Matthew 6.25-34


This is one of those texts that sooner or later church people get to know.
It’s one of the classics. And one part of it has even been put to music. I
was talking about this passage with someone recently and in the process of
doing that there were some things that became clearer to me. So, it is out
of these insights that I speak to you today.

I’ve read the whole paragraph, but the focus of my thoughts will be on verse
33. ‘But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these
things will be added to you.’ The first question I want to raise will sound
simple – until you try to answer it. What does it mean to seek? That’s where
the action of the verse lies. Jesus utters a command. ‘Seek first the
kingdom…’ What is it that He wants us to do? How would you answer that? What
does it mean to seek? Now, as it always turns out, the text gives us the
answer. Jesus has already described what it means to seek. And He has done
that in talking about the Gentiles, the unbelievers. Do you remember what He
said? ‘Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What
shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all
these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.’ The
larger context is about being anxious about things like food and clothing.
Jesus warns about falling into that trap. And to make that especially clear
to His Jewish audience, He uses the Gentiles as examples of what not to do.
They seek these things. They focus on these things. They fret about these
things. They are dominated by such concerns. Then Jesus speaks quite
clearly. His followers, and that includes us, are not to be like that. Those
things are not to be our focus. We are not to seek such things. But that’s
not enough. It’s not enough that we just don’t focus on those sorts of
things. No, rather, our focus, our dominating concern, is to be elsewhere.
We are to be so very different from the rest of the world. We are to seek
the kingdom of God. That is to be our focus. That is to be first for us.

Now, some of you are thinking, ‘Yes, but what is this kingdom of God that we
are to focus on?’ Tomes have been written answering that question. Let me
offer this as a very simple answer. The kingdom of God has to do with the
rule of Jesus over everything. And that occurs by the spread of the Gospel,
intensively and extensively. And so, when I tell you that your focus is to
be on the kingdom of God, I’m telling you that the key to your life is to be
Jesus. Your life is to be about advancing His cause as the Savior and Lord
of all things. That is what you are to seek. That is to be of first
importance for you. It’s all about Jesus.

So, you see, just as the Gentiles give themselves to their concern for
things like food and clothing, the necessities – and luxuries! – of this
life, we are to give ourselves to a concern for the kingdom. We are to give
ourselves to Jesus. He is to be first for us. They seek and we seek, and
that with the same kind of intensity. It’s just that we seek something very
different. It is this that sets us apart from them.

Do you see, then, that Jesus’ point in this passage that I read is not
merely that we aren’t to give in to worry? That's what how most people view
this text. But there is much more going on. Yes, we are not to worry about
food and clothing. That’s because there is something that we are to put in
the place of worrying about such things. We are to seek the kingdom. That is
where our focus is to be. That is to be the center of our lives. If we do
that, then we won’t be worrying about the other stuff. We won’t need to
worry about the other stuff because we know ‘all these things will be added
unto you’.

I need to ask a question, here. It will be a somewhat pointed question, but
my intention is constructive. Would it be going too far to say that when it
comes to seeking first the kingdom, when it comes to giving ourselves to
making the advance of the Gospel our top priority, we aren’t there? I think
that I can say that, at least for most of us, seeking the kingdom is not our
first priority. We are busy doing other things, other good things, but not
as a way of pursuing this mission. So, would it be going too far to say that
we have sinned when it comes to this passage? Would it be going too far to
say that instead of seeking first the kingdom, we find ourselves fretting
about the same sorts of things that the Gentiles do? Obviously, I do not
know your hearts. So, you will have to examine them yourselves. But that is
not difficult. Just look at the things that concern you most each day. Do
you see those things as part of obeying Jesus’ call to seek first the
kingdom? Jesus is being very demanding here. That needs to be recognized. He
expects us, His disciples, to focus on Him, to seek His kingdom as the first
priority of our lives. That is asking a lot. It would be egocentric in
anyone else. But He gets to define what discipleship is all about, not us.
He gets to define what it means to be a Christian. ‘Seek first the kingdom…’
That is our mission. And it trumps everything else. And so, whatever else we
do, raising kids, pursuing a career, planning for retirement or living it,
it is all to be done with this goal in mind. We are to give ourselves to
Jesus and to live every aspect of our lives in terms of His call. That
defines our mission.

Once again the Law of God echoes in our ears and also in our hearts. And it
has, once again, revealed our sin. Our response should be obvious. We need
to once again repent of our sin and once again renew our faith in Jesus. As
you do that, there is forgiveness. And if you were to commit this sin and
repent of it a million times in one day, there would forgiveness a million
times. That’s the Gospel, and it is simply amazing! But there is more than
just forgiveness. There is also the opportunity for change. Real repentance
is about change. Real repentance desires change. The Spirit causes change in
the repentant. The question at this point is obvious. What does this change
look like? How do we obey the call of Jesus to seek His kingdom first? This
is a very large question, and I cannot answer it even if I had the time. So,
let’s just chip away at it. Let me mention one area for you to work on. I’m
going to talk about prayer.

I’m not going to talk about how honest prayer is to be a part of every day.
You know that already. No, instead, I’m going to talk about how to pray with
Jesus and His kingdom as the focus. Far too often the prayers of Christians
have to do with our own comfort and well-being. They have to do with our
children being safe and ‘successful’. They have to do with overcoming
looming crises that threaten our cherished plans. And all too infrequently
they have to do with seeking the kingdom first. Prayer is one place to learn
what it means to seek first the kingdom. Jesus taught us in this same
context – the Sermon on the Mount – what it means to pray with the kingdom
as first priority. ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name, Thy
kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ Here are the
priorities for ‘kingdom first’ prayer. What will bring honor to the Father?
What will advance the cause of the kingdom of Jesus? In what ways can the
commands of God – His will – be obeyed? And the standard for all of this is
what is going on, right now, in heaven.

What might that look like? Let’s take a few examples. How are we to pray for
the sick? The popular answer is that we should pray that they be healed.
That might be right. But is it the first priority? Maybe we should think
about how that sickness might relate to the advance of the kingdom. Jesus
causes and uses sickness. Sometimes He uses it as a preliminary step before
a dramatic healing where His power in the realm of the body can be seen as a
reflection of His power in the realm of the soul. Sometimes He uses sickness
to drive home some aspect of the Gospel to the person who is sick. Being
confronted with what can be a terminal illness strips away an awful lot of
fluff so that what is truly important can be seen. Sickness is not just an
unwanted surprise or inconvenience. Sickness is a tool in Jesus’ hand. And
we need to pray with this in mind. Sometimes we need to pray that the person
who is sick might see the real instead of the fluff, to see the Gospel more
clearly, to see the priority of the kingdom for his life. Sometimes Jesus
uses sickness in one person’s life to do that same thing in someone else’s
life. Sickness can bring issues of the heart to the surface where they can
be dealt with by believing the Gospel in a new and deeper way. And sometimes
sickness is a blessed release for a saint when it leads to heaven.

What does it look like to pray for your kids with this ‘kingdom first’
attitude? The highest priority for your children is that they become
faithful disciples of Jesus. Nothing is more important than that. And so,
when you pray for success in the lives of your children, it is the Gospel
that defines that success. And sometimes wise prayer for a child will
include a request for him to encounter a specific difficulty so that the
Spirit will have opportunity to deal with a specific sin. And prayer for
your children will include that they understand in very concrete ways that
they also are to seek first the kingdom.

Let me give you a personal example here. Seth and Crystal, and Gabrielle
have decided to move to a part of Peoria that is dangerous. The houses there
look pleasant enough, but there are times when you hear gunshots. The local
drug dealer lives up the block. And people have gotten mugged. That’s where
some of my children and grandchildren live. They live there out of a sense
of mission. They live there for the sake of the kingdom. When I pray for
them, I do not pray that nothing bad would ever happen to them. The Bible
never makes that promise, and I know that Jesus uses evil for good. But, I
do pray that they would be kept safe from the evil one who has designs on
their souls. And I pray that they would be a great success; that is, that
the Gospel would shine brightly through them in that dark place. That’s
praying with the kingdom first in mind.

I haven’t given you specific rules about praying in light of the kingdom
because the key to good praying is wisdom. And wisdom is something that you
learn by doing. You ponder the situation in light of what you know of the
Word, in light of some of the things that I’ve just mentioned, then you
pray. And then you watch what Jesus does. And you learn how to pray a little
more wisely.

We all have some things to learn when it comes to seeking first the kingdom.
But Jesus has sent His Spirit to teach us all about that. So, I am quite
optimistic. Jesus is at work in our midst, and He will lead us as we pursue
the mission that He has given to us.