Rev. David Holwick U Beatitudes
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
June 22, 2003 Psalm 107:5-9
Matthew 5:6
CRAVE GOD
I. How hungry are you?
A. Not very - I went to Becky Pruitt's birthday party yesterday.
1) The older people get, the more food they serve at parties.
B. Americans like food.
1) Our growing obesity is a national concern.
2) We crave food: the Iron Chef TV show where the voices don't
match the lips, Emeril and all the rest.
3) The two biggest sellers in any bookstore are the cookbooks
and the diet books.
a) The cookbooks tell you how to prepare the food and the
diet books tell you how not to eat any of it.
#16650
C. Some appetites are a little unorthodox.
Since 1975, Ivan Opachevsky's diet has included: 6 cars,
10 shopping carts, 8 TV sets, 3 computers, 1,000 record
albums and a twin-engine airplane.
#1058
The wrong appetite can make you sick.
The right appetite can make you SAVED.
D. How hungry are you spiritually?
II. Hungering and thirsting.
A. Food was an important theme for Jesus.
1) Jesus was concerned about those who were poor and hungry.
a) Feeding of the 5,000, mentioned in all the gospels.
b) Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, where one of the
signs of being a Christian is feeding the hungry.
c) In a world where hundreds of millions still go to bed
hungry, Jesus remains concerned about food.
1> (Most of us have never really starved so we need
to pay close attention here.)
2) Jesus used physical food to talk about spiritual food.
a) Woman at the well offered living water to quench
her thirst, John 4.
b) John 6:55 -
"My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink."
B. Literal hunger in Luke's version of the beatitude. (Luke 6:21)
1) Once again, thought is that the hungry have no one to turn
to but God.
2) Combination of terms recalls God's provision of food and
drink in the Exodus. compare Psalm 107:6
3) It is the hunger of a man who is starving for food, the
thirst of a man who will die unless he gets something
to drink.
C. Matthew: hungering and thirsting after righteousness.
1) Brings out the spiritual angle.
a) You should want to be righteous as much as a starving
person wants to be fed.
b) It is ironic that some of the bed-fed people are
actually famine victims in Jesus' eyes.
2) But what exactly is "righteousness"?
a) There are several possibilities.
b) It is best to study how the Bible uses this term.
III. Righteousness - God's demand and God's gift.
A. God's gift: we can be "made right" by God.
1) There is a distance between us and God.
a) God brings us back to him even when we don't deserve it.
b) Elsewhere in the Bible this is called justification.
2) God gives righteousness to those who commit to Jesus.
a) Without Jesus, you would have to be perfect.
b) James 2:10 says,
"For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at
just one point is guilty of breaking all of it."
c) If you are not perfect, you require salvation.
1> Paul: Jesus died for us while we were still sinners.
2> Salvation is God's gift to us.
3) Note that we must hunger for this righteousness.
a) How badly do you want to be saved?
In the Antarctic summer of 1908-9 Sir Ernest Shackleton
and three companions attempted to travel to the
South Pole from their winter quarters.
They set off with four ponies to help carry the load.
Weeks later, their ponies dead, rations all but
exhausted, they turned back toward their base,
their goal not accomplished.
Altogether, they trekked 127 days.
On the return journey Shackleton said they talked about
food - elaborate feasts, gourmet delights, sumptuous
menus.
As they staggered along, not knowing whether they would
survive, every waking hour was occupied with
thoughts of eating.
Jesus, who also knew the ravages of food deprivation,
said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness."
We can understand Shackleton's obsession with food,
which offers a glimpse of the passion Jesus intends
for our quest for righteousness.
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b) A surprising number of people are ho-hum about it.
1> Doesn't everyone end up in heaven?
2> I shouldn't be a fanatic, that would be tacky.
c) Jesus says salvation should be your highest priority,
even more than food.
Matthew 6:31-33 -
So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or
'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
For the pagans run after all these things, and your
heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But SEEK FIRST his kingdom and his righteousness, and
all these things will be given to you as well.
d) You seek God's righteous by studying his Word, by
encountering him in prayer and quiet meditation.
B. God's demand: right-living for God's sake.
1) There is another side to righteousness in Jesus' teaching.
a) Often it refers to right-living, conducting yourself
the way God would want you to.
b) The way Jesus saw it, a genuinely saved person will
live differently.
1> Others will be able to notice.
2> As he put it, they will be able to see your good
deeds and will praise God because of it.
2) We cannot earn salvation by our works, but good works
ALWAYS accompanies salvation.
a) Of course, this is open-ended.
b) You can always be better and do more.
c) When are we done?
1> It is not a goal so much as a process.
2> Keep hungering and thirsting for it.
3) A lesson from the world:
Around 20 years ago, Newsweek magazine did a profile on a
Yuppie named Laurie Gilbert.
She was a 28-year-old lawyer, and she said that without
children, she would be comfortable with $200,000 a year.
She would need that much because she bought two outfits of
clothes each week.
Laurie met her second husband at a job interview in Los
Angeles.
Unfortunately, the interview was one of several that she
had managed to schedule in during her honeymoon with her
first husband, so she had to go back home for a divorce.
"I know it sounds shocking," she said, "but there are times
in your life when you just have to go after what you
want."
There is a lot of truth in that.
If you really want something you have to go after it.
How badly do you want to live for God?
The Bible says you shouldn't just measure your feelings,
but your actions.
Matthew 25 tells about the judgment of believers.
All of these people think they are saved - but only the ones
who feed, clothed, and visited the needy are saved.
Were the others not good enough Christians?
No, they were not Christians at all.
Righteousness is much more than feeling religious.
It involves loving actions.
It involves avoiding sin.
Our lifestyle matters to God.
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IV. Someday we will be satisfied.
A. The aftermath of a Thanksgiving dinner.
1) Full stomachs, satisfied feeling.
2) Someday our spiritual yearning will be over.
3) God will fill us completely with his love.
a) Every physical and spiritual need will be met.
B. Until that day arrives, seek him with all your heart.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 1058 "An Unorthodox Diet," advertisement in PC Computing magazine,
May 1995, page 53.
# 1924 "Hunger For Righteousness," by Ken Rogers of Forest Hill,
Australia, in Leadership Journal, Winter 1988, page 37.
#16650 "Cookbooks and Diet Books," by Alex Gondola, Jr., in Rev. Brett
Blair's Illustrations by Email, www.sermonillustrations.com,
August 8, 2000.
#25018 "You Just Have To Go After What You Want," Newsweek magazine,
sometime in 1984.
These and 25,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://illust.holwick.com
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