April 26, 2019
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"To boldly go where no man has gone before." Maybe you recognize that famous line. Little trivia test here. Well, somewhere along the way, you've been exposed to that cultural phenomenon known as Star Trek. And you know at least a little about the "voyages of the Starship Enterprise." They had this invention on the Enterprise, you remember, it's called a transporter - as in "Scotty, beam me up!" Well, the transporter sort of rearranges your molecules and beams you to another location almost immediately. But sometimes the crew would get beamed down to some unknown planet, only to be greeted by this horrific space creature. That's when it's time for "Scotty, beam me up!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Transporter to Tomorrow."
It's not always a good thing to be transported to another place, especially if there's something there you're not ready to handle. There is a transporter that actually sends your mind and your emotions right into tomorrow, before you're ready to handle tomorrow. What is this dangerous transporter? It's got a name. You know it. It's called worry.
And in our word for today from the Word of God beginning in Matthew 6:25, Jesus gives us our orders about worrying in three simple little words. This will be real easy to understand. He says, "I tell you, do not worry about your life...Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" Problem #1 with worry: it's a total waste of time. It accomplishes nothing, except wearing you out, causing panic, and causing paralysis.
Then again Jesus says, "Do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' and 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them." Problem #2 with worrying: it is a major insult to God. When you worry about the how's and the what if's and the could's, you are in essence saying, "I don't know if my Heavenly Father can handle this one. I don't know if I can trust Him on this one." After having His new mercies every morning of your life, after His unblemished track record of providing for you and taking care of you, how can you insult Him by worrying that He won't this time?
Now for the third time, Jesus says, "Do not worry about tomorrow...Each day has enough trouble of its own." Problem #3 with worrying: it transports you into tomorrow before you have God's resources to handle the monsters that are there. God does our lives in days: remember, "daily bread," "your strength will equal your day," and "His mercies are new every morning" - daily mercies.
When you worry, you're beaming yourself ahead into a day you're not ready for. The Bible says, "Your strength will equal your day" (Deuteronomy 33:25). Well, if it's Monday, you've got Monday's grace. On Tuesday, you have Tuesday's grace. But if you run ahead and start worrying about Tuesday when it's still Monday, you have the burdens but not the strength.
So maybe it's time for you to confess this particular sin - worrying. Because worry is a sin to a child of God. If you're doing that and worrying, you're directly disobeying the command of Jesus given three times in a row, "Do not worry. Do not worry. Do not worry." Settle back and do what you have God's strength for.
This one day, turn off your transporter to tomorrow. Learn to live by one of Oswald Chambers' favorite sayings. He would say, "I refuse to worry." And if you find yourself worrying about the future, would you ask God to beam you back to where it's safe - in your today.