Wasting Time On Worrying Series

INTRODUCTION

• PC VIDEO CLIP

• SLIDE #1

• 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? Do you have something that sends chills up your spine when you think about it?

• 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.

• Worry is the sin of distrusting the promise and providence of God, and yet it is a sin that Christians commit perhaps more frequently than any other.

• 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

• SLIDE #2

• Let’s begin our examination as to why spending time worrying is a waste of time.

• Matthew 6:25 ( ESV ) “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?

• Worry is a waste of time because:

• SLIDE #3

SERMON

I. WORRYING IS A WASTE OF TIME BECAUSE OF OUR FATHER.

• 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.

• Let’s examine a few things concerning our Father in heaven!

• SLIDE #4

A. Our Father owns everything

• 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.

• SLIDE #5

• Psalms 104:24 ( ESV ) O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

• How many of us have had a lot of worry 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 worry. 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.

• 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)

• If we have a need, our Father who is in heaven knows the need and will take care of us.

• SLIDE #6

B. Our Father oversees everything (1 Chronicles 29:12)

• When you start to be consumed by worry or anxiety, remember that the God you serve controls all things.