Okay, my name is Jim Evans and I’m more affectionately known as Papa Jim. I’m out of Austin, Texas, and I wanted to review with you today, Matthew 6:33. That’s a verse that many of you are aware of, many of you know about. It’s a very, very powerful verse.
So I’m going to start off by reading that to you. Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about its own thing. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” And of course, that last verse was Matthew 6:34.
What does that mean, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you”? The first part is pretty easy. Seek God, seek the kingdom. What does that mean? Pray, talk to Him, read the word. Seek God, righteousness and His righteousness. That means do the right thing. Follow His example. Follow Jesus. We’ve got the perfect example in the life of Jesus Christ of being righteous. So that means follow Him into righteousness.
But this last part, “…and all these things will be added unto you” All what things? To find out, we need to go back a few verses. Let’s go back to verse 31: “Therefore, do not worry saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?'” Verse 32, “For all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” And if you go back a little further, it talks about the birds of the air and the lilies of the field and how God takes care of them.
Well, how much more, then, would He take care of us if He takes care of them so well? And that’s what that means. We tend to worry, and it’s understandable. We have responsibilities, we have children to raise, we have mortgages and rent payments to make. We have to keep our cars running, and our relationships and all those various things. But the message here, is that if we take care and we are obedient, love God with all your heart and all yourself, love your neighbor as yourself. That commandment of love, we love our children. You know, Timothy is very, very clear about relationship amongst family. We love our children. We love our spouse. We lay our lives down for our family and friends. If we take care of those basic commandments, God promises He will take care of everything else. And all these things shall be added to you.