Trusting the Father's Provision

SERMON: 2007-10-21--sm0737--trusting-the-father-s-provision SOURCE DURATION: 00:35:05.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 1.00 APPROVED: false REASON: The recording begins with the sermon's opening exposition on worry and Jesus' teachings (Matthew 6). The material concludes with a sustained acoustic music interval that is authoritative evidence of the end of the main discourse. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:32:45.440-00:35:03.880 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- A question for you this morning. How many of us here would be honest enough to admit that at least occasionally we worry? All right. I feel much better because honesty compels me to admit that particularly in recent years because of some of the things that our family has been going through, I've done a lot of worrying and I've been more anxious off and on in the last couple of years probably than I have in all previous years of my life put together. And I'm willing to bet that there will be seasons in your life too. Sometimes there are seasons of overflowing blessings, things go really well and we're just grateful. But other times there are those moments in our lives where our needs seem to go unmet, our prayers seem to be unanswered, and we become anxious. And we become anxious about just about everything off and on, don't we? We can be anxious about our health, we can be anxious about our finances, we can be anxious about our children, we can be anxious about our parents, we can be anxious about our relationships, we can be anxious about our work, our boss, our neighbor. Lord knows there's no limit to what it is that we can be anxious about. And then when we read these verses of Jesus here in Matthew chapter six telling us not to worry but rather to put our hope and our faith in God, it almost sounds simplistic, doesn't it? Like, "Jesus, where are you coming from? Sounds like he's from a different planet." Indeed, of course he is. And the challenge then is for us to learn to be like him and to learn to trust the Father with the simplicity of a childlike faith like Jesus was able to demonstrate in the course of his life. And in order to be able to do that, we need to be able to get into the mind of Jesus and understand the thinking that he describes for us here in these verses that we have read together from Matthew chapter six. And so as we look at these verses together in the time that we have this morning, let's see if we can unravel the foundational truths upon which Jesus is building foundational truths that he says will lead to a life of trust in God the Father. It begins, says Jesus, with understanding that all of life is a gift from God. Notice again how he begins this particular passage, "I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes?" Now think that through with me a little bit. What makes us worry and why do we become anxious? Well we worry and we become anxious because we are creatures with needs. And when those needs go unmet, or when it looks like they're going to be unmet, then we become anxious. And at a bare minimum we need food, clothing and shelter, those are significant needs, but beyond that we look for things like companionship. We look for a meaningful job, we look for significant relationships. And we don't know what worry is until we find ourselves in a situation where those significant needs of our lives seem to go unmet and we wonder what in the world is happening. And so as a result, as I pointed out last week, people who lack faith spend most of their time and their energy trying to figure out how to get food on the table, how to get the clothes they want, how to get their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs met. I mean go to any bookstore, look at any magazine shop, look at the titles of the books that are selling, the magazines that are being promoted. What are the issues that sell? How to have a better sex life, how to have the latest hairdo, how to be more fashionable in your dress, how to find more enjoyment in your job. All of these things are the things the natural man is interested in and as you know diagrammatically we can represent it this way, God is not part of the equation, we buy into Satan's line of wisdom that God helps those who help themselves, and we are primarily responsible ourselves for meeting our need. Jesus summarizes it this way later on in this passage when he says after all these things, that is food, clothing, shelter, and every other human need that we have, the Gentiles seek. Why do they seek? Because that's what they think is the abundance of life. But now Jesus tells us that life is more important than food and the body more important than clothes. That is to say from God's point of view, our life is not sustained by the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the jobs we have, or the money that we accumulate, no it is determined by what? It's determined by our relationship with God. If we are in a right relationship with God, then God is the one who looks after our needs and he promises to provide for us. And so diagrammatically we can represent that this way, as you know God is in the center, we look to him for life, he meets our needs, we're able to meet one another's needs, all of this is summarized for us later on by Jesus when he says seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all of these things will be given to you as well. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all of these things will be given to you as well. So here is Jesus' argument in the opening verses of this passage. He says life is a gift that God has given you. You've got no control over it, you didn't create yourself, you didn't cause yourself to be born, it was his sovereign choice and wish to put you here in the world and if he created you then will he not also look after you? And that's the second observation then that I want to make as this passage continues and as we try to get into the thinking of Jesus, because he has created me, because I am his handiwork, he has committed himself to providing everything that I need both for time and for eternity. And I find it fascinating how Jesus continues to go forward in this passage because here is what he says next, "Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly father feeds them." And then he goes on furthermore in verse 28 and 29 to say, "Look at the lilies of the field how they grow. They don't labor or spin, yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these." Now what's he doing? He is trying to illustrate the provision of God for all of his creation. And he says, "If you have difficulty believing that God cares for you and that he's interested in you and that he will meet your needs," then he says, "Study nature." He says, "First of all, look at the birds of the air." Now what's unique about the birds of the air? Well, he says, "They don't take any thought for tomorrow. They don't sow, they don't reap, they don't lay up in storehouses, and yet how do they stay alive? They stay alive because God the Father provides for them. He has so structured nature that he looks after their needs. They know how to be fed." I love the story of the atheist who was wandering through the woods. He was admiring creation. He says, "What majestic trees, what powerful rivers, what beautiful animals." And as he was walking along the river, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him and he turned to look and he saw a seven-foot grizzly bear charge towards him. He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder, saw the bear was closing in on him. He looked over his shoulder again and the bear was even closer. He tripped and fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but saw that the bear was right on top of him, reaching for him with his left paw and raising his right paw to strike him. At that instant, the atheist cried out, "Oh my Lord." Time stopped. The bear froze. The forest was silent. A bright light shone upon the man and a voice came out of the sky, "You deny my existence for all these years. Teach others I don't exist that even credit creation to a cosmic accident. And now do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? I might account you as a believer." The atheist looked directly into the light and he said, "It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask you to treat me as a Christian now. But perhaps you could make the bear a Christian." "Very well," said the voice. The light went out. The sounds of the forest resumed. And the bear, wouldn't you know it, he dropped his right paw, brought both paws together, bowed his head and spoke, "Lord, bless this food which I am about to receive from your bounty." God provides for all of his creatures. And the lily of the field, it neither toils nor spins. That is to say, it doesn't have to work at dressing itself up to look good, nor does it worry about it. But even Solomon says Jesus, in all his splendor, was not arrayed like one of these. And so the emphasis that Jesus makes here is that even though we attribute a lot of these things to natural processes, and we often talk about Mother Nature, I want you to know there's no such thing as Mother Nature, there's only Father God. And Father God feeds the birds of the air and he clothes the lilies of the field. Psalm 104 puts it this way, "The earth is full of your creatures. These all look to you, that is to the Lord, to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up. When you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things." Notice this to you and to me, you have questions about the Father's love for you, the Father's willingness, the Father's desire to provide for you. He says, "Look at the birds of the air. Look at the lilies of the field. The words in Greek are stronger. It's like study them, examine them, let it sink into you." And his purpose in doing so is twofold. His point is first of all then, that you and I are of much more value than they are. Are you not much more valuable than they, says Jesus. Later on in Matthew 10, he says, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And if even the very hairs of your head are all numbered, don't be afraid. You are worth much more than sparrows." Now we live in a day and age where curiously enough, as part of our evolutionary teaching, we are lowering the importance of human beings. We are elevating the importance of creation. And so not infrequently, the same people who are so terribly environmentally conscious bear not a whit about the unborn that are being destroyed. Or even about wars that are being waged, God knows where in the world. And people spend more on their pets and on the need of their pets often than they do on children and the needs of children. And we need to understand from God's perspective that important as all of creation is, and much as God loves the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, and much as we ought to be concerned about looking after all of them, they pale in comparison to you and to me. Why? Because we're made in the image of God. God has a relationship with us and God has an eternal destiny for us. And not all pet lovers love this, but I don't see anything in scripture about pets ever going to heaven. I don't know if they'll be there, but it certainly won't be your dog and cat. Maybe a new creation, but we live forever because we share the image of God. Are you not of much more value than they are? Says Jesus. And then he goes on to say, because we are of much more value, we warrant that much greater care. Even if even a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without the will of my Heavenly Father. That's radical. That's amazing. Even the hair on my head is numbered. How infinite is God's care and God's provision for His children? And Jesus says to me, you want to learn not to worry, that it begins by understanding that all of life is a gift from God. God has created you in Christ. He has redeemed you to become one of His children. And because He has created you and because He has redeemed you, you are like the apple of His eye. And He's not just interested in meeting our spiritual needs and getting us to glory. After all, Jesus says here, your Father in heaven knows what all of your needs are. And so He cares about whether we can pay our bills or not. He cares about whether we've got enough to eat or clothes to wear or shelter or a job or that special relationship for which we crave. Often our faith will be tested. And often we wonder, Lord, where are you in the midst of this? But faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And the great necessity in your life and in my life is to understand then that even as God cares for all the creatures of the air and the animals and the lilies of the field and the grass which is grown today and thrown into the oven tomorrow, so He has committed Himself to meeting your needs and my needs in the here and now as well as for the life that is to come. That raises a very interesting question, of course. Does that mean we just sit back passively, open our hands, and receive it directly from God in heaven? And here again, looking at the birds of the air and the lilies of the field is very instructive. How does a bird live? Not just by passively sitting back and saying, "Well, you know, God said He will provide for me and the worm will come to me." How does the lily grow? Well, not just by passively hanging around and hoping that it will happen, no. The bird has the strength, the energy and the initiative to go out and find its food knowing that God has provided it for him. We have in the back of our house a bunch of bushes. I don't know what they're called or what they are, but they bear these little berries, chuck full of them. But almost every fall, during bird migration, there is a swarm of birds that comes a flocking in and they will take over all those trees. There must be hundreds of them. And in a matter of minutes, they pick it clean and off they go. And every time we have a groundhog that runs off with one of our tomatoes, I tell my wife, this groundhog is just very grateful to God the Father that we are being instrumental in providing his food in due season. It eases the pain to know there is a great cosmic purpose behind our stolen tomatoes. Our Father in heaven most commonly provides our needs by giving us the wisdom, the intelligence and the strength to be about our daily work, to find the right kind of job, to find the right kind of unemployment and to steward things wisely so that our needs can be met. That's not to say that God doesn't also provide for us supernaturally, but the supernatural provision from God either takes place in moments where God really wants to demonstrate to us that he knows us and he cares for us, or in those places where obviously we cannot look after ourselves and other people cannot look after us. Because typically it starts with us, then when we don't know how to look after ourselves because of whatever reason, other people will be called forth to step up to the plate. And in the cases of widows and orphans, those clear-cut cases in scripture, there are no human institution or resources to fall back on. God himself steps in and he's able to provide for us manna from heaven, water out of the rock. And if we were to take the time here this morning and hear each other's stories, a lot of us can testify how God has been present in providing for us in each of those ways. There have been times where God has just given us strength, wisdom and energy and we could find the right job at just the right time and life has come together. And others of us, we've been in situations either on the giving end or the receiving end, we didn't know how to be able to pull it off ourselves and God raised up somebody else. They came alongside us and they poured their time and their talent and their treasure into our lives and they helped us walk that part of the journey that we could not walk alone. And then there have been those moments where God really drove us into a corner, where God really wanted to establish us in faith and where all the efforts of our hands couldn't solve the problem, where everybody around us seemed to be oblivious to our needs but we were driven to our knees and where we discovered in our extremity that God's really there. And that God loves us with an everlasting love and that he provides for our needs. In fact, sometimes God pushes us into those places, doesn't he, especially in the deep places of our hearts just so that he can reveal himself as Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. So Jesus says life is a gift from God. Because life is a gift from God, God has committed himself to looking after all of our needs and because of that, says Jesus, it doesn't help to worry. Who of you, verse 27, by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Later on, he puts it this way, don't worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself each day has enough trouble of its own. Somebody has made this observation about the things we worry about and here I'm preaching to myself as well as to you, just so that we're on the same page. Forty percent of the things that we worry about will never happen. Twenty percent of the things we worry about are things that have happened in the past that we cannot change. Twelve percent of the things that we worry about are about criticism by other people, most of which will be untrue. Ten percent of our worries will be about our health and that health will only get worse with the stress of worrying and then eight percent of our worries are about our real problems that we need to face. And Jesus says every day has enough challenges of its own. God's promise is that he will meet our needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus on a daily basis give us this day our daily bread. Let tomorrow worry about tomorrow because each day has enough trouble of its own. To summarize then, how do we come to grips with the worrying and the anxiety that is so often a part of our lives? Well again it begins by setting our priorities. It begins by understanding that life is a gift from God and that therefore the focus of my life ought to be my relationship with God. An hour spent in his presence, an hour and a half spent in worship on a Sunday morning can do more for the practical realities of our needs than 10,000 hours spent trying to worry and trying to solve our problems because sometimes it is precisely in the presence of God that God illumines our understanding, gives us our insight and shows us the way out and that's why we need to hang around with him. We need to set our priorities, we need to know that even as God cares for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, so he cares for you and for me. I remember as a young man growing in the Christian life, reading books about the walk of faith, I had this stereotypical image of people living by faith, being poorly dressed and poorly looked after and I was fearful that that would be my story in my history if I were to give my life to Jesus without any reservation. And it wasn't until I came across this passage where he talks about, "Look at the lilies of the field, how splendidly they are dressed, far exceeding Solomon in all his glory," that I finally began to understand if God exercises that kind of care about the lily of the field, how much more will he care for me and how much more will he care for you? Has that faith been tested over the years? You bet your bottom dollar it has. Am I always successful in standing up under that test? I would say no, I know as much about worry and anxiety as the next person. But the reality is that God cares for us and he cares deeply. And because he does, he invites us to cast all our anxiety on him because he cares for us. And so we need to learn to present our needs to God. The apostle Paul puts it this way, "One of the most powerful anti-worry passages in Scripture, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." How do we get rid of worry? How do we get rid of anxiety? We commit our lives to the Lord, we learn to trust his provisional care, and then we learn to take all the challenges of the day and roll them over in prayer to God. So I'm worried about my marriage, I'm worried about my job, I'm worried about my child, I'm worried about my aging parent, I'm worried about the state of the world, I'm worried about the state of my health, I worry about the state of my heart. One of these things is of disinterest to our God and our Father. I know that sometimes it feels that way, and I know that sometimes we struggle because he's not there quick enough to give to us what it is that we want, and so we very often learn how to live a very split life. We do our little religious world over here, and our real world and our real needs are over here, and somehow the two don't mix, but when you read the word of Jesus, he says God cares and he cares deeply. And while yes, there will be those times of testing, and yes, there will be those times when it sounds like the heavens are brass and the answer is incoming, God says, "Cast all your anxieties on me, because I care for you." And you know, the beauty of it is that it is then in the midst of our practical everyday living that faith and everyday life begins to integrate, because now I discover God will give me insights about my job. God will give me insights about my relationships. God will give me insights about the opportunities and the challenges that I face, and not only that, but he will give me strength, he will give me wisdom, he will give me insight so that I can step into these situations, and all of a sudden I begin to discover that God gives me the answer in the practical realities of life that make me fall on my knees and worship him. I'll never forget a story my good friend Bert used to tell us. Bert was one of my best friends in the first church that I pastored, and he was a man who in his own spiritual journey had really been learning that there isn't a need too small or a problem too little, but that it could be given to the Lord in prayer, and God would care and if need be do something about it. And Bert had been witnessing to one of his neighbors who was not a believer and not a church-goer, and it so happened that this neighbor had trouble with his combine, I believe it was, one fall. He had a busted bearing and had been trying to get that bearing off the shaft without any success, and so he was telling my friend Bert about this, and Bert who was just really learning how to verbalize his growing faith in the Lord, he said, "Well, have you considered praying about it?" Now, this is to a guy who's not a Christian. Well, the guy was desperate enough because, as you know, there are never any atheists in foxholes, and so the man told him later that he had taken Bert at his word, he had gone back to his combine, he had asked the Lord to help him get that bearing off the shaft and, believe it or not, tapped it with his hammer, and off it flew. Now, the skeptic in you and me will tell us that it was almost there anyway, and it would have come anyway. It's like when you try to take the cover off, the lid off a bottle, and you've tried and you've tried and it wouldn't go, and then you give it to your wife or one of your kids and they go like this and off it pops, and you know that it really wasn't their strength that did it, it was really you, right? But as one bishop said many years ago about coincidences, he says, "It's a very strange thing, but the coincidences of life seem to increase in proportion to the prayers that I have prayed." And in that particular instance, that story was one of the incidents the Lord used in that neighbor's life to bring him to faith. And one of the ways in which we can most powerfully bear witness to the world around us is by a demonstration of God's presence in our daily lives, learning how to share those kinds of struggles and answers to prayer so that our neighbors will know too that our God is a God who not only gives us life, but he sustains us with his power and with his care. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:32:45.440; remove through 00:35:05.000] Like a river glorious, is God's perfect peace, Over all victorious, in its bright and grace; Perfect yet still flowing, Fuller every day; Perfect yet still growing, Deeper all the way; Trusting in the Father, Hearts are fully blessed, Finding, as he promised, Perfect peace and rest. Hidden in the hollow of his mighty hand, Where no harm can follow, In his strength we stand; We may trust him fully, All for us to do; Those who trust him wholly, Find him wholly true; Trusting in the Father, Hearts are fully blessed, Finding, as he promised, Perfect peace and rest. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:35:05.000; resume after this marked segment]