Have you ever been frustrated because you wanted something, wanted it really badly, but were not able to make it work?
        Perhaps you’re doing a certain project, and you want it to come out right.
        Not just sort of right. But really right. On the mark. Perfect.
                But....

        You work in your vegetable patch, tilling the ground, adding the compost, planting the seeds. But those beans don’t come up. Plant again and the earwigs get them.
        Spend time taping the edge of the room.... and the paint bleeds behind the paint onto the ceiling.
        Save up and buy a new dress.... and rip it on the edge of your desk.

You long for it to come out right..... just once.
Want it so bad......
        .....that you can almost taste it.

It can be that way about projects that we work on.
Perhaps we have that about ourselves, who we are, what we’re like.
        About your mental abilities - wishing, working for 95% in French;
                Wanting your hair to be just so;
                Getting down to that target weight.... or up to it;
                Able to run that extra mile, skate that step faster, swim longer.

You work at it; dream about it; can picture it..... but can’t quite get there.
Want it so bad ..... that you can almost taste it.

Can be frustrating, right?
Sometimes discouraging, even upsetting, not to be able to get there.

Forget these outer things. What about what really matters about ourselves -
        What about inside - who we are, what we’re like way deep down inside?
Ever wish for being a certain way – in thought, in behaviour, in relationship?
        With family, friends, people at school or work?
        With God?
                Do you long to get it right?
                To hit that 95% mark of inner goodness?
                        Even just once – To be there!

Want it so bad.....
        ..... that you can almost taste it.

Jesus speaks to you tonight through the sermon on the mount, when He says:
        "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." [Mt 5:6]

He’s been with people who, it seemed, didn’t have anything going right in their lives. They were broken, discouraged, ill and crippled. Dying, some of them.
        Jesus gives them hope where there was none;
                new beginnings when all they had were dead ends.

It is about such people – losers in the race of life – that Jesus was talking when He gave the sermon on the mount. Climbs a hill to see this motley crew better, calls his disciples around him, gestures to the crowd and says,
        "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
        Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
        Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.
        Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
                for they will be filled....."

Blessed, or as other translations may put it - happy.
        You can breathe a sigh of relief.
        You can rejoice.
                Your fortunes are being reversed.
                The life you thought was over, doomed, dead-ended
                        suddenly has new hope, new beginnings.

Blessed are you....
        .....who want so bad to have your life go right — really, deeply and profoundly right — who want it so bad that you can taste it
                blessed are you, because your hunger for rightness will be satisfied.

When the bible speaks of getting it right
        - righteousness (the technical term) -
the first thing that it means is getting things legally right, legally squared away in your life — particularly between you and God.

        Legal righteousness. It is the foundation on which everything else is built, according to the Bible’s teaching. Legal righteousness means, quite simply, that we have the legal RIGHT to spend time with God, to approach God, to ask things of him and give things to him.

        At the YMCA on Merivale Rd, you have to be a member to make use of the facilities. You need a card to have the right to exercise or take part in their classes or programs. At some of our city’s condo developments you need to be a resident or have the permission of a resident in order to have the right to enter the property.

        Same with approaching the great and holy, awesomely powerful and eternal Creator of heaven and earth. You need the right to approach him. You can't just do it.
        You don't just get to go to heaven when you die.
        You can't just assume God will hear your every prayer.
        You don't wander through life demanding God grant your desires or care for you or accompany you.

You need the right for all that -- righteousness, Legal righteousness.

        For those who have this right, life becomes secure. They are not wandering into a black hole called the future; they are not dangling on the end of some strings being manipulated by the cruel puppeteer called Fate.
        They are not alone, abandoned.
        They have a purpose to exist.
                Blessed are those who have it!

        Then the second dimension that the Bible refers to when it speaks about getting things right, namely – moral righteousness. Here the Bible refers to rightness of character and conduct, being right how you think and speak and behave.

        Moral righteousness is to want to get away from the maligning spiritual influences in life; away from the warping influences of the powers of spiritual darkness.
        It is to want to be free from the attractive pulls of sin, from those elements of life which are shady, doubtful in their goodness, marred around the edges, or just plain ol' wrong and harmful.

        Getting things morally right is when we begin to show the ripening of the fruits of godly living, good living, productive living – living as God designed it to be in the first place;
        to see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control develop within one's life.
        It is when start to think and talk and behave like Jesus;
                when those WWJD stickers and wrist bands come alive.

        It is to bring into action that legal right to be in a day by day relationship with the Living God who stands in full control of the entire universe.

        That part of getting things right is what happens when we begin to pay attention to the whispers and pulls of the Holy Spirit; and when clamp our hands over our ears as the devil begins to persuade us that Christian living is really restrictive living – and, as he starts to speak more insistently, we drown out his twisted voice with loud praising of Jesus.
It happens when we pray with real meaning the prayer of David in Psalm 63:

"O God, you are my God; I shall seek You earnestly;
My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,
in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have seen You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.
Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You.
So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Thy name.
My soul is satisfied as with succulent meat,
and my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.
When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches,
For You have been my help,
And in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy.
My soul clings to You;
Your right hand upholds me." (Psalm 63:1-8)

Perhaps we resonate with the words of this Keith Green song:

"My eyes are dry, my faith is old, my heart is hard, my prayers are cold. And I know what I ought to be, alive to you and dead to me. Oh what can be done with an old heart like mine, soften it Lord with oil and wine. The oil is you, your Spirit of love. Come wash me anew in the wine of your blood."

Here’s where discouragement often kicks in.
        And
Here’s where we may be confronted by an inner voice that says, "Hey, it’s not so bad. Don’t get so hung up on it all. Ease up. It doesn’t matter that much."
        You’ve heard it, right? The temptation to dumb down, to settle for second best, for getting "sort of OK" without getting it really right.
            Mediocrity.

Let me tell you – at the end of the day, mediocrity doesn’t satisfy.
Sort of OK won’t give you inner contentment and rest.
But hearing Jesus’ call, paying attention to His way of living, praying for and welcoming the guiding power of the Spirit, hearing the voice of your Heavenly Father as He forgives your blunders in Jesus’ name and encourages you like the Waiting Father encourages and renewed the returning Prodigal.....
        .... ah – happy, blessed are those who find this way of living.
A way of living that begins as gift, God’s gift to us in Jesus.
A way of living that continues as gift; God’s gift of the Spirit’s presence.
A way of living that ends as gift, God’s gift of eternal life and serving Him one day in the New Creation. "As you were faithful in little things, so you will be granted greater things."

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst to get things morally right.
        They will be satisfied.
        It’s NOT a lost cause!

        And then there is the third element of righteousness which we find in the pages of the scriptures, namely social righteousness. The Word of God teaches this sort of righteousness as being where we seek basic goodness in life, togetherness, right-ness,
        not only for ourselves in our personal relationship with our God,
        and not just in the development of our own personal moral character,
but where we seek basic rightness for those around us and for the world in which we live.
        It is wanting to see liberation from oppression, justice. It is longing for integrity in business, honour & stability in the home.
        It is the overflowing of legal and then moral righteousness from within ourselves to the world around us - streams of living water flowing out.

Hungering and thirsting for life in our world to get really justly, caringly right.
        I think of Deut 14:7-10, which speaks of an open-handed approach to living with fellow human beings, elevating the lives of the poor and keeping the richer ones off the pedestal so that there may be justice..... rightness..... righteousness – life the way God intended and designed it to be.
                Work for that. Pray for that. Lobby for that, says the Bible.

Those of you that do, for whom it is a passion can sometimes become terribly frustrated by what you see; it sits terribly wrong inside to see news reports of ongoing sectarian violence; large corporations continuing business in foreign lands who use the profits to fuel war; exploitation of natural resources; economic slavery of some third world countries.
        You want to see it otherwise.
        You call your MP. You write letters. You change your own consumption habits. You talk to others. You hunger and thirst to see it change. But you wonder if it really makes a difference.
        You, perhaps, feel a little like a starving person does – they become listless, just lay down and wait for the end; can’t even brush a fly off their face anymore. They give up – no energy to go further.

Hear the word of encouragement from the Lord - get up; wake up; carry on!
And sometimes there are results. This week I heard reports about changes coming in the diamond trade to avoid cruel regimes being able to fuel wars off of engagement ring profits. The land mine movement made progress. There is some talk and work towards debt relief.
        There can be change.
        Work, and pray, in the name of the Lord.

And look towards the horizon - towards that great Day when Jesus will return to remove all tears and sorrow and pain; to make all things new.
        Pray for it.
        And walk towards that day of final and ultimate rightness.
        The day when, in total completion, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be completely satisfied.