Introduction: Review

Matthew chapter number six is where we will be today. We are about halfway through, maybe a little more, through what's called the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus took that first local church aside. They had been working with multitudes, and he took the church aside into the mountain there, and he began to teach them. Remember, that is the context of this passage here, it is to that first local church, those who believed and received the Lord as their Saviour, and had been baptized, and they were assembled together on that mountain.

This passage does not make a lot of sense if He is just talking to the world and to the multitude. The unsaved masses are not the light of the world, but the local church is. People that make up the local church are the light of the world because they have the dwelling presence of Christ in their lives. And so here we are in Matthew chapter number six.

Last week, we ended in verse number 24, but I am going to back up to verse number 19, just to get a running start here, where it says in Matthew six, verse 19, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: (20) But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: (21) For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (22) The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. (23) But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! (24) No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

That is where we ended last week. The last part of that passage talks about how your eye must be single and focused on serving God from the inside out, with the right heart, which will produce the fruit, the right actions, kind of like Ezra mentioned in his lesson on Psalms 1, that when you have a walk with God, you will produce fruit like a tree that is planted by the water. If not, you will wither up and die and blow around like a tumbleweed.

That is the springboard for what comes into the last few verses to finish up Matthew chapter 6, that idea that you cannot serve God and mammon. You cannot serve God and money, or the things that money bring, or the world itself, or the devil himself. You cannot both serve God and anything else.

I. God Is Our Sole Provider

The next verse, verse 25, starts out with the word “therefore”. “Therefore” means because of what I just said. You cannot serve God and mammon. “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” Pause there and think for a moment.

God is not telling you to live life in the moment and just be careless in how you treat your body and how you treat your life and how you treat your finances. He is not saying be careless here, but He is focusing it because of the therefore and what God said about you cannot serve God and mammon. The focus and point here is that if you're going to serve God, you must trust God.

If you are going to serve God, the foundation must be doing the will of God. If you are going to serve God, the idea must be that from your heart, from your very motivation, from the spirit that communicates with God, and that motivates you to action. You must be rooted and grounded in a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, with God himself. “Therefore, take no thought for your life.” You can give it to God.

A lot of people spend their entire lives worried about how they are going to have the next meal, how they are going to get the clothes on their back, how they are going to retire someday, how they are going to be able to relax and not have to worry about what the economy is doing, what inflation is doing, what the price of groceries and the price of gas. God says, when your life is built on serving Him, it is not that those things are not in effect, it is that God takes care of it.

The world has forgotten that God is our Creator. God is our Creator. God made the entire universe, He made the world, He made all that is therein, and He is our Provider.

Now, I think everyone should do honest work, whether that be for an employer or being self-employed, and do what it takes to be as independent as possible and take care of their needs and the needs of their family so they are not depending upon the generosity of others or the generosity of the government, but that independence should not equal independence from God. In fact, that independence should be based upon a total dependence on God and his direction. That dependence may lead you in such a direction that maybe you do not take a traditional way of taking care of your needs, but rather a view that is based upon seeking God in all thy ways, acknowledge him all thy ways, every single one. Say, “Lord, Good Morning, it is time to get up and going, what do you want me to do today?” God will always guide and direct you into how to best take care of your needs while serving him. Let us read on and see this foundation a little bit more. Later on in the message, we are going to get into a practical Bible example of how this took place.

It says in the next verse, “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 ye not much better than they?”

Here is a practical Bible verse that tells us that the people that God created are better than the animals. We should not treat animals as if they are idols, as if they are gods, or if they are equal to us, because God made us to have dominion over them.

But God takes care of the little ones. God cares about the animals. When He sent the flood in Noah's day, He made sure that the animals were preserved, and we should take good care of them, too, but God himself does. He said, “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap.” The animals are not worried about clocking in at nine o'clock in the morning, clocking out at five at night, and yet God takes care of every one of their needs.

I think that people need to get this idea and understanding that it is not their nine-to-five job. It is not their government assistance. It is not their life savings that takes care of their needs. It is God. Jesus takes us back to the very basics here in the Sermon on the Mount to say, listen, being responsible is right, but it is not what takes care of your needs. God is the one who provides for you, just like He takes care of the birds, just like He takes care of the flowers, just like He takes care of the animals.

“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 ye not much better than they?”

The first point we are making here is that God is solely our Provider.

You say, “No, I go and I work hard, and I get a paycheck. I'm paying my own way.” Or maybe you say, “No, I get a paycheck from my employer, therefore my employer is providing.”

No! God, in a general sense, and most commonly works through people. He created people to work through people, and so God will provide through an employer. God will provide through hard work. Sometimes during hard times, God will provide through people generously helping each other, but it is God who is doing the providing. If we do not have that mindset and understanding that it is God who provides every single thing that we have, then none of the rest of this passage is going to make sense.

Verse 27 says, “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?”

Can any of us say, “Hey, I want to be tall like the tallest basketball player. I want to be seven, eight, nine feet tall?” I do not know if there are any nine-foot basketball players. Goliath was nine and a half feet. I don't think he played basketball. He preferred swords, I think. But you and I can wish all we want that we were tall. I was listening to somebody else who was talking about how they were very tall, and he was saying how hard it is to be tall. I think it is just a matter of being thankful for what God has given you. It is a matter of contentment. But the reality is, none of us can make ourselves any taller just by thinking about it.

He goes on in verse 28. It says, “And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:”

Again, God is not criticizing you for working hard. Obviously, the principles of working hard are found throughout the Bible. The Bible says, “If any would not work, neither should he eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10) The Bible talks clearly about taking care of your family, and yet, here in Scripture, it says, “And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:” Then verse 29 of Matthew 6 says, “And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

Look at Solomon, the wisest man who lived, who had perhaps the most wealth of anyone who lived, who had people from all corners of the world coming to find out how and why Solomon did what he did. He certainly was well-dressed, yet not so intricately well as the lilies of the field.

If you ever study a flower, it is fascinating to see the detail that God put into it. Only God can do it. An artist can try to copy it, and he might do really well and get the light and the shading and the shadows just right, but not as good as God. It is fascinating to see the softness of the petals of the flower. You cannot find cloth so soft and comfortable as the petals of a flower, because if you tried, they would disintegrate. Yet the flowers of the field that God Himself made are delicate, are beautiful, are soft, are nice, are more extravagant and more luxurious than the finest clothing line in all the world. “Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

It goes on in verse 30, and says, “Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”

And this here is the point, “O ye of little faith.” The first point is that God and God alone is our Provider, and our foundation for our life. Our foundation of our faith should be based upon a relationship with God.

Hebrews chapter 11 talks about the essence of faith. The Bible says in Hebrews 11:6, “… for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Every single one of the people in Hebrews chapter 11, the Great Hall of Faith, those who God uses for an example of how we please God and how we have faith, had this pattern: they heard from God, they believed him, and they obeyed him.

That is what it is saying right here, “O ye of little faith.” If you are not going to hear from God and believe him and depend on him and listen to him, then it does not matter how successful in business you are. It does not matter how able you are to get others to feel sorry for you and give to you. It does not matter how much money you are able to put away in savings. This faithless life is eventually going to come up and haunt you. This faithless life is going to be a problem.

Verse 31 says, “Therefore.” Again, we have another “therefore”. The first “therefore” was saying, because you cannot serve God and mammon, because you cannot serve God and others at the same time, then take no thought for the things of tomorrow, because God is your Provider and now we have another “therefore” here in verse number 31. Because God is your Provider and because it is the essence of faith that you trust him in your day by day, like it said earlier in this passage, “Give us this day our daily bread.” It is an exercise of faith when we wake up in the morning and we're not 100% sure. Now, yes, God can bless greatly.

There were times that Job in the Bible had plenty of wealth. Then there were times when he had nothing. He lost everything, and Job was no less a man of faith during that time than in the beginning. It was when he had wealth that he trusted God on a daily basis for his daily bread and direction, and when he had nothing, he trusted God for his daily bread and direction.

Abraham was a friend of God. Though he journeyed through life, he was a man of great wealth. He was able to hire an army to deliver a family member who did not do what they were supposed to do. And lo and behold, God blessed him greatly.

God is not against you having wealth, but that wealth needs to come as a result of your faith in God. You need to not depend on it. You cannot serve God and mammon. It is not the object of your provision. It is the object that God may use to accomplish His will in your life and the lives of others. When you get this foundation right, that God is your Provider, and that God gives you direction step by step, day by day, then what you can do is you can use every tool He gives you, whether it is a heart of compassion or it is a bank account full of money, to accomplish His will for your life.

Ultimately, God’s will is for us who have believed the Lord, who have received Him and been baptized and joined to a local church to do the job that He gave us. Thatjob and our primary purpose is to reach the world with what is called the Great Commission, to go out to see people saved and baptized and discipled, so they can go out until the whole world comes to Christ.

We want the Lord to return. He made it very clear every time the question was asked before He ascended, and He made it clear throughout the epistles of the New Testament that if we want the Lord to come back, we need to accomplish what He gave us to do, which is the Great Commission. The Lord is not waiting for a particular day to come when we can all say, “Oh, we're done. Goodbye.” He is waiting for us to accomplish what He left us here to do.

We were looking at verse 31 here, where it says, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (32) (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.”

Again, coming back to the main point that we are making right now is that God Himself, God alone is our sole Provider. This ties into one of what we call the Baptist distinctives, which is the sole authority of Scripture. So many people today get off on this concept, and they say that the Bible is the final authority of Scripture. How does that apply here? God is our sole Provider. God is the sole Provider of our instructions. We get the understanding of God's will in our life by going solely to God.

It is not the final authority. He is not our final Provider, where if we cannot get things to work out by our savings or by our employment or whatever, then we go to God and beg Him and say, God, deliver me out of this horrible mess, because I don't know what to do. No, He should be our sole Provider.

We should go to Him first and say, “Lord, what do you want me to do today?” In a minute, we are going to have a tremendous example of how that works out in real life. But how does that apply to this idea of the sole authority of Scripture? When God is solely the one who is directing our life through His Word, then His provision is just plainly expected. It just goes with the package deal.

What did it say here? “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? And then verse 32, “(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:)” The Gentiles are those who do not know God. “For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.”

Does God know or doesn't He? He certainly does. He is the Creator. He knows what we need.

Considering a much more limited scope, the example of a newborn baby. His mama and his daddy bring him into the world. Do they not know what he needs? Now, maybe not today's parents. Maybe today's parents are a little bit too guided by the philosophies of Dr. Spock or whoever the doctor of today is, where you wouldn't want to hurt their “wittle feelings”. But the reality is this, if a mama and a papa bring a child into the world and are not negatively influenced otherwise, they know that a baby needs basically three things: they need sleep, they need food, and they need a clean diaper. You provide those basic things, almost every time they cry, it is one of those three things. When you take care of their basic needs, they will grow and they will learn and they will develop and they will become good kids who follow after the good things of their mama and their papa.

God, who is our Heavenly Father, who created us, knows what we need. Sometimes the reality is that we just get to stinking and we need a diaper change. Sometimes we need to learn to rest in him. Sometimes we need to feed upon the word of God. But when we get these things in order and get our priorities straight we find that God provides, because we are following after our Heavenly Father, we are walking in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, and we are growing and developing every day. There is no good father, no good mother, who is not going to take care of the needs of his child and our God is a good Father.

Verse 32 says, in the end, “for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” It goes on in verse 33, and says, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” If you want to get a good sandwich and there is a sandwich shop, what do you think you need to do to get that sandwich? Well, you need to go to the sandwich shop and ask for one. Then you need to stick around and wait until they make your sandwich and hand it to you. Sometimes as the children of God, we go, God, I need this, I need this and then we run off somewhere else and God's hand of provision is right there where we asked him for help. He knew what we needed. He was preparing ahead of time to do it, but we have run off somewhere else. What does this verse say? “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” If we are not walking with God where God's provision is, we cannot expect the good things of God's blessing.

Now, God will not allow us to die. I think that is one of the biggest misnomers of Satan. One of those lies with a hint of truth in them is that if you walk away from God for a moment, your life is going to be horrible. Then one day you walk away from God and you realize, wait a minute, I’m still paying the bills. I feel pretty good. It is not until you have walked down the road a little ways where you realized you have given up your walk with God and you have given up the fellowship, which is the sweetest thing you have from God, and yes, you have given up His blessing, but the fact that you still have what you need is not because of anything that you have done or any good deeds you have done. It is because we have a good Father who wants to help us and wants to bless us and He is not going to leave his baby to die.

We get all stuck up and proud sometimes and think the reason why I have all my needs met, even in the most terrible of circumstances is because I am such a good Christian. No, the reason why we have our needs met is because we have a good God. We have a good Father who knows what we need even before we do and does not give it to it based upon our own merits. He gives to us based upon the fact that He is a good God.

But nonetheless, if we are not seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness and not walking with God, we are going to miss a bunch of stuff that he wants to help us with because those provisions are to help us accomplish his will. We were not put on the earth to have a good time. We were not put on the earth to be wealthy, healthy, and wise.

We were put on the earth to glorify God, to glorify the One who created us, to do the job for which He made us. If I make a great invention, maybe, an automatic hedge trimmer that gets up and cuts the hedges all on its own. How disappointing would it be if I woke up one morning and instead of it trimming the hedges because they got just a little bit too long, it is cutting off my roof. That invention of mine is not glorifying me. That invention of mine is not doing the job for which it was created, and you better believe that I am going to take away its fuel supply.

When we get away from God and get away from doing the things that God has given us to do to glorify him, then we are going to have a problem. God is not going to give us fuel to accomplish our own will. He is going to give us fuel to accomplish his will.

He is going to take care of us and make sure we do not die, but if we are not going forth trying to accomplish the Great Commission, if we are not going forth trying to live lives that are patterned after the character of Christ and led by the Holy Spirit of God, then we will survive, but we are not going to have the great blessing that God intends for those who need it to accomplish his will.

The last verse of this passage here, verse 34. He says, “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.”

You know what, there is always going to be plenty of evil. Do you remember what the word “evil” means? It is sometimes synonymous with wickedness, but the word means something that destroys. There is always going to be a wind that is blowing and a sun that is beating a little too hot, or maybe a frost that is freezing a little too cold. There are always going to be creeks flowing that swallow vehicles, as we have learned. There are always going to be problems that occur in life because we live in a wicked fallen world. If you are worried about all the evil that is going to happen tomorrow, you are never going to overcome it because there is always going to be more.

But if you are dependent on God, as we talked about those in the Great Hall of Faith in Hebrews chapter 11, who heard from God and believed Him, and therefore they obeyed Him, and were blessed beyond measure. If we apply that principle here in our lives, and we are dependent wholly on the Creator God who made all that there is, then we are going to have all our needs provided. We do not even have to think about it. God is going to take care of it.

Again, it is not a recommendation to live unwisely. The book of Proverbs is full of Biblical principles that deal with finances, and that deal with taking care of yourself, and being responsible, and serving God. All those things come from the character and nature of God, but what He is saying is do not make them a god. Do not make your nine-to-five job a god.

We get so full of debt, and we get so full of the cares of the world that we can do nothing except work: clock in from nine to five, and then go back a little bit later for some overtime, and work both parents so that the kids are left alone, because we just want to follow the good American dream, and be like the Jones up the street. But the problem is we have left off depending on God.

What if we did not have all these encumbrances, and we could wake up in the morning and say, “Lord, what would you have me to do?” and he brings us into the path of somebody that needs the counsel of God in their lives. Though we were not able to accomplish what 99% of the world says is the right thing to do, which is to make another buck today, we take care of a spiritual need that has eternal impact. What would happen? The world would be transformed is what would happen. If every Christian lived life in the following of the ways of God, God will never let us down, and we would accomplish the Great Commission.

II. God Is Not Limited in His Provision

That very concept is what leads me to an example. Our first point is that God is our sole Provider. Our second point is that God's provision is not limited. We are going to take a look over in 1 Kings chapter number 17 for a moment. This is perhaps my favorite story of the entire Old Testament. It is my favorite for a number of reasons. One is because of the person I first heard preach this message was so compassionate and so understanding of this principle that I could not help but glean from his perspective. That was Brother Bill Wambsganss, now gone to glory.

What a wonderful example of God’s provision, in 1 Kings chapter 17, we are going to see that God is not limited. Now, verse number one of 1 Kings chapter 17 helps us to see that Elijah the Tishbite, the great prophet of the Old Testament, was seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Oh, sure, the kingdom of God was not at hand until Jesus came and died and was buried and rose again, and it will not be in full effect on this earth until the millennial reign of Christ, but yet all these hundreds and thousands of years before those events, Elijah was seeking the kingdom of God and God's righteousness. It says in verse number one, something that doesn't jive with the world's view of success. It says, "And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”

What an obnoxious statement! What an audacious statement, the audacity of Elijah to say, I am the man of God, and until I say there is going to be rain, there is not going to be any rain. I am not sure I dare to make that statement. The book of James tells us that Elijah was a man of like passions as we are (James 5:17), yet when he prayed for there to be no rain for three and a half years, God listened to him and he could confidently stand before Ahab and say, there is not going to be rain until I say there is rain.

What if God's people got a hold of the power of God in their lives when they were seeking first the kingdom of God? Is it not that kind of faith that can control the weather? You say, oh, well, that was a thing of the Bible. No, that was a thing that Jesus did when he stood up and said, oh, ye of little faith, when he calmed the storm (Matthew 8:23-27). Here, Elijah of great faith in the Old Testament stood up, and not because he was following his own will, but because he was following the will of God, he could confidently stand and say, I am going to use the weather to show you the way of God.

Ahab, perhaps the most wicked king of the Old Testament, at least in the realm of Israel, was a passive king who never could stand up for himself. When he was sad and pouting in his bedroom, his “wifey dear” came along and said, I'll take care of all your problems so that you eat bread. He was a passive, ridiculous king, but a king who worshiped idols and led the kingdom of Israel into a wicked, wicked place, a place where there was no walk with God. A place where there was nobody openly worshiping God and where Elijah later after this passage was convinced that he alone was the only one serving God. God had to, in his mercy and grace, send an angel to feed him and comfort him and tell him, Elijah, there are seven thousand who have not bent the knee to Baal (I Kings 19).

But this Elijah has decided, if he was going to stand alone, he was going to serve God and he was going to live by faith and he was going to do something that was not smart in the world's sense of smart. He stood up and said, “As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”

Here is what I want to get across right now in this point, as we are looking that not only is God our sole provider, but God is not limited in how he provides. What I want us to understand here is that this thing that might seem mighty and terrible that Elijah is doing does not just affect King Ahab, who was the wicked man for whom it was brought. This affected Elijah. Elijah is standing up and saying, I am going to about to do something that is going to hurt me. It might be as they say, “you are shooting yourself in the foot.”

If nobody has food, then Elijah does not have food. If there is no rain or dew, plants won't grow, animals will not get fed, there will be death and famine and pestilence, and you are going to feel what it means to not have the hand of God on your life. Yet, Elijah, who did serve God, who did know God, who did love God, said there is not going to be rain or dew, and he was going to feel the effects of that very judgment.

Sometimes we are called as God's people to do things that just look stupid. Sometimes we are called as God's people to do things that have no earthly sense to them. People want to say, “you are so Heavenly-minded, you have no earthly good.” I think that is hogwash. If you were truly Heavenly-minded, you are going to be a lot of earthly good. It is just that that earthly good may not look like earthly good.

Look at what happened here. “And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, (3) Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. (4) And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. (I Kings 17:2-4)”

Oh boy, what a deal! He did not even have to go hunting. The ravens were going to deliver. I think the only logical idea is that they probably took the food right off of Ahab's plate and brought it to Elijah, because King Ahab was not going to let a little thing like a famine keep him from hoarding all the food to himself. Otherwise, he would end up laying on his bed, whining and eating no bread, and Jezebel would have to come in and go hunting for him.

I think that King Ahab, having the demonic nature that he did, probably kept the best cows in his freezer while the rest of the world went without. We see that in our world today, in the world of politics, that the rest of the world is told they have to do X, Y, and Z, but the politicians who wrote those laws do not follow them because they are stupid laws.

“So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. 6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. (I Kings 17:5-6)”

You know, there is nothing better than a steak dinner with some of those real yummy, fluffy rolls you can get at that steakhouse. Oh, maybe there are some things better, but I can't think of many right now and that is what he had going for him. A piece of garlic toast and a chicken filet. Is a chicken filet a thing? Or is that just fish?

A good piece of chicken, maybe had a little bit of garlic butter on it because, well, King Ahab knew where to find that. No, the Bible doesn't say that it came off King Ahab's table, but I kind of suspect that it did. Maybe one day it was a nice ribeye steak and a fluffy roll. Next day, maybe it was big hamburger steak and a buttermilk biscuit. But every day, every morning and every evening, he could depend on God because God was not limited by the laws of nature that He himself created. So God provided however the ravens got it.

Now, I am not sure I would eat food that came from a raven or came from a bird. Most birds that carry food are not exactly the cleanest creatures, but if I heard from God and that this was a delivery driver… You talk about those food delivery services. The economy was so bad here, the birds were driving food for a living and God hired them. They brought food every morning, every evening, bread and flesh. Boy, what a deal! Elijah sought first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things were delivered to him by a bird who had the hand of God in his life. But the time did come that the brook dried up, 1 Kings chapter 17, verse 7, “And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.”

Mr. Elijah, why wasn't there rain in the land? Well, I stood up to King Ahab and said there ain't gonna be no rain. And well, there is no rain. But that didn't bother God, and all this time until the brook dried up, God kept him there where he had plenty to drink and brought him food in the morning and evening.

III. God’s Provision Has a Purpose

So we see not only is God our sole Provider, but God's provision is not limited. Finally here, we want to see that God's provision has a purpose.

We have touched on this already, but let us see how this plays out in Elijah's life. He heard from God, he believed him, he obeyed him, he was making an impact. Later on, we would see how that undeniably God's ways were seen through this action. But one of the outcomes here, is that God's provision provided a way for others to know that God was there.

It says in verse 8 of 1 Kings 17, God's provision has a purpose. Verse number 8 says, “And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, (9) Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.”

Now, when God said, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee, I don't think that the widow woman had consciously realized this yet, but he was working in the heart and soul of this widow woman.

Verse 10, says, “So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. 11 And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.”

Now, keep in mind, Elijah knew very well that the brooks were drying up, that there wasn't much food left. Yet at the bidding of God, he still told her, Go get me food and water.

Verse number 12 says, “And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

Circumstances were not much better for the widow of Zarephath. God did not move Elijah from the brook to Zarephath because the conditions were any better. God did not move Elijah to Zarephath because there was more food and water there. God moved Elijah from the brook of Chereth to Zarephath because God's provision has a purpose.

What did we learn first? Our soul Provider is God. Secondly, God's provision has no limits, and thirdly, God's provision has a purpose. God moved Elijah from the brook to Zarephath because God's provision has a purpose and God was going to use Elijah, not just to proclaim the truth, but to reach out into the heart and life of another person who needed the hand of God in her life. What does it say here? Verse 12 ended by saying, “Behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

We are at the bottom of the barrel here, quite literally, Elijah. As kind-hearted as I am and as giving as I want to be, as much as I want to help you, Elijah, there is nothing left. Just a little bit of meal in the bottom of the barrel and a little bit of oil.

The thing about oil is if the oil is gone, in those days, as I understand it anyway, that olive oil was used for a lot of purposes. They used it to cook. They used it to heat a little bit. It is always nice to have a little bit of oil to help start a fire, maybe sometimes to get the wood stove going, we use a fire starter. Olive oil was not an explosive oil. It was a slow burning oil that you put a little bit on the sticks there and it would slowly burn and help to ignite it. So, you used it in a sense as heating oil, but you also used it in a lamp with a little fuse in there to light your house. When the oil ran out, they were without power. They were without heat. They were without food. Have you ever been there, where there is no power, no provision, no food?

But when we seek first the kingdom of God, God turns it around in a way that can be explained in no other way, except that it was God. That is what happens here is that Elijah says in verse 13 of first Kings 17, “And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.”

Now, listen, Elijah, was not trying to make a point. “I am the man of God. Put me first, send me all your tithe money and I will buy a jet and God will take care of you somehow, you little people.” No, that's not what Elijah was saying. He was telling her, listen, I've come from God to help you. Hear from God, believe him and obey him because that is God's way of working things. That is how God's economy flows. You hear from God by reading His Word, by praying and spending time with Him at the beginning of every day, you believe Him and take Him at His Word. When He says in all thy ways acknowledge Me and I will direct your path, you take Him at His Word. When He says, I will provide all your needs, you take Him at His Word. When He says I can open up the windows of heaven to you, that you're not going to be able to receive it, you take Him at His Word.

When the rebellious and murmuring Israelites said, oh, we should have stayed in Egypt because we had garlic and we had onions and we had meat and we had food, God opened and brought down the bread of angels, manna. They were like, oh, this is great, and then some time went by and they were like, oh, all we have is this horrible bread. So, God brought them so much quail that it came out their noses. When they needed water, He brought water out of a rock. You know, rocks are rocks because they do not have any water in them, but God brought water out of the rocks.

God is not limited, and when Elijah came, he had lived this himself. He had stood up to the king and said, I believe God and God is going to use the weather to show you something, but that is going to affect me too. He went to the brook and God said, listen, I'm going to take care of you. Elijah heard from God and he believed God and he trusted God and he obeyed God, and God brought an Door Dash driver named Raven to bring him food every morning and every evening.

So, when Elijah came to this widow woman, he said, follow God's way of doing things and God is about to bless you. Put God first. It was not about Elijah, it was about God. It goes on in verse 14, “For thus saith the LORD God of Israel.” If you are going to make a claim that you need to do something for God, it better be backed up by God's Word.

“For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth. 15 And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days. 16 And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah. (I Kings 17:14-16)”

But listen, this was not a one-time thing. This continued for a while because God did not put Elijah on the earth to do this big magnificent miracle and disappear. God put us as his people on the earth to be invested in the lives of others, to build relationships that draw people to the Lord.

You know, God's provision had a purpose and that purpose had long-term goals and long-term results, rather. I think of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was a Friend of sinners, and He walked the earth and sat and ate with people that the Pharisees said, you should abstain from all appearance of evil, my Friend. You abstain from appearance of evil for sure, because the Bible says so (I Thessalonians 5:22), but that means abstain from any time something appears to be evil. It does not mean to be scared of what somebody might think of your actions when you are serving God. Jesus met with sinners and three of those sinners were named Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Now I don't know about Lazarus, but I know Mary and Martha did not profess Christ until the week of His crucifixion. Yet we see Him all throughout His ministry and He was a friend to them. Just like they needed to come to know the Lord, this widow woman did not come around right away.

We see that there are long-term results here, because it says in verse 17, “And it came to pass after these things, [that] the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him. (18) And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?”

For the sake of time, I am not going to read the entire passage, but with the help of God, Elijah healed him. We see in verse number 24, after she had her child back, “And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in thy mouth is truth.”

My friends, that is the purpose of the provision of God. There are people all around us, all around the world who need to know that the Word of the Lord is truth. If we do not tell them, who will? God has no desire to give us a mansion on a hill and a BMW or Ferrari or whatever is in style these days to drive because we believe God. No, the devils believe God and tremble because they do not obey God. They know God is true. My friend, God is true, whether we believe it or not, and believing Him does not get us any brownie points.

But when we hear from God and we believe and receive Him and obey Him as the natural fruit, the natural outcome, we will learn that God is our sole Provider. We will learn that God's provision is not limited by your credit score. God's provision is not limited by anything, and God's provision has a purpose, and that purpose is that the whole world should know that the Word of the Lord in thy mouth is true.

In Psalms 1, verse 1 it says, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”

The Bible is saying, don't walk with people that are not with the Lord. If you do walk with people that do not walk with the Lord, you are going to start to be more and more like them, because you are listening to what they say and what they are doing, and then you are going to start believing it, and it is going to be really bad.

In verse 2 it says, “But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”

You need to be with the Lord, and you need to keep meditating on Him. You need to follow Him, and be thinking about Him, and understanding what He is saying.

In verse 3 it says, “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”

If you're doing what the Lord says, you will be strong like a tree that is planted by the water. If you're walking with someone that is not with the Lord, you will become weaker and weaker, until you're just a tumbleweed rolling around. But if you're with the Lord, and you are with Him, and following what He says to do every step of the way, you will be strong like a tree planted by the water.

Last week in Matthew we dealt with what is commonly known as “The Lord’s prayer.” That passage, found in Matthew 6:8-15 gives us a pattern for prayer. We found that Jesus started out by showing us that our Heavenly Father knows our hearts and needs, and desires to hear from us and answer our prayer.

Then we saw how that our prayer should start with honoring God in His holiness, and then seeking to understand God’s will personally and pursuing it purposefully. In this pursuit of God’s will for our life, He promises to supply our daily needs as we follow in the steps of Christ. In Christ’s pattern for prayer, He helps us to understand that God’s forgiveness of our sin makes a pathway for us to bring others to Him by showing that same mercy and grace – and forgiveness – to others. Finally, Christ shows us that overcoming temptation comes not at the time of temptation, but ahead of time, in our prayer life. Surely, in this quest to honor God and follow His will for our lives, temptation will come – we will be tempted to dishonor the Lord; to depend upon others instead of Him for our needs; to live in bitterness instead of forgiveness. But, “greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world,” and so when we live a life that starts and continues in prayer with the right heart and for the right reasons, He will help us through temptation. He will provide our needs, and enable us to live lives that please God and bring others to eternal life through faith in Christ Jesus.

That right heart and right purpose ties right into the next passage of this “Sermon on the Mount,” where Christ applies the same principles to fasting and our treasure. Let’s read the next passage, which is Matthew 6:16-24:

“Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. (17) But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; (18) That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. (19) Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: (20) But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: (21) For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (22) The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. (23) But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! (24) No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

I. The Wrong Purpose

By means of contrast, let’s consider the wrong purpose as described in these negative commands of Christ concerning fasting. This passage starts out by saying not to be like the hypocrites. I don’t know what you think of when you think of the word “hypocrite,” but it is certainly an interesting word study. According to Merriam Webster, the word comes from Greek and literally means “an actor” or “a stage player.” Perhaps thinking of a Hollywood actor would be helpful. When you watch a movie, you have to know that those actors are portraying a person on the screen – who is not really that actor. Growing up, we used to watch “Little House on the Prairie,” and then we read all of the little house books, and I was disappointed to learn that Pa wasn’t really Michael Landon. There was a portrait of the real Charles Ingalls in the front of one the books, and he looked nothing like Michael Landon.

The thing is – in real life, the actors who play various roles are often nothing like the roles that they play in the movie. It is with that thought that the term “hypocrite” comes about – someone who, in reality, is nothing like the character that he or she portrays publicly. Jesus describes the actions of these hypocrites in verse sixteen of Matthew 6, “of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast.”

They twist up their faces into a sad expression, as if to say, “Well bless my heart. I am so humble and hungry.”

Jesus finishes out the verse by saying, “Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.” These hypocrites had the wrong purpose the whole time – to get a response from others. To get the pity and respect of their peers. Christ instructs us otherwise in the following verses. He tells us that when we fast with the right heart and the right purpose, we won’t want anyone else to know that we are fasting, because it is between us and God. The purpose of fasting is simply to deprive ourselves of something physical and needful – food – for a time, so that we can be stronger spiritually to overcome some sin or to discern the will of God concerning a matter in our lives.

We should take a shower, wash our face, and comb our hair, knowing that this is about being better equipped to serve God. We should present ourselves to others in a confident manner, knowing that God, through this fasting, is doing a work within us. Otherwise, the whole point is vain, and the results will be as shallow as those around us who are impressed with our acting.

Verse 18 tells us that when fasting is done secretly – between us and God alone – that the rewards will be public and open. This does not mean that we should expect much praise and fanfare for fasting – that was the hypocrite’s reward. Our reward is when God does a work in our lives that explodes outwardly. When we fix the inside in our private time with God, we will visibly affected outwardly. When the purpose is to be able to overcome the flesh to discern the will of God, that seed will blossom and produce an outwardly visible change that is the power of God on our lives.

Consider what happened at Pentecost in Acts Chapter 2 – the power of God was visibly on display through the lives of those members of that first church in Jerusalem. The reward of their non-hypocritical, private walk with God was a very visible display of the power of God, which led thousands to eternal life. I can think of no better earthly reward for a child of God than the obvious, powerful hand of God on his life.

II. The Right Purpose

Having learned what to avoid from the hypocritical scribes and pharisees, let’s move on to replacing that wrong, vain way of doing things, with the right purpose.

In verses 19-20, we have another contrast along the same lines, but applied to a different part of life. It says, in verse nineteen, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:”

Just like the shallow and temporary results that are delivered to the hypocrite, there are shallow and temporary results for the man whose purpose in life is to lay up earthly treasure. It does not last. If you build it, termites will eat it. If you store it, it will break down through rust or some other means. If it fails to deteriorate in some other way, the government will tax it until there is nothing left.

Last year, we moved onto a farm. On the farm is a field called “the junk yard.” We have hauled off several tons of stuff that someone put there at one time and said, “I might need that some day.” The life and work of a man who has since passed away was represented in the broken and rusty pieces of things that were once good and wonderful but are now beyond repair.

So it is when we attempt to live life for the purpose of accumulating things that “we might need some day.” It will fall apart. It will go away. The purpose for the Christian is not found in worldly things, but rather in eternal things. Jesus said it this way in verse 20 of our text, “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:”

The God of eternity gives us the opportunity to store wealth in His eternity. That wealth is not found in money and stuff. The money and stuff, rather, should have an eternal purpose. God loves to bless us on earth, but that blessing has a purpose.

Consider Job, who was perhaps the wealthiest man who lived during his time. His wealth was not found in his possessions, but rather in his walk with God. He used things that he had to bring his family to the Lord. Then, when he had nothing, his eternal value was found in bringing his three friends to the Lord.

Consider Abraham, who lived perhaps about the same time, but in a different location. Abraham, the friend of God, was also very wealthy. But that wealth had an eternal purpose. He, with God’s blessing, established the nation and lineage that would bring the Messiah, Jesus Christ, into the world. We could talk about David and Solomon and other OId Testament people who had the material blessing of God, but let’s move to the New Testament. In the book of Acts, we find a number of people, including Barnabas, who owned buildings and property, and used them for the eternal purpose of fulfilling the Great Commission to get the Gospel around the world! We should be personally thankful to them, because without their sacrifices for eternity, we would not know the name of Christ.

III. The Right Heart

Earlier in the message, we saw that spiritual things done with the right purpose will produce visible evidences of the power of God on one’s life. Then we saw that Earthly things, when used with the same right purpose, can be used greatly for eternal value. What both of these have in common is the Right Heart. Without the right heart, we will fall short of accomplishing anything for the glory of God.

Jesus continues his sermon in Matthew 6:21 by saying, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” The heart controls the spirit and direction and motivation of the man. Doing things with the right goal and purpose, but without your heart being in it, will not produce lasting change and results. Much is said in scripture about the right heart.

How do I get where I need to go with my purpose in life? It starts with a heart that seeks after God. It starts with the inward man walking with God.

Matthew 6:22-23 goes on to say, “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. (23) But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”

In sports, have you heard the expression, “Keep your eye on the ball”? When I was learning to drive, my mom was constantly telling me, “Keep your eye on the road.” She was right, if I turned to talk to her while I was driving, I would veer off to the right, towards my mom.

So it is in life – where our focus is, the rest follows. Where our heart is, the rest follows. If I’m simply checking off a list of religious deeds to make up for the wickedness of my heart, I will fall short of pleasing God. Why? Because my life is consumed by a wicked heart.

Instead, if my life is consumed with walking with God, and that is the focus of my life, my life will come to be filled with eternal purpose and eternal rewards.

Jesus concludes this passage by saying, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

Without a heart dedicated to God, and a life focusing on serving God, we will eventually grow to hate the things of God. There may be some religious deeds here and there, but nothing lasting.

It all starts with knowing the Lord. Has there ever been a time where you passed from death unto life, and received Christ’s free gift of salvation? He died in your place to pay the penalty of your sins and mine, so that you can have everlasting life and the abiding presence of Christ in your life.

All who will may receive him today, and begin that life that has eternal value and an eternal home in Heaven. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

If you have never received Christ as your Saviour, let today be that day. Simply call out to Him, trusting in His death, burial, and resurrection alone for your salvation, and He will save you today – permanently. Then walk with Him day by day, and He will give you the wisdom to live a life with the right purpose and heart.