First Things First - Desire What God Desires

We're going to discuss this morning.

Jesus, thank you so much for bringing us together.

This is an amazing family of people.

This is an amazing group of people to live life alongside, to live life and to seek you, Jesus.

That's what we're here for.

We're here to receive what you have for us.

So, Holy Spirit, speak through your word and literally tell us exactly what you need us to hear today, and we look forward to you doing that.

We ask all this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

We're starting a brand new series this morning called First Things First.

You may have heard it said before that it doesn't really matter how you start, what matters is how you finish, and I think there's definitely some truth to that statement.

But at the same time, if you start really well, it makes it much more likely that you're gonna finish well.

If you have a strong start to your year, it makes it much more likely that you will finish strong.

So, yes, we want 2015 to finish really well, but we want 2015 to start really well also.

It's important to have a strong start.

It's important to do the first things first.

Have you ever experienced frustration in your life because you were doing something and you decided either intentionally or unintentionally to skip an important early step in a process.

And later on down the road, it cost you.

The order of things really matters.

There are things in life that have to be done in the right order.

Children have a really hard time understanding the order of things, right?

Those of us that are parents, we've had to teach our kids the order of things in life.

And it's it's all kinds of things, right?

It's it's dinner before dessert.

That's something that young children cannot grasp.

And it's not some rule that exists to torture them, right?

You don't want to wash ice cream down with broccoli.

You want it to be the other way around.

So dinner before dessert is good because you want to end on dessert.

Okay?

We have to tell our kids, no, no, no.

Homework, then video games, right?

Homework, then Facebook, homework, then really anything else.

But but they don't naturally get that on their own.

It's experience.

It's knowledge before trust, before responsibility.

I spent a lot of time with our students over the last few years, and every summer we take this amazing road trip with our high school kids to Tennessee.

It's coming up again this summer, something that you guys should look forward to for sure.

And every year without fail, there would be one 16-year-old boy that would come up to me and say, Hey Justin, can I drive to Tennessee and bring my friends?

I mean, we won't have to take up space in the vans, we'll drive and we'll get there.

You don't have to worry about us.

And I would always say, no, absolutely not.

And I would always get the same response without fail every single time.

They would say, no, no, no, I'm a really good driver.

Right?

And if a 16-year-old boy ever looks at you and says, I'm a really good driver, you need to do that person a favor and just laugh.

Just laugh out loud.

Don't worry about their feelings because in that moment, their feelings are not the most important thing.

There is no such thing as a 16-year-old really good driver.

And so I'd have to tell him, no, no, no, you don't know the order of things.

First, 25.

Then you can drive on the road trip, provided that you're responsible and all those kinds of things.

My son got a big lesson in the best order of things a few months ago.

We moved into a new house last February, one day before my wife went into labor with our daughter.

It was a wonderful adventure.

And we love our new house.

It is the house we want to be in for the rest of our lives.

Our favorite thing about it, or at least one of the favorite things, is our neighbors.

We have wonderful neighbors.

And our neighbors have these two little girls that are really close in age.

It's my four-year-old son Liam.

And so he goes and he plays with them often.

But when we first moved in, the idea that just a few feet away there were other kids that could play with him was almost too much for him to handle.

I would find him in our living room, looking out the window for like minutes on end, just waiting in case the girls came outside to play.

And this was in February and it snowed, so it wasn't that likely, but he was so excited about the possibility.

Well, a few months into us living there, on a Saturday morning, I heard a knock at the door at about 11 o'clock, and I knew exactly what was happening.

I grew up in a neighborhood with kids, I knew what was going on.

It was the neighbor girls, and they wanted Liam to come out and play.

And I was so full of joy for him because I could just anticipate how absolutely thrilled he was going to be to do this.

And he was upstairs eating breakfast, watching a cartoon or something.

And I opened the door, I talked to this little girl, she said, Can Liam come out and play?

I said, I'm sure he can.

I'll send him out.

So I'm in the kitchen downstairs, I yell upstairs, Liam, the neighbor girls want to know if you want to play.

And before the words could even come out of my mouth, I hear him running.

He's yelling, yes.

And I didn't see him come down the stairs, but I didn't have to because it sounded like a bowling ball being dropped down the stairs, right?

Doesn't make any sense because he's so small, but he just thundered down the stairs.

I heard the door open, I heard it shut, and then I heard laughing outside.

And I was so excited for him.

I went and got my wife.

I said, honey, we gotta watch this.

We need to observe and take this moment in.

This is the first time he's been invited to play.

And so we look outside, and our our joy instantly turns into horror.

Okay.

Because he's doing all the right things.

He's running around, he's laughing, he's playing.

The only problem is he's not wearing any pants.

That's the only problem.

He is pantless.

And this is kind of uncharted territory for us as parents, so we just we just freaked out.

We ran out the door and we were like, Liam, Liam, no, no, come here, come here, come here.

And he looks at us and he can see that something is really wrong, and he freezes up.

And then I realize, oh no, I think we just did the wrong thing.

I think we made it worse.

We've we've just drawn attention to this, and now he's realizing what's going on, and he's embarrassed, and I don't want to embarrass my son.

So I'm like, Liam, come here, come here, come here, please, come here.

And he comes up and he's fighting back tears.

He's like, What is it, Dad?

And I said, Son, you're not, you're not wearing any pants.

And I guess I forgot to tell you this.

This is a lesson that I forgot to give you, but you need to put pants on before you play.

And you know, I'm I'm worried in this moment that I have just devastated him, that I've embarrassed him, but he's still at the age where he doesn't really get embarrassed yet.

So Liam, my son, who is my son, if you know me, he just turns around on our porch, yells across our yard, across their yard to these other girls at their house, and he goes, Hey guys, I'll be right back.

I'm not wearing any pants.

Right?

Just there it is.

You know, we we have to teach our kids the proper order of things.

It's dinner, then dessert.

It's homework, then fun.

It is pants before anything.

Pants first.

It's a lesson all of us had to learn.

And he's doing pretty well.

He's doing pretty well.

I did catch him a few weeks ago trying to put on jeans over cowboy boots, and it wasn't working.

And I'm like, Liam, pants first.

I'm telling you, this is a rule you can live by, pants first.

See, the order of things matters.

And if we do the first things first, it works out for us down the road.

And Jesus very much understood the importance of the order of things.

He very much understood the need to focus on the first things first.

Oftentimes in Scripture, Jesus literally says, hey, do this first.

Before you focus on this, before you do this, do something else first.

And so for the next few weeks, we're gonna look at some of the things Jesus tells us directly to do first.

We want the first part of 2015 to be amazing.

We want to do the first things first, and who better to learn from than Jesus Himself?

We're gonna start today in Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

So if you have a Bible, turn there.

If you have an iPhone or a phone of any kind, that's not cheating, by the way.

If you pull up your phone and you have a Bible app or you pull it up on the internet, that is still the Bible.

Okay?

Don't feel like it's less spiritual.

Just pull it up.

We'll put the verses on the screens, but never underestimate the power of having it in your hands.

There's just something about that.

Matthew chapter 6, I'm gonna start in verse 25.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Jesus said, 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 in the fields 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 clothed the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, he will not how 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 these things.

And your heavenly Father knows that you need them, but, and here's our our first things first moment seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

So Jesus says, Hey, don't worry about the cares of this world.

And there are many, about 95% of our New Year's resolutions are motivated by the cares of this world, right?

And Jesus says, Hey, don't worry about the cares of this world.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all the rest of the things will fall into place.

They will they will take care of themselves if you put the first things first.

And first, he says, seek the kingdom of God.

That statement is kind of challenging for us.

Seek the kingdom of God.

It's perplexing, it's a bit of a puzzle.

What does Jesus mean by seek the kingdom of God?

What is the kingdom of God?

It was kind of a theme of Jesus' whole ministry.

He uses the phrase kingdom of God often.

In fact, in Luke chapter 4, verse 42, the Bible says, early the next morning, Jesus went out to an isolated place.

Luke 4:42

The crowds searched everywhere for him, and when they finally found him, they begged him not to leave them.

But he replied, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God in other towns too, because that is why I was sent.

Jesus says, My whole purpose is to tell people about the kingdom of God.

But what is the kingdom of God?

It's easy to think about heaven being the kingdom of God.

When Jesus says kingdom of God, does he mean heaven?

Does it mean the life after this life, the life that we have been promised by God, a life with no pain, with no heartache, with no death?

Is the kingdom of God heaven?

And the answer is kind of.

But not exclusively.

Heaven is a part of the kingdom of God, but it is not the kingdom of God in its entirety.

And you can really see that in Jesus' original statement, right?

He said, Seek first the kingdom of God, and then all the cares of this world will get taken care of.

He's talking about something that is in this world.

Because if we're in heaven, why do we even care about the cares of this world?

Other people had a hard time understanding what Jesus said.

The great thing about Jesus, he's the most amazing teacher that has ever lived, and really great teachers don't just give you the answers, they make you ask questions.

They make you think.

And Jesus liked to do that.

The Pharisees, the people that really should have known what the kingdom of God was, because they were the experts on the word of God.

In Luke 17, they asked Jesus, When will the kingdom of God come?

And Jesus replied, The kingdom of God can't be detected by visible signs.

You won't be able to say, here it is, or it's over there, for the kingdom of God is already among you.

So they come to Jesus and say, say, hey, you keep talking about this kingdom, this kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven.

Where is it?

When is it coming?

And Jesus says, Look, it's not like you think it is.

There's not going to be this moment where you're like, oh, I found it.

I stumbled upon it.

He says, It's among you.

It's right in front of you.

And you don't see it.

In Matthew chapter 3, verse 2, Jesus says, Repent of your sins.

Matthew 3:2

And repent really means change your mind.

That's what it actually means.

Repent of your sins, rethink your life, and turn to God.

For the kingdom of heaven is near.

And those words, is near can also be translated, has come.

So Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God.

And we're left to wonder what the kingdom of God is, but we know it's something that's not just after this life.

We know it's something that's among us, that's that's near to us.

But what is it?

I think it's really easy when we hear the word kingdom to think of a physical place.

Maybe you picture a castle, maybe you picture an actual kingdom, maybe from history, maybe you picture England.

I have never been to England, but I do believe it's a physical place.

I have met people from there.

I actually confirmed with a friend of mine in the first service who was from England.

He was there in September.

England is still a physical place.

It is still there.

Okay.

England used to be a kingdom, but it's not anymore.

It's a place, but it's not a kingdom because there is no king that is in charge of England.

See, a kingdom is not really a matter of space, it's not about boundaries.

A kingdom is a matter of dominion, it's a matter of rule.

And Jesus actually helps us understand that in Matthew chapter 6, verse 10.

Matthew 6:10

He says, Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

This is part of a very famous prayer that Jesus prayed.

If you grew up Catholic, you know it really well.

He says, Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Now, in the Hebrew culture, they loved to speak in parallels.

They would put two statements side by side, and these statements were related to one another, and the second statement always amplified or defined the first.

We see it happen a lot in Psalms.

So in Psalm 46, 1, the Bible says, God is our refuge in strength and ever-present help in trouble.

And that second statement is defining the first.

What does it mean that God is our refuge and our strength?

It means that he is an ever-present help in times of trouble.

It means that God is always there, and he's always there for you in every situation of life.

That's why he's your refuge.

That's why he's your strength.

When Jesus says, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, he's saying that God's kingdom is wherever his will is done.

Where God's reign is recognized and followed, that is the kingdom of God.

So, yes, heaven is part of the kingdom of God because God's reign is definitely recognized in heaven, but God's kingdom is also Woodstock, Georgia.

If you recognize the reign of Jesus in your life and you've given your life to him, and you say, You're Lord of my life, I follow you, you are a citizen of the kingdom of God, and that makes your chair a part of the kingdom of God because you're sitting in it.

This is the kingdom of God.

Wherever there are people that are doing what God desires, that is the kingdom of God.

And that's why Jesus said to the Pharisees, the kingdom of God is among you.

You're not part of it because your heart is not to do what God really desires.

But there are people in this world, there are so many people, there are so many of us that we live our lives thinking, God, what do you want me to do?

What do you desire?

What's your will?

I want to follow that will, and when we live that way, we are living as part of the kingdom of God.

And Jesus says to seek it and to seek it first, to seek that lifestyle.

Now, all of us know what it's like to seek something.

Seeking is different than looking.

Jesus said, if you seek, you will find.

Right?

I'm looking for several tools that I have misplaced at my house right now.

If you know me very well, you know that I have an amazing ability to forget where I put things.

It's it's a gift, really.

And uh, if you hand me something important, you have made a terrible mistake, just an absolutely terrible mistake.

There's a high percentage chance I will forget that I ever even had it in the first place.

Something's wrong with me.

If I could, if I could calculate the number of hours I have wasted in this building trying to track down my keys, just trying to track my keys down, it would be so embarrassing.

I have wasted so much time.

Because it's a big building, right?

Every Sunday at about 1.30, I'm like, let's go.

Oh, wait.

My keys.

Where are they?

Where have I been?

And I just walk over the place, I find them.

Right now I'm looking for a lot of tools that I have misplaced.

We used to have eight screwdrivers.

I have one now.

I have no recollection of walking into my backyard with a screwdriver and throwing it into the woods.

I think I would remember if I did that, right?

There is one screwdriver that is missing.

I know exactly where it is.

I'll just be honest, I lost my temper one day.

I was really frustrated at home.

I had a screwdriver in my hand, bad idea.

I was working on something, and I took my screwdriver and I threw it against a wall.

I thought it would bounce off the wall.

It's not what happened.

It went into the wall, but it went into the wall in the absolute perfect place between two studs, and then it dropped down, and I heard it drop down in the wall.

And I know where it is, I know where that one is.

I'm just not gonna go find it, right?

I patched over that hole, that screwdriver is now part of my house.

But there's still several others that are MIA, and right now I am looking for them.

But see, I'm not seeking them because I still have one, and I only need one.

I'm not handy, but I've yet to come across a job at home that requires two screwdrivers at the same time.

So I'm okay right now.

I'm alright.

I'm just looking.

If I find them, great.

There have been things, though, that I've lost, that I've misplaced that are so precious to me that I haven't simply looked for them, I have searched, and I have searched vigorously.

That's seeking.

When I was in college, I had this ring.

My wife gave it to me before she was my wife, before she was my fiancee.

We were about a thousand miles apart, and she gave it to me for me to remember her because this was before Facebook and the ability to Skype and things like that.

So I just had to look at this ring and remember that a beautiful woman, for some reason, loved me and had bought me jewelry, which is really ironic if you think about it, right?

A beautiful woman bought me jewelry.

That's the opposite of how it's supposed to work, right?

Average men buy beautiful women jewelry.

That is the proper order of things.

But but I looked out, and so this ring was really precious to me.

It just reminded me of Megan.

Well, one day I'm at my college's athletic complex and I'm playing basketball, and I look down at my finger after a few games, and the ring is gone.

And I realized that during one of the games, it's it's flown off.

And this complex is huge.

Five full court basketball courts side by side.

There's bleachers, there's other rooms, and I'm freaking out because who knows where it went.

I don't even know the direction that it flew off my finger in.

It could be over there, it could be over there.

Someone could have taken it.

It could have rolled under bleachers.

I mean, who knows where this thing is?

So I just panicked and I started to search passionately for this ring.

I mean, I combed the entire complex.

I'm down on the ground trying to get it floor level to see if that makes it pop.

I'm recruiting friends to help me find it.

I'm recruiting strangers to help me find it.

I am seeking it with everything I have, and after 45 minutes, we found it.

And it was such a great relief to me.

I would show you the ring, but I lost it five years ago.

I'm being serious.

I if you seek, you will find.

Unless you're Justin.

There's a small asterisk in that verse.

See, when we seek something, we will not stop until we find it.

At the heart of looking is curiosity.

But at the heart of seeking is desire.

And Jesus says, seek the kingdom of God.

In other words, he says, seek what God desires.

So we could really simplify that statement for us so we can really sink our teeth into it and say that first and foremost, Jesus wants us to desire what God desires.

If 2015 is a year for you where you desire what God desires, this will be an unbelievable year.

Regardless of the circumstances.

If this is a year where, above all, first and foremost, you want what God wants, you will have an amazing, amazing year.

Because what God wants for you is so, so good.

Religion has this way of robbing us, robbing us of an understanding of God and the intimacy and the love that He has for us.

And there's this religious idea that what God really wants us to do, what he really wants for us, is to put us through really difficult circumstances so that we can learn.

So when we say things like, hey, we want to desire what God desires, that's only exciting if we have confidence that what God desires for us this year is good.

What if God desires for this to be a learning year for you?

Maybe then you don't want to desire what God desires.

But that's not that's not God.

That's not his nature.

Those of us who are parents that love our children, we don't wake up in the mornings and say, How can I make today a learning day for my child?

How can I put them through the worst possible situations so they really learn?

God is not planning on teaching.

You have hard lessons this year.

This world will teach you plenty of hard lessons this year, independent of God.

And when I say independent of God, I don't mean that God is not in control.

What I mean is that there are people that act independent of God, and we learn plenty of hard lessons as a result.

God loves you.

What God desires for you is more than you desire for yourself.

Believe it or not.

I mean, those of us who are parents that have raised older kids, we've probably had fights with our kids when they've wanted something and we've said no.

They've wanted to be friends with people that we don't want them to be friends with.

They want to go places, do things that we don't think they should do, and they tell us that we don't understand them and we're ruining their lives and those things.

But the sad part for us is that we know that we simply desire more for them than they desire for themselves in that moment.

What we want for them is more than what they want for them.

And we just wish in our hearts that they would trust our love and our wisdom.

And they would trust that we don't desire their life to be miserable or difficult.

We desire their life to be blessed.

We want to help them desire as much for themselves as they desire for us.

And see, here's the thing: God is not a good dad, he is a perfect dad.

And so what he desires for you this year, it is good.

If you want to know exactly what he desires for you this year, we'll just look to Jesus.

In John 10, 10, Jesus says, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

I heard an amazing teaching on this verse a few months ago, and it was all about the order of things.

And the person giving this teaching said that we love to read this verse and skip to the end and look at that word abundance and go, Yes, that's what I need.

I need 2015 to be all about abundance.

I need more abundance in my life, but but Jesus said, I have come that you may have life first, then abundance.

If you ever see someone that has abundance and does not have life, that is a very sad place to be.

We see it happen all the time in our culture.

We see it happen with celebrities, people who have an abundance of pretty much everything we can imagine, but yet they hit these low points and it confuses us.

We look at it, we say, how could you have so much and yet be so low?

How is that possible?

And the answer is because if you have abundance but you don't have life, if you've skipped the first part, that is a dark, scary place.

Because there's nothing you can imagine having more of that's gonna solve your problems.

It's not gonna be more money, being more attractive, having more friends.

It's gonna light up the darkness in your life because the first things aren't first.

Life first, then abundance.

And Jesus says that what I desire for you is life.

What Jesus desires for your 2015 is a year full of life, and that is an abundant year.

And the abundance may not be financial, the abundance may not be ease of life, it may not be comfort, but the abundance will be joy, and the abundance will be hope, and it will be faith, and it will be passion, the abundance will be life, because Jesus offers you life.

Jesus is life.

I mean, he says it himself in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one can come to the Father except through me.

In John 11, 25, he says, I'm the resurrection and the life.

Anyone who believes in me will live even after dying.

Some people have this idea of Jesus that he says, Hey, follow me or die, but that's not what Jesus says.

He says, Hey, know me.

And if you don't know me, you're not really alive.

You're just existing.

And God never wants us to settle for existing.

He does not want your year to be a year of existence.

He wants your year to be a year of life.

And Jesus says that if you'll desire what he desires, if you'll seek his kingdom, he will give you himself.

He will give you life.

And it will be good.

And those of us that know Jesus can look back at times in our lives before he was there and we see it now.

We say, hey, my life before Jesus wasn't really even life, it was just existence.

But Jesus came into my life and he woke me up.

He turned my spirit on, and I'm a new person because of it.

And I can't imagine life without him.

I was talking to a great man just a few minutes ago that's part of this church.

We were over in the back talking about this year, and he mentioned that maybe this last year had been kind of hard for him.

And we just reflected for a second about how great it is that our hope is not in our bank accounts this year.

Our hope is not in the fact that we're not going to have any problems this year.

Our hope is not even in our physical health and our circumstances because God is greater than all of those things, and our hope is on the life that Jesus has given us, and it's a life that this life cannot take away.

That's what we have through Jesus.

This is gonna be a year full of life here at His hands.

As a church, we are going to live this year.

We're going to enjoy this year, we're gonna have an amazing time, we're gonna stand side by side along with one another this year.

But in your life personally, if you commit your heart to desiring what God desires, you will have an experience with God this year that cannot be topped.

There's this prayer that is perhaps the most powerful prayer a person could ever pray.

It's very simple.

It's a prayer that Jesus prayed when he was in the garden before he was led to the cross.

He prayed, he said, God, is there any way that I can do what you've sent me to do without the cross?

Is there any way to skip that?

Right?

But then he stopped and he took his own advice and he sought the kingdom.

He desired what God desired, and he said these words.

He said, Lord, not my will, but yours.

Not what I want, but what you want.

Because Jesus knew that what God wanted was so good.

And we might look at that and go, whoa, hold on.

Didn't Jesus die on a cross just a few hours later?

How did that prayer work out for Jesus?

And yes, he did die on a cross.

Life is not easy.

But then he got back up, he was resurrected.

And for the last 2,000 years, Jesus has been the name above every name.

He's been the person that is the most talked-about person in history.

He's been given all authority and all power by God.

Jesus is the most celebrated anything that has ever existed or will ever exist.

So if we asked Jesus, hey, how did that whole your will, not mine thing work out, he would say it worked out perfectly because God's will is so good.

Please believe that God wants you to have life this year.

Please believe that God's will, what he desires for your life, for your family, for your marriage, for your children, for your job, for your health, what God desires for you, is even greater than what you desire for you.

Because he's the perfect Father.

And this year, let your prayer, let your heart's attitude be: I seek the kingdom first.

I desire what you desire, God, not my will, but your will.

Because if we want what God wants, we are in the best place in life.

As we pray and wrap up, just consider for a second that God generally gets what he wants.

Okay?

He's God.

It's just the way it works.

So if you want what God wants, how powerful is that?

If you desire what God desires, how likely is what God desires for you to happen?

This year we seek the kingdom first.

And the cares of this world will fall into place.

Let's pray together.

Jesus, thank you so much for this day.

Thank you so much for this amazing group of people.

You love us, you care about us, and it's our honor to worship you, Jesus.

It's our honor to sing songs, celebrating how good you are.

It's an honor to reflect on your word, on every word that you spoke, and just enjoy it.

Let it sink into our hearts, let it change us.

Let us be people this year.

Let us be a family this year that desires what you desire, that seeks what you seek.

And let us trust you as the perfect Father that you are.

And we ask all this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.