The End Bye! Welcome to the second service of Phoenix United Reformed Church. Don't lose sight, those who are gathered here, of the blessing that you enjoy that many people covet this morning. It's wonderful that we can be here, that we can worship and assist those who are watching from home in their worship. I do want to address those who are watching from home. It's a challenge. Make the most of it. The Lord will bless it. And may all of us sing out all the more as we're in an adverse situation, and yet one that God blesses us in. In these extraordinary times, we should expect extraordinary blessing from the Lord. And so let's give God his praise, beginning with 122A. 122A, I was filled with joy and gladness. ♪ Let us join in the dance ♪ ♪ In this sacred ball of ours ♪ ♪ Let us sing our proud rhapsody ♪ ♪ To the bells of Montgomery ♪ ♪ Monta Rosa, Monta Rosa ♪ ♪ We are standing on your feet ♪ ♪ We are standing on your feet ♪ ♪ Visible some on these high ♪ ♪ Hark! The herald angels sing ♪ ♪ Thank the Lord in praise combined ♪ ♪ Horns of David, thrones of Mary ♪ ♪ Ever for us to stand ♪ Peace and safety, peace and safety, in Jerusalem above. For the Lord's house, for the Lord's house, I will ever see. Receive the Lord's call to worship. Through Christ, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. And we can do so because he greets us. Receive his greeting to you. Grace you in peace from God our Father, from our risen Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ, in the fellowship and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Brothers and sisters, let's confess our faith together using the words of the Apostles' Creed. What do you believe? I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. The third day, he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From there, he shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. Let's continue to praise God together, this time with number 255, day by day and with each passing moment. 255. Free my mind to keep my trials near. Trusting in my Father's heart and soul, All of us here will be well-fulfilled. He who sought this life beyond all measure, Knows unto each day what he has done. Every day the Lord himself is near thee, with a splash of mercy for each hour. The protection of his child in treasure is a charge that on himself he laid. As your days, O strange, shall be in pleasure, is a pledge ♪ So to trust your promises, O Lord ♪ ♪ That I could find peace and consolation ♪ ♪ Offered me within your holy grave ♪ ♪ Holy Lord, return from your beating ♪ ♪ Here to take us from all others' end ♪ I'm It's a wonder to think that though we are lacking in body, many of those that we wish to gather with, yet no doubt they are praying with us all this day. And then think of the whole church praying around the world this day. We think of all of those who are sick or those who are battling physical illness in physical ways, but then think of the myriad saints of God who serve with you today. Let's go before God in prayer and join them. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the strong power that sits at your right hand, even Christ, our righteous Savior. It is through him that we approach you to ask all that we need and all which you desire. Lord, our God, we wish first to acknowledge that you are worthy of all worship, you're unchanging, and all of your perfect attributes, all of your good characteristics which are revealed to us in creation and in the Word, and above all, in the incarnation of your Son. Heavenly Father, we thank you that we have access to you, that you have come to know us, that your Holy Spirit continues to work in your people. We thank you for the assurances of Scripture that in spite of all of the variation in this life, you remain the same. There's no shadow of turning with you. And we ask that you would apply this comfort to all of your people, and that you would draw to yourself many who have not yet known you, that by your spirit and your word, through the witness of your church, you would continually add to the number of those who trust in Christ. Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you for the daily bread that you continue to sustain us with. We ask, Lord, we seek, because you've taught us to, that you would provide for the things of this day as well, not only for ourselves, but even as the prayer says, our daily bread, we think of those to whom these things have not yet been secured. We ask, Father, that you would please continue to provide all the week, not only for your church, but in many cases through your church to many outside for your praise. Lord, we ask for your wisdom and direction in all the things of life, but especially the events surrounding us right now with the coronavirus and all of the complications that it adds to worldly life. Father, please be with your people. You know those who, humanly speaking, are at greatest risk. We ask that you'd preserve us in body. Likewise, that you would be with those who labor to fight illness, and then all of the ensuing difficulties that come to meet the needs of others who are sick or injured because of the strain upon our infrastructures here and throughout the world. Oh God, please sustain by your grace these things in the world. We ask Lord for your mercy upon our congregation. There are some even now who are sick, and we ask Father that you would please draw near to them, heal their body, use these events in your way to quicken their spiritual life and draw them nearer to you. And all of your people, Lord, we ask that you would use these events to help us to count our days, to recognize that we stand ultimately before you as creatures called to immortality. Lord God, we ask your blessing upon The Haussler family in particular, as Mr. Haussler labors on a team assisting those who have the coronavirus. So he's made especially susceptible and he seeks our prayer, not only for himself, but for his whole family and his children. Heavenly Father, please providentially preserve him from having or spreading the sickness. Lord, we thank you for the degree of civil order that we have in this state and in this country, and we ask that you would please preserve it, that you cause there to be a righteous fear of civil law, that there would not be disorder, theft, or any taking advantage of these things. God, only you can cause the neighbor's heart to turn to another, and we ask that you would please cause your church to be a light in this time. We ask that you grant wisdom to those who are civil leaders, that they would make wise judgments and be able to steer your people and all people properly. In the midst of these things, Father, we pray for you to be glorified as you continue to cause your worship to be preserved in the world. We ask, God, in whatever measure possible, that you would please soon lead us back into greater gatherings, not only here but throughout the world. We long to be among your people to serve one another. Lord, we ask these things in Jesus' perfect name. And all God's people pray, amen. At this time, the deacons will come forward to receive the offering. The offering is for the general fund and for those who are at home. If you wish to give, you can do so by mailing it to the church. You can find information on our website. Even as they do so, I invite you to turn in your hymnals. to Psalm 16a, to a psalm, and notice that we're going to sing not all of the stanzas, but 1, 3, 4, and 5. And it will be immediately apparent how this is appropriate, but especially as it focuses on preparing us for the word. Psalm 16a, 1, 3, 4, and 5. O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, His love so kind, so kind, the Lord himself speaketh, I told what joy we'll see, but I did not hear. to see our troops decay. Life's path for you we know, the joy of God bestowed is found with you at your right hand, our virtues have developed. I invite you to go ahead and turn in God's word to the gospel of Luke, to the book of Luke, to chapter 12. Luke chapter 12 concerns a parable about a man who made preparations for the future. And understandably, then it came to mind this week as I was preparing. How do we do that? What does God call us to? And like most of us, I imagine, I was struck when I went to the store this past week and saw the evidence of preparations in play. I actually didn't go to the store at all in the past two weeks until just this Wednesday. I was struck when I saw all of the rows and rows of empty aisles, took note of what was empty, but what has stuck with me even more than that was something that I saw when I was at the store. I came around to the section where the baked desserts were and I saw a woman pick up a shortcake and weigh it for what seemed like a very long moment and then put it back and went into the area with the staple items, things like butter and milk, eggs. And it occurred to me both how human and in some ways how humorous it is that we are all like that person. We have these desires that would be immediately gratifying, but circumstances like this in life, times of scarcity, force us to reconsider what our priorities are. They force us to ask how we are to prepare for the future. And this is a practical question of wisdom, but it's also a spiritual question. And we're going to see in this passage in Luke chapter 12 that Jesus is teaching his disciples and the Holy Spirit is teaching you today how to think about preparation for your future. So let's hear the word of God beginning at verse 13. Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But he said to him, man, who made me a judge or arbiter over you? And he said to them, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And he told them a parable saying, the land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. And he said, I will do this, I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. Let's ask God's blessing upon the sermon. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the privilege of being able to gather it up and to store it. We ask that you would cause it to be profitable in us and through us. May you be praised in all things. May you be honored. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Calling someone a fool is one of the most severe expressions that you can find in the Bible to speak with disapproval towards someone. In the world of the first century, of Jews at the time of Jesus, in the language of the prophets and of the book of Proverbs, a fool isn't just somebody who is silly. It's not just someone who's short-sighted, but it's someone who is characterized by fleshly, by worldly or evil thinking. So this is a very weighty thing that God is saying about the person in the parable. And perhaps even more than that, Ordinarily speaking, people who are characterized by foolishness are understood to be outside of the kingdom. And so as we hear a passage like this, we have to understand that Jesus is issuing a warning that we are to take to heart, that we are to seriously consider, not just about this fictional character in a parable, but about ourselves. Now it is noteworthy that the man in the parable probably seemed very wise, at least at first, to those who are hearing the story. Remember that in the first century, most people work in agriculture and most people are subsistence farmers. They live from season to season on what they have, and they rarely have more beyond that. But in the parable, God grants this man a huge bumper crop. He has this big surplus for this season, and then notice how shrewd his plans would have seemed. Verse 18, and he said, I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. Now, doing so presents several advantages to the man. You might wonder, why doesn't he just build more barns alongside of the original ones? Why go through the labor of tearing down the first and building these other barns in the same place? But you have to think like a farmer. By tearing down at the site of the original barn and rebuilding larger, he's preserving arable land. He's not using up land to hold more and more barns. He's putting a bigger barn on the same land. So as he has more arable land, he can keep growing on that land and use up less space. But also he can use some of the material from his old barn and invest that into the new structure. This man is shrewd. This man is thinking about his future, how to conserve, how to save, how to have everything that he needs for many years to come. And yet God pronounces over this man a judgment. The Lord calls him a fool. And why does the Lord do that? Now, I want to be clear, it's not because storing up a surplus of earthly supplies is, in itself, wrong. That is not the issue. Storing up earthly supplies is not the problem. Compare this, for instance, with the book of Proverbs, chapter 6, verse 6, where it says, Go to the aunt of Sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise, without having any chief officer or ruler She prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. The Bible praises the ant on account of the fact that it does gather up the needs of this life. It goes out in the summer season, per se, and gathers what it needs to weather the winter season. Putting this into a human context, it's not specifically summer versus winter. It's the summers of life, when there's plenty, when there's a surplus. And it speaks of putting away for that time when there is need. The Bible is filled with examples of godly people having more on hand than they presently need for themselves. Take, for instance, Proverbs chapter 13, verse 22. A good man lays up an inheritance for his children. This presupposes that he or a godly woman have been putting away for a time so that they can provide for others. So the issue at stake in Jesus' parable here is not about simply having an excess of earthly supplies. That's not the problem. What then is Christ teaching us? He's teaching you to discern between a wise or spiritual way of preparation and a foolish or a fleshly way of preparation. And that's what we're going to see in this passage, and we're going to look at it under three main headings. And the first is this. First, you need to recognize a reason, the first reason why this man, the man in the parable, why his preparations are foolish. And it's this, this is the first reason. Because he mistook the purpose of an earthly surplus. He mistook the purpose of an earthly surplus. Look with me at verse 19. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry. It's by design that Jesus says nothing about his children, says nothing about any thought of his family, his community. Remember again, these are people surrounding him who would have heard this parable, heard Jesus, who live in a subsistence culture. Scarcity is a very real thing, and yet the man doesn't speak about that at all. He treats the surplus that God poured out upon his field as though it exists primarily or exclusively for his own pleasure or his own future provision. Jesus then summarizes this in verse 21. He says, so is the one who lays up treasure for himself. That's what's driving the building of the barn. It's for himself. Now there is no escaping a fact in the world. God has chosen in his inscrutable wisdom not to equally distribute to all people. You can't get around it. And it's easy to push that off as that's just the falling condition that we are in. but God has chosen to not distribute equally to all people. But the scripture teaches us that he doesn't do so simply so that some would have and some would have not, but rather it creates a providential opportunity and in some ways, providential tests for all of us. Think of the person whom God causes to receive more than they need for themselves. This is a providential test and a providential opportunity. To see oneself rightly as a steward of God, as an image bearer of the generous God, the merciful God. Conversely, the person who has lack has been placed in a position where they are brought to trust. brought to trust that God is merciful to them to seek what they need from their neighbor, but as from the Lord, and that requires humility. If any one of us has lack, then we are to expect and to seek from God that he will provide for us. Now, all caveats aside, we know that scripture speaks about those who will not work, are not worthy to eat. We're speaking here of those who have an abundance and those who have a genuine need that they cannot provide. Compare this teaching to that of the Apostle. In fact, turn with me to 1 Corinthians 9 and see the teaching of the Apostle Paul as he expresses this idea. 1 Corinthians 9, Paul is teaching a young Christian church, early converts in Corinth, about the purpose for which God sends us a surplus. 1 Corinthians chapter 9, Now the context of this passage is that over in Judea, the Jewish Christians are experiencing a famine. And now Paul's writing to Corinth, a Greek and Roman city, about how they can meet that need. Verse seven, each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, Remember, if you're an image-bearer of God, God is not compulsed to give to us. To truly bear his image, we have to do so willingly, voluntarily, with love. He says, each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work." Now, the promise of this passage is not great wealth. It is all sufficiency, enough to go on in godliness and life. But notice the purpose. There's an end to this. The means is that he gives all grace, but the end is that you may abound in every good work. Because in doing this, you come to bear and reflect God's own image. The Lord's image is described in verse 9. As it's written, God has distributed freely. He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. And the Lord doesn't ask the believing person to do this in such a way that they then expect to go without if they give according to their abundance generously. But look at the promise. And I urge you, take the promise to heart in verse nine. It's something that you are to receive by faith. Rather, verse 10, it says, God who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. And that's exactly what the man in the parable had no eye to. He's so fixated on the temporal harvest that he's completely forgotten about the spiritual harvest, the harvest of righteousness. He's got this full barn, but he's completely barren of the virtue that God desires to see in every one of his servants. And so this is the first aspect of foolishness that Jesus is getting at here, a kind of preparation that sees it as principally or primarily for yourself. But that is not the only problem with this man's preparations. There's a second. reason why this man's preparations are called foolish by God. And this is our second main heading. The second reason why the rich man is called a fool in this passage is because he accounted only for the pleasures and the problems of this temporal life. All of his preparation was focused on here, focused on now, focused on his fleshly appetites. Think back for a moment to the ant. We saw Proverbs 6, verse 6 praises the wisdom of the ant. Think about ants for a moment. In what way are you like an ant, and in what ways are you not like an ant? So far as we know, ants do not have the kind of spiritual life that we enjoy. They were not created for everlasting personal communion with God. From that vantage, it shouldn't surprise us. Ants don't go into the world seeking some kind of spiritual relationship with the Lord, at least that we can see. Instead, they invest all of their time, all of their energy, gathering up, as it says in Proverbs, bread for the harvest. Actual physical molecules that they will then consume, either themselves or their colony. That's the ant. But it would be a mistake, it'd be foolish to think that what the Bible is praising is the fact that the ant only gathers earthly things. The wisdom of the ant that the Bible praises and calls you to emulate is that the ant goes out and gathers in good season the kinds of things that are necessary to its appointed life. God has given the ant a kind of life and it gathers what is appropriate to its kind of life. What kind of life has God created you for? Is it only a physical life? Is it only a life of this age? Is it primarily about this present age that your life consists in? Listen to the man as he speaks to himself in verse 19. I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, and be merry. There's something telling here. It's not the word speaking this to the man, it's his own soul, and really it's his fleshly appetite. If I ask you, what are you created for and in what does your life consist? It's very natural to go back by default to our theological, our memorized answers. But our inner dialogue is very telling, just as this man is saying to his own soul, And you have to keep an eye on what is your inner dialogue. What are you telling yourself day after day that you really need? I need to go out for this and I need that. And perhaps another way to put this is what are you not saying to your soul you need in order to have genuine joy, not just merriment? Look at chapter 12, verse 15. Jesus speaking there in verse 15. And he tells the brothers who are arguing over an inheritance, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. The abundance of his possessions. It's so easy to take that as though Jesus is speaking primarily about things like nice clothing, a fine house, jewelry, An expensive vehicle, the latest device. But when he says that life does not consist in the abundance of possessions, in the context of this parable, he's talking an abundance of life's staples as well. In fact, probably primarily, those things that we consider essential to life that reflect our bodily, our natural needs, air, water, food. And you see this in verse 22. He applies it that way. He says to his disciples, therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you'll put on. The reason for this is simple. Your life, your true life as a human being consists primarily in knowing God and in being reconciled to him and being prepared at any moment to face him in death. And that is what this man was not preparing for. He wasn't giving thought to the fact that sooner or later we must all go before God and we are reconciled to him or we are not. And there's a harvest of righteousness or there is not. And the Word of God is given to point us and to prepare us for that eventuality. When we meet Him, what we bring to that will be the harvest of what we have gained from the Word and what we believed by faith and acted on in this life. I imagine for all of us, but perhaps not for you, that we're familiar with another passage. I don't ask you to turn there, but think about the words. So familiar, but so essential. Matthew chapter four, verse four. Jesus says, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. There's a beautiful passage in Augustine's commentary on Proverbs. where he applies Matthew chapter 4 to what it says about the ant. The ant goes out for the bread, probably speaking of a harvester ant that goes actually for grain. But then he speaks about how the Christian lives by every word that comes from God. That is our true bread. And when you think about the sacraments as well and how they speak to us literally by bread of Christ's death and resurrection and ascension for us. And he speaks about how the Christian then individually, but also as a community, a whole colony, we go out in the summer seasons to gather up the bread and to store it away for when we don't have access, the winter times of life. In some ways, people are experiencing a winter season right now. They have limited access to gather as we are doing. And they may not have any access to the preaching of the word because of sickness. They may be in a hospital somewhere. Or they simply have not even known about the gospel, really. And so here they are, they're quarantined in their home, they have limited access to even get the things that they need. It is so essential then, part of our wisdom that we're called to through this parable, is store up the word while you can. Store up the word while you can, because you don't know when the winter season will come in this respect. But we're always tempted to prioritize that which is temporal, that which is physical. And that's especially the case in times of prosperity and times of scarcity. We just forget the spiritual in those times. And so this parable expresses the foolishness of preparing only for this life. Then that brings us to our third key idea here. In showing us our need of the Word and showing us our need to prepare spiritually, Jesus' parable also points us to himself. It shows us the way that he is not only wise, but he has prepared for those who look to him in faith. I want you to understand that. Think back to a few weeks ago, I think most of you were actually present, when we went to look at a passage in Proverbs. And we reviewed some principles for interpreting Proverbs. I wonder if you remember any of those. We saw first that whatever the book of Proverbs says about the fool, what does it really speak about? It speaks about ourselves. First and foremost, whatever it says about the fool, it's speaking about who we are by nature apart from grace, so that we'd see that we need pardon, so that we'd see that we need renewal. And so this passage, as Jesus speaks about the fool, in a way speaks of all of us. But we also saw that Proverbs speaks about Jesus. Whatever it speaks about the wise or the righteous, foremost we should understand is speaking about our Savior, telling us something about the provisions that we have in Him. Well then, whatever Proverbs chapter 6, verse 6 says about the ant, ultimately it is saying about Jesus. Where did the ants get this wisdom from? The book of Colossians tells us that everything that was made was made and is held in being by Christ. God the Father sent forth his word to create, who created by the Spirit. And the ants, in their own way, they draw that wisdom from the Lord Jesus Christ. Which means that the wisdom they have dwells in him preeminently. Think then about how he prepares. Jesus has gone out, the scriptures say, at the appointed season. He's gone into the world to gather what was necessary, but he doesn't go for himself. Think about the ant. The ant doesn't stay back at the colony as soon as it's gathered some bread and is full. The ant serves the colony as much as it serves itself. And Christ goes out for his colony, so to speak. He goes out for the church. He goes out for you. He goes out in order to gather what is necessary to our life. To those who looked at Jesus at the time who did not understand or did not believe that he was God, his way of preparing probably looked very foolish. And sometimes when we live as Christians, what we do does seem foolish. Aspects of our preparation seems foolish. But think about all the things that Jesus chose to forego in order to prepare for us a perfect, sympathetic high priest, a perfect sacrifice. He bypassed so much of the pleasure of this world. He walked right past, in his case, marriage, children. He goes right past physical well-being, political security, wealth. And he's doing that not for his own sake. He's doing that for our sake. Hebrews 4, verse 15 makes that very clear. He was becoming for us a perfect high priest. Put that in context for a moment. You and I, this is what stuck with me about that grocery store. You and I, we are always getting hung up on that shortcake. That is what we think that we really need right now. We're not thinking about the eternal all the time. And if we are, that's only as a byproduct of having received and having had the word form in us, a new mentality. Christ walks right past that shortcake, and he goes for the one thing that matters, which is our salvation. In order to procure that for you, he must die on the cross, and he must be raised again, and he must ascend. And he's not doing any of these things simply for himself. He's doing it for his people. But then hear what Jesus says in John chapter 14. Jesus is explaining to his disciples the significance of his death and resurrection and ascension. He says, I go to prepare a place for you and I will come again and I will take you to myself that where I am you may be also. Christ goes to the cross and in a sense he tears down the old barn and in his resurrection he raises up something much bigger than you can possibly fathom, full of the grace of God. The abundance, the infinite supply of the Holy Spirit that he possesses, which has already gone out to every believer as a first payment, so to speak, a seal, and which for eternity will be measured to you. All the blessings you're ever going to enjoy or ever have enjoyed have been mediated to you through Christ and the preparations which he makes from eternity and then in time for you. And so this parable, although it relates to us and our need of salvation, is ultimately pointing you to someone else, pointing you to Christ and his sufficiency. And we need to see this so that we don't simply treat it as something to whip ourselves with, though there is an appropriate place, as we've been seeing, to ask, am I walking in the way that God desires? But it points us to Christ so that we act out of that faith in the way that he desires, knowing that he is trustworthy. Knowing that he does care for us, he will provide what we need. Look at verse 24 of Luke chapter 12. Jesus says, consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouse nor barn. And yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? Jesus isn't teaching us to be like the birds and not preparing. The birds don't have hands, they can't wield a hammer, they can't build a barn, they can't thresh a field. The Bible teaches us to do in faith what is in our means to do, but to depend on God for that which we cannot do. And as it relates to your salvation, you can't do a thing. And so he teaches you to look to him. So then as we conclude, I want simply to do this. I want you to try to apply some of these principles to yourself. In the first place, receive, take to heart really the warning given in this passage. If in any respect the Spirit convicts you that you have been foolish, then seek cleansing in Christ, seek pardon, seek renewal. If God forbid you know that you are characterized by this gripping of the world as the predominant force in your heart, Know that you don't want to go into eternity not bearing the fruits of genuine repentance and faith. Ask God to change you. He promises you look to him, not only to give forgiveness, but also to give transformation. Doubtless, God is using these events throughout the whole world to expose and to open people to just how dominant our fleshly thinking is. How little we believe. I noticed a passage in one commentator written a long time ago, certainly not trying to reflect on these circumstances, but he said, how little any one of us really believes the things that Jesus says in Luke 12 about not worrying at all about the things of this life. It exposes that in order that we would look to the Lord. You see this in the way that many people right now are out of fear stockpiling potatoes. Not that that's wrong in and of itself to have what you need, but that they show so much interest to stockpile those things while hoarding nothing of the desire for God's honor. How they can go out and try to scrape up all these things and yet leave the scriptures sitting. and neglected, and it tells us, it teaches us something about ourselves. By contrast, receive the word of God in 2 Timothy 1-7. God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of self-control. And I encourage you, body of Christ, whether you're seated in this room, whether you're at home, Phoenix United Reformed Church, Christians everywhere, Imagine how differently it will look or does look in your immediate community when you act on these principles. And I praise God, I've seen and heard throughout the week how, in many cases, our community does look different because people are acting on the right principles of preparation. Not just seeing, I've got all these things and I'm not telling anyone what I have, but calling others and saying, do you have need? And we need to continue to be that way, not only towards Christians, but towards those who are outside that God has placed in our lives. Hear this last verse from a passage we already saw, 2 Corinthians 9, but verse 11. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. That is why God gives us a surplus of anything, to care. Verse 20 of Luke 12, I leave you with a question. The things that you have prepared, whose will they be? If you have been rich toward God in seeing yourself as a steward, then they will be yours in the age to come. The Lord will not be made a debtor to you. That reward will be given in Christ's time. Let's go before God in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the word and how through it you nourish us. We ask that you would help us to receive and to act in faith upon what you revealed. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's respond to the word together with a hymn with number 416. Your hand, O God, has guided. 416. Faithfulness is written on this day's open page. Our fathers' own joy, love, and grace can be their keepsake. Lord, they go to this fervent task once to time. This summer, men and women, to share the great teachings. And this was all their teaching, in every good and good. Through all the life of many, one church, one faith, with your right hand to help us, the victory shall be won. Let that fire of love in your face shall be put out, and this shall be your final march to triumph. Receive God's parting blessing to you from 2 Corinthians 9, verse 11. God enrich you in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. Amen. Let's close with 568, the doxology. ♪ Praise the risen and Holy Ghost ♪ ♪ Amen ♪