WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:22.320 So a year ago I was headed to lunch uh down near Cumberland Mall and I as I was driving, I don't know, min mentally I I went somewhere else other than driving, but I was I was headed down there and then I was got on 285 and if you you know how you headed 75 south and 285 east and west kind of they crisscross and so it's not the lane you think you should be in and I wasn't paying attention. 00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:48.719 So I end up going 285 east instead of I needed to go west, which right away I missed the exit, and so I gotta head up and then I get off at the first exit, and so of course the first exit doesn't really have a bridge over and had the excess road for another mile, and then to that bridge, and then back over, and then back down that other access road, and then back on 285, and now I'm on 285 uh west, headed back to the exit I need to get to to have lunch with my friend. 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:53.439 And I had built in a little bit of slim margin here, not much, like three minutes. 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:54.640 Like that's how I like to run it. 00:00:54.799 --> 00:00:56.640 A three-minute margin is what I really like. 00:00:56.799 --> 00:01:02.880 And so my margin's gone, and I'm like, oh, he's gonna be sitting there, and I'm all that's kind of I'm getting stressed. 00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:08.799 And so I'm driving along and just again, again, I missed it again. 00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:13.040 I just drive right by, miss the exit again. 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:17.599 And this point, a lot of self-hatred, a lot of self-doubt running through me. 00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:22.799 Um, and so I head up to the next exit, I get off, I go over, I come back, I come back. 00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:32.319 And of course, then I have to explain to my friend why he's been sitting there for 15 minutes uh without it, it's because I'm just driving around, just like a moron, just driving around, right? 00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:34.239 Just that's what I'm doing, apparently. 00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:38.239 Um, and and maybe maybe it's ridiculous, but maybe you do that, maybe you've done that. 00:01:38.319 --> 00:01:42.879 If you do that, that particular thing, you're very aware of it because your spouse lets you know about it. 00:01:42.959 --> 00:01:46.719 Uh, but maybe you've uh been in like algebra class, right? 00:01:46.879 --> 00:01:47.599 I had Mr. 00:01:47.840 --> 00:01:52.400 Jennings, and he wore shirts that look like graph paper, which was awesome for a math teacher. 00:01:52.560 --> 00:02:05.280 And he would be sitting next to his overhead projector, and I don't know how it would happen, but you know what I'm talking about because you could sit through an hour of algebra and somehow you heard nothing. 00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:14.240 Somehow you were in there the whole time and you heard nothing, or your your kid's ball game, and somehow you were there for an hour and a half and you didn't see anything. 00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:16.400 And later on, you're like, you played great. 00:02:16.560 --> 00:02:18.560 I thought you played a great game. 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:34.560 Or you're reading your kid a book at night, or or you're on a date with your like your sweet somebody, but there's a television behind him or her, and and the conversation just you're not you're there, but you're not there, right? 00:02:34.639 --> 00:02:44.319 Like you know the feeling, like the reality that while our bodies can be in one place, mentally we can just be in so many different places. 00:02:44.879 --> 00:02:48.639 And oftentimes we sort of like this is an escape fascination. 00:02:48.719 --> 00:02:53.120 Uh maybe in this, we we feed that, and then it feeds our discontentment. 00:02:53.280 --> 00:03:06.240 Uh we live in the past in some sort of shame, or we live in the future in some sort of anxiety, and yet, and this is sort of what I think Solomon's saying, and yet the present is the only moment any of us have. 00:03:06.479 --> 00:03:07.520 Right here, like right now. 00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:10.639 We don't even have like the picnic coming up, and you're like, should we go or not? 00:03:10.719 --> 00:03:11.520 It looks cloudy. 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:13.520 Like you don't even have the picnic later on. 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:14.240 This is it. 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:18.319 This is the only moment you have, you don't have any other moment. 00:03:19.039 --> 00:03:23.599 And I say all that because these philosophical ramblings of of Solomon. 00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:28.159 And we've been looking at this book of Ecclesiastes and Old Testament, if you haven't been coming lately. 00:03:28.319 --> 00:03:33.280 Uh Old Testament book, very strange book, like real cynical, philosophical. 00:03:33.360 --> 00:03:38.319 Uh, it's written in King Solomon's voice, but probably not him. 00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:43.520 But it's uh it's philosophical, it's cynical, it's rambling. 00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:49.439 At times, he's repetitious, at times it's incredibly wise, and you're with him, and you're like, yes, yes, yes. 00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:57.360 And then he starts talking, you're like, not sure, I'm not sure about that, not sure about that, and then yes, yes, yeah, and that's how it feels as we as we read it. 00:03:57.439 --> 00:03:59.120 So it's almost his journal. 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:07.280 It's like the it's the journal you'd write, and you would never let anybody look at it, except his ended up in the Bible, and everybody gets to talk about it. 00:04:07.520 --> 00:04:12.960 And so chapter eight is filled with thoughts about obeying the king, which is him. 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:15.120 Uh convenient for him to write about that. 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:22.079 And then some thoughts about the goodness of fearing God, which we've talked about, which is coming under God's reign. 00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:25.759 And then he gets into chapter 9, and this is where our reading comes in this morning. 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:31.920 And verses 1 through 6 talks about the difficulties of life, just the difficulties of living in this world. 00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:36.560 And so what Solomon's saying in those verses, he's saying, you can't figure it all out. 00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:41.519 I don't know if you've been trying, but if you've been trying, you're very frustrated. 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:43.519 You can't figure it all out. 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:46.800 You can't know the future. 00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:48.800 I don't know if you've been trying that. 00:04:48.879 --> 00:04:51.120 Uh if so, you're exhausted. 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:53.360 Anybody been surprised, right? 00:04:53.519 --> 00:04:54.959 You had a surprise in your life? 00:04:55.360 --> 00:04:56.240 Good one, bad one? 00:04:56.480 --> 00:04:57.360 Can't know the future. 00:04:57.519 --> 00:04:59.279 You can't control death. 00:04:59.920 --> 00:05:00.800 This is what he's saying. 00:05:00.879 --> 00:05:02.639 These are you can't control death. 00:05:02.879 --> 00:05:06.000 Not for you, not for your loved ones, not for your children. 00:05:06.319 --> 00:05:08.319 As much as we would want to, we can't. 00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:14.240 And on top of that, on top of that, good things happen to bad people, and then bad things happen to good people. 00:05:14.319 --> 00:05:18.079 And this is very, very frustrating to him and to us, right? 00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:21.199 And he's saying what he's saying, we're we're fighting this. 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:23.360 We are all fighting this, and I hate it. 00:05:23.519 --> 00:05:24.560 I hate this. 00:05:25.519 --> 00:05:27.680 I can't control everything. 00:05:28.079 --> 00:05:30.480 Don't you just oh, don't you just hate that? 00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:32.480 I mean, that is just oh, I hate that. 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:34.480 I mean, as a dad, right? 00:05:34.639 --> 00:05:35.839 That I can't control everything. 00:05:35.920 --> 00:05:37.519 As a dad, that's incredibly frustrating. 00:05:37.759 --> 00:05:45.120 As a husband, as a friend, as a pastor, just as a person, that I can't control everything. 00:05:45.279 --> 00:05:46.240 I want to. 00:05:46.639 --> 00:05:50.560 Like I really, really want to, and I really do a lot to try to. 00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:54.399 And in that, there's an incredible amount of exhaustion. 00:05:54.720 --> 00:05:57.600 And an incredible amount of me just trying to be God. 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:02.160 My senior year of high school, I took this class called Careers in Education. 00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:06.639 Basically, it was a class for people who wanted to be teachers. 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:17.439 Um, I didn't want to be a teacher, but I had some cute girls were in the class, and then on top of that, it was you got to leave school for a period, and I thought that was awesome. 00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:24.160 And so these were the rational decisions for my education throughout life, were these types of uh decision making. 00:06:24.319 --> 00:06:26.800 Um, I had no business being in the class. 00:06:26.959 --> 00:06:37.839 Um, it wasn't for me, but here I am, uh, a period out of the day, going to elementary school, for me to be in charge of 25 second graders. 00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:41.279 This was the worst decision I could have ever had. 00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:42.639 Not my gifting. 00:06:42.959 --> 00:06:43.839 Not my gifting. 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:48.079 And it's not even like here where you volunteer in children's ministry and you have help. 00:06:48.160 --> 00:06:49.680 There's somebody else in the room. 00:06:49.839 --> 00:06:51.120 No, the teacher would leave. 00:06:51.199 --> 00:06:53.680 She was like, ah, freebie, right? 00:06:53.759 --> 00:06:55.519 Like, freebie, I'm gone, have fun. 00:06:55.680 --> 00:06:56.959 I I didn't know what to do. 00:06:57.040 --> 00:06:59.199 I mean, talk about death comes at any moment. 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:03.519 Bad things happen to good people, you can't control anything, right? 00:07:03.680 --> 00:07:05.279 And I'm trying to control it. 00:07:05.439 --> 00:07:14.480 I'm trying to control 25 uncontrollable, at least for me, uncontrollable little created beings, of which I didn't like any of them. 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:15.360 I didn't. 00:07:15.519 --> 00:07:16.800 I don't like any of them. 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:21.839 I like my children, not sure about your children, and I definitely didn't like those 25 kids. 00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:23.839 Just what it was. 00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:38.879 And I would leave those like 50 minutes every day, having tried to control so badly, just trying to control so much, I would be so exhausted. 00:07:39.199 --> 00:07:42.560 Like headache every day. 00:07:43.120 --> 00:07:44.560 You know what I'm talking about. 00:07:45.199 --> 00:08:17.439 Because you have a job that's stressful, or your marriage is not that great, because you can't get your husband to change, or you're waiting for a test result, or a big test is coming up, or your friend is sick, or the bill is due, or your grandkids are hurting, or the girl doesn't like you, or the shame still hurts, or you have anxiety about something in the future, and all of that it's just like, oh, I'll try to control more and more and more. 00:08:17.600 --> 00:08:25.839 And that tight gripping is so exhausting because you you can't understand everything, you can't control everything, you don't even know when death will come. 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:31.839 And to all of that, Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 9, 7 through 10, I'll reread what Sam read. 00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:40.960 Go eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. 00:08:41.279 --> 00:08:45.440 Let your garments be always white, let not oil be lacking on your head. 00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:52.720 So he said that because of all of that, like because all this cynical philosophy of how life is, he's saying, like, you know what? 00:08:53.360 --> 00:09:16.480 Like cynical surrender, like at least just surrender to it and eat some bread and drink some wine and have a merry heart, and you know what, and get dressed and look decent and enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life, and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. 00:09:16.720 --> 00:09:19.600 I'm thinking picking up on the cynical surrender at this point. 00:09:19.840 --> 00:09:29.279 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom and shiol to which you are going. 00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:32.080 So he's saying, you aren't in control. 00:09:34.080 --> 00:09:36.159 Everything doesn't make sense. 00:09:36.559 --> 00:09:41.120 So eat and drink and be merry, enjoy your life, and in your wife, and your work. 00:09:41.759 --> 00:09:44.320 So two points this morning. 00:09:44.960 --> 00:09:50.480 Point number one, uh no matter where you're at in life, point number one is Solomon resigns. 00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:55.519 Well, what we see here, Solomon resigns to a cynical surrender in life. 00:09:55.919 --> 00:09:57.519 This is what he resigns to. 00:09:57.679 --> 00:10:02.639 I mean, there's a hopelessness to this, like to him, like to his surrender. 00:10:02.879 --> 00:10:04.960 I mean, at least it's surrender. 00:10:05.279 --> 00:10:07.600 But for us, it's a little bit different, right? 00:10:07.759 --> 00:10:11.039 Like, like you read this and you're like, oh, like, yes, a little bit. 00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:12.639 Like, that's that part of Ecclesiastes. 00:10:12.879 --> 00:10:18.639 You're like, yep, I'm with you, but oh, like you sound a little negative for me. 00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:22.799 But at least he's surrendering, so we're like, yes, yes, yes. 00:10:22.960 --> 00:10:26.639 But then you're like, oh man, vain life, you're vain, everything's vain. 00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:27.360 You're like, really? 00:10:27.679 --> 00:10:29.759 Is there no point, no purpose? 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:36.320 But this side of the cross, for us, there's more to it than just sort of like this cynical surrender, right? 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:42.080 The New Testament arrives at a different, has a different energy and motive for surrender. 00:10:42.240 --> 00:10:54.960 And so what we see, and I'm bridging into Matthew 6, uh, 25 through 34, just because I think these are some verses where Jesus is talking about surrender out of a different motive, a different concern. 00:10:55.039 --> 00:10:56.399 And this is point number two. 00:10:56.559 --> 00:10:58.240 Jesus redeems us. 00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:07.600 Jesus redeems us, and I wish Solomon, like, don't you just wish you could transport Solomon into like post the cross of Jesus and be like, here's your hope. 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:13.679 Everything you were wondering about and journaling about and just distraught about, like, it's fulfilled here in Jesus. 00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:19.679 And so Jesus redeems us to a joy-filled surrender in life. 00:11:19.759 --> 00:11:21.519 It doesn't have to be a cynical surrender. 00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:25.600 Maybe you end up in surrender through like philosophy and through some cynicism. 00:11:25.840 --> 00:11:26.639 I'm open to that. 00:11:26.799 --> 00:11:27.919 The Bible's open to that. 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:29.840 That's the great thing about Ecclesiastes. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:34.159 But Jesus eventually wants to move us to joy-filled surrender and life. 00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:36.879 So listen to this, Matthew 6, 25 through 34. 00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:46.720 It's it's a bit of verses, a bit of words here, but I want you to hear the difference in the tone of what Jesus is calling us to in terms of surrender. 00:11:47.600 --> 00:11:55.600 Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body what you will put on. 00:11:55.759 --> 00:11:58.639 Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 00:11:58.799 --> 00:12:00.399 Look at the birds of the air. 00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:05.279 They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. 00:12:05.440 --> 00:12:08.240 Are you not of more value than they? 00:12:08.559 --> 00:12:13.600 So, like, he's motivating you out of like, you're valuable, you're loved, verse 27. 00:12:13.919 --> 00:12:19.600 And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:25.039 So, like, yeah, death is coming, but what what good is worrying about it gonna do? 00:12:25.279 --> 00:12:26.879 And why are you anxious about clothing? 00:12:27.039 --> 00:12:31.120 Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin. 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:40.159 Yet I tell you, even Solomon, so train of thought here, even with Solomon, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 00:12:40.399 --> 00:12:50.000 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith. 00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:53.440 Therefore, do not be anxious. 00:12:54.639 --> 00:12:56.240 Don't be anxious. 00:12:56.720 --> 00:12:59.440 What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:06.639 For the Gentiles seek after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:13.759 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:16.480 Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow. 00:13:17.360 --> 00:13:19.519 For tomorrow will be anxious for itself. 00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:22.639 Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. 00:13:24.559 --> 00:13:29.279 So these two texts are so interesting because both end up at the same place. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:32.960 Surrender and living in the present moment. 00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:41.120 But while Solomon surrenders in resignation, and I think that's part of it, like it's there's nothing wrong with that. 00:13:41.279 --> 00:13:49.840 He kind of just ends up there through philosophical and just like I can't control it all, and it's all negative, and so I guess I'll surrender. 00:13:50.080 --> 00:14:01.200 But Jesus inspires us to surrender because of his love for us, because he cares for me in this life. 00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:02.639 I can surrender. 00:14:02.799 --> 00:14:14.960 Because he cares for me in this life, I can eat and drink and be merry, I can be joy-filled surrender in this moment because of his care for me. 00:14:16.320 --> 00:14:19.360 On Thursday, we flew the our whole staff. 00:14:19.519 --> 00:14:40.399 So we went to New York for a conference, and we go every year, so it's our yearly uh retreat and conference, and we get to be together, and we get an apartment together for two nights, and we travel together and walk together and ride together and train together, and we're all together, and we stay there, and we go to this theological conference, we have all these conversations, and it's so good. 00:14:40.480 --> 00:14:53.440 And so Thursday morning we head to the airport, and I'm tall and I'm impatient, so flying is not my favorite thing, not my favorite, but I like going places, so I'm still gonna participate in this. 00:14:53.519 --> 00:14:58.639 I don't like lines, that doesn't help because it's all lines going through the airport. 00:14:58.720 --> 00:15:01.679 I don't like people telling me what to do, which line to go in. 00:15:01.840 --> 00:15:04.159 I want to pick the line I want to go into. 00:15:04.480 --> 00:15:10.240 And that doesn't help because the whole thing's a process of lines and obedience, the whole entire thing. 00:15:10.320 --> 00:15:18.559 So my anxiousness just sort of creeps and grows, and I'm arrogant, so I think that I really could run this whole thing better. 00:15:18.720 --> 00:15:31.679 Like that's how you know mind you, I have no training or experience in queuing theories or security, uh, but I think I could run it all better than these people who have decades of experience. 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:37.919 And so I talk to Christy about all the ways that this should be improved while we're standing there. 00:15:38.080 --> 00:15:41.919 And so I'm just I get more and more anxious about this. 00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:48.879 And then we get on an airplane, which is a heavy metal tube with jet engines. 00:15:49.039 --> 00:15:55.279 And I didn't used to think about this this way because I was young and I didn't have children. 00:15:55.519 --> 00:16:02.480 And now I think about it this way, and you can give me the statistics that it's safer to fly than to drive, but when I'm driving, I have control. 00:16:02.720 --> 00:16:06.399 And when I'm on a heavy metal tube with jet engines, I have no control. 00:16:06.559 --> 00:16:12.399 There's some guy up there that I don't get to see, and I don't know anything about him, and he's in charge, and I don't like that. 00:16:12.639 --> 00:16:19.360 Plus, it's a heavy metal tube, thousands of feet in the air, which I'm still uncomfortable with. 00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:21.200 And so this is just anxiety. 00:16:21.360 --> 00:16:24.720 This is just anxiety, and I have three little children, and they're out of my sight. 00:16:24.799 --> 00:16:30.720 Okay, so they're with somebody else, being cared for by somebody else, right? 00:16:30.960 --> 00:16:39.360 So I'm not in control of my children, I'm not in control of the heavy metal tube, I'm not even in control of my seat because it was built for a hobbit, not for me. 00:16:41.360 --> 00:16:42.799 My knees are bruised. 00:16:42.960 --> 00:16:44.960 Today, my knees are bruised. 00:16:45.200 --> 00:16:48.639 So I'm sitting there getting more and more anxious with my knees being bruised. 00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:54.080 But I'm thinking about Solomon, I'm thinking about this passage, is I have to preach on it, so I'm thinking about it. 00:16:54.320 --> 00:17:04.160 And all my anxiety, my lack, complete lack of what Jesus would say, like consider the birds, or eat, drink, and be merry, right? 00:17:04.319 --> 00:17:18.640 These are the same, these are the same things Solomon and Jesus are saying, and a complete lack of doing this in this moment, because I'm I'm just for me in this moment, I'm all in the future of anxiety of what could happen and might happen, or what's happening somewhere else. 00:17:18.960 --> 00:17:23.359 And Solomon says, you can't control it all. 00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:34.880 So eat some delta pretzels, have a cranberry juice, enjoy your wife that's sitting next to you, and be merry. 00:17:36.880 --> 00:17:40.960 Or as Jesus would say more joyfully, God really cares for you. 00:17:41.759 --> 00:17:43.680 He really cares for your life. 00:17:44.079 --> 00:17:48.640 And he's not not to say that hardships, like real hardships, don't exist. 00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:55.039 He's just saying trying to control them, trying to control all of it won't make it any better. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:58.000 So be in this moment. 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:02.720 I met with my pastor coach, so he's sort of my counselor. 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:29.279 I met with him this week, earlier this week, and he's in his mid-60s, and he started a church in Nashville, and he pastored it, and he grew it, and he was at that church for 26 years, and so now he's in his early mid-60s, and he has children, and he has grandchildren, and he he did the pastoring and he has books, and and so I come every month with questions with for him. 00:18:29.359 --> 00:18:36.079 So I come for questions like for our church, like, hey, how we need to do this, we need to get this better, this is presenting to be a problem, how do we handle this? 00:18:36.160 --> 00:18:38.720 But I also come just with personal questions, and so I asked him the question. 00:18:38.799 --> 00:18:42.000 I said, I said, what do you think success is? 00:18:43.279 --> 00:18:46.799 And he did not even hesitate. 00:18:47.839 --> 00:18:52.880 I mean, there was not a moment of let me think about this, there was no hesitation. 00:18:53.039 --> 00:18:58.880 And he said, and I'll paraphrase sort of what a maybe a 10-minute 10-minute conversation was. 00:18:59.119 --> 00:19:13.200 He said, I think success is being present in the relationships around me because I'm no longer worried about what is going to happen in the next moment, or how I look or what I'm gonna say or do or how something will play out. 00:19:13.359 --> 00:19:16.000 Just being present with the people I love. 00:19:16.880 --> 00:19:32.000 He said, it's about not being driven by the shame of being found out or everything I've failed at or worried about tomorrow, but knowing I'm fully loved and only have this moment with this person. 00:19:33.519 --> 00:19:34.799 That is success. 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:47.279 See, the truth is that you are fully loved even when you don't fully live present in the very moment with somebody. 00:19:47.519 --> 00:19:53.359 And that's the thing you need to know in order to live fully present with somebody. 00:19:53.599 --> 00:19:55.440 If you don't know that, you won't do it. 00:19:56.000 --> 00:20:00.000 And yet knowing that you won't do it perfectly is the very thing that helps you do it. 00:20:00.240 --> 00:20:00.559 Right? 00:20:00.640 --> 00:20:05.119 So Jesus came not to abolish the law, I mean, he's presenting law here. 00:20:05.519 --> 00:20:08.000 Live live fully present with people. 00:20:08.799 --> 00:20:09.519 Don't be anxious. 00:20:09.599 --> 00:20:11.440 None of us, who's not being anxious? 00:20:11.519 --> 00:20:34.960 All of us are being anxious, but knowing that Jesus came to take on our sin, take on our shame, take on all the ways we move to anxiety and control to self-save rather than relying upon Him, the fact that He took that on on the cross and gave us righteousness and our position as the beloved, knowing that is the very thing that helps you become free of living in shame or anxiety to live present. 00:20:37.359 --> 00:20:41.200 And we keep reaching for control even while we know we shouldn't. 00:20:41.519 --> 00:20:45.519 And all of that is something that we we shouldn't pretend we don't do. 00:20:47.599 --> 00:20:47.920 Right? 00:20:48.079 --> 00:20:52.000 Because that just creates some sort of like religious phoniness inside of us. 00:20:52.240 --> 00:20:55.359 And we don't have to do that, because like I said, you're already fully loved. 00:20:55.680 --> 00:20:58.160 The sin is already taken care of. 00:20:58.319 --> 00:21:12.319 So the core of who you are is relieved of living out of shame and insecurity, and resting in that truth is relieving to us that we're not consumed to try to control everything. 00:21:13.039 --> 00:21:19.680 So maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, in the grace and the mercy of God, we can live fully present with people. 00:21:20.480 --> 00:21:25.039 We can consider that bird and be like that bird, that's Jesus' words or Solomon's words. 00:21:25.920 --> 00:21:31.039 We can eat that bread and drink that wine and we can be merry. 00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:38.319 But even if you don't, and even when you don't, God really cares for you. 00:21:39.680 --> 00:21:41.039 He really loves you. 00:21:41.279 --> 00:21:47.119 And that's because his love for you is not dependent upon your performance of any sort. 00:21:48.160 --> 00:21:49.680 And that you really need to know. 00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:52.559 I, I, you really need to know. 00:21:52.799 --> 00:21:56.000 It's based on Jesus' performance for us. 00:21:56.480 --> 00:21:59.920 So, my brothers and sisters, may you eat and may you drink and may you be merry. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:01.440 Let's pray together. 00:22:04.319 --> 00:22:21.279 God, thank you that you call us to such a good thing, like not being anxious, and that you want to free us from all the ways that we live and our shame, and let our shame define us rather than being defined as your beloved, where we live in all the anxieties of tomorrow. 00:22:22.640 --> 00:22:27.440 Thank you that you call us to live in this moment, this day. 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:33.519 Thank you that you call us in the promise. 00:22:34.079 --> 00:22:44.960 That you care for us, that we are your beloved, therefore we get the great privilege to be free and live in this moment. 00:22:45.119 --> 00:22:49.519 Would you help us to trust in you in greater ways? 00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:54.160 Thank you for the cross of Jesus that takes upon all of our sin. 00:22:54.480 --> 00:22:56.160 Have mercy on us for sinners. 00:22:56.400 --> 00:22:57.119 In Jesus' name. 00:22:57.519 --> 00:22:58.160 Amen.