Flowers only bloom for a little while, and then their beauty fades. They are ______________. People of Jesus’ day would heat their ____________ with grass when wood was in short supply. So, grass could indeed be blooming today, and tomorrow _____________ into the furnace. For all their beauty, flowers do not rank ____________ in the order of living things. And so, we see that God will look after the _____________ of His servants. He is quite able to make sure that you have _____________ as you serve Him. When God reminds the Israelites in Deuteronomy 8 of their 40 years of wandering, and how the Lord took care of them, He says in verse 3b-4 fed you with the manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, in order to make you understand that man shall not live on bread alone, but man shall live on everything that comes out of the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. None of you have worn the __________ set of clothes every day for 40 years, nor worn the same shoes for 40 years. God caused a miraculous ___________________ of what they had during very difficult times of wandering in the wilderness. God is _____________ this all the time for us, as His servants. He is keeping us and ______________ us through situations, trials and tribulations that we have no way to get through ourselves. (see also Deut 29:2-5). Yet they didn’t notice that God was keeping their clothes and shoes from wearing out during those forty years. They were _____________to what God was doing around them. Why? Because they were focused on ________________ and murmuring. Never content with what God was giving them, always focused on the meat and bread that they had enjoyed in Egypt—while they were slaves. Their focus on what ____________ wanted caused them to miss the boat on what God wanted to do, and circle around Mt. Sinai for 40 years, instead of entering the promised land.
And that is the way many in the church are today. God is working all around them, preserving them, providing miracles and provision for them, and all they say is “but WE want THAT instead, of what you want for us, Jesus”. Over and over, Jesus has to say, in Matthew 11:15 15 The one who has ears to hear, let him hear. The fact that Jesus has to say “the one who has ears to hear, let him hear” is like Jesus saying “listen up”. And what does that imply? That they weren’t _________________;
You of little faith!
Whenever we see the words, you of little faith in the New Testament, it’s always referring to the disciples. They were the ones who were “of little faith”. “You of little faith” is not a ___________________. Worrying is sin. And this biting, gnawing worry is a failure to trust God. And it opens a door to do what sin always does, and that’s separate us from God. And if we fail to listen to the voice of God for long enough, and instead listen to our anxiety and worry, then we will begin to doubt our salvation, and become ____________________ for the Kingdom of God.
31 Do not worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear for clothing?’
Jesus is not saying that His disciples should be as ________________ as the birds and the flowers, doing no work, or simply happening on food and clothing as they find them. Instead, God expects us to ________ (see Gen 3 v17-19). And, because it was our sin and doubt of God’s provision in the first place that caused Adam and Eve to sin, then that means that this tension and doubt and anxiety, and worry that we feel if we don’t carefully guard our hearts, is something that we’ve brought on ourselves, and ______________ to bring on ourselves by not trusting God. It’s our doubt of God’s _____________ that causes us to ask “What are we to eat”, or “What are we to drink”, or “what are we to wear for clothing”.
32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things;
Basically, Jesus is saying: Don’t act just __________ the people who don’t even know God. Don’t give priority, and all your attention to ____________________ pursue these things. If you know God, then the pursuit of your life will be Him, not all of the things.
for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
We have a heavenly father, and HE will __________________ our needs, if we will let Him. He will also let us spend all our time chasing after the things the world chases after, but He knows, and we will find out that they only leave us empty.
Jesus understands our needs
But, what about the _______________________ of believers? Jesus knew what it was like to not have enough to eat or have adequate shelter. He and the disciples had no permanent home, ministering from town to town. Matthew 8:20 tells us Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). He knew what it was like to feel real need. He knew what it was to feel _________. “Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well” (John 4:6). Indeed Jesus knew what it was like to be tempted. Mark 1:13 tells us “He was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan”. And because Jesus lived this most difficult life, He ___________________ our weakness. The author of Hebrews sums this up by saying in chapter 4 v.15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin.
Jesus knows what it is to be thirsty
During the approximately six hours Jesus Christ hung on the cross, our Lord spoke ___________ final statements. One of those statements is recorded in John 19:28: “Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty.’” John links Jesus’ statement “I thirst” to the fulfillment of Scripture. When Jesus said, “I thirst,” from the cross, He was alluding to a prophecy in Psalm 22:15: “My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.” In response to Jesus’ request for something to drink, the soldiers offer Him wine vinegar: “A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips” (John 19:29). This action was a fulfillment of Psalm 69:21: “They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.” Immediately after receiving the drink, Jesus says, “It is finished,” and then bows His head and gave up His spirit (John 19:30). Even after 6 hours on the cross, Jesus knew that all ________________ had to be fulfilled, and THAT was His ___________. With the last ounce of strength left in His body, he is still making sure that the final prophecy which had to be fulfilled in His earthly life was completed. THEN He said “tetelestai” “It is paid in full”, “My work here is completed” “It is finished” “salvation is accomplished”. Jesus’ life was a fulfillment of the first and greatest commandment: as Mark 12:30 puts it: 30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. He did it for us, to __________________ salvation, but also to _____________________ what trusting God is all about. When we doubt God’s provision, and begin to worry and fret, then we have only to look at the __________. Look at what’s already been done for us, and we know He will provide. When we look to the cross, and spend our lives at the foot of the cross, then we can say along with Paul in Philippians 4:19 19 And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 20 Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen.