Strength for Today

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Matthew 6:34

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Well, this morning we are concluding Chapter 6 and I'm looking forward next week to begin
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Chapter 7 and really the last part of the Sermon on the Mount. As we've been working through these things, we've come now to see the way that verses 25 through 34 all fit together, at least
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I hope we've all come to see that. We've seen that verses 25 through 32 largely emphasize worry and the place of worry and anxiety in our lives and how that prevents us from actually seeking the
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Kingdom values that are to characterize our lives and the
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Kingdom itself, the redemptive arc, the goal of not only our lives but of all life, the fullness and consummation of the
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Kingdom of God. And so we've said from verses 25 through 32, this emphasis on worry has really simply been the command which we return to today in verse 34, do not worry.
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That's where we began and now that's where we'll conclude. Those are the bookends of this section within Matthew 6.
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But then verse 33 emphasized this need to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and trust everything we need will be added and that command is then to be holy in a manner of speaking.
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The Kingdom and the righteousness that belongs to the Kingdom and we emphasize how important it is to hold both of those together.
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We've said we need our Father's care to do our King's mission. In other words, this command not to worry is so that disciples will be free from the anxiety and care that will otherwise distract them or keep them from seeking first the
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Kingdom of God and from having a Kingdom values. We talked about this over the past several weeks as having the life of a contrast people.
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That where our lives begin to contrast the way of life around us, the way of the world or the flesh or the evil one, that contrast creates an opportunity for mission.
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And so that's God's calling upon us where that calling corresponds to a life characterized by righteousness,
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Kingdom values. That contrast creates mission. That's what we've been looking at now for several weeks.
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But Jesus doesn't close there. If it were my sermon, in my mind, the thunder is all in verse 33.
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Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added. All right, let's move on. But Jesus actually concludes here with verse 34.
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He doesn't want us to lose the significance of this command not to worry. So again, we see how verse 33 fits into this larger complex.
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Do not worry, be holy. And as I said last week, really with verse 34, it's do not worry, be holy.
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Again I say, do not worry. That's essentially how we're closing chapter 6. Kingdom values belong to contrast people.
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Contrast people have Kingdom values. What does that look like? Grant Osborne in his excellent commentary gives a wonderful little summary of this.
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He says, if we've learned anything from Matthew 6, it's simply this. Human applause is fleeting, worry is futile,
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Kingdom life is to be lived with the belief that it simply does not matter whether anyone but God alone knows or even cares about any disciple's devotions or needs.
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That is an absolutely crystalline summary of Matthew 6. Let me say it again.
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Kingdom life must be lived in the belief, really the firm resolute belief that it simply does not matter whether anyone but God alone knows or even cares about my devotion to God or the needs that I have for my life.
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If you've read Matthew 6 carefully, that is a very excellent summary. I don't live my devotion for the sight of men, for the eyes of men.
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And so my charity is not done for the sake of others. I don't want to have that reward in full.
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And when I pray, I don't pray like the babbling heathen who think they'll be heard on account of their many words.
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I actually pray in sincerity to God and in simplicity of devotion. I know
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I don't have to spell it all out or repeat it for emphasis. I know that he hears the things that even only the spirit within me can utter.
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And I also don't show my devotion on my sleeve. When I'm fasting, I'm not wearing sackcloth and ashes and being like, how many days have you gone without eating?
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I'm not actually doing it for the reward of men. So it simply does not matter whether anyone but God alone knows about my devotion or whether anyone but God alone knows about the things
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I need most in my life. If only
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God knows my needs and I trust Him, and only God knows my devotion and I serve
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Him, then I have understood exactly what Jesus means in seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
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Now without this belief, what happens? What kind of life flows out of lacking this firm, sincere belief that my faith is not to be lived out for the applause and recognition of men, that my devotion is not to be rewarded by them, but rather my devotion is to be rewarded by God.
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I do it unto Him for His glory, for His name's sake. And that my needs are not to be sought after with some sort of hand -wringing anxiety, that I don't need to wear myself down to the very knuckles and skeletal structure of my body.
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I can actually put in a solid day's work and trust that my Father will provide for me. And even if no one knows the things
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I need most, I can trust the hand that faithfully gives and faithfully withholds. What happens if I don't have that kind of life?
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What happens, in other words, if I have not understood Matthew 6, but fail in this very area?
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Well, one of two things will happen. Either hypocrisy will rule my life, and in a way that Paul didn't mean in Philippians, I will be a
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Pharisee of Pharisees. Or, anxiety will rule my life, and I'll be so distraught and distracted by fending for myself that I won't be able to lift a finger for the things of the kingdom.
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I'm too busy securing everything that I need and everything that lies ahead.
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That exactly is what flows out of misunderstanding Matthew 6, a life dominated by either hypocrisy or anxiety.
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So, if you would not be a Pharisee, nor be a worrywart,
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I was going to look up the etymology of that. Where in the world did that term come from? I have no idea.
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But if you'd like to avoid either of those, then take to heart exactly what's being said here in Matthew 6.
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Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness in this way, that it's a sincere devotion to God, the
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God alone who knows what you need. Your Father in heaven knows the things that you need, even before you ask Him. And so, for a disciple in this way, my needs will not dominate everything that I do.
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It won't even dominate my prayers. How much is in the Lord's prayer even before we get to daily bread?
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The Lord's prayer itself is actually a prayer modeled in seeking first the kingdom and His righteousness, and only then seeing how the needs will be addressed.
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The daily bread is not the first petition in the prayer. That's very instructive for us as Christians.
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How often is our daily bread, so to speak, the first petition in our prayers? Lord, help.
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Lord, I need this. Lord, I want this. Lord, move in this way for me. So, if we've even been paying attention to the prayer, which ties in here in verse 34, we've already learned that a sincere devotion and recognition of God's calling and God's care means my needs and anxieties won't dominate my prayer.
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And if it's not dominating my prayer, that means because it hasn't been dominating my thoughts.
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My mind is not spinning endlessly on the wheels of the things I need and can't control.
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Now, that's going to play into where we're going in Matthew 7 and how we think of, and regard, and deal with one another as well.
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This is all part of the same sermon. If my needs, if my anxieties, if this instinct to fend for myself is dominating my thought life and spilling out into my prayer,
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I can be sure I will not be seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. But to the extent that I think
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God is aloof to my need, to the extent that I sort of harden my resolve and my will, and in some ways believe that God not only is not able to nor cares for my needs, but in fact,
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He's almost out to get me. Well, now I'm walking in unbelief. Again, in this way,
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I will not actually be prioritizing His kingdom, seeking His way of righteousness. I'll be fending for myself, distrusting
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God, minimizing God, amplifying and maximizing man or even myself, my own toil, my own labors, my own efforts.
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All of these things, whether hypocrisy or anxiety, are prevented when I know the
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God who knows my need and the God who calls me to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.
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So having emphasized all of these things throughout chapter 6, we come now to verse 34, where Jesus reiterates the very thing that He began.
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Verse 34, therefore, do not worry, and here's some new information, therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.
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Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. This whole teaching is flowing out of what the
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Lord has already asked us. Remember all those penetrating questions that have been coming out of Matthew chapter 6.
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Where is your treasure? Is it secure with God in heaven? Is it that inheritance that awaits for you at His revelation, as 1
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Peter 1 says? Where is your treasure? Is it here on the earth, something that thieves can break in and steal, something that rusts and corrodes?
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Or is it in heaven, secure, an inheritance awaiting? Where is your treasure? Where is your heart?
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Where your heart is, that's where your treasure is. Is your heart here on the things of the earth?
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Is your heart where God is, the things that correspond to His kingdom on the earth? Where's your treasure?
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Where's your heart? Who's your master? No man can serve two masters. Who is your master?
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Are you trying to serve two masters? Are you seeing things rightly?
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Do you have a good eye? If your sight is good, you have light in your whole body.
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Are you seeing things rightly? What's the effect in your life, in your mind, in the way you're reacting and carrying out your life?
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How does that correspond to the way you're viewing things? Do you have a good eye or an evil eye? If you have a good eye, in other words, if you're seeing things rightly, your whole life is full of light.
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Your whole body's full of light if you're seeing things rightly. If you have a bad eye, you can't see anything straight, anything pure, anything correctly.
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These questions hover behind everything we've seen and they all come colliding down to verse 34.
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Jesus says in this really helpful way, do not worry about tomorrow. And then
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He almost personifies the day and He says tomorrow can worry about tomorrow.
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Tomorrow will worry about its own things. If you're viewing this rightly, Jesus says today has enough to worry about.
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So remember the command is do not worry. The reason Jesus is returning to it is He knows His disciples do worry.
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And Jesus even so much as admits in the last part of verse 34, yeah you do honestly have enough to worry about even in the day.
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There's enough things that you could be absolutely overwhelmed by in the day, so don't even try to smuggle tomorrow's problems into today.
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Sufficient for today is its own trouble. But even with the worries of today, the command is do not worry.
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Seek first the kingdom and His righteousness. God knows everything that you need.
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Now I think I've mentioned this before and it's worth it bears repeating. The reason that this emphasis on worry is so important and it's important because Jesus begins and ends this discourse within chapter six with this emphasis on do not worry.
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This repetition of the command do not worry. Why is that important? It's important because worry will often be the best gauge, the clearest window into how you are truly answering those questions.
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Where is your treasure? Where is your heart? Who is your master? Are you seeing things rightly?
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One of the ways you'll be able to answer those questions honestly is by seeing through the window of your worry what's actually driving and gripping and stirring and moving you.
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You want to know what you treasure? What do you worry about? You want to know who your master is?
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What are you so worried about serving? What are you so worried about losing? What are you so worried about going right or going wrong?
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Do you want to know if you're seeing things rightly? What's consuming you? Your anxieties. Worry is this tremendous window into how you answer any of these questions.
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In that way, if we're understanding this passage rightly, worry calls us to examine ourselves.
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And where that self -examination leads, we'll often be able to find those uncomfortable issues of life.
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Seeing through the windows of worry where we're actually struggling to walk by faith and we're actually just walking by sight.
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Where we're failing or struggling to walk into submission of God's ways, of how God wants us to deal with things.
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We're rather just walking in our flesh, trying to manage, trying to work our way forward.
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If we follow the windows of our worry and we're allowing these questions to confront us in that uncomfortable honesty, we'll also be able to see where we are walking, not in the ways of our
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God, but in the ways of the world around us. Jesus again and again in chapter 6 has said, don't be like the
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Gentiles. Look at what their worry, look at what their need, look at what their desire leads them to do.
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Don't be like that. You're a contrast people. Worry is a window that reveals all of these things to us.
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And in light of all these things, Jesus repeats the command, do not worry. Don't worry about tomorrow.
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Tomorrow can worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Now as I said, this connects in meaningful ways to the
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Lord's Prayer. It's in verse 10 where Jesus says, give us this day our daily bread.
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So he's being perfectly consistent, isn't he? Today, Lord, I need bread.
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Today, give me bread. Jesus teaches us to pray. Jesus does not teach us to pray,
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Lord give me bread today and tomorrow and I'm really worried if I don't get it on Wednesday. He actually is consistent with himself.
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Give us today the thing we need today. I'm not even going to pray about what I need tomorrow so much as what
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I need today. I'm not gonna worry about what tomorrow will bring. I'm actually gonna focus on the trouble that is sufficient for today.
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The believer who sincerely prays, give me today, give me this day, my daily bread, is the one who is seeking to loosen the grip of anxiety and cast his or her care upon the
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Heavenly Father who cares for them. And so it's the desire of our
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Lord, very clearly in Matthew 6, it's the desire of our Lord that we look to Him daily. What does
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Jesus say when he says, do not worry about tomorrow? He says, look to me today. Remember, this is all held together with that marvelous little conjunction, therefore, verse 33, seek first the kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.
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Verse 34, therefore, do not worry about tomorrow. This is all held together.
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How is Jesus wanting His people to seek first the kingdom? Daily. Today. That's what
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He's teaching His disciples. Seek first the kingdom today, right now. Seek His righteousness today, don't worry about tomorrow.
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Be faithful today. Be a contrast person today. Be salt and light today.
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Don't be a hypocrite today. Don't be full of anxiety today. Seek first the kingdom today. Therefore, Jesus says, do not worry about tomorrow.
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It's a desire of our Lord that we look to Him daily. It's a desire of our Lord that we seek His kingdom daily.
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It's a very helpful way to close out this emphasis. I can almost feel it over the past three weeks we've been in verse 33.
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If the great banner of exhortation is, seek first the kingdom, and we're all like, yeah, and it's so abstract we don't even know where to begin or what to do.
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How helpful is it to say, brothers and sisters, today seek the kingdom. Today walk in His righteousness.
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Today deal with what He's brought, what He's put before you, who He's put you with. Do that today and don't worry about tomorrow.
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Just do that again tomorrow. That's very, very helpful. Now we can actually let the rubber of seeking first the kingdom hit the road of the reality of daily life.
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And when we do that, we can start to see this exhortation, this way of framing the faith into daily apportionments.
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It's found throughout Scripture. It's the words of Moses, of speaking of Asher, that are honestly extended to every believer by way of promise.
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And he says in Deuteronomy 33, 25, as your days are, so shall your strength be. That's a blessing for every believer in God.
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But notice what's being said in that blessing. What's not being said is,
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I cargo drop all the strength at the beginning of the Christian life. As your days are, they're dependent on that big cargo drop at the beginning.
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I hope you spend it, steward it well. It's all you're gonna get. That's not what Deuteronomy 33, 25 says.
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No, what does he say? As every single day of your life is, so shall your strength be.
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As your days are, so shall your strength be. That's the promise of God to his people.
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How important this daily approach is for living the Christian life. If we don't, if we don't master this concept, we cannot live the
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Christian life very well, or at least very well for very long. You want to walk the
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Christian life well? You have to live the Christian life every day, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness.
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Think of how important this concept of day by day having strength for the day, and not worrying about tomorrow, or the needs of tomorrow, or the calling of tomorrow, or the trouble of tomorrow.
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You're worried about tomorrow's troubles, and you don't even know what the troubles will be. A lot of wisdom in the book of Ecclesiastes on that front.
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There is a day of trouble that sneaks up on us like a thief in the night, and you don't know what day that will be.
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And it's a mercy of God that you don't know what day that would be, because then you wouldn't be able to do anything but try to avoid the inevitable.
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It's the Oedipus cycle. And so it's a mercy of God that he veils so many of life's troubles from our knowledge.
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And in his fatherly care and wisdom, he simply says to each son and daughter, live for me today.
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Be faithful to me today, as this day is, so I will give you strength. Think of how important this is for children.
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If anyone's oblivious about tomorrow, it's children, right? No sense of where food comes from, or clothing is provided.
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How do bills get paid? Why is our home warm? How do we get from point A to point B? It's like, you know, just the bliss of absolute ignorance to the needs and necessities of life.
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And in some ways, they're just living for the day. At the very beginning of life, they're just living through that day, living for that day.
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And at the very end of life, in more ways than one, you sort of revolve back to the dependency you had as a child.
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And when you're at the sunset of your life, when you're at the very end, you don't even know the days, the weeks, the months.
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I remember sitting at a breakfast table in Lunenburg with my grandmother when Alicia and I were living with her toward the end, and she just,
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I'd sit there every morning with her, wait for her to finish her oatmeal, take her blood sugar. That was usually an hour -and -a -half process.
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Tell me about the farm again, Grandma. And at one of these mornings, she looked up and she said, now what year is it?
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I'm like, it's 2014. Somehow the years just didn't matter anymore.
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It doesn't really matter. What year could it be? Who knows? At that level, you're just trying to get through the day.
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The event of the day is, can I get to the recliner and out of the recliner? That's like the
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Olympic achievement of the day. Somehow I haven't been bedridden. So think about that.
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At the very beginning of your life and at the very end of your life, everything is sort of just getting through the day, being able to be, as it were, present, faithful, aware of, and working through the day.
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But what happens as we get a little bit older and the pressures and needs and relationships in life begin to weigh down on our shoulders, and we see a lot more of ourselves and our sins and the sin of the world around us, and the way that stains and impacts and influences us.
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And think about that as young adults and teenagers. Well now, not only are you worried about tomorrow, you're worried about next week, you're worried about next month, you're worried about next year, you're worried about five years.
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Where's this all going to go? How's it going to turn out? What's it going to be like? Living for the day is actually the farthest thing from your mind.
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Or if you're married a little bit older, you have children. You're not just focused on the day, are you?
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You're thinking, what's going to happen if this doesn't happen? Are they going to do? You're thinking about the next decade. How is little
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Tommy gonna make it? That's where you are as a parent. Think of how radical this concept is, how radical this instruction is, to actually seek the kingdom by the day and not expect to deal with, nor have the strength to deal with, things that belong to tomorrow.
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Let tomorrow deal with tomorrow. You focus on what God has for you today. That's radical. It's important that we understand this because we naturally stretch ourselves thin to try to get ahead of tomorrow.
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If I can just build the bigger barn, and there's always a bigger barn to build, if I can just get ahead, if I can just get to this clearing, if I can just get to this plateau, then everything will be as it should be.
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In profound ways, at the highest and most minuscule levels, we're always trying to to break our way back into Eden.
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If I can just get the world to be right, my world, my relationships, my needs, my efforts, my ambitions, if I can just get here, we'll all finally be right again.
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And since we're stretching ourselves thin, trying to get ahead of tomorrow, we fail to live our lives fully unto the
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Lord day by day. So don't worry about tomorrow,
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Jesus says. Let tomorrow worry about tomorrow. You've got enough to deal with today if you're seeking my kingdom and my righteousness.
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Now notice also something here in verse 34. Jesus does not say, do not worry about tomorrow.
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Tomorrow has enough trouble, because really there is no trouble. Don't worry because you don't have any trouble.
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That's not what Jesus is saying. He actually says, today has its troubles. Very helpful that we recognize this.
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Don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow can worry about itself. You have enough trouble today. Jesus is not saying, don't worry because there's no trouble.
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Why are you worried? Do you think there's trouble? And Jesus says, yeah, even today has trouble. Something is not as it should be.
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We're living in a fallen world. Is anyone here willing to raise their hand and say, everything is as it should be in my life and around me?
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No one. Every single one of us. If we put on a post -it note, it'd all be different. But every single one of us has trouble today.
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There's trouble. Something's not right. Something's not right within me. Something is not right around me.
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Something is not right with reference to me. Something is not right with reference to others. At every level, there's trouble.
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There's trouble today. So in fact, as we're told throughout
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Scripture, Christians are to expect trouble. We're not to be surprised by a fiery trial. Jesus says, yeah, if you're thinking rightly, you do have trouble today.
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That trouble means something about being a contrast person, living with kingdom values. If you've understood that rightly, you'll know that that's enough to try to capture.
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That's enough to try to deal with. But don't let it bleed into tomorrow.
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Don't let it bleed into next week or next year because you might not actually be faithful today if you do that. Listen to the words of J .C.
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Ryle. J .C. Ryle, so helpful. His marvelous little commentary on Matthew and he says, here
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Jesus seals up all his instruction on this subject by laying down this wisdom. Tomorrow will worry about itself.
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Each day has enough trouble for its own. We are not to carry cares before they come.
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We are to attend to today's business, leave tomorrow's anxieties until tomorrow dawns. We might die before tomorrow.
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We don't know what will happen tomorrow. We can only be sure of one thing, that if tomorrow does bring a cross,
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He who sends it will give us the grace to bear it. In all this passage, there is this treasury of a golden lesson.
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Let us seek to apply it to our daily life. Listen to this. Half of our misery is caused by fixating on things we think are coming upon us.
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And half the things that we expect to come upon us never come at all. Have you not found that to be true in your life?
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Half of the things that you fixate on, that you worry about, are things you think are going to happen. If I don't do this, this is going to happen.
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I can't stop this from happening. I can't believe that this is about to happen. Half the misery is worrying about what's going to happen and half the time that doesn't happen.
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And all of the time being consumed in that way has distracted you from living for God in His calling today, looking for the strength that He gives you today.
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It is again the desire of our Lord that we look to Him daily. Martyn Lloyd -Jones puts it this way, worry has an active imagination.
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It loves to daydream. Worry has an active imagination.
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And Jesus says, you don't have time to daydream if you're thinking of my kingdom. You've got enough to deal with right in front of you.
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So stop worrying and making little films in your head about outcomes that you have no control over.
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Live for me in my kingdom, in my righteousness today. Rinse, repeat, do it again tomorrow.
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That's the idea. It's a desire of our
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Lord that we seek His kingdom daily. How are we able to do this? Well, as we said a couple of weeks back, we won't do this if we think the
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Christian life is a walk that can be done once every two to three years with one big leap.
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The Christian life is a race. It's one of the metaphors that Paul gives, right? This athlete who's beat his body into submission and he's running the race as to win.
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Paul uses that at several points in his letters. He speaks of himself as having closed in, as it were, toward the finish line, having run the race.
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He speaks of the Christian life with this metaphor of the athlete who doesn't let anything easily entangle him that he may run and win the prize, the upward calling of Christ.
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Well, I have never seen a race where the starter pistol fires and all the runners begin to burst out and there's one guy sitting there with his arms crossed.
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And it's about three quarters of a lap where he says, oh, it's time for that big jump. I knew it was coming. You'll never finish the race in that way.
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That's a surefire way to lose the race. So we don't walk this Christian life in one great leap every two to three years.
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We don't get all of our needed strength at one time, like some slowly leaking reservoir.
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Here's all of the strength you have as a Christian. It's just gonna dribble out day by day until there's almost nothing left at the very end.
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That's not the picture we get here in Scripture. That's not what Jesus says in Matthew 6. We're not given some big deluge of mercy, like when you're,
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I like market day. What day is like the grocery day? All the good stuff is gone by midnight.
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You know, hostess coffee cakes, gone. Reese's peanut butter puffs, gone. And then by the time it's the night before the next grocery trip, you're down to like ramen noodles and crumbs in the cover.
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That's not how God gives us strength. Not like here it all is now that you've repented and believed in me.
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Here's all the strength for the Christian life and it's this overflowing kitchen full of all sorts of wonderful things.
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And then as you press on in the Christian life, you're reduced to empty boxes and crumbs. That's not how
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God gives strength. I really want you to understand how
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Scripture puts all of this together. You're not understanding what Matthew 6 34 means if you don't connect it with all of the emphases of what
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God does daily for his people. We already saw one example from Deuteronomy 33 25.
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As your days are, so shall your strength be. Here's another one. Lamentations 3 22 and 23.
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Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
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Now let's just stop there. That is the equivalent of verse 33 in the
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Sermon on the Mount. Through the Lord's mercies we're not consumed, his compassions fail not.
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That's just like seek first the kingdom and his righteousness. It's glorious, it's powerful, and it's so abstract that we don't know how to put it into practice.
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Until you read the next verse. Matthew 6 34. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow.
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Do this today. And what does Lamentations 3 23 say? They are new every morning.
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Is the mercy here abstract? Vague? General? Is it all at once?
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No. Seek the kingdom today. Work through the troubles as a contrast person today.
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Do what God has called you to do in his righteousness today. Not in hypocrisy, not with anxiety. Do that today.
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Why? Through the Lord's mercies we're not consumed, because his compassions fail not. What does that look like actually?
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It's new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. How are we to understand
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God's faithfulness or God's mercy according to that passage? It's not so vague that it's out of reach.
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It's not all at once and it's not at the end. It's something that's renewed by the day. Strength for today, mercy every morning.
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That's how God deals with his people. Often in the
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Christian life we either are inhibited from seeking first the kingdom because we feel that our hands are dirty, we have a guilty conscience.
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This is a classic trap isn't it? How do you get a husband to falter in in prayer and family worship and all these, right?
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You feel it's, who am I? I can't do that now. Not the day I've had. Not where I've been. I'm too dirty to do that.
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I'm not in the right place to do that. I don't have the right mind to do that. And so not only does it inhibit us in the day, but we think that somehow there has to be some grand reckoning yet to come.
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And now we're getting closer to that. Once every two to three years a great leap. I don't know,
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I'm just trying my best, but one of these days on a random day at a random time, I'm sure there'll be some great encounter of God's mercy.
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You're just not hearing this. Every morning of your life as a
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Christian, God renews mercy to you. Every day that he has ordained and perfectly composed for his will, he gives you strength for that day.
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Not strength for tomorrow. Not mercy for tomorrow. For today. And he does it every day.
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Until the last day. And he says, you can trust me and live every day to its fullest, seeking my face, living for my kingdom.
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Because I'm giving you exactly the mercy and strength you need for the day. And I'll do that again tomorrow.
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And I'll do it again the next day. And I'll do it every day until you draw your last breath. If you understand this, this is transformative.
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So if I understand that God is showing me mercy every single day, my eyes open with the dawning sun, what does that say about my conscience?
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How does that cause me then to have an affection for Christ? How does that point me to actually seek to fulfill his calling on my life, just in the confines of that day,
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Lord? You start sounding like Patrick of Ireland. You ever read his famous prayer,
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Patrick's Breastplate? I don't, I should have it memorized, but I don't. But essentially it's, you know,
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Christ above me. Christ beneath me. Christ on my left.
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Christ on my right. Christ all around me. Christ within me. Christ in every eye that sees me.
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Christ in every ear that hears me. Christ in every person that's near me.
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It's just crying. How do you get to that kind of prayer and mindset? You understand something about this daily strength, this daily mercy, this daily call to seek first the kingdom.
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And when you're waking up with that kind of renewed mercy and strength and calling, it will fix you on Christ.
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You'll look to him steadfastly. You'll live for him for the day. You don't have to figure a five -year plan. You don't have that kind of control and wisdom.
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You just have to be faithful today, whatever today brings. Today's mercies are for today's trouble.
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That's, that's the emphasis. It's new every morning just like troubles renew every morning.
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Some of those troubles linger over, but you can't deal with it in that way. You be faithful in what you can accomplish today.
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You be faithful in what can be dealt with today. It's just like the principle of manna in the wilderness.
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Our brother Mateo mentioned that several weeks back in Matthew 6. God doesn't give them some storehouse of bread in the wilderness.
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He just gives it to them by the day. As your days are, so shall your provision be.
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You can't keep it overnight. You can't worry about whether or not it will be there tomorrow. You just deal with it today.
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It's the principle of manna, strength for today. But when you recognize that strength will be given to you tomorrow, mercy will renew tomorrow, that strength for today is lived in a certain way.
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That strength for today, as our hymn says, becomes bright hope for tomorrow. The trouble exists.
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I need strength for it, but I'm seeing that strength, and I'm answering that call, and there's a hope, a bright hope for tomorrow.
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Whatever this trouble is, maybe it's a trouble that takes me into my grave. I still have a bright hope for tomorrow.
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Here's my plug to come this evening. As we're looking at African Christianity from Carthage and Alexandria, and it's not in our book, but I don't want to miss the opportunity to speak of one of the martyrs from Carthage, a woman named
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Perpetua, Vibia Perpetua. You need to come, honestly, just come just to hear and read some of the words of her diary, her prison diary, as a young 22 -year -old mother with an infant child.
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If ever there was someone who was living for the kingdom as the day, it was
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Perpetua. But it wasn't just her, it was others that were in prison awaiting the same sentence to be carried out in the arena in Carthage, the amphitheater, which you can still go visit today.
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Go visit the place where they were slaughtered. And one of them, one of the the men that was in that group of martyrs in Carthage, was named
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Satyrus, and when they're sentenced, the night before they're about to be taken into the arena and being thrown to the beasts, all these people in the crowd, all these spectators are really interested.
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They want to go see, oh, how are these Christians? And they come, and it's sort of like the death row night, right?
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What do you want for your last dinner? And they have a love feast, a Christian love feast. And all these spectators are pouring in, and they're jeering, and they're taunting, but they're also kind of mystified, like these
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Christians seem actually joyful. This isn't what we came to see. Strength for today, bright hope for tomorrow.
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What was the bright hope? Satyrus looks in the crowd, and he says, hey, hey, look at my face really clearly and remember it, because one day you'll see it again.
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That's bright hope for tomorrow. This isn't the end of me, so remember this face, because you'll see it again.
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And people were being converted even that night outside the arena. Even Pudenz, who was one of the soldier guards, he's there the next day watching them, and he becomes a
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Christian at the arena. This is what Jesus is talking about. You can't control tomorrow.
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You be faithful today. Strength for today becomes a bright hope for tomorrow, because the strength that you're given today is something you'll be given again tomorrow.
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The mercy that's been renewed this morning will renew again tomorrow morning. And so the task, the labor, the call of the
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Christian's life is not to ask and beseech and wrestle and wring your hands to deal with things that come later.
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It's actually to say, give me my daily bread just today. Give me strength just today. Give me mercy just today.
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Lord, let me live for you today. Every eye that sees me, every ear that hears me, everybody
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I'm around. I can't put a practical application better than Charles Kingsley did, a 19th century commentator, and this is what he said.
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He's kind of saying, well, what does this actually affect in, let's say, a man's life, in his workplace, or a woman's life in the home?
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How does this principle, this strength for today principle, actually transform things?
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Listen to what he says. The man who will get the most work done and done with the least trouble, whether for himself, for his family, or to that which
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God has called him, will be the man who doesn't take thought for tomorrow, leaves tomorrow to deal with itself.
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That is a man who will believe that this is a well -ordered world, because God has made it, and God is redeeming it, and God governs it, and the
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God that governs it is a merciful God. That man will take thought for today, earnestly and diligently for today, even at times perhaps with anxiety or fear and trembling, but he will not be distracted, nor will he be divided, nor will he weaken his mind by taking the troubles of tomorrow.
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Each day he'll set about the duty that's right in front of him, with a single eye and a whole heart.
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He'll give himself to it for that time, as if there was nothing else to be done in that time. What is to do next?
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He'll try not to think much of it. All that he is bound to do is to do his best, and his best he will do by throwing himself into the work that God has given him that day.
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He does not waste the strength which God has given him for that day on vain fears or vain dreams about tomorrow.
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Today has enough of that. Today has enough anxiety and care and toil. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof, but also sufficient for the day is the good thereof.
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This man will not only be focused, but he will be humble and grateful, thankful that he can leave the rest to God.
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When he comes to the day's end, he'll be more contented, even if he's not cheerful, he'll be more contented.
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He'll be satisfied with the work he was able to do in the day, even if he's not satisfied with the way that he's done it, even if he's not satisfied with what remains.
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There'll be a comfort and a contentment in his life. And then this is what he says about women.
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I fancy I hear someone say, perhaps a woman, well this is really easy to preach, but difficult to practice. So difficult to think of one thing at a time.
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So difficult not to plot, not to fret, especially with a whole family of children clinging to you. What does a preacher know of women's troubles?
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This is the 19th century. How many things she has to think of day by day, and not one of which she dares forget, and she can seldom or never for all her recollection contrive to get any of it done.
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How can she help being distracted by the thought of tomorrow? Well, he says first, I wonder and admire to me the sight of any poor woman managing her family respectably, thriftily.
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It's one of the most beautiful sights on earth. How she finds time for it, wit for it, patience for it, courage for it.
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I can't conceive. I thought often that God must give some special grace to all good mothers to enable them to do all that they do, and bear all that they bear.
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But still, the women who do most, the women who do best, are surely those who obey their
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Lord's command, who give their whole lives to each day, and think as little as they can of tomorrow.
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With them, surely the true wisdom is not to fret, not to plot, but to do the duty in front of them, and leave the rest to God, to correct in their children any fault as the day may show, without looking forward too much to how the child will turn out at the last.
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For them, and for parents in all ranks, the wisest course is to make no far -fetched plans for their children's future, but simply to train them up by the day.
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That is the purest and best and wisest, to leave the rest to God. That's transformative.
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You just be faithful to the day. There's a Scottish proverb. I wish
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I could pronounce it in Gaelic, but I would torture it. There's this great little Scottish proverb, a beginning is a good day's work.
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We get restless because we don't want to begin something we can't complete. And listen, it's a good day's work to have a good beginning.
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It didn't all come together in the way you wanted. There's a lot more that could have, frankly should have been done, but a beginning is a good day's work.
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If you've done that day's work unto the Lord, seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness, you've done that heartily unto the
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Lord, looking to Him, being contented in Him, trusting in Him, that through that effort you'll have some comfort, some provision, some way that you can continue on to the next day when you'll get a whole new host of strength and a renewed mercy from His hand.
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You live by the day. And so again, the whole point of this, do not worry about tomorrow, but rather seek the care, seek the
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Kingdom, seek the face of God as the day is, because as your days are, that's how your strength will be.
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You have to know in God's providence, He's appointed all your days, and then He's veiled all that He's appointed from you.
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It is not for you to know. What does Jesus do? Jesus seeks
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His Father's face every single day with all of His heart, all of His soul, all of His mind, and all of His strength.
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And He is content to say, speaking from His human nature, neither do the angels nor even the
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Son of Man know the hour, but only my Father who is in heaven. I don't need to know tomorrow's trouble.
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I just need to be faithful to Him today. I will seek Him and love
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Him and serve Him today. I've come to do His will today. I don't need to know the hour.
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I just need to be faithful to the day. There's a certain providence that you must believe in, but that providence is not something you can know.
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You must know that God controls all of your times and all of your ways. You're coming in and you're going out evermore, but that is veiled to you.
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You're not to know that. And it's veiled to you in large part so that you can actually obey this command here in Matthew 6.
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You can actually seek His kingdom first. And so the
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Christian who prays for daily bread is a Christian who has a resolute faith that every hair on my head is numbered, every single one, and not a sparrow falls from the branch without my
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Father's knowledge. The Christian who prays for daily bread has a comfort that all times and seasons are in His hand and that even the evil that may befall me will somehow correspond to the good that God has willed for me.
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And therefore while I will fear no evil, even if I'm walking into a valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
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When you come tonight, you'll hear about Perpetua. Her father was not a believer. Her parents were not believers. She had siblings as well.
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Only one of them was a believer, died with her in the arena. The father was begging her.
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In fact, the governor she stood before begged her, have some pity on your father. He's tortured because you're gonna allow yourself to be torn to pieces.
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And what she told him was simply this. She says in her diary, I tried to comfort him. I said,
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Father, all that will happen in the dock is what God has willed and you may be sure we are never left to ourselves.
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We are all in God's power. She'll say, it's not. It's His will. It's His power.
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It's His control. I can't control what's gonna happen when I go to the prisoner's dock. I don't know what the sentence is gonna be from the governor, but I don't need to know that.
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I just need to be faithful to Him. What e 'er my
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God ordains is right. The person that prays for daily bread, the person who has grasped how faith is something to be lived out day by day, by the strength
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God gives each day, with the mercy He renews each day, the person that's able to actually pray, give me today my daily bread, is the person who knows
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God in these intimate ways, my Heavenly Father, Jesus says, who lovingly veils the hour and strengthens me by the power of His Spirit to face it.
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As Hebrews 9 14 says, it's through the eternal Spirit He offered Himself. Jesus lived by the same faith we must live by.
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He lived with the same knowledge and intimacy that we ought to live by, our Heavenly Father, who knows all of our needs, who's ordained every area and step of our life, and He veils the outcomes and troubles of tomorrow from our minds so that we will not be distracted, but like horses, great galloping horses with blinders on, we can just fix our eyes on Him and live for Him today.
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Think of these words, brothers and sisters, fear not. I am with thee.
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Oh, be not dismayed. I am thy God. I will still give thee aid. I'll be thy righteous, omnipotent hand.
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Take that out of the abstract sense of where does this fit in my whole life and just sit that into today.
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Sit that into tomorrow when you wake up. God, you're with me today.
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Don't let me be discouraged today. I know that you are my God. You're giving me aid today. Strengthen for me.
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There's things that I'm dealing with today, Lord. Maybe you're the only one that knows. Strengthen me today. Help me today.
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There's people that I know I'll be with. There's people I don't know that I'll encounter. So be with me and cause me to stand.
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Let me speak. Let me be as Patrick prayed. When through the deep waters
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I call thee to go, the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow. I will be near thee. Thy trouble to bless, sanctified to thee thy deepest distress.
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We sing these songs in the abstract. Take it into today. Today, Lord, there's trouble.
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Today I'm in distress. Today I have sorrow. I feel that I'm drowning under the waves.
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It was Octavius Winslow who said, in the case of every child of God, calamity never comes alone. It always comes with Jesus.
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So Lord, if I'm in the storm today, I know you're in the storm with me. You're in the boat. Help me to see that.
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Help me to see you. Help me to be as you were. When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, my grace all sufficient shall be thy supply.
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The flame will not hurt thee. I only design thy dross to consume, thy gold to refine.
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Again, take that into today. Every single day of your life he's burning up the dross of where you're still walking in your flesh, still walking in the ways of the world, still grieving and resisting the
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Holy Spirit that indwells you. And every day he's burning up that dross, consuming it with both blessing and trouble, and he promises that that supply is not to hurt you, but to actually perfect you, to refine the gold.
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Take that out of the abstract and put it into the day. How is he refining you today? Lord, how are you refining me today? What trouble, what need, what lack, what hope is going to refine me today?
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If I'm pleading for anything, it's simply this. Please don't, please don't allow theology to become so abstract that we deal with it generically, and it never actually has any effect on the way we live our lives.
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I don't think the evangelical church in North America would have nearly as many martyrs as the second century church had in Africa for that very reason.
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We might know our theology a lot better than those brothers and sisters of old did. Most of them were illiterate, but they never allowed their knowledge to become so abstract that it wasn't transformative.
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It's one thing to say, he controls all my days and renews his mercy and strength for me to seek his kingdom.
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It's another way to live that truth out in your daily life. So we must know the
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God of providence in this intimate way that can only be known by the one who sincerely prays, give me just today my daily bread.
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But then we also know, and we need to close with this, we must also know him as the
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God of all grace. The God of all grace. The God who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all.
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The God who we can know and believe in, and know in a way that's not the knowing of generic, abstracted, inapplicable theology, but the knowing of integrity and transformation and contrast.
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I know whom I have believed, Paul says. I know who
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I have believed. It's the God of all grace. The God who didn't withhold his own son. The God who loves me and gave himself for me.
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In trusting him, we were kept in perfect peace. The perfect peace that accords with the day, because as our days are, so our strength, so our mercy, so our joy, and so our peace.
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And this one, this God of all grace, does not call us to work our way toward him day by day.
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Day by day, we live in response to what he's done. This is the argument of Hebrews 7 and Hebrews 10, right?
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Priests had to do something daily that Christians don't have to do. Priests had to daily offer a sacrifice that could never take away sin, but our
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Savior, our Lord, once for all sacrificed himself, and never again is there an offering nor a sin sacrifice that needs to be made.
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And so that once -for -all sacrifice means that we're not here to atone for ourselves or work our way toward relating to God.
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That once -for -all has established our days as days of gratitude, days that are lost in wonder and love and praise.
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The once -for -all establishes the daily. I respond to him now. Now, as a result of that, as Proverbs 8 says, every day
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I'm watching for wisdom incarnate at his gates, waiting at the post of my door, day by day, as Proverbs 8 .34
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says. Looking for him, looking for his light, looking for his Word, looking for his wisdom.
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Or I'm like the Bereans in Acts 17 who search the Scriptures daily to find out if these things accord with truth.
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There's something daily about my searching for wisdom incarnate, my searching for the truth of God's Word.
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That's a daily exercise. Strength and mercy by the day, searching the Scriptures by the day. What does
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Luke 9 .23 say? If anyone desires to come after me and follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me.
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This is not generic, abstract theology. The mercy renews in the morning.
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You're cleansed in the blood of the Lamb. The strength is given you for the trouble and you put that old rugged cross on your shoulder and drag it for another 24 hours.
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That, my friends, is a life of repentance and faith. That is the Christian life. Paul in 1st
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Corinthians 15 says, I die daily. Every day I die. Every day
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I'm spending what's in me. Every day I spend what the Lord's given me in the morning and I'm empty at night and he refills me until I'm fully poured out as a drink offering at the end.
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I die daily. I die every day. There's a big difference between Paul dying daily because he's living with the strength and mercy of today, seeking the kingdom today, versus the the other side in 1st
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Corinthians 15 which is tomorrow we might die so let's just eat and drink and be merry. I don't want to deal with today.
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I don't want to deal with the stark realities of my life. I just want to live in this fairy tale of tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow and if you're living for tomorrow you never actually live for today.
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Paul says I live for today. In fact, I die every day. Every day I drag a cross. Every day
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I seek his kingdom. I'm dying every day. He says in 2nd Corinthians 11, every day comes upon me my concern for all the churches.
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The writer of Hebrews can say we exhort one another daily while it's called today and then in Acts 2 we read that the church continued daily with one accord, breaking bread, eating food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising
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God. This is a daily, you see, everything's daily. The cross -bearing, the fellowship, the exhortation.
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It's all daily and it's all corresponding to this right motive, seeking first the kingdom toward a right end, glorifying
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God who's in heaven. Let me close with these words of John Newton.
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By treasuring up the doctrines, the precepts, the promises, the examples, and exhortations of Scripture, believers in their minds daily comparing themselves with the rule by which they walk, grow into spiritual wisdom, acquire a gracious taste which helps them to judge between right and wrong with readiness and certainty, just like a musical ear can judge between sounds, and they are seldom wrong.
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They are rarely wrong because they do this daily under the influence of their love for Christ who rules in their hearts, and they give absolute regard to the glory of God, which is the great object they have in view.
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That is John Newton's elaborate way of saying, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
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God knows your needs and He'll add it all to you. Do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow can worry about itself.
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Sufficient for today is its own trouble, and in the trouble of today, seek first the kingdom and His righteousness.
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Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you.
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Thank you for your Word. Thank you for this command, Lord. There's many commands that we would probably rank as far more difficult than this, but if we're honest,
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Lord, if we're examining ourselves, this may be one of the most difficult commands you've ever given. For we instinctively, effortlessly, intuitively worry about almost everything in our lives.
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Help us to know how to obey this command not to worry in a way that corresponds to seeking first your kingdom.
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Bless our church in this way, Lord. May we each live to the fullest extent of your strength.
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May we each live to seek your kingdom by the day, and as our days are, so may the strength that you provide be.
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Help each one here, Lord, to not no longer be gripped of the worries and troubles of tomorrow,
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Lord. Let them turn to you. Receive the comfort and joy that's found here in this passage, but also the powerful calling, the cross -bearing, flesh -denying calling of not worrying in order to seek first your kingdom by the day.
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Lord, help us to do these things. Thank you that you have gone on before us, Lord. You lived every day of your life on this earth in this way.
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What a marvelous example you've laid down, and we thank you, Lord, that by your own example, by the sacrifice of your blood, and by the power of your
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Spirit, you've enabled others throughout church history to follow you in that same path, with that same strength and devotion, and seer service of the
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Father who knows all of our needs. If there's one here, Lord, who's an alien, a foreigner to your grace, one who has not sought your face, nor would even know the first thing about seeking your kingdom, might the faith of the old, and might the faith of those here present,
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Lord, stir them and move them toward repentance and faith that they too might enter into your kingdom and your joy at the last.