Let's start on Friday night.
We're going to have a very good service. Todd Niber's going to
bring the first message, then John Chapman's going to bring
the second. So we've got two good preachers to start with.
All right, look here with me in Matthew chapter 6. I'm going
to start reading here in verse 24 and read to the end of the
chapter. For no man, or no man, can serve two masters. two masters. For he will either 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. Therefore I say unto you, take
no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall
drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not
the life more than meat, and is not your body more than the
clothes that go on it, than the raiment? Behold, the fowls of
the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into
barns. Yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much
better than they? Which of you, by taking thought,
can add one cubit to his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment?
Consider the litters of the field, how they grow, they toil not,
neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, that
even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these.
Therefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which
today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much
more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought,
saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or war with,
or shall we be clothed? For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek. For your Heavenly Father knoweth
that ye have need of these things, but seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the moral, for
the moral shall take thought for the things of itself, sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof." I've told you many times over
the years that if you follow the scriptures in their logical
order, in their order, you see how that there's an argument
or a following that, you know, like the Lord says, you cannot
serve God or man. So therefore, take no thought
for your life. And then it uses an illustration,
you know. Look at the cows. The cows are there. They don't
do anything, and yet God feeds them. Look at the lilies. You
worry about what you're going to wear? Look at the lilies.
Take an anxious thought about these things. But our Lord Jesus
Christ, he makes this distinction. He makes this distinction that
you cannot serve God or a man. It can't be done. No man. There's
plenty of places in the Scriptures talk about no man can come unto
me except the Father which hath sent. No man. And here it says no man can serve
two masters. He can't do it. And you know
we have two all the way down through here. First of all, we
have two treasures. We have two eyes. Now we have
two masters. And people are worried about
two things. Food and clothes. Food and clothes. And you know,
when our Lord talked about the two treasures, and they all go
right together, they follow one sequence, one right after the
other. One treasure that a person has can and will be lost. Ain't
that what He says in verse 19? Lay not up for your treasures
upon earth. Just as sure as you do, moth
and rust and corruption is going to get it. Thieves can break
through and steal it. And if you don't lose it that
way, then you're going to leave it behind. And then he says,
in verse 20, here's the treasure that, lay out a treasure that
cannot be lost. And he says, but lay up for yourself
treasures in heaven. Moth can't get there, rust don't
corrupt anything there, and thieves cannot break through and steal.
Our treasure in heaven can't be lost by fraud, can't be lost
by force, And then the treasure and the heart go together. There
in verse 21, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be
also. Whatever your heart has its affection set on, that's
your treasure. That's what's most precious to you. And that's
why our Lord says, take no thought about your clothes, about your
body. God's going to take care of the things that's absolutely
necessary for us in this world. Give us this day our daily bread.
Our life ought to be taken up with God and our relationship
with God. That's why it says you cannot.
You cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve God. You cannot
serve men. And our Lord's showing us these
things that our relationship with God is the most important.
Not the most important. It is the only thing that matters. Because no matter what happens
in this world, when it's all said and done, our relationship
with God is also going to count in the last analysis. That's
all that's going to count. And then, you know, not only
do we have two hearts, we have two eyes. He says, the light
of the body is the eye. That's where everything we perceive
comes to the eye. Everything that's precious to
us, everything we understand, everything that we hold dear
to us comes to our eyes. What we perceive. And you say,
how many times I'll be preaching, I'll say, do you see that? Old
Festus Hagin, he found how I love Old Festus, he said, don't you
see? Don't you see? That's what pastors say. Don't
you see? And that's what this means here. With your eye, don't
you see? That's what we say when you're preaching. Don't you see?
And if you see rightly, if you see the right treasure, if you're
serving the right master, and you're finding Christ to be all,
then, beloved, your whole body is full of light. Your heart,
your emotions, your affections, your understanding has light,
you grasp, you perceive things rightly. But he said, if the
eye of the evil, if it's set on treasures of this earth, if
it's set on, you find something more precious than God, more
precious than Christ, more precious than the scripture, but if you
find anything more precious than the gospel and of Christ, he
said, your whole eye is full of evil. And the Pharisees, a
perfect illustration, they looked at their own righteousness. Their
eyes was full of darkness. They looked at their fasting.
Their eyes was full of darkness. They looked at their tithe paying.
Their eyes was full of darkness. They looked at everything that
takes up God and Christ. They looked at themselves. And
their own righteousness was more precious to themselves. Their
own doing what they could to be accepted of God became precious
to them. And so the life that was in them,
how dark it was. And so that's why the Lord comes
down to say here, so no man, no man can serve two masters.
He comes to the heart of the matter. The way we look at things
determines our relationship with God, the way we see things. And
that's why it says no man can serve two masters. And that's
what he's talking about. He said, there's no compromise
here. There's no options here. It's either, you know, he says,
the key here is to serve. You know, there's no compromise.
He said, he said, for he will hate the one or love the other.
He will hold to one and despise the other. It's either or. It's
not both. It cannot never be both. And
that's what our Lord said here. And mammon, mammon means riches
or treasure. Whatever it is that you serve,
that becomes your master, that you live to, that conquers you,
and you obey that. That's your master. And that's
why God says, you can't serve me. And you can't serve the world,
or you can't serve your riches and your treasures at the same
time. It cannot be done. Now people, you know, they talk
about being backslidden and this and that. Our Lord's not talking
about it. He's saying there's no compromise here, no options
here. And the key here is to serve.
We don't know with the heart. If a man's serving somebody else,
they do it by their will. And they do it out of love. That's
why I said he'll love one and hate the other. It's like a man
trying to be married to two women at the same time. It can't be
done. You can't do it. I mean, you cannot. And that's
why our Lord is saying here, you can't do this. You're going
to hold to one or despise the other. And it's either or. You hate or you love. And that's
the way it is when people are trying to serve two masters.
One of them is a hard-task master they'll hate. That's why people,
you know, they don't want God because they say He demands too
much. He does not demand no more than what He gives. If He demands
love, He gives you love. If He demands faith, He gives
you faith. If He demands repentance, He gives you repentance. And
that's why the Lord says, command what thou wills, and then give
the will. And oh, beloved, that's the way
it is. And then people say, well, I
hate this one, but I love this one. This one here treats me
right. This one here rewards me. This one here blesses me.
And this one over here said, I hold dear, this is the one
that I love. I'm holding dear. This is the
one I really need. And this one over here, I despise.
And that's what he said here. It's either or. You can't hold
to riches and treasures and this world and the things of this
world and God at the same time. Just can't do it. And that word
hold means it's what you do and you hold it. Lay hold on eternal
life. And I remember Scott Richardson
one time, Talking to him about a little business venture. The
fellow offered us a little business venture. And I talked to him
about it one time, and he says, you're a preacher, ain't you?
And I said, yeah. He says, you know, the Scripture says, lay
hold on eternal life, and if you lay hold on something, you've
got to do it with your hands. And he said, if you don't lay
hold on something else, you're going to have to turn loose with acid. Which
one do you want? I said, you know, that business venture just
went that quick. It's just like dust in the wind.
He just said, you know, if you're going to, you cannot. That's
what he says. You're going to lay hold on to life. Now, I'm
not talking about me as a preacher. I know you all got to make livings,
but this is not what this is talking about. And I'll show
you that in a minute. Look over here with me in Matthew 10. Matthew 10, verse 37. This is what our Master says.
This is what our Master said in verse
37. He that loveth father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me." Boy, my mother was sure
a good mother. My father sure was a good father,
and I certainly loved him. He said, if you put a third of
your affection for them and put your relationship with them above
affection for me and my relationship with me, you're not worthy of
me. How can it be, how can it be
that thou, my God, should die for me? Your mother's not going
to put your sins away. Your dad is not going to put
your sins away. Your father and mother's not going to make you
righteous. Your father and mother's not going to make you acceptable
to God. And that's what our Lord said. I'll put it all, I said,
I'll give everything for you. And now you don't want to give
yourself up for me? He says, your father and mother
are going to pass on, but my relationship with you, my relationship
goes on forever and ever and ever. You'll bury your mother
and father, but oh my, you can't bury me. And if you put your
relationship with anybody above my relationship with me, he said,
you're not worthy of me. You're not worthy of my blood.
You're not worthy of my righteousness. You're not worthy of my word.
You're not worthy of my person. You're not worthy of me leaving
glory for you. That's what he's saying. That's a different horse
of another color, ain't it? Then look what he goes on to
say. And he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not
worthy of me. That's what he's telling us.
And so you see, no man can. And this is a heart issue. That's
what he says back over in our text. Where your treasure is,
that's where your heart's going to be. And that's why you can't
serve God and men. You can't have a divided heart.
That's why David says, Unite my heart to hear you. A double-minded
man is unstable in all his ways. This is a heart issue. Look over
here in verse 21 of chapter 7. This is a heart issue. So many
people are satisfied. They think just because they
talk about God, say they believe in God, they think that's being godly.
They think that's having the right relationship with God,
just talking about Him every once in a while, and attending
some services every once in a while. They think that's believing God,
and they're satisfied with talking about God, going to a service,
or believing God. They think that, attending a
service, they think that's being godly. But look what our Master
said here in verse 21. Matthew 7. Not everyone that
saith unto me, Lord, Lord. He even put up billboards and
put His name up there. shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven, but he that doeth the will," did you hear that?
He that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, there they go again. Have
we not prophesied? We've prophesied, we've preached.
And we've cast in your name, we've cast out devils, and in
your name we've done many wonderful works. Then, and then, will I
profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that
work iniquity. See, this is a hard issue. They
talked about what they did, they never said one thing about what
God did. Did you notice that? They never said one thing about
Christ. They never said one thing about his person. Never said
one thing about his rights. Never said one thing about his
death. They just talked about what they did. What they did. And that's why it says you cannot.
They were serving themselves. They weren't serving God. And
oh, beloved, I'll tell you a story. And you can look this up yourself
later. But over in 2 Kings 17, The king
of Assyria captured a whole bunch of nations, five different nations,
and he brought all them nations in and set them down in Samaria.
Well, they got in Samaria, all these different nations, and
it says there that the lions come among them and began to
bite them and devour them. And so they sent to the king
of Assyria, and they went and told him, said, Oh, man, these lions,
these lions, they're coming in here and killing us, and we have
to fight lions. And he says, we don't know the customs of
the gods of this land. What do we need to do to keep
these lions from coming around here? We don't know the customs
of the gods. So we evidently are doing something
wrong. So the king of Assyria said,
oh, well, go get one of their priests that we brought with
them. Let him go down there and let
him instruct them in the gods of the land. And he says, he went down there
and instructed them in the gods of the land. And then it went
through every one of those people, every one of those nations, and
told what kind of gods they had. And they all had their own gods,
and one of them even burnt their children in the fire. And then
it says there, in verse 33, And they feared the Lord, and served
their graven images, served their own gods. That's what our Lord
said here. They fear the Lord, a lot of
people do, and yet serve their own God. And that's what our
Master says here. You cannot serve God and man.
You can serve two different gods. And that's what folks do. What's
the custom of the God of the land? What's the custom of Jesus of
the land? Is He sovereign? Or do you need
to set up an image to satisfy Him? Does he provide everything
for you or do you have to help him and give him a little something?
Huh? Oh, I read this story the other
day about a farmer. This is a good illustration here.
About a farmer, his very best cow had twin calves. Oh, he was so happy to have twin
calves. He got home, told his wife, his
wife is so thankful. He said, oh, he got home, told
his wife, said, honey, you know what we're going to do? The best
cow had ten calves. He said, we're going to dedicate
one of them to the Lord, and we're going to sell it. When
it gets grown, we're going to sell it and give the money to
the Lord's work. Oh, he was just so excited. You know, we got
two calves. He said, I'll get to keep one,
and I'll sell one and give it to the Lord's work. Well, his
wife asked him, he said, well, Which one are you going to dedicate
to the Lord? Which one's going to be the Lord's? Which one's
going to be yours? He said, oh, sweetheart, don't worry about
that now. Don't worry about it at all. He said, we'll raise
them the same. We'll feed them the same. We'll
treat them the same. And then when the time comes,
we'll give one of them to the Lord. Well, a few months went
by. They had those calves taken care
of. Man came home. Oh, he was so
unhappy. He was so miserable. He looked
miserable. He acted miserable, dragging
around. His wife asked him, she said, What's troubling you, honey?
What's bothering you? Something's bothering you. He
said, Oh, sweetheart, I've got such bad news to give to you.
What? She said, The Lord's calf is
dead. The Lord's calf is dead. She
said, How do you know? He said, you haven't ever decided
which one was the Lord's calf yet. Oh, he said, oh yeah, yeah, I
did too. I don't always decide there's going to be the white
one. And the white one's the one that died. The Lord's calf is dead. And
you know, beloved, it's always the Lord's calf that dies. We
laugh about it, but it's always the Lord's calf that dies. It's
always us that gets the best. Whatever we're going to give
to the Lord, that's the last thing to come. That's what he
said, you can't serve God and man. That man, one of them told
me, said, you see, that's the difference. Where his heart was,
his treasure wasn't with God. His treasure wasn't with Christ. What he's saying is, the Lord
can't die. He's going to have to do it out. I'll curate. That's
what he's saying. You know why so many people have
heart troubles? I'll just, well, you know, go
ahead while I'm at it and say this. You know, the thing is
that people will withhold from God, and that's the last thing
in the world you want to do. If God blesses you to make $100
a week or $1,000 a week, if you withhold from God, no matter
what it is, it's just like putting it in a pocket that's got a hole
in the bottom of it. God says, and this is the principle
that's all the way through the scriptures, you give God first,
and everything else will be blessed. I'm telling you, I know that
from experience. I mean, this just, and everybody else can
take, give, and it shall be given to you. And we don't give to
get, but we give because we have already been given. And we give
as unto the Lord. Whether it's a dollar, whether
it's fifty cents, whether it's a dime, it don't make no difference
how much we give as God has prospered for you. And if you don't do
that, you just, well, your moth's going to eat your money. You're
putting it in pockets that's got holes in both bottoms of
it. You'll never have enough. You'll never get by. You'll always
be stressed out, always be up against it, until you learn that.
That's just the principle God's given us in the scriptures. And
that's what happens no matter what. God's always the last one
to get it, but He's in over you. Can I serve God in this way?
He says, no matter what the intention, oh, I want to give God that calf,
but this poor calf died. Has the Lord's calf ever died
with you? People have these intentions. Oh, beloved, don't let anything.
Anything, materially, get in between you and your relationship
with God. If you can touch it, if you can
taste it, if you can handle it, everything you've got is going
to perish. But all this relationship with God, and you know I've said
this so many times, Mary and I, our relationship on this earth
is going to be an end to it. Like you and Martha, the relationship
here is an end to it. But they'll never be in the relationship
with God. This is my hope. This is my plea. Ain't that yours? And that's
what our Lord's saying here. And then look what he says. So
our Lord to illustrate says, so you know, so you're trying
to serve too. He said, I'll tell you what.
He says, therefore, and whenever you see a therefore, you always
go back to see what the there is therefore. And so here the
thing has come up to this place, that's why it says, therefore,
since treasure is going to perish, and the treasure in heaven will,
and your eyes, what do your eyes see, and the masters you serve,
he says, therefore, take no thought for your life. Now, that don't
mean just sit down and fiddle your thumbs and not worry, not
be concerned about living. That's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about what you serve to get what you get
in this world. Take no thought for your life,
what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor yet for your
body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat
and the body more than raiment? Oh, God cares for His home. And
that's why He says, is not your life more than what you eat? Ain't it more than what you eat?
Ain't it more than what's on the table? Ain't it more than
what goes in your body? Ain't your life more than food? And that's what people say, oh,
that's what he's saying, to make everything they get in this life
to be their purpose for living. But he goes on to say here, not
to give you an illustration about it, He says this, look at the fowls.
He says, you know, you talk a word about what you're going to eat,
and you want to make, oh, you're just stressed out about making,
you're just getting and getting and getting. And that's what
he's talking about here. It's not what you eat. He's not
telling you not to eat, not think about life and living and working.
But he's saying to be over-anxious about it, to make it to be your
God, you go. He says, look at the fowls, look
at the birds that's flying. He's just going to illustrate
how he takes care of his own. Mammoth's concerned with the
meat. Mammoth's concerned with the clothes. Mammoth's concerned
with where you live. But he says, look at the fowls. They don't
sow. You ever seen a bird ever sow
any seeds? Dig up the ground, put any seed
in the ground? Huh? They don't reap. You ever seen
any birds go to reaping? You ever seen any gather everything
up in the barn? No, beloved, listen to me. Your
father feeds every one of them. I absolutely stand in amazement
at birds. I just delight in watching birds. I sit and watch them. I've got
a half a dozen nests. I told you this last week. I
go around, pull my little limb down, look in the nest, see how
many are going. I see a little robin that come
out of the nest yesterday. When I was running, there was
a little old robin come out of the nest, still had a little spots on her
breast, you know, running around. Hunting birds everywhere. There's
one mom and three little babies on the feeder this afternoon.
And all big robins, you know, up in the nest, and I've got
a hummingbird and I pull it down, look at all the birds in the
nest, just watching them grow day by day. And oh, God feeds
everyone, and we've got birds flying out there that are bushing
it, and you do too. And you know God feeds. Sometimes
He uses us, but He feeds them. But He feeds them. And that's
how He feeds us sometimes. Using one and another. Ain't
that right? And then what he says, he says
here, Are you not much better than they if the Father feeds
the birds? Don't you reckon for a minute
that He won't take care of you? How much more worthy are you
than a bird? Birds, what is your life compared
to the life of a bird? Oh, He gave us life. Don't you
think He can feed the needs? And over in Psalm 104, it says,
the lions look for prey, God feeds them. Everything looks
for prey, and they sit there and wait for God to, they come
and wait to get fed out of His hands. Everything that's on this
earth gets fed from the hand of God. Everything. That's what it said over in Psalm
104. And then that's why it says here in verse 27, it goes on
to say here now, so He says, you know about what you eat.
He said, look at Faust, using that as an illustration, he feeds
him. Mammon is going to feed you, but God won't. He'll take
care of you. And he says, so which of you can, by taking thought,
just by really thinking about it, really worried about it,
really concerned about it, add to his cubit one cubit to his
stature? Now what in the world does this
mean? Does that mean that if we think hard enough, we can
make ourselves taller? I don't think a cubit is a foot
and a half long. And if you take somebody that's
four cubits, what would that be? Six foot? You think a six
foot man can add another cubit to his stature? Be another foot
and a half high? Seven and a half foot high? By
thinking? So he's not talking about height here. He's talking
about something else. What's he talking about? Can
anybody change how long he's going to be here? By thinking? Can he add one cubit? Can he
add a span? That's what a cubit is, a span.
Eighteen spans. Can a man, by thinking, change
his stature? Can he change his life? Can he prolong it? Can he add
time to it? Or can he? That's what he's saying. By just
thinking? Worrying about it? Stressing about it? And then
he comes down and he talked about food, now he's going to talk
about our clothes. And then in verse 28, why take ye thought
for raiment? Why are you not being clothed? Not being clothed. And when he
talks about these things, now listen, he's not telling people
not to live and not to work and not to provide. He's just saying,
don't let this be your reason. Don't let it be your whole life. Don't let it be that you just
exist to eat and drink and live. Make sure your relationship with
God. You cannot serve God and man
the more you treasure in such a heart. And so he goes on to
say, Why take ye thought for raiment? Then look how he's going to illustrate
this. Look at them lilies in the field. Just look at all them
beautiful flowers. And I was reading the other day
that they said over there in some valley in Israel said there's
a certain kind of lily there, a certain kind of flower, that
just covers the ground as far as the eye can see. It's like
the bluebells in Texas. It's like things, and they're
just as far as the eye can see. And that's why he said that.
Because consider the lilies of that field. Look how they grow. Look at their colors. Look at
their difference. They don't toil, they don't spend,
they don't work to make themselves that way, they don't spend themselves
into this and make any benefit. Yet I say unto you that Solomon
in all his glory was not dressed up like these were. And all what
he's saying was they didn't plant themselves, they didn't give
themselves their color. And yet you think of Solomon,
and know how the Jews thought there wasn't no king like Solomon.
There was no king like Solomon with wealth. He had a temple,
he had a huge house, he had multitudes of money and silver and gold,
and I mean everybody thought nobody like Solomon. He said,
but Solomon, in all his glory, won't hold a light to those lilies
out there. Because everything sovereign
I have just disappears. But look at those lilies, huh?
And oh, that's why the Lord goes on to say, he says, here's wherefore
if God, we're talking about clothes here, if God so clothes the grass
and the field, Those flowers that's out in the field, which
today is, and tomorrow's cast into the oven. And they say that
that's what they use those things for when they dry it up. They'd
go out and cut them and use them for fires, because wood and things
was so scarce. Like in Ireland, when they'd
get the peat and go out and dig up the peat and use it for fires. What they'd do, they'd gather
all this stuff up and use it for fire, because heat and things
was so scarce. And he says, which is today is,
tomorrow's cast into the oven. If he dresses up these lilies
and gives them their color and gives them their beauty and gives
them their life and clothes them with such beautiful flowers and
such beautiful clothes, shall he not much more clothe you? And then he says, oh, you have
little faith. Why do you find it so hard to believe me? Why
do you find it so hard to trust me? And that's why it goes on
to say here, now therefore, again therefore, since I've illustrated
all this and told you all this about the birds and the lilies
and how they don't do anything and I feed them and I clothe
them. So therefore, take no thought. Don't worry yourself to death.
Don't just be so anxious about things. What are we going to
eat? What are we going to drink? We're with us, shall we be close."
And that's what he said, this is what the heathens seek after.
This is what the heathens seek after. You know there's people,
and you know as well as I do, we see them all the time, their
whole life is taken up with making money. After they got so many
millions, they still want more. After they get so many big houses,
they still want more houses. They buy so many cars, they still
want more cars. They can't be satisfied with
a cheap, you know, some car like me and you'd buy. They got to
go buy one worth tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of
dollars. They're just good people that way. And yet there's people,
the other side of that is, is that there's people, no matter
what it is, that's what they make to be their life. We don't
want that. Do you want that to be your life,
to be just absolutely worried yourself to death of how I'm
going to live, what I'm going to get, what I'm going to attain,
how I'm going to accomplish things in this world? Or are you more
concerned with your relationship with God? Knowing God. Needing God. Knowing Christ.
Needing Christ. And that's what he says. And
the heathen, that's what the heathen does. And that's what
I consider people do, that they're heathens. Whether it's my son,
your son, your daughter, my daughter. And that's what he went on to
say, for your heavenly Father knows. He knows that what you
have need of, He knows. You think He's going to let you
do without? You just go to work, you mind your own business, you
do what He gives you an open door, take the open door and
use it. That's what He's saying. But here's spiritual arithmetic. Here is true spiritual arithmetic.
Everybody knows what arithmetic is. 1 and 1 makes 2. 2 plus 2
makes 4. 2 times 2 makes 4. I was trying to make sure of that
for a minute. 3 times 3 makes 9. But all of
this is spiritual arithmetic. Here's the first thing. Let's
seek ye first. First. Number one. First. The kingdom of God. God's got a kingdom on this earth.
Old Pilate says, you know, I could crucify you or let you go. He
says, you've got no power except what's given me from my father.
He said, if my kingdom were of this world, he said, I'd fight. But he says, my kingdom's a spiritual
kingdom. And here his kingdom is, seek
ye first the kingdom of God, where he rules and he reigns.
And He's got the authority, and He's got the rights, and He's
got the glory. He sits on the throne. He wears
the robes. He wears the crown. He's the
one that's in radiant beauty and glory. And seek His righteousness. Make His righteousness to be
your goal and your aim. Forget your righteousness. Forget
your works. Forget your efforts. Forget everything. Seek God and His righteousness
provided for us in Christ. You do that. You do that, you
make your relationship with God to be paramount, and everything
else will be added to you. Peace will be added to you. Clothes
and everything you need will be yours. And then look what
he says here, last of all. You know, that's what Abraham
said. You know, he said, when the king of Solomon Abraham went
and fought this battle and defeated all five kings and brought back
all of his servants, 300-something of them. And here he comes, the
king of Solomon comes back with all his wealth. He said, Solomon,
here, Abraham, take all this. You know what Abraham said? He
said, I've lifted my hand to God. I mean, he could have been
wealthy right there. He said, I've lifted my hand
to God and I'll not take so much as a shoelatchet out of there.
I don't want to shoelatch it. I don't want shoestrings, what
he's saying. Yeah. Paul said, oh, I want to know
Christ. I want to win Christ. I want
to be found in Christ, having His righteousness. And that's
what he's saying. Huh? And, oh, beloved, look what
he says, and take therefore, verse 34, no thought for tomorrow. For the moral shall take thought
for the things of itself, sufficient unto the days, the evil thereof.
Now, what's he saying here? I want you to turn with me over
in Philippians. Philippians chapter 4. And I want to show you something
in closing down here. Philippians chapter 4. You know, when it says here,
take no thought for tomorrow. Don't, what he says, don't be
anxious, don't lay awake at night and worry about what tomorrow,
you know, because what he's saying, sufficient for the day is the
evil there. What he's telling us is don't
carry tomorrow's burden today. Don't, you know, there's enough
evil today, there's enough weight to carry today. There's enough
worry, there's enough burden, there's enough heartache, there's
enough trouble, there's enough evil that's going to happen today.
Don't carry tomorrow's burden today. Wait till tomorrow and
you'll have more burdens to carry. You'll have more things to deal
with. You'll have more troubles to bear. And that's what he's
saying. So don't think about it. Don't worry about it. You
deal with today. That's what he's saying. And
then look what Paul told the Philippians in verse 6 of chapter
4. Be careful for nothing. That
word, be careful for nothing, don't be anxious for nothing.
Don't be full of care. Don't just bite your fingernails
for nothing. That means anything. But in everything
by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known unto God. Tell God what you need. Tell
God what you want. You need strength, He gives it
to you. You need food. You need health. You need healing.
You need comfort. You need assurance. You need
some money to pay your bills with? Tell God. Let your requests be made known
unto God. And watch this. And oh God, the peace of God,
which passes all understanding. I don't understand the peace
of God, how it comes and how it keeps me. I know it's there
when I need it. I know it's there when I... And oh, watch what he says. It
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Start with
Him, end with Him. He's the Alpha, the Omega, the
beginning and the end. Wherefore no man can serve two
masters. You're going to love one and
hate the other. You're going to hold one and
despise the other. And that's why believers, That's
why believers, and I've heard, and Carl mentioned it today,
I've heard Henry Mahan say this so many times, hold whatever
you hold in this world, hold it with a real, real loose hand.
Hold it with a loose hand. We all got plenty of things.
Children, grandchildren, our health, homes, cars, livings
to make. Hold everything you got with
a loose hand, for sooner or later you might turn it loose. Hold him with a loose hand. I think that's satisfying. I
think that's good doctrine. Well, I hope the Lord is pleased
to bless Santa. Our Father, in the blessed name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, Thank you for your great love wherewith
you loved us, even when we were dead trespassers and sins, and
you quickened us together with Christ, and you saved us by your
grace. God bless this word. Lord, bless
it to our hearts. Bless it to our understanding.
Stir up our hearts, Lord Jesus. I pray that you is pleased to use this to be instructive
to our hearts and our minds. that this struck fear to some
of our hearts and made us re-examine ourselves again in light of the
gospel and our relationship with God. God, please bring glory to yourself
through us in our homes, in our lives, in our affairs and how
we deal with them in this world. We thank you in Christ's name
for meeting with us. Amen.