Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, before we begin this morning, I have been informed
that I have a duty that must be taken care
of before we move any further. I understand that you
guys were informed on last week that my wife and
I were away. We spent a week on the beautiful
(00:22):
island of Kawai. However, you guys were not informed that
we did that on last week because on June thirtieth,
we celebrated our twentieth wedding anniversary. Now I say that
(00:43):
because one man in the church who shall remain nameless, said,
you know, you should really let everybody know that you
took your wife to Kauai for your twentieth anniversary, so
that you know, people like my wife won't think that
you just went just because, and therefore I need to
take her just because.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
So no, it was.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Our twentieth wedding anniversary, and it was an amazing time
to get away and to just be reminded of God's
goodness and of God's mercy toward us over these past
twenty years. And it's mercy to me in particular, as
my wife has put up with me for these twenty years,
and I'm grateful with that in mind, Let's look again
(01:28):
in the Sermon on the Mount. We have reached the
end of Matthew chapter six, that last section at last
paragraph there in Matthew chapter six, when we look at
this issue of anxiety. Let me bring you up to
speed and contextualize what's happening here.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Just in this section on the Sermon on the Mount.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
We're dealing with a couple of issues here, namely with
the issue of material wealth and personal desires. We saw
in verses nineteen through twenty one that transitory earthly treasures
don't satisfy. Then in verses twenty two and twenty three,
(02:13):
we saw that yearning for such earthly riches blur our
mental and moral vision. And finally, in verse twenty four,
we saw that a choice must be made between God
and Mammon. So we're moving down a road here, and
that road has to do with our material wealth and
(02:34):
our attitude toward material wealth. It's connected also to this
issue of the Lord's prayer, and we'll see that here momentarily.
But what we're dealing with as we come to this
passage about our anxiety and the Lord's provision is really
a continuation of the Lord's thought as it relates to
(02:56):
the issue of our material wealth and our material possessions.
And it's very important to contextualize it so that we
can grasp what's being said in this last chapter or
this last passage in chapter six. As he brings this
idea sort of to a crescendo, he'll revisit some of
it again, and i'll i'll allude to that, but he's
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really bringing this idea to a crescendo. He also brings
us to an issue that is of very practical importance,
and that's the issue of anxiety.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Anxiety. It's interesting.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Usually we think that the Bible deals with issues that
are religious and spiritual and moral, but the Bible doesn't
necessarily deal with issues that are practical or deal with
issues that really affect our everyday life on a very
deep level. For example, if you know someone who deals
(03:58):
with the issue of anxiety, your first thought would probably
not be to take them to the last paragraph in
Matthew chapter six. Your first thought would probably be to
tell them that they need to contact a professional and
perhaps get some medication. If you can't say amen, you
ought to say ouch, okay. If you know somebody who
(04:18):
has anxiety attacks, here's how we've been conditioned to think
anxiety attacks are too big for God. You need medicine
because you have a real problem. If you didn't have
a real problem, then maybe God would be sufficient for you.
But because you have a real problem, you know shortness
of breath and sweaty palms, and you know rapid respiration,
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and get see, that's a real problem. God's not big
enough for that problem. So what you need because you
have a real problem is you need to go to
people who deal with real problems, people who are more potent,
more powerful, more pertinent, and much more relevant than God,
in his words, could ever be. That's how we've been
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conditioned to think. Folks, I want you to hear something here, though,
Jesus gets to the root of anxiety, to the root
of it. The world can get you around the edges
of it, but Jesus gets you to the root of it.
(05:27):
Here's what the world can do with anxiety and people
who suffer from anxiety. The world can basically look at
you and say, okay, fine, we understand all of those
symptoms that you're dealing with, and we got to peel
that will make all of them go away. And that's true,
by the way, that's true, there's medication that will make
that stuff subside. But essentially, here's what's just happened. You
(05:51):
came in and you said, my engine light is on.
They did not lift the hood, They did not die
knows the engine. They merely gave you a pill that
will break the light. You follow me, My engine light
is on, dude, we can handle that engine light's off. Yeah,
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but what about the real problem that's underneath my hood? Oh,
we got nothing for that. But our conditioning says that's
the right answer. This is not to say that there
aren't people who have real physiological problems that need to
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be dealt with in a real physiological way. It's not
what I'm talking about here. That's a completely different issue altogether.
But what we're talking about here is something completely different,
and it comes from a root cause and a root
source that have to be dealt with no matter what.
(07:03):
Look with me, if you will, at this last paragraph
beginning of verse twenty five. Therefore, I tell you do
not be anxious about your life, what you will eat
or what you will drink, nor about your body. What
you will put on is not life more than food,
and the body more than clothing. Look at the birds
of the air. They neither soul, nor reap, nor gather
(07:26):
into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are
you not of more value than they? By the way,
that's supposed to be a rhetorical question in our culture
and in our day and age.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Not so much.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
In our culture and in our day and age, that's
an offensive thought. Jesus said, you're more valuable than the
birds of the air. So when the tree huggers say
they're speaking for Jesus, they're not. Okay, They're not the
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tree hugger who says, no, no, you can't build on
this land because there's this little field mouse who would
be displaced if you build here. And you're not more
valuable than that field mouse. Now Jesus says you are. Amen,
you're more valuable than that. You're more valuable than that.
(08:27):
Does that mean that we should be, you know, just
sort of indiscriminate in the way that we treat the
animals that the Lord has given us. No, some we
train and love, others we.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Kill and eat.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Amen, hallelujah, praise the Lord all right, and wish of
you by being anxious can add a single hour to
his span of life. And why are you anxious about clothing?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They
neither toil nor spin. Yet, I tell you, even Solomon
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and all his glory, was not a raid like one
of these. 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. Therefore, do not be anxious saying
what shall we eat, or what shall we drink?
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Or what shall we wear?
Speaker 1 (09:26):
For the gentiles seek after all these things, and your
heavenly Father knows that.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
You need all them, that you need them all.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be added to you. Please
underline verse thirty three. We're gonna come back and talk
about verse thirty three in the moment, in a moment. Okay, well,
probably the second most well known verse in the Sermon
on the Mount, Okay, second only to the verse that
begins the paragraph tomorrow, judge not lest you be judged. Okay,
(09:59):
Just underline that we'll get back to it. Therefore, to
not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious
for itself sufficient, for the day is its own trouble.
At first, there's a couple of things that we need
to clarify here. We need to clarify the idea of
what's being discussed when Jesus uses this word anxious, what
(10:21):
it means to be anxious, because not all anxiousness is sinful.
Let me say that again, not all anxiety, not all
anxiousness is sinful. Okay, So it's not just a blanket
statement here. And I know, for example, that we're well
aware of other passages of scripture.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
We're well aware of Philippians chapter.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Four that says be anxious for nothing, and we're gonna
deal with that momentarily. But let me say here first
and foremost, not all anxiousness, not all anxiety is sinful.
It's kind of like anger. Not all anger is sinful.
In fact, commanded to be angry, the Bible says, be
angry and yet don't sin. There's a difference between the two.
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There's anger and then there's sin, and anger is not
necessarily sin, but you can be sinful in your anger.
Same thing here when we're dealing with anxiety, not all
anxiety is sinful. What we're going to talk about today
is sinful anxiety. But let me make this point. The
word used there for anxiety really means to have an
(11:30):
anxious concern or care, sometimes translated care based on an
apprehension about possible danger or misfortune, to be worried about,
to be anxious about. That's what we're talking about here.
I'm scared. I'm fearful of what is going to happen
if I don't take care of this particular situation. And
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it's a sinful, godless, faithless kind of fear. This word
that is translated to be anxious. The Greek word is
used nineteen times in the New Testament. Why is it significant?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Again?
Speaker 1 (12:05):
You know, we don't like to spend a lot of
time with these sort of you know, this sort of
statistical data about particular words in the New Testament, But
here it's pertinent. It's used nineteen times in the New Testament.
Twelve of those nineteen times are in the Gospels, the
other seven in the Pauline Epistles.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Of those twelve.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Times that this word is used in the Gospels, six
of them are in this one passage right here. So
half of the times that this word is used in
a New Testament. It's used right here in this paragraph
that we just read. Three of the times it's used
in the Luken parallel of this passage, which means nine
(12:46):
out of the twelve times that this word is used
in the Gospels, it's used in the same sermon six
and Luke six, and Matthew three and Luke, but again
same sermon being communicated by authors. So nine out of
the twelve times that we see it in the Gospels,
it's used here in this particular context. Now, it's also
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used twice, once in Matthew and once in Luke in
a parallel passage about being brought before the authorities, and
Jesus says, when you're brought before the authorities, don't be
anxious about what you will say in that time. Matthew
has that and Luke has that. Those are the other
two times that we see this word. And then there's
one other time when this word is used in the Gospels,
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and that is when Jesus tells Martha that she's anxious
about many things.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
That's how this word is used in the Gospels. Seven times.
It's used in the Epistles. Five out of the seven
it's used in First Corinthians, five out of the seven
in First Corinthians. Four out of those five is used
in one paragraph in First Corinthians chapter seven. Let's look
at it first Crinhions chapter seven, Turn with Me, First Minheons,
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chapter seven and verse thirty two, Paul uses the word
five times. And this whole book, and four of them
are right here in this one paragraph, in this one chapter,
verse thirty two. And here's what I want to say
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about this word anxiousness as used in the epistles. It's
used seven times in the epistles. Six out of the
seven times it's either positive or neutral. Six out of
the seven times the word is used either positive or neutral.
It's not negative. It's not a negative word. It's used
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either as a positive term or as a neutral term
six out of the seven times that it occurs in
the epistles. Because remember, the point is not all anxiety
is sin. Okay, Look here, beginning verse thirty two, I
want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man
is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to
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please the Lord. How many think that's a negative thing.
The unmarried man is anxious about how to please the Lord.
He's supposed to be. That's Paul's point. The unmarried man
is supposed to be anxious, concerned about care about how
to please the lord. But look at the other one
verse thirty three. But the married man is anxious about
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worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests
are divided by the way.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
That's not negative, that's positive.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
In fact, Paul teaches later, for example, in One Corinthians
chapter five, some of those specific ways that a married
man is to be anxious about how he's to please
his wife. Peter talks about it in One Peter chapter three.
So here anxiety is not a negative term. It's not
a negative term. The unmarried man pointing anxiety in one direction,
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and he's supposed to. The married man is pointing it
in another direction, and he's supposed to. And then we
get the parallel for the unmarried woman versus the married woman.
So again five times here in this one paragraph, and
it's either neutral in its first mention or positive in
the next four mentions. It's positive. So I say again,
not all anxiety is sinful anxiety. It's used again in
(16:27):
Philippians chapter two and verse twenty.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
I want you to see that Philippians, chapter two.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
And verse twenty, the beginning in verse nineteen, I hope
(16:58):
in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon,
so that I too may be cheered by news of you,
for I have no one like him who will be
genuinely concerned for your welfare. That's the same Greek word
translated as concerned that elsewhere is translated as anxiety. I'm
sending Timothy to you because he'll be anxious towards you.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
In a good way.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
It's a good thing, and that's one of the things
that's commendable about young Timothy. If I send him to
you as a shepherd for you, he will have anxiety
for your souls. I say again, not all anxiety is
sinful anxiety. Okay, that's important to keep in mind because
(17:46):
the most famous Passions passage that deals with this issue
is found in Philippians chapter four. Let's look at verses
four through seven. Rejoicing the Lord always again, I say, rejoice,
let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is
(18:08):
at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything,
by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be
made known to God and the peace of God, which
surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds
in Christ Jesus Amen. So Paul says don't be anxious
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about anything in the same letter that he uses the
same word to say Timothy's a good pastor because he
has that attitude toward his people. So is Paul saying
in Philippians chapter four that any anxiety that you ever
experience is sinful.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Oh, it's not what he's saying.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
So when you view this word in context, and again,
pardon this exercise, but I believe it's important because if
we don't do this, then we look at this word
for anxiety, and all of a sudden, everything that we
ever worry about or that we're ever concerned about makes
us feel guilty and like we're sinful. For example, if
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we have passionate concern and anxiety for the souls of
lost friends and family members, there are some people who
come back and they go, you know, I just I mean,
the Bible says, don't be anxious about anything, and I'm
really kind of anxious. I want them to be saved,
and I I just what, well, I'll tell you what.
(19:34):
Not all anxiety is sinful. Anxiety and we will not
understand this passage if we don't understand that principle. Okay,
not all anxiety is sinful anxiety, but this text, in
its context and the sermon on the mountain, makes it
clear what the Lord is talking about and what is
he talking about several things. Number one, ungodly anxiety is
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the result of an overtemporalized perspective. Look at verse twenty five.
Look at verse twenty five. Therefore, I tell you do
not be anxious about your life. What you will eat
or what you will drink, nor about your body. What
you will put on is not life more than food,
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and the body more than clothing. Jesus is being very
clear here. Don't be anxious about those temporal things. Don't
have an over temporalized perspective. It is not the life.
I mean, life is more than what you eat or drink.
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It's about more than what you put on your body.
This is not just an issue of clothing. It's not
just an issue of eating. It's not just an issue
of you having the things that you want and the
things that you desire. When when anxiety becomes sinful is
when anxiety focus us in on an over temporalized perspective,
and we are thinking more about this world and the
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things of this world, and the things that we want
and the things that we desire, than we are about
the one who is the giver of every good and
pleasant gift. So we're concerned about the gift than the giver.
This is deadly in the modern American church. It's deadly
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why because there is a brand of Christianity and I'm
really hesitant to even use the word Christianity. I only
use the word Christianity so that we can all understand
the context that we're coming from here. It's a brand
of Christianity using Christianity as loosely as you possibly can,
that perverts this idea. Listen to what Saint Clair Ferguson
(21:47):
says commenting on this issue. This teaching could hardly be
more appropriate for the church than it is today. Some
parts of the Church are almost totally engulfed by teaching
that appears on the surface to be spiritual, but simply
panders to the anxiety.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Of the worldly heart.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
It offers health and wealth, excuse me, happiness and joy
as the inevitable accompaniments of faith, instead of delivering us
from our fascination with this world. Such teaching only immerses
Us further. In it we fall into the error of
taking material prosperity as the ultimate mark of God's blessing,
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whereas Jesus tells us the mark of God's blessings are
poverty of spirit, mourning for sin, and persecution for the
sake of righteousness. Real spirituality is not seen in the
gathering of wealth, but in being delivered from loving it,
whether we possess it or do not have it.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Amen, but it's happening all around us. Folks.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
You turn on your television, and unfortunately, if you watch
Christian television, the overwhelming majority of what you see is
creating the kind of anxiety that Jesus is trying to
us people from, because they're creating this picture of Christianity
that says you exist to have things, to acquire things.
(23:13):
How many of you have seen this book.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
The Secret?
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Y'all seen this book The Secret. Here's what's amazing about
this book, The Secret off the chart's bestseller, this book
The Secret. What's amazing about this book is that this
book is finding its way into the hands of nominal Christians,
into the hands of people who say that they believe
in Jesus. This is one of those books that Oprah
held up on her TV show and the next day
(23:44):
was all she wrote, Amen, I pray sometimes. Lord, let
Oprah pick up one of my books, even if she
just spits on it and says, I hate this book.
I hate it. So if y'all want to know how
to pray for me, no, but listen to this. Listen
to this. I want you to hear this. I want
you to hear this. This is what is in this book,
(24:06):
the Secret, and this is what many Christians are reading.
The title of this chapter is how to use the Secret,
and the secret is really the law of attraction and
how to attract things to you. Listen to this from
James Ray. If you think about Aladdin in his lamp.
Aladdin picks up the lamp, dusts it off, and out
(24:27):
pops the genie. The genie always says, one thing, Your
wish is my command. The story now goes that there
are three wishes, but if you trace the story back
to its origins, there's absolutely no limit whatsoever to the wishes.
Think about it. Now, let's take this metaphor and apply
it to your life. Remember, Aladdin is the one who
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always asks for what he wants. Then you've got the
universe at large, which is the Genie. Traditions have called
it so many things, your holy guardian angel, your higher self.
We can put any label on it, and you choose
the one that works best for you. But every tradition
has told us there's something bigger than us, and the
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Genie always says, one thing, your wish is my command.
Now listen to the author's comment. This wonderful story demonstrates
how your whole life and everything in it has been
created by you. The Genie has simply answered your every command.
The Genie is the law of attraction, and it always
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it is always present and always listening to everything that
you speak, think, and act. The Genie assumes that everything
you think about you want, that everything you speak about
you want, that everything you act upon is what you want.
You are the master of the universe, and the Genie
is there to serve you. Non Christian right, heretical right.
(25:58):
Listen to this. This is from doctor Fred Price, one
of the most prominent teachers on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.
Fred Price says, and I quote, now, this is a shocker,
but God has to be given permission to work in
this earthly realm on behalf of man. Yes, you are
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in control. So if man has control, who no longer
has it God? When God gave Adam dominion, that meant
God no longer had dominion. So God cannot do anything
in this earth unless we let him. And the way
we let him or give him permission is through prayer.
God's the genie. How about this? He wants us to
(26:45):
have a little heaven on earth, right here where we are.
You can accomplish your dreams before you go to heaven.
How can you do that by tapping into God's power
inside of you. Please understand that those are all things
from which you have already been set free. But here's
the catch. If you don't appropriate and take advantage of
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your freedom, if you don't get your thoughts, your words,
and your attitudes going in the right direction, it won't
do you any good. You may be setting back waiting
for God to do something supernatural in your life. But
the truth is God is waiting on you. You must rise
up in your authority, have a little backbone and determination
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and say I'm not going to live my life in mediocrity. Interesting,
that's from a little book called Your Best Life. Now
it's the same heretical, godless, unbiblical garbage. And because it's mainstream,
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what we create is an entire culture of Christian people
who are anxious about what they will eat and what
they will drink and what they will wear, anxious about
what they will drive, anxious about what they will have,
and they believe that it's really Christian to think like that,
and what's Unchristian is to not have all of those
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things that they so covet. When Jesus says the exact opposite.
You have an overtemporalized perspective. You're living for the here
and the now. Why do you have anxiety because you
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want this stuff that doesn't last, will never satisfy, and
was never meant to satisfy. You will never have enough
of it, And you're anxious because somehow you believe just
one more thing, just one more experience, just one more possession,
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just one more whatever it is. We have an over
temporalized perspective. Instead of saying, I'm crucified with Christ, and
yet I live not I, but Christ who lives in me.
In this life that I now live, I live by
faith in the Son of God. We don't think that way.
(29:33):
Listen to this, and James, he's not talking about the
issue of anxiety. But listen to the principle here James,
Chapter four, the first four verses, what causes quarrels and
what causes fights among you? Is it not this that
your passions are at war within you? You desire and
do not have, so you murder. You covet and kindot obtain,
(29:55):
so you fight and quarrel. Why do you fight? Why
do you quarrel because of anxiety.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Over temporal things?
Speaker 1 (30:04):
It's always because of anxiety over temporal things. It's things
you want and can't possess. So you will fight, you
will murder, you will quarrel in order to obtain those
things that you just can't live without. And in fact,
you could live without them before you knew that they
were there. But once you found out that they were
even possible, you had to have them. You were fine,
(30:33):
you were fine, just going along. You were just great.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Lord. I love you.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
I'm so grateful. You've been so good to me. You've
given me more than I could ever want. I just
don't know how to thank you. Oh, two for one,
it's two for one. You gotta get it. If it's
two for one, right, do you need it? No? But
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it's two for one, and the anxiety starts. The anxiety
starts because we have an over temporalized perspective. It's amazing.
You walk around the streets of the poorest countries in
the world, and there's a familiar sound, children playing in
(31:23):
the dirt with sticks and old tires and tree branches
and just whatever they could find. You walk around our streets,
the wealthiest nation on the face of the earth, and
what do you hear.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
I'm bored.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Why we're being trained and conditioned and anxiety, there's never enough.
We have an over temporalized perspective, and we actually believe
that there is something in the here and the now
that will satisfy us. It will not you single people
(32:11):
in the room. There are some single people and they're
anxious about getting married. All they can think about is
getting married, because if you just get married, then finally
you will have that thing that is missing and that
one person who will be your one true love and
for the rest of your life. You walk around and
you will hear they will play that at your wedding
(32:39):
and never again. And then what happens We get anxious
within the context of our marriage. Why because this person
is not satisfying me.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Newsflash, they never could.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
And if you get rid of that one and go
get another one, you find the same problem. We have
an overtemporized perspective. We're living for the here and the now.
Not only that, ungodly anxiety is an unproductive waste of
mental energy. Believe verse twenty seven. Go verse twenty seven,
(33:31):
and which of you, by being anxious, can add a
single hour to his span of life? Which of you,
by being anxious, can add a single hour to his
span of life? In other words, we're anxious about all
these things, and our anxiety is completely unproductive. It's a
waste of mental energy. What are you going to do?
What are you going to accomplish by being anxious about
(33:53):
those things? What are you going to accomplish? Absolutely nothing.
Your anxiety is unproductive. Your anxiety will not accomplish anything.
Hear me, ladies, This is something that often happens between
husbands and wives. Here's what often happens between husbands and wives.
(34:14):
There's something going on, and it's a stressful situation, and
the wife You guys, tend to be more anxious than
when we are. Just take that up with Eve when
you meet her. The wife is anxious, and here's what
she adds to her anxiety, as if her anxiety was
not problem enough. First of all, wife is anxious about X,
(34:36):
whatever X is, and she's focusing on that. What is
it going to accomplish?
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Nothing?
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Now, she adds to her anxiety because she looks at
her husband, who has the audacity to not be as
anxious as she is right now, how dare you not
be as anxious over there as I am?
Speaker 2 (35:02):
You just don't love me. If you did, you would
be as anxious. That stop me.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
If this at all sounds familiar to any one, I
am wasting my energy on anxiety and here you are
not wasting yours. What kind of husband are you?
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Anyway?
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Do you not realize that there are hours that you
could have poured down this same black hole with me, Love.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Me, Join me.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
I know it doesn't sound like that in your head
at the time, but trust me, that's what we're saying, folks,
That's what we're saying. And again I'm not talking about
as being callous about things that are very important my point,
not at all. Remember, we're talking about ungodly anxiety here.
It's unproductive. I'm not talking about not thinking about things
(36:09):
that we ought to think about. I'm not talking about
failing to plan things that we ought to plan. That's
not what I'm talking about. That's not it, Okay, And
I'm not talking about, Hey, you know that there's a leak.
There's a leak in the roof. That's something you probably
need to be a little anxious about. Those tend to
get bigger. Amen. And we can do something about that.
(36:30):
So let's do that, Let's think about it, let's make
a plan, and let's go execute our plan. There's a difference, however,
between making a plan and then executing a plan and
being anxious. When you're anxious, there's no planning. When you're anxious,
you know what you're doing. You are doing the best
you can to think about the worst possible outcome for
(36:53):
this scenario, although you have absolutely no evidence that it's
even remotely possible.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Somebody, Okay, but babe, really, I mean really, I mean
you know there's not going to be a the soun's
not gonna burn out. Really, yeah, but it could, and
(37:22):
then what would we do. It's a waste of mental
energy and effort unnecessary anxiety. Thirdly, ungodly anxiety is a
symptom of faithless self reliance. Faithless self reliance, look at
versus twenty six, and then twenty eight through thirty. Look
(37:46):
at verse twenty six. Look at the birds of the air.
They neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, And
yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more
of more value? Leave verse twenty eight? Why are you
anxious about clothing? Consider the livies of the field, how
(38:06):
they grow? They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell
you even Solomon, in all his glory, was not a
raid like one of these. But if God so clothed
the grass of the field, which today is alive and
tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much
more clothe you, o, ye of little faith. It's faithlessness
(38:28):
and its self reliance. The God of the universe has
created you, has breathed into you the breath of life.
In him, you live and move and have your being.
He woke you up this morning clothed in your right mind,
and yet somehow you believe that He's not capable of
meeting your every need. That's faithlessness. It's faithlessness. I have
(38:57):
to accomplish this because God's just about the big stuff. No, no, now,
let's put a footnote here, because here's where some people
go off the rails. Look at verse thirty three. I
told you to mark verse thirty three. Here's where people
go off the rails. Yes, we need to have faith
(39:18):
that God will provide for us. We absolutely do. It
makes sense. It's completely illogical to think that God won't
provide for us. But then they get the verse thirty three.
Seek first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all these
things will be added to you. Here's what that's turned into.
With the fred prices of the world, and you know,
with the secret and things of this nature, seeking the
(39:40):
kingdom becomes a means to an end.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
And it sounds a little something like this.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
If you really want the big house and the fancy
car and nice money and all this sort of stuff,
what you do is you seek God's kingdom, because when
you seek God's kingdom, he'll give you this stuff. So
here's God. God's in heaven and he's got this big
treasure trove, all right, and his treasure trove is situated
(40:06):
in the direction of the kingdom. And so God's digging
into his treasure's trove, and whenever he finds somebody looking
towards the kingdom, he goes, there you go. Are you
looking this way? There you go. That's what we turn
it into. Let me give you a couple of points
of correction here. When he says, first tek the kingdom,
(40:27):
and all these things will be added to you, he's
not saying do a so that you can get big.
He's saying, do a, and in doing a, you don't
have to worry about be there's a difference between the two.
Just do that, Just do kingdom, Just think kingdom, Just
(40:49):
live kingdom. Don't worry about the rest of that. God's
concerned with all of that. God will take care of
all of that. God will make that provision for you.
So that's the first we have to have the right
orientation of the text. Here's the second thing. What we're
talking about is food and clothing. That's all. The text
(41:11):
is not saying big, fine, nice fancy house, big cars, big.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
That's not what the text teaches.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
The text says clothing like the lilies, stuff to cover you, gold, jewels,
not in the text.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
It's not there.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
In other words, God will see to it that you
have enough food to not die and enough clothes to
not go naked. Anything other than that is gravy.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
And there's a bunch of gravy in the room, Amen,
and literally some back there in the back, by the way. Otherwise,
think about this, think about this. Otherwise, here's what we'd
have to say. We have to say that all those
people and the rest of the world, seventy to eighty
(42:10):
five percent of whom have nothing near the kind of
wealth we experience. By the way, about half the people
in the world, between half and two thirds of the
people in the world, live on the equivalent of two
dollars a day. Are we really prepared to say that
all of those people, by definition, are not seeking the
Kingdom of God, because if they were, they'd have stuff.
(42:35):
Are we really prepared to say that there are godly
people who love God with every fiber of their being
who live on next to nothing. But you know what,
God feeds them and God clothes them. That's what we're
(42:59):
talking about here. We're not talking about extravagance. Folks, understand something.
We are an absolute freak of nature. From a historical perspective,
our country the wealth that we've amassed, the personal wealth
that the average American has, It is an absolute blip
(43:19):
on the historical screen, and it's an incredible burden because
it creates many of the anxieties with which we wrestle.
(43:39):
Many a Christian in poor, absolute poverty stricken third world
countries have said about Christians in America, I don't see
how you could do it. I don't see how you
could be a Christian and serve God and love God
and trust God living in a place like that, with
all of the things that you have. How many of
(44:04):
us think about it, those of you who've been married
for a long time, and those of you who didn't
necessarily do the whole you know, American dream, grow up,
get wealthy, then get married thing. And maybe you got
married you were young and struggling, didn't have much of anything.
You know, when you meet people who got married like that,
you know what they tell you. They say, Man, those
(44:27):
are some good times.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
How do I know? That's us? Man?
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Twenty years ago last week we had next to nothing.
And we sit around and reminisce sometimes about those unbelievable days,
just amazing days. And there's one day that Britian and
I reminisce about on a number of occasions. I don't
(44:57):
know what had happened, but it was one of those
times when just things just sort of went off the
rails and it was just a tough season. We got
on our faces before God and we prayed, and there
was a knock at the door. We go to the
door and there is a lady from our church with
two bags of groceries. She says, you know what, the
(45:19):
Lord just put you all on my heart. I don't
know if you need any of this, but here was
it extravagant. No, it was chicken and beans and rice
and glorious things like that.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (45:44):
In fact, had there been jewelry in the bag, you
know what we would have done. We'd have gone down
to the pawn shop and sold it so we'd get
some chicken and some beans and some rice and glorious
things like that. Don't abuse this text. This is not
about the health and wealth and prosperity gospel. One of
(46:06):
the reasons that we have anxiety is because we desire
too much. We're not's satisfied, and it's an issue of
selfless or selfish, faithless self reliance Why am I anxious
Because I'm worried about how I am going to work
(46:27):
this out.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
God is not involved in the equation.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Therefore I can't breathe, I'm shaking, I'm sweating. Why because
I can't figure out how I am going to accomplish this.
News flash, you can't even accomplish your next breath. Who
do you think you are? And the sooner you embrace that,
(46:54):
the sooner you realize that anxiety is faithless, god less
self reliance, and that's all it is. It's a final piece.
Ungodly anxiety is direct disobedience to the cleared teaching the scripture.
(47:26):
It's sin, It's sin. Ungodly anxiety is sin. Well, you
don't know, I'm just sort of a natural Worrieror it's
not no, no, no, The Bible says it's sin. No, Well,
you know, I just kind of grew up in a
(47:47):
situation where no, it's sin, plain and simple. It's sin,
which goes back to what we talked about before. You
don't believe what God has said. You're calling God a liar.
(48:08):
Look with me, if you will. We've talked about these before.
But look at chapter six and verse six. It's turn
back there. But when you pray, go into your room
and shut the door and pray to your father who
is in secret, and your father, who sees you in secret,
(48:32):
will reward.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
Will reward you? Go to verse eight.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
Oh, not eighteen, and they're fasting may not be seen
by others. But your father who is in secret, or
that you're fasting may not be seen by others. But
your father who is in secret, next part of the verse,
(49:09):
and your father who sees you in secret, well, what.
Speaker 2 (49:15):
Reward you.
Speaker 1 (49:19):
There's a couple of other things that we see here
again and again and again, and that's this phrase. Your
father knows what you have need of your father sees
your father knows, your father cares, and your father is
completely able to supply all your needs. What does your
(49:44):
anxiety say? I don't believe you, God, That's what anxiety says.
I know you say you see me in this secret place.
I know you say you hear me when I pray.
I know you say that you will supply all of
(50:05):
my needs. I know you say that, but I don't
believe it. I believe I'm on my own, and I
believe if I don't do it, it's not gonna get done.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
I believe you take care of the big stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
Absolutely. You keep the sun far enough away from us
so that we don't fry, close enough so that we
don't freeze.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (50:31):
I'm glad you do that. You're giving the Earth enough
mass so that gravity keeps us here, but not too
much so the gravity would crush us. That's real. Good God.
You bring the seasons when they're supposed to come. That's great.
You get much credit, many kudos for that. All of
these things you do. However, this circumstance that I'm dealing
with is beyond the comprehension, the scope, or the ability
(50:54):
of a God who controls the universe in the palm
of his hand. Thank you very much. Oh, I'd never
say that to God. You would, and you do.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
Would that.
Speaker 1 (51:23):
I never said that to God. But you and I
both know that's not true. Somehow, we believe the God
who took care of our greatest need by sending his son,
the spotless, sinless Lamb of God, to die on our
(51:43):
behalf that we might be adopted into God's family, would
somehow bring us into his household as loved and cherished children.
Co errors with Jesus Christ merely to neglect and mistreat us.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
Not so, not so seek his kingdom. Be a kingdom. Kid.
Speaker 1 (52:15):
Live in the home of this one who has redeemed you,
who has adopted you, who has reconciled you, who has
made you his own. And know that living in his
household means and he will meet your needs. You don't
(52:37):
have to worry about that. You don't have to be
anxious about that. He will meet your needs. Don't turn
your focus to those things. Okay, I get that, But
what happens when those bills come in we don't have
(52:59):
enough to pay them. You do what I just said,
You turn your focus to God. There's a couple of options.
Here's option number one. Here's a bill, here's my wallet,
(53:20):
nothing in here that can take care of that Option
number one, Option number two. I trust you, Lord, I
(53:45):
trust you. And just to be clear, here's what I'm
not saying. I'm not saying we look to God and say, God,
I'm your child. Here's this situation. You got to fix it.
You know what it may be? It Maybe God, i'm
your child. I'm in sin. That's why I can't handle this.
(54:07):
Would you deal with me? Maybe I don't need this
would you show me that maybe experiencing this loss is
a way for you to get my attention. Don't we
as parents understand that sometimes your kids get a certain age,
(54:29):
the greatest thing you can do for them is let
them fall hard. How many of us know people in
our lives who struggle and suffer to this day because
they were never allowed to fail. So no, I'm not
(54:50):
talking about naming and claim it. But we turn to God.
We seek as kingdom time. Seeking as kingdom may mean
that there's some stuff that we throw off. Let me
make this not to clarification, I have not said, I
(55:12):
am not saying I would not say that it's bad
to have stuff. The Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible
doesn't come close to teaching that, not at all. There's
a difference, though, between you having stuff and stuff having you,
and that's the problem. There's also a difference when we
(55:35):
seek the stuff instead of seeking God. That's the problem
in the midst of these difficult economic times, hear me, folks,
there's a couple of ways that we can approach this.
Number One, we can be anxious and stress like the
(55:55):
people who sit there all day every day just watching
the market. And every time something goes down, it's like
the end of the world. Every time something goes up
there Ready, you know we can.
Speaker 2 (56:07):
Be like that.
Speaker 1 (56:10):
The other option is God's in control and we trust him.
We do what he says, do the way that he says,
do it, and we trust him. I've lost everything. Newsflash,
wasn't yours to begin with. This is the source of
(56:39):
our anxiety. Be anxious about the right things, be anxious
in the right way. But don't come to that place
of sinful self reliance. Don't come to that place of
not believing God. Don't come to that place of accusing
(57:00):
our adoptive father of not caring enough about us to
meet our basic needs. And please, by all means, don't
come to that place where we pervert the Gospel and
change it into a means to an end and create
the very anxieties against wis Jesus warned us. He is
(57:24):
our hope, he is our answer, and he is more
than enough. Let's pray.
Speaker 2 (57:43):
Father.
Speaker 1 (57:44):
We confess to you that we often suffer from an
overtemporarized perspective. We think too much about this world and
the things in this world. We derive too much of
our joy and satisfaction from these things. We confess, Father,
(58:12):
that we are guilty of faithless self reliance, believing and
acting like all of the answers must be supplied by
us from us, as though there is no God on
(58:34):
whom we can depend, and we confess.
Speaker 2 (58:41):
That this is sin.
Speaker 1 (58:49):
Help us to recognize that the God who saves us
is the God who keeps us, That the God who
has adopted us to his family takes care of us children,
That economic downturns and difficulties are not enough to thwart
(59:13):
the plan of Almighty God, and that you will provide
for us. Thank you for having done so. For reminding
us today that it's you who's done so, Help us
to hold fast to that truth. There are those in
(59:38):
this room under the sound of my voice who are
living and walking in the midst of great difficulties. We
ask o, God, that you wouldn't meet their needs. Perhaps
there are those under the sound of my voice who struggle,
who wrestle with anxieties over every little thing. God, would
(01:00:05):
you bring the healing that can only come from your word.
We love you, and we so desire to trust you.
(01:00:27):
Grant by your grace that we may do so. This
is our prayer. This is the earnest desire of our
various souls. We ask you because we believe it's in
accordance with the will and the nature and the authority
of Jesus, who is the Christ.
Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
Amena
Well, before we begin this morning, I have been informed
that I have a duty that must be taken care
of before we move any further. I understand that you
guys were informed on last week that my wife and
I were away. We spent a week on the beautiful
(00:22):
island of Kawai. However, you guys were not informed that
we did that on last week because on June thirtieth,
we celebrated our twentieth wedding anniversary. Now I say that
(00:43):
because one man in the church who shall remain nameless, said,
you know, you should really let everybody know that you
took your wife to Kauai for your twentieth anniversary, so
that you know, people like my wife won't think that
you just went just because, and therefore I need to
take her just because.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
So no, it was.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Our twentieth wedding anniversary, and it was an amazing time
to get away and to just be reminded of God's
goodness and of God's mercy toward us over these past
twenty years. And it's mercy to me in particular, as
my wife has put up with me for these twenty years,
and I'm grateful with that in mind, Let's look again
(01:28):
in the Sermon on the Mount. We have reached the
end of Matthew chapter six, that last section at last
paragraph there in Matthew chapter six, when we look at
this issue of anxiety. Let me bring you up to
speed and contextualize what's happening here.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Just in this section on the Sermon on the Mount.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
We're dealing with a couple of issues here, namely with
the issue of material wealth and personal desires. We saw
in verses nineteen through twenty one that transitory earthly treasures
don't satisfy. Then in verses twenty two and twenty three,
(02:13):
we saw that yearning for such earthly riches blur our
mental and moral vision. And finally, in verse twenty four,
we saw that a choice must be made between God
and Mammon. So we're moving down a road here, and
that road has to do with our material wealth and
(02:34):
our attitude toward material wealth. It's connected also to this
issue of the Lord's prayer, and we'll see that here momentarily.
But what we're dealing with as we come to this
passage about our anxiety and the Lord's provision is really
a continuation of the Lord's thought as it relates to
(02:56):
the issue of our material wealth and our material possessions.
And it's very important to contextualize it so that we
can grasp what's being said in this last chapter or
this last passage in chapter six. As he brings this
idea sort of to a crescendo, he'll revisit some of
it again, and i'll i'll allude to that, but he's
(03:17):
really bringing this idea to a crescendo. He also brings
us to an issue that is of very practical importance,
and that's the issue of anxiety.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Anxiety. It's interesting.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Usually we think that the Bible deals with issues that
are religious and spiritual and moral, but the Bible doesn't
necessarily deal with issues that are practical or deal with
issues that really affect our everyday life on a very
deep level. For example, if you know someone who deals
(03:58):
with the issue of anxiety, your first thought would probably
not be to take them to the last paragraph in
Matthew chapter six. Your first thought would probably be to
tell them that they need to contact a professional and
perhaps get some medication. If you can't say amen, you
ought to say ouch, okay. If you know somebody who
(04:18):
has anxiety attacks, here's how we've been conditioned to think
anxiety attacks are too big for God. You need medicine
because you have a real problem. If you didn't have
a real problem, then maybe God would be sufficient for you.
But because you have a real problem, you know shortness
of breath and sweaty palms, and you know rapid respiration,
(04:42):
and get see, that's a real problem. God's not big
enough for that problem. So what you need because you
have a real problem is you need to go to
people who deal with real problems, people who are more potent,
more powerful, more pertinent, and much more relevant than God,
in his words, could ever be. That's how we've been
(05:04):
conditioned to think. Folks, I want you to hear something here, though,
Jesus gets to the root of anxiety, to the root
of it. The world can get you around the edges
of it, but Jesus gets you to the root of it.
(05:27):
Here's what the world can do with anxiety and people
who suffer from anxiety. The world can basically look at
you and say, okay, fine, we understand all of those
symptoms that you're dealing with, and we got to peel
that will make all of them go away. And that's true,
by the way, that's true, there's medication that will make
that stuff subside. But essentially, here's what's just happened. You
(05:51):
came in and you said, my engine light is on.
They did not lift the hood, They did not die
knows the engine. They merely gave you a pill that
will break the light. You follow me, My engine light
is on, dude, we can handle that engine light's off. Yeah,
(06:18):
but what about the real problem that's underneath my hood? Oh,
we got nothing for that. But our conditioning says that's
the right answer. This is not to say that there
aren't people who have real physiological problems that need to
(06:40):
be dealt with in a real physiological way. It's not
what I'm talking about here. That's a completely different issue altogether.
But what we're talking about here is something completely different,
and it comes from a root cause and a root
source that have to be dealt with no matter what.
(07:03):
Look with me, if you will, at this last paragraph
beginning of verse twenty five. Therefore, I tell you do
not be anxious about your life, what you will eat
or what you will drink, nor about your body. What
you will put on is not life more than food,
and the body more than clothing. Look at the birds
of the air. They neither soul, nor reap, nor gather
(07:26):
into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are
you not of more value than they? By the way,
that's supposed to be a rhetorical question in our culture
and in our day and age.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Not so much.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
In our culture and in our day and age, that's
an offensive thought. Jesus said, you're more valuable than the
birds of the air. So when the tree huggers say
they're speaking for Jesus, they're not. Okay, They're not the
(08:04):
tree hugger who says, no, no, you can't build on
this land because there's this little field mouse who would
be displaced if you build here. And you're not more
valuable than that field mouse. Now Jesus says you are. Amen,
you're more valuable than that. You're more valuable than that.
(08:27):
Does that mean that we should be, you know, just
sort of indiscriminate in the way that we treat the
animals that the Lord has given us. No, some we
train and love, others we.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Kill and eat.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Amen, hallelujah, praise the Lord all right, and wish of
you by being anxious can add a single hour to
his span of life. And why are you anxious about clothing?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They
neither toil nor spin. Yet, I tell you, even Solomon
(09:02):
and all his glory, was not a raid like one
of these. 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. Therefore, do not be anxious saying
what shall we eat, or what shall we drink?
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Or what shall we wear?
Speaker 1 (09:26):
For the gentiles seek after all these things, and your
heavenly Father knows that.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
You need all them, that you need them all.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be added to you. Please
underline verse thirty three. We're gonna come back and talk
about verse thirty three in the moment, in a moment. Okay, well,
probably the second most well known verse in the Sermon
on the Mount, Okay, second only to the verse that
begins the paragraph tomorrow, judge not lest you be judged. Okay,
(09:59):
Just underline that we'll get back to it. Therefore, to
not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious
for itself sufficient, for the day is its own trouble.
At first, there's a couple of things that we need
to clarify here. We need to clarify the idea of
what's being discussed when Jesus uses this word anxious, what
(10:21):
it means to be anxious, because not all anxiousness is sinful.
Let me say that again, not all anxiety, not all
anxiousness is sinful. Okay, So it's not just a blanket
statement here. And I know, for example, that we're well
aware of other passages of scripture.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
We're well aware of Philippians chapter.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Four that says be anxious for nothing, and we're gonna
deal with that momentarily. But let me say here first
and foremost, not all anxiousness, not all anxiety is sinful.
It's kind of like anger. Not all anger is sinful.
In fact, commanded to be angry, the Bible says, be
angry and yet don't sin. There's a difference between the two.
(11:09):
There's anger and then there's sin, and anger is not
necessarily sin, but you can be sinful in your anger.
Same thing here when we're dealing with anxiety, not all
anxiety is sinful. What we're going to talk about today
is sinful anxiety. But let me make this point. The
word used there for anxiety really means to have an
(11:30):
anxious concern or care, sometimes translated care based on an
apprehension about possible danger or misfortune, to be worried about,
to be anxious about. That's what we're talking about here.
I'm scared. I'm fearful of what is going to happen
if I don't take care of this particular situation. And
(11:51):
it's a sinful, godless, faithless kind of fear. This word
that is translated to be anxious. The Greek word is
used nineteen times in the New Testament. Why is it significant?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Again?
Speaker 1 (12:05):
You know, we don't like to spend a lot of
time with these sort of you know, this sort of
statistical data about particular words in the New Testament, But
here it's pertinent. It's used nineteen times in the New Testament.
Twelve of those nineteen times are in the Gospels, the
other seven in the Pauline Epistles.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Of those twelve.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Times that this word is used in the Gospels, six
of them are in this one passage right here. So
half of the times that this word is used in
a New Testament. It's used right here in this paragraph
that we just read. Three of the times it's used
in the Luken parallel of this passage, which means nine
(12:46):
out of the twelve times that this word is used
in the Gospels, it's used in the same sermon six
and Luke six, and Matthew three and Luke, but again
same sermon being communicated by authors. So nine out of
the twelve times that we see it in the Gospels,
it's used here in this particular context. Now, it's also
(13:08):
used twice, once in Matthew and once in Luke in
a parallel passage about being brought before the authorities, and
Jesus says, when you're brought before the authorities, don't be
anxious about what you will say in that time. Matthew
has that and Luke has that. Those are the other
two times that we see this word. And then there's
one other time when this word is used in the Gospels,
(13:29):
and that is when Jesus tells Martha that she's anxious
about many things.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
That's how this word is used in the Gospels. Seven times.
It's used in the Epistles. Five out of the seven
it's used in First Corinthians, five out of the seven
in First Corinthians. Four out of those five is used
in one paragraph in First Corinthians chapter seven. Let's look
at it first Crinhions chapter seven, Turn with Me, First Minheons,
(13:59):
chapter seven and verse thirty two, Paul uses the word
five times. And this whole book, and four of them
are right here in this one paragraph, in this one chapter,
verse thirty two. And here's what I want to say
(14:26):
about this word anxiousness as used in the epistles. It's
used seven times in the epistles. Six out of the
seven times it's either positive or neutral. Six out of
the seven times the word is used either positive or neutral.
It's not negative. It's not a negative word. It's used
(14:49):
either as a positive term or as a neutral term
six out of the seven times that it occurs in
the epistles. Because remember, the point is not all anxiety
is sin. Okay, Look here, beginning verse thirty two, I
want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man
is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to
(15:09):
please the Lord. How many think that's a negative thing.
The unmarried man is anxious about how to please the Lord.
He's supposed to be. That's Paul's point. The unmarried man
is supposed to be anxious, concerned about care about how
to please the lord. But look at the other one
verse thirty three. But the married man is anxious about
(15:29):
worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests
are divided by the way.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
That's not negative, that's positive.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
In fact, Paul teaches later, for example, in One Corinthians
chapter five, some of those specific ways that a married
man is to be anxious about how he's to please
his wife. Peter talks about it in One Peter chapter three.
So here anxiety is not a negative term. It's not
a negative term. The unmarried man pointing anxiety in one direction,
(16:00):
and he's supposed to. The married man is pointing it
in another direction, and he's supposed to. And then we
get the parallel for the unmarried woman versus the married woman.
So again five times here in this one paragraph, and
it's either neutral in its first mention or positive in
the next four mentions. It's positive. So I say again,
not all anxiety is sinful anxiety. It's used again in
(16:27):
Philippians chapter two and verse twenty.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
I want you to see that Philippians, chapter two.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
And verse twenty, the beginning in verse nineteen, I hope
(16:58):
in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon,
so that I too may be cheered by news of you,
for I have no one like him who will be
genuinely concerned for your welfare. That's the same Greek word
translated as concerned that elsewhere is translated as anxiety. I'm
sending Timothy to you because he'll be anxious towards you.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
In a good way.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
It's a good thing, and that's one of the things
that's commendable about young Timothy. If I send him to
you as a shepherd for you, he will have anxiety
for your souls. I say again, not all anxiety is
sinful anxiety. Okay, that's important to keep in mind because
(17:46):
the most famous Passions passage that deals with this issue
is found in Philippians chapter four. Let's look at verses
four through seven. Rejoicing the Lord always again, I say, rejoice,
let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is
(18:08):
at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything,
by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be
made known to God and the peace of God, which
surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds
in Christ Jesus Amen. So Paul says don't be anxious
(18:28):
about anything in the same letter that he uses the
same word to say Timothy's a good pastor because he
has that attitude toward his people. So is Paul saying
in Philippians chapter four that any anxiety that you ever
experience is sinful.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Oh, it's not what he's saying.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
So when you view this word in context, and again,
pardon this exercise, but I believe it's important because if
we don't do this, then we look at this word
for anxiety, and all of a sudden, everything that we
ever worry about or that we're ever concerned about makes
us feel guilty and like we're sinful. For example, if
(19:12):
we have passionate concern and anxiety for the souls of
lost friends and family members, there are some people who
come back and they go, you know, I just I mean,
the Bible says, don't be anxious about anything, and I'm
really kind of anxious. I want them to be saved,
and I I just what, well, I'll tell you what.
(19:34):
Not all anxiety is sinful. Anxiety and we will not
understand this passage if we don't understand that principle. Okay,
not all anxiety is sinful anxiety, but this text, in
its context and the sermon on the mountain, makes it
clear what the Lord is talking about and what is
he talking about several things. Number one, ungodly anxiety is
(19:57):
the result of an overtemporalized perspective. Look at verse twenty five.
Look at verse twenty five. Therefore, I tell you do
not be anxious about your life. What you will eat
or what you will drink, nor about your body. What
you will put on is not life more than food,
(20:19):
and the body more than clothing. Jesus is being very
clear here. Don't be anxious about those temporal things. Don't
have an over temporalized perspective. It is not the life.
I mean, life is more than what you eat or drink.
(20:41):
It's about more than what you put on your body.
This is not just an issue of clothing. It's not
just an issue of eating. It's not just an issue
of you having the things that you want and the
things that you desire. When when anxiety becomes sinful is
when anxiety focus us in on an over temporalized perspective,
and we are thinking more about this world and the
(21:02):
things of this world, and the things that we want
and the things that we desire, than we are about
the one who is the giver of every good and
pleasant gift. So we're concerned about the gift than the giver.
This is deadly in the modern American church. It's deadly
(21:24):
why because there is a brand of Christianity and I'm
really hesitant to even use the word Christianity. I only
use the word Christianity so that we can all understand
the context that we're coming from here. It's a brand
of Christianity using Christianity as loosely as you possibly can,
that perverts this idea. Listen to what Saint Clair Ferguson
(21:47):
says commenting on this issue. This teaching could hardly be
more appropriate for the church than it is today. Some
parts of the Church are almost totally engulfed by teaching
that appears on the surface to be spiritual, but simply
panders to the anxiety.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Of the worldly heart.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
It offers health and wealth, excuse me, happiness and joy
as the inevitable accompaniments of faith, instead of delivering us
from our fascination with this world. Such teaching only immerses
Us further. In it we fall into the error of
taking material prosperity as the ultimate mark of God's blessing,
(22:26):
whereas Jesus tells us the mark of God's blessings are
poverty of spirit, mourning for sin, and persecution for the
sake of righteousness. Real spirituality is not seen in the
gathering of wealth, but in being delivered from loving it,
whether we possess it or do not have it.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Amen, but it's happening all around us. Folks.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
You turn on your television, and unfortunately, if you watch
Christian television, the overwhelming majority of what you see is
creating the kind of anxiety that Jesus is trying to
us people from, because they're creating this picture of Christianity
that says you exist to have things, to acquire things.
(23:13):
How many of you have seen this book.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
The Secret?
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Y'all seen this book The Secret. Here's what's amazing about
this book, The Secret off the chart's bestseller, this book
The Secret. What's amazing about this book is that this
book is finding its way into the hands of nominal Christians,
into the hands of people who say that they believe
in Jesus. This is one of those books that Oprah
held up on her TV show and the next day
(23:44):
was all she wrote, Amen, I pray sometimes. Lord, let
Oprah pick up one of my books, even if she
just spits on it and says, I hate this book.
I hate it. So if y'all want to know how
to pray for me, no, but listen to this. Listen
to this. I want you to hear this. I want
you to hear this. This is what is in this book,
(24:06):
the Secret, and this is what many Christians are reading.
The title of this chapter is how to use the Secret,
and the secret is really the law of attraction and
how to attract things to you. Listen to this from
James Ray. If you think about Aladdin in his lamp.
Aladdin picks up the lamp, dusts it off, and out
(24:27):
pops the genie. The genie always says, one thing, Your
wish is my command. The story now goes that there
are three wishes, but if you trace the story back
to its origins, there's absolutely no limit whatsoever to the wishes.
Think about it. Now, let's take this metaphor and apply
it to your life. Remember, Aladdin is the one who
(24:49):
always asks for what he wants. Then you've got the
universe at large, which is the Genie. Traditions have called
it so many things, your holy guardian angel, your higher self.
We can put any label on it, and you choose
the one that works best for you. But every tradition
has told us there's something bigger than us, and the
(25:11):
Genie always says, one thing, your wish is my command.
Now listen to the author's comment. This wonderful story demonstrates
how your whole life and everything in it has been
created by you. The Genie has simply answered your every command.
The Genie is the law of attraction, and it always
(25:34):
it is always present and always listening to everything that
you speak, think, and act. The Genie assumes that everything
you think about you want, that everything you speak about
you want, that everything you act upon is what you want.
You are the master of the universe, and the Genie
is there to serve you. Non Christian right, heretical right.
(25:58):
Listen to this. This is from doctor Fred Price, one
of the most prominent teachers on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.
Fred Price says, and I quote, now, this is a shocker,
but God has to be given permission to work in
this earthly realm on behalf of man. Yes, you are
(26:20):
in control. So if man has control, who no longer
has it God? When God gave Adam dominion, that meant
God no longer had dominion. So God cannot do anything
in this earth unless we let him. And the way
we let him or give him permission is through prayer.
God's the genie. How about this? He wants us to
(26:45):
have a little heaven on earth, right here where we are.
You can accomplish your dreams before you go to heaven.
How can you do that by tapping into God's power
inside of you. Please understand that those are all things
from which you have already been set free. But here's
the catch. If you don't appropriate and take advantage of
(27:07):
your freedom, if you don't get your thoughts, your words,
and your attitudes going in the right direction, it won't
do you any good. You may be setting back waiting
for God to do something supernatural in your life. But
the truth is God is waiting on you. You must rise
up in your authority, have a little backbone and determination
(27:29):
and say I'm not going to live my life in mediocrity. Interesting,
that's from a little book called Your Best Life. Now
it's the same heretical, godless, unbiblical garbage. And because it's mainstream,
(27:58):
what we create is an entire culture of Christian people
who are anxious about what they will eat and what
they will drink and what they will wear, anxious about
what they will drive, anxious about what they will have,
and they believe that it's really Christian to think like that,
and what's Unchristian is to not have all of those
(28:20):
things that they so covet. When Jesus says the exact opposite.
You have an overtemporalized perspective. You're living for the here
and the now. Why do you have anxiety because you
(28:44):
want this stuff that doesn't last, will never satisfy, and
was never meant to satisfy. You will never have enough
of it, And you're anxious because somehow you believe just
one more thing, just one more experience, just one more possession,
(29:07):
just one more whatever it is. We have an over
temporalized perspective. Instead of saying, I'm crucified with Christ, and
yet I live not I, but Christ who lives in me.
In this life that I now live, I live by
faith in the Son of God. We don't think that way.
(29:33):
Listen to this, and James, he's not talking about the
issue of anxiety. But listen to the principle here James,
Chapter four, the first four verses, what causes quarrels and
what causes fights among you? Is it not this that
your passions are at war within you? You desire and
do not have, so you murder. You covet and kindot obtain,
(29:55):
so you fight and quarrel. Why do you fight? Why
do you quarrel because of anxiety.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Over temporal things?
Speaker 1 (30:04):
It's always because of anxiety over temporal things. It's things
you want and can't possess. So you will fight, you
will murder, you will quarrel in order to obtain those
things that you just can't live without. And in fact,
you could live without them before you knew that they
were there. But once you found out that they were
even possible, you had to have them. You were fine,
(30:33):
you were fine, just going along. You were just great.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Lord. I love you.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
I'm so grateful. You've been so good to me. You've
given me more than I could ever want. I just
don't know how to thank you. Oh, two for one,
it's two for one. You gotta get it. If it's
two for one, right, do you need it? No? But
(30:59):
it's two for one, and the anxiety starts. The anxiety
starts because we have an over temporalized perspective. It's amazing.
You walk around the streets of the poorest countries in
the world, and there's a familiar sound, children playing in
(31:23):
the dirt with sticks and old tires and tree branches
and just whatever they could find. You walk around our streets,
the wealthiest nation on the face of the earth, and
what do you hear.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
I'm bored.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Why we're being trained and conditioned and anxiety, there's never enough.
We have an over temporalized perspective, and we actually believe
that there is something in the here and the now
that will satisfy us. It will not you single people
(32:11):
in the room. There are some single people and they're
anxious about getting married. All they can think about is
getting married, because if you just get married, then finally
you will have that thing that is missing and that
one person who will be your one true love and
for the rest of your life. You walk around and
you will hear they will play that at your wedding
(32:39):
and never again. And then what happens We get anxious
within the context of our marriage. Why because this person
is not satisfying me.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Newsflash, they never could.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
And if you get rid of that one and go
get another one, you find the same problem. We have
an overtemporized perspective. We're living for the here and the now.
Not only that, ungodly anxiety is an unproductive waste of
mental energy. Believe verse twenty seven. Go verse twenty seven,
(33:31):
and which of you, by being anxious, can add a
single hour to his span of life? Which of you,
by being anxious, can add a single hour to his
span of life? In other words, we're anxious about all
these things, and our anxiety is completely unproductive. It's a
waste of mental energy. What are you going to do?
What are you going to accomplish by being anxious about
(33:53):
those things? What are you going to accomplish? Absolutely nothing.
Your anxiety is unproductive. Your anxiety will not accomplish anything.
Hear me, ladies, This is something that often happens between
husbands and wives. Here's what often happens between husbands and wives.
(34:14):
There's something going on, and it's a stressful situation, and
the wife You guys, tend to be more anxious than
when we are. Just take that up with Eve when
you meet her. The wife is anxious, and here's what
she adds to her anxiety, as if her anxiety was
not problem enough. First of all, wife is anxious about X,
(34:36):
whatever X is, and she's focusing on that. What is
it going to accomplish?
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Nothing?
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Now, she adds to her anxiety because she looks at
her husband, who has the audacity to not be as
anxious as she is right now, how dare you not
be as anxious over there as I am?
Speaker 2 (35:02):
You just don't love me. If you did, you would
be as anxious. That stop me.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
If this at all sounds familiar to any one, I
am wasting my energy on anxiety and here you are
not wasting yours. What kind of husband are you?
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Anyway?
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Do you not realize that there are hours that you
could have poured down this same black hole with me, Love.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Me, Join me.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
I know it doesn't sound like that in your head
at the time, but trust me, that's what we're saying, folks,
That's what we're saying. And again I'm not talking about
as being callous about things that are very important my point,
not at all. Remember, we're talking about ungodly anxiety here.
It's unproductive. I'm not talking about not thinking about things
(36:09):
that we ought to think about. I'm not talking about
failing to plan things that we ought to plan. That's
not what I'm talking about. That's not it, Okay, And
I'm not talking about, Hey, you know that there's a leak.
There's a leak in the roof. That's something you probably
need to be a little anxious about. Those tend to
get bigger. Amen. And we can do something about that.
(36:30):
So let's do that, Let's think about it, let's make
a plan, and let's go execute our plan. There's a difference, however,
between making a plan and then executing a plan and
being anxious. When you're anxious, there's no planning. When you're anxious,
you know what you're doing. You are doing the best
you can to think about the worst possible outcome for
(36:53):
this scenario, although you have absolutely no evidence that it's
even remotely possible.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Somebody, Okay, but babe, really, I mean really, I mean
you know there's not going to be a the soun's
not gonna burn out. Really, yeah, but it could, and
(37:22):
then what would we do. It's a waste of mental
energy and effort unnecessary anxiety. Thirdly, ungodly anxiety is a
symptom of faithless self reliance. Faithless self reliance, look at
versus twenty six, and then twenty eight through thirty. Look
(37:46):
at verse twenty six. Look at the birds of the air.
They neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, And
yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more
of more value? Leave verse twenty eight? Why are you
anxious about clothing? Consider the livies of the field, how
(38:06):
they grow? They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell
you even Solomon, in all his glory, was not a
raid like one of these. But if God so clothed
the grass of the field, which today is alive and
tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much
more clothe you, o, ye of little faith. It's faithlessness
(38:28):
and its self reliance. The God of the universe has
created you, has breathed into you the breath of life.
In him, you live and move and have your being.
He woke you up this morning clothed in your right mind,
and yet somehow you believe that He's not capable of
meeting your every need. That's faithlessness. It's faithlessness. I have
(38:57):
to accomplish this because God's just about the big stuff. No, no, now,
let's put a footnote here, because here's where some people
go off the rails. Look at verse thirty three. I
told you to mark verse thirty three. Here's where people
go off the rails. Yes, we need to have faith
(39:18):
that God will provide for us. We absolutely do. It
makes sense. It's completely illogical to think that God won't
provide for us. But then they get the verse thirty three.
Seek first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all these
things will be added to you. Here's what that's turned into.
With the fred prices of the world, and you know,
with the secret and things of this nature, seeking the
(39:40):
kingdom becomes a means to an end.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
And it sounds a little something like this.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
If you really want the big house and the fancy
car and nice money and all this sort of stuff,
what you do is you seek God's kingdom, because when
you seek God's kingdom, he'll give you this stuff. So
here's God. God's in heaven and he's got this big
treasure trove, all right, and his treasure trove is situated
(40:06):
in the direction of the kingdom. And so God's digging
into his treasure's trove, and whenever he finds somebody looking
towards the kingdom, he goes, there you go. Are you
looking this way? There you go. That's what we turn
it into. Let me give you a couple of points
of correction here. When he says, first tek the kingdom,
(40:27):
and all these things will be added to you, he's
not saying do a so that you can get big.
He's saying, do a, and in doing a, you don't
have to worry about be there's a difference between the two.
Just do that, Just do kingdom, Just think kingdom, Just
(40:49):
live kingdom. Don't worry about the rest of that. God's
concerned with all of that. God will take care of
all of that. God will make that provision for you.
So that's the first we have to have the right
orientation of the text. Here's the second thing. What we're
talking about is food and clothing. That's all. The text
(41:11):
is not saying big, fine, nice fancy house, big cars, big.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
That's not what the text teaches.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
The text says clothing like the lilies, stuff to cover you, gold, jewels,
not in the text.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
It's not there.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
In other words, God will see to it that you
have enough food to not die and enough clothes to
not go naked. Anything other than that is gravy.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
And there's a bunch of gravy in the room, Amen,
and literally some back there in the back, by the way. Otherwise,
think about this, think about this. Otherwise, here's what we'd
have to say. We have to say that all those
people and the rest of the world, seventy to eighty
(42:10):
five percent of whom have nothing near the kind of
wealth we experience. By the way, about half the people
in the world, between half and two thirds of the
people in the world, live on the equivalent of two
dollars a day. Are we really prepared to say that
all of those people, by definition, are not seeking the
Kingdom of God, because if they were, they'd have stuff.
(42:35):
Are we really prepared to say that there are godly
people who love God with every fiber of their being
who live on next to nothing. But you know what,
God feeds them and God clothes them. That's what we're
(42:59):
talking about here. We're not talking about extravagance. Folks, understand something.
We are an absolute freak of nature. From a historical perspective,
our country the wealth that we've amassed, the personal wealth
that the average American has, It is an absolute blip
(43:19):
on the historical screen, and it's an incredible burden because
it creates many of the anxieties with which we wrestle.
(43:39):
Many a Christian in poor, absolute poverty stricken third world
countries have said about Christians in America, I don't see
how you could do it. I don't see how you
could be a Christian and serve God and love God
and trust God living in a place like that, with
all of the things that you have. How many of
(44:04):
us think about it, those of you who've been married
for a long time, and those of you who didn't
necessarily do the whole you know, American dream, grow up,
get wealthy, then get married thing. And maybe you got
married you were young and struggling, didn't have much of anything.
You know, when you meet people who got married like that,
you know what they tell you. They say, Man, those
(44:27):
are some good times.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
How do I know? That's us? Man?
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Twenty years ago last week we had next to nothing.
And we sit around and reminisce sometimes about those unbelievable days,
just amazing days. And there's one day that Britian and
I reminisce about on a number of occasions. I don't
(44:57):
know what had happened, but it was one of those
times when just things just sort of went off the
rails and it was just a tough season. We got
on our faces before God and we prayed, and there
was a knock at the door. We go to the
door and there is a lady from our church with
two bags of groceries. She says, you know what, the
(45:19):
Lord just put you all on my heart. I don't
know if you need any of this, but here was
it extravagant. No, it was chicken and beans and rice
and glorious things like that.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (45:44):
In fact, had there been jewelry in the bag, you
know what we would have done. We'd have gone down
to the pawn shop and sold it so we'd get
some chicken and some beans and some rice and glorious
things like that. Don't abuse this text. This is not
about the health and wealth and prosperity gospel. One of
(46:06):
the reasons that we have anxiety is because we desire
too much. We're not's satisfied, and it's an issue of
selfless or selfish, faithless self reliance Why am I anxious
Because I'm worried about how I am going to work
(46:27):
this out.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
God is not involved in the equation.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Therefore I can't breathe, I'm shaking, I'm sweating. Why because
I can't figure out how I am going to accomplish this.
News flash, you can't even accomplish your next breath. Who
do you think you are? And the sooner you embrace that,
(46:54):
the sooner you realize that anxiety is faithless, god less
self reliance, and that's all it is. It's a final piece.
Ungodly anxiety is direct disobedience to the cleared teaching the scripture.
(47:26):
It's sin, It's sin. Ungodly anxiety is sin. Well, you
don't know, I'm just sort of a natural Worrieror it's
not no, no, no, The Bible says it's sin. No, Well,
you know, I just kind of grew up in a
(47:47):
situation where no, it's sin, plain and simple. It's sin,
which goes back to what we talked about before. You
don't believe what God has said. You're calling God a liar.
(48:08):
Look with me, if you will. We've talked about these before.
But look at chapter six and verse six. It's turn
back there. But when you pray, go into your room
and shut the door and pray to your father who
is in secret, and your father, who sees you in secret,
(48:32):
will reward.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
Will reward you? Go to verse eight.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
Oh, not eighteen, and they're fasting may not be seen
by others. But your father who is in secret, or
that you're fasting may not be seen by others. But
your father who is in secret, next part of the verse,
(49:09):
and your father who sees you in secret, well, what.
Speaker 2 (49:15):
Reward you.
Speaker 1 (49:19):
There's a couple of other things that we see here
again and again and again, and that's this phrase. Your
father knows what you have need of your father sees
your father knows, your father cares, and your father is
completely able to supply all your needs. What does your
(49:44):
anxiety say? I don't believe you, God, That's what anxiety says.
I know you say you see me in this secret place.
I know you say you hear me when I pray.
I know you say that you will supply all of
(50:05):
my needs. I know you say that, but I don't
believe it. I believe I'm on my own, and I
believe if I don't do it, it's not gonna get done.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
I believe you take care of the big stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
Absolutely. You keep the sun far enough away from us
so that we don't fry, close enough so that we
don't freeze.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (50:31):
I'm glad you do that. You're giving the Earth enough
mass so that gravity keeps us here, but not too
much so the gravity would crush us. That's real. Good God.
You bring the seasons when they're supposed to come. That's great.
You get much credit, many kudos for that. All of
these things you do. However, this circumstance that I'm dealing
with is beyond the comprehension, the scope, or the ability
(50:54):
of a God who controls the universe in the palm
of his hand. Thank you very much. Oh, I'd never
say that to God. You would, and you do.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
Would that.
Speaker 1 (51:23):
I never said that to God. But you and I
both know that's not true. Somehow, we believe the God
who took care of our greatest need by sending his son,
the spotless, sinless Lamb of God, to die on our
(51:43):
behalf that we might be adopted into God's family, would
somehow bring us into his household as loved and cherished children.
Co errors with Jesus Christ merely to neglect and mistreat us.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
Not so, not so seek his kingdom. Be a kingdom. Kid.
Speaker 1 (52:15):
Live in the home of this one who has redeemed you,
who has adopted you, who has reconciled you, who has
made you his own. And know that living in his
household means and he will meet your needs. You don't
(52:37):
have to worry about that. You don't have to be
anxious about that. He will meet your needs. Don't turn
your focus to those things. Okay, I get that, But
what happens when those bills come in we don't have
(52:59):
enough to pay them. You do what I just said,
You turn your focus to God. There's a couple of options.
Here's option number one. Here's a bill, here's my wallet,
(53:20):
nothing in here that can take care of that Option
number one, Option number two. I trust you, Lord, I
(53:45):
trust you. And just to be clear, here's what I'm
not saying. I'm not saying we look to God and say, God,
I'm your child. Here's this situation. You got to fix it.
You know what it may be? It Maybe God, i'm
your child. I'm in sin. That's why I can't handle this.
(54:07):
Would you deal with me? Maybe I don't need this
would you show me that maybe experiencing this loss is
a way for you to get my attention. Don't we
as parents understand that sometimes your kids get a certain age,
(54:29):
the greatest thing you can do for them is let
them fall hard. How many of us know people in
our lives who struggle and suffer to this day because
they were never allowed to fail. So no, I'm not
(54:50):
talking about naming and claim it. But we turn to God.
We seek as kingdom time. Seeking as kingdom may mean
that there's some stuff that we throw off. Let me
make this not to clarification, I have not said, I
(55:12):
am not saying I would not say that it's bad
to have stuff. The Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible
doesn't come close to teaching that, not at all. There's
a difference, though, between you having stuff and stuff having you,
and that's the problem. There's also a difference when we
(55:35):
seek the stuff instead of seeking God. That's the problem
in the midst of these difficult economic times, hear me, folks,
there's a couple of ways that we can approach this.
Number One, we can be anxious and stress like the
(55:55):
people who sit there all day every day just watching
the market. And every time something goes down, it's like
the end of the world. Every time something goes up
there Ready, you know we can.
Speaker 2 (56:07):
Be like that.
Speaker 1 (56:10):
The other option is God's in control and we trust him.
We do what he says, do the way that he says,
do it, and we trust him. I've lost everything. Newsflash,
wasn't yours to begin with. This is the source of
(56:39):
our anxiety. Be anxious about the right things, be anxious
in the right way. But don't come to that place
of sinful self reliance. Don't come to that place of
not believing God. Don't come to that place of accusing
(57:00):
our adoptive father of not caring enough about us to
meet our basic needs. And please, by all means, don't
come to that place where we pervert the Gospel and
change it into a means to an end and create
the very anxieties against wis Jesus warned us. He is
(57:24):
our hope, he is our answer, and he is more
than enough. Let's pray.
Speaker 2 (57:43):
Father.
Speaker 1 (57:44):
We confess to you that we often suffer from an
overtemporarized perspective. We think too much about this world and
the things in this world. We derive too much of
our joy and satisfaction from these things. We confess, Father,
(58:12):
that we are guilty of faithless self reliance, believing and
acting like all of the answers must be supplied by
us from us, as though there is no God on
(58:34):
whom we can depend, and we confess.
Speaker 2 (58:41):
That this is sin.
Speaker 1 (58:49):
Help us to recognize that the God who saves us
is the God who keeps us, That the God who
has adopted us to his family takes care of us children,
That economic downturns and difficulties are not enough to thwart
(59:13):
the plan of Almighty God, and that you will provide
for us. Thank you for having done so. For reminding
us today that it's you who's done so, Help us
to hold fast to that truth. There are those in
(59:38):
this room under the sound of my voice who are
living and walking in the midst of great difficulties. We
ask o, God, that you wouldn't meet their needs. Perhaps
there are those under the sound of my voice who struggle,
who wrestle with anxieties over every little thing. God, would
(01:00:05):
you bring the healing that can only come from your word.
We love you, and we so desire to trust you.
(01:00:27):
Grant by your grace that we may do so. This
is our prayer. This is the earnest desire of our
various souls. We ask you because we believe it's in
accordance with the will and the nature and the authority
of Jesus, who is the Christ.
Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
Amena
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