Latest / CCC West Covina / Knowing Our God

Transcript

Knowing Our God · CCC West Covina

0:00
Let's go ahead and the time we have now to be able to get into
0:02
God's word. I think you had your notes there
0:04
before you. If not, we'll, I don't mind if
0:06
you walk back and get a new copy back there, but you can see your
0:11
notes there Tonight. I'm going to talk about knowing
0:15
our God, knowing our God. This, this is a lifetime study.
0:21
And the verse that we had before you can see is Matthew 625
0:26
through 34. But these were actually the
0:29
first verses that I ever learned from Scripture when I was a kid.
0:34
And I, I didn't know they're in Matthew chapter 6.
0:36
But my mom didn't know many verses, but she knew this
0:40
section of Scripture somehow. And she always taught these
0:43
verses to me. And so that's the first part I
0:46
ever learned about God's word. My mom, she lived to be 93 years
0:50
old and yesterday we had a funeral.
0:51
She passed away on July 6th. And I spoke at the grave site to
0:56
the people yesterday in attendance about this verse.
0:59
And yes, pastor, I started the Ecclesiastes 72 which says what
1:04
is better go to the House of mourning than to go to a House
1:07
of feasting because as the end of every man and the living
1:09
takes it to heart. And we had opportunity to share
1:13
the gospel with the people there.
1:15
And I trust that the Lord would use that to change people's
1:19
hearts. But at the gravesite I spoke by
1:22
my mom and the impact of Matthew 625 on my life and the lives of
1:27
her children. And let me go ahead and read a
1:29
text to you. Matthew 6, 2534 says For this
1:48
reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life so as
1:53
what you would eat or what you would drink, nor for your body
1:57
as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food and
2:02
the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air,
2:06
that they do not sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet
2:10
your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than
2:15
they? And who have you bought by being
2:18
worried can add a single cubit to his lifespan?
2:21
And why are you worried about clothing?
2:24
Observe how the lilies of the field grow.
2:27
They do not toil, nor do they spin.
2:30
Did I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed
2:33
himself like one of these? But if God so clothes the grass
2:37
of the field, which is the light today, and tomorrow is going to
2:41
the furnace, will he not much more clothe you?
2:45
You have little faith. Do not worry then, saying, what
2:48
will we eat, or what will we drink, or what will we wear for
2:52
clothing? For all these things the
2:54
Gentiles eagerly seek, but your heavenly Father knows that you
2:58
need all these things, but seek first his Kingdom and his
3:02
righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
3:06
So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about
3:09
itself. Each day has enough trouble of
3:12
its own. My mom would knew this text.
3:17
We were poor as a family and often my mom was concerned about
3:21
how how his kids would would they be fed and how we even get
3:25
through through difficult times. And she she didn't know much
3:29
about the Bible, but but this area of the birds of the field,
3:32
she would, she would quote to me and she would say, Roger, God
3:37
takes care of the birds in the air.
3:39
He takes care of the lives of the field.
3:41
He'll take care of us also. He'll provide for us as he
3:44
always has. And, and I would look up at her
3:47
and, and see the face. She had a faith upon our Lord
3:50
and she would trust our Lord. And I saw what faith looked like
3:54
in a person when I was growing up.
3:56
And I, I got that, that God did provide for his world.
4:00
He did provide for the birds. And my mom went to God first in
4:04
prayer and she did that. And I, I saw that that
4:06
demonstration of her faith through to the scriptures in
4:09
Matthew chapter chapter 6. But we didn't have much money
4:14
whatsoever. But my mom did shape my views as
4:17
to God's word at a very age. And she helped me to see the
4:20
very character and nature of God, which is what we look at
4:23
tonight. She appoints in your lesson
4:25
there God is as a God who, who is sovereign.
4:29
He is a God who, who is a good God and he is a God who is
4:32
faithful. And that's all what Matthew
4:34
chapter 6 is all about. So we didn't have a lot of
4:38
money, but there there is no greater greater study that that
4:41
we can anybody can do than to study the character and the
4:44
nature of God to to know our God at the very heart of our
4:49
Christian faith that that that's what we need to be focused upon
4:53
in our hearts and mind to know where God and to see who he is
4:57
should be where our hearts always let always lay.
5:01
And pastor has a great series. If you haven't had opportunity
5:04
to go to the the Tate ministry or just on on on the Internet.
5:08
It's called God exploring his essence.
5:11
And there is no greater study that a pastor can give to their
5:15
people than to stay the character and nature and
5:18
attributes of God. Why?
5:20
Because that affects every aspect of our Christian faith to
5:24
see he's a God of goodness, a God of mercy, a God of kindness,
5:27
a God of forgiveness effects our hearts and life.
5:30
It affects our worship. It affects how we share Christ.
5:34
It affects how how we lead our families to say he's sovereign.
5:37
He's over all our lives, affects us every single day of our
5:41
lives. There is no greater study to
5:44
have than to see that God is your Savior.
5:47
We must see him as his creator. We must see him as holy and
5:51
sovereign over all aspects of our lives in order to be saved.
5:55
Certainly how you see God determines how you see Christ
5:59
his Son. How you see God determines your
6:02
sanctification and your holiness and how you how how well you
6:06
worship him. How you see God determines how
6:10
you show your faith, how you see him as judge and how you see him
6:14
as being a loving God. How you see God determines every
6:17
part of of your Christian faith and whether he's coming back or
6:21
not. AW told us that his book about
6:24
knowing God, the book, the book called the knowledge of the
6:28
sorry, the knowledge of the holy.
6:31
Excuse me, he says. The history of mankind will
6:34
probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion,
6:39
and man's spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no
6:43
religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.
6:49
Worship is pure or base as a worshipper entertains high or
6:55
low thoughts of God. For this reason the the gravest
6:58
question before the church is always God himself.
7:02
And the most pretentious fact about any man is not what he at
7:06
a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart
7:10
conceives God to be like. How do you see your God?
7:15
How do you see Him as He rules and reigns over your life?
7:18
How do you see Him as he reigns over your family?
7:21
How does your wife and your kids see see our Lord, It's our
7:24
response to make sure that our family members see God the
7:28
proper way, that they worship and praise him correctly, that
7:32
there is no greater stood than state of character and nature of
7:36
God. And that's what I hope we're
7:37
going to do tonight. So as you look your notes that
7:39
you can see, we're going to talk about the nature of God in
7:43
Matthew chapter 6. We spoke about it a little
7:46
earlier, but the first point that I want you to see is to
7:49
talk about not worrying the text here and about the birds of the
7:52
air and the layers of the field and about when, about tomorrow
7:55
and so on. You got to see that God is a
7:58
sovereign God. He's a sovereign God.
8:00
And that's that's in verse #25 if you look back over there, our
8:03
Lord says for this way, I say to you, do not be worried about
8:06
your life. I'm sovereign as to what you eat
8:09
or what you would drink, nor for your body as to what you would
8:13
put on. It's not like more than food in
8:15
the body, more than clothing. Now Lord gives us this beautiful
8:19
illustration using the birds to help us to see.
8:22
Look at the birds of the air. Do they not sow, nor reap, nor
8:25
get into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
8:28
Are you not much more than they God?
8:32
God is sovereign over the birds in the air, and He used the
8:36
illustration, I think, to help us to see something that we can
8:39
see. Every single day we see the
8:41
birds flying around in our house.
8:43
We have a lot of crows that fly in our house all over the place
8:46
and more crows you possibly but like the birds the movie, right?
8:49
But God did put those crows in our neighborhood for a reason,
8:52
babe. And we have to kind of hear them
8:54
crowing and crowing and crowing. But this is a good thing to have
8:57
birds in the air. And God is sovereign over over
9:00
the over those birds and he controls them.
9:03
He controls their life. He controls the life of the
9:05
birds and he feeds them and he provides for them.
9:08
He takes care of them and the birds don't worry about food.
9:13
They don't worry about their nest and what where they're
9:16
going to go to fly to for a given day.
9:18
They're not flying around worrying.
9:20
They just know that they will have food, the text said.
9:24
They don't sow, they don't gather, they they don't reap
9:27
things for themselves. They don't store their food.
9:31
They just trust in the sovereignty of God.
9:34
Birds, without knowing it, trust in sovereignty of God that God
9:38
will take care of them as he takes care of all animals in the
9:41
world. It takes care of us, but our
9:42
Lord uses the example of of the birds that help us to see God's
9:46
a sovereign God who controls every aspect of of our lives.
9:51
Then our Lord goes on and say, what about the lives of the
9:53
field and why are you worried about clothing?
9:56
Observe how lives of the field grow.
9:58
They do not toil nor do they spin.
10:02
The ladies in the field aren't worried.
10:04
They don't toil to they don't try to to grow upwards.
10:09
They they just grow and God is solvent.
10:11
He makes them grow. God waters little fields, he
10:16
gives them sunlight, he gives them nutrients from the soil.
10:19
He solved and controls every aspect and part of their lives.
10:23
And Lily's just without knowingly trust upon God's
10:27
sovereignty, how much more that should we do so is the point
10:30
that glory is making to us, and not to worry about whatever
10:34
might come before us. The problem with worrying,
10:37
though, is that it is sinful that it is not trusting
10:41
ultimately in God's sovereignty. Philippians 46 says be anxious
10:46
for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with
10:51
Thanksgiving that you request being being be made known to
10:55
God. Whenever we don't trust in God's
10:58
sovereignty over our lives, we we start to trust and own
11:01
abilities and start to see ourselves as being the one who
11:04
who rules and reigns over over our own life.
11:07
And the question in sovereignty ultimately is who's in control?
11:12
Who's in control of our lives? Who's directing the birds or the
11:16
lilies? Who's controlling and directing
11:18
our own personal lives as humans?
11:21
Certainly people by the very nature want to be in control
11:23
over their own lives. We want to be from, from our
11:26
perspective, the rulers of our own own lives.
11:31
We often think that we're in control as we make the choice
11:33
that we do upon upon this world. And we think that as as as we
11:37
work hard to feed our families and achieve the goals what you
11:40
have before us, that's us that the animals have been able to do
11:44
so. But ultimately, although our
11:47
perspective is we're in control, God ultimately is control of
11:50
every aspect of our lives. He always has been.
11:54
He controls every single breath that we have.
11:56
He controls our birthday and our death date.
11:59
He controls everything that happens upon until to our world.
12:03
And so while men might think they're in control of many
12:05
aspects, and certainly men have a responsibility to lead their
12:08
families while we get that, but God ultimately is control of all
12:11
things. He, he is sovereign over all
12:13
things that happened to us. The word sovereign means to be
12:17
over or above. First Timothy 615 says God the
12:23
blessed and only sovereign, King of kings and Lord of Lords.
12:27
He sovereign over the universe he created.
12:30
He's solving over all aspects of his children's lives.
12:33
He does what he wants. Isaiah 4610 says my counsel
12:37
should not shall stand. I will do all my pleasure.
12:41
Ephesians 111 He works all things according to the counsel
12:46
of of his will and he controls this world.
12:50
He's above all things in a loving and compassionate way.
12:54
He chooses to be merciful and loving to to his creatures.
12:58
While he could be cruel and merciless, He chooses to be kind
13:02
and compassion and loving and graceful and merciful toward us.
13:06
Now Lords, Lords want to help us to see that within the text here
13:10
of Matthew 6, He's a sovereign God.
13:12
He rules and reigns over over all all things, certainly the
13:15
birds of the field, certainly and the lilies, but also over
13:18
over our lives and as you walk our Christian life as as we as
13:22
you go through the difficulties that we come upon.
13:24
We need to see that God certainly is solvent over all
13:27
aspects of our lives. Romans 828 to say we know that
13:31
God works all things according to the goodness of all the work.
13:34
God works all things according to his plan, all things
13:37
according to the plan, right? She called us there's nothing
13:40
bad which happens to a Christian.
13:43
All things we're together for good in his ultimate plan.
13:46
Even that happens to us is a good thing unless we sin, that's
13:50
a bad thing. But everything happens to a
13:52
Christian. Whether we perceive it as good
13:55
or bad is irrelevant is a good thing in God's ultimate plan.
13:59
And that's the respect means to have all things were to get to
14:02
good for good. It was for those who are called
14:05
according to his his purposes. He saw of our lives or over our
14:10
church. He controls every aspect that
14:12
happens at church and he feeds the birds and he guides the
14:16
directs their path and the same way he guides and directs us
14:18
within within our church. In Matthew 6, he says the birds
14:22
of the air that lives the field applied just as well to his
14:27
church. And we are called not not to
14:29
worry about anything in the process.
14:31
But worrying is not trusting upon our Lord.
14:34
Worrying is a saying that you're kind of sobbing, but you're not
14:38
really sobbing when you worry. You're saying you're God, but
14:42
you're really not God, right? Because I don't trust you to do
14:46
this or that you, you are lowering God to something less
14:50
than He is, which is sent for and wrong and being the creator
14:53
and the maker of the universe. God will not say that that is
14:57
acceptable. He is solving of every molecule
15:00
within His universe and He does not like it when His children
15:04
doubt Him and question who He is.
15:06
We need to see He sees a holy, wonderful, sovereign God over
15:10
all things and live our lives in the same manner, thinking that
15:14
way, no matter what happens to us good or we might say
15:18
difficult and challenging. God is sovereign.
15:21
We trust upon him. We trust that God will somehow
15:24
and his ultimate plan work out this to be a good thing.
15:28
And Matthew, Matthew talks about that.
15:30
He takes care of the birds, He takes care of their lilies.
15:33
Point #2 it also talks about the goodness of God, says he clothes
15:38
the grass to the field. He provides for them whether
15:43
whether whatever they eat, he takes care of the birds,
15:45
whatever they drink, whether the lilies are clothed for our God
15:50
is a good God. He feeds and takes care of his
15:53
creation. He clothes and provides with his
15:56
goodness for all of our needs. He meets all that the material
16:00
needs of his creation. He meets all all our spiritual
16:03
needs. He takes care of all we might
16:05
have for provisions. What he takes care of us at all
16:10
times because he soon is is a good God.
16:13
And the word goodness means he's, he's one who is
16:16
benevolent. The word goodness means he's a
16:18
God who is loving and mercy and speaks about his grace as all
16:23
parts of God's goodness. He doesn't do good occasionally
16:28
to us in our lives. We can't say, oh, God's been
16:31
good to me today. God's been good to you every
16:33
single day. And if something good happens to
16:36
your life, you might say he's a good God.
16:37
Thank you, God, yes, that's a good thing to do so.
16:40
But he's a good God when we perceived as being a bad thing.
16:44
He's a good God when we see the difficulty come to our lives as
16:47
being difficult and challenging our perception of the events
16:51
that happened to our lives. And it's not based upon reality.
16:54
It's based upon what we perceive God is a good, wonderful, giving
16:59
God to us, whether we see that or we don't see it.
17:02
So he wants us to to give him thanks.
17:05
So he wants us to give him praise and and to appreciate him
17:08
for what he's done for us. And hopefully our hearts are
17:10
always directed in that manner to see his characters to see his
17:14
nature. Psalm 1/19/68 says you are good
17:18
and you do good. Teach me your statues that he's
17:23
a good God. He does good.
17:26
When my father passed away, unbeliever, I got my family
17:29
against. You know what Psalm 1/19/68
17:32
says? You are good and do good.
17:35
Teach me your statues. So yes, even when the unbeliever
17:38
goes to hell, God is good. He does good.
17:43
Christ, he's eternally good. Before there was anyone to be
17:47
good about, God was good. We usually need someone to be
17:51
good towards, right? You give something towards them.
17:54
Before there was even a human being to be around this world to
17:57
act upon, God was good. It's his character, it's his
18:01
nature, it's who he is. God cannot be bad.
18:05
God cannot be merciless. You cannot be one who is cruel
18:09
to His creation. His first very act of creation
18:13
was after every every single day He created something.
18:16
It always sent in a text, and God saw that it was good.
18:20
After every day of creation. You can't do it ever do anything
18:23
that that is not good. You can't act bad.
18:26
You can't and won't do anything bad to His creation or to His
18:30
people. And all that happened in this
18:32
world is therefore sovereignly good.
18:36
And our Lord knows all our needs.
18:38
He knows where we where our hearts are.
18:41
He knows what he has provided for us.
18:43
He knows his birds here in the text here.
18:45
He knows his lilies, He knows his rulers.
18:48
He knows our church, He knows our family.
18:50
He knows every aspect of our hearts and our lives.
18:53
And that's where our hearts need need to start.
18:56
He's a good God. He's always taken care of me
18:58
before. He will always provide for me in
19:01
the future, and He gives to His children abundantly beyond you
19:05
could possibly imagine. You can't even see the blessing
19:08
our Lord Sonia has given to us, but He's given to us.
19:11
James 1, James 117. Every good thing given and every
19:17
perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of
19:20
lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
19:24
He's a crate of the moon and the planets.
19:27
God isn't changed like the shadows on the moon and the
19:31
planets. He is is unchangeable.
19:34
His goodness did not change. He's not He's not more good to
19:38
us because we're good at him. He's not more good to us if we
19:42
do, if we if we act as good Christians.
19:45
He gives equally to the the believer and to unbeliever and
19:49
it gives many promises with his word.
19:51
If we follow his word, you'd be blessed by many blessings
19:54
afterward. He's he's a good guy.
19:56
He knows the gifts he gives to us.
20:00
We we give Christmas gifts that that might change or based upon
20:04
our yearly finances, you might have more presents or less
20:07
presents on the Christmas tree. God's gifts never change.
20:12
There was. There's no other text says
20:14
there's no variation and. Or shifting shadow in God's gift
20:19
goodness, he doesn't change. There is no changing shadow.
20:23
All that we are given by God is good for us and must be seen as
20:27
good. And my mom, when she, when she
20:32
told us about the birds of the air, she wanted me to see God's
20:35
goodness. She wanted me to see God's
20:37
sovereignty of our lives. And she would use illustration.
20:41
She would say, doesn't doesn't God provide for the birds in the
20:44
air? I say yes, then he'd take care
20:46
of Lily's little field. Yes, he does.
20:48
Well, don't want you to take care of us.
20:50
Yes, I do, mom. And then she would make me pray
20:53
next to her. She made me pray next to her and
20:56
that that was a good thing. She always, she always wanted me
20:59
to have the right perspective and seeing who God is.
21:01
He's also a God who is a faithful God.
21:04
The faithfulness of God is seen in 633, which is my second
21:09
favorite verse in the Bible. But seek first his Kingdom and
21:14
his righteousness and all these things we added to you.
21:17
So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for
21:21
itself. Each day has enough trouble of
21:23
its own. God asked us to to trust in His
21:28
faithfulness and He'll provide for all His creation.
21:31
We're not to worry about tomorrow and how we'll get our
21:34
daily food. God says all these things will
21:38
be added to you. All of you are in needs provided
21:43
is trusting God's Word, trusting God to be faithful to His word,
21:47
and He will be faithful to provide for us as He as He
21:50
always has. Faithfulness is part of of who
21:53
God is part of His character is part of His nature.
21:57
Revelation 3 says that God is faithful and true, and the word
22:01
faithful means to have firmness. He's a firm God.
22:06
He's a it means stability. He's a steady God.
22:09
He's a stable God. He's a dependable God.
22:11
He never changes. He's reliable.
22:14
You can count upon him. This is the great text of
22:18
Scripture. Matthew 633 is the verse you
22:24
want to underline your Bible. It's the verse you want to
22:26
highlight in your Bible. It's a life verse that I've
22:29
always lived my life by. We are called to to seek His
22:33
Kingdom and His righteousness and to know that all these
22:37
things that will be added to us. We don't worry about the things
22:40
that we have within our homes and how would God provide for
22:44
our families. We don't worry about our
22:45
finances or the direction our church would go.
22:48
We don't worry about anything Queen of God, it says we'll be
22:53
at all. These will be added to you.
22:55
God is faithful. He's forgiving in our salvation.
22:59
First John 19 his faith forgive us.
23:02
His problems are always true. God is faithful in protecting
23:06
us. Psalm 8411 for the Lord God is a
23:10
son and his shield. The Lord give grace and glory.
23:13
No good thing does he behold from those who walk uprights.
23:17
There's not anything that God withhold from us if you walk in
23:20
his righteousness. God is faithful and helping us
23:25
to resist temptation. First Corinthians 10/13 no
23:30
temptation. This has overtaken you.
23:32
God is faithful when our lie be tempted beyond what you are
23:36
able. God is faithful in keeping us.
23:39
Second Timothy 112 I'm convinced that he is able to guard
23:44
whatever entrust to you until that day and the text he said so
23:48
do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of
23:51
itself. God is faithful in our
23:54
glorification. First Thessalonians 523
23:58
faithfully is he who calls you and he will bring it to pass.
24:03
That's our God, a faithful God. God it God is truly faithful.
24:09
Psalm 36 five, your loving kind of soul Lord extends to the
24:13
heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the
24:17
skies. That's pretty good.
24:18
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies as far as you could
24:23
possibly imagine. He's he's a good God.
24:26
He's a sovereign God. And Matthew 6 talks about that
24:29
last point. Our notes what what should our
24:32
response be to seeing our God, to seeing who he is in his
24:36
character? The verse clearly says we are
24:40
called to seek his Kingdom and his righteousness and know that
24:45
God provides for us. We understand he's he's a
24:48
sovereign God over the birds in the air and sovereign over the
24:51
lilies of the field. And you tell us our response
24:53
should be to seek first his Kingdom.
24:57
That's what we're called to do that that should be our response
25:00
to seeing who who God is, but not to focus on what we have or
25:04
what we what we don't have. We are called to to trust God to
25:08
add to our lives according to his all knowing polyphone
25:12
knowledge of our lives. He knows it all.
25:15
But what does it mean to first of all, to seek his Kingdom,
25:20
right? But that is to to focus our
25:22
hearts and our minds of that which is is eternal, his
25:26
Kingdom, the Kingdom of God. There is no great expression
25:30
that we that the text has and all the Scripture has when our
25:33
Lord said the Kingdom of God. And I think that's forgotten in
25:36
our in our Christian communities, that expression,
25:39
the Kingdom of God. Christ uses us all the time
25:42
throughout the New Testament. He wants to see he's king as we
25:47
share Christ. He's saying, oh, he has a
25:48
Kingdom, he is a king. And we are far away from from
25:52
thinking that way and our society to say that the Kingdom
25:56
of God sounds kind of foreign to us, right?
25:59
He brings out images of some kings that are rulers in the
26:01
wrong way. Latex say he's a king of all
26:04
kings, the king of kings and the Lord of Lords.
26:07
It's called the Kingdom of God, that which is eternal, that
26:09
which is heaven afterwards, and we need to be able to share
26:14
that. Christ says this is his Kingdom.
26:16
He is the great king. He shall come back someday.
26:20
Early in chapter 6, we look back in 610, Jesus Christ models to
26:27
his disciples how to pray, and he told them in Matthew 6, your
26:32
Kingdom come and you will be done on earth as it is in
26:36
heaven. He wants, He wants us to see
26:39
that his Father's Kingdom to come to this earth, to exist on
26:43
this earth as it currently does in heaven right now.
26:46
And we want Christ to rule and reign upon this world as it as
26:50
it this right now. As believers in Christ, we trust
26:54
in Christ, take care of us and provide for us as he provides
26:57
for the birds in the air. Certainly.
26:59
But what our response is Colossians 3/2 an eternal
27:04
perspective. Colossians 32 Set your minds of
27:08
things above none of the things that on earth.
27:12
Our focus is on being citizens of heaven.
27:15
Our citizenship is with heaven. Our focus is on doing works that
27:19
have eternal consequence. Paul talks about that in First
27:23
Corinthians, how we are called to to build upon the foundation
27:27
of Christ, to live our lives and do works which have eternal
27:30
consequence. To build upon that with gold and
27:34
silver and precious stones, the building, so to speak, and not
27:37
with wood, hay and stubble which are building material, which are
27:40
inferior and which are burn it, burn it up eventually upon the
27:44
temporary things, this world, that which is gold, silver and
27:47
precious stones, that which works, which have eternal
27:49
consequence. And we're to build upon the
27:51
foundation and make the building of our lives.
27:54
But upon works which are good, gold, silver, precious stones,
27:59
we're to make sure the things we do in our life have eternal
28:02
consequences and not things which only have temporary
28:05
consequent in this world. It speaks about whether you help
28:08
your neighbor to move or you share the gospel with somebody,
28:12
right? Whether you have a delicious
28:14
meal somewhere which I'll burn up someday, or whether you're
28:16
worshiping Christ, right. How do you spend your days?
28:20
Are you doing things which have temporary consequences, which
28:23
are good woods double hey, but those things ultimately shall
28:28
burn up someday when this world goes away.
28:30
We need to make sure that we do think we have eternal
28:33
consequence. And my Lord says to us, seek
28:35
first his Kingdom. He's saying have an eternal
28:37
perspective, see that which is larger, share the gospel,
28:42
worship Christ well, make sure your kids see Christ, make them,
28:46
make them your priorities. We want Christ to return to this
28:50
world to be with us. So that's where our hearts lay.
28:54
And Titus 213 tell us where our hearts need to be.
28:58
It says looking for the blessed hope and the parent of the glory
29:01
of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus who gave himself
29:06
for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for
29:09
himself people for his own possession, zealous for for good
29:14
works. Our hearts desires that we want
29:16
to be with him for heaven, heaven.
29:18
We want to be with our Lord for heaven, heaven.
29:20
We want his Kingdom to come. We want heaven to begin the
29:23
things of this world to to fade away.
29:26
We're called to to seek his Kingdom and also his
29:31
righteousness. That's what we're called to do.
29:34
That should be our response to seek his righteousness and to
29:38
trust our Lord, provide for us as he does what lives the field.
29:42
We are to seek his righteousness.
29:44
What does that mean to to seek God's righteousness?
29:48
The Strong's Concordance describes this verse
29:50
righteousness as integrity, virtue, purity of life.
29:58
We're to seek rightness and correctness in in the world.
30:02
Would it seek correct thinking and correct feelings?
30:06
Would it seek right and correct acting in our hearts and our
30:10
lives? God says to seek his seek his
30:13
righteousness, to seek to seek God's, to desire holiness, to
30:19
desire purity upon our lives. We are to live pure and holy
30:23
lives before our Lord, that that's where our hearts lay.
30:27
We would have a desire for justice upon this world, that
30:30
which is good to take place upon this world.
30:33
To seek His righteousness is to seek to be pure and holy and to
30:37
confess our sins and to live lives of purity.
30:40
We want, we want to be more like Christ is where hearts lay.
30:45
We want to obey the leading the Holy Spirit within our lives and
30:49
we trust that He will take care of us.
30:52
He'll provide for us and all the details that might come our way.
30:56
We don't worry about the things that happened to us in our life.
30:59
It's not what happened to us. It's important.
31:02
It's how we respond to those things.
31:04
How do you respond to good things we perceive or poor
31:09
things? How does your your kids see your
31:11
response? How does your wife and husband
31:14
see your response? They're looking to us to see,
31:17
you know, how do you respond when things go poor and well?
31:20
And my mom wasn't a a great scholar of the Bible, but she
31:24
she gave that to me. You need to trust our Lord.
31:28
You need to see he's over all think, control all the things
31:32
and he takes care of the birds and they lose the field.
31:34
Roger, he'll take care of you and I, I, I've lived my life
31:38
that way. He always had taken care of me
31:41
and my wife and our family. We certainly have been so
31:44
blessed. He takes care of us, our job to
31:47
seek his Kingdom and his righteousness.
31:50
Let's go ahead and pray Heavenly Father, so much for God for a
31:53
time to give to us Father to focus upon your word Father and
31:57
truly who you are. Father, truly you're a great
32:00
and, and sovereign God over all aspects of our lives that we we
32:05
know that Lord forgive us the times in which we didn't act
32:08
that way, Father. So you're a God who who's given
32:11
us so many wonderful things in our life, Father, And we're
32:14
thankful, Father. Thank you for our our wives and
32:16
for our husbands and for our children.
32:19
Thank you for the homes which you have provided for us and for
32:21
this wonderful church. And thank you for our pastor and
32:25
for his faithfulness and leading us, Father, and for the
32:27
children's ministry and for the men's ministry and so many
32:30
things that you have given. But truly you're a great God who
32:33
gives, gives, gives a Bunny to us, Father, and we'll thank you
32:37
for that, Father. Help us to see our
32:38
responsibility afterwards, Father, to communicate your
32:41
great gospel to those that know your Father.
32:43
Help us, Lord, to always seek your Kingdom, Father.
32:46
And how about help that to be first and foremost in our minds,
32:49
Father? Help us to have a more eternal
32:52
perspective than we have, Father, and help us to seek
32:56
lives of holiness and purity before you.
32:58
Father, we pray these things in Jesus name, Amen.