* Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.

Moore's Corner Church

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Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts.

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Morse Corner is a non -denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist

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D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's Word through the ministries of the local church.

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If you'd like more information is on our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message.

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Putting money above God, what's the word for that? You put something above God. Yeah idolatry.

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Look at 1st Timothy 6 verse 6. Now godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

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In having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.

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Are people content with just food and clothing? Most people are not content.

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The Lord tells us to be content though. Verse 9. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.

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For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

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But you, O man of God, Paul speaking to Timothy, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.

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What's he saying? These are the things that really matter. A clear conscience before God is more valuable than any lump sum of money.

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A clear conscience, being right with God, having hope, these are things money can't buy.

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Because those who seek after money, I think we realize this, maybe doesn't change someone's opinion, but people who seek after money, you know, how much is enough?

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I mean, ask Bill Gates. How much, Bill? How much is enough? I don't know, I don't, maybe he has an answer for that.

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But this is the way people are. How much is enough? So, what's the principle? Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

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So, where is your treasure this morning? Again, between you and God, you can just ask that.

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What do you delight in the most? Is it a person? The Lord Jesus Christ?

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Is it other people? Is it material things? Okay, let's turn back to Matthew chapter 6.

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But obviously money can be an idol. Nothing wrong with money necessarily.

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There's some Old Testament characters who are very wealthy and very godly. So, this isn't, you know, a sermon just against the rich or something like that.

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But money, it's dangerous. Money is an idol. This is the idol of Mammon.

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The idol of Mammon. Very prevalent in the world today. And the more you seek it, the more you want it.

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And obviously, people do some terrible things for money. But if your heart is where it's supposed to be, delighting in God, that helps set everything else in its proper order.

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Otherwise, the danger is if we love things more than people, if we love treasure more than God, we're going to come up empty.

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What if you died the richest person in the world but you didn't know

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Christ? Or you died the richest person on earth and you had nobody there with you.

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All of your relationships were severed and broken. What good is that? See, my goal in life is not to store up a certain amount of money, get these things and acquire that.

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You know, the things that really matter to me, I need to keep things in their proper priority. I think you do as well.

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We need to put who first? Right? Seek God first.

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Seek the kingdom of God. You know, the things that are important to me. The most important thing to me is that when

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I pass into eternity that I go to be with the Lord. That is the most important thing for me, and it's the most important thing for you, and my desire for you.

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Because what does it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and yet lose his own soul?

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So, by putting God first, everything else then should be in its proper priority.

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Otherwise, here's what you get, Solomon in Ecclesiastes 1 .14. If you've never read the book of Ecclesiastes, some people say this is like the most depressing book in the

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Bible. And well, that might be true. But what's it about? It's a life without God, seeking pleasure in things.

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Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 1 .14, I have seen all that the works, or I've seen all the works that are done under the sun, and indeed all is what?

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Vanity and grasping for the wind. So, we can lay hold on eternal life, or we can be left grasping for the wind.

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Look at verse 22, and all of these things Jesus is talking about are at least loosely connected.

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He says, the lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.

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How can we make sure it's good? Put God first. But verse 23, if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.

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If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?

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A lot of people have a hard time understanding what Jesus is saying here. One commentator writes this, this is an argument from the lesser to the greater.

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The analogy is simple. If your eye is bad, no light can come in, and you are left with darkness because of that malady.

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So, if you're blind, no light is coming in, you can't see. How much worse, then, the problem is, not merely related to external perception, but an internal corruption of one's whole nature, so that the darkness actually emanates from within and affects one's whole being.

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This is why people need to be born again and receive that new nature in Christ, because our nature, all of us, from day one, being born into this world, our natural tendencies have a bent away from God.

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Not towards God, away from God. And these idols help keep people fixed in their bent away from God.

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What are the main idols in our society? Well, again, mammon, material wealth, and I think sex.

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Sex and money is what drives the world. Sex and money is what is driving American culture.

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We live in a materialistic society, right? I don't think you're gonna get any arguments about that, and we all get affected by it.

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So, the question is, is God going to have his rightful place in our life, on top, number one, or are things number one?

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Are we seeking after stuff? Or maybe a person could be an idol to you.

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So, that's the choice that we have. And if we're seeking after money, or certainly if we're seeking after ungodly things, then the darkness isn't just the fact that no light is getting in, the darkness is within.

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Verse 24. So, this is our choice. Jesus says, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.

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You cannot serve God and what? Mammon. What's that?

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Wealth, treasure, materialism. You cannot serve God and that.

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Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, and what you will eat, and what you will drink, nor about your body, and what you will put on.

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Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, yet your

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Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you, by worrying, can add one cubit to his stature?

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The reason Jesus says this is because he knows this is what people do. They're all worried about the things of life, what am

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I going to wear, and do I have the brand name clothing that's, you know, usually young kids deal with that.

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And we're worried about all this worldly stuff, and what good does that worry do?

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Zero. It does no good at all. But when you're worldly minded, this is where people put their focus.

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You worry, not just about those things. Today, a lot of people worry about like current events, right?

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The things of this world. People worry today about the things that the world tells them to worry about.

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You know, I said some people would do well if they took a fast from television, and I realize I'm preaching right now, and I might not make too many friends with this one.

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But you know, do you realize much of what gets reported out there as news is manipulation?

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They want you to be worried about this thing, and then there's the next big thing, and you need to be worried about that.

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And what they're doing is they're playing both sides against the middle, and it creates an unnecessary level of anxiety.

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People are anxious because they're worried about things that are sometimes never going to affect them. I think the devil can use that.

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So it's not just materialism. You'd be worried about just any worldly thing that takes your mind away from Christ.

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When you have money, when you have a lot of stuff, what do you end up doing? You worry about keeping it. You worry about how you can get more.

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And this isn't a sermon about giving away all your possessions and joining a monastery or something like that.

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That's not it. But if we are not feeling fulfilled, there's a reason for that.

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God is probably not in his rightful place if we are not feeling fulfilled. Most people are seeking after creature comforts instead of seeking after the

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Creator who has already provided for us in abundance. Has God provided for you?

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I know we could all think about the things that we want, or the things that we don't have, things that we can't afford, and all the rest.

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But look at the things that you do have. Has God been good to you? Has God provided for you?

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If you live in this country, He has. He does it everywhere, but especially here.

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Look at verse 28. So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.

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They neither toil nor spin. And yet I say to you that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these.

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Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will

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He not much more clothe you? Oh, you of little faith.

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You realize Solomon was the greatest. Up until that time he was the greatest king the world had ever seen.

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Solomon was a man who literally had everything. He had it all.

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And yet the book of Ecclesiastes is sort of like his autobiography about all the wealth, all the power, all the fame.

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What did it do? Did it make a happy? No. It made him what?

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Miserable, because he did not put God first. He said all is vanity.

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Solomon became an idolater. He took God down and put something in his rightful place.

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Just consider, we're almost done, but the way we live today. In this country we live like kings.

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I don't care if you're on the lower end of things you still live like a king compared to how most people have lived throughout history.

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It's true. And what do we do? We still end up grumbling, and complaining, and, I don't have this, and it's just not fair.

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Or we worry. You know that's true. So, what's the advice that Jesus gives?

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Look at verse 33, therefore what? Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

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And all these other things will be added unto you. He goes back in verse 31, therefore do not worry saying, what shall we eat?

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Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For after all these things the

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Gentiles seek. So, when we act like that, we're actually acting like an unbeliever. Instead of being focused and appreciative on all the good things that God has done.

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He says, for your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

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And all these other things will be added unto you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow.

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And this is some parting advice. Okay, so the rest of the day put this into practice. Today, tomorrow, do not worry about tomorrow.

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For tomorrow will worry about its own things. God is going to provide.

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God is going to care for you. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

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So, here's the advice. Take things one day at a time. I don't know about you, but God has always provided for me in abundance.

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Above and beyond. Not just my basic needs. He has provided, yeah, we do live like royals.

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Not compared to royals today, compared to people 100 years ago, 500 years ago.

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We have it so very good. Amen? Do you recognize that? We have it so very good.

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And God has provided most of all by sending His Son into this world to die on the cross for our sin.

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So, that's the most important thing of all. Seek first the kingdom. How do we seek the kingdom?

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We seek the King. Remember Jesus' original message when He began

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His preaching ministry back in chapter 4, repent for the kingdom is at hand.

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Jesus is the King. Seek Him. We seek the righteousness of God when we seek the righteous one sent by God.

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If the Lord is in His proper place, everything else will be taken care of.

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So, seek first the kingdom of God. Amen? All right, let's close. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this simple message to put

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God first. And Lord, if we're distracted by the things of this world, by whatever it is, television, stress, other people trying to draw us away,

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Lord, I just pray if fasting is what it takes to take a day or two and to deprive ourselves from some things, just to prove to ourselves we can do it and to show to you we're serious,

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Lord, I just pray that each and every one of us would pursue a relationship with you through Christ, that we would pursue that first and make

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Christ first in our lives. And if someone's never done that, if someone's never trusted in Jesus, I pray today they would say,

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Lord, I realize you are God and I need to start putting you first. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin and rose again.

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And because He rose again, He is Lord. He is my Lord and I will forever put Him first.

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And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening.

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I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Coronet Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscoronetchurch .com.

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And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, with the grace of God be with you.