Mastering Your Money: Overcoming Financial Worry Part 1-6, Complete Edition

Mastering Your Money: Overcoming Financial Worry Part 1-6, Complete Edition

By John MacArthur

Treasures in Heaven, Part 1

Let's turn in our Bibles this morning to Matthew chapter 6, Matthew chapter 6. We're going to begin a study in the next section of our continuing examination of the Gospel of Matthew, and looking at verses 19 to 24, rich, thrilling, challenging, convicting verses; we're going to be spending several weeks in these verses as the Spirit of God directs our thoughts. Matthew chapter 6 verses 19 to 24, let me read them for you as the setting for what we are going to say. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal, But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; For where your treasure is, there will your heartbe also. The lamp of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine eye be healthy, thy whole body shall be full of light. But is thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and money."

Now the question that arises out of this text is a very simple one, where is your heart? Verse 21. It's wherever your treasure is. Now when I say, where is your heart, I don't expect you to start feeling around somewhere between your chin and your waist, because I'm not talking about physiology, and I'm not talking about the person sitting next to you that you're hopelessly in love with and have given your heart to, I'm talking about, in terms of the investment of your life and your motives and your attitudes and your thought patterns. Where is the concentration and the preoccupation of your life? What do you spend most of your time thinking about? Most of your time planning? Most of your energy is dispensed toward what particular object? Chances are if you think about it very long and you're like most people the answer is, some thing, some thing, a house, a car, a wardrobe, a bank account, a savings account, a bond, a stock, a, an investment, furniture. A thing. We really are creatures committed to things. That's part of the curse of the society in which we live.

Now not all societies are like that, there are somesocieties where they just don't have things, they're too poor. But we are a society of things. Listen to this analysis. Mr. and Mrs. Thing, are a very pleasant and successful couple. At least that's the verdict of most people who tend to measure success with a thingometer. When the thingometer is put to work in the life of Mr. and Mrs. Thing the result is startling. There he is sitting down on a luxurious and very expensive thing, almost hidden by a large number of other things. Things to sit on, things to sit at, things to cook on, things to eat from all shining and new, things, things, things. Things to clean with and things to wash with and things to clean and things to wash. And things to amuse and things to give pleasure and things to watch and things to play, things for the long hot summer and things for the short cold winter. Things for the big thing in which they live and things for the garden and things for the lounge and things for the kitchen and things for the bedroom. Things on four wheels and things on two wheels and things to put on top of the four wheels and things to pull behind the four wheels and things to add to the interiorof the thing on the four wheels. Things, things, things. And there in the middle are Mr. and Mrs. Thing smiling and pleased pink with things, thinking of more things to add to their things. Secure in their cas­tle of things. Well Mr. Thing, I have some bad news for you. Oh, you say you can't hear me because the things are in the way? Well I just want you to know that your things can't last. They're going to pass, there's goingto be an end to them. Oh, maybe an error in judg­ment, maybe a temporary loss of concentration or maybe you'll just pass them off to the second hand thing dealer. Or maybe they'll wind up a mass of mangled metal being towed off to the thing yard. And what about all the things in your house? Well, it's time for bed, put out the cat, make sure you lock the door and hope some thing taker doesn't come and take your things.

And that's the way life goes, doesn't it? And someday when you die, they only put one thing in the box, you. As somebody said, There are no pockets in shrouds. But you see in spite of the stupidity of that, and it really makes it sound pretty stupid, we are basically committed to acquiring things. Sadly, the leading religionists of the day of Jesus had the same problem. They were totally consumed with things. Among all of the other problems of the Pharisees this was also to be included, they were thing oriented, they were greedy, they were avaricious, they were covetous, they were manipulative, and they moved toward grasping more things. And so as we come to this element of The Sermon on The Mount in Matthew 6:19 to 24 Jesus directs some statements about things, to the Pharisees who were abusing this whole matter of possessions.

Now remember, the thrust of the whole Sermon on The Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, the thrust of the whole Sermon on The Mount is basically to sweep aside the low, inadequate, insufficient standard of the Pharisees and reaffirm God's divine standard for life in His kingdom. They had invented a whole system of religion that was substandard, man made, inadequate, inefficient, ineffective. And so the key to the whole sermon is in Matthew 5:20 where the Lord says, "Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you'll not enter into the kingdom of heaven." In other words, to be in My kingdom, you must live up to this standard, and He affirms the standard, and He does it in contrast to the Pharisees.

For example, in the beginning in chapter 5 He said, to be in My kingdom you have to have the right view of yourself. Now the Pharisees are proud, egocentric, self‑sufficient, but you must be broken in spirit, mourning over sin, meek, hungering and thirsting after righteousness. You must also have the right relation to the world. Now the Pharisees are part of the corruption, and part of the darkness but you must be salt that retards the corruption and light to dispel the darkness. You must not only have the right view of yourself and the right view of the world but you must have the right view of the Word of God, and the Pharisees have developed their own system but you must know that the Word of God is what you must be committed to and not one jot or title shall pass from that law till it's all fulfilled. And then you must have the right view of moral issues, chapter 5 verses 21 to 48, the Pharisees are only concerned with the externals, they're only concerned that they don't kill or they don't commit adultery or they don't do something else, but I'm telling you the moral issues are not just what you do or don't do they're what you think or don't think. And so you must have the right view of moral issues. Then in chapter 6 He says, you must have the right view of religious issues, For the Pharisees, they fast, they pray and they give but it's all hypocritical, you must fast and give and pray but with a right motive. In other words the whole sermon is set in contrast to the system of religion of the day dominated by the thinking of the Pharisees and the scribes. And Jesus is saying, God's standard exceeds their standard and it is His standard required for being in His kingdom.

Now in chapter 6 verses 19 and following He says, you must also have the right view toward wealth, luxury, verses 19 to 24, and watch this, then from 25 to 34 you must have the right view of necessities. So He's talking about things here, first luxuries and then necessities. First it's the wealth that we have and then it's just the necessity, to eat and to sleep and to have a place to, to stay, and some clothing to wear. And in both cases the Pharisees had missed it. They had the wrong perspective of wealth and they had the wrong perspective of necessary things. And so in every element of Christ's message He sets Himself and His Word in contrast to the Pharisees. Your view of wealth and luxury must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees if you want to be apart of My kingdom. They have the wrong perspective. Verse 19, they are doing exactly what that says not to do, laying up for themselves treasures on earth, they are consumed with greed and covetousness, and that is not the way it is to be.

So our text then, now I want you to mark this people, from verses 19 to 24 deals with how we view our luxuries, our wealth, more than our necessities, and by the way we live in a society where all of us have to deal with that because all of us are wealthy, in comparison to the way the rest of the world lives. If you don't think you are then you haven't been outside of your little box to see how most people in this world live. So our text is talking about how we handle our luxuries, our possessions beyond eating, drinking, sleeping and clothing, the luxuries of life, and if we're in His kingdom we have to face what He says here. And people this is a very convicting, believe me, it gets to me I've got to preach this thing twice every Sunday morning, just as well as it'll get to you, it's very provocative and very heart searching and very convicting, and we're just going to introduce it today and then in the next few weeks we're going to talk about it.

Now I want you to come I don't want you to stay away, if I was going to talk on money, "let's go visit Aunt Martha," I want you to be here, because this isn't my message, I'm here receiving like you, this is the Lord's Word to us, and God always gives Us a good Word in order to free us up to know His great blessing, right? So don't cheat yourself. You know, backing up for just a minute the first 18 verses of chapter 6 showed the hypocrisy of the Pharisees religion. And I'll tell you something that it is, it's just as, as night follows day, it's as sure shooting as it could possibly be, wherever you have hypocritical religion you will have greed. It follows right after 18 verses on hypocritical religion of the Pharisees that the Lord would talk about their view of wealth and money, because inevitably where you have false religion you have greed. Where you have a false teacher, you get behind the scene and you find out he's a false teacher and invariably you will find out that he is in it for the money. That's why the Bible says, We are not to be those who discharge our ministry for the sake of filthy lucre. Because that is an inevitability. In fact the Bible characterizes hypocritical religion usually in two ways, it is greedy of money and it is immoral in its, in its lusts. Those two things follow in the course of false religions, and false religious leaders. We find even in the Old Testament that this is true, that where you had hypocrisy you also had greed for money, for example in First Samuel chapter 2, you come to Eli the high priest, Eli of course sits at the top of the pile‑ in religious matters in Israel, he is the key religious leader, the high priest before God. Eli had two sons named Hophni and Phinehas, and his sons were men of great responsibility as sons of the high priest in the priestly line, they were, they were men of great responsibility before God and the people. But they were phonies, they were absolute hypocrites, they were totally immoral and lustful and lascivious and lewd, they were evil, vile men that the Lord finally struck dead. But Hophni and Phinehas because they were spiritual phonies were characterized by greed, and that is illustrated to us in First Samuel chapter 2 because when Leviticus 7 said, The offering that is brought to the LORD a portion goes to the priest, the breast and the right thigh goes to the priest, Leviticus 7:30 to 35. But Hophni and Phinehas said, When the offerings come we will examine the offering and we will take all that we want and the leave the residue for the Lord.

See, I mean they were in it to get everything out of it they could get, and that's exactly what they did. When people brought their offering and left them to the Lord they demanded the offering first come to them, they selected everything they wanted for their own indulgence and whatever was left went to the Lord, and they were covetous and greedy and in First Samuel 2:17 it says, "The sin of the young men was very great before the LORD; for they hated the offering of the LORD." They were tampering with things that belonged to God. And the Pharisees were doing the same thing; they were using their religious position to fill their pockets. The system was a system that filled their greed. They were using their religious position to get rich. And beloved let me tell you, there's nothing more foul smelling to the nostrils of God than that. I dare say there are people in our own country, some of them that you know fairly well from seeing them on television or wherever who are doing exactly the same thing. Wherever you have religious hypocrisy you inevitably have the problem of greed.

Now, the Pharisees were living this way. To them to be rich was to be holy, to be rich was to say, hey, look how much I've got, God is blessing me, I'm rich because God is saying, you're so righteous I'm unloading it on you. That's why when the Lord said you see, it's, "It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into the kingdom." That was absolutely and utterly shocking, because to them riches were the stamp of divine approval on your life, youhad it because God gave it to you because you were so righteous. And to say that a rich man could no more get in the kingdom than a camel could go through the eye of a needle was really a shocking statement. Because they equated money with the blessing of God, that was their whole system. And so they greedily gathered money, and when the richer they became the more they pretended to the people that this was the mark of their spirituality. Annas and Caiaphas ran concessions in the temple that made them extremely wealthy men, and everybody else that could cashed in on the deal.

Now where did they get this concept? Well, just taking a guess look back at Deuteronomy 28, and it may be that they first began to develop this concept from this thought. When the Lord had delivered Israel from Egypt and brought them to the edge of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Land of Milk and Honey, the land that God had promised to give them, the Lord layed down some wonderful conditions for them to enter the land, and on the basis of those conditions being met some wonderful promises. And in Deuteronomy chapter 28 look at verse 1 and 2, the Lord says as they are preparing to go into the land, "And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt harken diligently to the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth; and all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt harken to the voice of the LORD thy God."

Now stop there for a minute. The basic command regards obedience, if you do what I say I'll bless you, you're going in the land it's a simple thing, you do what I say and I'll bless you. And how will the blessings come? Verse 3, "Blessed shalt thou be in the city; blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body," that's your children, "the fruit of thy ground," that's your crop, "the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your cows, the flock of the sheep. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading‑trough. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out."

Now notice this, all the blessings were material blessings, physical, tangible, visible, earthly blessings. God says you obey Me and I will bless you visibly, tangibly, materially and physically. Conversely look at verse 15 and here you have the opposite. "But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, to (serve to) observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come on thee, and overtake thee. Cursed shall be thee in the city, cursed shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket and kneading‑trough. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy cows, andthe flocks of thy sheep. Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out." In other words God says, material blessing is a sign of your obedience, material poverty is a sign of your disobedience.

Now there's much more to understand about that to perceive it in it's true context. But the Pharisees, I believe had probably begun to build their phony system off of things like this, that the more you've got the more it proves that God is blessing, which is a misinterpretation of the whole point of Deuteronomy 28. But nonetheless out of this the acquisition of material wealth became their greatest goal so they could parade their supposed righteousness and say, Look what God's done for me, that's how holy I must be. And they may have even misapplied Proverbs 10:22 which says, "The blessing of the LORD maketh rich." Whatever it was that they took and twisted, they desperately wanted money and became perverted and greedy and corrupt.

Now the Old Testament warned against this, Solomon said he was rich and yet it was vanity, vanity, and all vanity. In the Decalogue in Exodus chapter 20 and verse 17 God said, "Thou shall not covet. The warnings against riches are replete in the Old Testament, in Proverbs 23:4 it says, "Labor not to be rich." In Proverbs 28:20 it says, "He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent." In other words the Bible warns against greed and covetousness and hastiness and being rich. But in spite of all of those warnings Luke 16:14 says, "The Pharisees were covetous." They were covetous, they wanted money, they wanted material wealth and possessions. That's really all they had going because they were earthly, they were earthbound, because their religion was false. And so it's against the backdrop of the greed of the Pharisees that our Lord speaks, and what He is saying here is that we must have the proper view of money and wealth and possessions. Now listen people, we're living in America in a great time of inflation, aren't we? And everybody keeps talking about recession, and depression and what's going to happen and the collapse, we hear this all on and on.

Now listen I am not an economist and I am less than an economist a politician, but I can tell you there's one simple reason for all inflation and it is greed, period, pure and simple. Greed, that's it. And you can play around with all the periphery but until you deal with the heart of man you will never be able to deal with the problem of inflation, in a free society because greed dominates how freedom functions. And as long as people want more and want more and want more they'll think of more ways to make it and more people to sell it to and more people will buy it, and in order to buy it when it gets perforated you've got to print more money and more money and more money until you get yourself in a cycle where the whole thing is being wildly generated by greed. I keep saying that but not too many people listen. The problem is the heart of man not the periphery, man is greedy, and you have to divert his heart from covetousness and that's what our dear Lord is wanting to do in this text, is divert us away from covetousness. You see we must handle our possessions and our money and our wealth and our luxury like we do anything else, First Corinthians 10: 31, "Whatever you do, whether, you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God." But we do so much of it to the indulgence of self, that's the problem.

Now in order to know how to handle our luxuries we have three alternatives in this text. We have three alternatives, there are twotreasuries, there are two visions, and there are two masters, given in this text, and in each of those three alternatives you have the very same principle hit from a different angle and then you have some subordinate reasons why that principle is to be obeyed. The principle is given then the reasons are given in each case. And so we have to make a choice, we make a choice first of all verses 19 and 20 whether we lay up our treasure on earth or in heaven; we make a choice secondly in verses 22 and 23 of whether we are going to exist in light or whether we're going to exist in darkness, we make another choice in verse 24 whether our Master will be God or our master will be money, because it can't be both. So the Lord really gives us three choices which really come together to be one choice and that is to choose properly how we handle our wealth.

Now this is a tough message people and I‑it's tough on me because I am also a creature of my time, I am also somewhat a victim of the impressions that the culture makes upon me, and as John Stott has said, "Wordly ambition has a strong fascination for us, and the spell of materialism is very hard to break." And he's right, it's difficult to deal with this and so I want us to be very conscientious as we let the Spirit of God speak to our hearts about this matter. I, I just want to say one other thought, sometimes it would be so easy if the Lord would just say, Hey, I got to solve this whole deal just take 50% of everything you've got and give it to Me. Wouldn't that be easy? Really simple. And we could all say, hey I gave my 50% did you give your... and we could discipline them right out of the church if they didn't that fast, see? Cause we'd have the standard. In other words if it was just cut and dried, absolutized, formulated, tabulated, learned by rote and just cranked out. But the problem with that is you'd neverhave then gotten to the real issue which is the heart attitude, right? God doesn't want to get something that's given because you're afraid of Him, He wants to get something that's given because you love Him, see? And so the Lord doesn't give us some kind of an absolute, legalistic standard here, He merely gives us a principle, and when you hear the principle which says, lay up treasure in heaven, or serve God not money, you might at first say, Well that's kind of vague, but it won't be by the time we're done I'll promise you. But it's vague enough to deal with your attitude, and not just with some external formula, so be ready to let God change your attitude. Now some people go to church and they say, Boy you know, preachers always talk about money. Well I'm sorry if you're a first time guest here and that's what you've got this morning, that's not normal we just talk about money when the Lord talks about money. As we go through the Scripture when He gets on it we get on it too. But I don't mind that.

Oh by the way, I thought I'd mention this too, uhm, in the Book of Matthew the Lord talks about money a hundred and nine times, so get ready folks. In the Book of Mark He talks about it fifty seven times and in the Book of Luke He talks about it ninety four times and in the Book of John He talks about it eighty eight times and by the way the Lord talks about money five times more than He talks about any other subject in the Bible. I guess He figures we're a little hard of hearing when it comes to that theme.

Now, let's look at number one choice, verses 19 to 21, two treasuries, two treasuries, and I'm just going to read the first part of verse 19 and the first part of verse 20 and we're just going to touch the principle this morning and get into the reasons for it next time.

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth." Verse 20, "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven." Now that is a very simple statement. Two treasuries you have an option to choose. You have a treasury on earth, you have a treasury in heaven, and Jesus said, Put it in heaven not on earth. What do you do with your wealth? Don't invest it here invest it there. "For where your treasure is, that I s where your (what? your) heart I s going to be also.

Now this introduces us to the whole concept of our money. You know the Apostle Paul said to Timothy, "The love of money is the root of all (what?) evil." It isn't money that's the root of all evil it's the love of it. You can have none of it and love it like mad. You just can't get a hold of it. It's the love of money that corrupts, for example look at Achan, instead of inheriting the Promised Land he died with his whole family because he decided to take what God said don't take. In his love he saw a goodly garment and he saw some coins and he stashed them in the ground in his tent and the Lord confronted him through Joshua, and said you'd better confess your sin because you're going to die and he did and he died and everybody in his family died. The love of money. And then you remember the story of Solomon who kept amassing fortunes and fortunes and fortunes until he was the wealthiest man in the world, and when it was all said and done he said, "Vanity, vanity; all is vanity." Emptiness, uselessness, meaninglessness, void. And then there was Ananias and Sapphira who decided that they were going to keep some of the money they promised to the Lord and God struck them dead. And then there was Judas, who for a pittance sold the Son of God and went out and hanged himself and his body was burst open and his bowels gushed forth as he crashed to the rocks below. And then there was Demas of whom Paul said, "He has forsaken me because he loved the system." And you could go through many other illustrations of those people who because of the love of money were devastated and destroyed in some degree or another. And so we all need to learn about this because it is self‑destructive if we don't, as well as destroying everyone aroundus, so we have to understand what He's saying.

Let's go to verse 19, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth." What does that mean? Well, let me give you a little word study on this, the word is thesaurizetai, we get the word thesaurus which is a treasury of words from that, but thesaurizetai it's, it's a play on words it means, treasure not up treasures. Don't stockpile if you want it in a simple sense, The idea of the word treasure is to place something someplace, to stick it somewhere, to stash it somewhere. And so what the Lord is talking about here people, get this, is not that which we use to live everyday but that which we just pile up, it's not our necessities, it's not that which we use to meet the needs of our own life, of our family, of the poor, of the Lord, ah, for setting aside money for the future or for making wise investments that we may be better stewards of God's money in days to come, it is not that which is active it is that which is stockpiled just to amass for our own selves. That's what He's talking about, He's talking about luxury, He's talking about that which is beyond what we can possibly use. It's all those things you don't use you just stash, somewhere, and keep saying they're so valuable, and so you keep them. The implication is that there is an abundance too numerous for use and so you just pile it up.

Now, what do‑we mean here? What is He forbidding? Does He forbid a bank account, savings account, life insurance policy, a wise investment? Does He say we shouldn't possess anything? "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth." Some people said, awh! That means you shouldn't possess anything, don't have any earthly treasure. What you should do is sell it all and walk the street, get a brown bag and be a hobo. Is that what He's saying? Why they say, ahh, the rich man, the rich young ruler, Jesus said to him, "Sell all you have and give to the poor." Have you ever noticed that that's the only person He ever said that to? Did you notice that He didn't say that to Mary and Martha? Because He liked to go to their house, and when He got there I guess He liked their cooking too. And He also said, "You won't forsake anything (but) to become a disciple of mine, but that the Lord will give you houses, and lands, and families, and brothers and sisters, and fathers and mothers in this life."

So the Lord is never condemning possessions, the reason He told the rich young ruler to sell all he had was because all he had stood between him and God, and until he got rid of that there was no connecting up with God. No, the, the Lord is not looking down on ownership, why we just read Deuteronomy 28 God said, I'll put you in the land and I'll prosper your families and your cattle and your sheep and your crops, and He went on and on about all that. No, the Lord is not saying we shouldn't possess anything, in fact do you know that in Exodus 20:15 it says, "Thou shalt not steal." And the very statement of God in the Decalogue, "Thou shalt not steal," assumes that something can be mine that you can't have. That's right. We have a right to possessions. The Bible talks about that men are not to steal nor to rob because people have a right to their possessions. You not only have no right to steal what is mine you don't even have a right to want what is mine because Exodus 20:17 says, "Thou shalt not (what?) covet." So the Lord recognizes the right of ownership of goods, the right of personal property.

Another illustration, in Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira had a piece of property, so they said, hey, let's sell the property and we'll give all the money to the Lord, and they made a big announcement about it, We're going to sell our property, give all the money to the Lord.

You know the Bible didn't tell them to do that, God didn't tell them to do that, they said they wanted to do that voluntarily, they sold the property and they looked at all that money and they said, ouhh, we said we were going to give that all to the Lord. Boy ah, let's keep a little back, and the Lord knocked them dead in front of the whole church, flat dead. But before He did He gave them a message through Peter, "Ananias, (Acts 5:4) why hath Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and keep back part of the price of the land?"

Now listen, "While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own power?" In other words, it was yours, you had power over it, you had control over it, you didn't have to sell it, you didn't have to promise it, the issue is you lied to God. But the point I want to make is it was theirs, but once they'd given it in promise they needed to follow that through. Boy the Lord tests you on this. I asked Paul Wright to help me the other day to do a little thing and I said, Paul, can you give me hand on this I'm running out of time, he says, sure. I said, I think that the people who have asked me to do this, a Christian organization, it was a little study are going to send me a little remuneration for the time and whatever it is I'll pass it on to you. Well, he said, that's not necessary, I said, no, no, no, I just want to do that, and you know I thought $25.00 or $30.00 just a nice little gesture, and so he did it and I thanked him and then I got a check from them‑$500.00. One thing I can't do is tell my wife I made this promise, right? I went in there, I said ah, hey Paul, you're going to be real happy about what I have to say to you I gave him $500.00, he says, hey, oh, you know he was overwhelmed, and he wanted to give me some back, I said, not on your life I want to get through next Sunday's service, you know? But the‑God tests us sometimes about our promises, you see. The Lord has given us, and what I'm saying is the right to possess things, all He wants is to be sure that our attitude is right in the manner in which we possess them.

For example in Deuteronomy 8:18 it says, "For it is God that giveth thee the power to get wealth." God has given us the power to get wealth; God has given us the resources, the abilities. In First Corinthians 4:7 it says, "And what do you have that you did not receive?" Implied from God. I mean God wants us to know those things and to have those things. In fact in First Timothy 6:17 it says, "God gives us richly all things to enjoy." Isn't that great? And it's a section about money, and He's given it to us to enjoy it, we don't have to live a monastic life. For my birthday my wife bought me a chair, a nice soft chair that reclines, and I like it and I can sit in that chair and I don't say, carnal, carnal, carnal, the whole time I'm sitting in the chair. I mean I can enjoy that chair. And once in a while I let somebody sit in it too just to keep my perspective. But I can enjoy that, God has given us richly all things to enjoy.

God is not withholding from us, God is a God of great generosity. In fact I think if you study the history of the world you will find that the nations that have been the most godly have known I the greatest prosperity. This is generally true; God is a God of generosity. Do you know that business for example and wise banking principles are encouraged by our Lord in His parables in Matthew 25 and Luke 19? Did you know that the very rich man Abraham was called a friend of God. And that God made Job wealthier than held been before and he was so wealthy before he couldn't hardly count it. And did you know that Zacchaeus was rich and yet was counted to be called a son of Abraham? And you know if you study the Book of Proverbs again and again and again the Bible encourages us to be careful how we handle our funds so that we make wise investments.

In Proverbs chapter ‑ 6 it says, Go to the ant, and see how the ant works. She provides food in the summer and gathers food in the harvest. An ant's smart enough to plan for the future, an ant knows how to save, wise savings are very important. You go to Proverbs chapter 14 and verse 23 and you read this, "In all labor there is profit; but the talk of the lips tends only to penury." In other words if you want to be rich work, if you want to be poor talk.

Now that's not true in the case if you're a preacher but other than that‑. In Proverbs chapter 21 verse 20, "There is treasure to be desired, and oil, in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man spends it up." In other words a wise man knows how to save, how to plan. In Proverbs 22 verse 7 it says, "The borrower is servant to the lender." It's wiser to have‑to lend than to have to borrow. And so wise business practices are indicated throughout Scripture. In ah, Proverbs 24:3 it says, "Through wisdom is a house builded, and by understanding it is established; And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches." In other words a wise person knows how to build a house and fill it with pleasant and precious treasures, God is not against that. God has given us graciously these wonderful things to enjoy. In Proverbs 28:19, "He that tills his land shall have plenty of bread, but he that follows after empty persons shall have poverty enough." In other words you're better off to work your ground than to chase wildcat schemes. Be wise, you have a right to possess and to add to your possessions and to enrich those possessions, God has given us that.

Well, what we see then is passages in Scripture tell us that laying up treasure in heaven, or laying up treasure in earth is not some kind of an issue that says we're not to possess anything, we're not to enjoy anything, we're not to accept from God's good hand those abundant things He's given us. The New Testament says the same thing, in Romans 12:11 it says, "Be not slothful in business." In First Timothy 5 it says that we are to plan to prepare to take care of our own, and to provide for our household or we're worse than an infidel. In other words God is saying these things are ours by His grace.

Now, what is He saying then? What is He forbidding here? "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth." What does that mean? He is not talking about what we have; He is talking about the attitude toward what we have. Okay? Now listen, it is right to seek needed things, it is right to provide for my family, it is right to plan for the future, it is right to make wise investments, it is right to help the poor, it is right to have enough to carry on my business, it is wrong to be greedy, it is wrong to be covetous, and we come right back to the motive again, if I am doing this to use it to the glory of God in the life of those around me and in His kingdom then I have a right to all of it, but if I am gaining it to stockpile it and to hoard it and to keep it and to amass it to indulge myself in it that is sin. And you're right back to dealing with that attitude again. John Wesley was an extremely wealthy man.

Now we think of John Wesley as a great man of God and a great man of prayer and a man devoted to the time in the Word of God, up every morning for hours in the Greek text studying and we think of him as a, as a man of some low means. John Wesley was an extremely wealthy man, he gained his wealth from the hymns he wrote and the books he penned. And at one period of time in his life he gave away well nigh 50 thousand pounds sterling, just gave it away to people, which was a fortune in his time. He was a wealthy man and he gave this fortune away. And when John Wesley died his estate was worth 28 pounds.

Now I'll promise you one thing, he didn't lay it up on earth, when it came in it went right back out in the lives of people, it went right back out invested in the kingdom of God. You see the issue of the Greek word here is that we not pile up what we don't need and don't plan to use. I might add that this is some people do this under the guise that they're hedging against some coming doom. That's a problem because you're not living by faith. You don't believe God will take care of you in the future? Just amassing money. I have had the occasion to see two men in the last two weeks, wealthy men, one man was a‑this was told to me by a friend here in our church, when he was a professor at U.S.C. had a‑saved a thousand dollars to invest in a piece of real estate, it was a good investment and he made another one and another one and another one, then he stopped teaching because he was worth hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. He just made a purchase recently of 68 million dollars, incredibly wealthy man. He looks fifteen years beyond his age and he's lost his family in the process. But he's got millions and millions and millions and millions piled up all around him. For what? And I think about the work of God that goes on on a shoestring struggling and stretching for everything. It isn't that we're giving all we can give, is it? It's just that we're possessive, that's the problem. Just pile it up.

I met another man in the last few weeks, heard him speak Dr. Criswell at Dallas. Some people criticized him because he was very wealthy. When he was younger he'd made some investments that were very good, and then oneday after 30 years as a pastor of the church he presented a check to the church as a gift, the check was for the amount of every penny they'd ever paid him in 30 years, plus interest. Somebody asked one of the people on the church staff, does he uhm, get a salary? And they said, well kind of but he gives more than he gets, every year.

Now you see it isn't the issue of whether you have it's the issue of what you do with what you have, isn't it? Whether it's for you or for the kingdom of God, and His purposes. Somebody said, There is no smaller package than a man wrapped up in himself. That's really true. You know Colossians 3:5 says, "Covetousness is idolatry." And that's what our Lord has in mind; you know money becomes your god. Chuck Rogers was in our church and he recently died in a plane crash, but Chuck came to me one day and he said, John I've got a spiritual problem. I said, what is it Chuck? He says, I got five hundred shares of stock in an oil company, and he says it's ruining my spiritual life. He says, I keep looking at that stuff it's like idolatry to me, and he says I'm having trouble with my spiritual life and so I'm here to give it to you. I said, hey‑hey, Chuck, I don't want your spiritual problems, got my own. He insisted, he said, no he said I think it'll be test of your spirituality I'll watch how you handle it. So he gives me five hundred shares of stock in this company.

Well you know what that did to me? It messed up my mind, I'd be calling up the stock thing and I'd say, now how much is‑you know I thought I ought to go out and buy a pinstriped suit as soon as I got it you know I just felt business like and now I'm in the market, you know? I've never had anything like that, and anyway so I was calling up and worrying about that stock and I'd watch it go up and go down you know and I finally said to myself you know this is messing me up about as bad as it did him, and so I sold it, 50 a share, two hundred and fifty dollars. That was it. But you know I haven't even thought about that since then until the other day when somebody said, hey do you still have your stock‑? It's worth ten dollars a share. And then I thought about it again but ... I'll tell you one thing I didn't even I'm glad I hadn't had the four years in between to worry about that stuff. You know the things that we possess can become the idols of our lives. And the Lord is saying, Don't pile up stuff. The selfish accumulation of goods, extravagant luxury, hard heartedness toward the cause of God. Listen, look at the words in verse 19 again, I'm going to close with just this reference, "Lay not up," and here's the key, underline it in your Bible, "for yourselves," isn't that the key? Hey, I mean if I want to invest and if I want to pursue a successful business and if I want to be aggressive and honest in what I do anddo the best I can for others, and for God, and for my children, and for my parents, and for the poor, and for the depressed, and the oppressed that's one thing, but when I start piling it up for myself in extravagant luxury and become materialistic then I have violated this principle.

A rich man died, and one of his acquaintances said to another one, hey I heard that so and so died, he said, that's right. He said, what did he leave? To which the friend replied, all of it, all of it. What good does that do? Lord, said the Old Testament saint, give me enough so I don't starve and doubt your faithfulness, but don't give me too much or I'll forget You. You see? Examine your heart beloved, because what Jesus is saying here is this, people in My kingdom don't amass fortunes for themselves, they don't stockpile things for themselves. Are you in contrast to the Pharisees or do you have a problem with it? You need to examine a very basic thing in your life, if you're hung up on money you may not even be a Christian because people in Christ's kingdom are laying up treasure in heaven. They're in­vesting in eternity. If you asked me whether I'd rather spend five thousand dollars for a car or whether I'd rather put five thousand dollars in the life of a missionary and it's no, it's no choice for me it's simple, simple. Because I'd rather see the eternal dividend, wouldn't you? And so that choice is easy for me, and I have to make that choice day by day by day by day. And I examine my life, if I don't see that desire in my life to invest in eternity and in God's causes and to be unselfish about it, if I don't see that, if I don't see myself giving more and more to God's work and freely dispensing it with joy in my heart then I should question the legitimacy of my claim to be a believer because it is if a believer characteristic that his treasure is in heaven.

Examine your heart, areyou really a Christian? That might be a good indicator. My friend from Scotland Alastair Bage tells a story of a little boy swimming in a river, flailing around and flashing his arms splattering the water and on the shore immediately in front of the little boy is a sign, No Swimming. And the man walks along and he looks into the river and he says, Laddie, you can no read the sign? No swimming. He said, please sir, I'm not swimming I'm drowning. Sometimes swimming and drowning look a lot alike, don't they? And I think there are some people in the church wethink areswimming but they're drowning. You need to examine your heart, what's your attitude toward luxury, wealth, money? God help us to put these things to practice. This is only the begin­ning, the best is yet to come as we continue our series. Let's pray.

Thank You our Father for a clear word in this area. Thank You for the promise that obedience brings blessedness, and that You have told us these things not to deprive us of money but to reward us eternally, to make us rich forever in the things that matter. Thank You for every dear and precious person here this morning, and we pray that every life and heart might be touched including my own in this regard, that in total unselfishness we may set our treasures in heaven. Help us to give and to give and to keep on giving unendingly to the One who gave all to us. We pray this in the name of Christ who though He was rich yet for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich. Amen.

Treasures in Heaven, Part 2

This morning again we have the wonderful privilege of coming to the 6th chapter of Matthew. A text in our on going study of Matthew which we began to look at last Lord's Day, Matthew 6 verses 19 to 24, Matthew 6:19 to 24. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal, But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The lamp of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine eye be healthy, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and money."

Martyn Lloyd‑Jones tells the story of a farmer. The farmer bounded joyfully into his kitchen one day and confronting his wife with a great big grin on his face he announced to her that their finest cow had just given birth to twins, one brown and one white. He said, I feel the impulse to dedicate one of these cows to the Lord, we'll bring them up together and when they are at a marketable age we'll sell them and we'll keep the proceeds from one and we'll give the proceeds from the other to the Lord. His wife went right to the issue as wives are prone to do and said, which is the Lord's cow? The white one or the brown one? He replied, well there's no need to worry about that dear, or to decide that now since we'll raise them together.

Some months later he entered the same kitchen a little more slowly, looking very sad. His wife asked why he was so sullen, to which he replied, I have bad news, the Lord's cow died. Why is it always the Lord's cow, that dies? I guess we laugh at that because we identify with that kind of approach. We could even say, the Lord took His cow home. I guess the fact is we all tend to lay up treasure on earth. The pull of the sin that is in us drags us down to the earth, it is like a magnet, it is like a gravity, and we want to be rich towards self and poor toward God. So it's usually God's cow that dies. Jesus I believe speaks directly to this perspective on life in these verses, and I think He gives us a tremendous insight into a‑how we are to really see the matter of wealth, the matter of money, the matter of luxuries.

Now in the passage following verse 24 from verse 25 to 34 He talks about necessities, He talks about eating and drinking and clothing and a place to sleep and the bare necessities, and how we are to deal with those, but in this portion He is discussing not necessity but luxury. In fact as we have been flowing through the Sermon on the Mount our Lord has been touching every area of life. He has touched on in the Beatitudes our view of ourself, in the great passage on salt and light our view of how we fit in the world, in the section on the law of God our view of Scripture. In that marvelous section from 5:21 to 5:48 He has talked about our view of morality.

In chapter 6 verses 1 to 18 He has discussed our view of religious service or worship, how we fast, how we pray, how we give. And now He moves into our perspective on material things, luxury first, and necessity next, and so He touches every area of life. And we come to this section, and are confronted with a tremendous statement in verse 19, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth," and a corresponding one in verse 20, "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven." And the heart of the matter in verse 21 literally, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Ask yourself the question in your life, is it always the Lord's cow that dies? When you get down to having to decide whether it's for you or for Him, who is it usually for? That's the real issue. Where is your heart? It's where your treasure is, wherever you put your investment is where you're going to put your heart. If all that you possess is locked up in commodities and accounts and notes and savings and whatever else that's where your heart's going to be. But if it is in the process of being invested in God's causes that's where your heart's going to be.

I can give you a simple illustration from my own life, there are a lot of people that come across my path, a lot of missionaries, I'm not always sensitive to their needs as I ought to be but on one occasion I recognized the need of a certain missionary for a suit of clothes, so I said to him one day come on I want to take you somewhere and we went down to a, to a place and I said I want you to buy a suit, whatever kind you want I'd like to, to give that to you as a gift. So he ah, picked out a suit. There are a lot of missionaries that I have met and forgotten, but not that one. Because I made an investment in his life, where my treasure is my heart tends to be, and so I've thought of him often and prayedfor him often. You see wherever I set my heart is really the critical issue in my spiritual life. Wherever my affections are is going to determine how I perceive everything. And if my heart is right and my treasure is toward God, then I'm going to have the right kind of spiritual perception. Wherever my heart is, is going to be where my treasure is because I have to attach myself to my investment, that's really the matter that Jesus is speaking of.

Now for the Pharisees, their heart was in the earth. They were phonies everyway you cut it, their morality was totally external, that's what chapter 5 was saying. Their humility was nonexistent, instead of being salt and light they were part of the corruption and and the darkness. Instead of believing in the law of God they defied the law of God and substituted for it their own tradition. Instead of having a really internal heart set of principles they had nothing but an external code of sort of semi-spiritual ethics. Instead of having genuine worship they had a false standard and it was pure hypocrisy. Everything about them was outside, external, self-centered, and self‑motivated. And in contrast to that the Lord is saying, you must have a right heart. That's why in chapter 5 verse 20 the key verse in all the Sermon on the Mount He says, "Your righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.'" Theirs is an external righteousness without a right heart, and what I want is a right heart. So your heart and your treasure go together and both need to be toward heaven. What our Lord is speaking of here is a single minded devotion to God and His causes that is undistracted by the world.

Now, I believe that when your heart is right your giving will be right too, so it's not an issue with me to preach on giving. To give a lot of messages on money, to have fund drives and pledge cards and whatever else to get you to give money, because I really believe that if the heart is right the treasure comes along after the heart. Let me show you an illustration of that, go back in your Bible to Nehemiah chapter 8, Nehemiah chapter 8, and I just want to show you, you'll remember that Nehemiah was God's man to rebuild the wall, the fallen walls of Jerusalem after the Babylon captivity, he came back and he set about with the people of the land to rebuild the wall which he did in 52 days, they had a wonderful time, and when the wall was completed a great event took place, a, revival. And the revival was initiated in chapter 8 verse 1 when it says that Ezra, brought the book of the law of Moses. Revival always begins with the bringing of the book. Revival always begins with the Word of God. Verse 5 of Nehemiah 8 says, "And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people (for he was above all the people); and when he opened it all the people stood up. And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, lifting their hands; and bowed their heads, and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground." Verse 8, "They read in the book in I the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading."

Now they read the law of God, and the law of God generated a heart response, and if you go to chapter 9 you find that basically there were four things that came out of the reading of the law. Number one was conviction of sin, they began to confess their sin, number two was a desire for obedience, number three was praise, and number four was a covenant or a promise. First they were convicted of their sin, they began to praise God, they began to express a desire to obey God, and then they affirmed that they wanted to make a promise or a covenant, chapter 9 verse 38, "And because of all this we make a sure covenant and write it; and our princes, Levites, and priests, set their seal to it." In sight of all their spiritual leaders they wanted to make a covenant, a vow to God, a promise as a result of their hearts being revived through the reading of the Word. And what does a revival produce? It'll produce conviction of sin, it'll produce a desire for obedience, it'll produce praise and I believe it'll produce a covenant, a promise.

In other words a decision to start to walk in a new direction, a moment in time in which direction is altered dramatically, and what was their covenant? Most wonderfully and amazingly you'll notice verse 32, "Also we made ordinances for us, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God," the first thing they wanted to affirm other than general obedience to the law of God is that they would pay that third shekel temple tax required of them. "For the showbread, and the continual meal offering, and ‑burnt offering, and Sabbaths, and new moons, and set feasts, and holy things, and sin offerings to make an atonement for Israel, and all the work of the house of our God." In other words they would give to support the functioning of the house of God.

Now the point is this, when the heart is made right the initial response was giving. And further, you look down in verse 35, "They would bring the first fruits of the ground, the first fruits of all the fruit of all trees, year by year, to the house of the LORD: The first born of our sons, our cattle, as it is written in the law, the first lings of our herds and our flocks, to bring to the house of our God, unto the priests who minister in the house of our God; And that we should bring the first fruits of our dough, and our offerings, and the fruit of all manner of trees, of wine and oil, unto the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground to the Levites, and the same Levites might have the tithes in all the cities of our tillage. And the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites, when the Levites take tithes; and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers, into the treasure house. For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the offering..." and it goes on. What did they do when revival came, what was their initial act of obedience? Financial. Take care of responsibilities given them by God. Beyond that they gave freely of the first fruits of everything they possessed. What I'm saying is when the heart is right the treasure is poured toward God.

And so in terms of spiritual life you're always dealing with a heart attitude, because it is out of the heart that man operates, as he thinks in his heart, what? So is he. And so we preach to the matter of the heart, out of a right heart. I believe that's what our Lord is saying. I believe that when the heart is right the treasure is sent toward God, for wherever our treasure is our heart has an inseparable attachment to that, and conversely wherever our heart is that's where we put our treasure. In Exodus 35:21 it says, "And everyone who was willing, and whose heart moved him came and brought an offering to the LORD." In First Chronicles 29 verse 9 it says, "For they had given freely with their whole heart to the LORD."

Now, the heart is the issue and we've told you many times that the heart is the thinking cognitive part of man not just his emotions. "As a man thinketh in his heart." The Hebrews see the bowels as the emotions, the heart as the cognitive process, dependent upon our thinking pattern, our knowledge of God, our knowledge of His Word, our commitment to those things will be the investment of our treasure. So the heart has to be right, and if the heart is right then everything is right. That's why Jesus preaches this sermon the way He does. If the heart is right it won't be proud, it'll be cowering as a beggar in spirit, mourning in meekness, if the heart is right it won't attach to the world it will be salt and light, if the heart is right it won't violate the law of God it'll keep the law of God, if the heart is right it'll not say, well we don't kill, it will not even be angry with a brother, it'll not just say, well we don't commit adultery, it won't even commit adultery in its heart, see. If the heart is right then we will not approach religion hypocritically and superficially, and we will not do our alms before men, and we will not give to be seen, and we will not pray in the middle of the street to be seen of men, it'll be a matter of honesty and integrity because the heart is the issue. And if the heart is right we will not lay up for ourselves treasures on earth like the Pharisees did, we won't be as Jesus said, The Pharisees also are greedy, covetous. But we will deal with those commodities which God has graciously given us by investing them in His eternal kingdom, A very vital thing.

Now we're forced then, people to a decision, we're forced to make a choice, a d that's why we've divided this text into three parts, where Christ gives us three choices, two treasuries, two visions, and two masters. Two treasuries, two visions, and two masters. And beloved we are forced to choose, we have to choose. And we have to choose I think initially and once for all and maybe in a covenantal way as did the people in Nehemiah's time, but we have to follow that up with an everyday, maybe every moment of everyday choice reaffirming that covenant. We must choose where our treasure is, what our vision will be and who are master is to be.

Let's look then at these three choices. Number one, two treasuries. two treasuries. Now reviewing briefly, last time we looked at verse 19, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth." And we talked about the word thesaurizoin the Greek which is the word to treasure up treasures. In other words we're talking here about luxuries, about that which we hoard or store up or stack. It is not wrong to accumulate money, it is not wrong toaccumulate possessionswhich are then invested in divine causes and in God's purposes, and God's purposes are to care for our family and to care for our extended family in the church and to care for even those who are not of the family of God but have need, and to care for the causes of God around the world, and to invest in souls, those things are needful uses of what God gives us. But to stockpile selfishly accumulating with greed and covetousness, piles and piles of things treasuring up for ourselves on earth these commodities is that which our Lord says not to do, to be consumed with material wealth, to labor for the food that perishes, to put it in the wordsof John 6. But on the other hand verse 20, "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven."

Now beloved we must focus very clearly on this because I'm going to show you as we go through this how utterly essential it is that we respond to this command of verse 20, we are to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. It makes sense, G. Campbell Morgan says, "You are to remember with the passion burning within you that you are not the child of today, you are not of the earth, you are more than dust, you arethe child of tomorrow, you are of the eternities, you are the offspring of deity, the measurement of your life cannot be circumscribed by the point where blue sky touches green earth." He goes on to say, "All the fact of your life cannot be compassed in the one small sphere upon which you live, you belong to the infinite. If you make your fortune on the earth poor, sorry, silly soul. You have made a fortune and stored it in a place where you cannot hold it." Then he says, "Make your fortune, but store it where it will greet you in the dawning of the new morning." We cannot lay up our treasure on earth, that is not characteristic of those in His kingdom. That was characteristic of the Pharisees and in a sense He was saying to them, it's another indicator like all the rest that I've talked about that you're not in My kingdom no matter what you claim. People in My kingdom don't lay up treasure on earth.

Now when the Lord said this, treasures on earth and treasures in heaven, those words and those terms were very familiar to the Jews. They had many sayings about alms giving, piling treasure in heaven, they usedthose terms so Jesus was speaking in a vernacular they understood. They believed that deeds of mercy and deeds of kindness to people in distress were tantamount to storing up riches in heaven. For example, the rabbis told a rather famous story about a certain King Monobaz, and the story of this certain king was that when he became king he inherited incredible riches from his forefathers, the previous kings. But during the time of his reign he gave all of his fortune to the poor and the needy and the suffering and the afflicted. His brothers sent to him and said this, "Thy fathers gathered treasure, and added to those of their fathers, but thou hast dispersed that treasure." He said this to them, "My fathers gathered treasures for below, I have gathered treasures for above; they stored treasures in a place over which the hand of man can rule, I have stored treasures in a place over which the hand of man cannot rule; my fathers collected treasures which bear no interest; I have gathered treasures which eternally bear interest; my fathers gathered treasures of money, I have gathered treasures in souls; my fathers gathered treasures in this world, and I have gathered treasures in the world to come." And this was a familiar story told by the rabbis. So they understood the concept to which our Lord spoke. Invest in His kingdom.

Now the early church had this commitment. The early church was not interested in piling up its own wealth, you find for example in Acts chapter 2 that when the day of Pentecost came there were thousands of pilgrims gathered in Jerusalem, and we know from history that they would move in and live within the homes of the people who lived in the city, the city would literally swell with population and there were not enough inns to care forthem and so they would move into the homes. Many of these people became believers in the great day of Pentecost when Peter preached and three thousand were redeemed and many thousand more in the next few chapters. And now they were there and they were believers and they didn't want to return, because they were in the church and it had been born there and there was excitement and joy, and so the believers had to absorb them, and I'm sure that many of them were poor and without any resource so that the early church had to give to them to meet their needs, and they were busy selling what they possessed, right? As all men had need and meeting those needs. That's always been the way with the church. Even during the time of the Decian persecution in Rome, when the Roman authorities broke into a certain church. They, they broke into churches thinking they could loot their treasures and the Roman who was in charge, the prefect stepped up to one saint named Laurentius and he said, "Show me your treasures at once." Laurentius pointed to a group of widows and orphans who happened to be eating a meal and he said, "There are the treasures of the church." We have invested all we have in them. That's treasure in heaven. Beloved remember that what we keep we lose and what we invest with God we gain eternally.

Let me show you the principle, Proverbs chapter 3 verse 9 it says this, "Honor the LORD with your substance, and with the first fruits of all your increase." Alright? "Honor the Lord with your substance, "that's everything you have, all of it, "and with the first fruits of all your increase." Give Him the first part. You don't want it to be the Lord's cowthat died, give Him the first. As a result verse 10, "So shall your barns be filled with plenty, and your presses shall burst out with new wine." You will never be able to invest with God without getting a dividend; you'll get all the investment back and more. In Proverbs chapter 11 verse 24, "There is he that scattereth, and yet increaseth;" isn't that interesting? "There is he that scattereth, and yet increaseth." Amazing, well that's not so amazing that's what a farmer does, isn't it? He throws away a little seed and gets a whole crop. And that's what He's saying. "There is he that withholds and becomes poor. The liberal soul shall be made fat." The more you scatter the more you receive. Paul said in Second Cor­inthians 9, "Sow sparingly, reap sparingly; sow bountifully, (what?) reap bountifully." Look at Luke chapter 6 for a moment and verse 38, this is the word of the Lord Himself in Luke 6:38 He says this, "Give, and it shall be given unto you;" in other words you give to God and God returns to you, not just a little bit but "good measure, pressed down, shaken together." In other words it's all compacted and squished in and squashed down and pressed together, so that it's packed and running over. And notice this, "For with the very same measure that you measure it shall be measured to you again." God only gives you the return on what you've invested. All our spiritual life long we fight the battle of where we put our treasure, our luxury, our wealth. Put it in heaven, receive an eternal dividend.

Now what is our treasure? What is He really talking about here? What is this treasure in heaven? Well we could talk about it on a very broad base; we could talk about the fact that our treasure in heaven is an "incorruptible, undefiled, inheritance laid away for us." As Peter calls it. We could say that our treasure in heaven is "Christ more than anything else." Our treasure in heaven is a faithfulness that will never be removed, a life that will never end, a love that will never cease, a spring of water that never runs dry, a gift that is never lost, a chain that is never broken, and we could say, all that in links us to eternity is our treasure, and we could talk in generalities. But let's talk in very, very specific terms. What is He talking about here? Simply stated folks, money, luxury, wealth.

Let me show you this, First Timothy chapter 6 is a comparative passage which essentially indicates to us the very same thing. First Timothy chapter 6 verse 17, verse 17, "Charge them that are rich in this age," that's us by the way, we're all in that category, "that they be not high‑minded," in other words don't let your riches make you proud, "nor trust in uncertain riches," don't trust in the riches, "but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.." Now we have the wealth, we're not to be proud about it, we're not to trust in it, what are we to do with it? Verse 18 now watch, "Do good," how do you do good? Why "be rich in good works," well what good works? "Ready to distribute, willing to share." Did you get that?

The call of God upon our lives regarding our luxuries and our wealth is that we distribute and we share as opposed to hoarding it, stockpiling it. Verse 19 says, as a result, "Laying up," and it's the very same verb thesaurizo, "treasuring up treasure for themselves." Very same word. What does it mean then to put treasure in heaven? It means to distribute and to share the riches God has given to us, In that way He says, "We put together a good foundation against the time to come, and we lay hold on all of the fullness of the meaning of our eternal life."

In other words we then expose ourselves to the full potentiality of all that eternal life can mean. The more I send ahead into glory the greater the glory when I get there, the greater the investment, the greater the reward. And thus when we see the concept of treasure in Matthew 6 we are specifically talking about wealth. In Mark 10:21 the Bible says, "Sell what you have, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven." Now it's the same principle, he had more than he needed, He didn't say sell what you need, He said, sell what you have, what's just stockpiled. And in his case I guess because of his own spiritual problems it could have been everything he possessed because it stood between him and God. But for us what is beyond the necessity we should be willing to give to one who has a need. Look at Luke for a moment, chapter 12 verse 33, Luke 12:33 and I think it's as simply stated here as in Matthew, almost parallel, "Sell what you have, and give alms;" that means give to poor people, "provide yourselves bags which grow not old," He says, don't just stick your money in bags that are going to rot and decay, put your money in bags that will never grow old, watch, "a treasure in the heavens that faileth not." See? That's where our investmentis to be.

In Luke chapter 16 1 come to a verse that just speaks to my heart so much, Luke 16 verse 9, "And I say unto you, (verse 9) make to yourselves friends by means of the unrighteous money, that, when it is gone, they may receive you into everlasting habitations." Now money is basically an unrighteous commodity, that's not despairing it or, or damning it that's just stating that it‑money has no righteous virtue. So He says this, as long you've got an, an unrighteous commodity to start with, something that has no righteous virtue use it to make yourself friends who will receive you into everlasting habitations. You know what that means? That means invest your money in the souls of people who someday will greet you in thanksgiving when you step on the shore of heaven. What a fabulous thought, what an incredible anticipation. He says, make friends with your money who will receive you into an everlasting habitation, what a promise. Homer sang, How many are the souls, how many are the chained that I have free‑freed. How many in whose lives I have invested will be standing there to greet me when I enter into His presence? What are you going to do with your treasure? Whatever you keep here you lose, whatever you send ahead by investment in the lives and the souls of those around you you gain forever. What a glorious promise. Listen, Proverbs 19:17 says this, "He that hath pity on the poor," listen now, "lendeth to the LORD,"

Now what is the basic principle of a loan, what is the one thing a loan implies? You're going to get paid back. And so says Proverbs, you have pity on the poor and you lend to the Lord, and the rest of the verse says, and that which he hath given will he pay back again." Eternal divi­dends, don't be earth bound, don't put treasure in this world, don't stockpile your stuff here, invest it in forever. That's the heart of the matter.

Now there's a reason for this, let's go back to our text and see what it is. Two treasuries, why should we choose the heavenly one? Because in the earthly one "moth and rust corrupt, and thieves break through and steal." Verse 19 says. But in the heavenly one there's no moth, rust, and thieves don't break through and steal.

Now listen to this, in the Orient in Bible times wealth was basically kept in three ways, all right? Basically wealth was kept in three ways, there was no paper, there were no ah, bank books, there, there was not the kind of system we have, wealth was identified in literal commodities, and basically there were three, garments, grain, and gold or precious metal. Garments, grain, and gold. Take for example garments, in biblical times garments were a very, very important commodity. You will remember for example that Gehazi the servant of Elisha wished to make some forbidden profit out of Naaman's curing of leprosy, and so he asked for a talent of silver and two changes of garments because that was substantial wealth. Wealth had to be in a commodity, and wealth was expressed in fancy, rich, extravagant garments. Do you remember Achan?

In Joshua chapter 7 said, I, I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment and I coveted and I took it. You will remember that Joseph when he bestowed upon Benjamin his affection gave him five changes of garments. You will remember that Samson said, if you can answer the riddle I promise you thirty garments and thirty changes. You see garments were al­ ways an expression of wealth because they were a commodity of great value, very often there was gold woven into the garment, the dying processes could be unique, the material was so hard to make and some of it was very fancy and people literally possessed their wealth in a garment. But there's a problem with garments, do you see it there in verse 19? Moths, get to garments, you noticed. We have moth balls, don't we? To prevent that. But have you ever noticed that moths don I t eat what you have on? Have you not iced that? Never said, ‑moth! They only eat what you store. You go back three years later, we've all got that, closet's fuum, you know and because we change our sizes so often we hang onto stuff, figuring we'll get back to it sooner or later, right? We tend to hoard and we know that we have a lot of our treasure invested in our garments, don't we? And a lot of it's sitting around for moths, moths will corrupt it, they will consume it it literally means.

Another way they stored their wealth was in grain. Do you remember the rich fool said, I will tear down my barns and I will build what? Bigger barns, to hold more of my wealth. And his wealth was in grain, and you notice the word rust? In verses 19 and 20, actually the word means eating, eating. -No where is it used to mean rust, no where in the Bible at all, in fact I don't think there's anyone who's ever found a place where it's used to mean rust. What it basically means is eating, brosis. And you know what the problem with grain is? Mice, rats, worms, vermin, they eat it. I told you a few months ago that 15% of all of the stored grain of India is eaten by rats and mice, even today. And the problem if you have all your money in grain is that the little things that get in there can eat it. There was a third commodity that they put their treasure into and that was gold or precious metal, you know what the problem with that is? How are you going to hide it? Well you might keep it in your house, but a thief could break in and steal it or as was most common they would find a place in their field that only they knew, in the dark of night, go out dig a big hole in the field and bury it, that's why in Matthew 13 you have the treasure stored in a field, remember that? The parable. Because that's where they put their wealth, they put it in bags and stuck it in the ground and covered it over, and thieves would lurk around at night and watch where they did that and they'd go and dig it up. And not only that when a thief broke‑into a house the word literally means to dig through, mud diggers, thieves were mud diggers, why? They would literally dig through the wall of a house, or dig through the dirt in the ground to get it. So your garments would be eaten by moths, your grain would be eaten by whatever kind of animal or insect or vermin got in it, and your gold would be taken by mud diggers. The point is this, you hoard it you lose it, it's unsafe and insecure. And what do we do today? Boy, we got our moth balls and we got our rat poison and we got our burglar alarms. Penny's, the other day out on the Northridge Mall had the most sophisticated burglar system imaginable, in ten minutes some thieves came in and the first estimate they think they got forty thousand dollars worth of gold in ten minutes, it could be as high as eighty thousand. None of that stuff is really very safe, is it? I guess you'd be better off to send it into the kingdom and reap its rewards forever, wouldn't you? People say, well I have mine in a bank, ha‑ah, those of you who went through the depression are beginning to get a little bit itchy about now. There is no place of security in this life, and even if you kept it all till you died when you left here like the man I said about last week when someone said he died, he said, what did he leave? And he said, everything. You're going to leave it anyway. Where's your heart? There are many millionaires who will be paupers in eternity and there are paupers in this life who will be millionaires forever, where's your treasure? Is it always the Lord's cow that dies or do you invest in His kingdom? Two treasuries, where's yours?

Second, two visions. And this just expands our thought from the first few verses, two visions, this is fascinating, verse 22, "The lamp of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine eye be healthy, thy whole body shall be full of light. If thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness." And we'll stop there for a minute.

Now, He's been talking about your heart and He wants us to have our heart fixed single mindedly and totally devoted on the kingdom of God, so that our treasure is there, our heart is there, our love is there, our passion is there, our burden is there, our investment is there, our all is there, and we're to have that single minded heart. And then He illustrates that with the eye, the‑eye then becomes the illustration of the heart. And the eye is like the lamp of the body. When we can see with our eyes, sighted people their body is filled with the light that comes in from the world by which they perceive, and understand what's in their vision. But if your eye is dark it is black, there's no light that comes in you perceive nothing. And that's the way it is with the heart, if your heart is toward God it lights your entire spiritual being, if your heart is toward the material things, toward the treasure of the world the blinds come down of your spiritual perception and you do not see, spiritually as you ought. Tremendous principle. He takes a physical illustration and He says that the eye is like a window, if that window is clean and clear the light floods the body, if the window is blacked out no light enters. This is a spiritual metaphor. But there's a richness in here that I don't want you to miss. Look at the word healthy or single; I don't know what your version says in verse 22. It says, "The lamp of the body is the eye; and if, therefore, thine eye be (single or) healthy," I want you to see something that I think is fascinating about that word. The word is literally from the root of haplous which means generous, okay, it means generous. It is used that way many, many times, just give you three illustrations, James 1:5, "God who gives liberally." Or generously. Romans 12:8 Paul urges us to "give liberally." Or generously. Second Corinthians 9 he talks about the liberality or the generosity of the Macedonians. It is a word that means generous or liberal. He is saying then, if your eye or your heart, because the eye is illustrating the heart, if your heart is generous your whole spiritual life will be flooded with spiritual understanding. Isn't that a great truth?

You know there are people who come to church and leave church, don't seem to change and they never grow and never seem to love the Wordand never seem to be a witness to others and never seem to be productive in their life and they just stay the same way all the time, and when I see somebody like that they never seem to understand what's going on, they never perceive spiritual realities, I wonder to myself so very often if it isn't because they are so focused on the earth and so earthbound and so oriented toward treasures here that the blinds are down and they have no spiritual perception at all. To put it another way, until you take care of the view of money in your life you will never be able to deal with spiritual realities. That's exactly Luke 16:11. If you don't know how to take care of money why would God commit to you the true riches, right? See, what I'm saying here and what our Lord is saying is that this issue is bigger than we think, it may be blinding us in spiritual perception. Verse 23, "If your eye is evil, your whole body's full of darkness." And there you're introduced to the evil eye, you've heard that phrase, haven't you? Gave 'em an evil eye.

You know what the evil eye is? That's a Jewish colloquialism, to mean grudgingly. For example in Deuteronomy 15:9 it talks about when you have a slave and it's coming to the Jubilee Year and he is to be freed, that you have an evil eye toward him. That is you are ungenerous, stingy and you grudge him that freedom. In Proverbs 23:6 it says, "Eat not the bread of him who has an evil eye."

In other words don't eat a bite of somebody's food if they grudge you every bite. How about Proverbs 28:22, this is a tremendous statement, it says, "He that hastens to be rich has an evil eye, and considers not the poverty that shall come upon him." You hurry to be rich andyou will be ungenerous, grudging and selfish, that's the contrast. All right He says, you have two treasuries in heaven or in earth. Wherever you put your treasure that's where your heart will be, and if your heart is in heaver where your treasure is you're going to have a generous spirit and that generous spirit is like a seeing eye that floods your spiritual life with perception. If your treasure is in earth you're going to see nothing because the blinds come down in the darkness of your greed and covetousness and you will see nothing, and if that's the case the end of 23 says, "If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" It's just an exclamation where our Lord is saying, how total or how great is the darkness of one who should see spiritually but pulls the blinds through his own covetousness. The call then is to exclusive heavenly mindedness, devotion to God, an undivided laying up of treasure in heaven. Let me simplify the whole thing, one statement, how you handle your money is the key to your spiritual perception. That's the message of verses 22 and 23. And so you have two visions potentially, two treasuries and you make a choice.

Finally you have two masters, verse 24, "You can't serve them both; you'll hate one, and love the other; or else you'll hold to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." Now anytime you get into this verse people always say, well I don't agree with that, you can't serve two masters, I work two jobs. Or uhm, my wife, I have my wife and her mother living with me, I can serve two masters. I mean that's not a pro ... I don't see what he's saying. You see the reason people say that basically is because they don't understand the word serve there, it doesn't talk about being an employee in an 8 to 5 job it's the word douleuo from which we get doulos which is the word for bond slave. You can't be a slave to two masters, why? Because slavery by definition means single ownership and full time service. A slave was not a person a slave was a thing, a slave had no rights, a master could beat a slave, kill a slave, sell a slave. A slave was a living tool, no different than a plow or a cow or anything else. A slave was a thing. To be a bond slave, to be the property of a master was to be constantly, totally, entirely, 100% devoted to obedience to that one master, it would be utterly impossible to express that to two different masters.

That's the illustration used in Romans 6 when it says, "Now that we have come to Christ, we must yield ourselves servants to him." Because we are His slaves, we are no longer the slave of sin. God can only be served beloved with entire and exclusive devotion, He can only be served with single mindedness and if you try to split it with money you will either hate one or the other. Let me illustrate, some of you may be sitting here today and you've been hoarding your money, and you've been selfish about it and you haven't been investing it in God's causes, and you haven't been giving it to those in need and you've just been piling it on for yourself, and so while I'm preaching this and you're hearing God's Word and the Lord's saying do this and do this, you're beginning to resent God's claim on your life. You're fighting that. Because you can't serve those two things. And you're, you're starting to justify yourself, right? And worm out of the deal, and say, well I mean this is a little ridiculous, Lord. And you begin to resist and despise. On the other hand, if everything you have you want to give to God, if every treasure you own in this world you want to pour out to Him, you despise the system that takes so much of it away from you, and it bothers you that gas prices keep going up and‑for the right reason. Because maybe you feel it's infringing on what you want to invest eternally. You see you can't have both of those things. Single mindedness, you've got to choose your master. The orders of these two masters are diametrically opposed. The one commands you to walk by faith the other to walk by sight. The one calls you to be humble the other to be proud, the one to set your affections on things above and the other to set them on the things of the earth, the one to look at the things unseen and eternal, the other to look at the things seen and temporal. One of these masters calls on you to have your conversation in heaven the other to cleave to the dust. One calls for you to be careful for nothing the other for you to be all anxious and concerned. And so they're diametrically opposed, can't serve them both. Bishop Rile said a statement that I think sticks in my mind as much as any at this point, he said this, "Single ness of purpose," mark it now, "Singleness of purpose is the greatest secret of spiritual prosperity." "Singleness of purpose is the greatest secret of spiritual prosperity." It's that absolute focus that makes you spiritually rich.

Caleb, in the Bible put it this way, "I wholly (w‑h‑o‑1‑1‑y) followed the LORD my God." David put it this way in Psalm 16, "I have set theLORD always before me." Where's the safest place then to put your treasure? Well, where, where you're going to have the clearest spiritual sight, right? And where you're going to be able to serve the right Master. The possession of wealth beloved is not a sin, but it is a great responsibility, isn't it? Sometimes I wish I was poor, so I could be on the other end of this whole deal. But poor people have their problems too.

John Calvin said this, "Where riches hold the dominion of the heart God has lost His authority." That's the issue, plain and simple. If I have my choice I want to take the money I have and I want to give it to friends who someday will meet me when I enter the eternal habitation.

M.E. Burns said this, "Riches I heed not nor man's empty praise, Thou my inheritance now and always." A great thought. Let's pray together.

Father, every baby born into the world comes into the world with its little fists clenched tightly as if grasping, clutching what is his. Some of us never open that grasp until it's opened in death. Father help us to learn to give, for how else can we respond to one who has given all for us? I think of the words of the poet who said, "Go break to the needy sweet charities bread, forgiving is living the angel said. And must I be giving again and again; my peevish and pitiless answer ran. Oh no said the angel, piercing me through, just give till the Lord stops giving to you." And that shall never be. Help us to lay up treasure in heaven. We thank You for such a privilege that we should know the fullness of eternal glory as dividends of our investment. Bless every life here Father. Apply these things to us all. In Christ's name. Amen.

Overcoming Materialism

Look with me at Matthew chapter 6 in your Bible and we're going to look again at the lessons the Lord has for us in this section of Matthew's Gospel which is known as the Sermon on the Mount. I have to confess something to you at this point, we've been in the Sermon on the Mount a long time and there I suppose is some reason for that. From the time that I first entered seminary in 1961 I've always had in my heart a tremendous desire to understand the Sermon on the Mount. I had heard differing interpretations of it and how it fit and where it belonged and what its purposes were and I never seemed to be able to satisfy my own mind. And through thedays of seminary I found my thinking unfulfilled in terms of understanding it and I have allowed these years in between to go by without really ever getting into an exhaustive study of the Sermon on the Mount, and this has haunted me for all these years because I believe it is the most significant single statement of Christ on the substance of His message to the world. It demands priority, attention and because so many years have intervened ah, I may be lingering a little long but I'm filling up a gap of a lot of longings over a great period of time. So I trust that you'll indulge me if we deal with it as we do, and even then I must admit that I only give you about one tenth of what I have in me to say, because the riches of this are just inexhaustible.

With that in mind let me call your attention to verse 25 of Matthew 6 and reading down through verse 34 give you the setting for the next passage that we'll be discussing in this message of our Lord. "Therefore, I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; not yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than food and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, norgather into barns,yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto his stature? And why are ye anxious for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin, And yet I say unto you that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, 0 ye of little faith? Therefore, be not anxious saying. What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink?or, With what shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But ye seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Be, therefore, not anxious about tomorrow; for tomorrow will be anxious for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is its own evil."

Now this is a tremendous passage, and it'll form the study for the next few weeks because of its depth and its richness we want to glean all that we can from it. It is added to a prior passage which I also want to read in order for it to have a full context. In verse 19. You'll remember our Lord said, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal, But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The lamp of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine eye be healthy, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and money."

Now you'll notice in both of those passages that we're dealing with physical commodities, material possessions. In the first we're talking about money from verses 19 to 24 or as we said, luxury, how we deal with luxury. In the second verses 25 to 34 we're talking about necessity, what we eat, what we drink, and what we wear. You might say that the first portion is directed more at the rich, who tend to take their luxury and stockpile it for their own ends. And the second is directed more at the poor who tend to because of their poverty and their lack of substance question or doubt God or live in fear and anxiety over whether they're going to have enough to eat and drink and wear.

Now being rich has its problems and being poor has its as well. The temptation to the rich is to trust in his riches and the temptation to the poor is to doubt God's provision. But the Lord is saying in both cases, I have a perspective for you. Whether you're rich or poor your focus is to be on Me. For example in verse 21 He says, Put your treasure in heaven because that's where I want your heart. And in verse 33 He says, Seek first the kingdom, in other words the same thing, put your heart again in heaven and don't worry I'll give you all the rest. The point is, I want you to have a focus. Now the world's focus if it's rich is to lay up treasures on earth, verse 19. The world's focus if it's poor in verse 32 is to seek after what it'll eat and seek after what it'll drink, and s eek after with what it will be clothed. But you, if you're rich, you pursue heavenly investment, if you're poor, you pursue the kingdom of God. In other words when it comes to money and possessions our focus is on God not on those possessions. We are not grasping and clawing after things; we are rather seeking God and allowing God to fulfill His promises and His provisions for Us.

Now with that as an overview I want to give you just an introduc­tion to the second section that really acts as a transition between the two. And we won't specifically get into the particular verses until next time. Managing money and managing possessions is a se­vere problem for all of us, and we're all very aware of it.

Now we all have differing amounts of money, all of us make differing amounts of money and that is by God's design. But we all have the same pro­blem of what we do with it, how we invest it, how we spend it, how we use it, and we have to constantly face the fact that money provides for us, mark this, a test of true spirituality. In fact if you ask me it's the best test there is. I can tell you more about a man or a woman spiritually by how they handle their physical properties than just about any other thing. It is a great revealer of the heart, it is a major problem in life, and when somebody can deal with it, it manifests the strength of real spiritual life. For a little illus­tration I, I would put it this way. The Lord gave 38 parables in the Gospels, out of those 38, 16 of them have to do with how we han­dle our money, that's a major emphasis. Christ for example, said more about money and possessions than about heaven and hell combined.

In the Gospels 1 out of every 10 verses, 1 out of every 10 verses deals with money or possessions, 288 verses in the 4 Gospels. In the Bible there are 500 plus references to prayer, there are 500 minus references to faith, and there are over 2,000 references to money and possessions. It is a major issue. And frankly it's not getting any easier for us than it was in Bible times if anything it's tougher, it's tougher. I mean we live in a day when technology has provided for us such incredibly unlimited resourcesthat the test is more severe than it's ever been, there has never been a society for example in the history of the world that had as much stuff as we have. Just stuff. Commodities, products, and in America we probably have more than any other part of the world. We are living in affluence that's unheard of in the world's history. Modern technology has in­creased our comprehension of, of devices and designs to the point where we can now create almost anything, short of life itself. But you know what it's revealed? Our incredible affluence, our incredible commodity development has revealed a major problem, and that is, that man can't handle what he produces. We can't handle our money and we can't handle our commodities. I mean in the very simplest sense we are in a process of ultimate self‑destruction.

Now all of us are very much aware of this, we hear all the time about where our country is going and where the worlds going with all of the economic and financial problems we have, but the problems are not economic and the problems are not financial and that's why nobody ever comes up with the right solution. I mean I'm, I'm listening you know to Howard Jarvis and I'm listening to Jimmy Carter who's telling everybody what to do and listening to all the bills and all the senators and all the advice and all of the stuff that's coming down the line, but nobody yet has really put their finger on the problem. And the problem is this, you create an environment with unlimited resources, you create an environment with unlimited commodities and you turn man loose and he will destroy himself, I don't care what kind of legislation you have because there is a basic truth about man that you have to recognize, he is ultimately and totally selfish. And selfishness related to productivity translates into one word, greed. And where you have the sinful heart of man which is egged on by selfishness and selfishness attaching itself to products becomes greed you have the ultimate end of self‑destruction.

The Bible tells us for example in Revelation chapter 18 that the world, the entire world economic system will come to a total collapse, that's right, it'll ultimately be devastatingly destroyed. Man is on a track to total self‑destruction, because when you continue to proliferate the potential to make money and proliferate products you give to man that which feeds the worst thing about him which is his selfishness and he becomes a greedy monster. I've said to you before it always amazes me how many places carry stuff nobody can use, you just stick it places. And that's the way it is. We are maniacal in our desire for things, and of course we're egged on by the media. On the one hand the president is saying, cut back, tighten your belt, pull it all in.

On the other hand the TV. is saying, buy it, buy it, buy it, go in hock for it, you gotta have it, it's life, you can't survive without it. And so the hypocrisy of the system is unbelievable, and man is trapped. He has been told all his life that he is only going to be happy when he gets all the commodities he can possibly get, and now he's told he can't have them, and so he's being forced to be unhappy. You see the problem is not financial. We hear about unprecedented conditions causing what is known as a global financial chaos, in fact we are living in the first decade in recorded history of world wide double digit inflation, and I read recently that Los Angeles is the inflation center of the world, the last count indicated 26.1% annual inflationat the rate it was going last month. And it's going on all over the world, there is constant talk about depression and collapse and crash. We have the highest number of unemployed since the depression, and I guess maybe we know that part and parcel of this in terms of how it all got really generated is the Arab Cartel who decided to up the price of oil and has raised the cost of petroleum 500%. And you see when that goes up then everything goes up because petroleum generates everything that carries every product. And so it all goes up, and that is why as I mentioned last Sunday night that this Naval Officer told me they believed that Russia's next move is to attack Israel because they must seal off the Mediterranean, they've sealed off the east in Afghanistan and the north, they're working to seal off the south from the Indian Ocean and if they can seal the Arab nations off the Mediterranean they can isolate them and they can't get their oil out and then they can move in and take it over, because they can see potentially the collapse of the world in the in‑indiscriminate pricing of oil products. And so we are living in this inflationary situation. In America we have monstrous money problems; I mean they are utterly monstrous. We have a deficit that‑we have enough red ink in America to, o fill the Red Sea. Let me just give you an idea, in 1901 the national debt was less than one billion, in 1901 it was less than one billion.

In 1978 it was eight hundred billion, that's what we owe the banks­ By next year they estimate it'll be over a trillion dollars, that's our debt, the interest is four billion a year. Do you know that if you liqui­dated the United States it isn't worth a trillion dollars? We don't have assets to pay off the whole thing. But that doesn't stop any­thing. Prices have gone up over a hundred % in the last ten years, the average family of four according to the US Department of Labor has lost earning power though salary has doubled because the infla­tion and the taxes have eaten up the gain. Do you think that stops anything? No, we still buy more, we just go in hock for it. And the system accommodates us by producing credit cards, so that our greed knows no limit at all. It used to be that your greed was sort of hung up when you ran out of money, right? You could say, I'm not greedy this week, I don't have any money.

Now you can be greedy all the time because you don't need money. And so what happens when we run out of gold we just keep printing more money and when we run out of a silver standard we keep printing more money and when we finally run out of money we print cards, credit cards, and you want to know what will happen when people run out of credit cards? They'll steal because that's the way greediness is. We are a greedy people. Credit buying has escalated inflation and then that curse of all curses on our society the working wife creates more money problems, putting more people into the work force to buy more products to confuse the issue as well as devastate the home, and by the way statistics have shown, I just read this yesterday, that the American family is in financial trouble and now according to record 50% of all divorces are because of financial pressure in the home, and so I thought maybe we could just add another line to the marriage ceremony, until debt do us part. Now we are really in deep folks, there is no way out as I say you could liquidate the whole United States of America and we couldn't pay ourbill at the bank. We, We're dead, in terms of that. We are long gone, and we have gotten a taste of the fatted calf, and I believe we're fast on the pace to self‑destruction.

Now what is the answer? Well people say, our president says‑and I know he means well, just everybody tighten your belt. Well what, what are you saying to us? What does that mean? What is that going to do to the real problem? I've been listening to all the world's solutions and they're hopelessly ineffective, We are in this mess, because of a society that produced its potentiality and because of the evil of man's heart.

Now this society has been telling us through the television, the radio, the billboards and all the rest of the things that we'll be happy when we get stuff, and now they tell us we can't have our stuff. What hypocrisy. We are in this thing because they've been telling us that happiness and peace and joy are found in material goods. Let me give you the key, philosophy of life in the world, here it comes, only as you accumulate enough assets to satisfy your particular style of life can you really be happy. That's the bottom line. Only as you accumulate enough assets to satisfy your particular style of life can you really be happy. And so we have all this society of people who have determined what their as‑the assets they want are and they go for those things. We've got subcultures who have some strange kind of things they're after. But man has been told that he's got to have commodities. I saw a sign on a guy's shirt yesterday I couldn't believe. "Next to sex, I like Harley Davidsons best." Well you know what that said‑and he had on a, he looked like a guy who just came off a motorcycle, you know, grease from head to foot. But for him what he wanted was a girl and a Harley Davidson. I mean that's the way he read life, that was, that was life, and if he could just get enough money to get the right girl and the right ma­chine he was happy, he thought. And if we can just get a, a fancier car, just get that new wardrobe, just take that trip, just get that bigger house, whatever, we can be happy this is what it tells us, if we can just get the right kind of commodity, and that's exactly what the media pumps at us all the time, and we sit there you know, and we see the big ads and they're going to take little Casper Milk Toast I and put him in this hot car and he's going to turn into macho man and all the girls are going to scream as he goes down the street. He's really going to be happy. And if‑if you look kind of tacky around the house with your bathrobe with the loose threads and you see the ads for the fashions, this is what the world keeps saying, and now they're saying to us you can't have it anymore. They are literally, and this is the severity of the situation we're in, somebody's been lying to the world all along and they're trying to pull the rug out from under us, they've been telling us this is where our life was and now there's saying we can't have it anymore. Isn't going to work.' People say, oh there's so much thievery today, there's so much stealing, why, man's getting worse.

Well that isn't the issue the issue is you just keep telling him he's got to have commodities to be happy and ultimately he's going to steal for them. So I'm not interested in the worlds solutions because they're hypocrites, when they say, pull back, tighten your belt, do this, you know give up a Big Mac, and eat a regular, you can't keep up the standard you're on. When they say that to me I say, well that is not the issue, you're playing around the periphery, the issue is you have told us that we'll never be happy until we can absorb the assets to make our style of life that we seek, if you tell us that then that's the way we're going to live and now you tell us not to do that there's something hypocritical about it. You see the problem with man is that he's been lied to all along. And sadly Christians have bought it, and we even think that happiness comesin commodities. Christianity has even become big business. Richard Kabadil says, "Christians are guilty of upward social mobility." We're trying so fast to climb the ladder to hobnob with the rich and the famous, and the popular. But that's not what our Lord said. Our heart is to be in heaven because our treasure is there, and we don't find happiness in our lives in commodities. I'm not against those commodities; I just don't seek for them. If God chooses to give us things that's at His good and gracious hand, but if we make those things the love of our life we have missed it. And I think basically it's because we've been lied to about where real contentment is. Listen to the Word of God, Philippians 4:11, 12. Paraphrasing it don't look it up just listen to the paraphrase, "Not that I was ever in need," says Paul, "For I have learned how to get along happily whether I have much or little.

I know howto live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of contentment in every situation whether it be a full stomach or hunger, whether it be plenty or want." End quote. That Is it. Paul says, you know something? I have contentment that is absolutely and totally unrelated to possessions. Isn't that good? That's the distinction of a believer; he seeks the kingdom and God takes care of that, he puts his treasure in heaven and the Lord takes care of his need. That's what we're saying, that's what the Lord is teach­ing.

Now remember the Pharisees and the scribes to whom Jesus dir­ected much of His speaking here were covetous, they were covetous, and they had the jaded perspective. They had the perspective of the world that you will be happy and content only when you have accumulated enough wealth to satisfy your desired lifestyle. But the Bible says, your contentment is apart from goods, it is apart from commodities. Your contentment comes in God not goods.

Now let me follow that for a minute, and this is just introduction to the text we'll get to next time. Our contentment is found in God, let me tell you why. Three words I want to give you that relate to the issue of contentment with God. Number one is the word ownership, mark it down, ownership. Now this is to say that God owns everything, the Bible says, God is the sole owner of everything, all right? God is the sole owner of everything, of what? Of everything, everything.

Now do you understand what I mean by that? Everything. All that is, He owns it, your clothes, your shoes, your watch, your house, your car, your kids, everything, your, your garden, everything. Everything. He owns it all. In Psalm 24:1 it says this, "The earth belongs to God, everything in all the world is his." Now that's simple enough, isn't it? I mean you don't need a whole lot of explanation about that. Everything in the world is His. In First Chronicles 29:11 it says, "Everything in the heavens and earth is yours, 0 LORD. And this is your kingdom." All right, if I'm going to be content in life as a Christian then the first thing I have to realize is that everything belongs to God, everything. So watch this corollary, so I can't ever gain anything anyway, did you get that? It's His. To learn to be content you recognize that God is the sole owner of everything.

Now listen to this, if you believe for one minute that you own one single possession, then that possession that you think you own will govern your spiritual attitudes, and that's bad. Let me give you an illustration. We have a van, because we have four kids, and so we have a van, a 1977 Ford van which we enjoy as a family. Now I think it's important to take care of that van because it costs a lot to get another one, and so I want to take care of it. Now, if I say, boy this is my van, I'm going to take care of my van, and my van is going along the road and somebodycomes through an intersection and smashes my van.

Now if that is my van then I am very upset with that turkey that ran into my van. And my reaction is going to be, you can't be that dumb, you've got to look where you're going, and then I'm going to find out the inevitable he has no insurance, and my sanctification will flee further from my grasp, and then I'm going to take it to the body shop and the guy won't match the paint properly and I'll get it back and it'll have a big streak, and then I'll be upset with him, and then I'll be going down the street like this because the frame was bent and you can't fix that, and that'll wear out my tires, and that'll cost me money, and I will be very upset. But you see that's not my van, so if somebody runs into that van I'm just going to say, Lord, You should be careful how You take care of Your van. Sorry this happened to Your van I hope You have the resources to get it all fixed. See, I have to deal with things in my life either from my perspective or His, as long as it's His I don't worry. They came running into John Wesley one day and they said, Mr. Wesley, Wesley who was away from home, terrible tragedy, your house burned down. He said, you're wrong. They said, no, no, your house burned down. He said, no, that isn't true. They said, well you‑we're telling you your house burned down, and he said, well I hear what You're saying but it's not mine it's the Lord's and frankly it's one less responsibility for me to worry about. I, I think that's the approach. But that is not what we've been taught.

That is not what we've been taught. The accumulation of self owned property is the legacy of the world to us, and we need to break that understanding. We don't own anything, I don't own my house, my car, my children, I don't own anything. Therefore, that has some spin offs that are tremendous. Therefore, if I lose something I didn't really lose it because I never owned it anyway. If somebody else needs it they're just as welcome to it as I am because I don't own it the Lord does and if the Lord knows they need it it's theirs. I mean if everything that I have is shifted to somebody else that's not my problem the Lord's going to have to take some from somebody to meet my need. But I have to begin with the comprehension that God owns everything. But this is a problem for us in America because this whole concept of capitalism has been such an American legacy to us, and we're willing to stand up and fight for it so much that we forget that it isn't a Christian principle at all.

Now listen, in 1914 a man named Harvey Kaukins wrote a book and the book is entitled, The Elements of Stewardship and he said in that book some very, very salient things I think will help you to realize where I'm coming from. He said that we have received a heritage of ownership from our society and not from the Bible. This is a quote he, he puts it this way, "There has been but one nation whose concept of property ownership was based on ownership by God and that was the nation of Israel. All the other nations we have knowledge of, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, their under lying philosophy of the ownership of property and their laws relating to property were based on the concept of the individual owning what he possessed. Where did we receive our standards of property ownership? It is rooted in the law of the Roman Empire. The Roman philosophy of life crystalized in Roman law and through that law standardized in Christian civilization was not built on the law of the Lord, which is ownership by God but was built on the law of man, which is ownership by man. The average man (says Kaukins) unless he has met the issue squarely and jarred himself loose from inherited traditions remains caught in a false concept of property ownership. His Christian instinct is entangled with the honest belief that he is the owner of what he has merely been given to possess. His whole history and entire culture compel him to believe that he is the owner of his property." End quote. And that's not true. Oh, in a legal sense in America because that's our philosophy it's true, but in a real sense you don't own anything and neither do I, and if I don't own it then I don't mind if I lose it, and I don't get too hepped up if I gain it, because it's never mine anyway.

Second word, first word ownership. In understanding contentment with God there's a second word, and that is control. The first thing you have to understand is that God owns everything, the second thing is that He controls everything. He controls everything. He is the owner and the controller. For example the Old Testament gives special attention to the fact that God controls all of circumstances for His own ends.

Listen to First Chronicles 29 paraphrasing it again, "We adore you as being in control of everything." I love that. "We adore you as being in control of everything. Riches and honor come from you alone and you are the ruler of all mankind, your hand controls power and might, and it is at your discretion that men are made great and given strength." In other words, God, You control everything. You control riches, You control honor, You control power and might and greatness and strength, You call all the shots, You move all the commodities around. Daniel in chapter 2 if you were with us you'll remember was praising God, and this is what he said, I love this Daniel 2:20 he said, "Blessed be the name of God forever and ever; for he alone has all wisdom and all power," now listen to this, "World events are under his control."

In other words Daniel says, God You control everything. And later on in the Book of Daniel when Daniel was thrown into the lions den that kind of theology really held him in good stead, didn't it. He got down in the lion's den and he was in utterly, terrible circumstances, I mean you can't imagine anything worse than being dropped into a pit with a bunch of hungry lions, and there were lot of those lions by the way, enough to devour a whole family of relatives who were thrown in and they were all eaten before they it the ground so there were plenty of them in there. Well they threw Daniel in there, he had a wonderful time, he was at ease, he was re axed, he probably laid down on a nice big furry lion and went to sleep. And the king, the king who was in per­fect circumstances, living in the Babylon palace with the hanging gardens and all the wonder and the pomp that could be his as the greatest monarch in the world, at the same time Daniel was having a great evening with the lions, he couldn't eat, he couldn't sleep, he couldn't drink, he didn't want to be entertained, why? What's the difference? Daniel knew that in anything God was in total control. The other guy was a wreck because he had no sense of a divine controller. Circumstances were beyond his control, that's the difference. Daniel knew God was in control.

Now listen, if you know God owns everything and controls everything, then you're not going to put your hope in luxury and you're not going to fear if you don't have enough necessity, God knows what you need, God says He'll provide all your needs according to His riches by Christ Jesus, He'll give you all you need, He'll take care of everything that's necessary for your life, God will dispense to you what He knows you have to have to invest in His kingdom, God takes care of all of it, that's not your worry. And that's the reason it says in this passage three times, don't be anxious, don't worry.

Now there's a third word I want you to see, that's the word provision. Ownership, control, and provision. God owns everything, now watch this, He owns everything and He controls everything to provide for His own. Now did you get that? He owns everything and controls it to make provision. The Old Testament gives Him many names but one of the most lovely of the names of God is Jehovah‑Jireh, Jehovah‑Jireh means the Lord who provides, the Lord who provides. It is so much a characteristic of God that it is His name.

Now we would never argue that God is love, and we would never argue that God is glorious, and that God is great and mighty and holy and just and good, but some would argue that God provides and they might question and doubt and be afraid that God isn't going to meet their needs and that's exactly what the Lord speaks to in verses 25 to 34, when He says, don't worry about what you eat or what you wear or all of those things, the Lord is still Jehovah‑Jireh. That's His name, and His name is synonymous with an attribute, God is a God who provides and that is why David said, 'IT have never seen God's people begging (what?) bread." Because God is Jehovah‑Jireh. In Luke 12 verses 30 and 31 again paraphrasing the text it says, "All mankind scratches for its daily bread." Boy the world digs and scratches and claws and hoards and makes sure it has enough. But in opposition to that, your Father knows your needs and He will always give you all you need day by day. What a promise, what an incredibly wonderful promise, He knows your need.

Listen, I don't have to own everything to meet my need, I don't have to control everything to meet my need, I can receive what God gives me, I can invest it in His eternal kingdom, I can put away all anxiety about my needs, and I can worship God with my life and have the absolute promise that He will provide everything I need, and even beyond that. To me that's a tremendous thing. In First Timothy 6 it says, "If we have food and covering, with this let us be content." Are you? Are you? Or do you grasp for more? Denying God in the process.

In World War Two there were many people killed as you well know, and the killing of many adults left many orphans. The allies at the close of World War Two wanted to do something to help the little orphans, and so they provided some camps and they would gather the orphans together and they would feed them there and try to find a place to locate them, And as they would begin to feed them from their malnutrition they would begin to develop and to grow and they would be able to take more and more food and they were getting the finest care and the finest food. But in one of these camps particularly they became very, very perplexed because the children couldn't sleep. They would eat three good meals, but at night they would lie awake and they couldn't sleep. They couldn't figure out what it was, whether it was some physical problem or what, finally exhausting the physical they brought in some psychologists to do a study of these orphans to find out why with all of this food and care they still couldn't sleep. Well, the psychologists came up with a solution, every night when the little children were put to bed, someone would come down the row of the beds and in each little hand would place a great big piece of bread. And so the last thing they would experience at night would be to close the little hand around the bread, tuck it in and invariably in a matter of days they were all sleeping through the night. Why? Even though they were fed to the full during the day, their experience had taught them that there was no hope for tomorrow, and in anxiety over what might happen the next day they couldn't sleep. They couldn't enjoy what they had because they were afraid of the future. Oh, do I know a lot of people like that. The little children couldn't sleep because they had too many days with no food and when they had a little piece of bread tucked in their hand and they knew that at least they'd have breakfast tomorrow they could sleep. Do you know what God has done for us? I believe God has given us a piece of bread for our hand, and I never go to bed at night without that little piece 'of bread, and you know what that little piece of bread is? It's this, "But my God shall supply (what?) all your needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus." And if I have that little piece of bread in my hand I can sleep. I don't need to stockpile for the future, I don't need to hoard against the future. God is the ownerof everything in the world, and God controls all those assets, and He does it to provide for me, why? Because I'm His child. And that's why the Lord says, Don't you know your heavenly Father feeds them, in verse 26, the birds, and are you not much better than they? I mean if He feeds birds, is He going to feed His own children? What a great truth. He is the owner and the controller and the provider. So life for me see, as a Christian consists not in the abundanceof things which I possess, Luke 12:15, that isn't life for me, life for me is in being, Hebrews 13:5, content with such things as I have.

Now if the Lord chooses to give me more that's fine. I have to remember it's His anyway and it has to be used for His glory and for His kingdom. And it comes down to this sometimes, well I say, there's a need over here, so and so has a need. And then something says to me, yes but what about in the future? Why you might run out of food or you don't know what's coming or your children might get sick or whatever might happen, but so and so has a need, I've got this and they need it now and I'm looking at the future that's no decision for me. I'm going to take that resource that God owns and use it in God's way to provide and in the future God will have to provide in another way. When it comes down to that, now some people uhm, just can't make that decision, and so we tend to stockpile and hoard inordinate amounts. I don't mean it's wrong to plan for the future I think God expects us to do that it's in the Book of Proverbs to do that. But I'm talking about when you cling to that, and when your hope is in that, and your faith is in that, and you live in fear of that, and you can't release that, and you feel it's yours.

You know I have to admit to you, when I see a need and, and somebody makes an appeal to that need, there's just something in me that just wants to shovel it all in that direction, do you feel that way? I just‑that's just the way my heart goes and, and I don't always think about the future. Short of being foolish I think that's the way we have to learn to live. Amassing money and possessions provides no contentment. To be contented is to pour your treasure into a heavenly vault where it'll have eternal dividends. To be content is to not worry about what you eat or what you drink or what you shall wear but just to hold in your hand that little piece of bread every night when you tuck yourself asleep that says, my God shall supply all your needs. And then whatever resources I do have I make available to whoever needs them. So a right relationship to God is at the bottom of true contentment, trusting Him as owner, controller, and provider, that friends is the Bible's answer, the Bible's answer to inflation, the Bible's answer to greed, the Bible's answer to stealing, the Bible's answer to selfishness and pride is to just believe that God will meet your every need, after all He's your Father what do you have to worry about? I dare say that the reason those little orphans were afraid was because they were orphans, huh? They didn't have a father to provide, we do.

Now I'm not saying it's wrong to have possessions, I'm not saying it's wrong to have money. I'm just saying it's wrong to covet them and cling to them and build your life around them. I really believe that this is a major issue facing the church today; I think Christianity instead of offering an alternative, instead of being distinct, instead of being apart from the world has become materialistic in many ways, self‑indulgent, it's a fearful thing. I don't know that Christians anymore are willing to be the off scouring of the world. I mean you know this idea of ascending the scale. John White says, and he's written a very helpful book you should read it, it's called The Golden Cow, and John White says in that book that we have bowed down to the golden cow of materialism and we need Christ to make a whip and cleanse the temple all over again. Let me read you some paragraphs from his book, "The Twentieth Century Church has also forgotten which master she belongs to, painting herself like a hussy in her silly portrait of lord mammon. Or to use another image the church has gone awhoring after a golden cow, not a calf if you please but a cow, and I call her a golden cow because her utters are engorged with liquid gold, especially in the west where she grazes in meadows lush with greenbacks. Her priests placate her by slaughtering godly principles upon whose blood she looks with tranquil satisfaction. Anxious rows of worshippers bow down before their buckets, although the gold squirts endlessly the worshippers are trembling less the supply of sacrificial victims should one day fail to appease her," Then White says, "I used to be angry with my fellow fundamentalists and outraged at certain evangelical institutions because of their materialistic attitudes. But my rage has long since subsided. I even went through a charitable and patronizing stage, may God forgive me, who am I to rage or to patronize. I know some children whose mothers are whores; can you imagine what it feels like to discover your mother goes to bed with men for money? In point of fact such children feel a variety of emotions ranging from indifference to bitter rejection to shame, to hurt mingled with compassion. It's hard to quit loving your own mother even if she is a whore, you've only got one. Fundamentalism is my mother, I was nurtured in her warm bosom, she cared for me with love and taught me all she knew, I owe her humanly speaking my life, my spiritual food and many of my early joys. She introduced me to the Savior and taught me to feed on the bread of life. Our relationship wasn't all honey and roses but she was the only mother I had, I clung to her then and find it hard not to lean on her now. If she let me down at times I'm old enough to realize that no mother is perfect, but to find out that she was a whore, that she let herself be used by money was another matter. And as the wider evangelical movement gradually took her place in my life it was painful to make the same discovery, twice." End quote. It's pretty potent, and true. I believe that churches today face a tremendous collective materialism on the part of their members. We're like the man in Luke 12 of whom the Bible says, He kept building barns bigger and bigger and bigger. And this is not for Christians, where can we get our distinctness in the world if we fall prey to this which so dominates the thinking of the world?

Now again I'm not saying we're to be poor. I mean, I'll be very personal about this, take the preacher for example; some people think the preacher ought to be very poor, make him into a man of prayer. Well that's all right. Other people think the preacher ought to be very rich cause if he's very rich he'll attract rich people and rich people feed the budget. Posh pastor, posh congregation, right? John White says something about that I think is interesting. He said, "If you have any trouble about what to pay your pastor, what would be wrong with giving him 50% more than whatever sum seems reasonable? Are you afraid it'll make him too money conscious? If so what business did you have in appointing him as your pastor? If you're in a position to pick a pastor you should also know that God expects you to discern whether he has a weakness about money, and if he has a weakness about money you should never have given him the responsibility of a pastorate, because the Bible says, he should not be greedy of filthy lucre.

Some churches like to give high salaries because the pastor's standard of living will affect the kind of people who will attend. But God is concerned with motives not with amounts. Do you resent the thought of your pastor having too much money? Then double his salary. To show him your love for him. But you say, aren't there better ways of showing love? Well of course there are, but why not show him love in this way too? Do you ask me what happens if the salary is too much for him? Then I answer, that's the pastor's problem. He could give more money away for instance, pray that he may have wisdom in handling what he doesn't need."

Now listen, I read that to you because race Church pays me too much money, already. And several years ago one of the men‑I asked that, why do you pay me so much money? And they said, because we watt to see what you do with what you don't need. That's fair, that's fair. I have that responsibility, don't I? It isn't a question of how much you have, it's a question of where your heart is. I can receive from the Lord. You know ah, it's amazing in Christianity today, there are people who want to come and speak at our church but their minimum fee is five thousand dollars. They want‑there's people who want to come and sing and they charge eight thousand and up, now not all of them are like that. Oh, there are lot's of people who will give a testimony for Christ for fifteen hun­dred dollars, lot's of them. You see we've gotten into a situation­ I talked to a publisher who recently told me that in order to get an author to sign on the bottom line that held write a Christian book for them they had to pay him a two hundred thousand dollar advance.

Now, books are a wonderful ministry but if you write a book to make money that's a wrong motive. If you write a book to honor God and to advance His kingdom then if He chooses to give you money from that that's wonderful, and you use that as His possession, under His con­trolto provide for His body. You see it's all in your perspective. And let me say this as we wrap up our thinking, all that you have, all your money and possession, now watch this, more than anything: else, now listen to this, you don't need it to meet your needs God will do that anyway, right? So why do you have it? Why do you have your house, your car, your bank account, why do you have that? I'll tell you why, here it is, it is a test of your spirituality, did you get that? That's what it is; it is a test of your spirituality. How are you doing, is the issue. You don't need it, because God is going to take care of you anyway, it is a test and God is testing the legit­imacy of your spiritual claim, by what you possess. Hoo! Frightening, isn't it? I believe that perhaps the very best revealer of true spirituality is money. And that's what the Lord's going to show us as we go on in this text. How to handle luxury, that's 19 to 24. How to handle necessity, 25 to 34.

Now listen, I'm going to close with this thought. A careful reading of the Bible will reveal that rich people are condemned, that's true, rich people are condemned in the Bible, but listen, they're never condemned for their riches, they're always condemned for the misuse of it, did you get that? The misuse. We live in a society where we know riches, God help us not to misuse that. Poor people are condemned too, in the Bible, not because they're poor, because but because in their poverty they would question God's equity and God's love. Being poor is a test of trust, and so is being rich. When you have it you trust in it and when you don't have it maybe you've failed to trust God. No matter how you cut it possessions and money are a spiritual test.

Now, I hope you examined yourself as to the luxuries in the past text and will examine yourself as to the necessities in the one to come. That's why Proverbs, 30 verses 8 and 9 says to the Lord, "LORD, neither give me poverty nor riches;" don't give me the extreme of either, "just give me my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, Who is the LORD? Or I may become poor, and steal, and dishonor the name of my God." You see having it is a test and so is not having it, the one who has it is tempted not to trust God and the one who doesn't is tempted to dishonor His name. And so we are tested. The question is, how are we doing? We have so much more as we go into this text. Let me tell you what next week's going to be. Three reasons why you should never worry about money, three reasons why you should never worry. And we 1 11 see that next time. Let's pray together.

Our Father this has been just a very practical time this morning and, and yet really a worship time. We can't worship You properly unless we can worship You with our money and goods. We do worship You by laying up treasure in heaven and by seeking first the kingdom and letting You add all these necessities. Help us Lord to worship with a true and a pure heart. Thank You that You own everything, You control everything, You provide everything for Your children. And Lord I just know too that there are some here in our midst this morning who are not Your children, You love them and You died for them, but they've never said yes, they've never opened their heart to receive You, they're not in Your family and they have no guarantee of Your provision, we pray Lord that this might be the day when their hearts are opened by the Spirit of God, their hearts become receptive, that day when they believe in Jesus Christ who died and rose for them, and they enter upon the miracle of birth into Your family and come under the providence of Your care, we pray Lord that this might happen in many hearts this morning. Some who came here, outside the family may go home in the family. And some Father who have been in the family but who have wasted the resources and been possessive and selfish and greedy, and it's touched every one of us including my own heart might go away with a new resolve to so live to Your honor that our treasure is in heaven, and our seeking is of Your kingdom and righteousness. Thank You for being so gracious Father, not to just give us what we think we possess but to give us the world and eternity. In Christ's name. Amen.

Overcoming Financial Worry, Part 1

We come again this morning in our study to the 6th chapter of Matthew, again just reminding those who are guests with us that we are in a protracted, a long and thrilling study of The Sermon on The Mount, as part of a greater study of the Gospel of Matthew. We are learning very first hand and in depth I trust the words of our Lord given in this most masterful of all sermons, from chapter 5 through chapter 7.

We find ourselves for this time in chapter 6 verses 25 to 34, and in order that you might have context for what we say to you let me read this passage to you and you follow along in your own Bible beginning at Matthew chapter 6 and verse 25, "Therefore, I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; neither yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than food and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto his stature? And why are ye anxious for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin, And yet I say unto you that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, 0 ye of little faith? Therefore, be not anxious saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or, With what shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Be, therefore, not anxious about tomorrow; for tomorrow will be anxious for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is its own evil."

Now you'll notice in the passage that an oft repeated phrase is the theme, "Be not anxious." In fact it appears in here four times. Anxious is a word that simply means to worry, don't worry. That is the heart and the soul of the passage, the Lord is calling for us to cease from worrying. Now I guess all of us have to admit that worry is apart of life, it's a pastime for most people, it occupies their thinking for a great portion of their daily wakening hours. However worry is a very dangerousitem, it takes a severe toll on people, but far beyond its psychological effect is the fact that the Bible tells us that for a Christian, for a child of God, worry is a sin. Because worry is the equivalent of saying, God I know You mean well by what You say but I'm just not sure You can pull it off. Worry is the sin of distrusting the promise and the providence of God, and yet we do it all the time.

William Inge said, "Worry is interest paid on trouble before it's due." Another writer said, "Worry is a thin stream of fear that trickles through the mind, if encouraged it'll cut a channel so wide that all other thoughts will be drown in it." And one writer put it this way, "Worry is faith in the negative, trust in the unpleasant, assurance of disaster and belief in defeat." And one writer said, "Worry is wasting today's time to clutter up tomorrow's opportunities with yesterdays troubles."

Let me tell you something that I thought was interesting I read this week. It really wasn't related to worry until I saw a very interesting connection, but I was reading about the Bureau of Standards in Washington D.C. and they had a little feature in there that was telling about fog, and what was the composite elementof fog. And this I thought was fascinating, a dense fog that covers a seven city block area one hundred feet deep, and by that they mean a very dense, thick fog seven blocks and a hundred feet deep, is composed of less than one glass of water, divided into sixty thousand million drops. Not much is really there at all, but it can cripple an entire city. And I think that's a pretty good illustration of worry, put it all together and you don't have much more than a glass of water, but you can sure mess up a whole lot of people.

Now we worry that's just the expression of human sinfulness, and I guess we don't worry anymore about any other thing as much as we worry about the basics of life, and so we're a little different than the people to whom Jesus spoke. Because they worried, and what they worried about in verse 25 is what are we going to eat, and what are we going to drink, and what are we going to put on our bodies? I mean they were worried about the basic stuff. I guess if you're going to worry and you're going to try to legitimize it there's no more way to think of it than to say, well after all Imean this is rather basic, I'm not worrying about extravagant things I'm just worrying about my next meal, a glass of water and something to wear. But for the Christian that is forbidden, for the Christian that is sinful, for the Christian that is foolish. There's no place for us to worry even about those basic commodities of life, why? Because the Lord says that's My area. And one of the things you learn if you listen to Jesus all through The Sermon on The Mount and all through the Gospels and if you listen to the Epistles which are the commentary on the Gospels one thing you learn is that God does not want His children preoccupied with the mundane, passing things of the earth. He wants us to set our affection not on things on the earth but on things above, He wants us to lay up our treasure in heaven, He wants us to seek first the kingdom of God, and in order to free us to do that He says, don't worry about the other stuff I'll take careof that, you see. That is a basic principle of spiritual life, that we are not earth bound people, we just give that part to God and we are free to live in the heavenlies. How foolish, to be worried about material things. But that is precisely what people worry about.

Now He could be talking about rich people here, the same people who have all the luxuries in verses 19 to 24 are also worried about the necessities here in 25 to 34, because rich people worry about necessities that's why they stockpile all their money so they can hedge against the future. That's why they stash it all away so that they'll make sure that if everything goes apart they're going to be able to have it all, so rich people worry about necessity. So do poor people. In fact poor people maybe worry about it in a little different way; they worry about it but can't do anything specific to relieve that worry. Rich people can at least stockpile. Poor people can worry about it and can't do a thing to alleviate that. And so the Lord is here I think maybe primarily directing it to poor people but it has to encompass the rich because anybody can worry about having the necessities of life. Why there are people in our own society who have all they need and they're worried about running out, they're worried about things that are going to happen in the future and they're not going to have enough resources and they're not going to have the clothes or they're not going to have the things they need to eat and drink or the shelter and so forth, and in fear they begin to hedge against the future and, really in a non-trusting, non-faith expression try to determine their own destiny, apart fromGod, even Christian people. And so you could be rich and have this problem but basically, primarily I think He's talking about the person who, who has no resources for the future and is totally dependent on today and then tomorrow and the next tomorrow fulfilling itself.

Now should that person worry? You say, why poor people should worry. How do they know where their next meal is going to come from? How do they know they're going to have it in the morning? How do they know they're going to have shelter and clothes? But our Lord precisely says, you're not to worry about that. You're not to take your luxuries, and you're not to stash your luxuries in some hoarding fashion as a hedge against the future and not use what you have been given by God to accomplish His purposes now, that's verses 19 to 24. Nor are you to have anxiety in your heart for tomorrows needs even if you have nothing. So the Lord here is covering luxury in ‑ 19 to 24 and necessity in 25 to 31.

Now let me give you some background on the text just briefly. Throughout The Sermon on The Mount the Lord is laying a standard that was uncommon in His day and it was reallyfar beyond anything that was going on in the religion of Judaism. He gave them a new standard of themselves, He gave them a new standard really not a new one but a reiteration of the old one, the divine one, He gave them the divine standard of the world, He gave them the divine standard of God's law, He gave them the divine standard of moral issues, the divine standard of religious worship, and here He gives them what God says about their money and their possessions. And throughout The Sermon on The Mount and I think you already know this, what the Lord is doing is just giving them the categories Where God speaks to the issue, God has something to say about your attitudes, something about your commitment to the Word of God, something about your religious activity, something about your moral values, something about your money, something about your possessions, something about your prayer life.

In other words He sweeps through all of these dimensions of life in this great sermon. And so at this point we are touching on the money and the possessions part, and particularly in 25 to 34 on the necessities. Somebody might answer this way, they'd say, well you know I read verses 19 to 24 and it says don't lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, boy ye just lay it up in heaven, and don't serve money serve God. And somebody might say, boy you know ah, but what about the future? Boy you know in this kind of changing world if I don't stash a lot of it away how do I know I'm going to have food and drink in the future, how do I know I'm going to have clothes for myself and my family, how do I know I'm going to have a shelter? And I believe in wise planning. But if you're having trouble with that the Lord says, Don't worry about that. It's fine to save for the future, it's fine to plan for the future, it's wrong to worry about those plans, because God will take care of that. And as I told you before if you have a choice between God saying to you, use this money now for this purpose, and your own feeling, well I'd better have it for the future because it's unknown, then to keep it for the future is to disobey the moment. Now these are general principles that you're going to have to apply. So, we may have treasure, we're to lay it up in heaven and we're free to do that when we don't worry about the necessities of life.

Now let's get the general principle verse 25, going to cover the general principle and then some specifies. First here's the general principle, "Therefore, I say unto you, Be not anxious." And that's repeated in verse 31, "Be not anxious," verse 34, "Be not anxious." That is the all inclusive theme of the passage and basically in the Greek it simply means don't worry, don't worry. And by the way in verse 25 the Greek tense is unique and it means stop worrying, if you're already doing it quit, and in verse 31 it's different it says, don't start worrying. So either way you cut it He hits you, if you're doing it quit and if you haven't started don't, don't worry. Then He says in verse 25 notice it, "for your life," and the word is psuche it, it has to do with the fullness ah, of earthly, physical, external life, all that this life in this world is. Don't be anxious about this world, the temporal, external, physical, earthly world. The eating and the drinking and the clothing and the housing and all that makes up this earth, don't worry about that, and if you've already started then stop worrying about it.

Now let me give you a little bit of a connection, verse 25 begins with the word, "Therefore," and the word therefore is to take us backwards, and He gave us three principles you'll remember in verses 19 to 24. He said, first of all earthly treasures corrupt, earthly treasures corrupt. Then He said, yearning for earthly treasures blinds your spiritual vision, verses 22 and 23. Thirdly He said, you must make a choice between God and money. Now let me sum it up, listen to this, since earthly treasures corrupt you anyway, since earthly treasures tend to blind your spiritual vision, and since earthly treasures tend to draw you away from serving God therefore don't worry about those kinds of things, do you see? That should not be yourpreoccupation. Even the basics of life. You say, well can't we at least worry about the basics if not the luxuries? No. Not at all. If you're a child of God you have a single goal, treasure in heaven, you have a single vision, you see God's purposes, you have a single Master, you serve God not money therefore you cannot become preoccupied with the mundane things of this world. Now specifically what is He referring to? Back to verse 25, what are the basics? "What ye shall eat," that's food, "what ye shall drink;" that's water or fluids, "nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on." That's clothing. Food, water, and clothing, don't worry about that, don't be anxious about that.

Now in our society we might think, think that's a little bit obscure we say, my I don't worry about that, there's a supermarket on every block and I can go in there and pile it all in. Ah, we've got so much water in our house we never think about it, we‑average house has probably got ten faucets, you know indoors and outdoors and you can have water running all over the place and sprinkler heads and, what do you mean worry about water, who worries about that? And then some prophet of doom comes along and says we're running out of food in America and we're runningout of water in America and, maybe we do worry a little. But if you were living in Palestine at Jesus' time you might have been a little more concerned, because there were times when the snows didn't come to the mountains and when the snows didn't come to the mountains the streams didn't run and in the burning summer heat the stream would dry up and there was no water. And there were times when the crops didn't come through because the locusts plague the crops and when the crops didn't come through there wasn't any food and there was famine in the land, and when there was famine in the land there was also no income in the land and when there was no income in the land there could be no purchase of clothing in the land and so there was none of the real resource that people need to live by. These words of our Lord are literally tremendous and powerful spoken in the context of that time. Don't you ever bother to worry about what you're going to eat, don't you bother to worry about what you're going to drink, and don't give a second thought to what you're going to wear, said to those people on the edge of the parched desert who were totally dependent upon the natural resources must have been a shocking statement. Don't even give it a thought He says. Certainly that would be an indictment of our own worry aboutthose kinds of things. Our Lord recognizes that man in his covetousness tends to devote his whole life to caring for the externals; he tends to devote his whole life to his food and his house and his clothes and those kinds of things. But then at the end of verse 25 He says this, putting it in perspective. "Is not the life (the psuche, the fullness of physical life, far) more than food and is not the body more than just clothing?"

I mean is that all there is in life? Is that all you're going to focus on? You know frankly that's the way it is in the world,most people in our world are totally consumed with the body, just decorate the body, fix up the body, clothe the body, take care of the body put it in a nice car send it off to a nice house, stuff it full of nice food. Sit in a nice comfortable chair, hang a bunch of jewelry all over the thing, take it out on a boat, let it swim, teach it to ski, take it on a cruise. The body, feed that body. That's the way most people live. Isn't life more than that, isn't life more than that? That's what He's saying. What are you worried about that for? The body isn't the end of all, life is not contained in this body, life is contained in the very, listen to this, nature of God. I live not because my body lives but because God gives my body life, see? Life is more than the body, more than food, more than clothes. You'd never convince people in our society of that, but it's true. So why worry about those things? He gives three reasons why you shouldn't worry.

Number one, it's unnecessary because of your Father. Number two, it's uncharacteristic because of your faith, and number three, it's unwise because of your future. It's unnecessary because of y our Father, it's uncharacteristic because of your faith, and it's unwise because of your future. Now we'll take the last two next week, and the first one today. Why you should never worry about finances, why you should never worry about the basics of life, why you should never worry about what you eat or drink or wear, it is unnecessarybecause of yourFather.

Now remember that. This is a fabulous thing that Jesus says here. I, I feel like a clumsy oaf trying to deal with this majestic material. But first of all He says, it is unnecessary to worry about material things, even the necessities of life because of your Father. Have you forgotten who your Father is? It's so foolish. You know I can use my own children as an example. My children don't worry about where they're going to get their next meal, they don't worry about that, they don't worryabout whether they're going to have clothes, a bed, something to drink, that never enters their mind, because they know enough about their father to know their father provides for them, they have absolutely no anxiety. And believe me I don't come close to being as faithful as God. And yet how often we fail to believe that God is going to provide for us, and we worry. Anxiety is foolish. And the Lord gives three illustrations, one from food, onefrom the future, and one from fashion, food, the future, and fashion, and these are related to Him as our Father.

First of all the one on food verse 26 this is really fabulous. I think the Lord is standing on the hillside there, up in Galilee looking down over that beautiful north end of the sea, the breeze was rippling across, the sun was bright in the sky, and the people were all gathered at His feet. A lovely time of the year and a lovely place to be and I've stood there myself several times. And I think as He was speaking to them some birds flew across. One writer said that the north part of the area of Galilee is the, is the crossroads of bird migration. It's a very special place where the birds migrate in that part of the world. And Jesus probably saw them fly by and He said in verse 26, "Behold," look, "the birds of the air;" very common, "they don't sow, and they don't reap, and they don't gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are ye not much better than they?"

Listen, every bird that lives in this world lives because God gave it life, right? God gave life to every bird. And if God gives life to a bird, He doesn't say, all right bird I've done My thing, I've given you life now you figure out how to keep it. No, birds don't get together and say, now we've got to come up with a strategy to keep ourselves alive, birds have no self‑consciousness, no cognitive processes, no ability to reason, but God planted within birds something called instinct so that birds are planted, if you will, with a divine capacity to find what is necessary to live, God doesn't just create life, He creates life and then sustains life.

In Job for example chapter 38 and verse 41 it says, "Who provideth for the ravens his food? When his young ones cry unto God." In other words when the little birds cry unto God, isn't that interesting? The little birds actually look to God the Creator, says Job. It is God the Creator who gives the mother the instinct to bring the food, it is God the Creator who gave the mother the instinct to build the nest, and to migrate to a new area at the exact and precise time. "To the young ravens which cry out, he gives food." Says Psalm 147 verse 9. God feeds the birds through the process of their own instinct, and the Bibl e calls it crying out to God, it says, the birds cry out to God. Now if God is going to take care of irrational birds who cry out to Him through their instinct, is not God going to take care of His own children? At the end of verse 26, "Are you not much better than birds?" Arthur Pink said, "Here we may see how the irrational creatures made subject to vanity by the sin of man come nearer to their first estate and better observe the order of nature in their creation than man does, for they seek only for that which God has provided for them and when they receive it they're content. This solemnly demonstrates that man is more corrupt than other creatures, more vile and more base than even the brute beasts." Birds, God takes care of, don't you think He'll take care of you? Now by the way this is not an excuse for idleness He says in 26, "They sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, but your heavenly Father feeds them." And somebody says, oh that's the idea; I'm just going to stand out there on the edge of a tree with my mouth open.

Now listen it never rains worms, never. Birds, God feeds through an instinct that tells them where to find that food, and they go for it, they work for it, they're busy searching around, gobbling up little insects, worms, preparing their nests, caring for their young, teaching them to fly, pushing them out at the right time, migrating with the seasons, they, they work hard, all this work is to be done if they're going to eat and yet they do it by instinct, and they never overdo it. They don't say, I'm going to build bigger nests, I'm going to store more worms, I m going to say to myself, bird, eat, drink and be merry. They work within the framework of God's design for them, and they never overindulge themselves. Birds only get fat when people put them in cages, birds don't overdo a good thing. It's men who have enough and they go for more and they stockpile and they stuff and they hoard, and they ignore God's priorities and His promises and they forfeit the carefree heart. The birds just fly, they don't worry where they're going to find the food they just fly till they find it, and God provides it. And birds can't plan ahead, and birds have no reason to worry, and if birds don't have any reason to worry what are you worrying for? Are you not much better than a bird? How silly, how silly. You don't think He'll feed you?

Listen, no bird was ever created in the image of Christ, no bird. No bird was ever made in the image of God, no bird. No bird was ever designed to be a joint heir with Jesus Christ throughout eternity; no bird ever has a place prepared for him in heaven in the Father's house, no bird. And if God sustains the life of a bird, do you think He'll take care of you? Think of it this way, life is a gift from God, there's no question about that, life is a gift from God, if God gives you the greater gift which is life, do you think He'll not give you the lesser gift which is the sustaining of that life, by food? Of course. So don't worry about that. I‑if God lays it upon my heart to take my resources that I have right now that I've planned for the future and He says, John in My heart I want you to do this with all of that, I don't have any right to say, but Lord if I do that what am I going to do tomorrow? I won't have any food or anything to clothe my children and ... wait a minute, if God asks for this now it becomes His responsibility to feed me tomorrow, and He will, if He gave me the greater gift of life, will He not give me the lesser gift to sustain that life? The gift of food. And so I like a bird have to work but God has designed that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his what? Of his brow. And if I don't work I don't eat, Paul said. So just like the bird, God provides but through instinct, so man, God provides through his effort. And if God gives me the gift of life then God will sustain me.

Martin Luther said, "God wants nothing to do with the lazy gluttonous bellies," he was pretty vivid, "who are neither concerned nor busy, they act as if they just had to sit and wait for Him to drop a roasted goose into their mouth." That isn't what He's saying; He's not saying do nothing, He saying through your effort God will provide.

Now people say, ohh, yes but we're running out of resources. I hear this all the time, the world has no food and... listen there's, there's so much food in this world. God is always in the business of an abundance, did you know that? An abundance. This world hasn't seen anything yet wait till we get to the millennium and you see what happens around this world. But just to give you an idea, so you're not going to worry about whether God can handle the current crisis. I picked up an article from the United States Department of Agriculture that I thought might be interesting, this is what it says, they asked some questions this is just recent, the end of 1979 a few months ago. The question is, is the world's food supply large enough to meet everyone's minimum needs? Here's the answer, United States Depart­ment of Agriculture, "The world has more than enough food to feed every man, woman, andchild in it, if the world's food supply had been evenly divided and distributed among the world's population for the last eighteen years each person would have received more than the minimum number of calories. From 1960 to the present world food grain production never dropped below a hundred and three percent of the min­imum requirement and averaged a hundred and eight percent. Thus if a system existed today to distribute grain equitably the world's four billion people would have available about one fifth more grain per person than the two point seven billion people who lived twenty five years ago." Here's another question they asked in the brochure, hasn't the amount of food produced per person been dropping in the developing countries of the world over the last twenty five years? The answer is no, this is a common misconception; food production in the developing countries has been increasing. World percapita food production declined only twice in the last twenty five years, in fact production of grain the primary food for most of the world's people rose from two hundred and ninety kilograms a person during the early fifties to three hundred and sixty kilograms during the last five years, about a twenty five percent increase, there's more food than there's ever been. And listen to this, as far as potential food pro­duction is concerned the world could feed every single person in it, on the standard of the U.S. consumption by using less than ten percent of the agricultural land available on the earth, did you hear that? We could feed the whole world as good as we eat on less than ten percent of the available agricultural land in the world.

Listen, when God says, I'll provide He means He'll provide. You say, well why don't people have anything to eat? I don't think it's because God doesn't provide it I think it's because they're not His children and He has no obligation to them. Take for example India, I shared with you not long ago, India has plenty of food to feed its people, but there's starvation there. They allow sacred cows to eat twenty percent of all their food, and the rodents and the rats that they believe are reincarnations of their ancestors eat fifteen percent of it. That's thirty five percent of their food, it is not that they don't have the resources they just don't have the spiritual connection to God that puts them in the place of blessing. Their religion destroys them. There's plenty of food, God will provide as we're faithful to believe His Word. So the thought is simple then, you should never worry about your food because it is unnecessary because of your Father, He provides food.

Then He takes a second illustration, I call it the future, verse 27, 1 think this is kind of graphic, "Which of you by (by) worrying can add one cubit unto his stature?" Now a cubit was the distance from your elbow to the tip of your finger, this is a cubit, and it's approximately eighteen inches give or take de ending on the individual, but about eighteen inches, a cubit. Now the verse says, "Which of you by worrying can add one cubit," and the King James says unto your stature, well frankly folks nobody would want to add a foot and a half to his stature, I'd be 7' 10" and that would be a little unnecessary. So there's a better way to translate the word stature, helikia and that is the word is used sometimes to mean spanof life, and what He's really saying is which of you by worrying can lengthen yourlife? Listen, not only will you not lengthen your life by worrying you'll probably what? Shorten it. You can't lengthen your life ... you know, but boy we live in a day when everybody wants to do that, I mean people are in a panic to lengthen their life, I mean we're wacko about vitamins and health spas. And exercise, we're cultic about the body beautiful. We were coming to church this morning and I looked out of the window of the car and here was this little old granny. I mean she was up in her sixties, late sixties, and she had on her little jogging shorts, and then she had on a little jogging shoes and what looked like a road map going down both legs, you know? She was old, and she had a little visor on and she was huffing and puffing down the street, I mean she was going to lengthen those years. She'd have been better off to get in her car and come to Grace Church, because the spiritual is the issue.

Now I don't‑I believe God has determined the times of the nations and bounded the life of a man and I believe that God has designed how long we live, you say, are you saying exercise is useless? No, as long as I'm going to live I'd like to increase the quality of my life, and if I get exercise I function better my brain works better and I'm happier and I'm in control of things. But I'm not going to kid myself that by running down the street everyday I'm going to force God to let me live longer. I mean when the plan says, MacArthur you're out and somebody else is in, I'm out. And so our world has missed the point, I mean we spend a literal fortune joining spas, buying vitamins by the tons, incredible. Visiting every doctor in sight to get a physical, every special diet conceivable, and all we want to do is lengthen our life, the fear of death, we don't want to die, we want to live longer and longer and longer and you worry and worry and instead of going that way you're going this way. And you're going to make yourself miserable in the process. Charles Mayo at the Mayo Clinic said, "Worry affects the circulation, the heart, the glands and the whole nervous system, and I've never met a man or knew a man to die of overwork but I've sure known a lot who died of worry." You can worry yourself to death but you're never going to worry yourself to life, and yet that's what people do. And when you worry about how long your life is and when you fret and fume about how long you're going to live and when you worry about adding onto your life you are distrusting God and that's foolish because God if you give Him your life and you're obedient to Him will give you the fullness of days. I believe that the gift of life is a gift that comes because God wants you to live for spiritual reasons.

In the Old Testament it was obedience that lengthened life; it was obedience that God promised to give long life. And so as we live a righteous life there's a reason for us to be around, so God gives us life and we're His children and He bounds our life by His sovereign decree and He wants us to live that life to it fullest, and sure exercise helps and health helps because it keeps alert and alive to the limits of our capacity while we're living that span, but we can't worry ourselvesinto a longer life, what are you worried about? You're going to live the fullness of life if you're obedient to God, He'll give you all your days, all your days.

The third thing, a third illustration of the first point, the first point is it's unnecessary because of your Father, and the first illustration is food and the second is the future or the length of life and the third is fashion. And this is very graphic and it really hits us all. There are some people who live for their clothes; the most important place in their whole world is the closet, that's right. The closet. They go in there and they open the door and fewww, you know it's just; it's so jammed together you can't keep it from getting wrinkled. The closet, they live for clothes. Verse 28, "And why are you anxious for raiment?"

Now in those times if you were really poor and you didn't have any resources and the streams dried up and the crops didn't come and you got no money you couldn't buy anything. And in our day maybe it isn't that we're so worried that we can't have anything, but in our society we worry about the fact that maybe what we wear isn't really what's in. I mean you hear the ...I can't wear that, mother, they don't‑the pants don't go like that anymore. Or wear‑I can't wear that I wore that last Tuesday. People live for clothes; they manifest a carnal, selfish, worldly, materialistic care for clothes. It isn't so much that they are afraid they'll have nothing to wear it's that ‑ they're afraid they won't be able to stand up and look their best, feed their pride. Lusting after costly clothes is a sin and it's, it's a sin in our society. All you have to do is walk through a mall, it's, it's unbelievable how much stuff is hanging on those racks, unbelievable. I don't know how those stores can sustain the inventory. If‑we've made a god out of fashion, we sinfully indulge in a money mad spending spree to buy ourself the things that drape all over this body and have nothing to do with the beauty of the character, that's why in First Peter chapter 3 it says that we're to be adorned with things not gold and plating and braiding and fancy garments but the heart. And we worry we don't have enough, we don't look good enough. When the Lord Jesus who owned only what He wore on His back was the loveliest who ever lived. And He speaks to the issue, look what He says in verse 28, "Consider the lilies of the field," take a look at the field lilies, look at them.

Now if you were to look at the field lilies you'd say, well what are they? Well, there's a lot of discussion about this but the best thing is this that they're no particular flower at all, that field lilies is just a general term for all of the wild flowers that graced the rolling hills of Galilee, and there were many, there were the anemones and there were the gladiolus and the iris and the narcissus and what they called the little caplilies, there were such lovely little things and all of these flowers were all over those hillsides. They even had what I think uhm, might be the prettiest of all, little scarlet colored poppies that would grow for such a brief season but the hillsides of Galilee at the right time of year would be dotted with all the brightness of these lovely flowers. And there's such a wondrous beauty about a flower, He says, take a look at the field lilies, and I'm sure He just turned His arm as they were sitting right there on the grass, right on the grass on the side of the hill and He said, look at the field lilies, look at them, they don't spin and they don't toil, they don't make fancy thread and hang it all over them, and say I've been scarlet for two days I think I'd like to be blue tomorrow.

You know I read recently where people have gone into business and you go there for a consultation and they tell you what colors you should wear, did you read that? Yeah, they, they give you a chart, you're a definite this bracket thing, and you go out and buy all of that color and it brings out your lips and your eyes and your hair and your ... you know. Look at the little flowers in the field He says, they don't bother to spin and they don't bother to toil over it, there's a free and an easy beauty. And I'll tell you, you can take the glorious material, the most beautiful thing that was ever made for the greatest monarch like Solomon and put it under a microscope and it'll look like sackcloth, and you take the petal of a flower and put it under a microscope and you'll see the difference. I've seen plastic flowers, I've seen silk flowers, I've seen paper flowers, I've never seen anything come close to the petal of a flower, nothing, nothing, there's a texture and a form and a design and a substance and a color that man with all of his ingenuity can't even touch. How do they grow, He says, how do they grow? Easily, freely, gorgeously, effortlessly they flourish. Oh the stupidity of pride in your dress. It's an indictment of our day; we spend so much time and effort. And they keep changing the fashion on us all the time, you know that? Just‑you know this is out and this is in, and it goes so fast that you cannot keep up with it.

You know they say, oh you can't wear that tie that's a thick tie there's‑thin ties are in now. I've got the same ties I've had for fifteen years; I just watch what's going on and pull out the old batch, right? They keep changing it on us to force us to be preoccupied, and you go into a store, you go into a, a store, a clothing store, a department store and it is literally an assault on your mind and your eyes, isn't it? Oohhh, look at that one and there, boy they're everywhere. And they pile heavy carpet on the bottom and music plays and fancy lights, here they got a bunch of rotten T‑shirtssitting there basically and they've got spotlights on them like it was some fabulous things. Just‑it's a, it's an enticement to the lust to have and possess, and when you've got it all on folks and you've dolled up and done the best you can with what you've got to work with, you're not close to a flower.

Now I'm not saying look seedy and tacky that's a negative distraction that makes people think you have no care for yourself. But I am saying you can lose your sense of perspective, and when you get all said and done you're one step short of real beauty that only God can give. Verse 29 He says, look, "even Solomon," and Solomon was the greatest and the richest and the wisest, "in all his glory, was not arrayed like a wildflower." He had no garment with that texture; he had no way to approximate the fragile beauty, the incredible design of a flower.

Now what He's saying is when you've done it all to yourself you can't do what God can do with one little tiny flower, why do you spend such an effort, for such a result? And then He makes the point from the lesser to the greater in verse 30, "Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field," and the grass here by the way compasses all the flowers and the grass, all that grows on the field on the hillside, if God does that for the flowers and the grass of the hillside, "which today s, and tomorrow is thrown in the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, 0 ye of little faith?" Do you know what they used to do with that old grass? The women in that part of the world had these little hearth situations where they cooked and they had a fire, and they had an oven which was basically a thick clay oven, made all the way around with a little door, and they would build a fire and they would take this thick earthen oven and they would place it on top of the fire, and they would let the fire heat that earth until finally it would seep in and heat the inside, and then they'd open the door and put in whatever they wanted to cook. But if the fire had grown low or they were in a kind of a hurry and they couldn't wait for all the heat to get inside they would start a fire on the inside of that little oven. And the historians tell us that they had a very simple way of doing it, they would go into the field and they would find the dried grass that had become brittle, they'd find the flowers that had died and fallen over and they would gather the little stalks of the flowers and the grass and they would use that, putting it into the oven and lighting it on fire to start a fire on the inside that would move out that would meet the fire coming from the outside to evenly warm the oven. That is exactly what our Lord is saying, "if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, 0 ye of little faith?" Don't worry about what you wear, don't worry about how long you live, don't worry about what you're going to eat and drink, God takes care of all that, that's His category. A God who would lavish such beauty on a flower of a day, will He not lavish necessary clothing on one who is His eternal child?

Beloved this is practical stuff, you know that? Really practical stuff, this, the‑the Bible and what the Lord says here is not pie in the sky, He will give you food, He will give you clothing, He will determine the length of your life, and sustain it, that's very tangible stuff. You have no grounds for financial worry if your heart is right. The key is "You seek first (verse 33) the kingdom of God, and his righteousness," and all this stuff will be added. The key is you put your heart and your treasure in heaven and God will take care of all the earthly things. You know I, I just believe in my heart that I don't want to give one minute a day thinking about physical mundane earthly things. God's going to take care of that.

Said the wildflower to the sparrow, I should really like to know why these anxious human beings rush about and worry so. Well said the sparrow to the wildflower, friend I think that it must be that they have no heavenly Father such as cares for you and me. Maybe we ought to learn from the birds and the flowers how to live life.

The sum of it is clear. Jesus says, don't worry it is unnecessary because of your Father. We'll pick it up from there next time. Let's pray.

Lord we do not want to be those of little faith, we do not want to be those who don't believe, we want to be those who are free, free to soar the heights, free to walk in the heavenlies, free to invest in eternity because we take no thought for what we eat or drink, or with what we shall be clothed, that's Your area. Thank You for that, speak to each heart and make application Lord where it's needed. May we, each of us come to a practical way in which we can implement what You've taught us today. In Christ's name. Amen.

Let me just give you a personal testimony for a moment, years ago when I started out in the ministry I made a determination in my mind, that I would never put a price on my ministry, that I would never, I, I would never tell anyone I had a speaking fee, I would never set an amount, I would never ask for any money, ever, under any condition. If it was a church I would never ask for a salary, I would never ask for a raise, I would never seek anything, but the kingdom and His righteousness. And I can tell you from my own personal testimony after 15 or 16 years of living that way, seeking the kingdom and not always being totally faithful as I would want to be, but as I have matured in seeking the kingdom I have seen God take care of the physical. He does it, and He does it with generosity That's what He promises His children. I refuse to worry about that, there's too much evidence of His care in the past, I can believe Him in the future, I hope you can too. Let's stand for prayer.

Thank You our Father for touching us with Your truth again. May we find those practical ways to implement what we've heard. Lord, You know our needs here at Grace Church too especially in the financial area this difficult time. We pray that You'll speak to our hearts about some treasure that could be laid up in heaven, and then we can trust You for the future, for the necessities of life. May we really practically respond, each of us. Thank You for the richness of our worship this morning, we commit ourselves to You, and as we go may we touch the world and may it be different because we've been with You in this time, in Christ's name. Amen.

Overcoming Financial Worry, Part 2

Take your Bible and look at Matthew chapter 6, Matthew chapter 6. We're continuing an examination of verses 25 to 34, a wonderful, familiar, rich chapter and passage in the Word of God. This particular text, chapter 6 verses 25 to 34 is a portion of a bigger text, chapters 5,6 and 7 which make up The Sermon on The Mount preached by our Lord Jesus Himself, and so this is instruction straight from the lips of Christ and indeed it is practical and touches us right where we live.

If you were here with us last time you know that we began a look at the passage and we'll be continuing this morning hoping to do a little review so that those who were not here can find their place rather readily.

The heart of this matter to which Jesus speaks is the issue of materialism, worrying about our finances, worrying about our life, worrying about our earthly existence, worrying about whether we're going to have enough of the necessities of life to survive. The injunction the Lord gives three times in the passage is that we are not to worry, that such anxiety or such care or such fear‑or such worry or concern has absolutely no place in the life of a Christian. And of course it is markedly an antithesis to everything we know in our own world. The world in which we live is utterly preoccupied with material possessions; we live in a totally materialistic world. People's life begins and ends with the things which they possess, and that is an exact opposite to what the Scripture says when it says, "A man's life does not consist in the abundance of things which he possesses." And yet if you were to really get to the heart of the matter and to the real issues in human life even here in our own country you would find that most people live for nothing more and nothing less than all the possessions they can possibly grasp to feed their own determined life style.

In the last issue of Fortune Magazine, there is an article entitled, "On a Fast Track to the Good Life." Fortune Magazine sent out its editors to do a survey. They surveyed all across America the twenty five year old men and women who are on their way up the corporate ladder in the business world. They did a similar survey twenty five years ago. And they wanted to find out what the twenty five year old leader, business type person on the way up the corporate ladder looks for in life, what they really want out of life, what they really search for, what their goals and objectives are and so the writer, Gwen Kinkead wrote the article in response to this survey. I suppose that it shouldn't shock us but it, it does and I'm glad I have a little shock ability left in me. But I want to share with you some of the excerpts from the article so you can get a feeling for what the thinking is of the young generation in America. The article says that, "Today's twenty five year old business beginners know what they want and are uninhibited about demanding it. They plan," says the writer, "to get what they want. And what do they want? What is their goal? What is that which they seek to achieve? Simply stated they put their jobs ahead of all other commitments including marriage and children which some claim they'll never want." End quote.

Well why, why do we have a generation of people who are not committed to relationships, who are not at all committed to marriage or children, but are only committed to a job. And the answer given in the survey is that it isn't relationships they want it is money that they want, and they see jobs as the way to get it. They desire greater economic security, they are drawn, says the writer, to big business for the money, and along with the money comes the prestige and the authority and the reputation. The writer says, they are guided by, quote, "Frankly materialistic requirements. They defend success and they want it now." End quote. She goes on to say that they are confident, they are self‑assured, they don't think they're lucky they think they're good, most of them think they're star material and can't wait to shove out whoever's in front of them. The writer says, Their ambition is consuming, they are arrogant, they fear anonymity, they fear getting lost in the shuffle, and they fear a blurring into faceless organizational surroundings. They want to be somebody, they want to be somebody now, they want to be somebody at the expense of anybody else, they want the money and all that goes with it. And the writer goes on to say,They arevery adept at the art of self‑promotion.

In fact she writes, "They practice tireless, sophisticated, self‑merchandizing hoping they don't have to do much backstabbing on the way up." It also goes on to say that they have no commitment to the companies they work for other than that they want to make the most money possible so they job hop as soon as there's any other money available to them. And taking quotes from the ah, twenty five year olds who were interviewed both men and women these are some of the things they said, "I want what I want when I want it." Sounds like about one and a half years old, doesn't it? Another one said, "I want no mandatory or monetary restraints." Edward Beam, who is a Planning Officer at Chicago Northern Trust Company said, "I love kids but I don't want any, I'm too selfish."

Another lady, Laurie Graves at Northrop over here in Hawthorn California says, "We'll have children when we're financially secure enough to afford good child care so I can continue to work." The writer says, They are concerned with, quote, "Nabbing a piece of the action and being on the lookout for yourself. They don't feel obligated to help others, few devote time to public service or volunteer work or social problems and religion appears too proscriptive or irrelevant." End quote. They're not interested in anybody or anything but themselves. Terry Michel, who is a woman, management trainee at Connecticut General Life Insurance Company says, "I knew business would reward me in direct proportion to what I achieved, I like to spend money, I didn't feel like giving up any luxuries." End quote. So the writer of the article says, Of all people they are an extremely grabby bunch.

Dwight Billingsly a Utilities Consultant in a Washington D.C. firm strikes a common cord he says, quote, "I plan to set up my own business, be independent and report to no one, though I have more money now that I ever thought possible I'd like all the money in the world." They insist on gratification, the writer says, and she says they are unabashed materialists who crave the latest labor saving and electronic hardware along with frequent entertainment and travel, and in their righteous aversion to conventional status symbols they seem unaware that they're on their way to creating their own. One woman said of them, one twenty five year old said, "We want to make sure my career is well established, that we have all the material things we want, that our bills are caught up so we don't fight over what little money we'll have to raise a family on. With our life style we can't afford good child care now and all the things we like." End quote. Children are an intrusion into our materialistic age, and when people whimsically have those children they want to make sure they can afford somebody else to care for them. I say it in the past I'll say it again, the biggest curse in American society is a working woman, and it continues to be that because it utterly devastates the family. They are materialists, they are unabashed materialists, they are guided by ambition, greed, motivation for success, prestige and promotion.

If we are to see a change in the world and if we are to touch our society then we're going to have to be distinctively Christian, and I dare say we are somewhat as materialistic as those who are apart of the system around us. We all suffer from the inroads and the temptations and the power of the materialistic age in which we live, we've all fallen prey to it. What is the Christian view of material things? What is the Christian view of money and possessions? Where do we stand and what does the Bible teach? What is my perspective on both the luxuries and the necessities of life? Well the answer to the questions is given no where as aptly as its given right here by our own Lord Jesus Christ. For what you have in chapter 6 verses 19 to 34 is the greatest statement Jesus ever made on the view that we must have toward material things.

Now we've already studied verses 19 to 24 and that is what the Lord says about our view of luxury. Now we're looking at verse 25 to 34 in which He speaks of our view of necessity, so that the Lord touches both that which is beyond what we need and that which is what we need. And He gives us an affirmation of where our commitment is to be.

Now remember that when we looked at verses 19 to 24 we saw the luxuries, what is to be our perspective on luxury, that which is beyond what we need for the basic necessities. Well, the simple statement our Lord makes is in verse 20, "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven." We are to invest in heaven. What does that mean? We are to commit ourselves to placing that which we possess in an eternal investment, we are not to stockpile it in earthly things, verse 19 because moth and rust, and thieves will destroy it. So when it comes to luxury or our abundance we are to invest that in heaven, and we went into that in great detail. And we are to do that for three reasons, reason number one is in verse 21, because that's where our heart should be. If you put all your treasure in the earth that's where your heart's going to be, you're going to be worrying about your bank account instead of the kingdom of God. But if you invest all that you have in God's things and God's ends and God's will and God's purposes and God's projects then that's where your heart's going to be as you watch your investment bringing eternal dividends, and so reason number one that we invest our luxury in an eternal significance is that our heart might be there.

Reason number two is, in verses 22 and 23 it opens up our spiritual sight, and what the Lord says there is that if you invest in the earth you pull the shades down on your spiritual eyes and you become blind to spiritual reality. If you invest in eternal things the shades go up and the light of God floods your heart. The third reason that we are to invest what we have in terms of luxury in an eternally consequential thing is that it determines that we serve God and not money. It makes our service to God undivided. So in dealing with luxury then we invest it in eternity, we don't stockpile it and hoard it here, and the reason we do that is because our heart is there then where it should be, our spiritual sight is clear, and our service is undivided. Now it always makes me rejoice when I see somebody who is so free in their spirit as to be able to do this, such as the person who would give us a house or give us a large amount of money or whatever, and you have done the same thing I'm sure investing with God magnanimously and generously, because you know the eternal has far more consequence than the temporal.

Now from there He moves to the necessities of like, what about the basics? And that's in verses 25 to 34, and I guess if there's anything we're concerned about it's the basics. In fact the reason some people stockpile their luxuries is so that they can hedge against not having the basics in the future, and we worry about the basics, should we? Well the heart of this passage is reiterated in three statements in verse 25 it says, "Therefore, I say unto you, Be not anxious." In verse 31 it says, "Therefore, be not anxious." Verse 34, "Therefore, be not anxious." The thrust then of the passage is built around those three statements, "Be not anxious." The first one in the Greek says, stop being anxious, the next two, don't start being anxious, so they catch you wherever you are if you haven't started don't, if you've already started stop. And the word anxious, merimnos, it means to worry, to fret, to fear, to have anxiety.

In fact uhm, in the Greek manuscript that was found from the first century where there was a list of the names of certain Christians in the early church, they found one name of one individual Christian, his name was Titedeusamerimnos, merimnos means worry put an a in front of it and it means not to worry, and so his name was Titedeus the man who never worries, and that ought to be added to the name of any Christian. Don't worry He says. Well don't worry about what? Well don't worry about, verse 25, "What you shall eat, what you shall drink; or for your body, what you shall put on." The basics, your food, your drink, your clothes, don't worry, three times, stop worrying and don't start it, if you haven't begun yet. You say, well ah, that's easy for you to say, on what basis does He say that? Three reasons, three reasons not to worry, it is unnecessary because of your Father, it is uncharacteristic because of your faith, it is unwise because of your future. So Father, faith, and future are they key, now I want you to see this, it is a masterful presentation.

Last week we looked at point number one and I just want to reiterate it because it is the substance of the other two. First of all, we are not to worry about the basics of life because it is unnecessary since God is our Father. Two weeks ago we did a little ah, establishing of a substantial theology about God being the owner and the controller and the provider of all resources of time and eternity. And if your conceptof God is right and you see that He is the owner, controller, provider then knowing beyond that that not only does He own and control and provide but He is your own Father and a loving Father at that, you have nothing for which to worry. Because if He has all things in His control, and that all things which He controls He controls in the behalf of His children and you are His child that should be the death of worry. Essentially that's what we've covered in the past; anxiety is absolutely foolish because of our Father.

Now look at Matthew chapter 7 for a minute and let me just give you a preview of what we'll be looking at in a few weeks in verse 7 to 11, Matthew 7:7 to 11, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; For every one that asketh receiveth; and he the seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Now those two verses have been applied to a lot of things, and they rightfully can be applied to a lot of things, but the basic issue to which our Lord is speaking there is the issue of physical sustenance, because He illustrates that principle in verses 9 and 10, "What man is there of you whom, if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?"

In other words you know just in human terms that a man is not going to give his son a rock when he asks for a piece of bread, and the man is not going to give his son a snake when he asks for a fish. In other words human fathers give their children what they seek, if what they seek is what they need. Then verse 11, "If ye then, being evil," basically men are evil, we are sinful, but if we who are evil, "know how to give good gifts unto our children, how much more shall your Father, who is in heaven," which means He's not evil but He's absolutely right and just and holy and perfect and good, "give good things to them that ask him?" And the good things again speak first of the necessities of life. I mean you see it as the character of God here, if an evil father, a sinful father and we're all sinful, if we know how to give good things to our children does not an absolutely holy God know how to give good things to His children? So what are we worried about? Whether it's food, verse 26 of Matthew 6, "The fowls of the air; your heavenly Father feeds them. Are ye not much better than they?" I mean He's your heavenly Father and if He takes care of birds, don't you think He'll take care of you? And that's the illustration of food; He'll supply your food.

The next one is the illustration of the future, "Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his life span?" You know there are people who worry and worry and worry about how long they're going to live, they worry about death, they're afraid of death, some people don't want to get on an airplane, some people are afraid of diseases they go from doctor to doctor to doctor, from health spa to health spa to health spa, from bottle to bottle to bottle taking vitamins and pills and they live in constant fear about their life. What good does that do? Your Father cares for that, and all the worry in the world isn't going to add to your life it's going to subtract from it, if anything.

Thirdly, not only an illustration from food and the future but fashion, He says and some of you worry about your clothes, whether you have enough clothes or whether you have the right clothes to fit into the fashions of the day, and I'm telling you when you're all done dressing yourself you can't be dressed as beautifully as a lily so why don't you let God do the dressing, He dresses the lilies. Solomon, the richest man there was couldn't make a robe as fine as the petal of a flower.

In other words God takes care of food and He takes care of life span and He takes care of clothing, He's doing all of that kind of sustaining. By the way, people are always saying, well you know God made us naked and that's the way we ought to be ... Look, God wants to supply clothes, I want you to know that, ever since the fall people got dressed. These nudists you know they go around as if God wanted people to run around like that, He didn't that's why He clothed them in the garden. I read in the Times this week about two ladies that believed that ah, if they had the faith of a grain of mustard seed they could be healed of their diseases so they took off all their clothes and painted themselves with French's yellow mustard and ran around town, claiming God's promise when they got arrested, well they should have got arrested. I mean ah, it wasn't that God didn't provide them clothes He provided them mustard, they just chose mustard over clothes; He gave them the mustard to eat and the clothes to wear. But God does provide the basics of life, that's the promise. And the basis of the promise is that God is our Father, that's the substance of point number one and we went into that in great detail last time. God is a loving Father who supplies for His children.

In Psalm 34 and verse 10 it says, "The young lions do lack and suffer hunger." You look in the animal kingdom and you'll find there are times when lion cubs hunger, the mother is unavailable, the mother doesn't provide the food or it's not there, and yet he says, "They who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing." I mean animals, they may lack, God's people, they will not. God supports His own, that is a repeated biblical truth and you can find it as well as I all over the pages of Holy Writ, God sustains His people. "My God shall supply all your (what?) needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus." There's nothing to worry about, why would you worry about your life, and how long you're going to live? Or maybe if you're a mother or a father you worry about that on behalf of your children, why would you worry about that? When all of your worry can not add one day to their life. Why would you be in great distress of whether you're going to have enough food, when God who gave you life will give you the lesser gift that sustains that life? Why would you worry about having something to wear when the Lord has designed clothing for human beings and you're His children and He'll give you clothing. Peter was a worrier, oh he worried about things all the time, he worried about drowning when he was walking on the water, even though the Lord was right there. He worried about the things that were going to happen to Jesus in the garden, pulled a sword and tried to fight the Romans. He worried about Jesus being crucified and told Him not to do that. He was a real worrier, he was anxious a lot but finally got the message and wrote in First Peter 5:7 a great truth, he said, "Casting all your care on him; for (what?) he cares for you." It took him awhile to learn it, but he learned it. And so our Lord says first of all, don't worry it is unnecessary because of your Father. And if you do, He closes verse 30 with this statement, "O ye of little faith?" If you worry what kind of faith do you manifest? Little faith, puny faith, inadequate, infinitesimal, small faith. The sum of an attitude that worries about food and clothes and life span is that you have little faith in God.

Now that phrase, "O ye of little faith," is used four other times in the Gospels and most fascinating the way it's used. It is used for example in Luke 12:28 when people worry about clothing, it is used in Matthew 8:26 when the disciples worried about drowning, they worried about the length of their life, they were afraid of death, afraid of drowning, the Lord was going to let them drown. They said to Him, how can You sleep when the storm is going to drown us? In Matthew 14 again it was Peter worrying about drowning, fear of losing his life. And then it is used in Matthew 16:8 when they were worried about their food. Every time that phrase is used, "O ye of little faith," it is used about somebody who worried about food, clothes or their life span. The verysame three things Jesus speaks of in this first point, so fitting that this phrase should sum up that point. And every time it was the disciples, five times that that thing was used He was speaking to the disciples, you who should know better, I wouldn't expect that of people in the world, but you, who have had saving faith, oohhh! You of little faith. You believe that God can redeem you, that God can save you from sin, break the shackles of Satan, take you from hell to heaven, put you into His kingdom, give you eternal life, but you just don't think He can get you something to wear and eat in the next couple of days. Pretty ridiculous.

You see we can believe God for the bigger gift and then we stumble, bumble around and can't believe Him for the lesser one. We believe God's going to put us in heaven when we die, but we don't believe God's going to provide us a meal or take care of the length of our life, how foolish, how foolish. You see in each of these cases wherethe phrase is used He is speaking to His disciples which indicates to me that this is a passage geared for believers, He would never say to unbelievers, 0 you of little faith, Held say 0 you of what? No faith. We have the faith, we just don't use it, we don't apply it.

And listen, somebody might say, well worry is just you know it's a small trivial sin. No it's not, no it's not a trivial sin, I think probably a hundred per cent of all mental illness is directly related to worry, and most of physical illness, worry is devastating, but more than that it isn't what worry does to you, it is what worry in effect does to God because when you worry you are saying, God I know You keep saying that but I just don't think I can trust You, and worry then strikes a blow at the Word and the person of God, you see.

To me worry is a monumental sin. You see worry disbelieves Scripture. And you can go around all your life and say, I believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, I believe in the absolute authority of the Scripture, I believe in verbal plenary inspiration of every Word, and then just live your life worrying and you are saying one thing out of one side of your mouth and something else out of the other. Because why would you go around saying how much you believe the Bible and then worry whether God's going to fulfill what He says in it?

You see worry means that you are mastered by your circumstances and not the truth of God. Worry misunderstands your position as a child of God, worry is a devastating sin, worry is a killing, debilitating, self‑indulgent, possessive, anxiety, that says God can't care for me and I've got to do this thing myself. That's sin, that makes God a liar, it ignores His love, it ignores His power. I don't understand how people can make the, the vicissitudes and the trials and the circumstances of life a bigger issue than their salvation, they can believe God to save them from eternal hell they just can't believe He can help them in this world, it doesn't make sense. I mean you ought to go back and read Ephesians chapter 1 again and reiterate what God has given to you. Paul says, I'm praying that, "The eyes of your understanding would be enlightened;" that you'd get your eyes open and "you'd knowwhat is the hope of his calling, and the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And that you'd know what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe." You better go back to the Scripture and get your eyes opened again.

Basically then if you worry it's because you're not trusting your heavenly Father,, and if you don't trust your heavenly Father it's got to be because number one, you don't know Him well enough. Because if you knew Him you'd trust Him, true? You better get in the Word of God and find out who He really is, and how in the past He has supplied the needs of His people. And that'll be confidence for the future, and I would add this that even those of us who know God and we study the Word and we're filled with that knowledge of God we can worry too now and then, but you know when it happens? When you haven't been fresh in the Word everyday, everyday, everyday so that God is in your mind, and then Satan moves into that vacuum where you haven't been thinking about God and starts making you worry about something. That's a sin, "O ye of little faith." God is worthy of a greater faith than you give Him.

Now let's go to the second. The second reason that worry is a sin, is because it is uncharacteristic due to our faith. It is unnecessary because of our Father; it is uncharacteristic because of our faith. Verse 31, He comes right back to the principle again, here's the second statement of this, stop being anxious, in this case don't start being anxious. "What shall we eat? What shall we drink? With what shall we be clothed?" Same three things. Listen, here's another statement of the same principle as in verse 25, don't worry about necessities, why? Verse 32, "For all these things do the Gentiles (or the pagans) seek."

Now what's He saying? He's saying it's uncharacteristic of our faith to act like ungodly people. This is for the, the worldlings, this is for the 25 year old business hot shots, not the Christians. Worry for us is needless because of God's bounty, it is senseless because of God's promise, it is useless because of our impotence to do anything anyway, and it is faithless because it is in effect putting us right in the category of an unbeliever. The pagans, people without God, and the word Gentile, pagan, heathen all the same word, it means people without God, without Christ. These people worry about that, well why not? That's all they have going for them, they live for this world, they live to grasp and grab and possess, 'and so they've got to get it on their own they don't have any God to supply for them, they don't have any God to promise them anything, they don't have any divine resource to come to their aid, and so what happens is they have to grasp and they have to do it all on their own because they are on their own. They are ignorant of God's supply and have no claim on it anyway.

So anxiously and worriedly they set their minds on all these things. But for a Christian it is senseless, and by the way it is also excuseless, it's not a trivial sin it's a serious one. Just to show you how the heathen have no outside source for this, even when heathen people invent a god, and even when they make a deity, inevitably their deities are not deities that they look to in a trusting way. Whenever the nations of the world build their own gods they are typically the gods of Satan, they are the demons who are behind those gods, and they are gods of broken promises, they are gods of lack of compassion, they are gods of fear, they are gods of dread, they are gods that have to be appeased, they are gods that everybody is afraid of, not that everybody counts on. They are not gods who supply, the people still have to do it all on their own and they just have to keep shoving this god back by making sacrifices or whatever their religion calls for. And since they have vague ideas about the future life anyway, life becomes consumed in the obsession to get and to gain comforts and wealth and security and prestige and all this, and their gods don't help them a bit. The phrase by the way, For all these things, "after all these things do the Gentiles seek." The word seek there is the idea of an emphatic seeking, they seek it with all their might, totally consumed in material gratification, eat, drink, be merry tomorrow we die, it's over. Grab all the gusto you can get, do it now man, this is all there is.

Now imagine a child of God, a Christian approaching life this way, it's ludicrous. The worldlings, says Luke, seek these things. It's unworthy for us, our faith, the Christian faith says God will supply all my needs, and God can be trusted. And if I worry about my food or I worry about my physical welfare or I worry about my clothing is to have a worldly mind. Paul says, "Be anxious for (what?) nothing. But everything by prayer and supplication let your request be made known unto God." Those who do not trust in God's goodness and God's promise miss the whole point of being a Christian. They're just‑so many people are just empty in their profession, you know they say, oh we love Christ and we serve God, but they don't believe God for anything, they worry about everything. They are in the world and they are like the world. But Jesus said, Father I know they're going to be in the world but keep them from the evil one in it, keep them separated.

In Romans 12:2 Paul said, "Be not conformed to this world." You see what Jesus is saying ‑is this, sons of the King do not conduct themselves like the devil's beggars. Ask yourself the question, it's a practical issue; do I face life like a Christian or a pagan? Do I? When things are difficult or the future is insecure, how do I react? Because you'll tell yourself a lot about whether you trust God or not. I guess you could sum the question up this way; does my Christian faith affect my view of life? Do I always place everything in the context of my faith, every trial, every anticipation, every reality? And then He goes back to reason number one at the end of verse 32, "For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things." Do you know the difference basically between the gods of the heathen and our God? The gods of the heathen are dumb, ignorant, nonexistent, they don't know anything, they couldn't help their people anyway cause they don't exist, they're ignorant. But our God what? Knows. And if you believe that our God loves and cares that's the first section, and now you seethat our God knows. What else is there? If God knows what I need and if God knows my life and God knows my needs then all I need to know is that He cares, and if He knows and cares, then I'm home free. That's the essence of what Jesus is saying. For your heavenly Father in contrast to the pagans, He knows that you have need. He not only has the knowledge He has the resources and then He has the love to provide. So, what should you worry about? Nothing, it is unnecessary because of your Father, it is uncharacteristic because of your faith.

Let's go to the third reason, and we'll skip a verse and go to verse 34. The third reason not to worry it is unwise because of your future; it is unwise because of your future. This is a powerful point. And again the same phrase introduces this third point, verse 34, "Be, therefore, not anxious about tomorrow; for tomorrow will be anxious for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is its own evil." Now what the Lord is saying is look, don't worry about the future, the future going to have its own trouble just wait till you get to it. It's unwise because of your future. Don't worry about tomorrow. Now providing for tomorrow is good, worrying about tomorrow is sin. Because God is the God of tomorrow just like He's the God of today, right? And do you remember what it says in Lamentations 3? "His mercies are new every (what?) morning." He feeds you like He fed the children of Israel, just the manna you need for the day you need it.

Worry is a tremendous force I'm telling you it is a tremendous force. Worry will do this; worry will endeavor to defeat us. And if it‑it first will begin with today, worry will endeavor to destroy you today, it'll try to get you to see things today to get you upset and to get you anxious, but if it loses out today it'll just keep shoving you into the future until it finds something that gets you. That's the way worry functions. I'm afraid there are some people so committed to the sin of worry that when they have nothing in the present to worry about they just keep marching down the future till they find something.

Listen, the Lord says, you've got enough to deal with today, you take the resourcesof today, for the needs of today or you will lose the joy of today. You want to know something? Lack of joy is a sin too, and more people lose their joy because of tomorrow and they miss the victory God gave them today, and that's not fair to Him. God gives you a glorious and blissful day today, live in the light of that day and fullness of joy of that day and take all the resources God supplies for that day and use them, don't push yourself into the future and forfeit the joy of today over some tomorrow that may never happen, because if you ever learn anything about this learn this one little statement, fear is a liar, fear is a liar, it mostly never tells the truth. But it'll cause you to lose the joy of today. The Lord forbids this. Tomorrow, Jesus says is going to be anxious about itself, let tomorrow be for tomorrow,each day has enough trouble foritself. And by the way God only gives strength for one day at a time. God hasn't given me the grace for tomorrow yet, I don't get that till tomorrow, right? I mean sometimes you talk to a person who worries a lot and they worry about dying or something and they get all concerned about it and then somebody in their family dies and God gives a wonderful grace and a wonderful peace and a wonderful sustaining and they can't understand it, they'll say to me, John, you know it's so wonderful how God has sustained me and supported me, sure there's a normal sorrow but I feel strength and then confident and there's even a gladness in my heart that this one I love is with the Lord and I feel His strength. And that's exactly right because God gives us grace for the hour that we need that grace, but if you want to sit now and worry about that you're going to double your pain without any grace to deal with it. Better you should singly endure it with the grace to sustain it, do you see? I refuse to worry about tomorrow or the next day or the future because I don't have any resource for that.

First of all fear is a liar so I don't know the reality of what it'll be, and secondly I don't want to double my trouble without any resource to give me grace at that moment. So I shoulder the burden of today and as I see God lift the burden and carry it away from me I can enjoy today and let tomorrow bring its own trouble, so I don't cripple myself by worrying about a future that I can't live in. When the Bible says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and (what?) forever." What it means is He'll be doing the same thing tomorrow that He was doing yesterday. So if you have any question about the future look at the past, did He sustain you then? He'll sustain you in the future, with Him there is no past, present or future. So worry is a forbidden sin. It is incompatible with a Christians Father, it is incompatible with a Christian's faith, it is incompatible with a Christian's future.

John Stott has said, "To become preoccupied with material things in such a way that they engross our attention, absorb our energy and burden us with anxiety is incompatible with both Christian faith and common sense. It is distrustful of our heavenly Father and it is frankly stupid." I like that. He says, "This is what pagans do, but it is an utterly unsuitable and unworthy ambition for Christians." End quote.

Listen, we're not spiritual orphans, God didn't leave us in a phone booth, He didn't dump us in a storefront. He loves us and He cares for us, and He has all the resources of eternity ‑at His hand in our disposal. Worry is sin. Alistair Maclean tells a story of Tauler the German, who one day met a very poor man. He said to the poor man, "God give you a good day, my friend." The poor man answered, "I thank God that I never had a bad one." Tauler said, "Well God give you a happy life, my friend." "I thank God, said the poor man, "I'm never unhappy." In amazement Tauler said, "Well what do you mean?" "Well," said the poor man, "when it's fine, I thank God; when it rains, I thank God; when I have plenty, I thank God; and when I'm hungry I thank God; and since God's will is my will, and whatever pleases him pleases me, why should I say I'm unhappy when I'm not?" Tauler looked at the man in astonishment and said, "Who are you?" He said, "I'm a king." "Well where's your kingdom?" The poor man replied, "In my heart." I like that. One old lady said, I'm always happy and my secret is this, always sail the seas, but always keep your heart in the port. Isaiah put it this way, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusts in thee." That's where perfect peace comes from, and by the way that's the opposite of worry.

Now, how do you find this port? Well, put your trust in Him, stay your mind on Him, and that's verse 33, let's back up, this is the positive command in the midst of the negatives. Verse 33 here's how you keep your heart in port, here's the opposite, He says, don't worry, don't worry, don't worry, you got three don'ts here's a do, to cancel the don'ts. "But do seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." In other words you get your thoughts on the divine level and God will take care of the physical. You see God doesn't want us involved in the physical He wants to free us from that so He says, I'll take care of that you get on about the business of the kingdom. Let's take it a word at a time or a phrase at a time, "But," in contrast, de in the Greek and according to the lexicon Arndt and Gingrich in specific it says that the primary use of de is to emphasize a contrast, and I would suggest that the best way to translate it is rather, rather than worrying, rather than being like the pagans, rather than being "O ye of little faith," rather than sticking the future into the present and muddling the water, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God," not those things. Rather than seek what the Gentiles seek, rather than being materialistically oriented, rather than being consumed with the possessions of this age, seek the kingdom.

Now what about the phrase, "Seek ye first,"? Protos, the word protos which means first, means first in a line of more than one options, of all the things you can choose from in life to be occupied on, of all the priorities of life this is number one, of all the things you have to be concerned about and there are many things in life that we have to take some care about, but of all these things number one thing is the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We have a long list of things, that's number one.

Now what does it mean to seek the kingdom? Well the kingdom is simply basileia, Christ's rule, the rule of God, the reign of God, the dominion of God, the kingdom of God, that we should seek that which is eternal beloved, that's what He's saying and I don't need to go into that again we studied it in chapter 6 verse 10 where it says, "Thy kingdom come," in our prayers. We are to be lost in the kingdom of God. The Apostle Paul on his way to Jerusalem, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, prepared to defend his faith at the point of a sword, and then comes Satan, don't go Paul, do go because when you get there you'regoing to get in a lot of trouble, they're going to put you in prison, they might take your life Paul. And Paul says, look, "None of these things move me, (Acts 20) for I do not count my life dear unto myself." I'm not inter­ested in adding a cubit to my life span, and I'm not concerned that I get enough to eat and enough to wear. "I have one thought and that is to finish the ministry committed to me by Jesus Christ."

Now that is seeking the kingdom. That's what will make somebody go to a mission field in obscurity, and say good‑bye to all the fashions and fancy foods of the world to eat in very simplistic terms and to dress the same way, and isolate their whole life to that situation because they are not nearly so concerned about those things as they are the advance of the kingdom. That's what makes somebody preach Christ to the point where they don't even fear for their own life, because the kingdom is far beyond any other concern.

Now where's your heart, again, where's your preoccupation? Are you more concerned with the kingdom or are you more concerned with this world? Are you pouring all of your energies into the globe or are you investing yourself in God's eternal kingdom? You see seeking the kingdom means you seek to bring people, to Christ because you seek the kingdom growing, you seek the Gospel of the kingdom to be preached, you seek that people should become redeemed. We do not spread the Gospel because of some kind of a sinful imperialism, or as John Stott calls it because of some kind of a triumphalism. We do not seek to advance the kingdom for any selfish goals, we seek to advance the kingdom in the preaching of Christ because a glorified God is the issue, and that's true.

So we preach Christ and that extends the kingdom. And I believe as we shared earlier in our study of the Disciples Prayer, seeking the kingdom means that I seek Christ's rule to be manifest in my life, I seek the kingdom of God to be revealed in my life as righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit manifests His kingdom slays Romans 14:17. So in my life when the world sees righteousness, when it sees peace, when it sees joy instead of worry it knows the kingdom of God is there, see. You could say, well I want people to be saved and I want to tell them all about Jesus and run around worrying and fretting and anxiety and concern and care and all of that stuff all the time and nobody's going to believe you've got anything they want, and they're certainly going to question the power of God. The kingdom of God is manifest in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and that overcomes the worry.So we, we seek the kingdom when we seek to bring people into the kingdom, we seek the kingdom when we let it be manifest through us. I think we seek the kingdom too when we long for Jesus to return in His millennial glory. I'll tell you something I can't get too hot about piling up stuff in this world cause I'm going to get it all for nothing when the kingdom comes anyway, right? I mean why should I buy it now? I'll get it free then.

The Bible says I'll be a joint heir with Christ, we'll reign with Him forever and ever, we'll have a new heaven and a new earth throughout all eternity, we'll have all of the majesty and the riches of eternal heaven. What am I going to do with wasting all my time stockpiling this stuff down here, by the way the whole earth is going to be destroyed anyway, and the Lord is going to make a whole new one. So if you want to invest in this old one that's going to burn up that's your problem. I'd rather wait for the new one, and get it for nothing. And so the kingdom is to seek that which is yet in the future, the granting of that eternal glory that comes from Christ when He gives His saints His own kingdom. It is to see the kingdom manifest in my life through righteousness, peace, and joy, and it is to desire to win people to Jesus that the kingdom might grow and expand.

Secondly He says we seek not only the kingdom, but His righteousness, holiness. If you have to chase something beloved don't chase money chase holiness, pursue it. We could share some verses but our time is gone. What He's talking about here is practical righteousness, He is saying that when you pursue, pursue godliness, when you pursue, pursue holiness, when you pursue, pursue righteousness. Some of us spend all our time after money, cars, houses, clothes.How far afield we are from what we should be after. You say, well if I just get involved in the kingdom, and I just go chasing holiness then what? Oh, the end of verse 33, "All these things shall be added unto you." "You walk uprightly (says Psalm 84) and you'll never have any need." God will supply every bit of it. God will take care of those who seek His kingdom and seek His righteousness.

I close with this. I suppose Solomon provides for us an excellent illustration, Solomon didn't pray for riches, do you know that? Didn't pray for fancy clothes, he didn't pray for fancy food and he didn't pray for a long life. Solomon prayed for what? Wisdom, and when he got wisdom he got all the rest. Nobody was ever dressed like Solomon, fabulous wardrobe, nobody was ever as wealthy as Solomon, nobody ever could put on feasts that could match him, just feeding his wives and concubines would have been a monumental event, and they had to eat three times a day. I mean the man was incredible, he sought wisdom and in the getting of wisdom all the rest was residual.

Martyn Lloyd‑Jones says, quote, "It is not an accident that the Puritans of the 17th century became wealthy people. It was not because they hoarded wealth, it was not because they worshiped money, it was just that they were living for God and His righteousness and the result was that they didn't throw away their money on worthless things, in a sense therefore they could not help becoming wealthy. They held onto the promises of God and incidentally became rich." End quote. And part of the structure of their obedience to God was to work hard, and to save and not to be self‑indulgent. And I believe if you follow those kind of standards God will honor that.

Listen; if you worry it's a sin, because it is unnecessary due to your Father. It is uncharacteristic of your faith; it is unwise because of your future. Don't worry, trust and He'll bring it to pass. Let's pray.

We thank You for the promise of Psalm 37 that if we commit our way unto You and trust in You, You'll bring it to pass. Father that's our desire. We know the enemy trips us up and our own flesh is weak, but we pray Lord that we might not worry, that we might not cast dispersion on Your name, but that we might take the fullness of every moment in the grace that You supply for that moment, and that we might live in that moment, and that we might let the future take care of itself. Not to say we don't provide for the future we just don't worry about it. And help us Lord to make our investments in eternity, cut the cords that bind us to the earth, let us fly to Thee, to Thy holy habitation, into Thy courts and there invest our lives in Thy presence knowing full well that all our needs will thereby be met through Your promise and thankfulness we pray. Amen.