-Transcript-
00:25 Amen. Welcome to the program. Welcome to the cafe.
00:30 Pastor Clark Covington here with another episode of KJV Cafe. Thank you for joining me today. How are you doing today? What’s life like for you? Are you worrying? That’s like asking someone, oftentimes, are they breathing? We all tend to worry a lot.
00:49 I don’t know if this is true because some young people worry, but it seems like kind of the older you get, the more you start to worry, I guess. I don’t know. It seems like that’s been the trajectory for me.
01:02 I was pretty fearless as a teenager. Now in my 40s, I’m pretty fearful of a lot of things. I guess that’s just what life will do to you.
01:08 But you know, Jesus tells us in his Word, like literally the red letter text, Jesus Christ himself tells us not to worry. You know, he says, take no thought, don’t even worry.
01:20 We’re going to talk today and for the next few episodes about what Jesus said about worrying and why it’s important to him that you know that you don’t have to worry, that He doesn’t want you to worry.
01:36 Let’s take a step back for a minute. God made all things, right? Now you say, Brother Clark, how can you say that? John chapter one, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the, the word, word is capitalized, means Jesus.
01:56 Okay. So it’s two parts of the Holy Trinity here. John chapter one in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
02:03 The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything that was made. So my Bible tells me in John 1 very clearly that Jesus Christ made everything and without Him, nothing was made.
02:23 Now I’m no Bible scholar, but if he made everything and without him, nothing is made that we would be included in that equation and not just us, but our emotions, right? Think about it. Do you ever think like God made laughter? God made sadness. God made worrying.
02:39 Yeah, I think I believe that he made worrying. Now people may get to that point where they say, okay, I’m created by God. He made me like this.
02:54 You know, I have a nature to worry right now. How about we can look at the Bible and see that we don’t have to worry that God provided a remedy to not worrying, but not everyone knows about this remedy and why, why do they not know about the remedy to worrying?
03:10 Why do they not know that God not only made us to worry, but made a way that we wouldn’t have to worry because there’s a lack of focus on God and faith in his holy word. And that, by the way, you may be wondering, why would God make us to worry?
03:25 Well, if our worrying drives us to Him, and if we’re prone to go away from him because of our sin nature that we got from, from Adam and Eve all the way back at the beginning of human life, if, if our worrying drives us back closer to him, then our worrying is doing something good.
03:42 Does that make sense? Now it’s doing something good when it drives us to Him. And then we take his advice and we don’t worry. Right.
03:51 So Jesus addresses worrying in the Bible at length and urges us to just trust God and not worry. And yes, it requires faith. It requires faith.
03:58 Amen. But the Bible tells us that we can have faith. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
04:05 And so our text for us here today, Matthew 6:27, Jesus speaking again, the red letter text. Therefore, I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor yet for your body, what you shall put on is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment or clothing. And so we see here the context of this verse, Jesus is speaking to the disciples.
04:31 It’s part of the Beatitudes. And I know it says that Jesus was around the multitudes, but if you read it closely, he was talking to the disciples. That’s what I believe He was addressing them.
04:42 So the multitudes could have been hearing it. I’m sure they were, but it says he was addressing the disciples. It’s part of the Beatitudes, the Beatitudes, uh, you know, it’s on the Mount there and he’s saying, blessed are, blessed are, blessed are.
04:54 That’s why it’s called the Beatitudes. Uh, it’s detailing God’s plan for mankind in the New Testament age. A lot of what is mentioned in the Beatitudes is counter to man’s point of view.
05:01 I never forget the first time I read, uh, Matthew 6, I was pretty stunned. Amen. I was like, oh man, this is deep.
05:10 And I was convicted. Oh man, if this is true, I’m really not living right. Uh, he says, blessed, uh, uh, blessed are the poor in spirit, you know, poor in spirit, you know, blessed are they that mourn they that mourn.
05:20 I don’t want to be poor. I don’t want to mourn. Right.
05:24 Uh, love your enemy. And I, at the time I probably wasn’t loving my enemy. Don’t even look upon a woman with lust or you committed adultery.
05:31 And all of these things were in contrast. Jesus does this actually in the text to the old Testament, to the mosaic laws, to what the Israelites were taught, uh, before, which was like, they were asking about divorcement, you know, and, and Jesus is like, you’re worried about getting divorced if you even look about on another person, you committed adultery. Uh, oh, you want to love, you want to love your friend, you know, even the tax collectors do that.
05:56 How about love your enemy? Right. So he’s taking us beyond what they knew and he’s challenging them with these new principles that he is living out in his earthly ministry, that He’s teaching us to live out and that he’s telling us. Are important, uh, in this day and age, amen.
06:11 And for how we are to live and he gets there more and more serious. The point where he’s talking about the Lord’s prayer, you know, that is our blueprint, that’s our template for how we are to pray.
06:20 It teaches us to address God properly, to start our prayer with thanksgiving, uh, to make our requests known, to, to have a forgiveness for others as we expect to be forgiven ourselves, uh, to ask for our daily bread and all, all these things, that’s our template for how to pray the Lord’s prayer.
06:35 And then the definition of true riches, you know, not, uh, what we, what we collect here on earth, but what we would collect in heaven via rewards for living for God after we’re saved. These are like very big weighty issues. These are the meaning of life.
06:48 These are operational things that we are to live out a day to my day. And then Jesus Christ says right after that, guess what guys don’t worry. Don’t worry.
06:57 So if you look at this from a pure, like biblical real estate standpoint, worrying is very important to God. He does not want us to worry. He doesn’t want us to worry.
07:05 Why does God not want us to worry? Number one, he made us and he understands the emotion of worrying. And number two, again, why I believe we’re allowed to worry to begin with is if we’re able to get in touch with Him, Amen, God himself through his word, through prayer, through time spent with Him,
07:24 if we seek God, then that worrying will fade away and that’s a little, I believe, I believe that literally, you know, you can ask my wife, I’ll have a nightmare. I’ll have a stress, you know, untold stress, something going on.
07:38 And I will like physically run to the Bible and I’ll read the Bible and I’ll focus on what God is telling me in his word. And I will calm way, way down, way down. Explain that to me.
07:49 Is that not the Holy spirit? Amen. Is that not God’s design again? Is that not God’s design, but we all need to just not worry. It’s important to God.
08:00 And so what we see here, uh, and we’ll just focus on this first aspect of it for the rest of this message, Jesus takes simple ideas and he gives it to us. I believe for us to understand that he literally means this, but also to apply this principle across all the spectrums of our life. Okay.
08:17 So Jesus says, take no thought for food. That’s where he starts with not worrying. He’s going to give an example, but again, it’s not just take no thought for food, but food being like a primary need.
08:30 Don’t take any thought for any of your needs. Okay.
08:34 I’m Matthew 6: 26-27 .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 you not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature.
08:54 And so we see here starting in Matthew 6: 26, that Jesus is taking an animal out of nature, the fowls of the air, the birds of the air, and He’s telling us a little bit about them. Okay. Number one, they sow not.
09:04 What does it mean to sow plant seeds, right? You’re sowing, you’re planting seeds. I mentioned on a previous episode, our 30 minute episode, 28 minute episode, which we have for our weekly program. I mentioned that my wife and I are terrible gardeners.
09:20 There’s two things that we keep doing. We’re really bad at one is gardening. And the other one is, uh, ocean fishing, like crabbing and stuff.
09:30 Those two things we are perpetually awful at. We keep doing it though. And, uh, going back to the gardening, we’re trying to garden.
09:36 We’ve tilled the land and we plant the seeds. And what do we do when we plant the seeds? We’re thinking about, Ooh, there’s gonna be some tomatoes coming up and there’s gonna be some peppers coming up. Thank goodness.
09:43 My mother-in-law knows what she’s doing. She’s an excellent gardener. She’ll come and clean up our mess.
09:46 Literally you’d make her make a garden her way and it grows whatever that means, but we’re expecting something. We’re selling something. We’re expecting something.
09:55 And God’s saying the foul, the air, the bird there, they’re not doing anything. They have no expectation that they’re going to net some profit from what they’re selling. If you really want to get deep into how, how detailed God is.
10:06 One time I did a message about how like seeds are planted and get traveled and air and even birds I think can move seeds around and God’s a magnificent plan to have plants go certain places. And, um, so they could buy happenstance, you know, drop a seed somewhere, but they’re not, they don’t know what they’re doing. Okay.
10:25 They don’t, so they don’t reap. Okay. So they’re not over there with like 10 seeds, planting them in the ground and coming back a couple of days later to reap those seeds, you know, a couple of months, whatever it is, they’re not doing that.
10:38 And then I love this nor gather into barns. Now think about that. We, as people, we worry about what’s going to happen.
10:48 I mean, goodness gracious in this day and age, you know, one minute, there’s no chicken next minute, the eggs are through the ceiling and you know, there’s no gas. There’s this or that. I mean, there is a reason to be alarmed in this day and age.
11:04 There’s a lot of kind of shock waves going through the world economy. And that might make someone want to gather into their barn and there’s nothing wrong with being prepared. And there’s other scripture that says we should be prepared and have, have to give away.
11:12 And I think especially in the ministry, it’s important to have stuff to give away. Amen. You know, we kind of have a, I kind of have a baseline in my mind that if anyone were to have a need, you know, if we had it, we’re going to give it as a family and as a church.
11:24 And so we need to have it in order to give it, you know, in terms of like food or something, don’t call me and say, I need a hundred dollars. Okay. Cause I ain’t got it.
11:31 Amen. Call the radio station. They probably have it.
11:35 No, I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding. But a radio time is expensive.
11:39 And so that’s where, where the money goes for the ministry, but food and stuff like that, you know, you want to have some available. It’s good, but the bird doesn’t put it in the barn. The burn doesn’t put it in the barn and look at this.
11:49 What does the verse say? The verse says that they they’re still provided for a man. They’re still provided for yet your heavenly father feedeth them. I love the, the, the address, your heavenly father.
12:00 So when you are saved, amen, you become a child of God. You’re reconciled to God. Amen.
12:06 And your heavenly father will feed you. Can you, as a parent be in good spirits, if your child needs to eat and you don’t feed them, come on now, I can’t, I’d rather go without. And I’m sure you would too.
12:21 Didn’t see your child go hungry. Amen. There’s nothing worse.
12:27 Amen. And so if we being evil parents being sinful parents, I should say evil, sinful, you know what I mean? If we provide for our kids, how much more so will our heavenly father provide for us?
12:38 And that is an issue of faith. Do you think when you’re saved that Jesus Christ and the Lord God, the father, they’re now your heavenly father, part of the Holy spirit, and you have the Holy spirit living within you.
12:50 So now God is your heavenly father and you’re provided for like this bird that didn’t, didn’t do anything to earn it. Didn’t do anything to earn it. God still provides.
12:59 Remember, we are not under the law. We are under grace. I believe God wants us to live holy and righteous.
13:05 And that’s throughout the whole scriptures. Amen. Jesus Christ in these very scriptures is telling people, challenging them to live very, very much against their natural carnal ways.
13:15 And at the same time, we’re not under the law. You don’t have to be perfect to be fed by God. He’s going to take care of you.
13:21 Amen. And so you shouldn’t worry because what good does it do? Jesus says, does it add any stature to your height? Does it give you a cubit? And that’s a measurement, right? Does it add anything to worry? No. You know what worrying does? It takes away.
13:37 It takes away sleep. It takes away productivity. It takes away happiness and joy.
13:41 It takes away time with family or in the ministry or with friends. It takes away focus at work or at school or in sports. It takes away good things that God wants us to have.
13:54 And what God is saying here, and I’m going to wrap it up and we’ll get to the second point next time. What Jesus Christ is saying here very clearly is don’t, if you believe in me, don’t worry. You know, if you believe in me, you’re really saved.
14:07 And if you believe in me and you’re really saved, don’t worry. And instead of worrying, put your mind on me, focus on me and my kingdom. Seek me, seek my righteousness, live like I want you to live and you’ll be blessed and you don’t have to worry about food I’m going to provide for you.
14:21 I wish I had more time, but for time’s sake, tune in next time. Tune in next time as we get to the second part of this multi-part series. Thank you for listening.
14:27 Take care, God bless and Amen.