8th Epiphany 2011
Matthew 6:24-34
Why worry when you can follow.
Medical doctors estimate that more than 25% of their patients are what they have called the "worried well." Doctors spend a great deal of time examining people who are not really sick. They are only worried.
Worry seems to be part of our daily routine. We are often plagued by that "What if?" problem. What if my car was demolished? What if I get laid off from work? What if our house is burglarized? What if I get cancer? If we have a good job we worry that we’ll lose it and if we have good health we worry that we won’t have it long. If our children have left the house, we worry that they might come back home. From breakfast until bedtime our lives are characterized by worry. I have even known people whose biggest worry is that they can’t think of something to worry about.
I love the story of the man whose co-workers noticed that he was as worried as a centipede with athlete’s foot. Someone asked, "What are you so worried about?" He said, "A few years ago I went home one day and my wife was whistling "Tea for Two." Shortly thereafter we had twins. The next year I went home and she was watching The Three Musketeers on television. Shortly thereafter we had triplets." They said, "So why are you worried now?" He said, "Last night I went home and she was reading the book The Birth of a Nation."
It’s interesting how God speaks to where we live because in Matthew 6:25-34 God discusses worry. The reason He does so is interesting. He has just told the people not to let money be their master. He says in verse 24 "No man can serve two masters; for either you will hate the one and love the other or else you will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." But Jesus knew that the reason a lot of people let money be their master is that they are worried about tomorrow. Jesus knows that the average person thinks their worries would be solved if only his income increased. Therefore, having told them not to let money be their master, He gives them a better way to handle the problem of worry.
So how do we stay on the straight paths which God has made for us? The first faith principle is this: Focus on the fact that God will see you through anything, NOT on the bad things that MIGHT happen. How many of you play a movie in your mind of all the bad things that could possibly happen in the future? There is always something to worry about, like: losing your job, aging parents, wayward children, illness, terrorism, just to mention a few. It is easy to focus on the tress in the forest, and not so easy to focus on the open spaces.
So how do we deal with this kind of worry? When we accept the fact that bad things will happen, and a loving God will see us through them, it changes our focus. We begin to concentrate on how big our God is, not how big our problems are. We know that God is able, and that is all we need to know. We have the confidence that nothing will happen to us that God cannot handle, and even use for our benefit.
Listen to the words of Scripture from Psalm 34:17-19 which says, “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry. . . . The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all.”
Therefore, a scriptural definition of worry is, “a distracting care resulting from assuming responsibility that is not yours.” God is NOT saying "Don’t be concerned about your health." He is saying, "Don’t let that become such a distracting care that it is all you can think about. That is MY responsibility." God is NOT saying, "Don’t be concerned about your finances." He is saying, "Don’t let that become such a distracting care that money is all you think about. That’s MY responsibility." He is NOT saying, "Don’t be concerned about your job." He is saying, "Don’t let that become such a distracting care that your job is all you can think about. That’s MY responsibility." Worry is a distracting care resulting from assuming responsibility that is not yours.
The second thing I want you to notice is that verse 25 is a command. It says, "Therefore, I say to you, do not worry." The actual meaning behind that phrase is, "If you are not worrying, don’t start. If you are, stop it right now." Verse 25 does not say, "What are the possibilities of not worrying?" Verse 25 does NOT say, "Didn’t I have a good idea when I suggested you not worry?" Verse 25 does NOT say, "Why don’t you form a committee to decide if it would be a good idea not to worry." Instead, it means, "If you are not worrying, don’t start. If you are, stop it right now." Being this is a command from Jesus in this passage, you can look at it this way: Worry is sin, and therefore a disobedience to a God-given command. It is just as much a sin as stealing because God says you shall not steal. It is just as much a sin as coveting because God says you shall not covet. Worry is disobedience to a God-given command. The meaning is once again, "If you are not worrying, don’t start. If you are, stop it right now."
The first principle God gives is simply this, there is more to life than what you are worrying about. Verse 25 says, "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?"
However, we worry and become obsessed the most about the small things. In fact, a panel of psychologists from a firm called Nightingale & Conant concluded in a study that 40% of our worries are about things that never happen. 30% are about things in our past. 22% are about petty things.
It was also observed that for every person worrying about the end of the world, there are a thousand more worrying about the end of the month. Only 8% of what we worry about has significance. We get overwhelmed with the simple things. That is why God speaks of food, water and clothing in this passage. Life is more than food, water and clothing - as important as they are. It’s the air we breathe, the ground we walk on, the right temperature to walk in. And if God takes care of those things He will also take care of what you are worrying about. So the first principle is: There is more to life than what you are worrying about.
Let me illustrate from the Old Testament. Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt. There must have been 3 million of them if you believe the totals given from each tribe. Now think a minute, to feed a group that size would take about 1,500 tons of food a day or the amount you could put on two freight trains, each one a mile long. To supply water to that size of group would take 11 million gallons a day. But life was more than food and water. They had to cross the Red Sea in one night. Walking two abreast they could not have done it. God provided a passage big enough for thousands to cross at once. At the end of the day, they needed rest. For a group that size it would take a space 2/3 the size of Rhode Island. And remember, they were in the wilderness 40 years. But the God who provided the food and the water also provided a passageway across the Red Sea and the rest at the end of the day. And this is the reason why the first principle God gives is: There is more to life than what you are worrying about.
Then God gives a second principle. That is: If God takes care of His creation, He will also take care of His children. He uses two lines of support as proof. First He says, Look up. Matthew 6:26 says, "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?" The Bible is saying, take a good look at the birds. And the more you watch them you see they get food without the normal activities of sowing and reaping that a farmer uses. God’s relationship with them is as the Creator to His creation. What Jesus is really saying here is, if God takes care of His creation, He will also take care of His children. As the end of verse 26 says, "Are you not of more value than they?" If God takes care of all those birds up there, He will take care of all of us birds down here.
God not only made you, He established the length of your days and your worrying can’t change it the smallest amount, not even the equivalent of 18 inches or one cubit. So what good would worrying do anyway?
Jesus now moves on to a second line of support to prove if God takes care of His creation He will also take care of His children. Having basically said look up, He now says, Look down. Verse 28 says, "So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you even Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now according to the Old Testament, Solomon was the most magnificently attired king Israel ever had. If history records are correct, even his attendants wore purple robes and gold dust glittered their hair. Even so, Solomon didn’t have as much glory as the lilies of the field.
Jesus then goes on to explain the use of these flowers in His day also. Those flowers were "here today and gone tomorrow" because they were used to bake bread. In a stone oven of Jesus day, workers would dig a hole in the ground, and line the walls with stone and mortar; then they’d go out into the fields, cut these beautiful lilies and throw them into a pit. Because a lily has a very reed like stem they were excellent for starting a hot fire that could be used to bake bread. That’s why verse 30 says, "Now if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, oh you of little faith?" The only relationship God had to lilies was that of the creator to His creation. The Bible says, you are more than His creation. You are His children. And if God takes care of His creation, He will also take care of His children.
François Fénelon, the seventeenth-century French Bishop, said, “Don t worry about the future — worry quenches the work of God within you. The future belongs to God. He is in charge of all things. Never second-guess him.” You cannot see the whole picture — only God can. Just because your life seems out of control does not mean that God is not in control. So you have to trust that there is a plan, even if you don’t understand what the plan is. Just because you cannot grasp it does not mean it does not exist.
Jesus was trying to change our focus from unhealthy fear to the faithfulness of God when he said: “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” What helps me most when I begin to worry is to change my focus to the faithfulness of God. I see it in the world all around me. I have experienced his faithfulness in the past, so I have every reason to believe I will experience his faithfulness in the future.
Jesus said, “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” (Matthew 6:31-34). Indeed it does, but if we live by faith, each day has enough joy of its own as well. And that is where our focus should be.
Let me illustrate. An ocean liner was once caught in a turbulent storm. As the passengers put on life jackets and checked the cabins, they found a little girl in one cabin playing alone on the bed. They told her about the storm and asked, "Aren’t you worried?" The girl calmly replied, "No, my father is the captain and he knows where I am." You, too, have a Father in Heaven and He knows where you are. He knows how much you have in the bank, how much you are going to need, what your health is like now and what it will be like five years from now. Therefore, you can live above the level of non-Christians because you have a Father who knows your needs. This closeness comes from bringing God and the Kingdom into your focus.
Over time of studying this passage I have come to the conclusion that there are only two days we should not worry about. One is yesterday, with its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains. Yesterday has passed, and forever beyond our control. All the money in the world cannot bring back yesterday. We cannot undo a single act we performed. Nor can we erase a single word we’ve said - yesterday is gone.
The other day we shouldn’t worry about is tomorrow, with its burden, its hopeful promise, and poor performance. Tomorrow is beyond our control. Tomorrow’s sun will rise either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds - but it will rise. And until it does, we have no stake in tomorrow, for it is yet unborn.
This leaves only one day - today. Any person can fight the battles of just one day. It is only when we add the burdens of yesterday and tomorrow that we break down. It is not the experience of today that drives people mad - it is the remorse of bitterness for something that happened yesterday, and the dread of what tomorrow may bring.
So in closing, I want to challenge you to live one day at a time! Jesus has given us all that we need to hear in order to be freed from anxiety.
• Receive them. Believe them. Make them the means by which you fight the good fight of faith every day.
• It’s not what we see but how we see it that determines the quality of our life. If we look at life through the lens of our powerful and good God, we will surely experience His love and peace.
• We are living in difficult days. But as children of God, we are the one group of people, more than all others that should be free from anxieties of life.
• Worry is a burden that God never meant for us to bear. So let us trust God for what we need!
