SOUTHERN HILLS BAPTIST CHURCH
SUNDAY, October 24, 2021
A HOLY DISCONTENTMENT
BLESSED, part 4
Hess Hester, Lead Pastor
Weekly Sunday Morning Worship Service, 10:30 a.m.
Matthew 5:6 NIV
Spiritual hunger and thirst for righteousness is a sign of spiritual health.
Jesus’ words here speak of desperate hunger and thirst.
“To be hungry is not enough; I must be really starving to know what is in God’s heart toward me. When the prodigal son was hungry, he went to feed on the pods, but when he was starving, he turned to his father.” - John Darby
We must choose between either unholy or holy discontentment.
The only way to be filled is if you direct your hunger and thirst to righteousness.
Isaiah 55:1-3a; “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life.”
There is the kind of righteousness that Jesus gives to you.
Philippians 3:8-9 (NLT); Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.
There is the kind of righteousness that a righteous life.
1 Peter 1:24 (NIV), “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”
2 Corinthians 5:21,For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The purpose of the passion of Christ is that we have a passion to pursue righteousness!
“We long to be blessed, but Jesus does not say that we are righteous if we hunger and thirst to be blessed. He says we are blessed if we hunger and thirst to be righteous.” – Colin Smith
A paradox: continuously hungering and thirsting and being filled at the same time.
“To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love.” – A.W. Tozer
Philippians 3:8-10 NIV
Paul had a continuous holy discontentment that Christ continuously filled.
Righteousness is to be personally pursued and also promoted.
“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can!” – John Wesley
Matthew 6:33 NIV
A healthy, spiritual appetite hungers for righteousness- and will be satisfied!
We taste Thee, O thou living bread.
And long to feast upon Thee still.
We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead.
And Thirst our souls from Thee to fill.
-Bernard of Clairvaux, from Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts
THANK YOU! Many of you have asked how to continue supporting our church during this time. Here are three ways to continue your giving:
1.On-line through CHURCH CENTER APP - Download the app, find our church name (with our green tree logo) and follow the prompts - once downloaded - us the giving tab at the bottom of the home screen.
2.Set up free on-line bill pay through your bank.
[questions to Al: 918-743-8897 (8:00 a.m – 2:00 p.m., M-F)]
3.US Mail (.55 cent stamp)
SHBC, 2218 E. 56th Place, 74105