Father, thank you. You are perfect. You invented children. You have taken care of us adults, even though we are also your children. If we know you personally, you put up with a lot. There's a lot of noise that comes from down here, and it isn't all desirable. But because of your love, because of your patience, and your mercy, and your kindness, you never give up on us. We thank you for that. We thank you for your word and ask that this message would be the appropriate length for the ability of especially the children, but also that it would be useful for our lives and be exactly what you want shared with this congregation. So thank you for this time now in Jesus' name I pray, amen. We're looking at the Sermon on the Mount. We're in chapter five verse six. What number beatitude is this? What is it? Four, okay good, number four. So we've got a little ways to go, we're kind of dragging out these individual verses because there's so much there. There's so much that comes out of these for us to understand. And unless you understand the Beatitudes, you will not recognize the rest of the sermon. He plays off of this. If you're one of the ones that's been taking time to read this, even out loud, you'll start seeing connections back into these Beatitudes as he starts to apply them in different ways in the lives of those listening, the audience, the Jewish audience, especially that day. So as he gets into this number four on verse six of Matthew five, we're reminded that there's a little bit of a background to this. The Beatitudes are progressive. They're building on top of each other. They're all pushing toward Christ's likeness. We talked last week about this being a portrait of Jesus Christ. The first one being poor in spirit is a position of spiritual bankruptcy. There is no bragging whatsoever. You kind of sit in a negotiating table, like they're doing today with a lot of these countries and a lot of these problems, and they'll sit on either side, and God will be on one side and we're on the other side, and basically he asks us, what do you have to offer? And what do we say to him? Nothing. I can offer you nothing. I have broken all your laws, because if I'd broken one, I'd broken them all. I sit here guilty before you. I really should be on my knees or on my face, but you're allowing me to talk to you. And so he brings this aspect of being poor in spirit. We start there. If you're gonna share the gospel with someone, make sure that's where you start. Don't skip ahead to some nice little promises that you're gonna give. Oh, God's gonna do great things for you and he doesn't care where you're at right now. That's not how Jesus started. I want you to recognize your bankruptcy. This is what he's trying to do, your spiritual bankruptcy, and there will be nothing to boast about whatsoever. So remember how we did last week? Check. We got that one cleared up. Then we can move on to number two, those who mourn. They are practicing a personal grief over sin. They're keeping short accounts with God, which is what 1 John 1, 9's all about. Sin comes into our lives once in a while, doesn't it? We welcome it some days, don't we? Other times we're kind of caught by surprise, and somebody asks you something in a group of people, and you're totally embarrassed, and if I tell the truth, it's gonna ruin my life, and you lie. You cover it up, knowing it's wrong. But that wasn't presumptuous. I didn't plan on doing that, so it's not as bad, right? Even though lying lips are an abomination to God. Little lies, big lies, white lies, black lies. I didn't know what they had different colors, but I've learned that. We are very creative in the way we go about trying to make excuses for ourselves. Poor in spirit, bankrupt. Those who mourn, personal grief. That's how I recognize my sin. That's how I'm sitting at the table with God. I am weeping over my life. In this case, my past, but as it comes in even into the believer's life, I keep short accounts. Then he says, blessed are the meek. There is a promotion of God over self when it comes to the meek. There's a humble submission on the part of the individual. I never in my Christian life think I'm getting better and better and God has to be more and more impressed with me. If anything, you're like Paul, least of the apostles, not worthy to be called an apostle. He goes on and on. The further along he goes in his Christian life, the more humble he gets, the more he recognizes reading the word, oh, I did that. Oh, I did that. I didn't know that was a bad thing. Yep, I did that. And so we go on kind of a lower level as we go down. And then he gets to this one as he's broken them down and you feel like, I don't wanna read these beatitudes. They're really discouraging. They're really hammering me. There's nothing left of me when I get done with it. Perfect. So he gets down to the fourth one. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. This is exciting. But it's missing. How do I say that with a smile on my face? I was watching myself on video the other day, and I went, man, this mustache makes me look like I'm frowning all the time. And the older I get, my eyes are kind of sagging. And I got to work at being smiley and being happy. I'm not trying to beat people down. I'm trying to show you the way out. You're in a hole. This is the way out. Don't keep digging. Reach up and let Jesus pull you out. This is what he's telling them. So the first one I repeat because there's some people here who haven't heard the first three. The idea of being blessed is being happy. We don't like that word today, but it's a biblical idea. You're privileged, you're prosperous, spiritually speaking, and you're enriched only by God. You're not getting it from the world. Everything the world offers to promise happiness is all temporary and empty and leaves us worse off than we started. So he's reminding them, if you really wanna be fulfilled, you really wanna be satisfied, you really wanna have a state of bliss in your life as not through taking some drug. It's through Jesus Christ. And obeying him, in this case, walking in righteousness. So the world, we're watching, we prayed some of that in our prayer group. The world is vainly searching for happiness in everything possible except for God, and specifically Jesus. That's kind of a last resort. Because if I have to take that one, then I have to back up, and I have to become spiritually bankrupt, and then I have to be sorry for my sins, and then I have to humble myself before God. I don't want to do that. And that's our world today. This is why we're having problems when you try to share the gospel. They're not interested in becoming nothing in their eyes. And in reality, you become everything in Christ. They don't get it, and they don't understand it. And so the picture here is God approving these individuals. That's where the favor and the privilege come from. Because they're pleasing Him and because of that pleasure that He has, He enriches their lives. I just heard it just the other day. Someone said, God has been blessing me. And it just rang a bell because I've said that so many times. Every time I turn around, if I try to be generous with my giving, He turns around and gives me more. I just told Bev the other day, I said, I hope no one's leaving us a surprise inheritance, because I don't want more. It brings responsibility. And my tendency is to give it away, and I'm really cautious just to hand it to people, because I'm afraid of what they're gonna do with it. It may cause them to not depend on the Lord. Having money's not the problem. Having it under control of God is the issue. that I'm simply a steward using it for his glory. So in this process, this lifestyle, I'm not like the world. I'm not looking for God. I need a little bit more, just a little bit more, kind of as a Rockefeller said on his deathbed. How much is enough? Just a little bit more. I used to be a multi-thousander. Then I became a multi-millionaire. I didn't know what word I could use for that. Then I became a multi-billionaire. And are they happy? Do you notice how many of them are going through divorces? if you're following the news at all. It's sad. It is a sad world because they've left out the most important thing and the only thing that has any value and it's Jesus Christ. The stuff you use, you can't take with you. So what he's telling them here is this is the valuable stuff. This is what you really want in your life. This is what I want to encourage you to be able to focus on. And he says, blessed are, it's a present tense. It's here and now, it's a daily happiness. It's a daily enjoyment, regardless of what's going on around me. The store didn't have strawberries, so I can't have strawberry shortcake this afternoon. Oh, it ruined my whole day. You realize how stores have turned us into spoiled individuals? If you lack something, is the first thing for you to go to prayer and ask God for it? No. What's the first thing? You open up the refrigerator, not in there. You go in the pantry, not in there. You get in the car and you drive down to the store, they're out of it. Can you believe the supply chain is out of strawberries? What am I going to do? And I'm mocking that because it might be a thing you say, well, I can live without strawberries. But what is it that you're really frustrated with? Because it's out. You can't get it. It makes my day when I realize how much Jesus Christ loves me. This is what he's trying to stress to them. This is a life of righteousness. I think back to an individual, because you'll think, well, the first person that comes to mind is Job. Wasn't he approved of God? Doesn't it tell you right there in chapter one and then it repeats it in chapter two? He was an upright man, blameless, fearing God, turning away from evil. So what happened? What went wrong? God had Satan come into his presence, which everybody, many people tell you that can't happen. God cannot look upon evil. Well, he looks on the devil on a regular basis. And eventually, according to Revelation 12, he'll be kicked out of heaven, down to earth, knowing he only has a short time. But God does not have a problem with evil, or he'd have a problem with this world and with us. He lives in us, if you're a believer. But Job had an issue there. Satan came to him, and God is the one who initiates it. I've told God many times, please don't bring my name up when the devils are in. Forget about me. I'm not blameless. I'm not upright. Sometimes I fear you. And turning away from evil, don't bring my name up. I don't want to go through a book of Job. I don't want 42 chapters that have to explain how I was really a loser. And I had to repent in dust and ashes. And I had to lose my 10 children. And I had to keep my wife. Well, she told him to curse God and die. That's the only reason I'm picking on her. Hopefully your wife has never done that. But here he is, and you say, did God remove his approval from Job? No, it was the other way around. He's bragging to Satan about Job. I sit there and ask myself, can God brag about me? Not that I want him to, don't get me wrong. But can he? Does he look at my life with the kind of approval, and if Satan were to come in his presence, have you considered my servant, Jack? Oh, no, no, no. And so you have these issues that come up, and it's like God is approving Job. Job had some things to learn. He had to learn it the hard way. But it was Job that God uses to pray for his, what do you call those guys, the three people that tried, and then Elihu shows up, his counselors. They were the ones that were out of line. and God eventually straightened things out. We think because I'm a believer, life ought to go really, really easy. God's approval ought to avoid all problems for me, financial, personal, worldly, whatever it may be at work, I should never have to be fired, I should never struggle with anything, even death. No one around me should ever die. Is that how we look at life? Because all of us in this room have probably faced somebody, and some of us have faced the numbers of somebody, that God said, taking them home, Taking them home, taking them home. God wants to approve us. It doesn't mean he's gonna make life easy. We have opportunity to learn. And so this way to God, we talked last week, 548 is a perfect life, a complete life. I wanna read all this, but I don't wanna take the time. We brought it up last week, Matthew 548. You must be perfect as he is perfect. teleos, it's a form of being complete, mature, is the best focus here. You must be on the narrow path in chapter seven, verses 13 and 14. It's the only way to God. It's restrictive, it's compressive, and you must be a wise man who builds his house on the rock, as we see at the end of this message. These are the ways, the perfect way to God. God takes the spiritually bankrupt and helps them to see their sin as something to grieve over. And then he looks for a response out of them of humble submission. And it leads to a hunger and thirst for righteousness. So the question today, which again, you're gonna hate me, because you hate me every week, if this isn't you, you're not saved. If you haven't traveled through this, and if this doesn't describe your lifestyle, you're not saved, and it's a wake-up call. It isn't a how dare you tell me I'm not a Christian. Well, if you're not, wouldn't you want someone to tell you? If you are, isn't it rather obvious and you're not going to struggle with this at all? Do you still have doubts that if you were to die today that you'd go to be with the Lord? You want to resolve that. That comes from God's promises, not from my efforts. I didn't do anything. Remember, I was spiritually bankrupt. I recognized my sin and mourned over it. I humbled myself before God as one who was meek, and I came to this point and I asked myself, did I have to conjure this up when I became a believer? I had this hunger and this thirst for righteousness, not because I was a great person, but because of what Christ had done in me. And it created this insatiable desire to be righteous. So he says here with a definite article, it's the ones who are hungering and thirsting. Specific individuals. a spiritual appetite on a daily, in your daily lifestyle. Psalm 42, one and two, just the basic part in there. What does it say? You have that one memorized? Psalm 42, one. Open book exam. As you're looking for that, it reminds me that too often you're listening to a sermon and you think that's enough. It's nothing. It's like watching a cooking show, and you can't even smell the food, let alone let it be in your house, or eat it when it's done, but they cook it all for you, they do everything for you, and they tell you how great it tastes, and that's what church is like for a lot of people. They're just watching a show. And then who went on, they go, that's great, I gotta get some of those ingredients and make that someday, and they never do. That's not what church is all about. What is Psalm 42, verse one? As the deer pants for the water, water brooks, so my soul panteth after thee. Who wrote that psalm? Sons of Korah. Does that describe your life? You can't get enough of God. When I was a young believer, I was at church every single chance I could be there. And finally, I brought some books and a record player over so that I could get off work, which was not too far away, and walk over to the church, and I'd sit up there and listen to the record. I can still tell you what the songs were that I listened to as a teenager. Sometimes I rejoiced. Other times I wept. because I realized what God had done in my life, and that's never left me. It was the idea of being like a deer who pants after God. Many people today are hungering and thirsting, but not after righteousness. What dominates our lives? What keeps us away from church, even Sunday mornings, let alone many other opportunities? Or make your own. I've encouraged you, have your own Bible study. Get some neighbors over. Make it real simple. Pick on the Romans road. Romans 3.23, Romans 5.8, Romans 6.23, Romans 10.9 and 10. Just, that's all you do for the Bible study. And you read them and you talk about it. You can ask questions. Sometimes with unbelievers, it's a pooling of ignorance, because they don't know anything. Or you tell them, this is what this means. but as you're interacting with them, there needs to be this hunger and thirst to where I don't just crave it for myself, I automatically pass it on. And I've told you, I've had friends in high school, one guy in particular, I keep not wanting to share his name. I still pray for him, I don't know what ever happened. But he told me one day just to shut up and leave him alone. Do you have people around you like that? They're still watching you. Even though they don't want to listen, they're watching you. Some are watching to find fault so they can criticize you. Other ones are watching to say, why does this guy have this hunger and thirst for right? Why do I find him reading his Bible to where I got criticized for that? I had to put a paper cover over it in high school during lunchtime because they would pick on me. Why? Why would high schoolers care if you're reading a Bible or not? It brings guilt. It brings conviction. It's something that they know they should be doing and they don't want to, so they got to stop it happening around them to make themselves feel comfortable. If you're hungering and thirsting for righteousness, you cannot hide it. It is extremely discernible. The idea of hunger here is desiring earnestly. Longing for. You're famished, but you're not starving. That's not what the word's trying to bring out. You have this healthy appetite. You've come in after a long day of physical labor, and you can't wait to eat. That's what the believer should be like on a regular basis. Now, don't misunderstand me. You have to sleep six, eight, 10, 12 hours a day, whatever your routine is. You're probably not studying the Bible while you're sleeping. And then there's responsibilities of other things you need to be doing. And so you may be at work, you may be restricted, but I'm talking about when you get a chance or you're just sitting there and you're at your lunch break and you can daydream for a few minutes, what does your daydreaming go to? Your possessions? Your exciting vacation that's coming up? Or do you go back to scripture and you find yourself pondering and asking questions? I have trouble putting sermons together because I run off so many rabbit trails. I looked up a word today that didn't make any sense to me when I was reading the scriptures. Okay, this is the preacher admitting he's still learning. And I keep telling people the more I learn, the more I learn 10 more things I don't know. That's how you expand because God is so far beyond us. But as you're hungering after that, I couldn't wait. I had to look up certain things. I had to mark them in my Bible. I had to mark them in my inner linear. I wanted to put some stuff together. But the issue here is to have a healthy appetite, not for junk food. But for righteousness, what is righteousness? Well, let's ask the second question here first. What are they thirsting after? This is another present participle. Both of them are present. You're craving strongly. You're panting after this. You have a dry mouth. You're so thirsty. You can't get enough of it. How do we handle food today? As I said earlier, it's at our beck and call. You have stashed and multiple stashes of certain things with the supply chain questionable, stack them up, can't run out of M&Ms, can't run out of Oreo cookies, can't run, what is it that you're just determined? Can't run out of righteousness. I have been taught from early days as a believer, all I'm doing down here is serving God and preparing for Christ's return. Not to impress him, because he will not be impressed, but to be like him. That's what will impress him. When I wanted to mimic my dad, when I watched the grandchildren want to mimic, when John was up here talking and I was holding Jackson there for a couple of minutes, as soon as John started talking after the prayer time, his head kicked up and he's looking, because he already knows the voice. He will let you shepherd him for about two more years. Then it's over. They go wandering off wherever they want to go. But we are to have no picky eaters or drinkers in the church. But God isn't giving me Coke. He isn't giving me Pepsi. He isn't giving me whatever you love, Dr. Pepper. He just gives me water. You ever seen somebody really, really thirsty complain that you gave them water? The problem is we're spoiled. The junk food of the United States is sidetracking us on so many levels. When I was a kid, I remember we used to go, and I don't remember how much it cost. It wasn't very much. But you go up to the Coke machine, and you put in your, I don't even think it was a quarter. It may have been less than that. It might have been 10 cents even. But you put it in there. I'm older than you think I am. But you put it in there, and what did you get out? A glass bottle with Coke in it. How much was in the bottle? It got up to eight, some of them were six. You look now back on those things, and there's these little bitty bottles. It's like, why bother? But back in the day, we thought, this is great. Get my Coke, my little bit of Coke. Now you go and get the big gulp, and it's 44 ounces. You wonder why people are putting on weight? We're drinking the wrong stuff. And now they've gone off with this whole corn syrup thing and all that. But we're not, we're picky. We're not doing what God wants. We're not interested in his water when there's so many other things to drink. We're not interested in his bread. John MacArthur describes this idea of hunger and thirsting as a consuming, all-embracing, preoccupying desire. That's what the Christian life should be like. If that's missing in your life, you don't have Christ. Can I be that black and white? 1 John 3.10 says I can. What's the difference between the children of God and the devil? Children of the devil. Righteousness and love. And what does he say about it there in 1 John 3.10 that some of you are memorizing because I brought it up so many times? It is obvious. It is conspicuous. This isn't righteousness. I talk to people all the time. I'm retired now. I'm a volunteer like the rest of you. But when I look at the whole thing, I'm finding people making excuses because it's rare for me to talk to a parent and have them tell me their child is unsaved. It's rare. But when I ask a lot of questions, I find out, well, they weren't going to church. They weren't reading their Bible. they weren't witnessing on the positive side, they were living in sin, some of them major sins, and it dominated their life, and when you try to talk to them about spiritual things, they told you to go away, be quiet. And you're wondering if they're saved? What does this tell you? A hunger and a thirst for righteousness is a characteristic of a believer. What have we done in America? We've watered down God's requirements for you to understand the truth. We've kind of blended it. There is no more adultery, you're just living together. And people laugh about it now. There is no homosexuality, they're just gay. There is no transgender, they're just being themselves, that's how God made them. Those people living in sin are miserable. and you wanna build a relationship with them, you wanna love them, you wanna be a friend of tax gatherers and sinners, just like Jesus was, to make a difference in their life. Don't treat them like a leper. Love them. Touch them. Invite them over for a meal. Build your life around them. But if they profess salvation in their living in sin, God tells us to, 1 Corinthians 5, 9 to 13, Don't even eat a meal with them. Remove yourselves from them. He draws hard lines that aren't fun to have to live out. It's why he came down so hard on the Pharisees and the Sadducees, because they professed salvation and they were living in sinfulness. And so as he struggles through this, the idea here is to hunger and thirst after righteousness. What is righteousness? It was the one word I actually answered correctly in a Greek class in seminary. Teacher would call on us randomly. Give me the word for, the Greek word for righteousness. I actually had studied this one. Six or 10 or 20 others, I don't remember. But when I said dikaiosude in the classroom, the whole class goes, oh. And the teacher goes, good job. And I'm going, God, you did that. Because he could have asked 20 other words and I would have gone, I don't know. But this word was fascinating to me, and I'd done some personal study on it, and I looked at it, and the simplest word I can put for righteousness is an uprightness. It's the divine standard. It's doing the right thing in God's eyes. That's what righteousness is. So I come to decisions in my life, how often? When do you have to make decisions? Every moment of every minute. You're making decisions right now. Agree with him, disagree with him. What am I going to do this afternoon? Some of you have already drifted off into whatever may be going on in your lives. And if I could, I'd throw things at you. But God doesn't allow that. And I may actually hurt somebody. But this is what he's after. It's doing the right thing in God's eyes. How do I know what the right thing is? I get into his word, and the more I learn from his word, the more I balance off what it says, the more I don't take the misunderstandings that so many people grab onto, and run off with every doctrine in the world, the more balanced I am, the more correct I am on what God is saying, then I can follow that, knowing it's one thing, but then living it out is another. So when I'm put on the spot, and I've told you before, I was not a liar, I have not been a big time liar in spite of what everybody may have told you. that has not been an issue in my life. I can point back to probably five, maybe 10, but I don't even remember beyond five, times that I blatantly lied to somebody on purpose. Don't get me wrong, I may have said the fish was this big when he was only this big. I'm talking about blatant things when they put you on the spot and I can tell you the spots I was put in. And I had a decision to make, and they're coming to my mind and I don't even want to remember them. But I lied. And I can't forget. You look at our world today and they live in a world of lies. They couldn't even tell you what they lied about last week because there's been so many this week, it had blended with everything else in their lives. Why are they doing that? Because to tell the truth is embarrassing, threatening, It may cause some of their friends to pull away. Some of those people are saying lies that they don't even agree with. They aren't promoting unrighteousness, but they tell everybody they are because they want to fit in. What do you lie about? I'm not saying you're practicing it, because if you're practicing it, again, scripture would say you're not saved. But when you're tempted and you're struggling and something hits hard and you're tempted to lie or you do lie, what do you do about that? How do I fix it? Some of mine I can't fix. They happen in situations that were long gone and people even died. But if I'm gonna walk in righteousness, I fix it. I'm upright. I have a divine standard. Doing the right thing in God's eyes. My priority is Matthew 6.33. We're going to get to that. What does it say? Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all these things that he just got done talking about in the previous verses, they'll be added to you. I was challenged when I was young to work hard, earn lots of money, buy a house, and then go off to Bible college. And I still remember the man telling me to do that. And I went, why? Well, so you can have a house. I go, well, maybe God doesn't want me to have a house. How many years is that going to take me to get situated? And then once I have a house, how am I going to go off to seminary or off to Bible college and learn if I got to leave the house behind? Then I got to have a renter. Then I got to have this. I got to have that. I said, no, I don't want the strings. And I told him that I was letting go of that. I'm going to Bible college. And then went to seminary. And when Bev and I moved here to Lapine in 1986, we told God, And we knew, we even said to each other, we're gonna have to rent. I have no money, I've just got done spending my, everything I've ever earned through Bible college and seminary, I have nothing. Now I have two children, they took whatever was left. We gave it to God. Three weeks after we moved in here, we walked into our own house. For $30,000, stick frame house on an acre of land. And we sat there looking at each other after she ripped the orange wallpaper off the wall. And it's like, this is what God does. You put him first, you seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, his rule, the reign of Christ, let him be the boss and his standards, as I said up there earlier, doing the right thing of the uprightness, the divine standard. You put that first and God takes care of the physical things. How hard is that to learn? I was taught by some really good people and eventually it was basic youth conflicts and confession of some things that I had to learn with finances and I set it up and I started giving in Bible college and set a pattern that has helped me throughout. But I love being generous. Ask my wife, I'm too generous. Stop giving everything away, there won't be anything to use. I don't know why I'm like that, except my parents were like that. My mom would give anything to anybody, and when she died, she had one room of stuff left. When they moved from their farm, they had an eight, nine acre farm, and when they moved and we got up there to help them situate, because my dad had died and my mom was by herself, she'd given everything away. Mom, where did this go? Oh, the neighbor down the street needed that. That, that, that. So I learned it in a very good way. You can set that example for your children. But at the same time, you can't go around telling your children, we just gave $5 at church Sunday. Because guess what your children will do with that information? They'll tell everybody. Well, if we gave $50 at church, you gave $500, you gave $5,000 at church. It gets spread around. So we had to hold back what we told them. But we try to teach them. that all money is God's money. You're just a steward. You're not taking it with you. And so as you wrestle with this whole thing to seek first his kingdom, and that's just one example, it's what he wants. Look at Matthew 6, 1 to 18, just to quickly touch on this. He talks about alms, and he says right at the very beginning, this is my point, beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them. Otherwise you have no reward. He talks about alms. He talks about prayer. He talks about fasting. Beware of doing that to impress other people. And the alms regard helping people in need. The prayer involves God himself and the fasting is about you. If you haven't fasted or you never choose to fast, I would encourage you to do that and to lock in that time with God. Don't expect any super answers to prayer. Don't expect the angels all come down and ooh and aah and just, you know, give you all kinds of attention. Whoa, look at this guy. He's really impressive. Because there are millions of Christians that fast on a regular basis. But you, when you fast, you're saying no to When I pray, I'm saying no to self. When I give alms, I'm saying no to self. This is practicing my righteousness. I'm putting God first. This divine lifestyle is behavior that is conformable to God himself. You start looking like Jesus. What did they call him? The righteous one. That wasn't by mistake. I don't have time to look into it, or share it with you, but Acts 3.14, Peter referred to Jesus as the righteous one. Acts 7.52, Stephen referred to Jesus as the righteous one. Acts 22.14, Paul referred to Jesus as the righteous one. Who do you think the righteous one was? Jesus Christ, not me. The evidence of genuine salvation stands out because what you're doing is you're letting Jesus come through in your life. You can't hide it. If you genuinely are saved, you can't hide it. It's not an emotional thing. It's not an occasional thing. It's not a selfish thing whatsoever. It's all about Jesus Christ. So he wraps this up when he focuses in on the idea of righteousness. And he says, those people who hunger and thirst after righteousness, and this term described, it's used in scripture, and I'm trying to condense this a little bit, but it's used in Revelation 21.6, if I got the right passage. Nah, I may have the wrong, but anyway, it's used in Revelation 19.21, that's the right one. It's about the birds coming in after the judgment of God, and they're feasting on the flesh. They are totally satisfied. They can eat all they want of human flesh. This is what God wants us to be doing when it's coming to the idea of hunger and thirst and after righteousness. Have you had enough? Do you ever come to a point in your life after church on Sunday, you walk out the front door, you talk to me, man, I'm stuffed. That was just way too much Bible. In fact, that was way too much Jesus. In fact, I'm gonna go throw up. You ever been that way? I've never been that way. I can't get enough of him. but he still gives it to me in little amounts like meals ought to be. You don't eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the same time. You spread it out. Your stomach would be happy if you did that, and your body and the use of that would be happy as well. But here you have these people that are satisfied. They're completely fulfilled. They have their desires gratified. So when you talk about the animals here in Revelation 19.21, they're satiated. They're well-supplied. They can eat their fill. It's in the passive. And the problem today is too many professed believers are snacking on the world and the flesh, and it spoils our spiritual appetite. Described in John 6, 35, when Jesus said, what did he say there? Anybody have that one memorized? I am the? John 6, 35. That's John 14, 6. John 6.35, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. Same message he's telling them here. Come get your fill from me. Ah, now I'll leave you for last. Someday I may come back, but right now I got a lot of things I want to enjoy in life, and you're in the way. I know you'll tell me no. Remember the prodigal son? Luke 15, 11 to 32, what was he feeding on? After he had taken his inheritance, which was not normal, he only got one-third because the older brother got two-thirds, but he takes one-third. Imagine right now, how much is your estate worth? You have two sons and one of them takes a third of it away. Does that change anything? You think he had it sitting in the bank with his son's name on it? A bag of gold? No, he had to liquidate all kinds of things for his son to be able to take that. And he went off and how did he use it? In righteous living? Just the opposite. And the people he was spending the money on used him. And when the money was gone, they took him in and they fed him and they got him a job and they took care of his knees, they bought him a new car, new chariot, whatever. Is that what they did? No, once he was bled dry, you're out of here, buddy. I've tried to explain that to individuals who are living in sin. Non-Christians who think, oh, I'm living with this man or this woman, and they bring all the joy in my life. Are you married? No. You're not living in righteousness? No. It won't satisfy. Trust me, after 44 years in the ministry, I pick up the pieces. Probably had to put that on my tombstone. Jack was really good at cleaning up with a broom and a dustpan. But I couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again. They want me to fix things. They come to me with all kinds of things, venereal diseases that they got because they ventured off from their marriage and they come back and what can I do about it? I'm going, as far as I know, nothing. You're going to live with it. And you're going to try to figure out as you're restoring your relationship with your wife how she's not going to get it from you now. You understand that's where monkey pox is coming from. Immoral relationships. Intimate relationships on a homosexual level. Is God judging them? The wages of sin is death. I keep telling you, when you choose to sin, you reap the consequences of that sin. You think venereal diseases like monkeypox just showed up yesterday? They've been in Africa for decades, and who knows where they've actually come from and where they were before that? Don't live like that, and you won't suffer the consequences on earth. It's not God's judgment. I keep stressing to you, and we'll do on Wednesday nights. When you get to God's judgment in Revelation 8, 9, 10, 11, Contrast that with what you're seeing in the world today. He's not judging the world yet. We're just getting into that. The first trumpet's going to blow here one of these Wednesday nights if I keep them all straight. A third of the earth is going to burn up. And all the green grass. How do you burn up green grass? Well, it probably at least gets a little bit warm. And it may be supernatural in the way that God just toasts it. When there's no green grass, what now are you gonna do? There is no food for animals until it grows back, and that'll take a while. So whatever you've stored up, maybe you can keep your animals alive at that time. But if you've read your Bible, you realize, well, the second trumpet's gonna sound, and the third trumpet, and the fourth trumpet. It's like you're not even gonna be looking for that stuff. The fifth trumpet's five months long, and you can't die. That's judgment. This is sin having its consequences. And the Christians are all standing around smugly saying, well, you shouldn't have done that. God's judging you. Don't say that. You shouldn't have done that because God warned you like he did with Adam and Eve. It will have consequences. Is God giving up on people? Nope. Not until they're dead. But he's not willing that any should perish. So here you have these individuals. Jesus is the bread of life. He's the water of life. He's available to each and every one. The prodigal son is feeding on the husk. In fact, he's not even feeding on them. When you look back at it, he's asking if he can eat the husk and they won't give them to him. Because these are his friends and his cohorts that let him dry. What's he have to take back to his father? I will close with this. He can go back to his father and become poor in spirit. declared to his father, not only am I physically bankrupt, I am spiritually bankrupt. He can mourn over his sins. What did he say? You can go read Luke 15 today. He responds. He humbles himself before his father, who put on his robe and ran to his son. Jewish men did not run in those days. That was improper. And the father hugs him. What is the son hungering and thirsting after at that point? Righteousness. I gotta make this right. This is where people are at in the world today. When we're walking by the Spirit, we're sensitive to their needs. I don't have to walk around with my huge Bible and beat him over the head. I just need to be available when the Holy Spirit says, okay, talk to that one, Philip. as he went to the Ethiopian eunuch. Remember, righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people. Where's that found? Proverbs 14.35. I will say this. Generally speaking, you're not reading your Bibles enough. Stop giving God excuses. Well, I'm not a good memorizer. I'm a horrible memorizer. Always have been. Told you I stood up in a recital one time, 200 students in the classroom, and I forgot my part. You had to do it without music, without words. And I stopped three times and had to pee and start over again. I'm horrible as far as memorizing, and especially when I'm under pressure. Stop giving God excuses. Look in the mirror and ask yourself, am I genuinely hungering and thirsting after righteousness? And it doesn't have to be conjured up. The preacher didn't have to get you all, well, I'm pumped up, I'm good for an hour, right after church. Don't distract me, don't sidetrack me. I gotta get to my Bible and I gotta read because I'm really motivated. That's not what I'm talking about. That's an emotional response to something. I'm talking about a genuine spiritual response to it because you're hungry. You have been working and laboring and you've come in from the field and you're ready to eat. You pick up the word of God and you devour it. And you find as one teacher I had at Multnomah Bible College, he worked as a machinist and he'd come in and he said, I'd pick up an apple and my Bible. And it was like five o'clock at night. And he said, the next thing I knew it was one o'clock in the morning. And I had to get up at six to go to work. Dr. John G. Mitchell. And he said, I did that for weeks when he first got saved. And he was a man I think I've told you about before, that if you were to challenge him, you walk up and you get up there and you don't just shake his hand, you don't let go and you try to squeeze it. He loved to bring you to your knees. He was a machinist, very, very strong man. And he'd do it humbly and he'd pull you back up. But it was like he made sure that there were no prideful students around him. Don't challenge me or I will meet you where you're at and put you back in your place. Be humble. But he devoured the word and that stood out in my mind. Why don't I want that? Because I'm snacking on the world. Ask yourself what you're gonna do this week. What's more important than spending time with God? He's given us perfect weather and this week will be a variation, it's back up in the 90s. Go find a cool place, take your Bible and first thing you wanna do is become poor in spirit. Humble yourself in a meek way and acknowledge to God that you have been letting sin get in the way. And if you're not saved at all, if there's no hunger and thirst for righteousness, period. This isn't just a little season that you're struggling with. It's been your lifestyle. There never has been a time when you've been hungry to get into the word. Then you need Jesus Christ. We're not talking about perfect people. We haven't arrived yet. We're asking whether or not you're really saved. And if you are, then prove it. Make it obvious. by your righteousness and by your love to those around you. God told me I had to do this this week. I'm just passing it on. Let's pray. Father, we thank you. You said you'd never leave us or forsake us as your children. And those words could never be more true. But we're living in very hard times, and they're going to get worse. Those in power pushing towards socialism are pushing away from you. They don't even want a God at all. They're liars. They end their speeches with, God bless America. I don't know what God they're talking about, but it isn't you. Father, we're the answer for this country. Righteousness exalts a nation. Only believers are going to have that righteousness. Help us this week to make a difference in Lapine. Help us to either be persecuted and thrown out, even of a job if necessary, not in a belligerent way, but just because they don't want to hear it. Or maybe we see someone come to know you because they've been waiting for someone to be bold enough, with strong enough conviction to preach it like it really means something, like it really matters. and to see them come to know you. That's what we want, Father. We'd like revival in Lapine. And when that takes place and half of this city has come to you and are following after you, then we'll move on from there to Central Oregon and to the state of Oregon and to our country and to our world. Help us, Father. May we be confessing sin today. And may we be getting into your word. And we thank you for the privilege we have of hearing about and personally knowing your son Jesus Christ. I thank you in his name. Amen.