What Are You Hungry For? Series

Beatitude Summer Sermon Series (5 of 9)

What Are You Hungry For? (Matt. 5.6)

July 19, 2015 CFBC, Chester, IL Dr. Mike Fogerson, Speaker

A I believe that the greatest secret to Christian living is a healthy, hearty appetite for the things of God.

1 In the last three messages we have learned about having a poor spirit, mourning what has made us poor (sin), and the call to be humble, gentle, meek toward others & to God.

a But what good is confessing/lamenting sin, acknowledging the truth about ourselves to God/others if we leave it there?

b Being poor in spirit, mourning, being gentle must lead to us wanting more righteousness.

c Matt. 5.3-6 NASB "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. "Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

aa There’s pain in v.3 (poor in spirit), there’s pain in v.4 (mourning), there is pain in v.5 (gentle/meek/humble), but after the pain of hungering & thirsting, there’s a comfort that comes in v.6.

bb In v.6, we’ve come to a place of reaching out to God.

2 The Beatitudes are both prescriptive and descriptive on how we enter the Kingdom and how we are to live once we are in the Kingdom.

a To enter the Kingdom we must be poor in spirit & as we live in the Kingdom we recognize our spiritual poverty.

aa To enter the Kingdom we must mourn over our sin, and as you continue in the Kingdom you will mourn over your sin.

bb To enter the Kingdom you must come in meekness, once you’re in the Kingdom meekness continues to be your attitude as God becomes more wonderful to you.

cc To enter the Kingdom you must hunger/thirst for righteousness, once your in the Kingdom you’ll continue to do the same.

b These attitudes are not “one and done”, but rather they are the normal patterns, attitudes, behavior of the new you.

aa There will be times when you are less faithful and sometimes downright disobedient to these elements of Kingdom life, but they are still part of your life.

bb They are how you entered the Kingdom and they are how you act once you’ve entered the Kingdom.

B “Blessed are those who hunger & thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (V.6)

1 We will be learning about the right thing for us to hunger & thirst after, but the Bible offers us many people who hungered/thirsted after the wrong things.

a Lucifer, Nebuchadnezzer, the rich fool (& others.)

aa They all had ambition, passion, drive and desire, hunger & thirst . . . but it was for the wrong thing.

bb All of these are great if they are focused on the right thing.

cc For example, Ambition says “I want to be a pastor, deacon, missionary, leader in the church.” Envy says, “I want you to be under me.

b What are we to hunger/thirst for? Righteousness.

aa Jesus is telling us we need righteousness like we need food & water.

bb Righteousness means to be right with God & the only real blessing/happiness in this life is to be right with Him.

2 This Righteousness has two legs: salvation & sanctification.

a Someone who hungers/thirsts for righteousness seeks salvation.

aa They see their sin, rebellion, seperated from a Holy God. (He’s broken, mournful, meek and wants to restore himself to God. Wants forgiveness so he hungers/thirsts after the righteousness that comes from salvation.

bb It’s a desire to be from self; free from the power, presence & penalty of sin.

cc I’ve describe how all of us who are saved came to being saved, knowing salvation. (We know that hunger!)

b Sanctification is the hunger/thirst for increasing holiness.

aa Wanting more of God, to know more and more of Jesus is the mark of a Christian.

bb We never think we don’t need another sermon, song, seminar, revival, conference, Sunday School, ministry . . . we never think we’ve “arrived.”

c I’ll illustrate Moses: Moses had been in the wilderness for 40 years, God called him. . . Moses saw God in the burning bush . . .Moses saw God’s hand in the plagues/parting of the Red Sea . . .Moses saw God as they moved/guided by the Shekinah glow of God in the sky. . . He saw God in water to drink/manna to eat. . . after Moses built the tabernacle in obedience to God, Moses said, “God I want to see your glory.”

aa We may think, “Come on Moses, enough is enough. You’ve seen a lot!” Moses would say, “But not enough.”