I, Me, Mine | Week 4 | Message

Hey. As as as we we get started today, this is the last week of this series. I'm eMind. We've been in Matthew chapter six, and really it it summed up this whole chapter is really begs us to ask ourselves this question, which chair? Which seat am I in?

Which seat am I in? And what I'm talking about is is is is chapter six. Guys have been talking about these religious leaders and these people and how they went about the practices of their faith. And Jesus didn't have a problem with the practices.

The fasting, the prayer, the giving, the the fight, all these things. He says, the practices isn't the problem, it's the pursuit. It's for what angle are you pursuing these things? What are you really after? And he's described there's either about his kingdom or the I, me, mine kingdom.

And so what the today's message we're gonna really see is we gotta ask ourselves, this will help us determine which one am I in, and what am I gonna do about it. Because you got the seat over here which is the I, me, mine seat. This is the seat that you sit in, and even if you come to church,

your basic perception is what I do, even going and serving the Lord or doing that or coming to church or whatever, it's all about this performance and doing something to earn. I'm living for God's love, and then when I earn that, it's a contractual thing. I do that. He gives me what I really want, and what I'm really pursuing is

my kingdom, my life. I just want Jesus to pay for it and clear the way. It it it's kinda like when you sit in this seat, you're actually doing like the misquote of one of the famous verses in in the the New Testament. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,

and people have put that up on their wall, and they said this is about my essential oil business and whatever else it is, and and and and I'm gonna, you know, and and and it's really focused on you say that in relation to the plan you've made. If you read that whole chapter of scripture,

the I can do all things, the all things he's referring to is everything he just said is you can do all the things God's asked you to do. I could live as a disciple

and go after his kingdom and his will. I can do that. It's actually telling you the things that you think you can't do because you don't have enough. He's like, no. Through Christ, you can do my will. It has nothing to do with your own plan.

And that's really so sometimes if we are living that way, the all things that I can do all things and you read it as I can do all the things I wanna do through Christ who strengthens me. That's what this seat is.

You can still come to church and and and and and believe in the Lord. You can still be doing all the all the activities. Like I said, those religious leaders were doing the right things. It was about what they were pursuing. Or you can sit in this seat, and this is the surrendered seat. That seat's about control.

This seat's about surrender. And this is the one that just says, hey, you know what? I can do all the things God wants me to do through his strength. Because I'm gonna surrender to his will. Because I really do understand his love. And I'm living from his love, not for it.

This is the relational seat. This is the seat. So as we walk through this, ask yourself as we unpackage what Jesus has to say, which seat are you really in? Because here's the here's the throat punch. Reality is always our friend, and here is the truth according to the word of God. There is no third seat.

Every one of us at any given moment is in this seat or that seat, and there's no other seat. There's no like this seat adjacent. Well, I'm better than that seat, but I gotta know, that seat has all about me. I'm not about I, me, mine. I'm about we, us, and me. You know, like, I mean, there there's no that seat.

So so you so you gotta decide which one you're in, and Jesus helps us decide by how he wraps up Matthew chapter six. And what we're gonna see why he cares about this. Why it's so close. Why we're challenging this is because

what this is ultimately saying, this whole chapter where it ends is we're gonna see in the end this big idea is that when I am king, worry rules me. When God is my king, trust frees me. And we have to understand that because most of the reasons we fight trusting God and things in our lives

is because we're worried about what's gonna happen if we do. We're worried about what we won't have, what we won't have happen, or what we will have happen if we do that. And and so we don't wanna trust and give up control because of the worry, when really all the worries we're sitting in

is not about the problems happening in your life. It's not about our circumstances. It's the control is causing the worry. That's what Jesus is gonna show us here. So here we go. Let me just I just wanna go through this couple verses at a time, split this up, and look at three things that this really helps us understand.

So let's start. Verse 19. Don't store up treasures here on earth where our moths eat in them and rust destroys them and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven where moths and rust cannot destroy and thieves do not break in and steal.

Wherever your treasure is there the desire heart will be also. Right there? That says it flipped of how we think. It didn't say where your heart is where your treasure will go. It says where you choose to put your treasure is where your heart goes. It's it's backwards of how we think it works.

Just think about that. And then he says, here's why, because your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is unhealthy, whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness,

how deep that darkness is. That how deep that He's saying when you think you're seeing it right and you're not, that's horrible. He's not saying that in a mean thing. He's saying it's a tragic thing.

And this is when I said that Jesus over and over again in scripture says, reality is always our friend. He's saying this here. He goes that is really tragic when you don't see things the way they really are.

When you're not real and honest and truthful. And that's why today this service this sermon is gonna challenge you. Jesus is gonna challenge us to be real and honest. Don't think you're in this seat when you're not. We have to be honest. Otherwise, we're living in the darkness that we think is light.

And and that's the worst place to be, he's saying. And here he goes, he just bottom lines it. No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one. This is the one of the things that we see incorrectly

that really hurts us. No. For one you will hate one and love the other. You'll be devoted to one and despise the other. Then he gets really specific about the master he's talking about. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

So he brought up money. So this whole treasure thing. Treasures? There's lots of things we treasure that aren't money. But why does he talk this is the second time he's brought up money in this chapter already. Why? Because that's a struggle we have. Because guess what? In that culture, just like today,

almost anything we choose to treasure and run after costs money,

even security. We think that money is gonna give me that financial security. What do we say when we say financial security? What we mean by financial security is I wanna feel that I don't have to freak out about money and worry about what I'm gonna do tomorrow. Well, who's supposed to be the person we trust on that?

God, not the money. Now he didn't say not to save money. He said just don't have focus. Don't make it master. Don't be enslaved. So so here's here's the bottom line. What he's really saying here is our treasure reveals our kingdom.

What we do with our treasure and what we run after and pursue with our treasure, that really reveals which seat you're in. It reveals which kingdom you're living in. And and and and and and here's the harshest thing about that. When it reveals your kingdom,

what he just said, you can't serve God and be enslaved to money at the same time. If you can't trust God with what he says to do with your money, which he actually says, tithe, give first and best, not last and leftovers.

If you can't trust him first, you're worried more about all your stuff than that. You're enslaved to money because you save money, I I can't trust God with that because I need this more. You know what he just said, it's not me saying this. If you can't figure that out and trust God, you are not in that seat.

You already know right now that's he's given you an answer. If you're enslaved to money, welcome to this seat. I don't care how many other good things you do, how many other things, because even those the the when he talked about the giving earlier on and pointed out the the religious leaders. They gave,

and that still wasn't right. Because he says they were giving with the idea that I'm buying God's love. I'm looking better than everyone else, so now God owes me. It was a contractual thing. So they just did the minimum, they did what they're supposed to do to get what they wanted. Even that wasn't right

because they're enslaved to money. You can be enslaved to it.

And that is why so many people freak out when a pastor talks about money. Why? Because what's the problem? What is that? How does that prove that? Because it proves that God's supposed to be a provider. He says money is like the number one kind of idol we have because it does things that we're supposed to trust God for.

And and and and he will provide the money we need. He'll provide the things we need, but we need to trust him. But what where do we get stuck up on it? Because even it says it says in verse 19, the Greek word there, which I didn't wanna try to pronounce it, thesaurus, it's where we get thesaurus from. Thesaurizo,

that doesn't sound right. That sounds like Italian. There's no way Greek sounds that way. That sounds like something you order at Italian restaurants. I'll take the thesaurizo. Is it fresh? Yeah. Okay. Good. It literally means to stockpile, to accumulate as ultimate.

So what is your ultimate goal? Even if you're given, if you're doing this, if money is what you really worry about and you can't trust, it's because you're stockpiling because that's where you're finding security

or whatever else we're going after. And that's why he goes after it because what happens is that ends up directing our identity and our emotional life and at least a comparison. That's why he said this whole idea of this healthy eye and unhealthy eye.

That's kind of critical to look at the Greek words and the context of the illustration, because Jesus is speaking to this this crowd that's that they're Jewish. He they know exactly what he's doing. He's using he's not just using illustration that we think. Oh, yeah. I get it. You don't see things clearly. That's part of it. But you have to understand the Greek word for healthy eye is haplos. It means single undiverted

generosity. Healthy eye means it was comes from Paneros. It means that's the unhealthy one. And that means envious, clouded, and greedy. In Jewish teaching of this day when they talked about the healthy eye and the unhealthy eye. Healthy eye was someone who was generous.

The healthy unhealthy eye, the bad eye was someone who's envious.

So that takes more meaning. You know what he's saying? Is that you can't serve God money. Because you know what? Because you get this unhealthy eye, the unhealthy eye doesn't see correctly, and it looks incorrectly, and it doesn't see the right thing, and it gets distracted, and it becomes about this thing. And then you won't want to see the other thing because when you look and get distracted you get envious, and envious is created by comparison because you're looking around instead of looking up. You're not saying, God I trust you. I'm gonna trust you with my money. The first thing I'm gonna do. We don't we start getting distracted and don't understand that giving, tithing, giving to your church is a gift God gave us. It is not some horrible thing he placed upon us. It's not a trick for a pastor to try to get you to give us your money. It's actually the one gift we have to fight against envy and comparison,

and to fight materialism, and finding our identity and our security and money. Because when you give your first and your best, and you tie the least 10%, and you give back first, and you don't worry about anything else, you do that first, and then you figure out everything,

you will actually see that God will take care of you. And you know what happens at that moment? You stop worrying about money. You become free from being enslaved to it. But we get stuck because we get distracted because the eye goes bad.

It's like this. I I was driving home from the the the Christmas light show, and I was following my wife because she had her own car, not because we hate each other, but because she came earlier than me. And so and matter of fact, love her so much, I don't like to drive on. So I called her. We're talking as we're driving. We didn't even wait till we get home. So we're just talking, and as we turned onto one of the streets, we're driving down the street, and all of sudden she hears me, this loud noise hits my windshield just bam. It's like a crack. It's almost like it is so loud to me. And she heard it even through the speaker, and she heard me say, what the

I did stop at the

because I chose to be in that seat at the time. No. Just kidding. She's like, what's going on? Are you dead? I'm talking to you. I'm not dead. I mean, did you blow out a tire? What happens? I go, no. A water balloon hit my windshield, and it hit it hard and fast. And it's know it's some punk teenagers.

I guarantee because the angle it hit and the speed in which it hit, it had to be a three man fire team. Because they had to have one of the water launchers. The the water balloon launchers would takes two guys to hold it, one to pull it back. I know this because I was a youth pastor for ten years and I was quite proficient in artillery with that thing.

And and I and I may or may not have fired water balloons from the top of a building at the graduation ceremony in my college one year. Unfortunately, they never found me or I would never would have graduated from that college.

And so I knew that and it hit hard. And you know what? It it already hit so right in front me and here's why I know it hit so hard. It's because this is the windshield wiper it broke off. Found this in the back of my truck.

And that was part of the problem. It hit right on my windshield. This is the one on the driver's side, and it hit it, flew it off, and I figured this out right when I go, I can't see. And I turned the windshield wipers. I go, there's no windshield wiper.

So I did the most obvious thing. I sped up to let the air blow it off faster. I just hope my wife didn't hit the brakes. You see, but here's the deal. It may have knocked this off and made it hard to see, and been loud a little bit out of the ordinary, came from nowhere, surprised me.

But it didn't actually destroy my truck, and it wasn't gonna physically hurt me. The only way it could really destroy me is when something like that happens, you get distracted by that, you can't see right, you do something stupid. I could have wrecked my own truck. Or

I could have also gotten really distracted by doing what I wanted to do when I was so mad. She's like, are you? I'm fine, but I think I'm gonna turn around and go find those punks.

And my wife goes, please don't do that. And then I stopped, I go, why? Why don't you want me to go do that? And she goes, I don't want you to get arrested. And I go, oh, thank you. That was the most beautifully loving thing as a man that you could have ever said.

Because I was afraid she's gonna say, I don't want you to get hurt. So I'm glad that my wife thinks I could still beat up three teenagers if I had to. So that was a win. The problem was I was so angry and I and that's what we do. Things come at us when you hear, hey, honor God, trust him,

and we can't, especially the money thing. It's a huge issue with our culture. It's a huge issue in our church. It's a huge issue. The average the average person in this church gives 2%. 10 is with the minimum.

Why? Because you don't think you have enough. You don't think it's because water balloons are in your life. Well, I don't have enough money. Don't have that second. Your eyes are blocked. You don't wanna trust, and that's not really the problem.

The really problem is the distraction, and the distraction was, well, who threw the water balloon at me? Now I wanna go attack them. That's why some of you whenever I bring this up because Jesus talks about it more than heaven and hell because it's critical for us to really know which seat we're sitting in and honor God and allow him to take the money that we would have spent on stupidity anyways. Give to him first so he can prove that he's the one that actually provides, and your life won't end, you won't die, you'll find peace. You'll really stop worrying about money even if you have less of it, and then the bonus is you'll watch a video like that beyond Rock Point here, Ella's story, know that everyone that gave to this church, congratulations.

You heard that story is a part of what God let you do. Which is what we're supposed to be about. But instead, we freak out because we're getting distracted.

And some of you are when you hear this, you're mad at me right now. I'm the punk that threw the water balloon that said, you know what? You should honor God with your money. Well, how dare he's good. And you know why we get that way? You know why we get that attitude? And it's what Jesus is talking about?

It's because to sit in this seat, we wear a hat. It's our Burger King crown. Because we get it our way. Hear ye hear ye. Forth with and henceforth, I will decide what I do. And I am a king. And I'm a king that has made a strategic alliance with a more wealthy king named Jesus.

And I do scratch his back and jump through a few hoops, but then he will provide the resources necessary. In other words, I can do all things I want to through my strategic alliance with Jesus who strengthens me.

And then I come in and read the Jesus words and says, you know what? If you're enslaved to money, you can't sit in that seat. Be real. You're not really trusting God. And it might not be money, but it may be something else that takes money.

Or maybe just the fear of not having enough money. Just like, I need the security of the money. And then I get up here and say, hey, here's what God's saying. And guess what? You get distracted. You get mad. How dare you, you impudent man. How dare you do that? How dare you tell me what to do with thine money? And

you see how stupid I look with my little paper Burger King crown on?

Look in a mirror, because that's what we're doing. And we're doing it out of fear because we're trying to control, and when we try to control we get fearful, And fear brings anger and that's why you men are the worst and you get the most mad at me because we process almost every emotion through anger at some point.

Anger is a secondary emotion. It's usually driven by fear or being frustrated by something not getting your way. Anger is not a primary emotion. But it's funny how men we go to anger is like, I'm hungry. Now I'm angry. Tired. Now I'm angry. I want special married time, I'm not getting it, now I'm angry.

He talked about money, I don't wanna give money that way. The truth is the more anger we get sometimes is because we're more fearful because someone's telling me I'm not king.

And that's why Jesus is being honest. And that's why I have to be honest because God loves you more than you love yourself and I love you as well. And I've learned this lesson, Art. And here's the thing, every one of us slips back into that. Daily we gotta decide am I gonna put on my Burger King crown and sit in this seat

or am I gonna trust? Because our treasure reveals our kingdom. And ask yourself, which treasure? What security that you need? What approval? What image? What lifestyle is the thing that you secretly defines you? And that's what's making upset because if I can't have that,

I can't trust God. And what would change if Jesus alone held that place in your life?

What would happen? What would change? What would you do different? Because our treasure does reveal our kingdom whether we like it or not. No ands, ifs, or buts. Jesus is flat out throat punched. But he also knew, just like I know some people are like, dude, I'm just sick of this. And

it's really the anger and all that comes from the worry, and Jesus knew that. Because look what the very next thing he says in verse 24. That's why I tell you not to worry about everyday life. He literally said, I'm gonna tell you not to worry about this. He knew that the first thing that people are gonna go to

is, well, what do you mean? If I choose the clear eye of generosity and trusting God with my money to prove that I really do surrender to him and I'm not trying to be king, it's scary.

And we're gonna worry. And he goes in, what does he say? We're gonna worry about, well, what about me? How am I gonna take care of? He says that we worry about everyday life. Whether you have enough food and drink, enough clothes to wear. Now here's what's funny. I just I gotta say this right now. When he says food and drink and clothes to wear, it's not like what we say food and drink. Food and drink for us is like, you know what?

There's not any good restaurants around here. And the ones that are, they'll it's way too long of a wait. This is horrible.

And then the clothing when we say we don't have anything to wear, we know what I mean, especially ladies. What you mean why you don't have to wear is you tried 32 things on, and none of it is working for you for what where you're going and what you wanna do. This literally is talking about starving or being naked.

Most of these people only had one set of clothes. So I said worried about clothes to wear, it wasn't about multiple wardrobe options. It was about literally having clothes. And he said, you can trust me with your money first, even if that's your situation.

We I'm looking around this room. I don't think any of us are worrying about starving.

Yeah. I didn't mean it that mean, but

and it seems like most of us have enough clothing.

So what's our big deal? I think that's what drives proves which seat we're in. I don't think we're worried about everyday life in the same way. We're not worried about starving. You know what we're worried about? Slipping. We're more worried about slipping.

What if I lose what I have? And that's why well, if I choose to give 10%, if I choose to go above and beyond, if I give my lifestyle might go backwards.

Or you have this goal that that you you have this lifestyle you think you have to get to because you're looking around because that's what the problem with envy is. Envy is you look around, and he says it's really that greedy eye envy comes from comparison, looking around.

And so you look around you go, people my age and people I should be here. I should be here. It's like a football game. You gotta stay on schedule. You have offenses. They stay on schedule. The guardinals offense, I guarantee I haven't even watched the game. They're not staying on schedule.

It's it's when whenever you get in the third lungs. You don't wanna get in third lung. That's bad. And so what some of us I can't give because that'll knock me off schedule for where I'm supposed to get of what I think I should have. What's normal. And then you say, God's so unfair. That pastor's unfair. Look around. Isn't it isn't it unfair for me to want to have this? Yeah. Is. Because you've made fairness by looking around. And that's why wealthy areas like where we live are the worst with our money.

We are the least generous.

Because we have more. Cause we're seeing it incorrectly, and we get stuck, and we're afraid of slipping. We're afraid of falling back. We're afraid of the comparison. And you know what studies, not even Christian studies prove that comparison kills us. Shortens our lives. It causes massive anxiety,

and not just financial compares. When it says when looks compares, that's what's really messing up teenage girls with social media.

Because you you see all the looks and all this, and everyone's like, I can't keep up with that. So they're envious, and that kills your comparison, and then it causes anxiety. I get this because people always get anxious around me.

I can't help it, God gave me this face.

But it's true. All jokes aside, it's true.

He's saying, don't worry about this everyday life. Isn't life more than food, your body more than clothing?

Look at the birds, they don't plant or harvest or store food in the barns for your heavenly father feeds them, and aren't you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Matter of fact, studies have said all your worries can actually take moments from your life.

When they they studied a few years ago, studied and asked all these people, when you sit up late at night, what are the kinda I just get so many worries in my head, and they started listing all these things people worried. They studied this over years, and the likelihood

of any one of those worries happening within the next ten years or whatever was like almost zero. Most of the stuff we worry about isn't gonna happen.

He says,

yet Solomon the lilies of the field and how they grow, they don't work or make their clothing. Yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown in the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? A little faith was not to ridicule. It was said, why don't you remember all the times that I've provided? Why don't you remember who I am? Why don't you remember that you ran for me, but I ran to you? Why don't you remember Christmas?

We freak out about money. We freak out so many things at Christmas. Christmas, Emmanuel, God with us. Christmas is what leads to Easter. Jesus came on Christmas to go to the cross. He died for us. Why? Because we're sinners. What does that mean? We rebelled against him. We put him on a cross, and he came anyways.

Shouldn't we trust the God who loves us more than we even know how to love ourselves? That's what he's saying. And when we don't trust him, he can't prove that to us. So then we trust him less.

So he says, so don't worry about these things saying, what will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear? These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers. That's the throw punch. He says that's how the world thinks.

We come to church, say we believe in Jesus, then act like the rest of the world, and wonder why we're stressed, we're worried, we're mad, we're angry, we're frustrated. We don't have a peace that surpasses all understanding.

And we think it's because God's not giving me what I need, or he's not taking me out of this problem, or he's not it's like, no. It's because we're trying to be in control. He says, because your father already knows all your needs. And I think that's part of the problem. We're afraid of slipping.

I think we worry more about our greeds than our needs.

And he never promised to take care of all of our greeds. But he says, you will have the strength to do all the things that you need to do and have all the things you need to have. And that will come with peace and contentment and joy that's despite your circumstances.

In other words, our treasure fills our kingdom. What he's trying to say is our fear reveals

who we think is responsible. That word for worry, it means to be pulled apart emotionally as the result of self rule. The

worry you're feeling is not about the need to give or honor God with your money or or the problem you have at work or all that. Those are worrisome. Those are things that, yeah, we have feelings. They'll cause a reaction.

They'll be like that water balloon that hit my windshield. It does go, oh, woah. That was disturbing, and it made it a little bit complicated, and yeah, it made it little bit harder. I gotta go get a new windshield wiper, because then when I got up this morning, it was just cold enough that the wind, the outside was kind of misty fogged, and I was like, I can't just turn on the windshield wiper.

But it doesn't destroy me. But the worry will, the worry that comes from self rule. Sorry. What he's trying to say is authority sounds great until you realize it comes with accountability. I mean, yeah, accountability and it comes with responsibility. What we like is we want the authority,

but we don't really want the responsibility. That's when you say, God, give me all this, give me all this, but I really wanna do what I wanna do. That's that's that's what he's saying. He says, and that's the problem because that's the pressure. That's where the real worry is coming from.

It's self rule is trying to do that. It's that idea that when he says, know, that worry and then that and you get stuck and he's like, what am I gonna do?

It's not actually the situation we're in, it's the seat we're in.

Back when we I'm gonna show you a picture here. It's when we got our first building on this campus. There it is, that's always there, is the building up there, Building B, that was right before you opened. Look at others, nothing around us. No high school, no houses, there was if you took other angle,

all the way to like Saussureman Street, there was nothing. And and nobody around us, which is like if anybody complains about our noise or our light, tough. We were here before you. But we

if you look that the really front area that's now covered and has furniture on us, all it is is dirt. It's like a typical family when you move into your first house. We'll worry about the landscaping later. We just gotta get our house going. The problem is we went a few years and we grew and we got to like we were cramming 3,000 people in there, and we couldn't grow anymore, and we go, hey, we need to we need to start Saturday services.

And if we're gonna do Saturday, which I recommend you guys try, is we're gonna make it same service but a superior environment. Because Saturday's cool. People can hang out. So we need an outside area where people can come in, like we have now, and we can bring in food trucks, and have things for the kids to do, and do all that to make it a fun. That's what we do, by the way. We do stuff on Saturday night we don't do on Sundays.

Bring your kids, and I guarantee they'll want you to keep coming on Saturday. And so little plug there. Just, know, take it for what it is and go to Saturday. Because we're having the same problem again. But but the problem is all we had was dirt and that only people that played on that was the pre teen ministry,

and when they were playing football, pre teeners, there's always one kid that's freakishly athletic already and the rest aren't. So what happened was when you even try to walk up into the church, you might get a concussion from an inherently thrown ball,

and it was terrible. So we raised some money, we decided we're gonna go after this, we're gonna get this, and Dave Sutlin, our executive pastor worked so hard, and we we wanted it all done. We put the cover, shade covering, and and we put all the stuff in there. We we wanted the sound equipment,

furniture people could sit on, tables, even a ping pong table, really nice. All this stuff and gay all these things and and a grass area, and he

worked about eighty hours one week to make sure that the people got there. We got it there, and got the people there. They put all the furniture together. We got the speakers, and they got it done on Wednesday night before our first Saturday, and he was so proud like, it's done. We did it.

Well then we get a call, I show up on Thursday morning, like not not twelve hours after they finished, And him and I are sitting there looking, and we're looking at the shade areas there, and everything else is gone. The furniture was stolen. The speakers were stolen. They even took our dollies that are these big

dolly heavy duty wheeled things to that can carry a lot of stuff that are expensive,

and and they came in from the desert. We know they took all that because we followed the dolly tracks that they were missing out into the desert where they parked the truck, and then we saw the truck tracks leave, and they even took the dollies. But of course, because they had to unload, so I'm glad we could help.

So we didn't even have that stuff didn't even make it one day. It was never used. And I'm standing there, and Dave's the one. He did all this work, and we're standing there looking at it, and I just went he goes, what's so funny? I go, dude, it's just kind of hilarious if you think about it,

that before the time was even created, God knew this was gonna happen. He knew that you're gonna do all that work and have all that stress and it'd be for nothing. And you know what? It didn't encourage him.

Matter of fact, he goes, I think I hate you right now, were his exact words. That's what Jesus is doing. That's what this message that's what this point is. I get it.

It doesn't immediately sound encouraging to know that God already knows your needs. That God already knows what's gonna happen. That he knows every water balloon that's gonna hit the windshield. He knows every problem you're gonna have. He knows every issue. He knows all of that, and yet he says, be faithful and trust me and I will take care of you and I'll take you where you need to go. It doesn't sound encouraging in the moment,

but it is because Dave now, he's the one that reminded me of the story because we were having another tough time and he goes, you know what I keep going back to when this stuff happens? Like when we built this building, and then things happened, and financial got tight, and all this. He goes, I remembered you. I always go back to those moments when I know we did what God wanted us to do, and then it's not playing out the way I imagined it. I always go back to God already

knew, and you know why? Because it releases us from the responsibility. We just have to be faithful. God takes care of the rest, but if you sit in this seat the reason so many of us are so worried right now is not your situation.

It's because you're sitting in this seat, and when you're in this seat and you're the king, even though you're a Burger King, you have to handle it all. You have to take care of it all, and it makes you either say I'm a lousy king, or if things are going well, I'm better than everybody else king.

And that's where the real problem is coming from. And God says, want you to be free from that. Free yourself from the enslaving the money because that treasure reveals you're in that seat.

Free yourself from that seat because our fear reveals that who we think is responsible is us. We just need to be faithful. Ask yourself this, if I couldn't control the outcome of the thing I'm worrying about most right now, Would I still believe God is good?

And if the answer is no,

Your real problem is not your problem. Whenever we do that, my problem or the real problem is it's because you're in this seat. And the reason you can't see it is your eyes are clouded. So you will not trust God or me telling you God's word that says you can have freedom, you can have peace

that goes beyond your circumstances that your circumstance could not change, but in almost an instance you can handle that worry because you will have this strange sense of calm that says, it's a little worrisome, but I know God knows what he's doing, and I am just gonna trust him.

And how we trust him is not just keep doing the dumb things and not ignoring them. How you trust him is stay faithful to what he's called you to do despite the circumstance. That's the blessing. God wants us to be free.

Like I said, the big idea, when I'm my king, the worry will rule me. When God is truly king, that trust is what frees you.

We need a trust of God, not a trust fund from God. It's how a lot of us think.

Because he says what the real answer is finally in these last couple verses here, thirty three and thirty four, he gives the whole answer for this whole passage.

Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously and he will give you everything you need.

So don't worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's troubles enough. So he says, first seek the kingdom. So he's saying, our treasure reveals our kingdom. Our feel fear reveals who we think is responsible and when we're responsible

that weight is on you and that's where the real worry is from. And then but finally, our allegiance determines our peace. That sums it all up. He's coming back. If you wanna have the peace, know that when you him and his kingdom above all else and live righteously, he'll give you everything you need. You'll have peace. You will be okay. He will take care of you.

So don't worry. Don't worry about tomorrow because it has its own trouble. That tells you that it's not about your circumstance. He's actually guaranteeing you're gonna trouble. You have enough trouble and enough problems, enough water balloons hitting this thing. His his point of his peace is not to take away the trouble, it's to take us through the trouble and make us strong so we can trust him more.

So he's assuming there's gonna be trouble. But he says the only way you're not gonna let it freak you out or tear you down is to get out of this seat. It's to not be the Burger King.

Not to sit there and say, hey, can't believe this. Can't do this. Because we get stuck. We worry. Matter of fact, that word there for to seek above all else means continually pursue God as first in rank authority and allegiance. And there's a difference between first or primary. This is saying primary. Doesn't matter. I give God in the first thirty minutes of my day, and then I ignore him everything he asked me to do the rest of the day.

You know, that will do that. It's not about what you did first, it's about what is first in all things.

That's what he's saying. So seek the kingdom of God first is not just go to church first, get up and pray first, and still think your own way. It's surrender your heart, surrender your will, and say, will trust you God with everything. I'll go all in. I'll go after what you said the mission is.

I'll do all of that, but not to try to prove myself to you. It's because I trust that what you already did for me says this is probably the way to peace. This is the way to life. That's what it means. And he also says, do this. Don't worry. Let tomorrow work itself. Today's worries is enough. That's a great thing.

Because I know I do this. I get a lot more of my worry comes from trying to live tomorrow before tomorrow exists.

God says, I give you grace for today. Why do you think in the prayer thing? This all ties together. He says when he says how to pray, when he said pray give me today my daily bread, that's not some magic incantation. That's an outline. He says, you pray about your needs one day at a time. What do you need for today?

And I think that's where we get a lot of worry. We want we we wanna be like the prodigal son. We want all of our life. Give me the whole inheritance now. You know, he went to his father and said, hey, father you love me? Can I have all of what I'm gonna need and get all my money now?

And he said, okay. And what did he immediately do? He ran away and spent it and ended up in in trouble. Now what did the and the father loved him once he came home, but did the father follow him? Did the father come in when he's living in a pigsty because he was so stupid and say, here, I'm gonna get you an apartment because it's better. No. He could always go home.

And some of us, the reason we are struggling so much is we're in this seat. We did that, and we're so worried because we wanted the father to give us all of our needs, and we took what we had, and we went out, and we're not listening to him, and now we're struggling, and we're like, why is God if God wants me to give, why doesn't he help me? Why is he you know why? Because you gotta go home first.

You gotta go home. And that's what he's saying. And and and so let tomorrow, you know, my mom uses, you know, he and he gets it. He gets it. Because what he wants is the real reward, as this passage all said, that word for reward that we get from Him when we honor Him and and pursue Him first.

That word means a continuing presence. The reward is we have Him. And when we're in His presence, He changes our attitude. He changes our heart, he lets us see clearly, he gives us a peace despite our circumstances, none of it has to do with our circumstances.

And when we don't do that, we deal with everything on our own even though we believe in Jesus. No peace. And we struggle. And he says, so the reason he says daily bread is pray about it daily because I want you to be before me daily because that's what really changes you.

My mom used to do this to me and it frustrated me so much. She would call me and leave a voicemail and go, Billy, which is what she called me. You need to call me back ASAP. This is really important, and then hang up. And I'd a meeting, oh my gosh, something must happen to my dad or something. I call,

Mom, what's up? Is everybody okay? Yeah. What? You called and it made it sound like someone died. She goes, no. We're having spaghetti tomorrow night, I just need really need to know if you guys wanna come so I know how much to make. And I'm like, wait, what?

That sounds like I go, you know what? Why do you do this to me? Why do you always leave these cryptically super critical messages that terrify me and like someone's dead? I go, stop doing that. Or the next time you do, somebody better be dead when I call back. And

but but she's like and I go, come to think you even do that when I call and you have and you make it sound like that and I call back and you have some question that I have to go find the answer. Why didn't you at least give me the question so I could find the answer and then call you back with an answer? She goes, I do it so you'll call me back.

And I go, what? She goes, you never call me back if I just tell you that. I just want you to call me. I think you should and and I'm like, I resemble that. And I realized I had to be honest.

I love my mom. I love what she provided for me. I loved her back, but then and honestly, had no problem with the love of my mom. But there were just days I go, I just wanted to do my own thing. And I'd call her when I needed to.

Is that how we pursue the kingdom of God? And and the real heart of it is what he's saying is, we need to go all in about the kingdom because our allegiance determines our peace. And what we have to do is deal with our fears because that reveals who we think is responsible,

and when we worry, when we're the king, we're responsible, and that creates this fear and this worry because our treasure reveals a king. Because we're so busy going after our things and our treasure and all this, and then we get worried about it, and that worry sits there and can't unpack it. And you know what the truth is? It shows we don't really trust God to provide. We just don't.

And yet here it is almost Christmas. Hey, any kids in the room? Heard some babies, And those were adults, but no. Kids. See a kid way back there. You. Are you excited for Christmas? No. You gotta say it. That's wimpy. Every kid in this room, how excited for Christmas are you? When

I was a kid, I would say it like this. Yeah. So let me teach you how to be a kid again. Okay? You know why kids are so excited for Christmas? I'll teach you the secret. Because they're not responsible for it.

Yeah.

But you know what it shows when a kid is excited for Christmas? He can trust that his parents love him, so he doesn't have to worry about it. How about you with God? What if we chose, what would change if we all chose to live every day in our walk with God like kids approach Christmas?

Because that's what Christmas is, Emmanuel, God with us. The very presence of God. What if we woke up every day and we trusted our heavenly Father like kids trust their mother and father that Christmas will happen? They'll be taken care of. Do you trust Christ Himself to daily be Christmas? Or is it something else? Which CDN?

Which CDN? So what I wanna do is what how do you how do you do this? What how do you how do you take care of this? How do I move from that seat to the other? It's easy. I'm gonna show you, hold on. I gotta go to the bathroom. I'll be right back. Talk to yourselves. Just kidding. I

said that to my in the first service last night, and my wife thought I was serious and got really embarrassed.

I should have said I was gonna go beat up teenagers, but because here's really the issue with the seat.

You know what the best way to not get distracted when a when a when a water balloon hits your windshield? The absolute best way to not let it distract you and and and and make you crash is to not be driving. If you're not the driver, it'll scare you, it'll shock you, it'll surprise you.

But you can't crash the car because you're not driving. And the reality is a lot of you probably thought these were thrones. These are car seats. It's like my truck, I got two. I got driver and shotgun.

This is the driver's seat. And the real problem with with us is are we sitting in the driver's seat and yeah, we see the cross, we got Jesus, but we want him to ride shotgun.

Yeah. I want him there. I want him there where there's a problem. I want him there, hey, can you pull up the map? I'm trying to find something. And what you're asking him is to help give you directions to where you wanna go.

And hold my, you know, cup here when I'm drinking. Like, you're like, yeah. You you know what? Don't ask Jesus to hold your beer. You shouldn't be drinking beer while you're driving, by the way. Hold my communion wine.

You should be like Carrie Underwood always said, Jesus, you should take the wheel. This is his seat and that's the real problem is because a lot of us think that Jesus would sit in that seat.

You do know the Bible is really clear. If Jesus isn't in the driver's seat, he's not in your car. He will not ride shotgun. He's not the spare tire in your trunk in case they get a flat. He is meant to be the driver.

Only him. And that's where most of our struggle and our pain and our fear comes from. Of course, we have tough moments, but we wanna drive and I think some of it is because Jesus says, behold, even though I go through the valley of shadow of death, he will drive us through dark streets and alleys and tough moments.

And I think we're afraid of that, but when he drives, he knows the ultimate destination and he knows how to get us there. And so, yeah, he might drive you through the neighborhood of, I don't know if I can have my job at the first of the year.

He might drive you through, I gotta go back to that doctor because I might not live much longer. He might drive you down a street like Ella in the video where her father died,

but he drove her through that into a relationship.

So what do we need to do? Simple. You get up, you take your crown off, you lay your crown at the cross, and then you go take the seat. And what do I do in this seat? It says seek ye first the kingdom of God and live righteously. See,

the acts I do before Jesus is not our performance, that's legalism, that's what those spiritual leaders were doing, what many of us do. You think that you were actually trying to sign a treaty with Jesus saying, hey, if I do this, sign a contract. I'll do this. I'll negotiate you as an ally, Jesus.

I perform and then I get this is not a passive passenger seat. This is the seat of trust. It's the seat that now instead of that seat lives for God's love. I'm trying to perform and get him to come with me and do what I want. This seat says I'm gonna live from his love, and that's what that live righteously means.

It doesn't mean live perfectly, but it means live in the right relationship with him. And the right relationship is you do. You know, you grow, you go. You don't be enslaved to things like money and other things that distract you from him. You let him love you by trusting him in the way you walk each day.

That's what it means. But it all starts with you gotta lay your ground. That's what repentance is.

We often after we become a Christian, we we guide back to that. We pick up the crown again. And then when we repent is we come back, we turn around and go back to the other side, and we put our crown back down and we sit back. So we're gonna sing a song here in just a sec. It's called lay down the crowns.

And I'm gonna challenge everyone here that knows the Lord to say, hey, have I am I in that seat? Have I been in that seat right now? What do you need to do to just lay down the crown and come back to this seat?

But before we do it, just wanna say a prayer with some of the people in this room that you've never even met Jesus. You haven't done this for the first time. That's salvation. That's called becoming born again. That's entering the family. That's saying yes to

his love and entering into the relationship. It's meeting Jesus. For many of us, we need to learn to follow Jesus by giving up the some of us for the first time need to get out of the driver's seat.

And taking off that crown of you being king and you think you know what's best is basically confession that you are a sinner, that it's not gonna work. You're not really a king, you're just wearing a paper hat.

And where you're trying to drive, you will never get without you'll never get to the place of real peace, real contentment, and you'll definitely not get to the place of eternal life. The only way there is to let Jesus drive.

And how you do that is you just confess that you're a sinner. You take the crown off and say, I'm not in control. I can't do it. You profess that Jesus is the real king because here's the cross.

Because he came into our brokenness and died to save us and then rose from the dead. He lived a life we could never live, died a death we could never come back from, and he did. For you and for me.

Why wouldn't I trust that kind of love? That's the way you're made right with God. We're made right with God that way. We choose to live right, righteously, because he already made us right.

So for some, think there's been hundreds of people already that they've never really done that. They might have come to church, you've probably been trying to do the right thing and be in front of God and perform, but you've never just surrendered first.

So I just wanna pray really quick. So I'm gonna ask everyone to close your eyes, bow your head.

And if that's you and you're in this room and and you need Jesus and you want to just put your faith in him for the first time, I'm gonna ask you to symbolically just raise your hand and hold it up. Because what you're doing is you're handing him your crown and you're taking his hand for life. I see those hands.

And with those hands raised, pray something simple like this. Just pray, dear Jesus, thank you that you love me more than I love myself. And right now, symbolically, I'm lifting my my sin, my crown, and I'm handing it to you.

Thank you for taking it. Thank you for going to the cross and dying and then coming back to life to defeat that so I can have life. So now just take my hand and help me walk to that passenger seat and trust you as you drive me through this life each and every day.

I thank you and I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Church, on your way in, you should have got an element for communion.

And there's many of you who rose your hand just now to say yes to Jesus that you wanna surrender your life and sit in the passenger's chair and become a Christian. This may be the first time that you get to participate in communion, and that is a big deal. That is awesome. And in this moment when we take communion, it's more than just a Christian ritual,

but it's a it's a moment to remember that Jesus is still king and that Jesus is still on this throne. Because while we choose the passenger seat, we do that because he chose the cross for us.

In the Bible, it says that we have all fallen short. There's nothing that we can do to bridge the gap between us and God. There's no way we can go into the presence of a holy God while we ourselves are unholy. And it says that the wages of that sin that all of us have committed is death.

But the Bible also says that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And so this is what we remember when we take in union. We take the bread that represents Christ's body broken for us on the cross. We take and eat.

And we take the juice that represents Christ's blood poured out for the forgiveness of sin. And you take and drink.

And let's continue to respond and worship to the cross to the sacrifice of Jesus as we lift up holy holy holy as the lamb upon the throne.

Praise to the king of kings, to the lord of lords, Jesus. We praise you. We love you. Amen. Amen. Thanks for joining us online today. Stay connected with us all week long on our app and on social media.