Don't Be a Worry Wart

The message series Journey Christian Church is doing over the next few weeks is on the topic of worry. The primary text referenced in the message was from Matthew 6:24-34

24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; 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? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28 And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 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, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

There are many key concepts to pull out of this section of scripture. If we are serving God and not ourselves (in the scripture it is translated money or mammon but could easily be called the world or our own selfish ambitions) then we will not be worried. The exact opposite of worry is faith. In fact, if we catch ourselves worrying about something it is a red flag that we are lacking in faith in the area we are worrying about. Worrying is a mental act. We only worry about things that are on our mind. If we keep God on our mind, we will be far less likely to worry about anything that someone who does not. So if you find yourself worrying repent to God for forgiveness of lack of faith in Him and move on.
Think of worry and faith as two infant puppies. Whichever one we feed the most is going to get bigger and stronger and the one we feed the least (or not at all) will stay small. The larger dog will always dominate and rule over the smaller dog. So how do we feed the faith dog? Romans 10:17 says "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." Some good ways to feed the faith dog is to feed on the word of God by reading the Bible, listening to others read the Bible, listening to the Bible on CD. However, the absolute best way to feed the faith dog is to hear ourselves speaking the Word of God. We can gain a measure of faith hearing someone else speak God's Word but it sticks inside of us much better if we hear ourselves speak it.
This can not be a part time thing. It needs to be a part of our daily lives. Just as we feed our bodies with food we need to feed our heart with the food of God, His word. There is a passage in John 4:31-32 "31 In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. 32 But he said unto them, I have food to eat that you know nothing about." Jesus was talking about the spiritual food of the Word. When we "fill up" on the Word, there will be no room for worry as the faith dog will get stronger and the worry dog will get weaker.

Now this does not mean we go to the opposite extreme of apathy. We should take care of what needs to be taken care of, plan the things that need to be planned and then rest in the peace of God.

An example of this is in Luke 14:28-32. The context of the passage deals with the cost of being a Disciple of Christ but I think the message also can apply to not being apathetic and making proper plans.

28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30 saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'

31 "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace."

Here are some other verses that encourage us not to worry.

"Cast your cares on the LORD
and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall."
Psalm 55:22

-----------------------------------------------------------------

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.".
Psalm 46:1

-------------------------------------------------------------------

"Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe in me also."
John 14:1

-----------------------------------------------------------------

"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation."
Isaiah 12:2

--------------------------------------------------------------------

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Matthew 11:28-30

-------------------------------------------------------------------

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."
Psalm 23:4

--------------------------------------------------------------------

"I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth."
Psalm 121:1-2

------------------------------------------------------------------

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take."
Proverbs 3:5-6

-----------------------------------------------------------------

"An anxious heart weighs a man down,
but a kind word cheers him up."
Proverbs 12:25

When It's Ok To Be Sheepish or Not Trying To Get Anyone's Goat

Matthew 25:31-46

The Sheep and the Goats
31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

44 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

45 "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

In the message this past Sunday at Journey, this passage in Matthew 25 came up and was discussed (albeit on a very elementary level). I thought I would take the time to dig deeper into what this passage is all about and who it pertains to (this part may surprise you).

As with any passage of this length it is best to break it down from the beginning. Remember, it is important to know things like who is being spoken to, why is it written, etc.

Let's look at the first part in verse 31 it says "when the Son of Man shall come in all his glory and the angels with him". This is key information. This tells the when of the verse. The Son of Man is Jesus and there are only two instances that the Bible describes Jesus leaving Heaven and coming to earth... the Rapture of the Church and the Second Coming. At the Rapture of the Church Jesus comes alone. I Thessalonians 4:16 "16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first." At the Second Coming Jesus comes with His angels and Saints as seen in the book of Jude verses 14-15 "14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him."

So, since the passage in Matthew says Jesus is not coming alone, we can conclude that this verse is speaking of the Second coming and not the Rapture.

Ok, now we know the when. If this is a Second coming verse then this deals with the 7 years of tribulation that the world will go through after the Rapture. It primarily deals with the Jews. During the Tribulation period God will send two mighty witnesses (Elijah and Moses) to evangelize. How do I know the two witnesses are Elijah and Moses? Moses' body was preserved for this event and int he book of Jude, Michael the Archangel argues with Satan about Moses' body. Satan does not want this to happen. Elijah never died. He was caught up into the air. The second proof text is their abilities. The book of Revelation talks about how the witnesses will have power to turn water to blood and keep it from raining. Moses and Elijah were the two who had this power in the Old Testament.
Through their evangelism 144,000 Jewish men will come to Christ. These 144,000 men will then go on a worldwide evangelism tour like the world has never seen. However, many of the 144,000 will find themselves battling the forces of the Anti Christ who will be in power. He will have them thrown into prison, he will keep them from getting enough to eat, from getting adequate medical care, and basically make it difficult for these witnesses to have the basic necessities of life. However, those who they have reached and converted will offer assistance to them... giving them shelter, something to eat, clothing, visiting them in prison, etc.

When Jesus returns to judge those who have been living on earth during the Great Tribulation, he will divide the saved from the lost. The saved (referred to as sheep) will be on His right. The lost (referred to as goats) will be on His left. When Jesus tells them that they cared for Him by doing things like clothing him and feeding Him, He is talking about how the believers (sheep) have cared for the 144,00 witnesses. This is explained in Matthew 25:40 where it talks about doing things for the least of these "brothers of mine". Only saved people are brothers of Christ so this could only be refering to the 144,000. Since the saved (the sheep) were brought to Christ by these 144,00 witnesses they will obviously be eager to help them out in their basic needs.

Conversely, the unsaved (the goats) could care less about the Word of God, Jesus, or the 144,000 so they will not offer aid to them by giving them something to eat, clothes, etc. In fact, they will most likely enjoy seeing the 144,000 suffer.

Another key verse in this passage is found in verse 34 "..the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world." From the creation of the world, the Jewish nation has been God's chosen people. Only after they rejected Jesus when He was here the first time did God shift focus to the Gentiles (us, the Church age). This verse is talking about the Jewish people who are saved during the Great Tribulation period coming into the 1,000 year Kingdom that Jesus will set up on earth (also known as the Millennium). We as Gentile believers who are Raptured up with the church before the Great Tribulation will also be a part of the Millennium. I believe that based on our rewards received at the Judgement Seat of Christ (or Bema Seat) we will be given positions of authority and leadership and assist Christ during His 1,000 year reign.

Let's think for a second about goats and sheep. Goats are stubborn. sheep can be easily led. Jesus called His followers sheep. Pagan cults use the goat as a symbol.

This is pretty powerful and deep stuff so it will most likely need another post to go into more details.

What to take away from these verses:

The sheep gave the witnesses food, clothing, etc because they were sheep already. They were not bestowed the title of sheep because they did these things. In like manner, the goats did not help because they were goats. They did not turn from sheep to goats because they did not help or didn't know it was Jesus they were not helping.

What A Fool Believes

In 1979 the Doobie Brothers had a #1 hit with a song titled “What A Fool Believes”. What made this come to my mind? The message this past Sunday talked about the parable of the 10 Virgins where 5 were wise and 5 were foolish. It is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25, verses 1:13

1"At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
6 "At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'
7 "Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'
9 " 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'
10 "But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11 "Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'
12 "But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'
13 "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

Upon first appearances, I thought the 5 virgins who did not have their oil ready were called foolish because they did not have their oil ready. However, God revealed to me that the reason they did not have their oil ready was because they were foolish. So I decided to search the scriptures for references to foolish people and this is what I discovered.

The idea of foolish in Biblical terms can be found at its core in Psalm 14:1

The fool says in his heart,
"There is no God."
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.

So Point #1 foolish people do not believe there is a God.

The next scriptural reference comes from Proverbs 1:7
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
Fear of the Lord is not being afraid of God. It is giving honor, respect, and worship to God. When people do this, they qualify themselves to receive wisdom and understanding from God speaking to them. Conversely, a foolish person thinks they are wise in their own eyes and they despise it when someone tries to correct and instruct them in the wisdom of God. They are like the alcoholic that does not think they have a drinking problem.

So Point #2 foolish people do not even know they are foolish. This is why I believe that in order to get someone saved, we must first clearly show them that they are lost.


The next reference I found was in Luke 11:39-41

39 Then the Lord said to him, "Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But give what is inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.”

Jesus is talking to the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the strict, religious people who thought their own self righteousness was sufficient to get them to Heaven. They knew there was a God, but they were too foolish to recognize Jesus (as God) when they saw Him in the flesh.

So, Point #3 foolish people do not believe that Jesus was God incarnate.


The next scriptural reference comes from 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

“18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. 20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

To the unsaved world (in Biblical times they were called Greeks or Gentiles) the preaching of salvation only coming from belief (total trust) in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is foolish. This reinforces point #3. If they do not believe that Jesus was God incarnate, it follows that they will think that the preaching of such a message is foolish. But God takes pleasure in turning man’s so called wisdom into something foolish.

So Point #4 is that foolish people who think they are wise in their own eyes will not hear the preaching of the Gospel that will be able to save them.


There are two scriptures that are closely tied together that speak of reproof and stubbornness of the fool. The first is Proverbs29:1
“He, that being often reproved hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”

The other is Romans 1:21-25

“21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four footed beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was fitting. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not proper.”

These two verses speak of people who are acutely aware that there is a God, they are even spoke to about it many times by others who want them to come to Christ, but after all of that they ignore the warnings. Once that happens, God turns them over to their own devices and let’s them destroy themselves.

So Point #5 only a fool ignores steady, Godly reproof and in doing so seals their own fate to eternal damnation.

I decided to make 5 points since there were 5 foolish virgins. Remember, they were not foolish just because they did not have their oil ready. They did not have their oil ready because they were foolish to begin with.

Let's look back at the initial scripture in Matthew. Near the end Jesus says "I never knew you." He did not say that He knew them at one time but now He no longer did. This is important. Remember, the first point? A fool doesn't believe there is a God. Since these virgins were foolish, it meant that they did not truly believe that the bridegroom (Jesus) was God. If they had, they certainly would have had the oil of the Holy Spirit in them and in their lamps.

So to recap the 5 points:

1) Foolish people do not believe there is a God
2) Foolish people do not even realize they are foolish
3) Foolish people do not believe that Jesus was God incarnate
4) Foolish people who think they are wise, will not hear the numerous calls for them to come to Jesus
5) Foolish people who willingly, constantly ignore the reproof from Godly people become so hard-hearted that they seal their own fate of destruction and eternal damnation.

We need to pray for the fools we know in our lives that they will have a repentant spirit, open their ears, open their hearts and receive the message that they are given over and over again before it is too late and they cross God's deadline where they will be turned over to their reprobate minds.