Anxious Children

Intro

Turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter six. If you don’t have a Bible, raise your hands. If you don’t own a Bible, see me afterwards. I have some I would like to give you.

We are in the middle of a series on the Sermon on the Mount. One of the best sermons in all of history! Throughout this series, there has been two themes that Jesus keeps going back to.

The first is this idea of upside down thinking. We naturally think one way, because we are sinners, because we are focused on the here and now, and may of other reasons. But Jesus wants us to think differently. It seems upside down compared to how we think naturally.

The second is how he focuses on the heart. We often care about what we actually do, and that is how we measure ourselves and others. But Jesus raises the bar by looking at the heart.

With that in mind, let’s jump into Matthew, chapter six, starting in verse twenty five.

Matthew 6:25–34 ““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.”

A little saying that I like is whenever you see a “Therefore”, you need to look before to see what the “Therefore” is there for.

If you were here last week, you might remember that we talked about where your treasure is. That you need to invest your time, money and resources into eternal things instead of earthly things. You need an eternal mindset and focus instead of the fleeting things and things that don’t satisfy.

So in light of that, Jesus dives into this idea of not being anxious about your life. And He gives us three keys to not being anxious.

Key #1: You need a correct IDENTITY mindset.

You need a proper view of yourself in light of who God is.

God is your Father.

In this passage, Jesus says that God is our heavenly Father twice. vs 26 and 32

Your Father is God. vs 30

He knows. vs 32

He can and will supply. vs 30 and 33

We are described as ones with little faith. vs 30

We bring nothing to the table but our little faith.

We are little children with little faith coming to God, our heavenly Father, who knows and has the ability to supply.

My daughter loves goldfish, or fishy crackers as she calls it. Whenever she knows I’m going to the store, she will ask me to get her some fishy crackers.

Can she go to the store to get fishy crackers? No.

Does she have money to buy fishy crackers? No.

Does she know I love her, and I’m weak when she looks at me with those big blue eyes? Yes.

We need to go to our heavenly father like that.

Key #2: You need a proper ACTION mindset.

You need to understand what being anxious does and does not do.

It does not help. vs 27

It does distracts. vs 31 and 32

Our focus will be consumed with the here and now.

Jesus isn’t saying “Don’t care about these things.”

Yes, buy food. Yes, buy clothes.

But there is a difference between addressing those needs, and being anxious about those things.

We need to trust in God.

We need to trust who He is, who we are in Him, and His ability to supply every need.

So what should our focus be on?

Key #3: You need a continual ETERNAL mindset.

You need to keep calibrating your view of things in light of eternity.

It isn’t a one time thing. You need to be SEEKING the kingdom of God first.

Jar and Rocks?

This ties into our lesson from last week.

If our treasure is here on earth, we will be anxious about things here on earth. But, if our treasure is in heaven, we will be less likely to be anxious about things on earth.

Conclusion:

What are you anxious about?

Questions:

What are some things we tend to feel anxious about?

In verse 27, Jesus says anxiety can’t add a single hour to our life. What does anxiety actually do to us instead?

How does our view of God impact our anxiety?

What’s the difference between being responsible and being anxious? How can you tell when you’ve crossed the line?

How can we “seek first the kingdom of God” this week?