Sunday message · Beatitudes series
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Message Summary
In the fourth message of the Beatitudes series, Danielle Allen turns to Matthew 5:6: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Scanning the Beatitudes for one to preach, she realized she was treating them as a checklist. But they are not things we accomplish by trying harder; they are what God does in our hearts. The kingdom of heaven, she says, is not about what you do but about the state of your heart.
Danielle did not grow up in church, and she once would have said she would reach heaven by being good and nice, or at least less bad than other people. In college, friends showed her that faith is a relationship, not a way to earn heaven, and after months of wrestling she trusted Jesus to pay for her sins. Yet she kept a checklist to earn God’s approval and the approval of others, like a hamster on a wheel. The Beatitudes build on each other: the poor in spirit admit they need Jesus, those who mourn let their sin break them, and the meek find the strength to be selfless.
Righteousness can mean being declared righteous through Jesus, moral justice, or outward righteousness like the Pharisees’, whom Jesus warned not to do good deeds to be admired (Matthew 6:1). Danielle concludes that Jesus means implanted righteousness, being transformed from the inside out as we yearn to be with God and like him; it is about the posture of our hearts toward him. To hunger and thirst is not a craving for Chipotle but desperation, like the soul that pants for God as a deer pants for water (Psalm 42). When her sarcasm recently hurt someone she cared about, she became desperate for God to change her heart.
Hungering begins with realizing “we are not enough, but Jesus is,” which Danielle admits is counterintuitive for a life coach. As Thomas Wilcox put it, the more our sins burden us, the more we treasure our healer. Unlike her late-night snacking, which never satisfies, God satisfies us with himself. Max Lucado writes in The Applause of Heaven that what we really thirst for is a clean slate and a fresh start, and Psalm 145:16 says God opens his hand to satisfy every living thing. Two things get in the way. We settle for broken cisterns instead of God’s living water (Jeremiah 2), like Lucado’s young daughter clinging to plastic balls in a play area and refusing to let go.
And we strive to earn approval. In Nothing to Prove, Jennie Allen describes learning that God wanted her heart, not her skills. Jesus invites anyone who is thirsty to come to him, promising rivers of living water, the Holy Spirit (John 7). Danielle closes by asking where our hearts are and urging a baby step: learning more about Jesus, laying down a checklist faith, or letting go of whatever we grip too tightly, whether a career, a relationship or a position. She ends in prayer.
