Knowing Our God

Let's go ahead and the time we have now to be able to get into

God's word. I think you had your notes there

before you. If not, we'll, I don't mind if

you walk back and get a new copy back there, but you can see your

notes there Tonight. I'm going to talk about knowing

our God, knowing our God. This, this is a lifetime study.

And the verse that we had before you can see is Matthew 625

through 34. But these were actually the

first verses that I ever learned from Scripture when I was a kid.

And I, I didn't know they're in Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

But my mom didn't know many verses, but she knew this

section of Scripture somehow. And she always taught these

verses to me. And so that's the first part I

ever learned about God's word. My mom, she lived to be 93 years

old and yesterday we had a funeral.

She passed away on July 6th. And I spoke at the grave site to

the people yesterday in attendance about this verse.

And yes, pastor, I started the Ecclesiastes 72 which says what

is better go to the House of mourning than to go to a House

of feasting because as the end of every man and the living

takes it to heart. And we had opportunity to share

the gospel with the people there.

And I trust that the Lord would use that to change people's

hearts. But at the gravesite I spoke by

my mom and the impact of Matthew 625 on my life and the lives of

her children. And let me go ahead and read a

text to you. Matthew 6, 2534 says For this

reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life so as

what you would eat or what you would drink, nor for your body

as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food and

the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air,

that they do not sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet

your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than

they? And who have you bought by being

worried can add a single cubit to his lifespan?

And why are you worried about clothing?

Observe how the lilies of the field grow.

They do not toil, nor do they spin.

Did I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed

himself like one of these? But if God so clothes the grass

of the field, which is the light today, and tomorrow is going to

the furnace, will he not much more clothe you?

You have little faith. Do not worry then, saying, what

will we eat, or what will we drink, or what will we wear for

clothing? For all these things the

Gentiles eagerly seek, but your heavenly Father knows that you

need all these things, but seek first his Kingdom and his

righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about

itself. Each day has enough trouble of

its own. My mom would knew this text.

We were poor as a family and often my mom was concerned about

how how his kids would would they be fed and how we even get

through through difficult times. And she she didn't know much

about the Bible, but but this area of the birds of the field,

she would, she would quote to me and she would say, Roger, God

takes care of the birds in the air.

He takes care of the lives of the field.

He'll take care of us also. He'll provide for us as he

always has. And, and I would look up at her

and, and see the face. She had a faith upon our Lord

and she would trust our Lord. And I saw what faith looked like

in a person when I was growing up.

And I, I got that, that God did provide for his world.

He did provide for the birds. And my mom went to God first in

prayer and she did that. And I, I saw that that

demonstration of her faith through to the scriptures in

Matthew chapter chapter 6. But we didn't have much money

whatsoever. But my mom did shape my views as

to God's word at a very age. And she helped me to see the

very character and nature of God, which is what we look at

tonight. She appoints in your lesson

there God is as a God who, who is sovereign.

He is a God who, who is a good God and he is a God who is

faithful. And that's all what Matthew

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6 is all about. So we didn't have a lot of

money, but there there is no greater greater study that that

we can anybody can do than to study the character and the

nature of God to to know our God at the very heart of our

Christian faith that that that's what we need to be focused upon

in our hearts and mind to know where God and to see who he is

should be where our hearts always let always lay.

And pastor has a great series. If you haven't had opportunity

to go to the the Tate ministry or just on on on the Internet.

It's called God exploring his essence.

And there is no greater study that a pastor can give to their

people than to stay the character and nature and

attributes of God. Why?

Because that affects every aspect of our Christian faith to

see he's a God of goodness, a God of mercy, a God of kindness,

a God of forgiveness effects our hearts and life.

It affects our worship. It affects how we share Christ.

It affects how how we lead our families to say he's sovereign.

He's over all our lives, affects us every single day of our

lives. There is no greater study to

have than to see that God is your Savior.

We must see him as his creator. We must see him as holy and

sovereign over all aspects of our lives in order to be saved.

Certainly how you see God determines how you see Christ

his Son. How you see God determines your

sanctification and your holiness and how you how how well you

worship him. How you see God determines how

you show your faith, how you see him as judge and how you see him

as being a loving God. How you see God determines every

part of of your Christian faith and whether he's coming back or

not. AW told us that his book about

knowing God, the book, the book called the knowledge of the

sorry, the knowledge of the holy.

Excuse me, he says. The history of mankind will

probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion,

and man's spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no

religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.

Worship is pure or base as a worshipper entertains high or

low thoughts of God. For this reason the the gravest

question before the church is always God himself.

And the most pretentious fact about any man is not what he at

a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart

conceives God to be like. How do you see your God?

How do you see Him as He rules and reigns over your life?

How do you see Him as he reigns over your family?

How does your wife and your kids see see our Lord, It's our

response to make sure that our family members see God the

proper way, that they worship and praise him correctly, that

there is no greater stood than state of character and nature of

God. And that's what I hope we're

going to do tonight. So as you look your notes that

you can see, we're going to talk about the nature of God in

Matthew chapter 6. We spoke about it a little

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

earlier, but the first point that I want you to see is to

talk about not worrying the text here and about the birds of the

air and the layers of the field and about when, about tomorrow

and so on. You got to see that God is a

sovereign God. He's a sovereign God.

And that's that's in verse #25 if you look back over there, our

Lord says for this way, I say to you, do not be worried about

your life. I'm sovereign as to what you eat

or what you would drink, nor for your body as to what you would

put on. It's not like more than food in

the body, more than clothing. Now Lord gives us this beautiful

illustration using the birds to help us to see.

Look at the birds of the air. Do they not sow, nor reap, nor

get into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not much more than they God?

God is sovereign over the birds in the air, and He used the

illustration, I think, to help us to see something that we can

see. Every single day we see the

birds flying around in our house.

We have a lot of crows that fly in our house all over the place

and more crows you possibly but like the birds the movie, right?

But God did put those crows in our neighborhood for a reason,

babe. And we have to kind of hear them

crowing and crowing and crowing. But this is a good thing to have

birds in the air. And God is sovereign over over

the over those birds and he controls them.

He controls their life. He controls the life of the

birds and he feeds them and he provides for them.

He takes care of them and the birds don't worry about food.

They don't worry about their nest and what where they're

going to go to fly to for a given day.

They're not flying around worrying.

They just know that they will have food, the text said.

They don't sow, they don't gather, they they don't reap

things for themselves. They don't store their food.

They just trust in the sovereignty of God.

Birds, without knowing it, trust in sovereignty of God that God

will take care of them as he takes care of all animals in the

world. It takes care of us, but our

Lord uses the example of of the birds that help us to see God's

a sovereign God who controls every aspect of of our lives.

Then our Lord goes on and say, what about the lives of the

field and why are you worried about clothing?

Observe how lives of the field grow.

They do not toil nor do they spin.

The ladies in the field aren't worried.

They don't toil to they don't try to to grow upwards.

They they just grow and God is solvent.

He makes them grow. God waters little fields, he

gives them sunlight, he gives them nutrients from the soil.

He solved and controls every aspect and part of their lives.

And Lily's just without knowingly trust upon God's

sovereignty, how much more that should we do so is the point

that glory is making to us, and not to worry about whatever

might come before us. The problem with worrying,

though, is that it is sinful that it is not trusting

ultimately in God's sovereignty. Philippians 46 says be anxious

for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with

Thanksgiving that you request being being be made known to

God. Whenever we don't trust in God's

sovereignty over our lives, we we start to trust and own

abilities and start to see ourselves as being the one who

who rules and reigns over over our own life.

And the question in sovereignty ultimately is who's in control?

Who's in control of our lives? Who's directing the birds or the

lilies? Who's controlling and directing

our own personal lives as humans?

Certainly people by the very nature want to be in control

over their own lives. We want to be from, from our

perspective, the rulers of our own own lives.

We often think that we're in control as we make the choice

that we do upon upon this world. And we think that as as as we

work hard to feed our families and achieve the goals what you

have before us, that's us that the animals have been able to do

so. But ultimately, although our

perspective is we're in control, God ultimately is control of

every aspect of our lives. He always has been.

He controls every single breath that we have.

He controls our birthday and our death date.

He controls everything that happens upon until to our world.

And so while men might think they're in control of many

aspects, and certainly men have a responsibility to lead their

families while we get that, but God ultimately is control of all

things. He, he is sovereign over all

things that happened to us. The word sovereign means to be

over or above. First Timothy 615 says God the

blessed and only sovereign, King of kings and Lord of Lords.

He sovereign over the universe he created.

He's solving over all aspects of his children's lives.

He does what he wants. Isaiah 4610 says my counsel

should not shall stand. I will do all my pleasure.

Ephesians 111 He works all things according to the counsel

of of his will and he controls this world.

He's above all things in a loving and compassionate way.

He chooses to be merciful and loving to to his creatures.

While he could be cruel and merciless, He chooses to be kind

and compassion and loving and graceful and merciful toward us.

Now Lords, Lords want to help us to see that within the text here

of Matthew 6, He's a sovereign God.

He rules and reigns over over all all things, certainly the

birds of the field, certainly and the lilies, but also over

over our lives and as you walk our Christian life as as we as

you go through the difficulties that we come upon.

We need to see that God certainly is solvent over all

aspects of our lives. Romans 828 to say we know that

God works all things according to the goodness of all the work.

God works all things according to his plan, all things

according to the plan, right? She called us there's nothing

bad which happens to a Christian.

All things we're together for good in his ultimate plan.

Even that happens to us is a good thing unless we sin, that's

a bad thing. But everything happens to a

Christian. Whether we perceive it as good

or bad is irrelevant is a good thing in God's ultimate plan.

And that's the respect means to have all things were to get to

good for good. It was for those who are called

according to his his purposes. He saw of our lives or over our

church. He controls every aspect that

happens at church and he feeds the birds and he guides the

directs their path and the same way he guides and directs us

within within our church. In Matthew 6, he says the birds

of the air that lives the field applied just as well to his

church. And we are called not not to

worry about anything in the process.

But worrying is not trusting upon our Lord.

Worrying is a saying that you're kind of sobbing, but you're not

really sobbing when you worry. You're saying you're God, but

you're really not God, right? Because I don't trust you to do

this or that you, you are lowering God to something less

than He is, which is sent for and wrong and being the creator

and the maker of the universe. God will not say that that is

acceptable. He is solving of every molecule

within His universe and He does not like it when His children

doubt Him and question who He is.

We need to see He sees a holy, wonderful, sovereign God over

all things and live our lives in the same manner, thinking that

way, no matter what happens to us good or we might say

difficult and challenging. God is sovereign.

We trust upon him. We trust that God will somehow

and his ultimate plan work out this to be a good thing.

And Matthew, Matthew talks about that.

He takes care of the birds, He takes care of their lilies.

Point #2 it also talks about the goodness of God, says he clothes

the grass to the field. He provides for them whether

whether whatever they eat, he takes care of the birds,

whatever they drink, whether the lilies are clothed for our God

is a good God. He feeds and takes care of his

creation. He clothes and provides with his

goodness for all of our needs. He meets all that the material

needs of his creation. He meets all all our spiritual

needs. He takes care of all we might

have for provisions. What he takes care of us at all

times because he soon is is a good God.

And the word goodness means he's, he's one who is

benevolent. The word goodness means he's a

God who is loving and mercy and speaks about his grace as all

parts of God's goodness. He doesn't do good occasionally

to us in our lives. We can't say, oh, God's been

good to me today. God's been good to you every

single day. And if something good happens to

your life, you might say he's a good God.

Thank you, God, yes, that's a good thing to do so.

But he's a good God when we perceived as being a bad thing.

He's a good God when we see the difficulty come to our lives as

being difficult and challenging our perception of the events

that happened to our lives. And it's not based upon reality.

It's based upon what we perceive God is a good, wonderful, giving

God to us, whether we see that or we don't see it.

So he wants us to to give him thanks.

So he wants us to give him praise and and to appreciate him

for what he's done for us. And hopefully our hearts are

always directed in that manner to see his characters to see his

nature. Psalm 1/19/68 says you are good

and you do good. Teach me your statues that he's

a good God. He does good.

When my father passed away, unbeliever, I got my family

against. You know what Psalm 1/19/68

says? You are good and do good.

Teach me your statues. So yes, even when the unbeliever

goes to hell, God is good. He does good.

Christ, he's eternally good. Before there was anyone to be

good about, God was good. We usually need someone to be

good towards, right? You give something towards them.

Before there was even a human being to be around this world to

act upon, God was good. It's his character, it's his

nature, it's who he is. God cannot be bad.

God cannot be merciless. You cannot be one who is cruel

to His creation. His first very act of creation

was after every every single day He created something.

It always sent in a text, and God saw that it was good.

After every day of creation. You can't do it ever do anything

that that is not good. You can't act bad.

You can't and won't do anything bad to His creation or to His

people. And all that happened in this

world is therefore sovereignly good.

And our Lord knows all our needs.

He knows where we where our hearts are.

He knows what he has provided for us.

He knows his birds here in the text here.

He knows his lilies, He knows his rulers.

He knows our church, He knows our family.

He knows every aspect of our hearts and our lives.

And that's where our hearts need need to start.

He's a good God. He's always taken care of me

before. He will always provide for me in

the future, and He gives to His children abundantly beyond you

could possibly imagine. You can't even see the blessing

our Lord Sonia has given to us, but He's given to us.

James 1, James 117. Every good thing given and every

perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of

lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

He's a crate of the moon and the planets.

God isn't changed like the shadows on the moon and the

planets. He is is unchangeable.

His goodness did not change. He's not He's not more good to

us because we're good at him. He's not more good to us if we

do, if we if we act as good Christians.

He gives equally to the the believer and to unbeliever and

it gives many promises with his word.

If we follow his word, you'd be blessed by many blessings

afterward. He's he's a good guy.

He knows the gifts he gives to us.

We we give Christmas gifts that that might change or based upon

our yearly finances, you might have more presents or less

presents on the Christmas tree. God's gifts never change.

There was. There's no other text says

there's no variation and. Or shifting shadow in God's gift

goodness, he doesn't change. There is no changing shadow.

All that we are given by God is good for us and must be seen as

good. And my mom, when she, when she

told us about the birds of the air, she wanted me to see God's

goodness. She wanted me to see God's

sovereignty of our lives. And she would use illustration.

She would say, doesn't doesn't God provide for the birds in the

air? I say yes, then he'd take care

of Lily's little field. Yes, he does.

Well, don't want you to take care of us.

Yes, I do, mom. And then she would make me pray

next to her. She made me pray next to her and

that that was a good thing. She always, she always wanted me

to have the right perspective and seeing who God is.

He's also a God who is a faithful God.

The faithfulness of God is seen in 633, which is my second

favorite verse in the Bible. But seek first his Kingdom and

his righteousness and all these things we added to you.

So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for

itself. Each day has enough trouble of

its own. God asked us to to trust in His

faithfulness and He'll provide for all His creation.

We're not to worry about tomorrow and how we'll get our

daily food. God says all these things will

be added to you. All of you are in needs provided

is trusting God's Word, trusting God to be faithful to His word,

and He will be faithful to provide for us as He as He

always has. Faithfulness is part of of who

God is part of His character is part of His nature.

Revelation 3 says that God is faithful and true, and the word

faithful means to have firmness. He's a firm God.

He's a it means stability. He's a steady God.

He's a stable God. He's a dependable God.

He never changes. He's reliable.

You can count upon him. This is the great text of

Scripture. Matthew 633 is the verse you

want to underline your Bible. It's the verse you want to

highlight in your Bible. It's a life verse that I've

always lived my life by. We are called to to seek His

Kingdom and His righteousness and to know that all these

things that will be added to us. We don't worry about the things

that we have within our homes and how would God provide for

our families. We don't worry about our

finances or the direction our church would go.

We don't worry about anything Queen of God, it says we'll be

at all. These will be added to you.

God is faithful. He's forgiving in our salvation.

First John 19 his faith forgive us.

His problems are always true. God is faithful in protecting

us. Psalm 8411 for the Lord God is a

son and his shield. The Lord give grace and glory.

No good thing does he behold from those who walk uprights.

There's not anything that God withhold from us if you walk in

his righteousness. God is faithful and helping us

to resist temptation. First Corinthians 10/13 no

temptation. This has overtaken you.

God is faithful when our lie be tempted beyond what you are

able. God is faithful in keeping us.

Second Timothy 112 I'm convinced that he is able to guard

whatever entrust to you until that day and the text he said so

do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of

itself. God is faithful in our

glorification. First Thessalonians 523

faithfully is he who calls you and he will bring it to pass.

That's our God, a faithful God. God it God is truly faithful.

Psalm 36 five, your loving kind of soul Lord extends to the

heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the

skies. That's pretty good.

Your faithfulness reaches to the skies as far as you could

possibly imagine. He's he's a good God.

He's a sovereign God. And Matthew 6 talks about that

last point. Our notes what what should our

response be to seeing our God, to seeing who he is in his

character? The verse clearly says we are

called to seek his Kingdom and his righteousness and know that

God provides for us. We understand he's he's a

sovereign God over the birds in the air and sovereign over the

lilies of the field. And you tell us our response

should be to seek first his Kingdom.

That's what we're called to do that that should be our response

to seeing who who God is, but not to focus on what we have or

what we what we don't have. We are called to to trust God to

add to our lives according to his all knowing polyphone

knowledge of our lives. He knows it all.

But what does it mean to first of all, to seek his Kingdom,

right? But that is to to focus our

hearts and our minds of that which is is eternal, his

Kingdom, the Kingdom of God. There is no great expression

that we that the text has and all the Scripture has when our

Lord said the Kingdom of God. And I think that's forgotten in

our in our Christian communities, that expression,

the Kingdom of God. Christ uses us all the time

throughout the New Testament. He wants to see he's king as we

share Christ. He's saying, oh, he has a

Kingdom, he is a king. And we are far away from from

thinking that way and our society to say that the Kingdom

of God sounds kind of foreign to us, right?

He brings out images of some kings that are rulers in the

wrong way. Latex say he's a king of all

kings, the king of kings and the Lord of Lords.

It's called the Kingdom of God, that which is eternal, that

which is heaven afterwards, and we need to be able to share

that. Christ says this is his Kingdom.

He is the great king. He shall come back someday.

Early in chapter 6, we look back in 610, Jesus Christ models to

his disciples how to pray, and he told them in Matthew 6, your

Kingdom come and you will be done on earth as it is in

heaven. He wants, He wants us to see

that his Father's Kingdom to come to this earth, to exist on

this earth as it currently does in heaven right now.

And we want Christ to rule and reign upon this world as it as

it this right now. As believers in Christ, we trust

in Christ, take care of us and provide for us as he provides

for the birds in the air. Certainly.

But what our response is Colossians 3/2 an eternal

perspective. Colossians 32 Set your minds of

things above none of the things that on earth.

Our focus is on being citizens of heaven.

Our citizenship is with heaven. Our focus is on doing works that

have eternal consequence. Paul talks about that in First

Corinthians, how we are called to to build upon the foundation

of Christ, to live our lives and do works which have eternal

consequence. To build upon that with gold and

silver and precious stones, the building, so to speak, and not

with wood, hay and stubble which are building material, which are

inferior and which are burn it, burn it up eventually upon the

temporary things, this world, that which is gold, silver and

precious stones, that which works, which have eternal

consequence. And we're to build upon the

foundation and make the building of our lives.

But upon works which are good, gold, silver, precious stones,

we're to make sure the things we do in our life have eternal

consequences and not things which only have temporary

consequent in this world. It speaks about whether you help

your neighbor to move or you share the gospel with somebody,

right? Whether you have a delicious

meal somewhere which I'll burn up someday, or whether you're

worshiping Christ, right. How do you spend your days?

Are you doing things which have temporary consequences, which

are good woods double hey, but those things ultimately shall

burn up someday when this world goes away.

We need to make sure that we do think we have eternal

consequence. And my Lord says to us, seek

first his Kingdom. He's saying have an eternal

perspective, see that which is larger, share the gospel,

worship Christ well, make sure your kids see Christ, make them,

make them your priorities. We want Christ to return to this

world to be with us. So that's where our hearts lay.

And Titus 213 tell us where our hearts need to be.

It says looking for the blessed hope and the parent of the glory

of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus who gave himself

for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for

himself people for his own possession, zealous for for good

works. Our hearts desires that we want

to be with him for heaven, heaven.

We want to be with our Lord for heaven, heaven.

We want his Kingdom to come. We want heaven to begin the

things of this world to to fade away.

We're called to to seek his Kingdom and also his

righteousness. That's what we're called to do.

That should be our response to seek his righteousness and to

trust our Lord, provide for us as he does what lives the field.

We are to seek his righteousness.

What does that mean to to seek God's righteousness?

The Strong's Concordance describes this verse

righteousness as integrity, virtue, purity of life.

We're to seek rightness and correctness in in the world.

Would it seek correct thinking and correct feelings?

Would it seek right and correct acting in our hearts and our

lives? God says to seek his seek his

righteousness, to seek to seek God's, to desire holiness, to

desire purity upon our lives. We are to live pure and holy

lives before our Lord, that that's where our hearts lay.

We would have a desire for justice upon this world, that

which is good to take place upon this world.

To seek His righteousness is to seek to be pure and holy and to

confess our sins and to live lives of purity.

We want, we want to be more like Christ is where hearts lay.

We want to obey the leading the Holy Spirit within our lives and

we trust that He will take care of us.

He'll provide for us and all the details that might come our way.

We don't worry about the things that happened to us in our life.

It's not what happened to us. It's important.

It's how we respond to those things.

How do you respond to good things we perceive or poor

things? How does your your kids see your

response? How does your wife and husband

see your response? They're looking to us to see,

you know, how do you respond when things go poor and well?

And my mom wasn't a a great scholar of the Bible, but she

she gave that to me. You need to trust our Lord.

You need to see he's over all think, control all the things

and he takes care of the birds and they lose the field.

Roger, he'll take care of you and I, I, I've lived my life

that way. He always had taken care of me

and my wife and our family. We certainly have been so

blessed. He takes care of us, our job to

seek his Kingdom and his righteousness.

Let's go ahead and pray Heavenly Father, so much for God for a

time to give to us Father to focus upon your word Father and

truly who you are. Father, truly you're a great

and, and sovereign God over all aspects of our lives that we we

know that Lord forgive us the times in which we didn't act

that way, Father. So you're a God who who's given

us so many wonderful things in our life, Father, And we're

thankful, Father. Thank you for our our wives and

for our husbands and for our children.

Thank you for the homes which you have provided for us and for

this wonderful church. And thank you for our pastor and

for his faithfulness and leading us, Father, and for the

children's ministry and for the men's ministry and so many

things that you have given. But truly you're a great God who

gives, gives, gives a Bunny to us, Father, and we'll thank you

for that, Father. Help us to see our

responsibility afterwards, Father, to communicate your

great gospel to those that know your Father.

Help us, Lord, to always seek your Kingdom, Father.

And how about help that to be first and foremost in our minds,

Father? Help us to have a more eternal

perspective than we have, Father, and help us to seek

lives of holiness and purity before you.

Father, we pray these things in Jesus name, Amen.