God's Certain Promises in Uncertain Times

The services. And we were supposed to listen to Lamb of God, but we heard some other beautiful melody and beautiful music. So, nonetheless, biblical. Somewhere, the computer did not know that it was supposed to play Psalm 23. So, anyway, let's go to Psalm 23. We'll make the music ourselves. Psalm 23. I'd like us to focus on something here, if you would, please. Many of us have known this. We cited this Psalm since we were very, very young. Some of us, when we're troubled at night and can't go to sleep or have a bad dream, we sometimes will rehearse the 23rd Psalm and begin to say it again and again to get something positive that's in our mind. It's very interesting when you go to Psalm 23 in verse 1. It says that, The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. It's a proclamation. And then a statement is made, I shall not want. It is to that reality that I would like to talk about some issues with you today, as brethren and as friends, especially with some of the times that we're experiencing right now. Because it's one thing to be able to memorize Scripture. It's another thing to recite Scripture. It's another thing to be able to turn to Scripture. And it's another thing altogether to believe the Word of God and take it straight and recognize that God is talking about us. We are indeed in very, very challenging times. The most incredible of times, times that many of us have not experienced in our lifetime, at least financially. Some of you that are older will remember and or experience the Great Depression 70 years ago. And while there are parallels or other things that are not parallel, that would take greater analysis and a study of history. But nonetheless, these are some of the most traumatic financial times that we have experienced as a nation. As I think about it, we recognize that retirement portfolios have shrunk.

We recognize that those that are on fixed incomes, of which we have here, as well as our dear brethren in Redlands, those fixed incomes are now squeezed incomes. If they weren't squeezed before, they will be increasingly so. We also recognize that even while there was a bailout yesterday, I believe it was, or as some people like to term it, a rescue plan, we just don't know where the future is going immediately.

And nobody does. Nobody does. That's just our reality. Congress has passed this, and it is in such unchartered waters that they don't even really know what's happening. Of course, we've been told for the last week, a week and a half, that no matter what the cure is, it's better than the illness that might be out there. But the only thing is, we don't really know the full extent of the illness or how ailing the cure is.

It's really kind of unchartered territory. And I realize that in dealing with some of our members up in Redlands last week, some of our older members, I know when I was visiting with them that because of their memories of the past and what had occurred back in the late 20s and the 30s, tears came to their eyes. It just, you know, even though 60 or 70 years passed, there's just that thought and what it used to be like and what was going on.

And tears just began to come down their eyes. There was a reaction. Now, even as I state that, there are differences between the Depression of old of 1929 and today. Let's use some analogies. Let's understand where we're at and where we're not at. In 1929 through the early 30s, because again, what happened in 1929 did not really come into its full reality until about 1931 or 1932. It's basically what you call a roll-out of depression. Kind of hit in 1929, but you didn't get the full extent of what was going on until about 1931 or 1932. At that time, 10,000 banks went out of business in the early part of the Depression.

Can you imagine? And at that time, money wasn't guaranteed as it is today, up to 100,000. And now, the latest bill is up to, I believe, 250,000. I may be mistaken. Don't hold me to all my facts. Hold me as you will. I'm just trying to give you a reality check of where it was and what we're going through right now. We recognize that through this crisis that we're going through right now, is that probably a couple hundred banks will be going out of business.

So, you look at a couple hundred banks versus 10,000 banks. But we also recognize how much more the global system is tied in together than it was back in 1929. So that this cold or this flu or this bug can spread very, very quickly. It is amazing times that we live in. The undergirdings, brethren, the undergirdings of our financial system are under tremendous strain. They just really are. After 1929, the nation put into its financial system a lot of backup and a lot of insurance plans and a lot of things that they thought that they had learned from 1929. So that, heaven forbid, that this would ever happen again. And so, there are a lot of undergirdings and there are a lot of safety points that were not there in 1929.

But make no mistake about it. The very undergirdings that were put in place by man in 1929, for all the best of purposes and for all the best of intents, are literally being rocked and shaken to their core at this time. And we still don't quite yet know what the future is going to develop. That is why, with that stated, and that sounds... I sound like one of the newscasters. I'm dealing with reality. But I thought, what better time, with what we're going through right now with this troubling financial news, than to focus on the promises of God?

And God does give promises to us. And it's a promise that the psalmist realized when he said, The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not want. And God is our shepherd, and He is a good God. And He is watching over us, and He wants to be that shepherd. And He wants to be our Father, and He does want to respond to us. And based on the goodness and the promises of the Bible, friends, He does say that He is going to take care of us.

But there are some things that we need to recognize in that relationship that we have with God, whether we be individuals and or whether we be nations. God is a creator, and He is also a lawgiver. And He puts certain laws and motion in His creation that either affect individuals and or affect nations and or groups of nations.

Join me if you would in Deuteronomy 28. In Deuteronomy 28, God was developing a relationship with the children of Israel, later to be known as the nation of Israel. And He was entering into covenant with them. He basically said, Listen, I want to be your God, and I'd like you to be my people. I want you. I desire you to be my people. But this is how it's going to work. Now, as we read through some of these scriptures related to Israel, let's understand something. God is a God that puts laws into motion. Israel does not have a monopoly on God's attention. It was simply to be a model nation. It was to be a first fruit nation to show how it works. To the degree that either nations and or individuals like you and me incorporate honoring God, is to the degree that He will likewise honor us. Let's pick up the thought in verse 1 of Deuteronomy 28. Now it shall come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all of His commandments, which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on the earth. And all of these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Friends, I've always really enjoyed that scripture, because God is putting up a lesson in motion. He says that if you will honor me, He says, I will bless you. Now we're not talking about a health and wealth gospel. We're not just simply talking about, well, I do this and therefore God's going to do that. But we do worship a good God and a watchful God and a God that does want to bless us. And it says so much so that even if we were trying to run away from the blessings. I don't know if you've ever done that before, trying to run away from the blessings. Well, I don't want that blessing. I'm going to run away from that. I'm going to see if I can be quicker than that blessing. Look what it says here. It says, it shall overtake you. When God wants to bless you, you can't even run away from it. But it is going to happen. Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall you be the fruit of your body, the produce of the ground, and the increase of your herds, and the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. And blessed shall be your basket and your netting bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out. And the Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face.

And they shall come out against you one way and flee before you in seven ways. And then let's conclude in verse 8. And the Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses, and in all to which you set your hand, and he will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. I believe that America is the recipient of God's blessings.

And it's not just because of American ingenuity.

I believe that God held true to his promises to the patriarch Abraham.

That through his seed, not simply all of humanity would be blessed through his Savior, which is first and foremost, but that God had other business with Israel. And the descendants of Israel, of which today America has had, brethren, a manifest destiny. I know that's unpopular to some people today to use those two words together.

Sometimes, in historical terms, it's called American exceptionalism. I think America was called to be an exceptional nation.

I think America was called to be that light on a shining hill.

I think America... oh, perhaps they don't believe exactly like you and I do, but America was, to a great degree, founded on biblical and Christian. As we would say since the 1950s, Judeo-Christian ethics that are rooted in a basic understanding that to the degree that you honor and obey God is to the degree that you will be blessed amongst the nations. And that's what we've seen.

There was a manifest destiny, and God did bless and has blessed America for many, many years.

But I want to share a thought with you for a moment about this.

And sometimes, I think even our own people in our church don't understand always the...

what we might call the split personality of the United States of America, because so often, what happens is we don't understand what's in our cultural DNA. I know when I go on the prophetic circuit and the seminars traveling around the nation, I often talk about two cities. I talk about Jerusalem, and I talk about Babylon and how they are opposed to one another. But now, let's bring that down, not worldwide, but let's just talk about America. Charles Dickens wrote a book. It's called, what? The Tale of Two Cities. Well, you might say that America is the tale of two cities. I'd like to offer you two cities. You might want to jot it down to students, and you can go think about it yourself. There's two cities that have impacted America. The first city was one that is up in New England. It was a city that was founded in 1620. It was basically just called a plantation. It was called Plymouth Plantation, and it was founded by a sect of Puritans. They call themselves pilgrims. They called themselves, if they were talking to one another, they would have called one another the saints. That's what they called themselves. They came to this nation. There was no nation. When you think about it, there was no dock waiting for them. There was no McDonald's to go to. There was no Comfort Inn or Super 8 to put your head down at night. They landed on a rocky shore. They landed in New England in December of 1620. Basically, they were here because they were fleeing religious persecution in England. They were going to go wherever they could to have freedom of religion and worship without the threat of expulsion. This city of Plymouth was founded on a God-based plane on a foundation of the Bible. God, as they would call him, Jehovah, would be the center of society. America, from that time, has had a part of its cultural DNA rooted in what is called Plymouth. Plymouth runs deep in the American psyche. Every November, we re-celebrate what the pilgrims did. But there's another village, and there's another city in this part of the Taylor 2 cities, that also is a part of the American psyche. It was another village that was founded just a few years later, just down the coast. It was on an island that's only 12 miles long and three miles wide. It was founded by my particular ancestors, the Dutch. That's where my family came over in 1628, out of Amsterdam. They re-founded it. I don't say this with pride, because of what I'm about to tell you. But the Dutch came over here, and they named it after a city back in the Netherlands. They called it Manhattan. Actually, they called it New Amsterdam at first. Later on, it became known as Manhattan. But it was New Amsterdam. On that island, if what is now New York, whereas the pilgrims had come, Bible-based, the Dutch had come to make money.

The Dutch had come, as they are a very mercantile people, they had come basically to trade. To go into merchandise, to build and develop their finances, and to prosper financially. What is interesting when you think about it, that America for nearly now 400 years has had a split personality between Plymouth being God-based and New Amsterdam or New York being financially based, money-based. We might say, on one hand, there is Almighty God, and on the other side, we might say the Almighty Buck. This has always been a social dynamic in the American spirit as to what to put first, whether it be God or whether it be man. Back in the early 1950s, I think we thought that we'd solved it because then we did that. We thought we made a combination. We put, in God, we trust on our coins during the Cold War. The question, though, comes down to when you look at it, as we look at the financial situation that now is occurring, we must ask ourselves, what citizens of what village do we occupy? The one that is Bible-based and God-based, or the one that is based upon the Almighty Buck, because we see where the Almighty Buck is going. I looked at my small retirement portfolio yesterday, and it is much less than it was two weeks ago. This is something that is hitting all of us in this room and around this nation as we look to the future. Going back to Psalm 23 and verse 1 and saying, The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. And when we honor God, not only with our physical substance, but with our heart and with our entire existence, and we give it to Him, brethren, I'm here to remind you today, we are going to be taken care of. When we don't, things are going to happen. You know, back in Deuteronomy, join me in verse 42, which is interesting. This was not only simply for Israel of old, but for any nation that had made a compact with God, or felt that it was godly, or was based upon the Bible. That is, it moved away from the Bible. What would happen? Let me just use one verse here, verse 42, Deuteronomy 28, because this section of the Bible is known as the blessings and the cursings. Locust shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land. Then notice verse 43. Interesting. The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you. And then notice what it says. This can either be nationally or globally. And you shall come down lower and lower. And he shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. Today, America, who's on coins we have and God we trust, has become a borrower to nations that lend to us to keep us prop up. Now, historically, I'm going to say some hard things here, but analytical things. My background is history. Is to recognize what is occurring right now. Is to recognize that America hegemony is under threat. America has been the supreme power on earth since 1945. It has been the financial center of the world since World War I. But what is happening right now is society changes as you move away from a world conflict. And to recognize what's happening right now, because we have this interlocking global financial network, America still is the golden goose.

But it's all said and done. It is still, if you're on a farm and you need one animal that's really important, you have a milk cow, don't you? Because as long as you have a milk cow, you're going to have milk. And you can go back to work. America works still. America is the milk cow. The world has not found another golden goose. It has not yet found another milk cow to replace America. Don't think that when the milk runs out and the eggs don't come, that America will not be replaced.

But let's also remember, at the same time, there's still a lot of milk there. At times, we think, well, you know, America has seen its last day. Even with what is occurring today, the American economy, still in comparison to China and Germany and all the other countries that you always hear are coming up, is still utterly enormous. It's gigantic when you look at the figures. But, you know, it's also, brethren, to be honest, the financial system is based on a house of cards. It is very interesting in the American psyche that there is a blessing and there's a curse. And we're just, most of us are Americans here, so we can talk, and we love our country. The difficulty with America is simply that God blessed us with an optimism and blessed us whether we come from Yankee stock or not. We talk about having this Yankee ingenuity. And Americans, by nature, are optimistic. You know why they're optimistic? Because in the beginning, their roots were in the Bible. And as I so often tell you, Christians are optimistic, aren't they? Why are Christians optimistic? Because we recognize that our Savior was resurrected from the tomb and that death can't hold Him down. And if death can't hold Him down, it's not going to hold us down. They link. America was predicated upon that optimism of Christianity. And then what happened, though, is that what happens with this optimism is we don't think that there is not a hole that we can't get out of. That we can dig and dig and dig and dig and dig and dig and dig. Are you ready? And dig and dig ourselves into death. Right now, the bill that was just passed, this is not a political statement, this is an analytical statement. I'm apolitical. It's simply this. That it is now, if I'm not mistaken, an 800 billion dollar bill, because I think they put on another 100 billion dollars. But let's just say that from the last thing I heard yesterday, that the initial thought that went out was three pages from the White House. It is now 800 pages. That means one billion dollars per page. One billion dollars per page.

Where is that money going to come from? One billion. Yeah, one billion. The difficulty is this, in the American spirit, we don't think that there is a hole deep enough that we can't get out of.

Sometimes, isn't that a little bit like human nature, with ourselves? That we think that it can be by our works, by our doing, by our ability. And yet, we find in a verse like this, we find in a verse like this, that God says He's going to withdraw His blessings, because we have not put Him, kept Him in the center of our lives, in our national life, and in our personal lives.

It is of note how quickly events can change for nations that either God is blessed, and or even nations and systems and states that are in confrontation to God. I'd like you to go to Revelation 18 for a moment.

Revelation 18.

Because again, sometimes we can think that things are just going to go on and on and always be.

Maybe the prophecies of God are not going to happen the way that they're going to happen, or just our nation's always going to go on and on and on, and we're going to kind of just always live out how it's been. But it's interesting when you go to Revelation 18, talking about the system of Babylon. Now, when I talk about Babylon, I do not believe that America of and by itself is Babylon. It's another story, another time. But that doesn't mean that we cannot take on traits of that system when we part from God or are in confrontation to the ways of God.

But this specifically centers on this future Babylon that doesn't think it's going to be touched, that thinks it's immune, that thinks it has a Teflon system that God can't break through.

Verse 7, In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow. For she says, speaking of this Babylon in the future, in her heart, I sit as a queen, and I am no widow, and I will not see sorrow. Everything that should be natural by cause and effect will help happen to everybody else, but it's not going to touch me. Then notice what God says in verse 8, Therefore her plagues will come in one day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be utterly burned with fire. For strong is the Lord who judges her, and the kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her, were interrelated in a global system, will weep and lament for her when they see the smoke of her burning, and standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city, for in one hour her judgment has come. Flocked down to verse 17, for in one hour such great riches came to nothing. Drop down to verse 19, middle of the verse, Alas, alas, that great city in which all who had ships on the sea, the merchandise, the mercantile world, the finances that became rich by her wealth, for in one hour she is made desolate. Now, the point is simply this, friends, whether it be America today or Babylon in the future, it's amazing what can happen overnight. I have a question for you. How many of you, and I'm sure a few hands will go up, maybe all of your hands will go up, how many of you had ever heard of A-I-G?

Most of you have. Okay. Most of you had heard of Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae. But I don't know if most of America had heard of AIG. They didn't realize all the center of what was happening. And these systems that had been the undergirdings for years and years and years, just overnight, shaken up, falling down, collapsing, over where everybody had put their security. Oh, things will always be.

No, since the 30s and the 40s and the 50s and the 60s and the 70s, and all of a sudden the undergirdings of our financial system being walked to the very bottom. Big companies like Merrill Lynch, other companies being eaten up by even bigger sharks, bigger fish. Because sometimes, when things are going down, it's a good time to buy, isn't it? So there is a balance in that. But we look at these things. The point is this, brethren, I think this has been a very good lesson for all of us these past two weeks. To really recognize how quickly and how swiftly the world can change overnight. The big lesson that we've got to learn, brethren, is that our internal world and our internal confidence in God's promises cannot be overturned at the same time.

You and I are going to experience some of the fallout of this, whether it be our portfolios, whether it be our retirement funds, whether it be our houses, whether whatever is going to come down the line. What I want to share with you is simply this. The body of Christ is not necessarily going to be immune to what is going to happen in the future. We only have to look for the Bible to recognize that the people of God often go through certain tidings that are visited upon the world.

The children of Israel had to experience the first three plagues that God visited upon Egypt. The patriarchs of old, even before that, Abraham and other of the patriarchs oftentimes had to go to other lands to be rescued from famine. We recognize that even in the early church in Jerusalem during the Claudian period in the mid-40s AD that they experienced famine and had to be rescued by their Greek brethren, by the offerings that Paul got down to them to take care of them.

John 17 and verse 15 join me there for a moment to remind us that as we go through some of these gigantic tidings that come to us in the news, to recognize that it's for a purpose and for a reason.

John 17 and verse 15.

Some of Jesus' last thoughts on that last night of his physical life.

I do not pray, speaking to the Father, that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world just as I am not of the world.

But then he goes down later on and he says here, let my eye fall upon it for a moment, in verse 15, that well again, just that Jesus said, I pray that you should not take them out of the world. We are here for a reason, brethren, and in this world. We're not isolated from everything because God has kept us here for a purpose and a very important purpose. You know, the scripture itself in the book of Ecclesiastes says there's a time and a season for everything. There's a time to plant, there's a time to sow, there's a time to build, there's a time to take down, there's a time to laugh, there's a time to cry, there's a time to understand the seasons of life, and also the seasons of a nation, and also the seasons of our own Christian experience as to how we will handle things. Jeremiah 12 and verse 5 has always been a verse that I've focused on, recognizing that Jesus and his Father have kept us in this world for a reason. And to recognize that we are in training to exercise the confidence that we have in the promises of God. Jeremiah 12 and notice verse 5. It's an encouragement that a coach would give his team at halftime, and God does that at times, to let us know what's coming. If you have run with the footmen and they have reared you, then how can you contend with the horses?

And if in the land of peace in which you trust it they wearied you, then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan? Basically what God was telling his people then, and what I'm telling you today, brethren, not because I like to, but I need to encourage you and remind you simply this, we ain't seen nothing yet. Thus, we must begin to prepare now and to be careful. The difficulty that we have today, friends, in America, and some politicians are addressing it, some preachers are addressing it, is simply this. We want to blame Wall Street.

We want to blame Pennsylvania Avenue. We want to save Main Street, but not enough focus has been put on your street and my street as to how we live prudently and within our means. America is sick.

It's out of control. It is greedy. It is a spin-thrift. It is living on credit, living beyond its means. 30 years ago, plus this church that many of you were a part of at that time, and you were remembered about 1981, 82, 83. We told our members then, now is the time to simplify your lives. Now is the time to bring everything together. We used to talk about the mandates that we were talking to the world about. Number one, we must come out of this world, come out of this world based upon Revelation 18.4. We were also to simplify our lives. Simplify. Get down to basics. I'm not talking about living like a monk. I'm not a monk. I'm married. I can't be a monk. No, just tease him. No, I'm not talking about being ascetic. I'm not talking about being a killjoy. I'm not talking about not enjoying the good things of your life, but to recognize that we need to simplify.

Thoreau, the New England philosopher, used to say, simplify, simplify, simplify.

Today, the average American, and this is beyond a mortgage and this is beyond a car note, is basically somewhere between $10,000 and $30,000 in debt. If you are in debt, you're in a form of financial slavery. Somebody else is getting your earnings.

But this is the system that we're in. We don't learn what our parents taught us. Save your money. Save up. You don't have to have everything at once in the here and in the now.

And yet, so many of us, brethren, and I'm talking about people in the church as well, have lost that lesson that we have overspent. And we can talk about Washington, D.C. overspending. We can talk about Wall Street getting our money and spending it for themselves. We are not ultimately going to be responsible for their bailout, but we can be responsible citizens of God's kingdom and learning right now that you and I, we need to take stock of ourselves now. For if we can outrun with the footmen, then how are we going to run with the horses in the years ahead and learn to live within our means? Join me, if you would, in Proverbs 22 and verse 1.

Proverbs 22, and let's take a look here at verse.

A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold.

The rich and the poor have this in common, the Lord is the Maker of them all.

A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished.

By humility and the fear of the eternal are riches and honor and life. Brethren, as we look at verse 3, this is a time to be prudent. I'm not talking about dollars and cents. That's your business.

What one family's prudency is, is another family's unprudency. But I'm saying the key thought is to take stock and to take note of where we are at. To learn to live within our means is going to be extremely important. Now, as I say that, I want to take you to one of my favorite verses. It's a promise. It's an encouragement. Psalm 37 and verse 25. Psalm 37-25.

Because God makes certain promises to his people that will take them at his word and try to live to the best of their ability.

I know some of us, you know, when you're older and you're in those golden years, not all that is gold and glitter. Not all that is, what's the old expression, not all that is glitters is gold. And the golden years are not always that easy. And some of our people are just having to sprint. Some of them are having to go back and learning to squeeze a penny and to stretch it out as far as possible. But I want to share a promise here with you that is why the Lord is our shepherd and we shall not want. The psalmist says, I have been young and now am old, and yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken. And then notice what it says, nor his descendants begging bread. Now, if you look at that verse, it doesn't say, nor his descendants buying steak. But God does give a promise, friends, that as we honor Him, He will honor us and take care of us and look after us as a loving God.

I think we're going to come more and more to the days, friends. I'll just be very honest here to where we are going to probably have more meaning when we go through the Lord's prayer and we say, and give us our daily bread. Jesus was using that to go back to the example in the law about Israel going out day by day and relying on the Lord.

Maybe those days will come. Not next week, maybe not the week after. I'm not trying to move this beyond where it is, but to recognize, brethren, that those that fail to plan, plan to fail.

And to recognize that for over 30 years, the church that you were a part of has said, learn to simplify, simplify, simplify, prepare and prepare.

That's part of the rapture they just took off.

And that we look at this and we say our daily bread. I want to show you another verse that is really neat here because I think about some of those senior citizens that I visited last week.

And this verse came to mind. I want to share it with you. Join me if you would in Matthew 6, verse 25.

Matthew 6 and verse 25. Because we're going into some uncharted water, brethren, frankly. But what is not uncharted are the promises of God. They stand. This is our foundation. This is what we stand on in the good times and in the tough times. Verse 25.

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Now, that doesn't mean not to be preparing and not to have a vision and not to have a life plan. This doesn't talk about being just out in no man's land because God helps those who do help take care of themselves. But then he says, look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather in the barns. And yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? This is the foundation, brethren, that we need to build upon and to recognize how precious we are. That when we have surrendered our lives to God the Father and Jesus Christ, they are going to look after us. Oh, no, maybe we will not by stake, but we will not beg bread. Not only that, that is why as a church we take care of ourselves. Oftentimes when people come into our church of God community, they are amazed as to how we look out after one another, take care of one another. And when somebody has a problem, when somebody has an emergency, we are there for them. Do you realize that that is one of the reasons why Constantine moved the Roman Empire towards Christianity? He was no dumb Roman. He was a pagan. And it was not only the sign of the cross of the Milvian Bridge that drew him forward. What he recognized as Emperor is that there was this money train, this line of green, or coins, that were going back and forth between all the Christian churches. There was a lot of untapped capital out there that was going from Caesarea to Athens, from Athens to Hippo, from Hippo to Cartagena. And he saw all of this. You see, Christians have always taken care of one another. They are charitable people. We look after one another when we are in an emergency. God doesn't just say, I want to do all of this. Oftentimes, he does it through people. He does it through a congregation. And that is why we have a love fund. That is why we take care of people that are in emergencies. That is why we come together. And that is why we have to have the confidence that if God can look and take care of the birds of the air, that we also, even in these times that we are moving towards, are going to be taken care of. You know, I'd like to read something here for you moment. It's a little ditty. It's a little poem. And it's got my name's sake in it. It's the bird. It's the robin. Said the robin to the sparrow, I really do not know why it is these human beings rush about and worry so. Said the sparrow to the robin, I think that it must be that they have no heavenly Father such as cares for you and for me. We need to have that confidence, brethren, in the future. Sometimes you might say, well, that means everybody else. That's good. That's well. But what about me? Join me if you wouldn't look 12 and we'll begin concluding, because this is, again, I just like sharing some of the wonderful promises that God makes in the Bible. Luke 12, verse 5. Jesus speaking, But I will show you whom you should fear.

Fear him who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell. And yes, I say to you, fear him.

And so Jesus is putting out a warning there, but then the next verse is one of caring and concern.

He says, Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins, and not one of them is forgotten before God?

Not one of them. Now, some of us don't understand the significance of this. And I'd like to read out of Berkeley for just a second here to bring us to point.

It says here, if you'll notice, Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins?

Berkeley, the Scottish commentator, puts it this way, To God we are never lost in the crowd.

Matthew says in his account, Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?

But here, Luke says, Are not five sparrows sold for two coins?

If you were prepared to spend the money, you got not four, but you got five sparrows.

What's happening here, friends, is simply this. One was flung into the bargain as having no value at all.

The fifth sparrow that nobody placed a value in was placed in to basically seal the deal.

Not even the sparrow on which men set such a small value is forgotten before God.

No matter where we are today, in what's happening in the world or in the nation or in our lives, brethren, I'm just simply here to remind you of the promises of God and to help you to remember that you are not alone and that we have a shepherd in whom we shall not want. Notice what it says in verse 7, But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

God knows the number of hairs on our head. Now, that's kind of interesting. Berkeley brings out here that it's been computed that a blonde person has about 145,000 hairs.

A dark-haired person has 120,000, and a red-haired person has 90,000.

Looking for the redheads out here. The Jews were so impressed with the individual care of God that they said, Every blade of grass has a guardian angel. None of us needs to fear, for each can say, God cares for me. Worry is a responsibility that God has not given us.

Let me share this with you, brethren. Why we should not worry. You might want to jot this down.

Worry produces doubt.

And I know the financial world has just been shaken up these last couple of weeks, and naturally we are going to worry about what we have in our pockets, what we have in our wallets, what we have in our portfolios.

But worry produces doubt in a three-fold direction. Number one, God's love is doubted.

The love of God is doubted. Worry implies that He cares little for those that are washed in the blood of His Son.

Number two, God's wisdom is doubted. Worry indicates that He is not able to plan for His own, that He does not know what is best for them who belong to Him.

And number three, God's power is doubted. Worry says that His grace is not sufficient.

Brethren, as we go through these times together, I just simply want to remind you this as I conclude.

We need to stand on the promises of God. We need to remember that worry is not a responsibility that God has given us. That doesn't mean that we are not to be prudent, that we are not to live life with a plan, that we should not have a vision towards the future. But let's make sure that Jesus Christ is that sure foundation. And if we do, then we can truly know what it says in Psalm 23 and verse 1.

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.