Seek Ye First The Kingdom Of God- Part 1 Series

Matthew Chapter 6 verses 24 to 34

24 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.

25 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?

26 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?

27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34 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.”

The key verse for today’s message is from verse 33, which says: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” We’re just going to look at the verses Jesus spoke before verse 33. Why is he saying that “but seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you?” We see from verse 24, God is comparing. Actually, he is saying you cannot serve God and you cannot serve money. You either have to serve God or you have to serve money. So, God is really making a clear distinction over here. There is nothing wrong with having money. But there is a big difference between having money and serving money. There is a big difference between just having God and serving God. So, God is really talking about, “Who is our master tonight?” Is Jesus our Master or money is our master? Where is our priority? What are we actually seeking God for? We can even go to God seeking Him, but our priorities might be money. So, we have to really examine ourselves tonight, as we are seeing God’s word - what Jesus is talking about here? He is not talking about, not to go after - big houses, not about big cars, or in those days - Jesus didn’t mean to say - don’t go after more camels, more sheep, more gold, more pearls.

But, over here Jesus is talking about the basic need. He is talking about food, He is talking about clothing, and He is talking about the drink, and water. And He is saying how even these very basic needs of our lives such as food, clothing, and water, can actually cause us to serve to become servants of those things rather than servants of God.

So, we have to look at ourselves, what are we actually serving? We work in order to sustain ourselves, but we don’t live to work. You know what Jesus is saying here, we are not eating, because we live to eat; but we are eating, just to sustain our bodies. That is why he is asking, is not life more important than your body? Life is more important. The body is the house, but your life is more important than this. The body is more important than clothing, clothing is just the covering for the body, that we need but we don’t live for the clothing. So we have to really distinguish between that what our needs and even when it comes down to needs, what are we actually doing? Is our need actually eating us up, or are we living to meet our Lord’s need? That’s what Jesus is saying over here, “Therefore take no thought for the morrow.” And he is saying, “Don’t worry about - What shall we eat? What shall we drink?” as in verse 31. And what shall we clothe ourselves with? And Jesus is saying after all these things go after the Gentiles, not the people who know God. He is saying, “God already knows your need. He already knows that we need food, He already knows that we need clothing. He knows that we need water, God knows everything and He is saying, “Why are you going after that when you know that I know that you need these things?”