Matthew 6:25-34

[0:00] We'll pick up reading in verse 25 in Matthew chapter 6. Verse 25 says, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, What you shall eat, or what you shall drink, Nor yet for your body, what you shall put on, Is not the life more than the meat, And the body more than rain. Behold, the fowls of the air, For they sow not, neither do they reap, Nor gather into barns, Yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

[0:36] Which of you by taking thought Can add one cubit unto his statue? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, How they grow, they toll not, Neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon, in all his glory, Was not arrayed like one of these.

[0:57] Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, Which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, Shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, Saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, Or wherewithal shall we be clothed?

[1:18] For after all these things do the Gentiles seek, For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, And all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow Shall take thought for the things of itself, Sufficient unto the day, is the evil thereof.

[1:43] And again, most times when this passage of Scripture is taught or preached, it's taught or preached, trying to teach Christians not to worry, trying to teach them that they have no reason to take thought for the morrow, or take thought of what they might eat, or what they might drink. Folks, it's done been testified a couple of times tonight of the goodness of God. It's already been testified how he works in our lives, and how he supplies those things that we need. And folks, that is a testimony of itself, of the goodness of God. And with God's help, that's what I hope to preach on just a little bit tonight. But here in this passage of Scripture, Jesus is teaching the disciples that they have no reason to worry what they might use to to clothe their backs, what they might use to feed themselves, what they might use to quench their thirst. He's telling them God will supply all these things. And again, that shows the goodness of God, but not only does he supply it for the Jews here, which Jesus was speaking to, but he also supplies it to the Gentiles here in the year 2020, in the age that we're in.

[3:08] Jesus Christ has not changed one bit. He still supplies for his own children, and he still supplies for those that are lost out in the world here in this passage of Scripture. Jesus talks about how the birds, how they don't have to harvest their own food, they don't have to gather it into the barns, yet the Lord still feeds them. Folks, the world out there, the lost people, even though they're lost, even though they know not who God is, even though they might mock God, they might sneer at God, they might blaspheme God, they may blaspheme Jesus Christ Himself, even though these things, God still allows them to put food on their tables. He still allows them to put drink in their mouth and put clothes upon their back. But the children of God, we have special blessings of God, we've got a special promise from Almighty God that He will supply all of our needs. Those lost folks that are out there, God is merely allowing them to continue on in this thing which we call life. God is allowing them to move forward under the next day, under the next hour, under the next week. God is being merciful in doing that, giving them another opportunity to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ at some point in their lives, at some point in their walk. Surely they'll hear about this goodness of God that we're talking about tonight, they'll hear of it and they'll want to partake in it. Once the Holy Ghost convicts their heart, shows them their need for a Savior, God can indeed save their souls. God can indeed give them the same promises that you and I have as children of God. God will supply for His children

[5:07] David said, I was young and now I'm old, I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor receive begging for bread. My God will supply my needs because my God is good. My God takes care of me, takes care of my family, takes care of everything that I know, everything that I owe. Hey God owns it anyway, God will meet the needs of His people and prove His goodness. Praise God. I love my Lord.

[5:43] I love His goodness. Yeah, I love His goodness. I love that He takes care of me. Folks, I know lost folks and you do too and I love that He takes care of them, that He allows them to eat, that He sustains them for another day. As we just said, I love the fact that God didn't just throw me out to the curb, didn't just kick me out into the weeds and say, there's no hope for you, there's no need and even dealing with you anymore. My God chased me down, He looked down in the mine that I was in, He jumped down in there, where I was at, pulled me up, brought me out of that mine, set my feet upon a solid rock and established my going. That's the goodness of my God and God is continually doing that for His children. It's not just the physical things that God provides for us, but it's the spiritual things which we need more so than any food, more so than any water, more so than anything. We need that living bread that Almighty God offers us. We need the living water that Almighty God gives us. We need the spiritual more so than we do the physical.

[6:59] That's the special promise that the people of God have. The world don't have that part of it and they won't have that part of it until God saves that soul. They might have heard of it.

[7:11] They may have attended Sunday school, they may have been in church for 30 years and heard of the goodness of God and heard of His mercy, heard of His grace, heard of salvation, heard of all these things, but they still sit there and they still sit there lost thinking that they're okay and God could snope their life out at the drop of a hat, but in His goodness and in His mercy He doesn't do that. My God is good. I'm glad He didn't give up on me and I'm sure all of y'all can probably say that too, but here Jesus explained to His disciples, don't you worry about what you're going to wear?

[7:54] Don't you worry about what you're going to eat? Don't you worry about any of these things? That's God's goodness. That's God's grace that allows many of these things, but too often we'll consider things. We'll consider the bad things of the world. We'll consider bad things in our life.

[8:12] We'll consider sickness. We'll consider finances. We'll consider all kinds of different things, car crashes, deaths within our family. We'll consider all these things if they might goodness.

[8:24] How could that be good? Most of the Bible says Romans 8 28. It says all things work together for good to those that love God, to those which are called according to His purpose. All things will work together for good. Hey, I ain't got a whole lot of education, but I know what that word all means. It means everything that comes in me whether I see it as good or bad. God means it for good. You take the little story we talked about, I don't know a month or so ago, a little book of Ruth over there on the Old Testament. You take that little book. Naomi and her husband, they had to flee. They had to go up to Moab. Why? There was no food. They needed food. Where'd they flee from?

[9:14] Bethlehem. They were God's people. They were His chosen. They were Jews, and they had to flee Bethlehem and go into a Gentile country because there was no bread. Hey, they had God, but they needed food for their body when they got up there. What happened? Hey, their sons, they met up with these two little Moabite girls. They got married. Hey, one of their names was Ruth. She didn't have God, but she had food. God used two circumstances there that we would have seen as bad, and He turned it into something that was good for His benefit and His glory. And He does the same thing when He saves a soul. He doesn't do it for our recognition. He doesn't do it for our pats on the back. He doesn't do it so that mamma will be happy, or so mama and daddy will be happy, or so aunt, so and so and uncle, so and so might be happy. God saves souls to glorify the name of

[10:17] Jesus Christ and for no other reason. Why else would Paul have admonished the church and told the church for giving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. It's only for the sake of Jesus Christ that God offers forgiveness, that God saves souls. That is the only reason that Almighty God does it, is for the sake of Jesus Christ. That is God's goodness. Because if He done it for any other reason, Christ would have died in vain. Christ would have absolutely died for naught the way that He did, but He took that bad situation and He turned it around for good.

[11:00] Even the book of Hebrews, it says, He endured the cross. Why? For the joy that was set before Him. For the joy that was set before Him, Christ endured the cross. What was the joy that was set before Him? Doing the Father's will. That was the joy of Jesus Christ. It was bringing man, which had been cursed by God, back into a relationship and back into communion with the maker so that they can be reconciled, so that they can have a relationship with Almighty God.

[11:29] That's the joy that was set before Jesus Christ and that's why He endured the cross. Look at David over in the Old Testament. Hey, when he went down there in the valley, his daddy sitting down there to check on his brothers. They get on the sin and to do this. This is his deed, but God used it for His own glory. That John was out there in the valley. The Israelites were cowering down because of the lies. And what did David say? Who is this uncircumstantialist? That's coming against and speaking against the people of God. He got five smooth stones, put one in his sleeve, bled in between, glanced eyes and brought down that child. Thank God used that situation for good.

[12:22] And that continued on. There's four stones left after that. There's a whole other servant about them four stones. I won't preach it tonight. Maybe sometime in the future. They'd be a good lesson.

[12:35] Anyway, God done that for good. Jesse sent his own boy down there for his own good. He wanted to know how his boys were doing. He wanted to make sure they was fair. He wanted to make sure they was taken care of. That was Jesse's good. God's good over Rod's man's good. If Jesse had gotten his way, David would have showed up, thrown him some food, thrown him a few crumbs of bread, where the case was, then jetted back home to Bethlehem, back to back home to Jesse. But that wasn't God's plan. Folks, God don't save us just so we can sit on a seat in church. He saves us to glorify him and to glorify Jesus Christ. He saves us to lift up the name of Jesus Christ. He saves us for that kind of glory and for that kind of honor. Not the honor of man towards me, but the honor of God from me and the praise of God from me and the uplifting of the name of Jesus Christ from me. That's why he saved me. That's the goodness of God. People say, well, I don't want to preach

[13:45] God for all eternity. Hey, that's their thing. That's their thing. I can't change their mind only God can do that. They'll say, I don't want to be in that place. It sounds boring for all eternity.

[13:56] Folks, heaven's going to be an exciting place. And that's the goodness of God, that it's going to be so exciting. I'm going to be up there. I'm going to finally see me some angels. I'm going to see people that's gone on before me. I'm going to meet people. I'm going to walk with people.

[14:12] I'm going to talk with people, but most of all, I'm going to see the one that gave his very life for me. When I see him, missy played that song last night. I'll know him from the scars that are in his hand. I will be able to know my Savior. But other than that, as I've already said, he said, my sheep know my voice that won't change once we get up yonder. Hey, he said that those words are eternal. They're meaningless eternal. I will know his voice the moment I leave this body. Praise God.

[14:47] That's his goodness. God's good. I'll care what the world says. Everybody, all the lost folks out there in the world, what about all the starving children? What about all the disease? What about the COVID? And what about this? What about that? What about these mamas, OD and their own cars with babies in the car seats behind them? What about these daddies going out in the woods, blowing their brains out with babies sitting at the house? Why would God allow those things to happen? Hey, my God's good regardless of the situation and regardless of what the world says about him.

[15:22] My God is good. God allows that to happen because man brought those things upon himself. And he said that's how it will be. When sin entered in, it corrupted the whole world, corrupted the earth, corrupted the people. My goodness, even when Noah stepped off of the earth, God said, enmity, enmity between man and beast. He said, enmity between those things. That tells me over there in the garden, hey, that must not have been the case. They could get along just fine with the lions and the tigers and the bears and anything else that won't come in. They could reach down the water and pediparana if they wanted to. My God's that good, but man and sin brought the badness and brought the evil and brought the wickedness upon himself. Because my God isn't evil and he's not sinful and he's not wicked. My God is good. Period. My God is good. A good God wouldn't let people go to hell. People choose to go to hell. People choose that route. They choose the broad, the broadway. They choose that wide game, that broadway. They choose these things in their lives. They choose to take that road where everybody else is going. I've preached it here before. I know I have. Hey, that wide way, that broadway. There's more people that can fit on that way.

[16:51] And we as human beings, we know their strength in numbers and we don't like being by ourselves anyway. We'll take that broadway. We'll walk with the crowd. We'll go with the crowd. But what did Jesus say? He said, straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life everlasting.

[17:10] It's a straight, narrow way that Jesus made. It's a narrow way because he is the only way. But that narrow way is the easiest way. And that's the goodness of God. That easy way of Jesus Christ taking my transgression and taking my iniquity upon himself. Talking about good and good and bad being turned into good and all these things we brought up earlier.

[17:42] Isaiah 53, one of the most popular passages in the Old Testament and one of the most descriptive of the crucifixion and what Jesus would suffer not only physically but mentally. Isaiah 53 was the say, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we're healed. Praise God for all. That's the goodness of God. What else does the Bible say though? It says that it pleased God to bruise him.

[18:11] It pleased God. Hey, that's a, if something's pleasing to you, most of the time it's good, is it not? It pleased God to bruise my Savior. It pleased God that the chastisement of my peace was placed upon him. It pleased him that he was wounded for my transgressions and it pleased him that with the stripes that Jesus crossed more I was able to be healed. It pleased God that all those things happened. That was God taking something that we would look at as human beings.

[18:44] That's a horrible thing. God looked at it as good because we needed a way back to him. And Jesus made that way and it is straight and it is narrow and it is the only way.

[18:58] You all listening and preachers on TV or the radio, it says, well I believe I can get through this way and that way. You shut that garbage off. You don't let that vomit come out of the speakers or your radio or your TV. Jesus crossed is the only way unto salvation and he's always been, it's always been by the blood, it's always been by faith. It was never by burning incense. It was never by offering up animals. It was never, those things were never ever the case that leaded unto salvation. But it was always blood and it was always faith that these Old Testament people had. It was faith that the Jews in the Old Testament had, that Moses had, that Aaron had, that Noah had, that Abel had. It was faith that they had that brought them to God.

[19:50] And it's faith now and that faith, that's a narrow way as well. I believe Jesus but I also believe this. You believe Jesus. You believe what this book says about Jesus. You believe Jesus and you believe nothing else. Even Paul said, if an angel or another man, if anybody else comes, even myself, hey, if anybody else comes preaching you another gospel, let him be accursed. Let him be thrown out to the side. Hey, let that man be accursed. Don't you listen to him? Don't you act on what he said? Most of the gospel of Jesus Christ is one of the most simple things to understand just because in short it says that God is good and we are not. And because God is good in his goodness, he made a way through Jesus Christ. We are not, we're not and will not ever be good while we are in this flesh. Even Paul said, I know that in me that is in this flesh dwelleth no good thing.

[20:59] Paul said that long after his conversion on the Damascus road, mind you, long after that, he said those words, I know that in me that is in this flesh dwelleth no good thing. Folks, there is no good thing that dwells in your flesh or in mind or any preacher or any deacon or any saint of God that's out there. The flesh is harmful. The flesh is corrupted. But God in his goodness said, hey, I'm going to take your spirit home. If you're mine and one day I will raise you incorruptible, I will raise you immortal. Praise God, that's his goodness. That's my God. That's my promise. That's the promise to his people and the world does not have that and they cannot have that as long as they are in their sins. They die in those sins, unrepentant, unpenitent, unremorsable to God. They will wind up in hell and they will have a body while they are there.

[22:10] There's a resurrection that the Bible talks about, the resurrection of the dead. Those that died in Jesus Christ or outside of Jesus Christ, I'm sorry, will remain outside of Jesus Christ for all eternity. What does the Bible say over Revelation? It says that the sea gave up her dead and hell coughed up its dead. And where did they stand? They stood before God and the books were open and anyone whose name was not found written in the land's book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Folks, if they were given up their dead, that means when they go down there in that lake of fire, they will have a body and that body will never grow old. It will never die. It will never deplete. It will never waste away. It will burn forever and forever and forever to praise God and his goodness. I don't have to worry about that. I am a child. I'm the good King, praise God.

[23:09] He's a good king. He's a good shepherd. He's a good glass of water. He's a good little for bread. He's a good resurrection. There ain't nothing about God that ain't good. Even when even when he allows what we see is bad come into our life, folks, he's still good.

[23:26] If Missy and I leave out here tonight, we crush our car down here on the Talgar Road, God's still good. That don't change God and it don't change His goodness. We go home tonight.

[23:37] Anybody in here goes home tonight and your house is going up in flames along with everything that you own. Hey, God's still good. That doesn't change. Ask, ask groups about that. Ask Naomi about that.

[23:49] Ask David about that. Ask any of these old testament folks about the goodness of God. Ask Moses about it. How many times did Moses have to have to plead on the half of the Israel life because they were murmuring and complaining and God said, I'm going to wipe them all out and start over. Moses asked God, don't do that and in his goodness, he didn't. That's a good God because you or I, if that had been me, if that had been you, you would have paid a bit more attention to Moses. As my mama would say, as a man in the moon, you need to wipe them out. Why? Because that's our cardinal mind that we have. God is all knowing. God is omniscient. God is everywhere. He's on the present. My God in His goodness allowed those Jews to continue in that desert. Well, Spencer, they let him go home for 40 years walking around in circles out there in the Sinai Desert. It was in God's goodness that he'd done that because he could have just cast everyone him into hell right then. It was his goodness that he'd done that. That was mercy, folks. It was mercy and God took care of them while they were out there, didn't he? Hey, I read in the Bible, I read in Deuteronomy, where the shoes never got old, their shoes never wore out, their garments never faded, garments never wore out. God supplied them with manna out of heaven. He supplied water from a rock even though they'd murmured and even though they complained and they had doubted and their faith was lax even though they said they were still God's chosen people, they were still the apple of His eye and God still took care of them because my God is good. Amen. And God will take care of me. I lose everything I got tonight. God somehow will take care of me. He might do it through one of you people. He might do it through the whole church. He might do it from a thousand different people and he may just snap his fingers and it be done, period. But either way, my God will take care of me. He's taken care of me this long and this far. As Jesus told these people here at the Sermon on the Mount or during the Sermon on the Mount, He said, what about the lilies?

[26:09] What about these flowers out here in the field? He said, they told them not, they spin not. He said, I'll tell you now, a Solomon and all of his glory was not a raid as one of these are. How much more is God going to take care of us if that is the case? If that is the case, how much more will God take care of us? Folks, like I said, normally when this passage of scripture is preached or taught, it's about worry. If you go to the last verse that we read, Jesus says, take no doubt for the tomorrow. For the tomorrow is going to have issues, going to have problems, it's going to have evil.

[26:45] But there's something that's sufficient under the day is the evil thereof, meaning, hey, it'll do us no good to worry about what's going to happen tomorrow or worry about tonight or worry about the next hour. It will do us no good. All it will do is get in the way of us praising the God that has been good to us for our entire lives. That's what worry will do. It'll hinder our praise. And that thought will hinder our prayer, that thought will hinder our worship, that thought will hinder all kinds of things. It will hinder our relationship with God. I'm not saying that worry is going to cause God to pick you up by the seat of your past and chuck you into hell. I'm saying that when you get so much worry on your mind and you get that weight on your shoulders and you get that weight on your chest of worry and wondering how is God going to do this? Why has God allowed this to happen?

[27:41] We get these things in our mind and it weighs so heavy upon us when the time comes that we need to pray for something else. We can't get that prayer through because that's all that we've been thinking about. Folks, don't let worry, don't let stress, don't let thinking about these things get in your way of your relationship with God. Sufficient to the day is the evil there. Sufficient to the day.

[28:08] Evil there, that means tomorrow, tomorrow's going to have a ton of problems. We might say, well me and Phil's talking when I come in tonight. So this week's just dragged by. And it has for me, I don't know about the rest of it, but it has. Don't feel like this should be Tuesday next week, but why worry about that? Why let that bog me down? Just because it's been a long week and it has been.

[28:34] Why let that bog me down? And folks, it will. Something that small, something that insignificant. I mean, I feel like the days this week's been 30, 35 hours long a piece. But folks, if I let that get into my head and I let that weigh on me, what's going to happen when a brother or sister calls me and says, Hey, I need prayer and I've got something like that. Wait on my man. I just can't do it.

[28:58] I've had so much going on at work. I've had so much going on at home. I've had so much going on out in Kingsport in Johnson city and Piney flats. Wherever I can't get a prayer through. Folks, shame on me if I let myself get in that kind of situation. It's because I'd let worry get on my head. But folks, God is still good through all the worry, through all the pain, through all the sickness, through anything that comes our way through bare coverage, through bare tires, through knocking engines. Hey, God is still good. God is good and all these things. As I've already said, don't pay attention to what the world says because they will do their dead level best to convince you that God is not good. That God, God wouldn't allow these things that are merciful and are good and an upright God wouldn't allow this evil in the world, wouldn't allow these businesses to be destroyed, wouldn't allow these cities to be burned to the ground, wouldn't allow these children to be kidnapped.

[29:59] Folks, sin is the issue there. The issue is not God. The issue is sin in mankind. It is not God. My God is still in control. And if my God wanted to, he could kill every child, molester, every murderer, every rapist, everyone that we see as filthy and rotten. God could kill them all with just one thought. But in his goodness, he leaves them here. He leaves them here for one purpose that they might obtain salvation. That's the only reason I believe that they might hear the gospel and retain or obtain salvation by merciful and a good God. Folks, if God takes care of these animals, he takes care of these flowers and these plants and he's took care of you for this long, he's took care of me for this long. I have no reason to doubt that that goodness will not extend to midnight tonight and it will not extend until midnight tomorrow night and a week from now and a month from now and a year from now. God is good all the time. We've all heard that phrase and we know and it's true. My God is good all the time regardless of what life throws at me. My God is still good and he will and does take care of me and he takes care of his children. Praise God.

[31:25] Alright, I think I'm done. My God's good. If you worship the same God that I do and you say by the same God that I am, God's good.