As we turn our thoughts to the year ahead, wouldn’t it be great if Jesus came to you and said, “This is what I want you to concentrate on most in 2021. In the year ahead, this is the matter of greatest importance for you.” I think most of us getting this podcast or blog would listen very carefully to what Jesus said, and immediately begin forming our plan to reach this objective that The Master says is of greatest importance. But what if Jesus has already told us that? This episode takes a fresh look at how we actually apply what Jesus taught was to be the priority of his followers as they went about living their everyday lives.
In many ways, life 2000 years ago, when Jesus walked the dusty roads of Palestine was not all that different from life today. Most of their day was consumed with going to work and taking care of life’s necessities, something to eat, drink, and wear. In Jesus’ sermon about kingdom living, he did not demean these aspects of physical life—but he did say not to let them preoccupy their minds. He commanded. Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matt 6:32-33). “Don’t be preoccupied with these everyday necessities,” says Jesus, “The Father knows you need them.” Instead, BE PREOCCIPIED with something else. “The matter of greatest importance for you,” says our Lord, “your primary concern and top priority is this: SEEKING THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Lets bring this nebulous, vague concept into sharper focus. Let’s begin with the work, seek.
A. Seeking means to intentionally steer your life in a specific direction. It is the opposite of being directionless, moving haphazardly, treading water, or being passive. Picture a car at the top of a mountain road drifting down the mountain with no driver at the wheel. It careens out of control, swerving right or left based on whatever it bounces off of. That is the way many of us live our lives. But in sharp contrast to this aimless approach to life, Jesus command to seek means seizing control of our lives and steering them.
B. Seeking means aiming at something. In fact, Webster tells us that aiming is a synonym for seeking. In Lewis Carol’s Alice in Wonderland, the Cheshire cat says famously, If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there. Jesus is crystal clear about our target, our goal. It is the reign of the kingdom of God and righteousness. But that’s part of the problem. It’s hard to know where we are going when most of us are befuddled with a muddy concept of the target Jesus assigned us. What is the kingdom of God? God ALREADY rules sovereignly right now and so does Jesus. The whole universe is his kingdom. We’ll try to bring some clarity about that in a moment. But for now seeking means 1) steering our lives 2) towards a target.
C. Seeking means that you are moving towards this target—you are taking steps to reach the objective. Seeking always requires a plan. If you seek to bring home the right groceries, you usually have some kind of plan (even if it is not written down) for what you will eat the next week. As an employee seeking to achieve the objectives you are paid to reach, you will have some kind of plan, whether to follow up leads in sales, solve engineering problem, prepare for a legal settlement, design a lesson plan, or communicate with key members of your management team. And when you get off of work, seeking to use your evening free time well, you will probably form a plan for dinner, what pressing issues need to be addressed, and how you will relax. There is a place for spontaneity—but the word, seek, implies intentional steps toward an objective. So, seeking implies not adlibbing, but intentionally steering our lives down the path we have laid out to reach our objective.
D. Seeking means avoiding distractions. The car coming down that mountain road not only needs a driver with HANDS on the STEERING WHEEL but also with EYES on the ROAD. The context surrounding Matt 6:33 shows that Jesus’ command to seek first the kingdom of God is in contrast to being distracted by concerns over what we will eat or drink or wear. Instead, we are to keep first things first. The reign of the kingdom of God and his restoration of everything broken to rightness—wholeness—is to be our primary focus. When it comes to priorities, someone has said, "the good things in live are the enemies of the best things in life because time is a finite resource." Surely, our Lord very much wants us to partake of the good things in life since he designed this earth to be our kingdom to enjoy. As we drive down the mountain path, we should take lots of time to look at and enjoy the grandeur of the mountain and go down the side roads for a picnic and beer with friends and a little spike ball. Enjoying God’s gift of his creation to us honors Christ and creates gratefulness in our hearts. But at the end of the race marked out for us, we will find the most joy if we consistently get back on the road to going hard after the reign of Christ’s righteous kingdom over earth. I believe being self-controlled is not so much that we never get knocked off our disciplines—that is always going to happen and probably should! Self-control is getting back into to our disciplines quickly, once we’ve been knocked off track.
E. Seeking requires the expenditure of our resources, time and energy. Another synonym for seeking is striving. Nearly every worthwhile goal in life is difficult to reach. It costs something. One of the meanings of the Greek word for seek (ZETEO) is "to earnestly covet, i.e. intensely long for.” The problem is that our longing quite naturally dissipates. One moment, we are filled with passion to love Christ with all our hearts. The next day, we are flat. In other words, our heart bucket leaks. Athletes know that when their heart doesn’t feel like striving, their training plan must take over. Structure has great power to get us back on track. Pat Morley writes, The reason men get into trouble isn’t so much that they don’t understand what they are supposed to do, but rather that they have no structure to help give them the discipline to do that which they already know they should…. If we are going to beat the “old man” in each of us, we are going to have to organize to do it (Man in the Mirror). We will never succeed at seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness if we don’t get organized to do it. We will look at what Jesus did to stay focused on his mission in a moment. But first, let’s zero in on this vague, confusing expression, “kingdom of God.”
WHAT WE ARE TO SEEK
Today’s Bible-believing Christians often don’t realize that the New Testament calls the gospel, the “gospel of the kingdom.” The good news Jesus proclaimed was never just about our personal escape from hell. That is true, but the NT writers understood that the gospel is the good news that the second Adam has come to overthrow Satan, sin, and death, fix everything that has been broken by sin, and establish the rule of his kingdom of righteousness over planet earth.
One of the keys to understanding Jesus’ meaning of seeking first the kingdom of God is realizing that just twenty verses earlier in the same sixth chapter of Matthew—in fact in the same sermon—Jesus explained this term. This top priority mission is what Jesus was talking about when he taught them to pray, “May your kingdom come.” Jesus was NOT saying that one of the five pillars of daily prayer is to ask Jesus every day to come back to earth soon! Rather, Jesus explained what he meant in the words that follow this instruction in Matt 6:10. Jesus’ words are “May your kingdom come—then he explains what he means—may your will to be done ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.” In heaven, there is no sin; righteousness reigns. The kingdom coming refers to the advance of Christ’s kingdom of righteousness over earth. The more that happens, THE MORE THE KINGDOM OF EARTH WILL BE LIKE THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. That is what it means to pray for God’s kingdom to come—that God’s righteousness from heaven will spread over the earth. That is what Jesus was talking about when he commanded his followers, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” It is to SEEK the rule of King Jesus and his righteousness over our heart loyalties, the rule of King Jesus and his righteousness over our heart attitudes becoming like Jesus in our character, and it is recovering Adam’s call to develop the potential of the earth while seeking the restoration of rightness—fixing everything broken by sin in every sphere of our lives. Jesus’ discipleship call to you and me to follow him means believing that God has specifically placed you and me in every sphere of relationships we have—our family, friends, work associates, neighbors, church body so that we will devote ourselves to accomplishing his righteous agenda there. We were not placed in the middle of those relationships by accident. It is in those specific spheres that we are to bring about Jesus’ agenda. As an ancient scholar once said, the church is “the only cooperative society in the world that exists for the benefits of its non-members.” (William Temple, Quoted In Loving God, by Church Colson.)
Every day for 2000 years, Christ followers have been trying to bring about the reign of Christ’s righteousness over the planet. Here is the story of one Christian man, Judge Clement of the state of Indiana. One day, God brought a man named James Brewer into his everyday world—into his courtroom. James was tried for capital murder. The evidence was overwhelming and Judge Clement had no choice but to sentence this young man to death. But on that day, Judge Clement began a prayer vigil—praying every day for convicted murderer, James Brewer. Those prayers were eventually answered and James Brewer came to faith in Christ and led many others on death row to faith, as well.
Four years after sentencing Brewer, Judge Clement found out that the organization he worked with, Prison Fellowship, had scheduled an in-person visit between Chuck Colson and about 20 PF volunteers and the prisoners on death row in the Indiana Penitentiary. The warden opened the individual cell doors, the men walked out, and mixed with the volunteers. After Colson spoke briefly, they sang, Amazing Grace. Colson observes, “Nowhere do the words of that hymn have richer meaning than among a group of society’s despised outcasts condemned to die for the most awful crimes.” After they concluded Amazing Grace, Colson had to press his PF volunteers to say goodbye quickly because he had to move on to a meeting with the state governor. But one PF volunteer resisted. Colson describes the scene.
The volunteer, a short, white man in his early fifties was standing shoulder to shoulder with Brewer. The prisoner was holding his Bible open while the older man appeared to be reading a verse. “Oh yes,” the volunteer looked up. “Give us just a minute please. This is important,” he added softly.
“No, I’m sorry,” I snapped. “I can’t keep the governor waiting. We must go.
“I understand,” the man said, still speaking softly, “but this is important. You see, I’m Judge Clement. I’m the man who sentenced James here to die. But now, he’s my brother and we want a minute to pray together.”
I stood frozen in the cell doorway. It didn’t matter who I kept waiting. Before me were two men: one was powerless, the other powerful; one was black; the other white; one had sentenced the other to death. Anywhere other than the kingdom of God, that inmate might have killed that judge with his bare hands—or wanted to anyway. Now, they were one, their faces reflecting an indescribable expression of love as they prayed together (Loving God).
Judge Clement--just seeking Christ’s kingdom to prevail over earth—praying daily for the man who crossed his path, investing his time in a ministry to prisoners on death row, seeking the power of Christ to make whole those most broken by sin in our world (theirs and others), showing the world the restoration of relationships that takes place in the kingdom of God.
So, how do we stay focused on seeking first Christ’s agenda of righteousness in every sphere of our lives? How do we stay focused on Christ’s mission for us in 2021? Follow Jesus example. Luke 5:15 gives us the context for the example of Jesus that Luke gives in verse 16. Now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. That is the situation. Luke continues in verse 16: But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray. Just nine words tell us how to stay focused on Christ’s mission for us. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray Let’s dig deeper.
- The word, But. Luke’s wording implies that contrary to what you would expect, when the crowds grew even larger and his outer world got even more hectic with even more of opportunities to heal those broken by sin—he retreated to his private world. This sentence continues….
- But he would withdraw. The word, would, describes a pattern, a structure, a habit, a way of life. If Jesus felt the need to withdraw to his private world to talk to Father—when he was perfect—how much more must we!
- But he would withdraw. Jesus, on the night before his death would say to the Father, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.(John 17:4). How could Jesus say that? There were still leppers to make whole, blind eyes he could make see, hypocritical religious leaders who still needed to be confronted, prostitutes who needed to understand his love. I believe the only explanation for completing his mission was his habit of withdrawing to desolate places to talk with the Father about his mission.
- But he would withdraw to desolate places. A private place can be in the shower, it can be as you drive, as you jog, as you fall asleep at night. But here, Jesus is even more intentional about putting time in his schedule to withdraw to his inner world, where values shape our decisions and where we hear the voice of God.
- But he would withdraw to desolate places to pray. I believe that Jesus is modeling for us something beyond having a daily quiet time with God to read the Word and pray some. The link in Luke’s wording of these verses 15 and 16—the growing external ministry with his retreat to his internal world—unmistakably links Jesus prayer to his mission. Years ago, I was challenged by a time management specialist to consider that time management is not so much about getting MORE stuff done as it is getting THE RIGHT STUFF DONE i.e. staying focused on the important not the urgent. So, I made two decisions; 1) I undertook a thorough study of Scripture so see if I could define my mission both simply and biblically. I realized I was called TO Christ, called to BE LIKE Christ, and called to IMPLEMENT CHRIST’S AGENDA OF RIGHTEOUSNESS in every sphere of my life for Christ—with his enormous help. 2) The second life-changing decision I made was to invest 60-90 minutes on Sunday afternoon, evening or Monday morning heading to a desolate place to pray—in order to stay focused on my upcoming mission as I began the week. This website forgingbonds.org is full of free downloadable information about Christ’s agenda for every sphere we are to rule for Christ.
If your desire is to honor Christ in 2021 more than you ever have, I urge you to build the habit into your life, following Christ’s example, He would withdraw to desolate places and pray. Start a life-mission file with three tabs, and start collecting everything you can about: a) enjoying a love relationship with Christ, b) developing godly character—the nature of each beatitude, the fruit of the Spirit, the golden chain of wise virtues from James 3, c) Christ’s agenda for your marriage, family, workplace, church involvement, outreach, stewarding of gifts, etc. And commit yourself to looking over that file once a week--just one hour out of the 168 our Lord gives us to review his mission for us.
As 2020 turns into 2021, we may wonder what unexpected things 2021 will hold. Certainly no one foresaw the impact of Covid 19 on 2020. But one thing is certain. What will most honor Christ is to seek first the reign of his righteous kingdom in every sphere of our lives life. To seek is the opposite of an aimless, random, adlib approach to following Christ. To seek means to be intentional in pursuing a plan.
For Further Prayerful Thought
- What truth about the meaning of the word, seek most energizes you?
- Why does Luke’s link in Luke 5:15-16 between the expansion of Jesus’ ministry opportunities and his habit of withdrawing to a desolate place to pray make sense?
- What are the biggest obstacles to you giving Jesus one hour out of 168 to focus each week on your mission?
