Welcome to session two of our series Kingdom Disciples, Heaven's Representatives on Earth. In this session we want to deal with the primary concern of discipleship. It's stated clearly in Matthew 6.33, seeking first. the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. God's primary concern is His kingdom.
God's kingdom is His rule and He wants His kingdom to be first. God can do a lot of things. but one of the things he can't do is be second. Nor can his rule be second. And when you learn to prioritize his rule and his standards, you get the benefits of discipleship.
So let's find out what first really looks like and what it looks like when his kingdom is front and center in your life. Music My favorite place to go is New York City on vacation. I love the glitz and the glitter and all the cuisine and Broadway and just every kind of person from all around the world.
Love to go to New York. When my wife goes with me and we're on vacation, she loves New York too, particularly Fifth Avenue. Fifth Avenue is where all the fancy stores are, and that's where her favorite store is, Saks.
Saks Fifth Avenue. It's known for its display windows. If you go there during Christmastime, you will see magnificent displays that capture the attention of people gathered all around. People line all the way around the building to see the displays. During the normal year, those display windows are not open.
windows are filled with mannequins, better known as dummies. These are good-looking mannequins, well-dressed mannequins. In fact, I saw a mannequin one day sitting in a Ferrari.
I mean, they do it up in Saks Fifth Avenue windows. Now, the reason why they do this with the mannequins, they make this display with the dummies. It's because Saks Fifth Avenue windows are filled with Fifth Avenue knows there are dummies like us walking up Fifth Avenue. You see, what they want their mannequin to achieve is to draw me off the street, to draw us off the street into a kingdom called sex.
They want the ones they have put on display to be advertisement, so that once drawn off the street, there's floor after floor after floor after floor. of so much more to offer. God has kingdom disciples who he wants to put on public display because of their identification in baptism to be an attraction to the kingdom of God. God's concern is the advertisement of his kingdom. Oh yeah, it starts with conversion.
But then it moves to kingdom rule. And so the concept of being... a kingdom disciple is to be a Christian, a believer, who is progressively participating in the process of learning what it is to live all of life under the lordship, rulership, kingship of Jesus Christ. And so I want to give you now the master key to being a kingdom disciple.
If you get this key, then you will be able to lock or unlock all the doors of your world and your life. We'll learn about it later, but it's called binding and loosing, permitting or forbidding, that is exercising kingdom authority. What is this master key that will, like my master key at our church or at the Urban Alternative, our national ministry, that means it unlocks every door because it's a master key. If you do not understand or operate with the master key, then you got to find individual keys. and try to see what works where.
So I'm going to give you the master key for every lock of your life, every door of your circumstance. Jesus preached a sermon. It is the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher who's ever preached.
Jesus Christ. and you know it well, it's called the Sermon on the Mount. And as he proclaims the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter 5 through Matthew chapter 7, he gives the master key to...
to his kingdom message in Matthew 6, 33. He simply says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Most people today have smartphones, and they usually have a pass.
that will give you access to a whole world of information, a whole world of data. In this small phone, once you use the right password, you gain access to more than you could ever imagine because it houses the world in this device. God, in this one verse, situated in this one sermon, is given the master key, the primary concern that you should have as a kingdom disciple.
To seek ye first the kingdom. Now we've already said the kingdom is God's divine rule. The theme of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is about one subject.
One of the reasons that people have trouble making sense of all the different things that the Bible is talking about is because they do not understand the one subject of the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation, the one subject of the Bible is the glory of God. of God through the advancement of his kingdom.
That is the one subject, although it is reflected in different ways, in different times, to different groups of people. But it's about this rule of God, this overarching program in history where God would express his rule through mankind before men. In understanding that you are to...
seek pursue this kingdom you are pursuing his rule that's why we talk so much about the kingdom in our ministry the urban alternative kingdom man kingdom woman raving kingdom kids kingdom marriage and now kingdom disciples because it's all about the rule of god god would call all the men together three times a year according to exodus chapter 34 verses 23 and 24 and he'd tell all the men leave the women and children at home. I just want all the males and all the men. And it uses three different Hebrew names for God, Elohim, Yahweh, and Adonai.
And he says, I want all the men to come under my roof, under my rule. And he says, if I can get all the men to come under my roof and under my rule, I'm going to send you back to your family and send you back to your homes. And when I send you back, you will be covered. You will be protected. And no nation will be able to take what you have because you've listened to the Lord your God.
God. When God created Adam, he gave him instructions on how he was to rule. Satan's job is to remove us from the pursuit of the kingdom.
Once you're in the kingdom, because you've accepted Christ, he can't do anything about that. But as long as you are going to heaven and you're no good for earth, he'll live with that because he knows there'll be no impact. There'll be no influence. There'll be no difference made. The Bible is about pursuing this.
Kingdom. I used to be chaplain for the Dallas Cowboys. My son has taken over that role since he finished his NFL stint, and now he's now the chaplain. And when I was chaplain, I was chaplain doing the Roger Starback, Tony Dorsett, Drew Pearson era. And I would go out, and I would literally work out with the team, okay?
This was a way of me living my life. dream. And so I would go and I would literally work out.
So Roger Staubach in practice would throw me passes as they got in the passing line and I would just be having a great time out there as chaplain of the team. As chaplain. I learned some of the plays. As chaplain I learned some of the plays and one particular play was what we call a fly pattern.
A fly pattern is where the quarterback receives the ball, he backs up. and the receiver runs straight down the field seeking to outrun the defender and he hurls it in the air in order to score a touchdown in one play. It's called a fly pattern, to score a touchdown in one play.
But many times, many times, the defense, the other team, is what we call blitzing, blitz the play. Now, blitz, for you non-football people, is where the linebacker or defensive back pauses, waits, and then tries to come in quickly to tackle the quarterback before he has a chance to throw the ball to score a touchdown in one play. Well, Well, God called a kingdom play, and he called the kingdom play to Israel. And Israel would be his kingdom community through which he would reach the whole world.
They were to be lights to the whole world. The problem is Satan blitzed the play. He came in and he got the Jewish leaders to reject Jesus Christ, to say crucify him. so that they did not get the kingdom that Jesus came to offer. All through the Gospels, Jesus says, I have come to preach the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God is at hand. I'm right in your midst. Let's get this kingdom thing working where I'm ruling on behalf of my Father over the whole earth through Israel.
But Satan blitzed the play. But when I was working out with the cowboys, they had an alternative. scheme if a blitz occurred.
If a blitz occurred, there was what they called a waggle. Now, a waggle is where the halfback peels off to the side so that if the quarterback gets in trouble because the enemy has blitzed the play, he becomes an alternative option to the original signal called. So when Roger Starbeck saw him, he did not have time to throw the touchdown in one play because this blitz, this other team was getting ready to tackle him. He would turn to the side and shuttle the pass over to the halfback who had just peeled off to the side as another option, but the option was to accomplish the same goal. The first goal was a touchdown to the receiver, but because of the blitz, the goal now was a touchdown.
down through the running back. Well, God called a kingdom touchdown pass to Israel. Satan blitzed the play, but God had a waggle.
What God did was he called the church into being, and the church would be the new mechanism through which he would express his kingdom rule in history. Until such time, he renewed it with his people Israel. You are God's waggle. You and I making the church of Jesus Christ. When he said he'd hand the kingdom over to another group of people.
That's you and I. So you and I are God's waggle. We are his.
official representatives to represent his presence, his person, and his authority in history. He says, I want you to seek or pursue My kingdom. Seek the kingdom. Pursue the kingdom. And pursue the righteousness of the kingdom.
The righteousness of the standards by which the kingdom... operates the rules by which the kingdom works God's kingdom does not often follow the rules of the culture God's kingdom does not often follow follow the rules of popular opinion. God's kingdom does not often follow the rules of what society views as acceptable.
In fact, you and I are living in a day when the rules are changing at warp speed, when things that we have cherished are being either rejected or redefined. The tragedy is when Christians are adopting the rules of the opposing team. teams in the culture.
and not the standards that emanate from God. Let me say this clearly. God has spoken and he has not stuttered. There are two answers to every question. God's answer and everybody else's and everybody else is wrong when they disagree with God and that's why the key word in this phrase Is the word first.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God. Let me say it again because some of you didn't hear me. First. There are certain things God can't do. I know we're used to saying God can do everything, but let me tell you some things God can't do.
God can't sin. Okay, he cannot commit a sin. He can bear our sin, but he cannot commit a sin because he's perfect in all of his ways.
The Bible says God cannot sin. So that's something God can do. Let me tell you something else God can do. He can't be second. It can't be second.
He must be first. All through the Bible you see this word first. Bring me the first fruits.
Return to your first love. That Jesus Christ might have first place in everything. When Jesus was talking to folks he wanted to follow in discipleship and they said well I got to go back and bury my father first.
Jesus says, no, you first pursue the kingdom of God. The reason why we're not experiencing more of God's authority is that he's second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth. He's not first and he can't be second.
Thou shalt have no other God before me. I must be first. First in your priorities, first in your passions, and most importantly, first in your decisions.
Many people, many Christians, come to God because nothing else has worked. And he is the last resort. They have not sought him first in their decisions. A lot of people are baseball fans.
Now I'm not a baseball guy. Okay? It moves a little bit too slow for me. Yeah, it moves a little bit too slow for me. But baseball is America's sport and you know it's a lot of people just love baseball.
Now in baseball when you hit the ball you got to go to first base. If you miss first base, the fact that you touch second, third, and home plate is irrelevant. Because they will throw you out. Because the whole deal is, you've got to touch... first base first for all the other bases to matter.
The other bases don't matter if you miss first. He says I want you to seek first the rule of God. That's simple.
shifting of priority to say, God, your thinking on a matter will be my first thing I go to, my first perspective to try to understand, my first action to take. Shifts how God can relate to you. Because now it is clear God is not just one number among many. He is your priority. And why shouldn't he be given who he is if he's the king?
If you found out that the president wanted to meet with you regardless of your political persuasion, you should have been the one to tell him. A lot of things would adjust. A lot of preparation would change.
Because the head of state wanted to meet with you. If he called you and said, I'm in your town and I want to meet with you right away, I'm sure schedules would adjust. I'm sure schedules would change. Why?
Because the head of state has said, I need to meet. If we do this for a human potentate, president, or head of state, how much more should our response to Jesus Christ not be... First... not be at the top of the list.
And if we could get Christians to put God in the front of the line, rather than in the middle or the back of the line, they would see much more of God at work in their life. If they would approach what God says about a subject first, and not what their neighbors say, not even what their mates say, not even how they feel. Let me give you an illustration.
The world fell into sin because Adam disobeyed God. Adam is the one blamed for the fall of the human race, not Eve, Adam. Sorry man, Adam. Adam is blamed. We talk about what Adam did.
He ate of the forbidden fruit. But we don't often talk about why Adam did it. What led Adam to rebel against God is he chose his wife over God. His emotional attachment to Eve. See, Eve ate the fruit.
Eve brought the fruit to him. So he has a decision to make. Will my love for my wife trump my obedience first to God?
So God wants to be first, even over our emotions. and our relationships. So this thing of firsts is no small thing.
He says, seek ye first his rule, his kingdom, and his standards, his righteousness. And then he comes with a kingdom promise, because this whole sermon is about the kingdom. He comes with a kingdom promise, and all these things will be added to you. This whole passage in Matthew 6 starts off with an instruction to not worry.
Don't be anxious. What you shall eat, what you shall drink, the clothes that you wear. He says, you've never seen a bird with an ulcer.
No. You've never seen a bird bleeding because it's worried. You don't see, you know, you don't see flowers unclothed.
He says nature understands God better than Christians because he's talking to his disciples. Nature understands how this works, okay? You know... The Bible says God feeds the birds, right?
But you've never seen a bird sitting on a branch with its beak open waiting for worms to drop from heaven. They go worm hunting, but the point is they assume that God has a worm. So they go get what has been provided. What he says is, learn a lesson from nature. Learn a lesson from the kingdom of animals and birds and flowers.
He says, aren't you more valuable than they? And then he comes to this kingdom message. He leads into it by saying, look, your heavenly father already knows you need these things. So this is not an information gathering situation.
This is a priority situation. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things. What things?
The things that God has preplanned for your life, for you to experience and have. Only as a kingdom disciple, a visible verbal full-time representative. representative of Jesus Christ, can you expect to receive all that God has determined for you to have because you're operating under his rule?
When you buy an appliance, they give you a warranty. The warranty says for this period of time, we have you covered. If something's not working out, call us and we will respond because this This is our product and we want to look good with our customers and we will make the provision so that this product is working for you.
But what they will not warranty is abusing the product. If you take a hammer and start slamming it and pick it up and start throwing it down, you've negated the warranty because you've misused the product. See, a lot of people call on God to fix broken stuff in their life.
A lot of cultures call on God when they can't fix what's happening in their environment. And then they wonder why they're not hearing from heaven. When the answer is you done messed over the product.
You've not sought first the kingdom of God, you just want him to fix up your mess up. But you have not handled the product of his kingdom the way he has prescribed by means of his righteousness, his standard. And therefore, it shouldn't surprise you that all these things aren't coming together because you are destroying what I've asked you to do.
to represent. You're not representing me well. All these things will be added to you. And when all these things are added to you, guess what he says?
He will remove from you. Worry. He says, I will take away your worry. You won't have to worry anymore. Why?
Because I got your back. You know, when I was... Growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, a lot of times we didn't have food because my father didn't get work.
He was a longshoreman. He loaded and unloaded ships. And if the ship didn't come in or his group wasn't called, he wouldn't work. And sometimes that would go on for days, weeks, and months. But I never went to bed worried.
My congregation knows and people who heard us on the radio know I don't eat fish. I don't eat fish of any kind. And the reason I don't eat fish is because when my father didn't have work, he went fishing to feed the family.
And the fish he caught was herring. Herring are little fish with a billion bones and all of them are small. So when my father didn't have work we had herring for breakfast, herring for lunch and herring for dinner with some herring thrown in for dessert. We had more fish so I don't eat fish today because I've never recovered from herring. But still, I never went to bed worried.
Because my eating the next day was daddy's problem. And I know daddy had me covered. And so even though things weren't going well, it would be daddy's responsibility to make sure his family had something to eat. God says, if you operate in my kingdom, under my rule, according to my standards, then what I will do is I will cover you because you put me first. If you accept Christ.
you're in the kingdom. But now he's not talking about being in it. He's talking about operating under it. That's why he attaches his righteousness to the kingdom.
It's not just being in it because you're saved. It's being under it because his standards rule. May you take the master key, unlock the doors of every area of your life, and go to sleep at night knowing.
that your daddy the king has covered your back.