May 5, 2002

Seek Ye First

Matthew 6:19-34

This last Wednesday I did a bunch of yard work, I even burned up all the old dead branches that had accumulated over the winter. I've got an old 55 gallon drum that I sit up on some cinder blocks and burn branches in, and by the time I was about done, the bottom of the drum was filled with red coals and ash; as you can imagine, it was really hot.

While I was watching things burn, I saw this little black jumping spider hop up on one of the cinder blocks and start heading towards the side of the drum. I figured that when he got close, he would turn around and run, but he didn't, he kept going until he was right up against it, and then he jumped on the bottom corner of the drum, and went around the side of it for about 6 inches before he fell off.

He fell down into the grass, I assumed he was dead, but then here he comes back. Then I saw that he could still hop, but he couldn't climb very good anymore, I guess the heat had injured the end of his legs.
What made that so interesting to me was, I had been standing there thinking about the verse where Jesus told His disciples; "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." And it occurred to me that a lot of us are like that little spider: we are seeking things in the wrong direction, seeking for satisfaction in the wrong places, and very often, all we get for our trouble is that we get burned.

Last week we talked about the Lord's Prayer; -thy kingdom come- God's promise to Abram for the future, but there is another aspect to God's kingdom: what is the kingdom of God all about on a daily basis, what is it we need to be seeking for daily, and where do we need to be seeking it at?

If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn to the gospel of Matthew, chapter 6 and verse 19, so that we can better see what it is that Jesus is telling us we need to seek after: " Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
:22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
:23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
:26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
:27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
:28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
:29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
:30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
:31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
:32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

What is it that's really important to you? What are your priorities? What is it that you truly value, what is it that occupies your plans and goals? Your family? Your job, your career, your possessions? What do you think about? And I'll give you a second to think about it...

Another question: What is it that's really important to God? What is it within your life, your action in this world, that God puts in first place? Maybe you aren't sure, but hopefully, whatever God thinks is most important to you, is the same thing that you think is most important to you.
How can we be sure that His priorities and our priorities are the same? That's what this passage is all about. What is the focus of the whole passage here? The kingdom of God. On a day to day basis, not some future kingdom, but right now. There will come a day when God will rule and reign over all the earth, but for right now, our goal, your goal, my goal, is that His kingdom rules and reigns in our lives.

God gives all of us free will, which makes for some interesting tensions in our lives. Who is in the drivers seat? You are. Is that good? It depends. God is letting you steer, are you encouraging Him to navigate? He has the map, He knows where you are supposed to be going and how to get there, and guys: we don't even need to stop and ask directions, He will update us in real time. If you want Him to. But that depends on where you're going. What you are seeking. Are you seeking His righteousness? We are not talking about the righteousness of Christ applied to your account, the righteousness of Christ that saves you, this is something else.

This is living out the righteousness of His character in you, day by day. Bringing every thought into captivity, into the obedience of Jesus Christ. Jesus was perfectly obedient to His Father, and if you are saved, now the Holy Spirit of Christ dwells in you. That same Spirit will teach you and enable you to be obedient to God, living out a holy life. If you are cooperating. If that righteousness is what you are seeking. If that is your goal. Is it?

You have to seek it. That is why Jesus tells us to seek it, it is not automatic. God doesn't just open a valve in us and pour it in, we are not robots or puppets, you need to seek it in order to find it. The word seek here is an action word, it means to get up and go for it, want it, desire it.

And then He also tells us to seek it first. First in time, first in place, and first in priority. We are to want it first, before we want anything else. When we get up in the morning, - I don't know how things are with you, but my first priorities are usually something like this: brush the teeth, turn the coffee pot on, but right up at the top of the list ought to be: what does God have in mind for me today? And whatever it is, you ought to be seeking it, wanting it, desiring it. First thing, first place, first priority. The kingdom of God, and the righteousness of God ought to have first place in your life. Seek that before you seek anything else. Seek that in preference to anything else. Seek that as being more important than anything else. Seek it first.

Why does Jesus tell us to do things that way? Go back to verse 21; because where your treasure is, that is where your affections will be. If you get into the habit of thinking like God thinks, and wanting what God wants, then you will get out of the habit of wanting things that are only temporary.

How many of you have ever had something stolen from you? How many of you have ever had something valuable break, tear up, rust away, or just get so old it wasn't any good anymore? Stuff goes bad, stuff gets gone, stuff tears up, and when that happens what do we do? We run right out and buy more stuff! Duh! Obviously we all need a certain amount of stuff to live, but Jesus tells us not to make stuff our treasure, our priority, the thing that we seek. We need to have an attitude where we hold all that stuff loosely. Torn up, worn out, ripped off, rusted away, no big deal, it's only stuff. It ain't nothing but a thing.

But unless you make seeking His kingdom and His righteousness your priority, you won't be able to do that. Verses 22 through 24 tell us why: "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." Full of light: what does that mean? That means transparent. So transparent that the light shines out. Have you ever seen a little child that was pure, open, transparent, and it just seemed like there was a glow about them? That is what He means. That's what He wants for us.

Contrast that with verses 23 & 24: "But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."

Mammon is the god of never quite enough. Mammon is always wanting just a little bit more. Serving mammon is to make material satisfaction your god. When that happens, then your eyes are not single, they are not focused and content. They are always looking for something else. They are always looking in all directions, seeking to find just a little bit more. When that happens, then that holy transparency gets dark. You start to close up. Greed does that. Your focus becomes me, mine, and keeping it for myself. How great a darkness that becomes!

You have a choice: you can become God's slave, you can serve a wonderful master, a master that loved you enough to die for you, a master that sets you free, so that you can be free indeed. Or you can serve the master of stuff, the master of never quite enough, the master of just a little bit more. But you can't serve them both, although a lot of Christians try. And then wonder why their lives are so frustrating.

Don't get me wrong here, don't get the wrong idea, I am not saying that it is more spiritual to live a life with no stuff, or that living a life with stuff purchased at the Dollar Store is automatically more spiritual than stuff purchased at Proffitts or Sears. That's not the point. Jesus is not talking about wealth or poverty, He is talking about priorities. The whole question in this passage is what your priorities are, how your thought processes are focused.

Between verse 25 and the end of the chapter, Jesus five times uses a phrase about anxious thinking. Verse 25: "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" Take no thought. What are you anxious about? What are you worried about? What is it that is first in your thoughts?

Do you lay awake at night worrying about whether your needs will be met? Then read verse 26: "Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
:27 Which of you by taking thought -anxiously worrying- can add one cubit unto his stature?
:28 And why take ye thought for raiment?" Why are you worried about your clothes? "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
:29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
:30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
:31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?" Quit worrying about it!
:32 "(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:)" Jesus knows that all of us tend to worry about these things, it is part of our emotional makeup. It is what we are like, it is what we do, but we don't have to stay there.
We can get over it, because God desires to take care of it: "for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

Remember last week we talked about how God makes covenants with people? How that some covenants are conditional? If you will do this, then I will do that? What is Jesus telling us here? You do this, and I will do that. Jesus tells us: "Seek God's kingdom first, seek His righteousness first, and I will guarantee that the necessities will not fail." That is a promise. That is a covenant promise from Jesus Christ. "You put Me first, and I will be responsible for your needs." Yet how many of you lay awake at night and wonder how it's all going to work?

Verse 34: "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."
Don't be anxious for tomorrow, tomorrow will have enough things to worry about when it gets here. What good is it to worry about it ahead of time? It will have it's own problems when the time comes.

God already knows what it is we have need of. God knows that there is a certain amount of stuff that we need to get by, certain kinds of whatever, possessions, things that are necessary, and if we make Him and His kingdom our first priority, the stuff becomes His problem, - not our problem.

He wants to use our basic needs to teach us about Himself, teach us how to trust Him more. He tells us: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."
All what things? All the stuff we normally worry about. All the things that were mentioned here: food, drink, clothing, all the basics. God promises that if we will make it our priority to put Him first - make it our priority to make His kingdom, His rule in our lives first, then He will be responsible for the rest.

Does that mean that we can be lazy, just sit around and read our Bibles all day, every day, spend all our time in prayer and never go to work, and all our bills will still get paid? No. God is not telling us not to work, or buy food, or buy clothes, He tells us not to be anxious about whether or not those things will be provided. If you are willing to work and trust Him for the results, your needs will be met.

This is backwards to how the rest of the world does things. The world says first you get the stuff, that's what credit cards are for, right? That is your first priority, you stay up late at night thinking about what you want. Next, you worry about the bills. "Wow, now that I've got all this stuff, I guess I better go and get a job so I can pay for it." And then finally, after we get all those things squared away, then we quit worrying, and pick up our Bible, and start to think about how God fits into the whole scheme of things.
Then we seek His kingdom with what little time we have left over, before we get too sleepy to read His Word, and have to go to bed. That is the way the world sees things, and it is upside down and backwards. God wants us to see things right side up.

What are your priorities? Are you seeking God's kingdom and His righteousness? In what way? Why do you think so?

How are you ordering your life? Your life reflects your priorities, how are you ordering your life? The way you order your life will affect your family's spiritual values: what do you want those values to be?
What values does your spouse have? Those values will be determined to some extent by your values: what values are you showing them? How about your kids? Their values will be greatly determined by your values, what are they? The kingdom of God and His righteousness? Or the worlds values? Your kids are to some extent a barometer of how you're doing.

How is the way that you are living advancing God's kingdom? Or is your lifestyle a roadblock instead?
A Christian lifestyle is not defined merely by what sins you abstain from, the kingdom of God is an active thing, it is not just a passive thing.

If you are seeking a kingdom, then you are going somewhere, you are moving, you are traveling. There will be activity in your life, and others will see it. What do others see in your life? Are you anxious for even the basics, food, drink, clothes? Or are you seeking a kingdom, keeping your eyes and your priorities focused on God and His righteousness, and letting Him take care of the stuff?

There is a little poem from years ago that fits this pretty well, let me read it to you:
Said the robin to the sparrow; "I would surely like to know,
Why these anxious human beings fret about and worry so?"
Said the sparrow to the robin; "I suppose that it must be,
That they have no heavenly Father such as cares for you and me."