Don’t Worry, Be Holy - Part 3: Grass and Glory

Grace Reformation Bible Church iconGrace Reformation Bible Church

3 views

Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Matthew 6:28-30

0 comments

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

00:00
Well, this morning we're carrying on with Part 3 of what we've begun now over the past several weeks.
00:07
This whole idea of the end of Chapter 6 essentially telling us two main things.
00:15
On the one hand, verses 25 through 32, don't worry. And then beginning in verse 33, be holy.
00:23
Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness. And so we're now looking at Part 3 this morning.
00:30
Next week we'll close out this whole idea of how Jesus is teaching us not to worry in order to get to the point of being holy.
00:39
So you should understand all these weeks driving toward the emphasis of verse 33. And that'll carry us well into Chapter 7 in many ways.
00:48
The ultimate concern here is to live a, not to live a trouble -free life, but rather to seek a kingdom -oriented life.
00:56
And Jesus is going to speak now in Chapter 6 about the issues that we often internally face, those pressures, those anxieties and fears, those needs, the things that are very unique and personal to us.
01:08
That's really Chapter 6, what comes before seeking the kingdom first. Chapter 7's going to begin with how does that kingdom pursuit actually look like interpersonally, relationally?
01:19
In other words, in order to seek the kingdom and its righteousness, we need to deal with those things that are internal to us, unique to us, personal to us, anxiety, need, fear, desire, ambition.
01:32
But then we also have to deal with others. How do we interact relationally in order to seek the kingdom first and its righteousness?
01:39
So we're going to be spending a lot of time on verse 33, opening up this idea of seeking the kingdom first in some broad ways.
01:47
But that is still going to be part of the flow heading into Chapter 7. Don't worry.
01:53
Be holy. Now, last week, we looked at verse 26. Look at the birds of the air.
02:00
They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
02:06
We saw that that corresponded to verse 25. And we saw that Jesus gives us as a command.
02:12
He says, look. In other words, there's no need to live with a distraction of worry.
02:18
As He'll say, your Father knows what you genuinely need. So don't live as if your life is about your stomach or your body is about your clothes.
02:26
Don't live as if your ultimate goal is to meet your own needs and fulfill your own desires. Seek first the kingdom.
02:32
Just look at the birds, Jesus is saying. They don't have John Deere tractors. They don't build barns.
02:38
Your Father's feeding them. Look at that. Notice that, we said. I hope, as I said, my mission last week was to make bird watchers out of you.
02:47
I hope you noticed birds more this week than perhaps you had in weeks past. I certainly paid attention.
02:54
In fact, I was just reading some of the news the other day, and I guess there was some tractor trailer on I -85 in Pennsylvania that split open, and thousands of hot dogs went all over the interstate.
03:05
And I was just thinking to myself, like, that's one of the ways God provides for, you know, the crows, or they must be thrilled, you know, meat's back on the menu, boys.
03:15
Jesus is calling for His people to look. And He's going to do that again here in verses 28 through 30.
03:24
And so, of course, the whole idea is we are not to be driven by our impulses. We're not to be driven by our needs, even genuine good needs, that it's the
03:33
Father's good pleasure to give. We're to be driven. We're to be pursuing something entirely beyond that.
03:38
And so we asked the question last week, are we belly worshipers or are we bird watchers?
03:44
Do we notice the world that God has made? Do we notice His providential care? Do we understand that He has a will and a purpose that corresponds to all the events of history, all the flows of nature?
03:57
All of these things are drawn together to bring us to this understanding of God and His glorious will,
04:03
God and His purpose in our lives in this world in history. We also looked at Galatians 5.
04:11
This is where we got this idea of a belly worshiper, someone who lives for their belly. Of course,
04:17
Jesus says we need to be seeking the kingdom first, which means we're not going to be living as though our life is our stomach.
04:25
And He says to live in that fleshly way means not only will you not seek the kingdom first, you won't actually enter into the kingdom.
04:31
You won't inherit it. As someone who's living according to their flesh, Paul describes in Galatians 5, he says the works of the flesh are evident.
04:40
Do you want to know what a belly worshiper looks like? Paul's, I'll tell you. You want to know someone who's driven by the flesh?
04:47
I'll show you. Do you want to know what it looks like to be stirred up with idolatry?
04:53
Do you want to know what it looks like to be used of the evil one? Paul says, let me tell you, Galatians.
04:59
He says the works of the flesh are evident. You can observe them. Look. Look around.
05:05
Notice the birds. Look. Notice the works of the flesh. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, hatred, contention, jealousy, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambition, dissension, envy, murder, drunkenness, revelry.
05:31
He says, I've told you this before. I'm telling you again. Those who are walking in this way don't inherit the kingdom of God.
05:42
We want to seek first the kingdom of God. We want to be heirs of the kingdom. We want to be children of God.
05:48
And Paul says, in order to do that, we have to pick up our cross, because the enemies of the cross of Christ have their belly as their gut.
05:57
So this all really corresponds to what Jesus has been teaching us all throughout the Sermon on the
06:02
Mount. He defines for us what it means to be a follower, what it means to be a disciple. A disciple is not an enemy of the cross in all of these evident works of the flesh.
06:12
One who's carrying the cross because they love Jesus and follow him is not going to be given over to uncleanness and fornication, is not going to have a life pockmarked with all sorts of idolatrous desires that they're finding their value in, they're not going to be marked by contentions and outbursts of wrath, they're not going to have selfish ambitions, they're not going to be thrown about by winds of doctrine and heresy.
06:35
They won't be prone to the sort of contention that leads to a murderous view of others, nor will they have such a loose life that they're almost walking as a drunk man.
06:47
Jesus says someone who's not picking up their cross is going to have a life that looks like this, because this is just life in the flesh.
06:54
This is what you and I are like when we're not picking up the cross in order to follow
07:00
Jesus. It's just as plain and simple as that. Enemies of the cross rather than bearers of the cross.
07:09
And Jesus says, if anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself and pick up his cross and follow me.
07:20
In other words, it's the only way you can follow me. So what does that look like?
07:25
I mentioned and hinted last week that this morning in part three we're going to be looking at contentment, and particularly two streams that I think actually are the substance of contentment.
07:38
It's what contentment is made out of. There might be more, but in my mind these things really zero in on contentment.
07:46
Now why is that important? Because I'm convinced that contentment is just the other side of this teaching, of living a life by faith that's not consumed by worry and fear and anxiety.
07:57
What that really looks like is learning how to be content. It's not just picking up the cross, it's being content to bear the cross.
08:06
That's the life of discipleship that Jesus has in mind. And that's why we said last week from Philippians 4,
08:12
Paul says, I learned in whatever state how to be content. I know how to be abased.
08:21
There was a time, as he said, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, born of the tribe of Benjamin, you know, zealous, blameless, teacher of teachers, a mighty man.
08:34
I didn't know how to be abased then, I only know how to boast and stomp around as if I was
08:39
God's gift to the earth. And I was most zealous for what I misunderstood at the time to be
08:45
God's will. And he says, ever since I became a follower of Christ and I had to learn how to deny myself and carry a splintered and thorny cross, now
08:54
I know how to be abased. I know. I know too well how to be abased.
09:01
I've learned in whatever state how to be abased or how to abound. Everywhere, in all things,
09:08
I have learned not just to be full. I haven't ordered my whole life as a
09:14
Christian just to always be full. I haven't set up my life with certain desires and impulses that I'm only ever living seeking to be full.
09:23
He says, in fact, I've learned how to starve. This corresponds again, why did we spend a good chunk of chapter 6 talking about fasting?
09:34
The Christian life, the cross -bearing life, the life of loving and following Jesus is not a life that reacts to every impulse of the flesh that strives to fulfill every need.
09:46
It's actually a life that bears a cross and says, I know how to be full. I know how to starve. I know how to be blessed and I know how to be abased.
09:56
I know how to be, as it were, full of rigor and warmth and joy and I know how to be smeared.
10:07
That's just the Christian life of self -denial. And Paul says, I had to learn that. That's the all -important verb.
10:15
I've learned. You only learn what you're being taught. And as we established, it's one thing to be taught.
10:22
It's another thing to learn. God is always teaching us. That's not the issue. We're always being taught.
10:28
Every aspect of your life is teaching you something. The question is, are you learning? Are you learning?
10:34
If you're anything like me, God is often teaching you the same thing over and over again.
10:43
That's not the question. The question is, are you learning? God's a pretty faithful teacher.
10:50
He doesn't lose heart. He's willing to keep teaching you the same thing until it clicks, until you get it.
11:02
And God is very faithful to us in the sense that His desire is to teach us how to bear that cross so that we can follow
11:10
Him in the only path that leads to glory. Do we want to be heirs of the kingdom? We're going to have to learn these lessons.
11:16
In His providence, in our lives, in our bodies, in our needs, in our fears, He's teaching us something.
11:23
In our relationships, in our hopes, in all the things that excite us and move us,
11:30
He's trying to teach us something. And Paul says, yeah, it took a while, but I did learn. I did learn.
11:36
All of this is corresponding to what Jesus says at the head of where we've begun.
11:42
Don't worry about your life. Worry about the kingdom. Don't be consumed by your needs. Be consumed by the needs of the kingdom.
11:50
That's where all of this is going. So this morning, part three, corresponds back to don't worry what you'll wear.
12:01
Right? We said that last week. Look at the birds. Your father feeds them. That corresponds to verse 25.
12:06
Don't worry about what you're going to eat. Well, here, He's going to say, look at the lilies of the field, and that corresponds to verse 25.
12:13
Don't worry about what you're going to wear. So Matthew 6, beginning in verse 28. Why do you worry about clothing?
12:21
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, and yet I say to you that even
12:29
Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will
12:42
He not much more clothe you? Oh, you of little faith.
12:49
So looking at this passage, notice it's the same call. Look at the birds of the air here.
12:55
Consider the lilies of the field. These are synonymous commands. Look, consider, reflect.
13:02
Notice and meditate, see and respond accordingly. So the same call is repeated.
13:10
In talking about the birds of the air, Jesus said to us, look up. Look at the birds of the air.
13:18
Some of you maybe filled your bird feeders, but you didn't feed 9 ,500 species of birds this morning.
13:26
God did. Some of you put sunflower seeds in a little tube in your backyard, but you didn't open up a tractor trailer full of hot dogs.
13:35
God did. God knows how to feed. So Jesus is saying, look up, look at the birds of the air.
13:40
And here He says, look at the lilies of the field. In other words, look down. Look up.
13:47
Look down. Look far. Look near. Look all around you.
13:53
Notice and reflect. And here He says specifically, not look at how
13:59
God provides, but He says, look at how they grow. So the birds of the air was, look, they don't do anything and God is feeding them.
14:07
But here He says, look at the lilies and look how they grow. In other words, look how their needs are met as they're going through various stages, various seasons.
14:18
As the seed germinates and sprouts, as the blades push through the topsoil, as the stem leads to the flower and bears further seed.
14:27
In all of these stages and seasons, He says, look how they grow. They don't toil.
14:32
They don't spin. Lilies don't break out a singer's sewing machine. Lilies don't gather for some shift at a loom, at a weaving mill.
14:42
They just grow and God covers the field with them. And if we have eyes to see, as Jesus is seeing, and I would say this is an enchanted sight.
14:57
It's like Pablo Picasso said, I spent my whole life trying to paint like a child. And if you understood what he meant by that, he's like, to actually see things in a way that hasn't become so accustomed and jaded, that there's a certain brilliance and purity of creativity in the way that a child sees and tries to imitate what they're seeing.
15:18
This is an enchanted sight. You're not noticing lilies and you're not thinking of how they grow when you're out there sweating under the
15:26
July sun with a lawnmower. You're just not. Not like, wow, look at the, I got to get this done,
15:32
I got to get out, I got to work these things out, I only have a few more hours. We're very distracted. Slow down.
15:38
Notice. Look. Look how it grows. Have some enchantment in the way that God has made the world.
15:44
If you can do that, to the degree that you do that, He'll speak to you everywhere. He's speaking to you everywhere.
15:52
And it's in that rustling grass. It's in the way that God has arranged the fields and the lilies and the growth of everything that is constantly calling for you to notice and reflect and adore the creation of God.
16:05
That as we see Jesus doing, He's essentially looking down and He's not going, oh, there's a good theological lesson here. He's just going, wow, if you actually understood how my father designed this lily, can
16:17
I just tell you, in all the royal robes of King Solomon, He didn't even come close.
16:25
That's enchanted sight. In other words, what I mean by that is, is
16:30
Jesus is able to look and hear the Father speaking through what is made and He's able to infer from that, if my
16:39
Father in heaven is so faithful to provide and sustain and adorn and beautify what
16:45
He has made, why should I be afraid? Why should I fear? Even if I have no place to lay my head.
16:52
Even if I'm in the wilderness and I'm hungry, while I'm hungry, I can look around and say, whatever my
16:59
Father does is right. You'll notice this is a much more argument.
17:06
This is something that we saw already in the previous passage of how much more value are you than sparrows, right, of how much more value is your life than the birds of the air and here, how much more will your
17:21
Father clothe you, provide for your needs through all the seasons and stages of your life, if He has care for even a lily in the field?
17:33
The lilies are like this vibrant royal covering for the grass of the field and this is really where I'm leaning into, we're kind of, in some ways, moving beyond the passage to try to capture,
17:43
I think, the imagery there. Jesus picks up this lowly blade of grass, this lily that He plucks from the field and He makes this statement about it being far more glorious than anything
17:56
Solomon was ever arrayed in and all the pomp and pageantry at the height of the kingdom and Jesus says, if you had eyes to see, if you truly understood the work of creation, you would know that Solomon doesn't even compare, not even close.
18:12
So He picks up something lowly. How many disciples were literally just crushing the lilies of the field as they were listening to Jesus?
18:19
How many of them were just trotting and standing on as they were, like us, slapping mosquitoes and trying to pay attention, whipping out, taking notes?
18:29
They're just not even really noticing what Jesus is getting at. So He picks up something lowly and then
18:34
He reminds His disciples, this lowly thing is glorious, it's glorious. He takes something very meek and He says, reflect deeply on this because this meek, humble thing is actually majestic.
18:51
And when you think about the imagery of the grass of the field, of the lilies of the field, you find that this metaphor is used to speak of our lives, of our humanity throughout
19:00
Scripture. We open the service with a responsive reading drawn from just a few examples out of many, tens, dozens of examples where human life, humanity is referred to as the grass of the field.
19:15
And that often is employed as a metaphor, not to speak of the glory of humanity, but just how temporary and fickle we are.
19:23
Grass here for a day, gone tomorrow, that's essentially what Jesus is saying, it's here and then it's thrown into the oven the next day.
19:30
So it's something lowly, meek, something easily taken for granted, there's no great power, it's just something you walk on and even if you don't mow it, it eventually withers in its time and that's it, until the next spring comes.
19:44
And so it's something lowly, something meek, and Jesus says, but actually it's something glorious. And in my mind, to the degree that we can hold some of this together, we're really getting at a good picture of what
19:54
Jesus is pointing to. He's saying if you actually understand that you really are cared for by your heavenly
20:01
Father in the same way He cares for grass, then what is your life? God says your life is like grass.
20:07
What are you like? You are like the grass of the field, you're just here for a day. And so you shouldn't fear, you should actually completely devote yourself to the one who cares for and adorns the fields in this way.
20:20
In other words, you can be content even though you're meek and lowly, even though your life is just a drop in the bucket, even though you're only here for a vapor and then you're gone tomorrow.
20:32
You can actually find a perfect contentment in that. You don't have to fear, you don't have to worry.
20:40
And I think this all corresponds to Paul saying I've learned in whatever state to be content. Well consider
20:49
Paul's life. He didn't find contentment when he says I learned how to be content in whatever state.
20:55
It wasn't because his life was one long picnic. When he denied himself and took up the cross to follow
21:03
Jesus, his life went off the cliff.
21:11
He was once a respected man in the community, a man of learnedness, a man that knew how to navigate between different worlds, a
21:24
Roman citizen, probably because of his father's perhaps service was maybe given the status of a citizen as a freedman.
21:32
So that's why they're kind of surprised. How did you get Roman? I had to pay a lot of money to become a citizen, how in the world did you, some
21:39
Jew from Tarsus become a citizen? And Paul had to navigate these different worlds, he was multilingual, he was learned, he sat under the feet of Gamaliel, he had a lot of things to boast in.
21:50
And then when he became a Christ, as he goes on to say, when he became a follower of Christ he says all that that was gained to me, all garbage, putting it politely, and now it's all lost to me.
22:04
All the things that were once gained, it's all lost. It's only lost when
22:09
I'm comparing it to the excellency of knowing Christ. And so that's all part of how he learned to be content.
22:18
I now have something of infinite value that has defined and shaped my whole life.
22:26
In fact it's not just adjusted a few things, it's entirely crucified me in the old man and raised me into a whole new creation.
22:35
So my whole world view has shifted, my whole value system, my self -identity,
22:40
I'm a slave to him now, I love him, now I suffer for him, I starve for him. From the
22:45
Jews, five times I received 40 stripes, five times.
22:54
That's like, at the third or fourth time, it's like, what were his prayers like, Lord, Lord. Lord, here we go again, five times, beaten, 40 stripes, 40 stripes minus one.
23:13
Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned.
23:20
Three times I was shipwrecked. Listen, if I was shipwrecked once, I'd be a land dweller for the rest of my life.
23:27
You wouldn't get me on a boat. I've been in a canoe wreck before,
23:33
I've been capsized in a canoe. I haven't been on a canoe since, to be honest. Three times
23:40
I was shipwrecked. He doesn't even fully, you know, lay into this, he's just like, you know, to spare you the details, let me just tell you what that looked like.
23:50
For a whole night and a day, I was in the deep. Just clinging to wood, praying to God.
24:01
In journeys, in peril, in peril of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, all the people that once propped me up on their shoulders like I was
24:09
God's gift to the earth, now they're out to kill me. In perils in the wilderness, in perils in the city, in perils of the
24:16
Gentiles, in perils in the sea, perils among false brethren, weariness, toil, sleeplessness, hunger, thirst, cold, nakedness.
24:28
It's Paul's life when he became a follower of Christ. But he says,
24:35
I've learned how to be content in all of these things. I've learned, it has not been an easy road, it has not been easy lessons, but God has taught me over and over and over again, whatever the trials, whatever the pressing needs or pressures may be, whatever the affliction,
24:53
I finally began to learn the lessons. And he's saying to us as Christians, have we been learning the lessons?
25:07
The one thing, that's from 2 Corinthians 11, the one thing I left out there, which is kind of the beautiful crown of the whole passage is, you ask the question, like, why?
25:16
It's like we were asking on Sunday night, when you actually look at the persecutions that break out, you know, you think of the persecution under Nero, you think of the later, the
25:27
Dodecian persecutions, and we were asking a question like, how do you sell
25:33
Christianity to people? If anyone's aware of how Christians are just the, you know, the off -scouring of the earth, and they're being persecuted and tormented and, you know, forced out of their trades and, you know, often in need,
25:47
I'm like, what's the sales pitch? How do you get people to come to Christ? It's really, there's no earthly explanation apart from the
25:53
Spirit of God. There's a little book I have by a historian, he's gone to glory now, he's a professor of New Testament at Edinburgh named
26:02
Larry Hurtado, and he did these lectures at Marquette and they were published in a book, and the title of the book is,
26:10
Why on Earth Did Anyone Become a Christian in the First Three Centuries? How can you make sense of this?
26:18
Who's joining this? Why would Paul go through this?
26:25
And do you know what he says at the end of that long list of woe? And he says, beside all the other things, things that come on me daily, he's like, in other words, he's like,
26:33
I'm not even, I'm sparing you the details, that's just stuff that happened to me, I'm not even telling you about my own bodily difficulties.
26:41
And he says, my deep concern for all of the churches, that's what it was all toward.
26:50
Why do you get on a boat after three shipwrecks? Why were you beaten three times and willing to be beaten a fourth?
26:57
Why were you whipped five times being willing to be whipped a sixth? Why were you stoned and dragged out of the city limits, and when you come back to consciousness, you go back into the city?
27:12
And Paul, in a way, is revealing my deep concern for all of the churches. And what's underneath that deep concern?
27:23
My matchless love for Jesus Christ. That's what it is.
27:32
When it comes to contentment, there's no seminar, there's no blog post, no book, not even a sermon, not a single turning point, in other words, not an on switch that will all of a sudden flash flood contentment into your life.
27:49
Paul said, it's just a lot of hard lessons until I started to learn. Just a lot of lessons.
27:58
Any one of these things may be helpful, the seminar, the blog post, the book, the sermon, but the reality is
28:05
God, as we said, is a faithful teacher, and he's constantly introducing us to situations, needs, wants, desires, fears, circumstances, relationships that are meant to teach us the things that Paul had to learn.
28:17
So the question is not, are we being taught? All of us are constantly being taught. The question is, are we learning?
28:23
Are we learning what Paul learned? What is our life?
28:28
We are like grass. We're here today, gone tomorrow. Grass is something meek and lowly, but Jesus picks it up and says, yeah, but it's also glorious.
28:39
We are, as God's people, like grass, and we ought to live with that kind of awareness.
28:47
We ought to be very meek and humble. Who are we before the Lord God? We're just like the grass of the field.
28:54
Here today, gone tomorrow. Who was I talking, I was talking with someone this week about, you know, back in the days when, or maybe it was the previous
29:06
Sunday, it was back in the days when to go to church you had to walk through the church graveyard. We've done a very good job in modern society at basically preventing anyone from having to actually encounter death very much.
29:19
And so maybe a few times over a decade you actually are in the funeral parlor.
29:26
In a lot of ways, the rest of your life is lived without any direct confrontation with death. There was a wisdom in burying people right around the place of worship, and every day you're walking past rows of people buried between rows of grass, and the reflection is, yeah, we're all like grass.
29:46
Here today, gone tomorrow. The word of our God stands forever.
29:54
So there's something meek and humble. In other words, our days are limited. Jesus says, when you recognize your life is like grass, not to bring a certain humility and meekness into your life, you recognize how limited you are, and you should live in light of that.
30:09
So don't let that little vapor of life be consumed with what you need. Let your Father take care of that. In this little vapor of life, live for the kingdom.
30:21
Embrace that your life is like grass. Embrace that. Boy, that's the hardest lesson to learn of all.
30:30
Can you convince a teenager that they're not invincible? You can't. It's impossible.
30:41
You know, I had a tooth pulled, whatever, a few months ago. That was like a traumatic psychological experience for me.
30:49
When you're little and your tooth falls out, you just get a new one. Everything's getting better.
30:57
Pull that tooth out, and it's like, that's it. There's only more teeth to be pulled as time goes by.
31:04
Eventually, all sorts of things are going to be falling off of me. Nothing's growing back. We're like grass.
31:12
Jesus is saying, when you recognize that, you'll live with a certain meekness and humility, but then in the midst of that meekness and humility, recognize just how glorious you are.
31:24
Because your whole destiny is infinite. The whole purpose by which you were made and all of God's work, in a profound, mysterious way, corresponds to your little vapor of life.
31:39
So he picks up something meek and lowly, and he raises it, and he says, there's really nothing more glorious than this.
31:45
No king has ever been like this. What a way to look at life. And this is all in the consciousness of Jesus saying, don't worry about your life, just seek the kingdom.
31:57
Our days are limited, and we need to live with those limitations. We need to live with that understanding. In other words, in a very
32:03
Ecclesiastes -like way, Jesus is saying, embrace the fact that you're a creature. Embrace the fact that you're here today, gone tomorrow.
32:11
What does it look like to live in the reality of that? According to Matthew 6, it looks like not being driven by impulses and desires, not being moved by needs and fears, but living and making this little vapor while you're here today, about the kingdom and its righteousness.
32:28
That's what it looks like. When we recognize that we are like grass, our lives will be marked by meekness and humility.
32:37
When we recognize that though we are meek and lowly grass, we've been arrayed with glory, we will live with gratitude.
32:46
These are the two streams that I believe flow the river of contentment.
32:53
Meekness and gratitude. When I try to think through what contentment looks like, if I can boil it down,
33:02
I think contentment looks like meekness and gratitude. Meekness and gratitude.
33:11
Because the same Paul that's willing to suffer all that he suffered, out of a deep concern for the church, out of a love for his
33:19
Savior, is a Paul who is constantly saying, I'm the chief of sinners. That's meekness.
33:27
And he's constantly saying, I thank God for you. That's gratitude.
33:34
So part of learning how to be content is having the humility, the meekness to recognize what your life is like.
33:44
And what all the things that you think are the most important things actually amount to almost nothing. Walk past the graves on your way to church.
33:54
Everyone that's sitting six feet under the soil had fears and needs. And what does that amount to in the end?
34:05
So don't live your whole life as if your whole life is your stomach or your body, your needs or your fears, your desires or your ambitions.
34:12
The grave is the grand equalizer to all of that. None of that matters. All that endures.
34:17
The treasures that persevere into everlasting are the things that correspond to the kingdom of God.
34:26
And so when you recognize, like grass, I'm to be meek and lowly, and yet my whole hope and destiny is secure and glorious, and I'm arrayed in a splendor that no earthly king could accomplish, then
34:40
I can live even as a humble blade of grass, a lily in the field, I can live with profound gratitude.
34:48
This is part of how we learn to be content. So I want to talk about meekness. I have very little to say about meekness, in part because we spoke so much about meekness and humility in Matthew chapter 5, but I do want to really highlight gratitude.
35:02
Part of that is because I actually think when we can understand gratitude and walk in gratitude, it goes a long way to produce meekness.
35:12
To my mind, meekness is something that if you pursue it, it's very easy to miss it.
35:21
And sometimes the only way to be meek is to pursue other things that actually bring about meekness. So that's my thought.
35:28
And that's why I spend a lot more time not describing meekness or painting the target of meekness, but actually talking about gratitude.
35:37
Because I think if you aim for gratitude, the fruit of that in part will be meekness. But let's talk about meekness very quickly.
35:46
Meekness, another word for that, gentleness, is a fruit of the Spirit. This is what the
35:52
Spirit wants to grow in our lives, wants to cultivate it. Gentleness. Paul says,
36:03
I exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness.
36:11
Ephesians 4. So there's something about this call to Christ that with that calling, with that walk, it's to be carried out with a lowliness, with a gentleness, with a meekness.
36:24
So meekness is something that belongs to the Christian life. It's a fruit that comes from the Holy Spirit. To lack gentleness, to lack meekness, is to actually lack the fruit, the power, the presence of the
36:36
Spirit of God. We should not be quick to dispel passages like this, points like this, by saying, well, that's just not my personality.
36:51
The right way to view it is like, yeah, you're right, that's not your personality. The Spirit's got a lot of work to do in your life.
36:57
That's the right way to understand it. Well, yeah, some people, it's easy to be gentle. Me, I've always been Rambo.
37:03
It's like, well, okay. You're a tall order, but the Lord's going to conform you to Christ.
37:10
Moses was the meekest man on the face of the earth until Jesus came to earth. Gentle, lowly, that's who
37:18
He is. A sympathetic, high priest, that's who He is. Not willing to, speaking of the grass or the field, not willing to crush the bruised reed.
37:33
Not willing to stomp on the smoking flax. That's Jesus. That's having the
37:39
Spirit without measure. That's what the Spirit wants to produce in your life. So, of course, it has to be spiritual.
37:45
Some people are naturally a little more meek. Some of that's just passivity at times, but the meekness that we're talking about, the fruit of the
37:53
Spirit, this is not natural. This is not a tendency or a characteristic of someone's personality.
37:59
This is something that's wrought from the Spirit of God. You'll notice that this word, if you remember from Matthew 5, it's often connected in the
38:09
Hebrew. The idea of meek is actually connected synonymously with a beggar, someone who's poor, the unneedy, the needy, the poor, the meek, the lowly.
38:20
That's the idea. You get the idea that someone who is meek is someone who recognizes,
38:26
I am ever a debtor to grace. We sang it not that long ago this morning, the hymn from Robert Robinson.
38:34
A debtor to grace. In other words, I recognize that I never outgrow begging for grace from my
38:43
God. Why? Because I'm often wandering from my God. Often I'm straying from my
38:50
God, and so the prayer that he says in this hymn is bind my wandering heart to you. I'm a debtor to your grace.
38:56
I'm constantly needing more of it, though I don't deserve any of it. That's what the grace is. What did we say at Manadnock?
39:06
We recited this again and again. We've been reciting this several times at the prayer meetings lately. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness.
39:19
That's what it means to be a Christian. That's what it means to walk worthy of the calling of Christ. That's why the only way to follow
39:26
Christ is to deny yourself and pick up the cross. This is where humility and meekness come from. It's hard to think really highly of yourself if you're dragging a cross with you.
39:39
If you're having trouble lowering yourself, put a cross on your shoulder. That'll bring you a little bit more lowly.
39:46
That's the idea. That's why Jesus says in Matthew 11, take my yoke upon you.
39:52
The problem is you've been standing up a little too tall. You have a little too much confidence and self -assurance. Let me help you with that.
39:58
Here's my yoke, so you can go down to the earth a little bit. Because even when
40:05
I wasn't physically dragging a cross to Golgotha, my whole life I was carrying a cross.
40:14
I learned obedience through suffering. I had a messianic consciousness from the time my thoughts began to form.
40:21
I opened the book of the scrolls and I knew that these things were written concerning me. I knew from a young age that I'm the suffering servant.
40:30
When my brethren began to sing Psalm 22, they were singing about me and I knew it.
40:36
My whole life I was dragging a cross. That was my yoke. So are you having trouble because you're haughty?
40:46
Because you're vain? Because you're prideful? Take my yoke upon you.
40:53
I'm gentle and lowly because of these things. You need to be gentle and lowly if you're going to follow me. That's why
40:59
Jesus says in that passage, learn from me. Just like Paul says, I've learned to be content.
41:05
I've learned meekness and gentleness. Learn from me. And as Paul will go on to say, the only way he learned it is by having the mind of Christ.
41:21
That's why Jesus carried the cross and he says learn from me. Have my mind.
41:27
Have my heart. Have my trust. This is, by the way, and we'll move on to gratitude now, but this is not some phase.
41:38
This is not some little recipe that you need to occasionally sprinkle in some meekness.
41:45
This is not, lately I've noticed I'm not very meek. I need to add a little meekness and then carry on. This is, your whole life as a
41:51
Christian is a pursuit to grow in humility. To grow in grace is to grow in humility. Look at Peter when he was an infant in grace and look at Peter when he's about to be crucified upside down and he's writing his letters.
42:09
There's a pretty big difference between the two men, isn't there? So let's talk about gratitude.
42:18
And let's start with the opposite of gratitude which is ingratitude. Ingratitude, of course, is the default mode of fallen man.
42:29
Ingratitude is how we come into the world. You have to teach children to say thank you.
42:36
You notice that? They just mouth open, hand out, and then they go their way.
42:42
It's like, no, no, come back, say thank you. Say please and say thank you, right?
42:47
We come into this world without gratitude. We have to be taught gratitude. And Paul, if we're reading
42:54
Romans 1 sensitively, Paul says, in fact, all of fallen humanity amounts to an ingratitude, a base ingratitude toward God.
43:04
They didn't acknowledge Him. They didn't give Him thanks as God, as Creator. So Paul describes, essentially, the very condition of fallenness as a condition of ingratitude which means that if ever there should be a grateful people, it should be
43:22
Christians, those that have been redeemed from the fall. If ever there should be a grateful people, it should be those who have actually been saved by God.
43:31
And therefore, as was said in times past, the whole of the Christian life amounts to thank you. If we have been brought out of death and darkness into His marvelous light because He first loved us when we were yet enemies and now all of the promises belong to us, how could we be anything but grateful?
43:54
Grateful. How could ingratitude grip our lives as Christians?
44:02
How could we gather and sing praise God from whom all blessings flow or recite
44:10
James 1 and says, every good thing comes from Him, the Father of lights and descends upon us from the heavenly realm and then go on for even just a moment during a day with a sharp sense of ingratitude?
44:30
It's a discouragement, isn't it, as a parent when you give a young child a present or maybe on a birthday they're surrounded by many nice gifts and they're at the table and they have this gorgeous
44:44
Carvel ice cream cake in front of them, my personal favorite, and they have this panoply of all these multicolored gift -wrapped presents and they're just sitting there pouting.
44:58
It's kind of like, let's just get outside. I want to teach them some gratitude.
45:05
We don't allow this attitude of, it's my birthday, I'm going to cry if I win. It's like, no, you're not. You were going to say thank you.
45:14
It's almost discouraging. It's almost like you don't deserve any of that. I'm going to take all this away from you. And we're like that pouting kid at the birthday party with tables stacked to the hilt with gifts that God is constantly giving to us and mercy that's constantly renewed and we're sitting there with our arms crossed pouting.
45:35
I don't like the Christian life. I really don't like Christians, to be honest.
45:41
Why doesn't God take all that away? Ingratitude does not belong to a
45:47
Christian. We see that as a sad picture when we experience that to some degree as parents.
45:55
We don't want our kids to be spoiled, but we as Christians are often the spoiled ones.
46:02
We're the biggest pouters of all. And if it's true that it's discouraging to see a child treat their earthly parents in that way, how much more so to treat our
46:14
Heavenly Father in that way as believers? Remember where Jesus is going. Your Heavenly Father knows what you need.
46:21
Look around you. Look how He provides for the earth. Get some perspective on your life.
46:27
Look at how He's provided for you. Why would you pout and mope through life with ingratitude?
46:34
To be frowning, to be filled with discontent and envy, to be full of self -pity, to only allow the times that we address
46:43
God to be essentially saying, change this, or just essentially venting sessions as if the
46:50
Heavenly Father who dwells in unapproachable light is our personal customer service booth.
46:55
We go and register complaints. Something has gone off the rails.
47:05
If most of our conversations, if most of the overflow of our heart coming out of our mouth is marked by frustrations, needs, offenses, problems, hopes, changes, vents, and not, thank you.
47:21
Thank you, God. Lord, you know I'm in a hard place.
47:27
You know I'm facing hard things, but I don't have enough time in a day to think of how much harder it could be.
47:36
And that's not even taking into account that it's only this hard because you have a good purpose in it being this hard. You're trying to teach me something.
47:44
You want me to learn from you. So this thankfulness, this ingratitude, it leads to grumbling and murmuring.
47:53
You think of the wilderness generation being let out of Egypt and they're always murmuring against the Lord. And the problem is as Christians, we always think we're
48:01
Moses and not the murmuring Israelites. Or Luke 17 when
48:07
Jesus cleanses the ten lepers and only one returns. The problem is we always think we're the one that's returning.
48:16
We never identify ourselves as the murmurers. And what I can see in my own life, and frankly,
48:24
I think if we're honest, we can all see it in our own lives. We're far more often, far more like the nine that have some blessing from God and go their way than the one who returns with gratitude and says,
48:40
I'm yours now. I'm yours. We are far more like the nine.
48:48
We want to serve God to get some blessing and as soon as it's in our hands, like some untrained toddler, we run and go our way.
48:55
Why do we talk to God? Because we need things. We need things and so we ask God and as James says, well the reason
49:01
He doesn't give it to you is you're asking amiss. Because what's driving your asking? You want it for your flesh.
49:09
In other words, the only reason you're even coming to God is because the flesh is impulsing you in some way. You're not thinking about the kingdom first.
49:16
You're not seeking the righteousness of the kingdom. That's why God's not answering you. And by the way, you're coming to Him with a lot of ingratitude.
49:24
You don't even see it. As parents in a microcosm, we don't allow our kids to go hungry even if they are in gratitude.
49:31
God is like that all the time. What does He say of His murmurers in the nation of Israel? All day long
49:38
I hold up my hands to a wearisome and disobedient people. This is all day long. And so when
49:45
Moses comes and he's like, Lord, give me a break. He's like, you think you're weary.
49:52
You only see things on the surface. You're only in one place. You don't even know. I see it all. All the time.
49:58
All day long I hold my hands out to a wearisome people. And so when we read
50:06
Luke 17 of the one that returns, this is the point. One of them, when he saw that he was healed, he returned with a loud voice.
50:16
He glorified God. Fell down on his feet at the feet of Jesus and gave Him thanks.
50:25
And he was a Samaritan. Jesus doesn't even say, oh, of course.
50:32
Tell me about yourself. The response that Jesus gives is, didn't I heal 10?
50:42
In other words, it's not like, wow, I'm so glad you came back. It's like, you just did what anyone should have done.
50:48
And his reaction is, where'd the other ones go? I blessed 10, didn't
50:53
I? Why is there only one here at my feet? I brought salvation to 10.
51:01
Why have nine gone their own way? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this one?
51:15
Jesus is surprised. The problem is we're not surprised.
51:21
We're not surprised. We get healed. We get delivered. We get saved.
51:28
We inherit the promises. We have the Spirit's presence. But we're surrounded by every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places and we barely return to God.
51:39
And when we do, it's just to ask for more. We're not coming back to fall at our feet and say, thank you.
51:46
How can I serve you? How can I advance your kingdom? If we come back, we don't even acknowledge that.
51:52
I need more. More. I need this straightened out in my life. I don't like this. This has got to change. It's like, what?
52:01
Do you see? We assume we're not the murmurers. We assume that we're not the nine lepers.
52:08
And that should surprise us. No wonder our lives are pockmarked with idolatrous worry, fearful anxiety, selfish ingratitude.
52:20
We haven't actually understood who we are in light of Christ's work. What He's done for us.
52:26
We haven't responded in all the ways that we ought to respond with complete gratitude.
52:31
Gratitude. Thanksgiving. With a loud voice glorifying God. Whatever else I have to do.
52:37
Five times I'm whipped. Three shipwrecks. I'm starving. I get dragged out of the city.
52:43
It doesn't matter. I've been brought out of darkness into light. My whole life has been redeemed. I have a hope that cannot be taken away from me.
52:50
I have a treasure that's secure. I found the pearl of great price. I have a Savior who loved me.
52:56
Gave Himself for me. Bled and breathed out His last for me. Clothes me in His own bloody righteousness.
53:02
Perfects me according to the dove -like spirit. How could I not be thankful?
53:13
It ought to sting us. As I heard through the grapevine a few days ago around my living room, that is like Eeyore lately.
53:26
That ought to sting. Something has gone off the rails in the way
53:32
I'm looking at my life. Something has caused me to go yeah, yeah, yeah to God's redemption and just go and figure something out on my own.
53:41
Why haven't I gone back to His feet? Got some perspective about what He's done for me and to say, you loved me.
53:48
You gave yourself for me. Here I am. Send me. Use me. Teach me.
53:53
I'm here to learn. You have a yoke to bear? Put it on my shoulders.
53:59
I'm here to learn from you. Thanksgiving is God's will for us.
54:05
Gratitude is God's will for us. Let me ask you some questions. Do you cling to the valleys of your life and forget the hilltops?
54:19
In other words, do you fixate on all the things that are wrong and not appreciate all the things that are right? Do you cling to the valleys and forget the hilltops?
54:29
Do you meditate and turn over in your mind all your complaints rather than all of your blessings?
54:41
Paul's old mindset. Yeah, shipwrecked, but hey, I made it to shore. Hey, 40 stripes, minus one.
54:48
At least that was minus one. That was one less. That's pretty good. Could always be worse. What a blessing.
54:54
That's how you end up in a jail cell singing hymns and praising God. That's how you're beaten in front of the
55:00
Sanhedrin and you're glorifying God. Do you cling to your sorrows and forget joys?
55:10
When the people that you're the most comfortable with, which is generally our family, right?
55:16
We just take that for granted. We don't have to put on social graces, public airs. We can actually sort of be comfortable with ourselves and all of our warts and wrinkles.
55:26
When they walk into the room, are you sitting there like, hello, darkness, my old friend? Are you clinging to sorrow?
55:39
Do you only notice the things that haven't changed, that need to change, and not notice all the things that have changed?
55:47
In you, in your life, around you, lessons that God is teaching you, lessons that God is teaching others, teaching all of us that belong to Him how to be like Him, loving each and every one of us with a perfect love, a perfect patience, a mercy that renews every morning.
56:13
Do you cling to the things that you're owed? Jesus, of course, wasn't reacting with some sinful way.
56:25
Where are the others? They owe me, I healed them, they owe me. That wasn't Jesus' reaction. He was making a point for His disciples to hear, yeah, this is what everyone's like.
56:35
This is what everyone's like. I don't know if you've noticed the lilies of the field lately. I don't know if you've seen the birds of the air, but let me tell you, my father's always working, and let me tell you, these lepers that got healed and went away and didn't even say a word or look back, that's how everyone is.
56:53
You can't cling to the things that you're owed when you're constantly clinging to what you've received.
57:03
So the very church that Paul has such a deep concern for is the church that's trying to get rid of Paul.
57:13
He's saying, I thank God for you, and they're going, we're not really sure that we want you anymore. We kind of like these super apostles.
57:23
It's a church that's, you know, judged Paul, maligned him, and that's why
57:31
Paul always has to steel himself to say, Christ loved me and gave himself for me, and he did that when
57:40
I was an enemy, a persecutor. In fact, the way that he called me to himself was on the road to Damascus, he flashed like lightning and struck me blind, and he just asked me a disarming question.
57:58
Why are you persecuting me? What have I done to you that you have such a hatred for me?
58:07
What have my followers, who are bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit and carrying a cross and suffering for it, what have they ever done to you that you hate them so much?
58:17
Why are you persecuting me? And that was Paul's call to salvation. Who are you,
58:22
Lord? Whoever you are, you're Lord. And so he began to follow
58:27
Him. And when it was hard to labor, when it was hard to persevere because of the persecutions, the sufferings, the starvations, the stonings, the afflictions, the rebellions, the slander, the wounds, when it was hard to persevere in that, he sealed himself in this way,
58:45
Christ loved me, he gave himself for me when I was an enemy. So I'll bear that yoke, and I'll carry that cross, and I'll have the mind of Christ, and I'll labor in love in that way.
58:56
Why? That is what it looks like to seek the kingdom first and its righteousness. Now the last part of the passage here is something that really stands out to me.
59:13
Jesus says, in light of the way that God has arranged the field, He says, will He not much more clothe you,
59:19
O you of little faith? It's not the only time that Jesus does that in Matthew.
59:25
He'll do it in chapter 8 and 14 and 16 and 17. He's constantly drawing out the faith of His followers.
59:35
But what I see here is the ability to fulfill Matthew 6. The ability to not have a life driven by desires, impulses, needs, and fears.
59:44
A life that is actually bent and driven toward the kingdom and its purpose. It's a life that is marked by contentment.
59:52
Learning the lessons that God has taught at every turn. And that contentment, as we said, has two streams running into its flow.
01:00:00
And those two streams are meekness and gratitude. And I would say in light of gratitude that ingratitude is actually just a lack of faith.
01:00:14
As we said, you can't cling to what you're owed if you're clinging to what you've received. And you only know what you've received by faith.
01:00:24
At least it begins by faith and then it's borne out in experience in our lives. But all the blessings of the gospel begin by faith.
01:00:33
It's all by faith. And I would argue that gratitude begins by faith as well. To such a degree that you need to identify the areas of ingratitude.
01:00:44
The ways that you focus on all the things that are wrong instead of remembering what's right. The ways that you lose perspective and go off the rails or walk around like Eeyore in your living room.
01:00:53
That all of this fundamentally boils down to a lack of faith. It's just a lack of faith. Ingratitude is inevitably bound to our faith.
01:01:03
Faith is a thankful thing. And when we're looking at our life, at our needs, at our desires, at our circumstances through faith, we will be thankful about all sorts of things.
01:01:19
Paul has faith in Jesus building his church and advancing his kingdom. It's why he's so thankful for churches that are so upside down.
01:01:27
He's thankful for them. There's a lot to be thankful for. At least there is a church in Philippi. At least there is a church in Corinth.
01:01:33
That's something to be thankful for. Whatever else is going on, how can you be thankful for any situation in your life, even the most painful circumstances in your life?
01:01:47
Let me just give you a few examples where faith will make that difference. For starters, you can be thankful that it won't always be painful like this.
01:01:55
That's for starters. By faith, you know there's an end to this. I usually get there by acknowledging my life is like grass.
01:02:02
I'm here today, gone tomorrow. What seems so painful, what seems to be so powerful is actually something that, if I go to a graveyard and look around,
01:02:11
I'll realize it's really not that powerful at all. If I'm looking at life rightly, if I'm allowing death to evangelize me, it's probably not as big, it's probably not as powerful as I'm making it out to be.
01:02:24
That's one way you're starting to look at the kingdom of God and its righteousness. So by faith, you know, however hard this circumstance, however pressing this need, however sore the hunger pain, however deep the wound, it won't always be like this.
01:02:38
Why? Because my God is a physician. It doesn't matter how many clumps of ashes
01:02:45
I have behind me. He can turn those ashes into beauty. Some of that He'll do over the years to come.
01:02:52
Some of that will stay ashes until the new heavens and the new earth. But He will put everything to right.
01:02:58
He will make everything beautiful again. You can only live by faith with that kind of understanding. And, on top of that, you can be thankful that not only will it not always be like this, you can be thankful that God is actually using the fact that it's not good for your good.
01:03:16
God's using it. Again, that's something you can only understand by faith. By faith, you know, the
01:03:22
Lord has done it. By faith, you know, the Lord is using it. Don't become a fatalist.
01:03:30
If you don't know these terms, don't worry, but a Calvinist is not a fatalist.
01:03:38
The Lord has done it is not a reason you just sit at the birthday table and pout. The Lord has done it.
01:03:45
And as Ross has been reminding us lately from Philippians, He's always teaching me things.
01:03:52
And the question is, am I learning? The Lord has done it, and He's using it.
01:03:59
He's undertaking it for your good to bring about conformity to Christ. So you can be thankful for the fact that He's using it, even presently.
01:04:07
He's using it not at some unforeseen future time, which will be true, but He's using it even now, if you're learning the lesson.
01:04:15
And faith is what will help you understand that and respond accordingly. Not only is He using it for you, but lastly,
01:04:23
He's using it for others. He's using it for others. Faith will help you understand that your sufferings are not just your sufferings.
01:04:35
Your perseverance is not just your perseverance. God is using that in the lives of other people.
01:04:44
And you may never catch wind of that. In fact, the wounds may be so deep, the suffering may be so intense, that you can't even notice that God is using it.
01:04:52
Maybe people don't voice it, and I would say as a church, we need to be able to voice these things to each other. Because I think that's part of what is one of the hardest things to do in a church body, a close -knit church body, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
01:05:06
That's impossibly hard to do. If you don't think it's hard, you don't even know the beginning of it. And one of the ways you can do both of those things is actually speak the things that you notice.
01:05:18
And that will look like sometimes coming alongside someone and just saying, Hey, I just want to say this to encourage you.
01:05:25
And then say the thing that you've noticed. Because by faith, you're helping them to recognize whatever
01:05:31
God is trying to teach me, and however He's using this in my life, it's not just my life that He's interested in. He's using it in other people's lives as well.
01:05:42
D .L. Moody had a great little motto, by the way, he said, Be anxious for nothing, prayerful for everything, thankful for anything.
01:05:50
I'll take anything. Anxious for nothing, prayerful for everything, thankful for anything.
01:05:56
When you look at anything through the lens of faith, you'll find that there's a pathway that can lead to discontentment, a lack of faith, which looks like ingratitude, and rather than meekness and humility, it looks like a sort of self -confidence and vanity and pride.
01:06:14
This is all part of that pathway, where instead, if you're looking at whatever the trouble or circumstance may be through faith, you recognize that God is teaching you something by faith, you're seeking to learn from Him by faith, you're being made content.
01:06:27
How? You're thankful. You have gratitude. And what is that doing without you even noticing? It's making you meek and lowly.
01:06:36
You're far more gracious to people. You're far more patient with people.
01:06:44
It doesn't mean you hold back on things that are true. You need to warn the unruly, but it means you know what it looks like, because it's the deep concern of your heart, just like Paul, to uphold those who are weak, to encourage those who are faint -hearted, and just to be patient with everyone.
01:07:04
That comes from meekness, and meekness comes from gratitude. And gratitude comes from faith.
01:07:17
Many make their requests known to God, as Paul encourages us to do. Be anxious for nothing.
01:07:23
Make your requests known to God. A lot of us are constantly making our requests known to God in the way that James warns against.
01:07:29
It's our flesh, our impulse, our hunger, our pain. Here's my request, God. Deal with this right now. But we don't do it with faith.
01:07:38
And part of that is we don't do it with faith because we don't do it with thankfulness. And that's why Paul says, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.
01:07:49
Listen, if as a Christian your prayers sound more like why did you rather than thank you, you're probably not looking at things rightly.
01:08:01
Why did you allow this? Why are you doing, rather than Lord, thank you. Thank you that I can come to you as hard as this is.
01:08:10
Thank you that you'll use this. Thank you that you have a purpose that even though I can't see it, I can trust it.
01:08:21
It's not life more than food, the body more than clothing. Look at the birds of the air.
01:08:26
They don't sow, they don't reap, they don't gather into barns, but your father's feeding them. And your life is a lot more valuable than theirs.
01:08:33
And you can't add a cubit to your stature. You're just like grass. Your life is grass.
01:08:40
You're here today, you're in the oven tomorrow. But speaking of grass, look at the lilies of the field and look how they grow.
01:08:47
They don't toil, they don't weave. But even King Solomon at the height of his kingdom never had glory like that.
01:08:55
If God is clothing the grass, which is here today and tomorrow's in the oven, won't He clothe you?
01:09:02
Oh, you of little faith. Don't worry about your life. Worry about the kingdom.
01:09:08
Be content with what you have and where you're at and what's in front of you. Be driven with gratitude and meekness so that you can be content.
01:09:17
Learn the lesson that God is trying to teach you so that you can learn that lesson and actually apply it in a way that will bless and advance and enhance the kingdom of God.
01:09:26
Seek the kingdom and its righteousness. That's what Jesus wants to do with your worry and with your need and with your trial.
01:09:37
Jesus wants to use your trial. He wants to use your need. He wants to use your worry.
01:09:46
Satan wants to use your trial too. Satan wants to use your worry. He wants to use your fears and your needs too.
01:09:56
Only by faith will you even recognize that. You start to wonder, where is this all coming from?
01:10:07
Am I being moved by the Spirit of God or am I being moved from somewhere else?
01:10:14
That's why James works through chapter 3 in the way he works through chapter 3.
01:10:21
And that's why Jesus says, again, you're not to worry but you are to be holy. When you understand these things in the way we've been describing, you'll understand that everything you face and everything you have and everything you're deprived of ultimately corresponds to God's desire to advance
01:10:36
His kingdom in and through you. In other words, whatever you face, whatever you lack, whatever you have, whatever will be taken, that all corresponds to God's desire for His kingdom.
01:10:51
In other words, circumstances and situations will never get wider than the gospel. There's nothing that you encounter in your life that doesn't fit into the framework of the gospel.
01:11:04
We do a sad thing when we make the gospel a very narrow thing, something that we can just fit into our chest pocket and go about and face difficulties and needs and desires in our life without it.
01:11:14
The gospel is a framework for everything you encounter in life. Everything that you face is meant to be shaped in light of the gospel.
01:11:21
The gospel is meant to transform how you approach and respond to everything that you have to respond to. The gospel is not just something you behold to look at.
01:11:32
It's something you're looking through at everything. You look at your needs, your desires, your fears, your hopes, your relationships.
01:11:38
You're always looking at it through the lens of the gospel. And that's how
01:11:43
Paul is writing this letter saying, here's how I learned it. I'm always looking at everything through the lens of the gospel.
01:11:48
It's why I can suffer. It's why I can starve. It's why I can thank God when I'm full and thank God when I'm empty.
01:11:54
It's why I can go across shipwrecks and tortures for the sake of the love I have for Christ.
01:11:59
Why? It's because I'm looking at it through the lens of the gospel. He never forgets. I have been crucified with Christ.
01:12:05
It's not even me anymore that's alive. It's Him in me. The life I'm living in the flesh with all of its pains and wounds and needs and fears.
01:12:13
I'm living by faith in the Son of God. And He loved me and He gave
01:12:19
Himself for me. In Christ.
01:12:28
It's the key to it all. Listen, how seriously do you take John 15 5 when Jesus says, apart from me you can do nothing?
01:12:37
When we're like the nine lepers and we're not marked by faith and gratitude and meekness, we live as if we can do most things apart from Christ.
01:12:45
What a way to live life with the understanding of faith. I can't do anything without Him.
01:12:51
I can't draw a breath without Him. I can't spark a right thought. I can't take a right step.
01:12:58
I can do nothing apart from Him. And so the only blessed path, the only right path, the only path that leads to everlasting life, is a path that is the path that Christ has gone, the cross that He has borne, the mind that He has had, the
01:13:17
Spirit of Christ that indwells. And without that, I'll never have contentment. I'll always have worry.
01:13:23
I'll never have peace. I'll always have anxiety. I'll never have reconciliation. I'll always have quarrels.
01:13:29
I can't have peace. I can't have happiness. I can't have reconciliation. I can't have anything without Him. I can do nothing apart from Christ. So I don't worry.
01:13:48
I don't run. I don't worship my belly. When I look at the birds and I look at the lilies,
01:13:55
I'm looking with faith to understand something about my own life, this little vapor of life, this little cog in the mighty machine of the kingdom that encompasses all of history, all of human history.
01:14:10
And having all contentment, with all humility and thanksgiving, I can seek first His kingdom.
01:14:21
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They don't toil. They don't spin. I say to you, not even Solomon in all of his glory was arrayed like one of these.
01:14:28
If God clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown in the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
01:14:36
So let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which you were called. And be thankful. Be thankful.
01:14:47
Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. Teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, singing
01:14:54
Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
01:15:02
What is your life, O you of little faith?
01:15:08
What is your life if it's not a life lived in gratitude because of who
01:15:15
God is and what He's done? It's not a life worth living. Let's pray.
01:15:28
Father, thank You, Lord, for Your Word. Bless it, Lord, to us. Help us, Lord. Forgive us for our sins,
01:15:36
Lord. They are many. Lord, it's easy to say things like that, even as we walk away from You like the nine lepers.
01:15:46
Acknowledging things, but never actually acknowledging them. Lord, sin is a deceitful thing, and we would not have it go further from You in leading us astray.
01:16:01
We would, as the hymn says, ask You to bind our wandering hearts to You. Who else can we go to but You?
01:16:11
We don't have anyone else but You. Father, forgive me. Forgive me.
01:16:16
I'm not often looking at my life through the lens of the Gospel. I'm not always filled with the meekness and gratitude of contentment that comes about by faith.
01:16:24
And I pray, Lord, You'd help all of us as a church to do this. I pray that this church would be a meek church and a grateful church.
01:16:35
I pray, Lord, that the flesh so evident in us, Lord, would not quench or grieve the
01:16:43
Holy Spirit who seeks to produce that kind of meekness and regard. And I pray
01:16:49
You would help us, our God, to be so kingdom minded that, like Paul, we would learn the lessons
01:16:56
You're teaching us in the myriad of ways that You teach us. And Lord, where we fail to see and understand the lessons, may we be faithful to our brothers and sisters to show that You are teaching.
01:17:07
And to encourage and exhort our brothers and sisters to learn that lesson.
01:17:15
Lord, help us in these ways. We can do nothing apart from You. We are wholly dependent upon You.
01:17:22
We cry out for Your mercy. We cry out for Your grace. Help us to come back to You, our
01:17:28
Healer, our Redeemer, and fall down on our faces at Your feet so that with loud voices we can glorify
01:17:34
You and live with faith and thankfulness in the Son of God who gave Himself for us out of love.