Pentecost 4 - Matthew 6:24-34

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things will be added to you as well.

You can barely turn on the news these days without hearing something about the economy. The high price of gas. Home foreclosures. The struggling Airline industry. The continued weakening of the dollar in foreign markets. We keep hearing all about our lagging economy. It is with the hope of correcting this trend that the government has decided to issue tax payers a refund. Each eligible person will receive their share of the economic stimulus package. As we speak checks are being mailed out with the hope that putting money back in the hands of consumers will encourage us to spend our way back into a strong economy.

So has your stimulus check arrived yet? Have you decided what you are going to do with it? Are you going to save it or spend it? Will you use it to strengthen your portfolio or perhaps use it to pay down some other debts? Use it to buy gas? Take a vacation? Update your home? I am sure you have given it some thought and have already considered how you will spend it. I know I have.

The big question is, of course, whether or not this economic stimulus program initiated by the government is going to work. Will it actually solve the problems or will it only be a temporary fix? Will the extra cash provide the push to fuel the economy or will it just be a small blip on the overall downward trend. Time will tell.

After all, the cost of living continues to be going up. Of course the price of gas is higher at the pump, but that means overall energy costs are higher, which means production and transportation is higher, which means everything is costlier to produce and sell which means we have less money to do the same things. People are feeling pinched. Some are beginning to rely on credit to meet expenses. Debt is piling up. People are defaulting on their loans. Homes, cars, and other items are being repossessed. The economic times are seeming to be more and more uncertain.

It is to us that Jesus speaks these timely words: “Therefore 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.” At times like these that can be exactly the message that we need to hear. Knowing that the God who has in his hands the ability to steer economies, to raise and lower prices, to provide food and clothing and shelter, that this God is your God. That He loves you and that he cares for you and He will provide for you. How easy it is for us to see the mouths we have to feed and the bodies we have to clothe, how easy it is for us to see the bills we have to pay and become anxious, worried, afraid. How easy it is for us to make this very mistake that Jesus warns against in our text. To us who await our economic stimulus package, already have plans for how it will be spent Jesus offers to us great words of comfort and great words of consoling.

“Seek first the kingdom of God,” says Jesus, “and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you as well.”

“Seek First the Kingdom of God” says Jesus. Seek first the place where God has come to be King, where he has brought his Kingdom near for you.

That is what it is all about. Jesus commands us to seek first His Kingdom. In all that we say, in all that we do, the very goal of our life, the reason that we get out of bed in the morning, the last thing that we think about before we go to bed at night, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”

“Okay”, we tell ourselves. “That means I have to Seek God first. So how am I going to do that? What am I going to do that will seek God first? I know. I have to put God first. I have to do my best to be like God, to do what Jesus would do. I have to be a better person. I have to be a better Christian. If I do that, if I can pull that off, then I will be seeking the Kingdom of God and I will be seeking His Righteousness.”

What a frightful way to live! Have you ever tried to live your life to be like Jesus? Have you ever tried to live you life to be perfect? How did you do? Did you pull it off? Did you come anywhere close? Were you perfect in your actions, in the things that you said and the things that you thought? Not if you were honest with yourself. If you were honest with yourself you made the same conclusion as the Apostle Paul – “Oh wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death!”

Judging from how richly our heavenly Father has blessed us, judging from how generously he has “added all these things to us as well” we can only conclude that there must be some other standard for God’s blessing. If you compare how sinful we are to how greatly we have been blessed we can only conclude that “Seeking first the kingdom of God and His Righteousness” must involve something other than how well we behave.

The good news, in fact the great news, the news that is so good that it is even better than hearing your stimulus check has been doubled or even tripled is that Seeking first God’s Kingdom and God’s Righteousness means simply that you seek the places where God has promised to be for you. All it means is that you drink from his cup, that you eat from his hand, that you return to his house over and over again to be given His gifts of love and grace and mercy and forgiveness. You don’t do a thing. You just show up and takes care of the rest.

You know what – what we are doing right now, sitting in church, listening to the Word of God read and preached and proclaimed – that is Seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Opening up your bible to begin your day in His Word. That is seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Having devotions and prayer time with your family. That is seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Taking communion. That is seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

God’s Kingdom is that place where he gives out for free His righteousness. That is way better than any economic stimulus package. You don’t have to do anything to get it! The government isn’t just handing out free money. You have to earn it. In order to get your check you have to be a tax payer. In other words they are simply giving you back what you earned in the first place. God doesn’t do that. He gives you what He earned. He gives you what he bought and paid for. He gives you what cost him his own body and blood. He gives you the forgiveness that Jesus won for you when he died on the cross. Forgiveness of sins. Eternal life. Salvation. That is God’s stimulus package! You were dead. Now you are alive! How’s that for stimulus?

But God is practical. He knows us so well. He knows our every need. He knows that first and foremost the thing that we need is forgiveness. But that is not all that we need. We still have to eat. We still need clothes to wear a place to sleep, we have bills to pay. We need to put gas in the car and food on the table. So God gives to us those things as well. As we are seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness, he is busy adding to us all of those other things that he sees that we need.

God loves all of his creation. Every part of it. From the birds in the air to the very grass that covers the ground. God loves it and it is beautiful. So God takes care of it. God finds food for the birds. He makes sure that there is plenty for them to eat. He finds food for the bugs, the ants, the earth worms, the field mice. He makes the grasses that grow out in the fields, Even the weeds that we spray with round up when they grow where we don’t want them to grow, He makes them beautiful. He cares about them so much that he colors them all shades of green, he makes them flower with beautiful vibrant colors and delicate shapes. He loves and takes care of his creation. And you? You are a part of that creation. You are His crowning achievement. And so while he has given you the primary task of simply seeking first His Kingdom he is busy adding to you everything that you will need to support your body and life.

We get that so turned around. We get that all mixed up. We seek first all that other stuff. We have plans for just how we are going to spend that stimulus check and all of the extra stuff that is going to pile up in our homes simply because we all of a sudden have a windfall of a thousand extra dollars. We get so worried and fearful because the cost of doing business has gone up that we stress out and loose sleep wondering if we will keep our heads above water, wondering if we will have enough money to provide for ourselves and our families. Of course we will. Even if you were loose your house, your car, even if you were to be downsized and your position at work were to be eliminated, God would find a way to put food in your mouth and clothes on your back and a roof over your head. He loves you. More than birds of the air and grass in the fields He loves you and he will take care of you. Don’t worry.

Seek first the Kingdom of God. Seek first the place where God has provided for you His righteousness free of charge. After you have done that, get up. Go to work. Earn your living. Pay your bills. Pay your taxes. Spend your stimulus check, if you must and serve your neighbor. Let Him take care of the rest.