Seek First The Kingdom of God - Dr. Jeff Hubing

I wanna encourage you tonight from Matthew's gospel. So we're gonna look at the gospel of Matthew. No. I I felt the Lord lay this, exhortation on my heart for you. And I I don't know.

Maybe it's timely. Maybe it's gonna be connected to some of the things that God is speaking to you about. You know, many of you here, young adults, you're you're maybe making decisions about your future, a career, a course of study, a spouse. You know, I mean, there's a lot of pressures that face you. But I I feel like if you will take heed, if you will pay attention to the council in this passage, you'll never get steered wrong.

You know, the lord is good and he's faithful.

Is

very famous passage of scripture called the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew five through seven. And we're kind of right about, you know, just two thirds of the way through. And he says here, do not do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? No one can serve two masters.

For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air.

They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.

They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you? Oh, you of little faith? Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear?

For the nations, the Gentiles, seek after all these things. And your heavenly father knows that you need them all, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added onto you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow. Tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Lord, we we come to you tonight because many times, our hearts do get troubled. And for whatever reason, we lose sight of who you are. We lose sight of your promises. We lose sight of the the word that you've given us as a guarantee. So even tonight, I pray, Lord, that you would help us to repent, to turn away from anxiety, from fear, from the from the distress that can be caused by trying to to to be to be a servant to the anxieties of life, the the the demands of this world system, lord.

Set us free tonight in Jesus' name. Lord, we don't want to live for these things. We don't wanna chase them. We don't wanna run after them, lord. We want to take your word for what it is, the truth.

And we want to learn to pursue you with everything we have, God. So let your spirit be poured out, God. Give us encouragement and strong exhortation to run hard after Jesus and nothing else. We thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Now you saw a phrase that was repeated, I think, at least four times in this passage. The phrase was, do not be anxious. Did you pick up on that? Does anyone know what it feels like to be anxious?

Do you understand this word, anxious? You know that feeling kind of that starts right about the top of your stomach and then works its way up into your throat? When you're you're faced with a situation that you don't quite know how to deal with. Do you understand what I'm saying? There's pressure on.

Scenario that's unfolding. You don't know exactly what. You don't know what to do. You're confused. You you're, you know And and here, this is the the exhortation of the king, Jesus Christ, who says, don't be anxious.

And you might say to yourself, but Lord, you don't know what I'm dealing with here. You know what I'm going through. You don't know. And and we proceed to list out the reasons why our anxiety is legitimate. Just me.

Maybe I'm the only one who doesn't. Maybe you don't know what I'm I mean, have you ever been in that situation where you're kind of arguing with God saying, don't you know? Aren't you paying attention? Aren't you watching what's going on down here? And we get into that situation and we start to think to ourselves, maybe he's not watching.

Maybe maybe I have to fix this. Maybe I've gotta do something. Maybe I maybe I'm the one who has to take charge and take the reins and be in control and make the call. It's a human temptation. Right?

I mean, the this is the very thing that started in the garden. When in Genesis, God said, look, you can eat anything you want here except this one tree. One tree. Can you believe it? You know, when I when I meet the Lord, I'm gonna ask him, why did you even put the tree?

I mean, why just why not even put the you know, there's something here I don't understand. But they could do every other thing that they wanted. They could eat every other thing that they wanted. There's just one thing you can't eat. And, of course, that becomes the focus of their attention.

You know, through the snake, the serpent saying, are you sure? Are you sure, he said, you can't eat that? You're not gonna die. Come on. Look at it's just fruit.

Yeah. I mean, the manipulation, the scheming, the trick, and all of a sudden, the one thing I mean, every other thing they could do. But they decided, you know what? We're gonna we're gonna find out for ourselves. Eve said it looked good for eating.

So and instead of just yielding, instead of just staying in that place of submission to the Lord, she and then Adam made a decision. You know what? We're gonna go for it. We're gonna take charge. He put us in the garden to be in charge of it.

So we're gonna we're gonna take this fruit, and we'll see. How many times are we affected by that? Same mentality. We find ourselves in a spot. We don't have confidence in God for whatever reason.

And so we start to make a plan. We start to plot. We start to scheme. We start to try and organize things to work our way out of the the situation. And and when we do that, usually, we make things about a 100 times worse.

Well, I think that's one of the reasons Jesus gives this teaching here. He knows what we're capable of, and he knows how we're capable of messing things up. So here's his exhortation. Stop being anxious. And you're saying, but, lord, you don't understand.

I don't you if you had my situate but he gives us reasons that our anxiety is unhelpful. Did you pick up on those? One reason he says that your anxiety won't accomplish anything. Yeah. That was the one who said, you know, your anxiety won't add one year to your life.

It it won't you can't help yourself by being anxious. It won't change anything, actually. But the whole passage is built on two truths in my view. The first of these is expressed down in chap down down in verse 32, where he says, look, you're concerned with with taking care of all of these needs, whether it's food or clothing or whatever else. But what he says there, he says, that's no if you're gonna if you're gonna be different, if you're gonna be the people of God, if you're gonna be Jesus's disciples, you cannot react like all the all the nations do because this is all they do.

They just run after these things. But you're different. And you gotta understand this. Your father knows what you need. Your father knows what you need.

That's a critical foundation. If we're living our lives and we don't think god knows what we need, we're gonna be constantly tempted toward anxiety, toward fear. We're gonna be intimidated by a whole lot. If we don't believe, number one, that he is a father to us, and not just any old father, but a father who is good and a father who is always right in the way that he provides for us. I want you to think about this.

I have four kids. The oldest has just turned 16. I'm terrified. He's gonna start driving out. It's gonna be crazy.

In the city of Chicago. Are you kidding me? No. So he's 16. Then I got a 13 year old.

I got a I got a a 12 year old daughter and a eight year old daughter. So four kids. But listen. When my kids were little, running around in their little diapers and everything like that, Can I tell you what? They did not have to tell me to feed them.

They didn't have to tell me that they needed clothes. Do you understand what I'm saying? They didn't have to tell me that they needed, you know, a warm coat in the winter, that that they needed something, you know, to drink in the hot summer. They didn't have to tell me that. You know why?

Because I already knew that. Because I was the father, and they were the kids. Now today, they try to tell me they need a lot of things. I'm not always convinced they're right. But I'm saying when they're little kids, the parent like, any parent worth his or her salt knows what their kids need and what they don't need.

Right? So there's this constant interchange between the children and the parents. Maybe you're familiar with this. Piece of candy? And the the parents says, no.

You you we're about to eat dinner. You can have it after dinner. But I need a piece of candy. Like, do you? You need it?

Yep. Yes. If you don't have that candy, you're going to perish. I can feel it. No.

I mean, kids have a perspective that's not, like, accurate, would you say? In many ways. It's immature. It's it's characterized by the fact that they're young and they're small, and they only have a limited capacity to process the world. I don't know, if you've spent much time around toddlers.

But toddlers, you know, sometimes we think of children sometimes we we think of children as being innocent and pure. Obviously, you don't know any toddlers. Like, if that's your mentality toddlers are some of the most selfish people on the planet. They're really only aware of themselves. They really cannot process the idea of delayed gratification, and they really cannot process the idea that anything else matters except what they want in that very moment.

I mean, you're gonna see if you go out and do any shopping in the holiday season, inevitably, you're gonna see a breakdown. You're gonna see a toddler breakdown if you're out in them stores at all at for any length of time. You're gonna see a kid laying on the ground, like, pounding or kicking or writhing. Like, a a three year old sometimes between three and five is is the is the critical window there. And it's not because the child most of the time, it's not because the child is abnormal.

It's just because the child cannot process the reality of what's happening. The child will get fixed on a thing. You know what I'm saying? It's the new Spider Man this or it's the new Molly McStuffins. I don't even know the you know, the the whatever the thing is that is the thing and parent takes it from their hand, like out of their hand and and puts it back on the shelf and that's it.

The the child is just lost. Because the child cannot prod their the perspective is not there. Parent, says, I'm never gonna have a kid like that. And everyone who walks up to that scene, who is a parent, says, just I mean, you just you cannot reason with the toddler. So here's what I'm saying.

Most of the time, our anxiety is due to our incapacity to perceive him or to perceive reality the way that he does. You know, it's irritating. It was irritating to me as a parent when my kids would do that. However, I did know that it it was gonna end. The tantrum was gonna end.

And the child that I loved 90% of the time no. I love the child all the time. I'm just saying, the child that I loved and knew, you know, was was a great little kid, you know, growing up there. That child was going to come back eventually. I knew that.

But here's what's true about this. God looks at each one of us as a son, as a daughter, and he realizes that sometimes we have tantrums. And he doesn't endorse it. He doesn't thank us for the tantrums. He doesn't congratulate us for for throwing tantrums.

He doesn't say, please keep on throwing tantrums. But he knows. He knows our frame. He knows our limitations. He knows how how young we are compared to him.

He knows what we lack in terms of perspective. And this is what I love about God, is that being a father, he doesn't he doesn't look at us as children and say, you missed it. You're out of the family. Thank God. He's there always.

And Jesus teaching here, he's like, listen. Your father knows what your needs are. It's the foundation for our trust in him is that we believe in his commitment to us. It's not toddlers that that can make sure that their parents take care of them. They really can't do anything about it.

It's the it's the commitment of the parent to the child that makes it work. Well, look, we have to see this about God. He's committed to us. He doesn't have children by accident. We're in his family on purpose.

And we have received, according to Romans eight and Galatians four, the spirit of adoption. The very holy spirit that you and I received through the gospel is the is the spirit that proves that we have been adopted and welcomed and brought into his family. Being in God's family is everything, guys. It's what changes the entire equation. It's it's what makes it possible to look at anxiety in our lives and say, it's not right, and it's not worth it for me to keep being driven by it.

So he says, don't be anxious because your anxiety doesn't reflect reality. Do you see that? It's like if my two year old, you know, is is throwing a tantrum, the reason is because his perspective does not match reality. He he thinks he needs something so desperately, and he's freaking out. You know?

It's like, but you're what do you think this little thing I mean, it's a toy. You don't need that. You're gonna be fine. But the mentality is not developed yet. Well, sometimes this is what we're facing.

We have a father, and he sees, and he is fully aware of what you and I are going through. And part of the challenge for us is to be convinced about that. If you can't be convinced about that, you're not gonna be very successful dealing with anxiety. Because you're gonna be constantly wondering whether or not there is actually someone there watching over you, invested in your life, committed to you. Listen.

God was so committed to you that he entered into human flesh and laid down his life and bled out for you, was buried in a tomb for you. This is the degree of his commitment to you and me. That's what a covenant is. It's it it is a it's a bond that God makes and says, I I commit myself to you. It's the it's the starting point of everything.

So Jesus says, you have a father, and you have value, and you have to see it. He says, look at the sparrows. I mean, they're not they're not working. But aren't you more valuable than they? Aren't you more valuable than some bird or some flower of the field?

And yet God knows how to clothe them. Think of ourselves as, number one, as fatherless or as some kind of orphan, or number two, like we don't matter to God. It makes no sense of the gospel story to think like that. If we didn't matter, then there would be no incarnation. There would be no suffering Jesus.

There would be no cross. There would be no tomb if we didn't matter. Now, he's invested in our lives. He's brought us into his household, and he says, I'm raising you now as children. So I understand what you need better than you.

I know. You think you need all these things. Listen. I know what you need. You need food and clothing, and you need something to drink.

I understand that. I'm take I'm going to take care of you. But your responsibility is then to cultivate a mindset and an approach to life that matches reality. Not the one that matches our emotional conditions. The one that matches what God says is real and true.

I think this is the the this is the battle that most of us fight. In fact, sometimes we don't have a problem believing that God's good to other people. Sometimes it's we have a feeling we have trouble believing that God's gonna be good to us. We if someone comes up and asks us for prayer, we're like, yes, right away, brother. I'll pray for you.

And then we have a situation going on, and we're like, Oh, prayer will never work. You know, it's like, what are we what is the process here? What is the thinking behind that? It's not wrong to acknowledge that we have needs. What's wrong is to be driven by them.

What's wrong is to be driven by them. It's not wrong to acknowledge we need things. We're human. We're not God. Therefore, we do need things.

But what's wrong is to chase things and The very gospel we preach starts with an admission that we are incapable of saving ourselves. Would you guys agree with me that on that? The very gospel we preach starts with an acknowledgment we cannot save ourselves. We can't work for a righteous identity. We'll never do it.

And yet somehow what creeps into our minds is, okay. Well, I'll admit that I can't save myself. But once I'm saved, now I can take care of myself. Like, how how does that logic work? Actually, you can't save yourself and you can't take care of yourself.

This is the whole point We're in consistence. We're inconsistent. We contradict ourselves when we preach a message that says, you must be born again. You must believe the gospel and repent, and only by faith. And then once we get into a relationship with God, we're like, now go ahead and get get to work.

Do everything. You do it. You take care of it. You work it out. We've crossed over.

I mean, we we started here with faith and trust and complete dependence. And all of a sudden, we've changed our tune. And now it's like, well, I've I've gotta do it. I've gotta handle it. I've gotta take care of it.

I I need a plan. I need a scheme. I need a well, look. It it reminds me of something Paul said into the Galatians. He said, having started in the spirit, are you now gonna be made perfect in the flesh?

Sometimes we get confused. We're living in the world. We're not in the new creation yet. Yes. There are pressures.

And listen, I've got good news for you. It only gets harder from here. You know, I say that, you know, I our school of ministry, I often you know, we have students in their mid-20s, late 20s, young-20s. You know, one of the constant things is like, hey, guys, you gotta, you know, get your schedule. You have to make sure you're committed to the right.

Something. And I just look at them like this, and I just blink a couple times. You don't have time. Are your actual responsibilities? And most of these folks are living in somebody's basement, you know?

They don't own a house. They don't have a family. They don't have children. They don't have a career. I'm like, you don't have time.

Out. You will look, if you're in your early mid twenties, you're single. You'll never have more free time in your life than right now. Start to realize, oh, yeah, your time's not your own in a certain way. You know, your spouse now becomes a factor in every decision.

You have kids. You just die. Because now, it's all over. You do not have any more. There is no such thing as free time now.

There is no like I said, there's no negotiating with toddlers. There's no negotiating with infants who get up at, you know, 2AM and then four and then seven and you you can't. There's no snooze button on a child. I don't know if you knew this. So I'm just saying the challenge is we have to get it sorted right now what we're gonna live for.

Because it only gets more complicated. I remember being I didn't get married. I got married late. I was 28 when I got married. So almost all of my twenties, I was a single guy.

And it was amazing. Like, if I wanted to go out and get pancakes at three in the morning, I could. I mean, if I wanted to go to some all night prayer meeting, fine. If I wanted to drive halfway across the country at the drop of a hat to go to some conference, yeah, no problem. My life was my own.

That all ends. I'm just kidding. It's awesome. I mean, it's it's amazing to be married. It's amazing to have children.

But listen, if you don't sort out what you're living for on the front end, you're anxious now. Just kidding. No, I'm just saying, what? You know, you're you're single. I mean, your biggest worry is, will I get a B on this exam or something like that?

Wait wait till you have a mortgage and a job and like kids who are trying to they there's you're trying to save money to send kids to college. On the one hand, the other kid's

getting a driver's license. The other like, you're gonna pull your

hair out, bro. You better learn this now. Like, you're gonna pull your hair out, bro. You better learn this now, so you don't have a heart attack at 42. So I it's just what I'm saying.

This is this instruction is not so that so that Jesus can say, oh, what's the matter with you people over here? You you don't seem to get it. This instruction is to say, listen. You wanna live right in this kingdom of mine. You're gonna have to get yourself situated.

Understand what you cannot be ruled by. And what you cannot be ruled by is even the most basic necessities of life. Now that comes that's a pretty hard word it seems. And yet it's the key. It's the key to walking with Jesus over the long haul.

Is that you realize that even the most basic necessities of life of your life cannot rule you. Food, drink, clothing. I mean, what else do you need? These are the basics. But even those, Jesus says, you can't chase them.

You can't. This is what distinguishes you from the nations. This is what distinguishes you from the rest of the world. And you all know this. I mean, if you've spent any amount of time in Chicagoland, you know this.

You know that this drives most people. You know it. That the not even the basic necessities, but now wealth and and influence and status and a level of a standard of living. This is what drives people. How much more important is it for us who claim the name of Jesus to distinguish ourselves from that mindset and not be driven.

I'm talking about not be driven by dollar signs, you know, like, VIP status or initials after our names or things like this. Like that has got to die for us. That mindset has to be put down. It has to be torn down. Paul would say in second Corinthians 10, he says, he takes captive every thought that sets itself up against the knowledge of Christ.

He takes it captive. He does not let it ruin him. He doesn't give it a place in his mindset. So for us, this is what faith boils down to, is trusting that God is who he says he is, and that we can trust him to do what he says he'll do. In a way, it's not more complicated than that.

Sometimes we think of faith as a different way to pursue the same goals as the rest of the world. And that's wrong. And and this is this is what I mean. Sometimes we'll say, well, people wanna get rich by doing immoral things, illegal things. We wanna get rich by trusting Jesus.

Alternate method you use to get the same things everybody else is running after. What is the point? That just becomes another you know, the ends justify the means. All you're trying to do is satisfy the same things the flesh was calling for before. And now you're gonna invoke Jesus to do it for you.

It's not what faith is about. It's a reinter it's like a how do I say? It's reorienting our lives around another set of values, around another set of of of and faith isn't just the way we get the same thing we always wanted, okay, only without committing some kind of major crime to get it. No. That's not what faith is.

Faith is where we relocate our vision. And we don't just run after the same things we are running after. We actually reorient our vision and our target. We're not shooting for the same things anymore. That verse in 32 is very clear.

The gentiles seek after all these things. K? You the that's what they are running after. We're not doing that. We're putting our position we're we're what we're doing is we're gonna be like Solomon.

Now listen. Solomon was blessed with a lot of wealth, but not because he sought it. You remember that when he became king? This is back in second what is it? Second Kings chapter three around there.

Something like that. God appears listen. God appeared to Solomon and said, ask whatever you want. How many people would like God to appear and say that to you? Ask for me whatever you want.

I'll give it to you. There you know why he doesn't do that? Because most of us are not ready to answer that question with any degree of wisdom or insight or revelation. Solomon was. Solomon said this, give me a discerning heart so that I can tell the difference between good and evil and lead your people.

And God said, you know what? You could have asked me for anything. You could have asked me for riches. You could have asked me for power. You could have asked me for fame.

Discerning heart, I'm gonna give you that. I'm gonna give you everything else to boot. Well, look at Solomon. That's the reason why he was one of the wisest men that ever lived, because he knew the difference between what to seek after versus what he knew already God would provide for him if he just prioritized the things that were already on God's agenda. So this is what Jesus said.

Don't chase food, clothing, what to wear, what to drink, what to eat. Don't chase it. It's not your job. Okay? Well, what is our job?

Our job is made very plain in chapter six verse 33. K? We're not we're not chasing the things. Here's what we're doing. We're seeking first that is above everything else.

God's reign. His kingdom, that is, and his righteousness. And then all these things will be added to you. How about that? What what would it be like to be able to be able to, like, erase anxiety from our from our MO?

What would it be like to to, like, pretty much put anxiety away? Like, to just put it in the drawer and close the drawer and not deal with what would it be like? Well, you can't do it unless you fulfill the first part of this exhortation. You have to seek first the kingdom of God. Well, what does that mean?

Well, first of all, it's a continual process. I don't know how the Arabic reads here, but the the verb seek in the original language has the connotation of something that's being repeated. I'm not a I don't know Arabic grammar or whatever, but maybe you could tell me later. But in in the original language, which is Koine Greek, it it reads something like this.

It it it

reads something like this. It it can be translated, keep on seeking, or seek again and again. The the idea is the thing is ongoing. It's not just something you did once. It's actually like, a a way of a life that you're you're cultivating.

Keep on seeking the kingdom of God. Now sometimes we talk about people being born again and entering God's kingdom, and it's totally right that we see it that way. What we also have to see is we have to keep living in that kingdom once we get born again into it. The kingdom of God is the issue for Jesus. It's the thing he talks most about.

I think I might have talked about this last time I was here. The number one thing he talks about in his life and ministry is God's kingdom. Even the the passage about being born again in John three is for the purpose of entering the kingdom or seeing the kingdom. Well, once you enter it, you now have to live in it. And living in it looks like continually looking for it, seeking it out.

What are we seeking? We are looking for what God's agenda is as king. Now I don't I wasn't born in a kingdom. Maybe some of you guys were. I know there's a few kingdoms left in the world.

Jordan and Saudi Arabia and United Kingdom and different places now. Different kings have different roles in those countries. But if you were born in a kingdom where the king actually functions with authority, you realize that the king's word is the last word on everything. Right? There's no supreme court.

There's no overruling that. There's no, oh, we're gonna sue you. No. You're not gonna sue the king. He's in charge, and that's just it.

Well, Jesus is king over God's people, and he's not negotiating that authority. And if he has an agenda, it's not gonna be amended. You can't pass a law to amend God's kingdom. It works how he wants it to work. And our objective is to seek his rule and what that reign, what his authority would want it to look like in our lives.

That's what we're responsible for. We're gonna seek that and we're gonna keep on doing it above everything else. Especially above chasing after what to eat, what to wear, what to drink. Because God is aware. As a father, he knows.

We just we don't wanna insult his fatherhood by thinking to ourselves that he's unaware. What kind of father I mean, look, I know we see it in our world today, but please let's distinguish between some of the poor examples of parenting we see in the world from the way God parents his people. He knows how to raise children. We have to believe that. We have to pursue his agenda, his priorities.

His concerns actually have to be elevated above ours. We're not particularly good at that in America. If you came here from somewhere else, maybe you have a better sense of this actually than most of us who grew up here. But if you grew up here, you probably are aware that Americans in general are not very good at prioritizing people above themselves. It's not actually a value here.

If you've ever gone to college or met with a counselor, the I mean, you just the conversations, you know, you should take this for your resume to make your transcript look as good as it possibly can. Because you have to position yourself to get the best possible job for you. I mean, every other word is you, you, you, you. I mean, it's like that, you know, you would think you were some kinda rock star walking into a college campus because everybody's telling you how to do you, how to how to get what you want, how to get what you need. I mean, I I've been in three different major universities.

One secular, one evangelical, one Catholic. I'd never had a single person counseling sessions where you pick your courses. I never had a single person say, you know, you might want to think about, you know, how to free up some free time to serve people in your neighborhood while you're in your classes. I never had a person say that. I never had a person say, you know, you might want to consider that you could better serve your parents and your family if you were to take a course like this.

No. What we're trained to do is look out for number one. Be the best you can be for you, looking out for number one. That's what we do. Well, we're not the only ones who do it.

I'm sure it's common in other parts of the world. But I'm just telling you, this mindset priorities that originate in his kingdom. That's going to be challenged. It's gonna be challenged. So you make a commitment like that, you can expect some turbulence.

You make a commitment. You say, god, I wanna live for your kingdom. You know what you can expect? You can expect opportunities to not do that, to pop up out of nowhere. Yeah.

Because there's a devil and there's a world system that is opposed to people living like this. And it's just gonna feed that flesh, that sense of entitlement, that sense of, like, I deserve this. I should get I deserve I The kingdom cuts against that. So we have to continually seek above everything else, God's kingdom and his righteousness, guys. The righteousness of God is his integrity.

It has to do with his character. It has to do with the fact that he is not a liar, that he is not someone who makes promises and then they're empty and they don't come to pass, that he's not someone who manipulates and schemes against people in order to to get what he wants. He doesn't do it that way. His righteousness looks like his integrity, and it starts in the inside. Like, many of these stories in Matthew five, you've heard it said, Jesus says.

Like, love your neighbor, but hate your enemy. But I'm telling you, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. I don't wanna do that. I didn't ask your opinion.

I mean, this is not this is the the gen the agenda of the kingdom is to transform people, so they look like the son of God. That is not some kind of half hearted effort. That is got that requires the power of heaven at work in our minds and hearts and bodies. It's not gonna happen any other way. We have to be willing for this.

We have to be willing to recognize, man, I've I've just been so set up to serve myself, to determine my fate, to choose my commitments. And the kingdom all the while is saying, I I have an agenda. God's saying, I have a plan. I have a purpose. Won't you just give yourself to it?

Won't you just throw yourself in to what I'm doing? You'll never regret that. Two hundred million years from now, none of us are gonna be wishing that we spent more time, you know, watching Netflix. Like, no none of us are gonna two million years from now, none of us are gonna wish we spent more time serving our own selfish agendas. No one's gonna wish that.

If if we could see it from God's perspective and think to ourselves, you know, the most rewarding, richest, fullest life you can live, it's to pursue my kingdom and my righteousness. This is what settles you. This is what gives you a heart that is at rest. This is what breeds confidence and courage and joy. Not working out your own plans and schemes, but settling into mine.

That's what positions us to see the second half of that verse come to pass. Because if we don't seek first the kingdom and his righteousness, then how can we say we expect all these things to be provided for us? That they're connected. The irony is that we we get what we need not by pursuing it, but by pursuing his kingdom and his righteousness, which again is the opposite. The world tells us the way you get what you want is that you go get it.

You take it. It's a dog eat dog world out there, bro. You gotta step on somebody's back to get to the top, then you do it. You know what I mean? This is the mindset.

God says, I'll give you exactly what you need. All you gotta do is run hard after me. Like, but how do I get it when I'm not getting it? Uh-huh. But how do I get it when I'm not chasing it?

Right. I don't uh-huh. Like, this is the thing. You have to lay down, mentality that's been built into us in the world system. It has to be transformed.

This is Romans 12. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The the mind speaks to the values, the commitments, and the priorities of our lives. That's what needs to be renewed. We don't renew that.

There's no transformation. And we keep on being the same people going for the same goals, only now we're trying to get Jesus to do it for us. Meanwhile, he's saying, I'm your father. I love you. You can trust me.

I want you to come after me. I'll settle all that. Just instead you know, it's like there's sometimes when my kids are I'm trying to get their attention. You know? They're doing something, like, video game or some and I have to I got grabbed by the chin and turned their head.

Like, and they're like, You know, it's like like, yes. This is like what the Lord wants to do right now. Like, you're all worried. This and that. The other thing he just wants you to he just wants you to look at him.

Okay? He just wants you to see him. He wants you to see the burning eyes of love that are just locked in on you. That he's he is attentive to you. He's not missing it.

K? He's not busy with some other thing and you're just too small and insignificant. No. His eyes are locked on the righteous. The scriptures testify to this.

The righteous are those who are running after the kingdom and his righteousness. If that's true, then then we have every reason to be confident. Just keep your gaze locked. Be stubborn about this one thing. Pursue him.

Pursue his righteousness. Pursue his kingdom. And you're gonna see him back that. You're gonna see him back his word. You're gonna see him come through.

You're gonna see him make good on every single promise. The kingdom works in the opposite way that the world. You know, the the world says, hey, you better work hard, and you better save up, and you better take care, you better make sure you invest in all the right places. The kingdom says, sell your possessions and give the money to the poor. You can have treasure and have it.

The the the world says, hey, don't pay attention to those people over there. They're not the difference makers. You pay attention to these these influential ones. The kingdom says, leave the 99. Go get

the It the

system. The kingdom says, you know, don't spend time with those people. They have a bad reputation. You know, they're they're frowned upon reputation to be solid. You know, the kingdom says, the kingdom says, Jesus, dine with tax collectors and sinners.

Because he said, I came for the sick. I didn't come for the healthy. The kingdom it's just I mean, it's such a fascinating, powerful, brilliant thing. And we we value it far too little, I would say. And the more we get captivated by it, number one, the more we're going to be delighted in it.

And number two, the more we're going to see the father taking care of us as children. So listen. Seeking. And so I close with this. The the text says seek the kingdom.

Seeking is an action word. It actually describes an action, an activity. Something there is something we do. But we don't chase our needs. We seek the kingdom.

Do you ever play that game when you're a little hide and seek? Yeah. Well, it's not hide and sit. Right? I mean, it's like, okay.

You go hide. And then if you sat there and you didn't actually seek, the game wouldn't work. Right? It would just be hide. And how fun is that?

It's not really fun. What's fun is when you hide and then you seek. Well, to seek, you have to get up and you have to look around. You might have to change your location. You might have to get down in there and check that spot.

You might have to go over there and look in that room. You might have to come around over here. You know, God isn't just we're we're not robots. He wants our participation. He just wants it in the right way.

We are called to do something. It's just not what the world system is begging us for, which is to chase after all the sparkly things around here. Just let it go. There's one thing that's worth seeking, just to get things done in a natural sense, or or maybe we think our job is just not to do bad bad stuff. Like, this is how we define Christianity.

Well, I don't do that anymore, and I don't do that anymore, and I stopped doing that. And I well, congratulations. But that's like day one. Now we wanna learn how to live. We don't wanna just, you know, congratulate ourselves for fifty years on what we're what we stopped doing.

We wanna start doing things that honor Jesus, that bring glory to God, that help us identify as sons and daughters because when people look at us, they see a reflection of the It's about seek first the kingdom. That may require some time spent on your face. That may require some time spent without eating. That may require some time spent in solitude, where you just lock yourself up with a jug of water in a bathroom for three days. I don't know.

I'm just saying we can't take this lightly. This is the one job we have. So what we can't do is throw all this energy into getting a career and a job and a house and a wife and a husband and everything else. And then we find that we in the middle of all that, we have only five minutes for a quick meditation before work. Guys, to me, that does not sound like seek above all else the kingdom and his righteousness.

It doesn't sound like that to me. Keep on seeking above everything else God's kingdom and righteousness. And then we throw hours and days into all kind of other things and find that we lack the capacity to read and study the word and meditate and pray and share the gospel. Something's not adding up. We need a vision of God's Kingdom that takes it out of the realm of some churchiosity thing and and really shows us that God's Kingdom is where life and joy and freedom and grace and love are really located.

And like Jesus taught, you know, in his parables, you know, there's a man looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great price. He sold everything else to just get that one. And he never he was not going to regret that decision. He knew the treasure of it and the value of it.

I've been chasing the wrong things. I've been running after things that I shouldn't. Help me to see what what you mean for me to seek your kingdom and your righteousness. What would that look like? Give him a chance to speak to you, to direct your steps.

Maybe you're gonna make some adjustments. Maybe you gotta make some changes. Maybe you ought to put yourself in a different situation. Maybe you have to look at another room. Maybe you have to look under the the the sofa for something that you dropped.

I mean, I don't know. I'm just saying, seek the kingdom. Seek the kingdom does not mean passively sit on the couch surfing Instagram for three hours and you wonder why God doesn't speak to you. You're gonna find something, you're gonna have to seek it. It's it's God's design.

He means for it to be fulfilling, satisfying, adventurous, exciting. So I just want to encourage you tonight to get into it. You won't regret this. I really I'm really confident in that. If you will set your mind and heart life that looks like this, seeking his kingdom and his righteousness, okay?

Number one, he will take care of what you need. He's good, and he's faithful to his word. And number two, you'll find a life that's worth living. Not just stuff that's not worth doing anymore. You'll find stuff that's worth throwing yourself into.

Not just now, but thirty years from now, sixty years from now, if God's gracious to you. Back and think to yourself, man, I wish I would have x, y, and z. Man, there is no life like this. The testimonial scripture bears it out. So I want to urge you to discover you know, to to make a choice.

Just say, father, I'm I'm coming for you. I'm coming for you. I'm coming for your kingdom. I'm coming for your righteous I want you to help me. Dispossess, father, from my heart, all of these attachments, all the things that I thought I needed to pursue.

God set me free. So I just wanna run hard after you so that I can have confidence that because I'm invested in the right places that you're faithful in every place. Let's pray together.