The Sunday morning message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on November 19, 2023. The Bible verses used are Matthew 6:25-34.
If I asked you what you’re thankful for, what would you
say?
Well, there might be a lot of answers. Family.
Friends. Health, if we have it. Some of us might say we’re thankful
for our freedom. Some of us might mention material possessions, and
there’s nothing wrong with that. We should be thankful to God for the
material possessions we have, as long as we’re not arrogant or selfish about
it. Some of us might say the church. Some of us might even mention
our salvation that comes from Jesus Christ.
But how many of us would mention that we’re thankful for
our lives on earth? We should be, you know. I mean, in the church
we talk about looking forward to the eternal life that’s coming through our
faith in Jesus Christ. And we should talk about that. It’s very
important. But our lives on earth are important, too. We should be
thankful for them. And on some level, we probably are. But how
often do we actually stop and give thanks to God for them? How often do
we actually say, “Thank you, God, for the life you’ve given me on earth?”
Maybe you do, I don’t know. I do, sometimes.
But not nearly as often as I should. I mean, when I stop and think about
it, I have a pretty great life. I have a wonderful wife. I have
work that I love and find great satisfaction in. I’ve got great people to
work with. I live in a beautiful area of the country. I’ve been able
to live out childhood dreams in a small way: singing, being a sports
announcer. I’ve got plenty to eat and decent clothes to wear and a nice
place to live. Why am I not more thankful to God for that? Why are
a lot of us not more thankful to God for the life we have here on earth?
Well, I think there are at least two things going on
here. Well, actually, I think it’s one thing, but it shows itself in at
least two ways. One of them is that we take the good things in life for
granted. After all, we say that God is good and that God loves us.
Jesus said that God knows how to give good gifts to those who ask. So,
when we get good things from God, well, that’s what God’s supposed to do,
right? If things are going well, God’s just doing God’s job. We
accept it. But let something go wrong and, well, what’s the matter with
God? Why is God doing this? Why is God allowing this to
happen? And of course, a lot of times what we mean when we ask those
questions is, why is God doing this to me? Why is God allowing
this to happen to me? What’s wrong with God? Why is God not
doing God’s job?
What are we doing when we saying when we ask those
questions? Basically, we’re saying that we don’t trust God. When
things happen that we don’t understand, when things don’t go the way we think
they should, and we start criticizing God for that, we’re really saying that we
don’t trust God to do God’s job properly. We think God needs us to tell
God what to do. Because God obviously does not know what to do on His
own, right? If God did, God would get on the stick and straighten things
out. God would be doing things our way. Because, obviously, we know
what God should do. All God needs to do is listen to us.
Now, put it that way and it sounds kind of silly, but how
many of us have done some variation of that at some point? And it’s
understandable, in a way. There truly are things happening that we don’t
understand. And some of them are no fault of ours.
Hurricanes. Floods. Fires. Diseases. When those things
happen, it can be hard to trust God. It can be hard to trust that God has
a plan. God understands why we struggle with that. And I don’t
think God gets mad at us for asking questions, as long as we ask those
questions sincerely and not arrogantly.
But God would like us to trust God. Not because God
will be upset if we don’t, but because we will be better off if we do.
And that, finally, brings us to our Bible reading for today.
This is part of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount.
It’s a fairly long sermon, one that covers three chapters of the gospel of
Matthew. Jesus has covered a lot of things already. He’s given the
beatitudes, giving blessings to certain people. He has taught people what
we now know as the Lord’s Prayer. Right before this, Jesus has made the
famous statement that no one can serve two masters, that we cannot serve both
God and money.
Then, Jesus says this: “Therefore, I tell you, do not
worry about your life.” He tells us we don’t need to worry about what
we’re going to eat. We don’t need to worry about what we’re going to
wear. He tells us we don’t even need to worry about tomorrow. He
says if we seek God’s kingdom, if we love God and trust God, God will take care
of things. You and I don’t need to worry about them.
So now, how many of us live our lives without ever worrying
about anything? Yeah, me neither. We may or may not worry about
what we’re going to eat or what we’re going to wear. But I’ll guarantee
that there are plenty of us here who worry about tomorrow. And by that, I
don’t just mean the next twenty-four hour period. I mean the
future. There are a lot of us here who worry about the future.
And
again, it’s understandable. The future is, by definition,
uncertain. We don’t know for sure what’s going to happen. There’s
no way we can know. And what do we tend to do when we don’t know what’s
going to happen? That’s right, we worry. It seems like the most
natural thing in the world to do.
But when we worry about the future, what are we
doing? Again, we’re saying that we don’t trust God. We’re saying
that we don’t trust what Jesus said, that God knows how to give good gifts to
those who ask. We’re saying that we don’t trust what the Apostle Paul
said, that God can work all things for the good of those who love him.
We’re saying that we need to worry about what’s going to happen, because we
cannot trust God to do things right.
Again, God does not get mad at us when we do that.
Jesus does not say that if we worry about the future we’re committing a
sin. God understands our doubts and our fears, just like God understands
everything else about us. God is not mad, but I think God is sad.
God is sad that we don’t trust God more. I think God says to us, why
don’t you trust me? Your life would be so much easier, so much happier,
if you just trusted me. I did not give you this life as a
punishment. I did not give it to you so you could be consumed with worry
and fear. I gave you this life to enjoy.
Jesus said in John Chapter Ten, Verse Ten, “I have come
that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” God wants us to have an
abundant life. God wants us to live lives that are full. When we
lose that with worry and doubt and fear, we’re not really sinning against
God. What we’re doing is cheating ourselves. We’re robbing
ourselves of those good gifts that God wants to give us.
Now, understand, when Jesus
said not to worry about the future, he was not saying that we should not
prepare for the future. In fact, preparing for the future is the exact
opposite of worrying about the future. When we’re prepared for the
future, we don’t need to worry about it. We’ll be ready for it. But
part of preparing for the future is being able to trust God. Part of
preparing for the future is having confidence in God. Part of preparing
for the future is having faith that, if we’ve done the best we can, God will
take it from there. And that does not just apply to preparing for the
future. That applies to every aspect of our lives. In fact, that’s
what trusting God really means--doing our best, in every circumstance and every
situation, and trusting God to bless our efforts and take it from there.
If we trust God, we can stop
worrying about our lives. If we trust God, we can enjoy our lives.
If we trust God, we can stop cheating ourselves and robbing ourselves of the
good gifts God wants to give us. If we trust God, we can have that
abundant life that Jesus came to give us.
As we approach Thanksgiving
Day, let’s stop doubting, and let’s stop worrying. Let’s put our fears
away. Let’s do our best in every circumstance, and trust God to take care
of the rest. If we do that, we can be thankful to God for every day of
life on earth that God gives us.
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