The God Who Provides

Heavenly father as we come to you today, Lord. We do come to you as it's been a heavy week in our community, Florida with Gabe's passing. Are we just lift up the Steiner family and Lord, all of Gabe's friends. And those who knew him, Lord, as this has left, a big hole in all of their lives. And Lord, I pray that it will be filled with your peace with your grace and your mercy, Lord help us as a community to know how to support them during this time. And Lord. We also think of Marie's family as they Cope with her passing Lord. We thank you for the long life. She was able to live in Lord. We pray that you will just walk with the family through this time. And Lord that we pray, that you'll be with Renee as she faces her surgery this week, Lord, we just pray that you will give the doctors and nurses wisdom and skill beyond their own. And Lord. We celebrate along with Luke his father, having his last cancer treatment and being cancer free Lord. We pray that you'll just help him as he continues to recover from his treatments. Lord. We also Rejoice with Luke and Lacey and celebrating an anniversary.

Lord, you give us so many different blessings. And Lord, we pray that you will help us to always maintain a posture and attitude of gratitude towards you, not even when we come through difficult times to know that.

We may not always get what we want, but Lord, you always give us what we need. And Lord, we pray that you will. Continue to provide that for those that we lifted up today and for each and every one of us gathered here to pray this. All in your most, holy name. Amen.

We're going to switch gears out of Romans for a little while here as we head into the holidays. So for this season and Christmas season and then after the end of the year will wrap up The last couple chapters of Romans. we're going to start into a new series here, leading into Thanksgiving, and Yeah, it's a three-week series. That's going to take a look at how God provides for us. Do you know, we live in a culture that measures everything? It seems like by the idea of more we always need more of everything right more income so we can get more stuff or we need more likes or followers on our social media in order to feel important or we need something more all the time.

It seems like that voice is Never Satisfied that it tells us if we want to feel safe and secure and loved that, we have to have more in order to feel that way. you know, the society likes to tell us that if we only had one more thing, Then we wouldn't have to worry or if we only had one less worry right? Then we would need more things and it's a contradictory message that basically Keeps Us spinning and running all of the time, looking for more.

but what I want to try to take a look at the next three weeks, in this little series is Kind of inviting us back to the table that God's already had prepared for us. You know, a table of Grace table of belonging in a table of Hope. So over the next 3 weeks, we're going to look at that, you know, we're going to look at how God provides for our daily needs. We're going to look at how we can open our homes and our hearts in order to help others feel like they belong. And they are a part of the family of God, And then we're going to look at how to live generously from what God has given us. Yeah, hopefully it can help us to stop listening to the scarcity narrative that our society tries to feed us, that, you know, we have to grab all we can get as fast as we can because there's not enough to go around. Well, there is God provides it all. 2 will try to look at what God says in scripture about his provision. And hopefully, it'll help to redirect us and help us to understand that. God can provide us with more than we could ever earn more than we could ever hold more than we could ever imagine. But we have to trust him.

So when the verses were going to look at today and Matthew chapter 6, we see that, you know, Jesus is teaching us Not to worry. but instead to trust in God's provision,

you know, how do we actually live that out?

You know what shifts need to happen in our hearts and our minds and our in order to help us have the gratitude that we should to be able to replace the anxiety that so many of us have in our life. The fear that we have with gratitude, thankfulness, peace.

So In this passage will see that, Jesus gives us three invitations and we're going to look at those three invitations.

First one comes in Matthew 6:25 and it is essentially that worry doesn't work.

Yeah, Jesus opens this part of The Sermon, on the Mount with the words. We need to hear again and again. Matthew 6:25. Therefore, I tell you. Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on is not life more than food and the body more than clothing. You're quite simply what Jesus is saying, here is worried doesn't work. You try it all the time, it doesn't work. Worry does not add a single hour to your life. In fact, it does the exact opposite. Worry drains. You worry distracts, you It distorts how you see the world?

I mean, we've all had those nights. Are those times where it's hard to find rest, because our mind is just spinning in circles, right? It just won't let go of something. We can't seem to get past it. We need to try to solve this problem.

but no matter how much you worried about it on that sleepless night, when morning came

Was your problem? Gone did worrying did everything to solve it? Most likely not.

All it did was make you tired. More stressed. And that's what Jesus is kind of calling out here saying it doesn't work. And then he moves on after that verse you know pointing to the birds of the air you know. Look at them. They don't sow or reap or store away in Barns. They don't Have 401K plans, do they? Yet your heavenly father, feeds them. And aren't you worth more than they are? Of course we are. Young, Jesus isn't calling us to be careless to not work for things to not have goals for a self to not strive after anything. He's calling us to be trust filled. in what we're doing and then what we're seeking, you know, to look at God's creation and remember that if God cares enough for the smallest Sparrow, He will certainly care for you who are his sons and his daughters in Christ Jesus.

You know, the truth about worry is that worry is a false promise, it pretends that if I just think about something long enough, if I just stress about it hard enough, I can control it.

But the reality is that worry changes, absolutely nothing.

It only steals the piece of today. That's the only thing. It changes it ruins any chance, you had it. Having a nice peaceful day today because you're worrying about what's going to happen tomorrow. Call Echoes this in flip Ian's 4:6. Ray says, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

You know, all worried does, is worry pulls us apart. But prayer poses together in God's presence. It helps us to remember who we are, helps us to remember where everything we have really comes from.

You no gratitude begins when we release control and Trust God's care. 1st Peter, 5:7 says, cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.

You know, that means you don't have to carry the weight of tomorrow on your shoulders today.

You don't have to play the, what if game over and over again, in your head and in your mind, instead you can name your worry and then you can hand it off to God. You can tell him you're going to trust him to handle it and you can trust that he is already at work. Providing what you need even in the midst of great uncertainty.

So in the middle of that, let me ask know what is it that keeps you up at night? What's that thing that you can't stop turning over and over in your mind that you're continuing to think about constantly? Whatever it is. You can trust God with it.

You know, you can trust the god that Jesus is telling us feeds and clothes the birds of the air, make sure they're looked after and cared for, you know, he's going to take care of them. You know, God, clothes the Lilies of the Field and makes them. Beautiful each and every day, even though their temporary. If he provides for those things, how much more will he provide for you?

Jesus himself tells us, worry doesn't work. But trust us and that's what we need to have. And when we trust God, that's when gratitude can begin to flow out of us and put us in a different state of mind.

so Point number two, that Jesus makes in this part of the sermon of the mount is that God provides for his creation and for us Matthew 6:28 says, and why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow they neither toil nor spin. I yet I tell you even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these But if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven. Will he not much more clothe you? Oh, you of little faith?

You know, when you read that, do you hear the tenderness? In Jesus's words there, he's trying to put it nicely.

Yeah, he's pointing him to something that is so ordinary. Something we see everyday the grass of the field, the wildflowers growing.

You know, it's something so ordinary, we might miss it, we take it for granted. I mean, how many of us really look at the flowers in the ditches is for driving places, right? we look at it, we think I was someone needs to know that

but he's telling us, if God cares, even for something like that,

Yeah, those small temporary things. If he dresses them with the beauty that is beyond that that even a king's wardrobe can possess. How much more is he caring for you. you know, if God pours that kind of care into the grass of the field, Here today gone tomorrow. Don't you believe he'll care for you? His beloved child.

The problem is anxiety Creeps in and it replaces our trust with worry and we forget Who We Are. We forget that we are the child of the one true king and then we slip into thinking that while we're on our own. That we have to provide everything for ourselves, it's all based off of our work and what we accomplished. You know, we feel like we're just another Cog in the machine, right? Or we've been forgotten and overlooked The part of what Jesus is telling us here is that you're not forgotten. You haven't been overworked looked and your worth is infinitely more. Then you understand.

You're a son or a daughter of the king and you're worse in his eyes. Is all that matters and Jesus is guaranteeing us here that the heavenly father cares about your life.

Think about that for a minute. If God. is that intentional with his creation to make sure it is looked after how much more intentional do you think he is with you?

Young Psalm 139, it says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Hearn. James 1:17 reminds us that every good and perfect gift is from above.

You know, part of what Jesus is telling his here is that God is already proven his faithfulness in creation. We just open our eyes and look around. We can see it. You know, the sunrise alone is his daily. Reminder that he is still holding the world together. It's something we can count on every day. and if he does that for creation,

don't you think he's willing to do that for us?

Gratitude grows, when we remember our worth in God's eyes. Your gratitude is not about comparing what we currently have with what everyone else around us. Has That's not gratitude.

you know, gratitude is about recognizing who we are in God who he sees us as and when we remember that, we are love that we are chosen that we are valued.

It becomes easier to relax, just to Breathe Again.

You know, anxiety, kind of loosens its grip. And fear doesn't have the final say in everything we do because we know that ultimately no matter if this goes well or poorly. Our value is found in who God sees us to be.

so, when we are feeling tempted to question this idea of whether or not God sees us, You're a good thing for us to do is simply take a walk outside. Look at God's creation. Look at what he's provided and how he cares for it each and every day and understand. If he's taking care of. His creation. He will take care of you. That's his promise. That's his heart.

You know, the world has all these other things that keep us from remembering that God's for you, that God's for all of us that God is for the church.

That brings us to the last point that Jesus makes in this part of The Sermon on the Mount, which is seek. First the kingdom,

Yo, Jesus. Closes this section. this, what I feel is some of the most freeing words In the entire passage. Matthew chapter 6, verses 31 through 34.

Do not worry saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the pagans run. After all these things in your heavenly father knows that you need them. But seek first, his kingdom, and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own

Do you hear the contrasts that Jesus is drawing there?

The world is chasing after temporary things like food drink, closing. Which? Yes those are. The basics of life. But they're temporary. but God's people are called to chase after something greater His kingdom, the establishment of his kingdom here on Earth, his righteousness, his rain. And when we make God's kingdom, our first priority. Will see that everything else falls into place that we don't need to worry about? What are we going to eat? What are we going to wear? What are we going to drink? When am I going to be able to retire? We don't have to worry about those things. Cuz we're seeking his kingdom first.

You know, it doesn't necessarily mean that we get everything that we want. But when we seek his kingdom first, we're going to get what we need. In order to keep pursuing his kingdom. Gratitude flourishes, when our lives are centered on, God's kingdom, not our own.

When we seek first his kingdom, you know, we stop living as if our worth depends on all of our possessions. You know, or our security depends on how much our paycheck is. Are our joy depends on our circumstances. Instead Our Lives begin to revolve around the eternal. Purposes of God.

God's character God's mission in the world and what role he has for us to play in that those things become Central.

And notice that you're not in that passage, Jesus said, your heavenly father knows that you need them all. to all those things that the non-believing world is obsessing over and focusing all their energy on trying to achieve Jesus saying you don't need to worry about those things. God knows that you need those things. To live in this world, those things are essential to feed a human body to close a human bodies. Some of those things are essential, God knows that.

But isn't that comforting? if we truly understand that it should take a lot of anxiety and fear and worry away, because before you even gas, God knew what you needed.

He still wants you to ask, but he knew, you know, before you even prayed about this great need in your life. God knew that you needed it. He's already working out a plan to provide for those needs.

You know, God promises that when you seek Him, He will take care of you.

And then comes the final line there. Don't worry about tomorrow.

You're one of the commentators, I was reading said. How much of our worry lives in tomorrow?

Are tomorrow's bills, tomorrow's Health Report a conversation. We need to have tomorrow with somebody. But what Jesus is inviting us to hear is to let tomorrow live in tomorrow. He wants us to live in the present to the living today and to realize that God has promising us, that he is going to give us everything we need to make it through this day. He's going to give us all the resources. He's going to give us all the grace. He's going to give us all the peace, understanding anything we need for today. God promises to provide it. If we trust God.

We should be okay with that. Because our trust comes in knowing that he's going to give me what I need today. He's going to provide it all, and then tomorrow, when I face whatever I face tomorrow, he'll provide it again. He'll meet me with mercies a new, he will continue to provide. He doesn't just take care of me today. And then say well tomorrow you're on your own. I know God is there each and every day to provide for us.

So we can kind of see that the game plan Jesus is drawing up for us. Here is Make the kingdom first.

Yeah, that's where our priority needs to be seeking after the kingdom of God, and whatever that means for today. you know, do your best to Center your life around God's purposes and as you do you will see that gratitude just starts to well up within you because you start to see that everyday God does provide what you need to get through that day. He does provide the resources you need for that day.

And you'll begin to notice that you're less distracted by what you don't have, and more aware of what you already have been given. What you've already been blessed with you know you've stopped obsessing about tomorrow and your start to resting in the grace that God is showing you today.

So Jesus is told us. Not worried about life but to trust in our Heavenly father's provision. You know when we've seen from the scriptures there that gratitude grows when we look at creation and remember that God cares for us more than he even cares for his Creation in the other created things out there.

And you know, as we begin to truly focus on what God has already provided and we begin to show gratitude for that will see that something changes inside the bus. That gratitude begins to replace the anxiety. You know, and the peace of God begins to crowd out the fear that the constant worrying creates with Innocent instead of living as people who are just consumed by worry.

We start living as people who are consumed with gratitude who have an attitude of worship each and every day because they understand the blessings. They've been given

So the invitation, I want to throw out there for this first week of this study is to rest in God's faithful provision. To start Everyday by saying, Lord, I trust you to care for me today. I trust you to provide what I need. And then as you go throughout your day, look for God's fingerprints, all over everything that he provides you throughout the day. And understand that those things come from him. You know, that meal on your table, the air in your lungs, the relationship you have with your friends with your co-workers, with those around you. These are all signs of how much God cares for you. But we can't have gratitude for these things, if we don't notice them. if we don't acknowledge who they came from,

but you know God's blessings aren't just About what he gives us. It's also as I kind of mentioned a little bit there about who he surrounds us with, and that's what we're going to look at more next week is, you know, the blessing of relationships, the gift that relationships in our life can be. You know, the people that God has given us, who walk alongside us, the people that encourage us and the people that reflect his love to us. That's what we're going to look at.

So I pray that you'll be with me with us here, next week, as we continue to dig into how God always provides us with more than enough. Please pray with me.

Father, thank you for being our faithful provider and every season of life.

Lord, I pray that you will teach us to release our worries and rest. In the Peace of your presence, and your care.

Lord for us to realize that.

It's not all about us, it doesn't just depend on us.

Lord that we can trust you that you are faithful and that you will provide what we need for today.

So Lord, help us to leave the troubles and concerns of tomorrow and tomorrow. Interrupt trust you today. But today will be filled with everything we need. In order to seek after your kingdom. And Lord help us to seek your kingdom first.

Before we seek anything else and we pray this all in your most, holy name. Amen.