Sunday searmon Matthew 5:6

And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.

Prayer

Father, we thank You for your Word for the amazing truth that we’re going to be looking at this morning, and Father, we would desire above all things that the Holy Spirit would teach us and would lead our time together. Lord, help us to discover the nuggets of the passage we will study today and practical apply them into our lives. Please comfort Laura and Art and bring forth healing and hope from the difficult season of life that they are in and meet us Lord we we are at, remove all distractions and speak to our hearts. Give us ears to hear this day and all the days of our lives Father. And as we close this prayer, we wanted to say thank you for our father’s and may you bless them on this special day, encourage the father’s that cannot be with their children and Abba Father, we honor and glorify you today! Come Holy Spirit and teach us we pray.

In Jesus Name, we Love You! Amen and Amen

Researchers have found almost no correlation between income levels and happiness. Between 1957 and 1990 income levels in the U.S. doubled. Yet at the same period, people’s levels of happiness did not increase. In fact, reports of depression actually increased tenfold. Incidence of divorce, suicide, alcoholism and drug abuse also rose dramatically.”

As you know, we are in the beatitudes and the word Blessed means to be happy, to blissful, to have joy that is not found outside of self, but through a realtionship with God.

The happiness that the Lord is teaching is not found in conformity to a bunch of religious rules or standards, but quite the opposite.

Have you ever met a religious person who try’s to keep a bunch of rules? How happy are they?

Review

Looking back over the last few weeks, it is importnat for us to remember that Jesus is speaking things that are counter cultural to the religious folks and he is turning over the tables of our hearts.

He said if you want to be happy, joyful, or blissful in the midst of the most difficult circumstances of life then:

You must recognize your spiritual bankruptcy. This means that no matter what you try, no matter what you try to fulfill your self with does not work, therefore you come to the place of being poor in spirit>> for yours is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus said blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted and this is true for suffering, loss, and grief. But the deeper meaning here is over our sinfulness and the sins of the world.

The Jesus said blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

In the midst of our brokenness when we turn to God church, humility and meekness is produced.

For we cannot or will-not come to Jesus without being poor in spirit, mourning over sin, meekness and humility.

But this is not a one time deal, but part of Christ’s character, thus it should be ours.

This means that we will discover the depths of our need and rely on the Lord for everything

And this means that we will have a change of heart dominated by and absorbed with itself, to a heart that reaches out for God and to others!

This marks a turning point in our lives from immaturity to maturity in Christ church.

And when we are poor in spirit, mourning over our sin, meek and humble, guess what will well up inside of you?

Matthew 5:6 NKJV

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

The answer is hunger and thirst for righteousness church!

What this means is that there should be a turning away from ourselves to his righteousness, and in finding his righteousness, we should be turned toward others in their need of mercy.

Look at the next verse church>>>

Matthew 5:7 NKJV

Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.

As we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we will become merciful to others.

In the physical life the difference between childhood and adulthood is the transition from self-orientation to recognition of one’s place in the world. So in the spiritual life the mature Christian is one whose life is centered on God and his will, and who seeks to serve others by God’s grace.

Before we come to Jesus we are driven into ourselves and when we have a come to Jesus moment in surrender, we begin the process of being driven our of ourselves.

For if you look at your self long enough, you will become miserable, depressed, and discouraged church.

You will isolate and the devil will torture you.

He will whisper thoughts to you that are not of God church.

This is why Jesus said:

Matthew 16:24 NKJV

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

Deny-aparneomai-(ap-ar-neh'-om-ahee)-to forget one's self, lose sight of one's self and one's own interests, to disown.

Paul said it like this:

1 Corinthians 15:31 NKJV

I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

The concept of “dying to self” is found throughout the New Testament. It expresses the true essence of the Christian life, in which we take up our cross and follow Christ. Dying to self is part of being born again; the old self dies and the new self comes to life (John 3:3–7). Not only are Christians born again when we come to salvation, but we also continue dying to self as part of the process of sanctification. As such, dying to self is both a one-time event and a lifelong process.

John 3:3–7 NKJV

Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

I find it interesting that when Jesus starts teaching and preaching his first sermon, he immediately goes into dying to self and be raised in the newness of life in Christ.

Blessed are the poor in spirit

Blessed are those who mourn

Blessed are the meek and the humble

For they shall hunger and thirst for Him, they shall hunger and thirst for righteousness and be filled.

For it is only when we hunger and thirst for Jesus, for the things of God, for the Word of God, for righteousness church will we ever be satisfied or filled!

Nothing! Absolutely nothing in this world will fill or satisfy us church. Nothing!

1 John 2:15–16 NKJV

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.

I think it is important to remember that hunger and thirst are a few of our most fundamental physical needs.

And it was in the days of Jesus, but the only difference is that they did not have grocery stores and great jobs, but struggled to make ends meet.

They understood what it was really like to hunger and thirst church, where many of us do not understand this concept.

So when Jesus said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled, they could certainly identify because of the difficulty of finding food and water, but also because of the religion of the day left them empty and always searching for more.

One scholar says that water was at a premium and food was scarce. therefore the imagery that Jesus is using here depict intensity.

Matthew 5:6 NKJV

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

As the be-attitudes are unfolding before our eyes and we know that Matthew is teaching on Jesus as King, we can also learn that these beatitudes are how we enter the Kingdom.

But they are not only how we enter the Kingdom, but how we stay in the Kingdom.

In other words, to enter the kingdom, you must be poor in spirit. And as you live in the kingdom you continue recognize your spiritual poverty. In order to enter the kingdom, you must mourn over your sin. And as you continue living in the kingdom as a son of God, you will mourn over your sin. In order to enter the kingdom, you must come in meekness, not pride. A proud man can’t enter, and once you’re in the kingdom, meekness continues to be your attitude as you look at God and as God becomes more and more wonderful as you study and learn more. And in order to enter the kingdom, you must hunger and thirst after righteousness. And once you’re in the kingdom, you’ll continue to hunger and thirst for more of that same righteousness. So it is both a condition for entrance and a characteristic of living in the kingdom. This is a description of coming in and living in His kingdom.

What is interesting about this beatitude is that it is expressing a strong desire for something, it is speaking of a driving pursuit, not just a Sunday only experience church, but what is the driving factor every day of our lives.

There are both good and bad desires within each of us and therefore, we must learn the skill of dying to ourselves or our desires we run our lives church.

Let’s look at someone who was thirsting for more and his desires were the driving factor of his life and because of this, he forfeit entering into the Kingdom.

Read Luke 12:13-21

Psalm 37:4 NKJV

Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Matthew 5:6 NKJV

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

Our physical life depends on food and water. Our spiritual life depends on righteousness.

You can’t live physically without food and water, and you’ll never live spiritually without righteousness.

What are you hungering and thirsting after?

Is it more money?

More power?

More prestige?

More stuff?

Another relationship?

A new home or car?

What are your ambitions and desires? Is God included?

You see, the world is trying to feed on what is not nourishing. The world is trying to feed on that which cannot fulfill its need.

The heart of every person in the world, believer or unbeliever, the heart of every man ever made was created for a – with a hunger for God.

But man tries to satisfy the hunger for God with all the false things, with the garbage, the husks of the hogs, like the prodigal son.

Jeremiah 2:13 NKJV

“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.

In other words, God has made man with a thirst and a hunger for Him, but man refuses the well of living water and makes himself broken cisterns that can’t even hold water.

It’s so sad to see people hunger and thirst for the wrong things, hunger and thirst for happiness and meaning and fulfillment and inevitably try to fill themselves up with self-indulgent pleasures, possessions, power, and praise.

John 4:10–14 NKJV

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

Jesus said if you drink of his water, you will never thirst again.

What are you thirsting for? Are you thirsting for what Jesus offers?

John 6:35 NKJV

And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

The prodigal son, he longed for the pleasure. He longed to possess, he longed for the popularity of a riotous life, but he went hungry in his soul and finally he had the sense to come to himself and say, “How many of my father’s servants have bread enough and to spare? Why am I doing this?” And he went back to his father’s house and he was given a feast, and that feast is a picture of a spiritual feast.

The world in its riotous living tries to fill itself with the husks of the swine.

Only to leave it victims empty and wanting more of what cannot fill church.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their’s is the Kingdom

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth church and to inherit anything implies having a relationship with the person whom you are inheriting from.

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

There is a natural progression here....

The righteousness that Jesus is talking about is two fold:

It means to long for a right relationship with God and this cannot happen in our flesh. Our works do not make us righteous, only the Blood of Christ can do this.

Jesus exchanges our sinfulness church, for his righteousness.

He imputes his righteousness to us

It is on the basis of Jesus' righteousness that God accepts humans.

This acceptance is also referred to as justification.

The second part of the righteousness that Jesus is talking about is having a desire to live rightly before Him in the world and a desire for relationships restored in the lives of others.

Therefore, we are not made righteous to do nothing, but to be the light and the salt of the earth!

The bottom line is this, if we are born again then there will be a continual hunger and thirst for righteousness. It may ebb and flow, but it will always be there!

I close with a quote from Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

“This Beatitude follows logically from the previous ones. It is a statement to which all the others lead. It is the logical conclusion to which they come. It is something for which we should all be profoundly thankful and grateful to God. I do not know of a better test that anyone can apply to himself or herself in this whole matter of the Christian profession than a verse like this. If this verse is to you one of the most blessed statements of the whole of Scripture, you can be quite certain you’re a Christian. If it is not, you had better examine your foundations again.”

What are you hungering and thirsting for?

Prayer

Lord, thank you that you give water so that we will never thirst again and that you are the bread of life that will keep us full and will keep us away from filling ourselves with the things of this world that will always leave us empty. Lord, forgive us for trying to fill ourselves with everything but you, only to leave unsatisfied. Please Father please make us a people that hungers and thirst for more of you and less of us. Help us remember Lord, that the more time we spend with you, the less time we spend with self, the better we are for others.

In Jesus Name! We Love You! Amen!!

Benediction

Matthew 6:33 NKJV

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

THE LORD BLESS YOU!

YOUR MISSION STARTS NOW!

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