Monday Morning Coffee with Mark

Why are you Worried? Matt 6:25-34

September 20, 2021 Mark Roberts Season 1 Episode 17
Monday Morning Coffee with Mark
Why are you Worried? Matt 6:25-34
Show Notes Transcript

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Welcome to the Westside church’s special Monday Morning Coffee podcast with Mark Roberts. Mark is a disciple, a husband, father and grand dad, as well as a certified coffee geek, fan of CS Lewis’ writings and he loves his big red Jeep. He’s also the preacher for Westside church.

Speaker 1:

Hello, and welcome to the west side churches. Special Monday morning coffee podcast on this podcast, our preacher Mark Robert will help you get your week started. Right? We look back at yesterday's sermon so that we can think through it further and better work the applications into our daily lives. Mark will then look forward into this week's Bible reading so that we can know what to expect and watch for and he may have some extra bonus thoughts from time to time. So grab a cup of coffee as we start the week together on Monday morning coffee with Mark.

Speaker 2:

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday morning coffee podcast for September the 20th. I'm Mark. You need to buckle up for the Monday morning coffee podcast today because the material we're looking at, both in the sermon and in our daily reading this week is some serious. Get up in your face challenge you make you think about what it means to be a disciple kind of stuff, because all of it comes from the sermon on the Mount. That's what we're looking at today. We're thinking about the sermon yesterday about anxiety and worry. We're thinking about our Bible reading in Matthew chapter five, all of that with a great cup of coffee. Speaking of great cup of coffee, I am holding a great cup of coffee. Some really nice folks at Westside brought me coffee from Pittville coffee roasters in Denton. I love to support local businesses. Love to support local coffee roasting. That's the way to get fresh coffee. This is a really nice Tanzania coffee and I put it through the arrow press and it is just delightful. And with that in mind, let's think a little bit about the sermon that I preached yesterday morning from Matthew chapter six, verses 25 to 34. Jesus says in Matthew 6 25, therefore I tell you do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink nor about your body. What you will put on is not life more than food and the body more than clothing. That's pretty challenging stuff. And the goal yesterday was to make that real and to make that applicable without falling into the trap of demonizing the need for mental health care, with people who have chronic depression or other significant mental health issues, or in some way, offering some kind of Hakuna Matata just don't worry about anything. I'm going to quit my job. God's going to completely take care of me. I'm just going to get in the hammock and wait for God to do something neat. Or even to try to teach the idea that all planning and precautions are wrong. We just don't ever think about the future in any shape, form or fashion. Instead, what Jesus is talking about here is being over concerned, being anxious for things outside of what we can control, being anxious about things that distract us from our discipleship and from the kingdom of God. I think if I could tag anything out of the sermon yesterday, that I hope you're holding on to it's that idea of being over-concerned where I am distracted from seeking first, the kingdom of God, that's verse 33 that's Jesus's punchline. That's what this is really all about. And as we work through that yesterday, a couple of practical steps emerge that can help us so that we're not overly concerned. Worry, Jesus says doesn't help. It shows a lack of faith in God's goodness. It makes me act like a faithless pagan. It's unnecessary because God knows what we need. And again, it distracts me from what matters most the kingdom and God's righteousness. So ways that we can get a handle on that is to stop letting others make us anxious. And I talked a little bit about the role of the media in our society today, and they are not making a living by saying everything is going to be okay and don't watch the news because we have nothing really important to say the media is all about fear. The media is all about turmoil. The media is all about division and how the world is just going down the drain. And if you don't tune in or click, you're not going to know what's going on and what you need to do about it. As a result, we are very anxious. I think some people call that doom scrolling when we get on social media and we just look at all the terrible things that are happening, we just need to stop. And we need to put some things in place by turning off some of our social media feeds or by unfollowing. Some people turning off that auto headline feature on your phone. So we're not seeing that stuff all the time. And I really want to emphasize that we needed to check from materialism. Jesus opens that section by saying therefore verse 25, because he's tying to the materialism discussion that he just had about treasures on earth and treasures in heaven, beginning in verse 19. That's so significant. Sometimes the reason we're anxious is because our hearts are rooted in this world. And then of course, finally, if we will concentrate on the kingdom, that's going to help us push distracting worries and anxiety out because we're focusing on what truly matters and what will matter in eternity. That's first 33, again, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added on to you. Let me give you just one more additional application here. One more additional way to help overcome worry. And I'm really thankful for the podcast today. This is the kind of thing you're making choices about what will get in the pulpit and what will not. I can't say everything about everything. We would be there until Tuesday. And that obviously does not work. I really wanted to say something about the need to open our eyes in this section of the sermon on the Mount Jesus twice looks at nature as a teacher that will help us the birds of the air verse 26. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns. And yet your heavenly father feeds them. And then he speaks of the lilies of the field, verse 28, the grass of the field, verse 30. Those are wild flowers that Jesus is talking about there. And so Jesus says, if you'll look around at creation, you'll see that God cares for it. That's important. Sometimes we look around at creation and we say, wow, God is amazing. God is awesome. God's power made all of this. He spoke it all into existence. God's majesty and wisdom is abundantly clear by heavens declare the glory of God, Psalm 19. And we ought to say all of that stuff, but there's something else that we can say, God made it and God cares for it. And it's that second point that Jesus is driving at here. God's care for nature shows and proves God cares for you. So as you're driving and you see the leaves starting to change, at least we're certainly hoping that fall will begin eventually here in Texas, as we see the leaves change, we just know that's God's care. God set the seasons in place so that nature would have its rhythms and its life cycles. As you see birds flying, heavenly father feeds them, cares for them all around us are markers of God's care markers in nature, open your eyes. Someone has said that when we worry it's because we're blind, we're blind to what God has done in His creation and how he cares for creation. And that means since he created you and me, he cares for us as well. I hope that'll help you as you continue to appropriate Jesus's message from Matthew six about worry and put it in play in your life. Don't be anxious. Don't be over concerned, seek ye first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Well now let's think a little bit about daily Bible reading, which is also from the sermon on the Mount. So in our daily bible reading this week, we really are getting a double dose of the sermon on the Mount. I'm a little ahead in the preaching theme for the year, from where we're reading this week, but it's a good refresher I've preached through this material. And it's good to just be reminded of the teachings of Jesus. Again, the greatest sermon ever preached and to make certain that Bible reading is becoming Bible living. So on Monday, we're going to read Matthew five, 13 to 26, and this is the section on salt and light. And then about the law and the role of scripture, and especially then about anger. And I just want to remind you that this section really says that the world is rotten and the world is dark and disciples have an obligation to be a preservative that salts function in Jesus's world and to be alive unto this world. And we need to look for, and we need to seek ways that we can help people draw closer to God and be more impressed with God. That's what salt light's all about. Nobody's ever gone to a great restaurant and they come out of there and they say, wow, they have amazing salt there. That that is not what we say. What we say is the food. The entree was incredible, but maybe the reason it was so incredible is because of the skillful way that the chef, you seasonings like salt. We want to point people to Jesus. That becomes an important point. When we come to chapter six, where Jesus talks about not doing works of righteousness to be seen of men, well, what's he working with there? Jesus is saying in one place, in our reading for Monday, draw people to God, help people be impressed with God because you have a relationship with God and they want what you have in Matthew six. Then Jesus is going to be saying, don't use religious devotion to somehow boost yourself up in your peer's eyes and esteem. I would remind you as well that the operative expression here or the operative verse in this part of the sermon on the Mount is verse 20. I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. That's the controlling thought for much of this sermon all the way down through six 19. So you need to circle that in your Bible, because what follows then is just several cases where Jesus says, this is what righteousness looks like according to the scribes and Pharisees, but that's not it. You need more, you need heart level interest in God. You need heart level devotion to God, not looking for a loophole, not superficial interest in God, so that you can do what you really want to do. That's what Jesus was talking about. And the first application of that, of course, that he makes is with anger in verses 21 to 26. So on Tuesday's reading, then we're going to read verse 27 to 37, where Jesus makes application of that idea about your righteousness needed to exceed the scribes and Pharisees. He makes application of that to last to divorce and to owes. This is really a section here. That's about integrity, about being whole being complete, not being a hypocrite with a two face or a facade going on. So we are concerned about integrity with our eyes. And the issue of lust is addressed in verses 27 to 30 than the issue of integrity in our marriage, not misusing our spouse and mate verses 31 to 32. And then the issue of owes beginning in verse 33, some of course have read verse 33 in the verses that follow and decided that Jesus is thereby forbidding all kinds of oath taking or swearing, a Christian, for example, couldn't swear in a court of law and that kind of thing. And, and many have taken it that way. I'm not as impressed that that is the meaning and what Jesus is going for there. I think that's a very wooden and very overly literal approach to this. God takes those oaths. That's hard to say lots of people take oats in scripture. They're just very serious and very sacred promises. We take vows in marriage, for example. And I do think that what Jesus is saying is that when we take those kinds of special promises, we can't play games. Oh, I had my fingers crossed behind my back Kings acts, oh, I didn't say it this way or the fine print in the contract that you didn't read, lets me out of this. Jesus says we have to have integrity in what we promise to do. So Wednesdays reading continues this theme of just in your face challenge, living differently, being unique and especially a righteousness that exceeds the scribes and Pharisees a true righteousness that is concerned about God and God's will. And that's in our verses today verses 38 to 48 of Matthew, the fifth chapter where Jesus talks about revenge. And the big idea here is it's just not about me. It's not about me and my rights. I'm not going to impress that on others. Push that on others. I'm not about myself instead. I'm going to love my enemies. Verse 45. I'm going to try to act like God, God does not put himself first. Otherwise he would not have sent his son to be the sacrifice for our sins. He would have just said, tough luck for you all not doing that. Don't care about y'all no, I want to act like God who loves everyone, even the evil. And I want to do the best I can to show that in my life. Again, this is a passage that has been controversial and I'm afraid sometimes the discussion about self-defense or the war question, or can policemen, be a Christian. Some of those issues have obscured our ability to just listen to Jesus and make application of what he's saying here. But I would not want to be so overly literal with this idea of turn the other cheek that it would mean. For example, I could not defend my family. The same kind of idea would say that I can't resist evil in any way, but I'm resisting evil. Every time I teach the gospel and there are plenty of illustrations. For example, Paul using his Roman citizenship and others who make use of lawful means to protect themselves and to protect their own wellbeing or the wellbeing of others around them. So it seems to me that if someone's trying to use this tax to say, you can't defend yourself in any form, bad people going to do bad things, you just have to sit there and take it and just let them abuse you. I, I think they've made a mistake and I think they are not using this in the proper context or in the way that Jesus would have intended. However, that said, the principle here remains. We need to try to put others first. We need to seek others' needs first. And when bad people are doing bad things, my first response to that needs to be, how can I help this person turn to God? Now I can't adjudicate every situation in a podcast that's obvious. And you know that, but the reality is when people do bad things to us, what Jesus says is sometimes our first thought is, how can I get back at you? You did bad thing to me, Hey, watch this. I'm going to do a badder thing to you. Isn't that wonderfully good grammar batter thing. You're going to do something awful to me. We'll then I'll just show you, I'm going to get revenge. It's going to be two times as bad for you. And Jesus says, that's not the attitude of the disciple. That's not how we act. We're going to put others first. And that isn't easy to do, is it? But that's what we're called to in the kingdom of heaven. As we're making that tie in our Bible, reading with those five questions, this is what the kingdom of heaven is all about. So let me grab a quick swig of coffee here. That's an amazingly good cup of coffee. Like I said, this is some Tanzania peaberry and it's really delightful. Someone asked me about drinking cold coffee the other day. And I should tell you don't do that. That's not the way to have a great cup of coffee. When coffee is cooling, what you smell that amazing coffee aroma is coffee molecules that are jumping out of your cup and evaporating into the air, which means that if you come back to a cup of coffee in 30 minutes, it's actually not the same cup of coffee that it was 30 minutes ago. There's less coffee in there. A bunch of it has evaporated out into the atmosphere. So while I certainly don't want anybody drinking coffee and burning their tongue, that's not where this is going. You need to know the reason why your coffee doesn't taste as good when it's cold is because of it's gone. And even if you stick it back in the microwave and you heat it again, guess what? Coffee, doesn't jump back in the cup for you. It's still the same less coffee. So you always want to drink fresh coffee, fresh ground beans. If you can, that's what I'm working with here. And then you want to drink it as soon as you can nursing the same cup of coffee all day, or for a couple of hours is the kind of thing that causes people to say, oh, coffee's just terrible. I don't know how you can drink that stuff. Well, you let it sit too long and it gets kind of not so good. Drink it, hot, drink it fresh. There you go. That's a freebie about coffee. Let's think about Thursday. Thursday's reading is from Matthew chapter six, verses one to six about prayer and about giving alms or giving to the needy. And Jesus specifically calls out the Pharisees who are so public in their religious devotion so that everybody will look at them and say, oh, aren't you special? And the message here is don't do that. Don't use God as a way to boost yourself up in front of other people. I'm actually going to do a question out of Matthew six and this business of public praying and whether it's appropriate to pray publicly, I'm going to do that next week in Q and a morning. So I'll let some of that wait till then. But again, the emphasis here is we don't need to put on a religious show. God doesn't appreciate being used in that kind of fashion. So we've come to Friday's reading in Matthew, we're going to read Matthew six versus seven, Matthew chapter six, verses seven to 18. And this section contains Jesus's direct teaching to his disciples about prayer. And he gives us here a model to pray or a template to pray. That really helps us. It's so simple. It's so direct. And I think I'll just tie here back to the lesson on Sunday morning. One of the things that could help us with anxiety and worry over a concern is more focused on the kingdom and a great place to get that focus is by praying the Lord's prayer. When I preach that the lesson covering this material, I said it then, and I'm going to say it again. Now I grew up mostly hearing that people didn't understand the prayer and that they were using it wrong. And my whole thinking almost was the Lord's prayer. It's just wrong. We shouldn't be saying that today. And that's a terrible mistake. I, that that's just absolutely wrong. First of all, we can pray your kingdom. Come. I know the kingdom has come in, acts chapter two when men and women submitted themselves to the reign and rule of God were baptized acts 2 38. The kingdom began, but the kingdom continues to come as men and women submit themselves to the rule and reign of God. That's an ongoing thing and we can pray about it, that we want it to come into more people's lives that we want it to come more fully into our lives. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I certainly can tell you this God's will is not being done on earth as it is in heaven. And we ought to pray about that. And when I do that kind of praying, somehow that refocuses me on God, on God's kingdom, seeking first, His kingdom and his righteousness gets my mind off of food, clothing, and shelter. There's only one line in the prayer about those kinds of physical needs. Give us this day, our daily bread. It puts me back in a spiritual frame of mind, as I think about forgiving others, because I need to be forgiven. God, forgive me. And God helped me in this battle battle for what battle to have more, no, the battle against the evil one lead us, not attendant into temptation, but deliver us from evil. This is a powerful, powerful prayer. You can say it to yourself in just a minute or less. And yet in that short amount of time, it can really help you draw closer to God and overcome anxiety because we're back in kingdom business and we're out of the self business. Pray the Lord's prayer read over this today, work through those five questions, connect up some of those ideas out of the old Testament from Matthew chapter six, but by all means pray the Lord's prayer. That's what he gave it to us for. Well, thanks for listening. If you love the Monday morning coffee podcasts, it would be great. If you would subscribe, rate or give a review on iTunes or whatever app you're listening on subscribing with or following. And of course, if you'd simply tell a friend about the show that would help us out to the podcast has grown in the number of listeners. And we're just delighted about that. And of course we'd like to see it grow even more. So until next time, may your coffee be delightful? May your Monday be short and may the Lord be with you today all day. See you next week.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to the west side church of Christ podcast Monday morning coffee with Mark more information about W estside. You can connect with us through our website, just christians.com and our Facebook page. Our music is from upobeat.io t hat upbeat with two P's U P P B E A T where creators can get free music. Please share our podcast with us. And we look forward to seeing you again with a cup of coffee, of course, on next Monday,