Happy are the Hungry

Matt. 5:6

This morning I get to talk about a subject I almost consider myself an expert on—the subject of a healthy appetite. I was reminded of this awhile back when I got an e-mail which is entitled

You Might be a Foodaholic

If the Doctor tells you your weight would be perfect for a man 17 feet tall you might be a foodaholic.

If paramedics bring in the Jaws of Life to pry you out of the Lay-Z-Boy you might be a foodaholic.

If you receive an invitation to join the Olympic Sumo Wrestling team you might be a foodaholic.

If you set off 3 earthquake seismographs on your morning jog, you might be a foodaholic.

If that rash on your stomach turns out to be steering wheel burn, you might be a foodaholic.

If official representatives from the Butterball Hall of Fame call twice you might be a foodaholic.

A healthy appetite can be good for you—especially when you’re hungry for the right things. Jesus Christ says the happiest people in the world have a healthy appetite for something

more than food. This morning I want to talk to you about the blessing of a spiritual hunger and thirst, and how the Lord promises you full satisfaction for your soul’s appetite. Look with me in Matt. 5:6 and let’s see what Jesus means when He says HAPPY ARE THE HUNGRY.

PRAYER

The people who first sat on that hill listening to Jesus preach knew a lot more about hunger than you and I do. Most of them literally lived on the very edge of starvation. That’s probably why the one miracle recorded in all four Gospels is Jesus’ feeding of the 5000. He cared about their hunger, and did something.

But Jesus also cares about a deeper hunger that you and I share with these folks—a hunger and a thirst for righteousness.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…

You and I say I’m hungry but we’re not really hungry—we just want something to eat. Sometimes we want something specific to eat.

I call it a hankering, as in Jennifer I have a hankering for hamburgers tonight. A more sophisticated word would be a craving as in the mother-to-be is craving chocolate covered pickles. Your appetite is specifically tuned to a particular kind of food.

This is what Jesus means: the happiest people in the world have a hankering for, a craving for righteousness. But let’s get a little more specific about what kind of righteousness we crave.

First of all we crave a right relationship with God. We want to know God in a personal way, we want be sure He loves us, we want to know for sure He has forgiven for our sins and accepts us as His son/daughter. We’re like a prodigal who hungers and thirsts to come home.

There’s a Spanish story of a father and son who become estranged. The son ran away, and the father set off to find him. Finally, in a last desperate effort the father put an ad in the newspaper: “Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your Father.”On Saturday 800 Pacos show up, looking for forgiveness and love from their fathers. [i]

That’s all of us, except we’re not just craving a right relationship with our earthly Father, but a right relationship with our Heavenly Father. This is the righteousness we crave.

But we also crave a righteousness to do what is right. The Bible says all of us are sinners, that we sin because of who we are, not just what we do. We do what’s wrong, even when we know it’s wrong, we know it breaks God’s law and God’s heart. The theological term for this is depravity and the Bible makes it crystal clear:

Is 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way…

Ps 14:3 They have all turned aside…There is none who does good, No, not one.

But isn’t it also true sometimes you have this hunger to do what’s right? Do you ever get a little frustrated and say to yourself why is it so stinking easy to do what’s wrong, and so stinking hard to do what’s right?

Deep down inside, maybe just occasionally, we have this deep craving to live right and to do right before God. We crave not just a right relationship, but righteous behavior.

One more thing: we crave for everything to be set right in the world. This world is a far cry from the day God created it and called it good. You can still catch glimpses of God’s goodness, but it doesn’t take a genius to see there are many things that need to be straightened out.

We do our best, of course, but even our best isn’t much. Some people cling to the false hope that politicians will straighten everything out, or that psychology can straighten us all out, or that science or technology will one day give us the answers to fix everything that’s wrong. But they’ve been at it awhile, and I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but things don’t appear to be getting much better.

Yet we still long for the world to be right, for good to triumph over evil, for justice to cover the earth, for suffering and sickness and evil to be forever vanquished. We crave for righteousness to rule over all of creation.

Maybe I’ve stretched my point a little thin. Everybody may not hunger for these things.

Some of us are like dieters who use appetite suppressants to help curb their hankerings—suppressants such as selfishness, pride, pleasure or money or possessions, or power. Like a kid gorging himself on candy, some people ruin their appetite for righteousness with a sweet, but empty substitute.

What I can say for sure, based on the words of Christ here: the happiest people in the world crave righteousness=a right relationship with God, the power to live right, and the righting of all that’s wrong in this world.

There’s a story about a Christian working on a construction crew whose lunch was stolen from him. “Guess you won’t be thanking God today!” his coworkers mocked. “Oh yes,” he replied, “I’ll still be grateful because they stole my food, but they can’t take away my appetite!”

Blessed are those who keep an appetite for righteousness. But Jesus says it’s not just the hunger that brings happiness.

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

The happiest people in the world have their craving for righteousness satisfied by God.

How does God satisfy this hunger and thirst? Let me suggest 3 ways:

First, God satisfies our hunger for a right relationship with Him through justification. Here’s one of those long theological words which mean something simple but important. Justification is the restoration a right relationship between a sinful person and a holy God. It involves two basic things: complete forgiveness from God, and complete acceptance by God.

Here’s something you need to be sure you hear: justification is an act of God, not of man. There is no way you can earn either your forgiveness from God nor your acceptance by God. There’s absolutely nothing you can do to restore your relationship with God. Only He can do that, and the Bible says He does that when you and I turn from our sins and trust Christ as Lord and Savior. The Bible puts it this way in

Ga 2:16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

Scripture could not be clearer: God satisfies your craving to be right with Him only through your faith in Christ. There is no other way to make this relationship right.

2 Co 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Justification is how God satisfies our desire for a right relationship with God. This is what happens when a person gets saved.

Secondly, God satisfies our craving for living right through sanctification. Here’s another long word describing something simple. Sanctification is the lifelong process of becoming like Jesus—a Person Who lives to please God.

Jesus died on the Cross to do more than give us a get-out-of-hell free card. He died to transform us into people whose love Him and please Him. This process is described for us in

1 Co 6:9-11 9Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

I want to point out to you this verse says not that these folks washed themselves, but that they were washed, were sanctified. In other words, like justification, sanctification is also the work of God, and it is based on our faith in Christ.

The key difference is we choose to take this bath or not. God will clean up our lives, but we must submit to His cleansing, we must cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s cleanup work. You can’t just lean back and say God make me what I’m supposed to be. You must ask for God’s help, you must receive God’s help, you must surrender your will to His will in order to satisfy your craving to live right. Another passage expresses this beautifully:

Php 2:12-13 12…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

You cannot make yourself holy by your own efforts alone; but through God’s grace, your faith, and your cooperation with Him, you can be on the road to becoming a righteous person.

One more thing: the job isn’t finished until you get to heaven. Sanctification is a lifelong process, but Jesus promises us we will make progress. Which brings us to one last aspect of this promise for those who crave righteousness:

God satisfies our craving for the world to be made right through glorification. The Bible assures us God will one day restore His creation to what it was originally intended to be—no pain, no tears, no death, no evil. Right now He calls each of us to do what we can to make this world what He wants it to be. You and I are called to be workers together with Him to bring comfort to the hurting, healing for the sick, justice to the oppressed. If we truly crave a world where things are right, we ought to be willing to do what we can to make it right.

But beyond our own efforts, it’s important to remember that He’s working out His own plan to make this world the Paradise He created it to be. One day He will finish when Christ steps onto the stage and everything that’s wrong with this world will be made right.

2 Pe 3:13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

This is the reason Jesus says the happiest people on earth hunger and thirst for righteousness—because they will be fully satisfied by God.

My prayer this morning for you is that God’s Word has worked up an appetite in your heart for righteousness. The really great news is you don’t have to wait--you can come to the table right now.

If you’re hungry to be right with God, come to Jesus this morning and be filled. Turn from your sin and your self, believe He died on the Cross for your sins, receive Him as your Master. You can walk away from this altar this morning and know without a shadow of a doubt God has forgiven you and welcomed you into His family.

Ro 10:9 …if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

If you are hungry to live right, come to Jesus and let Him fill you with His Spirit. Confess your sins to Him, and ask Him to change your heart, to give you the power to live in victory over those areas of your life that aren’t what they should be. He will make you holy, if you will

Ro 12:1 …present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

If you are hungry to see this messed up world changed for the glory of God, come to Christ this morning and ask What can I do? He can not only give you hope—He can use you to make a difference for good in this world. Maybe He’s calling you to some specific area of service here in this church. There may be men God is calling to preach here today, women God is calling into missionary service. You will never be truly happy until you answer God’s call on your life. God put this hunger in your heart—come to Him and let Him to fully satisfy this hunger. Be like the prophet Isaiah, who once heard the Lord ask

Is 6:8 … “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

Will you answer His call on your life today?

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

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[i]Bits & Pieces, October 15, 1992, p. 1310,000 Sermon Illustrations, electronic ed. (Dallas: Biblical Studies