HOW TO BE HAPPY Happy are the Hungry Matthew 5:6 Cooper P Abrams III

Introduction:   

1. It is a normal desire to thirst for food and water. I had a friend once who was an elderly man who would not eat because he was not hungry. He wasted away until he almost died. To have life a person must have eat and take in food to nourish his body.
a. Hunger and thirst are natural desires of our bodies to sustain it. God made us that way. It tells us when to eat and drink.

b. However, hunger and thirst that cannot be satisfied is painful. It is the message of a dying body, that it needs food.

2. A normal desire of a man is to be happy. All men have that desire. We all have a God given appetite for happiness and lust after it.
a. The problem is that mankind ignores God and tries to satisfy his hunger from the world's foul table. Most of mankind feeds on garbage and polluted things the world has, which do not meet his needs.

ILLUS: I like cowboy movies especially the old ones. They bad guys always got it in the end. I like that. Many movies had scenes where the good guys are heading across the bone dry desert and always ran out of water, or the bad guys would shoot holes in their canteens. The movies graphically show people who were starving for water and food. It is a gruesome sight to see starving people.
b. When in Vietnam, I watched on many occasions little children, men and women digging through garbage heaps seeking some small morsel of food.
I went to an orphanage, and saw little bodies of babies all wrinkled and leathery. Their enlarged stomachs, and their big round eyes were hunting. They were hungry yet had not be fed. There was very little crying as they lay in their small beds because they were to weak to cry.

When I was stationed in Southern Germany we lived near Dachua where the Nazis had a concentration camp. It was a horrible to see the place where so many people were starved to death. I will never get the pictures of hundreds of men women and children stacked like cord wood on carts. My uncle Gordon,Guy was with the troops that liberated Dachua. He said it was horrible.

c. These scenes as pathetic as are in no way compared to true state of a man without Christ. Of a man hungering to satisfy his natural hunger to know the God who created him and to know who he is and why he is on earth. You can give a hungry man just about any kind of food and it will abate his hungry, but only one thing will fill and satisfy the soul of man and that is to know Jesus Christ as one's Savior. Nothing else can fill the void of sin in a man and bring peace and joy to the soul.
God made us to be holy and righteous, yet sin has made mankind unholy and unrighteous. The sin nature that we all have makes us hunger and thirst after worldliness and the things of this world which can never satisfy us give us purpose in life and bring us into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ our Creator.

Oh, that the lost of the world could see themselves as they truly are. See themselves as God sees them.

In truth a man who does not know Jesus Christ and is not a born again son of God is no more than a starving, wrinkled, drawn hollow shell feeding on garbage and things that offer no lasting satisfaction, eating with a passion, but yet never finding true satisfaction to their spiritual hunger. Sadly, he is on a course that will lead to his eternal damnation. Yet, the Good News is that no man woman boy or girl needs to die spiritually. Jesus Christ provides the new birth which gives us spiritual food that will forever sustain us.

I. The Woman at the Well. John 4:1-26
A. Look first at the Woman to whom Jesus spoke.
1. She was seeking happiness in the manner of the world. She was living a gay life, she had had five husbands. (vs 17-18) That did not mean she had been lawfully married, but that she had lived in adultery with five different men.
It reminds us of today of the current trend to live together without marriage. Those who chose that sinful life style will find the same heartache this woman experienced. One after another man got tried of her and left.

Just as bad are those who pledge vows till death do us part and then divorce when their spouse doesn't satisfy them any longer or they find someone new. Adultery is a part of this world's seeking pleasure and satisfaction. Yet, adultery is not the problem. It is only the symptom of a heart that is starved spiritually.

2. She had religion also and a faith. V25.
She said she knew the Messiah would come. She believed this some Scripture. It was not a saving faith, but was only a knowledge of national tradition. She was a half- Arab/Jew. Her heritage passed down thru generation taught her of the Messiah. She knew too her fathers worshiped on the Mt. Gerizim, but the Jews said the place of worship was in Jerusalem.

3. So she was like most men and women in that she lived her life for pleasure. She did not seem to be too concerned with her eternal soul being satisfied with a religion of tradition instead of what the Bible teaches. Her religion was that of her ancestors and was not personal with her.
By the way, her religion, also taught that adultery was wrong. It had morals and principles, but they had little effect on the way she lived. That reminds us what we see around us. Some many who claim to know God and yet do not live for Him.

B. Lets look at who she met.
1. She met Jesus, the Son of God, and in V26 He emphatically states, He is the Messiah!!

2. She was so privileged! She had the opportunity to hear the truth! She was addressed by God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he offered her "living water".

C. Did you know that even this morning almost the same thing is happening?
1. The Truth of God's word goes out to men and women who are doing what is natural to them. They are seeking happiness, peace and pleasure. Seeking to satisfy their need to know and be fed by a loving and caring God, but they are unaware that this is what they need or how to go about being fed of God.

ILLUS: It is like the little babies I saw in the Saigon orphanage. They are unable to move, they were are hungry but have no way to feed themselves. The nurses gave them sugar water because that was all they had. It did not meet the need. They were alive, but that was all.
2. Yet, like this woman at the well, many seek to satisfy their souls need in places where it cannot be found seeking to have their needs met from a polluted world corrupted by sin.

3. Many too may have religion. People like a religion that is not too demanding on them. The want a religion that is comfortable and can be lived with.

The world has much of that. It comes in all shades, sizes and to meet any taste. Want to be a God, join the LDS Church. Want to sin on Saturday night and have forgiveness the next morning, join the RC's and go to mass. Afraid of Hell, join the JW's, or Christian Science. Want to go to heaven and ignore Christ, His Church and the Gospel, become a Mason. Don't want to make a public profession of faith in Christ as the Bible says, and be baptized as Christ commanded. That's OK, become a Protestant. They will sprinkle you as a baby, call it baptism, and tell you that you will now go to heaven, at 12 years old they will confirm you and you're in.

Folks that is the raw truth.!!! It is not pleasant to talk about, or to look upon, or even to preach, but it is reality! In is seeing things as God sees it.

It makes the Scripture which says our righteousness is as but filthy rags, take on a more enlightened meaning.

II. Jesus offers us living water, and food that fills the soul.
A. John 4:10,13-14, Jesus said if you drink of the water he gives you will never thirst again.
Jesus wanted to teach her a truth and with that truth meet the real need she had. Many seek to fill their thirst with false religions and beliefs. They recognize the need, but refuse to go to God well to get it. Many want God, but do not want Him to involved in their lives. They want to feel like they will go to heaven, but their relationship with God is for heaven and not now. They go to their churches on Sunday and go through the rituals and leave as thirsty as they entered.

ILLUS: I was eating lunch and I turned on the TV and watched Little House on the Prairie. Laura Engles and her brother were fishing in a stream near their house and found a bright gold colored stones in the stream bed. They would not tell a soul about it and began to wash the gold colored stone from the creek. They began to talk about all they would buy with their new found wealth. However, at the end of the program they discovered it was "fool's gold" or iron pyrite. They worked so hard and had such dreams. Problem was they were basing their dreams on something that was worthless.

B. John 4:31, Jesus's disciples offered him food, and he replied, "I have food to eat of which you do not know". He said the food He had was to do the will of His Father. This is the key. To do the will of God is do what we were created to be.

C. Down thru the ages Men/women/boys/girls have gone to the well of living water. Water that satisfies the soul. Jesus said the water he gives, V14, will become a fountain of living water springing up into everlasting life.

D. The woman immediately ask Christ, "Give me this water that I may not thirst, not come here to draw."

You see, she looked at God offer, in a material sense. She at this point could not see what was being offered. Her spiritual eyes were blinded by sin.

She did not know the truth that, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" ( Matthew 6:33 ).

Jesus went straight to the heart of the matter. He brought the fact she was a sinner into the forefront.

"Go call your husband, to come here" said Jesus.

READ v17--18. Did, Jesus in bringing out in the open the fact of her sinfulness, do it to ridicule or belittle her? Certainly NOT!

It is very obvious His intent was to get her to start thinking of spiritual things. You see she needed to address the reality of her need. This material world is temporal. It will past away. Our homes, family, possession...they all will past away. They do not last, but God who is eternal is offering us everlasting life and eternal reward.

The woman at the well saw the need! She immediately knew He was speaking of spiritual things. She said, Sir you must be a prophet. You see she was then turned toward reality, and truth. She began to think of God and what see knew of Him.

Jesus did not condone her sin and went to the heart of her false religious beliefs. God never condemns the sinner. John 3:17, says "God sent not His son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved."

ILLUS: Last Monday when the doctor explained to me my condition, I asked....what can be done? I did not like hearing I was in Renal failure, but I'm glad he told me. That is his job. He did it well and I am on the mend now.

He stated the she worshiped in vain, and that salvation was in truth of the Jews. They had the truth, he said, she did not.

V23 Jesus said, "those who truly worship God worship in spirit and truth." The two are inseparable. So many ask me whether this group or another will be saved! Many ask me why I do not compromise and accept the beliefs of all churches and groups.

God has answered the question, not I. One must worship God in spirit. That means ritual and ceremony are not included. All false religion has great pomp and ceremony if falsely believes you must have rituals, sacraments, actions of all kinds in order to worship God. Others want to worship the Lord by outward actions, feel good entertaining emotion, music, etc. That can be a part of worship, but that is not what true worship is. But Jesus said the we worship God with our hearts. Can worshipping God be emotional? Certainly it can, but what qualifies true worship is that is also in truth.

A heart that loves God, will love and honor Him always. Not just in a ceremony on Sunday morning.

And one cannot worship without truth. Many as the woman at the well have religion..but not God's truth. She worshipped in a religious system that man had dreamed up. It was not of God because it was not of truth. Folks, God is Truth, to worship Him you must worship truth and not lies.

Conclusion:
A. Jesus said those that hungry after righteousness will be filled. Righteousness means living for God as God directs us and you cannot do that if you do not believe in Him and put your trust in what He says.
1. Righteousness is simply being right.
2. It is the opposite of being wrong.
3. There is not value in being wrong. Those who are without Christ are in the wrong and they need to surrender to Him and let Him forgive their sins and make them right.
4. What a get feeling and satisfaction being right brings.

B. The spiritual void in a lost man can only be filled by God. He put the void there and only He has the keys to open the heart and fill it with the love of God and God's peace and joy.
1. Folks the Devil does not have the key to open that door to your heart.

2. The word used here for hunger is the most intense word that can be used. It is not just a casual desire and something you want to try. It is a desire that will gnaw as you and demands to be satisfied.

C. Those that heard the truth, and have the Holy Spirit begin conviction to their hearts can respond and receive that refreshing, cool satisfying water that only the Lord can give.

ILLUS: When I was a boy working on my uncle's farm in the summer it got really hot. You would start down the long rows of corn, peanuts, cotton cropping the weed, and think you would never get to the end. Finally, you would get to the end and turn around and make you way back to the side of the field where you began. At the end I would walk over to the mule drawn wagon and there would be a gallon glass jar of fresh cool well water. Oh, was it good. How it refreshing it was and then you would start down the next row and keep you going. The cool well water had satisfied your thirst.
My friend the water God gives leaves you eternally filled. You never have to thirst again. You soul receives all it needs.

1. This morning the matter can be settled for eternity.

How are you seeking to satisfy the deep desires of your heart?

From the world's polluted streams where you drink more and more yet are never satisfied!

From Satan's table of false religion. Perverting the truth by ceremony, ritual, offering false hope, false Christ's, false conversions, false baptisms, false teaching, and false preachers.

2. Jesus said, those that hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled! That applies to Christians as well. Christians can get side tracked and get so involved in the world we live in that we do not make seeking to be right in all things before God our priority. Jesus offers living water, food that satisfies. Would you accept it freely offered and freely given.

3. How can I have it? You can have it from the same source that the Samaritan woman did. You can believe in Jesus Christ and be saved. We can believe Jesus' word, the Bible. Believe it all and seek to live it all. We give him the preeminence in our lives.

I love John 4:42 The people in the woman's village said,

"And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world."



6-29-008

It is always encouraging to receive email from those who find the messages helpful, or who have comments.