No Worries

Charles Swindoll wrote: “Worry pulls tomorrow's cloud over today's sunshine.”

It is said that anxiety is the universal disease of our age. Way back in 1961 Time magazine said:

Not merely the black statistics of murder, suicide, alcoholism, and divorce betray anxiety … but almost any innocent everyday act: the limp or over hearty handshake, the second pack of cigarettes or the third martini, the forgotten appointment, the stammer in mid-sentence, the wasted hour before the TV set, the new car unpaid for.

And we know with a quick thought… it has not gotten any better since. Business people of our time torment themselves with imagined scenarios of what could take place if he does so and so, he counters, he kills or builds. Our mothers worry over the future of their children until it is their very future that occupies their thoughts. And the endless torment continues till death. Our students worry over mid term examinations, finals, and future interviews and dates and grad school and money and a house and their own kids and the future of their future for the future.

Soren Kierkegaard said it well: “No Grand Inquisitor has in readiness such terrible tortures as anxiety.”

Today people consume tranquilizers and sedatives by the ton and are running to counselors by the millions.

What is more, it seems many of us are not concerned about finding the reasons and mentalities that cause the anxiety, we just look for things that will calm and or temporarily dull our senses. It is better for us to just sit back and medicate.

When I went in for heart surgery as they were rolling me into the surgery room the anesthesiologist gave me a shot of something as I was leaving Jeanine and the kids on the ipad. When they were rolling me in, I remember thinking that I could die, and I asked the Lord to forgive me of my sins and to give me strength. But then something weird happened, I all of a sudden did not care if I died. I was thinking I could die right now and I was not scared or even cared. I could die and I was cool with it. Huh?? What he gave me was an anti anxiety med which is a kind of heroin. Ahhhh. I get it now.

Worry and anxiety is a difficult thing for us today…It’s all consuming, unrelenting, and absolutely deflating. It cripples so many… but the tension…This is the case in the church. How can this be? Do we not believe that Jesus will provide all our needs according to his riches in glory. No rhyme or reason for a Christian to be anxious about life. Unless we don’t believe. Lets take a look…

Matthew 6:25–34 NLT

“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

The grass withers the flower fades but the Word of our God stands forever.

Irrational

You Are Different

You Are His

The first thing we will look at today is the irrationalism of anxiety in the life of a Christian. Second, we should see how it is that worry is the normal behavior of those who do not believe, but an unbecoming behavior for those that believe. Finally, we will see how it is the, gopsel, the power of God for salvation, that will lead us and strengthen us in all righteousness, godly living, and life and life more abundant.

Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to carry the cares of the world into anxiety, it is the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of the scriptures that will illuminate to us to the reality of doing all things though Christ who indeed gives us strength.

I. Irrational

-You may worry yourself to death, but you cannot worry yourself to life.

A. Christ begins here with a “therefore” dia which is understood as a “Thats why I tell you”. What Christ is about to say is the conclusion of what came preceeding. Do not store up treasure on earth. If you yearn for such things it will truly blur your vision. You cannot serve two masters. It is not possible. Therefore.

B. We have an argument here which is a form of A Fortiori argumentation called “A majore ad minus. From the greater to the lesser. And he starts by saying do not be anxious or do not worry about everyday life, for after all you have heard it is absolutely unreasonable. Why? Because is not life greater than food is not your body more than clothing? Think about it… did not God give us life? Why in the world would He have given us life if he never intended to give us the little things to sustain it on a day by day basis. He gave life, will he not sustain it too? That would be irrational. Not convinced?

C. Think about the birds. Many of the birds that we see today the Bible even calls unclean like the vulture. And there are millions of them all over the world and we do not see them suffering from hypertension and other stress related diseases. Many a bird watcher will indeed say that for they most part they are all healthy and happy. They do what they can. They don’t store up food in the pantry like we do. They do their thing. They do what they do and still the Lord takes care of them. They are considered in this illustration to be the lower of creation, how much more do you think He will care for the higher of creation? Birds are cared for and they are not created in the image of God. We are image bearers. And Christ adds a rational point… at what point and at what time will worry add anything to your life? When has it ever helped anyone?

Dr Hugues writes, “In fact, anxiety not only inhibits our ability to enjoy the things of life—it shortens our time to enjoy them!”

The birds are carefree and we are burdened with the cares of this life. You may worry yourself to death, but you cannot worry yourself to life.

D. Christ then goes on to talk about clothes. Consider… give a close study of this. Think and analyze. Think of the lilies. If you look really good you will see that Solomon in all of his splendor does not compare to the beauty of them. The lilies do not spin a single thread and yet they grow, thrive and are beautiful. Look at how God provides for the lilies and now think about it even more… all that attention and all that care and these flowers are here today, but tomorrow they are mowed down and used as fuel for the fire. Family of God… how much more then can we conclude that He will care and adorn those whom are destined to live for eternity. Hello… Jesus is saying that He will provide. Why are we worried? You may worry yourself to death, but you cannot worry yourself to life. Why do you have so little faith cries our Lord.

E. Because we see deprivation all over the world. Thats why. But when you really analyze the deprivation, you see that it is the result of self deprivation, thievery and not the Lord’s failure. I spent some time in my early days in the ministry in an inner city church and we would have the less fortunate, homeless, destitute, all claiming to be starving. Without food, drink and clothes. We provided all of this for them. But what I found really hit me as a young pastor. 9 of of 10 of them were there because of drugs. They had mental illness, but it was because of drugs and alcohol. I spent time talking with missionaries and they said that starvation and destitution in some of the countries, is not because God did not provide, but their government leaders hoarding and stealing the provisions from their people. God provided and man stole. It is sin and the effects of sin that distort what it is that God has provided for His creation.

F. Is it because God didn’t or is it because Man did. What we do to ourselves and what we do to others. Man kills. steals, and destroys. Man steals from creation, man pollutes the earth, mankind ruins the beauty of creation and its order. The issues of deprivation of provisions is not the doing of Christ it is the undoing of sinful man. The effect and the effects of sin. And yet He still provides. And yet He still finds a way.

II. You Are Different

-The World cares about these thing, you do not.

A. Stop it. Cut it out. These are the things that dominate the hearts and minds of pagans. Material things in the here and now are the only things they can see and comprehend. And hold on to. They do not acknowledge the Father. They do not care for the kingdom of God. They rebel against righteousness. They only know their appetites. They only strive for their comforts and pleasure in this world. They can only see the earth and its realities. All axienties are for the here and now. They do not store up treasure in heaven. Everything is in this and only this realm. What Christ is saying… is that of these things are secondary matters, but the World see them as primary matters. But of course they do… they know not God. Just like dogs bark because that what they do… Unbelievers do not believe because thats what they do.

B. This is not to be the case for the Christian. Why is it that the modern church cracks over the same things that crack the world. Have we become so assimilated into the world that there is no distinction? We see it in the realm of politics. When the world begins to panic about the cares and provisions in this life, why are we panicing too? When the world begins to fight and loot to stock up why is it that the church is right there with them. Of course the people in the world are gripping and pressing over what they see their leaders and governors of this world will or will not do with decisions that will indeed affect what we will eat, drink and what we will wear. Of course thats what they do. Thats all they have. But Christian… This IS NOT YOU… hello. Our king is alive and well with all authority in heaven and on earth given to him.

C. We have a God in heaven who calls us our Father. Who has promised to provide all of our needs according to His riches in glory. He is the one who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He said the gold and silver are mine. All that is in heaven and on earth belongs to the Lord. The tithe of the land, the seed of the land and the fruit of the trees belong to the Lord. And He is the one who can do exceedingly, abundantly, more than we could all ask for and or imagine. You are supposed to be different. Unless you don’t believe it. Oh ye of little faith. Do not sink down to the level of the unbelievers. Don’t you do it. It is natural for them to do it… it is unbecoming for you to do it. Unless you don’t believe it. Then an unbeliever you are. Uh oh.

D. And why is this the case… because for Christians, we know that our Father already knows what we need. Before we even call He will answer. He knows our needs. If your earthly father knows your needs how much more do you think your heavenly Father knows? So you see why worry is unbecoming of a Christian… it is irrational and it is a real lack of faith. No need to worry … unless you don’t believe and behold unbeliever we are.

E. This is illustrated in Martha’s failure.

Luke 10:41–42 ESV

But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

F. Did we discover it? Jesus gives it to us here with the all time great climatic passage of scripture for many generations. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you. We seek God first. That is what is primary… we can go on for days without food, but we cannot survive a second without the wonderful grace of Christ. Without Christ, nothing matters. The secondary things mean nothing. They all sustain life, but without Christ there is no life. He is the way the truth and the life.

G. And we the the chapter… Family do not worry about tomorrow. There will be trouble tomorrow. All that worry will not fix tomorrow but all that worry will zap the stregth that you will need to overcome it. If I could just have this… If I could just have that… if he would do this…if she would just do that. And we think all of our problems will go away. It will not. God cares more about our character than our comfort. God cares more about our holiness than our happiness. Life on earth for a Christian is not a vacation it is a war. The clothes that God gives us today… is Armor. It is a war… how comforting will it be, if why we are in the trenches fighting the enemy in another country, your fellow soldier is consumed, distracted, preoccupied with the things going on back at home as bullets fly by? Fighting the battle and ous fellow soldiers laying in a hammock drinking a pina colada, with air-conditioing while bombs go off. How well will we be able to fight. Will we be able to win?

H. Tomorrow will have its challenges and trials, no matter how hard you try to prevent them. You got enough trials and difficulty today… you gonna make today worse by adding tomorrows burdens on us today? No wonder we gonna crack. We gonna carry the burdens of two three four days in one day? Adding other days worry to today is an impossible burden. Worry will not cause us to escape evil it will take away our strength to overcome it.

I. Hear me when I say this. With the truth we have and the power of the Holy Spirit we do indeed have the power and strength to overcome the burdens of the day, we do not have the strength to bear worry on top of it. You just don’t. I know that we fear everything because everything is possible. But let me tell you what is not possible… This world will have no power over you unless it has been given to it from above.

III. You Are His

-The power of God for salvation.

A. But in our day, age and culture. We do not necessarily suffer from self-inflicted deprivation or stolen provisions. We are not stressing out over the lack of food, we stress over the lack of certain kind of food. We are not stressing out over the lack of clothes, but over the lack of certain kinds of clothes. We got wranglers, but we have anxiety in life over the lack of $500 brand name jeans. We got bread, but not the 100 specialty Asiago cheese bread.

B. God has promised over and over that He would provide for our lives, not our lifestyles. And in our day, age and culture its seems we cannot tell the difference. If we do not have the right lifestyle, life is just not worth living. We do what we ought not to do, to get this lifestyle. We don’t do what we are supposed to do, to get this lifestyle.

1 Timothy 6:9 NLT

But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.

C. And for us it remains way worse. We are worried and stressed, anxious and depressed, because we do not know if we are gonna get what God has not promised to provide. This continues to display the insanity of sin and the reality is that we are all effected by it.

D. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is no one righteous no not one. There is no one on earth who always does good and never sins. We are all by nature children of wrath.

E. And the wrath is real. Being poured out on all flesh by the living God who is furious with us. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The wrath of God is real, it is here, it is coming and it will be terrible. It is worse than we could ever imagine. Outer darkness, eternal torment, where the worm never dies and the fire never goes out. The place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is real and it is promised for those who are not His.

F. And salvation is here. And we become the children of God and co-heirs with Christ. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. By His wounds we are healed.

G. Believe today that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God and you will have life in His name. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead You will be saved. All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Salvation is here today.

H. Do not worry… He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of the Lord. Do not worry … He will provide all of our needs according to His righes in glory. Do not worry … no weapon form against you shall prosper. Do not worry … once he has you in the palm of His hands He will never let you go. Do not worry … for he is able to do exceedingly abundant beyond all that we could ever ask or imagine. In all your way acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.