SCRIPTURE: Matthew 6:24-34
INTRO (ILLUS.): Do you have a worrier in your family? Someone who can just find something to worry about in every situation possible? I saw this illustration recently and it really struck me because I have a family member like this.
This young couple. When their first baby was born it about tore them apart. The wife wasn't able to sleep at night. Every time there was the least little whimper from the nursery, the husband would wake the wife up and say, "Go see why the baby's crying."
After about a week of this she was suffering from sleep depravation. She worked as well as he did, and she couldn't hardly function during the day. She complained to her co-workers about this one day and one of them suggested a book on infant massage.
She immediately went out and bought the book and tried it out - gently rubbing the baby's back, arms, head, and legs until the baby was completely relaxed and had fallen into a deep sleep.
Quietly tip-toeing from the nursery she made her way to bed in the hopes of enjoying a well deserved full night of sleep. No such luck! In the middle of the night, the husband woke her up in a panic, "Get up honey! Go see why the baby is not crying!"
What do you do with those people who just worry constantly? Those people who look past any silver lining a cloud might have, into the dark of the storm? You listen to them fuss and fume and worry and you wonder if they have any peace in their lives at all. The sad part about it is that many of these same folks claim to be Christians, many of them are in our churches. But I have to wonder: Have they ever really even heard the teachings of Jesus?
I). Jesus is in the middle of one of His greatest teachings: The Sermon on the Mount. Too often we link the Sermon on the Mount with just the Beatitudes. You know, those "Blessed are's" in Matthew 5:3-11. But the Sermon on the Mount is so much more that that. The Sermon on the Mount goes from Matthew 5:3 all the way to Matthew 7:27 (107 verses!)
Yes, it begins with "Blessed are..." but then it goes to being salt & light - teaching righteousness, love, godliness and prayer. Putting God first, not being a critical person and doing th will of God. Finishing up with 7:26-27 (read). And right in the middle, in 6:24-34, is Jesus' teaching about worry and trust.
II). True Trust: Do You Have WHO It Takes? So what is Jesus teaching here? He begins by telling us not to worry. Worry never satisfies our needs and always destroys our peace. Look at the definition of worry: "To torment ourselves with cares and anxieties."
So what is it that we worry about and what can we do about it? Jesus mentions several different things that we worry about, but I want to sum it up in just two things:
III). First, we worry about things within us. Basically, we worry about life! Verse 25, "Do not worry about your life." God is not saying not to take care of your body: 1 Corinthians 6:19 tells us that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. We need to care for our temple! But when we worry about our lives to the extent that it overcomes our living then we have a problem! That next verse (! Corinthians 9:20) says, "for you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" We are not to WORRY about our lives because, as Christians, our lives belong to God. Do we have enough trust in Him to believe that He will care for us (as His bride, "in sickness and in health"???)
IV). Second, we worry about the things beside us. "Do not worry about...what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear." (v. 25b). Basically these are the things on the outside that we worry about. Jesus mentions here what we wear. I know some people who spend so much time worrying about what they are going to wear each day. I know other people (and some of them are the same people) that spend so much time checking out, and judging, what other people are wearing. Being the "fashion police" really isn't what Jesus is talking about here.
Again, it's a matter of trusting God to provide for us. The problem isn't what's showing on the outside, but worrying about it. People are missing out on Heaven because they are worried that they don't have the "right" clothes to wear to Church. And instead of the church telling them."Hey, don't worry about it. That's not what's important to come to know God." We encourage it! You hear people say: "Just look at what she had on today - I can't believe that she'd wear that into God's house." Yes, we should come dressed modestly and respectfully, but Jesus also said, "Don't worry about it. Your life is more than what you wear."
V). True Trust is getting away from worry and getting to know God. (read Matthew 6:31-32). When we worry we act like people who don't know God! Jesus calls us "little faiths" (v. 30). But if we truly know God, then we know that He knows what we need before we let Him know about it. Philippians 4:19, "And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory."
So do you have WHO it takes to quit worrying about your life and what's going on around you? Jesus said (Matt. 6:33), "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you." Don't worry about it. You seek God and He'll give you what you need! You don't nned to have what it takes to quit worrying - you need to have WHO it takes.
Worry is a disability! It keeps us from living healthy lives today because it cripples us with what we imagine might happen tomorrow! True trust is knowing that God will give us the grace to face each days' troubles as it comes. "So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today." (v. 34). John Wesley said that if we will seek the kingdom fo God first, after a while it will be the only thing we will truly seek after. And Jesus said when you do that, "all these things will be added unto you."
