August 17 - Righteousness

Part 5 - Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

Last September Kristi, Gavin and I drove from Naperville Illinois to Beufort South Carolina to candidate at a church. This was before we knew we were supposed to be planting a church. We were exploring every option. We went to an amazing church there that was looking at us for Senior Pastor. About half way through the weekend with them, we realized this wasn’t the right thing for us. It was a great church, larger than I could imagine stepping into as a first time sr. pastor, with strong English, Spanish, and generational ministries. But something wasn’t right. We were already starting to sense God calling us to launch a brand new ministry. 

So as we finished the last night with the board and pastors, we felt this awkward sensation. We loved the people and the church, but knew we needed to say no. I felt it, Kristi felt it, even Gavin felt it! 

As we got back to the hotel at about 8:30 at night, we were all ready to be home. To be honest, I drove out there because I already had a feeling it wasn’t the right thing, and I didn’t want to waste the church’s money on flying us out. And now we were in the hotel room, ready to go, but dreading the 15 hour drive home. 

In addition, Kristi was starting to get sick. She had a fever, and felt awful. Things were just stacking up against us. 

So I turned to Kristi and Gavin and said, “do you guys just want to get in the car now and take off?” 

It was like something from a comedy. I barely got the words out of my mouth and they both had their bags in their hands fully packed and ready to go. So at about 9 o’clock PM, we drove to the gas station, and then right out of town and home to Naperville. 

It was a rough drive! 

About 10 minutes into it, both Gavin and Kristi were out cold. 

They basically never woke up. 

So I navigated driving through the night, driving twisting, winding roads through mountainous terrain, trying my hardest to keep from feeling tired. 

But do you know the hardest moment of the drive? 

At about 10:30 AM the next morning. . . 

The sun was up, traffic was alive, and I could see Illinois just the other side of the broken roads of Indiana. . . 

And all I could think about, was laying down in my nice comfy bed. . .  

I could feel the cool air-conditioned pillow against the side of my face, and the fan breezing over me. . .This is my favorite way to sleep. And every time I blinked, my eyes begged to stay closed as I envisioned laying in my bed all comfy and cozy. 

As soon as my mind went there, it was over. All I could think about was getting home and in bed. Every second felt like an eternity. And each time I looked at Kristi or Gavin completely zonked out, my inner self jealously cried out to be home. 

The last hour and a half felt as long as the previous 13 and a half. . . 

Everything in me was screaming out! 

I stopped 3 times in the last segment of this drive, because I ached and longed for a break! I just wanted to lay my head down and be done with this drive. 

Have you ever felt that type of longing before? 

It’s a hunger and thirst. 

It’s the inner self begging to be brought to a spot of resolution. 

In Jesus’s opening to his sermon, we have been walking through the steps he laid out for us to become the person he is longing for us to BE. He started by making sure we remember how broken we are without him. Then he reminded us to mourn the effect of this brokenness, so that we can fully understand the humility inside of meekness that sees our human condition the way it really is. This will cause us to view others properly and want the best for people. 

But now, in this fourth trait to becoming his intended human condition, Jesus says these amazing words. 

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

This is a good time to point out the simplicity of result behind each of these. 

You are pour in spirit - you simply get the kingdom of heaven

You mourn - you will find comfort

You are meek - you get the earth

And now, you hunger and thirst for righteousness - you get filled! And what do you get filled with? Righteousness. It’s that simple. If you can hunger and thirst for righteousness, you will get it. And you will be completely filled with it. 

First we need to understand what righteousness is. 

It doesn’t mean that you are right. No person is able to be fully right. So how can we be filled with righteousness? It’s not being right all the time - it’s wanting what is right all the time. 

When you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you learn to see what is right, and always want what is right over what is wrong. 

See, here is the human condition. . . We might want right, but wrong never looks bad. If sin looked bad all the time, we would never worry about stepping into it. But unfortunately, sin never really presents itself as bad. 

I mean, look at the very first sin we have written in the book of Genesis. God told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Yet what does it say about the fruit they were about to disobediently eat from?

Genesis 3:6

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and at it. 

All these things were true about the fruit. Whatever the fruit was, God had made it and it looked good. Chances are, it was a fruit they could have already tasted, just from a different tree. God told them not to eat from a specific tree, not a species of tree. What if it was a fruit tree they already liked and so they knew how good it tasted. And now, the fruit brought with it the understanding of good and evil. See this was something they didn’t really have yet. God had not shown them evil in a way they could experience it, so they didn’t really have this knowledge yet. Eating of the tree would give them this knowledge. 

It was pleasing to them. So they ate it. 

This is how sin usually presents itself. 

It’s money sitting out on someone’s desk, that you could easily walk away with and no one would catch you. It’s cussing someone out from the comfort of your own car, so that they don’t really hear you and no one “get’s hurt by it.” It’s taking a hit from a joint to ease the pain, or flirting with that coworker because it makes you feel wanted, or cheating on the test because you need a better grade. . . None of that presents itself as uninteresting. That’s why it’s called temptation. You are tempted to do it because you see the benefits. 

The only thing that can outweigh this temptation, is a keen awareness to what is right. By having an understanding of what right looks like and how to follow it, you can fight temptation. But when this hunger for what is right is put to rest, temptation begins to look pleasing. 

Adam and Eve knew what was right, But they stopped focusing on right, and looked at the benefits of the sin they were about to commit. So the sin won. 

Listen, momentary gratification will always look and feel good. But righteousness is always more rewarding. When you give into instant gratification, you loose sight of the long game. And discipline never comes through shortcuts. You always have to practice and learn discipline. 

So what do we do? 

Practice wanting what is right. 

Learn to stop and question, wonder, what is the right thing here? What would God want me to pursue? What would God have as best for me in this situation? It’s a real battle! Because, again, 2nd best never looks awful at first look. But it still misses God’s best. And when you miss the mark of God’s best, you find yourself in sin. 

So here is a simple rule of life that we follow. It says, ‘Want What God Wants.’ 

In everything we do, we look to asking what God would want for us. We don’t want to settle for something that isn’t aligned with God’s will. We want to only pursue righteousness. But you can’t just want righteousness, you have to hunger and thirst for it. You have to understand the effects of forgetting righteousness, so that you can say, “Not me! I do not want anything but God’s best!” 

This only comes from practicing pursuing righteousness. 

And how do we practice? 

Every small decision at a time. 

I dare you to start asking this question, “What does God want?”

What does God want with my time? What does God want with my resources? What does God want with my talents, my family, my speech, my actions. . . What does God want with all of me? 

When you really start asking that question in every area of your life, you begin to hunger and thirst for righteousness. And the beauty is, if you can truly do this, Jesus says, you will be filled! 

You will begin to see right, and realize how much more rewarding it is than wrong! You begin finding yourself walking away from things that you wish you would never get entangled by, and you find more freedom! It starts with the simple things, and grows to the bigger things. Before long, you find yourself motivated by righteous living. And, you hunger and thirst for it. 

So, ask the question and ask it often. What does God want? 

And as you ask this, I pray you learn what you believe, and why you believe it to be true! 

Until tomorrow, I love you, and I pray that as you pursue righteousness, May God Bless you!