Communion Message
(Thirsting after righteousness)
September 15, 2002
Pastor Leighton Sheley

These last number of weeks our pastor has been providing for us some of the riches of the treasures found in Psalm 23, and his message this day is come, everyone that is thirsty. Last week we talked about water and the source of that coming through Christ and being the Holy Spirit. When we read through Scriptures we find that water refers to a lot of things in the Scriptures that give us clarity. I was also thinking about the 9/11 service that we provided on Wednesday night. I was thinking on that document that established us as a nation, establish the purpose for which we exist, and the brilliant men who spent so much energy to put on that single paged document the riches that we enjoy today.

And the phrase that most stands out to me is the phrase: WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

I've often wondered why they didn't just say life, liberty, and happiness, but that's pretty obvious, isn't it? Life is granted by God, liberty is granted by God, and happiness is a choice given to us by God. There are some people who it's doesn't matter how good life is going are going to find themselves unhappy, and all of us have run across those people in our lives. And there are other people who, because they have the liberty, have chosen to pursue avenues of happiness that are really only temporary.

All of this world, all the happiness this world has to offer is not really satisfying, it's only temporary. That's why we sing words like, child of the world, are you tired of your bondage, weary of earth joys, so false, so untrue, they are only temporary. But God doesn't desire us to be unhappy. In fact, Jesus Christ, as He is establishing His earthly kingdom, some of the very first words that are recorded for us found in Matthew chapter 5 in His Sermon on the Mount, in which He established the presence of His kingdom: He begins with several verses that we oftentimes call the beatitudes.

Each one of those begins with the words, blessed are those. In some translations, happy are those. God desires us to be happy and this is the outline that He gives us for happiness -- if you do this you will be happy. One of those beatitudes is: blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.

Now there are degrees of thirst. There are times when I come home after a hard day and I sit down at the table and I'm thirsty for something to drink. That's one level of thirst. There have been times when I've been hiking through the mountains and my canteen is dry, and I am more thirsty then.

The thirst that is referenced in this particular Scripture is an ultimate thirst. It is thirsty to the point that nothing else has any appeal or has any value -- thirsting for righteousness.

I found this wonderful illustration in a book entitled "Word Pictures From the Bible" by E. M. Blaiklock, which recounts the story of a book entitled, "The Last Crusade" by Major Gilbert. It's an account of the British liberation of Palestine in World War I. And the story goes that driving up from Beersheba a combined force of British, Australians, and New Zealanders were pressing on the rear of the Turkish retreat over arid desert. The attack outdistanced its water carrying camel train. The soldier's water bottles were empty.

The sun blazed pitilessly out of the sky where the vultures wheeled expectantly. Gilbert wrote, our heads ached, our eyes became bloodshot and dim in the blinding glare, our tongues began to swell, our lips turned a purplish black and burst. Those who dropped out of the column were never seen again. But the desperate force battled on to Sheria. There were wells at Sheria, and had they been unable to take the place by nightfall thousands were doomed to die of thirst.

Gilbert writes; we fought that day as men fight for their lives. We entered Sheria Station on the heels of the retreating Turks. The first objects which met our view were the great stone cisterns full of cool, clear, drinking water. In the still night air the sound of water running into the tanks could be distinctly heard. Maddening in its nearness, yet not a man murmured when the orders were given for the battalions to fall in two deep facing the cisterns. He describes the stern priorities -- the wounded first, then those on guard duty, then company by company. It took four hours before the last man had his drink of water. And in all of that time they had been standing only 20 feet from a low stone wall the other side of which were thousands of gallons of water.

Major Gilbert concludes, I believe that we all learned our first real Bible lesson on that march from Beersheba to the Sheria wells. If such were our thirst for God, for righteousness, for His will in our life, a consuming all-embracing preoccupying desire, how then much rich in the fruits of the Spirit we would be. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.

I invite you to join with me now as we kneel in the presence of our Lord and Savior.

Lord, You've invited everyone who is thirsty for righteousness to come. And we thirst for that this day. We desire, Lord, to have our sins forgiven. We desire, Lord, to be cleansed from our sin. Thank you for Your holy word, and Your promise, if we confess our sin You are faithful and just and will forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Forgive us this day we pray and cleanse us, and cleanse us, Lord, we pray even from our desire to sin. And Lord, as we partake of these elements we are reminded of Your great love and faithfulness towards us and the price that has been paid for our salvation. We partake in remembrance of You. Let's partake of the bread and also the cup.

Thank you Lord for Your forgiveness, for Your cleansing, for desiring to provide us happiness, for giving us the liberty to make that choice, for life, for everything that's good, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's stand and let's greet our neighbors this morning.