Confirmation Sunday

SERMON

Text: Matthew 6:33

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

In Christ Jesus who is our Savior, whose name we confess, and whose salvation is the salvation in which we live, dear fellow-redeemed, and especially, dear Confirmands:

Everyone is looking for something. You as students coming close to the end of the year are looking for that last assignment and that last test after which you can say, "Finally! The school year is over. Summer vacation is here!" You are looking to complete this year and enter high school. The high school seniors are looking to complete this year and then look ahead to college or look for direction in "what do I do now?" People who are unemployed are looking for a job. People who feel they have an empty life are looking for something to fill it. Everyone is looking for something—and that’s not necessarily a bad thing—but all of us are looking for things to add into our lives or to change about our lives, because in this life we will never be complete. In all of our seeking and looking, Jesus instructs us (and especially you Confirmands this morning), “Keep seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.”

When you were young children, your parents had many things to do in order to care for you. They were seeking many things for your well-being, but your parents were seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness first when they brought you to Baptism. Through that Baptism God washed away your sins, creating faith in your infant hearts, bringing you into His family. You were seeking first the Kingdom of God in all of your studies of God’s Word with your parents leading you and guiding you in that study. Now, you are seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness because you are here, confessing your faith and promising faithfulness to the truth of God’s Word all the days of your lives. But don’t let it stop here. From now on until your dying day, keep seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness first.

The "kingdom of God" and "His righteousness" go together. They really cannot be separated. The kingdom of God is Jesus ruling in our hearts. It is having Him in our hearts as king, having Him in our hearts and lives guiding us, helping us in our decisions, strengthening us, but above all else, forgiving our sins.

Our hearts would not be a place for Jesus to live and rule if our sins were there because He is the holy Son of God. He came and lived a perfect life for each of us and died on the cross to wash away our sins, and yet we would resist that too, if left on our own. We would say, "No, there is no such thing as the Son of God. No, there is no salvation. No, I’d rather go my own way." But Jesus sends His Holy Spirit through His Word to come into our hearts, create saving faith, and thereby make our hearts the place of Jesus' kingdom.

When Jesus rules in our hearts and lives through faith, then we have the righteousness of God. It is not a righteousness that we create. It is not a righteousness that we earn by keeping God’s law perfectly or even as "best we can." It is a righteousness that Jesus had and God gives to us because Jesus is our substitute and our Savior. Paul wrote to the Romans, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:16-17). We have Christ’s righteousness, the forgiveness of sins, and eternal life through faith in Him.

We did not choose this. We do not of ourselves choose to put God’s kingdom and His righteousness first. Jesus told His disciples, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you” (John 15:16). Seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness is something that the Lord has called you to do. He has brought you into His kingdom. Neither you nor I walked into the kingdom of our own accord. Jesus has brought you into His kingdom, so now keep on seeking that kingdom and His righteousness—first!

What does it mean to seek His kingdom and His righteousness first? It means that God and His Word are first in your lives—the first priority. There are so many things to do in life. When you’re young there is energy to do even more things. There are so many things that you will want to do and pursue in the coming years and don’t hold back from being active an involved in many things as the Lord gives you life, opportunity, and ability. But seek first the priority of the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. There are so many things the Lord may lead you to do, so many things He will enable you to accomplish, but those all fit under the #1 priority—His kingdom, His righteousness, your Lord and Savior.

In the coming years you will be deciding what to do for your life’s calling. There will be a great many things that will interest you. There will be people who will say, "Do this or try that" and that’s fine, but seek God’s input first. Go to His Word and hear Him say, "First, see the gifts I have given and then learn how you can serve Me with those gifts." Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and then go forward.

When you have decisions to make you might leap one direction saying, "Oh! I want to do this!!" But first, seek His kingdom and His righteousness. What does God want for me? What is pleasing to Him? Where is He leading me in my life?

All of these things leave God’s Word as the priority—the first place to turn. If we find that something else is trying to gain priority in our lives, we will also find that we are being torn between the two. We really cannot have two "top things." We read Jesus’ words from earlier in His sermon, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24).

Keep seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness, first. Make it the priority because if it slips to a lower place, something else is immediately the priority. It is a lie in the spiritual warfare you discussed last week that would say we can keep two priorities. If we try to have two top things, one of them is going to fall because we cannot serve two masters at the same time. One or the other is going to suffer. Jesus’ Word to you is to keep seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, first!

Jesus once said, “My sheep hear my voice and I know them” (John 10:27). You are His sheep. Seeking first the kingdom of God you have heard his Word. To you—all of you—His sheep, Jesus says, “Keep on seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Amen.

—Pastor Wayne C. Eichstadt

II.

In Christ Jesus, to whom you have now promised your faithfulness in view of His unfailing faithfulness to you, dear Confirmands—past, present, and future:

Pastor Eichstadt has encouraged you to listen to and embrace Jesus’ command to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” He has explained that this means setting proper spiritual priorities—hearing God’s Word regularly, applying it every day in your lives, clinging to your Savior in faith, and expressing your love for Him by loving others.

You have responded in part with your confirmation vows—stating your commitment to God’s truths as revealed in the Bible, and your fervent desire to remain faithful to your Savior with the help of God’s Holy Spirit. While it is relatively easy to stand before your Lord and this congregation and state that you will strive to remain faithful to your Savior, it will not always be so easy to do so in your everyday life! As you stated in your presentations last Sunday—we are involved in spiritual warfare in this life against many and great foes! Satan is indeed “like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8), and he wants to devour you! The world is indeed corrupt and will seek to cause you to be “conformed,” that is molded, into its image—something you will want to resist, as you seek to be renewed and transformed by the Holy Spirit as you use God’s Word (cf. Romans 12:1-2). And indeed you must never underestimate the power of your own sinful flesh. After all, the apostle Paul at one point almost despaired, crying out, “The good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice…. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:19,24). The solution, however, for you as it was for the apostle Paul, is found in the person of your Savior, Jesus Christ. After crying out in near despair, Paul thanks God for Jesus Christ and takes comfort in the fact that “there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1).

My dear Confirmands—past, present, and future—that then is your status. You have the victory in Christ and will not be condemned, but rather welcomed into Jesus’ eternal kingdom, as you with the Spirit’s help walk according to the Spirit—seeking God’s kingdom and His righteousness! Such faithfulness, while it is not achieved without a price, certainly also is accompanied by our Savior’s own promised reward. Therefore, I would encourage you DEAR CONFIRMANDS—LISTEN CAREFULLY TO YOUR SAVIOR! He promises you that “all these things shall be added to you!”

To what is Jesus referring, when he says “all these things shall be added to you”? Is He talking only about the spiritual blessings of forgiveness, life, and salvation, which are ours through faith by God’s grace as revealed in the gospel? The answer, quite frankly, is "No!" In fact, just the opposite is true when you consider the context in which this promise is made. In this portion of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is addressing our tendency to worry about so many of the things pertaining to this life—having enough food to eat, having enough clothes to wear, the shape and size of our bodies. His point is this, that we need not be overcome with worry about these matters.

Our God is a great God—the Creator God, who possesses all power and wisdom. Look at His creation and consider all the plants and animals He created and for which He cares—the grass, flowers, and birds. It is spring in southern Minnesota. The trees have just leafed out and the lawns have gotten green. You can go to any of a dozen greenhouses in the area and walk away amazed at the assortment of flowers—their color, size, and beauty. We have birds of all sorts nesting, mating, and preparing for their young. Jesus reminds us that God provides for all of these created things in ways that are truly amazing. Having noted that, Jesus assures us that we are the foremost of God’s created beings—much more important in His eyes that other creatures. Will He not then take care of us, thus relieving us of any need to worry? Of course He will.

We, however, who are to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7), all too often do just the opposite. We walk by sight—either trusting in large amounts of money we have saved, or getting upset because we have so little. We become stressed when we do not have all the things we want and fail to truly appreciate and thank God for the things that He has so graciously given us. Dear Confirmands—when you are tempted to walk by sight, rather than by faith, recognize this as a sign that your priorities are not where they ought to be. Remember to “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” When you do that, first of all, the many things about which you worry and after which you strive will not seem that important. Then place your trust in your Savior God. He is great, and He is good! He will never forsake you and will always provide just what you need to take care of yourself and the responsibilities He has given you. Jesus has promises this to you, and He will without doubt keep that promise. Go, then, in peace, having promised to be faithful to your Savior, and knowing that He will indeed be faithful to you! Amen.

—Pastor Paul D. Nolting