How to Win Over Worry
Matthew 6:25-34
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - March 18, 2007
*Tonight we are going to look into the Word of God to see how to win over worry. God wants you to have this victory in your life. We know that because three times in these verses Jesus says, “Do not worry. Do not worry. Do not worry.”
*But what is worry? It helps to know what it is not. “Don’t worry” does not mean “don’t plan.” Yes the KJV says “take no thought” in these verses. But “thought” is one of the words that have changed meaning in the 400 years since the KJV was translated. The old English word “thought” meant “anxiety” or “worry.” And today, of course, “a thought” means “any mental activity.” Our God is a thinker and a planner. He had a plan to save you before the dawn of creation. So “don’t worry” doesn’t mean “don’t plan.” And it doesn’t mean “don’t care.” Jesus Christ was full of compassion for every hurting person He ever met. And He wants us to care too. (1)
*So what is worry? The word in these verses has a word picture of something being divided or cut into pieces. Worry then is a thought pattern that tears us apart. It distracts and divides. Worry turns our focus from our Provider to our problem. But Jesus wants you to overcome worry in your life. Let’s read what He has to say in vs. 25-34:
25. “Therefore I say to 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?
26. Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27. Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28. "So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;
29. and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30. Now if God so 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?
31. Therefore do not worry, saying, `What shall we eat?’ or `What shall we drink?’ or `What shall we wear?’
32. For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
34. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
*Have you been worried about anything lately? Most of us have. If I were to ask for a show of hands from everyone who worried about something this week, probably most of us would raise our hands. (2)
*Mike Fogerson says, “I know people who live in the city of Worryville. They stay worried with a ‘What if this; what if that?’ worst case scenario running through their minds.” (1)
*But God doesn’t want us to live in the city of “Worryville,” because there are serious side-effects from worry. It hurts us. It gives us headaches, stomach aches, high blood pressure and other health problems. And worry is a thief. It robs us of the joy that belongs to us if we belong to Jesus. And it steals the time we could be spending focusing on the good things in life.
*On top of that, worry is a sin. In these verses the Lord specifically tells us three times not to worry. That’s because we can’t be trusting the Lord and worrying at the same time. Think about it. It’s either one or the other. We need to stop worrying. So how can we get out of the city of Worryville?
1. First: Get God’s view on the value of your life.
*The Lord helps us do this in vs. 25-26, where He says, “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 your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
*Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Are you not of more value than the birds of the air? God wants you to focus on the true meaning and value of your life. So, what is life anyway? Here Jesus says that life is not just about what we can put in our bodies or what we can put on our bodies.
*Life is more than the toys we can pile up at home or the money we can pile up at the bank. Life is a gift. It’s a precious gift from God. It’s the awesome privilege of being able to learn and to love, to move and to grow, to be, to choose, to relate to family and friends. Most of all, life is the awesome privilege of being able to have a personal relationship with God. As Jesus said in John 17:3, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
*God wants you to have this eternal life, because you are precious in His sight. Your life has incredible value in His sight. If you want to know how valuable something is, take a look at the price tag. Think about the price that Jesus paid on the cross for you, and you will see God’s value for your life. That will help you to win over worry.
2. But also understand that worry is a waste.
*Jesus wants us to know this, and so in vs. 27 He said, “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit [or forearm] to his stature?” -- That would be somewhere around 20 inches. The NIV says, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” The original Greek word means maturity in size or years, so either interpretation works. But the point is that no matter how much you worry about it, you can’t add a foot to your height or an hour to your life. Worry is a complete waste. It’s useless. It will get you no where.
*Mike Fogerson gave the comparison of a mouse living in a cage with one of those little exercise wheels. A mouse in a cage like that can travel 9,000 miles in his lifetime! But he doesn’t get anywhere. Worry is the same way. You can worry 24/7 and guess what. -- You are still in the cage.
-So a wise man once said, “Worrying doesn’t rob tomorrow of its sorrow. It robs today of its strength.” (1)
3. How can I win over worry? Understand that worry is a waste. -- But also look at God’s care for His creation.
*Just look at the wonder of God’s creation. This is what the Lord wanted us to do in vs. 26, when He said, “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
*Then in vs. 28-30, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so 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?”
*God cares about His creation! So He surely takes care of it. Consider the lilies. As Mike Fogerson said, “Solomon drove every girl crazy because he was a sharp-dressed man. Yet he didn’t compare to the beauty of lily. A lily never worked one hour of over-time, paid a bill or suffered anxiety. All a lily ever does is look up. But God created the lily for your pleasure. You were made in His image. To God you are so much more important than a lily that loses its pedals and fades within a season.
*How much does God care about the things that cause your worry? He displayed it on a cross 2,000 years ago! Why would God suffer and die for the same children He planned to neglect? (1)
*Consider the lilies. Take a careful look at them and you will see God’s care. But that means we have to slow down. Ken Kersten says, “I think there is a correlation between hurry and worry. They are intertwined with each other. And maybe one of the reasons we worry so much is that we are part of a society that is more on the clock and in a hurry than ever before.
*Ken tells the story he read about a city that was having problems with their busses. The busses were driving right past passengers at the bus stops. It caused quite a controversy in the news, especially after someone in the Transit Authority put out a press release that said, ‘It is impossible for us to maintain our schedules if we are always having to stop and pick up passengers.’
*When we’re in a hurry we can miss the main things. And so we worry. As John Ortberg says, ‘For most of us, the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.’
*Consider the lilies. We need to slow down so that we can remember what really matters. We need to slow down and remember that:
-(God) is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. (Eph 3:20)
-And that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. (Rom 8:28)
-Greater is He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (1 John 4:4)
-The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want. (Ps 23:1)
-God created the heavens and the earth. (Gen 1:1)
-And there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1)” (3)
4. How can I win over worry? Look at God’s care for His creation, and have faith in the Father’s understanding.
*The Lord leads us to trust the Heavenly Father in vs. 31-32, where Jesus said, “Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.”
*God knows your needs. His wisdom, understanding and knowledge are infinite. He knows all of your needs. And God knows that the thing you need more than anything else in the whole universe is Him. He truly wants to have a personal relationship with you. He wants to be your perfect, Heavenly Father. That’s why 12 times in this chapter Jesus talks about God being a Father. God wants to be your Father. That’s why He sent His Heavenly Son into the world. Jesus came to die on the Cross in our place. He took our death and all of the punishment for our sins. Then Jesus rose again, giving us a way to be forgiven and accepted into the Family of God by placing our faith in Him.
*Then as we live out our new life in Christ, we should be learning more and more to place full faith in our Heavenly Father, because He truly knows what we need. And He is working in every situation. I saw this last week in a story about Bill Bouknight. He is a Methodist preacher who has blessed me with good stories over the years. But I never knew that Bill lost his son, Aaron, to cancer when he was eight-years-old.
*At the church where Bill served there was a young man who occasionally came to work on the air conditioning system. He knew Bill’s family well. Several years after Aaron died the air conditioning man came to see Pastor Bill. And he said that Aaron’s death had changed his life. He said that before that awful loss, he had been living for the devil as hard as he could. But the death of that child whom he knew made him ask for the first time, “What is eternal? Where can I find any real security in this world? How would I survive if my own child died?”
*Those questions led that young man to conclude that Jesus Christ is the only One who could meet his deepest needs. He made a full commitment of his life to Christ. And after that, almost every time he worked at the church he would knock on my door and say, “I will never forget Aaron.” So Pastor Bill said, “God took our heartbreak and used it for good.” (4)
*Christians, sometimes life will break your heart, but our Heavenly Father knows best. He knows exactly what you need every day of your life.
5. How can I win over worry? Have faith in the Father’s understanding, and put first things first.
*Jesus clearly tells us to do this in vs. 33, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all these things shall be added to you.”
*What’s number one in your life? Who is number one in your life? The only right answer to that question is Jesus Christ. All of us need to put Jesus first in our lives. He is worthy of our love and total devotion. And the more we really put Jesus first in our lives, the less we will worry. That’s why Rick Warren says, “Worry is the warning light that God is really not first in my life at this particular moment, because worry says that God is not big enough to handle my troubles.” (5)
*The antidote to worry? -- Put God first! Alexandra Pelosi is starting to learn to put God first. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Alexandra’s mom is ultra-liberal Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. But Alexandra is a film maker and last January she had a unique documentary on HBO. It was called “Friends of God,” a film about Bible-believing Christians like you. Alexandra traveled through 16 states to get her story, and when it was done, she said, “I believe in the culture war. And you know what? If I have to take a side in the culture war I’ll take (the Christian) side, -- Because if you give me the choice of Paris Hilton or Jesus, I’ll take Jesus.” (5)
*Alexandra Pelosi is at least beginning to see what matters most in life. All of us need to put first things first.
6. How can I win over worry? Put first things first, and take on trouble one day at a time.
*In vs. 34 Jesus said, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” In other words, “Don’t worry about tomorrow, because it’s more that you can handle.”
*Mike Fogerson gave this comparison: “Have you ever tried to carry all the grocery bags in at once, and didn’t make it. After you clean the eggs off the drive-way, you decide next time to make a second trip. Jesus is telling us to carry today’s bags today and make a fresh trip tomorrow.
*Mike also gave this advice to take on trouble one day at a time:
1-Don’t worry about tomorrow’s stress. Stay in one square at a time.
2-Don’t worry about yesterday’s mess. Forgive yourself of yesterday’s failures. God has.
3-Don’t worry about yesterday’s success. Paul didn’t worry about “topping” himself.
4-Don’t worry about yesterday’s distress. Life may have tripped you up, but keep walking with the Lord. (1)
*Don’t worry about tomorrow, because it’s more that you can handle. And don’t worry about tomorrow, because your future is safely held in the Hands of God. If you know Jesus, your future is safely held in the Hands of God.
*If you are walking through the country roads in India, you will sometimes come across a post with a sturdy shelf about shoulder height. It is the “Soma Tonga” which means "resting place." When people are traveling with a heavy load, they place their heavy load on the shelf for relief. --And once they are rested they continue their journey. What do you think the Christians in India sometimes call Jesus Christ? He is my “Soma Tonga,” -- My resting place. (1)
*You can cast your cares on Him, knowing that your future is safely held in the Hands of God. Sometimes we will find ourselves right in the middle of Worryville, but we don’t have to stay there. Let Jesus Christ help you win over worry one day at a time.
(1) Adapted from SermonCentral Sermon “Winning Against Worry” by Mike Fogerson - Matt 6:25-34
(2) Adapted from SermonCentral Sermon “Worry - Champion or Chump” by Tony Britt - Matt 6:25-34
(3) Adapted from SermonCentral Sermon “Living the Worry Free Life” by Ken Kersten - Matt 6:25-34
(4) christianglobe.com sermon “Why Did God Allow That To Happen?” by Bill Bouknight - John 9:1-41
(5) Houston Chronicle, 1/20/7, p.F1 (Found in “In Other Words” - March2007_2) (IN OTHER WORDS is produced by Dr. Raymond McHenry, Senior Pastor of the Westgate Memorial Baptist Church in Beaumont, Texas. 6130 Barrington ~ Beaumont, Texas 77706 (800) 553-4697 www.iows.net)
