Stay Hungry | Matthew 5:6

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. 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,