The Passionate Pursuit of God

Introduction

You would open a Bible with me to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6 is where we’ll be studying this morning. And you’d do well to have a Bible open to that place. You can follow along in what we’ll be reading as we look at Jesus’ words and teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. I’ve got to tell you, I’ve been having a blast this weekend. I really enjoyed the time that I was able to spend teaching and getting to know and running around with the teenagers. And we just had a really good day. And what we’ve been doing, just so that you know, is going through the Sermon on the Mount and talking about getting real with God. That there are things in the Sermon on the Mount that deeply challenge us, that as Jesus teaches us, he gets to the heart.

And he teaches us about sincerity and honesty. He teaches us the things that would stand between us and God. And so for our time today, we’re going to continue that study and keep moving through the Sermon on the Mount because there are things here that all of us need to be challenged with and think about whether or not our relationship with God is what it should be. And Jesus challenges us to deepen that relationship, as you’ll see in just a moment. But I want to tell you how much I appreciate the invitation, the opportunity to be here. This has been a great weekend for me. My only regret is that my family’s not able to be with me, but they’ll be excited to see me a little later tonight, and that’ll be good.

But I am just, I am just thrilled to meet you, to get to know you, and to spend time in the Word of God. This is who we are. This is what we love. And so to be able to share things like this with people that I’ve never met before to come and to open up God’s word with you, has just been a real treat. And I appreciate so much the invitation. Matthew chapter 6 and verse 33 is where I want to begin. Matthew 6 and verse 33. The text says, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Seek first the kingdom of God. First. Jesus teaches us to think about our lives in terms of priority.

And that word first has the idea with it of something that must be done. It cannot be left undone. We’ve got to address it. The things that we do first usually are the things that are most important. They’re the things that are closest to our heart. They’re the things that we must take care of. And Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God. What he is doing in this verse is calling us to move beyond a partial commitment, to go all in, to truly have as the passion of our hearts the pursuit of God. And the question I want to ask is why? Why would we pursue God with this intensity first, foremost, primarily? Why is this so important? And in this section of Scripture, Jesus is going to address the why.

He’s going to call us to passionate pursuit of God, but in doing so, he’s going to say, here are the reasons why this is your best option. Now, as we answer and ask and answer that question this morning, what I want to first point out is that throughout this section we’re going to be studying, which is from Matthew 6, verse 19 all the way to the end of the chapter. Throughout this section, Jesus is using different word pictures to talk about the same thing. Can I show you that? Look at Matthew 6 and verse 19. And Matthew 6 and verse 19, he says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rush destroy and where thieves break in and steal. He talks about laying up treasure on earth or in heaven.

We’re not just talking about money here. We’re talking about what do we care about most? What are we passionate about? What means the most to us? What is our treasure? Then if you look a little farther in verse 22, verse 22 says, the eye is the lamp of the body, so if the eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of life. We’re going to talk about that in a minute. But my understanding of this idea of the eye is that this is our focus. This is what we’re most fixated on and concerned about. So it’s the same idea, isn’t it? And then in verse 24, he says, No one can serve two masters. Now he takes the idea of service, but it’s really the same thing.

Who’s really in charge of your life? What do you care most about? What are you laying up your treasure in? Where is your eye focused? It’s the same idea. And then a little further in verse 25, he says, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life. What you’re anxious about are the things that are important to you. What you’re worried about, what you’re thinking about when you have a little time left over at the end of the day. What is the passion of your heart? And then, of course, verse 33, where he says, Seek first the kingdom of God. What are you seeking? Is another way of saying the same thing. So I say all that to say, Jesus is talking about the same thing in a lot of different ways.

1. Seek God’s Kingdom First Because Nothing Else Lasts

And it boils down to one simple question Are we seeking the kingdom first? So let’s ask the question. Why should we seek the kingdom of God first? And the first thing I want us to see here is we seek God’s kingdom first because nothing else lasts. Let’s look at verse 19 again. In verse 19, he says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on 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 and steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So Jesus is concerned here about the location of our treasure. Do you notice that? That we can either lay up treasure or care most about things on earth or things in heaven.

It’s going to be in one of those places. And he is urging us, be careful about where you put your treasure, because there are some dangers about putting your treasure here on earth. He says that in verse 19, where moth and rush destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. And we’ve got to understand this would have been a reality for people in New Testament times who often would have money that would corrode, or that would have goods that moths would eat up, or maybe their life savings was put not in some kind of secure bank, but in a little box and dug in a hole in the ground and buried. Can you imagine what it would be like to have that be your treasure? Something that is so easily lost and tainted and broken or taken.

I’ve got to tell you, I’m not proud of what I’m about to say. But I used to think Jesus was wrong about this. I used to think Jesus was wrong because, yeah, that was true in that time. But Jesus, you know, we’ve got the FDIC now. We got money, we know it’s insured, right? At least part of it. And you know, we got these banks. And these banks, you know, yeah, occasionally a bank will get robbed, but usually. I mean, this is pretty secure. You know, our money may be a little different from their money. Yeah, Jesus, I kind of understand what you’re saying. You’re saying don’t trust this. But we don’t really have that problem today. I was so wrong. Because what happened to me was about 2008, 2009.

You remember? And some people that I knew well had savings they had for their whole lives. Just gone. As the markets turn. I also had a thing happen in my life. I’m not going to go into, but I ended up losing money out of no fault of my own. All of it. And when I came out of those two experiences, and I looked at these verses again, it was with new eyes. Because what Jesus is saying is not about the specifics of how you might lose money. What he’s saying is it just doesn’t last. Don’t we know that about money? It doesn’t last. Sometimes it doesn’t last because we spend it all, right? But even when we try to save it and we try for it to be there for us later on, it doesn’t work out.

That’s not the nature of things on earth. Jesus says, we need to look beyond to see what really lasts. And if we are putting all our emphasis and our care into something that is ultimately going to be destroyed. He says, you need to seek God first because there’s nothing else you can find that really will be permanent. Look at where it’s headed when you put your treasure there. That’s the nature of earthly things. So he says in verse 20, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The things that you treasure most that are most important to you. Do you notice in verse 21 that the word treasure is singular where your treasure is?

Because for all of us, there is one thing that is most important that we’re seeking first. There is something out there that is king in our hearts or master of our lives for all of us. And he says, if that thing is something that’s going to last, that’s great. But if it’s something that’s going to be destroyed, what will happen to your heart when the thing you love most is destroyed? Where your treasure is. It’s where your heart will be. It is a call for us to examine the bottom line of the things that we’re seeking. If it’s money, if it’s fame, if it’s popularity, if it’s power, if it’s pleasure, if it’s fulfillment. The question is, will it last? And Jesus says, seek God’s kingdom first, because it’s the only thing that will really last.

2. Seek God’s Kingdom First Because It Affects Everything Else

Second, seek God’s kingdom first because it affects everything else. I want to read with you, verse 22. In verse 22, he says, the eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, how your whole body will be full of darkness. If the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness. Now, these are verses that are subject to a lot of different interpretations, and I’ve heard different people take them in different ways. I’m going to tell you what I believe. And you may disagree with that. It’s okay, we can still be friends. That’ll be fine. But this is the way I take this, and I think it fits in line with what we’re reading in the rest of the section.

I believe that the eye is put here for the picture of our focus. In the same way that in chapter 7, as we’re going to talk about in a little while, in chapter 7, when Jesus talks about the speck in your eye and the beam in my eye, it’s an image of focus. Well, here, Jesus is talking about the eye as an input or a connection to the world, a filter through which we see the world. And that if that filter or that input is broken or tainted, then it’s going to be a problem because everything that comes in will then be tainted. Everything we see, everything that then filters into the rest of our body will be tainted. Let me give you an example of this.

Have you ever been really mad at somebody? And no matter what they said or did after that, you took it bad. Even if they did something that was just really nice, you’d say something like, well, I bet they had another reason for doing that. Have you ever been so mad that everything about them was affected by your anger? I think it’s the same principle. Okay? That when we when we no longer have the ability to have a clean input or a clean filter, then it taints everything else. When our focus is off, everything else is affected. And I think that’s what Jesus is saying here. To give you another illustration. Think about the professional athlete who has as his pursuit, maybe a basketball player, his pursuit, his goal, his passion is to be a great basketball player.

Don’t you think that affects the rest of his life? He has one passion. Isn’t that going to affect his family? Is it going to affect his diet? Is it going to affect what happens with his free time? All of it is going to be filtered through the lens of what is he passionate about. And so I think what Jesus is saying is if we have as our passion something that is corrupt or something that is going to make us or turn us into a bad direction, then we shouldn’t be surprised when that passion tends to affect everything else about us. When the eye is bad, the whole body will be full of darkness. Because that’s where our passion lies. So to make that positive, Jesus is saying, seek first the kingdom of God.

3. We Are Passionately Pursuing Something

And it will affect everything else in a positive way. Seek the kingdom because it affects everything else, either poorly or in a positive way. Now, this is serious, and this is important. Because what we need to know is we have had the negative impact in our lives before of having a bad focus. We’ve all done it. We’ve all had it color our perception of other people and of life. And Jesus is saying there’s a better way. That if you’re passionate about the right thing, it’ll affect everything else well. Seek God’s kingdom first because we are a passionately pursuing something. Look in verse 24 with me. In verse 24, he says, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and money. Now it’s clear that Jesus is still thinking about money and materialism here, just like he was in 19 to 21. And so I think we need to take a minute and process this and think about this, because we need to say a little bit about money and materialism a little bit more. Jesus pictures it here in verse 24 with the word mammon, which is the idea of picturing money as a God. Here’s what I want you to understand about that. That there’s nothing wrong with money in itself, but this is about our view of money and our treatment of money. And that I believe we as Americans have a lot of soul searching to do about this. For us, I think where our care needs to be is in the fact of how we view money.

Because we view money in terms that we would normally reserve for God. We view money as security.

We say we’ve got a we’ve got a nest egg. We talk about a safety net. What do we mean? We mean that someday, if something terrible happens, at least I’ve got money. It’s security. Sometimes we talk about money in terms of freedom, because really, if we want to break it down, what is intriguing and exciting to us about money is that when we have money, we can do the things we want to do. Whereas if we don’t have money, suddenly we’re we have a harder time, don’t we? Okay, we can’t go where we want to go. We can’t do whatever our heart desires. Money is a gateway then to us being able to fulfill our pleasures. The freedom of it is intoxicating. And sometimes we use money as comfort.

Have you ever been really stressed out and gone shopping? Okay. I’m guilty here. I have noticed that when I have a really hard time dealing with things, almost all the solutions have to do with me spending money. Let’s go eat some more food. Let’s go buy some more stuff. Let’s go to the movie. Let’s drive somewhere. All of it has to do with spending money. So if money is security and freedom and comfort, where do those things come from for Christians? Those are God terms, right? God is the one who gives security. He’s the one that’ll be there for us if everything falls to pieces. Not money. God is the one who gives true freedom. God is the one who gives real comfort. I think we have to be very careful here about acknowledging that sometimes we view money as a God.

And that we have to choose whom we’re going to serve. Now, on the board I put, we are passionately pursuing something. Have you noticed Jesus’ language? Look again at verse 24. He says, No one can serve two masters. For either will hate the one and love the other, he’ll be devoted to the one and despise the other. Jesus does not say, hey guys, you need to care about something. Get busy. You guys are just, you’re just blobs. Some of you don’t care about it. No. We care about something. We are serving something with all our hearts. That is universal. Every one of us, no matter what it is, no matter where we’re from, we’re serving something. And so Jesus says, if you’re serving something, why not choose a master that’s going to be good for you?

4. Seek God’s Kingdom First Because Life Is More Than Stuff

Why not choose the right master? You can’t serve God and mamma. So where that leads us is to ask the question, is there a rival to God in my heart? Something that is challenging that place of supremacy as master. Something else that I try to put in place of God. Something that would keep me from being passionate about Him because I’m way too passionate about that thing. If we’re going to get real with God, it’s a question we have to ask. Seek God’s kingdom first because life is more than stuff. We’re going to take a minute and read verse 25 down to verse 34. Read it with me. Verse 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? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor eat nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to a span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 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.

Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. I want you to notice how often Jesus teaches in questions in this little section. He just asks question after question after question here. Because he is trying to get us to think about what we are pursuing. In verse 25, he says, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life what you will put on what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body what you will put on.

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Now, first of all, what he is saying is what you are anxious about reveals what you really care about. We don’t get anxious about things that don’t matter. Somewhere in us, something is triggered when we become anxious. And so what Jesus is saying is you are anxious about all of these things because that’s your foremost pursuit. You’re worried about what am I going to eat? What am I going to drink? What am I going to wear? And he asks the question in verse 25. Look at it again. He says, is not life more than food and the body more than clothing. Isn’t life more than stuff?

Isn’t there more to you than what’s in your bank account? We know this. We say it all the time. Life is more than stuff. So what Jesus is saying is, then get busy with the stuff of life and stop worrying so much about stuff. Stop worrying so much about the physical things. We say this all the time about life. We say, what makes life great? What makes life great are relationships with people? What makes life great is dealing with and working in causes that last. What makes life great is something deeper. So he says, then pursue that. Seek first the kingdom because there’s more to life than your stuff. It reminds me so much of the time when Jesus says in Luke chapter 12, a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses.

You are not your stuff. And we’ve got to quit worrying so much about all our stuff. Because it reveals our hearts not fully committed, and it reveals that we’re thinking like Gentiles. Hold that thought for a second. Let’s get down to verse 25. I’m sorry, I want verse 26. In verse 26, look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor read nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? See that question? Aren’t you more valuable than a bird? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin.

Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 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, oh you of little faith? Jesus says, you need to go outside for a minute. And look around. Look at the birds. The birds worry about where the next paycheck’s going to come from. Are the birds worrying about getting promoted? No, birds are just doing whatever it is, birds do. God takes care of them. And then he says, Don’t you matter more than a bird? He says, look around for flowers, lilies. They’re not sitting around worrying about their clothes. They’re not spinning and working and all of that.

God just clothes them. And then the question don’t you matter more than a flower? Now, birds and flowers are great, but I think Jesus is saying something bigger about creation. That God takes care of his creatures. And you are the crowning creation. Don’t you think he’s going to take care of you? Without your anxiety and your passionately pursuing all of that. We’re God’s people. God’s going to take care of his people. And he wants us to focus on something deeper than stuff. In fact, I said a moment ago, it is a Gentile mindset. Look again at verse 31. Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

The Gentiles seek after these things. You say you’re thinking like Gentiles. Why would that be? It’s because Gentiles. They feel they’re on their own. If you’re a Gentile, you don’t have a God taking care of you. If you’re a Gentile, you’re probably terrified of the gods. You hope they don’t intervene in life, because it’s always a disaster for everybody when they do. If you’re a Gentile, you don’t think I’ll pray to God, I’ll trust God. You think if anybody’s going to get food for me, it’s going to be me. That’s a Gentile mindset. If anybody’s going to take care of me, it’ll be me. And so Jesus says, stop thinking like Gentiles. You know that there is a God who made you and who sustains the world he made.

How can you think he’s not going to take care of you?

5. Because God Will Give Us What We Need

Think deeper. Because life is about more than just meeting needs and staying alive. And that leads us to the last thing I want us to see. Seek God’s kingdom first because God will give us what we need. That’s the promise of verse 33. Verse 33 says, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Seek first the kingdom, and God will take care of the rest. Make this your number one priority, and everything else you need will be taken care of. It reminds me of Solomon’s prayer. Do you remember when God says to Solomon, ask, what shall I give you?

And so Solomon had the whole world to ask for. And all he asks for is wisdom and discernment to govern, to lead the people of God. And you remember what God says in response to that? He says, Because you have not asked for riches and honor and all of these things, he says, I’m going to give them to you anyway. That’s what I see in Matthew 6.33. When you don’t seek these things, that’s when God will give them to you. That’s when God will bless you. When you seek what really matters first, all the rest falls into line. Everything else God says, I’ll take care of. Matthew 6.33 is a promise. And it is one we need to lay hold of personally. Think about your life.

Had there been times where you weren’t sure if you were going to make it physically? I imagine most of us have been through those situations. I have. I’ve been through situations like that where I didn’t know. I didn’t know how we were going to make it. I’ve been in situations where I couldn’t see where it was going to come from. And I can’t explain exactly how it all happened. Sometimes it would be through the kindness of brethren. Sometimes it would be people who didn’t even know we were having trouble, who just reached out in a way that I can only describe as providential. But when Jesus says, seek first the kingdom and you’ll have what you need, he means it. We need to lay hold of that.

Conclusion

That’s a promise for us. It’s a promise that God’s going to take care of his people. So we are free to seek God’s kingdom first. He’ll take care of the rest. I want to take a minute. Just encourage you to a passionate pursuit of God? Do you ever wonder what you’re doing with your life? If your life has any meaning? Do you ever wonder if life is just about trying to find some happiness in some little part of your life and then growing older and eventually dying? Is there any point to it? You ever look at your life and say, you know what, I’m not doing anything that’s going to be remembered in a hundred years, or maybe even ten? Do you ever feel like all your efforts and at your absolute best really end up amounting to not much?

Maybe a little ripple in the water that then fades and everything goes back to being still.

You ever feel like maybe you’re missing some of the important parts of life? Like something that’s just not complete. Like you burn your motor out every day or every week, and yet you’re still missing what really matters. Do you find yourself overly anxious? Always worried. Jesus is offering you the answer. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. The passionate pursuit of God is the reason you were made. The passionate pursuit of God is what makes your life valuable. It’s what gives you something that will last. It’s what will help you through this life and give you treasure in eternity. This is your calling.

He said, Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We’re half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. Sometimes we think about our passions, and we think about them as really difficult to bridle and to reign in. Jesus is saying your passion must be for God. And when that happens, the rest just works out. Would you pray with me about that? Our God and Father, we thank you so much for this time that we could open your word and that we could hear from your Son.

We are deeply challenged by his words. We’re challenged by the truth that they contain. And by the need that we have. To give our whole hearts to pursuing you. Father, I pray for each one of us here that we’ll honestly look at our lives in light of what has been said. That, Father, if there are things that we’ve allowed to grow too important to us, that we’ll be willing to put those things on a lower rung. And if possible, Father, if we need to, to get rid of them altogether so that we can pursue you without hindrance. I pray that you’ll help each one of us to see clearly just how important your things are, and just how transcendent they are above all that is here on earth.

I pray that you’ll help us to be a passionate people who want to serve you, who want to connect with you and worship you. And then, Father, a people who want to share that truth and that great news with others. Bless us this day as we serve you, and we pray that you’ll be honored by the worship we offer. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. We’ll have a short break within classes from fifth grade through all adults. We’ll come back into the auditorium. And uh Brother Jacob will speak to you again about that.