The Beauty of Hunger
Matthew 5:6
1st Secret: Poverty is beautiful.
2nd Secret: Brokenness brings healing.
3rd Secret: Selflessness is rewarding.
Righteousness?
a. Conformity to God’s law
b. Moral or personal piety
c. Making things right
d. Being right
e. Holiness
2 Corinthians 5:21 Philippians 3:8-9 Colossians 2:6-7
Righteousness focuses on the relationship, not the rules!
3 things you yearn for:
________________
________________
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“They will eat but not be satisfied.” Hosea 4:9 HCSB
Here’s our dirty little secret: We’re hungry for the wrong stuff.
We’re talking about living a life of supreme happiness. This is what Jesus offers those who follow Him. It’s a state of being. It’s not based on emotion. It’s not based on favorable circumstances. The supreme happiness Jesus lays out here is for those who follow Him and who follow His instructions.
I said this before: if you are a Christ-follower and your life is not marked with supreme happiness, there are some secrets you need to discover. Jesus revealed those secrets in the Sermon on the Mount. The problem is that our own secrets keep us from discovering those secrets.
1ST SECRET: POVERTY IS BEAUTIFUL. Jesus says, “Those who are poor in Spirit will be supremely happy.” To be poor in spirit means that you realize and accept your spiritual bankruptcy. It’s saying, “God, I ain’t got nothin’!” But our own personal secret that keeps us from discovering that secret is that we don’t want to admit that. Denial of our moral bankruptcy keeps us from living this life of supreme happiness.
2ND SECRET: BROKENNESS BRINGS HEALING. Jesus says, “Those who mourn will be comforted.” When I see myself for the wretched sinner that I am, truly see my moral bankruptcy, then brokenness occurs. And brokenness invites God to bring healing to my soul. My secret, my problem is that I instinctively fear the consequences of my sin, so I try to hide it rather than come clean about it. Rick Warren says were only as sick as our secrets. Dealing properly with our hurts, habits, and hangups is critical to a life of supreme happiness.
That’s why I’ve said many times that I wished every one who comes to Rush Creek would be a part of our Celebrate Recovery ministry (LOGO). Every Friday night they gather to help folks like you and me find healing and hope and to sort out these secrets.
Last week Marty discussed the 3rd secret Jesus revealed about this life of supreme happiness: 3RD SECRET: SELFLESSNESS IS REWARDING. The humility we display towards God in the 1st two secrets now finds its way into our relationships. When someone insults us or takes advantage of us, what do we want to do? We want to strike back! But Jesus says: Those who are meek and gentle will inherit great rewards. A couple of months ago, I was pulling off I-20 up here at Bowen and this Lexus kind of cut me off. My observation is that Lexus drivers feel they own the road. So, what did I do? Did I employ this selflessness Jesus speaks of? Heck No! I floorboarded the gas, sped around them and pulled in front of them. Just as I hit my peak speed, a motor cycle cop turned on his little light, pulled me over, and gave me a ticket! I got a reward all right, but it was not what Jesus was talking about. The opposite of meekness and gentleness is selfishness—and it robs us daily of the blessings God has for us.
Now today we turn our attention on the 4th beatitude. Read along with me in your study Bibles. Jesus says, “THOSE WHO HUNGER AND THIRST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS ARE BLESSED, FOR THEY WILL BE FILLED.” MATTHEW 5:6 HCSB (leave on screen)
Now as you look at this verse what stands out to you? As you are learning to be a self-feeder, you learn to find the key words and phrases in a verse or passage that unlock the meaning. What would be the key phrase here? Righteousness. Everything in this verse centers on that. Those who hunger and thirst for it are filled.
So let’s talk a bit about righteousness. It appears more than 180 times in the New Testament. It appears 40 times in the book of Romans alone. Jesus uses the term 4 times just in this 5th chapter of Matthew. When you think of righteousness, what do you think of? In his book, THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JESUS (BOOK COVER), Chris Seay sites a survey taken by George Barna. The survey revealed that over 90% of church goers didn’t know what righteousness is. So, let’s take a multiple choice quiz:
RIGHTEOUSNESS: (BUILD THIS SLIDE)
a. CONFORMITY TO GOD’S LAW
b. MORAL OR PERSONAL PIETY
c. MAKING THINGS RIGHT
d. BEING RIGHT
e. HOLINESS
The answer? C. MAKING THINGS RIGHT It begins with God stepping into our brokenness and making things right. Him taking the fragments and shattered pieces of our lives and restoring them to fullness. It’s the RESTORATIVE JUSTICE of God.
Maybe a diagram will help. (SHOW AN ARROW POINTING DOWN) This is what God did for us on the cross. 2 CORINTHIANS 5:21 “HE MADE THE ONE WHO DID NOT KNOW SIN TO BE SIN FOR US, SO THAT WE MIGHT BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM.” PHILIPPIANS 3:8-9 “MORE THAN THAT, I ALSO CONSIDER EVERYTHING TO BE A LOSS IN VIEW OF THE SURPASSING VALUE OF KNOWING CHRIST JESUS MY LORD. BECAUSE OF HIM I HAVE SUFFERED THE LOSS OF ALL THINGS AND CONSIDER THEM FILTH, SO THAT I MAY GAIN CHRIST AND BE FOUND IN HIM, NOT HAVING A RIGHTEOUSNESS OF MY OWN FROM THE LAW, BUT ONE THAT IS THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST—THE RIGHTEOUSNESS FROM GOD BASED IN FAITH.”
This righteousness has an upward dimension as well. (SHOW ARROW WITH BOTH UP AND DOWN POINTS) It’s me maintaining the rightness with God through faith--and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Now, I want to pause for a moment and talk about the role of the Holy Spirit. When God steps into your life and begins to restore your life, He does it through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Just as you cannot make yourself righteous to God for salvation, you cannot maintain that righteousness by your own effort. This is where so many believers fail: they try to live the Christ-life by conforming to a set of standards. And let me tell you: that will fail every time.
When I was a teen going to church, my SS teacher kept saying, “Leave sex alone. Don’t get involved in sex. Don’t think about sex.” After listening to that week in and week out, guess what all of us boys kept thinking about? You guessed it.
A young man named Brian Warner sat in a Christian school in the 1980s listening to the school leaders talk about how true believers wouldn’t listen to certain records. Guess what happened? A bunch of those kids went out and bought the records! Brian figured out he could capitalize on this legalism and developed an alternate persona that you may know: MARILYN MANSON (PIC). He sold over 40 million albums, a bunch of them from the kids whose parents had blacklisted his music!
RIGHTEOUSNESS FOCUSES ON THE RELATIONSHIP, NOT THE RULES! THAT’S WHY GOD SAYS IN COLOSSIANS 2:6-7 “THEREFORE, AS YOU HAVE RECEIVED CHRIST JESUS THE LORD, WALK IN HIM, ROOTED AND BUILT UP IN HIM AND ESTABLISHED IN THE FAITH, JUST AS YOU WERE TAUGHT, OVERFLOWING WITH GRATITUDE.”
This is the relationship that is fostered and the character that is produced thru the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Call on Him daily to transform you into the likeness of Jesus. That’s His role. You cannot do it apart from Him.
But now there is also a horizontal dimension to righteousness. (ADD SIDEWAYS ARROW POINTING BOTH DIRECTIONS). Remember righteousness is restorative justice; it’s stepping into what is broken and cooperating with the Spirit of God to restore and make whole. We’ve talked about this a lot in the last few years. This making things right, this restorative justice, the righteousness compels the believer into a life lived to help others piece together their lives.
(CR VIDEO)
This is what Jesus says we are to hunger and thirst for. I don’t have to spend any time talking about hunger and thirst. Everyone knows what it means to be famished. Everyone knows what it means to be parched. And the secret that Jesus is revealing is this: SECRET #4: SOME APPETITES ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS.
I surfed the web and found some surveys and articles defining what we want as 21st century Americans. The top five answers I found were: (build slide)
LOVE
GOOD HEALTH
MATERIAL WEALTH
FREEDOM OF CHOICE/CONTROL
HAPPINESS
What do you yearn for? Think a moment and write 3 THINGS YOU YEARN FOR: ________________ ________________ ________________
Did you notice on that list of 5 that I put up, how self-absorbed they all were? Chances are as you glance at your list, most if not all of your selections are about you. Jesus says there are some appetites that are better than others. Jesus is talking about a spiritual hunger; a spiritual thirst. One that yearns for the righteousness we’ve been talking about.
Jesus says we can yearn for love, health, wealth, freedom, happiness, but that we’ll never be filled. I’m studying the minor prophets now in my time with the Lord and this week I came across Hosea 4:9. “THEY WILL EAT BUT NOT BE SATISFIED.” HOSEA 4:9 HCSB God’s people were hungry for love, health, wealth, freedom, happiness, and God said, “You’ll eat, but you won’t be satisfied.”
There is one thing we can be hunger for, thirst for, yearn for and be satisfied. What does Jesus say? Righteousness. If we hunger for that, will be saturated with supreme happiness. If we thirst for that, we will be saturated with supreme happiness. If we yearn for that we will be saturated with supreme happiness.
In your list of three, was there anything resembling a hunger for God’s word? A thirst for prayer. A yearning to deepen that relationship with Him (ARROW POINTING UP AND DOWN) . Was there anything about restoring what is broken in this world? (BOTH UP/SIDEWAYS ARROWS) A hunger to see your neighbors and friends come to Christ? A thirst to see the brokenhearted and downtrodden uprighted in an upside down world? A yearning to see the nations bring glory to God?
Probably not. Why? HERE’S OUR DIRTY LITTLE SECRET: WE’RE HUNGRY FOR THE WRONG STUFF.
When someone hungers and thirsts for a right relationship with God that is actively involved in restoring God’s order of things in the world, that is quite a fulfilling existence.
CALL BAND X 224
Once a person sees themselves as broken and bankrupt, and once they mourn and are broken for their brokenness, and in their meekness begin to focus on the needs of others, they will engage their world in a way that looks for opportunities to fix and restore. Jesus says that is an incredibly satisfying life.
Bow heads (DAVID/ERIC COME OUT)
What are you hungry and thirsty for? Will you confess to God the sin of self-aborption; the foolishness of hungering for the wrong stuff? And then will you ask Him to give you a hunger for righteousness that shows up in your hunger for Him and His word, that shows up in an active participation in restoring the brokenness in the world around you?
