The Futileness Of Worry Series

The Futileness of Worry

CH(CPT) Keith J. Andrews

May 25, 2008

Ordinary Time/Second Sunday after Pentecost (Green)

All Scripture marked ESV: The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (Mt 6:24-34). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

Let us pray

While I was in Seminary, I watched the last couple of seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation on a regular basis.

One of the alien enemies that are introduced to the viewer are “The Borg”.

The Borg are a collective of captured individuals that have been given cybernetic implants. They link each of the other Borg up to a collective network. When a person is captured and implanted with this hardware, the person has become “assimilated”. And, “Resistance is Futile”.

Resistance is Futile, because the Borg are so powerful that one can not escape their grasp. They will keep coming at you until you submit, and submit you will. There is absolutely nothing one can do to escape the Borg--Absolutely nothing, making resistance futile.

While the resisting the Borg is a futile action from a fictional TV show, we all too often engage in the equally futile action of worry.

This morning we are looking at Mathew 6:24-34. Here we see Jesus teaching about worry and tells us “do not be anxious”. Do not worry!

This is a part of a larger passage known as the “Sermon on the Mount.” This is the most notable collection of Jesus’ preaching while he was here on earth. In this sermon, Jesus had just finished preaching on Giving to the Needy, teaching of prayer and fasting, and storing possessions in heaven rather than on earth.

With that tone, he moves to worry. I think Jesus may have sensed an uneasiness in crowd as he said in verse 19-20:

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. (Mt 6:19-20, ESV)

I think he could probably hear the people hearts asking, “If this is true, what am I going eat? What am I going to wear? Or, where am going to live?”

So he responds with our focal passage of the day:

Look with me at Mathew 6:24-34:

24 “No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and money.

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, 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? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?7 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Mt 6:24-34, ESV).

Jesus takes all of the questions that they were asking and the questions that we ask day to day, and says “don’t worry about it!” “Don’t be anxious!” “I got it!”

Jesus makes his point that we are not to worry. It is a useless pursuit that produces nothing. He gives us three reasons why worry is futile.

First, he shows us that

1. Worry is futile because there is more to life.

Look at verse 25:

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, 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? (Mt 6:25, ESV)