Sermon 5-25-08

Heavenly Father we come before you this morning awestruck by your presence, by what you have done for us. And, Heavenly Father, now You take the time to speak to us through the Bible. Lord God, help us to hear, help us to listen, help us to understand, help us to take Your words and make them part of our lives. You are a great God. All we pray this in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Scripture Readings-

The first reading from the Old Testament tells about getting to know God through the Bible, and God’s guidance through the Bible. And in verse 33 of the Gospel Lesson, God says “Seek first the kingdom of God”. We seek the Kingdom of God through His Word.

Old Testament – Psalm 119:130-133 The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands. Turn to me and have mercy on me, as you always do to those who love your name. Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.

The Epistle lesson brings together what we have been talking about over the last couple of weeks, the great verse from Zechariah that says we function “not by might, not by power but by God’s Spirit”. So then the question comes up, how do we function by the Spirit; how does the Spirit become a part of our lives? The Spirit comes to us through God’s Word. And when the Spirit comes, great things happen.

Epistle – Galatians 5:22-25 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

The Gospel Lesson is actually a gauge to see where our trust is placed. These are the words of Jesus.

Gospel – Matthew 6:24-34 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Sermon –

As you may or may not know I have a big railroad project going on in my basement. I’m doing an urban renewal program in the City of Milwaukee in l960. To do urban renewal and to cut down on crime, I’ve been installing streetlights on my model railroad. The streetlights came in the other day and to install them, I have to drill a hole that is 11/32” in diameter. If it’s bigger, the streetlight will fall through the plywood and if it’s smaller, the base won’t go through. It has to be exactly 11/32”! Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it? All I needed was an 11/32” drill bit. But when I went to get the case that holds the drill bits, they had all come loose from their holders. And when I opened the case, they fell on the floor. I had no idea which drill bit was the one I needed.

Fortunately I knew that in the basement of the church there was a bolt and nut gauge. With this thing, I could try different drill bits in different holes and figure out which one of my drill bits was an 11/32”. I tried all the drill bits, some were too big and some were too little, but I finally found the one that fit perfectly - the problem was solved by the gauge! And as I went through finding the drill bit that I needed, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could have a gauge to solve the problems with trust that we have with God? The Gospel Lesson for this week, Matthew Chapter 6, talks about having faith, about people with a little bit of faith. Wouldn’t it be great if we had a “faith gauge” like my drill bit gauge so that we would know how much faith we need to get something done, how much faith we need to get God to act, how much faith we need to accomplish things? The Bible says that if you have faith just the size of a mustard seed, and a mustard seed is really small, you can move mountains. Sometimes we wonder if we have even that small amount of faith. Everything is dependent on faith. There’s a great passage in the Book of Nahum, which says, “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him.” (Nahum 1:7).

Maybe your problem is not finding a gauge for drill bits, but you have problems in life; worries, concerns, all sorts of things going on and you say, “I just need God’s care.” Well, God tells us in the Nahum verse that He cares for those who trust in Him, so then we ask “But do I have enough trust to get God’s care? If everything is dependent on trust, do I have enough trust?”

Fortunately, there is a way to find out because God gives us a “Trust Gauge” in Matthew Chapter 6. Verse 24 says “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” The word translated “money” in the NIV is from the Greek word mamminos which the King James and other translations translate as “mammon”. Mammon is more than just “money”, it is everything that is wordly. Trusting in “mammon” is trusting in earthly things; it could be money, or it could be a person, a political system, the military, your retirement plan, your boss, or your husband/wife/kids. Whatever you are trusting in to provide for you is mammon; mammon is the stuff of this world. God tells us to look at what we are trusting in; He asks, “Are you serving Me or are you serving the stuff of this world?”

It would be nice if we had a gauge to find out if we’re serving God or if we’re serving mammon? And guess what? God gives us a gauge! And that gauge is WORRY! He says in verse 25, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life.” God is saying, “Let’s find out. If you’re serving Me, you don’t have to worry, I will take care of you.” Worry is a gauge like my drill bit gauge. Worry can be an advantage in your life, if you use it as something constructive. If you are worried, then you are trusting in mammon. If I worry about my son Jimmy as he goes out skateboarding and as he begins driving, I am worrying because I have placed my trust and my faith in that something bad is going to happen to him. If I’m not worried it’s because my trust is with God.

This is a big eye-opener. This means that faith and trust are not a quantity of something; it means that faith and trust are a direction. We all have trust; we all trust in something, we have trust coming out of our ears. The problem is that our trust is placed in the wrong direction. Trust is not a quantity of something; it’s not like a gas gauge, because our tanks are always full. Trust is the direction in which we place our faith. That’s why God says, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed (and mustard seeds are really tiny) you can move mountains.” It’s not the quantity of faith that you have, it’s the direction in which it’s placed. If you place your trust in God, you can move mountains. If you place your trust in the things of this world, nothing is going to move.

Maybe you are worried about the elections that are coming up, you are worried that the wrong candidate will be elected. But God says, “Take the faith you have that the wrong candidate will be elected and place that faith in God.” That’s where the “Trust Gauge” comes in. Or maybe you are worried about money. If you are worried about not having enough money it’s because your trust and your faith are in money. Take the faith and trust you have and redirect it toward God. That’s what worry can do for us; it can help us realize whether we are trusting in God or mammon. If I’m worried, I need to redirect my trust toward God. Isn’t it great that faith and trust are not a quantity thing but simply a direction?

God says, as we read on, that there are two steps to help us practically apply this concept. The first is to seek God, seek the kingdom of God above all things.(Verse 33). And how do we seek God? Through His Word! And His Word tells us to place our faith and trust in Him, not in the things of this world. Seek God, read His Word, get His guidance and direction. And hear his promises like the passage we read in Nahum. He cares for you; trust in Him.

But then the question comes up, “Well, does God really want to help me this time around? I know He helped me last time, but does He really care this time? I’m a much worse person now than I was then. Maybe He’s got something against me and doesn’t want to help me.” That’s why the verse 33 says “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” It doesn’t say to seek your own righteousness. If I’m seeking my own righteousness, I’m saying, “OK God you should help me because see how good I am; look at what I’ve done.” God tells us not to seek our own righteousness, but seek His righteousness. And His righteousness is found in Jesus Christ.

Righteousness is a right standing with God; the approval God gives to us because of Christ’s perfect obedience and sacrifice on the cross. You get God’s approval because of what Christ did not because of what you did. So does God want to help you this time? Of course He does! It doesn’t depend on your good or bad behavior, He saved us because of His mercy. He came, He died, He paid for our sins, He rose from the dead, He gave us faith – what have I done so far – not a thing! – He did it. That’s why you have God’s approval, that’s why you have God’s help, that’s why He forgives you, and that’s why He will take you to heaven – it’s all because of what Christ did. If worry is creeping in, it’s a sign that you’re trusting in mammon, the things of this world. Seek God through His Word and remember God’s righteousness is found in Jesus Christ and then you will have peace and all the fruit of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.

So now let’s test this out. How many of you get up in the morning, click on the news and hear about the price of oil? Monday morning the oil prices were record high. Tuesday morning the oil prices were another record high. Wednesday morning, another record high. And I must admit on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, every time I heard the news that the price of oil was rising, you know what crept into my life? WORRY! And I thought, “Boy. if I just had enough trust. Do I have enough trust in God for the things in my life?” That’s when I started researching the verses for this sermon and realized that trust is not a quantity thing, it’s not my amount of faith and trust; faith and trust are a direction. So then I had to decide where I was putting my trust; am I putting it in mammon or in God? I saw that worry is a sign of misplaced trust. When I was worried about those high oil prices, it was a sign that I had placed my trust in mammon. I was worried because I thought I might not be able to afford gasoline. I was worried that the people in this congregation might not be able to afford to heat their homes. That was my trust. That was my belief. My worry showed me that my trust was in mammon, the things of this world, and that I needed to redirect my faith and trust to God.

So how do I redirect my faith and trust? By seeking first the kingdom of God; by finding God in His Word. Let’s read Matthew 6:25 again. It says, “Therefore I tell you do not worry about your life.” High oil prices are definitely a part of life. So, let’s redirect from placing our trust in OPEC to placing our trust in God. God is saying, “Do not worry about high oil prices. Is not life more important than oil? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying about high oil prices can add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about high oil prices? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, “How can I afford gasoline?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need oil and gasoline. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

And after I went through this on Monday morning and Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning, essentially what happened was that I could pull my faith out of the things of this world and could put them in God. And there was peace – until the next half hour when the news came on and said that oil had gone up again. Then worry crept in again but I was able to say, “This is worry, it’s only a gauge; where’s my trust? I’m back to the things of this world again. I need to seek God first through His Word.” If you do this, you’re always going to be fine because you’ll be trusting in God and in the promise from Nahum, “God cares for those who trust in Him.” When worry starts cropping up, pull your faith and trust out of mammon, the things of this world; change direction and place your faith and trust in God. And God’s peace will be with you.

Prayer –

Heavenly Father, Thank You for bringing good from bad. Worry is a bad thing; You tell us not to worry. And thank You for giving us a gauge to show us where our faith and trust are. Heavenly Father, as worry creeps in, help us to pull things out of mammon, the things of this world and put our faith and trust in You. And we pray this in the Name of Jesus, Amen.

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