“KINGDOM PR IORITIES.” MATTHEW 6:19-34.

MATTHEW 6: 19-21, 22-23, 24, 25-26, 27-32, 33-34.

PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO MATTEW 6.

In last Sunday’s lesson Jesus stressed the “practice of true righteousness” or “the true practice of righteousness. Jesus warned us against Satan perverting even the worship-life of the kingdom citizen. He used the three most religious acts of the Jews to illustrate “giving alms”, (benevolent acts), “prayer”, and “fasting.” Jesus did not condemn these. He did condemn the wrong attitude/motive behind them; “to be seen of men.” Earlier He had said that people’s motives for praying, giving and fasting determined whether they pleased God in these activities. In today’s lesson Jesus challenged His listeners to examine the central motive of their lives.

Today we are looking at Kingdom Priorities. It is crucial that Christians have priorities that will honor God. The unbelieving or pagan world has different priorities! The world wants to gratify self whereas we are to seek to please God.

Priorities are the activities or things that are of greatest important to us. These are what come first for us. Everyone has priorities---either consciously or not. People’s priorities determine their decisions and actions in any situation. The priorities of secular people and non-Christians are different from those of faithful followers of Jesus Christ. The priorities of the secular mind-set are things such as self, wealth, success, and pleasure. Jesus taught that God and His kingdom ought to come first with His disciples.

In Matthew 6:19-34 Jesus focused on two kinds of treasures (vv. 19-21), two kinds of eyes (vv. 22-23), two kinds of masters (v. 24), and two kinds of primary concerns (vv. 25-34). Jesus taught His disciples to store up treasures in heaven, not treasures one earth. He called for a single-minded focus on the things of God. He said that no one can serve God and mammon. He said that anxiety over material needs is unproductive, pagan, and unnecessary. He called for trusting the Heavenly Father to provide our needs when we put first God’s kingdom and righteousness.

The three points in the Focal Passage Outline will answer the Life Question; “What shall be my priorities?”

Let’s begin this study by looking at some verses that introduce this topic. Vs. 19-24 will provide background material that will help us understand Jesus’ teachings in the rest of the chapter.

Again we must remember that these words were addressed to Christian people. This is not what our Lord has to say to the unbeliever out in the world; this is the warning that He gives to the Christian.

We come now to Vs. 19 where our Lord introduces the second aspect of this great question of the Christian living his life in this world in relationship to his Father, involved in its affairs and feeling its cares, its strains and its stresses. It is in fact, the whole problem of what is so often called in the Bible, “the world”. We frequently say that the Christian in this life has to contend with the world, the flesh, and the devil; and our Lord recognizes that threefold description of our problem and conflict. In handling this question of person piety He deals first with the temptations that come from the flesh and the devil.

1. PLEASE READ MATTHEW 6: 19-21.

The Lord puts His teaching first of all in the form of a blunt assertion, which is also an injunction. He lays down a law, a great principle. And having given the principle, He then, in His infinite kindness and condescension, supplies us with various reasons and considerations that will help us to carry out His injunction. As we read words like these, we must surely again be amazed and impressed by His condescension. He has a right to lay down laws and then leave us with them. But He never does that. He states His law, He gives us His principle, and then in His kindness He gives us reasons, He supplies us with arguments that will help us and strengthen us.

We all make decisions that determine the direction of our lives. We are pressured by society that emphasizes the accumulation of possessions, physical comforts, and material wealth. Many adults devote themselves to having it all and doing it all ---only to discover that such does not provide the security they sought. Thus, they are left with a feeling of emptiness and a lack of significance to their lives.

In 1 Corinthians 2:14-33 Paul spoke of three types of people: natural, carnal, and spiritual. A natural person is an unregenerate person. A carnal person is a Christian still ruled by the carnal nature. A spiritual person is a Christian who is controlled by the Holy Spirit. Christians controlled by their carnal nature will be in heaven, but they will not receive the glory and reward they could have received.

In these verses 19-21 Jesus drew a contrast between worldly values and kingdom values. In Jesus’ time, stored up wealth consisted largely of clothing, grain, gold, silver, gems, and the like. These were the treasures people laid upon on earth. Jesus lumped them into three categories and made a comment on each.

First, Jesus focused on things the moth can destroy. No matter how nice and expensive clothes and other garments may be, moths can eat them, so that they are reduced to no value.

Second, Jesus warned them about things rust can destroy. Rust literally means, “an eating away.” It could meant that worms, rats, mice, and other vermin eat away the grain just as moths eat away the clothing and garments.

The third example involved treasures kept in the home—probably gold, silver, and other precious gems. These things can be stolen by thieves. The verb rendered break through really means to dig through. Many homes in Palestine had walls made of baked clay. So it would have been easy for a thief to dig through these walls and steal someone’s treasures.

No matter what it is, or how small it is, if it is everything to you, that is your treasure; that is the thing for which you are living. This is the danger against which our Lord is warning us at this particular point.

Having said that, we come to a very practical question. How does one “lay up” treasures on earth with respect to these things? It may mean living to hoard and amass wealth as many people do. But surely it has a wider reference. Our Lord’s injunction means avoiding anything that centers on this world only. It is, as we have just seen, all-inclusive. It applies to people who, though they may not be interested in wealth or money at all, are yet interested in other things that are entirely worldly in the last analysis. There are people who have often been guilty of sad and serious lapses in their spiritual life because of this very thing we are considering. They cannot be tempted by money, but they can be tempted by status and position.

The point in these examples is that there is no security or abiding nature for earthly treasures. But let us suppose that none of these things happen. At best, you will have your earthly treasures for a relatively brief time. At life’s end you must leave all of it behind. You can’t take it with you. There are no pockets in shrouds. You never see an armored truck in a funeral procession. All these warnings tell us one sad story—the temporary nature of earthly treasures!

Two men were talking about the death of a wealthy friend. One asked, “How much did he leave?” The other said, “Every last cent!”

No, you can’t take it with you—but you can send it on ahead! You can lay up treasures in heaven. In Matt. 19: 21 Jesus promised the rich young ruler “treasures in heaven,” if he would give up his wealth to help the poor and follow Him.”

Pat Neff, a former governor of Texas, was also president of the Southern Baptist Convention. In one of his presidential addresses he said, “The way to lay up treasures in heaven is to invest your money in those who are going to heaven—men, women, boys and girls.

On the other hand, a soul surrendered to Christ and a life committed to His service is laying up treasurers in heaven that neither time nor the devil can spoil or take away. In beautiful poetic words, Arthur Smith reminded us in “Acres of Diamonds”: A heart of contentment, a satisfied mind: thee are the treasures money can ‘t buy If you have Jesus, there’s more wealth in your soul than acres of diamonds and mountains of gold.”

2. PLEASE READ MATTHEW 6: 22­-24.

This picture of the eye is just Jesus way of describing, by means of an illustration, the way in which we look at things. And according to our Lord, there are but two ways of looking at everything in this world. There is what He calls the “single” eye, the eye of the spiritual man who sees things really as they are, truly and without any double view. His eye is clear and he sees thing normally. But there is the other eye which He calls the “evil” eye, which is a kind of double vision, or, if you like, it is the eye in which the senses are not clear. That is the evil eye. It is colored by certain prejudices, colored by certain lusts and desires. It is not a clear vision; it is all cloudy, colored by these various tints and taints. That is what is meant by this statement which so often confused people, because they do not take it in its context.

Our Lord in this picture is still dealing with the laying up of treasures. Having shown that where the treasure is, the heart will be also, He says that is not only the heart but the mind as well. These are the things that control man.

This blurring of the vision by love of earthly treasures tends to affect us morally also. How clever we all are at explaining that a particular thing we do is not really dishonest.

Our Lord says in Luke 21:34-36,“Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” It is not only evil doing that dulls the mind and makes us incapable of thinking clearly. The cares of this world, settling down in life, enjoying your life and your family, any one of these things, our worldly position or our comforts---these are equally as dangerous as surfeiting and drunkenness. There is no doubt that much of the so-called wisdom which men claim in this world is nothing but this concern about earthly treasures.

The person with a single-hearted vision has the same total commitment as the one who lays up treasures in heaven. As in Vs. 19-20, the person whose vision of reality is in sharp focus sees reality as God sees it.

3. PLEASE READ MATTHEW 6:24.

Jesus minced no words in his demand that His followers give total devotion to God. Jesus used the word masters, not employers. The word serve literally means to serve as a slave. Jesus was talking about slaves who owed absolute and total allegiance to a master. This was why Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters.” One master will be slighted if a slave tries to serve two masters. At times the owners’ orders will conflict. By choosing to obey one, the slave will disobey the other.

When Jesus said, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon”, He used the word mammon as if it were a pagan deity. Mammon stands for material things. Some translations use “money.” Many people then and now make a god of money and what money will buy. Some of these people see no contradiction between their materialistic lifestyle and their professed faith in God. They are proponents of an approach to religion that allows great flexibility in doing as they please. Individuals who think they can worshi0p and serve two gods are wrong. Those who try to do this are actually rejecting God, for He will share first place with no other god.

Worldly things really do make a totalitarian demand upon us. They demand our entire devotion. Yes, but so does God. “Thou shalt love the Lord they God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.” It is a totalitarian demand.

2 Kings 17:33 says, “They feared the Lord, and served their own gods.” This description of the early Samaritans fits many people today. They want to have enough religion to be acceptable in church, but their real priorities, and their real gods are not the Lord. Matt. 6:24 forces a decision. We are free to choose our masters or our gods, but we are not free not to choose. If we try to remain neutral,

that is the same thing as choosing mammon or some other god. Elijah’s words to the people on Mt. Carmel are a challenge for today. He said in 1 Kings 18:21 “How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him.”

4. PLEASE READ MATTHEW 6: 25-26.

These verses are a natural follow up on our need to trust God rather than mammon. At Vs. 25 we start a new section in this consideration of the Sermon on the Mount. It is a sub-section that is being considered in this sixth chapter, namely, The Christian walking and living in this world, in his relationship to the Father.

There are two aspects to be considered—what the Christian does in private, and what he does in public. Above everything else our Lord reminds us of the danger of worldliness, the danger of mammon, the danger of being defeated by the outlook of life in this present world.

In the verses 19-24 our Lord was chiefly emphasizing the danger of laying up treasures upon earth, hoarding them, amassing them, living to do that. Here in Vs. 25-26 He is concerned not so much with our laying them up, as with our worrying about them, being anxious concerning them. And of course the two things are different.

Here we are reminded once more of the terrible subtlety of Satan and of sin. It does not matter very much to Satan what form sin takes as long as he succeeds in his ultimate objective. It is immaterial to him whether we are laying up treasures on earth or worrying about earthly things; all he is concerned about is that our minds should be on them and not on God. And he will assail and attack us from every direction.

But fortunately for us, we are led by One who knows Satan and his methods, and if we can say with Paul that “we are not ignorant of his devices”, it is because we have been taught and instructed by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. There was never a teacher in this world like the Lord Jesus Christ.

He starts with “Therefore I say unto you.” Do not worry about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink.” Our Lord is not teaching us here that we must not think about these things at all. “Taking no thought” does not mean that. He takes the argument of the birds of the air. It is not true that they just sit upon the trees and wait until food is brought to them. They search for it diligently. Our Lord never condemns farmers for plowing and harrowing and sowing and reaping and gathering into barns. It was God’s command that man should live in that way, by the sweat of his brow.

The apostle Paul put it very explicitly in his second letter to the Thessalonians where he says that if a man ‘would not work, neither should he eat!” There are certain fundamental principles governing life, and that is one of them.

We find an exposition of this commandment “be not anxious” in that great saying of he apostle Paul in Phil. 4: 6-7, where he says, “Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made know unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

There can be no question at all about the real danger of this whole matter. Nothing seems to be more natural to mankind in this world than to become anxious, to become burdened and worried. They tend to master and control us, and we go through life enslaved by them. That is the thing with which the Lord is concerned, and He is so concerned about it that He repeats this warning three times over.

Jesus warning concerning worry takes in the whole of life, our health, our strength, our success, what is going to happen to us---that which is our life in any shape or form. And equally it takes the body as a whole, and tells us that we must not be anxious about our clothing, or any of these things that are part and parcel of our life in this world.

Take this life of ours, where did it come from? And the answer, of course, is that it is a gift of God. Do you think He is suddenly going to deny Himself and not see to it that that life is sustained and enabled to continue? God has His own ways of doing that, but the argument is that I need never become anxious about it.

He says in effect, “wait a minute; consider this before you become anxious. Is not your life more than meat, the sustenance, and the food? Is not the body itself more important and greater than the raiment? If God has given me the gift of life, He will see to it that that life is kept going. He is not arguing as to how this will be done. He is just saying that it will be.

5. PLEASE READ MATTHEW 6: 27-32.

Jesus further showed the uselessness of worrying when he said, “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? Stature may refer to height or age. That is the word stature may refer to one’s growth in life or to one’s length of life. The KJV follows the former interpretation; the NIV follows the latter view. “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” Either interpretation makes sense here. By worrying you cannot add on cubit, 18 inches, to your height nor can you prolong your physical life 18 seconds. In fact, worrying actually may shorten your life.

Then Jesus pointed to the lilies of the field. “Consider how they grow.” They neither toil nor spin; yet they are beautifully arrayed. Further, their beauty is not something tied unto them from outside. By their very nature flowers grow from within. Similarly, our beauty as Christians is not in fine clothes and ornaments that are put onto our outer bodies. Our beauty as Christians glows from within us, from our inner nature, from the beauty of Christ in us. Fine clothes do not make the man or woman God desires. Such must be the result of an inner beauty that shines forth from within.

On the basis of what He said in vs. 25-29, Jesus drew a conclusion—“Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you? Or, “If God give such beauty to temporary things, will He not do the same for His children who will live forever?”

Since so many of His listener were more concerned about their outer appearance than about their inner beauty, Jesus exclaimed, “O ye of little faith” As Jesus’ followers they had faith in God that He had saved their souls. But they had little faith in Him to provide for their needs as His children.

In Vs. 31 “Therefore” introduces a conclusion on the basis of what Jesus had said so far. Jesus repeated what He already said in Vs. 25. Then, in Vs. 32, He added two more reasons for not worrying about food, drink, and clothing.

First, “For after all these things do the Gentiles seek.”

The other reason for not worrying over these things is that “your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” So instead of fretting about them, we should trust God to provide them. And even while work to earn them we should serve and glorify God in the process.

6. PLEASE READ MATTHEW 6: 33-34.

We should be so busy for the Lord that we will not have time for worrying about secondary things.

If a farmer sits on his porch all spring and summer worrying about the possibility of drought, hail storms, and insects—but never plants a seed—there will be no harvest. Happily farmers are not like that. They plant and plow in hope, or shall we say, faith, that God will give a harvest.

Spiritually, Jesus exhorted us to make God and His will the top priority in our lives: “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.” John A. Broadus reminded us that this is the righteousness that our Heavenly Father requires of His people, that “which they ought to hunger and thirst after; which ought to exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, extending not merely to outward acts, but to the inner life of purpose and desire; which ought to be practiced, not with a view to the praise of men, but to the approval and rewards of the Father in Heaven.

If we first seek His kingdom and righteousness, then we will trust Him to provide for our basic needs-- “all these things shall be added unto you.” “He does not forbid our desiring or seeking temporal good, but says it must always be held as secondary and subordinate, to be obtained as a minor consequence of the pursuit of a higher aim.”

Worry prevents Christians from devoting themselves to God’s kingdom and God’s concerns. When we worry, we fail to grow spiritually.

Regret focuses on the past. Worry focuses on the future. Jesus recognized that some unavoidable trials await us in the future—but we can do nothing about them today. So we are not to fret today for the morrow. Instead, we should focus on living today to the fullness for the Lord. We should do so, confident that the Lord will provide our needs for coping with tomorrow’s problems, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.

Sufficient unto the day is the evil therefore. In Vs. 34 EVIL refers to natural evil such as suffering and “trouble”, not to moral evil. In other words Jesus said that we have enough problems to face today without borrowing trouble from tomorrow. These words were not meant to indicate fatalism or determinism about the future. Neither are they comparable to the world’s idea that since we do not know what tomorrow holds we might as well just live for today and enjoy life now. Rather, Jesus meant that because we can trust in the protection and blessing of our Heavenly Father we can be freed form all anxiety about an uncertain tomorrow.

In the world of sports one of the greatest dangers is to be looking ahead to the next game. In doing so the team runs the risk of losing today’s game to a less-capable team. Wise coaches tell their teams to play one game at a time. Our Coach instructs us to do the same.

NEXT WEEK FROM MATTHEW 7 LET’S SEE HOW WE CAN BE SURE WE ARE IN GOD’S KINGDOM. A.V. DAUGHERTY 9-21-03