If you were here with us last week to celebrate the triumphant resurrection of Jesus from the dead, we concluded our service memorably with a song, Is He Worthy? We don't usually ask questions like that. Is He Worthy? If you were here, do you remember that? Is he worthy of all blessing and honor and glory? And all God's people said he is. We're in agreement about that. We, if you're like me, were moved to proclaim that corporately last week. Our theology is sound. But is it possible that we're affirming something intellectually that isn't truly driving us, that isn't truly the central passion of our hearts? Do our priorities, if you examine your own life, if others look at your life, do your priorities show? That he really is worthy. Is the pursuit of the person. Not the system, the person of Jesus Christ and his glory, the central focus of your life. That's the question we're going to consider today. The devil uses a variety of means to distract us from pursuing the glory of God. In Mark chapter four, we have the parable of the sower. And although the primary application there is hard hearts or receptive hearts that respond to or don't respond, to the offer of salvation. There is, I think, an application to us here. Mark speaks of the seed that's sown among thorns. Verse 18 of Mark chapter 4. Mark says, these are they who hear the word. But the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things. Enter in and choke the word and it proves unfruitful. Are you experiencing that? This unholy trinity, the cares of the world, The deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things can choke the word's effectiveness in giving you joy and peace as his child. Our salvation is not in doubt, lest I be misunderstood, but fruitfulness and joy are very much in doubt when the word is choked. And may I propose that the word is often choked by what we could just call sinful busyness. Sinful busyness is a perennial problem. For us, the cares of this world might be the relentless stream of bad news. We have access to more bad news than ever in the history of humanity. You pay attention to it, it can overwhelm you. It can underwhelm your confidence in a sovereign, holy God who is right now working all things after the counsel of His own will. Or the cares of this world might be the pressure to look successful on Facebook. or to create a killer presentation for recruiting a client. Cares of this world might look like triplicate documents to be filled out to get a health insurance company to pay a legitimate claim as you pursue them for the umpteenth time. Cares of this world might look like notification of an IRS audit. The deceitfulness of riches might look like slump in the performance of your stock portfolio, or the collapse of an industry and the consequent loss of jobs. Desire for other things might be a desire for technology and toys that you don't have, or for a different job, or for a flexible work arrangement or more paid vacation. And we're already dreaming about what summer vacations might hold. I mean, we're not immune to these polls. And they have the potential to choke out the word. So there proves to be for us unfruitful. In 1960, which for many of you is ancient history, A man named Charles Hummel wrote an essay memorably titled, The Tyranny of the Urgent. It's actually the title of my sermon this morning, The Tyranny of the Urgent. Hummel's observations in his essay are still available free online. You can Google it and there's a PDF. Here's a brief excerpt. See if this is not on target for us. He says, our dilemma goes deeper than a shortage of time. It's basically a problem of priorities. Hard work doesn't hurt us. We all know what it is to go full speed for long hours, totally involved in an important task, and the resulting weariness is matched by a sense of achievement and joy. We were meant to work and to get joy out of our work. Work is not part of the fall. It's not hard work, Hummel says, but doubt and misgiving that produce anxiety as we review a month or a year and become oppressed by the pile of unfinished tasks. Can you think about your pile? We sense uneasily our failure to do what's really important. The winds of other people's demands and our own inner compulsions have driven us onto a reef of frustration. We confess we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and we have left undone those things we ought to have done. Our greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important. Letting the urgent things crowd out the important. Hummel says we live in constant tension between the urgent and the important. The problem is that many important tasks need not be done today or even this week. But often urgent, though less important, if we really thought about it, tasks call for an immediate response. Endless demands pressure every waking hour. And the appeal of those demands seems so irresistible that they devour our energy. But in the light of eternity, their momentary prominence fades. with a sense of loss, we recall the important tasks that we have shunned aside. We realize we've become slaves to the tyranny of the urgent. I think that's right on target. Probably in dimensions I could not have imagined back in 1960. Of course, I was only 10 years old then. Life seemed hectic then, but it didn't hold a candle to the potential for hectic now. I think we all feel that. Turn to our text, which will be in Matthew chapter 6, verses 19 to 34. Matthew 6, 19 to 34. And to save time, I'm just going to read and comment as we go along. So we're not going to sit and read this entire passage and then comment on it. So I've got two points. Here's point number one. Point number one is a diagnosis. Diagnosing your priorities. right out of the text. This is not my imposition of my agenda on the text. Underlying this passage in Matthew, there are four diagnostic questions that will help you to assess your own priorities. So here they are. Number one, what is your passion? What are you passionate about? Number two, what's your perspective on how life works? What is your perspective on how life works? Number three, what will you willingly lose time, money, sleep, and even your health for? And number four, Are you frequently anxious or worried? Let's start with the first one. What is your passion? If you're looking at the text there, let's read the first three verses. Verse 19. It's a command. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. And then there's some rationale. Where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. recognizing those are all liabilities, that's not a good place to lay up treasure. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. And then the principle for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And it actually works both ways. Where your heart is is where your treasure will be. And where your treasure is is where your heart will be. And it's a reinforcing cycle. This has then been called the treasure principle. We all have a passion. We all have something we treasure that drives us. And this passage tells us, in fact, this whole passage tells us, there are a whole series of binaries where it's either this or this. There's not a third option. So there are only two places where treasures can be accumulated. On earth, where decay is the rule, or in heaven, where they're absolutely secure. There's a lot of fuzzy thinking about this kind of thing. I unexpectedly, two weeks ago, found myself in the middle of a kerfuffle. You know that word? It's a great one to add to your vocabulary. So I actually Googled it after I wrote it in here, and it's exactly the right word. This kerfuffle, two weeks ago, was between myself and a woman who's a financial advisor. No, it's not my daughter. This woman is one of my quote-unquote followers on LinkedIn. And she contacted me to ask me to evaluate a video that her firm was using to recruit customers. So I said, well, I can't give it too much time, but I'll take a look at it. Since this woman professes to be a believer, after I reviewed the video, I pointed something out to her, which didn't sit very well. I mean, I thought she wanted honest criticism, right? I mean, she didn't produce the video. Boy, was I mistaken. I pointed out that the video assumed that biblical stewardship of your financial resources was insufficient. that you were never going to make it that way, and that you had to pursue entrepreneurship and wealth accumulation to get to financial freedom. I mean, that's the only way. When I pointed that out to her, her response absolutely floored me. Usually these things don't go very long, but this one went longer. She said, and I quote so I don't misrepresent her, most people's prayer lists would be answered with more money. What? Most people's prayer lists would be answered with more money. Do you agree with her? I mean, is that the answer? Yeah, and I'm thinking about it's a wonderful life where He says to the angel, money comes in pretty handy down here, bub. I responded to her when she said that money, most people's prayer list would be answered with more money. I said, if that's the case, people are praying for the wrong things. Then she really exploded. I mean, that's within the conventions on LinkedIn. It was a very short kind of thing. And a little while later, I got an email on my phone notifying me that there was something from this lady. And she said, who are you to judge what people pray for? Right? And I pointed out to her Matthew 6.33, which sets our priorities, doesn't it? Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. I mean, what we pray for reveals our priorities. So that's the passion diagnosis. If you really think that pursuit of money is the way in which your prayers can be answered, you have a problem. We have that problem as beings who deal with money all the time. Number two, what is your perspective is the diagnostic question. That is, according to you, if you were able to articulate it, how does life work? Let's look at the text, verses 22 and 23. 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? And maybe you're thinking, so where does this life perspective come from? Well, it does talk about a diseased eye, doesn't it? If you had a diseased eye, you've got a problem. Ancient understanding of vision involved light somehow coming into the body from the outside. And light was often a metaphor for teaching. Truth that came into the body that illuminated you. So if that's the case, a diseased eye would hinder the passage of light. And Jesus' teaching would be blocked from internalization from the hearer because the hearer was substituting some kind of human understanding. I mean, that's the filter. Everything comes in through the eye, as it were. All the teaching gets filtered through this grid that's actually my perspective on how life works. And if my perspective on how life works is diseased, it's not God's view at all. It's not viewing all of life through the insight of somebody who looks at life as governed by the hand of a sovereign God who is wise and kind and good. and intentional about everything he does. If that's not our perspective, then we internalize some other perspective. You know, like bad things happen to good people. There are no good people, right? And bad things come through the hand of a sovereign God. We, for the moment, with our minimal understanding, view them as bad. So, what's your perspective on life? Are you seeing life as God intended you to see it, as the way it really is? Are you substituting some human filter? Number three, What will you suffer for? What are you willing to lose time and sleep and money and perhaps even your health for? This is probably related to the question of passion, probably applied passion. But the question is addressed in verse 24. It says 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. Then the principle, you cannot serve God and money. Serve means to slave for, to serve a master who is more powerful than you and you owe him. So who or what has that priority in your life? that you're willing to sacrifice because you have to obey. You have to serve. It's a binary. And we have to make a choice. If you say, well, I haven't made a choice, then you have made a choice. Your default is to serve self. We considered several weeks ago the book of Haggai, which we'll get back around to. But Haggai, the prophet, said to the people, consider your ways. And one of the places he said this was, you have sown much and you harvest little. You remember this? Sown much and you harvest little. And it's not an accident. God says through Haggai, God has blown away the increase. He has kept you from being successful and validating a view that says that's an appropriate place to focus. You've sown much, but you harvest little. Number four diagnostic question. Are you frequently anxious or worried? The presence of anxiety is another diagnostic indicator of wrong priorities. In fact, the Bible goes further. Anxiety ultimately means that I trust myself more than I trust God. Ouch. Start in verse 25. Therefore, I tell you, command again. 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? I mean, 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 more of more value than they? Verse 27. And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? My anxiety do that for you? I referenced in my prayer, one of my groomsmen, I was also in his wedding, who passed away last Sunday. And there are pictures of him at Easter looking really great. And later in the day, he would be dead of a heart attack in the Philippines, where he served as a missionary for decades. This is not like, well, he didn't manage his diet, or he didn't exercise enough. See, we have this control thing going on. Like somehow we can defer all of that. I'm not telling you to stop any of those things. I'm just saying, if your hope is that those things are that ticket to long, healthy life, you are mistaken. There is a God in heaven, and you aren't him. Verse 28. Why are you anxious about 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 is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you? He's talking to believers, O ye of little faith, not no faith, little faith, little confidence in God's ability to move his plan forward. Therefore, a conclusion, do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? Contrasting value systems. For the Gentiles seek after all these things. And your heavenly father knows that you need them all. Not denying that those are real needs, but your heavenly father already knows that you need them and he's going to come through. And if we had more time and you had more patience, I could tell you about God's faithfulness in my life. in difficult circumstances over long periods of time where God did provide. I'll give you one little tidbit. When I was in graduate school, Carol and I had two kids then, which is not a great way to go when you're a full-time graduate student. I was a teaching assistant. And when I added up how much I got paid, and she was home with two small children and couldn't really work, would have just been more money going out for child care than it would be for her to work. Adding up the budget, we could pay our rent and my car expenses to commute to school, utilities on our house, but not food and not clothes. And you know what? We never went without. Never. In fact, one year we were thinking, well, fortunately the kids, it was two girls back then, they're not old enough to know too much, so they won't know that they're being deprived. They won't know that nothing's happening for Christmas. OK? And my wife knew several of the women on the street, and one of them down the street said, would you be interested in taking toys from us? Like, my kids are so bad. They feel so entitled. I need some place for their toys to go away. Will you take them? And there are actually so many that our kids would have felt entitled. So without our kids knowing, we put most of them in the attic and gave them a small number every year for the next four years. God takes care of people. That's the point. So the warning is against anxiety about how that's going to happen. God takes care of birds and He will take care of you. Matthew Henry said about these verses from 25 to 34, he says, there's scarcely any one sin. That's what we're talking about here. Any one sin against which our Lord Jesus more largely and earnestly warns His disciples. Scarcely anyone sin that he warns him more about or against which he arms them. To fight back. Okay. Then the sin of disquieting, distracting, distrustful cares about the things of this life, which are a bad sign that both the treasure and the heart are on the earth. Do you get that? Disquieting, like I'm just in turmoil. Distracting, I'm not focused on what's really the priority. And distrustful, I don't trust God. That's what cares are, according to Matthew. So, second point. Those are diagnostic. Maybe one or more of those landed with you. I would be surprised if none of them landed with you or me. Number two is the key to proper priorities. So here we get to our text, Matthew 6.33. We read it together. It is so short. Matthew 6.33. It is so short and so powerful. It says, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. First thing to notice is the word but. That's a contrast word. In contrast to this anxiety-ridden, acquisition-focused kind of life that we've diagnosed earlier in our reading, that's possession-centered and time-bound and has little time for relational issues with God. But, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, we're told. But. In Ephesians chapter 4, you don't need to turn there, but Ephesians chapter 4, Paul points out something here that's parallel. He says, starting verse 17 of Ephesians 4, but now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. You must no longer walk like that's the default. Your Gentile mindset is screaming for priority. And he characterizes the mindset, the eye, the way you look at life as futile. They walk in the futility of their minds. He says in verse 20 of that same passage in Ephesians 4, that's not the way you learn Christ. Assuming you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. Here's what we do. We put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt. Through deceitful desires. And be renewed in the spirit of your minds and put on the new self. Created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Same idea, same idea. So let's take apart verse 33. And I'm not claiming divine revelation here, but I always pay attention to it when this happens. I have five Ps. I'm always really suspicious, you know, when this kind of thing happens, you know. But I think there are five Ps here. So, seek first is a command. So, first P here, keep seeking, is actually the sense. When it says seek, it's keep seeking. I mean, you sought him enough, or maybe we should say he sought you, and brought you into his kingdom as one of his dear children. And now you are to keep seeking him, which is passionate pursuit. You've already switched allegiances if you're God's child. But the gospel that saves is the gospel that sanctifies. So don't allow the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches or the desire for other things to detour you from primary passion, passionate pursuit of Christ. Seek first. I mean, prioritize that passion above all other passions. And that's underscored with an XP. Seek first, which is primacy. So it's a passionate pursuit of what's primary. Now we've already considered some diagnostic questions, right? So one of the things you could easily do, if you had the courage to do it, is to follow the trail of your time and your treasure to see if that's really true. Use those diagnostic questions regularly, not just every once in a while, regularly to assess yourself. Because it's frankly too easy to confuse mental ascent, I believe that, with real life priority. All right, the third thing, what are we to seek first? The kingdom of God. The kingdom of God. Now, I know that's a big theological concept, okay? But the way it boils down here is pretty straightforward, I think. It's God's priorities and plans. Prioritize, passionately pursue as primary God's priorities and God's plans. Let me say those often fail to follow our agenda. Have you experienced enough of life to know that? That God's priorities are often not my priorities? Does that frustrate you? I mean, even in little things, okay? Remembering back to my graduate school years where money was in short supply. And I can remember multiple things where, you know, I needed to do such and such, and I needed this old lawnmower to start, for instance, to mow my grass. Okay? And it wouldn't start. And so I started working on it, and I got in deeper and deeper and deeper, and I may spend most of the day with this lawnmower apart, and it still didn't start. And I was mad. Okay? I'm not asking for too much. Just a lawnmower that I can mow my grass so my neighbors will not be upset with me. Right? And I've had lawnmowers since then that have failed. In fact, we took one to the shop this week. Okay? And it failed the same kind of way that lawnmowers have failed me in the past. Only I decided I'm not going to. My priority is not learning how to take the carburetor on that thing apart because it's got a fuel leak. Okay? Now certainly money has a little bit to do with it, but frankly, you know what, I didn't get really upset when that happened. What I recognized, something has taken me almost my entire life to recognize, like God's just steering your priorities for today. That's all. You intended to do this and he's got something else in mind. So why do you rail as though your plans are being upset? Like, just take it. Maybe an illustration here is with the GPS on your phone. You've got Google Maps up. And you decide your own agenda. Like, I think I've been here before, and I think I'm going to go this way, even though it tells me to turn here. And what happens with Google Maps when you do that? When you're changing things, let's say, in this case, God is changing your agenda. He's saying, keep going at this street here. But we're supposed to turn back there, right? What happens with Google Maps? It reroutes you, doesn't it? It's infinitely patient about rerouting you. It may take a little while because you've done something really squirrely, but it reroutes you. And I'm saying just get used to being rerouted. That's what's going to happen because I have ideas. It doesn't mean I don't plan days. I have ideas. But God may reroute me over and over and over In my line of work in teaching, I used to get frustrated because I had certain things I had to accomplish because of classes I was teaching and I continually had people coming in. It just derailed my plans. Like, so are they the tyranny of the urgent? Or are they actually God's plan? And I felt like they were the tyranny of the urgent. Let me just get you out the door because I've got other things going on. And that might be true. kindly. But it might be that they're actually God's plan for you. And I've seen that happen over and over again. Like somebody who's got a major spiritual meltdown and they felt like they could talk to me about it. And I'm going to say, sorry, you're not my priority for today. I don't think God sent you here to talk about your spiritual condition. I've got things to do. So be patient about God's rerouting. Okay. Assume that it's going to happen. Right. The fourth one. So passionate pursuit of the primacy of God's kingdom, his priorities and his plans. His kingdom and his righteousness is what the passage says. His righteousness, notice that? That's imputed righteousness. I know that cheats a little bit. It's still a P, imputed. Or we could say righteousness that he provides. In contrast to my own system of works righteousness, where I feel like I'm earning some merit. No, I pursue the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We were reminded during prayer time this morning, missed you if you weren't here, of Matthew 5, 48, where we're told you must be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. And my only hope of righteousness is not in me, but only in Him. All right, seek first the kingdom of God. So passionate pursuit of the primacy of God's priorities and plans and his imputed righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. This has been widely misinterpreted. widely misinterpreted. This is not a promise of wealth. Everything you could possibly dream of will be yours. Right? If you just seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. There will never be a time when you will lack anything. If that's what you believe, then life is going to be rough. God will provide, but he will provide all these things as what you need. And guess what? Who gets to determine what you need? God does. And I'm not worried, concerned by that, because God is generous and kind. I just told you about how I provided toys for my kids when we were worried, we were at times, about how to put food on the table. So God has promised to provide for you. That should be enough. You will have what you need. So Matthew 6.33 is also encapsulated in what we call the great command. It's recorded in Mark 1230. It says you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. There's nothing else. God is the central passion of your life. It's not only a commandment, but it's an appropriate response to God's love for you. if you're processing that. His love for you and the substitutionary death of Christ for you on the cross that he paid a debt he didn't owe. And your debt is paid. It is an appropriate response to the fact, if you're his child, that he ever lives to make intercession for you. He's praying for you. In fact, Peter in second Peter chapter one reminds us that God has made what Peter calls exceeding great and precious promises, plural to his Children, that he's bound himself by those. Exceeding great and precious promises. So verse 34 says. Therefore, when you process that. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Don't dwell on tomorrow. Your inability to act on tomorrow. Will set you up. For. Worry. for creating an agenda that God may have to reroute. It's interesting that tomorrow is personified here, like, just let tomorrow worry about the things of itself. You're not supposed to be anxious, just let tomorrow worry about that. Okay? Let tomorrow fend for itself. So let's get to some application, if there hasn't been enough already. Hebrews 10, you don't have to turn there either, but verse 23 says, let us hold fast to our confession. That's related, isn't it? To pursuing passionately the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, being indecisive, being doubtful. Why? Because he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. The very first thing he mentions not neglecting to meet together. As is the habit of some. But encouraging one another And all the more as you see the day capital day. Drawing near. Application number one is that. This pursuit of Christ's kingdom is a community effort. Sanctification of individuals takes place in community. It's assumed that we will need to be creative. in stirring up one another and assume that we'll need to be humble in being stirred. If one of your brothers and sisters says something to you with the intent of this passage in mind to stir you up to love and good works, don't take offense. Recognize that somebody loves you enough to say something. Neglecting to meet together is a symptom of a problem with priorities. This is not news to you. Our culture does not view Sunday as the Lord's Day. It's a day for recreation and self-indulgence to escape the pressures of the work week. That's where we live. That's right outside of us. Do you regularly, and maybe the people who most need to hear this are not here, in which case you need to stir them up to love and good works. Do you regularly prioritize sleeping in on Sunday morning over you and your children being discipled in family Bible time? Do you know that's the primary time of discipleship for our church? And I think sleeping in is more important for me and my children. I'm making that call for them too. I mean, let's be realistic. 915 is not early on any other day of the week. If you're not out of the sack and moving along at 915, there's something wrong with you any other day of the week. Do you view sleeping as an entitlement? Maybe the hectic pursuit of leisure on Saturday sure changes you for energy. And you can get to bed at an hour that will allow you to get enough sleep and be here to meet with God's people. Does your Sunday automatically start with corporate worship? Like the way I'm looking at spiritual life? I should be with God's people at corporate worship. Have you considered the need to bear one another's burdens in our prayer time? Have you considered the disciples needed to be taught how to pray? Do you think your prayer life could and should grow? Still thinking about Sunday. Do you prioritize regularly out-of-town trips? Like, wow, there's a weekend. Or participation in events like marathons? Over assembling for worship? Like, that's more important. I mean, you understand, that's my life. Does the fact that you have a sick child, my heart goes out to you. We had five. And we used to joke that we just kept a standing appointment with our pediatrician. We didn't know who was going to be sick, but we knew somebody was going to be sick. So we used the appointment. Sometimes it was actually for another child, but this one needs it more. Does the fact that you have a sick child automatically keep the entire family from attending on Sunday? If it does, and you have multiple children, you're saying something to the rest of your kids. Your spotty church attendance could easily become an entrenched pattern that they assume as their default in later years, and you do too. It's just never that important to be regular. I'm not here to determine in detail your priorities, but I do ask you to consider what I say and the Lord will give you understanding. To seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, you will have to say no to other things. I'm not asking you to add anything to your life, which is already busy, I'm sure. I'm asking you to prune things out of your life which are competing with what should be the priority. Mark 135 says, very early in the morning, I hate that, I'm not a morning person, very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went to a solitary place where he prayed. Charles Hummel, who wrote The Tyranny of the Urgent, observes this. He prayerfully waited for his father's instructions. Jesus had no divinely drawn blueprint or schedule. You think about that? Not like, you know, his calendar was populated divinely. And it's right there. He discerned the father's will day by day. Using a life of prayer. Because of this, he was able to resist the urgent demands of others at times and do what was really important for his mission. Jesus pattern was, he said himself, I do always those things that please the father. That wasn't bragging. That was the truth. I do always those things that please the father. Which led at the end of his life to I have finished the work. You've given me to do. May that be our pattern of life.