Sermon Tone Analysis

Worry-Free Living with a purpose

Illustration: Crippling Worry- Airplane (I know worry)

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This portion of Scripture contains some things that you're going to find familiar to you and that's because much of what Jesus says here in Galilee, He also said in Judea in .

In fact, the passage in is a direct parallel to .

As we pull the passage together, the thing that ties it all up is a statement that Jesus makes three times essentially:

Verse 22, "Do not be anxious,"

Verse 25, “Do not be anxious”

verse 29, "Do not keep worrying,"

Verse 28.

“Why are you anxious”

Verse 32, "Do not be afraid."

Verse 31,34, “Do not be anxious.”

Anxiety-Free living is part of what the Lord offers.

It's part of the gospel message.

It is what we have who are in the Kingdom if we want to take it.

· I understand why the world is stressed out.

· I understand why people are anxious.

· I understand why they worry.

This world is a crazy, unstable, scary place isn’t it?

I understand why they have panic attacks.

It's frightening to be dangling in this mysterious universe and feeling all alone and not being able to figure out why you're even here and where you're going.

I understand why people take drugs and drink and go on eating binges and shopping sprees and wild adventures and all kinds of things to fill their minds with other thoughts.

We are living in an anxiety-ridden culture.

It is amazing we are the most indulged, the most lavished society ever, this is the most comfortable society that has the most but it seems to be the most anxious, stressed out, and panicked culture ever.

We have a massive medical world that exists to do nothing but help people with stress.

No worry goes unnamed, undefined., undiagnosed.

And un-medicated.

The term in our society is "to manage it."

You take a course, listen to a lecture, buy a cd on stress management, or take a medication.

Jesus comes along and says, "I'm not going to teach you how to manage your stress, I'll eliminate it."

A hundred million people are estimated worldwide to have panic attacks, just out of nowhere to feel a terrible, terrifying panic.

This is huge.

Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent every year on anxiety treatments.

The best the world can offer you is to manage your anxiety.

Jesus offers you to eliminate it.

Does that sound like a good deal?

Get rid of it all together?

The GOAL of the day is to take a group of stressed out worrisome people this morning, and let us leave this place fully trusting in God.

In fact, you can basically translate verse 22, "Stop being anxious," verse 29, "Stop worrying," and verse 32, "Stop being afraid."

"A dense fog covering seven city blocks...are you with me?...a dense fog covering seven city blocks, a hundred-feet deep is composed of less than one glass of water divided into 60 thousand drops.

Not much there... but it cripples the whole community."

Well that's what can happen in worry.

You can have something the size of one glass of water cripple a whole community.

The word "worry" actually comes from an old German word, which means to choke, or strangle.

It's talking about mental strangulation through fear and anxiety and stress and worry.

Now there are only two realms in which you can worry.

Physical/ Spiritual.

So that is precisely what Jesus says you don't need to worry about.

In verse 22 He says, "Don't be anxious for your life," and by that He means what you eat, and your body, what you wear.

Stop worrying about that, the basics of life.

verse 32, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

Here he is talking about the Spiritual level.

You're left with nothing to worry about, nothing to be anxious about, nothing to be stressed about, nothing to panic over.

So we conclude that if you do worry as a Christian, worry is a sin.

But it's a sin that rises from a failure to understand God, a failure to understand His sovereign love, a failure to understand His sovereign care, a failure to understand His sovereign resources.

Worry Comes When We Fail to Understand God: So this morning our focus is on God.

· You are God’s PRIORITY

First of all, worry is a failure to understand divine priority... Let's go back to verse 22.

Luke 1222 And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.

23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.

Matthew 625 “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?

That's not hard to understand and yet there are some things below the surface there that I think are going to open up a deeper understanding of this.

First of all, He said to His DISCIPLES.

That is significant because if you are not a disciple of Jesus, if you are not a follower of Jesus then this certainly does not apply to you.

If you are not a follower of Jesus then it is certainly rational that you drink all the Alcohol you can, that you partake in all the drugs that you can because this world is very stressful and there’s not a whole lot to calm your fears It doesn’t matter if you are talking about the physical or the spiritual.

You being a “Follower” of Jesus Christ makes a big difference to the way that you handle the World around you!

“Therefore I tell you," What is the reason?

Why is Jesus telling his followers that they do not have to worry?

The reason verse 21, you make a choice in life as to whether you lay up treasure for yourself or are rich toward God.

So you make a choice...either you are selfish and materialistic and keep everything/ or you lay up treasure in heaven.

That's the choice you have to make

24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and money.

Being a slave was not like being an employee, you didn't go to work at 8 and finish at 5.

You can do that in our society and then you can go to work somewhere else at 7 and finish at 2 in the morning.

You can serve two masters in our culture, you can have two jobs.

But you couldn't in a slave environment because you were owned by the master and there was no way a slave could serve two masters, impossible.

And so in the spiritual realm, you either serve God or money, you're either rich toward God, or you indulge yourself and that's the point He makes.

Now He says, “Therefore I tell you,”

That's the transition because here's what they would be thinking: "Well, Jesus is saying we ought to be rich toward God and not save money and build bigger barns and store up money and make ourselves wealthy and all of that,

But if we give it all to God, what about us?

What's going to happen to us? Who's going to take care of us?

I mean, we live in a dog-eat-dog world, right?

Who's going to take care of us if we don't care of ourselves?

Have you ever asked a question similar to that?

God if I really follow you with everything I have my life is going to change… I’m not sure I want my life to change…

The answer to that question is really pretty simple: Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

That is an honest question that must be answered before we can ever serve God whole-heartedly.

Follow me for a moment… If you live your life in the belief that all that matters is the physical… Food, Shelter, clothing, hobbies, stuff….

You will never matter Spiritually.

The whole text revolves around the idea that we need to serve God whole-heartedly.

Well the answer, of course, that the Lord gives here is this, that God's going to take care of you.

, "Casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you."

So if He asks you to give up everything like He did to the rich young ruler in , then what you should do is sell everything you have, give your money to the poor.

Remember the response of the man?

Not on your life, he said.

Turned around and walked away for he was very rich.

And he wanted his money and he didn't want to give it away and depend on God.

, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.