Oct 03 2009
What Is Your Passion - P1
What makes you tick? If you were to encapsulate your most driving passion, your greatest desire, the one thing you cannot live without, the one thing which would make you the most happy, what would it be?
I have been pondering these questions, and more, as I have read through John MacArthur’s sermon on Matthew 5:6. You remember Jesus words: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.”
As Pastor MacArthur said in his sermon, Americans, in fact most of the world, have no real idea what it means to hunger and thirst. We think we are hungry if we miss lunch. We think we are thirsty if our current beverage has run out. However, true hunger and thirst is a much deeper felt need. It is a driving force which overrides every other feeling and thought.
Righteousness is to God’s child what food and water is to the natural man. When the Bible uses these terms, it is speaking of something for which there is no quick fix. It is implying a level of desperation.
Am I desperate for righteousness? I’m not even sure I want to examine that question closely. I fear the answer may reveal more about my heart than I want to know. What about the flip question? Do I see the world’s offerings as vanity? Another hard hitting question.
Because this verse falls within a ‘list’ of things which Jesus says are the true source of happiness (blessed means happy), let’s step back and have Pastor MacArthur define the connection between this source of happiness and those which proceed and follow.
“When in meekness and morning and brokeness you see your true sinful condition and begin to hunger and thirst after righteousness which you know you need but cannot earn, which you know you need but do not have, you are giving evidence of being a kingdom citizen. . .Until you have hungered and thirsted after righteousness and then been satisfied, you can’t be merciful, pure in heart, and a peacemaker.”
So those which proceed lead into hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and those which follow are a result of our hungering and thirsting after righteousness.
As I mentioned above, the idea communicated by the words, ‘hunger’ and ‘thirst’ is more than a mild discomfort because my belly is not completely full or my mouth is a little dry. The word translated ‘hunger’ means to suffer want, to be in need. The word translated ‘thirst’ means to suffer thirst. These words convey a sense of desperation. Furthermore, they are both present participles. In other words, they speak of continuous action - a way of life.
The Psalmist felt this way. In Psalms 63:1 we read, “O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.”
Have you ever felt this way? Have you every longed for God with this kind of intensity? John Darby said, “To be hungry is not enough. I must be starving to know what is in His heart toward me. When the prodigal son was hungry, he went to feed on the husks. But when he was starving, he went to his father.”
The god of this world has deluded so many. We think the real source of sustenance, the true fountain of happiness, lies in this world (with the pigs). We have grown so comfortable wallowing in the world’s mud, we think this is the best. Granted, few will say they wouldn’t be happier if only they had . . ., but as we have seen in our trip through Jeremiah Burroughs’ book, things never really satisfy. There is always something more we long to have.
If only we could get it through our thick skulls. True happiness comes from God. We do not gain happiness by seeking happiness. We gain true happiness by seeking God. As MacArthur said, “The one who pursues happiness is generally doomed to misery.”
Thus, dear friend, the question we must ask ourselves is: What am I passionate about? What is the driving force in my life? We all have one. We are all driven to attain or achieve or get something. We need to stop and take an honest look at our hearts.
As Christians we must be seeking God’s righteousness. If this is not our driving passion, we must make it so. If we don’t want to make it so, that in itself says something is seriously wrong.
What is righteousness? Righteousness means to be right with God. Pastor MacArthur said, “When the thing that consumes you is you want to be right with God, when the thing that consumes you is you want your sin dealt with, when the thing that consumes you is you want forgiveness, you want to enter in the fellowship with God, you want to dwell forever in His holy heaven, you want your sin forgiven, you want to be made right with God, that’s the issue.”
I suppose someone might say: I felt that way before I became a Christian. I even felt that way early in my Christian walk. But I’m a mature believer now. Isn’t it wrong to continue returning to this kind of talk?
Remember Romans 7? Romans, as you recall, was written by Paul. If you have spent much time in the New Testament, I’m sure you have come to realize Paul was no‘modern-day Christian.’ Paul was serious about his walk - sometimes we might even consider him too serious. After all, the level he strove for was over the top, wasn’t it?
The very reason we can ask such a question is because we have dropped our expectations so far. We no longer see knowing God as the ultimate. We no longer say with Paul, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:18-24)
Have you ever felt this way? As a Christian, desiring righteousness should be a normal part of my makeup. Like Paul, I should increasingly hate my sin. I should be ‘working to have my own life conform to His character.’
While this world will never satisfy - we all know that - the righteousness which comes from God does. That is what Matthew 5 is saying. When the pursuit of God is our driving passion, we will know what it means to be totally filled. We will say with the Psalmist, “The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.” (Ps 34:10) “For He satisfies the longing soul, And fills the hungry soul with goodness.” (Ps 107:9).
Isn’t this what you really want? If not, what does that say about your heart? Next time we will ask ourselves some hard, but necessary questions to help us determine just ‘what’ we are hungry and thirsty for.
