Wrestling with Worry: Finding Value in God’s Presence

• The Sermon on the Mount Context [00:02:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that Jesus taught on a mountainside to his disciples, not the crowd, and that these teachings are interconnected.
• Heart Change vs. Outward Expression [00:05:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the Jewish leaders' focus on external law-keeping with Jesus' call for internal heart transformation.
• The Good Eye vs. The Bad Eye [00:08:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using the Hebrew terms 'ayin tova' and 'ayin ra'ah', the pastor defines these as postures of generosity/abundance versus stinginess/scarcity.
• Worry and Control [00:12:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor connects the 'bad eye' to a lack of trust in God's plan and a desire for control, leading to worry.
• Worry vs. Questions [00:14:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor distinguishes between having questions and marinating on them, defining worry as the latter which breaks us down.
• Internal vs. External Value [00:16:51 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the Greek distinction between 'life' (soul/internal) and 'body' (physical/external) to show that anxiety affects our whole being.
• Value in God [00:19:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that our value in God defeats worry, urging listeners to trust God's definition of worth over external opinions.
• Present in God's Presence [00:23:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses a personal anecdote about a failed bowling game to illustrate how getting present in God's presence resolves worry and anxiety.
• Protection vs. Absence of Bad Things [00:26:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor clarifies that biblical protection is not the absence of bad things, but God writing a different story based on His good plans, even when bad things happen.
• God's Plans vs. Human Plans [00:30:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > Through a story about a church event, the pastor illustrates that God protects the heart of His mission even when human leaders fail or worry, showing that God's plans are greater than ours.
• Value and Protection in Peter's Walk on Water [00:32:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using the story of Peter walking on water, the pastor explains that Jesus values Peter enough to let him walk on water despite his lack of faith, and protects him even when he sinks due to worry.
• Divine Protection and Value [00:34:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that Jesus values Peter despite his lack of miraculous works, and extends this protection to believers who step out of faith.
• Anxiety and Worry [00:36:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the Gentiles' seeking of material things with the believer's seeking of God's kingdom, urging the congregation to stop worrying about tomorrow.
• Seeking God's Presence [00:38:11 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines righteousness as care and generosity, urging the congregation to seek God and His presence rather than just circumstances.
• Prayer and Release of Worry [00:40:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor leads the congregation in a prayer to release worry and anxious thoughts, inviting them to lift their hands in response.

• Sermon Illustration [00:00:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor jokes about being the 'second best-looking ball' on the platform, clarifying that Randy McCurry is the first, and jokes that he is 'too hot for TV.'
• Sermon Illustration [00:11:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his father telling him that being a 'realist' in a group setting is actually being seen as a pessimist.
• Sermon Illustration [00:11:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses an analogy of a football team being 'spanked' while cheerleaders cheer to illustrate the difference between being a cheerleader and being a realist.
• Sermon Illustration [00:19:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal story about his wife Jalay and kids going duck pin bowling. He worries about fairness and time, but God speaks to him to be present, realizing the value is in the family time, not the score.
• Sermon Illustration [00:23:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal story about a duck pin bowling game where he was worried about broken pins and losing, but realized the value was in being with his family, illustrating how worry displaces God's presence.
• Sermon Illustration [00:27:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a recent church leadership meeting where he was worried about the event not matching his vision, but God used the failure to teach him to trust God's plans over his own.
• Sermon Illustration [00:32:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor retells the biblical story of Peter walking on water, highlighting how Peter's faith was strong when focused on Jesus but sank when he focused on the wind and waves, illustrating the danger of worry.
• Sermon Illustration [00:34:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the story of Peter walking on water, noting that Jesus did not criticize Peter for his lack of miraculous works or his sinking, but instead protected him, illustrating God's protective nature.

• Pastoral Charge [00:12:56 ▶️ 📄]
  > Self-reflection on personal experiences with worry-inducing questions.
• Pastoral Charge [00:15:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > To actively choose to remain in God's presence whenever anxious thoughts arise.
• Pastoral Charge [00:19:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > To trust God's declaration of value over external opinions.
• Pastoral Charge [00:25:11 ▶️ 📄]
  > To consciously choose to be present in God's presence and cast anxieties on Him.
• Pastoral Charge [00:31:08 ▶️ 📄]
  > To present requests to God through prayer and petition with thanksgiving instead of worrying.
• Pastoral Charge [00:39:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > Raise hand and verbally declare seeking God
• Pastoral Charge [00:40:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > Lift hands and verbally affirm value and presence of God

[00:00:46] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:46] Hey, good to see y'all. Y'all are livin' well today. Everybody make some noise if you're awake out there.
[00:00:53] I want to clarify something that Pastor Holden said. When he said that I was the second best-looking ball gotta to come up on the platform, you might have thought he was the first. It's actually not. It's that guy Randy McCurry right over there.
[00:01:08] Yeah. Randy, I'm too hot for TV, McCurry.
[00:01:14] Well, I'm glad you're here. My name is Michael Singer. I'm the pastor at our Lake Norman campus.
[00:01:20] part of our teaching team. We have a team of people that are live at each campus. And so I love being a part of that team. It gives me opportunity to come back here to our central
[00:01:29] campus and see everybody. Some of you, I know some of you, one person's glad I'm here today.
[00:01:34] Thank you, Randy. I got to pay Randy after this. I know Randy. You compliment somebody in church and they get all excited. Well, hey, it's not just us here live in this building, but I love the fact
[00:01:47] that we get to people, people can watch live stream, traveling or whatever. So I want to tell you who's watching with us today. We have people from North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Arizona, Florida, South Africa,
[00:02:02] South Africa. You'll understand why I said that. It's South Africa and Portugal. So if they had a baby, South Africa. So welcome from South Africa. Welcome from South Africa. Well, I'm glad you're and it's giving up for all the people watching live stream. If you've been with us over the
[00:02:21] summer, we've been in this series called Summer on the Mount. How many of y'all been enjoying this series? Just raise your hand, clap, whatever. So we're calling it Summer on the Mount because it's this moment in scripture, whenever we read back and look at Jesus's life, where he sat down
[00:02:36] and ultimately gave what felt like a sermon on a side of a mountain. And it's found in Matthew chapter five, six, and seven. And what we're doing is we're taking sections of this whole time where
[00:02:50] Jesus is sharing and teaching and different communicators on our teaching team are sharing different segments of this. But what I do want us to understand is that whenever we're sharing and breaking out these little sections of this sermon on the mount, if you will, understand that it's
[00:03:07] still all one thing, and there's common threads running through it the entire time, that sometimes we might talk about a section, but that little section bleeds into the stuff before and the stuff after. So it's Jesus having this conversation with his disciples, and it's very important to
[00:03:25] understand this principle of what's going on. When I think of Jesus, very easy for me, you know, thousands of years past Jesus's time to think of him as Lord, think of him as Savior, my provider,
[00:03:37] and think of him in all those ways. But for those disciples, those guys who chose to follow him, they also saw him as a rabbi and a teacher. And it's very important. It's even important
[00:03:48] to understand that. And I think that's the backbone of looking at this from a cultural dynamic. Whenever we're looking at him talking to his disciples and understanding what he's doing in this moment, as disciples following a teacher, they didn't just do that on their own. They had
[00:04:05] to be invited to follow a rabbi or a teacher. And they took it extremely seriously. Whatever this rabbi or teacher said, as they translated the law and dictated how the, what the, what that particular law meant, these disciples, it was word is bond. It was like, it is it. And this is how
[00:04:25] I'm supposed to live my life. And they would watch their rabbi and teacher and see how they walked out the law and how they live their life, and they would follow and do the exact same thing.
[00:04:36] So it clearly states that Jesus went up on the mountainside not to talk to the crowd.
[00:04:45] He went up on the mountainside to talk to his disciples. The crowd just happened to be around in earshot of the whole teaching that was going on. Whenever we are going through this Sermon on the mount, no matter who's preaching a message, we always have to make sure that we keep the
[00:05:03] foundational statement alive in our heart and in our head as we think through, what is Jesus talking about? There's a state, there's a foundational thing that he's teaching the entire time. He's teaching us that the two most important things are to love God and to love
[00:05:19] others. That's the foundation of everything he teaches. You remember when he was addressed and said, hey, Jesus, sum up the law. And they weren't just talking about the 10 commandments. They were talking about the 600 something laws that they followed as Jewish people. He says, sum them up.
[00:05:33] He said, I can sum it up with two things. Love God with all your heart and love others. So everything he talks about, it's about God and others when he's breaking this down. The Jewish leaders,
[00:05:47] the other rabbis, when they interpreted the law, it was all about outward expression.
[00:05:53] What Jesus is saying is that, hey, they missed the mark when they interpreted what God was saying.
[00:05:58] is actually supposed to be about a heart change. That's why God gave the law. You see, they were doing things on the outside to try to make their heart good. And Jesus is saying, no,
[00:06:08] actually the way to interpret all this is we have to have a heart change so that our life begins to represent the change that has actually happened in our heart. Today, as we get ready to talk about
[00:06:19] the particular verses I'm going to look at in this part of Jesus's message, I want to make sure we set this moment up because you'll see in just a second, whenever I read the verses I'm going to
[00:06:29] look at, that my section I'm going to talk about starts with the word therefore. I always love what Pastor Troy said. He said, anytime you're reading the Bible and you see the word therefore, you have
[00:06:38] to see what it's there for. You have to understand what was before it. And there's this great couple verses in the middle of something that Pastor Penny preached, which is the part of scripture in Matthew that comes right before what I'm going to talk about. When she preached, if you were here
[00:06:54] and remember, she talked about treasures and store for yourself treasures in heaven, wherever our treasure is, there our heart is. And then it said, you can't serve both God and mammon. In other words, we can't serve God with our spirit and all of who we are and serve mammon, meaning the spirit that
[00:07:11] comes with money and the greed and that spirit that begins to pull us down. We can't serve both of those. And in the middle of all that, there's these two verses that I want to read today because
[00:07:20] it's going to set us up to understand what we're about to read in this section I'm going to unpack.
[00:07:25] It's Matthew chapter 6, verses 22 through 23. It says, the lamp of the body is the eye.
[00:07:32] If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness,
[00:07:42] how great is that darkness? What? Like that came in the middle of Jesus talking about treasures and I'm like, what, what does that mean? So let's understand what he's talking about when he says we're going to have, look at life with a good eye or a bad eye. For the Jewish people listening to
[00:08:04] him, they understood this principle. They knew exactly what it meant because this whole idea of good eye and bad eye actually was a figure of speech they would regularly use. And when they talked about the good eye, the figure of speech they would use, they would say and call it
[00:08:22] ayin tova, ayin tova. There's nothing greater in church than to say weird words that we don't know how to pronounce. So on the count of three, we're all going to say ayin tova together, okay? One,
[00:08:34] two, three. Ayin Tova. Come on, say it again. Ayin Tova. This was the good eye. And what it meant was, is our ability to look at life from a positive perspective. So when a Jewish person
[00:08:49] walked up, then they said, hey, are you looking at this through Ayin Tova? They would say, are you looking at this through a positive light? Are you looking at it optimistically? The other, the bad eye, they would call it ayin ra'ah. All right. You know, you're going to have to say this.
[00:09:05] So let's all say it on the count of three. One, two, three. Ayin ra'ah. Say it again. Ayin ra'ah.
[00:09:13] They would walk up to someone and say, hey, you're looking at that situation through a bad eye.
[00:09:17] You're looking at it with ayin ra'ah. You should be looking at it with ayin tovah. The reason why this was so important is because I in Tova looking with a good eye meant that I'm going to see this
[00:09:32] through a lens of generosity. I'm going to see this through a lens of positivity. When they heard that phrase, I ain't Tova, it automatically came with the connotation of being generous. That's why it's stuck in the middle of our treasures, but it also bleeds into the section of scripture I'm
[00:09:47] to talk about today. If you looked at life through ayin ra'ah, that meant that we were looking at life from a very stingy perspective. The good eye is a posture of abundance. The bad eye is a posture
[00:10:03] of scarcity. One eye says, you know what, God, no matter what situation is going on right now, I trust that you're big enough. I trust that this situation is always not going to be the same.
[00:10:13] And I know that you're going to help me move through this. I have an open hand. I'm going to be generous and I'm generously trusting you. And that's where my abundance is versus God. I
[00:10:22] don't know if I'm going to have enough. I've always been talked down to like this. I'm always going to be this way. Nothing's ever going to change. I'm never going to get out of this mess.
[00:10:29] That's that bad eye that says I'm stingily trying to hold on and be greedy with everything I'm giving instead of releasing it and being generous and giving it into the hands of God. This whole
[00:10:42] idea of I ain't Tova looking with through good or I ain't Ra looking through bad is something that I wrestle with not in every area of my life but there's an area of my life where years ago probably
[00:10:54] four or five years ago and pastor Stephanie is going to know this very well because I've said it to her because she was my boss for a while I used to say I'm just a realist remember me saying
[00:11:05] that I'm just a realist I don't know what you said you probably just told me to shut up this ain't about us right now. Let's talk to the people. I used to say, I'm a realist. And I
[00:11:19] thought it was this good thing because I'm like, look, I'm not going to look at life with, you know, fairy tales and, you know, rose, rose colored glasses. Like if the, if the building's falling, the building's falling and we got to do like, that was my stance. Like, don't just
[00:11:33] overlook everything and be a cheerleader. You know, it's like when your football team is down a hundred and the cheerleaders over there cheer, it's like, why are y'all cheering? Your team is getting spanked, man. My dad told me one time, he said, my gosh, I want to let you know, because
[00:11:47] he's like this too. He said, I just want to let you know that when you're in groups, when you're around groups of people or in settings at work or wherever, and you begin to be a realist, he said,
[00:11:56] I just want you to know you're going to be seen as a pessimist. You're going to be seen as looking at life with eye in raw eye, because in other words, I'm just saying, I'm looking at the
[00:12:07] circumstance and the circumstances dictating my viewpoint on that. That is looking through life with a bad eye. I love what it ultimately comes down to with this whole good eye, bad eye, because looking at life through a good eye simply is saying, God, I trust that you have a plan in
[00:12:26] mind. Looking at life through a bad eye says that I don't trust your plan enough unless I have control of the plan that's going on. And if I can't figure out how to control the plan, then
[00:12:39] everything around me is falling apart. Jesus is about to move in and share with us about worry.
[00:12:47] And I want to read some questions. And I think these are questions that I just kind of want you to listen to. And I want you to think about, have you ever had one of these questions roll through
[00:12:56] your head? Have you ever wrestled with one of these questions? Either the exact question I'm going to say or something very similar. What if I lose my job? What if they're mad at me?
[00:13:09] How can I make sure nothing goes wrong in this situation?
[00:13:12] What if something bad happens to my family?
[00:13:16] What if this symptom is actually something extremely serious?
[00:13:21] How will we have enough money?
[00:13:22] Are we gonna be able to pay all our bills?
[00:13:25] Can I handle being around all these people right now?
[00:13:27] Do I really wanna go in the middle of that crowd?
[00:13:30] Will they like me?
[00:13:32] What if everyone else has figured it out and I'm the only one that has not figured it out?
[00:13:37] Am I really qualified for that promotion?
[00:13:39] will I ever get married? Have I done enough? What else can happen? What else can go wrong?
[00:13:47] Will we ever be able to have kids? I wonder if I said something wrong to them.
[00:13:53] Is this worth fighting for? Will I ever overcome this challenge? Why do they want to have a meeting with me? Am I in trouble? Yeah, most of us have had that one. This is just a small sample
[00:14:11] of these type questions that can run through our mind.
[00:14:14] And you probably heard one or two of these questions that you're like, yeah, I've had that question.
[00:14:21] These questions can very easily lead us down a road to worry.
[00:14:25] But I want us to hear and understand something.
[00:14:28] Just because we have these questions roll through our head does not mean we have to walk it out in worry.
[00:14:34] Because worry is not just having these questions.
[00:14:38] Worry is when we marinate on these questions.
[00:14:41] you know if you want a good steak marinate that baby because it breaks stuff down and God is saying what happens when these questions come and we marinate on them they actually break us down
[00:14:53] and they don't lift us up they break us down in a way that destroys who God intended us to be and they don't build us up at all so Jesus is about to launch into this section on worry and
[00:15:06] as we get ready to read, here's what I want you to leave here with today. This thought that I want you to keep rolling around in your head is that we have to stay present in God's presence.
[00:15:17] Whenever these questions come, God, I'm going to stay present in your presence.
[00:15:21] Whatever life situation, circumstances feel like, I can't do this anymore. I'm tired. God, I'm going to stay present in your presence. Whenever the what if train goes loose in our mind, you know, what if they say this? What if they say this? What am I going to say? How am
[00:15:36] I going to respond? What am I going to do if they come at me like this? Whenever that happens, God, I'm going to stay present in your presence. Matthew chapter six, verse 25, Jesus picks up
[00:15:46] and continues to talk. He says, therefore, because we're going to look at life with a good eye or bad eye, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life. I like the word anxious there. Some texts
[00:16:00] say worry. Anxious to me already has the idea that we're marinating on it too long and we've gotten anxious. It kind of gives me a good definition. Don't be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.
[00:16:14] Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? I love this right out the gate.
[00:16:20] Jesus says, I'm going to take my paintbrush and I'm going to put a broad stroke around this whole idea of being anxious and having worry. There was two things he mentioned in here that stood out to
[00:16:30] me. He said, is not life more than food? And is not the body more than clothing? It's good to get curious when you're reading the Bible. And I looked at those two things and I was like, life
[00:16:42] and body can kind of be the same word, or we can use them in our American language as the same. But I looked them up to see what the original Greek, the New Testament was written in Greek, what that
[00:16:51] word actually meant. And when I looked it up, life actually dealt with like the soul, our internal being and body dealt with our physical external being. And you maybe have experienced this.
[00:17:05] If you've ever had a time where you're worried and stressed and anxious, it can actually begin to play out in your body. We can break out in hives or a rash. I don't know if I used to get
[00:17:15] cramps in my, like the back of my lat and my shoulder area. And sometimes it was just because I was worried. I was tense on the inside. Didn't realize I was, but I began to get a knot in my
[00:17:25] shoulder. There's physical things that didn't happen. And I love what Jesus said. He says, hey, look, don't be anxious for anything. I'm going to talk to you about how not to be anxious, but I'm telling you that because this does not just affect one aspect of who we are. It affects
[00:17:39] all of who we are. It's our life and our body. It's our internal and our external. And so Jesus, he sets up this wrestling match and the wrestling match for us is to ask ourselves what holds true
[00:17:56] weight in our life. Do the circumstances and everything going on in my life, is that what holds the weight or does God's presence and who he is and what he says, does that actually hold
[00:18:10] the weight in my life? Jesus makes this broad stroke and now he's going to go back and he's going to begin to unpack that opening statement. We pick up in verse 26, Matthew six, look at the
[00:18:20] birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather in barns. And yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single
[00:18:31] hour to the span of his life? I like to imagine Jesus is standing there. And when he says, look at the birds of the air, there's actually birds. And he points at them like, Hey, look at those
[00:18:41] birds of the air. And he says, why are we anxious? If they're valuable, aren't we much more valuable than them? I love the fact that as Jesus unpacks this, he's going to give us two things that will
[00:18:58] help us fight against worry. And this first one he mentions is all about value. You see, our value in God defeats worry. Our value in God defeats worry. This is where we actually stop and say,
[00:19:13] God, I'm going to trust that you say I'm good enough. I'm not going to listen to grandma. I'm not going to listen to the teacher. I'm not going to listen to the other kids. I'm not going to look
[00:19:21] at social media. I'm not going to go off of what my boss said or what my friend said or what some random person on the street said. I'm actually going to understand that I am valuable because
[00:19:31] you say I'm valuable. That's what puts us in the presence of God. That's what causes us to get present and go, okay, God, you say it. I can now rest with this. I'm going to tell you two stories
[00:19:45] about Michael Singer's life where worry crept in. Story number one, this was not long ago, just over a week ago. It was a Friday. My wife, Jalay, and our kids, we were out celebrating my
[00:19:57] birthday and we decided to go to downtown Kannapolis and go duck pin bowling. How many of y'all have been duck pin bowling by a show of hands? Oh, geez. All right. We didn't even get to
[00:20:08] a baker's dozen there. Duck pin bowling. Let me explain what it is. How many of y'all remember the game ski ball? You take the ball and roll it into the different circles. Okay. You know,
[00:20:17] bowling, got the lane and you got pins and you bowl the ball. If ski ball and bowling had a baby, that's duck pin bowling. Because the ball you throw is just a little bit bigger than the ski
[00:20:28] ball ball, but it's a regular lane. It's about half the length, but it's a lane with pins and all the scoring is just like bowling. So we show up, I've never done this before.
[00:20:37] Jalae has done this before.
[00:20:40] We start bowling, and even in the first, like, game, Jalae's first bowl, she bowls, I don't know, maybe hits a pin or two, and then she bowls the next one, misses the whole thing, but everything just stays right there.
[00:20:51] You know how typically when you bowl twice, it goes to the next bowler, and it's their turn.
[00:20:55] Nothing happened, it just stayed.
[00:20:57] So we were looking at each other, so she's like, well, she grabbed another ball, she threw it down, and I guess she hit all the pins.
[00:21:04] Do you know it gave her a strike?
[00:21:06] and I started to worry. I was worried because I thought that Jaleh was going to end up with a score that she didn't earn and she might beat me. Now, I wasn't worried solely based out of
[00:21:29] competitiveness, although it sounds like, oh, Michael's worried about getting beat.
[00:21:33] I have a high justice when it comes to games. And I know that the Bible talks about God is a God of justice. This is not that kind of justice. This is very self-motivated justice, meaning that
[00:21:45] I want everybody to have equal parts to score the same score. And we were already unequal and I did not like that. And I started worrying that this was going to continue. And it even happened again
[00:21:55] a couple of more times to guess who? Jaleh. And I looked up and I said, God, I understand that Jaleh is highly favored above all of us. You don't need to remind me of that in duck pin bowling.
[00:22:12] The way duck pin bowling works is you pay by the time.
[00:22:14] So we had paid for an hour of duck pin bowling.
[00:22:17] So I'm already worked up about this whole, you know, score thing messing up.
[00:22:22] Not only that, but I felt like we could get through two games in an hour.
[00:22:28] When we finished the first game, we had gone just over 30 something minutes.
[00:22:31] But while we were in that first game, we had a problem with the pins that there's no reset button in duck pin bowling.
[00:22:38] Like you can't hit a reset like you can in bowling to clear the pins out and reset everything.
[00:22:42] We had to call the guy and be like, hey man, we got something going on. He had to go down there, climb up in the top. The pins are attached to strings. And he had to like fix everything and
[00:22:51] he came back down. So we're in the second game. And I'm like, I don't know if we're going to have enough time to finish. And I doubt that joker gave me more time after he took time to go fix
[00:23:03] those pins and all that. And I didn't pay for those pins to be broke. I'm like worked up, worried we're not going to finish. And I'm sitting there, Jaleh's getting extra bowls.
[00:23:17] Lily's really beating us all. And I'm not going to probably get through this second game because the pen's messed up. That's not my problem. And then, man, all of a sudden, I just got present
[00:23:29] in God's presence. And halfway through that second game, God just said, what are you doing?
[00:23:39] The value of this game is not that everything goes right and everybody's bowling it proper.
[00:23:44] the value of this moment is you're here hanging out with your family. Michael, nobody is paying you to do duck pin bowling and you're not in some professional league. Just suck it up and enjoy
[00:23:57] your family. And do you know, once I took that moment to get present and just hear from God, do you know, I realized we're probably not going to finish the second game and I didn't care.
[00:24:09] I just let it end where it ended. I wasn't going to win anyway, but it's so easy. That's a trivial example. But if I'm getting worked up over duck pen bowling, ooh, what about those major things
[00:24:22] in life? It's very easy for life to hit us and us to forget the valuable things in that moment, us and the things around us. Because worry has overtaken us and the enemy has got us out of
[00:24:39] God's presence. And all we have to do in our head is just say, God, I'm going to be present in your presence. I love how first Peter sums this up in chapter five, verses six through seven
[00:24:52] says, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time, he will exalt you casting all our anxieties on him because he cares for you and me because you are valuable because you are valuable. We can cast all those anxieties, all those worries on him
[00:25:11] and say, God, I'm going to be present in your presence. And he says, you're right because you're valuable to me. Jesus continues to unpack this story and goes on in verse 28 of Matthew chapter
[00:25:23] six. And he says, why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. And I tell you, even Solomon, who was the wealthiest man that we read about in the old Testament and all his glory was not a, was not a raid like one
[00:25:38] of these. But if God so clothes 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. Now, hold on, Jesus.
[00:25:49] Don't bring faith into this. In other words, Jesus is saying whenever worry and being anxious comes in the picture, it gets us out of that position of God's presence. The way that we get back into his presence is not to be overwhelmed by the stuff going on. It's simply to go, God,
[00:26:07] your presence is more important. I'm going to have the faith to step in because I don't know if things are going to change right away, but I trust that you're a God who can change it in due
[00:26:16] season and you can write the right story that I need for me right now. When I read about the clothing, I thought about protection. Not only is value important to fight against worry, but our
[00:26:29] protection in God also defeats worry. It's a valuable tool we have to fight against that worry.
[00:26:35] Ultimately, that's where we say, God, I trust your plans are good.
[00:26:39] And I trust that the plans you have for me are actually for my best.
[00:26:44] Now, I wanna clarify this word of protection because it's easy for me to throw around the word protection and think that it simply means, God, protect me.
[00:26:52] In other words, I can say that and say, God, don't let anything bad happen to me.
[00:26:58] That's not what having a relationship with God is all about.
[00:27:01] Protection is not an absence of bad things happening.
[00:27:05] Protection is that when the bad things are happening, I understand that God is writing a different story that's not based off the bad stuff. He's writing a story based off of how he can use everything, like Pastor Stephanie said, to work to my good. Not Michael's good, but the good
[00:27:21] that God has for Michael. You see, my problem is, is I sometimes get a definition of what I think good is, and it never lined up with God's good in the beginning. And so when it doesn't happen for
[00:27:32] me. I get mad and stomp my feet and I pout, where are you God? Don't you care about me? And he's like, I never left you. You got out of my presence thinking what you thought. Now you need to get
[00:27:43] back into my presence and see the good that I actually have for you. Story number two. This also was not too long ago. It's about the end of May, early June. We had sat together with some
[00:27:55] leaders and somebody had, they had a great idea about doing an event that we used to do, but changing it up a little bit. And instead of doing it with everybody, we were going to do it at each
[00:28:05] campus. And the heartbeat behind it was to give more engagement and interaction between those people at that campus. And man, I was on board. I love the idea of just engaging with people, hanging out and really just being able to get to know each other. And so I'm excited. I'm starting
[00:28:20] to think through my head, like ideas and ways that I really see and want this to go. And we have a meeting to sit down and all of us leaders from the different campuses, we got together and we talked
[00:28:29] about, hey, what is this night going to look like? How are we going to unpack and unfold this whole thing? And as we begin to talk, there were ideas being thrown out that did not really match
[00:28:39] or seem to match the ideas that I had. And we all know my ideas are the best. That's what I thought.
[00:28:48] And I began to get worried. I got worried that, oh my gosh, we're going to sabotage the heart of what we want this whole thing to be. And it's not going to be what we talked about. And it's,
[00:28:59] people are going to leave there and they're going to be like, oh, I hated this. This was just like the other thing. I don't know why they said this was different. It was no different. I don't even
[00:29:05] want to come back to this. I'm thinking all this and I'm sitting in this meeting. And while I'm sitting in that meeting and I know I'm thinking this and I know that I'm worried, I'm telling
[00:29:13] myself, Michael, you better watch your face because I don't do well with hiding my face.
[00:29:18] Jalay always tells me, I can see what's all on you. And I'm sitting there going, Michael, just smile, do something like you just, I know, ooh, I don't feel good. I'm rising up. Oh my gosh,
[00:29:27] I got to get through this meeting. Come on, smile, smile, smile. And we got through the meeting and I walked over to the two of the leaders at Lake Norman, Tricia and Brooke. And I said, hey, I just
[00:29:37] want to apologize. I want to apologize because I don't know if you could tell, I was kind of riled up during this meeting. And Brooke said, oh, we could tell. And I was like, dang it. Because
[00:29:50] this is an area that God has been working on me. And I've grown a lot. And then he like threw me in a situation to see if I could actually walk out that growth and I failed. And he said, I'm glad
[00:30:03] you failed. I'm going to give you another opportunity down the road to get this right, Michael, but you needed to fail to see what you needed to work on. You needed to fail and get
[00:30:13] worked up and worried to understand that you were trying to take control and protect this plan and this idea you had when I had a plan for this whole thing all along. And do you know, when we got
[00:30:22] through with that event, everybody ran and raved about it. They loved it. Everything that we wanted it to be engaging. It was, you see, I had my worry, wanted my plan to be the plan that was
[00:30:32] the most important. And God said, you have to understand, Michael, that my plans are greater than your plans. And so you need to get back in my presence and understand that I'm going to protect
[00:30:43] the heart of what I want to accomplish at this event. And I'm not going to let any human being get in my way. So you either get with me or you get left over to the side, lost in worry,
[00:30:53] but get in my presence because I want you to be with me. I love how Philippians four talks about this idea of God's protection in verses six and seven. It says, don't worry about anything, but in everything through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request
[00:31:08] to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and mind in Christ Jesus. When I used to think about this scripture years ago, I would always forget that last part, that his peace that surpasses my understanding, it actually has
[00:31:26] a protective quality that it guards my heart and my mind. You see, when we get in God's presence and when everything around us is going crazy and it's a storm of life, his presence is where we find a peace. And that peace is what protects my heart and my mind and
[00:31:46] reminds me that I'm valuable in him and that he has a story that actually is for my best.
[00:31:55] There's a story in the Bible that really sums up this idea of finding our value in God to fight worry and understanding that our protection in God helps us fight against it. And it's a story
[00:32:07] of Peter. And the way this story unfolds is it comes off the heels of Jesus feeding the 5,000 in Matthew chapter 14. And after he feeds the 5,000 plus people in this great miracle, he tells
[00:32:20] the disciples to get on the boat. And then Jesus goes up and spend some time with God. And I love that because it's very important. Jesus, even Jesus in the midst of this great miracle, though
[00:32:31] momentum is high, he stops and he said, God, your presence is most important. And he spends time with him. When he gets done, he goes to get back on the boat, but the boat's already out from the
[00:32:41] water. It's way out there. And he does what all of us would do if our boat was way out on the water.
[00:32:46] He just starts walking on the water. Wouldn't you do that? And he walks out there. It's kind of night. Whenever he shows up, the disciples can't make it out. They're like, oh my gosh, it's a
[00:32:55] ghost. And Jesus calms down and says, no, no, it's not a ghost. It's me, your rabbi, your teacher.
[00:33:00] It's Jesus. And when he says this, Peter pipes up and says something as he always did. Matthew 14, 28. And Peter answered him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.
[00:33:12] He said, come. So Peter got out of the boat, walked on the water, came to Jesus.
[00:33:17] But when he saw the wind and he was afraid and he began to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me.
[00:33:23] And Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him saying to him, oh, you have little faith. Why did you doubt? When Peter walked out, he was totally fine. He was doing something he shouldn't have been doing. He was walking on water because he was looking at
[00:33:40] Jesus. Jesus's presence and him getting to that presence was his main focus. But the minute he saw the winds and the waves, the circumstances of life, he got worried and he began to sink.
[00:33:53] And Jesus grabbed him before he sunk and drowned. I love this picture of value and protection because we see it in this story. When Peter says, hey, Jesus, tell me to come and I'll come.
[00:34:07] Jesus didn't say, Peter, you're a fisherman. You have healed nobody. You have resurrected nobody from the dead. You've done nothing miraculous, Peter. You cannot walk on water. He didn't say that. He said, come. In other words, he said, Peter, you're about to do something you're not
[00:34:29] supposed to be doing. And the reason why you're going to do it is because I see value. I see something in you that you want to be in my presence. So I'm going to let you come get in
[00:34:37] my presence. That's how I value you, Peter. But when Peter started sinking, Jesus didn't just look and go, you dummy, you got caught up in all the stuff around you. Now you're going to drown.
[00:34:51] He didn't do that. Jesus said, hey man, even though you lost faith in me, even though you decided to look at the circumstances and get worried about everything around you and you got out of my presence, even though you did all that, I love you enough that I'm going to protect
[00:35:06] you. You know, God says the same thing to you and me. He says, Hey, look in that moment, your faith wavered. You stepped out of my presence, but I love you enough that I'm going
[00:35:17] to grab you because you need to understand my presence. So you'll understand that it's greater to walk in my presence than to be out of it and to persist and do whatever we want to do.
[00:35:27] It's greater to understand that we're valuable because it's being present in my presence.
[00:35:33] that's the protection from the worries of life causing us to sink and drown in everything around us jesus finishes this section and he wraps it up in verse 31 through 34 he says therefore do not
[00:35:49] be anxious saying what shall we or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for the gentiles seek after all these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them all but seek first the
[00:36:00] kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. If you will stand to your feet with me. I love how Jesus ends this. It just gives
[00:36:19] me, it makes me laugh because it just gives me a clear reminder. He says, look, tomorrow has enough worry. There's enough stuff and trouble right now in this moment that I don't have to look to
[00:36:33] tomorrow. I have enough to deal with right now. That's that being present. That's when everything's going on and we can go down the what if train like, man, when I show up to that meeting tomorrow,
[00:36:42] I wonder what they're going to say to me. And if they say this, what am I going to say back? And how am I going to defend myself? And how's this situation going to go? And I feel like this
[00:36:50] pressure and weight has been on me for two months, three months, four months. When will I ever get out from underneath it. What is about to drop tomorrow? If this happened today and this happened
[00:37:00] yesterday, what is tomorrow bringing? And Jesus says, don't worry about tomorrow. Get present in my presence and understand that I have something here for you right now because you're valuable.
[00:37:12] I haven't taken my eyes off of you. You're too valuable. I will protect you. I know you feel like you're getting close to drowning, but I'm right here and I'm going to grab your shoulder
[00:37:28] and I'm going to pick you up and I'm going to put you on a firm foundation, not a foundation bound by circumstance, but a foundation that allows us to walk through the circumstance so that when the
[00:37:40] storms come and they shake and they break and they beat down, that we can be in the presence of God and understand that I will be okay. I will be oh. Jesus simply says to them, it all comes down to
[00:37:57] what we are seeking. We're either like the Gentiles and we're seeking all the stuff and the things, or we're like followers of God and we're seeking his presence. We're seeking his kingdom.
[00:38:11] We're seeking his righteousness, which that word righteousness means care and generosity for others. So whenever I seek God and I seek being generous to others, then I'm looking through I'm looking through the good eye and I'm saying, God, there's an abundance, even though I can't
[00:38:28] see it. God, there's an abundance on who you say I am, no matter what everybody else has said.
[00:38:33] And I'm going to rest firm in that because you're going to protect me and I'm value. If you will close your eyes with me. And I just want to ask you what in life have we been seeking? Are we
[00:38:45] seeking just the moment? Are we seeking the job? Are we seeking that good day? Are we seeking that trip because everything else in life has been so terrible? Are we just seeking for the circumstance
[00:38:55] that's the end. What are we seeking? Is it God? I'm here to tell you today that whenever you seek God, life doesn't get easy. But whenever you seek God, life gets full and life is worth it.
[00:39:13] And you'll begin to understand the value that God has for you. You'll begin to understand you have a God that loves you and wants to protect you in the midst of any storm. And if you're here today
[00:39:22] and you haven't been seeking God and you're like, I want to seek God with my life and I want to put him first. I want to know I'm valuable. I want to feel his protection. If that's you on the count
[00:39:31] of three, I want you to raise your hand. One, two, three. Just shoot your hand up and say, God, I seek you today. I want you. I see your hands in the balcony. I see your hand, sir. Over here,
[00:39:40] sir. In the back, ma'am. Just raise it up. I see your hand, ma'am. Anybody else? Over here, ma'am.
[00:39:45] Anybody else? Just raise it up. I see your hand, sir. You can put it down once you've raised it.
[00:39:50] God, we seek you. Anybody else? God, I want you to guide my life. Will you be with me? Worry and being anxious and panic attacks. It's a regular thing. All of us at some level have to wrestle
[00:40:06] with it. And maybe in this message today, you're sitting here and maybe worry is something that you're dealing with right now, or you know that worry has gotten the best of you. And I just want
[00:40:17] to give us a moment to understand that God's presence is where we can just have a release from the worry. And today, right now, if you're just like, I just need to get in God's presence
[00:40:29] and set this worry aside.
[00:40:31] If that's you, I just want you to lift both hands up and say, God, your presence right now.
[00:40:36] I need your presence.
[00:40:37] Come on, lift them up if it's you.
[00:40:38] God, worry is not gonna get the best of me.
[00:40:40] I'm valuable.
[00:40:41] I'm gonna be present in your presence.
[00:40:43] And as you have your hands lifted, I want to lift it.
[00:40:46] I want you to take a moment.
[00:40:47] The worship team is gonna play this song, God Has Good Plans.
[00:40:51] And I want you to let that wash over you as the worship team just sings this over us.
[00:40:58] Your presence, Father.
[00:41:03] Just bring it in.

[00:41:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:41:03] Yes. Let this wash over you. Thank you. That washing and cleansing of God's presence.

[00:42:39] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:42:39] Hopefully you were reminded as they sang those words that you're valuable and God's there to protect you. And he's got good plans for you. They're good because they're his plans for you.
[00:42:49] I want everybody in here. If you raise your hand, everybody join in. I want you to repeat this prayer after me. Just say it loud where you're going to hear it. Say, God, I love you. And I thank you
[00:42:59] that you have good plans for me. They started when Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead so that I could have new life in you. Thank you that you see me as valuable. Thank you that
[00:43:23] you're there to protect me. I release worry. I release anxious thoughts and I get present in your presence. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.