God's Provision and Our Dependence

are mostly things that you think about in your mind, that we've talked about. Greed, where we think about things and say we want more and more of anything. Also envy, where you look at someone else, what they have, and you say, why don't I have that, whether it's a job, or house, or car, whatever it is. Those are things that take place in your mind. The one that we're talking about today, already a couple of people have mentioned, gluttony is not very often used in the Bible. In fact, in the King James Version of the Bible, you won't find that word. The word glutton is used, and even that's not used very often. So it's not a prominent theme in the scripture. But the Bible deals with this issue of food in a very different way than we normally think of it. Food in the Bible is a very important and critical part of the story of the scriptures. When you open the very first part of the Bible, and you see Adam and Eve placed in, you remember, a garden? He gave them every kind of food that they needed. He said, you can eat of anything here. It was the greenery he was talking about. You can eat of anything here, just don't eat of this tree. God made sure that the creation, his creator, choose his creation, human beings, would need food. Now, he didn't have to do that. When you see trees growing out on the mountains, you know they don't have to open their mouths and eat. He could have done any kind of different things with us, but he made us so that every single day we would need to eat. This demand that God placed on us had two sides. One is how we feel and what we need, and the other is God's provision for us. In the Garden of Eden, they could eat the green things. It wasn't meat until after the flood with Noah. After that, then he said, now you can eat anything in the world that you want, meat of whatever kind. He gave rules about it. If you read the Old Testament, you find that eating is a very prominent part of the religion of the Jewish people. They were told what they could eat and what they couldn't eat. They were told how they should prepare things. They were told the things that were off limits. Very careful rules were given about food. The food that they were to eat was to be prepared sometimes in special ways. Now, this wasn't a dietary thing with God so that they would be trim and healthy. He was wanting them to understand that the essential ingredients you need to be able to live, I am in control of. I have a right to tell you what to eat and how to eat. God takes this important part of our lives into his hands and says, if you're going to be my people and live according to the covenant I've made with you, here are the instructions by which you're to live. When we look back at that, some people think, well, this is some kind of dietary thing God has so they'll be healthy people. That wasn't it at all. What he was really trying to teach us is all the food that there is made for us comes from God and his rules about that are his rules. And if he is the Lord of the world, he is to be the Lord of our lives. And we're never to assume that because there's a lot of stuff in the grocery store that God didn't make it all. He wanted his people to understand we're totally, completely dependent on him for that. You can see what happens when he cuts off the rain. Nothing grows. You can see what happens whenever your fields are ready for harvest and the hailstorms come and there's none left. If we weren't able to send around the world to get this stuff, it would be difficult for us sometimes to even have food to eat. He wanted the people who were his children to understand, I am providing for you. The great covenant he made with Abraham, he said, I'm going to give you a ground, a piece of land. This was the same as giving him a source of income. Every person when they moved into the land of promise, he gave every family a piece of ground. It was a ground on which they could grow the necessities of life and they had to depend on God when they planted the crops that the crop would grow and they'd have enough for that year. They felt the absolute dependence on God for even the food for life that they had. That was God's plan. I want you to understand that I've made you to need food and I will provide that food for you. God wanted us to understand the importance of food and the importance it means between ourselves and him. In the Old Testament, whenever people went to the temple to offer a sacrifice, a part of one of the sacrifices that they would make was they would offer a sacrifice and part of it would go to the priest, part of it would go then as a sacrifice to God. They would put it on the altar and burn it. It was a gift to God. And the people of Israel thought of this as God's portion of the meal. Then they would gather with their families around and as God was eating, that is, the food would be burned and it would go to him, then they would eat with each other. It was God and their families having a fellowship meal together. Now, we look at those sacrifices and they seem sort of hideous to us, but for these people, they went to the temple, they offered an animal, a perfect animal. You didn't give God anything that was bad and there it would be sacrificed and the priest would have some to eat, you would have some to eat and God would eat with you. What a wonderful thing that was for them to know that Almighty God was sharing their meal, had provided the meal and was sharing it with them. Whenever God took the people of Israel out of Egypt, they didn't have enough food to be able to make this long journey by just what they'd packed. They didn't get very far out into the journey until they ran out of water. God made water for them come out of a rock. Food includes water, what we need for our body. They didn't have any, none to be found. He had Moses to speak to the rock and hit the rock different times and water gushed out of those rocks. It was his way of saying, don't ever worry about what you're going to drink. I will provide this for you. His covenant promise to Abraham was, I will give you a place where you will live. That's to provide the food for you. I will guide you in all the choices that you make. I will protect you from the things that will destroy you and when it's over, your life will be a whole blessing to everyone around you. So the provision of God is one of the promises He made in His covenant, one of the four. Everything in that covenant depends on all of those being true. The people of Israel were upset when they got to the place where they didn't have any water and God said, I want you to understand, I know your need. I will make water enough for you. Then they were upset because they didn't have enough food and He made manna flow down out of the heavens and every day in the morning when they woke up, there would be bread all over the yard, everywhere around them. They would gather enough. But He knew what people were like. We're sort of greedy about food. You know, we sort of say maybe even we're gluttonous about food. So you know what He said to them? Every day you pick enough of this flour, this food, this manna, enough for one day. If you pick enough for two days, then it will spoil. He was trying to teach them, I will feed you. Even though you're on the very edge of life and death, I will feed you. Don't worry about that. Trust me. Well, they complained. You ever had the same thing over and over again at home? You say, are we having this again? That's what they were doing. Remember when we were back in Egypt, we had these different kind of foods and now all we have out here is this manna that falls every day. We want meat. God got so aggravated with them. He sent a herd of quail, flock of quail I guess you'd say, knee deep as far as they could see in any direction. He said, now you eat all of it you want. They stuffed themselves, they were gluttonous, they stuffed themselves with quail so much that they all got sick. He said, I want you to understand that I can't trust you with more than one day at a time or you'll eat so much you get sick. You learn, I will provide just what you need. All of these are lessons that God used with food. He made us so that we have to have it. All those others, you can stop and say, I'm never going to have any pride the rest of my life. But you can't say, I'm not going to eat anything the rest of my life. And I suppose all of us have different things that, you know, we go overboard on. It's like the people of Israel. Some people have a stash of, you know, chocolate candy somewhere and they eat a little too much of it often, you know. Other people have different kinds of pie or cake or chocolate, but you like chocolate a lot. And my wife has you some chocolates for you. It's a very good job. Mine are cheeses. I bought a box, you know, at the Sam's. It's this wide and it's all about that wide. And I'm afraid to open it because I'll eat all of them that day. All of us are like that. We know that food is good for us. We know that moderation is healthy for us. But there is inside of us a temptation always to use the things of God to our own destruction. And that's what gluttony is really about. It's about taking the gift of God and using it, not as God directed us to use it, but to use it to excess. Now, gluttony is oftentimes associated with the last thing we talked about last week, which is a person who is not energetic. They're lazy or the scripture talks about them being lazy or neglecting what they should do. So oftentimes, gluttony and laziness are tied together in scripture. There's not very many places it talks about gluttony, but in many of them, it connects it with laziness. I want to read a passage from Proverbs chapter 23. The wisdom that God is giving to people with regard to how they eat. And how they manage the things he wants them to manage. He gives it as a warning to them. In verse 19 of chapter 23 of Proverbs. Now, what God is directing is his attention to this concern. Listen, my son, be and be wise. And keep your heart on the right path. The wisdom is keeping your mind or your heart, your passions on the right path. Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat. Now, these are parallels. He's really talking about when he mentions wine and he mentions meat. He's talking about the meal. Be careful not to join people who, when they eat, overindulge. For drunkards and gluttons become poor and drowsiness clothes them in rags. What it causes whenever you misuse what God has given you and you eat too much. You tend to be lazy and you tend to find yourself broke. Because you've exceeded what you have. Now, we don't necessarily worry about being broke with food. But the people of the biblical times didn't have a Dillon's on the corner. Grocery stores everywhere. Whenever they ate their cash of food from the harvest, there was no more till the next harvest the next year. So, he's talking about misusing the provision of God. I've provided this for you and I don't want you to use it so that you die without it. Because I've given you enough. Recognize that God's provision for us is exactly what we need. That means that we need to control ourselves. God's provision is given not only in the Old Testament, but also in the New Testament. You'll remember that Jesus on two occasions found a group of people who were there doing their worship, listening to the teaching of the Bible, and they ran out of food all day long. They were there. In each of those instances, Jesus provided miraculously the food that they needed for that day. In keeping with the story of the Old Testament, I am going to provide for you when you do what I tell you to do and you're engaged in what I ask you to do, I am going to provide for you. That's His promise. I will guide you, provide for you, protect you, and give your life a powerful influence in all around you. This is God's promise to us. His promise is to guarantee that our faithfulness and obedience to Him will provide exactly what we need to have. When Jesus was talking to His own disciples in chapter 6 of the book of Matthew, He was trying to indicate to us that the provision we have promised to us is guaranteed. If you're a follower of Christ, you're going to be provided exactly what you need to be able to live on. Chapter 6 of Matthew, He says, verse 25, 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? He's giving us an awareness that He knows what our needs really are. 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? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow? They don't labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that's how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? What shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. What Jesus was telling us, His followers, you're to be able to expect, just as the people in the wilderness receive the food that I would provide for them, I'm going to give it to you. That's not your worry. Your worry is to seek the control of my kingdom over your life, so that everything you do, you're doing in submission and obedience to me. God's focus is, worry about your relationship between the two of us, and I made you to need food, so I know you're going to need it, and I will provide it for you. That's my promise. Do you trust me? If you do, that you won't worry about these things. You'll only worry about one thing. Am I living in obedience to what God asks for me? Now, what God asks is, that we use the things that He gives us in the proper way. So, if you're eating too much, and you're drinking too much, using too much medication, all those things that are gifts that God gives to us, there's a limit to what He's asking you to do. Make sure that you do these things as I have provided them for you, in the way I've provided them. That's our responsibility. Now, it's really hard, you know, to stay within the boundaries of good, healthy living. God tells us that we should, but most of us really don't ask God, should we take a second helping? We don't ask God, should we eat three pieces of pie? We just go sit down at the table, we look around at what's there, and we begin to listen to our desires and physical hungers, and we eat. You see, there is a spiritual component to food and the people of God. He is the Lord of provision. He is also the Lord of providing the care for us. What God intends is, the Old Testament had the rules and the laws about how that we could fellowship with God with our meals. The New Testament, we don't have to keep those regulations exactly the same way. Instead, what God has done in the New Testament is place in the lives every one of us His Holy Spirit. When you've committed your life to Christ, the very Spirit of God comes to live within you. Not only is the promise I'm going to provide for you there, but also the promise is, I'm going to help you know how to guide your life and all the choices you make. So that when you come to sit down at a meal and you pray, God, help us, we give you thanks for all the food. You don't pray this, but you may say, and I'm going to eat until I'm stuffed. That may not be the right prayer that you really should be praying. Should be praying, God, help us to live and eat in moderation. But sometimes we think that the failure to be able to keep these dietary rules is a tremendous struggle for us. God does not mean that to be a struggle for us. What He really wants us to do is to find in every part of our life the power and the presence that God brings to His people. In Galatians chapter 5, the Lord was directing Paul to write to us verse 16. What is the solution to being proper in your diet and in your taking drugs or your eating or your drinking? I say to you, live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. You have trouble staying on your diet because you want to gratify the desires of your human nature? This is His instruction. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit. He doesn't want you to do something that would cause your life to end quickly or to destroy yourself. And the Spirit, what is contrary to the sinful nature, they are in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want to do. It happens to us, doesn't it? I know what I want to do. But when you go to the buffet and you start eating, you end up eating something you shouldn't and more than you should. Our sinful nature is at work at all times. They're in conflict with each other. So you're not able to do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, then you're not under the law that is under the rules of this world. Now, the acts of the sinful nature are obvious. Sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery. That's kind of where the nature of overeating comes in as well as other things. Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, usually had food involved with them the way they did then, and the like. I warn you as I did before that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. If your human nature controls your life, even your eating, it's a sign that God is not really completely in control of your life. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with his passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let's not become conceited, provoking, and envying each other. So here it is. I provided for you by means of the Spirit in your life to guide you so that you'll make the proper choices with regard to all the things in your life, even your fleshly desires, which includes the eating part. But oftentimes people get down on themselves because I read this and I want to have self-control. I don't know how many people have told me that. I want to have self-control. Why don't I have self-control? Well, you don't go through that list and pick one of them that you like and say, I'd like to have this one. They're all together. For the Spirit of God comes into your life and he begins to control you in the spiritual dimensions as well as the physical dimensions, which is the self-control part of it. So self-control is not the result of your own effort. Self-control is the presence of God's Spirit in your life helping you to say yes to the right things and no to the wrong things. Now, what God does when he gives you self-control is he gives you the Holy Spirit, but he begins to work on you on all of these elements. Now, he starts with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, then self-control. He is working on all of these in your life. Now, the ones he's working on may not be the ones you really want to change. He may want you to love your enemy and you're stuck on that. Well, you don't want to do it. He says, well, I'm not going to deal with the self-control until you let me have this part of your life too. So read through those lists of spiritual gifts and look at yourself to say, where is in this list do I have problems? God, show me where I don't allow your Spirit to control this part of my life. And what happens as you begin to yield your life to the Spirit of God and all these other directions, then you'll find even those that you didn't think about, like self-control, begin to become real and powerful to you. We all have to admit we don't have control of our own bodies. I bet you every person who's listening can point to times in their lives when their tongue was out of control. Every one of us can point to times when our temper was out of control. Every one of us can point to times in our lives whenever our eating was out of control or drinking was out of control or medication was out of control. What he's telling us is, I can give you control of yourself, but I must own all of you. We're all in that spot. Every one of these spiritual gifts that he's talking about come as a result of our surrender of ourselves to God. And you can't carry just one part of your life and say, OK, I'm going to keep the rest of these and I can do what I want. Yielding to the Spirit of God is complete, unlimited, without resistance. Now, he doesn't mean you have to be perfect, but he means that your intention to yield to God has to cover everything. God, I'm going to read this list, everything on that list. If there's something in my life that needs to be changed, I say, take control of my life. And the closer you become in obedience and submission to God, the more control over your sinful human nature you will find. And I'll tell you the real deal here. There's no charge. You don't have to buy food from someone. You don't have to join a club. You don't have to do all those things. The power of God can change our human desires. He can change our character and our nature. He just needs submissive people. The real sin of gluttony is the failure to let God control all of our lives. Three times a day, we should say, God, I'm sitting down to eat. Help me eat what's proper. And when you fail to do it, after you've finished, don't rub your stomach and say, well, I guess I ate a little too much today. You go to God and say, I failed you. I realized what happened to me today. I didn't ask you or I didn't listen to you and do what you wanted with eating. Change my self-control. Forgive me. And next time, I'll start saying, God, help me to eat correctly. Now, this is a really important thing, because what it's telling us is, you cannot be an effective follower of God until all of your life is open to God's changing. He's not a part-time deal here. Give me everything. And if you hold back anything, then I don't have you. You wouldn't want to be married to someone who said, well, I'll be faithful to you five days a week. Those other two, you know, I'll take those on my own. God didn't do that either. I want everything or I won't take anything. And he's not going to fix the parts that you're just worried about until you get worried about all of the parts of your life. Or simply to say, he wants you to give your whole life to him. And then he can make you into the person you want to be and he wants you to be. Would you bow your heads, please, for a moment? So, I have to ask you this important question. Have you ever confronted God to say, I think that if you control my life instead of me, I could make better choices. I think if you control my life instead of me, I think I could have more faith in you to trust that you'll provide for me. I wouldn't have so many fears. And if I became the kind of person you wanted me to be, I think I could be an influence to my family and my friends. But it all starts here. Are you going to let your sinful human nature guide your choices? Are you going to let that sinful human nature control your fears? Or will you trust your life to God? And here's all he wants. He wants you to say to him in your mind, today, I want you to control all of my life. And I will give myself to you as best I know how. And I'm willing to learn day by day and week by week how to turn over even the parts I didn't understand to you. And you'll be on the way to a different life. So, I ask you this morning, God, what do I need to do that would please you today? It may be that. It may be God wants you to become a part of the church. It may be there's a sin in your life. He wants you to turn loose to him. This is your time. And I'll be at the front car. I'll be here. If you want to come and say, here's what I think God wants, would you pray for me? We'll be glad to do that. But God is talking to you. And when he speaks, do you listen and obey? That's what he wants to know. So. Would you stand, please, for a moment of prayer together? I have a Hazi. You want to come up and excuse me. I should have done this earlier. I want to ask Hazi to come up and share with you a little bit. We've been talking about our construction projects and what's going on. And we just want to keep you updated so you'll know exactly where we are. And Hazi is one of the leaders in that group. Sunday night, we voted to go ahead and start with the completion of the stage area and remodel of the bathrooms. And the contractor will notify us Monday on the start date for sure. It will be in April sometime. Rather, if it's the first or towards the end of April when he gets started. So that's where we're at at this point. Join me in prayer. We are thankful, Father, that you have guided us together to make the decisions, things we need to do to make sure that this place reflects you, your beauty, your order, your structure, your nature and your character. We want not only our lives to represent you, but even the facilities in which we worship and serve you and learn. We're thankful that you guide us step by step so we know that you're with us. And when you guide our choices, we know you make provisions that these things will be done. We trust you. And we ask, Father, that every person who's evaluated themselves and heard from you today and knows what you want them to do, that they will have the passion to be submissive and obedient to you. And help us to use the things that you give us to our benefit and to use them as you have directed us to use them, that we might know life in all of its fullness. In the name of Christ, we pray. Amen.