Worry the Forbidden Fruit (Part 2)

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Heaven, Hell and Everything in Between (Part 3)

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Do you ever worry? How often do you worry?
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Have you ever met someone who's never worried? Wouldn't that be an odd kind of person to meet? Someone that is never worried about the swine flu, financial crises, health issues, salvation of loved ones?
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Wouldn't it be interesting to meet someone who's never worried one time? By the way, I can think of someone who never worried, who always trusted, who always submitted, who always obeyed, who always was confident in God the
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Father. Who might that person be? Can you imagine Jesus never worried?
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Always fully trusting in the Father. And I'm very, very thankful this morning that I can draw your attention to a passage where Jesus, the one who never worried, teaches us about worry.
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Let's turn our Bibles to Matthew chapter six. Some say the Bible is out of date. Some say the
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Bible is irrelevant. Some say the Bible is not sufficient for what we need. But aren't you glad that the
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Bible can teach us about everything in life, including what do we do when we worry?
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How should we process things mentally when it comes to this topic that we all struggle with?
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After all, until glory, until heaven, until our sanctification is complete, we will still struggle with worry.
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We will wake up in the middle of the night with that 500 -pound gorilla sitting on our chest.
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We will have that kind of acid reflux from worry and ulcers, all kinds of things like that.
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And there'll be glory when we're in heaven and never have to worry. Can you imagine there'll be a day where you stop worrying? When we're in heaven, no worry at all.
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But what do we do now, living in this culture that especially makes us worry or wants us to worry because it can sell things?
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How do we handle life? We come to Matthew chapter 6 where Jesus helps us understand the nature of worry and then how to, if you will, get over worry.
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Now last time, it was two weeks ago, and so I'll give a little bit of introduction. I have to tell you ahead of time,
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I'm fairly worried this morning about my sermon. We have a lot of verses to cover.
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We may get done with this this morning, or we might not get done. I'm going to try to finish Matthew 7 by the time
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I go on vacation late June. I know, I'm a cessationist, so I can't believe in supernatural miracles these days like I ought to through people.
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But anyway, we want to dive into the text, Matthew chapter 6, and find out in this large section. Do you see how many verses?
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Matthew 6, 25 through 34, all about this topic of worry. Do not worry.
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Do not worry. Do not worry. It would be one thing if Jesus gave us a half a verse, a full verse, a few verses on a topic, but here, this entire section, one man called it the cure for anxiety.
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It must be a big deal to Jesus, and so it must be a big deal for us.
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If you look at Matthew chapter 6, verses 1 through 18, Jesus basically says this, don't be a hypocrite.
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Have sincere worship unto your God, your Father. Don't have religious hypocrisy.
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Overturn it. Overthrow it. It's not good for the Christian. It's not good for those living in the kingdom of God.
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It's not good to give partial allegiance to this great God who is more than just our
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Savior, but He's also our Father. And then He says in verses 19 through 24,
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He says when it comes to loyalty, when it comes to obedience, when it comes to commitment, make sure this great
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God gets all your commitment. Don't divide your commitment between fun and God, family and God.
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It's just all out, a full bore for God. When I was a kid and I used to ride motorcycles, we would always say to ourselves when we were riding, especially when we were really little, you'd take the throttle in the motorcycle here and you would turn it all the way towards you.
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And that would be, we would call that wide what? Wide open. Just turn that thing open.
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Give it all the gas you can, and that's what Jesus is saying. If God is God, then why would you kind of let up on the gas a little bit?
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Oh, you know, I only live one time and I only live one life, and so we'll just kind of putter through life.
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We'll just kind of coast. You know, Jesus is kind of a halfway God, so I'll just kind of let up a little bit and downshift.
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Jesus is saying if God is God and He is, then let that thing go wide open, full bore.
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Only makes sense. But if we live that way, isn't it fair to ask the question, when it comes to our finances, when it comes to our family, when it comes to everything we own, if we live all out for God, maybe we won't have enough to take care of ourselves and our family.
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And so Jesus deals with this passage about kingdom work, kingdom work that pushes out anxiety.
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Let me give you again for our outline, many reasons that Jesus would want you not to worry.
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Reasons you should not worry. And I'm going to tell you there are nine from the passage. We've already looked at three, and we'll just see how many we get through today.
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I'm going to attempt to do all nine. Nine reasons from Matthew 6, verses 25 -34 that you should not worry, that you should place your full trust in God the
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Father. Number one, you should not worry because all worry is sin.
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In other words, you sin against God the Father when you worry. Remember, verse 25, do not be worried.
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All imperatives. Verse 31, do not worry.
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Verse 34, do not worry. Worry is sinful.
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A, you break God's command, you break Christ's law, but also you make things important that are secondary.
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You make things that should be in the back seat, you push them up to sit on the front of the hood of the car.
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Jesus was tempted to worry, but did not, and now tells us, do not worry.
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And he says in verse 25, remember, for this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, that's pretty big, as to what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor your body, that's pretty big, as to what you will put on.
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Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? True or false, worry is a spiritual problem.
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And if you say it is a spiritual problem, which you should say, because if Jesus says don't worry and you do worry, then this is a spiritual realm to it, it's not just physical.
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If worry is a spiritual problem, then how do you get help? If you say it's a spiritual problem, worry, it has to do with loving
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God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. It has to do with obeying
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God, the Father, Son, and Spirit. So I need help, where do I go? And we looked last time, that we ought not to immediately run to people that don't even understand that men and women are born sinful and wicked.
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Psychologists and the psychiatric people cannot ultimately deal with spiritual problems like Jesus can.
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Can they? The world says it's a disorder, it's a syndrome, Jesus says it's a sin, so go to your
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Father and confess it. Isn't there mercy found when you go to your Father and say, Dad, please forgive me?
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When my kids go to me and when I have to go to my kids, I've sinned against you and did the wrong thing, would you please forgive me?
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What do you think my kids say? Nine, no. My kids know enough to say,
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Dad, I forgive you, and I know enough as a father to say, I forgive you, of course, and if I'm a sinful father and I forgive, how about the
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Holy Father, will he forgive? Of course. So why change things and say, well, it's a problem, and I inherited it, and my mother worried and my grandmother worried.
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By the way, my grandmother was a worrier, she paid to worry. She had one of these little boxes that you just push the top and you could hear the weather any time, which now is not a big deal because of the internet.
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Back in those days, it was like weather all the time, and so if it was windy, she worried. If it was cloudy, she worried.
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If it was lightning, she worried. If it was thunder, she worried. I mean, it was just like, oh, I haven't worried for a while, I've got to do something productive in my life, maybe worry, and pushes that button.
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So maybe that's why I worried. My grandmother worried and then my mother worried, and that's why I worried, God, and so I know
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Jesus has told me not to worry, but you just don't understand me, and we would know that would be the wrong way to go about it.
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Matthew Henry said, there is scarcely any one sin against which our
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Lord Jesus more largely and earnestly warns His disciples, or against which
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He arms them with more variety of arguments. It's a big deal. We don't want to worry because it impugns the goodness of God and Christ's law.
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To worry means to be divided. It means to have a tug of war in your heart.
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Remember tug of war when you were a kid? You have some people on this side, and they're straining, and you've got the water in between.
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Hopefully it's muddy water full of all kinds of other things, and there's people on this side, so there's tug of war. God can be trusted.
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I've got to control everything, and there's this big tug of war in your mind, and that's exactly what the Greek word means, to be worried, to divide or pull.
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It's a horrible way to live, isn't it? Excessively concerned about daily life. Kierkegaard said, no grand inquisitor has in readiness such terrible tortures as anxiety.
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Jesus says, based upon the full attention you should give to God, how can you let worry sneak in?
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Don't. I have a question for you, congregation. If God has given you the greater life, if God has given you the greater body, won't he give you the lesser food?
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Won't he give you the lesser clothing? What's the answer? I'm going to give you clothes, but I won't give you life?
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No, of course not. These people in these days as they would read this would say to themselves, there wasn't a lot of snow this winter, so the water didn't get accumulated on the top of Mount Hermon as snow.
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It wouldn't melt in the spring and trickle down to the Jordan, and we have no water. It didn't rain in the spring, so we have no crops.
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For us, we just go to Costco and we get whatever we want when we want it. Don't worry.
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Number two, number two, worry sin is number one.
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Number two, if God feeds the lowly birds, then won't he provide for you? Second reason not to worry is
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God takes care of birds that have no soul. Won't he take care of you? Of course he will. Verse 26, look at the birds of the air.
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Don't do this. Don't worry. Now do this. Here's the put on. Here's the positive. Look at the birds of the air.
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They do not sow, nor reap, nor gather. Three words kind of involvement of doing things. Sow, reap, gather.
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No, they don't do that, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? What's the answer?
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Of course you're worth more. Of course you're more valuable. Again, what would you do if you saw me thinking somehow that that sparrow in the backyard is more valuable than Gracie?
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Remember one time I found it. It was before vacation last year. Kids were going to fly to California with Kim. I found a little baby sparrow, and they're like,
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Dad, you've got to take care of it. Dad, you've got to feed it. And I thought, oh man, what am
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I going to do? If I was not a Christian, I would just say I tried and just, you know, see if the thing could swim or something, you know.
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Tell the kids, yeah. Don't know what happened. Tell them it died of lead poisoning.
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You know, I don't know. I got on the internet, how do you keep a baby sparrow alive?
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And it said something to the effect that you had to feed it something like 12 times a day for 60 days, and then it only had a 12 % chance of living, even if you did that without its mother.
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So? No, I'm just kidding. I just set it up on the tree and, I don't know, it died.
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And I'm sinful. And if I would do that to try to think how could I care for this little thing, of course then won't
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I say to my children that have my DNA, that have my genes, that I'm responsible for, won't
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I take care of them? The answer is yes. That's much better advice, go look at these birds to help you with the worry, than Minneth Meyer, Christian psychologist, quote, we suggest setting aside 15 minutes in the morning and another 15 minutes in the evening for active worry.
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Worry free living involves confining natural worry that we all feel into a designated time slot of 1 % of a 12 hour day.
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So if you're going to sin, just sin a little bit. Just make sure it's a minuscule percentage.
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Just make sure you know, I'm going to get up and get all my worrying done before I get out the door. The father knows best, and he sent his son who also knows best because he's also
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God. And he says instead of focusing on the worry, divided attention, do something positively.
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Get outside, go look at birds, go look at the natural order of creation.
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Think of Romans chapter 1 verse 20 where God shows through creation his what? Many things, not just his wisdom, but his power, the power of God as you look outside.
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He says, just go look, watch. And that word, look at, as we learned a couple of weeks ago, means to stare at, freeze frame.
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Go outside in the winter, go outside in the fall, and just stop and look, slow motion freeze frame and watch that thing, and you'll go,
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God takes care of all these things. Basically Jesus says, when you're worried, put your brain in gear and think properly.
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Jesus said it this way in Luke 12, consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap, and they have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them.
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How much more valuable you are than the birds. Lock on to this bird concept like a missile is locked on to some kind of target.
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When was the last time you saw birds in line at Costco in 1999 December? Birds stockpile, but not out of worry, but by instinct.
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God is faithful. Years ago we had this big men's group, not here at the church, but other churches, promise keepers.
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I just thought it was always kind of a weird idea because a bunch of promise keepers getting together saying, we keep all these promises.
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When the Bible says we all get together and break all the promises, and there's only one promise keeper. 2
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Corinthians chapter 1 verse 20, the promise keeper is God, and God has said, I'll give you life, I'll give you salvation,
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I'll give you everything else. I'm good, I'm always good, I bestow blessings on my people.
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See how great a love the father has bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God.
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Some might say, you know what? Does this mean we don't have to work? No, you have to work.
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Laziness cast into a deep sleep, an idle man suffers hunger, Proverbs 19 says. 2
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Thessalonians 3 says, if you don't work, you don't what? Eat. But the lesson is the heavenly father provides, get outside and look.
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Don't be distracted in your discipleship and allegiance towards God the father by saying, you know what? I'm worried about what
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I'm going to drink and eat. By the way, in 100 years from now, it will not matter if you've been to five -star hotels and drank
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Evian water for breakfast or anything else and ate sushi every night for dinner. It won't matter. In 100 years, it won't matter if you say to yourself,
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I wore Armani, I carried Gucci. I don't mean me.
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Maybe they've got some cool man purses, I don't know, but it doesn't matter. Turn with me to Leviticus 11, just for a minute.
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Leviticus 11, keep your finger there in Matthew. I just want to show you that in Christ's time and in the
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Bible time, there was all kinds of birds. Maybe Jesus was teaching this on the sermon, the sermon on the mountain and some birds flew overhead and he pointed, look at those birds up there.
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But if that wasn't the case, there were all kinds of other birds in this area. And Jesus says, basically be a bird watcher, study.
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I think there's about 20 or so, plus or minus a couple here, there of these birds in this section in Leviticus chapter 11 about clean and unclean.
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But I just want you to show you, give you an idea of how many birds there were in these Palestinian Israelite areas.
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Leviticus 11, 13, these moreover, you shall detest among the birds. They are abhorrent, not to be eaten, the eagle and the vulture and the buzzard and the kite and the falcon in its kind, every raven in its kind and the ostrich and the owl and the seagull and the hawk in its kind and the little owl and the comorant and the great owl and the white owl and the pelican and the carrion vulture and the stork, the heron of all kinds, the hopo and the bat.
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There was a lot of birds back there. Just go back and start looking at the birds, get outside and look and watch and live like you have a father.
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Number three, number three, back to Matthew chapter six, the third reason why you ought not to worry according to Jesus is number one, all worry sin.
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Number two, the lesser to the greater, God feeds the birds, won't he as your father provide for you?
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Number three, worry doesn't accomplish anything. Don't worry because it's unproductive. Verse 27 of Matthew six, and which of you being anxious can add a single cubit to his life span, span rather.
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This is basically a Hebrew way of saying it can't make you any older. It's a
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Hebraic way of saying with a rhetorical question, you can't get any older. It has nothing to do with how tall you are and how old you are.
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God has ordained the day of your life and your death and worry doesn't help. Actually, it can kind of hurt.
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Ulcers are not good for you. Worry can cause heart problems. And now we come to some new information found in verses 28 and 29 and 30.
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The fourth reason why you must not worry is that God, since he cares for inanimate objects, won't he care for you?
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Number two was he cares for the birds when he care for you. Now let's have something that's not even living. It's not even an animal unless you're some kind of green piece, not to think that a plant is some kind of living, has a soul or whatever.
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But look at this. Jesus' argument is this. Not just for the birds does he care, but he also cares for roadside flowers, verse 28.
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And why are you worried about clothing? These are the essential things that they were worried about clothing. Maybe they only had one set of clothes or maybe two.
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By the way, as a side note, if we're not supposed to be worried about the basics, then why should we be worried about everything else?
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Kind of cars we drive and kind of 401ks and all these other kinds of other things. This is basic things for the day.
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Why are you worried? Observe how the lilies of the field grow. They do not toil, nor do they spin.
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Yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. God so clothed the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown in the furnace.
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Here's another question. Will he not much more clothe you? I did something this week and here's what
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I want you to do if you're a worrier. It's cheaper than psychotropic drugs, even with a copay.
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I'm not kidding either. Go buy yourself a little loop. I have a little jeweler's loop that says 8X on it.
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You ever seen a little jeweler's loop? Multiplies things and you put your eye down really close.
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So here was my experiment. This is what I want you to do. I went and I got some plants, went to find some plants that were artificial, that were fake, that were plastic, that were just, they kind of looked nice far away, but I went and got that jeweler's loop and I looked at the thing and it just looked like,
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I don't know, what's nylon, vinyl, mainly the thing I could see on there was dust.
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That's what I could see. Then I went and got a real plant and I took that jeweler's loop and I went down and I got down really close and you know what
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I saw in the plant? You do that to a flower, what will you see? You'll see basically perfection.
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You'll see tapestry, weaving, veins on the other side of that leaf when
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I turned it over. I just looked at it and I thought, this is incredible. The minute detail.
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And those things didn't produce themselves. They're not saying, attention, headquarters, mission control, send all resources out to such and such of leaf so it can make itself, get the
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Bernina sewing machines all together over there in quadrant four of that vine, is that what they had, is it
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Bernina? I thought that's what my mom used, who knows what it was. And these aren't lilies like we had these lilies up here on Easter Sunday.
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These are roadside trash lilies. This is some kind of, we don't know the exact kind, but it's the stuff that just grows by the reservoir that you just soon cut down if it's in your yard.
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It's just a wildflower. And by the way, these wildflowers, when you couldn't find any wood in the
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Middle East, which was hard to find, you'd say, well, you know what, I'm going to use that for a fire. This is used for fire and God decks that thing out,
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Solomon with all his pageantry, with all his wonder, he couldn't dress himself like that.
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And so the question is again today, think about your own life. If God takes care of wildflowers that serve no purpose except to be burned, won't he take care of Mike Avendraw?
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He asked that question, will he not much more verse 30 clothe you? There's no reason to worry.
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You have a heavenly father. Hudson Taylor, the missionary to China said this, let us give up our work, our plans, ourselves, our lives, our loved ones, our influence, our all right into God's hands.
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And then when we have given all to him, there'll be nothing left for us to be troubled about.
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When your car breaks down, let me just give you a little hint. You say to yourself, hmm, my car broke down.
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And then you say to the Lord, Lord, your car broke down. I'm going to need a lot of help with this car, can't get the smog check.
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I mean, I've got this van and I can't seem to get the sticker. I got the R sticker, that was easy enough to get, but I can't get all these other kind of stickers and I worry about it.
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You find a place, you know, and give guys some money out of the table and he gives you the H sticker instead of the
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R sticker. You said, Lord, you care about my life, my salvation, my wife and my kids.
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And now I got to worry about an R sticker. Enough of the personal information, too much information.
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I didn't pay anybody off, by the way. Number five, fifth reason, we're going to make it at least a six, number five.
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The fifth reason you shouldn't worry is because worry reveals your lack of faith. Every time you worry, and I have to include myself, of course, worry means we don't have faith at that time.
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Found in verse 30, verse B, he says, you know, these things are thrown in the furnace, will he not much more do so for you?
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Verse 30, O men of little faith, anxiety shows the unbelief that's in your heart.
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You say, I'm worried, then you don't need an MRI scan to say inside my heart, I have unbelief.
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Because if I really believed what God says about how he cares for his people, how he cares for his children, about how he gives the greatest gift of Christ, doesn't he give the lesser gift, everything else, if I really believe that,
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I wouldn't be worried. I could ask you the question this way, what's worse?
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I don't believe the Bible is written by God, or I don't know if God can take care of that test tomorrow
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I have at the hospital. Both reveal a lack of faith, and we don't even worry about our clothes, we worry about other little things.
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Worry true or false, it's just a trivial sin. False, it's about our faith.
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Turn with me to Matthew chapter 8, there's lots of times you see these words, O you of little faith, literally it's you little faiths, it's one
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Greek word, you little faiths, how'd You little faiths.
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I actually would hate to be called that, by the way, but I am called that, that's who
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I am, every time I worried, I'm a little faith person, I want to think my faith is big, because my faith is in a big object.
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But here you see this kind of language, O you of little faith, often in Matthew, and regularly about the topic of worry.
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Matthew 8, 23, when he got the boat, his disciples followed him, behold, there was a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with all the waves, but Jesus himself was asleep.
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And they came to him, and they woke him saying, save us Lord, we're perishing. And he said to them, why are you what, afraid, you men of, you little faiths.
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And you see the tie in, when faith in God is large, the worry is gone, when worry is large, it's a question about that moment, the
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Christian who struggles says, I don't really believe what God says. It's the same thing in Matthew chapter 14, if you want to turn there, just quickly, showing again this phrase, you little faiths,
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O you of little faith, is often and regularly discussed about by Jesus in Matthew.
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And of course, I don't want to be called this, and so this is just another reason why, we stacked up in our minds why we don't want to worry,
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Matthew 14, 28, Peter said to him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water, you know the scene.
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He said, come, Peter got out of the boat, he walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the invisible, seeing the results of the wind, seeing the wind, he became frightened and beginning to sink, he cried out,
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Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand, took hold of him and said to him, glad you got halfway
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Peter, little faith, why did you doubt?
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When they got into the boat, I don't want to worry because it shows my lack of faith.
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Back to Matthew chapter six, number six, the sixth reason. First reason, all worry sin, second reason is, lesser of the greater, he feeds the birds, he'll provide for us, it doesn't accomplish anything, number three, number four, he even takes care of inanimate objects, so won't he care for us because he loves us so much in Christ?
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Number five, it reveals a lack of faith, and this one's a dagger, here's the dagger. Don't worry because worry is what pagans do, heathens do this, and we're
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God's children. Verse 31 and 32, do not be anxious then, saying, what shall we eat, what shall we drink, for what shall we clothe ourselves, for all these things the pagan ungodly
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Gentiles eagerly seek. You know those people over there that worship those statues, that worship wood, that take some wood and have half the wood carved into an image and they worship it and take the other half and they throw it in the fire and warn themselves, those people, those people that run around trees in England without clothes on, worshiping some tree, that's what they do, want to be like them,
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WWGD, what would Gentiles do? Worry, pagans fret, in other words,
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Jesus says, and it's all in the context of Matthew five, six and seven, your heavenly father, your father, your father, your father, your father, you've got a father.
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When I was in gym, I had enough weight in my lower body that I couldn't do a lot of gymnastic things, but they had a thing on the wall in the side of the gym, and on the side of the wall there was a bunch of holes, about like this, and there were two wooden sticks like this, they weren't sticks, they were in the shape of a cylinder, and what you'd have to do is you'd have to put one in there, and then one there, and with all your weight now on this one, pull yourself up and then put the other one in the other hole.
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You know what I mean. How many people know what I mean? Some do. Okay. Here are the two cylinders that you hold for the
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Sermon on the Mount's unlocking, righteousness, father, no righteousness, no kingdom.
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The only way you can get this righteousness is because of who Jesus is, we can't earn it on our own, hypocrites, they don't have it, nobody can buy it or sell it.
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Here it is, the righteousness that comes from God, and understanding with this peg that God is father, and if you have a father, then you're not some pagan, wiccan, crazy person seeking for these things.
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What does the text say, verse 32? The Gentiles eagerly seek. It's a strengthened form of seeking, it means to run, to scamper after.
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Jesus basically says this, worry is beneath a Christian. Christians don't run around following pagans, pell -mell, and hither -thither, following all these things.
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D .A. Carson said, this is an underlying attitude that shows the thoughtlessness and affronting nature to God.
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It's the Gentiles. The Gentiles have a God that says, you know what, give me your firstborn, thrown in this fire so my wrath might be assuaged towards you, the
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God of Molech. Burn your firstborn baby right here in this fire pit down in the valley of Hinnom, and then
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I'll be nice to you. That's not our God, so why would we act like that?
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Number seven, seventh reason why you shouldn't marry, well, that's actually a good one.
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Actually, from 1 Corinthians chapter 7, there are some of those statements. How do you like my
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Mother's Day sermon today? I mean, I don't know how many times you can preach from 1 Samuel 2 or Proverbs 31, so it is what it is.
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Verse 32b, the seventh reason why you must not worry, your father knows exactly what you need and he'll gladly provide you what you need.
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He knows exactly, omnisciently what you need, and he'll be glad to provide those things that you need, not necessarily what you want or what you think you have to have, but all your needs.
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And he says that in verse 32. Hey, these Gentiles seek these things, for your heavenly Father, there it is again, a key to understand the
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Sermon on the Mount, your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
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And the implication is, if he knows you need them, won't he give you those things? For me not to provide for my family, 1
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Timothy chapter 5 says I should be treated as worse than a what? If God the
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Father doesn't provide for his children, he should be thought of as worse than a... 1
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Peter 5, humble yourselves therefore into the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you.
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Literally it matters to God about you. And if Jesus just got done telling us, pray to the
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Father in Matthew chapter 6, give us this day our daily bread. Don't you think God would answer that prayer?
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God is our shepherd, we can rest in the Lord and he's our refuge and strength, of course. Number eight.
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Number eight. The eighth reason why you must not worry is God grants everything to kingdom seekers. He gives it all and more, verse 33.
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God grants everything to kingdom seekers. If you live all out for God, he'll provide everything you need.
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Everything you need, he'll provide. I remember when I went into ministry, I thought I have a severe pay cut.
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What's going to happen? I'm going to move to Massachusetts and then what? But God, I'm going to be sold out for you and whatever comes, comes.
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It's your problem. You're going to have to take care of it. I can't worry about this. I know you've given me this heart to search and seek for your kingdom first and then it's going to be added to me.
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So I'm going to have to take his face value. Verse 33. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. All these things shall be added to you.
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The connection, do you see it, between service and anxiousness. Serve all out, it blows away anxious living.
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And here this seeking is to hunt, to track, to pursue, to go for it.
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I want you to do this to such a degree that your friends all think you're in a cult. That comes about all the time.
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They say, people here coming to the church, even recently, everybody kind of thinks I'm in a cult now. And I always say, if you're in a cult, that would make me the cult leader.
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That'd be scary. Don't ever follow a cult leader who has an
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R on his van. Okay? Rule number one. It'd be a bad thing.
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When people search to obtain and to strive and to say, you know what? The whole world is running that way after fame and fortune and pleasure and hedonism and the next high to get through life, and I'm going this way.
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First of all, they're going to think you're crazy and in a cult, but second of all, who cares what they think and know the whole time,
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God will take care of you. He'll provide for all that you need. And the worst thing that can happen is, you get promoted and go to heaven.
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That's not too bad. This is the climactic part of this section on anxiety.
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When you give your time, money, soul, everything to God and his service, he'll take care of you.
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This kind of seeking is found in Matthew 26, and from then on, he began looking, Judas did, for an opportunity to betray him.
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I'm just going to scope out the situation. When would be a good time I can get in there and deny Jesus? Seeking, searching, inspecting, investigating.
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So as a preacher, I now stop and say, would you say before God, before others, not perfectly, but the direction of your life, you say, it's all or nothing.
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Since I believe in God and he is my father, my life, my finances, my everything, my wife, kids, come what may, it's all out for God, even if it kills me.
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Do you think that kind of person, first of all, they could only do it if God was working in their heart. And if God's worked that in their heart, wouldn't he come along and say, and everything you need,
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I'll provide for? Everything? Paul said in Acts 20,
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I do not consider my life of any account dear to myself, because I'm after the kingdom.
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If you live all out for the Lord, he will provide for you. There's a lesson
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I had to learn. I remember when I was in sales, as an unbeliever, I was always top sales rep, because I would do unbelieving things.
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Just get to the top any way you can. Then all of a sudden I got saved and I realized, you know, I can't really lie, cheat, swindle, flirt, and do everything else that these other people do to get ahead.
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And so my numbers tanked straight. I was from sales rep of the year one year, nationally. Two years later, they met with me and they said, you know, you've done a lot for our company.
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And so we're not going to, if you give us verbally a three month commitment that you'll leave the company, we won't give you the two weeks notice today.
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I told you that story, didn't I? And then I went to the phone, drive and went over to Trader Joe's and probably got some cashews or something.
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I don't know what I was doing. And I was calling another company for a new interview because they thought,
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I got to get a new job right away. All of a sudden I saw something floating across the way. It was kind of windy.
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$10 bill. This is manna. This is money from heaven. If I was a charismatic, that's a sign.
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Go work for the mint. No, I don't know what it was. I saw it and here I am interviewing for the new job.
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I don't have a job. I have three months to go for this other job. They used to think I'm great. Now it's time to, you know, nice to know you.
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Put the phone down, went and got the 10 bucks is what I did. Start living in this world and we say, if my all out wide open living affects my job because everyone else has to work 80 hours a day and they sacrifice not only their wife, not only their kids, buying into the lie that you could have it all, they sacrifice it all, including their walk with the
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Lord. When they do sacrifice it all, do you think God will take care of you? Of course you might not be driving around in Rolls Royces, but he will take care of you.
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It's the promise of God. God's rule, God's will, God's program, God's kingdom.
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Do you think God takes care of a person like that? Of course he does. And if you don't read church history, that would be a good thing for you to do.
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The reward of following God is provision. And you see what he says in verse 33 and all these things shall be added to you.
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Clothing. This is like Philippians 4. My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
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You're working for the kingdom, too busy to be worried. Working for the kingdom, not caring. Here's what's going to happen.
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And number nine, you've got time to spare. The ninth reason you shouldn't worry is because your focus needs to be on serving today, not about worrying in the future.
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Worry stresses today, excuse me, tomorrow, and our focus needs to be on today. That's the reason why you shouldn't worry.
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Number nine, I found out from an internet site this week, 40 % of people worry about things that will never happen.
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30 % worry about things that can't be changed. 12 % worry about criticism by other, mostly untrue.
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10 % worry about health, which gets worse with stress. And 8 % worry about real problems that will eventually have to be faced.
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Don't worry about the future. By the way, because God will be there tomorrow, verse 34, therefore, do not be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself.
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Each day has enough trouble of its own. Can I get an amen on that? Of course. So why borrow worry?
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Listen, one man said, you can't change the past, but you can ruin a perfectly good present by worrying about the future.
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If worry is not dealt with about today, thinking and looking and observing and talking about the kingdom, then it sneaks and creeps into the future.
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It's one of the reasons why you know you haven't dealt with worry, if all of a sudden the worry expands from today till the next day.
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Common slogan, fears may be liars. Another slogan, worry doubles trouble.
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Another slogan, Corrie Ten Boom, worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows.
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It empties today of its strength. God will be there tomorrow.
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So we ought to be like the Africans who have this proverb, Lord Jesus, make my heart sit down.
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Ever had a Sunday school class and kids are disobeying? Young man, sometimes girls do it,
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I guess. Young lady, sit down. It's basically what's happening.
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But what about tomorrow? What about that thing in the doctors? What about that test? What about that mortgage payment?
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And much less sternly than I did, but with a genuine love of the all -knowing, all -comforting
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God, He says, child, sit down.
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Isaiah said, the steadfast of mind thou will keep in perfect peace. I don't know about you, but I hate it when
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I worry. And I don't know about you, but one of the lovely graces of Christ Jesus is He never worries, and He teaches me what to do.
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Ever had a nickname? I used to have some nicknames when I was growing up. One when
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I was a little kid, some of you older folks would know from the ad on TV. One of my nicknames when
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I was a kid was Freckle Face Strawberry. If you're not at least 50, you don't know the ad.
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When I played basketball, I liked this nickname better. My nickname was Iron Mike. I hated this nickname, but it was true most of the time as an unregenerate person,
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Mean Mike. What's in a name? What's in a nickname?
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When I tell you Paul the Apostle, when I tell you James the
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Just, when I tell you Frederick the Great, what do you think about?
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Well, in the early centuries of the Christian era, there was a man named this,
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Teteus Amerimnas. Now, if you take a word, typical, and you put an
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A in front of it, it negates the word, doesn't it? It means atypical, not typical, not anything like typical.
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This guy's last name was Amerimnas. What does
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Amerimnas mean? Remember from two weeks ago? It means to worry. This guy was named
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Ted, the man who never worries, Tom Bertrand.
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I didn't want you to laugh. Pradeep Tilak, Emily Ferry.
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That's what God wants. That's what your father wants. You say, I can't do it, but I want to. That's a sign of a
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Christian. I'm weak, but I want to. That's a sign of a Christian. I don't want to worry, but I tried all these others.
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Friends, then here's your resolution. We're going to pray just in a minute, and you're going to make this resolution if you want in your heart to God.
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God, I want to serve you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, whether it's here or whether it's in Germany or whether it's in Africa, India.
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I'm full out, full bore. I don't want to do it, but would you increase my faith? And God, I'm sick to death of worry.
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I don't want to worry anymore, and I want to serve you, fill my life with service for other Christians. And then maybe the next generation will look at you.
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Father, we are weak. This is not a sin. That's only for the old or for the young, but it's for everyone.
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We'd ask first that you'd cleanse us, wash us from all unrighteousness, somehow acting like we don't have any faith in you, a great
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God, a heavenly Father, a holy Father. Lord, maybe it's just we think about ourselves too much, and maybe it's just we think about others too much.
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Would you give us a heart to fix our eyes on Christ Jesus? He's the one, full bore, serving you, and you took care of all of his needs.
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What a great example we have in Christ Jesus. And also, Lord, we're thankful that because of Christ, you look at us now, because of the cross, as men and women who have never worried and never will.
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So, Lord, by your Spirit, we'd like to live out who we are. We are men and women who will never worry in heaven.
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We are men and women who have all the righteousness of trust placed upon us because of Christ's death and life and resurrection.
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Lord, I think of Lazarus coming back. After he died, Jesus raised him.
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How much he must have talked to people about how they didn't need to worry about anything. And so,
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Lord, seal these truths to our hearts and make us men and women not for our own sake to have nicknames like, we're not the worriers, but for the glory of the kingdom, in Jesus' name, amen.