The Blessed List: Cravings of the Heart
Luke 6 17-20a; 21a; 25a
Dr. Michael Snow
August 17, 2008
I want to begin this morning with a little quiz. I want to see if all of our contemporary advertising really works. See if you can identify the following products by their advertising slogans.
Easy Ones…
"Just do it." Nike
"It’s the real thing." Coke
"When you care enough to send the very best." Hallmark
"Where’s the beef?" Wendy’s
"The next best thing to being there." AT&T
“It keeps going and going” - Duracell
“Can You Hear Me Now?” - Verison
“What’s In Your Wallet?” – Capital One
Older Crowd…
"I can’t believe I ate the whole thing." Alka-Seltzer
“Sometimes you fee like a nut” – Almond Joy
“MMM, MMM Good – Campbell’s Soup
"They’re Great!" Kellogg’s Corn Flakes
"A Little Dab’lI Do Yah." Brylcream
“Builds Strong Bodies 12 Ways” – Wonder Bread
“We Bring Good Things to Life” – GE
“The Quality Goes in Before the Name Goes On” – Maytag
“The Dog Kids Love to Bite” – Armor Hot Dogs
Younger Crowd…
“Gotta Have my Pops” – Sugar Pops
“Obey Your Thirst” – Sprite
“Live in Your World, Play In Ours” – Play Station
“You’ve Got Questions, We’ve Got Answers” – Radio Shack
“So Easy a Caveman can Do it” – Geico.com
“Nothing Runs Like A Deer” – John Deer
Unless we work in the field advertising or we have a product that we are trying sell, few of us have any idea the billions of dollars that are spent each year to promote products. But the fact is advertising is not so much a matter of promoting a product as it is creating a need. Advertising is not so much a matter of satisfying a hunger or quenching a thirst as it is creating a hunger and thirst.
When Jesus began teach the crowd of first century seekers about the Kingdom of Heaven. It wasn’t necessary to look very far to discover the needs of their lives. The crowds that followed Jesus didn’t have to imagine what it was like to be poor. And to hunger and thirst were very present realities.
They knew the difference between needs and wants, between necessities and luxuries. At any time in any day food and water are necessities of life. This was especially true in first century Palestine. Both food and water were used carefully and where never wasted. To own a well and to cultivate a field were
matters of survival. So, when Jesus linked together hunger and thirst with righteousness, He was telling the people that righteousness is not a luxury, it is a necessity. In the same way that our physical life depends upon food and water; our spiritual life depends upon righteousness.
For years doctors have told us that we are what we eat. And today in America it’s clear that we are eating a lot. There is certainly plenty of empirical evidence that a growing number of Americans are overfed. When compared to the rest of the world, we are consuming more than our share. We would certainly fit Jesus description of being “well fed” which Jesus warns of in verse 25. When we consider the health consequences such as heart disease and diabetes, the point is well taken.
But the scriptures tell us that what is true of our body is also true of our soul. There is a spiritual hunger within us, we each have a spiritual appetite which must be satisfied. So, just as our physical health depends upon food and water, Jesus says that our spiritual health depends upon righteousness.
How can we get the spiritual nourishment that we so desperately need? Just as we have our various physical senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch to aid us in caring for our bodies. We also must develop our spiritual senses to aid us in our spiritual growth.
We must have a spiritual sense of sight.
Paul prayed for the Ephesians…
"May the eyes of your heart be enlightened" (Ephesians 1: 18). Jesus lamented that His disciples…
“had eyes, but they failed to see (Mark 8: 18).”
Jesus’ counsel to the church at Laodicea was that they
“anoint their eyes with salve so that they could see” (Revelation 3:18 NKJV).
We also need a spiritual sense of hearing.
Jesus said,
Do you have…ears but fail to hear? Mark 8:18 (NIV)
And in John chapter 10 He said,
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27 (NIV)
But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice."
John 10:5 (NIV)
The Bible also speaks of a spiritual sense of taste.
Psalm 34:8 says, "0 taste and see that the Lord is good!"
I Peter 2:2-3 says,
Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, (3) now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. 1 Peter 2:2-3 (NIV)
Or as the Psalmist describes in Psalm 42…
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. Psalms 42:1 (NIV)
Yes, our souls have a hunger and thirst; these spiritual needs were built into us at creation. Ecclesiastes 3: 11 says that God,
“has also set eternity in the hearts of men;” Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)
Augustine said it this way: “Lord Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee."
The problem for many is not the acknowledgement of our need, we know that we have an inner craving we just don’t know how to satisfy it. We fail to realize that the hunger and thirst that we are experiencing is a hunger and thirst for God. And so we try to satisfy the cravings of our heart with empty substitutes that leave us unfulfilled.
Remember the story of the prodigal son. He yearned for excitement and popularity, and he found them in the far country. But they didn’t last, and he soon found himself hungry again; but this time there was nothing left to satisfy his hunger. Then Luke 15:17 says…
"When he came to his senses, he said, ’How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!
Luke 15:17 (NIV)
Until the famine came and he experienced true hunger, the young man would have settled for nothing less than the finest luxuries the far country had to offer. But when he came to his senses, he discovered his real need.
Often our reckless hungers can be very harmful, and very dangerous. Often the immediate pleasure and false fulfillment seem so alluring that we don’t recognize the long term effects.
I once read about a young child who was being cared for by a nanny and the little boy was giving her a lot of trouble. He was crying and fussing because he couldn’t have his way. The little boy’s mother was in the next room and she eventually got tired of hearing him fuss. So she yelled to the nanny, “Just give him what he wants so he’ll be quiet!" A few minutes later, she was startled by a scream of pain. Rushing to the other room to see, she found that what the child had wanted was a brightly colored insect. And when he grabbed for it, the bee had stung him. How often we discover what we think we want and need, not only doesn’t satisfy, it brings us deeper pain.
I John 2: 16-17 warns us that our spiritual appetite can never be satisfied by the world,
For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. (17) And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. 1 John 2:16-17 (NLT)
So I would simply ask you this morning, "what are the hungers in your life?" "What are the longings that you yearn to have satisfied?" If those desires are outside of the will of God for your life, then to try to satisfy them will only bring disappointment and pain. But if they are part of the will of God for you, then to satisfy them will bring joy, growth, and fulfillment.
Fortunately, Jesus not only tells us about our hunger and thirst, he also tells us how we can be satisfied. Jesus tells us that the way to be "filled" is to hunger and thirst after righteousness. It is a hunger for holiness that fills the soul and satisfies our spiritual needs.
But what is righteousness? For the first century listeners, their understanding of righteousness was what had been taught and demonstrated to them by the Pharisees. To the Pharisees righteousness meant a strict conformity to a long list of rules. For them holiness was an external practice that had very little to do with the matters of the heart. Perhaps that’s why Jesus warned,
For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:20 (NIV)
No external piety, born out of pride, which seeks the praise of others, isn’t holiness, it’s hypocrisy. True righteousness is a matter of the heart.
Perhaps a brief lesson in theology will help remind us of the true meaning of righteousness. Theologians tell us that there are three types or stages of righteousness. First there is imputed righteousness, second there is imparted righteousness, and third there is eternal righteousness.
Imputed Righteousness
When we first trust Christ as our personal savior, we are declared righteous through his death on the cross, that’s imputed righteousness.
Imparted Righteousness
Then as we begin our journey with Christ, our life begins to change as the Holy Spirit begins to transform us from the inside out, that’s imparted righteousness.
Eternal Righteousness
Finally when Christ returns and we are made complete by being fully transformed into His likeness we will experience eternal righteousness.
In this beatitude when Jesus spoke of hungering and thirsting for righteousness, he was referring to imparted righteousness. It’s that daily process in which the Holy Spirit transforms us into the likeness of Christ.
Often when we think of righteousness, we think of purity. We think that if we are becoming righteous, there is less sin in our lives. While that may be true, we must realize that righteousness is not merely an absence of sin. Righteousness is also the presence of God. Righteousness isn’t simply saying "no" to that which is evil wrong or immoral. We must also say "yes" to the purpose and plan of God for our lives.
So to be righteous means to be right--right with God, right with self, and right with others. When you hunger and thirst for God you are beginning to live as God to you to live. Your spiritual senses are being exercised and developed. Paul wrote to Timothy saying,
"Train yourself to be Godly." (1 Timothy 4:7)
Jesus also promises through this beatitude that when we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we will be filled. How does righteousness bring fulfillment? If knowing God and enjoying God and becoming like God is the greatest desire of our lives, then the fulfilling that desire will bring us the greatest joy.
Yes, those who have placed their trust in Christ have found the answer to the hidden hunger and thirst in their life; for Jesus Christ is the bread of life, and He alone can satisfy. In John 6:35 Jesus said,
“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. John 6:35 (NLT)
Jesus told the woman at the well…
Those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” John 4:14 (NLT)
Seeking to please the Father and cultivating a hunger for righteousness brings about a remarkable change in our lives: we become more like Him. After all, we are what we eat; and if our food is to do the will of God, then our lives become the righteousness of God. And the righteousness of God is not only what we do, it is who we are becoming through Christ.
John Cassius tells a story of a young man who was seeking to find the meaning of life so and he went to visit a prophet. He went to the prophet and asked him if he would share with him the way true deliverance. The prophet looked at him and asked, "Do you want to find the meaning of life?" And the young man said, "Yes that is my ultimate desire." So the prophet said, "Come with me."
The prophet led the young man out into a lake. As the walked out into the lake the young man presumed that he was about undergo some special rite of cleansing or purification. But when they were some distance out into the water, the prophet suddenly turned grabbed the young man’s head and forced it under the water and held it there. Finally in a last gasp, the young man wrenched himself free, came to the surface and was gasping for air. The young man looked at the prophet in shock and disbelief. But the old prophet just quietly asked him a question. "When you thought that you were drowning, what did you want most in life?" The man said, "Air, I wanted air!" To which the prophet replied, "When you want salvation as much as you wanted air, then you will find it."
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6 (NIV)
Only Jesus, Only He,
Brings Redemption, Full and Free
There’s a Yearning, In all Our lives
That Only Jesus, Satisfies
