Why So Stressed?
The Proclamation • Sermon • Submitted
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· 14 viewsAnxiety is the most significant mental illness in the U.S. effecting 40 million adults each year. Sadly Christians suffer at the same rate as everyone else. Children of God should be different. We have a heavenly Father who love us, cares for us, and provides for us. Faith and trust are the keys to unlocking an anxious free life.
Notes
Transcript
Series: The Proclamation.
Introduction:
Since the beginning of time, God revealed that He would establish His Kingdom on Earth. When Jesus, the Son of God and rightful King, comes on the scene, He proclaims the Kingdom has come.
Over the past few weeks, we have been discussing this proclamation in great detail.
Key points:
Key points:
Christ establishes the Kingdom’s timing. Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom has come. Therefore, we are living in the Kingdom of Christ now.
Christ establishes the Kingdom’s heart through laws of love that cut to the heart of the matter and not just physical actions.
Christ establishes the Kingdom’s focus on heavenly treasures instead of worldly treasures.
As we continue to examine the proclamation of Christ in Matthew six, He establishes the Kingdom’s peace and security.
I did a little research and found the most significant mental illness in the U.S. today is an Anxiety disorder affecting 40 million adults each year.
According to WebMD, here are some common external factors that can cause anxiety. Count with your fingers how many of the external factors you have in your life right now.
Stress at work
Stress from school
Stress in a personal relationship such as marriage
Financial stress
Stress from global occurrences or political issues
Stress from unpredictable or uncertain world events, like a “pandemic.”
Stress from an emotional trauma such as the death of a loved one
Stress from a serious medical illness
Side effect of medication
Use of an illicit drug, such as cocaine
Symptom of a medical illness (such as heart attack, heat stroke, hypoglycemia)
Lack of oxygen in circumstances as diverse as high altitude sickness, emphysema, or pulmonary embolism (a blood clot in the vessels of the lung)
Did you catch the common theme of these symptoms? Stress
How many of these stressful situations did you count for yourself?
“Why so stressed?”
“Why so stressed?”
In our passage today in Matthew 6:24-34, Jesus gives us three reason not to stress or have anxiety as a Child of God.
The Father’s Love
The Father’s Provision
The Father’s Focus
Live in the Father’s Love.
Live in the Father’s Love.
One of the greatest blessings of being a part of the Kingdom of God is not the forgiveness of sin but the adoption into God’s family.
The love of the Father.
The love of the Father.
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
God becomes more than the Creator or the Judge but a Father who loves you, guides you, protects you, and provides for you.
The adoption into God’s family.
The adoption into God’s family.
Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
As a child of the heavenly Father, we no longer have to trust ourselves but can rely on God.
Snack packs for the kids at Allgood Elementary.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Choose to trust the Father rather than money.
Choose to trust the Father rather than money.
Jesus states you can’t serve God and money. You must choose with whom you will place your trust.
“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?
Anxiety is the realization you don’t have control of the situation and no means to regain it.
There is no hope for those trusting themselves or money, but all things are possible for those trusting God.
Live in the Father’s Provision.
Live in the Father’s Provision.
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.
To the children of God, these verses are not cliches but realities by which to live.
Jesus gives two examples from nature:
Jesus gives two examples from nature:
The first is on value. What are you worth to God?
The first is on value. What are you worth to God?
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?
The second is on care. How much does God care about you?
The second is on care. How much does God care about you?
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?
Faith toward God is the answer to the anxiety in your life.
You must believe that God loves you and cares what happens to you.
Anxiety is for the fatherless.
Anxiety is for the fatherless.
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.
Live with Kingdom Focus.
Live with Kingdom Focus.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Seek first the kingdom of God.
Seek first the kingdom of God.
Set your mind on things above by focusing on your relationship with God.
Who are your influencers?
Who or what do you allow to guide your thoughts and actions?
Make decisions that positively impact to God’s kingdom and your relationship to Him.
Become an ambassador for God’s love by inviting others into this relationship.
Seek first the righteousness of God.
Seek first the righteousness of God.
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
Do you feel like you are going it alone?
Are you anxious because you have to figure it all out?
“If you want to unleash the provision, protection, and guidance of the Father, put His Kingdom and righteousness first in your life.”
“If you want to unleash the provision, protection, and guidance of the Father, put His Kingdom and righteousness first in your life.”
There is no magic formula of dos and don’ts that will put Him first. People have tried for centuries to please God by doing. Set your heart on God and His Kingdom, and Your actions will naturally follow.
Matthew 6:34
Closing Thoughts:
Christ revealed the timing, heart, focus, and now the peace and security in this proclamation of the Kingdom.
What is God to you?
A figment of the imagination of others
The Creator and Judge of the world
A Savior from your sin
Or a heavenly Father that loves and cares for you
Have you been adopted in the God’s family? Are you one of his children?
In whom do you place your trust: yourself or your heavenly Father?
