The Happiness Series: Part IV

The Happiness Series: Part IV
By Pastor Andrew Malek
March 14, 2021

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

-Matthew 5:6 (NIV)

This week we are continuing our Happiness or the Beatitudes series studying Jesus’ sermon in Matthew 5 where he is inaugurating the kingdom of God on earth. In this message, we will learn about what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:6). Hunger and thirst are strong desires. The language that we see in this text around hungering and thirsting describes an intense desire of someone who is famished and desperate. Although we may not all relate to the physical experience of hungering and thirsting at such great magnitudes, those whom Jesus was speaking to might have walked through seasons of such desperation. 

However, what Jesus was really talking about was a spiritual hunger, a soul’s longing for satisfaction, to be fulfilled, to have purpose. We often find ourselves chasing this spiritual desire for satisfaction, unable to fulfill it. 

Solomon, the wisest and wealthiest person in his time, wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. He sought fulfillment in several ways--through wisdom, education, and knowledge. Everything that he pursued, he accomplished in the fullness that it could be accomplished here on Earth, but it left him empty. In the end, Solomon concludes that our purpose is all about God. He writes that our hearts are called to a new home, that we are restless here because our hearts are constantly searching for what God has for us. 

Our hearts and souls are longing for something that cannot be fulfilled here on Earth (Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)). Many of us have walked through life and done many of the things that Solomon talks about. We have tried to build our own well and filled it with the water of whatever it is that we thought we needed in that season, whether it be money, job status, security, or health. These pursuits are equivalent to broken cisterns because they cannot hold us, and the fulfillment is fleeting (Jeremiah 2:13 (NIV)). 

C.S. Lewis says, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy. The most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” We have all been in a place where we desire more, but we are at a loss as to how to find fulfillment. Pastor Rick Warren used the analogy of going to the refrigerator to find food, and there is food there, but nothing seems to be what we need. 

Jesus’ sermon does not leave us wondering what we need to fulfill us; it tells us that when we desire righteousness, that we will be blessed or happy. Righteousness means being right in the eyes of God. It is the act of living in the way that God has prescribed for us. Hungering and thirsting for righteousness leads us to receive all that God is and become all that he has created us to be. 

Receiving all that God is. No one on earth is righteous, but God’s righteousness is given by faith to those who believe in Christ (Romans 3:22 (NLT). If we laid our lives out for judgment, even by our standards, we would say that we don’t do everything right all the time. But, we are righteous because when we said yes to following God, we receive everything Jesus did on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:21). Because he took on our sin, then we can take on his righteousness. It’s a journey of vulnerability that requires us to acknowledge that on our own we are not righteous. In order for God to heal us and set us free in our broken places, we need to recognize our need for him. 

Becoming all that he has created us to be. God’s righteousness begins to work first in us and then through us. It begins to overflow in who we are to the world around us. This is when we begin to hunger and thirst for righteousness, and we begin to see that what moves God’s heart moves our heart. God has saved us and called us to a holy life, not because of anything that we have done but because of his own purpose and grace (2 Timothy 1:9 (NIV)). N.T. Wright says, “Blessing is not primarily what God promises to do to someone, but it is what God plans to do through someone.”

3 Thoughts on Living Hungry and Thirsty for Righteousness: 

1. Don’t settle for snacking when a meal is prepared.

Sometimes we settle for what we have in front of us rather than what has been prepared for us. We will feast in heaven with Jesus, but God has also prepared a full meal for us to experience his kingdom here on earth. Ezekiel 36:26-27 tells us that God has saved us not just to bring us home for eternity, but to transform us from the inside out. We can be filled not just in heaven but in this life. In the Lord’s prayer, Matthew 6:10 clearly states that life should on earth be as it is in heaven. If we only look to our future in heaven, we sell ourselves short of what God has for us here and now. Let us not bypass his righteousness in us and through us in this life, waiting for eternity to come. 

2. Check the nutritional value of what we are eating.

We know that we have to make sure that what we are eating is healthy for us, but when we don’t see the effects of the unhealthy food we are eating, then we settle for things that are less than what God has for us. If we understood the labels that were on things that we allow to feed our souls, then we would counterbalance those things with the things that will nourish our souls--the word of God, life groups, or church. 1 Corinthians 10:23-24 encourages us to not just get by but to live well and help others live well. If we eat the wrong things, we will miss out on lives that are free in Christ. 

3. The dinner table is large enough.

God’s table is bigger than you think it is. There is room for all of us--for the poor, the hurting, those who disagree with us, and those the world wouldn’t welcome. All are invited to his table. The Beatitudes remind us that we are called not just to be loved and accepted by Jesus but to walk in his shoes. Mark 2:16 Jesus says he has not come to call the healthy but the sick. Not only has Jesus saved us in the places where we are poor, but he has called us to reach out to the hurting and poor and broken around us and love them. The table is big enough for every single one of us to have a space there, whether we feel we belong there or not. We are righteous in God’s eyes; we just have to stand there and let him make us righteous, receiving everything that he has for us. 

When we recognize that we can’t do it on our own, that we have a longing in our soul for more than what we have right now, then we can receive what God has for us and start walking out the freedom and fullness that he has for us and hand out the gifts that he has given to us. Let us be a people that hunger and thirst for righteousness and stand in all that he is. 

Reflection/Discussion Questions:

1. What, if anything, do you find challenging about this beatitude? 

2. What are some of the ways that you have settled for “snacks” or less nutritional soul food than what Jesus has to offer? 

3. How can you cultivate a deeper hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God?

4. Who in your life do you feel led to invite to God’s table?