Seek The Kingdom

Well, before we begin this morning, I have been informed that I have a duty that must be taken care of before we move any further. I understand that you guys were informed on last week that my wife and I were away. We spent a week on the beautiful island of Kawai. However, you guys were not informed that we did that on last week because on June thirtieth, we celebrated our twentieth wedding anniversary. Now I say that because one man in the church who shall remain nameless, said, you know, you should really let everybody know that you took your wife to Kauai for your twentieth anniversary, so that you know, people like my wife won't think that you just went just because, and therefore I need to take her just because. So no, it was our twentieth wedding anniversary, and it was an amazing time to get away and to just be reminded of God's goodness and of God's mercy toward us over these past twenty years. And it's mercy to me in particular, as my wife has put up with me for these twenty years, and I'm grateful with that in mind, Let's look again in the Sermon on the Mount. We have reached the end of Matthew chapter six, that last section at last paragraph there in Matthew chapter six, when we look at this issue of anxiety. Let me bring you up to speed and contextualize what's happening here. Just in this section on the Sermon on the Mount, we're dealing with a couple of issues here, namely with the issue of material wealth and personal desires. We saw in verses nineteen through twenty one that transitory earthly treasures don't satisfy. Then in verses twenty two and twenty three, we saw that yearning for such earthly riches blur our mental and moral vision. And finally, in verse twenty four, we saw that a choice must be made between God and Mammon. So we're moving down a road here, and that road has to do with our material wealth and our attitude toward material wealth. It's connected also to this issue of the Lord's prayer, and we'll see that here momentarily. But what we're dealing with as we come to this passage about our anxiety and the Lord's provision is really a continuation of the Lord's thought as it relates to the issue of our material wealth and our material possessions. And it's very important to contextualize it so that we can grasp what's being said in this last chapter or this last passage in chapter six. As he brings this idea sort to a crescendo. He'll revisit some of it again, and I'll allude to that, but he's really bringing this idea to a crescendo. He also brings us to an issue that is of very practical importance, and that's the issue of anxiety. Anxiety. It's interesting. Usually we think that the Bible deals with issues that are religious and spiritual and moral, but the Bible doesn't necessarily deal with issues that are practical or deal with issues that really affect our everyday life on a very deep level. For example, if you know someone who deals with the issue of anxiety, your first thought would probably not be to take them to the last paragraph in Matthew chapter six. Your first thought would probably be to tell them that they need to contact a professional and perhaps get some medication. If you can't say amen, you ought to say ouch, okay. If you know somebody who has anxiety attacks. Here's how we've been conditioned to think anxiety attacks are too big for God. You need medicine because you have a real problem. If you didn't have a real problem, then maybe God would be sufficient for you. But because you have a real problem, you know shortness of breath and sweaty palms, and you know rapid respiration, and you get see, that's a real problem. God's not big enough for that problem. So what you need because you have a real problem is you need to go to people who deal with real problems, people who are more potent, more powerful, more pertinent, and much more relevant than God in his word, could ever be. That's how we've been conditioned to think, folks, I want you to hear something here, though, Jesus gets to the root of anxiety, to the root of it. The world can get you around the edges of it, but Jesus gets you to the root of it. Here's what the world can do with anxiety and people who suffer from anxiety. The world can basically look at you and say, okay, fine, we understand all of those symptoms that you're dealing with, and we got to peel that will make all of them go away. And that's true. By the way, that's true. There's medication that will make that stuff subside. But essentially, here's what's just happened. You came in and you said, my engine light is on. They did not lift the hood, They did not die diagnosed the engine. They merely gave you a pill that will break the light. You follow me, My engine light is on, dude, we can handle that engine light's off. Yeah, but what about the real problem that's underneath my hood? Oh, we got nothing for that. But our conditioning says that's the right answer. This is not to say that there aren't people who have real physiological problems that need to be dealt with in a real physiological way. It's not what I'm talking about here. That's a completely different issue altogether. But what we're talking about here is something completely different, and it comes from a root cause and a root source that has to be dealt with no matter what. Look with me, if you will, at this last paragraph beginning of verse twenty five. Therefore, I tell you do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body. What you will put on is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing. Look at the birds of the air. They neither soul, nor reap, nor gather into barns, And yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? By the way, that's supposed to be a rhetorical question in our culture and in our day and age. Not so much. In our culture and in our day and age, that's an offensive thought. Jesus said, you're more valuable than the birds of the air. So when the tree huggers say they're speaking for Jesus, they're not. Okay, they're not the tree hugger who says, no, no, you can't build on this land because there's this little field mouse who would be displaced if you build here. And you're not more valuable than that field mouse. Now Jesus says you are. Amen, you're more valuable than that. You're more valuable than that. Does that mean that we should be, you know, just sort of indiscriminate in the way that we treat the animals that the Lord has given us. No, some we train and love, others we kill and eat. Amen, hallelujah, praise the Lord. All right? And which of you, by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spend. Yet, I tell you, even Solomon and all his glory, was not a raid like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, oh, you of little faith. Therefore, do not be anxious saying what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For the gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need all them, that you need them all. But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Please underline verse thirty three, We're gonna come back and talk about verse thirty three in the moment, in a moment, okay, well, probably the second most well known verse in the Sermon on the Mount, Okay, second only to the verse that begins the paragraph tomorrow, judge not lest you be judged. Okay. Underline that we'll get back to it. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself sufficient for the day is its own trouble. At first, there's a couple of things that we need to clarify here. We need to clarify the idea of what's being discussed when Jesus uses this word anxious, what it means to be anxious, Because not all anxiousness is sinful. Let me say that again, not all anxiety, not all anxiousness is sinful. Okay, So it's not just a blanket statement here. And I know, for example, that we're well aware of other passages of scripture. We're well aware of Philippians chapter four that says be anxious for nothing, and we're gonna deal with that momentarily. But let me say here first and foremost, not all anxiousness, not all anxiety is sinful. It's kind of like anger. Not all anger is sinful. In fact, commanded to be angry, the Bible says, be angry and yet don't sin. There's a difference between the two. There's anger and then there's sin, and anger is not necessarily sin, but you can be sinful in your anger. Same thing here when we're dealing with anxiety, not all anxiety is sinful. What we're going to talk about today is sinful anxiety. But let me make this point. The word used there for anxiety really means to have an anxious concern or care, sometimes translated care based on an apprehension about possible danger or misfortune, to be worried about, to be anxious about. That's what we're talking about here. I'm scared. I'm fearful of what is going to happen if I don't take care of this particular situation. And it's a sinful, godless, faithless kind of fear. This word that is translated to be anxious. The Greek word is used nineteen times in the New Testament. Why is it significant? Again? You know, we don't like to spend a lot of time with these sort of you know, this sort of statistical data about particular words in the New Testament, But here it's pertinent. It's used nineteen times in the New Testament. Twelve of those nineteen times are in the Gospels, the other seven in the Pauline Epistles. Of those twelve times that this word is used in the Gospels, six of them are in this one passage right here. So half of the times that this word is used in a New Testament, it's used right here in this paragraph that we just read. Three of the times it's used in the Luken parallel of this passage, which means nine out of the twelve times that this word is used in the Gospels, it's used in the same sermon six and Luke six, and Matthew three and Luke, but again same sermon being communicated by both authors. So nine out of the twelve times that we see it in the Gospels, it's used here in this particular context. Now, it's also used twice, once in Matthew and once in Luke in a parallel passage about being brought before the authorities, and Jesus says, when you're brought before the authorities, don't be anxious about what you will say in that time. Matthew has that and Luke has that. Those are the other two times that we see this word. And then there's one other time when this word is used in the Gospels, and that is when Jesus tells Martha that she's anxious about many things. That's it. That's how this word is used in the Gospels. Seven times. It's used in the epistles. Five out of the seven it's used in first Corinthians five out of the seven. In First Corinthians. Four out of those five is used in one paragraph in First Corinthians chapter seven. Let's look at it. First Crienthions, Chapter seven, Turn with me. First Minteon is chapter seven and verse thirty two. Paul uses the word five times. And this whole book, and four of them are right here in this one paragraph, in this one chapter, verse thirty two. And here's what I want to say about this word anxiousness as used in the epistles. It's used seven times in the epistles. Six out of the seven times it's either positive or neutral. Six out of the seven times the word is used either positive or neutral. It's not negative. It's not a negative word. It's used either as a positive term or as a neutral term six out of the seven times that it occurs in the epistles. Because remember, the point is not all anxiety is sin. Okay, Look here, beginning verse thirty two, I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. How many think that's a negative thing. The unmarried man is anxious about how to please the Lord. He's supposed to be. That's Paul's point. The unmarried man is supposed to be anxious, concerned about care about how to please the lord. But look at the other one verse thirty three. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided by the way. That's not negative, that's positive. In fact, Paul teaches later, for example, in One Corinthians chapter five, some of those specific ways that a married man is to be anxious about how he's to please his wife. Peter talks about it in One Peter chapter three. So here anxiety is not a negative term. It's not a negative term. The unmarried man pointing anxiety in one direction and he's supposed to. The married man is pointing it in another direction, and he's supposed to. And then we get the parallel for the unmarried woman versus the married woman. So again five times here in this one paragraph, and it's either neutral in its first mention or positive in the next four mentions. It's positive. So I say again, not all anxiety is sinful anxiety. It's used again in Philippians chapter two and verse twenty. I want you to see that Philippians chapter two and verse twenty net the beginning verse nineteen. I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you, for I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. That's the same Greek word translated as concerned that elsewhere is translated as anxiety. I'm sending Timothy to you because he'll be anxious towards you in a good way. It's a good thing, and that's one of the things that's commendable about young Timothy. If I send him to you as a shepherd for you, he will have anxiety for your souls. I say again, not all anxiety is sinful anxiety. Okay, it's important to keep in mind because the most famous passions that passage that deals with this issue is found in Philippians chapter four. Let's look at verses four through seven. Rejoicing the Lord always again, I say, rejoice, let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus Amen. So Paul says don't be anxious about anything in the same letter that he uses the same word to say Timothy's a good pastor because he has that attitude toward his people. So is Paul saying in Philippians chapter four that any anxiety that you ever experience is sinful. Oh, it's not what he's saying. So when you view this word in context, and again, you know, pardon this exercise, but I believe it's important because if we don't do this, then we look at this word for anxiety, and all of a sudden, everything that we ever worry about or that we're ever concerned about makes us feel guilty and like we're sinful. For example, if we have passionate concern and anxiety for the souls of lost friends and family members, there are some people who come back and they go, you know, I just I mean, the Bible says, don't be anxious about anything, and I'm really kind of anxious. I want them to be saved, and I I just what, well, I'll tell you what. Not all anxiety is sinful. Anxiety and we will not understand this passage if we don't understand that principle. Okay, not all anxiety is sinful anxiety, but this text, in its context and the sermon on the mountain, makes it clear what the Lord is talking about and what is he talking about several things. Number one, Ungodly anxiety is the result of an over temporalized perspective. Look at verse twenty five. Look at verse twenty five. Therefore, I tell you do not be anxious about your life. What you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body. What you will put on is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing. Jesus is being very clear here. Don't be anxious about those temporal things. Don't have an over temporalized perspective. It is not the life. I mean, life is more than what you eat or drink. It's about more than what you put on your body. This is not just an issue of clothing. It's not just an issue of eating. It's not just an issue of you having the things that you want and the things that you desire. When when anxiety becomes sinful is when anxiety focus us in on an over temporalized perspective, and we are thinking more about this world and the things of this world, and the things that we want and the things that we desire, than we are about the one who is the giver of every good and pleasant gift. When we're concerned about the gift than the giver. This is deadly in the modern American Church. It's deadly why because there is a brand of Christianity and I'm really hesitant to even use the word Christianity. I only use the word Christianity so that we can all understand the context that we're coming from here. It's a brand of Christianity using Christianity as loosely as you possibly can, that perverts this idea. Listen to what Saint Clair Ferguson says commenting on this issue. This teaching could hardly be more appropriate for the church than it is today. Some parts of the Church are almost totally engulfed by teaching that appears on the surface to be spiritual, but simply panders to the anxiety of the worldly heart. It offers health and wealth, excuse me, happiness and joy as the inevitable accompaniments of faith, instead of delivering us from our fascination with this world. Such teaching only immerses Us further. In it, we fall into the error of taking material prosperity as the ultimate mark of God's blessing, whereas Jesus tells us the mark of God's blessings are poverty of spirit, mourning for sin, and persecution for the sake of righteousness. Real spirituality is not seen in the gathering of wealth, but in being delivered from loving it, whether we possess it or do not have it. Amen, but it's happening all around us. Folks. You turn on your television, and unfortunately, if you watch Christian television, the overwhelming majority of what you see is creating the kind of anxiety that Jesus is trying to deliver. There is people from because they're creating this picture of Christianity that says you exist to have things, to acquire things. How many of you have seen this book The Secret? Y'all seen this book The Secret. Here's what's amazing about this book, The Secret off the chart's bestseller, this book The Secret. What's amazing about this book is that this book is finding its way into the hands of nominal Christians, into the hands of people who say that they believe in Jesus. This is one of those books that Oprah held up on her TV show and the next day was all he wrote, Amen, I pray sometimes. Lord, let Oprah pick up one of my books, even if she just spits on it and says, I hate this book. I hate it. So if y'all want to know how to pray for me, no, but listen to this. Listen to this. I want you to hear this. I want you to hear this. This is what is in this book, the Secret, and this is what many Christians are reading. The title of this chapter is how to use the Secret, and the secret is really the law of attraction and how to attract things to you. Listen to this from James Ray. If you think about Aladdin in his lamp. Aladdin picks up the lamp, dusts it off, and out pops the genie. The genie always says, one thing, Your wish is my command. The story now goes that there are three wishes, but if you trace the story back to its origins, there's absolutely no limit whatsoever to the wishes. Think about it. Now, let's take this metaphor and apply it to your life. Remember, Aladdin is the one who always asks for what he wants. Then you've got the universe at large, which is the Genie. Traditions have called it so many things, your holy guardian, angel, your higher self. We can put any label on it, and you choose the one that works best for you. But every tradition has told us there's something bigger than us, and the Genie always says, one thing, your wish is my command. Now listen to the author's comment. This wonderful story demonstrates how your whole life and everything in it has been created by you. The Genie has simply answered your every command. The Genie is the law of attraction, and it always it is always present and always listening to everything that you speak, think, and act. The Genie assumes that everything you think about you want, that everything you speak about you want, that everything you act upon is what you want. You are the master of the universe, and the Genie is there to serve you. Non Christian right, heretical right. Listen to this. This is from doctor Fred Price, one of the most prominent teachers on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Fred Price says, and I quote, now, this is a shocker, but God has to be given permission to work in this earthly realm on behalf of man. Yes, you are in control. So if man has control, who no longer has it? God? When God gave Adam dominion, that meant God no longer had dominion. So God cannot do anything in this earth unless we let him. And the way we let him or give him permission is through prayer. God's the genie. How about this? He wants us to have a little heaven on earth, right here where we are. You can accomplish your dreams before you go to heaven. How can you do that by tapping into God's power inside of you. Please understand that those are all things from which you have already been set free. But here's the catch. If you don't appropriate and take advantage of your freedom, if you don't get your thoughts, your words, and your attitudes going in the right direction, it won't do you any good. You may be setting back waiting for God to do something supernatural in your life, But the truth is God is waiting on you. You must rise up in your authority, have a little backbone and determination, and say I'm not going to live my life in mediocrity. Interesting that's from a little book called Your best life. Now it's the same heretical, godless, unbiblical garbage. And because it's mainstream, what we create is an entire culture of Christian people who are anxious about what they will eat and what they will drink and what they will wear, anxious about what they will drive, anxious about what they will have, and they believe that it's really Christian to think like that, and what's Unchristian is to not have all of those things that they so covet. When Jesus says the exact opposite. You have an overtemporalized perspective. You're living for the here and the now. Why do you have anxiety because you want this stuff that doesn't last, will never satisfy, and was never meant to satisfy. You will never have enough of it, and you're anxious because somehow you believe just one more thing, just one more experience, just one more possession, just one more whatever it is. We have an over temporalized perspective. Instead of saying, I'm crucified with Christ, and yet I live not I but Christ who lives in me. In this life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God. We don't think that way. Listen to this and James, he's not talking about the issue of anxiety. But listen to the principle here James, Chapter four, the first four verses, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. Why do you fight? Why do you quarrel? Because of anxiety over temporal things? It's always because of anxiety over temporal things. It's things you want and can't possess. So you will fight, you will murder, you will quarrel in order to obtain those things that you just can't live without. And in fact, you could live without them before you knew that they were there. But once you found out that they were even possible, you had to have them. You were fine, you were fine, just going along. You were just great. Lord. I love you. I'm so grateful. You've been so good to me. You've given me more than I could ever want. I just don't know how to thank you. Oh, two for one, it's two for one. You gotta get it. If it's two for one, right, do you need it? No? But it's two for one, and the anxiety starts. The anxiety starts because we have an over temporalized perspective. It's amazing. You walk around the streets of the poorest countries in the world, and there's a familiar sound, children playing in the dirt with sticks and old tires and tree branches and just whatever they could find. You walk around our streets, the wealthiest nation on the face of the earth, and what do you hear. I'm bored. Why we're being trained and conditioned and anxiety. There's never enough. We have an over temporalized perspective, and we actually believe that there is something in the here and the now that will satisfy us. It will not you single people in the room. There are some single people, and they're anxious about getting married. All they can think about is getting married, because if you just get married, then finally you will have that thing that is missing and that one person who will be your one true love and for the rest of your life. You walk around and you will hear they will play that at your wedding and never again. And then what happens We get anxious within the context of our marriage. Why because this person is not satisfying me. Newsflash, they never could. And if you get rid of that one and go get another one, you find the same problem. We have an over temporalized perspective. We're living for the here and the now. Not only that, ungodly anxiety is an unproductive waste of mental energy. Believe verse twenty seven, Verse twenty seven, And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? Which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? In other words, we're anxious about all these things, and our anxiety is completely unproductive. It's a waste of mental energy. What are you going to do? What are you going to accomplish by being anxious about those things? What are you going to accomplish? Absolutely nothing. Your anxiety is unproductive. Your anxiety will not accomplish anything. Hear me, ladies. This is something that often happens between husbands and wives. Here's what often happens between husbands and wives. There's something going on, and it's a stressful situation, and the wife. You guys, tend to be more anxious than when we are just take that up with Eve when you meet her. The wife is anxious, and here's what she adds to her anxiety, as if her anxiety was not problem enough. First of all, wife is anxious about X, whatever X is, and she's focusing on that. What is it going to accomplish? Nothing? Now, she adds to her anxiety because she looks at her husband, who has the audacity to not be as anxious as she is right now, how dare you not be as anxious over this as I am? You just don't love me. If you did, you would be as anxious. A stop me. If this at all sounds familiar to any one, I am wasting my energy on anxiety and here you are not wasting yours. What kind of husband are you? Anyway? Do you not realize that there are hours that you could have poured down this same black hole with me? Love me, Join me. I know it doesn't sound like that in your head at the time, but trust me, that's what we're saying, folks, That's what we're saying. And again I'm not talking about as being callous about things that are very important point, not at all. Remember we're talking about ungodly anxiety here. It's unproductive. I'm not talking about not thinking about things that we ought to think about. I'm not talking about failing to plan things that we ought to plan. That's not what I'm talking about. That's not it, Okay, And I'm not talking about Hey, you know that there's a link, there's a leak in the roof. That's something you probably need to be a little anxious about. Those tend to get bigger, Amen. And we can do something about that. So let's do that, Let's think about it, let's make a plan, and let's go execute our plan. There's a difference, however, between making a plan and then executing a plan and being anxious. When you're anxious, there's no planning. When you're anxious, you know what you're doing. You are doing the best you can to think about the worst possible outcome for this scenario, although you have absolutely no evidence that it's even remotely possible. Amen. Somebody, Okay, but but babe, really, I mean really, I mean you know, there's not going to be a the sun's not gonna burn out. Really, yeah, but it could, and then what would we do. It's waste of mental energy and effort, unnecessary anxiety Thirdly, ungodly anxiety is a symptom of faithless self reliance. Faithless self reliance, look at versus twenty six and then twenty eight through thirty. Look at verse twenty six. Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more of more value than leave verse twenty eight. Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the livies of the field, how they grow? They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon, in all his glory, was not a raid like one of these. But if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, o, ye of little faith. It's faithlessness and its self reliance. The God of the universe has created you, has breathed into you the breath of life. In him, you live and move and have your being. He woke you up this morning, clothed in your right mind, and yet somehow you believe that He's not capable of meeting your every need. That's faithlessness. It's faithlessness. I have to accomplish this because God's just about the big stuff. No, no, now, let's put a footnote here, because here's where some people go off the rails. Look at verse thirty three. I told you to mark verse thirty three. Here's where people go off the rails. Yes, we need to have faith that God will provide for us. We absolutely do. It makes sense. It's completely illogical to think that God won't provide for us. But then they get the verse thirty three. Seek first the Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Here's what that's turned into. With the fred prices of the world, and you know, with the secret and things of this nature, seeking the kingdom becomes a means to an end. And it sounds a little something like this. If you really want the big house and the fancy car and nice money and all this sort of stuff, what you do is you seek God's kingdom, because when you seek God's kingdom, he'll give you this stuff. So here's God. God's in heaven, and he's got this big treasure trove, all right, and his treasure trove is situated in the direction of the kingdom. And so God's digging into his treasures trove, and whenever he finds somebody looking towards the kingdom, he goes, there you go. Are you looking this way? There you go. That's what we turn it into. Let me give you a couple of points of correction here. When he says, first, sek the kingdom, and all these things will be added to you, he's not saying do a so that you can get big. He's saying, do a and in doing a, you don't have to worry about being there's a difference between the two. Just do that, Just do kingdom, Just think kingdom, Just livet kingdom. Don't worry about the rest of that. God's concerned with all of that. God will take care of all of that. God will make that provision for you. So that's the first thing. We have to have the right orientation of the text. Here's the second thing. What we're talking about is food and clothing. That's all. The text is not saying big, fine, nice fancy house, big cars, big, that's not what the text teaches. The text says clothing like the lilies, stuff to cover you, gold, jewels not in the text. It's not there. In other words, God will see to it that you have enough food to not die and enough clothes to not go naked. Anything other than that is gravy. Amen. And there's a bunch of gravy in the room, Amen, and literally some back there in the back by the way. Otherwise, think about this, think about this. Otherwise, here's what we'd have to say. We have to say that all those people and the rest of the world, seventy to eighty five percent of whom have nothing near the kind of wealth we experience. By the way, about half the people in the world, between half and two thirds of the people in the world, live on the equivalent of two dollars a day. Are we really prepared to say that all of those people, by definition, are not seeking the Kingdom of God, because if they were, they'd have stuff. Are we really prepared to say that there are godly people who love God with every fiber of their being who live on next to nothing. But you know what, God feeds them and God clothes them. That's what we're talking about here. We're not talking about extravagance. Folks, understand something. We are an absolute freak of nature. From a historical perspective, our country, the wealth that we've amassed the personal wealth that the average American has. It is an absolute blip on the historical screen, and it's an incredible burden because it creates many of the anxieties with which we wrestle. Many a Christian in poor, absolute poverty stricken third world countries have said about Christians in America, I don't see how you could do it. I don't see how you could be a Christian and serve God and love God and trust God living in a place like that, with all of the things that you have. How many of us think about it, those of you who've been married for a long time, and those of you who didn't necessarily do the whole you know, American dream, grow up, get wealthy, then get married thing. And maybe you got married you were young and struggling, didn't have much of anything. You know, when you meet people who got married like that, you know what they tell you. They say, Man, those are some good times. How do I know? That's us? Man? Twenty years ago? Last week we had next to nothing. And we sit around and reminisce sometimes about those unbelievable days, just amazing days. And there's one day that Brisian and I reminisce about on a number of occasions. I don't know what had happened, but it was one of those times when just things just sort of went off the rails and it was just a tough season. We got on our faces before God and we prayed, and there was a knock at the door. We go to the door and there is a lady from our church with two bags of groceries. She says, you know what, the Lord just put you all on my heart. I don't know if you need any of this, but here was it extravagant. No, it was chicken and beans and rice and glorious things like that. Okay. In fact, had there been jewelry in the bag, you know what we would have done. We'd have gone down to the pawn shop and sold it so we'd get some chicken and some beans and some rice and glorious things like that. Don't abuse this test. This is not about the health and wealth and prosperity gospel. One of the reasons that we have anxiety is because we desire too much. We're that's satisfied, and it's an issue of selfless or selfish, faithless self reliance. Why am I anxious? Because I'm worried about how I am going to work this out. God is not involved in the equation. Therefore I can't breathe. I'm shaking, I'm sweating why because I can't figure out how I am going to accomplish this. News flash, you can't even accomplish your next breath. Who do you think you are? And the sooner you embrace that, the sooner you realize that anxiety is. Faithless, godless self reliance, and that's all it is. As a final piece, Ungodly anxiety is direct disobedience to the clear teaching descripture. It's sin. It's sin. Ungodly anxiety is sin. Well, you don't know. I'm just sort of a natural worri or. It's not no, no, no, The Bible says it's sin. No. Well, you know, I just kind of grew up in a situation where no, it's sin, plain and simple. It's sin, which goes back to what we talked about before. You don't believe what God has said. You're calling God a liar. Look with me if you will. We've talked about these before. But look at chapter six and verse six. It's turn back there. But when you pray go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret, and your father who sees you in secret, Willard will reward you. Go to verse eight oh not eight eighteen. I think that they're fasting may not be seen by others, But your father who is in secret, or that you're fasting, man, I've seen by others. But your father who is in secret, next part of the verse, and your father who sees you in secret, well, what reward you. There's a couple of other things that we see here again and again and again, and that's this phrase. Your father knows what you have need of your father sees your father knows, your father cares, and your father is completely able to supply all your needs. What does your anxiety say? I don't believe you, God, that's what anxiety says. I know you say you see me in this secret place. I know you say you hear me when I pray. I know you say that you will supply all of my needs. I know you say that, but I don't believe it. I believe I'm on my own, and I believe if I don't do it, it's not gonna get done. I believe you take care of the big stuff. Yeah. Absolutely. You keep the sun far enough away from us so that we don't fry, close enough so that we don't freeze. That's good. I'm glad you do that. You're giving the Earth enough mass so that gravity keeps us here, but not too much so the gravity would crush us. That's real. Good God. You bring the seasons when they're supposed to come. That's great. You get much credit, many kudos for that. All of these things you do. However, this circumstance that I'm dealing with is beyond the comprehension, the scope, or the ability of a God who controls the universe in the palm of his hand. Thank you very much. Oh, I'd never say that to God. You would, and you do would that. I never said that to God. But you and I both know that's not true. Somehow we believe the God who took care of our greatest need by sending his son, the spotless, sinless Lamb of God, to die on our behalf that we might be adopted into God's family, would somehow bring us into his household as loved and cherished children. Co errors with Jesus Christ merely to neglect and miss treat us not so not so seek his kingdom. Be a kingdom. Kid. Live in the home of this one who has redeemed you, who has adopted you, who has reconciled you, who has made you his own. And know that living in his household means and he will meet your needs. You don't have to worry about that. You don't have to be anxious about that. He will meet your needs. Don't turn your focus to those things. Okay, I get that, But what happens when those bills come in and we don't have enough to pay? You do what I just said, You turn your focus to God. There's a couple of options. Here's option number one. Here's a bill, here's my wallet, nothing in here that can take care of that Option number one, Option number two. I trust you, Lord, I trust you. And just to be clear, here's what I'm not saying. I'm not saying we look to God and say, God, I'm your child. Here's this situation. You got to fix it. You know what, Maybe maybe God, i'm your child. I'm in sin. That's why I can't handle this. Would you deal with me? Maybe I don't need this. Would you show me that maybe experiencing this loss is a way for you to get my attention. Don't we as parents understand that sometimes your kids get a certain age, the greatest thing you can do for them is let them fall hard. How many of us know people in our lives who struggle and suffer to this day because they were never allowed to fail. So no, I'm not talking about naming and claiming. But we turn to God, we seek his kingdom, and sometimes I'm seeking his kingdom may mean that there's some stuff that we throw off. Let me make this know of clarification, I have not said, I am not saying. I would not say that it's bad to have stuff. The Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible doesn't come close to teaching that, not at all. There's a difference, though, between you having stuff and stuff having you, and that's the problem. There's also a difference when we seek the stuff instead of seeking God, and that's the problem in the midst of these difficult economic times, hear me, folks, there's a couple of ways that we can approach this. Number One, we can be anxious and stress like the people who sit there all day every day just watching the market, and every time something goes down, it's like the end of the world. Every time something goes up. There Ready, you know we can be like that. The other option is God's in control and we trust him. We do what he says, do the way that he says, do it, and we trust him. I've lost everything. Newsflash, wasn't yours to begin with. This is the source of our anxiety. Be anxious about the right things, Be anxious in the right way. But don't come to that place of sinful self reliance. Don't come to that place of not believing God. Don't come to that place of accusing our adoptive father of not caring enough about us to meet our basic needs. And please, by all means, don't come to that place where we pervert the Gospel and change it into a means to an end and create the very anxieties against wich. Jesus warned us. He is our hope, he is our answer, and he is more than enough. Let's pray. Father. We confess to you that we often suffer from an overtemporized perspective. We think too much about this world and the things in this world. We derive too much of ours, our joy and satisfaction from these things. We confess, Father, that we are guilty of faithless self reliance, believing and acting like all of the answers must be supplied by us from us, as though there is no God on whom we can depend, and we confess that this is sin. Help us to recognize that the God who saves us is the God who keeps us, That the God who has adopted us into his family takes care of his children. That economic downturns and difficulties are not enough to thwart the plan of Almighty God, and that you will provide for us. Thank you for having done so. For reminding us today that it's you who's done so, Help us to hold fast to that truth. There are those in this room under the sound of my voice who are living and walking in the midst of great difficulties. We ask o, God, that you wouldn't meet their needs. Perhaps there are those under the sound of my voice who struggle, who wrestle with anxieties over every life old thing. God, would you bring the healing that can only come from your word. We love you, and we so desire to trust you. Grant by your grace that we may do so. This is our prayer. This is the earnest desire of our various souls. We ask it because we believe it's in accordance with the will and the nature and the authority of Jesus, who is the Christ Amen