Alright, if you, the Bibles, would you turn with me to Matthew 6 and 33?
And why you do that, I would like to thank God for giving me this opportunity.
And I won't be before you long, I always want to say that.
I ain't gonna be before you long, but I do have something I want to say.
Amen?
Matthew 6 and 33, and it reads, and this is in the New Living Translation,
seek the kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.
Amen?
You may be seated.
So before I get started this morning, I'm looking out in the audience, and I was sitting over there,
and I know it's you Sunday, and I love the youth, right?
That's been my driven purpose.
I taught for a number of years.
And I looked out, and I saw my nieces.
I looked out, and I saw my brother in the back with his grandbabies.
I looked out, and I saw my husband over in the corner.
I looked out, and I saw my auntie.
She traveled here from Chicago, my mama's baby sister.
And on top of all of that, I was so grateful that my family is here,
but when I look out and I see you, y'all are my family.
And I thank God for you being here today to hear what God has to say.
Amen?
Amen.
All right, so in Matthew 6, 33, the question I have is, do you know your kingdom value?
Now, a lot of times when people take Matthew 6 and 33, they want to stick to tell me,
anybody else got a mama like my mama?
Okay, all right.
And I love, and I know her heart's in the right place,
because she really wants God to use me today to minister to His people.
And so with that, do you know your kingdom value?
I want to take this one scripture and give you three parts, okay?
During this time, this was a sermon on the mountain.
And God, I mean Jesus, I'm sorry, was talking to the disciples.
And he was telling them, seek ye first the kingdom of God, and live righteously,
and then I got you, right?
Because he knew he was preparing to go, he knew a lot of things were about to happen,
and he needed these people who were going to be leading this charge to do what they needed to do.
Okay, so there were three things that God gave me.
He says, I give you two commandments and a promise.
I ask you to do two things, and I promise you the third one.
Okay, so let's talk about those three things.
So first, seeking the kingdom of God.
When I looked up the word seeking, it meant to constantly pursue.
And I kept thinking like, okay, well, we used to play hide and go seek when we were younger,
and they talk about seeking and finding, right?
But when you seek, you never quite get there.
Why would God use that word?
Okay, and I want you to remember that because it's going to go in line with knowing your kingdom value.
Why would he use that word seek the kingdom?
He could have picked any word he wanted to.
Why would he use that one?
Okay, so as he was talking to the disciples, he says, seek my kingdom.
And I start saying, God, well, what is kingdom?
What does that mean?
What is the root of that?
How do I get to seek my kingdom, right?
I was born on this earth.
You told me you knew every hair on my head.
You've looked at all these things.
What does that mean to be the kingdom, right?
He said the kingdom is in my hand.
I got it.
I got the key.
I got the answer.
I got everything, right?
So how does that translate?
And I said, God, I got it.
It's your assignment.
So I said, okay, it's my assignment.
When I started thinking about the disciples, they had an assignment.
And if they stayed seeking the kingdom, which was this assignment,
God was going to take care of everything else.
So there will be times where they would have to go to places where it could have been a famine.
But guess what?
Were they going to worry about what they were going to eat?
Because they were on an assignment for God.
Every one of us have an assignment.
And if you're sitting there and you don't know what it is, are you seeking God?
Some of us can show up to church and have been here every single day from the time we were this little
and still don't know our assignment.
Our grandma had one.
Our best friend had one.
Our parents have had one.
You'll see somebody right next to you coming to church when the same time you did.
And they're elevating, going to all kinds of stuff.
And you sit there, sometimes with a jealous heart, wondering,
well, God, where my turn is going to come?
But you're seeking what somebody else has instead of seeking the kingdom.
Because my assignment can't be your assignment.
Now, they line up because God's perfect will ends up.
But there's some things that He wanted Kesha Thomas to do that can't nobody else do.
Because He knows every hair on my head.
He knew I was going to get up the day and put this outfit on.
Now, everybody can't wear it.
I get it.
But Kesha Thomas will, amen?
So you have an assignment.
You have something that God wants you to do.
And I want to put that in your heart today that if you don't know, and it's okay,
don't be even ashamed of it.
Just now seek the kingdom.
God has been very playing on what He wants you to do.
So how do I do that?
How do I seek the kingdom and figure out my purpose?
He says, in every season of your life,
I had a season in my life where I had to be a mom,
and I had to raise my son,
and I had to make sure that he get prepared for the things that he needed to do.
And some of you guys are at the end of that season where you got kids that's about to graduate.
And let me tell you, that's sweet spot when they all know.
You can ask my husband, it's nice.
Okay?
But you got those seasons in your life,
and your season may not be the same season that somebody else is in.
But you have to seek God in your season.
Because even in your season, your assignment is still there.
And you got to sometimes, you be like,
well, why am I going through all of this?
Because God is pruning some things.
He's doing some things in your life because He wants you to understand
that if you go through that, guess what?
You're a little more humble.
Because He may lead you someplace where you need to be humble.
I am taking a class online.
I left the school system in January.
And I took a job with the government.
And everybody would say,
don't you miss it? Don't you miss it?
Don't you miss the kids? Don't you want to go back?
That was a season.
I get up in the morning, get me some coffee, check a few emails,
or I forgot to tell you, I stay at home.
And He paid me more money.
So I said, God, why would I be worried about all of those things?
Because I still go out and mentor kids.
I'm still down at the spot.
I'll see that influence.
That has not changed, right?
But in this season that I am, I'm about to be 52.
I need to slow down a little bit, refocus on some things,
even though my husband may tell you I don't.
But I try to, right?
So when I think about you understanding your assignment
and seeking God, you've got to seek Him in season and out of season.
Because sometimes you feel like, God, are you listening to me?
Do you hear me? Am I going in the right direction?
And I believe that sometimes He'll give you some stuff.
Then He'll take His hands off and say, I need to see what you can do.
It's the same thing when you send your kids off to college.
You have trained them up.
You've got to take your hands off and see if they're going to do what they're supposed to do.
And we're going to get to that on the second one.
So you've got to seek them in everything you do.
Now, when we think about, do you know your kingdom value?
You will know your kingdom value if you know your assignment.
Your assignment that God has put you on may look different at different seasons,
but it's still your assignment.
Okay? For me, I know that I was put on this earth to mentor, to love, and to grow up children.
Particularly teenagers, young adults.
And so I have to be very cautious with that because there are times when other people
try to come over into my assignment and confuse me on some things,
and God said, hold up, seek me.
Don't worry about whether this is going to happen or that's going to happen or how it's going to happen.
I told you, I gave you an assignment.
So in that seeking part, you've got to constantly be on watch.
You've got to guard it up.
You've got to know if God gave you an assignment, he's going to make sure it sees through, right?
Amen.
So after you're seeking, so that's the first thing, he said, seek the kingdom of God.
The second one is, live righteously.
All right.
Live righteously.
So he told you to seek.
That's an action word.
That's a verb. Telling you to do something.
Now he's saying to live righteously.
Anybody out here living righteously?
Anybody attempting to live righteously?
All right. There we go.
Okay.
Because you have to think about what exactly does that mean to live righteously?
That is his way, meaning God, of doing and being right, adopting his attitude and his character.
Now we know we can't be God, but our relationship with God influences our righteousness.
What does that mean?
If I don't have a good relationship with my parents, I could be pretty lawless.
I'd hear doing whatever I want to do.
And anybody who had a relationship and a good parent and you were out because it's going to happen
and you get presented with something that ain't quite right, what's the first thing to come in your mind?
It ain't going like that.
But that's because of the relationship you have with your parent.
Now, sometimes you'll still go ahead and do it.
Let's be honest, right?
Because God know that.
He know you're going to do it.
But at the same time, your relationship that you have with God keeps you righteous.
Amen?
So when we look at the beatitudes in chapter 5, I just want to go over a couple of them
that kind of pushes you into that realm of living righteously.
And I asked Pastor Ford Townsend, Jesus.
Okay.
One says, be gentle.
Sometimes you just don't have to say it.
Keep it to yourself.
What benefit does it serve?
Some people just love to be right.
You will be right and friendless, right and loveless.
But you're right now.
And I'm going to tell the truth and I'm going to do that.
Sometimes it ain't the time for you to do that.
So when you're living righteously, you being a little gentle.
Amen?
Okay.
You hunger and thirst for justice.
You want things to be right.
You don't want to line up with somebody or somebody or something that's doing something wrong.
That's one reason I had to leave the school system because I wasn't lining up with the governor.
But that's my point.
Sometimes you have to understand that justice needs to prevail over everything.
You have to show mercy.
I tell my nieces and all the time I was like, they will be like, she ain't, she this and she got my name in her mouth and she blip-blip.
But you got your name in her mouth.
What we doing?
You doing the same thing.
How are you showing mercy?
Sometimes people need for you just to take one second and to step back and pause.
Even if they're doing something against you.
Because in that moment, God may do something in them that changes everything.
But you get in the way of it because you're going to pop off real quick.
Sometimes you just got to show mercy.
And I'm talking about to those people.
I told you I'm in this training.
And I'm in the training there of five men and me in a group.
And all of the men are military.
They're of the Caucasian persuasion.
And they know everything.
So I tell you how God will work on you with your mercy, right?
I could say, alright guys, we need to look at these blue chairs and this blue table
and make sure it's lined up with the grace there.
This guy literally would say, no, no, no, I mean we need the gray, the gray,
we need the blue chair first.
And he does it all the time, right?
Now, 20 year old and my brother can't contest this.
My husband can't contest this.
20, 30 year old Keshia would have been like, look, bro, I ain't going,
you can be doing this to me more time.
Now, I mean, I'm the only one that's got a little thug in me.
Okay, I'm just saying.
I mean, come on now.
I know Jesus, I mean he has bought me a mighty long way.
We're going to talk about what that looks like.
But it's, I had to endure this for two weeks.
Yes, the other day I told my husband, I said, bang, this guy, right?
So I get off the phone and I'm telling him, but never will this guy know that, right?
Now there are two majors that are on there and he gets to them, right?
As soon as I say something, I say, okay, God, mercy.
All right, your hearts are clean.
What does it mean to have a clean heart?
That means when somebody else is prospering and doing something, you ain't jealous.
When somebody is doing something, you're not worried about how you can get the same thing.
Because the same thing may kill you.
If I am on my assignment and I know the value of my kingdom,
the assignment that God has me lined up for, you could have $10 billion, right?
And it won't affect me.
You got to understand your assignment.
All right, I was talking to my best friend, Felicia,
and we've been friends since we were 14 years old, so almost four years.
And she is totally the polar opposite to me.
Anybody else got a best friend that's totally opposite to me?
People are like, how are y'all friends, right?
And I tell you, she's so meek and humble and she just, and I'm just, you gonna turn up, you know?
So in high school and stuff, it was, you can imagine, right?
So I was talking to her and I asked her, I said, what do you think about value?
She says our relationship.
I said, what do you mean?
She says, in the beginning, we were friends.
40 years later, the value of this friendship makes me want to pick up a phone and call you.
Makes me want to spend time with you.
Make me understand that even when you're having a bad day and you might be taking it out on me,
I need to show you some mercy, right?
So when you think about your kingdom value, how are you treating that assignment that God has you on?
How are you dealing with it?
Are you spending time with God?
All right.
So we've talked about seeking the kingdom of God and we've talked about living righteously.
The last thing living righteously I want to talk about is God's love.
Because they say the greatest of all is, in 1 John 4a, it says God is love.
Can you imagine that if you show love to something, all that other stuff will come with it?
Unconditional love.
Has anybody ever shown somebody just unconditional love?
Like, no, it ain't nothing they can do that will make you not love them.
And when you get to that point in your life where you can share that with other people,
where they can experience that because the things that you're doing in your life is showing unconditional love to them,
don't you think they are changed?
Because it ain't nothing like treating somebody bad and they treat you good.
It's something that happens in you, not in them, when you do that.
So when you're thinking about living righteously, you've got to think about the idea of just loving.
So we love God, right?
We yield to God's love.
When we yield to God's love, our assignment yields to us.
Whatever it is that God has us on, that assignment is going to yield to us.
And what's going to happen as a result of that?
It ain't got no choice but to line up.
And everything I do will serve the purpose of me getting that assignment out.
Everything I do.
When I think about my assignment of being someone who loves and being around kids,
the spot we talk pastor into, he was like, okay, well, maybe I'll sell it.
Maybe I'll do this.
Let the kids have it.
And he wasn't completely sold on it.
I'm going to tell y'all.
And we went through this process where he was like, well, I got to worry about my people
and what they thinking and how they doing this and what y'all doing over there.
What you and kids this and I promise you, if you ever had to do a project with pastor y'all,
I'm going to tell y'all, y'all may think I'm one of his papers,
but baby, it come at a cost.
It ain't easy.
So we didn't have some knockdown dragouts about the spot.
But that was a labor of love for me because it's my assignment.
And I knew that I had to live righteously with it and communing with him
and how he trusts me with them.
When they get up here and like how the kids will talk about what they're learning over there,
I don't have a choice.
I can't be over there not showing grace or mercy or not loving these kids
because when they get up here, they're going to tell you.
One thing about kids.
I used to say that when I get my reviews, when a principal come in and review you,
let you not be right.
You think you're right.
All right.
So do you know your kingdom value?
So lastly, and then I'm going to sit on down,
he will give you everything you need.
Good.
God.
Now, he didn't say won't, even though sometimes it happens that way, right?
But he's going to supply your life will be complete.
It will be fulfilled.
It will be energized.
It will matter and you will matter.
Your impact when you know your assignment and you're doing your assignment
will have such an impact on people.
I'm going to tell you, I go out with Candace a lot.
That's my buddy.
We hang out.
And everywhere we go, we could get breakfast.
Two of the kids died and tall to no.
Hey, Miss Keisha, hey, Miss Keisha.
We'll go.
I was at a funeral thing.
The guy I said, digging.
Hey, Miss Keisha, hey.
Oh, my God.
I was catching a plane coming back here after going and spending some time in Chicago.
The flight attendant.
Hey, Miss Keisha.
So your impact when you are doing what God has called you to do and you own your assignment,
it is great.
She's like, you can't go nowhere.
And my friends tell me, I'll tell you, well, we got somebody, Miss Keisha, but I've been good to people.
I've been doing my assignment.
I've been lining up with God.
I've been living rightly by it or a tenth in most times.
Amen.
Because God ain't through with me either.
All right.
So when we look at all of the things that God is bringing onto you as a result of you being obedient to Him,
I heard this pastor say one time, and I thought it was really cool.
So I want to say it to you guys.
Hopefully I won't mess it up.
All right.
What's two plus two?
What's two times two?
Okay.
So when we are in our lives, living our assignment and trying to make things add up,
it will never be able to get where God wants us to go.
Because while we're trying to add, God is multiplying.
So two plus three is, but two times three is, okay, let God multiply in your life.
Do not allow anything to get away of you seeking Him,
of you living rightly by Him, because He says, I will take care of all your needs.
So when I think about that, did I know at 52 that I would not be a teacher?
Because people say, you're going to walk away from that?
You got like six, seven years, and you'll get that retirement.
I started adding that retirement up.
I said, baby, what Ryan said, I could be out here driving Uber.
But what they, it wasn't worth it.
Amen.
Now, when I can still have that same influence over children,
so I thank God for my assignment.
And it feels good because when you work it in the plan that God has you to do,
when you know the value of your kingdom, of your assignment,
God will line that thing up so good that people will be walking around talking to themselves.
Why are you always smiling?
Because I'm walking in my assignment.
They be like, why are you, why you got so many people constantly going, Miss Keisha, Miss Keisha?
Because I'm walking in my assignment.
They ask me, they say, well, tell me, what is it that you're doing in your life that's making you,
I'm living rightly by God.
I'm seeking help every day, even in my weakness, right?
Because I'm going to tell you this week, I had some weak points.
I was like, Lord, God said, it's okay.
Because I know you and every hair on your head.
So I want to encourage you that you have an assignment that is valuable.
And you got to understand what that means.
And when you do live rightly by God, and when you live rightly by God, he will supply all.
Can y'all say all? All your needs.
So I want to be an encouragement to somebody who's thinking about, should I do that?
Is it my time? Is it my calling?
Should I start that business?
Should I talk to pastor about the calling on my life?
Should I go out and take this new job?
Should I take this kid into my home?
Should I, I mean, all those things that you have been right there, and I mean, God won't let it go.
It's lining up with your assignment.
Stop picking up the phone, asking mama now if you're doing the right thing.
I need you to, I wish I had one of them old babies.
I need you to pick up the word and seek ye the kingdom of God, amen?
So do not worry what the subtitle of it is.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all his righteousness, and I'm going to use this like my mom's saying,
all these things will be added unto you.
And verse 34 says, therefore do not worry about tomorrow.
For tomorrow will worry about itself.
Today has enough trouble of its own.
Amen?
So if I'm seeking God and I'm on my assignment and I'm not worried about all this other stuff,
but I'm allowing God to say, God, this is my assignment, I'm owning, I'm going to keep moving, I'm going to keep doing.
He got you.
Hey, Noah. Good morning.
Y'all know it's here.
All right.
So know your assignment.
Seek God.
Serve in love, okay?
Live righteously.
And remember his promise that he will supply all of your needs.
So I will say this for the last time.
Do you know your kingdom value?
Amen?
I have four pills.