The Pressure of Material Blessings

Transcript

GRM 818
11/17/2002
The Pressure of Material Blessings
Matthew 6:19-34
Gil Rugh

We’re going to look into the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5, 6 and 7 is what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. We’ve been talking in Acts about the ministry of the Apostle Paul and saw something of his focus. And even as close friends tried to deter him from continuing his path to Jerusalem because only heartache, imprisonment and suffering awaited him, he said his purpose was set and he was determined to finish his course and even give his life if necessary. We see something of that focus of life brought to our attention in a portion of the Sermon on the Mount that I want to look at with you.

But look in chapter 5 first. It’s called the Sermon on the Mount simply because Jesus went up on the mountain, sat down and then began to teach his disciples. And that block of message covers chapter 5, 6 and 7. Begins with the Beatitudes, the blessings. “Blessed are the poor,” “blessed are those who mourn,” “blessed are the gentle”… What He is doing in the Sermon on the Mount is talking about those who will be part of the kingdom that He will establish on the earth. Remember that these disciples were looking to Him as the Messiah of Israel, which He was. And they were expecting Him to establish His kingdom on the earth at any moment. They did not know that He would go to the cross and suffer and die, that He would come to earth again at a future time and then establish that kingdom. So here Jesus is giving them instruction and talking about those who will be part of the kingdom He will establish. You’ll note, the first beatitude in verse 3 of chapter 5 says “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” They are the ones who will be part of the kingdom. Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3 [verse 5-7], unless you are born again you will never see the kingdom. You cannot be part of the kingdom without the new birth. Jesus is talking about the same subject here in the Sermon on the Mount.

After talking about the blessedness of those who will be part of that kingdom He tells them in verses 13 to 16, “You are the salt of the world,” “You are the light of the world.” They are there to make an impact, even though they will be persecuted, they will suffer as the closing beatitudes make clear. You are a light to shine in the midst of the darkness in the world.

Went on to talk about the need for righteousness, a righteousness that went beyond externals. The condition of the heart is what matters. So it’s not just someone who murders who is guilty before God, but someone who harbors hate in his heart is guilty before God. Because when we come to stand before the throne of God we will be judged not only for our actions, but for the secret things of our hearts, the desires and intentions of our hearts. Talked about adultery, not only committing the act of adultery but having hearts consumed by lust. They are guilty before God also. Talking about the importance that our word stand. We should not make oaths. Common practice among the Jews, they had broken things down to fine, minute details. Sort of like the children, they say something and say, I had my fingers crossed, it doesn’t count. Well, the Jews had that. If you swear by this, well, you had your fingers crossed, it doesn’t count. But if you take an oath by this, oh yeah, you’re bound by it. Jesus said that your heart ought to be revealed in your word, and your word ought to be good.

Chapter 6 He talks about their religious activity, giving of money, saying of prayers. These are not to be done for public show. Doesn’t mean you can never give money publicly, it doesn’t mean you can never pray publicly. Both things happen later in scripture. But we ought not to be doing them for public acclaim and public recognition. Nothing wrong with praying publicly, we do it many times. Even Paul’s prayers will later be recorded in scripture. Obviously there was more to them than just saying them privately in his closet, but he ought not to be praying so people would honor him for the show of it. There has to be a real heart condition in the relationship with the living God or you have nothing, no matter how religious you may be.

Then He talks about material possessions, our relationship to them. Then you come into chapter 7, He talks about judging others. Doesn’t mean we never make judgments, but we ought to realize we are not excused. Some people are quick to condemn as so sinful or so terrible those who do certain acts. We ought to realize they are not excused themselves for the guilt of their sin just because they condemn others for sinning.

He concludes the Sermon on the Mount by making a clear distinction between the genuine and the false, between those who profess a relationship with God and those who have a relationship with God. Those who enter through the broad gate and travel the broad way with the crowds, and that gate and that way end in destruction; but there is a narrow gate and a narrow road and that gate and that road lead to eternal life. One must come through Jesus Christ who is the door, who is the way, the truth and the life. Concludes by talking about two foundations. You can build a house that looks wonderful, but is built on the sand. It will collapse under the storm. You build a house on the rock, it will stand the storm. You’ll note the issue here is the foundation. You can build a beautiful house, looks wonderful, but if it has no foundation it will come down in the storm. Jesus Christ is the only foundation, there is no other foundation that can be laid than the one which has been laid which is Christ Jesus. Anyone whose life is not built upon the rock of the foundation of Jesus Christ will not stand in the judgment. Say, oh, but look at the house I built, but it won’t stand.

So the Sermon on the Mount makes clear that this idea that everybody’s beliefs are on the same level, and as long as you are sincere and earnest that will be good enough, the Sermon on the Mount that is held in such high esteem by so many people who fail to consider what its message really is. Its message is very few people are going to be saved. The way to eternal life is narrow, you come through a narrow gate, verses 13 and 14 of chapter 7. Verse 14, “the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life,” and you ought to underline this: “few” are those “who find it.” Isn’t it interesting He would say that in a chapter that began by telling you not to judge others? Then He goes on to tell you the kind of judgments you should make. Many people who can quote ‘judge not that you be not judged’ have no idea that the very context of that is to tell you some people are going to an eternal hell. More than that, ‘judge not that you be not judged’ is found in the context where Jesus Christ says most people are going to hell and few people are going to heaven. You must come through the right gate and travel the right road. That gate is Jesus Christ. I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me, Jesus said.

Come back to chapter 6, as Jesus talks about those who will be part of His kingdom, what their lives are like and are to be like. He talks about their relationship to the things of this world. We often talk about we live in a materialistic society, and we definitely do. But we should understand this is not a new phenomenon. Prosperity brings materialism to the fore in a greater way. That was true in Jesus’ day. The Jews lived in a society that emphasized prosperity, they placed great emphasis on worldly wealth and riches. And like some of the health and wealth preachers and churches of our day, they taught that having worldly prosperity, material possession, was a sign that God was blessing you more greatly and you were more pleasing to Him. Some of the richest people present at that time were the religious leaders of Israel. So they lived in a materialistic society.

The world is materialistic. Jesus is going to draw a contrast in talking about how we relate to the world. You know what the difference is? Those who truly belong to Him live their lives focused on treasure beyond this world. Those who have no treasure beyond this world live their lives for the here and now. And He addresses the issue of how we as His followers are to handle the pressure of becoming involved with the things of this world. The believer and material things, very pertinent subject, and we who are so prosperous, living in the most prosperous country in the world have to battle this. The church gets all but crushed with the material pursuits that begin to consume us.

Look at what Jesus says in verse 19 of chapter 6 of Matthew. I’m going to read the beginning of three verses. Verse 19, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth;” verse 20, “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven;” verse 21, “for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Don’t do this, but do this, and here’s the reason. Very simple. Begins in verse 19, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.” The point here is not that we as His followers have to take a vow of poverty, give away everything and live as frugally as could be done. There may be advantages in that, but the Bible does not require it, does not command it. But Jesus does say here that any treasures laid up on earth will soon be gone. And their day with the material things that had value, moths would get to, rust could eat it up, thieves could dig through the wall. Remember they lived in houses made out of dirt and mud, so thieves didn’t break windows to get in, they simply brought a shovel and dug through the wall to break into a house. Thieves break in and steal, literally they dig in, dig through and steal.

All earthly treasures are transitory, first point to get in mind. Doesn’t mean believers can’t have possessions, but that ought not to become the true treasures of our heart is where He is going. Whether you have much or you have little, we are not to be absorbed with the things of this life, because they will be gone. Even if you hold onto them to the very end of your life, you will take nothing out with you. Same thing the Bible says when it says we came naked into this world and we will go out the same way. Even when they get us all dressed up to look good in our coffin, they’re just dressing up an empty body. We take nothing with us. We dig up the tombs of the Pharaohs or great people of the past and what do we find? All the things that were buried with them. You know why? They didn’t take anything. They put it there with their body but they didn’t take anything, did they? Whatever treasure was buried with them stays buried until someone comes and takes it. Most of the tombs of the Pharaohs were plundered and their treasure stolen. Too bad for that Pharaoh who thought he was taking it with him. Took nothing.

Look back in the Old Testament, the book of Proverbs chapter 23. This is not new material. Proverbs 23:4, “Do not weary yourself to gain wealth. Cease from your consideration of it.” Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich, don’t occupy yourself with the pursuit of wealth. “When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.” Some of you have money in the stock market, some of you were a lot richer a couple of years ago. Here today, gone tomorrow. Easy come, easy go. Hard come, easy go. No matter how you say it -- gone, gone, gone. I worked so hard, I labored. Somebody else… I didn’t put it in the stock market and their business rolled over, went bankrupt and somehow all that they thought would be there for retirement is not there and they say what happened to it? It’s gone. Some seem to keep it right up to the end and we read about it. We go and visit, take tours in great homes of people who built them many years ago. As I’ve shared before, I walked through one of those this summer and I thought now where is he, while I’m walking through his mansion. What does he have, as I stand here looking at these splendid ceilings he imported from Europe. Does he have any treasure now? He didn’t take anything. There’s nothing durable about the treasures of this life.

Come back to Matthew. You’re in Proverbs, don’t leave, go to Ecclesiastes, that’s just after. Why should I take you back and bring you back? Look at Ecclesiastes. Here we get the privilege of reading the evaluation of the wisest man and one of the wealthiest men that ever lived. He was so rich they didn’t even consider silver as valuable in his day, just too much of it. Just filthy rich, we would say. Solomon. In chapter 2 Solomon had the opportunity to do what most of us will never get to do. He could do whatever he wanted, so he said he just turned himself loose, said he’d test himself with pleasure, according to Ecclesiastes 2:1. “ ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure,’ I said to myself. ‘Enjoy yourself.’ ” Let me give you the summary before we go any further. “Behold it too was futility,” emptiness. And he goes on to talk about all that he did and all that he pursued. Verse 4, “I built houses for myself;” verse 5, “made gardens and parks,” “ponds of water;” verse 6, irrigated forests. You know, like you’ve seen with some people who’ve tried to do on a much smaller scale than Solomon could have. We say, wow, isn’t that something. Verse 8, “I collected for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings,” I had “male and female singers, and the pleasures of men -- many concubines,” thousand wives and concubines. He had male and female singers. They didn’t have cassettes and CDs and all of that in those days. Solomon didn’t need it, he had live singers, live musicians. “I became great and increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem.” Verse 10, “All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure.” Verse 11, “Then I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted. Behold all was vanity and striving after the wind. There was no profit under the sun.” You know there was a realistic view that Solomon had here, he had nothing in all these things.

Come back to Matthew 6 [verse 19], “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,” don’t pursue wealth, don’t make it your goal to be rich. Sometimes you’ll hear somebody giving their life story and they’ll say I had my goal to be a millionaire by the time I was 30, or something like that. For those who are the disciples of Jesus Christ, don’t lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. They are all transitory in passing. What you have to do is put life in proper perspective, and the things of this world in proper perspective.

Verse 20, “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal.” You ought to have treasure, but your treasure should be in heaven. You ought to have heavenly treasure, those things which are valuable and enduring beyond time, for all eternity, those things that will stand even when this whole world is burned up and consumed as it will some day. The treasure in heaven will endure.

Turn over to 1 Peter 1, we’ve looked at this recently. 1 Peter 1:4, we have “a living hope,” a hope beyond this life. We are going “to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.” What a contrast to what Jesus says about the earthly treasure. Heavenly treasure is permanent, so he’s saying the same thing in I Peter 1:4 as He said in Matthew 6:20. Have treasure in heaven. That’s where your inheritance is, that’s what we have of value and permanence.

Come back to Matthew 6. Why would we do this? [Verse 21,] “for where your treasure is, there you heart will be also.” Your treasure and your heart go together. A person consumed with the things of this life has a heart that is fixed on this world. We are to have our hearts fixed on heavenly things. Colossians, the opening verses say we are to set our mind on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. We are not to set our mind on things on this earth. So our treasure is in heaven, our heart is focused on those things. These things here, they come and go. That mean we can’t enjoy them? Sure we can, we’ll see some verses on that in a moment. We better be careful they don’t become our treasure, they don’t become the occupation of our lives. I was reading a sermon preached by Charles Haddon Spurgeon over 100 years ago on this passage. He began that sermon I think with a very true statement, and it went something like this: this is an easy passage to read and to study, but it is very difficult to practice. And one of the things that is eating the life out of Christianity in our society is materialism, the materialism, prosperity, that we are privileged to enjoy in this country. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Go back to Deuteronomy 8, Deuteronomy 8. The Bible does not forbid having possessions, the Bible does forbid being in love with our possessions, fixing our heart and mind on our earthly possessions. In Deuteronomy 8 God is giving Israel some instructions related to when He takes them into the Promised Land, the land of Palestine, Canaan. He tells them it will be a time when they will prosper and have many material and physical blessing. Verse 7 of Deuteronomy 8, the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs,” wheat and barley, and so on. Verse 9, “a land where you shall eat food without scarcity,” you won’t lack anything. Verse 10, “When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.” We recognize that every good and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow caused by turning [James 1:17]. He is the God who has graciously bestowed and bestows good things. When God brings those blessings, remember they come from Him. But verse 11, “Beware lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today. Lest when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart becomes proud and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt” and from slavery, and all that He has done.

And down in verse 17, you begin to take credit to yourself. It was your good investments, it was your wise decisions. “My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth. But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who has given you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant.” Then He goes on to pronounce judgment if you ever forget the Lord. So you see God promises that He’s going to bless Israel, but He warns them there is great danger, and we know the rest of the story. Israel could not handle its prosperity, it got involved with its material blessings and had less and less time for the Lord.

Isn’t it amazing how busy we are in our society and our country? And there are just so many things in our lives we can hardly keep up, and our families are running here and there and every which way. And you know most of it has nothing to do with our service for the Lord. Just somehow we are so busy and so successful and that provides so many opportunities, there are so many things to do now, now we’re developing the next generation so that they can be just as prosperous as us. And pretty soon, you know, the Lord just gets in the way. We just want to… we don’t want to abandon the Lord, we just need to keep things in perspective, which means He ought to be getting less time, not more time. We wonder why our kids grow up thinking that material things and all those things are more important than the things of the Lord. Where did they learn it? Well, it was rooted in their sinful hearts, and we just fan that flame. I sometimes think that parents, even Christian parents, are more concerned that their kids do well financially than they are that they come to know the Lord and live for Him. Do they know that we would be very happy and satisfied if they’re dirt poor and live from day to day as long as they know the Lord and serve Him faithfully? And we’re consumed with their success. We all want our kids to have the good life, and you know we don’t want them to struggle like we did, and we’re always going to take the pressure off them, we’re always going to … Nothing wrong with parents helping kids and so on. Somewhere we’ve gotten off track. The very warning given to Israel applies to us.

I’ve shared with you many times, I’ll share again. Had the privilege of traveling in other countries, and that’s been a blessing. China was one of those places. They didn’t get weekends like we do. Went to church on Sunday night in China when they have their main service, and everybody rides bikes, there were no cars parked out front. But they had to save us a seat to get in. It was dark, these people work all day, they ride a bike to get to church and they have to save me a seat as a visitor so I have a place to sit, so I can get in the building? I come home and say, boy, we have so many things to do, with all our blessings and we can hardly fit in an hour a morning. And we can ride in heated cars or air conditioned cars and have the day off, so to speak. But we don’t really have the day off because it’s awful busy. We’re not working our jobs but, you know, we have a lot of things we play at. Our blessings just begin to squeeze us and our spiritual life begins to shrivel.

Jump over to 1 Timothy 6. I want you to keep this in balance. The Lord is not saying we have to be poor, not saying you should go home and sell all your possessions and give your money to the church. I’ll say that later. No. Everybody has struggles. If you lived in certain countries in Africa and a believer, your struggle might be just to have enough food for today and enough clothes to cover you. And you would be tested to trust the Lord for that every day. We have that, we don’t have to face that, but we have our own challenges and our own pressures. That is to maintain a passionate, fiery Christianity in the midst of a country that lives the good life. 1 Timothy 6, talks about false teachers who think that the reason you have godliness is to get money. Paul says that’s not true, but verse 6, “godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.” I mean, there are a lot of blessings that come in a godly life. May not be material, may not be more money, but it is the contentment that God brings to a heart. “We have brought nothing into the world, so we can take nothing out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.” We have to constantly test ourselves, we never know for sure until the time comes. Lord, if you take away everything I have, all I have is enough food for today, enough clothes for today, that would be enough for me. You know it’s easy for me to say it now because I’m not called to do it. Sometimes it’s good for us just to sit down and say could I leave it all.

The story is told of John Wesley. Someone came and told him his house had burned down. He said, no, it didn’t. Yes, I just came, your house burned. He said, you don’t understand, I don’t have a house. The Lord had a house He was letting me live in. If He decided to burn it down, that’s His business. Well, you know that reflects the right kind of attitude. We’d be in turmoil, that everything we worked so hard for and all that we had accumulated was gone, what are we going to do? And what does Wesley say? I never had a house, that was the Lord’s house. He was just letting me live in it. If He wants to burn it down, that’s His business. So we hold our possessions lightly, is the point.

If we have food and covering, with those we’ll be content. [Verse 9], “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin… The love of money is a root of all sorts of evil,” note this, “some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many a pang.” Already. The Apostle Paul has not yet passed off the scene. Already he can write with a broken heart of believers who got turned aside from their passion and pursuit of the things of God to the pursuit of the things of this world. And it’s just brought them pain. A little later he’ll have to talk about Demas who has forsaken me. Why? Having loved this present world. What a sad, sad testimony.

Just jot down Psalm 62:10, “If riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.” You see the distinction? “If riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.” It is not necessarily saying I have to live as someone in a third world country does. He’s placed me here, I’m thankful for that blessing every day. I have an abundance as we all do. We have to be careful that we don’t set our heart on the things that we have been blessed with, but our hearts are set on the things above.

Turn back to Matthew 6, he gives some examples here. “If your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is in darkness, how great is the darkness!” What He’s basically saying is the eye lets light into the body so you cover your eyes, you put a band around them, everything is dark in the body. The point is if your heart is focused on the things of this world you are in spiritual darkness. You don’t see anything as you should. Very simple analogy. You can’t have a bad eye and have good sight, good light. You can’t have bad eyes spiritually and have good spiritual sight. Now this is a danger. Remember Paul talked about those in 1 Timothy 6, who got turned aside after riches. My eyes begin to deteriorate. I wear glasses, I take my glasses off I see out there pretty well, but there are some things I don’t see very well, like any of the words or letters on this page. They have just sort of disappeared. If I never have glasses I look out, I look there, well, I don’t even know there are letters on that page. They’re just some ink. My eyes are still good enough to see you there. You know what happens though, if I start to read. I don’t know what it says. But there are some things I can do, I can see you out there and count you because my problem is seeing things close, not seeing things far. Sometimes I don’t realize how bad my eyes were. I went to get new glasses a month or two ago. You know what the doctor said? You’re going to have to learn to walk all over again. You’re going to see such a major difference. I don’t know that it was that drastic, but I am using a small print Bible again. You know, you don’t know how bad it is.

That’s often what happens with material things. We begin to get diverted and we don’t know how bad it is. We all have had believers we’ve been concerned about. Why? You see a drift, the fire does not seem to be burning very high in their passion for the things of the Lord as they seem to be all absorbed and they have less time for the things of the Lord. Why is the evangelical church doing away with Sunday night? You know why? People are so busy, they don’t have time for that. Bible say it? No, I’m just using it as an example. We have less time. The things of the Lord just seem to intrude into our lives. We have our kids busy in a lot of things that move them along in the world, and there’s just not a lot of time for the things of spiritual importance. So these kind of things. I have to make sure my eye is clear, I’ve got good spiritual vision. All the things the Lord has given I’m thankful for, I enjoy them, I consider them a blessing. That’s not where my heart is focused. If riches increase, don’t set your heart on them.

Verse 24, “No man can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You can’t serve God and mammon,” God and riches. Very simple. You know this is not like working a couple of jobs. You know some of you work more than one job, you work for more than one employer. You can’t be a slave of more than one person, because by very definition being a slave of that person means you totally belong to them. Well, you are either a slave of the living God or you are a slave of your riches, but you’re not a slave of both. Jesus draws the line hard and fast, you cannot serve God and riches. You cannot. Now we get distracted and try to minimize our service for the Lord, but you cannot be a slave of riches.

There’s a great blessing in this, this is freeing. Materialism is another aspect of the slavery of sin. Now we can see it in the world. People are worried, people are frustrated, people are concerned, the stock market is down, when will it come up, people get cheated out of their money, dishonesty happens and everything else. You know there just are a lot of things to worry about. Think of how simple it is for people who don’t have any possessions. You know, you sometimes watch the news and you see people carrying everything they own in a sack and their homes have been destroyed or whatever and you say, oh, that is so sad. And it is. But, you know, sometimes I watch and say, you know, they are really free, they don’t have a lot of the worries that we have. And that’s where Jesus is going with verse 25. You’ll note how verse 25 begins, “For this reason I say to you.” What do you mean for this reason? For the reason I just told you, don’t lay up treasure for yourself on earth. Lay up for yourself treasure in heaven, where your treasure is there your heart is. You need a single eye, you serve one master. For this reason I say to you don’t worry. Do not be anxious for your life. He’s going to say this 3 times. Let me note them for you, then we’re going to highlight some things.

Verse 25, “do not be anxious for your life;” verse 31, “do not be anxious then;” verse 34, “do not be anxious for tomorrow.” Don’t be anxious, don’t be anxious, don’t be anxious, don’t worry, don’t be concerned. Now this doesn’t mean don’t be indifferent. In fact, this word can be used in a good sense, just like our word concern, oh, I’m concerned. Sometimes that concern has crossed the line to become worry. Other times it is a valid process. Paul says he had the concern for the churches resting on him. It’s the same word. There’s a line where concern becomes a lack of trusting God, versus a genuine concern in a proper sense. Jesus is dealing with the matter, we don’t have anything to worry about. So don’t be anxious for your life, what you shall eat, what you shall drink, for your body what kind of clothes you’ll have. Simple, everyday things. You think, well, you don’t have to worry about a lot of things but you do have to at least worry about the basics. I think I’ve made progress, I don’t worry about certain things, we don’t sweat the small stuff. But not having enough food today, that’s something to worry about, enough clothes for today, that’s something to worry about. Jesus said don’t even worry about the basics. You know why? You have a God who provides.

Do you know what worry is? It’s basically lack of faith. Worry is saying I don’t trust God, the God who feeds the birds. I don’t know that He’ll feed me. We find out how much of our trust is really in the things of this life when we have the potential of losing it. What happens? Your job, you’re going to lose your job, you find out the savings you thought you had have been wiped out one way or another and you have nothing. What are we going to do? Where are we going to live? How are we going to eat? You know what we’re really saying? I was trusting God and my possessions. Now I still have God but the possessions are gone, what am I going to do? God alone certainly isn’t enough. I mean, isn’t that really what we’re saying if I’m anxious over these things? Has God ceased to sit on the throne, has He ceased to be sovereign over all? Has He ceased to be sufficient? I find out I haven’t really been trusting Him. I trust Him and all I have. But when everything else is gone I certainly don’t think I can just trust Him, so now I’ve got to worry. Don’t be anxious. And you know what? Not only does God provide, you can’t accomplish anything by anxiety and worry.

I think it’s interesting now that they push drugs on television. You can’t trust doctors and so on to know what they ought to give you. They tell me what to go tell my doctor maybe I should have. That really unsettles me because if I have to tell him what medication might be good for me, he’s in trouble and I’m in trouble. At any rate what can you change by worry? That’s the point of verse 27. Can you add anything to the length of your life by worry? If medicine is correct you might shorten your life if you worry too much, humanly speaking. But nobody can add anything to their life. We talk about we pass another milestone when you have another birthday. Well, there’s another milestone, that’s the picture here, of adding a cubit to your life, of adding any length to your life. You can’t do it. The point is, when all is said and done, you could worry yourself to death but you can’t change anything with worry. Oh, I lost my job. Don’t bother me, I’m going in and sit on the couch and worry. Oh good, you ought to do that for at least 2 weeks. Why? We say there is no reason. Now we give high-falutin names to worry today and we don’t want to identify it for what it is.

Verse 28, “why are you anxious about clothing?” Look at the flowers of the field, look at their beauty, look at their splendor. God did it. And you know they don’t last. We get through the flower season, they get cut down and thrown away. You know the amazing thing is God will bring them back. He puts all that beauty into a flower, Solomon with all of his riches couldn’t reproduce the beauty of the flowers of the field. And I’m afraid God won’t be able to put clothes on me? It’s a lack of faith, an unwillingness to trust Him. My attitude toward material things really reveals where my heart is, doesn’t it? Am I a man walking by faith, trusting the living God? Or am I walking in dependence upon my possessions, talking about trusting God? Then I become like the man who builds his house on the sand. It looks good but there’s no foundation.

You’ll note the end of verse 30, if God does this for the grass and the flowers of the field, won’t He do more so for you, O men of little faith? Four other times in Matthew Jesus addresses his followers with this rebuke, “O men of little faith.” This is the bottom line issue. You’re not willing to trust God alone. I could be a giant of the faith as long as I have my retirement program, as long as the market is up, as long as I have…, and I can talk a good line. But, oh boy, let the bottom fall out and all of a sudden I’m not a giant of faith anymore. Why? Has God changed? Is He any less to be trusted? Well, you don’t understand, you have to be practical. No, I don’t want to be practical, I want to be biblical. Practical so often is what? Being like the world. I have a God to take care of me. O men of little faith.

Look over in chapter 8 verse 26. Remember, the disciples get out in a boat, the storm comes and they’re sure the boat is going to sink. So they come to Him, wake Him up, I mean, He’s sleeping. Why? Because His heavenly Father is just as sovereign in the midst of the storm as He is in the calm sea. See, the disciples had their faith in the Lord and the boat. But now there’s danger the boat is going to go down. What good is the Lord? So they woke the Lord and said, Lord, we’re perishing. At least they recognized He could save them, that’s some faith, and He credits it. Why are you timid, you men of little faith? I mean they could have been sleeping like Him. Saved themselves a lot of frustration. Right? Men of little faith. So you see the context.

Chapter 14 verse 31. Peter gets out of the boat and starts to walk to the Lord. What a giant of the faith. Took his eyes off the Lord, began to sink. Verse 31, “You of little faith why did you doubt?” Do you realize how little it takes to shake our faith? I mean, we’re just chugging along, things are going well, and a disaster or difficulty comes into our life. All of a sudden it’s like we’re tumbling head over heels downhill, we’re just thrown into total confusion. “O men of little faith.” If I’m walking, trusting the Lord, my God is sovereign, He cares for me -- really matter if the building blows away, r”eally matter if all my possessions are gone? There’s one relationship that’s sure, there’s treasure that is unaffected.

Come back to Matthew chapter 6. “Do not be anxious then,” verse 31, “saying ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we clothe ourselves? For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek,” “the Gentiles eagerly seek.” You know, He’s talking to His Jewish disciples. You know who the Gentiles are? They are the pagans. Know what He’s telling them? The pagans consume themselves with the pursuit of these things. Don’t live like the pagans, don’t live like the unbelievers. All these things the Gentiles eagerly seek. Well, these are the things you need, Lord, food, clothing, shelter. Yes, but you’re free from having to be occupied with that. Freed from responsibility? No. Freed from worry? Yes. Seek first His kingdom, His righteousness, all these things will be added to you. Get your focus, have your eye set right, have clear vision. I am seeking the kingdom, His righteousness, the Lord will take care of the rest. You know, Paul will die as a martyr but Paul didn’t starve to death, the Lord provided for Him. I’m going to Jerusalem, the Lord took care of Him. The Lord is going to meet him in the night saying, I’m taking you to Jerusalem at Roman expense, all taken care of. Paul says I have one consuming passion, I have to finish my course. Pursuit of the things of God, His righteousness.

You know what we’re talking about here, the contrast between the way the world lives and the way the child of God lives. We may have many possessions, we live in a prosperous country. You probably live next door to someone who probably doesn’t know the Lord. You drive a car like them, you may make more money than them. The difference between them and you, though, better be the focus of your heart and mine. That’s life for them, it’s not life for me. It will be a greatest catastrophe if they lose it all, it’s nothing to me because my treasure is not here. I’m going to lose this house and it’s going to be gone, some day will happen. All the money I have will some day be gone, we know this whole world is going to be burned up. All these things are put in perspective for me. There are things that I can enjoy, I am thankful I live in a country that I am so blessed in so many ways. But that’s not what my life is about, that would make me like the pagan.

That word, [verse 34], “Do not be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” He’s not discounting here planning, the responsibility we have. Proverbs talks about consider the ant, the preparation it makes. Not saying we shouldn’t be hard workers, not saying we shouldn’t use the minds that God has given us to plan properly. All those things are biblical and addressed, but it does mean there is no place for worry. You know, the world presses in. This week you know what I got? I got a message from an insurance company telling me the disaster that awaited me if I didn’t get long-term insurance. Because it tells me how all my savings and all my wealth could be eaten up. They don’t know it’s already been eaten up. So I could end up in a nursing home and whatever I have will be gone quickly and I’ll be destitute. So I not only have to give to Social Security and I not only have to save in my retirement fund whatever it is, and I not only have to save for college training for my kids and then for my grandkids I guess, I don’t know. Now I have to save for my nursing home because there’ll be nobody to take care of me. And you know I just got so many things to worry about.

And then I read verse 34, “Do not be anxious for tomorrow.” I say, Lord, did you read this letter? Do you know how bad it is? I’m on the brink. They’ll be wheeling me out by the curb in a bed. What am I going to do? I got to plan, I got to save, I got to… I got to… You know what? I look around and say, Gil you’re pretty well fed, a little too well, and you have enough clothes to cover your shabby body, flabby, shabby. Yup. The roof doesn’t leak. Yea, but what about tomorrow? You know what? My God will be God tomorrow. If famine strikes this country, terrorists do such damage that the whole infrastructure of the country disintegrates, and our money is worthless and we are left like people on the TV crawling around rubble, and you know what? My God will still be on the throne, my treasure will be unaffected, I will be just as secure as I am right now. Isn’t it a blessing to be a believer? I can go to bed and sleep at night no matter what. I don’t have to worry about my kids, I don’t have to worry about my grandkids, I don’t have to worry about the church. I can just tell Marilyn I’m going to sleep, she’ll testify before she gets the light out I did it. I figure I’ll worry about it tomorrow. Tomorrow comes, well, I push all my worries off until tomorrow. You know what that leaves me? Free today.

You know, there’s only one kind of person who can live like that. The person who belongs to the living God, who has his house built upon the rock, who is the one who is so blessed of the Lord as the Sermon on the Mount began. So sad that the world lives with all its abundance, they can’t make enough psychologists and psychiatrists and pills to let them sleep at night. And we have the one answer, Jesus Christ the Savior of the world. He’s given me everything I need, He will never take that away. Because He’s promised I will never leave you or forsake you. What else do I need? My security is in Him, my treasure is in Him, my confidence is in Him. I realize I stand here well-fed, well-clothed, well-housed. Only God knows how weak my faith is. I’m living with my confidence in Him. Every day I look and say, Lord, if You take this all away I want to walk with You faithfully. I don’t need this house, I don’t need these blessings. I need You and You are my sufficiency. I trust that’s the testimony of your heart, the testimony of our church.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for Your grace, Your graciousness, Your sufficiency. Lord, forgive us for our little faith. How much we need to be rebuked as the disciples were, O ye of little faith. How quickly we’re shaken, how soon we’re unsettled, how fearful we become, yet there is no need. We can live lives free from worry, free from anxiety, free from fear because You are our God. Thank you for a wonderful Savior, for a complete salvation, and for Your daily blessings. We praise You in Christ’s name. Amen.