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Episode 755: In this episode, we dive into a lively discussion about the nature of worry and the importance of seeking the kingdom of God. We explore a passage from Luke 12:22-34, where Jesus addresses the issue of worry. We discuss how Jesus encourages us not to be consumed by our daily concerns, such as food and clothing, reminding us that life is more than these material needs. He uses the examples of ravens and lilies to illustrate God's provision and care for creation, emphasizing that if God cares for these, He will certainly care for us.
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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome, Welcome, Welcome, welcome for welcome for Welcome to the Bible guys. Well, Chris, yes, this better be fun and practical. We just we just made that declaration. I'm already having fun and it's always proud. Okay. Well, so one of the most important segments in all of the no humanity in the Bible, guys, universe, no, in all universes in the what is it? The cannon in the Bible guys? Cannon? All right? Is what made Chris mad this week? Yes, and today is Friday. You've allready just made our wildest dreams come true by singing whatever good morning twice this week, Wow, Tuesday and Thursday. Assuming people listened all. Tuesday and Thursday. People, you gotta go back and listen. Because there may be people just tuning in for the first time. That's right. So we are today recording our seven hundred and fifty fifth episode zoinks. Isn't that crazy? It's crazy? And so we do these five days a week, and. And I'm not sure I've ever wanted to do seven hundred and fifty five things with you. At all, evereven and fifty five anythings with you? What was I thinking? So anyways, you've already delighted people beyond our wildest dreams by singing two times this week to us. Wow. But the by far favorite segment that we do is what made Chris mad this week. And that's a heck of an introduction. Joe, listener, you're going to discover Chris it's not mad for himself. No, he's this is true, on behalf of all of you. I don't know if it's true. It's what he wants you to believe. No, no, no, no, actually is actually on behalf of all of humanity. He's angry for you. Hate. By the way, this is true. He bears this burden. I'm she bears this Verden, Hey, this is true. I actually didn't discover this about myself until this segment. I promise you this is true because because what I what I realized is. You give purpose to your rage, your outrage outrage sort of but like like when I'm with my family, so noble, when I'm with my listen, when I'm with. My family, and let's just say, like, I'll take a classic one, right, like poor customer service or something or whatever, and and and uh and so, yeah, that happens to me, But my family will attest by far that I don't ever think about me in. That moment ever. Listen, I'm not I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. I'll get mad, and then I'll always immediately go to like that manager needs to know that that waitress is being this way and I can't believe that that she's going to mess up this entire business, and like and I'm like, I'm like, so it happened to me, and yet I immediately go toward like the injustice of like, you know whatever, and and my family will attest to humanity. Look, you've met. So I'm going to go really obscure in this one. Okay, thank you. And before I give my reasoning, I'm just going on a limb and telling you that this is not going to be a common thing that people think of, okay, because people always think of not returning your life. I'm shining a light in the darkness. At this point. You're letting us, yes, which should be outraged, Okay, but you are on our behalf here's. What people can relate to. Everybody can relate to going into a public place and you go into like a public restroom or something, especially when there's multiple sinks lined up right, like an airport or something like this, right, And have you ever seen there's water everywhere? Yes, everywhere. I'm with you on this one. So far, okay, go go, So do you want to know get. The majority of the reason why there's water everywhere? Because people don't wipe up after themselves. You would think that, But now I'm going to enlighten you. Okay, okay. I want you to pay attention to this, and I promise you this is true. If you start paying attention to this every time you see a bunch of water everywhere, you will start to realize it's actually not the people's fault. It's the people who choose. Well two reasons. The sinks aren't built correctly. So you have this big bowl and then a faucet that leans like it's three inches off of one side. Why doesn't the faucet left the water down in the middle of the bowl. If you had a good sink, then the faucet would actually be in the middle of the bowl. And no matter how much you splash, the water stays in the bowl of the sink. Mind blowing. Okay, And so here's what happens. You have a big, huge sink and then you have a tiny little faucet and it's actually like right near the edge, and so when you're sitting there, washing water gets everywhere, right, And it's because two reasons. Number one, people don't know how to actually design sinks correctly. And by the way, come on sing, what the heck is that? All right, let's start protesting these sink designers. It's all about money. Yeah, right, it's not about it's not about it's about I'm gonna build a smaller faucet because do people want to get it with the bare minimum? And this is what people are going to buy. And if I build a smaller faucet, they're gonna buy mine. And so it's a conspiracy. It's a faucet conspiracy people, And you know who you are. You already know this to be true. A faucet shouldn't come out three or four inches on this massive bowl. Then why have the bowl? Why not make why not make you know, the bowl just this big, because that's where you're doing so everything. Water gets everywhere. So my point is the manufacturers, it's their fault and it's and it's also the people who don't want, all right to spend the money on proper sinks. All right. And uh so it has nothing to do with the fact that people have wet hands and when they take their hands out from underneath there, it drops still, believe it or not. It don't wipe up afterwards, believe it or not. I think it has way less to do with that than it has to do with the fact. Because it must be washing your hands vigorously. Uh vigorous washing. No, no, no, no, I'm telling you right now. It's it's the reason why you see water everywhere. Alls I know is majority of the time you'll discover it's actually the fop at our Scaling Heights campus. Yes, we have like this. It used to be a movie theater. Yes. One of the benefits of buying a movie theater is the restrooms are huge. Yes, it's like a fourteenth theater yep, yep. And so we have what eight nine. Yeah, a sink sinks yep. And what I know is that the sink countertop gets wet yep, But so does the wall where the paper is. The paper towels, yeah are whatever. It's wet, everything's going to get wet. But what I'm saying is. And the space between the sink and the paper towel. When I travel on the Interstate and I travel from here to Youngston, Ohio, which is where I grew up, I'm on eighty ninety at the turnpike and I get off, and they have the worst example of this. They actually have the smallest faucets with the biggest sinks, and all the water runs where the fossils are across. It's right across the right and everybody you know doing this, and of course you know you have the soap and all that. As you're doing it, water is getting everywhere, and it's because people don't buy people. So so then you know, we can lament the fact that the big faucet yep isn't engineering for our benefit. That we could lament that, or we could also just look out for each other and wipe off the counter when we're done, and then the next words come and do the next thing there too. That listen, we are bringing the finest outrage to our customers. Yes, and the fact that you are thinking about things most everybody else is not. Well. I will bet you helps us. I bet you you make us better complete. I'm gonna make this. Claif you complete that, I will, I will. I will go ahead and go on a limb and say, I bet you that you personally, you will pay attention to this more because now I don't think that every he thinks that way. And when you walk into a public setting and you're going to see water everywhere, just pay attention to the faucet, and I think you're going to walk away. Go dude. For the last five years, I've looked at this and I'm telling you, ninety percent of the time the water exists because of the poor faces. Yeah yeah, yeah. And and so the fact that you worry about this for us. Well I'm outraged. I'm not worried about it. Yeah, but I'm just you're worried for us that our life is going to be more difficult and uninformed if you don't show it to usted. And Jesus warns us about worry. I see, I see. He lets us know. Okay, you worry on me for no reason. I'm like, I'm not worried, but but you're anxiety over this this issue. All right, I'll buy it. I'll buy it. Wow, Chris, Well, thank you, thank you on behalf of all the rest of humanity. Yeah, you can't. We can't thank you enough. Ye, you're just There're like you're like the other superhero that didn't make it into them, into the. I'm like one of the thunderbolts. Yeah, here we go. Well, anyways, it's us here. In Luke, chapter twelve, verse twenty two, Jesus is talking about worry, and he says, then turning to his disciples, Jesus said, this is why I tell you not to worry about everything her everyday life, whether you have enough food to eat or enough clothes to wear, for life is more than food in your body, more than clothing. Look at the ravens. They don't plant or harvest or store food and barns, for God feeds them, and you are far more valuable to Him than any birds can all your worries at a single moment to your life. And if worry can' accomplish a little thing like that, what's the use of worrying about bigger things? Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing Yet Solomon and all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? Is that it? Nope, we go and don't be concerned about what to eat and what to drink. Don't worry about such things. These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers all over the world. But your father already knows your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need. So don't be afraid. Little flock gives your father great happiness to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give those in need. This will store up treasures for you in heaven, and the purses of heaven never get old or develop holes. Your treasure will be safe. No thief can steal it, no money can no moth can destroy it. Wherever your treasure is, they're the desires of your heart will be also. Boom, bang, there you go, boom. You know it's so great about the Bible, a lot of things, But let me tell you. Let me tell you what I well, best things the resurrection, Yeah, are salvation. One of the great things about the Bible from a skeptics point of view, how about that is that even though these stories are written down and some of them are so ancient, you know, thousands and thousands of years old, that and they're so outrageous, right, I mean, you know, Elijah on top of the mountain with fire coming down. I mean, just just crazy stories. What's so interesting is that every single time that in this case Jesus talking about human nature, but even the Bible talking about human nature, our human nature has not changed. No, Yeah, isn't that crazy? So everyone it talks about thoughts and intents of the heart or human tendencies to lean a certain way or do a certain thing, or or you know, or struggling you know, commandment to not uh uh you know, do this, but do this. And I mean every time it talks about the desires, the intentions, the human hearts, the sinful nature, everything it is. It is dead on. Yes. And so here's Jesus talking about where your treasure is, the desires of your heart will also be And holy cow, is that true? That is one of the most prominent truths that supersedes every race, every culture, every generation. It's just like, think about it, everybody wherever they You know, if a person loves money, right, and if a person loves stuff, then that's where their heart's going to be. Their heart's going to be there. It's not going to be anywhere else. Which is we see that in you know, people who come to their senses and they say, man, I've sacrificed my family for the pursuit of more money. Yeah, you know, I got divorced because I'm always at work and I'm searching for that next promotion. And it's just like money is the first priority, and then you lose everything else, or if you don't lose it, it suffers. Right. I was in Naples, Florida and working with or meeting with a couple of guys who give pretty significant resources to the Timothy Initiative to help start discycle making movements in church planting movements in the least reached countries in the world. And the one gentleman was wealthy. The other gentleman was insanely wealthy, insanely with He's an old guy, quite old gentleman, and he made his money a number of years ago. Hundreds of millions of dollars, and he has a huge car collection. He owns a bunch of houses all around the country, all these things. But about a decade or two ago he set up a family foundation and began realizing, I want to give it all away. And so when we were sitting there in the restaurant, it was just a diner, literally, like a diner with some lady named Flow who came up to a bubblegum, want to know what you want today? All right? I think it's his favorite place to eat, which is hysterical, and it looks like that old diner, you know, the old kind of diners with the like the stainless steel building and the neon signs and stuff. Trivia. Do you remember the name of that series. Of what series? The Flow or wait? I was talking about some lady named Flow, I. Know, But did you get that quote from Dumb and Dumber? No Flow? No oh, because that she was made popular as a diner worker. She her name was Flow. Her cats phrase was kiss my grits okay, and it was from Alice okay, and it was Mel's Dinner. Oh well yeah, from the seventies. So anyways, it's kind of that idea, you know, that place. So it was just kind of a low key restaurant. Really cool to hang out with him there, and I asked him about it. I said, you know, he's a really grumpy old guy all this stuff, so you just never know if you're gonna offend him. But I asked him, I said, hey, can I ask you? You know you mentioned because he was measuring what kind of investment was he making and what kind of results is he getting? So he wanted all these details. Typical rich guy making investments and now he's trying to give his money away. And I asked him, I said, you know, you take these things really seriously, and you're reacting like this is your job. He said, it is my job. That's what I mean. He said, when I was trying to build my career, he said, I was building buildings, building apartments, building all these things. And he said I was in detailed down to like the penny and he said, every minute mattter to me, and everything made money. He said, Now I'm trying to figure out how to give it away. And he said, it matters, it matters where it goes, it matters what kind of results is going to get Am I going to get a good return on my investment. I'm still investing. And I said, what made you decide you want to give your money away? And he said, I've lived a really great life, and I've got a lot of good things here. And he said, I've got cars that you can't imagine. I've got homes and estates that you can't fathom. I just chase the sun. I just live wherever the sun is. You know, sunny, good weather. So we're in Naples in the middle of winter, he said, But when my wife died, I realized I loved this place more than that place. And he said, Jesus is right where my treasure is. That's where I want to be. And he said, at first, I started giving all my money away so I would fall in love with the idea that heaven is great and I want to lay up treasures in heaven because I want to see my wife. And he said, the longer I've been doing this, the more I'm in love with the idea that I get to spend eternity with Jesus. He said, So it started off with my wife, Now it's Jesus. And he said, I love this idea heaven. He said, before I was afraid of dying. Now I can't wait to go to heaven. He said all these things, and he said, come laying up treasure in heaven. He said, it's true. Where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. And he said, my treasure was in cars and barns. And now I'm trying to figure out how do I sell my barns and my cars because I want more treasure in heaven. And he said, I long for it. I look for it. I'm so excited for it. And I've never had anybody one. I never had a guy who with one hundreds of millions of dollars tell me I'm trying figure how to give it all away. The other one is I never had anybody that was just that crystal clear on why this was so important to him. Yeah, right, you have it away. That's amazing. I love it. And that's what Jesus is saying. Where your treasure is, that's where your heart's going to be. Yeah. And so for most of us, our heart is on our house, it's in our vacations, it's in our bank account, it's in our retirement, it's in our camper, it's in our place up north. That's where it because that's where our treasure is. We're working, we're spending our minutes, in our hours in order to have money in order to be able to fund those things. Yeah, so that's where that's where our hearts are. Yeah. And by the way, the Bible never says that having money or having wealth is a bad thing. No. No, In fact, the scripture even says we're supposed to leave inheritance for our children's children. Right, plan for your future future and spends everything you get. Somebodyle says, yeah. And so and so the idea that we you know, are blessed with means isn't designed to make us feel guilty. Right, well, Paul told Timothy, God has given you all these things to enjoy. That's right, right, just make sure you don't put your trust in them, that's right, right. That's right. So when you read like verse number thirty three, where it says sell your possessions and give to those in need. This will store our treasures in heaven, you know that is true. Whenever we decide to invest in heaven. You know, if we're if we're helping the poor, of course we're reading your treasures in heaven. But that should not be taken as a commandment of like, if you have prized possessions, you must sell them. That's not what that's saying, right, right, it's saying that if you have an attitude of of. You know, give saying start letting go. Yeah, that's right, that's hanging on so tight, start letting that. That's right. It's the principle of this. This is what this means, and this is what this means. Right. Well, so we always say that the Bible is its own best commentary. That's right, so he says, so in my mind, Jesus doesn't waste words. So in verse thirty one, he says, seek the Kingdom above all else. So I can tell you this, there's almost nothing else in this passage that's more important than that statement. Right. He literally says above all else. If you ever wonder what's important to Jesus, well, there's nothing more important than you seeking the Kingdom of Heaven above all else, and he will give you everything you need. So don't be afraid, little flock. It gives your father great happiness to give you the kingdom. So if you seek the kingdom, that means seeking Jesus to be the king of your life. And then your will be done, not my will, be done. When your will and your values begin to align with his, he says, then I'll give you everything you need. Right, My father's gonna give everything you need. And it's in that context that he says, sell your possessions and give to the poor. He's saying, release your grip. If you're seeking his kingdom above everything else, you're going to release your grip on your kingdom. And when you release your grip on your kingdom, what's going to happen is all of your work and all of your efforts are going to start laying up treasures in heaven rather than just accumulating treasures here. There's nothing wrong with having things here, it's just where's your grip? What's because what you're gripping onto probably has a hard grip on you. Right. And he also made us a very similar statement in Matthew chapter six, where he says, seek you first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. That's right, and all these things shall be added to you. God will take care of you, you know, that's all. Yes, seek first the Kingdom of God. Okay, And it is righteous. Okay, So anyway, the point is is that when God tells us to seek him first, he promises then provision, right right. And so when he's talking about money, he's talking about the ravens. He's talking about the flowers. And and I love the deep thinking here, right who looks at the flowers and says, man, God has clothed them so well with their with their garments, you know. But Jesus looks at the flowers and says, they're dressed so beautifully, the purples, the yellows, the greens or whatever. And he's talking about just and he says, you know, not not even Solivan and all this splendor was dressed more beautifully than these God. And God does that. And God cares for the flowers just by the way, so you know God cares for ravens. God cares for flowers, And how much more does he care for you? Because God provides? And so he's telling us, you know, rely on God because you know it's all around you. You know, the idea that you know, ravens don't worry is a hilarious thought, right right. And he's saying, look around you, the flowers aren't worried. The ravens aren't worried. Not worrying is something that's all around you, right, And they were completely dependent upon God. He says in verse twenty five. Can all your worries a single moment to your life? That's hilarious, right, really, yeah. What is your worrying accomplishing? It doesn't acomplish anything. And he says, and if worry can't accomplish a little thing like that, right, adding more minutes to your life, Jesus views that as a little thing, right, Right, what's the use of worrying over bigger things if you can't add any more time to your life? And that's just a little thing for God. Right, If you if you're not in control of that, then why are you worrying about the big stuff? Right? Instead? Seek God and his kingdom and all these other things that we added to you. That's great, Yeah, I love it. You know when it talks about worry, you know that whenever I start preaching on worry or you know, teach on worry, you can get through the negative consequences of worry so much, I mean so quickly. And and there's I don't think there's a single upside to worry no, it's one of it's one of those. It's one of those topics where like I remember arguing with my mother about smoking one time, and I said, name me a single benefit of smoking, right, and now she has she has, she has hard I'm breathing at eighty five. What is that called? Nod? Yeah? And so. But but I used to say to her, name me a single thing. And you know it smells it, you know, second and smoke, it's cost you money, all these different things and uh. And so finally she goes, oh, I have it. I said what and she goes, it makes me want to eat less, and therefore I'm thinner when I smoke. And I said, okay, fine, you came up with one thing, okay, out of the out of a million negatives. But I don't think there's a single good thing about worry. Now, if you try to come up with one single thing, I don't think you really can. I think warriors would try to tell you they're just trying to be diligent. Yeah, they're trying to focus on the thing that you're not focusing on, right. Uh, and so your your personal responsibility and your diligence, those things are are no but there's almost always an equal and opposite corresponding negative, and if it's unchecked to every every noble thing that you can think to do. Telling the truth is incredibly noble. But I can use the truth as a club and beat you with it too. So there's almost an opposite, equal and opposite corresponding negative to all the positives. So if you're a worrier and you're justifying it by saying, well, I'm just trying to be diligent, I'm just trying to be you know, responsible, then just understand every sin can be justified by some noble side of it. Right your your outrage on our behalf. For instance, I'm joking, bro. I was gonna say, are you about sure? You? Are you about to classify that a sin? I'm joking. I'm joking, but I mock it. I think it's a funny idea. And so be careful about justifying your worry as if it's some because Jesus doesn't give any of those caveats. He goes listen, if your hat and it's because of this, how tightly you're hanging on to a thing. If you're hanging on to a thing, the one of the ways you know that it's beginning to hang on to you and grip you too tight. Is the fact that it's dominating your thinking. Yeah, And Jesus said, these kinds of things dominate the way pagans think what they're going to eat next, and all these things. He said, Listen, God delights in giving you the kingdom, but you got to let it go. If to let go of these things and trust that God's can do it, it doesn't mean you stop being diligent. It doesn't mean you stop being responsible. It means that you trust the outcome to God. And when you trust the outcome to God, then there's a lot more peace. Yeah. And somebody might also say, well, being a worrier causes me to think through things more and plan more because I worry about you know, inevitable or probable you know, outcomes. And I would just say, guess what, it's possible to still plan and think that way without worrying. That's right, right, So the worrying is the negative part of things, right. It's of worrying is worrying about things you can't control, that are out of your control, that may or may not even happen. And therefore it's a negative feeling. It's a negative thing all around. It actually takes moments from your life. You know, worry can actually end your life early. It does, it really does. So studies have been done. We hey, that is a great place to end. Thank you for joining us in the Bible guys, and hopefully we'll see you next time.