Christian Sermon - Hunger for Holiness | Matthew 5:6 | Pastor J Lockard

The speaker discusses the importance of spiritual hunger and thirst for righteousness in the Christian life.

He argues that a lack of desire for God's Word and church attendance can lead to spiritual starvation and dehydration.

The speaker emphasizes the importance of assembling together as believers for strength and connection.

He references Matthew 5:6 and the Sermon on the Mount, highlighting the need for an intense desire for righteousness.

Have you ever been really hungry or thirsty? Now I'm not talking about, oh I can eat, I'm talking about, have you ever been so hungry, so thirsty that you felt like you were almost on the verge of starvation or dehydration because you just needed something to eat or drink. Probably none of us have ever been to that point, right? But the thing is, I think sometimes the church of the living God, we are in those days. Now, some of us may be dying of hunger or thirst, and we don't even realize it. How do we die of hunger or thirst spiritually? When we have no desire for God's Word. When we don't have a desire to read God's Word, when we don't have a desire to come to God's house, when we don't have a desire to do anything spiritually minded, that's when we begin to have the starvation and the dehydration of our spiritual life. And that's probably the worst thing for a Christian to have. Through COVID, we've seen our church world become more and more okay with starvation and dehydration. I'm amazed when I look at it Because I've seen the church world How that When COVID-19 hit And we had to social distance And we had to do all this type of stuff And businesses were closing And you couldn't go to businesses And you couldn't do this and you couldn't do that And churches couldn't gather together Because all this going on People began to stay away from church And then even when churches opened when, what happened? The majority of the church that stayed away continues to stay away. Because they feel like, I think sometimes they felt like it was easy. It was easy because you had online services, right? You had online services. You could sit at home in your pajamas and just listen to the preacher preach. And it was easy. And people will sit there and say, oh, you don't have to go to church to be a Christian. You don't have to go to church to love the Lord. Now, many people will argue that fact. I will argue it the opposite direction. I believe in my heart of hearts I believe deep down inside of me I think this word right here is as plain as day I don't think there's any doubt about it It says it right in God's word Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together It says it right there How do we get around that? How do we as Christians get around that? Now I understand there are times that you can't And I get that. When God went in and it was a problem, those are reasons you have to stay away. And I get that. But then when the church opens up, how do you get away and say, oh, I can just sit at home. And I can listen to the preacher preach. But that's not assembling. What does it mean to assemble? They're strength in what? Numbers. That's what it says. They're strength in numbers. And that's why the church is so vital. That's why church attendance is so vital. Because there's strength in numbers. We gain strength from each other as we hear blessings of, well, I had this blessing upon my life. Or this helped me this week. And we have that connection with people and we can draw strength. You can't draw strength by sitting and staring at a computer. You can't. It ain't going to work. Now, you may get a little bit of blessing from the Word of God from listening, but you can't draw the strength. Strength comes through the numbers of other believers that you fellowship with. And what we saw was we saw a time when people were just, we don't need to be in church because we've got to be safe. And then what happened is things started to get a little better and churches began to open up, people just said, well, I'm just not going to go. I've said this before, I've told this before, but we had a Zoom call from the district. All the different pastors of the church in the district area were together on the Zoom call. And we were talking, what bothers you about COVID? What's happening? And one of the preachers sat and said, I'm fearful that when this ends, this whole lockdown thing ends, that we've done all these online services that people are going to just stay at home. And we've seen churches that have done that. This is not just isolated area. all around, I've talked to preachers all around, all around the country, people, churches, have lost members and they're staying at home because it's easier. Are we hungering and thirsting after God? I would have to say no. I would have to say our love for God has begin to wane when we're not willing to study God's Word, when we're getting into the mindset that it's okay. As long as we love God, we don't ever have to open God's Word. It doesn't matter. We don't ever have to go to church because God, we love God. And that's all. It's not the thing. Jesus delivered a very, very strong, intense message that is entitled, that we know of as the Sermon on the Mount or the Beatitudes, if you will and we could go through the whole thing, but we're not going to do that we're going to focus on one specific verse and probably everybody has read the Beatitudes but I do suggest reading them all again because the sermon is amazing But there's one verse that I wanted to focus on today, and it's verse number 6 that says this. Jesus' words, they're in red. If you've got that type of Bible, they're in red. Okay? Jesus said, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. I like the term hunger and thirst that term there It means intense desire Intense desire When you think about the idea of an intense desire it something that you desire but you cannot be quenched by anything else Back in the day, I don't drink a lot of soda anymore. I've been drinking more, I basically drink water most of the time. I don't drink anything but water basically. Okay? The idea is this. When I was drinking soda back in the day, I had a desire for Pepsi. One of my favorites was Pepsi. And you know what? That's fine. And somebody can give me a Coca-Cola. Was that going to satisfy? No. Mountain Dew? No. Sprite? No. None of those things was going to satisfy. I could drink all of them and it wouldn't quench that thirst. It wouldn't fix the desire that I had for that Pepsi, right? And that's the point. When this generation, we're trying to get something that's going to, you know, quench that desire. Because we all desire. Something. See, at some point today, it was really interesting. We were talking, and the discussion came to something very interesting. It was about that people feel that everybody kind of knows that there's something greater out there. We kind of know that there is a heaven and a hell. Everybody kind of knows that. See, we have been created by a creator with a built-in compass that says we know there is something more than this life. But what has Satan done? Satan has come in and he has deceived us, saying, oh, there's nothing more than this life. And now many of us have fooled ourselves into believing that. But there is something deeper that we all know there is something more. There's something more than just this existence here on this third rock from the sun that we're spinning on. There's something more. We know that there is something more there. There's something greater that lays beyond this world. There's an intense desire to understand what it is. now we know because we've read the book and we know it but there's nothing more terrible than someone that is so blind that they can't see you've been around people I know that are the same way you sit there and you say look here and they look and they say, yeah, but that's a book. That's just a book. It's just a book of stories. No. This is much more than just a book. This is a way of life. This is a road map. This is everything. This is power over Satan and his forces. There is so much more than is this book than just being a bunch of stories. It's much more. See, Jesus said, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. The hunger and the thirst is something that cannot be quenched by just one thing. I love what the psalmist said. You may want to write this down. Psalm 34 verse 8 says something very interesting in it. It says, taste and see that the Lord is good. You know why most people don't accept God and don't walk the way of the Master? Because they've never tasted it. They've never tried it. You see, when I was a kid, I hated Pepsi. I hated vegetables. My mom could testify that. She made carrots, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, all kinds of stuff. I don't remember us ever eating that I can recall Brussels sprouts too much, maybe occasionally, but most of the time it was because mom couldn't stand them. She didn't make them. But we would have the vegetables. I would sit there and do like most kids. Kick them around the plate. I probably gave some of the princess a little longer. I mean... Give me the princess. Go ahead. Go ahead and eat them. Eat them. And I just didn't... I didn't want to taste. I didn't want to taste the vegetables. Who wants to eat vegetables? As I've gotten older, I've tasted the vegetables. and I've learned to love them. I enjoy them. I enjoy vegetables. I actually have. But it had to come to what? I had to taste it. I had to taste the seed. But see, the problem is most of the world won't taste the seed that the Lord is good. They just taste it. They just try it one time. They would see that the Lord is good all the time and that his blessings are so rich that it would be like, wow, why didn't I start earlier? See, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. Literally the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 6 and verse 38 or 35, he wrote these words, he said these words, I am the bread of life. Whosoever cometh to me shall not hunger. and whosoever believe it is made shall never thirst. He is the quenching of the hunger and the thirst. I love this. This beautiful verse. Blessed are they which who hunger and thirst at the righteousness. Why? For they shall be filled. They shall be filled. How can we be filled by God? What do we do to be filled by God? We've got to do something very special. In order for us to be filled by God, we must empty out of the things of this world. And that is something that most people don't want to do. Most people want to deal with the things of this world. They want the stuff of this world. I've got to have things of this world. I got out of this and this and this and this is what I've done on him. These things are what captivates me. These things are what excites me and makes my life worth living. I mean I amazed when I look at people and I see people that their life revolves around physical things of this world Now I'm not here to say, okay, you just can't have collections or you can't do, that's not what I'm talking about. But I'm saying we cannot have the things of this world be our focus point. this is what life is because when we have that this can be God will have first place or no place exactly see God is a jealous God he said I want to be first in your life Why should we let God be first in our life? Because He gave His best for us. When you care enough to send your very best, right? That's what Jesus did. Jesus was sent by God. He was the best of the best, and He was sent by God. Not because Jesus came. Jesus didn't come to the cross because he had to come for himself. Jesus was the perfect Lamb of God. He didn't have to come. Why did Jesus come? Because I needed a Savior. Because you needed a Savior. That's why Jesus came. It wasn't because he needed to come. Shouldn't we give our best to God? That was the whole point of what Adam tried to show his sons, Cain and Abel. You need to give your best to God. Abel, when he went out to find the best of the flock, he sat there and came across the perfect land. The best of the best. And he brought it to God. And Cain, when he went out into the field, he began to look around for his stuff, and he said, well, this is too good for God. Oh, wow. Think about the idea there. He goes to the different things in the field That tomato, wow, that tomato is good That make a great tomato sandwich With a little bit of mayonnaise And a little bit of salt on there Boy, that make a good tomato sandwich That's too good for God I'll put that in my basket Look at that list Not a bit of brown on a man That's too good I could make a good salad out of that Nah, I can't do that So he went to me and saw some crooked, you know, little carrots that kind of look half rotten, and he said, that's good enough for God. Oh, that tamania, that tamania's got a bad spot right there. Ah, that's good enough, we'll give that to God. Oh, look at that apple, it's got a big bruise on it, and there's worm in it. That's good enough for God. And that's what we do. We give God what's left of our lives. and God gave his best. And that's why we're not blessed. Blessed are those that do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they will be filled. The psalmist wrote in Psalm 103 verse 5, he wrote, he fills my life with good things that my youth is renewed like the eagles. If we will empty out, he will fill you up. Hallelujah. If we will empty out, He will fill you up. But we have to have a desire for godly things. We have to have a desire for God. As I looked at it and I thought about it, I thought of one man. It was one man that I really thought of that had a desire. A desire that said, I will not stop until I have more of you. You know the story as much as I do. A man named Jacob, he sent his family ahead, stayed behind, and out of the clear blue comes a man, and they began to wrestle, and they wrestled all night long, and come to find out that this man, that this man Jacob was wrestling was an angel. and that man was wrestling that angel and he was winning the battle he said I'm not letting go and the angel said the day light is coming I've got to leave and he said I ain't going to let you go I won't let you go I'm not going to quit I'm not going to give up I will not stop until I get the blessing of God and that's the problem with most church people Because they're not willing to hold on. They're not willing to hold on until the blessing comes. They're not willing to hold on until the anointing comes. They give up too fast. Jacob wrestled all night long. When's the last time you wrestled with Satan against Satan all night long. And said I'm not going to give up. I'm not going to quit. I'm not going to stop. I ain't going to see the victory. When's the last time you wrestled all night long? When's the last time you said, I will not give up until I see the blessing? And that's the point. Jacob would not quit until he saw the blessing. When he saw the blessing of God, the angel said, fine, I'll let you. I'll give you a blessing. And he put his hip out of joy. That was not the blessing. That wasn't the blessing. That was the physical manifestation that God was touching Jacob. and God would be a part in his life for the rest of his life. And then that's why Jacob would know every time he took a step, I remember when I wrestled all night long. And God blessed me. Oh, yeah, God blessed me. Every time he took a step. Every time he took a step. He would remember the blessing of God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We need an intense desire for God's word and for church. As you stand in your life and as you think about it, I want you to really think, I want you to look deep down inside in your heart today. I want you to think about it. Do I have that intense desire? Do I hunger and thirst for more of God's word? Is it something that I can't get enough of? I'm not asking you to answer, but I'm saying, how much do you study God's Word on a daily basis? You know? Now this is the thing. I want you to understand something. That so many people will sit there and they'll say, well, you've got to read chapters and verses and just keep on reading and reading and reading. I'm not of that. I'm not of that school. I don't believe it is appropriate to read 15 chapters of the Bible if you don't understand what you read. It's better for you to read one verse and understand it by the time it's done than to read 15 chapters and then not have a clue what you read It better to read one verse and understand it and get it planted in your heart than it is to read a whole bunch Because once you plant that seed in your heart, it will begin to grow. Now, if you can read a whole bunch of verses and you can read a bunch of chapters and you can digest it and you can get it, better for you. But if you can't do it, if it doesn't work that way, try one first and try to understand it. There are so many good commentaries online that you can get. Wesley commentaries and different Beacon Bible commentaries. So many stuff you can get online. They're free. You just get your Bible verse out, get your Bible out, bring it up on your computer or your phone, bring up Beacon Bible commentary, Wesley commentary, different type of commentaries, bring it up, and you can read the commentary that goes along with the Bible verse and boom. It'll explain it and there it is. we need. This is vital. This is vital. This is not just a book. This is vital. It is what we need. This is what we need. We need each other. Church is vital. That's what we need. So as you examine your life today, I want you to think about it. Do you have that intense desire to read God's Word? Are you as hungry for God's Word as you were when you first bowed at an all-worth prayer? Do you love to read God's Word? Do you love to come to church? Now apparently you do because you're here. but I'm saying is it a want to or is it a have to only you know that not me do you have that desire Jesus said blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled and I'm going to tell you one final thing and that is this today in this day and age nothing else will do but to be filled with God. We need it. We've got to have it. Nothing else is going to do. Things are going to get rough. Things are going to get tougher. There's going to be persecutions. There's going to be things come. And the only thing that is going to matter is if we've got God's Word hidden in our hearts. Psalm 7. The Word have I hid in my heart. that I might not sin against you. Let's bow our heads before the Lord this morning. And as we bow for just a moment, you've examined your heart for a moment there, and I want you to think about it. And deep down inside, if you have that desire, that extreme desire, that desire that says, I cannot get enough of God, and I desire so much more, then I say, I applaud you, and I say, keep it up. Keep that desire going in your heart. Keep that desire for God going. But maybe there's someone that will be honest to God and say, you know, maybe my desire for God's word has waned just, even just a little bit. Maybe I don't desire to read the word as much as I once did when I was younger. Maybe those things have kind of waned just a little bit. Would you be honest to God, not to me today, but to God and say, God, I want a sincere hunger and thirst after righteousness. Even if you do love God, even if you do love reading God's word, maybe you want more of a desire or more of a thirst for God. Father, I need you. Touch me. Hands going up. There's one, there's another one, and another one all over the place. Hallelujah. I got my hand up too because I want more of a desire. That beautiful song that says more of you, more of you, I have had all of what I need is more of you. Of things I've had my fill and yet I hunger still. Empty and bare, Lord, have I prayed for more of you. That's what I want. I want a greater desire for God's word. I want to have a greater desire for God's word. I want to delve into God's word. I want to immerse myself into God's word. I want to immerse myself into God's church and into the kingdom of God. I want to be there at all times. Maybe you're watching the video this morning or this afternoon, whatever time of day you're watching it, and you're saying to yourself, I need that too. Raise up your hand where you're at, wherever you are. Father God, you saw hands going up. People, honest people saying today, I want more of you, Father. Father God, give us that desire. Father God, as we have a desire for your word As we have a desire to be in your house Father God, I ask you to increase it I ask you to increase it triple fold Quadruple fold Father God, give us greater desires for your word That we will have so much of a desire for you That all the things of this world will just pass away That all the cares of this world will just pass away And all that will be left is a dothire for you. Father God, I pray that right now in Jesus' name, I ask you to open the windows of heaven and pour out that blessing. Father God, may we be like Jacob and not let go until you bless us. That we will have more of you and that desire for more of you. Father God, I pray right now. Father God, I thank you for each and everyone that came out today. And Father God, I thank you for each and everyone that watched our video today. Father God, whoever is watching, whoever has been here, Father God, I pray that those ones that have listened in, that Father God, they will be blessed beyond measure. In this house and those that are watching, they will be blessed by God to know that they have heard the word of God. And Father God, as we dismiss, Father God, I ask you not to dismiss us. But Father God, I ask you will give us that desire to take that filling of desire out into a world to share with other people. and that maybe through something that we say or do that someone else may gain a desire for you. May we just be clay used in a potter's hands. I pray it right now in Jesus' name. Now, Father God, as we dismiss, do not dismiss us, but, Father, go with us, keep us safe, and bring us back safe next time that we might worship you again. And, Father, for all that you are, for all that you do, we praise you and we thank you for it all. in Jesus my name Amen .

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