I must confess this morning that I have changed what I was going to preach. It was a couple of weeks ago that I was praying through what I needed to preach after finishing Philippians and I felt that I was supposed to preach through the passage above. However, as I was sitting in my office on Friday, I thought to myself, “Hey, this is dealing with anxiety and I’ve just preached about that topic for two weeks in a row, so maybe I should do something else.”
So I decided to preach from John 13. It fit the Easter occasion. It would be a perfect lead in to the drama that is going to take place next Sunday morning. It seemed great. So I called Kim, told her about the changes. I studied and did a great deal of research on the passage, and was ready to go.
However, that afternoon I begin to feel that regardless of what I thought and reasoned, I needed to preach from the passage that I had originally planned. But I fought it. After doing all that research and study, who would want to change? Not me.
Then later Friday night I met with someone in the church to talk and sure enough he mentioned that God had spoke to him through this passage. I felt then that probably I should forget all my study and go to Luke 12, but I still fought it.
Later that night, Lili and I were getting ready to go to bed and Lili fell asleep in my lap. Those are always awkward occasions when you don’t want to wake up your wife and you don’t have a book within reach. And such was the case. So instead I reached for the remote and decided to watch a little television preaching. It is definitely not my favorite thing in the world to do, but I didn’t have many choices. Anyway, as I sat and listened to the man preach, I soon realized that his text was the very one that I had fought against.
Finally, just yesterday I was in conversation with someone else from the church when he mentioned Matthew’s parallel of this text in Matthew 6:25-34. Therefore, I finally said, “Okay, God, I’ll do it.” So that is how I find myself this morning.
I tell you all that for no other reason except to bring more assurance and comfort to anyone who really need to hear what is said this morning and really feel loved by God for speaking to you. I want you to know how much you really should feel loved. Also, feel that this is a timely message for us as a church for it will remind us of what God revealed to us about a year ago concerning what should be our vision, that is, God using us as a channel for “Distributing Grace to the Multitudes.”
Therefore, in my limited study time I have not been able to find any fanciful quotes or think of any incredible illustrations (as if I ever have in my days of study in the past). But I bring to you the simple message of the text that I have realized over the past couple of days.
But before I get to the few points I want to reiterate from this passage this morning, let me remind you of the vision that God gave us a year ago. A year ago this month, God led us as a church to the understanding that he wanted to use us as a channel through which he would send people and provisions to distribute his grace all over the world. Therefore, as many of you have come and joined and shared your calling to missions and ministry, we feel that God is affirming in us what he has called us to do. And my dream is that one day we might be able to say that we are supporting a great number of missionaries all over the world who God has channeled through us. I long for that. I pray for that. I lie awake at night begging for God to do this. I find myself on my knees in the morning crying out for God to do that. And I believe that he will.
However, as dreamy as all that sounds, we are going to have to be people who walk after our Lord if we are going to see it, because it is not going to be easy. And the things that God will have us do are going to be scrutinized because they will encompass great cost. But anyone who wishes to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Therefore, I want to remind us of a few things from this text that I believe God showed us about a year ago, because I believe we are prone to slip away from these things in our hearts and resort to not living them out in our lives.
We should apply these to us as a church and to our individual lives as well.
If God commands something and we disobey, it is sin. There’s nothing new about that. So don’t make this topic an exception. Going back to last week, don’t let anxious fretting be the tree that you let stand in the middle of your living room.
If you do anxiously fret over your needs being met, then you are sinning, and you need to repent. It is despising the Lord to do that. Why? It is sin because he has commanded us not to do that.
Jesus says in verses 22-23, “For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.”
And with these things, Jesus wasn’t saying, “Don’t be anxious and fretting about whether to put tile or vinyl in your bathroom.” He was talking about things that you need: food, water, clothes. Without these things you would die. So he wasn’t telling us not to worry over meaningless things. He is telling us not to worry over meaningful things.
But why shouldn’t we worry? For one, what does worrying do that is good? That is what Jesus is saying in verse 25 as he says, “And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life’s span?” For another, we shouldn’t worry because God knows what you need.
He is not unaware. He is not leading your life and all of the sudden going to stop and say, “Oh, my fault, I didn’t realize that you needed food.” It’s not going to happen.
So don’t spend time being anxious about how all your needs are going to be taken care of. God fed the Israelites in the wilderness, divided the Red Sea, conquered the land of Canaan, fed five thousand people, and secured our salvation in the death of his Son. God is going to take care of our needs.
So then what do we need to be doing as individuals and as a church?
We need to be about his mission to spread his supremacy and rule over all of the earth. That is what Jesus tells us in verses 29-31 as he says, “And do not seek what you shall eat, and what you shall drink, and do not keep worrying. For these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things. But seek for His kingdom, and these things shall be added to you.”
We’re supposed to be about advancing his kingdom. As a church, our job is not to seek out how we’re going to pay the utility bill next year, or our staff’s salaries, or pay our lease, or support dozens of missionaries all over the world. Our job is simply to see how God wants us to be involved in advancing his kingdom. And I believe that he has shown us. For he has burdened us to be a channel for the multitudes.
You might say, “But how do we know that he really wants to advance the kingdom the way that he has shown us?” There are a number of reasons, one of them being the fact that Jesus follows up the command in verse 31 saying in verse 32, “Do not be afraid little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.”
It was determined before the foundation of the world that the church would receive the kingdom. We will get to be in the midst of the rule and reign of God for all eternity. And it has already been determined that individuals from every tongue, tribe, and nation will be of that group that makes up his kingdom. And it has already been promised that “the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His” (2 Chronicles 16:9). And it has already been promised that “God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed” (2 Corinthians 9:8).
Therefore, we are commanded to seek his kingdom knowing that God will take care of all our needs and bless us that we might see the very thing that we are seeking.
We, as the church of Christ, must be a people who do not seek how we might provide for our needs but obey Christ’s command that we seek to advance his kingdom. And God has shown us how we wants to use us to do this by allowing us to serve as a channel.
To try to show us that we can trust him, Jesus uses the most basic logic. He teaches us in a way that our young children could understand. First of all, he tells us to consider the birds. “They neither sow nor reap; and they have no storeroom not barn; and yet God feeds them” (v. 24).
Now this is interesting because what he points out about these birds is that they are not capable of providing for themselves. They don’t sow seeds and reap a harvest. They don’t store crops in their barns. So how do they have food? They have food because God provides it for them.
But what do we want to do? We want to miss his entire point and say, “Well, look how busy birds are walking along the ground. We need to model them in being busy about all those things and making sure that we are seeking out all those needful things.” No. Just in case we miss it, Jesus gives another example in verse 27. He says, “Consider the lilies…they neither toil nor spin; but … even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like on of these. But if God so arrays the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you?” Lilies do nothing and yet God still clothes them. And we are infinitely more important than them.
Now, I am not saying that we shouldn’t work and provide for our families. In fact, we should do these things. But what I am saying is that we should not let these concerns for our needs ever stand in the way of simply listening to God’s voice and being obedient.
But that takes faith. That’s why Jesus ends verse 28 saying, “O men of little faith!” All obedience requires faith. That’s what Hebrews 11 is supposed to teach us. We cannot please God without faith because we cannot be obedient to God without faith. Obedience requires faith.
So what are we (as a church) going to do when God finally supplies a few dozen missionaries that we have prayed for that we might support them and advance his kingdom throughout the whole earth? We act in faith. Are we supposed to look and figure out how it is going to work when God is clearly telling us to do it? No. We just listen and obey in faith.
When Jesus told the disciples to start handing out the bread and fish, were they supposed to stop and say, “Jesus, this is pointless; we’re going to run out after the first twenty people”? No. They were supposed to obey and let him work out the problems. Were Peter, James, and John supposed to point out to Jesus that it makes no difference if they cast the net on the other side of the boat? No. They were just supposed to obey and catch a multitude of fish. Were the disciples to understand how Jesus was going to establish his kingdom so they could defend his kingship here on earth? No. They were just supposed to listen to him and watch how he would go to the cross and conquer sin and death.
We are to do the same thing.
In seeking his kingdom, we may not be able to have the greatest things here on earth, but we will have treasure that human eyes cannot see.
For having the nicest church building in town is not going to sustain me when I just want to throw all my books out of my office and quit, but knowing that we are playing a part in God advancing his kingdom and filling the earth with his glory will.
I think that’s why Jesus adds to the end of this teaching, “Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (v. 33-34).
We need to be people whose treasure is in heaven. We need to be people whose hearts are there.
Therefore, when we have opportunity in the future to see our vision fulfilled and God brings along individuals who we may send out and support, let’s not think, “How are we going to do this?” and fret over providing for our needs. I know that is how many others act and tell us we are supposed to act, but Jesus combats that thought by reminding us that we are different from other people in verse 30. So instead, let’s act in faith, trusting that if we are seeking to advance his kingdom that he will meet our needs. And let’s act, knowing that our walking by faith is demonstrating to the whole world around us that our heart is not here, but is where we are seeking our treasure – in heaven.
His grace most definitely will be with us. May we be his faithful people. Amen.