To Meet Your Needs, Don’t Seek Them First PARADOX Series [3] Matthew 6:25-34

PARADOX: JESUS’ COUNTER-INTUITIVE TEACHINGS Paradox is truth standing on its head and waving its legs to get our attention. G. K. Chesterton Paradox #1: “To find your life, you must lose it.” Paradox #2: “The way up is down.” Paradox # 3: “To meet your needs, don’t seek them first.”

PARADOX: JESUS’ COUNTER-INTUITIVE TEACHINGS Paradox is truth standing on its head and waving its legs to get our attention. G. K. Chesterton Paradox #1: “To find your life, you must lose it.” Paradox #2: “The way up is down.” Paradox # 3: “To meet your needs, don’t seek them first.”

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

“Purity of heart is to will one thing.” Søren Kierkegaard

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SEEK FIRST THINGS FIRST? 1) What “seeking first things first” does NOT mean: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ” (v.33)  To be lazy about my responsibility.  To be preoccupied by religious things.  To neglect my daily needs or self-care.  To appease God to get “second things”—which is what I really want.  To compartmentalize first things in the “spiritual” life—as opposed to the “normal/regular” life.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SEEK FIRST THINGS FIRST? 2) What “seeking first things first” means: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ” (v.33)  To seek God’s kingdom [rule] and God’s righteousness [way] in all areas of life.  To make God’s rule and righteousness as the ultimate priority of life.  To seek first God’s rule globally as well as personally.  To will ONE THING—the will of God.

WHAT WORRY REVEALS ABOUT US Worry reveals your preoccupation. (v.25) Worry reveals your self-reliance. (vs.26-27) Worry reveals your distrust in God. (v.30) Worry reveals your worldliness. (v.32) Worry reveals your wrong priority. (v.33)

A Radically Different Kind of Ambition Once again our Lord simplifies the issue for us by reducing the alternative possible life-goals to only two. He puts them over against each other in this section, urging his followers not to be preoccupied with their own security (food, drink, and clothing), for that is the obsession of “the Gentiles” who do not know him, but rather with God's rule and God's righteousness, and with their spread and triumph in the world. - John Stott

HOW DO WE SEEK FIRST THINGS FIRST IN EVERYDAY LIFE? 1)Discern: what “firs things” are in your life. 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:1-2).  Discern what God desires (wills) vs. what people desire.  What God desires is often different from the conventional “good desires” of our loved ones.  What God desires is ultimately best for us.  Ask yourself: “What does God desire to see?”—in all areas of your life?”

First Things First When I have learned to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. In so far as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased. – C. S. Lewis

HOW DO WE SEEK FIRST THINGS FIRST IN EVERYDAY LIFE? 2)Seek: “God-centeredness” in all things. "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt 6:9-10)  God-centeredness requires our surrender of the “center”.  God-centeredness involves our holistic view of life with God (vs. a compartmental view of life for God).  God-centeredness is to seek God’s glory, God’s honor, and God’s will in all of our everyday life.  Ask yourself: “Do I seek G0d-centeredness in all areas of my life—surrendering my center to God?”

HOW DO WE SEEK FIRST THINGS FIRST IN EVERYDAY LIFE? 3)Trust: that God will meet the needs of your “second things”. “ 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matt 7:9-11)  Trust in who God is to you: ABBA!  Trust in what God is like: his grace, goodness and power.  Trust in what God will do for you (much better than what you can do for yourself).  Ask yourself: “Do I trust in God’s care and goodness for me—refusing to be preoccupied by worry?”

THREE PRACTICAL QUESTIONS FOR OUR EVERYDAY LIFE 1.How do I recognize any wrong preoccupations in my life— to stop worrying about them? 2.What must be changed in me to discern what first things are in my life? 3.What is my first step in seeking first things first this week?