In his book, Jesus’ Spiritual Journey and Ours, Thomas Kepler records the account of a lady who realized that her worrying was running and ruining her life. So she made for herself a "worry table" in which she tabulated all her anxieties. After a period of time, she discovered that her worries could be characterized as follows:
• 40% - things that would never happen
• 30% - things that had already occurred and could not be changed
• 12% - others’ criticisms of her, most of them untrue
• 10% - needless fears about her health, which actually made her even more unhealthy
• 8% - actual problems she could do something about
Those results are very consistent with other more recent studies. But as one health care professional pointed out in a recent newsletter, the exact numbers aren’t really the issue:
Whether 15 percent or 1 percent, worrying never affects the final outcome. Think about it. Have you ever worried a problem away?
[“A Prescription for Worry Warts” by Susanne Gaddis, PhD]
She closed that same newsletter with this thought-provoking illustration:
As I write I'm reminded of a piece of advice that was passed along to me by my now 91-year-old grandmother Bopp who once shared the following: "Honey, there’s no sense in making mountains out of mole hills, as all it does is exhaust the mole."
Though it should never be the case for followers of Jesus, the sad fact is that our lives are far too often characterized by the same kind of worry that is evident among the unbelieving world around us. So it’s not surprising that Jesus spent time addressing that issue in the Sermon on the Mount.
This morning is the third of five messages that address our stewardship in the kingdom of heaven. We began two weeks ago by establishing some foundational principles and we built upon that foundation last week by focusing on how we can be good stewards by investing in the lives of people to help equip them for eternity. We’ll build on our foundation some more this morning as we continue examining the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious 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: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Matthew 6:25-34 (ESV)
It’s not too difficult to pick out the main theme in this passage since three times Jesus says, “Do not be anxious…” and he uses that verb a total of six times in the passage. The underlying Greek word means “to be troubled with cares”, which is exactly what worry is. So why is Jesus so concerned that His followers deal with worry?
WHY WE NEED TO ADDRESS WORRY IN OUR LIVES
• Worry is a sin for a Christ-follower
When Jesus exhorts His followers not to be anxious, He is not giving us a suggestion, but rather a command. And although we can’t really pick it up in English, there are actually two aspects of that command. In verse 25, the command “do not be anxious” could literally be translated “stop being anxious”. The implication there is that His followers were already engaged in worrying and they needed to stop doing that.
But in verses 31 and 34, a different tense and mood is used in the Greek and there the command “do not be anxious” literally means “don’t start being anxious.” The implication there is that if someone is not worrying right now, they need to guard against doing that in the future. So, as you can see, that’s a very comprehensive command – we are not to worry, period.
We know that worry takes a tremendous toll on people. Not only does it impact us psychologically, but it also impacts our physical health. But for a Christ follower, the damage goes even deeper because worry is a sin that impacts us spiritually as well.
And frankly, I’m not sure that we understand just how damaging of a sin that worry is. Because when we worry we’re essentially saying to God “I don’t trust you.” Worry is the sin of distrusting the promises and the providence of God. When it comes right down to it, worry is nothing more than practical atheism – the complete opposite of faith.
English missionary William Ward hits the nail on the head with his commentary on worry:
Worry is faith in the negative, trust in the unpleasant, assurance of disaster and belief in defeat…
Because Jesus understood the seriousness of the sin of worry, He addresses it in quite some detail here in this passage.
• Worry damages our witness as a Christ-follower
We see this very clearly in verse 32. Jesus says that lives of the Gentiles are characterized by worry. Jesus uses the word “Gentiles” there to refer to all who have not placed their faith in Him and chosen to be His followers.
There are plenty of reasons to worry in the world today. The world sits on the edge of financial collapse. Between June 2007 and March 2009, Americans lost $8 trillion of wealth in the stock market on top of another $6 trillion loss in value of their homes. So those who are trusting in the value of their homes or their 401-K’s for their security and their future certainly have reason to worry.
But Jesus makes it really clear that His followers are not to live like that because when we do, we lose our distinctiveness and subsequently our effectiveness as witnesses for Jesus.
So how do we make sure that we maintain our distinctiveness and our effectiveness as a witness for Jesus? How do we guard against becoming just like the world around us? Fortunately, Jesus gives us some very practical guidance on…
HOW TO GUARD AGAINST WORRY
1. Focus on the faithfulness of the Father
When my children were growing up they never had to worry about where their next meal was coming from or whether they would have a bed to sleep in at night or whether they would have clothes to wear to school the next day. That’s because they trusted that I, as their father, would provide for those needs. Well, believe me, I am not even close to being as faithful as our Father in heaven.
Jesus gives us three examples to illustrate the faithfulness of our heavenly Father. The first is food. Jesus points to the birds of the air who neither sow nor reap and yet God provides food for them. How much more will He provide for His children? By the way, the implication here is that God’s children are to engage in sowing, reaping and gathering. In other words, if we are able, we are to work for our food, not just sit around and wait for God to drop quail and manna from heaven into our kitchens. Perhaps that why Thomas Edison said:
As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey.
The second illustration is that of time. Our Father is faithful to give each of us exactly the number of days that He wants us to have here on this earth and no amount of worrying can add even a single second to that time. But how much of that time do we make unfruitful by sitting around and worrying?
A couple of weeks ago I had to go into the doctor’s office to have some blood drawn for some routine lab tests. The next day, the doctor’s office called the church and left a message that I needed to call their office. Based on my past experience with my doctor’s office, I knew that meant something was wrong because I’m lucky if they get around to getting the lab results to me at all if everything is normal and certainly never the next day.
So with great worry I called the doctor’s office. And after being passed from person to person and then waiting on hold for several minutes, which didn’t help my worry at all, the nurse finally came on and said, “Your test results all look great. The doctor said to keep up the good work.”
So my worry was a complete waste. As Glenn Turner so insightfully observed:
Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere.
The third illustration was that of clothing. Jesus pointed to the colorful flowers on the mountainside and reminded His followers that God even clothed the grasses that would soon dry up and be used by the women to help cook their food. So if God does that there is certainly no reason not to trust Him to meet our needs as well.
If we want to guard against worry, then the first thing we have to do is to get our eyes off of our circumstances and focus on God. The apostle Paul confirms this first principle in his letter to the church at Philippi:
Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me…And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:11-13, 19 (ESV)
Paul is probably writing this letter from prison, but rather than focus on his circumstances, he chooses to focus on the God who gives him strength and who supplies His every need.
If you worry, ultimately it is because you don’t trust your heavenly Father. And if you don’t trust your heavenly Father, it is ultimately because you don’t know Him well enough. And if you don’t know Him well enough, it’s not God’s fault, it’s yours. He’s given you His written Word that reveals Him from cover to cover as a God who is faithful and who we can trust completely. You just need to take the time to get to know Him better.
In Philippians 4, Paul also refers to the second principle that Jesus gives to His followers to help them guard against worry:
2. Cultivate contentment
Although Jesus never uses the word “contentment” in this passage, the concept is seen throughout. If God knows our every need and He has promised to provide for those needs, then we can trust that God has given us everything that we need. And therefore we have the ability to be completely content with whatever we have.
That is not easy to do. It’s not natural for us. But as Paul pointed out in Philippians 4, it is possible for us to learn to be content regardless of our circumstances and our situation. Because He trusted in God, Paul was able to be content in both plenty and hunger and in both abundance and need. A little later in his ministry Paul commented further on this idea of contentment in his first letter to Timothy:
But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
1 Timothy 6:6-10 (ESV)
It’s interesting that Paul uses the same standard that Jesus used when describing our needs. Both Paul and Jesus limit our true needs to food and clothing. Anything beyond that, even a place to live, is not considered by God to be a need.
Do you have a place to live? Then you’re rich by God’s standards. Do you have furniture in that house? Then you’re rich by God’s standards. Do you have a car – even an old beat up clunker? Then you’re rich by God’s standards. Do you have a TV – even one of those fat old ones with a picture tube? Then you’re rich by God’s standards. I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture.
Neither Jesus nor Paul indicates that there is anything wrong with the riches that we have. It is not money, but rather the love of money that is a root of all kinds of evils. It is not riches, but rather a desire to have riches that plunge us into ruin and destruction.
One of the best ways to guard against worry is to cultivate contentment in our lives. That’s not surprising, because as the writer of Hebrews points out, true contentment is the natural result of genuine trust in God:
Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5 (ESV)
There is a recent movement called minimalism or minimalist living that has become quite popular. Although the movement seems to have come from adherents of New Age philosophies and eastern mysticism, a recent blog post [Becoming Minimalist – December 1, 2010] does provide us with some food for thought:
“Live simply, so I may simply live.”
It’s true, in a big way, that minimalists have less. We have fewer clothes, shoes and accessories. We have smaller houses. We may have clearer schedules. We might not even own a car. But does that mean we live unhappier lives? Is it always worse to have less?
Of course it’s not.
If we owned fewer things, we wouldn’t have to worry about our stuff breaking, becoming redundant, getting lost or stolen. We wouldn’t have to worry about money, debt, doing overtime, the high costs of rent, gas for our car or our shopping habits.
If we weren’t so busy with work, appointments and commitments our heart isn’t into any more, we’d actually have time to spend with the people we love. We could actually talk about things that we’re worried about, what the kids did at school today or simply how we’re feeling. We could go to the park, have a picnic, go to a museum, theatre, concert or why not just throw caution into the wind and skydive with friend?
Obviously the motivation for “living simply” is not Scriptural in this case, but the idea that we could greatly reduce the things we worry about by taking such an approach to life might be something to consider as a means to help us cultivate contentment.
3. Tackle today
Jesus command to not be anxious about tomorrow goes hand in hand with His earlier teaching on prayer where He taught His followers to pray “Give us this day our daily bread”. The idea here is that we are to live life one day at a time.
I’m not sure Charlie Brown understood this principle fully, but he’s certainly on the right track when he says:
I've developed a new philosophy... I only dread one day at a time.
John Newton, the writer of “Amazing Grace”, writes something a bit more helpful:
We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday's burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it.
Remember that at the beginning of this message I shared that the woman who tracked her worries found that 70% of the things she worried about were either in the future or the past. So if we could just learn to apply this principle and live one day at a time, we would eliminate 70% of what we worry about right off the top.
Jesus is not saying here that we shouldn’t plan for tomorrow. In fact the Bible teaches that in order to be good stewards we should be saving money for future needs. We’ll be dealing with this in some more detail in a couple of weeks. In fact, planning for tomorrow may actually help guard against worrying. So providing for tomorrow is good, worrying about tomorrow is sin.
4. Have the proper priorities
Verse 33 is probably quite familiar to many of us. And Jesus lays out quite clearly for us there those things that are to be the priorities in our lives. The word “first” here is a word that means the first of several options. In other words, every moment of every day, we have a whole range of options that we can seek out in our lives. We can be like the Gentiles who make the seeking after material riches their top priority, or we can be a genuine follower of Jesus and give the highest priority to seeking what He wants us to seek:
• The kingdom of God
The entire Sermon on the Mount has been focused on the “kingdom of heaven”, a term that Jesus uses interchangeably throughout His ministry with the term He uses here in verse 33 – “the kingdom of God.” Hopefully over the last couple of months we’ve developed a pretty good idea of what that kingdom is like, but let’s go back to Jesus’ teaching in prayer, where He provides us with a clear picture of the nature of that kingdom:
Your kingdom come, your will be done…
Matthew 6:10 (ESV)
The kingdom of heaven is simply the sphere in which God’s will is done. It is life that is lived under His rule in which His purposes, plans and ways prevail. It is the realm, as we have seen for the last two weeks, where good stewardship is based on the foundational principle that God owns everything and we merely manage the resources He has entrusted to us on His behalf.
And when we learn to live life based on that premise, we find that we really don’t have a whole lot to worry about, don’t we? Our focus shifts from trying to protect what I have for my own benefit to doing all I can to be faithful with what God has entrusted to me and trusting the results to Him.
And the irony is that when we do that, God has promised to provide for all of our needs. What Jesus is saying here is that there are two approaches to meeting my needs. I can choose to focus on meeting my needs on my own, which will only lead to worry. Or I can focus on being a good steward and being faithful to God and He’ll take care of my needs and free me from worry.
The Psalmist conveyed this same principle in a slightly different way:
Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4 (ESV)
When we truly delight in God, when we seek His kingdom first, then God promises to give us desires that line up with His desires. When we delight in God, then we will no longer worry about all the stuff we don’t have. We can just be content with whatever God has blessed us with and live a life that is free from worry.
• The righteousness of God
At first glance, we might look at this phrase and think that Jesus is speaking here of the righteousness that is imputed to us through faith in Jesus. But remember, that Jesus is primarily addressing those who have already chosen to place their trust in Him and have received that imputed righteousness.
What He seems to be focusing on more here is the character that He described earlier at the beginning of this sermon. The idea here is that we should place the highest priority on developing a lifestyle that is characterized by being poor in spirit, mourning over our sin, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, being merciful, being pure in heart and being peacemakers. Or as the great theologian Will Rogers observed:
We ought to live in such a way that we would not be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip.
That makes a lot of sense doesn’t it? When we’re focused on developing that kind of character in our lives, we don’t have time to worry.
What are you worried about this morning? Whatever it is, God has a prescription for how you can be free from that worry by cultivating a life of contentment that places top priority on His kingdom and His righteousness. Which road are you going to choose?
