Worry

Worry

No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money. ¶That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life — whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? (Matt. 6:24-27)

Your ten-year-old is so worried and anxious that he can't eat; he can’t even sleep. "What's wrong?" you ask. He shakes his head and moans, "I don't even have a pension plan." Or your four-year-old is crying in bed. "What's wrong, sweetheart?" She whimpers, "I'll never pass college chemistry." Your eight-year-old's face is paralyzed with stress. "I'll be a rotten parent. What if I set a poor example for my kids?" How would you respond to these statements? Besides calling a child psychologist, your response would likely be, "You're too young to worry about those things. When the time comes, you'll know what to do." Fortunately, most kids don't have these thoughts. Unfortunately, adults have their fair share.

Worry is a gunny sack that overflows with "What If’s,” and “How Will’s.” "What if it rains at my wedding?" "How will I know when to discipline my kids?" "What if I marry a guy who snores?" "How will we pay our baby's tuition?" The gunny sack of worry. It’s cumbersome, unattractive, scratchy and hard to get a handle on. It’s irritating to carry, and it’s impossible to give away; no one wants your worries. And the truth is you don't want them either because worry divides the mind. The biblical word for worry (merimnao) is a compound of two Greek words, merizo ("to divide"), and nous ("the mind"). Anxiety splits our energy between today's priorities and tomorrow's problems. Part of our mind is on the now; the rest is on the yet-to-come. The result is half-minded living. Worse yet, that's not the only result.

Worrying is not so much a disease, as it causes disease. It has been connected to high blood pressure, heart trouble, blindness, migraine headaches, thyroid disorders, and a host of stomach problems. Anxiety is an expensive habit, and it might be worth the cost if it actually worked. But it doesn't. Our frets are futile. Jesus asked, "Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?" (Matt. 6:27) Worry has never brightened a day, solved a problem, or cured a disease. One guy worried so much that he decided to hire someone to do his worrying for him. Eventually, he found a man who agreed to be his hired worrier at a whopping salary of $200,000 per year. After the man accepted the job, his first question to his boss was, "Where are you going to get the $200,000 to pay me?" To which the new boss responded, "That's your worry."

Sadly, worrying is one job you can't farm out. But you can overcome it. And there’s no better place to start than in verse two of the 23^rd Psalm. "He leads me beside the still waters," David declares. And, in case we missed the point, he repeats the phrase in the next verse: "He leads me in the paths of righteousness." He leads me. God isn't behind me, yelling, "Go!" He’s ahead of me, saying, "Come!" He’s in front, clearing the path, cutting the brush and showing the way. He leads us. He tells us what we need to know when we need to know it.

As a New Testament writer would affirm, "We will find grace to help us when we need it." (Heb. 4:16) Or, in a different translation, "Let us therefore boldly approach the throne of our gracious God, where we may receive mercy and in his grace find timely help." (Heb. 4:16) God's help is timely. When I went to Disneyland with my kids, I carried all of our tickets in my backpack. When the moment came to enter the “Happiest Place on Earth,” I stood between the ticket-taker and the child, and as each child passed, I placed a ticket in their hand. They, in turn, gave the ticket to the park employee. Each one received their ticket just in time. And what I did for my kids, God does for you.

He places himself between you and the need. And at the right time, he gives you your ticket. Wasn't this the promise he gave his disciples? "When you are arrested and judged, don't worry ahead of time about what you should say. Say whatever is given you to say at that time, because it will not really be you speaking; it will be the Holy Spirit." (Mark 13:11) Isn't that the message God gave the children of Israel, too? He promised to supply them with manna each day, but he told them to collect only one day's supply at a time. Those who disobeyed and collected enough for two days found themselves with rotten manna. The only exception to the rule was the day prior to the Sabbath – on Friday they could gather twice as much. Otherwise, God would give them what they needed, in their time of need. So, God leads us, and God will do the right thing at the right time which, in turn, allows us to enjoy today.

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes." (Matt. 6:34) That last phrase is worthy of a highlighter: when the time comes. "I don't know what I'll do if my husband dies." You will, when the time comes. "I don't think I’ll be able to take it when the children leave the house." It won't be easy, but strength will arrive when the time comes. The key is to meet today's problems with today's strength. Don't start tackling tomorrow's problems until tomorrow. You don’t have tomorrow's strength yet. You simply have enough for today.

More than 100 years ago, Sir William Osler delivered a speech to the students of Yale University entitled, "A Way of Life." In his message, he related an event that occurred while he was aboard an ocean liner. One day while he was visiting with the ship's captain, a loud, piercing alarm sounded, followed by strange grinding and crashing sounds below the deck. "Those are our watertight compartments closing," the captain explained. "It's an important part of our safety drill. In case of real trouble, water leaking into one compartment would not affect the rest of the ship. Even if we should collide with an iceberg, as did the Titanic, water rushing in will fill only that particular ruptured compartment. The ship, however, will still remain afloat."

When Sir William spoke to the students at Yale, he used the captain's description of the boat as a metaphor: “What I urge is that you learn to master your life by living each day in a day-tight compartment and this will certainly ensure your safety throughout your entire journey of life. Touch a button and hear, at every level of your life, the iron doors shutting out the Past – the dead yesterdays. Touch another and shut off, with a metal curtain, the Future – the unborn tomorrows. Then you are safe – safe for today. Think not of the amount to be accomplished, the difficulties to be overcome, but set earnestly at the little task near your elbow, letting that be sufficient for the day; for surely our plain duty is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”

Jesus made the same point, but in fewer words: "So don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will have its own worries. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matt. 6:34) Easy to say; not so easy to do. We are so prone to worry. Just a few nights ago I was worrying in my sleep. I dreamed that I was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, a degenerative cognitive disease, which took the life of my grandmother. I awakened from the dream and, right there in the middle of the night, began to worry. Then Jesus' words came to mind, "Don't worry about tomorrow." And for once, I decided not to. After all, why let tomorrow's imaginary problem rob tonight's sleep? Can I prevent the disease by staying awake? Will I postpone the affliction by thinking about it? No. So I did the most spiritual thing I could have done – I went back to sleep. Why don't you do the same?

God is leading you, and timely provides. So leave tomorrow's problems until tomorrow. Arthur Sulzberger was the publisher of the New York Times during the Second World War. Because of the world conflict, he found it almost impossible to sleep. He was never able to banish worries from his mind until he adopted as his motto these five words – “one step enough for me" – taken from the 1833 hymn, Lead Kindly Light, whose first verse concludes, “Lead, kindly Light . . . Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see the distant scene – one step enough for me.”

God isn't going to let you see the distant scene either. So you might as well quit looking for it. He promises a lamp unto our feet (Psalm 119:105), not a crystal ball into the future. We don’t need to know what will happen tomorrow. We only need to know that he leads us, and that "we will find grace to help us when we need it." (Heb. 4:16)

Grace,

Randy

Worry- Audio/Visual

Revival

Revival - Audio/Visual

Revival

“And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:29-31)

Is that how we should be praying today? Should we be praying for boldness, including signs and wonders like healing, as they did in the first century? Or should we be praying only for boldness? Have the signs and wonders specially designed by God stopped? Good question. There are libraries full of books by pastors and teachers on the subject, half of whom argue that such signs and wonders (like healings) were designed by God to help people recognize and believe in the Son of God, and to then vindicate the authority of his apostles as they laid the foundation for the church with their inspired teachings and writings. Thus, as the argument goes, after the apostles died and their writings were gathered in the New Testament, the place for signs and wonders was complete, and we shouldn’t be seeking them today. The other half argue that signs and wonders should be sought and performed today in Jesus' name, and that the only reason we don't see them is because of how little we expect their appearance today in the church, or in the world for that matter.

Granted, the first view doesn’t mean that miracles don’t happen at all; it’s just that they’re not the typical, or normal way ministry is done. The healing ministry of Jesus and the apostles was unique; signs and wonders were not done by Christians in general, but were the signs of the apostles. So, when the apostles died out, the signs did too. For instance, in the book of Acts, Luke apparently intends for us to see signs and wonders not as a common occurrence among Christians, but as the special ministry of the apostolic group. For instance, Acts 2:22 says, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs which God did through him, and then continues some twenty verses later (verse 43) by saying that, Fear came upon every soul; and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles – not through non-apostle Christians. Similar passages can be found in Acts 5:12, Acts 14:3 and Acts 15:12. In other words, it appears as if Luke wants us to see that the signs and wonders in the book of Acts had a special role in the ministry of the apostles, thereby suggesting that neither then, nor today, were signs and wonders intended to be a normal part of church ministry. They were, in other words, intended to vindicate the authority of the apostles.

Furthering this view is 2 Corinthians 12:12, where Paul writes to defend his apostleship at Corinth against the claims that men, other than Paul, were the true, or greater apostles. Paul said that, The signs of an apostle were performed among you in all patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works. In other words, Paul was insisting that he had given sufficient evidence of his authority as an apostle since he had worked the signs of an apostle in the midst of their hardship. So, again, it seems as if signs and wonders had a special role to play in authenticating the apostles which, again, would seem to imply that when the apostles had finished their work and had received their reward, signs and wonders would cease as a part of the gospel ministry.

Additional evidence for this position is found in Hebrews 2:4: It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him [i.e., apostles], while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his own will. In other words, it appears that miracles were not an everyday occurrence in the church, but something that the church looked back on at a very special moment in time when the eyewitnesses of the Lord first delivered the gospel.

In fact, Jesus’ own ministry seems to indicate as much since you can’t jump to the conclusion that just because Jesus sent his disciples out to heal during his lifetime, he now intends for us to do ministry in the same way when He’s gone. For example, in Matthew 10:7-8, Jesus says to the twelve, Preach as you go, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Heal the sick ….” So, there’s a command for his disciples to heal the sick as part of their ministry. But two verses earlier he said, Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now, I think most would agree that this command was temporary in nature since, for a short time, there was a limit to preaching to the Jewish people during Jesus' ministry. But after the resurrection, Jesus commands us to go to all the nations. So you just can't assume that everything Jesus commanded during his lifetime is meant to be continued as a ministry priority after his resurrection. There was something unique about the time of the incarnation, and the unusual upsurge of signs and wonders was a part of that uniqueness.

One final argument in support of this position is from church history where there’s never been anyone that we know of that regularly healed, or heals people the way Jesus and the apostles did. Most healing since the days of the apostles relates to the easier cases, fails often and doesn’t happen instantly. This doesn’t mean it’s unreal; only that it’s of a different order than the signs and wonders of Jesus and the apostles. So for these reasons, among others, one group of Christians says that signs and wonders ceased as a normative part of the ministry when the apostles finished their work and, therefore, we need not pursue them today.

The other view says that we should see more signs and wonders today than we actually do. For instance, Jesus seems to teach continuity between his own ministry and the on-going ministry of the church. As the Father has sent me so send I you. (John 20:21) Luke says in Luke 9:2 that when Jesus sent out the twelve, He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal. And in Luke 10:9, when Jesus sent out the 70, he commanded them, Whenever you enter a town . . . heal the sick in it and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near you.” So, the preaching of the kingdom seems to be very closely linked with the ministry of healing.

Then in Matthew 24:14, Jesus says, This gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all the nations; then the end will come. In other words, the same gospel of the kingdom that Jesus preached is to be preached until all the nations have heard it. So, it would seem natural then that we should spread that kingdom pretty much the same way Jesus did, except in those points where he tells us to change, or in which some other part of the New Testament tells us to change. So, for example, we don’t limit God’s Word to only the Jews, because he said to stop, but we don't stop healing, because he didn't say to stop.

In fact, in John 14:12 Jesus said, Truly I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do. Whatever this means in detail, it seems to suggest a continuity between the signs and wonders of Jesus and the ministry of those who believe – not just the apostles. So the first piece of evidence for this view is that Jesus seems to teach a continuity between his ministry and the ministry of the church. For instance, he doesn’t say, "Make healing part of the ministry while I’m here, but not after I’m gone."

Further, it wasn’t just the apostles who performed signs and wonders. Two "deacons" — two of the seven chosen in Acts 6, Stephen and Philip (Acts 6:5) – also performed signs and wonders as part of their ministry. In Acts 6:8, Luke says, Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. And in Acts 8:6, it says, And the multitudes with one accord gave heed to what was said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs which he did. What makes Philip's ministry to the Samaritans so interesting is that, later, the apostles came down and laid hands on the Samaritans. So, Philip wasn’t acting somehow in the capacity of an apostle; he simply had sign-working power as part of his evangelistic ministry.

Additional evidence for this view is found in Galatians 3:5, where Paul writes to the churches of Galatia and says, Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? The point here was that God is now supplying his Spirit to the Galatians (not just to the apostles), and working miracles among them when Paul wasn’t even there. So the working of miracles doesn’t seem to be limited to the ministry of the apostles in the early church.

The last piece of evidence for this view is found in 1 Corinthians 12, where Paul teaches that in the church there are gifts of healing and miracles for various believers, not just for the apostles. He says in verses 7–10, To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good . . . to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom . . . to another gifts of healing, to another workings of miracles. Then in verse 28 he distinguishes this from just the apostles when he says, God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings . . . . So it seems pretty clear that there were gifts of healings and miracles that were not limited to just the apostles. For reasons like these, then, the other group of Christians believe that signs and wonders were not limited to the apostles or to that age, but are available today and should be sought for the good of the church, and for the spread of the gospel.

So what’s to conclude? On the one hand, we ought to honor the uniqueness of Jesus and the apostles, and of that revelatory moment in history that gave us the foundational doctrines of faith and life in the New Testament. But, on the other hand, we ought to be open to the real possibility that this, too, may be a unique moment in history, and in this moment it may well be that God's purpose is to pour out his Spirit in unprecedented revival upon his church, and upon the world in which we live — a revival of a love for Christ, and a zeal for worship and compassion for the lost.

Perhaps the best conclusion is to simply keep the keel of our ships deep and stable in the biblical revelation of God, but our sails hoisted, unfurled and available to every movement of God's Spirit acting upon the waters upon which we travel.

Grace,

Randy