Our Lord, The Provider

– “OUR LORD, THE PROVIDER”

1) INTRODUCTION

a) Why does the church gather together?

i) God tells us to

ii) We need to

(1) ;

(2)

iii) The God we worship is worthy of praise

b) The primary goal of the church is to promote the Kingdom of God

i) Think of all the work that goes into making that happen.

ii) Do you realize the love the pastors have for the congregation?

iii) The most beautiful thing in the church is the congregation

c) Today, we are talking about the provision of the Lord, and it is a perfect time for us to be talking about it.

d) The hope of encouragement

e) Where are focus should be as a church and individually

f) What I am not saying!

i) The nature of work

ii) “I thought about what I was going to wear this morning”

iii) The nature of money

g) So, what am I saying? This gets us into the first point

2) THE LORD’S 1st COMMAND

a) Notice, The Lord is primarily concerned with our heart.

i) It is in the light of looming idolatry

ii) This is a theme in the greater sermon on the mount

(1) Background of purpose

(2) Background of religious elite

(a) Fit into chapter 6

(b) - “For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

(c) How easy is it for us to fall into the trap of Pharisaism?

(3) Background of the common people

(a) The belief that wealth equaled blessing

(b) Their whole understanding and expectations are being flipped

b) Notice the repetition of the command – vs. 25, 31, 34

i) God wants us to trust Him

ii) God knows what we need

3) THE LORD’S RESUMÉ

a) Consider nature

i) Consider the story of Job

b) Consider the Israelites

i) I was reading that some think there were as around 2 million Israelites that left Egypt.

ii) Consider people like Joseph

4) MAN’S RESUMÉ

a) We can’t change anything

i) The Lord’s Prayer

ii) Think of the amount of money Americans spend trying to extend their lives, but they never escape the sovereignty of God.

iii) My favorite quote of all time is George Whitfield who said, “We are immortal until our work for God is done.”

b) We mess it up

i) We pursue idols

(1) They say you can see what matters to someone by looking at their checkbook and their calendar

ii) We pursue self-interest

iii) We don’t trust the Lord- v. 30- “Oh you of little faith”

c) Can I end with an honest question for you all to ponder? This is something that the Lord has been convicting me on in my own life.

i) How much time do you spend in your life trying to prove to yourself that you are in control?

(1) God back to the sermon on the mount. The implication that God calls us to pray that He won’t lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one is that we are weak, and we need Him to give us strength

(2) Do you understand how much prayer every sermon is steeped in?

5) THE LORD’S FINAL COMMANDS

a) Once we see God’s 1st command, His proven goodness, and our weakness, the second command is easy to understand

i) Seek the God who is our Lord.

ii) Proclaim His name to others

iii) Description of sharing the gospel- Air Compressor

b) Focus on today’s trials – This has been my motto in Seminary

c) Think of the beauty of the promise

6) CONCLUSION

a) There were 2 things I wanted to stress in the title for this sermon

i) He is our Lord – He gets to tell us what to do

ii) He is our provider

b) What are we finding our contentment in?

c) Where are we finding our trust?

d) Who is our master?

i) Does your spiritual devotion get beyond the roof of this church?

ii) Do you understand that the hope of that we have is free?