BLESSED TO BLESS

“First Pursuit”
Pastor Dan Levy – November 19, 2023

Matthew 6:25-34 – “Therefore 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 than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

1. Prioritizing God’s Kingdom starts by MAKING and KEEPING Jesus my LORD and KING.
   
   Romans 10:9 – “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
   
   Revelation 19:16 – “On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

2. A person that pursues God’s Kingdom first, PRIORITIZES GOD’S HOUSE.
   
   1 Kings 6:38-7:1 – “He [Solomon] had spent seven years building it [the temple]. It took Solomon thirteen years, however, to complete the construction of his palace.”
   
   Luke 9:62 – “But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”
   
   Matthew 6:24 – “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

3. I am called to SEEK GOD and ADVANCE His Kingdom because God has RELENTLESSLY pursued me.
   
   1 John 4:19 – “We love because he first loved us.”
   
   Luke 19:10 – “The son of man came to seek and to save the lost.”