401(K)ingdom
Matthew 6:31-34
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “what shall we drink?” or “what shall we wear?” For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
I would like to ask you a question. How many of you have spent some time this past week worrying about something? Now how many have spent time this last week worrying about something that you can not change? Worrying seems to be a natural part of our lives at times, we have all done it. But why do we worry, what do we worry about, what does the Bible say about it, and how can we use this information and apply it in our lives today?
Today I would like to talk about that emotion called “worrying”, which Jesus called being anxious. The definition of anxious is “to be full of mental distress or uneasiness because of fear of danger or misfortune”. I call it an emotion, because it is more heart felt than mind felt, or especially faith felt. I read a quote that said “the beginning of anxiety is the end of faith.” That quote worries me a little. After all, faith is what I am basing my eternity on, right? Faith that God’s Word is true, faith that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, lived here on earth, died on a cross to bear the burdens of all my sins, and faith that He will grant me grace of forgiveness by simply my asking and believing, and that through this faith I will live for eternity in heaven with the God who created all things. But if being anxious, or worrying, is the end of faith, we should take a look at what this is and then look at how we can avoid it as much as possible.
(Illustration) A boy was sitting on a park bench with one hand resting on an open Bible. He was shouting “Hallelujah, God is great!”, not caring that passer bys might hear him, or even what they would think. Soon a man walked by the young boy. Now this man had recently graduated from the university and was feeling very enlightened and wanted to share some of his learnings with others, so he asked the boy the source of his excitement. The boy answered, “I just read that God opened up the waves of the Red Sea and led the whole nation of Israel right through the middle!” The enlightened man chuckled, and then sat down and tried to “open” the boys eyes to the realities of the miracles of the Bible. “Modern scholars and scientific research has proven that the Red Sea was only about 10 inches deep in that location at that time of the year, so it would have been no problem for the Israelites to wade across, and the words “dry land” were a Hebrew word that there has been dispute about the meaning of anyway.” The boy was stumped as his eyes wandered from the man to the open Bible on his lap. The man, content that he had shared his enlightened wisdom with this poor naïve boy got up to walk away but he had barely taken 2 steps when he heard the boy shouting more exited jubilation and praise than before. He turned and asked the boy the source of this new found excitement. “Wow”, said the boy, “God is greater than I thought. Not only did He lead the whole Israelite nation through the Red Sea, but He topped it off by drowning the whole Egyptian army in only 10 inches of water!”
That is the type of faith we need to avoid worry, the faith of a child. In Mark 10:15 we hear Jesus say, “Mark this, unless you accept God’s Kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you’ll never get in.” This pure faith, knowing that we don’t have all the answers, knowing that we can’t do it all on our own, knowing that what the Bible says is true, that Jesus loves each and every one of us, is the key to avoid worry. Kids don’t worry, but at some point in our adult lives this changes, and worry seems to be what is expected of us. If we don’t worry about things there is something wrong with us, we’re not responsible or we don’t realize all the bad things that can happen, or we aren’t planning for our future.
In our scripture today, Jesus did not say don’t plan for the future, but rather He was saying, don’t worry about the future. We have to plan for the future, both our future here on earth, the future of our families, and our eternal future. If we don’t plan for these things, there will be disastrous consequences. Many of you may have a plan for your retirement future and to provide for the future welfare of your families, such as a 401(k). I have a 401(k) through my employer, and this is one of the ways that I am planning for the future. But today let’s take a little closer look at this type of planning, in the area of an eternal 401(k).
God’s 401(K)ingdom has 3 steps; Put it in, Leave it in, and then Reap the Dividends.
1. Put it in (Matthew 6:34)
The first step of saving for the future is to decide what to put in, and how much. For my 401(k) plan I started out contributing slowly, just a little bit. But soon I saw that I was making more money, that the money I was investing was doing some good for me, and this made me want to put in a little more. The great thing about a 401(k) plan is that you just put your money in and don’t have to worry about where it is being invested. There is a team of professional money market experts who take over for you, and have your best interest at heart in the decisions that they make regarding your money, which equates to your future. The same is true for our eternal 401(k)ingdom, we just have to put it in, and Jesus will take over from there, we don’t have to worry about it. Now I am not just talking about money that we put in, although that can be part of it, but I am talking about putting all of yourself in. Give all that you have to Jesus and He will do something awesome with it!
In January I was able to go to Resurrection 2008 in Gatlinburg, TN, and the speaker talked a little bit about the game of poker. Around my house this is a family fun time, as I play poker with my children (the numbers on the cards help with counting, the pairing helps with visual matching of objects, and the chips help with addition and subtraction). But the speaker at Resurrection made reference to going “all in” for Christ. All in, in Texas Hold ‘Em terms refers to putting all your chips in for one hand. To do this you have to believe that the hand you hold is the best, that the hand you hold will win. This takes faith that what you have can overcome all the other players. When we put ourselves in for Christ, it much the same. We have to go all in, knowing that the hand we are holding, the hand of Jesus Christ Himself, is enough to overcome any obstacle. In fact, this is what Jesus was saying when He said that “sufficient for the day is its own trouble”. The word “sufficient” means adequate for the purpose”, or in a single word, “enough”. Jesus is enough, but He expects for you to give Him your all, to go all in for Him.
2. Leave it in (Phillipians 4:6)
But when you go all in for Jesus, which many of us have at some point, it’s sometimes easy to think that maybe we are doing too much, what is there left over for us? When I first began contributing to my 401(k) I thought, after seeing the money grow, that I might take a little out. Not much, mind you, just a little, just enough to get through this vacation that is coming up, or just enough to get those new tires on my car that I need. But anytime that you withdraw there is a consequence, there are penalties that must be paid for an early withdraw. So how do you leave it in? Paul answers this question in his letter to the church at Phillipi in chapter 4 verse 6: “don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns.” (MSG) So how do we leave it in? We pray. In fact, how can we stop worrying all together according to this scripture? We pray. We take our worries, and let our worry along with our praises, turn into prayers. You can be amazed at the outcome of events and circumstances when we add a little dash of praise into that pot of boiling worry. Salt it with praise, and then give it as a pleasing offering to God. There is no problem that you have that God can’t solve. There is no problem that you have that is too big for God. There is no problem that you have that is too small to be brought to God. As long you add praise and turn these over to God through prayers.
Ecclesiastes 11:10 tells us to “banish anxiety from our heart and cast off the troubles of your body” (NIV). Cast off your troubles, just like an old coat take it off and leave it. If you want to leave it on, or put it back on, it will always be there. But Jesus wants you to leave that coat of worry with Him. It’s not always that easy to do. A few verses earlier in Matthew chapter 6, verses 28-29 Jesus was telling the people to not worry about their clothing, that even the lilies of the field did not work for their wages, but they are arrayed in beauty, given all that they need by God, who takes care even of them. That clothing is more than just physical clothing. It literally means to be surrounded on all sides. So how do you leave your coat of worry to Jesus? Because you know that you are surrounded on all sides by God, you are clothed by God, and through that knowledge we are able to leave those worries in God’s 401(k). We’ve already turned them over to Him anyway because we knew we can’t do anything about them. Now just leave them there.
3. Earn Dividends (Isaiah 35:4)
OK, so now you have turned your worry and anxiety over to God, you have willingly left in God’s hands, so now what?
“Be strong, do not fear, your God will come, He will come to save you” (Isaiah 35:4).
The ultimate dividend earned will be our eternal life in heaven, which we accept as a free gift, paid in full, by Christ’s death on the cross. But there are earthly dividends to be earned also by turning our worries into God’s 401(K)ingdom account. We don’t have to wait until we die to earn our rewards, we are meant to live in the joy and love of Jesus now, here on earth, for as long as we are meant to be here.
There is a sense of peace gained from this. How often do we pray for peace in our lives? That God would give us this peace of mind?
HOPE-ANXIETY=PEACE
The hope that we have in our salvation, the faith we talked about earlier will lead us to peace as long as we subtract anxiety from the recipe. Jesus said in John 16:33 that in Him we will have peace, but in the world we will have hardships and anxiety, but for us not worry, because He has already over come the world.
There are 2 days you never have to worry about: Tomorrow and Yesterday. You can’t change either one. You can learn from yesterday, and you can plan for tomorrow, but you never have to worry about either one.
Of course there will be some days and times in your life that the dividends you are getting don’t seem quite fair to the amount that you put in, and all that you’ve left in. Paul felt that way also in his 2nd letter to the church of Corinth. You see Paul was afflicted with what he called a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass him. And he had prayed to the Lord on several occasions that this thorn be removed. But Jesus said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Do you remember the definition of the word sufficient from earlier? It means ‘enough’. Jesus’ grace is enough for us, even when we are afflicted with our own thorns. Jesus knows what is worrying you today, Jesus knows what is troubling you today, Jesus knows what is hurting you today, and He has said, “Bring this to Me, My grace is sufficient, My love is enough”. If you have some worries that you have been carrying around like an old heavy coat, put them into God’s 401(K)ingdom account and leave them there. Offer them to Him with praise through prayer. Today is the day to remove the anxiety and claim your peace.
Amen.
