Luke 9:22-23; Luke 12:22-32
January 10, 2021
preached by Pastor Doug Cooper
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“Faith is a reasoning trust, a trust which reckons thoughtfully and confidently upon the trustworthiness of God.”

~ John R. Stott (1921-2011), English minister and author

“Faith is not a refuge from reality. It is a demand that we face reality, with all its difficulties, opportunities, and implications. The true subject matter of religion is not our own little souls, but the Eternal God and His whole mysterious purpose, and our solemn responsibility to Him.”

~ Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), English Anglo-Catholic writer

“True rest to the mind of the child of God is rest on the wing, rest in motion, rest in service, not rest with the yoke off, but with the yoke on.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), English pastor and author

“Man’s happiness was never meant to be determined by his circumstances, and that is the fatal blunder that we all tend to make… Man’s happiness depends on one thing only – and that is his relationship to God!… We cannot get it anywhere else. We must come back to the soul and to God who made it. We were made for Him, we are meant for Him, we have a correspondence with Him, and we will never come to rest until, like that needle on the compass, we strike that northern point, and there we come to rest – nowhere else.”

~ Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899–1981), Welsh minister and medical doctor

“Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.”

~ C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), prolific writer and Christian apologist from Britain

“Doing nothing only reinforces depression and leads to greater unfaithfulness. By the same token, never use activity to narcotize (dull) the pain. Give it to the Lord. Rest, relaxation, and solitude with the Lord needs the balance of involvement in faithful work and ministry, but always out of a spirit of faith, never just activity.”

~ J. Hampton Keathley (1934-2002), American pastor, professor and author

“Thou didst seek us when we sought Thee not; didst seek us indeed that we might seek Thee.”

~ Augustine (354-430), theologian, philosopher, and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa

Sermon Passage

Luke 9:22-23; Luke 12:22-32 (ESV)

Luke 9

²² “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

²³ And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Luke 12

²² And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. ²³ For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. ²⁴ Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! ²⁵ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? ²⁶ If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? ²⁷ Consider the lilies, 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. ²⁸ But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! ²⁹ And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. ³⁰ For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. ³¹ Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

³² Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.