WEBVTT 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:18.640 Matthew five, verse six: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 00:00:20.559 --> 00:00:26.800 There are very few things in life that motivate us like food. 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:34.159 We often build our days around food. 00:00:34.479 --> 00:00:37.280 We build our vacations around food. 00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:41.439 We build so much of our life around food. 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:44.399 I mean, even just anything unusual. 00:00:44.799 --> 00:00:47.520 A friend says, hey, let's go out after church. 00:00:47.759 --> 00:00:50.479 Okay, where are we going to eat? 00:00:51.600 --> 00:00:54.560 A friend invites you to go on vacation with them. 00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:58.880 Hey, let's go over in a lake house for a week. 00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:00.960 And your response might be, great. 00:01:01.119 --> 00:01:02.960 Who's going to do the cooking? 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:04.079 Where are we going to eat? 00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:09.680 And you plan out, even in the weeks leading up to the vacation, you might plan out who has which meals and all that. 00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:18.719 You're structuring your whole relational time and vacation around who's going to cook and when they're going to cook and what are they going to make and who's going to shop for the food. 00:01:18.879 --> 00:01:22.000 It's just we're geared to think and live that way. 00:01:22.480 --> 00:01:24.480 We plan it, we talk about it. 00:01:24.640 --> 00:01:30.000 You're on your way out the door to work in the morning and you already have in your mind what you're doing for lunch. 00:01:30.239 --> 00:01:33.280 Your wife might even ask you, hey, what do you have lunch plans today? 00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:36.079 Oh, yeah, I have a meeting with this person and we'll do it at lunch. 00:01:36.159 --> 00:01:37.599 Or actually, no, I don't have lunch plans. 00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:39.840 And you grab food to take, you're planning ahead. 00:01:40.079 --> 00:01:45.120 In four hours, I'm going to need to eat, so I'm going to grab my lunch now and take it with me to work. 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:56.239 And if you forget to do that, you stop what you're doing in the middle of the day, and you, if you work at Emmanuel Bible Church, you walk across the street to one of the 20 restaurants right across the street. 00:01:56.480 --> 00:01:58.640 I mean, you stop whatever you're doing. 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:03.760 And if you don't stop what you're doing to go eat when it is lunchtime, you are not productive. 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:06.159 You get angry at your coworkers. 00:02:06.640 --> 00:02:11.199 You grumble, you complain, you lose energy, you lose focus, you can't even work. 00:02:11.520 --> 00:02:15.520 And so so much of our life is built around food. 00:02:16.240 --> 00:02:20.719 We even talk about what we're going to eat at the next meal at the current meal. 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:29.039 We made a rule in our family once that uh that I think needs to be brought back out sometimes, but like, no talking about the next meal at this meal, okay? 00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:32.080 One meal is sufficient for conversation. 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:42.479 You know, you post pictures of your food on social media, some of you, which immediately gets you unfollowed by me. 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:50.000 Everything we do, it seems, is about food. 00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:52.960 We understand at a family level. 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:54.400 You want a healthy family? 00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:59.280 A great way to have a felt healthy family is to have meals together. 00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:00.560 Have meals together. 00:03:00.639 --> 00:03:01.840 It builds conversation. 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:05.120 It's just just a it's indicative of a family that's that's functioning. 00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:07.919 You guys you meet together, you know, at dinner. 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:24.479 It's rude if the husband's not coming home from work or doesn't communicate to his wife that he's gonna be late because maybe there is food ready, and maybe the kids are around the table and you're not there, and it's weird, and they don't know if they're supposed to eat, and they get angry at each other because they're hungry and you're doing your own thing. 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:30.879 And food just is injected into all of our social relationships in that way. 00:03:32.240 --> 00:03:34.800 You want to hang out with somebody, you go eat with them. 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:37.520 You go eat with them. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:48.800 Our life is just structured around what we need to eat next, when we're gonna eat, how it's planned for, you get angry if it doesn't happen. 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:54.719 You go to Chewy's and she says 15 minutes, and at 17 minutes, you're like, you said 15 minutes. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:58.319 You're not even making eye contact with me. 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:23.680 What if, what if instead of structuring your day and your thinking around what you're going to eat, what if you brought that same approach to how you're going to serve the Lord? 00:04:24.879 --> 00:04:29.360 What if instead of the first question being, what are we going to eat? 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:33.839 The first question in your mind at least being, how can we serve the Lord there? 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:38.000 A friend invites you to go out, how can we serve the Lord? 00:04:38.319 --> 00:04:42.399 A family invites you to go on vacation, how can we serve the Lord? 00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:49.279 You think through the day and you think, what am I gonna do for lunch today? 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:54.560 Rather, you think through the day and you think, how can I serve the Lord with this activity today? 00:04:54.720 --> 00:05:02.959 You come home from work, not just to eat, but you come home from work to be with your family so that you can serve the Lord together. 00:05:03.279 --> 00:05:07.600 What if that was the driving thing in our thinking? 00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:13.839 We understand that you know babies cry because they need food. 00:05:14.240 --> 00:05:16.560 We understand with teenagers, you know, they're in the room. 00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:19.519 Don't worry, they'll come out eventually, they'll get hungry eventually. 00:05:19.839 --> 00:05:21.439 You'll see them again. 00:05:23.120 --> 00:05:28.959 What if our thinking was geared around growing out of the desire for food and into the desire for righteousness? 00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:31.519 And I I grant it's a false dichotomy. 00:05:31.600 --> 00:05:33.199 It's a both ands, not an either-or. 00:05:33.519 --> 00:05:36.800 You need to think about what you're gonna eat, or you want to have the strength to serve the Lord. 00:05:36.879 --> 00:05:37.839 I get that. 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:42.720 But just work with the illustration Jesus is using here. 00:05:43.920 --> 00:06:16.000 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, not period, but blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who have a zeal for life, who take their hunger, which is an inner desire, their thirst, which is an inner need, who channel that inner desire and that inner need towards something that is not just feeding their face, but towards something that is feeding their faith, that is getting them in the world and actively serving the Lord Jesus, who have a desire to pursue righteousness. 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:20.480 That will lead to happiness, Jesus says. 00:06:20.720 --> 00:06:25.839 Blessed or happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. 00:06:30.319 --> 00:06:42.000 It's a very clear call to take your desires and orient them around something other than yourself, to orient them around the Lord and his righteousness. 00:06:43.199 --> 00:06:47.040 We're gonna kind of build our outline around the concept of righteousness this morning. 00:06:47.439 --> 00:06:50.319 To begin with, you need to understand what righteousness is. 00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:59.759 I think the best way to define righteousness is that it's the moral quality of God, it's God's ethical dimension. 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:01.680 It's how God functions morally. 00:07:01.759 --> 00:07:05.120 It's the attribute of God that is his goodness. 00:07:06.639 --> 00:07:09.279 It's morally speaking how you describe God. 00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:10.240 He is righteous. 00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:11.519 He's holy. 00:07:11.759 --> 00:07:14.800 Righteous is a synonym for holy, I guess. 00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:18.639 Righteousness is that attribute of God on display. 00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:22.800 God is righteous, and so his deeds display righteousness. 00:07:22.959 --> 00:07:27.439 Just like at a human level, if somebody is good, their actions display their goodness. 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:31.439 If somebody is evil, their actions display their wickedness. 00:07:31.600 --> 00:07:35.920 If God is righteous, his actions display his righteousness. 00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:39.600 It's the quality that fills God's acts. 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:45.279 You look at how a righteous person acts, and his acts could be described as righteousness. 00:07:45.439 --> 00:07:46.240 That's what the word is. 00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:54.399 It's the moral dilemma or the moral dimension of God, a moral description of God is righteousness. 00:07:55.839 --> 00:08:01.279 The very first use of the word righteousness in the Bible is arguably its most important or its most significant. 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:06.800 The word righteousness enters the pages of scripture in the book of Genesis with Abram. 00:08:06.959 --> 00:08:18.000 Abram heard the command of God to go and leave his family, to take his wife, and then he would have a son and a promise, and the promise would come to the world through the son. 00:08:18.240 --> 00:08:25.199 And the scripture says Abram believed God, and that was credited to him as righteousness. 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:28.240 He put his faith in God's promise. 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:30.000 That is righteousness. 00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:35.279 Abram believed that God is righteous, and so the promise displayed his righteousness. 00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:40.480 Abram, by connecting himself to that promise of God, received the righteousness of God. 00:08:41.600 --> 00:08:45.279 Now, as the Torah goes on, the word righteousness reappears. 00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:47.039 It becomes a theme in the book of Deuteronomy. 00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:53.919 In the book of Deuteronomy, God tells the Israelites, because I am righteous, your deeds should display righteousness. 00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:58.639 In other words, if Yahweh is your God, you should live like He describes. 00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:02.639 You should put yourself under the authority of His Word and live it out. 00:09:02.879 --> 00:09:08.960 You're displaying to the world your connection to God by your connection to his righteousness. 00:09:10.559 --> 00:09:14.080 Because of Yahweh's righteousness, you are supposed to live righteously. 00:09:14.240 --> 00:09:16.320 That's a recurring theme in Deuteronomy. 00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:18.399 But it is all over the Old Testament. 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:21.039 Psalm 119 is a very clear example of this. 00:09:21.120 --> 00:09:32.480 The word righteousness is used repeatedly through there, but my favorite usage of it is in verse 138, where it says, You have appointed your testimonies in righteousness and in all your faithfulness. 00:09:32.960 --> 00:09:34.879 Think about the chronology of that verse. 00:09:35.039 --> 00:09:37.759 You have appointed your testimonies in righteousness. 00:09:37.919 --> 00:09:39.519 God has appointed his testimonies. 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:47.200 In Psalm 119, that's synonymous with his word, his law, his commandments, his statutes, his regulations, his directives. 00:09:47.440 --> 00:09:48.559 Basically, the Bible. 00:09:48.720 --> 00:09:52.080 God has appointed the scripture in righteousness. 00:09:52.240 --> 00:09:59.679 So the Meliu or the context of where God designed Scripture in His mind is in the context of righteousness. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:02.399 God doesn't do drafts of scripture. 00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:04.799 The Bible is instant in the mind of God. 00:10:04.879 --> 00:10:07.440 It's composed entirely in the very mind of God. 00:10:07.600 --> 00:10:09.519 He doesn't go through revisions of it or anything. 00:10:09.840 --> 00:10:11.120 It's instantaneous in his mind. 00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:12.799 When he conceives it, it's there. 00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:17.279 But the context or the fabric of that is God's own righteousness. 00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:23.200 When God thinks of the Bible, the Bible is revealing who God is and God is righteous. 00:10:23.360 --> 00:10:25.679 So the scripture comes out of God's righteousness. 00:10:25.759 --> 00:10:27.120 That's what Psalm 119 means. 00:10:27.279 --> 00:10:32.240 When it says, you've appointed your testimonies or your statutes in righteousness. 00:10:33.440 --> 00:10:42.000 You understand that righteousness is a characteristic of God and that God is complete, God is unified, God's not made up of parts. 00:10:42.320 --> 00:10:45.519 You don't take different attributes and mix them together, and out comes God. 00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:47.679 God is those things all at once. 00:10:47.840 --> 00:10:53.440 God is righteousness and goodness and holiness instantly and simultaneously and for all eternity. 00:10:53.679 --> 00:10:58.559 That's important to understand when you think of righteousness in particularly, for this reason. 00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:10.399 Sometimes when we think of righteousness, we're tempted to think that there is a moral code of conduct that is outside of God and that God is righteous because he does those things. 00:11:10.960 --> 00:11:24.879 Almost like if in the courtroom of heaven the Ten Commandments are on the wall, and God looks at the Ten Commandments and thinks about how he'll act based upon what they say, and then we would say God is righteous because he's keeping the law that's on the wall. 00:11:25.039 --> 00:11:26.960 That's not the way God's righteousness works. 00:11:27.120 --> 00:11:35.600 Because if it worked that way, it would imply that righteousness is something that exists outside of God, and God is righteous because he conforms himself to that standard. 00:11:36.080 --> 00:11:38.399 But the Bible says that the opposite way. 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:10.559 All of God's word reveals God's flawless and perfect character. 00:12:11.519 --> 00:12:13.360 That is his righteousness. 00:12:14.240 --> 00:12:15.679 It reveals himself. 00:12:15.919 --> 00:12:23.200 This is why Isaiah 56, verse 1, says, Thus says Yahweh, keep justice and do righteousness. 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:27.519 You think, how do you keep justice? 00:12:27.919 --> 00:12:29.840 How do you do righteousness? 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:33.039 If you keep justice, where do you keep justice? 00:12:33.200 --> 00:12:34.480 Do you keep it in your sock drawer? 00:12:34.639 --> 00:12:36.080 Where do you keep justice? 00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:37.360 Do righteousness. 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:39.759 What does that mean to do righteousness? 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:50.240 Well, it's a way of saying that you, through faith, believe in God and you believe that God's word reveals God as He is, and so you are going to keep the standards of the Bible. 00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:52.080 You're going to keep God's commands. 00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:54.639 You're going to strive to live them out, to do them. 00:12:54.799 --> 00:12:57.679 And as you keep the word of God, you are keeping justice. 00:12:57.759 --> 00:13:01.039 And as you live out the word of God, you are living out righteousness. 00:13:01.200 --> 00:13:03.360 It's righteousness on display. 00:13:04.639 --> 00:13:07.919 You recognize that we live in a dark world. 00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:10.960 We're looking at God dimly through a dim glass. 00:13:11.039 --> 00:13:13.679 We don't see God face to face, so we try to do the best we can. 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:15.679 We have his word, we receive his word by faith. 00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:16.799 We try to live out his word. 00:13:16.960 --> 00:13:25.120 And that's why Isaiah 56 goes on to say, keep justice, do righteousness, knowing that Yahweh will come and his deliverance will be revealed. 00:13:25.279 --> 00:13:28.720 In other words, we we keep justice while we're waiting for Yahweh. 00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:31.679 We practice righteousness while we wait for the return of Christ. 00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:36.799 We put his word to work, because his word tethers his righteousness into this world. 00:13:37.039 --> 00:13:45.360 We practice it, we live it out, waiting for him to come personally where righteousness will be revealed face to face in the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:13:46.080 --> 00:13:51.279 That's what it means to practice righteousness, to do righteousness. 00:13:52.240 --> 00:13:54.159 The New Testament picks up on this theme. 00:13:54.240 --> 00:14:02.639 You know, the very first use of the word righteousness in the New Testament is also insightful, just like the one from the Old Testament, Abram and credited him as righteousness. 00:14:02.799 --> 00:14:06.080 That sets the stage for the whole Old Testament, the promise of the Savior, and all that. 00:14:06.240 --> 00:14:11.440 The New Testament, the first use of the word righteousness in the New Testament, is similarly paradigmatic. 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:16.159 It shows Jesus at the water of baptism, going to John. 00:14:16.559 --> 00:14:18.879 Baptism was for repentance from sins, remember. 00:14:19.039 --> 00:14:21.440 John was baptizing people as they repented from their sin. 00:14:21.600 --> 00:14:23.519 Jesus comes to the water for baptism. 00:14:23.759 --> 00:14:27.600 John recognizes Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 00:14:27.759 --> 00:14:31.600 And John says, I shouldn't be baptizing you, you should be baptizing me. 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:33.039 That was John's objection. 00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:38.960 I don't want to baptize the Savior because that would imply he has sin and that would imply I'm above him. 00:14:39.120 --> 00:14:42.559 And John, if there's anything that's true about John the Baptist, it's that he's not above the Savior. 00:14:42.960 --> 00:14:47.200 He keeps saying, I'm going to grow less, I'm going to go under, I'm not worthy to tie his sandals. 00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:51.360 And so now the Savior shows up at the water and John says, I am not baptizing you. 00:14:52.639 --> 00:14:55.279 And Jesus says, No, you have to. 00:14:56.240 --> 00:15:01.600 This is necessary to fulfill all righteousness. 00:15:02.080 --> 00:15:04.720 That word fulfill, bring up from the inside. 00:15:04.879 --> 00:15:06.480 It's going to complete righteousness. 00:15:06.639 --> 00:15:12.480 In other words, Jesus is saying, I am under, Jesus is saying, Jesus as man is under the law of God. 00:15:12.639 --> 00:15:16.080 It's showing the meekness of Christ, that he's submitting to the law of God. 00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:19.759 It shows the meekness of Christ that he's putting himself as a servant even to John. 00:15:19.919 --> 00:15:21.200 John's pointing at Jesus. 00:15:21.440 --> 00:15:23.519 Jesus is pointing at John, pointing to Jesus. 00:15:23.600 --> 00:15:29.519 It's all about Jesus submitting himself to the Word of God, even though he had no sin to repent of, Jesus never sinned. 00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:32.320 But he's going to fill up righteousness. 00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:34.720 God's law displays righteousness. 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:37.440 Jesus is submitting to God's law, keeping all of it. 00:15:37.519 --> 00:15:41.360 He's doing everything the Bible commands him to do perfectly without sin. 00:15:41.919 --> 00:15:47.279 And in this instance, he's getting baptized by John to demonstrate his authority and his submission to the Word of God. 00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:49.039 That's righteousness on display. 00:15:49.200 --> 00:15:52.720 Righteousness paired with meekness right there, and submission. 00:15:53.360 --> 00:15:55.440 Jesus living in obedience to Torah. 00:15:55.519 --> 00:15:57.200 That is practical righteousness. 00:15:57.360 --> 00:15:58.639 So that's what righteousness is. 00:15:58.879 --> 00:16:04.320 In this beatitude, verse 5 here, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:07.200 Couple observations about how this righteousness relates to us. 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:09.600 First is righteousness and our desperation. 00:16:10.159 --> 00:16:11.840 Righteousness and our desperation. 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:17.759 This beatitude hinges on the use of the word hunger or the pair here, hunger and thirst. 00:16:17.919 --> 00:16:23.519 Hunger and thirst are often used in the Old Testament to indicate a deep desire for something. 00:16:23.840 --> 00:16:29.919 You hunger and thirst for righteousness, you hunger and thirst for God's kingdom, you hunger and thirst for deliverance. 00:16:30.399 --> 00:16:32.559 We even use that kind of idiom today. 00:16:32.879 --> 00:16:37.600 A coach might tell a sports team, are you guys hungry for a win? 00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:41.840 Or you'll hear an athlete after a game say, Oh, I knew we were going to win because we were hungry for it. 00:16:41.919 --> 00:16:42.799 And what does that mean? 00:16:43.120 --> 00:16:50.960 It means inside of them there's this desperation, there's a desire, there's a seeking after something that motivates you from the inside. 00:16:52.480 --> 00:16:54.240 That's what hunger and thirst means. 00:16:54.399 --> 00:16:58.879 But also, it has to be pointed out, something that I think should be obvious to us. 00:16:59.039 --> 00:17:10.240 Hunger and thirst in the ancient Near East or in the Roman world or in an agrarian society or an arid society like Jerusalem is going to be very different than hunger and thirst in our American culture, right? 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:14.799 I mean, you get so hungry if church goes five minutes late. 00:17:15.119 --> 00:17:15.920 Hungry. 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:21.680 If you forget lunch, like I said, you can go across the street to one of 20 restaurants. 00:17:21.839 --> 00:17:24.720 And if you forget your wallet, it doesn't matter, pay in your phone. 00:17:24.799 --> 00:17:26.720 If you don't have cash, pay in a credit card. 00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:29.119 If you don't have money to pay the credit card off, that's okay. 00:17:29.200 --> 00:17:31.440 Make the minimum payment next month, you know? 00:17:32.319 --> 00:17:37.759 We don't really have a grid for what hunger is in our society because there's so many different ways for you to get food now. 00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:39.680 You can get food by lunchtime right now. 00:17:39.920 --> 00:17:44.880 Bust out your phone, and a thousand restaurants will deliver to you in church, walk down the aisle and hand it to you. 00:17:46.079 --> 00:17:48.480 Don't try that, please, to make the point. 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:53.599 All that to say we don't really have a grid for what hunger is. 00:17:54.559 --> 00:18:00.000 But in an agrarian society, look, if it doesn't rain enough, you're not gonna get enough food for winter. 00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:01.440 That's what hunger is. 00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:05.039 Like February is gonna come around and you don't have food. 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:07.680 So what happens in that world? 00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:09.119 Well, you eat less. 00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:11.359 You pace yourself on your food. 00:18:11.519 --> 00:18:18.480 At harvest time, you know, portion it out and you eat less, which means you will be hungry for four or five months. 00:18:19.680 --> 00:18:21.599 Or you pack up and move. 00:18:21.839 --> 00:18:27.839 Like in Ruth chapter one, there was a famine in the land, and so they packed up and they moved to Moab. 00:18:28.720 --> 00:18:29.920 That's what you do. 00:18:31.359 --> 00:18:32.079 Or water. 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:34.240 You know, we don't know what thirsty is here. 00:18:34.319 --> 00:18:36.880 You're so thirsty because you've got your water bottle in your car. 00:18:37.039 --> 00:18:38.960 There's drinking fountains in the hallway. 00:18:42.240 --> 00:18:46.240 In Israel, it's so hard to find water. 00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:48.240 It's so hard to find water. 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:50.960 It's a tourist thing to go through Hezekiah's tunnel. 00:18:51.119 --> 00:18:52.559 Look, they found a spring and they diverted. 00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:54.480 And you get you get there and you're like, it's so small. 00:18:54.559 --> 00:18:58.880 It's like this little creek, this little tiny stream is watering the whole city. 00:18:59.119 --> 00:19:02.400 You go out along the Dead Sea, it's so hard to find water out there. 00:19:02.480 --> 00:19:06.880 It's you know, it's easy to find Ingeti now because there's a big sign that says in Getty right here. 00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:08.799 Parking here for Ngeti, tour guides. 00:19:08.880 --> 00:19:10.480 Oh, here's the springs that David was at. 00:19:10.640 --> 00:19:13.759 If you don't have all that, it's very hard to find. 00:19:14.240 --> 00:19:15.839 That's this world. 00:19:16.799 --> 00:19:20.240 So there's this desperation that's associated with hunger and thirst. 00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:24.319 You should think of Psalm 42, which Pastor Steve read for a scripture reading. 00:19:24.480 --> 00:19:28.480 As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after God. 00:19:29.839 --> 00:19:35.599 As the deer pants for water, that's not, you know, Hallmark cards have ruined that Bible verse, by the way. 00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:45.440 You go to the bookstore and there's the picture of like the rainforest and the happy-looking deer next to a flowing brook with you know water splashing in the air and the deer smiling and having a drink. 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:48.480 That is not what a deer panting for water looks like. 00:19:49.599 --> 00:19:55.440 That's a a deer panting for water is an image of a wounded animal, an animal that is on the brink of death. 00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:59.839 You know, if you see a deer panting, like call Fairfax County. 00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:01.359 I mean, that thing's sick. 00:20:01.440 --> 00:20:02.319 That thing's going down. 00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:05.599 You don't want to eat a deer that was panting before you shot it. 00:20:07.519 --> 00:20:09.680 It's a sign of desperation. 00:20:10.640 --> 00:20:12.000 And that's what's happening here. 00:20:12.160 --> 00:20:15.839 Are you hungering and thirsting for righteousness? 00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:17.359 Are you desperate for righteousness? 00:20:17.440 --> 00:20:19.119 Do you have the approach that the deer does? 00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:21.680 If I don't find the water, I will die. 00:20:21.839 --> 00:20:27.920 And that's what happens when if you do go bow hunting and you shoot a deer with the bow, the first thing it's gonna do is try to get away from you. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:30.319 But the second thing it's gonna try to do is get to water. 00:20:30.559 --> 00:20:33.680 It has this instinctive drive to it, that the water will help it. 00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:38.960 Its greatest need is its own life at that point, and getting to the creek will save it. 00:20:40.319 --> 00:20:43.039 Is that your attitude towards righteousness? 00:20:43.200 --> 00:20:53.440 Do you recognize that you are wounded by sin, that the arrow of sin has pierced you and you are bleeding out, and the only hope for you is to make it to God's righteousness. 00:20:53.599 --> 00:20:55.759 That's what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness. 00:20:55.839 --> 00:20:59.519 There's images of famine all over the Old Testament, and none of them are good, of course. 00:20:59.839 --> 00:21:04.960 Think of Jeremiah, where the donkeys won't even give birth because of the drought and the famine. 00:21:05.039 --> 00:21:06.799 They'd rather die than give birth. 00:21:06.960 --> 00:21:12.799 Or in 1 Kings 17, the Israelites are in a famine, and ravens are bringing Elijah food, and everybody else is dying. 00:21:13.119 --> 00:21:19.440 Or in 2 Kings 6, with Elisha, there's a famine in Samaria, Israel's capital, and they're resorting to cannibalism. 00:21:19.519 --> 00:21:20.960 They're eating each other. 00:21:23.119 --> 00:21:24.240 That's hunger. 00:21:24.400 --> 00:21:25.759 That's thirst. 00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:29.680 And there's an irony to those Old Testament examples of hunger and thirst. 00:21:29.839 --> 00:21:36.559 In all of the ones I just told you, it's because the Israelites were worshiping the rain God that God was withholding rain. 00:21:37.279 --> 00:21:46.160 They're gonna worship the rain god, God withholds the rain, God withholds the rain, they go into famine, they need rain to grow food, and so they start worshiping the rain God more. 00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:48.000 That's the cycle. 00:21:48.319 --> 00:21:50.240 The 2 Kings 6 one is so obvious. 00:21:51.359 --> 00:22:02.400 There's a famine in Samaria, they're dying because they're worshiping the rain god, and so the king of Samaria walks along the wall and says, If Elisha's head Is not served me on a platter today. 00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:08.160 He makes a vow that he's gonna do whatever it takes to kill Elisha rather than repent and trust God. 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:13.519 People hunger and thirst for all sorts of things. 00:22:13.680 --> 00:22:16.240 You know, our country isn't in a national covenant with God. 00:22:16.319 --> 00:22:21.680 You know, you can't say, uh, because of our own country's lack of righteousness, God withholds the rain from us. 00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:24.400 That was a covenant with Israel, not with America. 00:22:24.559 --> 00:22:27.599 But I will tell you the way it does parallel. 00:22:28.319 --> 00:22:34.480 You see people today that don't worship the rain God, but worship themselves, their own self-fulfillment. 00:22:34.720 --> 00:22:42.480 They think that they can pursue the God of money and be satisfied, the God of self-pleasure and be satisfied. 00:22:43.920 --> 00:22:48.319 And the more they pursue those things, God may even let them get those things, but they won't be satisfied. 00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:52.880 The person who lives for money may even accumulate money for himself, but is the money gonna satisfy him? 00:22:53.039 --> 00:22:53.839 Of course not. 00:22:54.079 --> 00:23:02.240 The person who lives for self-fulfillment and personal success, God may grant that person self-fulfillment and personal success, but it won't satisfy him. 00:23:02.400 --> 00:23:10.000 And so the more he's searching for satisfaction in those arenas, the more he's going to be disappointed, the more he doubles down and keeps going. 00:23:12.400 --> 00:23:14.400 Just like worshiping the rain god. 00:23:16.079 --> 00:23:18.960 You see this with some people with sexual immorality. 00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:20.559 That's the language of Romans 1. 00:23:20.720 --> 00:23:25.359 The people think, oh, if only I could sin in this way, then I would be satisfied. 00:23:25.519 --> 00:23:29.839 And so they go after that sin, they do that sin, and does it satisfy? 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:30.880 Of course not. 00:23:31.119 --> 00:23:32.319 Do they learn the lesson? 00:23:32.480 --> 00:23:33.440 Also, of course not. 00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:35.440 They keep going back to it. 00:23:36.559 --> 00:23:39.039 And it never satisfies. 00:23:39.359 --> 00:23:41.839 Eventually, one of two things will happen. 00:23:42.160 --> 00:23:44.480 God will give that kind of person over to their desires. 00:23:44.640 --> 00:23:48.240 God will just say, you can spend the rest of your life serving your own sin. 00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:56.400 Serve money, serve pleasure, serve sexual morality, serve your own personal success, go for it. 00:23:56.640 --> 00:23:58.880 You'll never be happy, and I'm giving you over to it. 00:23:58.960 --> 00:24:00.000 That's the language of Romans 1. 00:24:00.079 --> 00:24:02.000 They're giving over to their desires. 00:24:02.640 --> 00:24:04.799 Or the person will have an epiphany. 00:24:04.880 --> 00:24:12.880 The person will come to the realization that serving themselves does not produce satisfaction, but only separation from God. 00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:18.160 When that happens, that's the hungering and thirsting for righteousness. 00:24:20.240 --> 00:24:23.839 When that happens, you realize I'm desperate on my own. 00:24:24.079 --> 00:24:26.559 I need God's righteousness in order for me to live. 00:24:26.720 --> 00:24:31.519 I need God's righteousness for me to be satisfied in this life, and I can't obtain it. 00:24:32.799 --> 00:24:35.920 That's hungering and thirsting for righteousness. 00:24:37.279 --> 00:24:39.839 And by the way, this is an ongoing hungering and thirsting. 00:24:39.920 --> 00:24:41.119 This isn't the moment of salvation. 00:24:41.279 --> 00:24:44.240 This is an ongoing hungering and thirsting for righteousness your whole life. 00:24:44.319 --> 00:24:45.279 Just like it is with food. 00:24:45.359 --> 00:24:49.920 I mean, if you said, Oh, I'm hungry for lunch, I wouldn't say it, but you ate lunch yesterday. 00:24:51.920 --> 00:24:55.279 You hunger and thirst for righteousness throughout your Christian life. 00:24:55.359 --> 00:24:56.240 That's the desperation. 00:24:56.319 --> 00:24:58.480 You're desperate for God's righteousness. 00:24:58.720 --> 00:25:03.519 Second, revelation about righteousness from this passage is righteousness in our motivation. 00:25:03.680 --> 00:25:05.359 We saw righteousness in our desperation. 00:25:05.440 --> 00:25:07.599 Here's righteousness in our motivation. 00:25:08.559 --> 00:25:13.680 This beatitude here is a, I would refer to it as the bridge beatitude. 00:25:13.920 --> 00:25:20.079 It's connecting the ones that went before with the ones that come after, and I guess every beatitude does that, but this does it in a unique way. 00:25:20.319 --> 00:25:25.519 The first three beatitudes are about the person going low and about the person being empty. 00:25:25.680 --> 00:25:29.920 And the next beatitudes after this are about positive action, living in the world. 00:25:30.079 --> 00:25:33.039 This is the beatitude that connects those two camps. 00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:36.640 So the first beatitude remember is blessed are the poor in spirit. 00:25:36.799 --> 00:25:40.240 That's the person who says, I am not righteous on my own. 00:25:40.319 --> 00:25:44.480 They go looking for their wallet for godliness and they don't have it. 00:25:44.720 --> 00:25:47.519 They have no currency before God on their own. 00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:51.359 They're spiritually poor, they're poor in spirit, they're spiritually bankrupt. 00:25:51.519 --> 00:25:53.920 They don't have any capital to stand before God. 00:25:54.079 --> 00:25:57.759 If they were to stand before God and God were to say, Why should I let you into heaven? 00:25:57.920 --> 00:26:00.400 this person realizes they have no answer for that. 00:26:00.559 --> 00:26:03.119 There is no reason God should have favor on them. 00:26:03.279 --> 00:26:05.359 There's no reason God should love them. 00:26:05.599 --> 00:26:08.000 That's spiritual poverty. 00:26:08.480 --> 00:26:15.039 Somebody asked me after I preached a sermon a few weeks ago, if spiritual poverty is true, why would God love us? 00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:18.079 And I mean, that is the right question. 00:26:19.039 --> 00:26:21.599 That's the question for somebody who's listening closely. 00:26:21.920 --> 00:26:24.880 If spiritual poverty is true, why would God love you? 00:26:24.960 --> 00:26:27.119 That is the hugest question. 00:26:27.680 --> 00:26:31.119 That question is what makes that beatitude so important. 00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:35.039 For you to realize there's no good answer to that question. 00:26:35.359 --> 00:26:38.160 He certainly doesn't love me because of anything in me. 00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:41.759 I'm broken and I'm poor. 00:26:41.839 --> 00:26:43.519 That's spiritual bankruptcy. 00:26:43.839 --> 00:26:46.559 The second beatitude is mourning, do you remember? 00:26:46.799 --> 00:26:49.200 Mourning over your bankruptcy. 00:26:49.519 --> 00:26:53.839 So the per lots of people are aware of their spiritual bankruptcy, but that doesn't produce salvation. 00:26:53.920 --> 00:27:02.480 They're aware they don't have any spiritual capital, but they make excuses, or they say it's somebody else's fault, or they say everybody's in the same boat, or I can just be a good person, or whatever. 00:27:02.640 --> 00:27:07.279 Lots of people realize their spiritual bankruptcy, but it does not lead them to salvation. 00:27:07.599 --> 00:27:11.039 Some people realize their spiritual bankruptcy and it leads them to mourning. 00:27:11.119 --> 00:27:20.000 And they weep over their sin and they weep over their spiritual malfunction and they weep over their lack of righteousness. 00:27:20.640 --> 00:27:24.799 But again, not everybody who weeps over their sin is saved either. 00:27:25.039 --> 00:27:35.839 The Bible is filled with stories, lots of stories of people who weep over their sin that didn't find salvation, including Esau, who, though he sought repentance with tears, it was withheld from him. 00:27:36.799 --> 00:27:39.519 Or Judas, who hung himself in his grief. 00:27:39.759 --> 00:27:41.920 Or the whole nation of Israel in Judges chapter 2. 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:44.880 There's so many examples of people that weep over their sin that aren't saved. 00:27:45.039 --> 00:27:50.559 But there's no examples of people who are saved that got there without being broken spiritually and mourning over their sin. 00:27:51.599 --> 00:27:53.920 It's possible to weep over your sin and not be a Christian. 00:27:54.079 --> 00:27:57.359 It's not possible to be a Christian and not have been broken over your sin. 00:27:58.079 --> 00:28:00.640 So that leads to the third beatitude, meekness. 00:28:00.799 --> 00:28:02.559 And that's the surrender one. 00:28:02.640 --> 00:28:03.519 We looked at that last week. 00:28:03.680 --> 00:28:05.599 That I would say is the conversion one. 00:28:05.759 --> 00:28:12.400 That's the person who gets to the point to their brokenness and their mourning, that they finally give up and they surrender at the feet of the Lord. 00:28:12.720 --> 00:28:15.039 They give up, they lay down at the Lord's feet. 00:28:15.200 --> 00:28:22.480 I talked last week about how the idiom that's often used for meekness there is familiar with the hand, and this is outside the Bible in the Greco-Roman world. 00:28:22.640 --> 00:28:25.680 Somebody's been beaten into submission, that's that attitude. 00:28:25.839 --> 00:28:27.759 That you've been crushed by your own sin. 00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:32.799 You're now, the word we use in English for like horses or animals is you're now broken. 00:28:33.039 --> 00:28:36.000 That animal has their spirit is broken and they're now submissive. 00:28:36.160 --> 00:28:38.079 When that happens to you, that's conversion. 00:28:38.240 --> 00:28:44.880 You give up fighting, you give up working for your own righteousness, you lay down at the feet of the Lord, you surrender to him, that's conversion. 00:28:45.119 --> 00:28:47.519 That's still loneless, though. 00:28:47.759 --> 00:28:53.119 Now, this fourth beatitude, that's you looking at something outside of yourself. 00:28:55.200 --> 00:28:59.440 If you're looking for righteousness inside of yourself, you need to go back to the first beatitude. 00:28:59.680 --> 00:29:08.160 But if you finally get to the point where you're saying, I still need righteousness, and it's not in me, that's hungering and thirsting for righteousness. 00:29:08.319 --> 00:29:17.920 You're looking, you're down low, broken, you're mourning, you surrendered, but now your eyes are brought up towards a righteousness that's outside of you, and you see it. 00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:22.400 It's God's righteousness, you lock eyes with it, and now you want that. 00:29:22.559 --> 00:29:24.400 That's hungering and thirsting for righteousness. 00:29:24.480 --> 00:29:25.599 That's the motivation. 00:29:26.079 --> 00:29:33.119