Preparing for the Storm

I’ve chosen for my text today only one verse from Matthew’s gospel – chapter 6 and verse 34: “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” 

But this text is not in isolation of its context, and it is necessary that we familiarize ourselves with its context. Here it is, beginning ten verses earlier with verse 24: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. 

25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to 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, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?27 And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? 28 And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! 31 Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 

As I reflected on verse 34 and its context -- “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  The Lord drew me to a message I preached here a couple of years ago. I will revisit that message today because it is one of HOPE and PROMISE. And I think we all can use an infusion of hope and promise in these very serious and spiritually darkening days.  

Societal, sexual, cultural, technological changes and political plots are occurring on a global scale at such breakneck speed that I am convinced we are in the last moments of the last hour before the Lord Jesus returns for His own.  

Think about the changes everyone in this room has seen in our lifetime. A mere fifty years ago who could have thought America alone would kill more than 60 million unborn babies?  During World War Two the Nazis murdered some six million Jews and the world was stunned into fury. And even five years ago, who could have thought we’d be teaching kindergarteners that they can change their genders, and prominent medical doctors and pediatricians would inject hormone-arresting drugs into their young bodies? And a mere decade ago, who could have thought the US Supreme Court would legalize the sins of Sodom? 

And those are only the tip of the tip of the proverbial cultural iceberg that our Titanic is racing toward. 

The title of my message today is, Stop Worrying. Keep Preparing. This is as important a message as I have ever preached, and throughout this message I will remind us of the words of the Lord Jesus to us in Matthew chapter 6:33-34 “But seek first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness . . . [and] do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

And tomorrow certainly is draped in enough things for people to worry about. For example, in the book of Revelation, St. John the apostle highlighted the appearance on the world stage of what theologians call the ‘Unholy Trinity’ – that being The Dragon (the devil) the Beast (the Antichrist), and the False Prophet. Here is a portion of chapter 13: 

“And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast (the Antichrist) coming up out of the sea . . . And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority . . . It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him.  . . . Then I saw another beast (i.e. the false prophet) the coming up out of the earth . . .He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform . . . And he causes all, the small and  the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six. 

Part of tomorrow has already arrived. Some of you already know that Communist China has implemented a surveillance technology that can track every citizen in their cities from the time they leave their homes to the time they return at night. And you may have also heard of their so-called ‘social credit’ system which is also being planned in some European nations – a system by which citizens earn credits for being what the government calls ‘good citizens.’ Without sufficient good credits, citizens cannot do so much as ride a bus, or shop in certain stores.  

Some of you will also remember reports in the last few years of florists, bakers, photographers, and other business owners who were fined and forced to attend ‘sensitivity training’ because their Christian faith ran counter to the prevailing culture of Sodom in America. And Christians STILL think the prophecies of Christian persecution of Matthew chapters 10 and 24, along with those in Mark, Luke, Thessalonians, Peter, and Revelation are not so close we can feel their breath on our necks?  

Well, that’s all I want to say regarding the bad news. None of it is anything our Father who art in heaven wants us to worry about.  

And anyway, my purpose is not to generate fear. My sole purpose is to remind us of Jesus – of His absolute authority over life and death, angels and supernatural powers, politicians, and governments. And it is in Jesus and through Jesus alone that we find direction, comfort, and assurance of ultimate victory.  

So, what must we do to prepare for what is coming? I want to point you to three inter-related preparations we must make AND in which we must persevere: 1) Know Jesus better. 2) Know your Bible better. 3) Know you are saved. 

First, we must KNOW Jesus better. We must know He is the same – yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And in knowing Him, it is vital that we do what He told us to do: Above all things, seek – strive for – God's kingdom and His righteousness. Put your energies into that goal. And stop worrying about tomorrow. Today’s troubles are more than sufficient to take up our attention.  

In His parable of the sower, the Lord tells us: The sower sows the word. . . . [and the seed sown among thorns] are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. (Mark 4:14, 18-19) 

Don’t let the worries of the world – the things happening in our world – get into your hearts, that those worries consume you to the point that you become unfruitful for Christ.  

Listen! Jesus is not only still on the throne, but the things in this world and in this country are not falling apart; they are falling into place. God is bringing about the fulfillment of His revealed plan and purpose for planet earth – AND for you and for me – even as the nightly news unfolds. 

Many of you know the lyrics of this song:  

When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed/When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost/Count your many blessings, name them one by one/And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.  

Count your blessings, name them one by one/Count your blessings, see what God hath done/Count your blessings, name them one by one/Count your many blessings, see what God hath done. 

So, amid the conflict, whether great or small/Do not be discouraged, God is over all/Count your many blessings, angels will attend/Help and comfort give you to your journey's end.  

There’s a lot of good theology in that simple song. Count your blessings. In other words, count the times God came through for you in the past. So why do we give place to the thought that He will not do the same for us tomorrow? And if he does not do the same for us tomorrow, it will not be because He is suddenly impotent, or He has forgotten us, or He has blinked. No, but it will be because He is working a good work, an eternally awesome plan in us and through us than can ONLY be accomplished through what we go through.  

Christian! Trust him. Trust Him. As you have trusted Him in the past, trust him for tomorrow. 

My brothers and sisters in Christ – keep preparing for tomorrow by learning to know Jesus better, Know Him as your most intimate lover. Know Jesus in His majesty and power.  

Think a while on this description of Jesus that John gives us in that first chapter of Revelation: “His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. (Revelation 1:14-17) 

If that imagery speaks of ANYTHING, it speaks of Jesus’ ineffable purity, and His fiery holiness. He is utterly sovereign over every earthly authority. Isaiah tells us all of the nations of the world are as a speck of dust on God’s scales. (Isaiah 40:15) How much less important are the leaders and citizens of those nations?  

If we want to be better prepared for tomorrow’s dystopian society led by the forces of the Evil One, then we MUST KNOW JESUS better. And that will happen only through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit as we grow to know Jesus through His word. As St. Jerome wisely noted: Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.  

Which brings us to the second principle of preparation: 

We must know the Scriptures better. I am NOT talking here of intellectual knowledge of the Bible. Nikita Khrushchev, the blood-thirsty and murderous leader of the Soviet Union, memorized each of the four gospels as a child. But the gospel message never moved from his head to his heart. After rising to power, Khrushchev was a worse scourge on Christianity than even Stalin. In the end, it mattered not that Khrushchev had memorized large portions of the Bible. He died a militant atheist, never allowing the Word of God to change his life.  

There is an eternally wide gulf between an academic knowledge of the Bible and a heart saturated with a love for the Bible and for the God of the Bible. So, let us not simply read and memorize Scripture, but ask the Holy Spirit to nourish our souls with His supernatural word until it become to us “sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” (Psalms 19:10). 

Please hear me, my brothers and sisters: If we have time to watch television, or play board games, or bingo, or any of the other activities that fill our time, then we have time to read the Bible. I’ve said it dozens of times before, it takes only a few minutes to read the Scriptures and reflect on its message.  And it doesn’t take long to commit to memory a verse or two of scripture each week or so.  

Think about this: What will happen to our faith if we no longer have access to a Bible because of a widespread persecution of Christians? The time to start reading AND memorizing Scripture is NOT when we no longer have access to a Bible. 

Which now brings us to the third principle of preparation for dark days of persecution. In addition to knowing Jesus and knowing the Scriptures – KNOW for certain that because of your OBEDIENT faith in Christ’s atonement for your sins, KNOW you ARE saved.  

I routinely meet Christians who tell me no one can be sure of their salvation. And I wonder, what Bible are they reading? Here are only a few of the scores of God’s PROMISES to everyone who comes to Christ for salvation and lives obediently to Him: 

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” 

1 John 5:13 “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” 

Romans 5:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  

Romans 5:1 “Therefore, having been justified (declared by God as guiltless) by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Romans 5:9 “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.” 

I could stand here for the next hour and cite Scripture after Scripture in which God assures anyone who trusts AND obeys Christ, that he or she is saved. Period. End of sentence. And because God tells us we are saved, we need to stop arguing with Him. 

This is a critical point. When we face persecution, even to the threat of death, if we do not have the assurance that God will bring us safely to His kingdom, if we are not CERTAIN that we are saved, then the devil will slip his seductions through that huge chink in our spiritual armor and move us toward compromising our stand for Christ and His truth. 

But if we are sure that we are sure that we are saved, then even if we come face to face with Satan himself, we will stand toe to toe and nose to nose against his lies. If we are absolutely confident in God's PROMISE of salvation to those who love Christ, to those who obey Christ, then we will resist the devil, who will then FLEE from us.  

As we rapidly move toward 2023, may the Holy Spirit help us to give up worrying about tomorrow as we prepare for tomorrow by knowing Jesus better, by knowing the Bible better, and by knowing for certain we are saved because of our obedient faith in the sacrifice of Christ for our sins.  

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? . . . Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”   

Amen.