Psalm 90:12; Matthew
6:33
Intro: There is an old saying that, "You are never too old to
learn." Here is one lesson that you're never too old to learn:
"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto
wisdom.”(Psa. 90:12) Now, what that means is this: "Teach
us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as
we should."
Someone
has observed that life is like a dollar bill. You can spend it any way you want
to, but you can only spend it once.
Now
when you spend money there are really only one of two ways you can spend it.
You can waste it, or you can invest it. The same thing is true with life.
Now
whether you are young or old, six or sixty, healthy and wealthy, or puny and
poor, you can make the rest of your life the best of your life.
Suppose
you were starting life all over. You are old enough to know right from wrong.
You are old enough to learn, old enough to love, old enough to really live. If
you could ask the Lord Jesus Christ how to make the rest of your life the best
of your life, what do you think He would say? I don't think we have to wonder,
I think I know.
"But
seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things
shall be added unto you." (Mt. 6:33) I think you can
summarize what Jesus said here in three words: "first things first."
Now I know that sounds simple, but I want to tell you that if you, beginning
today, would consciously, continuously, constantly, and consistently put first
things first, it would absolutely transform your life. The formula for how to
do just that is found in this tremendous statement from the lips of our Lord.
I. SET
PROPER PRIORITIES
1. Now everything rises and falls right here. If your priorities
are not in order, your life will not be in order. If your priorities are not
right, you won't be right. You don't have to pray about what your number one
priority in life ought to be. You don't have to think about it. You don't have
to discuss it. You don't have to look for it.
You
just have to do it. Because Jesus has already told us what our first priority
ought to be, "seek ye first the kingdom of God."
The
word seek means to "actively pursue" or "to
go after." It's in the present tense. It means continuously. Every
day of your life you ought to seek first the kingdom of God.
2. Now in order to seek the kingdom, you must first seek the King.
Because you cannot have a kingdom without a king. The first priority of your life
ought to be to seek the King of the kingdom.
Did
you know that the Christian life is more than just excepting the Lord, it is
seeking the Lord. The Lord is not just someone you passively accept. He is
someone you actively seek. I can tell you something about your relationship to
God at this very moment without even knowing you. I can tell you how much of
God you have - you have all of God that you want.
3. God does not have any favorites, but He does have intimates.
James 4:8 says, "Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you"
God has promised in his word, "And ye shall seek me, and find me,
when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” (Jer. 29:13)
4. But it is not enough to seek the Lord. You must seek Him first.
Jesus said, "seek first the kingdom of God." First
things first means putting the Father first. There are three words I want you
to circle in this passage. In v.30 circle the word faith.
In v.32 circle the word Father. In v.33 circle the
word first. You know the Bible says in Heb. 11:6, "Without
faith it is impossible to please him."
Do
you know what faith is? Faith is putting the Father first. Let me tell you
something. Jesus does not want a place in your life. Jesus does not even want
prominence in your life. Jesus wants preeminence in your life.
5. Jesus wants the first moments of everyday. Jesus wants the
first day of every week. Jesus wants the first part of every paycheck. He wants
to be first.
The
Lord Jesus Christ is not interested in being the first runner-up in your beauty
contest. He is not interested in being vice-president in your corporation. He
is not interested in being second in command in your army. He wants to be the
King on the throne of your heart, not a co-partner in a duplex.
6. But not only are we to seek the King, we ought to seek the
kingdom. The kingdom of God ought to be the obsession of your life. The word kingdom
there literally means rule or reign. A kingdom is a place
where a king rules. To seek the kingdom of God is to seek the rule and the
reign of God over your entire life.
Now
when you truly seek a king, and you truly seek his kingdom, you are
automatically seeking for three things.
A. First of all, you are seeking for the glory of the king.
Every part and parcel of your life, every minute and moment of your time, every
ounce and pound of your strength, every muscle and fibre of your body ought to
be given for the glory of God. "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink,
or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." (I Cor. 10:31)
B. But it means also to seek for the guidance of the king. A loyal
subject always wants to do whatever the king would have him to do. There is no
higher calling in life than to find out what your King wants done and then to
do it. Every morning of your life you ought to begin by asking the Lord Jesus
what Paul asked the Lord Jesus on that Damascus road, when he said, "Lord,
what would you have me to do?"
C. But it also means to seek the government of the king. A loyal
subject desires to be controlled by the king, to be governed by the king, to be
ruled by the king. Someone might say, "Why you are talking about
slavery." May I tell you, that the greatest liberty in the world is found
in being controlled by the right master.
D. Has it ever occurred to you that if your will was that God's
will would always be done in your life, then your will would always be done.
(Ill.
I heard about a woman who was deathly sick. A neighbor came to visit her and he
asked her whether she wanted to live or to die. She said, "I just want
whatever pleases God."
The
neighbor said, "Well, what if God were to refer the matter to you, which
would you choose?"
She
said, "If God were to refer the matter to me, I would just refer the
matter back to Him." That lady had her priorities in the right order.)
You
can believe this or not, but it would be better to die in the will of God than
to live outside of the will of God.
II. SEEK
PERSONAL PURITY
1. Not only are we to seek His kingdom, we are to seek "His
righteousness." That is, not only are we to be seeking God's control over
us, but we are also to be seeking God's character within us. The kingdom of God
is not only to be inwardly experienced. It is to be outwardly expressed.
2. You see, if God is ruling over you, then His righteousness will
be within you. Because a man's character is simply the outward expression of
whatever is controlling him inwardly. Faith is always seen by its fruit.
Character is always seen by its conduct. Proverbs 20:12 tells us, "The
hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them."
You see, as we seek the kingdom of God, people ought to be able to see the
kingdom in us.
(Ill.
We are never going to make a difference in this world until the world sees a
difference in us. Nietzsche, the German philosopher, was the philosophical
founder of the Nazi Movement in Germany. He was the first man in history to
come to the conclusion that "God is dead." He came to that conclusion
by looking at Christianity. Do you know what he said about Christians? He said,
"If you want me to believe in your Redeemer, you are going to have to look
a little more redeemed.")
The
real mark of a Christian is that he makes it easier for others to believe in
God. Now what does it mean to seek the righteousness of God?
A. We Must Desire It - We do what we really want to
do, and we are what we really want to be. Jesus said in Matt. 5:6, “Blessed
are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be
filled.”
You
ought to desire to be right, to do right, to live right, just as much as a
hungry man desires food, and a thirsty man desires water.
B. We Must Derive It - We are to seek "His
righteousness." God is not interested in your righteousness. He is
only interested in His righteousness. God is not interested in what you can do
for Him. He is interested in what He can do through you.
It
will be a great day when you learn the difference between self righteousness
and the Savior's righteousness. Paul, after he was saved, made this one of the
goals of his life. He said in Phil. 3:9 that he wanted to "And
be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but
that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by
faith:”
Now
I want you to learn a lesson about righteousness. Righteousness must be imputed
before it can be imparted. Let me make it more simple. Before you can live it,
God must give it. That is exactly why Jesus came and Jesus died, that we might
have the righteousness of God. "For he hath made him to be sin for
us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (II
Cor. 5:21).
C. We Must Depict It - We ought to live like kingdom
subjects. Will Rogers said, "We ought to live in such a way that we
would not be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip."
III. SEE PROMISED
PROSPERITY
1. Now the Lord says that if you will seek His kingdom and His
righteousness, "all these things shall be added unto you."
Now what "things" was the Lord referring to? He was
talking about all the things that people worry about. In v.19 we are
told that people worry about finances. "Lay not up for yourselves
treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break
through and steal"
2. In v.25 we are told that people worry about food. "Therefore
I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye
shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more
than meat, and the body than raiment?"
3. In v.27 we are told that people worry about fitness. "Which
of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?"
4, In v.28 we are told that people worry about fashion.
"And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:”
5. Now all of these are things that we need. That's why the Lord
said in v.32, "(For after all these things do the Gentiles
seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things."
Now the Lord has promised that if you will seek first His kingdom and His
righteousness, you will have all the things you need. Now I did not say you
would have necessarily the things that you want.
I
am convinced there are four lessons parents ought to teach their children
early, and that it would be good for even some adults to re-learn.
A. First of all, you don't need everything you want.
I wish I had all the money back that I had spent in my life on things that I
wanted that I didn't really need.
B. The second lesson is, you don't want everything you need.
I never wanted one whipping that I ever got, but I needed everyone of them.
C. The third lesson is, God doesn't give us everything we
want. I, for one, am so glad that He doesn't. You know, one of the
greatest blessings of God is found in those things that He doesn't give us. I
read one time the confession of an unknown confederate soldier that
tremendously blessed me. Listen to it.
I asked God for strength
that I might achieve.
I was made weak that I
might learn humbly to obey.
I asked God for health
that I might do greater things.
I was given infirmity
that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that
I might be happy.
I was given poverty that
I might be wise.
I asked for power that I
might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness
that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things
that I might enjoy life.
I was given life that I
might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I
asked for - But everything I had hoped for....
Almost despite myself,
my unspoken prayers were answered
I am among all men most
richly blessed.
D. The last lesson is, God always give us what we need.
I heard about two stores that were across the street from each other, highly
competitive, always trying to get ahead. The manager of one store came out one
day and nailed a great big sign over the front of his store that said, "If
you want it, we have it." Well the manager from the other store walked out
and saw that sign, thought about it for a few moments, went back into his
store, and awhile later came out with a sign he nailed over his store that
said, "If we don't have it, you don't need it." I can tell you
something right now, no matter what you may think, if you don't have it it's
because God knows at this point in your life you don't need it.
You
see, what the Lord was trying to teach us here was this. It is our job to serve
God. It is His job to supply us. Now most people have that backwards. Most
people think that it is our job to supply us and it is God's job to serve us.
If they could, they would sing the old hymn this way:
I'll have my own way,
Lord,
I'll have my own way,
I'll be the potter, You
be the clay;
I'll mold You and make
You after my will,
While you are waiting,
yielded and still.
It
is exactly that attitude that cuts off the blessing of God. You see, in a real
sense, we have been called to live from hand to mouth. But that's alright if
it's His hand and my mouth. (Ill. I heard about a missionary who was getting
ready to embark and go away to a foreign country. As he was getting on the
ship, just going up the gangway, a friend of his, who was a very wealthy
person, came to him and slipped an envelope into his hand that was sealed.
His
friend said, "You take this envelope, and if at any time while you are
overseas you come to the place where you have exhausted every other
possibility, and you don't where else to turn, and you have a need that you
cannot meet anywhere else, open the envelope."
Well,
the missionary took the envelope, thanked him, put it in his pocket, went up
the gangplank and he stayed on that mission field for twenty years. At the end
of twenty years he came back home, walked down that same gangplank, met by that
same wealthy friend, and he returned the envelope back to the man, still
sealed, still unopened, and he said, "Never did I come to a place where I
did not know where to turn, nor what to do.")
Conc: Do you want to make the rest of your life the best of your life?
You allow Jesus Christ to be your Lord. Put Him first. Live every moment for
Him, and He will take care of the rest.
Pastor Rolando Ramos
