Carpenter's Tools - By Pastor Wallace Phillips

This week's message: Seek First ....

Matthew’s gospel records the preaching ministry of Jesus addressing a crowd of worrisome people – they were worried about their own personal care. Who will take care of me? Where will I live? What will eat today? How will I survive? Jesus sets the precedent that the material or the natural needs of humanity will be taken care of in light of the spiritual.

His word in Matthew 6:33 was “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you as well.” These “things” are the necessities of live and survival. In order to secure that all your needs will be met you must place your confidence in Him spiritually.

He said to “seek”. This word means in its root, “to worship”. I remember “seeking” after my wife 24 years ago. I adored time with her. I chased her. I longed to be with her, better yet, I “worshiped” her. I wanted to show her, her worth to me. That’s what worship is. It’s literally “worthship”. Then Jesus said it should be “first”. This word simply means “in order of importance”. We should show Him his worth first; before anyone or anything.

What then shall we seek first?

The answer – His kingdom and His righteousness. The kingdom means “the realm of God”. It’s a spiritual realm. It means relationship with Him. The kingdom of this world is not to be the kingdom that we seek. We live in it, not of it. Next, we seek his righteousness. That literally means we seek His character. Our character is marred by sin. His character is what we should seek. We receive from him love, joy, peace, gentleness, patience, self-control, etc. The fruit of the Spirit is imparted to us as we seek Him.

Let’s see that our needs are met by seeking Him who is the very creator of all of mankind. Seek first…His kingdom….His righteousness…then the necessities of life will be added unto you.

Have an awesome week and visit us on the web at http://www.cscministries.com/ .