Confidence to Face the Future

Welcome to the In Touch podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, December 31st. If you find yourself worrying about what the new year may bring, uncertainty, challenges, or tough decisions, Pause and turn to God's Word. it can give you deep confidence to face what lies ahead. Find that strength and hope in confidence to face the future. Would you turn please to Matthew chapter 6 and I want us to begin reading in verse 25 and read through verse 34.

And the title of this message is Confidence to Face the Future. There might be many, many reasons for us to have doubts and worries and fears and anxieties, but Jesus gave us in this passage some principles. that ought to alleviate that for us in order to teach us that our circumstances should not be the determining factor as to whether we should feel confident or whether we should feel anxious.

So he begins in the Sermon on the Mount here. In verse 25, Having said that man should not serve two masters, he says, Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, what you shall drink, nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not your life more than meat, and the body more than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap. nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.

Are you not much better than they? Then he says, which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature? And why take ye thought for Raymond? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin.

And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed or dressed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, Shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? What shall we drink? Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Now, I think most of us are aware of the fact that you and I are living in a time when. To say to someone, don't be worried, don't be anxious, just relax, is almost to them an insult. And yet that is exactly what Jesus is saying. In fact, in this passage of Scripture, here's what he says. He says three times, don't be anxious.

Don't be anxious, don't be anxious, three times he says that in this passage of Scripture.

So we have to ask the question. Does it apply today what Jesus said? Don't be anxious, don't be anxious, don't be anxious. When the price of groceries goes up every month, the price of all types of energy is on the increase, the price of clothes increases. In fact, you and I could just run the gamut of things we have to have as necessities of life, and they're all increasing in price, and somebody's saying, don't be anxious, don't get upset, don't be worried, just relax.

We want to say, you know, how in the world can you say relax when everything's falling apart?

Well, either what Jesus Christ said works or it doesn't work.

So when he says, don't be anxious and don't be alarmed, don't be worried, What in the world is he saying to you and to me today? And what he's simply saying to us is this, when you and I think about the future, whether we're thinking about a new year or a new week or a new day, Whatever it might be, it's always the same. We are to see it from God's point of view. But what we have to ask is this, how does God want his children to respond to changing circumstances, changing environment, changing economy, rise in prices, and all the things that we face. How are we to face these?

And I believe in this passage, he tells us how to face them. how to face our future, whatever it may be, confidently, boldly, assuredly, restfully, peacefully, and not running around, rubbing our hands and wearing out our emotional being trying to figure out what is going to happen tomorrow. And the first thing he does here, he pictures for us The divine provision that is provided for us in a way that we couldn't possibly miss. For he says, He says, now don't be anxious about your life, and don't be anxious about your body, how you're going to clothe it. He says in verse 26, He says, now look, I'm going to give you three pictures.

First of all, he says, look at the sparrows. Look at the fowls of the air. They don't reap. They don't sow, they don't gather in the barns, and yet listen, watch this, what he says. He says, Your heavenly Father takes care of them.

Your heavenly Father, he says here. feeds them. Then he says, the limit for example, he says, by taking thought or being anxious or worried, you can't add anything to your height, neither can you add any time to your life, but you can short-circuit it by worry, anxiety, fretting, and caring. Then he says, the third thing he wants us to notice is the lilies of the field, whether they be beautiful roses, lilies, or whatever it might be, he says, if you'll notice. They don't spin, they don't toil, they don't weave their colors, but he says, your heavenly Father has dressed the flowers of the field and harrayed them in such a way that even Solomon in all of his glory, with all of his money and all of those he had serving him, couldn't even begin to make the kind of clothing for the king that God has made for flowers.

He says, now with those things in mind, he wants us to see something here. And that is, he's trying to show us that God our Father is a provider for his children, so he says.

Now if your heavenly Father has fed the sparrows, are you not much more worthy, better, and superior to them? You and I can face our future with absolute confidence. It does not mean that we're going to do nothing. You may do more than you have ever done before. And in Thessalonians, for example, the third chapter in the 10th verse, Paul said, you don't work, you don't eat.

That was the philosophy of the New Testament church.

Now, if we did that today, that'd be some folks getting up and getting busy doing something in this country. The Christian approach to work is that God's people ought to be busy, listen, doing the things that God has called them to do, and sometimes that will keep them very busy, and then all the things that they need they cannot get for themselves, God says he assumes the responsibility of providing that for them. I'm going to show you that in just a moment. God the Father assumes the responsibility of providing for you what you cannot provide for yourself. with your abilities, your talents, and your gifts, and the lifestyle that God's given you.

So he's not saying sit down and do nothing, but he's saying that we are to work, we're to carry out our responsibility, whatever your business, a student, a homemaker, and the Father will provide accordingly. The second thing I want you to notice here is the promise that he's given us of all the divine provision. That is the promise that everything we need, God's going to provide. But look how he says it. Go back, if you will, to verse 26.

He says, Now look at the birds of the air. They sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. And what he's saying to us here is simply this. If sparrows don't have to worry... And whether it's freezing icy cold or blasting heat of summer, he says the Father feeds them.

Now, how does the Father feed them? The Father puts at their disposal what they need to feed upon. They have to go get it. And that is exactly what he's saying to us. God isn't going to put you in a position where you will not be able to have what you need.

You may have to go after it. You may have to work 10 hours a day, sometimes the 12 hours a day. And nowhere does God promise us an easy life, but he does promise to meet our needs.

Now move on down, if you will. To uh Verse 31. Therefore he says, Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the heathen, the unbelievers, seek. Your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things.

And here's what I want you to see. The basis upon which he gives us a promise is sort of couched in something he says here. He says, first of all, The promise of his provision is based on a comparison. He says, Look. If the Father will feed sparrows that have no soul and no spirit.

No promise of going to heaven and no life beyond this one. If the Heavenly Father has promised to feed sparrows, are you not superior to sparrows? Amen? You are created in the image of God and sparrows are not. He says, not only that, he says, but God the Father sent his only begotten Son to save us.

He didn't do that for spare us. He says, our father feeds sparrows. If our father will feed sparrows, will not our father feed his children? Then what's the problem? The problem is to be found in verse 30.

Look, see what he says. Wherefore, having talked about the birds and the lilies and the hype, he says, Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, that is, Those beautiful flowers, they dried up, and oftentimes to heat those little clay ovens, they would cut the flowers down, have them dried. and then put them in the oven to increase the heat. He says, if God so clothes the beautiful flowers of the field, and he knows that they're going to be taken the next day and thrown into an oven and burned, how much more will he Clothe you, O ye of little what? Faith.

Now here is the whole problem with anxiety and uncertainty and lack of confidence about the future. The problem is unbelief.

Now what we have to ask is, what are we focusing our attention upon? Are we looking at the problems and our needs? Are we looking to the source of our need?

Now nowhere did he say we are to dwell upon our circumstances. He doesn't say that. He says we are to dwell upon the solution, not the need itself.

Now it is the problem of doubt. We begin to doubt.

Now the question comes, why do we doubt? Why do you suppose we doubt? There's only one reason we doubt. The one reason we doubt primarily is because we think improperly.

Now think about this for a moment. We would all agree that Almighty God, Jehovah God, is sovereign of the universe. Number one. Number two, we agree according to this scripture right here. That he already knows our needs before they come.

Look in verse 32. For after all these things that the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. Let me ask you a question. If he's omniscient, all-knowing, does he know your needs when they happen or before they happen? Before they happen, think about it.

We're not talking about emotions. Forget your emotions, forget the problem, and think with me just for a moment. Almighty sovereign God of this universe in control of all things. That God loves us enough to have sent his only begotten Son to the world to save us, which he did. We are indwelt by Christ.

We all agree on that, who are saved. All right, the Father who knows our needs knows our needs before the need arises. Amen? All right, he's an all-providing, all-powerful God who knows our needs before they come. All right, if he knows them before the need arises, do we have any reason to be worried about him meeting the need?

If we focus on the circumstance and we focus on the problem, we're going to be filled with anxieties and worries and cares. And you see, Jesus was saying to us, He wants us to think right. And the right thought is this. My God, whose past performance has been absolutely 100% perfect. Who feeds sparrows?

who clothes the linnies of the field. who controls my life, he is absolutely and totally adequate to meet every single need of my life.

Now let's go back to what I said a few moments ago. The man who feeds his soul upon what God has done for him in the past will not be worried about the future. But the man who feeds his soul upon all the possibilities of things that may possibly happen to him will go down in anxiety and fretting and caring and worrying and he will not have what we talked about before and that is the peace that passeth all understanding. He says don't be anxious. Don't be troubled.

The word anxiety means to have a divided mind about something. The man who has a divided mind, he lessens his energy, he lessens his creativity, he lessens his fruitfulness.

Sometimes it can paralyze his decision-making and he loses his joy. If we knew the truth, more ulcers and heart trouble and a lot of other things come from self-inflicted anxieties and worries and frets and cares, not from outward circumstances. The penalty for refusing to believe God has many aspects to it, and some of them are physical.

Now you don't want anybody telling you you don't believe God. None of us want anybody telling us that, but I'm telling you the simple hard cold fact of truth that the next time you get anxious and worried and upset about something, stop and think, think, think, think, think. Don't feel, think. And if you will think you'll have to come to the conclusion, I. I'm absolutely refusing to believe the promise of God.

My God shall supply all of your needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Past performance, absolutely perfect, takes care of sparrows, lilies, roses, dandelions. God takes care of them. What's the dandelion? You blow it and all those little parachutes just go floating down through the air.

God made that thing just like that. They grow by the hundreds and the thousands in the fields. All the evidence of the handiwork of God. On the other hand, you take a beautiful rose just beginning to bud. A little morning dew dripping down those petals and the aroma is absolutely unbelievable.

God made that. He makes them all. He cares for them all. He says they don't spin, they don't toil. God makes them.

Now, if he's that concerned about the beauty of the earth, is he not concerned about every single solitary need that you and I have? That's really what he's saying in this passage that he is.

So what is our responsibility? Here's what it is in verse 33. He says, now God having done all these things and promised to do so, And he says, here is the source and here's the secret to all of our... Confidence. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things should be added to you.

Now, what does he say? Watch this. He says, if you and I were major on doing the will of God. Then God will major on providing our needs. Listen, if you and I will major on doing the will of God and make that the priority of our life, God will major on taking care of everything else.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, that's the rule of God by Salia, the rule of God in our hearts, and His righteousness, that is His character, and all these things, what things? Food, clothing, shelter, education, tuition, all of these things shall be added unto you. By whom? By God our Father, who is the source of all of our needs.

Now what is he saying in that passage? Simply this. Listen. When somebody says, but I don't know the will of God, let me give you a very simple solution that never fails. You listening?

When you want to know the will of God in a situation, you don't know what to do, and you've got to know something soon, if you'll say, Lord, I'll do anything you say do. I surrender my will to your perfect will. I don't have any earthly idea what to do next. I am totally at your disposal. I will do whatever you lead me to do.

Therefore, Lord, I'm putting the responsibility on you to show me and I will obey you. You don't ever have to worry about it. God will lead you to do the right thing even when you don't have any earthly idea what the right thing is. You may not even know that you're doing it when you do it. Because God's going to take care of his children and he's going to show them the right thing.

Look at verse 34. A beautiful truth. He says now the secret of this thing is focusing upon him just obeying God If we'll focus on being obedient to his will, he takes care of all these things we're concerned about. Then he says, Take therefore no thought for tomorrow, for tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Now look at this, watch. Here's what he's saying. He says. Our Heavenly Father, who feeds birds, clothes the littlest of the field, takes care of our life. who loves us and who's promised to provide for us.

All he wants us to do is to live one single day at a time. He says, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. That is, tomorrow, when I reach in tomorrow, I'll have my challenges for tomorrow. God will take care of tomorrow. When I go into the next day, there will be enough challenges there.

One day may be a whole lot more challenging than the next, but what you and I must do is to begin to look at life from God's perspective, and that is. He who lives within us. Has committed himself to providing for us, and what he desires of us is that we major on one thing. We major on doing the will of God. And if we will make your own doing the will of God for life, whether you're a homemaker, a student, a businessman, or whatever you might be, if you will made your own Christ.

If you will major on being aware of his presence in your business and your life, aware of his presence whatever you're doing in life. aware of his presence and his power if you and i will major on that he will take care of these other things And what Jesus Christ is offering you and me in Matthew chapter 6. Is freedom? And liberty and joy and inspiration and excitement and anticipation and needs being met and the joy of growing in our relationship to Jesus Christ with all the burdens, the heartaches, the frets, the worries, the cares, you will live with a joy and a peace that passeth all understanding. Choice is yours and mine.

I will choose. Like you must choose. I'll choose focusing upon him. and letting him take care of these things, you have to decide how you're going to live in the coming years.

Okay. Thank you for listening to Confidence to Face the Future. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or N Touch Ministries, stop by ntouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.