Turn back to Matthew chapter
7. Matthew chapter 7. And let's
listen to what our Lord has to say to us, to believers, to His
disciples. I titled this message, Carefree
Living. not living carelessly, that's
not what he's saying, but carefree, anxious, free living. He's telling
us here how we are to live as believers, how we are to pass
our time in this world. Wouldn't it be something if we
could get up every day and be carefree about the day, knowing
that our Lord will provide, that He will take care of us, that
He has ordained everything that will come our way? Wouldn't it
be... That would be so great if we could do that and not get
up and be anxious. Anxious about what we have to
do. Anxious about whether we're going to get it done. And, you
know, we have two or three things to do and we get all anxious
about it. It's like, you know, like one thing after another. You know, if we could just learn
to just take one thing at a time, you might not live to get the
second one done. So why worry about it? but let us learn how
to just be careful. I'm not careless. Our Lord's
not teaching us carelessness here, but to be carefree. And
we have a right to do that. I don't have the ability to do
it because of sin, indwelling sin, we get anxious about many
things. Martha, Martha, we're a bunch
of Marthas, aren't we? Troubled and care you care you
care and you're careful. He said you're careful and troubled
about Many things it's like when we have someone who's going to
come and visit Vicki just I'd leave the house It's just cleaning
from top to bottom and in just I Go play golf or something That's
my carefree Troubled. Troubled about many
things that you can't do anything about. And one of the things
he's going to teach us here is that all the worry and all the
anxiety that we have doesn't change a thing. I mean, you can
be anxious. You can run around the house
screaming. When you come back in the house, it hasn't changed
a thing. It's the same. And our Lord is teaching us here
to trust Him. Cast all your care upon Him who
cares for you and leave it there. Our problem is we got a rope
tied to it and we drag it back. We just drag it back into the
house. It's like fishing. You throw it out there and you
keep reeling it back in. Cast your cares on Him and don't
reel it back in. Just leave it there. Take your
burden to the Lord and leave it there. We sing leaning on
the everlasting arm, but I think most of the time, 99% of the
time, we sing above our experience, don't we? Because we don't leave
it there and we're not leaning most of the time. Too many times
we're not leaning. That's why we're anxious. That's
why we get worrisome. Now the things that our Lord's
given us here, is totally contrary to the spirit of the world. It's
totally contrary to the old nature you and I were born with. The
world says, get all you can and a little more. The world says,
do unto others before they do it to you. That's what the world
says. That's what they say. Henry said
this, he says, get all you can, can all you get and sit on the
can. That's what the Bible says. That's
the spirit of the world. Now listen, our Lord has saved
us from our sins. He saved us. He's taken care
of the weightier matters. Will He not take care of the
lighter matters? Will He not do that? That's why I said when I began
this study here on the Sermon on the Mount, this is the portion
of Scripture I was reading that just struck me. We need to go
through this again and listen to what our Lord is teaching
us as His disciples, as His children. This is lessons from the Father.
And what He's given us here is infinite wisdom. This is infinite
wisdom. This is not opinions. That's
not his opinion. It's infinite wisdom. This is
how you and I are to walk through this world because the world
watches you, watches me, it sees us. And you and I need to live
in a way that's God-honoring, that honors our Father. Now he
says here, in verse 19, he forbids a worldly spirit. That doesn't
mean you can't own a nice car or home. That's not worldliness.
Worldliness, now listen, worldliness is not in what you own. It's
what you are. It's that spirit of get and get
and get and gather and gather. Gotta have more, gotta have more.
Not enough, not enough. That's the spirit of the world.
Lay not up for yourselves, Treasures upon earth, where moth and rust
doth corrupt and where thieves break through and they steal.
Don't lay out yourself for yourselves. You see, the world, the spirit
of the world is self-centered, isn't it? I've got to make this
amount of money, I've got to retire. No, I'll tell you what
you've got to do. You've got to die. You don't have to retire. Do you realize how many people
a year don't retire? They die. They die before they
ever reach retirement. I know a man that lived over
where my parents lived. The day after he retired, he
died. Now, where's your treasure? Don't lay out yourself for yourself. That's the spirit of the world.
That's self-centered. These things are enemies to our
souls. When we get wrapped up into these
things, I want, I want, I want, I want. Listen here. Paul said, Demas hath forsaken
me, having loved this present world. He couldn't let it go,
could not let it go. Luke 12, 15, take heed and beware
of covetousness. For a man's life consists not
in the abundance of the things which he possesses. Don't judge
a man or man or woman, as successful
now by what they own, by what they've accumulated. Well, let's
wait and see where they end up. Now, let's see, that success
is where I end up, and that's success in Christ, where I end
up. But that's what we judge by. Don't judge a man by the abundance
of the things which he possesses. Listen to Luke 8, "...and that
which fell among thorns are they..." He's talking about the seed.
Remember the sower went forth to sow and some fell among thorns?
"...and that which fell among thorns are they which, when they
have heard, they go forth." And they are choked, listen, they
are choked, what they heard is choked with cares and riches
and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit unto perfection.
Maturity, it dies on the vine. Why? Because the cares, the riches
and the pleasures of this life were like weeds growing up in
a garden and it just overtook the garden. That's why the Lord says, you
know, beware of that. Beware of that. But here's what
you and I do. And He's not saying by saying
that, that you don't have a bank account, you don't have a savings
account, you don't have an investment. That's not what He's saying. But what
He's saying is, that's not your treasure. That's not your treasure. You know, if you lose it, so
what? If you gain it, so what? Paul said, I've learned whatsoever
state that the Lord puts me to be content. I've learned how
to abound. I've learned how to have a lot
handle it. And I've learned how to be without anything. I've learned how to handle that
too. I handled it the same way I handled when I had a lot. You
know, it comes and it goes, doesn't it? It comes and it goes. And when it comes, don't try
to hang on to it and keep it from going. It comes and it goes. But lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven. This is what you lay yourself
out to. This is what you give yourself
to. Where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt in heaven, where
God is, and where thieves do not break through and steal.
They don't live there. They live here. I remember when I was in
business, You know, I can call the bank, and I can call the
bank, and this, when I was in business, and I'd say, I need
$75,000. I need $100,000. And they'd say,
well, just stop by when you get time and sign the papers. They'd
put it in there. Well, the banker that I was dealing with, he was
embezzling money, and I had, and he had, I called him for
$75,000. And he said, oh, it's in there. Well, I get a note. Well, I'd written checks out.
I had one guy call me. He said, you're check bounced. I said, what? And the banker
had taken it and gambled with it and didn't get it back in
there in time, you know, when I wrote checks out on it. He
didn't get it back in there. Of course, he got in a lot of
trouble and got put in prison, but he was doing that with a lot
of people. Where thieves break through and steal. They can't
do that in heaven. They don't live there. They live
where I live and where you live. But they don't live here. Moth
and rust don't break through and steal. Moth don't eat holes
in your treasures there, but they eat them in here. You got
a treasure, a jacket or something that you
may have had from your grandfather. Well, leave it hanging long enough
and there'll be holes in it. Moth will get all of it. You
know, it'll just destroy. But now there, there's where
you lay yourself out to. The things in heaven, let your
desires and effort go after heavenly things. Be heavenly minded, it's
saying. Be heavenly minded. It says in Colossians 3, if you
then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection
on things above, not on things on the earth. You know, he's
given us all things to enjoy. Enjoy what you've been given,
but he's going to take them away. In time, they're going to go. So don't set your affection. It's one thing to enjoy it, but
when it has your heart, it has you. It has you. You know, wisdom
would teach us not to put our money in a burning house, wouldn't
it? Don't put your life there. Don't put your life there. Now
these spiritual things, no doubt he's speaking of, are spiritual.
Seek those things which we have in Christ. Wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, redemption, peace with God. Listen, I want God
to save me. And I want to know God has saved
me. I don't want to just guess at it. You know, Paul said in
1 John, we know, we know, we know. I want to know. I want to know. And we know by seeking those
things which are above. Seeking those things which we
have in Christ. And the more we grow in grace
and the knowledge of Christ, the more assurance we have. The
more assurance we have. Lack of assurance comes from
lack of faith. It's just immaturity. It's immaturity in the faith
is what it is. Now, here's the number one reason. For where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also. Your heart is where your treasure
is. Tell me where your treasure is and I'll tell you where your
heart is. Someone that's given to making money, they got to
have money. Well, that's their treasure and that's where their
heart is. That's where it is. This is the
motive for keeping our desires above this world. We don't let
it get a hold of our heart. It's like this world's like a
spider web, boy, it'll just wrap you and then it'll come out and
get you. Our hearts will go in the direction
of that which we count our treasures. That's the direction our heart
will go. If Christ is our treasure, it'll go after him. If he's not,
whatever is, that's what our heart will go after. And then
he gives us a an illustration here in verse 22. This first
one in verse 22, compared to verse 23, this first one is saving
knowledge acquired through grace. The second one is knowledge acquired,
but no grace. No grace. The light of the body
is the eye. Isn't the eye a marvelous thing? You know, I do these things.
I'll sit around. I'll look at my hands move. I
will. I'll just hold them out in front
of me. And just so effortlessly. God gave us such a marvelous
body. And I, I'm looking at you. And you,
I mean, I see you as you are. The eye is such a, I thank God
I'm not blind. There are some people who've
never seen, just like when the Lord opened that man's eyes,
he saw men, he saw them as trees walking. Can you imagine what
he was flooded with? Or the ear, hearing. I saw this,
I was watching this on something here not long ago, but that the
first time this person had heard, and they had done an operation,
they did something to the ear, they'd never heard anything before,
and then the mother spoke, and it's just, That child just started crying.
First time I heard his mother's voice. How marvelous. And yet we hear it every day,
don't we? I do. I have good hearing. Even now,
I still have pretty good hearing. And the eye, now the light of
the body is eye. If your eye is single, if you
have 20-20 vision, you're not blind. You have a good eye. And this here, therefore if your
eye is single, your motive, he's talking here, your motive, your
purpose, thy whole body shall be full of light. Your understanding is right. You've been illuminated. God
has given you light. Your understanding has been illuminated
and your motive is pure. You've got a right motive is
what he's saying. And if our eye is good, if we
have good sight, guess what? Our walk will be good. I see
where I'm going. If you're blind, you stumble
over it, you run into everything. If you're blind, if they put
you in a room you've never been in, you run into everything. But
boy, if you've got 20-20 vision, you can just walk and you don't
even think about it, do you? You don't even think about your
vision day by day when you're just out here walking around
doing this, that. It's because your eye is good. You can see. And your walk is good because
you can see. You have a good eye. If the eye of the soul is
fixed on Jesus Christ, then the walk of that person will be well-pleasing
to God. It'll be a godly walk. You can see where you're going.
We walk by faith, we believe His promises, we're not tossed
to and fro by every wind of doctrine, and we're not taken up with anxiety. I know some people are given
to that, I know that, but our Lord forbids this, to
live with anxiety to His children, to live like that, to live that
way. You know, I was watching this
some time ago. I like to watch informational.
I watch YouTube a lot. I like to watch informational
things. And it's, you know, it's talking about us living in the
most richest time of our life. This nation in the richest time
of our life. But there's never been a time
where people are more, have more anxiety. They have more anxiety. They have more depression. Why? Well, it's for the believer here. I'm not going to go into why
this, why that. That's too long. But for the believer here, the
Lord, He tells us, don't live like that. Don't live your life
in anxiety. Walk with singleness of purpose.
Walk with the glory of God. And trust Him as you walk. Trust
Him. Trust Him. But he says here, if thine eye
be evil, your motive and your purpose, if your eye is evil... And this is knowledge acquired
with no grace, where there's no grace. You see, the first
one is the saving knowledge of Christ with the grace of God.
This one is knowledge acquired just like somebody could be sitting
here. And you've acquired knowledge of the gospel by listening. You
have acquired knowledge of the doctrines of grace, and you say,
I believe that. But there's no grace to apply it. There's no
grace that applies it. If thine eye be evil, thy whole
body shall be full of darkness. What you do understand, you understand
in darkness. If therefore the light that is
in you, be darkness. Oh, how gray is
that darkness. There is a light that is darkness. And he calls it here evil. Evil. If my eye's bad, my walk will
be bad. If I can't see where I'm going,
Isn't that so obvious? Isn't the teaching of our Lord
so simple? If your understanding of the gospel is bad, your walk
is going to be bad. Your walk is going to be bad. You're not going to walk by faith.
Not at all. If the understanding in me is
darkness, then what a mistake my whole life is going to end
up being. If the light in you does not
lead you to faith in Christ, to hope in Christ, to rest in
Christ, to peace in Christ, what great darkness that is. What
great darkness, because it's leading you away. Now he says here in verse 24, he's going to forbid division
of aim. No man can serve two masters. The one who has singleness of
eye, he has singleness of purpose, and he has a single master, the
Lord Jesus Christ. The one whose eye is evil, who
does not have that, he has division of aim. He's caught between two. He's a fence straddler. He sits
on the fence. You know, it's just like he's
saying here, and I thought of this illustration, no man can
serve two masters no more than a man can chase two rabbits at
the same time. You can't do it. You can't do
it. You can't chase two different
things at the same time. God is, God and the world are
totally 180 degree opposite. So you can't be aiming this way
and shoot that way. You know, it's just division
of aim. What he's saying here, you can't have division of aim.
And here's why. Here's why. For either he will
hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one,
and this means he will line up, he will line up with, we will
line up with one or the other, not both. You can't line up with
both, it's two different lines. You can't stand in two different
lines at the same time. And he will hold to the one and
despise the other. He won't be indifferent to the
other, he'll despise the other. In division of aim, that other
you despise is God. You cannot serve God and Mammon.
And I did a word study on that. Mammon is what the Greeks, or
the Chaldeans and the Syrians, that was their name for the god
of money. Mammon was the god of money.
He says, you can't serve God and the God of money at the same
time. Your heart can't be both places. It can't be. No man can
give his heart to God and the world at the same time. He can't
do it. And our Lord will not settle
for half your heart. I'll take half, you take half.
No, it's all of me or none of me. That's how it is. And he's saying here, you can't
serve. That's what he's talking about. He's talking about what
has your heart. What has my heart? That's what
he's talking about. Christ has my heart. He has my
heart. Because if not, if I'm divided
over this, sooner or later, there's going to be a conflict of interest.
There will be a conflict That's why it says you can't
serve God and mammon, because you will love the one or hate
the other, you'll cling to the one and you'll lose the other.
That's the reason. It's so simple. That's so simple. Lord, burn this into my heart.
Burn this into my heart. Therefore I say to you, take
no thought Now this word here, thought, is the same one where
the Lord spoke to Martha in Luke 10, 41, and He said, Martha,
Martha, you are careful and troubled about many things. It has the
same meaning. Take no anxious, careful, troubled
thought for your life. Isn't that what we take careful
thought for is our life? It's my life. Take comfort, take
care, look after my life. Well, who is your life? Scripture
says to the believer, Christ who is our life, when He shall
appear, there's my life. Paul said, for me to live is
Christ, to die is gain. Don't think that just means for
me to live, then I'm going to be in the ministry as a preacher
or pastor. No. Where I am, where I work with what I do for me
to live in that realm is Christ. It's Christ. I'm aware of Christ
when I'm at work. I'm aware of Christ when I'm
at play. It's Christ. I'm constantly aware of my Lord. I'm constantly aware of Him. Take no thought for your life,
what you shall eat, what you shall drink, nor yet for your
body what you will put on. Isn't that, boy, when he puts
it that way, I think, great day. Because he says, as we're going
down through there, is not life more than this? Isn't life more
than a suit? Isn't life more than a pretty
dress? Isn't life more than a steak
dinner? I mean, I had a steak dinner
yesterday, it was good. But life's more than that. Life's more than
a steak dinner. And where I'm gonna live, the
house I'm gonna live in, isn't life life? Life, isn't it more
than this? You'll find out it is when you
die. You'll find out life is more than this when you die.
You think, I can't believe I spent my whole time worried about my
food and my clothing and my drink and here I am now standing before
God. And what does that, what did
that have anything to do with this right now? Nothing. Nothing. I wrote something, I thought
I wrote something down here, let me see. Put no value, I wrote
it down somewhere, put no value on things Put no more value than
what you'd value it in eternity. That's what you and I put value
on, and what is going to go into eternity with us. That's what
we put value on. Therefore, if we are to serve
our Lord in His glory, then we cease serving self. See, that's what keeps a lot
of people back. Oh, that's too much. That's just a little too
much. Just like that rich man. Go sell
all you have and give it to the poor and come follow me. No,
no, no. That's not the commandment I
wanted. I want to know what commandment has eternal life attached to
it, but that's not the one. I honestly believe he wouldn't
have had to sell a thing. I don't think he would have.
And if he had, I believe he'd have been richer than what he
was. I believe he would have been.
If he had done that, I believe he would have been. God took everything from Job.
Job said, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away. And you know,
the Lord doubled everything he had at the end. You know that
in Christ we have double, double more than we'll ever have in
this life. It says there in Isaiah, I'll
give her double. I'll give her double. If that rich man had just been
willing to do it, but he wasn't willing, but the Lord revealed
it, the covetousness that's in the heart. That's where the world
is. The world's in the heart. It's
not always out there. It's always, it's in the heart. I know he says here, don't take
any thought for these things. Don't lay your life out for these
things. What are you going to eat, drink, and wear for your
body? What are you going to put on? Is not the life more than
meat and the body than raiment? I believe it is. God didn't create
us just so we could eat, drink, and live, and then die. We should give much more care
to hearing the gospel than anything else. than anything, anything,
we give much more care to hearing the gospel. What we believe and hear is far
more important than what we eat and wear, isn't it? It is. Our bodily wants are not to consume
our minds. I'll tell you what's to consume
the believer's mind is the Lord, the Lord. Now he gives us an
illustration of his providential care of his creation. He doesn't
just tell us these things and then just leave it like that.
He gives us an example to look at, to consider. Behold the fowls
of the air. Do a little bird watching. I
think I put that in a bulletin. Do a little bird watching. They
sow not, neither do they reap. And he's not teaching laziness
here either. He's teaching here how to live carefree. They don't
gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father, your
heavenly Father, He feeds them. He feeds them every morning,
every day. He feeds them. He feedeth. That
means continually. Are you not much better than
they? Well, not really, but to Him
we are. We fret. They don't. They don't. Behold, take notice, he says,
of what I'm saying to you, my teaching. The birds of the air,
they don't sow in order to eat tomorrow. They don't fret. They
don't fret and worry about tomorrow. They live on the provisions of
the day, just like our Lord did. Our Lord did that. God who has made us, God who
has given us His Son, will take care of us along the way home. And besides, look in verse 27.
Now, which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto
his stature? This can mean one cubit in height
or the measure of one's life. If you could, by taking thought,
could add one cubit to your stature, one inch, I would be taller. I promise you, I'd be taller.
You wouldn't have to hem my pants no more. I'd make myself just
tall enough to where you didn't have to hem my pants. But you can't do it. In fact,
I shrunk two inches. That's what the doctor told me.
I'm like, and I can't get that back. I can't strain and think
and get that two inches back. I can't get even a quarter inch
of it back. Boy, can we not hear what he's
saying? Which of you, by taking thought,
can add one inch to your height or one day to your life? You can't do it. Which of you,
by anxious, worrisome thought, can change your circumstance?
You can't do it. God has made us and placed us
where we are. He's brought upon us the things
that happen to us. He's the only one that can change.
He's the only one that can make the change. And that being so, why take ye
thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field
and how they grow. They toil not, neither do they
spin. Now he takes us to the field. He took us to the birds.
Now he takes us out there to the field. And he said, now notice how they
grow. How does a lily grow? Straight up to heaven. What does
it feed on? That which God has given it.
And what is the end result? It is beautiful. You can take
Solomon in all his glory. Solomon never one time put on
any royal garb that was more beautiful than that lily. But you have to have different
eyes to see that because the world can't see the lily because
they can't take their eyes off Solomon. They can't take their
eyes off his riches and they're like, woo, I'd like to have that.
Boy, I wish I had his money. But you don't see that. You who
believe, we who believe, we see the beauty of the lily of the
valley, don't we? The bright morning star. We see the beauty
of his righteousness. You who don't believe, you don't
see nothing in that. That's about as boring as watching
paint dry. Listening to a sermon on Christ.
But not to you who believe. Oh, notice how he says, they
grow, they grow, they grow to heaven. They grow in the provisions
God's given them. And yet I say to you, even Solomon
in all his glory was not arrayed, dressed like one of these. Wherefore,
if God so clothed the grass of the field, which the day is,
and tomorrow is cast into the oven and burnt up, shall he not
much more clothe you? O ye of little faith, shall he
not take care of you? Cast your care upon him, he takes
care of you. Someone said this, a little faith
saves, but it's not commended. It's never commendable. Therefore take no thought, no
anxious worrisome thought. That doesn't mean you don't plan
for something you got to do tomorrow. But you don't anxiously worry
about it. You don't lose sleep over it.
Take no thought saying, what shall we eat? What shall we drink?
Wherewithal shall we be clothed? Look at me. Do I look like I'm
lacking in any of these things? I look at you. You're not lacking
in any of these things. Our closets are full. Our closets
are full. Our Lord had one robe. He did.
He had one robe and he wore it. I've got six or seven, at least,
suits hanging in my closet. I've probably got, I'm telling
on myself, I've probably got 10 pairs of shoes. I knew someone
who had 50. I mean, that's a lot of shoes. That's a lot of shoes. How in
the world can you get around to wearing 50 pairs of shoes?
You don't go that many places. You don't know that many people.
I mean, you're not invited to that many places. We have been given so much, haven't
we? We are fat with riches. It would do us good, it would
do us good every now and then to have to ask the Lord to really,
really, really give us our daily bread. It would do us good to
really know what that means. Wherefore, if God so clothed
the grass of the field, which today He is, and tomorrow's cast
to the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little
faith? Here's the problem with anxiety, little faith. Therefore
take no anxious thought, saying, What shall we eat? What shall
we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all
these things do the Gentiles, does the world seek? This is
what the world's after. For your Heavenly Father knows
you have needed these things. He made you. When the boys were
growing up at home, I knew what they needed. I wasn't overly
concerned what they wanted, because that's an endless list. Make
me a list for Christmas. That thing is a mile long. But
I know what you need. Our Father knows what we need
spiritually and what's good for us. He knows what to give us
and what to take away from us. He knows. So don't take anxious thought
over these things, because this is what the world takes anxious
thought over. He knows our needs. Let us trust Him who saved our
souls to take care of our bodies. He'll do it. You see, listen,
it's not consistent with faith. It's not consistent with saving
faith to say, Lord, I trust you. Man, what are we going to eat
today? What are we going to eat today? Oh, I trust you. What am I going to wear? I'm
getting threadbare. Is that consistent? It's not
consistent at all. Leave your temporal wants with
the Lord, and you follow after that one thing needful, Christ,
and your relationship with Him. But seek ye first. Remember,
you go back and the Lord said, Accept your righteousness, exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. Well, here
we go again. Here's what you do. Here's what
you give your life out to. Seek. Lay out your life. Seek
ye first and foremost the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
which is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And all these things
will be added to you, but I'm afraid He won't give me that
new car I want. Well, you don't need it or He'll
give it to you. He'll give us what we need. He'll give us what we need. You know, you can't seek the
kingdom of God without seeking the King. There's no kingdom
without a King. And it's seeking the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these things will be added to you. As for all these things, we won't
need to seek them. You know, I'm going to give this example,
and I've got to close here. I know I'm getting a little long.
You know, I tell Paul and Tom this. I heard Henry say in a
message, this little girl sitting beside of her mother and listening
to the preacher. And the preacher kept looking
at his watch. And I keep looking at that clock back there. Looking
at his watch. And she looked up at her mother
and she said, what does it mean when he looks at his watch? She
goes, absolutely nothing. So I'm looking at my watch and
the clock, it don't mean anything. It doesn't mean anything. Where was I at? But seek His righteousness. Seek
the King of glory. And all these things will be
added along the way on your journey home. You'll have them. This
is a promise. This is a promise, and God fulfills
His promise. God help us to do this. I pray
this right now. Lord, help us to do this, to
seek the kingdom of God first. Put it first, and all these things
will be added. Well, the example I was gonna
give you now came back to my mind. I get sidetracked. But Henry,
he did live, and I believe he did seek the kingdom of God,
him and Doris. And they lived on what was provided
for them. You know, he said one time, he
said, if I had to come up with $10,000, I could probably come
up with it. But he didn't have a bank account.
He didn't have a bank account amount to anything. And when
he stepped down from the ministry, he even gave up his Social Security
because of the situation. He gave everything up. You know,
he ended up Someone put up some money and
he ended up living in a house worth two or three times worth
what he lived in. He didn't want to live there
either. He wanted just a tiny house. They had to force him. He had to be forced to do this. But God provided. I watched this. I'm giving you
this because it's something I watched. I watched a man, a minister of
the gospel and his wife, live on what the Lord provided. And
then when he stepped down and at the end of his days, he was
provided for just in an exceptional way. And that was a real example to
me. To me. As a believer and as a
pastor, the Lord will provide. I promise you, the Lord will
provide. He will take care of His own.
You seek the Kingdom of God first. Listen to this, and I close.
In Psalm 84.11, no good thing will be withheld from them that
walk uprightly. And He sums all of it up by saying
this, Here in, take therefore no thought for tomorrow, for
tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Don't you
worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow's not yours, it's God's. Sufficient unto the day is the
trouble thereof. Just take care of the trouble
you got in front of you today. Take that to the Lord. And if
tomorrow comes, we'll deal with that tomorrow, won't we? But
seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and
He, God promises, I'll add these things to you, if you put that
first. Alright.