We are one church. We love God, love people, love
His mission, and love His church.
Welcome to the One Church podcast.
So we're nearing the end of a brilliant series.
Jesus said we're looking at the life changing words of Jesus,
which I hope you'll agree are both very simple and very deep.
And each week there's been something that has really like
impacted my life personally. And today we're going to focus
on one verse. And I think we could say that it
sums up all the verses that have gone before really.
So Are you ready? Jesus said get your priorities
right and before you start rifling into Bibles and
thinking, well where is that verse?
I don't think that's in my Bible.
He did say this, but he used slightly different words.
This is what he says. But seek first his Kingdom and
His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as
well. So last week we heard how we're
to choose between treasure on earth and all treasure in
heaven, between material stuff or a personal living God.
Do you know material stuff doesn't care about you if you
put that first, but God does. A small life or the life that
Jesus calls them more than life because he says at the end of
the passage from last week, isn't life more than these?
Life is more than and life can be more than.
So if you're looking for a life today that is more than what
you've known so far, this is where you find it.
And here are a few verses Later in the same Sermon on the Mount,
Jesus continues and drives this point home.
So let's just read this passage, Matthew 631 to 34.
Jesus said, so do not worry, saying, what shall we eat, or
what shall we drink or what shall we wear?
For the pagans, run after these things, and your heavenly Father
knows that you need them. But seek first His Kingdom and
his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as
well. Therefore do not worry about
tomorrow, for tomorrow we'll worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.
So do I hear you say in your heart.
Oh thank goodness for that. I really, you know Susan, you
really read my mind. I really need a message today on
do not worry and don't be anxious about tomorrow.
Great. Well Jesus does have a worry
free life for us to live, but how do we access it?
He says get your priorities right.
We will not be anxious if we surrender control to the one who
holds us and who holds all things because then we're going
to live really free. And today's verse is sandwich
between if you like, it's like a big fat challenge, like the meat
in between two slices of bread that are the comfort.
If you like anybody here like bread.
Yeah. So we love the do not worry
about your life. We love the do not worry about
tomorrow. But in the middle is this Mety
verse that says, but seek first His Kingdom and His
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as
well. If we obey this command, if we
get our priorities right, then if we put Jesus first in
everything, then we possess the key.
Actually, looking back over the whole of this series to all the
things that we've looked at, I was just thinking of some of
them. Do you remember some of these?
If we seek Him first, we can ask and receive, we can seek and we
can find. We can knock and the door will
be opened. If we seek Him first, we can
know His light shining on our lives and we can be the light in
the places where we are. If we seek Him first, we can
know peace not as the world gives.
Remember some of these weeks. If we seek Him first, we can
bear much fruit. If we seek Him first, we can
have life to the full, etcetera, etcetera.
So do you want to live a life under blessing?
Do you want to live a life that counts?
Do you want to live a life that's free from worry?
Well, it all follows because we get our priorities sorted first.
We seek Him first. So let's just repeat.
And I make no apology for repeating.
Jesus loved repetition. And it's a bit like when you
wash your hair, you know, lather, rinse, repeat.
We're going to lather ourselves, rinse and repeat the word.
And we're going to unpack each part of this one verse and end
with a deep challenge to all of us.
But seek first his Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these
things will be given to you as well.
We're thinking today about the Kingdom search, the Kingdom
rule, the Kingdom life and the Kingdom consequences to reorder
and reaffirm our priorities. So firstly, the Kingdom search.
And Lord, we just open our hearts to hear what you're
saying to us this morning. But seek first, seek first.
Anybody here love hide and seek treasure hunts?
I did numerous treasure hunts for our children when they were
younger, played numerous games of hide and seek.
Children never get fed up with it and it's always one of my
favourite games as a child. In the days where parents would
literally let their children wander everywhere in my
childhood, you know, I would go down to the beach on my own.
Then you know, we would make treasure hunts around our local
area and it would just last for hours.
But Jesus starts this life changing phrase with the idea of
seeking. Now here's a picture of a piece
of plankton. Now plankton are organisms that
drift in water or air, but are unable to actively propel
themselves anywhere against the currents or against wind.
Now you and I, men and women, we're created in God's image.
We're designed for more. It's not natural for people to
drift through life just without a purpose, without a point.
We need something to live for, we need to give ourselves for
something or someone. We need a reason to get up every
morning and live with a focus. This is to do with our goals,
our motivation and the ambition for our life, if you like.
And Jesus contrasts 2 motivations here.
He talks about running after all these things that other people
run after. Food, drink, clothing, being
focused on our own security or risking it all, taking up our
cross, seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness.
And Jesus is saying, is this all your life is?
He's not saying that to look after our bodies or to prepare
for the future or to enjoy his good gifts or to plan wisely is
wrong. These things are not wrong.
But he says don't seek for yourself first.
Get your priorities right because this just leads to a
smaller and smaller life. Seek Him and His Kingdom and His
righteousness, and this is what you were made for.
Proverbs 11 in the message paraphrase puts it like this.
The world of the generous gets larger and larger.
The world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.
A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump.
A God shaped life is a flourishing tree.
Don't you want to live a God shaped life?
Do you want to live an enlarging life, a flourishing life that
gets bigger and bigger? We're not plankton.
Maybe just say to your neighbour, I'm not plankton.
I'm not drifting through life. I'm going to seek.
I'm going to seek 1st. I'm going to seek his Kingdom.
We're made in God's image. We're made for more.
God made us to seek. So here's our first question
today after each little section, I'm just going to bring us a
question. Am I seeking?
Am I living with purpose or am I drifting?
So what does that actually mean? To seek first his Kingdom,
Kingdom rule, but seek first His Kingdom.
Every Kingdom has a king, His Kingdom.
Who is this king? Maybe you're in here today and
they think, well, who is this king that we've been singing
about? This isn't just any king, this
is Jesus. Now, Doctor SM Lockridge
Shadrach Meshach was his name. Believe it or not, SM.
He was a Pentecostal church leader from San Diego.
He was a compatriot of Martin Luther King.
And in 1976, he preached a famous message where he got
really carried away about Jesus being the king.
Here's a little excerpt in my voice.
The Bible says my king is the king of righteousness.
He's the king of the ages. He's the king of heaven.
He's the king of glory. He's the king of kings.
He's the Lord of Lords. Now that's my king.
I wonder if you know him. There's no means of measure can
define his limitless love. He's eternally steadfast,
immortally graceful, imperially powerful, impartially merciful.
That's my king. He supplies strength to the weak
sympathisers and he saves. He guards and he guides.
Do you know him well? My king is the key of knowledge.
He's the wellspring of wisdom. He's the doorway of deliverance.
He's the pathway of peace. He's the roadway of
righteousness. He's the governor of governors,
He's the Prince of Princess, He's the King of kings, and he's
the Lord of Lords. That's my King.
Well, I wish I could describe him to you, but he's
indescribable. He's incomprehensible.
He's invincible. He's irresistible.
You can't get him out your mind. You can't get him off your hand.
You can't outlive him. And you can't live without him.
Death couldn't handle him, and the grave couldn't hold him.
That's my king. There was nobody before him and
there'll be nobody after him, because his is the Kingdom and
the power and the glory, forever and ever and ever and ever.
How long is that? Forever and ever and ever and
ever. Amen.
So that's my king. Is he your king?
And if he's our king, then we ask for his Kingdom rule to come
first of all in me, because to seek first his Kingdom, the rule
of the King Jesus begins in our hearts when we turn away from
our old lives and choose to follow him.
My Lord and my Saviour. We say when we bring people to
give their lives to Jesus, we're not just saying, oh, he's going
to be my saviour. We're saying he's going to be my
Lord, but he needs to be our saviour.
And then we get propelled outwards because now spreading
his Kingdom becomes the prime purpose of my life.
You say I have purpose now. I remember just waking up after
just becoming a Christian and thinking, wow, I feel like I
have purpose in my life. I know where my life is going,
my priority, what is it? And I'm speaking to myself here.
Do we sense the urgency of this? You know, war is all over the
World News, isn't it? At the moment, millions of
people living in fear of bombs and guns and what's going to
happen next. Do we feel as well like we're in
a war, fighting for the spreading of the good news of
Jesus, not with guns or bombs, but with words and deeds?
Or do we actually live like it's peacetime because the time is
short and the war is raging for people's souls?
Simon Gillibod in his book, A little book called Sacrifice,
tells of a day when he was preaching in a crowded meeting
in Burundi on the Congolese border.
And he preached a simple message from Jesus.
Story of the wise and the foolish virgins where five were
ready and five ran out of oil. And when they returned, the
wedding celebrations were going on and the door was firmly shut,
and they were too late. And his points were simple.
One, Jesus is coming. 2, Nobody knows when.
Three, Are you ready? And a number of people responded
to that message and gave their lives to Jesus, but many did
not. And he says this, he says maybe
they thought they'd respond in a week or a year.
But two days later, he was riding his motorbike near that
very village and was turned back because rebels were in there
attacking the people. Many people were killed.
And he says I was struck as never before.
Just how urgent a message we have been given.
We've been entrusted with this message.
And how many of those who died had accepted or declined the
invitation just 48 hours before their time had come to meet
Jesus? Were they ready now?
We don't actually live in a physical war zone here in
Leicester at the moment, so it's easy to fall for the lies that
the enemy will sow in our minds. Oh, don't tread on their toes,
don't risk getting rejected. Don't worry about it, Leave it
for now. There's always time.
Well, there is not always time. We're not all called to Burundi,
but we are all called and we don't always use that language
these days. But we are all called.
As Christians. We have a call on our lives, to
our neighbours, to our places of work, our gym, our college, our
school, our university. Are we prepared for the deeper
'cause as well, even for change? Maybe to even go to another one
church site to help with the mission there.
Maybe to help pioneer the next site when we planned again soon.
Maybe to sacrificially give more as real resources to reach more
people, to go to a different part of the world, To volunteer
in open hands, To be more bold in speaking out, offering
prayer, taking a new step outwards.
I wonder who we're going to invite to Easter?
Because it isn't just a nice invitation.
This is to do with life and death, isn't it?
And the purpose of all of this is for his glory.
So Jesus is seen to be king, so the Kingdom comes on the earth
until he returns, and every knee bows and every tongue will
acknowledge that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father,
whether they're ready or not. So here's the question with this
section. Is he my King?
And am I living to make him known?
So his Kingdom search, his Kingdom rule, and thirdly, his
Kingdom life, but seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness
and His righteousness. This takes it wider.
Jesus Lordship needs to spread and will it spread into every
part of my life. So I embrace His righteousness
firstly in my own life, which means I'll seek character more
than outward appearance. Mary and I were talking about
Proverbs 31, which is a passage on Friday.
We were talking about this in the office.
It was a passage that talks about this woman who is pretty
amazing. Let's face it, She does all
these things. You know, she makes bedspreads
for a family. She looks after her husband.
He praises her at the city gate. She's got, you know, she does
all these things for her children.
She has a business, she buys a field and all sorts of things.
And then in that passage, it says charm is deceptive and
beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be
praised. And what we were noticing was I
think we'd both listen to a little message somewhere that
nowhere did it mention what she looked like.
Nowhere does it mention what her age is or her clothes or
anything like that. Just all the wonderful things
she did for the Kingdom. Because the heart is God's
priority. He looks at our hearts.
So in our hearts, are they the right priorities?
That's what I'm saying. What does it mean to get my
priorities right as a young person here?
Are we asking Him first what He wants for our lives, or are we
chasing other things for this? As someone establishing a family
or a career, will I settle and get cosy and comfortable?
Or will I see myself as called to bring him and his rule into
my workplace, into my career, into my family, into my home in
midlife? Will I give each day to him, be
on the lookout for new adventures or will I just settle
in retirement when I'm no longer paid to do a job?
Will I drift or will I plan and live with purpose and zeal for
Jesus? And can I say if you're
approaching that time of life, be prepared for it, be thinking
about it. How am I going to order my week
in order to best serve God when I'm no longer paid to do a job
practically and as a senior St Are we saying as is day, so
shall my strength be and every day I'm going to listen for his
voice and obey even if I cannot physically do everything I used
to be able to do. I can still live a big life
whatever my stage in life. Have I got my priorities right?
Is prayer first is the word 1st is my money surrendered to him
first? You know, yesterday I received a
gift which I'd forgotten was coming to me and the first thing
on our priority is well, we'll give 10% of that to God.
And then on top of that an offering because that's just our
way of doing things. And it, you know, if all of us
merely obeyed Jesus and tithe even in the church here gave 10%
to God, the giving of our church would be massively increased and
the expansion of all we could do for the Kingdom in this city and
beyond would be massively expanded.
So do I put his way first? Do I put eternity first?
Garden people, if I live like this, I'll see His Kingdom rule
coming through my life as well. So both in my life and through
my life, what does it look like to live the King's life?
Well, it looks like being a pioneer and not a settler.
It looks like embracing sacrifice, not a comfortable
cross that we craft for ourselves.
It means embracing discomfort because it is always unsettling.
It's always unsettling when we step out.
But this is how His righteousness, his rule
increases in US and we never achieve anything or get to any
enlargement or increase in our life without us feeling a little
bit. Oh, you know that feeling that
we get in our summit? Oh, do I really want to do this?
Well, yes, God's calling us like he called Peter.
He said step out of the boat. Come and step out the boat.
You can walk on the water. It's always uncomfortable when
we get to another level of surrender.
So here's the question for us here.
Am I seeing change for good and for God in myself and in others?
Is he first? Am I putting him first?
And fourthly, Kingdom consequences, and all these
things will be given to you as well.
If this is how we live. There are consequences and the
consequences are good. I slightly objected to a song
that I've been listening to recently.
I think it's called For His Glory and My good, something
like that. And I was thinking, well, surely
it's just all for His glory. I don't think about it being for
my good, but actually God is so good that when our lives are
dedicated to Him and given over to Him and ordered around his
priorities, He can't help but bless us.
So if this is how we prioritise, Jesus has an amazing promise for
us and all these things will be given to you as well.
So we don't seek after the all these things first, we seek
after His Kingdom 1st. And as we do that, this is the
result and it's a wonderful result.
If you look at people, you think why are they so blessed?
Well, just think about this, think back to the context of
this verse again. What are the things that Jesus
is talking about? Freedom from worry.
So do not worry. He says freedom from running
around after stuff, for the pagans run around after those
things, freedom in their Father's arms of love, and your
heavenly Father knows that you need them.
Freedom from worry about tomorrow.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow.
Each day has enough trouble of its own and a big life as well.
That matters for eternity, because this is the amazing
benefit of seeking first His Kingdom.
Who are the happiest people in the world?
Or who should be the happiest people in the world?
Or those who have laid their lives down for Jesus?
If our lives are in His hands, then we are safe and He will be
with us, as He said, to the end of the age.
As a famous missionary once said, God's giants have been
weak people who did great things for God because they reckoned on
His being with them. If we seek first His Kingdom and
His righteousness, not only do we receive all these things as
well, but we get a gift of a wonderful life, a big life that
matters for eternity, and an eternal reward.
The world of the generous, remember, gets bigger and bigger
and bigger. So here's the question here Am I
living this life of Kingdom, blessing and purpose?
Let's all say this together, shall we?
This verse? But seek first his Kingdom and
his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as
well. Maybe make it personal.
I will seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all
these things will be given to me as well.
That's my king. That's my king.
We do it for the King Jesus, King Jesus, the King of Kings,
the Lord of Lords. Would you not want to give your
life to serve Him? He is worthy.
Have you got your priorities straight?
Is there something needs adjusting now?
God is going to be speaking to each of us.
The Holy Spirit's going to be highlighting different areas for
each one of us, areas maybe where we haven't fully
surrendered. It might be our pockets.
It might be we're just scared of what it might mean if we step
out into what we think he's calling us to do.
You will know it might be for some of us, it's simply he's
challenging us to keep going in a place that's really difficult
and we'd rather actually step out into something else.
But he's saying stay there. But either way, we're going to
respond to say I'm serious about seeking first your Kingdom.
I want my life to get bigger and bigger.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine
upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face towards
you and give you peace.