From Worry to Worship

New store, how are we doing this morning? [CHEERING] It is so good to be back with you and preaching from a rooftop. That's sweet. Man is good to be back. It's been a while. It has been a while. If this is your first time back from attending Easter, you're probably wondering who is this black guy. This is not Pastor Tom. Who happened to the guy last week? Tom will be back next week. We're actually doing a pastor swap. He's preaching on my church this morning, I'm preaching to his church. And I don't know why we didn't do this sooner, because this literally saves us hours of work. We spend at least 16 hours prepping for our message. So thank you, Tom, for preaching. I'll try to serve you well today. Seriously, I love this church. I love this church. I love what God is doing in this place, this video, just gives me all the warms and fuzzies, because God is moving in this place. I love your pastor. Like I said, it's been here. It's been a while since I've been here, and a lot has changed since the last time I've been here. I just celebrated two years as leave pastor of Parkress Church. And yeah, thank you. [APPLAUSE] God called me into a new assignment to take this leave pastor role in Long Beach. And it's just been this exciting journey of walking in this new assignment. And so now that I've been here for two years in this role, I have even a greater appreciation for your pastor. It's kind of like on my very first father's day, I called my dad, and I said, I'm sorry. I had no idea how hard it was to be a dad. I am so sorry. Being a pastor is really hard. It is hard. When you say yes to being a lead pastor, you're saying yes to more spiritual warfare. You're saying yes to always being misunderstood. You're saying yes to expectations that are unattainable. If you don't know this, I'm going to just say this in case you don't already know this. God is all powerful. Tom is not. God is all knowing. Tom is not. God is the only one that can save. Tom cannot. Yeah, he's a good preacher. But he cannot save. Only God can do that. Only a perfect God can use imperfect people like us to shepherd his church. And it is an honor. It's in privilege. And Tom has been that kind of friend for me. He's been such a friend. Not only has he been a model, an example of what it looks like to shepherd a church, he's been this steady voice and this listening ear, anytime I need his advice, anytime I need to call him, he's there to answer. And so I am incredibly grateful for your pastor and for his friendship. Now, now that all the bromance is over, let's get into the message. Last week, last Sunday, literally billions of believers all around the world celebrated King Jesus. Christians all around the world is coming off the spiritual high of celebrating a risen savior. This was the turning point, for millions, for millions. The fresh start, a new beginning. Maybe you were one of the people that started your new journey with Jesus last week. Let me just say kudos to you if you did. Congratulations. This is the best decision you've ever made. Maybe for you, it wasn't a new journey. Maybe for you, it wasn't a fresh start. It's a restart. Maybe you recommitted to Jesus. Maybe you're back and you're trying to find a new commitment to take a next step with him this year. Maybe for you, last week, it was just a breakthrough. Maybe there was a moment of clarity. Maybe it was an answer prayer to a problem that you've been facing for some time now. What I realized in preparing for this message this week is that many of us find ourselves in this very unique moment in time. We had this beautiful mountain type, mountain top experience, this powerful and beautiful Easter experience, full of life, full of hope, but then Monday comes. And we wake up, and all the emails are still there. All the pressures are still there. The struggles, the pain, it's all still there. And if we're being honest, and we're in church, but don't lie, many of us, we were trying to escape anxiety. And when we went to service, we had this mountain type experience. And what we thought, we had escaped, it's still there. And that's the tension I want to sit in this morning with you. Is how do we hold on to the hope of Easter when life does not slow down? How do we walk in peace when pressure is real? We're living in a time where we have more access than ever before, more information, more convinced than ever before. And yet, we're more anxious than ever before. The good news is this. Jesus actually speaks directly about this. Because the question isn't if we have anxiety, the question is, what do we do when we feel it? What do we do when we have it? And Jesus gives us an answer to that. The text that we're going to look at today is from the sermon on the mount. This is no doubt the most famous set of Jesus' teaching. This is, the sermon on the mount is essentially the greatest TED Talk ever. It is influenced some of the greatest minds of our generations. And the teachings of Jesus, this particular passage, the sermon on the mount, is found in Matthew 5 through 7. And this set of teachings is for Christ followers what the declaration of independence is for the United States. It's what the, I have a dream speech was for the civil rights movement and so much more. Everything ever written and spoken before pales in comparison to the soul, healing, world changing, God glorifying words of Jesus found in the sermon on the mount. This passage that we're going to look today is found in Matthew 6. We're going to start at verse 25. And it comes right after Jesus talks to us about our money. Our possessions is like he's directly connecting our worry to our posture towards our possessions. And I want to open up today's message with some incredible wisdom that I learned from my dear wife, Cara. Something she talks about all the time. This is something that is somewhat of a mantra in her life. She's taught me that one of the most tangible and powerful things, strengths that we will ever have in this troubled, filled life is peace. It's peace. I've learned this by watching her life. This is something that she guards at all cost. She's always protecting our home and protecting me and our peace. Like don't let her beautiful smile fool you. She is kind, yes, she is kind soul, but man, she is a mama bear when it comes to protecting her family. She will protect our peace at all costs. You always hear her say things like, I'm going to protect my peace. I'm not going to let these people or this situation steal my peace. This is something I've learned watching her. I didn't really understand this until I married her. I didn't grow up in peace. I had a pretty chaotic lifestyle, pretty chaotic home. And so when I got married to her 24 years ago, I've been watching her and learning and practicing this true principle that the most powerful and tangible thing that you will ever have in life that gives you the strength and confidence to conquer your day is peace. It's peace. And when I say peace, I'm not talking about that surface tranquility that we escape to when life sucker punches you. I'm not talking about that. That's not the kind of peace that Jesus offers. When I talk about peace, I'm talking about this deep inner reality of acquired assurance that is anchored to internal truths. That studies our soul in the middle of any circumstance. The kind of peace that hears a doctor's report and doesn't fall apart. The kind of peace that loses a job and doesn't fall apart. It's the kind of peace that life, when life gives you every reason to lose your mind, you don't, because your soul is anchored to something greater than your circumstances. Anyone that has followed Jesus for a period of time knows that peace is not the absence of problems. It's not the absence of problems. In fact, it's our problems that reveal if we have true peace or not. One of the things I love about children, I love this about children, is they know peace. They understand peace. They don't have a care in this world. You never see a stressed out three year old. It doesn't exist. They're always ready for a good time. They don't care that you have marriage problems going on. They don't care you're behind on your bills. They're ready to have a good time. It's like no matter what the circumstances, nothing can disturb a child's peace. peace. A kid can fall down, cut themselves bleed, and five minutes later, they're up running around having fun. It's a reason why Jesus says to us, "You cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless you become like one of these children." There's a reason for that. We can learn a lot about peace from watching children from something else I've observed watching my own children, as as they grow from little children to teenagers and now young adults. They also grow in awareness, the grown awareness. As we grow, we grow in awareness of our troubles, of our circumstances, of the things that are trying to rob us of our peace. And what was once untroubled peace is now a peace that is constantly being challenged by our worry. And as we grow and until adulthood, we become more aware of the things that are hard, they're difficult. We become more aware of the things that are wrong and unjust. And as we grow, we become aware of the things that are rocking us or trying to rock us from our peace. Awareness of the things around us is, it opens the door to the greatest enemy of our peace and it's not the devil. The greatest enemy of your peace is anxiety. It's worry. Everyone here at some point in life has experienced worry, has experienced anxiety. Anybody want to share their story? We've all experienced it. We all have it. Two experienced anxiety is to be human. And if I was a betting man, I bet that some of us walked in here today with worry. In fact, you were probably thinking about all the things you have to do this week during worship. Some of you already tuned me out right now thinking about what you've got to do after the service. Two feel worry is to be human. It's part of who we are. An anxiety is a common human emotion. Any shift in life can bring upon worry. Any disruption to your plans can stir up stress. I'm a recovering perfectionist. Pray for me. And if you're anything like me, then your anxiety sets in when you have a sense of loss control. As soon as things go outside of your ability to control, you begin to worry. Where is my recovering perfectionist? Not only one? Thank you. Come on. The lemme hang in. Maybe for you, it's not a sense of loss control. Maybe for you, it's the emergence of a perceived need. You discovered something that you didn't know you needed until you saw it. Now you got to have it. Anybody related that? You see it, you know, scrolling. Oh my gosh, I have to have this. And now that feeds your worry. But among all things that create anxiety in our life, of all the things that creates anxiety in the heart of men, at the very top of the list, is our worry over our finances. It's our worry over our financial situation, our financial stability, our bank accounts, our portfolio, our bingemons. The truth is, the thing that stirs up the most anxiety in American Christ followers is our anxiety over our financial situation. Do I have enough to pay my bills? Do I have enough to buy a home? Do I have enough to fix my car? Do I have enough to care for my kids? Do I have enough to retire one day? According to a recent study, eight out of ten people identify finances as the number one cause for significant stress in life. So if that number is true, 80% of this room understands what I'm just saying. So if you're part of the 20%, pray for us as we talk about what we're going to talk about, because you don't know, you don't worry about this kind of stuff. Because here's the reality. The level of anxiety that we feel in life when it comes to our finances makes it really hard to live a life of surrender. It's really hard when we feel worry and anxiety about our resources. It's really hard to live a simple and obedient life. It's hard to be grateful for the little things when we're stressed out about the big things. When we worry, our mind is being torn. That's literally what worry means. It tears the mind to pieces. Anxiety divides the mind. We afflict upon ourselves emotional and spiritual damage when we allow our mind to worry. It's this unhealthy fixation, this rinse and repeat cycle of wanting more resources to fix our problems. Look, I'm not saying wanting more is bad. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that starting a business to build wealth is bad. I'm not saying working hard to advance your career is bad. I'm not saying that. Becoming financially literate and learning investments and saving that, I'm not saying that is bad. There's nothing wrong with making money. It becomes wrong when money makes you. There's nothing wrong with owning possessions. It becomes wrong when your possessions own you. And our text today, Jesus goes from talking about our money, our possessions, this divided loyalty between two competing masters, God and money. He goes directly about talking about that into talking about worry. Let's look what he says. Matthew 6, 25, the verses on the screen, says therefore I tell you, anytime you see a therefore, you got to see what the there is for. You got to go back and read the text before. And so he, this is where he's bridging our conversation about possessions into this conversation about our worry. He says therefore I tell you, do not worry. Do not worry about your life. What will you eat or drink or about your body? What will you wear? Is life not more than food? The body more than clothes. Look at the birds of the air. They don't sow or reap or store away in barns. And yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any of you by worrying at a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about your clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow? They don't labor or spend. Yet I tell you not even Solomon, the richest man who ever lived, not even Solomon, and all of his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God closed the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow's thrown into the fire, he will, will he not much more clove you? You of little faith. So do not worry. Saying what shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear? For the pagans run after all of these things. And your Heavenly Father knows what you need. And here's a verse. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. And all those things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow. For tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble on its own. Jesus repeats the phrase, do not worry three times. Anytime Jesus repeats himself that much, it has to be important to him. Look, he's repeating this because he's understanding he's realizing this is not easy for us. He's not speaking to people that have no problems. He's speaking to people with real needs, real bills, real struggles, real uncertainty. So when Jesus says don't worry, he's not dismissing the struggle. He's not dismissing the pain. He's not ignoring the need. He's not saying your problems aren't real. He's not shaming people for feeling anxious. Anxiety is human. It's not sinful. It's not sin. It's human. He's not calling anxiety sin. He's doing something so much deeper than that. He's exposing the spiritual battle underneath our worry because worry is never about what's happening to us. Worry is about what's happening within us. It's always about what's happening within us, the spiritual warfare that's happening within us. Jesus is revealing a condition of the heart, but not only that. He's also showing us a path from anxiety to peace. He's showing us a way from our worry to worship. And he does this with three movements. First, he acknowledges a truth about our worry. He first says this, our worry reveals what we trust. Our worry reveals what we trust. At its core, worry is a trust issue. Worry feels productive, but it actually produces nothing. This is why Jesus says can any one of you by worrying at a single hour to your life? In other words, worry ever made you stronger? Has worry ever made you wiser? Better? Has worry ever solved tomorrow's problems today? No, it has not. Worry doesn't add life. It drains it. Worry does not protect peace. It robs it. Worry is the mind trying to play God. I'm gonna say that again. Worry at its core is the mind trying to carry a weight that it was never meant for you to carry. Worry reveals that you've already decided what is ultimately responsible for your life. When we worry, we're essentially saying, if I don't control this, if I don't fix this, if I don't solve this, if I don't secure this, then everything's gonna fall apart. What often feels like anxiety is really just a desperate attempt to control what God can only control. And Jesus gently reminds us that life is more than food. Life is more than resources. Life is more than clothes. He's not minimizing our needs. He's restoring our perspective. He's reminding us that your God is bigger than your problems. Anxiety often grows where we secretly doubt if God really will take care of us. Worry is actively doubting God. It reveals whether we believe our security comes from our control or from a caring father who loves us and knows what we need. Worry reveals what we believe about God. It also reveals what we believe about ourselves and what we believe ultimately about our future. So, if worry reveals what we trust, Jesus moves us to the second point and it's this. Worship restores who we trust. If worry reveals what we trust, then worship moves us to reveal to us and restore who we trust. And Jesus starts with this command, do not worry, but he quickly moves to an invitation to worship. And how does he do that? He points to creation. Every morning, my wife and I wake up to the sounds of birds playing outside of our window. This is a real recording from the other day. I usually think this is a annoying sound every morning. But I end up loving this sound, mainly because of this verse. Jesus says, look at the birds. Listen to the birds. Do you hear them singing every morning? Do you hear the joy of a new day? They don't have refrigerators. They don't have pantries filled with food. They don't have bank accounts in 401Ks, but yet they sing every day a beautiful song. He says, every time you hear the birds sing, I want you to remember how much I love you, how much I care for you, how much your heavenly Father loves you infinitely more than the birds. So why are you not singing? Where's your song? I love this invitation. Jesus moves from a command to an invitation. He says, look and see, this is worship language. Worship begins with lifting our eyes. Anxiety makes us stare inwardly. Worship makes us look upwardly. Worship shrinks your world until all you can see is everything that you fear. Worship reminds us of all the things that we cannot see. It reminds us of the faith that we have in the unseen. And Jesus says here, look at the birds, look at the flowers. He's reframing our attention. He's re-anchoring our hearts. This is important because what you stare at shapes, who you trust. If all you are going to do is stare at your bank account, your diagnosis, the headlines, your social media feed, if that's what you're staring at, then your soul is going to be discipled by fear. But when we listen to the words of Jesus, when he says to us, look at my creation. Look how I care for who I create. Look what I made. Look what I've already done. Look at my faithfulness. When we listen to these words of Jesus and we see what he has done, then this should lead us to want to worship. This should lead us to a posture of worship. Jesus is saying something incredibly tender here. He says, are you not more valuable than they are? That's the real issue. Anxiety often reveals that somewhere deep down, we're really unsure of God actually cares. But this invitation from Jesus is say, look, look how I care for my creation. What Jesus is saying here is he's taking us back to our identity. He's saying to us, you're seeing, you're known, you're loved, you're valuable. If you ever wonder how much I love you, I love you this much. That's what he's saying here. Do not overlook the love that God is showing us in his creation. He's telling us you're not forgotten. I'm not overlooking your struggle. I'm not ignoring your pain. Listen to him about to say, the antidote is not pretending the struggle is real. It's not pretending the struggle isn't real. It's remembering who holds you in your struggle. It's remembering that your God is bigger than your problems, that he sees your problems, but he knows you and he cares for you. And he's always, always working for you. This is worship. This is what worship is. Yes, we come here and we raise our hands and we sing. That's us practicing worship. When we lift our hands, we're practicing surrender. Worship is so much bigger than singing. Worship is not just singing on Sunday, it is re-oritating our hearts around the character of God. It's remembering God, you are good. You are near. You are present in my pain. You don't run from my problems. You enter into them. You know me and you know what I need. You have not forgotten about me. You've already provided for me. So I'm going to trust you over trusting my fear. See, worry fixates on the what ifs. Worship fix on the who is. Our worry fix on our problems. Our worship lifts our eyes to our savior. Our worship restores our trust. It restores our peace. And here's the beautiful and honest truth. You cannot worry and worship at the same time. It's not possible. You can't do it. You cannot be rehearsing all the ways that life might be falling apart and praise the God who holds life together. You can't do it. You cannot clean to fear in your heart and surrender your heart to praise at the same time. It's not possible. So if worship then restores our trust and our father, the question becomes how do we remain in that peace? How do we remain in this place of trust? How do we protect our peace? How do we stay here? And this is where Jesus leads us to our final moments, our final movements in this passage. He leads us to gratitude. He says this, gratitude trains the heart to remain in peace. When we practice gratitude, we're practicing staying and walking in the peace of God. One of the most powerful spiritual practices that trains our heart to trust God is gratitude. It's learning an attitude and living and practicing an attitude of gratitude. Gratitude retains the soul. Worry asks, what if God doesn't come through? Gratitude says, look all the ways he already has. Look at all the ways he has shown up in my life. Worry imagines sutra problems gratitude remembers past provisions. This is why Jesus finishes the whole text by saying, therefore, do not worry about tomorrow. Jesus is not denying the troubles of tomorrow. He's teaching us to live in the grace of the day. He's saying here, God gives us daily bread. Lord, give us our what daily bread? God gives bread daily. He gives grace daily. He gives mercy daily. He gives us the strength that we need for today. So he's inviting us to walk in our daily provision. This is where we move from theology to practice. Jesus gives us a new practice to protect our hearts against anxiety. And it's this gratitude, practicing an attitude of gratitude. This is why we give. This is why we tied. We give because God first gave. This is why we serve. We serve because Jesus, served us first. This is from a posture of gratitude. Gratitude reminds us that God has been faithful before and God is present now. Therefore, God will be faithful again in the future. This is the practice of gratitude. This is how we stay in peace, how we attack. This is not a pass of attack. This is a very active attack against our anxiety. Worry says, "What if God doesn't come through?" Gratitude says, "Look at all the ways He already has." So what do we do? What do we do? We don't deny worry. We don't deny anxiety. We don't normalize it. We don't let it drive the car. We don't let it control our thoughts and our minds. We acknowledge it. We bring it to Jesus. We lay it at His feet. We lay it at His cross. And we worship. We acknowledge the thing that's causing the worry. But yet, we worship. We lift our eyes to Jesus. We remember our Father and His provisions. The goodness of God. We rehearse His faithfulness. We thank Him for our daily bread. We praise Him, staring at our problems. And we trust Him. We trust Him with the things that we cannot control. Because peace is not found in having all the answers. Peace is found in knowing the Father who has all the answers. So maybe the most spiritual thing that you do this week is not solve everything. Maybe the most spiritual thing that you do this week is worship in the middle of uncertainty. Maybe the most spiritual thing that you can do this week is say, "God, I don't know how all of this is going to work out. But I know you. And I know you love me. And I know you've already provided for me. So I see the thing that's causing pain. And I'm going to trust you. I choose to trust you. Because look at all the ways that you showed up in my life before. So here's how we're going to close today. We're going to practice this. We're going to practice what I just preached together. We're going to pray and we're going to practice gratitude. So will you close your eyes and bow your head and we're just going to spend a few minutes. We're going to spend some time with God. So I want you to just quiet your heart for a second. And I'm going to ask you to do two things. The first thing is this. I want you to be honest. I want you to name the thing that you're worried about. Don't fake it. Don't hide it. Name it. Bring it into the light. And the privacy of your heart just say, "God, this hurts. This is causing me pain." I am worried about this situation. Name it. The next, we're going to listen to the words of Jesus. He says, "Be honest and name it." He says, "Be real with the struggle, real with the pain." But let's not stay there. Let's move to worship. Let's move to gratitude. So what I want you to do now and the privacy of your heart is I want you to name three ways that God has already been faithful in your life. Maybe he's already provided you with a new job. Maybe he has given you a new friend. Maybe he is doing something new in your life and it feels wrong and it feels weird and you feel like a failure. But you know God is doing a new thing. Just name three things that God has already done. This is worship. This is gratitude. And so Father, we come before you. We're honest with our pain. We're honest with the things that is causing hurt. We're honest about the things that's causing worry. And yet we choose worship. We see our pain and we choose praise. Father, give us the courage to face our problems and lift our eyes to you. And Father, for those in the room in here today, maybe they've been exploring their faith. Maybe they're just sitting on the on the sideline trying to figure out if this life is for them, but they heard something today and they're like, I want that peace. I want that kind of care. Then if that is you, I want to just give you an opportunity in the privacy of your heart to today's your day. Today you say yes. Today the relationship with God is being offered to you. And the Bible says the day you hear his voice, do not harden your heart, let him in, let him love you. And it is easy. And the privacy of your heart, all you have to say is Lord, I am yours. I don't know what that means, but I'm going to spend the rest of my life figuring it out. I'm yours. Forgive me my past. I am sorry trying to do life without you. I surrender. And for the rest of us in the room, after we hear a message like this, Lord, I just first want to say thank you. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your grace. Thank you, Jesus, for what you did on that cross on Good Friday and for walking out of that grave on Easter Sunday. Thank you for giving us a way back to your love. And thank you for acknowledging the human in us. Yes, we worry. Yes, we're afraid, but we trust you. And we love you. And Jesus, amen.