Stand Firm - Part 3
June 2, 2019
I know when it comes time for my birthday or Christmas, or our anniversary, I tend to drive Debbie a little crazy. She always asks me what I need . . . and my usual answer is ‘nothing.’ I don’t need anything. I have everything I really need. I’ve got my God, my family, you, I have pretty good health, and I could go on with my list of why I don’t really have any needs.
Of course, I have my wants, that list could be a mile long of those fun little things I could go for, but really don’t need . . . but they would be fun for about a week, then we’d have to find someplace to put them.
That’s something we really need to differentiate . . . our needs from our wants!! Often times we confuse the two. We think our needs are our wants. They’re not, and in fact, they’re nowhere close to being the same. I think that often gets us in trouble. We think our wants are our needs, so we get more stuff which hurts us in the end.
So, what is it you really need? That’s what we’re going to talk about today. But we’re going to talk about our needs in terms of what will help us best to stand firm in our faith. This is the 3rd week of this series and the hope is that we will better be able to use our faith to help us stand firm . . . to be that immovable object when we face those tough times.
For the past 2 Sunday’s we’ve looked at standing firm, specifically standing firm in the face of our doubts. And today, we’re looking at standing firm when we have needs.
With that in mind . . . what is your greatest NEED? We can vary in that answer, but I want to give you what I believe is the best answer. And you know where I’m going to go with this . . .
God is everything you will ever NEED
That’s it! We could be done right now and you’ll beat all the other churches to lunch. But, no. We’ll talk for a little longer!!
Think about your lives . . . think about all that is going on right now. Consider your health, your wealth, your family situation, your job, your income, your living situation . . . whatever it is . . .
God is everything you will ever need! But here’s the kicker . . . Do you believe that? Do you believe God is everything you will ever need? Because that one answer should determine the path, the course, the direction your life moves in.
To show you God is all you will ever need, I want to look at a couple of Bible stories and what we’re going to see is that just like on Mother’s Day when I talked about some different names for God, I’m going to do the same again.
Genesis 22 contains a pretty amazing story. It’s the story of what God asked Abraham to do. If you recall, Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90 when their only child, Isaac was born. When Isaac was a boy, God told Abraham to take Isaac and sacrifice him. So Abraham set off with Isaac and as he was preparing to follow God’s command, in Genesis 22:12, an angel spoke to Abraham and said - -
12 “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns.
And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.
14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide;” as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
Abraham was so struck by this encounter with God, that he gave an additional name to God. In Hebrew we would call God Jehovah Jireh. God my provider.
This is really important. Because one of the things we realize is that hindsight is 20/20. When we look at the past, we often recognize how God helped us overcome what was going on in our lives so that we could stand firm through our difficult times.
But now, we’re in another struggle, whatever it is, and we begin to wonder once again if God is going to provide for us. It’s easy to look around and say, “well, others have it worse than me.” But then when we’re all alone, and we’re in that dark room at night, laying in bed, tossing and turning and our mind and our heart are racing and we can’t turn them off, we question, we wrestle, we wonder and ask questions the psalmist asked in Psalm 77. These are some of the most poignant questions ever. It’s amazing that God said, “YES, put them in the Bible.”
Listen to what the psalmist asked -
7 Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable?
8 Has His steadfast love forever ceased? Are His promises at an end for all time?
9 Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He in anger shut up His compassion? – Psalm 77:7-9
Have you ever asked any of those questions? I think most of us have. Yet, we believe God will provide. We call God our provider, yet we struggle when we’re in the midst of our trials and struggles.
When we have that need, we wonder if God is really going to help us. Even though God always comes through - - in His plan, not yours, He always comes through. He has a batting average of hitting 100%. He never makes an out, He never misses a shot, He is never off key.
You see, when we worry and worry and become anxious about everything we find ourselves not only asking these questions, but we start to believe that the answers are against us. We believe God is no longer gracious to me. We believe He is angry at me. We believe His promises no longer apply to me. We find no peace. We only find anxiousness and worry.
And that moves us away from standing firm in our faith, because our faith is wavering. We’re not firm, we’re kind of like jello. We don’t have a firm foundation.
But Abraham said, God is my provider, and my hope is that you will say the same today . . . God is my provider. In Matthew 6, Jesus was giving the famous Sermon on the Mount and He said this - -
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body,
what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,
29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
As we read those verses about worry and anxiety we hear Jesus talking about food and drink and clothing. But God’s provisions go far deeper than just these basic needs, which do need to be met. And sometimes life situations lead us to wonder about our next meal, it happens, but God has promised us that He would take care of us.
But here’s the point as we think about standing firm in our faith. Look at again at the final 2 verses of what Jesus said - -
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Do you want to get away from the worry and anxiety about what we need? Then Jesus offers us the very answer. He tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Seek after the kingdom of God . . . right!? NO!!! SEEK FIRST the kingdom of God. When we seek out God as an after thought, which is our normal pattern - we end up with more worry and anxiety.
Why? Because we have not placed God first. God is somewhere down the list. He’s one more solution in our list of possible solutions. God is wanting and willing to provide for us, but when we seek the answer on our own, we will often struggle.
Now, let me say that God does want us to be proactive in finding jobs and homes and food and health and have healthy family situations. God wants us to live in a certain way which honors and glorifies Him.
But when we go at it on our own, without seeking His wisdom, without caring about His plan, without prayer and Bible reading, without talking to a trusted friend who has faith - - then we end up in trouble . . . and then we begin to doubt more and more. We ask those questions the psalmist asked. We ask those questions Jesus was asking.
If we want to experience the power of God’s provision, and I’m not saying trusting and submitting 100% to God is going to make you wealthy, but it’s going to give you the connection with God which sustains. You will have the connection which allows you to have a stand firm faith in the midst of the difficulties of life.
It’s placing Jesus first. He’s always first. He has to be first to experience the peace which is unexplainable, yet the peace which is very real.
We see in His teachings the way Jesus helps us to experience and understand that God really provides for us. But we also see what Jesus’ mission on earth was all about.
We read passages like this one from Paul in Romans 8 –
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
A reminder that God provides. A reminder that when we seek His kingdom first, nothing, absolutely nothing can separate us from His love through Jesus.
In Hebrews 7:25, we read –
25 Therefore Jesus is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.
He just doesn’t save you. He saves you completely. But you have to come to God.
So, friends as we end today, go back to the beginning of this message - what is it you need more than anything? You need Jesus and . . .
Jesus is all you will ever need!
The same God who created the lilies and wildflowers and feeds a baby sparrow sent Jesus as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Jesus is God’s perfect and complete provision, the answer to every person’s deepest question and the fulfillment of our deepest needs.
Abraham’s only son was set to be sacrificed and was saved by God’s miraculous provision. In the gospels God’s only Son was sacrificed as the miraculous provision for all people.
When we say Jehovah Jireh, The Lord will provide, we can be certain it is true. We can see it beyond the flowers and the birds. We see it at the cross – Jesus is His great provision.
