Pastor’s Thoughts – 11-16-2025

All people are seekers. Each of us has certain special likes and desires that we seek. I am thankful for my refrigerator and pantry. I am too often seeking something in there. In a broader sense we all seek happiness. We all seek peace. It is no wonder that the Joel Osteen church in Houston has such an appeal with its popular “Best Life Now” theme. It is a theme not found in Scripture, but it appeals to man’s flesh. The immediate, tangible, natural things can consume our life, and this applies to all people. These include mundane things, and they are the things we can touch, see, feel, and taste. They naturally appeal to our physical bodies. But contrary to this, our Lord came and taught us that, ” Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). We are called to live by faith, something we cannot embrace with our senses, but only with our mind and our heart as we know and believe God. When our Lord speaks of overcoming the world, part of this overcoming is the powerful attachment to the physical and the immediate. Christ, as a man, was never ruled by the things of this world. He told us to, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things, will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). This statement is in a context where Christ has just criticized the Pharisee’s focus exclusively on personal physical needs, and He has compared their lives to pagan Gentiles, who did not know God but only sought the physical and immediate. Christ commands us to be above this fleshly mindset, and instead to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

Our Lord is here redirecting our thinking toward a true solution that is only found in Him. It is not the immediate issues of life that have the greatest value, but that which is eternal. He has given the way out of the greatest problem, which is the problem of sin. Our Lord is clarifying what should be our foremost attitude and priority. We are not to be ruled by our physical senses, but by our view of God and His revealed will and commands. Our context for this passage is the Sermon on the Mount where our Lord is speaking to religious people, Jews who believe in Jehovah, but yet do not know Jehovah spiritually or understand their need for a Savior. Jesus is teaching them that a true relationship with God is by faith. He has told them not to be anxious and worry, but to trust God because He knows what they need. Instead of living with anxiety, they are to live by faith depending upon the Lord who knows precisely what they need. Worrying has no benefit for anyone. It contributes nothing. Instead, it may give us ulcers or rob us of sleep. Doctors who study the body tell us that worry poisons our bodies, and this can make us ill and shorten our lives. Our Lord tells us that God takes care of the flowers by clothing them and the birds by feeding them, and in so doing will He not also take care of those for whom His Son gave His life? Our Lord is saying that worry is not necessary. But this is what people do who do not know God – they worry! And sometimes we as Christians have a tendency to forget God, and we also join in the worrying. When He says, “Your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things” (Matt. 6:32), He reminds us that our omniscient and sovereign God is much more aware of our circumstances and our needs than we are. And He is the One who has brought about our circumstance, and He will meet our needs according to His perfect will. Additionally, as a component of righteous thinking, we know where all who are in Christ will ultimately and eternally reside (Rev. 21 & 22). Things in the present are merely temporary.

Therefore, instead of worry, and instead of focusing our lives exclusively and foremost upon the immediate, Christ says, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (Matt. 6:33). He is addressing faith and the ability to deal with the immediate because we know our God and what He has promised. What we are to do by faith is to make our priority not just on the temporary, which does not mean we don’t deal with our responsibilities, but by mindset and focus we look to God and what He has promised. To seek His kingdom is to realize by faith our future rule with Him in glory, and how we are to be living for Him in the immediate as citizens of that future kingdom. To focus upon His righteousness means not only to be obedient to Him, but to cherish His cause of righteousness in the world. It means we live for Him, honor His Word, and are a light to His truth. I think the statement in Scripture that best gives us the understanding of our seeking His kingdom and His righteousness is the one made by Christ Himself at the age of twelve. When answering His parents as to why He was in the temple, He told them that, “I must be about My Father’s business” (Luke 2:49). Oh, how privileged we are to know Christ and to be about His business, which is His kingdom and His righteousness in our walk with Him each day.