This night, our sermon text can be found in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter five. This evening, we'll be considering one verse from our Sermon on the Mount series, Matthew chapter five, verse six. We do not have a copy of God's word. You can find this text on page 809 of the Pew Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. The grass withers and the flower falls, the word of our God endures forever. Let us pray. Father, help us to see what we cannot see. Help us to see our poverty. in your infinite bounty and give to us. In Christ's name, amen. As I reflect upon the last few months of our family's life, I can truly say that it has been a great joy to get to know all of you. It's been really fun over the past few months to look around and see all the people whom God has brought together to form Cornerstone United Reformed Church. From Pastor Voss to the elders. to the deacons and the families and even the children as we just saw up here. It's been a great joy to get to know all of you. But as I've gotten to know all of you, there is one thing that really stands out if you're trying to define Cornerstone. All of you are hunters. I would not want to be a deer that lives within 30 miles of this church because I believe that my life would constantly be in danger. And it's not just that some of you hunt. I'm pretty sure that most of the members here are hunters in one way or another, and not just the men, but the women and the children here too. So it may be disappointing for you to learn, and some of you have already learned, that I have actually never gone hunting, which puts me like a little bit on the outside looking in on this thing. And even if I wanted to, I would really not know where to start in becoming a hunter. So maybe I need someone here to just adopt me as a hunter in training to show me the ropes of what to do around here. So I have never hunted, but I do enjoy my good fair share of survival wilderness shows. And one of my favorite shows in this genre is a History Channel show called Alone. Alone is a show that puts people into the test, the ultimate test of human ability and survivability. What Alone does is that it takes them, it takes 10 contestants and then drops them off in an intentionally uninhabitable part of the world. No one is there because it's very difficult to live there. And so what happens is that the show will take 10 random contestants, well, not completely random, they're skilled, they know what they're doing, some of the best, and it drops them off in this place to be alone. And then each contestant has to survive with 10 survival items and a camera, most often dropped around places like the Arctic Circle. And then the show offers a cash prize for whichever contestant can survive out there the longest. In so many seasons, it's pretty fascinating to watch. They can show this battle of wills, of strength. of adaptability as contestants, as you watch them build shelters, find food, fight off predators, sickness, isolation, and then eventually the cold of winter, because they're usually dropped off right before winter hits, all to be the last one standing and get the title of Alone Champion. And it's absolutely incredible to watch, because what you end up watching is people who are surviving 60, 70, and even 100 days alone in the wilderness. And each contestant, if you probably could guess, they have their own different struggles as they're out there alone trying to survive. But one of the main battles that every contestant faces, in one way or another, is the battle of hunger. As you watch a season progress, you'll quickly see that some people who end up on there can never secure a consistent source of food. And so after only 15 to 20 days, they have to tap out. Other contestants can find food, but then even as they find food, once winter hits, everything becomes scarce. And so sadly, the show can become something of a starvation game, eventually trying to see which one can outstar the other person, not knowing who all else is out there, and be the last one standing. But as the show often demonstrates, the contestants battle hunger in more areas than just food. Some contestants battle the hunger for community. One of the most interesting things that happens every season is that you'll have some man or woman who's doing remarkably well. They could keep going further, but they tap out because they are lonely and hungering for their family. Other contestants can battle things like the hunger for meaning or significance. As you can expect, a lot of people put themselves in this environment to prove something about themselves, that they are strong, that they're independent, and that they're capable of winning a contest that's literally known as the Olympics of survival. In season seven, one contestant was a young woman named Callie. Callie lasted 89 days alone in the Arctic Circle. She did exceptionally well. But then towards the end as winter came in, she had a hard time keeping on her weight and then ended up getting frostbite in her foot. And so when the medics showed up and towards the end they're doing more med checks to make sure that people are still healthy, they needed to pull her because she risked doing lasting damage to her body. But it was an incredibly powerful scene to watch. You're literally watching someone who in all intents and purposes is close to starving to death. who still has this insatiable hunger to keep going and competing to be the alone champion. This evening, we return once again to the Sermon on the Mount. And in this sermon, we are given a window into one of the most important points in the ministry of Jesus. where Jesus sits down upon a mountain and gathers people to himself and then teaches them about the coming kingdom of God. And this beginning section of the Sermon on the Mount is known as the Beatitudes or the Statements of Blessing. And what Jesus does here is that he points to different character profiles in the crowd, those who hunger, those who mourn, those who are poor in spirit. And he points to different people and he says, if this is you, you are blessed. And in doing so, one of the things that Jesus is doing is that he's giving us different snapshots of the type of people that he is looking for in his kingdom that's to come. And in our verse this evening, Jesus proclaims these words, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. for they shall be satisfied. And if we look at this beatitude, this beatitude is built upon a very important principle about life in this world and the coming kingdom of God. And the principle is this. If we're honest, both you and I hunger and thirst for things that are more than just food and water. You and I are creatures. And we were created to hunger and thirst for things greater than ourselves to satisfy our hearts. As St. Augustine proclaimed hundreds of years ago in writing, he wrote, the human heart is a restless thing. And in our beatitude, Jesus challenges us to consider what we are hungering and thirsting for. Because if we want to be citizens of his coming kingdom of God, we need to understand what Jesus is showing us when he writes that we ought to hunger and thirst for righteousness. This evening, we will consider this beatitude, the statement of blessing in two points. First this evening, we're gonna see the point of spiritual hunger. And then we will see spiritual satisfaction. Our first point this evening, spiritual hunger. To begin, we should probably start by taking a second to take a closer look at what we mean by hunger and thirst and what these things communicate. The images of hunger and thirst communicate, pretty universally, the idea of longing and need. Whenever we hunger or thirst, our bodies are telling us that we are lacking something that we genuinely need, either food or drink. In the survival world, you'll hear people constantly reference the rule of threes for survival. That there are these benchmarks of threes that every person needs. And here's how you can think about it. In principle, every person only has three minutes to live. But then each time you take a breath and inhale oxygen, that three minute timer resets. The same picture can also be applied to food and to water. Without water, if all of us were honest, you would only have three days to live. And yet every drink that you take resets that timer back to three. Or without food, you and I have somewhere between 30 to 50 days to live. But then each bite resets that clock. So hunger and thirst are ways that our body communicates to us its longings and its desires. So whenever our body has not had food or drink for a while, or for some teenagers when they haven't eaten something in 10 minutes, our organs will send this message up to our brain saying, hey person, go get me something to eat because I need it. These messages that our body sends to the brain, these are what we experience as hunger and thirst. But as we see, we also can use the language of hunger and thirst to communicate metaphorical needs and longings. Like we saw in our introduction, that we as people can hunger and thirst for all sorts of things other than food and water. If you think about it, there are some people who are driven by a hunger for a certain level of financial security in life. Coaches try to instill in their players a hunger to win. Other people can hunger and thirst for approval, such as the person who is every five minutes checking their Instagram or TikTok to see how many likes their post receives. Other people can hunger and thirst for things such as peace or clarity or an answer or a remedy to their problems. I'm curious, can you recognize any of these hungers or these thirsts in the people around you? What about in yourself? And so in our passage this evening, Jesus is making a very bold statement. In essence, Jesus is saying that if you want to be part of his kingdom, then you must be ready to submit to him as your king in every area of your life, including the hungers and the thirsts of your heart. If you are to be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, then your desires must align with the king's desires. Friends, if you claim to be a Christian, your desires are the King's business. You cannot get around that. And so according to the Bible, what does Jesus instruct his people to desire? What does Jesus hope that we would want in life? If you're looking for a place to go, we all know the Lord's prayer. Where Jesus teaches us, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In other words, Jesus wants the earth right now to look like heaven. And Jesus wants the righteousness of heaven to be reflected upon the earth. And so Jesus is looking for people who share this same concern. People who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness. I think the Lord's Prayer is instructive for us here. Because there actually is a good possibility that you and I can misinterpret Jesus' words in our text. Because for most of us, when we think of the word righteousness, our minds automatically go to the writings of Paul, who writes of righteousness in terms of salvation, that we are justified or declared righteous through faith in Jesus and not by works. And so it's really easy for us to interpret this beatitude as if Jesus is instructing us to hunger and thirst for righteousness, or hunger and thirst for salvation, or to be declared righteous. Now I think that sentiment is theologically true. People should hunger and thirst for salvation, and to be declared righteous from their sins. But if you look at this text, that's not exactly Jesus' point here, nor is it Matthew's. This is a really important Bible study principle. Biblical words, if you want to grow in understanding the Bible, biblical words do not always carry the same meaning and the same nuance every time that they are used. Just like if you see a word like righteousness, you just grab your Bible dictionary, find the first definition, and then just kind of squeeze it into the verse that you found that word in. No, if you study the different authors of the New Testament, from people such as Peter, to James, to John, Paul, and Matthew, you actually will see they sometimes use words differently. While Peter, James, John, Matthew, and Paul, they all share the same theology as apostles, we actually see that that theology sometimes shows up in nuanced ways within their writings. And so we need to ask the question, what does Matthew mean by the word righteousness? One commentator helps us to understand this idea when he writes these words. Protestant Christians who are used to reading Paul may think that Matthew is speaking of the imputed righteousness of Christ. but this forensic sense is not a Matthean nuance. Here in Matthew 5, 6, the emphasis is on the practical side, the upright lifestyle. So it's important to see that when Matthew is writing about righteousness in his gospel, he's actually not talking about the same thing that Paul's talking about, a legal declaration of righteousness, but rather, When Matthew uses this word righteousness, he's talking about a life that aligns with God's will, with God's law. Matthew is talking about righteous living, that the things on earth reflect the realities that are true in heaven. Here are some examples of how this word shows up in the Gospel of Matthew. Early on in the Gospel, In Matthew 119 we see Matthew praising Joseph, the legal father of Jesus, because he responds in a just, in a righteous way into hearing about Mary's pregnancy. Friends, Joseph was no dummy and he knew how pregnancy worked. And yet while it would have been very common to shame women who became pregnant out of wedlock, Matthew writes that Joseph, quote, being a just or a righteous man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. And then later, Joseph believed the angel. who pronounced that this pregnancy and this birth was of the Lord and not of immorality. Matthew praises Joseph for being a just or a righteous man. Later in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus actually shows us in his preaching that he expects us to be righteous. And this may be confusing to us unless we understand that he's expecting us to live in righteous ways. Matthew 5.20, for I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. In Matthew 6.1, Jesus does not warn us against the pursuit of righteous living. Rather, he warns us against a performative righteousness, a righteousness that's merely looking for the approval of the crowds, Matthew 6.1. Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. For then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Now at this point, some of you may be thinking, wait a minute, doesn't the Bible tell us that no one is righteous? Doesn't it say that every person is born in sin Yes, it does. And that is exactly Jesus's point in this beatitude. Friends, you and I only experience hunger and thirst when our stomachs are empty. Friends, Jesus is not proclaiming this beatitude to people who are spiritually full. Rather, Jesus is preaching this word to people who are desperately hungry and thirsty for righteousness. Even though Matthew talks about righteousness in his gospel, he is abundantly clear that the world needs a savior. That Jesus was born to save his people from their sins. But friends, if the Bible is correct about the universal sinfulness of the human race, then isn't it also true that currently right now in the world, there is a famine of righteousness? When we look out into the world today, do we see righteousness around us? No. Now, there may be glimmers of common grace here and there, but friends, if we're honest, we look at this world, this country, and this city. Friends, it is filled with unrighteousness. Just take the holiday season for a second. You know, when we look around at the culture, do we see pictures of righteousness? No. How many times do we see on the commercials messages that promote greed, hedonism, and immorality? Well, if that's what we see in the world, then what about righteousness in the church? I bet at this point that most of us are aware of a new story that broke on a local news channel this week. A story that revealed to many churches within our own community, that covered up the abuse of children for decades. Friends, if we take an honest look at the track record of the church in America today, we are often not like the triumphant and spirit-filled church of Acts. Rather, we can look a lot like the book of Judges, where there is a famine of God's word, and everyone does what is right in their own eyes. Well, if we don't see righteousness out there in the church, what about in us? Friend, when you look at your heart, do you see righteousness? I think one of the difficulties in our text is the fact that most of us, if not all of us, have never really experienced genuine hunger and genuine thirst. I think if we're honest, for me and you, hunger is mostly an inconvenience. For most of us, we actually don't really need to pray about our daily bread. Because if we're honest, we have our weekly and our monthly bread, even if our budget's tight. You know, personally, if I was brutally honest with myself, what I am going to eat tomorrow is not really a pressing concern of mine. Because I know that when I go home that my freezers are full and I have some food in the fridge. But it's important to see that this experience of ours is abnormal. especially in comparison to the time of the Bible. No friends, in the Bible, food and drink were daily concerns. Friends, when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, give us this day our daily bread, that meant something. Friends, for many of us, it takes watching a reality TV show of people trying to survive in the wilderness. Or for us visiting another country to see what real hunger is like. And friends, when we truly see physical hunger and starvation, we are finally moving in the right direction of an accurate glimpse of the spiritual state of our hearts. Friends, there is a famine of righteousness in the world today, and we're all starving, left to ourselves. But we will only see the fact that we're all starving unless we look at the world and our lives through the lens of Scripture, How often do you and I convince ourselves that righteousness is not our greatest need? How often do you and I convince ourselves that something such as temporal comfort is a more important and a legitimate desire than hungering for righteousness? Friends, if you're a Christian, I bet you know that righteousness is important. But in our text, Jesus is calling us to do more than just think that righteousness is a pretty good idea. What Jesus is doing in our text, he's calling us to hunger for righteousness like our lives depend upon it. Friend, if you're preparing yourself to be a citizen of the kingdom of God, you need to take an honest look at your thoughts, your desires, your hungers. and you need to let scripture reveal your spiritual poverty so that you can wake up to your spiritual hungers and begin to cultivate in your heart a hunger for righteousness. In the gospels, one of the things that often got under the skins of the Pharisees the most was the fact that Jesus chose to hang out with tax collectors and sinners. And one of those times in Matthew 12 through 13, Jesus finally puts the Pharisees in their place. And he does so by leaving with us a very insightful comment about his ministry philosophy. Matthew 9, 12 through 13, here Jesus says, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." Friends, in other words, Jesus is not looking for people who think they are righteous. He is looking for people who will take an honest look at their lives. He will look at where their sinful hearts want to take them. They will look at their bitterness, their lust, their covetousness. They're backbiting, they're judgmentalism, they're hypocrisy, they're religious formalism, they're coldness of their heart towards their neighbors and their self-righteousness. And they look at all of this and they say, yep, I am completely dry in righteousness right now. There is a famine of righteousness in my life. I am a sinner. And in seeing their lack of righteousness, they begin to cultivate in their heart a spiritual hunger for the kingdom of God, where they begin to hunger and thirst for righteousness. And friends, this path is the steps that it takes that leads them to salvation and a savior. So what about you? When you look at your heart, if you look at yourself in the mirror, what do you see? Do you see someone who is so consumed with fulfilling the hungers found in this life that they have no time and no place for cultivating a hunger for the kingdom of God and righteousness? Do you see someone who tolerates or has become quite too callous to the immorality and the unrighteousness in the world today? Do you see someone who is trying really, really hard and failing to convince themselves, you know what, my righteousness is not so bad. Or do you see someone who is honest about themselves, their lack of righteousness, and so that you begin to hunger and a thirst for it. Friends, for if there is the slightest evidence of spiritual hunger in your heart, then Jesus tells you this evening that you are blessed. For Jesus is looking for people just like you for his kingdom. Friend, if you're not a Christian this evening, maybe this is the first time you've actually felt in your life spiritual hunger pains. Friend, the world often bends itself into a pretzel. trying to explain the root of human misery and suffering in a way that sidesteps this biblical reality, that you and I are, at our basis, sinners, and that our biggest problem actually, ultimately, is sin. But as we see in our text, Jesus is a straight shooter. Friends, spiritual hunger points to the problem that left to ourselves, you and I are not righteous. If you're not a Christian, Will you take an honest look at yourself according to God's word? And then if you're not a Christian, will you see Jesus? Friends who offers your righteousness not based upon your effort and works, but one found upon his perfect life and him going to the cross to bearing the penalty that your sins deserve so that you may be declared righteous. Today, if you're not a Christian, will you look to Jesus and find the righteousness you need? Friend, if you're here and you're not a Christian, there are many people here today, this evening, who would love to talk to you after this service. That's our first point, spiritual hunger. Second point our text will see this evening is spiritual satisfaction. In 2005, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady shocked the world with some revealing comments during a 60-minute interview that aired on CBS. At the age of 27, Brady had conquered the world. He had just completed one of the most difficult achievements in all of sports, winning three Super Bowls in four years. Brady had it all, the fame, the accolades, and the golden ticket to everything that he wanted in life. And yet, in this interview, Brady made some really interesting and revealing comments. Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, hey man, this is what it is. I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think, it's gotta be more than this. I mean, this can't be what it's all cracked up to be. I mean, I've done it, I'm 27. And what else is there for me? From the video, you can tell that the CBS interviewer, Steve Croft, was not expecting Brady's response. This interviewer, he's supposed to be talking about all of the good things about the next greatest quarterback, and this is what he gets. And so Croft asked Tom a very simple question. Well, what's the answer? Brady replied, I wish I knew. I wish I knew. In our passage, Matthew 5, 6, Jesus tells the people gathering around him, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Friend, in our text, Jesus offers to his people an amazing promise, because he tells everyone gathering around him that if you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you will be satisfied. And I think that this verse does not hit us as powerfully as it should, because I think it's so easy for us to overlook how elusive and fleeting lasting satisfaction actually is. Do you know how hard it is in the world today to find something that's gonna bring lasting satisfaction? It's basically impossible. I mean, take Tom Brady. Success, fame, glory, achievements. Did it satisfy? No. Friend, if you look at the world today, society is not divided between the super happy, satisfied people at the top who have everything, and then all the miserable have-nots down here who are looking outside of the party. No, it's actually quite difficult to find anyone in this world that has what Jesus offers, true, lasting satisfaction. You will be satisfied. And according to scripture, that is not surprising at all. In the Old Testament, there was one man, King Solomon, who put everything to be found in this world to the test to see if he can find lasting satisfaction. Friends and ecclesiastes, Solomon pushes every pleasure of this world to its limits. Sex, money, hard work, knowledge, wisdom, prudence, everything. And does he assign satisfaction? Friend, no. Rather, it's the exact opposite. Because after his relentless search for satisfaction, he reaches the only logical conclusion based upon his entire search, vanity. It's a breath. It's chasing after the wind. Friend, hunger and thirst teach us another important lesson, if you're willing to pay attention to it. Just imagine for a second that you had the best meal of your life, whatever that would be. Steak, lobster, filet mignon, prime rib, whatever it is, just think about it. Imagine yourself for a second eating it, but don't get too hungry. I think all of us know that meals like that can taste great in the moment and you can feel so satisfied. But no matter how good that meal tasted 12 hours later, you will still be hungry. Friends, every time you eat, you will be hungry again. Anytime you experience any earthly pleasure, you will be left desiring again. And friends, every time this happens, Your body is trying to tell you again and again and again that everything in it will not ultimately satisfy. Friends, that is the futility of this life. There are so many people who spend all their time chasing highs and ecstasies and fulfillments and satisfactions at whatever the cost. And yet what ends up happening is they always come crashing down to earth. And yet in our text, Jesus tells us it is actually possible for you to be satisfied. And friends, Jesus is not offering this for an elite or an exclusive club. Jesus is not offering satisfaction to the rich, the powerful, the smart people of the world. Friends, he's offering it to anybody and everybody. on the condition that they cultivate in their heart a hunger and a thirst for righteousness. That leads them to put their faith in Jesus. Friends, in their own way, each of these Beatitudes is challenging us to see that the best way for us to prepare ourselves for the kingdom of God is for us to loosen our grip on this present world. And friends, what hungering and thirsting for righteousness does is that it helps to train your spiritual taste buds to desire the things of God. And then it also guides you to the golden path that leads to finding satisfaction in God himself. Friends, spiritual hunger points us to spiritual satisfaction, not just in living righteously, but friends, in God himself who is righteousness and goodness and holiness. In the Gospel of John, Jesus has a very interesting conversation with a woman coming to a well to get water. And he tells her in John 4, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. In John 6, 27, Jesus, as we just read earlier, tells the crowds who witnessed the miraculous feeding of 5,000, he says, do not work for the food that perishes. but for the food that endures to eternal life. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? So what is it? What is a food that people can have and drink that lasts forever? As we saw earlier in our service, it is found in believing and receiving Jesus. John 6.35. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. Friends, this may sound like a bait and switch or that Jesus is trying to spiritualize our genuine human needs, but don't miss how Jesus is pointing to a central biblical principle for life. Friends, you and I were created to not ultimately find satisfaction in food or drink or anything in this life. Friends, you and I were created to find satisfaction in God. Finishing the quote from earlier in our sermon, as St. Augustine said, our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you. Friends, in the kingdom of God, God is not offering us whatever we need and everything that will satisfy our hearts. Rather, he is offering us himself. And because God is offering us himself in a relationship with the only person who will forever satisfy our souls, friends, when we get there, we will have everything in his kingdom. This evening as we come to a close, friends, you and I are left with an incredibly important question. What are you hungering for? What are you thirsting for? Friends, you and I have hungers. You and I have thirsts. You and I have desires. Are you hungering for things such as pleasure, satisfactions of this life, answers in the here and now, approval, and all the things that the world tries to offer to us. Or friends, are you hungering for righteousness? Do you see the spiritual need in your life for righteousness, righteousness in your home, righteousness in your family, and righteousness in the world? Friend, if you are, and you have in your heart a spiritual hunger for righteousness, then take comfort. For in his kingdom, Jesus is looking for people just like you. And friend, hungering and thirsting for righteousness is a central pathway. to finding satisfaction, not just in righteousness, abstractly stated, or in righteous living, but in God himself, who offers the bread of life to us. So friends, may we hunger and thirst for righteousness, that we may be satisfied forever. Father, we repent and we confess that our hearts are not on you. Father, our hearts aren't everything that can be found in this world. And when your word holds up to us a path that leads to life, Father, we can find ourselves distracted by so many things that seem to be offering us life and joy and pleasure and significance, but Father, these things are empty. Father, help our restless hearts to find our ultimate satisfaction in you. Thank you for the bread of life, who we, when we believe in Jesus, find everything that our hearts need. May you do now what only your spirit and your word can do, confirm these truths to our hearts. In Christ's precious name we pray, amen.