Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

You've Heard It Said Pt.15

Things [are] going on--reports from Africa. We're excited as the missions team had their first practice the other night, and I understand things went real well, praise God.

[It's] an experienced team, and as [Pastor] Jeff was saying, one of the things that we want to encourage you in, those of you who are going and you've been a few times, don't trust in yourselves. Don't trust in your experience, in your knowledge. The more you realize you don't know what you're doing, the better shape you're in. Amen? Just walking in faith, praise God, and going out and believing God is the source of everything that we have need of. So it's an exciting time. Be prayerful. Looking forward to that.

[Pastor] Rob called today, and you know, we were talking the other day about praying over your food and [you] don't have to wait and take time to pray for the missionaries, but we've been praying for the missionaries. We were praying, "Lord, just send Robbie home," and God has answered our prayer, praise God. So very shortly, we'll let you know when that is, but very shortly now Rob is going to be heading on back. He called today and was talking to Pastor Ben, and they're excited. Their pastor is coming home, praise God. So it's an exciting time for them. You know, when Dad's away and has been gone--what's it been? Almost three months that Rob has been here now, and so they're missing him.

It's been good to have him home, hasn't it? You know, there was a time we didn't think we would be able to see him coming back home. Father graciously allowed him to come home and get some fellowship. [There are] still so many things that are up in the air as it pertains to the situation they've been involved in, but God is ordering the steps, and we're believing the Lord to be glorified in how this thing ends. Nobody knows for sure at this juncture, but one thing we do know. Regardless of what anybody else is doing, Rob is going home. Praise God. So the rest of you can just knock yourselves out, whatever it is you want to do. I'm getting back about Father's business. Amen? So that's what it's all about.

Let's turn to Matthew 6. You know, beloved, that's how we're living today. You can get hung up in all the cares of the world and whatever it is. This happens to be a legal situation. You can get caught up in financial situations, real estate, business. We need to be about Father's business. That's what we're here for. The whole duty of man is what? " . . . Fear God, and keep his commandments" (Ecclesiastes 12:13), and everything else has to fit into that. That's our first priority in life; that's our agenda, and everything else is just a subtitle, so we need to realize that. That's really what this teaching is about tonight. Chapter 6--we want to pick up where we left off, and Jesus in His teaching, of course, He's encouraging our hearts for the establishing of this new kingdom. We call it the church, and the kingdom of God is inclusive, of course, of the church. It's not exclusively the church, but it's inclusive, this kingdom that He's establishing.

The prophet said of this kingdom, there will be no end, and so we realize, then, that this is a kingdom that started in the heart and the council of God. It expressed itself throughout the Decalogue, Moses' time, the law, the judges, the prophets, the church, but it's an eternal kingdom, and we're seeing it established on the earth and as we're praying "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven," we're believing for that full counsel of God to manifest in our liveliness, in ourselves as the living stones that God is using to build this tabernacle, His habitation, where His glory abides. It's in us. It's not a building made with hands. God's glory is residing in us--Amen?--individually and corporately. So this kingdom is being built, and we need to be jealous for it. And when Satan and circumstances try to pull us apart and occupy our thinking and our energies and our time, we need to be jealous for this house of God that's being built, the church, the dwelling place of God.

So as Jesus is speaking here and He's contrasting the pagans and their care for the temporal things, He says, "Let Me encourage you with this thought: where your treasure is, that's where your heart is also." So we'll know the condition of our heart, we'll know what our treasures are, by--we shared last session--what we spend our mental energies on. What do you spend your thoughts on? What do you spend, what occupies, not only the time but, as we ended in our last session, the intensity--that thing [that] actually causes you to become excited? We can discuss business, we can discuss school, but there's something that lights your fire. There's something that turns you on. Is it the kingdom of God? Is it being about Father's business? Listen to what Jesus said. "I have meat to eat that you don't know of. I've got a treasure. I've got this thing that sustains Me, that gives Me energy, that you don't know anything about. It's to [say it] do the will of My Father. Just to be about Father's business. It creates in Me a supernatural joy, a supernatural strength, just to be about Father's business."

So when Jesus was speaking here in this aspect of our teaching, He said, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth . . . " (Matthew 6:19). It's interesting in the Greek. It's really kind of a play on words in the Greek. It says don't treasure your treasures. That's literally what the Greek says: treasure not your treasures. Or say it another way: treasure not earthly treasures. Put the right value on them. Now that speaks two things to me. We can't just blow off and think these things aren't important, these things aren't valuable. We have things that are temporal that are treasures, aren't they? They're valuable. They're valuable; they mean something in our daily existence. How many of you know money is important? Anybody here come to realize that money is important? The Scripture says money--What?--answers all matters (Ecclesiastes 10:19). You see, you guys responded quickly to that one--and loudly--like conviction. "Money answereth all matters." Money is the bottom line. Money, not love, makes the world go round--the love of money. And, you know, it really is. If you stop and look, everything--it's tied into money. The corruption, all that we know to be the economy, it's all about money. The Bible says a lot about money. In the New Testament--I think I heard somebody say--and I hope I'm not misspeaking; I'm just going from memory here. It's getting to that place where I can remember things from forty years ago easier than I can like forty minutes ago, but I think somewhere I read that one out of every ten verses that Jesus spoke is about money. That's pretty interesting isn't it? So we're going to be talking about mammon tonight.

You can't serve God and money, wealth, natural provision, daily sustenance. You can't get caught up in what the world is living for, worried about, or you're not part of this kingdom; it is not your treasure. You can say it is, you can have the right theology, but Jesus in His parable said the thorny ground, or the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches--in other words, not having enough or having too much. You remember the wise man. He said, "Lord, don't make me poor that I steal or so rich that I forget You" (Proverbs 30:8-9). How many of you would like to be just filthy rich? There's a temptation in that to cause you to forget God. How many of you would say, "Well, I don't want to be filthy rich. I just want to be semi-rich, just a little rich"? There's a temptation that comes along with that to forget God, to trust in your own riches. The Scripture speaks much toward this spirit of mammon. Have you been dealing with that lately? Have you been distracted by the opportunities to make a little more, proper investments? Springtime is coming. The real estate market is starting to move again a little bit. Man, we had a house sell on our street. Haven't seen that for a while.

What are you thinking about? What's occupying your time and your energy? "Where is your treasure, really?" Jesus says. So verse 19, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth . . . " Don't treasure the temporal; put the proper value on it. It's part our life; it is our necessary food, but God is the source! Amen? And He's going to show us here in just a moment that the pagans that don't have a father worry about these things. They're anxious about them. Not taking natural thought and making wise decisions and provision, but your life starts being governed by them. You start making decisions based upon fear and pressure instead of obedience and the glory of God.

So He says for us here--look. Begin to identify where you are. Verse 21, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." And then He gets into the light of the eye, and He says "if your eye be single, your body is full of light, but if your eye be evil"--and that word "evil" is interesting. It just means vision that is not clear. It's speaking of being double-minded, and the double-minded man is--say it--unstable in all of his ways (James 1:8). You trust God for five minutes, then you're trusting the world. Now you're afraid, and you go running over here to see what the latest gimmick is or how I might do this, and then we're going to go back and ask God to help us out. You're unstable in all of your ways--"and don't let that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord" (James 1:7).

You've got to step back and go, "I'm going to trust God. He's my only source." Now, remember why we said we're doing this teaching. We're living right now in a time of abundance, but remember what's going to give Antichrist the power to rule this world. Antichrist is going to come into power--we're going to do some teaching on eschatology, I think, shortly--but Antichrist is going to come into power through the apostate religious system, or the whore. So the first thing we start looking for is the coming together of religions, or a message of tolerance--Sound familiar?--and the nonacceptance of intolerance. And this whore, the great harlot, the apostate religious system, is going to get into bed with the government. It's going to be accepted of the government, of national rulers. There's going to be an accepted religion and a religion that's not accepted. Guess which one we are? And it's going to actually be the religious faction that starts getting great prominence, religious people involved in politics. Boy, sounds like today a little bit, doesn't it?

I don't want to get too far off course; I'm getting ahead of myself, but we realize, then, that out of this is going to emerge, because of an economic crisis, the man of sin. He's going to solve the world's economy, the problem at that time. There's going to be an economic collapse. It's coming! I don't know if it's going to come while we're here or if our departure is going to cause it. I'd like that one, wouldn't you? I'd like to just kind of leave and watch the whole thing collapse, praise God. Just watch it fold like a house of cards, you know, when we're about this far off the ground. That's my preference, but you know what? We may be here for the beginning of this thing, and if we are, much of what we have today is going to go away. This persecution could begin and the collapse could start with the oppression of the church. You know, all Christians losing their jobs and not being able to produce in this society could cause a little bit of a problem, couldn't it? The marking of ourselves, the separation of us from this society. I don't know how it's going to go down. I wish I knew the timing. I don't know, but I do know it's coming, and the question that we're asking ourselves is, since this is coming and since Antichrist's rise is going to be solving this economic collapse, we may be experiencing part of that--are you ready to trust God?

We've lived in abundance so long. Are we ready to trust God? We're a society that doesn't know any longer, as Christians, how to get by. You know, I just called my grandma. She just had her ninety-eighth birthday. I called her yesterday, and we were talking. And Grandma has that saying, "We'll make do." How many of you remember that saying? They don't "make do" today! Nobody "makes do." We make two! We buy houses with multiple bedrooms. Some of us have more bedrooms than we have kids. How may of you remember when you had one bed for a number of kids? How many of you slept with your brother or sister a lot longer than you wanted to? Let me see your hands. OK. How many of you don't have a clue what I'm talking about?

We have a whole society that grew up with their own bedrooms, their own TVs, two pairs of shoes (or maybe more)--none of their shoes with holes in them from being worn out. They buy clothes with holes in them, but ours we had to buy and put patches on, remember? All of our holes--wouldn't it have been cool to be in [style] then (with holes)? I would have been the baddest dude in school, man! But you had patches; you remember those patches? I hated those patches because they made your legs stiff and you couldn't walk. You had these things and then sometimes back in those days the cuffs of the pants were too long. So by the time you got the knee patches and the cuffs rolled up then you were like [Pastor walks stiff-legged]. One pair of shoes--a hole in it. How many of you remember putting cardboard in your shoes? Let me see your hands. Not many of us left is there? How many of you remember Dad not eating so the kids could eat? How many of you remember sleeping multiple kids in one bed, and even thou you weren't Christians, you were praying your brother didn't pee?

Are we ready to "make do" again? I've been poor. Some of you have. I don't want to be again. I didn't like it! But if God decides that that's what's best for us, are you ready to rejoice? Are you ready to count it all joy? Do you have the right treasure: the heart of God, the will of God, the kingdom of God? Do you want to know what your treasures are? They're seated next to you right now--your friends, your family. Amen? That's our treasure, praise God! Do you want to know what our treasure is? The Spirit of God that lives inside of us, that you can sense the peace of God and the presence of God right now. That's our treasure! Nobody can ever take that away from you. What kind of value do you put on it tonight as opposed to all these temporal things that are going to take wings some day and fly away, that are meaningless, that people are not only giving their lives for but taking lives to possess?

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Are you more excited today about drawing into the presence of God than you've ever been? Are you less distracted today by what Jesus said in that parable--attraction by distraction; distraction by attraction? It works both ways. We're being seduced, we're being mesmerized, by the bright lights and all of the promises of prosperity. We've been called to enter into the secret place of the Most High and pray in our prayer chambers and treasure the presence of God and trust in His providence--and pray, "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11). We talked about the difficulty of doing that in all of our abundance. There's nobody, there's not a person in this fellowship that is not rich! We're all rich as it pertains to the rest of the world's standards. We're rich; we're filthy rich compared to the majority in India and in South America and in Africa. We think it's tough when our air conditioner is not working. We are so--"Oh, man, the trials! The cost of gasoline!" You have a car! Amen? And we're griping about how much gasoline costs? Most of the world is walking. We're blessed. Amen? Where's your treasure? Where are our hearts of thanksgiving for what God is doing?

Where is this single eye on the presence of God and the glory of God, where we're not caught up and tossed to and fro by all the different winds of doctrine, but we're steadfast, seeking the kingdom of God as He goes on in this chapter to say? "No man [verse 24] can serve two masters . . . " He said, "I want to tell you something. Where your treasure is, your heart will be. Don't think for a moment--no man can serve two masters." If you have not found the Pearl of great price and forfeited all else to obtain it, you're under the bondage of Satan, the world's power. You can't serve two masters. There are only two kingdoms--light, darkness; God, Satan; the kingdom of God, earthly domain--and so you can't serve both, God and mammon, because you're going to love the one and despise the other, begrudge the other, He says very clearly. Look at the wording. I want you to--just go ahead and look down at verse 24; I want you to see it. There will be a holding to the one and a despising of the other--an embracing, a coddling, a wooing, a relationship, and a despising of the other. That's a strong word. You know, some of us begrudge time that we're called to prayer, time that we're not able to go play and run like the rest of the world, the fact that we don't necessarily possess things that the world has.

Where is our treasure? Where is our boast? Are we going to be able to count it joy when the world hates us because they first hated Him--there's a despising, that we become that refuse, the waste of this system, that we're mocked? It's on the horizon. Are we going to delight in it, or are we going to begrudge it? Knowing that eternal life is waiting for us and that's our hope! But it seems so far off, and just for a moment's pleasure--there is pleasure for a moment in this world's system; there's temporal gratification. Don't be deceived! Don't be double-minded! You cannot serve two masters.

"Therefore [here's the conclusion of this thing, verse 25] I say unto you, Take no thought for your life . . . " Now, that word "thought" is an interesting word. The English word comes to us, and it doesn't say don't think about your life, don't make provision. It's saying don't be anxious, don't be fearful, over the things that most of the world is caught up with: reputation, fame, success, materialism. That's not who we are. That's not what our treasure is. That's not what we're seeking. We're seeking God; we're seeking first the kingdom of God. Now, are some of us going to live closer to daily providence and provision than others? Yes. Are some going to have abundance more than they need? Yes, 1 Timothy says there are going to be in our church those that are rich. James says very clearly, learn how to treat the rich. Don't have the rich guy come in and tell the poor guy to get up and sit on the floor and give the rich guy the best seat. We're all brothers and sisters! It doesn't matter what our socioeconomic situation is; we're all the same in the body of Christ. Amen?

So we're all treated the same, but God is not a communist. We're not all going to have the same thing, and some of us are going to possess more material things than others. And it's not going to be because some of us are more righteous than others. Don't suppose that gain is godliness. That's a false assumption. Much of Christianity is preaching that today--"If you're godly, you'll have an abundance." That's not what the Bible teaches! The Bible doesn't teach that gain is godliness. The Bible teaches that godliness with contentment is great gain. (1 Timothy 6:6) Just the opposite. Am I content with what God gave me? I seek first the kingdom of God and the blessings of the Lord--What?--overtake me. You see, if I'm chasing God and not blessings and not material things and I'm seeking God and whatever He decides to overtake--whatever overtakes me in my pursuit of God, the faster I run, the faster these blessings are chasing you down--if that's what God's will is and in the providence of God however He wants to bless you--

But watch how it goes. "And the blessings of the Lord make rich and add no sorrow" (Proverbs 10:22). Are you happy with what you have? Godliness with--say it--contentment is great gain. Are you content right where God has you? "I'd like a little more. I mean, you know, minimum wage. I'm only making minimum wage." What is minimum wage now? Twenty-five dollars an hour? I don't know what the new [rate is]. Didn't it just go up to--I don't know what it is. Seven [dollars]--something like that. Do you remember, could some of you ever image making seven dollars an hour? We didn't make a dollar a day. When I was first in the military I made thirty dollars a month, and I was overpaid.

Now, I know times have changed and inflation. Remember back--it's amazing! Can you ever make enough, really? When are we going to be content--like the Levites, "All I have is God"? You know, that's been an exciting thing in my life over the years. Basically those of us that have been called into full-time ministry and have God as our inheritance, He metes out to all of us differently according to His sovereignty, but whether you're in Africa and your provision is five hundred shillings, in West Virginia and you're making six hundred bucks a month, or if you're Shaffer in Oklahoma pastoring the church and making two million a year, what's the difference? They all have the same inheritance, don't they? God is their source and all they have is God. You see, in the ministry all we have is God. We didn't get land. We didn't get the opportunity for generational accumulation of inheritances. The Levites got God. Oh, and it's more than enough, praise God.

Now, as it relates to the world, that's what your inheritance is. Now, as Levites and as part of God's covenant children, you're able to have provisions and you're able to leave inheritances for your children and God blesses you, but I'm just wanting you to see what your greatest possession is. It's God--Amen?--and He is more than enough. This is what we need to see in what this teaching is: godliness with contentment is great gain.

"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, [Don't be anxious; don't worry about--and then He tells us the subject.] what ye shall [What?] eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. . . . " Now, pretty narrow, the emphasis here. I wonder if in God's economy and mind none of the other stuff matters. "Don't worry about this," He says. "Your Father knows what you have need of." How many of us are burning up all kinds of spiritual energy, all kinds of our thought processes, the very energy of our life--because worry and fear just sucks life out of you? You're going to die early, man! A merry heart does good like [a medicine, Proverbs 17:22]. Praise God! Just be happy. Amen? But if you're going to worry and be fearful--you know, all worry is, is a constant stream of fear, and the Bible says there is no fear in love. If you know God loves you, what are you worried about? Who are we going to fear? If God is for me, who can be against me? And so in a world of fear, they're putting fear on us.

We were laughing about this the other day. We've talked about it in service here. I can't remember what it was; we were talking about something in the back. Let me see if I can bring it up real quick. I can't remember what it was right now, but somewhere along the line, they were talking about something--maybe it will come to me. It was something about children, and I said, "Yes, tell them they just fell out of the back of the pickup. [They were riding in the back of the pickup, barefooted, with no helmets.] And don't worry about it, because we're reviving them with water from the hose." We have to have bottled water, filtered water. What is this bottled water industry? That cracks me up. You know, people go spend money and they buy bottled water. Do you know I found out it comes in my house. You can turn this [little handle] and you've got water. It's cool and it's almost free.

We're fearful about everything! We've got burglar alarms, and we've got medicine for everything, dear God! Hey, did you know that high blood pressure--you know, the high end of normal I think for years has been 140/80, and now they're dropping it ten to fifteen points. And I'm thinking, We've had all these generations, like forever, that this was normal, and now it's not normal anymore. Normal is lower than that now. Who said? Who said? Bless God! For twenty years I was normal at 140/80. Amen? Don't tell me I'm not normal anymore. I figured out what it is. Somebody is trying to sell me drugs. The biggest industry in this nation [is] drugs. Somebody is trying to sell me drugs. They lowered this thing and so to get down to normal, I've got to take these drugs. I'm just fine, thank you. The only thing that affects my blood pressure is you telling me I'm not normal. I was OK until you told me I wasn't. Amen? I was fine until you told me I wasn't. I was going along good until I went to the doctor, and he said, "You're not doing well."

It's like the dentist. My dad went in there. He was wanting to do some work on him, and he wanted to pull one of his teeth out. He said, "OK, but you've got to give me the gold back." He said, "There's gold in that tooth and I want it. You're not getting it. I paid for that thing." So the doctor said OK. My dad had an earring made for my mom out of it. He didn't remove the tooth either--part. But here's the point I was making. I'm just trying to show you where we are today. So the doctor said, "Scott, you really need to have that temporary filling replaced." And he [my dad] said, "Why? Is it bad?" He said, "Well, no, but it's a temporary filling." He said, "When did you have it put in?" He said, "1943." This was 1980. The guy wanted to take it out! We're living in an insane world. If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

What are you afraid about? You've made it this far. Amen? Why are you believing all the lies of the devil? "I'm going to kill you. You're going to lose everything that you've got. You're going to die of cancer. There's bird disease coming. There's a lion in the streets." Listen--"Don't take any thought for your food, for your drink, for your raiment. Let me tell you something," Jesus said. "Think about this with Me for a moment. The fowls of the air, your Father knows every sparrow that falls. He provides food for them on a daily basis." Somebody did the math on it one time. The money of all of the wealthiest men in the world combined couldn't buy bird seed for the birds of the world for one day, and your Father takes care of them. Amen? "Are you not much more valuable than they?" Dad knows, Father knows. He cares, praise God! So what are you worried about?

"I'm not worried." Where are your treasures? How many of you would miss a day of church, a day of home fellowship, a day of prayer, and you wouldn't think of missing a day of work? When is the last time you took a day off work to pray? Now, don't just call in tomorrow and say, "I'm not coming in. I'm going to pray." I'm making a point, OK? What occupies your thoughts? What's really your treasure? What's important? "Well, I couldn't take off. My business needs me. What would I do?" Where is your treasure? If you're at dis-ease (you know, disease--dis-ease) if there is a disease in your life of fear, discontentment, worry, doubt, what are you doing about it? The most important thing to you should be to get back to the peace of God, the presence of God, to eat the meat that others don't know anything about (to do the will of Father).

So look what He goes on to say; this is interesting. "You're much better than they [verse 26], the fowl of the air. And let Me ask you a question," Jesus says. "If you're going to worry about it, is that going to change anything? Who by taking thought [care, worry] can change one thing about their life? You're not going to make yourself taller or thinner."

You know, that's another one of the scales--those weight scales. Give me a break! You know I got turned down one time for insurance because I was overweight. [I'm] 5 feet 10 inches; I weighed 220 pounds. I had like 9 percent body fat. They said, "You're too fat." I said, "Have you ever seen me?" "No, we're reading this chart." "You need to come take a look." So I sent them a picture, flexing--21-inch arms, 56-inch chest, 32-inch waist. I got my insurance. They said, "We thought you were a little fat guy." You can't tell anything by those charts. I'm big boned. The world is trying to tell us what we have to have to make it, what you need in your retirement, what you need to eat, how you need to live. Let me tell you how you need to live; you need to live all out for God, seeking first the kingdom of God, pressing towards the mark, the prize, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

How much of the world is sucking our life out of us, our energy, our time, our thoughts? "Where are our treasures?" is what Jesus says. And even more as this day is approaching, we've got to make a decision. We're either going to come together more into the kingdom, to build the kingdom, to edify the saints, to lay another row of living stones, to dig deeper into the rock and spend our time and energy digging deep into this rock--all of the stuff that we do up here, beloved, why do we do them? It's digging into the rock! It's an effort. It's not going to just come to us; this is work--or we're going to be seduced by the world and destroyed by their cares and their methodology. So Jesus says, "You can worry about it, you can plan, but you're not going to change anything."

"Therefore I say unto you," verse 31--we'll end with this for tonight, the next few verses. See the "therefore"s? Those are very important, as you all know, as we're studying. They're the conclusions of the thoughts. "Therefore take no thought, saying . . . " I wonder if He says "saying" for a reason? " . . . take no thought, saying . . . " Do you talk about everything that's wrong? Dear God! All of our talk about what's wrong, could go wrong, what I believe is going to go wrong, what went wrong last time I'm sure it'll go wrong again! " . . . take no thought, saying . . . " The Bible tells us what to think on. Amen? "Think on these things," the Scripture says, "whatsoever things are true and honest and just" (Philippians 4:8). What are you using your mental energy on? What are you thinking about? What are you talking about--"saying"? I'll tell you what to say. "My God meets all my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19). Amen? I'll tell you what to say. "If God is for me, who can be against me?" (Romans 8:31) Do you want me to tell you what to say? "I can do all things through Christ Jesus which strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). Amen?

"Therefore take no thought, [listen] saying [what God hasn't said]." Say what God is going to say. You see, the worldly care, the worldly thought, speaks against God. The Bible says God knows what you have need of. The pagans worry about all of these other things, but don't you say, What should we eat, what should we drink, how are we going to be clothed? The pagans are worried about those things. Your Father knows that you need these things, and nothing more than food and drink and clothing is needed! Amen? I didn't get much of an "Amen" on that, but it's the truth. It's not needed. It's all just abundance. It's all blessing. It's all providence. It's all God's mercy. It's all God's sovereignty. How many of us are not only fearful and anxious over necessities but some of us have our days ruined over luxuries, over abundance, that we don't have as much as everybody else has, fearful of what tomorrow-- He's going to tell us, "Why are you burning up all of your mental energy and spiritual energy over tomorrow? It's not here." You might not even get to tomorrow! How about just rejoicing in the presence of God today? How about being thankful for the Holy Spirit that lives in you today? How about being thankful for your brothers and sisters that surround you in here today that are here to lift your hands up, praise God? Why be like the pagans? Don't say, Tomorrow I'm going to go and do such and such a thing. Say, If the Lord wills. Amen? Isn't that what the whole prayer that He gave us in the model prayer was about? And pray this way, " . . . thy [say it] will be done . . . " (Matthew 6:10). But what's God's will for you tomorrow? To be miserable? Could be.

We're living in a society where we think God's whole purpose in life is to make life fuzzy and warm and comfortable and cozy for us. Some of us need some fire; some of us need pressure. Some of us need to make some real decisions against the world and to finally trust in God. Some of us need to make some decisions to turn loose of our children, of our ambitions, and let God be the source! Where are we today as it comes to the model prayer, to a daily trust in the providence of God? He knows what you have need of. So in that process He is working everything in our lives together for good to those of us that love him and are called according to His purposes.

Verse 33, as we wind it down, "But seek ye first . . . " You know, the Bible says that we're to seek God early. That means seek Him first, then be the first solution. Some of us run to the doctor first. Some of us run to our credit card first. Some of us run to our friends first. Some of us run to our deacons first. God is first. Amen? Seek Him early; seek Him first. He's the source of our comfort and our wisdom. Now, in the process, He may lead us into one of these other areas. There will be brothers and sisters, friends, that will speak into our lives, spiritual leaders that will speak into our lives. God may use natural means to meet your need. He may give you some overtime. How many of you would rather have the money fall out of the sky? Amen. Me too. I'd love for money to be like manna. Just go out in my yard and pick it up every day--got enough for the day. Wouldn't that be cool? You walk out in the morning and say, "Hey, this is going to be a $236 day." And tomorrow might be a $148 day. Whatever was needed was there, right? The manna. It was just enough for the day, praise God, and you couldn't keep any over, because if you tried to hoard it up, what happened? It got worms, spoiled.

How many of you would be happy to have no savings account, no retirement account, zero in your checkbook, no credit cards, if you knew that every morning that money was out there, exactly what was needed for the day? Would you be content? Sure! God's providing it, man! Whatever, praise God! You talk about the will of God being done. Amen? You say, "I don't know, man. I'd kind of like to save up a little bit for my new car. You know, the Blue Oval. Ford just put out a new Mustang." See, you're missing the providence of God. You're wanting to save it up. Guess what? You walk out, that's a $26,489 day, praise God! Amen? You go down and pay cash, praise God!

God is our source. Amen? Can we live that way in our abundance? See, God is not against--we're living in a day right now when we're living under the wisdom of God, and Proverbs tells us to lay up and to save. We have many different principles for that aspect, but we can't lose sight of Who the provider is. And I want to tell you something, beloved. I don't care what you have or don't have. God can still multiply the loaves and the fishes. Amen? He can still cause the cruse of oil not to fail. You see, that's the question that's being asked here. Do you believe that today, or is God through at the limit of your credit card? Where's your faith today? Where's your treasure? What are you trusting in? We've got to answer that question, because we've come into a life of dependence upon the world and its system, and we need to come back to the miraculous. Amen? The God Who is there, Who is more than enough, praise God! And what I have is enough, and godliness with contentment is great gain. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. To be like Your Heavenly Father, to be perfect as Your Father in heaven is perfect--that's the theme of this teaching.

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Seek to be in right standing with God. Seek to do it God's way. Seek the approval of God! Do it the way that will cause you to hear, "Well done," and all of these things will then be added to you. "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: [worrying, scheming, lusting, fearing] for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day [are the trials, the temptations, the evils] thereof." Rest in this, and what He's telling us is as believers, we live in the present, the now. We're not like the world. We don't get caught up in destiny and in fate. Our very heartbeats are known by God. He holds our life in His hands. He knows the very moment of our departure from this life. Nothing is going to change that. Nothing is going to change your stature, and everything that you try to do and you're worrying about and your manipulation is not going to change what's going to happen tomorrow, because God is sovereign. Amen? So what's going to happen is what God wants to happen! Blessed be the name of the Lord. Amen? That's how we live, praise God. Makes it easy. Let's just wake up and be happy today. Let's just wake up and rejoice in the Lord today. Let's wake up and boast in the Lord today. "Yeah, but everything looks bad!" Praise God! It's the will of the Lord. Amen? When life hands you a bowl of lemons for the day, what do you do? Make lemonade, praise God! Even some of the secular have tried to figure that out. Does your Father really care? What is today about? Today isn't about preparation for tomorrow. Today is about glorifying God. What have we done to honor Him in our boasting today? Sufficient to the day--

Father, we thank You for Your Word this evening, and in the day that we're living in there are so many ways we can be distracted. We can be caught up in cares and different aspects of provision for us. We all in this room are in different positions as it pertains to relationships, finances, health, but we all have the same promise: Father knows what we have need of. And you know, when you're really sick, you don't care about money. You just want to feel better. "Man, I was saving up for a new set of golf clubs." If that same money could get rid of that pain, those golf clubs aren't that important anymore.

What are you distracted by? Your Father knows; He cares. He knows you're hurting. He knows the anxiety. He knows the financial pressures. He knows the physical battle that you're in. He knows your mental state. Where's your treasure? Where's the Pearl of great price? When you focus on that, the things of earth grow strangely dim. What is our duty? Have we been called here for ease or to fear God and keep His commandments? Fate, destiny--"I asked my mother, ‘What would I be?' ‘Qué sera, sera.'" [Pastor is referring to the lyrics of the song "Qué Sera, Sera," which means "whatever will be, will be."] No, God has a plan for your life. The steps of the good man are ordered by the Lord. He opens doors that no man can shut. He has gone before you and made a way. His glory is your rear guard. He sent his angels to encamp round about you and no weapon formed against you can prosper! Your Father knows. What is your hope in tonight? Take no thought for the morrow.

Let's stand before the Lord. I wonder if the day will come when we truly have nothing and need a miracle just to have enough food to live one more day. I wonder if we'll be there one of these days. I wonder what our attitude will be. Will we love one and despise the other? You can't serve two masters. What about--my theology, I don't think fits here, but just a hypothetical question--what about the refusal of the mark and no man can buy or sell without the mark? Which kingdom are you going to live in? Which one are you going to be content in? I wonder if the tendency not to trust God, or to be angry at God, I wonder--what about when things don't go right? What about when you lose your job? What about when you lose your loved one? What about when you lose your health? Where's your treasure? See, it's not really a simple question is it? How do we prepare for this? To he that has shall more be given. Press in, grab the grace, stir up the gift of faith, and to he that has shall more be given.

As Gary plays for us, we'll take just a moment and allow the Lord to speak to us--or whoever is not there. [Pastor's humor as he realizes there is no one at the piano to play.] Just the presence of God in our lives and that treasure. This whole teaching, beloved, is just about preparing for this hour, the spirit that's upon us, of ease and comfort, of humanism, of worship of the creature. My concern is that we return to the old paths, that we stir up what's in us. A life in the supernatural, a life in the miraculous, not only for the healing of our bodies, but our daily providence; God is our source. Our emotional well-being--it's not coming without a fight, but Father knows. We thank God for it. Just be glorified we ask, Father. We receive it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Turn to somebody next to you, and say, "Father knows." Praise God. Go in peace; God's love go with you.

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