The Vision (9/5/13): A Life of Total Dependence Upon the Lord

Image:  Scene from Lunch Fellowship on a recent Lord's Day at CRBC

Note:  Below are my notes from the closing application from last Sunday’s sermon from Luke 12:22-31.

Luke 12:22:  “And he said to his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life….”

The main thrust of Jesus’ teaching is that his disciples are not to be so overcome with worry over their physical and material needs that they neglect kingdom pursuits and kingdom life.

As we noted last week, Jesus is not saying that the Christian life is some kind of Bohemian existence where one does not care at all about the practical needs of living in the real world.  Christians are to live with prudential wisdom. We are to live in such a way as to care for ourselves and those under our dominion so as not to become a burden unnecessarily to others. Galatians 6:5:  “For every man shall bear his own burden.”

Leon Morris observes:  “The believer may take reasonable forethought for his needs, but he is not to worry about food or clothing.  Life is bigger than such things…” (Luke, p. 213).

In his commentary on our text, the old Puritan Matthew Poole wrote:  “the thoughtfulness here forbidden is not moderate, prudent thoughtfulness, or care but….”:

·        Distrustful thoughtfulness;

·        Distracting or dividing cares, such as make a man live in suspense, and to be wavering as a meteor…

·        A thoughtfulness that … keeps the mind of man from rest, in a continual motion and fluctuation.

·        Any such thoughtfulness as is inconsistent with our seeking first the kingdom of God.

What Jesus denounces is the tendency for care over such things to become such an overwhelming point of concern and worry that we neglect properly knowing and fully serving the Lord.  Does worry over the material provisions of life keep us from study and reading of the word?  Does it keep us from prayer?  Does it keep us from the corporate disciplines of worship and fellowship?  Does it keep us from exercising the ministry and service to which we have been called?

Is there, in the end, not a hair’s breath’s difference between the way we live as Christians and what we worry about and the way unregenerate worldlings live and what they worry about?

The simplest way to put it is that Jesus demands that we live a life of total dependence upon the Lord.  Not only are we to understand that our salvation is all of the Lord and our perseverance in faith is all of the Lord, but even our physical sustenance is all of the Lord.  The food we eat, the clothing we wear all comes from him.  If he has provided it in the past will he not provide it in the future?  If he has provided for his people in ages past will he not provide for his people in the present age? If he cares for every living thing in the created order (from ravens to wildflowers), will he not take care of you?

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle