Sermon On The Mount: Series

Seek first the kingdom of God

Theme:

Text: Matthew 6:24-34

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. 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? 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? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 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? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 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. (Matthew 6:24-34 AV)

Introduction

In verse 25 he uses the term “therefore”. When studying scripture and you come across the word “therefore” you must ask yourselves what is it there for. This word connects verse 25 and 24. Matthew is telling us that to understand verse 25 we have to read verse 24.

So we read in verse 24 that we can’t serve two God and mammon or God and money. We can’t do both. We must chose one or the other to chose. And let me tell you both will make you chose the one.

If you try to serve money and God. Money will tell you that you need to spend less time with God and more time making money. You need to spend less time in church and more time working overtime. Money will tell you that age old excuse “you can always make up for it. “ The father is criticized for working so much and he uses the excuse well look what you have to show for it. Or I will make up for it.

I learned something about sleep. If you stay up 24hrs with no sleep and try to make up for it the next day it don’t work. It will take you days to make up for lost sleep not just one good sleep. This is the same way with time with God and time with the family. You can’t make up for missed time in one sitting it takes weeks of committed time to both. So many people limit themselves.

But money says spend more time making me and spending me. Then when you are too tired from both you are too tired for God. Jesus not saying to give a good run for it he is specifically saying you can’t do both.

God will take up your time also. He wants his time and will not be shared with anything or anybody in your life including money. He wants your time to be his. You see both wants you time.

Depend on the Lord

So this is why Jesus goes into these next 10 verses on worry or anxiety. Many people are out there trying to make that one more dollar that will make them satisfied. They are making that extra buck so they can be set. They can have all the nice things. Then they feel they can spend time with God. Some people feel they will serve God later.

But I have got to make a living. You are right but you don’t have to make a killing. In other words if you kill yourself making a living and forget about God then what are you going to live for.

So Jesus tells us quit worrying. “Take no thought”. Don’t say when I get enough for the future then I will serve God because you are not guaranteed a future.

Let God provide. Now obviously he is not telling us to quit working and just depend on God. As the Israelites did in the wilderness, they would just go outside and the manna was there. Or the quail came. Surely he is not telling us not to earn a living. The Bible plainly tells us that , “The man who don’t provide for himself (and family) is worse than an infidel”.