The following is a sermon from Grace City Church in Denver, Colorado. Grace City exists to make and mature disciples of Jesus Christ. For more info, visit gracecitydenver.com. Today we'll be reading Matthew 6, 31 through 34. 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 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. This is the word of the Lord. One of my favorite folk singer songwriters is a man by the name of David Wilcox. David Wilcox has a song entitled, Start With The Ending. And there's a tongue-in-cheek suggestion in this particular song that the secret of a happy marriage is to go ahead and end it now. Now that sounds like it's a song about divorce. It's not, okay? The theme as he kind of unpacks it playfully in this song is, and maybe some of you have experienced something like this, that you struggle with really being transparent about your fears and your doubts and the things that you strongly desire, the things that you strongly want to avoid, maybe hidden sins or just confusion that you bring to a relationship. But when there's a big blow up and you're suddenly just either yelling at each other or just getting it all out, something happens at the end of relationships where you're like, well, I never felt this way and I've always struggled with this and you never, and it comes out. And over and over in the course of this song, he says, so why don't you just start with that ending? Why don't you just go ahead and unpack those fears and doubts and desires with the person that you love, start there, and then you can have a truly happy marriage. Well, that's kind of what I wanna do today with this second theme, which is this idea of not upside down, or next week Alvin's gonna be talking about inside out living. Today we're gonna talk about future backward living. The idea of starting with the ending. So I'm gonna give you the principle first, up front, and then I'm gonna show you the practice of that principle through several things that Jesus says in this sermon. Okay, the principle, and I'm actually gonna go to 1 Peter for this, because I just want it to be really clear. So let me read a couple verses from 1 Peter 4, beginning in verse 7, where Peter writes, so one of the disciples of Jesus is writing this now, and says, the end of all things is at hand, Therefore, be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins. And I want to go back to the first nine words that I just read. The end of all things is at hand, therefore. The end of all things is at hand, therefore. And you hear what he's saying. He's saying the future The end is coming near, it's breaking in, and there are present implications. Therefore, there are present implications of the fact that the future is the way the future is, and it's coming near. You remember learning this in elementary school, right? You started learning the logic of if-then statements. Sometimes they're conditional. Like, if this happens, then this is likely to happen. Or in mathematics, like, if this is true, then this is true. Well, it's that kind of thinking. It's if these things are going to be true in the future, because God controls the future, then That has implications for the way we live now. And I can give you some illustrations of this. If you knew that a particular stock, and I mean in the stock market, was going to soar tomorrow, that's Monday, so Tuesday. would you do something on Monday? And a lot of you would, even though you would say, well, I've never invested in an individual stock. But if you knew that stock was gonna go up 400%, you knew it, it was guaranteed, would some of you do something with that knowledge? Or if you knew there was going to be a massive upset in the playoffs, and I'm not encouraging betting, and again, probably most of you don't, but you may be like, eh, if I knew that the team that's like 1,000 to one odds was gonna win the whole thing, Would that change the way you approach the playoffs now? Or if you knew that, if you're like us, there's usually a few different ways you can get to church or school or work or something. If you knew, if I go in this way, I'm going to get in an accident this morning, a serious accident. If I go this other way, things are gonna be fine. Would you adjust? your present decision based on that future outcome. Of course you would. And I could go on and on with examples. If you knew the person you're dating now and engaged to was going to cheat on you, would that change? You'd be like, well, let's go ahead and take David Wilcox's advice and end it now, right? There are a lot of things we would change if we knew, not just if we thought, if we knew this is going to happen. This is the principle I'm sharing with you that Jesus is gonna show over and over again in this sermon, that what if you knew on the authority of God's word certain things were going to happen or certain things were going to be true? Would you change, would you take that future, bring it backward into your present living and say, I want what I know is true to impact my present life? Of course you would. And so that theme this morning is start with the ending that God has promised and live in light of it today. And now with the balance of this message, I wanna take the next several minutes and give you some examples of like where and how do you practice this? This is all the practice of the one principle. Listen to Jesus' words. Listen to what he says. This is going to happen or this is true. What areas of your life would that impact now? Well, let's start looking at this. So you're in Matthew 6, where Micah just read. All of these sections will be from Matthew 5, 6, or 7. I encourage you to read along with me. Make sure I'm reading this correctly. And you can even mark these and go back to these. But starting with Matthew 7, so probably just one page over for many of you, verse 13. Jesus says, enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. So the first practice of this future backward principle is let it shape your path. Let it shape your path. And I'm starting with this one because it's kind of chronologically first. Jesus is talking about how do you enter into a right relationship with God in the first place. You're standing there, as it were, and he uses just a commonplace illustration from regular life. I'm standing there, I see two gates. One is huge, and I can see through that gate that there is a very large road, and a lot of people in my culture are going that way, and it seems like popular, and it seems fun, and it seems like the thing to do. Then I see this other gate, and it's narrow, and it's hard. But Jesus is already going ahead to the end of it, and he says, the end of the narrow path is eternal life. It's pleasure with God. The end of the wide path is judgment, it's death. So we're backing up here, which do you do? Do you follow Christ or do you follow the crowds? And someone may be here this morning and you're not yet a Christian, you're not a follower of Jesus. And this is an invitation to you to not just follow the crowd, to not just do what everyone else seems to be doing, seems to be prioritizing. Jesus is inviting you to a different path. And I could take the same thing, you know, you hike in Colorado, you maybe mountain bike in Colorado, you certainly drive places in Colorado. And again, if you're looking at this and you're like, well, I don't know which of these two trails to take because they branch off. Well, if there's a sign there, and if you knew that the sign was true, and it says, this way leads to a sudden and cataclysmic death, like they're grizzly bears that way, and you're going to be attacked, and you're going to be mauled, And this other way leads to these beautiful, sweeping panoramic views that will take your breath away and leave you in awe and imprint on your mind a vision that will change your life. You're like, well, I think I'll go that way instead of the grizzly bear way. And Jesus is making it that clear. Like this way, I'm telling you, this way, the end is death. This way is eternal life. delight, eternity in the presence of God, reconcile to God, the favor of God. So starting off this journey. Because one of the most basic questions in life is who or what are you going to follow? And what he's saying is the trends of the world, the personalities of the world, the ideologies of the world, the religions of the world lead to death. It doesn't matter who's going that way. It doesn't matter the popularity of those ways. It doesn't matter how pleasurable those ways are for a season of time. Jesus is inviting you to walk a different path in light of what you know to be true in the future. Now, most of the rest of these are just now going to say, okay, so I've walked through that narrow gate. I'm on the narrow path. What kind of life am I going to encounter? And Matt, how else does this one principle of seeing into the future with Jesus and bringing that future back to change my life now or to shape my life now, what else should that look like? Let's go to those verses that Micah just read for us, Matthew 6, 31 through 34, where Jesus says, 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 those 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. So Jesus here is saying, let that one principle, future backward, let it shape your priorities and your pursuits. Your priorities, like what is most important to me? That's why Jesus says seek first. First is a priority word. Seek is a pursuit word. What am I going after? What am I seeking? What do I want in life? And he's saying, look ahead at the future, know the end of the story, And what he's now contrasting here is not two different gates, but he's saying, let's look at the anxiety of the world in contrast to the settled contentment that people who are following Jesus at least can have if they bring the future truth back into their present. And Jesus is saying, of course you need food and drink and clothing and shelter and a job and many other things. There's nothing wrong with seeking those things. with needing those things. That's the reality of life. But he's saying, what if you looked into the future and saw, my father will care for me if I make my life about his life? If I make His reign and His kingdom is His reign, His rule, what if I say, Jesus, you are my authority and I surrender to your authority and your righteousness is your character and I surrender to your character. I want to look like you. I want to submit to you. I want to follow you. That's what's important to me. And I'm trusting you to provide. That provides a lot of freedom. So sometimes we have friends that you know, whether you're just going through something, or maybe you're just a friend, and sometimes we're like, hey, let's plan a dinner for a few weeks from now, and we'll bring dinner over to you. Okay, great. Now imagine you hear that, okay, the hands are gonna bring dinner over to us. And immediately you're in the garden, like, I've got to make sure the veggies and the herbs are fine for when they come over. And then you're like, grocery list, and I got to shop, and then I got to chop, and I got to bake, and cook, and do all the things, and grill, and smoke, and you're working, and working, and working, and you're frantic, and you're like, I don't know if I can get it all done, because I planned this, and this, and this, and this, and this. And then we show up with dinner, because we said we were going to bring dinner, And you're like, well, I just, I didn't trust you. I was hedging my bets, you know, in case you didn't show up with dinner. This is like what Jesus is saying. The Father's showing up with dinner. The Father has promised to bring dinner. Okay, so you don't have to be frantic and anxious about doing all the things for yourself as if you don't have a Heavenly Father who says, I see what you need, number one, and I will care for you, I will provide for you, I will bring dinner. You seek my kingdom and my righteousness, you make that your top priority. You let me worry about providing for your basic needs as you go about my business. I think one of our biggest sources of anxiety in life is just simply we don't know the future. And any of you play these like what if scenarios in your mind? What if, what if this goes really badly? And what if this happens? And what if this? And what if this? And what if, and that's part of what Jesus is saying here is don't borrow trouble from tomorrow. When he says don't be anxious about tomorrow, tomorrow's got enough of its own problems. He's like don't borrow trouble from tomorrow, borrow the promise from tomorrow. The promise is your father's bringing dinner. And that is a very liberating thing to know, I don't have to work my fingers to the bone, my mind, the anxiety of my heart, is this good enough for him? Because in a sense, no, it's not good enough for him, but he's bringing dinner. What's going on here? Chapter 6, verse 10, and this is the section of the familiar Lord's Prayer where the disciples are saying, Lord, teach us to pray, and he gives us this model prayer. And at the beginning of this prayer, there are these familiar words. After he says, our Father in heaven, hallowed, sanctified, set apart as your name, he says this, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now flip maybe a page forward because he's going to go back to this idea of prayer in chapter seven, verse seven. And here he's just inviting us to pray. Again, he's saying like, your God is your father. And as a father would not give his son a stone if he asked for bread or like do a bait and switch and sneak something in that's harmful for him. He's like, part of the problem is you're just not praying. You're just going about life, and you're anxious, and you're fretful, and you're working, working, working, instead of stopping and saying, if God right now gave me everything that I'm praying for instead of working for, what would I actually have? So in seven, seven and eight, Jesus teaches us this. He says, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be open. So the third category is take that future backward principle and let it now shape your prayers. See, he's saying, first of all, to the degree that you know what the future kingdom of God is like, and the Bible tells us, pray that God would do that here and now. And we say very specifically, God, your kingdom come, your will be done in Denver, in the ballpark neighborhood, in your neighborhoods, in your vocations. Let it be done here as it is and as it will be forever in the kingdom of God in heaven. if you knew God's will for tomorrow or the next day, or you knew just like God's big picture will for 20 years from now, 100 years from now, 500 years from now, he's saying, go ahead and pray now that that will be done. He's saying, if you knew that the Father would answer your prayers if you simply asked, you would spend a lot less time worrying and a lot less time working as if it's up to you, and you'd spend a lot more time on your knees. And I would too. We spend so much time and energy trying to build and preserve something that we want. And precious little time investing in what God wants. He's got this kingdom vision that he shared with us and he says, this is what it's going to look like. And often we're just like, well, that's nice and you're gonna do that. I'm kind of building my thing now. And he's saying, what if you reversed the priority of those two things, even in how you pray, and you say, God, I'm gonna focus on bringing your kingdom and your will into the present by the way that I pray. That's his invitation. And what about the second prayer? Ask and it will be given to you. And most of you probably know this has been abused by like the name it and claim it, sometimes it's called the prosperity gospel of just, The reason the pastor's wealthy and you're not is because he has more faith and he's asked God for more stuff. That's an abuse of this text of scripture. In context, he's not saying ask for whatever you want. Ask for the new car, ask for the new house, ask for the hotter spouse. It's not just a blank check of like, I don't know what you want until you tell me, but as soon as you tell me, I'm gonna give it to you. But Jesus is trying to show you it's not all up to you. to meet your own needs. He's inviting you to pray, believing your Father's listening, and He's eager to bless you, and He has blessing in the future for you. And the reason we don't access a lot of the blessing of His presence is because we're simply not praying as if that's a future promise that we can claim now and bring back into the present. So this is not Pray for bigger and better stuff, you know, up and to the right with the rest of my life. It's just always gonna get better and more and faster and more glamorous. It is, God, I desperately want your presence in my life. And he says, and to everyone who asks for that, everyone receives. So let this shape the way you pray. Now, 724. Beginning there, this is a familiar parable that Jesus works into this sermon. Beginning with this, 724, 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. Here Jesus is saying, take that future backward principle and let it shape your preparation. your preparation. You know this as the parable, probably most of you, as like the wise man and the foolish man. And there's the children's song, like the awesome children's song about what are you building your life on? And it is about that. Like there's a principle here about everyone is building his or her life on some kind of foundation. And either the foundation of your life will utterly fail you when the storms of life come, or the foundation of your life will make your life firm when the storms of life come. And what I want you to notice is, the future that Jesus is talking about here in the parable is actually, there's a storm coming. And I want you to notice, it's not like the storm comes to foolish people, but not to wise people. If you're wise, you're insulated. from the storm. No, he says the storm's coming whether you're prepared for it or not, whether you're wise or you're foolish, whether you're doing the will of God or not doing the will of God. His point is, if you know the future storm is coming, how are you going to prepare for that storm now? Okay, and I can't help this week in particular thinking of these, just the massive wildfires that are raging all around Los Angeles. But if you knew that that firestorm was coming on Tuesday, would you have done things differently on Monday? And the answer for most of those people is like, well, you always live with the fear of wildfires. You know, in Los Angeles, in that whole area, I mean, people are always told you have your, I got to go case of stuff, like your birth certificate, ID, family photos, some precious irreplaceable things. Like people just have that. in a place where they can grab it and go at any time, because this could happen any time. I'm not saying some hypothetical, like, well, it could happen. I'm saying, I know that storm is coming tomorrow. You would do different things today on the basis of that knowledge. And that's the sort of thing that Jesus is talking about. The storm is coming, and in the parable, it's a storm of God's judgment. It's not just a random storm. And he's saying, how are you going to prepare your life for this storm of God's judgment? And his invitation is, instead of doing life on your own terms, which is not sustainable when God comes, just looks at your life, holds it up to the standard and says, that's not how this works. Your life collapses. against the standard of God's character and God's word. And so he's saying the invitation is that through faith you accept Christ, you build on the foundation of Jesus Christ, and you simply do what he's called you to do. You live a life of faith and obedience, and you're building on his foundation. And that's why I say, let this principle shape your preparation that every day you have the opportunity to say, how am I preparing for God's judgment? And in a few minutes we're going to celebrate, celebrate the fact that this cup, which symbolizes the blood of Jesus, this bread that symbolizes the body of Jesus broken, he's like, I took this storm of God's judgment on myself. It's my blood. It's my body. You don't have to face that storm. You can build on me and you'll be safe. And if you believe that there's that future threat, then today, have a posture of listening to God, knowing his will, knowing his word, knowing his character, and saying, God, by your help, by your grace at work in me, I wanna live a life pleasing to you. Going on, chapter six again, verse 19. Jesus says, 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 will your heart be also. Here Jesus is saying that one principle, future backward, he's saying let that shape your planning and your possessions. The way you think about the future, the way you think about possessions, material stuff. And here I can't help think of the LA fire again. If you know the fire is coming tomorrow, do you go to the car dealership today, put down the money on the brand new car and park it in your garage? No one would have done that. No one would have gone to the bank and said, I'm worried about inflation, I'm worried about like FDIC insurance, so I'm gonna pull out all my money in cash and put it in my mattress. If you know the fire's coming tomorrow, nobody lives that way. Nobody does stupid stuff with important possessions if you know it's all gonna go away. What Jesus is saying, look into the future. It's all going to go away. You are not taking it with you. We were just talking to an estate planner because this was important to us. How are we following other scriptural principles of caring for our children? And the Bible calls us to care for our children's children. And so we're thinking ahead of how do we do that? And this guy who's an estate planning attorney, and he's a believer, he's an elder in his church here. I'd recommend him, but that's a separate conversation. But he was literally like, you should plan. Because he's like, I'll tell you the things that you prioritize as a couple, as a family, three generations from now, or at most four, someone will be living off your wealth, and I don't mean that as like wealthy, but just they'll be living off your means, and they will not have the same priorities as you have. Okay, so you can stockpile all you want. This is Jesus' point. You can stockpile all you want and be like, well, I'm entrusting it to my kids and they're going to do great things with it. And hopefully they will. And hopefully their kids, but their kids' kids don't know us, don't care. They hopefully are following Jesus, but they may not. And it's just somebody else is enjoying your stuff 100 years from now. They don't even know your name. They don't care. So what Jesus is saying here is look ahead at the end of your earthly possessions. It all wears down. It all goes away. it all eventually becomes worthless, or someone takes it from you, or a fire takes it from you. But he's saying eventually, one way or another, you're going to lose it all. But what if you took your material resources and leveraged them toward a positive future, toward a guaranteed future? Okay, and that's the estate planning thing. It's like, yeah, how are we investing in things that like make the heart of God smile? I don't think Jesus is here, here is saying, you know, you shouldn't have a nice house or a nice car or a new jacket or new skis, like even fun stuff. I don't think the point is don't have possessions. He's urging you to think about the future and therefore to think differently about how you possess things. You know, very often we think we possess our stuff and really it possesses us, meaning it controls us. And he's inviting you, if you see the future, you can live a life that you enjoy the things I've put in your life. I've put many material things. You look at some people in the Bible, the patriarchs, some of them were super wealthy, like Job. And he wasn't like wringing his hands like, oh no, I should get rid of all my stuff. God has blessed me, this is terrible. He's like, no, I want to enjoy the blessings of God. But he wasn't possessed by his possessions. He could live for a future. And I think positively, instead of being controlled by material things, what if each one of us lived this future backward of saying, Lord, I'm looking ahead and I'm seeing the eternal impact of my investment in your kingdom work. If you did that, I assure you, you'd be far more excited about investing in church ministry. And I'm not saying give to our church for the sake of giving to our church. I mean, fine, support our missionaries overseas and watch how they leverage resources to teach people about Jesus and to affect the marginalized in a way that shows the kindness and the compassion and the justice of Jesus. See, I think we would live very open-handedly, very generously if we're like, I could stockpile and that would be fun, but it's all going away. But the future principle that shapes my planning and it shapes my view of my possessions is let me lay up treasures eternally. Because there is a guaranteed payback on that eternal investment. Go back a page in your scriptures to chapter five, verse 29. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell." Here Jesus is saying that one principle, future, backward, let it shape your prevention of sin. And first of all, let's understand what Jesus is saying. How would your eye cause you to sin? Or how would your hand cause you to sin? And I think one of the desert fathers, almost 2,000 years ago, wrote something about if we took this literally, everyone would be going around without hands and eyes and ears and noses and tongues and feet. We would have to amputate a lot of things, and then we would realize, I have a problem. My heart, and this will be Alvin next week, my heart still desires sin. But isn't it true that your eye is a gateway to a lot of temptation or your hand, the things that you touch, the things that you taste, the things that you hear are an enticement to sin. That's what Jesus is talking about. Obviously, we need a transformed heart, but he's saying, if I see that a temptation comes into my life by a specific means, he's like, look ahead at the future. Look ahead at the future. Do you want your whole life and body and soul separated from God for eternity because you did not treasure God? You did not desire God? And your sin is just evidence of that. It's not really like, did I sin? Is my sin worthy of judgment? Yes, but what it's showing is my heart did not desire God. My heart desired my sin. And he's like, let's back up a few steps. If I don't want that to be my end, What's leading me there? What's drawing me there? And I'm coming back, and I'm not talking about being a prude, but for different, and that's why we don't stand here and say, so everyone needs monitored internet access, or whatever your temptation is, but different ones of you know, I can't go certain places. I should not be around certain specific people. I should not be listening to certain voices, either in my head or literal voices. There are things that I have to cut off and radically change here and now. I mean, I still think that Puritans had it best when they called it mortifying your flesh. I love that, mortifying. We don't say that, but when we're mortified, we're like, oh, that's horrible. It's like, it's dead to me. He's like, well, kill your flesh or your flesh is gonna kill you. and you're gonna wind up literally in hell one day, could be some of you, because you didn't treasure God enough to say, I'm tired of the same sin habits. Something's got to change. Something's got to go in my life. And again, I'm just inviting the spirit of God to tell you what that is, because I don't know what it is for you. I know a couple things that it is for me or that it could be for me. And I want to desire God more than I desire those things. So I want this principle of the future backward to shape our prevention of sin in our lives. Then finally, look at 6.4, 6.6, 6.18. Because now Jesus does something interesting here where he takes three spiritual disciplines, they're giving and prayer, and fasting, and he puts them in parallel. And he's like, in these three areas, and then he points to the Pharisees, the religious leaders, and he's like, do not be like them. Then he comes to the punchline in 6-4, 6-6, and 18, where he repeats this and just says, your father, who sees in secret, will reward you. And now he's saying, let this future backward thing, let it shape your perspective of how you practice the Christian life, how you practice what is often called spiritual disciplines. Okay, what's Jesus talking about? Like I said, he's talking about giving prayer, fasting, I could add 100 other spiritual disciplines, reading your Bible, being generous to the poor, whatever. But what he's saying in this context is a lot of people are doing the right things for the wrong reasons. And one of those prominent wrong reasons that we are all drawn to like a moth to the flame is I want you to see me doing what I'm doing and to think he's awesome. He really loves God. Right, does anybody else face that temptation of like, and I wanna encourage those of you who are on the other side of it, and you're like, God, I want to be kind, I want to be patient, I want to be forgiving, I want to have integrity to my private life so that it matches who people think I am, I want all those things, but what's the point when nobody notices? Well, what's the point according to 6, 4, 6 and 18? He's saying the future is, well, the present is your father sees you. The future is, and he rewards you. And you know how liberating it is to be like, I don't have to stand up here on a Sunday and perform for anyone. If I'm not living for your praise, but I'm living for the praise of God, when I give, when I forgive, When I deny myself something, it's not like, look how gloomy I am, and like, why are you sad? Well, I'm not sad, it's just my body's so worn out, because I've just given myself to a season of fasting, and I just thought you all should know that. Pray for me, you know? It's like, if it's not about doing good things to be seen by other people, Jesus is not saying, don't do the good things. He's like, check your motive. Change your perspective. And the future point is the goodness that you're practicing that looks like Jesus, it honors God. And as we saw last week in the whole sermon, the idea was God loves to honor those who are honoring him. So you live for his praise and just say, the future is blessing. The future is reward. I'm gonna live in light of that now. Let me close with this. So I talked about the principle, I talked about the practice. Let me just talk to you in closing for a moment about the pleasure of living this way. And I want you to just think, like step away from any specific practice that I just mentioned, and I want you to think very generally just about the will of God. Western thinking goes like this, does it not? How do I find the will of God? Somebody's taught you or you just intuit wrongly, like I intuit wrongly. that it's like God left a clue somewhere in my environment or like a verse that I'm supposed to interpret a specific way about this specific thing in my life. And it's like, I latch onto that clue and I'm like, okay, with that clue, I know how to take one more step in the will of God. And then you're here and you're like, okay, now where's the next clue? Oh no, I can't find the next clue. Then you see something, you're like, is that the clue or is this the clue? And you're like, I think this is the clue. And then I think this is the clue. Then all of a sudden bad stuff is happening in your life and you're like, oh no. Remember back here when I saw two clues and I wasn't sure which was God's clue and I took the wrong path and now I'm out of the will of God and there's no way back because I've made a series of bad choices. We literally think of it as like there's this trail of breadcrumbs that God has just dropped behind him. He's like, follow me. And instead of being present with us and doing life with us, he's just leaving a trail of breadcrumbs. We're supposed to find the next breadcrumb and be like, I guess Jesus is headed this way. I guess my life is supposed to go that way. In the will of God, I'm just finding breadcrumbs. Like the Bible doesn't teach that anywhere. We just think that's what it is. And by the way, imagine the pressure of thinking that's how you find God's will. The fear, the anxiety of, you know, some of you are homeless or jobless or you're You know, you want to be in a long-term dating and then marriage relationship. And you're like, who do I date? What do I do? Which way do I go? Do I take this job or this? Do I live in Denver or do I move somewhere else? And you're like, you're paralyzed by this. I don't know. I don't wanna displease God, but where's the breadcrumb? And I wanna just take this future backward thing and apply it to the whole idea of finding the will of God that just makes it delight. God has shown you the future. He says, this is what the future looks like. This is what my kingdom looks like. This is what my character looks like, okay? Now, from what I just said, I'm gonna quickly recap. He's saying, there's the destination, go in that direction. It's very different than like, where's the next breadcrumb? It's like, get your head up, look forward to the future and be like, that's the destination. I want to be like Christ. I want to love my neighbor. I want to be more kind and more patient and more generous and more gentle and seek justice on behalf of the marginalized. That's the direction God's going, okay? So now my head's up and I'm like, that's the future. I'm free to go anywhere along, like I'm just going based on what I know the future is, based on what I know the destination is. And he's saying stuff like, I've shown you what my kingdom is like. Just bring that here. I've shown you what my big picture will is. Just do stuff like that here. He's saying, don't stockpile here as if there's no eternity. Stockpile there all you want. It's like, what do I give to this mission or to my church? Or do I just like take some of that cash and help my neighbor or send money to a church in California right now maybe that could use it to help their neighbors with a wildfire? I don't care. And I don't think God does either. Just help. Part of it is he's saying this storm's coming, so prepare. Well, what specifically does that look like? It looks like doing the will of God. It looks like, God, I want to know your word, and I want to do your word, and would you help me? It looks like putting sin to death before it kills you. It looks like praying like it all doesn't depend on you. It looks like living for his praise and not the praise of people. All I'm saying is there's a lot of big picture stuff. That God's just like, you know the future. I've told you what's going to happen. Go there. Don't be paralyzed by where's the next bread crumb. And do you hear the difference between where's the next bread crumb? Instead of being paralyzed, there is a liberating freedom in Christ, a flexibility in Christ. I mean, some of you are out of the will of God because you're disobeying. And that's the way you know. Am I out of the will of God? Well, I'm disobeying. So guess what? I'm out of the will of God. So repent. God forgives you. And do the next right thing. And usually the next right thing is not that one thing. It's something that honors God. that lives for his priorities. And I'll say this as a father that, especially as my kids get older, very rarely do I have like the one thing that they're supposed to be doing. It's here's a whole bunch of stuff that pleases God and pleases your mom and me. Do any of it. Don't not do any of it. But there's a delight of a father's heart It's just like, look at your initiative. Look at your creativity. Like, I wouldn't have chosen that for you, but what a beautiful thing that you have chosen. Way to go. You know, and to see three different kids with three different personalities and interests and things, that they get to go in different directions, not find dad's breadcrumbs. So I just wanna set you free with that pleasure, was the last thing. I think there's a delight, a pleasure to living this way, seeing the big picture of what God wants. So like I said, last week was upside down living, living counter-culturally this year. This is future backward living. I think of it as reverse engineering your life. Like, that's what God wants, just how do I? How do I track that backward and then go that way? But will you start today with the ending that God has promised and live in light of it now? You just listened to a recording of a sermon from Grace City Church in Denver, Colorado. We hope you can join us in person soon. Thanks for listening. The Lord bless you and keep you. Amen.