Probably most of you know today's verse well. Actually, this is one of my favourite verses. Here is a joke: One person, who was troubled, asked somebody if his spelling was correct. The word was "confused". Instead, he spelled "konfused". So, the person who had been asked point out his mistake. He said woefully, "Such is my confusion!" -- Well, nowadays many people are really confused; the World is going somewhere, in the wrong direction. We, human beings, are getting worse and worse in many ways. However, Jesus encourages us with the verse found in Matthew 6:31: God cares so much for us.

This passage continues in verse 33. All we are to do is seek after the Kingdom of God, this is the "recipe" of God's Kingdom. Now, a recipe is a set of directions that we need to complete something. In making a certain dish, we need to follow a specific recipe. So too, to win the Kingdom of God to ourselves, we need to follow the correct recipe. This is true.

As part of our recipe, I would like to point out that there is a King in the Kingdom of God. He is the King of kings, Jesus Christ. According to Romans 8:22, we are the people living in the Kingdom of God who have Jesus as our king. Here is something we ought to know: as long as we want to live in the Kingdom, we're supposed to have Him on the throne [in our lives] all of the time. He is the king, not we! To seek the Kingdom of God means that we give Him the authority to reign over us, for He is God; who knows all that we need. We are to trust in Him. We are to give Him priority and acknowledge His control over our lives. He is the first one that we should seek after, and that is another part of our recipe...

I used to sing to my daughter when she was still very little, the song: "Jesus is first." (Here, Pastor Hirota sings a little of it, a little off tune though) We must know that there is a rival to Jesus' authority, and he is Satan. Satan tries to stop us from giving Jesus priority. [Naturally, he is Jesus' enemy.] He whispers that we are kings [as he has from the beginning of our creation, in the days of Adam and Eve], but this is truly wrong. We know that Jesus is both King and God. In believing in Jesus that He is our God and our King, He takes the responsibility of being our guarantor, for the Bible tells us that God has said, "I will never forsake you." [See He.13:5b, De.31:6]

Now, we Japanese have long believed in our firm economy and prosperity. But what is happening right now in Japan?? There is nothing in this world that we find we can put our trust in!

Remember this: just like someone who has a field of diamonds, we have something that is truly wonderful and precious inside of us. "We" who believe in God's promises, are the people who are living in the Kingdom of God, knowing Jesus as our King, a righteous person who will never forsake us. Once in a while we tend to forget this wonderful fact, and start to wander around in our lives. But stick closely to the King, that is the recipe; the most important thing for us to do!

Translated by Junko Okamoto - Edited for the Net by Shido
For another sermon see: Oita Evangelical Christ Church
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