[0:00] The scripture reading today comes from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12. Please follow along in your bulletin. And he said to his disciples, For this reason I say to you, Do not worry about your life as to what you will eat, nor for your body as to what you will put on.
[0:21] For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap. They have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them.
[0:33] How much more valuable you are than the birds. And which of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to his lifespan? If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters?
[0:48] Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. But I tell you, not even Solomon, in all his glory, clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today, and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will he clothe you, you men of little faith?
[1:11] And do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not keep worrying. For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek. But your Father knows that you need these things, but seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
[1:26] Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to charity. Make yourself money belts, which do not wear out.
[1:38] An unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be. This is the reading of God's word.
[2:05] You may be seated. How you guys doing today?
[2:31] Let's try it one more time, please, please. Is everybody okay? Yeah. Okay. It's very quiet. Wow, we have...
[2:45] If you're here for the first time in this room, we haven't been here for like two weeks, so it's kind of weird being back in here to see everybody, and it's just interesting to be here as opposed to the gymnasium.
[3:00] I still don't know what I think about the gym, but God keeps providing those places for us, which is amazing. So we are... If this is your first time here, and you haven't been here the last two weeks, we're stuck in a landmine field.
[3:18] I talked about two weeks ago about being in Cambodia and walking through a landmine in 1989 or so, and walking through the minefield.
[3:31] And we're in Luke 12, and we're talking about the minefield that we walk through in our lives. And we said that two weeks ago that one of the minds that Jesus points out, one of the things that he doesn't want us to fall on or step in or enter into our life was the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
[3:51] We talked about hypocrisy being this idea of fearing man more than we fear God, wearing a mask. And we talked about how we all struggle with that in our lives, in different places.
[4:04] Maybe not at church, but maybe at home. Maybe not at home, but maybe in the office. Maybe someplace that we all struggle with those things. Last week, we talked about a different minefield. We talked about the idea of covetousness and greed and how we view our stuff.
[4:24] And we asked some questions. If you weren't here last week, you missed it. We gave out $100 bills, U.S., to everybody. We gave out money, so you missed $100. It was amazing.
[4:36] But we wrote on those $100 bills. On the back of it, we wrote the passage, John 12, 21. We wrote, self or God? And the question was, what are we living for?
[4:48] What are we building up for? What are we investing in? Are we investing in ourself or in God? And then I asked this question, which people have been getting back to me a lot this week. I said this. I said, if God were a venture capitalist and he were to look at your life and everything that he invested in your life, money, time, health, where you were born, when you were born, connections, if he looked at all those things that he invested in your life and the only outcome that he was expecting were things in the kingdom of God, if he were to look at your life, were you or are you a good investment?
[5:34] Has God lost money on you? Or have you been a good investment for the kingdom of God? And this week, we're going to continue in this minefield in an area I think is probably the biggest mine.
[5:50] It is the biggest mine for me, so I'll just be really honest with you. And as I was thinking of this minefield, this story came to mind, and I want to read it for you. One day, an American businessman was at a pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked inside.
[6:10] Docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of the fish, and he asked how long it took for him to catch them. The fisherman replied, well, only a little while.
[6:23] The American then asked him, well, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish? And the fisherman said that he had enough to support his family's immediate needs. And the businessman said, well, what then do you do with the rest of your time?
[6:36] And the fisherman said, well, I sleep late. I fish a little. I play with my children. I take siesta with my wife, Maria. We walk around the village in the evenings where I drink wine.
[6:47] I play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life, senor. I was going to do that in a Mexican accent, but it probably sounded like an Indian accent. So I just figured, forget it, okay?
[6:59] The businessman scoffed at him, and he said, no wonder you guys are such a mess down here. I was going to pick on the Harvard guys again, but I changed it, so I sent you to Stanford. I'm a Stanford MBA, and I can really help you.
[7:14] First, you should spend more time fishing, and with the proceeds, you should buy a bigger boat. Second, with the proceeds from the bigger boat, you should go back and buy several boats. Eventually, you'll have a fleet of fishing boats, like on that TV show.
[7:29] Then instead of just selling your catch to a middleman, you could sell directly to the processor. Before you know it, you'll eventually open up your own cannery down here. Then you control the product, the processing, and the distribution, and then the money would start to roll into your bank in ways you could never believe before.
[7:46] You then probably need to leave this small coastal village to someplace like Mexico City, or then to L.A., and then eventually to New York, and there you would run your expanding multinational company.
[7:58] The fisherman asked, but senor, senor, how long will all this improvement take? The businessman replied, well, if you're lucky, probably 15 to 20 years, but in the end, it's all going to be worth it.
[8:11] The fisherman asked, but then what do I do, senor? The businessman laughed, well, this is the best part of all, because when you've gotten your company in this huge place, then you offer a stock offering for your amazing company, and you're going to sell your company stock in public, and you're going to become massively rich.
[8:31] You're going to make a buttload of money. You're going to be so rich, you're not going to believe it. Millions of dollars. Millions of dollars, senor? Wow. Then what? The businessman said, well, then, you can finally get to retire.
[8:45] You can move to a small coastal village, fishing, where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, Maria, stroll to the village on the evenings where you could sip wine and play the guitar with your amigo, the life you've always wanted.
[9:01] Uh-huh. Jesus talks a lot in this passage about the things that we worry about in the things of the world, and he warns us to not go after the things of the world the way that the world does.
[9:25] We're in chapter 12, and we're looking at this scene in your bulletin, and there are about 10,000 people surrounding Jesus. I mean, it is out of control. And in the midst of these conversations, because I'm seeing him talk about the Pharisees and talk about life and meaning and truth, all of a sudden, in verse 22, he turns to his disciples, and in a very gentle, in Greek, it's very gentle, very nurturing.
[9:48] He's not peeping them at all. He's not criticizing them. He's very gently, fatherly, coming to them, and he's offering a warning to them, a really personal warning, which I think most of us need to hear.
[10:02] In verse 22, the text says this, and he said to his disciples, for this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life as to what you will eat, nor for your body as to what you shall put on it.
[10:18] I talked last week about sometimes, you know, you get to hear 30 minutes of the sermon, and then you run away, and you forget it at dim sum, but God keeps hammering it into me these weeks, and usually Saturday night, I lay out on my bed the sermon sheets, and I come back, and I come back and forth, and read it, and think about it, and pray about it.
[10:39] Does this make sense? What's a good illustration there? What do I need to say here? And so last night, I was sitting in the bed, looking through the notes, praying through today, and Rachel, my 12-year-old, came in, and she said, you know, I had this present for you for Father's Day, but I forgot to give it to you.
[10:54] No lie. I said, okay, great. I really appreciate that. And so she brought this book to me, and it's the Don't Sweat It Guide for Dads. Stop stressing and worrying from getting in the way in what really matters in your life.
[11:11] And I looked at her and said, Rachel, do I worry a lot? She said, come on, Dad. You worry a ton. Not just working on it, but even from your kids, right?
[11:24] And so you get that. So in verse 23, Jesus says to his disciples, don't worry about your life, about what you're going to eat and what you're going to drink. He goes on in verse 25, and which of you, by worrying, again, and this idea of worry basically means to torment yourself, to be harsh.
[11:40] It actually has this imagery of you're running and dogs are chasing you and they're biting on you and they're tearing pieces away from you. And he's saying, don't worry. Don't be anxious.
[11:51] Don't worry about what you're going to care for. Don't be overly concerned about these things. Do not, verse 29, do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink and do not keep worrying.
[12:06] Verse 33, he says, do not be afraid, little flock. This is one of my favorite verses. For your father has gladly chosen to give you the kingdom of God. What I want to talk today really briefly in our time is just talking about worry and fear and anxiety and what it does to our lives and what it comes into our lives and how it affects us.
[12:30] And I realize as we talk about it, some of us don't even know why we worry, how to stop it, what it looks like in our life.
[12:41] And I want to look at this passage in other scriptures and see how God, how Christ addressed it in our life because I think it is a major thing for us. It's something that we need to get a handle on.
[12:52] So what I want to look at is I want to look at worry. What is it? What does the Bible say about it? Where? Where does worry come from in our lives and how? How do we know that we're walking into the landmine field?
[13:05] How do we know that we're going to start to worry? How do we prevent ourselves from worrying? The first thing just is worry. What is it? Now often when I think of worry it's often easier just to describe it and point to somebody and say they're worrying instead of giving a definition because sometimes definitions can be dry or hard to understand but in scripture it's talked about over and over and over again and pointed to in illustrations over and over and over again.
[13:37] In fact, I don't think we think of worry the way that Jesus thinks of worry because the Bible talks of worry in the same way that it talks about stealing. The Bible talks about worry in the same way that it talks about lying.
[13:51] The Bible talks about worry in the same way it talks about fornication. In fact, the Bible talks about worry more than it talks about any other thing at all.
[14:04] The passages say things like do not worry, do not fear, do not be anxious, and we walk through our life and we hear those things and we just wonder what exactly does that mean?
[14:19] The dictionaries I read over and over says that worry is our response to the unknown. Whether it's real or imagined, whether it's tangible or potential, often we worry about things that are ever coming true.
[14:33] One statistic I read said that only 8% of the things that we worry about actually happen in our lives. 8%. 50% of the things never happen because we're worried in the future.
[14:45] 30% of the things we worry about are things that we did in the future and we're worried about what's going to happen with us because we did those things and we can't change them at all. The Mayo Clinic said that 85%, the Mayo Clinic is a very famous hospital in the States, it says that 85% of all of their caseloads, 85% of the patients they see on a daily basis struggle with worry and anxiety.
[15:12] I was in a hospital, worked in a trauma unit for two years and for some reason in the middle of this massive emergency, the doctor turned to me and I will never forget this because he wasn't a Christ follower and he said, Tobin, if people could get rid of worry and guilt and shame in their lives, 75% of the people would never walk into the ER.
[15:38] They would never be here. I did a quick Google search on fears and worries. You know that there are 850 fears and worries recognized by the Journal of American Medicine?
[15:51] 850. I've put a couple of them up here for you to look at. The first one we have here is Germanophobia. You want to take a guess at what that is? Mike, you want to stand up?
[16:05] Germanophobia, it is the fear of all things German. Anything German, if you're afraid of it, you're a Germanophobiac. Photophobia is the fear of developing a phobia.
[16:19] So if you're afraid of being afraid or becoming afraid or becoming worried, you have photophobia. Euphobia, it is the fear of hearing good news because you believe that good news is always followed by bad news and you don't want to hear the bad news and so you are a euphobiite, if that's even a word.
[16:42] And my favorite one of all is homilophobia. Anyone want to take a guess what that means? The fear of sermons. Nate, you are right on, dude.
[16:55] It's the fear of sermons. If you are afraid of coming in and listening, if you are afraid of doing sermons, you are homilophobia. Okay, so that's just for fun.
[17:06] But the AMA says that the worry and stress is the largest health issue today in the West. The Greek word for worry is actually a picture of a person's mind and the mind is torn between the real and the possible, between the potential and the immediate.
[17:22] That's what the picture says. It's a mind and the mind is getting torn apart between what's really happening and what could happen. Worry is always about things we cannot control. Worry and stress are our attempt to control the uncontrollable.
[17:38] When we worry and stress in our life, a lot of things happen in us. Physiologically, our blood pressure rises. We develop this fight or flight syndrome. Our muscles get tense. Our breathing gets rapid. We're ready to fight or we're ready to run away.
[17:50] And what we realize in medicine is that this is not good. That your body should only stay like this for a very short period of time because if you live in stress for a long period of time, you're going to destroy your body.
[18:06] Look at Hong Kong. We're told that in Hong Kong, one-third of the people have high blood pressure and need to take meds. We're told that the rates of hypertension are going off the chart.
[18:20] One-third of the people have ulcers and they're taking meds. Strokes and heart attacks are out of control and what we see in our culture is that fear is killing us. Worry is killing us.
[18:33] It's hitting these huge burdens on the healthcare system. There's psychological fears of mental illness. There's spiritual fears of what happens. Often when people are worried, they're anxious, they describe it as being lost or in darkness or hollow or thin.
[18:55] And all of these things point to the fact that worry and fear and anxiety is destroying our lives. And the Bible says over and over and over again, don't fear.
[19:14] Don't be anxious. But if we're honest, all of us fear in some ways. I wrote out three ways that I fear. I fear of not getting what I want or thinking what I need.
[19:27] I need a job. I need a new job. We need a new boss. Will I ever get one? Will I ever get married? Will I ever have a spouse? Will I ever have kids? What will my kids turn out to be like? I need a better home. I need a new car.
[19:38] I want to serve God. Will I ever be able to serve God? Will I be significant? I don't know if I'll ever be successful. I don't know if I'll ever be successful. But I need this. And if I don't get it, my life is terrible.
[19:51] Sometimes, if we're honest, we fear not getting things or we fear getting what we don't want is probably the better way to say it. I'm afraid I'm going to get fired. I'm afraid I'm going to be made redundant.
[20:04] I'm afraid I might get another ticket and I can't afford to get another ticket. I'm afraid I'll have another bill come in unexpectedly and I can't afford to get another bill. I'm afraid I'm afraid that I'll get cancer or a heart attack.
[20:25] And I don't want that whatsoever. So we fear about what we don't get. We fear about getting something that we don't want. And sometimes, and this is the one that freaks me out the most, if we're honest, sometimes we fear about getting something and then we lose it.
[20:39] Have you ever had that? I mean, sometimes we fear things like, okay, I got a job but what if I get fired? I mean, I got kids but what if my kids don't turn out good? I finally got kids but what if I can't take care of them?
[20:51] What if I can't provide for them? What if I can't go to the right schools? I've got all these things but what if it doesn't work out right? I got married, I finally got married but what if they don't like me? What if they divorce me?
[21:03] I finally got this flat but I wonder how long I'm going to get to keep it? Am I going to keep it for one year or two years or how long am I going to get it? The fear of getting something you want and then losing it and all these fears, the scripture says, they point to our desires, our cores, our love, the very center of our heart.
[21:25] What you fear, what you worry about, the scripture says that is your idol, your God. the thing that controls you, that's what is at the center of who you are and you need to be careful of that because our culture in the world screams out all the time we walk into it, you need to have this, you need to do this, you shouldn't do this, you should have this, if you don't have this, you're not the right person, you need to get these things in your life and sometimes I walk out of the door and I understand and I turn the TV on and I realize I'm not fearing about the right things.
[21:59] Sometimes I watch a TV show and I realize I should have been fearing that I was going to get this, I didn't even know I could get that. And our culture is set up in a way that anxieties and fears and stress are pressed on us by school, by work, by our homes, by our families, and sometimes even by our churches.
[22:25] And this passage says over and over and over again not to fear, not to worry, not to be anxious. So we know what fear is, we know what worry is, it's the ability not to control our future, it's actually the ability not to be God.
[22:43] The next question we want to ask is where does it come from? Where does fear come from in our life? And the Bible says really clearly that fear comes from us wanting to control our lives. Fear, worry comes from us not being God in our lives, not being in control.
[23:06] In the beginning we see really clearly in the garden that you and I were made in the image of God. But that fractured when we wanted to be God.
[23:18] We wanted to be like Him. And that stamp of eternity that was on our heart, it's still there. And we're walking through life and we have these fears and we have these wonders and we wonder why can't we be in control?
[23:35] Why aren't we in control? What's happening in our world? Why won't God allow me to do the things that I want to do? Why can't I do those things? And one of the things you see in Scripture is that you and I were given responsibility.
[23:49] We're given responsibility to go out into the world and subdue the world. We're given responsibility to work and keep the garden. We're given responsibility to name the animals. We're given responsibility to order our world.
[24:00] But when sin came in and it fractured all those things, we lost control. But for most of us, we still want that control.
[24:13] And so what we try to do in our lives is we try to accumulate stuff. We try to accumulate titles. We try to accumulate power. We try to accumulate things that we feel like are going to give us control.
[24:24] And we get anxious and we worry when we don't get those things. And the Bible says to you and me today, and I'm speaking to myself, that control is an illusion.
[24:40] Being in control is an illusion. The passage says that you, by your worrying, can't even add a couple inches onto your height. You, by worrying, verse 25, can't even add a couple hours to your life.
[24:59] And so all the things we worry about, all the things we try to control, Scripture says that all of these things are for naught. It will never work. In fact, worry and fear is basically us saying we don't trust God.
[25:16] And we don't trust Him to be God in our lives. This Wednesday, I got this call. I wasn't expecting this call. And a guy had died, and they asked me to do the funeral. I didn't know them.
[25:27] I walked into the family. They were a very nice looking family, and you could tell there was a small funeral in North Point. And I walked in on Wednesday, 11 o'clock, and you saw the 20 people, and you saw sadness.
[25:44] You saw worry. You saw fear. You saw anxiety. And I looked at these people, and I realized that this is what this passage is talking about.
[26:01] The death of funeral is our great object lesson. That when we walk into a funeral, we realize really quickly that our lives are not in our control.
[26:16] And no matter what we do, no matter how we act, no matter what we accumulate, no matter who we know, we can't stop that moment. And the scripture says you cannot, and you cannot do that by worrying or fear or anxiety.
[26:34] It just won't go away. So the next question I have to ask ourself is how? How do we get rid of the fear?
[26:45] How do we get rid of the worry? How do I know when I'm walking down that path, and I'm going to end into that worry? What does it look like in my life when I start to worry, and how do I move and deviate myself from those worries?
[26:58] And Jesus loves us so much in his word. He doesn't just say, do this. But he gives us his word pictures of his goodness and his grace in our life.
[27:10] As Jesus says in verse 24, if you look at your bulletin, this is what he says for us. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap. They have no storeroom or barn, and yet God feeds them.
[27:22] How much more valuable are you than the birds? Which of you, by worrying, could add a single cubit to his lifespan? If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters?
[27:35] Consider the lilies. Jesus' lesson for us, Jesus' message for us today on how we know and what we need to do begins with that word consider. That word consider in Greek is a very, very interesting word.
[27:50] It's packed really deeply with theological meaning. It means to understand fully. It means to consider. It means to ponder. It means to think about. It means to understand and internalize in our life.
[28:03] And what Jesus is saying here is that the battle for worry, the battle for fear, the battle for anxiety happens in our minds. When we stop thinking about what God's doing in our life, when we stop considering who he is and what Christ has done with us, when we stop wrestling about God's goodness, when we stop doing all these things, fear and worry come into our world and change us, we know we're heading down the wrong path when we start thinking improper or wrongly about God and who he is.
[28:43] This passage talks about that in two ways. The first way is with the raven. Now when Jesus' hearers heard this, they would have been disgusted because the raven was the most, it was the lowest animal in the food chain.
[28:56] It was a scavenger. It ate off of dead animals. It didn't take care of itself. And what they read and what they hear here is that God is in control of even the raven's lives.
[29:10] That God is in control. Don't allow your mind to change. Don't begin to doubt whether he is there. He is in control of even the raven's minds. He goes on in verse 28 and he continues to talk about the birds and the flowers and he's saying, guys, as you're walking through life, as you're entering into the minefield, when you start to have thoughts that aren't of God, when you start to question God's character, when you start to question who he is and his goodness, remember that he's there and that he's done everything for you.
[29:41] Remember the gospel. Remember what Christ did on the cross. Remember that he's taken you there. Let me give you an illustration. If you were to walk in this Sunday and you looked at my kids and my kids had a really sad, frowning face on them.
[30:00] They were really worried, like uber worried. You're like, okay, something's going on in another household. I need to ask them what's going on. And you pulled them aside and you said to my kids, hey guys, what's going on? What's happening in your life?
[30:13] And my kids said to you, you know, we don't know if our dad's going to feed us dinner tonight. We don't know if our dad's going to feed us tonight. What would you think?
[30:26] Well, the first thing you would do is you'd look at them and you'd go, you know guys, you can afford to miss a couple meals. None of my kids are here, okay. But the second thing you would say to them is come on guys, I know your dad.
[30:44] I know that he's good. I know that he's fed you up until this point. You haven't missed any meals. It looks like you're really well fed. Why are you worrying about these things? Come on guys.
[30:57] I know your dad. I know that he provides for you things even beyond your wildest imagination. Your mom's always complaining about the chocolate and all these other things that he's giving you. You would look at my kids and go, guys, what you fear and what you worry isn't true because your dad is so much better than that and he's giving you all these things.
[31:20] And when we start to worry, we look at what is happening in front of us and we forget God's faithfulness in our life. And the hard thing I think about this is that our culture in the world around us stresses and obsesses on food, clothing, housing, what you wear, what you eat, who you are, where you live.
[31:44] And Jesus looks at this passage and he says, don't worry about these things because God has brought in you to this place and surely he's not going to leave you by yourself alone.
[32:01] The passage continues on and he talks about just basically the lilies of the field. And when he talks about the lilies of the field, what he's saying to a Hebrew listener is that God is good. Look at how God provides for these lilies.
[32:14] Look at how he takes care of them. You're worried that God's not in control, the ravens. You're worried that God is not good, the lilies. But that's not true because God is good and he's provided everything for you and he's faithful and he's true and he's there.
[32:30] Just look at the past and you can determine the future. Okay, so I'm in minibus eight on Tuesday going to the community center and I'm praying about this sermon.
[32:42] I'm figuring out, okay, how the heck can I illustrate this and what can I do here and what should I say? And I'm listening in the minibus and there's this program on in the minibus and they're speaking in Cantonese.
[32:52] I have no idea what the program is about but in the middle of the program, a guy blurts out in English, the best and only predictor of future outcome is past performance.
[33:05] The best and only predictor of future outcome is past performance. And I wanted to jump up and say, amen! Because that's the message of the Bible. If you're worried about God taking care of you tomorrow, what has he done in the past?
[33:24] If you're worried about your next step and where you're going to move and where you're going to live, he's already moved you to heaven. That's a pretty good house. Why are you going to worry?
[33:39] Don't worry about the things today but look towards what Christ and God has done for us in the past. The passage says basically that the path to worry and fear starts by thinking poorly about God.
[33:53] That we forget God's goodness. We forget God's faithfulness. We forget that he's there for us. We forget that he's brought us all this way. And we worry about things that if we grab onto them, they actually enslave us.
[34:08] They bring us into chains and darkness. When we worry or are anxious, basically what we're saying is that we don't believe that God is totally in control. And we don't believe God is good.
[34:25] Worried about next year and your contract? Some of you shook your heads. The passage says that God is in control.
[34:38] That God is good. Worried about how you're going to retire at a certain time, which I don't even know if retirement is biblical. But the passage says that God is in control and that God is good.
[34:55] Worried about your kids and you've tried to do all these things and they're still not turning out the way that you want them to do but you're walking with God and you're sharing with them the gospel and they're making these bad choices. The passage says that God is in control and God is good.
[35:14] Jesus is telling you and me, don't be anxious. Don't worry about things that aren't important because God will take care of all these things he has from the very beginning of time and he will until this point.
[35:31] The second thing I realize in my life as I'm walking down this journey is found in verse 31. And it's basically, I realize for myself when I start walking into the field of worry and anxiety and fear that I'm living for the wrong kingdom.
[35:45] Verse 31 goes on, but seek first his kingdom and these things will be added to you. We begin to worry, we begin to fear when our priorities are wrong and we're serving the wrong kingdom.
[36:01] Jesus always taught of two worlds. This world that we live in right now and the world to come. He always says that the world to come is more real and more tangible than the world that we live in right now.
[36:15] And the question that he always asked us was, are we going to live for this world right now or are we going to live for the world to come? Are we going to live for the temporary or are we going to live for the eternal?
[36:29] How are we going to live our lives? Where are we going to focus? And the passage says here that when we start to focus on the wrong kingdom, we start to worry we start to fear and we start to get anxious.
[36:45] Let me ask you a really quick question. How long is what you're working on right now in your business going to last? You're doing a new project, which is great.
[37:01] You're setting up a new company, which is great. You're setting up a new school, which is great. But how long is it going to last? Is it going to last forever?
[37:15] Now, the passage isn't saying everybody quit their jobs and go be in missionaries or in ministry. That's not what the passage is saying at all. But the passage is saying this, whatever you do, do it for the kingdom of God.
[37:32] Focus on Christ. Focus your life on God. Put God at the center of your life. Put God in the center of your world, making sure that you think about Him. Everything that we do is centered on Christ and what He does in our life.
[37:45] When He says, seek His kingdom first, what He's saying is understand God. Understand the gospel. Put Jesus in your life. Let Him be Lord, not just on Sunday, but on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday.
[37:56] Let Him be Lord in the boardroom. Let Him be Lord in your family. Let Him be the center of everything that you do. Trust Him because He's good. Trust Him because He's brought you there. Trust Him because He's in control. Seek first His kingdom and if you seek first His kingdom, everything else will be okay.
[38:15] And the reason we get anxious, the reason we get worried, the reason that we become fearful is because we're seeking the wrong kingdom. Let me ask you another question. I'm trying really hard on a business standpoint to relate to everybody.
[38:29] what if you knew that the country that you had all your wealth and all your assets and everything that you were, what if you knew that that country was going to fall apart and was no longer going to exist and the new world power in the world was going to be Australia?
[38:46] Now, I know, I know that's very scary and it's hard to think about, but what if you knew that was going to happen? What if you knew that country that you had everything invested in was going to fall apart and everything was going to fall away and that the new world power was going to be Australia?
[39:03] What would you do? You'd take everything that you had, hopefully if you're smart, and you'd put it in Australia. You'd invest in Australia stocks and bonds and all these things.
[39:14] And this passage is saying just that to us. Jesus is coming into our life and He's asking us the question, which currency are you investing in? Are you investing in the currency of heaven or are you investing in the currency of man?
[39:26] Where is your money going to? He's not saying, again, don't have fun. I think the scripture is all about having fun and enjoying and relaxing and walking with God. And I think that if I were you, I would say, you stay in your job and make a ton of money and enjoy it and give it to God and allow God to use it for His kingdom and just be the best business person or best teacher or whatever God has you do, you do it to the glory of God.
[39:50] Don't leave what you're doing now because you're saying, well, this passage says I've got to invest in God's kingdom. You do invest in God's kingdom wherever you're at. But what if you knew that everything that you were investing in was going to fall apart and that kingdom would no longer be there?
[40:09] How would you handle your stuff? The story goes that Queen Elizabeth I went to a man and she said to him, I need you to go on a journey for me.
[40:21] True story. I need you to go on a journey for me. I need you to explore uncharted territories, a new world, and I believe that you're the person for this job. I need you to do this for me. The man looked at her and he said, you can't mean me.
[40:34] I'm a small businessman. My business is doing terrible. And if I do what you want me to do, if I go on this journey to explore these new lands, if I do all these things, my business will fail and I'll be a wreck.
[40:50] And history tells us that Queen Elizabeth, I wish I could have met her, she probably was a really tough girl, she looked at him and she said this, if you mind my business, I'll mind your business.
[41:08] If you mind my business, I'll mind your business. And we're told that the man looked at her and he said, okay. Because he realized that if the Queen of England was looking after his stuff, then his stuff was going to be okay.
[41:30] Jesus in this passage says, seek first his kingdom. what he's saying to you and to me especially, is that if we mind his business, he's going to take care of our business.
[41:48] If we mind his stuff, he's going to take care of our stuff. Because he's good. And we can trust him. And the minute we start to worry, the minute we start to doubt, the minute we start to fear, the scripture says that what we've done is we've taken our mind off of his business.
[42:07] And we've put it onto our business. Three thoughts I want to share with you and we're done. The first thought is this. This is what's been going through my head.
[42:20] Often we feel like we need to get security in our lives or certain areas of our life before we can be free to serve and trust God as he wishes and as he wants us to.
[42:31] But this passage says that control and having enough and choosing ourselves is a myth and it will never happen.
[42:48] It will never happen. Because God is in control. Not you. And so my thought for us is would we trust him to be in his business and to trust him for ours?
[43:11] I run into guys all the time and they're doing ministry and they're doing things and they go, you know, I wish I could just save up about five million dollars and if I saved up about five million dollars then I could really, I could run an NGO.
[43:22] I could do what I feel like God really wants me to do. But I can't really do that until I get this done. I mean, I can't really go and do these things until I finish this one career because if I finish this one career then I'll have security and I can rest because my retirement's assured and then I can go be a missionary or a pastor or do whatever I want to do.
[43:44] And this passage says that's a lie because God is in control and we can trust him to take care of us and to be good and because he's good we can be generous with the stuff that he's given us.
[44:02] The second thing that's been hitting me is that Jesus teaches two worlds. There's a temporal world, a temporary world, here and now and an eternal world. And the question we have to ask ourselves is where are we investing our currency?
[44:14] Where are we investing our energies? Where are we investing our life? Where are we investing the best part of who we are? Are we investing it in this world or in the heavenly world?
[44:25] Again, I'm not saying quit your job but what I'm saying is do your job to the glory of God. Trust God to be at the center of your job. Trust God to be at the center of your family.
[44:37] Do these things for his glory. Trust him. Trust him. Do his stuff and trust him with your stuff. Where are we investing it?
[44:50] The question maybe I would ask in that sense would be this. If you had a client and you knew that his job or his business had an eternal lifespan or his life had an eternal lifespan and you went to him to look about how he was investing his money and he was only investing his money for the next 80 years what would you tell him?
[45:16] I mean he has an eternal outlook. He has an eternal lifespan on his company or whoever he is. He has an eternal lifespan but when you look at his finances he's only investing them in the next 70 to 80 years. What would you say to that guy or girl?
[45:33] The Bible would say they're a fool. They're a fool. They're a fool. They're a fool. They're a fool. They're a fool. They're a fool.
[45:45] And finally the last thought that's been hitting me in the head is what do you worry about today? If you could write down on a 3x5 card what do you worry about? What do you worry about? What do you fear? What are you anxious about?
[45:59] Do you realize as you do those things that God is in control and that he's good and he's brought you this far and he can trust you? What is it that you fear? What is it that you worry about?
[46:09] What is it that you're anxious about? Scripture says that there are only two game plans for living our life. Either we are totally competent to run our life and we put ourselves at the center of our life or we put God at the center of our life.
[46:32] Those are the only two game plans in Scripture. Two worlds, two kingdoms, two people running. Either you're so competent in who you are and you know how to live your life and you can know everything you've done and you can do it perfectly and you don't even doubt yourself and you put yourself at the center of your world or you trust in God.
[46:58] You put him at the center of the world. Where are you today? When I ask these questions to myself, I have some really hard answers sometimes because sometimes I say this but often I live like I don't believe it.
[47:17] And I think the power of the gospel, the power of this passage is what Jesus is saying to us is, guys, you need to come alongside each other. You need to come alongside in being in community. You need to realize that when someone's down and they're frustrated and they're worried and they're anxious and you see it on their face, you need to come into the world and you need to gospel them.
[47:32] You need to speak God's word to them. You need to say, hey, God brought you this far. He's not going to leave you hanging. Hey, God did all these things up until this point. He gave his son for your life. There's no way that he's not going to provide for you.
[47:45] His word says he will provide for you. You have to trust him. He will provide for you and he's good. The power of the gospel changes all of these things and it basically says we can trust God because he's given everything for us.
[48:00] He's withheld nothing. He's good and he wants an amazing life for us and the question is will we trust him for that or will we live our life for our own?
[48:18] My prayer for each of us in here today is that we would surrender our lives to Christ, that we'd ask him to be Lord of our life, that we'd ask him to be the center of our world, that we would trust him to be in control, that we would trust him to be good and that we'd rest in his faithfulness and we wouldn't worry about so many things.
[48:41] We wouldn't be so fearful about so many things. We wouldn't be so anxious about so many things because we have a God who loves us so much and wants the best for us and he's done everything to bring us to this point and we can trust him.
[49:06] Consider, think about, understand, understand fully, grab onto, cling to, don't let it escape you. Consider the ravens for they neither sow nor reap for they have no storeroom nor barn and yet God feeds them.
[49:19] how much more valuable are you than these birds? Consider, think about, ponder, bring into your heart, don't allow it to escape, talk to other people, encourage them, tell them this is the truth, this is who God is, this is what God wants for you.
[49:34] Consider the lilies, how they grow, they neither toil nor they spin, but I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like none of these things. God is good and you can trust him. Consider him.
[49:49] Father, I thank you for this day, I thank you for your word. We thank you that it is 2,000 years old and it still changes our lives. It moves us, it convicts us, it points us to your son.
[50:04] Lord, I know that there are many of us in here right now who refuse to doubt in ourselves. We refuse to surrender our lives to you.
[50:17] We think that we can run our life on our own. We think that we know the best way of doing things. But if we're totally honest, if we looked at our lives, if we looked at our relationships, if we looked at our communities, we'd realize that things aren't that good.
[50:35] Father, I pray for those people who've never come into a relationship with you that they would consider your faithfulness, they would consider your goodness, they would consider this passage and who you are and they would know that they can trust you.
[50:48] And I pray that they would just say something simple like, dear Jesus, I just, forgive me. Forgive me for doubting your goodness. Forgive me for doubting that you're in control.
[51:01] I surrender my life to you and I repent of these things that have held me away from you. And Father, I know that there are some of us in here like me who we trust you for eternity.
[51:17] But we have a hard time trusting you for Monday. Yeah, you've given us eternal life and we have a place in heaven and we benefit of all your mercy and your grace and the gospel changes us.
[51:28] But when we step into the boardroom or we step into the office or when we step into our family, we jump back into the center of our lives. And Father, I just pray for me and for us.
[51:43] We repent. We confess our sin. We confess just trying to live life on our own. And we come to you as your children and just ask you to heal us and to change us.
[51:56] And Father, for all of us as we come before you, we just are marveling at how good you are and how gracious you are. And we come before you as a church and I pray, Lord, as a church that we would consider you often.
[52:10] That we would trust you and we would walk with you. So Lord, we just, I just pray in these next couple moments as we think of this passage, no matter where we're at, that you would speak to us.
[52:25] That you would change us. That you would heal us. And we would walk in the newness of a relationship with you and we would feel your mercy and grace.
[52:36] We pray these things in your Son, Jesus Christ, holy name. Amen. Amen.
[53:30] Amen. Amen.
[54:30] Amen. Amen.
[55:01] Amen. Amen.
[55:31] Amen. Amen.
[56:01] Amen. Amen.
[57:00] Amen. Amen. Amen.
[57:31] Amen. Amen.
[58:01] Amen. Amen.
[58:31] Amen. Amen.
[59:01] Amen. Amen.
[59:31] Amen. Amen.
[60:01] Amen. Amen.
[60:31] Amen. Amen.
[61:01] Amen. Amen.
[61:31] Amen. Amen.
[62:01] Amen. Amen.
[62:31] Amen. Amen.
[63:01] Amen. Amen.
[63:31] Amen. Amen.
[64:01] Amen. Amen.
[65:00] Amen. Amen.
[66:00] Amen. Amen.
[67:00] Amen. Amen.
[67:31] Amen.