Truth Seeker

Got a lot of ground to cover today it was we're in this series on Kingdom calm and I love speaking about the Kingdom of God. It's probably one of my favorite things. And so if you would turn to your Bibles or your electronic devices, whatever you have, and go to Matthew chapter six, that's kind of where we're going to camp out today. While you're turning there, I want to say this to you. I, I traveled extensively.
And kind of my, my frame my area of where God has me ministering right now is from like Denver to Chesapeake, Virginia, from Detroit to Nashville. That's kind of my area right now that that I'm working in. And I want to tell you this, there is a a wind of the Spirit of God that is beginning to blow across our land.
And what it's doing is it's bringing life
as the wind is blowing
across this country,
it's bringing hope to the hopeless.
It's bringing understanding to those who have been in confusion.
It's bringing light to those who have been in darkness.
And I could go on and on. But what I want I heard the Spirit of the Lord say, during worship is this.
compel the people that are here today. Put your face into the wind.
Put your set yourself before the wind of God.
What's that mean? Means position yourself in the place, that your eyes are on Jesus, that you're looking under you.
You're seeking some things from him. You're trying to what you're trying to find. And you found that the world isn't giving you the answers that you're looking for.
But there is one who has the answer. I know.
I know. I met him 45 years ago.
And he's walked me through this journey called life.
And it hasn't always been easy.
But he's been faithful to be there.
Through thick and thin through the valleys in the mountain tops. He's been there.
And I'm telling you the faithfulness of God.
When the world is going to hell in a handbasket, you'll never leave you or forsake you.
He'll be the strength that you need in a time of weakness.
I've filled the valley of tears with with my tears. But he's been there in my tears.
He's faithful.
So if you're here today,
and you've got some skepticism,
it's okay keep hunting. Keep looking. Keep searching.
Don't quit.
Don't settle in your skepticism, and then your doubt and all of those things. But keep looking. Keep searching.
Because guess what?
You'll be there with a moment in your life. That you say Lord.
That's all you have to say
is Lord.
I ran a million miles away from God.
But there was a moment that I said, Lord, and he was right there.
And the thing about it is he's never left.
Never left
to put your face to the wind.
Sit your life before. Because what God is doing in the earth is a beautiful thing.
It's so beautiful.
I heard even this morning I've just heard stories of people's lives and now they've been changed and touched and moved.
That's what God is.
There's a scripture in the Bible that says this.
God desires to dwell with men and women.
God desires to be with us.
I don't know what you that blows me away.
No
one who put all of this together
wants to be with you and me.
Wow.
That's all I can say is wow.
You find Matthew Chapter Six
we've just given you some time
we're in the series called Kingdom comm. And I want to read to you.
We probably know the infamous verse in Matthew 633, that seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. But I want to read some verses around that to give us some context, I want to read it from a paraphrase. It's called the message maybe you've heard of it. But I so love how this kind of just expands what it is that the Lord is wanting to say to us through this portion of Scripture. So let's let's read this as listen to this said, If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers, most which are never seen, don't you think he'll attend to you and take pride in you and do his best for you? What am I what I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax.
And if that isn't today,
some people are just so uptight. I don't know about here in Lincoln, but in St. Louis, people are uptight.
You know, just uptight,
the light turns green, it takes you two seconds to take off and they're laying on their horn.
You know, just uptight, like, chill out.
You got to be careful in St. Louis, because we say that too loud. They'll shoot you.
Literally
what I'm trying to do here.
Yeah, what I'm trying to do here is get you to relax and listen to this next part of the statement
to not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God's giving.
Oh, my, that that part of that scripture just jumped out and grabbed me. Because that's what it is in our in our hurried up in our busyness and in meeting these schedules and doing all these things, and all of our busyness that we're trying to get, we're trying to get the most out of life we're trying to do is we run right by what God's wanting to give us. We never slow down and stop long enough to let God give us in our life. What he wants to give us in what he wants to give us as to the very thing that words trying to run right by him to get.
Most people are wanting to get just some, some peace in their life, just some silence in their life, some hope in their life and some joy in their life. And all of those things are the things that God's wanting to give us. But in our busyness we run right by
people who don't know God and the way he works, fuss over these things, but listen to it. He's this listen to what Jesus said. But you know, God, both God and how he works.
Steep your life in God reality. God initiative, God provisions.
Don't worry about missing out.
Way too many people have FOMO
FOMO with the wrong things.
If FOMO in the world, we just won't we don't want to miss out. And you know what the latest fashion is we don't want to miss out on the latest, you know, whatever, who's popular we don't want to miss out on, you know what's happening over here and over there. In the whole time. We should have FOMO towards heaven.
Because I don't want to miss the way I've lived my life for 40 some years. I don't want to miss out on what God is doing.
I don't want to miss out on what God is wanting to do in my life. And I don't want to miss out on this. And what God is doing in community and what God is doing in the earth.
Because there's so much especially for the day in the time that we're in.
See, every generation I look across this room is multi generational expression of
this church here. And you know what, every generation has to have its own encounter with God.
As you sit in here, you may think you know, I'm 70 years old. I know you didn't realize that right?
So people like oh, I didn't hear any of that. But in my mind that's what I you know where I go then
I'm seven years old. I want I don't want to miss out on what God wants to do in my generation.
And see we we talk about the younger generation and everything and that's cool.
They need to have their own encounter with God. But don't count yourself out because you're
70 Some
there's still God encounters for my generation.
There's still things that God wants to just blow us away with. And if there are profound things that he wants to speak to us, okay?
Don't worry about missing out, you'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met, give your entire give your entire give your entire
I mean your all
attention to what God is doing right now. And don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.
God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up. When the time comes.
Man that's powerful.
So again, this is this is the Message translation on seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. So let's talk about this. Let's talk about what seek first the Kingdom what's I mean, the kingdom was so important to Jesus, that He spoke about it throughout the Gospels 126 times.
If Jesus was talking about something 126 times, I think it probably had an elevated importance in him, and in him for us.
Because why? Jesus was the kingdom personified.
When we looked at Jesus, he was the king, if you want to know what the kingdom of God is, like, study the life of Jesus study the person of Jesus, because he was the expression he was a living, vision, live kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God came to us through Jesus, John said it this way, in John chapter one, verse 14, I'm going to read through that on backup and read this a little bit different. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, the glory, as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
But John says something very specific here, he said in the word, what the Logos, the logos of God is, is the is we could say, as the written or the, or the Living Color of the Word of God,
as poured out right before us.
So the logos has two important, important aspects. Its cars are creative. And its presents.
The low gas, if you study the word, it means cars or creative or presents, the low gas is creative.
Okay, in what sense? He says in John chapter one was back up, John, chapter one, verses one through three, John kind of takes a play off of the Genesis scripture in Genesis chapter one. And he says this, in the beginning, was I'm going to read it this way, okay. In the beginning, was the logos. And the logos was with God. And the logos was God. He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through Him. That's that creative. In cause, in without him, not anything that was made was made.
Jesus is the expression of the creative in the presence of God.
When we look to him,
it's like this.
I am speaking to you today. And hopefully, you learn something. Hopefully you maybe see or understand something you've never seen or understood before. Or maybe you're you're encouraged this morning through my words.
Or maybe it's joyful. Maybe there's some joy that comes into your life this morning through what I'm saying.
Or hope, maybe some hope comes alive and yes, what is it? Is that my words? My logos is what creative. It's creating something in you.
And that's what what John was expressed. That's what Jesus was saying. He said, I am the Living creative in my creation happens in you through my life. There's things that are created in you that are birthed in you that are revealed in you that come alive in you.
But it also means low cost also means presence. And when you hear somebody speak, you can hear me
Speak, that person is present with you, right? Or just like, Pastor Matt spoke on the video this morning when he was speaking, but there is an element of his presence that was with us.
His words on that screen brought what presence.
And so
the word if you're hearing my voice is if I speaking to you.
So the word is creative, it's causational
in its presence, and that's what it's supposed to be an asset with the Word of God and assist me, right. I love this quote from John Calvin. He said this. It is the task of the church to make the invisible kingdom visible.
My god, he's quoting John Calvin
it's the task Our task is to make the key the invisible kingdom visible. Why is it because that's what the word does. It's creative and brings presents.
Amen.
The apostle Paul said this, he said, Follow me as I follow Christ.
What did he mean by that? He is literally in the in the original language. This is what literally that scripture saying. The aroma of heaven that you smell on me follow the fragrance.
It's not following my plane. It's following the fragrance of Heaven or of Jesus that is on me, that becomes appealing to you begin to get a who can like the kind of like that.
You know, it's like, smelling my beard oil.
Say oh,
if you're around me and in, you're familiar with that beard oil, and in Brock comes up and gives me a hug like he does. He walks away and you walk up to talk to Brock and you're like, Huh, you you've been with my plane?
Or it's like, oh, you've been with my company.
But that, that's what it is. That's what that's what we do is that that's what we're supposed to do. Is that in maybe right away? And when we're out in the world and do Where do people like to smell something? They don't necessarily say that they'll see like, there's something on you. There's something different about you.
Something different about you.
I can remember and have people with people out in the world go man, you're nuts. So yeah, but I'm screwed onto the right bolt.
So he said seek first the kingdom and He says, Seek first righteous and it's one of those words in the Bible. It was righteousness. What is righteousness? What did he make a plethora of different definitions and things of righteousness. But, but the reality of it is What is righteousness? It's covenant behavior.
It's just covenant behavior.
What do you mean by that? If, if
you my new friend, he'll tell me your name again. David. David, can you Is it alright, can you stand up here?
Turn around so everybody can see.
What a good looking hunk right.
That was a weird moment.
Sorry.
But
David and I are becoming friends.
But see, the thing about in having a friendship is that it has to be based on certain standards
for us to be friends one is we have to respect one another. We're going to be friends we gotta respect.
If we're going to be friends, what we have to be honest with one another.
All right. If we're going to be friends, we have to be nice to one another.
Okay?
If we're going to be friends, we have to be truthful
with one another.
Okay? So so our relationship for an ammonite to have a friendship. It has to have a basis of or a standard that we're going to have because because if I'm a dirty rotten scoundrel liar and a cheat, I don't think we're going to be friends long.
Okay. Why is it because I can't be trusted. I can't you know my word is not
Drew and all these things. But in order for David and I, to have a friendship, we have to have a basis, a standard of how we're going to relate to one another. Thank you. That is what righteousness means.
The thing about it is, is that we don't get to negotiate with God, of what the standard is going to be God sets the standard. Why is that? Because he is holy.
He's holy.
And we cannot diminish or deny His Holiness, if we want to have a relationship with Him.
And so think about that when whenever you read this word righteousness, it just means the covenant behavior that we have between God and us the way I'm gonna act, and the way God is going to act.
So let me read to you a couple of verses, real quick. In Matthew, chapter five, verse six says, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, are blessed are those who hunger and thirst for a covenant relationship or a covenant behavior, for they shall be satisfied.
See, if we start living from this standard, that God has set, we'll find our law, our lives, so much more fulfilled.
Instead, we're trying to get God to live on our standard and do our things. You know,
it's amazing through the years that I have people would tell me, you know, this is what God likes, Oh, really.
Or I would ask people, what's God like?
And about three minutes into it, I'm like, gosh, God really looks like you.
Your description of God really looks a lot like you.
And sometimes it's subtle, that we do that I don't think we intentionally set out to make God look like us or to God to be like us. But people begin to tell me you know that, Oh, God likes this I like, so that's interesting, because what you're saying guidelines is contrary to what's in here.
Because I think what you've done is you've created God that looks a lot like you.
Just a thought.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Isn't that what the world is looking for? Isn't that what we're all looking for? This place of just being?
This is good?
Well, the answer for that is found in a right relationship with God.
And a God determined relationship. That's because God has far more desire and benefits for our life than we will ever discover or understand.
Second verse, Matthew, chapter five, verse 10, blessed are those who are persecuted, persecuted. For covenant behavior.
The world's not gonna like us.
You just got to just kind of get settled that fact, we'll get into that in a little bit. Let's sort of those who are persecuted for covenant behavior for their sins of the kingdom of God.
See, the Sermon on the Mount was a countercultural discourse on a new dimension of relational life with God, that's what Jesus, that's what he was doing throughout this sermon on the mount Matthew five, six and seven, he was saying this is, this is a new different, this is a different dimension of life that I've come to reveal to you. It's called the kingdom life.
Now, let's move into this move into
the third part of this, and I've got six minutes to do this.
So tighten your seat belts.
And John chapter 17, verses 14 through 17. This
prolific statement is made in these verses.
Jesus is praying, he says, I have given them your word, your logos, and the world hates them because they do not belong to the world. Just as I do not belong to the world. I'm not asking that you take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. That interests that we pray in the Lord's Prayer. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
They do not belong to this world any more than I do. Make them holy by your truth. Teach them your low GaAs which is truth.
See, truth.
Truth, what is the pilots? You know, what is truth?
We it was relativism. It's one of the isms of our world today, but just after this, it is so it I mean has just said
toxicated much of our culture today is relativism that well, that's your truth. And this is my truth.
Because if you have a truth and I have a truth and David has a truth and Brock has a truth and you know and everybody, you know, Taylor has a truth and pretty soon on that and so we don't have truth.
We don't have an absolute truth.
What we have is a bunch of opinions. In Dear Lord, we're intoxicated with our opinions today. The world just talks I mean, even in the, in the Christian world, the Christian culture, which is intoxicated with our opinions.
If you look up the definition of opinions, at the very basis of the definition
of opinion, it is it says this, it is a baseless comment.
Well, when I read that one day, I was like, Ooh, ouch.
That my opinions are just are baseless. Why?
Because they're not necessarily true.
The cultural truth of today is just a man made fabrication, absent of any influence or input from the Divine. Let me read that to you again. The cultural truth that today is just a man made fabrication, absent of any influence or input from the Divine
as driving up here yesterday, and all of a sudden, I just heard the Lord this thunder that a month.
Wow, that's good.
That's good. I wish I would have thought.
See, the truth may not be liked or accepted.
But truth is not legitimized, whether you like it or something.
Truth is what is feared the most by the enemy in our day. And that's why there's such an attack on truth today.
The enemy is at work right now to replace the truth of God with a man made fabricated truth. If you're not careful, you'll begin to believe it.
Because if you don't know this truth,
you'll begin to accept the manmade fabricated truth that is out there.
Which sometimes comes so close to this, but it's not this. It sounds so good, but it's just an entrapment to lead us away from the truth
of God and who he is.
This was one of the things that I that I see today is that the enemy is at work to discredit the character of Christianity or Christians, in order to invalidate the truth we speak or stamp.
See if, if Derek,
he's a Christian.
But if I can get you to believe that he's a dirty rotten scoundrel
that he's a liar he's achieved.
He'll take everything he'd have.
You leave you bloodied and blistered and all those things. And then Derek comes to me and begins to speak a truth to what happens, we're gonna believe you. Why? Because his character has been discredited.
And that's what the devil is trying to do right now. And you hear all the things out there, you hear all the some of the things going on in the Christian world, and leaders failing and different things that are happening and all this stuff. What it is, it's a discredit to the truth.
The devil is just trying to use those things to say, you can't believe Christians.
They'll say one thing and live a different way. They'll say one thing and do another thing you can't count on.
It's all an attack on the truth.
I'd rather walk in truth and be alone that walk with the crowd and be wrong with God.
We got settled that fat. I don't have time. That's just scripture. And Jeremiah 38. We're Jeremiah. The Prophet begins to speak the truth and he gets thrown into a cistern that was only filled with mud. And he sunk up to his armpits. Josephus said in mind what for speaking the truth I was reading that one day and the Lord asked me said, Will you be willing to stand in the mud for truth?
That's my question you today will you be willing to stand in the mud for truth?
And I'm going to close with this.
What you have resolved in you'll become revolutionary with
what you have resolved in you'll become revolutionary with if you have the truth of God.
Have you have said, this is an I believe that this is the word of God, I believe that this is truth. I believe that this is the absolute truth. I believe that this is the highest form of truth, and you'll become revolutionary.
And you'll begin to speak it and live it and love it. And guess what?
The kingdom comes alive through your love.
Let me pray for you. What I thank you today
for every individual on this place.
I thank you that no one walks away from this title this morning
without a resolve in their heart and to resolve that Your Word is true.
And that your kingdom come and your will be done in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
Thanks again for listening to today's message. For more information on all that God's doing at Mercy city, or to share how the message has impacted your life. Visit us online at Mercy City DOT church or on social media.