Matthew 6:19-34 (Teaching)

[0:00] Even back in Matthew continuing right on with the sermon on the Mount.

[0:11] Last week we went through the first 18 verses, which is just where I wanted to get of chapter six and the Gospel of Matthew.

[0:27] I guess we spent most of our time in what's commonly referred to as the Lord's Prayer. And that, and not fully so, that's Jesus teaching us how to pray and who better to teach us how to pray than Jesus Christ himself.

[0:47] But we talked quite a bit last week about how, and it's because Jesus brought it up multiple times in those 18 verses, about what we do in secret, our Father will reward us openly.

[1:03] I don't want that to skip anybody's mind. I want that embedded in there. And we talked about how that being the case, that reward, Him rewarding us openly, didn't necessarily mean here on this earth in this lifetime.

[1:18] We may have to wait until our eternal lifetime to receive that award. But regardless of how long we have to wait, it'll be worth it. It's a reward directly from God.

[1:31] And whether we get a reward here or over yonder, it's from God. And therefore it's worth the wait. But last, we got to verse 18 last week, so we'll be picking up in verse 19 in Matthew chapter 6.

[1:47] It says, Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.

[2:05] For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So Christ here says, Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth. There's no lines to read between here what exactly Jesus is getting at.

[2:20] And our treasure, most of the time when people think of this verse, where they hear it quoted, most of the time really material things is what's being thought of.

[2:32] But we can't think of it that narrow-mindedly, because your treasure could be something that's intangible. Your treasure could be clout.

[2:45] Your treasure could be status. It could be any number of things. Most people think of money. Most people think of possessions, houses and cars and jewelry and all these other things.

[2:59] And not only those things, but the more expensive they are, the more of a treasure that they seem to be. I was telling somebody, just Sunday night I think, that the watches that I wear, I'll tell anybody, I don't ever pay no more than 12, maybe $14 for a watch, and I ain't ashamed to say that.

[3:19] It tells the same time that a thousand dollar watch would tell. So don't bother me a bit to tell people that. And my watches, as much as I adore them, some of my hats, my ties and all these other things, sure, I like those things, but those aren't my treasures.

[3:37] And no kind of status that I could have here on this earth could I consider a treasure either. My treasures are up yonder. And my true treasure, if you want to keep that in the singular, is up there.

[3:50] That's where Jesus is. And He is the true treasure. He's the prize that we need to keep our focus on through this. So Jesus here telling the disciples, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, wear them off and rust, doth corrupt.

[4:08] He's telling us what's going to happen to those things. So Jesus here is using tangible things, things that we can see and touch and smell and taste.

[4:21] He's using those types of things as the example here because He says, where moth and rust doth corrupt. And those things can't corrupt the intangible things.

[4:32] But nevertheless, what He's saying is those things are going to vanish away. You know, one day or another, they'll all be gone. But not only that, not only will they vanish away, one of these days, if they haven't vanished away before we die, we certainly can't take them with us.

[4:48] So either way, they're going to be useless come the point of death or come to the point where they're so tarnished and moth eaten and rusted, where they're useless to anyone or anybody or anything.

[5:02] So Jesus is saying here, where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal. And I'll tell you where the idea of this word, thieves break through and steal come from is over there.

[5:18] Most of the dwellings were made out of basically mud and grass that were stuck together. And it wasn't too hard to break through somebody's wall in their house and take their possessions.

[5:29] You just break them. I mean, you would literally break into it, go in there, crawl in, whatever the case was, and take whatever was in there. And that's where the idea of that breakthrough and steal comes from.

[5:41] But He tells us what not to do. He says, don't lay your treasures up here on earth. He tells us what to do, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal.

[5:59] What I've got over there is not only is the moth not corrupted nor rust corrupted, nor can it be stolen. Nobody can go up to heaven and take what God has promised me as far as any treasure that I might have up there.

[6:16] They certainly can't go up there and take Jesus away from me. But they can't go there and do that. But as I said in the verse before this, where He says to lay not up for yourselves treasures here on earth.

[6:31] And I said, once we die, anything that we've got here, it's going to be somebody else's. Somebody else is going to get it. One of our family members will get it. The state will end up with it.

[6:41] It will be someone else's property and it'll do us absolutely good. But what is up there and what is promised to me is promised to me and there is no one and there is nothing that can do anything about that.

[6:56] And I praise God for that. Those benefits are eternal. My God is eternal. Jesus Christ is eternal. Jesus Christ being the ultimate treasure that we're seeking after.

[7:07] So, and He certainly can't be corrupted. Nothing in heaven can be corrupted, nothing can be corrupted by sin, moth, rust or anything else.

[7:18] And that's the treasures that we all need to concentrate on laying up for ourselves. And He tells us, another way, He says, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

[7:31] Folks, that's some deep words. It's a lot deeper than what we give it credit for. Our heart, you know, we think of our heart as the organ inside of our body that pumps blood and keeps us going, keeps us alive, really.

[7:45] But more often than not, when the Bible is speaking about the heart, it's talking about who you are as a person. It's talking about your insides.

[7:58] And y'all have heard me say before, who you are when you are by yourself is absolutely who you are. When nobody else is watching, I'm talking about people.

[8:09] We know God's everywhere all the time and anytime. But as far as people go, are you a Christian only on Sundays or on Wednesdays?

[8:19] If that's the case, you're not a true Christian. And that's what this is talking about here when Jesus says, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

[8:30] If my treasure is here on earth, that means my heart's here on earth. That means what I want, what I desire is here on earth.

[8:41] But if what I want and what I desire is heavenward, if it's upward, if it's beyond this life, if it's over in eternity somewhere, that's where my heart is.

[8:51] It all depends on the desires of one's heart. And I ain't saying a lot of people will take these verses and own down what we're going to read tonight. They'll take these verses and they'll say, see, we're not supposed to have many possessions.

[9:04] We're not supposed to have money. We're not supposed to do this and do that. Folks, that's nowhere in Scripture. Nowhere in Scripture does it say anything like that. It's just like Jesus. When he told the disciples, he said that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it was for a rich man to go into heaven.

[9:20] He didn't say it was impossible for a rich man to go to heaven. And but he was saying that, you know, the more things that we have, the less we are dependent upon God.

[9:31] If we've got these things around us, if we've got plenty of money, if we've got plenty of food, we see no reason to pray for those things. Even though last week we said Jesus told us just last week that our daily prayers should be, give us this Lord or give us this day, our daily bread.

[9:49] So, you know, it's not a matter of how much stuff we have, whether we need God or not. We need God constantly. We need God all the time and we need to realize this and keep that in perspective as Christians.

[10:04] Don't matter how good our lives are going, don't matter how bad our lives is going. We need God all of the time. But so for where your treasure is there, where your heart be also verse 22, the light of the body is the eye.

[10:21] If therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness?

[10:36] And there's a lot of folks that make an enormous deal over what exactly it is Jesus is getting at here, talking about the eye, the singular.

[10:48] And people skip the point of what Jesus is getting at. He's not talking, the point is not the eye in other words. The point is he's talking about light and he's talking about darkness.

[11:01] He's talking about good and he's talking about evil. He's talking about right and he's talking about wrong in these two verses. The eye is not the focus. The focus is the light and darkness that he's talking about.

[11:13] And with that being said, that's how we'll teach it today. He says the light of the body is the eye. If therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

[11:24] Now, what he's saying here basically what he's getting at is if your eyes in good shape, if your eyes healthy, and if your vision is single.

[11:34] In other words, we can't focus on our, well, going back to the verses before this, we can't focus on what treasures we might have here on earth and the treasures that we have in heaven.

[11:46] We've got to focus on one or the other. In fact, Jesus here in just another couple of verses says, you cannot serve two masters. You can't serve God and mammon. You've got to focus on one or the other.

[11:59] You'll either hate the one and despise the other. You'll love the one and hate the other. And this is what Jesus is getting at here when he says, if thine eye be single, then the whole body shall be full of light.

[12:18] If we have single vision and folks, I'm not, I'm not for tunnel vision at all, except in spiritual matters and spiritual matters. As far as God is concerned, as far as the gospel is concerned, as far as the word of God is concerned, we have to be narrow minded with most of it.

[12:36] Now, there's some things that we can, we can lean to one side or the other. As far as the word of God goes, that does not affect salvation. One eye odor. We won't get into that tonight.

[12:47] But as far as things like the virgin birth, as far as things like Jesus Christ living a sinful life, as far as things as Jesus being God manifest in the flesh, things along those lines.

[12:59] As far as Jesus Christ being the only way to God and the only way to salvation, we must be narrow minded and narrow sided and have tunnel vision.

[13:10] As far as that goes, because the Bible makes those very, those things very plain. But Jesus says, if thine eye or the light of the body is the eye, how many of y'all ever heard the saying that the eye is the window to the soul?

[13:26] I've heard that several times throughout the course of my life and a lot of people say that this scripture is where that saying comes from. I don't know that, but the light of the body is the eye.

[13:38] He says, if therefore thine eye be single, the whole body shall be full of light. If we're staying focused on the things that matter, the holy things, the righteous things, the things of God, our body will be full of light.

[13:56] But if thine eye be evil, the whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore that light that is in the be darkness, how great is that darkness?

[14:10] Notice that's not in the form of a question. He's making a statement there at the end where he says, how great is that darkness? He's not asking the question. He's saying, how great is that darkness? If your eye is evil and the only light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?

[14:27] In other words, we're talking about people that are focusing on one thing, God, and the things of God, where we're focusing on the other thing, the world and the things of the world.

[14:38] And I said, the eye is not the subject matter of this light and darkness and good and evil and righteousness and unrighteousness. These are the things that Jesus Christ is getting at in these verses.

[14:50] So verse 24, no man can serve two masters, for he either will hate the one and love the other, or else he will not hold to the one, he will hold to the one and despise the other.

[15:03] You cannot serve God and man. So we've just come from talking about the single eye and how if it's all right, if it's healthy, if your eyes in good shape, then your body is going to be full of light and if it's evil, your body is going to be full of darkness.

[15:25] And how great is that darkness? Now he says, you cannot serve two masters. So, and I don't think it's an accident that this follows right after he's talked about this comparison with light and darkness.

[15:38] He says, no man can serve two masters and folks, the Bible says what it says. God says what he says and he means what he says. No man can serve two masters. That's me, that's you, that includes women.

[15:52] No man can serve two masters. We cannot serve God and serve Satan. We cannot serve light and serve darkness. We can't serve righteousness and unrighteousness.

[16:03] We've all heard the saying, you know, you want to hold hands with God with one hand, hold hands with the devil with the other hand. Folks, we can't do it. It's an impossibility.

[16:15] You either belong to Satan and to this world or you belong to God and the heavenly world that is to come. There's no two ways about it.

[16:26] And unfortunately, I think there's a lot of people that go to a lot of church services that are in that boat. They're trying to serve two masters. When Jesus Christ states it very plainly, it is an impossibility.

[16:41] No man can serve two masters. He says, for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.

[16:51] And that's exactly how it will be. Now Jesus here is using this to make an illustration of a slave and master relationship.

[17:05] And that's exactly what he's getting at in these verses. And I've used this as an example before while teaching this and other verses that are like it.

[17:17] You know, I can, most everybody here, I guess knows I work for the city of Johnson City. You know, and that's all fine and well. I can work for them, you know, six to three like I do every day.

[17:29] Then I can leave there and if I wanted to, I could go to McDonald's and work from four to ten. And people will say, well, that's serving two masters. No, it's not. Neither one of those places are my masters.

[17:40] That's me volunteering to work for City of Johnson City and volunteering to work for McDonald's. This is a slave master relationship and a slave can only have one master.

[17:52] Now, a master could loan a slave out to someone else, but he would still have his original master that he would have to go back to. No slave can turn and no man can serve two masters.

[18:06] It's an impossibility for that to happen. He says you cannot serve God and mammon. And this has come to be defined, this word mammon, it's come to be defined mainly as money.

[18:24] But the original old English word mammon actually meant what you put your confidence in. That's what mammon was.

[18:35] But it has come to be known as money in the past really two, 250 years. It's come to be known as that. But either way, Jesus is making the same statement here as he made at the very beginning of the verse when he said, no man can serve two masters.

[18:51] He says you cannot serve God and mammon. So back in 1611, when the King James Version of the Bible was originally published, it would have meant the word mammon would have meant you cannot serve God and that which you put your confidence in, something else that you would put your confidence in, which almost kind of alludes to idolatry really and truly.

[19:19] But it's come to be money and we can't do that. We can't serve God and serve money. We can't serve God and anything else that we would put our confidence in. We either serve God or we serve someone or something else.

[19:32] There's no two ways about that. Now, that doesn't mean that, you know, in my Christian walk that although as a Christian, I am completely and totally dedicated and devoted to Almighty God.

[19:50] That doesn't mean that I can put my wife on the back burner, just using that as an example. And some men will say that using this very verse here.

[20:01] They'll say, you know, I can't serve two. So, you know, she's going to go do her own thing. I will do my own thing. Folks, I've got a moral and a biblical obligation to be a husband and that I do my best to be.

[20:19] So just to give you an example of how some people will twist that trying to meet their own agendas. Verse 25 begins with the word, therefore.

[20:31] So that means what we've been talking about up to this point, we need to keep all that in mind as we're reading this. And what have we read about? Well, if you go back to the beginning of verse 18 or chapter beyond verse 18 and chapter 7 to what we talked about last week, it would include all that chapter and up to this point, you could actually go on back to verse or to chapter 5 as well and include the Beatitudes.

[20:57] You could include the Beatitudes and everything that was talked about beyond that. But really back to the beginning of chapter 6 that we're in now.

[21:08] He 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 meat and the body than raiment.

[21:23] Behold the fowls of the air, for they so not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are you not much better than they?

[21:35] Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature? We'll go back up to verse 25, therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life.

[21:45] What's Jesus saying there when he says take no thought? Does that mean we just neglect our bodies? Neglect our lives, our selves, our families and just say, God, go and take care of me?

[21:57] No, that's not what he's saying. When he says take no thought, he's saying don't worry about it. Don't worry about your life. He 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 meat and the body more than raiment.

[22:19] In other words, it's not the life more than food and is not your body more than the clothing that it wears. But he's saying don't worry about these things and a little bit further down in this discourse that Jesus is speaking here.

[22:35] He actually says this is the things that the Gentiles do. These are the things that they concentrate on. They concentrate on the food and the raiment, the clothing and things along those lines.

[22:48] And basically what he was saying is this is what pagans and heathens do when he says that. But we'll get to that here in just a little while. But he's saying take no thought for your life, what you shall eat or what you should wear.

[23:01] We shouldn't worry about these things because our Heavenly Father will take care of us. He says, behold the fowls of the air, for they so not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns.

[23:14] Yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them, are you not much better than they? So he says, behold the fowls of the air, behold the birds. They don't plant crops. They don't go out and work the fields.

[23:26] They don't get on the harvesting machines or use the harvesting equipment that they would have back in these days. And they certainly don't put the stuff on wagons and take it to the barns.

[23:37] But what I want you to notice here is what Jesus says after all that. He says, behold the fowls of the air, for they so not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns.

[23:49] And he says, yet your Heavenly Father, your Heavenly Father, he doesn't say yet their Heavenly Father. Talking about the fowls of the air, he's talking to these people that he's preaching to here.

[24:02] And he says, yet your Heavenly Father. In other words, if he takes care of these that are not his children, if he takes care of the fowls, if he takes care of all the critters that crawl around on the ground, he takes care of the fish of the sea, and they're not even made in his image.

[24:21] And Jesus Christ didn't come for any of them. He didn't come to save the sinful dogs or the sinful cats. He came to save sinful human beings.

[24:32] He says here, yet your Heavenly Father takes care of these which aren't even his children. So in other words, why are we taking thought for our life? Why are we taking thought for what food we might eat or what raiment we might wear?

[24:47] When God's taking care of the fowls of the air, of the birds, the way that he is, what would make us think that he wouldn't take care of his own children?

[24:59] What would make us think that? And yet, if we're all honest with ourselves, myself included, we probably all had thoughts like that. You know, God, where are you? God, what are you doing?

[25:10] You know, God, I'm right here. Where are you at? You know, and we worry about these things. But he says, your Heavenly Father feedeth them.

[25:23] Then he asked the question, aren't you not much better than they? Well, of course we are. And we don't say that with arrogance. We don't say that in a haughty spirit at all.

[25:33] But folks, as Avari said, we are made in the image of God. They are not. God commanded the waters and he commanded the earth to bring forth every animal that we know of.

[25:45] You read about that in the book of Genesis. He commanded these things to happen and these things to be made. But folks, he took dirt, he took clay, he took dust, and he formed us.

[26:00] And then he breathed into us his breath and we became living souls. Adam became a living soul at that point. We are made in the image of God and we are his creation.

[26:15] So if he takes that good of care of nature and he does, if he does that, why do we worry? And Jesus asked the question, are you not much better than they? Yes, we are.

[26:25] And unfortunately, there are some folks on this planet here that would argue that. That put animals above the people. Now, listen, I ain't for being cruel to animals. I ain't for being mean to animals or anything along those lines.

[26:40] But when I got people complaining because hamburgers are being made. And I got somebody else and these same people, I should say, are wanting because somebody's protesting the clinic that a woman can walk into and have her baby killed for $400.

[27:01] There's something wrong. There's something horribly wrong with that picture. Don't kill the cattle. Don't kill the chickens. Don't use them for the manner that God put them here for.

[27:15] I mean, my goodness, when Noah and his family stepped off the yard, God gave mankind at that point permission to eat meat when that happened.

[27:25] And yet these same people, they're perfectly all right with the murder of a human being. But the murder of an animal, they're not folks. That's idolatry.

[27:37] That's idolatry. That's worshipping the creation rather than the creator is exactly what that is. And that's a sad state for people to be in.

[27:47] But he says, are ye not much better than they? Yes, we are. Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature?

[27:58] This is an odd saying in our King James Bibles. If you're familiar with a cubit, it's about a foot and a half, about 18 inches.

[28:10] And Jesus here says, who of us, by taking thought or who of us, by worrying, could add one cubit to our stature? In other words, add a foot and a half to our heart.

[28:21] Other translations actually state this a little bit differently. They say, could add a span to your life or add a moment to your life. Other English translations put it that way.

[28:34] Either way, Jesus Christ is asking the question here, what good does it do? Does it benefit your life at all? You worrying about these things.

[28:45] Says, which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit to his stature? Which of you, by worrying, is that going to help folks worry? Honestly, and I do it, you all do it, we all worry about things.

[28:56] Every one of us, we worry about certain things. Don't you think for a second, a few weeks ago, when I had missy at the hospital at 3 o'clock in the morning, that I wasn't worried about my wife?

[29:10] I was, even though I know God the Creator, and even though I know that I'm a saved, born again child of God. Even though I know how good God is, and how he could reach down, he could just, he could raise her up right then and there, I know all these things.

[29:25] Yet I worried, yet I worried, and we're all guilty of doing that. But folks, it didn't add one moment to my life. Didn't add one cubit to my stature.

[29:37] It didn't help the matter any me worrying. You know what helped, and I ain't bragging on Spencer when I say this. You know what helped me being out there in that waiting room by myself praying.

[29:49] Me being out there singing songs to God. And then at 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock in the morning, nobody else was there. It was me and God. That's what helped, and that's what grew my faith.

[30:02] It began as worry. It began as worry, and the more I prayed, and the more I sang, and the more I read my Bible, that grew my faith.

[30:12] That grew my faith, and so that worry, it slowly dissipated. It slowly dissipated. But everyone of us do it. Everyone of us do it.

[30:25] Verse 28, And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, how they toll not, neither do they spin.

[30:35] And yet I say unto you that even Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. So he says, why take ye thought for raiment? For raiment.

[30:46] In other words, why take ye thought for the clothing that you're going to wear? Folks, if God's got us here, He's got us here for a reason. And when that reason is up, I don't think God's going to have anybody here on this planet in vain.

[31:01] I don't think He'll just have us here being idle. He has got a purpose for each one of us here. So we don't need to worry about food, what we're going to be eating.

[31:12] If He takes care of the birds, He's going to take care of us. And Jesus now asks the question, what good is it going to do us to worry about raiment? Why take ye thought for raiment?

[31:22] Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toll not, neither do they spin. What's He saying here? He's not talking about spinning in circles. He says they neither grow nor do they spin.

[31:34] He's talking about they don't spin garments for themselves. They don't spin thread. They don't make garments for themselves. God is the one that takes care of the lilies of the field.

[31:46] He says they don't work on their own clothes. You've got to figure 2023 where we go to Walmart or Kmart or wherever it is that we do our clothing shopping and just walk in and buy what we want.

[31:59] It wasn't like that 2,000 years ago when Jesus was speaking these words. Most people made their clothes themselves. The only people that bought their clothes from other people were generally the more well to do people.

[32:14] They would buy it from clothiers or clothing makers. But He says they don't work. The lilies, they don't work. They don't toll. Neither do they spin. And I say unto you that even Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

[32:28] Solomon was during his reign about 900 years or so before this was even written. During Solomon's reign, Solomon was almost flamboyant with his dress, with the way he dressed.

[32:46] He says even Solomon and all of his glory wasn't arrayed like one of these. Why was that? Because these, the lilies that we're talking about, they're clothed by God and Solomon was not.

[32:59] Now, God provided the means for Solomon to be clothed. Yes, but it was indirectly by God with Solomon.

[33:12] These lilies, it's completely by God. He says He's taking care of the lilies of the field. If He's dressing the grass of the field with these lilies for that matter, if He's doing these things, why do we worry about it?

[33:25] Why do we worry about what we eat? Why do we worry about what we're going to be wearing? For if God so clothed 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?

[33:42] And that's what we just got through saying. If He's taking care of those lilies of the field that much and that well and with that much care, why would we think that He's not going to take care of us in an even better way?

[33:55] And just as Jesus said about the birds, He said, are we not much more greater than they or are we not more important than the birds are? You could say the same thing about these lilies of the field.

[34:10] God didn't send Jesus to come die for the lilies of the field. He sent Jesus to come die for you and I. And we are made in the image of God and God will take care of us.

[34:20] But He ends that when He says, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? And I would imagine this was a little bit of a dagger in the sides of those people that were standing there listening to Jesus Christ.

[34:39] But it was a love-filled dagger from Jesus Christ Himself when He says, O ye of little faith. In other words, you all are worrying about this type of stuff all the time.

[34:51] Remember Jesus, He knows man. He knows what's in the heart of man. And He says, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

[35:03] And that seems like a really deep stab, but it's not. It's more like a mild little love dagger going into the hearts of these people when He says that because He's encouraging them.

[35:16] He's encouraging them to have faith in God. Folks, if I believe that God spoke the universe into existence and I do, I believe every account of Genesis 1 of the creation.

[35:29] If I believe that, if I can just believe the first few words of Genesis 1-1 in the beginning, if I can believe those first three words in the beginning, God created, if I can believe those next few words.

[35:43] If I can believe the first verse of Genesis 1, there is no reason that I should doubt that God can take care of me. No reason whatsoever. If I can believe in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, if I can believe that much, I can believe anything else this Bible says about God.

[36:00] I can believe anything about it. And I need to have faith in that. But when we worry, people have asked me before.

[36:11] They may have asked you before, is worry a sin? Yes. Yes, it is. Why? Why is it a sin? Because it exhibits unbelief.

[36:23] It exhibits doubt in God. And you can get into all kinds of different things there. You can get into Deism. You can get into Finotheism.

[36:35] Finotheism is thinking that there's a God, but He's limited. Atheism is thinking that there's a God, but He just really doesn't care. Then you've got Atheism, which is thinking that there is no God.

[36:48] You can get into all kinds of Isms with that thought that we're talking about. But Jesus says, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

[37:00] Folks, we should have all the faith in God that He will clothe us. He will keep us fed. If He's got us here, He's going to keep us going. He'll give us that which we need to sustain us.

[37:12] Therefore, there's that word, therefore again, remember everything we just talked about, about how God takes care of the fowls of the air. He takes care of the birds. He takes care of the lilies of the field.

[37:23] And He will take care of us. Therefore, take no thought saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek.

[37:35] For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. So we don't need to worry about any of these things. When He says take no thought, He's saying, don't worry.

[37:45] This is exactly what Jesus is getting at there. He says, don't worry, take no thought saying, what shall we eat? What shall we drink? Wherewithal shall we be clothed? Then the Bible says, for after all these things do the Gentiles seek.

[38:00] And it's comparing us to pagans. And these people here to pagans, and this would have been a mainly Jewish audience that Jesus was speaking to here.

[38:11] And that would be why the word Gentile was used there. But He's saying, you're acting like the heathens and the pagans when you worry about these things.

[38:22] I mean, and folks, having that in mind that He was talking to a mainly Jewish audience, the Jewish people were and are the covenant people of God.

[38:33] God made a covenant with Abraham over in Genesis. And God actually made several different covenants all throughout the Old Testament.

[38:45] But they were covenant people. They were in covenant with God. And yet they were doubting this God that made a covenant with them. And folks, we're in a covenant with God.

[38:57] Our covenant is the new covenant. Our covenant is in Jesus Christ and His shed blood. It was a blood covenant in the Old Testament. It's a blood covenant in the New Testament.

[39:08] Brother Verne's talking about Abraham, how God had Abraham gather a bunch of critters together and slaughter them. And then He caused a deep sleep to come over Abraham.

[39:20] And God is the one that came down. And He walked through that sacrifice there. God is the one that made that covenant. Abraham had nothing to do with it. He was asleep.

[39:31] But it was a blood covenant. Was it not? There was blood everywhere when those creatures were slaughtered. Every sacrifice that was made unto God, that's a blood covenant.

[39:43] But in the New Testament, we have a covenant relationship with God too. But our covenant is in and it is through Jesus Christ and His finished work on Calvary and His shed blood.

[39:54] That's the covenant that we are in. And if they were in covenant with God and we are in covenant with God, folks were in covenant with the one that we can absolutely, undoubtedly, rely on to take care of us in all these matters that Jesus is talking about here.

[40:13] He says, for your heavenly Father, knoweth that ye have need of all these things. Because He doesn't say you have need of all things.

[40:27] You have need of all of these things. We have to have food. We have to have food, clothing. We have to have shelter.

[40:38] And God provides all these things to us. Now, is it supplied more so to some than others?

[40:48] That's where you get into splitting hairs with Scripture. It's just because someone else has earned more money in their life and they can afford a more expensive house.

[41:00] Someone paid $25,000 for a house, which I doubt you could buy a shed for that now. But we'll just say $25,000. Somebody else paid $100,000 for their house. That doesn't mean that God is blessing one more so than the other.

[41:16] Both of them have shelter, do they not? And the one with the $100,000 house, now we're talking about Christian people. Again, we're in Matthew here. We're talking about Kingdom people.

[41:27] The one with the $100,000 house, maybe he can handle himself better and he wouldn't let that house become an idol more so than the one with the $25,000 house would be.

[41:37] And that's a blessing, what we would call a blessing in disguise. Someone having the same outcome, a shelter, a roof over their head, having food, whether it's bologna sandwiches or T-bone steak, and having Raymond, whether it's the latest designer fashion or whether it's used clothes, whatever the case is, yard cell clothes or something like that.

[42:01] It doesn't matter. They are provided for both and they're provided for equally. They're both clothed, they're both fed, they both have shelter. So people get to split and hairs and they'll say, I didn't think God was a respecter of persons.

[42:17] Brother so-and-so making $250,000 a year, but brother such-and-such is only making $75,000 a year. Well, maybe brother such-and-such wouldn't be able to handle that $4 million a year.

[42:29] Maybe brother so-and-so can handle that and handles it appropriately for that matter. So that's not God being a respecter of persons at all when that happens.

[42:40] I didn't mean to get off on all that, but we did anyway. People were taking no thought what you shall eat, what shall we drink, wherewithal we shall be clued for after all these things do the Gentiles seek for your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things.

[42:56] But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Now, seek ye first the kingdom of God.

[43:08] Nowadays we would say something along the lines of first things first. And folks, that's the case here. That's really true. If you wanted to blow this up into 2023, that's exactly what Jesus would be getting at here.

[43:25] Seek ye first the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is first. God Himself is first. And just last week we read in the Lord's prayer, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.

[43:39] And He's saying here, but seek ye first the kingdom of God. And if we're praying for God's kingdom to come and God's will to be done, is that not seeking the kingdom of God?

[43:51] We need to seek the kingdom of God. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. Not seek out your treasures here on earth first, and then take the kingdom of God off the back burner, maybe throw them on the front eye of the stove for just a little while, get them a little bit warm and send them back again.

[44:08] Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. But folks, we've got to seek God. We've got to seek God.

[44:19] People wonder sometimes, you know, I don't feel like I'm being blessed by God like I once did. Are you seeking the kingdom of God like you once did? That's my first question to people with that.

[44:30] I don't feel like God's blessing me. I don't feel like God's listening to my prayers. I don't feel like God this, and I don't feel like God that. Like he used to.

[44:40] Or I just don't feel in church like I used to. Are you seeking the kingdom of God first? That's my question to every one of those people. Because if you're not, that's probably why those other things have fallen by the wayside.

[44:54] Because Jesus says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow. For the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.

[45:08] Jesus is actually a really deep thing that Jesus is saying here. Take no thought for the morrow. For the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. He's saying don't worry about tomorrow, but he says for the morrow will take thought of the things of itself.

[45:25] Jesus recognizes here. And I thank God that he knows my frame. He knows that I am but dust. Jesus, read it again. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.

[45:40] Jesus recognizes there's going to be worry in our lives. And yes, I'll say it again, worry is sin. It absolutely is.

[45:51] The Bible teaches it in other places other than where we are reading right here. These are commandments from Jesus Christ. And if we're taking thought for the morrow, if we're taking thought for our raiment, if we're taking thought over our food or anything else in our life, we are going against a commandment that Jesus Christ gave these people here and gives us now in the Scriptures.

[46:15] Therefore it is sin, but Jesus recognizes it here. He says take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. In other words, don't worry about tomorrow.

[46:26] You worry about today or don't, I shouldn't phrase it if you worry about today, but don't worry about tomorrow. He says tomorrow is going to have its own worries. Tomorrow is going to have its own trials.

[46:37] It's going to have its own problems, in other words. And that's why it gets into the very end of this verse when he says for sufficient to the day is the evil thereof. But he says take no thought for the morrow.

[46:48] Folks, we don't need to worry about tomorrow. We got today. It's kind of like salvation. It's like Paul wrote about salvation. He says today is the day of salvation.

[46:59] Now you've got people worried about, people have been born again Christians for 20 years, but they're worried about sins that they committed 30 years ago. Let go of that.

[47:11] It's not what you were that gets you into heaven. It's what you are now. I'm a born again child of God. That's what I need to concentrate on. That's seeking the kingdom of God first. And that's not taking thought for the morrow or thought for my food or thought for my raiment.

[47:26] I'm a born again child of God, I have a heavenly Father. And if he takes care of the birds, he takes care of the flowers and the lilies, he takes care of the weeds of the field, the way that he does.

[47:39] I have no reason to think that he wouldn't do so for me. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. In other words, there's going to be problems tomorrow. This is exactly what Jesus is saying.

[47:51] And this blows out of the water all this prosperity preaching that you hear the people saying, just come on to Jesus and your life is going to be great. Come on to Jesus, your life will be grand, you'll never have any problems, you'll never be sick, you'll be wealthy, you'll be all these things.

[48:06] Folks, that's not what Jesus says here and that's not what the rest of the Bible teaches at all. Jesus says sufficient to the day is the evil thereof.

[48:18] In other words, we've got trials in our lives today. Jesus isn't encouraging us to worry about them, but Jesus knew that we would. But Jesus is encouraging the listeners here to this sermon that he is preaching to build their faith.

[48:35] When he said a few verses ago, oh ye of little faith, he was telling them, you have little faith, you need to have more faith. How do we have more faith through prayer? We have more faith through reading the Word of God.

[48:47] We have more faith in our dependence upon God and when God comes through for us, that's what builds our faith and God will come through for those who are His.

[49:00] So sufficient to the day, unto the day is the evil thereof. Folks, we're going to have enough coming at us tomorrow. Ain't no sense in worrying about what's going to happen tomorrow.

[49:11] But once again, every one of us do it. Every one of us will. If it's not tomorrow, it's next week that we're worried about. If it's not next week, it's next month. It's something that we're dreading down the line.

[49:23] But God has said, I will go with you all way, even to the very end of the world. Anyway, that brings us to the end of Matthew chapter 6. Anybody got any questions or comments on any of that?

[49:36] All right, God bless you all. I appreciate you. Thank you.