Don't Worry - Trust God

Intro

Opening Illustration: Today we live in what I would classify as the age of outrage, worry, and anxiety.

Statistics tell us that roughly 40 million Americans have actually been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.

This number doesn’t include those of us who worry or become anxious on a more normal level.

We are worried about money, we are worried about our jobs, we are worried about our families, We are worried about our health. We are worried about the government and elections and about the future and about our children and grandchildren. We are a people who are prone to worry.

I have heard that, “A dense fog that covers a seven-city-block area one hundred feet deep is composed of less than one glass of water divided into sixty thousand million drops. Not much is there but it can cripple an entire city.” This is a picture of worry and how crippling it can be. We often worry about things that aren’t really there. Worry may seem like a small thing, but it can be crippling.

How do we deal with worry and anxiety?

Transition to the Text: In the book of Matthew Chapters 5 - 7, we get what is known as the sermon on the mount. Jesus is giving his vision of the kingdom of God. He’s laying out what it looks like to be a citizen of His kingdom. Matthew is intentionally painting us a picture that would remind us of Moses and the ten commandments. Just as Moses goes up the Mountain to bring down the law, Jesus goes up the Mountain or “hill” and begins to fulfill the law. Just as Moses laid out what it looked like to be a member of the Israelite community, Jesus is laying out what it means to be a part of His new community. Jesus is not undoing the law, he is fulfilling it. He is bringing it to its intended end. The Sermon, in my opinion, can really be broken down into 4 parts.

What kind of people Make up this new, alternative community? ()

How should this new community interact with the world? ()

How should this new community interact with the world? ( )

How should this new community approach the Bible? ()

How should this new community approach the Bible? ( )

What does it look like to actually, practically live as part of the new community? ()

What does it look like to actually, practically live as part of the new community? ( )

The text I would like us to look at tonight comes under the practical section. As Christians, what should our response be to worry and anxiety? Jesus spells this out for us very practically.

Text:

Matthew 6:24–34 ESV

“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. “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.

Main Idea: Tonight, I want to remind you, Do Not Worry, Trust God.

Transition to Points: Let’s dive into what Jesus has to say here. And I want to point out reasons we often worry and what the solution is.

The word here translated as anxious in the ESV could also be translated as worry.

It looking up the word in it’s original language (Greek) I found that it behind it is this idea of “being drawn in different directions, to be distracted.”

This is the idea here that Jesus, I think, is getting at. Not that we don’t care about life, but that we become so concerned with the wrong things - or even the right things - too much and we begin to be distracted from what really matters.

Worry and anxiety, in a sense distract us from reality. We become so consumed or concerned or anxious about something and it becomes difficult for us to see anything else. It even becomes difficult for us to see that God is working.

Points

We worry because we serve the wrong master

This passage is sliced up and sectioned off in our modern english translations. I think it’s sliced up at the wrong place.

Jesus’ treatment of anxiety doesn’t begin in verse 25. Verse 25 has a “Therefore.” The old Bible Study Rule - “If you see a therefore, look back and see what it’s there for.”

So what does Jesus say before verse 25?

Matthew 6:24 ESV

“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.

Solution: Serve the right master

Matthew 6:24 ESV

“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.

Jesus flows right from a statement about money into a statement about anxiety.

Isn’t this just like us - That most of our anxiety comes from money?

Many marriages end because of issues over money.

What’s the number 1 thing most people worry about? Money

The problem Jesus is pointing out here, isn’t money itself - But divided loyalty.

The idea of “Master” here suggests a slaveowner who requires total allegiance.

It’s so easy for us to be divided in our loyalty to God.

We can be distracted by our jobs or carriers, family, pleasure, and yes, money.

Money is probably one of the main culprits. Because money is so alluring.

We begin to think if we just had more if we just had enough, everything would be ok. People spend their lives in pursuit of money and things. Money offers a false sense of security and power.

Here’s the problem with money - You will leave it or it will leave you. You will lose it or you will die and you can’t take it with you. Money is an illusion.

Deep down, we know this. We know that money can’t actually bring peace and security.

So we have to work ourselves to death in order to keep it going - and that is why we worry.

Money is a harsh master who pushes us towards worry.

Illustration: Like many of you, when I go out of town I try and find a friend or someone who can drop by my house and check in on things while I am away. This is an important job - Someone is getting the keys to our homes and will be coming in and out of it while we are away. We don’t simply walk up to some guy on the street and ask them to do this for us - We find someone we know and can trust. Someone who will do the job well. If you did give this job to someone you don’t know, you would probably worry the entire time - Are they trustworthy? Will they take care of my stuff? Will they steal anything?

When we try to give our lives over to anyone but God, we have need to worry. Truth is, no one will take care of our lives like him. When we hand the keys of our lives over to money, power, pleasure, or anything else - Worry is an inevitable result. Why? Because deep down we know they can’t do the job.

Solution: Serve the right master

Jesus is the only master you can give the keys of your life to and not have to worry about it!

Jesus has a proven track record of coming through.

You can leave your life in his hands and forget it! He’ll take care of it!

As Christians, too often we leave our worries with God only to pick them up again.

Illustration: My dad told the story a few times to me about when he was in his twenties he became one the directors of a teen challenge program. He said there were so many people to help and so many things to do that worry and anxiety began to show up in his life. He stopped being able to sleep at night. Finally, after having enough of it, he went to prayer. God spoke to him and said - Just as you take your glasses or contacts out at night, take your problems from the day off. Set them on the bedside table and then pick them up again in the morning.

The reason, I think, that we pick them up again, is that we often (While we won’t admit it) wonder if Jesus is really enough. And that leads to the next point.

We worry because we ask the wrong questions

Jesus gives us some examples here of bad questions. He says, “Don’t be anxious saying...

What shall we eat?

Jesus uses birds as an illustration here.

What shall we drink?

What shall we wear?

Jesus says that everyone else is asking these questions, but we are called to be different.

He’s saying here, “Don’t become so preoccupied with living that you forget where real life comes from!”

These are all temporal questions that at their heart show a lack of trust.

Jesus here isn’t getting on to you for asking your wife where she wants to eat after Church on Sunday morning. He’s getting on to us for becoming preoccupied or worried with these questions to the point that they consume our lives.

Jesus says that a preoccupation with these issues shows us that we have forgotten that God is in control and knows our needs.

Illustration: I have found in teaching and in dealing with people it is often about learning to ask the right questions. Before my wife and I went house shopping a few years ago, we did our homework and we went to our realtor and we asked questions and we gained information so that we wouldn’t get a bad deal. We try to teach our kids to ask questions and be curious and don’t be afraid to ask the doctor or the manager or whoever questions. Sometimes we get a bad deal because we fail to ask questions. Sometimes we get a bad deal because we fail to ask the right questions. For instance, a few years ago my wife and I were at Disney world with a group from the church here, and something got messed up on our ticket. My wife went to take care of it - and someone told her the secret is to say “I’m not having a magical experience, what can you do to make my experience more magical?” It was like a code word or something - We ended the day with a free ticket to whatever we were doing.

When our life is preoccupied with the wrong questions - What shall we eat? what shall we drink? What shall we wear? How are we ever going to..? - We doom ourselves to a life full of anxiety and worry.

Solution: Ask the right questions

Jesus, in his typical teaching style, takes our questions and answers them with questions of his own. He counters our questions and doubts by causing us to question the underlying assumptions we are making. His questions causes us to remember the obvious truth that we often forget.

Here are the counter questions:

“Are you not of more value than the birds?”

You’re worried about being taken care of?

You’re more valuable to God than birds - and he takes care of them!

“Can worrying add a single hour to your life?”

Most of the stuff we worry about doesn’t happen anyway!

Worrying is actually counter-productive. It doesn’t just not help, it often makes things even worse!

“Why are you anxious about being clothed? Doesn’t God clothe the flowers of the field more beautifully than Solomon himself?

These counter questions from Jesus, jar us back into the reality of his kingdom!

They remind us that God is still on the throne, he is still in control, and we do not have to worry!

We worry because we seek the wrong things

Ultimately this can all be summed up in verse 33. We worry because we seek the wrong thing in the wrong places.

We seek peace and security and we look for it in money and other things.

Jesus reminds us we must get things in the right order.

Illustration: There’s a craze that’s been going around lately. A Japanese lady by the name of Marie Kondo wrote a little book called “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” It’s an interesting little book about how to organize and clean up your house. The book was a hit and it turned into a Netflix show where Marie goes into people’s houses and helps them clean up. One of the thing that she does is teach people how to properly fold their clothes - and here’s the interesting part - If you fold clothes the way she shows, you can get more clothes than you thought in a drawer. It’s all in how you put them in there.

If our lives are to work right and not be an overstuffed, jumbled up mess that resembles my 4yr old’s sock drawer - Jesus says there has to be an order to it.

Many lives are a jumbled mess because our lives, or as Augustine put it, our loves are in the wrong order. It’s not that we don’t love Jesus, it’s just that if we were honest we often love something else more!

And that order is this - Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and He will take care of the rest.

So what does it mean to seek first His Kingdom?

Jesus, and others, and You, that’s the way you spell joy.

It means making church a priority in your life

It means making prayer and Bible reading a priority in your life

It means serving others

It means giving of yous

Solution: Seek the right thing

And that order is this - Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and He will take care of the rest.

So what does it mean to seek first His Kingdom?

It means making church and worship a priority in your life

It means making prayer and Bible reading a priority in your life

It means serving others

It means giving of yourself for the sake of others

It means taking the keys to your life and handing them to Jesus and letting him do with you as he wants.

The real underlying issue in all this tonight is this - where’s your trust?

Conclusion

The Real underlying issue in all of this tonight is trust. Do you trust God?

Is he first place in your life? Is he really your master?

Are you asking questions that fuel doubt or trust?

Are you seeking him first above all else?

Tonight let’s stop worrying and instead serve the right master, ask the right questions, and seek the right things.