Matthew 14:23, Mark 6:30-32 and Ecclesiastes 5:1-3

Rev. Jerry Hoek

The Spiritual Discipline of Solitude

Introduction:

This morning we continue our study of the Spiritual Disciplines.  In the last two weeks we have been looking at the outward disciplines of simplicity, submission, solitude and service.  These are disciplines that have an impact in the lives of those around us.  This morning we look at the Spiritual Discipline of solitude.

When I was in college, my extended family went on a vacation to a cabin to Torch Lake in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan.  My parents, two sisters and their families were all there, but I had plans to go off on my own after a couple of days and be independent and adventurous!  I just wanted to go do and see things on my own.  So I grabbed a sleeping bag, my camera and a bit of food and headed north.  I was pumped and eager to be on my own on my first trip!  It started out well and I enjoyed  the drive north to the Tahquamenon Falls.  When I got there I walked along the river taking photos of the various waterfalls and enjoying being on my own.

For dinner that evening, I found a small restaurant and ate by myself but started missing the chatter and conversation of my family.  I went back to the park and sort of slept in my sleeping bag in my car.  The next morning, I had had enough solitude.  I think I may have stopped and seen a few more things but  what I remember most about that trip was sitting in that restaurant not feeling so much on my own as simply feeling very much alone.  My first encounter with solitude simply made me feel lonely.

We aren’t particularly comfortable with silence and solitude. Many homes have a television on even if no one is really paying attention to what is on.  They simply want the noise in the background.  When we drive in our cars, we need the radio or some music on because we don’t want the silence.  When Claire and I walk early in the morning, we notice that many have their I-Pods on.  We aren’t very comfortable with solitude.

Yet solitude and silence is something that can be very valuable in our growth as followers of Christ.  It is something that Jesus Himself often practiced and something that He encouraged His disciples to follow as well.  This morning we look at the Spiritual Discipline of solitude and look briefly at 3 passages that can help us to practice this discipline.  Let’s read Matthew 14:13-24.

I. In this passage we see Jesus’ Need for Rest.

After this miracle, Jesus wanted some time alone from anyone for prayer so He dismissed the crowd.  Note that Jesus sent the disciples ahead without Him as well.   Why?  From John’s gospel, we learn that it may have been to protect them from the crowds clamoring to make Jesus King.  It may also be that the disciples needed to slowly learn what their lives would be like without Jesus being with them physically all the time.

In the meantime, Jesus went up to the mountainside to pray.  Jesus often would go by himself to pray for His work and for His disciples.  You can imagine Jesus on the hillside overlooking the lake, praying for His disciples, glancing up to look at them as they went across the lake.

Verse 24 says that His disciples encountered a problem.  A strong wind came up and they were having trouble making headway across the lake.  The wind slowed them down and made progress difficult for them.

We too face circumstances in our lives that hinder us as we try serve Christ.  Some face lingering financial issues which continually keep them off-balance or down.  Some face difficulties relating to their work or career.  Some face being stuck in a job in which there is little challenge.

Others face problems within relationships where their marriage is faltering or has failed.  Or there is a child or grandchild who causes heartache.  Others face ongoing battles within themselves.  They are always fighting themselves, never content with who they are or what they are doing.  Others continually battle depression or loneliness.

We all face circumstances which slow us down and make it difficult to make progress we would like to make in our lives as Christians.  And at times it feels that Jesus is distant from us as we struggle.  However, we must realize that Jesus is there, watching us, praying for us.  Corrie Ten Boom once said, “If God sends us on stony paths, he provides strong shoes.”  Jesus will care for us and we see that in what Jesus does in another setting as well.

II. The Disciples’ Need for Rest is seen in Mark 6:30-32.

Now the disciples have returned from a very grueling mission for Jesus.  They had been busy preaching, casting out demons, and healing the sick.  Verse 31 says that one group of people after another were coming to the disciples.  They were so busy that they didn’t even have a chance to eat.  They must have been very excited but they clearly needed some rest.

So Jesus says, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”  That is a beautiful invitation, isn’t it?  Jesus recognizes that the disciples had been working very hard.  Jesus knew that they needed some physical and emotional rest.

So they get in a boat and start off across the Sea of Galilee to the other side to get away from the crowds.  Now they could be refreshed so that they could return after a while to the rigors of the kingdom.  Imagine the relief they must have felt after they got in the boat.  “Finally a break from all those people!  Finally, we get to eat!”

There is an important lesson here for us: we too need rest in our lives.  Jesus recognizes that we get tired and need a rest, a break periodically.  We simply can’t go full steam all the time or we will wear out.

Once a man was watching a craftsman make an amber necklace.  He put a piece of rough amber on the lathe, shaved off a few fragments, and then laid it aside.  He did this with every piece he planned to use in the necklace.  Then he returned to the pieces, rounding them a little, but working only a short time on each bead.  He repeated this process until all the beads were shaped as he wanted them to be.  The workman had learned that amber will “fly to pieces” if one works on it for more than a brief time.  So he let each piece rest after he had worked on it.

If you work so much you don’t have time to rest, you may become ineffective or you may fly apart, physically and emotionally.  We need times of rest and refreshment and Jesus encourages that.

III. We need to recognize the Importance of Solitude and Silence as we see in Ecclesiastes 5:1-3.

How is solitude different from praying?  Praying is something that we all know how to do.  We have learned how to talk to God.  But there is an element that I think we have not emphasized enough and that is silence in prayer.

Now I am not talking about silent prayer, but silence meaning listening, reflecting and allowing God to speak to us in our time of praying instead of us doing all the talking.  The Teacher in Ecclesiastes has learned some things about silence that we can greatly benefit from if we listen to what the Word of God says to us about prayer.  Let’s read Ecclesiastes 5:1-3.

As the Teacher begins to talk about worship and prayer, the first thing the says in verse 1 is “Guard your steps.”  This means watch out, watch where you are going.  It reminds me of what we continually had to tell one of our kids when they were little as we would walk through the store, “Watch where you are going.”  Think about what you are doing.  Otherwise you may run into something or you may trip and fall.  Guard your steps, think carefully about what you are doing or else you may get into trouble.

And you must do this when you go to the house of God.  Now the Teacher does not mean that when the people walk to the temple on the Sabbath day, they have to walk carefully so that they won’t trip.  It means that they must go to worship, thinking very carefully about what it is they are doing.  They must go prepared with the proper attitude.  And we will see in a moment that the proper attitude is being ready to listen.

We should learn to discipline ourselves so that we are prepared to worship and pray to our Lord.  We are speaking and listening to the Lord; and we should be prepared and aware of that fact.

We need to learn the place of silence in prayer and we see this in these verses.  Verse 1 says, “Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools.”  Don’t just go through the acts of worship without thinking about what you are doing.  Don’t pray and worship without thinking about it.

Moreover, in verse 2, the Teacher says that we should cultivate silence in our worship.  “Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart.”  He knows that it is very easy for us to quickly blurt out anything that comes to mind in prayer.  When we pray without thinking, we forget who God is:  “God is in heaven and you are on earth.”  This does not mean that God is absent from earth.  This is rather a reminder of God’s greatness.   The point is that God is very great, especially compared to the smallness of man.  We must not forget who we are with respect to God.

Because of this we must be careful of the number of words that we pour out to God in prayer.  Verse 3 makes that point by comparing wordy prayers to a dream.  What happens when you have had a very hectic and busy day?  Often, you have very active and action packed dreams.  The things that happen in the dream are beyond your control; they just sort of come out.

Wordy and thoughtless prayers are like such dreams.  They just come flowing out without a lot of logic or thought.  Just like in a active dream.  We must remember who we are talking to and so make our words few.

The point for us is that we must learn to listen more in our prayers.  We often think that our prayers must be filled with words at all times.  But God knows the desires of our hearts before we ask.  We need to learn to be silent in our prayers, seeking what God may be saying to us in our prayers.  We must allow God to speak as well in our times of prayer.

Now we don’t become want to start thinking that this is the only way God speaks to us as some Christians have done.  Certainly the Word of God is the primary way God speaks to his people.  I have heard too many people say, “The Lord told me this and that” and it was not true or consistent with God’s word.  We need to balance what the Bible says and the body of Christ teaches.  But we should still allow God to speak to us in our prayers.

There is one final element in verse 1 that is easy to miss.  When the Teacher says to go and listen rather than rambling, he also refers to obedient action.  To “listen” also means to “heed” or to “obey.”  One of the things we tried to teach our children when they were young was to listen and obey.  In other words, don’t just hear the instruction, do it as well.

That too is what the teacher has in mind when he says that we should go to worship and pray with a “listening” attitude.  We don’t go just to hear what God has to say.  We go to submit to what God wants us to do and follow through on it.

In our times of silence, we should also allow God to speak to us telling us what we should be doing.  As we pray for families who are hurting because of illness or tension, allow God to show you what you can do to show care to these people.  As we pray for our church, we allow God to show us what we could or should be doing to further build this church here.  Our time of silence is not just for us to talk to God, it is to allow God opportunity to speak to us.

IV. Practicing Solitude Today

The goal of solitude is to hear God speaking to us not just being alone.  One can be a hermit for one’s whole life and not understand solitude.  Solitude is inner fulfillment while we listen to God and reflect on His working in our lives.  And so even if we are surrounded by noise and crowds, we can still practice solitude if we have a deep inner silence and let God speak to us even through the noise and confusion.

Now we do have to be cautious about solitude as well and make sure it is done in community.  In his book, Life Together, Bonhoeffer writes, “Let him who cannot be alone beware of community…. Let him who is not in community beware of being alone…. Each by itself has profound pitfalls and perils.  One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation, and despair.”  We cannot just be alone without accountability to other believers.

So how can we begin to take some small steps into solitude?  Seek to take advantage of what Richard Foster calls, “the little solitudes.”  Consider the few moments of silence in bed as you awaken or perhaps even set the alarm a few minutes early so you have that quiet time of silence before you get up.  How about your commute in to work?  Remember solitude doesn’t mean you have to be off in the mountains somewhere.  It is a state of mind and so you can reflect on God and let Him speak to us while in bumper to bumper traffic with the radio off.

For meal devotions, consider everyone praying silently for a few moments and pray and let God speak to us then.  Perhaps in just a few moments of walking each day to lunch or before bed.  I’ve learned that even letting the dog out at night can be a time for quiet reflection and solitude.

Perhaps you can find a small place of solitude as well.  A small room can be set aside as a quiet place where you can ask others not to disturb you.  Or perhaps a favorite place in a park or someplace outdoors.

Think about your conversations and let your words be few and full, which can also be part of silence.  Let your reputation grow as someone who doesn’t just chatter but when you speak you have something worth saying.

Seven years ago, I had surgery to remove a node on my vocal cord and the recuperation required that I spend 2 full weeks in silence.  I carried a small dry-erase board with me and used that to communicate but during that time  I was quiet.  I learned the beauty of silence as well as the power of the well chosen words, even when written.

If at all possible, once a quarter find a time to be alone for 3-4 hours just to quietly reflect, think and pray.  During that time you can evaluate your goals in life.  You can ask yourself what your goals will be for one year from now and then 10 years from now.  Set realistic goals but be willing to dream and stretch.  It is that time of quiet that God can come to you and speak very powerfully.

Silence can be a frightening thing if we don’t understand it, but when understood, it can be a powerful means to grow, to learn and to develop our relationship with God.  In that time of solitude and silence, we can learn to hear God’s reassuring words to us.  And in those times we learn to follow Him more as well.

Mark 8:34 “The Spiritual Discipline of Submission”

Rev. Jerry Hoek

Introduction:

This morning we continue our study of the Spiritual Disciplines. Last week we began looking at the outward disciplines of simplicity, submission, solitude and service.  These are disciplines that have an impact not only in our lives but also in the lives of those around us.  This morning we look at the Spiritual Discipline of submission, which in many ways helps us to carry out the life of simplicity that we looked at last week.

Submission can be a very difficult thing to do.  For example, about a mile from here on Nolensville Road as you go south from Old Hickory Boulevard, all the traffic out of Nashville has to merge from three to two lanes by a traffic light and then right after that to one lane within a quarter mile.  My approach to getting through this bottleneck is to be in the left lane that the cars will have to be in anyway.  Most drivers agree with that and we line up behind each other waiting for the traffic light.  There are others, however, who insist on moving to the head of the line in the right lane and then merging in ahead of we who are waiting.

What does this have to do with submission?  Simply this: what do I do when there is a car to my right who wants to merge in front of me.  There are times when I simply hold back and let them in.  But I must admit there are times, especially if they have come flying from well back and expect to just ease in, that I refuse to let them in.  I waited in line and they should learn to wait as well.  Sometimes I submit to others; other times I don’t.

We live in a culture in which people don’t really like to submit to others.  Christians are to be humble, serving others and submitting to others?  How crazy!  And how hard.  When we are pushed around, we want to push back.  Yet, we must learn that it’s not about me or my rights; it’s about the Lord and the church, the body of followers of Jesus.  And it’s not a lesson that comes easily and so it becomes a discipline that we must practice.  Jesus talks about submitting in Mark 8 when He says that whoever follows Him must deny himself.  That is really the core of the spiritual discipline of submitting.  Let’s read Mark 8:31-37.

I. The Importance of the Crowd             

II. Deny Yourself

III. Take Up Your Cross                         

IV.  The Discipline of Submission

I. Let’s first look at the Importance of the Crowd

Jesus had just said that he would be arrested, suffer many things and ultimately be killed.  Mark says that Jesus “spoke plainly about this.”  And Peter didn’t like it one bit.  He was excited to follow Jesus but he wanted Jesus to be the Messiah on Peter’s terms.  Jesus sternly rebukes Peter in verse 33.  This is the way it had to be and anything or anyone that got in the way of this must be rejected.

It is at this point that Jesus then turns to the crowd following Him and lays out clearly what is involved in following Him: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Now why does Jesus say this to the crowd and not to just Peter or just the disciples?  By speaking to the crowd Jesus is saying that the conditions for following him are for all believers, and not for the disciples alone.  Both the disciples and the people listening to Jesus’ teachings want to put themselves first.  Both the disciples and the crowd were self-centered and wanted to live for themselves.

This call to deny oneself comes to all.  This is not just for super-spiritual or the specially called.  This isn’t just for those who are going overseas to be missionaries in some part of the world.  This isn’t just for pastors who hear God’s call and yield to God’s calling and direction.  This is for those standing in front of a classroom or on an assembly line or waiting on a table.  Everyone here this morning must hear what Jesus says is required if you want to follow Him.

And it is a very great challenge indeed for we all want to live for ourselves.  We want to make our own decisions, live our own lives and make our own choices in our way.  We don’t mind following Jesus as long as we can be our own person.

The call to deny ourselves comes as a harsh and difficult teaching.  Thomas a Kempis, a Spanish monk known for his book entitled “The Imitation of Christ,” once wrote, “Jesus now has many lovers of His heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of His Cross.”  But Jesus intends all who follow Him to bear His cross which is what we see next.

II. Jesus says that if you want to follow Him you must Deny Yourself.

When we think of the word “deny” should think of Peter’s “denial” of Jesus in Mark 14:72, where Mark reports how Peter remembered Jesus’ words that Peter would “disown” Jesus.  We should think of denying ourselves in the sense of “dis­owning ourselves.”  When Peter denied Christ, he said he didn’t know Jesus and wanted nothing to do with Him.  When Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, it means we disown ourselves; we are saying that we don’t want to know the old self and we don’t want anything to do with the old self.  This means that we forsake our selfish attitudes and worldly securities for the sake of Jesus.

We deny ourselves in how we come to God.  A person who denies himself gives up all reliance on whatever he is by nature and depends for salvation on God alone.  We deny that we have anything good or of value in and of ourselves that would earn or merit God’s giving us eternal life.

Moreover, we deny ourselves in that we turn away from whatever thoughts and habits are sinful.  We want nothing to do with the old sinful person.  We are repulsed by the thoughts and actions that we did before God took complete control of us.

We need to learn to deny ourselves and we can do that by reminding ourselves of two things.  It’s grace that gives us God’s favor, not what we do.  We don’t push ourselves to the front of the line in heaven because we are so good.  Quite the opposite, we humbly recognize and accept that nothing we do is good enough.  We admit that the only way we can find favor in God’s eyes is through the perfect obedience and death of Christ on the cross.

Second, because God has saved us we must remember that it’s God’s life, not ours.  In Romans 14:7-8, Paul writes, “For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone.  If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”  We do not live for ourselves but live for God and God alone because He claimed and bought us.

Jesus says if we want to follow Him, we must do what Peter will do to Him when Peter denied Him, and that is disown ourselves and realize that we belong fully and only to our Lord.

A young artist submitted one of his works to be hung in a prestigious art exhibit, but the selection committee rejected it.  One of its members, however, the landscape painter Joseph Turner, insisted that they include the young man’s work. The others denied this, saying that there was simply no room for it.  Turner said no more but quietly removed one of his own pictures, replacing it with that of the young artist.

Jesus calls for self-denial where we say no to ourselves and our wishes and put Christ in our place.

III. Moreover, Jesus says that we must Take Up Your Cross.

This is a phrase that has become so well used today that we lose the brutality of what Jesus is saying.  We have taken the phrase of taking up a cross or bearing a cross and turned it into a rather inoffensive way to say we all have issues or problems in life.  I have a bad job or poor health, but “we all have our crosses to bear.”  Our crosses are viewed as ranging from anywhere from inconveniences to tragic things that we have to somehow get underneath and push on through.

When Jesus said this to His disciples they had no such understanding at all.  They had been around the Romans long enough to know that a cross meant a brutal and horrible death for that is how the Romans would execute their criminals.  To take up ones cross meant only one thing to the disciples: Jesus is calling them to die.

And not only die, they must willingly voluntarily pick up their instrument of death.  It would be similar to me saying, “If anyone wants to be a member of Faith Church, you can pick up your hangman’s noose on your way out.”  Jesus is calling His disciples and the crowd to deny themselves so much that the old person ceases to exist.  Moreover, once you pick up your cross, there is no turning back for you have made the commitment to deny yourself and leave yourself behind completely to follow Jesus.

Now realize the timing of when Jesus said this.  Jesus had said He would be killed but He had not indicated how He would be killed.  It was only later on that what Jesus said to them must have hit home with almost brutal clarity.  I can just imagine them talking after Jesus’ ascension about the things that Jesus said before.  “Remember when Jesus told us that he was going to be killed and raised again?”  “And remember when he said that we would have to deny ourselves, take up our cross” ……… and I can imagine that it was then that it might have hit them.  Jesus picked up His cross and went all the way to death on that cross.  He voluntarily gave up His life for their benefit and for the benefit of all who believe in Him.

That is what He wants us to do as well.  In “The Imitation of Christ,” Thomas a Kempis wrote, “Look, it all consists in the cross, and it all lies in dying; and there is no other way to life and true peace within.”

Now there are a couple of things we have to be wary of as we consider taking up our cross.  First, we should not think of Jesus’ teaching here as something that happens chronologically.  It’s not that Jesus is urging his hearers to practice self-denial for a while, then after some time to take up the cross, and, once having carried that burden for a while, to follow Jesus.   Throughout our lives we are to be denying ourselves, taking up our crosses and following Him.

Secondly, we must be very cautious of thinking that a person would be able in his own power to deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Jesus.   None of these things are possible without the powerful working of the Holy Spirit.  Now we have a responsibility certainly but none of this is possible without the Spirit taking hold of us and giving us the desire to deny ourselves.

The main thrust of taking up our cross is a willingness to say in our thoughts and our attitudes quite simply that this life is not about me.  We live in a world that tells us, “Of course, it’s all about you!”  You can have anything you want at any time of day or night!  We are in a world that says it really is all about you!

However, what Jesus is saying is that it is not all about you or me; it is all about Christ.  Neil Postman in Amusing Ourselves to Death, writes, “I believe I am not mistaken in saying that Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether.”  We are to submit, which means we deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus.

IV. So how do we practice The Discipline of Submission today?

First of all, we need to have a word of caution about going too far.  For example, there are some boundaries when it comes to area of the state and government.  Peter taught that we are to submit to the authorities in the state: “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.  Yet it was also Peter in Acts 5:29 when the Jewish authorities commanded them to stop preaching who said, “We must obey God rather than men!”  We are to submit until it becomes destructive and then we must obey God rather than men.

This same thing is true for other areas of our jobs or others in authority as well.  When submission becomes destructive to a person’s faith or the church, then it must be resisted.  Clearly this requires much prayer and reliance on the Holy Spirit because each situation is going to be different.

Richard Foster gives some specific areas where we must be exercising the discipline of submission.  We must first of all submit to Almighty God.  Thomas a`Kempis prayed this prayer at the beginning of every day: “As thou wilt; what thou wilt; when thou wilt.”  At the beginning of each day we can begin by saying that we yield our body, mind and spirit for God’s purposes.  This attitude that permeates the rest of the day until we surrender to God once again at night.

Second, we must submit to the Scriptures.  We deny ourselves and take up our cross by following what God teaches us in His Word.  We submit each Sunday or each Bible study to hear the Word and then to obey the Word.  That goes back to the discipline of study so that we know God’s Word so that we can hear, receive and obey the Word.

Third, we must submit to our families.  In our call to confession we heard Paul teach in Philippians 2:4, “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”  This is true in the Christian community but it must also be especially true in our homes.  We should always be making allowances for each other in our families, which includes submitting the time to listen and to talk with those in your family.

Fourth, we must submit to our neighbors and those we meet in our daily activities.  Where we can do simple acts of kindness to those around us, we should do them.  We can share our things with them and take the time to listen to them as well.

Fifth, we must submit to the believing community, the body of Christ.  If there are things that must be done, everyone should be asking themselves if that is a specific invitation to deny ourselves and take up the cross in that way for the body of believers.  Now, no one can do everything and we do have different gifts for different tasks.  However, we must all submit to one another and serve one another in small and big ways.

Finally, we must submit to the broken and despised in the world around us.  In every culture and community there are what the Scriptures call the “widows and orphans” or the helpless and undefended.  We must find ways to not only help them, but to identify with them.  This is not the job of the government nor of the church, but a task that is given to all believers.

What Jesus is teaching here goes completely contrary to the systems of the world.  It is a very radical approach to life if you ask our culture and our own sinful selfishness tells us that we should live for ourselves as well.

Twenty years ago, using the picture of a parade, Rev. William J. O’Malley wrote: “Quite unlike Adolph Hitler or the Rolling Stones or Hugh Hefner who also changed the world, simply by intuiting which way the parade was heading and getting in front of it, Jesus did not give us a message we wanted to hear. He came to turn the parade in precisely the opposite direction; he spoke words hard for our canny hearts even to give credence to, much less heed:  take the last place (the real parade is heading the other way), forget yourself (even your shortcomings), take up your cross, heal the hateful.”

A life of submission calls us to go against the flow of the self-absorbed culture we live in.  Yet that is the radical life Jesus Himself calls us to live.

Matthew 6:25-33  “The Spiritual Discipline of Simplicity”
Rev. Jerry Hoek

DOWNLOAD PDF:  matthew-6_25-33-simplicity-web-sermon.pdf
 
 
 

Introduction:
This morning we continue our series of sermons on the Spiritual Disciplines.  We have already looked at the inward disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting and study.  These are disciplines that impact us personally and somewhat privately.  Now beginning today, we look at the outward disciplines of simplicity, submission, solitude and service.   These are disciplines that begin to have more of an impact on others around us.  Today we look at the discipline of simplicity.  The discipline of simplicity is deliberately scaling back on our lifestyle so that our lives are less encumbered by the stuff we have as we live our lives as followers of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I must tell you that I bought something that might seem rather lavish  this week.  I bought a speaker system for our television set.  Now, I can justify it to some extent.   Gene Bratt and my family will tell you that I have some high frequency hearing loss and I was having more and more difficulty hearing the television.  Also the built in speakers were rattling and that made it even more difficult to hear.  Oh, and it was a display unit and so drastically reduced and on sale.  But nonetheless this purchase was a choice and not a necessity.  And it brought into sharp focus the issue of what we should or should not buy in our culture today.
We live in a consumer driven culture in which we have so much stuff and where we are urged to buy more and more!  We receive rebates from our government just so we can buy more and stimulate the economy.   But what really brought it into focus was an advertisement by  a credit card company I heard during the Olympics last month.  It started out with a voice saying this: “We are a nation of consumers…. And that is a good thing!”  Not only do we live in a consumer driven culture, we are now being affirmed and praised for it!
Well, we do live in a nation of consumers.  However, I’m not so sure at all that it is a good thing.  I believe that as Christians we should analyze carefully what we purchase and what we own.  I believe Jesus helps us put our stuff into perspective in Matthew 6:25-33.
 
 
I. Worrying is Unnecessary
II. Worrying is Sinful
III.  Seek the Kingdom
IV. Living Simply Today
 
I. First, why is Worrying Unnecessary?
Worrying is foolish because it is unnecessary.  Food and clothing made up the essentials of life for a person in the ancient world.  There are many physical needs that we have as human beings.  Jesus says worrying isn’t necessary at all because the Father will take care of all our basic needs.
He gives the example of the birds of the air.  Jesus says, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.”  God who provides for birds will certainly provide for His children.  Jesus says worrying is not necessary for God will certainly take care of people if He takes care of birds.
Moreover, worrying is also foolish in that it doesn’t help us anyway.  Jesus says, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”  A person living to age 75 will have lived 657,000 hours.  Jesus says worrying will not add one hour to that large number of hours.  Our lives will end when God says they will end; worrying will not add any more time to our lives.
In fact, it is quite likely that worrying can shorten a person’s life-span.  Stress and anxiety produces any number of health problems from ulcers, heart disease, high blood pressure and other problems.  These illnesses tend to reduce our life-span rather than lengthen it.
The word for “worry” literally means that we are distracted or we have our attentions divided.  We say that we are trusting in God for all we need, but our actions show that we don’t really think or believe that God will take care of us.  We say we know that God will provide for all our needs.  But we still worry about how this will actually come about.  Being anxious means that you don’t really think God is in control.
Calvin Miller writes of a physician that he knew who killed himself.  He spent his life caring for children with leukemia.  As he grew older, he never adjusted to the issue of a God who loved children and yet allowed a world with diseases that killed them.  Finally, after seeing so many children die, he could no longer face his inadequacy, his inability to heal.  Taped to the butt of his shotgun was the short phrase, “It hurts too much to care, and it hurts too much not to care.”  His grieving life issued in a grieving death.  He cared but he felt that God wasn’t in control.  Jesus here teaches that an anxious attitude is really an issue of faith.
 
II. Why is Worrying Wrong?  It is an issue of faith.
Jesus uses the example of some flowers that were likely growing nearby.  The flowers are beautiful, in fact, even more splendid than King Solomon in all his glory.  But even more remarkable is that it takes no effort at all for them to be beautiful.  They are that way because that is the way that God created them.
Jesus wants His disciples to compare themselves to these flowers.  These flowers are very beautiful, but they will eventually be burned as fuel in the ovens.  One source of fuel in those days was dried grass and will be the future of these flowers.
Now look at yourselves, Jesus says.  You are certainly much more valuable than these flowers.  Your future is not some oven, but eternal life in heaven.  If God makes sure that these flowers prosper, He will certainly make sure that His children will be clothed and prosper as well.
Then Jesus says to His disciples “O you of little faith.”  That is precisely the problem with worrying.  By worrying we don’t have enough faith or confidence in God.  Worrying about things means that we don’t think God can or will do anything about it.  We will have to do something about it because God isn’t going to.
However, as Frederick Bruner writes:  “The Father can be trusted and He is not to be left out of any of our concerns, least of all our physical concerns.  He lavishes every flower with the beauty of Solomon’s court and God certainly has plenty of time left over for us.”
Moreover, by not trusting God, Jesus says we become like the pagans.  Pagans either believe in no god or they believe in the wrong god.  Pagans have every reason to be worried because God the Father is not part of their lives.
That is precisely the reason why Jesus’ disciples should not worry.  They know that God created this world and everything in it.  They know that this same God is also their loving Father who loves them and cares for them.
Jesus urges His disciples to live in complete trust in this Father.  I ask you to right now think of some things that are worrying you.  What are some things that you find yourself dwelling on, fretting over, perhaps losing sleep over?  Maybe it’s your job, your marriage, your children, your health or the health of a loved one.  Maybe it is security, financially or emotionally.
Do these verses make a difference in how you view your worries and needs?  We need to realize that God is the Great God who is also our Father.  And we need to deliberately place our trust in Him in all things.
Corrie Ten Boom’s solution to worry is very appropriate.  She said, “When I worry I go to the mirror and say to myself, ‘this tremendous thing which is worrying me is beyond a solution. It is especially too hard for Jesus Christ to handle.’  After I have said that, I smile and I am ashamed.”  This is a good way to remember who God really is.
 
III. Ultimately the Solution for us as we consider things is to Seek the Kingdom.
What does it mean to seek first?  To seek doesn’t mean to casually look around for something.  If I lose a sock, I may look around for it but if I don’t find it, I assume it will turn up sometime.  But if I misplace my wallet or something else of great value, we seek for it until we find it.  To seek is an all-involved and persevering effort for something task which we must do first.
The word “first” comes very close to meaning “only.”  We must above all and throughout put God’s kingdom first.  In all of our thoughts, actions and words, God’s kingdom and righteousness must be uppermost.
But what does Jesus mean by His kingdom and His righteousness?  The kingdom of God is God’s rule over all things in heaven and earth.  To seek God’s kingdom first means that we are to look for and try to implement God’s rule in all things as much as we are able to.  To seek first the kingdom means that we are to submit to God’s rule in loyal obedience above all and in everything we do.
There are two aspects to the righteousness that Jesus is talking about.  Righteousness means that because our sins are forgiven in Christ, we can stand before God as if we had never even sinned.  Righteousness also refers to our conduct which comes as a result of our being made righteous.  Once we are declared righteous, God expects us and also enables us to live righteously.  If we seek the kingdom and righteousness, it means we recognize that God is king in our lives and that we are to live in full obedience to Him and with others.
That is the core of being a follower of Christ: we obediently follow and live in community with others.
Jesus says:  “All these things will be given to you as well.”  If we are seeking Christ’s kingdom and righteousness, all these material things, like food and clothing, will be given to us as well.  The material possessions that fill other’s lives are not to be our life’s goals.  Rather, these material things will be given to us as by-products of a life of obedience.
Frederick Bruner uses the picture of a house.  He writes:  “While disciples seek God’s kingdom in the front or living room of their lives, possessions are brought in the back door and deposited in the kitchen.  The front door of disciples’ lives is open to human need and divine glory; disciples are there for the important matters of Christian discipleship and human existence; meanwhile the Father has a special delivery service that brings to the back door the very things for which the secular world spends its whole time shopping.”
We shouldn’t worry because if we are seeking God’s kingdom, God will lovingly provide for all the needs we have.
If our ambition is to provide for ourselves comfort, power, and status, we are bound to be disappointed.  It ends up being a very meager ambition.  These things will not give happiness or meaning in our lives.  If, however, our ambition is to serve God and do His will by seeking first His Kingdom, we are in the middle of the grandest, most extensive enterprise and movement the world has ever known.
Sadly some Christians do not have this view the Kingdom of God.  Eugene Peterson gives the example of an executive who left church with the comment, “This was wonderful, Pastor, but now we have to get back to the real world, don’t we?”
Peterson writes, “I had thought we were in the most-real world, the world revealed as God’s, a world believed to be invaded by God’s grace and turning on the pivot of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.  The executive’s comment brings me up short: he isn’t taking this seriously.  Worshiping God is marginal to making money.  Prayer is marginal to the bottom line.”  We are part of the enterprise of the kingdom of God.
 
IV. How can we live simply and faithfully as we seek God’s Kingdom?
Richard Foster gives three attitudes that can release us from having anxiety about our stuff in this world.  First, what we have is received from as a gift from God and God alone.  This is really the essence of the discipline of simplicity.  The things we have are not the result of our own hard work.  The gifts we receive are from God and He wants us to use them wisely as gifts from him.
The second attitude is that God is able to protect what He has given.  We don’t have to worry and fret over our stuff because God has them under His care.  We should be wise and be cautious, but God will take care of us and the gifts He has given to us.
The final attitude is that what God has given must be available to others.  What God has given us is to be used in the community of the kingdom of God.  That is why God gave them and if we are hoarding them, we have not understood the purpose for which they were given.  If we have these attitudes, we are on the way to exercising the discipline of simplicity.
But how do we do this practically?  Again, Richard Foster gives some very practical and helpful guidelines to help us as we make decisions regarding the things we own and the things we buy.  First, buy things for their usefulness, not their status.  Cars should be purchased for their utility, not their status.  When you get a house or an apartment, think more of livability than of how it will impress others.  In the area of clothing, wear clothes that are functional, not necessarily in the height of fashion.  Think more and more in terms of function rather than style and prestige.
Reject anything that is producing an addiction in you.  Now I recognize that this is often a very difficult challenge for some.  However, whatever you feel that you must have, whether it is T.V. or a particular food, reject it.  We must refuse to be a slave to anything or anyone other than to God.
Develop a habit of giving things away.  If you find yourself becoming too attached to some possession, consider giving it away.  Get rid of the stuff we accumulate and live more simply.
Learn how to enjoy things without owning them.  Rent things or borrow things from others and don’t feel like you have to own things.  Some things we must buy, but we can borrow things that we don’t always need.  I admit that my books are the things that come to mind here.  I love to own them to have them and re-read them.  I need to cull them and share them with others.
Be very wary of “Buy now and pay later schemes.”  Sellers are very skilled at not only convincing us that we need certain things but they try to make it as alluring and easy as possible to get things we can’t really afford.  We should be very cautious and prudent when it comes to incurring debt.
The question is whether or not we will have the faith to rely on his care.  In a real sense a group of squirrels once preached a sermon on simplicity and this passage.  I once saw some squirrels running around the oak trees in the back of the church in Iowa.
This was a time of great financial strain in our young family.  There was a group of 6 or 7 squirrels racing up one tree and down another, chasing each other, jumping on each other, and jumping from one branch to another.  As I watched them, I knew that since they were there, they must have worked hard the previous year for them to survive the winter.  There would still be more cold weather and snow in the months ahead, but these squirrels were enjoying the life God had given them.  They trusted that their needs would be provided for and they were enjoying life.  And I told myself, “If God will take care of the squirrels in the trees, He will certainly take care of you; O, you of little faith.”
Simplicity means that in every part of our lives, we seek first the kingdom.  If we do so, God promises that everything that we need will be given to us.  When we do that, we will grow as followers of Jesus and grow in our relationship to others and be more effective as we reach out in our words and actions in the name of Christ.

Snapshots from Kenya – Masai Mara