Worry Will Be The Death Of You

Do not Worry (Mt 6:25-34)

A Sunday school teacher was teaching her class about the difference between right and wrong.

"All right children,” she said “let’s take another example,"

“If I were to put my hand into a man’s pocket and take all his money, what would I be?"

One little lad raised his hand and answered with a confident smile,

"You’d be his wife!"

Worrying about money is one of the biggest killers in our society today

And if it is not about money, most of us worry about something.

And yet Jesus told his disciples not to worry. He said:

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?

And Jesus went on to give the reason:

30 If …..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.

There is a very famous free church hymn called when “It is well with my soul” and I’d like to read it to you

1. When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

“It is well, it is well with my soul”

Chorus:

It is well (it is well) with my soul (with my soul)

It is well, it is well with my soul

2. Though Satan should buffet,

though trials should come,

Let this blessed assurance control,

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

3. My sin, o the bliss of this glorious thought!

My sin, not in part but the whole,

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

4. For me be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live

If Jordan above me shall roll

No pang shall be mine for in death as in life

You will whisper Your peace to my soul

5. And Lord haste the day

when the faith shall be sight,

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;

The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,

Even so, it is well with my soul.

It is a beautiful hymn – but let me tell you the story

The hymn was written by a Chicago lawyer, Horatio G. Spafford.

You might be tempted to think that a man who writes such a song would indeed have to be a rich, successful Chicago lawyer, with all going for him.

But he wasn’t. On the contrary, they came from a man who had suffered almost unimaginable personal tragedy.

Horatio Spafford and his wife, Anna, were well-known in Chicago in the late 19th Century. And this was not just because of Spafford’s legal career and business endeavours.

The Spaffords were also prominent supporters and close friends of D.L. Moody, the famous evangelist - the “Billy Graham” of the 19th Century

In 1870, however, things started to go wrong for Spafford.

The Spaffords’ only son died of scarlet fever at the age of four.

A year later, all the real estate that Spafford had invested in on the shores of Lake Michigan was destroyed by the Great Fire of Chicago.

Aware of the toll that these disasters had taken on his family and wanting to support Moody on one of his evangelistic tours in England, Spafford decided to take his wife and four daughters on a holiday to England.

So in November 1873, the Spaffords travelled to New York, where they planned to catch the French steamer ’Ville de Havre’ to cross the Atlantic.

Yet just before the steamer set sail, a last-minute business development forced Horatio Spafford to have to stay behind and catch a later ship

Not wanting to ruin the family holiday, Spafford persuaded his family to go ahed without him and he’d catch tem up later.

So Anna Spafford and her four daughters sailed East to England while Horatio Spafford returned West to Chicago.

Just nine days later, Spafford received a telegram from his wife in Wales. It simply read: "Saved alone."

What had happened?