You are listening to the preaching ministry of Faith Baptist Church. All right. Well, it's good to be here. It's a blessing to be with you. And I always enjoy coming to a Faith Baptist Church gathering because to me it is just... You can't have me preach without having me cry, can you? One time I had one shot and I couldn't pull it off. It's just a taste of heaven. Make sure that you know the Lord. If there's anyone here that doesn't know the Lord as Savior, make sure you resolve that very soon, because Jesus could come back very soon, and I want you to be a part of the Faith Baptist reunions that we're gonna have every year in the new creation. We need to have a loud speaker. We need to have Brother Chris make the announcements. We need to play basketball. and there needs to be good food. But I'm not too worried about that. But it is good to be with you. It is a taste of heaven. And greetings from Brookdale Baptist Church also in Minnesota. I'm thankful for what God is doing there. I'm still waiting for someone to actually come and visit us from here. So make sure you put that on your bucket list and get up there. If you like snow, come up one half of the year. If you don't like snow, come up that other month of the year. But we would love to have you up there and that would be a blessing. Well, today I have a simple but challenging task, and that is to talk about God's provision. Every word of the Bible is God's provision, and we don't have time to talk about all of those words, but we're going to do our best to cover the topic and remind us about the goodness of God in our lives. I'm going to try to do very little of telling personal stories and do as much as I can to remind you about what the Bible says about the generosity of God. and hopefully many personal stories of your own will come to mind. To begin with, the word provide simply means to make available for use. To make available for use. Additionally, it means to make available for use something that we need. And so in that definition, we see that generosity, provision, is this matter of making things available to use things that the other party needs. Do you need anything today? Do you have any needs? A proper understanding of being a human being is to understand that I am entirely and completely needy in every way. I am not sufficient to do anything, to be anything by myself. I am created to depend upon provision. And so as we talk about this topic today, we are to be reminded that not only is God one who provides, but we are ones who need God to provide. And we need to make sure that we accept we are entirely needy for Him to provide. It's not that we can take care of certain parts of our lives and then we need Him to fill in the cracks. We need Him for everything. Before we go any farther, let's pray and ask Him to be providing what we need through this message today. Heavenly Father, Give us day by day our daily bread. Give us all that we need for life and godliness. Today I pray that you'll feed us from your word. Use the simplicity of your word to teach us, to remind us, to challenge us, to depend upon you for everything, and to find in you everything that we need. We pray this in your name. Amen. First of all, God is generous by nature. This is who God is. He is generous. In scripture we see that God is generous by nature. Some of us are more generous than others, right? Some of us are more givers, some of us are more takers by nature, and sometimes that changes as we go through life. Some of us are more needy in certain ways than others are, and we depend upon each other. This is a thing we do in New York City living, right? We depend upon each other for things. We work together. Community is very important because none of us can make it by ourselves in a place like New York City. God, though, is not just generous or a little more generous than us. He is completely generous. It is who he is. By nature, he wants to provide. According to Matthew 7 verse 11, we see that God enjoys giving. He enjoys giving and is more generous than any human father. Matthew 7 11 says, If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more, then, will your heavenly Father give good things to you? If you're a father, you know what it's like to give your kid a new pair of shoes or a new watch or that computer game system, whatever it is that they like that you know is going to make them happy and say, wow, Dad thought about me today. Dad loves me. You know what that feeling is like. You know what that's like to do that. God is like that times infinity. That is just a small drop from the ocean of God's feelings of generosity. God loves to give good gifts. And today, just be reminded, if you have the view of God today that he is stingy, that he must be impressed, that you have to somehow earn and squeeze and Sometimes even our prayer lives are like this. We think that if we just pray hard enough, remember enough Bible verses, quote enough promises, word perfect, by memory, we can impress and persuade God to maybe give us something good. No, God, he's just waiting for us to know we need him. He is so overflowing in his desire to give. He's like the river that is being held back by the Hoover Dam. If you just remove it, you'll find out how good God really is. He does not need to be persuaded more than any earthly father. We see this from the very beginning in Genesis chapter two. God creates the world, then he creates people, and then what does he do? He looks at the people that he's made and he provides for them. in an amazing way. Genesis chapter 2, it says this, the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. So Eden was the large region of the world, and somewhere in that region he made a special garden. The garden was not Eden, it was a garden in a larger place called Eden. He made this special garden, and there he put the man who he formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also there in the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden. There it parted. It became four river heads. The name of the first is Pishon. It is the one that skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good. Delium, onyx stones are there. The name of the second river is Gion. It is the one that goes around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hittikal. It is the one that goes toward the east of Syria. The fourth is Euphrates. Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded man saying, here's his generosity, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Of every tree that is in the garden, you may freely eat. Imagine being given a lifelong pass to Costco and being told of everything in this store you may have for free. except for this one item over here. Everything else, but it is our human nature to fixate on the one item and to want that and not everything else. And we do that as human beings. We look at the things that God has said no to, and we feel like that list is a list a mile long, and we begin to wonder what He's given to us that's good. and we begin to view God as very stingy and ungenerous and uncaring, mean, harsh, strict, restrictive, and we forget that 99.9% or whatever of what God is made, He is made to have, to enjoy, to give. The world is yours to enjoy. Not only did he look at man and create this garden and give him so generously all of these things, he also looked at man and didn't just provide material provision, he provided social and relational provision. He provided Adam with a wife. The Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make him, or you could say give him, a helper comparable to him. So out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field, every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, birds of the air, beasts of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs, closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man he made into a woman, and he brought her to the man. God not only provides for us materially, He provides for us relationally. Through marriage, through friendship, through church family, this is what God does, and it's His goodness to us. I mean, look around you. There are people in this world who feel as though they don't have any friends, and look how many friends you have. You could walk up to anyone in this room and they would pray for you, they would care for you, they would do whatever they can for you. That's church, that's family. And God provides that. You are not alone. If you are someone today who is feeling isolated, you're feeling alone, you're feeling cut off, uncared for, let me tell you, don't remove yourself from the equation. You are not alone. God is ready to provide. friends, and relationships for you. Value the relationships that God has given to you. And if you're that single person hoping someday to be married, keep trusting in God and His timing because He desires to provide relationally. He is not holding back. He is generous. Not only does God, is He generous by nature, but His ability to provide is unlimited. This is a great combination. We have a God who completely desires to give every possible good thing that He could to you. And guess what? He happens to have every possible good thing available to give. You never come to God and He says, I'm out of that. We ran out of stock on that. We're going to have to create some more of those. Oh, that's ended. I don't do that anymore. God has all things available at all times. He is not limited by material restrictions or challenges that you may face or you may perceive. The government may be running in a deficit. God is never running a deficit. He is always running at full maximum infinite supply. Is that your view of God or is your God limited? Has your experience in the questions of life limited your view of God? He is generous and his provision is unlimited. Consider this, he can create out of nothing. Even if he runs out, that's never going to happen. But even if he runs out, he can make more of it instantly just by speaking it into existence. That's God. Remember Jesus feeding the multitudes, the thousands and thousands of people with nothing but a few bread and loaves? More than once he did this to massive crowds in the wilderness. The same God who sent bread out of the sky and brought water out of a rock. If he runs out, he can create something out of nothing. Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1 tells us in the beginning that's what God did. He created the heavens and the earth, and that's our God. Also, he can intervene miraculously. Psalm 107 verses 35 to 36 tell us that He turns a wilderness into pools of water and dry land into water springs. There he makes the hungry dwell that they may establish a city for a dwelling place. How much water, how much food does a city need to survive? God can bring all of that out of a patch of dry desert earth if he wishes. That is our God. Not only that, but he can provide in the face of difficulty. Psalm 23 in verse 5 reminds us, you prepare a table land, a pasture land, a meadow for sheep to graze opulently before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil and my cup simply runs over. God's generosity doesn't fill to the brim. it runs over. If God owned a restaurant, and you went to him to fill your cup, your hand would be wet, and so would your lap, and so would your feet, and you'd probably have to call the fire department to deal with the flood in the building, because God is that kind of generous. But do you believe that? Is that how you came into this day, viewing God? He is generous. He is not a miser. He is not a scrooge. And if he runs out, he can make more. If he faces the need for a miracle, he can do it. If there is a challenge in your life that seems as though the enemies are overwhelming you, perhaps your finances are thin, your physical health is low, your ability to think and to make decisions is being limited, perhaps you feel like your friends aren't there for you, no one has your back. God is there and He is generous and He is waiting to give from His infinite supply. Not only is God generous, not only is He unlimited in His resources, but He happens to be the source of all provision always. He is the source of all provision. Philippians 4.19 tells us that He provides all of our needs. My God shall supply all of your needs according to His infinite riches in glory. He provides all of your needs. It is a guarantee to the child of God. James chapter one and verse 16 tells us that he provides all things. Do not be deceived, James says. My beloved brothers, every good gift, every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights in whom is no variation or shadow of turning. What does father of lights mean? Father of Lights is a description of God as the being who created all of the solar celestial bodies. They are uncountable. They're massive. Science has no explanation for how they came to be or how they exist. Every star is a wonder of nature. He took and made these in an instant with his word and he flung them out into space. And the way that scripture describes it, he gave them to us. The stars are a gift to us. Imagine being a child and having a father and probably most maybe all of us couldn't or want would want to do this Imagine it was your 16th birthday and your father said It's time that you become a man Come outside. I'm gonna take you for a drive your dad takes you for a drive and you pull into this really posh neighborhood and the gates open and you drive in up the hill and and there's this mansion sitting on the hill, and there's a Porsche 911 Turbo sitting right there, and a Ford GT, and a Ford Raptor Lightning sitting right there, all brand new. The doors are open, the keys are sitting there, and he says, son, this is all yours. I went crazy last night. I bought this stuff on the way home from work, and I'm just giving it to you. Look up at the stars at night when you can see them in a place like this. God did that. Forget the Porsche. He gave you the stars. They're yours to enjoy. Enjoy them. Look at them. Understand them. Learn about them in school. Do the same thing in nature. Look at the birds. Look at the trees. Look at the flowers. Walk. This is just his opulence flung out on a whim for you to enjoy. God gives you these things. Do not be deceived. This is not a freak of nature, some result of some random scientific explosion sometime in the past. These are God's deliberate love gifts to you, showing how ridiculously opulent and generous He is. 1 Timothy 6.17 tells us, Not only does He give every good gift, every good thing in your life was actually from Him. 1 Timothy 6, 17 says, He provides all things richly to enjoy. That means you should have zero guilt. Say that number with me. Zero guilt when you enjoy any good thing God has given you. My father returned from the mission field, serving 10 years in South Africa as a missionary, also adopting and raising two special needs children from the States, also having been bi-vocational for many years, starting a church, pastoring a small country church, working through many challenges for many years. He was about, what, 60 years old. A little before that, he came back, was settling down to the States to take a break and take care of mom. And he said, son, would it be OK if I bought a Mustang? Now, you've got to know this story. Dad likes Mustangs, Ford Mustangs. And one of the reasons for that is that's what he had when he was in high school. He had two of them, one at a time. And then my mom, to get his attention, she bought one. It had shag carpet in it, I guess. I've never seen a Ford Mustang with shag carpet in it. But she would drive it to the baseball games and kind of sit there and hope that he would see it and notice her. And it was a V6, his were always V8s, but they looked the same. And he just kind of wanted to bring that back. He said, but you know, I've talked to some people and some people are telling me that I shouldn't because I'm a missionary. Should I? Is that being selfish? I said, Dad, you buy that Mustang, and you drive that Mustang, and if anyone complains, you tell them to call your son, because your son's going to tell them to sit down, and I'll stop right there. Be quiet. It's a 2007, you're getting a deal, $14,000. You buy that thing. If you want to find a better one for more, do it and enjoy it. And tell them to talk to me because God gives us all things richly to enjoy. You have not lived a materialistic life. You're serving God in so many ways. enjoy something for once. God wants you to. To surrender to God does not mean that you have to live a monk life in a pit somewhere and grovel in dirt. God wants you to enjoy what he has given to you. What father gives a gift that's nice and hopes that his child gives it back and puts it in a box and doesn't touch it. That's not how God works. Sometimes, believers, we create this wrong idea that if you follow Jesus and serve God, you're going to have to live a miserly life. God wants you to enjoy good things. Let the world see what real enjoyment is. Enjoy without worshiping. Worship the giver, not the gift. But part of that means to enjoy. It says God gives us, richly, all things to enjoy. And if you only enjoy halfway, you didn't enjoy it. What is it for you that God gives that's good, that you enjoy? I know what you like. It's that camera. You like it. And you enjoy it. Right? I know some of you a little too well. I could go down the list and pick on some of you. Yeah. Here's what I want to tell you. Whatever it is, as long as you're not living for it, as long as you're not worshiping it, Whatever that is for you, enjoy it 100% and do not feel guilty about it. That's what God desires. You dishonor God when you don't enjoy what He gives you. Why? Because He's generous. He is generous. More than we understand, Why does God do this? We'll talk about that in just a second, but not only does He provide all of our needs, He provides all things. One more verse along that line, 2 Peter 1, verse 3. He provides all things that pertain to life and godliness, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue. Now here's where I want to make a distinction between material provision and spiritual provision. Why is it important for us to understand that God gives every material good thing to us? That he desires to do that, he delights to do that, and when he does that, we should enjoy it completely. Why? Because that is just a sample. of what he really wants to do, and that is to bless us spiritually. The material is just an illustration, a real one, of the spiritual. It is not the opposite. It is an illustration and a sample of the spiritual. I say that because here this verse teaches us that these two things exist. God gives us all things that pertain to life, that's the material side, and godliness, that's the spiritual side. And we do God and theology and ourselves a disservice when we separate the material from the spiritual, as though the material is not good and the spiritual is good. That's an ancient heresy called Gnosticism. and we buy into it in our own modern life by separating the material from the spiritual. Instead, we need to insist on not worshiping the material, but viewing it for what it is, God's real blessing to us, to teach us the greater spiritual truth about who we are in our relation to him made in his image. So let's talk about this, the spiritual provision. God views spiritual provision as our greater need. Philippians 4, let's see here. I'm going to move on to the next thought. Material needs point to spiritual needs. Let me demonstrate how this works. Jesus did this masterfully in the New Testament in his teaching ministry. We are made in the image of God. What that means is we not only have a physical, material nature as human beings, we also have a spiritual nature. God is a spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. We have the ability to think, to feel, to reason. We have a morality about us. We have a conscience. We have a relational ability, an ability to exercise wisdom and judgment. These things are things that God has given to us and to no other part of his creation, and he designed us that way so that we would not only be more like him than anything else, but so that we could serve him, like him, in a way no one else can, and so that we could have a closer, appreciating relationship with him, unlike anything else. And so he's made us like us, and God is a spirit, and so are we, with a material existence. And so God is teaching us about our spiritual need through our material need. Jesus makes this bridge for us in the Gospels. In John chapter 6 verse 22 and the verses that follow, he teaches that he is the bread of life. If you remember this story, I mentioned it earlier, he is looking at a large crowd of people. I think in this case, it was 5,000 people, which was probably more like 15,000 or 20,000 people because they would generally count male heads, adult men. And then women and children were not usually counted. So we're talking about 15,000 to 20,000 people probably. They had been sitting in the wilderness for a long period of time. They were hungry. They had no way to get food for that much people. And Jesus, from just a few loaves and fishes, was able to provide all the food that was needed for the crowd. We talked about that. But why did Jesus do that? First of all, because he felt sorry for them. He had compassion on their physical need. It was a real compassion for a real physical need. It wasn't smoke and mirrors. At the same time, he then used that teaching to go on to say, you think that's something. What I really want to teach you, though, is that I am the bread of life. Is he teaching cannibalism? No. What he's teaching is there is another part of you, your spiritual part of you, that desperately needs to feed on me. You need to know who I am, think about who I am, depend upon who I am, internalize who I am, put into your mind regularly who I am, what have I done for you, feed on what you know about me. Husbands know how to do this with wives. You think about your wife, you think about what she says, you think about how you love her, and all these different things. The more that you feed on that knowledge that you have about your wife, the more you're going to understand her, the better husband you're going to be able to be. If you don't think about it, you don't feed on that information, you're not going to be a very good husband, right? We need to do that with Jesus Christ and understand our need to feed on him. Jesus is the bread of life. The Holy Spirit, Jesus taught, was living water. He says, whoever comes to me when you are thirsty, do what? Come to me, and out of your innermost being will flow rivers, torrents, rapid, raging rapids of living water. Clean, fresh, invigorating water will come from your innermost being." What is he referring to? This, the Bible says, he said, referring to the Holy Spirit. When you're thirsty, what is that designed to teach us? It's designed to teach us how we are to feel about our need for the Holy Spirit's wisdom and guidance and power and enabling in our lives. That's us, and that's how we need the Holy Spirit in our lives. Also, we know that the Word of God is our food for our spirit. The Word of God is food for our spirit. Scripture is our spiritual food. Jesus taught this as well when he said in Luke 4, 4, man should not live, here it is, the distinction but the relation, by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. How much do you realize your need for the Bible? Do you feed on it? Do you think on it? Do you meditate on it? Do you digest it and apply it to decisions that you're making in life carefully, rigorously, intimately, personally? Are you more committed to eating physical food than you are to taking in biblical food? In the Old Testament, it says, I considered the words of your mouth more important than my necessary daily food. So the physical is a real thing, but God wants it to teach us our need for him in a spiritual way. There's another illustration in scripture about this, the Old Testament Pentecost celebration. This is a good thing to think about. God likes a good party, do you believe that? You like a good party? I know Iglesia Bautista de la Fe, they like good parties. Faith Baptist, we're trying to learn. We're okay, too, but boy, the Spanish know how to throw a party, right? Just keep the sinful parts out, but a party is a good thing. When we talk about feasts and festivals in the Old Testament, we think of Passover, and we think of the Feast of Booths, and these celebrations that they would have, they were religious celebrations. Pentecost was one of them. In Deuteronomy chapter 16 and verse 9, it says, you shall count seven weeks for yourself. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time that you begin to put the sickle to the grain. Meaning, once you begin harvesting the grain that I've provided for you in the growth season on your farms, begin. The first time that you put a sickle down, that's day one. Count seven weeks out. Hopefully you have your harvesting done by then. Have a party. And I'm commanding it. Isn't the Old Testament law so mean? It's so harsh and strict. It tells you to have regular parties multiple times a year, to not work, to get together and to celebrate, to dance, to sing, to enjoy music and food and drink and company and fellowship and worship together without holding back, with all of your heart. God wants us to celebrate the harvest, right? This is what he was telling them. I want you to recognize that I provided the grain, I provided the water, I provided the soil, I provided the health and the means and the resources to bring this in. I don't want you to fall into an industrialized Western mindset, right? Like we have today, or into this pagan Canaanite mindset of it came from the gods or the industrial. We did it with our machines and with our work and our science. I want you to remember I provided the harvest and I want you to do this by gathering together, reading the word, having a party, singing and eating and doing all of these things together. And I want you to do it for an extended period of time, multiple days. This is the feast, the party, the celebration of Pentecost. And this is what Jews were to do every single year, to gather together and to enjoy God's blessing of harvest together in all the good ways that God has given to us to enjoy and to celebrate good things. Fast forward to the New Testament. Jesus said, wait until the day of Pentecost. Acts chapter one in verse eight. He says, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria to the end of the earth. When did that happen? Acts chapter two. The Jews, especially the men, had gathered together in Jerusalem in large crowds to celebrate Pentecost, the feast festival party celebration of harvest. God giving their material food, their material provision. and God did something else. What did he provide on that day? The Holy Spirit. When they were celebrating at the peak, God's provision of material supply, he said, I'm going to do one better now, and I am going to give you the Holy Spirit in a way I have never done in the history of civilization. He is going to dwell within you and you're going to be so united with me that your spirit and my spirit will come together internally and it will draw you all together as the church to speak the truth of Jesus Christ to the world with power and persuasion and impact that has never been seen before. And He is going to enable you, as we're going to see throughout the New Testament, right, to do what we need to do and to be what we need to be for Christ, to produce the fruits of the Spirit and to say no to the fleshly temptations and urges that we have. He will enable us to not sin, to please God, to do what is right truly and genuinely inside. And when did He decide to do that? in connection with the material supply of harvest and the celebration of that. God wants us to make the connection between his material provision, which is generous, unlimited, always available, no end to the supply, it's miraculous, to his provision of the Holy Spirit, to the work of Christ, to the word of God. This is important for us, as we think about these things as a church, we see that God provides for the church. How does he do this? Yes, he provides the Holy Spirit, but in some very tangible ways, through the Holy Spirit, he does some special things for the church, which is a group of people brought together by the Holy Spirit. That's what the church is. He provides churches with pastors and teachers. Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 to 16 tell us this. He's been doing this. We've talked a little bit about this over the last day and a half, how God provided pastors for the church at Faith Baptist. That's not a business decision. That's the Holy Spirit. Now, the pastors that he places into churches, they desperately need the Holy Spirit. There's nothing too special about them. They need a lot of miracles every single day to be anything good for the church. But that being said, they were placed there by the Holy Spirit. It's a spiritual thing that God provides. Ephesians 4, 11 says, he gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. But we also have to remember it's not just the pastors and teachers. It's every other member of the church who has been here in some cases for weeks or months, a few years. Some of you have been around for multiple generations. You're just as important as any one of the pastors. That's so important. Romans chapter 12 verses 3 through 8 talks about this, and the abilities that God gives to the members of the church. He says in Romans 12 3 through 8, Paul writes, There's God's provision to him. Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. There's that provision, again, giving faith to each of us. For as we have many members in one body, all the members do not have the same function. We, being many, are one body in Christ, that's what the Spirit does, and individually members of one another, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. There's that provision again. Let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith, or ministry, let us use it in our ministering. He who teaches and teaching, who exhorts in exhortation, who gives with liberality, He who leads with diligence, who shows mercy with cheerfulness. In other words, the Holy Spirit provides members to the church, and he provides each of those members with spiritual abilities that that church needs. And so my question for you is, what spiritual abilities has God given to you that your church needs? Because you are God's provision to your church through the Holy Spirit in some special way. God is generous. Think about the history of Faith Baptist Church and all the different people God has brought in and through the church, and the abilities, the perspectives, the strengths, the insights, the gifts. And I see the teenagers and the young people here. What's your spiritual gift? What do you bring to the table? What is it about you that God is saying, now is the time for you to make this contribution to this church for yourself, not just your mom and dad. You are now needed at the table. You have a contribution to make. If you know Jesus Christ as your savior, don't just come, give. Be like your generous God. But ultimately, we have to understand this. of all these things, Christ is God's ultimate provision. How many of you know the phrase Jehovah-Jireh? Whenever I hear Jehovah-Jireh mentioned, it's usually in a prayer or a discussion setting in which someone needs something, and they'll say Jehovah-Jireh, which means Yahweh, or the Lord provides. He is the God who provides. And usually when we say that, we're referring to, oh, I need money, I need healing, I need health, I need a house, I need a car, something like this. And that's all true. I don't want to minimize those needs when they come. God likes to meet those needs. But do you know the one time that is actually used in the Bible, what it's referring to? It is not referring to God giving any of those things. Genesis, it says, and Abraham called the name of the place the Lord will provide. As it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. What was he promising to provide when he called himself Jehovah Jireh? Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, whose blood would be shed for the sins of the world. That is our greatest need. Do not use the name, do not invoke the name, or pray the name Jehovah Jireh without first understanding. There is no need that he wants to provide that is greater than our need for Christ. Christ alone is our greatest, highest, deepest need. And that is the one time in scripture that the name Jehovah Jireh is invoked to make that point. There is no greater need that you have than Jesus Christ, and there is no greater provision available to you than Jesus Christ. And if there's anything else in this world and in this life that you desire or feel you need more than Jesus Christ, you have it wrong. He is not one of your needs, he is your greatest need. In fact, he is probably your solution to every need. Jesus Christ is the bread of life. A few final things. God may provide differently than we expect or desire. You don't get to tell God what you want and what you need. Sometimes you're wrong, and sometimes he knows better. I like what one man, John Blom says, we can't help but have unreal romantic imaginations and expectations about what God's answers to our prayers will be. Therefore, we are often unprepared for the answers we receive from God. His answers frequently do not look at first like answers. They look like problems. They look like trouble. They look like loss, disappointment, affliction, conflict, sorrow, and increased selfishness. They cause deep soul wrestling and expose sins and doubts and fears. They are not what we expect, and we often do not see how they correspond to our prayers. But we have to remember that when we speak to God, He is generous. He is not holding back. So how He answers and how He provides has got to be the best possible answer He could have provided at the time. So either you begin with a belief in the generosity and the goodness of God, and you let that shape how you view his answers to your needs and his provision for your needs, or you grade God based upon how he responds and decide whether or not you think he's good. We have to be convinced that by the very way that this world was brought into existence, that he is anything and always good in every possible way. So when he gives you pain, and he gives you loss, and he gives you sorrow, and he gives you difficulty and challenge, that has got to be his provision in the best possible way at the time. And so you can look at the hardest parts of your life and know, I prayed for him to provide, and he has, just not the way I wished, But it is good. I know it's good. And I believe it's good. And I accept it as good. And when you develop that ability to respond to the hard provisions, that way you begin to grow and mature in a way that you never were able to before. And you begin to understand His generosity better. Paul understood this when he asked God three times to remove the thorn in his flesh, whatever that was, a difficult, difficult thing in his life. And God said no. And he began to realize, wait a minute, in my weakness, his grace is made sufficient. I actually get to experience his grace in a way through weakness I would never understand it otherwise. Right now, stop and think about the greatest life difficulty that you have right now. Are you tempted to think that God is kind of holding back in that part of your life, making it hard for you and not really being good? Realize it's the best possible thing he could be doing and allowing for you right now. And if you will accept that, like Paul, you'll begin to realize, I have a chance to understand grace in a way that I couldn't otherwise. Cherish that, savor that, and find Christ as your greatest provision, and in that you will grow. How do we respond to the generosity and provision of God? First of all, believe on Jesus Christ for salvation. Jesus taught, do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal on him. Then they said to him, what shall we do that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of God. Believe on Him who He sent. Believe on Jesus Christ as your God and your Savior. Believe on Jesus Christ as the greatest solution to your greatest need. Depend upon Him 100% for salvation from sin, and He will provide that all. Second of all, if you've believed on Jesus Christ, seek and serve Christ first of all. Matthew 6.33, Jesus taught this, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. That all these things shall be added to you refers to all the provisions and additions and bonuses that God wants to give you in the material life. The Ford Mustangs. But if you live your life coveting, striving after, pursuing Ford Mustangs, to use that illustration, whatever it is for you, if that's what you're looking to to get satisfaction, you're never going to get it. But if you will put Jesus Christ first, you will believe on Him. You will follow the commands that He gives then and do them, the first one being to be baptized. Announce your faith through baptism, by immersion. Obey Him. Skip the nerves, skip the pride, take that step. Get in front of the body of Christ and announce your faith in Jesus. Just obey. Just do it. And see what He will do through that. After that, look at what the other things are that he teaches in the New Testament. What does Jesus teach? How do I love God with all my heart, soul, and mind? How do I invest my life and my resources into advancing the kingdom of God? Some of the decisions are very simple, but they're very hard, right? I'm looking at career options, or I'm looking at kind of weekly schedules, and I have to make decisions. Am I going to do the thing that provides the bread for the family better than anything else? Or am I going to do the thing that also allows me, with a little bit less material provision, to be regular in participation with my church family? I'm not going to tell you how to answer each and every situation like that. We need police officers. We need police officers on the streets on Sunday. There are things we need, some of us need subway cars to get us to church, so there's... I don't want to be legalistic about it, but what I do want to say is, as you're making decisions in life, value the kingdom of God. And when you have a chance to say no to a little less money, for instance, a little less comfort, and say yes to doing something that's expected of citizens of the kingdom of God, that's needed. It's not just obeying God to come to church. I need to be with my friends at church or I am starved. you begin to realize savoring and seeking the kingdom of God is actually more important. And in your life, as you grow, you begin to value those things a little bit more than you used to, and what you find is the other things seem to still kind of work out. It's an amazing thing. God has a way of coming around the backside and one-upping what you thought you were taking care of on the front end, and now you quit. He has a way of doing that that is inexplicable. It's remarkable. And I've never seen him fail in my own life when I've done that, ever, ever, ever. Seek the kingdom of God first. And when he says, all these things will be added to you, I want to clarify, he's not saying, oh, I guess I'll do the other stuff. What he's saying is, I really can't wait to do all the other things, but you're not putting me in position to do that. Until you savor and value my kingdom priorities first, you can't see what I can do. I'm waiting. I am so waiting to show you what I can do. But you keep trying to do those things for yourself and telling me to take a back seat until they're accomplished. That's not treating me as God. And I don't feed that lifestyle. You put me first, because what I did for you on the cross, and I am going to do so many other things that I'm going to add to you. You just wait and see. But as a pastor over the years, I've seen families make the right choices. I've seen families value the wrong things. And when they think they're saving their family and meeting their needs by putting other things first and telling me, pastor, I'll put those other church God things later on. Well, you know how it works out. You end up raising a generation that values the things of the world over the things of God, and it doesn't usually work out very well. But you meant well. You really meant well. Seek him first, and he is generous in what he does after that. Finally, give thanks to God. First Chronicles 1634, O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His mercy endures forever. Psalm 107 31, O that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness, for his wonderful works to the children of men. Every single good thing that you have in life, whether it's the spouse sitting next to you, the shoes on your feet, the food that you ate, whatever it may be, that phone in your hand, whatever it is that you have and you enjoy, that's good. that came from God. Have you thanked Him for it? I've tried to have a practice in my life of every kind of moderate to significant thing that God gives, to pause and to dedicate it and pray for it, to give it to God. Our associate pastor at Brookdale just bought his first house this last month and we're all very excited for him. And he wants to have me and Sarah and another elder and his wife and the church come over and just pray for God's blessing on that house and to thank God for it. It's a really good practice. Why? Not because if you do that something mystical happens to the house. You pray the demons out. No. It's a way of reminding yourself, this is from God, and I need to acknowledge that. Is there anything in your life right now that you're prioritizing over the things of God and you need to flip it around? Let God take care of that. You focus on His things. You know, you do that, the future of the next generation of Faith Baptist Church is going to be in a good place. But there's a tension right now in the room. Which direction is the next generation of the church going to go? Kingdom of God? Material world? Young people, God wants to keep nice shoes on your feet, okay? You don't have to stress over that. Put him first. Those things will come. And for you, are there any good things that God has done for you and given you? And you look at it and you say, actually, I took that for granted. That last car I got, that is so nice. That last promotion and raise that I got, that nice house. I have never actually thanked God for that. That is so wrong. And he gave it to me. From his hand. Today, one of the greatest things you can do is just pause and say, forgive me for being ungrateful. You are generous. Thank you, God. And just that prayer will bring something alive in you that reminds you of the provision of God. Let's pray. Thank you for tuning in to the preaching ministry of Faith Baptist Church. We are conveniently located in Corona, New York City, and are devoted to loving God and making disciples. For more resources and helpful information about our church, visit StudyGodsWord.com. We'd also like to extend a personal invitation for you and your family to join us on Sundays at 9.30 in the morning. for a time of interactive Bible study for young people and adults, followed by an 11 o'clock worship and preaching service. If you have young children, they will really enjoy our exciting Bible-based children's ministries in both the morning Bible study hour and worship service. If you have any questions about the Church or would like to learn how to have a personal relationship with God, please give us a call or leave some feedback at StudyGodsWord.com. We would be thrilled to meet you in person and show you firsthand what God is doing at Faith Baptist Church. Until next time, may God richly bless you. you