Seek First

A life-well-spent is one that seeks and invests in God’s kingdom to the point that the concerns of this world fall away.

[00:00:01] Well, it was December 2001. Rachel and I had been married for a full year. She was a kindergarten teacher and I was working at ServiceMaster, cleaning carpets and trying to teach myself Greek so that I could go to seminary the next year. Uh, we had a little one-bedroom apartment in a dumpy little building behind a grocery store. What I’m saying is, we weren’t poor, but we were broke. It was rough. It was just before Christmas. We were attending a little Bible church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Prior to the service that Sunday, I wrote a check for our offering based on the percentage that we’d agreed to give at that time. And that check came to exactly $135. The problem was that in our checking account, we had exactly $136.76. So, the math is not hard on this. Our offering meant that we had $1.76 left in our checking account. I got to tell you, church, I had real trouble writing that check. Uh, my wife will tell you that she is not the financial side of our partnership, but even she knew. That’s not good. Uh, that’s not a good balance. So, it was one of those moments in my life where I had to choose whether I was going to trust that God was going to see us through. And I still remember that offering plate coming down the row, seemingly in slow motion as it got to me, and I was wondering what I was going to do.

[00:01:34] And when it came, I dropped it in. And then I watched the plate continue down the row, with a feeling akin to what I can only imagine, is leaving your child at college for the first time and driving away.’ I thought, this is it. There’s no going back now, I guess. That afternoon we went to my parents’ house for Christmas dinner, and then we opened presents. And after all the packages were opened, my parents said that there’s a Christmas card in the tree for us, and when we opened it, exactly $135 in cash dropped out of that card. Uh, I counted it in disbelief. It’s a very odd amount to give somebody, wouldn’t you say? $135 exactly. My parents had no idea that we had given that morning, $135 just happened to be the amount of difference between the presents that they were giving to all the kids. And Rachel and I were overwhelmed with the sense that we were firmly, firmly in God’s hands and that as his kids, he would always take care of us. We just listened to Jesus explain how having God as your father means you can set down all the worries and all the anxieties of life, and that by ridding yourself of those worries, you are then free to focus on what truly matters – the Lord Jesus and His kingdom. This is the answer to the foolish life that we looked at last week.

[00:03:06] Jesus used a parable to describe someone who is motivated by greed, who is only looking for comfort and pleasure. And he said that people doing this are investing time and effort in the wrong place, and they’re wasting a life that that will be far shorter than they think it’s going to be. By contrast, Jesus is now going to teach us about a life well spent. A life well spent is one that seeks and invests in God’s kingdom, to the point that the concerns of this world fall away. That’s a life well spent. And even as Christians, we are not used to thinking about our lives so given over to the pursuit of Christ and investing in the Kingdom of God, that our anxiety decreases because of it. That’s not how we usually think. If you’re like me, you usually think about these things as separate pursuits. So on the one hand, I am pursuing the glory of God and everything in my life. But as a separate pursuit, I am also pursuing the things that I need to take care of my family, and it’s on me to get it done. That’s kind of how I see things oftentimes. That story I told a moment ago is an amazing example of God’s providence, but I can’t say, church, that it changed my heart from that moment on. It’s a reminder to me.

[00:04:31] I look back at it a lot and it reminds me of how to think, but I’m still very much a work in progress. I am a worrier. I battle with worry. And if you’re like me, Jesus has good news for you today. We’ve already heard the passage read. So, let’s look at this passage closely. First, Jesus sets up his premise, and then he has four word pictures to show us how a passionate pursuit of the Kingdom of God will alleviate every anxiety in your life. So, here’s Jesus’ premise. This is his thesis statement. I’m going to read it again. “And he said to his disciples, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat. Nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.” Okay, so immediately this puts us into a whole different way of seeing life than where we were last week. Last week we were talking about an abundance of stuff accumulated through greed and a desire to be relaxed and comfortable. And it would have been very easy for Jesus to say, okay, my disciples, pull that back a back a little. Pull it back just a little bit. Let’s talk about what you should do when your house is full, when you have abundance from God, when you have many blessings from God.

[00:06:04] Let’s talk about that situation. Jesus could have done that. But instead, he says let’s take a long walk all the way down to the other end of the spectrum and talk about basic survival. That’s what Jesus does here. Jesus’ thesis statement to those of us who love him and follow him, on the topic of what should worry and concern us is that absolutely nothing should cause us any anxiety, including whether we have what is necessary to survive. I’m not overstating it. I’m not being dramatic here. That’s plainly what Jesus says here. Don’t worry about what you will eat. Why? Because life is more than food. He’s not saying life is more than eating food. He’s saying there’s something more important to life than food. Biologically, no there isn’t. There is nothing more basic to the human body than food and water. You must consume these things in order to survive. Food and water are the most basic elements for survival. To say life is more than food is an intriguing premise that does not stand on its own. Jesus is going to have to argue for it, and he’s going to hear. Just in a moment we’re going to look at that. He also says not to worry about what we’ll wear, because the body is more than clothes. Now, we might be thinking about the style of clothes or the quality of the clothes, but Jesus means any clothes at all.

[00:07:48] In the first century, they didn’t have closets full of clothing, like you and I do. Jesus was speaking to people who probably only had one set of clothes, and maybe an outer layer for cold weather. In the mosaic Law, there are instructions for how to handle the situation where a very poor person puts up their outer cloak as collateral for a loan. And it says that in God’s kingdom, you got to give the cloak back at night so that that person can be warm. That’s the level of clothing we’re talking about. And when Jesus says the body is more than clothes, he means the same thing as life is more than food. There is something more important than basic survival. And this is where Jesus wants to have his discussion about anxiety. He wants to have his discussion of anxiety and concern and worry for the things in the world at the level of survival, not with abundance, survival. And he says, don’t be concerned about the things that things that your body needs to survive. For just a moment, I would like you to try to picture everything you have. I know that’s pretty tough to do, but try it just for a moment. Picture all the stuff that’s in your life – your car, home, job, family, education, furniture, health insurance, friends, hobbies, toys, all that stuff.

[00:09:12] I want you to, if you can, try to metaphorically put it all into a stack like Jenga. Okay, just stack it all up in your mind. And if you can, what I would like you to do is down at the bottom near the base, I’d like you to try to think of the real basic stuff in life – the food, the clothing, the shelter, you know, and then at the top, the things that don’t matter so much. Like up there you could put tacos, right? So, all the stuff, everything that you have, bottom to top. How many pieces can God pull away from that stack before your life tips over into anxiety and worry? How many things? What can he start to pull away? And I’m not just talking about that little bit of worry that you have that comes when you have a heightened level of problem solving to do. I’m talking about when you start to feel like life is falling apart and you are in panic mode. Where would that begin? How much would he have to pull away? Here’s my guess. You tipped over into panic and anxiety long before you got to anywhere near basic survival needs. Me too. And what Jesus is saying here is that nothing in the stack, top to bottom, nothing in the stack should cause you any anxiety. Everything you have should be the place where you trust it over to the Lord. Nothing in that stack should cause you any anxiety.

[00:10:45] And on the face of it, that seems like an indefensible thesis. What sort of take on life could possibly lead someone to the place where they have no fear or no anxiety about anything? And Jesus makes his case with four illustrations. First he says, let’s consider the ravens. They don’t do any work and they don’t have any place to store food. Now he picks ravens for a reason. This illustration that he’s doing would not work with just any animal. He couldn’t, for instance, have said consider the squirrels because the squirrels do go out and gather food and they bring it back into their storehouses, right? I mean, we humans gather in the same way. We have the same kind of way that we go about things. If you observe my wife in her natural habitat, Trader Joe’s, you will see that she is also a hunter gatherer who packs away Peppermint JoJo’s like nuts for the winter, right? So, we gather food, right? But Jesus isn’t making a point about how we get our food or what we do with food. He’s making a point about who provides food. Where does it come from? And so, he points to an animal that has absolutely no way of providing for itself. It can’t work for food. It can’t store any food. And yet they have what they need. These ravens have what they need because their creator ensures that they have what they do.

[00:12:19] And those are just insignificant birds. Those are just birds. Little birds that matter not at all. They’re not followers of Jesus who have the Heavenly Father. They’re not stamped in the image and likeness of God. Jesus says that we’re far more valuable than birds. So, here’s our first piece of Jesus’ argument. How can we not worry about basic survival? Because we’re valuable to our creator and to our provider. Remember, value comes from outside of us. We do not assign ourselves value. We’re not valuable because we say we are. We’re valuable because God says that we are valuable to him. That’s not the whole argument, but it is a major piece of the worldview that’s necessary to shed all anxiety and trust completely in the Lord. Here’s the next part. Can you add an hour to your life by worrying? Can you do that? You’re thinking, Kyle, I’m worried that I can’t. It’s kind of funny, but it is how we think, isn’t it? That’s how we think. I’ve been looking at some of the latest advice out there on retirement, because of the focus on length of life over these last few passages, and I’m discovering a lot about what people talk about. There’s the money side of it. There’s the, what’s the right amount of money to retire? When do you start taking Social Security, you know, withdrawal rates, things like that.

[00:13:46] There’s the money side, but then there’s also the physical side. At what age can you maximize the healthy years of your life? How do you keep your mind sharp? How do you build an active lifestyle that will keep your body functioning as long as it can? And these are fine questions to ask because from our limited perspective, all these things matter and we should think about them. That’s just being a good steward of these things as we talked about last week. But if at any point we begin to think that all of our planning adds even as little as an hour to the span of our lives, we have lost the biblical plot. We don’t understand God’s Word well enough. Psalm 139 says, God has numbered our days before we were born. He’s sovereign over every moment, every breath that he allows us to have. If we think of our lives outside of that biblical truth, okay, if we think about who we are outside of what the Bible says on this. We begin to see life as something we control. And that’s when the worry starts to set in. Jesus’ argument here is simple, but it’s very profound. If you can’t use an anxiety to add even as little as an hour to your life, why would you use any part of the life God does give you to worry about the length of your life at all. Or I’ll say it differently. God is going to take you out the moment he chooses to.

[00:15:19] Not a moment before. Not a moment later. And since that’s true, why would you waste any of your time worrying about it? I’m not being flippant here. That’s biblical. That’s what the Bible says. You might see it coming, right? You might see your end coming through some sort of prolonged disease, or you may not see it coming on your way home from church this morning. You can’t add a moment to the amount of time that God has given you, and that should be a terrifying thought to those of you who do not have a right relationship with the Lord and don’t trust in Jesus. But if you do trust in Jesus, if God is your father, there’s absolutely nothing to be worried about. I think the reason why a lot of folks worry about the length of their lives is that their theology is deficient in this area. They don’t understand God’s Word well enough on this topic. If you have a low view of God’s sovereign power and knowledge, you’re more apt to have a higher view of your own ability to lengthen your life. So, then you become more apt to worry about it. This is where good theology can bring incredible joy and relief. A sovereign creator God has numbered our days. That’s a good thing, that he’s in control of that. He knows the end from the beginning. You can rest confidently in that truth.

[00:16:47] And if you have that high view of God’s sovereignty, what you find is it begins to spill over into all the rest of your life, too. It starts to cover everything that’s going on with you. That’s what Jesus is saying here when he says, why are you anxious about the rest? Why would you be anxious about anything really in life? If God is in control, and if God is good and powerful, fully in control of the things that you can’t control, worry melts away. Jesus uses a third illustration. He says, let’s talk about the lilies of the field. Let’s talk about these lilies. The picture is similar to the one with the ravens only now Jesus is addressing the clothes instead of the food, and the argument structure is the same. Those lilies can’t make themselves beautiful in the way that they’re clothed and yet here they are, looking beautiful out in the field because God gives them that beauty. All they are is wildflowers. They’re wildflowers that will be cleared with the rest of the grass when the time comes but God cares about them. Now, it’s a little odd because they’re not clothed in the same way that we are. But we get the point here. If God takes care of something as insignificant as flowers, he’s definitely going to take care of those who trust in him. Now, you might be wondering at this point why I would qualify what Jesus says here as applying to those who trust in him.

[00:18:19] Is Jesus talking about all people everywhere? Is he saying that nobody, anywhere has anything that they need to be worried about? Or is he saying that the ability to set down this worry and be relieved of anxiety is only for people who trust in the Lord? I want you to notice how Jesus ties the worry to a lack of faith. You see there at the end of the passage, “oh, you of little faith.” Remember how I said I tend to see two different pursuits? I want to pursue the glory of God and everything that’s in my life, and I also worry about caring for my family and I see these as separate pursuits. Jesus does not see this separation at all. He doesn’t see these as separate. In fact, he very clearly ties worry and faith together. The higher your faith and trust in Jesus, the lower your worry. Little faith, big worry. Big faith. Little worry. Little worry about everything else in life. Jesus sees a direct correlation between the maturity and strength of your trust in the Lord, and the amount that you experience of worry. This is incredibly good news for those of you who struggle with anxious thoughts. Do you struggle with worry and anxious thoughts? This is great. Those of you who are worried about the future, kids, marriage, job, really anything.

[00:19:49] Anything that’s got you worried. This is incredible news because Jesus is showing you the root of that anxiety if you’re willing to hear it, if you’re willing to receive it from him. He’s letting you know those anxious thoughts are coming from a lack of understanding, trusting, and resting in God’s sovereign care. It’s possible that you have not yet put your trust and faith in Christ, and so you don’t know God as your father. And if you don’t have that relationship with the Lord, it would make sense that these things would have you worried. It would make sense that lots of things in life would have you worried. See, if you are adrift in the sea on a raft being tossed around, you’re going to be far more concerned with what’s going to happen next than if you are on a ship with a captain who knows every storm and is taking you home. Those are two very different places to be out on the sea. Do you want your anxiety to be relieved? Trust in Jesus with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. That’s what I would tell you to do. Get back to what God has revealed about who he is and the sovereign power he has. It’s also possible that you do know the Lord. That you trust in him. You believe he’s in control. But you forget. That’s me. I know these things are true, but I forget. And when you forget the Lord, your faith in him diminishes.

[00:21:26] Now listen to me, church. God’s sovereign power and control does not diminish his sovereign knowledge and power don’t weaken over anything. If you are his kid through trust and faith in Jesus, you are in his family and nothing will ever change that. But if you get your eyes off Christ and begin to doubt that God is in control and that he’s a good provider, your worry and anxiety will grow because there’s that direct correlation. Which means those feelings of worry and that anxiety that you have in your heart is acting as a warning alarm. That’s what it is. It’s a warning alarm to get you back to the Lord and back in his word. Anxious thoughts for a Christian are like the check engine light of your faith. When they go out, when worry comes, it’s like the check engine light has come on. When that comes on you have to find out why. You don’t just drive around like that, do you? You don’t, right? No, of course not. You got to pop the hood. You got to get under there. You got to find out what’s going on. There’s something wrong. Right? Maybe you have to bring in an expert. The worry means that your faith in the Lord needs some work. Listen to how Jesus wraps this up. There’s a summary statement

[00:22:57] and then one more illustration. And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried for all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. So, here’s the difference between a life of worry and a life of calm trust. The world has a pursuit. There’s something it’s going after. Now, when Jesus uses the word world here, he’s referring to those people who don’t know God as father. He’s talking about those people in the world who don’t know the Lord. And they have a pursuit. They are pursuing resources. That’s what they want. They’re worried about food and clothes. They’re concerned with accumulating stuff, becoming rich, building bigger barns. Almost every war that’s ever been fought, at least partially, has been fought over resources, wanting to get more things. Now, is this because the world needs resources to survive and Christians don’t need resources? No. Everybody needs them. The father knows we need them. The difference is that a person who doesn’t know the Lord believes that he must be his own provider. That’s the difference in the thinking. If you don’t have God as your father, you can’t trust in him. It’s an incredibly worrisome, all-consuming mental and emotional strain to believe that you can only count on you. That’s a lot to bear on your shoulders.

[00:24:36] It’ll drive you to seek things for yourself constantly. And if you’re good at seeking those things for yourself, then money will become your God. And if you’re not good at seeking those things for yourself, you will plunge into worry and it will break you. And to this problem, Jesus says, you’re pursuing the wrong thing because you’re thinking the wrong way. He says, here’s what to seek. There’s something to seek. But it’s not that. Here’s what to seek. Seek the kingdom of God. As a follower of Jesus, living in the family of God the Father, we have a whole different pursuit for the things that we need that worry the rest of the world. Jesus says, God, our father has got you covered. You know what? He’s got you. You’re going to have what you need. You will. We will have absolutely everything that we need. And that frees us to live our lives under the reign of Christ, listening to God’s Word, sacrificially serving to uphold the values of God’s kingdom. Those values are found throughout God’s Word, but it includes things like loving people completely and addressing sin in our hearts and sacrificially helping other people. The decision-making process for someone seeking to live out the values of the Kingdom, while trusting God to provide for every need, that’s so different than the world. That process, the way we go about deciding what we’re going to do with everything, is very different in our minds.

[00:26:13] Let’s take an example. Let’s take job selection – finding a job, choosing a job. When you’re pursuing the kingdom of God, job opportunities are not weighed with only money and self-fulfillment. I mean, those factor in. But it’s not just those things. We don’t just ask what pays more and do I think it’s best for me? If those were the only questions Christians asked about job opportunities, we’d never have any missionaries going anywhere where it was hard to be a Christian. Why would you? It wouldn’t make any sense at all. If that’s all we asked, no one would ever serve the poor. No one would teach the inner-city school or choose a lower paying job to help marginalized people. Seeking God’s kingdom means becoming passionate about the things that matter to God, things that we discover in his Word. And what happens is you may discover that through prayer, through godly counsel, through reading God’s Word, that the right opportunity for you isn’t the one that makes the most sense to the world. It’s not the one that will get you the most money or that makes you feel the best because the world is pursuing resources and you’re not pursuing that. You got a different value set. That’s just one decision. That’s just job selection. That’s just one decision, a relatively tiny decision, if you consider all the things that we have to decide to do in this world.

[00:27:42] Seeking God’s kingdom changes everything. Who are you going to marry and when? If you’re already married, this has been answered. Okay. But there’s a lot of people that are still not. That’s a question that’s out there. The question of marriage is profoundly shaped by kingdom values of purity, family, the faith of your potential spouse. Seeking God’s kingdom affects your free time. It affects your use of media, how you budget, what you’re going to wear. Everything. Everything. Look at this last illustration. Now, this last illustration makes no sense at all to the world, but makes perfect sense to those in the kingdom. “Fear not, little flock. For it is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” What Jesus says here makes no sense at all if you are your own provider, no sense at all. Sell your possessions. Give away your money. And also fear not. What? That doesn’t make sense. That would be what would cause you to fear. Wouldn’t it? Bags of money and treasure in heaven while giving away my stuff. Outside of an understanding of the gospel that sounds like sell the family cow for a bag of magic beans.

[00:29:25] This is Jack and the Beanstalk. And often that’s the reason that Christianity is ridiculed and rejected by people with a lot of wealth. Jesus says it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Why? Because you have to have a kingdom view of possessions. And there are times when God says, I’m blessing you so that you can be a blessing to others, not so that you can become wildly rich. I hate the prosperity so-called gospel pusher who teach a false gospel that God wants you to be rich. God does not want you to be rich. He wants you firmly in his kingdom, worshiping him with everything you have. And if you happen to be rich, that just means you have even more responsibility to take care of others. It is not God’s good pleasure to give you more and more stuff. It is God’s good pleasure to give you his kingdom. That’s what Jesus says. And as you grow in your faith and your love and your trust of Jesus, it’ll be more and more your pleasure to receive it. I feel compelled this week as we close our time in God’s Word, uh, to end with a public prayer of repentance on behalf of all of us. I don’t mean by that that we all struggle with this equally.

[00:30:56] And I’m not calling out anybody individually. But there are times when all of us get our eyes off Christ and off his kingdom, and on to the values of this world. We become worried, which is an indication that our faith in the Lord, is not as strong as it ought to be, and that our values are misplaced. So, pray along silently, as I call on the Lord, to turn our hearts fully to his kingdom. God, we are sorry we’ve spent so much time and shed more tears worrying about the stuff we need and want, rather than resting in your sovereignty and seeking your kingdom. Our hearts are often drawn to money and comfort and this clouds our decisions. By your spirit, help us to declare Christ and live out the values of his Kingdom in ways that honor you. Show us where our thinking has erred. Show us the possessions we have that have taken your place that must be sold. Show us where we have failed to represent you as we should. Lord, thank you for the grace of Jesus. Thank you that we don’t earn our spot in your family by getting it right, but that we can call you father because you loved us when we were unlovable and bought us with your great, gracious sacrifice. Show us how to live graciously in your kingdom in light of this spiritual reality. It’s in Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

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