Today, Im going to do my best to convince you that God is in control and that, if you live in the shepherding of Jesus, you really have nothing to worry about because we live in a material world that follows spiritual rules. If you know those spiritual rules, life is very different. The thesis, today, is one that Im sure youve never heard. It goes something like this: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, dont worry about tomorrow for tomorrow has enough worries of its own. You know Jesus, when he said these words in the Sermon on the Mount - and of course were in a series on the Sermon on the Mount, if youre just joining us - Jesus was giving these words to an audience that was following him. It was an audience of thousands of people who had a lot to worry about, probably a lot more than you and I have to worry about. There they were, sitting on a hill or a mountain, and Jesus is talking to them. Many of them are sick. Probably many of the people that are listening to Jesus really arent interested in what he has to say. Theyre there because they wanted to see the new celebrity, the new famous rabbi. Some of them are there because theyre sick and they heard that this traveling itinerant preacher is actually a prophet and can heal people. They may have been thinking, Oh, if I listen to the message, then I might get my time with him and get something out of it. So, theres Jesus, hes preaching and what hes preaching is what matters. In fact, the reason hes healing people is not just because he wants them to be well, but he wants them to see that hes living in a different reality. So, he begins talking. He tells all of them, Dont worry about your life. What youre going to eat and what youre going to drink. And dont worry about your body, what youre going to wear. Then he asks them, Isnt life more important than food and the body more important than clothing? Imagine, hes standing there and, as hes talking, there are people that are hurting, people that are sick, people that are old, people that have lost everything. He says, Dont worry about it. As hes standing there talking, I imagine that a warm wind comes blowing off the Gennesaret, the Sea of Galilee. And he looks up and he sees some birds at play. How easygoing and lofty their lives are. He says, Look at the birds of the air. They dont sow or reap or store anything away in barns. They dont have a 401-K or a Roth IRA. And yet I tell you that your heavenly Father takes care of them, and if he takes care of the birds of the air, how much more is he going to take care of you? He says which of you, if you spend all this time worrying, Which of you can add even a single minute to your life? Imagine that warm wind is still blowing and its a comforting wind, and maybe it blows through the wild flowers that are growing on the hill. These are flowers that nobody planted and yet theyre beautiful, lilacs, lilies, daisies, or something. And they bend and sway in the wind. He says, Now look how the lilies of the field grow. They dont labor, they dont spin, and yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was not arrayed like one of these Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, do not say, ‘What will we eat, what will we drink, what will we wear, for the pagans run after these things, and your heavenly Father knows you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all those other things will be added to you. Therefore, dont worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow has enough worries of its own. Thats a different message than the message the world is giving us, isnt it? Very different. You think about the people that Jesus is talking to and the violence and volatility of their world. Theyre occupied by a foreign power, the Romans. The average life span is in the 30s or 40s. Very dangerous to have a baby. Very dangerous to get any kind of cold or infection. Food is not everywhere or plentiful. There are no social programs. Theres no welfare. There are no police. You never know what kinds of things people are plotting. Its a dangerous world. And Jesus tells them not to worry. And do you think, compared to them, when you think of standards of livings and living conditions, if you compare this world to that, who has more to worry about? They do. If we had to deal with the things that the people in the ancient world had to deal with, we would just fall apart. Its as Voltaire says, History is a series of men walking up the stairs in wooden boots and down the stairs in silken slippers. We have our silk slippers on, I think. And you look at that world and how difficult it was, and Jesus says that you dont have to worry about anything. Gods going to take care of you. And to push my point even further, never has any society in human history had better living conditions, better health, better medicine, been more safe than American citizens today. And yet every study shows that there has never been a society more anxious and worried. What does that say about material possessions and filled silos and big bank accounts and all of these things and your ability to worry or not worry; your ability to be happy or unhappy? It says a lot. It says that maybe the things that we worry about arent as big a deal as we think they are, and theyre probably not going to happen, and that theres a different reality we should be focusing on. We live in a culture that is training you to worry, and the people that are training you to worry benefit if you worry. Every morning I get up and I turn on the news. I listen to the news on the radio because I dont like television. I know thats an irony because Im preaching on television. I watch the Hour of Power on the Internet, believe it or not. Im a millennial, all right? And in my car, of course, I hear about all the kids that are being abducted, and the people that are being raped, and all of the violence thats going on in the world. And during a pleasant drive through the hills, all I hear about are all the fires, the earthquakes, and the threats. So the news agency benefits by having bad news. Do you see that? Bad news is good news for the news agency! So, they train you to be worried. I did my undergraduate degree in marketing. And the newest thing for business - it used to be to find a need and fill it - and now we stumbled upon this new idea, create a need and fill it. Why find one when you can just make one? You need this radio in your car. You dont want it, no, you need it. You need this radio. And you know what? We can fill that need for you. Just sign on the dotted line and go into debt. And so we do! So, we see all of these things that we think we need, we go into debt to buy those things, and then the debt makes us worry. And what about all the expectations of our society? If you watch enough reality TV, read enough magazines, your expectations go through the roof about what your house ought to look like, what your friends ought to be like, how your husband or wife ought to treat you. I feel very, very bad for women today because of the way magazines and movies portray women. They find the most beautiful woman they can find, put her in the most expensive outfit with makeup and the best lighting possible, and that is still not pretty enough, so then they use a computer to make her waist smaller and her hair longer. Now there is this fake image that everybody - your sons and your husbands and your friends - see, and then you look at yourself in the mirror and you compare. We live with these unrealistic expectations. We worry about not wanting to settle with the wrong person, and worry about our image, and worry about how we look, and worry about what people think about us, and worry about our kids, worry about our politics, and worry about China, and the debt, and the environment, and everything. We live our lives poisoned by worry and we cant enjoy today. Jesus says to stop worrying. Smile. Todays a gift. Stop worrying. Youre going to be okay. Im in control. Thats good news, isnt it? Thats great news. And with all the changes that happen in a very volatile, very scary world, its not so scary because God is in control. That is good news. Many of us live in this constant state of worry. Do you know the word worry or anxiety has its roots in choking or being strangled? Thats what it feels like, doesnt it. We run the spiritual race, Paul says, and for many of us that sense of worry or anxiety is like trying to run a marathon while you have asthma. You may try to do good work. Youre trying to persevere and do the right thing and help people and live a good Christian life, and youre thinking, Im so worried about everything. For many of us, there is this one future date. Its a little ambiguous, but we know that someday something will happen where all the stars will align and were not going to have to worry anymore. I remember, when I was in elementary school, I thought that someday was when I went to college. I thought, yes, when I graduate high school and I dont have to live in this room, Im going to go to college where I can just take the classes I want. And so in college, I realized I have to write ten-page papers, and I have ultimatums, and I have problems: I want to meet a girl, I have to find a girlfriend, and I have all these new issues. Then Im thinking, I have no money right now but when Im done with college, Ill get a job and Ill have money. And I got my job and I started thinking, yes, someday when I retire. And this is how life goes. Theres always some future date. Of course, all of you who are retired, you dont worry about anything, do you, once you retire? Nothing to worry about. Perfect health. Everythings okay. Right? No, youre always going to have something to worry about. And if youre looking for something to worry about, trust me, you will find it. Stop looking for things to worry about. I know what many of you are thinking. If youre youve taken the Myers-Briggs, Im a P by the way, so its easy for me to give this message. I am a P on the Myers-Briggs, which means Im okay with things being a little up in the air. If youre a J, the realist, you want to come up here and you want to shake me, and say, Bobby, Im trying to be responsible! Nobody is responsible. Im always the one that has to be responsible. I have a feeling that you couldnt be irresponsible even if you tried. For the person that says that, you can be responsible. Doesnt mean you have to worry. You can do the next right thing. It doesnt need you to be anxious. You can be responsible. You can do the next right thing. You can be organized and never worry a day in your life. Isnt that good news? Because theres nothing you can do worried that you cant do better with peace of mind. And Im thankful for the Lord for that. Smile; you dont need to worry. Instead, Jesus teaches us to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all that other stuff is going to be taken care of. That is good news and a promise that we can stand on. We live in a world that follows spiritual rules that are unseen by many people. I remember when in the 1990s, which is like the greatest decade ever, there was this cool thing called a stereograph. A stereograph is an image in which there is an image within an image. I think they called it the 3-D images, and they look like a bizarre computer color mismatch. Theyre easy to find. In fact I have one; Ill put it on Facebook. Its my favorite one, so when this airs, itll be two weeks, go on my Facebook to see this stereograph image. Its basically just an image - there are thousands and they look weird. There are all sorts of jagged, mismatched shapes, and you think, What is this image? What happens is, if you youre able to look through the image, some people are able to do it by crossing their eyes, a 3-D image appears. Its really interesting how it happens. Many people cant do it. Some people have tried for months and months. Theyll stare at the same thing, try all sorts of things. It took me weeks before I could see the image within the stereograph. Whats weird is that the stereograph almost unpackages itself like a dream or something. You see something all of a sudden with some dimension. And the key is to look through the image, not at the image. If you look at the image, you cant see it. You have to look past it like its not there, and as you look through the image, an image starts to take shape. The one I have is an image of Jesus on the cross, but you dont know what it is at first. You think, What is that? And eventually you see the cross. Then, as you look at it longer, it starts to take on even more shape. Then a soldier with a spear appears. I go wow, I didnt even see that. I keep staring longer, and then all of a sudden, you see the other two crosses and the hill. That is very much what the kingdom of God is like. Many of us, we may look right at the image, and we have no idea whats actually there. A disciple is someone who is able to see through the image and see that there is something three dimensional there that has real value and meaning, something very beautiful. But it takes a different kind of looking, and when you can see the world in that way, you realize this isnt real. I dont have to worry about a thing. What good news that is. Great news. And so I remember actually when I was in college, there was this kid, Dennis, and he was brilliant. There was another optical illusion, I dont know if youve ever seen it, but you see either a vase or two faces. You look back and forth. He couldnt see the vase. He could only see the two faces. And what was bizarre is this was probably the smartest guy I had ever met. He was an engineering student, he could solve incredible problems, his IQ was off the charts, he was brilliant, but when he looked at this very simple image, he couldnt see the vase. All he could see was the two faces looking at each other and it really bothered him. Thats what the spiritual world is like. Some people, in all their brilliance, they cant see the simplest thing. Its like Jesus, who is spontaneously is filled with joy in the Holy Spirit. He stops and prays, saying, I praise you, Father, Lord in heaven and earth, for you have not revealed these things to the wise and learned, but to little children, and it pleased you to do so. Thats what the kingdom of God is. The kingdom of God is a spiritual reality thats underneath the material world, and its a world that is ruled and governed by God. So, the way that we live a life where we dont worry anymore, is seeking the spiritual world by walking in step and discipleship with Jesus, and seeking what God wants in my life, what God wants in my world, and by releasing. If youre a worrisome person, its coming from a place of pride and a need to control. You need to let go of that. Let go of that and trust the Lord. Trust the Lord. You dont have to worry about tomorrow, you dont have to worry about all your problems, and you dont have to worry about your kids, your parents, or your spouse. And, you dont have to worry about the government, you dont have to worry about the environment, you dont have to worry about money. You dont have to worry about all the things that are actually really important. You can stop worrying right now because Gods in control. And yes, be responsible, do the right thing, vote for your party, be a patron, be a good person, but stop worrying. Stop worrying because there is a spiritual reality in which God is in control. You can smile. You can enjoy the weather today. It is going to be a nice one. You can enjoy your friends and you can stop worrying. You dont have to be the worrywart. When youre the worrier, all your friends want you to stop worrying, trust me. They dont need you to be responsible anymore. You can release that, too. Everybody is alive for a reason. Everybody. Everybody is alive for a reason. But many people will miss that reason, because they are worried. Lets pray: Yes, Lord, this is your world, Father. We live in your world and we are in your safety. Nothing can harm us. And yes, Lord, you care about this world and want to fix it. You care about the government and you care about the environment. You care about marriage, you care about legislation, you care about churches, you care about news, you care about hurting children, you care about people that are starving, you care about all of these things. We do, too. Thank you that we dont have to worry about them but that we can act in a life of faith, trusting you in an unworried way, seeking your purpose, not our purpose, seeking your dreams, not our dreams, seeking your kingdom, not our kingdom. We let go, we abandon outcomes to you and give you control over our lives because you love us, you know whats best, and were thankful for that. We take a deep breath, we smile, and we say, Lord, were done worrying because youre in control. In Christs name, amen.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 01:23:39 +0000
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