Welcome,
Let’s Pray… (Specifically for the family, church family and friends of Senior Pastor Fred Winters, of the First Baptist Church in Maryville, Ill. Also for the accused gunman Terry J. Sedlacek and his loved ones.)
— I am a man without an off switch. You’ve heard the old Pringles® chip slogan, “Once you pop, you just can’t stop.” That is certainly true for me.
— If I check out a television series on DVD, I’ll start with a plan to watch just one episode and before the night is over, I’ll have watched the whole DVD — hours of time wasted.
— I cannot go to an all you can eat buffet. It would be different if they limited it to all you SHOULD eat but since they don’t, I can’t go in anymore.
— There are many times when I hold my tongue, not because I am so holy and meek and peaceable, instead it is because I am totally unable to stop talking once I begin.
— But, with all of these things and more, I sometimes hunger and thirst so much and I lie to myself, saying that just one _______ will be enough.
• I hunger for food and thirst for drink, those are obvious.
• I also hunger for an opportunity to get the last word, or to get revenge (we talked about that last week in regards to meekness).
• I thirst for compliments and other things that might build up my ego.
• I thirst for anything that can deaden, distract or delay the things that cause pain or discomfort in life.
— I doubt that I am the only one.
— The problem we face is obvious and we talk about it all of the time. The things that we hunger and thirst for, which are of this world:
• Almost always end up costing more than we thought they would
• Almost always end up producing negative consequences that we had underestimated or not planned on at all
• Almost always lead us into a deeper thirst or hunger
• They never satisfy completely. We may get full — but we still feel empty.
• And they almost always lead us away from what our primary focus should be as Christians, that is Christ.
— Now hear me when I say this. I am not telling you that all of the things we hunger for and thirst for and pursue are evil.
— And I’m not saying we are evil for those hungers and thirsts. If you know me at all, if you are a regular here at the Church in the Grass and you have been listening, even a little bit, you know that point is that above all else we are to hunger and thirst for things not of this world, but for what can only be given to us by God!
Please turn in your Bibles to Matthew 5:6 and read with me
Blessed — Happy, but not happy like the world thinks of happy. Happiness that is found in the unshakable, unchanging, all powerful truth that God loved His children — you and me — so much that He came to earth lived as one of us except without sin, he let the world crucify Him on the cross, dying for our sin. He conquered death and the grave so that we who believe in Him, we who know Him as Savior and Lord, may also conquer death and the grave and walk with Him in Heaven for eternity! That’s the Happy we’re talking about here.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst — That’s everybody, everybody on earth hungers and thirsts for something, maybe lots of things — some good, some bad. Are they blessed for that? No.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness —
—In John 4 Jesus is talking to a Samaritan woman about what she should thirst for. Their whole discussion could make up several sermons but we’ll look here at John 4:13-14:
— He’s not saying stop drinking water or stop being thirsty for it. There are a lot of things that we will pursue because it is a natural and normal part of life. This includes food and drink; this includes companionship; this includes shelter and clothing.
— Jesus is saying that’s fine but there is something more than your earthly physical needs. There is more to thirst for than what keeps you going within this broken world. The fresh water He offers leads to eternal life!
— Jesus is the righteousness that we thirst for first because without it we have no place at God’s banquet table. But if you thirst for salvation, for the righteousness of Christ to cover you, and believe He can fill you he makes a promise.
Read Matthew 5:6 again:
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled
— Jesus doesn’t say here, Blessed are those who hunger, thirst,
•And pay ____ much money to the church,
•And stop cussing,
•And cut their hair,
•And put on a tie,
•And stop watching that questionable tv show,
•And stop hanging out with non-believers,
•And stop letting their kids go to public schools — for they will be filled.
— No, those are the prerequisites we sometimes want to put on salvation. Christ does not put them there.
— Now here’s where it gets tricky. If we see that last statement as a license to sin and we say, "God only requires our hunger and thirst and we NEVER have to walk in His moral will, which He lays out throughout the Scriptures," then the question becomes, “Was that hunger and thirst real”.
— We do not believe or teach that salvation can be lost once it is given. But, as James teaches, if there is no evidence of God in your life it is likely because there is no God in your life. Faith and deeds of righteousness go hand in hand.
— We are going to tackle this deeper in following chapters when Jesus talks about a tree and it’s fruit, but to stay on point, here’s the piece to look at.
• When my hunger for the things of this world grabs hold of me and I satisfy that hunger, my flesh will always go back to that hunger again, whether it’s a hunger for potato chips, compliments, or the next newer bigger TV, that hunger will come back.
• Likewise, when we satisfy that initial hunger and thirst for righteousness, and we accept that Jesus is who He says He is and we go to Him, that will create a new hunger in us too.
–We satisfy the hunger for Salvation by God’s grace and we are given the hunger for Sanctification.
• And that hunger is a seen and felt as a desire to please the One we love most.
–We used to love ourselves most, or another sinful creature, now — if we are truly saved, our love is first and foremost on Him. On God.
— And once we have that hunger — that secondary hunger for righteousness — we ask God for help to satisfy the hunger,
• He gives us the Holy Spirit, He gives us His Word, He gives us one another to lift up in love to satisfy that new hunger.
–To live in a way that reflects His righteousness to the world.
A church in town has a great way of putting it:
They say, “Come as you are, but don’t stay that way.”
One more note, if you have never taken the gift of Christ’s saving righteousness. Know that your bill has already been paid. You are only to come and eat at God’s table.
Read Isaiah 55: 1-2 and meditate on this short passage this week.
Let’s pray…
