God's priorities are not measured by human standards of size, strength, speed, wealth, or position, but by seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. The sermon contrasts worldly measures of success with God's perspective, highlighting how God often uses the seemingly small and weak, such as babies, to accomplish His purposes. True greatness in God's kingdom is found in service, and the core lesson is to align our lives with God's values rather than worldly ones. The application is to actively seek God's kingdom and righteousness, trusting that all other needs will be met.
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Good morning. Matthew six, verse thirty three says, But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Notice this text here speaks of priority. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow. For the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Now may the Lord bless the reading of his word. Let us pray together.
Our Father, in the name of thy dear Son, we bow before you. And we thank you for the infinite riches of your grace. Help us, O God, to be calm in thy presence. to consider thy divine priority and thy commandment unto us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Deliver us from anything that would invade our thought life and detract us or catch away the good seeds spoken into the heart. Give us a time of refreshing.
Speak to us in this hour and bless us for Jesus' sake. Amen. Most of us like the sound of our text, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. We like the sound of that. We use it in choruses. We sing it. It tells us what we should have as our priority. But what does it really mean? What does it really mean to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness? We like the sound of the text, but do we really want to know what it means?
Years ago, a magazine told a story of a school teacher in Minneapolis. She was gypped out of five hundred dollars. She was got to make an investment in a mythical school there. some sob, soft, fast-talking, confidence man. He was responsible for the swindle. When she brought her tail of woe to the Better Business Bureau, they said to her, Didn't you know about our service? That you didn't come and ask us first concerning this investment?
Oh, yes, she said. I've known about the Better Business Bureau for years. But I was afraid that you'd tell me not to do it. A lot of times this is the way we are toward our text. We know what this text says. But are we really listening to it? But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things shall be added unto you. We like the sound of it. But when it comes to applying it, We don't want the king and his kingdom to interfere with our plans. For you see, the kingdom of God is that sphere that he's entered at the new birth.
Except the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And except the man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God is that sphere where the king rules in the hearts and lives of his people. as a king does in his kingdom. And we noted last week that the kingdom of God is a kingdom of righteousness. It is a righteous kingdom wherein the very righteousness of Christ is imputed to the inhabitants of the kingdom. It is imputed to them and it's also imparted unto them because his very righteousness is implanted in the heart and It is the person who is a member of that kingdom, now lives a righteous life in the kingdom of righteousness that is lived in the midst of a crooked and perverse world.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Now, God's kingdom we are encouraged to seek. And the kingdom of God is the very opposite. of what man conceives the kingdom of God to be. And when we examine this, what do we conceive the kingdom of God to be? Just about everything in our society today is determined by numbers. We are obsessed with measurements. This has invaded, it has influenced, and it has infected God's people until we have almost forgotten how God measures things.
And if you and I are in the kingdom of God, and if we're to seek his kingdom and his righteousness first, then I must learn something about how God measures things. You see, if we're going to appreciate the genuine meaning of our text, we must know this. Well, first of all, God is not impressed with size and strength. God is not impressed with size and strength. When God wanted to save a lost world, he sent a baby. That's what the angelic host cried out to the shepherds on the Judean hillside. Unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord.
When God wanted to save a lost world, he sent a baby. When God wanted to deliver Israel from Egyptian bondage. He sent a baby, the baby Moses. When God wanted to deliver Israel from corrupt religious leadership, he sent another baby, Samuel. At each stage, as you look through the Old Testament, when God wanted to begin to deliver the children of Israel from the bondage of the Philistines, he sent a baby, Samson. And he sent the angel of God to announce his birth to his parents before he was born.
In every stage in the outworking of God's redemptive program in salvation's plan, it was a baby who brought hope to the people of God. God measures things. You see, babies are God's special promises to us. Babies are the assurance that God is planning for our future and he has everything under control. Now it's no wonder that our world is living in such a dark cloud of helplessness when we consider how we're treating babies in our time.
You see, God sent a baby, the Lord Jesus. God sent his son as a baby. God sent Moses, the deliverer of Israel, as a baby to remind us that he doesn't measure things by size or by strength. It was the tears of Moses as a baby that toppled the great empire of Egypt. For when the daughter of Pharaoh looked in to the ark of bull rushes and she saw Moses and he was crying. and his tears broke the heart. And she took him and raised him as her own son.
And she educated him. And God used that man to topple the very kingdom into which he was born. You see, Samuel's prayers as a boy overthrew a godless priesthood in Israel during the days of Eli and his two sons, Hosni and Phineas. Jesus' birth, when he was born, he was just a baby, laid in a manger, born in a cattle shed in Bethlehem. But it meant the defeat of Satan and his whole system of evil.
For John the Baptist could cry in a coming day, behold the Lamb of God who takeeth away the sin of the world, and it will end the work of our blessed Lord at the cross, laid the foundation For the eradication of sin from the whole universe of God. A baby. Seek ye first. The kingdom of God and his righteousness. Oh, we hear today about great preachers. And we're talking about bigness. We hear about super churches. We are measuring people and ministry. Not the way God does.
I got a new appreciation this week as I was meditating over these things. I'll tell you who for. For Janet. For Jan. To Mrs. Brackston. And those who practice. Who play for us. Got a new appreciation for those who labor in the nursery. Who keep the nursery so the choir can practice. A new appreciation. God doesn't, he sees what they're doing. He doesn't measure things by size. What gave me this appreciation I was somewhere, and a woman complained to me about the organists in their church.
She told me how much money she got every year, and she wanted a raise. You know, I thank God for those who labor because they love the Lord. Oh, we can brag today about great preachers. We can brag about super churches. But you see, when God makes up his role, we're going to be those who have labored and did it because they love the Lord. And I got to have a new appreciation. Seek ye first. You see, those who do these things have to do some seeking of first things.
When it comes time to practice, and many times they could be other places. When it comes time to practice, they're there. It takes time. Seek ye first. My God doesn't measure things by size. And he doesn't measure things. by their seeming strength. I was preaching, well, I was preaching at a funeral the other day with another preacher, and I tried to encourage his heart in a number of areas. One of the things I told him was he looked in amazement when I quoted Zechariah chapter four to him.
He looked in amazement and said, you know, it's in Zechariah four where God makes big things small and small things big. What a great chapter. You've never studied Zechariah for. God makes big things small. He said, that great mountain before you always are rubble. I'm going to, it's going to be like walking on level ground to you. And he says, I'm going to build the temple. The temple is going to be built and it's going to be built amid shavings of grace, grace unto it. It'll be done for I'm the God. who makes big things little and little things big.
Think ye first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. The second thing, God is not impressed with our speed. You see, the more we know about the kingdom of God, the more we realize that God is not in a hurry. When you think of the fact that the first promise of a coming Redeemer was made in the Garden of Eden. God said, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Here's the first promise. And then God waited twenty centuries before he chose Abraham to build a nation through whom the Messiah would come.
You see, God isn't impressed with our speed. You see, God permitted Israel to live in Egypt for four hundred years under the whip of the taskmasters. And then he raised up a deliverer. God is not in a hurry. He's not trapped by time. And God is not impatient with a course of history. As A.T. Pearson put it, he's the author of it. History is his story. If you can rise high enough to see it. You see, God is in full control. How much better God's work would be if the people of God would just learn to wait upon him?
We sing, and the organ played this morning in the prelude, Take time to be holy. Speak off with our Lord. Can we sit long enough for God to say something to us? Aren't we in an awful hurry today? God took centuries, friends, to put everything into place for the coming of His Son. For the Word of God says, when the fullness of the time has come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under law. Do we have five minutes extra for prayer? Now you'd all like to get out before twelve o'clock.
Do we have five minutes extra for prayer? Suppose I preach till five past twelve and I said, now we're going to pray for five minutes. Would you be upset? Seek ye first the restaurant. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. God is not impressed with size. God is not impressed with our strength. God is not impressed with our speed. Oh, we think, oh, this is a computer age, God.
We do things rapidly now. God isn't impressed. God isn't impressed with our wealth either. You see, when God wanted to redeem a world, His son, he sent to a cattle stall into a poor family. God is identified with a poor. Second Corinthians eight, verse nine says, For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. God, the Lord, was identified with a poor. But religion is big business today, isn't it?
Oh yes, we've come a long way, friends, from the poverty of the cross and from the persecutions and misery of the catacombs. We've come a long way. And Maman, friends, is the God of many who profess Christianity today. We have a popular false gospel prevalent today. It's that money and material success are the proof of God's blessings. And we have preachers who tell you today, God wants you to be wealthy, healthy, and powerful. And there are those naive followers who believe it.
They sacrifice their wealth to make it possible for the preacher to be wealthy. But that very principle doesn't work for them. They become poor. to make these so-called leaders rich. God is not impressed with wealth. It's amazing that even the disciples believed in success theology. You know the story of the rich young ruler in Matthew nineteen. Our brother David Clyde Kosky spoke on the rich young ruler the other Lord's day when he was with us.
But in the story of the rich young ruler, after the rich young ruler turned away from the Lord because he loved his possessions, our Lord comes to us and he says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. He loved his possessions and the Lord said to his disciples, how hard it is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples looked at the Lord, and Peter, the spokesman, he said, Lord, who then can be saved?
If it's hard for a rich man with all his money, where do we poor folks come in? See, God isn't impressed. God isn't impressed. He said, when man is an impossibility, but not with God. God is not impressed with our wealth. If riches are not a work of God's favor is what the disciples said, then you tell me what is. And our Lord told his disciples, he says, Take heed, beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that he possesses.
We may be impressed with all the wealth of the rich but God isn't he isn't impressed at all God comes to us and he says a man's life consists of not in the abundance of the things that he possesses seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you God is not impressed with size God is not impressed with strength God is not impressed with our speed, God is not impressed with our wealth, and God is not impressed with our position of authority. Oh, there's an uneasiness today about admiring the famous of Hollywood.
There's an uneasiness about that, but for some reason or other, we feel that Christian celebrities are safe and sanctified. All we Christians must have our celebrities don't we and yet when we read the scriptures God's son took the form of a servant who being in the form of God we read in Philippians two sought it not robbery to be equal with God but he made himself of no reputation he took upon him the form of a servant that was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross.
Today when I see certain singers and when I listen to them and I see how they're mobbed, I wonder if those people who mobbed these people and make celebrities out of them would be as enthusiastic to enter into a prayer meeting and talk to the Lord of heaven and earth. Oh, we have our celebrities today, don't we? Two ministries, too many ministries today exist to make someone important. How's it done? It is done with money and it is done with influence.
Oh, we're living in a day, friends. We still have our errands who manufacture golden calves and invite everybody to the ceremony. What we need today is a Moses to come down from the mountain and break up the ceremony. For that's what he did at Mount Sinai. And God comes to us in his word and he cries out to us, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things will be added unto you. Celebrities can't make you righteous friends, but the Lord Jesus can.
He can impute his righteousness to a guilty sinner, taking his sins and placing them on his son and taking the righteousness of his son and placing it on the sinner. Celebrity can't do that, but the Lord Jesus can. And when he does, he says, that person enters my kingdom. They are in the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God, which is a righteous kingdom. Today, The church needs leaders that will serve and servants that will be leaders. God is not impressed with our size. God is not impressed with our strength.
He is not impressed with our speed. He is not impressed with our wealth. And he's certainly not impressed with our celebrities. He comes to us. And this is available to every one of his children. He says, seek me first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things shall be added unto you. Now there's a reason now we have to look at this text another Lord's day. And the reason is this. Our Lord says, I want you to seek it. This is something that has to be sought. this is something that is desired and it is desirable to the Pharisees our Lord had to say the kingdom of God is upon you it's in your midst it's come to you and the time came that he said to these same Pharisees in Matthew twenty three woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites you don't enter the kingdom but you hinder those who would have come from entering in I ask you this morning are you in
it are you seeking first the things of the kingdom of God this is priority God doesn't measure things the way we measure them the kingdom of God is manifested in the small things that God has given you to perform on behalf of one another. Would you like to be great? Who wouldn't? Who wouldn't? You want to be great? The Lord Jesus said to his disciples, Whosoever would be great among you, let him be your servant.
You want to be great? Serve others. Seek ye first. This is righteousness, friends. This is righteousness. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Let us sing together one stanza. Five hundred and ninety-one, I think it is. I don't have a songbook here, but five hundred and ninety-one is supposed to say, am I a soldier of the cross? A follower of the Lamb. And shall I fail to gain the prize?
I'm not quoting it properly. I found a hymn book. The choir left a hymn book. Five hundred ninety-one. Am I a soldier of the cross? A follower of the Lamb. And shall I fear to own his cause or blush to speak his name? Seek ye first. Now let's pray. Father, before we sing this question together, we want to thank you for ever calling us by divine grace and for giving us the privilege of seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
And we pray now that you'll take this word and with it speak to each of our hearts Don't let us be content with just a normal and ordinary way of life. Help us all, God, to seek and to perform for Jesus' sake. Amen. Let's stand together and sing, shall we? The first band will make it.