Pastor Jeff delivered a message focused on the importance of prioritizing God the Father in our lives, emphasizing the command to actively seek His kingdom and righteousness above all else. He discussed the challenges many believers face with anxiety and worry, asserting that true peace comes from trusting in the Father’s provision. Drawing from Matthew 6:33, he encouraged the congregation to make God their central focus and to live righteously, assuring them that all their needs will be met when they do. Ultimately, he stressed that while faith may bring challenges, the rewards of a life lived in alignment with God are immeasurable and eternal.
Sermon Transcript
Well, good morning. Will you do me a favor? Welcome all of our brave campuses that are worshiping with us today. So great to worship with all of you. Couple quick announcements.
As you know, this Tuesday, this coming Tuesday is First Tuesday, the most important meeting of the month where we gather to seek the face of the lord in prayer. 6:30 to 8:30 on all of our campuses. Also want to let you know today is the final message in the series of the Only God. We'll be starting a new series in a book. I can't wait to reveal to you what that is.
But next week I have a special message for all who are here. Super excited about that. And then one quick announcement as I've made two third quick announcement is starting this fall, by God's grace, we're going to be launching K through 3 in Westminster. So Brave Academy is going to advance. Can we give God praise for that?
We are so excited. Last year we started a K through five schools school. This year we added the grades up through high school. Next year we'll be launching K through 3 in Westminster. Our desire is to plant campuses and to plant more schools and to make more brave warriors.
And so we're super excited about that. If you're in Westminster, it's now. This is the time to get signed up. If you have students here that want to come here, now's the time to get signed up. And then for all of us, we just encourage you be praying for that.
It's a massive undertaking. If you're in Westminster and you have fourth, fifth, sixth graders, like, what about them? We're going to build the culture first, but we have some ideas for your students. So if that's you, please talk to us. We got some answers for that as well.
And that'll be all the announcements I give right now. So with that, let's go before the Lord and get ready to hear his living and his active word among us. Would you pray with me? Our Father in heaven, we give you praise, glory and honor for who you are. And Lord, we just thank you for all that you're doing in and through your church, Lord, that you're building your church.
That through our church you're building schools and media ministry and doing different things where people are getting touched with the gospel around our country and literally around the world. Lord, we just pray that you would have your way, that we would humble ourselves and continue to seek your face, Lord, as a people. Because Lord, we as a people believe that you are a great God. And we're so encouraged today to get ready to hear from your living and active word. Because we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you are speaking.
So our prayer this morning is speak, Lord, for we are ready to hear. And so now, for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you and who will, by faith, put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word Amen? Amen. This morning I want to talk to you about the priority of the Father. The Priority of the Father as we finish this series called the Only God, we've been taking a look at the Trinity, our Godhead, the way the Bible reveals our God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
That the Father is not the Son of the Spirit, that the Son is not the Father of the Spirit, of the Spirit is not the Father of the Son, but all three are co equal persons that have existed from eternity past, that will always exist and what role they play. And when we started this series, we started around Christmas time. We talked about the person and work of Jesus Christ. We talked about his deity and his eternality and the fact that he became flesh and his incarnation and what he did when he came to this earth, doing for us what we could never do, dying on the cross for our sins, rising from the dead, ascending into heaven, knowing he's coming back to rule and reign this planet. He's as alive as he's ever been.
When he arrived in heaven, he sent us the promised Holy Spirit, who He said would come. And then we spent four weeks starting this year on who the Holy Spirit is and how the Holy Spirit works by indwelling every single believer, bringing conviction of sin, righteousness and judgment to the whole world and how he operates and what his ministry is. And even though there's a lot of differences in understanding, we took a look at him as a person and who he is and how his job is to magnify the Lord Jesus Christ and manifest his presence among us. And as the Holy Spirit makes Jesus look good, and as we adore Jesus, that brings the Father great honor. We've been talking about the Father and His compassion for us and his great love for us, that he doesn't leave us alone, that he pursues us, that he cares for us, that he absolutely loves us.
We talked about his glory and who he is and how sovereign he is and how before a word is on our tongue, he knows it completely. He. He's omnipotent omniscient, he's omnipowerful, omnipresent, he's omnipotent, he's all powerful. We took a look at all these different qualities, and last week we took a look at the framework of the Father and how he's the one that set up everything that he created and designed the world. And here becomes the big question.
You can sit through a biblical and systematic theology of the Trinity, but here becomes the question, so what? It doesn't necessarily mean that anything's going to change in your life unless you do something with it. And so today we're going to end this series by talking about the priority of the Father. And here's why. Because for many believers, okay, for many believers, not just non believers, but for many believers, those who would say, I believe in God, I believe in the Trinity, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father, the Son, Spirit.
I believe that there's so many people in our culture that live with anxiety and doubt and fear and worry and all these different things that all the time come into our life and wound us. And yet, if we really believe that God is who he says he is, and we really believe everything that the Word has been teaching us, then we would respond differently with peace and joy and great comfort that our Lord is in control. So today we're going to talk about the priority of the Father. And to do that, we're going to be in Matthew, chapter six, Matthew, chapter six. I want to read to you verses 25 to 34.
But really we're going to focus on one verse, Matthew, chapter 6, and verse 33. But I want to set the framework. And when you hear this, it'll be familiar. For many of you that have been in church, it comes from Jesus most famous sermon that we have copied, entitled the Sermon on the Mount. That's what we call it.
And in this section, as you hear it, you're going to say, I know this one already. So as you know it already, here's what I want you to hear. I want you to let the Holy Spirit speak to you afresh this morning about this word for right where you are at. I want you to think about where you're living and what you're thinking about and what you're concerned with and all those different things. And let the Word of the Lord just wash over you afresh this morning as I read it over, you hear the Word.
He says, for this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life as to what you will eat or what you will drink nor your body as to what you will put on. Is life not more important than food? In the body, more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns.
And yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you, by being worried, can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe the lilies of the field and how they grow.
They do not toil, nor do they spin. Yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith? Do not worry then, saying, what will we eat? Or what will we drink?
Or what will we wear for clothing? For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things. For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own. And this is just as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago when Jesus spoke it. Amen. And here what we're going to talk about from this text is the context is anxiety is the priority of the Father. And the reason this is so important is because many of us live like this text talks.
Many of us live with anxieties and worries about all sorts of different things in the world. Now here it's talking about our life and what we eat and what we drink. And here's what the Scripture wants to make clear. Jesus is saying, let me tell you about my dad. He knows everything you need.
He knows what you need before you even ask him, he's got it down. And yet we spend so much time on, am I gonna be taken care of? Am I gonna have my needs met? Do I look good? Do I have the right kind of clothes?
Do I have these things taken care of? What's gonna happen in the future? I don't know what's gonna happen. And because we get so worked up with anxiety, we miss the whole point that God is trying to teach us, and that is to prioritize him. There's a priority of the Father that comes from Matthew chapter 6 and verse 33, which gives us the understanding of how do we avoid all this?
Because the reality is, and I'm not asking for a show of hands, but the reality is if I ask you how many worried about something this week? Majority of us would say, well, for a little bit, I did, or for a lot that I did. Studies show that about 60 to 70% of Americans worry on a fairly regular basis. Everybody at some point in time is anxious or concerned about something. But then there's a population of about 25 or 30%.
Worry is just a part of your life. It's a friend to you. It's a comfort to you. Worry goes with you everywhere you go. And Jesus is teaching us about his dad, and he's letting us know, how is it that I can avoid that?
And how is it I can live in such a way that anxiety and worry do not take over my life? And he answers that for us in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 33. Instead of living like that, he says this, but seek his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. So today I want to give you four truths about the priority of the Father and about what it looks like. If you're going to make the Father the priority of your life, what must you do?
If we're going to end this series, what must I do? How do I put this into practice so that anxiety and worry and doubt and fear and all those things are not the biggest part of my life? And the first is this Notice the command to seek. The command to seek that we're called to seek his kingdom. But seek first his kingdom.
I want you to know something about that word seek. Seek is an active pursuit. It's not a passive wish. It's not just hoping that it's, I'm going after it. It's a diligent search.
It's a craving. It's a prioritization. It's when you go after something, pursue or devote serious effort in order to possess. It's like when you misplace your phone or your keys and you go after them until you find them. That's what it means to seek.
And so often believers don't seek the Father. There's this passivity in our Christianity that says, well, if God wants to do something with me, he'll let me know. If God wants to change my circumstances, he'll change them. Nowhere do you see that taught anywhere in God's Word there is a pursuit or a seeking. If you want to grow more intimate with the Lord, if you want to know God better, and if you want God to use your life more greatly, it's up to you how you're going to seek and pursue Him.
And how you prioritize him and notice what he says. He says, but seek what first. Seek first. Pursue him first. Go after him first.
So the priority is the Father. And we know this. And that's who Jesus is talking about. Because his whole life was spent doing what? Seeking first the Father.
From the time that we see Jesus, early ministry, when he's 12 years old and his parents travel back from Galilee into Jerusalem to find where's our Son? They find him in the temple. And what does he say? Did you not know I needed to be in my Father's house? He talked all of his ministry about how the Father and I are one.
I only do what I see my father doing. Mark 1:35 says, Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up and went to solitary places where there he prayed. Oftentimes his disciples would come looking for him, saying, master, where are you? Everybody's looking for you. But he had been spending time with his.
The night before, he selected his twelve apostles from all the disciples that he had. He spent the whole night seeking his Father in prayer. After feeding the 5,000 on the hillside where everybody wanted to take him and make him king by force, he sent them away. And he sent the disciples out into the sea to the other side. And he went up on a mountainside where he spent the entire night.
Doing what? Praying. On the night that he was betrayed by Judas Iscariot and all of his followers were leaving, what was he doing? He took his disciples into the Garden of Gethsemane. And what was he doing?
He was pursuing his Father. He even was praying. Not my will, but your will be done. He was wanting to prioritize his dad everywhere he went. So to study the person of Jesus Christ is to study what the pursuit of the Father looks like.
It's what Jesus did through his entire ministry, which is why if the disciples were with them, the only thing we have recorded in the Scriptures where the disciples were like, lord, teach us to do something, was, lord, teach us to pray. We want to know how to have the same pursuit that you have. And here it's a command. Jesus does not say, if you feel like it, you can kind of sit around and maybe God the Father will come to you. He says, no, no, but seek first.
Prioritize this. Keep seeking until you have this. It's not a call for a casual commitment, but rather for complete devotion. It's not an addition to your life. It's the foundation.
But think about some of the things that might take priority, the things many of the things that take place in my life that knock God off his throne, that I make a priority or that you make a priority are not necessarily bad things. Now, certainly sin is a bad thing. If we're doing something sinful, that's completely wrong. But think about some of these other things that we pursue. Rather than pursuing the Father first, we pursue some of these things first.
What about this one? Financial security. Will I have enough money to provide for my family? Will I have enough money to. Will I have enough money to retire comfortably?
Will I have enough money to handle emergencies? Will I have enough money to pay my bills at the end of the month? Those aren't bad questions. Those can be good questions, but they're not the first questions that we need to be asking. Or how about health and longevity?
How will I stay healthy? How do I avoid major illnesses? How do I maintain a good quality of life? Those are good questions. They're just not primary questions.
They're secondary or tertiary. Or what about career and purpose? What will I be when I grow up? Will I have a stable job? What?
How should I use my gifts for the Lord? How will I advance in my career? How will I find fulfillment in what I do? Those are good questions, too, but they're not primary questions. Seeking the Father is?
Or how about family and relationships? God created the family. We've talked about that. Will I ever get married? Will I ever have children?
Will my loved ones be okay? Will I have strong, meaningful relationships in the future? Great questions, not primary ones. Or how about control over circumstances? What if something unexpected happens that I can't control?
Something unexpected will happen all the time that you can't control, right? Or what about legacy and impact? Will I have a meaningful legacy? What will make a difference? How do I know that my life can?
All of these are great questions. There's nothing wrong with them. Ask them. But seek what first? The kingdom of God and his righteousness.
Rhetorical question. When you woke up this morning, who did you seek first? What did you seek first? Did you lay in bed and say, father, I just thank you for another day. Just waking up.
This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Lord, I'm so glad I get to go to church and worship your name. Thank you for the forgiveness of my sins, Lord. Convict me of anything I'm unaware of so I can confess it to you.
So I can have a clean conscience when I go and worship you. Help me to bring my best to you this morning when I sing praises to your name. Thank you for giving me the church family that you've given me, Lord. I just want you to know my family, my wife or my husband or my children, I'm so blessed by them, and I thank you for them. And it's just so wonderful to get a privilege to gather with other Christians and worship you.
Was that your first thought this morning? Maybe it was. Or did you grab your cell phone? Did you check text? Did you get on social media?
Did you start scrolling through different things? Did you go, yeah, I wish I could tell you every day I woke up, it's the former. Every single time, but it's not. Cause some days I get up and we're late waking up and we gotta get the kids to school and we gotta get this, we gotta do this. And then my mind starts racing other directions.
And that's called life. So this is not, hey, I do this perfectly. Don't you wish you could be like me? This is. I'm in the same struggle that you are to prioritize the Father.
And there's so many things in my life that wanna knock him off his throne. And here's the reality of his throne. There's only room for one. You can't serve both God and money. You can't serve both God and your life.
You can't serve both God and your kingdom. You can only serve God and prioritize him. So Jesus is saying, if you're going to experience God, if you're going to know God, if you're going to have the peace and joy and love of God in your life, then seek first him, prioritize first him in all that you do. And it's a reminder to all of us, because there's good things in this world that take us away from. From God being first.
And all of you have heard the analogy. I've even done it with our interns before. Where you have the jar, the empty jar there. And then you have some rocks, and you have smaller rocks and you have pebbles, and then you have sand and you have some water. And you start, you know, I put the big rocks in and like, is it full?
Like, no, we can put some smaller rocks in. You put the smaller rocks in, and then you take some pebbles. We can fit more. You shake it up, put some pebbles in, you can get it all to fit. And then, man, there's room for more.
And then you pick up some sand and you can put that in there and shake it up. There's room for more. You can pour water in there and get it all full. And you ask the question, what's the point of this? And inevitably somebody will say, you can always squeeze more in your life.
Like, that's not the point. The point is, if you don't put the big rocks in first, they'll never make it in. If you don't prioritize the father, he doesn't always make it in. Because there's some good things that the enemy, like when you're a pagan, the enemy can get you to sin. And you don't feel conviction about it.
As a believer, he attempts to get you to sin, and then you feel bad and guilty about it. But when you're walking with the Lord, the Satan's desire is man. I don't know if I can get him to sin that way anymore. But here's what I can do. I can distract them.
I can get them to put other good things in there. They want to get married. God made marriage. Marriage is a good thing. I'll have them focus only on marriage.
They want to have children. Children are a blessing. I'll just have them focus on why they can't have kids. And they can focus on that all day long. Or it's good for a man to provide for his family.
So I'll have this guy just worry about his job all the time. And whatever you focus on ends up filling that. And what we're talking about is not a jar. We're talking about your soul. And so as the Lord fills you, he wants to fill you with Himself.
And so there needs to be a pursuit of Him, a priority of Him. And Jesus is telling us, here's how you do it. You seek him. It's a command. It's not a suggestion.
If you want to grow with the Lord, if you want to experience more Lord, if you want to be used greatly of the Lord, then the command is to seek the Lord. Amen. The second is this. Not only is the command to seek that we need to focus on, but we also need to focus on the center of our focus. The center of our focus is his kingdom and not ours.
Notice what he says to seek. Look at what he says to go after, but seek first his kingdom. His kingdom. Let's just pause there for a second. In order to have a kingdom and oversee a kingdom, what does that make you?
You're a king. So seek first his kingdom where he's a king. And if he's a king and he has a kingdom, then he has an agenda for his kingdom. He has rules for his kingdom. He has a methodology for how his kingdom should run.
The Sermon on the Mount talks a lot about that kingdom and how that kingdom is in direct opposition to the world that we live in. How we love, how we forgive, how we care, how we pursue all the different things. So we're going to seek him and what his kingdom. Even when we pray the Lord's Prayer, Our Father, that's who we talk to. Not my Father, not your Father.
Because of Jesus. He's our Father who art in heaven, hallowed or holy be your name. Then what do we pray? Let your kingdom come. Let your will be done on the earth as it is in heaven.
What are we praying? Lord, until you get here, and Jesus, until you step your foot here and until you're ruling and reigning on this planet, which we believe you're going to do. Until that time, let me live my life and let us live our lives with your kingdom agenda in such a way that what's going on in heaven is actually taking place here on the earth. It's why Jesus said, I only do what I see my Father doing. He was so focused on the Father, he was so consumed with what the Father wanted that it translated into his relationships here.
Because keep in mind, I'm not just talking about the doctrine of God as some, you know, sterile type of thing. We're talking about the doctrine of God or the teaching of God. Because our God wants to relate to you. He's a relational God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were relating before they ever created that world and the people and the things in it.
They were relating to each other. That's why we're called to love the Lord, our God, with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and love our neighbors as ourselves. Why? Because God's relational. And if you focus on those two ways, and if you're going after God and saying, God, here's how I'm praying today.
I want your agenda to come. I want your kingdom to come. I want your rule to come. I want your reign to come. I want the earth to look like what's being done in heaven.
And only the Father can provide that through his Word. And here's why. Philippians 3:20 says that we are citizens of the kingdom of Heaven. Your birth certificate or your driver's license may say that you are a citizen of Colorado, citizen of the United States. But first and foremost, as a Christian, I want you to know you're first and foremost a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.
And anything that the kingdom of heaven would command or demand of us rules over any earthly authority on the planet, right? And so when we see our government align more with biblical values, we cheer. And when we see it move away, we moan and we groan on the inside. But at the end of the day, we're not trying to get the right political system. At the end of the day, we want God's kingdom to come, we want his will to be done, and we want him to be the core of our focus.
So when we're watching different things and interacting with different things, we want Jesus to be at the center of the very things we're talking about and interacting with. And if God is the center of your focus, you can't help but talk about him. It's interesting because if you read through the Bible and many non believers do, they're like, your God's a megalomaniac. He is, because he's perfect. He's holy, he's righteous, he's good.
There's nothing wrong with him in any way. So when he's giving the Ten Commandments and he says in Exodus 20, verse three, you shall have no other gods before me, he's not saying, well, I'm scared that you might worship somebody else. Here's what he's saying. I'm the only one worthy of your allegiance. And Isaiah 42, verse 8, he says, I am the Lord, that is my name.
I will not share my glory with another. Give my praise to idols. I'm worthy, I'm fulfilling. I'm everything that you want. Quit looking to other things.
Now, when we talk about idols in our culture, here's what most of us think, especially biblical Christians. We would say, I don't really have any idols. I mean, I think about idols. In Exodus, they took jewelry and formed a calf and bowed down and worshiped a calf. How silly is that?
I would never worship an idol. An idol is anything that you give your allegiance to other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Think about it. We pool our resources together and we buy a home. And then we bow down and worship it.
And we think about it and how we can keep it clean and how we can keep it new, and how we can get new drapes and new shutters new. Everything that. Not that anything's wrong with that, but for some of us, it's our priority, right? And for others, you know, it's our money. It's a priority.
We gotta make enough money. And I've gone through a list which is not even exhaustive of all the things that we put in place of God. Because we would say, okay, I got this in order, this in order, and this in order. Once we get this and once we get that, then, God, you have priority. God, I love you that you're working with me now.
But as soon as things get settled down, I'm all in with you. Things will never get settled down on this side of heaven. There's never gonna be a time where everything perfectly melds and the birds sing and your heart is full and your health is great and your bank account's filled. And when it does, you know, enjoy that five seconds and then keep living. I mean, that's just life, right?
And so he's saying, make me your focus. And you know who people's focus is based upon, what they talk about and the decisions that they make and the way they spend money. That's a focus. Because if your allegiance goes to God, and God is your heart, and God is who you're thankful for, and God's who you spend your time with, you will see your money go that direction, you'll see your time go that direction, you'll see your heart go that direction. You will see your alignment go that direction.
And that is who and what you will talk about when you're together. Many people seek their own kingdom. When you get with them and they start talking, they're talking about their success, or they're talking about their security, or they're talking about their status, and they continue to do it. The older I get, the more it just sounds like nonsense to me. Especially the older I get, I'm like, you don't have that much time.
Like, what if you keep sailing off for another 20 years? Who cares? Like, there's no joy and there's no. There's no peace in it. And here's the reason I'm telling you all this.
We're looking for things in our life, like some people. Like, if I could just get married, if I just had a little more money, if I just had a house, if I just had a career that provided more purpose. If I just discovered this, if I just had a little more knowledge of once I have this friends here. Here's the deal. Go all in with God.
Like, pursue him with everything you have, and all these things will be added. I. I don't know what you came in here with today. I don't know who's all listening to me. I do not know every specific need, but my father does.
And I know this. If you go all in with him and you pursue him and you make him the core of your focus, all these things will take care of themselves, they will.
But if God is in addition to your life, living your way, and then you add them, Christianity becomes a very challenging quote, unquote religion. But if you just step into the presence of the Lord and say, you have it all, and I'm trusting you for it all, as uncomfortable as this may be, Lord, lead my life and you continue to take steps of faith over time. There's joy and peace and righteousness in the Holy Ghost when you do that. Amen. And that's what he wants.
He wants. He wants to be the core focus of your life. He wants to be what you talk about. He wants you to live by truth, so to speak, and not live by trends. I mean, we live in a day and age.
I mean, I've lived long enough to know now what was cool in 1980 is it wasn't cool in 1990. And what was cool in 1990 wasn't cool in 2000. And what was cool in 2000 wasn't cool in 2010. And what was cool in 2010 isn't cool now. And what's cool now won't be cool in 2035.
It just won't. And so if you live by trends and what people are saying, and here's the hot topics. Who cares what the hot topics are? Here's the hot topics right here. 66 books.
Hot Topic in any, in any generation, for anybody or any church that would put themselves under the authority of this word. From Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21, there are good things that our Lord does. Amen. And he wants to be the core of our focus. So spend time with Him.
Read your Word, Spend time praying. Because what the Word of God does is always points back to the Father, just like a compass always points north. When you seek God, everything else aligns. And in our culture, we think everything is about ambition. It's not about ambition.
It's about alignment. It's about alignment. It's about going after the Father with everything you have. Jesus did it. Now, here's the beauty.
One reason I love the Word is that we would have never written the Word. Only God could write the Word. Because I'm not talking to you as some expert that's cornered the market on obedience. And there's so many people in the Bible, there's only one person that did it was the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, think about Jonah for a second.
He was looking for purpose. God gave him purpose. Hey, you're going to go to Nineveh and preach the Gospel. It's going to be the greatest revival in the Old Testament. And Jonah's, like, so fired up about it, he got on a boat and went to Tarshish in the exact opposite direction.
God, you want me to go there? I'm going here. God's like, well, you think you're going there? It's just gonna get a little more difficult. And on the boat, storms come.
He gets thrown off the boat, gets eaten by a huge fish. Fish comes and brings him back. Say, you don't want to go by boat. I'll take you by fish. Spits him out in Nineveh.
And then, against his own will, goes and does what God does. And all these people in Nineveh repent and get saved. But Jonah, instead of applauding the father, is mad. Cause he doesn't like the people of Nineveh. So he's on a hill pouting when a plant grows over his head and shades him from the sun.
And then the plant withered and died. And Jonah. The book ends with Jonah more upset about the plant dying because his head's burning than he was about the people that were lost. And that gives me great comfort that God can use an idiot like Jonah to do his will, even when Jonah didn't want to do it. Amen.
But it would have been a lot better if Jonah would have just gotten on the boat the first time and ended up there and been excited and partnered with the father to do what he was called to do and enjoy the revival that took place. But God loves you enough. He'll let you choose whatever you want and he'll still get you. Or what about Moses? I mean, Moses.
I mean, God had his hand on him from the time he was born, like he does for every single one of us. But we see it in Moses life because even when he was born, he was put in a basket to be handed down the river because they were gonna kill all the Hebrews born at that time, all the Hebrew boys. And so he was rescued by the pharaoh's daughter. He grows up in the palace. He has extreme wealth and opulence and influence.
And yet when he sees a Hebrew slave being mistreated by an Egyptian, he kills the Egyptian. And then he gets found out. So he runs away and flees to the desert. Spends 40 years in the desert. At age 80, he's walking through the desert, 80, and he sees a bush that's burning.
And the uniqueness about the burning bush was that the bush wasn't burning up. It was just fire. And not only that, but the fire was Speaking. Because it was the Father speaking to him. And he says, I got a plan for you.
You're my deliverer. It's always been in your heart. You're gonna go deliver my people who've been crying out for 400 years. And Moses is like, yeah, I'd love to go. Anything to help.
I've just always wanted purpose. I want to know what your purpose and plan was for my life. That's not what he says. It takes, like, two chapters where Moses is like, you got the wrong guy. I'm not doing that.
I left Egypt. I'm never going back there. I don't care. If you want him delivered, deliver him yourself. I stutter.
I can't even speak. I mean, God's so mad at him. And yet God, what? God uses him. So I'm not telling you.
Like, if you hear the Lord today and you don't do it, he's mad. Yeah. If you hear the Lord today and you don't do it, he's still gonna pursue you. But it's so much easier if you just align with Him. Like, so many young people are like, what do I need to do?
And what college? I mean, and there's so many decisions to make. And they're good choices. I mean, there's a lot of good choices you can make, but they're overwhelming choices. Like, out of all the colleges you can go to or not colleges you can go to or trades, or how do I know?
Or, you know, there's 8 billion people in the world, who's the one that I'm gonna get married? I mean, there's all these choices. Here's what I know. You may not ever know the answer, but if you pursue the Lord, he will lead you on a journey that will provide the answers all along the way. Make him the core of your focus.
Make him the one that you go after. Make him the one that you seek. Amen. So there's a command to seek. There's the center of your focus.
And then this third one may be the one that's most overlooked. There's a call to righteousness. There's a call to righteousness, and it's not our righteousness, it's his righteousness. Call, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. One of the reasons many of us don't get prayers answered, that we pray is that we're not living righteous.
Now, let me be clear. For those of you who have recognized that Jesus Christ is the God man, God's one and only son who died on the cross for your sins who was buried and rose from the dead and you knew you were dead and you turned from your sin and turned to Christ and you've been saved. Then you're robed in the righteousness of Christ through no effort of your own. You're righteous positionally. That's who you are.
But then there's a process called sanctification where you grow in that righteousness. And some believers refuse to take steps into sanctification. They're like, well, I'm righteous. I know if I die, I go to heaven and that's enough. That's not enough.
That's day one. Now work out your salvation with fear and trembling what God put on the inside. Work it out. Grow in righteousness. Because here's the truth.
You can't ask for your spouse when you're living immoral and you're going out getting drunk and sleeping around and saying, yeah, but God, I need a Christian wife. And once you bring the Christian girl in my life, I'm going to change everything doesn't work that way or God. I know I'm lazy at work because I don't like my job and my boss is a jerk. So I don't give my best effort. But give me a new job where I can really be good because once I get a new job, then I'll totally change.
No, you have to seek him and his righteousness. You have to live righteously as you're seeking Him. That's just as important. And friends, holiness is not just getting rid of stuff like don't drink, don't chew, don't be immoral, don't do bad stuff, don't use bad language. It's not just don't do, it's what are you adding that you are going to do?
Like, how are you going to love people better? How are you going to forgive people more lavishly? How are you going to give of your resources more generously? What is it going to look like for you to add things into your life that are more reflective of the Lord? Because as you take out some of the rocks that aren't the biggies and you start adding what is in the word that you need to do?
Your righteousness will grow exponentially and experientially. So while you're positionally righteous, the experience of your righteousness will continue to grow as you continue to seek the Lord and live the way he wants. So through Christ, you're made right before God. But then there's sanctification. That's how you continue to live.
Right before him. Think about this scripture in 2nd Timothy, chapter 2 and verse 22, he says as he's writing to young Timothy, he says, now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. So he doesn't just say, get rid of that. He says, pursue these things. And one of the reasons that we can grow in the Lord is when we grow and we increase in our ability to do that.
And keep in mind, it's. It's his righteousness, not ours. Right? It's not. I'm going to try to be good, and if I'm good, then God will bless me.
That's not what I'm talking about at all. You can't do enough good. God doesn't love you because of what you do. He loves you because of his son that he sent for you. That's why he loves you.
And your response to the love that the son has for you is how the Father responds to you because he loves his son. Son, Amen. And by the way, the call to live righteous doesn't mean everybody else around you has to be righteous. We live in a culture, like, man, we got to shift the culture. We got to turn the culture.
And I'm 100% in favor of that, just so you know. And I've seen sparks of it, and I'm excited about that, and that's a good thing. But keep in mind, even if the whole culture is unrighteous, you can still be righteous. I mean, think about it. People all the time talk.
We live in one of the worst times, we live in one of the worst places. You don't. Right before the flood, they did. For 120 years, Noah, who was a preacher of righteousness, lived and walked as a righteous man in front of an entire world. And he and his wife and his three sons and their wives are the only righteous ones on the planet.
There's eight. And yet, for 120 years, Noah walked, preached, and lived righteously before the Lord. Amen. So you don't need to look around. Well, as soon as everybody else in my school starts acting this way, as soon as our nation gets their act together soon.
No, you start doing it now. You be the model for what that looks like, and you live righteously. Amen. And that's what our God does when we do it his way. I mean, and there's a difference, too.
And you've heard the analogy of the thermostat and the thermometer. And, you know, one just Takes the temperature, one sets it. You want to set the righteous temperature. Because sometimes, you know, we get around other people. And the Bible does say bad company corrupts good morals.
So we need to be careful with who we spend our time with. But if there's a season of time, you're going to spend time with somebody that's immoral. It's for the purpose of sharing the gospel and the purpose that they can see what Christ looks like living in you when you don't participate with them. That's what it looks like. And it's that righteous living that we grow in daily as Christians.
How do we say it here? Not perfectly, but what increasingly. I mean, it's those little baby steps that the Lord wants us to do as we're pursuing him and we're called to seek him and we're making him our focus. And then we're taking steps of faith to live righteously. That's when we begin to see the fruit of what I'm talking about, which is our fourth point.
Our fourth point is this. Once we've been called and we're living righteously, notice this. It. It's the confidence in God's promise. Notice what he says.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. And what? All these things will be added unto you. All of them. Well, which ones?
Your life, your food, your clothing, your needs. Why? Because even back in Matthew chapter 6 and verse, verse 8, when he's teaching on prayer, he was telling them not to be like the Gentiles who just blabbled on. He says, do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. God designed you.
He created you. He formed you. He fashioned you. He's providing for you. He's done it since Genesis 1.
My God will meet all of your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. What Philippians 4:19 says, he'll always provide for what you need. Right on time. Always. Now, if we were writing the scriptures, we would write it different.
God, if you provide all these things, then we will seek your kingdom and your righteousness. And that's how many of us live. If God shows me that he's going to take care of me, God, if you get me through this, then I'll. That's not faith. And without faith, it's impossible to please him.
Because anyone that comes to him must believe that he is and that he rewards those who earnestly seek Him. He's a rewarder of faith. And faith is where you take a step, step in the direction that God's calling you to go right? And as you grow in that righteousness and love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and faithfulness and self control. And as you hear His Word and you're prompted to move, it's why every time before I preach here at Brave, I always pray this way.
That if you want to hear the Lord clearly and that you'll do what know what he wants you to do, and then you'll put into practice what he tells you. Say amen with me. Yeah, I'll do that. Because sometimes when we come to church, we're looking for. We're looking for like a leap, a leap of faith.
Like, I'm right here and it's terrible right now. God get me out of here. And we think in 80 minutes we're going to fly over to the other side and we're going to leave. Like, it was awesome. And there are times where we have those encounters.
But many times God doesn't work that way. Most of the time, God doesn't work that way. What God does is he accumulates a number of teeny baby steps of faith over weeks, days, months and years for you to grow in such a way that the steps get bigger and bigger and bigger. And you look back and you're like, that was just the Lord's prompting me, and I was just being obedient to Him. So it means this.
When you hear the Lord's voice today, what's he prompting you to do? And many times the enemy will tell you, well, that's not that big of a deal. He's just asking you to forgive somebody. If that's what he's prompting you to do. That's the biggest deal you can ever do.
God's prompting you to preference your spouse, then preference your spouse. God's calling you to break off that relationship. That's no good. Break off the relationship. That's no good.
God's telling you to be more generous with your finances. Be more generous with your finances. And here's the reality of how the Holy Spirit of God is at work. He's at work every time the Word is proclaimed or it's read or it's heralded in unique ways in your life that's unlike anybody else's. So quit waiting for somebody else's call to obedience.
Be obedient to what God shows you to in the moment. I remember when I first went into ministry. I graduated from college and I had to go to a ministry. I told you a story before I had to raise $3,000 to go. And I was talking to some pastors and friends, like, what do I do?
They're like, you need to write a support letter. And I said, I'm not writing a support letter. I went to college. I'm not college graduate that needs to beg for money. I'm not doing that.
They said, no, it's not begging for money. You need to humble yourself before the Lord, let other people know what you're doing and invite other people in to serve the calling that God's put on your life. Super hard for me to do, asking for $3,000. And I wrote the letters, and you've heard the story about how it all came in just at the right time and went over and above for me to be able to go and do what God's called me to do now. After that, then it was easier when I was a youth director to call and ask for $13,000 when our annual church budget was 105 so that we could take a mission trip over to London.
And then, you know, coming here and we're raising $1.73 million in a week to buy the south campus, which is now Brave Academy, and on and on and on and so. But every time I take a step of faith, it just gets bigger and bigger. But it's the same feeling I had when I took the first baby step of faith. It never gets easier. And here's the reason why we don't step just so you know, because we get crippled with worry and anxiety of where we are.
We don't like it. But to take a step of faith, you have to realize, while you may not be worrying when you take a step of faith, fear gets really, really big when you take a step of faith. I've heard pastors talk for years like, the more faith you have, the less fear. They don't know what they're talking about. That's never been my experience.
And even watching Peter get out of the boat, there had to be more fear in Peter getting out of the boat than the scared ones in the boat. I mean, and here's what I know. Worry and anxiety. That's an emotion. That's a feeling.
Fear is not a feeling. Fear is a spirit. And God did not give you a spirit of fear, but a power, love, and sound mind. See, here's what happens. You know, you're miserable where you're at.
I don't like it, but it's comfortable. But to take a step of faith means you might take a step of faith and Find yourself right back here. And the enemy's like, now you're taking a step of faith, but you might end up right back here. And, oh, by the way, now that you took a step of faith, now you get to hear fear in your ear. Saying, stupid.
Never going to work isn't going to work out. God's not going to do that for you. It doesn't work for you. All those kind of things. And then it's easier to just go sit down like, yeah, it didn't work out then to listen to that and say, I'm not listening to that anymore.
I hear it, but I'm not listening. God, I'm trusting you, and I'm going to believe in you and your kingdom and your righteousness, and I'm going to step by faith. And as you do that fear, while it continues to get louder, you're going with it, and you're not back here. Singles. Where's my singles?
It's easier to stay single, and here's why. How do you know if you're going to marry the right person? How do you know that they're really going to love the Lord? And how do you know what they're going to be like 20, 30, 40 years from now? You don't.
So how are you going to know? Well, I'm just going to sit here until somebody knocks on my door and tells me I'm the one. And if they have the same scripture on their heart that I did, then I'll know. It doesn't work that way. So you go to the singles event, and then when you go and you make the decision to go, then you hear all the voices in your head, like, you're probably too old for that event.
You're probably too young for that event. You're never gonna meet somebody at that event. You know, they probably don't even like you. And if you're really authentic, they wouldn't do. And you're gonna feel worse after you go, so just stay home.
Don't go, am I telling the truth or not? I mean, every time. That's how the enemy works. That's why people don't take steps of faith. Faith.
But you keep stepping and you'll realize God's good. He's good, and he's even good when we take steps of faith and it doesn't go the way we want to go. I was talking to one of Our pastors, Pastor A.J. he's our campus pastor in Westminster. Delightful.
I love him. And he went through probably the hardest time of any of us. Last year, he had a baby. The day that they went in to deliver the baby that was born stillborn, it was devastating. I did the funeral for him, and it was devastating.
It's been devastating. But as the grief has been cycling, even this week, it's just like. It's just been super hard. And we were talking on the phone last night. I told him, Pastor A.J.
i said, I just want to let you know something that's going to seem counterintuitive. I said, you were given the biggest gift that any pastor in our church was given last year. It's just not a gift you wanted because you were trusting the Lord for goodness, and you were trusting the Lord for a child. And the Lord blesses children. He loves children.
But your child, that child that came out, didn't come out alive. And you're devastated, and you should be. And grieving is important, and it's good, and you should lament and all those different things. But here's what I also know to be true about you, Pastor. You love the Lord, and you still say he's good, even though you're not feeling it at all.
And I'm telling you, as you continue to do that and take steps of faith, and as the enemy whispers in your ear how awful this is and all these things, you're going to take steps of faith. And not only are you gonna be able to minister, but you're gonna be able to minister 10 times or 100 times greater, with a greater capacity to love God's people than you ever were. And you're gonna look back on this. This tragedy, this awfulness that we'll never be able to explain on this side of heaven, and you're gonna look back and say, you know, horrible, bad, but my God's still good and I'm better because of it. That's who our God is.
Amen.
And I tell you that because sometimes pastors falsely promise if you take a step of faith, every time it works out. Take a step of faith, perfect health, take a step of faith, perfect wife, perfect husband. For my wife, that's worked, but whole nother story hasn't worked. But we get this idea that we did it your way and then it didn't work out. What does that mean?
It means God's still good, meaning God's still loving. It means he still wants to be the center of our lives. When we preference him through the pain, God still does great and amazing things. Amen. And here's the reality.
It's the reason why some people don't tithe or they get mad about tithing, or when the pastor talks about money they don't want to give because it's too hard. Because as miserable as you are here, you know, you start thinking, well, how am I going to give 10% because I can't even afford what I'm doing now? And how do I do that? Because if I do that, oh my goodness. I was just talking to a guy recently attends our church.
He was telling me that he and his wife had been praying with a group of friends and got to a place where he's wanted to pick a salary that he needed and everything else. He was just going to give away the kingdom. I'm not telling you that's what you need to do. I'm just telling you that's what he was prompted to do. And he was also prompted last year for six months to give away half of his salary.
And he said he started doing that in the first two months. Worked really, really well, going great. God's doing great things. Had extra in reserve in the extra bank account. Going really, really great until month three when they had to drain the extra bank account.
Now things got real. And now he's hearing that voice in his ear saying, how stupid are you giving money to the church when you can't even afford to pay your bills? And he said he went through a season where it was kind of tough, do we do this? Do we not do this? And all this.
But he said on the very last day of last year, he finished that six month commitment to the Lord that he gave him. And when he did, he said, my bank account had more in it than when I started. He goes, I don't even know how that happened. And all praise to God. And here's the point of that.
It's not about money. It's about trust. It's about trust. How do you trust the Lord? And here's the reality today, as you're sitting here, there's something that the Lord's prompting you to do.
It could be in a relationship, it could be with money, it could be with entrusting a loved one, it could be with sickness, it could be in a future, it could be in a job, any number of things, I don't know. But when the Lord prompts you in that little baby step and you're gonna prioritize him and you're like, okay, Lord, I don't even understand, but I know this much, then thy word becomes a lamp unto your feet, and it becomes a light unto your path. And as you continue to take those steps through the securest route that the Lord sometimes leads us on. Like, I would have never picked this path. I don't even know how I ended up here.
You look back over your life and you're like, it was the Lord all along. God led my path. And when you trust in the Lord with all your heart and you lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways, you acknowledge him. He makes your paths straight. That's why you love all the stories of faith in the Bible.
You know the ending of the story when Abraham took his son Isaac up to sacrifice him. And you're like, whoa, Abraham, great faith. But it's cause you know the end. You love the story of David and Goliath. Cause you know the end.
You love the story of Noah. Cause you know the end. Friends, I'm here to tell you the end. If you're faithful to the Lord, whatever may come here, there's great return on investment in the life to come. No matter what, you can't over prioritize the Father.
Incredible return on investment. So here's what I'd ask, and it's different for each one of you. What might the Lord be calling you to start? What might the Lord be calling you to stop? What might the Lord be calling you to start doing differently than how you're doing it right now.
I don't know what that looks like for each and every one of you. I really don't. But the Father does. And he sees your heart. And when you pursue him and you go after him and you say, lord, I'm going to seek first your kingdom and your righteousness, and I'm going to trust that all these things will be added unto me.
That's when you get to see blessing in your life. And that's why he ends this by saying, so don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Friends, you and I don't know what a day is going to bring forth. I don't know if this is my last day on the planet or I've got 50 more years.
I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen geopolitically across the world. I don't know. Here's what I know. My redeemer lives.
And the Father gives me an opportunity to prioritize him every single day as long as I have breath. Amen. And that's what he wants from you. And it's like anything else in life. It's so interesting to me whether we're talking about riding a bike, like I've never asked a person who rides a bike who can, which is most of you.
Did you ever fall when you were starting? Everybody does. We get that. Or if you played a sport like golf or baseball or there's some technical skill you have to learn. Nobody starts it perfect.
And yet we falsely believe because the enemy lies to us. You better get this Christian thing perfect. You didn't get it right when you were unsaved, but now you're a Christian. You better get it right every time. Nobody gets it right every time.
I don't get it right. Every time. You don't get it. But we're not doing it perfectly. We're following the perfect one increasingly.
And as you do and as you prioritize the Father, he will change you. So I tell you, seek first his kingdom, his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Amen. Amen. Would you stand with me, our Father?
We've sang many songs today about our trust in you and how we take you at your word. And Lord, as we sing a refrain to this song, that we would place our faith and trust in you even more today for the very thing you're showing us, that we would sing it loudly, sing it with our whole heart, and believe that you have our best. We place all of our troubles and anxieties in your hands. We prioritize you and we trust you for all things. In Jesus name, Amen and amen.
Can we give God praise for his word?