137 – Jesus said do this first: Seek the Kingdom

The Bible Speaks to You: Think, Pray, Love like Jesus

The Bible Speaks to You: Think, Pray, Love like Jesus
137 – Jesus said do this first: Seek the Kingdom
May 24, 2022 Episode 137
James Early

137 – What if you had lived during the time of Jesus and heard him preach?

Would you have believed what he said and followed him? Would you have recognized that he was the Messiah?

What if Jesus came to your house for dinner? What would you ask him? What would he ask you?

What would he tell you was the most important thing to do in life?

This episode is all about what Jesus would say to do first.

Jesus says it pretty succinctly in the Sermon on the Mount: "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." (Matthew 6:33)

Unfortunately, we’ve heard this phrase so many times that it has become a spiritual sound bite, something familiar that rolls too easily off the tongue. We know the words oh so well.

But once again, imagine you and I are in that crowd listening to Jesus say these words for the first time. He’s talking about the very things you’re worried about. You feel like he understands what you’re dealing with and the struggles you’re facing.

In this week's episode, I talk about several examples in the Bible of people who didn't quite have the kingdom of God at the top of their list.

  • The young rich man who chose not to sell all his possessions 
  • The 70 disciples who were focused on what they did instead of what was going on in heaven

So, we're supposed to seek God's kingdom first, but what does that really mean? How do we do it.

I share some concrete examples of how you can search for and find the kingdom of God in your daily life.

The way to seek and discover the kingdom of God is to do God’s will. That’s what opens our eyes to it. 

How on earth are we supposed to know what God’s will is? A good place to start is taking to heart everything Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount. I keep coming back to this, have you noticed. 

When you put Jesus’s teachings from that sermon into practice in your daily life, you are doing God’s will. 

When you do God’s will, this is the kingdom of God in action and is the fulfillment of the Lord’s Prayer,  "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. " (Matthew 6:10)

This is Jesus’s hope and prayer for us all. 

Text me your questions or comments.

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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and podcaster. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by embracing the mindset of Christ in daily life.