No Room for Anxiety

Introduction

A mural artist read about a tiny boy who had been killed in traffic. His stomach churned as he thought of that ever happening to one of his three children. His worry became an inescapable anxiety. The more he imagined such a tragedy, the more fearful he became. His effectiveness as an artist was put on hold once he began running scared.

At last he surrendered to his anxiety. Canceling his negotiations to purchase a large house in busy Pasadena, California, he began to seek a place where his children would be safe. His pursuit became so intense that he set aside all his work while scheming and planning every possible means to protect his children from harm. He tried to imagine the presence of danger in everything. The location of the residence was critical. It must be sizable and remote, so he bought twelve acres perched on a mountain at the end of a long, winding, narrow road. At the turn along the road he posted signs, “Children at Play.” Before starting construction on the house itself, the father personally built and fenced a playground for his three children. He built it in such a way that it was impossible for a car to get within fifty feet of it.

Next, the house. With meticulous care he blended beauty and safety into the place. He put into it various shades of the designs he had concentrated in the murals he had hanging in forty-two public buildings in eastern cities. Only this time his objective was more than colorful art—most of all, it had to be safe and secure. He made sure of that. Finally, the garage was to be built. Only one automobile ever drove into that garage—his.

He stood back and surveyed every possibility of danger to his children. He could only think of one remaining hazard. He had to back out of the garage. He might, in some hurried moment, back over one of the children. He immediately made plans for a protected turnaround. The contractor returned and set the forms for that additional area, but before the cement could be poured, a downpour stopped the project. It was the first rainfall in many weeks of a long West Coast drought.

If it had not rained that week, the concrete turnaround would have been completed and been in use by Sunday. That was February 9, 1947—the day his eighteen-month old son squirmed away from his sister’s grasp and ran behind the car as he drove it from the garage. The child was killed instantly.

What did the anxiousness of this father achieve?

Were his children any safer?

Was his life more miserable or better?

Is his life the life that you would want to live?

You may have answered these questions in the following way: nothing, no, miserable, and no it is not.

If you answered that way you are correct in all. The only problem is that even though we all answered no on the last question, that is how the majority of us live anyway.

You see, anxiety is the body’s response to worry and fear. Anxiety disorders include panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, agoraphobia (the fear of places that might cause feelings of anxiety), specific phobia, social anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and separation anxiety disorder. Anxiety is very prominent, as these demonstrate.

How common is anxiety?

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18.1% of the population every year. (ADAA, 2020)

That is a lot of anxiety. That is why I said even though we may say that the life of that father is not how we want to live, it is how most of us live.

We do so because, well let us just look at this year.

2020 so far has been about 'travail' and 'uncertainty'. Now, in November, we remain in the midst of a global pandemic. With an election leaving a dark cloud over our heads. We simply don't know what to expect, no matter what the outcome. What do we do?

What do we do? That is a great question.

First, we must look to and see what causes us anxiety.

Then we must see that as Christians anxiety and faith are not compatible. Simply, the phrase anxious Christian is a contradiction.

Finally we must have faith and not anxiety because God is in control.

The title to this message is

NO ROOM FOR ANXIETY

The text is Matthew 6:25-34.

Let us read the text.

The Causes of Anxiety

Looking back to Matthew 6:24 we see that much of our anxiety rests in earthly treasures.

We get caught up. We want more. We only ask for what we need but then when we get that, it is not enough, we need more.

This causes anxiety because we begin to love the material items more than the one who made the material items.

We become comfortable and believe that our material items will protect and keep us. But, in truth, we end up worrying and having anxiety over them so much that we begin to be offensive all the time about our “things.”

Another cause is our basic needs.

We become concerned about whether we will have food to eat.

Whether we will have something to drink.

Whether we will have clothes to wear.

These are important. These are items we do need. But this raises a few questions.

Is food more important

Is drink more important

Is clothing more important or too much for God?

We see in the text that life is more than these things. This means life consists of these things. But that it is more than them.

Christ says that God takes care of the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap but He provides for them. The same is said about the flowers of the field.

These things are not image bearers as we are. We are of more value to God than a bird or flower, yet He provides for them. They do not worry but the bird goes about and gathers and eats. The flowers absorb sunshine and the roots go deeper and deeper for the moisture needed, but God provides.

You see, we need not worry but need to be busy about the work before us. God is not saying that we are not to work and just lay about waiting on Him to provide. No, we must work as Proverbs 10:4-5 and 2 Thessalonians 3:8,10 say.

What He is saying is that to worry over not having something is not right. He will provide what is needed. We may not get what we want but we do get what we need. Sometimes it may not seem that way but it is.

So, what causes you anxiety?

Work, school, children, the election, neighbors, spouse, being able to pay the bills, or any number of things.

All of these items can cause anxiety, if we let them.

Sure, we need to have concern about things, that is healthy. But becoming anxious over them is not healthy. It causes you to become consumed in the worry and causes you to miss God and His plan. It also causes you to miss life.

We see this in the text when Christ says that being anxious cannot add anything to your life. This means that...

Anxiety and Faith are not Compatible

Worry or anxiety accomplishes nothing, does it not?

It causes you grief and restlessness. Stress and misery.

Having fear, worrying, or being anxious is opposed to faith entirely. Faith is basically a reliance upon one to do as one has said. We, in faith, have believed upon the Lord to provide and care for us. We trust He will because He is the Good Shepherd. He is the creator of all so all is His. Since all is His, we can rest in Him to provide and care for us. So, to worry is to remove faith because we are then trusting in ourselves to take care of everything and not God.

And let me tell you, we are the best mess ups in the cosmos.

We let ourselves down most of the time.

How many of us forget to do something? Lock the door? Turn off the coffee pot? Lay out the frozen meat to thaw? Car keys?

If we cannot remember mundane little things like these, how do we expect to be able to control all of life?

We can’t! We are just human and we are not capable of tending all things. What we are to do is to do our best and work our best, because we are working for God and not man (Colossians 3:23).

As we see in the text here again, God cares for the smallest of things like the birds and the flowers of the field.

This clearly shows us that God is in control and is involved with even the most mundane and trivial things.

Since God has such a care for these small things, He will have much more care for the objects of His salvation.

You and me that is.

What this means is that God is the great provider. He is God and He is in control.

Psalm 115:3 says that “Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases.”

He is in control and He knows what you need. Your worry and anxiety will not get it for you. It will only make you miserable in the world. Your life will be miserable. Those around you will be miserable. Your anxiety does not add one bit to your life. It does the opposite.

It robs you of life. It makes you a prisoner. It is a great tool of Satan.

He wants you miserable and anxious. Anxiety leads to doubt and doubt can lead to unbelief. It can make us turn against God. Anxiety makes us more concerned with the happenings of the world than with God.

I confess we are in a very difficult time in our history. It is true this nation is in an uproar. We are in a most divisive time. I believe it is because many have become so anxious over the politics of our nation and forgot about God.

Too many in the church have bought into an idea that government policy, legislative reform is what will determine the moral and spiritual direction of our country, instead of the church.

This has caused them to become so anxious for a certain party to win that they have forgot to go and be the church to the country they love.

I believe that we should invest time in politics but we should always do so through a biblical worldview. We should always be Christian first and trust God over material or flesh all the time.

I am less concerned about winning the White House than I am about purifying the church. Politics is downstream of culture. And culture is shaped by the health (or sickness) of the church. I pray for this country. But I pray most passionately for Christ’s Bride.

I ask, Can we say, my political concerns are secondary to my concern for the health and welfare of the church?

I plead, let’s invest at least as much energy and resources in reforming the church as we do in electing a president.

I believe that if we do this, we will not be as anxious over elections and the country.

Remember, God is the great provider. He provides to the birds and the flowers, but they are not just sitting there waiting for it. They are working and trusting God. Being anxious and fretting about it does nothing but causes you to be anxious even more.

Anxiety breeds anxiety.

That is why we need to have...

Faith not Anxiety

Christ tells us not to be anxious wondering about all these things, because the worldly things are what the Gentiles, the unbelievers, all seek after. God knows what we need. He knows we need things to live. He knows all this.

We need not worry about the temporal items because our Father knows our needs and He provides those needs as they are needed.

To continue to worry over the future is sin. It denies the love, wisdom, and power of God.

It implies that He does not care for us.

It says He does not know what He is doing.

It denies His power because it says He isn’t able to provide.

Christ destroys that line of thinking when He said “your heavenly Father knows you need them all.”

And that when we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things will be added to you.

He will provide and give what you need. It may not be what you think, but He will provide.

Christ is saying that: If you are serving God alone, then you will not be anxious or worried about the material things. But, If you are placing your trust in earthly treasures, you will become worried at every turn. You will because you know that earthly, material items can, and will, expire. You know it can be taken from you at any moment. You then worry and have anxiety over these items. Not only this, but when by placing hope and faith in anything earthly, i.e. government, man, or anything else, you will be let down and anxious.

He ends with this last and powerful verse, Matt. 6:34 is powerful because it simply states that God gives the grace needed to make it through each day.

If you worry or become anxious about tomorrow, then you are robbing grace from today for tomorrow and then you cannot deal with today. You become more and more stressed and then you become miserable. Life becomes drab and terrible. Life becomes nothing more than a pain with the only exit being death.

This type of thinking ruins your thoughts and robs you of the life that God has given you. You become like the man from the opening story.

You become so worried that it consumes your life and you miss out on so much.

You become like the woman who worried for forty years that she would die of cancer. Only to finally die of pneumonia at age 70. She wasted forty years worrying about the wrong thing.

Her life was consumed in that and it was all for nothing.

This is why we must seek first the Kingdom of God because if we seek Him and give all cares and concerns to Him, we will not become anxious.

He is in control and He is ruling from heaven above. We trust Him and give it all to Him and we seek His kingdom and righteousness.

If we do this and do it daily, anxiety will roll away, and we may even go and share Christ with the masses and see the change we so think some man can do happen by the power of God.

Trust God. Place faith in Him alone. He can fix all that is broken and He can carry you through. There is No Room for Anxiety in the Christian life.