Sermon Intro

Week Of: March 22, 2021
Speaker: Pastor Will Hagenbuch
Scripture:

Lent, Day 29, March 22, In Matthew 6:33, Jesus says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Lent, Day 30, March 22, In Matthew 6:33, Jesus says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

 

Some could think that one of my foster daughters has selective hearing. This is not true. What is true is that at times she seems as if she is not listening, and what we’ve learned after significant testing is that she has an auditory processing issue. She has come a tremendously long way in the 11 months she has been with me fulltime. I share this because this soon to be seven-year-old honestly gets what Jesus is saying here. Want what the Father wants, and then you’ll get it.

This little angel of mine (who is not ALWAYS angelic, imagine!) has had communication complications for her entire life. I think this speaks to how she comprehends this message from Jesus. It is because she watches more than participates. Having had the issues she has experienced in her past, she can still see herself as a side player, one on the margins. We work on this, but truth be told, she can be a spectator in her own life.

As someone with spectator-entrenched hardships and hardwiring, she knows how life works. More specifically, she knows how systems work. What makes this rainbow-loving angel have wings is when she moves—actually, flutters might be a better verb—to the light, God’s light.

This may be true for you, too. As hard as it is sometimes, we are hardwired to move to God’s light. We who say we are blessed know we are blessed because we gave our agendas for God’s. My soon to be seven-year-old certainly can’t yet say why or even how she flutters to God’s light, but when regularly asked at dinner table what is thankful for, nine times out of ten she says, “Jesus!” with a great spark.

TRY IT: Seek God first. Seek God always. And then what we want? Wow. That’s far different than what the world tells us we want, or even what we tell ourselves we want.

PRAYER: We may or may not call ourselves rainbow-loving angels, but dear Heavenly Father, like this angel pictured, watch us fly to You and Your light. Amen.