Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God: Matthew 6:33

A Sunday morning message from Matthew chapter 6

The message in brief: In Matthew 6:33, Jesus tells His followers to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and He promises that everything else we need will be added. Seeking the kingdom means crowning Jesus King of your life every day: daily submission, daily service, and trusting Him for your daily supply.

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33, KJV)

The message was built around one verse worth memorizing. There is an old hymn that says it well: "King of my life, I crown Thee now, Thine shall the glory be." The challenge was simple. Will you crown Jesus King of your life this morning?

What are "all these things"?

"All these things" are the needs Jesus just listed in Matthew 6: treasure, food and clothing. Put another way, money to get by, provision for the body, and shelter. Those are the things people spend their lives chasing.

"Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." (Matthew 6:31-32)

God feeds the birds, who neither sow nor reap. He dresses the lilies of the field more beautifully than Solomon in all his glory. "Are ye not much better than they?" (Matthew 6:26)

What happens when a person is saved?

At salvation, Jesus rescues us out of one kingdom and places us in another. Before a person is saved, whether they know it or not, they live under "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." (Ephesians 2:2) At salvation, God "hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." (Colossians 1:13)

The sermon pictured it like being adrift on the ocean in a boat with no oars, when the Lord Jesus came and rescued us.

We are also born again. When Adam and Eve sinned, their spirit died, and the human race has been that way ever since. When the Holy Spirit comes to live in a believer, He brings that dead spirit back to life.

"Unless you're born the second time, you're not going to heaven. I don't care how good you are."

Why don't more Christians seek the kingdom first?

Because something else is on the throne. The preacher admitted he had to evaluate his own life and confess to the Lord that he had not sought the kingdom first in a while.

Food, money and comfort can run a life. Before he was saved, he said, he was like the family dog, Casey, a boxer who went everywhere with the youth group and loved to chase his own tail around in circles. That is what people do when they are not seeking first the kingdom of God. They chase their tails.

The good news is that a Christian is no longer just flesh. "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27) means we can respond to spiritual things. We can understand the Bible, be convicted by it, and say yes to the Spirit of God and no to the old man.

What is the kingdom of God?

The kingdom of God is any place where Jesus is ruling. He is the King of the kingdom. One day Jesus will return and rule the earth from Jerusalem in the millennial kingdom. Today, His kingdom is wherever He sits on the throne of a heart.

Jesus taught us to pray for it: "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) He lived it in the Garden of Gethsemane: "not my will, but thine, be done." (Luke 22:42)

How do we seek the kingdom every day?

The sermon gave three daily marks of a life that seeks the kingdom first:

1. Daily submission. Put Jesus on the throne every day, not once a week. "Lord, You are my God. You are my master. You are in charge of my life."
2. Daily service. Serving God is not only for preachers and missionaries. Every saved person is alive to serve the Lord, not to have God serve us.
3. Daily supply. When we seek Him first, God provides our every need: money, provision and shelter.

King David prayed three times a day: "Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice." (Psalm 55:17) How often does God hear your voice?

"You only got one life to live. You don't have a second chance on this thing."

What is "his righteousness"?

His righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, credited to everyone who trusts Him. God keeps a record of every sin. When we accept Christ as Savior, that record is erased and replaced with the record of Jesus' righteousness.

We do not go to heaven based on what we do or don't do. We go to heaven because Jesus is righteous. It began with Abraham: "And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness." (Genesis 15:6)

The apostle Paul set aside everything he once valued for that righteousness. "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." (Philippians 3:8)

Will God really provide?

Yes. When Elijah announced a famine, God sent him to a widow in Zarephath who had only a handful of meal and a little oil. She planned to make one last meal for herself and her son. Elijah asked her to make him a cake first. She did, and for the rest of the famine there was always meal in the barrel and oil in the cruse (1 Kings 17).

God has not grown old or feeble. The promise of Matthew 6:33 still stands: seek Him first, trust Him, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Questions about Matthew 6:33

What does Matthew 6:33 say? "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

What are "all these things" in Matthew 6:33? The everyday needs Jesus lists in Matthew 6: food, drink and clothing, or as the sermon put it, money, provision and shelter.

What does it mean to seek the kingdom first? It means making Jesus King of your life every day, in submission, in service and in trusting Him to supply what you need.