The Blessed and Happy Life (6)
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Today we continue in our study looking at the Blessed and Happy life.The place we will be looking is at another of the Beatitudes.This is the very first recorded sermon that Matthew recorded for us in his gospel and what really speaks to me in this message is who Jesus spoke the message to and what He spoke.The people He spoke to were of course the Jewish people.These people that came to listen to Him were people that were going through a very hard time as a people group.They lived at a time where people were really suffering.They were suffering from so many things.They were very poor at this time, they were abused by their leaders - both religious leaders which was the core of their nation and by their government leaders.Jesus also came when Israel was under Roman leadership, which meant there were Roman soldiers everywhere and the took advantage of people all the time.So when you think of those circumstances that would make daily living not very fun.And Jesus rather than addressing these issues starts His teaching on how to live the Blessed and Happy life.And so for me since we are facing challenges right now, some of which are very similar to theirs if we learn and follow what Jesus teaches we will experience that blessed and happy life.Now for today’s lesson Jesus teaches us about being satisfied in life.And I love this topic and lesson, because it very well could be the place where many will feel the most tension.What I mean by that is you may wonder, how can you be satisfied if you are poor, how can you be satisfied if you are oppressed on a daily basis, how can you be satisfied if your religious leaders are taking advantage of you,By the way the way they took advantage of them is they found ways to make money off of them by figuring out how to sell things that helped you connect with God.They didn’t use magic water and magic oil but since you were required to make sacrifices they found ways to make you pay way more than you should.So when you look at all of that you really could wonder, is there any way to be happy or satisfied with all of that going on?And I’m sure many of you wonder is there any way we can be happy and satisfied with all that we are facing in Zimbabwe right now.The answer is yes they could and yes we can when we learn what Jesus is talking about here.
Our take home for today will be to see that it comes from our desire to be right with God and to please Him.Once we look at this I hope it has the same impact on you that it did on my about 20 years ago.This one verse just pierced me and I have never forgotten it.Let’s read
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
“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 meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
In all of these Beatitudes it is always important to see that the blessing is not the first part, like the poor in spirit, the mourning or like what is here the hungering and thirsting, but the blessing or what makes the Blessed and Happy life is the second part.It’s the for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven, or the comfort of God.Here it is satisfaction.I just feel it is so important that we know this truth that God wants you to be satisfied.If you have any idea that His job is to always have you a little miserable so that you keep praying or something like that it is not a right belief.God wants you satisfied.But here’s the thing. That doesn’t mean you will always be satisfied with the world or enjoy the world and how it’s going.Like what we are facing now and what those listening to Jesus were going through.But you can always enjoy and be satisfied with God.Way back in 1646 a group of people put together some important doctrines.One of them was what is man’s main purpose. Why are we here.They said it was to glorify God and to Enjoy Him forever.That is what Jesus is saying and what we must learn.We are meant to enjoy God. Enjoy our walk and relationship with Him.That is what this is teaching us how to do and when we get this right it will spill out to all areas of your life.Because when you are enjoying God then you will see that stability that David talks about and then whether you face the trials we face or the ones that Jesus’ listeners faced you will be blessed and happy.What is Jesus saying.Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied.Like all these nuggets of truth it starts with the idea of the blessed and happy life, the person who is content, stable and whose life is one that others would notice is working well.Then He points out the route to it.It’s through being hungry and thirsty for something.Now here’s the thing with this one.Words paint pictures for us based on experience.For instance Sheppard, Artwell and Chance came over and we had some real hot Jalepeno peppers that Tammy roasted which like quadruples the temperature of them.And the boys wanted to taste them and I warned them that they were really hot.They had no reference to what this hot was.So bravely they ate them.Quickly found a point of reference that when I say hot I mean hot.Well they all had to be macho and ate the whole thing and all got sick stomachs that night because they were so hot.Now they know when I say hot I mean hot.That is important with this verse here.When Jesus is talking about Hungering and Thirsting he doesn’t mean you have skipped a mean and are hungry.Or you ate some chips and now want some water to wash it down.He is talking really hungry and really thirsty.This is the hunger you would feel if you went a few days with no food or a few days in the summer heat with no water.It painted a big picture for them.This had nothing to do with food and water.That was just what would set the stage.What they were to be starving and thirsting for was righteousness.Which means two things.1. To be right with God.2. To please God.So to put this in modern language the way this first part would read would be:The person that will have the blessed and happy life starts by starving and thirsting to be right with God and to please Him.But why is that?Why would being hungry and thirsty to be right with God and hungering and thirsting to please Him be so important?It’s for one great big reason.If your hungry and really thirsty, I mean starving hungry and dying of thirst.What are you going to do?You will look for food and water.That is the point here.When you are starving to please God and starving to be right with God it drives you to Him.And when you connect with Him that satisfaction comes.The enjoyment comes.The consistent picture in the Bible is that being with God leads to the blessed and happy life, without Him there is no satisfaction and enjoyment.Then serving God and trying to live for Him is just a discipline at best.I don’t think that is all that enjoyable.This hungering and thirsting is meant for one main purpose and that is to drive you to Him who is the source of all our main purpose in life. When you hunger and thirst to be right with Him and to please Him then He will satisfy you.This bring us to the big application of this.No that you hear this you could say ok then I’m going to start hungering and thirsting to be right with God and to please Him.I mean I want to be satisfied so I’m going to do this.Any of you feel that way?Let me ask you this?Is there like a switch you flip to do this.I’m going to push the hunger and thirst button?First this can be used to see if you are healthy.See like with normal life you don’t flip a button to make yourself hungry or thirsty it just happens.And the longer you go the more hungry and thirsty you get.Healthy people want food.There is no discipline involved at all.It’s the same with the spiritual life.If you are not hungry to be right with God and to please Him that is sign that something is wrong.It’s like taking your temperature to show you that you are sick.When the number shows ______ something is wrong.If not hungry to please God and hungry to be right with Him it means something is wrong.So what do you?#1 Are you right with God?Meaning have you come to the point where Jesus is your Lord and Savior or have you walked away from Him.This is the starting place with being right God. We do not become right with God because of what we do but because of what Jesus did for us on the Cross.He died to pay the price for our sins so that we can have God in our life.If we do not do that step we will never really hunger and thirst for God like this is talking about.That first lack of satisfaction is to drive us to God but we go through the cross to get there.Let me explain why this is so important to understand.It deals with our nature. It is changing our heart. It’s making us a new creation. When a new creation we will have a natural hungering and thirsting for God.Maybe think of it this way.If you are a cow - will you ever be hungry for steak or chicken dinner?Why wouldn’t you? Because cows don’t eat meat.They are vegetarian. It would never be natural.Now a lion - that’s all they want. Because it’s there nature.If you are not changed in here, what the Bible calls being born again you will never have that hunger and thirst for God because it’s not natural.You will have dissatisfaction with life, you may know that God is the answer but until you encounter God through what Jesus did on that cross you will never have that new nature that desires Him.That’s where it starts. Once that happens you get hungry for Him and naturally have the desire to please Him.There is not switch to turn on and off it’s just natural just like it’s natural for all of us to get hungry everyday.ADD A SATISFACTION LIKE NEVER BEFORE HAPPENSThe second part is you have the whole formula wrong.What I mean by that is you are not hungry to please God but you are hungry for God to please you.God is God and He is not here to please you.You will enjoy Him, you will be pleased and satisfied when you connect but we are here to please Him not Him please us.That will make you unhealthy and not hunger for Him and need to deal with this.Finally the third part of the application is if you are not hungry to please Him is that maybe your heart is looking for other things to bring you satisfaction.It’s like I want a little of God and a little of the world.That’s a problem.It’s a heart issue.There still isn’t a switch but you can go to God and pray that He would heal whatever is going on in here.When this happens you will see your desire for Him, to stay in right relationship with Him and to please Him in thought word and deed will be there,That hunger will drive you to Him.You will want to meet with Him, you will want to pray and you will want the Word.And as you do you will experience satisfaction.