REVIEW
FLIP CHART: SOM’S KEY VERSE, GOAL, MOTTO
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ….” (Mt. 6:33a).
The law sends us to Christ for justification; Christ sends us back to the law for sanctification.
FLIP CHART: Show new “Perfect Righteousness” chart explaining steps to coming to Christ (As a worm, mourning, meek, spiritual hunger/thirst with the result of legal righteousness). Explain: moral righteousness, immediate moral change at conversion, gradual change through life’s challenges and speeding up moral change via CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection and Confession/Thanksgiving). Key verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:14).
FLIP CHART: John Stott’s outline of SOM.
25″Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28″And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was not dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
INTRODUCTION
Theme of 6:18-34 is “A Christian’s Ambition.” Here Jesus warns us to renounce materialism, the value system of the pagan.
Vss. 32-33: The pagans focus on material wealth, we are to focus on God’s Kingdom and righteousness.
FLIP-CHART – Vs. 33: But seek (zeteo) ye first the kingdom of God …. The same root word. So we could translate Mt. 6:33 as follows: We should have our thoughts dominated by and diligently, eagerly seek the extension of God’s Kingdom and His righteousness
REVIEW:
The big question for us: Do I have an unhealthy pre-occupation with things? Am I focused on laying up treasures on earth? Do I own a generous or a stingy eye? Am I seeking to split my allegiance between God and materialism? I have a worldview. Is it materialistic? Partially materialistic? Although there is a good type of worry/concern about the physical and spiritual well-being of others, anxious worry and running after material needs for self is the mark of a Materialist.
If my thought life focuses on worrying about material needs, I am a Materialist at heart. Don’t I realize that the body is more valuable than clothing? If God made the body, won’t he clothe it? Don’t I realize that I am more valuable than the birds of the air? If my Father feeds them won’t he also feed me? If he clothes the flowers of the field, won’t He clothe me? Worrying accomplishes nothing. It is much better to commit our needs for food, drink and clothing to our Omni-Multi-Tasker. We must have faith that our Heavenly Father knows our needs and will supply them. Thus we will avoid being like the pagans who focus on and worry about the material.
Our Father has promised to supply our material needs if we pursue and seek to possess His righteousness.
OUTLINE FOR TODAY:
REASONS WHY WE SHOULD NOT / MUST NOT WORRY ABOUT FDC
1. The Body/Life is Worth More than FDC
2. The World’s Birds are Fed by God
3. Worry Solves No Problems, Accomplishes Nothing
4. The Flowers that God Creates & Clothes Last a Day, We are Eternal
5. Our Father is the Ultimate / Perfect Omni-Multi-Tasker
6. Faith in a Loving Heavenly Father Overcomes Worry
7. Our Heavenly Father Knows What We Need
8. Anxiety is Worldly & Makes Us Like the Pagans
9. When We Prioritize His Kingdom He Supplies our Basic Needs
a. We Must Pursue His Righteousness
Imputed, Infused & Imbibed Righteousness
b. We Must Pursue His Kingdom
c. We Must Prioritize These Two Goals
d. If Our Priorities are right, He Will Supply Our Basic Needs
10. Don’t Bring Tomorrow’s Worries into Today
FOCUSING ON GOD’S KINGDOM!!!
IX. WHEN WE PRIORITIZE HIS KINGDOM AND RIGHTEOUSNESS HE PROVIDES OUR BASIC NEEDS
WE MUST PURSUE HIS IMPUTED, INFUSED & IMBIBED RIGHTEOUSNESS
We are not to settle for a self-developed righteousness on the level of the righteousness of the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law. We are to run after, seek, pursue the righteousness of God.
When we experience the new-birth God’s righteousness is imputed to us.
By consenting to our status as a branch in the vine and thus resting in Christ, His empowerment to live a righteous life flows into us. Our Father has given “Spiritual Disciplines” as a means of grace. By exercising these disciplines we will grow in righteousness.
WE MUST PURSUE HIS KINGDOM
The “Kingdom of Heaven / God” is of great value and must have primacy in our lives. Jesus said: The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought the field.” (Mt. 13:44)
DEFINING THE KINGDOM OF GOD
QUESTION: How would you define the Kingdom of God?
Kingdom comes from the Greek word Basileia (from which we get the word “basilica,” a large building, usually public building.) Basileia means royal power, kingship, dominion, and rule and is not to be confused with an actual kingdom but rather the right or authority to rule over a kingdom. Of course it can also mean the territory subject to the rule of a king.
The “Kingdom of God” can be better translated as the “Reign of God.” It does not need to refer to geographic location but to dominion and sovereignty.
WHERE IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD?
QUESTION: Where is the Kingdom of God?
In Heaven and yet fills the whole earth. It is not of this world in that it is a spiritual kingdom and in fact exists within the believer. (II Tim. 4:18; Mt. 13:24-33, 38; John 18:36; Lk. 17:20-21)
God’s “kingdom” or “rule” is the range of his effective will, where what he wants done is done. The person of God himself and the action of His will are the organizing principles of his kingdom, but everything that obeys those principles, whether by nature or by choice, is within his kingdom. (Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, Pg. 25)
You can identify the presence of God’s Kingdom by asking yourself, “Is God’s will being done in this place and/or in this situation? If that is so God’s Kingdom is present or at least the influence of God’s Kingdom is evident.
WHEN WILL/DID THE KINGDOM OF GOD COME?
There was a special break-through of the coming of the Kingdom of God when Christ came to earth. Christ and the apostles proclaimed the coming of the kingdom. We are to pray for the coming of God’s kingdom and the kingdom will finally come in full power at the end of the world. So it can be said that the Kingdom of God is “Already but not yet” present. (Lk. 16:16; Mt. 3:2, Lk. 10:8; Lk. 11:20; Mark 9:1; Mt. 5:10a; Mt. 25:31, 34; Rev. 11:15)
READING: The kingdom of God is his royal rule. Again, as he is already holy so he is already King, reigning in absolute sovereignty over both nature and history. Yet when Jesus came he announced a new and special break-in of the kingly rule of God, with all the blessings of salvation and the demands of submission which divine rule implies. To pray that his kingdom may ‘come’ is to pray both that it may grow, as through the church’s witness people submit to Jesus, and that soon it will be consummated when Jesus returns in glory to take his power and reign. (Stott, 147)
The Kingdom of God comes, in one sense, every time we submit to His reign. My obedience increases his reign.
“Seek first the kingdom of God” must mean …. Seek to enter the KOG (come under God’s divine rule), live under the divine rule of the KOG (His righteousness) and seek to extend the KOG (bring others under the divine rule of God).
ENTERING THE KINGDOM OF GOD
God calls out to us, rescues and redeems us from the kingdom of darkness and provides us with a new birth. But we must be aware that there are also false members of the kingdom (I Thess. 2:12; Col. 1:12-13; Eph. 6:12; John 3:3, 5; John 1:12-13; Mt. 7:21-23; Mt. 13:37-39a)
LIVING UNDER THE DIVINE RULE OF THE KINGDOM
QUESTION: What is the clearest mark of a member of God’s Kingdom according to the Sermon on the Mount?
The mark of a true member of the Kingdom of God is that he/she does the will of God. Not everyone who calls me ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my father who is in heaven.” (Mt. 7:21)
When we pray that the Father’s kingdom would come, we again are praying dangerously. It means we are praying for him to vanquish evil, to remove even the smallest spec of dust that does not bring honor to him. It means we are asking him to remove the parts of our being that don’t bring honor to him. We’re inviting his invasion into our lives . . . This prayer could result in the anguish of self-awareness, the embarrassment of exposure and the painful knowledge that the problem is not without but within. This is the dangerous prayer of the poor in spirit, who belong to the kingdom of God because they recognize their desperate need, who know that the problem is within and long for the Father to rescue them from their own disposition to reject him (Matthew 5:3). (From the Web)
We will never be effective as a Christian until we can earnestly and sincerely pray, “My kingdom go, Thy kingdom come.”
EXTENDING THE KINGDOM OF GOD
It could be that “kingdom of God” and “his righteousness” are synonyms in this text. Thus it would mean that we are to seek to come under the reign of God and live according to his will.
Jesus came with the good news of the Kingdom, the disciples were sent to preach the message of the Kingdom, Satan opposes the coming of the kingdom, Paul’s preaching focused on the kingdom of God and the proclamation of the Gospel of the Kingdom to the last ethnic / unreached people group will impact the date of the return of the King! (Mt. 4:23; Lk. 4:43; Mt. 10:7; Lk. 9:2; Mt. 13:19; Mt. 24:14)
ILL: Paul spoke boldly in the synagogue in Ephesus for three month arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God (Acts. 19:8). In parting from the Ephesians he said, “Now I know that not one of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again.” (Acts 20:25). When Paul arrived in Rome the Jews came to where he was staying. “From morning till evening he explained and declared to them the kingdom of God …” (Acts 28:23). He rented his own house in Rome and the book of Acts ends with this verse, “Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Acts. 28:31).
READING: We should also be anxious to see this kingdom extending in the lives and hearts of other men and women. So that when we pray, “Thy kingdom come”, we are praying for the success of the gospel, its sway and power; we are praying for the conversion of men and women; we are praying that the kingdom of God may come today in Britain, in Europe, in America, in Australia, everywhere in the world. “Thy kingdom come” is an all-inclusive missionary prayer. (MLJ, 64)
APPLICATION: Our task is to go out into all of the world and say, “Electricity is here.” This is why we pray for our families and neighbors; this is why we are involved in missions.
Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
Doth his successive journeys run;
His Kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
Till moons shall wax and wane no more.
From north to south the princes meet
To pay their homage at His feet,
While western empires own their Lord
And savage tribes attend His word.
To Him shall endless prayer be made,
And praises throng to crown His head;
His name like sweet perfume shall rise
With every morning sacrifice.
People and realms of every tongue
Dwell on His love with sweetest song,
And infant voices shall proclaim
Their early blessings on His name.
Blessings abound where’er He reigns;
The prisoner leaps to lose his chains;
The weary find eternal rest,
And all the sons of want are blessed.
Let every creature rise and bring
Peculiar honors to our king;
Angels descend with songs again,
And earth repeat the loud Amen!
(Isaac Watts)
“SEEKING” THE KINGDOM OF GOD
The word “run after” in vs. 32 and “seek” in vs. 33 are from the same root word. These words can be translated diligently seek, fuss about, aim their life at, be deeply concerned about, clamor for.
“’Seek first’ is in the present imperative, which means we are to be in a continual quest for God’s kingdom… When you and I do this our focus is no longer on what we are to wear, eat, drink, and we are thus liberated from the blight of anxiety. If we constantly seek him there will be no room for lesser matters.” (Hughes, 225)
Seek means to actively pursues, to run after.
Pastor Rich talked about interacting and reaching out to non-Christians. This is not easy to do because we have so many Christian friends and generally interact with them. So how do we break out of our “evangelical ghetto” and meet new people”
OUTSIDE ACTIVITY: Why not focus on meeting and becoming friends with some new people. We can be an influence for the Kingdom of God. One good way is go to www.meetup.com .
SEEKING “FIRST” THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Note that 6:33 is the same as “The Disciples Prayer.” There we are challenged to first pray for the extension of His kingdom and then for our daily bread. Here we are to prioritize the extension of His kingdom over our material needs.
Seeking “first” the kingdom is to prioritize the reign of Christ in my life and the extension of His reign throughout the world.
“Singleness of purpose is the great secret of spiritual prosperity” (Bishop J.C. Ryle in J. MacArthur, 414)
This is not the only verse that challenges us to focus on priorities.
When a man asked permission to first bury his father before following Jesus, the request was rejected. Another would be follower ask permission to say goodbye to his family. That request too was rejected. (Luke 9:57-62) Both refusals sound unreasonable but what is perfectly clear is that Jesus expects his followers to prioritize following him.
Jesus said that loving God with all our heart, soul and mind is the first and the greatest commandment. (Mt. 22:37). Loving God needs to be prioritized!!!!
When Jesus was asked about food by his disciples, he said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” (John 4:34)
In John 17:4, in the Upper Room, he prayed in his “High Priestly Prayer”: I have brought you glory on the earth by completing the work you gave me to do.”
Paul, when writing to the Philippians said, “. . . [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3:13-14)
In Acts 20:24 he wrote: However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has give me – the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.
He ended his final letter to Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race (marked out for me), I have kept the faith.” (II Timothy 4:7)
“Seek first his kingdom” is a major call to missions to extend the influence, the reign of Christ around the world.
John Stott writes, “Our ambition, then, is to seek first his kingdom, to cherish the passionate desire that his name should receive from me the honor which is due it.” (Stott, 170)
The extension of the Kingdom of God, the reign of God in our lives and around the world, should be the obsession of our lives.
Our lives are like a dollar bill. We can only spend it once either as an investment or waste it.
ILL: An email came to good neighbor insurance with this address: herestoregrets&[email protected] . If we are not prioritizing the reign of the Kingdom of God in our lives or the extension of it around the world we deserve an email address like this.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God
And His righteousness,
And all these things shall be added unto you,
Allelu, alleluia.
Man shall not live by bread alone,
But by every word
That proceeds from the mouth of God,
Allelu, alleluia.
Ask, and it shall be given unto you.
Seek, and ye shall find.
Knock, and the door shall be opened unto you.
Allelu, alleluia.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God
And His righteousness,
And all these things shall be added unto you,
Allelu, alleluia.
SO WHAT???
1. The “Kingdom of God” is a synonym for the “Reign of God.”
2. The “Kingdom of God” is in heaven and it is here. It is a spiritual kingdom and we enter it through a new spiritual birth.
3. Although it is here it is still not here in its completed form. Our task is to work for the extension of God’s kingdom.
4. The Lord is very plain that we must prioritize His reign in our lives and that our primary work is the extension of His kingdom.
5. Let’s avoid ever needing to use as our email address: herestoregreats&[email protected]
6. Let’s use www.meetup.com to make some of the non-Christians in our community.