“What Do You Want?” (Matthew 6:19-34)

Stories of the Kingdom: Part 1

This is the first of a nine-part series of mini-sermons designed to help students reflect upon Jesus’ parables, the kingdom of God, and living as kingdom people.

For most of my life in the church, I was under the impression that action followed from beliefs. If I could simply believe the right things about God, then I would do the right things for God. I spent many years frustrated, however, because it simply wasn’t true. Certainly believing the right things about God is important, and it does shape certain aspects of our character, but I had a foundational misunderstanding of what it means to be human. We are not primarily thinking things; God created us first and foremost as loving, desiring persons. We are created for relationship with God and one another, so it makes sense that what we love would define us more than what we think, but I missed this for years. I’ve been rereading through some of these books lately that helped me understand these ideas better, most written by James K. A. Smith, as well as reading another one of his book, Imagining the Kingdom. Just this past weekend I heard a wonderful sermon where Smith’s work was referenced, and the timing felt right. These are precisely the thoughts that get to the heart of what I want us to explore about the kingdom of God. But before we get there, I want you to get a taste of what I (and Smith) are talking about. In his book, You Are What You Love, Smith begins his book with this provocative idea. Here is what he writes at the end of his preface and the beginning of chapter 1:

If you are passionate about seeking justice, renewing culture, and taking up your vocation to unfurl all of creation’s potential, you need to invest in the formation of your imagination. You need to curate your heart. You need to worship well. Because you are what you love. And you worship what you love. And you might not love what you think. Which raises an important question. Let’s dare to ask it. What do you want? That’s the question. It is the first, last, and most fundamental question of Christian discipleship.  

He is right. We need to curate our heart and shape its loves, but we find out what we love by discerning what it is that we want. “What do you want?” is indeed the primary question of Christian discipleship. 

In Scripture, probably no passage more directly defines Jesus’ thoughts on discipleship than His sermon on the mount in Matthew 5-7. Please turn with me to Matthew 6 briefly, and we will read verses 19-34. [Read Matt 6:19-34]

Jesus tells us in this passage from the sermon on the mount to seek first the kingdom of God. This kingdom is what we should want, what we should desire with all our heart, what we should give our lives for. The question stands before us this morning: Do you seek first the kingdom of God, or do you pursue a different kingdom? Over the next couple months, we will explore some of Jesus’ parables of the kingdom in order to understand what a whole-hearted devotion to the kingdom of God would look like. I hope you will, along with me, humble your hearts and receive Jesus’ teaching in these parables in order to train our hearts to want and desire the kingdom of God above all else. Amen.