In What Do You Trust – Part 8 – Worry and Trust
1. Overview and Review
a. Trust – what is it? Trust is placing the full weight of your care on another without reserve.
b. What is the greatest evidence of trust in the Christian? (prayer)
c. Why can we trust God?
i. Because He is Big Enough to take care of our needs and because He cares enough to take care of our needs..
d. This morning I am going to talk about how worry and trust are polar opposites of one another.
2. What is Worry?
a. Def: To torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts
i. Worry is an EMOTION – it is a feeling, something that we experience.
1. What we feel is a result of what we think.
2. Our emotions are a direct result of what we believe.
3. If we believe something untrue as true, our emotions will respond to that belief.
ii. Worry is an ATTITUDE – it is a matter of our heart. It is a direction that we bend. Our actions are controlled by our attitudes.
1. Change your attitude and you change your actions.
2. A person can carry an attitude of worry around. We call them a worry-wart. That is because it is as if worry is growing on them.
iii. Worry is an ACT OF THE WILL – it is a choice. Either we make worry submit to us or we submit to it.
3. What does worry to do us?
a. Worry is damaging to us.
i. Being a parent, I have had my share of panic-stricken minutes as I waited anxiously to hear if my one of my children was okay following an incident, surgery or accident.
ii. There is a big difference between worry and concern. Some of us confuse the two so that when trouble strikes we worry because it feels like we’re doing something.
1. We don’t like feeling helpless, that our life is out of our control, so stewing about our problem gives us the false sense that we’re somehow helping the situation or our act of worrying tries to assure us that we care.
2. But worry accomplishes nothing positive.
b. Dangers of worry:
i. Worry will rot your teeth: A study by Northwestern University has discovered that worry restricts the flow of saliva. Then, because natural mouth acids are not properly neutralized, tooth decay occurs.
ii. A survey of 5,000 students in 21 different colleges showed that worriers get the lowest grades
iii. An average person’s anxiety is focused on: 40% -- things that will never happen, 30% -- things about the past that can’t be changed, 12% -- things about criticism by others, mostly untrue, 10% -- about health, which gets worse with worrying, ONLY 8% -- about real problems that will be faced
iv. Psychologists have even now defined worry as a psychological disease. It is called General Anxiety Disorder: you stay worried, fear the worst will happen, and cannot relax. Worry so controls the person that they cannot function.
v. I believe that God does not want us to worry. In fact, in the bible, we are told over and over again NOT TO WORRY!
vi. Illustration: Have you ever heard the phrase “Like a dog worrying a bone.” Its an old English phrase that contains the picture behind the word worry. A dog will shake, chew, gnaw and lick and bite on a bone for hours, trying to wear it down. It’s a compulsion. The dog will work and work on that bone unless something of great importance interrupts him. And even when he becomes exhausted of worrying the bone a dog will go and bury it, so he’ll know just where to find it later. Left unchecked a dog will work that bone until it is totally dissolved.
vii. Now when it comes to people, when we submit ourselves to worry –WE BECOME THE BONE. Through worry we allow ourselves to literally have the life shaken out of us.
4. Scripture:
a. Matthew 6:25 Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 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? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ``What shall we eat?’’ or ``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. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
i. Jesus references worry 6 times in this single passage.
ii. Jesus pinpoints 4 sources of worry:
1. Misplaced priorities lead to worry.
a. We focus on the temporal instead of the eternal.
2. Wrong beliefs lead to worry.
a. We don’t understand God’s character and heart for us. We think He won’t meet our needs.
b. But Jesus tells us “God knows your need” and “You are more valuable than birds”
3. Misplaced security leads to worry.
a. Possessions and abilities are our security. We worry about losing them.
b. Our abilities are limited, God’s are not.
4. Thinking about tomorrows needs today.
a. We don’t control tomorrow, Jesus tells us to live in the present.
b. NAS: Ps. 37:1- Do not fret because of evildoers, Be not envious toward wrongdoers. 2 For they will wither quickly like the grass And fade like the green herb. 3 Trust in the LORD and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. 6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light And your judgment as the noonday. 7 Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. 8 Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.
i. Fret: HRX – Chara – fret, grieve, kindle. From root Hebrew word for to be hot, scorched, or burnt. Worry burns up our peace, worry consumes our health, worry steals our lives!
ii. Someone tells about a woman who for many years couldn’t sleep at night because she worried that her home would be burglarized. One night her husband heard a noise in the house, so he went downstairs to investigate. When he got there, he found a burglar. The husband said to the burglar, "Come upstairs and meet my wife. She has been waiting 10 years to meet you."
1. A real burglar can steal from you once; worry can steal from you night after night, for many years. Worry not only steals our sleep, but worry also steals our health and our abilities to cope with life productively
iii. V5: *Commit your way to the LORD, Hebrew, "Roll your way upon, the Lord."
1. The idea is that of rolling a heavy burden from ourselves on another, or laying it upon him, so that he may bear it.
2. The burden, which we have not got strength to bear we may lay on God.
3. The term "way" means the whole course of life, all our plans or conduct;
a. Everything, in regard to the manner in which we live, and all its results, are to be committed to the Lord.
4. "He will do it." That is, God will take care of your interests.
5. Why does God’s Word compel us not to worry?
a. Worry is the enemy of faith.
i. It’s offensive to God if we worry about things that he has already taken care of.
ii. It is so easy to take our eyes off what God has done and worry about what we haven’t asked Him to do. That is what worry does.
iii. Worry not only does it deprive us of peace for today, it causes us to ignore everything God has done and doubt what He can do.
1. R.H Mounce said “Worry is practical atheism”
iv. Worry says; I NEED TO BE in control.
1. Rick Warren says, "Worry is the warning light that God is really not first in my life at this particular moment."
v. Faith/trust says; GOD IS in control.
1. Worry says that God is not big enough to handle my troubles.
b. I would like you to list everything you’ve ever accomplished by worrying.
i. You’ve never accomplished anything good or worthwhile through worrying have you?
ii. Think about that. Worry won’t get you anything. It won’t buy you a new car. It won’t get you a new house.
iii. Worry brings doubt, which brings feelings of failure and defeat. Worry will slow you down and impede your activity.
iv. During the building of the Golden Gate Bridge over San Francisco Bay, construction fell badly behind schedule because several workers had accidentally fallen from the scaffolding to their deaths. Engineers and administrators could find no solution to the costly delays. Finally, someone suggested a gigantic net be hung under the bridge to catch any who fell. Finally in spite of the enormous cost, the engineers opted for the net. After it was installed, progress was hardly interrupted. A worker or two fell, but the net saved their lives. The net allowed them to move on in their work with out fear and worry. (Erik Estep – SermonCentral) Stress and worry are like debilitating diseases that leave you disabled and dysfunctional.
1. God wants us to live a fear free life.
2. He wants you to live a faith filled life, knowing He is there to catch you!
3. God doesn’t want us to be caught up in worry, but rather to surrender in trust.
4. God can take care of any problem and our worrying isn’t going to help Him do it..
6. So what does God want to do with my worry?
a. If we want freedom from worry, we must begin to understand the heart of God.
b. God’s heart is what defines what He does.
c. We either believe God cares about us enough to provide, care and protect us or we don’t.
i. Is there any basis for such confidence? Can we really believe that God intends our well-being rather than our harm?
1. Jeremiah 29:11-14 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the LORD, (use at end of sermon?)
ii. God does this for you because He loves and cares for you.
1. If this is true, then why do you worry?
2. Could it be that you don’t really accept—deep inside—that God loves you that much?
3. Then how do I come to a place where I know—really experience–that love?
a. The bible says that God so loved the world that He SENT His only son, to die upon a cross, to pay a debt you and I owed…and you can experience His love by receiving this gift, by placing your trust in Jesus as your Savior, by turning from a self-led life and letting Jesus lead you from now on.
4. Won’t you make a commitment to embrace the love of God today?
a. The only alternative is to run your life yourself and live a life of worry.
b. Ian Maclaren once said: "What does your anxiety do? It does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but it does empty today of its strength. It does not make you escape the evil; it makes you unfit to cope with it when it comes. God gives us the power to bear all the sorrow of His making, but He does not guarantee to give us strength to bear the burdens of our own making such as worry induces."
iii. Your worries only have as much power as you are willing to give them.
1. Even though they may seem to have a life of their own, your anxieties are produced by you, not some outside force.
2. They originate in your mind, and they need your permission to run rampant.
3. "But I can’t help it!" you say, "I can’t control these runaway thoughts."
4. That’s where prayer comes in.
iv. My final scripture today is found in Philippians: “Do not be anxious (be worrying) about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).
1. Maddy Dale - “Why pray when you can worry!!”
2. Worry is the down payment on 90 percent of the trouble you won’t have.
3. Last week we said prayer is the ultimate act of trust in God;
4. I believe that worry is the inevitable result of trusting ourselves.
v. Prayer and worry are incompatible. You can’t do both at the same time. You have control over which one you choose.
vi. Which will you chose today?
vii. Let’s pray.
d. An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up” (Proverbs 12:25, NIV).
e. “I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears” (Psalm 34:4).
7. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7) (Also see Psalm 55:22-23)
