You're with me if you would,
back to Matthew chapter six. Matthew six. I have titled this, A Message for High School and
College Graduates. and this message is for everybody. Every soul on this earth needs
to hear this word from our Lord. Every soul does, but we have
some college and high school graduates this year, and I want
to especially bring your attention to this. There is something that you're
going to be confronted with for a little while. You're going
to hear this question a lot, okay? Now what? You're going to hear
this question quite a bit. Now what? Okay, you've finished
that stage of life. Now, what are you going to do
now? What are you going to do now? The training wheels are coming
off. It's time to ride off into the world. You may not go anywhere
anytime soon. Or you high schoolers, you may
need to stop at college or technical school or something like that
for a minute. But just around the corner for all of you is
career, adulthood, which mainly just means work. If the Lord is willing, eventually,
eventually marriage. A home. Your own home. A place that you make and call
your home. A family. Children. Chaotic toddler vacations. Little league swimming lessons. Piano lessons. Raising teenagers. You're going
to have to raise teenagers. Empty nesters. Grandchildren. Retirement. If the Lord is willing, there's
a lot to come. There's a lot ahead of you. But
here's the question. What is the path to all of that? How do you get there? What comes
next? What do you do now? What do you
do now? Now, what are you going to do?
Our Lord gave us the answer to that. This is the answer for
the moment that you are in. And this will be the answer for
every moment that comes after this for the rest of your life.
Okay. I feel very nostalgic right now. I've been thinking on you all,
all day. All week, actually. And I really pray the Lord will
reach all of us with this, all of us. I'm not only talking to
the five of you, but six of you, including college. But I pray the Lord will reach us
with this, okay? What now? What now? Our Lord
said in Matthew 6, verse 33, He said, seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you. Now again, this is for every
soul here. This is the instruction of God
for every soul here. And I really do mean, I pray
that this will reach all of us. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. What
that means is there is one thing that is needful in life. That's
what it means. There is one thing that is needful
in life. Everything else is secondary. I know it feels like the sky's
the limit to the things that are about to open up to you.
We know that feeling. I graduated too. And you're asking, and I ask
myself, okay, now what? What do I want to do? What do
you want to do? I don't know, what do I want to do? It's a
great big world out there. It feels like the sky's the limit
for everything that's about to open up. But all of these things
in life are just things in life. That's all it is. They're just temporary things
in life. No matter how important to us
they are, they are still just temporary things in life. My marriage to my wife is very
important to me. It's very important to me. I
love her. I love our union. I cherish her
and I cherish our union. But it is a temporary thing in
this life, honestly. I don't diminish our union at
all, but it's a temporary thing in this life. There is something
more important for both of us than even our marriage. The two
of us need to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. That needs to be first in our
list of priorities, including the priority of our own marriage. So concerning the question of
now what? Let's listen to the word of instruction
from our Lord. This is what all of us need to
do. All of us. Verse 33, he said,
but seek ye. Seek ye. Listen, it doesn't matter what
your friends do. Doesn't matter what your friends
do. Everybody's listening in high school, especially. After
you get out of high school, nothing matters anymore. Where are you going to college?
What are you going to do? I'm going to this place. I'm going to this place. It doesn't matter what your friends
do. It doesn't matter what your families do. Seek ye. You seek. You seek. It is a great big world
out there. And I pray God Almighty would
keep you and me and all of us from this untoward generation. You seek. That word seek means
something. It means something deep. It means
something important. You seek. Think about what that
word is saying. You seek. The word means, when
you look it up in the concordance, it means seek in order to find. Have you ever sought something?
Have you ever looked for something, not really caring whether you
found it or not? You open up a cabinet, you know,
and say, see if you can find me, you know, but I don't see
it. I got a hair on my face, sorry. As opposed to seeking something
that you're resolved, you're not gonna stop looking until
you find it. You know the difference in that? Seek. You seek. You seek. Now what are you going to do?
Seek. Seek. It also means, again, when
you look up the word, it means crave. Have you ever craved something? Where you say, I have to have
it. I have to go get it. I just have to go get it. What
is it, ladies? Pickles and ice cream when you're
pregnant? The word seek here literally
translates to worship with desire. It's to desire something above
everything else. It's to say, give me that or
give me nothing. Now what? All right, what are
you going to do now? Here's the answer. Seek ye. It's time. I think that's what
I want all of you to know. It's time. Today is the day. And I don't care how old you
are. I don't care how young you are. Verse 33, he said, seek ye first. First, first, first. Well, I'll focus on career first. No. Well, there is this college that
I want to go to. It's nowhere near the gospel.
No. Well, I'm really interested in
somebody. I think we're gonna get married. He or she's not
a believer, so I'll have to leave the gospel for a while, but no. Well, we're trying to raise a
family. There's just so much going on with the kids right
now. There's no time for anything else, you know. But after all
this is over and everything settles down, then we'll get back. Nope. What do we need to do right now?
Here's the answer. Seek ye first. First. The Kingdom of God. What is the Kingdom of God? It's
Christ. It's Christ. If we don't see
the importance of Christ, if we don't see the value of Christ,
if we don't have a heart for Christ, then pray to God Almighty
that He'll give us one. Show me the value of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Give me a heart for Christ. Lord,
I don't know if I have a heart for Christ. Give me a heart for
Jesus Christ. Give me a heart and a need and
a desire for the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Give me
a need for His broken body and His shed blood. Give me that. That's what I need. The kingdom of God is the gospel
of Jesus Christ. It is the worship of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's the people of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I'm looking at the kingdom of God right now. It's the place where he said
he would be. It's the place where he said
he would meet with his people. It's the place where he's chosen
to put his name there. This is a word to all of us.
Everything in this life is temporary and it will soon end. I know that it seems like, you
know, again, graduation from high school, it seems like, okay,
first step, everything starts now. Here we go. There was a
kid in my graduating class that he made it to the summer. He
went off to the Mediterranean Sea on this big sailing excursion
and the ship went down. And that was it. Everything in this life is temporary.
It's fleeting. It's a vapor. And it's going
to end so quickly. There's only one thing that will
last forever. And it's life in the person and
the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't be lured away by
the husks of this world. You know that story of that son
who, you know, he wanted to go off and see the world and he
ended up in a hog pen eating husks. Don't let anything take the place
of priority above the person and the work and the glory and
the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. I've known, and again,
I know I'm picking on you graduates. I know I'm singling you out.
I don't normally do it to this degree, but I just can't help
it tonight. I have known so many of you for so long now. I do not want to see you leave
the gospel. This is not the only place that
the gospel is being preached, thank God. I'm not saying you've
got to stay right here in this building for the rest of your
life. The Lord knows what He will do with you and how He will
lead you and guide you. But don't let anything take you
away from the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 33 says, seek ye first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness. That's Christ. That's what we
need. That right there is what we need.
Christ is our righteousness. He is made unto us righteousness. I know that you all know by now,
we are so sinful. We are sinners before God. And
if a sinner stands before God, God will kill that sinner on
sight. That's what happened to our substitute
on the cross of Calvary. And outside of him, exactly what
happened to Christ on that cross, that's what's going to happen
to us. The only way we can stand before God is if we stand there
in perfect righteousness. Well, Christ is our righteousness. We need him. We need the Lord
Jesus Christ. We need the righteousness of
Christ. That's our acceptance with God. And God is eternal. The things of God are eternal.
We need mercy in His blood. We need acceptance in His righteousness. We don't need anything else but
Him. Again, I know for a young person,
because I was one. And so were all these old people
too, just like me. It's hard to enter into this.
It's hard to see this. It's hard to get a hold of this.
But if God will be merciful and gracious and willing, He will
reveal to all of us. That's so. That's so. There's only one thing that's
needful. We don't need anything else but
Christ. Let me say it this way. We don't
need a lucrative career. Now what? What are you going to do? Well,
what's going to make me the most money? We don't need a lucrative career.
We need Christ. I know this may sound strange,
but we don't need a meaningful marriage. It's wonderful. I pray the Lord would be merciful
and give us all wonderful believer to believer, meaningful marriages,
but we don't need a meaningful marriage. We need Christ. We don't need the fulfillment
that we think this life will bring to us, but it never does.
We need Christ. We don't need success. We need
Christ. If I'm an absolute failure in
life, but I have Christ, so be it. We don't need happiness. We do
not need happiness, we need Christ. We need the Lord Jesus Christ.
But I will tell you this, I will tell you this, based on the promise
of our Lord, if we have Christ, if we have mercy and forgiveness
in the blood that he shed, if we have acceptance with God and
the righteousness that he earned, we have success. We have happiness. I'm telling
you, happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help. There
are people so successful in this world that are so miserable.
They're just so miserable in life. Happy is the man or the
woman that has the God of Jacob for his help. If we have Him,
we will have meaningful relationships with God's people. These are
meaningful relationships. We'll have a meaningful relationship
with Christ himself, we will. Verse 33, he said, seek ye first
the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be
added unto you. They shall be, that's a promise.
The Lord God does not leave his people forsaken or begging bread.
He provides for His own. He cares for His own. He blesses
His own. If He's willing to feed us spiritual
bread, He will feed us physical bread. He's all that we need. Seek Him. Seek Him. You seek Christ first. I'm talking to you and I'm talking
to me. You seek Christ first. Seek the
worship of Jesus Christ first. Seek the honor and the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ first. Seek gathering with his people
first. And your job will be taken care
of. And your marriage will be taken
care of. And your life will be taken care
of. Not only the life that you live
here on this earth, but the eternal life that is to come with him. It'll all be taken care of. Now,
exactly, we're saying seek the Lord, seek Christ. What are we
seeking when we seek Him? What is it to seek the Lord?
It's to seek knowing the Lord, not just who He is, but knowing
Him. I want to know Him. The Apostle
Paul said, oh, that I might know Him. Seek to know, how do we
know him? Ask, Lord, reveal yourself to
me. Like, now what? What are you
going to do now? Ask the Lord to reveal himself to you. Lord,
reveal yourself to me. To seek the Lord is to seek knowing
the Lord. It's to seek knowing his word,
knowing his will, knowing his way. It's to seek His salvation,
not a salvation that I need to accomplish, the salvation He's
already accomplished. Lord, include me, even me, even
me. Let your blessing be on me. It's to seek His glory in salvation. It's to seek mercy from Him. I need mercy. God be merciful
to me. I'm a sinner. It's to seek grace from Him,
favor and love from Him. What is it to seek the Lord?
It's to beg Him to be one of His people. Beg of Him in your heart to be
one of His people. I don't care if you graduated
or not. Beg of Him in your heart to be
one of His people. If you do, It is God Almighty
who put that heart in you to beg. It is the Father who has
drawn you to come. And if you come to Him and say,
Lord, will you please let me be one of your people by your
mercy and your grace? God promises that Jesus Christ
will in no wise cast you out. I mean sincere of the heart. I need mercy. All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I'll in
no wise cast out. Her that cometh to me, I'll know
I was cast out. Beg of him, Lord, let me be one
of your people. To seek the Lord is to look to
him for guidance. Some of you adults know what
I'm talking about. You know, the flesh naturally
wants to do its own thing, figure out its own thing. And then finally,
the Spirit of God brings us to a place where we say, you know
what? I think I'm gonna turn to the Lord on this. Thy will
be done. What would you have me to do?
You handle this, Lord. Would you just handle this and
let me see what you've been pleased to do? Look to Him for guidance. Call
on Him for guidance. To seek the Lord is to trust
Him. Trust His way. Trust His providence. Trust this
man. Trust this real, actual man. To seek Him is to believe on
Him. It's to bow to Him. It's to see
Him to be all, all and in all. I'm just a sinner, nothing at
all. Jesus Christ is my all and in
all. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness, Jesus Christ the Lord, and everything
else in this life will be taken care of. Everything else in this
life. I was talking to my dad this morning. He was telling
me about a scripture that he was working on for Sunday, for
a message he's going to bring Sunday. And when he quoted it
to me, it blessed my heart so much. And I want to quote it
to you. I want to show it to you. Go
to Proverbs 29. Proverbs 29 verse 25. It says, the fear of man bringeth
a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in
the Lord shall be safe. That's good, isn't it? Whoso
putteth his trust in the Lord, the soul whose trust is in the
Lord, that's a safe soul. Again, the only way that any
of us will be able to do that is if we belong to him. And if
he's given us a heart to do that and given us a desire to believe
on his word and to bow to him and seek him, that's a work that
he does in and for his people. the credit for that work. But
if he has done it, if he's given us a desire to seek him, then
here's the word to all of us. Let's seek him first. Let's seek
him first. What a wonderful, loving counsel
that is from our Lord. Seek him first. Trust him first. I'm almost done here. Go to Proverbs
3. This is also wonderful counsel. from our Lord. Proverbs 3, verse 5. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy
ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Now what? Trust in the Lord. Wait on the
Lord. Seek the Lord. Call on the Lord. Cast your all on the Lord. Hope
in the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy
ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Verse seven
says, be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart
from evil. What's evil? Man, the world. Everything other than Christ. The so-called wisdom of this
world has such a way of stealing the affection of youth. You know,
youth thinks that the world is so wise. Oh, that's old-fashioned
stuff. We got something new over here. Be not wise in thine own eyes,
fear the Lord, depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel,
marrow to thy bones. Honor the Lord with thy substance
and with the firstfruits of all thine increase. So shall thy
barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with
new wine. What do we do now? Seek the good and the gain of
the gospel first. You young people, you're the
next generation. Support the gospel. Men and women
for generations before us have taken up the mantle and you're
coming up behind them. Support the gospel. Support the
promotion of the gospel first. You'll do just fine. Don't worry about the things
of this world. Set your affection on the Lord Jesus Christ and
His blood, the blood of His cross, the redemption that's in Him,
and everything will be just fine. It'll be just fine. Not necessarily
easy. Our Lord never said that life
on this earth would be easy. But in Christ, it'll be ordered,
it'll be sure. and we'll be able to rest in
everything that he brings his people through. Everything. Now, I'm just going to stop.
That's just enough. I was going to go back and read
all those verses in Matthew 6, and we've already said it. The
Lord said, you know, if I clothe the grass, I'm going to clothe
my people. If I feed the birds, I'm going to feed my people.
You don't have to worry about tomorrow. You just dwell on today. You just seek Christ today, right
now. Everything will be fine. Cast
your all on Him. Everything will be fine. Amen. All right.