Free From Worry In The Father's Care(1)

Matthew 6:25–34 NASB95

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? “And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:25–34 CNVT

所以我告訴你們，不要為生命憂慮吃甚麼喝甚麼，也不要為身體憂慮穿甚麼。難道生命不比食物重要嗎？身體不比衣服重要嗎？你們看天空的飛鳥：牠們不撒種，不收割，也不收進倉裡，你們的天父尚且養活牠們；難道你們不比牠們更寶貴嗎？你們中間誰能用憂慮使自己的壽命延長一刻呢？何必為衣服憂慮呢？試想田野的百合花怎樣生長，它們不勞苦，也不紡織。但我告訴你們，就是所羅門最威榮的時候所穿的，也比不上這花中的一朵。田野的草，今天還在，明天就投進爐裡，　神尚且這樣妝扮它們；小信的人哪，何況你們呢？所以不要憂慮，說：『我們該吃甚麼？喝甚麼？穿甚麼？』這些都是教外人所尋求的，你們的天父原知道你們需要這一切。你們要先求他的國和他的義，這一切都必加給你們。所以不要為明天憂慮，因為明天自有明天的憂慮，一天的難處一天當就夠了。」

INTRO

Say something here......We are living in an increasingly anxious culture. With the ability to have all of the world’s news sent right to our phones and our computers, many of us are worried about situations that do not even affect us directly! Our minds and our hearts are filled with anxious thoughts and worries. Amazon follows the most highlights verses that are made on the bible app. The most highlighted verse is Philippians 4:6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” As humans we are prone to worry. There could be countless reasons for our worry and our anxiety. Jesus comes to us today with an important message:

Here is the main point of the sermon: Jesus commands worry-filled disciples to trust in the sufficient care of their heavenly Father. This is the main point.

SUB INTRO

Before we get into the text I want to make some clarifying statements. Anytime we talk about anxiety and worry, especially in todays world, it is always a part of a larger conversation. What we want to do is to make sure we are applying Jesus’ teaching to the context He intended. Today there could be 3 different types of people who all need to hear something different:

PERSON 1

This is someone who instead of worrying about things in their life they have chosen to not care about anything! Their life phrase is “don’t worry and be happy”. They believe that the right response to worry and fear is to simply not care. Today what you need to hear and what Jesus will say to you is that the response to worry is not caring about nothing, but actually having a great care about the right thing.

PERSON 2

This could be someone who has just found out they have a cancer diagnosis. Or maybe their spouse. And test after test has come back only to get a worse response. They have recieved the news that life will only get harder and more difficult until they finally pass away. Today what I do not want you to hear is that if you only had more faith then you wouldn’t worry about the cancer. We see in the bible that Paul had anxiety over the churches, he even feared for his own life. Today what you need to hear is that there is a Father who cares for you or your spouse even more than you do.

PERSON 3

The final person is someone who can not stop worrying about if they will have enough, either health or money. This is a person who is constantly watching the stock market, over-working, going to the doctor every day, because they have this worry that they will not be taken care of. They aren’t just worried about tomorrow but they are filled with anxiety if they will be able to retire at 62, have enough money to put their kids through college. This person. Person 3 is the person that Jesus is speaking most directly to.

Free From Worry in the Father’s Care

INTRO

Say something here......We are living in an increasingly anxious culture. With the ability to have all of the world’s news sent right to our phones and our computers, many of us are worried about situations that do not even affect us directly! Our minds and our hearts are filled with anxious thoughts and worries. Amazon follows the most highlights verses that are made on the bible app. The most highlighted verse is Philippians 4:6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” As humans we are prone to worry. There could be countless reasons for our worry and our anxiety. Jesus comes to us today with an important message:

Here is the main point of the sermon: Jesus commands worry-filled disciples to trust in the sufficient care of their heavenly Father. This is the main point.

What worry is: context

. Therefore: Jesus is connecting the command to not be worried to something He said previously. Last week Jesus ended His teaching with the true that you can not serve both money and God. You will serve one and hate the other. As Jesus’ disciples are hearing this teaching a question begins to come in their minds: “Jesus if I am not to pursue making money as my goal in life. If I am not supposed to pursue financial security for my family as my main goal in life, then how will I know I will be provided for?!” To that question and concern Jesus gives this command:

2. Do not worry about your life.

a. 3 times in these verse Jesus issues this command: Do not worry!

i. What does this word mean?

1. overly concerned about. It means to weigh down with trouble.To care for: to be troubled with cares for A disquieting, tormenting thought, which hurries the mind hither and thither, and hangs it in suspense; which disturbs our joy in God, and is a damp upon our hope in him; which breaks the sleep, and hinders our enjoyment of ourselves, of our friends, and of what God has given us. 2. A distrustful, unbelieving thought.

ii. So here we have a problem. We are worry filled people. We worry and Jesus commands us not to do this. How is this possible?

THE PROBLEM WITH WORRY擔憂 的問題

Consider the birds

Notice the birds, and see how they live I have birds in my house in the morning

Jesus says they don’t “sew, reap, or gather into barns”

What HE means is that don’t run around worrying about where their food will come tomorrow. They focus on the food that is given to them today.

However, the birds don’t just sit there and open their beaks and wait for God to drop food in their mouths do they? No Jesus’ warning here is not against work, but it is against worry! What happens when we do not trust that God will provide for us through the means and avenues HE has given us? We store up, we hoard up, we worry, and so we attempt to control.

Do any of you remember almost 2 years ago when Covid 19 hit the US and people were making a mad dash to buy toilet paper? Even in Taiwan they had to stop people from buying too much toilet paper. Why? Because when people are worried, we seek to control. We store up as much as we can, not trusting that our God will provide. What worry usually does is not point our lives OUTWARD but inward towards self protection at all costs.

Consider the flowers

But then Jesus moves to the flowers. What is his point here?

Jesus mentions Solomon. Why do you think He mentions Solomon?

Solomon was the wealthiest king in Israel’s history. Solomon had every resource at his disposal, and yet, Jesus says, Solomon’s ability to clothe himself, doesn’t even come close to the way our Father clothes and dresses the lilies.

What is his point? Many times when we worry, we don’t just seek to control, but we seek to become more self-sufficient. We imagine to ourselves, that if just had this certain number in the bank account, if we had just more money in our retirement, or if we just made more salary, then we would cease to worry and be able to care for ourselves.

But Jesus’ point is clear: even if you had all of the resources that Solomon had, your ability to care for yourselves does not come close to the ability of our Heavenly Father! Jesus begins to show us that creation itself testifies to the care of our Heavenly Father. So we see there is a problem with our worry. It pushes is into control, it pushes us towards self-sufficiency and away from the care of our Heavenly Father

What worry ultimately does,

The answer is nothing! Jesus brings worry to its ultimate end.What can worry do?

It accomplishes nothing. Who of you can add an hour to his life? IF we can’t do this small thing, then why do we believe that worrying will add anything to our lives?

Friend of Taiwan, not just a Taiwanese thing, but a western thing. It’s a human thing to try and evade the reality of death. I want you to think about something: in 100 years none of us will be here. the Bible tells us that life is a vapor. Here today and gone tomorrow.

And worrying about that can not add anything to your life. In fact doctors show that worry about anxiety actually steals life from us!

The root of worry: Lack of faith

Remember 3 people? ContextL those of use who are have chronic worry about God’s ability to care for us. Either financially, career wise, health wise, because of that we live our lives under the tyranny of worry. Jesus gives us the root of our worry. He tells us that our worry is not because we have a lack of money, a lack of food, or a lack of possessions, He says it is a lack of faith. A lack of trust. I know this may not be encouraging, but I promise you, Jesus is telling you this because HE CARES FOR YOU!

Jesus calls us “little faith”. This is a rebuke from the Lord Jesus. Jesus says that our worry, and lack of trust is declaring this: that our God, the Christian God, is a God who will feed the birds and clothe the flowers, but leave His children naked and starving.

Our turtles, Taiwan loves their animals. I lived in a town in the States where animals were treated better than kids. Do you see the reason why Jesus calls us to repent of this?

“ worry is the belief that God will NOT get things right. ”

THE SOLUTION TO OUR WORRY擔憂 的解決

Yet what does Jesus do to those of us who are guilty? Who are sleepless because we are filled with worry? Who can’t function during the way because we are constantly worried something will happen? Who over-work because we don’t think there will be enough? He says we need more faith! But does Jesus say the answer to our lack of faith, is to look inside of ourselves, and try and muster up faith? No the answer to our lack of faith is not to look at ourselves, but to cast our eyes and look at our Heavenly Father! “More value than them” “more value than them” Child of God.

Church family, there is someone who cares more about your life than you do, there is Someone who can take care of you better than you can, and that is our Heavenly Father! The solution to our worry is not to pull away from the Father but it is to draw near even closer to His kindness and care. How amazing of a God do we serve?

Those of us who have kids? When do we need to pull them close and let them know how much we care and love? When they are worried and afraid. Jesus says we have the ability to do the same!

FAITH IN THE MIDST OF WORRY

But how do we live our lives when we are filled with worry?

Jesus shows us: It’s not to not care about things, but it is to care about the right things first. Seek FIRST the kingdom. Seek FIRST. How do we live this faith out? Throw ourselves into living for the kingdom of God.

We have a unique opportunity as children of God to do this.

Pagans can’t do this Jesus says.

Story of missionaries.

So will we face life like a pagan or like a child of God? If we want to be a multiplying church, if we want to be a mission sending church, church planting church, then we must believe that our Father can provide for our needs. How many times have people been called to missions but because of the fear that God won’t provide never went? How many times are we guilty of not obeying the Lord because there is a fear that He simply won’t care for us? We can live like children of God and fully throw ourselves into the kingdom of God.

FAITH FOR OUR FUTURE

Not only does God care about our today, but He cares for our tomorrow.

Grace for today. Don’t pull troubles from tomorrow into today. Pointless!

THE GOSPEL福音

God’s clearest picture of His care for you is not what He puts on the table, but who He put on the cross.(say that again)

Paul’s says it this way:

Romans 8:32 CSB

He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything?

Romans 8:32 CNVT

他連自己的兒子都捨得，為我們眾人把他交出來，難道不也把萬有和他一同白白地賜給我們嗎？

APPLICATION

1.Preach to yourself instead of listening to yourself.

2.Stay In Community

Proverbs 16:24 CNVT

恩慈的話好像蜂巢中的蜂蜜， 使人心裡甘甜，骨頭健壯。

Proverbs 16:24 CSB

Pleasant words are a honeycomb: sweet to the taste and health to the body.

3.PURSUE THE KINGDOM

"If in God's loving plan you have to bow before what appears to be a frowning providence, you can be sure that He's got your ultimate happiness at heart. He's working to free you from your worries, not by giving freedom from trouble, but by arranging circumstances so that as you go through them you'll experience the truth that He is everything He says He is" ~ Elyse Fitzpatrick