Admonition Podcast

Justin Evergarden teaches through Matthew 6, focusing on forgiveness, private devotion, earthly treasure, divided allegiance, and anxiety. He connects Jesus’ teachings with passages in Luke, Acts, and 1 John, and closes with the chapter’s central call to seek God’s kingdom first.

Chapters

00:00 Prayer and return to Matthew 6
01:24 Forgiveness: Jesus’ warning against grudges
04:04 Luke 17: rebuke, repentance, and repeated forgiveness
09:19 Repentance and confession in Acts and 1 John
12:21 Fasting without turning faith into a show
18:05 Treasures in heaven and the danger of divided devotion
25:24 Jesus’ teaching on worry and the Father’s provision
33:00 Trusting God through the Titanic bulkhead illustration
38:29 Seek God’s kingdom first
43:00 Matthew 6’s challenge: live with singular devotion

Creators and Guests

Host
Aaron Cozort

What is Admonition Podcast?

The Admonition podcast brings you Bible lessons and sermons from the Collierville Church of Christ with host Aaron Cozort. Each episode focuses on interpreting Scripture in its original context, exploring the background of key passages, events, and teachings. Gain deeper insight into God’s Word as we study together, applying timeless truths to everyday life.

Justin Evergarden (00:00)
With all of you Sundays. But I'm off preaching and teaching class at congregations all over the U.S. right now, so you'll have to bear with me. Before we get started this evening, let's go ahead and open with a word of prayer together, if you'll bow with me. Dear Lord, our Father in Heaven, how wonderful your name is on our lips, how wonderful your message is within our hearts, and your lessons when they are applied to our lives and our minds. May we always take

all the things that you have written and use them responsibly, teach them responsibly, and apply them responsibly within our lives. Please continue to be with us throughout all the our daily walks of life. Please be with those sick and in poor health that need your aid, Lord God, as only you know how to heal. Lord God, please be with the leaders of this country as they face hard decisions coming up in relation to the world and all that that's going on in it.

Please be with our families. Please be with our enemies, Lord God. Please open up their heart to the Word of God so that we can hopefully bring them over into your fold and bring more souls unto you. Please continue to be with us as when we finally leave this place this evening. Guide, guard, and direct us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you would please turn your Bibles over to Matthew chapter six.

we're going to pick up where we left off last time. I believe it was a little over a month ago. We were in the book of Matthew, and we were going through chapter six. we finished up most recently with the model prayer, ⁓ but we looked at giving our looking at the daily bread, thy kingdom come, hallowed be thy name, and ⁓ how the model prayer is set up for us to imitate and not to simply repeat with vain repetitions. Tonight we open up

Our study in verses fourteen through fifteen. For if ye forgive men their trespass, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. A warning from our God straight to us to in layman's terms not hold grudges.

Grudges are things that we hold on to, those those horrible feelings that eat us inside. The

The thought process behind the human psyche often pushes pushes us towards thoughts of revenge, towards thoughts of getting even, towards thoughts of, well, once you know, do me wrong once, shame on you, do me wrong twice, I'll never trust you again, is kind of the way that our minds think. But God warns us against holding those grudges and says that we must forgive those that trespass against us. A Christian cannot.

Nourish bitterness within our souls while simultaneously appealing to God for his mercy. He tells us right here with an illustration, you can almost think of these two passages like a mirror. You have the affirmative and then you have the negative. You have the positive. If you forgive men, your Lord will forgive you. But if you will not forgive men, the Lord will not forgive you. What does it mean to possess?

A forgiving heart

Just something to think about as we continue through. There's not a specific answer I'm looking for, but it's something that we should think about. How should we respond to someone who has sinned against us? And that that takes a few different thought processes. And the answer to that is not simply one answer. Because the answer comes from how they are responding to us after the sin has been committed. And we'll get into that.

And then finally I want you to also be thinking while we go through these next few verses, what role does repentance and confession play when reconciliation is needed by someone? So let's get someone to read, please, Luke chapter seventeen, verses three through four.

Luke chapter seventeen three through four.

Alright, now we're gonna take a closer look at this because here we have instructions. Take heed to yourselves. Pay attention to what you're doing now, is what he's saying. If thy brother trespass against thee, what is step number one that we're told? Rebuke him. That's part of it. You cannot fix something if you do not know what it is wrong. You cannot repair your car if you do not know which part of the car is broken, can you?

You cannot take the correct turn on the interstate if you if you have not been told that you are no longer following your GPS for the past ten miles. And I don't know about you, but I can pass it and ten seconds later it's screaming at me until I'm back on the proper route. We have to be told, and we can't be shy about rebuking people either. Who can define the word rebuke for me?

Confront is a fantastic word for it. You cannot rebuke someone without confrontation. It's part of the word. It's built into the thought process that the word denotes. But then he says, if he repent, forgive him. Is the word if there a qualifier? Yes or no? It is a qualifier. We have to be very careful.

To not overstep bounds that our own God has laid out before us. Let me ask a rhetorical question. Is God going to forgive any sinner who does not seek his forgiveness?

No. Will he forgive anyone if they do not repent of their sins? No. So should we as a Christian ever overstep our bounds and be willing to forgive someone who is not seeking that forgiveness? It doesn't say that we have to hold and harbor grudges for these people. We want to look towards that forgiveness. That's the end goal. We want to have a heart that is a forgiving heart.

Heart, remember the question I asked earlier. And sometimes our hearts are not forgiving. We have to train our hearts, just like we have to train ourselves to ride a bike or learn a new skill. Your heart sometimes doesn't just come out of the box as deep feeling for others, but it can be trained to do so. And that's done through discipline and study of the scriptures. And while we must be ready to rebuke, we do so, that the verse says.

So that they hopefully will repent. You don't rebuke them just to get even. We don't rebuke them simply to tell them off, as it were. That's a human thing to do. But if you have a righteous reason to rebuke them, it is to let them know, again, like the GPS, you took the wrong turn. You're doing something wrong. You added too much salt to that chocolate cake, and now it's ruined. We want you to taste the good cake.

We don't want you to ruin the dish. But it says, If he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent. Should we forgive him? Now what about the eighth time? Should we should we forgive the eighth time? Yes, seven there does not denote a strict number. He's not saying, Up, you know, your your counter's going up. You only get seven mess ups in a day. Come eight.

But something that we can also wire into this verse, very confidently from the one previous, is that part of this is also would this person have been rebuked seven times?

It was in the commandment that was one verse prior. We can make that as a very, very safe assumption because it's part of the plan. Now someone please get Acts chapter eight and verse twenty two. Acts chapter eight and verse twenty two.

Repent therefore of thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven of thee. Now, this is the rebuke. This is the rebuke that we see made to Simon the sorcerer. Simon the sorcerer had seen the great gifts, the laying on of hands, and he came up with money trying to purchase the miraculous gifts from the apostles.

And he is told rebukingly, Your money dies with you. Let's see, if we scroll up, but Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast not thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. And then he tells him, Repent. You're going down the wrong path. You're looking at this the wrong way. Pray to God that your heart

That the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. So he's he's rebuking him, but also at the same time exhorting him, saying, Look, you can fix and guide your heart to where it should be, to what it should be looking towards. You don't need to be looking for these miraculous gifts for to be self serving. And then finally, let's look at first John chapter one and verse nine.

If someone would please read that.

All right. Do we see the qualifying word there? Who can point the qualifying word out? If, very first word of the verse, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. We have to be willing to repent. Again, we cannot, we seek to give someone forgiveness, but we cannot overstep the bounds in which God Himself will not give forgiveness. He's not going to forgive a single soul that does not seek it, is not willing to confess that they've done wrong.

But he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So as a Christian, applying this to ourselves, if someone says that they messed up, regardless of how bad, and they ask for our forgiveness, should we give it to them? Absolutely. And there is no sin beyond that we should not be willing to forgive. Now, I completely understand that there are still consequences.

For certain sins that happen while we are still alive on this earth. But those consequences are done via the local government, through laws. Maybe it's you're more careful around said person, but we must be willing to wholeheartedly and fully forgive that person while here on this earth. We cannot hold those grudges. The key attitude for the Christian is this: we should always be ready and willing to forgive rather than desiring the human emotions of vengeance.

and cherishing sometimes that resentment that we so often hold in our hearts. Then we shift over verses sixteen through eighteen. Going let's go back over to Matthew chapter six, and we're gonna continue on through.

In verse sixteen, he starts by saying, Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, that may they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast.

But unto thy father which is in secret. And thy father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly, he says. Now in the Old Testament, fasting is often accompanied by several different things. Fasting is typically accompanied by sorrow. It is accompanied by repentance. It could be accompanied by humiliation, because typically this was something that

At least for the Pharisees, they did it out in the streets. It would imply distress in one's life. It would be mourning the loss of a loved one. Or it could be simply the earnest seeking of God. But fasting was never designed to become what I like to call spiritual theater. And the Pharisees at this point had put on a show of this for all that were around. And it says in verse 16: that they may appear unto men to fast.

So these hypocrites, and it's okay, we can call them that because that's exactly what they are in this passage, they were deliberately disfiguring their appearance so that people would notice them and point it towards their religious devotion. At least that's what they were hoping. Their appearance essentially announced, look how spiritual I am. I'm willing to forgo my good clothes, I quit washing myself. We see of that in in one of the false doctrines that are portrayed in Japan.

All across the nation right now. It's called Shintoism. It's ⁓ Shintoism and Buddhism specifically have a belief that, I'm sorry, not Shintoism, it's B Buddhism specifically, that to gain something for yourself, you must eliminate desire. That could be the desire for a good life, that could be a desire for your health, that could be a desire for comfort.

And so that's why we see the Buddhist monks shaving their heads and going very long periods of time without eating and starving themselves. And essentially, they're they're doing what the Pharisees were doing, weren't they? They were sitting there going through these, making themselves look this way. The notes summarize the attitude that I have here in my notes on the Bible. I I wrote the words, poor me. Poor me. I'm I'm so religious, poor me.

And yet, if they were truly religious and worshiping God the way he had instructed, would it be something to be sad about or something to celebrate? Because our God is a God that wins. Our God is a God that protects. Our God is a God that loves. There should be no sadness there of countenance.

So then he tells the Christians here in verse 17, anoint thy head, wash thy face. In ordinary language, he's saying, don't advertise it. If you are fasting to bring yourself back spiritually, hide the fact that you were doing it. Take care of yourself normally. Do not deliberately look miserable. Do not deliberately look unwashed. You don't want people coming up to you and asking,

You know, brother, you you you looking a little thin today. Your your shirt's all ripped and tattered. Are are you fasting?

I don't know of anyone that would ask that right off the bat. Typically, it's are you okay nowadays? But in their time, they would have. That spiritual discipline is between you and God, not an audience. And we can apply that to ourselves today. There's nothing wrong with fasting today. But it definitely applied to them. And so he continues in verse 18 unto thy father which is in secret. This returns us to the repeated principles of verses 1 through 18.

Jesus fasted, others in the New Testament fasted, but Jesus did not establish fasting as a required act of New Testament congregational worship. So while it's not a bad thing, it is also not something that we should ever bind on others. God should always be the recipient of our worship. We worship to please him. We do not worship to please ourselves. In this case, this is what the Pharisees were doing. And he tells them that they got their reward, didn't he? Yes.

True religion is lived before God, not a performed before men.

So we move on, and we'll read verses 19 through 24 for the next section. He tells us, Lay up for yourselves treasures upon Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where your treasure is,

there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve the

both God and mammon. So Jesus now moves from religious hypocrisy to allegiance. Who what master do you serve was the the phrase used by Doctor Strange in the the Marvel movie. Verses nineteen through twenty he says, Lay up for yourselves not treasures here upon earth. He has them start focusing on spiritual things, because as he leads the conversation to the leader

What master you serve, who what servant you are going to be, he says, are you serving those on earth or are you serving those in heaven? And so he points the conversation over to heaven. Jesus is not saying that owning property on earth is sinful. He's not saying that saving money is a bad thing, or possessing wealth is automatically bad. The issue is making earthly possessions our treasure.

The thing that our heart and soul longs after, seeks after, chases after on a daily basis. Everything accumulated here on this plane of existence is only temporary. But that also goes to not only what we have accumulated, but also to what we must endure. So don't forget that. Jesus Jesus here names three threats to the things that we accumulate here on earth. Moth.

or things that deteriorate, rust and corruption, those are things that decay, and thieves, which make things disappear.

We spend enormous amounts of energy obtaining things that eventually break, they wear out, they need a software update or a hardware update. Maybe they're dropped by the company. They could get stolen. They could become lost.

Ultimately, everything that we have is going to be left behind when we die. But there's something that we can take with us. So he continues, where your treasure is. For where your treasure is, he says in verse 21, there will your heart be also. Our treasure is what we as an individual regard in our lives as most valuable. That would be our treasure.

So I want us to think tonight as we continue through this, what is our treasure? What is the most valuable thing to us as a person and as a Christian? Because if we find your our treasure, we're going to find our heart. And if you find out that you just absolutely cannot live without that physical item, maybe your treasure's laid up in the wrong sp place.

If someone examined my calendar and bank statement, what might they conclude that I value most? Another good question to ask. Are we using what we have been given here on this earth, which everything has been given by God, and we are called to be good stewards of those funds, whether in our bank account, the church coffers, or ha what have you? And this also includes our time. How are we spending that wisely? Are we spending it for God?

Or are we spending it for mammon? Are we spending it to chase after things that are earthly or spiritual?

Then Jesus goes on and talks about the eye and spiritual focus. He uses the eye as a picture of focus and orientation. Our spiritual vision is fixed on earthly things, if it is, then darkness follows. The disciple needs to check his conduct. We need to check our affection, our goals, our desire, and where our eyes are pointed towards our faith. Are our eyes fixed upon God in heaven?

His word and his teachings? Or something corporeal here on earth, something physical? A divided eye leads naturally into Jesus' next image. A divided master cannot work. When you're looking through your eyes, can you both focus on that exit sign and that exit sign at the same time? No. No. I don't know about you, but my eyeballs do not split that way.

But so it should apply to our spiritual nature as well. We can look forward and bring something into very clear focus, but it can only be one thing. Our minds operate very similarly the same way. We can only ever concentrate on one thing at a time. Try to think of and pull maybe the date or the location of where the Statue of Liberty is. Try to imagine the Statue of Liberty sitting there while also figuring out what you had for lunch yesterday at the same exact time.

Kinda hard to do so, right? Our minds are singularly focused. So when we think of our spiritual well-being, where does our focus lie? When we pull back the quiver to pull to shoot the bow, what are we aiming at? What are we hoping to hit? Hopefully that target is centered on Christ, and we are proceeding down that road to walk in the light as he is in the light.

I'm getting an eyeball over here, like that was a bad illustration. Teaching connection. ⁓ let's move on to verse 24. Two masters, you cannot serve two masters. You cannot simultaneously serve both God and mammon. Now, mammon, we've already talked about earlier, refers to riches, material wealth, possessions treated. But this could also mean power as well, authority here on earth. Many people in power worship that instead of what they should be.

Notice what Jesus does not say here. He does not say that serving two masters is difficult. What does he say? It is impossible. It cannot be done. Eventually one of them becomes the master.

Money is a useful servant, isn't it? But if we're not careful about how we utilize our money, can it become our master? I know a lot of places in the world where idols and idolatry are very much alive, and they're walking around with these idols in their pocket, it doesn't take a trip out to a nation like Japan to see the giant Buddhas and the statues and the temples. I've seen people do some horrendous things simply over a dollar bill.

So what master do we serve?

Let me ask this what is the difference between possessing something and allowing that thing to possess us? Discussion question.

One inch. It can be sometimes. You can definitely own something, and it's not wrong to own something, but to allow it to own us, we need to be very careful. Then we move on to the next section, because I don't want to belabor the point too much. This is going to be a commentary on anxiety, and we're going to read verses twenty-five through thirty-four. Therefore, because of all this he's saying, I say unto you, Take no thought for your life what you 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 the body more than 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 th taking thought can add one cubit to his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies 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. Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast in 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 wherewithal shall we be clothed?

For after all these things do the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knoweth that they have need of all these things. So here he points out the pointlessness of worry. Verse 25 says, Take no thought for your life. Now when he says, Take no thought for your life, he is not saying, Do not plan. He is not saying, Never prepare, never work, never think about tomorrow.

And to ignore responsibility. That is not what he is saying here. Scripture teaches responsible provision. Someone please get first Timothy chapter five and verse eight. It's a very clear example.

First Timothy chapter five and verse eight.

All right.

I may have gotten the wrong verse on that one. Hold on, let me check.

Yep, I got the wrong one on that one. It happens sometimes. Essentially, what he's going here, I don't I don't have the the correct verse written down, my ⁓ my cross reference here. But the take no thought for your life, the Greek word there actually should be better translated as have no anxiety for your life. Don't worry about it to the point of becoming anxious. He's not saying don't plan for it, don't think about it, don't

Take action to preserve it, he's saying, Don't worry, don't become anxious, don't let it wreck and ruin your life. Because life is bigger than the things that support it. He tells us there in verse twenty-five, Is not life more than meat and the body more than raiment? Our lives mean so much more than just the physical existence here and making sure that we have a roof over our head and meat to fill our bellies. But often we reverse the order. We become consumed with the idea of

Food, clothing, income, possessions, material security, while forgetting that God who gave life itself is so much greater than the things required to sustain it. Not only that, he's the one that does sustain it with his power.

So he continues. The birds. He shows that worry is senseless. Behold the fowls of the air. They don't sow, they don't reap, they don't store crops in barns. Yet, what does the Heavenly Father do every single day for those birds? He provides, He feeds them. Are we better than birds? No. Are we better than birds? Yes, we're better than birds. We are so much more important to God than birds.

We are so important that God sent His Son to die on the cross for our souls to wash our sins away.

The argument moves from lesser to greater. If God cares for birds, is he going to care for his children? Specifically something that was made in his image? Absolutely. This does not mean that birds don't do any work. Birds search, they gather, they build. They still plan, they still do things to take care of themselves. They don't just sit back and wait for the seeds to just appear on the ground. I know sometimes they do that in state parks, but that's our fault.

And notice Jesus repeatedly says, Your heavenly father. He's our father. He he secures fatherhood. Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit to his stature? He says in verse 27. Whether understood in reference to strength or length of life, Jesus' point is the same. What has worry or anxiety, it should be spent, what has anxiety ever accomplished in our lives?

Can you ever think of a single time where being anxious about something, not the actions you took to correct something, but simply the anxiety itself, what is it ever corrected? I'll give you the answer. It's nothing. Anxiety in and of itself is only going to cause mental damage. The load of that yesterday, applied to tomorrow, carried today, can make even the strongest person falter. We can live with any form of

burden that we have simply from sun up to sundown if we can trust in our God.

Then we get to verse twenty eight through thirty. Consider the lilies of the field.

He says Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed such as one of these. If God's clothes, grass, if God can clothe the grass that is alive today and gone tomorrow, how much more will he clothe us? Let me ask this when we are baptized into Christ, are we clothed? We are. We put on Christ in baptism. And his blood washes away our sins continually.

That's the best garment that I could ever think of. A garment far more beautiful than any flower of any field of any museum of flowers on this entire planet. It is the best piece of garment.

People normally do not expend great energy decorating something that are going to be gone tomorrow. But think about this does God clothe the grass beautifully, even though he knows it's going to be gone tomorrow? We read in the verse where it says it'll be out in the field one day and then it's tossed into the furnace the next. They're using it for bread or any other various uses. And then he points out, O ye of little faith. Excessive worry is not only an emotional problem.

Jesus also is connecting it to a trust problem that we have with the Father. So the next time that we notice that we are getting anxious about something, that we're really getting worried, our heart starts beating fast, sit back and pray to God. Ask him for guidance. Say, is this problem something that God can handle? I guarantee every single time the answer will be yes. And at the end of the day, What's the worst thing that can happen?

You lose your car, you lose your home, you're kicked out. There's a a laundry list of things that I could say that could go along with that. But can we take any of that stuff with us when we leave this earth? If we are righteous and holy in Christ and we keep obeying him as the Bible teaches us, then what is our end result no matter what happens here on earth? Where do we wind up going? Heaven, with him forever.

So, what are we worried about on a day-to-day basis? Why do we allow ourselves to become so anxious? I I gave ⁓ a sermon about this I I think a little over a year ago here, and I made the illustration of the Titanic. And you had the bulkheads on the Titanic. Now, I don't know if you guys remember the Titanic and why it sank, but the iceberg hit it. And one of the fatal design flaws in the Titanic was the fact that they had the bulkheads.

And you would think bulkheads, that's a great idea on a ship. I think they had 13 or something, 18. I used to have it memorized, I don't know. But they have all these little bulkheads. And bulkheads are designed so that if the room next to it or the room adjacent ruptures, it will close off and contain the water in this side. Now the problem with the Titanic was the bulkheads went up to about a foot from the ceiling. And so you had compounding interest from this water flowing into the vessel.

And it was only a matter of hours. So as the water rushed in through the side where the iceberg tore open the metal and grates and bolts, it allowed all that water to rush into the compartment. And so now they were on a ticking time clock, with the water rising up in one room. And once it reached that top, because it wasn't fully sealed off, what happened? Where did the water go? Right into the next compartment, and into the next one, and into the next one, until the entire ship sank.

So when I say to live in daytight compartments, the same thing that he said here, don't have anxiety for tomorrow. There's another verse that we can go back and cross-reference. I don't have it here, that says, Lord, give us our daily bread. He's not asking for tomorrow's bread, and he's not complaining about yesterday's stale bread. He's focused on what he can do today and what he can ask for today. Because if you don't shut off the memories of the past,

Those horrible experiences, the anxieties that you had from yesterday, and allow that water to flow in. And then you also have the opposite bulkhead. You're worried about the future. You're worried about the mortgage. You're you're sitting there being anxious about it instead of taking action. Are you eventually going to sink your ship? You're going to be just like the Titanic, unless you put up proper bulkheads. We have to fight that anxiety. And the best way is with the Word of God. We can trust that He knows how to steer the boat.

If he was at the helm he probably would have never hit that iceberg.

We don't need to worry what we shall eat, what we shall drink, and what we shall be clothed with. After all these things, he says, do the Gentiles seek? The world focuses specifically on physical things. And when a person's horizon contains only this life, material concerns naturally become their ultimate concerns.

And then eventually you hit that wall. What happens when all your concerns are laid to rest? You've you've maybe gotten that promotion and you have more money than you ever thought possible. For some in the world, it may be winning the lottery. They think they take care of everything. I lay lay by in store. You know, we're gonna tear down barns and build bigger barns, we read in the Bible. And yet what happened to that gentleman who said he was going to feast and celebrate and build bigger barns because he had such a large harvest?

Fool, tonight thy soul will be required of thee. His focus was on material things and not spiritual. We need to take that kind of stuff to heart.

Our Heavenly Father knows what we have need of. He says, Your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye need of all these things. Before we tell God what we need, I promise you he already knows it. He knows well before we ever even had the thought to ask for it. And this is the same Father that we were introduced to in verse 8. Verse 8, the Father knows you need before you ask. And in verse 32, the Father knows that you need these things. So both prayer and

And freedom from worry are built on the same truth. How do we beat anxiety? Our Father knows. Not only that, but Christ the Son experienced it. He became our high priest. He came down to earth to experience the same fears, the same attacks, the same everything that we went through so that he can know what it's like. He already knew. But he even taught himself service to God the Father.

By coming down to Earth.

Now let's get ⁓ Matthew chapter six and verse thirty three.

He continues, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. You notice that Christ here does not simply say the words, stop worrying. He gives us a much better replacement, doesn't he? He doesn't just tell us to do something, he attacks the underlying issue. He doesn't just give us medicine that attacks the symptoms, they attack the root cause. He says,

To fix this issue that you have with anxiety, with lusting after the world, seek ye first the kingdom of heaven. And then all these things shall be added unto you. I have an outline over here that breaks down the different words. His words seek, desire. First, this is placing the priority that we are to put this command.

The kingdom of God, that's what our pursuit is to be after. His righteousness, that's to be our behavior. And all these things shall be added unto you, that's the benefit, that's the promise that He gives us when we do that.

Then we get on to Matthew chapter six, verse thirty-four. Take therefore no thought for tomorrow, for tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Tomorrow we'll have enough difficulty when tomorrow gets here. It is going to be bad enough. There is no need to sit here and worry and be anxious about what's going to happen tomorrow. Because we're just getting that compounded interest once again. Again, he's not saying don't plan. He's not saying don't take precaution. He's not saying don't don't do something if you know that something is coming up, not to not to prepare for it. I keep thinking there's a different word that I can use other than prepare, but

He's just saying don't don't be anxious about it. It's going to happen whether you like it or not if you see it in your future, so do what you can, but don't cry over the spilt milk either.

Tomorrow there is the key word, the future. Worry attempts to live in a future that has not arrived yet. But our faith should always ask, what does God require of me today? We need to live in the now. We need to stay within that daytight compartment.

There is not enough room in our mind for both worry and faith. At the end of the day, we are going to have to decide in our mind's compartment which one gets to live there our faith or our anxiety, our worries.

Another statement I heard from somebody a while back and I I've got it written in my margin here is worrying is like praying for what you do not want.

Similar, right? It's not a technical definition of worry, but I think it vividly exposes just how much mental energy sometimes we can devote to rehearsing feared outcomes. Or past outcomes. I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with people and they just keep replaying in my mind over and over and over again like a really bad blooper reel. Well, what if I would have said this? What if I would have attacked it this way? What if I would have stepped over here?

What if I would have done that? And we can wreck our entire afternoons by concentrating on this. When the milk has poured down the drain, is there anything that you can do to get that milk back? No. No. So you know, to to quote a really old line, we've got to make sure that we don't cry over spilt milk.

We need to trust God for tomorrow when tomorrow arrives. Often we suffer twice. We can sometimes suffer once in our imagination today, and then once if the difficulty actually arrives tomorrow, right? So we're just compounding it. We're compounding the hurt. Every day has its own problems. Do not add tomorrow's problems to today. All right. So

Conclusion for Matthew chapter 6. I'm not sure where we are on time. I think I've got a little bit left. Verses 1 through 18. When I give, pray, worship, fast, sacrifice, and serve, am I doing it for God or because I want people to notice me? Jesus demands sincerely focused. This was verses 19 through 34. Where is my treasure? Where is my heart? Who is my master? What consumes my thoughts? What am I seeking first?

Do I live as though I truly have a Father in heaven who knows what I need? This is singular devotion. That's what Christ wants us to have. And so how do we fit the whole chapter together? If I'm living for the approval of men, who is my audience? Men. If I am living for my possessions, who is my master? My possessions. If I am constantly consumed by worry,

What is controlling my heart? Is it my circumstances? Can be. But Jesus gives us something far better.

He gives because he sees. We pray because we hear, because he hears. We serve because he knows. We should forgive because he has shown us mercy. Fast if you choose to fast, because he is your audience. Lay up in treasure because of his rewards, not the rewards of man, and seek his kingdom because

At the end of time and even now, He is the one ruling it. He rules both heaven and earth. Face tomorrow without being consumed by it, because He is He already knows what we need.

So that's the challenge of Matthew chapter six in a nutshell. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. That's all I had for chapter six, and I don't think I've got enough time to start chapter seven. So does anyone have any questions, comments, philosophical meanderings, astute observations?

That's right. Worry about what we can change. All right. Thank you all very much for your attention.

There you go. Anybody else?

No, we'll go ahead and conclude there.