What Pulls The Train
Matt 6:25-34
Intro:
This past week, several of us attended a leadership conference – linked via satellite to over 38 000 Christian leaders. Conferences are almost always great experiences, getting refreshed and inspired and enlightened, learning that PowerPoint can get messed up even in front of 38 000, see that even these huge big-name experts lose their place in the middle of their sermon, world-famous worship leaders sometimes sing the wrong lyrics, and see, above all, that God still works. He still speaks, He still draws us closer to Himself and places within us a fresh understanding of His passion for all His children, as one of the speakers noted, His lost kids and His found kids. And a fresh passion to lead people to God.
It was good timing for me. Leadership conferences tend to talk a lot about vision – specifically about casting it and celebrating it and living it. They tend to talk about getting back to the important things, the reasons for existing, the reason to get out of bed in the morning and plow through another day. The reasons to face the struggles and the joys, and the reasons to press on. That was good timing.
This afternoon is my ordination service, which I hope you can all attend – since it is you as a body who will actually ordain me! At least, I hope some of you can come or else I’m in big trouble… The conference brought me back to that central question: why am I in this? What is it we are pursuing? What is God’s vision, what are we striving for? Niels asked a similar question in an email earlier this week, inquiring if there was a particular verse of Scripture that I felt kind of summed up my call. I thought of it pretty quick, but had to hunt for the reference – it is in the OT story of Balaam: Numbers 22:28a “And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass” (KJV).
Seek First:
Well I don’t really have a “life-verse,” as some people do, but there are a couple that have sure been hitting home consistently. They bring perspective and clarity and vision. Ask the question “what is most important” and my answer is to seek first the Kingdom of God – I’ll read that verse in a moment. Ask “how do we do that” and my answer is to love God and to love your neighbour. Ask how we do that as a church and I’ll tell you quick that we love God through a weekly party of worship – a festival celebrating who He is and what He is doing; and that we love God’s lost kids by being a hospital for dying souls and we love God’s found kids by being a greenhouse that nurtures growth to fruitfulness.
Because that is the Kingdom of God. It is about loving God and loving others. It is about God reigning in our lives and changing us and using us in His Kingdom. It is not my Kingdom, it is God’s Kingdom. And it is a good thing! I start thinking, “God, Your Kingdom should be huge!” and God says, “The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.” I say, “God, Your Kingdom should be about fairness!” and God says, “The Kingdom of God is like the master of a vineyard whose grace was scandalous and abundant even to the worker who only contributed an hour.” I say, “God, Your Kingdom should come in mighty power and wipe evil and opposition off the face of the planet instantly!” and God says, “let the wheat and the weeds grow together until the harvest, and then I’ll sort it out.”
God says, “Seek first my Kingdom and my righteousness. I’ll worry about the rest. And do that by loving me and loving others.”
Let’s read Matt 6:25-34
A Passage About Worry?
I was a little disappointed when I got into my commentaries. They correctly observe that the chief message of the passage is that we should not be worriers. We shouldn’t be anxious. That is the main message – “do not worry.”
It is a lot of fun having an almost-three-year-old chatterbox learning to communicate like his parents. My son has picked up on our phrases, and we hear them back all the time. On numerous occasions he has sought me out in my basement office and greeted me by saying: “daddy here you are, I was looking all over the place for you and I was all worried about you.”
As much a part of the passage as that message is, I don’t hear it as the main message. I believe it is a passage about priorities, not only about “worry.”
Do Not Worry About Your Life.
It is a very simple passage: don’t worry (about food or drink or clothes), seek God’s Kingdom instead.
Let me take you back to the very first verse I read: “do not worry about your life”. That is Jesus’ main point – all the talk about food and clothing is the illustration – the main point is to not worry about your life.
Now THAT is a counter-cultural statement. When has anyone ever told you that – “do not worry about your life?” You might live, you might die, you might have food, you might not, whatever, don’t worry about it. I don’t think that is a message any of us hear! Of course we are worried about our lives, after all, we think, isn’t that really all we have? So shouldn’t we be most worried about that?
Jesus says no. Don’t worry about your life. There is a lot more in those verses, and if you are concerned about food or about your appearance, study Jesus’ words there very very carefully. But instead let me bring you rapidly to Jesus’ alternative:
Seek First the Kingdom of God.
Seek it first. Before anything else – before self or comfort or pleasure or family or job or money (which by the way is the subject Jesus had just finished talking about). Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness.
Jesus is quick to add that the rest will be taken care of. “All these things will be added unto you.” Don’t worry, God will take care of it. It is almost like the bulletin blooper which said “Don’t let worry kill you, let the church help.” But not quite.
Jesus simply says, God knows. He knows what you need. And let me say right here – to whatever situation of life you face – God knows what you need! It might be concern for a loved one, it might be a financial concern, it might be worry about whether God could really forgive you again, it might be a worry about your health and even a worry about dying. He knows what you need. That is the promise of verse 32: “Your heavenly Father knows what you need.” To you He says this: do not worry about that. Seek my Kingdom.
Because here is how it works: As we seek the Kingdom of God fully and earnestly, we can be absolutely sure that one of two things will change. Either the situation will change and the “worry” will be taken care of by God through whatever means He chooses; OR, we will change and begin to trust that whatever the situation of life, our heavenly Father knows what we need AND knows what His Kingdom needs. Here is where the power and fulfillment comes from, in this phrase: “Lord, not my will, but Your will.”
Seek first the Kingdom of God. Do not worry about your life. Seek the Kingdom. You know, I can read those words in Matthew, I can write them in a sermon, but when it comes to the grind of life it is a different thing altogether. When it comes to having a sick child, and as I pray will all the earnestness that I possibly can muster, and have to get to the point where I say, “OK Lord, do it Your way,” that is hard. When I am forced to step back and look at my life and my time and my money and my friendships and my recreation, and ask the question: “In all of these things, am I seeking FIRST the Kingdom of God and His righteousness?,” that is a struggle. When I stop and realize that everything in my culture screams “go to school to get a good job to make lots of money so that you can be comfortable and have lots of stuff and take care of your life,” and when I realize that Jesus says the EXACT opposite, that is a much different thing.
Can you imagine what that would be like? Your first, emotional response might be one of terror. The fear of being out of control, of not being able to manage, of someone else calling the shots. But God knows better, and I have one word for what it would be like for us to truly and with integrity seek first the Kingdom of God, and here it is: freedom. Free from worry, free from the clutch of materialism, free from fear of all kinds. We would be free to be in authentic relationships with one another – deep, safe, intimate relationships. We would be free to see God do all that He desires to do, and we know that it is all for good. We know it would be great and incredible and beyond what we can even imagine. We would be free to know – in our heads and emotions and spirits – how deep and powerful and passionate is the love of God for us.
What’s Pulling Your Train?
Many of you know that Joanne and Thomas and I took a week of holidays in June, traveling over 1600kms so my son could ride on a real, live, Thomas the Tank Engine train. It is his favorite, and if Joanne and I are truthful, we love toy trains too…
We were pretty excited – in the children’s stories, Thomas the Tank Engine is a steam train that gets into all kinds of adventures and situations with the other engines, and we were going to ride on a real, life-sized, Thomas the Tank Engine.
Now at my conference I also saw how video can communicate really well, so indulge me for one minute and I’ll show you what this experience actually looked like (and I’ll try to shut the camera off before the scene of me cleaning the lens…).
If you know anything about trains, you recognized that Thomas was not a real train. Oh, he looked real, every child in the place honestly believed they were going for a ride on Thomas the Tank Engine’s train – he was pulling, he was pushing – but that wasn’t true. A diesel engine at that back was doing all the work, and Thomas was just there for show.
So here’s my question, and you probably see it coming. What is pulling your train? What is it that gets you up in the morning, that presides over your schedule, that determines how you will spend your free time, that controls how you are managing your bank account, that you seek first, above all else? Are you seeking first the Kingdom of God, or are you worrying about your own life?
I know that is a challenging question. It is uncomfortable, it’s not safe. It is maybe even a little bit confrontational. So let me tell you why I ask it: it is because I love the Kingdom of God and I love you. And I believe with every bit of me that seeking first the Kingdom of God is the best thing any of us can do, for now and for eternity. I know that it is the answer to every struggle and every pain, and it is ultimately the source of every joy and everything truly worth celebrating.
And everything else we live for is small. It is petty. It is inconsequential compared to the incredible invitation to be a part of the Kingdom of God – not as outside spectators, not on the fringes hoping to catch a fleeting glimpse of a celebrity. As God’s children, holy and dearly loved. Adopted and secure. Resurrected and empowered.
And yes it might mean leaving something behind, giving it up, sacrificing. Choosing not to worry about our own lives and instead seeking first the Kingdom of God is a radical overturning of everything our society teaches us. And it is eternal.
So I challenge you with that question: what is pulling your train? What do you seek first?? Is it temporary or eternal??? You are invited by God to be a part of something far greater – His Kingdom. Which will reign forever. His Kingdom. Which will overcome. His Kingdom, which longs to come into the reality of your daily life and your relationships and choices and investments of time and money.
His Kingdom, which longs to grow in you and through you.
For some of you, the answer is Hallelujah! Yes!!
Others of you are used to sitting on the fence. Coming to church, yes, but living for yourself the rest of the time. Never firmly planting on one side or the other.
Some of you are yo-yos. Living firmly on God’s side one month, firmly for yourself the next.
Jesus invites. He never pushes or forces or twists arms, and so I don’t want to either. But I want to invite you – live (truly, fully, passionately!) for Jesus. Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness. And trust Him for everything else.
