Seeking the Kingdom

Matthew 6:25-34

This week we have 3 people in a room just praying for the service, seeking God on behalf of you, if that’s a ministry you would be willing to serve will you let me know? I’m excited about it

New Series Intro: This week we are starting a new series we are calling the seekers. If you don’t like it, Red letters continuation… For the next few weeks we are going to introduce each sermon with the same verse as a reminder that God calls us to be seekers. Hebrews 11:6 says this.

Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for the one who comes to God must believe that He exists, and that He proves to be One who rewards those who seek Him.” read again and why don’t you memorize that verse over the next few weeks

Seeking God above all other things in this world is the way we receive all that He has for us. According to James 4:8 God comes close to those who seek to come close to Him. Coming closer to God not only brings reward, but it opens our eyes to what God values. When we understand what God values we can join in the work that He is doing in this world and it is then that we find true purpose and fulfillment.

This week we are going to take a look at what it means to Seek His Kingdom. With His Kingdom as a reference point, so much of our decision making and direction for life can be shaped in such a way that our perspective is consistently aligned with what God desires for us. And we can take confidence in the fact what God’s desires for us, are always what is best for us, even if feelings and emotions, along with the culture around us seem to be telling us otherwise.

For those of you that know the Bible you could have easily guessed where we were headed for our passage today, for those of you that don’t, this passage is THE baseline passage for understanding the kingdom of God. It is Jesus himself telling us that seeking His kingdom is the way to go. Let’s take a look.

Matthew 6:25–30 ““For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the sky, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather crops into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more important than they? And which of you by worrying can add a single day to his life’s span? And why are you worried about clothing? Notice how the lilies of the field grow; they do not labor nor do they spin thread for cloth, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!”

Matthew 6:31–34 “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you. “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

To take a wider look at the context of the passage, Jesus spoke these words right in the middle of what would be remembered as Jesus’ most famous sermon. We refer to it as the sermon on the mount. He had shared what we call the beatitudes where Jesus talks about multiple groups who would be blessed. Shortly after, the disciples would ask how they should pray, and it is then we would receive what we all know as the Lord’s prayer.

And then here in our passage today Jesus says that managing you own kingdom is the source of so much of our worry, and anxiety. Jesus then makes us the deal of a lifetime. He says if you will just stay focused on the things of my kingdom I will take care of everything in your world. So the first step towards focusing God’s kingdom is stop focusing so much of ours. So at a personal level we all have to say… it’s not my kingdom.

NOT MY KINGDOM (quickly for 3rd point)

Quick Distinction:

Just a quick distinction for us this morning, doing something is not worrying about it. I need all of you to eat and put on clothes every day. Constantly worrying about how, where, and when we are going to do these things is the issue. Here Jesus says the gentiles, we can say the world or culture around us…. This is what they SEEK… Not just what they do, or worry about, but it is what they are seeking.

Two key issues to address about our personal kingdom

The first is an Egocentric mindset

Even within our supposed desire to please God we often allow an egocentric mindset to remain.

Let me see if I can explain. We could say, “I don’t know how God wants to use me” or we can say “how can I be used by God.” One implies my status in His kingdom, the other implies His status in my kingdom.

Next week we are going to talk about Seeking His will for our life, but the first thing we need to remember about His kingdom is that it’s about Him and not us. The opening sentence of the best-selling book Purpose Driven Life that so many of you have read says this… “It’s not about you.” Too many of us whether we realize it or want to admit it, are still so focused on what the kingdom of God can do for us rather that what we can do for the Kingdom. I could insert something like ask not what the kingdom can do for you, but what you can do for the kingdom… but I won’t.

Jesus came to earth, and visits with us now and says, my people, stop worry about your so-called problems, those belong to me. I’ve tasked you to manage my kingdom. Every minute that we talk to God about our stuff is a minute that we could be concerning ourselves with God stuff, and He says when you do, I’ve got you.

The second issue is that our kingdom is insatiable.

He knew that everything that we sought after in this world, would never be enough. Let’s consider the law of diminishing returns. The law of diminishing returns says that, if you keep increasing one factor in the production of goods while keeping all other factors the same, you'll reach a point beyond which additional increases will result in a progressive decline in output. Got it? Figured I’d give the textbook definition for all of you nerds out there. But what it simply means (with spiritual emphasis added) is this. When it comes to non-eternal things, the more you have of something, the more it will take to make you happy.

Can I share a personal testimony or perhaps a confession with you from my time with God a few weeks ago. Thanks.

I want to be clear here, that the passage God spoke to me was one that I haven’t even read in a few months, it’s a testament to why we read His word so when the Holy Spirit needs to point us back to it, it’s already living inside of us, I don’t know about you but I think that’s pretty cool. Let’s look at Proverbs 23

Proverbs 23:1–5 “When you sit down to dine with a ruler, Consider carefully what is before you, And put a knife to your throat If you are a person of great appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, For it is deceptive food. Do not weary yourself to gain wealth; Stop dwelling on it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.”

God brought verse 2 to mind so I looked it up and read the whole chapter. Can we put up verse 2 again, it says put a knife to your throat if you really like to eat. I’ll tell you, God punched me right in the face with this and said Jonathan I feel like you are enjoying food more than you enjoy me right now. Seriously, maybe you are better than me, but I had gone after some great fish and chips, ribs, buffalo wings, chocolate chip cookies and queso dip that has no end. And I said yeah God I don’t want to admit it but I was getting a little carried away… Maybe that’s for somebody today, if not thanks for letting me get that off my chest. Then verses 4 and 5 that we just read says Stop dwelling on money, as soon as you look at it, it’s gone. I wonder where the money is that you made in the month of July? Most of us still don’t have it in our possession, and tomorrow we are going to go right back to going after all of it that we can get.

The bottomline is that the primary characteristic of my kingdom is that it is always just one step away

▪ WHEN we buy a house

▪ AFTER we pay off the car

▪ WHEN the kid's graduate

▪ WHEN I retire

▪ ...Then I'll do such and such for God (Seminary is full of people in their 50's, they delayed their calling)

Our kingdom will keep us busy until the end, and more notably it will come to an end…

Two weeks ago we talked about how In Mark 10 Jesus tells a rich young man to sell all that he has and that man turns in walks away. Later in that same chapter Jesus gives a blind man His sight, the imagery of our eyes being opened through salvation, and it said IMMEDIATELY the man began to follow Jesus. Jesus told one to leave what he had and follow Him, the other Jesus told to go but because of He recognized Jesus could give more than riches, He decided to follow Him.

Point 1 of kingdom seekers this week church is quite plainly this His kingdom is not your kingdom. And bonus thought He isn’t calling you to His kingdom tomorrow, His kingdom is here and now. Secondly, His Kingdom is not our kingdom.

NOT OUR KINGDOM (quickly for 3rd point)

Wait Jonathan isn’t that the same as the first point. I can see how my kingdom and our kingdom can seem similar so let me distinguish between the two. In the first point we addressed the way that our personal agendas, priorities, and concerns distract from His kingdom.

But I want to take just a minute here to talk about how we as a collective of individuals sometime aren’t seeking God’s kingdom as He would have us to do.

If we aren’t careful we can come into the church and create a collective of ME kingdoms. We could really rather together and build an awesome children’s ministry, and that would be a great thing. We could bring an awesome missions emphasis, and God would really love that. We could start reaching teens through our youth group and see revival break out. But what if our ministry got bigger than the kingdom, or at least we acted like that. We need all ministries to work in one accord for the greater good of the church.

Then what if our church thought we were really awesome. And you know what I think this IS a really awesome church. But maybe we didn’t think the way all the other churches were doing things were awesome. Maybe we wouldn’t partner with them because well we know how to do it better.

What if our denomination was certain that our theology was the most scripturally correct? Would we look down on or resist working with other denominations because they see things differently? What if it even meant that more people were coming to Christ in other denominations but once they got saved they weren’t thinking just exactly like we were.

The number one reason that churches are closing today is because they said (air quote) “our kingdom” is best. When someone came in that had new ideas that my disrupt those who were happy doing church their way, they didn’t consider if God was doing a new thing so they would politely excuse these people with new ideas, and new ministries, well most of the time because it might threaten their title in ministry.

We say we want to see His kingdom come… as long as it doesn’t come in the church down the street or the denomination we won’t merge with.

I think God’s ok with denominations, but not ok with denominations that don’t work together. We will work with other churches or denominations as long as it doesn’t cost our “brand” anything.

Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 that He was going to build a church that the gates of hell could not overpower. Sometimes I think we spend more time trying to overpower other churches in the community more than we are going after the gates of hell.

The New Testament churches supported one another. I’m not sure if the church of Corinth or Philippi was bigger. I’m not sure which one allowed fog machines in their church, or still sang hymns. I get the sense they were so excited about the Kingdom of God coming forth that they were celebrating changed lives, changed communities, and trying to figure out how to help each other.

This morning what if seeking his kingdom meant surrendering your title, your ministry, our church or our denomination? Would it all be on the table. I think you see what I mean and I want to get to the main idea here….

PRIORITIZING HIS KINGDOM

We said earlier we have to stop focusing so much on our kingdom.

There is a commercial out right now about an internet company de-prioritizing their service to people. De-prioritized post-it.

To Prioritize His Kingdom, means de-prioritizing ours. Let me ask you this, what or when was the last time you intentionally said i need to give something else less priority so that I can give more priority to His kingdom? Not just doing something good, or being nice to a someone that you don’t like. I’m talking about you and the spouse, or you and the family sat down and said we are going to do this thing less so we can give God more? That’s essentially the essence of fasting. GOD you are more important than these things I’ve been giving priority to.

So what does this kingdom look like that we are seeking.

Well Jesus said the Kingdom of God is like a little child. I have a little 9 year old named Ben at my house that’s not so little as he used to be. (confession alert from the pastor) Dad why do we watch this show if it has cuss words? Don’t act like you’ve never seen home alone or national lampoon’s Christmas vacation. Little children are innocent, and maybe mourn over sin more than we do.

Kingdom people are submissive to God’s will. While we are living in a nation that is teaching us not to submit to anyone or anything.

The Kingdom of God is peaceful. Regardless of your stance, Jesus wouldn’t have a gun of any sort on his bumper sticker. Romans 12:18 says that as much as it depends on your be at peace with all people. I’m afraid too many of us are walking around looking for or at least anticipating a fight.

The kingdom of God is joyful even when persecuted. Most of what I have seen in the church is that as soon as people hit a roadblock in what they are trying to do for God they act like they are being flogged and crucified. We mentioned the sermon on the mount earlier where Jesus said you will be blessed if you are persecuted for my sake!

In Matthew 13 Jesus says the kingdom of God is like a net full of all kinds of different fish who will be sorted out as the good and the bad, and all the white middle-class Americans will get into heaven, and the rest will be thrown out. That’s not what it says right? Can I get an amen? I think think the white middle-class American is by far the one in most danger of hellfire as we have nestled ourselves together and quietly moved away from anyone that is not like us. Every tribe, every nation will be there, and needs to be in this building as much as we have anything to do with it.

That same chapter says the kingdom of God is like a pearl of great price, and when it is found a person will go out and sell everything that they have to buy that pearl.

When you find the things that are pleasing to Him in His kingdom, you will give all the time that you have, all the energy you can muster, and all the resources under your watch to chase after it. Finding it is just the beginning

I would ask this morning are you being responsible with the Kingdom? Interestingly enough one of the biggest excuses I hear for not pursing the kingdom is (air quotes) responsible living. I can’t follow the kingdom because of $$$, kids school, climate, distance, comfort, relationships, taking care of certain family members. And from what I can tell almost everything Jesus asked us to do in the kingdom somehow called us to be irresponsible to the things that the world often cites as important.

Capital City Church I want us to begin and continue to invest in a kingdom that has no end. When the angel announced to Mary that she would give birth to Jesus in Luke 1:32–33 the angel said, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.””

In the same way when have been miraculously born again by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can take part in this kingdom has no end. I’m going to invite the team right now, and begin a time of challenge to your hearts and lives.

RESPONSE

What happens if seeking His kingdom would mean the end of your personal ministry? What if His Kingdom means Cap City Church would no longer exist? What happens if His Kingdom means we became part of another denomination? Would everything be on the table before Him?

What need de-prioritized in your life, so that seeking His kingdom becomes the priority?

Just in my reading this morning i read in 2 Kings 17:15 that God’s people worshipped worthless idols and became worthless themselves. If you are feeling empty or worthless this morning you might examine what you are worshipping? In other words which kingdom is truly getting more of your attention?

The song they are going to lead us in as we pray this morning is called make room.

It sounds almost silly, that we as mere humans would tell the creator of the universe, that WE will make room for HIM. Shouldn’t we be fortunate enough that it would be Him making room for us like we talked about last week? Unfortunately, this song and praying in such way make alot of sense today because we filled up our lives with so many other things.

Cap City, God has big plans for us, but I know this He can’t move us forward until we are unified and agreeing that seeking His kingdom takes priority over every other thing in our life. We will come and pray this morning and ask NO tell God that you are going to make His kingdom a priority over every other thing that has been a competing idea.

PRAY

END SERVICE SAY GOODBYE ONLINE

START PLEA NOW FOR UPCOMING PRAYER NIGHTS FACILITIES MEETING… SHAMELESS PLEA, JOSH JONES, I NEED YOU. AS WE GROW I NEED THESE TEAMS FOR US TO MOVE FORWARD