8-21-11 Kingdom of God: Glasses

Props: 25 or more pairs of various different looking glasses, goggles, sunglasses, 3d glasses, etc.

Last week we looked at a very small part of Matthew 6:33 where Jesus said, “Seek first his (referring to God) kingdom”, or said another way is “Seek first the kingdom of God”.

In that message we looked at each of those four words. We said that “Seek” means that it’s not going to be obvious. The kingdom of God, as Jesus stated in the parable of the treasure is hidden. You’re going to have to want to find it. It’s going to take time, and persistence. You’re not just going to stumble upon it and say, “Oh, what do we have here.”

The second word is “First”, seek first. That means that there are other choices that will vie for our attention. Other things will probably try and crowd out that which is most important and you’ll have to make some decisions. Will I seek first the kingdom of God, or will I seek something else.

The third word is “His”, seek first his, which in this case refers to Father God.  His is a possessive word. It’s not ours, it’s his – it’s the Father’s. We don’t own it. We can’t have it, and we can’t get it apart from God. We’ll have to get it from him and from him alone, because it’s his.

And the fourth word is “Kingdom” – the kingdom of God. We’ve spent seven weeks talking about the kingdom of God. We said many people have thought that the kingdom of God is something that you will only experience in heaven, but Jesus rarely talks about it in those terms. He says, “The kingdom of God is within you.” It’s at hand. It’s within reach. It’s available now.

Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a small seed that is planted in your heart and it can grow to the largest of trees so that it takes over your garden and crowds everything else out. The kingdom of God is like a seed with the DNA of heaven planted in your heart and it has the ability to grow and produce all the fruit of heaven crowding out all other evil and all other ways that are not God’s.

We said that if we choose to seek first the kingdom of God that God becomes king of our life and his will is done through us and his Spirit works through us to do his good will. That’s one choice. We also said that if we don’t grow the kingdom of God inside of us, then the old saying is true, because you can just be full of yourself. You can make all the decisions and you can choose what’s right and what’s wrong and you can decide how to live in every area of your life and you can bear the responsibility for where your life goes and how it turns out. You can do that. You have that choice. You can either be full of the Spirit of God inside of you and you can decide to follow his will and his truth and his idea of goodness in your life or you can be full of yourself with you sitting at the center of you controlling what goes on in your life. You can seek first your kingdom or you can seek first your kingdom. It’s your choice.

Ok, let’s just assume that we’ve got that one settled. Let’s just assume that we want to live with God at the center of our lives. We want him to be our king. Maybe we’re honest enough to recognize God is not the king in our lives yet, or at least not in every area of our life – that’s good that we recognize and admit that, but how do we go forward. What does that look like? That leads us to the next two words in Matthew 6:33.

Seek first his (God’s) kingdom and his . . . righteousness Matthew 6:33a (NIV)

And this statement leads us to another question. What does it mean to be right or righteous according to Jesus?

This is where so many Christians get stuck as they seek God and his kingdom. It’s one thing to say that God is at the center of our lives. It’s another thing entirely to live as though God is at the center of our lives. For many of us, we equate knowing the right things to living the right way and then we can’t figure out why the fruit of heaven isn’t in our lives.

For many who have grown up in the church, they think they know what righteousness is, but in reality most don’t.

When Jesus says, “Seek first his (God’s) kingdom and his righteousness” he is speaking about something called a worldview. It’s very possible that you don’t know what a worldview is, and maybe it’s something that you’ve never heard of before. If that’s the case, it’s unfortunate, because it is a necessary concept to understand if God is going to be king in your life.

A worldview is a framework (pointing to glasses frame) of ideas and beliefs through which an individual interprets the world around them and interacts with it.

It is how people see and interpret what’s going on around them. For some they’ve never thought about such things. For many of us, we’ve never been taught that such a thing exists, and yet at some level we intrinsically understand what a worldview is.

Let me give you a couple of examples of worldviews, so that you begin to understand what I’m talking about here. This has everything to do with understanding righteousness

Most women in American shave their legs and their arm pits, would you agree? Most men and women in America have been taught that it’s attractive for a woman to shave her legs and underarms, right? We’ve been taught this from a very early age. We don’t challenge it. We just know it to be true. If you see a woman who has long hair on her legs or if she lifts her arms and you see long shaggy hair in her pits, what’s your first thought? Ugh!

However, women in some European countries are taught from a very young age not to shave their leg or underarm hair. They have been taught not to shave their legs or underarms and they consider this to be very normal, so when European men see European women with shaggy hair on their legs and under their arms, they’re ok with it. They think that ok, or even good.

These are examples of opposing worldviews. The very same thing – leg and underarm hair is interpreted exactly opposite. What’s good in America is bad in Europe and what’s bad in America is good in Europe. Here we have exactly the same thing interpreted in exactly opposite ways – good and bad.

We could use burping after a meal as another example. Here burping after a meal is considered rude, but in some Eastern countries it’s considered a way of saying that the meal was good and it’s actually expected.

How do you know who’s right, Americans or some other culture? Of course we as Americans are, right, right?

Now, we don’t have to go very far to find people that disagree with us about politics, religion, abortion, gay marriage, or a host of other hot topics. Each of these people have a different worldview. They view the world differently. They interpret it differently.  If you’ve been married, many of you have had disagreements with your spouse or your ex. If you’ve had children, you’ve definitely had disagreements with them. Why? Each person views the world in different ways and some will get very fierce about being right. Maybe you’re one of them. People view the world and interpret it in different ways. This is what causes all the conflict in the world. This is what causes all the arguments, all the fights, all the conflicts, all the wars

Let me ask you a question, “What’s the right answer?” With so many opposing views, who’s right? Of course if you are the king of your kingdom the answer is “Me”. You are at the center of your world, you think that you’re right and that everybody else is a moron if they don’t agree with you.

How we define our view of the world is based on many, many things. It’s based on:                (puts on a new pair of glasses for each bullet point)

1. 1. What country you were born into What social class you were born into
2. 2. What race you were born into
3. 3. Whether you were born male or female
4. 4. What DNA you were born with
5. 5. Who your parents were
6. 6. Whether you were raised by both parents, only one of your parents, or neither of your parents.
7. 7. How we were loved or not loved
8. 8. How we were encouraged or put down by those around us
9. 9. The things that we did or didn’t do and the positive or negative experience we had with those things

10. How you have been hurt and by how you were blessed.

11. Do I need to go on?

How you see and interpret the world is literally determined by millions of things that influence how you were formed.

A worldview is a framework of ideas and beliefs through which an individual interprets the world around them and interacts with it.

Is anyone here perfect? How do you know that you see and interpret the world around you correctly? How do you know you’re right and someone else is wrong? Think about that the next time you disagree with someone else. How do you know that your worldview is right?

It doesn’t matter who’s right or wrong when it comes to women with hairy legs or burping after dinner, but it does matter on a whole host of other things that are far more important.

When Jesus says, “Seek first (God’s) kingdom and his righteousness” He’s asking us to seek God’s rightness first, always.

Our God is perfect and he commands us to seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness – his rightness – his will, his truth, his life – how he understands it – how he sees it, his view of the world. Put him at the center. How will you start your day? How will you treat your spouse? How will you teach your kids and show them love? How will you know what’s right and wrong, when you might have been taught what was right by someone else who was wrong?

Is your worldview correct? Are you so arrogant and proud to suggest that you have the right worldview and that everybody else who disagrees with you is wrong? Are you so arrogant and proud that you know what’s right apart from God?

Jesus calls us to see the world as God sees the world, to have his view of the world, and to align our views with his rightness, with his righteousness. We have been taught how to view the world and it might be right or it might be wrong – we don’t know unless we seek to understand how God sees the world.

Think of any sport. I’ll use football as an example. Can you imagine if everybody didn’t agree on what he rules where or where the boundaries where, or that the referees didn’t have the authority to blow the whistle and call penalties. Can you imagine if professional football was like backyard football when I was a kid. We didn’t have any rules or any boundaries. We’d just make up the rules as we went along. I’d be running the ball and someone would say, “Your out of bounce!” and what would I say? No I’m not, I’m still in bounds.” Who was right? Who was wrong? The boundaries were never defined. There was no definition of rightness, so we made up rightness as we went along. You know how almost every one of those games went? Somebody would get made and go home because they thought someone else was cheating.

The Bible, then, is God’s instruction on how to see the world. He is the only one who is perfect. He is the only one who is right, and he calls us to align our lives around his view of the world and how he understands right.

You must know how to interpret the Bible correctly, on how to understand it, and on how to experience the very best of life and avoid all the worst of it. If you have a hard time making heads or tails of the Bible when we read it, then it’s likely that you’re not seeing the world as God sees it.

PPT Chart – Circle with arrows around the circle. The word “Issue” in the center. There is a large arrow on one side stating “God’s view”. Each of the other arrows represents other views that are not God’s.

If what God’s saying doesn’t make sense to you, then you can come to one of two conclusions. Either you can come to the conclusion that God is a blithering idiot who doesn’t know what he’s talking about, or  that you’re . . . I’ll let you come to your own conclusions on the second one. If you don’t understand what you read, it’s not a big jump to say that you don’t see the world and understand the world and interpret the world in the same way God does.

If this is the case, you are interpreting and understanding the world with a system of lies that will never bless you. If you are seeing and interpreting the world through your own sense of rightness, then God’s kingdom is not at the center of your world, yours is. If God’s rightness is not in you, then that only leaves one choice. It’s all about you and your rightness.

Now, I know that I’m being a bit “In your face with this, because I want to make a very bold point.

We are all at different places in life and that’s ok, but it’s not ok to stay where you are, because God has something better for you. He has planted a seed inside of you that has the DNA of heaven inside it. God’s kingdom has been planted inside of you and God wants you to experience the fruits of his kingdom, of heaven itself. He wants you to be blessed. As long as you are trying to interpret your world, you will never be blessed with the joys of the kingdom of God inside of you. You might become rich and you might be comfortable with your wealth and you may have a lot of toys, but the peace, and joy and love of the kingdom will never fill you.

Sometimes what happens is that when we read God’s word we don’t really seek to understand what he understands. We don’t really seek to know what he knows. We don’t really seek to experience what he says we could be experiencing. We just close the cover and say at some level in our heart, “that was kind of boring. It’s not a very good read” as if we know something.

The apostle Paul speaks about worldview in this manner. He says this:

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 (NIV)

How did Paul receive the mind of Christ? He sought to know what Christ knew. He sought to see what Christ saw. He sought to have the same worldview as Christ. He sought to experience what Jesus said he could experience.

Jesus said it this way:

“No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. Luke 11:33-34 (NIV)

How we see the world determines if we are filled with light or darkness. It’s interesting that Jesus only says “eye” in the singular. We only see the world in one way. That’s our worldview. The question is, “Are we right in how we see it?” The answer, “only if you see with the eyes of God”. When you see the world the way God sees the world, then your whole body is full of light or goodness. If you don’t see the world rightly, then your whole body is full of darkness.

We’re told that we can’t see what God sees until we’re born again. We’re told that we can’t have God at the center until we seek to follow Jesus. If you’ve never put God at the center of your world and sought to know him and understand him and see what he sees and live how he directs, then you will never experience the fruit of his kingdom growing inside of you.

In following Jesus, we are to weigh everything that we do and everything that we see and everything that we understand with what Jesus did and what Jesus saw and how Jesus understood. (Project)

Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, Matthew 6:33 (NIV)

That’s why the Bible is so important. That’s why the Spirit of God living inside of us and counseling us is so important.

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. Matthew 6:33-34 (NIV)

Powerpoint

This life_______________________________} death

Parallel reality

The kingdom of God _________________________Eternal life – unchanging, always existing since creation and never ends. Not based in time, but just IS.

What Jesus is instructing us to do in this verse is to seek first the reality of the kingdom of God. It exists and it’s real and its within reach, it is near, it is within you. It is like buried treasure. It is hidden. It is extremely valuable, and when you find it, it will fill you with immense joy. It starts small, but grows big inside of you. You’ve been given much, but are you using and investing what you’ve been given well? Is your light growing? Is the kingdom filling you?

Seek first God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and everything that has to do with the kingdom will be given to you – exceedingly great joy, so much so that you’re sell everything that you have, because what God wants to give you makes everything else that you could own, pale in comparison. Peace, so much so that Jesus says, “Do not worry. Do not fear, for I am with you always, even until the end of the age. Love, so much so that you will have so much that it will overflow out of you.

Who’s the king in your life? What or who is at the center of your world? Whose kingdom are you seeking first? Who’s right? What are you using to evaluate right from wrong, good from bad? Your own will and sense of right? Or are you weighing every thought, every idea, every feeling, are you taking it captive to Christ?

What are you seeking first? What’s right? The answer to these questions will deeply influence and determine how you will live and how you will die. Take some significant time this week to weigh these questions. Don’t be too hasty because Satan will often deceive us at first glance. Look deep within you, because that is where God and his kingdom can be found.

Invitation to follow Jesus