James Merritt - A Healthy Appetite
We're a nation that is afflicted with harmful appetites, unhealthy appetites for things that at worse will kill you and at best will debilitate you. And when you're gonna leave here in just a little while and get in your car. You're gonna drive out into a world that has a buffet of unhealthy foods and they're out there, illicit drugs, amphetamines, fentanyl, opioids, alcohol. There are buffets out there and people are lined up at the table. As of 2020, over 37 million people 12 and older are using illicit drugs. 25.4% of all users of illicit drugs suffer from drug dependency or addiction. There are 140 million people, 12 or older who drink alcohol and over 20% of them suffer from alcohol abuse or addiction.
Drug abuse and addiction costs this country $700 billion annually in healthcare expenses, crime related costs, and lost workplace productivity. 9.5 million people have abused opioids and 98% suffer from opioid addiction. 28.3 million people have some form of an alcohol use disorder. Now we know the statistics, or if you don't, you're not surprised at them. But here's the question. Why? Why do people go to a buffet of things they know is gonna hurt me, gonna ruin my life, maybe destroy my family and maybe even kill me? Why do they do that?
Let me tell you my theory, because we all have an appetite for one thing, and that's happiness. We wanna be happy. I've never met a person in my life that says my number one goal in life is to be unhappy. Everybody wants to be happy. As a matter of fact, our founding fathers, they knew that they figured that out. They even put in the constitution, the Declaration of Independence, we have three unalienable rights. You remember what they are? We have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of what? Happiness. They said, look, we get it. Everybody wants to be happy. So we're living in a country right now where young people, teenagers, single adults, married adults, they're in this hot pursuit of happiness.
So what do they do on the weekends? What did a lot of people do last night? They booze it up, party it up, live it up, turn it up before it brings us down. And the problem with happiness is this. Happiness is something. This is what too many people learn too late. Happiness is something that you never find if you go looking for it, happiness finds you. You don't find happiness. Happiness finds you. But we're in a series of messages. If you're visiting with us today, we're calling get used to different. Because when you read the Sermon on the Mount, every time you read what Jesus said, you go, wow, that's different. Wow, that's different. Wow, that's different.
And you're hearing the, and you're gonna hear the Holy Spirit say, hey, get used to different. Because what Jesus is teaching and preaching in the Sermon on the Mount is so different from what the world will tell you and what the world will teach you. And it should be. Because when Jesus Christ came onto the scene, everybody agreed, we've never seen anybody like this. We have never heard anybody like this. This guy's not like anybody that's ever been in history. So Jesus starts out with these Beatitudes, talks about being blessed. And we told you the word blessed means to be happy. So Jesus says, you're in the pursuit of happiness. You want to be happy.
Let me tell you how to be happy. But let me also warn you, get used to different 'cause it's not what you may think because Madison Avenue will tell you you're happy in what you have. So watch any program on TV, watch any live stream, watch anything you wanna watch anywhere you can. It's always backed by advertising. You wanna be happy? Drink this beer. You wanna be happy? Wear this watch. You wanna be happy? Drive this car. You wanna be happy? Wear these clothes. You wanna be happy? Go to this place. It's always about what you have. And then Jesus comes along and says, that's not the way to be happy. Happiness is not found in what you have. Happiness is found in who you are and happiness is found in whose you are. It all begins, he says, in this beatitude with a healthy spiritual appetite.
So here's what Jesus says, get used to different. Blessed, happy are those who hunger and thirst for money, fame, popularity, power, position. No. Happy blessed to those younger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. He says, if you have a holy appetite, a appetite for righteousness, you will be filled. That word filled means you'll be satisfied. And what Jesus was saying was, you'll be satisfied in a way that nothing in this world, of this world or from this world could ever, ever do.
So here's what we're going to learn this morning. Very simple. Jesus said a healthy appetite is a holy appetite. That's the lesson. A healthy appetite is a holy appetite. It's the only thing that will make you happy. You say, why is that? Let me make it real easy to understand. A healthy appetite will lead you to holiness. And holiness will lead you to happiness. You say why? Because holiness will lead you to the only one who is holy and who can make you happy. And that is Jesus. So Jesus does us a favor. He is so brilliant.
You know, Jesus could take the simple things in life and teach great lessons. He said, let me give you an analogy. Let's talk about being hungry and let's talk about being thirsty. And that's how you need to relate to righteousness. We're gonna take that analogy. We're gonna learn three things today. If you're taking notes, ready, first of all, Jesus said, if you've got a healthy appetite, you'll be famished for righteousness. You'll be famished for righteousness. Jesus said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Now, I want you to imagine, go back 2000 years or if you get to go to Israel, we're going to Israel next year. I hope you can go. If you go to Israel, we will actually be right at the bottom of that hill right in front of the Sea of Galilee where Jesus preached his sermon. So I want you to imagine 2000 years ago, you're one of those thousands of people. You've heard about this man named Jesus. You got a chance not to eyeball Jesus. You've heard, he says some things nobody's ever taught before. You're in that crowd and Jesus gets up and he says, you are blessed. You are happy if you hunger and thirst for righteousness. And if you'd been in that crowd that day, your ears would've perked up 'cause you understood what it meant to be hungry.
And you understood what it meant to be thirsty. Because food and water were not just commodities like they are today. They were necessities. 'Cause remember, this was a totally agricultural society. So there was no Chick-fil-A. I know. How in the world did the world ever survive without Chick-fil-A? I get it. But there was no Chick-fil-A, no McDonald's, no Wendy's, no Arby's, no Raisin Cane's, none of that stuff. No Kentucky Fried Chicken. There was none of that. There were no Kroger's, there were no Publix, none of that whatsoever. Many people actually lived on a very meager diet. Bread, maybe milk if you had a cow, always water, maybe sometimes some rice or beans or fruit or something like that. But to them, water wells were just as valuable as oil wells. They understood what it meant to be hungry. They understood what it meant to be thirsty because the word that Jesus used there for hunger and thirst is very interesting.
It was the most intense word you could use for hunger and thirst. For example, the word for hunger. It doesn't mean when your stomach's rumbling a little bit or you just need a little bit of like a snack outta the refrigerator. Alright, let me put it to you this way. How many of you know what the term hangry means? How many of you know that term? Alright, that's what he was saying. Be hangry. I mean, you are just, you are absolutely famished. You need something to eat right now. And the word for thirst, that's not the word. That you would use well, my throat's dry, got a little bit of a cough. I just need a little bit of a sip of water. No, it's a word that refers to being out in the hot sun and you're totally dehydrated.
You're about to faint, you're about to pass out. You've got to have water and you've got to have it now. He said, that's the way I want you to think about hunger. That's the way I want you to think about thirst. That's how hungry you ought to be right with God. That's how thirsty you ought to be right with God. Now the truth of the matter is we live in America and it's hard to really understand and really get into what Jesus said. Let me tell you why. 10% of the world's population, 828 million people go to bed hungry every night. 828 million people would give anything if they could eat in a week what we're gonna eat at lunch.
Think about this. 26% of this world, two billion people have little or no access to safe drinking water. Two billion people would give anything if they could do what we do. Just go to a spigot, go to a water cooler, just drink water. They don't have that, little or no access to drinking water. So imagine how hungry and thirsty these people are every single night. And what Jesus is saying is that's how hungry you ought to be. That's how thirsty you ought to be. That's how famished you ought to be, to be right, to do right, to act right, to talk right, to treat others right. He said, you ought to be morally and spiritually hungry. 'Cause remember the beatitudes, your attitudes. And when you've got a healthy appetite, you've got this desire, this hunger, this thirst that every thought you think is pure.
Every word you say is graceful. That you wanna be everything God wants you to be. You wanna do everything that God wants you to do. And you wanna do it the way God wants you to do it. You don't wanna fall one inch short. You don't wanna be one pound light of God's very best for you and in you, you've got this hunger and thirst. Lord, in every situation I encounter today, let me live right. Let me act right. Let me respond right. Let me say the right thing. It doesn't matter what it costs me. I'm not famished for happiness. I'm famished for holiness. That's why a healthy appetite is a good thing physically and spiritually. And I'm just gonna ask some of you right now just to do something while I'm preaching.
Why don't you just write down your heart, say, oh God, I'm gonna be honest. I don't have that kind of hunger for righteousness and I don't have that kind of thirst for righteousness. God, make me hungry like that. Make me thirsty like that to be right with you, to be right for you, to be right to you, to be right in you. Because if you lose your physical appetite, it can be physically threatening. But if you lose your spiritual appetite, it can be soul threatening. Jesus said, you have a healthy appetite, you will be famished for righteousness. Well, that leads to something else. Makes sense. If we are famished for righteousness, we'll be focused on righteousness. That'll be right exactly what we're thinking about.
Let me give you an illustration. Don't raise your hand. But some of you today, maybe this is your Sunday routine. Some of you today are going to a restaurant, okay? And I know people in our church is the same routine every Sunday. They go to the same restaurant. That's fine. But some of you say, yeah, I'm going, I know where I'm going. I'm going to a restaurant. Now, when you walk into that restaurant, you know that when you sit down, the waiter or the waitress is gonna come to your table. They're gonna ask you two questions in this order.
First question they're gonna ask you is what, what do you wanna drink? And the second question they're gonna ask you is, what? What do you wanna eat? Right? They're not gonna come to you and say, would you prefer a white tablecloth or a black one? What kind of music do you like? Country or classic? Is it too hot or is it too cold? They're not gonna ask you that. They're gonna ask you, what do you want to eat? What do you wanna drink? Why do they do that? Because they know what you're focused on. You're focused on two things.
I'm thirsty and I want something to drink and I'm hungry and I want food to eat. Doesn't matter what the ambience or the atmosphere is, for you, nothing else will do. Not the music, not a certain table, not even meaningful conversation. Look, I want something to eat and I want something to drink. Because when you're hungry, the only thing that will satisfy you is food. And when you're thirsty, the only thing that will satisfy you is water or some kind of a liquid. And Jesus is saying, you ought to be just as focused every moment of your life, just as hungry, just as thirsty for righteousness.
Now that begs the question though that I've not answered. What do we mean by righteousness? When Jesus said, you ought to be famished for righteousness. Well, what is righteousness? And this is where I find so many people, they miss it. Because let me tell you what a lot of people think righteousness is. This is what a lot of you think it is. We think that we are righteous if we just don't do anything wrong. So that's why, you know, people will tell me when I'm trying to share the gospel with them. They'll say something like this, well, I've never robbed a bank. I've never stolen anything, I've never lied. I don't cheat, I don't steal. I pay my taxes. I don't beat my wife. I'm good to my dog. I take care of my family. And so they think that righteousness is when you just don't do anything wrong.
So we kind of try to be righteous by subtraction. Hey, I don't do any of these things, so I must be okay. No, not true because one of my favorite authors put it, listen to what he said. The problem with that approach is this, you can do nothing wrong and still do nothing right. Goodness is not the absence of badness and righteousness means more than doing nothing wrong. It means doing something right. So for example, you're in a group of people and they're saying things you know that are wrong, that are ungodly, that are unbiblical. They're telling lies. You don't say anything.
You just say, I'll just mind my own business. Well, I didn't do anything wrong, sure you did. When you sit down, when you ought to stand up, that's wrong. When you shut down, when you ought to speak up, that's wrong. That's not what that word means. It doesn't just mean the absence of doing wrong. That word righteousness is rooted in the Hebrew word. And it literally means straight. I mean, you use that same concept today, right? When a criminal decides he's gonna change his life, we say, okay, he's going straight. Or when a person wants to live a good clean life, we say, oh, he wants to walk the straight and narrow. You never wanna be known as a crooked business person. You wanna be known as someone who's straight and honest.
And Jesus said, well now you've got a healthy appetite. You ought be morally and ethically and spiritually straight. You want people to look at you and say, now there's somebody I know will always do the right thing. There's someone that I, there's someone I know, he'll always say the right thing. He'll always be the right person. But it goes beyond that. There's more to it than that. When you're hungry and thirsty for righteousness, you're not just hungry and thirsty that you will be righteous. You're hungry and thirsty that others will be righteous.
So I'm gonna say something now, and I'm not getting into the politics, but it has political implications. We ought to have a hunger and a thirst for our nation to be righteous. We're too focused on who's gonna be elected, who's gonna be nominated, who's gonna be in that office. It doesn't matter who's elected. If we don't get right with God, what does it matter? Who cares? We all pray. Listen you say, well why should we say that? I'll tell you why, the righteous man, whoever lives said this, righteousness, exaltation, sin condemns any people. You know why our country's going to hell in a hand basket. We're not righteous. We have forsaken a righteous God. He's not even on our radar screen.
And what we need today our congressmen and congresswomen and senators and presidents and governors that are more concerned about righteousness than they're about power and influence and spending money. And I'm not running for office, but I'm just being honest with you. Righteousness, exalts it, it lifts it up. Hey, you ought to want your family to be righteous. You ought to want your church to be righteous. You ought to want your neighborhood to be righteous. You ought to want your friends to be righteous. You ought to want your pastor to be righteous. Do you know why? Why should you hunger for that? I'll tell you why. God's kingdom is a righteous kingdom that is ruled by a righteous king. And you'll only get in if you are righteous.
So the righteous are those who have been made righteous through Jesus Christ. And then they live righteously because of Jesus Christ. That's why religion won't cut it. Ritual won't cut it. Your righteousness won't cut it. The only way you'll ever be righteous is to know the one and love the one who is righteous. And you've gotta be focused on it. Every moment of every day, just like a hungry man is focused on food and a thirsty man's focused on water, he said, you ought to be hungry. Famished, focused on that righteousness.
One of my favorite authors, you don't know him, don't have to know him. His name's D.A. Carson. Great New Testament scholar. When I was studying for this sermon, I came across this quote and I thought, dear Lord, if they don't hear anything else I say today, I want them to hear this. I want this is, this is that moment. If you don't hear anything else I've said, I want you to listen to what this man said. He is so right. And this is why we are where we are today. He said, people do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace driven effort.
People do not gravitate toward Godliness, prayer, obedience to scripture, faith, delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise. And we call it tolerance. We drift toward disobedience and we call it freedom. We drift towards superstition. We call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation. We slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism. We slide toward Godliness and convince ourselves we have been liberated. We all remember the old term women's lib. And we all know about what happened in the 60s. We were sexually liberated. We are more enslaved today than we've ever been as a nation in our history. We have totally, completely lost our way. Totally. 'Cause a healthy appetite is a holy appetite.
And a healthy appetite means your heart, your soul, your mind will not be satisfied with anything less than righteousness. Alright, so I've talked a lot. I know I've been kind of up here way on top. I'm on the top shelf, boy pastor, this is a lot of theology. This is a lot of, you know, kind of abstract thinking. It is. So now let's bring it down to the lowest shelf and let's be real practical. Now, before I say what I'm about to say, hear your pastor today. I am so glad you came to church. Nobody's happier to see people walk into church than I am. You know why? 'Cause I can tell you right now, I've done it both ways. It's a lot more fun to preach to people in seats than empty seats. Even if you're asleep right now. Thanks for sleeping. Just thanks for just showing up. Just don't snore. We'll get along.
But now I've got a question. Did everybody hear me? Did you hear me say, I'm glad you came to church. Anybody hear that? I'm glad. But I got a question. Why did you come to church today? Did you come because you had a healthy appetite for the word of God and nothing else would satisfy you? Did you come because you had a thirst, a burning thirst to worship God today and nothing else would satisfy you? Did you hunger and thirst today to just be with the people of God and fellowship with other Christians and that's why you came today? Or did you just come because, well, I'd feel guilty if I hadn't. Mama made me come, had nothing else to do. The boat wouldn't crank.
And I just wanna just throw something out for you to chew on. When you walk out the door today, if you're one of those people and you say, you know, I took another one for the team today. And I'll just be honest. I come to church but I don't get anything out of it. Maybe that's why. Because if you came to church today for any other reasons, what I just talked about, you came for the wrong reason. I'm glad you came. But when you come to church, I'll tell you why you ought to come to church. I hunger and thirst for righteousness. I want to hear a righteous word from a righteous God so I can be more righteous. And I wanna be with other people that have hunger for a righteous God and who want to hear the word of God so they can be more righteous. 'Cause you'll never ever get it on your own.
Our student ministry, I'm so proud of our student ministry, they give every student that comes on Sunday morning and Wednesday night, they give them what they call an own it. O-W-N, own it binder. You know what that binder's for? They want those kids taking notes when they teach God's word and not just taking notes. But in those lessons they tell them, this is how you need to live. This is how you need to act. This is how you need to respect your parents. This is how you need to talk to your mom and dad. This is how you need to act toward opposite sex. This is how you need to act at school. They want them to hunger and thirst for righteousness. So I want to be famished for righteousness. We ought to be focused on righteousness. But here's what Jesus says. We'll wrap it up. He said, you know when you're famished for it and you're focused on it, watch what he says. Then we will be fulfilled with righteousness.
See, there's one thing you can count on. This is really good. When you hunger and thirst for God and his righteousness, you won't go away hungry. You won't go away thirsty. That's why Jesus goes on to say this, blessed are those who hunger in thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. When you hunger for God, God will fill you up. But listen, this is what a lot of people miss sometimes. When you hunger for God, God will fill you up, but you'll never be full. Now, how many of you have had the experience I've had? Thanksgiving. You just go ahead and ask for forgiveness before you do what you know you're gonna do.
Every Thanksgiving. I've done it for I don't know how many years. Every Thanksgiving I say I'm not. And I wind up, Father, forgive me. I know exactly what I'm about to do. And you eat and eat and eat until you literally, you cannot eat anymore. We've all had that experience, not with God. He'll fill you up, but you'll never be full. Because I've said this before, but I haven't said it in a long time. I can tell all of us in this room, all of you listening right now by TV or live stream, whatever, I can tell all of you in this room something that I know is true about you. Well, you don't even know me. I don't have to know you. You don't even know my name.
I don't have to know your name. You don't know my spiritual background. I don't know your spiritual background. You don't even know what I do for a living. I don't know what you do for a living. I can tell you something right now that's true about every one of you in this room. I know how much of God you have right now. You have all you want. You have all of God that you want. You want a little bit of God? You got a little bit of God. You want a lot of God? You all have a lot of God. However much you want. That's how much a God all of God you got is all you want. So however hungry you are, that's exactly how much God will fill you with. See God never one time in the Bible, he never says, I will satisfy your sexual hunger. I will satisfy your material hunger. I will satisfy your financial hunger. I will satisfy your political hunger. He says, but I guarantee you I will fill your spiritual hunger. The psalmist of old said this. He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.
See, what are the marks of a healthy appetite is this, when you know what it's really like to taste good food, you certainly then know what it's like to taste bad food. And when you become satisfied with righteousness, you know how you know that's happened to you when you become dissatisfied with sinfulness. 'Cause let me tell you something about sheep. Sheep may be dumb, but I'll tell you one thing about sheep. Sheep don't eat garbage. They eat grass. Sheep don't eat garbage. They eat grass. And the stronger your appetite is for the things of God, the less your appetite is for the things of this world. And the more you realize, you know what? The things of this world will never ever satisfy me anyway. I've learned there is no greater peace. There is no greater joy, no greater satisfaction, no greater fulfillment than to know I am right with God and I am right for God.
And here's the key. You can only find this righteousness in Jesus. You won't find it in religion, you won't find it in a religious leader. You won't find it in a building. You won't find it in your own effort. You'll only find that righteousness in Jesus. And you say, well pastor, I got a question. Maybe you're not a believer. Maybe you're not a Christian. Why is Jesus the only one where I can find righteousness? Why can't I find righteousness in Muhammad? Why can't I find righteousness in Confucius? Why can't I find righteousness in the Maharishi Yogi? Simple answer. Because Jesus is the only one who is righteous. There's no other one who's righteous. You can only find righteous in the one who is.
C.S. Lewis hit the nail on the head when he said this. And we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy. The most probable explanation is we were made for another world. See, God rigged you from the beginning. You didn't even know it when you came outta your womb of your mother. God built you in such a way. God made you in such a way that the only thing that will ever satisfy your heart, your mind, and your soul and your will is Jesus Christ and his righteousness. Nothing else. All the money, all the fame, all the fortune, all the popularity, all the national championship rings, all that stuff, you'll never satisfy you. You know why? You were made for another world. You weren't made for this one. And you were made to be righteous and only in the righteousness that God can bring. So I really thought, as I'm preparing messages, I'm always saying, okay, how can I close this to really nail the point home? And boy, God comes through every time.
So I'm working on this sermon and I came across a story I'd never read in my life. You've never heard it. It's a story, true story that happened in World War I. Okay, so I'm take you back to World War I. We'll wrap up. There was a major, major Gilbert, major V. Gilbert. And he was talking about the thirst that he and his men suffered in a Palestinian desert during World War I. They had been in this Palestinian desert. They'd been fighting all I mean for weeks and weeks and weeks. And they finally ran out of water, had no water, their only hope to survive. They had to get to a place called Sharia, which is just south of Jerusalem. And they knew if we don't get there by nightfall, we're not going to live another day.
Now, I want you to listen to how he described this experience. This is so powerful. Our heads ached. Our eyes became bloodshot and dim in the blinding glare. Our tongues began to swell. Our lips turned to a purplish black and burst. Those who dropped out of the column were never seen again. But the desperate force battled onto Sharia, got to get to Sharia. Why? There were wells of water at Sharia. Now listen to what he says. Had we been unable to take the place by nightfall, thousands were doomed to die of thirst.
Now this next statement's the one that gripped me. We fought that day as men fighting for their very lives. They knew if we don't get to Sharia, we're not gonna live. So we may die on the battlefield, we may not make it, but our only shot, our only hope, our only chance to survive. We've got to get to that water. We entered Sharia station on the heels of the retreating Turks. The first objects which met our view were the Great stone cisterns full of cold, clear drinking water. When I was reading this, it made my mouth thirsty. We learned our first real Bible lesson on that march from Beersheba to the Sharia wells. If such were our thirst for God and for righteousness for his will in our lives. A consuming all embracing preoccupying desire, how rich in the fruit of the spirit we would all be.
Jesus said. Jesus said, that's how hungry I want you to be for me. That's how thirsty I want you to be for my righteousness. A healthy appetite means every day in every way before your feet even hit the floor, you get up and you say, Lord, I must have your righteousness. I will have your righteousness. I will pursue your righteousness. And Jesus makes a promise when you say it and you mean it and you believe it, and you live like it's true, you will be fulfilled.
So here's the question. How's your appetite? Is there anything more important to you today than being right with God? Is there anything more important to you today than his approval? Is there anything more important to you today to know that you are right in his sight? Is there anything more important to you to know that if you were to die this moment, if you were to die before you get home, you have all the confidence in the world, you can stand before a righteous God because you're righteous in His Son. For some of you, you can't say that deep, deep down, you're hungry for something else or someone else or some other experience or some other thing. And you need Jesus. So you could say this right now you're watching on TV or live stream or whatever. You could say this right now just while I'm up here. You could say:
Lord Jesus, I don't, I've never had that hunger. I've never had that thirst. It's always been about religion. And now I realize it's not about religion. It's not about ritual. It's not even about my righteousness. It's about yours. And I understand now why you came and died on the cross. I understand why you were buried. I understand why God raised you from the dead. Because you alone are righteous. You're the only one that could die for my sins. And you're the only one that can make me righteous. And so today, Lord Jesus, right now, right here, I'm giving my life to you. I'm repenting of my unrighteousness. I'm surrendering my life to you. I'm accepting all that you are into all that I am. I'm giving you my life today.