Seeking First The Kingdom

Well, we've been seeing together that the antidote to worry and anxiety about the practical
needs of our lives, according to the words of Jesus here in Matthew chapter 6, the antidote
is to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Notice again how the Lord Jesus puts it to Matthew 6.33, seek first His kingdom and His
righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.
The phrase "all these things will be given to you as well," comes from the world of business.
And it really refers to a seller's practice that instead of ripping off the buyer by short
changing him, you try to please the buyer by giving him an extra measure.
And I've got a little story to tell you about that from our experience up in Winnipeg.
Those of you that know me well know that I seldom shop.
My wife is a very good shopper, very thrifty shopper, but it's vacation.
My wife drags me out of bed early Saturday morning to go to sears because they have an
early bird special on.
The first hundred people get discount coupons, $10 for purchase of $50 and $20 for a purchase
of $100.
You have to know my wife to appreciate this, so being the good accommodating husband that
I am on vacation, she drags me out of bed, and we go marching to sears, quarter
day to the morning.
It's minus six against the wind uphill both ways, as they say, and there we stand with
a small group of people outside shivering to death, waiting for these doors to open only
later to discover that all the smart shoppers were in the mall in front of a door, waiting
for those doors to open, that's where they're giving out the coupons.
Now we got a hustle across the store to get our coupons on time, because remember after
the first hundred is gone, they're gone.
Well it so happens that one of the reasons we're shopping and one of the reasons that
she succeeded in dragging me there was that my watch has recently been giving me a lot
of trouble, and we needed to buy a new one, so we had over to the jewelry department.
And wouldn't you know the exact same model of watch that I have had for years now is
not only there, but it's on sale, twenty five percent off.
I'll tell you the price, we're down to forty one dollars now, but remember the coupon
only applies to fifty dollars, you're getting where this is going.
So now we shop around for another ten dollar purchase because that you get free when
you use the coupon you see, so we find a blanket for Deborah, and we're content and happy
on our way out the store when we discover they have a fifty percent off shoe and boot
sale gone.
Now please understand that I had just wrecked a pair of shoes on the building site because
I should have been wearing my hard-tolled boots for those of you that are in construction
but I didn't and I, anyway, yes, I repent.
Anyway, to make a long story short, here we are, we end up paying for our purchases with
our coupons and our gift cards and our extra bonus for signing up for a seer's master card.
Listen to this, we're now paying thirty two percent of the retail price.
I'm feeling pretty good towards seers now.
I want to recommend seers to you this morning.
They added value to my purchase, I had somebody come out to me between the service this morning
and he said, "But you got to remember the airplane trip that you had to pay for to get there."
You know, it's like you got to remember the gas you use in your car when you go chase
all these sales around every store, but I said, "Listen, you underestimate my wife.
We purchased our tickets with our miles."
So there you go.
So seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness as Jesus and all of these things will be given
to you as well.
And that raises for us this morning, then, the question, "What does it mean to seek first
the kingdom of God?"
What does this actually look like in the practical realities of life?
Well, let's begin by talking for just a moment about what a kingdom is.
A kingdom can be distinguished by three characteristics.
It is first of all a place that has a king, that is to say, somebody who has absolute authority
over his subjects and one who not only rules over them, but is responsible for providing
protection and making sure that justice gets carried out and that they are protected
from their enemies.
It's a place that is a king.
You can't be a king without subjects and subjects, then, not only submit to the authority
of the king.
I mean, today kings are just figureheads, but in biblical thought a king really had authority.
So you submit not only to the authority of the king, but what you do is you look to the
king, then, to make sure, again, as I said, that justice gets carried out and that your
needs get met.
Then a kingdom, and we don't often think of this, I suspect, also involves a constitution.
That is to say, a system of laws and regulations that describe both the privileges and the responsibilities
of both the king and the subjects.
And as I've shared with you before, if in the Old Testament, the Ten Commandments become
the Constitution of the people of Israel, then in the New Testament Gospels, what becomes
the Constitution of the New Kingdom, it is the Sermon on the Mount.
And as I said, when we first began this study a number of months ago now, if you want to
find out how God wants you to live as a subject of his kingdom, if you want to understand
what the Christian life ought to look like, at least ideally, then you read the Sermon
on the Mount.
And that's why we're spending time trying to discern together what life in Christ is supposed
to look like.
So the kingdom of God then is the reign of God, now listen carefully, it is the reign
of God over all creation.
And as you know, diagrammatically, we can present it in this way when God first created
the world, made Adam and Eve, he wanted to be at the center, he wanted to be the one
to whom they looked for all other needs and to whom they bowed in obedience.
And as a result, they lived in paradise, the blessings of God flowed, there was unity
between God and them, and there was unity in all of creation, then along comes the fall.
The serpent tries to break off that relationship by casting doubt on the character of God.
He says, "Has God really said that you shall not eat from any of the trees of the garden?"
God didn't say that at all, God only said, "Don't eat from this one, because if you eat
from it, it's going to kill you."
The woman doesn't know any better, begins to distrust God, disobey his very explicit
command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, gives to her husband and
the rest, as they say, is history.
And that circle on the left hand side then represents what I would call life in the kingdom
of the world.
God separated from us, we're under Satan's dominion, we've become selfish, life begins
to spiral down in confusion and pain.
And from that day to this, most of the nations of the world and most of the people in the
world both refuse to trust God, the Father, and they refuse to obey Him.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray.
And the purpose of the gospel, and please hear me on this, the purpose of the gospel
is not just to get our sins forgiven, not just to get us to heaven or to make life easier
for you and for me.
Now the purpose of the kingdom, the reason Jesus came into the world was to translate
us from Satan's kingdom into the kingdom of God's beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Scripture puts it this way, he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought
us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness
of sins.
And then Ephesians chapter 1, the Apostle Paul says that God has purposed in Christ to unite
all things in Him, in heaven and on earth.
In other words, God's intention is to take this rebellious creation that is at odds with
Him.
And by the time the curtain falls on history, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, all of life will again be yielded to His authority and everybody
that refuses to yield to His authority, guess where they end up?
In the lake that burns with fire.
Now the kingdom of God is the primary, one of the primary themes of Scripture.
The phrase occurs close to 150 times in the New Testament.
And when Jesus first begins His public ministry, according to Matthew and Mark, guess what
are the first words that He utters publicly?
Repent why for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
And likewise, the disciples, when they get sent out on their first mission, when they
first become apostles, what is the message they are told to preach?
Repent for the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God.
Is at hand.
And later on, when the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon the church and the apostles
spread out over all the world, what is their message?
Their message is the good news of the kingdom.
That is to say, God's determination in Christ to solve this problem of rebellion, to solve
this refusal, this inability, this unwillingness to trust God the Father and to again bring
us into harmony with God and harmony with all creation.
And as I said, by the time the curtain falls on history, when the lion lies down with
the lamb, so to speak, and the shalom of God again covers the whole earth, every injustice,
every brokenness, every bit of rebellion, will have been removed, and God will be all in
the law.
That's what God's after.
And so to seek the kingdom of God then is to seek the rule of God in every area of my
life, and at the risk of something like a broken record, please hear me when I say that
it isn't just about feeling good.
It isn't just about knowing that God's there for me, or my sins are forgiven, and one
day when I die, glory hallelujah, I'll go to be with you.
Now it's about doing the will of God in the here and now.
Remember the prayer of Jesus, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy
kingdom come, and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
And so as we sort of launch into this next phase then of studying the sermon of the
Mount, particularly these closing verses, what I want to try to do is break out four practical
areas of life and look together with you at what living and seeking the kingdom looks
like.
And the four areas that we want to look at together are first of all our personal lives.
What does it look like in my own personal life to seek first the kingdom of God?
Then my family life, what does it look like when my family life seeks the kingdom of
God?
Then what does it look like in the church?
And then what does it look like in broader society?
Now clearly we can't possibly cover all of that in depth this morning, but let's make
a beginning and start by looking at our personal life.
What does it mean when in my personal life I seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness?
That means first and foremost that I seek to enter the kingdom, that's a dot.
That is to say I must enter into a relationship with God whereby again I begin to trust Him
and where I again begin to learn obedience.
Now you know for those of us that have gone to church for many years that may sound rather
self-explanatory, but it really isn't because you know as well as I do by nature we neither
trust Him nor do we obey Him.
The Apostle Paul puts it this way in Ephesians chapter 2 he says among these we all once
lived in the passions of our flesh following the desires of body and mind and so we were
by nature children of wrath.
What is he isn't talking about some kind of a gross sin necessarily now he's talking
about following by nature the desires of body and mind that is to say instead of being
controlled by the will of God is revealed in scripture through the Holy Spirit and through
the ministry of the church over all the ages.
Now instead I leave by my own thoughts by my own wants and by my own desires and the
result of that is that by nature we are all children of wrath.
That is to say we're under the judgment of God because we don't fundamentally accept
him as Lord and master over our life and this is as true of the gross sinner such as
the tax collectors and the prostitute's in the scripture as it is of the refined sinner
the Pharisee who looks like he is all religious but his heart is far removed from God and so
to enter into the kingdom of God I must first of all repent the word repent means to change
my mind it means that my life was going this way now I make a U-turn and I start going
the other way formerly I did not trust God I did not obey him I just follow the longings
and the desires of my own life you know maybe I turned to God when I needed him but it
wasn't about God it was still all about me and a repent is to come to the acknowledgement
that you know I may have called him Lord but I haven't done what he wants me to do I
have neither trusted him nor obeyed him I have lived for myself my own purposes I have
driven the core of my own life I have been led by the desires of body and mind and that's
why my life is not meshing and I'm not in tune with God and I don't ever really feel
satisfied and so repentance means that I turn my back on that I come to God through faith
in Jesus and I accept Jesus not only as my Savior but also as my Lord and please understand
with me there is a difference between the two and while they can happen at the same time
in somebody's life for many of us there can be a space between the one and the other
to accept Jesus as your Savior is to understand the reality of sin it's to know it's to listen
to that small still voice of the holy spirit on the inside that says God's mad at you
or you're estranged from God because you're not living the way that God wants you to
live and it's to say Jesus thank you for dying on the cross so that all of those sins
could be forgiven and I receive forgiveness and a lot of us we've known the reality haven't
really of that tremendous burden being lifted off our souls and having the spirit of God bear
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God it's what being born again is all
a bad but it's not only accepting Jesus as Savior it's also accepting Him as Lord that
is to say thank you not only for forgiving my sins but because you have died for me in order
to forgive my sins you now own me I have become in the words of Paul a bond servant to Jesus Christ
and you now own me and you can tell me what it is that you want me to do and I believe just
assuredly as in our lives there must come this time in this place where we cross the line of faith
and accepting Jesus as Savior there's also that place where we need to make sure that we have
accepted Him as Lord and my experience for my own life and that of many others is that very
typically that takes the form of something very concrete I'll never forget you know as a young man
in college studying for the ministry some friends of mine with a student organization called the
Navigators had led me to a deeper commitment to the Lord Jesus I knew what it was now to own him
as Savior they had begun to disciple me and teach me about his Lordship and his claim on my life
that he wanted me to live for him will be hard for you to appreciate this perhaps but I can still
so clearly see me I'm lying on my bunk bed in our dorm room at Calvin and I'm looking at the
shelves where I have stored the two most valuable possessions of my life one is an old aircraft
radio receiver and the other is an old television without a picture tube now you say this or what
in the world was the matter with you that you valued that so highly well you got to remember my
earlier electronic interest and this was part of my life and I remember lying there looking at
those and saying to myself Lord if you want me to give those up for you am I ready to do that
and I'm willing to bet this morning there have been times in your life where the Holy Spirit comes
along nudges at your heart and he says this relationship that you're in this particular scene
that dominates your life this particular gold that you have for your life this desire this ambition
that you've had since a child are you willing to put that on the altar and trust me that what I
have for you is better than what you have for yourself that's Lordship and when it comes to that
question of Lordship it doesn't matter what else we are willing to bargain with what else we are
willing to give him the question is in this place will you allow me to be the Lord and the master
of your life those become defining moments in the road to discipleship because in those places
where we say no we find ourselves drifting away from Jesus in those places where we receive
grace to say yes we discover that we grow closer and dearer in our walk with him we need to
surrender our lives to him by entering into the kingdom of God and one reason so many people
have so much trouble living in the kingdom is because they've never entered into the kingdom
and so I ask you this morning as you examine your own life have you received Jesus
not only as the one who saves you that is to say the only one who can make this transformation
happen in your life because nobody else in all of the universe can make us take up our cross and
follow him and then has he given you grace in those places where he has spoken to you of the kingdom
has he given you the grace to say I don't know how I'm going to do this but in as much as you help me
I want to live for you and I want to obey you that's how you enter into the kingdom
and then having entered the kingdom of God of course we need to learn how to leave it out
and leaving it out involves two areas I think in particular we need to grow
in faith that is we need to grow in trusting God you know just as well as I do that just because
we have become citizens of the kingdom of God we've given our lives to Jesus we have received
forgiveness assistance we have received him as the authority in our lives that doesn't mean
that we have learned to trust him in all the areas of our lives in fact many areas of our lives we
still do things the old way we we've learned how to trust ourselves we we've learned how to figure
out how the world works and and how we know how to manage it and that's okay except the Lord comes
along now and he says I want you to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus
and so here's typically what will happen the Lord will take us as His children he will place us
in situations where our own resources are no longer sufficient you've been there I'm sure I've
been there places where your own cleverness your own you know previous way of trying to figure
out like all of a sudden it doesn't work anyone and you say Lord where are you I mean one of the
things that the memorial service were weighing yesterday was the pastor led the service talked
about the book of Job but he said you know that in the book of Job there are 330 questions
asked by Job and by his friends most of which get never insert what do you do with a very committed
Christian who kills himself throws your whole idea of what it is to be a Christian and how to
live the Christian life or a loop and so there'll be those times in your life it in my life where
God puts us in his situation and all the previous answers no longer work and we wonder God where are
you but you know it's in those valleys in those moments of doubt in those moments of questioning
that God eventually comes through reveals himself and helps us to know him better
and faith more than anything is a function of knowing God it isn't just how many Bible
verses you learn it isn't just about trying to figure out well you know this is who God is and
this is what theology is no no it's all about God who are you do I know your character and can I
trust you and can I trust your character that's how faith grows and the more we walk with him the
more by times he'll stretch our faith because he wants us to know him more intimately and to know
him deeper and so that's where prayer comes in that's where Bible reading comes in that's
where gathering in the context of collective worship like this comes in so that we can talk about
who God is we can share stories of how God has answered our prayer and how God has demonstrated
his love and we learned to go out of places like that strengthened in their spirit determined
all the more that even if the sun doesn't shine God's still on his throne he still loves me and
he is still determined in Christ to bless me with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places it's
to grow in faith and then of course it's to grow in obedience Paul puts it this way he says as
obedient children do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in endurance
but just as he who called you is holy so be holy in all that you do to be holy is to be separated
from sin and to be dedicated to go on God is holy and just as our children our reflections of our
nature and our character and we can see our likeness in them all the bad qualities coming from
the other side of course and the good ones coming from our side so God wants to see his character
reproduced in your heart and in my heart that means our lifestyle is to reflect the values
of the kingdom one of the reasons Christianity in North America for all his professing Christians
is not making a lot of impact on society is because too many Christians separate their life on
Sunday from their life on Monday through Saturday and it's one thing to spout spiritual realities
in a place like this it is quite another to live it in my every day existence before the world
and part of the challenge of Christ in you the hope of glory is to allow him to transform my thinking
to transform my emotions to transform my inclinations so that more and more I learn to be led
not by my own passions not by my own thoughts not by my own feelings not by my own wounded is not by
my friends all around me but rather by the will of God and so a growing Christian is a Christian
who is learning to put off the old and learning to put on the near the New Testament always summarizes
it this way we grow in loving God and loving our neighbor and I discovered many many years ago
that whatever I get confused about what it is that God is calling me to do and whatever it is that
He wants me to emphasize in terms of my own life or my own ministry there's ultimately only one
thing that counts and that is to present to him a people who love God before and love their neighbor
with wisdom and discernment even as they love themselves and if you're in Christ and the kingdom
is growing and expanding in your heart and in your life then there'll be movement in that direction
I'm not saying we're going to be there perfectly well I'm not saying we're not going to fail lots of
times but there'll be movement there'll be movement towards God and there'll be movement towards
other people around me in lifestyle not only but also in terms of my life's calling I'm convinced
from a biblical point of view that there is a destiny in a purpose that God has for each one of
His children we are a part of His body and while it may not always be easy to figure out what
that is as I grow in obedience and as I grow in my relationship with Christ I will also grow in
my life's calling it'll be an odd combination of the natural gifting that He has given me the
passions that He has placed in my life the opportunities that He presents to me and more and more my
life then begins to reflect the purposes that God has for me and a lot of people think that's a
lack of freedom a lot of people think the word obedience I remember as a young man growing in
faith the word obedience just turned me off so bad because I didn't want to have to listen to anybody
I wanted to be able to do what I wanted to do but you know it's like a fish and water a fish has
been created to live in water and in water it can prosper and thrive take it out of the water
it'll gulp and gas and die and you and I we've been created to live in the kingdom of God
and to serve Him and if you've ever been at a time or a place in your life where you have known
confidently and clearly that you're walking in the will of God and your wings are catching that
updraft of the Holy Spirit then you know what it is like to fly on the wings of the Holy Spirit
and maybe that'll only happen once twice half a dozen times a dozen times in our whole lives but
those few moments give us a hunger for the glory that is to come because they give us a taste
of life in the kingdom remember it was Eric little or ladel however you pronounce it and
cheer it's a fire who said to his sister when I run I feel his pleasure and when you're operating
in your sweet spot before God and you feel his pleasure you know the joy of the kingdom
so we need to grow in faith we need to grow in obedience and then very quickly as I wind up
we need to look for the consummation of the kingdom the word consummation means completion
coming together and the consummation of the kingdom means the coming of the kingdom of God in all
its glory and all its fullness you know just as well as I do no matter how many times in the
year and now there are those moments when we experience the touch of God they're only moments
they're only the first fruits they're only the the foretaste of the powers of the age to come
for every moment when we feel the wind of the Holy Spirit lifting us up there are
10 other moments where we feel the tug of the gravity is sin trying to pull us down
for every life we see change for every church we see built for every kingdom activity that is
undertaken we see how in this present age the kingdom of darkness continues to grow continues
to multiply it's very easy in moments like that to give up and to say what's the use Jesus said
when the Son of Man comes will he find faith on earth and to look for the consummation of the
kingdom is to realize that what we see in seed form today those moments when we meet up with God
in those moments when we he's a lifting power of his Holy Spirit when Jesus comes again in glory
all creation will be set free from its travail every knee will bow every tongue will confess that he
is Lord and in that day those who have sought his kingdom and have soughted with all his heart
and will look forward to the coming of the Lord will be on the forefront cheering and rejoicing
and giving him honor because everything that we have ever longed for everything that we have ever
desired in that moment will come to complete fruition and nobody who has hoped or trusted in God
in that day will be disappointed seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness begins with
your heart and with mine can we do it on our own of course not but if we will bow before Jesus
as he gives us grace he is at work to will and to work within us according to his good pleasure
and he will move us forward on that journey until that grand and glorious day
when the kingdom comes in all its power
and the light shall light with the lamp of his golden night that shall be the end and his glory shall fill me up
let it rule that it reign in our life there's a shout in that game as we enter the car
here the king of the Lord of God for the valley shall ring with the sand of praise and the light shall
light with the lamp of his golden night that shall be the end and his glory shall fill me up
may your will be done may your King of God that it rule that it reign in our life
there's a shout in that game as we enter the car
here the king of the Lord of God may your will be done may your King of God that it rule that it reign in our life
there's a shout in that game as we enter the car here the king here the Lord of God
here the king here the Lord of God