Don’t Worry, Be Holy - Part 4: Your Heavenly Father Knows

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Matthew 6:31-32

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Well this morning we are coming to part four and really the last part of this whole first part of the end of chapter 6
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Which is essentially the don't worry part with now for several weeks been considering from verses 25 through 32 this morning what it means to not worry and Why it's important to grasp what
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Jesus is teaching about us not Having our lives consumed or choked with the cares and needs of life
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With the concerns and ambitions and drives and desires of life
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And so in all of these ways over the past several weeks We've we've been unpacking why we should not worry and then beginning next week and we'll have about Three weeks specifically just on verse 33.
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We'll consider the counterpart to that. Don't worry, but be holy Seek first the kingdom of God in the last several weeks.
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We've been looking at birds. We've been looking at lilies We've been stepping on blades of grass again.
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I hope you're you've been a little more Romanticized in the way you're looking and listening and experiencing the world
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Don't be too much like a hippie, but still kind of you know, take it all in soak it all in this time of year
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Especially but the reason we've been looking at birds and lilies is Jesus has been pressing us to reflect deeply on The father's care and therefore to respond to the father's will
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All right, we don't have to worry We need to trust God that he'll provide so that not being distracted by worry
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We can devote ourselves to him completely we can seek first his will his desire
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Last week in particular we spoke about The source of contentment Paul said that in all things he had learned how to be content
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In other words, he had wrestled through and struggled through needs anxieties fears hopes ambitions and all of these
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Deprivations and all of these blessings He had learned to be content and we we've seen that God is always teaching us something.
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The question is not Is God teaching me the question is am I learning what God is teaching me?
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God is always teaching always speaking always revealing. The question is am
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I able to slow down? pay attention Reflect deeply and respond to what
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God is trying to show me to the things He's trying to teach me and so we spoke about contentment last week and the two streams that lead into that river of contentment which are meekness and gratitude and We spoke more on gratitude because when we are actually walking in gratitude
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We become very meek people meek people are thankful people Well this morning we take up at verses 31 and 32
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I'm gonna read it with 33, but 33 will not be what we break ground on until next week
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So Matthew 6 beginning in verse 31 Therefore Jesus says do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear?
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for after all these things the Gentiles seek Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things
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But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you
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So again leaving 33 aside I'm reading it so you can catch some repetition going on Notice the repetition of what is being sought after all these things the
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Gentiles seek The Gentiles are seeking things and they're seeking things in a certain way and notice the repetition of this phrase all of these things
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Euphemistically What we're gonna eat and what we're gonna wear but beyond that every issue of life
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Everything under the Sun After all these things all the things that comprise a life
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All the things that there are to be worried about all the things that your life your body does need
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After all these things the Gentiles seek your father knows you need all these things Seek first the kingdom and all these things will be added to you
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So Jesus is is repeating and emphasizing the fact that the father really does know you need all these things
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The father really knows that you're struggling and trying to make sense of all of these things
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That's the emphasis. The question is in light of these things What are you seeking?
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How are you ordering your life? That'll become a little more clear as we as we get to verse 33 next week
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Not only are we finding the repetition of what's being sought Not only do we find the repetition of all these things that have taken our attention from verses 25 through 32
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But we also are coming full circle These verses resume where we began in verse 25 in verse 25.
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Jesus gave a command. Do not worry That's a command. Do not worry about your life
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And then he repeats the same questions he introduced in verse 25, what shall we eat what shall we drink or what shall we wear
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So we're coming full circle and not only are we coming full circle to verses 25 and following But in a lot of ways
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Jesus is drawing us back to where we had begun in chapter 6 You remember it was earlier in Matthew 6 where the
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Gentiles the Gentiles that he says here are Seeking after all these things and all of the wrong ways for all of the wrong reason but it was the
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Gentiles earlier in Matthew 6 that were rambling and Heaping up many words hoping that somehow their gods would provide all of these things
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The Gentiles had to wonder whether their gifts and their offerings and their incessant verbose
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Prayers would actually bring about the things that they need and Jesus says your heavenly father is not like that That's why we went into the
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Lord's Prayer listen when you pray don't pray like the Gentiles they're heaping up words They're desperate for many things.
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They can't really trust their gods They have to heap up their words and heap up their altars and heap up their sacrifices.
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Their gods are capricious arbitrary Vengeful their projections of fallen men into the skies
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But your father the creator of all he's not like that at all Rather than looking into pagan mythology.
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Why don't you pluck some lilies? Why don't you pay attention to the things that he has made? Why don't you get the perspective of Job and recognize who he is?
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So Jesus is pointing his disciples to the faithfulness and the character of the heavenly father
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His provision is trustworthy. His mercy never changes and That clears the way for what will be distinctive about the followers of Jesus Unlike the
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Gentiles they don't hold their needs They don't hold the things that even the father knows we need in the same way that the
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Gentiles do they don't fend for themselves They don't desperately wring their hands.
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They don't heap up prayers They're not anxious. They're not consumed. The gospel is not being suffocated
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By the cares and concerns of life or of the flesh or of this world or of the evil one
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They truly are able to seek first the kingdom of God So the first point is when we hold all of this together in chapter 6
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Jesus does not want his followers to live like the Gentiles It's interesting, isn't it?
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We all we all have the same human bodies the same human needs
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In a lot of ways we all have to navigate our lives just like everybody else Electric bills have to get paid the cupboards have to get filled right
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Gasoline tanks have to be topped off but we all Generally have to live our lives in the same way and one of the emphases that Jesus is drawing out in Matthew 6 is to Say don't live like the
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Gentiles You might be doing a lot of the same things you might need a lot of the same things But do not be like them
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You have to have an entirely different orientation to your life to the needs of your life to the things of life
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And that's going to be because what you must do is the very thing the Gentiles cannot do you must seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness
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Remember the Gentiles thought that they would be heard because they they had this whole elaborate System of rituals and they would heap up empty phrases on prayer and they thought if they could babble off repetitions
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The gods would be more favorable to hear them. So all of the emphasis is on the one who is praying
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Jesus comes to his disciples and says no it's not on the one who is praying It's the one that is being prayed to in other words.
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God is the provider It's not wringing your hands, it's not heaping up phrases It's not daydreaming about ambitions that brings anything about seek first the kingdom and recognize everything that is good comes down from the father of lights
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And of course as we saw from the the
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Lord's Prayer These these intercessions these rituals these repetitions are all attempts to try to control outcomes
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Pagan prayers pagan rituals could hardly be described as mere devotion.
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I Would think a better way to frame it would be devotional manipulation They were trying to manipulate the will of the gods
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Jesus says don't be like the Gentiles They wanted to control what were they trying to control?
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What were they trying to manipulate? The outcomes of their needs and their worries and that's what
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Jesus has been getting at this whole time When you're going to when you're going to live life as if you have to manipulate the outcomes of the things that you need the things that you're worried about you will never be able to seek first the kingdom and If you can't seek first the kingdom you can't enter it if we understand the flow of that logic when we get to chapter 7
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You'll see you'll see a lot of the artillery of what it means to be a follower of Jesus But the emphasis this morning and the thing that Jesus has been driving to in light of all these things is that the care of the
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Heavenly Father when he Contrasted the way that the Gentiles conduct their lives and try to manipulate their needs and worries
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He was pointing his disciples to pray and entrust themselves to the care of the father And so the prayer begins our father and it's a very kingdom oriented seeking first the kingdom kind of prayer
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It's how that prayer begins hallowed be thy name. It's how that prayer ends Here in verse 32
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Jesus says your heavenly father Knows you need all these things. What did he say in verse 8?
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Do not be like them do not be like the Gentiles your father knows the things you need of before you even ask him
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So you see how we've come full circle even in this chapter It's the it's the the symmetrical glory of this whole
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Sermon on the Mount beautiful Don't be like the Gentiles and he's saying it again here
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Don't be like the Gentiles in verse 8 your father knows the things you need in verse 32 your father knows that you need all these things
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So you don't have to be like a Gentile Gentile rambling and praying and hoping wringing your hands and worry
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Trying to manipulate the outcomes trying desperately to get some sense of control Trying to move the chess pieces of your life to the path of ease and the best possible outcome that you can muster in light of your circumstances
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If that in any way touches on your approach to life, you cannot follow Jesus you cannot
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What did he what did he say no man can serve two masters The comfort that he brings in light of this in light of verse 32 is
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Drawing again our attention to the care of our Heavenly Father so we have to take all that he's saying in light of where we're going in Matthew 7 this high and Narrow and weighty calling to truly be a disciple to actually
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Respond to the things that he has taught us To actually receive the lesson and let his word bear down deep into the soil of our heart so that it may spring forth into the fruits of life
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To build wisely on the rock so that as needs and worries turn into storms and vortexes
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Our faith doesn't collapse under its own weight because it's built on shifting sands And all of that is framed in if you would live your life built solid on the rock
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Seeking first the kingdom of God you must truly grasp your Heavenly Father's care and love for you
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That is one of the major things that Jesus is trying to get across Your Heavenly Father knows what you need
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Your Heavenly Father knows what you need What a comfort to know we have a father in heaven
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Who already knows what we need? We have a father in heaven who not only cares for us
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But realizing that it's hard for us to trust that he knows what we need It's hard for us to not fend for ourselves or try to manipulate outcomes
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He actually calls us to come and cast all of our cares on him Our Heavenly Father knows the things that we need even before we ask them
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Even if we never realize them, he knows the things that we need. He knows what we need because he knows us
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We have we have
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Earthly fathers and mothers right in some ways in a microcosm We could say mom and dad knows what
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I need and that's true, especially when you're very little Better than that little toddler knows for themselves in ways
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They can't even comprehend mom and dad knows what needs to be done knows what knows what's important and what's not
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Child says I need candy mom and dad say no you do not Child says
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I need that new toy mom and dad say no you do not need that Child says
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I don't want to eat carrots mom and dad say you need to eat carrots, right? We know better than you you don't really know what you need and a lot of the things you think you need are not really needs
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But as you grow up a lot of the younger people here You're still at a home and as you've grown up as your life has become more complex as you've become more
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Self -aware as your life has been introduced with all sorts of drives and desires and circumstances and ambitions
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Less and less and less do your parents know truly where you are and what you need
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They can observe they can have some sense of what's going on They can have some conjectures about what's really important a lot of this is wrought out by prayer and discernment
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These things are often worked out from the word in a community like a church But the reality is you become more of a stranger to the people who knew so well what you needed when you were three years old and In the same way you're actually becoming a stranger to your own needs as well
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You you yourself don't really know what you need or why you feel you need the things you feel you need and yet God perfectly knows what you need
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What I'm saying is No one truly knows what you need look to the left look to the right look behind look in front everyone here
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Does not know truly where you are and what you need Some of us we could say are blissfully unaware
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That even the closest of us Even those who are ground zero for the most difficult things taking place in your life
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Can't know the full depth of that and maybe can't even discern or ascertain what is truly needed
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But the father does The father knows exactly what is needed Not only does he know it better than the people around you the people closest to you
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The people that you trust and look to the most he knows it better than you do yourself Jesus is saying
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The one who feeds the Ravens will feed you the one who ordained the lily to blossom in this specific way just so it can be mowed down in the season to come is the father who holds you to be of much more value than these things and Has undertaken to provide all that you need and he knows better than you what you need.
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Oh sometimes in the Christian life We go to God Because we need him to take away the very thing that he in his wife in his wise providence says it's actually what you need
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Think of Paul Three times. I'm praying Lord. I need this thorn to be taken out of me
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And God is saying Paul you need that thorn in you Paul comes to that realization the thing that I'm saying
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I Need God to get rid of is the thing that God says I need Because it's kept me humble and it's brought me low and now
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I won't make a train wreck out of this apostolic foundation that God has tasked me with right and often in the
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Christian life We think we know what we need But we don't really know our needs as well as our
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Heavenly Father Just like a toddler doesn't really know what they need. They can respond and react to circumstances
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But only the Heavenly Father truly knows us. We don't even know ourselves as he knows us the point that I'm driving at is
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If this is something you're just nodding and yeah, that's good I love coming to church and getting a little fortune cookie sentiment like our father knows our needs
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That's you know, that's helpful to reflect on and I'm saying no you haven't really even begun to understand the depth of that The father the father knows the perfect amount of suffering that is required to conform you to the image of his son
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And he's he's ordained to do that in a way that he will take you himself through a valley of tears so that you will have joy in the morning and Though you're desperately saying
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I know where joy in the morning is and the one place it's not is through this valley Your father knows better than you do
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So this is not some you know cotton candy sentiment This is as bloody as our
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Lord putting a splintered cross Across his back and dragging it took all Gotham because he's the one that's teaching these things
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When he grew up in stature and favor and wisdom among men when he as the writer of Hebrews says learned obedience through suffering
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The heart sentiment of his whole devotion to his father was you know better than I?
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So why did he teach his disciples to pray not my will but your will be done not what
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I need but what you ordain Not what I would seek but what you have sought on my behalf what you would seek for me
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These are the things that drive me. These are the things that ought to compel me My heavenly father knows my needs
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Gentiles live by the motto. What will I eat? Christians live by the motto the
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Lord will provide Now that's something also I want to take a step back and really appreciate
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The Lord will provide that that was a motto right in Genesis 22 when we saw the binding of Isaac and Isaac of course enigmatic and and typological toward Christ bearing the cross toward Golgotha was bearing the the wood of the sacrifice upon his back climbing up the
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Mount and He recognized well we have everything we need for a sacrifice but the sacrificial animal and Abraham responded the
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Lord will provide and then in the narrative Moses says and to this day that has become a motto or a proverb among the people on the
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Mount the Lord will provide and For us it really ought to be that motto that that life sentiment the
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Lord knows what I need and therefore the Lord will provide He'll provide blessing as I need it.
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He'll provide trial as I need it He'll give comforts and health and help as I need it
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He'll give thorns and storms and trials as I need it. The Lord knows what I need. I can't fend for myself.
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I Dare not strive for myself. The Lord knows what I need and the Lord will provide He just bids me to seek his his will as it's revealed as I seek the kingdom first Everything else will be added.
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Everything else is taken care of Now Here's the problem with this little motto. It just becomes a motto not a way of life.
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Not a sentiment born by faith The Lord will provide Alexander McLaren pointed this out
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He says the Lord will provide has become a threadbare proverb a commonplace
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Christian feeling In other words, we all say it, but we don't actually mean it. It's like It's like saying
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God bless you and you can say God bless you with real meaning There's a there's a few moments in my life that stand out to my memory where I've had occasion to to meet someone in in passing maybe a figure that is very influential important in my mind and as I Introduced myself and shook their hand.
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I very Intentionally and purposefully with all of the all of the weight
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I could muster said God bless you God bless you. God bless your ministry
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God bless the impact you've had And then there's times where I've been in a room and someone sneezes and I go
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God bless you There's a difference between those two Same words, but one is just a reaction.
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God bless you Or you don't even say it fully it means so little you don't even say it fully.
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God bless you God bless Gesundheit it just It's just a way of reacting to something
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My my sense is the Lord will provide has gotten closer to how we respond to a sneeze
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Than some full -hearted Sentiment born by faith. And so someone's going through a really difficult time.
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Someone has some great needs some really difficult trial that they don't know how to overcome and we almost not even knowing what to say just say well the
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Lord will provide We Haven't even driven into the full theology of that sentiment and they don't even receive it in that way.
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They go. Yeah. No, I know Or they'll beat you to it. Well, oh the Lord will provide and they almost say it as if they're dismissing it
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It hasn't actually done anything to what they're facing. It hasn't actually relieved the burden of that need
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It's almost just reacting to a sneeze. Oh, I know. Yeah, I know the Lord will provide But anyways, here
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I am sweating and wringing my hands and I don't know how I'm gonna move forward We actually haven't allowed the truth of that statement to take hold to us we're not saying it like Abraham said it when we say something like the
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Lord will provide when we unpack all that Jesus is doing in Matthew 6 to say if you know the father and you know what he's like and you have eyes in your skull and Blades of grass are creeping up between your sandals and you're hearing bird songs
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You should be able to reflect a little more deeply on what the father's like and how he's made this world and the kind of Sovereign control he has over all things and the kind of character that you can entirely surrender to and in Entirely entrust yourself to and that ought to drive you to this recognition as Paul says to the church at Philippi My God will supply all of your needs according to the riches in glory by Christ Jesus That's not
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Paul's not saying that against a sneeze That is deep theology That's in the same letter.
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He's saying I learned how to be content For two days and a night clinging to wood when
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I was shipwrecked beaten with rods whipped Five occasion right?
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He's going in everything with blessings and trials with thorns and gifts and everything I learned to be content and what's what's the driving point behind that?
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It's the same thing Jesus here is is doing in Matthew 6. God will supply all that you need He'll do it according to his riches.
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Do you think his hand is short? Do you think his Treasury is is bankrupt? Do you think his control is limited?
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Do you think his purpose is thwarted? That's what he's reminding Job. You forgot who I am You haven't been looking around You haven't been inhaling and reflecting on who you are and where you are what you're like versus what
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I'm like When we understand these things when we understand that God knows us
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He truly knows me. He knows me in ways that I can't even admit He knows me and so when
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I pray sometimes I pray with what I would want to be known sometimes
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I I come to him with things still in my pockets and Here's the
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God who knows me better than myself. It's like Boy, this is a really embarrassing This is a really embarrassing story, but it came to my mind.
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So I'm just gonna run with it I don't have many memories from when I was a very little boy, but I remember being in preschool and It's really one of the only memories
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I think I've ever had from preschool and it's like Augustine remembering when he stole fruit
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And he held to that his whole life and said we weren't even hungry. We didn't even eat it. We just wanted to steal it
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And it's very much an Augustine confession an Augustinian confession I remember we had a show and tell day and my best little friend
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Chucky Brought this brand new Paratrooper Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figure and I had my little
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GI Joe and I just my mouth was out like I've never seen something so amazing
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I Got to get my hands on that a little too obvious if I take the the figure
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But the packaging is pretty awesome So I took this big piece of cardboard and I shoved it under my shirt
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I was this wiry little four -year -old and I have this huge cardboard box sticking out of my shirt
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And at some point Chuck is realizing wait Where's the box? And in my four -year -old perspective the teacher is going where could it be?
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Let's all look around and figure out where this could someone have taken this box and I'm going
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I'm mystified. I mean it was there. I remember vividly seeing it there. I Think Joey's looking a little suspicious to be honest.
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It's like at some point. I realize you know The jig is up Come to light so I went in the corner and I pulled out this cardboard box.
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It was like I found it The teachers like okay, can we just move on and all the kids are like yay the hero
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Ross He found the box and Chuck. He's like you're my best friend That's a lot like it's like here
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I am with this this issue this need this pain this weakness this darkness this idolatry
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And it's sticking out of me obvious But I'm just carrying on carrying on in my walk with the
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Lord as if he doesn't know as if he doesn't see So how in the world am
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I gonna seek the kingdom first? If I can't cope with the fact that he knows me better than I know myself
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Even the things I don't like to see in myself even the places. I don't want to really confront or dwell on I've said it from this pulpit before it's the hardest thing in the world to get someone to look in the mirror
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It's really hard to get someone to look in the mirror We don't like looking at ourselves in the mirror spiritually speaking
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We love looking at everyone else in the mirror. We don't really like looking at ourselves Do you know that God knows you do you know that nothing is hidden from his sight that ought to melt us
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But how is Jesus presenting this truth to his disciples It ought to melt us if we could honestly reckon with this the fact that it's a holy
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God That knows me as a sinner in sins that I don't even see and to the degree that I realize them
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I don't even want to dwell on or I want to mask them over and newspaper them and make them look better He actually knows them and he knows them with a perfect pure sight with the holiness
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And when Jesus is teaching on this he doesn't bring it in a way that it's to melt us and make us tremble
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He says you actually can surrender yourself to the mercy of God That's what Peter is doing in in 5 7 when he says you can cast all your cares
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You can cast all of the mess on him. He actually cares for you And if you recognize that you'll actually be able to fully devote yourself to his kingdom because you've never been embraced in that way
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No one else would embrace you in that way If everyone could see the full darkness in the way that God sees it you would be ostracized for the rest of your life
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I'm thankful that God doesn't even bear to myself the full weight of my sinfulness
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It's a mercy that he numbs and makes me dull to my own sinfulness But he sees it all and the glory of the gospel brothers and sisters as he sees it all
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Through the finished work of Christ And that's why
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Paul can say my God will supply every single thing that you need according to his riches by Christ Jesus all of his fatherly care and Providence and interaction is funneled to you as a
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Christian through the finished work of the Son and It's applied and carried out by the power of the
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Holy Spirit The the the very thing that Jesus is trying to prevent us from doing is a thing we almost always do we try to figure it out and Make it work and go in our own way and seek first all the things that we really need to accomplish because how else will?
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It be accomplished and and then in some way if we can in the process clean ourselves up and work things out Then then we'll go to God Let me handle all this and then
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I'll be able to seek his kingdom maybe in about twelve and a half years I'll be able to seek his kingdom first And Jesus is saying no, no
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He actually knows you All the great revival hymns over the past century
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They the great revival movements almost invariably had that that great hymn, you know, come as you are
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Come to Jesus And the only people that were actually going up the sawdust trail so to speak were the people that really were coming as they are
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What else can I do? It's always that way with the Lord always that way with the
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Lord God who is spirit eternal unchangeable in his being infinite and wisdom in power infinitely holy infinitely just infinite unending in his goodness the
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God who is love Is pure and without blemish the God who spoke everything that is
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You feel the woodgrain under your thumbs everything that is he just spoke into being with no effort with no
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Fatigue with no need for restoration. He brings about everything that he has purposed according to his perfect decree
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Without limitation unbounded in every way and Paul saying this God Jesus is saying my father
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Knows you and will provide for all of your needs He's clearing everything so that you can come to him and live for him so that you can actually conduct your life toward his will and Jesus is saying that's what
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I'm doing Follow me and doing that Paul says that's what I'm doing. Follow my example in doing that.
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I had to learn it It wasn't easy. Jesus had to learn it. It wasn't easy whoever doesn't
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Whoever doesn't take up the cross Won't be able to follow whoever
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Has their hand on the plow but looks back like lots wife
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Isn't worthy and Jesus knows every fiber in our neck wants to turn back fend drive straddle serve two masters and he's saying
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If you know the father and you know, the father knows you and you know, the father cares for you You truly can seek first the kingdom of God and know everything else will be added to you
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Nothing will be lost Paul his own variation on that in 1st Corinthians 3 would be your life may be built up with jewels and gems and glorious things that come when you have
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Put your hand to the plow and gone straight without looking back and by the Spirit of God He who began a good work is carrying it through but so often you've turned back
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You've been hesitant you've fended and you've been building in those times in your life with a lot of rubble and hay and straw
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And at the end that all gets burnt down to a crisp When we recognize that it is the
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God My creator God the
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God of my redemption That knows me better than I know and cares for the things that I need again
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He knows that you need these things. He knows that you need these things. He knows that you need these things
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He'll provide for them But he's not here to be your butler from the sky. He's not here to find a way as that The blasphemous saw it probably because I hate country
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I can say this I'll hate the strong word the one genre of music I strongly dislike would be country, but if ever because you have blasphemies like, you know,
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Jesus take the wheel All right, take the wheel The whole world is mine
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You're not driving anything Tricia. This whole world belongs to me I'm not here to be your co -pilot temporarily so you can figure things out
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When you recognize that in some sense That that utter transcendence and there's a purpose to everything in life
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And all of your blessings and your deprivations all of your gifts and your your lacks
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All of these things correspond to a perfect will and it's meant to free you so you can actually devote yourself to the kingdom
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And if you have that recognition that this is the God Who is actually providing for me and caring for me and calling me and helping me assisting me drawing me encouraging me
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Comforting me you'll be having you'll have this dizzying humility and gratitude. You'll be like David in 2nd
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Samuel 7 Who am I a Lord God? What's my house that you'd bring me this far?
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Why in the world would you look to my needs why in the world would you take such great care of me and provide for me?
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How is it that your eye is on the sparrow and I'm off much more weight than they This means
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God is not some blind watchmaker He's not some detached and disinterested higher intelligence
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Life is not a dog -eat -dog Way of navigating through all of our needs and ambitions and some people have to turn to the crutch of religion to cope
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Here is a God who is Committed himself to his people his obstinate rebellious slow and dull hard to perceive
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Stubborn often rebellious fickle wayward often straying people.
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He's committed himself to them entirely He's longing for each one that he has called and chosen
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Here is the one who is so intensely committed that there is nothing he withholds
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To provide for their greatest needs nothing and Paul has come to recognize
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My god will supply all that is needed He supplies according to the riches of his glory by Christ Jesus as we said last week.
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It's why the Apostle can always dwell around who loved me gave himself for me
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Which means there's nothing I will hold back If he so prioritized me and the need at the time
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I didn't even know I had because I was dead and trespasses and sins and while I was yet an enemy at my soul's greatest
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Need he spent his life So, what would I possibly withhold from him?
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That's the logic. This is a very intimate acquaintance with God It's Jesus says my
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Heavenly Father Paul says my God It's you don't get there if you don't have that kind of intimate acquaintance
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That's more like Gentiles even speaking Christian ease Gentile saying it all worked out
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Hey, you know, you know, I believe in the man upstairs. He's using this There's a man downstairs too.
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He's using it The whole point here is that there's an intimate acquaintance right who loved me gave himself for me
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It's my God my Heavenly Father There's an intimate acquaintance. I really know him
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He really does speak to me everywhere you don't get to kingdom prioritization
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You don't get to carry your cross discipleship with a God. You're not intimately acquainted with You just don't
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You might say the Lord will provide like people say God bless you after a sneeze You don't actually believe in the
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Lord who will provide You don't know him, but he knows you God shall supply notice.
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So our markets that supply it's not our relative economic prowess that will supply It's not the way that we've built up provisions for ourselves and be reminded of the man who said
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I just I know what the Issue is I need bigger barns. He never actually framed his possession. His life his faith in a right way
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He was a fool according to that parable. Our government is not what is going to supply all of our needs
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It's sad that we live in a time right now where people more and more than they ever did in the storied history of our nation
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Think that Caesar is actually supposed to supply all my needs and as we've seen our government turn increasingly toward a paternalistic tone
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We've noticed that people look more and more to the government as a divine father
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And if we're followers of Jesus we ought not to look in that direction in that way This is an intimate acquaintance independence upon God The one that is providing has a will has a purpose he provides so that we can accomplish that will in purpose
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That's why you need to be very weary about Who you're looking to to provide
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Because whoever is providing has a will and a purpose The earth belongs to the
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Lord everything in it As we said in Psalm 50 someone commented on this a few weeks ago Every piece of the forest is mine the cattle on a thousand hills
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I know all of the birds of the mountains all the wild beasts of the field are mine If I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you the whole world is mine
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You don't approach God like the Gentiles approach the gods of their own imagination God's that feed on the sacrifices they muster and they try to manipulate the worries and needs of their life
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God doesn't need anything from us You begin at the transcendent level This is the only one who can say in absolute truth mine over everything.
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That is as Kuiper famously said every square inch of the cosmos Christ Stamps his nail -starred foot upon and says mine
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You begin at that transcendence and that will actually melt you when you read things like it's this one
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Who possesses all that in more ways than I can even fathom or recognize in a single day?
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Provides for all of my needs Please notice that The verse is my
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God shall supply all that you need or my father knows the things that you need does not say
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God will supply all of your ambitions Does not say
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God will supply for all of your latest hobbies I wish this were true, but it does not say
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God will supply your Amazon wish list Whenever I see a book or something, I'm interested and I just add it to the cart so I can look into it later
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I've been doing that for like 10 years So I have like a million dollar Amazon card
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That'd be great. Hey never hit one click buy, please
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All means all my God will supply all that you need But all that you think you need is not all that you need
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My God will supply all that you need but all that you feel that you need is actually not all that you need
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You might need more You might need some other things entirely
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The one who knows you better than you know yourself is the one who will supply all that you truly need
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And so we recognize every perceived need is not necessarily a need from God's view and again
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If you're a parent, you just know this to be true kids are very needy And they have a lot of needs at any given point in time and most of those needs are unmet and guess what?
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They make it through the next day You know, it's like they have this this existential crisis if the if mealtime is running a little bit late and a parent knows it's okay
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You're gonna make it and they had this dramatic laying. I'm gonna die I'm starving
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And somehow they they survive they make it through every perceived need is not necessarily a need from God's view
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God therefore does not have the same labels that we have we have a little pricing gun like they have at market basket and we put need need need need need need need need on all these
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Various things and God will often go into our life and pluck. Nope. Nope. Nope. No, definitely not No that why would you think that's the worst thing for you?
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No, no, no And you boil it down and there might be three things If you ever speaking up kids, you've ever go grocery shopping at market basket
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You go down an aisle and you have kids hanging off your cart like like Afghans on a Toyota truck, you know
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They're hanging off and as you're going down the aisle, oh, you know, there's oh and all of a sudden you you turn your back
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You're like, whoa, we got this Grinch like mountain of food in our cart And then what are you're doing?
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You're unfortunately for the crew at night that has to put the shelves back to order You're like we don't need that where this thing we don't eat
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Oreo cake stirs get these out of here so so God is the one that actually knows our knees and we have very different labels than God and the whole point of where we're going through the end of Matthew 6 here with verse 33 next week is
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Jesus wants to help us get the right labels Seek first the kingdom and its righteousness
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That those will be the right labels for life So we want our labels our needs to match
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God's labels what God knows that we need What God says that we ought to be driven by or pursue or seek after?
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But that's not because he doesn't care for our needs he cares more than we care about the things we really need
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It's rather because if our needs are Fulfilled or sought out of order then we won't actually inherit the kingdom.
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We won't actually enter in to the fullness of the promise All right, there is an order to the things that we seek
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There is an order to our will to our way of life It all has to correspond to God our
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Creator and Redeemer his will in his kingdom his purpose in the world God is able to make all grace abound towards you so that you
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Always having all sufficiency and all things may have an abundance for every good work
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Notice the train of this thought that's 2nd Corinthians 9 8 Notice that word all or language synonymous with all
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God is able to make all grace abound towards you so that you always
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Having all sufficiency and all things may have an abundance for every good work.
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That's just you see what he's doing there rhetorically the overflow of provision the overflow of Supply the abundance of an abundant
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God toward you and all the things that you genuinely need mislabeled or otherwise It's so that you can actually carry about good work
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So that you will be well supplied for every good work good works that require gratitude Good works that require
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I've learned how to be hungry in other words good works that require contentment or Submission he provides in every way out of this abundance so that we can carry on good work.
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What's the good work? It's a different way of saying seeking first the kingdom and its righteousness Those are the good works the good works that belong to the kingdom
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And so I wonder whether we live with an expectation that even this morning as we're sitting around here
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God is desiring to encourage and strengthen us by promising. He'll meet our needs and Calling us to trust him when he's peeling off the labels
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And we're going no, no God. No. No, I really need that God And he's just saying trust me.
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Trust me. You don't Trust me. You don't we're actually being encouraged and comforted in the
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Lord's teaching so that we'll be Having a clear path an unobstructed lane to seeking the kingdom first in its righteousness so the obvious question the glaring question in light of everything we've had over the past several weeks is do you believe that God knows your
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Needs and will supply them. Do you believe that God really knows your needs? Don't say kazoon height to that.
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Do you really believe it? Do you see the theology behind it? Do you know that God knows you better than you know yourself?
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Do you know that God's labels are perfect? Do you know that God knows what you need and will supply what you need whether it be sheep on A thousand hills or a thorn in your side
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Do you trust that the Lord is in control of your life and everything that you encounter in life? Again, it's it's beautiful when you see the symmetry between the teachings of Jesus I think
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Paul in his own ways as I've alluded to even through Philippians is what is refracting that light from Jesus teaching in In his own apostolic teaching and I think
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James is doing that in a similar way in a different direction. What does James say? He says yeah.
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Yeah, you know your needs, you know the things that you're worried about and you're going to God You're asking God a lot of things but you're asking from the flesh
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In other words, you forgot what he said about the order seek first the kingdom in its righteousness So when you ask out of your flesh when you you have the wrong priority, you're asking a miss
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I think you're then you're surprised that God's not answering You haven't you haven't had the right perspective
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And then he goes into this whole discourse about the instability of a double -minded man What's a double -minded man a man trying to serve two masters a man trying to straddle two different wills a man trying to do?
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Navigate life in two different directions and James is saying you can't you literally cannot Do you know that God knows you?
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Do you know that God will provide what you need? Do you know that God is in control of all things? Has the truth of that Theology Brought you to a singularity of mind to the degree that we're living staggered lives double -minded lives
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We have not actually grasped the things that Jesus is teaching. Well, here's the encouragement
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There's a beautiful encouragement in this The God who knows us better than we know ourselves the
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God who undertakes to supply all that we need says that all all that he requires
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Or as the hymn puts it all the fitness he requires is That you feel your need of him.
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That is one of the most comforting Statements, I think I could ever muster The God who knows you better than you know yourself the
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God who sees the cardboard box poking out of your t -shirt The God who's calling you to turn to him and run to him and whatever you're facing to cast all those cares on him
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Is the God who says the only thing I require of you is this I don't require anything of you to come to me
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But this That you actually feel your need of me Which by the way is why you'd turn or run to him in the first place, right?
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If you're turning to him or running to him, you felt your need for him. In other words.
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God is saying I will provide Everything Paul is saying my
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God will supply all that you need all that you need All you need is your need that's the point.
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The only thing you need is your need and If you have your need and you go to him with your need all will be supplied
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According to perfect wisdom perfect control. Do you really believe that? Do you really believe that?
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Consider what Paul says also this this he provides according to his riches in glory
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That that most likely I think a helpful way to think of that it could be translated in various ways
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I think it may be helpful to translate it as as really a manner. God will glorious supply
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Gloriously supply every need in other words. It's the manner of his supply All right, according to his riches in glory.
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He will supply in other words in this glorious way He will supply if we're paying attention to blades of grass if we're paying attention to lilies and songbirds
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We will we will probably find that he provides in a glorious way To the degree that we're not reflecting deeply.
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We're not noticing what Jesus is calling us to look at We're not actually reflecting deeply on the things that he's teaching.
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It's not producing meekness or gratitude in our lives We're not learning how to be content and in that to that degree
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We really think we have we have provided for ourselves and when we provide for ourselves, it's really not that glorious When you realize that God has provided for you, it's pretty glorious And so another litmus test another way of understanding if if you really have the truth of the
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God who knows me is the God Who's providing for me? The only need I really have is the need that I bring to him that the feeling of need that I have toward him and To the degree that I have that Everything around me.
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I look at with gratitude. I see it as a glorious provision So rather than muttering or as we said last week folding my hands at the birthday table in front of the stack of presents
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I'm just like Amazing when I open the box of munchkins and they gave me three extra
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I'm like God is a glorious. Yeah, what an abundance
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Every little thing is just seen a little more gloriously Because you're understanding everything everything that you encounter in life everything that you receive every good gift comes from above When you start to take stock of every good gift, it's glorious And you kind of sound weird to the
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Gentiles don't you Because your mind is more like Why would
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God make a peach so good? God is a good guy and they're like, let's stop hanging out with Ross.
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He's gone off the deep end lately You recognize every good thing is coming from above Your whole life is lived now not primarily as a consumer as a as a hapless recipient
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Your whole life has lived in response. Your whole life is the thank -you message to God here I am.
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Oh Lord. I've come to do your will when Jesus is looking around at the grass and the trees He really is the one who says my father's speaking to me everywhere and the whole course of his life is here
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I am to do your will then I'm responding to everything you've given every turn at every place in my life
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I entrust myself to your care. I seek first for your kingdom here I am to respond to you my good and gracious all -powerful all -loving all -wise
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God It's the riches of his glory and Paul, of course is pointing the difference between Our little needs of the moment our little flash -in -the -pan needs as titanic as they may seem to our lives
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What is that to a sovereign God? Thomas Manton the Puritan said something like that which fills an ocean can fill a bucket
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God knows how to fill oceans. Don't think he doesn't know how to fill your little teacup God supplies all of our needs and And the last point the last reflection here is he does it by Christ Jesus?
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That's really important to grasp the fullness of what's being What's being said here?
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Trusting ourselves to the care of God our need will be supplied
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By God himself the God who knows me better than I know myself the God who says all I need to bring to him is
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My need for him and he knows me and he'll provide for all of those needs and he'll do it in according to a perfect wisdom that brings both
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Blessings and trials both both gifts and thorns and that need will be supplied in a glorious way that can be met with gratitude and produce meekness and a responsiveness and a freedom to sacrifice and serve and that all is because he provides by Christ Jesus by Christ Jesus Our needs are not met by positive thinking
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We don't get to contentment by persuading ourselves Things are gonna work out in the end and we just need to kind of stiffen our upper lip and press forward in courage
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The supply comes to us by Christ Jesus. In other words, it comes to us because of the
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Lord Jesus Christ Yes Everything that is right and good in this world and in your life comes down from the
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Heavenly Father who looks to you Beyond ways He looks to the Sparrow looks to you in ways that angels long to look into and every good and right thing
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Comes from above down into your life But it comes down from above through Jesus Christ God supplies every need
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By Jesus Christ. There's nothing that comes to us from God apart from Jesus Christ.
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The Father gives us Christ Because everything is in Christ Christ is everything it's the it's the glory of Colossians 1 by him
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All things were created that are in heaven on earth visible and visible whether thrones dominions Principalities or powers all things were created through him and for him and he's before everything and in him all things consist
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Don't lop off that little statement as if Paul just has a Jesus stutter because he loves saying
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Jesus every third word There's there's a deep well of theology when he when he has little prepositional phrases like that by Jesus Christ Every good thing every right thing every need is supplied by Christ Jesus Why is that a great comfort to you this morning as a
01:00:07
Christian in a way that it could never be a comfort to? Someone who believes in a blind watchmaker
01:00:13
Or some Christless conception of Yahweh or or Allah Or the vicissitudes of a dog -eat -dog world we've grown out of ooze off of rocks to sort of compete for our meaningless place and In the midst of the canvas of God's glory
01:00:35
Why should that be a great comfort to you? Because if every Genuine need needs that are different or deeper than the needs you could ever label or comprehend if every single one of those needs
01:00:47
Is ultimately met and satisfied and fulfilled by Christ Jesus Then the one who is meeting your needs is the triune
01:00:56
God father by the Son by the Spirit Who walked in your flesh and faced everything that you face every worry every fear every drive every temptation
01:01:09
Every pitfall every snare he walked through it all he knows human need better than you could ever imagine and He now is a sympathetic high priest sitting at the right hand of God when
01:01:21
Paul says God will supply everything that you need by Christ Jesus recognize the fullness of what he's saying
01:01:29
Jesus has gone the way that no one else could go. He's tread it for you He's he's he's giving you a yoke now and he says
01:01:36
I know the way out of the grave I know the way that leads to everlasting life. I know how to overcome all the effects of the fall
01:01:42
I know how you can overcome the sinful poison within your flesh I know how you can actually seek this kingdom first and not only enter into it
01:01:50
But bring it about in all of its glorious fulfillment never to lose it or to see it wane ever again
01:01:55
You can follow me. You can trust me why because I know what it's like to face everything You're facing the only difference between you and me is
01:02:01
I never gave in and you always give in. I Never allow fears to become idols and you always bow at their feet
01:02:09
I never had a double mind, but you're always fickle and try to straddle the will of God Listen, you really can come to me.
01:02:15
You really can see I glorious fulfill all that you need because I've been there I've done it
01:02:22
So I'm not arbitrary I'm not aloof I know what hunger pains feel like I Know what it feels like to have bodily pain.
01:02:31
I know what it's like to watch your body waste away I know what it's like to feel the exclusion of people
01:02:37
Departing and abandoning you like when the shepherd is struck and all of the sheep he had poured out his life for scatter
01:02:43
I know what it's like to have rumors and mockeries and jealousies burst out against you I know what it's like to feel the heat of persecution and hostility.
01:02:51
I know what it's like to even have your own family reject you There's no need no worry.
01:02:57
No fear. There's nothing you've encountered that I haven't experienced But my heavenly father
01:03:04
Who called me to seek his kingdom and fulfill his will? Met every single need in perfect wisdom and glory to fulfill his wise counsel and decree and So I'm telling you you can trust him
01:03:19
I had to I'm telling you you need to seek his kingdom first and its righteousness.
01:03:25
Everything else will be added to you That's Jesus in Matthew 6
01:03:33
Paul says what Jesus couldn't say in Matthew 6 because it had yet to be fulfilled but Paul takes that logic to the utmost It's not just how
01:03:42
Jesus lived that gives us comfort that we can trust our greatest needs will be met It's the fact that Jesus died
01:03:52
Why can we go to our heavenly father and trust that everything we genuinely need will be taken care of though?
01:03:58
It's painful though. It's difficult though. It's perplexing. Why can we trust it? Why can we seek the kingdom first and not have to fend for ourselves and worry about these things?
01:04:08
How do I know that it will be? All right. How do I know that it will end? Okay How do I know that this pain won't get worse?
01:04:14
It won't get deeper and I won't be lost at the end of it and Paul's whole logic is he who did not spare his own
01:04:20
Son, but delivered him up for us all how will he not also with him freely give us all things?
01:04:28
You see that phrase again all these things all these things all these things
01:04:36
All the things that you're worried about all the ends that you have to meet all the pressures and circumstances all the shattered ambitions
01:04:45
Everything that comprises your life has that umbrella term.
01:04:53
It's it's all these things. It's the things of life Your father knows you need all these things
01:04:59
The Gentiles just like you they live for all these things father knows you need all these things He's gonna provide for all these things.
01:05:05
Why can you devote yourself to the kingdom first? Because he didn't withhold his own son and if he not only will give you all that you need at whatever price
01:05:24
But would even send his own son to die for you Paul's logic is Why would he withhold anything that you genuinely need?
01:05:33
Why would he do that? Why would he do that? He didn't withhold his own son
01:05:42
You think he's withholding some job that you really need to fulfill you you think he's withholding some relationship You need to get to a certain place
01:05:48
You think he's withholding a certain status or income that you need to be more comfortable or you think he's withholding
01:05:54
He wants your whole life to collapse in misery at the end Paul saying If he was gonna withhold any of those things long before that he would have withhold
01:06:04
Jesus Christ from entering into this world But if he sent his son to die, there is nothing he will withhold from you that you genuinely need
01:06:20
Spurgeon taking that sentiment from Genesis 22 he's reflecting on that right
01:06:25
Romans 8 32 God didn't withhold his own son didn't spare his own son so he's gonna meet all of these things that we need and more according to perfect wisdom in Providence and Spurgeon takes that and he puts it back into the context of Genesis 22
01:06:40
He says let us fall back on this eternal verity if God has provided his own well -beloved son to meet the most awful of all
01:06:47
Necessities, then he'll provide for us in everything else Where will he provide?
01:06:54
He'll provide for us in the mount which is to say he'll provide in the place of trial When we reach the place where the fatal deed of utmost obedience is to be wrought.
01:07:02
That's when God will interpose You see what he's saying? God didn't provide before they started climbing God didn't even provide when they were halfway up God didn't even provide when he was tying the ropes around Isaac's wrists and ankles
01:07:14
God didn't even provide when the when the blade was lifted up above his chest It wasn't on the way to trial it was in the the crucifix of the trial
01:07:24
It was in the furnace of the trial that God provided and so Spurgeon says it's in the mount.
01:07:33
It's in the trial That's where God provides He'll provide all of your needs and the greatest needs the most excruciating needs
01:07:41
He'll provide and as we see in Genesis 22, he'll do that as It were in the place where it seems almost too far gone in the place of trial
01:07:56
He says you will not need to explain to God all of your difficulty You don't need to try to persuade him or convince him of the intricacy of your position
01:08:06
Because he already knows it all He knows he knows so you can just Climb up the mountain to the altar where the sacrifice is required and trust him.
01:08:21
That's that's Jesus living his whole life That's the beloved son taking every bloody footstep up Mariah Not fully understanding the will of the father but knowing the father loves the son and so if the father's tying the son to the altar the son says here
01:08:44
I am to do your will and Paul in Romans 8 the counterpart to Genesis 22 is saying if God was doing that to his own son to provide for you
01:08:59
Why do you think he'll ever fall short? Why don't you think you can run to him with everything and and totally throw your life into his hands listen
01:09:09
Come to the church history study again tonight You want to under you want to get into the mindset of these early
01:09:16
Christians in the second century you have to understand these things They could be like Paul often beaten
01:09:25
Often maligned often persecuted whipped tortured gas in his cities thrown into arenas What were they doing they were they were throwing themselves into the care of God They were responding to the way that God had sent his own son into this world
01:09:38
So they threw themselves into the will of God if you don't understand it from Matthew 6 come tonight.
01:09:46
You'll get a very different Historical perspective on what it looks like when Christians live for the kingdom of God first and seek its righteousness
01:09:58
Do you know these things if we know these things will turn to God in sacrifice?
01:10:03
This in many ways is what it looks like to seek the kingdom of God first. This is why we would seek to please him
01:10:09
He loves us and provides for us in this way. He alone is trustworthy. I can't trust anyone else to know my greatest needs
01:10:15
I can't even trust myself to know my genuine needs but I can trust him the maker of all I can trust him the one who sends his own son to redeem me and Therefore as Paul says
01:10:26
I can make it my aim whether present or absent to be pleasing to him Therefore as the writer of Hebrews says I can continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God giving thanks to his name
01:10:35
Therefore I can walk in a manner worthy of his calling being fully pleasing to him and fruitful in every good work
01:10:41
Therefore in the same way Isaac was bound to the altar. The Lord was nailed to the cross I can lay my life down as a living sacrifice
01:10:49
To be holy and acceptable to God None of that comes about if in your life the things that are driving and contorting are twisting and suffocating choking causing you to sweat and Daydream and then you have to stop daydreaming because it takes you to a bad place
01:11:09
If these things are reacted to with yeah, but the Lord will provide rather than my
01:11:18
God Who knows me better than I know myself who didn't spare his own son from saving my soul
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My God will meet all of my genuine needs according to his riches in glory By my
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Savior who loved me and gave himself for me. And so I respond to him. I entrust myself to him I sacrifice my life for him.
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That's what it looks like to seek the kingdom of God first Therefore do not worry saying
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What shall we what shall we drink? What shall we wear? after all these things the
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Gentiles seek your Heavenly Father knows You need all these things
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Let's pray father.
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Thank you for your word Lord We would be single -minded stable
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Not mere hearers but doers of your word we would walk in the path that you have trod we would carry the corners of the cross that you dragged to your own death that we might taste the fruits of Of a new life of which you are the firstfruits the hope of our resurrection
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Lord, I barely know the needs of the people here before me and I don't even truly know the full depth of my own needs, but You do
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In all of your infinite intimacy. May you draw very near to each one of us here That would feel the full depth of the comforts and encouragement of this passage
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So that the runway is cleared for us to seek first your kingdom and let all the needs and cares and hopes of this life flow
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Beneath it and underneath it and out of it Help us Lord. We are weak and fickle and We're not able to do anything apart from you be with us we pray in Jesus name.