Seek First His Kingdom

In this week’s message from Matthew 6, Jesus calls anxious disciples to seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness. We see what the kingdom of heaven is, how we enter it and long to see it grow, and why we must depend on Christ’s righteousness alone, both for salvation and for our daily provision.

Today I’m going to look at Matthew chapter 6, and what I really want to do today is focus on something that we just sang about. In the third verse of this hymn that we just sang about, it says,

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise, Thou mine inheritance, now and always: Thou and Thou only, first in my heart.

And that’s what we’re really going to focus on this morning as we read Matthew chapter 6 and then focus on verse 33, to seek first the kingdom of God, to seek first his righteousness.

So what I would like to do is read all of the chapter, read all of chapter 6, so that we can get the context of this verse that we’re going to focus on at the end of the chapter. So before I read it, let me ask the Lord for his help as we study this passage this morning.

Father, as we do come to you this morning asking for your help, we ask for the illumination of the Holy Spirit. We ask for wisdom as we look at your word, as we read the words of our Lord Jesus that he preached to the disciples, to those who are listening. We ask that these same words would preach into our hearts.

We ask for your guidance, that you would help us this morning, would help us today, as we think about these things, as we think about what it means to seek first your kingdom, to seek first your righteousness. Please help us as we explore this together. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

So turn to Matthew chapter 6. I want to read from verse 1 to the end of the chapter.

The TextMatthew 6

Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. When therefore you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

And when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners in order to be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Pray then in this way: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

And whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that you may not be seen fasting by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon 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 or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his lifespan? And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not much more do so for you, O men of little faith?

Do not be anxious then, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “With what shall we clothe ourselves?” For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all of these things. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

May God bless the reading of his word.

This, what we read just now, is better than any sermon that you will hear on these verses. This is Jesus’ sermon that you just read. And so when we go to his word, we go to it asking the Lord for his illumination, for his help. Because reading it, the power is in the word. It’s not in what any of us, anybody will say about it.

But as we think about it, I want to explore verse 33 and think about what verse 33 means. What does it mean to seek first his kingdom? What does it mean to seek his righteousness?

Well, as we read just now in this chapter, we see some themes and we see some context. The context of verse 33 is this section on being anxious. He’s saying, look at the birds of the air. Why are you anxious about clothing? Why are you anxious about what you shall eat, what you shall drink? And then he says,

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.

From the Lesser to the Greater

The argument here is from the lesser to the greater. He says,

O men of little faith, will he not do much more so for you?

The argument here is if he does for these creatures, for these birds, will he not do even more for you?

The example is, think about if you observed a farmer. If a farmer lived across from you, and every morning you wake up and you see the farmer carefully caring for his cattle, or he has these newborn calves, and he meticulously fills the bottles, and he bottle-feeds these calves. And then you heard some slanderous person accuse this farmer for not caring for his children. Would you believe what that person said, having observed the care that he has for his cows? If he cares for the cows, how much more would he care for his children?

It’s kind of like that. It’s an argument from the lesser thing to the greater thing. If God cares about the birds of the air, how much more is he going to care for us? And so that’s the context of what this passage, verse 33, is located in.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

So there are so many ways to talk about this passage. There are so many things that we could focus on. But what I wanted to focus on today is really two points.

• The first point is going to be, seek first his kingdom.
• The second point is going to be, seek first his righteousness.

And those are the two things I want to think about. What does it mean to seek his kingdom? What is the kingdom? What does it mean to seek it? And then secondly, seek first his righteousness. And after those two points, we’ll make some application.

So the first thing to think about is to seek first his kingdom.

The book of Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus in chapter 1. In chapter 2, you have the account of the birth of Jesus. And then in chapter 3, you have the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, and the forerunner of the inauguration of Jesus’ ministry is the greatest of the prophets, John the Baptist. And in chapter 3, what does it say? The very first thing in chapter 3, it says,

Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

And then in the next chapter, Jesus is immediately taken into the wilderness to be tested. And then after his testing, in verse 17, it says,

From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

And then in chapter 10, in Matthew chapter 10, you have Jesus summoning his 12 disciples. He gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, to heal all the diseases, and he instructs them to preach. In verse 7 of chapter 10, he says,

Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

And in our passage this morning, in chapter 6, we have the instruction of our Lord Jesus to seek first his kingdom.

What Is the Kingdom

Now, in all of these passages, mention the kingdom or his kingdom or the kingdom of heaven. But what is the kingdom? If we’re supposed to seek the kingdom, we should probably know what it is that we are to be seeking. If I were to ask you to give me a definition of the kingdom, how would you define it?

I was thinking about that last night, and I asked Jess, what is the definition of the kingdom of heaven? And immediately you think, oh, the kingdom of heaven, I know what that is. I know what the kingdom is.

But then when you start to think about it, how many different things the kingdom of heaven is made up of? Is it talking about an earthly kingdom? Is it talking about something spiritual? Is it talking about something in the future? What exactly is it that we are to be seeking?

Not an Earthly Kingdom

So, is this an earthly kingdom? Are we to be seeking an earthly kingdom? In the New Testament, we see some of what the disciples and others who came to hear Jesus preach and what they thought about the nature of the kingdom. And largely, the thinking was that Jesus was about to inaugurate, to start a physical kingdom, a rule of power that would overthrow the Roman tyrants and then propel the nation of Israel into this glorious state, a new world power that would surpass even the kingdoms of David and Solomon. It would be greater than all of those things.

After Jesus fed the 5,000, the crowd, perceiving his power, were intending to come and take him by force to make him king, because they thought, if someone can feed us, feed 5,000 people out of nothing, how much more can he overthrow the Romans? An army moves on its stomach. So that was their thinking.

And even after the resurrection, right before Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples were asking him,

Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?

So even then, the disciples were even thinking, we’re about to move into a physical kingdom. Jesus is about to restore the kingdom to Israel. We’re about to enter into the rule that has been prophesied for centuries before. But instead of descending into Jerusalem and setting up a physical kingdom, Jesus ascends into heaven, where he reigns as king over a spiritual kingdom.

And there are those who make the same mistake today in their attempt to bring about, through their own efforts, a physical kingdom of God in this world. They make the same mistake as the crowd and the disciples in looking for a physical Messiah. Some of them go even so far as to say that Christ can’t even return until we do all of these things, until we make the world a Christian world with a Christian prince ruling. But this is not how the scriptures describe the kingdom of God.

How the Scriptures Describe the Kingdom

So how does the scripture describe the kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God? Well, Jesus describes the kingdom using parables. And one of them is in Matthew chapter 13, says,

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

And you’ve heard many sermons on this, on these parables. And what is that treasure? What is that pearl of great price? Is it something physical that we can hold on to, or is it something more than that?

In Luke chapter 18,

Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.”

And so what is the kingdom there? It’s something that is in the future. It’s something that these people who are sacrificing now will inherit, something even greater in the future.

Second Peter 1:10 through 11 says,

Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

There the kingdom is described as something that is eternal, and the way that you enter into it is spiritual. It’s not something that’s physical.

Matthew 7:21 says,

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter.

Matthew 18 says, Jesus said,

Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

And then finally, the last one, also in John 18, not Matthew 18, Jesus answered Pilate, saying,

My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm. Therefore Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth.”

The truth is that Christ is king. He is a king and he’s reigning even now, but his kingdom is not an earthly kingdom, at least not yet. It’s a spiritual kingdom.

So Jesus says, my kingdom is not of this world. Charles Spurgeon said,

God has set up his kingdom in this world. Inside the kingdoms of men, there is the kingdom of God, wherein he rules. It is of another kind from all earthly kingdoms, for Christ said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” It is a purer, higher, truer, more durable kingdom than any Caesar has ever been able to set up.

There are so many kingdoms that rulers, that Caesars, that Pharaohs have attempted to set up, but this kingdom that Christ has created, that Christ is ruling over, is a kingdom that is pure, as Spurgeon says, that’s better, that’s higher than any of these kingdoms. The kingdom of God is the kingdom of new life, the kingdom of perfect liberty, the kingdom of faith in Christ, the kingdom of union to Christ, the kingdom of the power of the Spirit of God.

Entering the Kingdom

And the first question that we need to ask is, have we entered into that kingdom? Have we entered into it? Are we citizens of that kingdom? If we have not entered into that kingdom, let us seek that kingdom immediately. Before we seek anything else, let us first seek the kingdom of God, that we may become citizens of it, that we may become loyal subjects of our great King.

How do you enter into the kingdom of God? The passages that we read a few minutes ago speak to it. But another one is this:

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.

How do you become a citizen of the kingdom of God?

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.

If you have not yet trusted Christ for your salvation, do not delay. Scripture says,

Today, if you hear his voice, today, seek him while he may be found.

So this kingdom is an eternal kingdom, and its citizens partake of eternal life. And eternal life is more important than anything else that this world has to offer. If this is something that’s more important than anything else, should not this be the first thing that we seek?

As an illustration, imagine a man who wakes up in the middle of the night and realizes that his house is on fire. He wakes up, he sees smoke pouring under maybe the floorboards, or at least under his door, and he opens up the door, and he sees that a fire is just starting to engulf everything. And he has just a few minutes to grab something, to grab anything he can, and to run out of his house as fast as he can.

Now, what would you grab? If you were in your house and you had one minute to grab something, what would you grab? You would go after your most precious things. You would go after something that is precious to you, something that, before you seek anything else in that house, you would seek after the thing that is most precious to you.

And so when we think about this aspect of the kingdom, eternal life, salvation in Christ is the most precious gift. It is the most precious thing. And so before we seek anything else, we must seek that. Seek to become a citizen of the kingdom of God.

Seeking the Kingdom as Believers

When the Lord Jesus here says to seek his kingdom, he’s talking about all aspects of the kingdom of God. And for the believer, for those who have already been redeemed, what it means to seek the kingdom means to not be earthly-minded, to be heavenly-minded, to set your minds on things above, not on things of the earth.

To seek his kingdom is to seek to enjoy the privilege of communion with Christ, to spend time praying to him, to ask him to give you the peace that surpasses all understanding, to seek him in prayer, to seek him in the word of God, and there you will find all the spiritual wealth that never fades or tarnishes or rusts. And that’s part of the context of this chapter.

Not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.

Seeking those treasures is seeking the kingdom of God.

Seeking to See His Kingdom Expand

Also, for the redeemed, for believers, what it means to seek his kingdom, it also means to seek to see his kingdom expand. The prayer that the Lord commands us to pray, or teaches us to pray, says,

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And what is the will of God? 1 Peter 3 says that

The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient for you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

And so what is the will of God? For all peoples to come to repentance. And how will these people hear about the kingdom of God if we do not tell them, if we do not invite them?

How will they hear without a preacher?

So if you are a citizen of the kingdom of God, you should seek to go about the business of seeking the borders of the kingdom of God expand into the hearts of those who need to hear. Like John the Baptist preached, like how Jesus preached, how the disciples preached, we are also to preach,

Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

So that’s the first part. The first part of this is to seek his kingdom.

The second part is to seek his righteousness. Seek first his righteousness. To seek first his kingdom and then to seek first his righteousness. We are to seek the kingdom of God, but the second directive here is to seek his righteousness.

The very first verse that we read in chapter 6 this morning says,

Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

And then here we are, contrasted with that, we are to seek his righteousness. You see the difference between practicing your righteousness and seeking his righteousness.

Dependent on His Righteousness for Salvation

And so, just like in the first point, the first part of seeking his righteousness relates to salvation. As we come to Christ, we rely completely on the work of Jesus to save us, and not our own works, not our own efforts. Our own works will never save us.

Last week I talked to my brother Justin, and he was telling me about a man that he talked to last week. This man was a builder. He builds hotels and things like that. I guess he’s kind of like a contractor, but he owns the buildings. And he was in front of one of the buildings that is being constructed, and Justin struck a conversation with him.

And he was trying to evangelize him. He was asking him if he considered himself to be a good person. And, of course, he did. He thought he was a good person.

And he was telling him about the gospel. He took him through the Ten Commandments and, of course, guilty on every point. And he asked him, “If you were to stand before God, having just confessed that you’ve broken each one of these Ten Commandments, how would you fare?”

And the man kept saying things like, “Oh, well, that’s just a matter of opinion. I have my opinion about the Bible and you have yours. So it’ll all work out in the end.”

Justin mentioned, “Well, think about this. When you’re building a building, you don’t need a foundation and you don’t need support beams. It’s just a matter of opinion. I can have my opinion on how to build a building and you can have yours.” And the man was like, “No, no, no. You have to have a foundation and you have to have support beams.”

And Justin brought the illustration back to the gospel, and then the man was, “Well, that’s not really a very good illustration to talk about spiritual things.” Justin said, “Well, actually, that’s the illustration that Jesus used when he said the wise man builds his house on the rock and the foolish man builds his house on the sand. It’s one-to-one.”

But the man kept talking about how you do all of these good things, and God’s going to accept you, and it’s going to outweigh the bad. But if you see what the man’s doing there, he is trying to rely on his good works. He’s trying to say that my good works are going to outweigh all of these bad things. He’s seeking his own righteousness. He’s relying and dependent on his own righteousness.

The end of that conversation, Justin started talking about the work of Christ. The man had asked the question, “You say that you’re a Christian, but say you commit a sin and then you immediately die, and you don’t have a chance to repent of it. Do you go to hell? What happens there? You’ve lived as a Christian all your life, you commit a sin and immediately die. What happens?”

And Justin talked about grace, how Jesus paid for every sin. You trust in him. All of your sins are paid for. Not only are your sins paid for, but the active work of Christ, the passive work of Christ, is applied to you. His righteousness is given to you.

And the man was silent that whole time that Justin was talking about that. And at the end of that, he starts pacing up and down, and he goes, “I’ve never heard that before.” And it was amazing to him, because in his mind, his way of thinking, I have to do all of these things in order to be accepted by God.

But the gospel says that you don’t rely on your own righteousness. You don’t rely on your own efforts. Your own works will never save you. Jesus says,

Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

And so what do you rely on? You rely on his righteousness. You rely on the righteousness of God. So the first part of what it means to seek his righteousness is not to rely on your own works and efforts to save, but cast yourself at the feet of Jesus and total dependence on his work and his righteousness.

So Jesus not only pays the debt of our sin on the cross, but his good works, Jesus never sinned, all of the good works that he has done is imputed to us. It’s exactly the same way of how sin is imputed to us through our foreparents, Adam and Eve. Romans 5 says,

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.

But just a few verses later, Paul explains how in that same way, the second Adam imputes his righteousness to us. We don’t rely on our own righteousness. We rely on the righteousness of Christ.

So first, we are to be completely dependent on the righteousness of Christ for our salvation and nothing else. It’s in Christ alone where our hope is found.

Dependent on His Righteousness for Provision

And secondly, the second part of this is we are to be completely dependent on the righteousness of God for our provision.

And so if you remember the context that we talked about, it’s a context of anxious thinking. Not just anxious thinking, but anxious action. Think of all the times that we have been anxious. Whenever we are anxious, or whenever we see people who are characterized by anxiety, it’s not just that they think anxious thoughts, but they do everything that they possibly can. Anxiety and stress affects the body as well.

You’re doing all of these things. Nothing is working. Inflation keeps going higher and higher and our clothes are wearing out. What are we going to do? It’s thoughts like that. We have medical bills due in three weeks. What are we going to do about this?

Sometimes these thoughts, these actions are not expressed to anyone in particular, but we think about these things at nighttime when we’re supposed to be sleeping. I’m sure none of us have ever done that. It’s not just speech or thoughts. So it’s actions as well.

But what Jesus does here is he makes a contrast to that. He makes a contrast to someone who spends their time and effort and energy being anxious about the things that they have no control over, really. He says,

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.

In some ways, to a worldly person, this is not good advice. If you have bills due and you need money to pay them, why would you spend energy praying when you could be spending that energy working to pay the bills that are due? Why would you spend time reading the Bible when you could be trying to figure out what to do for these expenses? Maybe you don’t know what you’re eating that week.

Mary and Martha

But think about, it’s not just this passage. Think about in Luke chapter 10, Mary and Martha. Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to his teaching. What is Martha doing? She’s trying to prepare everything. She’s anxiously getting everything prepared. She’s getting the table ready. She’s making the food. She’s doing all of these things.

And amid all of her anxiety and worries, she suddenly explodes and says, what does she say? She says, “I’m doing all of these things. Mary’s not doing anything. Tell her to help me get things prepared.” But what does Jesus say? Jesus tells her,

Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary.

And what is that one thing that is necessary? Jesus says that Mary chose the better thing. The one thing that is necessary is to first seek his kingdom, his righteousness. You run to Jesus. You sit at his feet. That’s the first thing that is necessary, the only thing that is necessary.

Dependence in Prayer

There was a preacher in the late 19th and 20th century. His name is A.C. Dixon, and this is one of his more famous quotes. You may have heard it before. He’s quoted to say,

When we depend on organizations, we get what organizations can do. When we depend on education, we get what education can do. When we depend on man, we get what man can do. But when we depend on prayer, we get what God can do.

And of course, we just read how Jesus instructed us to pray. He says,

Pray then in this way: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.

And notice the order of petitions. You first pray for the kingdom of heaven to come, for God’s will to be done. And then you ask for daily provision. Christ directs us first to pray for the kingdom of God, and then to pray for other things.

So when we’re thinking about prayer, when we’re thinking about dependence on God, that’s what prayer is. Prayer is depending solely on God, coming to him in dependence. And so when we’re thinking about anxiety, when we’re thinking about the stresses of life, how much stress and anxiety do we needlessly carry on our shoulders when God already knows the things that we need? And that’s what he says.

These things are the things that Gentiles eagerly seek, but your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

The hymn says,

Oh, what peace we often forfeit.

Now think about that. There’s a peace that sometimes we forfeit because we’re so anxious, we have so much anxiety, so much stress, that we’re not taking the time to give it to the Lord.

Oh, what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer.

So these first two things: to seek first his kingdom, to seek first his righteousness. I want to do a little bit of application in the last five minutes that we have, and I want to focus on the word first in order to make application. It’s not just that Jesus tells us to seek his kingdom or to seek his righteousness, but to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.

And so the first point of application, I want to point out three things in terms of application.

Our Chief Priority

The first point of application is seeking the kingdom and the righteousness of God is to be our chief priority. Before we do anything else, we are to seek the kingdom and the righteousness of God. So the psalmist says,

As the deer pants for the water brook, so my soul pants for you, O God.

Our physical bodies die without water, and our spiritual souls die without God. So our soul’s first tendency should be to long after heaven more than it longs after the earth. Our hunger and thirst should be firstly for God’s righteousness. We should not covet the treasures of this world, but we should covet the heavenly riches we have in Christ. Our souls should not run after crowns of praise from others, but instead run with heavenly ambition and holy zeal for the crown of life and the smile of our Lord.

When I was in Japan a few weeks ago, we did a long day of video and things. We went to different places around Tokyo, and we left early in the morning. And so we saw all the businessmen packing into the metros. And we were crammed in there. You couldn’t move an inch.

And it was really interesting seeing all these businessmen in their suits and everything, their white shirts and their black coats. Everyone was on their phones. Everyone was plugged into some kind of earpiece.

And I was interested, what are these businessmen looking at on their phones? And so, I mean, everyone’s standing around, so it’s not hard to glance over and see. I’m thinking they’re checking their stocks. They’re checking their emails. They’re getting ready for their business for their day.

But it was really interesting, because every person that I looked at, every person that I noticed, they’re playing some children’s games on their phone, or they’re looking at some flashy video that was like a cartoon that was for a child. It’s really interesting.

Like, why would they do that? There’s a lot of reasons why they would do that. It has to do with their culture, but that’s not the point. The point is, it was really interesting to me, here are adults, businessmen, the top echelon of the city, playing children’s games and watching children’s cartoons on their phones.

So when we think, I don’t know if this is the best illustration, but when we think of the kingdom of God, it’s this wonderful, glorious, weighty thing that we have. And sometimes we can be so preoccupied with other things, it would be like an adult spending all of his time playing a game that was meant to entertain children. Like, doesn’t he have something better to occupy his mind, or to focus on, or strive for?

So, in comparison to all of the trifles of the world, in comparison to the treasures that moth and rust destroy, our hope should be founded on something greater, something more sure. Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and his righteousness, his righteousness that we are to seek first. We have a better kingdom, something better to look forward to. We have a hope of a future kingdom that we will partake in.

Created for a High Purpose

The second application point centers around the fact that we were created by God for a high purpose. We were not created by God ultimately for the sole purpose of eating and drinking and being concerned about ourselves. That’s not why we were created. We weren’t created just to simply exist and then die.

We were made for something higher. We were made for him. We were made to glorify him. We were made to enjoy him forever.

And so before we go about our daily work, our daily tasks, the application is to let us first seek him. Before we do anything else, seek him in prayer, seek him in his word. Our days should begin with thoughts about God and his kingdom. Jonathan Edwards said,

It is exceedingly suitable that our minds should begin to act about God as soon as day enlightens the world.

And I think that’s true. As soon as physical light rises, spiritual light should also be dawning in our hearts. So seek him first, before anything else, before going about our daily work and our daily business. And then all of our business is the Lord’s business.

He’s saying, seek first. He’s not saying that we shouldn’t work for these things, we shouldn’t do any work for the food that we need or the clothing that we need. That’s not what he’s saying. And he’s also not saying that you’re going to have a life that doesn’t have trouble. Because in verse 34, he says,

Each day has enough trouble on its own.

Even after you seek the Lord, there will be persecutions, there will be all sorts of things. That’s not what he’s saying. But we are to work. We are to do the things that God has called us to do. But we are to do those things in seeking God and seeking his kingdom.

God often provides for us through means, and gives us strength and the ability to work for what we need. Deuteronomy 8:17 says,

You may say in your heart, “My power and the strength of my hand has made me this wealth.” But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who is giving you power to make wealth.

So all of your business is the Lord’s business. Your vocation is worship, if you recognize that it is he who enables you and allows you to do all of these things. Do all of these things for the glory of God. Whether you’re eating or drinking, you do all to the glory of God.

Examine Ourselves

And then lastly, the last point of application is this: we must examine ourselves to see if we really are seeking first the kingdom of God. And so there’s a simple test that we can ask ourselves, and has right to do with the context of this passage. Are we being anxious for all of these things? Are we being constantly worried about things that ultimately are provided by the Lord, whether he allows you to work, whether he provides for you in other means? It’s the Lord who provides all of these things for you.

And so it’s like the Israelites in the wilderness, where God is supplying the manna from heaven. If God is supplying that, would you be anxious about whether or not the manna is going to come, if it comes from the Lord?

How many times have we been constantly worried about these things, that we’ve hurried through times of Bible study or prayer because we needed to get something done? We have all of these things to do in the day. Sometimes we’ll think, well, we have so much to do, we need to cut our time short, or maybe we need to just skip today and pick it up tomorrow. But is that what the instruction is here? The instruction is to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.

The Lord Jesus gives us this instruction because he knows us. He knows our hearts. He knows our tendencies. He knows how we think and how we feel. And that’s why he gives us this, because this is an instruction to all of us.

All of us have done these things. All of us have been anxious, overly anxious, when we really have no need to be. He knows that oftentimes, like the disciples who he’s talking to, we have little faith. But he is standing ready to receive us.

So the charge for us this morning, it’s simple. We didn’t even need really to give a sermon about this passage. This passage is enough for us to, if we read it and believe it and just do it, to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness before we seek to do anything else.

And so for us who are anxious and worried, the hymn says,

(He quotes the hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.”)

That’s exactly what we need to do. Let’s pray. Let’s ask God to make this a reality in our life.

Father, we do come to you this morning asking for your help, again, as we think about this passage, as we think about what it means to seek first your kingdom and to seek first your righteousness. We confess all the times that we have been anxious, all the times that we have been stressed over things that you have promised to provide for us.

We ask, as you instructed us, we ask that your kingdom would come, that your will would be done, that your will would be done firstly in our hearts, that our hearts would change, that we would not be a people of little faith, but that we would be trusting in you, that we would be trusting in you for our provision. For if you care for the birds of the air, how much more would you care for your children? So we ask that you would change our hearts, that you would make us a people of faith, that we would be trusting in you for all of these things.

We do ask for our daily provision. We do ask, after we have asked for your kingdom to come, we ask that you would give us this day our daily bread, that you would provide for the needs of this body. There are many needs that the people of this church need. People need to be healed. People need to be provided for in material ways. We ask for your provision for them.

We ask, most of all, that if there is anyone here who has not sought you for their salvation, if they are trusting in their own righteousness somehow, that they would realize that this morning, that there’s nothing that they can do, no action that they can do in order to make themselves acceptable to you. It’s only the righteousness of Christ, only the obedience of Christ that saves us. Let us be utterly dependent on you as we seek first your kingdom. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.