SPEAKER_00: We study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel.
SPEAKER_00: We have extra copies.
SPEAKER_00: If you didn't bring one with you, you'd like one to follow along, just raise your hand up real high.
SPEAKER_00: And somebody'd be glad to drop one off at your aisle, your row.
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand up real high there.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody will, like I say, drop one off.
SPEAKER_00: It's always good to have the text in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: Greetings and hello to those who worshiped or studied with us online this past week from Singapore, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
SPEAKER_00: I hope I said that right.
SPEAKER_00: Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and uh good old Redmond, Oregon here in the USA.
SPEAKER_00: Glad that you were able to join us.
SPEAKER_00: Hope you're uh able to be with us today as well.
SPEAKER_00: I'll put the QR code up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: If you would like the notes and quotes in advance, you can uh just put your camera up there and follow that link, and you'll have access to those.
SPEAKER_00: Our chapter and verses will be Luke chapter 12, verses 22 to 34, picking up right where uh we left off a couple weeks ago before Palm Sunday, uh, when Pastor Ryan Mata was leading us up through that first section of uh Luke chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: Before I read the text, let me offer this prayer for illumination.
SPEAKER_00: Father, you have invited, so we have gathered.
SPEAKER_00: You've spoken, and we are eager to hear.
SPEAKER_00: Because you hear, we bring you our prayers, our praises.
SPEAKER_00: Because you provide, we can now rest.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, because you lead, we will rise and follow.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, because you died, we have received life, and because you rose again, we have hope, and because you save, we must sing.
SPEAKER_00: Grant us this, we pray.
SPEAKER_00: A clearer vision of your truth, a greater faith in your power, and a more confident assurance of your love for us.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read the text then.
SPEAKER_00: Set your eyes on the page or swipe there on your devices.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Jesus is right in the middle of some teaching that Luke has recorded here.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 22, he turns to his disciples, more, you know, focuses his uh uh their attention on him and his message more on them.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, nor for your body, as to what you shall put on, for life is more than food, and the body than clothing.
SPEAKER_00: Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, and they have no storeroom nor barn.
SPEAKER_00: And yet God feeds them.
SPEAKER_00: How much more valuable you are than the birds?
SPEAKER_00: And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single cubit to his lifespan?
SPEAKER_00: Cubit is about eighteen inches.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, you can't increase your length of life.
SPEAKER_00: If you cannot do even a very little thing, why are you anxious about other matters?
SPEAKER_00: Consider the lilies, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, but I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these.
SPEAKER_00: But if God so arrays the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will he clothe you, O men of little faith?
SPEAKER_00: And do not seek what you shall eat and what you shall drink, and do not keep worrying.
SPEAKER_00: For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek, but your father knows that you need these things.
SPEAKER_00: You seek for his kingdom, and these things shall be added to you.
SPEAKER_00: Do not be afraid, little fock flock, for your father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Sell your possessions and give to charity.
SPEAKER_00: Make yourselves purses which do not wear out, and unfailing treasure in heaven where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys.
SPEAKER_00: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So let's see what we learn here.
SPEAKER_00: It's been a couple thousand years since Jesus gave us this little bit of teaching on the destructive nature of worry and anxiety on the human soul and the benefits of trusting in a sovereign God and resting in his faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: There are lots of reasons people are interested in this kind of subject.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's kind of timeless, to be honest with you, whether it's for their own good or for the good of someone else they love or someone in their family.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's one of the reasons why this book became an instant number one New York Times bestseller, The Anxious Generation by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are familiar with this book.
SPEAKER_00: He lays out the facts about the epidemic level of adolescent mental illness that has hit so many countries in such a short period of time, or literally around the world.
SPEAKER_00: And the summary statement is kind of up on the screen there for you.
SPEAKER_00: My central claim in this book is that these two trends, over protection in the real world and underprotection in the virtual world, are the major reasons why children born after 1995 became the anxious generation.
SPEAKER_00: It's a fascinating read, especially if you happen to have children.
SPEAKER_00: I highly recommend it to you.
SPEAKER_00: And even if you don't, um, I think most of us would acknowledge that worry and anxiety are problems.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you would admit, yes, I worry from time to time?
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand.
SPEAKER_00: And how many of you get anxious from time to time?
SPEAKER_00: And how many of you worry about getting anxious from time to time?
SPEAKER_00: That's all of us as well, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Um I uh also have a quote from a guy named Brett McCrack, and he's a director of communications for an organization called the Gospel Coalition.
SPEAKER_00: We went to their conference this past week and uh uh really enjoyed a lot of the wisdom that was coming, uh, as well as the worship in the room.
SPEAKER_00: And and uh he says in a book that he has written called Scrolling Ourselves to Death, he says, Heads down, phones out, finger scrolling.
SPEAKER_00: This is the humanoid posture of our age.
SPEAKER_00: We see it everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: Sit in a coffee shop, look around you, all eyes are on devices.
SPEAKER_00: We see it in ourselves too, from the rising of the sun to its going down.
SPEAKER_00: We scroll our way through the day, we scroll our way through life, and we are scrolling ourselves to death.
SPEAKER_00: I see some heads nodding up and down.
SPEAKER_00: That's either because conceptually you agree, or perhaps personally you feel convicted like I did when I read that.
SPEAKER_00: Um I admit I literally have turned around after driving away from my house about three, four blocks, whatever, because I forgot this thing.
SPEAKER_00: And oh no, I can't go an hour without it.
SPEAKER_00: I can't go to that meeting, I can't go to church without it.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's ironic that somehow or another God providentially has caused it so that this phone uh has this.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what time it happens for you, but for me, my amount of screen time announces, I get a notification during church.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's just so cool of God.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who it who at Apple thought they were in charge of that, but I think God was involved in that more than they were.
SPEAKER_00: Uh McCracken goes on to say in his book, and I won't put all this up on the screen, but I think it's important, researchers have made compelling correlations between smartphone, especially social media, usage and rising mental unhealth, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and loneliness.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe sometime.
SPEAKER_00: He says especially that among teens and young adults, consider the staggering rise in suicide rates among U.S.
SPEAKER_00: youth and young adults since the dawn of the smartphone age.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, iPhone came out in 2007, not that long ago.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Then he goes to quote Between 2001 and 2007, the suicide rate for kids ages 10 to 24 was stable.
SPEAKER_00: But since 2007, the year the iPhone debuted, it has skyrocketed, rising 62% between 2007 and 2021.
SPEAKER_00: That's still four years ago.
SPEAKER_00: What's it now?
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's had such an impact on all of us, but especially our young.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you're obsessively addicted to scrolling or not, there's no argument that about the negative impact of anxiety and worry and fear that can cripple your soul and your mind.
SPEAKER_00: We're all vulnerable to worry.
SPEAKER_00: We all worry about a whole lot of things, social phobias.
SPEAKER_00: I love the introvert t-shirt that says, you know, introverts, you know, uh just prefer to be at home alone all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Really feel good about that, and that's great.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but introverts of the world unite at home doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: We we have to live in a world where we are all together.
SPEAKER_00: Um we worry about running out of money, we worry about family life issues.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, the worst thing in the world for you is coming, ramping up to some holiday where you got to eat dinner with those people and uh and and getting along with them, and they with you, probably.
SPEAKER_00: We worry about friendships, having them, not having them, managing them poorly.
SPEAKER_00: We worry about our family members, our parents and their aging, our children, and will they make it?
SPEAKER_00: Have we been good parents or not?
SPEAKER_00: Um, we worry about our job performance, we worry about our career advancement, we worry about security in the world and safety in the world.
SPEAKER_00: We worry about things like politics, missing an airplane, not waking up on time for that important thing tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: What's the Bible have to say about worry and anxiety?
SPEAKER_00: There's a little bit here.
SPEAKER_00: This is interesting.
SPEAKER_00: There were no iPhones back then, but Jesus knows our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the human condition better than all of us.
SPEAKER_00: And though, look at verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: Uh turning to his disciples, what does he say?
SPEAKER_00: For this reason, what's the reason?
SPEAKER_00: I always ask what reason, for what reason?
SPEAKER_00: That's like a therefore in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: You always ask, what's it therefore?
SPEAKER_00: Well, for this reason, what's the reason?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he just gave a parable about a guy who was pretty productive, pretty successful, began reasoning to himself, what shall I do?
SPEAKER_00: I have no place to store all my crops, and so he builds all these barns.
SPEAKER_00: Um and and I'll he said to himself, this is what I'll do.
SPEAKER_00: I'll tear down my old barns and build larger ones, and there I'll store all my granny goods.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come.
SPEAKER_00: Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes on to just say, This guy is like a fool.
SPEAKER_00: He's trusting in himself and what he can do and the treasures of this world.
SPEAKER_00: And I read that and I went, man, that's me too.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus goes right in.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason, he wants to talk to us about worry and anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: We're all tempted to trust in treasures of this world.
SPEAKER_00: We all have difficulty seeing the greatest treasure is God, it's Jesus and his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: What should we do then with that tension as people who are followers of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we'll call this tune my heart, the sermon.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna give you the outline in advance because you know it's a one of those beautiful days.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you might nod off, and I want you to at least get this much.
SPEAKER_00: We see a prohibition, we see a perspective, we see a prescription and a promise here.
SPEAKER_00: Um and I'll talk about each of them just for a moment, if you'll lend me your ears.
SPEAKER_00: The prohibition, first of all, he starts right off there with this imperative.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life.
SPEAKER_00: Um there are, as a matter of fact, in this passage, he's gonna use three different Greek words, talking about worry and anxiety that we all have.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, it's as if he's recorded as using these three different Greek words, and it's as if Jesus knows that some of you are not gonna think about it the same way.
SPEAKER_00: And so he he says, uh meremna'o in three different times, verse 22, 25, and 26, to be anxious.
SPEAKER_00: This is this verb, to be fretful, to be overly mindful, obsessing over.
SPEAKER_00: But then Mateo Ridzemai uses in verse 29, and if you look at that real quick, um, verse 29 says, Do not keep worrying.
SPEAKER_00: So just don't live that way.
SPEAKER_00: And the idea there is doubtful mind, imagination run amok, like a ship tossed at sea, wind and waves.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's you.
SPEAKER_00: I like it said better this way, writing narratives about what might or might not happen.
SPEAKER_00: We talk we we one time had a uh a therapist, counselor that we were talking with share that with us.
SPEAKER_00: Stop writing narratives.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are really good writers of narratives about what might or might not happen.
SPEAKER_00: And most of us have written those narratives and can look back over our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And if I were to ask you to put a percentage on it, how many of your narratives became true stories?
SPEAKER_00: You would probably say more than greater than 50% of them did not ever come true.
SPEAKER_00: You worried about what?
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
SPEAKER_00: You worried about what your imagination told you to be worried about, or worse, you worried about what somebody online or some institution or some message in the culture told you to worry about.
SPEAKER_00: This might happen, that might happen.
SPEAKER_00: This this could happen to your kids, this could happen to your parents, this could happen to your own body, this might happen to your own life or your own career, on and on.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus begins with a command.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus does not give us commands that he isn't ready and willing to empower us to keep those commands.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we have the Holy Spirit to enable us to respond to God in loving obedience to God.
SPEAKER_00: Greek uh uh Mateoridzemai is that writing of that narratives, and then phobeo is to be afraid, which I love.
SPEAKER_00: I love simple verbs like that too.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we get phobia.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you could you could put together a list of 20 or 30 phobias and and probably have a really sort of fun time with it, that you can go online and find a lot of those sort of things, uh, lists like that, all the things that we're afraid of.
SPEAKER_00: But before your feet hit the ground tomorrow morning, and every morning following, Jesus says, don't be anxious, don't be afraid, don't keep worrying about tomorrow, about your career, about money, about any of those sorts of things.
SPEAKER_00: Um the phrase that people sometimes use about the world we live in is the rat race.
SPEAKER_00: That great theologian and philosopher Lily Tomlin once said the trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So if that's the race you want to be in, remember the very best possible outcome is you with a long tail, some whiskers, and pointy ears.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not much fun at all.
SPEAKER_00: Um but if you aren't so worried about running the rat race, as I've already established, I didn't think a lot of us are in different ways.
SPEAKER_00: The rat race might be the social rat race.
SPEAKER_00: Might not be about money, it might be about fame or celebrity or just popularity or just affirmation.
SPEAKER_00: Again, these are not necessarily evil things in and of themselves at all.
SPEAKER_00: But they were just never meant to be the center of your life.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus knows that if you try to make them the center of your life, you will be in the rat race.
SPEAKER_00: And you will not be satisfied, you'll be chronically dissatisfied.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I love the way Oswald Chambers said it.
SPEAKER_00: All of our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God.
SPEAKER_00: The one thing that keeps us from the possibility of worrying is bringing God in as the greatest factor in all our calculations.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did that in the Garden of Gethsemane in his most difficult moment of anguish, where he sweat drops of sweat and blood, and he said, Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass.
SPEAKER_00: And then he showed how he is confident to be resolved in God's will.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Not my will, but thine be done.
SPEAKER_00: That's the faith, that's the prayer of faith.
SPEAKER_00: And I know there's a bunch of those preachers out there that that will try to tell you that if you if you pray like that, you you don't really have faith.
SPEAKER_00: You're not really trusting.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you're not really believing God for you know a breakthrough or a miracle or a big landslide of cash or or 100% positive physical healing or whatever that might be.
SPEAKER_00: But I just want to kneel right beside Jesus and I just want to pray just like Jesus does.
SPEAKER_00: Much more than I want to listen to those kinds of preachers who I think are leading us astray.
SPEAKER_00: They're putting us and our imagination and our desires and whims at the center.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think that's the way we ought to be living our lives.
SPEAKER_00: I think the secret to being anxious for nothing is praying right alongside of Oswald Chambers and before him right along with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Keller, I think I quoted this the other week.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, word is not believing God will get it right, bitterness is believing God got it wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I adapt that and say, um anxiety is not believing God will get it right, and and anger is believing God got it wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Are you anxious or angry?
SPEAKER_00: Could it be you don't think he's in charge?
SPEAKER_00: Could it be you you don't think he's sovereign?
SPEAKER_00: See, a lot of us will say, I believe in the sovereignty of God, but then when it comes to like actually leaning on that, trusting on that, hoping on that, uh, we fail.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm so glad he will hold me fast because even as we were singing that song, I was sitting there thinking to myself, going through my sermon in my own mind, thinking, I don't live all this out.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have this all right.
SPEAKER_00: But I got news for you.
SPEAKER_00: I've been doing this for 24 years.
SPEAKER_00: I don't get up here and tell you this stuff because I got it all figured out myself.
SPEAKER_00: I get up here and tell you this stuff because I think it's true.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a big difference.
SPEAKER_00: And I need to amend my life to this, just like you need to amend your life to this as well.
SPEAKER_00: And it will do all of us really, really um good.
SPEAKER_00: It'll do us really well to draw, to note that we need the nearness of God, that we need to have the same perspective that God has, which is why the second thing I want to talk about is this perspective, which is really the larger portion of the text.
SPEAKER_00: Worry is to waste moments.
SPEAKER_00: Why waste your life like that?
SPEAKER_00: Writing narratives that mostly won't come true, won't ever happen.
SPEAKER_00: Why do that?
SPEAKER_00: Why burn up the engine of your soul like that, or your mind like that?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is telling us we need to align our perspective with God's, to see things the way he sees things, to treasure what God treasures, to want what God wants, to weep over what God weeps over, to have our heart look just like his heart, to turn our heart over to his is to have that perspective, that eternal perspective.
SPEAKER_00: So often, I think, for me, when I'm in a time, when I'm wringing my hands, I'm really waking up at two and three o'clock in the morning, can't sleep, and all that sort of thing, my mind can't stop, and I'm imagining all these things, writing all these narratives.
SPEAKER_00: It's just that I need to remember how big God is and how small I am, how small this world is, how small the items I'm worrying about are.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Perspective like this that Jesus talks about is really important.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of my favorite graphics on perspective.
SPEAKER_00: You live there, and I live there with you on that tiny little speck.
SPEAKER_00: There's a couple billion of us there.
SPEAKER_00: And the entire observable universe is balanced in such a way that you and I are not flying off of this planet because it spins it, something like 167,000 miles an hour.
SPEAKER_00: And if God didn't turn gravity on, or if he decided to turn it off at some particular point in time, man, you worrying about your next career move really won't matter at all.
SPEAKER_00: You worrying about whether or not somebody liked your post will be completely out of the picture.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think of it, just get that perspective.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not to say that I'm not doing this to say your life is so small it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, look at this.
SPEAKER_00: This is mind blowing.
SPEAKER_00: The God that created that sun, which is actually one of the smallest stars in the observable universe, which means our little planet is really one of the tiniest, and if size is what matters, we are so insignificant.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not all that matters.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because glad.
SPEAKER_00: God sent his son to the dust ball because he loves you and he loves me.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus told all those people that day, do not be anxious, don't worry.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to do that.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to worry about your daily needs.
SPEAKER_00: The ravens, the birds of the air.
SPEAKER_00: They've never driven a tractor and plowed a field and planted seeds and tried to raise a crop so they could have some food tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Uh-uh.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: And the lilies of the grass that wither.
SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful grass.
SPEAKER_00: I love, I man, I'm I'm I don't have much of a yard.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a neighborhood with small, small lawns.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm pretty proud of the lawn I got.
SPEAKER_00: I work really hard at it as a you know as a as a homeowner.
SPEAKER_00: I might, I think I might be the one or two of us that cut our grass still.
SPEAKER_00: But I like it to look like a little you know golf course.
SPEAKER_00: I I like that a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Um but it could wither tomorrow and be gone.
SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful right now, it's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: I take care of it.
SPEAKER_00: I do my job as a hairy homeowner, but it could be gone tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is neither sort of species neutral, he says, look at the birds.
SPEAKER_00: Your father loves you way more than the birds, okay, in our world today.
SPEAKER_00: There are people that write laws because they want to neutralize all the species, make them all the same.
SPEAKER_00: I got a problem with that.
SPEAKER_00: That's just not the way of God.
SPEAKER_00: He created you and me and every other living human being in his image, a magodei.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the only part of creation.
SPEAKER_00: He said that.
SPEAKER_00: Do we get arrogant about that?
SPEAKER_00: Do we is that to give us some kind of right to be all you know puffed up and all?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: He made us vice regents in his creation and told us to care for it.
SPEAKER_00: He gave us not only privilege but responsibility, and we have both of those.
SPEAKER_00: And isn't it wonderful that on the dust ball-sized planet, you and I have the dignity of carrying and bearing the image of God as well as being able to tend for the rest of his creation?
SPEAKER_00: There's no reason for us to be upset when we know God is caring for the everything from the from the birds to the grass itself to the lilies, how beautiful they are.
SPEAKER_00: The question is: do I look to the Lord and treasure him and want to have my heart transformed to be like his so I see things the way he sees things?
SPEAKER_00: Spurgeon, that Prince of Preachers, 19th century Baptist preacher from over in England.
SPEAKER_00: Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, only empties today of its strengths.
SPEAKER_00: You see, you're literally burning up the engine of your soul, your heart, and your mind by allowing yourself to fixate on the things that make you anxious.
SPEAKER_00: And I love this.
SPEAKER_00: I've learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the rock of ages.
SPEAKER_00: There was one more I wanted to put up there, it just doesn't fit all on one slide.
SPEAKER_00: And it's it's him talking about the sovereignty of God being the pillow upon which he lays his head at night.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, what a great image.
SPEAKER_00: I was talking with a friend yesterday for probably about an hour.
SPEAKER_00: There's lots of changes going on in his life and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00: And we were just, we actually got to talking a little bit about anxiety and and worry.
SPEAKER_00: And we we both kind of settled in on this thing about, you know, the the restlessness at night and you can't sleep and all that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: We talked a lot about different things that we do when we when that's the case.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like, do you do you stay there in bed, you know, or or and I'm going to sleep?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you get up and read a book?
SPEAKER_00: And we we we talked a lot about prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about praying.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about sometimes just the simple prayer, you know, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: You know, just repeating the power of a repeated prayer like that, and just turning to the Lord and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: And just as these are ways that which we turn or tune our hearts to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Cornelius Plantinga has written a book called Not the Way It's Supposed to Be.
SPEAKER_00: It's probably one of my top 20 books of all time.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Anxiety is only the context for sin, not its cause.
SPEAKER_00: Our base problem is unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: Failing to trust the infinite God, we live anxiously, restlessly, always trying to secure and extend ourselves with finite goods that can't take the weight we put on them.
SPEAKER_00: So if you find yourself repeatedly anxious, repeatedly worrying, sort of chronically dissatisfied, upset, tense, all that sort of thing, it's it might be good to ask some questions about what's at the center for you.
SPEAKER_00: What you're so worried about, if it's taken away, your life will have no meaning.
SPEAKER_00: Or if that happens, that's gonna be the worst outcome in the entire world.
SPEAKER_00: I just can't imagine life without that not happening.
SPEAKER_00: Keep that from happening, God.
SPEAKER_00: Or this over here.
SPEAKER_00: If this doesn't happen, my life is just gonna go down the two.
SPEAKER_00: No, those things were never meant to be at the center.
SPEAKER_00: If we're worried, if we're always anxious all the time, it's it would do what we would do really well, I think, to take stock about what we are considering to be our rock of ages.
SPEAKER_00: Spurgeon said it up there.
SPEAKER_00: I kiss the wave that has pushed me up against the rock of ages.
SPEAKER_00: And who's the rock of ages, Church?
SPEAKER_00: Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So if something has moved you to all of a sudden look to and depend on Jesus, I just keep hearing the question in my mind.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, has it come to that?
SPEAKER_00: We gotta trust God now, do we?
SPEAKER_00: And yet every single day I trust him for gravity, for a heartbeat, for my next breath, for the glimmer in your eye when we see each other and greet one another on Sundays, um, for the love of God that we see in each other, that we experience in each other.
SPEAKER_00: There's so much there.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, the prescription, I gotta move on.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and this is so important.
SPEAKER_00: Here we are in Music City, so I found a I want to find a way to say this.
SPEAKER_00: Um the prescription is to see things the way God sees things, and to uh trust and hope in God.
SPEAKER_00: And so, for all you musicians that are here, Jesus is the human soul's A440.
SPEAKER_00: We have to have A440 to have a melody or any kind of harmony at all.
SPEAKER_00: There needs to be something that's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, for human beings, Jesus is the example of human flourishing.
SPEAKER_00: He's the example of human, a human being trusting in his father, trusting in God, laying down his life for others.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the ultimate example of everything, but there's more because you and I don't just need another example.
SPEAKER_00: We need a savior.
SPEAKER_00: And so he calls us to his kingdom, and that's our true north.
SPEAKER_00: We're headed for his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: We sing, I am bound, I'm bound, I'm bound for the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: And the figurative interpretation of that is we're bound for God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: It's the promised land for us.
SPEAKER_00: That's where this is all leading.
SPEAKER_00: We have an answer to the question, do we have a destiny?
SPEAKER_00: We have an answer to the question, is this going anywhere?
SPEAKER_00: Seems like we get up, we go to sleep, we get up, we go to sleep, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.
SPEAKER_00: How boring.
SPEAKER_00: Is life have any meaning?
SPEAKER_00: We start to ask after the 150,000th time we've asked that question.
SPEAKER_00: Is it going anywhere?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it is.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And he's transforming and changing each and every one of us.
SPEAKER_00: And he is the one that is drawing us to his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: This is why this leads me to some of what the Apostle Paul would say: be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: Let your request be made known to God.
SPEAKER_00: The invitation is for you to bring every bit, just like Tina said in her video.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that we deny what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has given us the gift of lament.
SPEAKER_00: A third of the Psalms are laments.
SPEAKER_00: They're the psalmist, the songwriter saying to God, This world is so broken.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so lonely.
SPEAKER_00: Help me.
SPEAKER_00: And being honest about all of that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm fearful, I'm trembling.
SPEAKER_00: And the lament is a gift to us.
SPEAKER_00: And we're invited to sing that or to pray that.
SPEAKER_00: Lament to him.
SPEAKER_00: Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, my parents' supplication with thank is giving me.
SPEAKER_00: Let your request be made known to God.
SPEAKER_00: My God will supply all.
SPEAKER_00: How many?
SPEAKER_00: All your needs, not your greeds, all your needs according to his riches in glory.
SPEAKER_00: How big are his riches and glory, people?
SPEAKER_00: He has all of them.
SPEAKER_00: All of the glory there is belongs to God.
SPEAKER_00: All of the glory there will ever be belongs to God.
SPEAKER_00: And his riches and glory are massive.
SPEAKER_00: And when you start to get that perspective and that that glory is in Christ Jesus, then I think with our old buddy D.A.
SPEAKER_00: Carson, you might find yourself agreeing with him.
SPEAKER_00: The way to be anxious about nothing is to be prayerful about everything.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Is it really that simple?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: It is.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, will I do that?
SPEAKER_00: And not prayer as I define it.
SPEAKER_00: Here's my list of things for you to do today, God.
SPEAKER_00: Check the boxes, or I don't believe in you anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Do it in my timing, in my sequence, or I won't believe in you anymore, and I'll be upset with you.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's not prayer.
SPEAKER_00: That's not surrendering to him.
SPEAKER_00: It's not bowing before him.
SPEAKER_00: It's not saying, Your will be done.
SPEAKER_00: All of this comes with this beautiful promise.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 32.
SPEAKER_00: I want to read that again.
SPEAKER_00: I'll put this up on the screen for you, too.
SPEAKER_00: Um, do not be afraid, little flock, for your father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: It's a breathtaking promise.
SPEAKER_00: It's a one-verse gospel in miniature.
SPEAKER_00: Look, look up there.
SPEAKER_00: Little flock is so beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Fear not, so beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: We're so often afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Little flock, we're weak, vulnerable, sheep-like, and sheep-ish, if you want.
SPEAKER_00: Your father, not a distant deity, not the father, but but rather, not some distant deity, not just an impersonal force that the universe, the battery of the universe, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Not that, no.
SPEAKER_00: Your father in heaven who loves his children.
SPEAKER_00: You belong to him?
SPEAKER_00: I hope you do.
SPEAKER_00: Um, are you in relationship with him?
SPEAKER_00: I hope you are.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has made that possible for you and for me.
SPEAKER_00: Literally everything in the universe belongs to God by right of creation.
SPEAKER_00: But he wants more than just ownership for you and for me.
SPEAKER_00: No matter who you are, no matter where you are, no matter what you've done, he wants to be your father.
SPEAKER_00: He wants relationship with you.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know him like that?
SPEAKER_00: I pray that you do, and if not, why not?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has done everything necessary for you to come to him and know him as father, and he will delight in you.
SPEAKER_00: And he will, verse 32, give you the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: It's a gift, not way disarmed, it's grace lavished upon you.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm so glad for that.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians 1.13.
SPEAKER_00: I won't put it up on the screen, but it says, He's delivered us from the domain of darkness and transformed us into the kingdom of his beloved son.
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: He's transferred us from one kingdom into the other.
SPEAKER_00: It's like no charge.
SPEAKER_00: Nope, nope, you're not paying you're not trying to balance out the moral skills.
SPEAKER_00: God has done this as a gift to you, moved you from the king this kingdom of the domain of darkness, and transferred you into the kingdom of his beloved son.
SPEAKER_00: That's a promise that invites trust, rest, joy, even.
SPEAKER_00: That's a promise that erases worry and anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: Because it it's not just something I stop doing, it's something that's so beautiful that it draws me away to see it, to look at it, to look at him.
SPEAKER_00: He is so majestic, so beautiful, so sovereign.
SPEAKER_00: When my eyes are fixed on him, these shadows fall behind like that.
SPEAKER_00: Just a few quotes, and I'll let you go.
SPEAKER_00: James Hudson Taylor, um, he founded the uh uh inland mission to China.
SPEAKER_00: 51 years there in China.
SPEAKER_00: Um he says the branch of the vine doesn't worry and toil, rush here to seek for sunrise and there to find rain.
SPEAKER_00: No, it rests in union and communion with the vine, and at the right time and in the right way is the right fruit found on it.
SPEAKER_00: Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It might be that's the simple message you need to hear today.
SPEAKER_00: I again I can't know where everybody's at, but I need to hear it today.
SPEAKER_00: I need to be reminded of it over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: Um to abide in him.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just a branch.
SPEAKER_00: He's the vine, though.
SPEAKER_00: My life is found in him.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, you don't know what my life is like.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know what's going on in my life.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know the wreckage and ruin that's going on in my life.
SPEAKER_00: That's true, I don't.
SPEAKER_00: I just know about the wreckage and ruin in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I just know about the stuff in my life that Christ has saved me from and continues to hold me fast through.
SPEAKER_00: And so I keep saying, I have to turn to him.
SPEAKER_00: I have to lift up the empty hands of faith before him.
SPEAKER_00: And I have to know and trust that he is wise.
SPEAKER_00: He knows what is best in all things.
SPEAKER_00: And Tozer said, while it looks like things are out of control behind the scenes, there's a God who hasn't surrendered his authority.
SPEAKER_00: A frightened world needs a fearless church.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's true.
SPEAKER_00: I think that I think the church could be that group of people, that city on a hill that can't be hidden, that group of people that somehow or another in the midst of all the acrimony of an election year or all the fear of a pandemic, might still find themselves so trusting God, so hoping and keeping Jesus at the center that they're able to rise above their own differences and even find in Christ that refuge from the storm and that strength to rise again from Psalm 46.
SPEAKER_00: He's both our defense and our offense.
SPEAKER_00: We can trust in him.
SPEAKER_00: No matter how the storm rages, no matter how big the giants we must face.
SPEAKER_00: Let's turn to him.
SPEAKER_00: Here now is a God who does not want our goodness, just our trust.
SPEAKER_00: All the struggles, all the anxiety can be replaced with a massive confidence and a simple faith, receiving the gift of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 32.
SPEAKER_00: So said Michael Reeves here.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, help us to believe that it is your delight to give us your kingdom, to find ourselves living in the place where you are king, you are sovereign, you are Lord, and we can rest our heads on the pillow of your sovereignty.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, quiet our anxious hearts and minds.
SPEAKER_00: I know that in this room, within the sound of my voice, there are all kinds of things that are distracting us and trying to derail our faith and trying to defeat our faith, cause us to be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Teach us, Lord, to treasure what you treasure, to delight in what you delight in.
SPEAKER_00: Tune our hearts, Lord, to sing your praise.
SPEAKER_00: May our lives reflect the joy and generosity of the one who gave everything to make us his own.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen and amen.