The Idolatry of Worry, Trust preludes Obedience

Introduction

Good morning to those of you watching from Niverville CMC

My name is Justin Redekopp and I bring you greetings from Steinbach CMC

I pray that you are all healthy.

I will be taking today’s text from Matt 6:24-33 for those of you who would like to follow along.

Before we begin, however, lets begin with prayer.

Lord, We come before today, not together in person but together in Spirit by your power.

Lord we come before you, leaving behind the stresses of the week, burdens of the world.

We come into your presence looking for your strength, your wisdom, your mercy.

Lord would you open our hearts and our minds to hear and accept the peace, the joy, and the work you have for each and every one of us.

We pray this in Jesus’s name, Amen

Passage Reading/Commentary

King James Version Chapter 6

24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.

Now some of you might be thinking to yourselves, forget two masters, I have ten.

You have your boss at work, your boss at home, your children, the demands in-laws, parents, your church ministry, etc.

My wife and I just had our first child a couple of months ago, and boy do we have a task master now.

People - perhaps this is just me - people always asked me before just before Phoenix (our daughter) if I was ready to become a father.

I think those of you who are parents know, and those of you who may potentially become parents should know, you are never ready!

This is not to say my wife and I - well mostly my wife - didn’t prepare.

But I don’t think either of us completely grasped the sacrifice of time and sleep and money having a child would cost us.

Thankfully the Lord gives grace and strength to be parents and mercy when we fail as parents

Maybe you own your own business. Maybe you are your own boss, so to speak.

Now instead of having one boss tell you what to do, every customer is your boss, and every customer thinks he or she is the most important.

You know the old saying - the customer is always right.

I don’t think Jesus is talking about our everyday service to one another

I think he is talking about the central focus of our lives

He’s not talking pistons and flywheels and transmissions - the nuts and bolts of what we do

He’s talking about the driver of the car - the person deciding where the car goes.

I have a coworker on my construction crew, great co-worker, but I always bug him about his smoking habit.

And he tells me, my habit doesn’t affect anyone but me, so why should anyone but me decide whether or not I smoke

And I say, well, it’ll shorten your life, to which he responds, at least I spent my life doing what I wanted to do.

And fair point - in his mind, it is his life, it is his decision.

Interestingly, he also has a problem keeping a girlfriend. And its no wonder - he is a nice guy and good looking guy. He’ll have one for a couple of months, and invariably, she’ll - according to him, try to control him, or just up and leave him.

with his latest girlfriend, he’s trying to hide the fact that he smokes from her...

She doesn’t like smokers

Now notice - he doesn’t love her enough to give up smoking

But he wants to keep her around. So he has chosen to lie to her

Here is a man with two masters. He’s trying hard at least.

But recently she found out about his smoking habit.

And no surprise, that kind of thing is hard to hide.

And so now he comes to work every day with a new complaint about his girlfriend who is trying to control or change him.

He does this right after lighting up a smoke

And its easy to see that he loves one master and he hates the other.

And this is what Jesus is talking about

What directs your life - concern for yourself?

Or concern for God’s kingdom?

You see, Jesus isn’t interested so much in the pepsi/coke or chevy/ford debates we often have.

but he wants to get deep down, at our hearts.

Why do you do what you do. For whom are you doing what you do?

King James Version Chapter 6

24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Mammon. This was slang language for lots of money or wealth in Jesus’s day

Same way we have slang for lots of money “dough”, “Gees”, “Bank.”

And for some of us Jesus’s words cut especially close to home

There is a saying, “He votes with his checkbook.”

Or, “Its all fun and games until you touch my wallet.”

And most of us have jobs, and draw a paycheck, and I would think it a little strange if we did not sit up a bit when Jesus starts reaching for our money

Is Jesus telling us not to have money?

King James Version Chapter 6

25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

I’ve actually chosen to read this passage out of the KJV because I love how its worded

“take no thought”

I know we all know “take no thought for” means don’t worry about..., but I just like the image of picking and choosing thoughts the KJV portrays here. Like your choosing items at a supermarket.

You know what, they call this age we live in the Information Age - and if that isn’t true then I don’t know what is because we live in a supermarket of ideas, of thoughts, all of them crying out for our attention

And you know what? Our thoughts are even pre-made and delivered for us today. The internet, phone platforms, screens in restaurants, Facebook groups, news.

We don’t even have to get up off our couches to go to the information supermarket today

And this is what Jesus is saying

Avoid the “worrying about you own life” section of life’s supermarket

there are a lot of thoughts for sale in that aisle

They seem like good products, but Jesus says they are not worth your time...

Jesus even goes to list some of the brands to avoid

The “what should I eat” brand

“how am I going to provide sustenance for myself in these times” brand

The “I need to look out for myself and my own finances” brand

The “looking out for number one” brand

How about “with what should I be clothed” brand

Its cousin “what will people think of me” brand

Or its boss “worrying about my status and prestige” brand.

Is Jesus telling us not to work for a living, or not to bother living healthy, admirable lives? I don’t think so.

King James Version Chapter 6

26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

Our neighbors have a bird feeder

We live in Steinbach and my neighbor’s house is 25 ft away so I get to enjoy watching his bird feeder as much as he does

and its interesting. The birds actually wait for one another. There is such an abundance of seeds that they don’t waste energy fighting for them.

Instead, they wait for one or two to get their fill, then fly in after they leave

This is the idea of God. This is the idea of Jesus when he talks about the birds

They know God is not a stingy God. This is the mentality of the birds around my neighbor’s feeder. There is an abundance of provision - God has supplied an abundant bounty - so why should we spend so much time worrying, and fighting over whether or not we are getting the best deal when we’ve already won the lottery

And if birds can think this way, then why can’t we? Are we not even more in touch with God than the birds?

And this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do hard work.

Back to the my neighbor’s bird feeder.

Most of the birds there are Chickadees. And these are fascinating little birds - the smallest bird you’ve ever seen, perhaps barring a humming bird, and they don’t fly south during our harsh winter.

And how do they do that?

They prepare.

So I watch these birds, and they know they’ve got a long winter ahead, and so they take these seeds, and they go and store them behind bark. They’ll grab the seed, fly over to a tree, and and tuck it behind some bark. And interestingly, they remember all those spots. It’s incredible

And if that doesn’t sound like hard work to you, let me tell you about the squirrels.

You see, most people put up their feeders so that squirrels can’t access them. For good reason, because squirrels are a bit of a seed hog if they can get them,

But these squirrels are not ones to be easily defeated. So they watch the chickadees, and see where they hide the seeds. And then they go and steal it from that spot once the birds leave.

And you may think that’s not fair, or you may think the squirrels are very clever, both being true

But it doesn’t phase the chickadees. They just work all the harder.

And this is the beauty of the chickadees. They survive winters that most birds flee south to avoid. They aren’t selfish with the food they find, and they don’t demand that the world be fair before they go about their business. They can’t puff out their chest and scare away other birds, or squirrels. They just keep doing what God has given them to do with what God has provided them.

King James Version Chapter 6

28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

Again. The Lord is not telling to go about naked. He’s saying clothing of life is provided. He provides the uniform

I’m a bit of a gardener, and last year I tried my hand at sunflowers. Now I don’t know what I did wrong, most of them didn’t actually turn out so well this year. But I did get one to bloom.

One thing I like about sunflowers is their height. They grow fast, they look cool, and they grow tall.

To top it all off they have a huge flower, huge leaves, and attract huge bees

If your one of those people where bigger is better then a sunflower is the right flower for you.

One of the most interesting things about a sunflower is the fact that it’s head, especially when younger, tends to follow the sun

Think about that. A sunflower, the grandest of flowers, is not concerned about it’s own height, it’s broad leaves, its own grandeur. It is focused on the source of it’s life. The sun.

Interesting fact. You never find Jesus clothing himself in the Bible

In the Gospels he is often being clothed.

He is wrapped in swaddling cloth - grave clothes - at his birth.

He allows his father and mother to clothe him in the garments of a carpenter

He allows soldiers to clothe him with a crown of thorns and the purple robe of mockery

And in the end, they take away all his clothes and nailed him to a cross.

Jesus, son of God, did not worry about his reputation. Did not worry about prestige

He kept his eyes on his Father and his Father’s mission for him, knowing that he would be given the tools needed to complete the job.

Are you worried about your clothes?

Listen to what Jesus told Peter about his clothes

English Standard Version Chapter 21

18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

Jesus isn’t coming for your clothes

But he is coming for your right to yourself.

A man who chooses his uniform cannot serve God

God chooses the uniforms of his servants

King James Version Chapter 6

31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Conclusion

Who is calling the shots in your life?

Is it you?

Is it cigarettes?

A certain political stance?

A girlfriend. Boyfriend?

I want to tell you something about which I am fairly confident.

To the extent that you try and be in control of this world, and your own life

To that same extent you will not be able to discern the moving of God and his kingdom in the world

If the words of Jesus seem harsh, too burdensome, and too simple to us, let me assure you it is because we are a harsh and frantic, and worried people, not because the Lord doesn’t know what he is asking

We worry, and then turn around and think ourselves wise

We fight, thinking ourselves fearless but betraying how afraid we are.

We despair because we are disobedient, and disdain being dependent.

Jesus tells us that a seed cannot grow until it falls to ground and dies.

It reminds of that sunflower I had in the garden. Tiny seed, mighty plant.

So unconcerned about its own beauty, but beautiful nonetheless

So dependent on the rain and my garden hose for water and the sun for growth

Yet providing so much sustenance for insects, zoot for my knacking habit

This world is in desperate need of God

You just have to open the news once a day to see it

What if the Lord’s people stopped worrying about who is stealing what, and who is right about this and that, and just lived and total dependence on the Lord.

Isn’t the world dying for some peace?

Hasn’t God given us the prince of peace?

I urge each and everyone of you to find peace in our God amidst the chaos of this world

See how it changes you

See how it changes those around you