 Calvary Chapel, Chino Valley, how you guys doing today? Are you excited and ready to get into God's word? All right, then would you take out your Bibles and turn with me to Matthew chapter five as we prepare to study God's word? Matthew chapter five and it's so great to be back with you again today and you had my brother out last week and after he came out and spoke, they called me and asked me to come and clean up his mess. Spoken like a true younger brother. No, I know he did such a great job. Aren't you guys blessed last week and having Garrett out? And I know you'll be blessed again next week because Pastor David will be back in the pulpit next Sunday and I know you're gonna wanna be here because whenever you come back from Israel and just basking in the presence of the Lord, you have so much to share from the Lord and so I know Pastor David's gonna have a very special message to share with you guys this next Sunday so if you're visiting and you wanna come back and hear Pastor David and if you're part of this church, you're gonna wanna hear the heart of your pastor and speaking of the heart of your pastor, I know I don't need to say this, but I love your pastor. I truly do with all of my heart. I love your pastor. He's a very, very special man and he loves you and cares about you perhaps more than any other person I've ever known. He truly has a heart of a shepherd and he and Marie love you guys with all of their heart and I know I don't need to say that, but I think we should thank the Lord for the pastor and pastor's wife that God has given Calvary-Cappuccino Valley. Well, if you are ready to get into God's word, it's Matthew chapter five and I wanna draw your attention to verse six where Jesus gives this promise. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Today I wanna talk to you a little bit about how God promises to fully satisfy and fully fill those who desire to live a life that is right before God. And so I wanna share a message with you that I've entitled, Stay Thirsty, my friends. And let's pray and ask God to bless this time that we have to be together. Father, as we come before you now, we wanna thank you for this moment that we can share together as a church family, that we don't only get to read your word, but we get to experience you today. Thank you for all the incredible people in this room and God, you know every need, every struggle, every pain. And Lord, I pray that you would help us to live the life that you promise that you will bless. And so God, I pray that you would speak to us now for your church is here to hear from you. In Jesus' name, amen. A song that resonated with our culture perhaps more than any other song before it, it's time, is the popular band U2 song. I still haven't found what I'm looking for. The song resonated with a culture so much because the culture realized it's the truth that they're finding within their lives. I still haven't found what I'm looking for. I'm empty, I'm unsatisfied. Life must be more than this. And U2 who wrote the song, they had fame, fortune, no doubt females, and they still came to a point where they said, I still haven't found what I'm looking for. It's not only true for U2, but also Jim Carrey, an Academy Award-winning actor and comedian who said this and I quote, I hope everybody could get rich and famous and have everything they ever dreamed of so they will know that it's not the answer. Shia LeBeau, after becoming one of the top grossing actors of our generation, he did an interview with Parade Magazine and asked his interviewer this question. He said, why am I an alcoholic and have a God-sized whole? Chris Martin, the lead singer of the band Coldplay, who has sold tens of millions of records, selling out the largest stadiums around the world, he said, there must be something more. Tom Brady, the quarterback, the last time I checked, of the Patriots still, who is debatably one of the NFL's greatest quarterbacks of all time, who is married to a supermodel named Giselle, who was in a $60 million contract, but after winning his third Super Bowl in an interview with 60 Minutes, he said directly following the victory of his third Super Bowl, he said this, there must be something more than this. I just wish I knew the answer. The answer is, Tom Brady, the answer is Jesus Christ. He is the one that is the answer to our emptiness. He is the one that can satisfy. Maybe that's why the Rolling Stones saying, and talking about not being able to find satisfaction in life. I can't get no, oh, you know that song. Bunch of heathens in church today. And this dilemma that our culture has, it's not new to our society, it's gone from generation to generation. The desire to be satisfied, to find fulfillment. This dilemma though, and where do I find it and how do I find it and how do I get it? There's an entire book in the Bible dedicated to this dilemma called Ecclesiastes, written by another guy who had it all, his name, Solomon. This book follows Solomon on a 12 year journey searching for what would fill the emptiness, the hole within his heart. So Solomon goes on this 12 year journey to try to find what can bring him satisfaction. So he thinks first it must be money. Perhaps Solomon was listening into too much nully at the time. Hey, it must be the money. And so he did. He acquired a vast fortune for himself. And so much so gold was so prominent in Israel at that time that silver was almost a worthless commodity because there was so much gold. The queen of Sheba was recorded that she came and visited and when she did, she said that she's never had seen so much wealth amassed in any kingdom ever. And Solomon used his finance, his fortune to buy anything and everything that could fill that emptiness inside. And after it all, Solomon comes to a point in his life where he is still left empty. So if it's not his fortune then Solomon would say then maybe it's females. Yeah, females. That's what it's gonna be to fill my loneliness, my emptiness, it's gonna be the ladies. And so Solomon, he ends up with a thousand wives and concubines. This is obviously before he was the wisest man in the world. Sir, do not laugh at that joke. And Solomon now having a thousand wives and concubines realizes this isn't it. I mean, one wife is hard enough, let alone a thousand, good night. And so Solomon, after having so many wives and concubines to fulfill every satisfaction and every desire he had, I mean, he would have a different woman every night and wouldn't see the same woman twice after three years. And he wouldn't be able to gather the most beautiful ladies in all the known empire to have for his own. And at the end of that, Solomon said, it's not women. The more I have, the more problems I have. All the women in the world and still left empty. So if it's not fortune, if it's not females, then perhaps it's education. And so Solomon sent out to read every book that was written into, acquire every knowledge that could be known to be the wisest person that ever lived. And Solomon, after studying and reading many, many books, he said that he came to the conclusion that it leads to the weariness of the soul. All you students can say amen. After studying and reading tons of books, I'm just weary. And so after his education, still empty. Well, if it's not education, then he did what most college students do. If it's not learning in the classroom, it's gonna be partying on the weekends. And so Solomon begins to throw these major parties. He was known as the guy to go to his party. Solomon's parties, flowing with alcohol freely. I mean, these were the best parties to be at if you wanted to party. And so Solomon, after partying and throwing these parties, they didn't stop till eight in the morning. Solomon realized this isn't it, still left empty. Left empty. Well, if it's not finances, if it's not females, if it's not education or partying, then maybe it's power, yeah, power. And so Solomon, who was king, ended up conquering every known empire that there was to conquer. The most powerful man in the world at the time, but still left empty. He had literally all that the world could offer. But at the end of it all, he came to a point in his life after searching for 12 years, where he said, it's all vanity. Now that word vanity literally can be translated emptiness. Solomon said, I've had it all, all that the world can give, all that the world can offer. I've acquired it all and it's all emptiness. And finally, after 12 years, he came to the point in his life where he said, God is it. Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 13, he said, fear God, love the Lord and keep his commandments. What do you do to fill the emptiness in your life? To fill the void that each of us were created with, the hunger, the desire, the things that you're thirsting for. What is it that you go to? Well, some go to the bottle, the things that they thirst for, I'm thirsty, so I'm just gonna drink. And so they drink and people drink and they watch commercials that say stay thirsty, my friends. Why? Because they know the more you drink, you'll keep being more thirsty and keep buying their product and keep spending more money, making them rich and you pour. And so they'll say things like, stay thirsty. Maybe it's not alcohol, maybe it's relationships, sexual, maybe for you it's being promiscuous and trying to find satisfaction being physical with somebody. And for you, in culture today, even someone that's known as desiring to be promiscuous, they're known as being thirsty. Oh, that girl, she thirsty. That guy, he's thirsty. It's used in our society now to describe someone that has that desire, but it's a thirst that will never be quenched. What is it that you go to? You see, society goes to all these things like Solomon did, partying and drinking and relationships and everything that we could have that the world could offer looking for what would satisfy when Jesus gave the answer all along. There's only one thing that we can be thirsty for that will ever leave us feeling filled. Let's look at Matthew chapter five, verse six together again. It says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst, here it is, for righteousness. Now one of the most common phrases that Christians use is, God bless you, God bless you. We say it all the time, don't we? God bless you and God bless you. We even say it when people sneeze. Oh, God bless you, but what is a blessing? Do we know what a blessing is? How do we define a blessing? Would you know a blessing from God if it slapped you in the face? How do we define a blessing? Well, the word blessed is translated happy or literally to be enlarged. So to define a blessing, a blessing is either God giving you something greater or making you someone greater. God developing within you to become a man or woman that is greater or God blessing you with something different that will be greater for you. Now I know each of you want to be blessed by God. I don't think any of us here today would say, I don't want to be blessed by God. No, God, all your blessings you just keep on. I don't want to have any blessings from God. I don't think any person in the right mind would ever say that. I know you want to be blessed by God, but Jesus promises that you will be blessed by God if you stay spiritually hungry and thirsty for righteousness. That's why I've entitled this message, stay thirsty, my friends. But how do you know how to stay thirsty or hungry for righteousness if we don't even know what righteousness is? The word righteousness is used hundreds of times throughout the Bible. But if you look up the word righteousness in a theological dictionary, you will find 27 pages on the definition of righteousness. So I want to read those to you, those 27 pages today. No, I'm kidding, I wouldn't do that to you. But in summary, to show you what righteousness is, let me summarize and simplify it for you in two statements I want to look at today. Two simple statements of what righteousness is. Number one, righteousness is a position of relationship. A position of relationship that is being right with God, being right with God. So desiring, having a desire, hungry and thirsty to be right with God, that is a life that God promises to bless. Well, then that leads to the question, well, then how do I get right with God? If God promises to bless those who are right with him, then how do I get right with God? Romans chapter one, verse 17 says this. This good news tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the scriptures say, it is through faith that a righteous person has life. Now notice two things. It is God who makes you right, not you making yourself right. There's nothing you can do to make yourself right with God. It is God who makes you right with him, simply by faith in who he is and what he's done for you. Placing your faith in Jesus Christ. It's through faith in him that we can be made right with God. Ecclesiastes chapter seven, verses 20 says, there is not a righteous person on the earth who always does what is right and never sins. That person doesn't exist. Romans 3, 23 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You are not right with God in your own merit, in your own ability. You fall short of God's standard. You see, God's standard is perfection. We all fall somewhere under that. I was talking with a guy about eternity and the topic of eternity came up. So I asked him this question, it was kind of a setup, but I asked him, well then, if you believe in eternity in heaven and hell, then where do you think you're gonna be going when you die? And he said, oh, I'm going to heaven. And I said, really? Why? He said, well, I'm a really good person and I keep the 10 commandments. And right when he said that, I said, really? Name them. And he stammered and said it and realized he didn't know what the 10 commandments were after naming one or two of them. And I said, listen, you can't even name them, let alone keep them. No one can. No one is good. No, not one. The Bible declares that same truth. And the more that we know God's law, his standard, the more we realize we fall somewhere short of that. It becomes clearer that we can't keep it. Jesus said if you've ever been angry with somebody, it's the same as committing murder. Jesus said if you've ever lusted in your heart after somebody, then it's the same as committing adultery. God spoke, don't have any other gods before me, but in all of our lives from time to time, we put other things before God as our number one priority. God said, do not covet, but we've all desired to have what our neighbor has or the better house or what someone else has and wish that was our reality. So you might be a good person or better than most, but we all fall short somewhere in our lives. Let me illustrate it to you this way. Pretend California represents the world in all of its population. And Hawaii represents heaven. And so we all are gonna work our way to heaven by swimming there. Our own effort, our own energy, we're all gonna swim to heaven, get to Hawaii. Some of you are gonna die before you even get to the first wave. Some of you are gonna make it past the wave breaks and maybe even make it to the buoys, but probably sink somewhere shortly after that. A very few people in the world's population have made it from Long Beach to Catalina, making that swim, incredibly difficult swim. But even the strongest swimmer in the world could make it maybe a little bit past Catalina, but not much further before they fall short too. You see, the illustration is plain. We might be better than somebody. I'm a good person. I always like to ask, compared to who? Because we always compare ourselves to somebody that's worse than us. We don't compare ourselves to someone that's better. Compared to them, I'm not pretty good. But compared to that guy, I'm a pretty good person. And so when we compare ourselves to God's standard, which is perfection, we realize we all fall somewhere short. Maybe some, ooh, barely getting past the first wave break. Maybe some, really, really good, but we all fall short of God's standard. No one's gonna make it to Hawaii by swimming there, and no one's gonna make it to heaven through their own efforts and energies. It's only by putting faith in Jesus Christ who died for our sins on the cross. The cross is the bridge between heaven and earth that man could never build to work our way to heaven so God built the bridge to work himself to his creation. Through the cross of Jesus Christ, we can be made right with Jesus Christ. It's Romans chapter six, verse 23, that says, for the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord. That's the difference between Christianity and every worldview, philosophy, or even religion. Every religion of the world can be summed up in one word, do. Every religion is based upon what you do. You have to do this and you have to do that. You have to bow in this direction so many times a day. You have to go here certain days of the week. You have to say certain prayers throughout your day. You have to do this and do this and do and do and do and you realize all religion is just a bunch of do, do. Christianity is based upon a relationship with Jesus Christ that can be summed up in one word, done. When Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and my sins, he declared this word, take to let's die, which literally means it is finished. When Jesus Christ died on the cross for you, he said it's done. The work is done, it's a free gift for you. All you have to do is place your faith in him. You see, righteousness is a position of relationship being made right with God by God. You might say, well, how do you get right with God? You simply accept that free gift that Jesus offers. Second Corinthians chapter five, verse 21 says, God made Christ who never sinned to be the offering for our sin so that we could be made right with God through Christ. And in a moment, I wanna give you that opportunity to be made right with God by Christ by placing your faith in him. Romans chapter 10, verse nine and 10 says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For you believe with your heart, resulting in righteousness and you confess with your mouth, resulting in salvation. Righteousness is a position of relationship being made right with God, but it's also something else. Righteousness is a practice of lifestyle, living right before God. First John chapter two, verse 29 says, since we know that Christ is righteous, we also know that all who do what is right are God's children. John declares that those who belong to God are gonna be living right before God and those who do not belong to God will not be living right before God. But you might ask, Pastor, why should I care about being spiritually hungry and thirsty for righteousness? I mean, my friends don't really care about being thirsty for righteousness. My neighbors don't particularly care about being thirsty for righteousness. My classmates, my coworkers, my spouse, whoever it is in your life, you might say they don't really care about hungering and thirsting for righteousness. So why should I care about being right with God? Why should I care about thirsting for righteousness? Well, verse six of Matthew chapter five, Jesus gives this promise. He says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and the blessing is this, for they shall be filled. You will be filled, completely satisfied, totally overwhelmingly content in your life when you thirst for that one thing. You see that word that Jesus used filled literally means to be filled to the brim with a perpetual source. Like if you put a hose into a bucket and turn the hose on full blast, the bucket would be filled to the brim and then overflowing. Every time you wash your car, you're gonna remember this now. God promises to fill you to overflowing, not just where you're full, but that God would fill you up where there's a perpetual source flowing from within you that would be filling others up around you, that you will be so satisfied in your life that there won't be a need for any of those other things because you're so content in who you are in Christ Jesus. A lot of translations put that word filled as fully satisfied or full filled, meaning fully filled in a world where people can't get no satisfaction because they still haven't found what they're looking for is because they're looking for it in all the wrong places. Revelation chapter four, verse 11, says for you created all things talking about God and for your pleasure they exist and were created. You are made by God for God. And until you realize that life will not make sense to you, only living for God and his righteousness can completely satisfy and make you fully filled. It's the great paradox that the Bible teaches. Jesus said if any man loses his life, he will find it. But if anybody tries to find their life and live their life trying to obtain it, they're gonna lose it. They're gonna live their whole life looking for what will satisfy and miss out on truly what it is. So if being spiritually hungry and thirsty for righteousness is what fully satisfies, when nothing else will, then the question that we should be asking is how do I stay hungry and stay thirsty for righteousness? Righteousness literally means right onness with God. How do I stay desiring to do what is right before God? I wanna leave you with four things, four ways that the Bible says you can stay thirsty for righteousness. You wanna write these down. Number one, make knowing God your top priority. Not success, not happiness, not wealth, not anything, but make living for God your top priority. David said in Psalm 63 verse one, oh God, I earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My body longs for you as I travel through this parched and weary desert where there is no water. If you are in a dry season, if you're in a season where finances are dried up or your marriage and love in your marriage is dried up, if you're in a season of dryness and desert wandering in the wilderness type of season, do what David did long for the Lord, thirst for the Lord. Because Matthew 633, Jesus gave these words, seek me first and his righteousness. When you seek God first and his righteousness, all of these things will be added unto you. Jesus said that following a teaching about how he knows our needs. Talking about do not worry because worry won't add a cubic to your stature. He said the birds of the air, they have their homes, they don't worry about what they're gonna eat for, they're provided from God above for their food day by day, the worms of the ground, whatever it may be that those birds eat and the fields that they're clothed in flowers. So don't worry about what you're gonna wear. And I love how God uses that illustration because women are always worried about what they're gonna wear. And men are always worried about what they're gonna eat. And Jesus says, listen, I know your needs, the Father in heaven knows your needs and you can spend your life trying to obtain those things that you think that you need in your life and you'll never be able to obtain it. But Jesus says, seek God first and his righteousness and everything else that you need in your life will be added unto you. The second principle to keeping a strong spiritual appetite and thirsting for righteousness, number two, stop filling up on junk food. You are a spiritual being made with a God-shaped void in your life. Romans chapter one talks about that, that within each of us, God has created an innate knowledge of God. God made us with that God-shaped void so that we would recognize God as the only one that can fill that void. But instead of turning to God to fill that void, we try to cram other things in there, whether it's a substance or a relationship or whatever it might be. And all we do is we stretch that void out and make that God-shaped void that much bigger. So the next time we gotta take another hit, next time we gotta do more, next time we gotta drink more, next time we gotta engage in more and it goes downward and downward and downward, never feeling satisfied. After the high comes the lower low. I used to say in the 70s, there is no high like the most high. I like that. People try to fill that God-shaped void with everything else. When God's the only one that can fill it completely, God made us with that God-shaped void so that we would turn to Him and recognize our need for Him. But instead, people turned to all sorts of other things. Proverbs 15 verse 14 says, a wise person is hungry for knowledge while the fool feeds on trash. So many times I think we fill ourselves up with so much other things, there's no room for Jesus left in our lives. Have you ever gone to a Mexican restaurant and filled up on so much chips and salsa before your main dish came out? That by the time that the main dish came out, you weren't even hungry anymore because you ate so many chips and salsa? Anybody in here gonna tell the truth? Yeah, exactly. I think we've all been guilty of that. Maybe it's not chips and salsa for you, maybe it's breadsticks from Olive Garden. Let's be honest. I don't know what they put in those things, but it's addictive. Where you eat so much of the fluff that by the time what's hardy and that can nourish you comes out, oh, I'm too full, I don't need that. I'll take that to go, I'll have that later. I think sometimes that's how we treat God in our lives. We try to fill that void up with so many other things in our lives that we just say, maybe God later in my life. But we realize whatever we try to fill ourselves up with, it doesn't nourish, it doesn't associate, it doesn't replenish, it doesn't give us what we need in our lives. Isaiah 55 verse one and two says this, the Lord says, all you who are thirsty, come to me and drink. And to those of you who don't have money to buy food, come and eat for free. Why do you spend money on something that isn't real food and doesn't really satisfy you? Come to me and you'll eat what is good. Your soul will enjoy the stuff that really satisfies. So make knowing God your top priority. Stop filling up on junk food. Number three, get into God's word every day. You wanna thirst for righteousness? This is how you do it. This book called The Bible is soul food. The Bible in reference to itself calls it bread, milk, honey, food, meat. You get the picture. It's going to satisfy. It's going to fill you up. Matthew chapter four, verse four, Jesus said, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Too many Christians are dying of spiritual malnutrition because they'll go to church and say, pastor, feed me a good one. And some churches, you don't even get a meal. Like a little appetizer, a little snack. At least at the church that you belong to here at Calvary Chapel Chino Valley, you know that Pastor David's gonna be serving up some five course meals, whole hearty Bible teachings that you can feast upon. We're thankful for that. But listen, if you only eat once a week, you're still going to be malnourished. Well, I go on Wednesday nights. If you only eat twice a week, you're still going to be malnourished. So many times people say, oh yeah, you know, try church out and stuff. I just, you know, no, you need to learn to feed yourself. Don't be a spiritual infant. Oh, pastor, feed me. That's disgusting. It's time to grow up, open your Bible and start reading it. Well, I don't really know how to read my Bible. Then ask somebody, grab somebody that their Bible is worn out and chewed up and say, it looks like you use it. How do you use it? Get a great study Bible. The Endlty Life Application Study Bible has paged my life because anything you didn't understand, although they put it in plain English, anything you didn't understand right below on the bottom half of the page, it tells you what you just read. And you can start learning and growing and feeding yourself because without being nourished, your growth will be stunted. And ultimately, if you don't eat malnourishment, that's it, eventually you're going to die spiritually. Don't starve yourself to death. Learn to feed yourself and be in God's Word. Get into God's Word every day and number fourth and final. Appetite is influenced by association. Appetite is influenced by the people that you associate with. Proverbs two, verse 20 says, join the company of good men and women who will keep you on the path of the righteous. Join the company. In other words, be in church. Surround yourself with people that are like-minded, that have a heart for Jesus, that are hungry and thirsty for doing what's right in God's sight. Living right before God and being right with God. Surround yourself with those people because your company will affect you. Jesus taught that. Jesus said bad company corrupts good morals. So the company you keep is who you are becoming, whether you realize it or not. So if you hang out with people that all they care about is politics, before long, all you're gonna care about is politics. If you hang out with people that all they care about is going to the bars or the clubs, that's all you're gonna be living for. People that just all they care about is different relationships and getting the next guy or the next girl, that's all you're gonna care about. Sports, that's all you're gonna care about. The stock market, that's all you're gonna care about. Who you surround yourself with, their passions will become your passions. That's why it's so important to be in church on the regular. Not that I go to church, yeah, you know, sometimes I go to church, you know, you know, some weeks, but to be together because we're always better together. Life wasn't meant, spiritual life wasn't meant for you to walk through it alone. But we are together, encourage you, you know, that's why Hebrew chapter 10, verse 24 and 25 says, let us stir each other up to good works, saying not forsaken the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but so much more as the day, talking about the day of the Lord's return is approaching. Let us join together, let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. It's so important to be in church because appetite is influenced by association. Listen, if you want to be completely satisfied in your life, you want the void to be filled, the only thing that can fill that void comes from desiring to be righteous, being right with God and living right before God. And today, if you aren't right with God, maybe you haven't ever yet placed your faith in Jesus Christ, then today is the day for you to do that, to be made right with God, not by your works because you can't get yourself there, but by the work that Jesus Christ has done on the cross. And perhaps you have at one time placed your faith in Jesus Christ, but you've walked away and you no longer are living right before God. John declared that God's children live rightly before him. And perhaps you've thought of yourself as a child of God, but you no longer are living right before God. Today is the day to get right with God, to be made right with God, and to live right with God by the power of God. Today is the day for that. Make that day this day for you.