Stay Hungry | Matthew 5:6

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Hey, everybody, thanks for tuning in for another episode of

the Bible Guys.

It's good to be here, Chris, it is.

I'm glad to be here with you.

Ja. We always say that, don't we good to be here?

Good to be here? Yeah?

I mean sort it is.

Yeah. People are waiting to find out is it still

good to be here?

Yeah?

They're waiting.

They're like, maybe today's of this.

Hey, I just got to confess I do not want

to be here today.

No, it's good to be here.

And we are in the middle of a series about

the Beatitudes, which are well, it's found in the Sermon

on the Mountain. We'll get into that, but today is

all about the beatitude. It's a brand new beatitude we're

covered today, that's right, and it's talking.

About hunger and thirsty five verse what six six? Yep? Yeah.

But I only said that because Desiree built her U

her segment based on that verse.

Yes, right, which is so cool. It's our topic today

is stay hungry yep. So let's start by drafting our

top five appetizers. That's fun. That's a good one. That's good.

I have a lot of opinions on that one.

So, yeah, you do.

That's an easy one. So we have to do rock

paper scissors for we get to go first.

Ready shoot? Ready one two three?

Shoot? Oh. We both did rock one two three shoot.

We did Rock one two three shoot. I thought you

were anticipating, so I did rock a third time and

he did paper. I thought you would do scissors because

I was. I thought you would do yeah, scissors, because

I would go for paper for paper.

All right, So I want to get getting better though

you are getting better.

I'm getting better. I read that article about how to

win rock paper scissors, and I've won a couple since then. Yeah,

and uh and and I'm pushing you deeper into the count.

That's good. That's good. Uh So, okay, so I get

the first draft. We're gonna do five.

So I'm gonna start off by saying a very good

soup for me, Like a favorite soup is my number

one favorite?

Up? Like a cup of soup, Like what kind of soup.

Clam chowder, lobster bisk or French onion to name my

top three?

So we were in Paris and UH with Chad Asmon,

our executive pastor. Hi Chad, he's always listening to Chad.

And Chad ordered French onion soup and our server said,

onion soup. Oh that's funny because I don't call it

French onion soup in France. Onion soup. That is so funny, funny,

And the and the front the Parisians can be so condescending.

It was fabulous. It was so I just laughed. I

thought it was funny. Okay, I think my all time

just the easiest app for me is I love good

chips and salsa. Oh yeah yeah, and and and I

want a salsa with uh plenty of cilantro. I like cilantro.

I like just a little heat, but I like the

slightly salty side of it. And I like a I

like a thin chip that's salty. So I'm gone, does that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, all right, that's good.

Number two.

I'm going to say my second favorite is going to

be Italian meatballs.

Oh really yeah.

Usually, if if I see an appetizer list and there's

meatballs on it, I'm gonna get it.

You and I went out to uh An Italian restaurant

and we got we got them, and they brought them

out to a their like almost as big as our

Oh so wonderful. Okay, all right, My next one is

and I just made these is they're called armadillo eggs,

and never saw that in the Armadillos don't lay eggs.

But I made them on our grill. Uh. So you

cut a jalapeno and then put some cream cheese and

cheddar cheese mix in it, and then wrap it in

uh breakfast sausage mixed with cherizo sausage, and then wrap

that in bacon and smoke it for two hours. And

they are insane. Now it's a heart attack. Three bites

and you're gonna have a heart attack, guaranteed.

Yeah, but guaranteed.

But man, was it ever good? Wow? Yeah, So armadilla

is a really good appetizer.

Okay, all right, I'm gonna go on the record and

say I am a massive fan of Klamari.

I was gonna call Kalamari next.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Klamari is good. Calamari is nothing like it.

Yeah, Okay, I'm going to say I think my next

one is I really like like a Caesar salad. Oh

yeah something, you know.

Yeah, yeah, Like I like caesar shalad along those lines,

I'm gonna say.

Caesar salad. I like it. What's that place that they

make it right at your table?

Mister Paul's Top House.

Yeah, I love that.

It's the best caesar salad in maybe the area, maybe in.

The world, but make it right at the table.

Yeah, it's certainly it's certainly the best in the area.

Yep.

It's on grash it in like fifteen.

Something like that or grossback. Yeah, if you're ever in

the Detroit area, go to mister Paul's Top House and

order the caesar salad.

Got a table shot.

Although it's not available for lunch, they only make it

a dinner and then I'm gonna say number four for

me is going to be.

Uh jebas. What was I just gonna say?

Oh?

I was along the lines of salads. My favorite salad

for naptizer is a wedg salad. Oh really, yeah, I

like web salad. Oh I don't, I don't, I don't.

I don't make them.

Oh yeah I ordered them, Jeff, Yeah, yeah, okay. I

like as far as appetizers go, I like like wings.

Oh yeah, you know, just get like four wings or

six wings, not a whole meal, just enough to get started,

just like an appetizer. Yeah uh all right, And.

Then I'm gonna go on record here and say, honestly,

it's really hard for me to beat a classic shrimp cocktail.

Really. Oh yeah, see I'm not a shrimp cocktail.

Oh I just ordered it like literally three days ago.

I was out and what aptaz you want shrimp cocktail?

Wow? Okay? Uh for me if I'm just doing a

last one, probably some kind of an art of choke dip.

Oh yeah, yeah yeah, I always like that, like a hot, cheesy.

Cheesy alright, all right, well thanks dad.

So I think we had a couple of themes there, right,

you had some Italian theme in yours Calamari meatballs, right,

soup yep uh, and I had probably gonna kill you

were the themes probably gonna have. That's so good, And

it is funny. Who's the comedian that makes the joke

about we have food before we eat our food? Right?

That's appetizers. Yeah, it's the food. Can you imagine talking

to somebody who's never been in the West before and go, okay, well, hey,

what do you want for an appetizer. I don't know

what's an appetiser? What's the food we eat before? We

eat our food, right, and then when you're all done,

then you have dessert your food.

That's so good.

Yeah, it is truely funny. I forgot what comedian did that.

It was pretty funny. Yeah, all right, well, hey we

are in.

I think it was Jerry Seinfeld.

Was it Jerry Seinfeld?

Because he also talked about the Bill, and they say

they bring it in the book, and he goes, what's

the what's what the book? He goes, it is this

the story of the Bill.

Yes, so I don't know talking about the book.

No, No, it's a built in transition speaking of hunger.

Speaking of hunger. There you go, yeah, hungry, Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, so this this whole beatitude being based on hunger

and thirst.

That's right. So here's the verse, and it's in Matthew

chapter five. This is the longest message Jesus preaches in

the Bible. And he starts off with these eight or

nine things that he says, God blesses people like this,

or God blesses attitudes or appetites like this, and then

the rest of the book or the rest of this

message seems to have highlighted elements that point back to

these ideas. So that's kind of how we're tying these together.

But today we're just gonna only talk about the topic.

And the first one here, or this one today is

God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for

they will be satisfied. King James says, God blesses those

who hunger and thirst for righteousness, right, for they will

be filled.

Yeah.

In fact, even in the bottle study here it says

justice asterisk righteousness.

Yeah. Yeah, mine does too.

Yeah, so yeah, so blessed are those? And I like

the word righteousness better for a translation, don't you.

Yeah. Well, I think justice doesn't encompass all of righteousness,

but righteousness encompasses justice, right, Yeah, yeah, so I think

righteousness is more complete word. But it's not. It's not

wrong to say hunger and thirst for justice, right right.

Justice would be right living and right results, and righteousness

is right rere living and right right results. So it's similar.

It's just the way you and I think about it.

From an English language standpoint, justice is different from righteousness.

Yeah, and justice seems like it applies only to some things. Yeah,

and righteous where injustice is you know, exists.

Right where it's sort of unrighteousness.

Yeah, I guess so, I guess so. But but for me,

righteousness feels like it encompasses.

It's all encompassing every.

Area of life.

It's encompasses all the good things.

Like does every area of our life have to have justice?

Surely if you think hard enough, you can come up

with something that doesn't. Or justice isn't the right.

Word, but it's it's an appropriate translation. I just like

the righteousness. Yeah, he's more encompassing. But so this idea, though,

God blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness or

for justice, for they will be satisfied. It's a really

significant statement.

Yeah, yeah, I think that The first thing that stands

out is that Jesus says he's going to bless those

who desire for not perf affecting of right. Right, So, like,

you know, so in other words, like he's not saying

he's gonna bless those who are righteous. Hey, if you're righteous,

you're gonna get blessed. He didn't say that, right, So

for all the people who strive to be righteous, who

are you know, imperfect, which is all of us. We

all fail, we all make mistakes, you know, but if

we have a desire to turn you know, that's by

the way, that sort of reminds me of that word repent, right, right,

you know, it's it's and even confess.

Right.

So when you when you can, when you repent, you

turn from and when you confess, you you agree with God.

That's what it means. And it's just both of those

things are an indicator that says I'm gonna stop going

this way, and I'm gonna I'm gonna go this way, right,

I'm gonna change my thinking. That's more confess, like I agree,

But then repent is more action based, where you're just like, I.

Want to go this way.

And it doesn't mean you're you're going to be successful,

you know, in every area of your life, or you're

gonna be righteous in every area. It means you want

to be righteous, you desire for the for God's righteousness.

And so it's important to know because you know, for

those of us who are discouraged, you know, I mean,

you know there's probably plenty of people who you know,

they're kicking themselves, especially.

Around the New year.

Yeah, you know, they're like I just want to.

Be a better Christian. I want to have a deeper faith.

I want to have a stronger faith, and you know

twenty twenty six, let me do it well, Jesus says, Hey,

you know you're blessed because you desire those things, not

because you've arrived.

Yeah, you know, I think and you mentioned this rate

before we came on the recording here, But the idea

of hunger and thirst are you can't live without being satisfied,

having your hunger satisfied. You can't live long term without

having your thirst satisfied. These are and it's interesting that

this is what he says is if you hunger for

righteousness and justice, you'll be satisfied. If you thirst for

hunger for righteousness and justice, you'll be satisfy. The only

thing that satisfies my hunger is food. The only thing

that satisfies my thirst is water or liquid.

Yeah.

So if my hunger is for righteousness, the only thing

that's going to satisfy me is righteousness. Yeah right. Yeah.

So on one side, the more I'm hungry for God's

right living, because that's what righteousness means, God's right living,

the more I hunger for it, the more he'll help

me also, the more I hunger for it. Have you

ever have you ever had a time where you were

so depleted. I can't remember baseball practice. One time we

were doing two a days in the summer and it

was like ninety five degrees outside, superhumid, and you just

get so dehydrated. Somebody brought me a Donald's orange drink,

you know, and normally I would like that, and I

couldn't hardly stand it. At the same time, some moms

brought a cooler with some drink boxes, juice boxes, and

they had high c in them. Both of them were disgusting.

Now I like them both, right, But in that moment,

I was craving something. So they brought us some water,

and the water was good. That helped. When they brought

us gatorade. It was a little salty and had some

of the you know, all the extra stuff that you

lose when you're sweating, and I couldn't get enough of it. Now,

on a normal day, a few drinks at gatorade, I'm fine.

I don't crave gatorade on a normal day, but when

I was so depleted, nothing else would satisfy me until

I could re replenish my electrolytes. I think it's the

same way that the more hungry you get for God's

right living, the less anything else will satisfy you. And

then he says, I'll satisfy you with that, you will

become more along those lines. And then the other side

of this, when I can't live completely, right, I'll be

satisfied because of Jesus righteousness.

Right yeah, and so so yeah, so what you're saying

is is like hunger and thirst are not whimsical metaphors,

right right, Like you know, because he could have.

Described best way to say that, by the way, good job, Chris.

Yeah, well you know, it's a he could have said

something like, oh, I'm in the mood to watch this movie,

like that's a desire. But that is that is really whimsical.

It's not the same.

It's not the same, right, But hunger cannot be ignored,

right and thirst cannot be ignored because these are life

essential things. And so yeah, that's really good. And then

here's another observation, and that is you could only hunger

when your stomach is empty.

Right, So you're empty when you're empty of a thing.

Yeah, and so think about like and you know, and

the same thing with thirst. You're depleted of water, just

like you said, right, So, in other words, like it's

the sin in our lives that make us hunger for

God's righteousness, it's it's the successes that we thought we're

going to satisfy us, and they don't satisfy and so

therefore we feel depleted, even though we thought we were

going to fill ourselves with satisfaction from success or money

or retirement or whatever it is, achievement, and then all

of a sudden we feel empty because of it. You know,

we're empty, and so therefore hunger is going to be

something that is only possible when we are empty of something.

And same thing with thirst. And I think that that's

important to know because it's the sin, it's the brokenness,

it's the you know, failures, it's all those things that

help us realize I need Jesus. Yeah, I need Jesus

more than I thought I did, and.

Nothing else will satisfy that's right, right? Yeah, Oh man,

that's powerful. I was thinking about this idea of hunger

and thirst. Remember the lady at the well in the

Samaritan Woman. Oh yeah, and Jesus says, if you knew

so he goes to Jesus. It goes to this lady

and he said, I need to go to Samaria. And

then the disciples leave and it's the middle of the day.

There's a woman getting water at the well and he

asks her for a drink. She's surprised that he's a

Jewish man asking for a drink, and then he says, well, actually,

if you knew who I was, you'd ask me for

a drink because you'd never thirst again. And I think

that at the core of humanity, Jesus recognizes there's this

thirst that we're trying to quench with everything else in life.

For her, it was she had five husbands, and the

man she's lived with now wasn't her husband, right, It

was attention. It was love that she couldn't seem to find.

It was somebody valuing her. Almost well, all of us,

all of us have this thing or things that we're pursuing,

thinking that's going to quench our thirst. For some people's shopping.

For some people, it's the next promotion. It's one more

zero in the bank account. Right, And Jesus said, if

you just knew, if you just knew who you were

talking to, you'd ask me and you'd never ever thirst again.

Uh you're trying to fill this with something that just

is never going to be able to quench your thirst spiritually.

And then you know he's the He's the solution. And

it's really beautiful because she all of a sudden goes

now at first, she's like, what are you talking about?

Remember, she's really confused, and she's like, wait a minute,

are you greater than Jacob who dug the well?

Yeah? You guys did that.

Well yeah, oh it's a phenal it's still one of

the greatest wells in all of Israel. Yeah, so it's

it's it's a very impressive feat.

Cold water, cold, ice cold, yeah yeah.

Yeah from the Mountain caps from Hebert Hebert. What's herm herman, herman,

my herman, Yeah yeah, so uh so yeah, it's it's

uh so Yeah. She's so confused, she's like, wait a minute,

this is the biggest and best, this is the best

of the best.

How are you greater? Then?

Then?

What comes out of this? Well?

Yeah, well it appeals to me. I I love it

because the good winn, the upstanding citizen ladies wouldn't have

been in the heat of the day going to get

in the water, right, You and I have been in

cultures before where the women go get water every day. Yeah,

and they do it just as the sun's coming up,

when the day's still cool. They do it when the

sun has set in the evenings. They don't do it

in the heat of the day one hundred and ten

degrees outside. They don't do that. So and then it's

a social gathering. I did a water walk one time.

Have you ever done a water walk? I have, Yeah,

And it's kind of a fun thing, right although, so

in Kenya with the Pocop people, they'll go down to

a river, the ladies, all the ladies go together, carry

these big buckets, go down, you know, a couple miles

away from the village or whatever. They start digging in

the sand of a dry riverbed and eventually a little

bit of water comes up and they try to you know,

they keep scooping it out until they can get the

sand out and then get as clear of water as

they can and then fill their buckets. But there's all

kinds of laughter, there's tons of gossip happening, lots of

cutting up, right, all that stuff. It's the cluster of

where it's the place to be at that time for

all the ladies in the village. Yes, no ladies want

to miss it. But here she's not there with all

these ladies in the morning. She's all by herself in

the middle of the day. And it's probably because and

Jesus calls her out on her reputation. Her reputation is

she's not an upstanding citizen like the rest of the good,

the good ladies in town. Right, So even just her

getting water in the heat of the day is reminding

her that she's not really who she wants to be, right,

that she doesn't have the attention and the affection of

the people in her town. And these towns were small towns, right,

And then she's going from man to man to man

to man trying to get it. Clearly, she has this

desire to be known and to be loved, and she

just can't find it. And Jesus steps up and gets

her right there. He doesn't talk around the edges. He goes,

let me tell you what you're really thirsty for. Yeah,

and then let me tell you I know you completely

and I love you anyways, And that brings satisfaction that

none of the other things you can be searching for

in life can ever give you.

Yeah, I think there's a rumor that Jesus saying you're looking.

For love and all the wrong. Is that theologically? That's it.

That's it's in the Hebrew, right, that's in the Greek.

So funny.

You know.

Another thing about this is that keep in mind that

Jesus h didn't promise to reward people to be hungry,

you know, once you know, once they're hungry and thirsty.

He didn't say you'll be rewarded.

Uh. He says you'll be satisfied or you'll be filled. Right,

And so that feeling is both now and not yet.

Right, So now you know that satisfaction you've had that

time when you were so thirsty you that you just

start gulping and then you're like what do you do?

You go right, don't you? You just can't help it.

There's so much satisfaction when you finally have that, or

when you're angry and you're ready to just tear everybody's

head off and somebody gives you a snickers and suddenly like, okay,

all right, I'm gonna be There's a certain amount of

it calms you down, it gives you peace, and then

to exhale that satisfied. That's what he's talking about, is

your soul being able to exhale with that satisfy.

Yeah, that's good. Yeah.

So now we get satisfied through forgiveness, transformation, the spirits

work in our lives. And then the not yet is

we're going to be satisfied with the waiting of the

full restoration of all things, you know. So so in

other words, like.

He says, I'm gonna make every one yeah, one.

Day, one day, we're going to be perfected into the

image of Jesus. We're going to become righteous right like

like full righteousness.

Well, this Revelation, you're talking about that relation. I pulled

this verse up specifically, he says in Revelation chapter seven,

never again will they hunger, Never again will they thirst

for the lamb at the center of the throne will

be their shepherd. That's really good, that's what it says.

So that's exactly that's really good.

And then here's another observation, is that, uh, this verse

that says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after

righteousness or they'll be satisfied. It guards us from two

dangers like sort of like those who feel complacency and

then those who feel despair. Right, So, complacency is the

attitude of saying like, hey, I'm good enough as I am.

Right.

Well, this beatitude calls us out of complacency, and it

says no, no, no, never be satisfied of being good

enough as you are. But then it also warns us

for those people who say I'll never be good enough, right,

the ones who say I'll never be worthy, because Jesus saying, hey, listen,

it's not perfection, it's the desiring for righteousness God's character

in your life. So you know, it's a great thing

to realize that. You know, no matter how good we are,

we can always strive to pursue God more, to be

more like Jesus. And for those of us who feel

like failures, God is telling us. You know, it starts

with the desire. You're going to be blessed. You're going

to be satisfied. And you know what, the stronger, the stronger,

the more you what am I trying to say? You're

gonna get stronger as you go. Yeah, right, So the

more the more blessed you become, the more God shows

up in your life, the easier it's gonna get That's

what I'm trying to say.

I pulled up another verse a Psalm sixty three. David

often wrote about how hungry he was for God, right

many many times, and in Psalm sixty three he says,

you God, are my God, and earnestly I seek you.

I thirst for you. My whole being longs for you

in a dry and parch land where there is no water.

When we believe that this dry and parch land is

what can satisfy us, we're never gonna be satisfied. But

he said, with everything in me, I'm learning that I

want you more than anything else. And that's what Jesus

said when he in chapter six, which we're gonna get to.

He's Jesus declares, and I think we're gonna read this

in the next couple of days. I'm the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, right, That's

what he says. Yeah, so David recognized nothing thing in

this life. It's all just a dry parts land. And

I think that when we get to that point where

our appetite begins to change, that's where the blessing comes from.

It's not in the perfection of righteousness. It's that our

appetite becomes more and more and more. I want to

be more like Jesus. I want to be walking more

with Jesus. And so I think our listeners, people that

are spending time with God's word every single day, you're

developing a habit for it. I've had many people say

at first I started and it was every once in

a while, and then all of a sudden, I couldn't

stop every day. I've listened to every episode. You guys do,

and it's not just you and me. It's the fact

that they want to spend time in the world right.

That appetite makes more appetite, makes more appetite, and God

will satisfy as our appetite turns away from the junk

food and over to the things that are actually in

life and actually changes over to the things that matter

most Jesus and his right living. He says, you'll find

satisfaction there where you can't find it anywhere else. It's good.

That's good. Man.

Hey, let me give you one last thought, and that

is this beatitude perfectly resembles Christ. It says that Jesus

hungered in the wilderness. He thirsted on the cross, he

perfectly desired God's will, and on the cross he became

righteousness for us. So that's kind of cool.

That's awesome, dude. Yeah good, I'm looking forward to the

next couple of days.

Yeah, me too.

All right, well, hopefully we'll see tomorrow on the Bible, guys,