SEEK FIRST HIS KINGDOM and His Righteousness! Lose Your LIFE!

Last night, my wife sent me a picture of that family, um, and I was too busy to look at it at first, but then I heard what she said. This is the family of the little 18-month-old boy, um, that was killed. One of the brothers ran him over. He wasn't—he didn't see him.

And they said the little girl who's a couple of years older than him tried to pull—tried to help him, and she ended up under the car too. And she's not dead. She didn't pass—she didn't die, but she had enough common sense to try to help her brother, but was not successful.

And, uh, I drove all the way home sobbing about that little boy, uh, and crying out to God to turn back time. I had an image of my daughter getting hit, Chloe, and my other daughter trying to get her out, and, uh, it's just horrible. And do I keep praying for them? Uh, let me pull it together.

So, uh, good morning, and, um, it's an honor and privilege to be here and to share with you guys this morning. And I want to echo what Justin said last week, that it really touched me, and I believe it, um, that there's nowhere else I'd rather be at this moment, uh, than right here with you guys. Uh, as Conrad might say, you are my favorite people. And, um, and I'm just very blessed. And we were seeking the kingdom of God, um, and we were trying to seek it first. And I was asked this question: if you knew that the Acts chapter 2 church—I don't know if I read it or if I heard it on a video, but it was a—it felt like a real question to me.

If there was a church that resembled the Acts chapter 2 church, would you not sell everything you have and go live there and be a part of it? And that really became a part of me. And China, we had the Seeds family worship, uh, albums that we always had in our car, and it was always made of scripture. I've talked about it before, but they had this song called "Seek First His Kingdom and His Righteousness." And, and that was the—I didn't memorize that verse except through that song. And it was, uh, "Do not worry," saying, "What shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For the pagans run after all of these things, but our heavenly Father knows that we need them.

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." And we were seeking God and seeking God, and we didn't care where it led us. And we knew we were wrong. And we were taking a more simplistic view of the scriptures and a more literal view of the scriptures. And God was changing us daily. And the churches at home—lots of laws had passed, and homosexuality was entering all these churches, and it just was going the opposite way.

And not just homosexuality, but lots of other things. And when we got home, we felt displaced. We didn't know what to do. And we had—when we were reading not this book, but Finney's book and David's book, it seemed like there was a church, uh, that that was like the Acts chapter 2 church. And, and seeking that church, we found this church. And I'm proud to be a part of this church. And I, I know that it might be silly to say that it's like the Acts chapter 2 church, but compared to all the other churches that I've been to, this is the closest I've ever been. Um, and the thing is, is if we continue to seek first His kingdom as a church, as a body, we will be go that way.

It will become that way. If we seek first to try to be the Acts chapter 2 church, I don't think we will. But if we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, um, we will grow the way God wants us to grow, and things will happen the way He wants it to happen. And He will send the Spirit to come and talk to us and help us with the conversations we need to, to split church and have two different meetings or whatever. We don't have to worry about those things.

And the other day in our men's discipleship group, we were talking about anxiety and, and things like that. And this was actually, um, what I thought I might talk about anyway. I didn't know what I would say, but anyway.

Uh, Bill was actually the first springboard to the desire to talk about "Seek First His Kingdom." He was standing there a few weeks ago, and he said, "The Bible is full of do's and don'ts, but it's not about the don'ts. It's about the do's." This is—I'm paraphrasing.

And if we are focused on all the don'ts, we'll end up doing the don'ts instead of where the do's are right next to the don'ts normally. And there, if you focus on the do's, you won't do the don'ts. So an example is, "Don't worry about anything." And, and Philippians 4, and if we sit there saying, "Oh, I'm worrying, I'm worrying, I'm worrying, what am I going to do?" Uh, and then you're like, "Oh, no, uh, I'm worrying about worrying." And then you just focus on, and it's just this endless cycle. But the very next word, at least in probably the NIV, whatever I memorized it in, is instead pray about everything.

Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And He will give you a peace beyond all understanding.

And, uh, so if we focus on the do's, okay, I'm worrying, so He tells me to pray. So let's pray and then think about whatever is good and right and noble and true. And so, but that when He said it that time, the first that came to my head this time was "Seek First His Kingdom."

And there's all these don'ts right before that, like don't worry about what we'll read that here in a second. I'll go ahead and read it now. Um, I'm going to start at Matthew 6:24 through 32. We're also going to read part of it in Luke 12 because as I was reading the early Christians' thoughts on this, they intermingled these two for a lot. And, um, they—some of it seemed inseparable, some of their phrases. And there's not a ton of difference, but, um, starting at Matthew 6:24, "No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life." And we need to ask ourselves this question: do we worry about our life? What you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body or what you will put on, is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather in barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they? Which of you, by worrying, can add one cubit to his stature?

So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Now, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear?" For all of these things the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all of these things shall be added to you.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. In case I were somewhat forced in this position a lot, um, I'm not going to go through all the times in China; it would take way too long. But I'm really going to summarize this. When we got back, we had two, three different jobs, basically. We both taught English. Well, Casey taught English for four years, but then she switched over to teaching, uh, at a missionary school in China. And I taught English at a university, uh, that time as well. And Finney's message, we were seeking first His kingdom. He had a message about, "Give me children or die," I believe is the title.

And it was saying that we should—it was talking about homeschooling. And she got home and we decided, "Hey, this is what we're supposed to do. You need to stop working and homeschool." And she said, "Okay, but what about money?" And I said, "Well, God's going to figure that out because, um, that's how He works."

And then maybe a year or so later, we're kicked off the field. We come home and, um, you all know the story. We decided to move out and try to find—we were raising support and making our way to the Kingdom Fellowship weekend. And time after time, well, first, Casey's my father-in-law, which she said, "Hi, by the way," and, uh, just a minute ago on the phone, and he said that he considers all of you his new friends and, uh, that he's—they were actually just praying for all of us, and they're really excited about what's going on up here. So I'm really excited about that. But anyway, after we got the camper in the car, he lowered their support by half, and we calculated all our funds, and we needed all that to manage pulling this thing and paying for gas and insurance and for the payments.

And I looked at Casey and said, "If God wants us to do this, He's going to figure it out." And literally every month for four months straight, right at the time that we would get paid that $1,000, we got it. I mean, the first time, um, the adoption agency, um, called or emailed and said, "We owe you guys $1,000, uh, because you overpaid," and exactly $1,000. And then the next time, uh, a church that had given to us maybe twice in the 10 years that we were there, and it was just really random, but every time they did, they gave us $1,000.

This might have been the third time they gave to us. The next month, we got $1,000 from them. And then we spoke at a Methodist church. We're speaking at churches this whole time. And this Methodist church, the elders came and, um, what's that word you used yesterday?

Uh, starts with an A. Not scolded me, but admonished. Maybe scolded. I don't know. They got on to me for what I said. And then nobody sat with us at the King at the fellowship meal. And, uh, and we were—I was thinking, man, I just got told by these elders, and it was just kind of a downer kind of thing. But the person I was sitting with, Lamar Jones is his name, said every church in the whole nation needed to hear that sermon this morning.

And he wrote me a check, and he put it under my hand. I didn't look at it, but I had a feeling what it was. And I got to the car, and it was $1,000. And then we finally make it. We go to Savannah, all these different places. Then we get up to, uh, Kentucky and Ohio, and we're like strapped, but we know we're going to make it after we preach to this church, this Christian church.

Uh, we're going to the Kingdom Fellowship weekend, and that's our ultimate goal. And we get there, and we don't know what's going to happen. Our car breaks down, and, uh, then we preach at this church. And then as we're leaving the church, they give me one $500 check, which I was surprised.

Uh, but then before I got the door, they gave me another $500 check. And, um, it was just amazing. It was—why we learned, Casey, most women would probably go mad, but my wife has dealt with this for a long time. Uh, not worrying. Um, when we first got to China, uh, we barely had enough, but it always worked out. And I'm a true believer in seeking first His kingdom. And I don't mean that we, um, all do what I'm talking about. I'm talking about in our jobs and in all of our life, in every part of our life, we seek His kingdom first. And one of the remedies, this seek first His kingdom is a remedy to so many things, especially selfishness.

And selfishness, in my mind, is the cause of most of our sin. And so if you can—if you can look at every sin, think of any sin, and follow it back to its roots, to me, they all seem to go back to selfishness, of greed or something like that.

And if your first priority in life is the kingdom of God and all His—and all the apostles' teachings, our selfishness goes away. Um, we don't have time for selfishness. Like you become bitter and hurt people whenever you're always thinking of yourself. And I—and lately I've been thinking about that. Like anytime I feel just even a little hurt, I think, wow, that's kind of selfish. I'm just thinking about myself.

And I know there's true hurts out there that legitimately need reconciliation, but I'm talking about little things. Um, and I don't consider myself a bitter or hurt person, but if we're really focusing all of our energy and effort, we wake up every morning and we're seeking His kingdom, and we pray often through the day, and we seek first His kingdom, and we pray the prayer, "Your kingdom come, your will be done."

Um, our selfishness will be put on the back burner. We need to be, uh, living a sacrificial life, holy and pleasing to the Lord, a living sacrifice. And I think we are. I think that we all stumble. We all have problems, and we get off track sometime. But I have high confidence in this body of believers, especially knowing that we can—I can be wrong up here right now, and I know that someone will gently tell me I'm wrong, and and I'll be able to change. It's not this—there's not this fear of saying something wrong too much because we know that we're all growing as a body, that if David Berceau found out something today that he never saw before and he knew it was the truth, he would change what he believed about it.

And he's done it a million times. Um, not not being wishy-washy, but realizing what the early Christians believed and saying, "Hey, maybe this is right." So let's read the Luke version. And Luke 12, we'll start with 22, but then we're just going to read 22, 29 through 37. 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. 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. 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 will not grow old, with a treasure in heaven that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home for the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at the table, and he will come and serve them."

I've been genuinely moved by all the sermons that I've heard since I've been here, um, and I believe they all have a part in seeking first His kingdom. I think seeking first His kingdom is kind of a general, a bigger picture, and we can zoom in on it. It's kind of the zoomed-out picture. But it's very simple, and I'm going to read some quotes from them, but they read it, they believed it just like it was said. And they actually believe some things that I've never heard, and I'll get into that in a minute. But Kevin, not long ago, uh, preached about trusting people and that there's a lot of power in trust. And if we don't trust people, that we won't have success.

And he had a message on unity of being our greatest tool of evangelism. Conrad taught us to rest in the Lord and take on his yoke. And he taught us how to love our brothers, and he taught us how to obey. He said something that stuck with me, saying, "We should obey God even though even when we don't understand." And it's only when we obey him that we start to understand what he was commanding us. And Lynn's teaching us on how to pray and to be earnest in our prayer and living for the kingdom of God.

And that really changed my prayer life. I was changed by all these sermons.

I started, I realized that God hears my earnest prayers and that I should keep trying, keep praying, not to give up. I always feel like maybe I've said it too much. And then to compound that, Andre emphasized the power of prayer and that our prayers can vanquish, can shut up demons, can stop the demons of war and actually prevent wars. And that somehow our prayers to God can change big things. And I am a—my problem with prayer before that was I didn't have faith that my prayer would do something or could do something. I mean, I thought I did, but after I heard that, I was like, "Am I praying for my government and for these wars and these famines or whatever's going on and actually believing that what I'm saying might be doing something?"

The early Christians surely believed that, and that was an amazing part of putting those two parts of prayer together as perfect timing. David's message on gossip, calling us to God's higher standard, urging us not not to only not gossip, but only say encouraging things to brothers and sisters, pointing out that gossiping about others has eternal consequences.

And then this is the point that I'm kind of springboarding off of just in last week, and y'all have this in your mind, but I want it to be burned in your mind because I think it's very, very good about continual devotion.

Devotion means to be loyal, love, and have loyalty and enthusiasm for something, a person, place, or thing, I think is what Justin said. But he said, "But he said, we are to be loyal to the person of Christ." So this is part of seek first His kingdom. I'm hoping you can see this, that if we're doing these particular things, we will be seeking first His kingdom. Devotion is important to be devoted to Christ, being loyal to Christ, and enthusiastic about Christ, the King, the anointed King. The activity of worship, uh, that we are to be loyal.

The activity of worship was listed in Acts 2 from Justin. He says that the we should—the apostles' teaching is a part of worship, fellowship, and the breaking of bread and, uh, prayer. So we should be—we should have love, loyalty, and enthusiasm for the apostles' teachings, for the breaking of bread and fellowship with each other, and for prayer.

And another thing he said was, um, to have love and loyalty and enthusiasm for the kingdom of God. So if we focus in on the teachings of Christ, like the the dad who his son got shot and his daughter-in-law was killed. Let's take a look at what he said.

As Jonathan's father, I wish to express my thoughts about the murder of my daughter-in-law's killers. Jesus says in Matthew 5:7, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you." In Romans 12:19, God says, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." Then also in verse 21, "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."

I feel no hatred, bitterness, anger, nor revenge towards the two black men that murdered my daughter-in-law and left my four grandchildren, age 16, 14, 10, and 6, motherless, and almost killed my son. It's a miracle my son still lives. He's shot all the way through his neck, and he's not paralyzed. The vitals in his neck are not seriously injured. God alone gets the credit for that. My son has thanked his heavenly Father over and over that he's not paralyzed.

I extend forgiveness for the two murderers. Revenge only begets more violence. My heart's desire for them is that they would repent and fall on their faces before the Lord Jesus and cry out for mercy for their own soul's sake. Jesus would desire to give them a new heart and a new spirit. Jesus offers eternal life and a home in glory to all who repent, yes, even to the two black men that murdered my son's wife. On the contrary, Jesus has also promised judgment and eternal punishment to all who do not repent.

I carry no hatred towards the black people, as some do. I'm not a racist. The love of God that has been shed abroad in my heart causes me to love all people, racist and yes, violent men. I want the public to know that revenge, hatred, unforgiveness, and bitterness is not a part of my heart in this situation.

And actually forgive everybody, especially starting here, uh, quickly and fully and not—and think of ways to love each other whenever we're hurt and to pray for each other, not to see each other as enemies, but to still, anytime there's a discomfort or a miscommunication, to immediately forgive and forget and move on and and love each other.

And to do all of the things Jesus said, not let your left hand know what your right hand's doing when giving. Uh, giving when people ask for something, give them even more. Walk more, walk two miles with them, turn the other cheek.

Um, all these things are really important. Fasting and praying. Um, we need to be devoted, and I think we are, and I think we can be more devoted. And I know I can. I'm speaking for myself that I could be more devoted. And that if we do this as a group, if we aren't individuals doing this, but we collectively do this, I really think that we'll get closer and closer to this Acts 2 and 4 church. And I don't think we're as far as you guys think we are, but I know that we don't have this like 3,000 people coming to Christ, uh, but that didn't—there was a lot of devoted people who probably saw Jesus and heard him teaching who were there.

And I'm not completely convinced that a lot of those weren't people who heard straight from him and saw some of the things he did. And now he's being preached about again.

I'm seeking the kingdom with you, my true brothers and sisters.

I'm going to read you some things more about selfishness. This is a quote from Finney Caravilla's King Jesus Claims His Church. The selfish heart is always looking out for itself. It always murmurs, "What's in it for me?" Tragically, some portray the Christian faith as a transaction. They say that as a way to maximize your happiness, you should pray this prayer or live in such a such a way. While people do, of course, find the greatest happiness in following the Lord, this happiness comes because they are not seeking their own advantage. True salvation is found in not seeking one's own gain.

Luke 9:24. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being. 1 Corinthians 10:24. This one I've said it a lot, but I'm going to say it again. Seek first his kingdom. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Matthew 6:33. Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to selfish gain.

Psalms 1:19-36. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for a friend, for his friend. John 15:13. You ask and do not receive because you ask and miss that you may spend it on your own pleasures. Acts 4, I mean, James 4:3.

He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again. 2 Corinthians 5:15. This self-giving love is the very heart of Jesus. While, of course, one receives the greatest happiness and fulfillment by following the King, the one who desires to save his life will lose it. Biblical happiness comes from not pursuing your own happiness.

To summarize so far, it's a very simple message that if we can seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, our selfishness, lots of sin, lots of worry. I mean, this is particularly the Matthew verses, particularly about anxiety and worry.

And I hope that all of us can live without worry and anxiety. And I wanted to read some early Christian quotes on this topic. It would take me all day to read all of them. So I just picked a few that kind of summarize what they believed.

This is Tertullian.

And I tried to rewrite some of it because they use words that are ancient to me. Maybe not Bill, but so I just wrote them down at the bottom.

Tertullian says it this way. He scolded them as being of little faith. Now when he adds, "For all these things do the nations of the world seek after, even by their not believing in God as the creator and giver of all things, since he was unwilling that they should be like the nations. He therefore found fault in them as being defective of the faith in the same God, in whom he remarked that the Gentiles were found not to content in the faith." Origen puts it this way.

The righteous eats to the satisfying of his soul, but the belly of the wicked shall want. We must consider the food promised in the law as food of the soul, which is to satisfy not both parts of man's nature, but the soul only. And the words of the gospel, although probably containing a deeper meaning, may yet be taken in their more simple and obvious sense, as teaching us not to be disturbed with anxieties about our food and clothing, but while living in plainness and desiring only what is needful to put our trust in the providence of God. I love that what he said there just because he said he talks about the simple and obvious interpretation of it and that we're supposed to live in plainness.

This is from Clemen of Alexandria. Do not take thought for your life, what you shall eat, neither for your body, what you shall put on. For your life is more than food and your body more than clothing. And again, for your Father knows that you are in need of all these things. But seek first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness, for these are great things. And these things which are small and related to this life shall be added to you. Does he not plainly then exhort us to follow the Christian life and order us to seek the truth and word and deed?

Therefore, Christ, who trains the soul, reckons one rich, not by his gifts, but by his choice. I love that that he reckons us rich by our choice. Cyprian. For daily bread cannot be wanting to the righteous man since it is written, "The Lord will not slay the soul of the righteous by hunger." And again, I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging for their bread.

And the Lord moreover promises and says, "Take no thought saying, 'What shall we eat or what shall we drink or what how will we be clothed?' For after all these things do the nations seek, and your Father knows that you have need of all these things.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." To those who seek God's kingdom and righteousness, he promises that all things will be added. For since all things are God's, nothing will be wanting to him who possesses God, if God himself is not lacking it to him. So if we possess God and God is not lacking to us, we really don't need to worry.

We really don't need to worry. So if we, if we at Break Build Trailers, at Scroll Publishing, wherever you're at, uh, Andre, you're a lot of places, both of those actually, um, we need to learn somehow to always seek first his kingdom. There's a quote that I had for Finney, and it's not in here for some reason. I must have deleted it somehow, but he said, "Believers are called to seek first the kingdom, not their own fulfillment through career.

Christianity should be our career." Our profession should be Christianity or something like that. Like he said that, yeah, we do these jobs, but our identity shouldn't be in these jobs, that no matter where we're at, that our job is Christianity first, and that it should overflow into our jobs, whatever those jobs may be. Clemente of Alexandria, this is one of the parts that are a little different. They all, almost all of them talk about luxury, and this is something we probably need to hear.

But they relate these verses that I've read today about living a very luxurious life and how we shouldn't be doing that and how we shouldn't spend a lot of money on food and clothing. And this is Clemente of Alexandria. This is the last one.

Now pride and luxury make men wavers, or raise them aloft to the truth, and to voluptuousness, which indulges in excess, leads away from the truth. Therefore he says very beautifully, "And all these things do the nations of the world seek after. The nations are desolate and foolish." What are these things that he specifies?

Luxury, voluptuousness, rich cooking, dainty feeding, and gluttony. What are these to us? And of bare sustenance, dry and moist, as being necessities, he says, "Your Father knows that you need these." And if in a word we are naturally given to seeking, let us not destroy the faculty of seeking by directing it to luxury, but let us excite it to the discovery of truth, for he says, "Seek first the kingdom of God, and the materials of sustenance will be added to you."

I'm inspired by my brother moving up here, and I had a quote on here that somehow got deleted that I was going to end with, but, uh, just be praying for my brother, and, uh, I want to pray the Lord's Prayer together and have Len lead us with a song in closing.

Um, but the, uh, moral of the story is that the early Christians literally believe that we should not worry and that we should seek first his kingdom, and that will be the, and we shouldn't focus on not worrying. We should focus on seeking this kingdom. And when selfishness leaves us, uh, that helps with worry and anxiety and the lack of peace, and I think peace comes in. Um, so in the Lord's Prayer, I always pray, since I'm up here, y'all have to pray the way I pray it, uh, that forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. So trespasses, and then I always pray the evil one instead of deliver us from evil.

Um, and the early Christians also say that a lot. So, um, I think that's the only differences. So let's stand and pray, and then we'll sing something.

Uh, pray together. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Hallelujah.