Latest / Wesley at FSU & TSC / "Slow Down" | Sunday Service | February 23, 2025

Transcript

"Slow Down" | Sunday Service | February 23, 2025 · Wesley at FSU & TSC

• 0:58
  SPEAKER_03: I want to give a message this morning called slow down.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_03: I want you to turn to your neighbor, tell them, slow down.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_03: Turn to your other neighbor, tell them, really, slow down.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_03: The passage we're gonna focus on this morning is from Matthew 6.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_03: If you've been here for a couple of weeks, you may have noticed we've kind of been working through the Sermon on the Mount and what's in Luke known as the Sermon on the Plain.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_03: But it's Jesus' most famous, most important sermon.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_03: And this is Matthew 6.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_03: Now, just a kind of Bible trivia knowledge, real important for you, because this is again one of the most important things Jesus does in all of the scriptures, okay?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_03: And in that, he um he you know he gives uh a big old sermon from Matthew 5 through Matthew 7, okay?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_03: So Matthew 5, 6, 7.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_03: So if you're ever wondering where the Sermon on the Mount is, you're just gonna memorize that right now.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_03: Matthew 5, 6, 7.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_03: We happen to be in 6 today.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_03: Hear now the reading of God's word.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_03: Look at the birds in the sky.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_03: They don't sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops into barns.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_03: Aren't you worth much more than they are?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: Who among you, by worrying, can add a single moment to your life?
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_03: Man, if we could hear that.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: And why do you worry about clothes?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: Notice how the lilies in the field grow.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_03: They don't wear themselves out with work and they don't spin cloth.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_03: But I say to you that even Solomon in all of his splendor wasn't dressed like one of these.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_03: If God dresses grass in the field so beautifully, even though it's alive today and tomorrow, it's thrown into the furnace, won't God do much more for you, you people of weak faith?
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_03: That's supposed to hit you.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_03: Therefore, don't worry.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_03: And say, what are we going to eat?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_03: Or what are we going to drink?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_03: Or what are we going to wear?
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_03: Gentiles long for all of these things.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_03: Your Heavenly Father knows that you need them.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_03: Instead, desire first and foremost God's kingdom and God's righteousness.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_03: And all these things will be given to you as well.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_03: Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_03: Because tomorrow will worry about itself.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_03: Each day has enough trouble of its own.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_03: Let's pray over the preaching of God's word.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_03: God, your word is a lamp into our feet, and it's a light into our path.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_03: God, we ask in this space that it would speak to us, that it would speak through us for the establishment of your kingdom on this earth, oh God.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_03: God, may the words of my mouth, the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight and in your sight alone, O God.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_03: You are our rock and our redeemer.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_03: We love you.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_03: Amen.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_03: I want to talk about slowing down.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_03: And I found this image of the thing that have you ever, have you ever, you see this when you uh go to slow down, or you see this when you're speeding and it tells you to slow down instead of when you're actually going to write speed limit?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I have a favorite comedian, Gary Goldman, who has this famous joke where he was like, I don't, I don't try to slow down for those things.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_03: I try to set the high score.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and I I feel that because I'm like, that thing is it cannot it can't pull me over, you know.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_03: But I gotta be honest, whenever I think about slowing down, whenever I think about uh the speed limit thing, I can't get this out of my head.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_03: And so this has almost nothing to do with what I'm about to talk about.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_03: But I just couldn't help but show you a minute and a half of the office.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thunder Mifflin, this is Pam.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry he's not in yet.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Would you like his voicemail?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah! Yeah, yeah, okay.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: 12 miles an hour! Eat that call, Lewis!
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Angela made several 911 calls about cars going too fast in front of the building, so the police put up a radar gun.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually caused a bit of a traffic hazard.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, 13! No, no, no, there was wind.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: I was just jogging.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: Wait, there was wind.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: I want to do a No, it's not your turn.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: All right, 13 is the new number.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_02: Oscar, go ahead.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_02: I want another try.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: Here we go.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: 31! 31! There was a car.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: I was ahead of the car.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: 31 is my new number.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: 31 is humanly impossible.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Go, Oscar.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: 31's my number.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's impossible.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_03: Beat it! Uh it's the greatest show of all time, and I couldn't help but just get that out of my head.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_03: I have two kids, one of which you just saw, the other one was back there.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_03: They're our age seven and four.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_03: This is us during the snow, the Tallahassee snow in front of our house.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, thank you for saying ah unprompted.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_03: Uh on the right here is Collins.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_03: She's seven, and Dylan is four.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_03: She's the one that stole all our stickers.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_03: And uh she loves a good sticker, and that's my wife.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_03: Eliva, if you'll turn this down just a little bit so it didn't feed back, that'd be great.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and and they are parenthood is just the absolute best.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_03: It's the absolute best.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_03: It is also, and just hear me out, the most chaotic thing in your entire life.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, and it's it's a beautiful chaos, you know?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_03: Like you're you're in the midst of like just going through every single day, doing all the things that you have to do to actually parent, and and also kind of keep semblance of a home, right, and in that process.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_03: But then also like you're reminded about how beautiful they are.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_03: It's one of those things.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_03: I will tell you that being a parent is the best thing in the world.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_03: But here's the thing about it it's also really, really busy.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_03: Really busy.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_03: Let me give you uh just kind of an overview of what my week looks like on a week-to-week basis.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_03: I try to get up at 5:30, 5.45 every morning.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_03: I try to have a devotion time, a time uh of prayer, uh, and hopefully that goes well.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_03: I try to watch the news uh right after that.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_03: I gotta take a shower.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_03: Then I have to get uh either get the children up and dress to myself or um or or do the lunch.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_03: Either my wife or I do either of those, and it seems to swap off like which one of those things we have the most tolerance for at the time, uh like that doesn't eat us inside, you know.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_03: And so uh and then we get all that ready, we get them fed and breakfast, we get in the car, and we make sure that we've got all the things, the AR books and the snack and the and the lunch and uh the water bottles and all of the things that to do, and then we try to get out of the house by 7:30, 745 because Collins has to be at school, and I gotta go to North Tallahassee to do that.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_03: So I drive up to North Tallahassee just to get in the really long car line.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_03: Parents in the room know what I'm talking about, the really long car line in elementary school, and and I wait and I wait and I wait, and we're not allowed to get out of the car, so I just kind of you know open the door and say, I love you, have a great day, you know.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_03: And then she goes off, and then I come to work, and I'm here from 8:30 to 5 o'clock every day, uh, if not longer.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I spend some time doing all the things that I have to do there.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_03: And then uh at five o'clock, I've got to go pick up Dylan and go home, and then we bathe, and then we eat, and we might have a little time to play, but we're trying to be in bed by 7:30, 7:45.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_03: And that sounds crazy to you.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_03: Most of you don't eat dinner by 7.30, but like, listen, if the kids don't, if the kids aren't in bed at the right time, you're gonna pay for it the next morning.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_03: So you you know, trying to trying to keep a routine as much as possible.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_03: Collins, because she's on elementary school, gets out of school before 5 because somehow along the line, they thought it'd be good for the schools to get out at a different time than the work day, uh, which made for this really fun thing called after-school activities.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_03: Anybody do those growing up?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_03: Like things like dance.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_03: On Monday, Collins goes to uh lyrical dance.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_03: On Tuesdays, Sugan Pop Pop, who are my in-laws who were here today, they are the just absolute blessing to us, day-to-day.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_03: They pick up Collins for all of these things.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_03: They pick up Dylan early, they go to tumbling.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_03: On Wednesdays, they go to the after-school thing at the church downtown, and then on Thursdays they have nothing.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_03: Which makes you can breathe.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_03: On Fridays, uh, I pick up Collins and I take her to hip hop and jazz.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I usually, though, stop by Tasty Pastry for a little treat, you know, because it's Fridays.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_03: I was thinking about this earlier.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_03: I I say and I justify it because it's Fridays.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_03: You've got to have a Friday treat, right?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_03: But when I used to pick her up on Mondays, I did it then too.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: I think I just like treats, you know.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_03: Like we just so anyway, but I pick her up, I take her to Tasty Pastry, I take her over, I get her changed in the back of the car, and then hopefully get her in in time for her to go to dance class, and then she gets out of dance class, and while she's in dance class, I'm trying to answer all the emails that I kind of let go for the entire week, you know.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_03: And so I try to get all that done, and and then we go and we get home and I gotta bathe her and get ready because Friday night is pizza night.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_03: Anyone else have Friday night pizza night in your house?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_03: That's just an easy thing.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_03: We don't have to think about it.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_03: Friday night is pizza night.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: And then we go, and then on Saturdays we try to do something fun.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: On Sundays, I have this fun advantage of working, and uh, so I'm out the door before any of them are awake.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_03: They go to a different church and then they try to come over here sometimes for music.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_03: And then uh I go home and I'm exhausted, but also my lovely wife has been with them and mothering them all morning long by themselves by herself, and so uh she's ready for a break, and we're all ready for a break, and so we try to have quiet time as much as possible, but who knows if that actually gets to happen.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, we try to ride a bike or do something later, and then we're we're bathed and getting ready for dinner and in bed, and then we get up and start it all over again every week.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_03: A couple weeks ago, my parents are in town.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_03: My parents live about four hours away, and in our in our new house, we have a guest room, which we didn't have before, and so it's really awesome.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_03: It makes it a lot easier for them to come visit.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_03: And so we we're just sitting out on the back of the porch one day on Sunday afternoon.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_03: I'm exhausted.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_03: And the girls are playing at the little house and playing with the basketball hoop they have and all that, and my dad's just kind of sitting there, and he can tell that I'm like, and he's sitting up on the rail of the deck, and we're just kind of talking about life, talking about the things that we do.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_03: And um, and he says, I want to tell you something that nobody ever told me, and I think you should hear it.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_03: And he goes, you know, the the time that you have with your children is super precious, and you hear that a lot.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_03: People tell you they grow up so fast, and it's it's true.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_03: But like I was kind of like, okay, yeah, yeah.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: The time that you have, your children is precious.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_03: And then he goes, he goes, think about it.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_03: The time you have with Collins at home is already a third gone.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_03: And that was like, I'm like tearing up right now.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_03: I find my I found myself asking two questions.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_03: Why can't they slow down?
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_03: Which is often what we ask.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_03: And then I found myself asking another question.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_03: Why can't I slow down?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like the they question is like the question we've asked all the time, would you just stop growing up for a second?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_03: Like, would you just, every time I'm gone for a week to do uh an event or camp or something, uh, when I get back, like it looks like they've grown two years in that process, right?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_03: They've developed or matured in that long time.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_03: So I've asked that question a lot like, why can't they stop growing up?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_03: Why can't they just stop it?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_03: And then I started asking the question, why can't I slow down too?
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_03: And then we're in the middle of going through a little bit of the Sermon on the Mount, and so I was reading through this, and I felt super convicted by Jesus' words here.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_03: And there's a few points that I think I just want to make this morning about this.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_03: And we'll go back through the scripture in just a second.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_03: The first for why we can't slow down is because we feel like we have to be in control.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_03: We feel like we need to take this next step and decide this thing and do this thing and do this thing so that we can make the progress that we need to make.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_03: That's what we feel.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_03: But the truth is that you're not control in control anyway.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_03: Amen?
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_03: You're not in control.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_03: You want to be, but you're not in control.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_03: And as I was reading through, he's talking about the lilies of the field, the grass being dressed, and all the worry that comes with trying to figure out your own life.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_03: I realized the truth.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's that the world doesn't run on our planning, it runs on God's provision.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_03: That God provides for the ways in which we need, even when we feel like we're the ones that have got to plant.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_03: I want to show you these passages again.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna go back to verse 26.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_03: Look at the birds in the sky.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_03: They don't sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_03: Aren't you worth much more than they are?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_03: Stop there for a second, Hannah.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_03: There's an author I really love.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_03: His name is Shane Claiborne.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_03: He wrote a book called Irresistible Revolution.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_03: If you would like it, I will buy it for you if you promise to read it.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_03: It is a life-changing book about uh what it's like to be a follower of Jesus.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I just did my ordination paperwork and quoted it like 16 times.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it is it is one of my favorite books.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_03: But he tells a story in there about when he felt convicted to go to Calcutta.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: Do you know who served Calcutta?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_03: You know the name?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_03: Mother Teresa served Calcutta for a long time.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_03: And he finally, you know, he's he's like, I want to go serve, I just want to go serve with Mother Teresa.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_03: She was known for serving the orphans and the poor.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_03: And so she was like, I I he's like, I just really like to do that.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_03: And so he he finally gets kind of a contact of a contact of a contact, and he gets a phone number, and he calls this phone number, expecting to talk to like the orphanage director or or like the receptionist, really.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_03: And he and he uh you know calls the number and Mother Teresa herself picks up.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_03: And he's kind of off, you know, for a second, he's like, What?
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_03: And he says, you know, I I just want to come work with you.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_03: And she says, Well then come.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, Okay, yeah, but like I'm in the United States, and and you're in Calcutta, and uh there's there's a lot of things I gotta think about.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_03: Where am I gonna live?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_03: What am I gonna do?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_03: All those worries that I have.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_03: And and he starts expressing what we all would do in that situation, and she says, Well, come.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_03: Just come.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, Well, I uh just come here.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_03: Like he can't even get it out before she's like, Don't you don't don't you understand?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_03: Like you could just come right now, you could come do this right now.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_03: And he's like, Well, there's so many things I have to worry about.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_03: And she says, Look at the birds in the sky.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_03: Don't they don't they don't sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops in a barn?
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yet your heavenly father feeds them.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_03: Aren't you worth much more than they are?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_03: Keep going here.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_03: Who among you, by worrying, can add to a single moment of your life?
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_03: And why do you worry about clothes?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_03: Notice how the lilies in the field grow?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: They don't wear themselves out with work and they don't spin cloth.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_03: But I say to you that even Solomon in all his splendor wasn't dressed like one of these.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_03: If God dresses grass in the field so beautifully, even though it's alive today and tomorrow, it's thrown into the furnace, won't go to much more for you, you people of weak faith.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_03: Therefore, don't worry and say, what are we gonna eat?
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_03: What are we gonna drink?
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_03: What are we gonna wear?
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_03: You're saying, like, stop that concern that you have where you've got to be planning those things and you've got to be doing all those things, and you've got to be setting up for all the after school activities, and you've got to be doing this, and you've got to be doing this.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: Stop trying to worry about that and just give it over to the provision of the God who said he was gonna do it in the first place.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_03: And man, he was like, that's convicting.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_03: And so he got on a plane and went to Calcutta and served God.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_03: When I think about slowing down, I think about the ways in which we talked about the upside-down world last week.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_03: I think about the ways in which uh the world teaches us the opposite of this.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_03: What do you get rewarded for in the world?
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_03: Doing more, having more money, having a better job, having that next degree.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_03: Have you ever noticed that universities love to take your money for more degrees?
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_03: They don't always guarantee, by the way, money on the other side.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_03: And so what happens a lot of time is we think that slowing down equals laziness.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_03: We think that slowing down equals laziness, meaning I'm not doing enough.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_03: In fact, there are probably people in your life who just kind of go about life in a much more chill way than you do.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_03: Like, hey, man, yeah.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_03: It's all good, it's fine, whatever.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes you want them to be a little more proactive.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_03: And a lot of times the word that gets used for them as they're walking through life in a slower pattern is laziness.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think that's what God's saying here.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think that's the message of Jesus here.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_03: He's just saying stop the worry of the planning and wait for the provision of God and just trust in it.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_03: Trust in it.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_03: That's the struggle that you have.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, ah, well, I gotta get into this next grad school, I gotta do this next job thing, I gotta, I've got to uh apply for this thing, I've got I've got to get this and get this and get this and get this, and there's a lot of pressure and a lot of worry on you, and and you, a lot of you harbor that.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, in your bodies and your souls, you harbor all of that pressure.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_03: And you feel like, and sometimes it it's sometimes it's led from people outside of it, parents or friendly or friends or whatever.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes it is led from outside, but you feel like, man, if if I just if I slow down, I'm gonna be lazy.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_03: I'm saying, no, no, no, no, no.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_03: What if you were to just hear me out?
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_03: Slow down, take a breath.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: Allow yourself to do that.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know what's gonna be.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if I did that application right.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if I filled out all the right references, I don't know if I got good enough grades.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know, but God's got me.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_03: One of the things about this passage that he he emphasizes there at the end is that tomorrow will take care of itself.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_03: Here's what he says in verse 33.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_03: Instead, desire first and foremost God's kingdom, God's righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_03: Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_03: Because tomorrow will worry about itself.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_03: Each day has enough trouble on its uh of its own.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_03: When I think about what it's like to be in college and try to make those decisions, that's really hard to do.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_03: Like, so hard to do because you have a lot of options.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_03: Many of you have heard me quote the fact that there are 750 different organizations just across the street that does not count TSC that you could join and be a part of a community.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_03: There are God knows how many majors, and there will be many more.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_03: There are many different options within each of those majors for certifications and that sort of thing.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_03: There's all of these different things that you can do.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_03: There's all these groups you can different join, there's all these friend groups you can do, there's all these different activities you can do, and if you don't stop and slow down, you're going to be going, going, going.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_03: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_03: You're going to be going lyrical dance, tumbling, after school, church.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_03: Finally a break on Thursday.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_03: Dance on Friday.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_03: And you're gonna feel like a third of it is gone.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_03: How many of you have ever looked back at your college career and been like, whoa, that went a lot faster than I thought it would be?
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_03: Some of you were entering into your last year or you're done now, and you're like, man, man, if only I could have that freshman year back.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_03: I think about that all the time.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_03: If only I could have my years at seminary back, because that went a lot faster than I and I hate it in the midst of it, but it went a lot faster than I wanted because I was worried about tomorrow and I forgot to pay attention to today.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_03: How do you navigate that?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_03: I think one of the things, practical things I could say to you is that you might say no to the noise and say yes more to what matters.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta figure out what it is in your life that is just noise.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_03: And my friends, let it go.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_03: If it's not building you up, if it's not making you into a better person, if it's not investing in the kingdom of God, you might just let it go.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_03: It's just noise.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_03: For some of you, it will be an assortment of different things.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_03: It could be a friend.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's just noise.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_03: Let it go.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_03: For some of you, it'll be alcohol.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_03: Because that's the way college is.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_03: It's just noise.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_03: Let it go.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_03: For some of you, it might be social media.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_03: I know how much time you spend on Insta and Snap.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_03: It's just noise.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_03: Let it go.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_03: And that enables you to what I call reclaim your time.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_03: That enables you to add that you said no to this, no to this.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_03: All of a sudden, you get to say yes to things that matter.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_03: You get to say yes to friendships that invest back in you.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_03: You get to say yes to ministries that will build you up.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_03: You get to say yes to the next thing that you're going to do.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_03: You get to say yes to the major in a way that you really haven't yet.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_03: You haven't dove in dived in to your entire academic career.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of you know that.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_03: Like you're just kind of half that, right?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_03: Like this enables you to say yes to what matters.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yes to what's going to build you into a bigger person.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yes to something that's going to build into God's kingdom.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_03: You're able to say yes when you're able to say no to the noise.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_03: I want to end with a personal challenge.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_03: And I want you to ask these questions to yourself right now.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_03: Don't wait till later.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_03: I want you to ask yourself these questions right now.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_03: They're going to be on the screen.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_03: What are you running toward?
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_03: I'm going to give you just five to ten seconds.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_03: What are you currently running toward?
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_03: I might ask you to think also as kind of a subsection of that one.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_03: Is God at work in that run?
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_03: Or are you relying on yourself?
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_03: And then the second question, how fast are you running?
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_03: And might it be okay that you slow down?
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_03: That you rely on the provision of the Creator, the one who has provided for the centuries, that you would allow yourself to stop the worry and just slow down.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_03: We as Christians need that.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_03: We need it for the sake of our mental health.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_03: We need it for the sake of our spiritual health.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_03: One of the things I've noticed in my life is that when I get going, I want to learn all about whatever it is I'm interested in.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_03: And I go hard on YouTube for the next six months.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm going to learn every little thing it is about that.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_03: And what I've noticed in that is my ego starts to climb.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_03: And I start pursuing it harder.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_03: I start wanting to do it more, and my ego keeps going up.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_03: And I learned that not a lot of people know what I know, and so, oh, okay.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_03: My ego keeps going up.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_03: And I reward myself.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_03: Man, I'm running after that, and I'm running fast after that.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_03: Isn't this so good that I can just dive in and do those things?
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_03: And what I forget is where God's at work in that.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_03: I forget to even ask the question of God hey, what if I were just to rely on you to provide?
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_03: What if I were, hear me out, just to slow down.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_03: Slow down and hear the voice of God.