For What do You Hunger and Thirst

So here we are, March 17, 2018. It seems like the year just turned to 2018, and we're already knee-deep into three months into it. So I present this question to you, as you can see from your bulletin. The title of today's sermon is, What Do You Hunger and Thirst? Almost 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ stood on the side of this mountain, more like a hill outside of the Capernaum, just above the Sea of Galilee. And He gave this wonderful sermon called, The Sermon on the Mount. And during His preaching, He made the statement, Bless are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be what? Filled. Right? They shall be filled. Are we? Are we filled? Are we hungering and thirsting for righteousness? Is that kind of high on our priority list? Well, somebody's listening to something else, I guess.

It's interesting this time of the year, because you turn to 1 Corinthians 5. You don't just need to know where this is at. 1 Corinthians 5, all the theologians, all the commentators, all talk about the first letter written to the Corinthians. It was actually, I believe, by some that there were actually three letters written. Only two were saved in the canon. But I'll talk about Paul writing this letter to them prior to or just before the days of Unleavened Bread.

Prior to and before Passover. And they take this because if you read in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 7, he says, Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you are truly unleavened, for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Which makes absolute sense that this is talking to. What's interesting is that this is a 90% Gentile church. And this letter happened quite a few years after Christ.

For those who want to say that the Holy Days were only kept by the Jews and then done away with, this kind of smacks that in the face. And all commentators and theologians actually admit that this is that time. This is that church. Therefore, let us keep the feast. Feast. So what is he talking about? Feast of Unleavened Bread. As next week's message will cover pretty well in talking about this.

Not with old leaven, nor the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And then it says over in 1 Corinthians, he continues this letter to them in chapter 11. It says, But let a man in 28, 11-28, let a man examine himself. Examine. This time of the year, because he just, the previous verses talked about the Passover while Jesus Christ delivered to him how it was to be done.

The wine and the bread. Now we are here to keep it. And so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup after he has examined himself to make sure that we keep it in a worthy manner. This focus that we tend to be on, we'll talk about that during our interactive Bible study today. Why we do it, how we do it, and so forth. But have you ever taken an exam in school? I did. Took many of them. You still give exams? Tests? Yes. William was here.

I'm sure we have any other teachers here? Yes. And you do. Right? You give tests. I never liked pop quizzes or tests, did you? I just came out, oh, we're having a test today, not even telling you. Kind of like to know what they were going to give a test about if you were in school like I was, as exam was called, a test.

Are you ready to be tested? You say, well, wait a minute, I'm out of school. Are we really out of school? Seems like I've learned more after I've been out of school than I did in school. Right? It's called the School of Hard Knocks. School of Life takes us down many roads. An exam or a test? Do we have a God who loves to test us? Do we like taking those tests? Not usually. I think that's pretty correct. Right? Test me! Test me! No, we're usually like, have mercy on me. We usually have enough tests in our life, trials and temptations that come along without maybe looking at another test.

Well, I say yes, as many of you do, and I'd like to examine the proof of that from Scripture as we talk about, because Chuck Swindoll actually made the statement one time that God's heavenly plan doesn't always make earthly sense. Sometimes what happens to us, we don't really understand it at the time, and many of us go through tests, and we don't truly understand them until after the test has gone through fruition.

John Newton, who wrote the song, Amazing Grace, actually said, The tests and trials are medicines which our gracious and wise physician prescribes because we need them. And he proportions the frequency and weight of them to what the case requires. Let us trust in his skill and trust him for his prescriptions. I've got very wise words as we all handle these things. I'd like to go, if you will, with me, a quick journey into proving this as a good friend. And many of you have a good friend, right? Somebody you have confidence in, somebody that you would do anything for.

Am I correct? Many of us? Maybe somebody sitting right beside you. Maybe a mate. Maybe just some other friend, someone you've worked with. We've all had those people, right? And a friend you would never put in a bind if you could help.

Am I correct? We wouldn't. Would God? Well, let's see what God says about his friend. If you'll turn to Genesis 22. Genesis 22. I'll read from the New King James today. Genesis 22 and verse 1. Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham. Here, he's called Abraham a friend, but he's testing him. God tests Abraham and said to him, Abraham, Abraham!

And he said, what? Here I am. Abraham was given an incredible test. I'm not sure how he would fare given that incredible test. But Abraham passed the test, didn't he? And don't you feel really good? I used to when in school there would be this test. I studied for it. It came.

BAM! I nailed it. And it felt so good because I didn't need the teacher to hand it back out to me with the great. I knew. Nailed it. It felt good. Do we ever feel that way sometimes when God gives us a test? I do. Because I know how it feels when I don't pass the test. Maybe you don't have that problem, but I do. Okay? But Abraham passed it. You don't have to turn to him in Psalm 17, verse 3. David said to God, You have tested my heart. You have tested my heart. So Abraham was tested.

David was tested. As a matter of fact, let's turn back to Psalm. Let's turn back to Psalms. Look at Psalms. If we can, just touch on a couple things here. In Psalm 7, Psalm 7, verse 9, David said here, Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the just, which we all try.

Hopefully we can be called the just. For the righteous God tests the hearts and the minds. So David said, guess what? You want to follow God? Do you want to be righteous, considered righteous? Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. You could also add, oh, guess what? You're going to be tested. That's what this says. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And he says here, for the righteous God tests the hearts and minds.

To see if we're plain church, plain religion. Right? Go over to chapter 26. Psalm 26. Psalm 26. David again says in verse 2 of 26, Examine me, O Lord. Examine me. Give me a test. Examine me. Prove me. Or one of those says, Try me. Test me. Whew! I don't know about you, but I usually don't just... David was a man after God's own heart, and I don't think I have that big a heart yet. Because I didn't say, oh, try me, God. Test me. Give me a tumor. Make him malignant. I didn't do that. Still have a test to see what's going on.

But you too have had tests. And many times we know where it came from.

Now, in the book of James, James tells us that God does not tempt us. Satan does attempt him. But he does test us. He does try us to see about these things. Solomon actually said in 17.3, the Lord tests the heart.

And Paul even mentions that in 1 Thessalonians, about God testing the heart. So there's a common theme through this book, the Bible. And it has to do with God testing those who follow him or say they follow him.

And most of the testing it comes back to...what? Here.

Here, the very...I mentioned in the Bible so many times, I think the heart is actually mentioned over seven, eight hundred times. I gave a sermon many years ago about that. How many times he mentions it. And it's like...it's the basic core. It's who we are. Is that why he says, I want you to love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your being. Tests we take from teachers. Does it prove anything? What's it prove? What you know, what you've learned. If you paid any attention. And if you've actually applied it or taken what's been given to you to heart. Right? And I think it's something we can all look at. Nurses. We have some nurses in here. Nurses are tested. Are you not?

And I'm thankful you are. Usually I've had so many needles stuck in me in the last month or so. And I've kind of said, you know, I kind of asked them because my veins don't just pop out. And some of them people have had a hard time. Well, I don't know why, but people in Florida, they can hit a vein so much better than those in Tennessee. I've been stuck four or five times. They move around the needle. Here I'm going, well, you may have trouble finding it. The nurse goes, no, I don't. Bam! You can stick that in. Okay. We're good. That's not bad at all. You know? But I'm glad that nurses are tested.

Doctors, even though they say they are practicing, they are what? They have been tested. They have tests they have to pass. If you're a lawyer, you have to do what? Pass the bar. You have to pass the test, or you can't practice. You can't carry on.

I had a whole family back in Tennessee I did a lot of work for, and most of the part of this Jones family, they were firemen. Two of them were chiefs, so forth. They had worked their way up, and they had been in their family for all these years. Their father was originally that, and I think even their grandfather was something in the first fire department. So I got an opportunity being, getting to know them, and I really liked them. And they would just stop by, and we'd just talk sometimes. So I would actually stop by the fire halls if I were around. They gave me all the business for the fire halls if there was any way possible. They were very honest, hard-working guys. But they had started at the very bottom, and they had worked their way up to chiefs and captains. But they let me have the opportunity, they gave me the opportunity to go through and watch some of their testing or training. They did their guys. Because even though the guys had passed all the tests and they became firemen, they were tested each week. They had to pull out that if nothing was going on, nothing to do, which they hoped was all the time. Because then there was no fire. But all these fire halls, they would pull out the truck. He would stand out there and time them, and they would have to act and go through all the motions and be tested to how fast they could roll out those hoses, how fast they could get everything ready, and then he would stop.

Then he would shake his head. Not good enough. Roll it all back up. Pull the trucks back in. Now, sit in the truck. And he'd make them sit to have patience, because it was like he didn't want their adrenaline up. He wanted to test them. So right when he thought they were kind of relaxed, bing, ding, ding! He would go off. And they would go out and do it again. And I asked, I said, you do that every week? He said, every week. I said, what day? He said, they don't know.

And I remember I asked him, they had a fire tower. They've torn it down now. It used to be right by Old Fort Parkway. And everybody looked at this because Marfiesboro, Tennessee, for years, decades, didn't have anything taller than a six-story building. And so they built a tower that you were to climb with steps. And it was a square like this. And it was 80 foot tall and had a platform on the top. And I remember telling them, I said, I'd like to go up there sometime. I'd like to do that because you would see sometimes the new trainees have to run up those steps and see if they could take the height. Because the steps were right at the edge, so you were like having to climb up. And sometimes I'd pull my truck off the side of the road just to watch the new ones try to come up, go up those steps. Because the interesting part was when the new ones got there, they didn't bring them all together. They just brought them out one at a time. And when you got up there, there was an old burlap bag with 80 pounds of feed in it. So right when you'd climbed, you thought you got to the top and the height didn't bother you. Then the 80 pounds you had to throw on your back and head down those steps.

Test. Test. And why? Because it meant lives. They wanted to make sure that the men that they hired, the women, could go and do. And I remember meeting a woman that successfully did it one time. She became a customer a month. She handled the 80 pounds and she was barely bigger than Victoria. I couldn't believe it. Neither could they. It was that determination. She was tested. She was incredible. As a matter of fact, she made chief later on, which no doubt is her.

Any position of importance will have tests, won't it? Because it matters. So, it proves worthiness. It proves what's in here. It proves if you care. Would our God require any less of us to be tested? To make sure? Because what does he say? He says in Revelation, you shall be kings and priests. And he said in Revelation, you shall reign with Him for a thousand years. Reign with Christ? A pretty important position is what we're all being tested for. Tested on. Was Jesus Christ tested? Would we expect to be anything less than tested since He was?

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. I've needed that Scripture a few times. How about you? When I am tested. So, you got what it takes? For God to grant eternal life is a little bit more than getting your law degree. A little bit more than becoming a fireman. Do you have what it takes?

Almost everybody in here drives, don't you? Even Brandon? Brandon's probably the newest one with the license. All right, Brandon? You get it in June. Okay, thanks for giving us warning.

Somebody want to get here early for services and leave right after. But, is not every one of you so glad, so happy, so delighted that people have to take a driver's test? Can you imagine if there was no test and they just handed it out? It used to be, a long, long time ago. Remember my grandfather talked about it? No, I didn't think I'd get a driver's test. They barely had cars back in the 1920s, 30s. It wasn't anything, but he just went and got it. He didn't have to prove he could drive. But thankfully, he didn't live in Miami. Miami area, I'm glad they give a test. I hope it's really hard. Sometimes I feel like it's not. Don't you?

Yes. What's required for this test? Breathing? No. We're glad that they give those tests. Do we consider maybe some of the tests that God puts us through too difficult?

I have a paper, a handout I'd like you to... David and Bill will hand these out to every one of you. I'd like you to look at it. I'd like you to examine it, read it.

This is actually the Outrageous and Grooming Navy Seals training exercises. I wanted you to have these. I made copies of these. These are actually the 10 exercises that you have to go through as if you want to be a Navy SEAL. Navy Seals are very important. I've only met a couple in my life.

But they are put through grueling. As it says here, the surf conditioning in number 10, where they have to lay there and do that again as water is washing up over their heads, over their bodies. They're to lay there for eight minutes and then get up and then go do it again and again. And then you have the underwater knot tying. In verse 9, verse 1 must somersault, not dive into the pool and swim 50 meters underwater. If the surface is broken even once, you're done. You're disqualified. You're no longer a SEAL in training. Your goal is to tie five knots after swimming 15 feet in warm water. And then you have four or five different kinds of knots that you have to tie underwater while you are holding your breath the entire time. Number eight, drown-proof testing. Just take a look at that picture. Can you imagine? Your hands are tied. Your feet are tied. You're thrown into the water. And you must be able to bob, stay, not only underwater, but in water.

And you will do this time and time and time again. The grinder, as they put your physical body into testing for long periods of time.

The log PT, as you are with other trainees holding this log for two hours. A test of will. A test of perseverance. The two-mile ocean swim. As Mary and I have been in San Diego, out near Coronado, where they do the training of many of the SEALs, especially on the West Coast. We were actually able to see these guys, these SEALs in training, swimming in the ocean for 30 minutes, an hour, hour and a half out in this water, as they just kept swimming. It's very important. A two-mile swim. Number four, underwater pool competency, as they put you under there. The test involves the trainees putting on breathing equipment, including oxygen tanks on their backs. They work together in teams of two to help each other. They make sure they can stay under the water without fear. But then out of nowhere, the instructor comes and he shakes everything up and he tries to take their back out there, their pack off, everything, to show them what would happen in treacherous water when they thought they were okay. To see if they would panic, all waiting for them to quit.

Three, the timed obstacle course.

And then the running, which is nothing for them to say, we're getting up, we're running 13 to 20 miles this morning. Before we do the rest of the workouts, imagine getting woken up four or five in the morning, putting it on. You're going to go run for three hours, steady pace, sometimes with 80 pounds of pack on your back.

All training, all testing to see if these men, which brings you down to the final week, which is actually called on here, hell week, because that's what they call it. They consider it. I want you to look at that. It's an entire week of endless training in which the trainee receives a mere three to four hours of sleep during an entire week, not a day. The entire week, you may get three or four hours.

And then you are put through these grueling exercises. You are stranded out into the water where you have to swim. Back to shore as you're dropped off, blindfolded, trying to find your direction.

I'll put through this week wanting you to run to the shore where there is a bell that you ring. And you ring that bell, and it says, I quit. And you put yourself out of the seals. Only a small percentage of all those in seal training actually become a seal, because it actually says after here, I'd like you to take that home and study it. Just because you see, this is training for the seals.

These men will not last forever. God is training us to be holy, righteous for eternity.

You think it's important? I think so.

Is it a privilege to be a seal? Yes. Matter of fact, they've had people get in on YouTube. You can actually find where you're given this seal pen, because seals don't typically run around after this training, whatever they've done, and say, well, I'm an AVC. That's not how they do it. It's not how they're trained to do it. But they have this pen. There's actually been people see a pen and look at a guy and go, where'd you get that? Oh, I was in... But when you find out, no, he wasn't.

They're pretending they're fakes. You think God's seen any fakes? Hmm? He's not looking for fakes. He's looking for those who hunger and thirst, for righteousness, so they can be filled.

It is important. And I love it, because God's in charge, because there's actually been some seals in training who have died, as it happens in any military training. Been pushed too hard or just couldn't hold out. Some have drowned.

But you know, 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13 says that God does what?

Says that God will not test you beyond what you are able. Doesn't mean He's not going to take you right up to that point. And many times, what we can endure, what we can stand, what we can be tested for, is a lot more than what we think we can. See, the beauty of it is, He knows what.

Testing. Very important. And it's important to God.

I think it's very important to us. Because God talks about those who endure to the end. And you know, one of the most amazing tests that I have found in my time, not only on this earth, but in the last 5 or 6 years, since I became a pastor, was patience.

Patience. Mary can tell you, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, I wasn't known for patience.

I had no need for patience.

It was everybody else's problem for not being on time, for not doing these things.

So because I was impatient, God gave me the Caribbean.

Many of you are from the Caribbean.

It's not an insult. It's like... But stand in immigration.

We go through here and we have kiosk. And you go down to Fort Lauderdale and you just stick your thing up and boom, okay, we're done. I remember the first time. It was 6 or 7 years ago. I guess I was going and I'm getting off and it's... Wow! Plane's late going into Trinidad. Had the sermon the next morning.

Plane was late and I didn't get in. It's supposed to be in just about dark. Well, it was three hours late.

And so here it was, 10.30, when it got in, on a Friday night.

And so I'm going, wow, I'm going to get to the hotel, get some sleep, get up in the morning and get everything going since we had early morning services. Okay, I walk out of the plane.

You're not in Kansas anymore, Chuck. Because there was a line out the door. It was two and a half hours standing at 10.30 at night, standing in an immigration line. And there's nothing I could do other than just... And I realized, it's time for me to learn. It's one o'clock, I get out of immigration, get to the hotel.

They couldn't find my reservation. So they had to call somebody else because they were on the night and this was made through someone else. So I finally got my room after that person had to drive in from wherever their house was to find it, at about 2 or 2.30 in the morning. I got to my room. And of course, the deacon and everybody in Trinidad was like, Oh, so they call it 6 o'clock in the morning. Hey, you're here! Yes.

See, this was good for me. This was good for me. Now, if there's an immigration line, I have my bag, I have a book right there. I pull it out, I just read my book. If it takes 30 minutes an hour, but now, after six years, just like Jamaica now, they have the kiosk. You get through pretty fast. Everything goes.

Haiti will be next. I look forward to that.

What would it take for you to ring the bell? To say, this is not what I thought it was going to be.

Because you see, Satan wants to see you ring that bell, right? Can he get you to ring that bell? But also, God wants to see. Will you quit?

So you were tested.

I am tested, because many say I've had enough.

But God knows when you've had enough.

As a matter of fact, I think it was his name, John. Jerry Bridges actually made the statement, God never wastes pain. He never allows pain without a purpose.

And I thought that was a very true statement. Things that I've gone through. Might have been painful, physically, mentally, even spiritually. But I'd look back, go, wow, that was a test.

And I either failed it or I passed it. Those that I failed, I have to say, I don't want to do that one again. I'm going to make sure I'm going to try. See, God tests us. He tests you as he tested Israel. He tested them. Israel in the desert under Moses. Let's go and look at that quickly. In Deuteronomy 8. Deuteronomy 8 and verse 2. Deuteronomy 8 and verse 2. Which helps us this time of the year because many of us feel like we get tested before the spring holy days. We get tested, tried by certain things. And it takes a lot of patience. Deuteronomy 8 and verse 2. He said, And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years into the wilderness to... What? Humble you. Humble.

I feel like sometimes I've got a master's degree in being humbled. Not in being humble, being humble. Some of you may have PhD.

But he says here, he looks back at them. Those forty years, he did it to humble them.

That make a correlation between leaven and unleavened bread, puffed up in humility, does tie to us. At least thousands of years later. He said to humble you and to test you. To know what was in your... goes again.

Abraham, David, Solomon, Paul. Now, children of Israel and us. It's about this thing. It's about that ticker. It keeps John ticking.

It's what motivates us. Whether you will keep his commandments or not.

Do we? We try. Not like we would like to sometimes.

Verse 16. He said, Who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you, and that he might test you.

Remember how we talked about sometimes what a blessing it would be? Manna? You never even had to cook. You had cook, you could do whatever, but you didn't have to plant it, grow it, kill it, skin it, bleed it. You just had to go out in the morning and pick it up and take it in and eat it. Forty years! No problem.

But it was a problem, wasn't it? It was a problem to them. Let's go to Numbers, if you will, back a couple chapters. Numbers 11.

Numbers 11, verse 4. He said, Now the mixed multitude who are among them, yielded to intense craving, so the children of Israel also wept again and said, Who will give us meat to eat? We want meat. Right? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt. Ah, the cucumbers. Ah, the melons. Ah, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. Ah, we used to cook that food in there. Ah, it didn't matter we had to work 20 hours a day. Ah, ah, ah. Right? And they say they were actually crying. See? He is too. He needs his leeks and garlic. He wants the fish. But look in verse 6. But now our whole bean is dried up. Have you ever heard of a drama queen? Okay. Everybody know one? Maybe sitting next to you or whatever. How drama becomes like a, Oh, I'm dying!

Wow. My whole bean is dried up. There is nothing at all except this manna. Manna. Those sick of eating manna. They didn't have to buy it. They didn't have to play. They have to do it. All they had to do was go out and collect it every day. Except for the Sabbath and then he made it so. They could collect double on Friday.

This manna before our eyes. But you see, he gave it as a test. So they went on and said, I want meat. I want meat.

And God is saying, guess what? I'll give you meat. You can read on in the same chapter. Where he says, you know what? I'm going to give you so much meat it's going to come out your nostrils. So come out. You're just going to be not for two days, not for six days. It's all you're going to have to eat because I'm not going to give you any manna. You're going to eat quail for 30 days.

And God did it again because he said he was to test them, to humble him.

Because, OK, so here it was manna. I'm not happy with manna. I'm not happy with the meat you give me. OK, then before that it's like Moses crying up to God. He said, God, they're going to kill me. Why, Moses? Because they ain't got no water. I don't think he said they ain't, but they don't have any water. They're about to kill me. We don't have water. So they started crying again. Time and time and time again, this all took place. They were tested. And so are we. So are we. But I love it best. Let's go to Exodus 20. Exodus 20 as we begin to wrap up this sermon. Exodus 20. Back here. Everybody knows what Exodus 20 is. Maurice is actually giving him a copy of the Ten Commandments today. Exodus 20. Deuteronomy 5, both places where the Ten Commandments are laid out for us, for everybody, for the world. Okay? But he says in Exodus 20, 20, And Moses said to the people, Do not fear, For God has come to what? Test you. To test you. To test you. And that his fear may be before you so that you may not sin. So he has come to test us. Will we keep him? That's what he says. That we will be tested. Zechariah 13.9 has a very interesting scripture about people, and how people will be tested. You can just write it down, turn to it later. It makes an interesting story. I don't want to just take one scripture, but because you read the context of it, it's very defining for us. And I say defining because he said, As I will test them as gold is refined. He's going to test his people as gold is refined. How is gold refined? Anybody know? Fire. Okay, I got a fire and there's gold and it just pops up. Like the calf, they built a fire. And then Aaron said, I just threw this stuff in there and out jumped the calf. It's got to be formed. It's a process. Absolutely right. It's amazing because they say some of the companies still do it, even though there's various ways to pump oxygen and so forth like this. But it's about heating because that gold needs to be refined. It's got to be heated up so that the gold is 99.9%. So the impurities that are in the stones or rocks or even the gold, minerals that are in there, it gets heated up and they do what? They come to the surface where they are skimmed off. So all that gold is tested by heat. Sound familiar?

We are being refined, being tested sometimes by fire. Or we feel it by fire. We feel as we come under heat. So, brethren, what do you hunger and thirst? Food? Drink? Some people do. What else? Cars? Some people hunger and thirst for money, don't they?

Power? Prestige? Some hunger and thirst for what? Sex? Anything else? Said food. Anything else? Entertainment? Some people hunger and that's... What's the latest movie coming out? Ah! Gotta go see it! Stand in line. I'd rather... There are many things out there in this world that one can hunger and thirst for. Material things? Someone says, yeah, there's so many material things. Drugs? Clothes? You know, a book came out... A sales thing came the other day. I picked it up in our mailbox. It was for this nice store and I saw this sports jacket. And it's like a nice sports jacket, new style or whatever, and I'm like, wow, that really looks nice.

And it has a nice, soundly name, Armani. Boy, that would look good on me. She's still not looking at me. And so then I open the inside. It's on sale! Only $2400. Only $2400 for this. Like, man, this is my...what? Joseph A. Banks jacket on sale for $92. I think I got this on sale for.

That's about all I can afford. But when you look at that jacket, it was nice looking. Of course, a guy was a lot better looking than I was, too, and I thought, well, maybe Mary will see me like, you know, I don't know. You know? But that's where this hunger...they know the world knows how to advertise to get you to hunger and thirst. And we all have those things that we want to hunger and thirst for. But Jesus Christ said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Filled! Filled! You can't fill the hole that God put in a person with physical stuff. And I can tell you, I tried. But I'll tell you one other thing. I'm not the only one in this room that's tried, am I? Almost all of us have think, Oh, well, if I get that, I'm going to look so good. I'm going to feel so good. It's going to taste so good.

Besides, all I needed, I didn't need money. I needed a credit card. Ah! Hunger and thirst. See, God desires us. He said, blessed. It's actually, blessed is from the translation. In the old English word, it means happy. Happy! As a matter of fact, the good news translation actually puts it in. Happy are those who, what? Hunger and thirst. Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Do we? Can you test it by being, seeing if you're filled?

Filled with what? Filled with what? It's a, matter of fact, the good news translation says, Happy are those whose greatest desires is to do what God requires. Sounds like a point. I love that. Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires.

God will then, as it says, satisfy you fully. But you don't know if you don't try. So here, as we come to the end of the sermon, I've told you to hunger and thirst, as Jesus Christ said. Hunger and thirst for righteousness. For you should be filled. But if I had my old friend from Hawaii here, Jimmy Lum, Deacon from there, he would always say, Don't tell me to hunger and thirst.

Tell me how. Tell me how. To him, a message was never done until you tell you how. You say, well, I'd take a whole other message. No. No? God laid it out to us in two places, just like two witnesses. He does. You don't have to turn there, but write these two down. Romans 8 and verse 5, and Colossians 3 and verse 2. Colossians 3 and verse 2, and Romans 8 and verse 5. Colossians 3 and verse 2 says what?

Set, set your mind on the things above and not of the things of this world. Romans 8 and 5 says basically the same thing. You want to hunger and thirst? You want to be filled? Brethren, as we prepare for the coming days, study these words. Prepare yourself to be worked with by God, to not dread a test, but to be ready. Just like school, I'm ready for that test if it comes. Set your mind on the things above, brethren, and not the things of this earth, and you will be able to hunger and thirst for righteousness, and you will be filled.