The One Thing Necessary - Part 1

"Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well."

Mt 6: 33

“One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek - to be with the Lord all the days of my life.”

Ps 27: 4

Jesus shared some very challenging words in the Sermon on the Mount. When you hear them and think about them, they stop you in your tracks. For example, Jesus addresses a group of his followers. These are people who want to be with him. They are the people who know him and call him Lord. They are people who have been casting out demons and performing miracles, yet Jesus tells some of them, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers.” It seems that those folks were quite something and doing amazing things for the cause of Jesus, yet he plainly tells them, “ I never knew you.” (Mt7:21-23)

It is possible to go forth in God’s name and do God’s work without knowing Jesus. Motives may be wrong. Aims and attitudes may be misplaced. If the experts and some of the best leaders are missing it, how do we find it?

As C.S. Lewis explains,” The Christian way is different: harder, and easier…You have noticed, I expect, that Christ himself sometimes describes the Christian way as very hard, sometimes as very easy. He says, ‘Take up your cross’ - in other words, it is like going to be beaten to death in a concentration camp. Next minute, he says, ‘My yoke is easy and my burden light.’ He means both.” (1)

In the Sermon on the Mount, we learn that there is one thing necessary for life, and it is both hard and easy, and it will take a minute to both talk about it and live it.

Before diving into the one thing necessary, we must prepare ourselves. You can find this one necessary thing throughout the Bible. (2) The best Bible teachers and experts, the scribes and the Pharisees, knew about it. But hear what Jesus says to them: “You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, yet they testify about Me. And you are not willing to come to Me so that you may have life.” (Jn 5:39-40, HCSB)

God is here. We need help seeing and experiencing the reality of God’s presence. I think it is why it is both easy and hard. We need to come to God with sincere hearts, earnestly seeking Him, and we need to realize who God is. As one Christian leader said, “ The problem lies not in our intention but in our approach.” (3) We love God, and we love other things. We want God to bless our plans rather than seeking God and the work he is already doing. “And whatever work God is doing,” writes Alan Fadling, “he does so in a way that is in keeping with who he is: gentle, kind, patient, peaceful. When we are working with God, we also will work with gentleness, kindness, patience, and peace.” (3)

To do this, we need God’s help. I love the story of Elisha’s assistant. Sometimes when the world feels crazy or I am not sure how to get to the other side of something, I remember this story. At a crucial point in Israel’s history, the king of Syria was pursuing the prophet Elisha. His young helper stepped out one morning and saw that the Syrians surrounded them. It all looked and felt hopeless. Then Elisha said something amazing. He told his young companion not to be afraid. He said,  “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha went a step further. He prayed: “O, Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of Elisha’s servant, and he saw that the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” (2 Kgs 6;17)

This is a common theme in the Bible. We see another example of this in Jacob. He has a transforming moment and suddenly realizes,  “Surely the Lord is in the place, and I did not know it” (Gen 28:16).

After Paul encountered Jesus, the entire course of his life changed. Paul stood before the people in Athens and said: “ The God who made the world and everything in it…did this so that we would seek him and perhaps reach out and find him, though he is not far from any of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring. ’ (Acts 17:24-28)

Even though we can not always see it, God is here and at work. God wants us to have eyes to see Him. In the Old Testament, we read that the Israelites eagerly sought God, and they found him. (2 Chron 15:15b). Don’t you love that! God allows himself to be found by us!

God said, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jer 29:13) This is the one thing that is necessary.  If we want to be with Jesus and live life with him, we must: Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. (Matthew 6:33)

Notice there are two parts. First, we seek his kingdom. Then we seek his righteousness.

Part 1 - Seek first his kingdom.

To seek his kingdom first is to seek him. God's kingdom reflects him. It is the place where God is, and God is acting. To seek God's kingdom is to long for his good reign in our lives and place ourselves under his care in obedience and service to him. And there is more because God wants to be known by us. To seek first his kingdom is to pursue a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus. "Jesus' teaching showed us," explains Dallas Willard, " that the kingdom of God is not a thing of times and places; it is a thing of the heart. it is a life that is lived in vital connection with God himself." (4)

In Psalm 16, David shares, “I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” When God is at your right hand, that is near. David also shows us how to seek God, saying: “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek - to be with the Lord all the days of my life.”

David tells us that he wants to dwell with the Lord. He wants to gaze on the beauty of the Lord. He wants to seek the Lord.

We find this same attitude and aim in Mary, Martha’s sister. When Jesus visited Mary and Martha, Mary put aside everything else and focused solely on Jesus. She made Jesus her priority. She did not worry about her sister running around the house making preparations. She did not bother herself with Martha’s demands to get busy and help. Mary sat at Jesus' feet. Mary took her place under him. She gazed up at him. She listened to him. She loved him. He loved her.

I love a little verse in Ephesians that says, “Find out what pleases the Lord” (Eph 5:10). I think this is what Mary aimed to do. This is what you do when you love someone.

Both David and Mary show us the importance of becoming aware of God and intentionally seeking communion with God. They both show us that it is possible to have an intimate relationship—a friendship with God—where we talk to him, listen to him, and spend time with him. I love the old hymn line: "He walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own.” This is what it means to seek God and his kingdom.

Yet, as C.S. Lewis reminds us, this is both easy and hard. In Matthew 6:25-34. Jesus not only tells us to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, but also says, “Do not worry.” In fact, he tells us not to worry six times.

Jesus told  Martha, “You are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed - indeed, only one thing is necessary.” Mary chose that one necessary thing. It is not easy to make God your priority and seek him. Many things are vying for our attention. We have needs and obligations that must be met. So what are we to do?

Jesus turns our gaze above, saying, “Consider the birds of the air.” (Mt 6:26) What do you see when you look up at the birds of the air? I have always loved birds. As a little girl, I wished I could be like them and fly. When you look up at the birds flying above, you see a sense of ease and freedom in them.

Consider the birds of the air. Don’t worry about your life - what you will eat or drink or wear. Don’t worry about the stuff of human life. These things are not the main thing. Is your life not more than food, and the body more than clothes? (Mt 6:25) Even if you don’t have these things, you can be blessed. Jesus is the one who has say over all things in heaven and on earth. (Mt 28:18)

When we consider the birds, we learn they trust God to provide for them. They know that God is in charge. I have a little birdhouse that I can see from our kitchen window. Every winter, when it gets below zero here in the Midwest and everyone is indoors because of the extreme cold, I see the chickadees and sparrows by that birdhouse. They do not get weather alerts about dangerously cold temperatures. Each day seems the same to them; they dwell in a world where God provides for them. They come out in rain or shine, hot or cold, and have their breakfast. I only provide a little house, God gives them food and protection. A bird lives in the moment. The birds remind you not to worry about tomorrow. God will provide what you need.

Jesus also tells us to consider the lilies of the field. What do you see when you look at the lilies of the field? You see their beauty. You see them just standing there, glorious. Beauty is built into a lily. It comes ready-made in its seed. God made it beautiful and enabled it to grow, providing all that it needed to stand boldly, a splendor for all to behold. Jesus says, “If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and gone tomorrow…will he not much more clothe you?” (Mt 6:30)

The lilies in the field remind us that we are made by God and loved by God. Just as you look out and see the beauty in the flowers in the field, God looks at you and sees beauty, simply in who you are. The birds of the air and the lilies of the field live in the kingdom of God. They trust in God’s care and grow into who they were made to be. They live without worry. They live with God, here and now. “The deepest Human need,” wrote Thomas R. Kelly, “ is not food and clothing and shelter, important as they are. It is God.” (5)

To live out what Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount, we must consider what it means to seek Jesus first. We can be like David, Mary, the birds of the air, and the lilies of the field. We can make Jesus our priority. We can trust him to be with us, to provide for us, and to care for the world around us.

The way you make Jesus a priority matters.  If you seek a list of things you must do and follow, the things will become your focus. But if you come with the attitude of a lover wanting to love the Lord with all your heart and wanting to listen to him and trust in his ways, then the Sermon on the Mount moves beyond duty to privilege. (6) You live as one seeking to know and please God. You live as one who has Jesus at the center of your life. It involves seeing who we are and what we have in a new way. To seek Jesus and his kingdom is to discover what God is doing and to get involved with it.

“We let God love us into people of love.”

John Mark Comer (7)

“Love the Lord your God,

Listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.

For the Lord is your life.”

Duet 30:20

If you want to go deeper…

1. Read Matthew 6:25-34

2. Meditate on Psalm 145. What does it tell you about God?

3. Consider Eph 5:10 “Find out what pleases the Lord:

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1. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

2. Mt 6:33 - see also: Jer 29:13; Deut 4:29; Lam 3:25; I Chron 16:11; I Chron 22:19; 2 Chron 7:14; Isa 55:6-7, Ps 27:4,8; Ps 9:10; Ps 14:2; Ps 34:10; Ps 40:16; Ps 63:1; Ps 105:4, Ps 199:2,-3, 10; Pro 8:17Ps 145: 18; Acts 17:27

3. Alan Fadling, An Unhurried Leader: The Lasting Fruit of Daily Influence

4. Dallas Willard, The Scandal of the Kingdom: How the Parables of Jesus Revolutionize Life With God

5. Thomas R. Kelly, A Testament of Devotion

6. E. Stanley Jones used “duty and privilege” in Following the Call: Living the Sermon on the Mount Together, edited by Charles E. Moore.

7. John Mark Comer, Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did.