Do you know the best way to swat a fly? According to the scientific journal NATURE the best way is to take a piece of tissue paper in each hand. Approach the fly from the left and right at the same time, keeping the hands equidistant from the fly and moving to and fro slightly. Then with both hands, simultaneously pounce. The advice is soundly grounded in "flyneuroscience." Dr. Edward Gray of England’s University College, London, writes: "The fly cannot cope with this situation, since its central nervous system circuitry is geared to avoid approaching movement in only one part of its visual field at a time. Two simultaneously approaching threats render the fly immobile, for its central nervous system now cannot compute at which angle to take off." (5) Many of us are like that poor fly. We feel like we have a million things racing through our minds. We feel overwhelmed, crushed by the weight of our responsibilities. We feel like things are coming at us from every direction and thus, like the fly, we become immobilized, not knowing which way to move.
In His book, filled with cosmic events like the creation of the universe, heaven and hell, the rise and fall of kingdoms, and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, He also considers it important to give us some help with this very ordinary human emotion. Why is that? Because He’s not just a God out there somewhere. He’s a God here, with us.
Why do we worry?
1. Life is hard. Bad things happen to good people, to bad people, and everyone in between.
Even the wealthy and powerful aren’t exempt. All you have to do is glance at the National Enquirer to see that they have their share of tragedy. [Example: Cleveland Browns linebacker Chris Spielman retiring due to a neck injury]
Now, so far this seems pretty depressing. But before we get to the really good news, we have to face the bad news. I live in a real world, and I want a religion that deals with reality. Don’t you? I don’t want a religion that plays, "let’s pretend." I want a faith that can stand up to whatever the world has to give, and still come out on top.
You may be saying, "Of course, life is hard. I already know that." But isn’t it amazing how often people try to avoid worry by pretending, by putting on blinders, by avoiding the issue, by refusing to acknowledge the possibility of anything going wrong. It’s like the song, "Don’t worry, be happy."
• We men are especially good at this. Our wives try to talk with us about something that’s obviously bothering us, and we say, "I don’t want to talk about it." Somehow, we think that if we don’t think about it, it won’t happen. Men don’t go to doctors. What we don’t know can’t hurt us.
• How many of you, when you are dealing with some serious problem, have had someone say, "don’t worry, I’m sure everything will work out."
"What will happen, will happen. Why worry about it?"
Of course, it doesn’t work, does it? All this does is transfer the worry from your mind to your gut.
The great comedian Carl Hurley tells the story about trying to throw a trash can away. He said it’s the one thing you can’t get the garbage man to pick up. He said, I set an old rusty garbage can out at the street one morning thinking the garbage man would understand that it needed to be thrown away. He said, when I came back that afternoon the can was stacked up with the rest of my empty trash cans.
Well the next week I put it out again and this time I turned it upside down so they could see that the bottom had several holes in it and it needed thrown away. When I cam home it was stacked up next to the empty cans again.
The next week I took a sledgehammer and I beat the can in pretty good and I left it out front and when I came home not only was it stacked up next to the other empty trash cans but the garbage man had actually tried to beat it back into shape.
And so he said finally I did the only thing I could do. I went to the hardware store and bought a heavy duty chain and a padlock and I chained the old can to a large tree in my front yard. And sure enough, that night somebody stole it.
Worry is a lot like that trash can. We know we need to get rid of it, but it’s not so easy to accomplish.
Helen Hayes was a famous American actress for many, many years ago. She and her husband had only one daughter. That daughter died at the age of 18 from polio. A few years later Helen’s husband died at a young age, however Helen lived to be in her eighties. When asked why her husband died at such an early age, she said it was because he could not get over asking why. He worried about their daughter’s death until it killed him.
I’m not sure where this came from, but I saw the statistics that when it comes to worry:
40% of the time we worry about things that will never happen,
30% concern things that can’t be changed,
12% center in on criticism, mostly untrue, made by people who feel inferior,
10% relate to health which worsens when you worry,
And only 8% are legitimate concerns which you can do something about.
Most of the time we worry about things that never happen.
2 WORRY AFFECTS OUR RELATIONSHIPS
The Bible says, “To worry yourself to death...would be a foolish, senseless thing to do” (Job 5:2, Today’s English Version). But how many people do that.
More people die on Monday’s as they worry about what they have to do the rest of the week. (quote from somewhere? Not sure the source)
“I have a mountain of credit card debt”, one man told another. “I have lost my job. My car is being repossessed and our house is in foreclosure, but I am not worried about it”, exclaimed his friend. “No, I’ve hired a professional worrier. He does all my worrying for me, and that way I don’t have to think about it.”
“That’s fantastic! How much does your professional worrier charge for his services?”
“$50,000 a year”, he replied.
“$50,000 a year? Where are you going to get that kind of money?”
“I don’t know”, comes the reply. “That’s his worry.”
America’s hospital beds are constant worriers. 43% of all adults suffer health effects due to worry and stress. 75% - 90% of all visits to primary care physicians are stress-related complaints or disorders. Worry has been linked to all the leading causes of death including heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis and suicide. An estimated 1 million workers are absent on an average workday because of stress related complaints. Stress is said to be responsible for more than half of the 550 million workdays lost annually because of absenteeism. 43% of all employee turnover is related to job stress. Mental distress can even lead to death. Add to the list the mental fatigue of nights without sleep and days without peace, and we get a glimpse of the havoc worry plays in destroying the quality and quantity of life.
The Greek word translated do not worry literally means “to be drawn in different directions.”
There was a survey taken by USA Today citing major sources of worry. 36% said work is the biggest source of stress – 22% money – 10% children – 7% health – 5% marriage – 5% parents – 5% no stress at all – 19% little stress. You could do this survey in a lot of places and get similar results.
Do not worry means that you stop fretting over your life – stop letting all the things in life consume and takeover your mind.
Someone here may have a child that has decided to go his or her own way and live a destructive lifestyle. Your worrying won’t change the outcome. We may have a sick family member, but worrying is not going to change the outcome. You may be afraid and worried because you’ve heard rumors of your employer downsizing. Worrying will not change the outcome. Who of you by worrying can change any situation in your life?
Worry is, and always will be, a fatal disease of the heart – for its beginning signals the end of faith. Worry intrudes on God’s compassionate ability to provide. When we allow our problems to overshadow God’s promises, we unknowingly doom ourselves to a defeat that was never part of God’s eternal plans.
A colleague, Dr. Mark Miller, recently commented that so many in our society live by Murphy’’s Law rather than the sound advice for living that Jesus shared in our lesson today from the Sermon on the Mount. There are many variations on that law, such as "your line will always be slower at the airport," or "wash your car and it will rain that night." One of my favorites is, "Buttered toast, when falling to the floor, will always land buttered side down."
Worry robs life of all joy and cannot add anything, meaningful or important, to existence.
Phillips Brooks, the distinguished Congregational preacher from Boston, said that he began keeping a diary when he was a 13-year-old boy. He was one of 11 children and was spurred to keep a diary when he overheard his parents discussing how they were going to pay the bills. In fact, his mother fully expected to go to the poor house. Phillips Brooks wrote in his diary that his father looked up from the dinner table and said to his wife, "My dear, I have trusted God for 40 years. He has never forsaken me. I’’m not going to distrust Him now. Now, let us give thanks for what we have to eat today."
The power of worrying often magnifies the challenge that is before us. We exaggerate the problem.
The tragedy of most of our lives is that we worry so much about tomorrow that we never claim the resources that God has provided to live today
But seek first His kingdom and righteousness
and all these things shall be yours as well.
Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
Today is the day God has called us to live
that’s not the way the Bible talks about anxiety. It’s a much deeper problem than that. Jesus talks about it as the basic human condition. He says that we are anxious because we are separated from God. That’s the nature of anxiety. It may take different forms in our life - - depression, despair, resignation, run away ambition, idolatry, making a god out of something that isn’t God. What is the root of all this - - the cause of our worry and anxiety. Jesus would say it’s basically a lack of trust in God.
Is not the life more than meat? - And if God give the greater gift, will he deny the smaller? Luke 12:22.
—Wesley’s Commentary
Joni Erickson Tada is one of these people. As most of you are aware, Joni is a quadriplegic left so by a tragic diving accident. Listen as she tells about Thanksgiving at her house. "I don’t know how it is with your family, but with mine, especially on Thanksgiving when so many relatives are gathered, everybody is talking and laughing at the same time. Then after dinner, Dad speaks a word of thanks, and each one of us sometimes as many as 25 around the big oak dining table does, too.
"Thanksgiving 1967 came. I was in the hospital hooked up to intravenous tubes and to a catheter; I was strapped to a smelly canvas Stryker frame that was both confining and claustrophobic. The darkness in my heart was as dreary as the hospital walls that surrounded me. In my bitterness, in my anger and resentment in my suffering, I felt as if it were impossible to thank God. I thought I could never thank God again.
"Another year passed, and my heart had time to mellow. Thanksgiving, 1968, came. My spirit had begun to soften and my ears were open and once again I was thankful. No more fox hunts for me, but I was home from the hospital with my family. After dinner, in our usual tradition, Dad stood up, and through his tears he said that he was so thankful that I was home. When it was my turn, I looked down at my plate and then up at the faces of my family. I said, ˜I’m thankful that I’m sitting up in a wheelchair now. I’m thankful that I don’t have any more bedsores and that I don’t have to go through any more operations. I’m thankful that I’m home for good. I’m thankful that I found a corset that fits me right so I can sit up comfortably and breathe OK. I’m thankful for my family. Most of all, I’m thankful for God and all his blessings.’ And you know what? On Thanksgiving, 1968, it didn’t matter that I couldn’t go on a fox hunt or that my fingers couldn’t braid the mane and tail of my thoroughbred. It didn’t matter that I had no strength to polish a saddle or drive my car out to the farm. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t help my family prepare dinner or set the table. What mattered was that I was alive and that I was beginning to smile and feel. Thanksgiving 1968 was far more wonderful and meaningful to me than any other Thanksgiving I had ever had before." (6)
From esermon “Winning over Worry” by David Leininger Winning over worry. Nice thought, eh? Of all the living things that God created, we human beings are the only ones that worry. And we worry about everything - gas prices, the stock market, taxes, jobs, marriages, parents worry about children, children worry about parents. You name it, somebody is worrying about it. As of yesterday, four of the top five best selling non-fiction hardback books on Amazon.com were dealing with subjects we worry about - health, change, relationships, and money.
Jesus says we ought not to worry. Listen to him again: "...do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?" As usual, what he says makes sense. We DO worry too much, especially those of us in this affluent society who seem to have less to worry about than so many others in the world. And the result is a spate of problems that we constantly bring on ourselves.
The British born movie actor David Niven was a worrier and a habitual nail-biter. Once he received a postcard written by his friend, Noel Coward, who was traveling in Italy. The card showed a picture of the Venus de Milo and said, "YOU SEE WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF YOU KEEP ON BITING YOUR NAILS."(1)
A book came out some years ago called How to Win over Worry.(2) It quoted some statistics that are probably just as valid today as when they were published in the mid-sixties. The book pointed out that more people die in America as a result of suicide (the consummation of stress, duress, anxiety and worry) than who die from the five most common contagious diseases combined. Twice as many people die by suicide as die by homicide. Fifty percent more people die because of ulcers than die because of murder. Another book by a noted physician called Stop Worrying and Get Well(3) called attention to the fact that worry causes heart trouble, high blood pressure, some forms of asthma, rheumatism, ulcers, cold, thyroid malfunction, arthritis, migraine headaches, blindness, and a host of stomach disorders. Doctors today are quite candid in admitting that more than half of the patients in hospitals are there as much because of the accumulated effects of mental problems as anything else.
The pressures of modern life, and the worries those pressures bring, have had a devastating effect on every one of us. Billions upon billions of dollars are tied up every year in the losses incurred and the cost of treatment for those driven to mental illness brought on by the anxiety and worry which so characterize our society. Thousands go into eternity every year because they, quite literally, "worried themselves into an early grave." Worry is a huge problem.
Obviously, it is a problem that is not unique to us. The crowd that sat listening to Jesus on that Judean hillside could identify with it. Otherwise, he never would have brought it up. But, as was typical of his teaching, Jesus put the problem into perspective by pointing out some things that all could understand. He pointed toward the sky and said, "Look at the birds of the air (those little insignificant sparrows); they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"
That made sense. It has always been true that the God who has provided life also provides the necessities to keep that life going. The point, of course, is NOT that the birds and animals are taken care of without work; that is obviously not true - it has been said that NO ONE works harder than the average sparrow to make a living. The message is that they DO NOT WORRY about that living. And if they, who are so much lower than we in God’s scheme of creation, do not have to worry, why should we?
As a matter of fact, what good does worry do? That is the thrust of what we come across next. Jesus says, "can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?" No one, obviously. I tend to think that, had Jesus been speaking today, he might have pointed out that, indeed, excessive worry has precisely the opposite effect: not only will worry not ADD to your length of years, it will probably considerably SUBTRACT from them...not to mention affect their quality.
In first century Judea no less than almost twenty-first century America, that old adage "Clothes make the man" holds true. The clothes people wear reflect a certain position in society as well as offer protection and comfort. Some are terribly concerned about those clothes, so much so that they spend inordinate amounts of time and money making sure that they have nothing but the best - they WORRY about them...but Jesus says DON’T. To be sure, he is NOT saying that everyone will be provided with the latest designer fashions; what he IS saying is that they do not make any difference. As far as God is concerned, clothes do NOT make the man (or the woman), because if they did, the flowers and the grass would be higher up on the scale of things than WE are. But they are obviously not, and that should be apparent when one considers just how expendable flowers and grass really are.
The necessities of life, the length of life, the quality of life - all things that tend to worry people a great deal. But Jesus’ message is clear: NONE of them should particularly concern us because the God who gives us life in the first place will most assuredly be in control of all the rest. The Lord sums up the problem of worry in one little phrase: "you of little faith." You see, that is what he has been driving at all along. He has not been trying to tell us that we should not plan ahead; he has not been trying to say that we should not be careful; he has not been trying to say that we should be totally unconcerned about what kind of life we and our families have. He just does not want us to come to the place where we begin to think that we are in this all by ourselves. That is the problem that irreligious people have. That’s why Jesus says, "Therefore, do not be anxious saying `What shall we eat’ or `What shall we drink’ or `What shall we wear?’ For those who really are convinced that we ARE in this all alone, the pagans (the Gentiles) seek all these things..." We are NOT alone. In fact, we have a loving God who "knows that you need them all," one who is in it with us to such an extent that even the things that we never think about...things like birds and lilies and grass...are taken care of as well. If we remember that, we will not HAVE to worry.
But there is another very practical side to this whole question of worry: if we spend too much time at it, we will not have time for anything else. And that is the thrust of what Jesus says about seeking "first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things (food, clothing and so on) will be yours as well."
Think about that for a minute. If we spend all our energies worrying about whether we will have enough food to eat, we would never BEGIN to be concerned about whether or not anyone ELSE has enough. If we spend our energies worrying about our health and the length of our own life, we would not have TIME to care about anyone ELSE’S health. And if we become overly concerned about what clothes we have to wear, we surely will not be able to concern ourselves with the clothing that OTHER people need. The message of Jesus seems to be here that the way to overcome worry about yourself is to begin to worry about others. That is what kingdom living is going to be about.
Actually, WORRY is not quite the word to use. He would not say WORRY about others, because the word "worry" has the connotation of someone’s sitting around and brooding about something, and that is certainly not what he would want us to do. CONCERN is a better word. That has some of the same flavor, but it makes for a more active commitment to seeing that certain things are accomplished. If we are genuinely concerned about a situation (like the plight of those who are underfed or the delivery of health care to underdeveloped areas or the provision of needed day care to the children of working mothers), chances are we will DO something about it. If we are only WORRIED about those things, we might be content to just let someone else handle the problem.
Unfortunately, WORRY is about all many of us seem to be able to manage. This affluent society of ours, the necessity for providing only the best for our families, the constant pressure to "keep up with the Joneses," all conspire to turn us into a nation of worrywarts. Even those with a deep and abiding commitment to Jesus Christ are forced into that mold. And the result is that the church, the Body of Christ, we who are the Lord’s arms and legs in the world, have sadly neglected our task. Jesus never called us to impoverish ourselves, but he most surely called us to be as sensitive to human need as he himself is. That is why he warned us about excessive worry: there is a job he wants us to do, and personal worry just gets in the way.
I recall reading of an insensitive and atheistic old witch who one time chided a poverty-stricken young boy about his faith in a living, loving Lord. She said, "If God really loved you, He would see that you had some decent shoes."
That little lad, with more insight than most of us have, replied, "God told someone, but they forgot."(4) What a terrible indictment of the way we actually WORRY about whether our clothes are the latest or our cars are the newest.
In his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, D. A. Carson recalls the fourth century Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate who tried every way he could to suppress Christianity but met nothing but failure because of the distinctive lifestyle he found among believers. He told his officials, "We ought to be ashamed. Not a beggar is to be found among the Jews, and those godless Galileans (the Christians) feed not only their own people but ours as well."(5) To say the least, we have a great deal to learn from those early Christians who, in spite of real REASON to worry...worry about property and possessions being confiscated, worry about being tortured, worry about even sacrificing life itself...in spite of all that, they could be concerned enough about others to look after THOSE needs rather than their own. But then, did they not have the promise of Jesus...Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and ALL THESE THINGS (the food and clothing and so on) will be yours as well? Of course, they did. It is true that we ALSO have that promise, but the difference seems to be that they BELIEVED it far more than we.
Surely the birds do. The poet puts it beautifully:
Said the robin to the sparrow,
I should really like to know
Why these anxious human beings
Rush around and worry so.
Said the sparrow to the robin,
Friend, I think that it must be
That they have no heavenly Father
Such as cares for you and me.(6)
What Jesus wants us to know is that we do INDEED have such a heavenly Father...and because of that we do not have to spend all our time worrying about the necessities of life. We can live one day at a time and not have to overly concern ourselves with all the potential disasters that we tend to see looming just over the horizon. He says, "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today."
Peter Marshall once prayed, "Help us to do our very best this day and be content with today’s troubles so that we shall not borrow the troubles of tomorrow. Save us from the sin of worrying, lest stomach ulcers be the badge of our lack of faith."
Newspaper columnist Molly Ivins tells a wonderful story of two little boys in East Texas: John Henry Falk and Boots Cooper. In their games they were Texas Rangers, so John Henry’s mother sent them down to the chicken house to rout out a snake that had been doing considerable damage there.
They mounted their brooms and galloped down to the chicken house to investigate. They looked all around the nests on the bottom shelf, but could not find a snake. Then they stood on tiptoe to see the upper shelf and found themselves face to face with a big ol’ chicken snake. They were so scared that they both tried to run out of the hen house at the same time, doing considerable damage both to themselves and to it.
Watching the commotion from the front porch, Mrs. Falk could not help but laugh. When the boys finally made it back to the house she said; "Boys, what is wrong with you? You know perfectly well a chicken snake cannot hurt you."
One of the little boys said, "Yes, ma’am, but there’s some things’ll scare you so bad, you hurt yourself."(7) How true! How true!
Near the end of his life, Mark Twain said, "I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened."
A common ailment...WORRY. But if winning over worry is important to us (and for our own sake and everyone else’s too) it ought to be, the message of Jesus is that we CAN win...if we let each day take care of itself, if we make our major concern the welfare of others rather than ourselves, and if we have faith in the God who loves us enough to take care of, not only OUR day-to-day needs, but even the needs of the birds and the lilies and the grass. After all, it is that same God who sent Jesus to us in the first place and made provision for the life we have to come.
Worry? Who needs it? Not God’s people. That is why the Apostle Paul could write to the Philippians, "Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."(8)
Amen!
________________________________________
1. James C. Hume, More Podium Humor (New York: HarperPerennial, 1993)
2. John E. Haggai, How to Win Over Worry (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1967)
3. Edward Podolsky, M. D., Stop Worrying and Get Well, (New York: Bernard Ackerman incorporated, 1944)
4. George A. Buttrick, "Matthew," The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 7, (Nashville, Abingdon, 1951), p. 322
5. D. A. Carson, The Sermon on the Mount, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1978), pp. 92-93
6. Elizabeth Cheney
7. Quoted in The Christian Ministry, Sept/Oct, 1996 p. 23
8. Philippians 4:6-7 END of esermon
A young boy was driving a hayrack down the road when the wagon fell over in front of a farmer’s house. The farmer came out, saw the young boy crying and said, "Son, don’t worry about this, we can fix it. Right now dinner’s ready. Why don’t you come in and eat with us and then I’ll help you put the hay back on the rack." The boy said, "No, I can’t. My father is going to be very angry with me." The farmer said, "Now don’t worry, just come in and have some lunch and you’ll feel better." The boy said, "I’m just afraid my father is going to be very angry with me." The farmer and the young boy went inside and had dinner. Afterwards, as they walked outside to the hayrack, the farmer said, "Now, son, don’t you feel better after that great meal?" The boy said, "Yes but I just know that my father will be very angry with me." The farmer said, "Nonsense. Where is your father anyway?" The boy said, "He’s under that wagon."
Some have said that worry is the interest you pay on trouble that seldom comes. Psychologists have said that 90% of what people worry about never comes to pass.
Havner stated, “ Worry, like a rocking chair, will give you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere.”
Norman Vincent Peale said, “The word ‘worry’ is derived from an Old Anglo-Saxon word meaning to strangle or to choke. How well –named the emotion- it has been demonstrated again and again in persons who have lost their effectiveness due to the stultifying effect of anxiety and apprehension.
A certain well-controlled care-free-ness may well be an asset. Normal sensible concern is an important attribute of the mature person. But worry frustrates one’s best functioning.”
In 1929, J.C. Penney’s business was highly unstable. And so he began to worry and became sleepless. He worried to the extreme and contracted shingles, which is the severest pain known to man. Into the hospital, Penney was given medicine to tranquilize him, but it was no help. He still worried about his business. One night, he felt that he would die before morning, as he was lying on the bed, he heard singing from the hospital chapel next door: ‘No matter what may be the test, God will take care of you…”
Suddenly he leaned up, thinking: ‘it is real! God loves and cares for me.’ In no time he had jumped out of his bed and entered the chapel. And then a miracle took place in his soul, as if he were a little bird suddenly freed to fly out of the dungeon into the sunlight, from hell to paradise”(1648, Paul Lee Tan)
Worry will not just fade away we have to have an action plan to defeat it then we can always ask for God’s help and presence to be victorious.
We need to become like Elisha and see the army of the Lord who is with us. We are not alone as some of you think God and his force is with you.
i. 2 Kings 6:13-17:
13“Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” 14Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.
15When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” the servant asked.
16“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
17And Elisha prayed, “O LORD, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
Meier states, ‘God doesn’t want us to suffer anxiety. In fact, he commands us to “be anxious for nothing” This not a suggestion or a request. It is an order from God. In Matthew 6:25-34, Christ used the word worry six times, and half of those times he used it as part of an order. Do not worry about food, about clothes, about tomorrow, about your life. He told His disciples. To overcome anxiety and eliminate guilt we need to obey God in two important ways. First, we need to call a halt to the internal tug of war that exists between our conscience and our flesh. Tension is eliminated when we make the right choice. Second, we need to make a conscious decision to follow God’s explicit order not to worry. To continue to fret is a direct denial of a commandment from God” (117,118).
Planning is not the same as worrying – Jesus said who would go out and build a tower without first figuring the cost.
Worry is merely a thief
a.) Worry robs us of the quality of life God wants for us
b.) Worry places our focus more on our problems than on God
C. The nature of worry
1. Worry is rooted a German term meaning to strangle or choke worry chokes the quality out of life,
2. Worry is destructive
a.) Quote: “Worry is a thin stream of fear that trickles through the mind, which if encouraged, will cut a channel so wide that all other thoughts will be drained.”,
b.) Worry corrodes and corrupts the mind – removes our focus in life
c.) Worry will erode the good and positive thought and replace them with negative and damaging thoughts
Dr. Charles Mayo -”Worry affects the circulation, the heart, the glands and the whole nervous system. I have never met a man or known a man to die of overwork, but I have known a lot who died of worry.”
In Jesus’ day, they had the opposite problem: there was rarely a surplus of food. One season of harsh weather or an infestation of bugs could wipe out entire crops and leave the people hungry for weeks. So imagine how the people received Jesus’ words from Matthew 6: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 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?" (NIV)
There is an old saying that wherever you see the word "Therefore" in the Bible, it’s there for a reason. What came before it? Jesus had just been talking about money and its ability to enslave us and take the place of God in our lives. He is telling his listeners, most of whom were poor, that their security could not be found in money and possessions. And they’re thinking, "Yeah, right. Where are we supposed to find our security?" And that’s a question with which every person on earth is confronted. Where do we find our security?
Kevin Ramsdell, a customer service agent at Detroit Metro Airport, tells of encountering a frantic customer who had left a book on an airplane. From the woman’s panicked reaction, Ramsdell thought it must be an item of great value.
"Just tell me the title of the book," Ramsdell said.
The woman blurted out the title. It was the best-selling book, "Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff." (4)
The more we worry, the less likely we are to see God’s hand at work and to experience God’s blessings.
The perfect antidote for worry is gratitude. Gratitude is the opposite of fear, the opposite of self-centeredness, the opposite of bitterness. Gratitude springs from faith, and faith results in joy, hope, and peace. When we are able to say, "Thank you God for the gift of life and all the blessings of life," and then to trust God for all our lives--then, and only then, will we be able to relax and enjoy all that God has provided. That’s why the Apostle Paul could write from a prison cell in Rome, "Do not be anxious 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." (Phil. 4: 6-7)
“Worry is the interest we pay on tomorrow’s troubles” E. Stanley Jones
b.) To make preparations for the future is sensible, making good plans is always wise
c.) Making these preparations the focus of life is unwise, to obsess and worry about what tomorrow holds is foolish
2. God is still the same
a.) God is God today and He will still be God tomorrow and the next day and so on
b.) If God cares for us today, he will not change his mind tomorrow,
B. Tomorrow will care for itself
1. Today is our focus
a.) “No man ever sank under the burden of today. It is when tomorrow’s burden is added to the burden of today, that the weight is more than a man can bear.” Gordon MacDonald
What do people worry about?
A. Results of a national poll: Industry Week Magazine
1. Own health and fitness - 73%
2. Lack of time for family or leisure pursuits - 49%
3. Their children’s problems - 43%
4. TIE - Job related stress - 43%
5. Personal investments - 39%
6. Estate planning - 37%
7. Relationship with children - 34%
8. Aging - 30%
9. Income Level - 22%
10. Their marriages - 21%
B. Findings from the study
1. Estate planning comes before relationship development with spouse and children
2. The more important things such as relationships were low on the scale - is this a sign of under value?
C. What do you worry about?
* Finances - Do we have enough money?
* Family & Friends
* Being alone in life
* Failure at something
* Eternal existence
Worry is a feeling of uneasiness about an uncertain or threatening future event. It also is a feeling of uneasiness about a past event. Some worried feelings are normal; it becomes a problem when it interferes with normal activities.
What symptoms can be associated with worry?
*Uneasy feeling
* Anxiety.
* Inability to relax.
* Tension headaches.
* Sleeplessness.
* Heart palpitations.
* Feelings of tightness in chest.
* Belching, nausea, diarrhea.
We put our trust in many things
Airplane: we arrive at our destination safely
Mail: it will get where it is going
Car: we have faith that it will start: we take these kinds of things for granted
Prov. 12:25: An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up. But we need to remember that God is able to deliver us from worry. Jer. 17:7-8, But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
problem not worth praying about is not worth worrying about.”
3 times this passage says to us, ‘Take no thought…’ That means don’t worry. But again God redirects us to channel our thoughts in another direction, replacing bad thoughts w/ good ones…
I. THINK OF HIS GREATNESS.
A. SEEN IN THE WONDER OF HIS PROVISIONS. Vs 26, 28
1. "Behold the fowls" Look searchingly!
Behold their Bounty and their Plenty! Birds are always singing in thanksgiving.
2. "Consider the lilies" Learn and observe thoroughly!
Observe their Beauty and their Prosperity!
B. SEEN IN THE WORTH OF HIS PEOPLE. Vs 26b
1."Much better than they?" To a greater extent more valuable/superior than they!
2. If God does all this for plants and animals, what will He do for us!
3. When we are worrying our Thinking isn’t right,
4. We are Superior to plants and animals!
5. If they are the Glory of His creation, have much more should we be!
The cause of worry—we worry about food, clothing, health [27], and the future [34]
40% of what we worry about will never happen. 30% has already happened. 12% is unfounded criticism from others. 10% is our health. The last 8% is the actual problems we have to do something about. That means 92% of worry is useless! And worrying about the 8% didn’t help the situation one bit!
Ill.—fog. Fog can be a scary, and obscure vision, causing accidents. Do you know how much actual water is in fog? 7 city blocks could be covered in fog 100 feet deep, and yet it’s less than an 8 oz. drinking glass of water. And worry is like a thick fog that will settle in and shut you down, but there’s really nothing to it!
Remember the “Focus Factor”. When worried, you are out of focus.
We try to put things first and add God in later. But God doesn’t just want a place in your life. He doesn’t just want to be prominent in your life. He wants to be “preeminent!” He says, you take care of my business, and I’ll take care of yours!
If you’re putting God 1st, then you have nothing to worry about!
• Remember the “Future Factor”. Don’t borrow tomorrow’s troubles. Live a day at a time.
Ill.—man worked on a barge on the Mississippi / was carrying something and fell overboard / cried help / went under / back up and cried again help / went under / came up again and said, if somebody doesn’t help me I’m gonna have to drop one of these anvils!
So, here we are w/ a load of care under each arm, more than God wanted us to try to carry today, and we wonder why we’re going under!
What is worry? It is a feeling of uneasiness about an uncertain or threatening future event or a past event. Some feelings of worry are normal. Worry becomes a problem when it interferes with our normal functioning, like our ability to sleep, eat properly, take care of our grooming, and having a normal social life and being interested in the events and activities around us. If prolonged, worry can lead to psychological problems, physical ailments, and loss of spirituality (2).
I am not saying you can eliminate worry, but you can control it. It is normal to feel some worry or concern, and that can move us to action. But prolonged worry immobilizes us.
Worry loses it’s power over you when you express it to the right person, when you get it outside of you and examine it, because then you can let it go. Unpleasant feelings are just as normal as pleasant ones, but you have to process them or they get bottled up and drag you down.
