Turn with me if you haven't already.

Matthew chapter 5, verse 6.

And here's what Jesus said.

Blessed, happy, fortunate in Greek macarius are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they shall be satisfied. Not may be satisfied, shall be satisfied,

will be satisfied. You have God's word on it. When Jesus uttered those words, his hearers

could easily identify with what he's saying because they know what it is like to have such hunger

pain, to have such thirst for water. And to them, the smallest amount of food and the drop of water

is of extreme value. To them, food and water was so scarce that they would not waste a crumb of bread or a drop of water.

And so when Jesus said, blessed, happy, macarius are you who hunger and thirst, their ears perked up.

Their ears wanted to hear.

You remember, they always went after Jesus after he gave

them food, because that is such hunger. There's such thirst that they understand. I am told by the

experts that there are four stages to starvation. Four stages. First of all, you have irritation. You become so irritable. You get easily set off.

Then followed by a state of exhaustion. Thirdly, it followed by deep depression. And finally, fourthly, it follows by a stage of physical

lesslessness. The irony is this. Jesus promised that for that spiritual hunger, for that spiritual thirst, for that hunger and thirst, for

righteousness, you will never die of starvation. In fact, that is the very thing that God

is going to fill to overflowing. It will feel completely satisfied. But listen, if you let yourself

spiritually starve, or if you try to satisfy that hunger for righteousness that only Jesus can

fill, if you try to fill that with fake food, you will go through those four stages.

You'll go through them.

Someone may ask, well, Michael, what is that fake food?

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