[0:00] The scripture reading today comes from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 6. Please follow along in your bulletin. No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.
[0:19] You cannot serve God and wealth. For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life as to what you will eat or what you will drink, nor for your body as to what you will put on.
[0:34] Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow nor reap nor gather into the barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
[0:51] Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you, by being worried, can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing?
[1:05] Observe how the lilies of the field grow. They do not toil nor do they spin. Yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.
[1:20] But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not much more clothe you?
[1:33] You of little faith. Do not worry then, saying, What will we eat? Or what will we drink? Or what will we wear for clothing? For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things.
[1:47] For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
[2:04] So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. This is God's word.
[2:15] Amen. Every Sunday we pray about what we're going to teach. And several of us spend many hours thinking about the messages that are said and sung.
[2:32] Thinking is there a theme and a foundation? Because what we do here is we build a foundation. We build a foundation on God's word and point people to Christ so they fall in love with him.
[2:43] We sing about is God's love never failing. The question we should ask ourselves is do we believe that? Is that true? As we sit here and we listen to the words and we parrot them back, is that a prayer of our heart?
[3:01] Or is it not? We talk about he's our treasure and that he's our hope. And all that we want is him. Is that really true?
[3:15] We spent 30 minutes singing and worshiping him. But how easily we forget him. How easily we forget that his love lasts forever.
[3:28] For many of us, we're going to leave here. And within about five minutes, we'll walk out. We'll find that we have a parking ticket on our car or something like that. And quickly, the songs and the message will lose its meaning and we'll be sucked back in.
[3:48] Our hope is that you come today and you meet the Lord and you see how beautiful he is and you fall in love with him. We're on our last sermon of the Gospel and Work series.
[4:03] We've been discussing how we as Christians should work. What does it look like to work in a way that honors the Lord? What does it look like to work in a way wherever the Lord has put us? In the first three, we talked about some very foundational things.
[4:16] We're actually going to get together two Sundays from now after church. We're going to do a brown bag lunch and gather people who are in the workplace and talk about what does it look like all these five lessons we've talked about.
[4:26] Now, okay, so what does it mean for me to put flesh on those? So you're not going to want to miss that if you're struggling with how you walk and honor the Lord in your workplace. That'll be two Sundays from now.
[4:38] We've laid out three foundational things and in these next two sermons we're talking about dangers. Dangers that will happen to us if we don't understand our work and why God has placed us in this garden that seems to be out of control.
[4:53] Last week we talked about coveting and desire and we learned several things. We learned that we all have a Big Mac toy that we're looking for and we're hoping that if we get that Big Mac toy and that Happy Meal that it will bring us everything we've ever wanted and it will last forever.
[5:14] We learned that Americans in the rest of the world think very different about law and that a barista is someone who serves coffee and a barrister is a lawyer in American terms.
[5:27] We learned a lot about what do we allow our heart to focus on. And so today I want to talk and end this time these five sermons with one of the greatest dangers I think I see in my life is where I've camped most of my life and my days and it's what I see us in our lives in Hong Kong and I want to talk a little bit about the idea of control.
[5:50] I want to talk about how we are probably the most controlling persons in all the world. I mean I meet people in other churches in different places and I talk to them about Hong Kong and business people and how our world works and I just say I think this is probably the most controlling place in the world that I've ever seen.
[6:07] People have it under control. But I realize that underneath it if we're honest that we all struggle with it. I was re-watching this movie. It's one of my favorite movies.
[6:19] Someone told me I should throw a clip up here but I thought that maybe I would offend certain people in the church congregation but the movie is Invictus. It's about the South African rugby team and Nelson Mandela and this country struggling to be born and in the middle of this movie I don't know if it is true but I know that poem was and by the way I'm not going to talk about South Africa and the Kiwis playing rugby this week because I might cause some trouble there but what I understand from my South African friends is it takes 15 Kiwis to beat 14 South Africans.
[6:57] I'll just leave it at that. But in this movie the story is around Nelson Mandela and he's talking and he's hoping that rugby will bring health and newness to their country that they're trying to pray for and create and in this movie Mandela hands he hands the captain this poem that he's memorized in prison.
[7:18] I've been told that it's a poem that means a lot to him in his life. It's a poem by a Victorian poet named W.E. Henley. I don't know if you've ever read Henley. This poem is a powerful poem.
[7:30] It's called Invictus. Let me read a couple lines for you about this. It says something like this. Beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the horror of the shade.
[7:42] He's talking about death. In the menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how straight the gate it's talking about judgment.
[7:54] How charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul. And when you watch that movie and you read those lines you're like yes!
[8:10] you just want to get out there and beat up somebody or play rugby or something like that. But the whole poem is about control and it's about being unconquerable.
[8:22] And I wonder if that's what we really believe in our world today. I mean if we're sitting here and we're thinking about that do we really feel like we are in control of life? Do we really feel like we have life in this bottle and that we understand it?
[8:36] Because as I talk to people it doesn't seem like that if we're really honest. I mean at work are you the master of your destiny?
[8:48] Are you the captain of your soul at work? I mean most people I talk to and 80% of those who were just interviewed by the Hong Kong happiness welfare interview said that most people 80% feel a sense of powerlessness hopelessness hopelessness worry anxiety at home at home are you are you the master of your fate at home?
[9:14] I mean some of us guys like to think that we are but are we the ones who control our destiny? I mean most of the people I talk about in their homes they have a deep sense of worry and they feel powerless whether it's about the rent and whether they're going to be able to stay there or what it's going to look like or can they get to a place where their kids can go to school or maybe it's about their kiddos who are out of control and no matter how much they've given and given and given their kids just don't appreciate those things or maybe it's about their spouse because as I talk to spouses every one of us feels like we give more than the other person and so instead of feeling like the master of our fate we feel out of control I mean personally do you feel in control of your life right now?
[9:59] I mean yourself? your health? I mean it seems like most of us are desperately seeking ways to assure ourselves that we're in control but everything says that we're not I mean we're told by the scripture and by doctors and by psychiatrists and by everything that all of us are out of control with insecurity and fears and worries and these insecurity and these fears and these worries create these massive desires for control in all aspects of our life I mean the more controlling a person is the Bible says the more controlling you are psychiatrists say the more controlling you are the more worry there is underneath you and the more desperate your life really is and that this control is just a mask it's a facade that we wear to make people think that our lives are great but in reality scripture says that it's not and that we feel this deep sense of powerlessness at work do you feel in control
[11:02] I mean it seems like most of the people I talk to try to control their image they try to control the information that comes through them to other people and who gives that information they try to control alliances they can try to control their stuff they can try to control their staff they can try to control their bosses they can try to control their career path they try to control clients and media and governments in time at home our lives feel out of control and so we try to compensate for that we try to control our spouses we try to control our our kids I mean I I think Hong Kong is one of the most controlling places for children I've ever heard of in the whole world when I hear about kids being tutored for 100 hours a week and that's that abnormal and I think about the parents whose lives are out of control and I wonder if they're trying to grab control in their kids lives because they can't control their own lives and so they try to control their kids and shape their kids and make sure their kids and we say it's for their health and their wealth and their future but is it really or are we just trying to control them we're told by doctors at the Mayo Clinic that 85% of the people who are in the hospital today are there because they have anxieties and worries and they're out of control and these anxiety issues are massive and in fact in the states this is the number one health care issue the next is obesity but people say that people are obese because they feel out of control so they're kind of control by their food
[12:35] I don't know if that makes sense and then as we try to get our lives into control we read a book like Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers and he tells us in this book can you imagine what he tells us he tells us that 90% of what puts our life in motion is beyond our control I mean he wrote in there like our time of birth our place of birth the country of birth the hospital the doctor the parents the siblings our health our intellect our childhood experiences our body makeup our talents our dispositions whether that car crosses that lane just at the right time and it smacks us Gladwell says that 90% of our life is out of control and yet we so desperately seek to assure ourselves that we are in control that we are the masters of our fate that we control our soul but if we're honest it seems like all of us here even myself we are a bunch of people who are out of control and we worry and we're anxious we're in Matthew 6 it's probably the most famous of all of Jesus' teachings it's a sermon on the mount he's being followed by about 10,000 people in the northern part of the Galilee it's on this hillside and they've ate and he's talking to them and in this passage he starts to talk to them about things that they're going to experience in their life and he warns them over and over about worry and fear and anxiety and control and he basically says that control is an illusion and we saw that last week in the sermon as we talked about Genesis we realized that control is an illusion so when you came in here today
[14:26] I put a seat a little sheet in everybody's chair it's a worry sheet what I want you to do is as you're here and you're listening to God and you're listening to the sermon if a worry pops into your head write that worry down don't let it dwell on you don't let it pull you down just write it down now the first worry you're going to worry about is yes you are going to get lunch today we're going to get out of here in time so you can write that out I'm worried when this is going and where this is going write it out so whenever a worry pops into your head I want you to write it out because we're going to do something special with that at the end so what I want to talk today is I want to talk about control and specifically I want to talk about worry and I want to talk about what worry is where does worry come from and what do we do when worry enters into our life I'm going to be very personable I'm going to be very personal I'm going to share some experiences I appreciate it if you don't share around with everybody but this is a family we talked about this is what we do in families how I handle worry so the first thing is worry what it is is it's basically seen in our lives and it's understand is something that happens physiologically spiritually emotionally when we experience something that's out of our control
[15:36] I mean this is something that's worrying us it could be real it could be imagined it could be tangible it could be potential in fact what I've been told is that most of the things we worry about never ever happen if you do this statistical chart 30% of what the average person worries about happened in the past and so they're worried about what happened in the past and how it's going to be received and what's going to happen from that 50% is what's going to happen in the future and 8% has something other correspondence with just yourself and your life and your health but what we're told is that 88% of these things we worry about never happen they consume our lives and they never happen the Bible says that at the core of worry is the desire for control if we're honest we realize that we're not in control whether it's our work our house our health our life and we try to maintain that thing that we cannot control by worrying about it and so worry in a way assumes the possibility of controlling the uncontrollable you want me to repeat that because I've been trying to think through that in my life for years worry assumes the possibility of controlling the uncontrollable
[17:05] I mean now I know as we worry and we think about it we can't handle these things and so we become obsessed and we think about it and in the passage here what Jesus is going to tell us as we look at it as we continue to look at it as we look through this week is that basically that worry and control is an illusion there's nothing that we can do about it there's no way we can control it it's just out there where does worry come from look at verse 27 would you read that with me verse 27 in who of you in who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life can you read that one more time in in the Greek and Hebrew the word there is actually cubit it's a measurement of length 18 inches but when the guys came to translate it they didn't really know how to translate it they basically said it means either adding time to our life or making ourselves grow taller or adding capacity to our life but what Jesus says there is that who of us can do that we saw it last week in Genesis remember the story of Genesis we're building that foundation we'll keep going back and forth and back and forth they're in the garden right
[18:26] God builds this garden it's good every time God builds a garden it's great he says this is good this is good this is good when is the first time the man or the woman says something is good when is the first time the woman says something is good the apple I mean she's surrounded by all these great things that God creates and the first thing she sees as good when she's being tempted is she sees this beautiful apple or fruit or whatever it looks like I don't know what it is but we've just said traditionally there's an apple and it's the first time that the woman says this looks good for me how does she describe that apple you remember what'd she say the apple is beautiful it looks tasty and it's desirable for what come on guys it's just like a like a family someone asks a question and then we respond it's desirable for what it's desirable for wisdom it's desirable to make somebody wise let me ask you a question
[19:31] God creates everything he puts a man and a woman in a garden he gives them control of everything why does she want more control what's she trying to control you and I in the garden we're given command of everything we're told to control everything to prosper to multiply to make everything good to make it beautiful she sees the apple it's good for wisdom it's good for control she wants it what does she have control over God she doesn't have control over God I mean she has control over everything else in scripture but she doesn't have control over God and so when she sees that she says this is something that's going to make me wise and in control and so she grabs that and in trying to control God everything falls apart and she's deceived and I would submit that that's the way most of us live our lives today that most of us live our lives trying to control
[20:46] God trying to put on a facade trying to act a certain way trying to act in control I have an incredible privilege as a pastor people call me into their lives when their lives are out of control I walk into some of the most powerful beautiful offices and houses in all the world I sit in front of people who are powerful like you beautiful like you in control like you and I sit in front of them at their time that they're most out of control when they get that phone call from the HR department and you're asked to go down to that special room on that special floor where no one wants to go and hey by the way you don't need to worry about your stuff when you get that call from the doctor and the doctor says hey oh by the way something happened with this test and we need you to come back we need you to take some more tests when you have that heart attack and you think your life's in control and you're healthy and everything's going well and all of a sudden you have that heart attack and I go in beside these powerful people who are in control and I get to see them for the first time realize the reality of their world and the reality is they are not in control they try to act in control they try to wear a mask like they're in control but they are not in control when you're getting pushed through that cat scanner and you're worried about that cancer coming back no matter how powerful you are no matter how in control you are at that moment you are show yourself that you're not in control and you start to worry and you know we hate worry you know why we hate worry because worry shows us that we're not God and we hate it because we want to be in control but when worry comes into our life it shows us that we're not in control every sermon we've had the privilege of inviting people to come up front and just to share a little bit about their story and so today
[23:14] I've asked Kristen to come in and share where is Kristen okay and so she is very worried about not being in control so we talked last night on the phone and I said so are you worried and she started laughing ha ha ha ha that's what the sermon's about right I said yes it is and so I think that she was mostly worried about me not remembering my questions that I'd written out to say we're going to ask these questions you refuse to rehearse yeah I refuse to rehearse I just feel like we're raw and organic you can't rehearse for a family and so so I did tell you Kristen that I I forgot the questions okay so so I thought just being here with you maybe you could share with us because you know the questions hopefully maybe just share a little bit about yourself with the Watermark family your family so I'm Kristen and my husband Colin and I we've been in Watermark for about a year and a half and we've been going to your fellowship group
[24:14] I grew up in Indonesia Indonesian born Chinese and I grew up in a happy family and we always had more than enough but my mom grew up grew up poor and she worked really hard to get out of poverty and to support herself and by the time she and my dad had my sister and I basically we were well provided for but they especially my mom always talked about how you know difficult being poor is and she always wants us to know that we should avoid being poor and we should do whatever we can to sort out our lives so that we won't fall into poverty because it's a terrible thing to be in so because of that it makes me thankful for whatever I have but it also gives me this fear of poverty and I've never been poor but I'm very afraid of it and it also makes me risk averse in the choices that I make and it also makes me a planner which is just a nice way of saying being a controller so
[25:24] I'm glad you said that because so many of us here are planners and if I say you're just trying to hide your worry people will get mad at me right and we yeah so my yeah so I tend to I mean the good thing is it makes me a good planner which is kind of like my gift but it's also my weakness and so basically I tend to worry if I am unable to plan for something or if I've planned for something and it doesn't work out and then that's when I panic and so that's yeah so then that's when I'm forced to go to God and trust in Him basically yeah so we're talking about this idea of control in the workplace and how that is manifested in maybe in your life or a boss or other people and then just the the converse side of that one because the reality is control is an illusion so we don't really have control so we're always just fearful worried and out of control how do you see that played out in your workplace is that the question yes it was you did remember the questions so basically control in the workplace for me
[26:42] I would feel in control in my workplace if I know what's going on in the area of my responsibility and I know what my team is doing what they're handling what they're dealing with I know that they're happy and I know people like me and yeah just know what's going on and have control of what's going on so if my boss asks me something like I have an answer for it if situations come up but it's something that I know how to handle I still feel like I'm in control and basically being in control when I have these situations all tick I would feel quite comfortable quite confident and I would feel quite good about myself I would feel like I'm good at my job and basically I would somewhat feel important like I'm indispensable to the company or something and yeah so that's when I feel in control and when I don't have things in control is when
[27:49] I don't know the full extent of what's going on within the area of my responsibility which is what's happening now because I just got a new role in my company and yeah I feel quite insecure because I don't know everything I don't know what my teams are doing and situations come up and I don't know how to handle it so it makes me feel out of control very insecure you know what do people think of me in this position and it makes me uncomfortable and quite stressed and it forces me to go to God and trust him because it's amazing because I've never seen you and we've gone to Israel together and all that I've never seen you stressed right so you oh you don't know me well or or maybe you wear your mask of control very well because it seems like when I look at you or Colin I've seen Colin a little more stressed because he's kind of red but you you just you just a mask of coolness yeah you're an iceberg yeah in a good way
[28:55] I guess sorry about that Colin so what would you say in this whole process of being out of control in control and realizing that you need to continually be going before the Lord and help asking him to show you what that looks like what are things you've been learning right and that process for you as a couple and as individual and things like that so as much as I don't enjoy being out of control not being in my comfort zone but I realize that's really the time when I'm closest to God because I it's the only time I literally seek God you know daily for his wisdom for his strength because I don't know what to do when I'm in control I really just go to my normal mode which is like do what I know I can do and it's so when I'm in control it's actually it makes me feel good but actually it's really tiring because
[29:58] I'm the one running everything myself when I'm not in control it's very uncomfortable but in the end when God comes through I find it really refreshing because oh somebody else is taking care of it instead of myself so it's really refreshing but it's very uncomfortable in the beginning so that's what I'm learning and I realized that yeah I I probably should do it more often because I tend at the moment I tend to do this only when I'm in crisis you know when I my plans don't work out but I should probably do it more often like on little things yeah that was it right let me ask you another hard question can I pray for you sure okay father we just thank you for Kristen and for Colin and just for bringing them here and just for all the amazing things you've done in their life and experiences we pray for them as a family that you would just continue to watch over them and bless them as they grow pray for her work that you would give her wisdom and favor and the freedom not to always wear a mask so that people would see your son coming through her and we pray that for all of us and so I just thank you for her heart and her desire and just amazing story of your goodness and faithfulness in our life and we just pray these things in your son
[31:17] Jesus name amen thank you so much she's a good Texas girl if you didn't know that so she went to school at Rice so giving you a hard time hey one final thing and I want to end here we know what worry is we know how worry comes into our life and it dominates us and it tries to show us control is better and we need to wear a mask and not let people see what's happening ultimately what we're actually struggling with is the issue of who is God in our life are we going to be God or is God going to be God but the question for me is always what do I do when worry comes into my life here did I lose the mic I'm scared cheering up here because I don't have my act to get and we're going on a journey we're learning these things but let me just share some things that this passage says continually as you go to today ponder consider ponder consider ponder consider when worry comes in he asks us to ponder and consider two things and he asks us to seek or set our heart on one thing to seek means to set our course to set our wheels down and to follow that thing and not to stop following that thing
[32:36] I'm just going to show you this is how this plays out in my life so I'm going to talk through some things that go in my world as I look at this passage God you know I'm so worried about these heart tests coming up because I had my heart attack ten years ago and I wonder and I worry if I'm still taking care of my heart the way I do I know I'm exercising I know I'm probably not drinking that one glass of wine like I should I'm not drinking or eating a dark chocolate but I'm trying to exercise and do these things and all of a sudden I get this slip from the doctor saying it's time for your annual checkup and treadmill run and Lord I am so worried about that because on that treadmill I feel out of control and no matter how much I present controlness in front of you when you have those monitors and you're watching your heart you wonder am I really in control and God speaks to me in those times and he says things like verse 26
[33:40] Tobin look at the birds of the air don't you know that I have control over them don't you know that I provide for them don't you know that I've given them all that they need and I'm totally in control of their lives and yours if I care for these little birds how much more am I going to care for you made in my image Tobin you can trust me because everything happening everything from your heart attack on everything I've been in control over I've been in that I've been a part of that I've allowed all those things happening I've given you my son I've given him on the cross I've given you everything that you need you can trust me to be sovereign in your life I think about that over and over again I think about that heart attack ten years ago
[34:41] I realized for sure that if I had died this church wouldn't be here or I wouldn't be here in this church but for some reason God allowed me to have that heart attack and as I look back on it now these ten years so many things have transformed because of those events and it's pretty safe for me to say that Christina and I wouldn't have planted a church if God hadn't allowed me to have a heart attack and show me that there's more to life than being comfortable and in control but God you might ask me to do something I don't want to do you might ask me to give up medicine you might ask me to go to Asia and if I go to Asia I'm going to seem irrelevant because all the big Christian things are happening in the states and I'm going to lose track of all those things you might ask me to do things that I don't want to do and God says you're right I will because I love you because I want your best and just like Tobin you ask your kids to do things they don't want to do because you want them and you want the best for them in the same way
[35:56] I want the best for you you can trust me I gave you my son on the cross I gave you everything dear Lord I'm starting to worry about my future what am I doing here what about our what about our apartments what about these other things that are happening where are we going to meet what's going on here and God says verses 28 through 30 why are you worried about clothing observe how the lilies of the field grow they do not toil or they spin Tobin look at the grass look at the flowers in the field how beautiful they are how much I care for them how much I love them surely I love you more than I love them I will clothe you so much better than the flowers you can trust me because I'm good and I gave you my son on the cross and you don't have to worry about things in your life that you're going to need the Bible says that the moment we start to worry basically what we're saying to God is that
[37:08] God isn't in control that God isn't good that we doubt that God will truly take care of us maybe that's a question we should all ask before we leave here do we really believe that God will take care of you because how you answer that question determines the rest of your life and I know we're on this journey and we're taking these baby steps and we're learning and we're following and we're learning and we're following and we're walking forward but the question you have to ask is will God take care of you today is he good does he want your best Lord I just feel like sometimes if I do these things if I move in this direction if I give up this idol or something that I've clung to in my life to give me security and purpose and hope if I do this I will lose everything
[38:10] I don't know if you ever felt that way but I do as I worry and as I worry Christ says to me verse 33 and 34 but seek first his kingdom Tobin seek my kingdom focus your life on me put me at the center of your life Tobin put me at the center of your work Tobin put me at the center of your family Tobin put me at the center of your finances Tobin put me at the center of your time Tobin put me in the center of everything in your life Tobin I'll take care of you I love the story I heard it many many many years ago Queen Elizabeth II went to this businessman she needed something really important for him to do he was going to have to leave England to do it and she came to him and said I need you to do these things and he looked at her and he said my business is failing if I leave my business will shut down my family will starve
[39:18] I'll have no hope no control I just cannot do that and Queen Elizabeth looked at him and said if you take care of my business I'll take care of your business if you take care of my business I'll take care of your business the question is do we believe that do we trust God to be good do we understand that if we seek first his king if we put him at the center of our life because the Bible says if we put anything else at the center of our life our life is going to be a mess we're going to be full of worry and fear and doubt and anxiety but if we put him at the first if we seek his kingdom if we care about what he's doing if we put him in control if we understand that he's good he gave his son at the cross for us can we trust him to take care of our business the passage says if we put anything else at the center of our lives we're going to be destroyed we're going to walk in fear we're going to walk in worry we're going to walk in anxiety our lives will fall apart because fear and worry is interesting when you think about things that fear and things happen and fear comes into your life the thing you know immediately is that whatever that thing is pointing to that's your idol whatever your fear that's going to happen whether it's my heart my health my family whatever that thing is that I fear the scripture says that if
[40:52] I focus on it too much if I become consumed with it too much that's my God that's the beautiful wisdom that I want to grab in control in the garden so what are you fearing what are you worrying about the passage here says that God is in total control of everything he knows all your needs he knows all your past he loves you unconditionally as his child he loves you so much that he gave the most important thing in his world his son so that we could come back to him do we believe that are we just playing games in church do we think about the songs what the words say do we understand that God's word is the message of life or do we just go to
[42:06] God's word when our life is out of control and we need some help but are we studying God's word all the time because it is the pathway to walking and knowing him better and deeper I want to try something for the very first time I want to take an offering we've never had an offering in our church we've always said that offering before the Lord is the greatest indicator of your spiritual understanding of the cross and so we haven't passed around baskets or buckets or anything like that we talk about it a lot because we feel like it's the greatest idol we face in Hong Kong and if we don't talk about it people are going to be lost but I want to take an offering today I want to take a worry offering as the worship band comes up the team comes up they're going to play some music we're going to end with a couple songs and as you're thinking about the message if you're thinking of the passages if you're thinking of these songs as a worry comes to your head just jot it on that piece of paper and at any time in this service before I come at the end we want you to bring this offering of worry to God and to place it in this bucket right here at the foot of the cross because the passage says that God is in control that he loves us there's no need to worry or fear if you're here for the first time you don't have to give an offering if you're part of the watermark family we would love for you some of you got that if you're part of the watermark family we would love for you to think about what are the things that you fear write them out and when you're ready come up and lay them before the Lord in this bucket right here we we come before you and
[44:11] I realize even as we share some people are in here wondering what the heck was that and they don't have that relationship with you their lives their families their work everything is perfectly in control they have no need of you Lord I pray for those brothers and sisters here who live life if that is true and if that is true Lord we pray that you would just show them your son pray that you would quickly show them and you do that in so many different ways through checkups and redundancy and other things that control is an illusion and that we aren't really in control I pray for those in here who are worrying and fear and anxiety and they worry so much about what had already happened or what's going to maybe probably possibly happen or other things and sometimes we don't want an answer but we
[45:13] I think in reality what we want is we want the answerer we need that relationship with you so Lord I pray for those who are struggling and realizing that they're not in control but they don't know who is I pray that they would see your son and they would see him as beautiful and who gave everything Jesus who gave up control he gave up control to come to earth to be beaten and crucified and to die and to rise he gave up control so that he might gain control and that through him we might gain you well I pray for those of us who are on this journey and we forget these words sometimes we forget that you've never left us alone and we forget that you are faithful and that you are true sometimes we forget it because we leave here right away and we're not in community we're by ourselves and the voices hit us and we just start believing the lies sometimes we leave here and we're not by ourselves we're around people who also believe the lies and so as they share the lies and their fears and worries it just quickly smothers out the truth of your word and the gospel in our life and we de-gospelize ourselves and when I pray for those who are by themselves or in the wrong company
[46:35] I pray that they would find the family of God who clings to your word and who are not necessarily looking for the answers because they're going to need another answer next week but they're looking for the answerer they're looking for that relationship with you so may we be that people realizing our brokenness and our sin and our struggle and our trouble that we walk and we fall and we walk and we fall but you're always there you never leave us may we be a church that reminds each other of that all the time and comes alongside each other when things are hard or difficult and comes alongside of our brothers and sisters at work who aren't in the family who walk in darkness may we be people who speak this truth and we gospelize everybody we meet of your goodness in the cross Lord we need you we just pray that you would change us that none of us would leave here with worries or fears because we have your son help us to realize that we're not God but we follow one who is who cares for the sparrows who clothes the flowers who feeds his children and never ever leaves them
[47:52] Lord you are beautiful and you are wonderful we come and we worship you we pray all these things in Jesus holy name amen