True Satisfaction - Leaders' Talks

You're listening to this tradition of the world.

As human beings, we hunger for all kinds of things.

We hunger and thirst for all kinds of things, most of which, in the long term, do not benefit us from the split of spirit.

There's a hole inside of us that demands that it be filled.

And you can fill it with all of the stuff that you've been trying to fill it with, and the hole is still there.

At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

For more information on the road, visit theroad.org.

We hope you are encouraged by today's message.

We have a special guest speaker today.

It's my pleasure to introduce uh George Stanke.

He'll be bringing the sermon.

The last time I spoke, I talked to you about God wanting to do good things in the last days.

I do believe we are in the last days.

It's um kind of a bittersweet knowing because in the last days, sin is going to abound even more and more.

We're going to see considerably more tragedy.

I mean, we're going to see some gruesome things in the last days.

But we're also going to see a revival that's going to sweep across the globe like the world has never seen before.

And that is what I'm going to be a part of.

In that message, I mentioned, I mentioned very briefly Matthew 5, 6.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness because they will be filled.

Well, today I'm going to unpack the whole thing.

Can we have a clap offering?

Okay.

Of course, that was for you, Lord.

There you go.

So if you'll turn in your Bibles and if you have the app, all of my notes are on the app.

So you can follow along.

I'm not going to guarantee, I'm going to stick to the notes.

You know how those things are.

Frustrating, I know.

So Matthew 5, 6, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Now the interesting thing about the word, well, I should ask a question.

I don't want to be presumptuous.

Is there anyone here that does not want a blessing?

Would you raise your hand?

Because we were just going to go ahead and dismiss you back to the coffee bar.

Okay.

Oh, I saw that hand, yes.

Oh, no, you were just putting it around your wife.

All right, I misunderstood.

You.

It's not his wife.

I wasn't speaking prophetically either.

I just, you know, okay, moving right along.

If you are hungry for a blessing, then this verse is for you.

I love the promises in the Bible.

This is one of my favorite.

But sometimes it's really not understood well.

Jesus is saying, I want to bless you.

I want to take you to a place where you are happy, fortunate, spiritually prosperous.

Anyone want to be spiritually prosperous?

Jesus is going to tell us how to do that.

He said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Because those are the ones who will be filled.

So when I think of the word hunger, that's the picture that comes to my mind.

Is there any doubt what they want?

I mean, you're looking at that picture.

Let's see, he's not asking for a new red bicycle for Christmas.

He's saying, I'm hungry.

And it's interesting because Jesus was a master teacher.

And so he brought into his teaching things that everyone could relate to.

Has anyone here, I know I'm talking to people who live in the United States, but has anyone here ever been hungry before?

Can I see your hand?

You've been hungry.

Okay, the few of you.

If you're hungry, the word here means to crave ardently, to seek with eager desire.

These children are not just hungry, they're famished.

This is a sad reality.

While we're sitting here in air-conditioned rooms, and have probably already had at least one meal today, some child will die while we are sitting here today of starvation.

Because their hunger was not met.

That's the reality we live in.

And Jesus, when he was speaking, there were people in his day that were going to die of hunger.

And they're under Roman occupation.

Not everything is really great.

And he's talking to them in language that they can grasp, that they can really get a hold of.

John Nelson Darby wrote, To be hungry is not enough.

I must be really starving to know what is in his heart towards me.

When the prodigal son was hungry, he went to feed upon the husks of the pigs.

But when he was starving, he turned to his father.

When we're hungry, and here's the thing: as human beings, we hunger for all kinds of things.

And if we don't direct that hunger in the right direction, then we will try to fill that appetite with all kinds of things.

We'll hunger for alcohol, for drugs.

We'll hunger for sex and pornography.

We'll hunger for just the next promotion.

And we become workaholics.

We hunger and thirst for all kinds of things, most of which, in the long term, do not benefit us in the slightest bit.

There's a hole inside of us that demands that it be filled.

And you can fill it with all of the stuff that you've been trying to fill it with, and the hole is still there.

Just because you got that raise that you were hoping for, you got the promotion, you had a diagnosis of cancer and you didn't die, and you're still with us, you know what?

It's nice to have the promotion, it's nice to be healed, but it doesn't satisfy the hunger.

You're really not spiritually prosperous just because you have good health.

You're not spiritually prosperous because you have a six-figure income.

You're not spiritually prosperous because you have a great marriage.

You're spiritually prosperous only when the promise of God is fulfilled in your life.

Then you are finally getting the really, really good stuff.

Does that make sense?

Another picture for you.

Blessed are those who thirst.

I mean, is that a cool picture?

I'm a very visual kind of a guy.

I love pictures.

I've seen that guy's like, I wish I was right next to him.

I'd like to do this exact same thing.

You know, I mean, you're looking at him, and he's having an absolute blast.

And don't get in his way because he might actually step over the top of you.

He's hungry, he's thirsty.

He's willing to go to great lengths.

He'll take off his shirt and he'll embarrass himself just to get a little bit of refreshment.

In Psalms 42, verses 1 and 2 in the New Testament, it reads, As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.

Psalms 42:1

I thirst for God, the living God.

We're talking about spiritual hunger and thirst that fills the deepest need in the human soul.

We're talking about the kind of hunger and thirst that brings amazing satisfaction.

We're talking about the thing that no human being can take away from you, that no tragedy can overcome.

We're talking about things that are eternal.

When you think about the deer, when you think about animals in general, I have a this mental image of Africa, and I've watched some of the National Geographic things, and and it's amazing how vast herds will put their lives at risk to find a water hole.

They will travel literally hundreds of miles.

I remember one picture in particular, and it's a river, and this river is filled with really massive alligators.

And there's this, I don't know what kind of an some kind of a deer-like animal.

I don't re- do you know what that deer-like animal is called?

I don't know.

Anyway, the picture is this this animal is walking down.

It sees that there's alligators in the water.

And it knows that it's going to be really, really dangerous to venture close, but man, the thirst, the thirst is so severe that it endangers its life to venture down to the water for a quick drink, and then that alligator comes up and grabs it right by the snout.

It was actually a pretty interesting video.

But it made a point.

Made a point.

Are you so thirsty that you're willing to maybe get beyond the comfortable?

Are you so thirsty that you're willing to go out of your way to sacrifice something significant that you might just get a drop on your tongue?

That's what God says that He will bless.

Psalm 63 in verse 1.

Oh God, you are my God.

Earnestly I seek you.

Earnestly I seek you.

Earnestly I seek you.

Earnestly.

My soul thirsts for you.

My body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

In a dry and weary land where there is no water, I hunger, I thirst.

Everything inside of me longs to be fulfilled, to be filled.

And I've tried all the other things and I am still left hungry.

I am still thirsty.

Everything I try to put into that God-sized hole, it's like it just falls right through.

Nothing sticks.

C.S.

Lewis wrote, we are half-hearted creatures fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us like an ignorant child who wants to go out and continue to make mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

We are so easily pleased.

Can you see the picture?

Maybe you were one of those kids that loved to make mud pies.

He's making mud pies, and maybe he even takes a taste.

Along comes rich Uncle Bob and says, you know, let's go down to the seaside.

Let's swim in the ocean.

Let's have some cracked crab and some fresh fish.

And I mean, let's make a day of it.

Let's have a holiday.

Oh, no, no.

I'm really enjoying my mud buys.

It's amazing how foolish we can be.

It's amazing how foolish I am at times.

In Isaiah 55, verses 1 and 2.

Isaiah 55:1

This is in the American, the Amplified Classic.

It says, wait and listen.

Everyone who is thirsty, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come.

Buy and eat.

Yes?

Come.

Buy priceless spiritual wine and milk without money, without price, simply for the self-surrender that accepts the blessing.

I love that.

Simply for the self-surrender that accepts the blessing.

Does anybody have a$5 bill?

Could you pull it out of your wallet and just show it to me?

You're not moving.

How do you know if you have a$5 bill if you're not opening your wallet?

I'm serious.

Open your take your wallet out.

Thank you.

Are you offering that to me?

Is that for me?

I'm gonna I would gladly accept it.

Oh well, thank you.

He thinks I'm kidding.

Thank you.

Now I can take my wife to Taco Bell.

I'll give it back to you after the service.

This isn't your tithe, is it?

Oh, okay.

All right.

All right.

You know, sometimes scripture is just so incredibly simple that we just really miss it.

God wants to bless you, and all you've got to be willing to do is say, I will gladly accept.

He's pulling out his wallet and he's saying, Are you hungry and thirsty?

Let me take care of that for you.

Here's a hundred.

Keep the change.

All I don't I don't know, Lord.

I just, you know, I haven't prayed in three days and haven't done my PBJ in a week.

And well, my wife and I aren't talking right now, and I can't believe that you really want to bless me.

I mean, I am hungry and thirsty, but I don't really deserve it.

You hearing me?

He goes on to say in verse 2 why do you spend your money on what is not bread, and your earnings on what does not satisfy?

Hearken diligently to me and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in the fatness, the profuseness of spiritual joy.

We spend our money on so many things that just don't fill the hole.

And yet we are hungry, and yet we are thirsty, and we keep reaching out.

It's like there's gotta be an answer.

And God is standing there saying, just come.

I would delight in meeting your need.

Just come, just accept it.

He makes it so hard, doesn't he?

It's terrible.

And he's supposed to be a good God.

I don't know.

Righteousness.

In a broad sense, in a broad sense, it's when you hear the term righteousness, you probably automatically think, well, that means I'm in right standing with God, which is true, but it's so much more than that.

It speaks of integrity, virtue, purity of life, correctness of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Do we hunger for integrity?

The simplest term of integrity, when your words and your actions come together, that's integrity.

When your words and your actions go like this, that's not integrity.

When your words and your actions come together and bear witness with one another, that's integrity.

Integrity is about righteousness, virtue, purity of life.

Purity of life begins here in the coconut.

The purity of life begins here.

In your thinking, because where your thoughts here are, your feet eventually take you.

Do you hunger for right thinking?

Do you hunger for pure thinking?

Correctness in thinking and feeling and acting.

Jesus said, if you hunger and thirst for righteousness, not just fire insurance.

You know what fire insurance is, right?

I know I'm dating myself.

I don't know if young people use that term anymore.

I've got just enough of Jesus to squeak by.

He's not saying if you hunger and thirst for fire insurance, if you hunger and thirst for an ongoing, intimate, ever-growing, loving relationship with me that is all about righteousness, then you will be joyously filled.

And I'm here to give it to you.

If you'll just come.

What does it look like?

How would it express itself?

A man longs to have a righteous nature.

A man wants to be sanctified, to be made holy.

A man longs to continue in God's righteousness.

He longs to see righteousness promoted in the world.

Spurgeon wrote this.

He hungers and thirsts that for righteousness.

He does not hunger and thirst that his political party may get into power.

But he does hunger and thirst that righteousness may be done in the land.

He does not hunger and thirst that his own opinions may come to the front, and that his own sect or denomination may increase in numbers and influence.

But he does desire that righteousness might come into the foe.

He goes on to say, Alas, says he, it is not enough for me to know that my sin is forgiven.

I have a fountain of sin within my heart, and bitter waters continually that flow from it.

Oh, that my nature could be changed, so that I, the lover of sin, could be made a lover of that which is good, that I now, full of evil, could become full of holiness.

I hunger, I thirst.

Hunger and thirst.

He's talking about life.

You know, you can go without food for 40 days, and many in the scriptures have, and many since have.

You can go without nutrition for a very, very long time.

But you can't go without water for more than about three days.

Jesus is talking to a people that understand the physical dimension of the human body.

If you are hungry and if you are thirsty for the things that are eternal, for the things that will truly satisfy, then only then, only then will you be filled.

It is not a path of convenience, it's not easy believism.

It's not blab it and grab it theology.

It's not about a right confession.

So filled with what?

They shall be filled.

There's a commercial that I thought was really pretty good.

You may have seen it.

It was a Lipton iced tea commercial.

The guy's standing there and hot.

He's got this glass of cold, probably sweet tea.

I would hope it would be sweet tea.

Yeah, thank you for that nod of the head there.

And it's ice cold.

And he drinks it and he just falls back in a big huge splash.

He doesn't want to just fill you to hear.

He doesn't want to just fill you to hear.

He doesn't want to Just fill you to hear.

He wants to fill you until you do not have the capacity to be filled anymore, and it's just pressed down, shaken together, and running over.

Do you know why he wants to do that?

Because it's not just about you.

Because there's someone close to you who's hungry and thirsty, and they're not quite as hungry and thirsty as you are, but they're hoping they'll get a little bit via osmosis.

So he fills you to such a degree that you can't hold anymore, so it kind of splashes over on somebody else, and maybe they get hungry too.

How many of you, I mean, on a scale of one to ten, one being, you know, the the tank is kind of bouncing off of empty, just kind of running on H2O fumes.

Ten being, there is no, I mean, you can't receive one more drop, just mentally in your own head, how full are you this morning?

Take some time and think about it.

How full of righteousness are you?

Where are your thoughts?

How do you communicate with your words?

What kinds of actions would typify the last five days?

How full are you?

Do you believe that he is true to his promise?

Do you believe that he is there with this ardent desire to fill you up?

You see, the word is earnestly.

It's not casually.

If you casually hunger and thirst for righteousness, you shall be filled, mate.

If you earnestly, earnestly hunger, you should be filled.

So filled with what?

I mean, we got a partial definition of righteousness, but I really want to unpack this for you.

Philippians 1 verse 11.

Philippians 1:11

May you abound, I like that word abound, may you abound in and be filled with the fruit of righteousness, of right standing with God and right doing.

How do I know if I'm in right standing with God?

Just look at the way you think, speak, and act.

If you're in right standing with God, then you are also about doing what is right.

If you are not doing what is right, you are not in right standing with God.

That's very, very plain.

It is not very popular.

It is not easy believism.

Being filled with the righteousness of God means I'm in right standing with God, and it's evidenced through my life in a way that is measurable, in a way that is solid.

May you abound in and be filled with the fruits of righteousness, of right standing with God and right doing, which comes through Jesus Christ, the anointed one, to the honor and praise of God, that his glory may be both manifested and recognized.

Manifested and recognized.

That is righteousness.

If it isn't manifested and recognized, what in the world is it?

A sham.

Smoke and mirrors, a desire to somehow look better than I truly am.

A hiding instead of a coming out.

In Romans 14, 17, after all, the kingdom of God is not a matter of getting the food and the drink one likes, but instead it is righteousness, that state which makes a person acceptable to God and heart, peace, joy in the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15, 13, may the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that the power of the Holy Spirit may abound toward you in hope.

So let me give you a short list of some indicators of what righteous would be that is visibly present.

Now, what I'm just one of these guys that's really curious.

When I do PBJ, I usually start with the English Standard Version, then I go to the New Living, and then I go to the Amplified, and then I go to the Hebrew and the Greek, and I it takes me a long time to do PBJ.

But I found it to be profitable.

So I hope this is profitable for you.

I'm going to read to you Galatians 5.22, which is a combined list of several translations, so that you really get the full zest of what Paul's trying to say.

But the fruit of the Holy Spirit is the work, the result, which his presence within us accomplishes.

It is love, unselfish concern for others, joy, gladness, inner peace, patience, and even temper, forbearance, not the ability to wait, but how we act while we are waiting.

Kindness, goodness, benevolence, faithfulness, gentleness, meekness, humility, self-control, self-restraint.

He's talking about the character of God, which is truly, completely, holy, measurably, visibly true.

And Jesus is saying that if you hunger and thirst for that kind of righteousness, I will bring you into my standing.

You will come more and more into the very image of God.

You will begin to look like Christ.

I want that.

I want people to be in my presence and leave my presence and have a sense that they were with Jesus.

Is that arrogant?

Is that pride?

I hope not.

Because that is my heart.

And it isn't always true because Linda will bear witness to that.

I like the words of John the Baptist when, you know, he's got all these followers.

I mean, he was on the scene before Jesus was, and so he's building this entourage, and then Jesus comes on the scene and he's preaching and speaking and doing all kinds of miraculous things, and people are leaving John and joining Jesus, and some of his zealous followers came to John and said, John, John, what is going on?

The true believers that have followed you, they're leaving you and they're following Christ.

I mean, he was in a panic.

I mean, how are we going to pay the mortgage?

What about our website?

It may come down and crash.

I mean, you know, all kinds of crazy things.

And I love his response.

He said, he must increase and I must decrease.

How are we filled with the fruit of righteousness if he doesn't increase in our lives?

And he can't increase until we decrease.

There's got to be less of me so that there can be more of him.

I hunger for that.

I thirst for that.

There is too much of me in the way.

Too much.

I don't even know how many people I've hurt.

In the years that I've been following Jesus.

I'm serious with you.

As a believer in Christ, there have been times when there was so much of me and so little of Jesus that I actually hurt other Christians.

And I am not proud of that.

But it is true.

And more than likely you have been on the receiving end of that.

More than likely you have been wounded, and I am sure that you have also been the wounder.

But if we can come to a place where the true righteousness of Christ transforms how we think and speak and act, there's going to be a whole lot less wounding and a whole lot more healing in the body of Christ.

Can I get an amen on that?

Does there need to be less wounding and more healing in the body of Christ?

Is that a legitimate need?

Is that something that you'd like to be a part of?

Would you like to be a part of the healing hand of Christ to a wounded world?

Then I hope you hunger and I hope you thirst, because without his righteousness, you're just going to keep on hurting people.

And you're not going to be able to deal with your own woundedness.

Because it's an amazing thing when we open our hearts to the Spirit of the living God and He does that supernatural work that no therapist on this planet can do, things change.

And they change for the better.

Colossians 1, verses 9 through 10, again in the Amplified.

Colossians 1:9–10

For this reason, we also, from the day we heard of it, have not ceased praying and making specific requests for you, asking that you may be filled with the full, deep and clear knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and comprehensive insight into the ways and the purposes of God, and in understanding and discernment of spiritual things, that you may walk, live, and conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, and desiring to please him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work, and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God with fuller, deeper, clearer insight, acceptance, and recognition.

Amen.

Amen's not in the original.

I just added that.

It means so it should be, and so it is.

Man, what a great prayer.

If you're looking for a prayer to pray on a regular basis, I would encourage you to pray Colossians 1, verses 9 through 10 in the Amplified.

Colossians 1:9–10

Personalize it, put your name in there.

God, this is how hungry I am, this is how thirsty I am.

This is what I want.

I want to be visibly, measurably changed.

So that I can be pleasing to you and be a blessing to others.

So many times as I conclude my daily devotions, my prayer is, God, that I may bring honor to you and blessing to those that I serve.

So we have to ask ourselves, so where does it start?

John 6, 35.

And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me shall not hunger.

Whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

Whoever comes to me shall no longer hunger.

Whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

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