Sermon Tone Analysis

WORRY

 

       This subject is dedicated to all of those who are worried, or who ever have worried, or who ever will worry!

First of all, let me state that God has never been worried not even once.

In all of the billions of years of His existence God has never worried.

In fact, it is impossible for God to worry.

If you have ever examined the essence of God, you will see that everything in His character adds up to the fact that it is absolutely impossible for God to be worried or in a state of anxiety and I am going to add one to be concerned.

Now, don’t try to get around it concern is worry, although there is a sense in which concern is not worry.

We are concerned about our country because of the dangers it faces at the present hour, but this concern can easily become worry.

~*BECOME IMITATORS OF GOD~*

 

       Eph 5:1 says, “Be ye (literally, keep on becoming something you are not), therefore (in view of what has already been given in Ephesians), followers (literally, IMITATORS) of God....” Now, you cannot imitate God and worry.

You cannot imitate God and be afraid; you cannot imitate God and be in status quo anxiety.

“ .. .

As dear children.”

The word “dear” is literally “beloved,” a title used for the Lord Jesus Christ.

God the Father loves God the Son with an infinite amount of love, and therefore, He is the object of the Father’s Divine love.

When we accept Christ as Savior, we enter into union with Christ, and we are, therefore, beloved children.

Now as beloved children, we are to become imitators of God.

However, it is only possible to imitate God when we are in fellowship with Him in time.

Since worry is NOT imitating God, whenever a person worries, he is immediately out of fellowship.

All worry, all anxiety is not only sin, it is an extremely subtle and evil type of sin.

Worry or anxiety is described in many ways.

For example, in Rom 14:23 “ .. .

For whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”

Worry is nothing more or less than lack of faith, and lack of faith is sin!

We are specifically commanded in Php 4:6 (literally) to “stop worrying about anything.”

A question regarding worry was asked in the Sermon on the Mount: “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature” (Mt 6:27)?

We would say today, “WHICH OF YOU, BY WORRYING, CAN GROW UP?” Habitual worry is dedication to habitual misery and habitual childhood as far as spiritual life is concerned.

The issue we face in this life is that WE MUST BECOME IMITATORS

       OF GOD if we are to mature spiritually.

In  Eph 5:18 we are told HOW to become imitators of God.

“Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be (habitually) filled with the Spirit.”

The entire mechanics of being filled with the Spirit begins back at Eph 3:14.

First, as we have seen, the believer is commanded to become an imitator of God.

But according to Eph 5:14, three problems can frustrate the observance of this command: ignorance, carnality and lack of production.

Each of the three phrases of this verse is connected with one of these problems.

~*MECHANICS OF IMITATING GOD~*

 

       “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest.…

This is not a command to wake up from literal sleep, but to become aware or cognizant of doctrine.

As long as believers are ignorant of doctrine and do not habitually expose themselves to the teaching of Bible doctrine, they will worry and be perpetually miserable and perpetually out of fellowship.

“Death” in the second phrase refers to temporal death — out of fellowship with God.

Therefore, “arise from the dead” means to go from carnality back into spirituality — in other words, to REBOUND.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1Jn 1:9).

Rebound (confession) is the key to applying doctrine, for the Holy Spirit cannot operate when there is unconfessed sin in the life.

The third command is the issue of production in the filling of the Spirit.

When we rebound Christ provides production.

He provides the light.

“Christ shall give thee light.”

Jesus said to the disciples, recognizing their helplessness, “I am going to leave you, but I am not going to leave you comfortless.

I will send the Comforter.”

The Comforter is God the Holy Spirit.

Here is the “light” which Christ promised.

Now in this passage, “Christ will give thee light” means that when we rebound we are filled with the Spirit, and only in this way can we become productive and the flaming torch we are going to study.

~*EVERY BELIEVER IS EITHER A SMUDGE POT OR A TORCH~*

 

       Now what is a smudge pot?

In certain parts of California it is very nearly a catastrophe when the temperature drops as low as 32, for the orange industry can be ruined overnight.

For this emergency orange growers have thousands of little pots which they light at night in the orange groves.

These smudge pots, as they are called, give very little light, but throw out a tremendous smoke.

Although the smoke provides protection from damaging frost, it also makes a dark night even darker.

Worrying is “Operation Smudge Pot!” The more you worry, the worse things become.

It is like throwing smoke on darkness.

Worry means that you are personally confused, and your confusion and worry clouds the issue for everyone who has contact with you.

Confusion is a contagious disease.

Worry is contagious.

But when we become aware of the doctrine of rebound and apply it, then Christ shall give thee light the filling of the Spirit.

But WHERE THERE IS WORRY, THERE IS NO FILLING OF THE SPIRIT: there is habitual carnality, misery and childishness.

Some believers never, never grow up.

They remain smudge pots all of their lives.

On the other hand, when worry is confessed and doctrine is applied, there is light and production.

~*ABRAHAM’S VICTORIES~*

 

       Turn in your Bible to Gen 15:1, where we have three cures for worrying.

First of all, we need to see Abram (or Abraham, as he is more familiarly known) as he exists in this passage.

We know that he is a believer in Jesus Christ.

He has been saved for twenty-five years or more.

He belongs to Christ and always will.

He is under the grace of God forever and cannot lose his salvation.

But when Chapter 15 begins, Abraham is out of fellowship.

Abraham has just had four great victories in Gen 14:1 .

The first victory was over mental attitude when he learned that Lot was taken prisoner and was on his way to slavery.

Abraham did not say, “I told you so.”

He was not vindictive nor filled with a happiness built on Lot’s misery; he was not happy at all over the terrible tragedy that had overtaken Lot.

Instead, without one “I told you so,” he went immediately to his rescue, ignoring the fact that Lot had maltreated him and made a choice which by right should have been Abraham’s .The result of his victorious mental attitude was a second great victory.

This second victory was a great military, victory.

One battalion defeated possibly as many as 100,000 men in a night attack.

The third great victory was one of motivation.

Abraham had the opportunity of becoming a millionaire many times over by splitting all the spoils of war with the King of Sodom.

The King of Sodom made Abraham a proposition (as Satan’s messenger).

He said, “I will take the bodies, you take the money, and we’ll go our separate ways.”

This would have made Abraham “secure for life.”

This would have given him human security.

Abraham was able to refuse the temptation through the spiritual help of Melchizedek, who gave him the proper motivation for doing so.

Melchizedek reminded Abraham that God, “possessor of heaven and earth” (Gen 14:19), could give him much more security than the King of Sodom.

Abraham should wait for the Lord to provide.

In this way no one could say that Abraham fought for the base purpose of gaining wealth rather than the noble purpose of delivering Lot.

Satan always tries to twist our motivation and thus neutralize our testimony.

The final victory came at the end of Chapter 14. Abraham won the great victory over smug self-righteousness.

He did not impose his own high standards of maturity on those who came with him, but insisted that they be remunerated for their help.

This all adds up to the fact that Abraham was on a lofty mountain top at the end of Chapter 14.

But when Chapter 15 begins, he is a different person!

Abraham had been victorious, he had been great, and he had been successful as a believer.

He had demonstrated some of the highest qualities in the life of a believer.

But now, beginning in Chapter 15, we see three words, “After these things.”