Turn to Matthew 6. Matthew 6. A few weeks ago, I was sitting down and looking
at the bills to pay and after gotten paid and what you
had to pay out. And this title came to me, is
not life more than this? Have you reached that point yet?
Have you reached the point where you can sit down at the table And it's just, you pay the bills,
you live the life again, and then get up tomorrow and you
do the same thing. And in verse 25, and I'm going
to start at verse 19, but verse 25, he says, Therefore I say
to 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. And you and I need to really really digest this. Is not the life more than this? Did God create me to just be
a consumer? Am I just a consumer? That's
the way the world looks at me, isn't it? A consumer. We are
called consumers. What do the consumers want? You
know, the advertisers, when they make up their advertisement,
they make it for the consumers. We are not just consumers. We
are made for God's glory. We are made to worship God, to
know God, to have fellowship with God, and like Enoch, in
this life, it's taken me a while to learn this, but in this life,
to walk with God, that's what life is. Life is, eternal life
is to know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. And every day,
it's not about me going to work or what I'm going to buy or what
I'm going to eat or what I'm going to put on. It's another
opportunity. Today is another opportunity
to know God. It really is. It's another opportunity
to know God. It's another opportunity. Right
here this morning, we have another opportunity. God's family as
God's children to worship and hear from our father Well, they're just I wish we
could get a hold of that I wouldn't have God I could get a hold of
it Look in verse 19 and what our Lord is teaching us here.
I What he's teaching us here is so contrary to what the world
teaches, isn't it? It is absolutely 180 degrees
from what the world teaches. It says in verse 19, "...lay
not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust
doth corrupt and where thieves break through in steel." Don't
lay out your lives to laying up for yourselves, for this earthly
life. The world teaches the opposite. Make all you can and save it
and lay it up and prepare for retirement. I see so many commercials
now on television telling us and teaching us how to prepare
for retirement. I want to know how to prepare
to meet God. I'm about to meet God. I turned
60 years old. I'm not a young man no more.
And I think about this. What it is and what it's going
to be like to meet Almighty God. Which is more important? Your
retirement or meeting God? Which is the most important?
Now, I know there's always going to be someone who says, but it's...
Well, you can just deal with that yourself later. That's not
what I'm dealing with right now. I'm not dealing with that. I'm
dealing with what our Lord is teaching us here to give our
lives to knowing Christ. To give our lives to learning
of Him. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. And that lesson never ends. You
cannot exhaust the knowledge of God. You cannot exhaust the
knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ. Can you? He's God. Lay not up for yourselves, and
listen, treasures. Treasures. What's your treasure? What's
your pearl of great price? Lay not up for yourself treasures
upon earth. These things in this world are
the enemies of our souls. Demas hath forsaken me, having
loved this present world. Listen to the Word of God now.
In Luke 12, 15, take heed and beware of covetousness. I don't think anybody here, and
I don't know of anybody I've ever talked to, would say, I'm
a covetous person, I can't help it. I tell you, it's so sneaky,
it'll creep up on you and you won't even realize it, it's got
you. Beware of covetousness, for a
man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which
he possesses. I don't want to be identified
by the things that I possess. I want to be identified by the
one that possesses me. There's a real difference. There's
a real difference. I know a man And I've talked
to him often over the years. And he judges the success of
people. He'll say, that man, he's one
of the most successful men I know. And the man he's talking about
doesn't know the Lord, doesn't believe the gospel. If you end up dying without Christ,
your whole life's a failure. Listen, who was successful? The rich man or Lazarus laying
at the rich man's gate? Which one was successful in the
end? Not along the way, but even along
the way. If you know Christ, you're successful,
I'm telling you. God's made you a success. A man's success is where he ends
up. It's not what he has when he
dies. It's not what he accumulates in this life. It's his relationship, his or
her relationship to Jesus Christ. Our Lord is telling us, get it
right, get your focus right, your aim right. We'll see this
here in a minute. Get your aim right. And we need
to come back. Probably two of the places in
the Word of God that I read the most is the Psalms and the Sermon
on the Mount. As I've gotten older, those are
the two places that I read the most in the Word of God. In Luke 8, it says, And that
which fell among thorns, are they which when they have heard,
they go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures
of this life and bring no fruit to perfection." Wisdom is speaking to us here.
When we open the Word of God and we read it, God is speaking.
I want to hear what He's saying this morning. God is speaking
through His Word. and what instructions He's given
to His people here. But lay up for yourselves treasures,
treasures in heaven, where God is, where Christ is, where neither
moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through
nor steal. They can't take your treasures
there. Those treasures are eternal.
What we have in Christ The spiritual blessings are the treasures.
What we have in Christ, it's eternal. What we have here is
going to be dissolved. How many times have you watched
television and some poor widow has been cheated out of her money
by some hookster? He took all my savings. That's all I had. I had $100,000.
It's all gone. No one can rob me of the wisdom
of God, the righteousness of God, the sanctification I have
in Christ, the justification I have in Christ. I can't lose
it. It can't not be robbed and taken
from me. And moth and rust will not corrupt
His righteousness. And that's the treasure we seek
after. That's the treasure we seek. That's what we lay out
our life is to knowing Him, seeking Him, and enjoying living in the
reality of these spiritual blessings. Mike Bartram sings a song, I
love, I love, give me Christ or else I die. Christ is what
I need, He's who I need, He's all I need. If I have to live
in a shack, that's all right. That's all right. Evidently, if I have to, that's
where I need to be living. Right? God gives His children
what they need. Listen to this in Colossians
3, 1 and 2, If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things
which are above, Set your heart on those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection,
your mind, your heart on things above, not on things of the earth.
It's only wise to seek things that will not perish, right? It's only wise to really put
forth your effort into things that will not perish. Things such as wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption and justification and peace with
God. It's only wise to seek those things in Christ. And here's
the reason. Where your treasure is, your
heart is. Where is your treasure? Where is your treasure? What
has your heart? What motivates you in the morning
when you get up? What motivates you throughout
the day? What's on your mind? What is on your mind the most? Who do you think about the most? Here's the motive for keeping
our desires above the things of this world. Where your treasure
is, your heart is. That's what has your heart. Son,
give me thine heart. Salvation is a heart work. God is worshipped with the heart. And if something else has your
heart, forget about worship. It ain't happening. You might
be showing up, but you're not worshipping God. That's a heart matter. Our hearts will go in the direction
of that which we count most precious. It will. It will. We will conduct our lives around
that which we esteem as our treasure. That's how we'll conduct our
lives. If our treasures are of this earth, then we'll spend
our life chasing those things. But if Christ is our treasure,
then our hearts will be set on Him and our affection will go
after Him. Even when I'm on the job, when
I'm doing my job, there's a real difference in doing your job
because you get paid to do it or doing your job because the
Lord's given that to you to do. And you want to do it in a way
that's honoring to Him. Here's the difference. Now he
gives us an illustration here. The light of the body is the
eye. Now if your eye is single, if
you have the right motive, okay, and the right purpose, and the
right love, your whole body, he said here, if your eye is
single, your whole body is full of light, you have good eyesight.
You can walk down this aisle and you won't be bumping into
the seats. You can walk down the road and
you're not going to stumble, you're not going to step in a
mud hole. If your eyes are single, if you have good eyes, you have
good light. You have good light. Your walk
will be straight. You'll have a straight walk. You'll walk after Christ. If
your eye is single, I tell you this, if your eye is single,
your eye will be fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the mark. He's the finish
line. The goal of my life is to end
in Christ. That's the goal of my life. The goal of my life is not to
look back and say, I have been successful at this or this, and
I have accomplished this. I don't care about this no more. And if you do, I pray God take
it from you. Because it's better you lose it than lose your soul.
It's better. As hard as it is, it's better.
Hell is even harder. Missing Christ is even harder. But, he says here, if thine eye
be evil, evil. If your motive and purpose is
evil. If your eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness,
if therefore the light that is in thee. And I was talking to a man not
long ago. We were talking about the gospel. He and I does not believe the
same gospel. We do not, and I told him this, we don't believe the
same God, we do not worship the same Jesus Christ. We don't do
it. He worships a Christ that wants
to save but can't. He worships a Christ that died
for people that's still in hell and will be there forever. That's
not Jesus Christ of the Bible. Paul said they will come preaching
another Jesus. I'm not standing here preaching
another Jesus. But if, now listen, if my understanding
of the gospel is wrong, if my understanding of who God is,
is wrong, how great is that darkness? How
great was the darkness of the Pharisees? How great was the
darkness of those who claimed to know God, who claimed to be
the children of God and looked at Christ and said, we will not
have this man reign over us. How great is that darkness? How
great is the darkness that a man will turn on Christ to another
gospel? That's great darkness. That's
evil. He calls it evil. Satanic! Satanic! How great is that darkness! If
my eye is bad, then I won't be able to see where I'm walking,
will I? I'll stumble and Be confused, and I know another
man. When you live long enough, you
start knowing some things. You start knowing people. I know
another man, he has been bounced from one denomination to another.
He's trying different ones. This one, this one, this one.
His eyes, the light that's in him is darkness. It's darkness. If my eye is evil, I can't see
where I'm going. If it's darkness, a blind man
can't see where he's going. He cannot do it. He cannot do
it. If the light or my understanding
in me is darkness, then when life is over, what a tragedy. What a tragedy. There's a verse
in Job that just, it just rings in my ears. They were confounded
because they had hoped. They were confounded. I thought
I saved. I preached, Lord, we preached
in your name. We cast out devils in your name.
We did many mighty works in your name." And he says, depart from
me, I never knew you. And they are confounded because
they had hoped to be saved. They had hoped to go to heaven
is what they hoped, not to be saved. They hoped their idea
of salvation is going to heaven. It's an eternal vacation, basically. Salvation is not missing hell
and going to heaven. Salvation is being made one with
God in Christ. And the only way that's done
is my sins are gone, been dealt with and put away. Salvation
is a relationship. It's a relationship with God. With God. No man can serve two masters. And I know that everyone, sooner
or later, at one time or another, will try it. You'll try it. We'll try it. Sooner or later,
we'll try it. No man can serve two masters. And this is so subtle. I've made excuses. I've heard
excuses made. You can't serve two masters.
Either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will
hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and
mammon. You can't serve God and the world.
It doesn't happen. It's like trying to mix fire
and gas. You're going to have an explosion. And what the Lord is forbidding
here is division of aim. You can't, in old Chinese proverbs,
you can't chase two rabbits at the same time and catch either
one. You can't do it. You can't aim at two different
targets and shoot and get them both. You cannot give your whole heart
to God and the world. It doesn't work. If you're a
friend of the world, you're an enemy of God. If you're a friend
of God, you're an enemy of the world. That's the way it is. A believer cannot serve this
world and serve God. Scripture says, Be not ye the
servants of men. You were the servants of sin,
but now you're the servants of God, the servants of righteousness. He's forbidding division of aim. Boy, I need this. That's why
I said I read the Sermon on the Mount now probably, I read it
in Psalms. I read it more than I do the
Psalms. I read it more than I do. This is God. God Almighty came
into this world in the flesh and the longest recorded sermon
has to do with the character and conduct of His children.
how we go through this world, what our aim and our goals are.
This is our Lord speaking to us. Therefore, I say unto you, take
no anxious or no thought or anxious worrisome thought for your life. Takes a while to learn that,
doesn't it? It does. It takes a while. You know, I
learned the gospel. I heard the gospel. Back in around
1979 from my pastor Henry, I heard the gospel, learned the gospel.
I was telling Tammy last night, I said, now I'm living it. I
said, I'm living it. I heard and I learned and I believe
that God is sovereign. And I've learned that God is
sovereign. I've learned that God gives and God takes. And
I've learned this, God gives and God takes, and He gives no
account of any of His matters. He doesn't tell me why He's doing
it. You know, in Job, I think it's Job 38. I think it's Job 38. When God speaks, He does not
explain to Job why He did what He did to him. He does not apologize. He does not say, Joe, I'm sorry,
I had to make a point here or I had to prove something. He
said, Joe, gird up your loins like a man and I will demand
of you. And then he revealed his greatness. I heard and learned the gospel
when I was a young man. Now that I'm older, I'm living
what I've learned. I'm living it. I don't want to
understand a lot of what God does. You know what I know now?
I don't need to. I just need to understand who
He is. If I understand who God is, then what He does is alright.
Because what He does is right. God can do no wrong. God can do no wrong. Why did
God do this? Why did He take this? You know,
it takes a while, but after a while, you just say, you don't need
to know why. It needed to happen. It needed to happen. And that's
when you be still and know that I am God. Be still. When He's given or when He's
taken, be still. Therefore I say unto you, take
no thought, worrisome 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 life." Oh, let that ring in our ears. Put
that on your refrigerator. Is not life more than this? Is not life more than getting
up in the morning, going to work, punching the clock, eating lunch,
punching out, coming home, doing the same thing Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday? Life is to know God. And if we miss that, we miss
life. We missed it. Lord, teach me this. Give me
this. Therefore, if we are to serve
Christ, if we are to serve Christ and His glory, then we have to
cease from serving self and our glory, our wants, our ambitions. We have to cease. Paul said something
in the book of Acts, jumped out at me here a few weeks ago. I
titled it, The Pinnacle of Discipleship. Here's the pinnacle of discipleship.
Now get this, Paul said this, I count not my life dear to me. I count not my life on this earth,
he's talking about dear to me. The only way, the only way to
finish the course, as Paul finished the course, is not to count this
life dear. to us. You can't fight a war. You can't go into battle counting
your life so dear to you that you can't lose it. You can't
give it up. You can't do it. He's telling us, don't take anxious
thought and worry over these earthly things. We should give
more More care to hearing the gospel. He said, take heed to
how you hear. What we hear and believe. Now
listen, I want you to get this. What we hear and believe is far
more important than what we eat and wear. The dress of my soul and the
feeding of my soul is far better than this body. My soul is not
growing old, this body is. This body is. I am worthy, I'm forever young.
I am in Christ, I'm forever young. But I'm going to lay this old
wrinkled body down someday. I can put all the anti-aging
cream on that I want, but it ain't working. And it ain't working
from here either. It ain't working. But my soul is eternal. My spirit
is young. And when we lay this body down
in the grave, it's going to be like a young man and woman all
over again, except it's going to be far beyond our imagination.
Far beyond what we could ever imagine. Your best, the best
day, your best day in your youth when you felt so energetic is
nothing compared to the day you stand before God in a new body. And that's real. This is not
a fairytale, that's real. I'm gonna have to get this up.
He says here, let me hurry up. Behold the fowls of the air.
Now, don't just look at a bird as it flies by. There's a lesson
in it. There's a lesson in everything
that passes in front of you. The problem is there's so much
sin in me, like when I was in school, my interests were in
so many other things that I didn't pay half attention to what was
being said. So when the bird flies in front
of you today, don't just let the bird fly in front of you.
Learn from it. Behold the fowls of the air. They sow not, neither
do they reap, nor gather into barns. They don't build barns
like that rich man said. My soul, thou hast much riches.
What am I going to do? I'm just going to tear down my
barns and build bigger ones. Wouldn't it have been wonderful
if he said, I'm just going to support the gospel and spread it all
over the world. He says, yet your heavenly Father
feeds them. I want you to turn over to Psalm
104. I'm going to read this quickly as I can. Of course, we don't
need to be in too much of a hurry. Psalm 104, look in verse 10. Look in verse 10, Psalm 104.
He sendeth the springs into the valleys which run among the hills.
They give drink to every beast of the field. The wild asses
quench their thirst. By them shall the fowls of heaven
have their habitation, which sing among the branches. He watereth
the hills from his chambers. The earth is satisfied with the
fruit of thy works. He causes the grass to grow for
the cattle, and herb for the service of man, that he may bring
forth food out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad the
heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread
which strengthens man's heart. The trees of the Lord are full
of sap, the cedars of Lebanon which he hath planted, where
the birds make their nests." He's taking care of all. Notice
the care he's taking here. As for the stork, the fir trees
are her house. God made that for her. The high
hills are a refuge for the wild goats. You ever look at those
goats on those high hills on TV and you think, great day.
It makes my legs hurt. Looking at something high makes
my legs hurt. And you see those goats up there on that, just
around the legs and they jump. And they have their little babies
right behind them and they do the same thing. And I think,
who among us would do that? It says, The high hills are a
refuge for the wild goats, and the rocks for the conies. He
appointed the moon for seasons. The sun knows her going down,
and she knows what she's doing. Thou makest darkness, and it's
night wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.
Now here, listen. Here's what I want to get to.
The young lions roar after their prey and seek their meat from
God. There's a mystery in that, isn't
there? There's a mystery in that. That
young, strong lion seeks his meat from God. They shouldn't be smarter than
us. Those little birds, they didn't
wake up this morning fretting. They didn't wake up fretting. They just go pick up what God's
put out there for them. and are content with it. I tell
you what, not one bird out there, the little sparrow does not envy
the eagle. Think of that one. That little
sparrow does not envy the eagle. And the eagle doesn't think less
of that little sparrow. I wish we could trust God like
that. I wish we could. God who made us, God who's given
us His Son, shall He not keep us? Shall He not take care of
us? Are you not much better than
they? Christ died for me. Are you not
much better than they? And He says here, and this is
so sweet, this is so sweet, your heavenly Father, Your Heavenly
Father. Now which of you by taking thought
can add one cubit to his stature? He says don't take thought, don't
worry, and here's the reason why. What good does it do? Have you worried about being
short? Can you make yourself taller? Can you add one cubit, one measure
to your stature or to your To yourself? I mean... Can you do that? Can you do it? Can you, by anxious thought and
worry, change any of your circumstances? Can you? Can you make anything
change and turn just by worrying about it? You can by praying about it. God can turn everything. If He
will, He will. Put it that way. If He will,
He will. If you can change God, then you
can change everything else. But you can't do that. And why take thought for clothing,
raiment? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow, they tall not, they do they spin. Oh, these
tulips, Vicki's bought some tulips for her granddaughter. They're
beautiful. I mean, these flowers are so
beautiful. He says, Solomon, all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these. But when I read that, I thought,
you have to have different eyes to see this, because the world
can't take its eyes off of Solomon and his riches. The world can't
get over the riches. They walk past the tulips. They
walk past the lilies. But he says to those who believe
him, stop. Actually, stop to smell the roses.
Stop and look at that lily, how God has taken care of it. Where
no gardener is, no one out there fertilizing, no one out there
digging around it. And here it grows toward heaven and spreads
out and it's so beautiful. So beautiful. Now, if God can
do that for a lily, what can he do for me and you? If God
has clothed the lily like that, think about what he's clothed
us with in the righteousness of Christ. Don't think about
this dress. Think about the dress you have
in Christ. Get your mind off these threads. These threads
cost me. His righteousness didn't cost
me anything. That dress is free. It's free. Wherefore, if God
so clothed the grass of the field, which the day is, and tomorrow
is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you,
O ye of little faith? There's a problem. Little faith
saved, but it's not commendable. It's saved, but it's not something
you want to write home about. Write home, I have little faith. No, that's something being Little
faith saved, but it's not commendable. For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek, verse 32, for your heavenly Father knows
what you have need of. He knows you need all these things.
He made you, didn't He? What kind of father would I be? What kind of father would you
fathers be if you didn't take care of your children? Well,
how much more is our Heavenly Father going to take care of
us? He's a whole lot better Father than we'll ever be. But here, here's the lesson.
Here it is. And do this, listen, do this
every day. Every day. Seek ye first the
Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added. That's a promise. You're sitting there worrying,
he just gave you the key. We worry about food and rain,
but where are we gonna lay? He just gave you the key. First things first. Seek ye first
the kingdom of God. Now you can't do that without
first seeking the king. Because there is no kingdom without
a king. Seek ye first the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness, and He'll take care of you. He'll
take care of you. I tell you, it takes time to
learn this. And I'll have to learn it again
tomorrow. That's so sad. I am sad. I'm sad a lot. Aren't
you glad salvation's all a grace? Ain't none of us will make it.
None of us. Seek His kingdom, seek His righteousness. Let that become the goal of your
life. Let that become your... Here's
our ambition. I can give you our ambition. To be found in Him, not having
mine own righteousness. That's the only ambition I need
to have. Really. That's all I need to
have. Don't worry about tomorrow. Take no thought for tomorrow,
tomorrow take thought for itself. Take therefore no thought for
tomorrow, for tomorrow shall take thought for the things of
itself, sufficient until the day is evil thereof. I got all
the trouble today I need, I don't need to bring in tomorrow's trouble. You know how many people won't
wake up tomorrow on this earth? I forget how many millions die
a day in this world. There'll be several million people
that will not wake up here tomorrow, but they will meet God. They
will meet God. All right. All right.