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  IN GOD WE TRUST
  by Anton Bosch
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Summary: This sermon from Luke chapter 12 emphasizes the command to not
worry about material needs but to seek the kingdom of God first. It
highlights the care God has for His creation, from birds to flowers, and
challenges believers to trust in God's provision. The importance of
setting priorities on eternal treasures in heaven rather than earthly
possessions is emphasized, urging a shift in focus from worry to faith
in God's faithfulness.

Topics: "Faith over Worry", "Prioritizing God's Kingdom"
Scripture References: Luke 12:22, Luke 12:27, Luke 12:29, Luke 12:32, Luke 12:33, Matthew 6:19, Matthew 6:25, Philippians 4:6

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon from Luke chapter 12 emphasizes the command to not worry
about material needs but to seek the kingdom of God first. It highlights
the care God has for His creation, from birds to flowers, and challenges
believers to trust in God's provision. The importance of setting
priorities on eternal treasures in heaven rather than earthly
possessions is emphasized, urging a shift in focus from worry to faith
in God's faithfulness.

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CONTENT
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And we're in Luke chapter 12, Luke chapter 12, and we'll read 22 through
34, Luke chapter 12, reading from 22 through 34. Then he said to his
disciples, Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what
you will eat, nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more
than food, and the body is more than clothing.

Consider the ravens, for they neither slough nor reap, which have
neither storehouses or barn, and God feeds them. Of how much more value
are you than the birds? And which of you, by worrying, can add one cubit
to his stature? If you then are not able to do the least, why are you
anxious for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither
toil nor spin, and yet I say to you, even Solomon, in all his glory, was
not arrayed like one of these.

If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and
tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O
you of little faith? And do not seek what you shall eat or what you
should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations
of the world seek, and your father knows that you need these things. But
seek the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you.

Do not fear, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give
you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give alms. Provide yourselves
moneybags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not
fail, where no thief approaches nor moss destroys.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So the
context obviously is the rich fool that we looked at last week who said
he will break down his bonds, and he has plenty for many years, and God
says tonight your soul will be required of you. And so putting our trust
in earthly things.

But this is the flip side of the coin then. So first of all he says
don't put your trust in material things, but now he's going to say put
your trust in the Lord. He cares for you.

And so we begin then in verse 22, and he said to his disciples,
Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat,
nor about the body, what you will put on. This is a command. Remember
we've spoken about this idea before that we say well you know the Old
Testament contains 10 commandments, or 613 additional commands, or 603
additional total, 613 according to the count of the rabbis.

In the New Testament we say well you know there's there's no commands,
there's no laws, it's all grace. And yet there are over 2,000 commands
in the New Testament, and this is one of those commands. And it's a very
simple command, and the command is do not worry.

Do not worry. There is no difference, and we've emphasized and we must
keep emphasizing this, there is no difference between this command and
the command you shall not kill. They both come from God, and God
doesn't, you know, He's not like us.

Sometimes we say things, and well you know we don't really mean it. Then
we say other things, and we really mean it. And you know kids are very
good at discerning by the tone of the parent's voice how, you know,
whether this command is a number 10 command, or whether it's a number 1
command.

They figure out, no, no, this is, this doesn't, you know, she's just
talking. God doesn't have number 1 and number 10 commands. He has, all
His commands are His Word, and they all endure forever.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My Word will endure forever. And so
this is one of those commands, do not worry. And we say well you know
that's a, that's a stupid command.

No it's not. It's at the very core of our faith. Don't worry.

And of course the problem is that we, we all worry. We worry about many,
many things. Now in the passage he's going to deal specifically with
material things, and I suppose that that's probably the biggest area of,
that we worry about.

But we worry about all sorts of other things as well, and this last year
with the COVID pandemic, we've had all sorts of other worries. People
worried about getting sick, others worried about dying, others worried
about losing loved ones, others worried about losing their jobs. But the
things that we most worry about are material things.

And it doesn't matter whether you're rich or poor. The rich worry about
losing their money. The poor worry about getting money, sometimes at the
level of survival.

And I want you to notice that as we go through this passage, he's
dealing with the issues of survival. He's not dealing here with the
issues of whether I buy a second car, or a second house, or even a
house. He's dealing with food and very, very basic needs of life.

And he says, don't worry about those things. Most of us in the Western
world don't worry about those things so much. We worry about the latest
purse, or all sorts of other—latest cell phone, all sorts of things that
are really not that important.

And yet, those are the things that we often worry about. I don't want to
make light of worry, because it's something I struggle with. And I don't
know that, you know—and I did consider the possibility of asking for a
show of hands, and I thought, no, I won't embarrass you.

But I bet that there's no one here that doesn't worry at some stage or
the other. Some of us just worry more than others. And, you know, as I
was going through this message in my mind during the night, it sparked
off worries.

I mean, just think about it. The point of the passage is don't worry,
and as I was meditating on the passage, I began to worry about the
things that we worry about. But he says, do not worry.

Now, of course, it's easy to just say that. And we say that to one
another all the time. You know, when someone expresses concern about
something or anxiety about something, we say, ah, don't worry about it.

It's very much part of Australian language. I think the phrase you hear
there more often than not is, no worries, mate. In other words, it's not
a problem.

Don't worry about it. But it's easy to say, don't worry. And, of course,
God knows when he makes this command that it is something that we do
struggle with.

And so he gives us some answers, and he gives us some solutions to those
things. But at the end of the day, it is something we must wrestle with.
You see, the thing is that some of us wrestle with carnal things, and we
say, well, you know, once I get victory over those things—you know, over
anger and unforgiveness and lust and those sorts of things—once we get
past those things, well, then we're cool.

We're fine. We don't have a spiritual problem, because I don't have a
problem with those kinds of things anymore. And yet we can get past all
of those things and say, well, I've arrived spiritually and still worry,
and by worrying I'm still being carnal.

Because at the end of the day, at the heart of worry is a lack of faith.
And a lack of faith is simply a vote of no confidence in God. Remember
this idea of faith.

We've attached this sort of spiritual idea of faith—it's a spiritual
thing that you do. But faith is not so much a spiritual thing, it's
simply a natural thing of trusting. We have faith in our motor cars,
mostly, to get us here this morning.

We turn the key or press the button, and we have faith that the thing is
going to fire up and it's going to bring us here. So we have faith, but
we don't call it faith. We just say, well, you know, my car's reliable,
I trust it.

Well, the word trust and faith is the same thing. We can trust God. And
on what basis do we trust him? Well, he's going to give us some of the
reasons why we can trust him, but one of the reasons he doesn't include
is because he is trustworthy.

How do you know that your car is reliable? That's assuming you have a
reliable car. How do you know it's reliable? Well, because it never
fails. Every time you turn it on, it starts.

Every time you put it in gear, it goes. And after having done this a few
times, you get to a place where you say, well, yeah, you know, I don't
even think about it anymore. It's going to start, it's going to get me
where I need to go.

I trust the car. We trust the electricity company that when we flip the
switch, the lights are going to come on. That's simply faith.

And in the same way as we don't really have not physically seen God, we
don't see how he is working behind the scenes to do the things to
provide for us, in the same way, I don't think any of us, maybe some,
have seen the power-generating plant where our electricity comes from.
Now, if you go up into the high desert, you'll see the solar farms and
the wind farms, and not so far away here is a power-generating plant
with three big red and white stacks driven by natural gas. But very few
of us understand how it all works.

How does the sun get translated into electricity? How does the wind make
electricity? How does the gas get, you know, we don't understand how
that whole system works, and where exactly does the line run? Can I see
where the line goes from here to the power station? We don't—we just
trust that when we put the switch on, when we flip the switch, the
power's going to come on, the lights are going to come on. And the same
is true of our relationship with God. We don't have to understand all of
the details of how God works and why he does what he does.

But what we do need to do is come to a place where we say, he is
reliable, he is trustworthy, he has never failed. And that's the whole
heart, and I don't want to speak about faith, I want to get to this
aspect this morning, but that's the whole issue of faith in the Old
Testament, is that God proves himself to Israel as being trustworthy and
reliable. And so he brings them out of Egypt, gives them ten miracles,
and on the tenth miracle he brings them, and each of the steps he is
proving himself, and he's saying, trust me, trust me, I'm reliable.

And God has proven, if you've been a Christian for any length of time,
God has proven his reliability, he has proven his faithfulness, he has
proven that he is trustworthy, and therefore we ought to trust him. And
when we worry, we're saying, I don't trust God. When we deal with
people, we have every reason to worry, because people are untrustworthy,
generally.

People are unreliable. We never know whether someone's going to do what
they said they will do. But God is not a man who said it and will not do
it.

God does what he says, so we can trust him, and we can trust him for all
of our needs. And so he says to them, do not worry about your life, what
you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. Life is more
than food, and the body is more than clothing.

It's exactly the same point that he made concerning the rich man and his
barns. The rich man measured his life in the size of his barns and the
amount of wheat that he had stored away. God says, no, your soul is
going to be required.

Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. So we do
need a mind change from the here and now to that which is beyond here
and now. Remember earlier on in the chapter concerning persecution, he
said, don't worry about those who kill the body, but worry about him who
can cast both soul and body into hell.

And so what we see is so important to us, and yet the point that he is
making over and over, whether it's in the issue of persecution, or
whether it's in the issue of the rich man who extends his barns, or
whether it's in his teaching about do not worry, is that there is more
to life than what we can see, and feel, and touch. There is a spiritual
dimension, there is a spiritual aspect to life which is more enduring,
more important. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap,
which have neither storehouse nor barn, and God feeds them.

It's interesting that in the previous section he spoke about the
sparrows. Yet here he is speaking about ravens. Why does he change from
sparrows to ravens? Well, just because he wants to make the story
interesting.

No, there's a reason for that. Ravens, and I think Tatcho and I had a
discussion the other day about the difference. We didn't know the
difference.

I looked up the difference. Ravens are much bigger than crows. There's
differences in the way they fly and so on, but if I saw them I still
wouldn't know the difference.

They're all black birds as far as I'm concerned. And we have millions of
them here, literally millions. And so why does he say ravens or crows? I
think the words are really interchangeable.

The difference between a sparrow and a raven is not the size so much. Of
course there's a big difference in size. But the difference is that a
sparrow is a clean animal, as far as Jewish custom is concerned.

In other words, you can eat a sparrow. A raven is an unclean animal,
because it lives off carrion, it's a scavenger, and so it is unclean.
You can't eat it.

Now what he is saying is that even the unclean animals, God cares for
them. The scavengers. You remember in the Old Testament we came across
the ravens as well, how that they provided food for the prophet Elijah.

And so here we have, I believe that Jesus is making a reference to that.
That's the other reason he's using the story here, because he is
reminding us that not only does he care for the ravens, but he can use
the ravens to care for us. And God used an unclean bird to provide food
for the prophet, and God provides for the ravens.

Now obviously we need to bring a balance here. This does not teach us to
be slothful and lazy. Neither does this passage teach us not to invest
wisely.

Those are things that are dealt with elsewhere in Scripture. The point
of the passage is not to put our trust in those things, but to put our
trust in the Lord. And one of the things I was thinking about in the
night as well is those who have 401ks and investments are putting their
trust in the stock market.

And if anything cannot be trusted, it's the stock market. And yet we
trust the stock market more than we trust the Lord. We need to get our
minds right.

I need to get my mind right. We trust the banks more than we trust the
Lord. So he's not saying don't sow and reap.

He does not rebuke the rich man that we spoke about last week for the
fact that he worked wisely with his land, that he plowed and sowed and
reaped and used the right seed and did all of the right things. He
doesn't rebuke him for that. That was what was required of him.

He was doing his job. He was doing the right thing. But it's because his
confidence was in those things rather than in God.

That his treasure was here on earth rather than in heaven. So this
passage does not teach us to be lazy. It does not teach us to be
slothful when it comes to our finances and to not save.

Look, I've come across Christians who have died unexpectedly—in other
words, young—and left their families in a terrible mess. Because they
said, no, we don't believe in insurance. We don't believe in saving.

We trust God. No, God has called us to make provision for our families
and to work and to provide. And if we do not provide for our families,
he says we are worse than an unbeliever.

So we have a responsibility to do our part, but we need to trust God for
his part. And remember, as in all of these things, there's a bit that I
have to do and there's a bit God has to do. And I'm going to come back
to that in a few moments, so keep that thought in mind.

So consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap. They don't have
storehouses or barns.

In other words, they have no way of making provision for tomorrow. The
squirrel that got flattened out on the road is not going to be there
tomorrow. He's got to find another dead squirrel tomorrow or something
else.

But God feeds them. God feeds them. Remember what he said about the
sparrows.

God cares for the sparrow. Not one falls to the ground without the
Father's involvement and knowledge. And in Matthew, he's without his
will.

Of how much more value are you than the birds? Now, it's just so simple.
Now we spoke about the value, the cost of sparrows. How much value did a
sparrow have? Well, you could get two for one-sixteenth of a penny.

You could get five for two pennies, two-sixteenths. How much you pay for
a raven? Nothing. It has no value as far as money is concerned.

Nobody's going to buy a crow unless, of course, you've taught the thing
to talk. But other than that, nobody's going to pay you for a crow. So
he says, you are of more value than the birds.

You're more value than the crows. You're more value than the sparrows.
And we know the value.

Let me remind you, we spoke about that two weeks ago. What does a man
profit if he gained the whole world and lose his soul? What will a man
give in exchange for his soul? So the whole world does not buy one soul.
And the only price that was worthy that could meet the price of our
souls was the blood of the Lord Jesus.

We are not redeemed with corruptible things of silver and gold, but with
his own precious blood. How can you compare you, or me, with the birds?
We are of more value than the sparrows. We are more value than the
birds.

And so obviously the point is that God, if he cares for the birds, cares
for us. And if he cares, how much does he care for the birds? A hundred
percent. So if he cares for the birds a hundred percent, how much is he
going to care for us? A hundred percent.

Totally, completely. His care for us is not eighty percent or seventy
percent. He fully, totally, completely cares for you, for me, for every
one of our issues.

And so here's the other side of the question of which of you, by
worrying, can add one cubit to his stature? Cubit depends on different
interpretations. It's basically the length from the tip of your elbow to
the tip of your finger. And there's no clear understanding of exactly
how much that is, but it's somewhere between 18 and 22 inches.

So the point is, can you change your height by worrying? And the answer
is obviously no. We can't even do something as simple as that. Many of
us try and change our weight by worrying, and that doesn't even work.

And that's something we have some control over. So he says, if you can't
change the most basic things about yourself, how can you change things
that are outside of your control? By worrying. And if you then are able
to do the least, why are you anxious—not able to do the least—why are
you anxious for the rest? You see, the point he's simply making is
worrying has no value.

It does nothing. It does not work. It doesn't change anything.

You go to bed, and you worry. And you can worry all night, and you can
wake up in the morning, and nothing changed. It's still the way it was
before, unless God intervened.

But God does not—you see, here's the thing—God does not respond to our
worrying. Be anxious for nothing but by prayer and thanksgiving. Prayer
changes things.

Well, God changes things in response to our prayer. Worrying does not
change things. And we think that worrying equals prayer.

Worrying is not prayer. Worrying is when I speak to myself about the
fact that the sky is going to fall on my head. Prayer is when I come to
God in faith, and I tell him the things that I have need of.

But I do it with thanksgiving. Why with thanksgiving? And it's
not—there's a whole bunch of nonsense being taught that you thank God in
anticipation for what he's going to do. Well, I guess there may be some
truth in there, but that's not the point that Paul is making there.

The point he is making is when I thank God, I'm reminding myself of
God's faithfulness. What do I thank him for? Not in anticipation, but I
thank him for all the things he's taken care of in the past. And when I
thank him for that, that generates faithfulness in a way, in a sense.

Because I'm reminding myself as I thank God, and I say, what do I have
to be thankful for? What does the hymn say? Count your blessings, name
them one by one. That's tremendous advice. It's based on Scripture, but
it's not a Bible verse that says, count your blessings, name them one by
one.

But it's very biblical. And so here's the problem, is when it comes to
thanksgiving, we say, well, thank you, Lord, for everything you've done.
No.

Thank him specifically for everything he has done for you yesterday or
today, thus far in your life. Because in the process we're not just
expressing gratitude, but in the process we're reminding ourselves, yes,
God is faithful. He has never failed us.

He has provided up to this point. Hitherto, Ebenezer, hitherto has the
Lord brought us. And if he has brought us thus far, he will see us all
the way through.

And so worrying is not prayer. And here's the challenge. Here's some
practical advice, which I try and live by.

Not always successfully, but I try. Change your worrying to prayer. When
you worry, stop worrying and start praying.

And as I've said, there's a difference. Because prayer can change
things. Worry changes nothing.

In fact, it does change. It gives us ulcers and blood pressure, high
blood pressure, and shortens our life and makes life miserable and robs
us of sleep, robs us of peace. So the only thing that worry does is
negative.

It doesn't help us in any way. But prayer changes things. If you're not
able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? Consider the
lilies or the flowers of the field, how they grow.

They neither toil nor spin. And yet I say to you, even Solomon in all
his glory was not arrayed like one of these. I'm amazed every time on
Sunday afternoons when I go walking in the mountains at the flowers that
grow.

When I first came to California, I looked at the hills and I thought,
well, this is a miserable place. There's nothing here. It's all brown
and dead.

And if you've never bothered to get out of your motor car and to walk in
the mountains or the hills here, you've never seen the magnificence of
God's creation. Right through the year, but especially this time of the
year, what looks just brown and dead and miserable from a distance, when
you start walking, you start seeing these little flowers, and they're
beautiful. Yeah, they're not like the flowers you buy at the flower
market downtown—big things like that.

No, they're often just little, little things. But when you stoop down
and you look at them, you see the beauty. You see the perfection.

You see the magnificent colors and the shape. And in the midst of the
harshest of conditions, no rain for months and months, intense heat.
Many of them grow on the pathway, where you walk, or the fire roads
where the fire trucks ride.

And yet, out of the hardness of that soil comes a little growth and a
little flower. And Jesus is right. Those flowers are more beautiful than
Solomon or any other person who's dressed with the finest of clothes.

You say, well, how, you know, how can a flower be more beautiful than
that? Remember Solomon with all these gold and his purple and the best
clothes that you could get? He was spectacular. Remember Sheba, the
Queen of Sheba, she came, traveled for months and months and months to
actually come and see the spectacle. And I'm saying that in a positive
sense of Solomon.

He was worth traveling to go and see. You see, the difference is that
when you start analyzing Solomon's finery, you start seeing the flaws.
And the closer you look, the more flaws you will find in Solomon or the
most expensive Gucci suit or Armani suit or whatever.

But when you look at that flower, the closer you look at it, not only
don't you find flaws, but it becomes more intricate, more beautiful,
more spectacular. And you can put it under a microscope. And as you look
under a microscope, it just becomes more and more beautiful.

That's the difference. The things of this world look good from far, but
they're far from good. But the things that God has made are perfect in
every way.

If then God so closed the grass, which today is in a field and tomorrow
is thrown into the oven, it's just disposable. How much more will he
close you, O you, of little faith? See the argument going from the small
to the great. God cares for the birds.

Will he not care for you? If God cares for the flowers in the field,
will he not care for you? And then he says, O you of little faith. And I
don't think anyone who's ever read this passage or heard this passage
preached. This applies to everyone who's ever read this passage and
who's ever heard the passage preached, because all of us are of little
faith when it comes to these things.

And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have
an anxious mind. It's just summing up the whole thing. Don't be so
concerned about these things.

For all these things the nations of the world, all the Gentiles, seek
after. And your Father knows that you need these things. I've forgotten
the poem, but there's a poem, maybe you know it.

But the sparrow talking to the fly, was it? But the question was, why do
people worry? Why do humans worry so much? And the answer is because we
have a father, and they don't. Now that's a harsh statement, and yet
that's true. You don't see the birds worrying, because they know they
have a father who cares for them.

We worry because even though we have a father, we almost live as though
we don't have one. And so your father, your father knows that you need
these things. Notice he doesn't say God.

Of course it's God. Of course he has all the power, and he has all the
money, and he has the cattle on a thousand hills. But he's our father.

And if we as fathers, Jesus says elsewhere, he says, if we as human
fathers who are frail and weak know how to give good gifts to our
children, will our heavenly Father not provide for us? But seek the
kingdom of God. Matthew said, seek first the kingdom of God, and all
these things will be added to you. I'm coming back to the point that I
raised earlier.

You see, we have to do our bit, and God does his bit. And that's true in
salvation, and it's true in every area of our lives. The problem is that
we have to figure out what I have to do, and what he does.

And the problem is that when it comes to worrying, we want to do what he
does, while not doing what we should be doing. Now that sounds
confusing. Jesus is saying, your job is to seek the kingdom.

God's job is to provide for you. But we want to do the worrying about
the providing, and we say, well, God, you take care of the kingdom. And
of course, it makes some kind of sense, because we say, well, the
kingdom is God's business, and my financial future is my business.

And that's where as Christians we've got to change our minds. We've got
to get our minds in the right place. No.

Your future is God's business. The kingdom is our business. And when we
do what God has asked us to do—to seek the kingdom—he takes care of the
rest.

But when we do it the other way around, it just doesn't work. Now I know
it's counterintuitive. I know it's not what we as human beings like
to—the way we think about things.

We say, no, no, my job is to worry about the future. No, that's not my
job. My job is to seek the kingdom.

God's job is to provide for tomorrow, and to take care of tomorrow.
We've got to get these things right. And when we do, things work.

Seek the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you.
Now, this is not—I know the prosperity people like this verse. In fact,
I once saw a number plate surround, like a, you know, the thing that
you—the little message, with this verse on it.

The guy was driving an expensive German motor car. So what he was saying
is, I sought the kingdom, and God gave me the German car. That's not
what this verse says.

What will be added to you? All these things. What are these things? Food
and clothing. Says nothing about Maseratis, or BMWs, or Mercedes-Benzes,
or whatever Carroll's buying.

You cannot use this verse and say, well, I'm seeking the kingdom of God,
therefore God's going to make me rich. This has got nothing to do with
being rich. It has nothing to do with fancy motor cars, or fancy
anything.

It has to do with the basics of life. Now, I understand that we live in
a slightly different time, and I want to just contextualize this a
little bit. Because today, because of the environment in which we live,
our needs go a little beyond just food and clothing.

We need somewhere to stay as well. Those days it wasn't—it was just
different. You could, you know, you could build yourself, you know, a
shack somewhere.

It really wasn't—it wasn't a problem as it is for us today. And so I
believe that he does provide for us somewhere to stay. He does provide
food.

He does provide clothing. And yes, by his grace he gives us luxuries as
well. He doesn't have to.

It's not part of this deal here, but it's part of his goodness and his
grace. But we've got to get the priorities right. Now, the same way as I
didn't ask who has a problem with worrying, because I know—I'm not going
to ask how many of us lie awake at night seeking the kingdom of God.

Because the answer is going to be very few. And yet you can see in that
the problem. We lie awake at night, and I know not everybody worries at
night, but some of us do.

And we worry about these things, and we don't give the kingdom a second
thought. And yet he says, no, you've got to get it the other way around.
When we wake up at night, let's seek the kingdom of God.

And remember, we spoke about that in the context of the Lord's prayer.
Your kingdom come. I need to have this kingdom come in my life first.

It needs to come in my family. It needs to come in our church. It needs
to come into our society.

That's what we should be chasing after. That's what we should be looking
for. And folk, I believe with all my heart, and I believe based on my
experience of having lived this Christian life, that this is true.

And there are others here this morning who can testify to the truth of
this, that when we put God first—and I'm not just talking about putting
God first in terms of your giving. We're going to come to that. But when
we put God first in our thoughts, when we put God first in our energies,
in our devotion, in our drive, in our ambitions, he takes care of the
rest.

He does. He is no man's debtor, to use a phrase which is overused. Seek
him first.

Seek his kingdom first. Put God first, and everything else will be
sorted out. He'll sort those things out.

All right, verse 32, we're almost through. Do not fear, little flock,
for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Precious
verse.

Do not fear, little flock. Now remember, a verse or two before, he
said—three verses—hang on, where is it? No, I lost it. O ye of little
faith.

Here he says, do not fear, little flock. In other words, he knows we're
weak. He knows that we may not be big in number, we may not be big in
faith.

And even though we're just a little flock, and he's not meaning this
church. He's meaning his church in general. There are on that narrow
way.

But he says, don't fear. It is your father's good pleasure to give you
the kingdom. So what is he saying? He's saying, you're worrying about
food and clothing when, in fact, the father wants to give you the
kingdom.

In other words, he says, how foolish to worry food when, in fact, he's
got the kingdom for you. What does the kingdom entail? All of God's
glory, all of his majesty, all of his riches. And yet we want to settle
for something so small as material things, when he has something far
greater for us—a kingdom that endures forever.

Sell what you have and give alms. Provide yourselves money bags which do
not grow old, treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief
approaches nor moth destroys. Now, as I said in the introduction, this
is not saying that we don't save, or that we should give all our money
away, unless God asks you to do that.

And there are times when God does ask people to do that. But generally,
he doesn't ask us to do that. But he's speaking about priorities.

Where is your emphasis? Is your emphasis on building up treasures? And
remember, it's against the background of the guy who built the bigger
barns. Are you laying up treasures here on earth? Is this your focus? Is
this your emphasis? Or is your emphasis on making an investment in
heaven? We spoke about that last week, I think. It's foolish to put
money into an account that's going to lose your money.

To give your money to the guy who walks down the street and says, well,
you know, give me your money and I'll, you know, give you a good return.
We get those solicitations on the internet all the time. Well, that's
stupid.

And yet we invest our life in this earth, where thieves break in and
steal, and moss corrupts, and where at the end of the day, everything
will be burnt with fervent heat, rather than putting our investment in
heaven. Millions of words are being written every day about the best
investments that will give you the best return and be the most secure.
And we know that as far as investments are concerned, there's always
this balance between risk and return.

The higher the return, the higher the risk. The lower the risk, the
lower the return. But there is one investment that breaks that rule, and
that is the investment in heaven, because it gives the highest return
with the highest security.

The stock exchange may crash, but heaven will never crash. And whatever
you make on the stock exchange will one day disappear when Jesus
consumes this world and makes a new heaven and new earth. But whatever
you've invested in heaven will endure and will last forever.

Folks, we need to make the right investments. Yes, if you sit down and
you say, well, I'm going to put so much in this and so much in that and
so much in that, there needs to be a right amount. And I'm not just
talking about money.

I'm talking about energy. I'm talking about effort. I'm talking about
time.

I need to put the right amount in heaven so that I have some eternal
investment once all of these things fail. And so are our priorities
right? And I suppose there's many things that we've said this morning,
but if I can leave you this one thing before we deal with the last
verse. Are your priorities straight? You see, here's the point.

Why is this part of this whole issue of worrying? Because the things I
worry about define or are an expression of my priorities. We have a
hosepipe that—or a hose that lies outside. I have never woken up at
night worrying about that hose.

Somebody's going to steal it. The squirrel's going to eat it. It never
crosses my mind.

Why? Because it doesn't matter. It's of no consequence. And yet we lie
awake about equally trivial things when we compare those things to
eternity.

We need to get our—you see, because we can say, well, I must stop
worrying. No, that's not the answer. I must get my priorities right.

And if you lie awake at worrying at night about your hosepipe outside,
well, you need to get your mind right. And if you worry about material
things, as I do, we need to get our minds right. We need to get our
priorities straight and say, these things don't matter.

It's eternity that matters. Because where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also. Where your treasure is.

You see, this has got nothing to do with the size of your money or your
investments or the size or amount of money you've got or the amount of
whatever stuff you've got. It's simply where your treasures are. We
spoke about inheritances last week.

We spoke about people who fight about the smallest little thing like a
sofa or a beat-up old ring. You see, it's not the value of the thing.
It's the value we attach to those things that makes the difference.

You say, well, what's a sofa? You can go buy a new one for six, seven
hundred bucks, I'm sure. But we put some value to that thing, and it
becomes the thing that drives us and motivates us. And we put our value
and our treasure here on this earth, and it draws our hearts to it, to
this earth.

But when our treasure is in heaven, when we understand that these things
are temporary, they fade away, it'll all be consumed with fervent heat.
And when I die, it's all going to be left behind. But what is in
eternity is lasting forever.

When I get that right, my heart will be in the right place. My heart
will be in heaven instead of here on the earth. But I've said nothing
this morning that is earth-shattering.

It's all very basic. And I think that very few of you are going to go
home having learned something you didn't know before. So what's the
point? The point is we know what we should be doing.

We just need to do it. Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you
for your care, Lord, that you care for us.

Lord, that your care for us was demonstrated by Jesus dying in our place
upon that cross of Calvary. And if he died for us, Lord, we know that he
will care for us, and he will take care of the things that we worry
about. So Lord, we pray that you'd help us to get our hearts right, to
get our minds right, to set our affections on things above and not on
things here on this earth.

And Lord, I pray for each one of us, Lord, because we do worry. And
Lord, some of us are consumed by worry and anxiety. Lord, I pray that
you'd help us in our weak faith.

Lord, we pray that you'd help us to understand your goodness, your
faithfulness, your dependability, the fact that you're reliable and that
even when we are faithless, you are still faithful. Lord, help us to get
these things right because they are at the very heart of our
relationship with you. Lord, many of us can't serve you because we're so
anxious about earthly things.

And Lord, there are others who don't serve you because they're chasing
after earthly things. But Lord, help us to seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness. Father, as we come to the Lord's Supper, to the
table this morning, we thank you that part of the reason that we are
called to come to the Lord's table and to remember him is to remind us
that it's not about earthly things, but it's about heavenly things.

That Lord, you remind us again that Jesus said, I will not drink of the
fruit of the vine until I do so new in my Father's kingdom. And Lord,
while we look back at what Jesus did for us 2,000 years ago, we're
constantly being reminded that he's coming again and that one of these
days we will sit down with him around that banqueting table at the
marriage feast of the Lamb. And so, Lord, we pray that as we partake of
the bread and of the wine this morning, Lord, that it would cause us to
look beyond our material things and to enter into the spiritual realm.

We pray this in Jesus' name. And so, Lord, we pray for your presence as
we come to your table. We pray for those who leave us now, Lord, that
you would go with them, keep them, and protect them, and bless them.

And Lord, be very real to us and reveal yourself to us in the breaking
of the bread. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/NC-irmFl6O0.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/anton-bosch/in-god-we-trust/
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