Turn with me, if you will, to
Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12. In the passage we're going to
read, verses 22 through 31, our Lord uses sayings, statements,
admonitions, that he often used during his earthly ministry.
You find a very similar section in the Sermon on the Mount over
in Matthew chapter 6. But in this context, these words
of our Lord are given as words of instruction to his disciples
immediately after he concludes the parable he gave of the rich
fool. That man who looked at all he
had amassed for himself. And he said, what shall I do?
I've got a good idea. I'll tear down my little barns
and build bigger ones. And I'll put all my goods in
my barns. And I'll say to my soul, what
a foolish thing. I'll say to my soul, eat, drink,
and be merry. You have many things stored up
for many days. And our Lord says, God spoke
to him and said, thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required
of thee. And beginning in verse 22, he said to his disciples,
therefore, in the light of this man's father and in the light
that this very day, your soul may be required of you. Therefore,
I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what you shall
eat, neither for the body what you shall put on. The language
is far more imperative than it appears in our English translation.
Our Lord says, stop fretting about your body and your life.
Verse 23, the life, the life, The life is more than meat, and
the body more than raiment. Consider the ravens, for they
neither sow nor reap, which neither have storehouses nor barn, and
God feedeth them. Do you ever pause to consider that?
How on earth does a raven get its food? God feeds it. God feeds
it. How much more are you better
than the fowls? If God feeds a black raven, you
reckon he's going to starve you to death? And which of you, by taking thought,
can add to his stature one cubit? If you then be not able to do
that thing which is least, if you can't add one cubit to your
stature, why take ye thought for the rest? Why do you fret
about the bigger things if you can't even handle the little
things? Verse 27, now look at the lilies. Consider the lilies, how they
grow. They toil not. They spend not. They do absolutely
nothing to provide anything for themselves. And yet, I say unto
you that Solomon in all his glory was never dressed up like one
of these lilies. Verse 28. If then. Now this just makes
good sense, doesn't it? If then God so clothed the grass,
which today is in the field and tomorrow is cast into the oven,
how much more will he clothe you? O ye of little faith, and seek not ye what you shall
eat or what you shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind." How come? What's the basis for
this stern admonition? Speaking to us about our little
faith and telling us we ought not be people of little faith.
telling us that we must not fret and worry about what we eat and
what we drink. We must cease to be a people
of doubtful mind. For all these things, all the
things that he'd been talking about, what you wear, what you
eat, where you live, do the nations of the world seek after. That's
what your sons and daughters live for, the reason they're
in the shape they're in. That's what your mother and daddy lived
for, the reason they died and went to hell. That's what your
neighbors lived for, that's the reason they're perishing. This
is what everybody lives for by nature. All these things, the nations
of the world seek after. And your father, he knows you
have needed these things. He's not going to let you go
naked. He's not going to leave you without a place to sleep.
He's not going to let you starve to death. I've been young, now
I'm old, and I've never seen the righteous forsaken near a
seed-begging bread. I've never seen it happen. Never
seen it happen. I've had a lot of people knock on this door
out here. They come begging, bad shape. Everybody got a sad
tale to tell. The more often they come, the
sadder the tale gets. Sad, sad tales. I've never met
one, not in 30 years past it, I've never met one who had any
interest in the things of God, the doctor on that door came
begging. I've never seen it happen. I've not seen the righteous forsaken.
I've not seen his seed begging bread. Verse 31. But rather, seek ye the kingdom
of God, and all these things shall be added unto you." Now
here he uses language a little different than he uses in other
places. In Matthew he says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and
His righteousness. Here he seems to say, let this
be your only real concern, God's kingdom, your only real concern. Nothing else really matters.
Seek your place in God's kingdom. Seek the glory of God your king.
Seek acceptance with God your king. Seek to serve the interest
of God's kingdom. And all these things be taken
care of. Now, we may come back to those verses again. But for
tonight, I want to take just the last part of verse 29 and
focus our attention on this one statement by our Lord. He says,
neither be ye of doubtful mind. Now this message is God's message
to me, and I need it. And I hope as you listen in,
it's God's message to you as well. I want grace to trust God's
grace. I want that goodness that God
gives that makes me trust God's goodness. That wisdom that only
God can give that makes me trust His wisdom. I want to cease to
be a man of little faith. Don't you? Oh, I want to believe God, to
believe him implicitly, to trust him. In this message, our master bids
us to care for our souls and the eternal interest of our immortal
souls. I don't know how to State this
emphatically enough. But our chief concern regarding
ourselves ought to always be our hearts, specifically our
hearts' relationship to God. Solomon said, keep thy heart
with all diligence. Be diligent concerning this,
because your heart's deceitful. It's desperately wicked. So diligently
keep your heart, for out of it are the issues of life. Not everybody
takes great care in adorning their bodies, takes great care
in how they look, takes great care to take care of their physical
selves. Most everybody does. But few give any thought at all
to the ornament of their soul. The feeding of the body involves
great care, pampering this body, nourishing this body, caring
for this body. But the supply of spiritual food
for our souls is most of the time neglected. And that seems
ridiculous. That seems ridiculous. After
all, this body is just a tent, just a tent. A tent in which
we dwell for just a few days. And soon this body will become
food for worms. That's all. That's all. When my brother and friend back
there gets done with me, puts me in the ground, no matter how
well he makes me look when I'm gone, worms are still going to
eat this flesh. And that's as it ought to be.
This body is nothing. It's nothing. Just a tent. I started to say house, not even
a house, but it's just a tent. Just a tent. But in this body dwells me, a
living, immortal soul that shall never die. Looks to me like if I had good
sense, I'd pay more attention to the soul than I do to the
tent. Wouldn't it, you? Our Lord said, what shall it
profit a man if he gained the whole world? Go after it. Go after it with gusto. Get all
you can. Can all you can get. What's it
going to profit you if you gain the whole world and lose your
own soul? The Son of God here calls our
attention to the higher, nobler part of our beings and bids us
see to it that our souls are in a right state. Make certain
that you trust Christ. Make certain your interest in
the Son of God. Rely upon the grace of God. Seek His goodness and His glory. Set your heart upon Him and His
righteousness, His will and His glory. Make certain that all
is well with your soul. And as you live in this world,
walk before Him as many women who believe God and live for
eternity. Bobby, we need to quit living
for time. We need to quit living for time.
I don't mean, and I'm sure in this assembly I don't have to
give this word of caution, but other folks will hear this. I
don't mean we should be irresponsible. You know better than that. A
man ought to work, work diligently, give himself to his work in a
proper manner, honor God in his work, but don't live for time. Live for eternity. No doubt there
are some people who are in far easier circumstances
than others, some who are in positions where they enjoy greater
comfort than others, and some are in places where they have
great hardship. I know some. But our circumstances have little
to do with our lives. What's around me, that's got
very little to do with me and my relationship with God. Our
circumstances are temporary, and they change quickly. Happiness,
contentment, peace of mind are not found in things and circumstances,
but rather in our inner being, in our inmost souls, and the
soundness of our hearts, the soundness of our minds. The inner
man has far more to do with one's joy or his sorrow than anything
outside us. There have been those who have
been perfectly free while they were in prison. Some years ago,
I read a biography of a woman named Madame Guillaume, spent
most of her time in prison. Just saying God's praises, wrote
hymns to him. She was in prison for her faith.
The Apostle Paul, when he wrote to Timothy, he said, I'm in these
chains, but I'm not bound. I'm not bound. Just my body's
bound. No man can bind your soul but
you. Just my body's bound. The Church of England put John
Bunyan in bed for prison for 12 years. I visited the places. The door going into that jail
wasn't as big as the entrance to the bottom of this pulpit
here. Down under a bridge, damp, musty place, spent 12 years there. 12 years. In 12 years, God used
him with great liberty to proclaim the gospel of his grace. Outside
this book, his Pilgrim's Progress had been published more than
any book in the world. That book was written while he was in bed
for prison. He learned to be free, though his body was bad.
Others have never known any form of bondage. They were born with
a silver spoon in their mouth, lived all their lives in the
lap of luxury, never had any care in this world, and were
full of care and bondage all the while. It is the heart of
man that's the main thing. Your inner self, that's the matter
of concern. That will bring you either daylight
or midnight. It will bring you either joy
or sorrow. It will bring you either peace
or war, no matter what goes on outside you. If we spent half
the energy, half the care, half the time caring for our souls
that we spend caring for our bodies and pampering them, we'd
be in a far better condition. We would be wise to concentrate
on fitting our circumstances to our hearts rather than trying
to fit our hearts to our circumstances. You see, try as you may, try
as you may, you cannot alter the world in which you live.
You cannot alter God's providential arrangements. You cannot alter
that which God does in time. It's not going to happen. Would
it not be better to alter yourself to God's providence and be resigned
to His will? Of course it would. Did you ever
notice how often in the book of God, men spoke to their souls,
these inspired writers, and spoke about this very thing? Listen
to this. In Psalm 103, you've read it
many times, David said, bless the Lord, O my soul. He speaks
to his soul. That rich man said, soul, take
your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. David, the wise man, said
to his soul, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within
me, bless his holy name. Our Lord Jesus says to his disciples,
let not your heart be troubled. Just a little later, he said,
in the world, you shall have tribulation. As long as you live
in this world, tribulation is yours. There are no exceptions. In the world, you shall have
tribulation, sorrow, and heartache, and pain, and weeping. That's
part of life. Live with it. But let not your
heart be troubled. Let not your heart be troubled.
You see, all the water in the sea can't hurt your little boat
unless it gets in the boat. Don't let the water of this world
in your soul or it'll sink you down. Let not your heart be troubled. The language that our Lord uses
here when he says, neither be of a doubtful mind, is very strange
language. Very unusual language. The word
that's translated doubtful isn't used anywhere else in the entire
New Testament. That means it's kind of unusual.
It is not quite the word that we would use if we were talking
about doubt. Not even quite the word we would
use if we were talking about fear. It is a word that's just
so full of meaning, so bursting with meaning, I have no hope
of trying to expand it. I don't even pretend to understand
it. The Word has the idea of me and air. In fact, it is almost
as though our Lord was saying, let not your heart be like a
meteor, a meteor in the sky, just shooting through the sky.
Don't let your heart be that way. Even more literally, our
Lord is saying, don't have your mind in the clouds. Don't have
a cloudy mind. His word here is again an imperative
command. He says, stop seeking what you
shall eat. Stop that. You've been doing
it all your life. That's what's been consuming
you since the first time you ever thought about what you're
going to do in life. Stop seeking what you shall eat. Stop seeking what you shall drink. Stop seeking what you shall wear. Stop seeking where you shall
live. and stop living in suspense. Stop living with your head in
the clouds. He's telling us to quit living
like birds in the air. I was preparing the message this
afternoon, looking over these nooks, and I thought about those
hummingbirds that Shelby has. She feeds out on the back. You
ever watch them? They've gotten places they're
real comfortable around us. And you know what they'll do?
They will light, sometimes for a second or two. just for a second
or two. But you never know what they're
doing. They're this way and that. They're here, go, here, go, just
here and there. They're pretty to look at. They're
intriguing to look at. They're intriguing to study.
But don't be like the silly human hummingbird, flighty, unstable,
fickle, something you can't count on, no matter how pretty, no
matter how intriguing. Now let's see what this word
means, see if I can apply it to our hearts. When our Lord
says, neither be ye of doubtful mind, He's telling us, children
of God, stop being anxious. That's a pretty word for worry.
Stop worrying. Stop being tossed up and down
by your circumstances. If God prospers you, don't let
it go to your head. If He empties you, don't let
it bow you to the dust. If He sends a little pleasure,
don't allow your head to float in the clouds. And if He sends
a little heaviness and sorrow, don't allow that to cause you
to go down to your grave. Stop being so greatly affected
by things that just don't matter. They just don't matter. My God, they don't matter. They don't matter. They just
don't matter. How many times you tell a child,
these little babies, you know, you try to instruct them and
you try to be sympathetic with them, and something happens to
a straw they're playing with, and the baby will just squall
and squall and squall. And you say, honey, it doesn't
matter. It's just a straw. It's just a straw. Not even a
toy you bought at the dime store. Just a straw. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Will you hear
me? What you grasp with your hands
doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter. So stop
worrying about it. Stop murmuring about it. Stop
whining about it. Stop complaining about it. It
doesn't matter. Neither be of a doubtful fretting
worrisome mind. Turn over to Philippians 4. Let
me show you what it's talking about. On your way there, let
me read Colossians 3. And you can look at it later.
The apostle writes to us and says, if you then be risen with
Christ. Are you? Are you risen with Christ? Yes, I am. I am. I've been raised from the dead,
how about you? My life is not here, it's above. If you then
be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. Where
Christ said it on the right hand of God, set your affection. I love the way he put it. It
wasn't accidental. Then he didn't say set your affections,
he said set your affection. Make this your only heart's care. Set your affection on things
above. Not on things on the earth. Now look here in Philippians
4, verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always, again
I say rejoice. Now that's not talking about,
you know, one of these silly pasted on religious smiles you
see on these television con artists. That's not talking about acting
like you're happy all the time and throwing your hands in the
air and shouting and waving and saying praise the Lord every
time you stump your toe. That's talking about joy. That's talking
about what's inside you. And he says rejoice in the Lord.
Rejoice in Him. I've got me a new car. Boy, it
sure is. I'm so happy. It'll wait six
months. Let's see. Look at this new house. Oh, we got this new house. Look
what? Oh, it's such a delight. Let's see. Watch it burn. See how happy
you are. Go ahead and burn it. In your
heart, you better. Rejoice in the Lord. Always. Always. Again, I say rejoice.
Let your moderation. That word is used only one other
time in the entire New Testament. It's over in the book of 1 Corinthians
where the Apostle Paul speaks of Christ and he speaks of the
gentleness of Christ. Your gentleness. Your ease of
mind. Your ease of heart. Your unruffled
spirit. Your unruffled attitude. Let your moderation be known
to all men. The Lord's at hand. That means,
Larry Brown, He's at your elbow. He's at hand. He's God at hand. He's at your elbow all the time. Read on. Since the Lord's at hand, be
careful for nothing. Oh, Don Fortner, with regard
to the things of this world, be careless. Have no care. Have no care. No fretting. No anxiety. Be careful for nothing, but in
everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known to God. And he is not saying here, now
if you want more money in your bank account, pray to God to
give you more money. He's not saying if your car is using a
lot of oil and you want a new car, pray to God to give you
a new car. I fail to find anybody in all the word of God, Old Testament
or new, who knew God, who ever asked for such things. You find
where they did. You find it. Well, what's he
saying? Pour out your soul's needs to God. Our Lord taught
us to pray for God's honor, for God's people, for the forgiveness
of our sins, for our daily bread. Let your requests be made known
to God. Verse 7, and this will be the
result, and the peace of God. which passeth all understanding,
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Now, you can do a couple of things
with all your troubles and all your woes. Oh, poor me, poor
me, poor me. I'm so sick of hearing poor me
from this generation. poor you. What you got to poor mouth about?
Be honest. Stop and think. Stop and consider. Just stop and pause and listen
to yourself. Oh, no. You can whine and murmur
and tell everybody how bad things are for you, or you can trust
God and you won't do both. You can run here and there and
find help here and there. Oh, I've got to go here. I've
got to go there. I've got to get away. I've got
to pull my hair out. Oh, I've got to have something. No, I don't. I've got what I've
got to have. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And I
want to tell you something. You know something about this?
In the midst of heartache and trouble and woe, And I'm not
talking about a hangnail, I'm talking about heartache and trouble
and woe. As you pour out your heart to
God and seek His will and His honor, as you seek to be unmoved
from Him by all that goes on around you, while your heart
is wrung out within you, the peace of God that passes all
understanding somehow unknown to men, unexplainable by men,
keeps your heart secure and keeps your mind secure in Christ Jesus
the Lord. Tell me, children of God, do
I speak the truth or not? And just to the degree that you
fail to cast all your care on Him, just to the degree that
you fail to trust Him, just to the degree that you fail to believe
Him, just to the degree that you fail to bow to His will,
you fail to trust His wisdom, fail to trust His goodness, fail
to trust His power, fail to trust His grace, just to that degree,
your mind is unsound. flighting like the birds, soaring
in the air, here and there. Our Savior's word simply means,
don't be anxious about your temple affairs. Be prudent. Most people get themselves
in a pickle because they are greedy. And they try to satisfy
their lust, and they get what they can't afford, and they do
what they can't afford, and they go places they know it's going
to cost them. Oh, I just got to. Oh, I just got to. And then
they're miserable. Understand, children of God,
we are God's stewards. Bob Duff, that not one cent you
have in the bank account, that not one light bulb in that house
you got over there in Junction City that belongs to you, it's
God's. It's God's. And you're going
to give an account of how you use it. Me too. You too. We're God's stewards. Use that which God has trusted
to our hands wisely for his glory. And don't fret. So I just, boy, I don't know
how, I just don't know how I'm going to make it. Have you ever tried to turn a
dime into a dollar? Just get it out. I don't have
one in my pocket. Rub that thing and squeeze and
stretch and pull. If you get your real hot iron
and melt it down, stretch it as far as you can, when you get
done, steal a dime. Just a dime. And all your worrying
and fretting and nail biting and pacing the floor is not going
to turn it into a dollar. But what do you do with a dime?
God put a dime in my hand. Reckon how you hit me to use
it. Oh, but I need a dollar. Not if you put a dime in your
hand you don't. You understand what I'm talking
about? Don't set your heart on these
things. Don't be of a doubtful mind. Trust Christ. Trust Him. My dear wife has been helping
me a little. I've been a little concerned about her welfare when
I'm gone. I heard her say the other day,
not to me, she said to somebody else, somebody asked her, what's
going to happen to you? She said, my father's been feeding
me and taking care of me all this time, Don hasn't. And he'll continue to feed me
and take care of me when Don's gone. You understand that? Don't be of doubtful mind. Your
father knows what you need. If I say to my daughter, my son-in-law,
my grandchildren, I know. I don't have to say, I'll take
care of it. I know. That means, buddy, if
I can handle it, you don't have to worry about it no more. I'll
take care of it. And I'm just sinful flesh. Your father knows what you need. That means he'll take care of
it. You don't have to be concerned about it. You don't have to give
it a thought. A lot of our care, our fretting, our anxiety comes
from ambition. That's where most of it comes
from. Most of it. Most of it doesn't come from
hardships. Somehow, somehow we learn to
focus on things and we expect real hardships. But oh, what
ambition will do to your soul. Ambition. I've got to have more.
I've got to be recognized. I've got to have a name. I've
got to have a position. I don't want folks to look at
me and say, look what he's wearing. I don't want folks to look at
me and say, why is he driving a car like that? I don't want
folks to look at me and say, why doesn't he have this? Ambition. Greed. Lust. Lust. And we grab it with both hands
and grab it with our hearts. And if you do, you're going to
hell with it. That's just all there is to it. Grab Christ with
your heart. Grab Christ with your soul. Grab
Christ with both hands so that you can't have room for anything
else. Grab Him! Seek Him! Hold Him! Let Him be your ambition. This one thing I do, I seek Him. Him. Him. And if He's what you seek, you're
not going to seek anything else. Our Lord says, stop being ambitious. And the word doubtful, when He
says, need to be a doubtful mind, He's saying, stop being unstable. Unstable. There's not a reason in the world,
Bob Ponce, for you or me to be unstable, not if we're his. Not
if we're his. I want to be the kind of man
that anybody who knows me, anybody who knows me, doesn't even have
to guess where I'm going to be, what I'm going to do, or how
I'm going to respond to anything. That's the kind of man I want
to be. I want to be the kind of man my wife, she doesn't even
have to. Somebody says, well, what does
Don think about that? I can tell you exactly what Don
thinks about that. She might not tell you, but she
could. How would Don respond to that?
She'd tell you exactly how he'd respond to it. She might not
tell you, but she could. That's the kind of man I want
to be. Stable. Dependable. Rock solid. Count on it. For one thing, that's
called manhood. For a better thing, that's called
faith. Faith in Christ. People unstable. Oh, wonder what he's going to
do today. Wonder where he's going to be
today. Wonder what he's going to do. Wonder how he'll respond. Wonder what
effect that's going to have on him. You show me what's right in this
book, and you show me the path I am obliged to take. That's exactly it. It doesn't
matter what anybody else thinks. It doesn't matter what anybody
else says. It doesn't matter what anybody else goes along.
Show me what's right. You show me what God would have
me to do. And that's it. That's it. Confer not with flesh
and blood. Doesn't matter whether your wife
agrees or doesn't agree. Doesn't matter whether your husband agrees
or doesn't agree. This is what God says. That's it. But nobody
does things that I don't care what anybody else does. Nobody
thinks like that. It doesn't matter what anybody
else thinks like. It just doesn't matter. Show me God's will. You've shown me my path. And I've said, like Jephthah
of old, I've lifted my hand to God. I can't go back. I can't go back. Like Joshua,
as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. But Joshua, you
don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, no. But I know who
rules tomorrow. But you don't know what you're
going to face tomorrow, no. But I know what He faces for
me. Neither be ye of doubtful mind,
but rather stop being anxious. Stop being ambitious. Stop being
unstable. Believe God. Oh, God, teach me
to believe you. Teach me to believe you. Amen.