The Freedom Of The Moment Series

[This is the next part in a series based on Reinhold Niebuhr's prayer "The Serenity Prayer." Past sermons dealt "the serenity to accept the things I cannot change," "courage to change the things that I can," and "the wisdom to know the difference." This sermon is on the next segment: "Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time.]

The Disciples look at each other. “Why has the rabbi called us together?” they wonder. They fall silent as Jesus begins to speak. “It is time for you to go out on your own for a while. Take nothing for your journey … no staff … nor bag … nor bread … nor money … not even an extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them” (Luke 9:3-5). He then gave them power over diseases and authority over demons (Luke 9:1) and they departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere (Luke 9:6).

Take nothing for your journey … no staff … no bag … no bread … no money … not even an extra tunic. Rely on God to guide you. Rely totally on God to provide for you. It must have been very important for His disciples to learn this because Jesus sends out another group later on with the same instructions: “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals … Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if anyone is there who share in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid” (Luke 10:4-7). When they returned, says Luke, “they were filled with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in Your name even the demons submit to us!’” (Luke 10:17).

Take nothing for your journey … no staff … no bag … no bread … no money … not even an extra tunic. It must have been pretty scary to be sent out with nothing … no staff … no bag … no bread … no money … no sandals … not even an extra tunic … relying totally on God to provide for them and yet, after heading out and relying on God, they returned filled with joy … an experience that the so-called ‘Rich Young Ruler’ would never get to experience. When Jesus challenged him to sell all his possessions and distribute the money to the poor and put his complete trust in God to provide for him and take care of him, he couldn’t do it and walked away grieving (Mark 10:17-22).

One day a man approached Jesus asking to if he could be one of His disciples. “I will follow you wherever you go,” he pledged. “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head,” said Jesus … in other words, are you willing to drop your nets … to leave everything … as I have been … as all of my disciples have been … and rely on God to provide for you and to take care of you?

Here’s something you may not have ever noticed before. When Jesus sent the disciples out with no staff … no bag … no bread … no money … no scandals … not even an extra tunic, Jesus wasn’t asking them to do something extraordinary … nor was He asking them to do something that He wasn’t willing to do Himself. From the moment that He began His ministry until they nailed Him to the cross, Jesus had no place to lay His head. It sounds so hard … it sounds, well, reckless not to worry about where you’re going to sleep, what you’re going to eat, the dangers that lie ahead … but what Jesus is trying to teach His disciples is that worry is actually a pointless exercise and, quite honestly, a waste of precious time, as we shall see.

[Read Matthew 6:25-34]

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear” (Matthew 6:25). How?! How do I not worry about life? How do I not worry about what I will eat or drink? How can I not worry about this body? Right? Well, says Reinhold Niebuhr, we do it by “living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time.”

Worry is not only pointless, my friends, it is also a liar and a thief. Mark Twain once commented on how pointless worry really is: “I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened” (goodreads.com/quotes). Will Rogers put it another way: “I know worrying works because none of the stuff I worried about ever happened” (AZquotes.com). He also said that worrying “is like paying a debt that may never come due” (AZquotes.com). It’s like paying a debt that never comes due. How true.