FREEDOM FROM WORRY – Who will your God be?
Matthew 6:24-34 (NIV)
[24] "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
[25] "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? [26] Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? [27] Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
[28] "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. [29] Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. [30] If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? [31] So do not worry, saying, ’What shall we eat?’ or ’What shall we drink?’ or ’What shall we wear?’ [32] For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. [33] But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. [34] Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
INTRODUCTION:
Comedian Carl Hurley tells the story about trying to throw a trash can away. He said it’s the one thing you can’t get the garbage man to pick up. He said, I set an old rusty garbage can out at the street one morning thinking the garbage man would understand that it needed to be thrown away. He said, when I came back that afternoon the can was stacked up with the rest of my empty trash cans.
Well the next week I put it out again and this time I turned it upside down so they could see that the bottom had several holes in it and it needed thrown away. When I came home it was stacked up next to the empty cans again.
The next week I took a sledgehammer and I beat the can in pretty good and I left it out front and when I came home not only was it stacked up next to the other empty trash cans but the garbage man had actually tried to beat it back into shape.
And so he said finally I did the only thing I could do. I went to the hardware store and bought a heavy duty chain and a padlock and I chained the old can to a large tree in my front yard. And sure enough, that night somebody stole it.
Worry is a lot like that trash can.
Jesus wants us to get rid of the worry that so often fills our lives. What does it take for us to be set free from worry?
I. WHO WILL BE YOUR GOD?
1. Freedom from worry begins with the answer to the question, “Who is your God?”
a) Most sermons that talk about worry may reference what Jesus says here in Matthew 6. However most will begin with verse 25, which begins with “Therefore,” and when you see ‘therefore’ you need to stop and ask, “What is ‘therefore’ there for?”
b) Everything Jesus says about worry is connected to and dependant upon what He says in verse 24!
• Matthew 6:24-25 (NIV)
[24] "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
[25] "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.
c) I really like how the Message Bible makes this connection.
• Matthew 6:24-25, 31-34 (MsgB)
[24] "You can’t worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you’ll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can’t worship God and Money both.
[25] "If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body . . . [31] What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. [32] People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. [33] Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
[34] "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
2. Choose your God!
a) You can make money your god, but money may fail you. When the unexpected happens, your need may be greater than money can supply. How will money help you overcome your fears?
b) You could make your job your god, but how will your job help you when your health fails? What will happen to your god if the economy takes a downward turn?
c) You might choose entertainment and pleasure to be your god, or perhaps you might bow at the altar of sports. But how will these superstar gods help you raise your kids? Or how will they help you when tragedy knocks over your front door?
d) You could even make yourself to be your own god, but what power do you hold over death to keep yourself from dying?
e) You could turn to other world religions. You could make Buddha, Mohammad, Krishna, or Joseph Smith your god, the only problem is they are all dead and buried.
f) Only ONE GOD:
o is eternal, without beginning or end,
o is the same yesterday today and forever,
o is the creator of heaven and earth,
o is the way the truth and the light,
o is with you always and will never forsake you
o is the judge of the living and the dead,
o is the one worshipped night and day by angels,
o is Father, Son and Holy Spirit—three in one,
o has come in the flesh to show us the way to the Father,
o is able to supply all your need,
o lived, died and was buried but is now risen again,
o holds the keys to death hell and the grave,
o is able to give you eternal life,
o ONLY ONE GOD AND HIS NAME IS JESUS!
3. When you choose Jesus as your God you don’t need to worry.
II. The trouble with worry. . .
1. Worry dissolves our faith and trust in God.
a) Worry is self-centered instead of being God-centered.
• Matthew 6:27 (NIV)
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
b) Worry focuses on self and our problems instead of focusing on God who has the answer to all our problems. Worry has never solved anything.
c) Think a moment about your top ten worries. According to a report on worry and anxiety by Dr. Walter Calvert:
o 40% of your worries never happen. That’s right out of your list of ten worries, pick out four and throw them out because they don’t count.
o 30% of your worries concern the past. Worry cannot change the past and worry about the past cannot control the future. All worry does is mess up today.
So 40% of our worries are imaginary and 30% concern the past and non of these worries will change our future; they only mess up today. That means 70%, 7 of your top ten worries, are completely worthless.
o 12% of your worries are needless health concerns that never happen.
o 10% of your worries are insignificant and petty issues.
o Only 8% of your worries are actual, legitimate concerns. That’s less than one in 10! To have one legitimate worry you need to think of three more worries and add them to your top ten!
d) Of course even for your one legitimate worry, WORRY NEVER DID ANYTHING TO SOLVE YOUR PROBLEM! But what worry cannot do GOD CAN!
e) As Christians we seldom question God’s ability. Instead we question and doubt God’s faithfulness. WILL GOD DO IT FOR ME? Worry calls into question the faithfulness of God to do for us as He has promised.
• 2 Timothy 2:13 (NIV)
If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.
• Numbers 23:19 (NIV)
God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
f) God will be faithful to do everything He has promised to do for us, to do otherwise then He would not be God! With God we have no worries!
2. Worry damages our relationships with family and friends.
a) Worrywarts and negative people are not fun to be around; no one wants to live with a pessimist. When we worry we will either pull people down to our same level or we will push them away from us with all our negative talk and sour attitude.
b) When I’m under a lot of pressure and worried about how things are going to turn out, I’m not a very nice person to be around. All too often I play the roll of “Mr. Grumpy-pants” when the real issue is worry!
3. Worry devastates our health.
a) Heart disease is the number one cause of death in America today; 38% or nearly 4 out of 10 deaths are caused by heart disease. Most heart disease is caused by hypertension, high blood pressure and anxiety.
ILLUSTRATION: According to ABC News, “Stressful is perhaps the best way to sum up the last year of Ken Lay’s life. In May the former CEO of the Enron Corp. was convicted of defrauding investors and employees by repeatedly lying about Enron’s finances. He was expected to receive a long jail sentence in October. So, it didn’t come as much of a surprise to learn that he died [early July 5th 2006] of an apparent heart attack. One, he was under a lot of strain. And, two, he had been treated for heart disease for at least the last decade.” http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2156836&page=1
• Proverbs 15:30 (GW)
A twinkle in the eye delights the heart. Good news refreshes the body.
b) Let’s stop worrying ourselves to death!
4. Worry destroys your witness.
a) How can we say we serve a God who has power over death, a God who has made the lame to walk and the blind to see, a God who not only has power to calm the sea but can also slit it wide open making a way across on dry land, a God who provides food for the hungry, HOW CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE GREATNESS OF OUR GOD AND THEN WORRY ABOUT OUR PROBLEMS?
b) People see the contradiction. They don’t want a God that leaves them with their worries. We need to show them the reality or a God who sets us free from worry and gives us peace even in the midst of life’s greatest storms.
III. Some causes of Worry. . .
1. Parenting – we worry about our kids.
a) I wish I could say that parents worry less about their kids as they get older, but the older they get the more there is to worry about! And parents don’t stop being parents when the kids leave home. Many parents will continue to worry about their adult children even to the point of trying to control their lives.
b) Erma Bombeck wrote, "To be a parent is to worry.”
2. Pace of Life – our schedules make us worry.
a) For many of us life is like driving a car down the Rocky Mountains with no brakes. The further we drive the faster we get, and the faster we go the more reckless and dangerous the drive becomes, and the faster we go the more we worry that our drive will come to a sudden stop at the bottom of a cliff.
b) Everything has to be fast today. My lunch can go from the freezer to the microwave to the table in less than 5 minutes, but I want it sooner. McDonalds used to offer “fast food” and now it seems every time I go there I have to hurry up and wait. We have cell phones, fax machines, computers with e-mail and the internet that can search the world in a moment but it’s never fast enough. Everything is go, go, go, go, go!
c) Our calendars are full and yet we still find a way to squeeze more into it. If you’re too busy, then you are too busy! TO HURRY IS TO WORRY!
3. Prosperity and things.
a) The more stuff we have, the more we have to worry about.
b) We don’t have to have a lot of stuff to worry abut things. We don’t just worry about what we have, we also worry about what we want or think we need. We can worry about we’ll lose.
4. Politics and Planetary Issues – the news media shrinks our world and expands our worries.
a) How many of you are worried today about the events taking place between Israel and Hezbollah leading up to a world war? Are you anxious about the possibility of Iran or North Korea having nuclear weapons? How do we know about these events taking place on the other side of the world? The media and internet bring them to us everyday.
b) I decided this week that Rush Limbaugh, Shawn Hannity and other radio talking head would have nothing to talk about if we were not all worried about the countless events happening in the world around us.
5. Preferred Habit – we choose to worry all the time.
a) Some people just won’t be happy because they are too busy worrying. Worry is their pattern of thought. The worrywart is the eternal pessimist; the glass will never be half full—it is always half empty.
ILLUSTRATION: Worry is such a part of our way of thinking that if even affects the way the weather is reported. When was the last time the weatherman said, “Today we have a 90% chance of sunshine!” No, there may be only a 10% chance of rain, but we are going to put a cloud over the sun in the forecast just to be safe; you better take your umbrella!
b) Some habits are hard to break, but I think freedom from worry would be one habit worth breaking.
IV. How can we be set free from worry?
1. Who is your God anyway?
a) Freedom from worry begins by knowing who your God really is. Our God is the All-Loving, All-Powerful, All-Knowing, Always-Present God.
• Psalm 46:1 (NIV)
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
• Romans 15:33 (NIV)
The God of peace be with you all.
2. To live a worry free life is to live a life of PEACE.
a) How many of you want to continue to fret and lose of sleep? How many would rather be set free from worry and live a life of PEACE?
b) We have PEACE because we have made the God of PEACE our God. P-E-A-C-E is the key to unlocking the chains of worry.
P – Prayer
E – Eternal Perspective
A – Attitude Adjustment –
C – Cease and Desist!
E – Exit the Rat Race.
P – Prayer
a) Don’t worry—PRAY! Prayer acknowledges our faith and dependence upon God. Prayer keeps us GOD-FOCUSED.
b) Remember worry focuses on self and not God. Worry actually calls the promised of God into question; worry questions the faithfulness of God. Worry says, “God may do it for others, but He won’t do it for me.”
• Philippians 4:6-7 (MsgB)
[6] Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. [7] Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
c) Through prayer, with thanksgiving, the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds. Our worry will be replaced with CHRIST-CONFIDENCE! “Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”
E – Eternal Perspective
• Matthew 6:33-34 (NIV)
[33] But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. [34] Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
a) The Message Bible puts verse 33 like this: “Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out.”
b) We are to saturate our lives with the reality of God’s power and presence with us each and every day. God is not an afterthought. God is intertwined within every thought!
• Proverbs 3:5-7 (NIV)
[5] Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; [6] in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. [7] Do not be wise in your own eyes.
c) Having an eternal perspective means more than just looking toward the glory of heaven. It means being made in the image of Christ day by day. To maintain an eternal perspective, YOU LIVE ONE DAY AT A TIME.
• Matthew 6:31, 34 (NIV)
[31] So do not worry, saying, ’What shall we eat?’ or ’What shall we drink?’ or ’What shall we wear?’ . . . [34] Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
A – Attitude Adjustment
a) If worry is you preferred habit develop a new habit! Meditate upon God’s word; recall the blessings of God and his faithfulness. This is the “flip side of coin;” instead of worry meditate and think good thoughts. You use the same mental energy to meditate on God’s word or think about his blessings as you do to worry. The only difference is you are thinking positive thoughts instead of negative.
• Philippians 4:8-9 (NIV)
[8] Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. [9] Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
b) If you want the God of peace to guard you heart and mind, then stop worrying and start thinking on the right things!
C – Cease and Desist!
a) Stop worrying; worry is a choice!
b) Stop and remember God’s faithfulness.
• Romans 8:13 (NIV)
For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
E – Exit the Rat Race.
a) Hurry equals worry.
• Psalm 46:10 (MsgB)
"Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at me, your High God, above politics, above everything."
• Psalm 46:10 (NIV)
"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
• Isaiah 40:31 (MsgB)
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles, They run and don’t get tired, they walk and don’t lag behind.
