0:00 If I could ask you to turn to Matthew chapter 6 with me. We're going to start there. Today I'm burdened to speak about what I think is one of the most socially acceptable sins of our time. It's so common. This sin is so common 0:19 that even Christians casually refer to it without shame or conviction. I hear often people who profess to be Christians uh committing this sin and they have no sense of guilt, no sense of shame, no 0:38 sense of conviction. So I would like to speak about that today. The but first I want to have a short quiz for the kids. Raise your hand if you're a kid. Raise your hand if you're a kid so I can see where you are. Okay. So I have I have 0:50 four questions for you kids. Okay? And you can just yell out the answer. first question because and why why I'm starting with this quiz is I want to demonstrate this is so simple that even a child can understand it and yet we 1:06 mature believers get tripped up. Okay, but I want to show it's so simple that even a child can understand it. So question one, children, kids, what do we call it when God tells us not to do something? For example, if he says do 1:19 not lie, what is that? What do we call that? >> Commandment. >> Commandment. Thank you. Perfect. That is a commandment. Okay. Perfect. Question number two, kids. What do we call it when we disobey one of God's commands? 1:34 Like for example, if we lie, what what do we call that? >> Sin. >> Sin. Okay. So, when God says to do something, it is a >> commandment. And when we disobey, it is a >> sin. Okay. This is good. Question number three. And I want to start I want to 1:51 start by reading together Matthew 6 verse 25. We just have to read a few a few a few verses. My counsel is do not worry about your life. Pause there. 2:10 What is that? Do not worry about your life. What is that? I heard an adult say it. Children. What? command. That's a command. Do not worry is a >> command. >> Command. That's right. 2:28 What should we call it when we worry? >> What? >> Sin. >> Sin. Thank you. When we worry, it is 2:46 >> sin. That's right. When we worry, it's sin. This is a truth that even children can understand reading one verse of the Bible. God through Jesus Christ in the sermon on 3:05 the mount commands, not suggests, not recommends, commands us not to worry. And when we disobey this command and we worry, we sin. 3:21 Verse 31, he says again, Jesus says, "Do not worry." Verse 34, what does Jesus say? So, do not worry. Maybe it's just Jesus. Maybe it's just Jesus. Turn with me to Philippians chapter 4. Perhaps it's just 3:40 Jesus. Verse six, be anxious for >> nothing. Nothing. So if we put this verse to the same test, the same children's quiz, what is this verse? Be anxious for 3:58 nothing. It is a command. And if we disobey this command to be anxious for nothing, what is it? >> Sin. Thank you. This is very good. Sin. Be anxious for nothing. Anxiety is a 4:16 >> sin. I think it is so important, dear brothers and sisters, NCCF family, this isn't a message for everyone. There are many people when they see the title of this message, they will not listen to it. Okay? 4:31 Anxiety is a sin. It's a sin. Here's something I've noticed in the world. I saw someone the other day on a hike and they had a sticker on their water bottle and here's what it says. Yes, I've got anxiety. Said that on the water bottle. Yeah, I 4:50 laugh too. It's fine to laugh. Yes, I've got anxiety. As if it's a condition. As if it's like the flu. Yes, I've got a cold. Yes, I've got anxiety. The world is normalizing anxiety by calling it, do you know what the world 5:09 calls anxiety? It is a mental health condition. It is a mental health issue. It is not. Dear NCCF family, anxiety is not a mental health issue. Anxiety is a spiritual health issue. Or as we heard 5:28 the children say, sin. Do not worry is a command of our Lord Jesus Christ. Don't be anxious about anything is a command of the Holy Spirit. And the world is on this, you know, like I saw I see that sticker, right, that says, 5:48 "Yes, I've got anxiety." Let me ask what would you do if you saw a man on a hike and he had a water bottle with a sticker that said, "Yes, I've got lust." Right? Would you keep your children nearby? Right? What if you what if 6:02 you're on a hike and you saw a guy with a water bottle sticker that says yes, I've got envy. What would you do? Right? What about yes, I've got dishonesty. None of those things make it like you it's it's it's laughable. It's 6:19 ridiculous. Right? And yet when it comes to anxiety, yes, I've got anxiety. We go, "Oh, let's be careful. Let's be gentle with this person." And that's fine to the world. The world can normalize whatever sin it wants. This world is passing away. I am 6:38 perfectly fine with the world normalizing whatever sin. But as especially committed believers at New Covenant Christian Fellowship, we have to denormalize anxiety. The world is trying to, you could say, 6:54 destigmatize worry. We in this church should reststigmatize it. I don't know if that's a word or not, but we should restigmatize worry. Do not worry is a command of our Lord Jesus. And if we go the way of this world and 7:12 say it's just a mental health issue. What? Oh, what can I do? It's like I just picked it up at the airport with my cold. We will never take it seriously. The tendency, by the way, of the flesh, I've noticed this. The tendency of the 7:25 flesh when we think about sin is to hedge or soften it or carefully define the term. You know, we talk about, well, you wouldn't worry if you saw a lion in the path, right? Our flesh wants to concoct all of these ways in which worry 7:42 is actually permissible and in fact healthy and in fact appropriate. Right? But I would encourage members of this church to reject the urge to qualify or blunt the Lord's warnings here. Where is the new covenant disciple who 8:00 will have a take no prisoners mentality towards worry? Where is the new covenant disciple who will have a zero compromise policy with anxiety? I believe every member of this church 8:19 should have a zero compromise mentality when it comes to anxiety. We want to raise disciples as we've heard many times Jesus said go into all the world in the great commission Matthew make disciples teaching them to do what? 8:36 What's the next word? all teaching them to do all that I commanded. That is the calling of God upon NCCF. And it will not be okay if members of our church make 8:55 peace with anxiety or treat anxiety like it's a mental health condition. My brother, my sister, you will never be delivered if you think of it as a mental health issue. We must see it as a spiritual health issue. And do you know the blessed 9:11 assurance and hope that we have? Jesus Christ has a remedy for every single spiritual health condition. Praise God. But isn't it amazing? This is the most repeated command in the sermon on the mount. He says do not worry more than he 9:29 says anything else in the sermon on the mount. And it's this portion that we are most likely either to outright ignore or at least conveniently redefine so that it's really not a command at all. Of all of the things the Lord Jesus emphasized, 9:43 why is it that the world is trying to normalize it? Because the enemy hates the church. The enemy hates you. He has come to steal and to kill and to destroy you. And do you know how he wants to do that? He wants to make you 10:03 worried. He wants to give you anxiety. He will steal and kill and destroy your life if in response to that temptation to be anxious, you get the sticker from the person at the hike and put a bumper sticker on your water bottle and say, 10:20 "Yeah, I've got anxiety." And you're as likely to overcome anxiety as if you put a bumper sticker on your water bottle saying, "Yeah, I've got lust." And you wonder, why can't I overcome lest you can never overcome any sin that you 10:35 excuse? Impossible. The sin that we make peace with, we will never overcome. And so, we have to be crystal clear on the standard of the Lord. I was talking with a rancher friend in Colorado last week. 10:53 This was a real blessing to me. He's in his 60s. He is uh he's looking after a ranch that he was born on. He's born on this ranch and he's lived there all his life. He's never moved. He's grown hay and alalfa and cattle and bees his 11:07 entire life. And we were talking about a drought. There's currently a drought there that is endangering everything. Fire dangers. The worst it's been, as he said, in his entire life. He's never seen drought conditions this bad in his 11:20 entire life. What's in danger? his alalfa, his cattle, his bees, his everything is in greater danger than anything he's ever seen in his entire life as a lifelong rancher. And he said this. He said, "If next winter is like 11:36 last winter, I'm not sure what we're going to do. But I'll tell you this, this man's a disciple of Jesus. If you have even a tiny bit of faith in your heart, there is absolutely no excuse for feeling anxious. He said that 11:55 we were sitting at his dining room table. If you have an ounce of faith in your heart, there is absolutely no excuse for feeling anxious. These words came from the lips of a man who's potentially st ready to lose everything. 12:12 There is absolutely no excuse for feeling anxious. I hope that we can take that as a word of hope and a word of promise. Church, that's a great promise. Brother Zach said this at the conference 12:30 last week. If we make excuses for our sin, we will never overcome them. >> Reporting in progress. >> If we make excuses for our sin, we'll never overcome them. I believe it is because worry and anxiety are currently acceptable in the world and excusable 12:47 that that's why we continue to be enslaved by them. And the Lord is clear. Sin shall not be your master. We should not be enslaved by any sin, especially the socially acceptable ones. How else will we be salt and light unless the socially acceptable sins we 13:06 can say with this rancher in Colorado? Absolutely no excuse. I hope from today every single one of us, myself certainly included, myself foremost among us can say absolutely no excuse for anxiety. So what should we do? There's just a 13:25 couple of things that I want to mention. The first is that we have to treat anxiety as sin. What do we do when we see sin? We confess it and we repent of it. 13:44 I want to ask you, dear brother and sister, a very simple and a very gentle question. When is the last time you repented of feeling anxious? Have you repented of it as this separates me from God every bit as much as pornography? 14:03 every bit as much as theft, feeling anxious separates me from God. I want to turn 180 degrees around from it. The only sin God cannot forgive is the sin that we do not confess. 14:22 And if our consciences are weighed down, if we are heavy ladeness, >> perhaps it's because we haven't confessed worry as a sin. We're just struggling to deal with it as a mental health issue. I just got to get my pills dialed in. I got to get my c if I just 14:38 have enough caffeine or cold plunge or whatever the thing might be, right? No, we have to confess it as sin. And just like it's it's true that God cannot forgive the sin we don't confess. In the same way, the only sin we cannot 14:53 overcome is the one we don't seek the Holy Spirit's help for. We need to seek the Holy Spirit's help, a baptism in the Holy Spirit to be delivered from anxiety. When's the last time I asked the Lord, "Fill me with the Holy Spirit so that I 15:10 will not worry about anything?" We're quick to need the Holy Spirit's help in lots of areas of our lives. What about worry? What about anxiety? Seek the power of the Holy Spirit. We've heard about how we can ask for mercy 15:26 after we sin, right? which is we've fallen and we need forgiveness. We can ask for mercy. That's good. And that's the first step. If I am convicted that I have been anxious or have been worrying and that it that is in direct disobedience to an absolute 15:43 command of Jesus Christ, the first thing I should do is ask for mercy. Definitely. If we want to come up a little bit higher, instead of just asking for mercy, we should ask for what? >> Grace, right? So grace for help in my 15:57 time of need as it says in Hebrews 4:16. Let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we might find help in our time of need. So for sure we should ask the Lord, give me grace when next time I'm tempted to feel anxious. I don't 16:09 just want to ask you for forgiveness. Great. Praise God if I've seen it as sin. Praise God because then I can ask you for forgiveness and I can have my conscience cleansed and that's a wonderful gift. But even more important, 16:21 I want grace, Lord. I want grace to overcome. So the next time that I'm tempted to feel anxiety, I seek the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome so that I don't have to ask for mercy, but I have grace to overcome. But I want 16:34 dear family to call us even higher because in Hebrews chapter 5, I want you to uh I invite you to turn there with me for a minute. In Hebrews chapter 5, one thing that we believe deeply is that Jesus was just like us. He was tempted in all points as we are. 16:52 And look with me here. This this verse came to light with me. Came to light for me in a fresh way this past week. It says in Hebrews 5:7, "Yet while Christ was here on earth, he pleaded with God, praying with loud crying and tears to 17:08 the one able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his piety or his godly reverence." I you you may have heard brother Zach mention this. He asked this question before. When's the last time you wept on your pillow with sorrow over sin? I 17:25 remember when he asked that once and it was a challenge to me. When's the last time I wept over sorrow for my sin? And I want to be broken by sin, but I also want to come up higher and I want to make sure that the church knows 17:40 what's amazing to think about in this passage in Hebrews 5. What sin was Jesus weeping over? Jesus never sinned. And yet he wept with loud crying and tears. Why? Here's what I discovered. 17:59 He hated being tempted. He hated being tempted. You know, in the Lord's prayer in in Lukeap 11 when the disciples say, "Lord, teach us to pray." You know, one thing he says there so easy to overlook. He says, "Lead us not 18:14 into temptation." When's the last time we prayed that, dear church family? Jesus says, when you pray, say this. And one of the things, one of the five or six things he says is, "Pray, don't even let me be tempted, Lord." And do you 18:30 know what I see here in Hebrews 5? Jesus prayed that. He never wept over his own sin. To the one, and he wasn't weeping over my sin when it in this passage, he says to the one able to save him from death. And he was heard. He was heard. Why? 18:48 What was he praying? Lord, don't let me be tempted. I hate being tempted. And as I was meditating on this, I feel the Lord showed me we have a choice. We can either like Jesus hate sin and temptation at the beginning of the day 19:05 or we can regret it at the end of the day. Which is true of us? Do I hate sin so much at the beginning of the day that I say, "Don't even let me be tempted." Or do I regret having fallen into it so much at the end of the day that I say, 19:20 "Lord, forgive me." I'm weeping either way, but why am I weeping? Perhaps the reason for so many tears at the end of the day is that there are not enough tears at the beginning of the day. I'm saying this, this has deeply 19:35 convicted me. Perhaps the reason I have so many tears at the end of the day is because I spend so little time like Jesus. Hebrews 5:7, crying out with loud crying and tears, Lord, don't even let me be tempted. The Holy Spirit wants to give us as we 19:50 sing that in that song. Grant me the gift of holy fear. That's what Frederick Faber says in that song. My God, my God. And can it be grant me the gift of holy fear? The gift of holy fear that Jesus had. He wept with loud crying and tears. I think we 20:09 need that kind of baptism in the Holy Spirit. But why do we need help? Is it just because we're worry is irritating or because worry anxiety is inconvenient or because we are burdened that I don't want to be separated from God? 20:28 Are we burdened because anxiety causes God's enemies to rejoice? Are we burdened because it dishonors the name of Christ? We can't just seek help because we're tired of being anxious. We have to see that the wages of sin is 20:44 death. And it's not we have to seek the power of the Holy Spirit. It's not enough to have human tactics like I'm kicking myself. I'm beating myself up. I'm I'm seeking distraction. I'm trying to get my mind off of it. I'm trying harder. 20:57 None of those human tactics will work. The only thing that will enable us to overcome the sin of anxiety is a baptism in the Holy Spirit. And we need to seek a fresh anointing so that we could take this sin seriously and not dish dishonor the name of Jesus 21:17 Christ. So that's the first thing I wanted to mention is treat it like sin. The second thing I wanted to mention is if we go back to Philippians 4 where we were just a moment ago where he says be anxious for children. Be anxious for 21:34 >> nothing. >> Nothing. That's right. He goes on that. The verse doesn't end there. Be anxious for nothing is a command. Disobeying that command is a >> sin. That's right. But what do we do? Be anxious for nothing. But pray about everything. 21:52 Tell God everything. And don't forget to thank him. I love that phrase. We've heard it before. Turn your cares into prayers. Whenever I'm tempted, don't stop with just saying, "I don't I don't want to be anxious. Cast your cares on the Lord." 22:07 As Peter says, he cares for you. Cast all your burdens on the Lord. I saw an amazing picture of this I wanted to share in the Old Covenant. And if it's true in the Old Covenant, it should be much more true for us. I'm sharing this 22:21 because it's a shocking example of someone who could keep the Mosaic standard. We are called to the standard of Jesus Christ. But look with me at um at 1st Samuel 30. Please turn there. This is the story of David and his men coming back from um Ziglag 22:39 or coming to Ziglag. the the um David and his men had tried to help one of the kings and and um the Philistines raided his camp and um 600 strong soldiers were weeping bitterly because they had lost their wives and children and they spoke of 22:57 killing David. We don't have to you can read it later. What I want to hone in on is this verse here in 30:6. It says the end of it, David strengthened himself in the Lord. It's a it's a line that we've often meditated on. David strengthened 23:11 himself in the Lord. But here here I mean it's important for all all of us to learn the same to do the same thing, right? When all is hopeless, when the world is against me, right? 600 strong soldiers are against me. What does David 23:22 do? He turns to the Lord. Good. But I've never noticed this before. When did David strengthen himself in the Lord? Was it after God told him what to do? It was before. 23:41 It was from that strength. It says in verse 7, "Then he sought Abbyar the priest and said, "Bring me the ephod." And David asked the Lord, "Shall I chase them?" And the Lord answered, "Yes, you will recover everything." But listen, 23:54 dear church family, David was already strong at that point. It doesn't say, it doesn't say that. You know verse 8, the Lord says you will recover everything. And then David strengthened himself in the Lord. That we could understand, right? When I know 24:11 it's going to be okay, then I can be strong. No, it says David strengthened himself in the Lord and then the Lord told him what to do and then the Lord gave him instruction. He did not receive strength from knowing what to do. He didn't receive strength 24:27 from knowing what would happen. This blessed me tremendously. He was strengthened before God told him he'd recover all. And he was strengthened long before he actually recovered all. And it made me ask myself the question, 24:39 when am I strengthened? I am strengthened after the situation is resolved. I'm strengthened after I recover all. Right? By what am I strengthened? When I get clear instructions from the Lord regarding what to do, then I'm strong. Right? And 24:54 what I felt the Lord was saying is come up higher. Just like he said to John in in the book of Revelation, "Come up higher." You have to wait to receive instruction before you're strengthened. Even an old covenant saint could be 25:09 strengthened before he got instruction. How much more should you, new covenant Christian, be strengthened long before you know how the situation's going to be resolved? Be strengthened long before the situation's resolved. 25:23 This is our birthright. I fear we are falling short. I am falling short of the fullness of the life God has for me. I've I've made peace with far too much worry in my life. I've been strengthened far too much only when I see how it's going to 25:40 play out. It's not okay. I'm not satisfied with this level and I want to come up higher. I want to respond to the Lord. You know, I was talking with a brother this past week in uh Colorado, and as an aside, I would strongly 25:54 encourage the church, mark your calendar. I don't know what the dates are. Just block your whole summer because it's worthwhile to go to the RLCF family conference. I am sorry. I will take personal responsibility. I didn't forward emails to let everybody 26:08 know. I think we should have I don't want to say 100% because, you know, different people have different responsibilities. I understand that. Make it a priority right now. put it on your 2026 hope wish list. I want to go to RLCF. 26:23 It's such an encouragement. I I just say that in passing. Please try to make it a priority. I wish that I we haven't been since 2019. And Michelle and I, as we were going to bed, even the first night we said, "Let's never make this mistake 26:36 again." Why has it been six years since we've been here? It's so encouraging. We can say more about that later. I just want to say in passing, try to make it a priority, family. It's really worthwhile. But I was talking with one 26:47 of the brothers there about a situation in his life. I've known in his family life for about the last year he's been dealing with the situation. And I just haven't had a chance to check in with him. And I pulled him aside and I said, 26:57 "Bro, how's it going?" And he said, "Oh, bro, God is providing abundantly. It's amazing to see how the Lord's provided." And I said, "Praise the Lord." And then he said this, "He's provided so much above and beyond that I 27:10 it's worth all the pain of this last year." He said, 'If I had known the result of how things are now, I will have gladly gone through the pain of the last year. And I felt the Lord when he said that ask me, can you say that right now 27:25 before you know the outcome of this situation? A year from now, you will say, I will gladly have gone through that pain. Gladly. Will you say that in faith now? And I felt my heart, right? Yes, Lord. I want to say that. I know in the end we 27:42 for sure we know my Jesus doeth all things well. But everyone will know that in the final day. We disciples should be able to say it now by faith. In closing, last thing I want to say. We are not meant to be empty. We think about anxiety as a sin. We 28:00 think about worry as a sin. If we really take it seriously, one important step is we get rid of it. We overcome it. But importantly, we shouldn't be empty. You know, it says Jesus speaks of a man who drives out one demon and the demon comes 28:14 back with his buddies and finds the house is all cleaned up and in order. He's like, "Hey, seven friends. Come on, let's go." Why? Why did that guy have seven demons and set? He said, "The last condition is worse than the first." Why? 28:25 Because he did he wasn't filled. He was just he just emptied himself with a demon and then he was blank space. And for me, I I feel it would be a mistake to close a message about the sin of anxiety without saying, "What should we 28:39 seek instead? What should we replace it with?" And I want to turn us to Luke 21 for the answer to that question. Luke 21 and also Mark 13. We're going to go back and forth, but we'll start in Luke because Jesus uses this word worry 28:57 in Luke 21. in verse 34. Watch out. Don't let my sudden coming catch you unaware. Don't let me find you 29:16 living in careless ease, carousing, drinking, occupied with what? The worries of this life like all the rest of the earth. Keep a constant watch. Keep on the alert at all times. What should replace our anxiety? 29:33 Alertness. Keep on the alert. Look at Mark chapter 13. You know, I mentioned in the beginning that that don't worry is the most often repeating command in the sermon on the mount. Do you know the 29:51 most often repeated command before Jesus ascended to heaven? keep on the alert. So you can say the beginning of Jesus ministry he was saying don't worry don't be anxious don't do it don't be anxious we've heard it hopefully we've heard that loud and 30:08 clear today do not be anxious but what do we replace it with that is you could say one of his final exhortations to his disciples keep on the alert Mark 13:33 since you don't know when it will happen 30:27 keep on the alert Be on the watch for my return. Verse 35, keep on the alert. You don't know when I will come. At evening, at midnight, early dawn, or daybreak. Verse 37. So I say to you what I say to all. Keep on the alert, 30:46 Peter talks about in second Peter chapter 3, he talks about what sort of people ought you to be. The kind of people who are looking for and hastening the coming of the Lord. And what I take from that is that God's desire is that 31:00 as much as our natural man is anxious regarding the temporal and our natural man, we are anxious in regards to anything temporal in this life. As much as that's the case, as disciples, as born again new covenant 31:17 Christians, we ought to be every bit as burdened and concerned that Jesus would return. As prone to anxiety as I am in my natural man, my spiritual man ought to 31:34 be that even more burdened to see the Lord return. Keep on the alert. Don't let the day catch you unaware. Don't be caught in dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life. So what's the ultimate cost of worry? It will 31:50 cause me to be surprised when the Lord returns. That's what we see in Luke 21. Who are the people who are surprised? There are the people who say, "Yes, I have anxiety." You keep that bumper stickle on your water bottle. You will be surprised when 32:06 the Lord returns. And the Holy Spirit's clear. You can look at First Thessalonians. You can look all over the New Covenant, all over the New Testament. We are to be those who are ready for his coming. We are to be those 32:17 who don't shrink, but who rejoice at his coming. Worry will keep us from being ready for the Lord's return. Anxiety will keep us from being able to rush to greet the Lord when he returns. And we should be people who are on the 32:35 alert. Let this be. I hope it's a word of hope. Really and truly, I hope it's a word of promise. I think that I I remember one time a a beloved sister said to me, "I didn't know I could fight depression. I didn't know I could fight 32:50 discouragement." I hope this is the same kind. And what great hope and wonder and awe when you realize I don't have to be discouraged. I remember I probably shared about it actually. I remember the first time I learned, wait, I can fight 33:05 discouragement. That was like it was like the the curtains got drawn in my house. It's like there's a window there. I had no idea. In the same way, I believe a light wants to shine. The Lord wants to shine a light into each one of our hearts and 33:19 says, "You mean I can fight worry? In Jesus name, I say yes. By the power of the Holy Spirit, you can have every bit as much authority against worry, as you have against discouragement, as you have against whatever sin the Lord has 33:38 allowed you and enables you to overcome. The Lord is saying, "Come up higher. Be on the alert. Don't let the day catch you unaware." I pray that this would be true for sure in my heart. I want to have that take no prisoners attitude. I hope that our 33:54 church is distinguished, differentiated by we're a worry-free church. These people aren't concerned about the future at all because they have a father in heaven. If you go back and look at Matthew chapter 5, what you'll see is 34:10 that's why we don't have to be afraid. We have a father in heaven. Your father knows your needs. You're far more precious than the sparrows. You're far more precious than the flowers of the field. Dear family, we have to see we 34:22 have a father. We don't have to be afraid for anything. It is absolutely unacceptable to worry. I pray that this would be a word that the Lord would cause to bear fruit in his time. Amen.
