Be-Attitudes January 29, 2006
Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness
Trans: We’re in a series focusing on the (8) attitudes Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount we’re to have as His disciples. Each of these attitudes determines our altitude. They testify to our disposition and determination in life. Jesus offered these beatitudes to remind us that God isn’t focused on man’s outward performance like going to church, giving, or being good, rather He is concerned w/ what is on the inside.
Verse: For God does not see as man sees. For man looks on the outward appearance, but Jehovah looks on the heart. 1 Sm. 16:7
Note: The first (3) beatitudes we’ve studied had a negative tone to them calling believers to forsake the evils that are contrary to the kingdom. In being poor in spirit we’re to turn from being self-seeking. In mourning we’re to turn from self-satisfaction. In meekness we’re to turn from being self-serving.
Trans: But in this 4th attitude, Jesus uses a positive metaphor we can all relate to b/c the desire for food and water are the strongest cravings we have. Thus, as we turn from sin, self, and smugness, God gives us an insatiable desire for His righteousness.
Verse: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Trans: What is Jesus saying? To hunger and thirst embody the necessities of physical life. But Jesus isn’t focusing on the physical He’s focusing on the eternal. His analogy reveals that righteousness is required for spiritual life just as food/water is necessary for physical life – it’s not optional. We can no more live spiritually w/out righteousness than we can live physically w/out food or water.
Insert: Did you know the body is comprised of 70% water. Water is contained in the cells of the body (intracellular fluid), in the arteries and veins (blood plasma), and in the spaces b/w the blood vessels and cells (interstitial fluid). Moreover, the body’s water supply is involved in nearly every bodily function – digestion, absorption, circulation, and excretion. When we eat, breathe, and use our muscles, our body’s water supply is engaged. Thus, to become dehydrated is to lead your body to fail.
• 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated
• 37% of Americans mistake their thirst mechanism for hunger pains
• Mild dehydration can slow down your metabolism as much as 5%
• A lack of water is the number 1 trigger of daytime fatigue
• Just a 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory and vision
Note: To overcome dehydration, in a day, you should drink a ½ ounce of water for every pound of body weight – 2/3 of an ounce if you’re active.
Point: W/out the proper intake of water, your body will suffer greatly – and the same could be said of your spiritual life if you do not have a proper intake of righteousness.
I The CONDITION
Word: Hunger (peinōntes) Refers to the desperate craving a starving man has for food. He is so famished that he becomes desperate for a meal – willing do anything to eat.
Word: Thirst (dipsao) means to painfully feel the need for water. This is more than just needing a sip, it means to be parched and dehydrated to the point of pain and death.
Word: Righteousness (dikaiosunēn) state of rightness – to be in right relationship w/ God.
Insert: Legal Justification; declared righteous by God and in a right relationship w/ Him
Moral Possessing a righteous character and conduct that pleases God
Social Living responsibly so as to exhibit the character of God
Note: As Christians, we’re not to be like the world, engrossed in the pursuit of pleasure, pride, power, prestige, & possessions – rather we’re to seek first the God’s kingdom.
Note: As we look to make a change for the eternal, it’ll require a hunger and thirst for righteousness – more of Jesus, less of me. – He must increase and I must decrease.
Note: This isn’t easy. We’re the product of our appetites. We are what we eat. The things of the world are intoxicating to the taste buds even while they’re poison to the soul.
Insert: We need the righteousness of God to feed our souls just like we need food to feed our flesh. The problem today is that there is a famine in the church and in the lives of people who call themselves Christians. We have allowed the toxins of the world to dictate the programs of the ministry and we’ve settled for entertainment over discipleship. We think going to church makes us Christian and attending a Beth Moore Bible study makes us a disciple – but they don’t. The measure of a disciple is determined by who is in control. And a disciple is under the influence of Jesus.
Quote: Change the hunger, and you change the man; control the hunger and you control the man. Wiersbe (from www.sermoncentral.com) Who is really in control of you?
Verse: The Spirit has given us life; he must also control our lives. Gal 5:25
Note: We need to develop an appetite for the Almighty. I’m no expert on developing a good earthly diet – I follow the see-food diet – I see it and eat it. But let me offer (3) guidelines that will help us to have a healthy spiritual diet.
II The RESPONSE
A WATCH What You Eat (Examine)
Insert: The Super Bowl is next Sunday. Did you know that Super Sunday is the 2nd largest food consumption day of the year? Here’s the breakdown. www.nacsonline.com
• 4 million pounds of popcorn
• 9 million pounds of tortilla chips
• 12 million pounds of potato chips
• 13 million pounds of guacamole dip
Trans: To watch is to examine what you take in – is it the milk/meat of God’s Word.
Verse: Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. 1 Pt. 2:2-3
Note: The foundation of the Christian life is God’s Word. God expresses His love to us through His Word. The Bible is special revelation and it has the ability to transform lives through salvation by revealing the absolute and undeniable truth of God.
Verse: For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hb. 4:12
Note: In other words, God’s Word is a spiritual scalpel that performs surgery on our lives. But we can’t be solely satisfied w/ milk or we’ll never grow up. We need meat!
Verse: Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted w/ the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Hb. 5:12-14
Note: But it’s not just moving from milk to solid food, we have to make sure that the solid food we indulge in is truth and not junk. Some of us have been consuming things that will not satisfy b/c they are not the truth of God. I’m afraid that some of us may not be hungering for holiness b/c frankly we’re full on junk.
Quote: The hunger and thirst of your life that can’t be satisfied by anything in this world is the constant beckoning of God to remember that we were made for another world – we were made for God… The weakness of our hunger for God isn’t b/c he is unsavory though, but rather b/c we keep ourselves stuffed w/ other things. Piper
Verse: He who is full loathes honey, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet. Pr. 27:7
Note: Maybe its time to admit that some of us are spiritual junk food addicts. Perhaps you’re ingesting things that feel good at first, but later leave you disillusioned. Maybe you’re full on worldliness, and you’ve finally realized that you’re feeding your appetites w/ things that will never satisfy. We need to understand that on the Lover of our souls – Jesus can fill our need.
Verse: Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen to me, and eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me that your soul may live. Is. 55:2-3
Insert: Are you munching on material things in the hopes that they will fill you up? Are you snacking on a sexual sin thinking that this will satisfy? Are you consuming your career as if that will meet your needs? Do you salivate over sports more than you should? Are you drinking to dull the despair you are feeling? If so, it’s time to eat what is good so that your soul may live. Gorge yourself on God and turn away from food and drink that will never satisfy.
B WEIGH What You Eat. (Evaluate)
Note: I’m told one of the best ways to improve your diet is to weigh your portions before eating. I know Weight Watchers plan encourages their patrons to measure their food according to a points system to control their intake. When it comes to the God’s Word, we must weigh His Word by meditating and applying His truth to our lives.
Verse: Blessed is the man who delights in the Law of the Lord, and in His Law he meditates day and night. Ps. 1:2
Trans: If we starve ourselves spiritually by refusing the digest God’s truth, then He might send a famine our way. This happened to God’s people in Amos 8:11-12:
Verse: The days are coming,’ declares the Sovereign Lord, ‘when I will send a famine through the land – not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it. In that day the lovely young women and strong young men will faint b/c of thirst. Am. 8:11-12
Note: Some have suggested that this is what happened during the 400-year period of time b/w the end of the O.T. and the beginning of the N.T. As far as we know, God was silent until He spoke to Zechariah, and then to Mary and Joseph.
Note: If we refuse to meditate and incorporate God’s truth in our lives, then it could lead to a time of silence. We must hunger and thirst to hear from God, and pray that He will speak to us that we might hear and understand His will.
Quote: God invoked a famine to provoke hunger. He used the withholding of His word to prepare for the revealing of the Word. Beth Moore
C WELCOME What You Eat. (Enjoy)
Verse: As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet w/ God? Ps. 42:1-2
Note: The 3rd element of the divine diet plan is the best of all – God says to eat and enjoy. The Greek uses a present tense word, meaning that we should continuously hunger and thirst. This isn’t something we just do once. We must continually crave God, every day, at all times during the day.
Verse: God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. B/c your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you… My soul will be satisfied as w/ the richest of foods; w/ singing lips my mouth will praise you. Ps. 63:1-5
Quote: To be hungry is not enough. I must be really starving to know what is in God’s heart toward me. When the prodigal son was hungry, he went to feed on the husks, but when he was starving, he went to his father. J.N Darby
Point: Here’s a powerful thought – the prodigal son turned everywhere and to everyone trying to satisfy his hunger, but it wasn’t until he had hit rock bottom and was physically, emotionally, and spiritually hunger – desperate – that he turned to God. The prodigal modeled an important truth about man – It is only when we come to the end of ourselves that will allow God to have His way.
How sad that we will engage in every worldly pursuit to quench our thirst and satisfy our hunger before we will humble ourselves before God. And what’s worse, many of us will get to that point and seek a temporary reprieve from God only deep w/in our hearts we don’t won’t to return to the Father, we just want out of our circumstances. You can’t have it both ways. It is either all or none! Either return to the Father and behave like a child redeemed, or take your chances in the pig sty.
Insert: Here are your options: Eat from the world’s trough or eat from God’s banquet table.
Note: This isn’t a one time deal. Just as we need to eat several times a day to stay physically healthy, so too, we need to consume spiritual food on a regular basis if we’re to grow spiritually. Now I want to remind you that God only feeds us what we need. He never promises to give us all the food we need so we can stock our fridges and forget about Him. He wants us to depend upon Him on a daily basis.
Verse: Give us this day our daily bread. Mt. 6:11
Note: The Israelites received manna every AM so that they would learn that God meets the needs of His people on a daily basis. And, when God provided the manna, He was actually using this as an object lesson to represent a much deeper truth.
Verse: He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you w/ manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Dt. 8:3
III The PROMISE
Trans: God requires that we “hunger and thirst.” We do this to experience “righteousness.” The last part of this verse contains the reward: “for they will be filled.”
Word; Filled (chortasthēsontai) Originally used to describe the feeding of animals until they were so full they could eat no more – completely satisfied.
Insert: Personally I think of a sponge fully saturated and cannot take on any more water.
Verse: For he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry w/ good things. Ps. 107:9
Note: Don’t miss the promise. God says that if we will genuinely hunger and thirst for His righteousness – like a man starving to death and literally dying of thirst – desperate for Him, then he will fill us to capacity w/ his presence, power, and purpose.
Verse: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Mt. 6:33
Focus your life in God-reality, God-initiative, and God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out on the things of this world and you’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met by God himself. Mt. 6:33 MSG
