Calvary Chapel Staten Island

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Guest (Female): Hello and welcome to God In Our City, the daily edition. Your host and Bible teacher is Pastor Dave Watson. Pastor Dave has been the pastor of Calvary Chapel on Staten Island for 35 years. In addition, he is the co-founder and president of the New York Institute for Biblical Studies.

To receive a special downloadable gift from Pastor Dave, please go to CalvaryChapelSI.org/GIOC. That’s CalvaryChapelSI.org/GIOC. Now here is Pastor Dave and our show.

Pastor Dave Watson: Welcome to God In Our City, the daily edition. This is the Friday edition of the daily edition. My name is Pastor Dave Watson. I have the privilege of pastoring Calvary Chapel on Staten Island, being the president of the New York Institute for Biblical Studies, and the host of this broadcast. I consider it an amazing, amazing, amazing privilege.

I hope you're well. I hope you've had a good week. I hope you're growing in the Lord. If you're not, you know you can turn things around. You can turn things around this weekend. Begin by doing the simplest of things. Watch this now; it's not hard. Go to church.

Pastor, Pastor, I watch online. It's not the same. Go to church. Sit in the chair, sit in the pew, mix it in with everybody, talk to people. I'm embarrassed; I haven't been for a while. You'll get over it. Make an excuse; just get there. Get there.

I don't like to shake hands and talk to people. Sit in the back row. When they say turn around and shake hands, turn around, and there won't be anybody there. Just go. Sit and listen under the preaching and teaching of God's Word. Seek to be a blessing to someone else. Take some money out and give during the offering. Pray with everybody as they're praying. Listen to the scriptures, read along when they're reading along, sing the songs. Just go.

Pastor, I got hurt a couple of years ago. I don't know what I'm going to do. You got church hurt. You know the longer you stay away from church, the harder it's going to be to go back. So please, please, simply go back this weekend. Some of you are on vacation, and that's a great thing, isn't it? But vacation is not meant to mean vacate.

We don't take weeks off from our Christianity. We serve the Lord continually. Just because we go to the beach doesn't mean we are not trying to walk with the Lord and try to bring people to Jesus Christ. That's what we're here for. I would encourage you to go to church somewhere, even on vacation. It is a habit of mine that I don't ever want to break.

I don't want to think of it as a pride thing, but probably in my Christian experience, I've not missed very many Sundays, even when on vacation. A lot of times I go to a church that's off Staten Island. I just go, I sneak in, I sit in the back—not like anybody would recognize me—but I sit in the back, I listen to God's Word, I hear the preaching of God's Word, I hear the singing. I'm encouraged, I'm refreshed, and then I continue on with my vacation. If I'm somewhere else, I do the same. Why? Because church isn't optional; it's part of my Christian experience.

I love Calvary Chapel. I don't want to watch the service at Calvary; it makes me homesick. So I go somewhere else. I just encourage you while this is vacation time, please, please, please go to church. Be a part of a church family. If you don't have a church home, come on over to Calvary Chapel. If you're in the tri-state area, we do have people come sometimes from Connecticut. We've got folks come from Jersey. We've got folks come from Long Island or almost there. We've got folks come from all over the place.

We are very close if you live in New Jersey. If you're in Bayonne, we're just over the Bayonne Bridge, just a few minutes. If you come over the Goethals, we're about the same, maybe just a little bit more, maybe 10 minutes from the Goethals Bridge. Probably 20 minutes up the West Shore Expressway from the Outerbridge Crossing. Probably 15 minutes from the Verrazzano Bridge with no traffic. Probably almost nothing if you come over the ferry and you jump on the 46. I don't know how long it's going to take you; it might take you a half hour, but it'll drop you off right in front of Calvary Chapel.

We'd love to have you. Services are at 8:30 and 11:15, 10 o'clock discipleship hour, classes for every age. I'm not telling you to come because we have coffee and bagels, but we have the best coffee and the best bagels, and you will absolutely positively enjoy it. Well, that's enough enticing you to come and be with us. Maybe the Lord will put it on your heart to do that.

If you're joining us now, maybe for the first time, please go to CalvaryChapelSI.org/GIOC. Download the study guide so that you can follow along well. We're on the ninth of our lessons, 9E. We'd love for you to have that. Request the Gospel of Matthew; we'll pay shipping and handling. Just ask us to send it to you. Consider making a donation to God In Our City as we try to reach our world for Christ. Please help us as God leads you.

Well, we have talked about scripture verses all week, and this week we're just going to read today, Friday, Matthew 6:25 through 34. It's always important for us to have the context of where we are in the scriptures as we do our studying. I'm kind of sad that we're leaving this portion of scripture. It's such a powerful portion of scripture.

It says in Matthew chapter six, verse 25, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not your life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the grace that we have for living. Thank you for taking such good care of us. Help us to remember always that you are in the business of caring for us. And Lord, that your reputation is on the line, Lord, that you lead us in the path of righteousness for your name's sake. Help us, Lord, to trust you as we should. Help us not to be those who would be called the little faith ones. Help, Lord, for us to have a faith that grows and a faith that is rightly placed, rightly placed in our heavenly Father who takes good care of us. Lord, please touch each of our listeners with your Word. Meet the needs that are present in their lives. Use them, Lord, in a mighty way to touch others. We pray this now in Jesus's name. Amen.

We're on the second part here of our study. We talked about dealing with our greeds and the fact that you can't serve God and money. And that we need to be very careful that we're not serving money. But as we work through this last section, we're talking about our anxieties about our needs because we do have genuine needs. So we want to know how these needs are going to be met. And we can be anxious about them. We can worry about them.

The areas regarding worry he tells us to stop worrying are clear. We worry about our life, and we worry about our body. Our life in terms of our living, where's our food and drink coming from? Or our body, what are we going to put on? How are we going to stay warm when it gets cold? The answer to all this is that you and I are weak, and our God is strong. We cannot add quality to our life by our worrying. He tells us that in Matthew 6:25; is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

And we cannot add quantity to our life by worrying. We can't give ourselves an extra hour by worrying; it's just not going to happen. And God is omnipotent. He is strong. He feeds the birds. Won't he feed us? It's a rhetorical question. The answer is, of course, he will. And the birds, they don't do anything. They don't do anything; they put out no effort. How much effort do they put out? None.

The question at the end of this is, they don't store food up, they don't farm, they do nothing. Yet God takes care of them. Won't he take care of you? Aren't you more valuable than those birds? Of course you are; you're made in the image of God. God sent his son Jesus to die in your place and rise again. And God clothes the lilies, and he clothes them in such a way that they're so beautiful, Solomon in all his glory can't compare.

So you're worrying about your clothing. Look at the lilies; they don't toil, there's no effort. And they don't spin; there's no skills. Yet they're greater than all that Solomon produced. The problem is we are of little faith. We are of little faith, and we need to place our faith rightly in the Lord. We need to trust him.

Now he concludes this section with an admonition or two or three. Here's the admonition regarding worry and the worry about our needs. Stop. That's the first thought. He says, "Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you have need of them all." So stop it.

Stop worrying. Therefore, because you're weak and God is strong, because God clothed the lilies, because he takes care of the birds. So stop it. Stop being anxious. Stop saying in the light of God's omnipotence, stop saying, "What are we going to have to eat? What are we going to have to drink? What are we going to wear?"

The two reasons that we should stop are laid out here for us. He says for the nations, the Gentiles, are habitually seeking upon these things: food, drink, and clothes. It's what their life is about. So I don't want to be like the Gentiles. I want to be like Jesus. I want to be like a child of God. I want to act like he's taking care of me because he is.

Secondly, it says here, for your heavenly Father knows in the past with ongoing results. This is a perfect tense, means that he permanently knows that you have need of these things: food, drink, and clothes. He said this before. He says in the book of Matthew, the sixth chapter, the seventh verse, he says, "And when you pray, don't heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard by their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."

Before you ask him. I still want you to ask because that shows your dependence on him. But the text is clear: stop worrying. Two reasons to stop: it's what the Gentiles who don't know God are doing. It's what the Gentiles who don't have that personal relationship as the child of God that you have are doing. Stop it. And your heavenly Father already knows what you need. You don't need to be worried; he knows what you need.

And then there's that most famous of verses, Matthew 6:33. "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." In contrast to worrying, seeking our food, seeking our clothes, seeking whatever, we are to habitually first seek the kingdom of God.

Remember the words of the prayer for now, the new prayer: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." And then comes the request to give us this day our daily bread. The priority is the kingdom of God. And notice, "and his righteousness." Matthew 5:20 speaks of that righteousness, and it's referring back to a righteousness that exceeds the scribes and the Pharisees. It's referring back to the beatitudes.

How do I seek first the kingdom of God? Well, I pray for the advancement of the kingdom, but I seek to reflect the kingdom values as I live out the beatitudes, as I put those beatitudes into practice. And then he says all these—the food and the drink and the clothes, the daily bread that we're asking for—will be added. It's a promise. They'll be added; they'll be set before you for your advantage. God is going to come through for you for your advantage.

God is going to take care of you. Why? Because you put him first. You put him first. And then the summary is, therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow. Stop worrying about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Don't be anxious about tomorrow. Tomorrow has its own anxiety built into it.

And sufficient to the day is its own evil because we stop trusting God. We stop trusting God. Sufficient to the day is its own evil because as soon as you think you have enough, you relax and you stop trusting the Lord. You stop asking God to give you what you need. It's just a problem with us people who are human.

This idea of seeking first the kingdom of God is not only found here, but it's found in the book of Philippians. In the book of Philippians, we have that famous verse: "My God shall supply all my need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." And we pray that. God, supply all my need, all of it, according to your riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

It's interesting, right before that, right before that, the Apostle Paul commends the Macedonian believers, the Philippians, and he says to them, "You gave to my need once and again at Thessalonica." He was poor. They were poor. They didn't have a lot. They didn't have a lot, yet they gave to the missionary endeavor. And because they put the Lord first, because they gave to the missionary endeavor, they could have that promise: "For my God will supply all your need."

Why? Because you put me, you put him, first. So he's going to take care of you. Sometimes, my brothers and sisters, we act like God is a fool. We don't put him first, we are not good stewards with what he gives us, and then we say, "Oh God, oh God, supply all my need." Why? You didn't put him first. Now God is a gracious God and oftentimes he bails us out. But it's incumbent that we understand that when we put him first, he will take care of us.

So if we seek God, if we put him first, I'll be blessed beyond my needs. If I trust him, if I rest in him, if I don't put my faith in money, if I serve God, I will be blessed beyond my greeds. And if I seek God, I'll be blessed beyond my needs. So what's it to me? I think it's expressed in the Lord's Prayer: "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

That's putting the Lord first. And then, "Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever." So one more time, the summary of chapter six, verses 19 through 34, is serve God and I'll be blessed beyond my greeds. Seek God and I'll be blessed beyond my needs. Does that make sense?

I'm hoping that you're grasping this concept and you will decide today to put the Lord first. If you've never trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior, that you'll give your heart to him today. If you've never really started to grow in your Christian experience, that today will be a starting point for you.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you have been good to us. You are our Father. You do take care of us. Lord, thank you, thank you that Lord, you take care of us, you bless us beyond our greeds, you bless us beyond our needs. You are our God. You are our King. You are the one we come to with our needs. Lord, we're open to you. And Lord, we want to put you first in everything.

So right now, Lord, as we talk to you, I pray for our listeners, that today is the day that they will decide, if they haven't already, to put you first. Lord, help them to open their heart to you and say, "God, I am yours." And Lord, maybe there are people listening who are not sure they've experienced your salvation. Lord, in our moments together, Lord, convict them of their need for a Savior.

Remind them that you are a holy God. Remind them that, Lord, we are all sinners who in the presence of a holy God fall short and that we need Jesus. We need what he did on the cross: him dying for our sin, taking our place on that cross and rising again. We need him and we need to open our heart to him, give our hearts to him as Savior and Lord to follow him. Help, Lord, our listeners who haven't done that to do that right now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Listen, if you prayed along with me, either a commitment prayer or a salvation prayer, please just give me a call at 718-720-5390, 718-720-5390. I have a special follow-up book from the Billy Graham Association I want to send you. I know it'll be a blessing to you. 718-720-5390. Thank you for listening. Please have a great weekend. Please go to church and please join me again Monday for another edition of the daily edition of God In Our City.

Guest (Female): Thanks for listening to God In Our City with your host, Pastor Dave Watson. We hope the show was a blessing to you. Again, to receive a downloadable gift from Pastor Dave, go to CalvaryChapelSI.org/GIOC. That’s CalvaryChapelSI.org/GIOC. Please check out Pastor Dave’s blog at NYCShepherd.com. That’s NYCShepherd.com. Please invite a friend and join us every weekday for another edition of God In Our City.

In a world that screams for your attention, there is a place that invites you to peace. You don’t need a building. You don’t need a choir. You just need to turn your heart to Air1. Air1: songs that heal, lyrics that pray for you when you don't have the words. From Lauren Daigle to Elevation Worship and more. This isn't just radio. It's worship for the everyday. Escape the noise and worship now. Download the Air1 app, ask your smart speaker to play Air1, or visit Air1.com. Air1: worship now.