It was on July 11, 1955 a bill would be placed on the desk of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and would be later signed into law that day
This bill would legislate the inscription of the saying “In God we Trust” on all paper currencies in the United States, which this phrase had already made its way onto US coins about 90 years prior during the civil war.
From the onset of the United States in 1776 until 1956 we have had only one national motto and it was “E pluribus unum”, which means “Out of many, one”,
but the popularity of the passing of this bill signed in 1955 in led President Eisenhower that next year to change our national motto from “E pluribus unum” to “In God we trust”
In one of my resources for research on this I had found a quote from GovMint.com that I felt summarized the sentiment behind these changes in our nation’s history quite well.
“The historical, national motto has been seen as a way to strengthen the foundations of our freedom, serving as a constant reminder that the nation’s political and economic fortunes were tied to its spiritual faith, all beginning in the early years of the Civil War. “
I thought this little piece of Americana trivia would be fitting for this sermon today because this message is going to be all about learning to place a greater trust in the Lord
But first, let us turn our hearts to the Lord in prayer Last week in finishing out verse 8
As you have received without paying, give without pay
We spent our time unpacking the principle of living out a faith filled generous life. And for us the two main takeaways for us were as God gives us good gifts, our focus should never be placed on the gift itself but always be directed to the giver of that gift.
And secondly, the prerequisite of living a faith filled generous life is that in order for us to be able to give freely, we have to first know what it is that we have received. Which of course made way to speak of the greatest gift that we ever could receive which is the gospel, and how the Gospel just points us to Jesus, and Jesus through the gift of the Holy Spirit points us to the Father.
It is important for us not to lose sight of the forest through the trees when it comes to unpacking these truth principles in our own lives.
Going verse by verse, principle by principle, truth by truth, at the pace we do is very fruitful,
but the caution that we need to exercise when doing a in depth study like this, is not to lose sight of the context, or the overall progression of these truth claims
Church, the goal of these sermons is not to have you leaving here with more rules heaped upon you that you are required to follow so God will love you.
It is to exposit the truth, unpack the meaning behind the text and show how this fits into an even larger overall picture of how it ties into the
gospel and how by God Spirit, you can live it out, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
So here is a very high level overview of the forest we are looking at, with this missionary discourse given by Christ
Verse 5-6- Jesus is addressing the “Who, and the Where” to his apostles
They are to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and not to the gentiles or samaritans
verse 7- Jesus gives the order on the big “What” he wants his apostles to go and do
Which of course is to proclaim the message of the gospel Verses 8-14 – Jesus is instructing “How” he wants his apostles to go about this, which is where we will find ourselves in the text for today in verses 9-10
And as a sneak peak for future messages within this missionary discourse- verses 18 and 22 express the “why” this is being done, and as he puts it “For my (Jesus’) namesake”
So as we look at verses 9 and 10 we find ourselves firmly within the “How” portion of the forest.
Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food.
Christ is giving his apostles the command to trust in the Lord, and for our frame of reference it is helpful to know this command is given within the context of the evangelistic mission they are being sent on.
And it is by the leading of the Holy Spirit, we can learn to put greater trust in the Lord so he can use us to walk out the great commission that had been given to us:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
So let’s dive into our text and see exactly how this is going to help us in living out this great commission
Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food.
First things first, before we can get to any underlying truth principles of application we need to hear the words of Christ as the apostles who are receiving these instructions would have heard them.
Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts
Jesus is saying two things here,
First, remember the last message where Jesus commanded his apostles to give freely what they had freely received.
Well this is certainly part of that, as they were to be adding value to people’s lives in the proclamation of the gospel message and through the authenticating signs and miracles they would perform by the authority they were given by Christ,
they were not to charge anyone, they were to do so freely,
But, also there was not to be any exchange of money, which meant no tipping, no donations, nothing that could potentially serve the purpose of advancing their own kingdom, and serve as a potential to muddy up the waters allowing their motivations to be beyond reproach.
Your money does nothing for God, but how you deal with your money and even go about acquiring it reveals what it is you are putting your faith in.
In one regard here, Christ is talking about how he does not want money to be a part of this equation at all for his disciples at all here while they are going about living out his instructions,
Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff
But now, using the context provided by the rest of this sentence, Christ is covering for his disciples on how they are to prepare for this journey.
So, yes he is absolutely saying do not charge for this and do not take tips, or donations or whatnot, he is also saying I do not want you to bring anything along with you.
Proverbs 25:4 Take away the dross from the silver, and the smith has material for a vessel
Here we see is the beginning of the winnowing process found within this text, Christ is beginning to identify anything that can be used to lean on other than the Lord.
Of course it doesn’t just stop at money, Jesus says to his apostles Don’t bring a bag with you either,
A bag would have been only to hold food,
So don’t charge anyone, don’t take donations, don’t bring money, and don’t bring food of your own and don’t even bring something to carry left overs from town to town
By the way, did you know there is never any indication to how long this mission is to go on for,
which I find interesting and by no means is a coincidence, think of the parallel meaning,
as this was for the apostles walking out their missionary journey and it is for us, his disciples walking out the great commision 2000 years later.
The church has been eagerly anticipating the return of Christ since he had ascended back to the Father.
But as we read on here, there were some things that Jesus did want his apostles to have with them, 3 things specifically
that was their tunic, their sandals and a staff.
But the instructions were specific. There was not to be two tunics, no additional pair of shoes and only one staff.
A brief explanation of these items could be helpful to giving a fuller picture for how the apostles might have heard this.
First mentioned, was a tunic.
A tunic really was nothing more than the functionality of a coat. For that specific area of the world that would have been essential, for the primary reason of how hot it gets during the day, to how cold it will get in just a matter of a few hours as it turns to night. Our bodies simply don’t handle that kind of temperature swing well.
Sandals as well, were an essential piece of clothing, it was really the only type of footwear they would have worn.
And for the staff, think more of a walking stick.
Jesus is telling his apostles to only bring the essential things that will get you from town to town, but nothing else.
One does not need to look very closely at the life of Christ, to know that Jesus was a man who walked a lot,
But church, did you know there was only one mention in the bible of Jesus using something other than his feet as a physical means of transportation during his earthly ministry?
It was on Palm sunday, what we call the triumphal entry, when he had rode on a donkey into Jerusalem, all of the Jews would be laying down palm branches and shouting
“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” Matthew 21:9
There will be one more time, yet to come though Church, when scripture says we will see Jesus using something other than His feet to get around?
Revelation 19:11
Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
Church, while this may be just seem like a tangent side note for what it is that we are talking about today, I do hope you see,
This is the reason why we are all gathered here. As Christians, we have placed our faith, our trust, in the fact that the material things of this world are temporary, they are vain or without any real meaning,
but our trust is that there is a whole realm that remains unseen by us while we are walking in the flesh.
And this unseen realm is eternal, and it is only through our faith that we are assured of its reality.
Mankind is made in the image of God, which means, while our flesh may be temporary and passing away along with this world, our souls however are eternal and were not made for this world but they were made for this unseen eternal realm.
It is In this eternal realm, there are only two possibilities of where someone will spend the remainder of all of eternity.
Heaven or Hell.
On the day of the great resurrection, we have faith that God will give us new bodies. Ones that will be able to either withstand His glory for all of eternity,
Or ones that will be able to endure his wrath for all of eternity.
And it is all based on how one has responded to the sacrifice made by the Lord, through his Son Jesus
Church, the reason we all gather here every week and go to our seeds groups and get in his word, is not to renew our Jesus fan club membership, it is not to add new rules onto our lives, it is not out of vanity or just routine
It is to be disciples of Christ. To study him, to know him, to show our love for him and who he is. To have his Holy Spirit poured out onto our lives, to have our minds be renewed, so we can be empowered by his Holy Spirit to go and do the same for others by the sharing of the gospel message which is this.
Jesus is God, who became man, who lived a life of perfection, teaching all who his Father is and in acts of compassion setting the prisoners of this world free. Making a way to enter into the family of God, where there was no way, by demonstrating with his very life what it looks like to trust in the father, and we too can have that relationship.
By accepting the command of Christ to follow him, by faith, he secures a place for us at the great wedding banquet that will take place one day in that unseen eternal realm,
that right now we can only have faith in, not a blind faith mind you but a faith based on the word of the Lord and the testimony he has given to us.
One time we read during Jesus’ earthly ministry he wasn’t using his feet to get him from A to B was when He was riding on a beast of burden, a donkey, a working animal made to carry loads,
but more than that, it was an animal used to symbolize peace throughout the scriptures.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:17
But, Church, the next time we see Christ coming, as we read in revelation He will be coming on a white horse who in His righteousness is ready to make war against all the unrighteous.
That will be the point where this seen physical realm that we have known will be gone, and done away with.
Then the only thing that will remain is the eternal realm, which will no longer require faith to be confident of its existence, because all will see then, all will know,
There will only be two addresses and no relocation options. That is why we gather together today, remember this Church
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 2 peter 3:9
All that to say, Church, yes, Jesus walked a lot. Now to focus back on our text
Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food.
In summary Jesus is telling his apostles, I want you to travel lightly. Don’t pack a suitcase, don’t bring any money with you. Trust in the Lord to have all your needs met, see his hand at work providing for you, as you are working for his kingdom.
That adds another layer onto the not to charge anyone command doesn’t it?
Here was a quick passage in Luke that touches on this
Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” Luke 21:1-4
It is one thing to go and do good works and acts of good out of the abundance that you have been blessed with. When you know how much is in your own bank account, or how much food you have in your fridge, you have clothes to spare and a roof to sleep under each night.
What if you did not have assurances with any of those things though? And what if you had no idea how long this was to go on for?
Church, all of this is leading us to unpacking our main truth principle found within our text for today, that is the command to trust in the Lord, for all it is that we need.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
You can either trust in your own understanding, your own logic, that you have gathered from your own experiences in life, this can be known as worldly wisdom.
Or you can trust in the Lord, turn to him first, and have that trust being put on display through faithful obedience to His will, allowing him to make straight your paths.
Oftentimes, at least for myself,
It is when I look back onto a situation that has already happened, the Lord will show me where it was I had the opportunity to trust in the Lord,
but in the moment, I just did what I thought was best.
I would say that is our default position to take in life isn’t it? Back to the text
Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food.
After hearing all of what is behind the words of Christ being said to 12 teenage boys, I hope you can see just how much this command is requiring these boys to trust in their God.
Christ’s words are commanding his apostles to strip away all potential reliances of things that they might be able to wield in their own strength all in order for them to see how God will show up and show off along the way.
So I have a question for you, how often do we allow God to work in and through our lives?
There is a story in the book of acts 3 I would like to recount,
Where we witness, Peter and John still very much living out these principles given to them by Christ, after they had received the Holy Spirit at pentecost,
The bible recounts the story where there was a man who was every day was laid at the temple gate who was lame from birth.
Each day, he went there not seeking healing, but to seek money to buy food to live, and what better spot to be laid than right at the gate of the temple when people would be going in looking to make themselves right before the Lord.
And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
So maybe a better way to phrase the question, To what degree do we allow God to work in and through our lives?
If Peter and John just gave the man that money he was looking for, it still would have been a blessing and a gift from the Lord but
we would not have this amazing testimony and he would have just had another meal, and none would be filled with amazement by the thing that God had done.
Peter and John, did not lean on their own understanding and simply comply with the small request the man had made, but they had trusted in the Lord and through the Holy Spirit of God, given us a testimony through their lives that we are speaking of 2000 years later and will be until the return of Christ.
And Church that is the power of faith, that is the power of placing your trust in the Lord. Seeing God work in and through our lives to walk out the goods work he has prepared for us beforehand.
But at the heart of this command to trust the Lord, is really another question of where is it that you find your security in?
Remember from last week we talked about how God gives to us these good gifts for the purposes to advance his kingdom and point people back to him as the giver of those gifts.
We spoke then on If our attention becomes focused on the gift it could be easy for us to have our identity wrapped up in the gift. Making us think that we can earn good things from God or if bad things happened it is because we have done bad things to deserve it
If you just swap out the word “attention” for “trust”, there is a whole new proposition to consider.
Whereas for attention or focus that will speak more to the desire of one’s heart,
But when we speak of trust, that is where one’s heart is able to find rest or peace.
So instead of asking the question of where it is you find your security, perhaps a more pointed question can be
Is my trust in the gifts that God has given me, in my things or skills he has blessed me with, or is my trust God and His character?
Money is a gift, money is a good gift, money is a bad thing to place your trust in.
Clothes are a gift, literally it was the first gift God gave to man after getting kicked out of the garden.
Food, certainly is a gift, especially after the flood and God told Noah to start eating some barbeque.
These are tangible examples of which can be even found within our text today
Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food.
But what about the gifts that are not mentioned here, but sure would be helpful as these apostles were living out the mission that was given to them by their rabbi,
And the same gifts that will certainly be helpful to us as we live out the great commission that has been given to us.
Like the gift of courage, it would take as the jews call it a good amount of chutzpah.
How about being a good communicator, certainly that gift would be helpful for sharing the gospel.
What about a memory where you can recall bible verses so well and be able to share them?
Or how about having the gift of discernment, to be able to address issues that lie hidden under the surface?
Yes Church, both the more tangible gifts and the more characteristic attributes are all gifts given by God
And these gifts that God gives you are for both the everyday practical applications, as well as,
the more direct evangelistic opportunities he provides for us to be able to, by the Holy Spirit,
help move the needle for people just one step closer to Jesus.
But whether what you are doing is directly pertaining to the ministry of reconciliation or it is just fulfilling a practical need. That really doesn’t matter all that much because the bible says
whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 corinthians 10:31
Here is the point
If you have your trust being placed in the gift, your peace will be entirely dependent on how well you execute that gift and the results that followed
That will consistently lead to the puffing up of yourself,
Or, conversely, if your execution or results didn’t meet your expectations that can lead to backing away from using the gifts God has given because you think you have somehow failed
Both of which are routed in pride and is sinful
There is an old saying I like that is applicable here and I couldn’t find the original author, but
An unguarded strength is a double weakness church
Brothers and Sisters,
when you find yourself in a position to use the gift that God has given you to point people to Him,
Firstly, praise God he has trusted you with that opportunity,
But secondly, it is only wise to acknowledge our own tendency to trust in the gifts God has given, rather than trusting in the Lord
So guard against that, and the best way I have found to guard against it in my own life is through prayer,
my own prayers and the prayers of my family in Christ that the Lord has blessed me with.
Praying always to have the focus go toward the gift by always directing your own focus and the focus of others back to the Father who gives such good gifts.
But when your trust is wrapped up in who your God is, the confidence and boldness you will be able to have in any situation, when your aim is to glorify His name, will be unshakable as he is unshakable.
The more that you learn to trust God, the more you will see God move in and through your life.
But have you ever heard the saying “God will never give you more than you can handle”? That is so not true, Church.
God will regularly give you more than you can handle, who here knows the problems in life never get smaller?
God will allow us to walk through certain times of trials and suffering, for the purposes of the proverbs that we had read earlier,
so we will learn, and trust me Church this is something that has to be learned,
we will learn to trust in Him and not lean on our own understanding
The greater level at which we will trust Him, the closer we will grow in our relationship with Him, and the closer we grow in our relationship with Him, the more we are able to reflect Him and His goodness to the world and draw others to him.
Remember our text for today
Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food.
The truth principle that is being described here is our need to trust in the Lord, and that trust was expressed through not relying on worldly wisdom, but to trust in Him and in all our ways acknowledge him.
not just finding security in the things that God gives to us, but being reminded it is God himself who is our source of peace
but by also giving the command to travel lightly during this mission,
Have you ever met someone who has had their career to be serving in the military? I have met a few and one commonality I had noticed was because of they are often required to move they typically get really good at not holding onto stuff and are rather conscious about not acquiring many “things”
One of the advantages to this mentality of traveling lightly is as you begin to look at things you possess or maybe are looking to possess, you ask yourself, do I want to carry this thing around with me? And essentially you are asking yourself the question, is this thing worth it?
And Church, this is exactly what the Lord does through this process called sanctification where we are learning to place more of our trust in him.
2 tim 2:4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.
As a good soldier, by God’s grace, we will be able to grow in our discernment of the things that are in our lives that are helping us walk out this life with the Lord, and the things that are slowing us down.
When we are going through whatever trial we find ourselves going through that is when God is giving us opportunities to lighten our loads,
Proverbs 17:3 The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tests hearts.
Maybe that thing that you are carrying around or getting your self entangled in is anger, maybe it is stubbornness, maybe it is an idol of some sort where it was something that could be a good thing, but somewhere along the line you had developed an unhealthy relationship with that good thing and placed it above your relationship with God. Money for instance is a popular one for that category.
As so famously said by John Calvin “our hearts are idol factories” But as the bible puts it even it if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself. 2 tim 2:13
And it is often the trials of life, where these unnecessary baggage will get exposed, and if we loose those things from our lives we can learn to embrace pain and suffering to a greater degree,
because we have trust that God is allowing us to walk through this in order to help us become more like Jesus.
The more you have, the harder it is to move
But there is a difference between the stuff we try to carry in our own strength, and the stuff that we will trust God to hold and keep safe for us in heaven.
Jesus said
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21
The treasures Christ is referring to is our relationships,
More specifically, that treasure is the relationships that start on this side of heaven that had been initiated through our evangelizing, discipling and just iron sharpening iron and doing life together with Christ at the focal point of them all.
That will be the treasures carried through onto the other side of heaven.
That is the whole reason behind this evangelism series that we are doing
By God’s grace, when we put our trust in God, he will allow us to see that the most important thing for us to treasure in this world is relationships.
The more we trust in the Lord, the more he will open your eyes to see the beauty behind his design
which is the healthier our vertical relationship with our heavenly Father is, the healthier our horizontal relationships will be with our fellow image bearers
Church, as we place our trust in God, and learn to do so more and more, learning to travel lightly in this world, the more free will be to focus on the things of eternal significance and not be weighed down by things that will all one day burn
And to be honest with you, the more you trust in God, the more of an adventure he will turn your life into.
Because when you are choosing to trust God, you are effectively bucking up against the enemy, you are effectively going against the spirit of the age and waging war on the enemy
and when those things happen, you better believe that you are going to see some stuff.
Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food.
Our text today was calling us, just like the apostles, to trust in the Lord, to have us become less so He would be magnified through our lives.
In God we trust, that has been our truth principle of how a follower of Christ is commanded to live.
And as we seek to go from here living out our trust in the Lord, we should look to keep these three aspects of what that trust looks like in the back of our mind
It looks like us not leaning on our own understanding, but to acknowledge him in all our ways trusting him to make straight our paths
It looks like us finding our security in him, by not trusting in the gifts but by trusting in him
And it looks like us learning how to progressively travel lighter and lighter in this world, so we can see the Lord show up and show off in some mighty ways.
Church, in God we trust, because if we couldn’t trust him who could we trust? What better option is out there?
These words have been on the coins since the civil war, the dollar since 55 it became our nation’s motto in 56.
My primary hope for this message is that you will see there is no better option, everything else is shakable and reminds me again of the words of Christ
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Matthew 7 24-27
Church, I wish I could just end this message here, but unfortunately I can not without expressing a word of caution to you.
My caution is this,
that your trust in the Lord does not ever become as vain as how the
phrase “in God we trust” has become for our country.
To be clear, I do believe that was a genuine sentiment at some point for our country, but I read the first chapter of the book of Romans and I
just have a really difficult time not seeing God’s judgment being played out in America.
Unfortunately, the church is not immune to falling into the same traps set by the enemy,
We have witnessed entire denomination falling away from biblical christianity marching to the drums of culture on one hand,
and on the other hand you have people who have been going to church for years, they have been hearing the sermons, singing the songs
but when given the opportunity to live out their faith and trust the Lord they just don’t, and continue to lean on their own understanding.
but there is nothing new under the sun, Jesus spoke to the pharisees in matthew 15
for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
“‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
Just remember Church.
God will not be mocked. And Praise God Church, Our hope is not in man.
But our hope and our security is set on God who became man, who lived a perfect life of righteousness, and by the sacrifice of His life,
we are able to have our sins forgiven, and able to know our maker, The vanity of our lives is now infused with an eternal purpose.
Freely we have been given a new life that is growing in trusting the Lord,
a life that will be marked by adventure and purpose, joy and thanksgiving, to ultimately shape us more into the image of Christ. Before we get to spend the rest of eternity witnessing the glory of God first hand.
What could be greater than that Church?
So let us learn to greater degrees how to freely give what we have received freely, pointing everything back to the Father. And not to lean on our own understanding.
Let us Learning how to travel lighter and lighter while we finish out our walks on this side of heaven, trusting Him with our greatest treasures,
Our Christ centered relationships, and teach others to do the same, by showing everyone in our lives that it is in Jesus we trust.
Have a blessed thanksgiving Church, enjoy this time with your family and friends this week and of course enjoy your time with the Lord. Lets pray