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See that we have a two time so far. Could you please help us as we look over that word that we'd be able to take something not for just this Campbell from our home too. You think the for the encouragement we've had so far. In his name we pray, Amen.
Luke chapter 12, verse 22.
And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life what you shall eat, neither for the body what you shall put on. The life is more than me, and the body more than Raymond. Consider the Ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, neither have they store houses nor barn, and God feedeth them. How much more are you better than the fowls? And which of you would taking thought and add to his stature? 1 Cubit, If he then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?
Consider the lilies, how they grow, they toil not, they spin not. And yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothed the grass which is today in the field, and to Morrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink. Neither be of doubtful mind, for all these things do the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knoweth that ye have needed these things.
But rather seek ye the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. Till thou ye have and give alms. Provide yourselves bags with wax not old a treasure in the heavens that faileth not.
Where no thief approaches, neither moth corrupted. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meet.
And will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch and find them, so blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the good men of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be therefore ready also, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not.
Stop.
Before His disciples, certain things that He would have them to be free from, in order that they might serve Him in a freer and fuller way. And we've considered a number of them thus far. That there should be free from hypocrisy, and the free of men, and the fear of man, and to be free from covetousness, is which what we had before us last time, and so this little portion here now before us.
From about, umm, verses 22 to about 30 is that He would have us as his people to be free from care or free from worry.
The portion that we are.
Looking at now doesn't tell us that we shouldn't have any interest in our daily things, but it's being free from overly burdened by those daily cares, anxiety. And yesterday we talked about covetousness and how we should be content. And I think there's a connection with that. You know, if we stop and think or ask ourselves why are we so burdened or so interested in the daily things of the world?
00:05:05
Oftentimes the answer will be is because we're not content with what we have. Why do we put so much energy and so much time and effort? Umm maybe in our in our employment, sometimes more than we even need to is because we want to move ahead. And so the two are related. If we are content, if we trust the Lord, if the last verse that we had yesterday was lay up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. If we make that distinction of treasure down here and treasure in heaven.
We will be set free if you live by faith, set free from being anxious about the small things in life and hope, you know, show that, illustrate that beautifully by showing how the Lord takes care of things that are far less value, if we can call it that, than we who are his people.
Stop.
Stop.
Stop.
When the Lord was down here on earth.
All the attention of heaven was focused on that very person. And we see it at his birth, we see it at his baptism. So many times heaven was occupied with the Son of God who was down here on earth while he's back in heaven now. And So what is this the focus, you might say, the attention of the Lord of heaven occupied with now? It's the people that he has bought. You know, it's amazing thing to think about that.
We on this earth are what is most precious to the Lord's heart.
And if we get overly burned with the little things of life, it shows that we really don't understand that, you know, as as parents, we have tremendous care for our children. And we would if our children were always worried about are we going to eat the next meals? You're going to be free to say, don't worry. We'll trust us. There will be a meal on the table. We will take care of you. If you're, you know, grow your clothes, we'll get you bigger clothes. We would say, well, you don't have much trust in us. If that's.
Your constant care. And so if we are overly burdened with the little things of life and feel like we have to.
Control everything and be in charge of everything. We don't really understand how much the Lord loves us and how much He's interested in us and how much He wants to provide for us in all those little things.
Stop.
It's nice to know that, you know, our, our, our resources is God himself and uh.
That it doesn't depend on me or umm, umm, uh, you know, 100%. I mean the, the Lord is our resource and you know, it's, it's, it's interesting. This is, you know, consider the Ravens for they neither sow nor reef, which neither have storehouse nor barn and God feedeth them. How much more are ye better than the bounce? I don't suppose a bird wakes up each day and worries about where it's next meal is going to come from.
00:10:02
Umm, they don't spend much time, uh, uh, worrying about that, I suppose. And so the, the, the creator himself make sure that, you know, they're fed and, and, uh, he's thought of even the smallest and most insignificant, uh, uh, creature, God cares for them. And so how much more do you think he cares for us, those that he has purchased?
By his own blood, we who are the apple of his eye, you know, We who are the Church, his bride, you know. Do you not think, do I not think that he's going to?
Care for, for, for the very smallest needs that I have in this life. Absolutely. Absolutely. He loves us so much and, uh.
And so, you know, these are things that that, as you say, Mark, we can get caught up with and and almost.
In a practical sense.
Uh, lose our umm, uh, lose our perspective.
Very quickly, umm, because we, we uh, almost tend to remove God from the equation and we start putting all our efforts into the things of this life as if it all depended on me.
Whereas we need to turn it over to the Lord. It's not to, I think you've alluded to it that it's not as though we go forth in life being careless. You know, that's not the point. We, we have responsibilities as, as, uh, as men to provide for our families. There's things around the house that need to be done. Uh, you know, uh, for the mothers to raise children and all these things. We don't go through life in a careless way, but the, the idea is that we don't go through life being full of care.
That is being worried. That's not fake, right?
The man who spoke this lifted out, didn't he? We don't know a lot about his no.
We don't know a lot about his life in terms of how he conducted himself, but it does say that there were those that ministered to him. He had faith in God. We see throughout his life that that he did, uh, he lived his life in light of what his father would have him to do. And so he lived this out in a very practical way. The apostle Paul was a tent maker by trade. So what does he say? He says that those that administered the gospel, they should live of that ministry. They should have been.
There were times when he should have been ministered to, and maybe he felt he wasn't, but there were times when he said he took up with his occupation because he didn't want to be indebted. Umm, uh, for various reasons. But it is very good to note that the man who speaks this lived him. He lived it out fully. What we know of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ is that he was a dependent man and he didn't live a life of luxury, that is for certain. He lived a life that was dependent.
Honest Father. And that was looking down the road to, uh, a goal, a purpose. And he lived his life in light of that purpose.
Newest man would like to compartmentalize.
We kind of think I'm kind of good at that. I'm not so good at that. But we can't do that with God. You know, I think everyone here in the room would agree that we have a Savior, God he, and by the word God, the Lord Jesus did. He has done everything necessary for us to be satyrs and we will acknowledge you. There was nothing we can do. But then we seem to so easily like flip around and think that when it comes to our daily life here, now it's up to me and the same God who did everything.
If you might say it in the most difficult thing there was to save us. And Josh talked about that last night. It's a great salvation. That's the very God who wants to care for us every single day. We can't separate that. If God is your savior, he's the one that wants to be your leader, your Lord, and the one that takes care of you throughout your life. And and you know, it's good that we have that balance, too. And there's verses that say if a man does not work, he should not eat. And so it doesn't tell us, yeah, we're safe now. Just expect everything to come.
That's like Josh said, there's a there's a there's a great difference between being diligent.
Being active, being working and being anxious, being worried all the time and not being able to grow spiritually because you're so overcome with those cares of the world that you can't go anywhere. You're captive to your circumstances down here. And so the Lord doesn't want that We're set free to serve him. And later it on, later it says that we need to seek the Kingdom of God first. And these things that the things we talk about now, this cares the daily needs and so on. Those will come they, they will be taking care of. We need to trust the Lord.
00:15:25
For that too.
In verse 30 and 31, you begin to see the contrast. Mark the contrast in the middle of verse 30. I'll go ahead and read it. And your father know it that ye have need of these things, and marks the Congress in verse 31. But rather seek ye the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. And this can truly serve as a comfort.
A comfort to our minds that we have a God.
Who knows our our very existence and our very needs in them. And umm, yes we can. They can serve as a comfort to our to our minds.
It's been said that worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere. And what it really does is it steals our present joy. It doesn't improve the future, but we lose our present joy. And I think a lot of times when we're worried ultimately, and I was just thinking about this and maybe there's a lot more to it, but ultimately we're afraid. We're when we're worried, we're anticipating future pay. It's anticipated pain. And like you were just saying, Jonathan.
When we realize that, we remember that the Lord loves us and everything we're going to face is for our good and for His glory. Now, I'm not talking about if if you drive your tires too long, you're going to get a flat tire. That's not the Lord's fault. You did that to yourself. I'm not talking about something like that. But as long as we're in communion, we're not doing something stupid. Whatever we face is going to be for our good. It's going to be for our blessing. And so I know a lot of people that get up in the morning and they take their cares to the Lord.
Let's not worry we can get up in the morning we can say Lord this is what I'm facing as parents as a business owner as a you know employee whatever and say Lord this is what you know this is what's going on and tell them all about it and leave it with him Lord it's your deal because in all reality we're not in charge and that's totally sets us free.
Is that maybe the thought man in verses 2526?
Which of you taking thoughts can add to his stature 1 cubit if he then be not able to do that thing, which is least why take your thought for the rest? We're not in charge, as you say, you know, we can't control things and we like to get into that position where we want to be in the driver's seat, right. We want to go through life and and we want to be in control of our. They say control your own destiny, right. Well, again, that that's a far cry from, you know, taking up with responsibilities of life, but then then trying to control.
My life that's taking God out of the picture. And we ought not to do that. We cannot control the smallest thing in our life if we're honest and, and, and, and, and, uh, again, if we're just honest with ourselves, we can't control a thing, you know, So we got to turn that over to the Lord and these, these practical things that we're bringing out the cares of life, uh, God providing for our needs. Umm, he's in control of that.
I'm reminded of what uh.
Because the pulses in second Timothy 2 verse four, he says no man that warth entangleth himself with the affairs of his life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And like was already mentioned, we can entangle ourselves or over involve ourselves in the cares of this life because we have a sense of responsibility and it's good to be responsible. Christians on the 3rd umm. But as Matt mentioned, if we are over involved or entangled.
It's gonna come at a cost. We're not gonna have the full joy that the Lord would have us to enjoy. Like John says, these things we write unto you that your joy may be told. And umm, Mark mentioned earlier that there are pleasures that God has. God finds pleasures in certain things. And umm, there's a verse in this regard in Psalm 36, umm, verse eight, it says they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house.
00:20:04
And thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
We're, umm, we're denying ourselves the enjoyment of God's pleasures if we're a little too wrapped up in the cares of this life. And, uh, I'm also reminded of Jacob. Jacob was.
Someone who really wanted to try to control his own destiny. And he was a pretty smart person probably. And he was always working, always conniving, uh, oftentimes at the expense of other people just to, to, to leverage himself. But I enjoy what Jacob says at the end of his life. He says it is enough. It is enough. It was never enough for Jacob. He always had to have more, more animals. He always had to have more wives. But he got to the point where he says.
It is enough.
You know, marketing people.
To try to sell their products.
Use 2.
Key points to stumble US number one is greed and #2 is fear.
We need to.
Buy.
Their products, whether it's credit cards.
Or.
For over insurance.
Because of greed or fear, we believe that we deserve more than what we have or we act out of fear and we want to make sure that we have something there just in case of an emergency. And those are the the two things that really enslaved us. It reminds me of several verses here if we go to Proverbs 22.
Verse 3A Prudent man foresees the evil. Other translations say the danger and hideous himself.
Then we could go to Proverbs 31.
There's 21. She's not afraid of the snow for her household, for all of her household. All her households are closed in scarlet. You can read more in Proverbs 31 about the preparations that she takes to prepare for the dangers and the hardships that might be ahead. And, and there, of course, she doesn't have any fears. So there's a balance, right? There's a balance. So there is dangers that are gonna come forward.
One man says that.
We all need to have an emergency fund because.
Someday or a rainy day fund, because someday it's gonna rain. We could be positive that there is gonna be some hardship. There is gonna be some disasters that that we face and encounter. There's there's gonna be some loss that we're gonna come across and it's OK to prepare for that. But we shouldn't do so out of fear.
So maybe probably 31 we see the the benefits of these repairs. It allows us the the freedom to be generous. She stretches out her hands for the poor and the needy.
How is she able to do that? She prepared, she was prepared and ready. So some of our preparation is to help others that are in the.
So we should never make our decisions based upon greed or fear.
Perhaps a little, umm, nature example for the children we have out our way out here in Eastern Washington. We have a bird called Magpies. Anybody know what Magpies are? Oh yeah, a few hands, very pretty bird. And, uh, a very, very intelligent bird as well. And, uh, since we've lived out here for 10 years, I've observed Magpies because they are very intelligent, they're very pretty, but they are always on the move.
00:25:22
They're a scavenger bird and so they're always on the move looking for their next meal. Now, are they fearful? I don't believe they're fearful. They are working constantly. But what I've noticed them doing too is that they are storing their food. So there if we have Grapevines Vineyard next to us and they take their food and they fly into the vineyards and they must tuck it away in some nook and cranny because winter is coming and winter comes and there isn't any food available. They know they can go up and down the grapevines.
Look in the nooks and crannies for the pieces of dog food they may have picked up along the way or the other stuff that they gather up. I don't know what all they gather up. They are a quite a pest. But one thing they are, they are intelligent and they're always working, you know, and, and listening in two of the verses that were read here earlier and uh, verse 30, it says, and your father knoweth that you have need of these things, but rather seek ye the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. You know, it's very apparent We today walk and we have two economies ahead of us here.
We have the economy of this life whereby we have to buy and sell, we have to go to the grocery store, we have to maintain and keep tires on our vehicles. There is there, we have to provide for the family and we have to work to do that. Then the other economy is, is what could we say is God's economy, right? He's got an economy and He has worked for us to do for him there as well. The problem is, is that the balance can go to one extreme or it can go to the other extreme, OK.
Because there is, uh, a prominent extreme of, of taking up with the earthly economy to such a point being consumed with it that we're not concerned with the heavenly economy, God's economy that he's looking for in the long term. And then a few examples may come to mind of those that have given up all their earthly stuff, if you will, to the detriment of their family and have sought after God's things. But for children can continuing on for the Lord. There isn't, there isn't that following. They've been consumed.
With God's economy to the to an extreme, if I may say that so it's important to have a balance to understand there is earthly economy that we deal with today and there's a heavenly economy that we deal with. You know what it says here in this verse is here it says for your father knoweth that you have needed these things. He has a treasure house. Isn't that beautiful? He's got a treasure house and he's willing to open up that treasure house. You know, there's a missionary story that has been with me for the last 25 years or better probably 30 years. I heard ago, I heard this missionary story. This missionary was in the United States.
And his wife was sick and he was at a hospital and his, and he was on his way in the elevator heading up to the department, the billing department and he had no insurance. And he gets in the elevator and somewhere along the way someone meets him along the way and said, brother, what are you going to do? Because he's going to have to go up there and pay the bill. His wife is sick and they're from another, they're on stateside from the other country.
And he said in the elevator, he said, my father owns a cattle on 1000 Hills and he gets off the elevator at that floor and there's a man waiting with an envelope.
You know, you can go down to other missionary stories where there is a certain kind of faith that they realize you take out what's his name, Mueller back in England many years ago, 100 plus years ago, sitting down to a table full of kids with no food on the table and giving thanks for the food that's not there.
And tell what was it the bread truck or somebody broke down outside the house and the table is loaded with food. And so these ones, if you could say that our walking they have an understanding of God's economy, God's treasure house waiting to open up. And yet to the visual eye when that guy that missionary was heading up to pay the bill. He had no way that was going to do it. But he knew his father owned a cattle on 1000 hills and that Mueller sitting down to that table with those children around the table and the orphanage. I believe it was giving thanks for the food that wasn't there.
Knew somehow that God was going to prepare it anyway. It speaks to my heart because we have to walk in two economies, if you will. There is a heavenly economy that we have to keep mindful of, an earthly economy at the same time.
00:30:10
In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that betrothed one upon another.
He began to say into his disciples first. That's the first verse of this chapter that we took up with down here where we're speaking verse 22. And he said unto his disciples. So he's speaking to, there's a multitude out there, but he's speaking to his disciples. He's speaking to those that have faith. And then I really enjoy what you just said. Mark, just read a verse.
Well, it's verse 22.
Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat, neither for the body what ye shall put on. The light is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. The focus here is the light. It's the light that God gives. It's the body. It's the body that God gives. Don't we don't need to focus?
Again, we're looking at, as Mark says, the two economies, but.
Our focus.
Should be on the life and on the body. Those things that God has given, He will provide the raiment and the meat to to meet the needs.
Stop.
In verse 27 it says, Consider the lilies, how they grow the twilight, and they spin not yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
And.
It's really interesting in science. Everybody thinks that science is at odd with God.
There's science speaks of evolution and it speaks of all these things and, and science can become a religion. They come to the wrong conclusion because they start out with the wrong assumption. But when you look at all the things in science, they all speak of a creator. We just did some work in our house. And if you look at it on the outside, you might say, wow, that looks pretty good. But you don't have to look very carefully to see that I'm not a professional painter like Uncle Mark. There's flaws, and the closer you look, the more flaws you see.
And that's true in an automobile. You look at a brand new automobile, it looks beautiful. But if you look at it really super close, there's little teeny flaws. I'm sure you know, you look at a tire, whatever it is, you look at a skyscraper, it looks beautiful, but there's little mistakes in it. But The thing is, when you look at creation, you look at a flower and you look at it and you magnify and magnify and magnify and magnify. It's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful when you look at a cell, a cell.
You you get clear down to the electron microscope and you look at all the pieces that are working precisely together. It's amazing.
And that's what he's saying. Consider the lilies. They they don't. They don't work.
How they grow, they toil not. They spin out their growing. I guess that's their work. They're growing all the time. They take the sunshine and they turn it into energy.
But Solomon, in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. And there's stuff like that all around us. You look at the, the birds, like Uncle Mark was saying. You look at the, you know, how do these animals make it through the winter? We still go to the store all the time. The Lord's provided for him.
And his his work all around us speaks of his glory. In verse 28, it says, if then God so glowed the grass, which today is in the field, in tomorrow's cast in the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith. And that talks about doubting, doubting the goodness of God. And when we remember that the Lord Jesus came for us, every single one of us can say the Son of God who loved.
Me.
And gave himself for me. And when we realized if we were the only one here.
On this earth, the Lord Jesus would have come and died for us. Think about that, kids. The Lord loves you so much, He couldn't love you any more than He does. It's not possible.
And somebody asked me one time, do you have a verse for that? I said yeah, that he would come even if there was only one. He, the Son of Man, came to seek and to say that which was lost.
00:35:08
If there was only one of us, if I was the only one, if you were the only one, the Lord Jesus would have come and paid that price for you.
It's interesting that this expression.
Leaping through Matthew's gospel to find, uh, this expression, oh ye of little faith. And it's interesting and I'll leave it to you to look it up, but I think it's mentioned four times in Matthew and there it all has to do with care, doubt, reasoning and divine things and worry.
And you know.
It, it touches my heart, I, I see myself in that so often, you know, and the enemy of our souls wants to plant. He always does, from the very beginning, that seed of doubt in our minds.
Doubting what the goodness of God towards us.
And that's, uh, he, he wants to get into our minds and to 'cause this doubt or this fear, this worry, uh, he wants us to question divine things and, and, and his word, umm, go through Matthew. It's an interesting little study and, uh, it's very instructive, but we need to, uh, we need to be vigilant when it comes to these things because the enemy.
Umm, he, he's a great deceiver and all it takes is him just give planting that little seed of doubt. What I think, what I, my point is is that let's never doubt the goodness of God. Uh, he is for us. He loves us as Matt has been bringing out.
And and we have all the resource that we need in himself and he is all powerful and fully able to take care of the very smallest thing. As we've been pointing out, even the birds of the field, let's not doubt his fitness towards us.
May add to that too, that on a spiritual sense for those that are the younger teenage or the in the 20s or even in the 30s, there is a going back to what you're saying, Josh, what would you say? The very first question given in Scripture is half God said, right? The deceiver himself says half God said. And the issue today we're seeing, we're seeing some unique or some, uh.
Some, some, uh, doctrines, if you could call it that are coming up right now again, that have been recirculated. Satan has recirculated in, in centuries past. And the thing that it always entails is this half God said. And every time you look into one of these things that might be floating by and many believers are getting caught up with these things, is it takes up with questioning God's word here, questioning particular words, questioning what the meaning is in that context, and then also quoting from others outside of Scripture that are, it could be, uh, it could be Josephus, it could be Constantine, it could be whoever.
That thinks themselves as an expert on the Hebrew language or the Greek language or whatever. And in doing so, they are strayed completely outside of the word of God. And then a complete doctrine is being formed around what is being said. And so it's just being clear to me that if I stay within the boundaries of the front page of this Bible and the back page of this Bible, I can now have a conversation if we decide to use this as a, as a, a foundation in which we can have a discussion about what you just brought into this picture.
Because to me, it smells a whole lot like half God said to me. And if we're gonna stay within the scriptures, I can help you there or we can work together. But if you decide to bring into these other things, I cannot help you. Because all scripture is given by inspiration of God. And I'm sorry, but Constantine or Josephus or whoever else you're gonna quote, or even Darby or Macintosh, whatever, are not inspired. They're not God breathed.
So it's very important because there is things coming at young people right now and I've certainly looked at it. And fortunately, if you get your roots down on the Scripture, you'll say, well, this smells different, but I don't know what it is. At least you know, but there's too many that don't know their scriptures and they don't take the word of God as infallible. And because of that, there are many that are getting the strayed right now.
00:40:19
So when he says that umm verse 30.
And our building factor, Jonathan had had pointed this out. Uh, he says for all these things to the nations of the world seek after and your father knoweth that you have need of these things does not bother imply relationship and care and love doesn't say God knows Now he says your father knows and it's important to to note those the way in which the spirit of God.
Uh, hence his word. Because there is such deep meaning in Father, isn't there?
When he spoke about the Ravens, it says God feedeth them. When he spoke about the grass, it God closed the grass, but now he speaks about us. And it's that all that same power is at the disposal of the Father. But there's a relationship there. And it's beautiful to see that God takes care of this whole creation. He's in control of it, He sustains it. But now he's going to talk about us who belong to Him. It doesn't like you say, it doesn't say God.
Knows these things, of course God does, but it's the Father. It's that close relationship. I think that's beautiful to see that and there's no less power and fodder, but it adds the intimacy to relationship. He cares for each one of us.
And so if all the nations care about these things.
We need to realize that we're the special people. We run out of different track and Mark did say there's this world economy that we go through and we need to go out to work and so on. But that's not our main occupation. That comes as part of what we are here in the 1St place and we'll start getting that from verse 31. Seek you first the Kingdom of God and so.
If a Christian lives the way he wants to live, he's going to be very.
Separate or he's going to stand out from the world. And let's turn to coercions, Chapter 3.
Is a very interesting verse there Colossians 3 verse three. The second-half is your life is hid with Christ and God. So what motivates the Christian is something that the world cannot understand its head. Why? Because the Lord is hid. And I think that's why it says seek the Kingdom of God. And the Kingdom of God is something very real that it's not manifested yet, but we need to seek it. We need to live according to the moral order of that Kingdom.
You know, when the Lord reigns here, you won't have to seek the Kingdom. It will be very obvious. It will be right there. But now, in the time we live, we seek to live according to that order that God has instituted and that pleases God. And the world doesn't understand it. Our life is hid with Christ. Where is he? He's in an invisible place. We can only see the Lord by faith, not by our physical eyesight. And so the nations go after the things that they can see. That's what man is occupied with. And even in Judaism, everything that was connected with their worship was.
Affected the census. It was tangible. You could smell it, You could hear it. You could see it.
So we will stand out from this world. What motivates us, what our objectives are. If we walk according to the Word of God, we will be separate from the world.
And if our hearts are consumed in fear and of course, in the context of moderation and all that's already been said, if our hearts are consumed in fear and, and what we're going to be eating the next day, our hearts focused on him. Our hearts focused on his glory and giving the glory to himself and.
00:45:04
As our hearts turn more towards himself, we will find our fear diminishing. And as the song puts it, umm.
How? How does this go?
Umm, I can't, I can't quote the song exactly, but umm, yeah. As our hearts turn more towards Him and on our backs turned from this world, our hearts will diminish in fear and become more focused on His things.
With regard to the Father's provisions for us.
Is there a difference between blessings and mercies?
Is one more umm, eternal in nature and the other more temporal in nature? Maybe someone could clarify a little bit? Not to split hairs or anything, but might be helpful.
I believe that's right, Caleb. You know the verse in Ephesians 1/3 was already quoted in the meetings, and we've been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ.
And so we don't.
Get more blessings, their eternal in character and their spiritual in character, and the only thing we can do is enjoy them more. But then the Lord in his care He provides all these mercies and mercies have to do with the earth and their temporal. So they're really not the same. And we always say what a blessing of the Lord, but really when a person believes he has all his spiritual blessings, even when we get to heaven, no more are going to be added.
We will be able to fully enjoy them and so umm. But mercy is our temple and character. It's not something we take with us to heaven.
Mercy, mercy has to do with, with a need, right? And umm, one is that mercy is, is great in the greatness of the need, umm, whereas grace, on the other hand, magnifies the giver God, right? There's the difference, umm, And so mercy umm, basically spares me from what I do deserve typically.
And none of us can claim that we deserve anything, really.
In the in the grand scheme of things, but God in his mercy comes in to meet our need. And whenever you see mercy in Scripture, it's usually in connection with with a need of some sort, right?
And you would, wouldn't you say that the mercy?
The mercies that we experience day by day is something that the world.
Experiences but doesn't appreciate so a lot of these things has more to do with perhaps our acknowledgement of what God has done or what he is doing day by day, just as we have in in the first chapter of James it says that every good gift and every perfect gift.
Is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow turning. And that's not dependent on my ability to receive my worthiness to receive the gift. It's just his, his goodness and giving. But we are called to acknowledge that.
In verse 31 here, it speaks to the Kingdom of God and I've understood it this way and I I'd like to have help that the king is in heaven and there's a a sphere in which we live. We can't see him.
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But he, he's in charge and a lot of people speak about the government of God and it's a negative, it has a negative aspect and it has a positive aspect and.
I think the easiest way to think about it is the principle of sowing and reaping. We're gonna reap whatever we sow. And the law of the harvest says you always reap more than you than you planted. And I just want to share this story and probably everybody in this room has heard it, but this is my example. There was a a young man that went to work for this guy who owned a mercantile store back in the Old West. And they had to sort all these things. Not everything came in a box like at Home Depot. They would buy a bucket of nails or whatever, and then you'd go in and buy.
10 nails or a pound or whatever. And he sent the kid into the storeroom and he said I want you to count all this stuff. And he went through and he counted and there was money in the bottom.
The store keeper had put money in there to see if the kid was honest.
And he dug through there and he sorted all the nails by size and by weight and everything. And he came to him and he said, here's your here's your nail, Sir, and here's this money.
And the storekeeper said, oh, that's really nice. That's really cool. And that guy ended up being the next owner of the store, you know, in time. But there were all these people that he had hired that one of two things happened. They were lazy. And they worked for a while. And they're like, man, this is lame. And they went and went to go do something else. Everything in this life is work, and it's supposed to be. And there's blessing in work. Work was before the fall. OK, We're going to work by the sweat of our brow.
There is, you know, there's a challenge that's connected with it, but it's a good thing, OK, we're supposed to do it helps us have a sense of accomplishment in our lives. The second thing is, the first one is being lazy. The second one is people who aren't honest.
There are people in this world that see an opportunity to cheat and they take it.
The Lord puts that in our path when we have it. The devil is trying to trip us up. He wants us to fail and disgrace the name of our Lord.
But the Lord allows us to be tried so we can pass the test. That's the point.
That we passed the test, we're going to get promoted.
Maybe not, you know, maybe we won't become the manager or whatever, but in the in the Scripture, oftentimes when you see a trial like with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, like with Daniel, after the trial, we get promoted as part of the process in God's school. So we need to be faithful. It says he that is faithful and little is faithful and much. We got to realize that there's a Kingdom that we live in. We have a responsibility in that.
Can we go back to that? I enjoyed that statement. I think Mark you, you pointed out about God being referenced where there is the natural sense of things. And then the father being referenced in, in verse 30, you know, and it's been I've enjoyed that too, and probably certainly many others here in the room. When the Lord Jesus was on the cross, he says, my God, my God, why thou forsaken me because of the fact that he was taking on the sins of the world and and he was in a situation where he could not call him father.
Because he was facing a holy righteous God. However, at the end of his time on the cross there he says, father, I commend my spirits in thy hands. He was back to acknowledging him and his father. You know, it occurred to me that you know, often times we pray and and I think it's correct. Is it not to say our God and our father because it it it has both aspects to him is he's God overall. He's God because of of who he is and his his well, we see right here from a natural sense, he has the authority.
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But then there's the Father from the relationship side of things as well. And often times you hear other believers pray in other ways and I and I think we're missing. They're missing if we don't say our God and our Father because of that two attributes that he has in that sense.
People that just acknowledge him as God. There's a distance there.
Is usually like an austere being and we better be careful because he's ready to punish us. But then there's the other side of the ditch. They just see him as Father and there's no respect for who he really is. And so if we have them both, we have them as God, what he is and all his attributes. But that very God and his wonderful loving grace, desire, relationship with us to become our Father. You stay in the middle of the road, if you want to call it that. So yes, we can totally enjoy him as our Father.
Realize that His care is the care of a loving Father, that it doesn't take away any of the dignity of who He is as a holy God.
I think we need to be careful in, in, uh, judging somebody on, on how they pray. I pray very different. I, I pray and I just say Father and I, I do that.
Because of a verse and I can't remember exactly where it is, somebody could probably find it. It says a father to the fatherless is God in his holy habitation.
I I view my relationship with God in a very different way. Everything that I have comes from Him. I have no man on earth to meet my needs, so I go straight to God and I say Father.
And I take them up on that.
He said Father to fatherless is God and his only habitation.
And I think, I think when you look at the the.
Concept of the fatherless. I think it goes beyond just being a natural orphan, I think.
There there can be failure in the home.
And and I often point children that if they see a failure in their Father, that God is faithful and he's merciful and he will meet those needs, that that Father in the whole may not be meeting that he should. There's a resource. God never forsakes anyone.
And if if there is a father in the home that is not bringing his children up in the Word of God and the nurture and admonition of the Lord, children have a resource. They can go straight to God because that's his heart.
In verse 32 it says, fear not little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. And I would say that the Lord wants to give us more than we want to receive.
We see something with our eye and we say I would really like to have that.
But the Lord in his heart, and he's good, like our dear brother just shared, He wants to bless us. And I'm not saying he wants to make everybody in here a millionaire. That's not the point. He wants to bless us.
He wants to. He's given us all spiritual blessings. He's given us a relationship with himself. We're indwelt by the Spirit of God.
We're accepted in the beloved and he wants to provide in a marvelous way for our needs, our physical needs in this world. So many people feel they read that verse, Psalm 37. Four, delight thyself in the Lord and he'll give you the desires of thine heart. They think, well, if I give up what I want and I just, you know, the Lord is going to make me desire to eat grass or whatever, and that's what he's going to give me.
That's not what the verse is saying. That's not what the Lord wants to do. There's a story about a man who is a missionary.
And he really longed for this nice house and he went out to the mission field and he came home and he just really prayed. Oh Lord, man, I just, I want this big house. He, I don't know why. Maybe it was pride, maybe it was, I have no idea why. But later on in his life, his kids grew up together. It was a really tight knit family because they all shared the same space. Nobody had their own room.
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And he said when his kids grew up, he got down on his knees and he said, thank you, Lord, so much for not giving me what I wanted, but for giving us what we needed. And brethren, when we go before the Lord and we say, Lord, I want this, we need to say if that's what you want to give me. Because brethren, we can't see around the bend in the road. We can only see just a little teeny piece. He can see all the way home. So we need to surrender our will to his and say, Lord, if that's what you want me to have.
That's what I want for. As for God, his way is perfect and he wants to bless us. There was a man I knew and he told me this story. He wanted this camper so bad. And he felt very clearly that the Lord told him, no, this camper is not for you. No, no, Lord, I want this camper. It was, He just had it all envisioned how much fun he was going to have going camping and everything. And the Lord said, no, the camper is not for you. And he's like, no, Lord, you don't understand. And he bought that camper and he said from the day he bought that thing, he couldn't wait to get rid of it.
He went to pick it up and there was something wrong with it and he finally got it and loaded up and he got it home and there was something else wrong with it and they took it on the trip. And there it didn't work out like he thought. And he ended up selling that thing. And he, you know, through the experience, he wasn't really thinking about it. But when he got all done and he finally sold it, he breathed a sigh of relief and then it hit his conscience. You know what? That's why the Lord said this is not for you. Does He know what we need? Does He know what we like?
Yes. Does he love us? Yes. Does he delight to bless? Yes. Are we able? Are we willing, I should say, to just stand before the Lord and say, what do you want me to have? I don't want a penny more. I don't want a penny less. Lord, I want exactly what you want me to have. That is the path of blessing. It's a path of joy. It's a path of peace. It's wonderful, sincere that it is his good pleasure, Right.
What you say, man, it's so good that.
You know God is a giving God. I think of the woman of Samaria as well and the Lord says if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink thou which the vast of him, and he would have given thee living water. In essence, he's saying, if you only knew God is a giver and our God is a God and a Father who loves to bless and give as Matt has been bringing out, but he loves to give us those things that are for our good.
And has been already expressed. We don't, we can't see the end from the beginning like he can. And so we need to trust him that, you know, he will provide all those things that are needed. And, uh, too often, and I speak for myself, I might ask for things and I'm thankful that I may not get them because it says that I might consume it upon my own lusts. And, and it's, it's a mercy of God.
When he says, no, I'm not gonna give you that, I'm not gonna give you that, but I can, I can rest assured that He's gonna give me what I need and what's for my good. And I think of that verse also that says that He has given us all things that pertain to what life and godliness, and we can rest in that.
I think we're out of time, brethren.
Closing Prayer Blessed God and our Father, we give thanks that thy heart is towards us because He thanks for providing for our earthly needs. But more importantly, we can give you thanks for giving us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. So we just ask the Father to keep our souls on course. We ask you to restore our souls through Thy grace.
When needed, we just commit our way to Thee for this day, and we ask for safety as we go about the various activities. In the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen.