The other day, I was playing
badminton with my wife. And she's very good at
badminton, I'll tell you that. I'm not too bad,
but you know, she'll make me run
left and right. And you know,
we play well together, but just the other day,
I was thinking about the church and things about, matters that
I needed to look into, also about the sermon
that I’ll preach and all that. And as I was playing with her,
I noticed that my performance was dropping. I was not present.
I was not in the now. And it affected my performance. I know it's a small thing,
but in all the affairs of life— by the way, I got myself
back and said: “I'm going to enjoy this moment
with my wife, playing this game.” “I won't think about tomorrow,
tomorrow will take care of itself.” “I'm going to enjoy
this time with her.” And my performance improved. Jesus said: “Therefore do not
worry about tomorrow” “for tomorrow will
worry about itself.” “Each day has enough
trouble of its own.” The Message Bible.
I love this one. “Give your entire attention
to what God is doing right now.” “Don't get worked up
about what may or” “may not happen tomorrow.” “God will help you deal with
whatever hard things” “that come up when the
time comes.” I love it!
Do you see that? “Give your entire attention
to what God is doing right now.” “Don't get worked up
about what may or” “may not happen tomorrow.” “God will help you deal with
whatever hard things” “that come up when the
time comes.” So you say that:
“Well, I need to worry” “about the future because
I need to be prepared.” “Those who fail to plan,
plan to fail.” “I need to be prepared.” But friend, your mentality is out of fear
because you're saying: “Unless I prepare myself,
I will fail when the time comes.” Not if you're worried.
You can plan without worry. Okay? I'm not talking about
planning things that are legitimate. Okay? I'm talking about things
that you are just projecting, you’re trying to
over-prepare yourself, overthinking the future. Then you are worried
about the future. but you need to know this: That when the future comes,
there will be grace for your future. God always gives
grace for your rest. God gives you grace.
Just like Israel, God gave them manna
every day. And they cannot keep the
manna for the next day. It spoils.
The manna will spoil. They must eat the
manna for the day. On the next day, they
must trust God for fresh manna. And the next day,
they'll trust God for fresh manna. However, on the sixth day,
before the day of rest. On the seventh day,
which is their day of rest, their Sabbath, God gives
them double manna. Why? Because God wants them
to have confidence that they can rest.
The supply is there. God wants them
so much to rest. Now, back then
it was physical rest. Now for you, it may involve
physical rest for some of you, but basically in essence,
what I'm saying about, sharing about is
resting on the inside. Resting on the inside.
Amen. When you live in the now,
when you find that you live in the now, your mind
becomes mentally sound. Amen. What the psychiatrist will
call a person who is whole, integrated.
Amen. You find all the kinks
in your personality starts dissipating and
you find that wholeness comes in. Mentally, and then even
physically because many of it is caused by stress.
Many of this is caused by— disease is caused by dis-ease.
When you're not at ease. So live in the now!
Praise the Lord! Now I want to finish off by just
looking at the entire passage before this. Jesus says: “If God
gives such attention” “to the appearance of
wildflowers—most of which” “are never even seen—
don’t you think he’ll attend to you,” “take pride in you,
do his best for you?” “What I’m trying to do here
is to get you to relax,” “to not be so preoccupied
with getting, so you can” “respond to God’s giving.” Now that's grace!
Grace is God giving. Grace is God's supply. So you can respond
to God's supply. Amen. “People who don’t know God
and the way he works fuss” “over these things,
but you know both God” “and how he works.” “Steep your life in God-reality,
God-initiative, God-provisions.” “Don’t worry about missing out.” “You’ll find all your everyday
human concerns will be met.” “Give your entire attention
to what God is doing” What? When? “...right now.” What God is doing right now. In your relationships,
when you're talking to your spouse, pay attention to what
God is doing right now. Maybe it's coming through
your spouse's mouth. Amen. Maybe God wants you
to pay attention on something that's happening
right now. So you just be in the now
and you will find that all the help you need
in that relationship will be there. All the favor you need in that
relationship will be there. Amen. Not just in your relationships,
any area of your life. Be present, be in the now! You'll find that even in sports,
they'll say things like this: “That guy was
in the flow yesterday.” “Usually, when he plays,
he's not like that.” “He's in the flow.”
They call it the flow. But before that, there was
a time, a few decades ago, they'll call it: “In the zone.” You know? In the zone. Not they call it:
“In the flow.” “That guy is in the flow.” “In the zone.”
It used to be in the zone Before it was “in the zone”,
do you know what they call it? Literally, many years ago,
they call it: “A state of grace.” “A state of grace.” Literally: “a state of grace.” Child of God, you are
not under law. That's why sin has
no dominion over you. You're not under law. Under you performing,
under you working for God, right? But you're under grace. God is working for you.
It's the flow. Amen. And the only way to
get out of grace is to try to put in effort. When you put in effort,
you frustrate the grace of God. The grace of God is
for you to have. God is supplying me
right now. Law is demand oriented, right? “Thou shall not, thou shall not
thou shall not.” And we are trying
our best not to, okay? And the more we try not to,
the more we fall into sin because the strength of sin
is the law. But here, grace is
actually supply-minded. Supply!
God is supplying! God is working in my life,
God is working in me right now. God is walking through me
right now and God is working for me
and I participate in it. Amen. Even my prayer is to see
the flow of what the Spirit of God is doing and I participate in that flow.
Hallelujah! So you're under grace,
a state of grace. Hallelujah!
Perpetually! Always you're under
the state of grace. Whether in sports,
whether it's tennis or whatever it is and
you'll find that a guy who is seasoned,
he has won all the slams and finally, at the final one,
he cannot make it. Why? Usually it's because of pressure. He wants so much to win
that particular one that he overthinks it and
he steps out of the zone, okay? Out of the flow and
loses the game. It applies to every area
of your life, whether you have a big presentation
this coming week or even like you need to
talk to someone some things that are a bit sensitive
to talk about, right? If you overthink it,
if you try to labor over it so much you'll find that
you step out of the state of grace. You step out of the flow,
you step out of the zone. When you enjoy
what you're doing, it's the flow. Amen. And the Bible says:
“God has given us richly” “all things to enjoy.”
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! And you operate in a sense
of fullness. Amen. Before you step into
a presentation or you're doing marketing
or you're trying to sell something in your line of work and all that, if you are anxious for the result,
usually you end up with nothing. Okay? But if you're not
anxious for the result, the results are there.
The anointing is the flow, right? That's why the anointing
is represented by the oil in the Old Testament.
Oil gives you flow. When you touch oil,
it's a flow, right? If the door is creaking,
what do you do? You anoint the hinges with oil
and what happens? Now there’s a flow.
Amen. We grunt, we make
a lot of noise, we've been putting
a lot of effort. Why? There's no oil. Amen. When there's oil,
things become flowing. Praise God! Amen. I don't want to hear a
dry preacher! I want to hear an oily preacher. “I shall be anointed with fresh oil.”
Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Thank you Jesus.
Hallelujah. Don't worry about
the future, don't even postpone
your enjoyment today, your happiness today,
your joy today for a future event.
Enjoy it now!
