Worry

Introduction

Anxiety as mental illness

19.1% of the US population has an anxiety disorder according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America

What’s your response to that?

Everyone has anxiety!

There’s no way that many people have anxiety!

I’m glad I’m not the only one…

Without needing to develop a fully featured response to modern diagnostic models of psychiatry, what we can see is that anxiety in one form or another affects many of us, and we desperately want help.

So what do we do when we are anxious?

Content ourselves in our anxiety (diagnose)

Believe our worries

Feel guilt because we are anxious when we shouldn’t be

Rationalize whether our anxiety is well-founded or not

Matthew 6:25–34 NIV

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 than food, and the body more 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 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers 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—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.

The previous passage on treasure is the foundation of this passage (“therefore”)

The implication of having treasure in heaven is security and therefore peace. There is no need to worry when your treasure is secure.

Jesus speaks to us in our worry in Matthew 6 by questioning our worries

Questioning Your Worry

1. Are the things I’m worried about really as important as they feel?

Matthew 6:25 NIV

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 than food, and the body more than clothes?

Very often my worry reveals my disordered desires

Would I rather be rich or righteous?

Successful or sanctified

Happy or holy

Appreciated or a worshiper

2. Do I believe that I matter to my Father?

Matthew 6:26 NIV

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?

Who am I in God’s eyes?

In the Bible we don’t derive human value from us but from God

If God is our father, we are his beloved children and therefore are of immense value because of him.

3. Am I helping anything with worry?

Matthew 6:27 NIV

27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“Each day has troubles enough of its own.” So why anticipate them? If we do, we double them. For if our fear does not materialize, we have worried once for nothing; if it does materialize, we have worried twice instead of once. In both cases; it is foolish: worry doubles trouble.

John Stott

This is an excellent tool for distinguishing between sinful worry and godly concern.

Is worry sin?

Kinds of “worry”

Prudent caution about risk

Proverbs 22:3 “3 The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.”

Automatic physiological responses

Godly concern for doing right

2 Corinthians 11:28 “28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.”

Ungodly faithlessness about our situation

It can be sin

Faithlessness

Idolatry

It is also a burden to be lifted

When Jesus addresses worry he addresses it from a perspective of promise and comfort rather than rebuke

So Jesus addresses our worry in two ways

Confrontation

Comfort

Responsibility and Concern

4. Do I believe that God is a provider?

Matthew 6:28–30 NIV

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers 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—you of little faith?

This is an argument from the lesser to the greater.

If God will provide for a flower that is essentially worthless, how much more will he provide for you?

Another how about a greater to the lesser argument. If God has given you salvation at the cost of his son’s death, how much more will he provide for your daily needs.

Even your greatest earthly need pales in significance and costliness to your need for a sacrifice for your sins. Yet God provided that.

One of God’s names in the Bible is Jehovah-Jireh “God will provide”

Genesis 22:13–14 “13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.””

Philippians 4:19 “19 And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”

5. Do I believe that God exists at all?

Matthew 6:31–32 NIV

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.

Worrying makes complete sense for the godless as they walk through life grasping for control as the winds and waves of circumstance toss them around.

Moving Forward

Seek Jesus Kingdom First

How does Jesus deal with our worry?

The solution to worry is not condemnation from Jesus but confidence in Jesus

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.

Jesus does not completely dismiss our worries, but promises us that when our priorities are right, we will be provided for.

Instead of Worrying Have Faith

As Jesus presents his teaching on worry to us, he is driving us to recognize that worry is a theology problem.

We don’t know who God is

We don’t know who we are