Matthew 6:25-34

Speaker 1: I take your Bibles if you have them with you and turn to Matthew chapter number six. Matthew chapter number six. And we're going to be in verse 25 here in just a moment. I wanted to say thank you also to all those of you that came out to the Hogs and hot rods event yesterday and helped us to man the booth that we had set up there. We have been talking for quite a while about having a presence at some of these events. And, you know, it just never seems like the time is convenient and you just kind of have to come to the conclusion it may just never be convenient, but if we're going to do it, we need to do it. And so we set up out there and had probably between 20 to 30 different church members come throughout the day and take different shifts. It's a man that Booth gave away lots of information about the church, as well as some different little prizes for the kids Frisbees, stress balls, that kind of stuff, and got to meet a lot of really cool people and hopefully make some good contacts for the church. As for the mat as we were, clean it up at the end of the day. So how do you how do you determine whether something like this was worth it? You know, to spend the Saturday out in the heat, you know, how do you know? And we just don't know. It could be that that nobody from that will come. It could be that somebody we saw this several times throughout the day or kids who were at vacation Bible school and then were down town with their families and saw the church and saw Wally B, brother Matt's character, you know, and said, Hey, I saw you in vacation Bible school. We just don't know. And so just being there, trying to make contact with people and tell them about the Lord and then just spending time with other church members. And it was a good time. And so I appreciate those of you that gave up some of your Saturday to be there for that and. Brother Gerry isn't in here. Yesterday was Brother Gerry's birthday. And he was out there at 6:00 in the morning helping us set that up. And the bad thing is, Shana, none of us remember it was his birthday until after the event was over and he was already at home. And I looked at my calendar and it's a Jerry Schwartz's birthday. It's like, no. So anyways, if you see Brother Jerry, tell him. Late, late. Happy birthday. We don't know how old he is, but you know, it's okay. I texted him and he said, It's okay. I like to fly under the birthday radar. Well, now he's definitely on the radar. So anyways. All right, Matthew, chapter six, verse or 25, if you're there. Go ahead. Join me in standing. There was a saw. There was a line in that song that I'm I'm afraid, is not reality for a lot of people. It says, I've got Jesus, how could I want more? But unfortunately, that's just not true for a lot of people. They do want more. They've got to have the house. They've got to have the car. They've got to have the toys. They've got to have the devices. They've got to have everything laid out for the future. It's not enough just to have Jesus. I have to have Jesus plus everything else. And we're going to look at the passage this morning that's going to challenge that, that way of thinking in our minds and hopefully be a an encouragement to you today. Batty Chapter six, Version 425. We're going to read down to the end of the chapter. So therefore I say saying to you, take no thought for your life what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor yet for your body. What you shall put on is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment. Behold the fowls of the air. They so not neither do they reap, nor gather in the barns. Your Heavenly Father, feed it them. Are you not much better than a which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit under his stature? Why take your thought for the fur raiment? Consider the lilies of the field. How they grow. They toil not. Neither do they spin. And yet I say to you that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore if God's so close the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he? Not much more clothe ye you. Oh, ye of little faith. Therefore take no thought saying What shall we eat or what shall we drink? Or wherewith all shall we be clothed? For. After all these things, do the Gentiles seek? Your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But Siki first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. All these things shall be added unto you. Take. Therefore, no thought for the morrow. For the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for the time that we can spend together looking into your word. God, I pray that you would give me the words you'd have me to say. You help the folks that are here to listen and apply with you here to their lives. It's in Jesus name. I pray. Amen. I think maybe you see that. Some of what I have to say this morning will be a little bit of a little bit of repetition from our Sunday school class. If you're in my Sunday school class, it'll sound familiar. If you're not in a Sunday school class, I would encourage you to find a good Sunday school class. I believe they're listed on the back of the bulletin and everyone just started a new series of studies. It would be a great time for you to jump in and get involved with one of our smaller groups of study and some great, great series going on. But this morning, there were two things that we were challenged to think about when it comes to our discipleship, our attempt to follow Jesus. And if you're here this morning and you claim to be a child of God, you claim to be a disciple of God. There are two things that you have to settle in your mind. Number one, do you believe God when Jesus says something? Do you believe him? You have to come to that conclusion no matter what the Bible tells you says to do. Do you believe Jesus when He says those things? Number two, if you believe it, will you obey it? Do you believe him? Will you obey him? Those two questions are fundamental. They are foundational to our attempts as humans to follow or be disciples of Jesus. Today we're going to talk about this matter of taking thought for different things. Taking thought, taking thought. He says this quite a bit throughout the throughout the passage that we just read. Some would say taking thought for the morrow means worrying about tomorrow. Others would say it has to deal with the the matter of being anxious about tomorrow. One of the biggest worriers I ever knew was my grandma, Boyd. Sue was her name, wasn't short for anything. It was just Sue and miss my grandma as we were calling her Sue. But Grandma worried about everything and everyone. She was constantly worried if if my dad told her, Yeah, the boys are doing a karate test this weekend, she'd worry for the rest of the week. She'd worry that somebody was going to get hurt. She worried that we wouldn't pass the tests. She just always worried we'd go to camp. She worried when we go on a trip, which honestly didn't happen that often. She worried. I mean, if we were going to see her and we were going to drive just the 3 hours that it took to get up to Wichita Falls, it would have been to Wichita Falls, by the way.

Speaker 4: The.

Speaker 1: 3 hours to go, which she worried the whole time. From the time we got in the car to the time we got there and when we left to come home, she'd say, as we're leaving. Call me when you get home. Why? Because she was going to worry. She worried a lot. I love my grandma. She was an awesome person to get to know. But, you know, all of us have reason to worry. All of us have cause for anxiety in our lives. Don't mean don't raise your hand. But I would. I would guess that probably most of us in this room have struggled with worry and exam and anxiety over the course of our lives. You know, I said earlier that matter of I've got Jesus, how could I want more? The problem is, a lot of us do want more and we worry about what's going to happen in our lives if we don't get more. Now, Jesus is going to deal some fundamental things. I mean, like the basic necessities of life. As Americans, there's not too many of us that are struggling to fulfill or meet the basic needs of life. But there are communities and there have been generations where the basic needs of life were not a given. It wasn't an afterthought that you would have these things. And so every generation has reason for worry. Every generation has cause for anxiety. But today, I want you to note before we get going that I am not trying to minimize that. I am not trying to invalidate the things that you worry about in your life. I believe worry and anxiety are real issues. It's not made up. Are you in agreement with me here? Okay. It is a real thing. It's not made up. The fact that Jesus addresses it lets us know this is a legitimate thing that his disciples have to deal with. So we ought to take some courage here, take some encouragements, blessings, some comfort is the word. We ought to take comfort in knowing that Jesus knows us and he knows this is something that we struggle with. Everyone does at one time or another, for one reason or another. The good news is there is an answer for our worry and for our anxiety. As with every other topic that we have dealt with throughout the Sermon on the Mount and I just realized ending Chapter six, Matthew Chapter seven is the last chapter of the Sermon on the Mount, which means we're two thirds of the way done after today. But every message, every every detail, every subject matter that we have talked about in this sermon, anxiety is the same, worry is the same. Winning the battle with anxiety is a process. It's a journey. It's a trip. It's a path that we have to go down. It doesn't happen overnight. If worry and anxiety is something that has plagued your life, then you have to realize that getting the victory over those things won't happen immediately. I'm not going to say any magic words today that are going to enable you to just drop it and never worry about something again. It is a journey, but you don't have to travel it alone. Don't have to go alone. We're going to look at the teaching of God's word. But then also, we're going to point you towards the fellowship with other brothers and sisters in Christ who will support you on that journey. Now, if you look at verse number 25, I want to point out to you the first thing that we should take notice of, and that is that this is a command from Jesus. Jesus is giving us a command in verse number 25 regarding this matter, and he is dealing directly with the matter of anxiety or worry about the future. He says, therefore, seeing you take no thought for your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. So all of these things are things in the future that people might worry about. And if you're sitting here today, say, why, don't worry about where I'm going to get my next meal. I don't worry about where my clothes are going to come from. I don't worry about those things. So this doesn't apply to me. Please understand that these are given as examples. This is not a comprehensive list of everything that a Christian or a disciple might worry about. Most likely, the things I worry about, the things I'm anxious over, they look a little bit different than the things that you worry about or the things that you're anxious about. You see, many of us will be able to relate to Jesus this topic here of worry because it's something we deal with on a regular basis. We all have a tendency to worry about the future. Usually this entails worrying about the provisions of the future. Might be. Will I have enough to eat? Might need? Will we have clothes to wear? These are illustrative of the type of concerns that we might have. And there are, of course, other concerns that might weigh us down. But Jesus deals with these issues and gives us some illustrations to think about. He's going to give us some illustrations about how Jesus, how God, the Father cares for other created beings and tries to help us understand that we're more precious than them. And so if he does certain things for the least of his creation, how much more is he going to care for the pinnacle of his creation? That's what you are, by the way. You understand that, right? You are an image bearer of Jesus, of God. He placed his image on you. You are more special than any other created being on the face of the earth. Did I say that right? You are more special. I wonder sometimes. I could send the most specialist or more special air. I don't think those are right. But look, look, look what God does for the birds. He says, Behold the fowls of the air. They are so not. Neither do they read, nor nor gather in the barns. Yet, your heavenly Father, feed them. Are you e not much better than they. Birds. Birds can be annoying. If you just washed your car. Birds are annoying. I noticed yesterday, even though it was very hot, most people avoided parking right underneath the tree at the dogs and hot rods, saying, you know, all these nice fancy cars, they don't want part of the tree. Why? Birds. You know why? Birds. Okay. I didn't want to explain it, but you got it. Birds aren't farmers, though. They don't plant seeds to grow crops. They don't care for crops, and they don't harvest the crops and put them in the storehouses for the future. They're preparing for the winter, but got to make sure they're fed. God, make sure every bird is fed. You say, Well, yeah, but I mean, how much can a bird eat, right? I mean, one sunflower seed in there. Done. You know, we need, like a thousand sunflower seeds to fill up. But I also like sunflower seeds. I think. Did you know? You probably did. It's not like new information to anybody. But did you know a hummingbird has to eat 100% of its body weight every day? That's a lot to eat. I mean, for me, I hate myself last night. That means I'd have to eat £221 of food a day. That's about half what these teenage boys have to eat in a day. But that's a lot. £221. Right. That's a lot. This is your chance to say Amen, Pastor, your large. I didn't used to be like this, by the way. Then I got married. Somehow a hummingbird that has to eat its body weight in food and drink its body weight in fluids. Somehow he doesn't like how storehouses of nectar, you know, stashed away somewhere that he can go in and make a withdrawal of his daily provision. No, he goes about and finds it and God provides it for him. Can you imagine if you had to find that much food for yourself every day and you got to make sure that that hummingbird gets fed every day? Some birds eat seeds, berries, fruits, insects, other birds, even eggs, small mammals, fish buds, larva, aquatic invertebrates, acorns and other nuts, aquatic vegetation, green, dead animals, garbage and much, much more. God has provided birds with all of the food that they need, and he feeds them all. Then you say, Well, you know what I mean? A bird is a little bitty thing. Okay, so it doesn't need that much. Yeah, but there's a whole lot of them. Google's amazing. Google can give you all of the useless facts you need. You know how many birds scientists estimate are on the face of the earth? How many humans are on the face of the earth? It's between seven and 8 billion. There are between four and 500 billion birds on the face of the earth. Jesus says we're supposed to behold them. Look at the birds. Look at how much they have to eat. 100% of their body weight. Look at how many of them there are. 4 to 500 billion of them. And your Heavenly Father, make sure that they get food. Are you not much more special than they are much more valuable than they are. Of course you are. All right. Illustration of how to look at yourself. Oh, go ahead. So. Take your phone out and turn the camera around and be scared. Have you ever done that? Her? I have an Instagram and every once in a while you'll accidentally activate the camera while you're swiping through Instagram, you know? And you're like looking down at your phones, the double chin thing going on, and your hair is all weird and you're just like, Oh, is that really what I look like? Yes. He says, Look at yourself. Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit under his stature? Now I understand some of us struggle with this more than others, but to some extent all of us want to be in control of our lives. Right now we're running rely on somebody else. We don't want to have to depend upon someone else. We want to be in control. We want control so that we can ensure everything is done to our standards. Everything is done the way I want it to be done. As if we have enough wisdom to plan our lives or to plan out what we need the right way. I mean, I can't even pick where I want to go to lunch successfully all the time. Have you ever done this, you think? Oh, yeah, I'm hungry. I'm going to eat. What am I going to eat? Okay. Taco Bell sounds good. Taco Bell's never a good idea, no matter how much you think you want it. Deny yourself. Take up the cross and do not go. But you go and you eat whatever it is. I mean, you go to a perfectly fine establishment and you're looking at the menu and then you decide what I want, what I want, what I want. And so, you know, if you're if you go out to your brother, Jerry, Jerry Schwartz, whatever he orders, don't order that because he always orders the wrong thing. All right. But if you if you are going to order something and you look at it, well, this sounds good, and then they bring it out to you and you're like, oh, I made a mistake. This doesn't look like what I thought it was going to look like. And then you try to eat and you're like, No, that's not sitting well. You know, we can't control things as well as we think we can. Why should we even try to control as much as we do how much control they have over your own body? Not as much as you think you do. And from what I hear, it's less the older you get. How many of us, just by thinking about it, can add one cubit of height to our stature? We can't. We can't even control our own bodies. If you can't control your height, how can you control tomorrow? Now, before someone tells me after church, I do. I am aware of the new surgery that you can have where they cut your legs and they insert bones in and they make you grow like four, four inches. So I'm aware of it. Still, the illustration remains true. You cannot by thinking, add height to your body. Okay. So look at the birds. They don't plant. They don't harvest. They don't store. And yet they have enough to eat. Look at yourself. You can't control how how tall you are. But then thirdly, look at plants. Consider the lilies of the field. Okay. So first offered a look at the birds, we hope. Take a moment. Look away from your phone. Look at the birds to teach you something about your. Your. Your God. Then look about yourself. Think about yourself. Which of you? By taking thought can add one cubit into his stature. You cannot. Now, finally, consider the lilies of the fields. Think about this. Meditate on it. Think about how the lilies grow. They don't toil. Neither do they spin. Yet I see in you that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. They may have had a garden. You had a garden. Grown flowers. Watch those flowers grow up and the buds come up and it's all wrapped together in a nice, neat little package. You know what's inside there. And so you wait patiently as it opens up and you see the beautiful colors. And maybe you've even taken the time to look closely at it because, you know, you did science in high school, so you still vaguely remember the different parts. And so you're looking at it and you see the pollen and you see the the inner workings. Maybe you've even dissected a flower before. And it's very, very intricate. It's a living thing. It's beautiful. I was again Googling different flowers. I'm not a flower connoisseur. I do buy flowers from time to time because I'm married. Men. You should buy flowers from time to time if you are married. If you would like to become married, buy flowers from time. Give them the random people. I was looking at these flowers as flowers I've just never even seen before how how colorful they are and how bright they are. And all of the different parts that are involved in some of these flowers, like this bird of paradise flower. You're familiar with this one? It looks like a bird. Different ones. There's the impossible flower. And it looks like, you know, like a Catholic priest walking around with flowing robes. It doesn't really it looks like a person walking around. I mean, there's just this all kinds of amazing flowers out there. But if you've ever grown flowers or if you've ever bought flowers, you know, one of the frustrations is how temporary they are. They grow up, they look beautiful for a very short period of time, and then they're garbage. They get thrown away. Or in Jesus's illustration, they are. They are one day in the field and then tomorrow they're cast into the oven. And similarly, consider the disparity in value between you and those flowers. A flower that is beautiful and closed by God for a day and the next day is thrown into the oven as kindling and fuel for the fire. Are you not much more valuable to God than a flower? Will he not also clothe those of us that trust in him? Jesus asks his disciples to look at their faith in him. Look at your faith. When it comes to these matters of God's provision for you in the future. The problem, I believe, is not. That we don't believe God will do these things. You know, I said earlier, you get to decide whether you believe God. I don't think it's so much that we don't believe God is capable of providing. I think the biggest problem is that you and I sometimes struggle with accepting the fact that God will provide for us. Individually. I like our teenagers. They're cool people. When I was youth pastor, I'd talk to teens and I'd say, Look, you cannot just live your life however you want and think you're the exception and that you're the one that's going to get away with it. You know, if you are drinking alcohol and driving 200 miles an hour, don't think you're invincible. You will crash and you will die. That's really. Extreme example. I understand. Okay. But a lot of times, young people think it'll never happen to me, right? It'll never happen to me. I'll be the one that can get away with it. The same kind of goes for the flipside of this matter. We look at somebody else and say, Well, yeah, God provided for them. Just like a teenager would look at someone else who's sin and got in trouble or had to face the consequences and say, well yeah, they had to answer for what they did, but that would never happen to me. Well, as mature, spiritual people look at God, you know, providing for someone else and say, well, yeah, he does that for them, but he would never do that for me. Yes, he would. Ah. Okay. So. So you were saying no. Okay. The flowers are more valuable than me. The birds are more valuable than me. But brother so-and-so is more valuable than me. That doesn't make sense either. Listen, the problem is not that we don't believe God can do these things. The problem is we don't believe God would do them for us. That's what Jesus says in a person of 30. Ye of little faith. Jesus is going to apply this force in verses 31 to 34. The command is repeated in verse 31 just to remind them. Therefore, take notes, thought, saying What shall we eat? Or What shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed? After all these things, do the Gentiles seek? Worry about tomorrow. And what it holds is not the mark of a disciple. Worrying that the future is too much for our God is not a lark of a disciple. It is a mark of a gentile. Just after all these things, do the Gentiles seek? This is not a reference to ethnicity. You know, he's not saying, hey, you're a Jew. You shouldn't be worried about these things. Oh, those Gentiles over there, as are the Gentiles. They were born that way. They can't help it. That's not what he's saying. What he is referencing is the prevailing pagan religion of the Gentile world. Prevailing Pagan religion of the Gentile world at that time was largely ruled or ruled by Greek and Roman mythology. And if you ever read anything about the Greco-Roman gods, you know, they were nasty. Not just nasty isn't like gross, but that too. But they were mean. They were hateful. They would punish humans and use humans for their entertainment. And so all of the Gentiles are serving these gods that don't care for them, don't love them, don't provide for them. And they're doing these these extreme performances of, you know, trying to appease their gods, hoping that their gods will throw them alone. God. Jesus. Your God isn't that way. Oh, yeah. A little faith. Don't take off for these things. That's the way the Gentiles live, because they know I'm basically on my own. The Gentiles know that pretty much if anything good is going to come in their lives, they have to produce it. He says, you're not that way. Verse 32 Your Heavenly Father know it that you have need of all these things. God knows what we need. He's already aware of what we need. And we are more valuable to him than a flower or a bird, which he provides for. So if God knows what we need and we're more valuable than other created beings who He is also providing for. What does that mean for us? This truth. About God enables us to keep the command. God knows exactly what you as an individual need. And so when we trust him and we obey him and we begin to release our anxiety and our worry about the future, it frees us up to do other things. You only have so much ability to hold on to certain things. Have you ever tried to bring in all the groceries at once? Depending on how large your family is, that may or may not be possible. I mean, you know, you've got bags all over your arms, you know, and you're walking like this. Hey, I got all the groceries where you want me to put them. You know, you get done. You get all those marks all over your arm. But man, you let go of all that stuff, and all of a sudden you're like, Oh! I can use my arms again. I can actually do other things. I'm not holding 20 bags of groceries. Well, a lot of us are carrying around worry and anxiety all over. Jesus is saying you need to put those down. You don't need to carry those things. Put it down, and I've got something better for you to spend your time to. What is it that we're supposed to do instead? Seek you first. The Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. If we are free from expending energy on worrying about tomorrow, that means we are free to spend that energy elsewhere. And Jesus says as his disciples, when we're not worried about making sure our bank account is full or overflowing, and we're not worried about having everything we think we want to have. Then we are freed up to begin to focus on what's important to him. His mission. The spread of the gospel. We're reading this book Radical. You can't live a radical Christian life when you're concerned about everything the world has to offer. Well, what if I miss out on something I need? Well, he just said your father knows what you need. And if you're invested in his plan, then all of these things that you need will be added on to you. I didn't write it down. I can't help but think of the verse that David or David said. You know, he's never seen the servants of God. They didn't bring. God takes care of the people who are involved in his work. Final point. First 34 take their therefore no thought for tomorrow. And it's like the third time he said this. Do you think this is important? For tomorrow. She'll take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient under the day is the evil thereof. What do you gain by being anxious about what tomorrow holds? Are you already in tomorrow? Like today. Can you change anything about tomorrow? Can you prepare for everything that could potentially happen tomorrow? Haven't you ever felt like you had everything lined up before a trip? And then you found out you didn't. You thought you had every contingency covered until you didn't? Maybe at work, your plan for the future was just air tight. And then it wasn't. There are some things we can't control and there are some things we cannot prepare for. It has been said that worrying about tomorrow does not empty it of trouble. But it does empty today of its strength. One of the marks of a disciple or follower of Jesus will be a growing absence of anxiety and worry in their lives. Notice I said a growing absence. Perhaps it's something very real. That you deal with current. Jesus is presenting this information to you today, saying, I want to help you. Let go of it. And it may take a while. You may be dealing with. With some coping mechanisms that are so ingrained in your life because they've pretty much always been there. But Jesus says, I can help you get over this. I can help you to trust me. Taste and see the Lord is good. Take my yoke upon you. My burden is easy and light. Jesus wants to help all of us on our journey to faith. A growing absence of anxiety will only come about as we have a growing trust in Jesus. As we learn to depend on him more, as we learn to lean upon our own understandings, then we will trust him more. And we will worry less. I wonder this morning, in what areas do you need Jesus help the most when it comes to this issue of worrying? Maybe this morning you do worry about the provision of your physical needs. Your financial future isn't what you would like it to be. Your financial present isn't looking too good either. Perhaps this morning you don't so much worry about yourself, but those that you love, you worry about your family, their safety. You worry about their spiritual lives and the decisions they're making. Maybe this morning you're worried about eternity. You don't know what would happen to you if your life ended today. The answer to all of these things is faith in Jesus, trusting Jesus, believing that He does feed the birds and he'll take care of you, believing that he does clothe the lilies and he will take care of you. You are more precious than any other created being that God takes care of. How much more will he take care of you? Wouldn't it be great? Be able to say goodbye, to worry and anxiety. Leave it behind us. It would be great. Jesus wants to help us do that. Mark of Discipleship is a growing faith in reliance on God. That's right, Holy Father. We thank you for this day. We thank you for the good attention and the folks that are here this morning. Or I pray that she would help all of us to take to heart the lesson that you've given to us today. Or that we would. Grow in our faith, in you grow in our trust, in you. And then as we learn to depend on you more, the worries and the anxieties that have consumed our minds and our energies would begin to fade, or we would find ourselves freed up to focus more energy and attention on your mission, your gospel, your work. Or if there's someone here this morning that doesn't know you as their savior, they're worried about what eternity will look like for them. God, I pray that today they would place their faith in your son, Jesus Christ, and what he did for them on the cross. He paid the price that they could not pay themselves. They'll just come, Lord, you'll save them. God, I ask that you be with us during this time of invitation. Just use your Holy Spirit to change our hearts. In Jesus name, I ask these things. Amen.

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