The Attitude of Worry
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The Attitude of Worry
The Attitude of Worry
Proverbs 23:7
Proverbs 23:7
Philippians 4:6-9
Philippians 4:6-9
May 27, 2018
May 27, 2018
Introduction:
Introduction:
Worry has been defined as “a small trickle of fear that meanders through the mind until it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.”
Green, M. P. (Ed.). (1989). Illustrations for Biblical Preaching: Over 1500 sermon illustrations arranged by topic and indexed exhaustively (Revised edition of: The expositor’s illustration file). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.
Three words jump off the page: Prayer, Think, Do-pray right, think right, do right.
You may say: “I don’t worry…”
Other issues that are like worry: anxiety, foreboding, insecurity, pressure, stress, tension, discouragement, depression, troubled, sorrows, complaining.
The Book of Philippians deals with thoughts, minds, and actions.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Billions of dollars thousands of books and hundreds of seminars have been offered to help people conquer worry.
The apostle Paul gives us help in one single verse: Space “be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”
One of the problems with worry, is it so many people try to conquer it or overcome it simply through the human element. But the human element is not enough; we must have the mind of Christ to conquer fear, frustration, worry and all these other things that come in our lives.
1. What are you worrying about?
2. If God promises to supply all of my needs, that’s all I need. I’m going to trust him for it the truth of the matter is all I need is his word on.
3. Are you worrying about the past? Nothing you can do will change the past. All the problems, all the scars, all the heartache, all the things that have happened can’t be changed. So don’t spend time worrying about what was today is the day now is the time.
4. Are you worrying about the future?
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
We tend to worry about almost everything, we worry about whether we're going to have cancer; whether the economy is going to stay good; whether our investments are going to stay up or go down. We worry about our jobs. We worry about our houses, we worry about our families, we worry about our church.
Worry is very close to discouragement, as a matter of fact, most people who worry stay discouraged.
Dr. Raymond Barber said there are 10 great rules to keep your the blues: go out and do something for somebody and repeat that nine times over!
If anybody had a reason to worry it was the apostle Paul. His Christian friends were fighting in the church at Philippi almost to the point of splitting it. He was in prison and facing death by execution. He had seen his friends for a long time. He was growing old. He had no Social Security, no Medicaid, no Medicare, no retirement program, no hospitalization insurance, no bank account, no savings bond, no vacation pay, no burial insurance Paul had a lot to worry about!
With all of these things that he could’ve worried about Paul wrote these words in Philippians 4:4.
Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.
We need to discern what is causing us to worry, what worry is, how worry affects us, and how to overcome worry.
I. What is Worry?
I. What is Worry?
The word worry comes from the ancient English word meaning “to choke or to strangle.” When somebody has you around the neck, cutting off the win that is precisely what the word worry needs. It strangles you; it chokes your emotional life. Worry is a destroyer, a cripple or, a killer of many things in our lives. Hard work has never killed anybody, but worry has killed many.
Someone said, “Worry is interest paid on trouble before it is due.”
There are those who worry about three kinds of trouble:
1. all the trouble they ever had.
2. All the trouble they have now.
3. All the trouble they ever expect to have.
God has never made a Christian strong enough to carry all of today’s duties with tomorrow’s worries piled on top of them.
The poet said:
do not trouble trouble, until trouble troubles you,
for you only make your troubles double trouble when you do.
There are three days and every week when you should never worry: yesterday, today and tomorrow.
It is estimated that over 90% of what we worry about never actually happens.
A. Worry is a sickness, and God has the cure.
1. Seek first the kingdom of God.
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
2. Learn to live one day at a time.
B. Worry is a sin.
And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
II. How Does Worry Affect Us?
II. How Does Worry Affect Us?
A. It affects our walk with God
And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
B. It affects us physically.
Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: But a good word maketh it glad.
It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, To eat the bread of sorrows: For so he giveth his beloved sleep.
C. It affects our relationships with others.
I sent him therefore the more carefully, that, when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.
D. there are four main causes of worry:
1. Thinking of what you do not have instead of thinking of what you do have.
2. Refusing to face life as it is, instead of how we would like for it to be.
3. Worry is the result of centering our thoughts on ourselves instead of others.
4. Failing to exercise faith in God.
III. How to Overcome Worry.
III. How to Overcome Worry.
Here is the real core of the message: how can a person overcome worry? Not by drugs, not by alcohol, not by mental gymnastics, not by sedatives and tranquilizers, not by making new resolutions.
Isaiah said, “thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” Isaiah 26:3
God has given a divine prescription for overcoming worry, and it is found in Philippians 4:
1. the right kind of praying;
2. the right kind of thinking;
3. the right kind of living.
A. The right kind of praying-vs. 6
Why is prayer such an important effective and vital therapy in overcoming worry?
One of the chief sources of worry is always thinking about yourself. Prayer directs our thoughts away from ourselves and toward God.
You cannot think about God and self at the same time, so prayer puts your thoughts where they belong.
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
B. The right kind of thinking-vs. 8
When you think of only the bad things that have happened then you will go to bed with those thoughts on your mind, then you will wake up with a bitter taste in your mouth and on your heart. What we think about tends to shape our actions.
Our beliefs determine our behavior, and our beliefs are the outcome of our thoughts.
Keep thy heart with all diligence; For out of it are the issues of life.
Commit thy works unto the Lord, And thy thoughts shall be established.
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
C. The right kind of living-vs. 9
To pray right is not enough, to think right is not enough, to pray right and think right is not enough, for we must also do right!
You will never do right unless you are thinking and praying right.
Note the order: prayer, thinking, doing or living; there is something very significant about this order.
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Pray right, think right, do right and then you will be right!
Worry is a sin…and if the Peace of God is guarding your life and the Spirit of God is guiding your life, then the Son of God will be keeping your life!
Don’t worry, trust God-
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; And lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, And he shall direct thy paths.