How to Respond to Worry

Today we're gonna talk about the number one thing every Christian deals with, worry. And it's not that you weren't worried, it's how you respond to worry in your life. And so today we're gonna talk about what is the superpower Jesus has given us to combat worry. What is the superpower Jesus has given us to combat worry? Welcome to the Forgotten Jesus Podcast. I'm your host, Adam French, here with Pastor Robby Gowdy and Kandi Gowdy. We have two celebrations today, actually. Did you know this? Because one year ago today, it's a big deal to make it a year on this thing. I mean, he made it a year. Adam French has been with us for one. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It's been a joy. It's gone by fast, don't you think? It's already been a year? I can't believe it's been a year. It's crazy. It's been so fast. I know, I know, it's crazy. Did you hear how I got recruited? Yeah, a friend of mine called me and he said, hey, would you pray about being on the podcast? And then the next day I got a calendar invite. No. I figured you were connected.

I figured you were connected. You didn't need a long prayer time. Yeah, you were in. I need you to do this. He already knew the answer. Yeah, yeah, thanks for doing it. I need you to pray about it. No, so much fun. Well, congrats, how's it been? Give us an update. How's the last year been of your life? I would say this, because we record, now we're recording at the end of our ministry week, and it's like the icing on the cake. I mean, I look forward to this. It's a joy. It's exciting. People always ask me, is this a script? Did all this stuff? I'm like, no, I just sit down with people that I love, you know, and I've learned so much. The crazy thing is, is I was thinking about this. We did, we talked about where our last recording, and you know, I've had a lot of taxes last week, and I just kept thinking about what we were saying our last time. So it's been, it's like another sermon.

So God's speaking to my heart through what you're teaching while I'm here. So I'm learning, growing, hanging out with people that I love. We got an amazing crowd. Viv and Robert and Chris. And Matt too. Let's hear a Chris clap. And Ben O'Neal. Yeah, we got Ben O'Neal. And Vivian. Who is two years in a row champion for Kiff Kiff. I know. It's ridiculous. Yeah, our games. Golden boy. That's why we're successful. We got it going in the winter. I think he cheats, but I mean, I'm not gonna lie. Of course he does. He does not. Yeah, he knew about it. He's got a close relationship with Amanda and Kelly, and so, that's fun. But you know, what's cool is, people always say, or what you guys talking about scripted, or is it scripted? And the answer is no. I prepare some, obviously,

to prepare for what I'm teaching. But you and Candy come in, that's why I love it. Y'all have no idea what we're talking about. I mean, you know the text, but you don't know. And that's what makes it, I think, fresh and relevant. Also, we have another celebration today. Here we go. I went ahead. You know what I like to do with Candy? You got a gift? I got you a little gift right here. Hold on. Hold on, you did not. First of all. Money shot. I got you a gift, because today is Candy's spiritual birthday. She's 25 years old. 25. Shouldn't look a day older. 25 years of following the Lord. That's a quarter of a century. Yeah, exactly. It is. And you know what's cool about Candy is, Candy has so many different birthdays and celebrations, and I gotta keep up with it. I really don't. It's literally something every month. Did she send you a carry-on bag?

Her birthday's in June, her spiritual birthday's in May, Mother's Day's in May. I mean, you got a lot of things. Valentine's Day. The summer, it's heavy, okay? And here's the thing. I get her a gift for every single birthday or celebration. I never forget giving her a little something, normally. But here's the funny thing, Vivian. Every time, I act like I've forgotten. So this morning, she's walking around the house. No, sometimes I forget. I wake up and I'm like, oh wait, today's the day. She walks in the day and she said, guess what today is? And I'm acting dumb. I'm like, what, today? She's like, yeah, you don't know what today? I was like, no, what's today? No, I really didn't think you forgot. But we already got the gift. It didn't matter. I remember. I will say, I will say, I don't always remember either. Can I open this? But Angie and Robert do, so thank y'all for it. Come on. Woo! Take a shot out. Angie and Robert, take a shot out. Angie and Robert, keep it team, Matt.

Keep it team. We got a new intern with us. Mr. Matt is with us. Liberty Grud. I will say, this is my favorite perfume place. Biblical Rapper, too. Yeah, he's a rapper. I want to hear some of this. We'll give you a link to the YouTube channel when we get it all up. All right, look at this. Uh-oh, uh-oh. What? They were out of this online. Yep, I got it for her. He's got insight. The Ranger Station, her favorite. This is the Daisy scent by Lauren Aikens. Thomas Rhett, our friend Thomas Rhett, his wife. I wanted this one. I've already put some on today, though. His wife. Made a scent. Made a scent, yeah. They have a, all their scents are unisex. This is a roller, yeah. I've never seen that. Thomas was just at the CMA Awards. Yeah, he said it was awesome. Thanks, hon.

All right, well. Congratulations, 25 years of being a Christian. I know, I know. Is there anything for me? Just celebrate, probably not. I'll just say, this is what it is. I'm very sentimental, so dates mean something to me. I know it does. And when you're changed that much, you never forget it. Take it away. She's going out preaching. She's going to preaching early. I will say, it was May 21, 2001, at 10.15 in the morning. What? Which is when we start our podcast today. It's 10.15. It's a little after that right now. Wow, Adam. Right on time. 10.15. Wow. In the morning. OK. Never been the same since. I was a little bit late, 10.15. Yeah, you were a little bit. That's right. We could have started on the exact moment, but no. Did you write me a card, hon?

Wrote you a little card. You did? Yeah, I wrote you a little card. Let me see. You can read it out loud for everybody here. Really? Roses are red. Candace, I'm so thankful the Lord saved you. You're a role model for me and others. Love, Argality. Thank you, honey. I love you. That's sweet. Such a good guy. Very, very sweet. Such a great guy. I'm going to give myself that one on that one. You got some points. OK, verse 31. Let's get into it. I wonder if people actually, because everybody knows the first five minutes of every podcast is shenanigan city. Chris, I thought about this the other day. Do people just scroll through all this and say I'm coming here to learn? Because I probably would. No offense. But OK. People stop listening after the first five minutes.

OK. That's all they come for. OK, there you go. There you go. By the way, if you do listen past the first five minutes, let us know in the comments section. Right now. Or let us know below, so we want to know. OK, and by the way, if you're not subscribed, I think like 75%, 80% of the people who watch on YouTube or listen are not subscribed to the channel. Really? Can you believe that? Shame on you. So right now. Well, it helps us. It helps more people because of the algorithm. So you're a part. You become a part of the team. Yeah, exactly. You become a part of the team if you subscribe. And this might be one you might want to share with a friend because we're talking about worry. And I think it's going to apply to all of us. And it hit me as I was studying today. So Kandi, we're going to quote 31 to the end, which is my favorite verse in the entire Sermon on the Mount. So 31. Therefore, oh yeah, you'll see why. So don't worry about what you will eat, what you will drink,

or the body what you will wear. Correct? Yeah. Mm-hmm. For the Gentiles eagerly seek these things, but your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. Oh. Oh. Therefore, don't. No, wow. Well, hold on. OK, I figured out what we're doing now. Kandi's doing the ESV, and the rest, I forgot. OK, so keep going. No, I'm not. It's just been a long time since I've quoted this. OK, but seek first the kingdom. Of God. And all His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Don't worry about tomorrow. Therefore, don't be anxious about tomorrow. For tomorrow. Has enough worry of its own. Don't. Be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble, is what the CSB says. Yeah, each day has enough trouble of its own. That's the point.

That's the point. You got it. OK, so let's go back. From now on, I think you and Adam need to start quoting, because you're all still memorizing it. Oh my gosh. This has been almost over six months for me. I know it has. OK. Or a year. We want to make sure that scripture stays. Now that I've come to the end of six, y'all can quote seven. What you think about that? The Bible says, therefore, do not judge, lest you. That's what seven says. Better watch than don't judge. All right, so let's start. So the first thing we see right off the get. So we talked about worry last week, if you remember. He's talking about don't worry about what you eat, what you drink, what you wear. God clothes the lilies of the field. You remember the birds don't sow, gather, or reap, and yet they are provided. And now he's going to say, therefore. So whenever there's a therefore in the Bible, you have to understand what the therefore is therefore. That was what they taught us in seminary. Because when the therefore is there, it means what? What is therefore saying to you?

Screaming off the page. What is it saying? That whatever is right before it. Yeah, because of what I just said. Yeah, because of what I just said, here's what you should do. So it's almost like he gives a declarative section about, you know, here's the truth of God's word. Now here's how you respond. So therefore, since God provides, he says, stop doubting God's providence, literally. The word there that's the key is the word seek. You see what he says? Therefore, he says, the Gentiles seek after these things. That word seek is a compound verb in Greek, and it's actually used to intensify something. So whenever you see that, it doesn't just mean like you're nonchalantly looking around haphazardly for something. It means to actually pursue intently, to run toward, to strain with all your might, like everything you have. And here's what Jesus is saying. The Gentiles do this over what? Over food, over possessions, over drink, over clothes. Why did they do that? Well, they had multiple gods back then, if you remember. And the spiritual, I was talking to somebody the other day, the spiritual realm for the people of the Bible, somebody was asking me recently,

should I read, a guy in my D group, should I read the book of Enoch? This is an interesting question that's going around the internet now. And the answer is what? Should you read the book of Enoch? What's the answer I told him? Well, what's the point of reading it? Is it for? Okay, that's a good question. You know, like, is it for entertainment? Is it for information? Is it for spiritual counsel? Like what's it? So the Book of Enoch was written, I think, in the 2nd century BC, okay, so before Christ, and the Book of Enoch is not considered in the canon of scripture. The Jewish culture said these are the books in the canon of scripture, which is the exact books we have. But the Book of Enoch is like the Book of Maccabees. I've read Maccabees 1, 2, 3, and 4, Tobit, they have some other books in the Apocrypha. The Book of Enoch is really helpful to give you a mindset of the culture back then, okay? So my answer to him was, it depends. It depends on what you're trying to get from it. If you're trying to read it as authoritative scripture, then you're reading it wrong. But if you go into it and say, I want to read it to learn about the culture and context, or better yet, the mindset of what people thought back then, and here's basically what the Book of Enoch is like, about the Nephilim, how they got here, how the Watchers are here, the angelic realm, spiritual battle between powers and spiritual forces and principalities. That's what, it's basically Ephesians 6 explained, okay? It's a long book.

It's really long. How many chapters? I think it's like 60 chapters. Now, if you're interested, and I went and got this book, Michael Heiser has a two-book companion series where he has a commentary, crazy as this is, Michael Heiser, Greek, I mean, historian of Hebrew, Old Testament, Michael Heiser has a two-book commentary explaining it because you're going to need somebody to explain it. You think Ezekiel's tough to read. This one's tough. But here's the gist of it, okay? To save you from reading it, here's basically what the principle is. In that culture, or better yet, I would say it this way. If you go over to the Middle East right now, or to Africa, those folks in that cultural realm, that mindset, they live like this. First looking at the spiritual realm, the supernatural realm first, and the visible natural realm is second or subservient to that, meaning everything that's happening here where we can see and look at and understand is a direct correlation to the spiritual realm. Now, in America, it's just the opposite. In America, we live where if you can't see it, taste it, touch it, it can't be real. And the supernatural realm is an afterthought for us. Oh, that may be, you know, but that's not how they were raised. And so the question becomes, what did the culture of Jesus' day understand? And they were more like the Middle East culture of the supernatural realm. So Jesus is speaking to Gentiles. Gentiles had a God, kind of like Hinduism. Hinduism has 300 million gods, 300 million gods. Every person gets, on average, eight personal gods to do their bidding. Did you know this, Hinduism? So you have a God for fertility, you have a God for providing, you have a God for agriculture, you have a God for sun and rain, whatever.

And so that's the world the Gentiles lived in. They had the Parthenon or the Pantheon, which was, the Pantheon is just a building or in Greece, the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. We went to it, the mountain. They basically said, let's get all the gods and put them in a museum so you can go worship them, whatever you want. You don't have to go travel, because that's what it is, okay? So the gods, the mindset was they had a God for Mother Earth. They had multiple gods. They had Father Fate. I mean, they had all these gods. And Jesus says, when you seek after the temporal things, in a sense, what you're saying is, and you worry about what you'll have, like who to provide for you, you're acting like a practical atheist, okay? Practical atheism is what you're doing. Why? Because when you and I worry about what we have or what will be provided, we are living like unbelievers who don't trust the God who said he will provide. That's in a sense. So the question I want to ask you is, do you ever worry? Anybody in this room can answer. Yes. We all worry, right? I have physical, relational, personal pressures, job pressures. We all have pressures to worry. But the difference is, it's not if you worry initially. The question is, do you linger and become like a worry wart, as they said? So you have to remind yourself that God's in control and I'm not. So Jesus right here is going to identify the foolishness of worrying about possessions, the foolishness of power and prestige and financial security.

And I would say this, the defining distinctive between a believer and an unbeliever to a lost world is how we worry or respond to trials. Because what Jesus is getting at here is, if you worry as a Christian, it's like going in a circle going nowhere. I learned this firsthand years ago, and I'm going to bring back our four-legged family member who has gone on to be with the Lord in the doggy heaven of the world. I believe animals go to heaven, by the way. I believe animals go to heaven. I know you do. I don't know if it... I can't really prove it consistently or I can't confirm it. But the... The idea I have is this, is that Jesus comes from heaven to earth in revelation on a what? On a horse, thank you, Vivian. Where did he get the horse from? Okay, that's my, that's my, that's my, yeah, some people are like, that ain't a good answer, but that's the best answer. That's for all the horse lovers out there. There's horses in heaven. Yeah, well, we know there's horses, okay, yeah. Okay, but we had a four-legged family member when we got married named Gracie Lou. You ever heard about Gracie Lou? You ever heard about Gracie? Gracie Lou was a little Shih Tzu that was probably 10 pounds. Yeah, she was small. She was smaller than Cookie, okay.

Gracie would walk, hold Gracie, and everybody has to have a good dog. Adam knows this, but he just got a dog. Everybody needs a dog. They call it man's best friend. It helps you in emotional support. When you worry, you hug your dog. But by the way, I was at the airport the other day, and I saw a bunch of dogs walking with like, like, what do they call them, emotional support dogs. I'm convinced, Vivian, half the dogs with those jackets are not real. Those are Amazon jackets. You can buy them online. They had a Shih Tzu the other day. He was jumping and flying. I was like, I had Tubby. He could do that, you know? Hey, hate to interrupt the podcast, but I wanna tell you about a resource that I have. It's called Mandinity, Healing the Wounded Man. It's really a workbook. It's kind of a read, highlight, respond, and it's for people that have had trauma or had any kind of struggle in your life. You can read through this book and learn how the biblical truths can transform you from the inside out. Let's get back to the podcast. Problem with Tubby is,

I need an emotional support dog for Tubby because he's so strong. But anyway, so Gracie was our pet. We love Gracie. We lost everything in the flood. Gracie went with us to South Carolina. Gracie went with us to Morgan City. Gracie went with us to Chattanooga. And then Gracie didn't like Annie, our new dog, and so we gave her to my mom's house. And she didn't like somebody else. Well, she didn't like Rig either, but. When we had Rig, she was like, she wasn't one of those dogs that just falls in love with a baby and sits under their crib and all that. She didn't wanna be around anybody. So we gave her to my mom, which is like the Bates Motel. Once you check in, you ain't checking out. So Gracie died at my mom's house. But anyway, Gracie was really smart. She was a smart dog. But at times, it baffled me because Gracie would do something like some dogs do. She would chase her tail. You ever seen dogs do that? I'm gonna watch her do it. It was the craziest thing in the world. It would start with the tail raising subtly

and then she would get, like her own tail, would like shock her. So she would look back and then the tail would hit her ear and then she'd get mad. And then I don't know what happened between the connection from her brain to her tail, but then she would start running in a circle. You ever seen dogs do this? And then she starts running. It'd be like I was thinking somebody hitting themselves in the head and saying, who just hit me? What are you doing? Just hit me, okay. So she'd run in the tail and like ring around Rosie. Then she would stop and then the tail would swipe her again. And this would go on for hours and hours and hours. Now you look at that like I do and say, what are you doing? You're getting exhausted going where? Nowhere. Nowhere. You're getting exhausted going nowhere. And if you think about it, Christian, listen to me. Worrying is like chasing your tail. It's silly for a dog. It's embarrassing for a Christian. So if that's the case, because worry does nothing. It doesn't, she said, doesn't add anything to your life.

Why would you worry? Tomorrow has enough to worry about. So the idea of worrying is when you worry, you're saying to God without saying, I don't trust you. One guy said this. He said, the average person when they worry is crucifying themselves between two thieves, the regrets of yesterday on one side and the worries of tomorrow on the other. You literally crucify yourself. So Jesus says, stop worrying and start trusting God. And then secondly, he says, my favorite verse, seek first the what? Kingdom of God. Okay, what does that mean? Seek first the kingdom of God and all his righteousness. And all of these things will be provided for you. Or added to you, yeah. So this is a command, by the way. It's not an option. It's not like I shouldn't. Jesus says, if you wanna be a Christian living in the kingdom, thriving in the kingdom, then you have to seek first. Same idea, seek, not just. So you see what he's doing? He's doing a parallel or contrast. The Gentiles seek the things of the world, but the Christian, the defining marker is they seek what? They should be seeking God.

Okay. I think it means everybody's gonna seek something. You only have a couple of choices here. So what are you gonna seek, right? Are you gonna seek those things, those temporal pleasure, things that would just make life all easy and rosy? Or are you gonna seek God and let him work, let him provide the things that you need? Yeah. Isn't it interesting that the principles of worry are very similar to the principles of meditating on the things of God? Hmm. That's good, yeah. The ruminating thoughts, so what does abiding in Christ mean practically? This is the part of scripture, this is where you don't overcomplicate scripture, right? We wanna overcomplicate it. Abiding in Christ is what you always say, getting into the Word, feasting on the Word of God. So when the trials come, the things that we could worry about come, instead of using that idea of ruminating on those thoughts and chasing our own tail and going nowhere, we can ruminate on the truth of Scripture. We can abide on Christ. We can feast on the promises of God. And we're created for that, but sometimes we go with the flesh

instead of going with the Spirit. They're right there, like worry and faith. How we worry and how we trust God are right, right. I mean, they're so close to each other. It's just, where do we place our faith in? Yeah, there's a fine line, you know what I mean? And I think we might've mentioned this last episode. I can't remember. Like, it's one thing to be concerned about something, but then there's a fine line that we tend to cross over when it becomes worry. And it's like, it's no longer just something that could happen or should happen or a concern that we might have over a certain thing in our life. And then it becomes this pattern of worry, like the ruminating and getting stuck in this loop where you can't get out of it. And that's where your worry is becoming sin. Because you cannot be doing worrying and trusting at the same time. They fill the same spot in your life. So you're gonna be doing one or the other. You see what I'm saying? If you're trusting God, then you have no room to be ruminating and worry. But if you're only ruminating and worry, then you're not trusting God. It is impossible. You see what I'm saying?

And so when you get to that point, that's what you have to be able to identify. Like when the Lord speaks to your heart, stop doing this. You have to be able to identify, I'm in this rut of worry and I cannot get out. You see, I'm ruminating, I'm ruminating. I can't stop, I can't stop. And then when you identify it, you name it and you surrender it. And you gotta do it over and over again. When you find yourself worrying again and you start the loop, and you start going down that hole of what ifs of all these things, and the Lord says, stop doing that. You have to realize, you have to lay it down. And then when you pick it up, because you will pick it up again, you have to lay it down again. You do this over and over and over and over and over again until finally one day you start noticing, man, I'm not finding myself in this cycle of worry all the time. And you're growing the trust muscle and you're growing the faith by faith. We talked about this last week, that our whole entire Christian life is by faith, right? And not putting our faith in the worries that we have or in the things that could fill all these places in our life, it is putting our faith in God and letting Him, He knows exactly what we need,

it says in the text, right? And so we have to just trust Him. But that is so much easier said than done. Yeah, well, and the thing I would say too is, every person listening has some persistent, consistent worry or item in their life that they would, or category that plagues them, every one of us. So here's how you discern that. What's the last thing you think about before you go to bed? And what's the first thing you think about when you wake up? That's one easy way to determine it, okay? Here's another way to think of it. What thing in your head lives rent-free right now? Because everybody's got something living rent-free. Whether it's, I wanna be loved and accepted, or whether I wanna get a new job or promotion, or I want to have a YouTube channel, I want a podcast, whatever it is, or I hope my sermon land, whatever. You got something that you're concerned, or my child's leaving in the house and going out driving and I'm worried, whatever that thing is, that's what you worry about. And everybody has it, and you're not immune to it. So it doesn't go away the longer you're Christian. And it could be valid, it could be valid worry, you know, like, or a concern. Like, for instance, when we lost everything in Hurricane Katrina, right? I think most people would say,

if they've gone through something like that, where a massive destruction of like, literally, you walk home today and everything from the eve of your house down is gone, that's it, it's over. It's like you're walking into a house of studs, that's it. You don't have anything. Well, that could easily mark you for life, right? You lose everything, and then you gotta rebuild everything. And so, obviously, there is a propensity there that you could tend to worry. You know, what if I lose everything I own, what if? But if you allow the Lord to redeem that, you know, then you could actually live in a way where you're not attached to anything that you maybe used to be attached to. And so you don't even worry, because you know, if you do lose your car, or if you do lose all of your clothes, or if you do lose whatever it is, that the Lord's just gonna provide something else for you. You know, and so then you learn to trust, right? And so like, we have things that happen in our life, very valid, you know what I mean? Like, yes, you could tend to be concerned or worry, but then you allow the Lord to fill those places because you're His child, you know? And He's never gonna. let you go without the things that you absolutely need in life. We can trust that.

I will say this. The Christian faith is a thinking faith. What we think today is what we believe for tomorrow. What we believe for tomorrow is the actions that we take. And so that's why it's so important that we're conscious. Last night I was telling the story of, you know, everybody knows this. A guy conned me out of some money. You guys have went through this. He lied. He did some work on her house and lied. And the guy, we went, we took some people out to dinner and they were like, how, why are you not, why are you not angry? And I didn't even think about it. Just came out of mouth. I said, because I believe that God's going to work this out for my good. I refuse not to believe that. And only way that happened was because I learned how to think from the Bible. If I learn how to think from social media or from the world, I'm going to stay in constant worry. I'm going to believe those negative thoughts and everything that comes along with it. And then what follows my actions live that way. If I think on these things, if I abide, if I feast on the word of God, if I'm thinking on what God says about me, then that affects how I believe. And then that takes my actions to a different place. A hundred percent. And I would say too, that, sorry, honey, go ahead and say something. Um, I would say 25 years. I mean, she's got, I believe though. This is why scripture memory is so important because in these situations,

like where we get stuck in, like we were talking about this in our D group last night, um, because we're memorizing Hebrews 11 right now, which is all about all of our heroes of the faith and how they lived out that faith. It's I mean, over and over again, by faith, if you don't know what a word to say, you just say by faith, because that's, it's all in Hebrews 11, but it's like, you're, you're memorizing scripture for this reason so that God can call it to your mind and your heart in the midst of these types of things, you know, where you're worried or you're scared or you have fear or whatever. And, you know, we talked about more specifically how fear really is a, is a contributing factor in a lot of ways to our worry, um, and self-control and all these, you know, or the ability wanting to control everything. We talked about all of that, but I think scripture memory is so important because these are the moments when you need it and you need to be able to remind yourself. I told them, I said, I want you to go home and make a list. You know, if you're having a struggle with a child, or if you're having a struggle with your marriage or whatever the struggle is, I want you to go home and I want you to make a list from the very beginning. Like the day that child was born or the day you got married, whatever. And I want you to write down every single time you can go back and think, well, the Lord had his hand on this and he had his hand here, you know, I said, so for us, you know, I was using rig as an example, I said there, you know, things happen all the time in rigs life where I'm like, oh my gosh, like what's happening and I can start going down that hole of fear, but I'm like, then I go back and I think about the time he was three years old and we thought we lost him at the YMCA, but there he was walking on the bench. Or I think about the time he was four years old and he crossed a major highway by himself when a teacher at gymnastics was supposed to be walking him to the church. It was home alone one and two for rig.

You know, and I'm like, and the, and the Lord, you know, didn't let anybody steal him and the Lord didn't let a car hit him. And then, you know, then I go back to the time when he was five years old, you know, and I'm like, I'm going back and I'm reminding myself if God had his hand on this child at three, four, five, and now he's 17, what makes me think he is not going to have his hand on him now or 20 years from now? Do you see what I'm saying? So we have to remind ourselves, like, this is what God did. You know, when I lost everything I owned, God provided, God allowed someone to get saved out of that. God, you know, you have to remind yourself and it all goes back to God is a God of remembrance, right? When he remembers, he acts. God remembered Noah and the floodwaters subsided. Yeah. When God said, I remember that many for God, it means he's going to do something. And so it's active for us too. It's active when we remind ourself or we memorize and quote scripture to ourselves. We're not, when we put our trust in God, we're not passively sitting by and doing nothing. We are acting out our faith and our worship and our glory, like giving him the glory. That's what we're doing. It's not passive. It's active. That's right. Anyway, and the word remember, like I said, when God, when, when, when Moses is always saying, God, remember your covenant, remember what you promised. He's not saying, Hey, I need you to listen up and think about it. It means I want, I'm asking you to do something.

I want you to act. And when God says, I remembered, and this is why I do it. Uh, one of the things too, and y'all both, it's funny as y'all know, y'all have no idea where we're going and you hit on basically everything I'm going to say. So I might as well shut it down now. Shout out to the Holy spirit. That's why I was getting out to the Holy spirit. But anyway, the Holy ghost, but no, but here's the thing I was thinking. Practically. I have pastored now 20 something years. I have had to let people go and, you know, for whatever reason on a staff, and I've always found not all the time, but sometimes when you share with a person, like saying, Hey, it's not working out. We love you, but it's not working out. We're going to take care of you or whatever. But do you understand why it's not working? Of course I do. Did you understand? Yeah. Okay, I get that I didn't and they'll leave in a good mood. They're like, okay, I totally get it. Oh by the way, here's a piece of paper this is what and Undoubtedly, what'll happen is they'll go home and they'll call a friend or they'll call a family member or they'll call a co-worker and then they start Speaking into their mind and then by the end of the week or two It's I have no idea why I was like, oh, I have no idea what that I don't even know what you and what happens Is you got to be care now if that happens with staff think about your life You have to be careful what you're allowing in your mind, which is why Jesus says it's an this is not passivity This is activity So the word seek I mentioned earlier is a command to go after but watch this the word in the a in the ancient language Meant it's the idea of hunting It's like a bird hunter who goes after his prey with a bow for food not sport There's a different kind of feel there. He waits in the blind. He gets his bow ready. He gets the arrow He's listening He's like if you ever anybody knows hunting you don't go out hunt with your phone on you keep because you're gonna miss a bird

You're gonna miss the the deal. So you have to be active all your senses focused alert attentive What if you lived like that way with God like when you're starting to worry then you say, oh, man I'm going into hunting mode. You know, our mindset needs to change and The what Jesus saying here is you have to seek the kingdom now Here's the first part in order to seek the kingdom. You have to know the kingdom and the king Okay, so you mentioned earlier. It is a thinking game because in you have to know intellectually mentally Theologically, this is what theology matters people say when you put the a lot of theology aside and just love Pete put the truth Aside just love people for Jesus. Okay. Well that you know that that makes sense But first of all, if you just say let's just love people for Jesus Number one is you gotta know who love is number two is you gotta know who Jesus is that's truth How that looks in certain situations you need the Word of God to navigate speaking the truth and love I mean goodness gracious you we've all the situation you just named one. What does love look like in that situation? we have to look at the wealth of Scripture to know because people say People are saying they love someone when they're they're allowing them to express themselves in a sinful way We're seeing that in our day today. Oh, we love let's let's love them. You guys are being dogmatic. No, you're lying to them That's not love. Yeah I live in extremes because if we don't step in and tell someone the truth, bro, you are addicted to fentanyl You're gonna die. Mm-hmm, right that seems harsh, right? But we love him enough to tell him the truth, even though it hurts because we don't want something worse to happen And unfortunately, we just lost Someone in Adam's house 20 20 years old 20 years old He was in Adam's house a year ago Adam gate We and we met him and Adam did everything bent over backwards and he left the home and said hey, I love you He thought he was coming in to kind of play games in the house Adams. How a refuge recovery refuse home These homes are intense disciple making and accountability and church every time that we're open and celebrate and so he I love his honesty You know, you got to appreciate what he tell you he said Yeah, he came to me He sat me down and he said I was coming here to pretend I was gonna hide and I've got a friend and I was gonna use and he said but I

Realized you guys actually love me. That's what he said. He said you love me your church loves me He said I can't I can't do that. I can't do that to you Can't do that. So you leave and he said I want to keep I want to keep using I'm gonna tell you And I told him I said fentanyl is a death sentence. You're you have a chance to die if you leave Yeah, no, but I just want to look in the eyes and tell you I prayed for him and he left he died a year Later, you know, just a couple weeks ago, sir Here here's the that's what you're talking about the as you're talking about. That's exact That's it. I didn't think about that's what you just said about the guy when they you know They looking truth in the face and then the enemy's telling them something different and they're not standing like when This is a more of my pet peeves people say just like just let go just let go and let God I'm like, what is that? Where's no, that's not Scripture Scripture says to I said this to me times a day but abiding Christ Yeah abiding is a memorizing scripture. I'm reading the word. I'm having accountability I'm calling my friends and safety to the multitude of counselors like we can just Scripture over and over again Scripture says there are things that we do there's actions that we take that change how we think we don't think ourselves into new actions Right, we think ourselves good the bad choices We take the right actions and then we see the results and it changes the way we think So you should be saying not let go and let God you should be saying grab hold Chris can we make that a t-shirt? Yeah Well, the word abide literally is active Vivian's got a mission to make t-shirts Vivian just quick update any update on the new Forgotten Jesus merch. Maybe we can have some when we Just to rub it in Apparently we rubbing it. No was seriously Vivian. Maybe while we're gone Chris. Can we get some new? Season 8 cuz by the way, we're two episodes away from season 8. Come on. Yes season 8, but Can we get some new merch possibly Vivian because I know if you're interested in merch Let us know cuz we want to maybe we should have a social media like Thing where people give us ideas or something. We got it. We get we need some creativity So, you know crowd source the shirt the shirt somebody Well, we should do a shirt like that, but it says here now

Okay Here and now is back in stock No here and now Went out of stock and I jokingly said it was in my opinion my best book at the time I've ever written that nobody read and it was about living in the kingdom It's basically the Sermon on the Mount how you live it out And so I said that line over and over so much that life way decided bring it back to bring it back and it's on Demand come on. You can actually get the book on demand right now Alright, let's land the pain. They're we're gonna come back and what I'm gonna do next week is I want to show you how The greatest conversation you have every day is not with someone else It's actually with yourself and that's what Jesus is getting at here And I think that so what Jesus says is you seek and that's an action But before you seek you have to have the right mindset and I'm gonna show you and I teach this I had the opportunity last year to go speak to the Titans For a chapel which got open the door to do that and this is what I taught them and I just said guys Self-talk is the greatest talk and it works for professional athletes and it works for the regular Christian every day in your life So next week, we're gonna talk talk about how your outlook determines your outcome Love it. Love it again. Remember if you want to become a part of the forgotten Jesus team subscribe Like comment share that with someone so we can help get the word out for more people to hear about the forgotten Jesus