Seek First the Kingdom of God: Your Number One Priority
There are economic woes in the world. There’s not enough work; there’s not enough pay. There are not so many promotions and jobs anymore. There are layoffs and there are longer working hours, but not more pay for the longer working hours. Expenses are rising no matter where you’re living in this world. Taxes are going up; rent is increasing. The cost of everything seems to be rising. It doesn’t matter what it is. Gasoline may be the exception at this point in time, but perhaps you need a new car, because your car has over 200,000 miles on it, and you realize, “I don’t have the money to buy a new car, or even a used car.” The washing machine breaks down, you don’t have money for that. Practical living needs are increasing. Your children are growing up; they need new clothing. There are the regular medical needs that you cannot ignore: the cost of medical insurance, or just paying for doctor’s visits.
Perhaps you have questions about how you’re going to manage the university costs of your growing children when they’re ready to off to university. Or perhaps you’re wondering, “How will I care for my aging parents? How will I care for myself as I age, as my wife ages?” If you are unmarried, and some of you here today are not married, you may wonder how will you ever be able to afford to be married. How can you provide for a wife and a family? How will you ever be able to purchase a home whether you live in America, or one of the other countries represented here?
Well, with any matter in this life, God’s Word the Bible is always relevant. It is always practical, and it is always totally sufficient to address all of your concerns, any of your questions, any and all of your difficulties here on this earth.
In God’s Word we see that the Lord Jesus Christ, when He was on earth, was not insensitive or callous concerning practical, earthly matters. He still is not insensitive, though He is now in glory. The Lord Jesus Christ understood the pressures and the temptations, the trials and the difficulties that you face and that I face on a daily basis, and He spoke to the heart of such practical, earthly matters.
He did so in Matthew 6. Our focus is going to be on verse 33 of Matthew 6. I’d like to read that particular verse. Please turn there. I’ll just read verse 33.
“But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
In this whole passage the word ‘worry’ or ‘anxious’ is used six times. The word ‘anxious’ in this passage means to fret, to be distracted with care, to have a divided heart, divided actually by fear, because of the trials and troubles around you.
The Lord Jesus was clearly teaching His disciples a very important, practical life lesson. They were not to be sinfully anxious about how their earthly needs would be met each day. The Lord is specifically instructing us not to worry about our need for food, for clothing, and by implication we’re not to worry about obtaining any necessity in this life.
The Lord used the example of the birds of the heavens and the lilies of the field to teach us that you have no rational reason to worry about having your daily needs met. They will be provided by God. God provides for the birds of the heavens. Jesus said they don’t farm, they don’t harvest crops. Therefore, God will provide for you. God provides gorgeous clothing for the flowers of the field, and therefore God will provide for you the clothing you need, the basic needs that you have.
The Lord Jesus Christ wants you to remember that God is your heavenly Provider. He is the Creator. He is sustaining all things even right now, by the Word of His power. He is the Sovereign King over the whole universe, over all creation. Therefore, you have no need to worry, or fret, or be distracted about your earthly concerns and needs being met.
You are instead to trust in God with all of your heart. Trusting in your sovereign God as Provider is one of God’s means of delivering you from sinful anxiety about the many needs of your life.
Graciously, the Lord Jesus Christ gives us an additional reason, an additional antidote to prevent sinful worry about obtaining your earthly needs. That is there in verse 33. That verse teaches us in the context that when we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, we will actually be delivered from sinful anxiety and worry.
I would like you to look at verse 33, and I would like you to see two main things. The first is a command given; the second is a promise annexed to that command.
1) A command given.
What is the command there in verse 33?
1. The activity commanded.
It is: seek. The command is very simple. “Seek the Kingdom of God.”
Since the Lord commands us to seek, we should ask the question: what does He mean by this? Sometimes things are so obvious that we overlook their real meaning. Well, what does the Lord mean when He uses this specific word, this verb ‘seek the Kingdom of God’?
It means to search for something. It means to strive for something. It is like the merchant seeking for good pearls that we read of in Matthew 13. It’s the same word. That merchant goes far and wide to find the best, most beautiful pearls. He wasn’t doing that in a lazy way; he wasn’t doing it in some haphazard way. He was diligently searching, seeking for the best pearls. That’s what Jesus says here in Matthew 6.
More specifically, the Greek language makes it very clear that when the Lord Jesus Christ says in verse 33 to each one of us here, “Seek the Kingdom of God,” He was clearly commanding, not suggesting. He was commanding not just one of His disciples, but all of His disciples. He was commanding them to actively seek, as opposed to just sitting back and waiting for someone to do something to you. He was commanding them to continuously seek, not just once-in-a-while seeking, but continuously seeking.
So, therefore, this seeking which Jesus is commanding us is to be wholehearted, not half-hearted. It is to be all-engaging. This seeking is to be energetic, not sluggish, not passive, not dull, but earnest. This seeking is to be persevering. You don’t start and then give up after you meet some difficulties. It is to be a constant, incessant seeking of the Kingdom.
Let me give you an illustration of what is meant here.
My eldest son Joshua, he’s now going to be 29, but when he was four he was with his mother in the grocery store and Joshua was standing next to the grocery cart. He was a very active, young boy. He was obedient, as well. His mother, my wife, turned to get something off the shelf. She turned and put it in the grocery cart, and there was no Joshua. She looks down the aisle and she sees no Joshua; she looks down the next aisle, she see no Joshua. So what did my wife do? “Oh, no problem.” She just went on shopping. Of course not! She didn’t scream or do something like that, but she told me about this, of course, when that happened. Her heart’s racing. She starts searching for Joshua. She leaves the cart there. She goes down this aisle; goes left, looks down the next aisle. No Joshua. Goes to the next aisle. No Joshua. The kid was fast. So she keeps searching. When she didn’t find him she didn’t give up, she didn’t stop. She searched for him until she found him.
That’s what Jesus Christ is saying here. You are to seek the Kingdom of God earnestly, energetically, perseveringly, wholeheartedly. That’s the activity commanded.
2. The object of our seeking.
Secondly, the object of your seeking is not my son Joshua, it’s not beautiful pearls. Jesus says the object of your seeking here is the Kingdom and righteousness of God. To seek the Kingdom of God is to seek the righteousness of God. The Kingdom and righteousness of God are joined together inseparably in the Scriptures, like two sides of one coin. You cannot have the righteousness of God without the Kingdom of God; you cannot have the Kingdom of God without the righteousness of God.
The Lord is using these two closely related words in order to highlight and emphasize the supreme value and loveliness of the object which you are to seek.
Nothing, nothing can surpass the excellence and privilege of entering into and becoming a citizen of the righteous Kingdom of the Living God. It is a Kingdom which is not fully established yet, but it will be one day when the Lord returns. When the Kingdom of God is finally consummated at the return of Christ, it will be a Kingdom that is totally sinless. No sin in the Kingdom of God; a righteous Kingdom.
There will be no sickness in the Kingdom of God. Some of you here probably are struggling with sicknesses and diseases. Some of you here may have already had cancer. Some of you may have other sicknesses like diabetes. Well, with the consummation of the age in the Kingdom of God there will be no sicknesses and no diseases. There will be no death, because there will be no sin. The Kingdom of God that you are to seek is a perfect Kingdom, without flaws, without problems. Presently, it is not perfect, but it is on its way to being totally perfect.
The Kingdom of God will one day be a peaceful Kingdom, without any violence or disorder. All you have to do is look at the news media about what is going on in Syria, and it should break your heart when you read the reports about what’s going on in Syria. In the Kingdom of God there will be no more wars, there will be no more rumors of wars. There will be no more violence. There will be total peacefulness in the Kingdom of God. It is going to be a perfectly glorious Kingdom. It will be glorious because Jesus Christ will be there in all of His glory, and you as believers in Jesus Christ will be perfectly transformed, with resurrected, glorified bodies joined to undying, perfect, sinless souls. You yourself will be worshiping the glorious Lamb in the glorious Kingdom, and there will be no shame, no embarrassment, nothing to bring blush to your face.
How different is the Kingdom of God compared to the United States of America! I travel to Hong Kong and China for the Christian ministry. I travel to Pakistan, and there are people in those countries who long to immigrate to America. Real Christians. They’d like to get out of Pakistan and they talk about America as though it is the Promised Land, but it is not the Promised Land. Neither is Costa Rica; neither is Argentina; neither is Puerto Rico; neither is the Dominican Republic; neither is the Canary Islands; neither is any of your countries represented.
The Kingdom that you are to seek is not an earthly kingdom. It is the Kingdom of God. How are you to do that?
Well, first of all, you must personally do that. In other words, you cannot do that for someone sitting next to you in the pew here. You can’t do it for your children; your children can’t do it for you; you can’t do it for your spouse. You are personally to seek the Kingdom of God! That’s what Jesus Christ is saying to every single person sitting in this room.
It’s not Jeff Smith saying this to you. It’s the Word of God saying this to you: you are to personally seek the Kingdom of God. How do you do that? You begin by turning away from your sins and turning to Christ. He’s not physically present, of course, but you cry out to Him. He’s in glory. You ask Him to forgive you for your real sins that you really have committed. You should start naming them, and if you don’t know what your sins are you should be saying, “Lord, I don’t even know what my sins are. Show me what my sins are.”
That’s how you begin to seek the Kingdom of God: by personally entering in through repentance of your sin and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. To seek the Kingdom and righteousness of God is to hear the gospel command to repent and believe, and to act. It is to not sit there and say, “Well, I don’t really feel anything. I don’t feel great conviction of sin.” No. You don’t wait.
If you were told by a doctor that you have cancer, somehow he realized that, you didn’t know it, but now he tells you that. You’re not going to sit back and say, “Well, let’s see. Maybe I’ll check that out after my summer vacation. Maybe I’ll to the doctor at the end of the year.” You would start acting! That’s what you have to do today, whether you’re young or old. You have to act upon the command to repent and believe. That is how you personally seek the Kingdom of God.
Once you have entered the Kingdom of God—which is the case for many of you here—you must continue to seek the Kingdom of God. It’s not something you do once. Repentance is not something you do once. Believing in Jesus is not something you do once. It’s a daily activity: seeking the Kingdom of God. You are to make your calling and election sure.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if you’re a genuine Christian but at times you struggle, “Has the Lord truly forgiven me?” you are to continue to personally seek the Kingdom by going to the Word of God, by going to God in prayer, by going to Jesus Christ and saying, “Lord, I want to know, not just in my head but in my experience, I want to know that You love me, that I am fully forgiven, that I am cleansed in the blood of Christ. I want to know it!” That’s how you seek the Kingdom of God. You have to make time to do that, and God graciously will answer your cries.
So you continue to personally seek the Kingdom of God, and you continue, as Christians, to do that by submitting to the will of God revealed in the Word of God. As a matter of biblical principle you obey the commands of the King who has saved you, because it’s a Kingdom. It’s not America. It’s not a democracy. It’s not like England, a socialistic country. It’s not Russia or China, a communist country, but it is a Kingdom. The King expects you, as His disciples, to obey Him. As you obey Him from the heart, sincerely, you are now continuing to personally seek the Kingdom of God.
Furthermore, you are to seek the Kingdom of God comprehensively. You are to seek the Kingdom of God in every area of your life. God’s Word, God’s Law should regulate, control your thinking, your motives and attitudes, your speaking, your behavior, your life.
Look at Matthew 5, you can just glance at it: the Sermon on the Mount. The citizens of God’s Kingdom have a consciousness of their spiritual poverty. They are not proud and arrogant, but they are clothed with humility.
When you comprehensively seek the Kingdom of God, you will be saying, “Lord, forgive me for my sin of arrogance and pride. I was defensive with my wife when my wife said something to me and pointed out a sin in my life, and I got defensive internally and with my words.” That’s sinful, stinking pride, and if you’re going to seek the Kingdom of God continuously and comprehensively, you will then say to the Lord and to your wife, “Please forgive me for my sinful pride and the way I responded to you with my words.” You’ll say that to God through Christ; you’ll say it to your wife. That is part of seeking the Kingdom of God comprehensively.
In Matthew 5, the Sermon of the Mount, the Lord says, “Don’t murder with your words.” Don’t gossip; don’t slander. As you prayerfully work to see the Kingdom established in the hearts and lives of others near at hand, far away, you are still seeking the Kingdom and righteousness of God. Speaking and living the gospel before your neighbors; speaking and living the gospel before your fellow church members; speaking and living the gospel before your unconverted friends. In all of these ways you will be comprehensively and personally seeking the Kingdom of God.
So in verse 33 the activity commanded is: seek. The object of your seeking is: the Kingdom and righteousness of God. Thirdly, notice the priority of our seeking the Kingdom of God.
3. The priority of our seeking.
Notice in verse 33 what Jesus said. He said, “But seek ye first the Kingdom of God.” If you are a Christian here this applies to you, whether you’re a pastor or not a pastor. If you’re a pastor this applies to you; if you’re not a pastor but you’re a Christian, this applies to you. Your first priority, your primary priority, your most important priority in your life is to seek the Kingdom and righteousness of God before and above everything else.
You are to do this every day of your life, as a Christian, from the moment you wake up in the morning until the moment that you put your head on the pillow at night. You are to seek first the Kingdom and righteousness of God in every stage of your life if you are a Christian. It doesn’t matter whether you are young and unmarried, or whether you are an elderly saint in your nineties.
You are to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness regardless of your circumstances in life. You may be rich; you may be poor. You may have a job; you may have no job. You may have a disease like cancer; you may be very healthy. You may have numerous trials with unconverted children; you may have every child in your family truly converted to Christ. You may have difficulties at work, a boss who is obnoxious day in and day out and falsely accuses you; you may have a very peaceable living situation. But it doesn’t matter what your life circumstances are, whether joyous or happy; whether prosperous or impoverished. Christ, His Kingdom, His Church, the local church, your soul’s prosperity, spiritually, the well-being of your wife and children, the salvation of the lost, all of those realities are bound up in the Kingdom of God, and that is what you are to seek first; number one priority in your heart and life, every single day, regardless of your circumstances.
You’re not to be seeking first food, drink, and clothing. It’s the very point Jesus is making here in Matthew 6. You’re not to be thinking, “I need to get rich.” That should not be your number one priority. “I want ease. I want to get rich so I can have an easy life, I can have a big home, I can have two cars, I can have all the food I want, I can have a comfortable life. That’s what I need; that’s what I want. Then I’ll be happy.” No, you will not. That is not seeking first the Kingdom of God. If that is your number one priority, that’s not what God says, what Christ says should be your number one priority.
Neither, dear pastors, should you be seeking fame. It’s a very sad reality that there are men who profess to be Christians—some no doubt are, others no doubt are not real Christians—who are in the ministry and they’re in the ministry because they actually want to be famous. They want to be well-known; they want to be like John MacArthur; they want to be like John Piper; they want to be like Al Mohler.
First of all, that should not be in you heart and mind at all if you are a pastor, but my point from this passage is that’s not the way you should be thinking as a pastor. “I would like to have prominence. I would like to have people reading my blog. I would like to have people going to my website. I would like my church getting bigger and bigger.” Well, of course we want to see the pews of our church filled with sinners. We want to see people saved! But seeking first the Kingdom of God means you will not be thinking about your reputation, you will not be thinking about your blog, you will not be thinking about your name, you will not be thinking about your fame, you will not be thinking about those things.
Young men and women here, what are you seeking first? Fun? Pleasure? Using the Internet? Pornography? Are you seeking elicit sexual pleasures first? Happiness? Entertainment? Movies?
What does Jesus say? “All these things the Gentiles seek after them.” In other words, the pagans, the unbelievers, the unconverted, that’s what they’re seeking after. Fun. Ease. Money. Pleasure. Movies. Entertainment. That’s what they’re seeking, and Jesus is saying, “Don’t be like the pagan, unconverted people all around you.” That’s not what they need; that’s not what you need. Rather, seek first the Kingdom of God and the righteousness of God. That must be your number one priority.
To do that requires some thinking, some planning, time, diligence, and perseverance. You must be reading your Bible every day. So, I’m asking every single person in this room—I don’t care if you’re a pastor or not a pastor, I don’t care if you’re young or old—I’m asking all of you to answer this question: did you seek first the Kingdom of God this morning by reading your Bible when you were all alone? Or did you say, “Well, today is going to be very busy. We’ve got lots of activities at the church building. I don’t have time to read my Bible this morning.” That’s not seeking first the Kingdom of God.
The personal study of God’s Word must be non negotiable every day. If you’re sick, I’m sure if you’re throwing up you’re not going to be able to read your Bible. I understand that, but if you’re healthy that should be non negotiable. That’s part of seeking first the Kingdom of God.
Did you pray today? Did you pray not only for yourself, but for others today? Are you, as a husband, leading your wife and family in family worship every day? That may be after dinner, that may be another time of the day. Are you doing that? That’s part of seeking first the Kingdom of God!
Are you nurturing your children with one-on-one conversations, fathers? Are you nurturing your sons and daughters, feeding them with instruction from the Word of God, showing them Jesus Christ the Saviour from the Word of God, showing them Jesus Christ from your personal living, as well? Can your children say of you fathers, “My dad, whatever he is, he’s a real man of God, a real Christian”? That’s part of seeking first the Kingdom of God!
What about faithful attendance at all the services of the local church on the Lord’s Day? How can professing Christians say, “I’m seeking first the Kingdom of God,” and their local church has three services on the Lord’s Day, and they only attend one? I know some professing Christians who do that. How can that be seeking first the Kingdom of God? Some individuals say, “Well, you know, the Lord knows. I mean really, just going to church doesn’t make you a Christian.” To which I respond: why don’t you want to be with other Christians? Why don’t you want to, with those Christians, worship God? Why don’t you want to, with those Christians, hear the Word of God not once, twice, but three times each Sunday? Something’s wrong. That’s not seeking first the Kingdom of God!
When you’re in church it’s not enough just to sit in the pew and bolt out the door when the church service is over. Do you interact with the other brothers and sisters in this church? Do you ask them: how are you doing spiritually? What are your trials this week? How can I pray for you for next week? How can I encourage you with the Word of God? Here’s my needs. Please pray for me. That is called showing love one to another. That’s exhorting one another day by day in the church. That is part of seeking first the Kingdom of God.
Well, moving on. In verse 33 we’ve seen the activity commanded: you’re to seek; the object: the Kingdom and righteousness of God; the priority: to seek that first. Notice now, very briefly: a promised annexed.
2) A promise annexed.
What does Jesus say there in verse 33? He says as you seek first the Kingdom and righteousness of God all of these things, what He’s just mentioned in the chapter, shall be added unto you. Food and clothing and shelter shall be yours. As you focus your primary energies on seeking God’s Kingdom in your life, your heavenly Father promises that He will provide all of your necessary things on earth. As He cares for the birds of the heavens, the flowers of the field, the Lord will care for you as you seek first the Kingdom of God.
Now, of course, the Lord is not saying here that you should never go to work. He’s not saying that. There are other Scripture passages that clearly teach us that we are to labor with our hands, so He’s not saying that. But when you are doing what this passage teaches you to do, what I’ve proclaimed, God has promised that He will provide for all your earthly needs.
Quite a few years ago—I’m giving an illustration to underscore this reality of God’s faithfulness—I was in the secular business world. My wife and I had just purchased the home in which we still live. We had been in that home for about five months. Our son Joshua, who I mentioned before, was adopted. He came unexpectedly to us. So we weren’t planning, but it just happened. We got this infant through adoption. My wife had to stop her outside secular employment because we now had a new baby, we now had a new house. The work in which I was involved was sales of medical equipment, and a man in the company sinfully, wickedly, deviously did things to steal away all the business. My income went to zero. The sales I had done, for which I should’ve gotten paid commission, vanished because of what this man did. So, I had a wife at home, a baby, a house with a mortgage, a job but no income. No money.
Now, I’m not saying this so that you can admire Jeff Smith. I’m saying this to show you that first of all, what I’m telling you to do by the grace of God I have done. Secondly, to magnify the truth of God’s Word, because I proved the truth of this passage. Thirdly, to magnify the grace of my Saviour Jesus Christ. Your attention should not be, “Jeff Smith, oh he’s wonderful!” No. Jesus Christ is wonderful.
I worked like crazy to earn income every month. I said to my wife, and my wife agreed, “We are still going to tithe, give 10 percent as a minimum of our gross income to the church, Trinity Baptist Church. I was not an elder in the church, not a pastor at that point in time. We both agreed. There were weeks when we had no money to buy groceries, but we still tithed. We scratched by paying the monthly mortgage. We had to juggle many things. The weeks we didn’t have groceries we prayed. We made sure we had food for Joshua, our baby son, but we didn’t have much else. We proved the truth of this text as we sought first the Kingdom of God, the righteousness of God. God faithfully provided money through my work for the mortgage, for Joshua’s needs, for tithing, for the basic electricity bill. Some weeks, as I said, it was tough, virtually no groceries, but we survived.
You say, “Well, Jesus said everything will be given to you.” Yeah, everything you really, truly need. We did get enough to make it through those weeks. That went on for about two years, until I gradually, by God’s grace, got up to a higher level.
So brethren, part of the problem with Americans—I don’t know about it in the Spanish countries represented here—but professing Christians in America are careless, sloppy Christians, wordly-minded so-called Christians; not really seeking first the Kingdom and righteousness of God. That is not what America needs. America does not need more professing Christians who are worldly-minded, who are more interested in entertainment, movies, and the Internet than they are the Word of God, more interested in the latest fads of the way you should cut your hair or wear your clothing or the colors of your clothing.
Am I saying it’s wrong to dress nicely? No, I’m not saying that. I’m just saying: what are your priorities? If I was able to follow you around without you knowing it for the last month, what would I have observed about your priorities in life? How do you spend your time? How do you spend your free time?
It is not wrong to watch baseball on TV. I love baseball. I’m not a soccer or football fan, sorry, but I’m not saying it’s wrong to watch that on TV. It’s wrong to watch it on Sunday, the Lord’s Day. I’m not saying you can’t have recreation.
I’m asking you individually, whether young or old, married or not, whether you’re a pastor or not: what are your priorities? How do you spend your time? If I followed you around for the last month would I see a man or a woman who without fail, by the grace of God, is getting up early, getting the Bible, sitting down, taking in God’s Word, seeking God in prayer, earnest about it, wanting communion with your Saviour, your Living Saviour? He is alive. He is not dead in the tomb in Palestine!
How are you spending your time? Are you wasting time on a blog? Am I condemning all blogs? No. Am I condemning just using the Internet? No, but I’m asking you: how are you spending your time? I said to Pastor Martin—he’s staying in my home—I said, “I don’t have time for blogs.” Again, I’m not condemning Christian blogs, but I’m just saying I don’t have time for blogs. I’m a slow reader. I would rather be reading John Owen than a blog; I would rather be reading John Calvin—and I am reading John Owen and John Calvin. I would rather be reading them than a blog!
Do I think that modern, Christian men have nothing to offer? No, I don’t think that. I’ve read books by Edward Donnelly, books by Albert N. Martin; I’ve read books by John MacArthur; I’ve read books by modern men. I’m just saying: how about the Bible?
You young guys, you find time for basketball probably, you find time for football, for soccer, for baseball. Fine, but are you making time to read your Bibles, to seek God in prayer? This is not glamorous. This is not complex. This is very straightforward, but are you doing it?
That’s what America needs. We need godly men, young men, godly women, young women, who are not fooling around with Christ and the Bible and Christianity, who are not interested in being worldly! You will not win unconverted pagans to Jesus Christ by being like unconverted pagans. You won’t! So, are you seeking first the Kingdom of God?
Verse 33 is actually an application by Jesus Christ of the first of the ten commandments. The first of the ten commandments is: you shall have no other gods before Me. That’s what Jesus is saying here. “Seek first the Kingdom of God”; “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
You see, the Lord Jesus Christ knows and understands us better than we do. We think very highly of ourselves, sadly. We think we know ourselves well, and to some extent we of course know ourselves. But Jesus understands us, as our Creator, better than we do. The Lord Jesus knows that when your priorities are out of whack, you are usually manufacturing an idol or idols. When your priorities are out of whack something or someone has replaced, to some degree, the Living God in your heart, as a professing Christian. Now, we would never admit that, usually. If someone were to confront you and say, “Do you think maybe you’ve made that activity a bit of an idol?” “Oh, I don’t have any idols!” We would usually kind of get defensive, but you see, the Lord Jesus Christ wants your heart. If the Lord Jesus Christ has your heart He will have your will, He will have your life, and that’s what He wants. He wants Himself to be first and supreme in your heart and life and affections.
Why does He want that? Because He wants you to know His love and His grace. You say, “Well yeah, but He’s God.” Yes. He’s your Creator God, and He wants you to know experientially His love and grace. If you’re manufacturing idols in your heart and life you will not be experiencing His love and grace. Jesus knows that if He doesn’t fully have your heart He does not fully have you, and you are probably manufacturing idols.
When you seek first the Kingdom of God personally, comprehensively, in every circumstance of life, when you are seeking first the Kingdom of God in your Bible reading, in your prayer time, in your family, in your local church, when you are doing that the Lord Jesus Christ will indeed draw near to you and cause you to know His grace and love.
Pastors, are you seeking first the Kingdom of God when you prepare your sermons, when you preach your sermons? Do you think about how the hearts of your people will be drawn to Christ, or do you think about how the hearts of your people will be drawn to you, the preacher? It should not be, “Let me say this, because that will get their attention and they’ll think, ‘Pastor Smith, boy he really is so knowledgable about the Bible.’ ‘Oh Pastor Piñero, boy he really had a lot of insight in that matter.’ ‘Oh Pastor Martinez, he’s so eloquent.’” When you’re preparing your sermons, are you thinking about how you can impress your people? You should not be thinking that way.
You’re not seeking first the Kingdom of God if you’re thinking about, “How can I impress the people? How can I get their attention to me? How can I have them praise me?” Your people should thank you for your labors as a pastor, as a preacher. They should, and that should humble you when they do. It’s right that they come to you, “Thank you, pastor, for that sermon. God used it to feed my soul.” That’s right for them to do that, but you should not be preparing sermons to get attention to yourself. You should not be preaching sermons to get attention to yourself. If you use an illustration, like I did earlier tonight, you should be saying, “I’m not saying this to put myself up on a pedestal.” When you say that you need to mean that!
Pastors, are you seeking first the Kingdom of God when you’re counseling a married couple in your church, and that particular married couple is having problems? Are you faithful to God and His Word with that couple sitting before you? Are you seeking first the Kingdom of God by speaking the truth to the husband, in love, speaking the truth to the wife, in love, showing no partiality. Not favoring the man, because he’s a man; not favoring the woman, because she’s happens to be a weaker vessel, but seeking to get the truth and the facts about their marriage problems, and judging righteously and graciously and firmly, boldly and faithfully applying God’s truth to husband and wife. Not being concerned with what they will say later on when you leave; not being concerned with their perhaps frowning face, unhappiness with you because you are being faithful.
You see, seeking first the Kingdom of God means that when you are dealing with a husband and wife in your church who have marital problems, you are gonna be faithful first of all to the Living God and to His Word, the Bible, and to their souls. You’re not going to be thinking about the consequences. You’re not going to be thinking, “Well, I say this and I know it’s the truth, but then he might get really angry. He might leave the church.” That’s not seeking first the Kingdom of God!
You need to remember the words of John the Baptist, dear pastor, in every situation in life as a pastor, whether publically standing in the pulpit, or in a household with two members of your church. What did John the Baptist say?
Referring to Jesus he said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
You want to point people publically and privately to the Living Lord Jesus Christ, not to yourself, but to the Living Lord Jesus Christ.
Pastors, are you going to seek first the Kingdom of God when you’ve learned there are some people who are disaffected, and you go to them seeking to be faithful, you’re prayerfully, faithfully hoping to change their thinking, but it’s not working? Are you going to continue to be faithful publically and privately, even though those disaffected people are there? And then they leave the church, and others follow them. Are you going to continue to seek first the Kingdom of God? If the pews in your church, instead of you having a hundred people, whatever the attendance is, drops to fifty, are you still going to preach the same, biblical gospel? Or are you going to start to change it to attract more people in, because you just lost fifty. No.
Your church is not your church. This church is not Pastor Piñero’s church, it’s not Pastor Martinez’ church, the church where I labor is not my church; it’s the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are not at liberty to change the message; you’re not at liberty to not seek first the Kingdom of God.
Well, how are you going to succeed, whether you’re a pastor or not a pastor, in doing all of this, seeking first the Kingdom of God? If you are like me you have insecurities. Yes, I have insecurities. All you have to do is ask my wife. She says I have a lot of them. You have insecurities; I have insecurities. You have fears; I have fears. Left to myself I am very weak. Left to myself I’d be a coward. You have to go back again and again to various Scripture verses, and one that I do is, “I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me.” I can seek first, you can seek first the Kingdom of God, because Jesus Christ will give you strength.
You need to remember that, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32.) The Apostle Paul didn’t say, “How shall He not with Him freely give us some things”; he says, “He will freely give us all things.”
So when you, as a pastor, feel the reality of your insecurities, your weaknesses, your fears, all of your inadequacies, you see your sins as well, you need to remember: “Jesus Christ will give me the strength I need.” You need to remember that God did not spare the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore, “He will with Christ give me freely all things that I need as a pastor, as man, as a husband, as a father, to seek first the Kingdom of God.”
If the people in our churches were truly seeking first the Kingdom of God, I believe the Living God would really revolutionize our churches. They would be more Christ-like in so many ways, and we would have, by God’s grace, more of an impact upon our world around us.
We need to seek first the Kingdom of God. We need to not let all of the cries around us, all of the demands for our attention to push us or squeeze us so that we do not seek first the Kingdom of God. We need to seek first the Kingdom of God and the righteousness of God.
In the hour of death, if your priority in this life was aligned with the priority of Matthew 6:33, you will then, by God’s grace, have assurance and comfort from your Saviour, and that is what you should also want. In the hour of death, to be even hearing your Saviour say to you, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.” Only Christ can do that for us. We need to pray that He would.
Let’s close now in prayer.
Our gracious God and our heavenly Father, please forgive us for the many times when we in our hearts and even in our practice have not wholeheartedly sought first Your Kingdom and Your righteousness. We thank you that the blood of Jesus Christ Your Son, our Saviour, cleanses us from all sin. We pray, our God, that You would make Your people—in this church, Your people in the churches represented by the pastors that are here—that You would make Your people to be a people who are continually seeking first the Kingdom and righteousness of God in the little things of life, as well as in the big issues of life; whether young or old; whether a new Christian or a Christian of many decades. Lord, our God, come and by Your grace, by Your Holy Spirit, with the Word of God work a mighty work in the churches of Jesus Christ in the Spanish-speaking world, and here in America as well. We ask for these mercies again pleading the merits and the blood of Jesus Christ alone. Amen.
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