Crossroads Campus Ministry – Los Angeles

SPEAKER Pastor James Han (Redeemer Presbyterian Church)
Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness? Matthew 5:6

Righteousness is NOT an option
- Have you ever been so hungry and/or thirsty that you would eat or drink anything because you are going to die? Hunger and thirst are the only two things that will satisfy our bodies in such a powerful way.
- Esau was so famished that he rejected God’s promise and blessing in his birthright for a bowl of soup. We are like this as well, throwing away God’s promise for the things of this world.
- Righteousness has become an option for many. People now say blessed are those that compromise, or accept all. We no longer focus on what is right, but on what is convenient!
- If you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you will be satisfied because you will be filled with Christ, and there will be a natural outpouring of life.
- If you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you will be persecuted. That persecution should bring you joy because of your understanding that we do not belong to this world.

NOT self-righteousness, but the righteousness of God
- There is an emptiness that rages in our hearts because we all have a God-shaped vacuum that only God can fill, while we try to fill it with things already on our hearts. Isaiah 55:1-2
- Our hearts are restless, until it finds its rest in Him and Him alone.
- Do we long for that righteousness? Matthew 5:20
- Our righteousness is not based on our abilities, because they are like filthy rags Isaiah 64:6.
- Tim Keller describes two types of sinner: 1) Irreligious sinners are those that pursue the things of the world, 2) Religious sinners are those that pursue religion as an idol.
- Our righteousness needs to be based on Jesus Christ because we are too poor in spirit, too broken and sinful to stand righteous in front of anyone.
- If living a righteous life is a burden, then you are doing it on your own strength.

GOD’s righteousness
- Recognize the poverty of your spirit and your evident sin, recognize that you need Jesus in your life. Through Jesus, be renewed and refreshed.
- Live Christianity by changing from the inside out.
- Thirst and hunger after Christ everyday!
- Understand that God’s love and grace abounds. Romans 5:20
- We have tasted and seen God’s righteousness, but we have not experienced it fully. The full reality is that Jesus has not yet come and let us continue to long for that day.
- The day you were born was the day that you started to die, but the day you are reborn is the day that you may start to live.

START NOW
- One day we will be fully righteous, but why not start now to reveal that hunger and thirst for the righteousness we have in Christ?
- The more content we are in this world, the more content we are that we do not need Christ yet.
- We have God’s righteousness now, but the fullness will come later when Christ returns.
- Christians should want Heaven over Earth, not just Heaven over Hell.
- Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness?

SPEAKER Gary Purtee, (Former Missionary with Y.W.A.M (Youth with a Mission) and current employee at Fuller Theological Seminary)

It is difficult to put Gary’s words into different categories or even a systemized type of thinking. In order to attempt to do so, I will simply share how Gary’s words spoke to me. Gary basically shared His personal testimony with us which was a moving and powerful display of honesty and vulnerability, based on the experiences that he has had in his life. I am not sure of some of the chronology of the events of Gary’s life, but some of the important details included dedicating his life to overseas missions with YWAM in several asian countries, especially in the Philippines. It was during Gary’s early ministry that he went through a divorce from his first marriage and began to suffer from depression and anxiety in his time as a missionary, and eventually was forced to leave the mission field.

Imagine being so excited to dedicate your life to God for overseas missions and full-time ministry, only to have to give it all up and come back home after having others tell you that you weren’t good enough or weren’t doing a good enough job. Imagine the loss in self-esteem and self-worth that would come with this! Gary shared with us that this was a big struggle for him, and it added to his struggles with depression and self-esteem.

Gary entered Fuller Theological Seminary upon being called back from the mission field and began a process of healing and recovery with hopes of an eventual return to full-time ministry and the mission field. It was during this time that Gary realized that the biggest reason that He was sovereignly removed from the mission field by God was that He had not developed a personal intimacy with God. It is this personal intimacy with God that Gary needed to carry Him through the depression He faced in His life.

In Gary’s humble presentation of this testimony, the message that He wanted to share with CCM is that God loves you and wants to have an intimate relationship with you. Often times we are quick to ignore this idea of personal intimacy with God, but in Gary’s experience, it is the ONLY thing that can get us through our lives and our difficult experiences. Many times, we are quick to ignore God, we are quick to forget to pray, and we are quick to make ourselves busy. I know I am so often so guilty of this. God works in amazing ways in my life, and yet I am so slow to thank Him by taking the time to spend with Him and to grow in my intimacy with Him.

Gary referenced Galatians 2:20.

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

God loves us and wants to live in us in every experience of our lives. Gary had to learn this hard way by being called back from something as Godly as the mission field. It does not matter what we do with our lives, careers, gifts, and talents. The truth of this life is that without a relationship with God, none of it will satisfy us, and we will not ever be fully capable of all that we can be unless we make God a part of everything in our lives. For this reason, we are to discipline ourselves in our own personal times with Jesus in Scripture and in prayer. The biggest message that I took from Gary’s testimony was that without this relationship with God, we can miss out on something very important to us in our lives, no matter how Godly it might be. For me personally, this was an important and necessary reminder in my life, and I was extremely blessed by Gary’s testimony and His message to us in regards to intimacy with the Lord.