Seek First Things First Series

Theme: “Seek First things”

Text: Matthew 6:25-34

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We praise God for the grace of God for enabling us to enter into the 5th month in 2020. This month the Spirit of God inspires us to meditate under the Theme “ Seek the Welfare”.

First of all, let us “Seek First things First” according to our Lord Jesus Christ. We are going to meditate this great theme from the Gospel of Matthew 6:24-34. The whole world is worried about many things. Worry about the Extinction of the human race by CORONA, worry to find the right Vaccine, worry about GDP growth, worry about the future of the Children, and everything. At this juncture, Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us “First seek the First Things”.

We will learn three important teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ from this passage titled:

1. Do not worry about daily cares

2. Do not Hurry but wait upon the Lord

3. Be Merry at God’s providential care

I hope this sermon will uplift your soul and boost your spirit to go forward with great faith and strength after the lockdown.

1. Do Not to Worry about daily cares (Matthew 6:25-31)

This passage starts with the oration of Jesus Christ telling his followers and listeners not to worry about: Food, Drinks, and Clothes. (Matthew 6:25-27) Every morning, I am sure all of us, have these thoughts or questions as Jesus has said. What shall we eat? What shall we drink? And what shall we wear? (Matthew 6:31). These questions are of two natures: One is out of nothing. The second is out of plenty. For the first category of people, these are questions of survival. For the second category of people, these are questions of choices.

I am not sure where you stand today after 40 days of lockdown in our own country/context. The food, drink, and clothe are unavoidably connected to our employment, earnings, and savings. Nowadays We are experiencing no gain but loss, no income but recurring expenditures, No development but static. Even at this juncture the Word of God never changes and challenges us to trust in God.

In Luke 12:29 Jesus utters to his disciples ‘do not set your hearts on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it’. These things will pull your hearts downward, bind you with fear. It will fill you with anxieties of life and it will trap you (Luke 21:34). Paul Johannes Tillich (a Lutheran Theologian, German-American, lived from 1886 to 1965) wrote about 3 types of worry. First is a worry about fate and death. Second is worry about two feelings. The feelings are about two lacks. Lack of inner satisfaction and lack of meaning to life. The third is a worry about being guilty and deserving punishment”.

The Greek word for worry is ‘merimnao’ it refers “to be apprehensive, be anxious, be unduly concerned”. The English dictionary definition of worry was very nearer to it as "mental distress or agitation resulting from concern, usually for something impending or anticipated, anxiety”.

Dr. Ralph F. Wilson says, ‘Anxiety, worry, fret, distress, agitation, tension, irritability’ are the expression of a person’s present and future conditions of himself and his loved ones. These are the parameters to test our trust in God. We must be aware of the importance and impotence of the Worry. More focus on worries and cares leads to the destruction of faith and trust. The destructive anxiety eats faith, brings unrest to the soul, deprives sleep, robs present peace, satisfaction, and joy, and propels into a mythical future, consumes our present joy and satisfaction in God, and misleads our direction for future steps (ref. Site:Jesuswalk.com). No doubt worry shortens our life and nothing else. Willian Barclay comments ‘Worry is blind to learn from nature and irreligious to believe in God. Worry affects human judgment, lessens his powers of decision, and renders him progressively incapable of dealing with life’ (ref.site:studylight.org).

Jesus challenges us to look at: Birds of the Air, Lilies of the valleys, Grass of the field as best example to understand the providence of God, the care of God and the protection of Almighty God. He also compares those creations with Crown of creations, the human beings. God never failed them (Matthew 6:28-30, Psalm 104:24-27).

Worry cannot change anything in life but Trust and prayer change things, change the course of life directions. S, St.Paul's says 'Do not anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer, petitions, and with thanksgiving present your request to God', even cast all your anxieties on God because he cares for you and he knows the ‘necessities of life’ are needed for all of us. Then turn your thoughts from perishable cares to imperishable honorable, noble, and praiseworthy thoughts of God (Read: Philippians 4:6-8 and 1 Peter 5:7). Psalm 68:19 affirms that 'Daily he bears us up'.