Eat, Drink, and Be Anxious

Eat, Drink, and Be Anxious

Good morning. Thank you for coming physically or digitally. It is if your digital, it’s brutal cold out today. It is, it is painfully cold. Oh my goodness, I don’t believe this weather, this is great. Um glad you’re here. Super Bowl sunday. So we’re Super Bowl. Super sunday and it’s good to be if you all this is the one sunday here. I got to limit myself to a few football jokes and references as we go through this. So I’m pumped up to spend time with you as God’s gathered people looking at the word of God. That is key to our existence and us being a church. That is a key part of any new testament. Churches gathered people of God studying the bible together. So will you bow your heads with me and let’s pray and then I’ll jump into my intro. Lord, I thank you for this is a big deal. Lord looking at the bible. This is a solemn thing God and I’m I’m a human, I’m a man and I will mess this up If you don’t show up Lord, I pray that you would warm our hearts Lord, You’d warm us to the truth of your word. I pray you find our hearts to be fertile ground that the the word of God can be planted in and produce 30 60 a hundredfold in our lives. Lord, We pray that you just make this time meaningful. We’re gonna cover some heavy topics today. God, we need you to make this a meaningful time. We commit ourselves to in our lives to ask that you would use the word of God to make us into the people of God who prays in jesus’s name. Amen. Speaking of Super Bowl. Sunday bunch of grown men chasing rings. I have uh one sunday a year. I gotta bust out my collegiate wrestling rings. I just we’re all about these rigs. I have a third one. My dad has it. I gave it to my dad and he won’t give it back. Mom said so I’m waiting I’m waiting but this will distract me wearing these. But you’re like wait a second mike. I thought you were terrible at wrestling in college. I was but you know I wasn’t terrible at I wasn’t terrible at taking those drug tests. Every every quarter are every quarter our conference had drug tests in like every six months. The N. C. Double A. Had random drug tests and and our team had random drug tests and I had so many random drug tests it was not. So if you need help you need to know how to pass the drug test. I am really good at that. All the other stuff. We got to talk to talk to the real athletes on our team who didn’t blow out their knee a bunch of times. So um Welcome thank you for coming. Like that was random. It kind of was uh you know what else is random? My phone has been I think one of your were hacked me or something. My phone has been showing hebrew adds like a male hebrew. Like here’s furniture, hebrew furniture and here’s some, you know, macadamia nuts and here’s some hebrew honey. And if you want to fly to the Israel and then I’m on like youtube, listen to music and sermons and stuff in between sports commentary. Pops the hebrew rich hebrew accent Individual. I’m like, what is happening? That’s so random. That’s not what you expect. Where’d that come from pivoting to our passage. We are looking at Luke 12 verse 13. Something random and unexpected happens in Luke 1213 as well. So Jesus might have stopped for a drink of water or is eating his lunch and preaching and he’s teaching like we’ve been looking at the last couple of weeks, but Luke 12, 13 randomly unexpectedly someone in the crowd shouts out says to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Yeah. Some of your like what? Yeah, this is not expected. This is, this is kind of like if one of you shout it out and then we just changed the whole course of events of our morning because of what you said. Uh, and so jesus entertained. This man’s legal question in verse luke 12 verse 14, but he said to him, man who made me a judge or arbitrator over you. And so he’s referencing Deuteronomy 21 16. And the Jewish law states that the oldest son should receive double inheritance portions to the rest of the sons. You know, the first draft and the final draft. The oldest and the youngest, you know, the first draft needs that extra money for counseling and for caring for, you know, the, you know, the family business, the servants that were indentured servants closing up the business of that family that jewish clan family. The firstborn had expectations on them, not just during their life, but post the death. There. The de facto benefactor of double the will and portion, you know, proportions of income. They had more responsibilities. Those younger siblings, they’re just younger siblings. They didn’t get as much because they don’t have to do as much when their parents died. So inheritance disputes were incredibly on taboo in this non jewish courts. And so people would call upon a rabbi to settle a legal dispute. So this this guy shouts out In Luke 1213. Teacher, Teacher tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. And he, jesus said to him, man who made me a judge or arbitrator over you. And then jesus speaks to what he always does. He speaks to the question behind the question. The real reason this person is speaking up, he addresses the true, genuine real reason this man is speaking. We look at verse 15 and he said to him, Take care and be on your guard against all coveted Nous for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. So jesus skips a smokescreen and he speaks to the real issue that impacts this person’s life and all the people’s lives that are listening, the real heart issue. But before we jump into what he says, let’s look at that part. In verse 15, he says, take care and be on your guard. Take care and be on your guard. That’s a serious statement, Jesus saying, take care and be on your guard. It should get all of our collective attention that what he’s gonna say really matters to us. What does he say next? After saying, Take care and be at guard. He says, guard against what guard against all coveted Nous Nous and it goes on and says one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Ultimately, the issues is that life the issue here we’re talking about is life not our possessions is what mattered to God lives matter to God, not stuff, Jesus not here to settle legal disputes. He’s here to settle people’s legal relationship with them. And God, Jesus came to bring people to God not to bring people to property and inheritance. Jesus. Jesus was more concerned about the heart of those involved, not with the outcome of this one legal dispute. And then if you look at me to verse 15 and he said to them, Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, that one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. So what follows is jesus backing up this short principle of a short mini story. A parable analogy, analogy, an illustration to back up the point of this passage. So what is the point of this passage? I’ve been looking at this passage all week, I would narrow it down to a one line that you should here as we go through this passage, The point of this passage is what you focus on. Has your heart, what you focus on has your heart. So if you’ve been a christian, you’ve been going around Christianity a lot. We talk a lot about hearts and stuff like this. If you’re not, don’t worry, I’m gonna decode that for you. Non christian language, I’m gonna roll this, this, this nail the whole sermon. I’m gonna come back to this. What you focus on determines your life. What you focus on determines your life. Look with me to this mini, parable verse 16 and he told them a parable saying, the land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what shall I do for I have nowhere to store my crops. And he said to him, I will do this, I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones and I will store all my grain and my goods and I will say to my soul soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years, relax, eat, drink, be merry. This man obviously was american dream could be married. But this this this guy was not an american. This guy was the 1% of that culture. He was a rich man and he has his stance, his posture was very common of the rich and affluent people. In jesus day, archaeologists have found in this region that uses preaching large grain silos on farms of wealthy absentee landowners. So this was not like some obscure thing they’ve heard and they’ve seen this in this culture. It’s kind of like our modern day billionaire scrolling through which yacht to buy and to take their family to which caribbean island, on which holiday, you know, it’s like something for the uber rich to stress about. But the common people don’t have to worry about building bigger barns because they don’t have barns in general. This farmer had a surplus, a vast surplus of wealth. And what does he do if he is above and beyond wealth? He’s been given he invested and who he invested in himself just reveals that he invests very poorly. The return on investment. The R. O. I. You need to learn words here. People return on investment are, oh, I if you’re young, this word matters return on investment are oi his return on investment of investing his surplus, His wealth in himself does not pay back. This parable shows a greedy life, a selfish heart that wants to hoard the wealth, the good things that are in its life. If you look back at those verses, just the way he talks my, he uses the word in my four times in this passage, my crops, my barns, my grain and my goods. You look at I in this passage, I do, I have, I will, I will, I will, I will, you can almost hear the chest pounding my and I, they really reveal what this guy is concerned about. He’s concerned about him, me, myself and I is who’s he’s concerned about as an individual cr language matters, it reveals what you think and what you feel, what you truly think and what you truly feel is how you speak about things. His language revealed an ingrained selfishness in his life. An illustration from my life, my wife and I, we walk up and down our street and I think the neighbors now think we’re not crazy, but we walk up and down the street of our block. We live on, I have kids from 5 to 10. And so the theory is if something bad happens in the house, they’ll stumble out into the driveway and walked down to the sidewalk and they’ll see mom or dad, you know, four or five houses down or four or five houses up. So we just go back and forth when we walk a couple of times a day, it feels like we do a lot of walking, it seems. And so, um, and as we’re, I’m a verbal processor, a group of five sisters. And so I talk the one doing the talking is one doing the learning like right now I’m learning. And so um and as we’re talking, my wife’s like you can’t say that. You know, you shouldn’t say that no, you can’t say that. If you say that you actually are thinking and maybe feeling and starting to believe that mike, you can’t say that. And I don’t think she’s in the room, She’s not in the room. So I can say that she’s right. You know the way the way I, the way I talk does reveal what I truly believe in what I truly think. And as we’ve been walking the last couple of months uh in this close private relationship with my best friend, I’m revealing some thoughts that are starting to get ingrained in my mind and they may or may not be right. And she’s my sweet wife. If you want to know the truth, someone said talk to talk to kids and talk to drunk people or talk to an asian lady, they’ll tell you the truth. And so my my wife is, she’s I love it. She is very good for me. But what you focus on dominates your life and as I’m talking and processing and thinking, it shows what I truly believe, just like this man’s thoughts. Me myself and I come out his selfishness is there and what he says, it’s dripping from his mouth verse 19. He said this. I will say to my soul, soul you have ample goods laid up for many years, relax, eat drink, be merry, this rich farmer in this parable, he’s explaining the best life we can have now apart from eternal purposes. The best life we could have now apart from internal purposes is laid out in that last paragraph. This is like the modern day carnival cruise. Seven days you’re floating on the ocean, eating, drinking, entertaining, sleeping repeats. At the end of the seven days you get off the boat, eat drink and be merry. The life of luxury. The life of ease. The life of entertainment is the american life. This is very common in our culture, this man’s worldview is very common in our culture. I I spent a semester teaching our college students two years ago, I think here we went through the Book of Ecclesiastes and Solomon. The wisest person the bible says, is the wisest person that’s ever lived. He goes down, he deconstructs every major thing people live for and the idea was as timely for young college students. They’re constructing these lifelong worldviews. And so if you build a life for pleasure. He lived, build a life for possessions. He live a life of prominence. He will build a life for, you know power. Solomon builds these lives and exercises his going as far as he can down each of these roads and he constructs this worldview of living for prosperity and he goes down the road as far as he can. And he comes back and says, it’s meaningless chapter after chapter, month after month, at the end of the Book of Ecclesiastes, ec sums it together. But this worldview that this rich farmer just shared about in those last few verses, you see all over the book of Ecclesiastes and all those different passages that are now gone, you know, that’s what it covers. Ecclesiastes 2 24 and all those different verses talk about, eat, drink and be merry, eat, work hard, eat enjoy the weather, enjoy the life of your youth, work hard, sleep well, you know rest. But it’s all from God. God gives us this life. That is the meaning of life apart from God, on the bottom line is enjoying life. But know that you enjoy your life, but know that when you die, you will have to give an account to God for how you live. That is the reality of what we’re looking at today, verse 20, jesus says, But God said to him fool this night, your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? The answer is they won’t be his, he is dying. They will be given to someone else this, this thought of leaving your hard earned Roth ira and is your retirement investments and your property in your house and the cash you have in the bank and all this Bitcoin, you’ve been hoarding you die. That goes to someone else. They won’t go to, it won’t go to you, It goes with someone else. I mean there’s a there’s a whole financial industry built to help you save and invest and help you distribute your money post your death. This still happens in our culture today. Someone heaping up wealth and then dying and leaving to someone else. The reality is when people run after possessions, they keep running after possessions. They don’t stop when they get possessions. When people run after power, they keep running after power and they don’t stop when they get power. When people run after pleasure, they keep running after pleasure and they don’t stop when they experience pleasure. When people run after prestige and they keep running after prestige, they won’t stop when they get prestige. The human heart is never satisfied what you focus on dominates your life. When tom brady, the best quarterback in the NFL was asked which ring is your favorite? He said the next one, right? People, we are not content with what is in front of us. We always want more. That’s just our nature. As people, we want more more of what we see if our eyes in this world around us. We want more what you focus on dominates your life verse 20 jesus is laying out this idea this contrast about time and time being loan to people and that person is required to explain the use of their time they had here on this earth and at the time of their death, they’re supposed to give an account for how they lived and how they invested. The one commodity all lives have is time rich halftime, poor halftime, black, halftime, white, halftime educated, halftime, uneducated halftime, if you’re famous, you have time. If you’re an obscure nobody, you have time all have time and all invest their time according to their values, what you focus on dominates your life. So jesus goes on to explain with a summary statement, Verse 21, so is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. This rich farmer stored up his wealth and his possessions and all of his focus was dominated on building his wealth and when he died he died completely bankrupt because he was not rich towards God in the here and now and then and there, he was completely and utterly broke. He was a fool. Jesus says that it is not sin for the man to be rich. It was a sin that the man was not rich towards God. Don’t miss that because that matters all throughout the bible. There’s all these rich people that love God and their and their wealth and there’s also poor people who did not love God and poor people that did love God and their wealth. Money wealth does not own you, you own and you control it, we need to be generous to God with our wealth, we need to be generous to God of our time and we needed to be generous to God with our relationships, as people, wealth time and relationships, it might be easy for you to part with some of these and very difficult to part with other things on these, some of you are like, I don’t just want to write a check, I don’t wanna I don’t wanna care, I don’t want to spend time, I don’t wanna write check. Others like, you know, I have a lot of time and I have a lot of relationships, I have no wealth, you know, I can give relationships in time, but I don’t have any wealth, you know, people, there’s parts of those constructive, generous with your time, that that is difficult for some of us to give generously towards God, other parts that are easy for you to get towards God. So to illustrate this, some of you, many of you know what I’m talking about, we’ve spent a whole couple years talking about being generous stewardship finances, you know, when you did that massive capital campaign, raise your hand, if you know what I’m talking about the building together campaign, the restore campaign, raise it high. Come on, you were there, I know you were there, come on, I looked over here. What about you over here, raise your hand high. All right, the rest of you. Yeah, that’s right, get that hand up. All right. The rest of you raise your head now because you weren’t here. We know you weren’t here, you know. But the reason we invested so heavily praise God, we’re glad you’re here. Listen, the reason we invested so heavily at buying this amazing generous property from that previous church and then renovating this said property is because we believe that our time, our relationships and our wealth are used for the Kingdom of God, advancing the kingdom of God with the gospel of building a church and so like you’re an answer to our prayer and you’re an answer to our sacrifice, our faithfulness, our generosity, our stewardship, you are a result of the faith and the faithfulness and the sacrificial generosity of christians before you, we’re so glad you’re here. But that was a life altering season for many of us it was traumatic for some of us, it was challenging, stressful, exciting men and women. Many christians are not rich towards God. That’s our culture. American Christianity is not rich towards God. I heard an invalidated stat, which I have not validated yet, but the pastor who said it, I trust him. I don’t think he makes up stuff. He said an american church in the american church. If we all lost our cumulative jobs and we all went on welfare and we all tithed from our welfare, cumulative giving an american church, cumulative giving would triple in the american church like that can’t be right. Men and women, I’m so sober and I’m so grateful for the generosity of the people in this church. I hear other pastors talk about their church’s relationship with money and it’s this weird unhealthy thing. As the church matures, its members understand and have a healthy understanding of wealth and money and they’re your this passage is like a pat on the back for many of you. Does that make sense? I’m so grateful for the work God has done in your life of stewardship, faithfulness, finances, generosity. Just it is amazing to be able to be in a church that grandly gives jesus and his mission for the sake of changed lives. And that is amazing. It’s sobering to be in a church where the christians in that church consider the endeavors of that church a worthy return on investment of their time and their their wealth. We’ve had people give stocks, bonds, livestock, cattle, grain, property, inheritance is we’ve not had Cryptocurrency yet. We’ve had all kinds of people have been generous with what God has given them. That is amazing. And we’re so grateful for your generosity. This teaching shifts for the natural tendency of people. It shifts from wealth to worry wealth to worry. There’s a pivot coming here. So looking back at verse 19, the wealthy person thinks each drink and be married, but things rarely play out the way that we imagine as people mary isn’t what most people experience when they become wealthy. I named this sermon the title eat drink and be anxious because I think that’s our american culture. We’re working with here today when one is not rich towards God, they’re, they’re rich when there and their rich towards themselves, they naturally live a self centered life versus a christ centered, gospel centered life. They live a self centered life where man specifically themselves are in the middle of their life When your thoughts gravitate towards itself and accumulating wealth and protecting wealth and keeping wealth results in an anxious living. Look with me at verse 22 and he said there’s disciples. Therefore, I tell you he’s talking from the crowd to his disciples. Therefore I tell you do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat nor about your body, what you will put on for life is more than food and the body more than clothing. The audience changes and just gets real real, real fast. This is living out of a backpack. He’s living out of, you know, like popper, he’s a popper. Painless preacher is what theologians have called Jesus. He’s living off the grid, he’s living the minimal life and his 12 disciples follow that same life to take the gospel to the ends of the world and jesus speaking to the basic needs related to survival here as a person and God takes care of his servants is what the bible shows us, but this life is rare. I imagine it has a freeing experience and also a frightening experience of living out of a backpack, living off the grid. This minimalistic life, there’s a unique season in life for people to do that. You can’t do it in every season of life. I’m reminded of an older gentleman and I don’t think none of you should know. I don’t think he’s an older single man. He’s in his seventies and he’s in the process of selling every single thing he owns because he feels God’s call to go to the mission field and he’s leaving in three or four weeks. There’s just people group that he has a heart for for years. He’s been praying and training preparing and he is selling everything to quite frankly live out of a backpack of a one way ticket. It is quite a thing to see this principle. This lesson within the lesson. People and their needs matter to God. But possessions beyond one’s immediate needs were prone to worry. We’re prone to excess as people were prone to not handle the surplus. Well verse 24 jesus says, consider the Ravens. They neither sow nor reap. They are neither there. They have neither storehouse is nor barns and yet God feeds them for how much more valuable are you than the birds. So we’re not talking about burning birding is about going out, looking at birds, maybe take pictures of said birds. Uh if you look at this raven, that’s like a variation in the actual language of a crow? People that go birding. Don’t go out to look at crow’s, it’s like there’s high class birds and there’s lower class birds that you don’t take photos of. Or pull your car over and say look, kids snaps. You don’t go and say look at crow. Crows are not, I’m not trying to find crow lovers here, but crows are not. But burning is also the spreading of fake news. And my siblings have been doing a lot of birding. They’ve been posting a lot of uh photos of birds and some of them are alleged fake photos of birds. We’re not talking about that. We’re talking about just using an illustration here of of birds. They don’t stress. They aren’t anxious. They don’t worry, don’t have Roth iras they don’t have store houses, don’t have barns, they have coats, they have a social network, They don’t have shoes. They don’t have a car that drives them here in heat. Birds have nothing there day to day paychecks based on the grace and sovereignty of God, caring for the needs of the birds and they live off of the grace and the good will of God. Birds do. And he moves on to verse 25. And which of you by being anxious about your life can add a single hour to his span of life. If then you are not able to do a small thing to do as a thing as that. Why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin yet I tell you even Solomon and all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the fields today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you? O you of little faith. But if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you? O you of little faith, wealth and worry. Are the two main realities? We all will wrestle with lack of worry or surplus of worry, lack of wealth or surplus of wealth. If you ask the question, what is the oxygen that keeps the greedy and selfish heart alive? The bible will tell you worry, greed and selfishness is the fuel of the worrisome life. What is the cure to worry? Some heart, generosity and selflessness is what this passage will show us what you focus on dominates your life. The principle is just wants us to trust in God, not in things he wants us to trust in God, not in wealth, wants to trust in God, not in our retirement and stock options or inheritance? Who wants us to trust in God? Not the wealth God has given us just wants us to be attached to him, not attached to the things that we have. Remember the first time I got a cell phone, I was in college I think, and my college director came to me and he said, so you’re getting a smartphone, huh? Mike. They were not what they are today. There are clever phones. These our smartphones. There was a clever phone and he said, so you’re getting a phone, huh? Mike. I’m like, yeah, give it up the old flip. He’s like, yeah, so are you gonna own your phone or your phone gonna own you? I’m like, what do you mean? And then I got my grainy, grainy smartphone. I’m like, wow. There’s more that there’s pacman on this thing. There’s Tetris on this thing. I know. And so does your phone on you or do you own your phone just wants us to be attached to him, not attached to things. Look at me at verse 29 do not seek what you do and do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried for all the nations of the world, seek after these things and your father knows that you have that you need them. There’s an old preaching saying that we should be too busy to worry in the day and too tired to worry at night. Worry divides your heart, your exhaust you stresses you wears you out, wears you down, jesus commands, he does not advise, he commands his disciples not to worry, anxiety and worry is rampart in our culture, it’s prevalent, it’s a socially acceptable sin in our culture, worries and normalized part of our culture and we’re called not to worry. Do not worry. They’re like, okay, that’s great. How? Why? So, you don’t dig down mike that matters to this room, That matters to our culture. Well, this passage tells us that God is your father, it reminds you of that, or it tells you that God is your father and you have a relationship with the living god, he is your father and he will take care of you christian. This passage tells you to live for eternity. You have a date with destiny and death and ultimately eternal death. Apart from God’s separation from God, but now that you have placed your faith in christ, jesus, you are a child of God, of the living god and you have a date with eternity into a loving relationship with your father. And worry, it harms your health. The things we worry about, we have little to no control over as people Instead of worrying. Look at verse 31 instead seek his kingdom and these things will be added to you. You see, we do it backwards as people, we seek self, we seek comfort, We seek pleasure, we seek entertainment, we seek a life of ease, we seek the wrong thing and we want these things added to the wrong thing. We’re seeking the wrong thing, Jesus moves us from the negative to the positive and tells us instead, seek the kingdom, the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you instead of filling your mind and your heart with worry, fill your mind and your heart with seeking his kingdom. Do you know what worry is? Worry is indecision. Indecision is a decision. Worry sucks the air out of the action oriented brothers and sisters, a discipleship, a disciple of jesus, not to have a worrisome life and anxious mind, a disposition filled with indecision. A disciple of jesus is supposed to have faith and move forward seeking the Kingdom of God. You’re probably thinking what a monster! This guy’s a jerk, my story with worry and anxiety and fear and dread and all that. It was a debilitating part of my life for many years. I, I mean back even at high school, I’d wake up, read my bible, eat breakfast, get on her school bus, and then I’d barf in the bathroom at school because I was stressed out about a test or a public speech or a competition for sports or just a conversation I had with someone fear, was paralyzing to my life through high school, going off to college, it was like a straitjacket and like anxiety, dread, fear, insecurities, what people thought, what I thought, what they might have thought, I mean, just became the battle between my ears, I was completely losing it was a life dominating sin of anxiety. Fear, ultimately depression, which got to some very dark seasons of my life, waves of panic, anxiety. Fear, it was a debilitating, dominating sin in my life. When you’re not fearing and worshiping God, you’re fearing and worshiping something. If it’s not God, it’s your possessions, it’s your pleasure, its people, its fear of man, it’s the future when you’re not fearing and worshiping God, you’re fearing and worshiping something Philippians 4 8 says finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just whatever is commendable. If there’s any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy, dwell on these things, we don’t dwell on those things, We dwell on the opposite. We dwell on whatever is a lie, whatever is dishonorable, whatever is unjust, whatever is uh, what’s the opposite commendable opposite of commendable. If there’s anything a necks, a lint, there’s anything that’s not worthy of praise. We dwell on garbage. The mind of a warrior dwells on lies, toxicity and garbage. You’re not dwelling on the things of God, the Kingdom of God. If you can worry, which is a learned skill, you can meditate, which is a learned skill. If you worry about something you’re rehearsing the hurt or what did they mean by that And you review the event over and over and over again in your mind rehearsing and thinking about it at night when you before you go to bed or throughout your day when you have quiet moments in your mind that’s worried. That’s anxiety. If you can do that, you can meditate on God’s truth, you can meditate on the Kingdom of God, the deeper things of God, the Kingdom of God the Gospel Second Corinthians 10 5 says to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ, We have to be a thought assassinate er in our heads, taking lies unbiblical, ungodly people centered thoughts captive and make them obedient to christ. Going back to Philippines 48, whatever is noble, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is just whatever is pure, whatever is right, dwelling on those things. This is big men and women. If you have a stronghold to history of worry and anxiety, you probably need help digging into that with someone that is older in their faith with you. There’s accountability partners, there’s biblical certified counselors in our church, there’s community group leaders, there’s people that can walk through that with you. You got here on your own. You’re probably not going to get out of there on your own, You and the word of God, the spirit of God and the people of God, our undefeated christian, get some help, get some help. Like I had help from me and those college years to snap out of it, snap out of my dysfunctional cycle in my head. This is a learned skill. There’s promises prayer and partners, you need promises meditate, meditate on the truth instead of the lives. Study what the bible says about your thoughts and emotions and feelings memorize parts of the bible, replace lies with truth. Learn to fear God not fear some other god mini God in your head prayers daily, confessing it as sin, relying on God to help you. If you’re anxious mind prayers, you can pray daily for the things you’re prone to sin in, to struggle into fear to worship, to meditate on that aren’t God and God glad, glorifying partners. There’s Godly men and women in this church that can help walk through that with you. We didn’t really have them a couple years ago. But now I think there was mature. Godly men and women are church that have seen a thing or two and know a thing or two about their bible. And this work this walk with God who can come alongside you and help you? Why? Why mike? Because what you focus on dominates your life. Take a look with me at this next passage, verse 32. Fear not little flock for it is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. This is the first and only time in the new testament. Little flock is referenced. So my dad had sheep. Anyone else had sheep go goats don’t count count. I said sheep, sheep. Susan. And I can talk to you in the lobby about sheep don’t want sheep. You had. Susan, but the sheep we had, they got, they got sick and apart from health, a six sheep is a dead sheep is what my dad would say because they needed help. There’s tubes, we had to stick down their throat to help them. There was shots and I was basically just rustle sheep down and helped my dad do vet stuff on them to keep those sheep alive. They do, they’re dumb. They don’t handle change well, they’re scared easily. They get hurt, they get pulled away from the flock and then go off by themselves and they die sheep. We are not referenced as, you know, stallions and mares, you know, were referenced as sheep, jesus picked his words carefully and sheep are not like smart and intellectual beings that they’re, they’re easily spooked and easily led astray uh, sheep sheep. Let’s look back at that verse. Fear not little flock for it is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom when you hear about this stuff. Well, worry, there’s insecurity and fear. So one god knows how we’re wired as people as sheep as the flock. But two, it shows that God’s the disposition of the chief shepherd, jesus, as a loving father, a good shepherd, who cares for the sheep. Look at me at this next passage, you might be thinking Mike, what will break this, this hold of wealth. This control of wealth on our lives, you slow down and went through the worry. You didn’t hit on my wealth thing Mike. Well, the answer is verse 33 sell your possessions and give to the needy, provide yourself with money bags that do not grow old and with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail. For where no where no thief approaches and no moth destroys for where your treasure is there will your heart be Also if you’re wealthy, you understand return on investment and you’re looking to invest and you’re good at investing, praise God, I’m glad you’re good at investing. You help me invest better. Um, but it’s a healthy conversation to have is my spiritual bank account doing okay. I know when we first were part of this church, I would and to try to mobilize people to serve. Um, I would say like heavenly stock options, I can offer you nothing but heavenly stock options and a couple of little boys or little girls go sort of like, you know, getting people to surf. Um, and so when you go to the service ministry team fair and you speed a few ministry teams, you gotta walk by the donuts like Chloe said, it’s in the back, okay? It’s it’s that way, you walk that way, you’ll run out of real estate, you’ll run into the building the room afterwards. If you’re not serving and you remember you want to be a member long term stand up and go to the back and sign up to serve somewhere. But jesus, you know, talking about security that last a sure thing, investing in the Kingdom of God, the gospel advancing work of jesus changing lives and changing people from death to life. There’s security in those internal investments that will reward you have dividends for years to come for millennia. No end of life financial planners helping you plan for a million years. They’ll be planned for like 10, 15, 20 years when you stop working at 60 some and then you die at 80 or 85. They’re planning on those 20, years of helping you save for retirement. This heavenly stock options that uses sincerely and seriously offering will not corrode will not lose value, will not go up and down like Bitcoin. It will be a steady sure thing that will last forever. It’s no joke. We haven’t. We have a we have a many people that could easily and successfully pursue living only for the here and now in this church. The world rewards people well, high achieving high functioning, high capacity, high character, high work ethic people. The world rewards them well here and now. But we want to live for the then and there of God’s Kingdom for Forever. Not for the next 15 2030, 40 years of our life. It is no joke. The reality is we trust the reality is trusting in riches limits and prohibits trusting in God. We need to make sure we genuinely have heavenly stock options. As we conclude the main point of this passage. What you focus on dominates your life, I think this whole passage pairs really well with first Timothy six read along with me, but Godlessness with contentment is great gain for we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out. If we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap and may and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge people into ruin and destruction for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs, why did jesus speak to money? To illustrate the Kingdom of God faith heaven Hell use it because it’s a it’s a thing everyone was experiencing. It was a common thing that everyone was working with. He used it to illustrate the main message of the Kingdom of God. But what you focus on has your heart and the reality is there’s financial skin in the game. There’s a financial involvement when you financially invest in something you really care about it. Money speaks to value more than anything. I can say something nice to you. I can patch on the back, but if I write a check to you saying, I believe in you, let’s go get this That speaks volume to the way our world values our membership requires a level of generosity of trying to grow into Biblical generosity with the Church of God and the people of God, wealthy people, wealthy, healthy members make up healthy churches, healthy members make up healthy churches. And I’m excited to be in a church. That is, I would say, on the path to growing into health. It’s been very encouraging where we were years ago, to where we are today. I have no idea where we’re gonna be in five years. But I’m very encouraged looking around at what God is doing in the minds of you men and women, in your walk of God. What you focus on has your heart. And this second main thought is it keeps us mentally looking forward to the return to his return and his reward keeps us from living in the hair and now versus then then and there. Remember at the very beginning verse 15, he says, BRB, where what do you say? Be aware, be alert, be on guard, watch out he take heed. It will lead us astray in this wealthy country we’re in. I own my money or my money owns me. I own my wealth and my wealth owns me. It has a way of just sticking its claws into our hearts and our affections and our mind, what I focus on dominates my life. Money quite frankly speaks about what we value as people. The people who came before you valued you enough to create this world. We’re living in today and we are so grateful for that. I’d like to give a simple application a warning for all of us. One’s life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions. The word of God is timeless is what the bible says. The bible is a wonderful book. An ancient book with an ancient audience and the ancient context. The bible is timeless. The bible is the very word of God. This timeless All knowing God wrote this Timeless. All knowing book that isn’t merely read, but it reads its audience person after person. Year after year. Generation of christians after generation of christians are known by God by knowing this book. This book speaks to 21st century issues that were addressed in the first century one’s life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions because today is Super Bowl. Sunday is my one shot at speaking about NFL during the year. A cultural analogy that is relevant to us. Um, the NFL has two quarterbacks in the, in the championship game joe burrows and Matthew Stafford and the NFL stands for not for long. And these two quarterbacks will not have a long time on this game, but if one of those quarterbacks refused to study game film, they didn’t do anything last two weeks. They’re like, we got it. I don’t need to study film. I don’t know what the defenses are doing. I don’t even know what the offensive line is doing. I’m just gonna get my cues from the audience. The commercials they show during commercial break, the eyes of my teammates. I’m just gonna go for my feelings and my gut. But I feel like doing that would be ridiculous. That quarterback will get lit up by Aaron Donald and and company, we’ll tear that man’s head off. If you as a christian, you know, refused to read and study the bible and learn what God says. Your walk with God is destined to fail on the average day, not a super Bowl. Sunday of your christian, not the big days of your life. The average day of life. You cannot do this life apart from God, you won’t make it to the biggest day of your life because the average day of your life will take us out studying game film is like picking up a bible and reading it. We have free bibles in front of you. We have free bibles in the resource library, grab one, we have more. Don’t worry, you’re not gonna clean this out of bibles. We got more bibles. Let me know what to do with. Just ask for some tools and resources of how to actually read. The bible. The bible is not a terrorist card that tells you what you wanted to say. It’s not a hallmark movie. It is rough. It’s an ancient book written by an eternal God for you to understand him. You need some help and some learning about how to decipher this book. It’s not a normal book. But as you read it, as you download, you can download the bible on your phones and you can read to you. You have your bible email you and say you want to read me today. Check this. If you read me today. So you can post this on social media and all your friends will know you read, you know, the bible is it’s crazy that it’s that easy for us to read it but get trained and how to read the bible. You’re gonna master something, you’re gonna learn something in your life. You will not master the bible but you should spend the life pursuing it, learn this book and as you learn this book it will master you. The bible is undefeated. It can dominate any life dominating, saying you’re dealing with God gave you the word of God, the people who got the spirit of God and what you focus on will determine your life. Amen. Let’s keep our heads and pray God, thank you for today. Thank you for what you’ve done with us and to us and through us, we just need you God. You’re an amazing God and you’ve been so generous and kind to many of us Lord. Uh starting with our relationship with you and jesus christ. I pray that we would come to knowing a relationship with you. As people. We would ask someone, we would raise our hand, we reach out to someone, we let it be known that we’re wrestling with deep things this morning. Those who don’t know you, I asked that people would come to know you today. I paid people would go from death to life today. They go from being an enemy of God or a child of God today. And Lord I pray that we all would be taking steps and we wouldn’t stay Children forever. I want to be toddlers in the faith for chubby little toddlers are cute for a while but we got to grow up. Lord appeared. We would all take steps in our faith of reading the bible daily. The word of God changes you and it changes the way we live when God speaks to us through the word we know it and it changes everything. Bring