close your Bibles. Let's look
again at that passage he read to us. And if you have closed
your Bibles, Luke chapter 12 is where we're going to be studying
a bit tonight. And here's my subject. I've actually got one title And
then if you don't like the first one, I'll give you another one.
The first one is, Stop Being Anxious. And if you prefer another
title, Trusting the God of Providence. So it'll give you an idea of
the direction that I think God would have us to go this evening.
And especially in light of the all the different happenings
of the last several weeks and the issues that we've all had
to face, the very fact that we social distance even here in
our church building and mask wearing and that sort of thing. These are To say there are unusual
times is kind of an understatement, isn't it? But as Brandon prayed,
we know that all of these things are according to the purpose
of God. And this gives us great, great consolation. And so we
ask God if he would be pleased to use the word that goes forth
this evening, and before I try to bring you the message that
I believe God has laid upon my heart, let's ask Him to bless. Our Father, we're thankful for the Word of
God that liveth and abideth forever. And this is the word that you
use this incorruptible word in our new birth. And this is the
word we live on. And we ask this evening that
you would take the things before us here in this marvelous portion
of Holy Scripture and that you would speak in grace to each
of your people and speak to us words of encouragement, words
of instruction, and if need be, words of rebuke. We ask forgiveness for not believing
you as we should. Lord, you have proven yourself
to be always faithful, always faithful to your covenant, always
faithful to your dear people through the covenant of grace
in Christ Jesus. You have never failed us, and you never will. O God, give us faith to rest
in you, to know what it means to have a peace that does indeed
surpass all understanding. So take the words of our Savior,
these words that he spoke, these words that Luke has faithfully
recorded by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Lord, take these
words and speak to each of your people here this evening. And
we would ask grace for those who are lost. We would ask for
revelation of your saving mercies through Christ Jesus. These things
we ask in his name. and for his sake. Amen. A great group of people have
gathered to hear our Lord Jesus. May I just draw your attention
to a few verses down through here, even some of the verses
that I did not ask him to read, but I want you to look at the
first verse of Luke chapter 12. In the meantime, when they were
gathered together, an innumerable multitude of people, In fact,
there were so many people that the scriptures says they trod
one upon another. Here's a massive picture in your
mind, a massive group of people. They're just shoulder to shoulder. And they have gathered together
to hear this very famous miracle worker and teacher, Jesus of
Nazareth. Now mixed in this group of people,
there are many Pharisees and Sadducees. There are many who
are very self-righteous, who believe that salvation is by
works, but mixed in this group also are those who are the followers
of our Lord Jesus, who believe in the grace of God. who believe
in the sacrifice that our Lord Jesus entered into this world
to lay down in order to satisfy divine justice and save his people
from their sins. And so he goes on then to speak
these very vital things to this mixed multitude of people. And without going into great
detail on these, because I wanna cover a good portion of Luke
chapter 12 this evening, first of all, he says to them, and
he does this in verse one, he says, beware ye of the leaven
of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Now their leaven, the leaven
of the Pharisees was found in their doctrine, and also was
found in their lives. The hypocrisy was found in their
living, in the way they wanted people to perceive them in one
way, but they weren't that way within. They wanted to be understood
and perceived and looked upon as godly people, as holy people,
as people who love God, as people who love the word of God. But
that was all phoniness because they didn't love God. They didn't
love the scriptures. They didn't love God's son, whom
he sent into the world to save sinners by himself. So there
was a great hypocrisy in their lives. But there was also leaven
in their doctrine. A little leaven, the scripture
says, leaveneth the whole lump. The leaven of the Pharisees then
was their doctrine, that is, the things that they believed
in their lives. But the Lord knew them, and so
he warns. He warns the multitude of the
11 of these men. And you can see the boldness
of our Savior, because mixed in this group are the Pharisees.
And he doesn't hold anything back. He just, he boldly speaks
and he says to this vast multitude and they're all kind of there
crafted in, endeavoring to listen to him. And as I said, shoulder
to shoulder. And here are the Pharisees and
they're all there with their piousity, you know, and looking
all holy and that sort of thing, having scripture verses written
at the bottom of their garments and they're trying to impress
everybody. And the Lord says, beware of
the leaven of these men, which is hypocrisy. And then he goes
on down, verse five, he tells these people, This is the one
you need to fear. Fear God, who can destroy both
body and soul. There is one to fear. There is
one who must have your all and your utmost respect. And it is
the one who can not only take your physical life away from
you, but the one who can also destroy your soul. Fear God. Oh, that God would wake us up
to the reality of meeting God someday, of seeing Him face to
face. Because the day is going to come
when we leave this world, we will go right back to God because
all souls are mine, God said. And when we die, the soul goes
back to God who gave it. and would to God would be serious
about and think about and consider meeting God. Oh, to meet God
dressed in the garments of his salvation. Oh, to meet God washed
in the blood of the Lord Jesus. Oh, to meet God in the perfection
of his son, in the beauties of our Lord Jesus Christ. Fear God,
that's what Christ said. He said, fear God. And then he
gets down to verse eight, and in verse eight he talks about
how vital it is to confess him before others. Don't be ashamed
to identify yourself as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. A believer
in the Son of God. One who loves the message of
grace, the message of substitution, the message of satisfaction. Don't ever be ashamed to say,
he's all my salvation. He's all my righteousness. He's
all of my acceptance. He is all I need. And then he gets to verse, as
we work our way down, I'm just kind of summarizing, of course,
in verse 10, he warned about rejecting the teaching of the
spirit of God concerning Jesus Christ, the Lord. I tell you, if you don't believe
what the Spirit of God sets before you, when He sets it before you
through the lips of a man who knows the gospel, and you just,
you're in your mind, you're dead, you're dead set against Christ. And no matter what the Spirit
of God has said in the Word of God concerning God's own Son
and that great salvation and forgiveness that's in Him, you're
just bound and determined, I will not believe this record. I don't
believe what the Spirit of God has said. He warns about not
believing the record that the Spirit of God has given. because
you have blasphemed the Spirit of God. Now, look at verse 13. And this is where he began reading,
and one of the company. Now, remember, here's a vast
group of people. And out of these thousands of
people, no doubt, who were gathered there that day, one yelled to
him, Because this is the meaning. This is the intention of the
passage of scripture. Verse 13, and one of the company
yelled out to a master. He doesn't have a question. He's standing before the master
himself. He doesn't ask the savior concerning
the way of grace, the way to God. How can God be just and
justify the ungodly? He doesn't even ask a question.
He just says, Master, you speak to my brother that he may divide
the inheritance with me. Evidently, he's not the firstborn,
he's the secondborn. The firstborn got a double portion
of the inheritance. And here this man is, in this
great congregation, he's heard teaching on the hypocrisy of
the Pharisees. Beware of it. He's heard teaching about fear
God. He's heard teaching about believe
the record of the Holy Spirit. He's heard the words of our Lord
Jesus concerning judgment. But none of those things register
with him and that which is most important in his mind is the
inheritance that was left to him and his brother. And his
brother got a double portion and what he wants is he wants
his brother to half it with him. And our Lord Jesus, he answers
this way in verse 14. He said, man, literally mister. I mean, it's not a real, not
a kind hearted way to respond to him. It says the man asked
him a needless, he didn't ask him anything, he made a needless request of Jesus of Nazareth. And the Lord says, man, mister,
who made me a judge or a divider over you? Here's a man who didn't have
any inkling of who Jesus of Nazareth was, and moreover, he didn't
wanna know who he was. He perceived he had some sort
of authority, but it didn't perceive him to be the only mediator between
God and men. He wants him to be a mediator
between himself and his brother. He has no interest in a mediator
between himself and a holy God. None whatsoever. And our Lord
Jesus said, I didn't come to settle issues like this. While
he came to seek and to say that which was lost, he came to lay
down his life for the sheep. He came to seek and to save people. He didn't come to settle earthly
squabbles in the family. That's nothing. That has no eternal
bearing whatsoever. And so he asked him, the Savior
says, man, mister, Who made me a judge or a divider of you? Do you think that's the reason
I'm here? You don't comprehend who I am,
what I came to do. And moreover, he didn't have
any interest in who he was and what he came to do. No, the word man is not an endearing
expression. This is a word used for a total,
total stranger. Man, I don't know you. Man, I have no relationship with
you. Our Lord didn't come to settle
issues like that. But you see, worldly people,
the man of the world, these are the sorts of things that weigh
on their minds. Our Lord Jesus came to set spiritual
captives free. That's why he came. And then
that opens the door. You see, all things are of God.
And here's this man whose mind is totally possessed and obsessed
with money and materialism. But the Lord had him say that
right at that very moment in order to make way for that which
the Savior would then say. Don't ever forget all things
are of God. And so then he proceeded to speak
a story or a parable in verse 16. He says, the ground
of a certain rich man brought forth lots of produce. And he thought within himself,
oh, what shall I do? Because I have no room where
to bestow my fruits. Oh, he could have bestowed his
fruits. He could have bestowed his goods upon those who were
in need. He could have given to the community
kitchen, to the widows. He could have sold of his substance, of his fruits,
and given to support the gospel. But all that weighed on his mind
was, I don't have room for all the stuff I've got. So he said, this will I do. I'll
pull down my barns and build greater. And there will I bestow
all my fruits and my goods. You notice he didn't say, I'm
gonna build more barns. He said this, I'll pull down
my barns. So why don't you just build more
barns? Oh, I don't wanna use up that
good fertile land that brings forth all my good crops. No,
I don't want to do that. So I'll just tear down my barns
and I'll build greater ones. And I'll bestow all my fruits
and goods there. He didn't even consider maybe
selling things off. Because you see, he had so much,
if he had sold it all off and flooded the market, that dried
the price down. So rather than do that, he'll
just keep it all till the price goes up, then sell it. He's a
really shrewd businessman, this guy is. And he says in verse 19, I will
say to my soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink,
and be merry. But he made two very fatal errors. He just assumed he had many years
to live. wrong, and he assumed that the things
of this world can satisfy the soul of man. Wrong again. Two fatal errors. You see, something had happened
that he hadn't factored in. He factored in a lot, but he
didn't factor in death. He had his grandiose plans, but he forgot God. He had no consideration for Jesus
Christ. He had no interest in forgiveness. He had no interest in righteousness. He had no interest in blood redemption. The things of God meant nothing
to him. He forgot that he was going to
die. Oh, he probably said, I know
I'll die someday, but boy, he died quicker than he bargained
for. And when he died, the unthinkable
thing happened. The greatest nightmare, greater
than any nightmare he could ever have, he met God without a savior. He met God laden with his own
sinfulness. He met God who's angry with the
wicked every day. He met God without Jesus Christ. God without Jesus Christ is a
fearful, fearful being. Oh, it's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. The Savior said, When this man
died, he said, then who shall those things be which you've
provided? He made another big mistake too. Look at verse 19. I will say to my soul, wait, my
soul? My soul? It's not your soul. God said all souls are mine. Never thought about that. You
ever thought about that? I'll say to my soul, whoa, wait
a minute, buddy. Your soul's not yours. God gave you life. God breathed
into you life. God made you a living soul. And that soul's going back to
God who gave it the moment you breathe your last breath. He said, I've got all this stuff,
it'll last me many years. Yeah, that'll last many years,
but you're not gonna last many years. Because that very night, His soul was required of God. No wonder the Savior in verse
number 20 said, thou fool, thou fool, this night thy soul shall
be required of thee. You're a foolish man. Do you
know any foolish people? Are you a foolish person? If
all you live for is here and now and what you can gather unto
yourself, you're a fool. He is a fool whom God calls a
fool. God says in Psalm 14, the fool
hath said in his heart, there's no God. And now he says to this
man, you're a fool. You're a fool. I tell you who a fool is. It's
a person who has the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ set before
them. Here's the darling of God's bosom
in whom there's righteousness and salvation. This is the one
who came down from heaven. This is the one who gave himself
to save lost sinners. This is the only one by whom
we have access to a holy God. And a fool totally ignores the
message that they hear. And rather than pursue the living
God through Christ Jesus, rather than to seek the Lord while he
may be found, they just dismiss the message as being really beneath
them. These other folks need that kind
of religion, but not me. You're a fool. You're a fool. Oh, he says, the Savior says
in verse 21, so is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is
not rich toward God. Oh, I tell you, the man who has
Christ Jesus He's truly rich. The woman who has Christ Jesus
is rich beyond all comprehension, rich with grace. Rich with blessings, because
you're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. Rich with forgiveness. Think
about this. God will never lay one sin to
your account. It was all put to the account
of Christ Jesus, who bore them away, who endured the wrath of
God in your stead. You're rich with forgiveness.
You're freely, fully, finally all forgiven. Isn't that marvelous?
It cost you nothing. Cost him his life. You're rich with righteousness
in that vast congregation. How are those Pharisees? Oh,
they were filled with self-righteousness. And self-righteousness is no
righteousness. It's stinking righteousness.
But those who know Christ Jesus, they're rich in righteousness. And they're rich in glory. Such
a man is truly rich, his treasure is incorruptible. His bank will
never break. His inheritance will never fade
away. Nobody can deprive him of it.
And death can't even snatch it out of his hands. All things are his already, according
to 1 Corinthians. All things are yours, whether
life or death or preachers or things present or things to come. It's all for you. And then in this next section,
our Savior speaks now directly to his disciples. Did you pick
up on that in the 22nd verse? And he said unto his disciples, to his followers. You see, our
Lord has manipulated this situation. He does that, you know. He has
manipulated the situation. He has set the stage to now speak
directly to his followers, lest they also become wrapped up with a love for stuff, a love for
money. He speaks to His disciples, to
His followers, and He bids us to take care of spiritual things. And He gives us the assurance. He'll take care of the physical
things. You need not be anxious about anything. You see, our
chief concern, I know you've got a lot of concerns, as I do. They're concerned about your
own health. You're concerned about your spouse. You have concern about your children
and your grandchildren, and as the case may be, your great-grandchildren,
maybe aged parents. There's a multitude of things
that all of us, we have interest in. There's no question about
that. and we have to be good stewards of our finances and
that sort of thing. We have to take care of those,
but the Lord knows the physical necessities of our lives. That which we must be in pursuit
of are the spiritual things. This is where our hearts must
reach out to God. Reach out to the Lord Jesus,
reach out to the word of God. And so he gives these, he gives
some lessons here in these next few verses about really trusting
our Lord. He gives instruction about trusting
his good and wise providence. in the daily affairs of life. Not just the big stuff. Oh, you
know, we pray, Lord, give me grace and big trials. Well, it's, you know, the script
says it's the little foxes that spoil the vine. And it's the
little things that before we know it can kind of unglue us. We can get all upset over virtually
nothing. Now I know all of our circumstances
are different. The situations that we're all
in are very diverse. There are some of you who are
in very comfortable positions right now. Aside from perhaps
a few minor inconveniences, life is good. For others, There are
some of God's people going through very difficult situations, very
difficult trials. I know some of God's people who
are enduring very severe hardships. But remember this, our circumstances,
our physical circumstances have little to do with our lives in
reality. because our circumstances, they're
temporal. They're temporary. They can change
quickly. You know that. You can be up
today and down tomorrow. You can have, you know, the stock
market may be your friend today and tomorrow it may be all gone. You see, true happiness and contentment
and living without anxiety In order to have that situation,
we must not live based upon or face things based upon our daily
circumstances. True happiness and contentment
is found in resting in and knowing the God of all grace and glory. You can look at the life of the
Apostle Paul in the book of Philippians who was in prison writing, but
he knew about contentment. He said, I've learned in whatsoever
state I'm in therewith to be content. Here's what I always wanna be honest with
you, but let's just be brutally honest. And we talk about the
grace of God. And we do believe the grace of
God. We believe in sovereign grace. We believe in saving grace. We believe in keeping grace,
preserving grace. But grace is real to the people
of God and grace, Grace enables us to face the obstacles of life
without going to pieces. And I do believe that God sends
many of the troublesome things that he sends to us to prove
either the reality and the presence of grace or the absence of grace. I want to know in reality the
peace that passes understanding, don't you? That's what I want
in my heart. I don't want the peace that I've
got to be determined by my physical circumstances. If my peace ebbs
and flows with my experiences of life, then I'm in trouble. Because I can't, all things as
I perceive them to be are not always gonna be good. As we get older, there's sickness,
there's disease, there's feebleness, there are things that we're gonna
have to face. And if all of our happiness is determined by our
physical experiences and circumstances, man alive, we won't have any
peace. We won't have any joy. Now listen, you have no, we believe
in predestination, right? I hope you do. If you believe
the Bible, you do. Well, believing the doctrine
of divine predestination, I'll tell you this, you have no ability
to change the purpose of God pertaining to you. You don't
have any ability to do that. There is a path marked out by
God for you just like there was the path he marked out for his
only begotten son. And that path led him to Calvary. It led him to die. I don't know
where your path is gonna lead you ultimately to glory, I know
that. But I don't know where your path
is going to lead in this world. You can't change what God has
determined for you. But by the grace of God, your
attitude can be changed about where it's going. See, that's
what we need. I don't need a change of direction. I promise you this, the road
I'm on is the very best road my heavenly father in his infinite
love and wisdom would have me to be on. There's not a better
road for me to be on. I believe that, Alvin. I know
you do too. But when I start bellyaching
and fussing about the road my life is taking, then I've got
the bad attitude. So I need an attitude adjustment. Is that what they say? Need an
attitude adjustment. I know why so many people in
this world have gotta have psychologists and they gotta have psychiatrists.
They're stressed out. They're anxious, especially in
this atmosphere we're in today. Oh no, COVID-19. And they're
worried about it. Are you worried about it? Are
you anxious about it? They worry about lots of stuff. I gotta go talk to a counselor. That's all there is to it. You
need to prescribe me something. I'm just so nervous about life.
Can you give me some pills?" And they will. They will. I've shared this with you before
when my dad died. I was 24 years old. Never had
conducted a funeral. And my brother and I took the
service. He did the eulogy and I did the
message. I was nervous, sure. And it was my dad. And I never faced anything like
this before. Somebody came up to me and said,
you need to take a valium. I said, what for? It'll calm
you down. I said, I don't want to be calmed
down. Whatever it is, I need to feel. I want to feel it. Because I believe God and His
grace will get me through this. You see, how could I ever be
a faithful pastor to people if I had done that to sort of take
the edge off? And then when you have a death
in your family, when your dad or mother or husband or wife
passes away or a child, shall I come to you and say, you know,
you need to take a value here. No, you need to trust God. You need to trust your heavenly
father. See, we have, There is, and I
know there are people here in the medical field, but the medical
field will be more than happy to prescribe for you something
to take the edge off. At least some of them will, not
all of them. But for the people of God, that's not the route
to go. The route to go is to rest your
life in the hands of Christ Jesus who paid your sin debt. Who governs
all things for your good and for His glory. That's where we
need to be. Not take another pill. Not go
for counseling. This is an anxiety-ridden culture
is what it is. Everybody's anxious. Everybody's
worried. but there is no excuse for the
people of God to worry and be stressful and filled with anxiety. There's just no reason to be.
Not if we believe God rules over all. There's no reason to be
anxious. In fact, the scripture says,
be anxious for nothing, but in all things by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving. beseech God, just rest in the
Lord. Can you rest in the Lord? You
rest in Him for your salvation, don't you? Yes, I do pretty well
rest in Him for all things. And this is what the Lord is
setting forth here in Luke chapter 12. You know, here's how you can
basically translate. Let me give you three verses
here. I'll point these out to you. Verse 22. He said to his
disciples, therefore I say unto you, take no thought, that is
take no anxious thought for your life, what you shall eat, neither
for the body, what you shall drink. You know what he's saying?
Stop being anxious. Don't you think the God who provided
for your salvation in eternity past, who covenanted with His
only begotten Son, for Him to be your surety, to join you to
Him, who would redeem you and reconcile you, and the Spirit
of God who would regenerate you and Christ would represent you? Don't
you think God will take care of your physical needs? Will
he abandon you? Now, I'm not saying you trust the
Lord, all your trials will be over. No more sickness and you're
gonna have plenty of money in your bank account. Hey, you may
go broke, I don't know. You may go broke physically,
but you're not gonna go broke spiritually. He said, I say unto you, stop
being anxious. And look at verse 29. And seek not ye what you shall
eat or what you shall drink, neither be ye of a doubtful mind. You know what he's saying there?
Stop worrying. Just stop worrying. Put the brakes
on. Hey, doesn't change anything,
does it? Oh, Jim, I have sleepless nights. I'm so anxious. Anxiety's not
gonna change anything. Ask God for peaceful rest in
Christ Jesus. When you can't sleep, why don't
you talk to God? Ask God to, Lord, give me faith. Lord, I don't have much faith,
Lord. And I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I
can't take you at your word. And I know it's sin on my part.
Lord, help me to trust you. I know faith's a gift. Would
you give it to me? I sure want to believe you. See, that's just being honest.
It's just being honest with God. And then he says in verse 31,
but rather seek ye the kingdom of God and all these things shall
be added unto you. And then verse 32, feared not
little flock, stop being afraid. Stop being afraid. So it's stop
being anxious, stop worrying, stop being afraid. Everybody's afraid. Well, not
everybody, but so many people are afraid now. Doesn't your God sit upon the
throne of glory? I know, I think somebody mentioned
an answer. You know, you have lung disease. You ought not go out. You ought
not go to church. And she responded something like
this, and forgive me, I'm not giving it exact, but she responded
this way, if God could protect Daniel in the lion's den, if
I take these reasonable precautions, I believe God can protect me
when I go to worship Him. I want to tell you something
about, and I, hey, we're wearing the masks, social distancing
and all that. You can do everything, but I'll
guarantee you this, you're not going to extend your life one
more moment beyond the boundary God has set. That is right. And
you can worry about, oh, I'm not going out. Well, that's okay. Stay in. I'm out. because I believe the Lord will
protect me. I wear a mask when I'm among
you. I'm not saying throw caution
to the wind. Just like if I'm gonna walk across
13th Street, I will look before I cross. I'm not gonna tempt the providence
of God. We do what is reasonable, worship
God. I'll tell you, anxiety about
these material things and physical things, it's just foolish. Seek
ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. All these
things will be added to you as you need. And I'll tell you something
about anxiety, and I'll just give you a few brief things and
I'll quit. Anxiety is a failure to either recognize who God is
and that he has absolute dominion over all things, or it is a failure
to remember who God is and that he has absolute dominion over
all things. He says this, look in verse,
Look at verse 24, consider the ravens. They don't sow, they
don't reap. They don't have a garden. They
don't have a storehouse, they don't have a barn. See, he laid
the foundation in that parable about the man who said, hey,
I'm gonna tear down my barns and build bigger barns. Well,
wait a minute, the ravens, they don't have any barns. God feeds them. He feeds them. He says in verse 24, how much
more are you better than the fowls? I know the animal lovers, oh,
they're just as important as human life. If you have swallowed that, bless
your heart. You're more pitiful than I think
you are. There is human life. Animal life
is not on the same level as human life. And God who has given us
spiritual life, as He takes care of these other creatures, which
we're thankful for, and we try to watch it. I feed the birds.
the B-Y-R-D-S and the B-I-R-D-S too. I feed any bird that comes
around my house. I'd even feed you if you come
around. But I know God's gonna take care
of me. How you know that? He says he
will. Can't you just believe God's
word? And then he says in verse 25,
which of you taking thought can add to a statue? One cubit, what's
a cubit? Well, it's from the crook of
the elbow to the end of your fingers is typically 18 inches. Can you add to your height? Well, I'm kind of short. At five foot four, I just don't
see the wildcats recruiting me if I could just be seven foot
six. You go ahead and be anxious about
that. Let me know how that turns out. Let's see if you can add
one cubit to your height. You can't change, you can't change
what God's ordained. He says in verse 26, if ye then
be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought
for the rest? Well, what about the lilies? Have you considered how they
grow? They don't toil, they don't spin. But the Savior said, I'll
tell you, Solomon in all of his glory is not arrayed like one
of these. Well, if he's able to clothe
the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is cast
in the oven, how much more will he clothe you? Oh, here's the
problem, O ye of little faith. And he says in verse 29, and
I'll wrap this up, Seek not ye what ye shall eat or what ye
shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these
things do the nations of the world seek out. People who don't
know God seek after these things. You have a heavenly Father. You have His Son to be your Savior. You think He will abandon you?
You think he's forgot about you? You can live in fear if you want
to. That's your business. I can't
tell you how to live. I can tell you what the Lord
says. He says, trust him. Take care of you. He's taking
care of your major needs. I believe he'll take care of
your minor ones. He said he would. Well, I hope that helped somebody. It helped me studying it and
preparing for it. And may God forgive us when we
doubt. And may he increase our faith.
And may we, by the grace of God, adjust our attitudes. Say, Lord,
help me just to live, trust in Christ. Just look into him at
all times. That doesn't mean, oh, well,
I'm just gonna stop working. That don't mean that, because
the Bible says man doesn't work, doesn't eat. The Bible, I mean,
it's a very practical book. What it means is walk by faith. Reagan, we trust him. He's sure
trustworthy, I know that. That's for sure. Well, may the
Lord bless this scattering of words for the glory of our great
God and for the good of his chosen, redeemed, sanctified, reconciled,
righteous, people. Let's pray. Lord, it has been good to assemble
together today to open the scriptures and this evening to be reminded
of the care and the concern that our gracious God has for all
of his people. Oh, how tenderly the shepherd
watches over his sheep. And in this very passage, the
Savior said, talked about a little flock. And we're a little flock,
but we have a great shepherd. And this good shepherd laid down
his life for us. And this great shepherd, according
to the covenant of grace, shed his blood, and the chief shepherd
is coming back for us someday. Lord, bless your dear sheep in
this world. Keep us safe from the wolves. Keep us safe from the error,
the religious error that is put forth by many Many a hypocritical
sheep, a sheep who is just a wolf dressed in sheep's clothing.
Lord, keep us in the very truth of the gospel of your grace.
Keep our eyes on the Lord Jesus. And we thank you. Thank you for
your love and thank you for your great everlasting concern for
us. And we're thankful that when
we're forgetful of the things of God and when you're not on
our minds, we're on your mind. And we're
always born upon your heart. Thank you for the fatherly love
that you always have for your dear children. Bless these children
who've been gathered tonight Those who've been watching by
way of the internet, we sure do need your encouragement. We
need to hear and believe and embrace your word. And Lord,
we need to learn to walk by faith and not by sight. We ask these
things for Christ's sake. Amen.