I hope you will take time to read Russel Moore’s blog this morning.  You can find it on the blogroll or you can just click here.  What a great wakeup call for us all!

Last week I devoted the blog to the fourth beatitude, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied.”  This week I would like for us to go back and look at the first, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Some time ago I read the story of a pilot who was practicing high speed maneuvers in a jet fighter.  The pilot turned the controls for a steep ascent, but flew straight into the ground.  He did not know that he was flying up-side-down.  I read that and couldn’t help but think of today’s church.  We are moving along with big buildings, big budgets, and great programs, but are we flying in the right direction?

Jesus has become big business in the West.  Books, paintings, jewelry, and decorations with His ‘likeness’ make up a billion dollar business, but are we representing the Biblical Jesus?  If you grew up in church you heard about Jesus in song—“Jesus loves me,” you saw Him on the flannel board or in the pictures, and you thanked him for your Kool-Aid and cookies.  He was comforting, loving—a Mister Rogers with a robe and long hair.  The question we must ask is why would that Jesus be crucified?  What would a Mister Rogers Messiah do to make everyone so mad?  No, Jesus was much more than that.  (Idea from Phillip Yancey, The Jesus I Thought I Knew)

Karl Barth tells of a man standing by the window gazing into the street.  Outside, people are shading their eyes with their hands and looking up into the sky.  Because of the overhang of the building, the man cannot see what they are pointing toward.  We who live 2,000 years after Jesus have a viewpoint not unlike the man standing by the window.  We hear the shouts of exclamation.  We study the gestures and words in the Gospels and the many books they have spawned.  Yet no amount of neck-craning will allow us a glimpse of Jesus in the flesh.

Yancey spoke of the Jesus of the Gospels, “…obstinacy frustrated him, self-righteousness infuriated him, simple faith thrilled him.  Indeed, he seemed more emotional and spontaneous than the average person, not less.  More passionate, not less.”  The Jesus of the Bible called us to come and seek His kingdom first and to abide in Him.  If we are going to do that we would do well to find out who He is.  You can tell a lot about who I am by reading or listening to my sermons so I thought, maybe we can see who He is by studying the intro to His best known sermon over the next few weeks.

Every morning I read Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost of His Highest.  I’ve been reading it for years and he amazes me daily.  Today was no exception.  Let me share his devotional thought for today and at the same time let me encourage you to get a copy.

August 28

“Lord, teach us to pray.”  Luke xi. 1.

It is not part of the life of a natural man to pray.  We hear it said that a man will suffer in his life if he does not pray; I question it.  What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer.  When a man is born from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve that life or nourish it.  Prayer is the way the life of God is nourished.  Our ordinary views of prayer are not found in the New Testament.  We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves; the Bible idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.

“Ask and ye shall receive.”  We grouse before God, we are apologetic or apathetic, but we ask very few things.  Yet what a splendid audacity a childlike child has!  Our Lord says—“Except ye become as little children.”  Ask, and God will do.  Give Jesus Christ a chance, give Him elbow room, and no man will ever do this unless he is at his wits’ end.  When a man is at his wits’ end it is not a cowardly thing to pray, it is the only way he can get into touch with Reality.  Be yourself before God and present your problems, the things you know you have come to your wits’ end over.  As long as you are self-sufficient, you do not need to ask God for anything.

It is not so true that “prayer changes things” as that prayer changes me and I change things.  God has so constituted things that prayer on the basis of Redemption alters the way in which a man looks at things.  Prayer is not a question of altering things externally, but of working in a man’s disposition.

We’ve been focusing on Matthew 5:6 all week, but let me close with this thought—true happiness/blessing is not dependent upon what you know or what you do—true happiness is based on those things for which you hunger and thirst.  Think about your life right now—what are you desperately seeking?  If it isn’t Jesus let me ask you a question—are you happy?  Are you blessed?  Are you experiencing fulfillment?  I love what Piper said—“The hunger and thirst of your life that cannot be satisfied by anything in this world is the constant beckoning of God to remember that you were made for another world, you were made for God.”

 Have you been frantically searching for something that will bring you happiness?

 Maybe you have wasted your life living for something you thought would bring it, but now here at the end you see it was all a lie.

 Are you on the verge of making some huge life decisions about what you will do and how you will live?

 Can I urge you to abandon the road most traveled?  Can I plead with you to move from the well worn path and to consider following the Kingdom road?  There aren’t many people on it and the way is narrow, but the way is full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  The way is different from all others, but the One who calls you promises to never leave nor forsake you—He promises to empower you and He also promised He was going to prepare a place for you and that He would come and take you to be with Him.  Are you looking for blessings?  Look no further than Jesus!

Yesterday we began to look at Jesus’ definition of righteousness by looking at verses where He used the word in the Sermon on the Mount.  We looked first at Matthew 5:20, but look at Matthew 6:1 where Jesus says, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people to in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”  Being righteous involves action.  It is not an idle thing—it is aggressive and active, but it is focused upon the One who makes us righteous.  In other words—we don’t go out and do righteous things to be seen as righteous—we act righteously because we love the One who fills us.  One more thing about it—I am not righteous because of my good works—my good works come as a result of the fact that God has made me righteous. 

 Let me just remind you of the last use of this word—Matthew 6:33 tells us to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”  It is so important to Jesus that He tells us to seek if first and foremost—that is just another way of saying that we are to be hungry and thirsty for it. 

 Jesus wants us to seek to be righteous above all other things and he gives us an awesome promise to those who do—“They will be filled.”  Did you get that?  He didn’t say—they might be filled.  He didn’t even say they will get to taste it.  Jesus said, “Happy are those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness.  They are happy because they are filled with the very thing they seek.”  Wow!  We are happy when we seek to be right with God, to be rid of sin, to be out of self, and to be centered in Him. 

 I like the way D Martyn Lloyd Jones says it, “To hunger and thirst after righteousness is nothing but the longing to be positively holy…” It is the man who wants to show the fruit of the Spirit in every action.  It is the woman who longs deeply to be the new creation Paul spoke of.  It is the person whose one supreme desire is to know God and to be in fellowship with Him, to walk with Him, and to be like Him.  Jesus tells us that when that is our desire we will be filled.

Yesterday I spoke to you about the beatitudes being a recipe for happiness?  Jesus says true happiness begins and ends with the Kingdom.  You must live for His kingdom or you’ll never know true happiness.  I think that starts with us evaluating what it is that we hunger and thirst for the most.  Hunger and thirst represent the physical necessities of life—you cannot live without food and water, but the physical is simply pointing us upward toward the spiritual.  Just as you cannot live without food and water—you cannot live without Jesus.  Jesus points us toward that very thing that brings us fulfillment. 

What is the dominating factor in your life?  Is it your job?  Is it your spouse?  Is it your children?  Is it a particular sport or hobby?  I want to fill you in on something—if that is hunger and thirst of your life you will never be filled—you will spend the rest of your life in a restless pursuit of the next best thing and it will never fill your need. 

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”  What in the world is righteousness?   The easiest way to define it is to allow Jesus to define it for us.  He uses the word three other times in this sermon.  Let’s look at those verses and see if we can define righteousness.

Matthew 5:20, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven.”  Jesus goes on to illustrate this statement by showing us how our righteousness is to be lived out.  (1) We are told that not only should we not kill—we shouldn’t keep bottled up anger against someone.  Righteousness involves showing mercy.  (2) We are told that not only should we not commit adultery, but we should not even entertain lustful thoughts of another person.  We are to be pure in heart.  (3) We are told that we are not to follow the world’s view of divorce—we are to seek to be in right relationships.  We are to be peacemakers.  (4) We are told that not only we should keep our oaths we should be the kind of people who don’t even need to take oaths.  Our yes is yes and our no is no.  Once again we are merciful and peacemakers.  (5) We are told that we should hate sin so much that we do not retaliate or try to get even—we love God so much that we are willing to get rid of anything that hinders our relationship with Him.  Once again we find that we are pure in heart.  (6) Finally, Jesus tells us that we are not just supposed to love those who love us—we are to love our enemies as well.  We should pray for those who persecute us.

Verses 21-48 simply illustrate the last group of beatitudes.  Righteousness is being merciful, pure in heart, and peacemakers.  Tomorrow we will move to the next verse to help us understand righteousness.

Yesterday we started looking at Matthew 5:6 which is the fourth of eight Beatitudes.  When you read the beatitudes you find a recipe for happiness.  First, you must die to self.  Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  You have nothing to bring to the table and you have no hope of having anything to bring to the table—you are absolutely dependent upon Him.  So the first step toward happiness is a step away from self-seeking.  Second, face up to your sinfulness.  Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, they shall be comforted.”  In the first beatitude we turn from self seeking, but in this beatitude we turn from self-satisfaction.  We cannot comfort ourselves—we must be comforted and that will not happen until we are broken over our sins.  Third, turn away and surrender yourself to God’s control.  Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”  Turn from self-seeking, self-satisfaction, and now Jesus tells us to turn from self-serving. 

Do you see why this is so contradicting to the world’s way of thinking?  The world says if you want to be happy go after what you want. If you want to be happy you have to make it happen.  If you want to be happy—go out and make it happen regardless of what it might do to others.  But Jesus enters the world and turns it for a loop—each of the beatitudes is built upon the previous one and the first three work toward the fourth one.  In fact, the next four build upon it—this beatitude is key to the Kingdom Life.

You see, the beatitudes are broken into two groups.  The first group has three beatitudes that lead up to the fourth—they speak of the emptiness that causes us to hunger and thirst, but they lead to the promise of being filled with righteousness.  The second group builds upon the fourth—five, six, and seven show us how a person that is filled with righteousness will live and number eight tells us how the world will react.  It is interesting to note that both groups end with a reference to righteousness.

We have to travel down the kingdom road to get to true happiness and the further we travel the more we hunger for the One who enables us to pursue Him.  The very fact that we hunger and thirst for Him, points us toward the fact that we need Him.  CS Lewis said, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”  We are born with an insatiable desire for happiness and we often try to find it in all of the wrong places.  No matter what we do we just cannot find true happiness apart from a relationship with the One who made us.

For the last few weeks I’ve been re-memorizing the Beatitudes with a goal of eventually memorizing the Sermon on the Mount.  As I refreshed my mind on those wonderful statements of Jesus I was once again amazed at His teaching.  My favorite statement of the 8 Beatitudes is the middle one, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)

One of the most common phrases in our house is, “I am hungry.”  Kim could cook a meal that had everything the girls liked and yet ten or fifteen minutes later we hear one of the girls saying, “I’m hungry.”  We live in a world where hunger is real—famines in Somalia and Sudan have killed thousands.  Thousands of children will die before we this day due to the fact that they do not have enough food to eat and they do not have clean water to drink. 

I have known hunger, but it was usually due to voluntary fasting.  Like you, I have known momentary thirst, but the truth is we live in such a place of blessing that we also know what it means to eat and drink to fill those needs.  When we are hungry or thirsty the fact that we are hungry and thirsty consumes us.  Think of a child that is hungry—nothing will pacify them—nothing except food. 

Has this conversation ever taken place in your house?  “What is for supper?”  “I don’t know—what are you hungry for?”  That is a great question—what are you hungry for?  The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were hungry for recognition and power.  The zealots were hungry for conquest.  Our day is no different.  A poor person is hungry for wealth, a wealthy person is hungry for more wealth, and a sick person is hungry for health.  But if you boil it all down I think, above all, we are hungry for happiness.

If I could bottle up a formula for happiness I would be a rich man.  If I could guarantee you that you could be happy wouldn’t you be interested?  If I could offer a solution for not only all of your problems, but for every problem in the world—would you be interested?  I want to confess something to you today—I have that solution.  I have the means to the happiness that you seek.  It is written right here.

Jesus said, “Blessed,” that word conveys happiness.  Literally Jesus says, “Happy, happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied.”  Did you hear that?  If you learn to hunger and thirst for the right thing you have the promise of God guaranteeing you that you will be satisfied.  We will spend a few days on this one statement, but for now I would encourage you to do a little soul searching—what are you hungry for?

This morning my daily Bible reading took me to the book of Job.  As I read the first three chapters I was amazed by several things.  The first thing you notice is the heart of Job.  When his children would hold their regular feasts the Bible tells us, “Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all.  For Job said, ‘It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.’  Thus Job did continually.”

The second thing you notice is the sovereignty of God.  On two occasions in the book of Job we find these words, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.”  Everything is under the control of God—even Satan.  He is not free to do as he pleases. 

The third thing you notice is the righteousness of Job.  It is incredible to me that God says, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”  Can you imagine someone saying that about you?  Can you imagine the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth saying that about you?

The fourth thing I noticed was the truth of Jesus’ words in John 10:10,  “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy…”  The moment God removed hedge of perfection from Job’s life Satan was ruthless.  He stole, killed, destroyed everything of Job—his animals, his servants, and all of his children.  I know that many people are going through terrible things, but imagine what it would be like if Satan had free reign in your life.  He is accountable to God, but he hates Him and he hates us.

The last thing I noticed this morning was the glory of God.  When Job heard that about the destruction of everything he held dear he responded in a way we might expect, “Then Job arose and tore his robes and shaved his head and fell on the ground…”  Each action of Job was consistent with grief and sorrow, but the rest of the sentence blows me away, “Then Job arose and tore his robes and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.  And he said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return.  The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.’”

There is only one explanation of Job’s actions—Job loved Someone more than he loved anything else.  Job’s greatest desire was God and even when terrible things happened in his life He still worship Him.  Do you know God like that?  When you come to know God as He has revealed Himself in the Bible you can worship even in the midst of great heart ache.

One of my favorite people in the world was Evan Zeiger.  Every time I saw him I would ask him how he was doing and he would always say something along the line of, “If the Lord was any better to me I would have to be triplets to handle it,” or “If the Lord was any better to me I would just have to rapture.”  He and his wife had a terrible wreck and I went to see him in the hospital.  He was in great pain and I asked him how he was doing.  He said, “If I was any better I couldn’t stand it and that is just as true in this bed as it is on my feet.”  He was a man who knew God.  Do you?

In the One Year Bible we are currently reading through Esther and I was moved by a passage yesterday morning.  Before I get to the passage let me comment on the book of Esther.

It is an interesting book—it is the only book in the Bible where God’s name is never mentioned.  Many have sought to make it a Cinderella story and romanticize it, but it is far from romantic.

The King asks for the Queen to come before his guest, she refuses, they issued a royal order that put all the women of the kingdom ‘in their place,’ refused to allow the Queen to come before the King again, and then sent out another royal order that brought all of the beautiful virgins in the kingdom to the royal palace where they went through an extensive ‘beauty makeover.’

The makeover involved 12 months of “beautifying” with six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and ointments.  Now when the 12 months of “beautifying” were over the Bible says, “when the young women went in to the king in this way, she was given whatever she desired to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace.  In the evening she would go in to the king, and in the morning she would return to the second harem in custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch, who was in charge of the concubines.  She would not go in to the king again, unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name.”

Ladies does that sound romantic?  Spend a year getting a makeover, get taken to the king’s palace, be forced to sleep with him, and if he liked you he would call you back, but if he didn’t you would live your life as a concubine never to get married, never to have children, and never to be normal.  Esther was chosen by the king, through that process, to be his queen.

Now if you know the story of Esther you know a man named Haman plotted to kill all of the Jews because of a personal grudge he had with Esther’s uncle Mordecai.  Mordecai alerts Esther and she goes before the king, which was a great act of bravery, and the king promises to give her anything she wanted up to half the kingdom.

She asks him to bring Haman and to join her for a banquet that night which he does and once again he offers her up to half the kingdom, but she asks for another night of banquet.  She could have been nervous, she could have had other reasons, but on the second night she told the king of the plot, Haman was hung on the gallows he built for Mordecai and the people were saved.

Here is what moved me.  How many times do we seek the King of kings for what He can give us?  How many times do we dream of God coming to us like He did with Solomon and asking us to name what we want and how many times do we list out what we might ask Him.  I wonder if we would ever come to the place where we might go to God and have Him ask us to name what we want and we just simply say, “God, I’d really just like to spend some time with you.” 

What if He spent time with us and asked us once again to name whatever we wanted and we just said, “God, it’s been so good to be with you tonight I’d really like nothing more than to be with you again.”  I am not romanticizing or spiritualizing Esther, but I do think we could learn from her experience and come to know that what David said in Psalm 63:3 is true, “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.”