Hungering And Thirsting For Righteousness Series

Hungering and Thirsting for Righteousness

Matthew 5:6 - Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

What does Jesus mean when he says “they will be filled?” (Matthew 5:6c)

What does Jesus mean by “hunger and thirst?” (Matthew 5:6a)

What does Jesus mean by “Righteousness?” (Matthew 5:6b)

Slide

Intro

What is the hungriest you have ever been?

For some, maybe you just realized that it is right now.

I seem to always get hungry when I talk about being hungry.

For some of our youth here, you probably feel like you are always hungry.

I know for my kids, whenever they walk in the door of my house it seems they are hungry.

And the funny thing is, even though they say they are starving, and we have a pantry and refrigerator full of food, it seems I always hear the same thing,

“We don’t have anything to eat!”

The reality is that while they are hungry for something, they are not hungry for what we have.

We have all experienced this before, so I don’t mean to beat up on our youth.

But the fact is that while we are hungry at times, we don’t really know what true hunger is.

Now, if I brought a family from Haiti or Africa, they would look in our pantry or refrigerator and think they were at a grocery store, since there was so much food there.

They truly know what it is like to hunger and thirst.

But even without truly experiencing hunger, we know what it is

to feel hungry and then

to feel filled after we have eaten.

That is a good feeling, isn’t it?

There is not much like that feeling of being filled and satisfied after eating and having your hunger gone.

Transition

Well this morning we are going to be talking about hunger and thirst and being filled as we continue on in our study in the beatitudes.

We are on the fourth beatitude this morning and this beatitude says

Slide

Matthew 5:6

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

Jesus says blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

We are going to consider this verse more closely today to find out how we might be blessed and be filled.

We are going to start with the end of this verse first and ask

What does Jesus mean when He says “they will be filled”?

Slide

Now as we just talked about, most of us know what it is to be filled or satisfied in a bodily sense when we respond to hunger by eating.

But Jesus isn’t talking about food and our hunger for food and being filled in a bodily sense.

He is talking about being filled in a mental, emotional and spiritual sense.

That is really the things that make up who we are, that make up our life.

So to be filled in the sense that Jesus is talking about is

To have the sense of being filled or satisfied in life;

To experience the full life

Slide

Jesus said this is one of the reasons that He came, in John 10:10

John 10:10 - I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

A life that is filled or satisfied encompasses so much more than what we eat.

There are people who have all the money that they would need to buy whatever food they would want, but we can (and they can, as well) recognize that something is missing from their life even though they can have whatever they want. They are not filled.

The fact is, is that everyone of us desires this kind of filling. We desire

a life that is filled and satisfying,

a life that is at peace in our emotions,

a life that is purposeful.

The full life

The problem is that while we seek this filling, too often we are looking to find this fullness in the wrong places.

Our Career

Some pursue it be seeking it in their profession. They put in 80 hours a week climbing the corporate ladder trying to achieve this fullness but often only find stress and continued hunger for this filling.

Human relationships

Some pursue it through physical relationships, seeking to find this fullness from giving themselves away physically to other people, but instead of being filled, the feel empty.

Thrill seeking

Some pursue it through thrill seeking only to find that you have to constantly seek out riskier thrills to feel alive, and that only seems to last for a moment.

And the same is true when we seek this fullness through vacations, or shopping.

Doritos for Dinner

These things may provide temporary filling, but it is like eating a bag of Doritos for dinner. It may fill us for a moment, but it doesn’t bring any lasting fullness and may even end up doing harm in the long run.