How To Be Happy Part 4
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Introduction:
My name is Adam, I’m the pastor here at Abide church.
I’m also a professor in here at CBC. I teach Accounting and Economics courses.
Today we continue our sermon series through the “Sermon on the Mount”
We are taking the fall quarter to look at the beatitudes (“Blessed are” statements)
Blessed = happy, fortunate, or flourishing
But truly happy, truly fortunate, and holistically flourishing
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness:
- The Meaning
- The Location
- The Achieving
- The Result
The Meaning
The Meaning
hunger and thirst
hunger and thirst
The Bible uses this imagery a lot
Largely lost on us because we are not often on the edge of starvation as many ancient cultures were
[[Alone stories]] — bark, starvation, drinking salt water
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
If you have it, can you hunger for it?
We need to look at this “Blessed are” statement in context.
Each statement thus far goes directly against an attitude of the Pharisees
The Pharisees thought they were rich in their heritage and spirituality towards God - Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit”
The Pharisees were HAPPY that they were not like “other men,” SINNERS - Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn”
The Pharisees used their religious high ground to control and manipulate others - Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek”
So did the Pharisees at least get this one right? Didn’t they hunger and thirst for righteousness?
Before I answer that question, I need to first tell you the sort of righteousness Jesus requires:
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
BIG IDEA:
If you pursue righteousness through your own efforts, you will always be left hungry and thirsty.
My entire sermon can be summer up by this verse:
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
We hunger and thirst for the righteousness that comes through Christ.
A SIDE NOTE ABOUT CONTINUING TO WALK IN SIN
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
The Location
The Location
This is the 4th “Blessed are” statement
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The kingdom belongs to those who recognize their condition before God.
Our spiritual condition is poor, beggar poor, destitute
It’s first on the list because if we don’t come to God openhanded acknowledging that we have nothing to offer, we have no place with Him.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
This leads us naturally into a state of mourning over our sin.
As we realize our condition before God is poor, we mourn.
BUT GOD, comes to our help. And he comforts us.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Now we have a meekness. A gentleness. A confidence not in ourselves but God.
“The meek are gentle because they don’t have to fight for position; the meek receive their position confidently from God.”
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Again, there is a flow to these statements.
If you are not hungry for the righteousness of God, I would suggest to you that you may have skipped some steps...
The Achieving
The Achieving
Laying down your own righteousness to gain the righteousness of God.
To hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness means laying down your own righteousness.
Acknowledging that you can’t do it on your own..
though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
If you pursue righteousness through yourself, you get nothing,
If you pursue righteousness through Christ you get Christ’s righteousness and you grow in righteousness too.
The irony is that the first step in becoming like Jesus is acknowledging that you are nothing like Jesus
The Result
The Result
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”
- C.S. Lewis
[[SLIDE]]
We don’t have to prove our righteousness before God, because Jesus is righteous before God on our behalf.
This central doctrine of Christianity stands alone among religions
[[Confession]]
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
[[Communion]]
We are going to enter a time of communion together as a church.
This is the culmination of our remembering and renewing our relationship with God. Because of the importance of the communion table and what it represents (the new covenant in Christ’s blood), we celebrate communion every week. Communion is a meal, and the Bible shows patterns of meals being parts of celebrations and special events. Communion is a time of remembrance, a time to remember what Christ did for us on the cross, but also a time of celebration. Jesus will eat and drink together with us in the fulfillment of the kingdom of God.
Let me read from 1 Corinthians.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
You don’t have to be a member at Abide Church to participate in communion with us, but we do ask that you are trusting the righteousness of Christ before you take communion.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.