INTRODUCTION
• How many of you here today live a life without anxiety or worry? Please raise your hand. Don’t be embarrassed to raise your hand.
• What are some of the things that you worry about in life? Some things that send chills up your spine when you think about them?
• People worry about everything under the sun. We worry about things ranging from what we will wear to worrying if we will have a job to pay the bills next month.
• Worry consumes the lives of many people. Worry is something that even affects the health of people. Folks who are in a constant state of worry can hurt themselves health wise.
• One man said, “Don’t tell me that worrying does not help. The things I worry about never happen.”
• Worry and anxiety can drain the very life out of you.
• One man found a unique way to take care of worrying about money.
• 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
• Jesus is going to talk to us today about worry and anxiety. These are things that we really struggle with today. Jesus is going to share some insights about worry.
• Today let us see what Jesus has to say about anxiety!
SERMON
I. ANXIETY IS UNFAITHFUL BECAUSE OF OUR MASTER (25)
• Verse 25 is the beginning of a challenge to lean on God in our times of need.
• Jesus is telling us that since we are not to serve two masters we are to not be a people drained by anxiety.
A. Our master owns everything (Psalm 50:10-ff; Psalm 104:24)
• The root cause of our anxiety is the fact that we do not think that our God is big enough to help in our time of need.
• The Psalmist reminds us that our master owns everything.
• PSALM104:24 O Lord, how many are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all; The earth is full of Your possessions.
• How many of us have had a lot of anxiety over money. How many times have you wondered if there was going to be enough money left at the end of the month? Doesn’t it seem that just about the time you think you are about to get your head above water, something goes wrong? The refrigerator goes out, a medical emergency happens. It always seems like something.
• What do we do when these things happen? Many times we start on the path to anxiety. We start to be consumed by the problem. We get to the point that we lose focus on everything except the problem.
• It is almost as if we have a weight on our chest that we just cannot get rid of.
• In Luke 11:13 Jesus said, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?"
• If we have a need, our Father who is in heaven knows the need and will take care of us.
• The English term worry comes from an old German word meaning to strangle, or choke. That is exactly what worry does; it is a kind of mental and emotional strangulation, which probably causes more mental and physical afflictions than any other single cause. (MacArthur)
• In a similar way, the substance of worry is nearly always extremely small compared to the size it forms in our minds and the damage it does in our lives. Someone has said, “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 out.” (MacArthur)
B. Our master controls all (1 Chronicles 29:12)
• 1 Chronicles 29:12 says, "Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone.
• When you start to be consumed by worry or anxiety, remember that the God you serve controls all things.
• The God who loves you does not want your life to be drained away by anxiety.
C. Our master provides everything we need (Philippians 4:19)
• PHI 4:19 And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
• The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety. -- George Muller in Signs of the Times. Christianity Today, Vol. 35, no. 1.
• When we let anxiety and worry run our lives we are really displaying a lack of faith in the great God that we serve.
• Always remember that trials and tough times can make us or break us. Each trial that comes our way is an opportunity for God to show Himself in our lives.
• PHI 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
II. ANXIETY IS UNNECESSARY BECAUSE OF OUR FATHER (26-30)
Verse 30 is the focus.
• The basic thrust of these verses is that a believer has absolutely no reason to worry, because God is his heavenly Father. “Have you forgotten who your Father is?” He asks. To illustrate His point Jesus shows how unnecessary and foolish it is to worry about food, about life expectancy, or about clothing.
A. Food (26) READ
• When we look at this part of the passage we have to remember how difficult it was for the people to get food. It was not like they could not go to Miejers or Shop N Save. Food was an almost everyday worry.
• Jesus is reminding and encouraging His listeners to “look” which implies, to “look and learn” or learn carefully from the example.
• Jesus reminds us that as much as God loves the birds of the air, that He loves us more and we are more valuable to God than the birds that He cares for.
• Jesus is not telling us to quit working, but that we should not be consumed with worry about food.
• Jolene Horn in Today’s Christian Woman gave the following story: While putting my 4-year-old daughter to bed one evening, I read her the story of the Prodigal Son. We discussed how the young son had taken his inheritance and left home, living it up until he had nothing left. Finally, when he couldn’t even eat as well as pigs, he went home to his father, who welcomed him. When we finished the story, I asked my daughter what she had learned. After thinking a moment, she quipped, "Never leave home without your credit card!"
• When Jesus is your Lord, you do not have to rely on your credit card.
B. Life span (27) READ
• How many of you worry about how long you will live? Our society is obsessed with prolonging life. There are people who have bought into having their bodies put into deep freeze with the hopes of reviving them one day when a cure for their disease is found.
• Other than taking care of ourselves, we do not have control over how long we live. I have seen some very healthy people die. As a matter of fact, all of us will die at some point.
• Life was hard and life spans were not very long in Jesus day. This must have been something that people spent a lot of time worrying about or Jesus would not have mentioned it.
• Do you want to spend your life worrying about it or do you want to make the most of your life?
C. Clothing (28-30) READ
• How much time did you spend worrying about what you were going to were to church today?
• In Jesus day clothing was something that people would worry about since you could not go to the mall or Penney’s to buy your clothing.
• In verse 29 Jesus says that Solomon in all his glory was not as well dressed as the fields. The Jews considered Solomon to be the richest person who ever lived. We might say that even Bill Gates could not dress himself as well as God has dressed the fields.
• Jesus finishes this little section by saying that God will take care of us and to think otherwise indicates a lack of faith.
• Remember who your God is!
III. ANXIETY IS UNREASONABLE BECAUSE OF OUR FAITH (31-33)
• READ 31-33
• Jesus tells us that those who are lost are focused on the material things of life.
• For the Christian, we must have a different focus.
• How can we be the salt and light of the world if we are spending our times pursuing the values and things of the world.
• Those who have no hope in God naturally put their hope and expectations in things they can enjoy now. They have nothing to live for but the present, and their materialism is perfectly consistent with their religion.
• Do you have more to live for than the present? How many of us waste our lives worrying about getting material things only to get them and find out that they do make us happy?
• In MARK 8:36 Jesus asks, "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?
• If our faith is what our lives are all about, then we should not allow anxiety to consume us. Jesus wants us to lay our burdens at His feet. Anxiety is not of God.
• Jesus tells us to seek FIRST His kingdom and His righteousness and God will make sure that you have what you need in life.
• So many times we seek everything else, then we seek God and then we wonder why things do not go better. Make God your life and 1st priority and see what He does with you!
• I have seen this so many times in my own life, but still at times I struggle with anxiety. When this happens, we must get our focus back on God.
IV. ANXIETY IS UNWISE BECAUSE OF OUR FUTURE (34)
• When do you see your future? Is your future based in heaven or is it based on your bank account?
• Jesus tells us that each day has enough trouble of its own without adding the burdens of another day to it.
• If your future is with Jesus, then there is no reason to let the cares of the world to get us down.
• God will take care of you.
CONCLUSION
• Is it easy not to worry about things? Not for many. Should we be consumed by anxiety and worry? When you think about it, how many times has worrying about something helped you or fixed the problem?
• Jesus said in MATTHEW 16:25 "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
• PHI 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
• When you belong to Jesus, you will find that there is no problem too large for Jesus to handle, there is not burden too heavy for Him to carry!
