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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
God Provides
Series 50th Anniversary
| Sermon ID | 72224201036219 |
| Duration | 54:53 |
| Date | |
| Category | Camp Meeting |
| Bible Text | Genesis 2:1-14 |
| Language | English |
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