Sister Brenda Sunday School 6/26/11

Sister Brenda Sunday School 6/26/11

Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness.  Are you doing it?  Are you hungering and thirsting after righteousness?  It is easy for me to pick up my laptop and look at pictures of my grandchildren and check what people are saying on facebook but am I hungering and thirsting after righteousness.  You can buy an ipad and download books and pull it out of your purse and read it any time.  All these things can be good, but are we hungering and thirsting after righteousness?  If we fail to hunger and thirst after God and fellowship with God and get in His presence and hunger and thirst after Him, then when we get in an emergency situation we will lack the power and help of God.  We don’t want to be just getting by; we want to have the virtues of God in our life.  We want to give Him our time. 

Mat 5:6  Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Blessed means to be supremely blessed, fortunate.  This does not mean that we will be free from trouble; we will have heartaches like everyone in this world.  Our lives won’t only go good for us, but we will have happiness even in the difficulties; we will have that deep settled peace and that peace with each other and with God. 

Do means to accomplish, to finish, to achieve, and to work out.  Hunger means to pine.  It is a strong desire.  It means to crave.  We all are blessed with food in our pantry, our cellar, and our deep freeze.  But all of us have been hungry sometime in our life, maybe you were out hunting or somewhere away from home. 

Hunger and thirst are the keenest of our appetites.  They are the keenest of our senses.  If you had no hands or couldn’t see, you could still have a good life.  But if you are hungry and thirsty and don’t supply those needs, then you will die.  No one will ever force you to serve God; you have to be the one that chooses.  You have to be the one that fills those needs by getting with God.

Have you ever been really thirsty?  Bro Bill has water at home that has minerals in it and would not quench his thirst.  There was something in it or lacking in it so it didn’t quench his thirst.  He even tried to put a napkin on it and drink through it and it still didn’t satisfy. 

We all know what it means to be thirsty and hungry.  God wants us to really satisfy the hungers and cravings of our soul with what will satisfy.  We all are really hungry for God.  Often people don’t understand that that is what they are hungering and craving for.

The enemy wants us to allow unbelief to work in our lives so we don’t see the blessings that are there for us if we hunger and thirst after God.

Job 21:14  Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.

People do this; they say no to God and don’t desire the knowledge of His ways.

Job 21:15  What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?

Every backslider must have gone this way where they decided that they didn’t want to serve God.  We want to feed and keep that desire for God. 

Psa 10:17  LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:

The Lord will hear the desire of the humble.  The verses before this talk about blessed are the meek and the poor and spirit and these verses prepare us for hungering and thirsting after righteousness.  We must always approach God in humility and approach God in this manner.

Psa 38:8  I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.

Psa 38:9  Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.

Psa 38:10  My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me.

Psa 38:15  For in thee, O LORD, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.

We need to have this desire.  All our desire is before Him.  Are you panting after God?  Do you have that strong desire? 

Psa 73:25  Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.

Is there anything that you desire above God?  Is there anything that you would give God up for?  Your heart should be saying, “Absolutely not!”  We must want God more than anything else.

Psa 145:16  Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.

Psa 145:19  He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.

Only God can satisfy the deepest needs in our life.  We are to be one flesh with our husband or wife and be happy with them, but they cannot fill the deepest needs in our life.  You can be satisfies without a companion; God is He who satisfies.  We must have Him to fill the deep longing of our heart.

Pro 10:24  The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him: but the desire of the righteous shall be granted.

We might not see how the wicked are being punished.  It seems that they are getting by.  But the fear of the wicked will come upon them.  Their end will not be good. 

The desire of the righteous will be granted.  We want peace in our life, to pillow our head at night in peace.  We desire the help of God.  We know that whatever comes He will prepare us for if we will serve Him. 

He will be our rock.  We will not have to fall apart.  He will help us.  He will take care of everything.  Our world situation is scary but as saints of God we can trust Him.  We can know that He has everything under control.  We don’t know the bad that may come, but we know that the other side of that is that we have good things ahead and blessings for us from God.  God has good things for us in our individual lives.

Pro 18:1  Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.

We can be that man.

Psa 42:1  To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

Psa 42:2  My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?

A deer chased by dogs will run and run until it is extremely thirsty.  If they can run and get to the river they will go out so that only their nose is sticking up.  They will stay under water and hide from their scent.  And be refreshed and protected by the water. 

Sometimes we feel like we are really in the battle; we feel hounded, in a severe hard battle.  We can have times of rest and refreshing where things are just good. 

Battles of accusations are hard battles.  I have been in some hard battles.  God wants us to always run to Him, the source of our help and our deliverance.  Be encouraged, God will bring you through.  Get in that river, stick up your nose and keep breathing and depend on Him to help you through the battle.

Sis Karen read a devotional about a prince that had gone to a far country and purchased a rare species of deer to bring back to his wife.  On His way they ran out of water and they let the deer go to help them find the water.  The deer led them to water.

Sis Timberly in EM Bounds read of a deer that was being chased by dogs that ran straight to a man for help and the man fought off the dogs.

Bro Gary heard an account that the reindeer thirst for salt water and once a year they go as a pack to the water and they drink until their thirst is quenched.  In us there is that desire, the scent, something within us, that knows that there is that living water that will satisfy.  Not all water will satisfy. 

If, on their push for water, one of the reindeer trips or falls they are trampled to death.  Because of the urgency to get to water, they will not stop for anything.

We should become alarmed if we are not hungering and thirsting after righteousness. If we find that other things are filling our time, it should alarm us.  We must watch and pray, we must be careful that we are hungering and thirsting after righteousness.  We must have that urgent craving to get to God.

1Pe 2:2  As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

1Pe 2:3  If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

Luk 6:21  Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.

Luk 6:22  Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.

Luk 6:23  Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

Luk 6:24  But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.

Luk 6:25  Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.

Luk 6:26  Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

Luk 6:27  But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,

Luk 6:28  Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.

How rich it is when we hunger and thirst after God and we find the closet and the secret place where we can get alone with God and be filled and renewed.  God makes His word alive to us and it feeds us and fills us.

Sis Sue brought out how the hungering and thirsting are the necessities.  The craving is something different.  “I have been in bed and craved something salty and I will get up out of bed and make a bowl of popcorn.  I’ve never had a craving for an apple or something good for you.  But a craving is strong.  It calls you and causes you to act.” 

He will saturate your soul with fatness.  If you hunger and thirst after righteousness you will be filled.  Hunger will be satisfied and later you will hunger again.  This is how it is with the good things of God.  They satisfy us and we go back for more.  We never want to stop doing that.