Seek First God's Kingdom

 This is the sermon given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, September 27, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 6:25-34.

            This is one of my all-time favorite passages of scripture.  It is for a lot of people, actually.  This passage routinely makes the lists of most popular scripture passages.

            It’s pretty easy to see why.  It’s about worry, and worry is the one thing that just about everyone has in common.  It does not matter where you live.  It does not matter what you do.  It does not matter how much money you have.  It does not matter what gender you are, what race you are, what age you are, anything.  The one thing pretty much everyone does is worry.

            Everybody’s worried about something.  My worries may not be the same as yours, but we all have them.  And if we ever run out of things to worry about, all we have to do is look at the news.  The news is pretty much a list of things to worry about every day.

For the most part, we wish we did not have these worries.  We wish that somehow, in some way, something or someone could come along and take all our worries away.  But it does not happen.  If we ever do get rid of one worry, here come three more to take its place.  One of the things that makes heaven so appealing is we assume that, in heaven, there are no worries.  After all, it would not be heaven if we had worries there, right?  In heaven, God will take all our worries away.

But the thing is, God will do that for us on earth, too, if we just let Him.  And Jesus tells us how God will do that.  And you know the funny thing?  The verse in which Jesus tells us that is the verse we tend to pay the least attention to.  I do, anyway.

Look at what Jesus says.  He says, don’t worry about food or drink.  After all, Jesus says, God feeds the birds and takes care of them, and you’re worth more than a bird.  He says, don’t worry about clothes.  After all, Jesus says, God makes the flowers look beautiful, and you’re a lot more valuable than a flower.  Jesus says, you don’t need to worry about any of that stuff.  God knows you need that stuff, and God will take care of it.  So don’t worry about tomorrow.  Tomorrow will take care of itself.  Each day has enough trouble, so just concern yourself with today.

And we really like all that.  The idea that we don’t need to worry about food, or drink, or clothes, or anything else--that’s really appealing.  The idea that we don’t need to worry about tomorrow, that all we need to do is concern ourselves with today--that’s really appealing, too.  We like all that stuff.

But did you notice that I skipped over one of the verses?  This is the one I said that we tend to not pay attention to, or at least I don’t.  And yet, it’s probably the most important verse in the whole passage.  It’s the verse that tells us how we can get rid of all those worries and turn them over to God.  Here it is:  “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.”  It’s simple, right?  If we want to get rid of our worries, all we need to do is focus on God.  Seek God’s kingdom.  Seek God’s righteousness.  In other words, serve God.  Do God’s will.  Live our lives the way God wants us to live them.  

All it is, really, is a matter of priorities.  Our tendency, as human beings, is to prioritize our own needs and wants.  That’s why, in Jesus’ words, we “run after all these things”.  That’s why we worry about them.  We believe we need to take care of ourselves first.  Once we get that done then, if we have time, we’ll start doing things for the kingdom of God.  But first we need to provide for ourselves.  God surely understands that, right?

And don’t think I’m pointing a finger at anyone here.  This is every bit as much my tendency as anyone’s.  It’s probably more my tendency that it is for some of you.  But it seems to me that it’s a natural human thing.  It’s part of the survival instinct God put into each one of us.  We feel like we need to take care of ourselves, and of our families, first.

But Jesus tells us we need to go beyond natural human things.  Now, Jesus does not say that it’s wrong to want to take care of ourselves and our families.  But Jesus says, if we would prioritize what God wants, if we would put God first, we would not have to worry about all that stuff.  If we would serve God, do God’s will, seek God’s kingdom, God would take care of all those other things for us.  We would not need to run after them.  They’d be given to us.

So what’s the problem?  Well, the problem is that it’s just darn hard for us to trust God that much.  We know we should.  It sounds good in theory.  But to actually trust God that much, to actually make seeking God’s kingdom our number one priority, to actually believe that if we spend our time seeking the kingdom of God, God will take care of us and give us everything we need--well, that’s a pretty big leap of faith.  

It’s a leap of faith that a lot of us just simply are not willing to take.  We may know we should.  We may even want to.  After all, what Jesus offers us sounds really good.  Freedom from worry.  Who would not want that?  We’d love to have that.  But--man, can I really do that?  Can I really put that much trust in God?  Can I really just put the main focus of my life on seeking God’s kingdom, and just take it on faith that if I do, God will provide me with everything I need?  That’s a lot of faith.  Do I have that much faith?  Do you?

Now, I do want to point out one thing.  Jesus does not say that if we don’t do this, we’ll go to hell.  Our salvation is based on our faith in Jesus as the Savior.  Jesus understands how hard this is for us.  Jesus knows that we’re flawed, weak, imperfect human beings.  We should not use that as an excuse, of course.  But Jesus’ point is not “do this or else.”

Jesus point is that we would be so much happier if we did this.  We truly could live a life free from worry if we did this.  If we could just trust God.  If we could just trust in the greatness and the goodness of God.  If we could just trust in the love of God.  If we could have enough faith to believe that Jesus’ words are true:  that if we seek first God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, all these other things will be given to us as well.  If we could just do that, we would never have to worry about anything ever again.

So, does that mean we should all quit our jobs and completely change our lives so we can seek God’s kingdom?  No, not necessarily.  But it does mean that we need to re-orient our lives.  It’s possible that seeking God’s kingdom first may mean we need to make some changes in our lives.  But it’s also possible that the biggest change seeking God’s kingdom first requires us to make is in our attitude.

Think about the things you do.  Could you use those things to serve God’s kingdom?  Think about the people you spend time with.  Is there something you could do while you’re with them to serve God’s kingdom?  Think about the things you say to people.  Are there things you could say to them that would serve God’s kingdom?  In fact, sometimes what we need to do is think about the thoughts we think.  Are our thoughts, whether they’re expressed or not, thoughts that lead us to serve God’s kingdom?

These are not questions we can answer in a minute or two.  If we all leave here after the service and don’t think about this, nothing is going to change.  And I include myself in that, too.  If I leave here and don’t think about this, if I start thinking ahead to the Sunday night service and next week’s service and just forget all about what I said here today, nothing is going to change.  I’ll stay in the same spot I am right now.  And I’ll have all the same worries and fears and concerns that I have now.  That’s how it will work for all of us.  If we don’t think about this, if we don’t take it to heart, we’ll all just go on with the same worries and fears and concerns that we have now.

And maybe you’re okay with that.  Maybe you think things are okay the way they are.  And maybe they are okay.  But wouldn’t you like them to be better?  Wouldn’t we all like them to be better?  Wouldn’t we all like to be able to live our lives without all those worries and fears and concerns?  

Jesus offers us the chance to do that.  All we need to do is seek first God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness.  If we do that, Jesus promises us that all we need will be given to us.  

We can take that leap of faith, make God’s kingdom our top priority, and be free from worry and fear.  Or, we can continue to live as we are, with all of our human worries and fears.

Which will it be?