July 23rd, 2000, Sunday Morning

"God's Promise of Provisions"
You will forever be given your needs... and more

OPENING: 2 Corinthians 9:8, KJV


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Revelation 2-3: God has a message for each particular church age. It doesn't reference periods of time but the proof we are living in the last age is at the end of chapter 3 where God talks about the Laodiceans church being lazy and self-reliant. That is us--we live in the church age where people don't think they need God anymore and have enough material goods to endure.

• Revelation 2:10: In one church age, there was 10 years of harsh, severe church persecution by the Romans and the heathen.
  
  
  • How the Jews hated the Christians
  • How believers and their children were thrown to hungry lions
  • In one event, a believer was strapped to a table and his bowels exposed to hungry, wild hogs
  • Burned to death
  • Mutilated
  • Wrapped in leather, doused with water and sent into the desert. There, the leather would shrink--suffocating the believer to death.
  • Put into the ground up to their neck in dirt while chariots would drive over them--decapitating the believer
    
    
  • (During Noah's time, God gave the people of the earth 120 years to repent.)
  
  
• Then there was the church age where the church was parked right at the devil's doors (idol worship, sacrifices to idols, etc...)
  
  
• Now we're in the church age of self-sufficiency.
  
  
  • We're not suffering like the early saints. We don't really know what it means to be hungry or thirsty. Fasting is as close as possible as we can get to becoming hungry or thirsty. We have to many material goods, we think we can live without God's help.

Therefore, today's prevailing church message is: the call to repent of self-reliance and turn to God, to get victory over the flesh, and suffer with the saints.

We're not Savior-reliant like we are self-reliant. When's the last time you planned for your death?

• We're trying to live this life as if there's no afterlife.
  
  
• Some are not even sure there is an afterlife.

Look to God before tackling your problem instead of just tackling your problem. If you first seek the Kingdom of God, God says her all your needs will always be sufficiently taken care of. NOTE: It is impossible for God to lie.

• 2 Corinthians 9:8
• Matthew 6:33
• Philippians 4:19
• Ephesians 3:20
  
  
• Genesis 17:1: In return, just follow the Lord.

TODAY'S CHURCH MISSION focuses on: the distraction of the church for the quest of convenience. We just hate to be inconvenienced.

• Today, we can't think of living without our:
  • Air conditioning
  • T.V.
  • radio
  • electric washing machine
  
  
• When's the last time you denied yourself a pleasure or desire in order to do the will of God instead?

Psalm 73:3: We sometimes envy lost people. This psalmist looked at and wanted the riches of the wicked and the foolish of this world.

• Matthew 19:23-24: It is impossible for those who trust in the riches of this world to get into Heaven. Not that they can't be saved, however
  
  
• Even those who say "I don't want to be rich just 'well off'" are in danger because your dollar amount expectation will continue to rise and rise. You'll never have enough...

Proverbs 11:24: We should look to bless everyone we come across. We should scatter blessings at those who wrong or trespass against us

2 Corinthians 9:6: Anything you do for Christ you should do cheerfully. Consider the simplest things you do for the Lord and not man: vacuuming, making dinner, etc...

CLOSER

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Luke 6:38: How can others see God's goodness if they don't see it performed though us?