Do Not Worry

[0:01] Just before we get into the sermon, some exciting news. Well, I think it's exciting news. It's definitely big news. And it's about our site and where we are going to be moving.

[0:13] We are going to be moving, and most likely that's going to happen. We're moving to a new spot, hopefully the first Sunday in April. And before I get into where it is at, I just want to let you know that it's something that we've wrestled with, me and Bear and the pastors of One Harbor across all the sites, and they've been a part of this journey with us.

[0:34] And so they know, and the church leader knows, and we just feel like God has really led us towards this place. And yeah, we just feel like this is the next step we need to take.

[0:47] And before we get into anything else, I just want to express how amazing it is that Cherry Point Baptist has led us to use this space for four years.

[0:59] When we, yeah. Yeah. We got into this saying, we'll be here a year, and I'm sure we'll find another spot.

[1:11] Here we are four years later. And they have not complained. In fact, we had moved to the Tourist and Events Center for all of three Sundays before COVID hit.

[1:22] And then when things were able to like open back up again, but the Tourist and Events Center was still kind of like, hey, nah, you know, we're going to keep this thing locked down. They reached back out to us and said, hey, if you have nowhere to meet, you can come back here.

[1:37] We didn't reach out to them. They like proactively sought us. I love that. That is, I love the picture of the kingdom that gives to us. Their generosity towards us has been absolutely amazing.

[1:50] And, you know, they, we've known for a while as a leadership team, just the sense of like, man, we've way overstayed our welcome here. And we always felt like, you know, our season is coming to an end.

[2:01] And so we've been looking and we've been looking and trying to find a spot. Well, simultaneously towards the, what's been happening towards the end of the year, Steve has slowly felt like his time that pastoring Cherry Point Baptist is coming to an end.

[2:14] He's already told his church he's retiring and that's going to be in a couple of weeks. And, and so I think they feel, and we feel like, man, it is, it is time for us to move on into our own space.

[2:26] And so we've been, we've been trying our best to, to find that spot. And those of you who don't know the story is the story of Havelock has been a constant search for space, even before, you know, we, we landed here and we just, we've had close calls.

[2:43] Um, we've had false starts in some spaces where we thought we were going to get into it and then it didn't work out. And, uh, this is the only space that has really worked out for us. And so, um, knowing that now time was running out and we needed a new spot, we actually opened our search area.

[3:00] And so we started looking in James city and, um, we looked and looked and tried some stuff and reached out to some churches. And I mean, we, we hit, we knocked on every door that, uh, we knew of at James city and, um, still nothing.

[3:11] And, and so more time running out and time is of the essence. We then looked a little bit further West into New Bern and immediately a spot opened up for us.

[3:22] And so that is the place where we are going to be moving to. Um, it's, uh, in New Bern. It's about a three minute drive from, from downtown New Bern.

[3:32] And, um, the location, if you want to know is 1400 North Craven street. Um, that's where it's going to be. And we got the usage of that building all of Sunday. And so I want to show the first picture of what this building looks like.

[3:43] That's kind of what it looks like from the outside. And, um, let's move on to the next one. That's a little picture from, uh, the other side of it, the front side of it.

[3:55] Let's move on to the next one. So that's the parking lot. As you can see, there's plenty of parking for everybody, which is really exciting. It is also, as you can see on the river, which David Kick was very excited about because he said, Hey Jess, I will be able to drive my boat to church on Sunday.

[4:12] Uh, cause there's a dock there apparently. So if any of you, if everyone else lives in Bridgeton, that's a new possibility opening up for you. Okay. Um, all right, let's move to the next building.

[4:24] This is the inside. Really pretty. And, um, it's great. So plenty of parking, um, it affords us room to, to grow.

[4:35] We'll be able to grow into, uh, the space seats, 290 ish people. And so we'll be able to nearly double our size and then go to two services.

[4:47] And that allows us to, if God willing, and he keeps adding to us, uh, potentially quadruple our size, um, which is an exciting prospect. So it's just in a beautiful area.

[4:59] It's, there's a lot of opportunity, uh, just around there with being so close to downtown and Union Point Park, just after service, being able to connect with each other and go eat together or picnic together, uh, with friends after church.

[5:11] So, uh, the other big asset is that we're going to be renting right across a very, uh, quiet street, a whole office building, which we'll be able to exclusively occupy, um, every day.

[5:23] And that's all ours right there. Um, and that's where we're going to be having kids, classrooms for kids ministry. Um, our offices will be there. Uh, there's like a big, huge suite all open upstairs for youth.

[5:36] Um, and what else am I missing here about that? Um, yeah. Yeah, that is it. So is there another, yeah, there's another angle of that, that building.

[5:51] There's parking on the other side of that as well. So, uh, again, like I said, our aim is to start meeting there the first Sunday in April. Um, now that's big news. And for some of us, I realize that's like sweet.

[6:03] That's closer to me. I'm really excited. This is really cool. Uh, for many of us in the room, I'm sure this is like, oh man, that's a lot farther than, uh, that's, that's a lot farther from this location is.

[6:15] And so I'm sure there is mixed feelings for a lot of reasons. Um, and that's okay. It's okay if you're feeling a little disappointed. Um, it's okay if you're like, man, I'm going to need time to process this and how this is going to work for us and our family.

[6:33] Um, and I just want to let you know, this isn't the first time when Harbors had to change locations. I mean, we started in Moorhead in 2009 and we've transitioned to a lot of different places.

[6:43] And I think what we've learned along the way is, uh, how to navigate these transitions well. And something that we, um, we encourage everyone to do is, is to celebrate the celebrate the past.

[6:57] Think of the last four years and all that God has done here. I mean, there's a lot to celebrate. There's a lot to be thankful for. Um, and then, man, mourn the transition.

[7:08] I mean, you're probably feeling like, ah, conflicted inside because we're going to miss this place. You know, there's sentimental, uh, there's sentiment built up here, um, because of all the stuff I've already said.

[7:22] But, and we don't, we don't want to stay there. We don't want to stay in kind of the, the mournful spot. We want to turn and prophetically anticipate the future. We want to get excited about what God is going to do in New Bern.

[7:35] New people, new salvations, um, all that stuff. And so this move isn't a defeat or a resignation. We, we believe that God is leading us on.

[7:46] Um, he's clearly closed the door here in Havelock and he's clearly opened the door in New Bern. And so, man, we are, um, we're pushing all our chips in, um, as we move to New Bern.

[7:57] And, um, so much so that I've, we're going to hire, uh, Alan Bartz. He's the other pastor here. He's been working, um, uh, part-time and, uh, but he's going full-time as a pastor, um, in two weeks.

[8:10] So we're excited about that. Yes. And I forgot to have him here for that announcement. He's working in kids ministry and he's going to say, what the heck? But, uh, I had a lot on my mind.

[8:21] So, sorry, Alan. Um, but yes, we're very excited that he's coming on. He's going to, uh, support this church and love you guys and being able to focus his energy and time, uh, to this and help with the pastoral load and help me out with a lot of oversight and, and that stuff, which he's really good at.

[8:41] And so we're excited for that. The future ahead is very bright and, um, and, uh, we, we just have faith for what God is going to do. And, um, just so you know, too, man, we are still, uh, we still have a huge heart for Havelock.

[8:57] We still have this huge heart for the base and the Marines and the, um, sailors that are on there. And, and we're just trying to think of like, how can we continue to fight for that, fight for what God's given us so far and, and, and hope that God, still gives us favor and new opportunities for, for those contexts.

[9:15] And so this isn't us just moving away and saying, I forget that we're, we're giving up. We, we really want to, uh, continue to, um, be a part of what God's doing in this area.

[9:26] And so in a second, I want us to take a minute and just to pray together, um, as a church. And I know there's going to be a lot of questions in the room.

[9:36] Um, and if you want to come up and ask those questions after the service, I'll be up here to talk about, talk with you. Or if you have questions you'd rather send by email, man, go for it.

[9:47] Um, yeah, that, that is totally okay. Um, so right now let's just have a minute of prayer, just three pair, uh, prayer points. And, um, let's just pray into these, take a minute to, to pray into these.

[10:00] And, um, the first is just thanking God for all that he has done the past four years. It's worth doing that and recognizing that. Um, the second is asking God to help us to continue, to be able to have a gospel impact and have lock and on the base.

[10:12] And the third is, is pray for Newbern and what God is going to do there. And so let's just take a moment and, um, just quietly where you're at, just, uh, let's pray together. Thank you.

[11:00] Father, thank you for all that you have done for all that you're doing and all that you will do.

[11:29] Help us to ever be faithful to you, to your kingdom, never compromising on those things.

[11:41] I ask you to keep us, I ask you to hold us in the palm of your hand and, um, yeah, help us in, as we move forward. In your name I pray, amen.

[11:52] Amen. All right. Okay, guys. I mean, now, like, if you're going to pay attention to me the rest of the time for this sermon, uh, that was like, that was a big, uh, bomb that I just dropped.

[12:04] But, um, here we go. I'm going to give it a try anyway. I just, before we get into it, a quick hello to all those listening online. And just so happy if it's your first time with us that you are with us.

[12:15] And, um, we are, uh, wrapping up today. We're wrapping up a short sermon series, uh, that we begin with the new year. And if you have a Bible with you, you can go and start turning to Matthew chapter 6.

[12:26] And we're going to be starting in verse 25. We're also going to have the verses behind me on the screen. And, um, this, this passage is a part of a, a big address that Jesus gave.

[12:37] One of his most famous ones called the Sermon on the Mount. And in this sermon, he kind of lays out what the blessed life is. Um, and not only what it is, but how we can live toward it.

[12:49] Jesus said at the end of this sermon that we must hear his words, but not just hear them. We need to do these words as well. And that's what following Jesus is.

[13:00] Following Jesus is believing him and receiving his words, but also putting them into practice. And that's what being a disciple of Jesus is. It's, it's faith in action.

[13:11] And that's not always easy to do. Um, if you've been following Jesus for, uh, any period of time, you realize that man, he, he calls us into difficult stuff, but it's always good stuff.

[13:23] And so let's look at Jesus's words for us today. Matthew 6 verse 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.

[13:36] Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather in the barns. And yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

[13:48] And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.

[13:59] They neither toil nor, nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one 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, O you of little faith?

[14:17] Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink? What shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them all.

[14:30] But seek first the 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.

[14:42] Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. This is God's word. So Jesus brings us into something that I think we all get, something that we all do.

[14:55] We all worry. We all have anxiety. And we all have anxiety about different stuff and to varying degrees. And the big reason for our anxiety is because we live in a world where suffering is a real thing.

[15:08] And Jesus gets it. He says this right at the end. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Jesus isn't pretending like, hey, you know, you guys should be going through life without any problems.

[15:19] What's the matter with you? No, he says like, you know what? Every day has its own trouble. Man, life conditions us because of that. Life conditions us to worry. Trouble always seems to come our way.

[15:30] You don't have to look very hard for it either. All you have to do is turn on the news, right? You can have a great day and then go and turn on the news and say like, oh, wow, there's lots of trouble in the world. They've turned reporting trouble into a billion dollar industry, right?

[15:44] It's the old thing, man. If it bleeds, it leads. They are good at unearthing every possible problem that the world has at any given time. And the headlines of life are constantly telling us that things seem to be getting worse, not getting better, right?

[16:00] And that's why it's hard not to live with fearful anticipation of the future, which is what worry is about. Worry comes at us from an unknown future.

[16:11] And we worry because there's a good chance that our future could turn out bad. So when I was young in high school, man, I hated public speaking, believe it or not.

[16:23] And of course, that's why God called me to preach. He likes to use the weak things of this world like me. And he has a great sense of humor. So, man, I used to hate public speaking.

[16:36] Like I was afraid of messing up. And I knew I was going to mess up. I knew I was going to vomit whenever I had to give a report in front of the class. And so before that would happen and I knew that day was coming, I would just suffer through weeks of anxiety and my stomach would be cramping and I would have nightmares.

[16:54] I had trouble sleeping at night. I would feel all those things. It would be very real. Let's just say during that time, I was not living my best life now. No one thinks that the blessed life is full of worry.

[17:07] But the question is, like, how do you turn that off? How do we turn worry off? How do you and I stop worrying? Well, we take different approaches. How to cope with this and how to cope with the possible troubles of life.

[17:20] Some people just become cynics. And they overpredict misfortune and they wait for life to turn tragic. They just know it is. So why ever be happy?

[17:32] And really, that's a way of just protecting yourself from disappointment. You don't live with any hope of the future because your cynicism is justified with every negative event that happens to you.

[17:43] You're just like, ha, proves it. Why should I really have any hope that anything good can happen? Dan Allender, he's a biblical counselor, PhD. He wrote this in The Cynic's Approach to Life.

[17:55] They set the scene for sorrow to come. They can describe in great detail why it has arrived. There is no surprise, no horror. Tragedy is a familiar and comforting friend.

[18:08] All right. The cynic is kind of like the Debbie Downer. Hey, the sun's shining today. Well, this probably means we'll just get skin cancer. Another approach that people take with coping is fatalism.

[18:23] Well, can't control it. Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be. So let's not care about the future. Let's not worry about the future. Let's not think about the future. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen.

[18:35] And the future possibilities are trouble. The future possibilities are trouble. They're just like, why care about that? Why even worry about that? Why spend any emotional energy on it?

[18:46] Don't dwell on it. Let's just live in the present. Let's just live in the now. And these are the kind of people where life just happens to them, right? They're just always reacting to life circumstances because it's like, God forbid we should ever make a plan.

[18:58] And then there are those that try to make a plan for every possible future scenario. That could ever go wrong.

[19:10] If you've ever gone with a first-time mom on vacation, you know what I'm talking about. You need a bus to haul all the baby stuff that's needed for them to survive your two-day getaway, right?

[19:21] But obsessing about every future possibility isn't the cure for worry either. You can't inculcate yourself from that trouble.

[19:32] You planners know what I'm talking about. Jesus' advice to us here isn't, you know what, just become cynical about the future. Or he doesn't say, just settle for being the victim of the fates.

[19:45] Nor does he call us to plan for every potentiality so we can control the future's unknown outcomes. Instead, he gives us a better way. Verse 31, he says this, And what Jesus is teaching us in these phrases, these sentences here is this, you fight worry by turning your attention to your heavenly father.

[20:20] That's what he's trying to get us to do. He's saying, do you want to live with less worry? Guess what? Grow in your knowledge of who God is.

[20:32] He says, seek. That word, seek, that is a very strong word. It means to search or to desire with great intensity.

[20:43] It's not just like, let me ho-hum kind of like find out who God is. It's saying like, no, no, no. Seek him. Seek his kingdom. Like, go after that with intensity, with gusto, with passion.

[21:01] I'll tell you something from my own life, from my own walk with Jesus. I got saved when I was eight. And I couldn't say for the next while through my teenage years and early 20s that following Jesus was like this, just moving from one amazing revelation to the next.

[21:17] I was all over the place. But then in my 20s, man, something happened. And then I got to start spending time around men who had real, genuine, deep relationship with God.

[21:31] And I started to like find out from them like, man, what was different about them? What made them so different from all the other Christians that were around that were kind of like, man, they were just like reacting to life.

[21:42] And it seemed like they were always living on shaky ground. And so they stirred up my desire to know God more. It was infectious. And all of them, you know what they did is they sought God with that intensity that Jesus is saying here.

[22:00] And their life was built on a foundation of devotion, of regularly setting their eyes on God and who he is. They read their Bible, right?

[22:11] They didn't read their Bible for information. They read their Bible to find God in there, to find out who he was and to know him and understand him in a better way, to create that relationship with him.

[22:23] They would pray to him the same way. You would listen to them pray, and it just sounded like a son talking with his father. It didn't have this religious veneer to it at all.

[22:34] They just said, you could tell there was this genuineness with them. And they also constantly fed themselves on good teaching and good books. And that's what I began to realize.

[22:45] Oh, man, these guys, they loved feeding themselves on theology about who God was and what his nature was like. And so I was like, okay, I'm going to be like them.

[22:56] I'm going to start doing that stuff too, mentored by these guys. And I started to read my Bible and pray and started reading some of those books. And I'm going to tell you something. I picked up a book that rocked my world in the best way.

[23:07] I heard one of these guys mentioned it, and he would mention it quite often. It was The Attributes of God by A.W. Tozer. And after a while, I was like, man, that guy talks about that so much. I wonder if she checked this out. And I picked that thing up.

[23:20] And I tell you what, every page I read was making my heart sing. It was the most beautiful. I was like, how come I didn't know this about God? But man, when you read good teachers who get into the scriptures and begin to unpack who God is and what he's really like, it makes your heart fill with joy and wonder and awe.

[23:41] And it is like, you just want more of that. You just want more of that and more of that. And by that time, I'd been a Christian for 15 years, and I just started to realize how small my view of God was.

[23:55] And this thing was just exploding. Oh, God, you're way more amazing than I could have ever imagined. And man, I just want to encourage you. As a church, let's not settle for a small view of God.

[24:08] Let's see him for who he truly, truly is. Let's seek after him with intensity and devotion. If you're going to make a resolution this year, make a resolution.

[24:19] Read good books. I want to challenge you. Go grab A.W. Tozer. Amazon, whatever. They're still on there. A.W. Tozer, attributes of God. You can't go wrong. Start your morning with a good devotion, with God and his word and praying.

[24:33] Seek after your heavenly father. Man, it's a journey into his heart. Draw closer to his heart. Draw closer to who he is. Jesus said, seek first.

[24:47] Not seek second or third or fourth or even tenth. Seek first God and his kingdom. It should be our first priority. If you're a Christian, if you're a follower of Jesus, that's your first priority.

[24:59] Seek first his kingdom. That's what Jesus is calling us into. And because this is why. What is first in your life is what gets your attention most.

[25:11] It's what gets your time. It's what gets your energy. And it's what gets your money. In essence, it's what we give our life to. And ultimately, whatever's first in our lives, it's what our lives become about.

[25:25] We build our life around that, right? Which is why if the first thing in your life is anything but God, the prospect of losing it just doesn't become like, oh, that's kind of a bummer.

[25:39] Actually, it becomes catastrophic. Because it's not just I'm going to lose that thing. Actually, no, it's I'm going to lose my life if I don't have that. We feel that pain of that potential loss.

[25:52] It negatively affects us, right? It affects our emotional health. It affects our physical health, too. Like worry, anxiety ages us, right? The more anxiety you live with, the more worry you live with, man, it racks you with illness.

[26:07] It weakens your immune system. These are true things. It's because you lose sleep over it. You get ulcers. You have a harder time eating. It's all of those things working together. You become irritable and irrational at times when you're wracked with anxiety.

[26:24] And Jesus said, that's not good for us. The thought of losing what we love most can feel like we're losing our very life.

[26:34] And Jesus said, man, that shouldn't be anything of this earth. Nothing of this earth should have that kind of control over our hearts. Matthew 6, 19, he says this, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

[26:53] But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there your heart will be.

[27:04] And these verses, it's actually the preamble or the introduction to Jesus' teaching to not be anxious, to not worry. And in it, we see this interesting connection.

[27:18] It says, Jesus is telling us when we live for eternity, anxiety loses its power. Jesus exposes to us here why anxiety exists.

[27:30] Nothing in this world lasts. No relationship is going to last forever. No possession you can get is going to endure. He says it's going to rust.

[27:41] Moth's going to eat it. It's going to be destroyed. You can't hold on to it. You can't take it with you when you die. Even wealth. Even wealth is not a promise of inculcating ourself from trouble.

[27:53] The more you have, the more you have to worry about losing, right? I think the modern phrase is mo' money, mo' problems.

[28:06] Think about this. The famous stock market crash of the 20th century, right? That brought sudden poverty on a lot of wealthy men.

[28:17] And you know what happened? A lot of them took their life. Why? Because they loved money. They loved wealth. And that's what they had built their life around. And then they lost it.

[28:29] And suddenly, life wasn't worth living anymore. Wealth can't protect you. I knew a successful businessman who once told me, he was telling me his testimony.

[28:42] He told me that, man, he used to spend days, days trying to stay ahead, or sorry, most of his day just trying to stay ahead of his competitors. And so he lived with constant worry of his business losing its top spot in the industry, of losing his market share to other people.

[29:01] And then Jesus invaded his life. Now, he still worked hard. He was still a successful businessman, but his priorities changed. His wealth wasn't his life anymore.

[29:12] He realized that he had been laying up his treasures in the wrong place. And then Jesus invaded, and he began to live for something else. He began to live toward eternity. He began to live toward this kingdom of God that Jesus is talking about.

[29:26] And so he downsized his lifestyle so that he could be more generous to God and his mission here on earth and to be able to give us more time and money. Today, even to this day, he loves to disciple people.

[29:39] He is one of the leaders in his church. And he has less possessions than he used to have. But you know what? He would tell you he has more joy and more peace. He's living for something better.

[29:51] He's living for eternity. Jesus asks us a legitimate question. Why work so hard for stuff that won't last?

[30:02] Why treasure what is going to pass away? And the lie we get caught up in is that it's good. That's what we should do. We should live for those things. But why live for what we can't hold on to?

[30:13] Jesus says rather live for the things that can't be taken away. Live for the things you can't lose, which means you and I, we can invest in eternity right now. That's what we get to do.

[30:24] And that's what Jesus is inviting us into. We get to experience some of that coming kingdom in the present. But he also says this. You can't do it halfway.

[30:37] Look what he says in verse 24. No one can serve two masters, for he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.

[30:48] You cannot serve God and money. Jesus is saying, guess what, guys? God doesn't share his throne. I don't share my throne with anything else. I don't like to be like a co-first with any other thing in your heart.

[31:04] You can't be halfway in. You have to go all in. And I wish it was easy to convince us, right? I wish it was easy to convince my own heart of like, yeah, just go all in.

[31:17] Like, that's a better way to go. But something always seems to hold us back because our hearts, man, we do. We love lesser things. We love lesser things than Jesus and his kingdom that he calls us to be first, to make first in our lives.

[31:33] What are those things? We just can't imagine loving God and serving him to be better than money or sex or leisure or clothing or shopping or sports or video games or just fill in the blank whatever your thing is, right?

[31:52] What is it? Think about for yourself. What is it that keeps you from going all in to follow Jesus? Jesus, what are you afraid of losing? What do you think you can't live without?

[32:05] Those are the things that make us hesitate. Inside our hearts, they're like questioning, man, can that really, what Jesus is saying here, what he's promising, can it really be better than this thing that I have now that I love so much?

[32:20] And Jesus is saying, yes, it can. And yes, it is. I am so much better. My kingdom is so much better. And here's why. It's not because God's toys are better than yours, right?

[32:33] Actually, when you go all in to follow Jesus, you start to find out what you've really been missing. And it's this. It's his love for you. Man, why do you go all in?

[32:45] Go all in because your heavenly father is good and he treasures you. Jesus knows this. He knew the love of the father and he knows the love of the father better than any of us do.

[32:57] And that's why he came to earth. He said, he's like, I came to show you the father. He came to show what your heavenly father is like. And he's trying to get us to see here how much our heavenly father actually loves us and why we can trust him.

[33:12] So he invites us to do two things. Bird watch and stop and smell the flowers. Verse 26, look at the birds of the air.

[33:23] They do not sow or reap or store away in barns. And yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can you, can any one of you be by worrying at a single hour to your life?

[33:37] And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow? They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon, one of the richest men in all of history, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

[33:54] If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith?

[34:04] When's the last time you stopped and got really concerned about all the little birds possibly starving? If you have, you're a little bit weirder than I thought.

[34:22] We just don't do that, right? We have a bunch of little birds that eat breakfast in our back lawn every morning and time to time I watch them, so I guess I am the weirdo.

[34:33] But I watch them thinking about this verse, and I watch them kind of going around and being busy and pecking on the ground and getting who knows what, and then they just kind of disappear.

[34:45] They get what they need for that meal, and that's it. They don't have any retirement investments. They don't have any big nests to store, like, worms in for a rainy day.

[34:55] No one mourns their life when they drop to the ground and their life comes to an end. But you know what?

[35:06] We have a good and benevolent Heavenly Father who keeps his eye on every insignificant bird. He says his eye is on the sparrow. He feeds them.

[35:18] He watches every one that falls to the ground. None of them fall to the ground without him knowing about it. And Jesus says, you know what? God loves that bird.

[35:31] He meets that bird's meal. He feeds that bird. Meets his needs. You know what? He loves you way more than that bird. Way more.

[35:43] He'll give you what you need today. He'll give you what you need tomorrow. So don't worry about food. Don't worry about drink. Don't worry about clothing.

[35:56] But this also points to something greater. Food and clothing and drink, that's the necessities of life. It's the essence of life. But we can get all these things.

[36:09] We can step into that and realize, like, God, I'm going to trust you for all these things. But there's a worry that you and I can't escape. And that's death.

[36:22] And because of sin, we are doomed to eat the bread of eternal death. To drink the wine of God's wrath because of our sin. Because we are clothed in unrighteousness.

[36:34] But you know what? Our Heavenly Father, rich in mercy, abounding in love, took care of that need too. He sent His only Son, Jesus, to die in our place.

[36:47] To rescue us from death and bring us into eternal life. And I want to say, if you're here and you're not yet a Christian, man, I want you to see how good this Heavenly Father is.

[37:00] He loved you so much that He died for your sin. He came to live a life you couldn't live. To die a death you couldn't die. So you could be brought into eternal life.

[37:10] To be rescued from that certain punishment. That certain judgment that is to come that you cannot escape. God is calling you today to repent and believe in Jesus Christ.

[37:22] Who died on the cross for your sins. You don't have to do anything to earn it. You just have to receive that and believe it. God, the band can come up.

[37:33] If you could stand with me. And I want to say to us who are followers of Jesus, before we take communion, if you can get your communion ready, don't take it yet, but I want us to consider something.

[37:48] Your Heavenly Father is good.

[38:00] And He loves you. And He does provide good stuff for us. He does provide food for us to eat, drink for us to drink.

[38:11] He does provide clothing for us. And He provides friendships. We are in a beautiful family of believers. We're in a church where we love one another and care for one another.

[38:22] These are beautiful gifts from God. And He's given us even greater gifts than those things. Than the food that fills our bellies and the wine that gladdens our heart.

[38:34] And the clothes that protect our bodies. He gave us Jesus. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. I am the bread of life. And when we eat, we're not just satisfied for one meal, but it says where our souls are satisfied.

[38:52] And then it's eternal satisfaction. It's a satisfaction that can never end. It can never be taken away. And we take communion reminding ourselves of this.

[39:03] His body broken for us. And we get to eat Jesus, the bread of life. Let's eat together. Let's eat together. Let's eat together. And likewise, He's the fountain of life.

[39:22] He said to one lady, man, I know waters that if you drink of them, you'll never thirst again. And Jesus is that fountain.

[39:33] And on the cross, there was a fountain of blood that flowed out of His body for the forgiveness of our sin that took them away. And we get to drink this fountain of life every single day.

[39:46] But communion reminds us of that. We get to drink of His salvation. We get to drink of His atoning sacrifice and His blood shed for us. And let's drink together.

[40:02] Because of all He's done, He's clothed us in His robes of righteousness. Look at how your heavenly Father feeds you.

[40:15] Look at how He clothes you. He has your future in His hands. And you know what? In eternity with Him, that is going to be without any sorrow.

[40:27] That is going to be without any suffering. That is going to be with no more troubles. And therefore, you know what? We can trust Him with every tomorrow here on earth.

[40:38] Look to your heavenly Father and do not worry.