Good News For the Worry Wart
Text: Matt. 6:25-34
Introduction
1. Read Matt. 6:25-34
2. Illustration: The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety. George Muller Massena, one of Napoleon’s generals, suddenly appeared with 18,000 soldiers before an Austrian town which had no means of defending itself. The town council met, certain that capitulation was the only answer. The old dean of the church reminded the council that it was Easter, and begged them to hold services as usual and to leave the trouble in God’s hands. They followed his advice. The dean went to the church and rang the bells to announce the service. The French soldiers heard the church bells ring and concluded that the Austrian army had come to rescue the town. They broke camp, and before the bells had ceased ringing, vanished.
3. An average person’s anxiety is focused on :
40% -- things that will never happen 30% -- things about the past that can’t be changed 12% -- things about criticism by others, mostly untrue
10% -- about health, which gets worse with stress 8% -- about real problems that will be faced
Proposition: Jesus tells us not to worry, but to trust God.
Transition: Jesus tells us...
I. Don’t Worry Because God is in Control (25-30)
A. Don’t Worry About Life
1. Jesus says, "Take no thought for your life..."
a. Take no thought: to have an anxious concern, based on apprehension about possible danger or misfortune —Louw & Nida: NT Greek-English Lexicon
b. This word means to be so disturbed about material needs that we distrust God and are distracted from faithfully doing His will.
c. All anxiety is provoked by worrying about material and temporal things.
d. Why worry about something you can’t change anyway.
2. Worry immobilizes us, but trust in God moves us to action.
3. Jesus is not suggesting that a man not prepare for life—that he be lazy, shiftless, and thoughtless with a no-care attitude.
4. However, he is saying that we should not be so concerned with this life that it parilizes us with fear.
5. Lk. 12:4 And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.
6. We worry so much about things that are temporary.
a. Our bodies are only temporary. They will last only a short time.
b. 2 Cor. 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
c. Illustration: I saw a t-shirt once that said, "I eat right; I exercise regularly; and I’m going to die anyway!"
B. Don’t Worry About Needs
1. Jesus also says not to worry about "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?"
2. Food, drink, and clothes are less important than the life and body that they supply.
a. Because God sustains our lives and gives us our bodies, we can trust him to provide the food and clothing he knows we need.
b. We work for our money to supply food and clothing, but we must always remember that these ultimately come from God’s hands.
c. When the need arises, we need not worry, for we know that our God will supply.
3. Phil. 4:19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
4. Jesus then uses an illustration from nature: "Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"
a. The birds need food, and the heavenly Father knows it. They are dependent upon God’s daily provision because they cannot plant or harvest or put food in barns.
b. They work--they hunt for it and then bring it back to their families--but they don’t worry.
c. If God cares for the birds, making sure that the natural order of his creation supplies food for them, how much more will he care for a hungry human being?
5. People are far more valuable to him than the birds. Jesus was teaching total dependence upon God as opposed to humanity’s self-sufficiency.
a. All that we have ultimately comes from God’s hand.
b. Jesus was not prohibiting his followers from sowing, reaping, and gathering food (that is, working for it); but he was prohibiting worrying about having enough food.
c. Jesus is teaching that he loves and he will not leave us or forsake us.
6. Jesus also shows us the real problem with worry: lack of faith! "Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"
a. To worry about your clothes shows little faith in God’s ability to supply.
b. God "clothes" the flowers and grass of the field that are here today and gone tomorrow.
c. If his creation clothes the earth with beauty and color so rich that even King Solomon in all his glory could not match it, then he will surely care for you.
Transition: Jesus tells us another reason we shouldn’t worry...
II. Don’t Worry Because You Are God’s Child (31-32)
A. Your Heavenly Father Knows
1. In verses 31-32, Jesus says "Therefore do not worry, saying, ’What shall we eat?’ or ’What shall we drink?’ or ’What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things."
2. Here Jesus changes the argument to a more personal vein. We need not be anxious because we are the King’s children. He will provide all we need.
3. He also tells us that if we are anxious about these things, we will be just like the secular world.
a. The Gentiles, the secular world, seek material things because they overestimate their significance.
b. The characteristic tendency of those without Christ is to be bound by the limitations of earth.
c. Everything is crammed into the visible.
d. This, in turn, promotes worry about secondary matters such as food and clothes.
4. Unbelievers’ anxiety also rests on a misunderstanding of God’s character.
a. They naturally think of God as far removed from the complexities of life and ignorant of their struggles.
b. What distinguishes our thinking as Christians from that of unbelievers is that we know our "heavenly Father knows that [we] need" all these things (v. 32b).
c. God is our Father, and he wants us to trust in him.
B. Child of the King
1. Illustration: I am inwardly fashioned for faith, not for fear. Fear is not my native land; faith is. I am so made that worry and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil. I live better by faith and confidence than by fear, doubt and anxiety. In anxiety and worry, my being is gasping for breath--these are not my native air. But in faith and confidence, I breathe freely--these are my native air. - Dr. E. Stanley Jones, Transformed by Thorns, p. 95.
2. Do not spend energy fretting over having enough food or drink or clothing. Worry has no place in the lives of Jesus’ disciples because their heavenly Father already knows all their needs.
3. Matt. 7:11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
4. You are His child, and as your loving Father he will never:
a. Abandon you
b. Strand you
c. Fail you
Transition: You are a child of the King, and you will never be in want!
III. Don’t Worry, But Seek the Kingdom (33-34)
A. Seek First the Kingdom
1. In these final two verses, Jesus gives us the solution to worry.
2. First, he says "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
3. Jesus’ followers must settle the question of priorities and make the Kingdom of God their primary concern.
a. To do that, we must consistently honor and represent the Kingdom.
b. People, objects, goals, money, pleasure, and other desires all compete for priority.
c. Any of these can quickly bump God out of first place if you don’t actively choose to give him first place in every area of life.
4. Strangely enough, when you get your priorities right, Jesus promised that God will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him.
a. When Jesus’ followers seek his Kingdom first, God takes care of their needs.
b. Notice that Jesus says when we put him first, "all these things will be added to you."
B. Let Tomorrow Worry About Tomorrow
1. Second, Jesus tells us to let tomorrow worry about tomorrow.
2. Illustration: For several years a woman had been having trouble getting to sleep at night because she feared burglars. One night her husband heard a noise in the house, so he went downstairs to investigate. When he got there, he did find a burglar. "Good evening," said the man of the house. "I am pleased to see you. Come upstairs and meet my wife. She has been waiting 10 years to meet you."
3. In an appeal to common sense, Jesus explained that what we worry about happening tomorrow may not happen, so we will have wasted time and energy worrying.
4. We need to reserve that energy because today’s trouble is enough for today. We only add to today’s burdens when we worry about the future.
5. All the anxieties about tomorrow will not change the outcome, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.
6. The burdens of today are enough, so let God take care of them. We must trust God for today without worrying about tomorrow.
Transition: Don’t worry; be joyful!
Conclusion
1. Jesus tells us:
a. Don’t worry because God is in control.
b. Don’t worry because you are God’s child.
c. Don’t worry, but seek first the kingdom.
2. Worry won’t:
a. Solve your problems
b. Make your problems go away
c. Make you feel better
3. Worry will:
a. Make your blood pressure go up
b. Make your arteries harden
c. Make you old before your time
4. Don’t worry because you have a Father who loves you.
