2017 July 30 sermon - Seek the Kingdom first
Today was Youth Sunday and I delivered the sermon!
2017 July 30th Youth Sunday sermon by Manuel Sieunarine.
Theme: “Seek the Kingdom of God first”
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1 Kings 3:5-12 (NIV)
5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”
6 Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.
7 “Now, LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this.11 So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.
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Matthew 13:31-33 (NIV)
The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast
31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
33 He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
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Matthew 13:44-52 (NIV)
The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
The Parable of the Net
47 “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48 When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
51 “Have you understood all these things?” Jesus asked.
“Yes,” they replied.
52 He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”
---------------------------------------------------------
Good morning everyone. Let us pray. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable to You, O Christ, our Strength and our Redeemer, amen. What Jesus said in Matthew 6:33 sums up the message of both scripture readings: look for the Kingdom of God first, and then you can have everything else:
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Both scripture readings try to describe the Kingdom. The Old Testament reading begins the story of Solomon, who was only a child when he inherited the crown of Israel from his father David. The same way David had been younger than his brothers, Solomon was also younger than his brothers were. When God asked what he wanted, Solomon admitted he was inexperienced and asked for wisdom. Solomon looked for wisdom first. What is wisdom? Proverbs 9:10 says,
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
If desiring wisdom means desiring a good relationship with God, then I believe Solomon looked for the Kingdom of God first. God was pleased, and not only gave Solomon wisdom, but everything else, too: riches, victory over his enemies, long life, and so on. God rewards humility and obedience through unique callings and blessings. However, God does not stop disciplining us just because we have been obedient in the past - our sin has very real consequences, as Solomon found out later in life when he disobeyed God by worshiping idols. The Kingdom of Israel was divided into the Northern and Southern kingdoms after his death. However, God did not abandon Israel, for He sent His Son Jesus to be our saviour.
Solomon used his heavenly gift to serve others, but the irony is that the worldly gifts (that he did not ask for) caused his downfall. This story is all too common today, and brings to mind the parable of the sower (Mark 4:18-19):
18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.
Solomon is like the seeds that grew quickly but then became choked by weeds. Solomon received the Kingdom of God, but later in life his worldly kingdom caused him to sin.
There is a poem by Francis Thompson (1859-1907) titled “The Hound of Heaven”. The gist of this poem is that the persona is running away from God, but God tirelessly pursues them with His grace. God reminds the runner to seek His Kingdom first, for unless they have a good relationship with God first, they will not enjoy anything else in this life or the next. I think the first 15 lines of the poem are beautiful, so I will read them to you:
I FLED Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat-and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet-
‘All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.’
In summary, God created the world, but the world ran away from Him, as the Gospel said (John 1:10),
10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
God redeemed the world through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus. The world belongs to Him, so unless we are on good terms with the owner, we won’t have any part of His property. Certainly, there are people who reap riches, pursue power and pocket any prestige they can scrounge up, but none of it belongs to them. If you think of any powerful figure in the world today, God allowed them to be powerful for a little while. Why God chooses to give people so much power is a mystery, but we are not called to believe in the wealthy and elite; we are called to believe in the Son of God, Jesus. We must not allow this glittering world to distract us from the truth. Merely having worldly things is unsatisfying to the human spirit because we know deep down that something is missing. Rather, someone is missing from our lives.
As Christians, the Good News is that there is hope. The New Testament reading is five parables, five stories Jesus used to describe the Kingdom of Heaven, which is the source of our hope. The first two about the mustard seed and yeast say that the Kingdom of God will not replace the world but will be a part of it. This is consistent with Jesus’ best-known statement that God loves this world (John 3:16). These parables speak of small things becoming great under the right conditions. A tiny seed uses soil, water and sunlight to become a tree that shelters birds. A little bit of yeast mixed with dough and water becomes delicious bread that feeds a family. The Kingdom of God entered the world as a little baby. He began small, but He changed everything we know about life.
The next two parables say that two different men sold everything they had to get the hidden treasure or valuable pearl. You must first be wise and discerning before you can tell the difference between junk and treasure, or else you will give away everything for nothing. These parables speak of costly grace: the men sold all their property to buy the treasure or the pearl. So too did Jesus give everything He had - including His very life shed on the Cross - so that we might inherit the Kingdom. This costly grace likewise demands everything that we have: our very lives and souls given to Christ, who will gently receive us, heal our lives and redeem our souls from sin. These parables also say that the Kingdom of God is hidden within this world. This is also consistent with Jesus’ statement that the Kingdom of God is already among us (Luke 17:21). It is among us because Christ is here with us and within us through the Holy Spirit.
The fifth parable about the fishermen keeping the good fish and throwing away the bad fish reminds us that there are consequences for sin and, like Solomon, those consequences may not happen while we’re alive. Remember, Solomon lived a life of luxury, but his Kingdom of Israel was divided after his death.
These five things the parables spoke of are of no use by themselves; they need to have the correct conditions to be useful. Seeds need soil, yeast needs dough, treasures and pearls need a market, and fishes need to be caught in nets or you can’t eat them! In the same way, if Solomon had not applied his wisdom, it would have been useless. We can have the Holy Spirit; we can have the Kingdom, but unless we use it to serve others, it will be useless to us.
Thankfully, the Kingdom of God will have no end. When Jesus told those five stories He was trying to say that the reason the Kingdom of God is on Earth is because He is on Earth. His presence is the Kingdom of God. The disciples didn’t understand that until after His resurrection. Now Jesus is with us through the Holy Spirit until our work on Earth is done. He alone turns defeat into victory; death into life, for He is the first fruits of the dead. There is no-one else who has accomplished this, who has not only defeated Death but also offers us the same victory through His grace - the fastest of all His messengers, as another poet John Milton said.
The Kingdom is a mystery. As a man of science (I consider linguistics to be a science!), everything in science tells me that death is the final resting place of all things. One day even the stars will burn out. We do not know why or how the Kingdom is stronger than death, but we must believe in the Lord of resurrection. For us, death is the beginning of the Kingdom in its fullness. Thus we have no fear of death; it is the small treasure we have now that will become life in its fullness after death.
We must not be like Solomon at the end of his life, worshiping idols. Instead, like Solomon in his youth, we must acknowledge that we cannot handle the serious business of living by ourselves. We must not be like the persona at the beginning of Francis Thompson’s poem, stubbornly running away from God. Instead, like the persona at the end of the poem, we must have a change of heart to acknowledge our need for God’s grace.
This world runs on the merit system; you go to school to get a job, you work to get money, you exchange money for stuff, and so it goes. The Kingdom of Heaven runs on God’s grace, which is unmerited favour. Humanity is justly under His wrath, and we will be condemned unless the Saviour intercedes and redeems us with His grace. There is no such thing as being good enough to enter Heaven; no-one is good enough, not even the angels (Job 4:18-19). We will only enter the Kingdom through God’s grace; through the presence of Christ in our lives. His presence leads us into service.
When we serve others, we encounter Christ in others. We do not encounter death first, or sickness first, or hatred first. Every person or plant or animal we serve, we first meet the Saviour. He is working to redeem the world, and we must choose to participate in that redemption. The work we do is through Him, and God first touches the lives we touch. Let us serve others, and as we first chose the Kingdom of Heaven, so too will Jesus be the first person who meets us when we help other people and plants and animals - anything alive, for He is the true life of all. We must not look at a person, or a plant, or an animal and say, “Oh no, this creature is dead, or dying, or sick, or ugly!” We must learn to see Christ first, because He lives in all living things, and He has conquered death.
The Kingdom is not only our hope, but also our work here on Earth. Remember, we must use our gifts by serving others or they will be useless. As Christ’s work on Earth was love, so too must our work on Earth be love. Christ always spoke of the future, but He also said that the Kingdom is among us right now because He is here. Jesus is the future Kingdom; Jesus is the future of this world, but He also lives in the world now because He loves us and wants us to be part of His future. As yeast works in the dough to make bread, as a seed works in the soil to make a tree, His work was with His Cross to redeem the world and bring all people to Him. We must also pick up our Cross and follow Him, because He is the future, and none but Christ can save us.
Amen. Let us pray. Lord Jesus, you know every grief that wrings the human breast, and take and bear them for Your own so that all in You may rest. As You lead us into service, let us spread the Good News to the world through our love, so that the world may rest in You. Amen.
2017 July 30th Youth Sunday sermon by Manuel Sieunarine.
Theme: “Seek the Kingdom of God first”
---------------------------------------------------------
1 Kings 3:5-12 (NIV)
5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”
6 Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.
7 “Now, LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this.11 So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.
---------------------------------------------------------
Matthew 13:31-33 (NIV)
The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast
31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
33 He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
---------------------------------------------------------
Matthew 13:44-52 (NIV)
The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
The Parable of the Net
47 “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48 When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
51 “Have you understood all these things?” Jesus asked.
“Yes,” they replied.
52 He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”
---------------------------------------------------------
Good morning everyone. Let us pray. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable to You, O Christ, our Strength and our Redeemer, amen. What Jesus said in Matthew 6:33 sums up the message of both scripture readings: look for the Kingdom of God first, and then you can have everything else:
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Both scripture readings try to describe the Kingdom. The Old Testament reading begins the story of Solomon, who was only a child when he inherited the crown of Israel from his father David. The same way David had been younger than his brothers, Solomon was also younger than his brothers were. When God asked what he wanted, Solomon admitted he was inexperienced and asked for wisdom. Solomon looked for wisdom first. What is wisdom? Proverbs 9:10 says,
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
If desiring wisdom means desiring a good relationship with God, then I believe Solomon looked for the Kingdom of God first. God was pleased, and not only gave Solomon wisdom, but everything else, too: riches, victory over his enemies, long life, and so on. God rewards humility and obedience through unique callings and blessings. However, God does not stop disciplining us just because we have been obedient in the past - our sin has very real consequences, as Solomon found out later in life when he disobeyed God by worshiping idols. The Kingdom of Israel was divided into the Northern and Southern kingdoms after his death. However, God did not abandon Israel, for He sent His Son Jesus to be our saviour.
Solomon used his heavenly gift to serve others, but the irony is that the worldly gifts (that he did not ask for) caused his downfall. This story is all too common today, and brings to mind the parable of the sower (Mark 4:18-19):
18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.
Solomon is like the seeds that grew quickly but then became choked by weeds. Solomon received the Kingdom of God, but later in life his worldly kingdom caused him to sin.
There is a poem by Francis Thompson (1859-1907) titled “The Hound of Heaven”. The gist of this poem is that the persona is running away from God, but God tirelessly pursues them with His grace. God reminds the runner to seek His Kingdom first, for unless they have a good relationship with God first, they will not enjoy anything else in this life or the next. I think the first 15 lines of the poem are beautiful, so I will read them to you:
I FLED Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat-and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet-
‘All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.’
In summary, God created the world, but the world ran away from Him, as the Gospel said (John 1:10),
10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
God redeemed the world through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus. The world belongs to Him, so unless we are on good terms with the owner, we won’t have any part of His property. Certainly, there are people who reap riches, pursue power and pocket any prestige they can scrounge up, but none of it belongs to them. If you think of any powerful figure in the world today, God allowed them to be powerful for a little while. Why God chooses to give people so much power is a mystery, but we are not called to believe in the wealthy and elite; we are called to believe in the Son of God, Jesus. We must not allow this glittering world to distract us from the truth. Merely having worldly things is unsatisfying to the human spirit because we know deep down that something is missing. Rather, someone is missing from our lives.
As Christians, the Good News is that there is hope. The New Testament reading is five parables, five stories Jesus used to describe the Kingdom of Heaven, which is the source of our hope. The first two about the mustard seed and yeast say that the Kingdom of God will not replace the world but will be a part of it. This is consistent with Jesus’ best-known statement that God loves this world (John 3:16). These parables speak of small things becoming great under the right conditions. A tiny seed uses soil, water and sunlight to become a tree that shelters birds. A little bit of yeast mixed with dough and water becomes delicious bread that feeds a family. The Kingdom of God entered the world as a little baby. He began small, but He changed everything we know about life.
The next two parables say that two different men sold everything they had to get the hidden treasure or valuable pearl. You must first be wise and discerning before you can tell the difference between junk and treasure, or else you will give away everything for nothing. These parables speak of costly grace: the men sold all their property to buy the treasure or the pearl. So too did Jesus give everything He had - including His very life shed on the Cross - so that we might inherit the Kingdom. This costly grace likewise demands everything that we have: our very lives and souls given to Christ, who will gently receive us, heal our lives and redeem our souls from sin. These parables also say that the Kingdom of God is hidden within this world. This is also consistent with Jesus’ statement that the Kingdom of God is already among us (Luke 17:21). It is among us because Christ is here with us and within us through the Holy Spirit.
The fifth parable about the fishermen keeping the good fish and throwing away the bad fish reminds us that there are consequences for sin and, like Solomon, those consequences may not happen while we’re alive. Remember, Solomon lived a life of luxury, but his Kingdom of Israel was divided after his death.
These five things the parables spoke of are of no use by themselves; they need to have the correct conditions to be useful. Seeds need soil, yeast needs dough, treasures and pearls need a market, and fishes need to be caught in nets or you can’t eat them! In the same way, if Solomon had not applied his wisdom, it would have been useless. We can have the Holy Spirit; we can have the Kingdom, but unless we use it to serve others, it will be useless to us.
Thankfully, the Kingdom of God will have no end. When Jesus told those five stories He was trying to say that the reason the Kingdom of God is on Earth is because He is on Earth. His presence is the Kingdom of God. The disciples didn’t understand that until after His resurrection. Now Jesus is with us through the Holy Spirit until our work on Earth is done. He alone turns defeat into victory; death into life, for He is the first fruits of the dead. There is no-one else who has accomplished this, who has not only defeated Death but also offers us the same victory through His grace - the fastest of all His messengers, as another poet John Milton said.
The Kingdom is a mystery. As a man of science (I consider linguistics to be a science!), everything in science tells me that death is the final resting place of all things. One day even the stars will burn out. We do not know why or how the Kingdom is stronger than death, but we must believe in the Lord of resurrection. For us, death is the beginning of the Kingdom in its fullness. Thus we have no fear of death; it is the small treasure we have now that will become life in its fullness after death.
We must not be like Solomon at the end of his life, worshiping idols. Instead, like Solomon in his youth, we must acknowledge that we cannot handle the serious business of living by ourselves. We must not be like the persona at the beginning of Francis Thompson’s poem, stubbornly running away from God. Instead, like the persona at the end of the poem, we must have a change of heart to acknowledge our need for God’s grace.
This world runs on the merit system; you go to school to get a job, you work to get money, you exchange money for stuff, and so it goes. The Kingdom of Heaven runs on God’s grace, which is unmerited favour. Humanity is justly under His wrath, and we will be condemned unless the Saviour intercedes and redeems us with His grace. There is no such thing as being good enough to enter Heaven; no-one is good enough, not even the angels (Job 4:18-19). We will only enter the Kingdom through God’s grace; through the presence of Christ in our lives. His presence leads us into service.
When we serve others, we encounter Christ in others. We do not encounter death first, or sickness first, or hatred first. Every person or plant or animal we serve, we first meet the Saviour. He is working to redeem the world, and we must choose to participate in that redemption. The work we do is through Him, and God first touches the lives we touch. Let us serve others, and as we first chose the Kingdom of Heaven, so too will Jesus be the first person who meets us when we help other people and plants and animals - anything alive, for He is the true life of all. We must not look at a person, or a plant, or an animal and say, “Oh no, this creature is dead, or dying, or sick, or ugly!” We must learn to see Christ first, because He lives in all living things, and He has conquered death.
The Kingdom is not only our hope, but also our work here on Earth. Remember, we must use our gifts by serving others or they will be useless. As Christ’s work on Earth was love, so too must our work on Earth be love. Christ always spoke of the future, but He also said that the Kingdom is among us right now because He is here. Jesus is the future Kingdom; Jesus is the future of this world, but He also lives in the world now because He loves us and wants us to be part of His future. As yeast works in the dough to make bread, as a seed works in the soil to make a tree, His work was with His Cross to redeem the world and bring all people to Him. We must also pick up our Cross and follow Him, because He is the future, and none but Christ can save us.
Amen. Let us pray. Lord Jesus, you know every grief that wrings the human breast, and take and bear them for Your own so that all in You may rest. As You lead us into service, let us spread the Good News to the world through our love, so that the world may rest in You. Amen.