Chapel Service -What did Jesus mean?

Learning to trust God

How many of you have worried about what is going to happen next?

What were some of your concerns?

If you were to look into your heart, could you say I love God?

How many of you love your parents?

As children, do you rely on your parents to provide for your needs?

Why do you think your parents make sure you have food, clothing, and every thing you need to grow up?

Do you believe your parents love you?

With a show of hands, how many of you believe your parents have unconditional and unwavering love for you?

Do you believe your parents would do anything to protect you?

Do you rely on your parents to take care of you?

Do you love your parents?

Obviously your parents love you and would do anything to protect you.

Obviously you love your parents and completely rely on them for your needs.

Now let us examine my previous question.

Do you love God?

How many of you believe God would provide for your needs in this world?

Would God do anything to protect you and provide for you?

If you answer “yes”, then that brings up my next questions.

With a show of hands, how do you know God would do anything to protect you?

I honestly hope I see everyone with their hands up ready to answer that question.

So if you know God would do anything to protect you, doesn’t it stand to reason that God would also provide for you out of that same love?

Now comes the question of our message today. Don’t answer , just think to yourselves.

Do you trust God enough to rely on Him for every aspect in your life?

Let us pray.

I want to introduce myself to those who may not know me.

My name is Brother Timothy vonKroge. I am one of the youth teachers at Calvary Baptist Church.

I am currently training to become a chaplain and I want to welcome you to our Chapel service today.

We want to bring our church to our community so this is one way we do this, we have these youth events where kids get to play and learn something about Jesus.

Our message today is from a teaching that Jesus did on the Sermon of the Mount.

Let me read you our Scripture for our message.

Matthew 6:25–34 KJV 1900

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, 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 taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought 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 to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal 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. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Today we are going to go over this teaching by Jesus.

We will discover why Jesus says we should not worry about food or clothes.

Does God feed the birds?

Does God clothes the lilies beautifully?

Why should we not worry?

Are His children far more valuable than birds?

Will anxious emotions add even one hour to a person’s life?

We will discover that instead of letting our anxieties control our life, we need to trust God to provide what we need.

It may not be what we want, the context of what we need is the will of God.

We need to learn how to trust God for everything in our life.

We need to discover what did Jesus mean?

Let us get started.

Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?”

Jesus commands His followers not to worry about their lives, including what they eat and drink or wear.

In context, people of the ancient world often wore the same one or two sets of clothes until they fell into rags.

A large part of each day would be focused on obtaining, preparing, or earning money for food.

Jesus is pointing out that life is about more than what we eat and what we wear.

God has purposes for us beyond those temporary details.

Now Jesus is not telling His followers to quit their jobs.

Jesus is not telling them to sit and wait for God to supernaturally provide.

Jesus also is not suggesting it is wrong to earn money to provide for their families.

Jesus is not telling them , they should not wisely save for future needs.

Jesus is however commanding His listeners to take control of what is going on in their minds and their hearts.

What does this mean?

In the context, Jesus’ point here is not that we should be careless, but that we should not be fearful, right?

In this example, living in constant worry about money is a way of “serving” money instead of serving God.

Living in fear is not the point of real life, right?

Matthew 6:26 “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?”

Christ says that believers ought not to live in anxiety about the basic needs in life.

Why?

There is meaning and purpose even if you do not have these things.

To live in worry about the money we do not have is living under the control of money, rather than the control of God.

Living to serve God includes trusting Him to provide what is needed without living in anxiety.

What does Jesus use as an example of this.

Birds

Birds do not plant or harvest or store crops in barns.

They have no organized system for providing for themselves.

They live in the moment they are in.

Why?

Because God the Father feeds them, right?

That is the work of God.

Now Jesus asks a great question.

Are you not more valuable than birds?

The answer is “yes”

So if God feeds the birds, He will also feed those who are of greater worth than the birds.

Jesus is urging His followers to trust God the Father to provide what is needed in the right amounts and at the right time.

Matthew 6:27 “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?”

Here Jesus points out another problem with anxiety, worry and fear; they are useless.

These feelings don’t help.

Those emotions are powerless, so far as those actual needs are concerned.

Anxiety can be a natural response when you are wondering how you are going to feed your family.

Still, this emotion is ineffective.

It doesn’t add a single hour to anyone’s life.

Many will argue though that anxiety is not like a hat , it is not something we can remove.

God knows this.

He understands how difficult it is to put trust in Him when times are tough.

This is why there are reminders in Scriptures.

If being a born again believer made all of our fears and doubts disappear, there would be no reason for God to remind us not to worry.

Matthew 6:28 “And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:”

Jesus continues to suggest that worrying about money , to live in fear and anxiety over material things, is a form of serving money instead of God.

It is possible to prioritize money over God, even if we don’t have any money.

Jesus now asks why would we be worried about clothing?

He points to nature again using lilies as an example.

Lilies don’t do anything , in comparison to how human beings obtain food and shelter.

Lilies grow and are rooted in one place, they do not do any work nor spin any clothes for themselves.

Still, they are clothed exactly as God the Father wants them to be.

They are dressed in great beauty.

This may sound as Jesus is belittling the needs of desperately impoverished people,

This is not the case, Jesus is simply urging them towards a deeper trust in God.

Jesus is encouraging believers to trust in God to actively work at shedding anxiety so their hearts and minds can be at rest.

Matthew 6:29 “And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

Jesus has asked His followers why they worry about clothing.

Jesus is not really talking about keeping up with the latest fashion sense nor is He saying that clothes are not important.

Jesus has been showing that worry accomplishes nothing.

Those who serve God can trust in Him to provide, right?

So excessive fear over material things is a form of serving money, not God.

In this point, Jesus’ Jewish listeners would have known well of the stories of Solomon’s great wealth from Israel’s glory days.

Not only was Solomon clothed in the best finery in the world, his kingdom flowed with gold and silver.

He lived in great luxury.

What is the point Jesus is saying?

Jesus is insisting the splendor of the lilies’ beauty surpasses even Solomon’s, though the lilies did nothing to put it on.

Matthew 6:30 “Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”

What has Jesus been teaching?

Jesus is teaching that worrying about money and serving God does not go together.

Why?

Worry is ineffective

It does not fix anything.

More than that, God’s children can trust their Father in heaven to provide what they need.

Now He brings this illustration home.

God cares much more deeply about His children than He does about birds and about flowers.

The wild lilies are considered grass in this verse. They spring up, bloom in splendor, and quickly die before being raked up and burned.

If God provides clothing for them, Jesus says, don’t you think He will cloth you?

(In Matthew 5:3-12) , Christ has already pointed that God’s blessing does not always mean worldly comfort, so His provision can sometimes involve lacking things we think of as “needs”.

Jesus ends this verse by addressing those who worry as “O ye of little faith”.

That might sound harsh to us, but it is important to remember Jesus is speaking to people He loves, seeking to free them of the burden of fear.

Their trust in God should provide peace of mind.

That is a strong contrast to those who rely on material wealth to provide what they need.

Matthew 6:31 “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?”

If worry was a good option, it would be when the circumstances of our lives are at their worst.

Isn’t it time to start worrying if you don’t know where your next meal or clothing is coming from?

If not then, when?

This is part of Jesus’ point.

If that is not a good time to be fearful, it means there is never a good time to be fearful.

For people who call on God, worry is never the appropriate response to life.

Our sin nature tempts us to fear, and to have anxiety, but it’s not how God wants us to feel.

As unrealistic as it sounds, that is the level of confidence Jesus wants His disciples and listeners to have in their Father in heaven.

It is simply a matter of trusting God’s ability and willingness to provide for us.

Will we trust Him with the most basic, bottom-line questions in life?

It is important to notice two things here.

First, Jesus is not promising His followers that God will provide a lavish lifestyle on this side of heaven. He only says God will meet their needs.

Second, Jesus is not telling His followers to stop working , planning, or spending wisely.

Jesus’ teaching here does not mean we should sit wherever we are and wait for the world to feed us.

God provides work and wisdom to meet our needs.

What believers should not do is obsess over wealth, either by stockpiling or living in fear of poverty.

God is a Father who feeds and clothes His children exactly as they truly “need” to be.

Matthew 6:32 “(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.”

Jesus has given a blunt command to everyone who calls on God.

Don’t be anxious.

Don’t worry, even about the most basic needs of life.

Why?

Because God will provide for you.

God is able and you are highly valuable to Him.

God knows exactly what we need to accomplish His purposes, even when it is not ideal to our preferences.

With this verse, the crowd following Jesus is overwhelming Israelites.

The Jewish people understood themselves to be the people of God.

Jesus now shows how their lives should be different from those of the Gentiles.

The modern English word” Gentiles” simply means those who are not Jewish.

Jesus, however, is referring to pagans, worshippers of idols and false gods.

He says such people organize their lives around getting food, drink, and clothing.

Those with an ungodly approach are constantly trying to bargain or complete with the world around them.

They are obsessed with stockpiling wealth and keeping terrible things from happening to them.

Idol worshippers are continually trying to get the “gods” to be pleased with them.

Jesus tells His Jewish listeners that should not be how they think about God.

Like all good fathers, God knows and takes responsibility to meet the needs of His children.

God wants His people to serve Him out of sincerity and devotion.

We don’t need to convince or remind Him of anything.

Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

The call here is to first seek God’s kingdom and righteousness.

Motives matter, and only by sincerely putting God first can we pursue righteousness.

Followers of Christ should prioritize living according to the principles Jesus has been teaching.

To seek God’s kingdom and righteousness means to live in that ongoing repentance from sin, and to lead the kind of sincere, from the heart, devoted to God lifestyle that Jesus has been describing.

In response, God will make provision for whatever it is we truly “need” in order to accomplish His will.

Matthew 6:34 “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

Jesus tells His followers not to worry about tomorrow.

Worry doesn’t fix anything.

Anxiety over things we can not control or is out of our reach makes no sense, right?

God loves us and already knows not only what He wants to accomplish, but what we need to make it happen.

Jesus says that born again believers ought to let tomorrow worry about itself.

Jesus is not saying Christians can not or should not make wise plans.

His context here is about worry, anxiety, and/or fear.

Those who trust in God should not allow worry over the future to control our lives.

Tomorrow’s fight will happen tomorrow.

The battle to trust God is always happening in the current moment.

Today has plenty of trouble with which we need to trust God.Jesus commands His followers to focus on trust for God in a moment-by moment way.

We shouldn’t try to solve all our problems, for all time, all at once.

Let God provide what is needed day by day.

Application

What is God teaching you in your life?

What are you currently being saved from?

What is God saying to you?

What have you been praying about?

What have you been reading about in the Bible?

Are you encouraged or discouraged? Why?

Have you been connecting with and enjoying God? If so, how? If not , why?

What did you personally get from this teaching by Jesus in the book of Matthew?

How can you improve your personal connection with God?

What steps can you personally take to get closer to being able to rely on God?

What are your goals to achieve this closer connection with God?

Let us pray.

Closing statement