We are a part of an anxious generation. It turns out, the people in Jesus’ time were anxious too. Here’s what Jesus has to say about facing our anxieties.
In this sermon we hear Jesus’s teaching on anxiety, wealth, and seeking his kingdom. We cover recent surveys that show how harmful social media can be. We talk about other anxieties that we may have. We find that Jesus gives an answer to our fundamental struggle, we need to replace the lies we tell ourselves with true things and place our trust in him.
Links:
Sunday Heroes: parody of the Sermon on the Mount
New York Times: Survey on Gen Z attitudes on Social Media
Bob Newhart sketch: “Stop It!”
Quotes:
God, [the] author and sustainer of a lavishly beautiful universe, can be trusted to meet his disciples’ essential needs.
-R. T. France
We were not born for this end, that we should eat and drink and be clothed, but that we might please God, and attain unto the good things to come.
-St. John Chrysostom, 4th c.
Humanity, this part of Your creation, desires to praise You. You move us to delight in praising You; for You hast formed us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in You.
-St. Augustine, 5th c.
Those who demand to be rich and at ease in this world renounce heaven.
-John Calvin, 16th c.
Scriptures: 1 Peter 5:5-11
Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Matthew 6:19-34
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble
“Single-Minded” preached by Rev. Dr. Timothy R. LeCroy. Sunday, September 22, 2024 at 10:00AM. New Life Presbyterian Church in Ithaca, NY. Come see the beautiful Finger Lakes region, and worship God with us. www.newlifeithaca.org.
Sermon music is from “We Will Feast in the House of Zion” provided by Sandra McCracken and with her permission. www.sandramccracken.com.
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