No Worries , Help! I can't stop worrying!

Do not worry means to have all of those negative one yes not have our hearts and our minds ever said on those things, but instead to have the what-ifs turn to the greatest positive things earliest imagination to shearing the annual Britt girl said to hear Allen's message Nola church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in a series called no, you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource available to you right now for your donation this month to shearing the light as you listen to today's message go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us in sharing the.org or call 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program now let's get started with today's teaching years Alan Wright to live a worry free life not know well I didn't say a problem free life in this world we still have troubles but we don't have to worry about our troubles is made when Christ that we can live with no worries about a man who used to be a terrible warrior and then he changed and a friend of his noticed the big transformation said you don't think we were in much a more man's I'm not is a will for us and what did you do an asset.

I hired another guy to worry for me difference in what what what how much are you paying a $7000 a week for $7000 a week.

You are afford to pay them $1000 a week mass for him to worry about.

I wish I could say that a life of was a life in which she didn't have to work to solve problems and fix things. But that's not it all. The image scripturally of what it means to not worry means to have all of those negative one. Yes, that consider all of the hypothetical negative things that could happen. It creates that client angst in us and can preoccupy all of her thoughts as a means to not have our hearts and our minds ever said on those things, but instead to have the what-ifs turn to the great positive things of the holiest imagination soar luncheon that a king today were so excited about that.

You might want to. How do you know where it is to launch a new campus and up until this time church leadership of The secret that I'm going to go ahead and reveal it to you now. We are first encouraged all then Clemens and noun King. What do these three communities all have in common area. Yes, that is now the Glen high school in Pastor Marilyn and his family live only about Clemens were .6 miles away from area and today we launch in the in the home of the original barrio less than a mile from the original the Old Testament.

They had a pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. We get too hot. Special wheezing.

How do you do something like this get more wanting what happened with this in King was.

We had a number of people to live in Keene pentacle mount area and all the surrounding areas and so we thought we we like to take the gospel where people are our own people who can find others who don't go to church to come and experience the love of God and so we began friend that will pass to Chris as pastor is grew up thinking so he took me and we drove around and he drove me around.

One day we spent a long time there and he showed me where he grew his grandmother's house and looked at the schools and recreation acres in Haines pan and stop by barrio for two hot dogs and then Riding around and I looked at churches prayed for them. Talked about. And while we're doing as here's what's happening to me. I began seeing things. I began having in the eyes of my heart.

I began began imagining what it be like for a lot of people in that area who may have felt frustrated and given up on religion, but they hadn't given up on God and might be looking for some fresh way that they could be connected to God. Someone that has thought that the Christian gospel was just having bad news and moralism to discover that is good news and to discover all that Jesus began thinking about all this people began imagining them coming to Christ. I was thinking about a conversation that we had with one of the original members whose actual staff at the why there and keying and we have stop by and talk to her and she said that the national drug epidemic, especially opioid epidemic that touched our nation so painfully has not bypassed King and in fact amongst the young people drugs are big problem. I began to imagine young people hearing hearing about about the love of Jesus that can cure the shame that fuel so much of the addiction and began imagine people being set free. What is right around and see what's happening there.

What's going on is this amazing God-given faculty that only humans amongst the animal world possess imagination to be able to see something that does not yet exist.

It's amazing and they've think that apes might be able to do little pretend play games they have found that dolphins some of them who and being trained have at times done their own tricks to get treat so there may be a little bit of a capacity to somehow playfully pretend that animals but only humans can look into that which is invisible and does not exist and envision something in all its complexity and beauty and wonder only only human beings could take their experience and bicycle shop and imagine a heavier than air aircraft powered by a motor and a three axis control system that a human could steer it and go through the air, but when Orval and Wilbur Wright flew a few hundred feet. It wasn't the stiff December breeze in their face at Kitty Hawk that lifted them nearly so much as it was their imagination. I don't think they could've ever envisioned at that point the North American X 15 jet that is rocket propelled and can fly over 5000 mph, but imagination started Alden only a human being could imagine buying up 30,000 acres of cattle and swamplands in central Florida secretly because he wanted to build the happiest place on earth and even Walt Disney could not have probably predicted that now is the most visited resort in the world.

52 million people a year come to Disney world but that's what imagination will do only a human being with imagination could stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on a hot August 1963 afternoon in the midst of grave racial inequality and say I have a dream that one day my four little children will live in a country where they are judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. Imagination is in many ways our most godlike quality because God created everything that exist out of his own holy imagination.

Anything is remarkable about imagination is that is you envision something and you imagine it that it can be. It often leads to the fulfillment of the very thing envision is what faith works, and this is why such a problem to worry because essentially worry is imagination corrupted. It is taking that faculty wherein God has empowered us to be on to say, what if we could make a machine that can fly through the air. What if we could have an entire movement that would change what what if we could to change those what-ifs into negative what-ifs that then have concentric circles of other negative what-ifs around them and that's what worry is all about. And the problem is that inasmuch as someone could imagine building an airplane and eventually an airplane comes into existence. So worry also leads towards its object, and I want to show you that today I want to show you what Jesus has done so that our imaginations could be corrected and sanctified, and the invitation. In the end is in Christ to let your imagination run wild salmon right you are listening to sharing the light will have more teaching in a moment from today's important series ever wish you could be a child again ever long for the simpler days when your biggest financial worry was counting the money in the shoebox eliminates the end ever long for the more carefree times when you wish to long summer days would never end.

If you've ever long to be like a child again. Author Alan Wright has some good news.

You can Jesus invitation to become like a little child means it's possible when you make a gift sharing the like today will send you a special bundled gift that includes two audio messages that will help you banish worry that a copy of Alan Wright's book, childlike cards that will lead you into the freedom and wonder of childlike faith.

Most of all, when you make a gift sharing the like today will help us broadcast the love of God to tens of thousands of people every day to sharing this is only possible because of recent financial support.

When you get to the wall, we will send you today's special affect happiness in this tier as I banks from sharing the right ministries, 877-544-4860 or come to my website sharing the right leg sharing the line teaching now continue you once again is Alan Wright look at a story that is familiar one from the from the narrative of the people of God who escaped their bondage in Egypt by the blood of the Lamb and were headed towards the fulfillment of the promise that was given to the patriarch Abraham that God would give his people. A special land and so this special land for the people it come time for them to go and inherit the land and we pick up reading in Numbers chapter 13 and Numbers chapter 13 verse one the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I'm giving to the people of Israel from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man and everyone a chief among them. So God wanted them to send spies into the land and there was one from each of the 12 tribes are 12 spies are going into Canaan to find out why will we learn more about this in verse 17 Numbers 13 verse 17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and send them go up into the Negev and go into the hill country and see what the land is and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are fewer many of the land they dwell in as good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in our camps or strongholds, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees and it not be of good courage, and bring back some of the fruit of the land. Now the time was for the season of the first right grapes.

So there are two reasons God wanted him to go spy out the land.

One was to evaluate the challenges illicitly clear about this is been weeks talking about a worry free life, but to live without worry is not to live without planning is not to live without consideration of the costs of an endeavor is not to live without wisdom of the best strategies for facing your challenges. I think God wants us to live without worry so that our energy will not be sapped from the mission that is at hand.

But there is a big mission that is in front of you. So that's what most ago and in addition to devaluing the challenges I think the most important reason he wanted spy out the land was a one of them to bring back the fruit want to come back and say let's take a look at how beautiful this land is look at was being produced here at the land flowing with milk and honey, and all the people to get excited about the great adventure that was in front of them. Well, what happened was instead of using their imagination to see all the good possibilities they use their imagination. 10 of the spies. 10 of the 12 to bring back a negative report. It started initially with an admission that yes there are some good things there numbers 1325 at the end of 40 days.

They returned from spying out the land and they came to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the people of Israel the wilderness of Veronica � and they brought back word to them all the congregation show them the fruit of the land and they told him we came to this land use as it flows with open honey, and this is its fruit to be a worrier is not to be a person who is unable to see some positive things in life. Instead, it is to have the positive things distorted or overwhelmed by all of the negative thoughts and that's what happened with them. Warriors don't deny that there are some good things with you very quickly overtaken by negative things. So here's what happened in verse 28 however immediately they shifted their attention.

However, the people who dwell in the land are strong in the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendents of a knock there will not was probably a real tribe of people with a grown sort of legendary because they were evidently quite fierce warriors and so now this. And we saw the descendents of the of the knock that were there, but then they ramp up their negative report. Look at the way they start exactly this is what worry does it start ramping up verse 3030 Caleb quieted the people before the Lord.

Caleb and Joshua only two had a positive report from spying once and occupy for well able to overcome it. But immediately watch what happens with these other voices. Then the man who'd gone up with him said, we are not able to go up against the people they are stronger than we are. So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, now gets there exaggerating even more. The land which we going to slide out of the land of ours.

Its inhabitants, not sure what that even means it either means that the land is very rugged and severe in people.

Diana overtime or you're going to be torn apart by the warriors that are there there 40 days anytime you seem to be different and all the people we saw great height body there's huge. And then we saw the next Caelum the sons of our knock who come from the Nexium and we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them in the film were a mythical breed of creature of sorts that was giants that were supposedly before the flood, in which there was some sort of union of angels and and and humans and now they're just imagination has run to the greatest extent there are these huge mythical creatures there and we felt like grasshoppers and they thought we were grasshoppers to us. We worry works and these guys were very advanced. They were skilled warriors you know some people are more skilled than others that were you got your beginning class. Your intermediate and then you got your advanced major beginning worriers are not very skilled in what happens with your beginning worriers is that most the time they don't worry but then from time to time.

There are experiences in which it will cause him to worry for a while I would say is comparable to this many years ago now serve in the church in Durham.

I had a little Toyota Corolla house waiting to turn left to go into the church on a two Lane Road in Durham and oncoming traffic from a laugh and in there and somebody in front of me in a ditch to my right and I couldn't do anything.

As I looked in the rearview mirror and I saw a person just speeding along not noticing me stop there and I knew as a hit and I got slammed in the rear in little whiplash.

Nothing worse than that, but you know you have that happen for four weeks for months after that. I'm looking in the rearview mirror, I win as I don't happen again. And what happens over time. Realize you know what that happen that often and in fact it's never happened to me again all these years later and so I quit worrying about that. That's just how your beginning level of worry life brings edge of some difficult things and you might worry it might happen again, but generally happen. So you move on. Then there some intermediate worriers now these people have developed some skills and this is where you start sinking more elaborately about the potential negative outcomes.

Sometimes it is been built upon your experience and an intermediate worriers they have developed the capacity to brood over things and to envision it a little further out, so this would be an example of me a week ago Saturday when University North Carolina was playing South Carolina and are our football team has been is been a sad story for recent years. I got a daughter in Carolina and so they have won two games each of the last years kids quit going to gaming all this and then we got Mac is back your new coach and so fourth quarter last week and it looks like we don't win the game. It was a pretty important game and we get down to there's a couple minutes left in the game. We got the ball and were winning the game by four points. I think all we had to just sort of run out the clock and there were a couple of just player or coach's mistakes that culminated in with 12 seconds left in the game on fourth down at midfield are quarterback steps back and takes a knee, which stops the clock and leave 10 to 12 seconds left on the clock to hand the ball over to South Carolina at midfield we doing and get a pun of the ball run around little bit done something. Get rid of the clock.

So now I have the ball and has a chance to win and just taken intermediate or you're very long. I was able to conceive of several ways we could lose.

I imagination I figured out what was catalog defender was going to who'd been beaten by a couple steps will be running an estate attorney to make a play on the ball.

He's been running to their receiver Russell floor flag.

They moved down there now that within range of the loan and the enzyme vote. In the end their blades will catch a glancing fall in there and we will lose game our head off Helen right you're listening to steering the light and welcome to a brand-new series year old and Alan is back in the studio here in just a moment. As we continue talking about this teaching a sanctified imagination in today's closing.

Watch the way a one-year-old sleeps, not a care in the world or listen to the belly laugh of a toddler finding joy in the simplest things little children don't know the meaning of dread.

Today, freedom, wonder, and trust come naturally to little children. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be like a child again. Here's the good news you can. Jesus invitation to become like a little child means it's possible when you make your generous donation ensuring like today will send you a special bundled gift that includes a two message audio CD that will help you manage worry and a copy of Alan Wright's book a childlike heart that will lead you into the freedom and wonder of childlike faith. When you partner with shearing the you enable us to share the grace of God. People everywhere to make your gift today and rediscover the piece of a childlike heart shared when you get to write test is only possible because of recent financial support. When you get to the wall, we will send you today's special affect happiness in this eye banks from sharing the right ministries, 877-544-4860 or come to my website sharing the right leg to Alan with this new series. I love the series titled no worries in and something that I strive for your it in my Christian faith thing. Many people do fully rely on Jesus. So let's talk about sanctified imagination are closing thought well this idea of the imagination is uniquely human and so powerful and our imagination was given to us by God. We can use that imagination to run wild with worry.

Or it can lead us into a partnership with God, and seeing the very best that he has intended so to set it apart, under God, that's what means to be holier be sanctified.

Take your imagination and let God use it and that's what you're always encouraged to hear from you whether you visit online sharing the.war or call 877 like 60 again shearing the.O RG or call 8770 IG HT 60 get Alan Wright's daily shearing the devotional in your inbox each morning when you sign up sharing the life who RG this is been sharing the light Helen right listener supported production of sharing the likeness