This depression comes over me whenever the Lord is preparing a larger blessing for my ministry; the cloud is black before it breaks, and overshadows before it yields its deluge of mercy. Depression has now become to me as a prophet in rough clothing, a John the Baptist, heralding the nearer coming of my Lord's richer benison. So have far better men found it. The scouring of the vessel has fitted it for the Master's use. Immersion in suffering has preceded the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Fasting gives an appetite for the banquet. The Lord is revealed in the backside of the desert, while his servant keepeth the sheep and waits in solitary awe. The wilderness is the way to Canaan. The low valley leads to the towering mountain. Defeat prepares for victory.
C.H. Spurgeon

Seeking The Kingdom Of God

Seeking The Kingdom Of God

“SEEKING THE KINGDOM OF GOD” by Pastor James Wilson

OK, Matthew chapter 6. We’ll start reading in verse 25. Matthew 6, verse 25: “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, [shall he] not much more [clothe] you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day [is] the evil thereof.” Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.

Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless us, now, Lord, as we go forth and read your word, Lord, and try to draw from it and eat from it a little bit. Father, I pray that we be able to find some table scraps here, if nothing else, Lord God, to feed our hungry souls. God, I pray that you’ll give us something that will strengthen us spiritually, Lord God, and will enable us to will the spiritual armor which you have provided for us. God, I pray, Lord, that you’d teach us tonight, Lord, about your word, about your Son, about eternal things and spiritual things. Father, I pray that you help me kneeling before you, God. I pray that you take away any sin or any uncleanness that I might have in me, Lord God. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. God, loose my stammering tongue tonight, Lord, and let it fly for Jesus Christ. In His name I pray. Amen. Amen.

I’d like to call your attention to verse 33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” We have a prerequisite there. We have, “If you do this, then this will happen unto you.” And you know, that’s the way God always works. Have you ever come to God just like Gideon did and say, “Lord, if you do this and this and such and such, Lord, then I’ll do that.”

And we always want God to make the first move. We say, “Lord, if you take care of this and the other thing, then I’ll do this. I’ll serve you.” Or, “I’ll take care of this for you.”

But, you know, that’s not how it works in the Bible. God always expects us to take that first step of faith, and then God blesses us as well.

And here He says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Then all these things will be added unto you”–the food, the raiment, where are you going to be clothed, where are you going to sleep, your house, your bills, your financial needs, your worries, your woes, your sicknesses, health–whatever it may be, He says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; then all these things shall be added unto you.” You know, this is the first time you see the term “kingdom of God” in the Bible. And it’s connected with God’s righteousness.

You know, an amillennialist would take this verse, and this is what they do. They’d say, “The kingdom is going on right now under our nose. God’s ruling from the throne in Heaven.” And he would say with this verse, “We need to put an end to hunger and disease, put a stop to war and crime. We need to love, care and get along with one another, until we’re getting along in brotherly love. Then God will see that we’re fit for His coming, and come down and sit on the throne and take over.” That’s how he reads it: we’re to seek God’s first, and then God will come.

That’s not the way it goes. God says we’re to first come to Him, as we are, then He saves us, then He cleans up our act. There’s going to come a time when Christ will come. And He’s not going to wait until we can get this world ready for Him, because it just won’t happen. There’s nothing we can do to bring that about.

Now, a lot of these amillennialists will take that verse, and they’ll tie it in with the “kingdom of Heaven,” rather, instead. And they’re lost. They don’t know any better. They’re thinking with a carnal mind. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Now, there’s a difference in a nutshell between the kingdom of Heaven–which is a physical, literal, visible kingdom here on earth, which the amillennialists and all these kingdom-builders try to bring in–and the kingdom of God spoken in the Bible, which is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. There’s a spiritual kingdom, and there is a physical kingdom.

I would appreciate it if you would take your Bibles, and we’ll run a few verses of Scripture, and we’ll have just a short little Bible study here, as we romp through the Bible. And we’ll pick up the theme of Genesis to Revelation. This Bible isn’t centered around you, your soul, Christ’s salvation, or man. The theme of this Bible is built around the theme of a kingdom.

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

Now, first of all, let’s take a look at this kingdom of Heaven which the do-gooders, the green-peacers, and the kingdom-builders confuse with the kingdom of God. Look here in Genesis chapter 1, verse 1. The Bible says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” A physical Heaven. Look in verse 14: “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.” There is one Heaven. Look down here in verse 20: “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl [that] may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.”

You have one heaven which is above the atmosphere, and one heaven which is within the atmosphere that the birds fly in. One, the stars and the galaxies float in; and the other, the birds are able to fly in.

Let’s look over here in Genesis 49 and verse 10. And in these heavens–we call this the first heaven and the second heaven–and the third heaven is spoken in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. It’s very simple. One heaven, you can see by day; the other heaven, you can see by night; and the third heaven, you can see by faith. But they’re all physical. They’re all literal. The third heaven above is just as physical and just as literal and just as tangible as the firmament that we see the birds fly in–the blue skies.

Genesis 49, verse 10: “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him [shall] the gathering of the people [be].” There’s a Heaven, and there’s a government that goes with that Heaven, the “sceptre” signifying a rule, and also a lawgiver, signifying government.

Look over here in Isaiah chapter 9. Isaiah chapter 9, verse 7: “Of the increase of [his] government and peace [there shall be] no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” You have a real throne, the throne of David. It’s a literal throne and a literal kingdom, a government, which is in a literal Heaven, a physical Heaven, which is on the face of this earth. In Acts chapter 1 verse 6 the disciples asked Jesus, “Wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” They are expecting the Messiah to rule on the throne of David. Christ had to be offered up as a sacrifice first and be accepted readily of the Jews before He could do so. And He said, “It’s not for you to know the times or the seasons.”

And, finally, in Revelation chapter 19, we see this kingdom coming to pass. Revelation chapter 19, verse 15: “And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on [his] vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” The fulfillment of the prophecy of this Book and the end of the theme of this Book is a monarchy with a King on the throne of David in a physical, literal, visible kingdom of Heaven.

Not the kingdom of God, but the kingdom of Heaven.

THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Now, let’s take a look at the kingdom of God. Now, you can’t confuse the kingdom of God with the kingdom of Heaven because they’re not the same. They’re different. In the first way that you know they’re not the same and that they’re different is that not spelled the same. And they’re not referring to the same thing. Heaven’s a place, and God is a Person.

The Gospel of John chapter 4, verse 24. “God [is] a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship [him] in spirit and in truth.” You have the kingdom of Heaven. Heaven is the place where stars are hung. Heaven is a place where birds fly. Heaven is a place where men get caught up to, where God sits on His throne on a crystal sea, and they have the cherubims and the seraphims and the four and twenty elders praising Him twenty-four hours a day, day and night, in and out.

Here, the kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom. Look in John chapter 3, verse 5: “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and [of] the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Any time you see the kingdom of God mention, it’s tied in with the spiritual realm.

Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places].” That’s when Christ was taken away captive in the garden of Gethsemane, and Peter drew his sword and cut off the centurion’s ear there. And God said, “It’s not time yet. You’re thinking of the kingdom of Heaven. We’re still dealing with the kingdom of God.”

Let’s wrap it up here in the Book of Romans, chapter 14. The Book of Romans, chapter 14, verse 17: “Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” It’s a spiritual kingdom; it’s not a physical kingdom. And we’re to seek–not the kingdom of Heaven–but we’re to seek the kingdom of God.

You know, if you’re seeking the kingdom of Heaven, you’ll wind up frustrated, and try to bring it in yourself–as did Joseph Stalin, as did Mao Tse Tung, who murdered 34,000,000 Chinese, when he was bringing about the Communist Party over there in China. Or Adolf Hitler, who wreaked havoc in World War II. Among the whole world, a little old nation about the size of Oregon trying to spread the kingdom–and killed six million Jews in the Holocaust. Why? He was trying to bring about the kingdom of Heaven.

Or John Paul II, or his predecessors, during the Middle Ages or the Dark Ages, between 500 and 1500 A.D. You know what these men were trying to do? They were trying to bring in the kingdom themselves. And all kingdom builders are bloody killers. Bloody killers, every one of them. And each and every one of them try to get men to do something that they don’t want to. They impose their will upon someone else’s will. There’s going to be bloodshed every time.

Final Authority

If you seek the kingdom of God, this is what you’ll find. First of all, a final authority. The King James Bible, brother–the King James 1611. This Book is a spiritual Book right here. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12: “For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.” It’s a spiritual Book. It’s not a literal, physical Book, which men try to take it as that is. And as we read before, “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They’re foolishness unto him.”

You’ll hardly ever find a lost man reading this Book or studying this Book. If he does, he won’t understand a word in it. Why? Because it’s a spiritual Book. It’s not a literal Book. It’s a spiritual Book.

You want to understand it? You’ve got to be born of the Spirit.

For 15 years the Research Science Bureau, directed by Dr. Harry Rimmer, offered the sum of $100 to anyone who could establish one mistake, scientifically in the Bible, in the King James Bible. Ads were placed in daily newspapers and magazines in 20 different countries, and it was repeated on the radio and in public meetings as well. During these 15 years, almost every fantastic theory of unbelief’s wildest imagination was addressed to the committee. Humanists, modernists, atheists, free thinkers and others sent in their lists of alleged errors in the Bible by the thousands. Every sort of question from, “The capacity of Noah’s ark wasn’t able to handle all the animals that it contained,” to the suggestion that apples would never grow in the garden of Eden’s climate.

Later, the sum of $1,000 was offered to the person who could find one scientific mistake in the Bible, after efforts were exhausted at the $100 reward. Then, one man, who thought he had found at least 53 mistakes, brought suit to collect the $53,000 through a New York court.

In conclusion, the judge said, “You have wasted the time of this court for a day and a half and have failed to prove one single item. Case dismissed. Get out of this courtroom!”

They can’t find it. They can’t find it.

This Book is written by God. It’s written by the Holy Spirit, copied down by man and given to us–and that’s a spiritual Book. You know, God’s Spirit–there’s nothing wrong with Him; He’s perfect. He’s perfect in every way, holy, righteous, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. A spiritual God. And this Book is no different. This Book is perfectly preserved without error for us. It’s nice to have a final authority, amen?

You know, without that Book, the Bible says in Romans 10:17, “So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” So if your Bible is corrupt, your faith is corrupt. Your faith comes from the word of God.

The Bible says in Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace are you saved through faith.” If your faith is corrupt, then your salvation is corrupt. You’re not saved, you’re without hope, you’re yet in your sins. If your faith is corrupt and you’re not saved, you may as well go home tonight and watch “60 Minutes” rather than waste your time within the walls of this church building, and listen to some fanatic get up here in a three-piece suit and try and blabber for about half an hour, trying to get you to serve God.

You may as well, brethren. If that Book isn’t spiritual and perfect, you may as well.

What would happen if you don’t have a final authority you can trust? What kind of armor would you have to stand against the wiles of the devil? Well, J.J. Ray wrote these words. He said, “The inevitable result would be as follows: a girdle with a mixture of truth and error; a breastplate of righeousness like filthy rags; a gospel of peace, mingled with distrust and discord; a plastic shield through which fiery darts of the enemy can pass through; a sieve-like helmet for the head, through which conflicting ideas may enter and destroy assurance of salvation; a sword which has no power to pierce and to destroy the enemy.”

Brethren, if we didn’t have a final authority, we’d be at the mercy of popular opinion, jurisprudence, philosphy of this world–in which case, your opinion would be just as good as mine. We’d be lost, floundering in a sea of doubt and confusion.

The Comfort of the Holy Spirit

Also, if we seek the kingdom of God, we would find the comfort of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says in John chapter 14, verse 18, “I will not leave you comfortless.” He says, “For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send him unto you.”

J. Hudson Taylor, the missionary to China, made this entry in his diary, when he buried his youngest girl on the mission field in China. He wrote these words: “Our dear little Gracie, how we miss her sweet voice in the morning. One of the first sounds to greet us when we woke and went through the day. As I take the walks I used to take with her tripping figure at my side, the thought comes anew like a throb of agony. Is it possible that I shall nevermore feel the pressure of that little hand, nevermore see the sparkle of those bright eyes? And yet she is not lost. I will not have her back again. I am so thankful she was taken, rather than any of the others, though she was the sunshine of our lives. I think I never saw anything so perfect, so beautiful, as the remains of that dear child. The long, silken eyelashes under the finely arched brows, her little nose so delicately chiseled, the purity of her little white features–all are deeply impressed in my heart and memory. There, in her sweet little Chinese jacket, with her little hands folded so hard to close forever from our sight. Pray for us. At times I seem almost overwhelmed with the internal and external trials connected with our work.”

Now, who do you suppose is going to comfort that man? Suppose he could find comfort in a shrink, psychiatrist, psychologist? You know what he’ll tell him? He’ll prescribe him a dose of tranquilizers to take every day and say, “Come see me twice a week. And then, under therapy, we can finally help you out here, to where you can function a normal life.”

Your buddies would say, “Let’s go, and have a little drink and get it out of your mind, so you won’t have to think about it for awhile. Think about other things. You got to keep busy! Stay busy and keep occupied! Keep your mind occupied so that you won’t think about it.”

Your family would say, “Well, she’s better off now. Let her go. You have other children. It’s OK. You have others. Don’t worry. After awhile, you’ll never miss her.”

Only the Holy Spirit can give you real comfort. Only He can restore the peace and joy that you once had. If you look anywhere else, you’ll just find more pain, more sorrow. It might delay it, it might nullify it, it might numb it for just a little bit. But only the Holy Spirit of God is able to provide the comfort that this man would need at a time like this.

And that’s just where he went.

The world just numbs it. The Holy Spirit can take it away or at least teach you how to live with it.

A Friend that Sticketh Closer than a Brother

We’ll also find in the kingdom of God a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. In John chapter 15, verse 12, Christ said these words to His twelve disciples when He was ready to depart. He said, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”

Walter B. Knight wrote about a very wealthy millionaire one time who, when he became ill and was dying, made out his will. And he was troubled because he wasn’t sure who his friends were in this life. Though many claimed to be his friends, and though he had many acquaintances which came and went during the time of his career, he still was troubled with that feeling that, “You know, I’m not really sure who my friends are–whether they’re ‘okeedokeeing’ me, or whether it’s my money or whether it’s myself, I’m not really sure.”

Upon his death, his request was that his funeral, according to his will, would be held at 4 a.m. in the morning. And he died one winter during a blizzard. And at 4 a.m. they took his casket out to the gravesite, and they set it down there. And, amongst the wind and the snow and the bitter cold, the minister read from the Bible, and he read the eulogy. And the only people who were standing around in that dark, cold, snow-struck graveyard, were three men and one poor old woman. Later on, the three men and the poor old woman were invited inside the mansion where he lived, and they were set down inside the study. And the executor of the estate began to read the rich man’s will.

And as he read the will, he said, “My fortune, my millions, are to be divided up among those who have attended my funeral. Because only then will I know that only a friend would come out at such an ungodly hour, at such poor conditions, to see my parting, and to adhere to my last thoughts, my last will, my final words.”

You know, I used to have friends like that. I was just telling a person the other day, trying to talk him out of a world of sin and destruction. And I told this person, “You know, the people whom you hang around with now, you think they’re your friends, but they’re not really your friends.”

And I know how that goes. When I was in high school before I got saved, I was wrapped up, just like any other kid from Southern California, in dope and devilment, and following rock-and-roll music, and going along with the crowd. And, you know, none of those people I used to hang around with were really my friends. We were all just a source of live entertainment. We used to watch each other load up and stumble around and studder and stammer and act silly, so that we could laugh at one another. But, you know, all the times I went to Juvenile Hall, and all the times I got suspended from school or was grounded or was in trouble with my family or with the law, none of my so-called “friends” were there.

Dad was. My parents were. My family were.

But, you know, it was sad, because I never really had any friends.

I came to realize one day, as I was sitting in my apartment one evening, lonesome, hadn’t heard from anybody in a few weeks. And I began to wonder why. And then I thought about it. The reason why I don’t have any friends is because I’m out of dope.

No dope, no friends.

I used to get so lonesome at times, I’d go out and buy an ounce of dope or something like that, and I’d come home and call ’em up and said, “Come on over. Let’s load up!”

And it wasn’t until after I got saved and got in a local church like this that I began to get some real friends. Real friends who cared about me. Real friends who’d accept me for what I am, and not just what I had.

But, you know, above them I still have a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

No one ever cared for me like Jesus. There’s no other friend so kind as He.
No one else could take the sin and darkness from me. O how much He cared for me!

The Bible says in Matthew 11, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Couldn’t we all use a Friend like that? One that’s always up for us? One that’s always there to cheer us up, and be there to lift us up when we needed help?

Did you ever have a friend that, every time you were around him, he was just down in the dumps, had his lips sticking out about a half a mile from his upper lip, always down about something, always griping, always complaining, always had “woes” and always had “sorrows,” and you always had to lift him up and pick him up.

But, you know, that’s the way Jesus is for us. He’s always there for us. He’s always up for us. We could all use a Friend like that.

A Heavenly Father

We’ll also find in the kingdom of God a heavenly Father. You know, everybody wants somebody to look up to. Did you ever listen to a group of five-, six-, seven-year-old boys standing around talking about their dads? I have. They get around there, and they say, “My dad is probably the best football player on the face of this earth. You should see my dad drill that football! Man, he throws far and hard!”

“Well, my dad, he’s probably the world’s best baseball player. My dad’s got trophies on his shelf, three feet tall, the way he’s hit home runs. And he probably stole the most bases in the whole world!”

“My dad was the best basketball player!”

“My dad was the best water polo player! He’s got ribbons and pins inside his trophy shelf that would sink you if you fell in the water and all of them were tagged on to your lapel. My dad is the best! He can run the fastest, he’s the smartest, he’s the strongest, he can lift the most weight, and he can do anything that God can do–that’s my dad!”

That’s the way they are.

And, you know, I think that God put that in every one of us so that we would seek out a holy and righteous and pure perfect Being that we could feel comfortable worshipping. Call it pride. Call it whatever it is.

A lot of us seek something like that in our family. We trace back our family trees, our family histories. I read a story the other day where, during this ladies’ luncheon, they had a bunch of socialites gather around at this ladies’ luncheon and tea party. And one lady was speaking up and talking for about ten minutes about her roots, about her ancestors.

And she said, “My ancestry goes back as far as King Henry VIII of England. And my roots are deep. And I come from a pure stock and a good breed.” And she went on and on about her family. Finally, she shut her yap and she sat down. And she looked to a lady sitting over in a corner and asked rather condescendingly, “And, now, where does your family come from? Do you keep track of your family tree?”

And the lady piped up and she said, “Well, you know, I’m not really sure. Most of our family records were lost in the flood.”

But, you know, we’re all looking for that–whether Dad, Grandpa, Mom, Big Brother, Big Sister–we seek out that perfect Being whom we can worship, One who lives up to all of our expectations.

And, you know, if we try to put those demands on anything down here, we’ll just get frustrated. And so will the person whom we put those demands on.

Joe Montana is going to fumble the ball. Darryl Strawberry is going to strike out. And Michael Jordan is going to miss that three-point tie clincher. It’s going to happen. It’s inevitable. Why? They’re flesh and blood.

You know, if you expect perfection from your car, it’ll break down on you. You’ll get mad at it.

If you expect perfection from your body, you’ll run your health into the ground. You’ll be a chiropractic patient forever, if you expect from your body.

If you expect perfection from your wife or your husband, you’ll run them off.

If you expect perfection from your children, they’ll hate you for the rest of your life. The Bible says, “Provoke not your children to wrath.”

God’s the only One who can live up to all those requirements. You dump them on anyone else, and you’ll just become a nuisance. You’ll become a tyrant. You’ll be intolerable.

If you don’t seek out your heavenly Father and put all your expectations on Him, then “ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father, ye will do.” You’ll be one child, or the other. You can have one father, or the other. It’ll happen, whether you like it or not.

And, you know, the devil’s not a fit parent. He’s as a roaring lion, roaming about, seeking whom he may devour. And, brother, when he bites, it hurts. It hurts.

The devil will wait to see what it is you’re most comfortable with, and then he’ll break your heart with it. And he’ll know what it is, because it’ll be the thing that you abuse the most. You’ll pick some person out in your life that you’ll put all these expectations on, which you should attribute to God the Father only, and you’ll expect him to be perfect and live up to those expectations. And you’ll expect him to be just as solid and just as sure and just as steadfast as the Lord God Almighty–and they’ll buckle underneath the burden. And you’ll use him, and you’ll abuse him. And that’s exactly what the devil will do to break your heart.

You know why you’ll use him and you’ll abuse him? Because you think that they’ll always be there for you. No matter what you do, you can go off and you can sin and come back and assume that they’re going to be there–whether it be Mom, Dad, brother, sister, husband, wife, friend, relative, whoever it may be. You can only put those kinds of burdens and expectations on God Almighty Himself.

The prodigal son in Luke chapter 15 had a father like that. He came to him one day and he said, “Father, divide to me the portion which falleth to me.” And the father did so, and the Bible says that he went off into a far country and wasted his substance on riotous living. And then, when drought came upon the land, he joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he was broke, and poor, and he desired to be fed from the husks that he fed the swine. Until the Bible says one day he came to himself, and he said, “I will arise and go to the person whom I have used and abused and dumped on all these years, because I know he loves me, and I know he cares for me, and I know that he’ll always be there for me.” So he got up and he came home. And he had that type of father, which is like the heavenly Father. The father saw him from afar off; he was waiting for him. He saw him from afar off, and didn’t wait for his son to come crawling to him, but went out the front door and ran down the front driveway, out into the sidewalk, into the street. And he met his son coming. And he fell on his neck, and he kissed him, and he wept, and he praised God that the son, which was once lost, is now home, is now saved. He said, “Command the servants to put a ring on his finger, a robe on his back, put shoes on his feet, and kill the fatted calf. My son which was lost is now come home.”

We have a heavenly Father like that. Not like the devil. We should seek Him and His kingdom first–and then all these things will be added unto us.

You know, the passage promises just that. We expect all of these things to be added unto us before we seek the kingdom of God. But we’ve got things backwards. We’ve got things reversed. If we’re not seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then nothing is safe for us. God is not obligated to provide anything for us. We’re on our own. I’m sure God will take care of us as His children. We want certain things, and we need certain things. If we take care of the kingdom of God first, we’re more certain to get them than we are if we didn’t.

It’s like this. I used to work in the oil fields many years ago. And there was a man who occupied the same yard as we did, the same service company as we did. His name was McCamey, we called him. And he used to open McCamey Crane. And he had quite a reputation in the oil fields.

I remember asking one of his crane operators one time about him. His name was Steve Paul; he’s now working for Offshore Crane, if he isn’t retired by now. And I said, “Gee, why is that multimillion-dollar old man so tight with his money? He still drives a ten-year-old Oldsmobile, when he could be driving a brand new Lincoln Continental. And he comes in the yard all the time and checks on it, makes sure the rents there. And he’s real picky. Just a real penny pincher.”

One day Steve Paul was telling me he asked Mr. McCamey, “Mr. McCamey, you must be a millionaire by now.”

Mr. McCamey just kind of shook his head.

He said, “Do you mind answering a personal question from me? How come you’re so tight? I mean you squeeze a penny so hard that President Lincoln cries under the pain!”

And Mr. McCamey said, “You know, if I look out for the pennies, the dollars will take care of themselves.”

And if we seek the kingdom of God–that spiritual, righteous, holy kingdom–then all these things will be added unto us. God will make sure that all these other things are taken care of.