"Seek First the Kingdom of God" | Matthew 6:25-34

Show Notes

Episode 712: 
In this episode, we dive into a lighthearted yet profound discussion about worry, inspired by Jesus' teachings in Matthew 6:25-34, where Jesus instructs us not to worry about our everyday needs. We discuss the significance of this passage, emphasizing that worry accomplishes nothing and can often lead to negative outcomes. We reflect on how Jesus uses nature—birds and flowers—as examples of God's provision, reminding us that if He cares for them, He will certainly care for us.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Bible Guys. My name is Chris and this is Jeffrey Man. And I'm so only my mom calls me Jeffrey and only when I'm in trouble. Okay, Jeffrey Michael, that's what she's saying. Then I'm Christopher. I'm Christopher, and this is Jeffrey. Well, didn't your mom call you Chrissy? Still does? Yeah, okay, still does. And then you know the reason why, Chucky, Donnie, Tommy, Jimmy. Oh yeah, and so you had to be You're the young guest. And so I'm the one cursed with it doesn't work with my name, right, everybody else it kind of works, right. Uh So yeah, I'm I'm the fifth one that doesn't really work with my name. And by the way, I was supposed to be Jonathan Christopher, but I was born on Palm Sunday, just after midnight, and so she wanted to name me after actually, you know, she grew up Catholic, so Saint Christopher. So she says, oh no, let's make it more of a religion name, because she did. She there wasn't a saint named Jonathan, right, and so I mean, you know, unless you consider. Saint John who wrote the Bible part of the part of the Bible. But but but no, so she named me after the saint, which is anyway. So that's why I became Chris Well. And it's why you're so saintly. That is, people tend to live up to their names. Halo. Yeah, So hey, we have a segment before we jump into our UH series about Jesus and his famous sayings. And this is what Desiree wrote. She said, this is called a draft list. Okay, we're going to draft since. We are in this series. If Jesus had a podcast, let's do a draft list of people you would love to have as. A guest on the Bible. Guys, you rock paper scissors to see who gets the first draft pick list. And go until you have five people. Wow, rock paper scissors? Ready? One? Two? Three? Oh? I did scissors. He did rock. He beats me like ninety percent of the time. I don't know why I do. I just I'm in your mind. You're a pro, you're pro. I'm a pro. You get it. I don't play the game. I play the player, so play the man. So uh so I'm assuming that what she is meaning is if I were Jesus and I had a podcast, which means like Biblical characters. I don't know, I don't know what. Because it wouldn't make sense to say, zach Efron. Let's let's ask it. Well it makes sense for you. Let's ask does this sitting right back there? Does? Did you mean Bible characters or just anybody? Anybody? Oh? He said anybody, so you can have any So there you go, zach Efron, Is that your first vote? No, I'm just say I'm using a ludicrous example. Okay, so if people you would love to have as a guest, just just plain guest anybody? Well you wi is okay, Well, then I would like to have number one. My first draft pick is Chris Pratt. Chris Pratt, who is a very strong game. He is a very very outspoken yes and and uh. And I love the fact that he is uh. He is not afraid to talk about Jesus. And even though even though that he you know, may be rejected by some people, they may shy away from him casting him, he doesn't seem to be hurting right. Yeah, and he's an outspoken Christian. I'd love to hear his story of faith. Would be interesting. Yeah, for sure. Who else should we have on the Bible Guy's podcast? Let me see, I think it would be cool to have David N. Wilson. We haven't had both of them on our podcast before. Wow, wouldn't that be neat? Yeah? So David N. Wilson work on the staff at Heritage Now. Yeah, and they have a podcast. I actually misquoted it at Heritage Church. I said they have a million listeners a month. Oh, and then Dave heard it and he said, he goes, Hey, it goes. It's okay that you said that, he goes, but you know, it's a million listeners a week. And I said, and I was like, well that kind of Trump's are fifteen thousand for the Bible Guys, which is our easily fifteen thousand. We get like twenty thousand. Yeah, yeah, but still. A million a week and ours are twenty thousand a month. Yeah, So that's pretty funny. So family Life Live, by the way, Yes, family life live. So family life today, what is it? I think it's Family life Today isn't it. It's one of those two. I think it's today. Okay anyway, So okay. So I think it'd be great to have them. That's a great choice. Yeah. So I'm gonna go, I'm gonna I'm gonna stick with the stars, and I'm gonna say Carrie Underwood. Carrie Underwood. Yeah, so one of my one of my favorite country singers of all time. Respect her voice tremendously, but also she is an incredible woman of faith. And one of my favorite little videos to watch is when she and Vince Gill saying how great thou art and everybody stood up at the what is it? Was it? No? No, no, no, it was actually at like a country music awards, just a regular country music awards. Uh whatever it was. Yeah, I think it was the CMAS and she sang how great there art, and every stood up and people in the audience were crying, which goes to show you that even amongst normal people who don't normally live out faith or people who grew up with faith, they probably have like a hidden faith, or as like a suppressed faith or a faith that faith that isn't active deep down inside they believe. So here she is she sings how great there. Art, and she sings it with such conviction that people stood up and they're crying in the audience, people that you wouldn't expect, because that's what you can do when. You are bold with your faith. There you go, that's pretty cool, that's fantastic. I think I would have And this is I have personal reasons for this one. David and Jared Nelms would be fun to have on here. Oh yeah. So David is the founder of the Timothy Initiative and Jared Nelms is the current CEO, and we work together helping train disciple makers all around the world one hundred and sixty thousand or something like that right now. And yeah, so I think that'd be really fun to kind of talk to them about father son interactions leading an organization and then how do you scale, you know, at the rate that they've scaled over the last fifteen years, twenty years and pretty amazing. Yeah, Okay, I'm always intrigued by people like that. All right, and then I'm going to go with I'm going to go with this. Still to this date, my favorite communicator in terms of like content and style and and just the ability to capture people is Andy Stanley. Oh yeah, I'm going to say Andy Stanley, and. I know that he's been you know, he's ruffled some feathers with some things. You know. Well, one of the questions asked, what were you thinking? Andy? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah right right. So now that we have you in the Baba Guys, our question is what were you thinking? Yeah? But I do believe the best in Andy. I always do, and even when even when people say, well, he definitely is. This way or that way. So I've known him for a while, I've talked with him personally at least three dozen times. Yeah, And I would just say. I think I give him way more credit than some people do. How about that. That's a safe comment. I give him a lot more credit, and I believe the best way more than a lot of people. Anyway. I love him as a communicator, regardless of any type of controversy, and I would absolutely love to be his friend personally and have him on the Bible Guys as a guest. Oh wow, yep, I'd like to introduce or to interview David Green, the founder of Hobby Lobby. Oh wow, I think that'd be a neat one. Yeah, number one it's fun talking to billionaires that'd be neat. But beyond that, here's a guy that founded a company on Christian principles. It's one of the best places in America to work. Almost every year, they give Sundays off to all their employees, right, giving up one seventh of their income. Same thing Chick fil A did. So let's talk to Dan Kathy too, I guess. But right, those guys and where they're willing to give up a significant portion of their potential income by being closed an entire day, and yet they're thriving in their industries beyond everybody else. It turns out when you do what God says to do, he gives you favor, he gives you his blessing. So I'd love to talk to both of those guys about that. Yeah, that's great. Yes, I described two yeah, yeah, ready, David Green, Dan Cathy. Yep, okay, And he snuck one in there. So because you mentioned David Nelms, you're on the board for TATI, I'm gonna go with Jeff Jones. Oh yeah, good one. Yeah. Jeff Jones is the founder of the ministry that I'm on the board for, which is anti sex trafficking ministry in the Dominican Republic called called Transform One, and I would love to have him on and just talk about his heart and his story and all the good that happens there. And to be fun. That'd be neat. Yeah. Well, you you mentioned preachers, so I would say maybe one of the ones that had the biggest impact on me as a pastor was Rick Warren. Yeah. And I've had the privilege of doing some stuff with Rick a few times and went to Rwanda with him and different things, So that'd be really cool to have, yeah, have him on. And he is he he's retired now, he's retired from the church, but he's running a ministry called uh finishing the Task how do we get the Gospel everywhere to everyone in our generation? So it's pretty neat. That's really neat. Okay, here's the last guy that I would uh love to have have on is actually. Sir Patrick Stewart. Yeah really so you know, yeah, yeah Picard, Yeah, Star Trek. So he is an incredible man of faith, and he is dignified and knowledgeable. And I tell you what, every interview I've ever seen him on, he impresses me with his wisdom and his life. Of knowledge and and and. Then he's extremely clever and witty. Yes, So it just he has so much depth. But he's so interesting, yes, yes, And I respect him and everything that he acts in and and I love him and everything I've ever seen him in. And so for me, he'll always be Jean Luc Picard and he will not be Professor X. But he is both. Yeah, he is he is both. Yeah, no doubt. Well, you've chosen two actors three three? Oh no, no, you're right, actors. So I'll choose one. I think it'd be really cool to talk to Denzel Washington. Oh. He seems to be on this very public spiritual journey. Yes, over the last several years. I'd love to just sit down and talk with him and here what's going on in his life and how God's been doing what he's been doing in his life. That's really cool. Remember how you grab two and you cheated? Okay, I'll say Jim Carrey too. You want to talk to Jim Carrey. He's also on Yeah, Jim talking about pain bringing him that that's a powerful you ever see that video? Oh? Yeah, powerful video? How pain is what's gotten his attention? Yep, it's really great. Well, talking about pain, Oh, I don't know. We're in Matthew chapter six. That was a painful transition. Well, then talking about pain, that's the most. Painful transition I've done in a long time. Oh, that was actually a very long time. Well, Jesus said, don't worry. Yep. That's and that's that's where we're at. We're in this segment about don't worry. So we continue in the Sermon on the Mountain, yep. And we jumped through the rest of chapter five and he talks about all kinds of stuff, giving to the needy, praying, fasting, loving our enemies. I mean, he says so many things. We're not going to preach the whole sermon, but you should read it. And then he talks about money, don't store up treasures on earth, instead, store up treasures in heaven. And then finally he gets to verse twenty five, and we're going to read twenty five through four thirty four. In the sixth chapter, he says, that is why I tell you not to worry about every day life, whether you have enough food and drink or enough clothes to wear. Isn't life more than food and your body more than clothing. Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food and barns for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you or my wife? My wife spends the small fortune feeding birds, so mine too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they don't plant or harvest or And I keep telling her, hey, you're taking God's job away from him. It's his job to feed the birds. We don't need to spend so much money on me. Back to the script, okay, says aren't you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries at a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing. Yet Solomon, in all his glory, was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wild flowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. What do you have so little faith? So don't worry about these things, saying what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what will we wear? These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, But your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. So don't worry about tomorrow. For tomorrow bring its own worries. Today is trouble enough for today. Yeah, don't worry about tomorrow. Let tomorrow worry about itself. Yeah, it's such a great thing to be reminded of because I don't know, I don't care who you are unless you're an anomaly because I've not met you. Everybody worries and and and it's and it's one of these things where you know, Jesus is basically saying don't do it. And we also realize, based on every single study or article that we've ever read and by life experience, that worry accomplishes nothing, that worry is only negative and never positive. There's no value and worry. Yeah. The only thing that maybe worry can bring that I can muster out of a positive out of worry is sometimes when we're flippant, we don't maybe take cautions. Yeah, it can cause you to be a little bit more focused. Yeah, like maybe like if you're if you're not worried about falling off a cliff. You may fall off cliff, right, and so maybe maybe that could be the only thing. Maybe. Yeah, if you're saying attentiveness, you know, you're equating attentiveness. Yeah, it's probably not the same showing a concern. Yeah, probably not the same thing. Well, I think there's a spectrum of worry. Yeah, there's terror on one end, and there's just a conscious awareness on the other end there's terror, yeah, yeah, and there so there's a spectrum to it. So worry that brings focus. Maybe that's what we're talking about. What Jesus is saying, is this debilitating worry that just consumes your life and becomes examples, becomes the definition of your life. Because he's talking about like clothing and food and things like. That, the fundamental things of life. And you think about it this way. In the first century, like there were people who actually did think, I wonder if I'm going to eat tomorrow? Right, and and and honest people on earth today. Well, yes, of course, yes, uh wow, that was really insssive. That I spoke like that. Oh I wasn't trying to point that out it no, I know, but it was it was, Well, Jesus was talking to people like that, and we still have them on the planet today. Yeah for sure. And uh and and not only that, but like he's he's talking about, uh, you know, God's creation, right, So he uses creation as an example, and it's just a beautiful thing to say, Hey, God created the flowers and the birds. He takes care of them. They don't worry, and and and they just through their natural instinct they go through life. And somehow, some way, God always provides. And and so God also created you, right and and and he gave you a more sophisticated brain, and he gave you all sorts of things. But but just if you just have a. Natural instinct to rely on God, uh, you know, just just trust the way that the birds do and the way that the flowers do. It's a beautiful thing. And yet we as humans realize wory accomplishes nothing, and. Yet we do it all the time. We just get consumed with worry, and worry can take over. Worry could actually In fact, I'm going to go on a limb and say, I bet you I have no ways to substantiate this, but I bet you ninety percent of people who are listening to these words, right, now are probably saying to themselves, Yeah, I need to hear this, because I struggle with worry, and worry consumes me, and worry gets the best of me, and it adds years to my life, and I have more gray hairs. I feel anxiety, and I feel stressed, and most of the time when I worry, most of the things that I worry about don't come into fruition. It's true, it's true, right, Yeah, I agree with you. I think worry is one of the consuming issues that most people face. You know me well enough to know I don't worry about a lot of things. Yes, It's not an habitual thing for me. It's very frustrating to my. Wife, right, it's frustrating to America. She wants me to join her world. She wants me to join her sometimes and the things she's worrying about. So there's a lot of reasons for that. It's not that I'm hyper spiritual. It's mostly that I'm not paying attention and that, and. That you have a very healthy mindset on worry. So but I had this, I had this season, this this this window of time about ten years ago where I just was getting I felt like getting beat to death by most people around me like I couldn't make anybody happy. I had some staff members that were mad at me. I had a bunch of volunteers that just were mad at me. I had people I thought were allies that just turned out weren't allies. And all these things were happening at the same time. And so normally I go to bed at night, and this is is frustrating too. If I lay my pill my head on my pillow, I'm asleep within five minutes. Just to sleep, just out, man, I just I don't lay there and worry about stuff. I don't think about it. I just turned my brain off, go to sleep. It's because tomorrow has its own problems, right right, Jesus said, Hey, Tomorrow's gonna have his own problems. I got to get some restaurant now. So I just I go to sleep, don't worry about things. But I'd had this window of time of over the course of two or three weeks, where I felt like I couldn't make anybody happy. I was just in a mess, and I'd lost a lot of sleep during that time, and it was really like disconcerting to me because that's not how I live my life. And then I had this guy who was bugging me about coming to hunt on his property. And I love hunting, and one of the places I kind of recenter my life is out in the woods. I just as crazy as the rest world goes. And it's weird because my adhd I'm just all over the place. But for some reason, I get in a tree stand and my world comes into focus. It's quiet, I'm by myself. I don't know how I can do that for hours at a time, because I can't do it anywhere else in my life, just there in the woods. And so a lot of times I'll bring up New Testament with me and I'll read some scripture and I'll just sit and think about it. I'm just looking around the woods, waiting for a deer to walk by. So this guy was bugging me come hunting, and I thought that's a good place for me to recenter, and so I go. I'd never been on his property, I barely knew him. And it's like four o'clock in the morning, and I'm exhausted anyways, but I hadn't really slept much that night. I pull into his farm, I open up the tailgate in my truck and I'm starting his stuff, and he came up to me and he goes, hey, the Lord just really spoke to me strongly, and he gave me a gun case. I had a brand new gun in it. It was a muzzleloader, like a black powder the old fashioned, oh yeah gun. He said, I don't know if you have one of these. I said, I don't. He said, I just feel like the Lord wanted me to give this to you and say God loves you and you're doing a great job, and remember going what And I looked down and he had written in a marker on the cover this verse, Matthew six thirty three. Oh come on, yeah, come on, I promise. You really, and he said, seek the Kingdom of God above all else and live righteously and He'll give you everything you need. And it just kind of recentered me. That was my thought the whole rest of the day, you know. And my friend George, Yeah, that was my first time ever out with him, right, And he gives me this gun and you know I didn't have one like that. I always wanted one, and he wrote Matthew six thirty three. And I just sat there the whole rest of the day just feeling like, And I went back and reread this whole passage and see Guy's like, no worries, no worries. And that was the day I formulated this phrase, and I say it all the time. He said, so, don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow brings its own worries. Today's troubles enough for today. Everything worth doing is hard. Life is hard. The good and the bad are both hard. It's hard to accomplish good things, and not everybody's gonna like what you're doing, and you're gonna create enemies even as you're doing the right thing. It's hard. When you do the wrong thing, it makes life harder. So on both sides, life is hard. Choose which things you're going to do that are hard, that are going to have the most value. That's what he's saying here. So seek the King of God. That's what the most value is going to be. Live a godly life, a righteous life. God's going to give you what you need. And everything worth doing is hard, So choose the best things and do those. That's what we said. Man, that totally changed, and so, like i'd say, the last ten twelve years, I've had a totally different perspective on ministry and on leading people than I did prior. And it was that day, that book, or that day when he wrote Matthew six thirty three on that Yeah, wow. That's a great story. Yeah. Well, you know, God uses people in our lives, and you know, clearly God knew exactly what you needed, and that it feels like to me, that's God's loving embrace to you. Right, It's just God does that. And I'm not a guy that people give lots of gifts to. God cares that much for us. Yeah. Yeah, so people don't just go, oh, hey, I thought of you give you these gifts, right, I'm usually not at the forefront of people's stuffs. So it was a surprise me, probably maybe only the second or third significant gift like that that I've ever had given from a stranger, you know, or somebody in my ministry. And so you're right, I did feel like it was like a hug from God. Yeah, that's right, and it was exactly right. Words. And his dad do you know those do you know those little daily devotionals called Our Daily. Bread, Daily Bread. Yeah, So his dad was the one who started that and was the general editor for that for years and years and years, and so he just at lunch that day, he sat and talked about how difficult ministry can be. And he grew up in that environment and he knew that a lot of times guys take take a lot of hits and don't know where to turn. And he says, so, I just want you to know I'm gonna be your friend, I'm gonna be your ally. And I wasn't looking for friends and allies, but he just and he's just attached himself to me all these years. And thank God for friends like that. Yeah. Yeah, well he's standing the gap and you know, yep, that's right. That's powerful for me. Yeah. And so I remember when you had you got cancer? Yeah, like like five minutes after I got hired. Yeah, well I think I had it before I hired you. I found out I had it right after we hired. You hadn't even started working here yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then it was actually like three days after I gave my first message here, and then you told me you were like, oh here, by the way, I was like, oh, is that why you hired me as a backup plan? You know? So I didn't know and some other people might have thought that too. Yeah, but obviously God, you're cancer free right now. But all that to say, I got hired in. My first message was October eleventh, twenty twenty here. And then. Four weeks later, excuse me, four weeks later or actually it might have been six weeks something like that. You gave a message on Worry Yeah, yep, in November, and you actually I. Was right before my surgery, yep, right for your. Surgery, and you talked about you know, hey, you know, you can't threaten somebody with heaven? Yeah, and and and everybody's attitude was like what, like how could you? How could you be that way? Like what? And yeah? And you're just like, hey, well it was you know, one of the great missionaries. And I said this, I think last week on the podcast, but he said, I'm invincible until God's done with me. And it's true. How can And my dad used to always say, you can't threaten a Christian with heaven? Is that that is that all the devil has? You're gonna die? Right, Oh really, I'm gonna go to heaven. That's so great, right, Hey, well that's a that's a good place to end. So what a great passage and hopefully we could walk away from today and just say, hey, worry less, right, trust God more, and and and uh, and especially the kind of worry that's gonna be very destructive and harmful. Let it go and let God be God in our lives. Seek what's most important to God. That's his kingdom and that that's that's primarily about reaching lost people who don't know Jesus. And then live righteously, do the right thing. Those two things you want to know a guy wants from me, Do those two things. He's going to give you everything else you need. That's right, all right, Well, hey, well hopefully we'll see you tomorrow on the Bible, guys,