?