WEBVTT 00:00:00.620 --> 00:00:20.445 Well, the last couple of years have been challenging for many people probably most people actually as the economy makes a slow recovery after the pandemic and I think, as I've been observing and reflecting on my own experience, there are two particular drivers of anxiety. 00:00:20.445 --> 00:00:24.106 One is, of course, inflation. 00:00:24.106 --> 00:00:39.508 Evolution has outstripped wages growth, so although you might have got a pay rise this year, it probably didn't keep up with the cost of living, which, of course, means you have less spending power than you did a year ago. 00:00:39.508 --> 00:00:44.107 The other big one, of course, is the housing crisis. 00:00:44.107 --> 00:00:52.505 People with perfectly good jobs are sometimes living on the street because they simply can't find somewhere to live. 00:00:52.505 --> 00:01:07.061 Builders are losing their life savings as builders go bust, and if you're a renter and can find a place, you may well be paying an outrageous amount in rent. 00:01:08.480 --> 00:01:22.072 Andrea and I actually experienced a little bit of this pain in the last year when we signed up with someone to put on a patio on our house and a pegola, and they went bust. 00:01:22.072 --> 00:01:22.713 It was a good builder. 00:01:22.713 --> 00:01:28.271 They just went bust, couldn't find labour and took a substantial deposit with it. 00:01:28.271 --> 00:01:30.221 And we have. 00:01:30.221 --> 00:01:31.686 We're okay, by the way. 00:01:31.686 --> 00:01:34.867 I just want to express that I share your pain. 00:01:34.867 --> 00:01:56.811 We have five adults living in a three bedroom house, and we assumed that the discomfort of small bedrooms and shared bedrooms would have driven out at least one of our children by now, and we're wondering if we need to reconsider our long term housing plans. 00:01:56.811 --> 00:02:00.849 But you know, the problem is who wants to be upsizing their home at our stage of life? 00:02:00.849 --> 00:02:05.891 Of course we could add a third economic challenge to this. 00:02:05.891 --> 00:02:15.730 Our biggest trading partner, china, is facing some very strong economic challenges that may well affect the mining sector that fuels our state's economy. 00:02:15.730 --> 00:02:31.787 So there's a bunch of things going on economically that perhaps can cause some anxiety for us, and over the next five or six weeks we're going to explore the topic of how to stay afloat when the economy is sinking. 00:02:31.787 --> 00:02:42.871 Might sound a bit dramatic, but that's how it feels some days, and so we want to look at what the Bible says about this, spiritually, socially and practically. 00:02:42.871 --> 00:02:55.031 And just to give you a heads up, in the final week we're planning on having a panel question and response with Alissa and Kathy, if babies allow us to. 00:02:55.031 --> 00:03:04.986 So, just so you know, alissa is a certified practicing accountant and Kathy is a licensed in the financial industry, so they kind of know what they're talking about. 00:03:04.986 --> 00:03:13.901 So if you have questions that this series as I speak prompts, there'll be an opportunity to ask them Again. 00:03:13.901 --> 00:03:21.207 You can scan the QR code for an online form or you can just fill in a response card and pop it in the response box at the back. 00:03:21.207 --> 00:03:25.086 Response cards are on the table outside, so don't have to do that today. 00:03:25.086 --> 00:03:29.008 Just keep that in mind as we go through this series. 00:03:31.039 --> 00:03:43.270 So today I want to look at how can we stay afloat emotionally or, as the subtitle in my Bible of the text we're about to read says, the cure for anxiety. 00:03:43.270 --> 00:03:49.111 So we're going to read from Matthew, chapter 6, verses 25 to 34. 00:03:49.111 --> 00:03:57.485 If you have a Bible or a Bible app, you're welcome to turn to that, and I'll be reading from the Christian Standard Bible. 00:03:57.485 --> 00:04:01.707 So Matthew, chapter 6, verse 25. 00:04:01.707 --> 00:04:06.747 And this, of course, is Jesus speaking in the Sermon on the Mount. 00:04:08.961 --> 00:04:15.305 Therefore, I tell you, don't worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. 00:04:15.305 --> 00:04:19.007 Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing? 00:04:19.007 --> 00:04:21.863 Consider the birds of the sky. 00:04:21.863 --> 00:04:28.411 They don't sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. 00:04:28.411 --> 00:04:35.624 Aren't you worth more than they Can any of you add one moment to his lifespan by worrying. 00:04:35.624 --> 00:04:38.432 Why do you worry about clothes? 00:04:38.432 --> 00:04:41.434 Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow. 00:04:41.434 --> 00:04:44.374 They don't labour or spin thread. 00:04:44.374 --> 00:04:50.009 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon, in all his splendour, was adorned like one of these. 00:04:50.009 --> 00:05:00.334 If that's how God clothes the grass of the field which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won't he do much more for you, you of little faith? 00:05:00.334 --> 00:05:06.259 So don't worry saying what will we eat or what will we drink, what will you wear? 00:05:06.259 --> 00:05:17.754 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all of these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. 00:05:17.754 --> 00:05:22.451 Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. 00:05:22.451 --> 00:05:26.011 Each day has enough trouble of its own. 00:05:26.011 --> 00:05:29.348 May the Lord bless His reading to us. 00:05:31.764 --> 00:05:33.812 Well, as creaky as it sometimes feels. 00:05:33.812 --> 00:05:37.293 We are blessed to live in a country with a robust welfare system. 00:05:37.293 --> 00:05:41.314 We have unemployment benefits to free healthcare. 00:05:41.314 --> 00:05:46.757 But you know, that's actually a very new invention in history. 00:05:46.757 --> 00:05:51.315 For most of history, the social safety net was family. 00:05:51.315 --> 00:06:00.314 A bad year or long unemployment meant going hungry, not being able to afford medical care for your kids. 00:06:00.314 --> 00:06:05.189 Not having medical care was worth, and maybe even homelessness. 00:06:05.189 --> 00:06:23.011 And it's into that context that Jesus says don't worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear Now, I don't know about you, but that seems a little bit unrealistic sometimes. 00:06:23.091 --> 00:06:32.629 Don't worry, can we really live worry-free and practicalities of life, and if so, how? 00:06:32.629 --> 00:06:42.764 Well, jesus begins by asking isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing? 00:06:42.764 --> 00:06:46.831 To which we probably respond well, of course it is. 00:06:46.831 --> 00:06:54.077 But we live in a very consumeristic society. 00:06:54.077 --> 00:07:20.134 Whether it's a latte with a smashed avo on sourdough for breakfast, designer sneakers, a trip to Bali or saving for a better house, the quality of our lives often feel tied up with the goods and services and experiences that we consume, and media really reinforces this message. 00:07:20.134 --> 00:07:29.194 Social media influences advertisers, the news media, sometimes even government with the policies and the messaging they give. 00:07:29.194 --> 00:07:49.711 Now, I actually like smashed avo on toast and I like nice threads, but when these things become the focus and what gives us identity and meaning, we start running into the rocks of anxiety, because what happens when I can't afford them? 00:07:53.125 --> 00:08:02.134 So being worry-free doesn't begin with having enough of these things, and it doesn't begin with having enough money for these things. 00:08:02.134 --> 00:08:10.971 It begins with understanding that actually they're just not that important in the big scheme of things, or rather that they're far more important things. 00:08:10.971 --> 00:08:14.593 So we need to change our perspective. 00:08:14.593 --> 00:08:24.975 Now, I know this morning I'm mostly speaking to Christians, but, if you like me, I find I constantly need my perspective challenged in this regard. 00:08:24.975 --> 00:08:44.414 We all know that the most important things in life are not these, and that they are things like what brings true goodness and meaning and contentment, the social and the spiritual dimensions of life. 00:08:44.414 --> 00:08:48.831 Now, they say, no one dies wishing they'd spent more time in the office. 00:08:48.831 --> 00:09:02.110 You can be poor and happy, but you can't be lonely or spiritually empty and happy, regardless of how much money you've got. 00:09:02.110 --> 00:09:16.177 But the noise of our society and media make it very difficult to be content to live in the reality of these higher truths, and so Jesus is going to address this in a moment. 00:09:16.177 --> 00:09:54.405 But the cure, he says, for anxiety begins with believing that there are more important and more transcendent realities to live for than just these material concerns that actually eclipse these material concerns and make them seem less important in the light of eternity, and so what we need to do is we need to shift our perspective away from a focus on material things and how big they learn we can't get rid of it all together but just what place they hold in our hearts and minds and onto the spiritual things. 00:09:58.115 --> 00:10:05.359 The second part of staying afloat is summed up in Jesus' words Aren't you worth much more than these? 00:10:05.359 --> 00:10:21.168 In the lilies of the field, as some translations put it, the wildflowers of the field that are thrown into the furnace, the birds of the sky, aren't you worth much more than these, and won't he, god, do much more for you? 00:10:21.168 --> 00:10:27.408 So Jesus said that God feeds the birds of the air and clothes the wildflowers of the field. 00:10:27.408 --> 00:10:34.885 Now, if you paid attention in high school science, you might be thinking well, hang on a minute. 00:10:34.885 --> 00:10:36.769 That's not actually how it works. 00:10:36.769 --> 00:10:42.966 God doesn't handcraft each wildflower and put it in place. 00:10:42.966 --> 00:10:47.320 Their genes make them what they are. 00:10:47.320 --> 00:10:54.428 Nor does he handfeed the birds, otherwise, what do we do with the ones that die during a drought? 00:10:56.496 --> 00:11:04.869 Well, again, jesus challenges us to take a different perspective, one of the concepts in philosophy. 00:11:04.869 --> 00:11:13.528 I'm going to get a little bit philosophical here briefly, but it's really helped me sort through this issue of God's involvement in His creation. 00:11:13.528 --> 00:11:30.615 This is what we call God's providence, his care over creation and the way when we look at the world we can see the mechanisms that make it work is the idea of causes and what philosophers call material causes and efficient causes. 00:11:30.615 --> 00:11:32.442 So what am I talking about? 00:11:32.442 --> 00:11:35.902 Well, I want to use an example made popular by John Lennox. 00:11:35.902 --> 00:11:40.682 Someone asks why is the kettle boiling? 00:11:40.682 --> 00:11:50.048 And you might say well, it's because the electricity in the element is exciting, the atoms in the water, so that they heat up and start bubbling, and so on. 00:11:50.715 --> 00:11:52.561 I didn't pay that much attention in science either. 00:11:52.561 --> 00:11:58.547 That's the material cause, what we might call the scientific explanation. 00:11:58.547 --> 00:12:01.644 Or you might say it's because I wanted a cup of tea. 00:12:01.644 --> 00:12:04.442 That's the efficient cause. 00:12:04.442 --> 00:12:06.761 I'm the agent that made that happen. 00:12:06.761 --> 00:12:10.303 I don't know why it's called the efficient cause. 00:12:10.303 --> 00:12:12.240 You've got to ask Aristotle that. 00:12:13.875 --> 00:12:21.188 So when we study science and when we study the world with a scientific lens, we're concerned with material causes, and of course that's good. 00:12:21.188 --> 00:12:22.340 Science is good. 00:12:22.340 --> 00:12:24.634 But here's the limitation. 00:12:24.634 --> 00:12:26.634 That's all science can do. 00:12:26.634 --> 00:12:28.160 That's all it's good for. 00:12:28.160 --> 00:12:38.601 It is concerned with physical material realities, but these physical material realities are just the tools. 00:12:38.601 --> 00:12:42.347 That God, who is the efficient cause the agent uses. 00:12:42.347 --> 00:12:47.405 Why are the wildflowers of the field so beautiful? 00:12:47.405 --> 00:12:50.865 Why are the birds of the sky fed? 00:12:50.865 --> 00:12:52.845 It's because God had ordered it. 00:12:52.845 --> 00:12:56.663 God wanted the cup of tea, so to speak. 00:12:56.663 --> 00:13:12.063 And he uses genetics, he uses the climate, he uses the lifestyle cycle to affect these things, but ultimately he does it and, according to Genesis, chapter 1, he delights in it. 00:13:12.063 --> 00:13:16.485 He's not just a remote God who switched it on and then left. 00:13:16.485 --> 00:13:20.316 He looked at creation, he looked at the world and said he's good. 00:13:20.316 --> 00:13:21.681 And you know what? 00:13:21.681 --> 00:13:27.977 He looked at us, humanity, and he said on that day he said it's very good and he's not hands off. 00:13:27.998 --> 00:13:34.222 Colossians, chapter 1, verse 17, says that In Christ all things hold together. 00:13:34.222 --> 00:13:43.244 His power is still at work in creation and again, that's what we call God's providence, his care of the world. 00:13:43.244 --> 00:14:03.057 So, look, if we're going to live a worry-free life, we need to shift our thinking away from the material, mechanical, scientific view of the universe, or just only having that sort of view, to one in which we see God as intimately involved, god as caring. 00:14:03.057 --> 00:14:23.222 Jesus says that if God cares for these things which, in the end, you know, we just toss dead flowers into the bin, we've got a new puppy at our house and, oh my goodness, my garden is in a terrible state Not that it was brilliant, but it is destroyed. 00:14:23.222 --> 00:14:36.282 If God cares about those things, how much more does he care for you and for me, who are made in His image and who have inestimable worth? 00:14:36.282 --> 00:14:55.822 See, god sees you, god values you, god loves you, god cares for you, which doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get smashed avow on toast or a holiday to Bali, but it does mean all will be well. 00:14:55.822 --> 00:15:07.504 So in trying to learn to live the worry-free life, we've shifted our perspective and we're trusting in God's care. 00:15:08.014 --> 00:15:12.446 Jesus says there's one other thing we need to do to live a worry-free life. 00:15:12.446 --> 00:15:17.995 You see, it's not enough to believe in the non-material aspects of life. 00:15:17.995 --> 00:15:20.080 Those higher ones are spiritual and the social. 00:15:20.080 --> 00:15:27.491 We have to pursue these realities so that they become real for us. 00:15:27.491 --> 00:15:33.988 And so Jesus says to seek first the kingdom and his righteousness. 00:15:33.988 --> 00:15:35.961 Well, what does that mean? 00:15:35.961 --> 00:15:39.335 Does it mean I spend all day in prayer, quit my job and just go to church? 00:15:39.335 --> 00:15:41.525 Well, no, those things are important. 00:15:41.525 --> 00:15:43.355 Not quitting your job, but prayer and church are important. 00:15:43.355 --> 00:15:52.120 But it's actually far more radical than that, because it gets involved in the whole of life, just stepping back. 00:15:52.160 --> 00:15:59.335 The problem with materialism is that it elevates finances to a god-like status in people's hearts. 00:15:59.335 --> 00:16:14.681 We desire things and we actually start to serve things, and when that happens, rather than people using money as a tool, we actually start to get used by money, and that leads to injustice. 00:16:14.681 --> 00:16:32.940 Whether that's an airline outsourcing services overseas while still making huge profits, or a clothing brand underpaying sweatshop workers or whatever it is, injustice abounds, and it's all because of money, and you know we're nearly all complicit. 00:16:32.940 --> 00:16:36.927 Very hard not to be complicit in this, unless you're very diligent. 00:16:36.927 --> 00:16:43.335 Chances are you're wearing an item of clothing that was made through exploitative labour practices. 00:16:43.335 --> 00:16:48.153 We were shopping during the week, and I was having a look at brands at the shopping center. 00:16:48.153 --> 00:16:55.355 I thought I wonder, so I pulled out the Baptist World Aid has an ethical clothing brands thing, and I'm scrolling through. 00:16:55.355 --> 00:17:02.149 I'm like it's almost impossible to get something that has a high grade. 00:17:02.149 --> 00:17:06.061 A lot of places are getting better, though, so there is hope. 00:17:09.875 --> 00:17:22.028 Pursuing the kingdom means pursuing the interests of the king, the king who came and, rather than using people, gave his life for people. 00:17:22.028 --> 00:17:33.278 Pursuing the kingdom means loving the king and loving the things the king loves, so loving people and loving justice. 00:17:33.278 --> 00:17:38.688 You can't love people and be content within justice. 00:17:38.688 --> 00:17:46.169 Right, and incidentally, I know that most of our Bibles say to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. 00:17:46.169 --> 00:17:52.355 In both the Greek and the Hebrew the word for righteousness is the same word in the Greek and Hebrew for justice. 00:17:52.355 --> 00:17:54.742 They're not separate words like they are in English. 00:17:54.742 --> 00:18:01.928 In the English we have one that tends to be the more inward looking one and one that tends to be more outward looking. 00:18:01.928 --> 00:18:09.106 But they're both linked concepts biblically being right within ourselves and right with God. 00:18:09.106 --> 00:18:17.065 You can't separate it from being right with other people and right with His creation in the way we treat one another. 00:18:17.065 --> 00:18:24.429 So I was sort of reflecting on this at the beginning of our service. 00:18:24.509 --> 00:18:26.335 Material and consumerism. 00:18:26.335 --> 00:18:31.047 They lead to a scarcity mindset. 00:18:31.047 --> 00:18:32.980 You know there's not. 00:18:32.980 --> 00:18:33.823 Will I have enough? 00:18:33.823 --> 00:18:35.849 There's not enough housing out there. 00:18:35.849 --> 00:18:37.295 How will I find housing? 00:18:37.295 --> 00:18:54.846 And then you start having to put some money under the table or fighting for that resource, and the fear of not having enough leads to anxiety, conflict and exploitation. 00:18:56.277 --> 00:18:56.778 What do we do? 00:18:56.778 --> 00:19:14.270 Because often scarcity is real, but trust in God means we cast off the fear and death of consumerism and pursue the abundant joy of life in God's kingdom. 00:19:14.270 --> 00:19:22.749 It's not that we can't seek material things we still need clothes, we still need food, we still need a place to live. 00:19:22.749 --> 00:19:30.807 It's that we seek them in the context and the values of God's kingdom, trust in God to supply. 00:19:30.807 --> 00:19:38.728 And when we seek God's kingdom first, jesus says he adds these things to us. 00:19:38.728 --> 00:19:43.424 They will come to us and we don't need to anxiously pursue them. 00:19:43.424 --> 00:19:48.265 It's not that we can be completely passive, but we do it from a different place. 00:19:48.265 --> 00:19:54.358 When we open ourselves to do that, we open ourselves to His abundant grace. 00:19:54.358 --> 00:20:07.747 Sometimes we have the resources to do things ourselves, and we should, but there's an element of God's grace that we sort of might miss it out on because God doesn't need to do it to us. 00:20:07.747 --> 00:20:20.992 And again, this isn't about sin, this isn't about wrongdoing or anything like that, but when we come with a need to God, it puts us in a place where we can experience His grace and His power at work in our lives. 00:20:20.992 --> 00:20:23.146 But it's got to come from trust. 00:20:23.146 --> 00:20:25.964 So finish off. 00:20:26.005 --> 00:20:28.451 How can we stay afloat when the economy is sinking? 00:20:28.451 --> 00:20:31.105 Well, maybe you feel like the whole world is sinking. 00:20:31.105 --> 00:20:31.967 There's a lot going on. 00:20:31.967 --> 00:20:40.311 Our instincts may tell us we have to hold on to what we've got and fight for what we need. 00:20:40.311 --> 00:20:51.291 But Jesus tells us to live in a different and counterintuitive way, to change our perspective, to trust in God's care and to seek first His kingdom. 00:20:51.291 --> 00:20:55.769 As we do that, we plant ourselves in the abundance of God's grace. 00:20:57.059 --> 00:21:01.790 Jesus elsewhere says he loves to give the kingdom to those who earnestly seek it. 00:21:01.790 --> 00:21:04.182 So we really can't lose. 00:21:04.182 --> 00:21:07.651 If our heart is for the kingdom, he will give it to us. 00:21:07.651 --> 00:21:14.059 So there is more to life than just food and clothing. 00:21:14.059 --> 00:21:18.672 God loves and cares for you and there is plenty in God's kingdom. 00:21:18.672 --> 00:21:20.823 Let's pray, father. 00:21:20.823 --> 00:21:21.365 We thank you. 00:21:21.365 --> 00:21:38.508 We thank you that Jesus demonstrated this abundant grace in coming down to us and living so simply giving Himself for us. 00:21:38.508 --> 00:21:46.451 Father, that's such a challenge to those of us who seek to follow Him. 00:21:46.451 --> 00:22:03.468 Help us to see the world as it truly is, both material but the spiritual is so much bigger and the relationships we have are so much more important than these material things. 00:22:03.468 --> 00:22:08.290 Father, help us to trust you, to trust your love for us. 00:22:08.290 --> 00:22:11.865 Father, give us a revelation of your love. 00:22:11.865 --> 00:22:28.913 Father, give us a faith to seek your kingdom first, to live in this world as citizens of your kingdom and to put ourselves in positions where we can receive your grace In Jesus' name amen.