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 GrandProkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: How many of this morning would say that there is some kind of a burden that you're carrying right now and you don't have to think very long about what it is?
SPEAKER_01: It could be a financial thing, could be your relational health, something that's just like weighing on you.
SPEAKER_01: Would you just be courageous enough just to raise your hand for a moment?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a lot of us.
SPEAKER_01: So keep it up for a second, because what I'd like for us to do is just pray for each other.
SPEAKER_01: When we get together in a room like this, one of the things we can do is pray for one another.
SPEAKER_01: So would you just put a hand on someone's shoulder if that's okay?
SPEAKER_01: And you don't need to know what it is.
SPEAKER_01: God really does know what it is, but we want to invite God in the middle of this right now.
SPEAKER_01: God, you you see us, your children, and we've been reminded again that you're good and you're for us.
SPEAKER_01: And yet we have these things that weigh us down and make us afraid or angry or frustrated or confused.
SPEAKER_01: And that we need your help.
SPEAKER_01: So we ask God that you would show up in the lives, particularly of those who raised their hand.
SPEAKER_01: I know there are others who didn't raise their hand, that God, you would be Jehovah Jirah, our provider.
SPEAKER_01: That you would make a way where there doesn't seem to be a way.
SPEAKER_01: We ask God that you would heal.
SPEAKER_01: You you would put bodies back together and hearts back together and minds back together.
SPEAKER_01: We pray for these, for relationships, for marriages that are struggling and falling apart, God, for peace and for reconciliation, that you would bring beauty out of ashes, joy out of mourning.
SPEAKER_01: Just ask God that you would show up and that you would bring your people a sense of your presence and a peace that comes with that.
SPEAKER_01: For your glory, God, we pray.
SPEAKER_01: And now as we turn our attention to your word to us from Matthew, we ask God that you would speak to us.
SPEAKER_01: You'd meet us where we are, you'd give us eyes to see and ears to hear.
SPEAKER_01: What you it is you have to say to us in the midst of our burdens.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this now in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome again to Grand Parkway.
SPEAKER_01: I'm Rick, I'm one of the pastors here.
SPEAKER_01: And we're in a series called The Jesus Way.
SPEAKER_01: We've been making our way through the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_01: And I want, I believe I'm here to proclaim to us this morning the good news that as Christ and His kingdom become our primary concern, we will be enabled by God's Spirit to relax in the knowledge that God's got us.
SPEAKER_01: My hope and prayer from this morning is that if you came in feeling heavy in any way, that you'll be able to walk out of here with a sense that God is with you and He has you.
SPEAKER_01: He's not scratching his head, he's not going, boy, I never saw that one coming.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what to do about this, but that God's got us, and because that of that reality, we can experience his peace that passes understanding and defies even common sense.
SPEAKER_01: We'll see this as we look at Matthew chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: So if you have your Bible, turn to Matthew 6, verses, beginning in verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: This is a passage that God brings me back to time and time again because this seems to be one of my sinful defaults is worry.
SPEAKER_01: He says this in verse 19: Don't store up treasures here on earth where moths and eat eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal.
SPEAKER_01: Store your treasures in heaven where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.
SPEAKER_01: Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.
SPEAKER_01: Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body.
SPEAKER_01: When your eyes is good, your whole body is filled with light, but when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness.
SPEAKER_01: And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is.
SPEAKER_01: No one can serve two masters, for you'll hate one and love the other, you'll be devoted to one and despise the other.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot serve both God and money.
SPEAKER_01: That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life.
SPEAKER_01: Whether you have enough food or drink or enough clothes to wear, isn't life more than food and your body more than clothing?
SPEAKER_01: Look at the birds of the air.
SPEAKER_01: They don't plant or harvest or store foods in barns, for your heavenly father feeds them.
SPEAKER_01: And aren't you far more valuable to him than they are?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 27, can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
SPEAKER_01: That's a rhetorical question, because we know worry tends to take moments from our life, not add.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 28, and why worry about your clothing?
SPEAKER_01: Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow.
SPEAKER_01: They don't work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.
SPEAKER_01: And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you.
SPEAKER_01: Why do you have so little faith?
SPEAKER_01: So don't worry about these things, saying, What will we eat?
SPEAKER_01: What will we drink?
SPEAKER_01: What will we wear?
SPEAKER_01: These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.
SPEAKER_01: Seek the kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously as he will give you everything you need.
SPEAKER_01: So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.
SPEAKER_01: Today's trouble is enough for today.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Jesus talks a lot about worry in this passage.
SPEAKER_01: By my count, in these 16 verses, he uses the word worry in some form six times.
SPEAKER_01: So, like every two and a half verses or so, he says, Worry's the problem here, worry's the problem here.
SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about that and start there.
SPEAKER_01: So just kind of to level the playing field, mass confession, who worries?
SPEAKER_01: Raise your hand.
SPEAKER_01: All right, okay, be honest.
SPEAKER_01: Who worries?
SPEAKER_01: Because not everyone raises their hand.
SPEAKER_01: See, the truth is, I believe everybody worries.
SPEAKER_01: Well, now we worry differently.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us think that we're part Vulcan and like Spock, it's just not logical to worry.
SPEAKER_01: So we stay cool and calm on the outside and we never seem to worry, but that doesn't mean there isn't something percolating underneath.
SPEAKER_01: Some go to the other extreme and worry yourself sick, right?
SPEAKER_01: Can't sleep, you can't eat, and it just consumes you.
SPEAKER_01: Some look for mental and physical escape so you don't have to think about what is worrying you, right?
SPEAKER_01: Others worry that they worry too much, right?
SPEAKER_01: If it's any help, I heard somewhere along the line that they found this connection between worry and intelligence.
SPEAKER_01: Apparently, the more you worry is an indication of higher intelligence.
SPEAKER_01: So that should be good news for some people.
SPEAKER_01: And it that also means if you don't worry a whole lot, maybe it doesn't mean that you're not spiritually mature or something like that.
SPEAKER_01: Well, a worrier will explain it to you later.
SPEAKER_01: Others of us, we try to mitigate our worry by trying to control everything.
SPEAKER_01: We're control freaks, right?
SPEAKER_01: We try to manage every detail and dominate any person that we think might be the source of our anxiety, whether directly or indirectly, so that we feel like we're in control, at least as far as we know, right?
SPEAKER_01: Truth is we all worry.
SPEAKER_01: Even a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: We all worry.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus says, don't borrow worry from tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: Tomorrow's got its own worries.
SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be worry.
SPEAKER_01: So what do we worry about?
SPEAKER_01: Shout it out.
SPEAKER_01: What are the things that you worry about?
SPEAKER_01: Or that the people you know worry about?
SPEAKER_01: Work, family, health, children, money?
SPEAKER_01: Anything else?
SPEAKER_01: Salvational family.
SPEAKER_01: Did somebody say squirrels?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, squirrels.
SPEAKER_01: I'll talk to you about that later.
SPEAKER_01: I'd be interested in the backstory there.
SPEAKER_01: Our country, where it's headed, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Relationships, all kinds of things that we worry.
SPEAKER_01: And I I as I hear those things, I think we worry about them because they're important to us, right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's really what Jesus is saying here.
SPEAKER_01: In verses 19 through 21 at the beginning of this text we read, Jesus kind of exposes this connection between worry and treasure, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_01: We worry about what we treasure.
SPEAKER_01: If we don't value it, we don't care.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We worry about what we treasure.
SPEAKER_01: So we do worry about people and relationships and money and health and homes and stuff and jobs and reputation and where our country's going.
SPEAKER_01: And on and on it goes.
SPEAKER_01: Because when these things, things or these people feel a little less sure to us, are a little bit more out of our control than we'd like, our worry tends to escalate, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this past year, um, I was living proof of this.
SPEAKER_01: If if worry were an Olympic sport, I would be the gold medalist.
SPEAKER_01: And unfortunately for me, I'm not one of those worriers that when I worry, I don't eat and lose weight.
SPEAKER_01: It kind of has the opposite effect for me.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if that were true, I'd be like 120 pounds, but that's neither here nor there.
SPEAKER_01: So anyway, last October, um after about a year and a half of discernment with the elders of the church where I was the pastor, uh, Michelle and I really sensed that the Lord wanted us to take a step of faith into a next chapter of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And on the surface, it was really a dumb thing to do.
SPEAKER_01: Because the church was going well, um they they didn't want us to leave, which is nice.
SPEAKER_01: Um, we still have great relationships there.
SPEAKER_01: People still were still in relationships, and but it was just clear that something was stirring in us.
SPEAKER_01: So we're like, what do we do with this?
SPEAKER_01: So we believe in communal discernment because otherwise I can convince myself that God's telling me anything.
SPEAKER_01: So I just submit it to these folks that I knew that loved me and were for me and that knew God.
SPEAKER_01: And so for about a year and a half, we're just like, okay, God, show us.
SPEAKER_01: And then eventually in October, we had the sense that God's like, I want you to take a step of faith, even though you don't have anything lined up or a plan.
SPEAKER_01: And our church supported us in that, um, both in prayer and physically.
SPEAKER_01: They they supported us for a little over three months financially, and it was just this incredible gift.
SPEAKER_01: And the desire on their part, because we finished our responsibilities at the end of November, was that we could kind of have a relaxing December holiday season, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because pastors, that usually gets to be a really crazy time around churches.
SPEAKER_01: So he's like, Why don't you just enjoy?
SPEAKER_01: They were like, enjoy your family, just and then some friends of ours um let us use their lake house for that month, those those months.
SPEAKER_01: We had sold our house, and and uh it was this beautiful setting, tranquil, and you think, oh man, if if I could draw it up, this is how it would be.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not how it was.
SPEAKER_01: Turns out that that was the one of the most anxious months of my entire life.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I saw each day without a job offer as an unproductive waste of time.
SPEAKER_01: Even though logically I knew nobody hires anybody or talks to anybody over the holidays, not even in the church world.
SPEAKER_01: And this generous gift ended up unveiling some darkness in me because I realized I was unable to be fully present with my wife and my kids, which is what I really wanted to do, but I wasn't able to because I was always somewhere else in my mind playing out scenarios as to how this thing was going to work out.
SPEAKER_01: And worry robbed me of this generous gift of time with no to-do lists.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we all dream of life without a to-do list.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't have anything other than get a job, and that just kind of trumped them all.
SPEAKER_01: And I wished away a gift, and I regret it.
SPEAKER_01: I regret it.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever been there?
SPEAKER_01: You ever been in a place where worry robbed you of something that was right in front of you?
SPEAKER_01: And worry does that.
SPEAKER_01: It can rob us of sleep, it can rob us of joy, it can rob us of a good meal, it can rob us of our health, our peace of mind, our relationships.
SPEAKER_01: Worry can keep us from connecting with others and loving others as we'd like to love them.
SPEAKER_01: Worry can prevent us from taking risks.
SPEAKER_01: But most probably damaging of all, worry about the future keeps me from being present right here and right now.
SPEAKER_01: And this moment is the only moment in which God chooses to meet me.
SPEAKER_01: So if I can't be present, I miss what God's doing.
SPEAKER_01: So what do we do?
SPEAKER_01: What do worriers like me do?
SPEAKER_01: How do we mitigate worry?
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is an interesting question because we often kind of default to this notion that there's a one-to-one correlation with our worry.
SPEAKER_01: I think, well, the reason I'm worried is because I have this specific problem.
SPEAKER_01: And if I didn't have this problem, or if this person in my life who's causing this problem would either go away or get fixed or healed or whatever, then I would never worry.
SPEAKER_01: Not so fast, right?
SPEAKER_01: The good news is our problems will indeed go away.
SPEAKER_01: The bad news has to do with when that will be.
SPEAKER_01: When will all of your worries and my worries go away for good?
SPEAKER_01: The day we die.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus is saying, right?
SPEAKER_01: There's always gonna be problems.
SPEAKER_01: So we will the day you and I die, we will be amazed at how trouble-free life becomes.
SPEAKER_01: In the meantime, we the problem is we have to still take ourselves wherever we go.
SPEAKER_01: And what I discovered about me, and maybe it's not true about you, but it's certainly true about me, is I'm usually the biggest factor in my anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: So just changing geography or changing relationships or whatever doesn't necessarily solve the problem.
SPEAKER_01: If I'm a big part of the problem.
SPEAKER_01: So what does Jesus say to us then?
SPEAKER_01: To warriors like us.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says in this text, and I'll put it as simply and directly as I can, relax.
SPEAKER_01: God's got you.
SPEAKER_01: Relax.
SPEAKER_01: God's got you.
SPEAKER_01: And he's not just talking about when JJ Watt will get off the pup list.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about when you're downsized.
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people in this room know exactly what that feels like.
SPEAKER_01: Or when you have bad news about a pregnancy, or someone you love or close to has hurt you or betrayed you, or when your health is really shaky.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, don't worry about everyday life.
SPEAKER_01: Don't worry about what you'll eat or drink or wear or what's gonna happen tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the birds of the air, look at the lilies of the field.
SPEAKER_01: They don't toil, they don't spin, they live under the watchful care of God, and so do you.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're even exponentially more valuable to God than they are.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to live in a constant state of worry because God's got us.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I believe this to be truth profoundly true.
SPEAKER_01: I believe this is God's word, and Jesus wouldn't say this if it were not true.
SPEAKER_01: Yet, in my experience, just knowing that in my head does not reduce the anxiety in my heart.
SPEAKER_01: Has anyone else ever experienced that?
SPEAKER_01: I need a way to actually live out this belief, to live like this is true.
SPEAKER_01: And what's so awesome about Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount is he doesn't just tell us something, he also shows us how it can be possible.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, we can start to live like it's true that God's got us as we redirect our affections from lesser treasures to an ultimate treasure.
SPEAKER_01: Our anxiety can reduce as we redirect our affections, our primary affections, from lesser treasures to the ultimate treasure.
SPEAKER_01: He says it this way in the original version of the New Living Translation, he put it this way, and I they and this I think will help.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, your Heavenly Father already knows all your needs, and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the kingdom of God, which by the way, Jesus says in Matthew 13 that the kingdom of God is this pearl of great price.
SPEAKER_01: It's the most valuable thing you could ever find.
SPEAKER_01: He says, if you live for him and make the kingdom of God, and this is important, your primary concern.
SPEAKER_01: Not your exclusive concern, not your only concern, but your primary concern.
SPEAKER_01: See, my anxiety level is tied to what I treasure the most.
SPEAKER_01: And if what I treasure the most is a thing or person other than Christ and His kingdom, my anxiety will skyrocket because none of those things got me like Jesus does.
SPEAKER_01: So it's really a question of what do I value most, or another way to put it is around what or whom am I going to orient my life and give my primary allegiance.
SPEAKER_01: See, up to this point in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has been painting this picture of his ways, right?
SPEAKER_01: What it looks like to be a participant in his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: He talks about here's who's blessed, here's who can play.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he kind of outlines the playing field, if you will, right?
SPEAKER_01: He talks about the law, and it's not just don't murder, but don't be angry, it's not just don't commit adultery, but don't lust, it's keep your yes be yes, and your no be no, and love your enemies and bless those who persecute you, and all these kinds of things.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, this is what it looks like to live in my kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the deal, Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: If your focus is on that, you're gonna miss me and miss what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_01: If your focus is just on making sure you don't step over the boundary line, you're gonna miss the point.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what he means when he says, make the kingdom of God your primary concern.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, make the focal point, your primary affections, to be on orienting your life around not the boundaries, but on me and what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_01: On me and what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_01: That's how we submit ourselves to the kingdom, the rule and reign of God.
SPEAKER_01: A friend of mine by the name of Todd Hunter puts it this way he says, be a cooperative friend of Jesus, whose primary aim is this just to get in on what God is doing in and around me every day.
SPEAKER_01: Making the kingdom of God my primary concern is to become a person who's able to pay attention to what the Spirit is doing and join the Spirit as He's doing it.
SPEAKER_01: Think of it this way.
SPEAKER_01: Um, if you've played sports, how many played sports or have kids who play sports?
SPEAKER_01: This is simplistic, but the idea is the most important thing in a sport is to know where the ball is, right?
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter if it's football or soccer or baseball or basketball or whatever, those who take care of the ball and get it where it's supposed to be, whether it's across the goal line, into the goal, into the hoop, over the wall, into the strike zone, into the minute, whatever, those are the ones that win.
SPEAKER_01: Think of the kingdom of God as the ball.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is telling us that to be free from needless worry, we need to orient our lives around the ball, around the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: Or as the immortal Chubby Chase put it in Caddyshack, be the ball, Danny.
SPEAKER_01: Our main job is as Jesus, hands and feet, simply to join God in what he's doing.
SPEAKER_01: Dallas Willard puts it this way as he translates Matthew 6.33.
SPEAKER_01: He says, place top priority on identifying and involving yourself in what God is doing and in the kind of rightness he has.
SPEAKER_01: All else needed, all these other things we treasure, is provided.
SPEAKER_01: See, if I don't follow Jesus' advice here, what I can count on is a continued life of needless anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus' response for worry is to live like God's got me.
SPEAKER_01: And I do this by identifying and involving myself in what God is doing in and around me.
SPEAKER_01: Make the kingdom of God your primary concern.
SPEAKER_01: Steeping myself in that reality, this reality that God's got me, has this profound trickle-down effect to everything else.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus is saying, when all else will be provided.
SPEAKER_01: See, when the kingdom of God is my primary concern, think about it in real practical terms.
SPEAKER_01: I end up being more efficient and productive in my job as I actually do my job, as Jesus would if he were in my place.
SPEAKER_01: My relationships, they grow deeper and stronger as I place the needs of others above my own, and I learn to practice forgiveness and unconditional love because I begin to love as I've been loved by God, not as I want people to love me.
SPEAKER_01: My financial situation tends to improve because now I see everything that I have is God's, and He's just simply called me to be a good steward of what He's entrusted to me.
SPEAKER_01: So along the way, as I embrace that reality, I become increasingly free from unnecessary debt, and I'm able to live with open hands and to be a generous person.
SPEAKER_01: And we all know, just from any of us who are parents, it's so much better on Christmas morning to be the one given and seeing how they're like than the one receiving.
SPEAKER_01: My friendships are strengthened as I learn to really live in authentic community with people where there's mutual knowing and loving and serving and celebration going on.
SPEAKER_01: My marriage grows deeper as the Spirit enables me to love my wife as Christ loved the church.
SPEAKER_01: And as I honor God with my body, these nagging illnesses I wrestle with, they seem to become less frequent.
SPEAKER_01: See, with the Spirit's help, I'm no longer focusing on not crossing the boundary.
SPEAKER_01: I'm actually enjoying life in the middle of what God's doing.
SPEAKER_01: Because God's never gonna cross the boundaries.
SPEAKER_01: If I'm hanging out with Him, I'm never gonna cross the boundary.
SPEAKER_01: I think of somebody's talk about our country.
SPEAKER_01: That's something that we, I think, legitimately are concerned about.
SPEAKER_01: I think what does Jesus say to me in the midst of that?
SPEAKER_01: He says, Rick, and my friends here, you can be a non-anxious redemptive presence in the midst of escalating fear, hopelessness, and hang hand wringing about where our country is headed.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason you can do that is because your ultimate allegiance is to me and my kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: It's not to a candidate, it's not to a political party, but it's to King Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And of all the other options, he's the one that's really got you.
SPEAKER_01: See, my focus is on inviting and allowing the Holy Spirit to form me, to work in me.
SPEAKER_01: And as I do, as I cooperate with the Spirit, his fruit becomes more evident in my life, right?
SPEAKER_01: I become someone who's much more loving and joyful and peaceful and kind and generous and faithless and gentle.
SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden, self-control is no longer an issue.
SPEAKER_01: I'm more under control.
SPEAKER_01: I stop saying things I shouldn't say or doing things I shouldn't say because I'm following the lead rather than just going out and creating messes.
SPEAKER_01: My focus shifts from what I need to get rid of to become to what God is making me as I submit to the Spirit and invite the Spirit to work in and through me.
SPEAKER_01: See, when I orient my life around the kingdom of God, what God does is the supernatural exchange.
SPEAKER_01: He takes my issues and my failures and my messes and my worries.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'll take those and in exchange, I'll give you my power to live differently.
SPEAKER_01: To be a peculiar person in the best possible sense.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this isn't to suggest that we simply bury our heads in the sand and live in denial about problems in the real world.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what I'm suggesting at all.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is not whistling, don't worry, be happy.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is saying that as we orient our lives in such a way as to preserve this life-giving connection with the Father through him by the power of the Holy Spirit and get in on what he is up to, we actually give ourselves access to this abundant life that Jesus offers right here and right now.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just for heaven someday, it's right here and right now.
SPEAKER_01: And that's only possible because we believe and live out of this reality that God has got us.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're like me, you're like, well, that sounds great, but I wouldn't even know where to start because this isn't the first time I've been told God's sovereign and God's got me and all that stuff, but I'm still anxious.
SPEAKER_01: I think Jesus helps us here too.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll go back to a sports analogy.
SPEAKER_01: I think of my dad who coached pretty much every one of my team's whatever sport up until I was like 10 or 11 years old.
SPEAKER_01: And my dad was a great fan, and he had one very simple coaching philosophy, and that was the best defense is a good offense.
SPEAKER_01: That's how he was.
SPEAKER_01: If you have the ball, they don't.
SPEAKER_01: If you're at their end, they're not at your end.
SPEAKER_01: So that was his philosophy.
SPEAKER_01: And up through under 10 soccer, that worked really good.
SPEAKER_01: But that's another deal altogether.
SPEAKER_01: So but the idea applies here.
SPEAKER_01: Don't sit back in this defensive posture, trying not to make mistakes, trying to um avoid bad things happening.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, get in on the dynamic reality that God is moving and at work and move forward with it.
SPEAKER_01: Because if God's got me, then living like it means I can actually go on offense.
SPEAKER_01: Not be offensive, but I can go on offense.
SPEAKER_01: I can join God in what he is already doing in this world, and as I do, in some way I can't fully explain, he empowers me to relax, even though the circumstances don't dictate that that should be possible.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's one of the great values I think of going on a mission trip.
SPEAKER_01: How many folks here have gone on a trip with us here or some other church?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, one of the reasons we do that is because it helps us to get a taste of what it looks like to orient our lives around what God is doing.
SPEAKER_01: We unplug from our normal life, and a lot of times when I've gone on so many trips, I've been to, you know, Africa and Central America and Europe and all these places, my going in, I get anxious because I'm thinking about what if am I gonna have access to the internet?
SPEAKER_01: How am I gonna do the food?
SPEAKER_01: Am I gonna get sick?
SPEAKER_01: What if yeah, and I can make this whole list of things that I get anxious about, and then I find I get there and I don't even think about those things.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm just thrown into the middle of this.
SPEAKER_01: Here are some people that God's called us to cross paths with, and the Spirit's doing some incredible things, and people are getting healed and set free, and they're finding Jesus and being provided for, and some things are getting fixed that are broken, and not that that's while those are great benefits, I think the ultimate work God does is He gives me a taste of Rick.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing was what you planned, but did you notice the peace you experienced in the midst of this?
SPEAKER_01: Because I had a taste of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: See, you don't have to get on a plane and go overseas to experience that, to go on offense.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it can and probably should start in the circles in which we find ourselves day after day, whether it's at work or in our neighborhood or with our family or literally or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I think even for me this week, um, there are some things going on in our family that caused me to have great anxiety because I don't know how to fix it.
SPEAKER_01: And who am I if I don't fix it?
SPEAKER_01: And then Thursday evening, um, we had four couples over for dinner because um Michelle and I are gonna be helping start a class for couples on the 21st of August during this hour in the fellowship hall right behind us.
SPEAKER_01: And this is gonna be a core group of folks helping to get that thing launched.
SPEAKER_01: And um and I realized the next morning after we had spent the night just kind of laughing and enjoying each other and dreaming and strategizing and praying, and then I went to bed and slept really well, and I got up Friday, and it occurred to me the thing that had been stressing me out just about all day on Thursday I didn't think about that whole evening.
SPEAKER_01: Why was that?
SPEAKER_01: Did it go away?
SPEAKER_01: No, it's because I I shifted the focus for me and what I was treasuring to what God was doing.
SPEAKER_01: Now, God will still, this thing isn't completely resolved with our family, but that's not the point.
SPEAKER_01: The point is I'm able to relax no matter what the circumstances are, because God's got me.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm learning that again.
SPEAKER_01: See, too often we get mired in worry and anxiety because we're in this defensive posture and we focus on what we must say no to, or what might go wrong, or where we're tempted to sin, or what's wrong in our job, or where we need to make cuts to make ends meet, or what's wrong in our marriage, or what I need to stop doing that's causing me anxiety, and on and on the list goes.
SPEAKER_01: And our primary concern is setting up a defensive perimeter, protecting and fixing and insulating and escaping.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is telling us quite clearly here: my way is not possible if you and your problems are at the center of your life.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about you.
SPEAKER_01: And my way is only available to those who reorient their lives around the kingdom of God and are committed with the Spirit's help to say yes to my ways instead of just trying to avoid all the no's.
SPEAKER_01: If believing God's got me involves getting in on what Jesus is doing, then, and this is what I'm wanting us to grasp today, then the important question for us to begin to wrestle with is then what's Jesus doing?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's really, I think, where we get stuck.
SPEAKER_01: Kingdom of God is kind of this really broad, vague term for us.
SPEAKER_01: What does it look like to actually get in on what God's doing?
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's actually not as hard as it might seem because the Bible's really clear that when we see Jesus, we see God.
SPEAKER_01: And whenever so we want to know what God's doing, we do the kinds of things that Jesus did that we read about in the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: So if we want to experience the Jesus way, oriented around Christ in the kingdom, we do what Jesus does.
SPEAKER_01: So we see in the scriptures, Jesus said, I didn't come to be served, but to serve, right?
SPEAKER_01: So we serve other people, and in that we experience the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus loves unconditionally.
SPEAKER_01: We do that, we experience the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the conduit of Shalom, bringing peace and wholeness to our world.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Join me in that, and you'll experience my peace.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus does life deeply with his friends.
SPEAKER_01: So do we.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is open-handed and generous.
SPEAKER_01: He's not tight-fisted and kind of living with this scarcity mindset.
SPEAKER_01: He says, You can do that too.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus tears down walls that divide us and instead brings reconciliation and peace.
SPEAKER_01: So do we, especially in this election season.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is passionately and is pat lives passionately and sacrificially.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Do that too.
SPEAKER_01: Join me in that and you'll experience the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus isn't afraid of messes.
SPEAKER_01: He dives into them and brings healing and freedom and restoration.
SPEAKER_01: He says, You'll find me in the middle of that.
SPEAKER_01: Join me in that.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus seeks to save those who are lost and those who are broken.
SPEAKER_01: He says, join me in that, and you'll find freedom in my way.
SPEAKER_01: So whatever Jesus does, we do too.
SPEAKER_01: That's the idea.
SPEAKER_01: We do what Jesus does.
SPEAKER_01: An amazing thing happens along the way.
SPEAKER_01: As we do, and I can't fully explain it, our anxiety begins to diminish.
SPEAKER_01: Even though our circumstances don't always change, because our anxiety is replaced with this dynamic reality of the abundant life that Jesus makes available to those who follow Him.
SPEAKER_01: And we don't have to be oriented and rooted in worry because we found a better way.
SPEAKER_01: We can relax in the Jesus way.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I believe Eugene Peterson in the message translates these verses beginning in verse 31 with what I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax.
SPEAKER_01: To not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God's giving.
SPEAKER_01: People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things.
SPEAKER_01: But you know both God and how he works.
SPEAKER_01: A phrase that's really been helpful to me since this past fall.
SPEAKER_01: A friend of mine reminded me of this.
SPEAKER_01: As I was getting all amped up about some stuff.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Rick, remember you're safe in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: You're safe in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that doesn't mean that everything is perfect or easy or smooth or that I'll never experience pain or harm.
SPEAKER_01: But the safest place for me to be of all the options available is with Jesus as his cooperative friend.
SPEAKER_01: Joining him in what he's doing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: That's the Jesus way.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus calls us in verse 33 to steep your life in God's reality, God's initiative, God provisions.
SPEAKER_01: Don't worry about missing out.
SPEAKER_01: You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
SPEAKER_01: God, if you can come.
SPEAKER_01: My prayer for each of us today is that we would not only know Jesus and his ways, but that we would be able to relax.
SPEAKER_01: Because we really believe that God's got us.
SPEAKER_01: And we are committed to orienting or reorienting our lives around Jesus and what he's doing in our Sunday to Sunday lives.
SPEAKER_01: And we can do this because we trust that we are safest in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Safest in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would begin to do work in us now, begin to reveal to us those areas we're holding on to too tightly, those lesser treasures we've made the ultimate treasure in our life.
SPEAKER_01: Those fears and concerns that have we've we've kind of consumed us.
SPEAKER_01: And we invite you, Spirit of God, to meet us in those in these next few minutes to begin to do the work you want to do.
SPEAKER_01: You stand with me.
SPEAKER_01: If we could together, let's just engage in a supernatural exchange in kind of a symbolic physical way.
SPEAKER_01: And just give that to the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Just give it to Him now.
SPEAKER_01: Father, thank you that you take our messes in exchange, you give us mercy and grace.
SPEAKER_01: That you take our fear and our anxiety and your worry.
SPEAKER_01: And you give us peace that passes understanding.
SPEAKER_01: We ask for your help for that to be true of us today, God.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to be a people who are weighed down by cares of this world.
SPEAKER_01: We want to cast our cares on you because, as you said, you care for us.
SPEAKER_01: We want to know the lightness that comes from walking in step with you, the freedom that comes.
SPEAKER_01: Not that we won't have problems, we know those are a constant in life, but we also want to live like we truly believe that as we join you in the midst of the problems in life, we will experience your presence and your power to be a non-anxious presence in our world.
SPEAKER_01: So we ask for your help to do that.
SPEAKER_01: That you would transform us from the inside out, to live a beautiful, attractive way that draws all people to you.
SPEAKER_01: Set us free and help us live lightly today.
SPEAKER_01: We pray in your matchless name, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks so much for spending your Sunday morning with us.
SPEAKER_01: Um, if you would like someone to pray with you, um, there'll be some of us available down here, some small group leaders and others.
SPEAKER_01: Um, something that's really heavy on you that you want someone to pray with you about.
SPEAKER_01: We're here to do that.
SPEAKER_01: That's really important to us to be available in that way.
SPEAKER_01: If you are with us for the first time, thanks so much for being here.
SPEAKER_01: We love that you could worship with us and hope that you sense God was here in the room with us.
SPEAKER_01: We believe that it's true.
SPEAKER_01: When two or three gather together in his name, we would ask that you complete the connection card on your uh bulletin sheet information sheet.
SPEAKER_01: You can place it in one of these brown offering boxes at each door.
SPEAKER_01: And that's simply so we can just check in with you and see if you have any questions, any way we can help you get connected.
SPEAKER_01: That's all we want to do.
SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna smother you or anything like that.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're a part of Grand Parkway, those boxes are also where we worship God and giving.
SPEAKER_01: We say thanks by saying, You've given us all that we have, and we want to say thanks by giving back the first of what you've given us.
SPEAKER_01: So I encourage you to do that as well, all right?
SPEAKER_01: Um, again, if you would just put yourself in a posture of receiving and receive this blessing.
SPEAKER_01: May the Lord bless you and keep you.
SPEAKER_01: May He make His face to shine upon you.
SPEAKER_01: May you know the joy and the peace that comes from making the kingdom of God your primary concern.
SPEAKER_01: So be a people whose eyes are fixed on Jesus, that live lightly and freely as non anxious people in a very anxious world.
SPEAKER_01: I bless you to be those people now in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Have an awesome week.