DON’T WORRY, SHE’LL HOLD TOGETHER
Not many of you guys knew me when I was just a little punk in form 2. Well to tell you one thing about me, I was short. You know short, not short as in a couple of cm’s below everyone – try a head below everyone else. My nick name’s were shorty or short stuff, or words to that effect. Most of the girls were taller as well, that didn’t matter though, cos because I was short, most of the girls thought I was cute. Not cute as in Ben Afleck cute, but cute as in ‘oh look at the little short guy’. (Don’t get me wrong I don’t think Ben Affleck is cute, but most of you girls do). Anyway, I had my share of ‘crushes’ that year, (you know form 2 crushes) but the time I want to tell you about was about two weeks before the school social. There were the couples in the class all ready to go to the social together, (well together means, their parents drop them off and they meet up and then their parents picked them up again, you know form 2) and I wanted to have a girl on my arm as well. So I put my girl radar on and tried to see if there was anyone I might want to ‘go around with’ (do you remember that term, well that was the one that was used at ANI). Straight away I saw a girl (I can’t remember her name, but let’s call her Dorris). I had talked to her a bit and I thought ‘well she seemed cool, I might be able to win her with the old ‘Steven charm’. But then I thought nah, I’ll just go with my mates and have a good time making sure I didn’t dance (you saw my dance moves at youth group last week – you can tell why). But I really wanted to go with Dorris, but wouldn’t work up the guts to ask her. I told my mates and they were like, yea yea ask her man, she’ll say yes. So the first week went by and I realised I only had one week left to ask her. It was on the Thursday night I think and I realised that I had to ask her pretty soon. But no, I waited and Friday ended and the weekend came. All weekend I was going through what I would say when I saw her on Monday. Monday came, and I didn’t say anything. On Tuesday however, I actually started to walk up to her, but quickly walked away as soon as I got within 5 meters of her. So Tuesday ended and I went home, annoyed with myself that I hadn’t asked. Wednesday decided to come next (funnily enough) and I was thinking, you have to do it today, you have to do it today! But sure enough, the butterflies got the best of me and I didn’t. Thursday I had pretty much given up, but it came to 2:50 and I though, oh what the heck, she can only say no. (Whatever that I thought that but I must have thought something to make me go and ask. So I went up to her and said something like, “Uh, um well um, oh um um well yea um Dorris”? Yes she said, “Um well would, um you well um uh like, do you want to go around with me?” She paused, probably for only about 2 seconds but it seemed like ages, so I said “just for the social if not for more”, and she said “OK”. I was so out of breath I could hardly say anything, so I just said “cool, see you tonight”, and walked off. I walked away, thinking yeah, I’m the man!. A little voice in my head said to me something like ‘all that worry and she said yes, she would’ve said yes two weeks ago’. I told myself to shut up. I’m sure we’ve all had stories about where we’ve worried about something for ages, and tonight I want to be able to show you that we don’t need to worry. But first lets pray.
Tribute To James And Brian
Worrying is something that I’m sure we all have done and still do all the time. What sort of things did you come up with that you worry about? Most of these things, we probably all have worried about before, but what I want to say here now is that we don’t have to worry. Well I didn’t say it, Jesus did, but I’m just telling you what he said.
But before I continue, I’d like to pay tribute to James and Brian. I spent the bulk of my week writing this and probably about as much time thinking man this is way too much for me and it hit me that James and Brian do this pretty much every week. This is my first and I’m sure it gets easier with practice but still, I think we should give them a big round of applause to thank them for their hard work on preparing the messages for us.
It is a commandment not to worry
Anyway, we heard in the reading that Jesus said not to worry. In other words, we were commanded not to worry. In verse 22, it says (turn with me, if you please) ‘Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.” Now for most of us, we have never had to worry about what we were going to eat past whether we should have, sunny side up or flipped eggs, or white or brown toast. But Jesus was talking to his disciples who were leaving their homes to go into foreign towns, cities and countries to tell people about Jesus. If Jesus was going to tell us the same thing, but now, he might say: “So anyway, don’t worry about what you get in your exams, or what label is on your hoody”. Vs 23 says “Life is more than food and the body is more than clothes”. With this he tells us why we shouldn’t worry. Life is more than your marks and it’s more than what you look like. He could have used the old Rebok slogo, Life is Short – Play Hard, don’t muck around with worrying because there are far more important things to do.
What, Worry is a sin?
Just before Jesus had said these things to his disciples, he had been talking to a huge crowd about the sins of greed and selfishness. It seems to make sense that he would move onto that of worry after these because worry is generally caused by these two things. Greed can never be satisfied, whatever someone greedy has, they always want more and selfishness might be happy with what the have, but will not share what they have with anyone. Worry comes from these things. What, did I say that worry is a sin? Well, that’s what it says. That sounds a bit harsh, especially when put in the context of this next story I have for you. Most of you know that I was run over by a truck almost 5 years ago. That was in July 1996 and in March of ’97 I went back to the hospital to get one of the pins that had been put in my leg the last year out. I knew about the operation probably about three weeks before it happened, and it meant another general anaesthetic meaning I was going to get completely knocked out by ‘drugs’. Some of you might be thinking what’s to worry about? Well, the last thing they tell you before they tell you to count down from 10, is that there is a slim possibility that you won’t come out of this. By the time you’re brain processes this they have told you to start counting so you’re like what?!!! – Ten, Nine Eight Sevv…. and you’re out for it.
So anyway, I’m doing my thing, for the three weeks trying not to think about it, worried about what will happen for the night’s I’m in the hospital, worrying about the fact that they starve you for 24 hours before the operation, worrying about the disgusting hospital food that is served when your back and have stopped wretching from the anaesthetic not agreeing with your body. A bit too graphic, maybe – sorry about that.
So I’m not looking for sympathy, but you can give it if you want, - come on oooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh. But I ask, how can that worry be called a sin, it seems fair enough, doesn’t it? Well I hope it does, otherwise that illustration is pointless, but my point is, I shouldn’t worry when I know God is in control. If he wanted me to die during the operation, so be it, it would be better than hopping along here for the next 50 years or something. My faith and so called trust in God should have prevented me from worrying. In the same way, we need to put our trust in God with the big things that we can’t do anything about, Jesus makes this point in verse 25. In case you’re interested, the anaesthetic didn’t kill me and I have the pin here to prove it.
Who can add time to your life?
To make the point, Jesus says in verse 25 “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” Well I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of any way to add time to my life – it’s not humanly possible. Jesus is continuing to make the point by bluntly saying obvious things so the disciples will understand. He is referring to the parable of the ‘rich fool’ which is the passage before this (verses 13 to 21). I won’t read it but it’s about this rich guy who gets a huge harvest and ends up having too little space to store everything. So he tears down his old barns and builds bigger ones to store everything up in. He is expecting to have the rest of his life to eat drink and be merry. God then says to him you fool and the long and the short of it, he strikes him dead, leaving the rich guy with no time to prepare for what happens after death. Who wants to worry about little we can’t change now? Jesus tells the parable to the people to warn them about greed, which leads to worrying. I really like how Jesus’ stories are straight to the point. You can’t really misinterpret God striking someone dead as a good thing can you? Like I said, worrying is futile.
Jesus uses Examples to prove his point
We need to have a faith that is strengthening every day, and this will prevent us from worrying so much. Jesus uses two examples in this passage. The example about the ravens and the example about the flowers. They are in verses 24 and 27- 28. Verse 24 says, ‘Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable are you than birds! And verses 27 and 28 say, ‘Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you? For us, it could mean that even if you are not a Christian, God still cares for you and can provide for you. Jesus says both times at the end of the examples ‘How much more valuable are you?’ This is the main point of what Jesus was trying to get across. If God provides for the birds and the flowers in that way, how much more will he provide for us who are much more important than animals and plants. This being the rhetorical question to make the point, that God cares way more for us, so worrying is futile, as He is in control.
O you of little faith!
The last part of verse 28 Jesus says “O you of little faith”. This verse was a relief for me personally because it showed Jesus wanting to smash his disciples for not having the faith to trust God. Most of the time we hear how holy and everything the disciples were and the sometimes can get seem to get a bit of a ‘super human’ label after hearing things like Peter converting the 3000 after speaking one message. This verse shows that they were human after all, and even in the physical presence of Jesus, they still worried about things. So from that, we can be encouraged to know that we are not the first and we wont be the last to worry about things and frustrate God.
Jesus tells us to do what, to not worry?
Seek first kingdom of God
So what does Jesus tell us to help us not worry? He says three things, 1, Seek first the kingdom of God. 2, Sell your possessions and 3, Give to the poor. No what on earth does seek first the kingdom of God mean? It means strive to live out a Godly life that will bring honour to His kingdom. It means that we should be spending time with him, developing the spiritual habits that James is talking about at the moment and we’ve been doing in our small groups. Seeking is looking and so the best place to look, is directly at God’s word.
Sell your possessions and give to the poor
The second and third things Jesus says to do is Sell your possessions and Give to the poor. You might be thinking – WHAT!!!!? We have to sell our possessions and give to the poor to stop worrying? That doesn’t seem like an easy way to stop worrying. If we have to sell our stuff, stuff that we quite often rely on – how are we meant to stop worrying? Well if you thought anything like that – good, because that’s exactly what Jesus expected and it’s exactly what he wants to change in your thinking. If you have things that you aren’t willing to give up in your life, then that means that there are priorities over trusting in God. You are setting your heart on things that in the end, don’t even matter. Something to point out is Jesus does not say ‘Sell ALL of your possessions’. If He said, Right off you go, sell everything, your house, your car, your clothes, your school books any food you have in your pantry, that would be fairly ridiculous to expect humans who only think about themselves to do that. But he doesn’t say that. The disciples would have been travelling for most of the time that they were spreading the gospel, they didn’t actually need most of their possessions. I’m sure it still would have been a huge sacrifice for them to sell the things they didn’t need, or couldn’t take with them. In the same way, we must be willing to give things up in our lives because trusting in possessions, prevents trusting in God. If we do put more trust in possessions than in God, we will be overwhelmed with all of the worries of this life. It says this in Luke 8:14, ‘The seed that fell among thorns stand for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures so they do not mature’. There are those of us here who maybe are a bit further along than just the seed of your relationship with Jesus being planted, but in the same way, we can get choked by the worries of the world just as easily as new Christians can.
Do not set your heart on what you will eat and drink.
In verses 29-30 Jesus says ‘And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after those things’. Then in verse 34 He says ‘For where your treasure is there your heart will be also’. If we concentrate on things other than what God wants us to be concentrating on, we are ignoring his commandments and will end up worrying about the littlest things that we can’t do anything about, which will lead to us worrying about the bigger things. So the world runs after possessions, and we see this everyday. The world that we live in today, has one reason for us to be here and that is to get everything you can for yourself, and don’t worry about anyone else. This is called materialism and it is the complete opposite to what God wants us to do and trust in. If we only care about possessions, then we will never think about God, we’ll never try to seek his kingdom because that is not our priority.
How do we today, not worry?
So practically, how do we today not worry about things that life will inevitably happen. We all have bad times and we all have things in our lives which are completely out of our control. This passage from the Bible should be encouraging to us not discouraging. Although we are told that something we do a lot without thinking about it is a sin, and we should trust in God completely, Jesus tells us that we are more valuable to God than anything else in the world and that he will provide.
God knows our needs, trust him!
In the second half of verse 30, it says that ‘the Father knows that you need them’ talking about food and clothes. God knows our needs and he will provide for us. In Phillipians 4:19 it says ‘And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus’. So we can be happy that we don’t need to worry about anything because what we need, God has promised to provide. Now am I saying that we don’t need to give any thought about our future, as in we here that God is going to provide everything we need so we shouldn’t try to do anything at all because God has promised it? No, of course I’m not saying that, and I’m also not saying that God is going to buy us our house, the latest clothes, CD’s and DVD’s. He will provide, but as He sees fit, He’s not going to let us die if we’ve all got a plan for our lives.
Don’t centre on your anxieties!
You might be wondering why we saw that small clip of Star Wars at the start. Yes it did have a point, and no I didn’t just put it in there for the sake of having something to do with Star Wars in my sermon. But as we saw in the clip, Obi Wan was told that he shouldn’t centre on his anxieties, and he should be mindful of the future, but not at the expense of the moment. An easy example to understand this would be, have you ever asked someone to pray that your exam goes well? They as your loving Christian brother or sister say sure. So they pray for your exam, you think sweet, God is going to help me because he has said he will provide my needs, and I REALLY NEED to pass this exam, so I’ll just go off and watch Pearl Harbor (there’s punishment enough for not studying). You get the mark back at the end, you might scrape through or not and you think what, God didn’t help me after all. God won’t just give us things without a cost for us. Something’s he might, but mainly we have to work to get something. No study means no pass, study hard and God will give you extra strength to do as well as you can. Make sense?
Conclusion.
So, to not worry, we need to immerse our lives in God’s word and constantly develop the spiritual disciplines in our lives and that will make our faith stronger, our love will grow for Christ and our dependency on him will increase. The more we depend on Jesus, the less we will worry, then we can do just what the song says, “Don’t worry, be happy’.
