Seek First the Kingdom

The central message of Jesus was the arrival of the kingdom of God. The Gospel that Jesus embodied, proclaimed, and demonstrated, was the Gospel of the Kingdom. His arrival was a declaration that a new King was in town. As followers of the King of kings, it makes sense that we would be rooted in a kingdom dynamic. It also is important for us as his church to see how the kingdom God was meant to be the natural cultural and overflow of our lives.

The word “kingdom” occurs 120 times in the gospels (53 in Matthew and 45 in Luke). We are going to walk with Jesus into a rich and practical theology of the kingdom for the next 7 weeks.

Transcript

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Thank you for listening to an audio resource from Stanwich Church, located in Greenwich in Stanford, Connecticut. The vision of Stanwich Church is to know Christ and make him known.

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The gospel lesson for today is from Matthew chapter 6, verses 25 to 34. You'll find that on page 965 of your Pew Bible. Jesus invites us into a life that is filled with fruitfulness, love, generosity, and the lack of anxiety by focusing on God's kingdom and care. Here then is a reading from Matthew chapter 6, beginning with the 25th verse. Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, or 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 let your heavenly father 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 you are anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon, in all his glory, was not a rage 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, O 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 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 to you. Therefore, be not anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. May God add his blessing to the reading of this, his holy word.

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Do not be anxious. Do not be anxious. Six times the word occurs in the text. There couldn't have been a more timely word from Jesus than this cultural moment. Do not be anxious. So I wanted to do some research this week on anxiety, and to do research means I got my friend Claude. I call him Claude, because he sounds much more sophisticated that way, to go to all peer-reviewed journals and give me some statistics and some realities. One in five adults experienced mental illness in 2024, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Twenty percent of adults are fighting some form of anxiety. Young adults ages 18 to 25 have the highest rate of mental struggles and anxiety among adult groups. That's the time when you're ready to flourish and go. Beyond uncertainty, there's technology, economics, political, and social disconnection. Which is interesting because America has more convenience, technology, medicine, entertainment, and wealth than any civilization in history. And yet anxiety continues to rise. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports anxiety among children and teens has become a national crisis. I'm not even going to go over those statistics. It just breaks my heart. I was allowed to be a child. Anxiety wasn't part of the reality of my life. Researchers are increasingly linking anxiety to modern patterns of life. Peer-reviewed research published through the CDC's Preventing Chronic Disease Journal found connections between excessive screen time and increased social media use during adolescence was associated with worsening depressive system symptoms over time. Their conclusion, we are constantly connected digitally, but increasingly disconnected spiritually, relationally, and emotionally. So are you encouraged? Stressed? I mean, it speaks a reality. Putting our heads in the sand when there's a reality isn't helpful. Better to find a solution. And it's interesting, seems that anxiety was a problem in Jesus' day. Because six times he addresses it. We're in our Kingdom of God series in week one, we saw that the kingdom of God was Jesus' central and most proclaimed and demonstrated message. We saw last week from Dr. Wanda Walborn that the kingdom is a deposit that's put within us that we get to steward. It's something that's within us and amongst us that we move into this world. And today we're going to see that the kingdom will not take full hold until it becomes a priority. Jesus is very clear in his teaching. As long as there's other priorities, his kingdom will not become a priority. And it seems the problem that creates is more anxiety. So let's see what Jesus says about it. This is a packed passage, fun passage to preach, because Jesus is offering something to us that's pretty incredible. It starts this way. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? So as you're studying your scriptures, when you see that word, therefore, it's a clue to go back to what was just said. And Jesus, in the previous section, is talking about allegiance. He's telling us to not live a split life, live a life that's congruent. First, where's your treasure? You can't have a treasure in heaven and a treasure on earth. There's a one primary place he's saying to invest your treasure. He talks about what we allow into the eyes because the eyes will influence what we're becoming. He says you can't live simultaneously in darkness and in light. So choose light. Put things of light into your system. And you can't have two masters. You can't have God and some other master. He's going to actually name one of the significant masters of our time, which is Mammon, which is dependence on our wealth. And so Jesus is inviting us to a better way. He's basically saying here, those ways of living will create anxiety. Because there won't be congruency inside of you. And he begins with the basics, your food and your clothing. He starts with the very bottom things on Maslov's chart. The things that could cause us to worry, and he's saying, don't put so much effort in your mind in that space because God wants to care for you. And he uses two creation illustrations. For food, he says the birds are taken care of. Have you ever seen a bird farm? I just thought of that. That was a really good one. I haven't. But they're cared for. And he says, the lilies of the field, the lilies in Palestine will cover a whole field. They would have had a clear picture of that. He says, and God does that. It's even better than Solomon's royal garb. I love the fact that he picks lilies because it's about beauty. God's not only about the basics, he's about beauty. God loves to give us pleasure. He created you that way to enjoy the things of his creation. And he says basically, if God would do that for inanimate things, how much more would he do for you? His first declaration is in verse 26. He says, Look at the birds, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Is there anybody here who's less value than a bird? No, yeah, that makes you laugh, Wiley, doesn't it? It's ridiculous. And then to go on to the whole aspect, he says, your heavenly father in verse 32, the Gentiles seek after these things, but your heavenly father knows that you need these things. And aren't you of more value to your heavenly father? This is already God's provision that's being prepared, which is interesting. This is in the Sermon on the Mount, and just previously he's given us the Abba prayer, our Father in heaven. Do you see how this is flowing? Out of the very core of the teaching that Jesus is giving us. In the middle of it, Jesus throws in two pithy statements. They sound like wisdom literature, like from the Proverbs or something. In verse 27, I love this one. He says, And which of you, by being anxious, can add a singer hour to his span of life? This is pre-advanced medical treatment. We know today that anxiety makes your life shorter. So, men, there's a reason our wives are outliving us. Was that really a while? I thought that was kind of average. The second one he comes up with is in verse 34. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day, it is uh has its own trouble. Be encouraged, there's more trouble coming. How many times have you spent hours worrying about something that never came into existence? How many times have you found yourself up at two in the morning? And maybe you started for the first few minutes in prayer, but slowly it's drifting off to figuring out how are you going to solve your problem? I'm preparing for the Camino right now, so I don't go to the gym in the morning. I do walks around here, try to get in a five-mile walk every day. There's a hill right here that I go up to start, and I start my morning prayer with the Lorica, the thing I pronounce over you, and I start praying for my family, and I get to the top of the hill and I'm starting to worry about my family. I stop praying. Any relate? The rest of you, are you gonna lie here in front of me? People come to me with problems, and I'll say to them, I choose not to invest emotional energy in that yet, because that might come in two years, but I can't use my emotional energy now for something that might never come about. And Jesus is basically giving us this kind of wisdom in the text. But as he highlights anxiety, he gives the solution. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. What's it mean to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness? I think it's primarily looking at life, not through a self-concern of trying to accomplish something, but looking at it through the priorities of God. We sang it this morning. I wrote it down because I didn't want to forget it. Father, let your kingdom come, let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, right here in my heart. So, how do I seek the kingdom? I draw a circle around everything that God has given me to steward, and I say, God, what is your priority in that space? Not what's my priority, not what's my gain, but what's your kingdom wanting to produce in that space? And then it liberates me so that I can just be freely his and not have to try to accomplish something in my life. Thing is, this is incredibly liberating. Uh Ingrid and I lived in the sixth poorest country in the world for eight years, Molly, West Africa. We had open sewer run in front of our house. You knew what season it was by whatever pests were inside the house. Ingrid would go into the pantry and she'd turn the lights on several times and say, I'm coming in. Those people, if I don't know what this term means, but they were dirt poor. But their trust in God gave them a joy that surpasses any trust that I see in my wealthy corner of the world. You see, when it's about the kingdom and you have a lot, you can give a lot. Because you're not worried about any shortfall in the future. If you're in the kingdom and you don't have a lot, you don't sit worrying about what's coming because you can trust God. See, a kingdom reality works for every socioeconomic reality in life. So it doesn't matter where you come today, what you come in with. God's ready to meet you in all of your potential places of anxiety. So what's the so what this morning? Jesus is giving us an invitation to let anxiety go and to enter his kingdom. Now I want to remind you, kingdom is not a place, it's the rule and reign of God. It's the abode of King Jesus. He's inviting us to be in the throne room, to be in royal place. Come on. That's quite an invitation. See, Jesus doesn't send us on this journey to find the kingdom and then wait for us to come back. He's actually waiting on the other side of the journey. That we would meet him and it would transform everything about our reality. It's a great exchange. My sin for his holiness, my self effort for his spirit and his plan of what he wants to accomplish in my life, my striving for his rest, my burden for his yoke, which is easy, my temporary treasure for his eternal riches that never fade, spoil, or burn away. My anxiety for his shalom. Does that sound good to anyone in here? That's the kingdom of God. It's willing to ready to transform every place of potential anxiety. So, what's the now what? It's got to be a priority. Listen to the language of Jesus. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all of these other things will be added. Let me give you this world's uh philosophy. Seek all these things, and hopefully you'll get the kingdom. This is a call to prioritization. This is a call to making King Jesus the head of everything. This is the call of submitting everything of my life to what Jesus wants to do. All my aspirations come under the aspiration that King Jesus would be glorified. You see, anxiety is a discipleship issue. It's about being formed in the way of King Jesus so that his way becomes our way very naturally. And we start to develop a kingdom perspective that gives us comfort every day of our life. See, we're constantly being formed by our culture. We're bombarded every day with what we should be, what we should do, what we should have. And it's that that creates anxiety. And Jesus is saying, seek me and watch what happens. You see, because seeking the kingdom is just about seeking King Jesus. I've spent a life chasing after Jesus. People ask me all the time, how do you live with such non-anxious presence? Someone called me last week a happy warrior. I like that title. A happy warrior. I didn't know I was getting the kingdom, but I sought Jesus with everything I had. And he's done it. He's the one that always does it. In Luke, presenting Jesus' teaching on the kingdom of God shows a paradox. There's two aspects. First, he says this fear not, little flock, for it's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Do you hear that? It's your Abba Father's pleasure to give you the kingdom. It all starts with God. He's the one wooing us into relationship. He's the one who first loved us. We love him because he first loved us. None of us did anything to get into this aspect, but afterwards he says, now come after me. In Deuteronomy, it says this seek the Lord and you will find him. The prophet Jeremiah said, Seek the Lord, you will find him if you seek him with all of your heart. The psalmist says it this way, For you, O Lord, do not forsake those who seek you. And I grew up memorizing the King James Bible, and it goes like this in James's letter, draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. It's not reciprocal and bringing the same things, but it's reciprocal. He starts it, and I get to continue it in his name. Are you following me? We don't work for salvation, but we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. And then his kingdom comes and becomes everything for us. Luke will then have Jesus say these words no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. So your father is just delighting, he's waiting to give it to you. But keep on. Don't look back. You'll be amazed at the reward. My psalm this morning in my own personal quiet time was Psalm 133, and it says this God commanded blessing for you. Anybody want blessing in this place? I said it in the first service, it deserves it here. If you don't want blessing, don't come back because we're gonna bless you. Because God's gonna bless you. But it's all a matter of formation. We get this in almost every area of life, but we forget it spiritually. The pendulum is swung in America to a grace side where we don't recognize there's a work side to this, too. Yeah, it's all about God's grace. We're all standing here because of God's grace, but we cooperate with that grace to see what he's going to do. I had the privilege of playing basketball in university. Very surprising to a lot of people. I was a point guard. It was providence of God that I got to play. I was a walk-on. They didn't even know I was going to be on the team. The coach only kept 10 players because he didn't want people sitting during practice. If somebody got hurt, they'd bring somebody up from JV to take their place. I was the 10th player selected on the team. There were seven freshmen that year. You hear the providence of God in that? That's the only way I got in. The reason he kept me is I went to the last practice before homecoming, and they it was at six in the morning because they had to decorate the gym for homecoming. And I dogged the senior point guard all over the place at six in the morning, and the coach decided to keep me because I came at six in the morning to play. Week before the season started. Our big scorer got hurt, and the coach said, There's only way we can go forward, is we're gonna have to go with a three guard set. I became the point guard, and the point guard moved to the shooting guard. Not only did I start the first game of that season, I started all four years. That first year, we were 7 and 23. We were terrible. My senior year, two of the freshmen stuck it out all four years, and two freshmen came in the next year. We were the first team in history to win 20 games. That all sounds great, and people wanted to be me on Friday and Saturday night, but they didn't want to be me Monday morning. Because I'd be in the gym at six in the morning with this awful machine called the Leaper. You would squat and you would press this week. Some old athletes in here are shaking their head. It's the worst piece of equipment ever. It's destroyed all of our backs. It promised eight inches on your vertical uh jump. I got two pieces of paper. I would do it until I would lay in the shower with dry heaves. I would run in the summer for five miles with a 20-pound uh pack on my back and ankle weights, which we know is a terrible thing to do now. That's all we had back then was guts. And I would do it at noon because at 2 30 I started my shift in the steel factory that I worked in to work my way through school. I would dribble a mile and a half uphill in Nyack with no moon, dribbling the ball because I wanted it to be a part of my hand every game. I never wanted to have to look at it. After two and a half hour practice, I would run to the cafeteria to get dinner real quickly before they would close. And while everybody else went to watch Hogan's Heroes, I went back to the gym and shot another hundred free throws. Why did I do that? Because at that stage in my life, basketball was my God. I would do anything for basketball. But somewhere in my senior year, Jesus became my God. And I pursued him with the same tenacity. And I like the outcome. Stanwich Church, let's go for it and watch how King Jesus gets formed in our lives. Amen.

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