Seek

Sermon Transcript
You ever have a time or think about a time maybe in your life where you held on to something that you knew was bad for you? Maybe it was a toxic relationship or a bad habit. Maybe it was a job that you knew was going nowhere. It was kind of a dead end job and it was draining you, but you still held onto it.

It’s kind of like the story of the fishing boat captain who was on his boat with his crew and they hit a storm, and it was a really, really bad storm, and the boat was damaged. And so all of a sudden they realize the boat’s starting to sink, so they need to abandon ship. And so the crew gets into the lifeboat and they start launching the lifeboat, but the captain refuses to come because he says, nope, I know God is going to save me. He’s going to save this boat. You guys go, I’m going to stay here, right?

And so the captain stays. The crew, they’re pleading with him, but he refuses. So they finally give up and they launch the lifeboat and the captain stays. And then a boat, another ship, bigger ship, that was less susceptible to the storm, comes along and they see the fishing boat starting to sink. And so they kind of signal to each other and they radio to the captain and say, come on, we’re going to, we’re going to rescue you.

You can hop on our ship. We’ll take you to safety. And the captain says, nope, nope. I know God is going to save me. I know it’s going to be okay.

I’m going to stay here. You go. And the ship’s like, okay. And then they continue sailing on. They go over to a nearby island, to a safe harbor, and they get out of the storm.

And then the storm kind of subsides. And now the fishing boat’s really starting to sink. And there’s a coast guard helicopter out there. And they radio down, the pilot radios down to the fishing boat captain and say, hey, your boat’s sinking. You need to jump overboard.

We got a rescue swimmer. He’s going to jump in. He’s going to save you. We’ll pull you up in the helicopter. We’ll save you.

The captain says, nope, nope, I’m fine. I’m going to stay with this boat. I know God’s going to save me. He’s going to save this boat. Everything’s fine.

You guys go. And as he says that, the boat slips under the water and the captain is lost, never seen again. He gets to the pearly gates and he sees St. Peter, and the captain says, what’s up with that? Why didn’t God save me?

And St. Peter kind of looks at him and he says, well, he sent a lifeboat and a ship and a helicopter.

Sometimes it’s like that. We’re just like the captain who cling to the things that aren’t good for us. And Jesus warns us about two things in particular in this world that we are prone to clinging to, that we think will save us, but yet they won’t. Those two things in the sermon on the mount are wealth and worry. Jesus message here is for everyone.

You don’t have to be a millionaire or extremely anxious. You don’t have to have the weight of the world on your shoulders to relate. I remember a time when I was worried about my family. When we were young, my wife and I, we were young. We just brought our daughter, our firstborn home from the hospital, and the bills are starting to pile up and, you know, things, you know, things are just getting crazy and getting out of hand.

And, you know, it’s. It’s a little scary when you think about now. I have to, like, take care of this life, this other life, you know, in our house. And. And so things were worrisome.

We started to worry a little bit. I started to worry a little bit. And in the middle of that, with all those worries of the world being piled up on us, I remember that’s probably one of the first times when these words of Jesus really became real for me about not worrying about things in this world. To understand Jesus teaching, we probably need to look a little bit at the context of who this gospel of Matthew is written to and who Jesus is talking to. In Matthew chapter six, in the Sermon on the Mount, most of Matthew’s original audience, like most of Jesus first disciples, who he’s teaching in Matthew five, six and seven, they lived in or close to poverty.

They lived in a world that you and I could barely imagine. Honestly, if we think about it, there were some wealthy among them, but most of them were peasants who lived for most of their lives hand to mouth for the people in the urban areas. The urban ancient cities were crowded. They were unsanitary, just disgusting places. And some of them may have wanted to seek a way out of that life.

They may have wanted to seek a way, and we could understand them wanting to find a way to get ahead, to supply a better future for their families. And so Jesus audience, living in poverty, especially the poverty of the ancient world, understood daily struggles. And yet Jesus says to them, he calls them to focus on God’s provision.

Here’s the reality. Material wealth was seen as a sign in Jesus day of God’s blessing. But Jesus warns us against this mindset. Let’s look in Matthew six if you want to turn there in your bibles to see what Jesus teaches us. He says in verse 19, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moths and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Why does Jesus warn us against putting value in valuables here on earth? Because like a sinking ship, earthly possessions can very easily become the things that we cling to that can’t save us. Earthly wealth is fleeting.

It’s fickle, it’s easily lost, easily damaged, easily tarnished, easily stolen by others. They may not even last throughout our entire lifetime, let alone being able to last forever. And Jesus knows that whatever we treasure, whatever is most valuable to us, that is where we will set our hearts. That thing will capture our hearts and our attention. And he makes this personal for his disciples.

He says, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Our hearts, as understood here by Jesus and by the Bible, is the very core of our being. It’s who we really are on the inside compared to who we portray ourselves as on the outside. It’s our character. It’s who we are.

When no one is looking, from the heart comes our actions, our thoughts, our emotions, our attitudes, our desires, our feelings for others, our beliefs, and even our spiritual practices. Now, we may not consider bowing down to idols today, right? We might see pagan worship as repulsive. You might think, well, I would never worship an idol of wood or stone or gold or silver. But the reality is, is that the God of materialism is alive and well today.

If there is a form of idolatry that we are susceptible to, it’s materialism. And wealth is not only fleeting, it’s also deceptive. Because people accumulate wealth for. For typically, a lot of times for selfish reasons, for all kinds of reasons, but many times for selfish reasons, like power, fame, security, independence, even self indulgence. It’s not that wealth always leads to these things, but frequently it does.

And so, because our treasure on earth can be so easily lost, so easily damaged, so easily tarnished, so easily stolen, and it can so easily captivate our hearts, Jesus knows that when we lose our wealth, we are prone to being brokenhearted. And so if you think about this, Jesus is looking out for us by teaching us not to allow our wealth to capture our hearts, wealth can also create an inaccurate assessment of our spirituality. Think about this. How often do we associate success in this world with success spiritually? How often do we assume that those who are successful have a spiritual fervor?

And how often do we think, if we just pray enough or give enough or serve enough or have enough faith, that God will respond by giving us everything that we want in this life? Let me ask you this question. Where’s that in the Bible? What verse tells you that? And yet that’s preached so often?

Sometimes, yes, God does bless us. Sometimes he even blesses us with material blessings as a sign of his spiritual blessings. But we know that that’s not guaranteed when we read the scriptures. Instead, instead of seeking material wealth as the only avenue that will accept God’s blessings for us, we should heed Jesus warning. We should learn that seeking wealth can rob God’s children of the kingdom’s priority in their personal lives.

And instead of storing up for ourselves earthly treasures, Jesus tells us to store up for ourselves heavenly treasures. Now, he doesn’t specify exactly what those things are, but from the context of the sermon on the mount, we can pretty easily surmise what they are. When we realize that Jesus has talked about acts of righteousness, about generosity to those in need, about prayer, about fasting, we could probably suspect that Jesus is meaning, or at least pointing us in the right direction. When we think about those things, about giving to the poor and praying and fasting, the apostle Paul refers to gold and silver of the kingdom, work that we do in God’s name, that God will reward that in the end. Paul writes in one corinthians three, if anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, their work will be shown for what it is because the day will bring it to light.

Jesus goes beyond good works to focus on the heart in the sermon on the mount, what we value is what drives our hearts. He said in Matthew five eight, blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God later on. In Matthew 15, Jesus says that the things that come out of a person’s mouth comes from their heart. And so our hearts are also the source of the good and the evil deeds, and they’re where our treasure is. And where our treasure is, our hearts will be also.

So Jesus addresses what we value. He also addresses what we seek with our eyes. He says in verse 22, the eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.

If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness? Jesus teaches that what we focus on with our eyes reflects the condition of our hearts. The eyes are the conduit with which we fill our hearts, according to Jesus. And if we focus on God, our hearts will be filled with light, with good things. Because our hearts are focused on what we value most, and our eyes become focused on filling our hearts with what we value.

We must learn to fix our eyes on the most valuable thing, which is life in the kingdom of heaven, with Goddesse as our heavenly father, as our master, and as our provider. And so Jesus says, if our eyes are good, we’ll be filled with good things found from God. But if our eyes are fixed on earthly things that we believe will bring us power and fame and security and independence, and the ability to indulge our selfish pleasures here on earth, then our hearts will only be filled with darkness. The apostles and the leaders in the early church were no strangers to the temptation to fill their hearts with things of this world, and they weren’t afraid to preach and teach against those things. The apostle Paul tells us to fix our eyes on what is not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.

Since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. And so Jesus identifies two opposite treasures sought by two different types of eyes. And that prepares his disciples to choose between two very different masters. He says in verse 24, no one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and money. Now, it may be hard for us to accept, but Jesus isn’t talking about the service of his disciples in a way that we would think of an employer serving their employer. In fact, the word that Jesus uses here for serve comes from the idea of being a slave. What Jesus is saying is that we will either be enslaved by the desires of our sinful hearts to provide for ourselves through worldly wealth, or our lives will be ruled over by a heavenly master who demands that we serve him alone. And so what we learn is that there can be no divided loyalties among the children of God, only devotion to our heavenly Father.

Our devotion to Jesus must be so strong that it forsakes the things of this world. The biblical idea, the cultural notion of love and hate in Jesus day was not an emotional idea. It was a life consuming pattern. Jesus disciples are called to a radical commitment to him that we completely reject everything that hinders our relationship with God, anything that keeps us from giving ourselves completely to him. We love him so much that it’s as if we hate those things.

And so choosing God as our master means trusting him for our daily needs as well. And this is what Jesus addresses next in verse 25. He says, therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. He asks the question, is not life more than food, or the body more than clothes? I want to give a bit of a caveat here so we don’t misunderstand the words of Jesus.

He’s not dismissing our needs in this world. Jesus isn’t saying that our need for food and drink don’t matter. He’s not telling us to ignore our physical needs. In fact, it would be foolish for us to assume that he is.

The reality is, is that we live in anxious times. Many people struggle with various forms of anxiety. And so Jesus addresses a specific kind of worry here, a specific kind of anxiety. Now, to be fair, some of those anxieties that we feel we do bring upon ourselves by worrying in this way. Jesus is talking here about, in the sermon on the mount, a specific kind of anxiety where we unduly concern ourselves with the things of this world.

He seems to be narrowing in on the worries that we take upon ourselves that are unnecessary for us to have, that so readily cause us to suffer when we have unmet desires of our hearts, that have free reign over our lives. In fact, the word translated as worry here, we’ll see if we dive deeper, has two meanings. The first is to be apprehensive and anxious, or to be unduly concerned. The second is similar. It’s to attend to something, to care for something, to be rightly concerned about something or someone.

And so Jesus isn’t telling us that we need to stop eating or drinking again, that would be foolish for us to make that claim.

Still, he is calling us to a radical relationship, radical dependence upon God’s provision. Jesus audience was familiar with life’s daily struggles, the struggles of an impoverished society, again, that we can’t even possibly imagine. It meant that the question of what Jesus is asking, this question of this audience, of what they would eat or drink each day, that was a real thing for them. For some in Jesus day, their daily search for food and water was life and death. And so what Jesus is teaching, then, he isn’t being insensitive to their need for food and drink.

What he’s calling them to is to focus on something more important, more important than even life and death. And that is life in the kingdom. That’s life with God as their master and their provider. And that realization that these words of Jesus were spoken to people who were impoverished, that lived in a way that we can’t even imagine, that should make these words of Jesus even more impactful for us today. We have trouble even imagining those stresses and strains of living in such a world.

And I don’t mean to demean or to undercut the idea that there are impoverished people among us. There are, and that is absolutely a call for us who are not impoverished to meet their needs in the name of Jesus. But for many of us, even for those who are poorest in our society, in our nation, compared to the poverty that’s real in the world today, there’s no comparison. And so the reality is that for many of us who will never know that kind of poverty, that for many of us, the temptation is that enough is never enough, that we chase after wealth and we chase after worry and the natural result of those things, that undue concern is apprehension and anxiety that can run rampant in our lives. Misdirected and disproportionate concern or rampant anxiety can steal our joy, and it can put our focus firmly back on ourselves.

We become our own idol. And that’s what Jesus is addressing here. That’s the type of worry that Jesus is addressing here. And so when Jesus asked the question, is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Our obvious answer should be, yes, of course.

Of course my life is more than just what I eat. Of course my body is more than just what I wear.

And the obvious response, according to Jesus, in face of those anxieties over material possessions here on earth and the selfish desire of our hearts, given the teaching that he’s given throughout the sermon on the mount, the obvious response should be to submit to God’s rule and reignite in his kingdom. If God has given us life, and if he’s given us a body, he will certainly give us food, and he will certainly give us clothing. Jesus continues using examples from nature to show what God’s provision looks like over his creation. He says in verse 26, look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them.

Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life? Again, the obvious answer to this question are you not much more valuable than they should be in our minds. Of course, now, birds are great, and all right, you can kind of think of that. I can’t think of a better representation of kind of all of the animals that God created in the world.

But at the pinnacle, at the center of God’s creation was human beings, was man and woman, who he created in his image. And so if God takes care of birds, you know, you think about, like, I mean, little tiny, cute birds, maybe not like eagles and stuff, because they’re terrifying sometimes, but, like, look, you look out like little, little animals that just. They have enough food, they have enough provision for themselves. And Jesus is saying, aren’t you more valuable than they are? I.

Yes, you are. And then the question, can any of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life, know you can’t? Obviously. Obviously we can’t. Jesus says, why do you worry in verse 28 about clothes?

See how the flowers of the field grow. They did not labor or spend. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon, in all of his splendor, was dressed like one of these. So if that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow, is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith? And again, the answer is obviously yes.

If Jesus kind of uses this metaphor as the flowers of the field or the. The beautiful clothing of the grass, which in Jesus day, I mean, there’s grass everywhere. People cut it and they dry it. And that day they used it to burn for fuel, for their fires. Right?

And so Jesus is saying this thing that’s so common, and yet God takes care of it. God makes it beautiful, and yet you are the pinnacle of his creation. So do you think he’s going to take care of you and your need for clothing? Yes, of course he is. Now, Jesus uses a common approach here that rabbis would use often of arguing from the lesser to the greater.

And so he’s pointing at these smaller, seemingly insignificant things in the world to point to the fact that if God cares for his creation in this way, doesn’t it make sense that he will also care for the pinnacle of his creation?

He points to the examples of the birds, the grass, and says, are you not much more valuable than they to a jewish audience? Again, looking at the context and who Jesus is speaking to, the answer would be, yes, of course. And as believers in Christ, our answer should be, yes, of course. Jesus then draws his disciples to the realization that he’s charging them to have faith. Now, this is not a charge in the sense that he’s accusing them of having an absence of faith.

He’s not saying that they don’t have faith. Instead, he’s directing the statement to this question that’s at the heart of the matter of our trust in Goddesse. The master is challenging his disciples to increase their faith to the level where we can look out into creation and we could see God’s provision for all that he created. And we can surmise from that that he will also provide for us, and that his provision is something that we can trust in, something that can build our trust in our heavenly Father for him to provide for us. What we learn is that the children of God are those who let go of worry by trusting in the Father’s provision.

And then finally, Jesus contrasts the pattern of unbelievers, emphasizing God’s provision. In verse 31, he says, so do not worry, saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

We’ve discussed before how the word translated pagan and the pagans in the sermon on the Mount. It means those who are gentiles. And given the context of what Jesus is saying, we can determine that. He’s emphasizing those who don’t hold to God’s proper place. They don’t put God as the highest honor in their lives.

We talked last week about when we studied the Lord’s prayer, about how we are to make God’s name holy in our lives or keep his name holy in our lives. How do we do that? We could show that we’re keeping God’s name holy by trusting in his provision, by living with his values for our lives. We let go of worry about earthly possessions by letting go of worry and rejecting our pursuits of power and fame and security and independence and self indulgence that non believers often chase after. It’s not that people of faith are free of temptation to chase after these things.

It’s that our faith in Jesus, our trust in God, is so solid, our devotion to God is so strong, that it overcomes our desires for those selfish ambitions, for those selfish actions. As Michael Wilkins puts it in his commentary on Matthew, an absence of inappropriate anxiety derives from an appropriate understanding of God’s provision and his creatures, responsibilities and priorities of life. In other words, if we want to see these inappropriate anxieties, this undue concern for the things of this world, if we want to see that leave our lives, then we have to let go of the things that we cling to in this world that cannot save us. Jesus famous directive sums up this teaching in Matthew 633. This is a verse that’s well worth committing to memory if you haven’t already.

Jesus says, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. What Jesus is teaching, what he proclaims, is the arrival of a kingdom. In the sermon on the mount, he teaches that the kind of kingdom, life that sets apart those who follow him are those who live righteous lives that comes from their heart, from a transformed heart that they’ve received from the father. They don’t do it for show, and they don’t do it for personal gain. They’re those who are faithful and trust in God’s provision.

They’re those who seek the kingdom that is already here among them, in which they are already a part of. By making God their father, making his rule and reign central to their lives every single day. And as God’s children grow in that perfection of the father, by pursuing his kingdom and his righteousness, he will see that their every need is met. His provision daily for his children, as we learned in the Lord’s prayer, covers everything from the order of the universe all the way down to our daily needs for food. And if we trust God to meet our every need for today because we know he’s here with us today, then we can trust him for tomorrow as well.

And the anxieties that can so easily grip us, our undue concern can pass away. We may not know what tomorrow brings, but we know that God, our father, does. For this reason, we don’t worry about tomorrow, because God is already there for us today, what we learn. And if you’re going to take anything away from today’s message, it should be this, that God’s children grow in the kingdom by letting go of the world. We grow in the kingdom by letting go of the world.

And we need to be careful here with this perspective of Jesus on wealth and worry. We need to be careful not to take it too far, because Jesus is not teaching us. He’s not teaching us that we need to reject all earthly things. That’s not the point of what Jesus is teaching here. And so we need a proper perspective on wealth and worry, and that’ll help us avoid extremes.

We need to avoid assuming that all wealthy people have bowed down to materialism. That’s not the point of what Jesus is saying. Jesus is teaching us that being consumed by wealth and worry can and will rob us of a kingdom’s priority in our lives that being consumed by wealth and worry can and it will rob us of the kingdom’s priority in our lives. He calls us then to trust God, to trust him as our master and as our provider. And if we do that, then we will be called the children of God.

We’ll experience his peace and his provision. So what does that look like for us? There’s a few things that we can do to apply this. A few things that I’ve tried to do in applying this in my own life that we can all do together and encourage one another in as we try to live this life free of the pursuit of earthly treasures and worry. First of all, we need to evaluate our priorities, reflect on what you value most, what is the most valuable thing in your life, and that thing is what will capture your heart.

And so are you seeking wealth and worry excessively? If so, then redirect your focus to God. Ask yourself, is there a void in my life that Jesus alone can fill, that I’m trying to fill with material things or with worry? Second thing we can do is we can trust in God’s provision. One great way to do that is to practice gratitude every single day, giving thanks to God for the things that he has done that will remind us of what he will do for us in the future.

And so we should thank God for his provision and trust him for our needs every single day. As Paul says in Philippians four, present your requests to God with thanksgiving and we will experience his peace that surpasses all understanding. The third thing we can do is seek the kingdom. First, we make God’s kingdom and his righteousness our top priority. We do so by aligning our actions and our attitudes, our decisions with the will of God.

As Jesus said, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Fourth thing we can do is generate cultivate generosity. We can use our resources, the abundant things that we have to help those in need, to help others, to support God’s work, to turn earthly wealth into heavenly treasures. We look for opportunities to care for people, first of all in our own families, but then also among our church families, but in also going on to meet the needs of even those that we don’t know. We support the ministry of the church, both here, locally and around the world.

And finally, we need to address our anxieties. If you struggle with anxiety of any kind, it’s okay to get help, to seek help through prayer, through counseling, through the support and the encouragement of others, in the church, Paul says, do not be anxious about anything, but present your request to God and experience that peace. I remember going back to the story when we were struggling after our daughter was born. I met with one of the elders of the church in Havana, where I was serving as a youth minister at the time. And we went out for breakfast.

He paid because I couldn’t afford to. And I just poured my heart out to him. His name’s Tim. Great, great guy, great friend, great brother in Christ. And I just poured my heart out to Tim, one of the elders of the church.

And I said, I just let him know what was going on. Not looking for a handout, not really even looking for answers for what we were going through. I just needed someone to hear me. And Tim sat and listened, and he was so encouraging. He shared his story of he and his wife, Leslie, how they struggled when they first started out, when they first brought their first child home, and how hard it was for them.

And he just encouraged me, said, don’t give up. Don’t worry. God’s got this. He’s bigger than this worry, bigger than the struggle. And you know what?

I didn’t leave there having all my problems solved, but I left there knowing that someone cared. And we did get through it. God brought us through it, through that hard time and through so many others. And I felt better just knowing that I wasn’t alone. And there’s people here that want to encourage you through your struggles as well.

That’s what we’re here for, to help each other out. So whether you’re weak or you’re strong, whether you’re poor, whether you’re rich, whether you remember or have forgotten that Jesus is your master or your provider, we trust in his provision. We seek his kingdom. We let go of the worries of this world. God knows what’s best for us, and he will rescue you from those struggles.

He will turn them to good for those who love him.