Gloria Dei Lutheran Church | Urbandale, Iowa

Praise the Lord, Who Provides for All Our Needs

Pastor Phillips’ Sermon

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you for pouring out so much blessing on our lives, giving us all the things that we need and providing for us every moment of the day. Lord, bless us now as we meditate on your word. Provide your Holy Spirit for us to understand it and to take it into our heart and to live it. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Thursday is the day. Thursday the Iowa State Fair begins. I know you’re all tuned into the State Fair things and all that kind of tradition. To me, the Iowa State Fair is a wonderful time of summer, one of my favorite times of the summer and it’s been that way for quite awhile. Now for five years we were living in New Jersey separated from our loved ones here in Iowa. We used to watch that old movie, State Fair, just to stay connected. Yeah, we know it’s not very much in touch with reality but it was fun and it reminded us of all the wonderful things we loved about Iowa.

But when I think of the State Fair, all the hundreds of thousands of people there and all the different things there are to see and do, I have one dominant thought and I bet you can guess what it is: Food. Every year, food everywhere, vendors everywhere, all kinds of things to eat. And I make it my goal to try one new thing each year, usually on a stick. Last year it was a pork chop on a stick and it was really good. Hope I’m priming the pump for you to go to the Fair this week. It’s a wonderful experience.

But as we look at all the things surrounding the Fair, the animals, the people, the produce that’s brought in for the competitions and all the baked goods that are in the competitions and then everything there is to eat, it’s hard to look at that and not just think, “Wow. Look what God has provided for us. Look at how he has blessed us. We are so blessed in this state and in this country. We are so blessed with all the food and everything we could ever need.” And this whole idea of blessing is an echo of a truth proclaimed in scripture.

“The eyes of all look to you and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.” Aren’t those beautiful words? Psalm 145:15-16. What a great God we serve. He loves us so much. He knows about our needs and he tenderly and generously provides for them. But there are times when things are rough, times when we lose sight of God as our loving provider and we let the worries of this world overwhelm us, times like when we have a job change or someone we love is diagnosed with a terrible illness or our marriage is hitting a rough patch in the road. At these times, the reading that Pastor Meyer just read from the gospel of Matthew speaks to us. It says, “Do not worry.” Another translation would be, “Do not be anxious.” Now those words don’t seem too deep or profound but this is Jesus speaking. He’s speaking from His heart to our heart in the midst of those difficult times. “Do not worry.” In effect, Jesus is saying, “Do not have this bad habit. And if you’ve already fallen into that bad habit of worrying, get out of it. Break that bad habit.”

But habits are hard to break because they’re formed over many repetitive behaviors. Over and over again, we’ve turned in that direction, the direction to worry, the direction to be anxious. So how do we break it? How do we get out of it? We respond to that bad habit with a good habit and we do that on a regular basis as well. This is how it works. The moment you begin to feel anxious, the moment you begin to toss and turn and not sleep well, zero in on what it is that’s causing you not to sleep. It shouldn’t be too hard. Usually, we can come up with it right away. Write it down. And then look at it. And as you look at it, you can look at it and see it’s not as overwhelming as I think it is. It’s just that sentence right there. And God in His ability to help is infinitely greater. And after you’ve written it down, pray specifically about that thing, about that struggle, about that pain. And as you end your prayer, ask God to give you the strength to place it into His hands and leave it there.

So three steps. Zero in on what it is. Write it down. And pray specifically.

The word used in our text and translated as “worry” could also be used to mean “to be distracted.” If that’s the case, then what is Jesus telling us? Don’t be distracted. The question arises, “From what? Distracted from what?” Well, the reason we’re anxious is that something has hidden God from our view. Something has distracted us in our faith in God. Now we know all the things God has done up here. We know the story of creation. We know how He’s blessed His people for thousands of years and taken care of them every step of the way and we can even think of things He’s done for us. But somehow when we get in the midst of that storm, it’s not here. It’s just up here. And our heart is all stirred up within us.

Our anxiety comes from the fact that we lose sight of God and His ability to help and provide for us. But let’s look at the bible again. Remember the story of Peter when he wanted to walk on water? Now Jesus was already out there and the disciples were all in the boat. Jesus is walking on the water and they’re scared to death because they’re looking at Him like, “Whoa, who is that? It’s Jesus, I think.” Peter says, “If it’s you, Lord, let me come to you.” And Jesus says, “Come.” So Peter steps out of the boat, probably pretty carefully. He has one foot out and one foot in. So far so good. Another step. Another step. Another step. He’s doing it. He’s actually walking on water. He’s doing the impossible. But all of a sudden, he sees the wind and he begins to be afraid and starts to sink. And he calls out to the Lord for help. What happened? Why was he sinking? Did Jesus stop working the miracle? Had Jesus abandoned him? Was Jesus sinking, too? No. The problem wasn’t with Jesus, was it? Jesus had not changed. He was still the wonderful Son of God, the miracle worker, the Messiah. What had changed was Peter. Now his fear of the wind and the realization that he was doing something impossible was greater than his faith in Jesus and His miracle-working power. Hum.

That tells us a lot, doesn’t it? This point is also brought out in the parable of the sower from Matthew 13 where it says, “The sea that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.” Doesn’t that sound like our lives? Things that go on around us seem to impact us so much and distract us in our faith. So many times, we’re tempted to worry and agonize over the struggles in our lives but we serve a God who loves us and walks with us and is willing to help us with these struggles.

A young preacher was walking with an older preacher, more experienced, veteran preacher, in the garden one day. And the young guy was asking the older one about some questions he had, challenges he was facing. He was having doubts and he was feeling insecure about what God was calling him to do. The older preacher walked up to a rose bush, pulled off a bud and handed it to the young preacher. He said, “I want you to open that without damaging any of the petals.” The young preacher looked at it, trying to figure out what point the older preacher was trying to make. He was trying to figure the will of God for his life and this older preacher handed him a rosebud. What does that have to do with anything? But because of his respect for the older preacher, he tried. So he started to try to open up those petals without damaging them. It wasn’t long before he realized it was impossible. The older preacher was watching and noticed he was struggling so he began to tell him this poem, “It’s only a tiny rosebud, a flower by God’s design but I cannot unfold the petals with these clumsy hands of mine. The secret of unfolding flowers is not known to such as I. God opens this flower so sweetly when in my hands, they fade and die. If I cannot unfold a rosebud, this flower of God’s design, then how can I think I have wisdom to unfold this life of mine? So I’ll trust in Him for His leading each moment of every day. I will look to Him for His guidance each step of the pilgrim way. The pathway that lies before me only my Heavenly Father knows. I’ll trust in Him to unfold the moments just as He unfolds the rose.”

When we are tempted to think that the whole world is on our shoulders and we have to find our way through the mess we’re in, the words of Matthew help us not to be distracted by worry. We hear them again. “Therefore, I tell you. Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? 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? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”

It was a mild October afternoon in 1982 in Badger Stadium, Madison, Wisconsin. Sixty thousand die-hard fans were there to watch their beloved football team take a beating by Michigan State. What seemed odd, though, was that during the game, as the score piled up higher and higher against the home team, there were groups of fans that were bursting out in cheers and applause. Some of the others were wondering, “What in the world is wrong with them? Our team is getting pummeled and they’re just cheering spontaneously at different events.” As it turns out, seventy miles away from Badger Stadium, the Milwaukee Brewers were beating the St. Louis Cardinals. It was Game 3 of the World Series and many of the Badger fans had their radios on and they were listening to something besides what they saw in front of them.

And isn’t that what the Christian life is like? We might be in the midst of horrible circumstances and yet we know something wonderful that is greater than everything we face. We know that we have the victory, a glorious victory over everything in this life in the name of Jesus.

The scripture passage from Matthew concludes like this, “Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. The meaning is clear. Trust in God.” Whatever you’re worried about, give it to Him.

There’s a story about a little boy and his father who were planning a fishing trip for the next day. And during the evening, as they were sorting through their equipment and getting everything all ready, snacks and all that kind of stuff, they were filled with anticipation. And then as the father was putting his son to bed, the little boy put his arms around his father’s neck and said, “Daddy, thank you for tomorrow.”

As you hear about the State Fair cranking up on Thursday and you go and enjoy or just see some of the events on TV and you are reminded of all those wonderful blessings God has given us, think of how He’s provided for all your needs and think especially of how He sent His Son for your greatest need when He died on the cross. Think of your Heavenly Father and thank Him for tomorrow. Amen.