The Love of God // The 5 Most Important Truths God Wants You To Know, Part 4

You and I know that we have to work hard in order to be rewarded in this world. And to a point … to a point that’s true. But what happens when we take that truth just a bit too far is that truth, becomes a lie.

I’m joined again today on the program by Brett Barclay who this week is talking to us about "The Top 5 Truths that God Wants Us to Believe". You'll recall over the past few weeks we've been looking at the lies the devil tries to feed us so it's a pretty good time for us to be talking about truth.

And you know what, ultimately even though we may not realise it the truth matters because the truth works. I know that God wants the most amazing life for you and for me, not always a life of luxury and success but a life that counts, that counts for something, that counts for Him, and a life that satisfies us.

And the more I read about Jesus and what He did and what He said the more I come to the conclusion that by any measure the world may care to offer up His truth is totally counter intuitive.

Take for example the idea that if you work hard in this world you're going to earn the rewards. Now to a point, to a point that's true but we can take that too far can't we? What's your perspective Brett?

Brett: Yeah I think absolutely that's definitely true and you know Paul the Apostle said if you don't work you shall not eat, so we need to be working and we need to be productive that's certainly true.

Berni: But we can take it too far can't we?

Brett: We can, and in our relationship with God Berni when a person comes into a great relationship with God the Bible teaches that we're actually adopted into His family. So once we did not have a heavenly Father, now we do. I know when my daughter, my two year old daughter Sophia was born I started to feel emotions that I'd never felt before and my wife's heart and my heart was to literally bless that girl in every way possible.

Berni: You want to bless their socks off don't you?

Brett: You do, you do and where do you stop, that's the question, where do you stop? And you know as a father, do you know Berni my desire to bless her and to provide for her, her behaviour is irrelevant, you know her behaviour most days is great, some days it's not so good but I didn't provide or not provide for her based on her performance. My provision and my love and my supply to her is based solely on my love for her.

Berni: Okay so let's take that analogy then of you being a dad to God our Father, what's Gods Word say about His provision to meeting our needs?

Brett: In Matthew 6, verse 25 to 34, I encourage you to go and read that afterwards, Jesus talks about the birds of the air and the lilies of the field and listen to what He says. He says:

The birds of the air they neither sow nor reap nor do they gather into barns and the lilies of the field neither toil nor spin.

Now Berni there you have three principles of life that will really get you ahead. Sowing and reaping, it's about sowing for tomorrow, about receiving a harvest, gathering into barns is about living below your means and saving for the future and toiling or spinning is exactly what we were talking about at the start of the program. Hey you need to work hard and you know Jesus says that God doesn't provide for the birds of the air or the lilies of the field based on any of those principles.

Berni: He just provides.

Brett: He just provides because He is a loving Father and He's not saying don't do those things, He is saying the basis of His provision is the fact His unending love is why He wants to provide and bless you.

Berni: Okay but isn't it easy for us to get a view of that that comes from a position of relative affluence, we live in a world where billions of people are starving, billions of people don't have access to clean drinking water, billions of people don't have a roof over their head, what about them? What has Jesus got to say to them about Gods provision?

Brett: Very clearly that it is largely irrelevant where you live in the world, the point is that God loves you and God will provide, God will find a way and you know Berni we talked about the just shall live by faith is in every area of our life. Faith is the cornerstone; faith in Christ is the cornerstone of how we live. That pertains to our salvation, pertains to healing, it pertains to provision and finances and being able to get your daily food and your daily provision. Even the Lord's Prayer says:

Give us this day our daily bread.

So our Father in heaven gives me what I need today. When the children of Israel went through the wilderness day by day He provided for them. So there might be some people listening to us who are really in the wilderness, I want to tell you dear friend that Jesus will provide. In fact in this context of Scripture Berni which is incredible, the word "worry" is used five times, it's the biggest concentration of that word worry in the whole Bible. Amazing, why is that? Because we can worry about where the next meal's coming from or how we're going to pay this or how we're going to pay that. So Jesus says, hey guys don't worry, I'm your Father, I see your needs and I will provide for you.

Berni: Does hard work and diligence have a place here? I mean before you answer that Ecclesiastes chapter 10, verse 18 says:

Through sloth the roof sinks and through indolence the house leaks.

So there is a sense, if you and I are spiritual couch potatoes and we just sit there and wait for the world to come to us, the world's not going to come to us right?

Brett: Correct, absolutely, yeah. So diligence definitely plays a role and we've been talking about faith a lot, the Bible talks about faith without works is dead, so there is definitely that faith in Christ has corresponding actions to it and we need to be active. You know there's a great Scripture, I believe it's in Corinthians that says:

Always be abounding in the work of the Lord.

So yeah, diligence, hard work, they're all very sound Biblical principles, definitely.

Berni: So how do we bring these two together? On the one hand yes, we do have to do stuff, sometimes we're capable of doing that, sometimes we slip over on the train and we're in hospital and we can't go and earn any money which is just incidentally if you're listening that's exactly what happened to Brett a few weeks ago and he's only just recovering the poor bloke, it's good that he's here.

So sometimes we're capable of being diligent and we're capable of providing and so on and so forth but other times like the mother who is in the Somalia refugee camp who is listening today and watching her child dying of starvation, sometimes we can't provide for ourselves, some people simply can't. How do you bring these two together. See it's a hard thing isn't it?

Brett: It is, it is a very hard thing and they're challenges that I've never had to face in my life. I would say that, to people like that who are listening, is that, just like I love my daughter and you love your children is that God loves you with an everlasting love and provision for you might mean something very different than provision does for me. But this is one thing I want you to know is that Jesus died to bring you into His family, that He may provide for you and that He may bless you and that again may mean something very different depending on the culture and the country that you live in. But I want you to know don't put faith, don't trust in your circumstances and there may be no reason to put trust in your circumstances, put all your trust in Christ.

Berni: You see the reason we get afraid is because we do trust in our circumstances because our circumstances appear to be bigger than God, the adversity appears to be bigger than God and so we end up trusting that and that's why we worry and that's why we get afraid.

Brett: Yeah absolutely and even with people who are wealthy and have a lot of money, you know Jesus said to the rich young man how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Why? Because they've got no reason to trust in God, they've got all this money that can provide for a lot of their needs but the Christian life is fundamentally about trusting and believing in Christ.

Berni: And my experience of God is that when I've been at my lowest depths God has always been in that place with me.

Brett: Yeah.

Berni: Not once has He not been there. Brett thanks for joining me today.

Brett: Thanks Berni.