The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 9: Two Masters

Episode Date: June 14, 2020

Everything we have been given will one day bring either regret or reward. God doesn’t want or need your money. He wants your heart. For more information and resources on this series, visit coe22.com/bestsermonever. For disciple group curriculum please visit coe22.com/disciplegroups.

Amen, amen. You can have the seat wherever you are. Thank you so much for worshiping with us today. I'm Ryan Britt. I'm one of the pastors here at 1122, and it is my joy to open God's word with us and to dig into this part of the sermon on the Mount. So open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 6, verse 19. We're going to walk through it. As you're making your way there, I have an announcement. I have the announcement. Well, I have kind of the announcement. I have the announcement that we're going to be making the announcement on Monday about reopening. our physical campuses around Jacksonville. So we're excited about that. I'm not saying we're reopening on Monday. I'm saying on Monday we'll be making an announcement about reopening. So I'm the guy that gets to announce the fact that we're announcing stuff. That's who I am. And so seriously, on Monday, tune in to your social handles and our social media handles

and to your email and Pastor Jobie is going to be talking to us about what it's going to look like over the course of the next several weeks to reopen our physical locations around Jacksonville. so we're super excited about that, be praying for that. I'm excited to see everybody and be worshiping together again in physical spaces, so it's going to be good. For the last nine weeks, we have been walking through the best sermon ever. We have been looking at Jesus's famous sermon on the Mount. We call it the best sermon ever because Jesus is the best preacher ever,

and the sermon on the Mount is the longest sermon that he's ever preached, or the longest sermon we have in the scriptures. And so we just put it together and said, this is the best sermon ever. So we're in week nine of that, starting in Matthew chapter 6. Last week, Pastor Cam Triggs came and did an awesome job. So thankful for him, so thankful for the gospel that he preached to us. And we're so thankful to have brothers in Christ like him. Amen. Amen.

All right. Let's dive in. Matthew 6, starting in verse 19. This is what it says. Jesus continues his teaching. He says, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. Where a moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for you. for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in

and steal. Verse 19, do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth. One of the things that is a common thing throughout scripture, really from Genesis 3 until the end of scripture is that scripture teaches us that the world that we live in right now, earth, as we are experiencing it, that in its current form, it's temporary. It is beautiful, yes. It is broken. Yes. It is complex. Yes. It is a place that God has given us to create in and to cultivate and to make much of him through. Absolutely. This earth is our mission field as believers.

There's no question about it. But this earth, as we are currently experiencing it, it is temporary. And what Jesus is saying at this point in the sermon on the Mount, and keep in mind that even though I'm at the beginning of this sermon, Jesus is not at the beginning of the sermon on the Mount. He's about two-thirds of the way through, and Jesus is about to start making the turn toward home. He's about to start shutting it down, and so he's right in the meat of his teaching. And one of the things that jumps out in verse 19 and verse 20 is actually what I believe to be kind of the fundamental or the core of what Jesus has been teaching us all along through the sermon on the Mount. And what he's saying is that, hey, listen, all the stuff we've been

talking about. It points to something deeper. It points to something truer than what you've experienced so far in your life. Jesus is saying that temporary things, they do what temporary things do. They rust. They break down. They get lost or stolen. They wear out. But what he's pointing us to in verse 20 is this, and don't miss it. He is saying that inside these temporary things, eternal things are at work. Inside these temporary things, eternal things, are at work. One of Jesus's key teachings throughout the course of his ministry is that there is a reality that will last far longer than this one. He talks about it often in different words, kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God, but what he's saying is that there is a reality that is going to last far longer than the one we're currently experiencing. And for the believer, for the Jesus follower, this reality is called heaven.

Now, Jesus' best friend John, he helps us with heaven. He helps us get our head around at the end of the New Testament book of Revelation. And in chapters 21 and 22, in Revelation, we learn a few things about heaven. We learn that heaven is a place where God rules and reigns uncontested. Amen to that. Amen and amen. Where God rules and reigns uncontested. Here's what that means.

Listen, this is what it means. In heaven, there is no temptation. There are no competing affections. There are no temporary things to be distracted by or to be disdocumented. disappointed in. We learn that heaven is a place where God will wipe every tear from every eye. There's no more oppression. There's no more division. There's no more demonic activity. There's no more death. There's no more grief. There's no more regret. There's no more crying. There's no more mourning. There's no more pain. Sounds awesome, right?

It's because it is awesome. Revelation chapter 21 verse 4 says this, that when this ultimate reality, when this reality of realities is the only thing that we are experiencing as Jesus followers that when we're in this reality that the former things will have passed away. What Jesus is saying is that our lives can be lived in such a way that the eternal joys of heaven can be invested in and can be enjoyed here as we're on our way to enjoy them there. I want you to get your head around that. What Jesus is saying is that our life here can be lived in such a way that the eternal joys, the eternal freedoms of heaven can be invested in and can be enjoyed here and now as we are on our way to enjoy them

there. Jesus says, don't lay up treasures on earth, but lay up for yourself treasures in heaven. And he continues in verse 21. He says this, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Now this word heart is the Greek word cardia. It's where we get the idea of cardiac. It's the same word that Jesus uses that we've been studying for like 18 or 19 months as a church when Jesus is asked, Jesus, what's the greatest commandment in the world? And Jesus says that the greatest commandment is that you were to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, your cardio, all of your soul, all of your mind, and all of your strength,

and that you were to love your neighbor as yourself. This idea of cardio, it's not talking about like past, emotions or fleeting feelings, what it's talking about is life's center. That at the core of you, there is something at the center of you. What he is saying is something that we all know. And he's being very direct with it. He's saying this. He's saying, ultimately, listen, where your money goes, your heart flows.

Where your money goes, your heart flows. So, this flow, we're not just reacting. to life, right? We're not just walking around with all these random circumstances happening us and we're just reacting all the time but that we are actually with our lives pointed in a direction. And that our direction determines the

destination way more than our intention. We can have the best intentions in the world, but if our direction is not, wherever our direction is pointed, that's where we're going to end up. We see this in these scriptures as Jesus is saying, he's connecting the center of our life

to the things that he's put into our hands. And so we have to ask, if our money goes where our heart flows, we have to ask this question, how does our heart form its affections? How do we really start to care about something? Jesus continues in verse 22. He says this. He says, the eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?

Now, everybody knows, and everybody has experienced this in one way or the other. The truth is that what we set our eyes on, it gets into our souls. What we set our eyes on, it gets down into our souls. I mean, who hasn't had that moment with social media? Right? Where you get to the end of your day, and you've been productive. You've had a pretty good day. You've had some things going on.

You think, you know what? I'm just going to sit down. I'm going to grab my device. I'm just going to scroll around. And I'm just going to see how everybody's doing. Just check in on the world and make sure everybody's all right. And you sit down and you start to scroll and all the sudden you're like, oh, I don't understand. And then you see somebody's hugging and smiling their baby.

And you're like, oh, that's not too bad. And then you keep going. You're like, oh, no. Right? Before too long, you're like a puddle on the floor. halfway to the fetal position, right? We've all been there. Why does this happen?

Because what we set our eyes on, it gets down into our souls. It has an impact on us. This is what Jesus saying. The eye is the lamp of the body. I learned an incredibly valuable lesson about the power the eyes have over the condition of our health.

About a year ago, I was on a trip to Panama. And while I'm down in Panama, we went down myself and a few friends to visit some of our mission partners. And while we're down there, we decided, you know what, on the back end of this, we're going to go fishing for a couple of days. And so we visit our partners, and then we go to the place where we're going fishing from,

and we wake up the morning to head out fishing, it's a little windy. And we think, ah, no big deal, right? And so we go down, we get on the boat. And as the boat pushes out, we go around this inlet, and we head out into the open water. And as we get out into the open water, it went from windy to a disaster. I'm talking, it was awful. It was like four or five foot seas, four or five foot. part and we are just getting smashed.

It was like being trapped in a washing machine from Hades. It was awful. Okay? And we have to bust out like 50 miles to get to the fishing grounds where we're going to be fishing. So for 50 miles, I don't even know how long it was, longer than I could imagine having to do it again. We are just taking a beating.

Right? And then we finally get to where we're fishing and we're there on the fishing grounds. And the grounds were around this pretty large island. And so we're out there and the boat kind of set up. in and it is just rocking, man. It is rocking, rocking, rocking. My buddy Paul is over here and he is just blowing chunks off the side of the boat. I mean, it's just like, it's not even man-puking. It's just like, bleh. You know, like, it was just not good. And I'm starting to get all weak-kneed, and I'm honestly thinking about, like, all right, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to jump off

this boat. I'm going to swim to that island. I'm just going to go straight Tom Hanks and Castaway. That's what I'm going to do right here. Like, I cannot take this anymore. I'm getting all weak-need. I'm about to lose it. And then the captain, he can tell. I guess my friend puking kind of clude him in to we're having some trouble. He looks at us and he says, hey, if you're feeling uneasy or if you're feeling sick, all you need to do is to focus on the island. You need to focus on the island. And this is what he says. He said this and it came to my mind this week as I was reading the scriptures. He said this. He said, because when you're in rough waters, your eyes need to focus on something that's not going to move. He said, when you're in rough waters,

your eyes need to focus on something that's not going to move. That's true. That's not just true when you're taking a beating out in the middle of the ocean. That's true in our life every day. And as Christ's followers, our immovable object that never fails, it's the promises of God. Scripture teaches us that all God's promises are yes and amen in and through Christ Jesus. That all the promises he's made, like the promise he made to us in Isaiah chapter 40,

verse 29, which says this, God, he gives strength to the weary and he increases the power of the weak. And then in Isaiah 43, verse 2, God says, when you pass through the waters, I will be with you. When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. The flames will not set you ablaze. Listen, church, what we focus on with our eyes, it fuels what we focus on with our lives. And so let me just give you permission right now, wherever you are. And whatever you're going through in life, it's okay.

Let me give you permission. Sometimes you just need to put your phone down and you need to pick your Bible up. Sometimes you just need to put down the things of this world that are noisy and they're not altogether bad. And at times they can be incredibly helpful. But sometimes we just got to put those things down. And we need to pick this up and we need to be reminded of the faithfulness of God and the promises of God in and through His Word. So we would have to look at Jesus and say, okay, Jesus, the eyes of the lamp of the body,

I hear what you're saying, but why does what we look at matter? Why can't I just dismiss it? I can see things and I can just move on. Why does it even matter? And Jesus continues in verse 24 and he says this. He says, no one can serve two masters. And he gets really pointed right here. And he says, for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to one

and despise the other, you cannot serve God and money. It is impossible to focus on two things at once. I have always found it fascinating that Jesus could have chosen anything he wants right here to say that it is the number one competitor for the human heart and the thing he chooses is money. Specifically, the word he uses in Greek is the word mammon. And what Mammon is a false god. It's the false God of greed.

And what Mammon promises is it promises security, it promises comfort and earthly significance, but it just cannot deliver. See what Jesus is saying here, and we have to pay attention to what he's actually saying. Jesus is not saying we can't have money. It was actually his idea we can. It's all God's money anyway. What Jesus is saying is that we can't serve money and serve him. that we cannot serve money and serve him. You're going to want to write this down.

Listen, believer, in God's kingdom, money is a tool, not a trophy. In God's kingdom, money is a tool, not a trophy. And so Jesus is digging way beneath the surface here, and in verse 25, he continues. And the first word in verse 25 is a very important Bible study word, and it's the word, therefore. You're going to circle that word. Anytime you see the word, therefore, in Scripture, you need to pay attention to it. The word, therefore, it means Jesus is about to make a really significant connection. So think back with me over the last eight weeks to all the things that Jesus has said in his sermon. When he delivered this sermon, he did it all at once.

He didn't break it up across 13 weeks. He did it all at once. And so over the last eight weeks, here are the things that Jesus has said so far in his sermon. He gave us, he starts with the beatitudes, which is the good news of God. is revealed to us through him, through the person of Jesus, meaning that God's eternal work is happening on this earth and it is happening through the beating hearts of humans. This is what the beatitudes teaches us. And then as God works on us, that work begins to pour out of us.

And Jesus says that you now, having surrendered your life to Jesus and to the kingdom of God, that you are now salt and light, meaning that when God grabs your hearts, that your habits are sure to follow. And he says, as your habits come under the lordship of Jesus Christ, You can live free from anger. That you have the power to fight against lust and sexual immorality. That you can enjoy. One of the way to enjoy God's best for your life is through the covenant of marriage. That you can walk in the power of forgiveness.

He gave us the imperative to love our enemies. He talked about the soul-shaking power of generosity. And then just recently he led us to the pinnacle of spiritual maturity, which is in spiritual intimacy, which is prayer and fasting. And now Jesus is saying, okay, all of those things, and yes, what you spend your time looking at and what you spend your money serving, it matters. What Jesus is saying is that at the center of our being, that there is a throne and that there is someone or there is something on it. And that's someone or that's something, it produces fruit in our lives. If Mammon is on this throne, then what it produces is discontentment.

It produces worry and it has an insatiable appetite for more. It's just never satisfied with enough stuff or having had enough experiences. That is the fruit of Mammon on the throne. But if Jesus is on that throne, that means that the prince of peace is on the throne and that he produces an altogether different kind of fruit. So verse 25, it says this, therefore, he's making the connection. I tell you, do not be anxious about your life. How about that one? Don't be anxious about your life. Don't worry.

Jesus says, don't be anxious about your life. I just want to be like, Jesus, hold on. Did you know about 2020? Like, did you know that there was going to be a year in America? Anyway, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink. ignore about the body what you will put on. Is life not more than food in the body, not more than clothing? At first glance, you read this and you think Jesus is saying, don't worry. I mean, who says that? It's a nice song to listen to when you're chilling by the pool.

You know, don't worry, be happy. But who really walks around is like, oh, don't worry, it's no big deal, right? Nobody. I can confess, honestly, I mean, we're all friends here. All of us watching online, we're friends, right? I can confess honestly to you that at times in my life, I'm a worrier. I'm a worrier. Not all the time.

Honestly, not even most of the time. But at different points of my life, I have struggled with worry. And if I'm honest with you, I've struggled with far more than worry. I've actually struggled through some pretty severe anxiety in my life, almost to the point of being debilitated by it. And I know that right now there's many of you who have struggled and are struggling as well. as I've worked through this in my own life, there's a Christian counselor I follow named Sissy Gough. And she wrote a great book called Raising Worry Free Girls.

And I have daughters. And so in this book, she talks about what she calls the worry continuum. And she's really helped me shape some thoughts around some of my life experiences. And on this worry continuum that she gives us, she starts it with fear. She says that the continuum starts with fear. And so right now, wherever you are, whoever you're watching with, I want you to tell whoever you're worshipping with right now. I want you to tell them out loud something you're afraid of. On the count of three, you tell the people you're worshipping with something you're afraid of.

Ready, one, two, three, go. You have seven seconds. I'm counting in my mind. All right. All right. So what did you say you were afraid of? Usually when we say we're afraid or we have fear, there's an it that comes out of it. I'm afraid of it.

What did you say? Did you say rat? I hate rats. I hate them. Rats. Snakes. Snakes? Nobody likes snakes.

God don't even like snakes. Right? Rats, snakes, public speaking. There's a lot of studies that say that's the number one fear in the world is even greater than death. It's public speaking. So what was it? Rat, snakes, public speaking, nickel back? I don't know.

Right? I don't know. Whatever it is. We're all afraid of something. And usually when we say we're afraid, there's a thing that comes after it. And as we grow and as we develop and mature, these fears, they begin to change as we do. And next on the continuum, as she walks through it, she says, it starts with fear and then it moves to worry. And worry is most often future-oriented.

We usually worry about something more than we're afraid of something. We don't usually worry about snakes and rats. we usually worry about something happening to someone or to us. They're future-oriented. It's a situation at work. It's what someone might think. It's finances. It's health concerns.

It's relationships. I worry about cancer. My mom was diagnosed with cancer around the same age that I am right now. I worry about it. I think about it. I project it in my mind. It's worry. On this continuum, she says it starts with fear

and then it moves to worry. she says that the next phase is anxiety. And anxiety is where we get stuck in a perpetual state of worry. All kinds of factors contribute to this. Listen, all kinds of things contribute to this. Genetics, personality, environment, life circumstances. It can certainly absolutely be debilitating. It can hold us back relationally and personally and professionally.

Now, I just want you to know that if this is where you're at, you're not alone. you're not alone. Research tells us that 31% of adults in the U.S. experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. So that means that even if you're not in this group right now, more than 25% of your friends, family,

co-workers, and neighbors are. You're not alone. As a church, we want to do our best to be in it with you. And so if you're struggling right now through worry and anxiety, we want to be here for you. that you can go to our website, CUE22.com and on it, there's a great list of counselors,

Christian counselors that we work with all the time around the Jacksonville area that would love to serve you in any way that they can. We also have hundreds of people throughout the Church of 1122 that have said, you know what, I'm not a professional, and they're not professionals. But I do have the Holy Spirit of God inside of me, and I have God's word, and I'm more than willing to be a friend to somebody who needs one.

And so if you want to connect with a counselor, or you want to connect with one of our care team members, go to that website and you can get connected there. We have hundreds of people that are willing to walk with you through whatever you're going through. Listen to me. There is no shame when it comes to worry and anxiety. When it comes to these things, there is no shame in seeking help. Just as you wouldn't hesitate to go to a trainer at the gym for a breakthrough in physical help,

a counselor or a therapist can help you find breakthrough in emotional or mental health. There is no shame in doctors. There is no shame in medicines to help us navigate anxiety. God uses those things too. Here's some things that I've learned on. Here's some things I've learned about anxiety's grip in my life. And honestly, I haven't gone through it a ton in my life, but when it hits, it hits like a freight train.

And what I've learned is that I can't beat it on my own. I still try sometimes. You ever go through this in your life that you think, all right, next time I'm going to know what to do, and then you get to the next time and you just, you're like, I act like I don't even know what's going on. Like I can't even spell my name. That's sometimes how I feel in this fight.

I've learned this, though, that even though sometimes I still try, I just cannot beat it on my own. I need other people. I need other people to help me see what I don't see when I'm laser-focused on my worries. And that is what Jesus is about to do in these scriptures. What Jesus does is he says, he very literally says, hey, look up. Look up.

He says, don't be anxious about tomorrow. Look up. Verse 26, he says this. 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 of more value than they? In which of you, by being anxious can add a single hour to a span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. And yet, I tell you, even Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed 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? Oh, you of little faith. So often at the heart of my struggles with worry and anxiety, I have found that what I need most is to be reminded of my identity. And I know, again, I know it can be a complicated physiological reality, and I am not saying that I have the cure. I don't, but what I am saying is that as walking through this, I have found a place of comfort. And that that place of comfort, it always starts with what God has done for me and what God has done to me through Jesus Christ. Jesus, in this part of his sermon, he is speaking to our eternal identities in him.

These birds fly by, and Jesus says, birds, look, look at the birds. they're doing okay. Everything is going fine for them. They're doing what they're created to do. And don't you think, and I don't want you to miss this word, the question Jesus asks is imperative when it comes to identity. Jesus says, are you not of more what? Value.

Are you not of more value than they? And so I want to run with this illustration a little bit. I've shared this with you before, but I'm going to run with Jesus' illustration. I figure it's a good one. the best sermon ever. And so Jesus says, are you not of more value than birds? And so I want you to think about it. Just get your head into what Jesus is saying. Think about it this way. God did not create birds in his image. He did you. God did not step out of the glory of heaven to redeem birds. He did that for you. God didn't put on wings and a beak to reveal himself to birds. He put on skin to show himself

to you. God did not offer himself up to be brutally murder. on a cross so that birds could be forgiven of their sins. He did that for you. God did not descend into the depths of death and the grave only to walk out three days later victorious and alive so that birds could share in his glorious victory. He did that for you. God is not currently in heaven preparing a place for birds so that they can share in the eternal riches of his grace.

He is doing that for you. Let's just say to God, valuable. Verse 31. 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 these things. And your heavenly father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Seek when? Seek first. Seek first. Why first? Why not later? Why does order matter?

We've talked about this countless times at the Church of 1122. It's not so much talking about your priority. It's talking about placement. And that God has placed himself as first over all created things. Over everything that is created and everything that is eternal, there is God and he is over it all. He is first in placement. He is first. He doesn't do second. He can't do second. He will never be second. We don't put God first. He is first. And we order our lives around his firstness. Or the word the Bible uses is his preeminence. It says that Jesus is before all things. This firstness, we order our lives around his firstness. And then the kingdom of God begins to flood through our lives. But if we're not ordered around him as first, then everything seemingly finds its way to be out of order.

seeing and recognizing and surrendering to God as first. This is seeing God as who he truly is. It is having been giving a vision of his beautiful character, his preeminent nature, and it is responding appropriately saying, you are truly the one thing that drives everything, and you can have everything about me. This is what Jesus is saying when he's saying, seek first, that when we seek it matters.

The kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. you therefore verse 34 do not be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself sufficient for the day is its own trouble don't miss this jesus is not saying don't care you ever meet those people who are just like floating through life right they don't have a care in the world they're just doing their thing maybe they walk on the afternoon in the beaches and they pick us some some seashells and they put them away and they go home and they listen to some classical music and then they go to sleep and do it all over again.

You ever meet those people? I don't know any of them. If I did, I probably wouldn't get along. Jesus is not saying don't care. He's not saying don't have any cares. He's not. So you can't hear what, be anxious for nothing and then immediately think, you know what? I just shouldn't care.

That's not what Jesus is saying. He is not saying go through life, free flying, having this light, airy existence that's passionate. He's not. He is saying that right now, right now today, God is working. God is working. Right now, God is working out his glory and our good. He is making all things new.

He is restoring the broken. He is giving sight to the blind. He is causing the lame to walk. He is saving sinners. He is redeeming the lost. He is advancing his kingdom. He is doing that today. And we have the opportunity to join him in.

his work. We can join God in his work. We don't have to sit back and just cheer for God from the cheap seats. We can actually get in the game. We can seek his kingdom today. We can begin to invest and to enjoy in the eternal riches of God's grace that will be fully and finally made known to us in heaven. We can connect with those things. We can be involved in those things right now, just like we will be when we're there. Jesus is saying, God's at work. This is the church's purpose on the earth. It is to join God in his mission to reconcile the world to himself and to each other. And so we have to ask, is that where our cardia is? Is our heart bought into the work of God in this world? Really? Like, as we take inventory of our lives and we look at the center, the throne,

the one thing that drives everything in us, is God's kingdom and God's agenda and the person of God on the throne? We know this. that the biblical prescription for joy is obedience. The biblical prescription for joy is obedience. And the truth is that when you're obedient and we join God in his work, you just don't know what miracle is on the other side of that. So here's how I want to close.

I'm going to close with a story. It's a testimony. It's a chapter of my life that I haven't talked about much. I've actually never really talked about anxiety or worry or anything, any of those things at length out loud. in an open room like this for sure. So I want to close with a testimony. And I think that through this chapter of our lives,

that I think that God will help us put together all the things that Jesus is saying right here through this text when he says, where your treasure goes, your heart goes, be anxious for nothing, and how connected these things are. So I'm going to close with a testimony. And then we're going to pray and we're going to respond like we always do. I'm just going to read it because, the details matter, so bear with me.

I want to close with a story about one of the most anxious times in my life. It was actually during this time that I experienced the first anxiety attack I've ever had. You see, my wife and I, we had moved to Auburn, Alabama to help plant a church. And if you just said War Eagle out loud, you need to see a counselor. Just saying, we had moved to Auburn, Alabama to help plant a church. We were a part of a small team and we thought we were on the front end of something special. It was early 2008.

We had sold our little townhouse in Birmingham and we had made about $800 on the sale and we felt great about it. We moved, we put all of our savings, which was more than $800, we put all of our savings into a house and we were planning on being a part of that community for a long time.

And then the rest of 2008 happened. The housing market crashed, the economy crash, and collapsed, and here we were, church planting in a college town. College students are awesome, but normally they don't have a lot of income to tithe. And so the church went broke, fast. And so did we. We went months and months and months without getting a paycheck.

We were completely broke. If you don't believe that money has real power in our lives, then you've never been broke with real responsibilities. I remember being consumed by it. by the feelings of failure, the realities of failure, I was very, very focused on my circumstances. I was so lost that I remember that I had been scheduled to speak at an event in Texas, and I was supposed to fly out on a Monday morning. The day before Sunday, we finished church, and that day at church, the seats were pretty much empty,

and I came home to pack my things so that I could leave and go to Texas, but I just couldn't pack. I was stuck. I sat feeling paralyzed on my couch. I was overcome with anxiety. I had to get up and figure it out because I had to go and speak at this event because it was the only income I'd be earning as far as I knew. And so I went and somehow by God's grace I made it through. And when I got home, we squeezed our way through the next few weeks.

It was around this point in time that we were coming up on the Christmas holidays. and I remember having to have a conversation with my wife stating that we weren't going to be able to do Christmas this year. Through it all, I became defeated. I saw my circumstances. I focused on my failure. And honestly, I was giving up on my calling. My wife had started looking for jobs in the Atlanta area as a teacher. And that's where my family's from and where I grew up.

And so I had decided that I was going to call it quits. And I was going to call my uncles who were business. owners and I was just going to go work for them. So the night before I was going to make the call, we had some friends come over for dinner. My friend's name was Brad. His father-in-law was the oldest man in our small congregation. His name was Tom. Tom had at one point in time been a church planner.

He had been in the ministry for 40 plus years. He was one of the few families that tith consistently through our church. Tom and I had shared a couple of meals together. He always paid. I don't know exactly how it works, but somehow genera. Begets generosity. He was always very encouraging. So Brad and his wife came in, spent some time with us, and as they were leaving, Brad said,

Hey, bro, let's go outside and let's chat real quick. So we walked out of the front of the house and standing in front of my house that I was completely sub-zero underwater on. Brad hands me an envelope. And he says these words. He says, Brother Tom felt like God wanted him to give you this. I don't know what's in it, but I hope it encourages you. And then Brad left and I stood in my front yard. I opened the envelope and in it was $1,500.

In my life, I had never experienced anything like it. I didn't even know what to do. That single act of generosity, it changed me. It broke through my walls of fear and worry and it gave me hope. It reminded me that God, He wasn't done with me yet. And the next day, I woke up, I grabbed my phone, but I didn't call my uncles. Instead, I called a man named Donald.

Donald had helped me get into church planning in the first place, and I said, Donald, do you know of any place where God might use me? Any church where I could serve. And he said, funny enough, I just got off the phone with a church looking for someone just like you. And a month later, we were moving to Nashville to help another. church plant. Now, since then, I've had many hard days. Nashville did not go awesome. That's a whole another story. I lost more money than I care to talk about on that house in Auburn. We lived in five houses over the next five years. But through all the challenges we faced, I never doubted

God's call in my life again. Because Tom chose to join with God in God's work in my life, God reminded me that what felt like a serious setback to me was just a serious set up for him. He reminded me that failure is not forever, but God's faithfulness, it is. If it weren't for Tom, I would have never found you, 1122. I wouldn't have. And I cannot imagine my life without this church

and being a part of it. Let me encourage you with this. When it comes to obedience, church, you just never know what God's up to. you never know what God's up to. You never know what miracle, what breakthrough in someone else's life is on the other side of your obedience. Let's pray together. God, we love you.

We thank you that you have gifted us the kingdom of God. We thank you that you have invited us into your family and that you've made yourself known to us. We thank you that thousands of years ago, Jesus, you stood on a mountain. and you shared the realities of the kingdom of God with us, and that these kingdoms can transform us, heart, mind, soul, and strength, that we can be connected to eternal realities inside of this temporary one. Father, we pray that you would give us eyes to see, that you would give us hearts to feel,

that we would believe and trust in you. We pray that you would do such a work in us every day, that our hearts would beat for your kingdom, that we would be about your business, that we would drop the excuses, that we would drop all the things, the distractions that would keep us from enjoying you and from being invested in your work, Father,

and that we would fall head over heels in love with what you're doing, and we would find our place in it. I pray for my brothers and sisters, wherever they are right now, specifically for the ones who are struggling with worry or anxiety. Father, Jesus, we know that you are the prince of peace and that your kingdom is a kingdom of peace. And so I pray that the peace of your kingdom would invade them, heart, mind, soul, and strength.

That they would be overwhelmed with the realities of your love. Father, I pray that wherever breakthrough needs to happen, I pray that spiritual chains would fall by the blood of Jesus and that men and women would walk free, empowered by your spirit, and in love with your kingdom. Father, we pray that you would meet us, here that you would bless the reading, the teaching, and the hearing of your word. We thank you for loving us first so that we can love each other. We pray all these things in Jesus' name and all

God's people said. Amen. Amen. If you would stand with me, we're going to respond and worship. We're going to sing about the goodness of God. God's good. Amen. Amen. He is good. He's been good to me. He is being good to you. And so we're going to sing about that. And we're going to give testimony to the goodness of God. Let's worship him together. Thank you.