Don’t Worry, Be Holy - Part 2: Birds and Barns

Grace Reformation Bible Church iconGrace Reformation Bible Church

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Matthew 6:26-27

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Well, it's good to be back among you this morning as we last week took one step closer with our brother
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Greg Taking us further into the book of Jonah now We're I believe a chapter away and perhaps hope to finish before years end and I believe he's now
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Preaching again at the the little church in Worcester So as you think of him perhaps even this morning pray for the
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Lord to give him grace and unction We are now picking up where we left off in Matthew 6
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Continuing on to the Sermon on the Mount and we're nearing the end of chapter 6 Now two weeks ago.
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I began what will be four parts At least up to verse 33 and then there'll be another four parts just on verses 33 to 34 and so in verses 25 through 32, we have this large theme that's driving issue of Anxiety and Jesus says
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Therefore I say to you do not worry. So from verses 25 through 32
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We're looking at this matter of why we should not worry and that all drives toward verse 33 which in my mind is is perhaps the most significant aspect of Chapter 6 and in all the ways that it ties into chapter 5 and I look forward to showing that when we get there
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But verse 33 essentially says be holy Seek the kingdom of God first and its righteousness.
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Don't worry. Be holy. That's the Left leg and right leg of the end of chapter 6.
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Don't worry, but be holy So two weeks ago we began with verse 25. Therefore I say to you do not worry about your life
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What you will eat what you will drink nor about your body What you'll put on is not life more than food and the body more than clothing
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And so Jesus wants his followers as we know from chapter 5 to be salt and light to the world living with a
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Righteousness that will be visible to men so that they may glorify God But he says at the beginning of chapter 6
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Don't let your righteousness be lived in such a way that you're seeking that kind of attention for your own gain so on the one hand chapter 5
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Live a righteous life that you might be light that it might be visible before men and they can glorify your father in heaven
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But then don't do it in such a way that yourself righteous that you're parading around a sort of hypocritical and smug righteousness
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Which is no righteousness at all Jesus wants his followers to be salt and light so that his father in heaven will be glorified and this
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God glorifying Righteousness this discipled life of faith cannot endure with anxiety and worry
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That's how we moved from chapter 5 through chapter 6 and all the ways that we've seen false righteousness
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Jesus says when you come to true righteousness know that true righteousness cannot coexist for long
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With anxiety and worry the Lord desires us to be free from anxiety Now let me say again here if our reason
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For wanting to be free from anxiety is so that we can simply get on with a trembled free life So that we can carry on with what is in honesty a self -centered way of life
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Then we will never experience the peace and the joy that comes with the kingdom of God The kinds of blessings that belong to knowing
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Jesus and following in his footsteps That kind of peace and that kind of joy certainly cannot coexist with anxiety and worry
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But your goal should not be to get away from anxiety and worry. Your goal should be to get close to Jesus To be able to commune with him and walk in his ways right
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So if your goal is to be free from anxiety Just so you can carry on in your own direction You can follow through on your own ambitions and you're going to fall far short there are people that find all sorts of strategies and coping mechanisms and Medications to help them in this way, but for the
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Christian We're not seeking to be free from anxiety as much as we're seeking to be close to Jesus Now another thing we established two weeks ago
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Perhaps more than anything else our anxieties our worries reveal what drives us
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Is why it's important to pay attention to what your mind is running through As I remember
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DA Carson some years ago in a message saying what do you think about when you're not thinking about anything?
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You know have anything specific that's calling for your attention and your mind shifts into neutral gear.
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What do you think about? What do you think about when you're not thinking about anything What you think about what you fret about what you're worrying about Will be a helpful window into the things that are driving you into the things that you value most
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For better or for worse. We are most anxious about the things that we most value This is a point we established two weeks ago
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We considered the parable also of the sower in Luke 8 and Jesus explains the seed which fell among the thorns represents those who heard the gospel, but as they went on their way they the beautiful seed that should have been this fruitful tree was suffocated choked out with worry and Riches and pleasures in life and it could bear no fruit
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So that's the other side of this teaching Jesus says do not worry about your life
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Don't worry about what you're going to eat what you're going to wear Those are the immediate necessary things that God knows you need you shouldn't even worry about the immediate necessary things if that's true
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How much less should you be worried about lesser things things that aren't immediate daily needs if you don't have to worry about your daily
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Needs how much less should you be worried? Should you be occupied with the lesser needs with the needs that are more your own ambitions and goals?
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The other side of that teaching is simply this the gospel that seeks to bear fruit in your life may be suffocated by such worries
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It may be suffocated by the ambition for riches or pleasures in life It may be that as a
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Christian you received good seed you heard the gospel But as you've gone on your way, it has not borne fruit in your life because it's been suffocated by anxiety
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You see how significant this teaching is So then everywhere as we heard even two weeks ago, even this morning during the prayer time everywhere we turn
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We find a voice beckoning us to be anxious for everything Scripture stands before us demanding that we be anxious for nothing
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And because God has commanded this we can be assured that our life of faith and our growth in faith are designed to make us less and less
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Anxious God does this by taking us by the hand into valleys and through hilltops
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Into new seasons of trials and new pathways of blessings All of this is part of God's faithful providence in our lives every aspect of both blessing and trial
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Perfectly designed to strengthen our trust in him to deepen our resolve To enlighten our hope to build and reinforce our trust in our
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God This is how God makes us less and less and less Anxious as we'll see toward the end this morning being less and less and less
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Anxious looks like being more and more and more content and that's where we'll be going next week to really unpack what it means to be content and Particularly, what are the two?
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I think the two foremost sources of contentment the two the twin streams of Contentment in the
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Christians life. That's what we'll look at next week. But this morning We're looking at the second part of this series and we're looking at verses 26 and 27 and We're looking at the birds
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According to verse 26 My goal this morning is simply to make you all bird watchers by the end of the morning.
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I Don't do this often but just out of curiosity by show of hand is Anyone whether an amateur or a veteran is anyone here a bird watcher?
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Somehow I thought it would be the Brooks very good Ryan. I'm not surprised at all Over here as well, okay there there is a
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Brilliance to that kind of hobby and you could say it's perhaps one of the few biblical hobbies in existence
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This is a thoroughly biblical hobby Because when you go about bird watching you're actually obeying the command of Matthew 6 26 and this is an imperative command
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Look at the birds When when someone berates you and says, you know, there's so much to do
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Will you stop gazing through those binoculars and looking at the yellow warbler and just say hey, I'm just following Jesus. Okay I'm just obeying my
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Lord. He has commanded me to look at the birds He gives other commands as well to be diligent, but you get the point.
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This is a command This whole idea of looking at the birds is absolutely vital verse 26 and 27 corresponds to verse 25
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Where we're going next week will correspond to verse 25 as well in a different way So here the first part of verse 25
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Jesus says don't worry about what you're going to eat or drink And then he gives this illustration for about that worry about eating and drinking.
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He says look at how the birds eat and drink They don't labor. They don't store in barns and yet they eat and they drink and they're satisfied
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And then next week as we'll see Jesus had said in verse 25 Don't worry about what you'll wear about how you're going to dress your body
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And he says look at the grass of the field. Look at the lilies Look in other words, look at how they're clothed.
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And so you see these illustrations corresponding to verse 25 So here we're looking at the birds of the air and it's time to verse 25 this worry about what we'll eat
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What will provide for ourselves how we're going to get by get through and the first thing we see in verse 26 is the first word
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Look Look Jesus says look at the birds of the air
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For they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns yet Your heavenly
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Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
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The first thing we read is the first word. Look, this is a command look Jesus desires his disciples to notice
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God's wondrous design in Providential care for the world around them
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Look around Look around you By the way, this is the same thing that the
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Lord does to Job If ever there was a man bound down to the grave with anxiety with worry, it would have been
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Job But God rebukes Job beginning in chapter 38 and he and he rebukes
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Job in such a way that essentially he's saying hey Job look Look around you
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Get some perspective about your life Get some proportion about who you are in the midst of the creation that I've made and therefore who
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I am in relation to you So this leans into the significance of of God as our creator this leans into Creation theology and certainly it leans into God's revelation through the created order in times past We've looked at Psalm 19
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Psalm 19 Of course this this beautiful picture of how God reveals himself first through what he has made
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Second through his word and that unique and special revelation of his word where he in a unique way makes his will known
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But who he is and what he's like is established as clear as is as if he spoke it and he's speaking it through all
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That he has made and that's what Psalm 19 holds out. Essentially. It's saying look around you
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Listen to what is being told to you Understand the word that is written on tree bark and in ant colonies and by the swaying willows
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Look at what God has made look around you Reflect on that infer from that who you are and who
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God is What you're like and what God is like? You think of the great hymn he speaks to me everywhere
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Through the rustling grass. I hear him pass He is constantly speaking to us
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We are hardly hardly noticing him He is constantly speaking to us if we had ears to ear here and eyes to see
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We would be able to understand exactly what Jesus is getting at here. Look Look notice
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Pause Reflect I'm just as guilty as anyone but Isn't it isn't it rather sad to see everyone staring with the device now
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Four inches in front of their face. I mean we were ignorant beforehand how much more so since 2004
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Absolutely engulfed by a two and a half inch screen We're just not able to look
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We're not able to hear we don't notice we don't reflect I was listening this morning to a beautiful song just because of this passage or Rafe Vaughn Williams the lark ascending
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Incredible composition you get the idea of what he's reflecting upon as it as it builds You ever walked through a meadow and had a lark fly overhead
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Bursting in song. That's what he's trying to capture some of the great 20th century composers in the same way
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They developed a whole musical vocabulary out of birdsong Mahler very famously using this in several compositions
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Olivier Messiaen, he he had a whole vocabulary of Notes based on certain wildlife and we'd employ that in his compositions and he was a he was a devout man he was reflecting on the songs that God had surrounded and filled the world with and As a composer he was he was sensitive to that and he was right
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He was trying to adorn and recreate the beauty that God had composed He speaks to me everywhere
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Now it's not just because of smartphones It's not just because of the anxieties of the modern day that we're not able to look and to reflect
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It's partly because of the noetic effects of the fall In other words are our attention our affection our minds our intellect have been woefully damaged as a result of sin
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And we can understand from that that when Adam walked through the pristine Garden of Eden When his feet were pressed into the soil of paradise and he listened to birdsong and he noticed the animal life
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And he thought in reflection of God as a creator and and in joy he he named the animals that he encountered he would deduct and infer and Reflect upon all that he experienced and he knew all that he needed to know about the character of God Jesus has to command us and teach us to do this in a way that Adam would have found it to be natural
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When Adam looked up into the sky and saw the birds of the air He understood as Jesus Understands what that means for him what that means for his life what that means for his worship in his calling
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We have to be retaught reinstructed. Jesus has to teach his people look pause reflect
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Observe consider ponder and if you notice this you'll see it throughout the Psalms You'll see again and again that God is doing this with the created world with the created realm in Proverbs.
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We're told look to the ant My parents tell me Callum is just like I am just if you know, we had to drag him past an ant colony
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He just wants to stop He doesn't want to observe he wants to exterminate Slap all the ants to death.
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That's like what I was. Well Proverbs says don't don't kill him watch him and learn from them Look to the grasshopper
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Observe the cattle notice the sheep God is constantly turning his people to say look at the world around you
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Look at what I have made and reflect on that consider and observe and Jesus Jesus own ministry
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We get the sense that he was always looking around him How many of his parables draw in life experience and and things from the natural world?
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Almost every metaphor draws upon some aspect of of nature or lived experience social dynamics
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He was always looking when he thought about his life. He could say negatively on the one hand.
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Listen, the birds of the air have nests foxes have holes The Son of Man doesn't have anywhere to lay his head or he could think positively as we have here in Matthew 6
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Listen, you don't have to worry about what you're gonna eat. Don't you notice that the birds are always fed Jesus in the same way calls on us to reflect on life at the widest dimensions
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After the fall our intellect was woefully damaged We're no longer able to reflect upon and notice and glorify
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God as creator But rather we become distracted We become concerned we become worried
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You read the account of the fall and of course people are driven toward cities and music and technology
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Essentially, it's a result of the fall that a lot of what comprises our modern life today begins
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You have essentially arts and technology city walls are architectural management agriculture and in all of the ways that that has blessed and benefited mankind in all the ways that that is the intentional act of Exercising Dominion over the face of the earth.
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You also get the sense that really it's just worry and fear that is driving these things Mankind is vulnerable
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Now there's famine. So we have to build great barns now. There's violence. So we have to build strong walls and thick gates
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Now there's vulnerability Now there's need for weapons and technology now there's sorrow and despair
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So we have to to build wineries and vineyards and what we have to create music and other forms of amusement
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In many ways these become very sophisticated forms of distraction driven by fears and concerns
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Driven by needs as a result of the fall even though these are genuine needs Adam and Eve Had no need to be concerned or anxious in these ways.
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They would not need to dwell in a walled city They didn't even need clothing until the fall so that kind of distraction
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The things that drive our lives if we're being honest, most of our lives are driven by either fears or genuine needs
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Just just pause and consider that Most of what you do day by day is driven by either fear or genuine need
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Fear of what will happen if you don't follow through on something fear of what will happen if you you aren't seen in a certain
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Genuine needs needs really the other side of that coin And in many ways as Jesus will go on to say your father knows what you genuinely need
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But you can do without the fear and rather than being driven by fear even driven by genuine need
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You should be driven by the desire for the kingdom of God and its righteousness because the distraction
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The fear the anxiety will prevent you from being able to think deeply about your life to be able to actually perform the desire of God for your life in Short you won't even be able to look
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You'll be so distracted so gripped you won't look and Jesus says here look
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Your life is more than food Your body is more than clothes
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You need to be able to see something Beyond those immediate needs You need to live beyond an immediate impulse.
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You need to be driven by more than an immediate fear Look around you
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That's the command of verse 26 Jesus wants to restore our attention and reflection to their rightful place
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We could say to their pre -fallen pristine state so that we can understand our lives are right
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That's where we began two weeks ago in part one. What is your life need to understand your life rightly?
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You won't be able to understand your life. If you don't know how to look if you can't see beyond your needs and your fears
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If you can't live toward and for and by something higher than your needs and your fears look around you
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What is your life? What is this world? What is the shape and the flow of time and history and all the events within that's my plug for coming out tonight
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For our church history study. What's your life? How do you situate yourself within the flow of successive events, what is it all for where did it all begin where's it all going
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Look Now Jesus says in verse 26 particularly He's answering again the question of verse 25.
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Don't worry about what you'll eat. He says look at the birds of the air They don't sow they don't reap and they don't gather into barns, but your heavenly father feeds them
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I've seen birds nests I've seen even some people build elaborate bird houses.
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I have never seen a bird barn. I've never seen a bird build a barn I've never seen a bird drive a tractor
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I've never seen a bird with a John Deere mechanism that scatters seed
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Birds of course have all sorts of work to do a point will come to in due time But what they don't do is they don't sow and they don't reap and they don't build barns for all the excess crop
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If we are hand -to -mouth in our expression, they are winged to beak It's just as you need it and day by day the father feeds them
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Think of how different this is and the foolish rich man that we saw two weeks ago He finally has an excessive crop and he says
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I know what I need to do I need to build bigger barns and his soul was required that very night
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His whole life was being built in this direction of more more more more food means more barns
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More anxiety means more ambition more need means more fear. I need bigger barns
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What's gonna happen to all this food if I don't have a bigger barn? Jesus says your fear was in the wrong place your desire your ambition had the wrong end
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He wanted to build back better Those who worry in labor in this way
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Aren't looking at the birds of the air They're not understanding the divine hand of a heavenly father who feeds his children who feeds all that he's created
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They're not inferring a right that Their life is more than their stomach.
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And so they live for their belly. You could say their belly is their God The premier example of this is
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Esau Esau's belly was his God Esau's God was not the covenant
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God of Abraham and Isaac Esau's God was his stomach He couldn't see beyond the impulse of hunger and in fact
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He had so ordered his life to be reactive to fears and needs to impulses of his flesh
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That he despised the inheritance the promises of God. No wonder God was not his
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God The Covenant meant nothing the promise that Abraham sojourned in meant nothing to him it was as as penniless and pitiless as soup
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So when Esau comes into Jacob and as twisted as Jacob is at least you could say by faith
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He's desiring the covenantal inheritance He's the heel grasper.
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He wants to inherit the promise He goes to sinful lengths to obtain
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When Esau comes into him, he says Give me some of that red stew. Remember when we're in Genesis, give me that red stuff
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Get the idea that he's kind of rough around the edges Jacob said give me your birthright.
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And so Esau ate drank Arose went his way and we read in that narrative and so he despised his birthright because the birthright was the inheritance given by God and God was not his
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God. His stomach was his God Sin always does this in the
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Christians life Sin says I can meet that impulse.
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I can satisfy that fear. I can fulfill that need and I can do it now
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But of course you'll only be hungry again you'll never be truly fulfilled that red stuff doesn't last very long and What you've lost in the midst of it is the inheritance is the promise now rather than straddling you simply despise the birthright
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No man can serve two masters. You'll either love the one and despise the other be loyal to the other one and hate the other
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Essentially, that's what sin is doing here I'm either going to love the promise of God and walk in that way
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I'm gonna love my stomach and react in the impulse of my flesh. I can't love both I can't have two masters and Esau ends up hating and despising the way of God Because he's serving he's worshiping his belly
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It's just like Adam in the garden He's throwing away The inheritance he's throwing away paradise.
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He's throwing away communion and blessedness with God And it's not some red stuff for Adam.
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It's just fruit and it's as penniless and as pitiless as as the account of Esau, it's just Why would you do it?
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Why did Adam do that? He throws it all away for a flash of desire for a sensation of hunger
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So that kind of distraction driven again by fear or by even genuine good need
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Prevents us from thinking very deeply about our lives our times our place our God.
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We're not able to look and If we're in that place where we're not looking more often than not more likely than not
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Our God is our belly If you can't look in other words
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If you can't see the bigger picture if you can't see beyond The immediate need the immediate desire the immediate fear
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If you can't live in a way that is ordered by what you're seeing and looking to beyond you're most likely worshiping your belly
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And that's where we're Dividing this passage. I'm trying to put before you the difference between a belly worshiper and a birdwatcher
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The difference between someone who lives according to the moment lives according to the desire and according to the flesh right in front of them versus someone who looks around looks upward looks toward the will of God the kingdom and its righteousness the difference between a belly worshiper and a birdwatcher
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Well a belly worshiper, of course is defined in a few places in the New Testament Romans 16.
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I Urge you brethren Paul says note those who cause divisions and offenses Contrary to the doctrine which you learned avoid them
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For these don't serve our Lord Jesus Christ But their own belly these don't worship the
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Lord Jesus Christ, what do they worship their own belly? These don't serve the
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Lord Jesus Christ, what are they serving their own stomach now, what does Paul mean by that? It's in the same thing that fleshly impulse that that carnal sense that that flash of desire
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Because what causes divisions and offenses? Isn't it isn't it the things that are often
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Anxious fears I've been slighted.
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I've been maligned now. My reputation is going to be projected in a way that's unfair and people will think this of me when reality is like this and all of a sudden worry and Anxiety has brought about offense.
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And what does offense lead to so often? not the steps of reconciliation as it ought to But a root of bitterness which defiles many and what is the root of bitterness?
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That's defiling many bring about division So what does Paul say? There's those who cause divisions and offenses and ultimately they're not serving the
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Lord. What are they serving their own stomach? You see how anxiety and worry and fear and need
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Have all brought about this Destructive selfishness the self -will that's a belly worshiper
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So we're not talking about a glutton we're not talking about someone who swings through Popeye's Drive -thru one too many times a
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Belly worshiper is much deeper than that It's someone who who goes to any length
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To be able to satisfy or fulfill that carnal desire. That's a belly worshiper
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I'll never deny myself whenever I have a need or a fear. I'll respond. I'll react. I'll do whatever
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I have to do I'll lie. I'll cheat. I'll steal I'll play the hypocrite I'll do whatever
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I have to do to fulfill that fear that desire that need In other words, my life is so gripped by anxiety and worry that I don't know how else to live
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I can't look or see anything beyond Galatians 5 another example
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The works of the flesh are evident adultery fornication uncleanness Lewdness idolatry sorcery hatred contentions jealousies outbursts of wrath selfish ambition dissension heresies
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Envy murders drunkenness revelries and the like Which I tell you beforehand
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I've told you in times past Those who make a practice of these things will not inherit the kingdom of God Of course not.
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How could they? If you're not If you're not seeking first the kingdom of God How could you inherit the kingdom of God and only those who are seeking first the kingdom of God or those who are going to?
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be denying jealousies putting off contentions and hatreds Crucifying idolatries and uncleanness.
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That's what it means to seek first the kingdom of God so later in a different letter in Philippians 3
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Paul describes in the same terms these people as Enemies of the cross of Christ, of course, they're enemies of the cross
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You can only be a follower of the cross if you pick up the cross and to pick up the cross is to deny
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And live against all of these things a lot of people want to be a
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Christian Not many people want to be crucified Jesus says if any man would follow me he must pick up his cross in The ancient world if you're picking up a cross, you're only doing it for one reason
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You're gonna be nailed to it So Jesus says you have to be willing to lose your life if you want to find it
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You have to die to yourself and die to all these fleshly impulses in Short if you want to worship the true and living
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God, you cannot worship your belly. You cannot do it Christians can get into ruts
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Because in every other area of their life where it's lawful to do so They've trained themselves to react to the slightest prompt the slightest desire
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And let me just warn you if you can't deny the least things How will you deny the costly things?
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If you can't run with men, how are you gonna run with chariots? And so the
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Christian life is a life marked by self -denial The Christian life is not
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Being laid on a golden bed of ease There's There's this old
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Cartoon that had these robots and I used to love watching it and one of my favorite robots
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Was I think it was called like he didn't he didn't a spot or something like that And it was a robot it was this golden robot on this bed and it had robotic arms that would put grapes in front of its mouth and And of course the absurdity is like who would make this robot and for what purpose like there's literally no purpose for this you've made
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This robot and all it does is serve itself grapes and kind of be carried around on its bed
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It's literally a useless robot. It serves no function. It's just seeking to always gratify itself
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And the Christian life can look like that Everyone wants to be a
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Christian not many people want to be slaves Everyone wants to be a follower of Jesus But not many people want to be crucified and that all begins when you've ordered your life that you never have to deny yourself in any way
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If I don't deny the the slightest impulses of my flesh If I'm not even denying thoughts
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That's a wrong way to think about someone that's a wrong way to react to that conversation.
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That's a wrong way to take What I've overheard I could be a lot more charitable that you're if you're not learning how to deny yourself in the small
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Simple ways how how you deny yourself in the costly way? That's a difference between a belly worshiper and a birdwatcher someone who can't see and Someone who's looking all around them all the time
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Paul and we're gonna be looking at this a lot more fully next week as I said Paul in Philippians 4
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When he's going against those whose God is their belly and Philippians 4 He says let me tell you what
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I've done in my pursuit of Christ. I've learned in whatever state I am to be content
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In other words, he says I'm not a belly worshiper I Have built up my faith in God why because I've learned how to be content
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What did that education look like? I learned how to be a based and I learned how to abound
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What did that education look like? Everywhere and in all things I learned to be full.
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I also learned to be hungry Notice the key word it's being emphasized by repetition.
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I learned You don't realize providentially you're being taught all the time as a
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Christian. You know that you're always being taught Every relationship and circumstance in your life right now is
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God's lesson for you And what does Paul have to learn? It's really interesting how he structures his verse
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He doesn't say whether I was full or hungry I had to learn to be content that's not exactly what he's saying pay attention
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I know how to be a based. I know how to abound Everywhere in all things
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I learned to be full and I learned to be hungry. Do you see what he's saying? I Learned to be hungry.
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I learned how to suffer. I Put in the time to educate myself on how to go without I Learned how to ignore those pains
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How to deal with and get past those flashes of desire. I learned how to do that Paul said
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I was taught how to do that Part of the problem is we we want to learn how to be filled.
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We don't want to learn how to be hungry We were willing to learn how to abound we don't want to learn the lessons of how to go without of how to be denied
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Paul says I had to learn both. I Had to be taught both. Do you realize that God wants to teach you how to be hungry this morning?
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Do you realize that God wants to teach you how to be denied this morning, but you have to realize he's only doing that so that ultimately
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You will be filled That ultimately you will abound everlastingly And this becomes an anchor this hope becomes an anchor for the soul of the
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Christian. Was it Horatio Spafford?
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Words behind his famous him and you know You know the hymn it is well with my soul and perhaps the story behind it of him losing.
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I Believe it was his wife and his daughter In a cruise ship that sunk and as he took the cruise in great
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Distress and despair over their passing and he passed over the spot where that cruise liner had sunk
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He wrote this hymn and included within it as the line whatever my lot
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Thou has taught me to say it is well with my soul. He understood you're teaching me something here
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You're teaching me. There's a lesson to be learned here About who you are
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We looked at two weeks ago psalm 131 surely I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with his mother like a weaned child is my soul within me
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That's a child who has learned how to be quiet. That's a child who learned how to be hungry for a little while.
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It's okay I'll be fed when it's appropriate. I'll be fed when the meal is done.
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I don't have to scream and cry That's not going to change anything. I've just weaned my soul. I've quieted and controlled myself
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In other words, I'm no longer a belly worshipper So what about the birdwatcher on the other hand if that's the great division in my mind?
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I think a helpful way to think about it The belly worshipper can only look down inward to the immediate impulse of the flesh
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Driven by the fears and the needs and desires that look like anxiety and worry gaining control of the the will
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Right, if that's true of the belly worshipper, then what about the birdwatcher? Well again as we said toward the beginning the command here and this is a command to observe the birds of the air is
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Jesus way of calling his disciples to reflect deeply on God's providential care. He's gonna do it again in the next verse
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Reflect deeply on the way that God cares This is again tying into creation theology
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Jesus elsewhere. I think of Matthew 12 Matthew 10. He views humans at rightly
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So as the apex of God's creation, I read a distressing report the other day or was talking about at least in some of the cities in our nation at least the coastal cities that More dog parks are being built than playgrounds
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That might not seem like a big deal to many of you. That's a big deal What is that saying? I don't you see it and I'm probably stepping on people's toes.
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Sorry, not sorry When you've got your Chihuahua dressed better than a toddler and you have a park outside of your condo literally just for your dog and then you start referring to your dog as a child and You treat them as a son or as a daughter we are getting away from scriptural teaching
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We all love our pets. I've got a big cat at home And you know, I would have been I was away on a trip a couple for a couple days
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I would have been lying. I would be lying if I said I didn't look forward to seeing that pet You know, I like Ralphie.
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He's a good cat, but I myself will throw him to the coyotes
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Compared to any one of my children any one of your children any child anywhere Because only a human being is an image bearer and Jesus affirms that again and again almost in a sarcastic way
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Matthew 10 Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? Like what's the cheapest offering you can buy for the absolute peasant?
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They're gonna bring something to the altar of God. You can at least get turtle doves You can at least get something listen, you can even buy two sparrows for a copper coin
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This is sort of like a lesser to greater argument that it's very common in Jewish writing and rabbinical argument
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So he starts at the least the very least that you could think on the order of creation for the sake of the point
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Look at just two sparrows. This is the cheapest animal you could obtain. You could buy two just for a copper coin
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But even for those two sparrows not one of them falls to the ground without your father's notice
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And then Jesus says and the very hairs of your head are all numbered and so he says don't fear
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It's a logic, right? Don't fear why you are of more value than many sparrows.
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I Think that's where the sarcasm comes in Jesus is not saying you're like a dozen sparrows.
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No, you're made in the image of God What are sparrows to you?
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And yet even a sparrow can't drop from a branch without the father's will and In fact, the father is so attentive to you every follicles number every hair of your head
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Some of us have less numbers than others, but every hair is numbered Humans are sustained by the care of a gracious God.
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That's the whole point So Jesus attunes us to creation theology in this way.
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He reminds us of who we are in the midst of creation Look at the birds around you and then he also as we press in toward Matthew 10
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You're a lot more valuable than birds. You should infer rightly if God cares for sparrows like this
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What is his care like toward me if God feeds sparrows like this? Why should
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I ever think that I'll go begging for bread? That's the logic Therefore do not fear.
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That's what he says in Matthew 10. That's what he says here in Matthew 6 Don't worry about your life what you're gonna eat and what you're gonna wear.
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Don't let that drive you Don't let it manipulate your affections and reactions. You should be driven rather by the kingdom of God When you seek that first know everything else will be added for you
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It's what Job you think of Job when when
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God rebukes Job, what does he do in chapter 38? He starts in the the biggest sort of tectonic plates of his creation
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Who you know, were you there when I laid the foundations of the deep? Did you close in the borders of the sea?
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Do you know where the treasury of the snow is have you walked into the springs of the oceans? Have you ever commanded the morning?
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Have you told the stars to stop at a certain boundary? Now the last part of 38 he says do you feed the
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Ravens? When their beaks are open and they're young start crying out for food.
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Do you feed them? And then all of chapter 39 is is God essentially show showcasing a few of the animals that he has made
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In their artistic variety in their absolutely majestic Differentiality and God hones in on that And he's not doing that to sort of rub rub
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Job, you know into the dirt at least at first glance He's trying to give Job the opportunity of Matthew 6 26
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Job Job You are gripped by depression and despair and anxiety and fear
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Look around you look Look around you you forgot who you are.
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You forgot who I am You forgot what I'm like Do you provide food for the
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Raven Remember we looked at Psalm 104 when we were in the
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Lord's Prayer give us this day our daily bread and Psalm 104 essentially saying the same thing All of creation has an open mouth waiting for you
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If you turn away everything turns to dust when you turn your face toward us were breathed and renewed in life
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You open your hand and all are full And the psalmist says let the glory of the
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Lord endure forever So God is constantly calling his people to look be a birdwatcher
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Think of the Creator God infer and deduce what he's like and who you are in relation to him
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Get some perspective get some proportion get a grip That's what
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Jesus is saying. It's the fears.
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It's the anxieties. It's the needs All of us have that typical teenager phase right where What you're gonna be and what people think of you and the friendships you formed our life itself to you
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You don't have that life itself is not worth living, right? you know that because when
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There's some conflict or you know, some rumor and all of a sudden you're looked at sideways. What happens you come home
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Hey, honey, how was school today march to the room and fall on the bed. My life is over And a wise parent goes, okay, what happened, you know, your life's not over.
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You'll get through this and Then by Monday you and Sally worked everything out and everything's fine again, right?
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It's the anxiety. It's the fear It's the need it's the worry, but let's not flatter ourselves.
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This is belly worship Look around you
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God takes care of sparrows Look around you. There's a lot more to life than sparrows
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Come out tonight and learn about history. There's a lot more to life than what you eat and what you wear Than what people think of you than how you're regarded
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Than what you have amassed and how successful you've been. Let's just get some perspective look around you
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Be a birdwatcher. I remember years ago some of us have gone to these grand warehouse sales at Christian book distributors when they used to hold them and I remember actually coming across a book there.
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It's so Interesting that I would finally after all these years have an interest in actually looking at it It was a book written by John Stott one of the foremost evangelical leaders in you know the 1970s and 80s in the
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UK and John Stott actually was a very Practiced birdwatcher in fact
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He wrote a book called the birds are teachers and it's his reflections on Matthew 6
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So John Stott who's written a number of commentaries and Bible studies and and books also has this book on His obsession with birdwatching and part of that is he says when
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I was a boy about five or six my father would take me Through the countryside on these walks and he would tell me son close your mouth
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Open your eyes and your ears And so they would quietly spend hours walking through the countryside looking and listening listening and looking
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And from that time on for the rest of John Stott's life He really didn't travel anywhere without binoculars in a notebook and in this book, he estimates that Probably in his life.
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He recorded about 2 ,500 different species of birds that he had seen And by the way, that's only about a quarter of the birds that he could have seen 2 ,500 and he would reflect he would meditate he would
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Think through the way that each of those birds was so unique and and what he could draw from that about how
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God designed them And what he could even apply to that about his own life of faith his own devotion to God So he had you know that the practice of studying birds is ornithology.
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He called it ornithology. I Know I'd get at least one smile from that But in his book every chapter
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I think has little gems, but I particularly liked three points that he made These are my own points, but I'm gonna summarize largely what he's getting at I think it's really helpful to understand about this passage what it means to look at the birds and what it does not mean
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All right. Remember the context Don't worry about your life. Don't worry about what you're gonna eat. Look to the birds of the air
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They don't sow they don't reap they don't gather into barns and your heavenly father feeds them Okay, so that's the context.
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So here's the first point Jesus does not oppose planning All right, we should not look at Matthew 6 26 and say
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I literally have to live hand -to -mouth if I'm gonna obey Jesus That's that's not the point Jesus does not oppose planning
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In fact Proverbs will go into great detail about the wise man who knows how to store up for a day of trouble
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All right. So Jesus does not oppose forethought. Jesus does not oppose wise planning He doesn't oppose industry that leads to excess
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Although he has a lot to say about how we steward that excess But certainly the idea is we we only desire to be industrious and diligent so that we can bear fruit
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So that we can provide for our own and Lord willing provide in such a way that it overflows to the needs and cares of others
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So Jesus does not oppose planning. He opposes having an anxiety about planning There's a big difference between the two
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There's not opposed planning but he does oppose having a anxiety about planning He's warning us against worry and anxiety that will distract us from living for the kingdom as our top priority
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Following through on the will of God whether trials or blessings may come and so we're to plan for our future
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We're to be thoughtful not only for our own lives but for the lives of those in our family as best as we can but we are commanded not to be
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Sinfully anxious or worrisome or fearful about those plans We're to trust
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God some of you are Read or will be reading J. C. Ryle There's a wonderful biography by Ian Murray on J.
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C. Ryle J. C. Ryle was born into a rather wealthy family he was sort of the child with the silver spoon and at some point in that biography
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Murray recounts how Through a number of trade agreements it seemed like they were on the the step of entering into an amassed fortune and Then by nightfall it was all gone and they were destitute
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And he said I I woke up that morning. I felt the whole world was at my disposal And went to bed that night with nothing and he learned from that he had he learned from that key to clip in Philippians 4
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That His life had to be about something more than that kind of roller coaster of wealth and provision it had to be a life unto
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God a life lived in the will of God and So though I'm sure he became very prudent.
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He learned a lot of hard lessons about how to steward wealth from that I think he also learned that it does very little to be worried or anxious about wealth
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Frankly, if you're my age and you remember your grandparents coming through the Great Depression era
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I think a lot of people in our society learned that kind of lesson most of my uncles that were, you know shoeless in Nova Scotia on the farms up north and and Even when they were rather successful and they had great means of disposal.
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They lived very simply No, my I think I've shared about my uncle Bud my uncle
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Monroe. He's just the premier example of this in my mind You know, he lived in his mother's house.
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It was like a three -room house He had his toes sticking through his boots never owned a car walked to church walked to the market
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When he was older and it was hard to walk He'd take his ride on lawnmower and go pick up milk and hey just he lived like a pauper
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We'd go there on family vacations and it's like oh we got to go to uncle Pick our own string beans to eat for dinner and then when he died everyone in the family
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Got a portion of his Estate and it was several million dollars He couldn't have bought a new pair of boots
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He could have bought a Lamborghini Gallardo it's like what uncle
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Bud His whole life. It was come and go he had learned actually
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The most meaningful things in life can't be found in this so he lived with no anxiety about his future
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Jesus does not oppose planning, but he does oppose anxious planning secondly. Jesus does not promote passivity
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And if you look at the birds carefully, you'll know that Jesus does not promote passivity It is true that I have never seen finches or sparrows or blue jays or Cardinals or chickadees with farming equipment attached to their nests
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But I've also never seen those same birds just sitting in the nest and waiting for food to come Right.
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In fact, you hardly ever see them in their nests. They're constantly going back and forth They're either constantly flying up and down all around trying to build a nest or once they've built it
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Constantly flying back and forth all around to be able to feed the things that are in the nest Essentially a bird doesn't stop working until it dies
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And so Jesus here is not promoting passivity. Of course, he's saying you don't have to fret in a sinful way
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You need to be industrious. You need to be diligent but recognize that the father is the one who provides
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It's not your own efforts or labors that's ultimately providing for you. It's the father. It's his heavenly pleasure to do so So you don't have to go to bed at night consumed with fear or worry
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You don't have to have heart palpitations or bury your head in your hands and say what's going to happen now?
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because the reality is you are being provided for even when you weren't as Concerned even as you weren't as fearful
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You were being provided for by God So you have no reason to fear now that you're worried about how you're going to provide now
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You don't know how the ends will be met. God is faithful You can see all walks of life as David says you won't see
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God's people begging for bread That's something he had never seen. It's true that birds and beasts and other living creatures are industrious
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But Psalm 104 Job 39 all of these passages want us to see it's
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God who is our provider Jehovah Jireh as we learned in Sunday school many eons ago
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The Lord our provider and so God provides what we need
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So that we are able to eat God provides strength in our bodies. He provides means he provides skills that can be learned
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He provides a desire to improve. He provides social networks that we can operate within Economically, he provides all of these things so that we're able to feed ourselves and and it's not this
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Incompatibility With the way that God provides we in some ways Understand that God provides for us in such a way that we're always looking to him and yet he calls us to do things
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He's given us things to do given us means to do them and strength to do them. That's part of the calling That's part of the kingdom
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So we recognize all food comes from God's hand, but we also thank God for farmers and fishermen
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Supermarkets and stability and peace Our prayers before we eat should never be empty formulas
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Again look just look slow down look You should really thank
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God for what's before you when you're about to eat Third and last point.
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Let me just remind you before we get there. So first Jesus does not oppose planning, but he does oppose sinful anxious planning
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Secondly, Jesus does not promote Passivity rather the opposite he encourages industry and diligence
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But not in the way of the foolish man who wants bigger barns and thinks that's how I'm going to provide for myself
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That's the kind of industry and diligence that becomes idolatrous belly worship rather than bird watching devotion
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And then thirdly and lastly Jesus does not deny tragedy One of the things you realize when you look at birds is they don't have a very long lifespan, do they?
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they hatch and they're provided for and God gives them their food in due season and you could even say the the feathers of their wings are numbered, but God is the one who has appointed their lifespan and Jesus does not hear denied tragedy
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Bad things tragic things dark days occur in Matthew 10. Jesus says that the sparrow doesn't drop apart from the father's will well, we realize sparrows do drop and Even though the hairs of our head our number we recognize
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That number does get cold We recognize that Jesus is not denied tragedy because we see him at the tomb of Lazarus weeping.
01:00:10
I don't think Jesus wept over sparrows He was always looking at them, but he wept at the tomb of Lazarus Are you of not much more value than they?
01:00:33
so part of looking to the birds is recognizing God has ordered every situation and That order is veiled to me.
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I walk in perfect Providence, but that Providence is mysterious to me As another hymn says
01:00:53
God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform and so looking to the birds we recognize it ultimately
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It's not all about my fulfillment my happiness and in a lot of ways. I'm just a sparrow for a season
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God is faithful to me, but I don't know the number of my days I don't know when this season will be called to an end.
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All I know is that God is in control and he does what is right And so Jesus does not deny tragedy
01:01:24
Remember Jesus is the one who has scattered untold galaxies throughout the cosmos Arranging every molecule of our firmament just as he's commanded and every cell of our bodies
01:01:35
Established and arranged according to his wisdom as he sits enthroned above the entire Material universe as a sovereign boasting over burning supernovas in the same way
01:01:46
He is a sovereign over our daily lives down to the most trivial details of our daily life
01:01:51
And I think we learn how to respond to all the things that we face in life in that way
01:02:05
Have you learned how to do that? Do you attribute everything you encounter to the hand of God? He's got a lot he wants to teach you there's a lot you need to look at I Remember my old
01:02:18
Mazda was like every third month something mechanically would go But I always knew nothing's gone wrong.
01:02:27
The Lord hasn't intended to go wrong so instead of just reacting sort of at face value whenever my
01:02:34
Dashboard would light up like a Christmas tree. I just go please Lord. No I just got this thing running again,
01:02:42
Lord, please All right, maybe you intend for me to be salt and light at the you know shop or whatever
01:02:53
He has a lot. He wants to teach us And he doesn't deny that a lot of the things that he wants to teach us can be really difficult
01:03:02
We're more shy about admitting it. He's not very shy about revealing it He's like if if you're gonna follow me, it's gonna be painful at times.
01:03:10
I Don't deny there's a lot of tragic things that will happen in your life And you should still look at the birds
01:03:20
Life's about more than your body more than your clothes life's about more than your nest More than your success more than your ambition
01:03:29
Life's a lot bigger than you may realize at any given moment in time Life ultimately is not about you.
01:03:35
Jesus is saying life's about me and my kingdom That's why he says I am the way the truth the life
01:03:44
It's about me So you trust that he's the one ordering all these situations
01:03:49
He's the one that's actually numbered the very hair of your head He's the one that that knows what it's like to face
01:03:56
Temptation and despair as you walk faithfully through a fallen world and deal with things that seem impossibly beyond your control
01:04:04
Things that threaten to suffocate you or drown you or throw you from the path of the righteous and he knows what that's like It's why he's a sympathetic high priest
01:04:14
So you look to the birds you look at the world around you and beyond and with all of that You look to the one who was looking at the birds and teaching this very thing.
01:04:23
You look to Jesus You look to how he operated in his life as one who who didn't have anywhere to lay his head
01:04:31
As one who really only had the clothes on his back and was trusting God every day for daily bread He was living out the
01:04:37
Lord's prayer every day in reality And he was doing it at a depth and a pressure that none of us could imagine
01:04:43
Never caving into the temptations that were constantly assaulting him. He was faithful to the bitter end
01:04:51
If ever there was a man who was denied and had to learn Obedience through suffering as the writer of hebrews says it was jesus
01:05:04
Why was he a man of sorrows? Because his whole life was constant rejection and denial the one who sat enthroned
01:05:15
With cherubs and seraphs that he created peerless in their radiance not able to even glare toward him
01:05:25
Stepped into our flesh into this fallen world and faced constant rejection in denial
01:05:36
Need want hunger starvation The one who says to you this morning don't worry about what you'll eat
01:05:46
Or what you'll drink Is the one who from golgotha said I thirst
01:05:54
The one who says don't worry about what clothes you're going to put on your body is the one who was stripped
01:05:59
Naked when he was nailed to the tree And all the ones who had rejected and denied him surrounded him mocking him and they said
01:06:06
He trusted in god. Let god deliver him They meant that as a as a way of mocking jesus we now recite that as a form of worshiping jesus
01:06:20
Their mockery was he trusted in god. Look what that brought about And now the refrain of our worship is he trusted god look at what that has brought about And so we're reminded when we look to the birds when we look
01:06:35
To the maker of the birds the maker of the heavens and the earth and we look to the one who came into the dearth
01:06:41
Earth and lived a perfect life and died the curse at death. We look to the one who trusted god
01:06:48
Who wasn't anxious about what he was going to eat or what he's going to wear Who wasn't gripped with a sinful anxiety who didn't plan out all of his ambitions and successes who could see
01:06:57
And see beyond and live according to a kingdom and a righteousness that brought about all of the promises of god
01:07:03
Because in him all of the promises of god are yes, and amen. Amen and so when jesus says
01:07:13
Have faith in god Trust god Don't worry
01:07:22
You really can trust him You really can follow him
01:07:30
You really can give your life into his hands. You can surrender to him He says
01:07:37
I'll never lose anyone the father gives to me never Never I would say to you this morning.
01:07:48
There's no one else you could trust that says to you. Don't worry, but jesus Essentially when someone's going through great trial and travail the most we can be as job's friends, right when someone's really in the pit of affliction
01:08:01
Even the the most well -intended christians are a lot like job's friends We we come up next to people that are suffering and hungering and thirsting and fearing
01:08:14
And we say don't worry. We're a lot like the song that i'm borrowing the title from That song if you actually look at the lyrics bobby mcferrin.
01:08:22
Don't worry be happy. One of the lyrics is uh your rental payments late
01:08:28
Uh landlord might litigate Don't worry be happy. It's like What?
01:08:36
Like what would you think of a friend who's like? Oh, so you're broke and you're about to get evicted and you're actually being dragged to court.
01:08:42
Don't worry be happy I wouldn't trust anyone's advice If my life is driven by fears and genuine needs if a lot of my responses to things and a lot of my actions
01:08:54
Are driven by the things that i'm desiring and the things that i'm fearful about If my whole life is gripped with that kind of worry and anyone else comes up to me and says hey, don't worry
01:09:03
Just just be happy. Hey, don't worry. Just you know, be a better christian doesn't mean a lot to me to be honest
01:09:08
I don't know where i'm at. You don't know what it's like. I don't know that you're experiencing what i'm feeling But if jesus the crucified and risen one says to me don't worry seek the kingdom first I can trust that I can obey that He's the one that's numbered my days
01:09:29
When when the When the one who has Pierced hands and feet and a riven side says to me
01:09:37
Ross if you worry you're not going to add one cubit to your life In fact ross if you worry you might be shortening your life
01:09:46
I can trust him In your book lord were written the days that were formed for me even when there were no days
01:09:54
Therefore as james says lord, I lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness And receive with meekness the implanted word able to save my soul
01:10:05
So I can be a doer of that word. What's the word? Don't worry Be holy
01:10:13
Look at the birds of the air For they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns yet.
01:10:19
Your heavenly father feeds them Are you not of more value than they?
01:10:27
Are you a bird watcher this morning? Or are you a belly worshiper Yeah, I'll close with this.
01:10:36
I I was standing At the bus terminal at logan airport yesterday afternoon
01:10:43
It was all asphalt and pavement and all these buses were going by And every 10 seconds someone was coming up with this very anxious look
01:10:52
Even the people that weren't anxious and were just waiting for a bus were just staring at their phones It must have been 40 50 people all of them either
01:10:59
Anxiously looking at the buses that were coming or the signs or worrying that they were going to miss their connection Or people just staring into their phones trying to occupy themselves
01:11:08
And there was a little sparrow that flew down to the side of a trash can and was hopping around looking for crumbs
01:11:16
And I was just watching it It was there for about 10 seconds and it flew away I think
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I was the only person out of 50 people that even noticed that bird And the sad thing is if I hadn't been preparing a sermon on matthew 6 26
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I don't think I would have even looked at that bird for more than a second if I even noticed it at all. Listen Are you a bird watcher?
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or a belly worshiper Look at the birds of the air Let's pray
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Father we thank you for You are the one who feeds the young ravens the one who feeds the birds of the air
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That all of creation has its mouth open to you. You are the provider the sustainer providing for and sustaining what your hands alone have made and all the majesty and beauty and glory and even in a sin, cursed and fallen state of this world
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We see your goodness your wisdom your glories shining through We pray lord that we would be more attentive more reflective as jesus seeks his disciples to be
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That we would not just look down and within to those carnal desires and impulses nor be driven by fears and needs and desires.
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But lord That we would look around and look beyond That we would look toward the the kingdom and the promise and the hope that we would be
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So unlike esau that godless man That we would be more attentive more reflective Less like esau we we weep bitter tears at the end and find no place for repentance
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Help us lord to grasp the promise to order our whole lives according to the kingdom and its righteousness without any worry, but a holiness to be visible by men that By the very means of righteousness they might glorify you
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Lord, you know the hearts of your people here, you know my heart Lord, help us to examine the things that drive us, the fears that fuel us, the needs that motivate us, and help us,
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Lord, in deeper ways to follow through in responding to this command by repentance and faith, not to worry, but to be holy.
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We cannot do this in our flesh, but Lord, by Your Spirit and through Christ, we can overcome all of the worries and anxieties that would suffocate the fruit of Your gospel in our lives.
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We ask, Lord, by Your mercy and grace, to send us Your Spirit toward this end.