15th November 2024

15th November 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (Matthew 6:25-34 focus v32-34)


Message (Alan Burke)


There is a difference between believers and unbelievers, or at leas there should be. Here Jesus makes that point as he talks about the, well depending on what translation you use depends on what you will read, the ESV and the KJV use the word ‘gentiles’ whereas the NIV is a little more blunt here and uses the word ‘pagans’. So what is it? Well both words are actually referring to unbelievers, those who do not believe in the Lord God. What that means is for the many who believe in the existence of God but have not trusted in the son of God Jesus Christ for salvation then they are unbelievers, they are gentiles, they are pagans. I’ve come across many people who call themselves “christians” but in reality are unbelievers, gentiles, pagans. They can call themselves whatever they want but unless they have been born again they are not. Well here Jesus makes the 


The pagans, the gentiles, unbelievers call them what you will they run after these things, i.e. they run after what they eat what they drink what they wear is because they do not live with hope that goes beyond this life, they are living for the here and now and as result it is the temporal that matters not the eternal. They are not trying to store up for themselves treasures in heaven but treasures on earth. The people of God should be those who characterised by faith, whose lives are filled with hope, who are not are characterised by worry, the reason why is that our heavenly Father knows what we need and our God is not made of wood or stone rather he is the one who made the heavens and the earth who created all that is. He is not some deity of the nations, a false God that comes from the imagination of ones mind, he is the God who has revealed himself to us and he is more than capable of supplying our needs is more than capable of providing us food drink and clothing. 


Instead how we are to live as Christian’s, as those who truly believe in the midst of a life where it is easy to worry, where we can be filled with angst about a great many things, is to have perspective, perspective for us on what worry cannot do. What we need more than anything right now is to remember who God is, and put Him and his Kingdom at the very centre of our lives (v33), knowing that through Christ Jesus we are his, and making His rule and our relationship Him our priority. For every day He has planned for us (Ps. 139:16), and nothing we can do, worry and anxiety cannot add a single day to our lives, let tomorrow bring what it will bring (v34), the Lord reigns over it all. We are also to seek his righteousness. This means that we are those who are willing to submit the entire day of our lives to his rule here and now. That means we hear his word and we respond to it, we put our sinful desires to one side and we obey his word. That means not only or external actions but our internal character conforms with God's own character. As chapter 5:48 told us “be perfect therefore as your heavenly Father is perfect” we are seeking his righteousness, we forgive, we love, were people of our word, we are people a sexual purity, God's reign in our lives is seen. 


As we do that, when we submit the God’s rule and reign in our lives, then we are assured that God will meet our needs. Instead of worrying about tomorrow, we look to the Lord our God, for we know that each day has enough trouble of its own. What we need is perspective, and Jesus tells us to put God first. If we do this then how different our lives would be. For often we have lost sleep at night, we are robbed of joy, our worry and anxiety is counter productive, our worry and anxiety take away from our lives and the quality of them and they take our eyes of the one who is in control of it all, the Lord our God who has ordained every single day for us. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q36. What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?
A. The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification, are, assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.
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