“THE FULFILLED”

This sermon is from the series THINGS JESUS TAUGHT US and was preached at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cherry Log, Georgia on Sunday, September 22, 2013 by Pastor Paul Mims.

Matthew 5:6Raquel Welch was one of Hollywood’s most famous beauties. She said: “I’d acquired everything I wanted yet I was totally miserable. I thought it peculiar that I’d obtained everything I wanted as a child: wealth, fame, accomplishment in my career. I had beautiful children, a lifestyle that seemed terrific, yet I was totally miserably unhappy. I found it frightening that one could acquire all these things and still be so miserable.” She got what she wanted. That is the truth of the matter – some of the time we can get what we want if we want it strong enough.

C.S. Lewis gave us the following insight: Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. Michael Horton, Editor, The Agony of Deceit, 1990, Moody Press, p. 49.

Let’s look at one of the most marvelous things that Jesus ever said: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

The Beatitudes are progressive in the expression of the experience that we have in Christ. Becoming “poor in spirit” involves seeing our need. Mourning over the wrongs we have done is facing up to our sinfulness. Being meek is surrendering our power to God’s control.

This fourth Beatitude is the result of the first three. We have no desire for righteousness unless we admit our need of God, have a profound sorrow in the conviction of our sin, and come in subjection and meekness before him.

Therefore, there is no hunger and thirst for righteousness unless the three others have taken place in our lives. One of the great tragedies in the modern-day church is the lack of spiritual hunger. We have been dulled by our materialistic society in our desire for pleasure, position, and power. But those who focus on the spiritual riches that are in Christ find the life fulfillment that Jesus promised. If a believer stops in development after the first three beatitudes, he or she will become a carnal Christian and stop growing at this point. But if there is a pursuit of what Jesus is teaching us – then the believer will grow on to maturity.

Everyone wants to be happy and if the search for happiness does not include the spiritual hunger and thirst for righteousness, fulfillment on the level that Jesus is describing is not possible. Some Christians get off track at this point and look for an experience that they cannot seem to find. It all depends on truth and desire.

I. THE DESIRE “hunger and thirst”:

Jesus is not talking about just a mild interest. He is not interested in his followers having just a casual interest in the things of the Kingdom. He uses two strong words that we all are acquainted with – hunger and thirst! These two words have to be interpreted against the backdrop of first century Palestine. The income of the average family was about $100 in today’s terms. So many of them were very poor and there was times when food was not readily available especially in times of famine. They knew what it was to be hungry. They generally only ate meat once a week and were not very far from starvation.
One reason we have difficulty in interpreting this Beatitude is that we have never really been hungry. Also, they did not have the privilege of turning on the water tap and having good fresh flowing water as we have today. They knew what it was to be thirsty.

What is this that we are to have hunger and thirst for? Jesus said, “You are to hunger for righteousness. This means, first of all, justification or salvation. It means that we are to hunger to be free from our old nature and our past sins that separated us from God. There has to be a starving to death for salvation for a person to truly be filled with the fruits of the kingdom of God.

It is interesting to note the Greek construction of this sentence. It would be normal to say, “I want some bread or I want a drink of water.” The tense Jesus used here means “I want the whole loaf of Bread or I want the whole gallon of water.” We don’t usually think like that even with our Christian faith. We tend to want only a part of it. But if the hunger and thirst is there for more and more we meet the requirement to have it. If we keep on hungering and keep on thirsting we will find what Jesus promised.

II. THE FULFILLED “they will be filled”:

The scriptures promise this in many places.
Psalm 107:9 “He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things”.
Psalm 34:10 “The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing.” Psalm 23:1,5 “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…My cup overflows“.
John 4:14 “Whoever drinks the water I will give him will never thirst – Indeed the water I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Listen to the testimony of Matt Faulkner. “My life has been changed by meeting Jesus and having a relationship with Him. My story has three parts. The first part is the time before I knew Christ, the second part is the process of coming to know who Jesus is, and the third is how my life is different now.

I grew up in a family that didn’t have any spirituality. We didn’t go to church and we didn’t pray. Christmas wasn’t all that important to us. My family loved me and I loved them, but they didn’t give me any real way to make decisions in life. “Just work hard,” which is not a bad value, but…

During college and after I started a career, I just tried hard. I tried hard to get the things that I thought would make me happy, things that the world said would make me happy. And I did. You know, the stuff on TV. A smart, pretty, funny wife, a nice house, a fancy car or two, great vacations, tailor made clothes, and a country club membership. Things were great. I was looking good…on the outside.

But on the inside, things were different. Actually my life was a big mess. None of the things that I had achieved, or the material possessions that I had, made me happy. It seemed like my life was incomplete. It seemed like my life had a big hole in it.

That hole created some problems. I tried to fill it up with other things, more things that the world said were OK. I was a workaholic. I went to work when I didn’t have to and came home late for no good reason. I abused everything. I drank all of the time, I smoked everything, used chewing tobacco, gambled on everything that moved, spent 2-3 afternoons a week at the racetrack, and some other things that I won’t go into now. Suffice it to say, I was lost and my lost-ness was killing me. My life was ruled by the emotions of fear, greed, anger, frustration, loneliness, and despair.

In the midst of my despair, I picked a fight with a guy in a basketball game at a local health club which begins part two of my story.

The guy I picked a fight with ended up being John Crosby, and that’s how we met.

Most people hear about spiritual matters and Jesus from friends and that’s what John did. He became my friend over the next few years. Those were some of the first spiritual conversations that I had ever had.

Another friend suggested that I read some Christian books. One of them I read was Letters from a Skeptic by Dr. Greg Boyd. Another book I read was Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Dr. Lewis was an atheist until his early 30s and then became a Christian. This book has some of the most compelling and logical reasons for his conversion.

Reading these books caused me to think about things that had never occurred to me before. They raised more questions than gave answers. I thought, is it really possible that the whole world that we know and the entire universe is by chance? Was the story of Jesus really true? Could I have a relationship with God? Was there really a God who knew me and cared about me? I was really confused.

Another friend invited me to a Bible study. There I learned a couple of things. All of us have issues. This was a safe place to share what my life was really like – a chance to be real for an hour a week. To read Christian books and read the Bible. Sometimes it answered questions, sometimes it raised more.

Along the way, my wife, “Cate,” was beginning to visit a few churches, and one friend invited her to church. She liked it, but I wouldn’t go. On Sunday morning I’d sit in the living room handicapping the professional football games, while my wife went to church.

Later, I agreed to go and I’ll never forget those first few visits to church. Sitting in the back, really nervous, sweating in the middle of winter, sure that everybody was staring at me, and not liking it much. The problem was, John’s sermons made me cry about every Sunday. It seemed like he was talking directly to me. Some of my questions began to be answered.

So, after a lot of sermons, reading books and the Bible, and small group discussions, it finally occurred to me that God loved me too. That the story of the gospel was true! And that through Jesus and what he did on the cross, he offers us a chance at a new start in life, a new beginning.

The Bible talks about the fact that not only does God forgive our past sins but forgets them too. We start life again with a clean slate. So what is my life like now, how has it changed?

God worked quickly in the beginning, and my desire for some of the most sinful behavior simply vanished. They went away completely. I like to sing in church now. I can’t sing, just ask the folks that sit in front of us. But I still like to like to. I have a desire to change: a desire to turn away from those things in life that are harmful and to turn towards God.

My personal relationships have improved. I seem to be able to love others more now, such as my wife, children, friends, and random people. I just see them differently now. Like that guy at work who I really don’t like, the person who has a different political opinion that I do, the guy who cuts me off in traffic…well sometimes.

I now see my business behavior differently, how I handle my expenses at work, how I deal with my customers… just what will I say that will get the big deal done.

I screw up all of the time. I am still a mess in a lot of ways. I am a work in progress. I do not always do what I know is right and what I want to do. I am tempted by a lot of things, to abuse alcohol, to exert my power and control, to cheat the government on my taxes.

But my life has meaning and purpose now. The Bible says that when we promised to follow Jesus, we become adopted into His family, and that we are children of God. God has a plan for my life and it really exciting to see what it is, and how I might be able to be part of it.

Remember that hole, that hole in my life that I had that I talked about earlier? I realize now that God makes us – all of us – with that hole. But the Good News is that it’s shaped like God, and he is starting to fill up mine.

And it’s my prayer that He is filling you up too. That’s great. But if yours is not and it’s still empty, you’re in the right place now.”
Wanda Jackson expressed it like this:
“Like the woman at the well, I was seeking
For things that could not satisfy.
And then I heard my Savior speaking—
“Draw from My well that never shall run dry.”
There are millions in this world who are seeking
For pleasures earthly goods afford.
But none can match the wondrous treasure
That I find in Jesus Christ my Lord.
So my brother if the things that this world gives you
Leave hungers that won’t pass away,
My blessed Lord will come and save you
If you kneel to Him and humbly pray—
Fill my cup, Lord;
I lift it up Lord;
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul.
Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more.
Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole.”
PRAISE BE TO HIS NAME!