For This New Year, Seek First The Kingdom

(Based on a message preached January 8, 2023 at First Baptist Church of Chamois, MO, but is not an exact transcription)

Introduction: Good morning to you all and Happy New Year plus a few days! You know, I had planned on preaching from a different text this morning but I believe the Lord nudged me into this direction. Besides, the message from this text is something we can follow every day.

Our text this morning comes from Matthew 6, part of the Sermon on the Mount, one of the longest and most detailed messages Jesus ever preached. I’ll read from verses 16 through 34:

Text: Matthew 6:16-34, NASB: 16 “Now whenever you fast, do not make a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they distort their faces so that they will be noticed by people when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 17 But as for you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting will not be noticed by people but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. 19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then, if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. 25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the sky, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather crops into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more important than they? 27 And which of you by worrying can add a single day to his life’s span? 28 And why are you worried about clothing? Notice how the lilies of the field grow; they do not labor nor do they spin thread for cloth, 29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! 31 Do not worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear for clothing?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you. 34 “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

<Prayer>

Let’s remember that the Sermon on the Mount has several sections and several topics. Now, in this first section, the Lord is speaking about fasting, and that’s simply not eating food for a certain period of time. I had to laugh when I found out that “breakfast” really means “break (a) fast (https://www.thefreedictionary.com/breakfast )”! I do have to confess that for a VERY brief period I worked the midnight shift (6 pm to 6 am) and once that shift was over, breakfast didn’t come to around noon on some days!

There is nothing wrong with fasting, in and of itself, and there were several times when Old Testament saints fasted. Moses did this a few times, when he was if fellowship with God on the mountain top, and Daniel fasted on several occasions. What they never did, though, was boast about it. Later Jesus would tell the story about the Pharisee or very religious person, and a tax-collector, one of the most hated men in Israel, and how they went to the Temple to pray. The Pharisee tried to impress God, we could say, by saying “I fast twice in the week!”—but that didn’t work; as he came to the Temple a sinner and left a sinner (see Luke 18:9-14).