Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / "The Clutter You Can't See" by Neal Pollard

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"The Clutter You Can't See" by Neal Pollard · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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It has been a day of celebration. We're certainly privileged to honor our graduates. It's incredible
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a year we've had. Two college graduates and ten high school graduates and our prayers
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and thoughts are on what they're going to do next. We know that God can accomplish so
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much good through them and already has and already is. And yet when you think about these
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milestones and these transitions, you are made to be impressed with how much good can
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be done by those who are arming themselves in this way. And so let's continue to pray
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for them as they go on to college or into the workforce or as those graduates go on
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and use that degree to the glory of God in whatever field they choose. I was out of the
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four-year, so I may have missed this, but I would rather say this twice than to neglect
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saying it at all. But after services this morning, we rejoiced in an even greater way.
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And that was when Randy Huff and his son Hayden put on their Lord in Baptism. Thanks to a
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contact made by Justin and the study that he and Hiram did with these two precious souls,
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they put on Christ today and the family of God grew by two more. And we give God the
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praise for all of that. Only in America can you have a garage sale to get rid of all your
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excess stuff or have a storage unit. So much of the world has no idea what a life would
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be like that. Did you know that 165,000 yard sales are listed across the United States
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every week of the year on average? And every one of those yard sales nets 4.2 million dollars
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at an average of about 85 cents per transaction. Now since we have moved out to here in Kentucky,
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we have found another way for us to relocate our treasure. We take the stuff we don't want
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and we put it down at the end of our driveway. And it's amazing what people will carry off.
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In fact, we've done an experiment for the last seven years and we have found the only
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thing so far, at least in our experiment, that folks won't take off is a mattress in
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box springs. Other than that, you can imagine it, they carry it off. I guess the old adage
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is true, one man's junk is another man's treasure. Or maybe more accurately, one man's junk can
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become another man's junk. When we think about the fact that 50% of all Americans have bought
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something secondhand in the last 90 days, it points out what a world of disposal and clutter
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that we live in. Now if you love doing that, I'm not judging you. I've accompanied Kathy on many
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such treasure hunts all across the neighborhoods of the city and we've hosted more than a few
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garage sales ourself and it usually happens kind of the same way. We begin to accumulate the stuff
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that we have and it's in our storage spaces and it's in our cubby holes and even in our
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garages and our sheds and so we dust it off and we try to pawn it off on some unsuspecting
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neighbor. It's just a part of life that we want to get rid of it. Maybe we think about how it's
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time to purge, it's time to move on. That can be healthy in our homes. Sometimes it is an
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essential that we get rid of the emotional and the spiritual clutter that can accumulate in our
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hearts and in our minds. And the Bible talks about how important it is not to let things
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accumulate that don't belong there. You thought about all the different passages in the Bible
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that point to this idea. Proverbs 4 and verse 23 says that the mind is the control center and
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everything flows out of that and so we want to be careful about what we allow to stay there and to
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accumulate. Or you think about the passage that we were just looking at in Philippians chapter 4
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verse 7 and 8 that you've got to think right if you're going to aim your life in the right
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direction. If you're going to make things different and new this mental renewal begins in the mind.
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Romans chapter 12 in verse 2. That thoughts never remain neutral and so we must capture them and we
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must make them submissive to the will of God. 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 5 that when
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we think the right things that's how we aim for the right kind of life. Colossians chapter 3 verse 1 and 2
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and if we don't do anything about it and we let it just sit there that stagnation can cause us to
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slowly drift away. Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 12. God wants us to be aware of the fact that clutter
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can accumulate and he doesn't want it to stay there. Interesting. April, May, and June are the
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months in which there are more yard sales on average than any other time of year and it makes
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sense. We call that spring cleaning. I'm married to someone who believes that spring cleaning is a
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national holiday to celebrate and she is married to somebody who's half pack rat half hoarder and
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so together we figure this out and we understand at the end of the day we compromise and we spring
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clean and we get rid of those things that don't belong. We have to do that spiritually sometimes.
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There are some things that we don't want to hold on to. If that's true mentally, if that's true
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emotionally, if that's true physically, it's certainly true spiritually. Are there some things that you're
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allowing to have space in your heart and your mind that need to be cleaned out? We can't be exhausted.
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In fact, of all the answers that we might give, I'd like for us to consider just three things.
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Three things that you may need to get rid of. They may be things that every single one of us here tonight
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are wrestling with and if we're honest with ourselves, they have been allowed to stack up.
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And maybe we need to pick them up, haul them off, and get rid of them once and for all.
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Number one, do you need to get rid of worry? Now there's one thing to be concerned about an issue or a problem
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and to be made aware of it and have a plan of action and to put that plan into action.
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Sometimes we talk about a wake-up call or a close call and it will shake us out of complacency.
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It's a good thing for us to focus on those kinds of matters and to deal with them.
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But that's completely different from what worry is.
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When the Bible talks to us about worry, on the whole, when it speaks to us about worry,
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it's speaking about being so obsessed and so distracted that we get weighed down
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and enslaved to every fearful possibility of what may happen.
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Now there are some times when that word appears in the New Testament and it simply means concern.
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For example, in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 32 through 34,
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the Apostle Paul's talking about a coming distress and he says that it's better to remain unmarried
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because the married person is concerned about the affairs of their spouse.
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But the one who is unmarried can be concerned about God.
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That's not a sin to be concerned about the welfare of others.
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And Paul talks about, I don't know anybody better than Timothy
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who will be concerned about your welfare, Philippians 2 and verse 20.
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But did you know that the majority of the 20 occurrences of the word worry
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are all in two chapters of the Bible?
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Matthew chapter 6 and Luke chapter 12.
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They're somewhat parallel passages.
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And as you consider those passages, Jesus is talking about basically the same thing
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that all of us in one form or another do.
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We get so focused on the physical things of this life
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that it clouds out, that it eclipses our view of the kingdom.
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That it's the here and the now and the stuff that we can put our fingers on
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and that we can see, feel, taste, touch and hear
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that it causes us to be so obsessed and so concerned that it weighs us down.
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And Jesus is talking about that when he says,
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and I tell you, take no thought for yourself, for your life, what you shall eat.
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Or for your body, what you shall wear.
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It's not the life more than food and the body more than clothes.
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And consider the ravens, for they don't sow nor do they reap
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nor gather into storehouses or barns.
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And yet the Father feeds them, are you not much more valuable than the birds?
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And which of you, by worrying, can add a single cubit to its stature?
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And if you can't do the least of these, why are you anxious about the rest?
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And consider the lilies, how they grow.
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They don't toil or spin, and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all of his glory
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is not arrayed like one of these.
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And why are you worried about what you shall eat and what you shall drink?
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And why are you anxious in mind?
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For after all these things, the nations of the world are concerned
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and the Father knows that you have needed these things.
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But seek the kingdom and all these things shall be added unto you.
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Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father knows that you need these things.
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And so sell what you have and give alms.
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And prepare for yourselves money bags that grow not old, that will not fail,
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where no thief approaches and where no moth destroys.
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For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
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Now that's the passage we don't as often look at.
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That's the one over in Luke's gospel, in Luke chapter 12, verse 22 through 34.
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But do you notice what Jesus is saying?
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He is saying that you can be anxious.
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That your mind can get anxious about the things of this world
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and when you do, it's a problem.
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And He points out to us just how much of a problem we have.
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He says that when we give in to this worry and we obsess
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and we do it over and over again in our hearts and our minds,
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here's what kind of a problem it is.
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That first of all, it's a foundation problem.
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In verse 22 and 23.
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That when we give in to worry,
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we are building all of our life on the things of this life
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and it puts us in a position to where we can't focus on the kingdom.
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Everything is reduced to the here and the now and what we can see.
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And then He says it's a faith problem.
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In verse 24, in verse 27 and 28.
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And so you'll find Him repeatedly say,
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Oh, you of little faith.
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Maybe we don't think that when we're all distressed
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about the physical and the material things of this life
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that it's an expression of faithlessness
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but it's an indictment of God's character, of His power and of His love.
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Think about New Testament characters that are contrasts
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or even Bible characters and Old Testament character
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that Paul mentions in the New Testament in Romans chapter 4 and verse 18.
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It says that in trust, He hoped against hope.
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Knowing that what God promised He would do,
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that knowing that in His seed, so His offspring would be.
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And He was not unbelieving but He grew in His faith
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and didn't consider His body, being dead, being a hundred years old
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or the barrenness of Sarah's womb.
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And that for this reason, faith was accounted to Him
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as righteousness, Romans chapter 4, verse 18 through 22.
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And so Jesus reveals that worry is a faith problem.
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Then we see that worry is a futility problem.
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What do we mean by that in verse 25 and 26?
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What Jesus says is, you spend all the energy that you want
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on the thing that you're worried about, whatever it is.
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And if you worry about it at every conscious moment
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from now to the time that you die,
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the worrying is not going to move the needle at all.
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It's not going to change it.
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I love the example that's given here.
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Elsewhere it is said you can't add an hour to your life.
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Here it is said that you can't add a cubit to your stature.
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What is it that just keeps you up at night
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and causes you to obsess and to fume?
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It's futile.
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When you give yourself to worrying about it,
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Jesus also exposes that it's a fretting problem.
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What he says there in verse 29 is, do not keep worrying.
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He paints a picture for us.
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They didn't have this in the first century,
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but those of us who have not grown up
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just watching stuff by streaming,
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and if you lived long enough ago,
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but in the kinescope era where they didn't keep reruns,
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there's this point in between,
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from the 60s to about the early 2000 teens.
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It was rerun season.
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And what would happen is that a producer
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would give us an entire season of episodes,
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and then when we got to the end of that season,
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they would go off and they would make more episodes,
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and what you have to do if you wanted to watch that show
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was you'd have to watch a rerun.
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And what happens with worry is so often we're doing that.
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We're playing the same.
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Do you ever watch something so often?
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Maybe it's an episode.
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For me, it's Andy Griffith.
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There are some.
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When Otis gets a car,
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I can almost quote that verbatim all the way through.
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My wife with Raiders of the Lost Ark,
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I think she can quote just about every line.
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As you go all the way through,
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you've seen it so many times,
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but what about the things that we worry about?
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And we rehearse it and we replay it,
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and what a waste of energy and time,
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and yet it accumulates, it builds.
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Jesus also reveals there's a fellowship problem
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because he says when you give in to this,
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when you let yourself obsess about the physical
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and the material things of this life,
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you are more aligned with the nations of this world
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than you are with the kingdom.
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You are saying that what you're living for
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is only limited to this life.
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We don't want that kind of fellowship.
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We also see that it's a fear problem.
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Now, it may seem like,
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because I know when I approach this
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and I'm struggling with this,
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it feels somewhat like being beat up on.
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But when Jesus gets to verse 32,
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it lets me know that Jesus has walked in my shoes
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and he understands and he deals compassionately.
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He could have said it a lot of different ways,
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but notice what he says.
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Do not be afraid, little flock.
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Do you catch the tenderness there?
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Do you see the exhortation?
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He says, I know that you would be prone
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to be afraid of these things.
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And as sheep who are wandering about,
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understand that your Father is aware
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that you would have this tendency.
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He's just saying, let me help you out of it
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because it's useless clutter
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that's not doing you any good.
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I love it.
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It makes me think of what the psalmist says in Psalm 103.
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He says, just as a father pities his children,
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so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him,
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for he knows our frame.
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He knows that we are but dust.
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Psalm 103, verse 13 and 14.
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And so Jesus lines it up for us.
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And he says, clean this out.
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Clear it out.
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And the answer is in the question.
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How do you get rid of worry?
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Jesus says, trust.
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Believe that I have the answer
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that I'm gonna take care of you in this life
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and I have something far greater for you
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in the life which is to come.
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Read about a study that was done in 2020
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at Penn State University
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in which they were dealing with students
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that were diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder.
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And as they went through the research,
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it wasn't just your typical research project.
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It was a remedial.
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It was something where they tried to help them through it.
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And with all those students who had gab,
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they said, when you are fearful,
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what I want you to do is I want you to write it down.
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I want you to also write down
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what you think the worst outcome is going to be.
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Worst case scenario, write down the fears
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and then write down what you think might happen.
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And they said that in that study,
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as an overwhelming percentage,
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that the students who chose to do that,
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to write it down, they saw their fears,
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their worries objectively.
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It caused them to be able to size them up
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and they said that just dealing with it
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and writing it down caused those fears,
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those worries to shrink.
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I think about even a greater resource that we have.
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I think that's a good practice, by the way, to do.
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But why not realize the fact
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that when Jesus was walking the earth
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experiencing life like we were,
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he said these things in Matthew 6 and Luke chapter 12
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and the gospel writers wrote it down.
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And when we read it, when we believe it,
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and when we act on it,
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we can clear out the clutter of worry by trusting.
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Do you need to get rid of worry?
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But then second, do you need to get rid of discontent?
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Maybe you've heard of the Stanford marshmallow experiment.
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Stanford researchers in the 1960s
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were trying to do a case study
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on delayed gratification versus instant gratification.
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And so they presented small children
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with what had to have been an excruciating dilemma.
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They placed the marshmallow in front of them
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and they told them, you can eat it now
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or if you wait 15 minutes,
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we'll bring a second marshmallow in and you can have two.
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Of course, a lot of those children
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couldn't wait the 15 minutes.
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That's an eternity for a small child and they took it.
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But the researchers found that those children
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who were able to delay, to put it off,
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that they went on to do better academically,
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they were physically healthier,
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and they had a more overall better well-being in life.
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Psychologists can tell us about how dopamine
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causes us to pursue instant gratification,
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but it's a character issue.
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And it's something that we have some control over.
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And when we do, we allow ourselves to be stronger
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and we produce patience.
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And yet on the other side of that,
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what can happen to us when we don't have the thing
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that we desire and we think that belongs to us
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and we should have?
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What it can very easily create is discontent.
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And the Bible talks about this discontentment
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and it uses two words, words that we're familiar with.
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The first word is covetousness.
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And covetousness is an ungoverned selfish desire.
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It speaks of wanting in an unhealthy way
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what belongs to someone else.
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God recognized how destructive this is
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and how that should not remain in our heart
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and in our mind.
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And so he outlawed that in the 10 commandments
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of the Old Testament.
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It was the 10th of the commandments.
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And when Moses is reviewing this
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in Deuteronomy chapter five and verse 21,
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he says that you shall not covet your neighbor's wife.
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You shall not desire your neighbor's house
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or his manservant or his female servant
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or his ox or his donkey
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or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
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Deuteronomy chapter five and verse 21.
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He says the wicked covet the spoil of the evildoers.
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Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 12.
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And then the prophet Micah.
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He depicts the situation in a low point
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in Israel's history.
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He says, for they lie awake on their beds at night
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and they devise evil.
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And in the morning, when morning comes,
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they go out and do it
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because it's in the power of their hands.
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They covet their neighbor's fields
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and they take it, his house, and they seize it.
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Micah chapter two, verse one and two.
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And so covetousness is this longing, this desire.
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And God says it doesn't belong among the people of God.
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And then there's another word, the word envy.
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The Bible, when it's talking about discontent,
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speaks of envy.
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And envy, again, is a similar word,
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but it has more to do with the action.
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Covetousness is something that's in the heart.
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It's the cause.
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And envy is the effect.
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Envy is this strong, compelling desire
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to have what belongs to someone else.
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This yearning that also involved,
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and it causes one to bitterly complain
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and to sin in their actions.
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There are some examples given to us.
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For example, in Genesis chapter 30,
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you remember that sibling rivalry going on
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that extended to the wives,
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that Jacob has Leah and Rachel,
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and Leah is bearing children for Jacob,
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and Leah is so envious
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that in Genesis chapter 30 and verse one,
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as Moses talks about this,
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she says, give me children or I will die.
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And look at what she does,
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how she manipulates things to try to get her way.
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Or what about in Genesis chapter 37 and verse 11?
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Moses, again, he describes the brother's reaction
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when Joseph tells his dreams
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that they were filled with envy.
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And there it says they could not speak peaceably to him,
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but before all things are said and done,
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they throw him in a pit.
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And they assume throughout the years
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that maybe he has died.
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And over and over again,
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the Bible tells the righteous not to envy the wicked.
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You see that in Proverbs 3.31,
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in Proverbs chapter 19 and verse 17,
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in chapter 20, verse 1 and verse 19.
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There's this repeated warning that we not envy.
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And covetousness leading to envy
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is so extreme that it has led some,
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Scripture shows us this,
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like David, to want another man's wife.
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Or it could be that it leads one to be like Ahab
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and Jezebel,
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that they will lie and cheat and steal
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and even go to more extreme cases
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to get what they want.
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We think in New Testament terms,
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and we conclude,
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well, we aren't going to do like David
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and commit adultery.
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We're not going to do like Ahab and Jezebel
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and kill Naboth.
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And yet, it can show up in other ways.
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Throughout the New Testament,
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you have Jesus and the other New Testament
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speakers and writers saying
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that envy is that which pollutes the heart.
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Mark chapter 7 and verse 22.
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It causes one to spiritually die.
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Romans chapter 1 and verse 29.
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It causes us to be past feelings
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and to give ourselves over to all kinds of impurity.
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Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 19.
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It's improper for those who are calling themselves saints.
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Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 3.
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It's idolatry.
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Colossians 3 and verse 5.
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And it makes one accursed children.
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2 Peter 2, 14.
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But there's an antidote.
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There's a solution to this.
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And the solution is contentment.
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Make sure that your character is free
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from the love of all money.
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And be content with such things as you have.
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Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 5.
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When the Hebrews writer is speaking there,
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he gives us money as an illustration
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of this desire for what we have
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that obsesses us so much
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that no matter how good our life may be,
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if somebody on the outside was looking in
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and they saw our lives,
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they would say,
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man, I wish I had it like they did.
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But in the midst of our coveting,
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wanting the situation of someone else
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or what we think that they have,
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we can rob ourselves of present joy
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as we look to the future at something that's not fulfilled
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that we think we've got to have.
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Paul says contentment's not something you're born with.
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Philippians chapter 4 and verse 11.
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Paul says,
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Now Paul says this from a prison cell
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and because this is the case,
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I know that what he says is true.
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He is telling us by saying what he says
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where he says that you can be content
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at any time, in any place, in any circumstance.
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But he also says that contentment is something
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that must be learned.
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And if you'll stay in the context,
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what you'll find is that he is saying that we,
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by depending on God and his help and his strength,
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we can do what may seem impossible for us.
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We can be content.
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I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
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Philippians chapter 4 and verse 13.
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And so as we consider what the apostle Paul is saying here,
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he is telling us that maybe we need to be accepting
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what God is giving us and be content with what we have.
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Do you need to get rid of discontent?
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But then third, do you need to get rid of seeking approval?
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As it has been with the other two things that we've mentioned,
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there's a right and a wrong in this.
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Is it right for us to want others to approve
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of how we're living?
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I think of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians.
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He spends a lot of the early part of that letter
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trying to persuade the Corinthians that he was above board
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and he was trying to do everything right
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and he wanted them to love him like he loved them.
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I think we understand that in the context of the church.
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We desire the approval of one another.
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We don't like to do the things that we think
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that others might not approve of.
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Very personal example.
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Did y'all know that for several years I've been losing my hair?
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I decided over and over again, Kathy was tired of hearing it,
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finally after we had dinner Tuesday night I came home
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and I said, honey, this is it.
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And so she shaved me down, I went in with a razor
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and I finished it off.
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But you know the thing that bothered me the most?
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I see people in town and that's okay.
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But I wondered, how will this be perceived here?
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I know I have a support group.
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I can see around the room here from place to place,
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but not everybody's in that same condition.
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We want approval.
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But there's a line that we're sometimes tempted to cross.
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And I think there are two lines that we've got to be very concerned about
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in trying to seek approval.
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There's a religious and there's a non-religious context.
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And both of these can be a problem.
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Sometimes if we're not careful, we can do what we do
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in order to get the approval of others who are of like precious faith,
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of the same mind, who are spiritually in the same place as we are.
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That we want the things that we do to be perceived as good
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and right and even spiritual.
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I'm not trying to read hearts.
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Jesus warns about this throughout his ministry.
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In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus says,
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do not practice your righteousness to be seen of men
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or you'll have no reward of your Father in heaven.
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Matthew 6 and verse 1.
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And he goes immediately from that
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into three very basic discipline and examples of life
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we're very familiar with.
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Whether it has to do with the giving that you do
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or the prayers that you pray
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or the fasting that you do.
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We've got to be very careful that we're not doing this
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to have others to approve of us.
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Later on, Jesus is saying,
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they do their deeds to be noticed of men.
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Matthew 23 and verse 5.
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They sought respectful greetings.
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They sought the approval and they sought the exaltation of others.
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Matthew 23 verse 5 through verse 11.
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And so I realize that if I'm not careful,
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I'm not doing something simply because God wants me to do it
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or because it's right or because I want to serve,
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but because of how I want to be perceived.
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But think about how that clutters the heart and the motivation.
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That is not to say that it's wrong for us to compliment
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and to commend others or to receive such ourselves.
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But the question is, is that the motive for why we're doing what we do?
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If so, then we've crossed the line that God doesn't want us to cross.
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But the other line, it seems to me, that we can cross has to do with the world.
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And maybe this is the one that we more often struggle with.
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And that is to be judged as odd or strange if what we do
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is seen as when we align ourselves with Christ as being weird.
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First Peter chapter 3 and verse 16.
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And so Jesus prepares us.
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He says, if the world hates you, know that it hated me first.
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John chapter 15 and verse 18.
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If you are of the world, the world would love its own.
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But as it is, you're not of the world.
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Since I've chosen not of the world, therefore the world hates you.
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John chapter 15 and verse 19.
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Jesus says, beware when all men speak well of you.
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Luke 6 and verse 26.
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And then we find Paul saying, we speak to have the Lord's approval,
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who judges the heart, not men's approval.
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First Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 4.
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We're challenged by Paul's example.
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In Galatians chapter 1 and verse 10, he says,
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For now do I seek the approval of men or of God, or am I seeking to please men?
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For if I please men, then I would not be the servant of Jesus Christ.
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And so how do I know?
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How do I know if I have this clutter of seeking men's approval?
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How often do I disagree with somebody if I know that what they're saying is wrong?
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Some people have no problem with that.
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Some people like to disagree and like to argue.
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But a lot of us, if we're people pleasers,
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maybe we hesitate because we don't want folks to be upset with us and not to like us.
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And if we conform to harmful and sinful behavior, that's a bridge too far.
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So what's the antidote to that?
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Perhaps it's clear.
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Perhaps the answer can be seen in what we find in Daniel.
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The answer is moral courage.
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And that's something that we've got to exercise.
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We've got to make better in our lives because it's not easy.
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And we have got to face the disapproval of others if we're going to get there.
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And I think about a story in this part of Daniel we don't talk about very much.
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Daniel is faced with Nebuchadnezzar.
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And Nebuchadnezzar is asking him about a dream that he has dreamed.
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And Daniel knows all too well the fury and the temper that Nebuchadnezzar has.
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He's just seen it with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel chapter 3.
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And he can remember what it was like back in Daniel 2 when Nebuchadnezzar had a dream
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and no one could interpret it.
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He was going to kill them all.
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Nebuchadnezzar is the narrator in Daniel chapter 4, not Daniel.
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And Nebuchadnezzar says that Daniel is appalled and frightened with the thoughts that are in his mind.
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The dream that Nebuchadnezzar has, Daniel knows it.
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Daniel knows that it has to do with Nebuchadnezzar.
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And it's against him.
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It's that dream where Nebuchadnezzar, when he takes glory that belongs to God,
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he's going to crawl around like an animal for a period of time.
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But true to what we find in Daniel's character, he summons up.
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He knows what he's potentially facing, perhaps a fate just like the three friends.
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And yet we know what he's going to do from his character.
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He tells Nebuchadnezzar exactly what's going to happen.
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We're going to see it again in Daniel chapter 6.
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In Darius' reign, a completely different reign, different set of circumstances,
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when prayer to God is outlawed and Daniel does it anyway.
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That's moral courage.
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And this week, for each and every one of us, our moral courage is going to be challenged.
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I suppose it'll happen on multiple occasions this week
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that there's going to be a call for us to stand up, stand up for Jesus.
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And it's going to be hard for us to do that.
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And we're going to join company with people like Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 1
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where Paul says, God has not given to us a spirit of fear,
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but of power and of love and of discipline.
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Do not be ashamed or afraid of the testimony of our Lord or of me, his servant,
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but join with me in suffering for the gospel of the Lord.
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Now, what had to make that easier for Timothy was knowing the man who said that to him.
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He was with Paul when Paul spoke to the Ephesian elders,
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the very elders that Timothy was going to preach for that church.
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You remember in Acts chapter 20, he's at the end of the third missionary journey
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and he's making his way as hard as he can for Jerusalem.
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And he says, I don't know what's going to happen to me,
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except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city that bonds and afflictions await me,
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but I don't count my life as dear,
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that I may fulfill my ministry in the testimony of the Lord
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and the gospel of the grace of God.
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The mental clutter that we carry, when we consider and weigh everything,
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worried about whether or not we have the approval of others,
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is only going to be cleaned out by moral courage.
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You know, I think about the Cheyenne Indians, the 19th century,
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they had their own form of special forces that they called the dog soldiers.
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And those dog soldiers had a belt they called a dog rope,
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a belt they called a dog rope that had a picket pin in it.
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And it was originally used to tether horses,
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but it became a symbol of bravery in combat.
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And so here's what would happen is that a Cheyenne Indian
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would take that picket pin and would throw it in the ground.
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And what that meant was that they had to stand
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and they had to fight off the enemy until they were killed,
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or until they covered their retreating brothers,
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or until another dog soldier came and took their place.
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You imagine the kind of courage that it took for them to stand there
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and ward off and to fight the advance of hundreds,
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maybe even thousands of adversaries.
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Oh, it's quite a different battle we go into this week.
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And yet think about what Paul says.
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Put on the whole armor of God,
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that you may be able to withstand in the evil day
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and having done all to stand.
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Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 13.
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Maybe there's some cognitive clutter of wanting the approval of others.
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It takes courage to clean that out.
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I don't know what you came in with tonight.
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Maybe you have some clutter that no one can see but you and God.
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Maybe there's some clutter that you've been trying to get rid of for a long time
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and it seems to just show back up in the same place.
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What we see with just a few of the many examples that we look at
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is we all begin to accumulate that anxiety, that concern,
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that worry that crosses the line and becomes sinful.
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And it compounds and we run out of room and yet it just rules our lives.
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What God says through his word is,
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just turn it over to him.
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Casting all your cares upon him for he cares for you.
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1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 7.
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Are you finding yourself to where you just can't be happy
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with where you are in life?
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Paul says in 1 Timothy 6 and verse 8,
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it's a learned discipline but we can learn it.
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And we learn it by replacing discontentment with learning the discipline of contentment.
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Whatever our circumstances are.
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And then there's that clutter of wanting the approval of others.
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We've got to have the courage to say, I want God's approval.
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Read passages like Matthew 10, 28 and realize that we have no greater ally than our Lord
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but no one greater that we answer to than him.
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Maybe there's something that you're carrying tonight that you need to turn over to him.
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You need us to help you with because as you dispose of that,
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it becomes something that only frees you but allows us to help you as you deal with it.
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Maybe you need to respond to heaven's invitation.
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The Lord says, don't let that clutter become a cause of guilt
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but let it become a cause of grace that I can help you through it.
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If we can help you in any way and you need to respond,
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won't you come right now as we stand and sing?