Blessed are those who Hunger for God

Foreign.

Gotta tell you, Church, it never fails. Anytime I come into this place tired or if I have stuff on my mind before I get here, I see Kelly up on stage going, I am free. I'm like, yeah, let's go. Come on. Right.

Like, I just. I get hyped up and I get excited for what God is doing this morning. So, worship team, thank you all. Thank you all for leading us in worship this morning. It was just absolutely beautiful, man, because he lives.

That's the reason we're here. Church. Amen. So, man, how are we doing this morning? Everybody doing good?

Yeah. All right. Yeah. Come on. Come on.

Yeah. Okay. Nevermind. No, man. It is good to be in the house of God this morning.

It is good to see your faces. It's good to be here to spend some time in worship, to spend some time in the presence of God and dig into God's word today and really just see what message he has for us. Not something that I have written down on paper, but hopefully and faithfully what God is bringing to us today. We've been in a series for a couple weeks now called Blessed, where we've been talking about the Beatitudes in Matthew, chapter five. Blessed are the.

For they will. And so we've covered the first couple of verses where we've talked about, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And we've talked about things like, blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. And so today we're going to look at the next Beatitude in that series in Matthew, chapter five. And so if you haven't already, grab your Bibles and flip over to Matthew, chapter five.

Morning is where we're going to start Matthew, chapter five. And we're going to kick off in verse six, Matthew, chapter five, verse six, it says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. So blessed are those who are hungry and thirsty and ready for lunch. So that is your lesson for today.

We're just going to go and eat some dinner and lunch and. No, I'm just kidding. Thank you for laughing. No. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Blessed are those who cling to Jesus, to cling and desire for the ways of God in their life. And so we're going to look at a couple of different things this morning, but I think a good starting point, a good jumping off point for us is why is it important for us to Hunger and thirst for righteousness. Why is it important for us to hunger and thirst for the ways of God? And so the first thing that comes to mind when I begin thinking about hungering and thirsting for God is that hunger and thirst aren't things that just go away. You and I have to take action to fulfill those needs, right?

They're not something that's just gonna disappear. We have to do something about them. Now I eat pretty regularly. That's probably why most of my shirts don't fit as well as they used to, right? But we've got a pretty regular eating schedule in our house in the mornings.

Mornings are frantic, right? We're just trying to get everybody up, out of bed and to school on time, make it to work on time. And so there's usually not time for a full sit down breakfast, right? Like pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon. We don't have time for any of that.

Grab a freezer, waffle, toss it in the toaster while you put your shirt on, right? Then toss it in a paper towel and eat it with you on the way to school or eat it with you on the way to work. Like you wanted a bowl of cereal. Oh, I'm sorry. You should have woke up 20 minutes ago, right?

You can have cereal after school. We gotta go, we gotta get out of the car or we gotta lunch. Very similar, regular eating schedule, about 11:30 or 12. I know I need to start figuring out what's for lunch because I'm going to get hungry, right? Like I know it's coming.

I don't always get to eat right then. But I know if I don't start figuring it out, the rest of my afternoon is probably going to end up as a jumbled mess because I didn't take the time to find the substance that I needed in that moment. And then for dinner, right? Regular, regular eating schedule. This is not super out of the box, right?

Dinnertime, if we're not sitting at the table or at least cooking dinner around 6 to 6:30, I know that people in our house are just going to get hangry, right? Like the mixture of hungry and angry. Like people start to get on edge, right? Babies start crying, right? Our six year olds start doing backflips off the couch going, I'm hungry.

You know, right? As a parent, you start to get that dull headache in the back of your head. It was like, this night is going to be terrible. I can't wait for bedtime, right? Like I know that that's what's going to happen, right?

And I know, that's a pretty basic schedule for meals. But we know what keeps us moving. We know what keeps us on track. But what would happen if we didn't make any effort to feed ourselves, right? What would happen the entire day if we went all day without needing our thirst quench and making no movement to make sure that we had something to drink?

Ultimately, we would probably starve, right? Or we would die of thirst, right? Because hunger and thirst are natural needs that we have. They're natural desires of our bodies that when we need substance, when we need something to keep going, we need to. We.

We feel that hunger, we feel that thirst, right? We need something to keep going. You and I have to make an effort to cook. Those things don't just take care of themselves. They're not just going to go away.

You're going to get more hungry and more thirsty for substance. You and I have to make an effort to cook, to pour something to drink. We have to make an effort to get the things that we need. Now, if you're not tracking with me, think about this in your spiritual context as well. We all have a natural hunger and a thirst in us for something more in our lives.

A nourishment that is needed to keep us going physically but also spiritually to keep us moving along in God's plans, right? That need isn't just going to fix itself. It isn't something that is just going to go away. We have to take action to find those hunger pains and help them to go away. To find that thirst and to help it go away.

We have to find the things that are good. We have to find the things that God wants for us. We have to know what Jesus, Jesus has planned and purposed us to do to take care of those different things. And as much as I love a plate of pizza rolls and chocolate cake, right? That was what I had for lunch yesterday.

Full honesty, right? No shame, right? As much as I love those things, that's not going to provide ultimate satisfaction or the nourishment that I need, right? I need something that has real substance to it. It's delicious, but it's not going to satisfy me for a long time.

We can't fill our spirits in the same way with junk and with all these different things other than God and expect to find spiritual nourishment that we need to continue to keep going. So why is it important for us to hunger and thirst for righteousness? It's a constant reminder that we need to go to God every single day, seek out God, seek out his righteousness to fill up on the things that we need to keep us going for the plan and the purpose that God has for our life. Now, the second thing, that's the first thing. Why do we need to hunger and thirst for righteousness?

Because it requires us to take action. It brings us closer to God to meet those needs. The second thing I see is that hunger and thirst is something that is never satisfied, right? Hunger and thirst is something that is never going to be satisfied fully. Like I said, I have my regularly scheduled meal time, my regularly scheduled meal programming.

I know what I like to eat. I know what I don't like to eat. And even if I make an effort to eat and to eat the right things, I know at some point in the day I'm going to be hungry again. Even if I sat down and had that full pancake breakfast with scrambled eggs and bacon, right at some point in the day I am going to get hungry again. Because those natural feelings for substance are always going to continue to keep coming back.

We're always going to need something to keep us going. And you can argue with me about carbs, no carbs, protein, vegetables, meat, you can argue with me about all of these things. But it doesn't matter what you eat at some during the day, your hunger and your thirst is going to come back. And again, put this in your spiritual context, right? This morning we're spending a little time with God here in this place, which is awesome.

I'm glad to see you. I'm excited to spend some time and worship with you. Now, is that small amount of time was spent with God enough to carry you over for just a little bit? And I hope so, right? I hope you spend some time in the presence of God this morning that you are connected one on one with what he has to speak to you this morning and that it's able to carry you on from little bit.

But is that little bit of that little bit of God? Is that little taste enough to carry you into Monday if you do nothing else the rest of this week except this one hour of church, Is that enough to carry you over into Wednesday? You're out of town next Sunday. Is that going to be enough to carry you through next Sunday if you're not able to be here? If you're not spending time with God, Right?

Is that enough to carry you into next week? Is that enough to carry you into next month? Was that brief meal time, was that brief moment with God enough that it's going to curb those hungers and those thirsts that you have. No. Just like our spiritual hunger, just like our physical hunger, our spiritual hunger is constantly in the back of our mind.

It's constantly in our heart. And a small taste of what God has for you is not enough to impact the longevity you need for the things of God. Right? Physical hunger and thirst will never be satisfied. Spiritual hunger and thirst can never be satisfied.

If you have an inconsistent meal time with Jesus, if you have small bites and small taste and just a little nibble or a little bit of this, a little bit of that here and there, it's not enough to keep you going, enough to keep you moving on. But I think that kind of really speaks to the impact of the second half of this verse in Matthew 5, 6 where it says, blessed are those who are hungry and thirsty for what? For they will be filled if our hunger and our thirst never go away. It speaks to the impact of God when he says, hey, when you hunger and thirst for, for me, I will make you full. I will satisfy you.

God can satisfy the craving that we need. Our cup will never be empty. He will continue to fill it up time and time again. It won't slowly leak out as we go throughout the day. God will continue to pour in.

God will continue to meet that need, keeping it full. It tells us the impact of what God wants to do in our life when we seek out him and we seek out his righteousness. He says, for you will be filled with me, with something that is going to last, something that is going to satisfy that need is never going to go away if you fill up on anything else but me. But if you seek me out and you come and find me, I will make sure that you are filled up on the things that will satisfy you. So why do we need to hunger and thirst for righteousness?

Why do we need to hunger and thirst for God? One because it takes action. It makes us go closer to God and chase him out in everything we do. But also we know that we can't fill up on anything else. And except for God, when we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we're actually finding real substance that is going to make us complete, that is going to make us whole and not leave us with an empty feeling.

And so if you still have your Bible, what I want to look at now we've talked about why is it important for us to hunger and thirst? But what is righteousness if we're going to hunger and thirst for the ways of God? If we're going to hunger and chase after what God wants for Us, we need to first understand what righteousness is. And so turn in your Bibles. Just a couple pages back from Matthew to Micah, Micah, chapter six.

It's probably a passage that you know, that you have heard before, but I think it gives us such a clear depiction of what God wants us to know, what God wants us to see. It even says in the passage, what does God want from you? God has already told you what is good. These are the things that God wants for you. So Micah, chapter six.

We're going to start off. In verse six. It says, with what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings or with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with a thousand rams?

With 10,000 rivers of olive oil shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? Key in on this. He has shown you immortal what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

What is the righteousness that we are supposed to hunger and thirst for? How do we walk faithfully to what God has called us to do, what God has purposed us with? And I think this passage is kind of interesting. I think it's almost like a little bit of nervous sarcasm on the part of the author asking, like, well, what does God want from me? What is God asking me to do?

Like, surely. I mean, does he want burnt offerings? Maybe he wants burnt offerings. No. No.

Okay, he doesn't want burnt offerings. What about rams? We can give them all the rams. Right? The Dodge rams.

Right, the LA Rams. The rams that are really sheep with horns. Right. Like, we can do that or no. Rivers of olive oil.

That's surely what he wants. We can have a boat made out of garlic bread and we can just surf right down the river of olive. That's not what he wants either. Okay, well, I mean, surely God's not going to ask me for my firstborn. Surely he's not going to ask me to put my family on the line.

Right? It says, he has told you what is good. He's told you what he wants to act justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with your God. And so the first thing God says that he wants from us, the first thing that God says is good, is for us to act justly. Act justly.

I think we can all agree with this. We live in a pretty unjust world. Amen. We see it in every single day of our life. It's an unfortunate truth, but it is a reality.

It's something we see every single day on the news. When we see where moments where hatred just kind of completely runs rampant. Right. In so many areas of our society. We see wars raging on in countries far away because of somebody's desire for prosperity or for power.

I think we see injustice in sports when flagrant fouls go unnoticed or even ignored in favor of one team or the other or because of one player's popularity versus another one. And this is kind of a silly example, but I even think we see injustice when you go through the drive through line and you order meal for your family and then you get home and half of it's not in your bag, right? Like that's the worst. And like I said, I know that's a silly example of injustice, but there's so many varying degrees of what injustice looks like in our world, right? Like there's so many different things that we see every, every single day.

It's hard not to be angry at the injustice that we see where things aren't the way they are supposed to be. But God says he wants us to act justly. And I think it's interesting. We're going to throw up some verses on the screen. I think it's interesting that in many instances where justice is referenced in the Bible, it's mentioned hand in hand with righteousness.

Right. What does God's righteousness look like? Well, he says first to act justly. Job 37, verse 23. It says the Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power.

In his justice and great righteousness he does not oppress. Psalm 33, verse 5. The Lord loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of his unfailing love. Psalm 89:14.

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Love and faithfulness go before you. Amos, chapter 5, verse 24. But let justice roll like a river and righteousness like a never failing stream. So many different instances in our Bible that equate justice as godly righteousness.

And so what does justice look like? Does it look like feeding the hungry? Absolutely. Absolutely, that's what it looks like. Does it look like lifting up the oppressed?

Absolutely. Right. Does it look like aspiring to do what is right and to do the things that God wants you to do in your life? Absolutely. Every one of those things is very much acting on justice.

But deeper than that, to act justly is to live righteously in the sight of God. These verses show us the correlation between the two, that when we live righteously, we are acting justly before God. And when we act justly before God, we are living and seeking out righteousness, right? The only way for us to even accomplish justice, for even to make an impact, to do the things that are right, we first have to fall into that righteousness of God and do the things that he has purposed us to do. So we need to act justly.

The second thing that God tells us is good is he wants us to love mercy. He says he told you what is good. Act justly. Love mercy. Now, how many of you have seen the new Willy Wonka movie?

Anybody? Raise hands? Yeah, the new Wonka movie. If you haven't yet, I'm sorry, spoilers ahead. But it's been out a while.

So, like, I mean, you know the story, all right? But. So, like the original movie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Anybody seen that one? A lot more hands on that one.

Yeah. So you know who Willy Wonka is, right? He's this, like, eccentric chocolate maker who owns this chocolate factory. And in Charlie the Chocolate Factory, he's, like, looking for an heir, somebody who kind of take up his mantle and to make candy and make chocolate and make everybody happy with the treats that they give out. And so in the new movie that came out recently, called Wonka, it's kind of like a prequel movie, right?

Now, usually when they remake movies, they're not very good. But we went and saw this because it was more of a prequel. It's the backstory, how Willy Wonka got his start, right? And so in this new movie, you have Willy Wonka, this chocolate maker, and he comes to this town where all of the best candy makers do their business. Again, this doesn't really give any of the story away.

So if you haven't seen it, go home and watch it. It's a really good movie. It's a musical. Fair warning if you don't like them. But no.

So Willy Wonka goes to this town where all of the best chocolate makers make their treats, and he wants to go and set up a shop, and he wants to share his gift with the world. He wants people to try the chocolate and the things that he grew up making with his mom, right? And so he goes to this big shopping area called the Gallery Gourmet, right? This place where all of the best restaurants, all of the best candy makers, everybody is in this one little square in town, and that's where they do business. And so he goes there.

But the problem is these other guys that you See, on screen are the other chocolate makers. And they don't want Willy Wonka around, right? He's the new guy on the scene. And they kind of have a monopoly over chocolate and over candy. And everybody goes to these guys, they work together so that everybody comes to them for their sweets, for their treats and all the candy and chocolate that they make, right?

And so there's this one scene. Willy Wonka is fresh to town and he's made this very special kind of chocolate and he wants to share it with everybody. And so he goes into the gallery gourmet and begins selling his chocolates. And the crowd is just loving it, right? They're just eating up everything that he has to sell.

They're giving him coins to buy his chocolate. And eventually he just sells out of all of his chocolate. And he's got an enjoy a full jar of money that he could take back and use to make more chocolate. But the problem is these chocolate makers don't want him to be successful. And so they've worked out a deal with a corrupt cop in their city and they go and they pay this cop to come in and essentially tell him to get lost.

Like, go away. You're not allowed to be here. You have to have permits and a storefront, all these different things. You're not allowed to be there. And as he's standing there, he's trying to figure out what's going on.

And this cop walks by and grabs his jar of money and just walks off. And Willy Wonka's like, wait, wait, wait, what are you doing? Wait, no, that's. That's everything I have. What are you doing?

It's like, sorry, that's the law. You've got to go. And he leaves Willy Wonka standing there with nothing, right? He's got no money, he's got no friends, he's got no more chocolate. He's got nothing left to his name.

He's just standing there and you can see the look on his face. He's just devastated. In that moment, he was so excited to share his gift with all the people around him and how he has got nothing left to show for it. And he looks at one of the police officers who we learned through the movie is actually a good guy. He looks at one of the officers and he's like, what do I do now?

Could you at least leave me a coin so that I could pay for the room that I'm staying in? And in that moment, this police officer looks at him and he takes pity on him and he shows him what mercy looks like. And he reaches into his own pocket and he pulls out a single silver coin. And he gives it to him, and Wonka thanks him and moves on and goes about his day. And in that moment of losing everything that he's worked for, you kind of see this really neat interaction between this police officer and Willy Wonka.

And I think it gives us such an incredible depiction of what having mercy on someone looks like. But it got me to thinking. I think this is what God does for us. We take all the passion and all the cleverness and all the creativity that we have. We package it together with all the drive and all the effort that we can muster to go out into this world and try to live a good life.

But the brokenness and the hurting in our world, it knocks us back and it takes everything from us. It leaves us completely broke. It leaves us completely empty. It takes everything from us. It takes our joy.

It takes our hope. It takes our peace. Oftentimes it takes our comfort. It takes everything that we hoped to earn and everything that we thought we could put our name on. It takes all of that from us.

And we're sitting there with nothing, trying to figure out what in the world just happened. But God, who is rich in his mercy, he looks down at us and he says, no, that is not the life that you were meant to live. I'm not going to give you a coin to pay your bills. I'm going to give you your greatest need that you have ever had, a savior. And I'm going to send Jesus to give you everything that you've ever needed, that you've ever desired.

And I'm going to offer it free of charge. I'm going to show you what mercy and salvation looks like. I'm going to show you what real hope and what real joy and what real peace looks like. And I'm going to give you a purpose and an understanding of what it looks like to follow after my ways and to live the life that I purposed you with. God comes in and looks at us and he doesn't give us a coin.

He doesn't dismiss us. He looks at us and says, you are mine. I created you specifically and with a purpose. And no person, no thing, nothing is going to take that because it is in my hands. You are in my hands.

And I'm going to make sure that every need is met. That is what great mercy and grace looks like. When he tells you it is good for us to love mercy, we need to love that God has done that. For us, we need to love that Jesus offers us redemption with God and even an opportunity to try and hunger and thirst for the things that he wants for us. God's mercy is infinite, and it is something that we need to cherish.

The last thing that God says that he wants in this passage in Micah 6, he says he wants us to walk humbly with Him. Walk humbly with your God. You know, I was looking in the Bible this week for another illustration, another story of somebody who had great humility. So I could kind of give you an idea of what this looks like. And my mind went to folks like David in the Bible, where he's just this little boy, and he goes and kills the giant Goliath and he saves God's people, saves God's kingdom.

And he goes back and they're like, david, you're so awesome. He's like, no, I didn't do this. This was God. God is the one that saved us, right? Or I think about John in the New Testament as he's baptizing people and telling people about Jesus, and they're like, beginning to worship John and saying, john, you're so awesome.

He's like, no, no, I'm not the one who is awesome. The one who is great is the one that I'm telling you about, the one who comes after me, right? I even went back into the Old Testament where I was looking at Moses, right? I thought, Moses is a humble guy. And then in the Bible, he actually calls himself the humblest humble guy in all of the Bible and all of history, right?

He actually wrote that out in one of the passages in the Bible and was like, okay, that's more of a humble brag, but we'll go with it, right? But more often than not, I couldn't. I couldn't pick an example better than Jesus. My mind kept going to Jesus over and over because, right, Jesus is God. He is fully God.

He is a part of the trinity of God. He's due all power and all glory and all honor that God is due, that we show respect. Anything that we can put on his name. Those categories. Jesus is do those things, but in great humility.

Jesus stepped out of his glory and stepped out of his power and stepped out of his honor. And he stepped down into our world and humbled himself to the point of death for our sake. Philippians chapter 2, verse 7 says, rather, Jesus made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human like and being found in the appearance of man. He humbled himself by Becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross, y' all. Jesus humbled himself for our sake.

He died for our sake. He gave up all authority for our sake. He gave up all the glory and the honor and the power that he was rightfully His. He gave all of those things up so that he could step down and be the salvation that you and I needed. And he did it for you.

Charge. So that we can understand what grace looks like freely and completely. What does it look like to walk humbly with your God? We follow the example of Jesus. We humbly submit to God's will, and we let him take the reins in all things.

We let him decide what it is that we're going to do and where we're going to go and what we're going to say. We let God be in control. Is he always going to lead you into places of comfort? Absolutely not. Is he going to be with you wherever he guides you?

Absolutely. He's going to be with you every single way. And walking with God is not giving up your voice or your will. Right? It's not giving up the things that you desire and the things that you aspire and you hope to.

But what it is, walking humbly with our God is submitting to God, knowing that he has a purpose and a plan for your life. And even when it doesn't make sense, you follow after it. Because when it's time, when he wants you to be a part of the full story, he'll clue you in on the full story. It's not giving up your will or your voice. It's understanding and accepting that God is a big God and He's got a plan that's better than anything that you or I could ever come up with on our own.

We act justly. We love mercy. We walk humbly with our God. I think the thing to really clue in on is we can't really grasp what each of these three things are without the context of Jesus. Here's what I mean by this.

You and I cannot act justly if we're not first justified with God through Jesus. You and I cannot love mercy if we have not come to a place of accepting the mercy of Jesus dying on the cross and raising for our new life in Him. We can't love mercy if we haven't experienced that mercy that he offers to every single one of us. And we cannot walk humbly with God if we have not first humbled ourselves before God and accepted our need for Jesus. None of those things make sense if we do not put it through a lens of Jesus.

The starting point of all things is an active and repentive relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ, who came as a ransom for us all so that we could have hope, that we could have life, that we could chase after the things of God, that we could hunger and thirst for God and hunger and thirst for righteousness. All of that starts with knowing who Jesus is and submitting to who he is and accepting his love and his mercy and his grace. Then and only then can we live out what God wants us to live. Then and only then can we hunger and thirst and be filled by the ways of God if we have that relationship with Jesus. I want to leave you with one final quote this morning from a well known author, C.S.

lewis, but he says this. He says, 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. Y' all. The reason that we can't find satisfaction or fulfillment in this world is because we weren't meant for this world. We weren't meant to live hurting and broken lives.

We weren't meant to be separated from our Creator, God that loves us unconditionally. We weren't meant for that. We were meant to feel the power and the presence of God in every aspect of our life, to be in his presence every single moment of every single day. And he promises us if we will go to him, if we will seek him out, if we will hunger and thirst for his ways and his righteousness. He promises us, he says, you will be filled.

You won't hunger and thirst for anything else anymore because you are already filled up on the one thing that can satisfy a thriving relationship with Him. And we'll get to experience the full measure and the full power and the full satisfaction that it is to have the grace of God in our lives.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are you and I when we hunger and thirst for Jesus, because God promises us that he will fill us. Would y' all pray with me?

God, we come before you this morning and God, I thank you again for bringing us into this place, for giving us an opportunity to worship together. But God also just thank you for the reminder that our faith requires effort, that our faith requires us to be mindful of you and mindful of your ways. And so God, as we sit here and as we continue worshiping this morning, God, would you continue speaking to us? Would you continue reminding us, God, of your goodness, of your grace and of your mercy. God, would you remind us what it looks like to act justly and to love mercy?

Would you remind us what true humility looks like?

God, would you remind us that when we hunger and thirst for you, God, that we will be filled with to the full measure of who you are in our lives?

God, we love you and we praise you. This is all about you. It's not about our fulfillment, God, but it's about fulfilling your purpose here.

God, would you remind us of that? Would you give us what we need to keep going? It's in Jesus name I pray. Amen.