“Worried Sick”
Matthew 6: 25-34
I read this week of another pastor who very early in his ministry preached at a church in Los Angeles. He thought he had done quite well as he stood at the door greeting people as they left the church. He received one compliment after another; that is until one older fellow commented…..you preached too long! It concerned him because everyone else was giving him positive feedback about the message. Then he went back and got in line, came out to greet the pastor again and this time the man said you didn’t preach loud enough. The pastor thought it was odd that he did this but then he noticed the man was in line again. This time he said the words you used are too big. So now the pastor is concerned he goes to one of the deacons and says hey you see that guy over there? Who is he? The deacon says oh don’t pay attention to him. He just goes around repeating everything he hears.
All of us have worries. Yours are not the same as mine; mine are not the same as yours but we all have them. Pastors sometimes worry about their Sunday sermon (1) we worry that we might not have something to say that will be helpful to someone (2) we worry we might not have something new/fresh to say (3) we worry that we might preach too long and that we might not say enough or that the message is clear to us but won’t be to the congregation. Or we worry that when we give the invitation no one will respond.
From week to week all of us have things that we worry about and it occurs to me that most of the things we worry about are the things that really matter to us. Now I know that’s obvious but I also think it’s profound. Maybe we shouldn’t let things become so important to us that they consume us.
There is plenty of free advice out there for people who worry too much. It goes like this
Don’t worry…everything will be OK.
Don’t worry..…be happy.
Don’t worry…just stop thinking about your problems.
Things will get better.
The problem with all of those statements is that they simply don’t work. They might for a few minutes but before we know it we’re right back in that trap called worry. I doubt that there is anyone here today who doesn’t deal with stress or anxiety or worry at least at some level. Every week. It’s just a part of life. And frankly it always will be . In this life you will never conquer it completely but you do have to learn to manage it. Because if you don’t, worry will begin to manage you.
There are 3 words we are using here and though they are not the same they are very connected and we often use them interchangeably. One person may describe how they feel by saying I’m worried; another might say they’re stressed out; and someone else might describe things by saying that they are very anxious about something. And we all mean the same thing.
Let’s sort of begin here with a definition. When I look up the word worry Webster defines it as anxiety. When I look up the word anxiety he defines it as “to be worried” so these words are definitely connected. Or maybe you will identify with this definition of stress I read this week. Stress is that feeling when our mind overrides the body’s basic desire to choke the living daylights out of some jerk who desperately deserves it. Interesting definition because the English word worry comes from 2 words that mean to choke or to strangle.
One more. When used in the scripture this word worry means to have a divided mind. That one I understand. That’s exactly what worry does to me. We have a divided mind. And it’s a trap. It’s a trap that Satan uses and I believe it is one of his favorites-certainly one of his most effective. So let me ask you what is it that you worry about? More than anything else what’s on your list? It seems to me that we have two lists. There are things we should worry about or at least have concerns about.
Terrorism . When I think of the level of terrorism that is present in our world today it concerns me. It concerns me because I know that what I know about in this area is only the tip of the iceberg. Because most of the things in this area, we never even hear about.
I worry for my son who daily fights this war against terrorism. I worry for his safety. Today he is in another country involved in that battle and I can’t know exactly where he is. So I worry more.
I worry about the situation in North Korea because there are nuclear weapons being built as we speak that are being placed in the hands of a leader who doesn’t have a brain.
I worry about the crime rate in the neighborhood where my 89 year old mother lives….alone.
And I could go on. But for the most part when I speak to people about their concerns; their worries, these are not the kind of things I hear people concerned about. These are the four I hear the most about and you can see if these are on your worry list.
1. Loss of a job. Income. It’s a huge concern in our state. The focus is of course our money.
2. How we will make a certain payment. Whether it’s the car, the house or progress energy. This particular worry centers around something we believe to be very important and we worry because we don’t really know what we would do without that particular thing. The focus here is on things.
3. Other people. Other people’s business. I’m sorry but it’s true. We worry about what other people think, how to please them what they’re doing; what they’re not doing. The focus here is on others.
4. Tomorrow. We worry about the unknown. The focus here is the future.
Jesus knew these were the kinds of things we would worry about. What’s amazing is that he knew it 2000 years ago when this was written down. You see the worry list really hasn’t changed that much.
Look at verse. 25. This is what Jesus is saying. Do not worry. Instead watch your focus. Jesus is not saying that these things do no matter because they do. I believe that most of the things we worry about do not matter. That’s why we worry. It does matter that I have something to eat and drink; it does matter that I have clothes to wear, but here’s the problem…some of us have begun to think these things are more important than life itself. He says watch your focus. Because if you don’t you will fall into this trap.
Verses 26. Here Jesus says do not worry. Instead watch the birds. You see birds don’t worry. They’re not always trying to accumulate things. They don’t store things up. They take care of things in the moment. The point that Jesus is making is not that birds don’t work; they actually work hard to provide for themselves and their family. The point is that they do not worry. You may have heard someone say” don’t worry, worrying is for the birds.” Actually it’s not. They don’t worry.
Watch the birds? Why? Because they don’t behave/think like we do. There are three things he mentions here that they don’t do that we are we constantly doing. We sow. We reap. We store away. Birds don’t do any of these things but God still provides for them. Watch the birds. Why? Because birds know something we don’t know. Birds know how to live one day at a time. It shows in their lifestyle. Everything they pick up, they use that day. Not us. We have pantries. We have garages we can’t even fit our cars in. Because we have so much stored away. Birds don’t do that. Now again Jesus is making a comparison here . How we live to how a bird lives. I don’t think he is saying that it’s wrong to sow and reap and store away. He’s simply saying watch the birds. Their pantry is empty but they don’t worry. Yours is full. Yet you still worry.
v. 27. Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Good question? In fact just the opposite is actually true. I did some research this week and this is what I learned. When we worry and become anxious your nervous system release stress hormones. Called Cortisol. These hormones boost the fat in your blood that the body uses for fuel. This is where we get the tem nervous energy. These extra hormones fuel our bodies. The problem is we don’t use it. So there are at least 4 things that can then happen. (1) our immune system is affected and we get sick. (2) we develop muscle tension. We become tense. (3) we become forgetful. We experience memory loss. We stop thinking clearly. (4) we develop heart disease. We put ourselves at risk of a heart attack.
So this is where we get the term, “worried sick.” Look at this. Researchers estimate that 75-90% of all visits to primary care physicians are for complaints that are, in some way, stress related. Every week 112 million people in the U.S. take some form of medication for stress related symptoms. Our society is worried sick. Worry will not add hours to your life; in many cases worry will reduce the length of your life.
vv. 28-29. Now let’s be honest. Most of us don’t worry about what we’re going to wear. We may have trouble making up our minds about what we are going to wear but that’s because we have too many choices. We usually don’t lack for something to wear. But if you do here is the advice.
Don’t worry. Instead, watch the flowers. Why? Again, because they don’t behave like you do. He says there are 2 things that you do that they don’t. Labor and spin. He is referring to making clothes. Spinning thread. Women in the day of Jesus spent a great deal of time making clothes for their family. It was tedious work. Yet nothing, even all of the clothing Solomon had compared to these flowers. Like the food we store up in our pantries we have closets to store our clothes. And for most of us those closets are full. So watch the flowers. Here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow. And literally they were. The flowers would bloom one day on a hillside in Palestine and the next day they would pull them up and use them as fuel to keep the ovens hot enough so they could cook. To raise the temperature. Here today, gone tomorrow. Yet God takes care of them. He makes them beautiful. How much more will He take care of you and me.
He gives us several things here to hold on to. He says worry is characteristic of the heathen/pagan/unbelievers. Those who do not know God. When you worry you are living like an unbeliever. So don’t do it. Instead do these two things. (1) v. 33. Put God ahead of everything else. (2) live one day at a time. All of our worrying, all of it will not change the future. In fact it won’t change a thing. So stop it.
