“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.”
Matthew 6:33-34
I often am brought to where Jesus is preaching one of His early messages in the book of Matthew. As the crowd surrounded Him waiting to hear what wonders He would unveil to them, He did something different. He began to preach the truths that they had heard all of their lives. He spoke on being meek, being a peace maker, and seeking righteousness. He didn’t bring up new ideas, philosophy, or doctrine. Jesus in His message brought them back to the basics. In a later portion of His message He shares the words of Matthew 6:33 – “Seek ye first the kingdom of God” again reengaging His hearers with the thought of returning to the basics. First and foremost, God and His kingdom, should be our focus and when we nail that basic the other “things” will fall into place. In the church today we get caught up in new ideas, personalities, and trends. These often call us away from the fundamental things that help us be successful.
It’s funny to think back and see the truths that have been right before you all of your life. I remember when I started playing little league baseball. At our first practice the coach started by saying, “I know you all are excited to play baseball, but first you need to know the basics of how to play the game.” That old coach was right. There was a lot more to baseball than hitting and catching. Not that I would experience too much of that living in right field! When I got to college to study theology and preaching, I was excited! I have always loved to preach. I remember going to a class called Preaching I where we would be taught the different methods of successful preaching. The professor got up in front of us all and asked, “Who is ready to preach today?” and nearly half of us preachers raised our hands. He proceeded to tell us that there would be no preaching in the class until we had been taught, yep, you guessed it, the basics of writing a sermon and presenting that sermon to an audience! Whether in little league baseball or in college preparing to preach, it has been made clear to me how important it is for us to learn and practice the basics.
With that thought in mind, I want to encourage each of you today to put into practice the basics of Christian living! Jesus so wisely taught us that seeking the kingdom of God was to be first and that in our seeking of that kingdom we should seek His righteousness. I want to share with you some of the basics we all need to be practicing so we can do just that – “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.”
The first basic we need to incorporate into our lives is : Daily Prayer! As Christians we need to be in prayer each day. As I examine the life of Jesus we find the example that He sets also teaches that we should not just pray every day but that we should BEGIN each day in prayer. The Bible says Jesus rose early before the dawn to pray. When teaching on the subject of prayer Jesus shows us in the model prayer “give us this day our daily bread”, clearly teaching that prayer was to be daily but also before our first meal of the day we should have already prayed.
The basics by title equates to being simple. And you may be reading this and saying, I know I should pray every day. Good! Now lets put this basic into practice. I encourage our people here at RRBC to begin each day in prayer. I also encourage them that they should give the first hour of the day to the Lord for prayer and Bible reading.
Starting the day with the Lord is the best way to begin. Having shared your heart, confessed your sins, gotten close to Him, and allowed Him to give you instruction for the day prepares you for who or what you will face once you step out of the presence of God!
The second basic we need to return to is: Daily Bible Reading! How important it is for believers to read the Bible every day. But not simply read, but also study! If someone sets out to only read the Bible, they will miss so much of the truth that God intends for His people to apply to their lives! God intends for us to not just hear the Word He has given to us, but that we are to do it also (James 1:22).
Now you feed your body every day! If you go too long without eating your body and mind have a quick and sharp way to remind you they are hungry! Jesus teaches us that we should be as diligent about feeding ourselves spiritually as we are physically (Matthew 4:4). We eat big meals, small meals, and snacks throughout the day. Why do we think we can live without spiritual food? God teaches us through the messages of Jesus and the writings of I Corinthians 3 and Hebrews 5 that the Bible is our spiritual food and we need to feast on it daily!
Reading one verse of scripture and thinking that will satisfy is wrong! Would eating a single piece of bread satisfy you until the next day? Would one cookie or one granola bar hold you for the remainder of the day as you exert yourself? Absolutely not! You need more food to have more strength for the work and challenges of the day. The same is true spiritually!
Being patient, loving, kind, and forgiving is hard work! Just like those “Snicker Bar” commercials that illustrate be “hangry” and “you’re not yourself when you’re hungry” to get people to eat their candy bar to continue. The same is true for us spiritually. There is no way you will act like Christ if you are spiritually hungry! There is no way you will respond in a godly manner if your are spiritually starving! You need to eat daily from the Word of God!
Just as you start the day in prayer also reserve time at the beginning of the day to read your Bible. And as often as you need to eat physically, set out to eat spiritually!
The third basic we need to be sure to cover is: Daily Giving! I believe that God designed us and desires us to be conduits of His love and His blessings. God never intended for us to be hoarders of His grace or His love, but that all He increases us with we should be sharing with those He brings across our path.
If you become a hoarder, you are bringing death to the blessing potential you have from God. Consider the Dead Sea in the Middle East. It is a body of water that only receives but has no outlets! All it does is take in from every other source leading to it. Sadly, the Dead Sea has no life either. Life comes from giving! All of God’s creations are designed to be givers.
We need to be people who give financially. God loves a cheerful giver ( II Corinthians 9:7). I say this because God blesses those with more whom He can trust to give! God wants us to have a testimony of giving! I recently heard that most waitresses hate working on Sundays because that is when they are overwhelmed by the “church people” who are poor tippers! How sad that we are giving such a “stingy” reputation to the name Christian! God is a giver! We should follow His example and give.
Think of all the ways we can be givers! Encouragement, compliments, counsel, favors, inspiration, helping hand, volunteer, blood donor, and so forth! The ways of giving are unlimited!
If we are going to succeed at seeking the kingdom of God first then we must get back to the basics of Christian living! Let’s start the day in prayer. Before we open the paper or turn on the news, let’s open the Bible. While we are out and about encountering the people God brings across our path, let’s be giving and let’s be generous!