Sunday School at 9 am | worship at 10 am

The Kingdom Comes First

Tim Keller is one of my favorite preachers and authors. We have used his materials in Bible studies, small group studies, and in Sunday School. On most Sundays you can find a book or two he has written available in our book nook.

Keller is the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, a congregation he started in 1989. The church now has several thousand in attendance, with satellite congregations throughout the city, making it the largest protestant church in New York. Under Keller’s leadership, the church has planted or has helped plant about 100 churches in New York. That’s impressive. But there’s something about these new church plants that’s even more impressive. Only fifteen of these new church plants are Presbyterian churches. All the others are churches of various other evangelical denominations.

For example, a Southern Baptist minister came to New York City a few years ago with a desire to plant a church. He had no denominational support and he came to Redeemer for help. They coached him in church planting and supported him financially, and now he has the largest Southern Baptist congregation in the city. Dr. Keller’s comment was: “The PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) can’t reach everybody. And besides, he said, we aren’t interested in only growing our church or our denomination, we want to advance the kingdom of God in New York City.” I think that’s a remarkable statement. It’s hard to imagine a church of one denomination helping another. That’s why I’m sharing this little story with you. It’s such a helpful illustration of the kingdom of God.

The Lord says, when you pray, I want you to focus on the things that are most important to God, not what is most important to you. We are self-centered by nature. We seek the things that matter most to us. Our focus is on us and our cares, our concerns, our problems and needs. We put ourselves first. God bless us. Bless our family. Bless our church. Bless our nation. Give us what we need and even what we want.

But as we have been learning in our study of the Lord’s Prayer, our “stuff” is not the proper starting point. It is not the first priority. Prayer doesn’t begin with our concerns; prayer begins with God’s concerns. And God’s top concerns are for the hallowing of his name and for the coming of his kingdom.

At the end of Matthew 6, the chapter where the Lord’s Prayer can be found, Jesus again emphasizes the primacy of seeking the kingdom of God. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you” (Matt 6:33). In other words, seek the things that matter most to God, and he will take care of the things that matter so much to you.