9/29/2019 Don't Worry About a Thing

Are scripture reading for this morning comes from Matthew chapter 6 verses 25 through 34.

Therefore I tell you do not worry about your life what you will eat or drink. Or about your body what you are where is not life more than food and the body more than clothes. 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 can anyone of You by worrying add a single hour to your life. And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow they do not labor or spin yet. I tell you that not even Solomon in all his Splendor was dressed like one of these 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. So do not worry saying what shall we eat? What shall we drink or what shall we wear for the pagans run after all these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself each day has enough trouble of its own the word of God for the people of God.

Do any of you have worries this morning? Did you all come worry-free? Did you leave all your worries at the door? Like the three little birds do you not worry about anyting? We live in a constant state of worry. We are driven by anxiety and worry. Everyday in our life. This is the the last sermon in a sermon series on Treasure. It's originally out of the Jacob Armstrong booking and it talks about giving back to God our time or energy in our money. So why in the world are we talkin about worry on the very last series?

any ideas

any any any of us ever worry about money?

Yeah. Nike what's your idea? What do you what do you think we're talking about worry this morning?

Do parents worry? Yeah parents worry, right grandparents worry. And are worried actually doesn't not only just affect us. It also affects those around us. Has anyone ever said to you as if these are the wisest Pearls of Wisdom offered just don't worry about it. Has it ever helped you to not worry? No, it it doesn't because there's something that we're worrying about now. I want to offer a distinction here. There is a difference between this word worry it in this Greek. Okay, and just thinking about something right? Like you can think about something long enough to make a plan for it and then address it. That's not what we're talkin about. We're talkin about worrying the kind of worried that cripples you the kind of worried that keeps you in bed or keeps you from sleeping the kind of worried that causes your stomach to churn or for you to lose appetite. That's the kind of worried that Jesus is talking about and that's the kind of worried that were talking about this morning. Let's begin with the word of Prayer. Lord May the meditations of our hearts in the words of my lips be pleasing in your sight our Rock and Our Redeemer. amen

worry is the burden of our age we worry about everything we worry about whether we worry about sports teams. We worry about our catcher being hit by a fastball. We worry about humility humidity the crops are phones or children or grandchildren or spouse or parents our community our world ourselves and everyone else. There is always something to worry about. When that worry is alleviated. We quickly find something else to take its place. We are barrage to buy a state of urgency and worry. So, why are we talkin about worried in regards to these things? Because these things are things that we feel as though we can have some control over. And so sometimes we we grab these things and control these things because it makes us feel like we have secure key. stability but really the only thing that these things have in response to worry is that they are false sources of security. I had a gentleman who? I'm pretty sure was a multi multi-millionaire inform me that he was on a

fixed income he was on a fixed income. It's is true. There is always a finite amount of resources. But to live with the mindset that we are always on a fixed income is a way of saying these are the things I have to make sure that I can control.

The gods telling us in this passage that we're we're supposed to realize that God is the source of Our Hope and we're not to worry about ourselves. But what we worried about van and what we worry about today is just the same what we're going to eat and what we're going to wear.

What we're going to eat? You know in our world today, it's not a question of what we're going to eat. But whether we're going to eat but rather is a question of where we're going to eat, right? Like we were asking what are we going to eat? We're asking if we want Italian or Mexican we're asking what kind of steak we want. We're asking what we're going to eat not if we're going to eat. That's a very different question and talking about clothing. We're we're not asking ourselves whether we're going to walk around naked we're asking ourselves what kind of brand and what kind of style of clothing we want to wear. And the same was true in Jesus's day as well. The people that Jesus was talkin to probably we're not the people that work wondering what they were going to eat as an if they were going to eat but rather what they were going to eat. And who would prepare it?

What we're really talking about this morning isn't just worried. It's not like we worry about things but it's really the kind of level that would be like a generalized anxiety disorder. The kind of worried it's crippling and it's important to note that in the wealthier countries generalized anxiety disorders are much more prominent.

In lower socio-economic countries, it's like 1.4. With us. It's like 5.3. The implications of this in dollars and cents is that that that it cost in the US? generalized anxiety disorder mental health costs Out of medical cost 42 billion dollars a year.

Over 41% of us have had some kind of workplace worry or anxiety.

We are in anxious people.

But what are we going to do with that? You know of those words that people offer us to say don't worry, it'll be alright, those words don't really offer as much help. But if you put it into a song and put some Reggae behind it. It has an opportunity to change your mood, right? Some of you have never hurt raise your hand if you've never heard that song before. All right, you're good people. Okay, so tell me because of her. Don't worry. Be happy. Rick Decatur, right. So like this whole idea that we weren't made to worry, but we're tempted to worry and worry sells things. Did you know this? I grew up in a very nice mobile home Community but none the less a mobile home community. So the biggest fear in my parents lives. Was that a fire? And I remember the day a Salesman came and knocked on the door selling us a new fire alarm system. And it was going to be proven to be better and he could show us by examples about how it was the right fire alarm system for our house and for $2,000 can't afford it. That's okay. You can make payments.

I'm sorry. Maybe you guys haven't sold your house to get money back over time. Until you passed away, right? Like it's the same thing of fear of worried. Right? It's the fear of lack of control. And so we want to grab what we can control as if that is going to make us a non anxious person. And in reality in order to make us that non-anxious person we have to realize that it's going to be okay, even if it's not, okay.

We all have had opportunities are times in our life where we felt God's presence. And if and if you haven't felt this I pray one day you will wear you you just get this understanding that it's going to be okay, even if it's not, okay. Even if it's not okay, my dad was a machinist and he fidgeted with his hands all the time and we came home with hospice care. He had he had brain cancer. He came home with hospice care and we set him up in the living room and he fidgets with his hands and he had a feeding tube and I recall the night before he died. He my mom was over next door at the neighbors having coffee and dad was just with me and he just fidgeted and he turned it off and we turn it off and go bbbb. You have to go in and say hello. I'm sorry Dad here here. Please. Don't play with that and you walk out and the third time I went back in I had to begin to ask myself whether he wasn't fidgeting on purpose. And saying I'm uncomfortable. He had a stroke. He couldn't communicate anymore except for words. I can't say in church, which is the last thing to go when you can't communicate and so I went back in and I said, okay Dad if you turn off again. I'm not going to turn it back on.

And turn it off again.

And I went to the neighbor's house. And I said hey, I want to let you know that that I turn dad's feeding tube off. Can you imagine what my mom heard? my mom heard Let's kill them all off. My mom heard you the burden but what I felt in that moment. Was was God saying it's going to be okay, even if it's not, okay? And that's the kind of peace that time and money and energy can never buy. That's the kind of peace that comes from God and that's the kind of peace that God offers to each and every one of us, but in order for God to offer that to us, we have to acknowledge that in some situations. We are powerless. In some situations. All we can do is say it's going to be okay, even if it's not, okay.

God doesn't want us to worry about money and resources so much that we hold them up for ourselves.

Because they're not always for us.

We live in a Martha world. Do you all remember the story of Mary and Martha? Mary was Mary was sitting at Jesus feet and Martha was busy working and working and working and working. Nnn Martha's mad cuz she's working and she's doing the work that needs to be done. But Mary sitting there at Jesus's feet.

We're called to be Mary's sitting at the feet of our savior in a Martha world.

We're called to see where God is leading us and desires for us to go in. The reality is us being busy just to be busy will not get us there. Reliance on God gives us there the song This is Three Little Birds. Uses the same.

Visual that. Jesus is using Look at the birds does God care for the birds. They don't plant. They don't they don't read. They don't so but they still get taken care of.

God doesn't call us to to live out in the in the middle of nowhere and give up everything we have to to become people that live in the desert and the mystics and people can come to us to get wise words from us. But God does call us to share in the building of the Kingdom work. That isn't always just for us, but it's about the kingdom of God.

My Hope for this morning

Is that you may see how God is calling you? To reaffirm where you're storing up your treasure. And this is this is unapologetically part of the stewardship series. Okay, but you're not going to get any commitment cards. All right. I'm not going to like stop by your house. But here's what I do want to do. I want to invite you to personally think about where you're storing up your treasure. To personally think about what you're doing with your time and your energy and your money. That's for the kingdom of God.

There's something that is freeing when we're part of something that's bigger than ourselves that God is doing God is calling us to be in this work of building up the kingdom. What does that mean? It means sharing the hope of Jesus. What does that mean? It means that sharing the hope of Jesus with others who are in despair. What does that mean? It means reaching out to others who don't know the way forward who aren't for sure what to do warrant for sure. What their purpose is in life. You weren't for sure where their next meal is going to come from or whether they have value in this community or whether God cares and loves about them. We serve a God that we know that does Karen loves for them much more than even the birds of the sky. And how are we going to do that together?

God has invited us to this. Holy activity.

Church moving forward is changing

Church moving forward his forever changed our attention span is changed half of y'all not at all five times in the sermon alone. It's very engaging but the reality is our attention spans of changed our expectations on others and ourselves have changed what we want out of things have changed. And so I want to invite you this morning to think about church in a different way. I want to invite you this morning to consider giving. electronically

I did not plan this I'm saying then giving electronically can change your connection with the church. because even if you're not present, you're still connected. It's not about the money. It is about the relationship. It's it's not about the money. It is about the connection.

One of the ways people. Okay. So you guys remember that story that I told last week if you were here the Colin King story. Oh man that what the heck in a handbasket over the last week so call it was that guy that with the beer with the Busch Light and they're going to give him a whole bunch of Busch Light and and he was really happy about it. Okay, and then the Des Moines Register get a piece on his tweets when he was 16 years old and he said some real stupid stuff. And so the Des Moines Register reporter who went there who they ensured those tweets with Kors or bush. Who then broke off the deal with Colin but they agreed to pay the hospital. They were going to get in this beer and ate the agreed to go ahead and match the donations for the hospital. Okay? What happened was he sent some insensitive jokes when he was 16 years old 8 years ago, and then they asked him about him and he's like eventually he's like, well, I was an idiot like it's been 8 years, right? And he's like, oh my gosh. No, I don't think that way at all anymore. Right but like for other people that that couldn't change they couldn't change their opinion of him because of this thing they've done in the past. You know, I want to go to a church. Where it doesn't take real long to dig up any dirt on me. And I'm honest about it. I want to go to the church where we've been covered by Grace so much that that's the only thing we can clean to. Because that's the only thing we can cling to. I didn't sew in result the end up.

It ended up being that his past. It made him not interested for some people. But the good that he was doing was still the same. So we live in a world where we know that annual regular attendance now is once-a-month, right? Regular Church attendance right now is once a month. So that means that even though you may be here weekend and week out. There's other people that are offsetting you so much that then they are not they're even month in month out. So how do they remain connected? I think one of the ways that we remain connected is through our giving are supporting of Ministries the even if we can't be there or time or energy and our resources can

I want to be able to do church when people aren't even here in person. Maybe they listen to it on online right some of y'all go to Florida or Texas or Arizona or wherever y'all go, right? And so I don't want to lose connection in our day and age. There's no reason for us to lose connection over. geographical area so if we can agree that what God is doing here is for the kingdom of God. Then maybe we can agree that we're in this together and it's not about us. But we can even support it if we're not here in person. This is why. The way we spend our energy our time and our money says something about our priorities. Hopefully that first week you felt a little conflict between what your heart wants to do and what your mind wants to do. And hopefully you evaluated that conflict. And hopefully you took a moment to look at your budget and figure out where you're spending is in regard to your time your energy and your money. And hopefully that called you to question why some of those categories were so high? And whether they were really priorities that you were voicing or whether they were just priorities that you've been living out.

Not worrying about a thing isn't not having control over our energy and resources, but to acknowledge that God has called us to something much greater than worried. Is a statistically that 85% of what we worry about will not happen. You know all that time you were worried about that conversation with that person where you were just going to say just the perfect thing at just the right time to get that point proven perfectly and you're right and I'm maybe I'm the only person that does this right but you're you're driving and then you're like, oh man, let never happens. And so therefore you wasted all of that energy on worried that could have been going somewhere else.

God has called us to the important work of focusing on what God wants us to do and in order to do that. We have to give up our worry. for ourselves It's not easy work. And God knew that it wasn't easy work when Jesus told us. The work needed to be done.

So what does it look like? to put God first

first it means to pray. daily not

some showy prayer not the prayer for others to think you is righteous, but maybe something as simple as God, I'm empty. And I need you to fill me up. So I can be of your work. It means the study of scripture but not just the study of scripture to memorize it so you can quote it to other people like a baseball bat the study of scripture so you can apply it to your own life.

That's the study of scripture that we need. and also

to care for others outside of us

As a church. The days of people coming to figure out what church is about is going.

We have to go to them. We have to remind them of God's love we have to tell them that God's grace and mercy has caused you not to worry. Because there just isn't bought bombarded at by worry and anxiety as you are if not more. I saw for the first time I bet it's been 15 years. I saw a commercial for a psychic. On on TV last night or yesterday and I was like I didn't even know they would like those call for number still existed anymore. Right? But people in that bass out of people's desire to

that's just like our desire to know what's going to different. But they're searching. And we have to reach out to those who research and say this is what I found I found this book. But it's not even about a book. It's about a love of God. It's not the word of God.

It's about this this guy who sent his son to Earth. even for me I'm pretty horrible. But God offers this to me and I find Hope and joy and freedom from worry and I've seen that freedom from worry lift out. That's the church that we are to be. Is that what God is calling us to do in the world around us?

I want to invite you to invite others. Do not worry.

About a thing. because with God everything it's going to be alright.

Thea

The closing Hymn for us this morning.

It is.