The Kingdom in Focus
Mathew 6:33 is one of most commonly quoted scriptures in the bible. There are many who quote it but their lives doesn’t depict what they say. Their lives doesn’t depict what they say because they don’t understand what that scripture means. Hear is the Question: Why should we seek the Kingdom? What is the logic behind that scripture?
In order to fully understand its important let go back to verse 25 when Jesus started laying the premise for verse 33 of Mathew 6. In verse 25 of Mathew 6, Jesus said; Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment. According to Jesus your body is more important than the clothe you will put on your body and life is more important than meat. Why? The clothe is necessary because of the body.
The clothe was made for the body not the body for the clothe. Therefore if you are giving priority it has to go to the body not the clothe. Therefore our focus has to be on how to keep and maintain the body not the clothe. In like manner if you have no life in you how can you eat the meat. So the focus should not be the meat but the life in you. It is against this back drop that Jesus said we should seek the Kingdom first. According Jesus the problem of life is not because there is no money or there is no food. The problem of life is an issue of priority and focus. What you prioritize will determine whether or not you can make it.
What you prioritize will determine how you live. According to Jesus the gentiles seek after money, food, clothing, marriage etc. Their focus is the flesh or things in the physical. They prioritize the things of the physical. According to Jesus the focus should not be the physical because that’s not where the problem is. Scriptures say that the body without the spirit is dead, therefore the spirit is more important than the body. Therefore priority should be given to the spirit instead of the body. What you will eat, wear or sleep are things for the body not the spirit. What then are the things that the spirit needs?
According to Jesus what the spirit needs is the Kingdom of God. According to Jesus your problem is not physical but spiritual and no amount of food or clothes can satisfy the spiritual barrenness in you. As matter of fact the things of the flesh deepens your spiritual emptiness. Therefore to prioritize the Kingdom of God above everything else is a necessity for the Christian and also mandatory if we are to achieve victory. Jesus also said that your father in heaven knows that you need to eat and wear clothes. In other words God is not ignorant of what the body needs. As a matter of fact He created the body and knows what’s best for the body. But according to Jesus that shouldn’t be the priority. In order to better understand this let’s go to the book of Genesis 2, when God created Man.
In Genesis 2 God made the body of Man, after that he made a garden and caused to grow from the ground every tree that’s good for food and also the tree of life also in the garden. In this Chapter we see how God Himself created physical food for man. Which means the things that the body needs are things that are not evil as along as the focus and priority is the spirit or the tree of life. When Jesus walked the earth, He didn’t just provide spiritual food for the people but also fed them with physical food. But Jesus always gave them the spiritual food which is the Kingdom of God first before He gave them physical food.
In John 6, Jesus fed about 5000 men beside women and children after preaching to them about the Kingdom. The following day they came looking for Jesus and found out that Jesus had crossed the sea and gone to the other side. They also crossed the sea and went after Jesus. When they found Jesus they asked why he had left. Then Jesus replied and said, “ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled”. In other words their focus was the food. Their priority was the physical satisfaction. In the next verse which is verse 27 of John 6, Jesus said, “Labour not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life….” When Jesus realized that their focus was wrong he reminded them of what their focus should be which is the spiritual food which comes from Heaven that is the Kingdom of God.
What is your focus in life today? Your problem is not money or food. The problem is your focus. Focus on what’s necessary and all other things shall be added unto you.
Sermon by Pastor Fred Ofori Otsiwah
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