The Problem of Worry

Welcome To The River. City Church podcast and a

message by our lead. Pastor Jason Powers our prayer

is that this message would Inspire and encourage you, build

your faith and point you to the life-changing love Jesus, may

you enjoy the goodness of God as You Follow Him Today.

We Begin every week with our, with our confession and our

confession is a truth that we believe and we come back to it

over and over because life is hard and it's fast and it moves

quick and it gets you and places and we need to tether ourselves

to truth. And so this is our confession

and we do every week as we begin with just a moment of silence

based on this idea. And first John 1:9, Jesus is

1 John 1:9

best friend, John tells us if you confess your sins, he Jesus

he is faithful and he is just and he will forgive us our sins

and he will purify us from all unrighteousness.

Listen from start, to finish, beginning to end.

The thing that we talked about here is Jesus, this is not about

our This is not about our ability, this is not about.

If you work hard or doing another, whatever this is about,

Jesus is love for you and his desire to save you.

So we begin with that moment of quiet, just to meditate on that.

Remember, Jesus is with you and he's in the room.

Jesus, we thank you for your love.

Thank you for your grace. We thank you for your

forgiveness. And Lord, we acknowledge that

we're in process. So we need your grace every

moment, but we acknowledge that you have big desires and big

plans in a big love for us. So may we lean into that not

denying or justifying, or explaining away our Brokenness,

but simply bringing it to you in love.

As we open your word father, I play the pray that you would

change our hearts that we would live in light of the life that

you showed us. Oh Jesus, we bring you this and

we asked you and we thank you for all the good things that

you've done and are doing in our lives and in our presence, Lord,

we thank you for each of these baptisms.

For each of these confessions, these are folks young and old

that have encountered you, and we thank you for that.

May that be our story today. Jesus, we ask in your name and

for your glory. Amen.

And now having received Grace are Fashion is that we're badly

broken. Yes, you are Grace and peace to

you. That confession, man.

Like the longer I go. The more I find it kind of

infiltrating my life, both parts of it daily.

It seems like I'm like oh that's broken this sure enough.

Yep, that's that's it. That's what it is, right?

And the words that we use are important, right?

It's important. I call it.

It's not so it's not just a mistake or a mishap.

It's like, no. It's like I wanted that and I

went after and got it and it was hurtful and it was good.

So we Let Brokenness but we also call it love and love means

something. Love is a word that that is deep

and it is Rich. And I think that it doesn't

always mean what maybe in our culture calls and I think we

have a soft idea of you of love, but Jesus kind of redeemed at

all. That to say that our words are

important. They're significant.

And there's two words in Scripture that really go

together, that, that maybe it's not intuitive.

We've been talking, we've been looking at Matthew 5, 6, and 7

for the Last a lot of weeks writing, we're talking about The

Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus begins this and Matthew chapter

Matthew 4:17

4, verse 17. Jesus says, repent for the any

users of word Kingdom for the kingdom is at hand.

The kingdom is present and too many times are often times.

I think that idea Kingdom. It's like, it's like, a

fairytale word, right? And so, but Jesus talks about

this Kingdom and all the implications are important,

right? There is a sovereign.

There is a king, there is a ruler.

There is, there is an order. So, when Jesus talks about

Kingdom that it doesn't show up a bunch in the rest of the New

Testament and the rest of the New Testament, particularly in

the writings of Paul, the idea conveyed by Kingdom, the word

that Paul uses is salvation, So, when we talk about, Paul's

teaching about salvation, right? Ephesians 2:8-9 for by grace,

Ephesians 2:8–9

are you saved, through faith? And this is faith in this, and

I'm yourself. It is.

Alright? So salvation, Paul's saying the

same kind of thing that Jesus is saying, salvation is Simply Life

lived under the direction, guidance of authority and

Leadership of Jesus living in. God's kingdom is what salvation

is. But the question becomes, why

did Paul talked Salvation. What are we saved from?

That's a great question. I'm glad that you asked, right?

So before we kind of answer that I want to pause process that

what are we saved from? But I want to stop and ask real

quick. How are you doing?

How are you really? And I see college students, I'm

glad it's good to see you, some of you back for the first time

facing what? The last couple weeks and the

News have been difficult. How are you doing the last

couple years in the world are difficult?

How are you doing? What are you feeling about the

world? About your life?

About your place? Are you okay thinking about it?

If you're like me, it seems like this constant awareness and

battle against anxiety, fear worried.

And I'm shared like, my, my past my history of experience with

with anxiety and with depression with all that and it's kind of a

balance kind of struggle, but Times Like These are difficult

and my senses as I read this week.

The second, you know, Matthew chapter 6 and kind of the back

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

half of chapter 6, I realize I can't came to realize that that

is the invitation that Jesus worse to is especially real and

relevant for this time right now because the kingdom and

salvation, both all the things we've talked about the kingdom

up to this point we can say about salvation, right?

The kingdom, we song Jesus. It's about here and it's about

now, and that's important for salvation.

Salvation isn't for some day later out there, right?

It's not like, oh well, we trust Jesus now and someday.

We'll die, and then we'll be saved.

Jesus. Throughout the Kingdom at hand.

So what that means for us is that salvation is at hand, it is

for here, and it is now both the kingdom and salvation, the

kingdom of Jesus. We saw Jesus talked about the

kingdom is this inside out, right?

He said, it's not enough to just not kill people in the Kingdom,

we don't accept contempt contempt for another person as a

thing that has to be dealt with, it has to be worked out.

We're afraid of sickness or afraid of death, or afraid of

loss or afraid of losing see, the root of our fear.

Ultimately, if you trace it back and followed back somewhere is

the fear of running out, the fear that there won't be enough.

Our financial fear is that there's too much month at the

end of the money. Our health, fear our that

someday. This body is going to quit

working. It's going to, it's going to

time out and we're going to expire and it's all going to be

done. Worried if we see the law like

as it's an entrance exam, we're worried that.

When it's all said and done, I'm going to stand there and I'm not

going to have done enough. And so, what is fear and

anxiety? Look like, what looks like

anxiety, but it can look like greed.

Did you know? Greed is fear.

I don't have enough. So I have to hold on to

everything. Stinginess is assigning, an

indication of fear. And so, when Jesus came and

said, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and when Paul Talked

about salvation and talked about seven us from this, the culture

of the Kingdom, then saves us from fear and death.

So now as we think about, what are you worried about

abandonment, you worried about betrayal.

Are you worried about scarcity? I think scarcity is a big one,

especially as the economy goes on the toilet right?

We worried that there's just there's we were driving by car

lots yesterday so my son turns 16 and we were driving by car.

Lots just right by and we noticed for the first time it

was shocking car lots are like empty.

There's not enough and so we bought my son a cheap car that

would have been cheaper. About five years ago and wasn't

so cheap right now and so you begin to be afraid.

Well is that going to happen to Spaghetti?

Am I not gonna be able to avoid spaghetti and food and collagen

on that we get cynical right? Cynicism says oh yeah well enjoy

it now because it's not going to be here forever.

We get angry that this is the condition that someday it's

coming and I'm not going to have enough and we're waiting for the

inevitable inevitable and life teaches us this.

Because as you're growing, you have maybe some beloved

grandparent and what happens to the grandparent.

They expire they go away and now we're lost and now we're left

and we realize everything runs out.

And So eventually at some point you begin to look at your

something to do. Well, am I going to run out to

is this all for me? And so we begin to worry.

Well, what about, what will happen to my spouse?

What will happen to my kids, what will happen to what, what

will happen? And the kingdom of the culture

of the kingdom is this, there is no, Fear in love.

And listen, this isn't some like hey why are you so terrible that

you're afraid. Don't Be Afraid.

Like this is listen, the next part is so important because

perfect love drives out fear. So with this is talking about

this is like like, you know, you've got a full box and you

try to, like, push more stuff in it in order to push stuff and

you got to get rid of the old stuff.

So you've got fear in order to get fear out, you have to push

love and perfect, love drives out fear.

Because fear has to do with punishment.

This is where this argument gets theological will talk about in

just a second. The one who fears is not made

perfect in love. So we talked about punishment,

here's what happens. The idea is because I did

something wrong. God, is going to take something

away from me. Oh, well, I didn't behave and

that's why I get sick. That's why I don't have enough

money. That's why bad things are

happening. Because God, Is mad at me and if

you've been around the church, long enough you've probably

learned how to spiritualize this and go.

Ho. Well, I deserve it and there's

Grace and at least some day when I die, right?

And what John is saying here in his, he's pointing to Jesus

saying that's not the economy. That's not how it works.

He said punishment isn't part of the plan.

And unless and until we know that and I don't mean

intellectually. Don't see, I think that's the

problem. Kind of in our culture is we

have all of the information and all of humanity at our

fingertips, right. So we can go and read a lot of

stuff and know, I know the atomic weight of barium, who

cares? As we know God in our hearts, as

we know God and our behaviors in our relationships and that love

begins to creep in it changes. Everything.

It changes, how we see everything.

And so, here's the good news. Are you ready the seed of a

worry-free life begins at Salvation?

It's planted at Salvation. And so, this is why, when we

talk about salvation, we talked about the kingdom.

When I talk about following Jesus, this is part of the

reason this is part of what it's about.

It's the ability to not have to be afraid of the world that

we're living, even really bad things even really big things,

even things that in our world, tell me, You should be afraid of

me, right? The other guy, the bad guy,

doesn't you be afraid of me? And what this tells us is in the

Kingdom, you don't have to. I don't have to be afraid that

it's been. And listen, here's how Paul

describes it. Ready.

Philippians chapter 2 starting verse 12.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Therefore my dear friends as you have always obeyed.

Now not only in my presence but now much more in my presence

continuing so talking about time but notice how he phrases it

continued, obedience continue to work out your salvation.

With fear and trembling, he doesn't say work for your

salvation, that would be. That would be heresy.

That would be something that we don't do.

But work out the ideas, there's a seed planted in your heart and

the way that we work that out is by obedience, this is why Jesus

begins by talking about the law and the Pharisees and saying,

you can't work for your salvation because if I read

Philippians 2 and it says work for your salvation like, well,

now I've got to be better than everybody.

I've got to say less cuss words or whatever the mat whatever the

thing is, right. But what Paul, says is work it

out, and here's why for it is God who works in you to, will

you ever felt like you're like I don't want to do the right

thing, right? Like that that's the deal.

I just I don't want to do starting with that

acknowledgement and that confession is a big deal, right?

So here's the question, can you say I want to want that.

Maybe that's all you can muster right now so you can go to God

and go. I don't I don't want to be like

that, but I want to want that. I want Lord, I want you whatever

that looks like and it's okay to say right now.

I can't see how that. Behavior is connected to your

favor, in your goodness and your life.

I can't see how that lifestyle is connected to your goodness,

but I want to I want to be radically obedient to you even

when I don't understand. Even when it makes sense even

when something fundamental my life, help me out here because

what it says is it's God that plants that will in us.

And so you can say, I don't want to but Lord I want to want.

Will you put that in me? Will you put a desire in me that

wants to honor and please you and listen it?

If that's the only thing you can pray today, start there.

And you know what the Lord is going to do, he's going to go.

That's awesome. That's what I'm talking about.

If that's all you got that's all you got start there, right?

It's God who works in us to Will and then to act, he places the

desire and as he leads us to himself and then he allows us

and calls us work out. Listen, the kingdom of God, the

Kingdom of Heaven is planted inside of you.

It's not out there for you to go like to the Christian bookstore

and buy the thing or the certain, like translation about

the Kingdom of Heaven is within you.

It is the love and the grace, and the Redemption, and the

restoration of God. And it was planning.

So working out now and he says, working out your salvation, that

is what we call discipleship. And discipleship is following

Jesus. It's being a disciple of his,

right? And what we've just seen is

discipleship leads to Worry free, but it starts in an

unusual place. Okay, so here's what I hear.

This is important because I'm about to read.

You might just go. You just stuck that in there.

I didn't. I'm reading the very next verse.

And so here's my, here's my thing.

We have to ask, does Jesus know what he's talking about?

Do we believe that Jesus knows what he's talking about, okay,

my promise to you is, by the time we're done, by the time, we

get to the end of this, passage the end of it's going to be,

don't worry about anything, okay?

But in order to get their, jesus takes on a journey.

Are you ready? Let's see how Jesus talks to us.

About not living in fear. He begins in Matthew chapter 6,

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

starting in verse 19. Are you ready?

Do not store up for yourself? Treasures on Earth, where moth

and Vermin, destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

Jesus begins a talk about worry by talking about treasure.

Now, what is treasure mean? Does it mean money?

Sure. Doesn't mean other things.

Sure, the idea when you think, when you read this idea from

Treasure of Jesus, what I want you to think is priority, okay?

What is the thing that you put first?

What is the thing that you will say no to everything else for so

that you can say yes to that. Jesus says don't store your

Treasures. Don't put your priorities here

on Earth, like is he? The deal.

If your priority is your house, if that's most important to you

as your house, one of two things is going to happen, you're going

to die and will it to somebody else or you're going to sell it

and go live somewhere else. Either way it doesn't go to

Eternity and you know what? You're going to do the whole

time, you own a house investing in it, pouring money into doing

it right. Don't store up your Treasures

here, where things they break down.

They were Out there go away. How about your job?

How important is your job? Your job, maybe your identity.

Like this is a thing for me like I have to wrestle with this.

I have to deal with this a lot, right?

If my job is my identity that who I am stops, when I retire.

There's only two ways out of a job, retirement and death.

I mean, you can get fired. You can get along the way.

I hope we're not there, but one way or another.

I'm not doing this for eternity. So, if this is my thing someday,

it's going to go. And so, do you know what

happens? And you know what anxiety is,

anxiety, is worried about the future.

So what anxiety is when I just go, what am I going to do when I

don't do this anymore? What am I going to do?

If the church doesn't come through.

What am I going to do? If they don't like me.

What if I say something that people don't like and everybody

leaves? And then the tides go away.

And then, I'm just gonna be scooping ice cream, it's going

to be bad. And what a my kids going to do,

right? And so you begin going down this

road and this Trail and what Jesus says, That's not your

don't make that your priority do the things that you can do, but

don't make your pressure and then it gives us the

Alternatives, but store up for yourselves.

Treasures in Heaven, set your priority in heaven, where moth

and Vermin. Do not destroy and where thieves

do not break in and steal, but where your treasure is there,

your heart will be. Also, listen, that last phrase

is a gold mine. Because what Jesus is saying is

because the problem is, you just go.

Yeah, but my heart, isn't that? My heart does care about houses

and jobs and Money and reputation and stuff like that.

And what Jesus is saying is great.

You can direct your heart where to go, put your treasure there,

send your treasure. Do you want to get rich?

You want to listen do you want to have a wonderful college team

that you cheer for and Route? You know, you need to do, send

your kid there because you start paying tuition to that place.

You're a fan. You want their football team to

be good. Imagine This.

It's summertime in your thinking about a vacation man.

I want to go on a vacation you just go but man I don't have the

cash on hand. So what we'll do is we'll just

take a couple hundred, take $100 at every paycheck and we'll set

it aside and we'll do that for as long as we can.

And then when we get enough, we'll have it.

Well, every time every time that paycheck comes and you take $100

and you put it in that savings account, you know what you do?

You start talking about that vacation?

And you start going ski and we're going to go skiing, it's

in it and every time and now all of a sudden your family starts

get excited about that vacation and so then it's two weeks

before they Asian and your worthless at work, man.

And you can't do anything because you're thinking about

it, right? Do you know what, listen,

Colorado's always been there, there's always been skiing.

You have always been thinking about it, that's always where

you want to go. But something happens, when you

begin to invest in that and your heart starts to go there.

What if we start investing like that in the Kingdom?

What if out of every one of our paychecks every one of our days

we just started investing so that when we start getting

closer to death, right? On our age gets up there and we

start breaking down on my back starts hurting and we just start

going. I've been infested so much and

what's to come. I can't wait to get there.

The problem is we go man. I spend my whole life building

my house, and my kids, and my spouse and my job, and mine are

hood of my lawn on, finally, got all the dandelions out of my

lawn. And now I'm about to go to the

problem is we've invested our life here so we don't want to

go. But what if this is like the ice

cream shop, I love to go to the ice cream shop.

Like a little, peanut butter ice cream and a little bit of

cheesecake ice cream, and I put them together and it's

delicious. I don't want to live at the ice

cream shop. I want to go home to my bed,

right? This world is like that, man.

Listen, enjoy this world, enjoy the things, enjoy your house,

and joy, your neighbors, and the company, and all of that.

But if we're going to live a worry-free existence, we have to

check our priorities. Because if my priority is stuff,

that's ultimately going to go away, then I'm going to live in

anxiety because I'm always going to be looking at that.

But if I just go this, listen, we've just recently moved into a

house and I love it. I it is, he's glorious.

But you know what? I've lived in houses before and

I moved them and I left them and you know what?

Some point my roof is going to leak and I'm going to have to

fix it and then I'm going to hate that.

Then I'm going to hate my house, right?

I'm gonna want to start moving right now.

Is why it's important that we acknowledge and recognize that,

this isn't it. And so discipleship, truly, and

I don't mean having data set about God.

I don't mean believing in God. I mean following him, I mean, A

discipleship path were tracking discipleship.

Begins with priority realignment.

It begins by saying, listen, I don't have to hate that.

Listen, I love my work. I love that, we live, where we

live. I love the friends and the

people that in my life, but I acknowledge and recognize that

it's not forever. So I'm free to enjoy it without

Not worrying about the day where it goes away without worrying

and fearing about loss. And so the question is right, if

we got to check our priorities, the question for us that I have

two answers. I look around.

Well, here's a way. Ask your kids.

Kids based on how we spend our time and how we spend our money,

Junior, what do you think is most important to Mommy and

Daddy? Find out what they say.

They'll tell you the truth then you may have to ground them but

that's okay. Maybe before you ask your kids,

ask yourself, if you were to look at your checkbook and your

calendar, what do those two tools indicate?

Are your priorities and listen, I'm not telling you this so that

you'll live a poverty. Existence, I'm telling you this

so that you live a worry-free existence.

I'm not saying that you can't have any stuff.

I'm saying that if stuff has you your It was going to be limited

and nervous and Afraid and lonely.

So we can check our priorities because the idea is the Kingdom

lives in our heart, right? The kingdom begins inside, and

it begins to work itself out. So when we take our treasure and

listen, we treasure, we immediately think of money,

right? And let's, I'm not going to let

you off the hook that's for you and God to decide, right?

You decide. If money is your thing, you know

what it is? For me, it's energy because I'm

an introvert, right? And I'm not relationally.

Super, you're like, yeah, energy seems like a problem.

For you, right? I feel like because what I do

after this is nap hard, like Sunday afternoon is a good nap,

right? And so, I'm constantly worried,

if there are too many things, if too many people need me, I'm

gonna run out. I'm going to be exhausted and

wiped out, and I'm going to die and be cranking all that stuff,

right? So faith for me, put my treasure

in my heart is, is just go. If somebody needs to be

encouraged, that's my job. That's what not job.

Like, that's what I get paid for it.

That's my kingdom Mission. So, as much as I can, I don't

like talking. Going on the phone.

But if somebody calls me with a need my gift, my tied, the way

that I discipline myself is to just go, I'm going to take that

phone call and I'm going to be fully present and available

because that's what's in my heart.

And I want to invest in that in the person, in the thing, in

whatever it is, that reminds me, this doesn't live forever, my

heart that heart, it does live forever, put your stuff there.

And what happens is the more that we do that The more it

begins to change, actually, how we see the world.

Listen verse 22. The eye is the lamp of the body

in order to understand. Okay?

So that's a lamp back there. Does the is the lamp of the

creator of light? No, it's the light bulb is the

creator of light electricity into the light bulb, right?

What the lamp does is direct and focus in channel the light,

right? Your eye is the lamp of the

body. And so Jesus, your eye doesn't

create light. That would be like, right?

Like a robot. That's not that the eye is the

lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy because

there's good of your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be

full of light, but if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body

will be full of Darkness. If the, if then the light, which

is in you, is Darkness. How great is that Darkness?

So here's the idea, your eyes are the lamp of the body.

Whatever light is in your heart is going to come out, it's going

to affect the way that you see. So now let's do a little bible

study to. Okay, so in my thing right here,

first of all, I'm reading right here.

All of these letters are red which means that Jesus said

them, Now, when Jesus said these words, he said them in Greek,

right? And so now, you have translation

issues like how do you translate.

So, I go here and it says, if your eyes are unhealthy, and

there's that word unhealthy because I'm like, is that, like,

macular degeneration, like what do you mean if they're

unhealthy? Well, right next to that word,

unhealthy is a letter D. That's a footnote.

So I just go. Okay, where is it?

Oh right over here on this side right, bottom D so I look at

that. Look at the letter D.

It's and verse 23 which is great.

Here's what the footnote says, the Greek for unhealthy.

Here implies. Are you ready?

Stinginess? Okay, so let's go back up, verse

where it says, see, right. If your eyes are healthy, that's

a letter seas are going to see the Greek for healthy here.

Implies generous The eye is the lamp of the body.

If your eyes are generous, your whole body will be full of

light. But if your eyes are stingy,

your whole body will be full of Darkness.

Then the light that is within, you is Darkness.

If the light that is within you, is Darkness.

How great is that Darkness? Listen, if we look at the world

and see, scarcity, That's a problem with heart and you go,

it's not a problem with the heart.

It's a mat. It's a finite think things run

out, here's a story. Okay, when I was a start as a

youth, pastor one of the very first things I did is youth

pastor was take the use. We had a group of 60, 80 kids on

a mission trip and we went downtown San Antonio to a place

called church under the bridge every Friday night at church

under the bridge about 150. People would show up to have

dinner, right? And so this church under the

bridge, Churches all over town and says, hey will you cook food

for about 150 people and bring it and feed the people to be

great for the kids. So I'm just like perfect.

So what do you do for a mission trip, right?

When you going to feed a bunch of people, spaghetti the weight,

right? I got spaghetti noodles serving

size 10 so I made 15 I think was 160, people made it?

Spaghetti salad corn for 160 people.

I was so proud of myself and one of the students mother her name

was glennis Bryce. I'll never forget this because

of this story. So glennis comes and she's going

to go. And so we We set up and we're

church under the bridge. It's early December.

Glynnis, can you handle just scooped in and making sure

everything runs. I'm gonna go talk to people.

So Glynis like yes, Glynis is a great woman of Faith as we walk

up the pastor of this church under the bridge comes goes,

Jason was like, yes, he says it's a cold night.

There's about 250 people here. I was like, well tell 90 of them

that they're going to be hungry afterwards to because I cooked

for 160 people. As I'm saying this, I look over

and glennis and Glenn says got this.

Big can of spaghetti. And she's like shoveling it and

I'm like, glynnis, she's like, he isn't this wonderful?

We're going to feed so many people and like, no, we're not

like that. Right?

And so, she's going. So I'm walking around and I'm

freaking out. I'm fretting.

And the kids like, oh, we're feeding people, helping them

like, yeah, you're about to see a catastrophe right of this.

And so, as I'm walking around, and I'm, I'm worrying, right?

Because I'm the boss and that's what I have to do.

It only makes sense to worry, right?

I look over. And Glynis is going like this.

Oh my gosh. Isn't that amazing?

The last person in line gets the last scoop of spaghetti, how do

you feed 250 people with spaghetti for 160?

I don't know. It's never happened again.

I've never seen it there before, but I know that glennis was

generous and I know 250 people 850 people's worth of food And

they all were happy and they were all satisfied at.

Listen, there's a lot about that story that you like, bro, I

don't know. I get it.

I understand. I understand I'm telling you, I

saw it and the idea is the first thing that we see God doing in

scripture is creating our God is able to make more.

And so what he says in the kingdom is if you're clinging to

stuff so you don't run out. Then you'll be able to have

whatever it is that you keep. But if you say, my stuff is a

resource, my stuff. Yeah.

Your money. But your time, and your energy,

and your training, and your degrees, and your health.

And all of the things that you have, if those are the deals,

then you'll never run out. You become a distributor, a

kingdom distributor of Grace, and hope, and peace, and love.

And so, if we're going to do that, if we're going to embrace

that, right? And what happens is when I

realized, I can give everybody as much.

I can't. Cuz you know what would happen

if we have only fed 150 people, that's still pretty cool in it,

it's good to have 150 people eat.

Like, if nothing else, we showed up and fed people but what

happened was we saw what God can do when God gets involved.

And the problem is I don't put myself in those situations often

enough to many times I just go well there's not enough.

And the Lord's, like, all right, maybe there's not.

So in order for us to be WorryFree, we have to check our

perspective, do you believe that God is capable of doing?

And listen, I'm not saying that you go home and go great, honey.

We can buy that new house with the extended floor plan, right?

Here's, here's the question, it's like in Bruce Almighty

right? With the prayers, if God

answered every single one of the prayers that you have prayed in

the last week, are you listening if God had answered every single

one of your There's would anybody outside of you and your

immediate family be impacted? I don't answer that question for

you. But I know and I believe that

God has me here for something beyond that.

The questions. Do you see?

Do I see? Do we see people people as an

imposition or as an opportunity because Jesus went and saw and

loved and hugged everybody. Jesus invited whosoever will may

come and he loved them and he loved them.

So we checked our perspective and what happens is when you're

generous you begin to see God's provision.

And what happens is the Time it's easier.

And the next one after that, it's easier.

Also the first time you cheat, it's hard.

The second time, it's easier. The third time.

It's easier at Tenth time. You barely even notice it down.

The road, five years later. You stand up and you go.

How did I get here? One choice one time.

So what if we do the hard thing of investing in Kingdom of

investing in people of checking our perspective, that's what

Discipleship is, it's deliberately behaving as if our

stuff is it Kingdom resource and Jesus ends with this.

It's kind of an analogy, right? No one can serve two masters.

Either you will hate the one and love the other or he will be

devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and money.

And so Jesus as he's about to jump into this long, beautiful

meditation, on worry, listen ascends with you can't serve God

and money. And you might say, I don't know

about The question. Like here's an idea if you're in

here and you're and you're married just real quick, not

right now because it'll be a bloodbath but when you get home

just go ahead and say try this out and say Lord it says you

know honey it says you can't serve both God and money.

It says that the heart can't be divided you really can only

worship one thing and so just ask your spouse if they're okay,

sharing you with another person of the same sex.

Probably not, right? Because we know your heart is

attached to one and if you're attached to another, you're not

attached to me. And if you're attached to me,

you're not attached to another. And so the invitation is to

check your passion. What do you care about?

What are you most worried about eternal things?

Or temporal things, it's summer, you're like yeah, I know.

Listen, here's the thing. I don't invite you to an

experiment now because it's summer is a time we need to

rest, right? We need to get refilled and we

need to get recharged, right? My contention is.

You will be more rested if you practically put Jesus first.

And so here's my, here's my challenge for you. 30 minutes

every day and church every week. If you go out of town on a

vacation, you don't have to go to church.

Well, Go to church here if you want.

Right? But what I'm saying, here,

because here's the deal, you just go home and we want to go

to Lake. We want to go to the river.

We want to go to green, we want to go to do all those things.

Those things will still be there.

If you say, I'm going to go to church one hour eight o'clock

service, lots of seats will go to the eight o'clock service

will go do that and then we're going to go.

My contention is your life will be more operational at the end

of this summer because you will have put.

First things first, you will have put your treasure.

We're in Eternal things and your heart will follow and then you

will have this new miraculous covered.

And here's I'm telling you wear whatever you want.

Come in your swimsuit. If you Going to tank top on

Sunday morning. Do you know what I'm going to

say, nice, tank top. That's probably it because I'm

not that creative. I don't know anything else to

say, right? I don't care wear whatever you

want, leave from here, to going biggest, but try it and just

see, say, if I give my best to the Lord, what happens because

my guess is, you will be more rested, more reflective, more

aware of the big things going on around you because you have put

first things first, so check your passions.

Jesus teaching is basically that if you treasure the kingdom, you

won't fear the world and that's important if we believe that the

kingdom is fine or if that this world is final and ultimate and

we will be afraid of everybody running around telling us that

things are bad, but if we begin to believe it, there is a Jesus,

whose kingdom has come. And it's here and it is present

for us. We don't have to be afraid.

Because what are they going to do to me?

Oh, the economy is terrible. Yeah, we're going to have to

tighten up, and we're going to have to cut back.

But you know what? All that stuff that we cut back

on, doesn't matter that much. Anyway, because I have my family

and I have friends, and I had Jesus, and I have the Kingdom of

Heaven. I have every opportunity to do

every good thing. So how do we build a worry-free

life? Okay, I'm going to read a

passage. I want you if you can, if you're

up for it, I want you to memorize this passage.

Okay. Philippians chapter 4, verse 6.

Philippians 4:6

And 7 says this do not Anxious about anything.

Now, here's a good meditation for you.

What does anything cover? Everything.

Don't worry about anything but in every situation.

So now again another meditation what situations are excluded

from every situation, none? Do not be anxious about

anything. But in every situation by

prayer, and petition with Thanksgiving, present, your

requests to God and the peace of God, which transcends all

understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ

Jesus. The command of Jesus through

love is to not be afraid and there's no guilt.

And there is no shame with this. If you are here today and you

are locked up in fear and anxiety.

I want you to go. I don't want you to feel guilt

or shame or condemnation. I want you to feel free, and I

want you to know that just indicates I hate that there's a

perspective problem you believe that all of these things down

here are final and ultimate and that they're going to kill you

forever and the truth is that's not case.

Now listen, does that mean that you don't get sad?

No it doesn't mean that doesn't mean that we don't greed no we

grieve sincerely and honestly and authentically the

differences. We don't grieve as those who

don't have hope We grieve the loss of our loved ones and we

hope to be restored to them again because we believe in

eternity. So how do we do that?

The first thing you have to do is you have to confront your

fearful thoughts. Jesus God our father, he

listening God, our Father is omniscient.

Do you know what omniscient means?

Omniscient means that God knows everything.

You know why that's important because God will never whisper

in your ear. Are you listening?

What if, what if everything goes wrong?

What if they get mad at you? What if you don't have enough,

that's what anxiety sounds like, right.

What if what, if, what if Jesus never has to ask?

What if he's certainly not asking you?

What if do you think? Gonna be okay.

Yes, Jesus. It's gonna be fine.

Take a Xanax, right? Nope.

Not in this world, right? Not in any world.

Confront your feel for thoughts when that thought goes in.

What if yeah? What if God isn't on the throne

of God isn't on the throne? That I've got a lot to fear

worry about. No, he's still there.

Shut up. What if you confront your

doubts, the way you confront your faith?

What if you believe your faith? The way that you believe your

doubts, confront your fearful thoughts and go, God is in

control and that's the solution, s, develop your private world.

You got to spend time with Jesus, you got to know him, you

got to listen to him, you got to be in the word change.

Your listening habits, listen to Christian music.

Listen, I don't like it. I don't think it's good that I

need it. I'd love to tell you otherwise

listen sometimes I have to do things I don't want to do that

are good for me broccoli and contemporary Christian music.

They both serve a role. They both it's worth it right?

Develop your private world. You need to have a place.

Is it getting away from me a little bit?

Right? You need to have a place in your

heart where only Jesus lived so he can whisper to you.

It's gonna be okay. I haven't abandoned you.

I have Betrayed you, I'm not letting you go and third use

your stuff as a tool. I mean, give, I mean, give

radically and this is our example.

The Lord Jesus on the night. He was betrayed, he took bread.

And when he had given thanks, he broke it.

And he said, this is my body, which is for you.

See, we give because Jesus gave first.

We were separate and broken and hurting and lost and Jesus came

and said, you can have mine. And you know what he said,

afterwards, he said do this in remembrance of me, we Can give

because our God is generous to his very life.

So Jesus, we thank you for this bread.

We thank you for your body, which is for us.

This is the kingdom. This is the kingdom.

You were broken for me. And Jesus, the only reason I'm

not broken for you is because I'm afraid.

I'm afraid that I'm going to love the wrong person.

The wrong way. I'm afraid that I'm going to run

out. I'm going to fray.

The people are going to laugh at me.

They're going to not like me and Jesus.

When I look at your example in the scripture, I see all of that

happened to you. And you continued anyway.

So, we take this bread and we remember you as take the bread.

And the same way after supper, he took the cup and he said this

cup is the New Covenant in my blood do this as often as you

drink it. In remembrance of Me, Jesus, we

remember this cup, this Covenant, this agreement, this

bond that you made with us the old Covenant, was God in a

sanctuary in a place and the people had to come to him, and

they had to do the work and they had to sacrifice and do the

offering they had to get blood on their hands.

And Jesus says, in the New Covenant, God comes to us.

And he does all the work to invite us into his kingdom.

So Jesus may this cup be a reminder of your unbelievable.

Love for us. We take this cup in remembrance

of you. It's take the cup.

Paul said for, as often as you eat this bread and drink this

cup you proclaim, the Lord's death until he comes.

Jesus you died, so that we wouldn't have to we're gonna die

physically the mortality rate continues to hover it around a

hundred percent for each of us Lord, but I believe that as soon

as our eyes closed and this physical Earthly one, as soon as

that happens like a blink, we open our eyes and we are in the

presence of you. And there we will have our hope

delivered. We will see the abundance that

you talked about. We will see you as you are.

We will worship you. As you are.

We will have the purpose, you created us for so Jesus, let us

live that now. And may we father, live free of

fear and worry, we love you. Jesus, we thank you, we worship

you. And we ask all of these things

in your name, and for your glory.

Amen. Thank you for joining us today.

River City Church is all about experiencing and expressing

God's love in our lives and community.

And we hope that you've been able to experience that today as

grateful. As I am.

That you've spent this time, listening in this morning, this

podcast is no substitute for full participation.

And a local church. I love it when River City people

listen to other pastors, but it is those who show up week after

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Thanks so much for listening, may the Lord bless.

And keep you in all Grace and peace.