NEW EYES @ FBC CABOOL
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NEW EYES @ FBC CABOOL
From Anxiety to Peace: Embracing Divine Boundaries
Ever wondered how shifting your perspective on responsibility could dramatically reduce your anxiety and stress? Dive into a transformative discussion where we unravel the profound teachings of Matthew 6, exploring how distinguishing between what's within our control and what isn't can lead to a more peaceful life. In an era where hustle culture reigns, we challenge the norm by advocating for a faith-driven approach to life that prioritizes spiritual goals over worldly concerns. Discover how viewing life through the lens of stewardship, as opposed to relentless ambition, can align you more closely with God's original design for humanity.
In this episode, we also explore the beauty of shared responsibilities. Accepting our limitations isn't a weakness but a divine boundary meant to liberate rather than confine us. We delve into the misconceptions of self-reliance and the importance of seeking God's assistance and the support of others in managing life's burdens. Through prayer and reflection, uncover how these limitations are actually pathways to honoring our Creator and finding fulfillment. Join us as we shift from self-centered ambition to meaningful stewardship, embracing the roles and boundaries God has lovingly set in our lives.
What if I told you that most of your life falls into one of two categories it is either your responsibility or not. This foundational, freeing and fruitful truth can transform your life. Are you ready to see why? An article published on May 1st 2024 in the American Psychiatric Association of Mental Health Poll showed that adults are feeling increasingly anxious. In 2024, 43% of adults say they feel more anxious than they did the previous year, up from 37% in 2023 and 32% in 2022. Adults are particularly anxious about current events 70%, especially the economy, 77% of those, the 2024 US election and gun violence. Regardless of the details of this poll, it is revealing that anxiety is on the rise in American adults. There are a variety of reasons why worry, anxiety and fear can exist, and I don't want to undermine those feelings in any way. However, I do want to draw attention to the fact that the answer could be found in answering this question Is this my responsibility or not? As we saw in the earlier quote, a good percentage of anxiety in those polled was because of things outside their control or responsibility. Other issues reported were safety, health, climate change, urging, technology. While we can contribute change in many areas, the weight of impact lies beyond our control.
Benjamin Leonard:Returning to our message from Matthew 20-25, we see two righteous servants took care of limited resources and trusted them. However, the wicked servant made excuses about his lack of productivity by pointing to things outside his control or realm of responsibility. We see very quickly in this example here that the faithful stewards were quick in obedience, they were intentional and productive and they were concerned first and foremost with the things that the talents that the master had given them, while the wicked servant procrastinated, he was purposeless and he even damaged the care of the goods for the master. And so, in seeing this, he was concerned not with what he was supposed to do but with the master's dealings, as he rebuts the master by pointing to things that the master had done wrong or the master was said to have done wrong. You see, in our lives, much of our anxiety, fear, worry and panic is due to allowing things outside our control to distract us from our responsibilities, things outside our control to distract us from our responsibilities, not accepting our boundaries and limits and not trusting the Lord with the things outside of ourselves. You may have missed this in your study of Matthew 6, but here are the benevolent boundaries expressed by Christ in this famous passage In Matthew 6, verse 25,.
Benjamin Leonard:We see these words. 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? 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? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet, I tell you, even Solomon, in all of his glory, was not clothed. Sorry, neither Solomon, in all of his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. 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?
Benjamin Leonard:Therefore, do not be anxious saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear, for even the Gentiles seek after these things and drink. Why? Because we see how the Lord cares for his creation in this way. Instead of their first responsibility should be to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Our responsibilities don't include making grass grow, planning the weather as right now it's snowing outside or controlling the economy. No, our primary concern must be to seek the master's will and live it out daily. This reality returns to how God designed us from the very beginning. We were not created to be self-sovereign, but to be representatives of another. Therefore, we cannot allow our self-indulgent kingdom building to monopolize our minds and thoughts, or we will be no better than the unbelieving world.
Benjamin Leonard:The Christian worldview directly opposes the hustle culture of this world, which calls us to spend ourselves accomplishing self-made goals. The wicked servant reflects the Gentile mindset of verse 32, seeking their way and concerning themselves with responsibilities that belong to the master. But the righteous servant? He reflects something different. He reflects a mindset that is described in Hebrews 11, 6, which says and without faith, it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Instead, our grand creator says we were created to live for his kingdom and his way. In so doing, the benevolent master will care for all of our needs. This must begin with faith. It must begin with faith in the God, who has reflected himself in scripture. So let's go back to the very beginning, the beginning of everything, and examine how God intended the perfect world to operate and how things went astray. As we see God's good design for stewardship, maybe we can better understand how sin distorts, distracts and destroys. You see, you are not called to be God, but to reflect Him.
Benjamin Leonard:On the very first page of the Bible, says Sinclair Ferguson, we see the creation of human beings made in the image of God, who revealed himself initially as the creator of all things, and the subsequent call of his image bearers, that's us, to imitate him in a certain way by being productive. Productive Human beings were commanded to be fruitful and multiply. This was a command for productivity, which has stewards' implications. Thus the concern for stewardship is rooted in creation. You see, in Genesis 1, verse 26, we see God declaring why he has made man. He says let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him Male and female. He created them and God blessed them. And God said to them Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said Behold, I have given you every plant-fielding seed that is on the face of the earth and every tree with its seed and its fruit.
Benjamin Leonard:See, from the very beginning, god created us with a purpose, and that purpose was to be fruitful and multiply and to subdue and rule the earth. Here's the thing we were not called to be God in this situation, but we were called to reflect God in this situation. We're called to be his image bearers on the earth. Thus, as we look at this calling to reflect God, we have to understand that we cannot be more than we were called to. We cannot do more than God has equipped us for, but we can do faithfully what God has equipped and empowered us to do, and that is to reflect Him in our relationships with one another, to reflect Him in the things that he has given us care for and to be His stewards on this earth. So here's my question Do you see your primary responsibility in life as reflecting or ruling? Do we place the burden of rulership on our shoulders that should in reality only be on God's shoulders? Do we take upon ourselves the calling to be God in our own little worlds or do we seek to reflect the character of God and the rulership of God by pointing to his commands, by pointing to his word and his design? We're not called to be God, but to reflect God.
Benjamin Leonard:Secondly, from the very beginning we see that you are not called to be everywhere, but to be in your allotment, in your allotment, but to be in your allotment. You see, in this passage that we have here in Genesis, chapter 2, verses 8 through 9, it says the Lord God planted the garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life that was in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God commissioned them to be fruitful and multiply. He commissioned them to subdue and rule the earth, and you know what that sounds overwhelming, because Adam and Eve, at this point, were just two people, and the world is a big place and there's a lot to care for. I need you to notice that in Genesis, chapter 2, 8 through 9, god places Adam and Eve in a very specific place. He places them in a garden that he has designed and planned for them and he calls them to be representatives there and he equips them to be fruitful and to produce, not just in that place, but to produce children that would continue to grow and exercise dominion over all the earth. You see, god has given us an allotment, he's given us a place that we are responsible for, and while we cannot rule all the earth, we can be faithful with ruling right where God has put us.
Benjamin Leonard:This reminds me of another example in Nehemiah. See in Nehemiah, chapter 3, verse 28,. We're told that he commands them to each one work opposite his own house. You see, in Nehemiah, the people of God were called back to Jerusalem and they were seeking to build the walls because they were very vulnerable to attack. And as they're seeking to build the walls, suddenly there's others that come in to begin to attack them, and so they have to divide up the responsibilities, by day and by night, and each in their own place. And so he commanded them to work with a sword on their side and with a trowel in their hand, and they began working. But they couldn't be everywhere at once, and so each person worked opposite their own house, fulfilling their responsibilities, as the entire wall was being built around the whole city of Jerusalem to secure them. And God used this division of labor, if you will, to accomplish something great, to accomplish his plan.
Benjamin Leonard:So my question for you is what allotment has the Lord given you in life? What has the Lord given you in life to do? Maybe it's the allotment of your own family and your own children? Maybe it's the allotment of your own family and your own children. Maybe it's the allotment of a certain ministry in your church, or the allotment of a certain responsibility at your job. Whatever it is, work with all your might on the thing that's in front of you. Give yourself wholly to being a reflection of God, where he's put you. So often, our cares and our worries and our concerns are related to things that are well outside our responsibility. They're related to the care and concerns that belong to another. But what if we were faithful with what's right in front of us? What if, like the good servants in Matthew 25, we were concerned with the talents that the Lord had given us and we were faithful with them? Let's begin by being called to the allotment in front of us.
Benjamin Leonard:A third thing that we see in the book of Genesis is you are not called to do everything, but to do your assignment. You are not called to do everything, but to do your assignment. In Genesis 2, 15 through 17, it says the Lord took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work and to keep it. And the Lord, god, commanded the man, saying you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in that day you eat of it, you shall surely die. God gave Adam and Eve explicit instructions from his mouth to their ears that they would be obedient in the place he had put them. He called them to care for everything in the garden, but he told them that they were forbidden from partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. About this, sinclair Ferguson says Satan insinuated that God had been miserably, indeed, cynical in the way he had set Adam and Eve in a garden but had forbidden them from really enjoying.
Benjamin Leonard:You see, as we look at this particular passage and we look at this particular assignment that God had called them to. God called them and equipped them and placed them in a specific place with specific instruction, but Satan tempted them to believe that there was something they were missing out on because it was outside their realm of responsibility, outside of the realm of things that the Lord had given them. How often do we do this in our own world? We concern ourselves with things that are outside our assignment, things that belong to the world, things like making the grass grow, or controlling the weather, or controlling the government and all of its many facets, or controlling the person next door to us. We believe, like Satan tempted, that there is something outside of our responsibility that we should take upon our shoulders, all the while ignoring what god has called us to, ignoring the assignment.
Benjamin Leonard:There's a fourth thing I want us to see from this, as it relates to stewardship, and, honestly, it's a thing that I have missed over the years. It's something that I think is a grace from the Lord, and here it is. It's found in Genesis, chapter 2, verses 18 and verses 21 through 25. You see, it says it is not good that the man should be alone, deep sleep to fall upon the man. And while he slept he took one of his ribs and closed it up in its place with flesh and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
Benjamin Leonard:Then the man said as I look at this passage, I'm reminded that stewardship and responsibility doesn't mean that I have to do things alone. God understands and designed us to bear together the burden of responsibility in front of us, the burden of responsibility in front of us but we need to seek his assistance. We need to seek the assistance of others. Sometimes I feel like we either assume we can handle it on our own or we assume that the world around us should know ahead of time what we need. As we look at this passage, we're reminded that responsibilities and care is to be together. Where in your life do you need help carrying out the assignment? In the place that the Lord has given you? Where do you need to seek his assistance and prayer and seek the help of others and discipleship, maybe in counseling. This is something that we need to consider as we think through stewardship.
Benjamin Leonard:I'd like to end with this question Do we accept these limitations as kind boundaries set by the master to free us for more significant opportunities, or do we view them as suffocating restrictions meant to prevent us from experiencing joy? I pray that today you would consider the limitations the Lord has put on you, that you would consider the various responsibilities and assignments he's given you and that you would take them as opportunities to reflect our creator to the fullest, while also seeing the limits on your responsibilities as benevolent, kind boundaries given to us by the master to free us to be more obedient. Today, would you pray with me that God would help us to accept the limits he's given us? Heavenly Father, I pray that you would be with us in the days ahead. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would be with us in the days ahead.
Benjamin Leonard:Lord God, I pray that you would help us to accept the various limits and places that you have assigned us, that you would help us to see them not as a removal of joy, not as a suffocating thing, but as a freeing thing to rest in you in these various areas. Lord, god, be with us. Be with me as we continue to go through this and help me to explain stewardship in a way that brings it to bear in our real life. Lord, we thank you for all the many blessings you've given us. In Jesus' name, I pray and pray that you have a blessed day.