Sermon monologue for Sunday, March 9, 2003

Matthew 6:33 - Page 1 of 3
Focal Verses: Matthew 6:33

Our focal verse for this year is Matthew 6:33.

Matthew 6:33

33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

In this verse we are giving two commands and a promise. The first thing we are commanded to do is seek. The Webster Dictionary gives in part the following in defining the word seek, "to go in search of: look for, to try to discover, to ask for".

We have to go looking for God's kingdom before we can discover God's kingdom and his righteousness. As I thought about seeking, I was brought back to an illustration that Jesus gives on seeking.

Luke 15:8

8Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?

Notice what the woman does to find the lost coin. She begins a diligent search throughout the house. She lights up the house to be sure that there is no dark place that the coin may be. She searches until the coin is found. You may ask the question here, what was so important about this coin? It is just one coin. How valuable can it be? It had the value of about 18 cents. In that time18 cents was a great deal of money for a common person. It could it be that the buying power of this coin made the difference between having food on the table and not having food. It could it have made the difference between life and death. This however may not have been why the woman was searching so hard for it.

William Barclay's commentary states another possible reason. He states that the coin that was lost was a part of head crown jewel. He stated, "In Palestine the mark of a married woman was a headdress made of ten silver coins linked together by a silver chain. For years maybe a girl would scrape and save to amass her ten coins, for the headdress was almost equivalent of her wedding ring".

So valuable it could not even be taken from her to pay off a debt. It may well be that it was one of these coins that the woman in the parable lost. She searched for it as any one would search if they had lost their wedding ring. If you have a wedding ring on this morning you know the value of it. It is very special and the value cannot be replaced. The woman's whole attention was set on finding the lost coin, because it had a special meaning in her life.

We need to have the same attitude about finding God's kingdom and righteousness for ourselves and for this body. God's Kingdom and righteousness have a special place in our life. We as the church are called the bride of Christ. We need to have the same sense of urgency and commitment that this woman had.

We are told that seeking God's kingdom and righteousness is to be our first priority in life. That means we put aside everything else that would take our attention off of finding it. In the preceding verses, Jesus touched on things that we might want to make a higher priority than seeking God's kingdom. Let's take a moment and look at some of them.

Matthew 6:25

25Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

Your Life

We have to make a living. We have to take care of the family that God has given us. We have to take care of ourselves too. All of that comes after seeking God's kingdom and His righteousness.

What we will eat and drink.

In some homes the question seems to always be, what is for the next meal or what is in the refrigerator that is good to eat? Most of us eat three meals a day, and when we are not eating, we are thinking about the next meal.

Our body

Have you noticed how many ads are on TV for body improvement. There are people getting rich because of all the desire to improve our body. This also includes our outward looks too. Hair spray, lipstick and on and on this list could go.

What we will wear

How much time did you spend in getting ready today? You had to pick out what you were going to wear. It had to have been cleaned and pressed. Make sure the shoes were right.