Facing Worry With Faith

 

John:

You know many people today are worried about our country, worried about the upcoming election, worried about our economy, just worried in general. But should you be?

INTRO

Barry:

If you would have your Bible open up to Matthew chapter 6 and we’re going to be looking at verses 24-34, it’s really Jesus’s guide to eliminating worry. Now let’s start though in verse 25 where he says, “For this reason I said you do not be worried about your life as to what you will eat, what you will drink or for your body as what you will put on is life not more than food and the body more than clothing.”

Now notice there he says “for this reason”, and I think because of that we got to go back to the previous verse which really starts in verse 25 where he says, “No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or who be devoted to one and defies the other.

You cannot serve God and wealth.”

This is the statement that starts all the rest of this, and he says you have to choose: are you serving God or are you serving things? Are you serving wealth?

Mammon? The idea of the thing that we think will take care of our life and that’s most people. If I have enough money, all my problems will go away. If I have the situation under control but we don’t.

God does, and so if we choose to serve God, then that changes how we view everything else, and that’s why it leads us to worry. What do we worry about?

And Jesus basically says why are you worried about the things probably most people, as we said earlier, are most worried about.

John:

You know it makes me think about the idea of looking for love in all the wrong places. We are looking for no worry in all the wrong places, and Jesus really kind of lays it down for us that when we think about our life, there are two options. We can either serve God, love him, or we can serve the world or serve ourselves and not love him or not be on his side.

Yet Jesus in his guidelines lays down the idea of, If we will do something and he’ll get to that in a little while, what we need to do, but if we would do this, we could eliminate all our concern — our worry. When it comes to the economy, don’t worry, be happy. When it comes to the country, don’t worry, be happy. Because there’s something greater that we can look forward to.

Barry:

And you know, Jesus uses two of the most simple examples. You know, consider the birds of the field, consider the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. You know, birds don’t go around sweating over, you know, what the current state is or who’s in charge or whatever. They don’t do that and God takes care of them. And when we look at them, we think “Wow! That’d be a great life.” “Look at the lilies of the field.” He said they’re clothed in splendor, yet we’re worried: what are we going to have?

Am I going to be able to afford to buy this new thing? Can I replace this? Can I get my kids in these shoes or this shirt or whatever it is?

But his point here is look at how God takes care of his creation, and you’re more valuable than them. You’re more important to him.

There’s a different relationship there, but yet we think somehow God is going to abandon us or forget us or whatever. And it goes back to that where we think about it in terms of we get more greedy and think about greed instead of needs, so to speak.

And as you said, because we have that when we have the mindset of God is in control it changes how we view everything then. We’re not going to have that anxiety, that worry about what we’re going to have. As he says in the verse, “What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What will we wear for clothing?” All these basic worries people have. He says they are eliminated when we really have God as our master.

John:

And one of the interesting statements that I always like to point out here, due to my height, is verse 27, where he says the idea of how can you by worrying add one cubit to your stature? I mean, I can’t make myself any taller. I can’t change the color of my hair.

There’s things that I cannot control. And so, because I can’t control them, I have to relinquish that over to the one who can control them. I’m reminded of that in the book of Daniel, chapter 4, whenever a connoisseur would have to be reminded who rules in the kingdoms of men.

God rules. He’s in control. And if he’s in control, there is really nothing to worry about. He will make sure that we have what we need when we need it. He’ll make sure that we are, as he points out in the text.

He’ll make sure that we are clothed. He’ll make sure that we have a roof over our head. He’ll make sure that we have food to eat.

The problem though, is: do we really believe that? That’s what he says in verse 30, and he says oh you of little faith.

Barry:

I already said worry is like a rocking chair makes you feel like you’re moving all around but gets you nowhere. When we worry, it doesn’t do any good for us, so why do we waste our time doing it? I think, as you said earlier, there is something he says for us to do that eliminates worry, and that comes down when we get to verse 33, where he says “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”

He basically says, you know, if you seek the things of God, if you seek his kingdom and his righteousness, you sit here and say, “What can I do to please God? What can I do to be right in God?” Everything else will have a way of working out.

God will take care of you. We sing that, but we don’t always believe it. And I even think that is it’s a major problem in the church. I think we need to be concerned about things that we want to do a better effort, but sometimes we scare ourselves to think, well, “if we don’t do this well then you know everything’s going to fall apart.”

God’s not going to let that happen, but we have to be about doing the things of God. That’s how he’s going to make it happen, but we get so worried about things that it causes us not to do anything because we’re just worried about it. Makes us feel like we’ve done something because we’ve gotten all hot and bothered by it, but we actually haven’t done the thing.

So what he’s telling us here is don’t worry. Don’t just move around. Seek the kingdom.

John:

Yes, and sometimes, and I think quite often, that we often confuse our needs and our wants.

Keep in mind what Jesus promises here and for the reason of us not having to worry is that we will have necessities. We live in a society that lives far above its means, and what we have and what we think we should have. And because of that, we worry about all those things, and yet what we really have to be concerned about is following God, and we will have the absolute necessities we need. I’m reminded of what James said when he said, “That you say come now, we’ll do this or do that, but you forget about the will of God.”

Yeah, and really that’s what it boils down to. Whenever it comes down to our worry, when it comes down to our anxieties, much of that could be eliminated if only we would put into practice what Jesus tells us to put into practice. If we would truly seek first the kingdom and his righteousness. And he kind of closes that down there in verse 34, kind of similar to what James does, where he says, “Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow.”

Why? “Because tomorrow will worry about its own thing. Sufficient is the day for its own trouble.”

Barry:

Yeah, I don’t think here he’s dismissing planning for things. He’s talking, though, about that idea of you can only do what you can do at the moment. You know, you can be taking care of that, you know.

Today is the only thing we have. You know tomorrow will come whether we want it to or not and whether we’re ready for it or not. But what he’s telling us here is that we have that kingdom mindset.

You know, earlier he says the Gentiles seek after these things. He’s saying that’s the way the world thinks. You’ve got to think differently.

The world’s going to be worried, and it’s going to be anxious, but the Christian member of the kingdom shouldn’t be. And I think that’s important as a church. We need to. And I guess it’s important in the church that we need to have a different mentality than the world. We shouldn’t be fretting like the world is fretting because we have a trust in God, and that trust should eliminate our worry and our anxiety because God is our master.

That’s really what it comes down to.

John:

Jesus very clearly tells us that worrying well, that’s really of the devil. There’s really no need for it. There’s no need for us to have concern.

If we are one of his, we’re on his side, and we’re seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then everything that we could possibly need will be supplied to us. It’s also important to remember that for those who are Christians, regardless of what happens in this world, regardless of what happens in this country, our citizenship is in heaven. Philippians 3:20.

Therefore, there’s no reason to worry because we have something far better to look forward to.

We’d like to thank you for listening today. If you have any more questions about this idea of worry, maybe there’s something we can help you with.

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We’d like to thank you for listening and have a wonderful day.