Hope Church LV Sermons
Be Happy :: Happy are the Hungry
What comes to your mind when you hear the word radical? And this morning would you consider yourself to be radical? Webster's dictionary defines the word radical this way. That which is marked by considerable departure from the usual or the traditional. It's a church family right now. We are in the middle of a study that is perhaps the most radical message from the most radical person in the history of the world. In Matthew chapter 5 we are diving deep into the Sermon on the Mount. What has been called the greatest message ever preached. It was preached by the Lord Jesus Christ and He is proclaiming then and is proclaiming now a radical way of life. If you have your Bibles I want to invite you to turn there this morning to Matthew chapter 5 and the words will be on the screen to hear for you in just a moment. And Jesus begins this message here, this radical way of life, this way of life that is a departure from the norm or the usual or the traditional. He begins this message with a series of statements that are so radical, so counter cultural that we have taken each of these statements known as the bay attitudes individually and we are going to look at each one individually. We already looked at a few of them. We are going to take another one this morning at these series of statements at the beginning that we call the bay attitudes. Now you know we have kind of given a definition to what these bay attitudes are and I don't know about you for most of my Christian life. I read the bay attitudes a certain way. But now after diving into these statements and what Jesus has to say here I see the bay attitudes totally different than I used to. We have given this definition to what the bay attitudes really are. It will be on the screen for you. We say the bay attitudes are a declarations of a radical way of life. The bay attitudes are not just a rule or a regulation or something like that but Jesus is declaring a radical way of life that is made possible in Christ resulting in real unshakable happiness. And we have been studying through a few of those bay attitudes and we are going to dive into another one this morning but let's go back and read the beginning of the sermon on the mount this morning. So find your place there in Matthew chapter 5 we are going to begin in verse 1 and read down through verse 10. We are going to hear some radical words from the most radical teacher who has ever lived in history. The Bible says this when Jesus saw the crowds he went up on a mountain and after he sat down his disciples came to him. So again the pictures of Jesus and his disciples they are seated at his feet and he is teaching them and he is proclaiming to them an amazing incredible radical way of life and they are sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to his words. Verse 2 he opens his mouth and he began to teach them saying, "Blessed." We've said that word blessed means happy but not in the happy of the sense of how your circumstances determine your happiness but a true sense of well-being and blissfulness of joy of true genuine happiness. Blessedness or happiness 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 gentle or the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God. And verse 10 blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Radical statements from a radical teacher telling of a radical way of life. And Jesus begins these beatitudes and the first beatitude he answers the question and the question being to whom is this radical way of life available. Who can experience this radical way of life? And Jesus said blessed are the poor in spirit. Jesus said this radical way of life is first available to those who come to Christ empty. We don't bring to God our accomplishments and all we've done he said to those who are poor in spirit recognizing our own spiritual bankruptcy before God. That is the way we come to God. Radical statement for his day. And he went on and he said a character trait of this kind of attitude or this way of life is characterized in verse 4 by brokenness over sin or mourning over sin. When we look at our lives and we compare our lives to all that God has for us we're broken by the effects of sin in our own lives and we're broken over the effects of sin in other people's lives. He said this brokenness spills out and manifests itself in gentleness or meekness which before God is a submission before God and service towards others these beatitudes build on one another. And they're painting an attitude a way of life that is absolutely counter cultural. Poverty of spirit. Morning over sin. You don't get that from the pop media you don't hear that from the pop culture. Jesus is saying but these are the attitudes of a kingdom citizen. Of somebody who is going to experience a radically different way of life. And we come to the fourth beatitude this morning which may be the most radical one we've read yet. Jesus in Matthew 5 verse 6 he says this blessed are those who hunger. What? Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. For they will be satisfied. Now if you'd been there in Jesus day and you'd heard those words you would have said something to the effect of wait a minute Jesus what are you talking about? Because in that day they would have expected Jesus to say something like this. I'll tell you who's blessed. The ones that are blessed are those who have achieved righteousness. Are those who have already achieved this place of being right with God because there were those religious leaders of the day. And everybody in those days if you'd ask you to say well who's righteous well those guys are righteous. I mean look at them. They wear the funny hats and the flactories and they're fasting twice a week and they do all the outward evidence as men it looks like they're righteous from the outside at least. And in their hearts they surely thought they were righteous because they were doing all the right things and carrying out all the religious duties and Jesus said hold on. Kingdom of God is not about what you can earn. Righteousness is not about what you achieve of your own effort. He said blessed are those who not have achieved righteousness but hunger and thirst to be right with God. Those are the ones that will truly be satisfied. This is a radical statement. Jesus says this kind of Kingdom of life is not for those who feel as though they have arrived by their spiritual accomplishments but those who realize they haven't arrived at all and hunger and thirst for the things of God. True satisfaction he says is for those who hunger and those who thirst. So let me ask you this morning what is it in life today that you desire and long for more than anything else if you were real honest this morning? What is it in your life this morning if you were real honest is that thing or that relationship or that accomplishment or that achievement that right now in your life you are desiring and hungering for more than anything else? Because Jesus knows something about our heart he understands what we desire and what we long for at the very core of our being ultimately reveals the condition of our heart. You all hear that? Everybody okay this morning? In other words if you want to know where you are in the condition of your heart what are you longing for today? What is that thing you must have? What is that accomplishment you must reach? Jesus understands how our heart operates because ultimately the very direction of our lives is shaped by what we desire the most. If you want to know the direction in which your life is going ask yourself the question what is it that I desire most because that's the direction your life is going to go. Jesus understood that about us and he said to them then and he's saying to us now blessedness or true satisfaction or true meaning his life is for those who hunger and those who thirst above all else for righteousness. Now I want to take this little statement that Jesus makes here in Matthew chapter 5 and we're going to ask just a few questions about it this morning. Try to make some applications to our lives and then we'll be done. I want to ask a few questions about this statement that Jesus makes this morning and here's the first question that we're going to ask. What does it mean to hunger and thirst? What does it really mean to hunger and to thirst for something? Because I'll be real honest when we hear in the Western culture we hear the word hunger here's what we think. Well you know I haven't eaten in probably two to three hours and I'm famished, I'm parched, I've got to have something to eat. Right? Thirst man I left my water bottle in my car if I don't get something to drink I'm going to die, I'm parched. That's what we think when we hear hunger and thirst but those in that day when they heard the word hunger and the word thirst that's not what they heard at all. See really when you talk about the idea of hunger there are really three levels of hunger. When you talk about hunger there's the first level it's this you want food but it's kind of optional really. I'm kind of hungry it's time to eat I think I'd like to have a snack it's kind of optional you just want something to eat. But the next level is that you really need something to eat. I mean your body's starting to send signals and maybe you haven't eaten all day and your stomach's churning and you need something to eat for nourishment. But then there's a third level of hunger and the third level of hunger is this is you must have food or you are going to die. Now I imagine some of us many of us have we've been at that first level and some of us every now and we get to that second level maybe we go a day or two when we don't eat or something like that. But I'd say very few of us have ever been at that third level of hunger where we if we don't eat we are going to die. But that's how they heard that word when Jesus said it. The word here for hunger is pino it means to be hungry famished or starved. William Barclay a great commentator helps us see the picture of the way they heard this word. He said in reality very few of us in modern conditions of life really know what it is to really hunger or really be thirsty. In the ancient world it was very different. The average man in Palestine ate meat maybe once a week at best and meals were maybe once a day at best. The working man and day labor were never very far from borderline of dangerous hunger and starvation. And let me take this word even a step further. Jesus uses this word pino this word for hunger another place in the New Testament not very far here actually right over in chapter 4 of Matthew you don't have to turn there I'm just going to read it. One chapter back Jesus uses the same word for hunger and listen how he used it or Matthew speaking of Jesus says Matthew chapter 4 verse 2 after he Jesus had fasted for 40 days. You remember when Jesus was in the wilderness right before his public ministry he fasted for 40 days. The Bible says after he had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights he then became hungry. Same word. In other words the word Jesus uses here for hunger same word he uses in Matthew 5 he hadn't eaten for 40 days. Do you know what happens to the body that goes without food after 40 days? Do you know what type of hunger that is? All of you are looking in your bags in your pockets to see if you have a snack or something because you want something to eat this. Do you know what happens to the body when it goes without food for 40 days? Well I looked it up this week as I was studying it a little bit. If your body went without food for 40 days as Jesus is describing here I read that the first two or three days without food there isn't any food. There is an intense hunger. But then after the first two to three days that hunger subsides and your body kind of goes into hibernation so to speak. But then somewhere after several weeks somewhere around the 40 day mark an extreme hunger sits in. Doctors sometimes call it a death hunger and it's not the kind of hunger that says well you know I might eat if something's available. Or I'm a little bit hungry your body begins to say if I don't eat I'm going to die because that's reality. And what I read this week is that at this point your body is characterized by a substantial loss of fat and muscle. All the movements of your body become painful because of muscle atrophy and cracked skin your skin becomes so dry. Swallowing itself becomes excruciating. Fatigue begins to sit in severe fatigue, severe headaches. Interaction with your surroundings becomes diminished. There is severe pain in the stomach and is generalized throughout the body. In other words your body is saying if I don't eat I'm going to die. History tells us what people who are at this stage of hunger will do to get food and you read some of those stories and heard some of those stories. People at this stage of hunger have been known to eat dirt and even eat their own flesh. Because the body is saying you must eat. At this stage of hunger it is the consuming desire of the body to have nourishment and everything else is unnecessary. When Jesus said hunger and thirst for righteousness that's the word he used. And Jesus is taking a physical reality of intense hunger and he's now bringing that over into the spiritual realm. And he says as a man who is on the verge of starvation, hungers and thirst for nourishment we are to hunger and to thirst. It's pretty intense. You see Jesus what in the world are we to hunger and thirst for like that? That's your second question. Second question is this. All right Jesus I kind of see what you're saying there. It's a hunger that nothing else matters. I must have food. I understand that desire you're talking about. Number two, what are we to hunger and thirst for that way? Jesus said blessed are those who hunger and thirst for what? Righteousness, righteousness. Kingdom citizens who are going to live this Kingdom radical way of life will have an unceasing and quenchable relentless hunger and thirst for righteousness. So let me ask you the question again this morning. Do you hunger for anything like that? What is it in your life right now that you are desiring and longing for more than anything else? Jesus said we're to hunger and thirst for righteousness that way. So if we're going to really understand what Jesus is saying here we must ask the next question what is righteousness right? I mean if you've been in the church any amount of time or read the Bible at all the word righteousness is from Genesis all the way through Revelation. It's all over the Bible but what is righteousness? Jesus what do you mean by that word? It's one of those tough words to get your mind around but I want to take a minute or two and try to paint you the biblical picture of what righteousness is and how we're to hunger and long for it as a radical way of life. What is righteousness? Well theologians tell us that righteousness really has at least two aspects to it. I'm going to give you a theological couple words here. There's a position or reality to righteousness. There's something that's true, a positional reality but there's also a practical way of life when it comes to righteousness. You say okay I'm not really with you yet Mike well hang with me we're going somewhere okay? I know you're sitting there thinking about where you're going to eat lunch after this I know. What is righteousness? Well there's first a positional reality to it. The Bible says God himself is righteous right? We read that all over the Bible. Deuteronomy 32 says this the rock his work is perfect for all his ways are just a God of faithfulness and without injustice. Righteous and upright is he. God is righteous. To the very core of who he is there is a fundamental rightness about God. He is the standard in all of the universe of what is right. Any deviation from that is wrong. God is right. He's righteous to the very core of who he is. The Bible says in Psalm 145 the Lord is righteous in all his ways and in all his deeds. Not only is God fundamentally right everything he does is right. Righteousness theologians say is really the outpouring of God's character toward his creation. God deals with you and God deals with me righteously always. Sometimes it may not feel like it, sometimes it may not seem like it, but whatever God does in your life is righteous. Because he is righteous. Psalm 119 says his word is righteous. God is righteous. What he does is righteous. Even his words are righteous. They're right. They're good. Now we all get kind of excited about that as Christians and we like to say God is righteous and we sing about it. The righteousness of God, the rightness of God. But there's a little problem with that when you read the Bible. God is righteous and we're not. I mean unless you could say you are right to the very core of your being and everything you always do is always right and everything you say is always right. I mean if there's anybody here like that just raise your hand and we'll pray for you a lot. God's righteous. We're not. In fact the Bible says in Romans chapter 3 there's none righteous no not even one nobody. Because we've all sinned right and turned from his righteousness in our heart. That's the problem. What's the answer? I mean he's righteous and we're not. See the world will say okay here's the answer. And the people of Jesus state a lot of them thought this was the answer. Okay God's righteous and we're not. But man if I hold to the law and if I could carry out the ten commandments and if I could be good enough and if I could do all the do's and don't do all the don'ts then gradually I'm going to move over to the side of righteousness and God's going to be pleased with me and applaud me and I'm going to be righteous. The problem is that's absolutely impossible. We could never earn righteousness of our own efforts. But there were those in Jesus' day who thought that was true. That's why Jesus' words of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied. Not those who think they've earned it. What's the answer? There is an answer. Listen to this, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. God, He made Him Jesus who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the what? Righteousness of God in Him. I could never go from where I am as unrighteous to where God is His righteousness unless another who is righteous comes to me and gives me His righteousness. That's Jesus Christ, the righteous one. That's pretty good news, by the way. That's a good place for a big amen because we were lost and hopeless here. Someone had to come to me who was righteous, give me His righteous, take my sin and then watch this, positionally call me and count me righteous. The Bible says to Him who believes it is credited to them as righteousness. How do I earn the righteousness of Christ? I don't earn it. I by faith receive it. I recognize I don't have it. He has it. Jesus help me. I cry out to you. Give me your righteousness. The Bible says to Him who believes it's given to Him as righteousness. And that's a positional reality of righteousness. One aspect of righteousness. If you're here, child of God and you're a Jesus follower and you've surrendered your life to Christ and you've embraced Him and asked for His righteousness, you're a Christian. You are positionally right before God. God doesn't look at your sin. He looks at the righteousness of Christ. That is a positional reality of righteousness. And that's a good thing. And nothing can ever take away or change that. You are sealed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's one aspect of righteousness. But there's another. There's not only the positional state of righteousness. Righteousness is also a practical way of life. So what do you mean by that? Listen to 1 Peter chapter 2. Peter said this. And He Himself, Jesus, bore our sins in His body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to what? Righteousness. Righteousness is a way of life. It is a practical way of life in my relationships and in my home and in my workplace. It's a way of life. 1 John chapter 3 verse 7 says, "Little children, make sure no one deceives you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous just as He, Jesus, is righteous." In other words, righteousness is a positional reality that we gain through Christ and Christ alone. But righteousness for the child of God is something we continue to hunger and long for because we want that life of righteousness pressed out in our life. We want to enjoy a life of righteousness. If we don't desire that life of righteousness, it's at least questionable whether or not we've ever had the righteousness of Christ given to our life. The two go together. You see, what does that life of righteousness look like? I mean, what does a righteous life in my life look like? Does it mean for perfection? Well, of course not. But what does a righteous life look like? Jesus gives you three more chapters of the Sermon on the Mount to demonstrate to you what a radical, righteous way of life can look like. It's not like the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, he said, but it is a genuine life of rightness, of goodness, of fullness. Let me give you some examples. In the Sermon on the Mount, he says this life of righteous, this is practical righteousness, looks like this. In verse 7, here he says it's a life of mercy, a life of genuinely caring for the welfare of others. The world's not all about you. Jesus goes on in verse 8, he says it's an authentic purity of heart. There's this integrity, this purity of heart in this life of righteousness. In other words, my life is not a life of hypocrisy. I'm not a fake. People who are like this and live their life, they're appealing, you know that they're genuine. Their heart is pure, perfect no. But the person you see on Sunday is the same person that's in their home on Monday. There's not two lives they're living. It's a life of authenticity, not a life of being a fake. Don't you want a life like that? There's a life of integrity, purity of heart. Jesus says this life of righteousness is characterized by real relationships, not broken ones. He talks about that in chapter 5 of what it's like to experience real relationships with other people. Don't you want to enjoy real, quality relationships, not broken ones? Jesus said this life of righteousness is characterized by healthy marriages. And that they had the idea, well your marriage is healthy as long as you're not committing adultery, you're all right? Jesus said, hang on? Listen, a life of righteousness in your marriage is not just that you're not committing adultery. He said it's that your heart is wholly devoted to that spouse. You don't even look at another person in a lustful manner. Much less committed adultery, you are a single minded devotion to that husband or that wife. Listen, don't you want that kind of marriage? I guarantee you want that kind of mate. I do. Thank God God's blessed me with that. That's the kind of life he's talking about here. He says there's a genuine love for others, even our enemies. There's a genuine peace of heart not characterized by anxiety. He said we live our lives before God, not merely to impress men. A life of righteousness is not a life for show, that everything you do is to get the applause of men. It's a life that you're standing before God and God if you're pleased. It's all that matters. It's a genuine life of righteousness. It's a life of dependence upon God as we build our lives on the word of God, not the best ideas of our day. It is a life that you want and a life that I want. It is a practical righteousness in our lives. Actually, practical righteousness simply means the life of Jesus Christ pressed out through our lives. Right? Righteousness is a positional reality of being right with God, but there's a practical dimension of his life being pressed out in our lives. You could define it this way. It is a righteousness with God through faith in Christ demonstrated by a passionate pursuit of Christ's likeness. Martin Lloyd Jones says righteousness ultimately means being like the Lord Jesus Christ. Positional reality. God, you've made me right with you through faith in Christ. Now, flesh that out in my life through practical righteousness. The two always go together. You can't have one without the other. Jesus said it is this righteousness of life, this Christ's likeness that we are to hunger and to thirst for in our lives. Now, if that's the case, I want to ask a few more questions this morning and we'll be done. I want that kind of life. I want Christ's life and my life. What does it look like to hunger and thirst for righteousness? What does it look like in your life? Well, the verbs here hunger and thirst for righteousness are present tense verbs. It literally could be stated the ones who are continually hungering, continually thirsting for righteousness. How is that manifest in our lives? At least three things. If we're genuinely hungering and thirsting for righteousness, number one, we will have an overwhelming desire for greater fellowship and intimacy with God. We'll have a desire for deeper fellowship with God. Listen to what Moses said in Exodus 33. "Now therefore I pray," he said, "if I found favor in your side, O Lord, let me know your ways that I may know you." Moses already knew God. He had a relationship with God. He was positionally right with God. But he wanted practical righteousness in his life. He wanted to know God more and know his ways more and see his life pressed out in his life. In his home and in his family and his workplace and his thought life. A greater intimacy, desire, fellowship with God. For hungering and thirsting for righteousness, there'll be a longing for God's Word. There'll be a hunger to eat and feast on this bread of life that God gives us. Job said in chapter 23 verse 12, he said, "I've not departed from the command of his lips. I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food." It's hunger for the Word of God. Thirdly, there'll be a pursuit of God's people. There'll be a pursuit of God's people. He said, "What do you say that?" Listen to what Paul said in 2 Timothy. "Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness." Faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Listen, if we're going to pursue righteousness, there's times in my life in your life that my pursuit is not like it is at other times. It wanes a little. So does yours, and I need you and you need me and I need people in our lives to spur us on and to encourage us in this hunger and encourage us in this pursuit. That's why we gather like this on the weekends. That's why we gather in small groups to spur one another on, to hunger. And the thirst for righteousness. See that? Those are at least some things it looks like in our life if we're genuinely hungering and thirsting for righteousness. So let me ask you the question again. What is it in your life right now today that you are hungering and thirsting for more than anything else thinking that that will satisfy your heart? Say, Pastor Mike, if I was real honest, I'm not hungering for thirst and righteousness like that. Now Pastor Mike, there was some times in my life maybe the past few years or maybe when I first became a Christian or a few months ago or maybe I was like that. I mean, I couldn't get enough of the word and I wanted to be with God's people and I was wanting more of Him in my life. But that's kind of faded. I don't really know what to do about that. Here's another question for you this morning. We're almost done. How can my hunger and thirst be revived? You say to be realized, Pastor Mike, it's not where I want it to be, but how can I revive that hunger and thirst in my heart? Let me give you a few points and we'll be done. Number one, be honest about your present heart attitude. See what do you mean by that? Let's be honest with God. Guess what? He already knows anyway, all right? Just come before God say, Lord, be realized with you. I'm not hungering and thirsting like I want to. Got my hunger and thirst for you and for your word and for your people and your kingdom and your righteousness in every area of my life is not what it used to be. Be honest with Him. He knows. Secondly, avoid the junk food in your life. Say what? Well listen, at my house about 5.30 every afternoon, there's the same little drill that we go through. My wife, we're getting dinner ready and getting ready to get dinner on the table and one of our children will come into the kitchen and you know what they say because they say it at your house too. Dad, can I have a snack? And they'll come out of the pantry with a can of Pringles. Can I have some Pringles? Now there's nothing inherently wrong with Pringles. I don't think. There is, don't tell me because I like them. Don't we'll say no, son? You can't have a snack right now. Why? Because we're cruel, mean, angry parents? No. Because we know if he'll wait 15 minutes, there's going to be a feast on the table that's really going to satisfy his hunger. But if he eats those Pringles, he's not going to get the nourishment he needs and even more so, it's going to diminish his hunger for something very much better. Now listen, there's things in your life right now that are like that. They're not necessarily good. They're not necessarily bad in and of themselves. But somehow, some way, they are in your lives and they are diminishing your spiritual appetite. I don't know what they are in your life. You know, as God, what is it in your life that's diminishing my spiritual appetite? Because you have them and I have them. Martin Lloyd-Jones says, "I suggest that if we are truly hungering and thirsting after righteousness, we shall not only avoid the things we know to be bad and harmful, we shall even avoid the things that tend to dull or take off our spiritual appetite." There's things like that in your life and things like that in my life. Avoid the junk food. Number three, identify and remove the cheap substitutes in your life. Listen, there's some things that merely diminish your spiritual appetite, but there are some things in our life that become a substitute instead of hungering and thirsting for righteousness. They become the driving force and desire of our lives. God said this about His people in Jeremiah chapter 2. He said, "For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and they have hewn for themselves cisterns or wells, broken cisterns that can hold no water." It's a word picture of the nation of Israel. They had begun to worship these idols and these things that would never satisfy their hearts. And God says to His people, "Listen, you have turned away from the fountain of living water. You have turned away from this bubbling mountain spring of fresh water, and you have dug a hole in the ground full of murky, muddy water, and you go to that and you drink thinking that's going to satisfy you." Sometimes we go to that well of murky, muddy, dirty water, and we think that's going to satisfy us, and it becomes a substitute for what really satisfies the righteousness of God. See that? I don't know what those things are in your life. It could be a relationship. It could be a promotion. It could be a pursuit. It could be the next purchase. It could be the hungering and desire for a mate more than anything else, whatever it is. Identify and remove some of the cheap substitutes in your life. Fourthly, we're almost done. Surround yourselves with those things that stir up your appetite. Listen, when I get home in the afternoons or I walk in and my wife's fixing some of those big old, big old rolls in the oven and they fill the whole house, man. I walk in and my appetite just gets going. I get so hungry. It stirs up my appetite. Did you know there's things in your life that stir up your spiritual appetite for the things of God? See, what are those things? Well, I'll tell you a few things for me. One is Psalm 119. I don't know why. There's those times in my life. I know my spiritual hunger is not where I want it to be and not where it needs to be. And man, I just try to go to the Psalms at Psalm 119. I lay up my Bible before God and just pray those Psalms. God, I want to hunger for you again. Sometimes it's certain people in my life that you need to know certain people in your life that they're hungering and thirsting for righteousness. And you need to be around them because just being around them prompts you to hunger and thirst. What are those things in your life that stir up your appetite? And I would just say to parents, you don't only need to ask this question for your life, you need to ask this question for your kids' life. The question isn't, "Is this right or wrong for my son and daughter?" Sometimes that's the question. Sometimes the question is, "What kind of appetite is that stirring up in their lives?" You ask that as parents sometimes. Fifthly, we're done. What if my appetite's diminished? How do I revive this hunger and thirst? Number five, recognize and embrace God's activity of creating hunger. Hebrews 12, 11 says this, "All discipline," that's God's pursuit of you. "All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful." In other words, there's things that God allows in our life, there's situations He brings into our life, and at the moment they don't seem to be very fine. But sorrowful, yet to those who have been trained by it afterwards, it yields the peaceful fruit of, what, righteousness? Did you know it's highly likely and very possible that right now God has a situation in your life? God is doing something in your life that doesn't seem to be a good thing at all. In fact, you would say it's sorrowful, but you know what that is? It may be the gracious hand of God working in your life to stir that hunger and thirst in your life like never before. God may be doing that. God's committed to you much more than you are to Him. You understand that. If you're going to hunger and thirst, sometimes you just need to recognize the activity of God in your life. Last question, it's quick and we're done. What's the outcome of hunger and thirsting for righteousness? Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, for they will be satisfied." The word satisfied means full, abundance to overflowing. Psalm 107 verse 9 says, "He has satisfied the thirsty soul and the hungry soul. He has filled with what is good." There's a measure of satisfaction that fills our lives. There's a measure of goodness that fills our lives. But there's a paradox at work here. See, what do you mean by that? Well, there's an immediate outcome to hungering and thirst for righteousness, but then there's an ultimate outcome. See, what do you mean? The immediate outcome is this. It seems that God and His wisdom in this life is we hunger and thirst for Him. He gives us a measure of satisfaction, but never so much that we won't continue to hunger. You ever notice that? God gives us a left good things and fills our life with enough of Himself and enough of practical righteousness to satisfy us, but never enough. Never so much that we won't continue to hunger. The secret to satisfaction is to remain hungry. It's a paradox. That's the immediate outcome, but listen, I think that's the immediate outcome because God never wants us to lose sight of the ultimate outcome. Listen to 2 Peter, chapter 3. But according to His promise, we are looking for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. So what does that mean? That means practically, I believe, as the child of God, God will in this life satisfy the hearts of His children like nothing else can. And He will give us a measure of fullness and of satisfaction in this life, but never so much that we won't long for the righteousness that is to come. The fulfillment of His promise that is to come when He returns in all His righteousness. You see, whatever satisfaction He gives us now in this life is merely a foretaste of what is to come. Our citizenship is in heaven. The secret to satisfaction is to always be hungry. See, as Lewis said, "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." Amen. God says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." A measure of satisfaction now, but ultimate satisfaction when He returns and takes us to glory. The child of God, are you hungering and thirsting for that kind of righteousness? Let's bow our heads together this morning. And right there in your seat before God, as our team comes to lead us, we're going to stand and sing in just a moment. But don't miss an opportunity right now, right there in your seat to respond to the activity of God in your heart. What is it right now in your life that you are hungering and thirsting for more than the righteousness of God? What is it in your life right now that may be that junk food that is just quenching your appetite? Or what is it in your life right now that is muddy water instead of the fresh spring of water God offers? It's a fake substitute to the real thing. Is God at work in your life right now to stir up that hunger? Have you recognized it's the activity of God, or have you said, "God, get me out of this as soon as possible?" Listen to the voice of God this morning and be honest with your spiritual condition before Him. Now you may be here this morning and you hear all of this and you recognize that you don't hunger and thirst for righteousness in your life because you've never been made righteous by Christ. I mean you've been trying to earn it, you've been trying to do all these good things, you've been trying to achieve righteousness or goodness or the best you can and you realize this morning it's through Christ alone. Just a few moments we're going to stand to our feet and get some prayer volunteers in the back and pastors to the side of the room. If this morning you say, "I need to know Christ, I quit trying to be righteous on my own. I need Jesus." Right there in your seat you could ask Him, plead for Him, cry out, "Lord forgive me, save me, give me your rightness, take away my sin." Then you can go to one of these pastors or prayer volunteers and take them by the hand. The rest of us is to do business with God and listen to His voice. Lord we love you and we praise you. Give us a hunger and a thirst for your righteousness. In your name we pray this morning. Amen.