Give Jesus My Worry, He'll Give Me His Peace Series

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

› Engagement

Five hundred years ago, Michel de Montaigne said: "My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened."

A number of recent studies prove that what he said is true. One study found that 85% of the things people worried about never happened. And for the events that actually did occur, nearly 80% found that they could handle the worry better than they expected or that they learned a positive lesson from the experience.

› Tension

While many of us may be familiar with those statistics, it obviously doesn’t keep up from worrying. The CDC reported that between August of 2020 and February of 2021, over 40% of adults in this country had symptoms of an anxiety or depressive disorder. So that means that it’s likely that not only do most of worry, but a significant number of us worry a lot.

› Truth

This Christmas, we have been talking about The Great Gift Exchange that is possible because Jesus came to be Emmanuel, God with us, on that very first Christmas. So far we have seen that if we’ll give Jesus our despair, our hurt and our grief that Jesus will exchange those things for His hope, love and joy. Today, we’ll wrap up that series by focusing on the last exchange - my worry for His peace. And based on both my own personal life as well as what I’ve observed in the lives of others, this is probably the most needed exchange of all.

This morning, we’ll be looking at a passage that is probably familiar to us since it is part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. So go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 6 and follow along as I begin reading in verse 25.

Matthew 6:25–34 ESV

25 “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?

26 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?

27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,

29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30 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?

31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

It’s pretty easy to pick out the main idea in this passage since Jesus repeats it three times - in verse 25, in verse 31 and again in verse 34:

...do not be anxious...

If you’re using a different translation, that command might be worded a bit differently:

NIV: ...do not worry...

KJV: ...take no thought...

Unfortunately, this translation can be a bit misleading. As I think we’ll see this morning, Jesus isn’t saying we are not to think at all about our needs, which is how this phrase would be taken today. That seems to be why the NKJV has changed this to:

NKJV: ...do not worry...

NASB: ...do not be worried...

So if we’re going to understand this command, it is obviously crucial that we understand what Jesus meant here by worry or anxiety.

Here is the best definition I’ve found that captures the way Jesus would have used this word is:

worry =

“a self-concern relative to the future”

We certainly see this right away in verse 25 where Jesus is speaking to His audience about what they will eat or drink or wear or their future health. So right away He points out that this is about the future, not the past or the present. This is what distinguishes anxiety or worry from fear, which is about what has already happened or is happening right now. Anxiety is about what we perceive to be potential future threats.