Seek First: Priorities, Peace, And Provision

We teach on Matthew 6:19–34 and the freedom that comes when we put God first. We name the anxiety trap, share how rejoicing becomes a choice, and offer practical steps to align priorities with the kingdom.

• rewards tied to heart posture in giving, prayer and fasting
• treasure in heaven reshapes value and focus
• you cannot serve God and money
• freedom from worry through trust in the Father
• birds and lilies as a picture of provision
• fasting as a lived declaration of priorities
• rejoicing and thanksgiving as tools against anxiety
• Paul’s prison perspective on peace and prayer
• practical habits to seek first the kingdom

“Help us all, Lord, to have the right attitude towards you”

Chapters

• 0:00 Rewards For Secret Devotion
• 3:44 Misplaced Priorities In Everyday Life
• 7:14 Reading Matthew 6:19–34
• 11:35 Treasures, Hearts, And Perspective
• 16:40 You Cannot Serve God And Money
• 19:45 Birds, Lilies, And Freedom From Anxiety
• 24:30 Practicality, ROI, And Eternal Focus
• 28:40 Not Poverty Or Prosperity: Right Order
• 33:50 The One Thing That Reorders Everything

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:25

Over the past several weeks, we've been talking about Jesus' lessons on generosity, on prayer, last week on fasting, but we just walked out of Jesus' lessons on those things. And I just I'm not going to rehash everything from them, but I do want to draw our attention to the fact in every single one of those things, there is a reward associated for doing it with the right attitude in the right heart. Whether it be generosity, prayer, or fasting, all of them say God will reward you for what you do in secret, as opposed to doing something with the wrong attitude and doing it for basically attention. What it is, it's a question of misplaced priorities, misplaced vision for one's life that becomes a problem for those of us who call themselves disciples of God. That's really what it boils down to for some of the things that we go to. Because I'm not questioning anybody's salvation in this place, okay? That's not the context that we are in in this place. I'm pretty sure you guys love God, believe in God, and want to serve God. What happens then is that sometimes we just get a little sidetracked. Sometimes we get sidetracked by uh seeking attention in the wrong places and not be satisfied with the attention that God gives us. And sometimes we're we're not doing that, but we have a priority issue, issues that crop up in our life. And I just think about how quickly we lose focus of what really matters and how easily we become distracted by this or or or by that, by the material or by the ordinary things around us. We we can go through an entire day forgetting to even think about God whatsoever because we've got a thousand things going on. This kid throw up, or this boss needs this, or I've got to drive here and do this, I've got to fix this, build that, right, that whatever. We got so many things happening. And at the end of the day, we sit down or we lay down and we realize we didn't give God one ounce of attention that day. And if that happens to us as Christians who want to show up, right, we got to know that this is just something we all got to deal with, and that's why Jesus talks about this. It's misplaced priorities. The kingdom of heaven is not devoid, it's not separated from the material, it's not separated from blessings, it's not separated from the stuff that we can see and touch and experience, but there is a priority to how we experience the world around us. It's not that the material stuff doesn't matter, it's just that God comes first. Seek first the kingdom of God. Seek first the kingdom of God. And that's really what uh is gonna be the basis of what we are talking about today. This priority, this starting with God, this putting things in the right order, which will allow you to get peace in your life. I gotta read a bit of scripture here. Matthew 6, verses 19 through 34. Braden, I hope your finger is ready to catch up with the scripture here. All right, got a lot going on here. But it's Matthew chapter 6, verses 19 through 34. Says this, do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourself treasure in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. If you don't think that thievery is a big deal, go ask those uh museums in France. Two weeks in a row, multi-million dollar heist. I can't wait for the movie one day. That's what I want. I want the movie one day. I hope they f I hope they find the thieves and the thieves come to justice, but I do want the movie, okay? I want the movie. All right. The eye is the lamp of the body, so if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness? This doesn't make a lot of sense to us because we know this isn't necessarily scientific, but let me just put this in context for you, real quick, and we're not gonna stay here very long. This is very symbolic. The Jewish people would have understood exactly what Jesus was talking about. This is him, him basically using their knowledge, it's not real knowledge, but their ideas to express an idea that that basically the inside stuff matters, okay? That's all that's saying. No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, love the other, or he'll he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. And then it pours right into this, and it's all connected. Therefore, I tell you, basically, because of this, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, nor about your body or what you will put on it. Isn't is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not more of value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his lifespan? And in fact, we know that anxiety actually lessens your lifespan. And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin. And yet I tell you, even Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you? O you of little faith. Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all of these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Can I get amen on that one? I don't gotta worry about tomorrow's problems. I've got problems today. So there's no need in fixating on what you can't get to right now, anyways. A lot of this is very straightforward, it's very practical. Like I said, I don't think I've got to recreate some sort of special message for you to understand this. So let's just walk through this and see if we can apply some of this to our life. We should be aware that no matter how wealthy someone is, uh it doesn't matter, it might not last. Or you're not guaranteed to hold on to what's in your bank account or to hold on to the treasures that you have. No matter how secure you think your treasure is, there are instances where it can all go away just like that, okay? We we ought to know that by now. No amount of insurance can truly secure you. Right? No, no amount of uh FDIC, uh federal banking insurance can secure your bank accounts. No amount of money that you have in the stock market will always be there the way you think it is. Now I hope and pray it always is. Oftentimes you can make it through life without any sort of issues like that, but you are not guaranteed. The house you like can burn down, the land you have can be taken away. We just don't know. We don't know. Things break, things get destroyed. So why do we put so much focus on these things that are temporary and that can be taken away? I'm not saying you shouldn't think about them at all, but why do we put so much stock in caring for this stuff which is transitional? Wouldn't you rather have a secure ROI? Oh, that's return on investment, right? Shouldn't we want our return on our time and the things that we spend our thoughts on and we spend our time doing? Shouldn't we want our ROI to go to something that can't be taken away? I hate the thought of working for something that is not always going to be there. Drives me insane. Matter of fact, I I'm I'm practical to a fault sometimes. So when I when it comes to giving gifts, Tara might give me a list sometimes of things she wants, and I will look at that list and I will say, this is all trash. That none of this matters. She can't use it all. It blah, blah, blah. And I make up all sorts of excuses. This is a these are silly gifts. And I will go out and get her something practical, like a bread maker. Okay? Which thankfully that was on her list and was practical. But there's been other things on her list, and I just ignored it because I thought this is like a one-time use thing. I'm not buying a one-time use thing as a birthday gift. And then I buy something, and Terry's like, I'm gonna take this back and get what I want. I'm like, okay, I understand, right? But the thought of spending time and money and resources on something that is temporary drives me insane. And that should be the same for our entire existence. If you're gonna spend time and effort focusing on something and working towards something, don't you want that something to be forever? Focus on God and what he produces in that relationship is forever. If your focus is on earthly treasure, then your focus can't be on God and his mission for your life. Now, before we sell all of our belongings and take a vow of poverty, I want you to notice that Jesus is not saying that treasures are bad, that the material is bad, that blessings are bad, that having plenty is bad, or even that Jesus might not even provide and open the door for us to have some of these blessings. That's not what Jesus is saying. So neither is this the prosperity gospel, and this also isn't like a vow of poverty thing. It's somewhere in the middle where Jesus is trying to draw us into proper priorities and proper relationship to the material. Those things are fine, but they only go so far, and they're not things to build your life on. It's a heart issue. Jesus is questioning the priorities and the mindset of the disciples. The human heart only has enough room to truly be totally devoted and connected and focused on one single overarching thing. I'm not saying you can't be focused on being a good dad, mom, being a good worker, being a good spouse, being a good friend. But I consider those things a step below the one thing. The one thing. And here's the thing about the one thing. If God is your one thing, you get a lot of other stuff thrown in with that. Right? If you love God and your desire is to serve God and love God, you're going to be a good father. You're going to be a good mother. You're going to be a hard worker, which might produce opportunities for blessings. You're going to do things differently, okay? And so when you follow God, we might get some material blessings thrown into that process, though it's not a guarantee. But if your focus is on the material blessings first, well, then there's no room for you to focus on being a good dad because it doesn't matter to the overarching goal of your life. Who you are as a person is not dependent upon commercial success in your life whenever your goal and your vision and sort of the GPS direction of your life is God. When that's your direction, you take some pressure off your shoulders that that maybe you're not measuring up to the people around you. You're going to worship something. You're going to serve something. There's going to be the one thing that is the overarching thing. If it's God, good things are produced from that. If it's money, you're going to miss some stuff. And it might lead you to evil.

unknown: 12:17

Right?

SPEAKER_00: 12:18

You can't serve two masters, it says. If money is your God, then your life will become consumed with worrying about resources because that's how you're judging your life. Do I have enough? Can I buy this? Am I reaching my financial goals? Can I provide for my family with what I'm making? You literally become anxious about stuff whenever stuff is your God. And not just unimportant stuff, by the way. That's not what Jesus is saying, but stuff nonetheless. Jesus graciously points out that life is more than stuff. Life is more than material, it's more than the physical. If the birds of the air, it says, don't have to toil, they don't have to plan, they don't have to work, it's instinctual, they're just doing what they're supposed to do, and God takes care of them and they're birds, how much more so is this true for us? If in nature, parts of nature, in particular to the scripture, if flowers are so beautiful and stunning, and I think this example would apply to many other parts of nature. If they're so stunning and yet they are just that way, and they're not human, right? How much more so is this true for us? Right? We just got to get our focus right. God loves you. God wants to take care of you. It says God knows what you need and God will give you what you need, but come to me first, it says. Jesus is not saying that we don't need these things. He's not saying that clothes don't matter. He's not saying that we don't need food. He's not saying we don't need shelter. He's not saying we don't have to work hard. He's not saying any of that. That's not what he's saying. He's just saying, I know what you need. I know what you need. The Gentiles know that they need these things and they live their lives seeking after these things. Their entire existence is about these things. Don't be like them. Seek me first. Seek me first. I know you need clothing. I know you're worried about how you're gonna pay your bills. And I know you're worried about your college for your kids' college fund or educational fund. I know you're worried about these things. I know you need these things, but follow me first. Don't be like the Gentiles whose entire life and existence is making choices based on the physical and the material. Life is more than that. Follow me, put me first, and all of these things will be added to you, it says. Priorities. Priorities. Again, not a call not to work hard, not a call to be lazy, not a call to have hopes and dreams, not a call to want good things. This is a call to simply say those things don't matter nearly as much as my relationship with God. And if my relationship with God is right, I am right. No matter the external circumstances I am facing, I could be living in a cardboard box, but I love Jesus, and so I am fulfilled, and I'm I have a level of joy and happiness that comes from even in those circumstances. Desire righteousness first, and God is faithful to provide what we need. And again, we see just like with the Beatitudes, Jesus is pointing out a kingdom distinction from how the world thinks things should work and how it actually works. Right? If you go back to the Beatitudes, it's like the poor in spirit. And you know, it's basically pointing out negative things produce positive results. The poor are blessed. The mourn, the the those who mourn will receive what they need. Like this whole process. And here again, the world says I want security. And who doesn't want security? I want food, good food, I want clothing, good clothing, I want shelter. In fact, I don't just want those things, I need those things in some regard. And so my life's purpose is working for these things for my family. Hopefully, I work so well that I provide these things for my family and for my future of my family, right? That's that's a prop popular way of doing life. Matter of fact, it seems practical, it seems good that you should want to work hard for these things. Doesn't really sound bad, but it's not how you are designed. You've got to put God first. Amen. Another one of those old school Pentecostal screams back in the back. It's a perfect time for a water break. It's perfect. It's fine. It's fine. But it's it's right. I want security, I want these good things, I want to take care of my family, and that's fine. Matter of fact, it's that that is a good thing to have in your life. But Jesus says, Pause and consider that life is more than that. Pause and consider the God that you serve, pause to consider what God can do. Pause to consider uh all of who God is, and if God is who he says he is, right? If he is who he says he is, and he is who he says he is to us, if he is our Father, as Jesus points out when he teaches about prayer, then that ought to change the way that we experience walking through life and our worries and our anxieties. It supersedes that stuff. Matter of fact, that's why we just did that fast, and that's why fasting is powerful because we are looking at our body, we were looking at our physical needs and saying, I am going to purposely abstain from something that I need, and yet I believe I'm still going to be sustained by what I ultimately need by God. That's what fasting is. It's a declaration of priorities, it's a declaration of putting God first, even above the most basic fundamental thing that you need, which is food and nourishment. And you are saying, even above that, I need you more, God. Priorities. Priorities. So if God is actually my father, like Jesus has suggested, what is the use of my anxiety and worry? If God is who he says he is, to us, why do we spend so much time worrying about things? Why? Why do we spend so much time consumed in worry if God is on our side? It's just sort of change things, don't you think? Anxiety doesn't accomplish. Listen, just from personal experience, I've got to tell you, anxiety and worry accomplishes nothing. Nothing. It accomplishes absolutely nothing. I've been around people who suffered with chronic illness, and oftentimes the people suffering with chronic illness understand this better than the people who care for the person who's struggling with chronic illness. And the people with chronic illness are fine, but the people worrying about them, they're they're worrying and they're anxious. And guess what it's doing? Absolutely nothing. It does nothing. The only thing you can do is skip all the steps of the the steps of grief or whatever. I did an entire paper on it one time in college. I probably should remember I can't. But you skip through anger, you skip through denial. Just go ahead and skip all that mess and get right to the fact that I trust God and I'm gonna accept the fact that this is happening, and if God wants to step in, he will. And then move on. Because anxiety does what? Nothing. Just waste your time. Take up your brain power and energy when you could be accomplishing things for your family, for the church. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, in the midst of lifting them up and encouraging them, and he's basically saying, you know, God's love is so great and so good that no matter what you're going through, everything's gonna be okay. And he says this, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, and he is, who can be against us? He who did not spare his son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? If God loves you, and he does, if this God who gave his only begotten son, he gave it to you out of his own care for you, if he actually did that, then what's the point of worrying? What's the point of being freaked out by this momentary pain and momentary affliction and momentary tribulation and troubles? They won't last. They will end. They will end. One way or another, they will end. Okay? But the blessings and the love and the eternal grace of God will not end. Let that sink into your DNA. If God is for you, then what are we really worrying about? And I get it. Going through stuff in the moment is painful and it's hard and it's difficult, and and and it might not connect every moment every day when you're going through something stressful. But I promise you, if you get this into your DNA, it'll change you. Paul got it into his DNA. Paul, living out the teaching of Jesus in powerful ways, says this from a prison cell. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. I've said it before, I'll say it again about the scripture. We have to remember the context of where Paul is preaching this scripture from for it to truly impact us the way it needs to impact us. He's not on vacation, he's not with his family, he's not at work, he's not golfing, he's not sitting on a beach, he's not scrolling Amazon looking for a good deal. No such thing exists, FYI. Girl math is not real. Amen. Carrie? Yeah. That might be the first boo I've ever received in a sermon ever. I just got booed in a sermon. That's uh less awkward though than the person I was preaching one time, and someone was standing in front, and was probably the first time I was preaching, one of the third or fourth times I was preaching in front of like adults, because I was a youth pastor, and I'm on stage, and I've told the story before, and some guy stands up in the middle of me exhorting and says, That's right, and and he he lists off these lists of things, and none of them were correct, by the way. He's mixing up his Bible characters, and everybody's just staring at me, staring at him, and I'm just smiling. And I see my uh my senior pastor and the associate pastor of the church. They're sitting over here, and I look over them and they're just laughing. And I said, All right, well, let's move on. Anyways, so I'll a boo is better than that, I think. Um that that's better. Anyways, anyways, let's let's get back, let's get back to this. Paul Paul ain't in a good spot. He's not living the good life, he is in prison. Prison. Yet who God is, the reality of who God is, is so real and tangible in his life, it's in his DNA, that he's able to express this thought about rejoicing and not worrying in the midst of a situation where I think anybody would be tempted to crumble into unending anxiety and worry about their future because he didn't belong there. He didn't do anything wrong, he's suffering unjustly. And so if I'm in that situation, I'm gonna go ahead and tell you there is going to be a struggle for me not to worry about what is happening to my life. And yet Paul is in that situation, and I'm not saying he isn't worrying, but what I'm saying is he is expressing a truth to us that we've got to pick up. Rejoice. Again, I say rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always. Rejoice. To rejoice is an action that you take, it's not just an attitude. You might not feel like rejoicing, it might feel awkward to rejoice, it might not, it might seem uh inappropriate to rejoice in certain certain circumstances. Do it anyways. Rejoice. Rejoice. I remember hugging my mom moments after I found out my brother died. And and this is not the brag, but this is the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us, and the same thing can happen to you. And the only thing that could come out of my mouth was Thanksgiving. Thank you, God, for taking care of my brother. Thank you, God, for giving me time with my brother. Rejoice. It's a choice. It's a choice. I didn't feel like it, but it's a choice. I remember walking in my backyard when all this was going on, and I'm I'm introverted. Some of you know this, and there's probably 50 people at my tiny little house. I got I grew up in a tiny house, and there's 50 people packed in. And so I'm out off in the woods, and I just remember walking around just whispering thank you. Thank you, God. Did I want to do that? No. Rejoice in the Lord always. Not when you feel like it. Not when it makes sense. Not whenever everybody around you is also rejoicing. Not whenever the circumstances seem like you should be rejoicing. Rejoice in the Lord always. It is an active thing that you choose to do with the help of the Holy Spirit. Do it. The Lord, Paul says, is at hand. God's with us. If he's at hand, if he's with me, why am I worrying? Why am I worrying? I hope you're catching on to something here. Paul is giving us the proper tools necessary that we need to fight anxiety and worry that we will undoubtedly have to face in our life. You have to make the choice to rejoice. You have to recognize that God is present. And you've got to recognize who God is. Those things only come with discipleship. It only comes with you praying. It only comes with you spending time in God's Word. It only comes with you worshiping with us on Sunday mornings. It only comes with us coming together and reading scripture together. Right? To know God is here is great. To know who God is who is here is even better. The Lord is at hand. You gotta know that. You gotta learn not to fix it on your worries, but to present them to God in prayer. You have to learn that by experience. Who's the first person you go to when something's going wrong? It it ought to be Jesus. It shouldn't even be your spouse first. It ought to be Jesus first and then go to your spouse. Go to Jesus. Don't go to somebody else first. And when you go to Jesus, make the conscious choice to go to him with thanksgiving. Not fixating on the problem that you're bringing to him first, but fixating on the fact that even though you're going through this, you still got a plethora of blessings in your back pocket that deserve appreciation and thanksgiving. Let it draw your attention away from the trouble and draw your eyes to all the blessings that you do have and the fact that God is with you. And when you do this, it probably won't make sense to people who don't understand who God is yet. It might not make any sense. It might seem a little foolish not to fixate on the problems and your worries like the world so often does. But the world wants you to listen, there is a nearly billion-dollar industry out there that purposely wants you to fixate on your problems so that they can charge you by the hour. I'm not saying that there's no place to go talk to somebody. But right now we live in a society that desperately wants you to do that because it makes them money. We live in a world that desperately wants you to take a pill to get rid of the anxiety that you should have given to God. Okay? And again, there are chemical imbalances out there. I am not saying that doesn't matter. I want to be clear about that. I'm not saying that there is not a place for you to talk to somebody who might guide you to the right perspective about something. I'm not saying there might not be a place for a pharmaceutical to help you along the way because God gave us uh uh intelligence and and things like that to help us along the way to come up with crazy, awesome, amazing things. But what I am saying is those are just a tiny piece of the puzzle. First and foremost, we don't fixate anything except for fixate our eyes on God. Matter of fact, one of the, this is based on a study, one of the uh biggest things about depression, about people with depression, is that they have a propensity to fixate on their problems. Right? If you talk to depressed people, if you talk to people who are struggling with actual clinical depression, you will find that a lot of times they are stuck in a cycle of therapy where all they're doing is talking about their problems over and over and over and over and over again, and it ends up creating this sort of whirlpool where they cannot escape. No, no, no, no, no, no. Don't fixate on your problems, don't take your problems of somebody over and over and over again. Go to God with your problems. Go to God with your problems and let this process which surpasses the understanding of the wise, because it seems wise in a world full of professionals to go to them, go to God first. Let the peace of God guard your heart from the worry and the anxiety. Here's what happens sometimes when we're so consumed with solving every one of our problems and sort of getting everything exactly right and understanding exactly how we're going to fix this issue. We get so desperate for a solution. We get so desperate for relief from our anxiety and from our pain that we and we're so willing to get an answer for anything that we we justify doing unhealthy things to solve the problems that we're facing. That's part of what we're talking about here is that whenever you get things out of order in your life, we're talking about priorities. And if your first priority in your time of anxiety and worry is not to go to God, there might come a time whenever you're so desperate to get rid of that trouble and that worry and that anxiety that you're willing to go to the bottle. You're willing to go to some pills, you're willing to go to this or to that in order to find momentary relief because you never got the priority right in your life. God first. God first. We fixate on the problem until that's our entire life, and we are unable to move on, we're unable to problem solve. Our brain power is totally fixated on the fact that we have no control over this and we can't figure out anything else. Let the peace of God guard your heart from those temptations. As great as it is to hear from Paul and his words about God being for us and with us, and his words about rejoicing and fighting anxiety and bringing him your petitions. We don't get to that part if we don't first start with seeking first the kingdom of God. Seek first the kingdom of God. If you don't get that right, nothing else is gonna be right. Right? If you don't have the right address, you type in the wrong address to the GPS, you're not gonna get to where you belong, to where you need, and it'll be going around the circles. And even though you might arrive at where you think you need to be, you're not actually where you need to be. You gotta get God right in your life. You gotta, he is first. He's first. And when you pursue God and you put him first, you get a lot of things thrown in with that process, but it doesn't work the other way around. You can't seek money and find God. You can't even seek a good family experience and find God. You can't seek being a good spouse and find God. You can't seek having a good time and find God. Now God might find you. That's a different story. It's not what I'm talking about. But you gotta start with God first. And then it makes sense to rejoice. When God's first in life, it makes sense that that you don't gotta worry about all this extra stuff. It makes sense that you're not gonna you're not gonna worry so much about the material. It makes sense that you're not gonna succumb to the temptation to be stuck and fixate on your anxieties and your worries, but God has to be first. Amen. Gotta be first. Gotta be first. It's simple, not complex. This should be nothing brand new you've heard in your life before. If you've been in church for a couple of years, this should be simple. Tara, did you catch that whistle? She makes fun of my whistle that I do sometimes. God's good, amen. Let's pray. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we love you. We thank you. You are great. You are mighty. You're awesome. And because you are those things and you are our Father, and we put you first, we don't gotta worry. We don't have to spend a second in our anxiety. And Lord, I pray right now, if there are if there are things in here that we are worried about, that we are anxious about, that we are dealing with, that we don't have the answer for. But Lord, I need help with this. Take care of it. And Lord, I pray that through your spirit you would help us move on and trust that you are who you say you are. God, if we're worried about our children, help us. If we're worried about finances, help us. If we're worried about other family members, help us. If we're dealing with pain, help us. If we're worried about a plethora of issues, I pray that you would help us this morning not to worry. God, I pray that we would put you first. That we put you first. And Lord, as we seek you first, as we go after you first, I pray that we would be good husbands because we're seeking you first. That we would be good uh spouses and be good fathers and mothers, that we'd be good friends, that we'd be good workers, be good people because we're seeking you first. And out of seeking you first, we would walk into blessings that only you can provide. I'm praying for blessings, financial blessings and social blessings and practical blessings for the people in this room right now. But Lord, I pray that they would seek you first. Help us all, Lord, to have the right attitude towards you. In Jesus' mighty name we pray. Amen.