1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,840 Hey, I'm Matt Brownell. 2 00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:10,480 And I'm Van Owens. 3 00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:12,160 And I'm Tim Adams. 4 00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:18,120 Welcome to Climbing the Mountain, where we dive into the scriptures and discuss themes, 5 00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:21,280 connections, and real life application. 6 00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:24,960 We're kicking off a series here where we're going to examine the Sermon on the Mount and 7 00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:35,240 discuss implications for this teaching for Christians today. 8 00:00:35,240 --> 00:00:36,240 Welcome back. 9 00:00:36,240 --> 00:00:44,280 This is our fourth episode now on anxiety and just another disclaimer. 10 00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:50,360 This is for the 95, 90, whatever percent of the time, you know, the anxiety that you get 11 00:00:50,360 --> 00:00:56,960 from worrying about things that in the world that just come along. 12 00:00:56,960 --> 00:01:05,040 And it's not for someone who is dealing with crippling anxiety. 13 00:01:05,040 --> 00:01:08,880 If you are, please, we want you to go get help. 14 00:01:08,880 --> 00:01:09,880 Talk to someone. 15 00:01:09,880 --> 00:01:12,040 Go see a therapist. 16 00:01:12,040 --> 00:01:13,840 Get medication. 17 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:17,920 And then come back to these words, because these words are life. 18 00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:25,560 This is Jesus talking to us, and his words will help us to train our eyes on God, who 19 00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:33,740 is our good master, who knows everything about us and loves us and will provide for us. 20 00:01:33,740 --> 00:01:39,040 He is concerned about, we looked at the birds and the flowers of the field. 21 00:01:39,040 --> 00:01:48,480 And if he's so concerned with the details of these small birds and adorning the flowers, 22 00:01:48,480 --> 00:01:50,760 we know that he will take care of us. 23 00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:52,000 And so we can trust him. 24 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:53,680 He is good. 25 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:57,320 Let's come back to the scripture and start from there, Tim. 26 00:01:57,320 --> 00:01:58,320 Yep. 27 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:01,840 Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about 28 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:03,600 your body, what you will wear. 29 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:07,320 Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? 30 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:08,580 Look at the birds of the air. 31 00:02:08,580 --> 00:02:13,640 They don't sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. 32 00:02:13,640 --> 00:02:16,120 Are you not much more valuable than they? 33 00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:19,600 Can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life? 34 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:22,200 And why do you worry about clothes? 35 00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:23,920 See how the flowers of the field grow. 36 00:02:23,920 --> 00:02:25,880 They don't labor or spin. 37 00:02:25,880 --> 00:02:31,200 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon, and all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 38 00:02:31,200 --> 00:02:35,240 If that is how God closed the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is 39 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:40,280 thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, you little faith? 40 00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:44,480 So don't worry, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? 41 00:02:44,480 --> 00:02:50,160 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows you need them. 42 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:53,640 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you 43 00:02:53,640 --> 00:02:54,640 as well. 44 00:02:54,640 --> 00:02:56,680 Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow. 45 00:02:56,680 --> 00:02:58,680 For tomorrow, worry about itself. 46 00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:01,560 Each day has enough trouble of its own. 47 00:03:01,560 --> 00:03:02,560 Thank you. 48 00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:07,400 So the approach we've been taking here is to look at the different arguments that Jesus 49 00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:18,320 is making, and to use our brains, and to think through the arguments to help us battle anxiety. 50 00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:24,040 And so instead of running after the things that make us anxious, doing this thought exercise, 51 00:03:24,040 --> 00:03:31,720 and now we're getting to, in verse 30, some of the heart of what we've been discussing 52 00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:36,520 for a while now, what causes anxiety, little faith. 53 00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:44,240 And Jesus is using, I think it's, he may have just, I don't see it in other areas outside 54 00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:46,800 of the Bible. 55 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:53,240 We translate it, you of little faith, but it's really little and faith, a conjunction. 56 00:03:53,240 --> 00:03:58,160 It's like he's calling them little faiths. 57 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:03,360 He says, will he not much more clothe you, little faiths? 58 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:07,880 Which there's something, I don't know, maybe not entirely endearing about it, but it does 59 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:09,960 feel compassionate. 60 00:04:09,960 --> 00:04:13,760 He's addressing us as someone he wants to help. 61 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:20,040 So the argument Jesus makes in verse 30 points back to God's character again. 62 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:25,200 How does this statement about how God clothes grass and Jesus' comment about faith help 63 00:04:25,200 --> 00:04:27,040 us not be anxious? 64 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:34,320 Yeah, this was interesting because when you brought up the fact that it's, you know, not, 65 00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:35,320 it doesn't appear many times. 66 00:04:35,320 --> 00:04:37,520 It looked like, oh, where else does it appear, right? 67 00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:44,800 And one of the places is Jesus is like asleep in the boat and the disciples are terrified 68 00:04:44,800 --> 00:04:46,480 because they think they're going to drown. 69 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:52,320 Other ones to Peter, when he's been walking on water and then he falls into the water, 70 00:04:52,320 --> 00:04:57,280 he's scared and Jesus says, you have little faith like in that moment. 71 00:04:57,280 --> 00:05:01,320 And I've always wondered about that because I'm like, Peter's doing a pretty good job. 72 00:05:01,320 --> 00:05:04,320 To anxiety-ridden situations. 73 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:05,760 Yeah, yeah. 74 00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:12,320 And you know, I think how is Peter's faith little there? 75 00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:20,480 It's not that it's more little than the other people that are in the boat terrified, but 76 00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:27,760 it's little in the sense that compared to, you know, where it could be based on the thing, 77 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:30,720 the person he has faith in, it's small. 78 00:05:30,720 --> 00:05:35,960 You know, my faith in like this plastic table being able to hold a thousand pounds or whatever, 79 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:40,320 like it's not like maybe, you know, but probably not. 80 00:05:40,320 --> 00:05:44,160 So like my faith in this table is not significant. 81 00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:51,960 My faith in God can be significant because God is capable of like carrying that faith. 82 00:05:51,960 --> 00:05:59,560 So that's that I have not thought about that connection until you brought this up, Matt, 83 00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:05,520 but it seems like, you know, that just is saying you have a certain amount of faith, 84 00:06:05,520 --> 00:06:09,520 but it can be so much more if you allow it to grow. 85 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:11,360 Wow, that's a really good point. 86 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:12,520 Your faith can. 87 00:06:12,520 --> 00:06:17,760 So Tim, on that a little bit on that is that I think one of the what I wrote down for this 88 00:06:17,760 --> 00:06:23,240 is that usually when I'm, this is Jim and this is not everybody. 89 00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:28,440 So we have made the disclaimer that like if you're having crippling anxiety and you need 90 00:06:28,440 --> 00:06:30,800 help, please go get help. 91 00:06:30,800 --> 00:06:36,160 Most of the time I'm not just anxious about nothing personally. 92 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:37,160 Right. 93 00:06:37,160 --> 00:06:41,640 Like it's there's usually a reason I'm anxious. 94 00:06:41,640 --> 00:06:43,840 There is a cause of my anxiety. 95 00:06:43,840 --> 00:06:50,680 It's not just I like when I was out of work, I was anxious and I was waking up at 3am every 96 00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:55,360 day and I couldn't go back to sleep because I was anxious about like it was, there was 97 00:06:55,360 --> 00:07:02,920 a reason behind my anxiety and it's usually because there's a bad situation and I don't 98 00:07:02,920 --> 00:07:04,840 see a way out of it. 99 00:07:04,840 --> 00:07:07,960 Like I just don't see how this gets better. 100 00:07:07,960 --> 00:07:09,920 It just feels, I feel stuck. 101 00:07:09,920 --> 00:07:17,160 I feel like I can't get dig myself out of whatever hole I happen to be in and I don't 102 00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:20,400 see a ladder to get out of the hole. 103 00:07:20,400 --> 00:07:26,240 And so I think when I combine this with the previous statements Jesus makes, it seems 104 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:31,200 like he's trying to reframe the situation as looking at it, that instead of looking 105 00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:38,720 at circumstances and looking at how bad the situation is, he's trying to say, look, there's 106 00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:47,640 this, there's this external thing that can feel overwhelming, but there's also a solution 107 00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:55,240 to the feeling of the overwhelming, which is to have my faith grow and to grow in my 108 00:07:55,240 --> 00:07:59,920 faith and that's not necessarily linear and that's not necessarily quick and it's not 109 00:07:59,920 --> 00:08:04,680 necessarily easy, but there is a way out of this. 110 00:08:04,680 --> 00:08:07,320 It may not be the way out I'm hoping. 111 00:08:07,320 --> 00:08:10,880 I usually, if I'm in a hole, I would like a ladder because I want to get out of the 112 00:08:10,880 --> 00:08:14,400 hole, throw me a rope so I can climb out. 113 00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:19,200 But Jesus is also saying, I won't, that's not necessarily how it works, but there is 114 00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:23,440 a way to get out of this situation and that's for your faith to grow. 115 00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:33,280 And I think on top of what you said, yeah, your faith in Jesus can grow and you can have 116 00:08:33,280 --> 00:08:41,440 more faith in him so that you can actually handle these stressful things and these anxiety-inducing 117 00:08:41,440 --> 00:08:48,560 things because they are real and in these people's world, these anxiety-inducing things 118 00:08:48,560 --> 00:08:52,000 for the people that we're struggling to eat, it's not like they're going to listen to the 119 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:58,760 sermon and then all of a sudden, oh, hey, a bunch of food just landed on my table. 120 00:08:58,760 --> 00:09:06,640 I mean, they weren't going away and so Jesus gives them a path to improve. 121 00:09:06,640 --> 00:09:07,640 To improve. 122 00:09:07,640 --> 00:09:08,640 I love that. 123 00:09:08,640 --> 00:09:10,320 That is a great point. 124 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:17,520 It reminds me of your faith which is more precious than gold, it being refined and this 125 00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:25,000 is so great that we can grow in our faith and that it is God who, because it's God, is 126 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:33,280 the object of our devotion and this is a growth opportunity, our suffering. 127 00:09:33,280 --> 00:09:34,280 We talked about it before. 128 00:09:34,280 --> 00:09:38,840 The suffering, none of what Jesus is saying is suffering is going to avoid you now. 129 00:09:38,840 --> 00:09:43,800 Like you're just going to walk through magically life and nothing bad will ever happen to you, 130 00:09:43,800 --> 00:09:45,600 convert, quite the contrary actually. 131 00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:48,280 I think in, what does it say? 132 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:54,240 In Acts 14 it says, through many hardships will enter the kingdom. 133 00:09:54,240 --> 00:09:55,240 Yeah. 134 00:09:55,240 --> 00:09:56,240 Yeah. 135 00:09:56,240 --> 00:10:00,760 I think that, you know, this all reminds me of a couple of different passages that have 136 00:10:00,760 --> 00:10:05,040 like a shocking start and then a comforting end. 137 00:10:05,040 --> 00:10:07,560 One is John 1633. 138 00:10:07,560 --> 00:10:14,040 I think it's 33 where Jesus says, in this world you will have trouble. 139 00:10:14,040 --> 00:10:16,240 And I'm like, great. 140 00:10:16,240 --> 00:10:18,000 I don't want to hear that. 141 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:22,160 I thought I was coming into the church to avoid trouble. 142 00:10:22,160 --> 00:10:26,960 He says, in this world you will have trouble, but then he says, take heart. 143 00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:35,320 I have overcome the world and that the trouble, alleviating the trouble comes from being with 144 00:10:35,320 --> 00:10:40,800 Jesus and Paul goes a little bit further in Philippians chapter four. 145 00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:44,360 In verse six he says, do not be anxious about anything. 146 00:10:44,360 --> 00:10:51,400 And I'm like, okay, that means I am perpetually in disobedience of the scripture because 147 00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:54,080 I'm almost always anxious about everything. 148 00:10:54,080 --> 00:10:56,680 But he says, do not be anxious about anything. 149 00:10:56,680 --> 00:11:04,560 But then he says, but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present 150 00:11:04,560 --> 00:11:10,560 your request to God and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding. 151 00:11:10,560 --> 00:11:14,080 He doesn't say, we'll solve your problem. 152 00:11:14,080 --> 00:11:18,860 The peace of God, which transcends all understanding will give you exactly what it is you feel 153 00:11:18,860 --> 00:11:20,320 like you lack. 154 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:26,160 He says, the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and 155 00:11:26,160 --> 00:11:29,240 your minds in Christ Jesus. 156 00:11:29,240 --> 00:11:37,000 And that to me is the scriptural sort of prescription for the kind of anxiety that we're talking 157 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:38,500 about. 158 00:11:38,500 --> 00:11:45,080 Because what I need is protection from, I love that it says protection for my heart and my 159 00:11:45,080 --> 00:11:47,880 mind. 160 00:11:47,880 --> 00:11:50,920 Something that transcends all understanding. 161 00:11:50,920 --> 00:11:59,240 I don't have to try to rationalize my situation and try to think I am upset about this situation 162 00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:05,160 and it's directly related to this thing that I did wrong in my past, or it's directly 163 00:12:05,160 --> 00:12:11,920 related to this thing that is wrong with society, or it transcends understanding. 164 00:12:11,920 --> 00:12:20,960 And he's going to guard my heart and my mind, my part of it is in those situations, prayer, 165 00:12:20,960 --> 00:12:24,680 petition with thanksgiving. 166 00:12:24,680 --> 00:12:33,200 And prayer in and of itself is an acknowledgement, I need God, I'm turning to God, I'm not turning 167 00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:34,200 to myself. 168 00:12:34,200 --> 00:12:39,240 And I think that's maybe a good transition into the next scripture, but I love what we've 169 00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:43,880 been talking about here with this, that Jesus is really highlighting here in his appeal 170 00:12:43,880 --> 00:12:49,720 to faith that for us to see God for who he is, God is all powerful, he's loving, he 171 00:12:49,720 --> 00:12:53,600 delights in the details of our lives. 172 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:59,120 But so if we can just move on to the next verse then in verse 31, he begins with another 173 00:12:59,120 --> 00:13:01,920 therefore or so. 174 00:13:01,920 --> 00:13:05,480 It's a continuation of the argument begun in the previous verse, Jesus is tying together 175 00:13:05,480 --> 00:13:10,640 his examples now in a statement about God's provision for us. 176 00:13:10,640 --> 00:13:16,920 How does knowing God as our heavenly Father, which is a reiteration of the framing also 177 00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:21,640 found in the Lord's Prayer, how does that help us not be anxious? 178 00:13:21,640 --> 00:13:29,120 And then you were just talking about prayer, how do we use prayer to battle anxiety and 179 00:13:29,120 --> 00:13:35,040 also keeping in mind that previous episode we had on the Lord's Prayer, how does considering 180 00:13:35,040 --> 00:13:40,360 the pagans help us understand Jesus' argument here? 181 00:13:40,360 --> 00:13:47,960 So one of the things I was thinking of when you said knowing our heavenly Father is knowing 182 00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:51,360 the scriptures and knowing the text. 183 00:13:51,360 --> 00:13:58,160 And I think whatever anxiety-inducing situation I happen to have, the better I know the story 184 00:13:58,160 --> 00:14:04,120 of God's people, the more I can relate that situation to the story of God's people, whether 185 00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:12,280 that's feeling like I'm constantly running around and I think about Jacob who he never 186 00:14:12,280 --> 00:14:19,280 really settled, he was always through much of his own doing, having to relocate and kind 187 00:14:19,280 --> 00:14:24,320 of pick up and start new and never really had a great opportunity to sit down and be 188 00:14:24,320 --> 00:14:28,920 still and be, build roots. 189 00:14:28,920 --> 00:14:39,520 So or just general dysfunction and every single anxiety-inducing situation, I can see it in 190 00:14:39,520 --> 00:14:43,720 the scriptures and because I see it in the history of God's people, it makes me less 191 00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:51,280 surprised by it and it makes me think that this is not, I can pray through and go, instead 192 00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:53,640 of praying like, God, why is this happening? 193 00:14:53,640 --> 00:15:01,400 I can reframe in my prayers using the text to go, God, this is normal, this is part of 194 00:15:01,400 --> 00:15:06,320 living with you, I want to learn to handle this better. 195 00:15:06,320 --> 00:15:10,480 And instead of it being a prayer about, God, why is this happening? 196 00:15:10,480 --> 00:15:12,320 This shouldn't be happening. 197 00:15:12,320 --> 00:15:21,340 My prayer is, God, how do I handle this with you in the right way? 198 00:15:21,340 --> 00:15:23,520 Because I should expect this. 199 00:15:23,520 --> 00:15:29,200 I love what you're saying there, Jim, because it just reminds me how grateful I am that 200 00:15:29,200 --> 00:15:35,840 there are so many mess ups in the Bible, because I feel like I'm a mess up all the time. 201 00:15:35,840 --> 00:15:39,920 And it's great to see how God deals with people. 202 00:15:39,920 --> 00:15:46,600 And so to bring in the scripture into your prayer life, I think that's a really, really 203 00:15:46,600 --> 00:15:48,120 great thing that we can do. 204 00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:54,200 Yeah, I think it's important too that it's interesting that Jesus mentions the pagans 205 00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:56,200 here. 206 00:15:56,200 --> 00:16:02,440 And he talked about in the Lord's prayer, you shouldn't just babble on. 207 00:16:02,440 --> 00:16:07,760 I don't think he uses the word pagans there, I think he says Gentiles there. 208 00:16:07,760 --> 00:16:18,080 But the world in which they live, the Greco-Roman world, the gods were just like, you know, 209 00:16:18,080 --> 00:16:21,040 really powerful dudes. 210 00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:22,640 They were just people. 211 00:16:22,640 --> 00:16:29,800 And they were capricious, and they were sometimes nasty and vengeful for no reason. 212 00:16:29,800 --> 00:16:38,320 And so if you were praying to that type of God, then you do babble on. 213 00:16:38,320 --> 00:16:41,200 You say as many words as possible. 214 00:16:41,200 --> 00:16:48,400 Their concept of religion was to do as much as possible to appease as many of the gods 215 00:16:48,400 --> 00:16:56,000 as possible so that they will throw you a bone every once in a while and not throw a 216 00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:58,440 spear at you. 217 00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:06,360 And so they had to be very frenetic in the way that they pursued their gods, because 218 00:17:06,360 --> 00:17:11,320 there wasn't the assurance that God loves me. 219 00:17:11,320 --> 00:17:17,640 There was only the assurance that God is bigger and stronger than me. 220 00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:24,360 And for us, we have the assurance that God loves me, that God is a giver of good gifts 221 00:17:24,360 --> 00:17:26,760 to those that he loves. 222 00:17:26,760 --> 00:17:34,000 And so we can find solace and we can find peace, as it's said in Philippians. 223 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:43,440 Peace for our hearts and minds when we settle down enough to remember who our God is, to 224 00:17:43,440 --> 00:17:50,480 remember that God is our Father, to remember that our Master is over us and has our best 225 00:17:50,480 --> 00:17:56,000 interests and our best selves in his mind all the time. 226 00:17:56,000 --> 00:17:58,480 And I think this is a great point you're making, Ben. 227 00:17:58,480 --> 00:18:03,400 And I think for our hearers, you might be thinking, well, I don't believe in the pantheon 228 00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:04,400 of gods. 229 00:18:04,400 --> 00:18:07,120 I mean, our culture is pretty atheistic. 230 00:18:07,120 --> 00:18:09,320 I think that I read a statistic. 231 00:18:09,320 --> 00:18:14,880 In the U.S., there are now, it's crossed the threshold of over 50% of people don't believe 232 00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:16,280 in any god. 233 00:18:16,280 --> 00:18:18,560 And don't go to church and all that. 234 00:18:18,560 --> 00:18:23,720 And the ones that do, we could, well, I'm not going to go there. 235 00:18:23,720 --> 00:18:28,680 We could do a whole separate podcast just on that. 236 00:18:28,680 --> 00:18:34,680 But the point is, what's the common denominator if you don't believe in God or any gods or 237 00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:35,880 anything like that? 238 00:18:35,880 --> 00:18:41,160 It's still all on you, just like the people back then, oh, I got to pray many words to 239 00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:46,000 oh, did I pray to the right God for the certain thing about the harvest or about this thing? 240 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:47,480 And oh, I forgot. 241 00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:49,080 And oh, it's my fault. 242 00:18:49,080 --> 00:18:50,080 This is all messed up. 243 00:18:50,080 --> 00:18:52,840 And so the pressure is still on you. 244 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:58,960 And instead of no, no, God is all powerful and isn't it wonderful? 245 00:18:58,960 --> 00:18:59,960 He loves us. 246 00:18:59,960 --> 00:19:00,960 Yeah. 247 00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:03,480 I was thinking about the way you were describing a van. 248 00:19:03,480 --> 00:19:09,080 I love the way you describe the gods of the Greco-Roman world because it's almost like 249 00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:14,720 they're like a wild card, like that friend that some of you might have had and some of 250 00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:15,720 you might not have. 251 00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:21,280 It's like he could be either real, he or she could be either fantastic and great or they 252 00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:26,880 could just completely flip out and you're like, OK, this isn't, I don't want to be around 253 00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:30,880 you anymore. 254 00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:34,760 That's sort of how those gods, when you read the story seem, that's why they're fun stories 255 00:19:34,760 --> 00:19:36,520 to read. 256 00:19:36,520 --> 00:19:43,880 But that's the thinking about it in the context of that's the gods of the Greco-Roman world. 257 00:19:43,880 --> 00:19:49,280 And if this is mostly a Jewish audience, they didn't necessarily believe that, but I have 258 00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:53,440 a hard time believing they weren't at least semi-aware of it. 259 00:19:53,440 --> 00:20:00,760 And so Jesus reassuring them that I'm not like that, the God you're with and the God 260 00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:06,920 you're choosing to serve in the first episode of this section we talked about, the God we're 261 00:20:06,920 --> 00:20:10,720 choosing to serve is not that. 262 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:12,320 He loves you. 263 00:20:12,320 --> 00:20:14,240 You can trust that he loves you. 264 00:20:14,240 --> 00:20:18,720 He's not a wild card to use 21st century language. 265 00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:20,280 He's consistent. 266 00:20:20,280 --> 00:20:26,840 He will not just on a whim decide, I don't like you anymore and throw a lightning bolt 267 00:20:26,840 --> 00:20:27,840 at you. 268 00:20:27,840 --> 00:20:28,840 Yeah. 269 00:20:28,840 --> 00:20:34,280 Well, in our world, it's maybe the equivalent to the pantheon of gods would be, OK, what 270 00:20:34,280 --> 00:20:36,760 do I need to make my life right? 271 00:20:36,760 --> 00:20:41,680 If I just get my health and nutrition right, so I'm going to focus on that. 272 00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:44,880 Oh, but I also need to focus on my career. 273 00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:48,920 And I need to make sure that my career is right in the right place and that I have, but 274 00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:55,040 I also have to focus on my family and make sure that everything in my family is OK and 275 00:20:55,040 --> 00:20:56,560 make sure that my marriage is good. 276 00:20:56,560 --> 00:21:00,520 But I also need to make sure I get my need time and I have to make sure that. 277 00:21:00,520 --> 00:21:06,760 And so those are those all become for us like a sort of pantheon of gods. 278 00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:13,160 And we don't know which one to pay attention to at a time. 279 00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:18,120 We don't we don't know which one to pander to it so that we can make sure. 280 00:21:18,120 --> 00:21:23,320 And then we and then we leave that one alone and we say, OK, I'm going to focus on my career 281 00:21:23,320 --> 00:21:24,560 now. 282 00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:28,080 And then suddenly your children are going off on the deep end. 283 00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:30,600 OK, I need to focus on my family now. 284 00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:34,080 But if I focus on my family, I can't get that promotion. 285 00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:39,160 And if I but if I don't get the promotion, if I don't take care of myself and get some 286 00:21:39,160 --> 00:21:44,000 me time and escape and get away, then I'm frenzied in my mind and you just like you're 287 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:49,520 you're you're all out of chasing after these things. 288 00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:51,240 That's what that's what Jesus said. 289 00:21:51,240 --> 00:21:57,360 The the the the pagans chase after and it's always a chasing after. 290 00:21:57,360 --> 00:22:00,000 And with God, it's not a chasing after with God. 291 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:04,760 It's a sitting and understanding that you don't have to chase it. 292 00:22:04,760 --> 00:22:05,760 He's given it to you. 293 00:22:05,760 --> 00:22:06,760 Wow. 294 00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:11,320 You just hit on something pretty profound there with comparing this to idolatry because 295 00:22:11,320 --> 00:22:13,120 I think you're right. 296 00:22:13,120 --> 00:22:17,800 These are things that we pursue, we desire and you're right when we when we give our 297 00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:20,520 attention to them. 298 00:22:20,520 --> 00:22:27,640 We we get all out of whack because in our life goes out of control because it gets back 299 00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:28,880 to one of the fundamental things. 300 00:22:28,880 --> 00:22:30,920 We should not be sitting on that throne. 301 00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:31,920 It should be God. 302 00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:32,920 Yeah, right. 303 00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:33,920 Wow. 304 00:22:33,920 --> 00:22:40,480 I think I love what we've been covering here. 305 00:22:40,480 --> 00:22:44,120 I'm going to maybe start another question. 306 00:22:44,120 --> 00:22:50,800 We won't probably have time to get through all of it, but I'll just say one other thing 307 00:22:50,800 --> 00:22:55,080 here, which I think we've been hitting on with this question that we just asked was 308 00:22:55,080 --> 00:23:00,720 about how I think what he's drawing out here with the the little faith statement. 309 00:23:00,720 --> 00:23:07,400 It's a continuation of that that really anxiety puts us on the same level as unbelievers because 310 00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:13,080 we are running around chasing like you said, Van, these things that everyone in the world 311 00:23:13,080 --> 00:23:15,120 everyone else in the world chases. 312 00:23:15,120 --> 00:23:16,880 We're not acting any different. 313 00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:23,400 And so our faith is not in God and the same things that make the the world worry or even 314 00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:28,160 thrill that people in the world should not be the same things that we do. 315 00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:32,560 And I love that we can have that piece that transcends understanding. 316 00:23:32,560 --> 00:23:34,520 I love the the Philippian scripture you shared. 317 00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:39,040 The other one I was thinking about was in 1 Peter 5 that we can cast all our anxieties 318 00:23:39,040 --> 00:23:42,560 on him because he cares for us. 319 00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:48,960 So let's just do another question another time. 320 00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:59,840 So what we looked at here was how great God is, how we can have faith in him that it is 321 00:23:59,840 --> 00:24:05,720 wonderful that we can because he is limitless and because he is the source of our faith, 322 00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:13,160 we can have real security and our faith can grow because we are looking to a limitless 323 00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:14,660 God. 324 00:24:14,660 --> 00:24:22,440 And yeah, we might have trouble in this world, but we can overcome the world because Jesus 325 00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:26,080 has, we can spend time with him, the overcomer. 326 00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:29,200 And our troubles can be alleviated. 327 00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:34,760 So I love what we've been talking about here, bringing in scripture, praying, really going 328 00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:35,760 to God. 329 00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:36,760 This has been a great discussion. 330 00:24:36,760 --> 00:24:54,760 Thank you.