Matthew 5:6 says "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled".
Father, thank you for being here. Lord, as the word is given I pray that you would annoint me just one more time. Lord, without you I'm just another speaker but Father, with you we declare the word. I pray that we would decrease and that you would increase. In your name, Jesus, amen.
I think If I were to sum up today's message in one word it would be the word, "Desire". I find in my life that the more I serve Jesus, the more I want Him, the more I want to know Him, the more I long to see his presence, the more I want to see his glory, the more I want to see the miracles, the more I just want to be with Jesus. How many of you just enjoy being with Jesus?
I want to talk this morning about having a righteous hunger for God. It used to be when you would come to church and many of you will understand, we were in a marvelous time in the 80's where it just seemed that people couldn't get enough of God. Something began to happen though over several decades where churches on a whole began to become fairly flat and dry. People came to church really out of duty, their passion for God kind of wained. You saw it all around you, maybe you even saw it in yourself.
What I have noticed happening in God's people is a growing hunger for more of him. It's exciting me to no end to see that the people of God are beginning to long for Him. There was a time where we got so caught up in our own things and our own ways that we began to lose the urgency in our heart to live for Jesus and to know him and to love him and to do his work. That hunger left us.
One of the reasons I like living in south Florida is because I can go to minor league baseball games. I'm not the greatest baseball fan in the world but I like to go because I like pretzels and hotdogs and I love to sit out there in the sun and just watch the game. But what I like about the minor leagues is they are hungry kids that are playing. These are kids that know they have a shot to do something with their life and when they get out on the field they're not just lolligagging around the field. I love to watch them out on the field, I think it's a marvelous thing. You see those kids get out there and they're hungry to do what they love. I'll go watch a minor league game anyday over a major league game where some guy making millions of dollars doesn't care if he shows up or not.
Today I'm talking about desire in the church. The other week I was watching a worship service that lasted over an hour. The truth is most people just want to come to a worship service, to get in and get out. But I watched as these people loved Jesus. Their hands were lifted to heaven, their heart longed to be with God. What I saw were people on their face passionate for God.
There is a hunger that God is bringing to his people, I was moved. I loved it, I felt like I was there with them. Tears began to stream down my face. I love to be in the presence of God and I love to watch people get in the presence of God. They had a genuine desire that I saw for God and I believe that God is drawing us back to Himself like never before. God has a desire for you and me, he longs to be with you. He longs to be with us as a church. I want to ask you, do you long to be in his presence? I'm not just talking about the song service at church but is there a hunger that we have to meet with the savior, to live for the savior, to see him have his way in us?
Christians in droves years before had left their first love, drawn away by the business of life, by the draw of entertainment, by the pursuit of wealth and many Christians have found themselves empty and lonely and longing for more. Maybe you're here this morning and you have found yourself in that place in life. There used to be a point where we knew there was nothing more in this world that could ever satisfy than living for God and letting him fill our life, and us laying our life before him. But something began to creep into the body of Christ and we began to want this mixture of the world and of Jesus. Wealth became our pursuit, leisure became our pursuit and we got into such a pursuit of that, that really many Christians who knew the hope of glory became lonely and felt empty. I want to tell you, if you're there that is a good place to be because something happens when you get to that point, a hunger begins to develop.
A few weeks ago, I came to the office like I do every morning. I get here about 8:30 and there's this longing in my heart even in the car just to come and meet with Jesus. When prayer becomes a regular part of your life it is not a crutch, it is a longing to be there, just like there are times when you need to be with your spouse and your family and you just need to get home. That morning when I came into the office it was just amazing, before I got out of the car the cell phone rang. When I walked into the office the office phone began to ring. It was Monday and I was thinking I had so much to do this week but there was this drawing in me saying, "Marvin, you need to come and meet with me". I could see that the week was so busy and I started to feel overwhelmed so I thought I'd cheat a little bit today and said, "God, I'm not going to go to the sanctuary to pray, I'm just going to pick up the Bible and begin to read". My Bible just fell right open to Psalms 63:1-7. I want to read that to you because I had that longing to get with God but I knew the pull of the day was so strong. It said this, "God, you are my God, early I will seek you. My soul thirsts for you, my flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water so I have looked for you in the sanctuary". That's where I pray everyday. God was saying, "You need to put down the pen, hang up the phone and you need to come to me".
"So I have looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory. Because your lovingkindness is better than life my lips shall praise you thus I will bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise you with joyful lips. When I remember you on my bed, I meditate on you in the night watches. Because you have been my help, therefore in the shadow of your wings I will rejoice".
I put my finger right there in the Bible and I took my Bible and my self into the sanctuary to meet with Jesus. The truth is you feel the pull of other things but there is something stirring inside you. That word says this, "My soul thirsts for you, my flesh longs for you". Every part of me wants more of God, not just that spirit part of me but even that natural man part of me. That natural man doesn't want the things of the world as much as that natural man still wants the things of God. David said, "I am hungry for you God and I'm going to come to you".
Listen, that hunger was stirring in David's life. There is a reason why even in the midst of David's great failures why he is called a man after God's own heart because his heartbeat was for the things of God. He wanted to know what God would have for him and wanted to spend time with him. I want you to mark this down, those who who are blessed in this life hunger and thirst for God. Those who walk in the favor of God, those who walk in the power of God, those who know the good things of God desire the things of the Lord.
I want to ask you this morning, when we called people forward for the altar call today and we were laying hands on the sick and praying, what was going on in your heart? Were you still longing to worship God as the worship continued? Were you interceding and praying for those who came up? Or were you kind of just standing there during the worship part wondering when this will be over so we can get on with it? I want you to examine your heart this morning. Where is your hunger? Are you hungry for Jesus or have you lost your appetite?
Christians want the secret to the favor of God all the time. They'll send money into TBN, they'll go to different conferences, they want to know what is the secret to having the favor of God in their life. I want to tell you what it is, be hungry. The Bible says that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be filled. Hunger speaks of the believers desire. I want to ask you before I go any further in this service, Christian, how is your appetite? Are you hungry for Jesus? Are you hungry for the things of God? How's your spiritual taster? The Bible says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good". How many have found Jesus to be good for you? Is that a taste that you just can't get out of your mouth? Is that something every morning when you wake up that you are hungry for?
I know food is a joke with us because you know I do love to eat so for me this is a very natural way to convey this. Some of you are hungry for something after church today, there's already that taste in you but I want to ask you, how is your spiritual taster for the righteousness of God? For the purity of God in your life? For the desire to see his power work in and through your life and to draw closer to him?
Like a dying man will reach and long for life giving water is like a man who is without God. Many Christians I know have lost their taste for the things of God because they've changed their taste for the things of the world. But if you want to be successful in the Lord, that taste for the Lord will return and never go away if you will want it.
The Bible talks of a latter rain and a former rain. The former rain being the early rain when we first have a life where we have that passion for Jesus and we have his life in us. But the Bible also talks about the latter rain like we need a good rain to help water the seed and then another rain to come and water the growth. The Bible talks of a latter rain because the truth is every one of us needs to be watered afresh again and again. There is a reason why God says he will send it again. I believe we are living in a time when God is sending a fresh touch to his church, where there is a new outpouring of his spirit, not a different outpouring, not a different spirit, but the same spirit in a different time, a different rain that God is sending. I believe we're living in that time.
Christians are returning to God with a zealousness and a desire to seek him and to see him move again. A good translation that I found of this verse says this, "Oh the blessedness in life of the man who longs to live holy for God. As a starving man longs for food, O the blessedness of the man who wants to live for righteousness. As a man perishing or thirsts longs for water, that man will be filled and will be truly satisfied".
David said in Psalms 42:2, "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God, when shall I come and appear before him"? When is the next time I can get with God? I have this thirst inside of me, when is the next time I can be near you Jesus? I want you to listen to this, the spiritual condition of a believer throughout their lives, the spiritual condition of a church, will depend on their hunger and thirst for righteousness. Not just a hunger and thirst for things but a hunger that depends on what and who we are thirsty for.
John 7:37 says this, "Jesus stood and cried out saying, If anyone thirsts let him come to me and drink". Of course Jesus talks about that for those who don't know him because he says if there is an emptiness in your life, if you need to be filled, if there is a dryness about you, you just need to come to me. But I believe today that verse speaks just as clearly to those who call themselves the Lord's. The truth is many people today in the churches are saying, "God, there must be more, there's got to be something else". They are thirsty for something and Jesus says this, "If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink". That hunger and thirst that we have is there to draw us to Jesus. How many of you are thankful that he puts that inside of us? That longing for more of him.
I want to ask you, what have you been drinking? And where have you been drinking? Do you long for God and for his ways more than ever before in your life or are you becoming kind of dry and dull in your living for Jesus?
We begin to lose our appetite for the things of God when we begin to mix our own spiritual diet with the things of the world. When you begin to mix your spiritual life with the things of the world that's when you begin the process of starving. In 3rd world nations mom's who have just a little bit of food many times will take dirt and mix it in because the children will eat that dirt along with the little bits of food and for a little while their belly won't hurt. That's a desperate place to be but the truth is the moment that start's happening although they think they're full, their body doesn't have any nutrients to process and the children, although mom's mean well, the children begin the process of starving.
The enemy tries to do that with Christians all the time, to mix a little bit of the world which is dirt in with your spiritual diet. There are a lot of Christians who think they're full and they don't understand why they don't have the energy anymore to live for God or the passion that they used to have, or the purity that once used to give them great power because they've begun to mix those things and have begun to spiritually die. Although the enemy has tricked them into thinking they're full they recognize that they are spiritually empty and there becomes a confusion in their life. I feel like I'm ok but I know that I'm dying inside, I know there's something missing. The enemy has tried to trick many believers into believing that lie. Any time you begin to have a mixture you start yourself on the road to being unsatisfied and pretty soon on the way to spiritual death. I want you to listen to me, don't let in the mixture of sin.
Righteousness includes the idea of moral goodness and those who live righteously must want it, they must desire to be pure, they must go after it. Those who are righteous long for the good life and for the things that come with right living. Someone once defined righteousness as the intense desire for goodness and all that it brings. It's interesting because having grown up in church, having grown up serving God, I have watched as there has been this edginess that Christians have. They want to live for God but how much of the world can I have in me without forsaking the Lord? There's almost this edgy pride of that, "I'm living for Jesus but I'm not so separated from the world that I'm out of touch with everybody else" and the spiritual power has begun to be lost. Is there an intense desire for you to live good and for all that goodness brings? The truth is the mixture of sin messes everything up and mixture is the absence of purity.
In Titus 1:15 it says, "To the pure all things are pure but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God but in works deny him, being abundantly disobedient and disqualified for every good work". How many of you want to be qualified for every good work? How many of you felt the word of God just come and touch some hearts in here?
We're going to talk about that purity and that righteousness, to the pure all things are pure. It is fun to get around Christians because a pure Christian isn't naive but when they get around the things of the world they know the difference between what is right and what is wrong, what is pure and what is evil. They know this mixture and they don't want any bit of it. To the pure all things are pure. They don't walk into a room and their mind isn't perverted so that when someone says something their mind isn't automatically going to that. How many have noticed you can hardly say anything in our society now without it having some kind of sexual connotation to it? Almost nothing. To the pure, their mind doesn't go there but to the defiled everything is defiled. The enemy has longed to do that in the lives of people but I believe there is a hunger in the people of God to see that purity of God in their life.
Proverbs 11:5 says this, "The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way aright". The truth is many Christians today are hungry and lonely and feeling confused because they don't have the righteous life and they're having a hard time finding their way. Those who live right for God, that righteousness helps direct their every step because they listen to the Lord, they know the Lord, they don't walk in confusion. How many have watched those people and it just seems they walk so close to the Lord and they seem to be making the right choices all the time? When they come to a part in their life and things seems like they could get a little messy, somehow they seem to be able to step right through it and into the things of God for their life. The reason for that is because they're living in righteousness, they're living in that purity for God and it is that righteousness that naturally directs the step of a righteous man because they are walking with God. They know the next step because they can see it, there isn't the mixture of confusion in their life. How many know that's a pretty big blessing in this life? "God, what do I do in this situation at work"? The steps of the righteous will be directed because they are righteous. The steps of a man in a relationship as husband and wife, God will direct you into the next step because they're walking in that power and that purity. I love the promise of that.
Righteousness acts as a compass toward blessing and it directs us. The truth is those who live in the purity of God don't have the fear of going in a wrong direction. There is something about the man that is living right for God that somehow they are just naturally directed like a compass to the things that are pleasing, to the blessings of God, to the favor of God, because they walk in it, because of the life of God that is in them. How do you become successful in life? How do you walk in the favor of God? You walk in the favor of God because those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be blessed and they shall be filled. Hunger causes you to eat and those who stop eating die. Americans don't have a problem with natural hunger. We eat and eat and eat, my refrigerator is full. I have to make sure I don't eat. But those who stop eating die. Jesus is the bread of life and he says to come and eat of me, drink of me.
Today is communion Sunday and I thought what a perfect time, what a timely message the way the Lord put it together. He says eat of my flesh, drink of my blood and do this in rememberance of me. Not only what he did on calvary but all the blessings that came with what Jesus did on the cross. Why? So that we will stay hungry for more of the Lord. Many people are struggling spiritually for a lack of the word in their life but if you will just come and eat. Let me ask you, do you long for the word of God? I'm not saying that you've got to sit down and eat for hours and hours. Listen, If you're eating for hours and hours in the natural you're just going to blow up. There are some people who get all out of whack, They say,"I read the Bible for 5 hours today, I've got to read the Bible for 5 hours tomorrow". Listen, if that's all you're doing with your spare time, it's better to read the Bible, get that word in you and go do something with it. We can get so out of balance. The more I read this word, the more I get in it, the more I want it everyday. I notice when I don't get in it, just like the day I started to get busy and I thought I'd just get just a little bit of the word, How many know God slapped me up side of the head with the word, "Come meet me in the sanctuary'. I love it.
Hosea 4:6 says, "My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge". He didn't say those people who don't know me, he didn't say those people who aren't part of the family of God, he said "my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge". We have no reason to starve when he's already prepared the meal for us and all we have to do is pick it up and eat. Aren't you glad you live in a day where you can actually go to a Bible bookstore, Walmart or Costco and you can pick up a meal? You can get the Word anywhere. We don't live centuries ago when they didn't have the written word. People had to go and hear it from someone who knew it, some scribe who knew a little bit but now we have this word that we can eat everyday. What a blessing.
Isaiah 5:13 says, "Therefore my people have gone into captivity because they have no knowlege. Their honorable men are famished and their multitudes dried up with thirst".
So many times we come and as your pastor I see Christians who are tied up, bound up and they need to be set free from things. That only happens when we're not in the word and we're not hungry for God. When we begin to lose that hunger, it says "My people have gone into captivity because they have no knowledge". They're not pursuing that righteousness, they're not pursuing that work from God. The truth is this, Christian, we've got the word of God at our disposal. You may get confused but if you ask you will receive and God will give to you.
A lot of people have gone into captivity because they don't know the word, they don't know the Lord. You've accepted Christ as your savior, you've gone beyond just believing there is a God, you have made that commitment to live for Him but so many are in captivity, bound up in this and that. Not just drugs and alcohol, I'm talking about in relationships and in things of the world that have gotten so confused. God says my people are in captivity, even their honorable men and the multitudes have dried up with thirst. Listen, many are needlessly in spiritual bondage but if you will just come and eat, you can be set free.
People say, "There's got to be more than that". How many know we try to complicate the things of God way too much? The word of God is simple.
You're having a problem, you're bound up in something and you can't get set free? Listen, you can eat your way out of it. Some of you have been waiting for some other thing or waiting for some preacher to deliver you. So many times we're waiting for some great revelation from God. If you're too lazy to eat your going to die. The problem is so many of us are bound up needlessly because we're not consuming the word, we're not in the presence of God, we don't want to be in the sanctuary.
People all over are saying churches are declining left and right. Our church is growing because there is a hunger, people are eating, people are drinking, people are coming to the Lord and it's a marvelous thing. Where that doesn't happen people starve spiritually and they die of thirst and begin to be in a desperate situation even more so before they were saved. The fact is that proper nourishment requires a balanced diet and we have to discipline ourselves to eat right. There are some streams of Christianity right now that are more like candy than meat. Candy tastes good but it has no nutritional value. Some Christians are like kids and all they want is not the hunger for righteousness, they want the benefit of righteousness without living righteously. They want the prosperity without the purity, they want the blessing without the humility, they want the power without the prayer and it doesn't happen unless you do what the word of God says. If all you eat is candy you have an unbalanced diet. True balance requires exercise so you don't grow fat.
John 4:34, Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work".
One of the resons I believe that so many Christians are unsatisfied and not full is because they love to come to church and there is a wonderful thing that the Lord is doing in our midst but if all we do is come to church on Wednesdays and Sundays and eat but we don't go out and do then we're just going to be fat, happy Christians. The truth is you'll only be fat and happy for awhile, prety soon you won't be happy. Jesus said, "My food is to to do the will of him who sent me". So many Christians, the reason why they are not satisfied and filled is because although they have the righteousness they haven't stepped out and let that power of the righteousness begin to change others lives and begin to minister around them.
Let me ask you, are you hungry for the work God brings to your life? If you're hungry for the things God has for your life you will never be lonely, I guarantee it. This pastor is never lonely, all I have to do is call certain people or step out and begin to minister and the lonliness goes away just like that. You'll never be bored if you'll do the things that God has. God has so much for your life that not only will you not be bored, you'll be real interested in the things he's got for you. I'm hoping it rains this afternoon, I love it when it rains on Sunday afternoon. Let the rain fall, the thunder come and I'm taking a nap, glory to God.
Let me ask you, what is your purpose? Is that part of your food? I used to struggle for a long time about certain people's responses in church. When I was younger I used to look around and say "God, I don't get it, some people just seem dead". I remember laying hands on someone who was deaf and now they could hear and the people in the church acted like it was no big deal. Jennifer got healed last week, she could hardly walk. She came out limping and in pain, we layed hands on her. It's not just the preacher who can do that, you can do that. That's what God has called us to do.
Jesus said, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me". It's powerful but Jesus said to me once, "Those who are hungry will eat and those who aren't won't". Basically he said, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink". Christians, Jesus has already placed the water before you. He's already given you himself, the bread of life, he's already given you the meat.
I want to close with this, the promise of those who hunger for righteousness is that they will be filled. They will have the full life.
Luke 1:53 says, "He has filled the hungry with good things". Literally they will be satisfied with abundance. I love the abundant life and my abundant life doesn't determine whether I'm driving a Jag or a Lexus or anything else. The abundant life comes from living with Jesus. I want you to hear me now because I believe that this is important. How many believe that God will do great things in the life of this church? How many are expecting to see this city won to Jesus? I want you to carry this with you today, God will not bestow his power, his presence or his purity on those who don't want it. I want to ask you, do you long for righteousness and all that it brings?
It talks about in Proverbs the promises God has for the righteous. Do you realize that if you are a righteous man, a righteous woman and you are living in the righteousness of God, all the blessings of that righteousness begin to be lived through your life? Proverbs 10:3,says, "The Lord will not allow the righteous soul to be famished but he casts aways the wicked of his eye". You'll never feel empty, you'll never feel worthless, you'll never feel like you don't have a purpose. Prov 10:6 says, "Blessings are on the head of the righteous but violence covers the mouth of the wicked". Those who are righteous will have speech that brings life to themselves and to others. Proverbs 10:11 says, "The mouth of the righteous is a well of life".
Let me ask you, do you have life coming out of your mouth or death? Proverbs 10:20 says, "The tongue of the righteous is choice silver but the heart of the wicked is worth little". Verse 21 says, "The lips of the righteous feed many but fools die for lack of wisdom". Are your lips feeding people or killing people? I don't have a problem saying this, this isn't prideful, I am the righteousness of God. I expect that when my mouth speaks that people will be fed. When I'm going through the drivethru at McDonalds to pick up a hamburger, as I'm talking to the lady, all I can do is begin to speak into her life and it will make a difference. Verse 31, "The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom but the perverse tongue will be cut out".
In times of trouble the righteous will stay strong. Do you realize that if you are righteous and you seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things will be added to you? Those who are hungry shall be filled. Proverbs 10:25 says this, "When the whirlwind passes by the wicked is no more but the righteous has an everlasting foundation". Proverbs 11:8 says, "The righteous is delivered from trouble and it comes to the wicked instead". Listen, God will deliver you out of them all. Do you expect it? Do you live it?
Proverbs 12:3, "A man is not established by wickedness but the root of the righteous cannot be moved". Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed because they are filled. Let me ask you, is that the life that you want more than anything? Is that how you want to live? Is that what you're starving for? If it is, I promise you, you will be satisfied and you won't be disappointed. God says he will fill the hungry soul.
