What We're Meant to Be All About (Matthew 6:25-34, Two)
Anybody else enjoying the NFL playoffs? Now I’ve been a Chiefs fan since I was a kid - back when the playoffs weren’t much of a possibility at all. And now I look forward to this time of year, where number 15 in red, Patrick Mahomes, gets to do what he does - and we all get to take it in. But a quarterback I know you’ve all heard of - even if you don’t follow football - is the one people call the GOAT - that’s number 12, the man Tom Brady.
Now more than a meme or two has laughed at the way Brady’s season ended and what it had cost him. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers finished with an 8-9 record. They somehow snuck into the playoffs. But this past Monday, they suffered a 31-14 first-round, home blowout loss to the Dallas Cowboys. Well, some of you know this, but after last season, Brady decided to retire. But that lasted all of 40 days. And his wife of 13 years, Gisele, walked away, as a result. Brady, still playing at the age of 45, had put the pursuit of rings above all else - including family - and she decided she had had enough.
Here’s the question I want us to think about today. What is your life all about? What is your highest ambition? What is so valuable to you that you’d give up everything you had to obtain it? The one thing that you could never see yourself giving up on? And is that thing, that ambition, truly worth what it costs?
Here in Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus tells us what our ambition should be. What we were made by God to pursue. Author Scot McKnight summarizes those verses in this way:
“These are words for radicals about a radical lifestyle of trusting God for the ordinaries of life while devoting oneself unreservedly toward the kingdom mission.” (Scot McKnight)
Last week, we looked at the first part of that summary - this radical lifestyle of trusting God. Fighting against worry. Trusting Him for our needs. This morning, we’ll take on the second half. Devoting ourselves unreservedly toward the kingdom mission. That, my friends, is what we were made for.
Context: Making Our Choice
But before we jump into that, let’s think briefly about where we’ve been, right here, just before these verses, in chapter 6. Our context has led us to a point of decision. What will we, Karis, make our lives all about? In verses 19 through 21, Jesus tells us to lay up treasures in heaven, and not here on earth. In verses 22 and 23, Jesus tells us to have our eyes, our hearts, focused on Him, and full of light, and not on other things, and full of darkness.
And in verse 24, Christ tells us to serve God and not money. He says we can’t possibly do both. And here, in verses 25-34, the Lord tells us not to focus on food and clothing and be filled with worry, but to run rather after His Kingdom. And that’s where we’re going to focus our time today.
What We’re To Seek
We’ll focus on verse 33 here this morning. “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” And here’s the big idea I want us all to wrestle with and leave with today:
Let’s make His reign and ways our priority and our passion, knowing that the prize is worth the price.
Now you may have noticed some alliteration there. Sometimes it seems like the clouds part, an outline falls from heaven. And I think, “Should I try not to alliterate it?” I gotta go with it. Right?
Meant for Passion
First, let’s take passion. Jesus tells us here to “seek” these things. We’ve all been wired by God with a longing for glory. For this desire to worship. And with that, a longing for purpose. For a mission. To experience and celebrate something glorious in our hearts. And to declare and celebrate that something out in the world.
One of my beloved children once let us know from school, that their keys had been lost. And we began talking communicating back and forth about some next steps. “Where did you have them last?” That’s always your favorite question, right? “Trace your steps.” Who hadn’t already thought of that? Some panic then ensued. As getting home would be complicated. And getting them replaced would be a pain. So we asked our kid to really look hard. And they’d of course already been doing that.
But then that child walked outside, and what do you know? That car was actually running. And it had been all day. The keys were inside! Now I couldn’t give my kid too hard of a time, because I’d done something fairly similar just a few months before. Gone into a doctor’s office. Come out to a running car.
Friends, that’s the way we’re to seek - with a sense of desperation. Like we do for something that’s lost. Often in the Bible, the word is used in that way. I think of in Luke 15 - the lost sheep, the lost coin. But unlike those car keys, what God offers hasn’t been lost at all. But we’re to pursue it with passion. With effort. With perseverance. We’re called to seek and seek diligently and to keep seeking even more. And not give up.
But so often we’re looking for the wrong things. I’m working my way through Richard Powers’s novel, The Overstory. And an early character is an art student named Nick. And as the author lists out the things he’s learned in college in Chicago, the first is this: “Human history was the story of increasingly disoriented hunger.” As Bruce Waltke puts it, “Ours is a society starved for spiritual truth but indiscriminating in its taste.” Slamming Big Macs when a steak from CC’s Broiler is right before us. Yes. We have this hunger for meaning, for a mission. For wonder, for glory. But we’re disoriented. We’ve run after the wrong things. The Bible calls this sin.
The Lord has given us something to “seek,” what should be our passion. Something to consume us and move us. It doesn’t mean that God doesn’t give us lots of good things to enjoy. It’s just one thing is meant to be the sun. And all those other things are meant to rotate around that.
An Intended Priority
Second, consider priority. Jesus says we’re to “seek first” something. Right? And it’s meant to come before all else. On our list of priorities, what Jesus spells out here is supposed to be at the top. Of our task list. On our calendar.
Now God made us knowing that first things should come first. And comprehending what those first things really are. But we’ve gotten that mixed up, too. Maybe we say we value what Christ says is of chief importance here. Maybe we even deep down do really care about it. But we still let things get out of balance. We look at our phones instead of listening to our children. We stay too long at the office and neglect our spouse. We get lost here in the sermon, because we’re thinking about the game. And then a loss in the afternoon ruins our week. Our passions have been disordered. And so have our priorities.
Next week, the Glossons are sharing about their mission to Japan. And it also happens to be the day of the AFC championship game. I was sharing with Reece and Graeler the other night, how we were going to make sure we could do both. And I said, “This feels kinda weird with what I’m talking about tomorrow.” And Kevin said, “Yeah, seeking the Chiefs Kingdom.” And David said, “Hey, it’s ok to work in both.” And I thought, “Preach, brother.” But the Lord wants us to put first things first.
Pursuing the wrong passions and the wrong priorities - yes, the Bible calls them sin. But more than that, they’re idolatry. Turning from our God, our Creator, and turning to created things, false gods, instead. Running after lesser glories. And finding our joy there.
Tim Keller has written scores of articles and books about idolatry. He defines an idol this way: “An idol is usually a good thing that we make ultimate. We say, ‘Unless I have that, I am nothing.’”
Or as Tim Chester explains it:
“An idol is anything we look to instead of God for living water. Our double sin is, first, rejecting the truth of God’s greatness and goodness, and, second, placing our affections elsewhere.” (Tim Chester)
The Lord doesn’t want us to make our passion or our priority sports or work or our homes or our hobbies. But underneath all of those is something deeper. More on that later.
Well, what does want Jesus want us to “seek first?” What does Jesus want as our ambition?
Pursuing the Point
Third, let’s consider the point. What we are to “seek first.” What does verse 33 say again? “The kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Let’s take each of those ideas here in turn. We’re first to seek after His reign. “The kingdom of God.” Now when we talk about God’s reign, we’re often talking about a spiritual reality. As people bow before Him, and recognize Him as King, the reign of God spreads. Jesus says in the gospels that His Kingdom is here. It has come in part.
But we await a day when it will come in full. And that won’t just be a spiritual thing. Jesus will return. Heaven will come down to earth. And He will reign, with His people, over a renewed creation forever and ever. It’s His reign - spiritual and material - that we’re to seek.
Second, we’re to seek after His ways. Not just the “kingdom of God,” but also “His righteousness” is what we’re to pursue. Now think back to what we’ve seen already in the Sermon on the Mount. That we’re to “hunger and thirst for righteousness,” in chapter five and verse 6. That the blessed will be “persecuted for righteousness’ sake,” in verse 10 of that same chapter. And that we have to have a “righteousness” that “exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees.” That’s verse 20 of chapter 5. What are we talking about when we speak of “righteousness?” Here, holiness. Obedience. Seeking God’s will. Running after His ways. That’s what Jesus in part is calling us to here.
But it’s even more than that. That word, in that day, was used much more broadly than our personal “righteousness.” It often referred to justice. And it’s translated that way also at times in the Bible. It’s not just us as individuals seeking His ways. It’s longing for that to be done out in the world. His will being done “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). We pray, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done.” But it’s also something we’re meant to pursue.
MLK Jr. and those who supported him heard the same things we hear today when we speak of such things. “Just preach the gospel.” But, yes, the gospel is about the cross - what Jesus came and did. But it’s also about the kingdom - why Jesus came and did it. What it will all bring about. Peace. Justice. Forever with Him.
So, as we often say in Karis, we’re not just about justification - being declared righteous by God and then seeing His righteousness worked out in our lives. We’re also about justice. About the world being finally put to rights. And His coming righteousness being worked out in His world, little by little, here and now. His gospel. His kingdom. Those are the point.
That’s what we’re to run after - to make our ambition. Now you know, if you’ve been here for sometime, that those are God’s gifts. They’re given by grace. We can’t earn them. No matter how hard we work. But it doesn’t mean we just sit there. As commentator William Hendriksen explains, and it fits with the theme of this passage, nature can teach us how this works. Even trees, as inactive as they may seem, are anything but that. Drawing nourishment from the soil. Grabbing energy from the sun. They’re dependent. But not passive. We must seek our Lord, His reign and ways, with that same mindset.
Pictures of This Pursuit
We’ve talked about what we’re to “seek first.” But what could that look like? Let’s fourth, look at some pictures of this pursuit. Now when we talk about this verse, it’s often just thought of as something personal, just about me feeding my soul. That’s how we pursue “His kingdom.” If you were raised in the church, this what you probably learned. Read your Bible. Pray every day. That’s how I heard it. And that really fits right in with the spirit of our age - where religion is a personal thing - better kept to ourselves, out of the public square.
Now if this goes beyond the private, and we start thinking public with Jesus’s words, it often ends up going this way. This passage is about sharing the gospel, about saving souls. Getting lost people found. That’s how we seek His reign and ways.
Now this certainly includes what we do personally. We need to read God’s word. We need to feed our souls, as we do our bodies, or we’ll starve. But we also do it corporately. And that’s just as important. Praying and singing with our brothers and sisters. Hearing God’s word preached. You need to be here - and in your MC - not just for you but for those around you.
And we do need to share the gospel with those who don’t know Jesus. That’s His calling He gives. To make disciples of Jesus. To see people bow their knee in faith to the King of the universe. Faithful Christians care about souls. Yes, we do. Just look at how this gospel ends!
But we also care about bodies, right? We’re not just souls that happen to have bodies. No. We’ve been made as whole persons - body and soul. And Jesus cares about both. He came and healed the sick. And one day, He’ll raise our bodies from the dead. As we take out His kingdom into the world, we should love people - body and soul - as well.
We’re not just talking about spiritual things only. As we go about the callings God’s given us on earth, we can infuse them with eternal significance - as we point people to our Creator and Redeemer through our work and our words.
I love the way Gordon Spykman once put it: “Nothing matters but the kingdom. But because of the kingdom, everything matters.”
Now in talking about pursuing “His righteousness,” it’s most often seen as how we as individuals need to repent. And how we need to obey. But we often need to do that corporately, right? As the church, we need to own ways that we’ve sinned - and a big one is in matters of race. And we need to repent and obey together.
But we also want to see “His righteousness” lived out around us, as more and people bow to King Jesus and bring their lives in conformity to His gospel. Yes, in personal holiness. But also public justice. That should be our desire and prayer.
So with all of that in mind, what could all of this look like? Seeking “His Kingdom and His righteousness?” Here are some ideas:
Getting up early to listen to God’s word
Doing whatever you can to get your family here on Sundays
Bringing up what Jesus has done for you - with a classmate or a co-worker
Shoveling your neighbor’s snowy drive on a really cold day
Inviting someone to live in an extra room in your home
Refusing to gossip in the break room at your store
Heading across the ocean to share Christ in a scary place
Standing up for someone who’s being mistreated at your workplace
Taking in a foster child, and maybe even pursuing adoption
Buying a homeless woman a meal and listening to her story
Standing against injustice by participating in a march
Giving to your church or to other missionaries or charities
Choosing sexual purity in a world that mocks God’s word
Not joining in - and even speaking up - at inappropriate jokes at school
Helping one of your children back to sleep when they’re afraid of the dark
Performing your trade in a way that glorifies God and points to Him
Choosing a major, a career, with Jesus and His priorities in mind
Speaking up against a policy or law that oppresses the needy
Sharing some of what you have with a family here who’s struggling
Showing a co-worker how to do a task when you really want to go home
Confessing sin, owning a mistake, on your job, to your boss
Praying for the sick, or maybe giving them some medicine
Loading the dishwasher, serving your spouse, when all you want to do is go to bed
Helping a friend see with love that their choices are bringing consequences
Owning and lamenting as a church family ways we’ve not loved the oppressed
All of these are examples of what seeking “His Kingdom and righteousness“ could look like. And we could go on and on. Here on earth, the church is a little pocket on earth, a preview, of the kingdom of God. We’re an embassy of that world to come. We’re a picture of what things will look like when heaven comes to earth and Jesus fully and finally reigns.
Does that picture fit with us? Do people walk in these doors - do they come in our homes - and see people pursuing His kingdom and pursuing His righteousness - first?
In addition, we also get to be agents of that kingdom. We’re ambassadors that go out, representing our King. When we’re out in our city - on our jobs, in our schools - is that what people would see in us? Would they see what the reign of God does in our lives? Would they see a people living out His ways?
That’s what Jesus wants us to look like as His people. As people who run after and live out, who preview and point to, the point of all things.
The Promised Prize
But what does Jesus say will come as we run after that point? Let’s fifth, see the prize that is promised. Hear verse 33 again: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Eventually, we’ll get to the parables the Lord teaches over in Matthew chapter 13. Listen to verses 44 through 46.
Matthew 13:44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Matthew 13:45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
You catch what Jesus says here? We search and search until we get what we want. We sell all we have - we give so much up - but what we gain is so, so, so much better! As Paul puts it, in Philippians, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Or back to what Jesus says here. If we seek His Kingdom and His righteousness, “all these things will be added” to us.
Yes, in the context, “all these things” refers to physical necessities. Not luxuries. But food and clothing. But, as we see in the Bible, and definitely here in Matthew, God promises a great reward for those who pursue His reign and ways.
Jesus will call some people to even go without the basics. But all we truly need - and especially - a life in a new heavens and earth - will be ours. We’ll never fully, finally, go without.
Other ambitions, idols, will just leave us disappointed, but Jesus will give us everything we need, even more than we could imagine. Better than a championship, a corner office at work, a kid that gets into Harvard, a retirement spent on the beach. There is a great prize for those who pursue Jesus. We get what we pursue. And it will be glorious.
The Pursuit’s Price
But sixth, I want to talk about the price of this passion, of this pursuit. This seems to be implied in the verses that surround. If we seek His Kingdom, if we give ourselves for it, we’re going to make ourselves vulnerable, where we will be stretched. Where we’ll be taught to trust Him for our needs.
Think of what Jesus says in Matthew 16. If we want to follow Him, we have to deny ourselves. We have to follow Him completely. We have to take up our crosses - be willing to die! But, He says, in verse 25, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
We’ll often jump to the reward - without considering the cost we’ll have to pay.
Jesus doesn’t promise a trouble-free life. We’ll have glimpses and foretastes of peace and joy here in this fallen world. But plenty of troubles, as well.
You could share the gospel at work, and it could get you fired.
You might move to that closed country and find yourself in jail.
You might foster that child and realize it’s harder than you imagined.
You might let that person in your home, and ended up getting robbed.
You might stand up for that person at school and end up getting bullied yourself.
You might give generously to a friend and have to pass on that vacation you wanted.
Or you might give extra to your church, and an unexpected expense comes up. And before you know it someone is helping you.
Your desire to seek the kingdom and His righteousness could cost someone you’re dating. As they walk away, because they think you’re taking things far too seriously. Or you have to break up with them, because they don’t want to put first things first.
You could spend more time in God’s word and not ace that class or not get that promotion.
We give up our time. We lay down our talents. We pour out our treasure. To the King. For His Kingdom.
Seeking after the Lord, His reign and His ways, it’s costly. But there are a couple of important things you just have to hear. Those other things we pursue, they have costs to them, as well. Tom Brady lost his wife - and that’s not the first. Your obsession with your work could lose you your kids. Your commitment to work your way to the top could cost you your friends. When we bow to idols, when we serve them, we pay them, for sure. And unlike with Jesus, there’s no grace there.
And the reality, though, is that they’re not worth what they cost. They’re never worth the investment. They never fully pay off. If we ran the cost/benefit analysis and compared it to seeking the kingdom, there would be no comparison!
I hope you’re reading Confronting Christianity, our winter One Read, by Rebecca McLaughlin. But the book that came before that, that really inspired hers, was Keller’s The Reason for God. And like Rebecca, he deals with objections or “defeater beliefs” that they argue keep people today from even considering Christianity.
One Keller talks about is this idea that Christianity is a straightjacket. It limits our freedom. It takes away our fun and makes us miserable. Seek that first?! Come on!
But Keller argues that “to experience the joy and freedom of love, you must give up your personal autonomy.” He also writes, “Freedom, then, is not the absence of limitations and constraints but it is finding the right ones, those that fit our nature and liberate us.” The good news is that, yes, we have to lay down our lives for Jesus. But the reality is that He has already given Himself of us. On the idea of a relationship with God being dehumanizing, Keller writes:
“While this may be true in other forms of religion and belief in God, it is not true in Christianity. In the most radical way, God has adjusted to us in his incarnation and atonement. In Jesus Christ he became a limited human being, vulnerable to suffering and death. On the cross, he submitted to our condition--as sinners-and died in our place to forgive us. In the most profound way, God has said to us, in Christ, ‘I will adjust to you. I will change for you. I'll serve you though it means a sacrifice for me.’ If he has done this for us, we can and should say the same to God and others. St. Paul writes, ‘the love of Christ constrains us’ (2 Corinthians 5:14)… Once you realize how Jesus changed for you and gave Himself of you, you aren’t afraid of giving up your freedom and therefore finding your freedom in Him.” (Tim Keller)
So yes, friends, there is a price. But we can’t forget the prize. And the cost that was paid for us to receive it.
What Jesus Demands of Us
So, this morning, Jesus stands in heaven, and He is still proclaiming these words. And I want us to wrap up by thinking about what He’s saying to us today.
For each of us today, will you hear what Jesus demands? Some of you, who’ve never bowed to Jesus as King, you need to hear these for the first time. He says, “Seek me first. My Kingdom, My righteousness. Turn from all those other pursuits. That will just leave you disappointed. Turn to me. They’ll just leave you weary and broken. But I offer rest.” Will you come to Him now?
Others of you, you’ve have known Jesus for some time, but maybe you’ve found yourselves turning away. In the words of Revelation 2, you’ve “abandoned the love you had at first.” You’ve run after the things of this world. You’ve pursued things that have left you empty. Jesus says, “Return to me. I’ll welcome you back.” Will you return to Him again?
Some of us need conversion. Some of us need renewal. But we all need to hear these words and respond.
But I don’t want to leave us discouraged. Christian, Karis, yes, run after the gospel, as we’ve talking about here. Make it your priority. Make Him your passion. But also, fall into that gospel. That is, when we fail. When we come short. When our eyes stray. And we get off track. When we stumble and fall.
Fall into His arms. Lean into His grace. His Kingdom, His righteousness, aren’t achieved by our goodness. They don’t come by our efforts. We’re not loved because we’re good. We’ve loved because we’re His. But let’s allow His love to transform us into people who carry His goodness, who spread His reign, who live out His ways, all in a manner that makes people recognize His greatness. Remember: it’s not that we have to do this. It’s that we get to do this!
Choosing What Kingdom We’ll Build
I began talking about the verses that come right before these in chapter 6. But we can also learn much if we back to the beginning of the chapter. Jesus talks about wrong ways to go about giving and praying and fasting. What’s the problem Jesus addresses? Hypocrisy, right? Doing those things to be seen by others. Author Sinclair Ferguson explains that at the root of both hypocrisy - and anxiety, here at the end of the chapter, are the same thing - a focus on self. You want yourself to be seen and praised. You want to supply your own needs and be proud. Both hypocrisy and anxiety are, at the root, about building the kingdom of self.
One of my favorite authors, Paul David Tripp, says it all comes down to what kingdom we’re building. He says that everyone lives for some kind of treasure. The thing that’s your treasure will control your heart. What controls your heart will control your behavior. And your functional treasures are always attached to the kingdom of self or the kingdom of God. He writes, “Either I’ve attached my identity, meaning, purpose, and inner sense of well-being to the earth-bound treasures of the kingdom of self or to the heavenly treasures of the kingdom of God.” Whose Kingdom are we building? Whose righteousness are we after? His? Our ours?
Tom Brady was once asked, what his favorite Super Bowl ring was, and he replied, “The next one.” That’s what moves him. That’s his ambition. And he’s shown he’ll pay whatever it costs to get there. Maybe for you it’s moving up the ladder at work and raking in tons of cash. Or acing your classes and the GRE and getting into the best school you can.
But beneath those ambitions and all the blood, sweat, and tears, that we’re willing to pay to get there, and all the anxiety and fear that results, is the building of this kingdom of self. It’s pride. But our kingdom will never satisfy. It’ll always leave us disappointed. It makes God angry. It messes us up.
Several years ago, after another Super Bowl win, Brady said this in an interview:
"Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, 'Hey man, this is what is.' I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think, 'God, it's got to be more than this.' I mean this isn't, this can't be what it's all cracked up to be.” (Tom Brady)
No, it’s not, Tom. We were made for His Kingdom. To serve our King, Jesus. That is our mission. Karis, let’s lay down our lives for Him, and there, gain everything. Let’s make His reign and ways our priority and our passion, knowing that the prize is worth the price. Let’s pray.