SPEAKER_01: Are you not of more value than they?
SPEAKER_01: I think this is perhaps the greatest question asked by Jesus of humanity.
SPEAKER_01: And it goes unanswered by most people.
SPEAKER_01: What happens is that we divorce ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: We set ourselves up to struggle, this lifelong struggle with anxiety because we've divorced ourselves from what God intended to bring us the most comfort, the best perspective, and the maximum understanding of and experience with and enjoyment of God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: And this is this this biblically informed belief as to your value.
SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: God, we uh we've sung a lot this morning.
SPEAKER_01: We've said we've acknowledged that we're a bound people.
SPEAKER_01: We're not wandering around in this world, but we're found by you and we're bound to the place we were created for.
SPEAKER_01: And so in the meantime, God, we're here, and we're not gonna begrudge that, but we're not gonna act like this is home.
SPEAKER_01: There's so much more that awaits us.
SPEAKER_01: And the only thing that we'll have in the next life is the treasure that we've laid up there that awaits us when we get there.
SPEAKER_01: We can't take anything from here to there, but we can lay up some stuff in this life there, and so that we'd be good stewards of this life.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Holy Spirit, breathe life into us this morning as we open up your word.
SPEAKER_01: We sing that great hymn that says, and heaven and earth be one.
SPEAKER_01: And so we ask you today, God, to bring heaven to bear on earth and to kiss this guilty world in love.
SPEAKER_01: You're Jehovah Rapha.
SPEAKER_01: One of your names is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord, which means the Lord our God who heals.
SPEAKER_01: And so we look to the CDC, we look to medicine, we look to a malaria drug, we look to everything at our disposal.
SPEAKER_01: We see them all as gifts from you.
SPEAKER_01: But ultimately we look to you and we ask you, God, to come and act in keeping with your nature and heal our land, heal this world, God.
SPEAKER_01: Effortlessly claim all the due glory that is yours, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to give it to the wrong people and rob God of glory.
SPEAKER_01: You're the healer, God, and so give you all the glory.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, let people see the insufficiency of what they have built and banked their life on.
SPEAKER_01: And let the sufficiency of King Jesus be manifested through his people during this time.
SPEAKER_01: God, this is our prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Say a word to our souls today.
SPEAKER_01: Feed and water our souls on your word today and by your spirit as we talk about what it means to kill anxiety in us.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, protect us from believing things about ourselves that aren't true, believing things about you that aren't true, and believing things about this world that aren't true, because we'll fall a little too much in love with this world and we'll fall out of love with you.
SPEAKER_01: And we won't seek your kingdom and your righteousness the way we were created to.
SPEAKER_01: And so increase our capacity to seek the right things today.
SPEAKER_01: And anxiety dies in the shadow of your kingdom and your righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: This is our prayer, God.
SPEAKER_01: Make it our experience.
SPEAKER_01: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, if you got a Bible, you're at home.
SPEAKER_01: I invite you to take it.
SPEAKER_01: Open up to Matthew chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 6, I'll start reading verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to talk to you this morning about killing anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: Killing anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: John Owen had a the three theologian had a great phrase.
SPEAKER_01: He said, You got to be killing sin or sin will be killing you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I want to just appropriate that and tweak it a little bit and say, you and I have to be killing anxiety, or anxiety will be killing us.
SPEAKER_01: We'll we'll kind of start developing all the worst case scenarios in our mind for all that could go wrong during the coronavirus virus and during the lockdown, or we're gonna be able to get out, or we're gonna be able to run our business, and am I gonna be able to open my restaurant and this, that, and the other?
SPEAKER_01: And so let me just say this: this is before I get into the text.
SPEAKER_01: If you have the capacity, uh, go pick up some food at a restaurant and tip the people and just remind them, hey, hey, we're gonna get through this, okay?
SPEAKER_01: This is not the end of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Just a little free tip there.
SPEAKER_01: And if you go to the Texas Roadhouse, pick up some ribs and drop them off on my front porch and ring the doorbell.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, this is Matthew chapter 6, verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk to you today about killing anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, this is some of the greatest ethical teaching in the history of humanity.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says this in Matthew 6, 25.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, about what you'll eat or what you'll drink, nor about your body, what you'll put on.
SPEAKER_01: Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
SPEAKER_01: Look at the birds of the air.
SPEAKER_01: They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them.
SPEAKER_01: Are you not of more value than they?
SPEAKER_01: And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life?
SPEAKER_01: And why are you anxious about clothing?
SPEAKER_01: Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin.
SPEAKER_01: And yet I tell you, even Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
SPEAKER_01: 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, oh you of little faith.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or where shall we find toilet paper, or what shall we wear?
SPEAKER_01: For the Gentile seek after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
SPEAKER_01: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
SPEAKER_01: Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
SPEAKER_01: Killing anxiety involves four things.
SPEAKER_01: Just four little words I want to give you.
SPEAKER_01: But more than four little words, there are four huge realities that you and I are invited by Jesus to kind of live in and learn to love.
SPEAKER_01: And the first one is simply this is life.
SPEAKER_01: Life.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 25 again.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you'll eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you'll put on.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus' point is not about food and clothes.
SPEAKER_01: He's really contending for a bigger, better, more sufficient, juicy, satisfying definition of an experience with life.
SPEAKER_01: Because he says, Hey, I tell you, don't be anxious about your life.
SPEAKER_01: For some of us, the response to that is too late.
SPEAKER_01: I'm very anxious.
SPEAKER_01: He says, What you will eat, what you'll drink, nor about your body.
SPEAKER_01: The reason there's no food on the shelf at Walmart is people are anxious about their life, what they're gonna eat and what they're gonna drink, and what and about your body, about what you'll put on.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus says this his he contends for a bigger definition of an experience with life.
SPEAKER_01: He says, It's not life more than food, and the body more than clothing.
SPEAKER_01: So it's not about food and clothing, it's really about life.
SPEAKER_01: And how do you define life?
SPEAKER_01: What is your definition of life?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible's always calling us to this actual experience with what the Bible calls life, because most of what we experience in this world has more to do with death than it does life.
SPEAKER_01: For example, if you ask someone right now, hey, what do you fear most, life or death?
SPEAKER_01: They would say to you, death, because it's something we've never experienced.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have any frame of reference for it.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like what happens?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, is there a big light?
SPEAKER_01: Do you go there?
SPEAKER_01: Is it warm and glowy?
SPEAKER_01: Is there a big choir of grandmas kind of welcoming you in?
SPEAKER_01: What is this all about?
SPEAKER_01: We don't, so most people would say that, but I'm here to say that if we define life the way Jesus is talking about in Matthew 6, and we defined it that way, the Bible does, you would realize that most people have never really lived.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a deep uncertainty as to what we mean by when G what by the word life, when Jesus says, is not life more than food and the body more than clothes?
SPEAKER_01: If you take away provision and enjoyment, how will you define your life?
SPEAKER_01: How do you think about it?
SPEAKER_01: The coronavirus is actually a great time for you and I to redefine and rethink about, hey, is this what I want to do with the 70, 80, 90 years I got here on this planet?
SPEAKER_01: If you're like me, most of your time here on this earth is behind you.
SPEAKER_01: You've got more behind you than you've got in front of you.
SPEAKER_01: So you and I really need to sharpen the focus on what we call life.
SPEAKER_01: Life is often defined in this world by what we're anxious about, what we're anxious towards, and what we're anxious for.
SPEAKER_01: And then here's what happens: we get all that, and then we're still anxious.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're continually having to redefine what life is.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible is very helpful in this way because the Bible comes along and it always invites us to real life.
SPEAKER_01: What do I mean?
SPEAKER_01: This is from 1 Timothy chapter 6, verses 17 to 19.
SPEAKER_01: Hear these words this morning, beloved, from the comfort of your couch, and I hope you got your pajamas on, hope your coffee pot is full, because I think all that's an expression of an enjoyment of life.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the way the Bible defines life.
SPEAKER_01: He says, as for the rich in this present age, which is every one of us.
SPEAKER_01: As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
SPEAKER_01: Did you hear that?
SPEAKER_01: He says, So the last part, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
SPEAKER_01: If you have an NIV translation of the Bible, the NIV renders it so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
SPEAKER_01: So if the Bible says, and it does, that there's a life that is truly life, then logic dictates that there's a life that's not really life at all.
SPEAKER_01: And I submit to you this morning that most people in this world, not America, but in this world, live this life that's not really life at all.
SPEAKER_01: It's just existence, it's just kind of, hey, I'm just kind of getting through.
SPEAKER_01: I worship my work, I work at my play, I play at my worship, however, you want to categorize that.
SPEAKER_01: It's just not the life that Jesus talks about.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, let me bring this more into focus and ask you this simple question.
SPEAKER_01: What would it be like right now, given all the craziness in our world?
SPEAKER_01: What would it be like right now if every Christian in the world did four things?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the first one: to enjoy everything God provides.
SPEAKER_01: Because this is what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: He says that they're what they're to do, he says, don't set your hope on the uncertainty of riches, 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but on God, and here's this phrase, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: See, here's how you know you have a death mindset instead of a life mindset.
SPEAKER_01: You're always thinking of what you're doing wrong.
SPEAKER_01: You get in bed at night and you try to remember all your sins from the day.
SPEAKER_01: Like you're like an accountant, and I'm gonna make a list here, and I'm gonna go down, I'm gonna, sorry for that, I did that again.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you a weird question.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that hey, that He freely provides everything for us to enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself, here's a life mentality.
SPEAKER_01: Death mentality is about what's wrong with you, what are you doing wrong?
SPEAKER_01: Life mentality asks this question where what are you currently not enjoying enough?
SPEAKER_01: What are you currently not enjoying enough?
SPEAKER_01: I stood in front of my wife this morning and said, Hey, is there anything in your life you're not enjoying like you should be enjoying it?
SPEAKER_01: Like anything you should you should be enjoying more?
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, I got nothing.
SPEAKER_01: I said, About six foot one, no hair, funny, can't think of anything.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm just kidding, that did not happen.
SPEAKER_01: But I will ask her that this afternoon.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself in the meantime, hey, is there anything?
SPEAKER_01: What am I currently not enjoying like I should?
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible says that's a life mentality.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that God freely provides.
SPEAKER_01: You're not twisting his arm with your formulaic prayers or your fear or your anxiety or your despair.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't motivate God.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get to that in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, God's not a sentimental being, he's a principled being.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: We'll unpack that more in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: But what just what would the world be like if Christians did four things?
SPEAKER_01: Number one, they enjoyed everything that God provided.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, they they they set their mind to just doing good.
SPEAKER_01: Just to doing good.
SPEAKER_01: Not to be, hey, the person, the nicest person in your neighborhood that everyone talks about on your uh neighborhood app or whatever, but you just did good because, hey, there's so much wrong, there's so much bad being done in the world.
SPEAKER_01: There's people in the HEB parking lot fighting over toilet paper and milk.
SPEAKER_01: And against that backdrop, what does it look like for us to enjoy everything God provides, to do good?
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, to be rich in good works.
SPEAKER_01: To not only do good, but to do so much good that people see you and they go, man, that woman is rich, thick, flush, overflowing in good works.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it just happens naturally, not so that, but because of.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the fourth thing, Christians just envision a world today.
SPEAKER_01: If all Christians started doing this today, this afternoon at 11.07, you set your mind to this.
SPEAKER_01: Be generous and ready to share.
SPEAKER_01: Can you feel how crazy that sounds in this culture?
SPEAKER_01: That means you go ring your neighbor's doorbell and say, Hey, you guys got enough toilet paper, you got enough food, you got enough air, you need anything?
SPEAKER_01: Because man, I got whatever I got, I'm willing to share with you.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're experiencing lack and I got abundance, something is wrong.
SPEAKER_01: If my barns are full and yours are empty and you're overwhelmed with fear, something's wrong.
SPEAKER_01: If my faith doesn't just share me and my resources, just envision a world what it would be like.
SPEAKER_01: Because Scripture says if we do these things, hear this part.
SPEAKER_01: He says we store up for ourselves as a good foundation for the future, and we take hold of the life that is truly life.
SPEAKER_01: Now, in Matthew 6, in this little pericy, this little section right before we start reading, verse 25, verses 19 to 24, Jesus himself says, Hey, lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And we're kind of like, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't know what that means.
SPEAKER_01: And then in 1 Timothy chapter 6, because the Bible is not a bunch of disconnected stories, it's one story that this one God tells with one central character and one outcome and this one opportunity to enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: And so what you see in 1 Timothy chapter 6 is the cohesive nature of the truth because what Jesus says in Matthew 6, Paul picks up in 1 Timothy 6 and says, Oh, by the way, if you want to know what it means to lay up treasure in heaven, do these four things.
SPEAKER_01: Because you lay up for yourselves a good foundation for the future and you store up treasure.
SPEAKER_01: Excuse me, corona.
SPEAKER_01: Uh you you store up treasure for yourself.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have coronavirus, relax.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so the first thing I want to, the first reality that helps us to kill anxiety, because by the way, anxiety didn't never dies of natural causes.
SPEAKER_01: It never goes away, it never takes a day off, it never says, you know what, you worried enough yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: Today, just chill.
SPEAKER_01: No, you have to kill it.
SPEAKER_01: I have to kill it in me.
SPEAKER_01: So the first reality that kills that in us is just life as the Bible defines it.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, is value.
SPEAKER_01: It's verse 26 of Matthew chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: He says, This look at the birds of the air.
SPEAKER_01: They neither sow nor reap nor gather in the barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus asked this life-altering question.
SPEAKER_01: Few things in the Bible changed my life more than this next sentence.
SPEAKER_01: Are you not of more value than they?
SPEAKER_01: I think this is perhaps the greatest question asked by Jesus of humanity.
SPEAKER_01: And it goes unanswered by most people.
SPEAKER_01: A long time ago, I was buying a suit.
SPEAKER_01: That's how long ago that was.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I was buying a suit and I was getting it altered and tailored and the pants taken up and the half break and the cuff and everything.
SPEAKER_01: And the guy said to me, He said, Hey, when you look in the mirror, what do you see?
SPEAKER_01: And he was just cutting up and being funny.
SPEAKER_01: And I just said, I see someone who's fearfully and wonderfully made, and because all God's works are wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: I know this fully.
SPEAKER_01: I'm fearfully and wonderfully made, and wonderful are your works.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_01: And it was kind of awkward.
SPEAKER_01: He has a little chalk soapstone thing, and I said, Oh, when I look in the mirror, I just think, man, God is so good.
SPEAKER_01: Look what God made, and this is wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, No, seriously.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Seriously.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, You think that about yourself?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Oh, it's worse than that.
SPEAKER_01: God thinks that about me.
SPEAKER_01: He stood up and he set his stuff down in a little tray and he goes, No, seriously, mister, what are you what are you talking about?
SPEAKER_01: I said, There's a psalm in the Bible, 139th Psalm.
SPEAKER_01: And this guy writes, it says, Hey God, I'm just saying what's true of everybody that God created.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you're breathing right now, God created you.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about arrogance, it's about identity.
SPEAKER_01: Because I said to the guy, I said, I'm not being arrogant.
SPEAKER_01: I know no one's gonna say, Oh, you like what you see?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Oh, I the suit's great, but I always like what I see.
SPEAKER_01: And yes, I know that sounds arrogant.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you like, oh, don't say that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want my kids to be arrogant.
SPEAKER_01: What you be careful, parents, that you don't parent your kids into this diminished unbiblical view of themselves because you don't want anybody to think wrong of them.
SPEAKER_01: And so he's like, Wow, ah, ah, hmm.
SPEAKER_01: See, when Jesus says, are you not a more value than they?
SPEAKER_01: See, the obstacle for many of us is because we were taught, like we kind of teach our kids, hey, believe in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: There's good things in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Let's don't go overboard because you might come off as arrogant or obnoxious or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: What happens is that we divorce ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: We set ourselves up to struggle, this lifelong struggle with anxiety, because we've divorced ourselves from what God intended to bring us the most comfort, the best perspective, and the maximum understanding of and experience with and enjoyment of God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: And this is this this biblically informed belief as to your value.
SPEAKER_01: So I would just ask you this question: are you not of more value than not just the birds, but everything else you see that God's created?
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're a person out there, and there's many people out there, and I'm not making light of you, I'm inviting you to think about the insufficiency of your point of view.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and it's simply this if you're a person out there that believes is taught in every biology class in America almost that, hey, human beings have no greater right to life than frogs or owls or lizards or deer or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: We're all just we're all God's creatures.
SPEAKER_01: That worldview is fixing to hit the rocks of reality here in just a minute, but stay with me.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus Himself says, Are you not of more value than they?
SPEAKER_01: And so think about that.
SPEAKER_01: And so, what am I saying?
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying this that you're not some anxious hot mess waving your arms, trying to get the attention of a disinterested God and begging him to please be interested in you.
SPEAKER_01: You are his child, upon whom he places great value, and not only that, but this God who crowned you when he created you with glory and honor and dominion.
SPEAKER_01: And now he didn't do that, but he's never gonna take these realities back.
SPEAKER_01: And so you and I have to learn how to live with these realities just kind of placed upon our life.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that he's crowned us with glory and honor, and he's given us dominion over everything.
SPEAKER_01: I was having a conversation with a lady one time on an airplane about animals, and I was reading the Bible and she said, Well, are you a very religious person?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Not religious at all.
SPEAKER_01: I have a relationship with Christ that's a it's the guiding principle and priority in my life.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Well, I think, you know, we got in a conversation about creation and creatures, and she says, Well, you know, do you think human beings are more important than animals?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Oh, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: It's the created order.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, God never crowned the frog with glory and honor and gave him dominion over us.
SPEAKER_01: The only time God gave frogs dominion over people was over Pharaoh and unbelievers in the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: It was a little disorienting her because she was a bioethicist or something, but it was a great flight.
SPEAKER_01: I enjoyed the whole conversation.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't conflictual, it was a little awkward and a little, and she was like, How could you believe this?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Because I'm not God and I don't get to establish the value of creation and the created order.
SPEAKER_01: God he charged Adam and Eve and said, Rule over creation and subdue it.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean that we're irresponsible, we abuse animals.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not for that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not Michael Vick, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not down with that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying that we've got to stop apologizing for what the Bible says is true about us.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Where do you get all this?
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 8.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just read it to you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: It says, This, oh Lord, our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And David is outside, he's looking up at the heavens, at the stars, and he says, Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
SPEAKER_01: You've set your glory above the heavens.
SPEAKER_01: Now hear that phrase this morning, all right?
SPEAKER_01: Put down the coffee for a second, Dad.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that phrase.
SPEAKER_01: You have set your glory above the heavens.
SPEAKER_01: Hold on to that with your brain just for a second, okay?
SPEAKER_01: He says, out of the mouth of babies and infants, you've established strength because of your foes to steal the enemy and the avenger.
SPEAKER_01: He says, When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place.
SPEAKER_01: Then he asks this question What is man that you're mindful of him?
SPEAKER_01: He's mindful of you today.
SPEAKER_01: Against the backdrop of all this other stuff, David's knees are buckling as he looked up at the heaven and he says, You made all this.
SPEAKER_01: How in the world do you have room and time and space and affection left for me?
SPEAKER_01: He says, What is man that you're mindful of him?
SPEAKER_01: And the Son of Man that you care for him.
SPEAKER_01: And then he turns the corner with this three little three-letter word, yet, yet, you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that thing that he said above the heavens?
SPEAKER_01: That glory, he said, you set your glory above the heavens.
SPEAKER_01: That's the exact thing that he has crowned you with.
SPEAKER_01: That's the exact thing.
SPEAKER_01: You've crowned him with glory and honor.
SPEAKER_01: You have given him dominion over the works of your hands.
SPEAKER_01: You have put all things under his feet.
SPEAKER_01: Here's where my animal loving friend on the plane had a problem because I read this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, all sheep and oxen, also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
SPEAKER_01: David says to God that you're majestic, that you've ordered creation this way.
SPEAKER_01: Now, again, that doesn't mean we abuse animals.
SPEAKER_01: That means we steward the environment in which we live.
SPEAKER_01: But it also means that we don't tell the lie of the creationist that says, all life has equal value.
SPEAKER_01: No, it does not.
SPEAKER_01: That will be true when the deer starts hunting us.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, Gary Cooper, I'm talking to you.
SPEAKER_01: Third reality that we use to kill anxiety is faith.
SPEAKER_01: Faith, you got life, you got value, and you got faith.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 27 of Matthew chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: He says, This, after he asks this great question, are you not of more value than they?
SPEAKER_01: He says, And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life?
SPEAKER_01: And why are you anxious about clothing?
SPEAKER_01: Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.
SPEAKER_01: They neither toil nor spin.
SPEAKER_01: And yet I tell you, even Solomon, Solomon, the richest man, boys and girls, in the world at the time.
SPEAKER_01: This man had a walk-in closet bigger than your house.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, not even Solomon, in all his glory.
SPEAKER_01: He could make, he had the most brightest colored robes.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, because he was rich and they were rich purple, violet, and red.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody else wore just earth tones.
SPEAKER_01: He showed up and he was popping.
SPEAKER_01: He looked sharp.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, not even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
SPEAKER_01: But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is used to start a fire in the oven, will he not much more clothe you?
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus says this, oh you of little faith.
SPEAKER_01: This is why it's an issue of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Now notice he doesn't accuse them of having no faith.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say, oh, if you have anxiety, you're probably not a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: No, he just says, hey, oh you of little faith.
SPEAKER_01: Anxiety is not the absence of faith, but it's the indication of a misplaced faith.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a faith that's in self and circumstances and not in God.
SPEAKER_01: In times like these, our faith doesn't take a beating.
SPEAKER_01: What we have faith in gets revealed, and that feels like a beating.
SPEAKER_01: And so I don't want to beat you up and pile on today, but I want you to understand this because we've, here's my fear in America, is that we look to our fear to accomplish for us what the Bible says only your faith can accomplish for you.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: We look to our fear to accomplish for us what the Bible says only faith can accomplish for us.
SPEAKER_01: I know it's kind of heady, but even people visiting from Illinois can understand that.
SPEAKER_01: You say, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: If we're not careful in times like these, we'll teach ourselves that God responds to fear the way the Bible says he responds to faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's as if we believe that God looks down and sees us worrying over things and he feels obligated to respond to relieve our anxiety, and that's not how it works at all.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, a lot of people quote unquote lose their faith, which is impossible.
SPEAKER_01: If you lose your faith, you never had it, according to the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: But a lot of people lose their faith because God just didn't come through.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed, and I just kept feeling that way.
SPEAKER_01: It's because God doesn't respond to fear, He has no frame of reference for it.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you're sovereign king of the universe, what do you fear?
SPEAKER_01: And so he's like, uh, hello.
SPEAKER_01: Uh what God responds to is faith.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I don't agree with that.
SPEAKER_01: Just last week, Blake uh stood up here and he preached about the persistent widow, which that parable ends with this question hot out of the mouth of God, he says, Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?
SPEAKER_01: Again, God's moved.
SPEAKER_01: He's a principled being, he's not sentimental, he he's not moved by what we're feeling, he's moved by our faith.
SPEAKER_01: And so, beloved God, this principled God acts on in response to the principles of faith, not the uncertainties of our mood.
SPEAKER_01: And so you gotta be careful because if you're not careful, you get this ingrained repetitive behavior going in you and you act as if fear obligates God to you.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, that's manipulation, that's not worship.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, I'm just gonna keep fearing until God comes through.
SPEAKER_01: And so what happens if you set the scenario to where if God is really God, the way God proves that he's God is he does something about this thing that I'm obsessing over in fear.
SPEAKER_01: And this continually requires God to prove himself over and over and over.
SPEAKER_01: And so while that sounds good and relief always feels better than the truth, here's the problem with that.
SPEAKER_01: That means you continually need God to prove his existence, and you never have the pleasure of demonstrating that he's enjoyable.
SPEAKER_01: Your life and my life, it really comes down to a couple things when we talk about our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Either I need God to prove his existence all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, God's real.
SPEAKER_01: God came through.
SPEAKER_01: We didn't know what we were gonna do, I needed a job, we were worried about our business, and I'm telling you, God came through and he proved himself.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not trying to be a jerk.
SPEAKER_01: Boys and girls, look at your parents right now and say, Pastor Neil's not trying to be a jerk.
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you some time.
SPEAKER_01: Tell him.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's enough.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, here's the thing: to a pre-existent being like God, he has no frame of reference for existence.
SPEAKER_01: So when we are looking at God, kind of saying, Hey, demonstrate that you're real, God's like, hey, I want you to demonstrate that I'm enjoyable, that I'm sufficient, that I'm enough.
SPEAKER_01: And again, I'm not piling on you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying anxiety is gonna beat your brains in until you and I get to this place where we we just, hey, one of the realities that we demonstrate during this time is faith.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the last one that kills anxiety is just seek.
SPEAKER_01: Just the word seek.
SPEAKER_01: And so I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_01: Uh much.
SPEAKER_01: If I want to know what you value, I'm just gonna watch what you're looking after, what you're seeking after right now.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Jesus said it like this in verse 31 to 34, he said, Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat, or shall we drink, or what shall we wear?
SPEAKER_01: For the Gentiles seek after these things.
SPEAKER_01: And your heavenly father knows that you need them.
SPEAKER_01: Just underline that last part.
SPEAKER_01: Your heavenly father knows that you need them all.
SPEAKER_01: That wrecked me as well.
SPEAKER_01: Because a long time ago, godly older man, I said, Hey, if there's something part of the Bible that I could just that you come through throughout your life, and he said, Oh, the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_01: The Sermon on the Mount is Matthew 5, 6, and 7.
SPEAKER_01: So I just took a pen and started reading the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_01: And I got to this part, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
SPEAKER_01: And ever since then, I've tried to practice what's called the received life.
SPEAKER_01: And your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes when it comes to praying and asking, I don't ask people, I just say to God, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: You know that I need all that, you know everything that I need.
SPEAKER_01: And so in your timing, in your way, in your means, I'm looking to you to provide it.
SPEAKER_01: If you provide it through people, great.
SPEAKER_01: If it falls out of the sky, great either way.
SPEAKER_01: What I'm resting on, and what I'm saying back to you, my heavenly father, is that you know that I need every one of them.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm not gonna live in fear.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna walk in faith that you know that I need them all.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 33 see, resting in that frees you and I up to do this.
SPEAKER_01: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things that you're worried about will be added to you.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
SPEAKER_01: Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of what we believe is on display in what we seek after.
SPEAKER_01: The text says, Don't do this because the Gentiles seek after these things.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Hey, don't worry about these things.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 32, what shall we drink?
SPEAKER_01: What shall we wear?
SPEAKER_01: How long is this gonna be?
SPEAKER_01: Are they gonna come and lock us down and the National Guard's gonna be in my front yard frightening my children?
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason we shouldn't act this way is because Gentiles, people that don't know God, we shouldn't seek after these things because people that don't know God seek after these very same things.
SPEAKER_01: And so the question we have to ask ourselves is what distinguishes us, people, the people of God, from people that don't believe?
SPEAKER_01: Well, here, it's what you seek after.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I submit to you this morning, if you seek after the same things they do, something's off.
SPEAKER_01: If you worship your job the way they worship their job, why would they ever want to know the God that you know?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying enjoy your work at all.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying, hey, it comes down to what you seek after.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and when the text says seek first the kingdom of God, it means make it not a priority, but the priority.
SPEAKER_01: Make it the priority of your life.
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible's always distinguishing the believer from the unbeliever, the Gentile from the Jew.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says right here, hey, don't seek after these things because people that don't know me, don't trust me, don't understand me, don't enjoy me as this glorious, effusive fountain of sufficiency, they freak out and seek after these things.
SPEAKER_01: Don't boil life, don't get a wrong definition of life, a really use-sized definition of life.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're just like everybody else in the culture.
SPEAKER_01: So, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: The Gentile seek after things.
SPEAKER_01: If you read the Bible very often, one of the things you'll see is that all through the Bible, it talks about how, hey, you you you shouldn't be like these people that don't know God.
SPEAKER_01: Let me close this morning with it with an example of what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: This is from 1 Peter chapter 4, verses 1 to 5.
SPEAKER_01: It says this, since therefore, now remember I said the Bible's always distinguishing between the believer and the unbeliever.
SPEAKER_01: Here's one of those places.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.
SPEAKER_01: For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God.
SPEAKER_01: For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles do.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that phrase again.
SPEAKER_01: Should be in bold on your screen.
SPEAKER_01: For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles do.
SPEAKER_01: The reason many of you are the different person today than you used to be when you were in college or in young adulthood or even in adulthood is that one day you got up and it clicked in your head, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I have wasted enough time in the past doing what people that don't know God do.
SPEAKER_01: You just got sick of yourself.
SPEAKER_01: You got sick of your inconsistency or your mediocrity or your pathetic same prayer every time, oh God, please forgive me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna do that again.
SPEAKER_01: And you you it's like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, when I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child, but I'm no longer a child, so I put away childish things.
SPEAKER_01: I don't need that anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I'm done with that.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because I've wasted enough time doing what the Gentiles do.
SPEAKER_01: And then he spells it out in 1 Peter 4, he says, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, uh, uh orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.
SPEAKER_01: Uh with respect to this, they are surprised.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that part again.
SPEAKER_01: With respect to this, they are surprised.
SPEAKER_01: They are taken aback, they are aghast, they are like, oh, you what?
SPEAKER_01: They're surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you.
SPEAKER_01: But they will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Let me close by asking you just a simple practical question.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, these questions come up on the screen in just a minute, so don't try to write them all down.
SPEAKER_01: You can take a picture.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a question I want us to end on.
SPEAKER_01: What about your life surprises, non-Christians?
SPEAKER_01: Because right here in 1 Peter, he says, hey, with respect to these things, these behaviors, the things you don't do because you wasted enough time in your life, the light dawned on you one day and you were like, What am I doing?
SPEAKER_01: He says, now with respect to these things, they're surprised.
SPEAKER_01: During the context of coronavirus, freak out.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not making light of it, it's a serious thing.
SPEAKER_01: But in this context, what about the way you're living your life?
SPEAKER_01: Surprises the non-believer.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: We'd like to just take some time.
SPEAKER_01: We'd like to teach the Bible and then give you some soul space to think about it.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm going to voice a prayer, and Crowd's gonna come, He'll play some questions for consideration come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you can take a picture of them, don't try to jot them all down, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but let's just spend some time thinking about what the Bible said to us this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Let me pray.
SPEAKER_01: God, thanks that uh you're always calling us to a bigger, better definition of an experience of life.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just a definition.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus didn't come to make eggheads out of us all, He came to make out of us people that have tasted life and we shun everything else.
SPEAKER_01: We've tasted and seen that the Lord is good, and we have no more appetite for bad.
SPEAKER_01: We're not morally superior, we're not arrogant, we're not cocky, whatever word we use for it.
SPEAKER_01: We're just like, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: This is so good, it makes me want to do good.
SPEAKER_01: I pray God that we would just unleash good on our culture.
SPEAKER_01: Again, not so that, but because of.
SPEAKER_01: Because we've taken hold of the life that is truly life.
SPEAKER_01: Pray God that we would ponder our value today because you yourself, God said that aren't you much more valuable than these birds that don't they don't toil or spin, they don't freak out, they don't check their investments, go, oh, the market's down 13%.
SPEAKER_01: Because their faith is not in the market, their faith is in God.
SPEAKER_01: And God, I pray that we would be out of step with our culture, and not to distinguish ourselves, but to distinguish you, to hold the spotlight on God and say, look at the way God uh uh uh so works in the life of his people that we live this way.
SPEAKER_01: And God, I pray for anyone who's trying to use fear to manipulate you, and always requiring you to prove yourself, to bail them out, to come through, is if you don't always come through.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we uh we confess again that this is our Father's world and you have a plan for it.
SPEAKER_01: You're in charge of it and you're sovereign over it.
SPEAKER_01: And we want to move around in it with these realities coursing through our veins and coming out of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Now brood over us as we think a little bit about what we've heard today in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Father, thanks for the truth of your word.
SPEAKER_01: It is thought-provoking, it is life-liberating, it's good for the bones, God.
SPEAKER_01: Let it just find a resting place in us.
SPEAKER_01: It's quick and powerful, sharpening, two-edged sword.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says of itself that it pierces down to the joints and marrow.
SPEAKER_01: It divides and gets down to the get down.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just like lotion we put on, it is like an x-ray that sees to the marrow, to the center of our bones, not just to expose us, but to invite us, to say, hey, have you ever thought about this?
SPEAKER_01: What if it's true that you really are fearfully and wonderfully made?
SPEAKER_01: And that's not arrogance, that's just identity.
SPEAKER_01: What if I purposed you into existence?
SPEAKER_01: Your stepdad may not have treated you the way he should have, and your your mom didn't come through for you.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't that doesn't mean I'm not gonna come through for you.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, thank you for how thought-provoking and inviting the Bible is.
SPEAKER_01: We think and we respond today in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Well, thanks for joining us uh uh on online today.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna continue as long as we need you like this.
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully it's not long, but I will confess to you, I like parking right there at the door and having one service.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: Uh but I actually I miss, I'll do three uh again, no problem.
SPEAKER_01: I just miss being together.
SPEAKER_01: And I hope that's one of the things you take away from this.
SPEAKER_01: If someone said to me, I like online, but it's not the same.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: This is why the Bible says, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together.
SPEAKER_01: And so the first time we get the opportunity, we're gonna come together, we're gonna have a party, and we're gonna worship, and we're gonna hear the word, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But in the meantime, we're here, we're gonna keep preaching, we're gonna keep having services.
SPEAKER_01: You're stuck with me for the foreseeable future.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'll be back to preach again next week.
SPEAKER_01: In the meantime, I want to encourage you to maintain a consistent giving posture.
SPEAKER_01: You can give online, you can mail it in.
SPEAKER_01: Heck, I'll come to your house and pick it up in a bucket if I need to.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but no, you're a faithful people.
SPEAKER_01: Just be faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let fear creep into the way you think about your giving and your finances, okay?
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to come out of this crisis in another crisis because we let fear get the better of us.
SPEAKER_01: That's not who we are, and it's not who God is.
SPEAKER_01: Let me remind you of one thing.
SPEAKER_01: The empower conference that we had scheduled uh for March 31st has been postponed, not canceled.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna postpone it and we'll do it later.
SPEAKER_01: And so don't worry about that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it not this coming Tuesday, but the following Tuesday on the 31st.
SPEAKER_01: That has been postponed, and you know why.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm not gonna say the C word again.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sick of saying it, all right?
SPEAKER_01: We like to close our service with a spoken blessing.
SPEAKER_01: So get yourself off the couch, hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: Boys and girls, look at your dad.
SPEAKER_01: Tell him, come on, dad, get your hands out like you're receiving something, like someone's giving you a big ham or something.
SPEAKER_01: This is better than ham.
SPEAKER_01: We want to speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says of God that wonderful are his works.
SPEAKER_01: And because you're created by God, that means you're wonderful too.
SPEAKER_01: That's not novel, that's not funny, that's true.
SPEAKER_01: So walk in the wonder of who you are and who God is.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Now, before we cut this thing off, let me say to all you young ladies out there if you're in a dating relationship with a guy and he doesn't recognize your wonder, you text him right now and break up with him, okay?
SPEAKER_01: That's out of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not being funny.
SPEAKER_01: You're too wonderful to put up with a jerk, you're dismissed.