Peace in the King's Provision

A Adams

Kingdom People - The Sermon on the Mount • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

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Introduction & Review

Sermon on the Mount Review

setting/Beatitudes/salt & light (5:1-16)Body of sermon (5:17-7:12)Christ fulfills the Law & righteousnessPractice of Righteousness (6:1-18)3 pillars - Giving, Prayer, Fasting (mention Mission Trip)Lord’s PrayerKingdom Ambition (6:19-34)3 summaries - Treasure, the good eye and the bad eye, and no one can serve 2 masters (19-24)Peace in the King’s Provision

setting/Beatitudes/salt & light (5:1-16)

LAST WEEK: Cliffhanger - because word “THEREFORE” in v25 - “THEREFORE, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life...” - why?

Body of sermon (5:17-7:12)

Jamie’s sermon last week - Kingdom People are not greedyChrist’s answer to greed - first, to lay up treasure in heaven instead of on earth; second, to be generous - “to have a good eye” = generosity, “to have a bad eye” = to resent / envy; third, to submit ourselves to God as His servants - because we cannot faithfully serve both God and moneyThe connection between last week’s text and this week’s text - really about how the Kingdom of God is intended to completely transform our priorities. If we did not have a heavenly Father who cared for us, if we didn’t have a promise that we could lay up treasures where they can never be rusted, eaten, stolen, or destroyed; if we didn’t have a reason for confidence in these things, we actually would have reason to be anxious for all these things.In fact, that’s Jesus’s point in today’s text. The default position for human beings is anxiety and worry about the necessities of life, because our priorities and our hopes are not shaped by the promises of the Kingdom - the Beatitudes - but by the fallen, corrupt, and imperfect kingdoms and systems of this worldSomeone who doesn’t believe they have an invincible investment and an invulnerable inheritance with their Heavenly Father will, to various degrees, invest worry in earthly kingdoms and investment schemes. For the record, to various degrees, Kingdom People do the same thing, but by God’s grace, we have every reason to abandon fear and worry when we remember who has guaranteed our investment in heaven.

Opening Illustration re: Hedge Funds, government bonds, pyramid schemes, and protection rackets

Christ fulfills the Law & righteousness

After WWI, the US shot quickly to the top of the world economy. For the first time, because of incredible industrial innovations, automobiles became affordable to middle class families. Electrical production increased fourfold. The telephone, radio, jazz music, urbanization, more people had more wealth than ever before. When you think of the 1920s, if you think of anything, you probably imagine flappers in fringey dresses, tycoons driving Duesenbergs, and silent movie stars with Brylcream in their hair. The Stock Market became a household term, even for families who had no idea what the difference was between the Stock Exchange and the Stockyards. The name of the game was trading low and selling high. There was hope in the almighty dollar, there was promise in progress, and there was a new god making all these guarantees - a new golden calf - in the form of a BULL MARKET.And if you remember your high school history, how the decade ended. The Great Depression plunged the world into a decade and a half of struggle, hunger, poverty, and worry. Because your actual security is only as strong as the god guaranteeing it. Some people lost hope in everything. Some people turned to Jesus. And a whole lot of people started trying to come up with better guarantees against future crashes.The markets were volatile, and they would continue to be volatile. Scams started popping up promising to make you rich quick. In 1935, people started receiving an unsolicited chain letter in the mail, called the “Prosperity Club,” that started right here in Colorado. In poorer communities, illegal lotteries called Numbers Games became popular ways to lose money. Get-Rich-Quick schemes play on our innate desire to trust others if a deal looks like it benefits us, even if we have no reason to trust the person selling us the lie. That’s why tricksters are called con-men - confidence men. Their swagger hits the right notes in our desire to get ahead. And our anxiety about the future makes us want a better guarantee. But to me, the most fascinating thing that popped up after the Great Depression is the hedge fund. Looking at the fact that every bull market is followed by a bear, and every single stock is a risk, the Big Guys with the Big Money figured out a way to hedge their bets against almost anything. If you pool your money together to buy not just one stock, not just a bunch of stocks in a bunch of industries, but also actual metals, pieces of art, government bonds, foreign currency, securities, and whatever else you can think of, even when the market crashes, you’ll do better than most everyone else. When you look at hedge funds, mutual funds, index funds, there’s a common theological thread running through them all: No one is guaranteeing your future at all. So, you’d better hedge your bets. The security we feel in our future is based in our confidence in our guarantor. Jesus says it this way in verse 32: “Gentiles - the people without your guarantor - obsess over all these things.” But Kingdom People have a better guarantee. An indestructible investment. A Kingdom to inherit. And that means we don’t have to worry.

Practice of Righteousness (6:1-18)

3 pillars - Giving, Prayer, Fasting (mention Mission Trip)

Proposition:

Question:

Lord’s Prayer

Kingdom Ambition (6:19-34)

Organization:

Don’t worry - your life is in the hands of your FatherDon’t worry - your bread is from the hand of your KingDon’t worry - your tomorrow is out of your hands!

3 summaries - Treasure, the good eye and the bad eye, and no one can serve 2 masters (19-24)

Peace in the King’s Provision

FCF: We anxiously obsess over obtaining basic necessities rather than the Kingdom because we fear there is no Father who knows, cares, and will provide

LAST WEEK: Cliffhanger - because word “THEREFORE” in v25 - “THEREFORE, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life...” - why?

We see our neighbors obsess it fear their lack is from an insufficient fear - so we fear moreWe see others worry their health away and worry that we aren’t worried enough

Look @ the birds & lilies INSTEAD of your neighbors

Jamie’s sermon last week - Kingdom People are not greedy

Remember your Father cares:

Jamie’s sermon last week - Kingdom People are not greedy

Christ’s answer to greed - first, to lay up treasure in heaven instead of on earth; second, to be generous - “to have a good eye” = generosity, “to have a bad eye” = to resent / envy; third, to submit ourselves to God as His servants - because we cannot faithfully serve both God and money

- all thingsEph 1:3 - every spiritual blessing

The connection between last week’s text and this week’s text - really about how the Kingdom of God is intended to completely transform our priorities.

Common causes of anxiety:

DeathLoss of jobRejectionDivorceHealthPovertyWho will care for me in old ageLonelinessGrades / GPASocial MediaLoss of faithConfrontationCoronavirusEconomy, housing mktRelationshipsOpening up - fear that someone will not love me if they know the real meMaking mistakesMoneyMessing up kidsKids’ healthKids knowing JesusHow you lookPoliticsRetirement

If we did not have a heavenly Father who cared for us, if we didn’t have a promise that we could lay up treasures where they can never be rusted, eaten, stolen, or destroyed; if we didn’t have a reason for confidence in these things, we actually would have reason to be anxious for all these things.

In fact, that’s Jesus’s point in today’s text. The default position for human beings is anxiety and worry about the necessities of life, because our priorities and our hopes are not shaped by the promises of the Kingdom - the Beatitudes - but by the fallen, corrupt, and imperfect kingdoms and systems of this world

Someone who doesn’t believe they have an invincible investment and an invulnerable inheritance with their Heavenly Father will, to various degrees, invest worry in earthly kingdoms and investment schemes. For the record, to various degrees, Kingdom People do the same thing, but by God’s grace, we have every reason to abandon fear and worry when we remember who has guaranteed our investment in heaven.

Opening Illustration re: Hedge Funds, government bonds, pyramid schemes, and protection rackets

When you think of the 1920s, if you think of anything, you probably imagine flappers in fringey dresses, tycoons driving Duesenbergs, and silent movie stars with Brylcream in their hair.

The Stock Market became a household term, even for families who had no idea what the difference was between the Stock Exchange and the Stockyards. The name of the game was trading low and selling high. There was hope in the almighty dollar, there was promise in progress, and there was a new god making all these guarantees - a new golden calf - in the form of a BULL MARKET.

And if you remember your high school history, how the decade ended.

The Great Depression plunged the world into a decade and a half of struggle, hunger, poverty, and worry. Because your actual security is only as strong as the god guaranteeing it.

Some people lost hope in everything. Some people turned to Jesus. And a whole lot of people started trying to come up with better guarantees against future crashes.

The markets were volatile, and they would continue to be volatile. Scams started popping up promising to make you rich quick. In 1935, people started receiving an unsolicited chain letter in the mail, called the “Prosperity Club,” that started right here in Colorado. In poorer communities, illegal lotteries called Numbers Games became popular ways to lose money.

Get-Rich-Quick schemes play on our innate desire to trust others if a deal looks like it benefits us, even if we have no reason to trust the person selling us the lie. That’s why tricksters are called con-men - confidence men. Their swagger hits the right notes in our desire to get ahead.

And our anxiety about the future makes us want a better guarantee.

But to me, the most fascinating thing that popped up after the Great Depression is the hedge fund. Looking at the fact that every bull market is followed by a bear, and every single stock is a risk, the Big Guys with the Big Money figured out a way to hedge their bets against almost anything. If you pool your money together to buy not just one stock, not just a bunch of stocks in a bunch of industries, but also actual metals, pieces of art, government bonds, foreign currency, securities, and whatever else you can think of, even when the market crashes, you’ll do better than most everyone else.

When you look at hedge funds, mutual funds, index funds, there’s a common theological thread running through them all: No one is guaranteeing your future at all. So, you’d better hedge your bets.

The security we feel in our future is based in our confidence in our guarantor.

Jesus says it this way in verse 32: “Gentiles - the people without your guarantor - obsess over all these things.”

But Kingdom People have a better guarantee. An indestructible investment. A Kingdom to inherit. And that means we don’t have to worry.

Question: And that brings us to and the question: What is that better guarantee? How should Kingdom People respond to the things the world worries about?

Question: And that brings us to and the question: What is that better guarantee? How should Kingdom People respond to

Question:

Organization: Three times in today’s text, Jesus says, “Do not be anxious,” and so we’ll divide the text into three main points. We don’t have to worry about our lives, our needs, or our futures. Why? Because of the one making the guarantee.

Organization:

I. Don’t worry - your life is in the hands of your Father (vv25-30)

Matthew 6:25–30 ESV

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? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

<<READ 25-30>>

If you look back over chapter 6, you’ll remember that Jesus called us away from the self-centered, false righteousness of the hypocrites, who give, and pray, and fast in order to be seen by others. Our attention is pointed back where it’s supposed to be when we seek the reward that comes from our Father instead.

The character and identity of God, and our relationship to Him, lies at the heart of Jesus’s exhortation. Do not be anxious about your life. Food, drink, and clothing are the obvious, basic necessities for life, right?

For the people that were sitting on the hillside with Jesus that day, they weren’t worried about eating out too much, or whether they needed to eat less meat, and they weren’t worried about whether high fructose corn syrup was the same as cane sugar. Many of them were worried about whether they would have food at all tomorrow. Famine could wipe out food supplies. Remember when we were in

For most of human history, people didn’t worry about how much food they would have, or whether they were going to eat prime beef or settle for SPAM, or if they would have to cut back to rice and beans.

Matthew 5:6 ESV

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

and we talked about “Famine Food”?

And while some of his listeners might have had two or three sets of clothes, that would have been a fairly significant amount of wealth. Many people had only an outer cloak and an inner tunic, all made of wool. For anybody, the loss of a single garment was a serious matter.

Jesus’s original listeners would have heard “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,” very differently than we typically do.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Matthew 6:25 ESV

So think about this: What would sweep your sense of security right out from under you in a moment? If a thief stole someone’s cloak, he would have wondered, “How in the world am I going to afford a new one, and how am I going to keep warm at night?”

Do not worry about your car. Your job. Do not worry about your medical bills. Maybe it gets closer to the mark for you that way.

Do not worry about catastrophe.

And he says, “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” We misread this when we think Jesus is saying that there’s more to life than food. That’s not what He’s saying - verses 26-30 show us that He’s making a point about why you shouldn’t worry. Your Father gave you life, so why would you wonder if He is able to give you food? He made your body. Doesn’t that mean He can clothe you?

That’s why Jesus follows up with those two well-known illustrations - the birds and the lilies.

Look at the birds, he says. Take your eyes off your anxious neighbor for a second and look somewhere else. They do even less than you for their food, and your Father feeds them. Verse 28 - Consider the lilies - how they grow - the wealth of Solomon was absolutely enormous by the standard of any age, including today. His wealth dwarfed Jeff Bezos, or Bill Gates, or Warren Buffett, or Carlos Slim. Solomon took in the equivalent of more than $40B per year in gold alone. Imagine the wardrobe of a man like that, and Jesus says

Look at the fields when the wildflowers explode in color. I have a photo of the national flower of Israel, the Red Anemone, taken by a photographer named Zachi Evenor in 2012. It’s a huge file, so let’s see if it displays.

Jesus says that God cares enough to invest this kind of beauty in a flower that shoots up into bloom, and before you know it, it’s dried out and used as tinder to start a wood-burning oven.

God created the birds and the lilies, and He provides for them. He’s their Creator, but He’s not their Father. He says “are you not more valuable than they?”

Your Father cares for you in ways that can’t compare to that. So why worry? Your life is in the hands of your heavenly Father, and if He can make you, He can feed you. In , possibly greatest chapter in the whole Bible, Paul looking @ our present sufferings as we wait for Christ to return. Just like Jesus in , Paul locates our hope in the guarantee that by faith in Christ we have become heirs to the Kingdom of God and children of God.

Romans 8:31–39 ESV

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

rom 8.31-32

There is

The word “anxious” here isn’t

II. Don’t worry - your bread is from the hand of your King (vv31-33)

Now look in <<READ>>

Matthew 6:31–33 ESV

31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Remember in the introduction to the Lord’s Prayer, in verse 7, we saw that “the Gentiles” heaped up empty words in their prayers to their false gods. Jesus drew a distinction there between the pagan nations, who had distant, impersonal, or uninterested gods. They had no confidence that their gods could or cared to hear them. Like worried hedge fund investors, they believed no one was guaranteeing their future. And so, they worry. The word “seek” appears in verses 32 and 33, but they’re slightly different, and the word in verse 32 carries the notion of an obsessive, preoccupied pursuit.

Notice the word “seek” in verses 32 and 33. But there’s a difference between them. The word in verse 32 carries the notion of an obsessive, preoccupied pursuit.

But the situation could not be more different for those who know the Lord. Because He knows that you need those things. And so, Jesus says, seek the Kingdom - and you don’t even have to do that with worried obsession. Seek the Kingdom first, as your first priority, but you don’t have to worry about the Kingdom.

Now

One of the great things about being at Bethel Baptist Church in 2020 is that God cares more about this church than you do. He cares more about rebuilding than you do. He cares more about the glory of His Name in Greeley than you do. And that frees us to pursue His priorities, His mission, His righteousness, and His Kingdom without fear. The Gospel of the Kingdom of God is the proclamation that in Jesus Christ, God is reconciling the world to Himself. He will reign forever and ever. Not “He might reign.” He will. He will save sinners from every tribe and tongue and nation. Not He might save. Because He has already ransomed them. He will bring the Kingdom in. So our calling is just to keep walking with Him, because our security and confidence is in the Father who already gave us His Son. He already demonstrated His love for us in that.

If He’s already given you the Bread of Life, why would you worry about food or anything else?

Let’s look at verse 34 and our third and final point:

III. Don’t worry - your tomorrow is out of your hands! (v34)

Matthew 6:34 ESV

34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

This is Jesus’s exclamation point. I wonder if you’ve ever had the experience of worrying that you’re worrying too much.

This is sort of the centerpiece of the madness of worry. He says in verse 27 that your worry can’t make you live longer. In fact, everybody knew even in Jesus’s day that it was the opposite. Worry shortens and shrivels life, and it doesn’t fix anything.

A heart set on heavenly treasure doesn’t worry about earthly treasure. It may come and go. A good eye isn’t envious or resentful or stingy because it’s lit up by the light of the Gospel. Servants of God don’t have to be afraid of tomorrow, because their master, their King, their Father will still be sovereign when the sun comes up.

In , we get a picture first of God’s character, and then the character of one who has been redeemed by God. says the Lord is gracious and merciful, His righteousness endures forever, He provides food for those who fear him, He remembers his covenant forever, He is faithful and just and trustworthy,

And then in we read “Blessed is the man who fears the LORD...” And look at the treasure he’s promised:

Psalm 112:3–4 ESV

3 Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. 4 Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.

ps 112.3-4

Psalm 112:6–7 ESV

6 For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever. 7 He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.

ps 112.6-7

Why would you worry about tomorrow? That’s like worrying you’re not worried enough.

ps 112

You know, we see our neighbors obsess over money, afraid they’ll never have enough. And then we think, “Huh, they make more than we do, and it’s not enough. They must not be worried enough.” So we worry more.

We see others worry their health away, and then we worry that maybe we’re not worried enough about our health. And so we worry more.

fear their lack is from an insufficient fear - so we fear more

Jesus says take your eyes of your neighbors and look at the birds and the lilies and remember that your Father cares.

We see others worry their health away and worry that we aren’t worried enough

Look @ the birds & lilies INSTEAD of your neighbors

Remember your Father cares:

You don’t have to be afraid of bad news.

I wonder who needs to hear that today.

I did a very unscientific survey this week. I asked several people a simple question: What are people anxious about? I got a ton of answers.

I want you to listen to all of these, and make your own list, and after every one of them, I want you to remember: You don’t have to be afraid of bad news, your heart can be firm, trusting in the LORD. He knows what you need, and He already gave you His Son.

People said folks are anxious about

Conclusion

O You of Little Faith

FCF: We anxiously obsess over obtaining basic necessities rather than the Kingdom because we fear there is no Father who knows, cares, and will provide

We see others worry their health away and worry that we aren’t worried enough

Look @ the birds & lilies INSTEAD of your neighbors

Death, layoffs, rejection, their marriages

Remember your Father cares:

- all things

- every spiritual blessing

Health, poverty, who will care for me in old age

Common causes of anxiety:

Death

Who will care for my kids when I’m gone?

Loss of job

Rejection

The one who created you loves them, and loves you.

Divorce

Health

Poverty

Who will care for me in old age

People are worried about

Loneliness, Grades / GPA getting into grad school

Grades / GPA

Social Media, afraid they might lose their faith

Social Media

Confrontation, Relationships, how they look and how others see them

Loss of faith

Opening up - fear that someone will not love me if they know the real me

Confrontation

But your Father knows what you need, and you can trust Him.

Coronavirus

People are worried about

Coronavirus, Economy, housing mkt, money, getting older, retirement

Economy, housing mkt

The one thing I will say about the coronavirus is that it is not a surprise to God, and you don’t have to be afraid.

Relationships

People said folks are worried about

Opening up - fear that someone will not love me if they know the real me

Making mistakes, money, messing up their kids

kids’ health, their kids’ salvation

What are you worried about today? I’m worried about my dad. I’m still learning how not to be afraid of bad news. But I don’t have to be, and neither do you.

Money

Because I’ve got the Good News that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Jesus Christ would not perish, but have everlasting life.

Messing up kids

That every single person who comes to the Father through Jesus Christ goes from being hostile to God to being a beloved child.

Kids’ health

He has given me the bread of life. He’s not holding anything back. He has clothed me in His own righteousness

Kids knowing Jesus

Isaiah 61:10 ESV

10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

isa 61.10-

How you look

Have you been reconciled to God? Have you come to Him, knowing you have no right to call upon Him, and asked for mercy in Christ anyway?

If you want true security, true peace, first you need peace with God. And that comes when you hear God calling to you, to come to Him. To abandon the old life, the life of self-rule and the world’s obsession with self-destructive so-called freedom. The only freedom worth having is freedom from sin and death, and that comes from bowing the knee to the Good King, the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, who died and rose again to ransom you from death.

we abandon the life of self-rule and the world’s obsession with self and its pursuit of

turning away from every other

Politics

If God clothes the grass with glory, and He has clothed you with His own righteousness, you can trust Him with your life, your bread, your tomorrow.

If God clothes the grass with glory, and He has promised to clothe you with His own righteousness as a gift, you can trust Him with your life, your bread, your tomorrow.

It is secure, and so are you.

Retirement

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