St Mary's Church Almondsbury
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“Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People” Sermon Series
Sermon 6: Going the distance with a well-ordered heart	‘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. Are you not much more valuable than they?’ (Matthew 6:26)
Value earth in the light of heaven Matthew 6. 25-34 In our society we have plenty to live with, but nothing to live for. This passage follows the challenge of ‘You can not serve God or Mammon’. So there are two ways we can live: trusting in God or in money to give us fullness of life. 1. Faith –‘O you of little faith’ (v30) Worry, the opposite of faith, is wrong because: 1. Worries about tomorrow rob us of the joys of today. 2. Worry is useless and debilitating (v27), cannot even add an hour (insignificant) to our lives. 3. Worry is not a little weakness, but an affront to God. It is caused by a lack of trust in the God who is our Father; we are acting as Gentiles (v32) or practical atheists, who have no relationship with him. To move from worry to faith we need to see God as he really is 2. Father –‘Your heavenly Father feeds’ (v26) 1. Your – A personal relationship with my own father. 2. Heavenly – above this world in the place of power and perfect knowledge. 3. Father – A practical carer who looks after animals (v26) and plants (v28, 29). If he looks after the temporal, he will look after the eternal (v30). 4. Feeds – practical provision. 3. First – But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness (v33) Faith is living intentionally and energetically towards God. Our faith in our Father causes us to put him first. We live and work to bring heaven to earth so God is obeyed on earth as he is in heaven – that is his kingdom (where he is obeyed) and righteousness (where he is seen). This is for the glory of God and the good of people. ‘And all these things will be given to you as well’. This is everything we need to live. Application- Value earth in the light of heaven 1. Have forethought, not anxious thought - prudent provision (so not be a burden to others) for the future is right (pension, savings), but trust God in using resources to do his will. 2. Sustain your body (we pray ‘give us today our daily bread’) but live for your soul (make priorities and decisions which will have eternal consequences). 3. Keep ambitions of this world secondary to promoting God’s honour. Seek ‘first’ the supreme good of God’s honour (not our ego or power as the end in itself) and then develop gifts, widen responsibilities, extend influence, go for promotion.
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