Seek God First

Hey everybody, good morning, and maybe even more importantly, happy new year.

It's the very first day of 2023, and man, I'm so excited about the year that we're gonna have together.

We've got a lot of awesome things planned.

I'm sure God has things planned that we don't even know about yet that are gonna be even better.

Um, but I'm so excited about the year ahead.

I really am.

And so today we're online only.

Next week we'll be back all together.

It's gonna be a great Sunday.

We're gonna have food trucks in the parking lot afterwards, and so you're free to stick around, grab some food.

Uh we'll also have free food options for kids.

So if you have kids with you, um, we'll take care of that.

It's just gonna be a great day and an amazing start to our year together.

So be here next Sunday, and next Sunday we are also debuting our valet parking options.

So that's for if the parking lot gets full, which may not happen, but it also very well may happen because it has been lately.

If the parking lot gets full, no worries.

You're not gonna have to worry about finding a spot.

You'll be able just to pull up and uh and we'll be able to accommodate you.

We've got a great team taking care of that.

We're just really doing everything we can to continue growing and and serving people in our community, but also staying a one-service church for as long as is humanly possible because we love being all together.

Um, I'm gonna pray real quick.

We're gonna jump into our message today, and I'm just so excited about it.

So uh let's pray together.

Father, thank you so much for this opportunity for us to connect together.

Uh, even though it's online only this morning, Lord, um, we know that your presence is with us always, and I just pray that you be with every single person right now.

Um, God, everyone who's doing really well, also everyone who's who's struggling at the start of this year, I pray that you speak to us.

I pray that you encourage us, and I pray, Lord, that you just keep us focused on you because you can do anything, and when we're focused on you, we're in the right place.

And I pray that really happens in a big way today.

It's in your name we pray, Jesus.

Amen.

Okay, so um, I want to talk about something really simple to get our year started.

Something really, really simple.

And I was thinking about this experience that my wife Megan used to create for the students that she taught when she taught elementary school.

Um, and I think it's the perfect lesson for us to take into the start of a new year.

So it's kind of funny that I married a teacher.

I was a class clown.

I was the kid who was always in trouble whenever I was in school because I just I disrupted the class constantly.

I know to many of you that's a shock.

Um I talked a lot, and so I remember my first grade teacher, Miss Gershevsky.

Shout out to Miss Gershevsky if if wherever you are.

Um Miss Gershevsky was really sweet, but apparently I was a problem in her class, so she always gave me a seat right next to her.

I sat at this seat called the island, and it was me and Miss Gershevsky hanging out, all the other kids over there, because I was disruptive.

And so it just turns out that I end up falling in love with someone who becomes an elementary school teacher and kind of a strict one too.

And so I don't know what that means, that the teacher and the class clown, you know, we got married, opposites attract, I guess.

But Megan taught elementary school for many years, and she's a great teacher.

And she always had this thing that she would do with her students early in the year to teach them a really valuable lesson.

And what it was was this test.

But it was it was like a race.

It had all kinds of questions, and she would sort of hype it up that the people who got done first would get some kind of prize, so there was an incentive to go as fast as possible.

And what you would do is you would look at the paper, and and the very first thing it said, read all the instructions carefully before proceeding.

And then the next thing was like, put your name on the paper.

And then the next thing was like a math problem, but a really easy one.

And the next thing said something else.

And eventually it got kind of ridiculous, where you get to like number seven or eight, and it would say stand up, or it would say like clap your hands three times.

And the whole thing was was designed to teach you the lesson that if you actually followed step one, which just said read all of the directions carefully, you would get to the end, and the very last thing would say, disregard everything after writing your name on your paper.

In reality, all you had to do was read the first step, which says read everything carefully, which would have told you if you had done that, that all you gotta do is put your name on the paper, and then all the other things that you just read, all the math problems, all the questions, all the ridiculous actions that it asked you to do, it would tell you at the end, disregard all of that and simply hand in your paper with your name on it.

Very few kids in third grade would ever get to that.

But it was this lesson that Megan was teaching that hey, uh, follow the instructions, do the very first thing that I've asked you to do, focus on that, and get that first part right, and it's gonna save you all kinds of trouble.

I've always thought that was an ingenious way to teach the kids that lesson early on.

And it's a reminder for me at the start of a new year that what I've got to make sure I do, above all else, above all the things that I've got in my mind, all the things I want to see happen this year, I've got to make sure that I do the first step, that I make sure that I don't, I don't, in my haste to do all the things I want to do this year, I don't skip over that vital first priority that God has given to me, that first instruction that I'm always supposed to have as the primary filter in my mind.

And that's something that Jesus actually gives us in Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

So I like to read this.

This is Matthew chapter 26, verses 24 through 34, or 25 rather through 34.

Matthew 26:24–34

Here's what it says.

Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?

Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them.

Are you not much more valuable than they?

Can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life?

And why do you worry about clothes?

See how the flowers of the field grow, they do not labor or spin, yet I tell you that not even Solomon, in all of his splendor, was dressed like one of these.

If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith?

So do not worry, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear?

For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

Each day has enough trouble of its own.

So this is like Jesus giving us that first step in the instructions, like Megan would give to her class.

Before you do anything else, before you worry about everything else that's to come, first and foremost, step one, seek first the kingdom of God.

Now, we might ask ourselves, what does that mean?

You know, sometimes there's language in the Bible that's a little bit hazy for us.

What does the kingdom of God ultimately mean?

Jesus actually defines that for us earlier in Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

He's actually teaching us how to pray.

And in verse 10 of Matthew 6, he says this really simply Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So God's kingdom is pretty simple.

God's kingdom is simply whenever and wherever people are doing whatever God would have them to do.

Wherever God's will or his desires or the things that he values, wherever that is prioritized and done, when we partner with God and we do the things that He's asked us to do, wherever we're doing that, whenever we're doing that, that is the kingdom of God operating on this earth.

And so Jesus says, first and foremost, before anything else, before spending any time worrying about all the little details in life, seek first the kingdom of God.

Make your main priority, your main filter.

Make that desiring to discover what God would have you to do.

And prioritize your relationship with God, prioritize whatever God values more than anything else.

I think that's so vital for us to have at the forefront of our mind at the beginning of this year.

Because I'm sure you have all kinds of things you want to see happen this year.

You might have goals.

I actually have some specific goals this year.

We'll see if they happen.

I want them to happen.

I'm not trying to set a low bar of expectation for myself and give myself an excuse for not doing it, but I've had goals in the past at the start of a year that I haven't quite achieved.

Um I turned 40 in July.

And so I'm excited about being 40.

I've got some gray hair coming in, which I love.

I think people might start taking me more seriously at 40, which is which is awesome.

Um, but but I have this desire to hit 40 in pretty much the best shape that I've been in in life so far.

And I recognize that, okay, that's that's mid-late July, almost August.

I'm July 29th.

And so I've got roughly seven to eight months to really hit it hard, to eat right, to work out enough, to get myself there.

And uh, and it's totally possible, but it's gonna take a lot of work.

That's a goal that I have.

And I think goals like that are great.

It's very common at this point in the year to have some physical goals, but listen to something that scripture tells us in 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 8.

1 Timothy 4:8

Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.

And so what Paul is saying is that while it's really good to be physically fit, that's a great goal.

Being physically healthy is a good thing.

That's not nearly as important as being spiritually healthy.

If my spirit isn't well fed, if my spirit isn't getting exercise, then that's such a tragedy because no matter how healthy my body is, it will perish, it will die, my spirit will not.

And so the the primary thing, the biggest priority is the spiritual, not just the physical.

This is like Jesus saying, seek first the kingdom of God.

Make your first priority, your relationship with God, all the things that God is doing within your spirit, that that should be what we focus on first and foremost.

And it doesn't matter what our goals are, they might be financial, right?

They might be career-oriented, all of that is well and good, but first and foremost, we should focus on what God would have us to do.

Just letting that be the main thing that we pray, like, Lord, what do you want?

Lord, what is your will?

What do you want out of my day?

I want I want my life to be lived in response to you.

I want your will to be done in my life, just as it is in heaven, to seek first the kingdom of God.

It might be relationships, it might be responsibilities, things that you've got to get done.

I love the story in Scripture about the two sisters, Mary and Martha.

If you're not familiar, they were friends of Jesus.

And there's this famous story where Jesus comes over and Martha is like going crazy trying to take care of all the details, right?

She's trying to cook the meal, she's trying to make sure everything's set up because Jesus is here and she loves Jesus and she wants him to be honored and to be well served and for everything to be done right.

She is consumed by her responsibilities, but but Mary, her sister, instead of helping out with all of that, is just hanging out with Jesus.

And Martha gets annoyed and comes to Jesus and says, Hey, would you get my sister in gear?

Would you like remind her that I'm the one doing all the work?

And he actually tells Martha, hey, calm down.

Mary's actually chosen the best thing.

See, all those responsibilities, all those things that had to get done, it's not that they weren't important, it's not that they didn't have any value, but they just didn't take precedent over Jesus himself and spending time with him.

This is Jesus again reminding us, seek first the kingdom of God, all that other stuff, all those other things that we have planned, all those other things that we want to see happen.

It's all well and good, but none of that, none of that can take precedence over what God wants to do.

Even just some of the things we want to happen, the desires that we have, there might be things this year you just you want.

Like you would really enjoy it if that happened, and you're hoping this is the year that happens, that's that's great, by the way.

James chapter 1, verse 17 tells us that whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father.

James 1:17

So even the good blessings that we have in our life, ultimately they come from God.

Meaning that if we if we make sure that our focus is always on Him, it's not like that's going to mean we miss out on all of those things because every good and perfect gift comes from Him anyway.

All of that to say, this is so simple.

It's January 1st.

It's literally the first day of our year.

We have our entire year ahead of us.

And what would happen if this year we made our primary filter to seek first the kingdom of God?

To first and foremost, on a daily basis, say, before I get consumed by all of the goals and the relationships and the responsibilities and the desires and all the things that pull at me, all the fears and all the worries and all the anxieties and all the stressors, before I become consumed with any of that on a daily basis, God first, I want to focus on you.

I want to pray.

I want to listen.

I want to be in your word so that I'm always mindful of what you say, so that my life day by day this year can be lived in response to you instead of living it in response to everything else that's that's pulling at me.

First and foremost, before you do anything else, right?

Instruction number one seek first the kingdom of God.

And here's what I'll just say as we wrap this up.

That's part of why we're here as a church, is to help you do that.

I I work here.

Like I've been on staff at his hands for 15 years since I was 23 years old.

So longer than that, actually.

It's been a long time.

And it's not like without this church, I would be able to seek God first and foremost all the time at all.

I get distracted all the time.

There are so many silly things that end up pulling me away from God being my primary focus, even things that are that are good things.

Sometimes I'm actually so busy trying to get things done at the church that it's almost like I say, hey God, I don't have a lot of time to focus on you right now because I'm so busy, you know, doing the church thing, which is silly, right?

Because those should be one and the same, but it's not always.

I get distracted all the time.

And this church, being part of this group of people, joining together on Sundays and worshiping together, and all of the reminders and all of the encouragement that just being part of this church has been in my life helps me do exactly what we're talking about.

And so, you know, when you're saying to yourself, hey, how am I supposed to seek God first on a daily basis?

Well, you don't have to do it alone.

And as a church this year, we're gonna do everything we can to come alongside you and help you do that, to help you grow closer to Jesus, to help you grow in your knowledge about God, to surround you with awesome people who can encourage you and give you perspective, whether those are friends or mentors, whatever it ends up being, we are here to help with that.

And so, starting next Sunday, that's exactly what we're gonna do.

Every single week, we're gonna get our eyes focused on Jesus.

We're gonna try to do exactly what Jesus asks us to do, to first and foremost seek his kingdom, seek his will in our lives, in our community, in our world, and we're gonna have a really good time doing that.

And so let's all just keep that at the forefront of our mind, make sure our main priority, our main filter is what God would have us to do, the people God would have us to be, and trust that he's gonna show us exactly what that means when he needs to in his time, as long as we keep our eyes on him.

Let's come back together next week.

Let's have an amazing year together.

We're gonna wrap up right now with Lord's Supper.

And so if you want to go grab some juice, grab some bread, if you don't have that with you, you can just hit pause right now and go grab it if you want.

That's the nice thing about this.

But whatever you're doing, uh grab something.

We'll take Lord's Supper together.

As you're doing that, I do want to let you know that if you have kids, we are gonna be posting um immediately after this as part of the same video.

You'll have an awesome episode of our His Kids Online stuff.

So if you've got kids with you, especially kind of that elementary age, a little bit younger, uh, just keep this on and they'll be able to learn some awesome stuff as well and grow.

And so, with that said, let's take Lord's Supper.

This little meal is something that we do every single Sunday.

Every single Sunday.

And and it's a huge reminder for us that everything Jesus is asking us to do, he has already done.

Right before Jesus went to the cross, he prayed.

And and he prayed like I think any of us would pray in that situation.

God, I I would rather not.

Like, I would rather not die on the cross.

Is there another way?

But then he stopped as he was praying that and he said, Yet not what I want, but what you want.

Jesus was living out exactly what he's told us to do.

He stopped himself and he he basically said, I seek first your kingdom, your will.

Right?

The kingdom of God is the will of God being done on this earth.

So Jesus praying, hey God, is there any way we can skip the whole cross thing?

Like, is that possible?

Father, if that's possible, please.

And then he stops and says, But your will, not mine.

Your kingdom.

And then he died on the cross, and this this bread represents his body, and this juice represents his blood.

This little meal and what it what it all represents, what it all connects to reminds us that Jesus did exactly what he's asking us to do.

And that's a really good thing.

Because he put God's will first and lived in response to that.

All of us have access to God, all of us have the ability to have a relationship with God, and that none of that would have happened if he hadn't followed through with that.

So, what an amazing example that we get to follow.

And so let's let's pray over the bread and the juice and take that together.

Father, thank you for this bread and for what it represents.

Your body broken on the cross, as you lived in obedience to the will of your Father.

Thank you for this juice, for the blood that it represents, that you poured out your life for us.

You opened up a way for us to know you, to have a relationship with you, and we are forever grateful.

We love you so much, and it's in your name Jesus we pray.

Amen.

Let's take the bread and the juice.

Well, thank you guys so much for joining us online today.

I hope you have an amazing, amazing start to year.

I hope your Christmas holiday was great.

But no matter what, no matter where you're at, we are so excited about coming together next Sunday.

Be here at 10 o'clock.

It's gonna be great.

It's gonna be such an enjoyable experience.

Food trucks afterwards, stick around as long as you want.

Love you all.

Um, if you got kids, keep them here, keep them engaged for our awesome kids online service.

We're gonna have a great day.

See you guys soon.