Matthew 6:19-34, First Things First, Dr. John B. Carpenter

Matthew chapter 6, be reading from verses 19 to 34. Hear the word of the

Lord. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body, so if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.

But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness.

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and money. Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air.

They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them.

Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to a span of life?

And why are you anxious about your clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.

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

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow was thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you?

O you of little faith. Therefore do not be anxious, saying, what should we eat or what should we drink or what should we wear?

For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them all.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word. The third of the seven habits of highly effective people, according to popular author

Stephen Covey, is to put first things first. Covey's book,

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, has sold over 40 million copies, including one copy someone thought

I needed to read and so bought it for me. It was the first non -fiction audio book to sell over one million recordings.

Covey insists that people have a need to, quote, to live, to love, to learn, and to leave a legacy.

I love good alliteration. Well done. To fulfill those four needs, he says we need to move beyond urgency addiction.

That is the tyranny of the urgent, like many phone calls, distractions, interruptions, what we think is the next thing

I have to do. To do that, don't just do the next thing, like you're climbing stairs, like now

I've got my education, now I need my job, and so forth. Instead, put first things first.

Think about what is most important and pursue that. Of course, to do that, you need to understand what are the first things.

You need to have a vision. The first habit of a highly effective person, by the way, is to have that vision of what you want to be and what you want to achieve.

See it in your mind's eye. This is my vision of who I am. Then intentionally organize your life for that vision.

See clearly what are the first things that you want to pursue. He writes, quote, first things are those things you personally find of most worth.

If you put first things first, you are organizing and managing your time and events according to the personal priorities you have established.

What are the first things for you then? Abraham Maslow described what he said was a hierarchy of needs.

The people's first things change based on what's next, like climbing up a pyramid, beginning with the urgent physical needs for survival, for food and drink.

If you were out of food, you would think, this is my first thing, I'm going to get that. Then once those urgent needs are met, you go to the next level, seeking to ensure your safety from danger, from disease.

Then once those are met, you move on to emotional needs, the needs for a spouse or a family or friends.

And then once those are met, you move up to psychological needs, like a sense of respect and confidence, achievement, leaving a legacy, like Covey would call it.

And then finally, if all that is taken care of, you can move up to the highest level, self -actualization,

Maslow called it, that is achieving your spiritual potential. People further down the hierarchy of needs, that is seeking kind of the more basic ones, they may be religious, they may be seeking spiritual things, but often their religion is just magic.

It's just a tool to help them achieve whatever they want next. If they're hungry, whatever helps me get that food that I need.

They want a spouse next, they want God to provide that thing, that spouse next.

The success they crave, the sense of self -esteem or the worth that they've been lacking, they will use their religion for that.

Perhaps they bought into the prosperity gospel. Their magic words that they use is some verses, a few verses taken out of context.

Their religion is a motivational tool to help them to get to the next level. Or maybe if they just haven't gotten there, things have turned out badly for them, it's a way of helping them cope with the fact that they haven't made it to the next level and they just can't.

And for many, if they ever do make it, they become rich, highly effective people, reaching the pinnacle of their hierarchy of needs, self -actualization, whatever that means.

I really don't know what it means, but apparently it means something. Then once they've reached that, sometimes they will just forsake

Christ, their religion, because now they think they don't need him anymore. They don't need the magic to help them succeed because they're already successful.

They don't need to cope because they have nothing to have to cope with. They've arrived. For some, they may stay religious.

Some such people may stay religious. They stay in the church, but they want a kind of quiet, respectable religion, a church with a big steeple, an ornate building, short, dignified services, maybe a pastor with a robe and fancy hat and maybe even better, a

PhD. For them, to put first things first, is to envision where you want to be and prioritize the steps to get there and be a highly effective person.

And they'll use religion to get there. Maybe they'll abandon their religion once they do, or maybe they'll just hollow it out to serve their purposes, make it into kind of a symbol.

To them, Christianity then becomes like a Rolls Royce or pure breed poodle.

It's a status symbol. Look what I have because I can afford it. It's a trophy. Now that you've reached the top of your hierarchy of needs, you've reached the

American dream. And they'll use their religion to show that off. But here the

Lord Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God has come on earth and that is the first thing.

This is one simple passage, a little bit longer than we've been doing recently, but it's one simple passage with a simple theme beginning boldly with a statement of what you are not to seek and then with the conclusion of what we are to seek.

To put first things first. And Jesus here shows us this in two sections. First, the single vision and then the satisfied seeker.

Well, first the single vision from verses 19 to 24. Life is not, according to the Lord Jesus, just climb up a set of pyramids of needs.

It's hard, but you can get there from urgent and basic generally to the more spiritual and complex.

Life is one simple, he says, quest. Lay up treasure in heaven.

Put first things first. And he says in verse 19, do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth. He's warning here both against misers and materialists.

Now in their day they would protect their treasures, perhaps clothing or excess food or even coins.

Either save them up in their house where there were insects in their moths. They could eat the material, eat the cloth.

Corrosion could consume even the metal coins. Or thieves could break in, find the hidden treasures in a hole in the floor or under a bed and just take it away.

So they lost their treasure. Now today people think, well, we've beaten all that. We think we can protect our treasure with mothballs and rat poison and mousetraps and rust -proof paints, burglar alarms, safety deposit boxes, self -storage units, government -insured banks or just insurance.

They'll promise us, they'll give us our treasure back and somehow we lose them. But as we've seen over the last three years plus, our treasures can disappear through inflation, maybe through identity theft.

There's always a way here on earth for us to lose our treasures, if our treasures are on earth.

There is simply no safe place on earth to store your treasure if your treasure is on earth.

The problem is not that, well, we lock things away from thieves or that we store excess food.

That's not what the Lord Jesus is condemning here. Our problem is not using banks or locks, storing the excess.

Our problem is when what we put in the banks or behind the locks becomes our treasure, our first thing.

And then, guess what happens? Then keeping it becomes our first thing. Well, instead,

Jesus tells us in verse 20, lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven. Literally, it's store up for yourself a treasure house in heaven.

Make heaven where your valuables are, where you store your treasure. Jesus himself is to be our your treasure and so you give secretly for the heavenly reward.

You pray in private for the recognition in heaven. You occasionally fast, unknown to others down here. You read your

Bible because you love it because that's what you really want to do.

That's what you treasure. You treasure serving God like that.

You turn heaven into your treasure house, into your bank, into your self -storage facility.

You know the old Kmart on Riverside is now a self -storage facility, right? All the things you could turn that building into, big building, make it into a self -storage place.

It's big business of providing self -storage, by the way. Even Yanceyville has a self -storage place. Almost everyone now has self -storage around.

People put their treasures in there hopefully to be safe from the thieves and everything else.

Where is your treasure? Well, you can have a lot of things on earth and yet not have them as your treasure and we'll know if the things are not your treasure by how generous you are, how willing you are to give.

Your check stubs show where your treasure is. A couple of the key people whom the

Lord used to give us this building are highly effective people. In 2009, Mary emailed them in Singapore telling them that this church, you know, at the time we had no real house, no building.

We were living, we were renting out the wreck, the gem in Yanceyville. Anyway, we wanted to buy this building but we lost the financial support that we thought we would get to get it.

And with a few minutes, Mary got an email back saying, praise the Lord. We were just praying what we should do with this money we have.

With all this money, what are we going to do with it? Now, most people think I'm going to spend it on myself. I'm going to go to Hawaii or wherever.

We're in Singapore to go on vacation. New Zealand. Spend it on yourself. But no, that wasn't their prayer.

Who are we going to give this to? What treasure can I get in heaven with this stuff? Well, and they said, is it

God good in answering our prayer? No, we can give it to. And they saw it as a blessing to have the opportunity to give and they wired the church $25 ,000 and later $32 ,000 for refurbishment.

And there's no tax deduction for charitable giving in Singapore. They were just laying up treasure in heaven.

Now, some can be poor. You say, well, they're rich. Of course, they could give that much money away. But some can be poor. But still, their greatest treasures are their things.

Poor people can be greedy too, you know. Their treasure is their rundown car, their dilapidated house.

They want a better one, but they treasure what they have. In fact, one of the reasons some people are poor is precisely because their treasures are on earth.

They can't discipline themselves to save and to not buy something they need because they just so treasure having it. They got to get it, so they charge through a credit card and end up paying exorbitant interest because they had to have whatever, the clothes they treasure, the electronics they treasure, the expensive meal out they treasured eating, a car with payments too high.

But they treasure driving it. The problem is not taking care of your things on earth. It's making them your treasure, making them your first things.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Jesus says in verse 21. Think about that.

Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Our heart follows our treasure.

If we treasure money, our heart is all about money. So we skip church so we can make more of it. Right? Now I would have thought he would say where your heart is, there will your treasure be.

Right? He really says where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. But he says, I would have thought he would have said where your heart is, there your treasure, your money will be.

Now if we love God from our heart, our money, our treasure is given to God, right? Our heart goes first and then our money follows.

And that's true. But what Jesus is saying here is that what you treasure in practice by storing it up, by protecting it, by working for more of it, by spending on it to get more of it, giving to it to get more of it.

Well then your heart goes there. Now if you pay, I watch a lot of football games, but if you pay to see a football game, if you actually go there, you spend the money for the ticket and getting to travel and the concessions and all that, you really care more about your team winning then than if you're just sitting home watching on TV.

Political candidates know this fact. They want you to give to them, even if just a little bit, even just a few dollars, they would love, not because always because they're desperate for money, but because they know that if you give to them, then you're more interested in them.

And so you're more likely to show up and vote because now you have, you've invested in it, in them.

So you're going to take the time to go vote. If you want to care more about something, put your treasure in it, spend more on it.

You want to care more about the Word of God, you want to care more about worship, about evangelism, about missions, well then give to it, invest in it.

And then what will happen, your mind will think about it, you think, well I gave to that,

I gave to spreading the gospel in Ethiopia, wherever. So you care more about it, your heart is in it, your treasure house will be in spiritual things.

And this contradicts the idea we can take care of other things first, we can put second things first for a while, we can take care of our business, put our attention in our business, our money, our career, our needs, for now, our dating for now, kind of like we're climbing up the pyramid.

And then our heart will still treasure first things,

God, later. When I'm done taking care of this, I'll get around to God later. That's the way many people think, particularly young people, that I can put off God until I take care of these more urgent things that I got facing me now.

No, what happens is that you get to the top and you end up,

I don't care about God anymore. I mean, say that out loud, but that's what we see in your life. Put first things, not urgent things, first.

People think, well, first I got to make a lot of money, and then when I'm comfortable, then I'll go to church and worship and serve

God, then I will. It won't work that way, because then your heart will follow where you put all your time and your energy and your money.

And then when you reach the top of the pyramid, you won't treasure God anymore. So you better put first things first.

First. Now. This is the purpose of these two verses, 22 and 23.

It sounds kind of mysterious. Your eye is, if your eye is dark, your whole body is dark.

What's going on there? Well, the eye is the gate of light. Literally, we see light through our eye.

Our skin doesn't put light into our brain. It's our eye does. It lets light in. So what the eye is set on,

I think metaphorically, what we're looking at with our life or focused on, determines what comes into your heart.

If it is set on excess here on earth, the ambition for excess wrecks us. Well, then it's dark.

I saw a sign in Danville in front of a real estate company that read, have your eye sat on a piece of property? I think that's the sense of what

Jesus is using that word, the eye here for. It's what is our vision.

It's our goal in life. What's it set on? If it's set on property and gadgets and bling and cars or cash, these kind of things, well, then that's what we're focused on.

That's our vision. Then we're in the dark. And if your eye is set on on those things, you are in darkness.

You're full of darkness. If the eye in you is darkness because your mind's eye, your heart is all about those things, and there's no light from those things.

If it's just about cash, what you're looking at, what you're living for. For now, it's just about money, it's wealth, thrills, pleasure, sports, success.

That's the light in you because that's what you're focused on. How great is the darkness in you,

Jesus means. But if your vision is set on that heavenly storehouse where the light comes from, on the first things, then you will be full of light.

And the point is, in verse 24, you cannot serve both God and money.

Some people think, well, I need to make money now. I'll serve money now and God later, some people think.

But your heart will follow what you invest in. You invest your money in, your time, your attention.

Your heart will be in your treasure house. So even if you get to the top and you're wealthy, you're successful, self -actualized, whatever that means, if all you've done is spend your life climbing that pyramid of needs, you'll still only treasure what's on earth.

And that all becomes nothing. You need a single vision to put first things first.

In verse 24, you cannot serve God and literally mammon.

Mammon is an Aramaic word for riches, money, possessions, property. Now this passage you're reading in the original language is all in Greek and then there's this one

Aramaic word, so it really sticks out. It's like when you're reading English and there's a foreign word from somewhere, just sticks out to you.

Maybe you know what the word means, but it just sticks out by keeping it in the original language. That's what happens here.

It's in Greek. You're reading on and cannot serve God and their mammon. And mammon may have been a pagan god of wealth.

It is a god people still serve today. And some cultures, they serve it literally. Some cultures have literal idols to the god of wealth.

They'll give little sacrifices of money or food to their little idol of the god of wealth.

Maybe they'll have it on their counter there in their business, showing this is our god. Look at all the money flowing in.

But most people in our culture don't have a literal idol to the god of wealth. They just serve him every day.

They don't care about the idol, but they're in their heart. They're focused on him every day.

Maybe if they're good, they'll serve him six days a week, leaving one day for religion. But the true god is jealous and he does not like the competition.

He won't let you serve both him and mammon. Jesus says, have a single vision.

Put first things first. Second, the satisfied seeker.

Starting in verse 25, it begins with connecting, therefore, because it's connecting to what came before on the basis of the truth that I've just laid down.

Get you to put first things first. Your treasure in heaven. Your eye sat on your heavenly storehouse on the

Lord. He is your one and only master. Therefore, because of all that, don't worry.

Chill. I mean, relax. What are you worried about? You're not living for money, so you don't have to worry that you're losing some money by sitting here, because you're not worried about that.

Are you listening to a sermon? You're not worried. All those things that Maslow said normal people are supposed to be consumed with, step by step up their hierarchy of needs, climbing up until they get to the top.

They get the time and the luxury to care for spiritual things, maybe when they get up there. Of course, then by that time they won't care.

About all those things, you're supposed to accumulate one by one. Jesus says, don't worry about it.

Chill. Relax. Seek the Lord and be satisfied.

Now, some could misunderstand this, misuse it, and think, well, especially if they're lazy and they're kind of looking for an excuse.

People often say some kind of pious excuse for really what's just their sin of some kind.

Maybe they're just lazy and they're thinking, well, okay, if that's the case, I'll drop out of school. I won't worry about getting an education.

I won't even try to apply for a job. I won't work. I won't budget my money. I won't save a penny.

I'll spend as much as I want on whatever I have on every meal out I can get.

I won't put any thought to taking care of myself. And look, checks will just miraculously appear in the mail.

Isn't that what Jesus said? No. He said, don't think you can spend all your money eating out in expensive restaurants and then be out of money before the end of the month and having to beg for food because you didn't worry.

He said, but I trusted God. How come He didn't show up? No, you didn't trust God. He gave you enough.

You wasted it. That's not what Jesus is telling us here. One older version, even incorrectly, translates verse 25 as take no thought about your life.

But that's not what Jesus said. Jesus said, do not be anxious. Don't worry. He's not forbidding planning or how to have a good career or where best to save your money, how you should work and invest it and accumulate it.

Don't waste it on frivolous luxuries. He's not condemning budgeting and discipline.

He's not. Planning is not doubting. You can plan and save and go to bed and sleep well.

What Jesus forbids is neither thought nor forethought, but anxious thought. So don't worry.

Be happy. Don't even start climbing that pyramid, obsessed with making it to the next level.

If you want to know why, want a good example to follow, the birds. Verse 26, look at the birds in the air.

Want a good example? Go bird watching. Just look at them. He says they neither sow nor reap.

In other words, they don't farm. You've never been driving down the highway and looked, there's a bird on a tractor farming, you know, planting seeds so it can have more later on.

They don't bother about storing stuff away. You never see a bird renting a self -storage unit. Never. Doesn't happen.

They don't worry about where they can put their extra things. Look, I got so many things. I can't fit them in my nest.

I got to go to that place where the Kmart used to be and put my stuff in there. Now, the birds don't think like that. People think like that.

Birds don't. And they know what they're doing, Jesus is saying here. They aren't bird brains after all.

We're the bird brains. The birds are smart. They don't worry, and yet our

Heavenly Father takes care of them. Jesus tells us at the end of verse 26 that we are of much more value than the birds.

God cares more about you. You're made in the image of God. The birds aren't, but He takes care of the birds, so He's going to take care of you, right?

Maybe He takes such great care of the birds. And notice here, by the way, the theology behind it. Jesus just assumes it, and as He's teaching it, just assumes it that God is taking care of the birds.

This isn't just the laws of nature running without God involved, or the birds just evolved this way for their own survival of the fittest.

No, God arranged nature like this to take care of the birds. God is providing for the birds even through nature, and if He's doing that for them, can't you trust that He'll do it for you?

So don't worry. Worry just doubles the trouble. Worry can give you an ulcer.

In verse 27, Jesus tells us that we can't add even an hour to our span of life by worrying.

It's just true. He's actually giving good health advice here, kind of understating it.

In fact, you can lose hours of your lifespan by worrying. Now, by planning and discipline, you can add to your span of life.

You plan, you discipline yourself, but not by worrying. Worrying doesn't work. Worrying can destroy you, and so Jesus here is giving us good tips on health.

But He's going really way beyond that, way beyond just good health advice. You'll be healthier if you live a stress -free life.

That's true. That's great. But He goes way beyond that. He goes beyond that to the first thing.

He says worry shows a lack of trust in God. Oh, you of little faith.

In verse 30, the birds trust God more than you do. Worry says that God is not able to take care of your basic needs, and the birds know better than that.

Today, we worry because Matthew is basically right. Talk about his hierarchy of needs. That really is the way most people live.

They go from one level to another. We worry about the next step because we're still people of little faith.

So, in other words, be a bird brain by not thinking about what worries you.

But instead, we look out at the birds. Instead of trusting God, we look out at the birds that God is taking care of, and we can't see

God in it. Our little faith doesn't let us see God providing for them because, oh, we of little faith.

Put first things first. Then, want another example? We've got another example here. I didn't do very good for examples in this sermon, but here's another.

Jesus provides it. The flowers in verse 28. They don't worry either. They don't labor night and day.

No, no, don't think. Well, they don't even have brains, but that's beside the point. That's not the point here. The flowers, they don't labor night and day, always chasing after one more dollar.

The flowers don't get up in the morning thinking, well, I gotta work. I'm so desperate for money.

I can't go to church today because we're getting the lunch crowd come in. The flowers are so desperate to make a little more money that they can't close the shop for a few hours to worship

God. They don't do that. They don't slave away at the sewing machines putting together another outfit because it's gotta happen.

And yet, in verse 29, they're better clothed than even Solomon in all his glory. They're clothed in royal regalia without giving a thought to how they look.

Now, notice in verse 30, God clothes the grass of the field. He gives them their petals. And can't you trust

God? That's grass. It's just cut down. It's mowed, thrown in the furnace, burned.

So it's not worth very much, but God does that for the grass. You don't think he'll do it for you? It's not just nature.

And again, like before, he's saying God does this not because it's just nature out of control that just evolved that way.

No, God made that. He did that for the grass. God thought about the grass.

I'm gonna clothe the grass, God thought. And you don't think he thinks about you? Here, Jesus shows that nature is doing

God's bidding. Nature is God's tailor. God said to nature, make for these grass some beautiful clothing.

Make them from flowers. The turning of the leaves in the fall into brilliant colors is

God giving them a brilliant fashion show. Look what I could do. How beautiful I could make this tree.

Looks green most of the year. I'm gonna make it red for a couple weeks. That's wonderful, isn't it? Every leaf is from God.

And you're thinking, well, yeah, but he won't provide for me. Oh, no, he will. Oh, you have a little faith.

Now, be so preoccupied with earthly things that they engross you, they engross your attention, that's all you think about, they absorb your energy, they burden you with anxiety.

That's not just bad for your health. It is. It just won't give you an ulcer, make you lose hair and sleep.

It'll make you seek the wrong thing. We give up the worship of God to seek a few more dollars.

It's got to be in the shop. We've got to open it. We've got to make a little more money. Always a little more. How much is enough? There's always a little more.

You'll marry the wrong person because you couldn't trust God enough to wait for the right one. You're so worried we do such foolish things because deep down we don't really trust

God. We're of little faith. We don't really see him as our Heavenly Father. We are people of little or sometimes no faith.

We don't really believe the Father knows what we need or that he'll provide it. If he knew how badly

I needed a husband or wife, whatever, why is he giving it to me now? Maybe it's because he wants you to learn to put first things first.

Too often we live just like the world around us. You know, Jesus says the Gentiles seek the unbelievers. So the Gentiles, they seek these things.

Why are you consumed with them? You should know better. Jesus says in verse 23, the Gentiles seek all the stuff, the next step in the hierarchy of needs, worrying whether they'll make it up to the next one.

Then when they get there, it'll be something else they got to get. Maybe they'll go, they get to thinking about, maybe they think they'll get to thinking about spiritual things once they reach the top.

But for now, they think they need to, they need to finish the education, find the spouse, get the dream job, make the money, provide for the kids, get that poodle, get the big house, get the bigger house.

Their problem isn't just with what they are seeking, but that they are not seeking the first thing.

They're not seeking the kingdom of God. Now what does it mean to seek the kingdom of God? Seek it, pursue it.

Remember, this is, this whole sermon is the gospel, the good news of the kingdom. This is the good news that the rule of God has come on earth.

You want to live under God's rule? It's here. He's come to arrange life like he wants it to be, and it'll start with your life.

So you better seek that, pursue that. Now if we think, well, God is just like this pet poodle.

Otherwise, I can't have him now. The cost of a pet poodle is too expensive for me now. Once I get to the top, then

I want you taking care of other priorities of life.

If you think that way, you don't understand the kingdom, the kingdom of God.

We'll never understand that we're to seek not just a cute, adorable pet

God, nicely trimmed and trained, doing tricks at our command. No, we're seeking the kingdom, the rule of God.

So we're seeking someone who comes to rule over us, to command us that we are the ones who are supposed to kneel or beg or fetch when he says so.

Yes, the kingdom of God is the only treasure worthy of the human heart, but it is the exact opposite of the kind of self -actualization that Maslow said and most people, and probably correctly most people, seek.

God comes as the treasure, demanding that from the first step to the last, he is the first thing, and that above all, we are to seek his rule.

We're not just to seek his benefits. Help me to get to the next level. Give me prosperity, the health, the blessings that really do.

They really do, Jesus does say here, they really do come in our life. If we follow, if we seek his kingdom, these things will be added to you, he says.

So he's promising him that. He says here at the end of verse 33, all these things, all the things that other people seek, all the things they're trying to climb up the pyramid to get, will be added to you.

You will get them. Living in the Lord's way often, even on this earth, it often does lead to a happier, healthier, more prosperous life than if we just did our own thing.

If we're worried every day for what comes next, anxious of how we're going to make it up to the next step of the pyramid, perhaps the worst curse of all here on earth is to make it up to the top of that hierarchy of needs.

To be self -actualized, highly effective, wealthy, successful, but never putting the

Lord first, happily living all our days until a ripe old age, and pass away peacefully, surrounded by all the stuff that you manage to get and keep, and an expensive house with secure locks that thieves can't break through and steal your stuff.

Having achieved all of that and going to hell.

The first thing is not the relentless pursuit of wealth or success, but rather in God ruling our lives, ruling our heart, our money, seeking that rule, putting that first, put being right with him, he says his righteousness, his kingdom and his righteousness as the first thing.

That is having a good relationship, a right relationship with the Father, that we experience his provision and become givers like him because now we're right with him, we're more like him.

C. H. Spurgeon said, happiness lies in the heart rather than the purse. The first thing is

God's kingdom and righteousness. Righteousness here as in earlier in the sermon, chapter 5, earlier in chapter 6, all the things of life that are authentic parts of a relationship with the

Heavenly Father. Now not the fakery and the pretensions of the actors, the hypocrites who give and pray and fast openly for the reward they get here, who don't believe

God sees them in secret. We to seek his rule over every area of our lives and that real relationship with the

Father that we now whom the Father whom we now believe sees us in secret will reward us in secret, storing up that reward in our heavenly storehouse and he knows what we need so we can trust him.

And in conclusion in verse 34, do not be anxious about tomorrow again. Don't worry.

Tomorrow will be anxious for itself and when tomorrow comes then it will be today and all these things will be added to you.

The birds know that. You should too. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

So focus on today and today put first things first.

The message of this passage is really very simple. Put God's rule and your relationship with him first.

It's just doing it that's hard. Really it's either impossible because he's not your father, you don't really know him yet, or it's easy because he's become your father and he did it.

He extended his rule over you. He changed your heart so that what you once hated and tried with all your might to avoid, you think you were just cold to, you just did not care about his kingdom, his rule, and being right with him, you just had no thought for it, you had no concern for it, no interest in it.

Now you love it. Now that's your treasure and I believe he's done that in many of your lives.

So don't worry. Be happy. Don't worry about climbing the ladder of needs, about what's going to happen tomorrow, about the next thing you have to have.

Just serve the Lord one day at a time and watch him provide for you. O you of little but hopefully growing faith.

And for others who find this impossible, maybe who aren't here because they're out chasing more dollars, for others who find this impossible, who if you're honest with yourself admit that this has not been your treasure, that you can't stop worrying, that you can't trust him enough to believe that he'll provide, can't trust him enough to cut off the sins and the relationships you know that are taking you away from the rule of God to you.

We don't just say, just try harder, do a little bit more, apply yourself.

No, that won't work. You need

God's grace. Cast yourself on the Lord for it.

Seek his kingdom, his rule to include you. So now he is your father.

Seek him to adopt you and to send his spirit into your heart so that now you cry out,

Father, and you treasure him and your eye is set on him.

He is your vision and so you cry out, Be thou my vision,

O Lord of my heart, naught, there's nothing else, be all else, all the things that the world seeks to me, save, except only that thou art.