Fear Is A Business

So today I was tasked with reading Matthew chapter 6, verse through 24.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

I mean verse 24 through 23, no, 33, I meant to say.

So y'all know me.

I'm gonna get straight to the point.

I ain't gonna cut no corns.

And if I had to title it, I would say fear is a business.

So to me, when Jesus said no one can serve two masters, he wasn't talking about money in your pocket.

He was talking about the systems that fight for your trust every single day.

And I sit back and I think about the world we live in.

Fear is everywhere.

It's in the news, it's in the media, it's even in commercials.

Everywhere you look, somebody is telling you what's wrong with you, what you're missing, what you need to buy, or what you should be worried about.

To me, you got to think about it sometimes.

Because like I was also tasked with praying about the healthcare system.

Now, if you look at it, doctors, nurses, medicine, and hospitals can do a lot of good.

God can work through all of them, but our own culture has become one where fear often gets amplified.

Because fear gets attention and fear makes money, if you want to be real about it.

Fear really does make money.

And to me, it's like God knew something more than 2,000 years ago that still applies to this very day.

It's it's simple too.

Whoever controls your fear can end up controlling your decisions.

To me, that's why he immediately starts talking about worry.

Because fear will make you spend money that you didn't plan to spend.

Fear will make you chase things God never told you to chase.

Fear will have you living for tomorrow while missing what God is doing today at the current moment in your life.

Small example.

God said, look at the birds.

The birds don't have insurance policies, they really don't.

They don't have retirement accounts, they don't know what tomorrow holds, but every morning, God is still faithful to them.

To me, God was saying, we need to ignore my man.

To me, God wasn't telling us to ignore wisdom or stop planning, he was teaching us not to let fear become our masters.

He also says in these verses, look at the flowers.

You know, the flowers aren't trying to prove that they are enough.

But this world makes us feel like we're never enough.

Not healthy enough, not rich enough, not successful enough, not young enough, not attractive enough.

There's always another problem to fix and another reason to worry.

But Jesus, your father, already knows what you need.

And to me, that changes everything.

Because if God already knows, then I don't have to let fear make my decisions.

I can pray, I can use the wisdom, I can seek medical care when I need it.

That's that's honestly the truth, you know.

But my hope isn't a system, my hope isn't a paycheck, my hope isn't a policy, my hope in God who has taken care of me before I even knew his name.

Then you have to think about the part where God says, seek the kingdom of God, not because the world wouldn't have any problems, but to me is because God is first, fear loses its grip.

So I would say my question would be: who's been discipling your mind this week?

Has it been God's word or the world's fear?

Because whatever voice you feed the most is the voice you'll trust.

Life gets hard.

So let's be strong and lean on the wisdom that God gave us and trust God above everything else.

Because at the end of the day, systems are gonna change, economies are gonna change, governments are gonna change, our bodies are gonna change, people you know are gonna change.

But to me, God is still the same as yesterday, today, and forever.

I really didn't have too much else to um, I guess, give on this.

So I would like some feedback if somebody read something different and saw something different than I saw.

But to me, reading those few verses, that's what I basically got from it.

So I'm open to hear anything from anybody, receive any wisdom.

Other than that, Pastor Reggie, you can send us to the breakout rooms.