Praise God. Thank you. Thank you, Timothy, for the song and the sharing. And thank you, Stephanie.
First of all, when Timothy shared, a verse came to mind. 1 John 2:27.
27 But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him. (1 John 2:27, ESV)
It’s true that because we have the Holy Spirit, the anointing that is in us, pastors can be helpful at times and mentors can be helpful at times. But the Holy Spirit’s main job for all believers is to help us to stay connected to Jesus.
So thank you for that reminder. And Stephanie, the valley that the Lord has been taking you on is a familiar place to me as well.
I think church planting has been, for the most part, a valley for me. It’s been a long, long valley. And so I can readily identify with what God is doing in your heart. And in my heart, he’s humbling us and showing us things in our heart that we did not know were there. And so thankful for that testimony as well.
I’ll read one verse and then we’ll start. Matthew 6:33.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33, ESV)
Okay, let’s pray.
Lord, we want to know about the kingdom today. We want to let you be God because you’re the king and we’re not. Help us, Lord, communicate the truth of the kingdom in a way that we can understand and put to practice right away. Thank you, Lord. We avail ourselves to you. In Jesus Name we pray, Amen.
It says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Just give you a moment of self-reflection. What are you seeking? What are you seeking? Some seek after power. Some seek after pleasure.
Some seek after security, money, boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse, fame. What are you seeking after?
We seek after things we desire. So maybe another way we can ask the question is, what do you desire? Because whatever you desire, that is what you’re seeking after.
This Mexico mission trip brings me back to the summer of 1991. My dad wanted me to have a topic to write about in my college admission essay. I think that’s what was driving him.
But he sent me on a Mexico mission trip, and I was not a believer back then. There’s something very meaningful about manual labor. I don’t know how, but God touched me on that trip, and I came back from that trip wanting to read the Bible. That was, I think, just a taste of what God would reveal to me some years later.
But on that mission trip, I was not a Christian, like I said. Back then, in the early 1990s, we had Walkmen.
And so I brought my little tape Walkman, and we’re sleeping on hammocks. Just all night, I’m just listening to Phil Collins. Not the best listening material when you’re on a mission trip. But I was invisible. Touch the album just over and over, and it just kind of stirs certain emotions.
I should have been focused on the mission work, but I was focused on a girl in the youth group that I desired and I sought after. I got rejected, but that was my first taste of Mexico mission.
So now God is sending me back to Mexico with a different heart, with a different perspective. So I look forward to what God has in store for us in August.
I just want to read some names of some people. Just the first names. Bill, Brian, Mike, Tony, Robert. These are just the first names of some megachurch ministers who have fallen into a scandal in recent years, some very recently.
And it got me thinking, like, I mean, weren’t these men pastors seeking the kingdom of God? And yet, why did they fall like this?
Deep down in their heart, were they after what God was after? Or was there a mixed motive? Was there something else that was hidden and covered up in? Because they were so successful, because they never learned the lesson of the wilderness, they just kind of rose to prominence, and Satan was crouching at their door.
And when they were at their peak, the pinnacle of their success, Satan disgraced the name of God in such a public way. So when it says, seek first the kingdom of God, it has to be more than just being a minister.
Although I would love this place to be filled, I would love for us to be so full that we run out of space. I would love to do missions. I would love to do church planting and plant more churches. I would love that, of course.
But when I look at some of these examples, on the surface, they are serving. It looks like they’re serving the kingdom of God, and yet, why do they fall in such a terrible way? So the kingdom of God. It gets back to what Stephanie was saying. Let God be God.
Like, who is the king of this kingdom? It’s not us. Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Jesus is the senior pastor of every church that bears his name and that gets into rule and reign and will and desires.
It says in Matthew 7:21.
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:21-23, ESV)
Every Christian knows who the Lord is, and they refer to Jesus all the time as Lord, as Master, as Teacher.
And they are busy serving in the church and serving in various ministries. But at the end, Jesus says, I don’t know you. So this critical piece of knowing Jesus and being known by Jesus was something they just did not prioritize.
And they were just so busy. And maybe that’s Satan’s trap for these very successful and gifted men and women, that as long as Satan just drives them in busyness and they never get to know Jesus, then he would have won. And it’s just a matter of time. This house will fall.
It says, we seek his righteousness, and there’s a greater righteousness that a true minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ achieves in his or her life.
It says in Matthew 5:20.
20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20, ESV)
And so at some point, we will tackle that subject. What is this greater righteousness that all believers and followers of Jesus need to achieve in order to enter the kingdom of heaven? It must vastly surpass the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees.
And so what does it mean that we seek after the kingdom of God?
If we go a few verses earlier in the same chapter in the Lord’s prayer, there’s verse ten. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Will can sound very clinical, very theological, like predestined kind of a feeling. But I think a better translation for us for it to hit home is to translate it. Your desires be done. Your desires be done.
Like in Genesis 3, when the woman saw the tree that was good for food that they were not supposed to eat from, Satan was deceiving Eve. And Eve was paying attention to this tree that was forbidden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She was looking at it, and it was pleasant to the eyes.
We read in Genesis 2. And then in Genesis 3, it says she desired it because it would make her wise.
She believed that it would make her wise, and she took it. So it’s when God’s will is, do not do this. Eve’s will showed up in her desires that she wanted to do it anyway. God says, don’t do this. It is not my will for you to take of this tree. Eve says, no, the Lord’s will. I don’t care about it. I desire it, therefore I will do it.
That’s how will and desire, I think, come into, come together. The same with, it’s the same word for Exodus 20:17. You shall not covet.
So will desire. Covet, it’s the same thing. And if you have a wrong desire, you’re not gonna do the will of God. Instead, you’re gonna obey your own will. And so we need to understand what is in our hearts.
Christian life is a clash of two kingdoms. And John 12:31 describes one king, the ruler of this world. And then in 2 Corinthians 4:4, a god of this world. And we know who this is. It is Satan. And so just general worldliness.
Like, if you find yourself, like, drawn to the world, then Satan is in there, because Satan is the ruler, the God of this world. And so if you’re drawn to things in this world, then you are succumbing to a different king in a different kingdom versus God in his kingdom, where Jesus ushers us in by what he did on the cross and the blood that he shed into a different kingdom.
And so it’s a clash of two kingdoms.
In Genesis 4, when it’s talking about Cain, verse 7, it says, if you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.
It’s a weird expression when it talks about sin and Satan. Its desire is contrary to you. It’s not for you. It’s not for your good, it’s not for your benefit.
And this desire, this wrong desire, that sin is crouching at the door to just bring you down, you and I must rule over it and overcome it.
This general worldliness is described in 1 John 2:15:
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.16 For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life —is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:16-17, ESV)
If I were just to sum up the mantra of this world as “you do you,” “you just be authentic to yourself,” “just do whatever feels right to you,” that is satanic. We’re supposed to, if we’re part of a different kingdom where Jesus is master and lord, go to him all the time and ask him, “What are your desires?”
I think in the church we kind of get it wrong.
Like, we’re so into our desires and what we want and our will and our plan and our agenda, and we just ask God, can you baptize it? Can you bless what I want?
And churches teach this. You should just name it and claim it. Like, I wanna be rich. And so God, bless me with riches. I want to be famous, so God, bless me with fame. I want to be a mega church pastor. I’m doing it for you, Father. And I want to be famous for the Lord.
It could be from the Lord, or it could be from Satan himself. And he’s using your own desires and my desires. So we need to get into the practice to go to the king and say, not my will, your will be done.
Jesus did it to the Father, we do it to Jesus the king. We’re part of this new kingdom and we say to Jesus, what is your desire for the twelve years of Hill Community Church? It is not according to my desires. I had different desires, I had different plans.
It is not happening according to my desires, and I just have to keep submitting to the Lord. Okay, Lord, I’m waiting on you. If you tell me this is a waiting period, if this is a wilderness season, if you’re doing things in my heart and you’re humbling me, so be it. And I just have to surrender. Lord, you have your way. I could do it a different way. I could say, this is not right. I quit. Forget this.
And at the end of last year, I was thinking that way, a little bit like Culver City. This doesn’t feel right. This church doesn’t feel right. It’s like I don’t even know how to reach these people.
I’ve been in California since we planted the church in 2012, and just wandering through the desert in Pasadena, Alhambra, Torrens, Culver City. Like we’re just wandering from place to place every year or two. And I was saying, Lord, this, can it be different? I have different desires.
And maybe I’m not hearing you, but I have these desires and I’m bringing you before you. I felt there was a stirring, and sure enough, there was a stirring. It was time to move.
But I thought, okay, it’s gonna be different. It’s gonna be bigger. It’s gonna be out of state. It’s gonna be thousands of people, at least hundreds of people, Lord. At least 100. Just give me 100, Lord. I wanna feel like there’s something that I look forward to just being in a worship where it’s just.
It feels like the room is full because we’re just sitting, singing our hearts out. And the band is. Nothing wrong with Matthew, but electric guitar and drum and bass, just a full sound. Wouldn’t that be nice, Lord?
And I just keep having to ask the Lord, is that a desire from you or is that a desire from me or potentially the evil one? Because I could do it my way with my desires and maybe even with satanic help to raise me to a place of a large platform.
And then at the right time, at an opportune time, everything crumbles and God’s name is disgraced. How many people read secular news and watch CNN and say, that’s going on in a church? What kind of church is this? Do I ever want to step foot in a church knowing that this kind of stuff happens?
Think of how much damage is done. The higher you go, the bigger the fall. Just how much damage is done when the desires of one’s heart are not dealt with and the person is not consulting the Lord?
And they’re just autopilot doing ministry. And things in the heart are never exposed because the wilderness is something to be shunned. And I got to escape the wilderness at 40 day max. I don’t want to be here for 40 years. That’s too long.
But who is the king? Who is the king? We just have to ask him, like, did John the Baptist want his life? Like, he was doing so well, and then Jesus came and he lost all of his disciples. And John said, because, behold the lamb of God. Go to him.
Would you want to be just suddenly, everybody leave you? And then Herod makes a crazy vow, and then the daughter wants the head of John the Baptist, and that’s how you die. Like, who wants that story?
It’s not up to us. It’s not up to us. Our path of life is not up to us.
I feel sorry to Jackie at times. She’s a pastor’s wife, and I know that she has certain desires, and I cannot meet those. She has certain things she wants to do. She just can’t do it because she’s connected to me.
And I feel sorry at times. It’s not up to me. It’s not up to her. We just follow the Lord. We just follow the Lord.
So what are you seeking? James 4:4.
4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4:4, ESV)
So one thing as a Christian when we pray is we have all these desires. And a lot of the time, the desires are informed by the world.
You see people in the world flaunting certain things in money and fame and power and influence, and they just keep flexing on social media and look at all that I have, and look how great I am.
And we let that in, and we already have our own desires, and it just kind of feeds into that. And then before we know it, we become a friend of the world.
So part of our prayer time has to be, we shut the door to the world. We say, I don’t desire that, Lord, let the world be the world.
I don’t desire. And so part of our prayer, we need to shut the door to all that is in the world. Also, Luke 9:23, we must deny ourselves and take up a cross.
What does it profit a man, a woman, to have the whole world? And then you forfeit your soul. What does it profit, a mega church pastor, to claim that they’ve reached tens of, maybe hundreds of thousands of people? What does it profit, if that’s their ministry? But at the end, Jesus says, I don’t know you. You forfeit your soul.
We take our cues from Jesus, who said, at the garden of Gethsemane, Luke 22:42, Father, if you’re willing, remove this cup from me.
Jesus had a desire. I don’t want to die this way, Father. I don’t want to drink the cup of this wrath. I have a desire, Lord. He’s praying to his father. But in that prayer, he denies himself, and he’s willing to take up his cross, his unique cross, and he says, nevertheless, not my will, not my desire, but what you desire. I’m going to do it, Lord.
John 1:35.
35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. (John 1:35-40, ESV)
So there were two disciples of John the Baptist. And Jesus asked them the same question that I started this sermon with: What are you seeking? What are you seeking? What do you desire, really?
In that moment, those two disciples of John the Baptist asked Jesus, where are you staying? Meaning, I desire you in this moment. I want to be with you. And they both spent the day with Jesus Christ.
And one of them was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. And so he kept following Jesus for the remainder of his days into eternity.
I wonder what happened to the other disciple. He had desire, but maybe the cares of this world, maybe the pride of life, maybe his parents, maybe his job, something else crowded out that desire. And then you don’t read about him.
And Jesus is asking all of us, what are you seeking? What are you seeking?
We want to be the kind of person that seeks the kingdom of God, seeks the desires of the king over our desires continuously.
And then we get into and his righteousness. If you just get busy in kingdom work and you don’t really desire Jesus, like you desire the ministry of Jesus more than Jesus, doesn’t that happen all the time?
Jesus becomes boring. Jesus becomes familiar. It’s like you grew up in Nazareth. It’s like you think you know Jesus so well, and so he gets boring.
And so all of your desires shift to something more interesting, like church growth and missions and ministry. And it’s great seeing people come to faith. It’s great having baptisms. But if that becomes our supreme desire, the kingdom of God, the kingdom work, then we will never get to the second thing to seek, which is Jesus’ righteousness. And we will never achieve for ourselves a greater righteousness that we need in order to inherit the kingdom of God.
So this tells me that we must desire Jesus above everything else.
We must desire Jesus above everything else, even the kingdom work on behalf of Jesus. We must desire Jesus above everything else. Otherwise, this kingdom work could be masking a wrong desire. And you’re not actually connecting with Jesus, and you’re not growing in fellowship with Jesus. You’re not bearing the right kind of fruit that comes when you abide in Jesus.
At the end of our lives, Jesus may say, who are you? We must desire Jesus above the work we do for Jesus, because we have to ask.
It says in Matthew 9:37, the harvest is plentiful. So why are we fishing? Why aren’t we going to missions? Why aren’t we doing these things?
Jesus says it’s because the workers are few. There are few workers who can represent Jesus well, who know Jesus well enough for Jesus to feel safe. This person is so humble. He keeps asking me every day, what is your will? What do you desire?
And to that kind of a follower, God the Father looks at that follower of Jesus and says, I will raise this person up to be a worker in the harvest field.
There are some, but there are a few. It just takes time. It just takes time.
We want to be the kind of person that, whether it’s to one person or a thousand people or 10,000 people, 100,000 people or a million people, we represent Jesus well because we know Him well, that we will be the kind of worker that Jesus can count on to send.
And my conclusion of why I have not been sent to the nations yet is because I am not ready. It is okay to admit that. It’s okay to admit that we still have issues. We still have things in our heart that should not be there.
It’s okay to say there are desires that are choking out my desire for Jesus. Like I don’t desire Jesus enough. Another way to say it is I’m not satisfied with Jesus. If I’m satisfied, ten people, a million people, it doesn’t matter. I’m satisfied. I’m thankful. I know I’m not there yet.
And so God is raising up workers for the harvest field. People who seek first the kingdom, who ask Jesus, what are your desires? I want to do what you ask me to do. I deny my own desires. What I want out of life doesn’t matter. I’ve shut off the world. Let the world be the world. Let the world chase after worldly things.
For me, Lord, please purge my desire so that I desire only what you desire. So ultimately, I desire you, Lord Jesus.
And to that kind of person, Jesus will say, welcome, good and faithful servant. Welcome into paradise. We want to be that kind of disciple of Jesus.
Okay, let’s pray.
Father, forgive us for all of our wrong desires. To be famous in this world, to seek out pleasure and fame and power and influence, impact even Christian. We can turn this into a Christianized idea when in reality we’re just masking selfish ambition, vain conceit, pride, lust, whatever it is.
When we see all of these prominent pastures falling, we know that this system that is controlled by this world is broken. It is a flawed system. It is a man-centered system. It is a cult of personality. It was not supposed to be like this.
Lord, even you, Lord Jesus, you limited yourself while on earth to twelve people. And when you ascended into heaven, you only had 120 who gathered in the upper room. Somehow we fooled ourselves into thinking we’re better than you, and we can do a ministry more expansive than what you did.
Father, we pray that we can be citizens in your kingdom that seek first your kingdom, asking the King, the Master, the Lord, what do you desire for us? What we desire doesn’t matter. We deny ourselves. We shut our heart to the world. What do you desire, Lord? Please speak it.
Lord, if we’re in a wilderness, if we have to keep staying humble and knowing what’s in our heart and repenting and surrendering, so be it. Lord, if it’s 40 days, if it’s 40 years, it’s not up to us. The timing is up to you, Lord.
When you see us, when you deem us fit and ready to be sent to the harvest fields, we’ll go. When you give us a strategy and the target and the heart and the character and the fruit to match, we’ll be obedient as soon as you tell us to go.
Until that time, Lord, we know that you’re training us, preparing us, discipling us, raising us as children of God. Pray, Lord Jesus, that you would minister to us as we seek you, your kingdom, and your righteousness.
Thank you for your blood that was poured out for us, for the forgiveness of sins. Thank you for your body that was broken. We want to meet you. We seek after you on this day and every day.
In Jesus Name we pray, Amen.