How would life change if we actually believed God loved us deeply and had our backs? Let’s dive in and find out! Join Kent this Sunday at Harmony.

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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

How many times a day does worry or anxiety pop up in your mind?  

I don’t want to lose you by getting you to jump into anxious thoughts, but think about it for a second…

Here’s a few things I find myself anxious or worried about

-I’m not sure how we’re going to pay that bill

-How are we going to get everyone to where they need to go

-When am I going to have time to finish that project with everything I’ve got to do

-I’m afraid I’m not going to be home on time because of this meeting

-Oh no, my phone is ringing, what do I do? 😉

-I feel like I’m losing my kid

-I wonder if a person is secretly judging me

-I’m worried we won’t have enough for retirement

-I don’t know what to do with my kids

-I can’t figure out what I did wrong with my spouse

I mean, let’s be honest, we could go on and on, couldn’t we?  

Worry and anxiety are at epidemic levels in our country.

Look at this chart: [put chart on screen]

If you are older, you don’t get it and if you’re younger, you don’t know how someone couldn’t get it…

This calls for compassion and some reconsidering of our how we order our world…

b

I think it calls for going back to the one who created you and listening to see if His words could have some meaning in your life…

I want to read some of Jesus’ words and look at them in the context of how we all live our everyday life and then ask the question

What if we took Him seriously – what would life look like for you?

Mt 6:25-34

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 

Does anybody else feel like at this point you are wanting to say to Jesus “don’t worry about life and eat or drink?  That’s all I do Jesus is worry”

I feel like some of us make worry out like it’s a sport – we’re so good at it that if there was an olympics in worry, we’d have been in Paris this last summer…

I want you to notice something about what Jesus is doing here.  Jesus is trying to elevate your vision – move your eyes upwards.

b

“Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?”

ILLUSTRATION:

Years ago, I had a really good friend who I was talking with.  After a few minutes of talking with him he stopped me and said, “Hey, what’s going on with you, you haven’t shared one real thing about your life with me, you’re just keeping everything at a surface level.”

Jesus is trying to get you past a surface level of life.  He wants you to find joy and freedom, to be able to really embrace life – but you know as well as I do that when you are caught up constantly worrying about the next bill, worrying about your time, your food, your whatever that you are not living life, you are staying on the surface…

Life is more…

and your anxious, controlling, and predicting the future is keeping you from the now.

²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[a]?

I want to ask you two questions that Jesus asks you here – really ask them.

Are you more valuable than birds to God?

It seems like a silly question at first – probably your instant answer is “yes”.  But can I ask it another way?

Do you really believe you are valuable to God?

My experience has been most people can believe that others are valuable to God, but not themselves.  

I personally struggle with that.  Intellectually I know God loves me, but at a gut level, I wonder how He could…

Part of your anxiety, and mine, comes from an inability to rightly believe how much God really loves you.

b

What would change if you really believed God was good and that He loved you madly?

some of you need to stop listening to this sermon and spend the rest of the service thinking about that question.

Jesus asks – Can you add a single hour to your life through worry?

No, we can theoretically add to our lifespan in modern times, but guess what, when you die, you are dead, there is no adding to that time.  Your lifespan is not theoretical, at some point it will be defined.  Your worry does not change that end – it’s an illusion.

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 

The NIV always translates this as “you of little faith” or “why do you have so little faith”, but I’ve heard Greek scholars say it would be better translated as 

Little Faiths (the Greek word is oligó(little)pistos(faith))

Can I give you a little encouragement… 

Jesus is talking about this because He expects we’ll struggle with it.

He gives the prescription because we all have the ailment.

b

His disciples who saw, walked, ate, ministered with Him – Jesus gives them the nickname “Little Faiths.”

You are not alone in this…

³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Jesus very clearly tells us to not worry, but how can we do that?

His answer is simple

Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.

b

When worry pops up, when anxiety fills your brain – lift your eyes up, ask yourself, how can I seek His Kingdom and Righteousness today?

Honestly, it won’t be long till that turns into, “Jesus, how can I seek your kingdom and righteousness today – here and now…

God is saying, “when you care for the things I care about, I will take care of you.”

Actually as I really meditated on this something hit me that had never hit me before.

CLOSING ILLUSTRATION:

Recently Jenni and I had a huge financial burden strike us that we hadn’t expected. I was really freaking out if I’m honest – I grew up poor and feel an incredible responsibility to care for my family and honestly always try and keep us from being in that position.  I didn’t know what to do.  I prayed and just kept going towards Jesus and serving Him.  Here’s what’s crazy.  I got an envelope given to me – honestly, I didn’t even open the envelope for a few days.  But when I did, I found out it had exactly the amount we needed to pay the bills.  It was crazy.  But can I tell you what’s even crazier?  That has been my experience over and over again.  That God takes care of our needs.  He is faithful.  One of the things that struck me is when you are seeking first God’s Kingdom and His Righteousness – you tend to be around people who are doing that as well – we call this the church.  And all of the sudden we are taking care of one another.  I don’t think Jesus is saying this will be magical.  What He is saying is that when you are submitting your will to His Will, He will take care of you, part of how He does that is by using people who’s will is submitted to Him as well.

Can I tell you a secret?  This isn’t a get rich scheme.  You can’t do this to get God to pay your bills.  He knows your heart and what you really seek. 

What it is, is insurance that if you give up letting money and security be your God and let God be your God, that He will take care of you.

A great example of this is I heard recently how one of our connect groups stepped up to help a family in the group and supported one another – people giving money to care for the needs of others…

See, 

When you give yourself wholly to Jesus you find a holy Jesus who holds you in His hands.  

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