The Sermon on the Mount: Worry or Trust? - Matthew 6:25-34

Introduction

Read Matthew 6:25-34

Matthew 6:25–34 (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? 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? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 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? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

In these next several verses, Jesus addresses the topic of worry and anxiety. This is not actually a new section, but is actually tied in with what we looked at last week.

We are taught not to place our treasures on earth, but to store up treasures in heaven. To seek to treasure God and His will over our own earthly possessions, and in essence learn to love and worship God only instead of worshipping the things of this earth.

Because of that, we are told not to be anxious or worried for the things of this life.

What does it mean to be anxious or worried?

Should we not care?

Is Jesus telling us not to care about anything in this life? No. Just like the previous verses, Jesus was not telling us it is wrong to have possessions, just to not treasure and worship our possessions, in the same way, Jesus is not telling us that we shouldn’t care about our lives or to do what we should to provide for ourselves and our families.

Scripture tells us that we ought to work and provide for ourselves and families. It also doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have savings accounts and to plan for the future to the best of our ability. We need to be thoughtful and good stewards with the resources God has given to us. We do not need to be lazy or careless with our finances or possessions.

Worrying is Excessive Care About Things You Cannot Control

WebMD states - Worrying is feeling uneasy or being overly concerned about a situation or problem. With excessive worrying, your mind and body go into overdrive as you constantly focus on "what might happen."

Jesus is not telling us to be lazy or uncaring about what we do or how we live, but He is telling us not to be worried about things that are outside of our control or about things that might, but probably will never happen.

How many times have we been worried about a situation that we thought was going to arise that never happened or about what someone thought about us and they actually never gave us a second thought?

Worry is being concerned about future things that we are afraid will happen that are outside of our control and most times they are self-created thoughts about what would happen. It is an unreasonable concern that has no real basis in reality.

MONK - My family, especially my oldest son, has been enjoying going back and rewatching the TV mystery detective series, Monk. It is about this Detective who has severe OCD and other anxiety disorders as he seeks to serve as a consultant to help the local police solve these crimes. It is actually humorous seeing him navigate life in a world where he is afraid of every possible germ, bacteria, and harmful situation that could occur to him.

The theme song for the show, written by Randy Newman, appropriately sums up the show with these words:

It's a jungle out there Poison in the very air we breathe You know what's in the water that you drink? Well I do, and it's amazing

People think I'm crazy, 'cause I worry all the time If you paid attention, you'd be worried too You better pay attention Or this world you love so much might just kill you I could be wrong now, but I don't think so 'Cause it's a jungle out there It's a jungle out there

Now, Monk might be an extreme example of worry and anxiety and there are certainly people who face legitimate anxiety disorders they cannot control. There are times in which we need to seek professional Christian counselors and doctors who can help in these cases and this sermon does not seek to make light of the struggles that we all face in these areas.

But even if we don’t have an actual disorder, we do all tend to get worried and anxious about things that are outside of our control. We can get unreasonably concerned about things that we are called to let go of.

How do we fight against worry and anxiety?

Trust the One Who Is Able to Provide

The first question we have to ask is who do we trust? When we get worried and anxious about things, the real underlying issue is that we are trusting ourselves to solve the issue. I’ve been here myself. Anytime I worry about things for my family, whether its about our finances or worried about the spiritual conditions of my kids, I am essentially putting my trust in myself thinking that I am the one who has to solve these issues and problems.

Again, I want to be obedient to what God has told me to do, to work hard, to provide for my family, to appropriately prepare for the future, to teach and guide my children, but once I do that, I need to let go and quit thinking that everything depends upon my own skill and power.

On the other hand, as citizens of this kingdom of heaven, we do have One who is able to care for us and to take care of the future that you and I are powerless to control.

God is our Loving Father

As citizens of this kingdom, when we worry, we are failing to trust the God who has made us, saved us, and is sustaining us. We have taken on too much credit for our own welfare and life rather than trusting and submitting ourselves to the provision of God.

And God is not simply some deity up in the sky that is sitting back watching how things are going with us. As we have already seen in the Lord’s Prayer, this God whom we belong to, is a God who wants us to know and experience Him as Father.

Which means, we must humble ourselves and see ourselves as children under His care, provision and protection.

Now, some of us may have a hard time with the image of father because we grew up with fathers who were not all that good and loving. Unfortunately, there have been men throughout history who have failed to live up to the role God has placed them in. And as sinners, there is no one father who has perfectly loved and cared for his family, although many of us do the best we can.

But our God is perfectly holy and loving. We have a God who sees, and cares, and loves us.

Look at what Jesus says about the birds of the air and the flowers of the field:

Matthew 6:26 (ESV)

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?

Matthew 6:28–30 (ESV)

And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 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?

If God cares for the birds and the flowers in this way, Jesus says, how much more will He take care of you? Why should we believe that? Because He loves and values us so much more than the rest of His creation. He loves His creation. Declared it good. But when it came to His people, He called them very good. He created us in His image and has created a special relationship with His image-bearers that the rest of creation does not enjoy.

Worry happens when we fail to believe that God loves us. We must become like children, who do not worry about where their next meal is going to come from because they trust their father and mother to care for them and to provide for them.

God is our All-Knowing Father

It is one thing to believe that God loves us. But does He really know all that we need? Is He aware of us and what we are going through?

God is love. God is also Omniscient, or all-knowing.

Matthew 6:32 (ESV)

For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

God is never unaware of our need. There is never a time in which you step out of the Father’s knowledge. He is loving and He is all-knowing and we can trust that when we go to Him in prayer, He already knows what we need even before we ask!

Trust that God sees you, loves you, and knows just what you need.

God is our All-Powerful Father

God is loving and He is all-knowing. But those things alone do not prove that He is able to take care of us.

However, we have a God who is not powerless to care for His children. God is Omnipotent, or all-powerful and is able to meet all of our needs. Again, Jesus has given us examples of how he takes care of the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. He sees them and knows them and takes care of their needs. Think of all of the animals and species on earth and how God has created them and cares for them. We have a God who has created all of them, along with all the rest of creation, including the galaxies, and the depths of the sea. If He can do all that, how much more is He able to take care of us and meet our needs as well.

God Has Demonstrated His All-Loving, All-Knowing, and All-Powerful Care in the Cross!

How do we know that God truly loves us? How can we believe that God knows all that we need? How can we trust that God is actually able to care and provide for His children?

Because of the Cross!

God’s love is demonstrated for His people through the cross.

Romans 5:6–8 (ESV)

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Even while we were still sinners, rebelling against God, God chose to save in Christ’s willing death and sacrifice on the cross.

If Jesus, who is fully God and fully man, was willing to go to the cross to meet our greatest need, how much more will He meet all our needs?

God also knows all we need because of Christ!

Hebrews 4:15 (ESV)

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Because Christ was willing to come in human flesh, He has endured all our temptations and weaknesses, yet endured to the end. He truly knows the depth of our need and our weaknesses because He endured without ever giving in.

Because of this, Jesus knows what its like to endure hunger, suffering, heartache, pain, and more that can cause worry in our own hearts to well up. He knows all the things in life that we need, so we do not have to fear that God does not understand the causes for our worries and anxieties. We can go to Him trusting that He knows and understands!

God’s power is displayed in the Cross

You see, our greatest need was an impossible one for us to meet. We need freedom from and forgiveness of sin. However, no amount of lawkeeping was going to erase the sin you and I have committed.

God’s law is good, because it shows us God’s righteous character, but it is weak in that it is unable to make us righteous. However, what the law was unable to do, Christ did by the work of the cross!

Romans 1:16–17 (ESV)

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Colossians 2:13–14 (ESV)

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

If we ever doubted God’s ability to meet our needs, we need to direct our attention and focus back on the cross which demonstrates God’s infinite power to overcome what nothing else in all of creation could do, purchasing our freedom and forgiveness of sin. If God is able to do that, what can He not do?

The Cross is the answer to our worries and anxieties because in it we see God’s ability and desire to meet our needs. This does not mean that we will not have difficult times of life and times in which we might wonder how we are going to make it through. But we have a God we can trust because He has demonstrated it for us by meeting our greatest need in Christ!

Give Thanks to the God Who Provides

One of the best ways to remember who God is and what He has done for us in Christ is to live in a constant gratitude to Him. There will be times when the feelings of worry and anxiety come upon us because of the circumstances of life.

But when we live in gratitude, we are consciously reminding ourselves of God’s constant goodness in our lives even when things seem difficult and worrisome.

Paul tells us this in his letter to the Philippians:

Philippians 4:6–7 (ESV)

do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

When we begin to get worried about a situation or circumstance, go to God about it in prayer. Trust Him by praying to Him and casting your cares and concerns upon Him. And when you do, pray in an attitude of thanksgiving knowing that God has taken care of you before and will continue to take care of you still. That attitude of thanksgiving will bring back memories of all the ways God has loved you, known about you, and was powerful enough to take care of you.

Focus on the Purpose God Has Provided

Worry arises because we begin to trust the wrong source for our care. But worry also arises because we focus on the wrong purpose for which we live.

Matthew 6:25 (ESV)

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

When we think that life is meant to be lived for my own glory, comfort, and pleasures, I will not ever truly feel content and be secure in how well my life is being taken care of. This takes us back to our treasures that Jesus warned us about in the last section. When our hearts are drawn to worship things it wasn’t meant to worship, worry will arise in trying to keep things that we can’t keep and were not meant to last forever.

So Jesus tells us to seek the main purpose for which we were created and that all that we need will be provided for us.

Matthew 6:33 (ESV)

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

What were we created for? God’s glory and Kingdom!

We were created to Know God, to walk and grow in His righteousness and to make Him known to others.

What is your heart directed towards, trying to build your own kingdom as you lay up treasures for yourself here on earth, or seeking to further God’s kingdom as you hunger and thirst for righteousness and as you invite others to enter into His kingdom by faith in the finished work of Christ?

Conclusion