First Things First

Intro: Haley and I started dating 10 years ago this month. And, man, a lot can happen in 10 years. I started thinking about how our lives have changed over the last 10 years, so I decided to take a trip down memory lane over the last 10 years

In all this reminiscing, I literally went back through 10 whole years of instagram posts, and I saw this one: Slide of Matthew 6:34 Instagram post. I remember during that time she was super stressed about school and work and everything that she had going on in life…

And I knew like 3 Bible verses at the time, and thank God one of them was Matthew 6:34. So I secretly took a pen and a small sheet of paper, wrote “Matthew 6:34” down, and stuck it on her mirror as I left her parents’ house that day. Thank God Matthew 6:34 was one of the 3 Bible verses I knew, because it of course meant a lot to her and was an important part of our relationship in the beginning.

And Matthew 6:34 says this: Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. What a great truth. And what an encouragement it was to Haley at the time. And this verse has been an encouragement to me, and has probably been an encouragement to many of you.

If God’s Word says to do something, we should do it, amen? But “Don’t be anxious” can sometimes be a difficult command to follow. How many people know, though, that our God is a God of purpose, a God of intelligent design, and a God of order?

It wasn’t until I reached a point in my own life of incredible stress and anxiety that I began to study this verse in context. Notice the first word of the verse: therefore. Anytime you see the word “therefore” in scripture, if you want to truly understand what the verse means, you better look at what comes before it.

So when we go back a verse, we see that Matthew 6:33 provides an essential step to reaching a place where we can walk without the burden of stress and anxiety. Matthew 6:33 says But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. And this, church, is the ultimate goal, the top priority of the Christian life, and it will be the top priority of The Way Church: seek FIRST the Kingdom of God. But what’s the first word of Matthew 6:33? But. we want to understand a statement that begins with the word “but”, then we better look, in context, at what comes before it.

Let us go, then, to Matthew 6:25, and we’ll read the passage in its entirety. Context-Sermon on the Mount: speaking to disciples among others.

You may notice that verse 25 begins with the word “therefore.” For context, Jesus just finished talking about money, and how you cannot make money the central focus of your life and simultaneously make God the focus of your life. We know that we need some sort of income to survive. Likewise, we need other essentials to survive in life. In what we’re about to read, Jesus is speaking to an anxious multitude about their needs. Before Jesus delivers the victory, the coffee mug verses at the end of the chapter, let’s see how He gets there.

Matthew 6:25 “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? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?[g] 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 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? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

All throughout the Bible, we see these dichotomies - opposing ideas - where God draws a clear line between His way and the wrongorld’s way. - Sow to the Spirit or sow to the flesh, - Walk in obedience or walk in disobedience, - Fear God or fear man.

And here, we see another one: Seek first things or seek first God. Seek = To strive after, to desire, to diligently search for. What we’re seeking is what we’re fixing our focus on…

And What we focus on - what we seek - becomes what we’re guided by. And what we’re guided by determines the level of faith we operate in and ultimately the extent to which we walk in and fulfill the will of God in our own lives. And fulfilling the will of God is our main purpose in life. That’s why our mission at The Way Church is this: We are a movement for all people to discover and walk in God’s will through an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

When looking at what we’re focusing on in life, here’s an important question we can ask ourselves…

1. How does what we’re seeking guide our lives?

When we seek first things, we live a me-centered life.

Seeking first things - Being so focused on things in our lives perpetuates a me-centered mindset. TUNNEL VISION

The more we think about things in our life - things out of our control - the more we obsess over the things we can’t control. Then we think about how those things will affect other things in our lives. And really, the only reason we’re concerned about those things is because we’re worried about how those things (or the absence of those things) will affect our lives.

There’s a reason that the second-greatest commandment from Jesus is loving others as ourselves.. Because He knows that we don’t think about anyone the way we think about ourselves.

When we seek first God, we live a Christ-centered life.

Seeking first God in our lives reveals a Christ-centered mindset, where our world actually begins to revolve around Him rather than the things we find ourselves concerned about.

That’s Jesus’ message to the anxious crowd in Matthew 6:33 when He says “seek first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you.”

Jesus is saying that if we make Him our main focus, that is discovering His will and pursuing His will, then He will make sure that all the things are taken care of.

Another important question we can ask ourselves is this…

2. How does what we’re seeking impact us?

Let’s look first at seeking things, making things in our life the central focus, the driving force behind our mindset and actions. What happens when we seek first things?

1. We give up our peace.

In 10 verses, Jesus used the word “anxious” 6 times. Why does He use the word anxious 6 times? Because these people are clearly anxious. And why are they anxious? Because they’re totally focused on things that are out of their control.

2. We weaken our faith.

In verse 30, we hear this famous line from Jesus, “O you of little faith.” He’s calling the crowd out because their focus on the things has led to a lack of focus on God, which has led to a lack of trust in His provision. And notice that Jesus doesn’t say “you of no faith”. He says “you of little faith,” implying that there is a belief in who God is and what He’s capable of, but they are not putting that faith into action by seeking Him first. Instead, they are making their circumstances - the things - their central focus.

Let me give you a Biblical illustration of faith being weakened by focusing on circumstances, focusing on things.

Matthew 14:28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

It’s faith that got Peter out of the boat. It’s faith that enabled this common man to walk on water. Then verse 30 says, “he saw the wind”, showing us that he shifted his focus from Jesus to the concerning elements around him.

Jesus picks him up out of the water and what does He say? “You of little faith…” meaning that Peter knew who Jesus was and believed it.. Even put it into action by stepping out of the boat. But when he took his eyes off Jesus and fixed his eyes on the things around him, his faith was weakened.

Here’s what this means for us: We know who Jesus is. We of little faith, must take your focus off the things that concern us and shift our focus to the one who has authority over all those things.

What happens when we seek first God?

1. We walk in peace.

If we are seeking God, we will find Him. If we are seeking His will, we will find it. Matthew 7:7 Jesus said, “seek and you will find.” And in finding Him, we will find His truth - the truth.

And if we earnestly seek God, then we know what kind of God He is. Matthew 7:11 says “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” I love Luke so much and I would do whatever it takes to give him the things that he needs in life. I would give my life for my son if I had to - I think all parents agree.. But our love for our kids could never compare to the love that God has for us. The more we seek intimacy and closeness in our relationship with God, the more we know what kind of loving Father He is, and we know that He will always provide us with everything we need, according to His will and not our own.

Verse 32 says, in relation to all these “things” that the people are worried about, “Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.”

2. Our faith is strengthened.

While seeking things, focusing on the things of this world, leads to a weakening of our faith, seeking God leads to the opposite. If we are truly seeking - striving after, desiring, diligently searching for the will of God, where are we going to go to find Him? Naturally, we’re going to go to the Word of God.. because the Word of God will NEVER contradict the will of God. And my Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. (Rom. 10:17)

The more we seek God, the more we get to know God through an intimate relationship, and the more time we spend with God, in our daily walk, in prayer, and in His Word, the more He reveals Himself and His will to us. And the more He reveals to us, the hungrier we are to discover and to walk toward what He’s called us to.

The last point is this…

3. The extent to which we seek God’s will is the extent to which we see His Kingdom come.

Throughout scripture, we see concepts and principles that are inseparable. We see this a lot with Jesus

When Jesus walked the earth, He was fully God and fully man, not one or the other.

John 1:14 says that Jesus came full of grace and truth, not one or the other but fully grace and fully truth.

If we understand the gospel, then we understand that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, meaning that if we trust Him as Savior, then we also submit to Him as Lord. You cannot separate the two.

If you’re still in Matthew 6, go to verse 10. When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He gave them a model for prayer. This is the same model that we should use today, commonly known as the Lord’s prayer. Notice how Jesus says we should pray. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name

Matthew 6:10 Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

The point here is that you can’t separate the two. We want to see God move in our lives. We want to see God have His way in this church. But we must seek Him, seek His will, seek His way. And when we do that.. When we sell out in pursuit of God’s will, making His will the top priority in our lives above all else, then we see His kingdom come… in our lives and in our church.

The Way Church is a movement for all people to discover and walk in God’s will through an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. And the fruit of this movement is seeing God’s kingdom come, God having His way here. Can you imagine a body of believers, worshiping the Lord together, walking with Jesus together, with absolutely no agenda but seeing the will of God done? I can. That’s exactly what I see at The Way Church. That’s why we’ve stepped out in faith and started this church.

It’s been a while now since I felt God called me, put it on my heart, to pastor.. And not only pastor but to one day lead in planting a church. A couple Christmases ago, I was at a Christmas party with some friends, and one of those friends was a pastor - a man of God - a man of God who seeks first God in his daily walk. And he planted a church that God has done and is still doing a great work through. That was shortly after I felt that I received this call to pastor and plant, and I told this pastor friend about this call that I felt I received from God, and asked him if he could give me any advice on church planting and pastoring.

And he didn’t give me any advice about setting up finances, or finding a building, or how to deliver a good sermon. He gave me one piece of advice: He said, “Nurture your relationships. (and is that not God’s will, to have good relationships and be in community with other believers?) He said the relationships that you have formed, the relationships that you know God is in, nurture those relationships - because those relationships will be the foundation of the church that God builds.” I am so grateful that this church will be built on Godly relationships.

Fast forward to now. I felt God saying to take the first step in starting a church. God’s word says to pray, so I prayed a lot - for wisdom and discernment. But it also says to seek wise counsel in situations like these. So I reached out to this pastor friend of mine, and I said “I feel that God is telling me to take the first step in planting a church. I don’t know if that’s tomorrow or next year. All I know is this is the vision that God has given me for what a church should look like. What do you think?” Of course he asked me some questions, we had a discussion, and we prayed together, and coming out of that prayer, you know what he said? He told me that he felt that God wanted him to offer this building to The Way Church, whenever we’re ready. So here we are.

There’s a long list of things to concern yourself with when starting a church, but when we focus on God - when we seek Him and His will first - He takes care of the things. And not only that, but he does exceedingly, abundantly more that we could ever ask or think.

We’ve got a vision, we’ve got a building, and right now we’ve got a Tuesday night service. We’re going to continue to seek God in all that we do, and we’re going to trust Him to take care of all the things. We’re going to let Him take this church where He wants to take it.

And the same principle applies to our individual lives. There’s plenty that we don’t have figured out, plenty of things that we can choose to focus on and worry about.. But if we focus on Him and seek Him first, then He will take care of all of the things. AMEN?