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”.
But what he is saying is that your beauty is not based on your possessions. Your life is not happy because of what you have but because of who you serve. You can have all you want and still not be happy.
He is saying he provides for the fowl of the air and they are not out killing themselves to eat. Surely they have to gather the food. Surely they have to build a nest but they are not worried about anything else. Their beauty is not in what they can possess but in who possesses them and that is the Lord.
The lilies oh the splendor of the beauty. Who made the splendor? The Lord. Even as we have read in Ephesians, “the beauty of the woman is not in her dress, her jewelry, or her attire it is in the works of the father she does”. Oh if we could only live by this principle.
When will realize about our eternal destiny. Everything else will rust and only what we build in heaven will stand.
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matthew 6:19-21 AV)
In other words he gives us a principle to stand by, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”
He never said that you are to do with out some of your wants. He never said that you were to give up everything and live in poverty off the land. But what he said is that is if you will seek him first he will add the rest.
You may gain some of the things you enjoy with out God but you will not have peace. But if you seek God’s will first then you can have the best of both worlds. I am not calling for a dry dull Christianity with no fun. I am not saying that we should have no possessions. We should feel that material things are bad. Or we should feel that having money is evil. Money has never been evil but it is the love of money that is evil.
What I am saying is that these things can not bring you peace only God can. Oh we must make a decision tonight about what is most important to you.
Some people say, “Boy if I only could.” “Boy if I only had”. “Just a little more and then I am done”. No if you can’t deal with and be satisfied with what God has given you now you won’t be able to deal with it in the future no matter how much it is.
Don’t be anxious or full of worry
Not only is he telling us not to depend on ourselves but depend on God and his kingdom he is also telling us not to worry. We must not worry about things of this world. Understanding as I have said many times, “God is in control”. God has the final say and the final authority.
It is what led Paul to write, “All things work together for good to them who love the Lord”. It is what why Paul said that when he was praying for his thorn in the flesh God was answering with “My grace is sufficient for thee”.
There is no reason for worry. Can we add anything to our life? Can we add a inch to our height? Can we make our heart beat. We can live healthy lives but what if things stop?
So should we worry about it no. Our trust is in Jesus.
Can we change that person? Can we fix the problem by worry no? What does it help? Nothing.
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7 AV)
Psalms 55:22 Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
So we just trust in the Lord to provide what we can’t control or do anything about. I go back to the same principle I have been preaching since I arrived, “Get God in order then everything else will fall in place.” That is the only way to do it.
You need a touch from the Lord check your relationship with him. You need a healing check your relationship with the healer. You need a miracle check your relationship with the miracle worker.
