We Must Seek God First

We Must Seek the Righteousness of God

Matthew 6:33

Matthew 6:33 – But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

INTRODUCTION

This was one of the passages I latched on to when the Lord saved me. I knew I had to seek the Lord to keep the freedom I received in church that Sunday morning so this passage let me know that I had to see the Lord if I wanted to keep receiving the peace He gave me and to please Him.

You see it wasn’t the first time I had a touch from the Lord. All the other times, I forgot the words that were preached to me and how His truth made me feel. Where I went wrong was, I did not seek Him, and as a result, our adversary, the devil, took what was sown into my heart.

My heart was like what Jesus taught in Matthew 13:20-21; I had a heart that was like stony places. I heard the word and received it with joy, but it did not take root. I feared the trials and the persecution of my friends more than I wanted to seek after God for what I needed to be complete in Him.

Or my heart was like what Jesus taught in Matthew 13:22, I had a heart where thorns had taken root. I received the seed of the Word, but I immediately went back to doing worldly things and being concerned about the sinful life the Spirit of the Lord was drawing me away from.

Now I know how important it is to seek the kingdom of God, which is the opposite of the worldly kingdom of Satan. And I want to share how my life has been since I started seeking the Lord first above everything else.

1– Seeking the Kingdom of God - First

Earlier, I stated that the kingdom of God is the opposite of the kingdom of Satan. I don’t want to take too much of your time, so I will summarize by saying the kingdom of Satan is of this world, and it is temporary.

It is full of sorrow and suffering, but just like the devil deceived Adam and Eve in the garden, the devil has deceived many people by disguising the pain and suffering to make it look good and appealing.

The kingdom of God is permanent and will last forever.

It is full of love, joy, and peace, just to name a few wonderful things, and it is eternal. What is so awesome about the kingdom of God is we can have a portion of it right here and right now.

So, you see, there is a difference between what Satan and his world offers and what God promises. But we must seek Him, the ONLY true and living God.

We must understand what the world offers it can’t deliver.

What God promises He delivers. All His promises are yes and amen as told in 2 Corinthians 1:20.

2 – The Righteousness of God

To seek the righteousness of God is to seek God’s personality, which is righteous.

He is the embodiment of justice, peace, wisdom, love, perfection, protection, etc., which is the opposite of what we see going on in our society today.

In the world, justice has been replaced with favoritism. Money or race plays a role in who receives justice and who does not.

Love is replaced with hatred. As long as there are people there will be disagreements and differences of opinions. It is a sad day when two people, or a group of people, cannot disagree without name-calling and expressions of hate. Peace has been replaced with violence.

It is written in Isaiah 5:20 - Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! And we are seeing the consequences of people not taking heed to this passage of scripture.

But if we seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness we will not be in the darkness of sin and the slippery slope of worldly living when Jesus comes to gather His people.

3 – Everything We Need

God is our source for everything we need and some of our desires. There’s no need to look for anyone or anything else to fulfill our needs because God has it all.

We are protected...didn’t God promise protection? Spend some time in the 91st Psalm. I know without any doubt you will find encouragement when you need protection. We are covered, He shields us, fear won’t rest on us, pestilence and sickness won’t harm us. We won’t know destruction, and if we make the Most High our shelter, no evil will be able to conquer us!

Provision is made for us. Read 2 Peter 1:3. By God’s divine power, He has given us everything we need for living godly lives. And a godly life never lacks anything.

So, it is a foolish thing to seek love, peace, happiness, comfort, advice or anything else we need from the devil’s world before going to God first.

What’s sad is that we search all over the place looking for what we need, and it is already ours, but we won’t seek God first. What we need is right under our noses, but we miss it because God isn’t a priority in our lives.

Illustration

I have a personal example of looking for something that we already have.

This happened a few years ago before the Lord saved me from sin. I walked around for several minutes looking for my keys. If I recall this moment correctly, I was going to be late for work if I didn’t leave my house soon. I was frantic and even used some words I shouldn’t have used. One of my sons asked me what was wrong and when I told him I couldn’t find my keys, he said; “Pop. They are clipped to your belt.” There isn’t a need for me to tell you how embarrassed I was and how funny it was to my two sons.

CONCLUSION

We do the same thing I did when I looked for my keys. We look here and there for what we need but we overlook the Lord. We look in places where we think we will find wisdom, love, but everything can be found in God.

We look to our spouses, but they can’t help us like the Lord can.

We look to our finances, but they don’t last nearly as long as our God can.

We place more emphasis on doing what our supervisors tell us to do rather than putting more emphasis on what the Lord tells us to do.

We run to people in the world for advice when what they have to offer is limited instead of going to our God who is limitless.

We ramble around through life without seeking God as our priority in our lives. We seek everything before we seek Him. But we must seek God first!

How do we seek God first?

We must settle the question of priorities and make the Kingdom of God our primary concern.

We must consistently honor and represent the Kingdom. Then the way we deal with family, friends, work, leisure, etc., will all be transformed.

God demands that His kingdom rule be first in your life.

Righteousness is the standard God requires in order for his people to rightly relate to him.

To seek his kingdom is to seek to live in agreement with His standards, and His guidelines.

We’re going to experience some challenging times but, if our life will is aligned under His kingdom authority we can experience His provision.

God cannot be second. Ask yourself this question: When I need guidance to make decisions, where do I go first? For many Christians, God is like a spare tire. He’s where they run when all else fails. So, do you seek God’s perspective first (through his Word and godly counsel), or do you seek answers in the world? ---->

Kingdom Christians appeal to God’s view and his righteous standards first. WE MUST SEEK GOD FIRST!

Other Verses:

Malachi 3:10; Psalm 37:4; Proverbs 10:22; 2 Samuel 7:28; Matthew 7:11; Philippians 4:19; John 15:7