Matt 6:19-21; 25-33 audio (4MB)
By Garrett Edwards
When I was thinking about the new series, we’d embark on in the Youth Services this year, I was reading, in my devotions a book called, ‘I talk back to the devil’ by a dude named A W. Tozer. And I thought; why not go with this, this is filled with fantastic reminders, great insights to what it means to follow Jesus by ‘talking back to the devil’.
And for this week, the title was originally, ‘Running with Jesus’. That was until I told a friend and he burst out laughing telling me about a Christian fitness regime called, ‘Fit for a King’. And later I found out that there was a Christian Aerobics video back in the 80’s called ‘Firm Believer.’
So at the risk of sounding like CLAY was starting up a track and field program called ‘Running for Jesus’, I thought I’d change it to something fairly obvious, but right on the money, ‘Don’t Worry.’
Leon Morris, a New Testament theologian summed this passage up saying, ‘Jesus wanted people to trust God and called on them not to be worried about the necessities of life, such as food and clothing.
The birds don’t worry, but God sees to it that they’re fed. The plants don’t worry, but God sees to it that they are clothed more gloriously than the great king Solomon ever was!’
Well I don’t know about you, but I think this passage certainly demands a lot of trust in God doesn’t it?
It confronts us with whether or not we really can put our lives into his hands. Most of us here have given our eternal lives into his hands, by believing and following Jesus. But isn’t it strange that its often harder to trust him with our shorter physical lives here on earth, than our eternal lives. Maybe its because our lives here are so much more tangible more immediate, but whatever the reason, its hard to let go.
Someone once said that a trusting person is a praying person. A trusting person is the praying person. What do you think?
One of the things that Tozer says, in his book, that really stood out to me was this,‘I feel as though we must repudiate the great, Modern wave of seeking God for His benefits. The sovereign God wants to be loved for Himself and honored for Himself, but that is only part of what he wants. The other part is that he wants us to know that when we have Him, we have everything – we have all the rest.’ Basically, Tozer’s saying that we need to reject the idea of seeking God for the benefits we get out of it. Cool, I think we’d all agree with that, but why? Tozer gives two reasons:
1. God wants to be loved for Himself
2. The other part of this is that he wants us to know that when we have Him, we have everything, we have all the rest.
It’s really easy to agree with in principle isn’t it, but taking that concept into a passage like this immediately puts our trust to the test. When we pray, can we experience a little bit of God's presence? Do we really have everything, do we really trust him to provide us with the rest?
And there are three ways this passage puts that trust to the test, three things Jesus warns us against. One of them to do with our treasures, and two to do with our worries:
1. Don’t store your treasures on earth and
‘Where your treasure is, there your heart is also.'
2. Don’t worry so much about what you’ll eat and drink
3. Don’t worry so much about what you’ll wear
And at the end of this Jesus rebukes the people he’s speaking to saying, ‘O you of little faith', as if this should be the easiest thing to do, give our entire lives and well being into His hands. A band called Nickel Creek have a song by the name of Doubting Thomas and a part of it goes like this, 'Im a doubting Thomas, I took a promise but I don’t feel safe, oh me of little faith.'
When we choose to follow Jesus, we take a promise - he will never leave us, nor forsake us. But do we ever feel safe in that? The question echoes in our hearts again - When we pray, can we experience a little bit of God's presence? Do we really have everything, do we really trust him to provide us with the rest?
Storing our treasures on earth is one of the most tempting things to do in today society don’t you think? In a world where believing in a God and heaven has become like believing in a fairytale, it’s easy to get caught up in the need to succeed here and now. A guy by the name of Alain de Botton, puts it like this, ‘When belief in the next world is interpreted as a childish and scientific impossibility, the pressure to succeed and fulfil oneself will inevitably be inflamed by the awareness that there is only a single and frighteningly brief opportunity to do so. Earthly achievement can no longer be seen as an overture to what one may realize in another world, they are the sum total of all one will ever be.’
If we can’t trust in God and his Kingdom existing beyond this life, if we cant have reaching His Kingdom as our goal, if that’s all just a fairy tale. Then what are people left with? We’re left with the pressure to succeed and find happiness and fulfilment all by themselves. And the pressure is magnified because we have such a short time! The ‘here and now’ can slip out of our hands as quickly as water from a cupped hand. How frightening is that? Our achievements, or lack of them is all we will ever have. And then, ‘phwoo’, its gone.
And this can either drive people to a maniacal state of workaholism or to a life of risk and daring,
not good for them or those around them. Or it will lead to depression as the realisation dawns that nothing matters anyway, so what’s the point?
But we know don’t we? We know that, though this life may be brief and often painful, even with too few moments to enjoy with arms open; that there is a destination at the end of it. That we’ll arrive there, enter and enjoy that place and that God to our hearts content. And this hope, this knowing, this trust, is something we can give ourselves over to with joyful abandon! This is the real treasure, a treasure we will, one day, be able to touch, see and taste for eternity! Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
When we pray can we experience a little bit of God's presence? Will we really have everything, do we really trust him to provide us with the rest? Yes, if we go to him for himself, we will gain a little bit of God, and in gaining him, we can know that our treasure is with him, safe and sound.
And the second and third things:
2. Don’t worry so much about what you’ll eat and drink…
3. Don’t worry so much about what you’ll wear…
Now these, among all the countercultural things that Jesus says, probably ranks among the top 10 for a society like ours. Mark Sayers, an Australian social commentator and faithful Christian says, ‘In today’s world we are told that our purchases are not just functional, they send messages about our social status and identity…The underlying message is that wearing this dress or using that product will make you cool…and if you don’t feel cool, your credit card can fix that.’ I love that, ‘and if you don’t feel cool, your credit card can fix that.’ That’s so true isn’t it?!
Today the pressure is on for young people, but not just young people anymore, the generation for which materialism really took off are now adults. So, really, we all feel the pressure to have the right look don’t we? Even the right partner. That’s right, even partners have become accessories and there’s little commitment, we can drop them when we get bored.
Read the latest gossip magazine and it’s rare to hear a believable ‘till death do us part’, now it’s more like ‘until further notice’, and partners understand that, don’t they? They’re all for it and agree to the ‘Until we get bored of each other’ attitude to relationships!
And people today speak not only with their clothes, but with their home, furnishings, decorations,
car…the list goes on. Does this ring true with us?
And yet Jesus, in his simple and direct way, says, 'Don’t worry about your body, don’t worry about your clothes and what you’ll wear. Look at the lilies, their beautiful! So beautiful says Jesus, that not even Solomon, who would’ve been the fashion icon of the entire known world, was dressed as well as these simple flowers, and we, being so much more important to God, should rest in the truth that God will care for us.
This is the fundamental difference between those of us who follow Christ and those who don’t.
They run after all these things, fashion, treasure, social status, because for them, this life is all there is, and their achievement is all they can rely on. So Jesus says, let them run after all of them, but you, you who believe in me, who trust in me,who hope in an eternal life in heaven, where a real and lasting treasure is. You who trust in a God who knows us and cares for us, we should leave them to it
and go in another direction.
But, when we pray can we experience a little bit of God's presence, and do we really have everything? Do we really trust him to provide the rest? Yes, if we go to him for himself, we will gain a little bit of God, and in gaining him, we can know that he cares about our lives and our bodies.
Jesus summarizes this question of trust this way, ‘So don’t worry, saying “What shall we drink?”
Or “ What shall we wear?” Why, because these are the things people worry about who don’t have a living God caring for them. We need to seek first his Kingdom, his righteousness. We need to go to God for himself, and when we have him, Jesus says, all these things will be given to you as well.
When we pray, can we really experience a little bit of God's presence? And when we gain him, do we really have everything? Do we really get the rest as well?
Try him, taste and see that the Lord is good.
