Find Matthew, chapter five in your bible or in your device, and we roll.

My name is Trevor Davis. I'm GCC's pastor, and we welcome you to the Lord's day gathering of our church. We began a new series on Easter Sunday. We're right in the middle of it, called how can I be happy when. And we're looking at the beatitudes of Jesus in the sermon on the mount.

And to catch you up, I've got some, just a quick review for you. It won't take long, but I want to remind you that the beatitudes are not attitudes that make for a happy life. Neither are they instructions about certain behaviors God wants us to do. All of them begin with the word blessed, and we may substitute the word blessed with the word honored or enviable. So it would go something like this.

How honored are the meek, since they will inherit the earth. Or for enviable, don't you wish you were poor in spirit, since the kingdom belongs to them? And as best I can tell, if I were going to summarize what happiness is about in the beatitudes, the best I can tell is it's when human emotions turn into heaven's values. And so let me give you an example of that just to catch you up in week one. How can I be happy when I feel so invisible?

That was bless are the poor in spirit, because they will inherit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And the answer would be when my invisibility changes to being poor in spirit. Spirit. I know that God sees me and has reserved a place for me and his kingdom.

Or the second one, how can I be happy when my heart is broken? This was week two. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. God comforts them. That's when my heartbreak turns into mourning over what God would have me grieve over.

That's when I'll feel his comfort. And then last week, when Don delivered the message for us, how can I be happy when I feel so insecure? That was, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. And the answer is, when I trade insecurity for meekness and gentleness, I'll be filled with confidence, because God has promised me an inheritance. And so now you're caught up and ready for this week.

You ready? All right. What is the likely profile of the average set of values and priorities of the people in this room or in the gathering of a church like ours in the mid south area? Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi? What is it likely going to be that we value and how do we see the world?

Let me give you not an exhaustive list, but a lot of it here that I think you'll agree with. Number one, most of us in the room have a settled belief in God. Yes. And we believe that God is Jesus. Correct.

We also possess a non negotiable commitment to the family. We think marriages should stay together. We think that fatherlessness is a scourge on our nation, and we're seeing it crumble from the inside out because boys and girls are growing up without dads or they come up in broken homes. And even our own nation today doesn't know what a man or a woman is. And so we reject all that.

We're committed to the family. Yes or no? We have a love for our country. You want to know why? Because I've been everywhere else.

Most everywhere else. I've been on lots of continents. There ain't no place like the USA. It doesn't mean that God's not in these other places and doesn't have believers. In fact, the church is doing better than Iran than it's doing in America.

But we look at our history and we go. The men and the women that risked their lives to start our nation did so with a christian worldview, and it's the best. Yes. So we're patriots. We carry with us a universal sense of right and wrong.

That means we don't believe that truth is relative. We don't believe that there's your truth and my truth, and they can be different, that God has set a standard, that this is right and this is wrong, this is true and this is false. There is objective truth, and truth is a person, and his name is Jesus. Yes. We also value the sanctity of human life from conception to the grave, that God made every man and every woman.

The gospel is available to all and effectual to those that God has given to Jesus. And we believe that life begins at conception, it ends at death and in between. You need to decide what you're going to do with Jesus Christ. We believe this, and we also believe fair pay for honest work. We believe the New Testament when it says, the man who does not work shall not eat.

These are some of the many shared values and priorities in this room. Now, you may not believe all those. That's all right. You just need to know that you're in a group that, for the most part, that's us. Let me share with you some recent research published as recently as six months ago from the Gallup organization that tells us that there's been a significant change in american values.

Now, in these polling numbers I'm going to give you, it represents those in that demographic from 18 to 34 years old. So the young generation that are adults over the past 20 years, 2021 years, from 2002 to 2023. In 2000, 262 percent of them said that religion was very important to life. In 2023, that number had plummeted to 39%. And I'm not sure I believe that number.

An organization as skeptical as national public Radio put out a similar poll and they found, and this was troubling to me, they found that 48% of those 18 to 34 year olds said that religion or faith is not really relevant to life. 48% of them. That doesn't mean that 52% said that there were. The other two groups were far less than this. The overwhelming majority, the 18 to 34 year olds in our country, says, man, that's good for you, but it really probably doesn't help anybody.

Troubling of those who said they were proud to be citizens of the US, patriotism. Those numbers have declined from 55% down to 39%. And so folks who live here don't even value living here anymore. My brothers and my sisters, the world around us is morphing. There's been a cultural earthquake and a fault line is formed.

And the values have changed and the priorities are different where we live. And I'm wondering, do you have a sickening feeling about that? How dissatisfied are you with your life right now?

Have you noticed the fork in the road? Have some of your friends and family even gone in a different direction from you? Or are you diverging? You're going this way with the Lord and they're going other ways. Without God, does it feel like your values and theirs are no longer compatible?

You see, today's beatitude asks and answers the question, how can I be happy when my priorities are so different from the world around me? This is Matthew five six. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Father in heaven, our prayer today is that you would inspire us, that you would get our attention, turn on the light in dark and shadowy areas that we've invited into our own hearts. And whatever it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness, God give us the grace to do it in Jesus name.

And a faith filled church said, amen. You guys ready for God's word today? All right. What does Jesus mean by hungering and thirsting? Hunger and thirst for righteousness?

Well, as best I can tell, the word righteousness all over your old Testament, everywhere in your New Testament, you gotta figure out which author is using it and how he's using it in context. But the best I got for in this verse, righteousness means something like the ultimate satisfaction. That comes from a relationship with God. That is unclouded by disobedience. Let me say that again.

The ultimate satisfaction that comes from a relationship with God unclouded by disobedience. Righteousness in Matthew five six is unbroken connection with the Lord. It's the ability to live out our days in conformity to the will of God. And I want to show you a verse. We're in Matthew five six.

I want to show you 14 or 15 verses further in Matthew five. The sermon on the mount is filled with chilling things that Jesus said. Here's one of them. Matthew 520. Our Lord says, for I say to you.

That unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Ladies and gentlemen, shots fired. Here's the Lord Jesus, without batting an eye or apologizing even for a moment, looking to first century Israelites, mainly made up of the poor and the blue collar, and saying to them, you know the religious leaders that you trust so much? You know the ones that you admire and revere? You know those ones that you think have to be the closest to God.

People on earth. Unless you. And he doesn't say, match them. He says, unless your life and your righteousness exceeds theirs. No kingdom.

You thought you liked the sermon on the mount, didn't you? Exceeding righteousness is the standard of the kingdom. In verse 48 of that same chapter, he's going to say, in case you didn't understand me, be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect. All right. If perfection's the standard, I'm out.

Is it just me? You gonna make it too? How are you gonna get some of that? Exceeding righteousness. You better hope you don't have to stir it up in you.

You better hope you don't have to go dig in the ground and find some. You better hope it's not up to you. Exceeding righteousness, this is, is now our pursuit. Exceeding righteousness is the believer's new appetite. Hunger and thirst for righteousness.

And what happens when you put hunger and thirst together in literature. When you have hunger and thirst together? It constitutes universal human experience. Because everybody experiences hunger and thirst? Yes or no?

Of course. Why would Jesus mention hunger and thirst? Why would he mention these universal experiences and needs in his beatitudes? Remember I told you it's the last beatitude that governs all the ones that come before it. And in the last one, because some of Jesus hearers had been disowned for following him, they had been publicly shamed and excluded from their own families and their own tight knit communities because that had happened to them, and because they can no longer transact business, because they can no longer expect people to feed them or give them water like they do everyone else, they now suffer hunger and thirst.

And Jesus says, oh, you think you're hungry and thirsty. Blessed and honored and envied are those who hunger and thirst not just for food and water, but for righteousness. They're the ones that God will fill. Now, the truth is, most of us in the developed world, in the first world, in the civilized world, we might say we have more than enough food and water to satisfy our bodies. Isn't that true?

Not only do we have more than enough, we waste a lot, right? Quick show of hands, how many of you are like me? When you brush your teeth, you turn the faucet on and you leave it running until you're finished, right? If you go to the developing world, that's not how they do it. If they're able to brush their teeth, they just use as little bit of water as they can, or they put it in a cup, and that's all they get.

They would never turn on the faucet and leave it running for any reason, because water is a diminishing asset in just about everywhere but where you live. You aware of this? It's why it's great missionary strategy to build wells where people need water, among the poor, among those that are not like us in the developing world. And even not too far away, hunger sadly remains. Now, nobody starves to death in America.

I don't care what you see. It's all propaganda. You don't have to starve to it. But there are places in the world that you live where you couldn't eat if you wanted to. There just isn't any resources, and you can't eat dirt.

But food insecurity is an even greater problem still. Across the western world where we live, serious, sustained thirst is virtually non existent. And this has been true for so long that we're complacent about it, and we leave our faucets running all the time, and it's no big deal to us. But both of these precious gifts of God, food and water, where we live, are wasted. And in other parts of the world, they're longed for.

And by contrast, here in the sermon on the mount. Many of Jesus hearers would have personally experienced both unrelenting hunger and life threatening thirst in a world where water was scarce. In the first century in Israel, when travel was grueling, Jesus listeners would have known what is meant when he says to hunger and thirst, hungering and thirsting, especially after food and water. You know what that means? That means when he says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness because they're the ones that God will fill.

They could easily understand what Jesus was saying about this all consuming passion for righteousness. Jesus says these words to people who can easily get it. So here's what it means. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness have a spiritual appetite. It's a continuing desire for holiness.

Everybody look at me. It's a determined, personal endeavor. At some point, you got to learn to feed yourself in your spirit. You can't depend on my sermons. You can't depend on your small group lesson.

You can't depend on tv preachers. At some point, hungering and thirsting for righteousness has to be something you decide to do. No one can decide for you. Best I can tell, Sunday mornings are to inspire you to do what the scriptures say. But it's not the place where you really learn how to do it.

It's the place where you leave going. I'm committed to it now. I'm going to learn how to do it tonight and tomorrow. We choose to acquire a taste for something that the world either spits out, out or turns its nose up to the righteousness of God.

So you guys following this? Jesus is pointing his hearers not to occasional actions because you're not occasionally hungry.

He's pointing his hearers to a passionate pursuit of what's right. Pastor, is our Lord suggesting that if we make a strong enough effort, we'll get us some righteousness? The answer to the question strong enough effort in the Bible is almost universally no. That's not what he's saying. To us.

This righteousness in Matthew five six is a given righteousness. It's not an achieved one. God gives it, we don't earn it. That's the same. The same is true for your own personal salvation from sin.

God gives it. You don't earn that either. This is why it so troubles me when I talk to men and women in this room week after week, and I say, you know, I prayed for you every night this week. I prayed for you to know God and to be saved, to become a Christian. When they tell me, well, I'm still working on it, and I go.

Haven't you not understood? You can stop working right now because your efforts, if you did the best you could 100% for the rest of your life wouldn't be enough. But Jesus one work as your substitute in your place on the cross. That's why he was able to say, it is finished. He's done it all for you.

And when you understand the gospel and when God gives you a vision of Jesus and makes him beautiful and appealing like all those around you have learned, you'll see what is meant when we read in psalm 46 one, be still and know that I'm God. Literally cease striving and know that I'm God. You can stop trying to be good enough, and you can start trusting that Jesus is good enough. You'll go into heaven riding on Jesus as if he's the biggest beautiful dog you've ever seen, and you're the tick on his back, isn't that right? But that tick can't make it up the gates, can't walk up the steps.

It's a given righteousness. It's not an achieved righteousness. Another way to say this beatitude is if you realize you cannot personally achieve right standing before God, but you still desire to have it. By his grace, you will receive it. Let me say that again.

I worked hard on that. If you realize you cannot personally achieve right standing before God, but you still desire to have it, by his grace, you will receive it. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. And did you know that your scriptures are just eat up with verses that reflect passion for God? Not only that, it's a longing for him more than for daily food and drink.

I'll give you one example among the many. Psalm 63. One. O God, you are my God. Early will I seek you.

My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. Later on in the sermon on the mount, Jesus is going to look at his hearers and say, you're the salt of the earth, and I want to be so salty. People want a big drink of Jesus. I want their souls to thirst for him.

Those who are famished for righteousness will be satisfied.

But, pastor, do those who are blessed accomplish righteousness? No. The verse says, look at me. They hunger and thirst for it. You know what that means?

They go after it. They pursue it. You know what church is supposed to help you do? Pursue God?

To get on the team and go and move forward. They go after it. Let me show you two parables of Jesus in three verses. Back to back to back. One verse, one parable.

The next two verses, another parable. I want to put them side by side so we can compare and contrast them, and it'll help us understand Matthew five, six better. You ready for this? Okay, so this is also in Matthew, chapter 13, two parables of Jesus. Here's 1344.

He says, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid. And for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has, and he buys the field. The idea is, there's a treasure in the field. He knows about it. No one else knows about it.

He goes and mortgages everything, and he says, if I buy the field, I own what's in the field. I can go dig that thing up, and I have made the greatest investment ever. That's what the kingdom is like. You learn a secret that most of the unsaved, lost people around you don't know and would think you're crazy for mortgaging your whole life on this. You found the treasure.

That's the first parable. Be careful how you read the second one. Verses 45 and 46 again. The kingdom of heaven. It's like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had bought it.

See these? Do you see the underlines? The first part? The kingdom of heaven is like the treasure, but in the second, the kingdom of heaven is not like the pearl in the second one. If you read it carefully, the kingdom of heaven is like the merchant who's seeking the pearl.

Do you see it? The second parable sheds light for us on Matthew five six. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They're like the merchant seeking the pearl. You see it?

This beatitude we're examining is like the second of these two parables. And here's how the believers who hunger and thirst after righteousness are called blessed and honored and fortunate in their pursuit. They are striving for righteousness, like the merchant searching for the expensive pearl. In the second parable, Jesus is holding up for you the pursuit, not the pearl. See, the pearl is heaven when you get there.

Yes. The pursuit is what the kingdom is like. And if you're a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, you're pursuing after God. You're hungering and thirsting for righteousness. No pursuit means no faith.

It doesn't matter what happened to you when you were a kid. It doesn't matter what happened to you in that revival meeting. It doesn't matter what happened to you in that baptism pool. If there's no pursuit, there's no evidence that Jesus came to get you.

So let me put this on the screen. My brothers and my sisters, how you pursue God matters best I can tell, there's three ways people pursue God. Number one, rarely, if ever. Those who rarely, if ever, pursue God are not believers. Can we agree?

They're the ones that in the parable of the soils, the seed fell on the rocky path, and the birds came and took it away. And Jesus says, that's what Satan does. Second way to pursue God is casually. Sometimes these are Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day, when somebody comes to get baptized. When the grandkids sing at church, you can't look back and say, remember when you strung three Sundays in a row to go to the Lord house on his day?

It's just you're hit and miss. You're probably a false convert.

You'll be hard pressed to find any verses in the Bible that say, hit and miss. Christianity is real Christianity whatsoever. And it's certainly not narrow road Christianity. And it's certainly not the kind of Christianity that perseveres to the end. And Jesus says in Matthew 20 413, those who persevere to the end will be saved.

Isn't that what he says? So if this is your category, you should be as afraid as the first category. And then there are those who pursue God passionately and daily. These are believers who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And just like the parable of the soils, Jesus gives you all these options.

And only one of them is real.

Isn't it true that every day, when our appetites demand it, all people seek food and water, hoping to be satisfied? But can I ask you a question? How long does that last? It lasts a few hours, and the cravings return. This beatitude makes it clear that the blessed, the enviable, are those whose drive for righteousness is as pervasive, whose drive for righteousness is as all consuming, whose drive for righteousness is as recurring as the daily yearnings that you have to satisfy your hunger and thirst.

Now, I got to tell you, I don't eat on Sunday mornings. If I did, you would enjoy the delivery of a burped sermon. Amen. I don't eat. So when I get through preaching and churches over on Sunday, I am very hungry.

And I am pursuing food as if I'm going to heaven today. Right? I mean, I got to get this done. You and I know what it means. To have for your body to tell you it's time.

The question is, have you met God in such a way that the spirit of God tells your conscience, it's time to seek after the Lord.

If you long for righteousness, you'll have a full measure of it, not just a mere trace. Because the end of the parable says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And it's what Bible scholars call the divine passive, for they shall be filled. What it means is, for God will fill you. But ancient Israelites didn't want to write the word God in their notes, and so they just made it passive.

Where you know they're talking about God, they just don't say his name. If you hunger and thirst for righteousness, it won't be me blessing you. Neither will it be your spouse. It won't be your children. It won't be the best spiritual leaders you've ever known.

If you hunger and thirst for righteousness and pursue God, he says he's the one who'll fill you up. That is good news.

You'll walk through life by faith. Your priorities will be different. And look at me. You'll feel like you don't belong here. When you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you'll live your life with a sense of your home is somewhere else.

You know what the New Testament says? We're aliens and strangers here, just passing through.

Finally today, let me say this. No one pursues God relentlessly. Without a team of other pursuers cheering them on, you won't follow God all by yourself. Do you know the verse in the New Testament that says we're supposed to go to church? You know what that is?

It's Hebrews chapter ten. There's a passage in the Bible that says you ought to go to church. You're supposed to go to church. In fact, if these verses I'm getting ready to read to you are true, it's a sin to miss Church.

Who's saying that today?

You know what we do? We're so afraid you won't come back. We cheer you on from the parking lot. Then when you get here, until the time that you leave. And we don't expect you to be here next Sunday.

But if you come back three Sundays in a row, three Sundays from now, we'll act like we'll do the whole thing over again. Can I tell you if that's the condition you're in? Are you willing to say, God, that's my hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

If I don't get a better offer. If the weather participates, I'll show up. I'll go be with your people and I'll go sing. I'll go present myself to you if it's the best thing I can do that day. Can I tell you it's the best thing you can do every day.

Here it is. Hebrews, chapter ten, verses 23 through 25. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, without a team. You'll waver for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.

That sounds like pursuing righteousness to me, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some. So even in Bible times, people still did this. They just like, you know, if I get a better offer. If not, I'll show up for God. But exhorting one another.

Look, I want to be in the exhort zone. I want to be where I can be exhorted by faithful christians so that that peer pressure will wear off on me.

And I think you do too. But exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching. Because when the day gets here, you get to go home.

How are you going to make it home if you try it by yourself?

How are you going to hunger and thirst for righteousness if you don't put yourself in an environment where people who are already doing it can show you how to do it? Is this too much? This is too deep? Am I going too far?

Look, I just want God to fill you. He said he'd do it in the same way that you fill your belly with food and water. So here's the application. I'm done. How can I be happy when my priorities are so different from the world, when my desire to live out my days conforming to the will of God rises to the level with which the hungry and thirsty seek food and drink.

When all that happens, I'll be satisfied by the Lord himself. Now you know what Matthew, chapter five, verse six, means. Let's pray together. Thank you, God, for an inspired bible that reflects your will in heaven and our prayer. God is what that model prayer teaches us, that your will be done on earth, in our church, in our chairs, as it is in heaven.

Amen.

Amen. As you're finishing up the service here, processing everything you just heard, I wanted to encourage you to fill out this card a little more. Go ahead and take a look at this prayer. Request some next steps. Maybe you're thinking, hey, the gospel was clearer today.

Than it ever has been in my life. I need to know, Jesus.

Come and join us this Sunday at the Great Commission Church for a truly remarkable and uplifting experience. Great Commission Church is not just any ordinary place of worship; it's a vibrant community where faith comes alive, hearts are filled with love, and lives are transformed. Our doors are wide open, ready to welcome you into the warm embrace of our congregation, where you'll discover the true essence of fellowship and spirituality. At Great Commission Church, we are more than just a congregation; we are a family united by a common mission – to follow the teachings of Christ and spread His love to the world. As you step inside Great Commission Church, you'll find a sanctuary that nurtures your faith and encourages you to be part of something greater than yourself.

We believe in the power of coming together as a community to worship, learn, and serve. Whether you're a long-time believer or just starting your spiritual journey, Great Commission Church welcomes people from all walks of life. Our vibrant services are filled with inspiring messages, beautiful music, and heartfelt prayers that will uplift your soul. Every Sunday at Great Commission Church is an opportunity to deepen your relationship with God and connect with others who share your faith and values.

At Great Commission Church, we believe that faith is not just a solitary endeavor but a shared experience that strengthens and enriches us all. Our church is a place where you can find purpose, belonging, and the encouragement to live a life in accordance with Christ's teachings. Join us this Sunday at Great Commission Church and experience the transformative power of faith in action. Be part of a loving and supportive community that is committed to making a positive impact in our world. Together, we strive to fulfill the great commission to go forth and make disciples of all nations. We look forward to having you with us at Great Commission Church this Sunday, where faith, love, and community intersect in a truly amazing way.

Great Commission Church is a non-denominational Christian church located in Olive Branch, Mississippi. We are a short drive from Germantown, Southaven, Collierville, Horn Lake, Memphis, Fairhaven, Mineral Wells, Pleasant Hill, Handy Corner, Lewisburg and Baylia.

See you Sunday at Great Commission Church!