SPEAKER_00: Well, people are certainly, and I'm choosing this word carefully, torqued up this week.
SPEAKER_00: I've talked to many godly, godly men who have told me that this week they have been more worried or more anxious than they have at any other time in their life.
SPEAKER_00: And some of these people were in the Pentagon on September 11th.
SPEAKER_00: And they said there's a sense of fear, not just with them and their families, but in their workplaces now, and with those that are around them, where there is a foreboding sense about life.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to stress to you this morning that the danger we face is real.
SPEAKER_00: There is an enemy of our souls that is highly contagious.
SPEAKER_00: It spreads easily from person to person.
SPEAKER_00: Most alarmingly, those who are most affected by it aren't even self-aware of their contagious capability and the danger they pose to others.
SPEAKER_00: It affects both the young and the old.
SPEAKER_00: And I am not talking about the coronavirus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about worry and anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to understand this morning that the enemy of the moment, the enemy of this moment in our world and this moment in our culture, the real enemy of your soul, is worry.
SPEAKER_00: It is anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: The medical community has done a fantastic job of preparing us for the coronavirus.
SPEAKER_00: The government has done a fantastic job of preparing us for what we're about to experience.
SPEAKER_00: I said that with mostly a straight face.
SPEAKER_00: But it falls to me this morning to warn you of the real and bigger danger, one that will certainly kill far more people this year than the coronavirus.
SPEAKER_00: And that is anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: Fear.
SPEAKER_00: Worry.
SPEAKER_00: Fear cripples you.
SPEAKER_00: Physiologically, it actually wears down your immune system.
SPEAKER_00: Worry does.
SPEAKER_00: It debilitates you, it makes you weak.
SPEAKER_00: Fear and faith are not friends.
SPEAKER_00: They are enemies.
SPEAKER_00: They don't cohabitate together.
SPEAKER_00: They are foes.
SPEAKER_00: And God has not given us a spirit of fear, Paul tells Timothy, but a spirit of faith.
SPEAKER_00: And God means that literally when he says we don't have a spirit of fear.
SPEAKER_00: Every believer is sealed with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We have the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not fearful.
SPEAKER_00: He is not timid.
SPEAKER_00: He is not afraid.
SPEAKER_00: He is sometimes in scripture referred to as a spirit of courage and boldness.
SPEAKER_00: Followers of Christ have been given him.
SPEAKER_00: And so we are not to be fearful or worried or anxious.
SPEAKER_00: And yet we often are.
SPEAKER_00: And that is a war with our very souls at stake.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that faith is the substance of things for the assurance of things unseen.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is this unwavering conviction that what the Word of God says is true, that God is eternal, that Jesus is a merciful judge who gives salvation to those who put their faith in him, that God is in sovereign control of the world, that God has numbered the hairs in our head and the days of our life.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is believing that, grabbing hold of it, letting our roots grow deep in it and not getting swept away.
SPEAKER_00: That is faith.
SPEAKER_00: And so we know that is true.
SPEAKER_00: We read Hebrews 11 and we see Moses didn't count the riches of Egypt as something to be held on to or grasped, but gave it all up because he would rather suffer with God's people.
SPEAKER_00: And we think that is the kind of faith we want.
SPEAKER_00: I would rather suffer with Christians than be rich with the world.
SPEAKER_00: And we have those convictions to us, and we want to be like Abraham, who considers this world as nothing and leaves his life for a future, better, promised land that God gives him.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be like David, who has a heart after God that is rooted in faith.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we want to be.
SPEAKER_00: We want to have that faith.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be surrounded by the cloud of witnesses and press on towards the goal that God has given us.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we want.
SPEAKER_00: And so we close our eyes and we fix the eyes of our heart on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: We take hold of him.
SPEAKER_00: We take hold of him with our heart, with our soul, with our mind.
SPEAKER_00: And we're doing so well.
SPEAKER_00: And then things pop up.
SPEAKER_00: The world goes crazy.
SPEAKER_00: Cancer hits your family.
SPEAKER_00: A virus shuts down the economy.
SPEAKER_00: A friend dies in a car accident.
SPEAKER_00: Your mom gets sick.
SPEAKER_00: All those things happen.
SPEAKER_00: And you were so strong in your faith five seconds ago, and then bam, you're gripped by worry, you're gripped by anxiety, and it's at that moment where this war takes place in your mind.
SPEAKER_00: Can you see through these cloudy circumstances in front of you?
SPEAKER_00: Can you see through them back to Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith?
SPEAKER_00: Can you see through the frailty of your own life to the eternal state that God has designed for you?
SPEAKER_00: Can you see it still?
SPEAKER_00: That's where this war takes place.
SPEAKER_00: Our hearts are so fickle.
SPEAKER_00: Our nature is so fallen, our lives are so short, and we don't like it that way.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want our hearts to be fickle.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be strong.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want our lives to be brief.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want our nature to be fallen.
SPEAKER_00: We groan.
SPEAKER_00: With all of creation, we groan for the redemption.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we want.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we want to be like, strong and brave and groaning for something better, believing with all of our hearts that God is in control, with all of our hearts that all things work for good, with all of our hearts that we are counted to be numbered among God's children.
SPEAKER_00: We want to believe that so much and that he has such tender care for us and that he is watching out for us and he is in control, and then we just get wrestled away from it.
SPEAKER_00: That difference, that delta between who we want to be and who we are.
SPEAKER_00: That field right there, that is the field that is plowed and then sowed with the seeds of worry.
SPEAKER_00: The difference between who we are and who we want to be.
SPEAKER_00: And worry grows like a weed right there in that garden.
SPEAKER_00: Worry is the seed that is planted.
SPEAKER_00: Anxiety is a seed that is planted in that soil, and it grows up, and it, brothers and sisters, does not grow into the fruit of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The seed of worry does not produce the fruit of goodness, kindness, self-control, love, joy.
SPEAKER_00: Those don't come out of worry.
SPEAKER_00: What comes out of worry is micromanaging.
SPEAKER_00: What comes out of worry is despair.
SPEAKER_00: What comes out of worry is control.
SPEAKER_00: What comes out of worry is idolatry, that you want to be God, you want to be in control.
SPEAKER_00: That is the very fruit of worry.
SPEAKER_00: And the root of worry is unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: Worry does not produce a life of sacrificial giving, a life of sacrifice to others, a life of courageous evangelism.
SPEAKER_00: Worry is not found in that field.
SPEAKER_00: Worry produces despair and desperation.
SPEAKER_00: And so this morning I want us to look at Luke chapter 12, and I'm going to read a longer section of this.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 12, verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to read down to the beginning of verse 33.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to just get the full window view of what's going on here.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this whole counseling session Jesus gives to his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 22, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.
SPEAKER_00: For life is more than food, and body more than clothing.
SPEAKER_00: Consider the ravens.
SPEAKER_00: They neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them.
SPEAKER_00: Of how much more value are you than the birds?
SPEAKER_00: Which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life?
SPEAKER_00: If you're not able to do such a small thing as that, why are you anxious about everything else?
SPEAKER_00: Consider the lilies, how they grow.
SPEAKER_00: They neither toil nor spin, and yet I tell you, even Solomon in all of his glory is not arrayed like one of these.
SPEAKER_00: But if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow's thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you?
SPEAKER_00: O you of little faith.
SPEAKER_00: And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.
SPEAKER_00: All the nations of the world seek after these things, and your father knows you need them.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, seek his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: These things will be added to you.
SPEAKER_00: Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Sell your possessions and give to the needy.
SPEAKER_00: This is the very much the same words that Jesus gives in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not persuaded this is that same sermon.
SPEAKER_00: It seems that Jesus gave much of this instruction multiple times, but the setting of this particular exchange is noteworthy.
SPEAKER_00: It really is a gripping encounter here.
SPEAKER_00: It starts in chapter 12, verse 1, where this text says that thousands of people were pressing out to hear Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And chapter 12, verse 1 says they were trampling on each other to get to him.
SPEAKER_00: The people were literally stampeding, literally trampling each other to get to where in the earshot of Jesus' sermons.
SPEAKER_00: And while that is going on, where he is teaching out there in the Galilean hillside, and thousands are pressing in against him, while that is happening, somebody interrupts him.
SPEAKER_00: Rudely, boisterously, captivating the attention of the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has been officially interrupted.
SPEAKER_00: He had no kill switch with the mics like President Trump has.
SPEAKER_00: No kill switch.
SPEAKER_00: And this man starts yelling and says, Teacher, make my brother split the inheritance with me now.
SPEAKER_00: He's asking.
SPEAKER_00: Apparently, the father is still alive.
SPEAKER_00: And you were allowed to do this.
SPEAKER_00: It's basically wishing the father was dead.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps the father had died and left the inheritance in trust, and the older brother had the trust.
SPEAKER_00: The details are not important, except this person has pressed his way, interrupted Jesus, and demands that the inheritance be split.
SPEAKER_00: This is so pressing for that person right now.
SPEAKER_00: If somebody burst through these doors coming down the aisle, begging me to call their sister and split the inheritance, security would probably get them.
SPEAKER_00: But you would have a little sympathy for that person because how important must this be?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus responds in, I think, a humorous way.
SPEAKER_00: He diffuses the situation with humor or rebuke, depending on what kind of tone of voice you read it in.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14, man, who made you, or who made me a judge or arbiter over you?
SPEAKER_00: Who pointed me probate judge?
SPEAKER_00: I think it's funny because we know that Jesus is the judge of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a funny thing for him to say, right?
SPEAKER_00: When did this case land on my docket, man?
SPEAKER_00: Go get in line.
SPEAKER_00: But then he turns back to his sermon.
SPEAKER_00: And he tells people, take care that you don't get greedy.
SPEAKER_00: And then he tells a parable of a farmer who just is blessed with a massive crop.
SPEAKER_00: And he is selling it, and he is making himself rich, and he's got more than he can sell.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says, I know what I will do.
SPEAKER_00: I will big, I will build big barns, and so that next year I'll have enough money also, and I can just chillax.
SPEAKER_00: I'll just retire healthy and wealthy and at ease.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says to him in verse 20, you fool.
SPEAKER_00: This night your soul will be taken from you.
SPEAKER_00: And then who gets your barn?
SPEAKER_00: You know, nice lacquer job.
SPEAKER_00: Who's it going to belong to?
SPEAKER_00: And then he turns in verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't, the text doesn't make it clear if he takes his disciples aside, if he leaves them, if this happens later that evening.
SPEAKER_00: Luke often tells stories like that where you get the public sermon, then the aside to the disciples, that seems to be what this is.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks to his disciples now, and he tells them in that context, you listen so carefully, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be anxious.
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about life.
SPEAKER_00: This kind of world, this kind of sermon, this kind of chapter might be foreign to us most parts of the year, but most times of our life, but it should be very real now because this is the tendency now to stockpile food for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: To stockpile toilet paper for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And here's this guy, he says, I have so much hand sanitizer.
SPEAKER_00: I know what I will do.
SPEAKER_00: I will build a giant drum for it.
SPEAKER_00: I will never have to look for hand sanitizer again, and I will retire rich and at ease.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, there's a run on the store.
SPEAKER_00: I know what I'll do.
SPEAKER_00: I have so much food, I'll sell some and get rich and keep the rest so I can be rich forever.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, You will die.
SPEAKER_00: And then turns to his disciples and says, Don't be like that.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be like that hoarder.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be like the farmer building a bigger barn for himself.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be like the hoarders.
SPEAKER_00: Not because it's unkind to everybody else, although that's true, but that's not where he goes with this.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say don't hoard food because it affects it, you know, affects the supply and demand chain, and it's a very intricate system we have between the field and the market and the family, and let's not interfere with it by buying everything up.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't go down that road.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Don't be like that because it involves worry about tomorrow, and that's what you shouldn't be doing.
SPEAKER_00: Four times in this passage, he rebukes that.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 22, do not be anxious.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 25, being anxious doesn't help, it doesn't make you live longer.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 29, do not worry.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 32, fear not, little flock, don't be afraid, he tells them.
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry, don't be afraid, don't be anxious.
SPEAKER_00: Three different Greek words, a fourth one for fear.
SPEAKER_00: He uses all of them.
SPEAKER_00: He's using every synonym he has.
SPEAKER_00: The Roman Empire understood what worry was.
SPEAKER_00: They understood what famine was.
SPEAKER_00: Famine was very common back then.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have a Walmart distribution center.
SPEAKER_00: When drought hit or a plague hit, pestilence hit, people died.
SPEAKER_00: The average life expectancy in the Roman Empire was 25 years old.
SPEAKER_00: That's including infant mortality rate, which was as high as 50%.
SPEAKER_00: When you remove the infant mortality rate, in other words, people who lived to be five years old, the average life expectancy was 50.
SPEAKER_00: But famine and plagues were common.
SPEAKER_00: The plague of Antonin, which happened not long after the New Testament was completed, killed one-third of the Roman Empire.
SPEAKER_00: Five million people died.
SPEAKER_00: At the height of that plague, when Marcus Aurelius was the emperor, up to 2,000 people were dying every day in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: So these people had a grid for plague.
SPEAKER_00: They had a grid for a pandemic.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus speaks to that culture and says, do not worry.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, if you only hear one thing I have to say this morning, listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus says, don't do something, it's a good idea for you not to do it.
SPEAKER_00: You understand this as a parent, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: You tell your child, don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: And they respond perhaps with why not?
SPEAKER_00: Which makes you an apologist at that moment.
SPEAKER_00: Do you give evidence for why not?
SPEAKER_00: Like here's six reasons why what you're doing is a bad idea.
SPEAKER_00: But now you're on their terms, right?
SPEAKER_00: Now you're trying to persuade them on their, you've made them the judge somehow.
SPEAKER_00: You're on trial suddenly by answering that question.
SPEAKER_00: Or do you say, you know what, there's six reasons why not?
SPEAKER_00: But here's the first one.
SPEAKER_00: Because I said so.
SPEAKER_00: I know.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, there's a lot of there's a lot of biblical apologetics in that because some people hear that and go, like that's a baseless appeal to authority.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't carry any moral weight just because I said so.
SPEAKER_00: Not if there's such a thing as authority.
SPEAKER_00: If there's such a thing as authority, there's no such thing as a baseless appeal to authority.
SPEAKER_00: You do what the parent says because they are good and want what is best for you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you don't believe they're good and you don't believe they want what is best for you, then that's a different conversation.
SPEAKER_00: And that is, listen, I'm not talking about parenting anymore.
SPEAKER_00: When God says, don't do something, it is bad for you.
SPEAKER_00: If you believe that and you say, okay, it's bad for me, I won't do it, you're playing on the right field.
SPEAKER_00: But if you say, why not?
SPEAKER_00: It's really a question about do you believe God is good?
SPEAKER_00: That's why.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that He is good and knows what is best for you?
SPEAKER_00: And He says, Don't worry.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not trying to say this flippantly.
SPEAKER_00: I understand that we are worrying creatures.
SPEAKER_00: We love, we worry by nature.
SPEAKER_00: We worry when things are going well for us.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're worried they might change.
SPEAKER_00: You win the lottery, you're worried what's gonna happen when your money runs out.
SPEAKER_00: You get a promotion at work, you worry what's gonna happen when people realize you're not good at what you do.
SPEAKER_00: I propose to Deedra.
SPEAKER_00: She says yes, and I'm freaking out now.
SPEAKER_00: Like the gig is gonna be up soon.
SPEAKER_00: Because we're sinners, we are worriers.
SPEAKER_00: It is in our fallen nature to worry.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be in control when we're not.
SPEAKER_00: That's the bottom line.
SPEAKER_00: And there is nothing like a coronavirus to expose that.
SPEAKER_00: We develop our routines in life and we think that we understand that God is in control and we're not, but you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I am gonna go to the gym, I am gonna have these meals with my family on these days, and I'm gonna have this hobby on this sign, and I'm gonna do these three vacations in these three ways, and I'm gonna read these books and watch these TV shows and send my kids to these schools, and everything is under control.
SPEAKER_00: And then bam, something happens and everything falls apart, and you were reminded of the fact that five minutes earlier you weren't in control either.
SPEAKER_00: You just muffled that with everything you put in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And now it's exposed.
SPEAKER_00: You're not in control, and so now what?
SPEAKER_00: Well, sometimes people will invent new things.
SPEAKER_00: Like, okay.
SPEAKER_00: This is unusual, it's unprecedented, this has never happened in our lifetime before, but I know how to handle this.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Just do these six things in the exact way I prescribe, and you'll be okay.
SPEAKER_00: It's not true.
SPEAKER_00: You're not guaranteed tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter if you sing happy birthday when you wash your hands or you say the Lord's Prayer when you wash your hands.
SPEAKER_00: I recommend the latter.
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to understand this morning that the danger of the hour is worry.
SPEAKER_00: Worry is your enemy.
SPEAKER_00: It's your real enemy.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to frame all of what our culture is going through in those terms.
SPEAKER_00: You need to go to war against worry.
SPEAKER_00: And in the context in Luke chapter 12, what are these people worried about?
SPEAKER_00: They're worried about food, they're worried about clothes or their external beauty, and they're worried about their life.
SPEAKER_00: And that word life, by the way, is the Greek word psyche, and we get the word psychology from it, but it's also the word from the parable of the rich fool, where God tells them, your very psyche, your very soul, your very self will be demanded of you tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, don't worry about those things.
SPEAKER_00: And he's not talking about worrying about inconsequential things.
SPEAKER_00: We worry about so much that's so shallow and silly, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: We worry about who's going to win the Oscar.
SPEAKER_00: We worry about who's going to win the presidential election.
SPEAKER_00: We worry about traffic.
SPEAKER_00: We worry about school and grades.
SPEAKER_00: We worry about so much that doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus isn't picking things that don't matter.
SPEAKER_00: He's picking pretty big things.
SPEAKER_00: Food, clothing, and life.
SPEAKER_00: This is Maslow's hierarchy of need right here.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, stop worrying about it.
SPEAKER_00: He turns it on its head.
SPEAKER_00: It's like he failed psychology 101.
SPEAKER_00: Those are the things you have to worry about.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the teacher says.
SPEAKER_00: You have to worry about those things.
SPEAKER_00: Every human being must worry about these things.
SPEAKER_00: You learned that first day.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, no, don't.
SPEAKER_00: Don't.
SPEAKER_00: He's not saying passivity is good.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he points to the raven.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the raven.
SPEAKER_00: Do you look at ravens ever?
SPEAKER_00: They are annoying, obnoxious.
SPEAKER_00: They're not often hungry.
SPEAKER_00: The ones outside my office window are always eating McDonald's french fries.
SPEAKER_00: They figured out.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if they go through the drive-thru or what, but they find them.
SPEAKER_00: Do ravens farm?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord keeps bringing in their food.
SPEAKER_00: The point of the ravens is that they don't hoard.
SPEAKER_00: Now you couldn't use this illustration with a squirrel because a squirrel does hoard.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus can't say, look at the squirrel, because that would make the opposite point.
SPEAKER_00: So he picks his animal carefully here.
SPEAKER_00: Ravens don't hoard, and yet they always have food.
SPEAKER_00: The point for us, don't hoard.
SPEAKER_00: It's not don't work, because the Bible says if a man don't work, a man don't.
SPEAKER_00: You have to work.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 3, verse 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_00: My son, don't forget my teaching.
SPEAKER_00: Keep my commandments so your life will be lengthened.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible makes it clear, you have to labor for your food.
SPEAKER_00: You have to labor for your life.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 18, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: The whole second half of Proverbs 24 says, you need to work to get food.
SPEAKER_00: You can't just roll into old navy and say, consider the lilies.
SPEAKER_00: Let me take my clothes.
SPEAKER_00: No, you have to labor.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 10 says that if a raven won't work, a raven won't eat.
SPEAKER_00: You can look it up.
SPEAKER_00: The overall teaching of the section is clear.
SPEAKER_00: It's not passivity.
SPEAKER_00: It's hoarding.
SPEAKER_00: It's worrying about where tomorrow's food will come from when you won't work today.
SPEAKER_00: What about the lilies?
SPEAKER_00: Lilies don't farm.
SPEAKER_00: Lilies don't work.
SPEAKER_00: They also don't wear clothes.
SPEAKER_00: They're pretty, and that's the point.
SPEAKER_00: Lilies have an internal beauty.
SPEAKER_00: It happens to them naturally.
SPEAKER_00: Are you more precious to God than a lily?
SPEAKER_00: This is what it is to be in the image of God.
SPEAKER_00: You have to believe that God loves you, that he made you in his image, that you have more value, more worth, more dignity, more honor.
SPEAKER_00: He's more concerned about you than he is about a lily.
SPEAKER_00: And lilies are beautiful without effort.
SPEAKER_00: And so why do you put so much work into your external appearance and you worry about your appearance and you worry about your hair or your makeup or your wrinkles or your height or all the different things you worry about in your appearance?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, look at the lily.
SPEAKER_00: It's just pretty.
SPEAKER_00: So don't worry about where tomorrow's food is going to come from.
SPEAKER_00: If you're willing to work today, there's a famine in Israel that wrecked Israel, and the ravens were eating.
SPEAKER_00: The ravens and Elijah, the only ones eating, and that's because the ravens fed the prophet.
SPEAKER_00: This passage is teaching you don't hoard, don't labor over beauty, but most of all, do not worry because worry is your enemy.
SPEAKER_00: And let me give you three points under that about worry being your enemy first.
SPEAKER_00: Worry is your enemy because it doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't help you to worry.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't do any good at all.
SPEAKER_00: That's Jesus' point down in verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: Which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his life?
SPEAKER_00: Worry away, my friend.
SPEAKER_00: Is it going to make your life one momentito longer?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to just wreck the life that you have.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't actually help you.
SPEAKER_00: As a soccer player once, I was playing a game, and our team had used all of our substitutes.
SPEAKER_00: And for non-soccer players, that's unusual to you don't have this concept, but soccer players understand this.
SPEAKER_00: There's at some levels of the game a maximum number of subs that you can make.
SPEAKER_00: And my team had made those substitutes.
SPEAKER_00: And one of our players got hurt, so he said he had to come out.
SPEAKER_00: If he comes out, we can't sub a new player, and so we're playing down a person.
SPEAKER_00: We're playing short-sighted.
SPEAKER_00: And so my coach tells him, You don't get to come out, and he's like, I can't walk.
SPEAKER_00: And the coach says, sit down right there and just kick people when they come by.
SPEAKER_00: At the very least, we will control this three square yards we will own on the whole field.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Can you do that?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Worry doesn't even do that.
SPEAKER_00: Worry does not even get your three square yards under your control.
SPEAKER_00: Worry does absolutely no good at all.
SPEAKER_00: Corey Ten Boom in the hiding place writes, quote, worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, it empties today of its strength.
SPEAKER_00: And I love that quote.
SPEAKER_00: Worry doesn't actually fix tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Worry all you want about the coronavirus.
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to do you any good.
SPEAKER_00: Some things that will help you.
SPEAKER_00: Wash your hands.
SPEAKER_00: That will help.
SPEAKER_00: You want to live longer?
SPEAKER_00: Wash your hands.
SPEAKER_00: You want to live longer?
SPEAKER_00: Go to the gym.
SPEAKER_00: Exercise.
SPEAKER_00: You want to live longer?
SPEAKER_00: Quit smoking.
SPEAKER_00: That'll help.
SPEAKER_00: You want to live longer?
SPEAKER_00: Don't text while you're driving.
SPEAKER_00: That will help.
SPEAKER_00: You want to live longer?
SPEAKER_00: Worry will not help.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the rub.
SPEAKER_00: Because underneath all of this other stuff, we think that we have some autonomy over the length of our life.
SPEAKER_00: We want it to work.
SPEAKER_00: Because we're in the image of God.
SPEAKER_00: Part of the image of God means we can give life to others.
SPEAKER_00: Part of the image of God means that we have dominion, like God has dominion.
SPEAKER_00: God has given us dominion.
SPEAKER_00: Adam named the animals.
SPEAKER_00: He had dominion over them.
SPEAKER_00: We are to have dominion over the earth.
SPEAKER_00: It's in our nature because we're in the image of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so we get so vexed and so frustrated because we think because God has given me dominion, that makes me sovereign like he is.
SPEAKER_00: And that is where it's not true.
SPEAKER_00: That's where it breaks down.
SPEAKER_00: God alone is sovereign.
SPEAKER_00: We are, we're hired.
SPEAKER_00: We have little dominion over our little homes and our families and our job.
SPEAKER_00: We have stuff we can do, but we are not sovereign over it.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't like that being exposed.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be in control.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be God.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be in control of our health and whether or not we will catch a virus or won't, and we're not in control.
SPEAKER_00: See this with little kids.
SPEAKER_00: A four-year-old that keeps chewing on his hand.
SPEAKER_00: Mom's like, stop! You'll die.
SPEAKER_00: Well, should you put your hand in your mouth?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Can you teach a four-year-old to not do it?
SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
SPEAKER_00: Good luck.
SPEAKER_00: If you figure out how, write a book.
SPEAKER_00: We'll sell it in the bookstore.
SPEAKER_00: You're not in control.
SPEAKER_00: You can wash your hands and teach your kids not to lick theirs and still die.
SPEAKER_00: Unexpectedly.
SPEAKER_00: If we do more than the government is asking, then we will beat this virus.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's true.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Hashtag not my virus.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't respect you, it doesn't listen to you.
SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, there's those that fill the bars and the theaters because they misquote Esther.
SPEAKER_00: If I perish, I perish.
SPEAKER_00: Both of those people need the book of Ecclesiastes to help, or they need verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: Worrying doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first reason you shouldn't worry.
SPEAKER_00: It just wrecks your life and it doesn't actually help.
SPEAKER_00: But the second reason enemy is your worry is enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Is because it doubts God.
SPEAKER_00: Underneath worry is this doubting of God.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what you also see in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: If you're anxious about food, you don't believe that God will provide for you.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, I'm not talking, I want to narrow my scope here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about the emotions of disappointment.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about grief over loss.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, there is grief in the world.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a fallen world.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, there's disappointment about the way things happen in life.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wept for one example.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit can be grieved for another example.
SPEAKER_00: Both Jesus and the Holy Spirit believe in the sovereignty of God.
SPEAKER_00: And they both had grief.
SPEAKER_00: They both can experience disappointment.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what is in view here.
SPEAKER_00: It's not talking about grief over a friend's death, disappointment over a lack of godliness in people's lives.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what is in view here.
SPEAKER_00: What is in view here in Luke 12 is this idea that God won't care for you tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Underneath that is disbelief.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why Jesus counters their disbelief by asking you, do you have faith?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 32, fear not, little flock, fear not.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that God is in control?
SPEAKER_00: Look at the end of verse 28.
SPEAKER_00: God closed the grass which is in the field today, tomorrow it's thrown in the oven.
SPEAKER_00: And oh how we want to live longer than grass, and oh how it's not promised to us.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the Bible compares us to grass many times in that way.
SPEAKER_00: But then Jesus goes on and says, Oh you of little faith, that's the real, that's the problem.
SPEAKER_00: Because our faith just runs out.
SPEAKER_00: Worry swallows faith.
SPEAKER_00: Worry attacks faith and consumes it.
SPEAKER_00: It keeps you up at night.
SPEAKER_00: It destroys your joy.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians 4, verse 4 says that.
SPEAKER_00: And Christians are called to be joyful.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, I understand this battle because this is me.
SPEAKER_00: I've seen this play out in my own life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not speaking about something I don't know about personally here.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I've had a trip plans that I've looked forward to for so much and for so long.
SPEAKER_00: And then something that I'm not in control of comes up, and it's, you know, two months away, and this trip might not happen.
SPEAKER_00: It might not happen.
SPEAKER_00: I want it to happen, and planning has happened, and everything has happened, and it doesn't look like it's going to happen, and I worry about it all the way.
SPEAKER_00: I've had a kid in the ICU with doctors saying we're doing all we can.
SPEAKER_00: What can I do?
SPEAKER_00: Go home and sleep.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to go home and sleep.
SPEAKER_00: I want to stay right here.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing you can do.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want that answer.
SPEAKER_00: Go home and sleep.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be kidding me.
SPEAKER_00: I've had the experience of looking for a job and not finding one.
SPEAKER_00: What about you?
SPEAKER_00: What experience makes you worry?
SPEAKER_00: Looking at your kids and they're asking you, are we gonna be okay tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: Are we gonna get sick?
SPEAKER_00: And what are you gonna say?
SPEAKER_00: No, I promise you you won't get sick.
SPEAKER_00: What a lie that is.
SPEAKER_00: What do you do?
SPEAKER_00: False accusations against you?
SPEAKER_00: You want to defend yourself?
SPEAKER_00: You can't defend yourself, so what do you do?
SPEAKER_00: You worry.
SPEAKER_00: So I've been there, I know what that's like, and that's why I can tell you that underneath it is a doubt in God.
SPEAKER_00: Underneath it is this attitude of is God really going to be in control?
SPEAKER_00: Is he really working for good?
SPEAKER_00: And this all leads to this point.
SPEAKER_00: This is where worry, you have to understand, is ultimately defeated by the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: There's a bit of a law-gospel distinction in this.
SPEAKER_00: You can't tell somebody, don't worry, and have it help them not worry, right?
SPEAKER_00: If you're a worrier, if you're perpetually anxious and someone comes up to you and says, Stop worrying, does that help?
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, I should have thought of that.
SPEAKER_00: Brilliant.
SPEAKER_00: Now all I have to do is stop.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much, Pastor.
SPEAKER_00: It's like yelling at your kids, stop yelling.
SPEAKER_00: Why aren't you listening?
SPEAKER_00: The law does not have the power to make you obey.
SPEAKER_00: That's a basic biblical principle.
SPEAKER_00: The law cannot compel obedience.
SPEAKER_00: The law breaks you, it doesn't empower you.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you another example.
SPEAKER_00: One guardrail, don't worry.
SPEAKER_00: Another guardrail, love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You know the Bible says that.
SPEAKER_00: It is a command, it is law.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's the second greatest law.
SPEAKER_00: Can you do it?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is no, you cannot.
SPEAKER_00: And knowing that it's in the Bible does not motivate you to love your neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: It just exposes to you that you fail to do so.
SPEAKER_00: The same thing is true with worry.
SPEAKER_00: You know the Bible says don't worry, but you can't help it.
SPEAKER_00: So why does the Bible give you law?
SPEAKER_00: You have to remind yourself, the Bible gives you law to keep you on the road, to show you which way you're supposed to go.
SPEAKER_00: Worrying is bad.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, don't do it.
SPEAKER_00: Loving your neighbor is good.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, do that.
SPEAKER_00: So there you are.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to worry.
SPEAKER_00: I need to love my neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to keep the car on the road, but I fail in all of them.
SPEAKER_00: So what is the solution?
SPEAKER_00: You need something inside of you to change.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus brings you to that with a question that he asks.
SPEAKER_00: And his question is, what should you seek instead?
SPEAKER_00: Is life more than food and clothing?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 30, the nations of the world seek after those things.
SPEAKER_00: You're not supposed to seek after them.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, what should you seek?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer comes in verse 31: seek his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Everything else will be given to you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about food.
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about clothes.
SPEAKER_00: Worry about Jesus Christ reigning on the throne over the world.
SPEAKER_00: Put your heart there.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe he's going to come?
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe in sovereign language here?
SPEAKER_00: He is the king.
SPEAKER_00: He is the king in this kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a democracy, it's him.
SPEAKER_00: He reigns on his throne.
SPEAKER_00: And so you have to say, do I believe this or not?
SPEAKER_00: Do I believe he reigns in glory and majesty or do I not?
SPEAKER_00: That's where the battle happens.
SPEAKER_00: Put the battle on that field, not the field of law, but the field of gospel.
SPEAKER_00: When the worry is coming up in your mind and your focus on faith and the world pops up in between, says, look at me, worry about me, worry about me.
SPEAKER_00: You go to war right there, and you go to war with the gospel, saying, I'm not going to worry about you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to take my thoughts captive for Christ, for obedience to Christ, and think about what is true.
SPEAKER_00: Namely, that Jesus reigns, that he died for my sin, that he rose from the grave.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's true.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's going to consume my thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: That's the worst case scenario.
SPEAKER_00: I depart and I'm with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The worst case scenario is I win.
SPEAKER_00: I remember a soccer game once, we were in a tournament, and if we lost the game, this is soccer is a crazy sport.
SPEAKER_00: If we lost the game, we would come out the first seed in our bracket.
SPEAKER_00: If we won the game, we'd come out the second seed.
SPEAKER_00: What are we supposed to do?
SPEAKER_00: Our coach is like, who cares?
SPEAKER_00: The worst thing that happens to you is that you win.
SPEAKER_00: Alright.
SPEAKER_00: It's life.
SPEAKER_00: The worst thing that happens to you in life is that you win.
SPEAKER_00: You're with Christ forever.
SPEAKER_00: Put your anxiety into that field.
SPEAKER_00: That's why something like the coronavirus is so interesting from a theological perspective, because it makes you say, I'm not in control.
SPEAKER_00: Do I believe that Jesus reigns?
SPEAKER_00: And God knows that we are anxious little souls, anxious, anxious little souls.
SPEAKER_00: It's the human condition to worry.
SPEAKER_00: And so look at what he says in verse 32.
SPEAKER_00: Fear not, little flock.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, fear not.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks to us so kindly, fear not, little flock.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's shepherding language.
SPEAKER_00: Fear not little flock.
SPEAKER_00: It's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: God has good plans for us, he wants to help us, he wants to give us the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Literally, the Greek says, He's chosen this for you, he's chosen the kingdom for us.
SPEAKER_00: So you have little faith in verse 28, you have fear in verse 32, and so you respond by saying, I believe in the kingdom, I believe I'm going there, and that reframes everything.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus comforts his anxious, trembling little sheep, and we are so anxious and we're so trembling, we are so afraid.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus comforts us by saying, Fear not, little flock, oh little flock, don't be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: God has better plans for you than this world.
SPEAKER_00: And then I read the first part of verse 33 because it reframes everything.
SPEAKER_00: The whole story gets changed.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Sell your possessions and give to the poor.
SPEAKER_00: And you think, where did that come from?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, let me tell you where it came from.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what started this?
SPEAKER_00: This whole thing started by the guy saying, I need more cash and I need a bigger barn.
SPEAKER_00: And the whole thing ends by Jesus saying, you need to give more away.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be a hoarder, be a giver.
SPEAKER_00: And the only thing that takes you from there, it's, I mean, it's the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to see the parallels in this.
SPEAKER_00: You on your own are sinful and you cannot merit any righteousness before God.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do anything to earn favor before God.
SPEAKER_00: You are not good enough to be pleasing to him.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do anything to earn his favor.
SPEAKER_00: And so you stop trying and you believe that Jesus took your sin and died in your place and resurrected from the grave.
SPEAKER_00: You have your sins forgiven and you emerge a new creation, a new creature ready to serve him with holiness.
SPEAKER_00: You can't stop worrying either.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: And so you put your faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing I can do to control my life.
SPEAKER_00: I trust you.
SPEAKER_00: I believe you.
SPEAKER_00: Your resurrection means that the worst that happens to me is I will rise with you, and your worry starts to melt away as you lead a life of obedience.
SPEAKER_00: And big picture, you're so concerned about food, you're so concerned about hoarding, you're so concerned about tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: If you believe the gospel, it obliterates all that and you go to giving your stuff away so that you get treasure in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, give stuff away and you get more stuff in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So do you believe that?
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe you will get more in glory by how you serve people today?
SPEAKER_00: And if you do, then you are eager to do this.
SPEAKER_00: That's the point.
SPEAKER_00: You go from hoarding to helping, clutching to giving, buying to selling, selling to donating, striving to serving.
SPEAKER_00: You get there through surrendering your life to God's care.
SPEAKER_00: Happiness is not seen through the lens of striving, but through the lens of surrender.
SPEAKER_00: I asked one of our elders this week who has an immune deficiency what he thought about us meeting for church.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, that's that's the wrong question.
SPEAKER_00: The question isn't do we stream the orchestra?
SPEAKER_00: The question is, reframe it around this verse here.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, how can you leverage this unique moment in time to use your resources to magnify the gospel to those in need?
SPEAKER_00: Magnify the gospel to your neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: They're as worried as you are.
SPEAKER_00: But you have verse 33.
SPEAKER_00: You're not the hoarder, you're the giver.
SPEAKER_00: You can only live like that if you believe, Philippians.
SPEAKER_00: Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
SPEAKER_00: And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we're thankful that you modeled for us how to fight worry by giving yourself to us.
SPEAKER_00: We're grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Receive him by faith.
SPEAKER_00: We give you thanks for this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being with us today.
SPEAKER_00: And now a parting word from Pastor Jesse.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, emmanuelbible.church.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not a member of the local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emanuel.
SPEAKER_00: I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.
SPEAKER_00: But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.
SPEAKER_00: Now may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.