SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.
SPEAKER_01: Embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Today, be encouraged with a word from my guest speaker.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Born for War podcast.
SPEAKER_02: Well, guys, my name is Matthew Rupert.
SPEAKER_02: I'm the children's pastor here at the road, and it is my privilege and honor to have the opportunity to share the message with you today.
SPEAKER_02: So most of you guys are aware that Pastor Steve has written a new book called Breakthrough Courage.
SPEAKER_02: And it's all about seeing the perceived fear boundary or the fear barrier in front of us and breaking through that to go forward in a life of impact.
SPEAKER_02: And today I am going to be covering chapter one of that book, which is putting the first thing first.
SPEAKER_02: In kids' ministry, we actually talked about this concept, and we we have these boxes.
SPEAKER_02: They're empty boxes, but they're painted to look like bricks.
SPEAKER_02: And so imagine there's this wall of bricks in front of you, and it is fear, and it looks big and it looks heavy and it looks intimidating.
SPEAKER_02: But what God is calling us to do is to break through that boundary, to break through that barrier of fear so that we can do what it is God has called us to do.
SPEAKER_02: But I love how Pastor Steve starts the book because the first chapter is all about laying the foundations.
SPEAKER_02: What is the most important thing for us to endeavor towards?
SPEAKER_02: How do we know what our number one priority is?
SPEAKER_02: As Christians, we can seek a number of things in our lifetime.
SPEAKER_02: We can seek a life of pleasure, where we're using greasy grace as an excuse to do things, or an excuse to sin, or an excuse to hide secret sins.
SPEAKER_02: Well, God loves me, He'll forgive me.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm not too worried about that right now.
SPEAKER_02: We can choose to seek a life of Christian ease where comfort and security are our number one priority.
SPEAKER_02: We can choose to seek a life of adventure and of influence and making a difference.
SPEAKER_02: And out of the three, that one sounds probably like the best option.
SPEAKER_02: But when we seek the first thing first, it aligns our life to know what the number one priority is.
SPEAKER_02: It lays aside the temptations of this life, it lays aside our own personal ambitions of this life, and it focuses us in on what truly matters.
SPEAKER_02: So if you would open your Bible with me, we're going to turn to Matthew chapter 6, starting with verse 25.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body what you will put on.
SPEAKER_02: Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?
SPEAKER_02: Look at the birds of the air.
SPEAKER_02: They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them.
SPEAKER_02: Are you not more value than they?
SPEAKER_02: And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to the span of your life?
SPEAKER_02: And why are you anxious about clothing?
SPEAKER_02: Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.
SPEAKER_02: They neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
SPEAKER_02: But if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you?
SPEAKER_02: O you of little faith.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What will I eat, or what shall I drink, or what will we wear?
SPEAKER_02: For the den Gentiles seek after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
SPEAKER_02: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
SPEAKER_02: This message is really honing in on worry, on fear, on anxiety.
SPEAKER_02: And as Pastor Steve has said multiple times, we are in a culture that is consumed by this.
SPEAKER_02: We're consumed by the worries and the cares of this life, by the fears that are that are holding us back.
SPEAKER_02: We can worry about our own selfish desires.
SPEAKER_02: We can worry about the things related to our own comfort and enjoyment.
SPEAKER_02: We can worry about the legitimate stressors in life when our family encounters a tragedy, when our children are experiencing hardship, when our job stress is becoming too much to bear.
SPEAKER_02: We can worry about all of these things, but God is saying, stop worrying.
SPEAKER_02: Stop being fearful.
SPEAKER_02: Easier said than done, right?
SPEAKER_02: I know everything that you need.
SPEAKER_02: And if you seek me first, I will provide all of those things.
SPEAKER_02: It's funny how I kind of came alive or came to realize the power of this passage.
SPEAKER_02: It comes from a funny story in my life when I was uh probably 17.
SPEAKER_02: Well, I was 17 and 18.
SPEAKER_02: This happened for two years.
SPEAKER_02: I had this terrible crush on this girl.
SPEAKER_02: And I was at Bible college and it was complicated because at this Bible college you're supposed to do what's called ratio, so you can never be alone with a girl, so you had to have another guy there.
SPEAKER_02: So to pursue a girl, which was also, you're not supposed to do that, but to pursue a girl, you had to kind of have a wingman, right?
SPEAKER_02: And you'd be like, hey, can we hang out?
SPEAKER_02: blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_02: And so I experienced so much stress over this situation.
SPEAKER_02: And I remember coming to the Lord with my journal and my pages filled with all of these love letters to this person.
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, God, should I be this worried about it?
SPEAKER_02: Is this really your will?
SPEAKER_02: Is this gonna happen?
SPEAKER_02: Is is this something that I should be so concerned about?
SPEAKER_02: And I remember God showing me this passage and saying, Matthew, remember where you are.
SPEAKER_02: You were at Bible college.
SPEAKER_02: You came here to seek me first.
SPEAKER_02: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and I'll take care of the rest.
SPEAKER_02: It turns out God had a much better plan in store for me, and I could not be more happy with my incredible wife Kristen and my daughter Amelia and the family that we're building together.
SPEAKER_02: For many of us, we need to stop worrying about all the factors in life.
SPEAKER_02: You know, the the passage says, don't worry about what you will wear.
SPEAKER_02: What will I wear?
SPEAKER_02: Is that not just like the cliche for like girls or even some guys?
SPEAKER_02: Like, oh, I have nothing to wear.
SPEAKER_02: But God is saying, don't worry about your clothes or your finances or these relationships, but instead remember that seeking first the kingdom of God is what takes care of all of those needs.
SPEAKER_02: So, what is seeking first the kingdom of God?
SPEAKER_02: Let's dive into this together.
SPEAKER_02: We first have to define the kingdom, the word kingdom, or the kingdom of God itself.
SPEAKER_02: You know, this is a concept that is a theme all throughout the New Testament.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus spoke about it a hundred times during his ministry.
SPEAKER_02: He spoke about it extensively through his Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_02: He talked about it through many parables, and yet many people throughout history have really struggled to define the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: And oddly enough, even myself, having gone to uh several years of Bible college, up to a few months ago when we began a book study as a staff, I wouldn't have been able to define the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: But the kingdom of God is a place where Jesus Christ has power, dominion, and rulership.
SPEAKER_02: Where he has power, dominion, and rulership.
SPEAKER_02: That's you and me.
SPEAKER_02: That God can actually have power.
SPEAKER_02: When we when we ask Jesus to take our sins away and we choose him to be the Lord of our life, he fills us with his power.
SPEAKER_02: The Holy Spirit comes and takes up residence within us, and we have his power.
SPEAKER_02: He takes up dominion.
SPEAKER_02: Now he is the ruler of our life.
SPEAKER_02: Now he is calling the shots.
SPEAKER_02: Now he is telling us what it is we should do.
SPEAKER_02: Seeking first the kingdom allows God to rule and reign over every element of our lives.
SPEAKER_02: So what does that look like for us today?
SPEAKER_02: If you're taking notes, I have three points.
SPEAKER_02: Number one is seeking the kingdom, is seeking God's will over our own comfort.
SPEAKER_02: God's will over our own comfort.
SPEAKER_02: If I had to assume, I don't, I haven't done any studies, I haven't researched this at all, but if I had to assume the struggle or the temptation of the American church today, I would say that it is comfort, that that is our idol, that we seek after that, having the perfect ottoman, actually not ottoman, but lazy boy chair, whatever, having the perfect show, having all of the things, the commodities for our life to help us be comfortable.
SPEAKER_02: We're so consumed by this, and it's good reason.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's there's so much inundated within our culture.
SPEAKER_02: Every advertisement is about you having a comfortable or enjoyable life.
SPEAKER_02: But it says in Luke chapter 9, verse 23 through 24, and he said to all, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
SPEAKER_02: For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
SPEAKER_02: You know, that sounds very uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_02: In Florida, I would see, I guess it was a movement or something.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not exactly sure, but you would see people walking down the side of the road with a cross on their shoulders, and the cross even had this nice little wheel on the back of it, so they could like roll it down the road.
SPEAKER_02: It was pretty funny, but it was a very harsh realization, even for Christians, to look and be like, that's what it looks like to bear a physical cross.
SPEAKER_02: And God is saying that if we're going to follow Him, we have to deny ourselves and pick up a uncomfortable, heavy cross and follow him.
SPEAKER_02: The Christian life is not about comfort, but it's seeking God's will, his kingdom over our own comfort.
SPEAKER_02: Number two is seeking his righteousness over our own pleasure.
SPEAKER_02: Romans 14, 17 says, For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: We have to seek first his righteousness over our own pleasure.
SPEAKER_02: And that will become very convicting to things in our life that we hold on to as the pleasureful things in our life that maybe are taking center stage, that maybe are becoming a priority.
SPEAKER_02: We talk about this all the time in kids' ministry.
SPEAKER_02: We're like, video games aren't necessarily bad, even though I personally really dislike video games.
SPEAKER_02: But when that becomes the most important thing and we r orien our entire life around our time to play video games, then maybe we should take into consideration if that is more important than our relationship with God.
SPEAKER_02: And you use a bunch of other examples with kids, you know, that, but that one's probably the best one because every child, almost every child, relates to that.
SPEAKER_02: But we have to seek his righteousness over our own pleasure.
SPEAKER_02: It's not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness of peace and joy.
SPEAKER_02: I love how this verse also says peace and joy.
SPEAKER_02: Because isn't this what the entire world is looking for?
SPEAKER_02: Like, oh, I'm just, I'm tired of the stresses in my in my country and in my job and in my work, and I just need peace.
SPEAKER_02: And they book this exotic trip to Haiti just to try and escape it because they so desperately want peace.
SPEAKER_02: And guess what?
SPEAKER_02: Without God, they're not gonna find that.
SPEAKER_02: Or they want joy.
SPEAKER_02: I just want to be happy.
SPEAKER_02: I just, I just want to live a life that's exciting and adventurous, or I just want to live, you know, I just want to be happy and have this joy.
SPEAKER_02: And without God, they will never find it.
SPEAKER_02: So, yes, seeking first the kingdom is laying aside our own pleasures and our own comfort, but it's only then that we truly have peace and joy.
SPEAKER_02: Because this peace and joy is in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: This is a peace and joy that is not relying on the circumstances around us, but it's relying on the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: That even though our life could be going through so much trouble, we can have peace knowing God is in control.
SPEAKER_02: We can have joy knowing that this suffering is producing something good in us.
SPEAKER_02: In kids' ministry, we do the ABCs of salvation.
SPEAKER_02: I want everyone to do this with me, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Just humor me for a second.
SPEAKER_02: This is A in sign language, B in sign language, C in sign language.
SPEAKER_02: Can everyone do A with me?
SPEAKER_02: A is admit that we are a sinner.
SPEAKER_02: B is believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Believe in Jesus, that he died on the cross, he came back to life, or believe what the Bible said, and C is confess and choose.
SPEAKER_02: You guys did fantastic.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_02: Confess and choose.
SPEAKER_02: We have to confess our sins.
SPEAKER_02: God, I'm sorry for my sins and for what I have done.
SPEAKER_02: But then we have to choose.
SPEAKER_02: We have to choose to make him the Lord of our lives.
SPEAKER_02: And I think so many times us as Christians, we get through A, B, C, and we forget to choose.
SPEAKER_02: It's like, great, now I'm saved.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna go about my daily business and you know, now I got the get out of hell free card to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_02: No, we have to choose to make Jesus the Lord of our lives, and that is a daily choice.
SPEAKER_02: Number three is seeking first the kingdom is replication.
SPEAKER_02: Now, I love this, and this is what really gets me fired up.
SPEAKER_02: Because if we are laying aside our own comfort, laying aside our own pleasures, and we're seeking first the kingdom of God to receive his joy and his peace, then that can be kind of like discouraging, like, ah, this life is just gonna be miserable.
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: God has incredible things in store for you, things that would far surpass any material possession, any type of exotic vacation.
SPEAKER_02: No, God wants you to replicate, He wants you to duplicate the kingdom in other people's lives.
SPEAKER_02: Pastor Steve uses the example of DNA, and DNA is the biological code that duplicates cells in our bodies.
SPEAKER_02: That's why our skin is able to heal itself and it duplicates cells for the cells that are dying or the cells that are uh injured or whatever.
SPEAKER_02: And so it's really important for our body, and so when we align ourselves to the DNA of the kingdom, which is relationship with God, which is seeking to fulfill his greatest commandment, which is to love God with all heart, soul, and mind, and strength, he begins to duplicate the kingdom through us.
SPEAKER_02: This is so exciting.
SPEAKER_02: When we ask Jesus to take away our sins, his Holy Spirit comes inside us, we're alive and we're active and we're receiving words from God and we're moving out in faith and in boldness, and God wants to do the same thing in the people around us.
SPEAKER_02: He wants to duplicate the kingdom of God through us.
SPEAKER_02: He wants to do that through all of our influence.
SPEAKER_02: I think of an example where my brother Ben is the fire chief for the city of Hopewell, Virginia, and he has lived a life of righteousness, has lived a life of being an example to the point where I, as a young person, was just like, oh, I just want to be like my big brother.
SPEAKER_02: And that became visible to other people.
SPEAKER_02: They saw his character, they saw his level of righteousness over his own pleasure, or cheating the system, or getting the job done in a sleazy or whatever way.
SPEAKER_02: And he upheld that, and people began to come to him when they had questions of spirituality or when they were going through a hard situation in life.
SPEAKER_02: And one such story was really funny when uh someone came to him and was like, Yeah, I'm going through this situation, and I know you're a Christian, so like, what do you do you have any thoughts or ideas?
SPEAKER_02: And my brother was like, I barely even know this person.
SPEAKER_02: I had one conversation with him because he's in a completely different department or something.
SPEAKER_02: And but people were talking about my brother, and they were talking about his standard for righteousness, and that they knew because it was visible, the kingdom of God was visible in his example.
SPEAKER_02: My mom has always uh demonstrated this really well, also, where she is the kingdom of God on the town council in our small town, where she is the kingdom of God to the neighbors.
SPEAKER_02: And through being the loving arms of God to our neighbors, she met one of these neighbors who was actually a Muslim.
SPEAKER_02: Her and her son were immigrants from Egypt, and they eventually built really great relationships and ended up talking about uh their faith and the the differences in their faith.
SPEAKER_02: And though this person never converted to Christianity, when when their sister came visiting from Egypt, they're like, you have to meet Shirley Rupert, she's amazing.
SPEAKER_02: And so they come, they have coffee or whatever.
SPEAKER_02: This sister from Egypt gives her heart to the Lord and is now back in Egypt serving God and making an impact there.
SPEAKER_02: And this is what's so exciting.
SPEAKER_02: What's so exciting is that my mom, being the kingdom in a 400-member small town, it's a very small town, is now having an impact in Egypt when she has never even left the country.
SPEAKER_02: Like, that is the power of the duplication of the kingdom if we can choose to seek God first.
SPEAKER_02: There are so many rewards.
SPEAKER_02: It's like, oh, I gotta lay this down and I gotta lay that down.
SPEAKER_02: Well, do I get anything fun?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, you do.
SPEAKER_02: You get the fun, the enjoyment of seeing lives change and impact, expand far beyond your own realm of influence.
SPEAKER_02: We have to catch the vision of the duplication.
SPEAKER_02: So then I ask myself this question, and this may not be a question for everyone, but it's been something that I've really been struggling with in my life.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, we're laying all these things down, we're seeking God first.
SPEAKER_02: What does that look like?
SPEAKER_02: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: What am I supposed to do with all the profound dreams that I have?
SPEAKER_02: Dreams for accomplishment, dreams for reaching these goals, dreams for increasing my finances.
SPEAKER_02: We live in a generation that is very consumed by this.
SPEAKER_02: And we it is it's amazing, guys.
SPEAKER_02: We live in the most opportunistic time in human history.
SPEAKER_02: Because of the internet, because of the investment options, we have incredible opportunity for personal growth, for growing, all of these different material things in life.
SPEAKER_02: And I have dreams.
SPEAKER_02: I personally have dreams for that, and I want to be an inspirational person that encourages young people, encourages children, that they can do some incredible things in life.
SPEAKER_02: But it has to be grounded and focused in the right thing.
SPEAKER_02: What am I supposed to do about all of these dreams?
SPEAKER_02: And it comes down to this question: what is all this striving really for?
SPEAKER_02: What is all this striving really for?
SPEAKER_02: In Matthew, the the passage that precedes the one we've just read.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm going kind of a little backwards here, but it's so powerful because it's talking about not laying up for yourself treasures on earth.
SPEAKER_02: And what's so profound about this is that this whole worry passage precedes the striving passage, which means that don't worry is also in context to striving and working hard, right?
SPEAKER_02: He's telling us to not worry but seek first the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: Let's read this passage together, starting in verse 19.
SPEAKER_02: Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
SPEAKER_02: For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
SPEAKER_02: No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
SPEAKER_02: You can't serve both God and money.
SPEAKER_02: Where is your treasure?
SPEAKER_02: Is it being amassed and built up here on earth, or are we laying up treasures in heaven?
SPEAKER_02: If we pour our energy and our passion and our time into things that won't last, we will have nothing to show for it in eternity.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I think of the story in Luke chapter 16, where you have the poor man and you have the rich man, and the poor man's like, please just give me some bread, and the poor man's like, no, go away, you stink, or whatever.
SPEAKER_02: And he refuses to cave, he refuses to give even the crumbs from his table.
SPEAKER_02: So they both end up in eternity, and the poor man is in heaven, and the rich man is in hell, and the poor man or the rich man is like, oh, please let me go and just tell the people about this terrible fate.
SPEAKER_02: It's like this terrible story, but a very great image of salvation versus not salvation.
SPEAKER_02: But imagine it a little bit different when we're talking about two Christians.
SPEAKER_02: One Christian accepts Jesus as a Savior, he's got the get out of hell free card, and he goes on pursuing his own life's passions and dreams to get to heaven and feeling very lonely.
SPEAKER_02: Now, you don't feel lonely in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Heaven is perfect, so there is no lonely feelings.
SPEAKER_02: But having no ability to see the impact that he had.
SPEAKER_02: Now we have another person who instead of seeking his own things, he's like, God, I've asked you to be my savior.
SPEAKER_02: I give you every treasure, every ability, every talent that I have.
SPEAKER_02: I committed to you.
SPEAKER_02: Would you lead and guide me in pursuing what you would have me do?
SPEAKER_02: And this person has a very similar outcome.
SPEAKER_02: He has lots of money and influence and this, that, and the other.
SPEAKER_02: But he gets to heaven, he walks through the gates of heaven, and he is greeted by perhaps hundreds, maybe thousands, maybe millions of people who come up joyfully saying, Hey, because of you, I get to be here today.
SPEAKER_02: God wants to use every part of us, every skill, every talent as a platform to glorify Him.
SPEAKER_02: When we put the first things first, it aligns all of these tools and resources for the purposes of God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: It becomes a platform to proclaim the goodness of God.
SPEAKER_02: No longer are we chasing achievement just for self-satisfaction, comfort, or pleasure.
SPEAKER_02: Instead, we begin to see our success as a tool for the kingdom of God, a means for glorifying God.
SPEAKER_02: I remember going to a Christian entrepreneurs' conference, and they did a wonderful job of painting the picture of how your finances can be kingdom finances.
SPEAKER_02: They showed a real estate development, it was a strip mall with several storefronts, and they said, This funds this.
SPEAKER_02: And they showed the next picture, which was an orphanage in India.
SPEAKER_02: Where these financial investors they were choosing, they were saying, God, you have given us the most opportunistic time in history.
SPEAKER_02: We have wisdom about finances, we have wisdom about investment.
SPEAKER_02: Would you use us right now to be kingdom members, to multiply your kingdom around the world?
SPEAKER_02: And God took a real estate development, probably the one one of the most carnal things in our society, and he's using it to impact hundreds of children who have never encountered the love of the Father, who have never understood who God is, and now they are welcomed into the family of God, receiving biblical education and practical education, receiving three meals a day and loving caretakers.
SPEAKER_02: How something so carnal, money, can be used for the kingdom of God in profound ways.
SPEAKER_02: Receiving financial freedom or retirement is no longer about having the time to lay back and relax.
SPEAKER_02: It's about having the time to invest into eternity in the people around us, in our family, and the people that we love.
SPEAKER_02: It's not about acquiring the dream home just so that we can have that place to stay that feels really cozy.
SPEAKER_02: It's about using that as a resource to gather people for the kingdom of God, like your community group leaders in this room, using the resource that God has given them to gather the people of God and to invest into eternity.
SPEAKER_02: I remember that was one thing that my wife and I were really longing for.
SPEAKER_02: It was actually crazy.
SPEAKER_02: I won't go into the story because it's a long story, but we were$12,000 in debt, school debt.
SPEAKER_02: We had$1,000 in the bank, and we're like, God, we really want a house because we're really anxious to have a place that the neighbor isn't bumping the roof so that we'd be quiet because we had a game night, and they're like bumping the roof, like, shh, you guys are being too loud up there.
SPEAKER_02: We're like, we really want a place where people can come and gather and feel loved and feel at peace.
SPEAKER_02: $12,000 of debt,$1,000 in the bank.
SPEAKER_02: God allowed us to purchase a house, and it was through the bizarre purchasing of this house that all of our debt was paid off and that we renovated the entire interior.
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely bizarre, and we still had$1,000 in the bank.
SPEAKER_02: Only God can do that, right?
SPEAKER_02: But it's using the resources we have for eternity.
SPEAKER_02: We hear the stories of people all the time that have accomplished all of the things they ever wanted, just to find themselves feeling empty and unfulfilled.
SPEAKER_02: In my story, about seven, six, seven years ago, I began to face my shame and to come to my wife and to reveal the shame in the light, to surround myself by bloodstained allies, to receive counseling for myself and for my marriage.
SPEAKER_02: And it was when I began to face the shame, like Pastor Steve was talking about last week, that my whole being became alive.
SPEAKER_02: I was saved since I was a child, but it was like I experienced a new salvation experience where my heart, soul, mind, and body were expanding and coming alive.
SPEAKER_02: And I began to have these dreams that I had never even anticipated.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, my wife was always the dreamer.
SPEAKER_02: She, I was like, Oh, yeah, I think I want to write this VBS, and she's like, Yes, and we'll sell it all over the world.
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, No.
SPEAKER_02: I actually told her, I said, Stop dreaming for me.
SPEAKER_02: That's not my dream.
SPEAKER_02: Or the two mission trips my wife took me on, I say it that way.
SPEAKER_02: Because I was so terrified of leaving America.
SPEAKER_02: I was so scared that I would lose my passport and be stuck there forever.
SPEAKER_02: I had no context of the impact that I was making.
SPEAKER_02: I was just focused on that fear.
SPEAKER_02: But God began to give me dreams and ambitions that this sermon is birthed out of.
SPEAKER_02: This question, what about my dreams?
SPEAKER_02: Because this is a thing.
SPEAKER_02: When you align your body, when you face your shame and you align your heart, mind, soul, and body to God's will, your spirit, your heart comes alive, and and my heart started having these dreams that some of which seemed bizarre, some very spiritual.
SPEAKER_02: You know, like we pray for revival.
SPEAKER_02: And we pray, now I I'd never prayed for those things before.
SPEAKER_02: So that was a big deal for me.
SPEAKER_02: But some very what appeared to be carnal.
SPEAKER_02: I had the dream of becoming a millionaire through my lifetime.
SPEAKER_02: I had the dream of being a pilot.
SPEAKER_02: I had the dream of becoming an extreme adventurer like Indiana Jones and traveling the world.
SPEAKER_02: And all of these things were weighing down my mind and like, what should I seek after?
SPEAKER_02: What should I pursue?
SPEAKER_02: But because my grounding was in the foundation that I had received to seek God first in his kingdom, I knew that all these things were secondary.
SPEAKER_02: There are some things today that I am pursuing, some of those dreams, but I know because of my foundation that if one of these things were to be taken away, or no longer God was allowing my focus there, that it wouldn't matter.
SPEAKER_02: Because I'm called to seek first the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: But this foundation and this grounding didn't happen overnight.
SPEAKER_02: It was consistent people in my life, my parents and my Sunday school teachers who were consistently investing into me, investing the kingdom into me.
SPEAKER_02: They didn't just talk about their faith, but they lived their faith out.
SPEAKER_02: I remember my parents at 4 30 every day, they would come downstairs, and our bedroom was right against the stairwell, so we were hearing them.
SPEAKER_02: And then they would walk on the wraparound porch, which actually cornered our room.
SPEAKER_02: So they're walking around.
SPEAKER_02: And we're, you know, you'd imagine it's like, oh my gosh, can I please just sleep?
SPEAKER_02: It's 4 30 in the morning.
SPEAKER_02: But it was actually the most comforting thing to us because we knew what they were doing.
SPEAKER_02: We knew that our parents were praying and we knew that they were praying for us.
SPEAKER_02: They invited us into that prayer ministry.
SPEAKER_02: They it would, uh many summers they would invite us to wake up at 5 a.m.
SPEAKER_02: and come with them to prayer, either at the elementary school or at our church or walking around town.
SPEAKER_02: And we got to experience the power of prayer as children because God doesn't always move right away, right?
SPEAKER_02: So praying for these things as children, we'd be teenagers or young adults, seeing God answer the prayers of a child.
SPEAKER_02: And it was so powerful.
SPEAKER_02: I remember my brother Jonathan was wayward for 21 years.
SPEAKER_02: My entire childhood, and then most a lot of my, well, my my whole teen years and then some of my young adulthood was wayward.
SPEAKER_02: And when he finally came back to the Lord and gave his heart to the Lord and God turned his life around, I remember weeping because I was like, God, you heard the prayer of a child.
SPEAKER_02: Practical things like seats for our sanctuary.
SPEAKER_02: It was a very small church.
SPEAKER_02: We had very limited funds.
SPEAKER_02: And seeing God provide these types of things.
SPEAKER_02: Bible reading, I remember the thing I couldn't wait for the most about school was learning how to read.
SPEAKER_02: Because I was like, I want to read the Bible just like my dad.
SPEAKER_02: And I was so excited that when I finally learned how to read, and I got my first Bible, which was King James Version, so I didn't understand anything, but I highlighted every single line that I read.
SPEAKER_02: So I had like a whole page of highlights, and I was like, Mom, look what I read.
SPEAKER_02: It's like, that's great, honey.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe we don't need to highlight everything.
SPEAKER_02: But they modeled that to me.
SPEAKER_02: We had family devotions nearly every day.
SPEAKER_02: Or worship.
SPEAKER_02: My mom would play the guitar for us for the entire church.
SPEAKER_02: That was our worship team, was my mom on the guitar and singing those songs, and my dad was like, hey, you guys are gonna practice 10 minutes a day, instrument of your choice.
SPEAKER_02: Like, okay.
SPEAKER_02: It's like, because one day you're gonna be doing that as well.
SPEAKER_02: And it ended up that our family was the worship team for our church for a time.
SPEAKER_02: They still are, actually, but I'm unfortunately not able to be a part of that.
SPEAKER_02: But I also thank God for Summit International School of Ministry, the school that I went to, which really grounded me in grace versus performance.
SPEAKER_02: I don't perform to earn God's righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: He's given all of it to me.
SPEAKER_02: And from that place of grace and acceptance and love, then I can perform.
SPEAKER_02: But if I fail, I'm falling back on a foundation of love.
SPEAKER_02: In our kids' ministry, our motto is partnering with parents to disciple children who are deeply rooted in the truths of God's word and who walk boldly in the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: It was very intentional that we put this first, being rooted and grounded in the truths of God's Word, because even though it can seem like a really grand thing to walk boldly in the power of the Holy Spirit, it can be subjective.
SPEAKER_02: We could mistakenly raise a generation who is passionately seeking after achievement and accomplishment and pursuing these things because they think it's gonna honor God.
SPEAKER_02: When they could actually miss what truly matters, their foundation in the love and the truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_02: So, how do we do this?
SPEAKER_02: How do we seek the kingdom first?
SPEAKER_02: Well, I have good news for you.
SPEAKER_02: It's actually really simple.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, we have to recalibrate our mind.
SPEAKER_02: Our mind has to start thinking kingdom instead of self.
SPEAKER_02: But how we do that is we begin consuming God's word.
SPEAKER_02: We begin taking time to spend it in his presence.
SPEAKER_02: And we develop a habit of doing that.
SPEAKER_02: Pastor Steve calls it PBJ, prayer, Bible, and journal, where we open God's word, we say, God, would you right now speak to me through your word?
SPEAKER_02: And we're writing those things down.
SPEAKER_02: I wanted to show you a few pictures from the kids' ministry of us doing just that.
SPEAKER_02: Of us do practicing prayer, Bible, and journal.
SPEAKER_02: My six-year-old nephew was saying, That was my favorite part.
SPEAKER_02: I said, Really?
SPEAKER_02: We did incredible games, we had lots of fun.
SPEAKER_02: It's like, no, it was so calming and just reading God's word.
SPEAKER_02: It was so powerful.
SPEAKER_02: We have the opportunity, like my parents and like my Sunday school teachers, to raise up a generation that has their foundations right.
SPEAKER_02: In my life, I could have easily swayed to these ideas or these concepts that Satan was trying to put on me.
SPEAKER_02: These identities saying, You are this, you are that.
SPEAKER_02: I could have gotten to a new place in my life and sought after all these dreams and ambitions.
SPEAKER_02: But because I had my foundation solid, set on God, knowing that I should seek Him first, none of those identities stuck to me.
SPEAKER_02: None of those dreams became priority to me.
SPEAKER_02: And I thank God for the impact my parents had on me.
SPEAKER_02: I thank God for the impact my Sunday school teachers had on me, and we can choose to have this impact as well.
SPEAKER_02: I want to read for you in closing just a passage from Pastor Steve's book.
SPEAKER_02: When you make the kingdom of God your primary, God begins to move in power in every area of your life.
SPEAKER_02: If you aim for the highest possible good, the things you need to survive and thrive will be close at hand.
SPEAKER_02: When we seek the kingdom first as our primary, God fills us with power to duplicate his kingdom through our talents, through our giftings, through our success, through our job, through our workplace, through our family.
SPEAKER_02: The kingdom begins to multiply, and we arrive in heaven one day saying, look at what God has done through a willing vessel.
SPEAKER_02: Hundreds, maybe thousands, maybe millions of people coming up to you and saying, Because you were my Sunday school teacher, I accepted Christ as my savior.
SPEAKER_02: Because you were a loving neighbor in a time of need, I knew that God loved me.
SPEAKER_02: We can choose to seek first the kingdom, and when we do, everything falls into proper place.
SPEAKER_02: When we seek the first things first, God's passion becomes our own.
SPEAKER_02: When we seek the first things first, his divine wisdom informs our decisions.
SPEAKER_02: When we seek the first things first, his power becomes our resource.
SPEAKER_02: When we seek the first things first, success becomes a tool for eternal impact.
SPEAKER_02: I invite you as we go into worship to examine your heart and say, God, is there anything that I am putting before you?
SPEAKER_02: Is there anything that is more important to you in this, to me in this moment?
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Foreign for War podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit steveholtonline.org.
SPEAKER_00: God bless.