Overcoming Worry

So several years ago, I was watching this documentary, and in this documentary, there's this guy who is trying to trap a monkey. And the way that he did it is he carved out, there was like this termite mound, and he carves out this hole, and there's this technique, and you can use a gourd, you can use something else, where you hollow out the inside, and the opening's just big enough that a hand can fit inside, but a fist cannot escape it. And so this guy, he's carving out this hole, and then he takes something interesting, something shiny, something that the monkey that's off at a distance watching him is intrigued by, and he makes it really obvious that he's placed it inside of that hole. And then the man just slowly kind of moves away, and the monkey slowly moves in, curious as to what this item is. And the monkey reaches in, and when it grabs hold of it, and it tries to pull away, it's trapped. And I'm watching this documentary, and I'm thinking to myself, how stupid is this monkey? And the man starts walking up to the monkey. The monkey begins to panic, yet it's gripping so tightly to this thing that the harder that it tries to get out, the more afraid it becomes, the tighter it grips it, and the more trapped this monkey actually is. And this guy walks up, and he calmly just puts a leash

around this monkey's neck, and now he has a pet monkey. And again, I'm watching this going, how stupid is this monkey just let go and be free? And then it dawned on me, I am that monkey. And how many times in life have I been so concerned, so caught up in something, and I'm trying to control it, and by trying to control it, I'm actually trapping myself. When all along, if I would just let go, I would be free. Today, I wanna talk about overcoming worry as we wrap up our series, Take Heart. And I wanna start by asking you this question. You don't have to answer this question out loud. Just between you and God right now in your own heart, is there something that you're worried about? If you were to be honest with yourself, if you were to be honest in this moment, is there something that worries you? If you were to be honest in this moment, is there something that worries you? And worry's different than fear. Fear is actually a good thing. Fear is a gift. Fear is when you see a rattlesnake, and you jump out of the way because you're afraid. That fear is actually a gift from God. Fear is when you're dealing with a real threat in the real moment, and you react to that. That's actually a good thing, that fight or flight response. Worry is something different. See, worry's all about the future.

Worry's about the thing that hasn't actually happened yet. Worry's not in the realm of the present. It's in the realm of the future. And worry becomes kind of this default that we get stuck in, and we're constantly trying to control the future in some area of our life. And what we're actually doing is we're trapping ourselves. So if I were to ask you, is there an area of your life where you're worried? What are you worried about? Today, we wrap up this Take Heart series, and we're gonna pick up and kind of go to where we actually began this series with the life of Peter. And if you brought a Bible with you, if you come to church on the weekends, bringing a Bible would be a good thing because we're gonna be opening up God's Word. If you have a Bible app on your phone, we're gonna be in Acts chapter four. And so some of the verses we're gonna have here on the screen, but it'd be good to kind of get the context of Acts chapter four. And we're gonna be looking at this guy named Peter, one of the disciples of Jesus who overcame worry in his life. And in Acts chapter three, what's happened is, this is after the resurrection of Jesus. The disciples have been filled with the Holy Spirit. They are bold now, preaching the gospel,

the good news about what Jesus has done, conquering death on our behalf. And as they're traveling around, there's this guy who cannot walk. And Peter, who's one of the disciples, and John, who's one of the disciples. In fact, they're two of the disciples that were the closest out of the 12 with Jesus. God miraculously heals this person who can't walk through Peter and through John. And now not only can he walk, he's leaping, and he's jumping, and he's crying out for joy for this healing that miraculously has happened in his life. Moving on to Peter and John, as Peter and John are kind of walking through Jerusalem and they're talking about the power of Jesus. And that's where we pick up in Acts chapter four. As they're preaching to the crowd, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees, these are all different religious leaders at this time. There were Pharisees and Sadducees, they were kind of like the top leaders. And the Pharisees and Sadducees, they didn't really get along. The Pharisees, again, religious leaders, the Sadducees, they believed that there was no resurrection, which my Bible teacher in Bible college would always say, and that is why they are sad, you see. You're welcome.

I have now passed that terrible joke on to you. So the Sadducees, who didn't believe in the resurrection, are there along with other religious leaders. They came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people and they were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and they were proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. See, the strategy of this guy who was trapping the monkey, it was to isolate that one single monkey, to distract that monkey, and then to intimidate. Isolation, distraction, intimidation. The enemy that we face today has the same technique. Isolation, distraction, intimidation. And for Peter and for John, these religious leaders that wanna stop this growing movement of Jesus' followers, they're gonna use isolation, distraction, intimidation. In fact, it says, if you don't have a Bible, it'll be here on the screen, verse three, they seized Peter and John. Because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. They've taken them, they've removed them from the crowd, they've isolated them, put them in jail, they are intimidating them. But listen to this, verse four,

but many who heard the message believed. Many who heard the message believed. So the number of men who believed grew to about 5,000. At the day of Pentecost, that's when the Holy Spirit first arrived, this is after the resurrection, 3,000 men were saved. And now that number has grown by 2,000. And I think it's important for us to note, God is doing something here in Acts chapter four, this movement of Jesus' followers is growing, and when God is on the move, there will be opposition. See, sometimes in the church world, kind of over-spiritualized things, and we go, oh, well, something got difficult in life, and so God must have closed that door. And sometimes, when things are difficult, or there seems to be kind of a barrier, sometimes, yeah, maybe God did close that door. There's examples of that in the Bible, that God says, hey, I don't want you to go here, instead, and the Holy Spirit makes it clear to Paul on his missionary journey. That does happen sometimes. But sometimes, there's just opposition. Sometimes, it's not that God closed the door, it's that there's opposition against what God is doing in the world around us, and sometimes, followers of Jesus, you just need to kick the door down. You need to be courageous. That just because there's opposition

doesn't mean that it's not from God. Sometimes, we have to have courage, we have to take heart to push through the opposition. See, there's opposition for Peter and for John, and they don't go, well, I guess God's closing this door, we're getting thrown in prison. No, God is on the move, 2,000 men were saved. So far, at Sun Valley, this year alone, we've seen 805 people say yes to following Jesus. Yeah, we can celebrate that. And those are the ones that we know about, meaning that you actually came and you talked to somebody. There's a whole bunch of you that you've said yes to Jesus and you haven't told anybody. And you're like, secretly following Jesus? Let me tell you, following Jesus, that is absolutely, that is a personal decision. But it's not meant to be kept private. You wanna share that, you wanna celebrate that you are now, part of following Jesus is telling the world around you, I'm following Jesus. 805 of you have said yes to following Jesus so far this year across all of our campuses. And let me tell you, we're just getting started. This summer, we're gonna take thousands, thousands of kids and students to camp. And out of these thousands of kids and students, hundreds of them will say yes to following Jesus for the first time. And we're gonna celebrate this summer

what God is continuing to do, and we're gonna celebrate this summer what God is continuing to do. But let me tell you, it doesn't come without opposition. There are a bunch of kids that are gonna go to camp this summer, but they're not signed up yet because you haven't invited them yet. That there are kids in your life, it could be a neighbor, it could be a family friend, it could be a niece or a nephew, or it could be one of your own kids and you're a little bit nervous, like, I don't know. Do I just tell them like, hey, we'll pay for the cost of camp? People have already given generously to greatly reduce the cost of all of our camps. But it could be that there's still a barrier, by the way. We'll never let money keep somebody from going to camp. We'll always find a way to get every kid, every student that wants to go to camp to go to camp. And we have scholarships and all of that to help with that. But it could be that the thing that's keeping a kid from going to camp is you just haven't invited them yet. And I wanna challenge you. It might be a little scary. It might take a little courage. You might have to take heart. But you never know what God might do through a simple invitation. Like, okay, I wanna know more about camps.

How do I share that? You can go to camps.sv.cc. All the information about camps is there. We have kids' camps. Those are during the day. We actually have an evening option if there's families that they work during the day, can't get kids to a kids' camp during the day that we're offering an evening option at one of our campuses. Or student camps or away camps. But all of those camps are, all the information's at camps.sv.cc. Also, if you're like, hey, thousands of kids going to camp, that's gonna take a lot of adults, isn't it? Sure is. And you wanna be a part of what God's doing in thousands of kids' and students' lives, then maybe you consider joining us at camp and serving. Again, camps.sv.cc. But it's gonna take a little bit of courage. I gotta tell you, I think a lot of times we think that the enemy of courage is fear, and it's not. Fear actually is required for there to be courage. Fear is a prerequisite for courage to exist. The enemy of courage, it's not fear, it's comfort. It's complacency. And I think in our culture, we love comfort so much.

And for some of us, we're like, this series, Take Heart, I don't totally get it, Robert, why do we need to take heart? There's not really a lot of scary things in my life. Start following Jesus. If you start following Jesus in every area of your life, it will require courage, I promise you. And you will face opposition, and you will need to again and again and again take heart. Confidence, the very root words of confidence, it means to have faith. Confidence is with faith. In the face of fear, we move forward. Pick up with me verse five in your Bible. It says, the next day, the rulers, the elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and others of the high priest's family. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them, by what power or what name did you do this? So they are on trial in front of all of these religious leaders. There is this storm that is brewing, and Peter's gonna need to take heart, to have courage in the face of intimidation. I mentioned I wanted to go back to where we started this series. We started this series on the Sea of Galilee.

In fact, here's an image of what the Sea of Galilee looks like from the mountain called Arbel that overlooks the Sea of Galilee. By the way, Arbel, roughly translated in Hebrew, means God's ambush. I love this mountain. It's one of my favorite places in the whole world. It's one of my favorite places in the whole world. And you can hike to the top of this mountain, and you can overlook all of Galilee. See, I thought Galilee was this massive sea. It's like a big lake. And you can actually see shore to shore. And when you're on this mountain, and the Bible says that Jesus often went off to the mountain and he would pray. Early in the morning, he would go to the mountain and he would pray. Most likely, it was this mountain. And when you're on this mountain, what's fascinating to me is you can hear conversations happening on the Sea of Galilee in boats. The way that the sound carries, you can hear clearly things that are happening out on the water, and you can see everything that's on the water. Every boat, every person, you can see from this vantage point. And when I was up there the very first time, I remember just looking at that in awe,

and God just whispering to me, all the times that Jesus would go up to this mountain and the disciples, probably wherever they were, they couldn't see him, he could always see them. They were never out of his sight. And we started this series on this day when Jesus goes up to the mountain to pray and he sends his disciples out on a boat and the storm comes in and they're terrified and Jesus walks out onto the water and Peter says, Lord, if it's you, call me out and let me walk with you. And so Peter gets out of the boat and Chad, in the very first week of this series said, if you wanna walk on water, you gotta what? Get out of the boat. Good job, gold stars all through the rooms, yes. And so Peter gets out of the boat and he's walking on water, but then he looks at the wind and the waves and he's terrified. And he begins to sink and he cries out and Jesus saves him immediately. We get a little glimpse into the life of Peter. Peter actually has something that he's afraid of. He has something that's not just a fear in the moment, that it's actually a worry. We're gonna see this throughout his life. He has this fear of death. He has this fear of what if I die?

What if I sink here in the Sea of Galilee? What if I die in the waves and in the wind? What if I lose my life? And he's holding onto this control. And you can't really get judgmental of Peter. In fact, it's the number two fear that people have. It's the second most common fear that people have is the fear of dying. Number one is public speaking, which Peter would have to do that as well. But he was terrified of dying. Later on, Jesus would say that he was gonna go to the cross, that he was gonna be betrayed, he was gonna be crucified, but he was gonna conquer death. And the disciples, they keep missing these messages, even though it's really clear throughout the things that they recorded that Jesus taught them and said. And one day, Peter says to Jesus, he says, Jesus, I will never abandon you. Even if I go to prison, even if I go to death, I will not abandon you. And Jesus, I'm paraphrasing, he essentially goes, no, you won't. In fact, Peter, not only will you not boldly, courageously face imprisonment and death, not only will you not do that, you'll actually deny me three times. And you'll deny me three times before the rooster even crows. See, Jesus understood that Peter was terrified of the what if, what if, what if I die?

And so when the moment came and Jesus was betrayed and he was arrested and they brought him to put him on trial and Peter's kind of following at a distance, but then his fear of death keeps him from going any further. And he stays outside of the courts and people go, hey, aren't you with Jesus? He says, no, no, no, I have no idea who he is. Again, they ask him, hey, aren't you one of his disciples I'm pretty sure we saw you. And he says, no, no, no, you got the wrong guy, it's not me, you're totally mistaken. And then this little girl's like, I'm pretty sure it's you. And he curses her. And he says, no, I do not know this person. He denies any kind of relationship with Jesus whatsoever. And then he hears the rooster crow. Peter was afraid of death. He was afraid of the consequences of being associated with Jesus. And so he denies him. Jesus is arrested, put on trial, beaten and crucified. And they take his body and they place it in a tomb. And on the third day, we celebrated this on Easter. By the power of the Holy Spirit, he rose from the grave conquering death. And he appeared to many, including the disciples. And there's this moment where Jesus appears to the disciples on the Sea of Galilee. They went back to Galilee after all of these events that had happened in Jerusalem

and they're fishing once again. And Jesus, in the early morning, he's on the shoreline. In fact, in this image, the shoreline would be kind of that top left part of the screen right there along that shore where you see the sun shining. Jesus was there waiting and he had prepared breakfast and he calls out to the disciples. And he does this miracle that he had done before where they cast the net and there's this great number of fish. I think it was 153 because they're fishermen. They counted every single fish and they recorded it in the Bible. And then in an impulse, he jumps into the water like Forrest Gump and Lieutenant Dan and he swims to shore and the rest of the disciples are like, we're just gonna row. And they row to shore and there Jesus has prepared this meal. Yet Peter is reminded that he denied Jesus three times. He's stricken with grief and Jesus pulls Peter aside and they have this conversation and he restores Peter after three times asking, do you love me? Peter says, yeah, I love you. Do you love me? Yeah, of course. But do you love me? He's heartbroken at the third question and he says, yes, you know I love you. And Jesus says, feed my sheep.

There is work to be done, Peter. You are not disqualified. But then Jesus tells him that Peter, there's gonna come a day and he alludes to the fact that Peter is going to die because of his relationship with Jesus and even specifically that Peter will be crucified. In church tradition is that Peter was crucified but he considered it such an honor. He didn't wanna be crucified the same way as Jesus. And so he asked that they actually turn the cross upside down and they crucify him. Crucify him upside down. Because he thought it was too great of an honor to be crucified, to be killed the same way that his Lord was. And Jesus, he tells Peter, hey, you're going to die in this way. And Peter, he asked the question, he goes, well, what about him? And he points to John and Jesus says, don't worry about John. Peter, I'm talking to you right now. And he's talking to the worry that Peter had carried his whole life. This fear of death. And now, two months after Jesus was on trial in the same court in Jerusalem, in front of the same religious leaders, now Peter is standing trial.

And we might miss all of these details, but I promise you, Peter didn't miss any of them. He is very aware that this could be the moment that Jesus predicted. This could be the moment that after this trial, he's going to be crucified. He knows that it's going to happen, he just doesn't know when. So how does he respond? Verse eight. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them. Peter, who carried worry. Peter, who was afraid of everybody else. Peter, who was afraid of dying. Now, Peter says to them, rulers and elders of the people, if we are being called into account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who is lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this. You and all the people of Israel, it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified. Do you hear his boldness? He's poking the bear. He's a new man, he's not afraid at all. He's, oh yeah, Jesus, whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead. That this man stands before you healed. And then, I love this, in verse 11,

he quotes the Old Testament, a prophecy about the coming Messiah. And he says, no, hey, you Bible scholars who are supposed to know all of this? He says, Jesus is, quote, the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone. Peter is a changed man. So the question is, what changed? From the man who was afraid to follow Jesus into the courts just two months prior, what changed in his life that now all of a sudden he's letting go of this worry that he's carried his whole life? What changed is he encountered the resurrected Christ. He encountered the resurrected Jesus who conquered death and offers life to any who would put their trust in him. He's not afraid of somebody who can kill his body because he knows the Lord of lords, the King of kings, who holds life and offers it to him. He encountered the resurrected Christ. At Pentecost, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. He has relationship with the living God, and so he no longer fears death. He sees the God who sees him. And he lets go of his worry, and he's open to wherever God would lead him next.

It's as if he's asking the question, well, what's the worst they can do to me? Before it was all the what ifs. Well, what if this happens? What if this happens? What if this happens? It's as if he's finally crossed over that line of faith to go, even if. Even if they kill me. Even if this is the moment that they crucify me. Even if. I will use every breath I have to proclaim the name of Jesus and the power of his resurrection. And then he gives us this beautiful verse in verse 12, it's gonna be here on the screen. And if you're here and you're not a church person, I want you to pay close attention to this verse, to this message, to the truth that Peter speaks. For all of us, listen to these words. He says, salvation is found in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. So if you're here today and you believe that all roads lead to God and it's all fine, listen, the Bible does not leave room for that. The Bible teaches that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that nobody comes to the Father except through him. Peter says, salvation is found in no one else.

There is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. Jesus is in the business of salvation. He is in the salvation and resurrection business. And he invites Peter to join him in the salvation and resurrection business. And church, listen, if you are a follower of Jesus, you are in the salvation and resurrection business. And you're like, Robert, no, I'm in accounting. No. You, as a follower of Jesus, no matter what your vocation is, you are in the salvation and resurrection business. The church is not a building that you sit in. The church is a movement that you choose to be a part of to help people meet, know, and follow Jesus. Jesus is in the salvation and resurrection business. And listen, friends, business is booming. People are coming to faith all over the world right now. There is a generation growing up that has watched previous generations that said, hey, we don't need God. Maybe God is dead. And maybe we're just gonna enjoy our lives and do whatever fulfills our lives. And they've watched a generation be miserable doing that. And so there's a generation growing up right now going, hey, we are looking for something that is beyond this world. And they are hungry. And they are open to spiritual conversations.

And they are open to giving their lives to Jesus. And church now is our opportunity to step in and to be the light in the darkness in the world around us. Some scholars believe that there was a man in this religious group that's putting on this trial, and his name was Saul of Tarsus, that he was a zealous Pharisee at the time. And that was his Hebrew name. So to the fellow Hebrews, they knew him as Saul, but his Greco-Roman name was Paul. Paul would go on to become one of the apostles who wrote much of the New Testament, who himself would be martyred for proclaiming Jesus, who would encounter the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus. And here Peter is declaring that this God is alive, that Jesus is the only way to salvation. And because of the courage of Peter, now these religious leaders are hearing that Jesus has conquered death and one of these religious leaders, ultimately he would end up giving his life to Jesus. Listen, you never know what God's gonna do through your act of courage, your courageous faith. Right now, if you are a follower of Jesus, you are a follower of Jesus because others were courageous before you. They were courageous to invite you to church, to talk about Jesus with you, to build the buildings. If you're on any one of our campuses,

the spaces that we are in are because of the generosity of people who gave courageously so that we might receive this faith that's been passed on from generation to generation for thousands of years. The same faith that Peter is declaring that Paul would receive, that Paul would then declare that others would receive and the church has not stopped growing ever since. We walk in faith today because of the courage who have gone before us. Who will walk in faith because of your courage? Who's gonna walk in faith because of your courage? God is doing great work all around us. It's time for us to take heart, to join the family business, the resurrection and salvation business. Overcoming worry, if you're taking notes, three steps to overcoming worry. These are not gonna be mind-blowing, earth-shattering, but they will transform your life, these three steps. Number one, you're gonna be able to walk in faith if you take these three steps. Number one, surrender your life to Jesus. If you haven't yet, you've not yet surrendered your life to Jesus, you're still holding onto control. Listen, salvation comes from no one else except for Jesus. If you're trying to save yourself, you are trapped, you just don't know it.

And maybe you do know it deep down in your heart. The only way to restore a relationship with a holy God, God in all of his perfection and all of his justice and all of his righteousness is through the sacrifice of his righteous son, Jesus Christ, to put your faith, to put your trust in him, to surrender your life to him. If you have not yet surrendered your life, rarely would I ever say this, but I gotta tell you, you should be worried. You should be worried. Because option A is either you surrender your life or option B is if you wanna try and be your own savior, the result of that's gonna be separation from God forever. I don't want that for you. It's time to let go of control, surrender your life to Jesus. In fact, I wanna help you do that right now. And so if you're here and you've not yet surrendered your life to Jesus, I'm gonna invite you to do so. I'm gonna pray for you and I'm gonna pray with you and in your own heart and mind, you don't have to say these words out loud, but would you just pray with me? We can close our eyes and if you'd be willing, in just a posture of just releasing control, maybe open up your palms. And talk to your heavenly Father and just say, God, I need you. I know that I've sinned and I know that my sin

separates me from you. I trust in the perfect life of Jesus, his sacrifice to pay all the penalty of all of my sin for all time. I believe that Jesus, you conquered death when you rose from the grave. I believe in the resurrection that one day, even though my body dies, that my soul will experience new life. And a new body that won't die, I believe in the resurrection. And Jesus, I surrender my life to you. I declare that Jesus, you are the Lord and the leader of my life. Lead me, I pray, amen. If you said yes to surrendering your life to Jesus, we have a gift we wanna give you. In this Bible, this is God's word to you. And in fact, in this Bible in particular, we have kind of a reading guide that's in the front. It'll talk to you about this relationship with Jesus. It'll talk to you about who Jesus is and give you a reading plan to get to know his story and what he says about you. The way to get this is after service at First Step, which is up by the stage. Our team would love to give you a Bible, would love to pray with you, would love to celebrate. Again, this is a personal decision, but it's not meant to be private.

Let them know that you've said yes to Jesus. And for those of you who have already said yes to Jesus, you're a follower of Jesus, you and I, we need to constantly come back to the reality of our lives need to be surrendered to Jesus each and every day. This is a daily surrender. It's not just a one time, yeah, I did it once when I was in junior high at camp. No, this is a daily surrender. Jesus, you are the Lord, you are the leader of my life. Something I started doing this year, I'm in this workout program, and it was this 90-day program that started in January. And there was a bunch of boxes that you had to check every single day. And one of the boxes was this morning motto, this morning motto that you had to say out loud. And I remember when I heard that, I said, oh, that's stupid, I don't wanna do that. And they're like, well, you gotta write your own, like just, it could be short, whatever, it could be just like one sentence, just kinda like your morning motivation. I was like, all right, so I prayed about it. As I prayed about it, I felt like, no, this is a great way to just kinda set my mind, my focus for the day. And so I'm gonna create a morning motto that's about my identity, my calling, my purpose.

And each and every day, I'd get up and I would say it out loud. Unless my wife was asleep next to me, then I would just kinda mouth it. But I started every day, for the last 120 days, I've started with the exact same morning motto. And I have to tell you, it's transformed my days. It's refocused my days. It's reminded me of what my life is about and that I have surrendered it to Jesus. I'm gonna share my morning motto with you that I've been saying to myself for the last 120 days. I'm gonna warn you, it's not short because I'm a pastor. But for the last 120 days, every single morning starts out this way. I am a child of the King of Kings, fully loved and sustained by the creator of all things. I lead my family, my team, my church, and my community by example before I lead by words. I have a rock-solid marriage and I will fight today to keep it that way. I'm raising three incredible adults who love Jesus and who will leave this world better than they found it, a Watson legacy that will continue for generations. Today, I will make no excuses. I will rebuke lies and I will storm the gates of hell under the leadership of the Holy Spirit and see captives set free. Every morning for 120 days. I got one move.

Thanks, Mom. I appreciate it. And the reason I say that is because for us as followers of Jesus, sometimes we forget who we are. We forget why we are here. God has purpose for your life and we need to take heart and we need to live in that purpose each and every day. Number two, spend daily time with Jesus. Spend daily time with Jesus. I told you they're not gonna be earth-shattering, but they are so impactful if you will apply these things. The religious leaders, after Peter stands up and he shares the gospel and he's just so bold, it says in verse 13, when they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized, I love this, that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. See, courage, taking heart, it is not informational, it is not even situational, it is relational. It's who is with you that allows you to take heart in all circumstances. It is through relationship. There was a study done, hundreds of thousands. of people, and the study was seeking to find out what causes us to grow in our faith, and they found out it wasn't church attendance, although I'm really glad you guys are here, and it's a good thing to be at church.

They found what actually grows our faith, and church, again, it's important. I feel like I have to say that twice, okay. What actually grows our faith is what we do when we're not at church. It's what we do when we're all alone. It's spending time in the Bible, and prayer. Those were the two things that grow faith the most. Spending time opening up God's word, hearing from the King of kings and the Lord of lords, hearing his love letter to us, truth that we desperately need in our lives, and talking to him, and also listening and waiting upon the Holy Spirit to guide us, and those two things made all the difference. Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit. It was relational. The last thing, number three, you put Jesus first. You put Jesus first. In Acts chapter four, they end up releasing Peter and John. They don't know what to do with them, and so they threaten them one more time. They try and intimidate them, and they send them out, and they gather all the other believers, and they begin to pray and worship God, and it says at the end of Acts chapter four that there were some people that they were selling houses, they were selling land that they had, and they were taking the money, and they were giving it to anybody who had need.

They were generous. They were courageous in their giving, and they were saying, hey, we wanna put Jesus first in everything, in our finances, in our workplace, in our relationships. We wanna put Jesus first, so if you're here, and you're struggling with one thing, you're gonna put Jesus first. So if you're here, and you're struggling with worry today, here's what I wanna challenge you with. Put Jesus first. If you're worried about your marriage, what would it mean? Stop trying to control it yourself. What would it mean to go, okay, Jesus, I'm gonna put you first in my marriage? In your parenting, you're nervous about your kids, you're worried about your kids, what would it look like for you to put Jesus first in your parenting? In the workplace, in your relationships, if you're single, and you're worried about something within your singleness, what would it look like for you to go, hey, I wanna put Jesus first in my singleness. I wanna put Jesus first. Maybe it's the future, and you're just worried about all the what ifs in the future. What would it mean to say, hey, I'm gonna put Jesus first in my future, in my health, to steward the body that he's given me?

What would it look like to put Jesus first in your career? We're gonna take a moment, we're just gonna submit whatever we're worried about to the Lord, and so I wanna invite you to pray. In there in your seats, opening your hands, maybe you'd be so bold to lift your palms up, open up your hands as a symbolic letting go of that thing that you've been holding onto so tightly. And just between you and the Lord, you would say, God, I give you whatever that thing is. I'm done trying to control it myself. I'm done worrying about things that are all the what ifs. And maybe between you and the Lord, you would even say, God, I give you whatever that thing is. And between you and the Lord, you would even be so bold as to say the words even if. Even if the things that you're afraid of, even if those things actually did happen, that Lord, we trust you. And with your palms open, this is also symbolic of receiving, that we would invite Holy Spirit. Would you reveal to us what it would look like to put you first in that area? Lord, we submit our lives to you. We wanna grow in a relationship with you. Holy Spirit, would you guide us each and every day as we surrender our lives? Jesus, we wanna put you first.

You are Lord. Would you lead us in courage, with faith, would you help us to take heart? In Jesus' name we pray, amen. you