Why Worry?

Worrying has been a common habit for most of us. We always worry about the things that's about to happen and sometimes we even worry about the things that don't even happen at all.

We end up having sleepless nights and ulcers-attacks because of too much tension and fear. I, myself is not an exception to that.

In Matthew 6:25, God speaks to us about not having to worry.

v25-26 "Therefore I say unto you, do not worry 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, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet our heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"

God will give us our needs because He is our Father, our Provider, and we are His children. If He feeds the birds of the air, how much more His people whom he died for?

Animals' minds are not as complicated compared to us, stray dogs don't seem to worry what to eat for the next few days, squirrels store food for one winter and don't worry about the next - living life one winter at a time.

we on the other hand tend to worry what we will be doing 5-10 years from now, taking the problems in our own hands.

As Christians, we should learn to be more like them - simple minded and worry-free - they know that Someone is watching over them and taking care of them.

v. 27 " Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?"

Worrying won't add an hour to your life, it might even diminish an hours worth of your life. In fact, most of the things that we even worry about don't even materialize, they occur only in our minds.

v. 30 "Now if God clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"

Worrying does not give us solutions to problems and it is actually Satan's tool for to destroy our faith in God that he will provide for our needs.

As Christians, we should seek first the Kingdom of God and cast of burdens to Him because He cares for us - we cannot do anything about tomorrow neither so we know anything about tomorrow.

But God knows tomorrow (and forever) and He will give us grace and strength to be able to face trials and challenges of tomorrow. Let us learn to entrust everything in His hands because He alone will be able to help us!

Have a worry-free week ahead! :)

Are you materialistic?

In Matt 6:19-24 is speaks about laying up treasures in heaven.

v 19. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

As Christians, we should not be pursuing treasures on earth as these may easily be taken away from us. A good example of this would be the earthquake in Haiti were a lot of houses and structures were destroyed.

Another local example would be the Ondoy typhoon which destroyed a lot of properties because of the floodwater that it brought.

Treasures invested here on earth are easily destroyed - even in just a wink of an eye, all of the things that you have invested are gone. The things we have here on earth are merely entrusted to us by God and everything that we own is still His.

v 20. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and were theives do not break in and steal

We should be investing in heaven because the resturns there are eternal.

v 21. For where your tresure is, there will be your heart also

It is true that the wealthier you are, the more difficult it is to serve God because it is difficult to let go of all the things that one owns here on earth. When we die, where will our hearts be buried? Will it be here on earth or will it go to heaven?

v. 22-23 The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness

This talks about the lamp of our body which is our eyes. As Christians, we should be seeing the things that are good, the things which are pleasing to the Lord.

As Christians, we should be living to work and not working to live. Our perspective in life should change: on a Monday morning, we should not be grumbling that we have a whole tiring week to face because of work but rather, we should be excited to go to work and be a testimony to others.

v 24. No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Mammon refers to your property and wealth here on earth. There is no middle ground - so either you serve God or your wealth that you choose to serve.


There are 3 questions you have to ask:
1. Where is your heart?
2. What are you looking at?
3. Who do you serve?

God Bless!

The Value of Time

Time is indeed valuable, once it has passed, we could never bring back the time that we have lost.



For some it is opportunity that was wasted, but for us Christians, how should we value time?

Psalm 90 tells the eternity of God and the Frailty of Man
v1. Lord is our dwelling place in all generations
- There is a saying in chinese that having 5 generations live in a roof is "lucky" - probably because you will be able to see your descendants and their children, from great great-grandparents down to grandchildren - for a pair to have multiplied to a great number...
God however, is greater than this because:
*He is above time
*He has been present even before the earth was founded
*He has been there from everlasting to everlasting

v3. You turn man to destruction and say, "return, o children of men"
- Our time here in earth is from God, He could take us anytime therefore let us value our time here as it is a gift from God.

Time is very short in earth, a thousand years would only be equivalent to a few days in eternity.

Even if we fill the whole earth with zeroes and let the best mathematician count how many billion or trillion the number is, it will never equal eternity.

This new year 2010, let us be reminded that we have 365 days, approximately 8,760 hours or 525,600 minutes - let us live it for the Lord and invest in eternity.

Let is not look on the years in our life, but the life in our years count - not for ourselves, but for the Lord.

Sermon and Message by: Pastor Paul Tan
Grace Christian Church, Sunday, January 03, 2010