Matthew 6:24-345

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money ²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? ²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

A proper perspective not only reminds us of our real provision but also our real:

• Purpose – Vs 33

We are here to seek and serve a heavenly kingdom not a human one. The kingdom Jesus refers to is his personal reign. Today we are selling our lives short serving self instead of spending our lives on the Savior. This is a call to live for the Lord, are you living for the externals or the eternal? Many of us are living for a little life instead of the Lord of Life. The truth is that we serve what we seek. So, are you going to spend your life on self or serving the Savior? When we serve self we are prone to selfishness but when we serve the Savior we participate in sharing. We give our lives instead of grabbing at life. The truth of time teaches us that no amount of grabbing will gain you any more days. Each day we lose a little time no matter what we pursue, but the difference between a full life and a fools life is what we do with our days, how we spend them. God’s purpose is for us to live in worship not worry. Part of our panic has to do not with a lack of planning but a lack of participating in God’s plan. Worry robs us of our reason for living which is worship. Are you going to live a life of worship or waste it in worry? What is motivating and moving you the Master plan or the Me plan?  To say that Jesus is the Lord of our lives and to live in contradiction to His will is to live a lie. To seek His kingdom is to put our lives, our families, our marriages, our ministries, our work, our finances and our future under His authority. We will only respond to the seeking and doing His will when we place our lives under His rule. This is not compartmentalized Christianity it is complete. So, are you responding to His rule or are you still trying to live as a respectable rebel? The problem is that we prefer the perishable over His plan, we prefer that which is limited to that which lasts. Today we are trying to find meaning and purpose in material things instead of the Master, so the perishable becomes more important to us than His purpose. And as long as we live life for money and material things we are going to worry. We need to see money as a tool not the goal. The solution to worry isn’t more money its more of the Master. But when we let go of those things to pursue God’s purpose we start to walk away from worldly worry and toward His Will. Are you going to invest your life in the world or in worship? When we place all that we have under His care, direction and rule, we find the peace we seek. When we place every department of our lives under the headship of Christ, we find the anxieties of life diminish. Because when we care for God’s business, we can be assured that God will care for ours. 

Matthew 6:24-34

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money ²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? ²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

A proper perspective reminds us of our real:

• Provision – Vs 26-31

Are you going to focus on fear and fret, or focus on the Father and His faithfulness? Jesus in essence is asking us if we have forgotten who our Father is? If God feeds the birds of the air and clothes the flowers of the fields, will He not provide for His people? It’s easy during these uncertain times to start trusting in money more than the Master. To worry about our provision instead of worshipping our provider. Notice God is not their Father; He’s your Father and the one reminding us of all this is His Son, the One who knows the Father fully. Jesus is reminding us that God has a great track record. This is a call to come back to the fundamentals of our faith, Christ died so we could be in fellowship with the Father. That means resting in our relationship with Him, relying on His riches and not our resources. We are not just given the information not to worry or the illustration of why not to worry, now we have the invitation to turn and place our trust in our provider. For some that means rediscover the Father so you can stop trying to relate to Him as an earthly father and start responding to Him as an eternal Father. For some your earthly father was absent, or abusive, uncaring, undependable, harsh and hurtful. Often our attitude is sadly similar to that of the disciples in Mark 4:35-41. They’d just spent the whole day with Jesus and were on their way to another town when they encountered a furious storm. The disciples filled with fear rushed to Jesus who was sleeping at the back of the boat, and accuse him: “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” They accused Jesus of being uncaring because they were focused on their fear and not His faithfulness. How often do we live like unloved orphans not because we are but because we have forgotten who our Father is? Are you going to respond to the path of provision and promise or panic?  Sometimes we forget that God is not only capable of caring for our lives, but also controlling the whole of His creation. When we trust in self we pass on God’s promises in favor of the pitiful. We choose the finite and the feeble over the Father. We get limited in this life because of our little picture, we have a pathetic perspective because we have a pathetic provider. We choose Fast food when we could have the Fathers food, instead of satisfaction we have starvation. We lead malnourished lives, caving to more of the meaningless when what we really crave is Christ. We will never satisfy our real heart hunger with human desire we need Him. We lead limited lives instead of lavish ones, empty instead of excited. God doesn’t just provide for our physical and practical needs but also our essential and emotional ones. Like the need to be needed, the want to be wanted, the drive to be desired, the longing to be loved. But instead of looking for love in the Lord we turn to lust. Do you believe that God can meet the really needs of your life? Who are you leaning on self or the Savior? When we worry, we ruin our witness, because instead of behaving like a believer and living by faith we act like the unsaved who serve fear. What worry reveals is that we have a faulty view of the Father and do not fully trust Him. Worry reveals that we are controlled by our circumstances not Christ who is in control of our circumstances. Do you really believe that God can save you from sin, secure your home in heaven, but somehow slip up in the here and now? Trusting in God’s provision provides peace, it’s the calm contentment that He is in control regardless of our circumstances. Do you believe that He is able to bring your boat to shore no matter how much it is battered by the storm?