Sermon Tone Analysis

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message.

The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

Five hundred years ago, Michel de Montaigne said: "My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened."

A number of recent studies prove that what he said is true.

One study found that 85% of the things people worried about never happened.

And for the events that actually did occur, nearly 80% found that they could handle the worry better than they expected or that they learned a positive lesson from the experience.

Tension

While many of us may be familiar with those statistics, it obviously doesn’t keep up from worrying.

The CDC reported that between August of 2020 and February of 2021, over 40% of adults in this country had symptoms of an anxiety or depressive disorder.

So that means that it’s likely that not only do most of worry, but a significant number of us worry a lot.

Truth

This Christmas, we have been talking about The Great Gift Exchange that is possible because Jesus came to be Emmanuel, God with us, on that very first Christmas.

So far we have seen that if we’ll give Jesus our despair, our hurt and our grief that Jesus will exchange those things for His hope, love and joy.

Today, we’ll wrap up that series by focusing on the last exchange - my worry for His peace.

And based on both my own personal life as well as what I’ve observed in the lives of others, this is probably the most needed exchange of all.

This morning, we’ll be looking at a passage that is probably familiar to us since it is part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

So go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 6 and follow along as I begin reading in verse 25.

It’s pretty easy to pick out the main idea in this passage since Jesus repeats it three times - in verse 25, in verse 31 and again in verse 34:

...do not be anxious...

If you’re using a different translation, that command might be worded a bit differently:

NIV: ...do not worry...

KJV: ...take no thought...

Unfortunately, this translation can be a bit misleading.

As I think we’ll see this morning, Jesus isn’t saying we are not to think at all about our needs, which is how this phrase would be taken today.

That seems to be why the NKJV has changed this to:

NKJV: ...do not worry...

NASB: ...do not be worried...

So if we’re going to understand this command, it is obviously crucial that we understand what Jesus meant here by worry or anxiety.

Here is the best definition I’ve found that captures the way Jesus would have used this word is:

worry =

“a self-concern relative to the future”

We certainly see this right away in verse 25 where Jesus is speaking to His audience about what they will eat or drink or wear or their future health.

So right away He points out that this is about the future, not the past or the present.

This is what distinguishes anxiety or worry from fear, which is about what has already happened or is happening right now.

Anxiety is about what we perceive to be potential future threats.

Although this definition does contain the word “concern”, we also need to distinguish between worry and healthy concern.

Sometimes that difference can be quite subtle, but basically it boils down to whether or not I can let that concern go once I’ve prayed about it.

Before we look at our main idea and develop it by studying Jesus’ words here, let me ask you one more question, one that was brought up in our Bible Roundtable last week:

Is worry sin?

The first thing to note is that all three times Jesus says “do not be anxious” in this passage, it is an imperative, or a command.

And if you look at the verb tenses used there, that command is all-inclusive.

Basically Jesus says, “Quit being anxious if you’re already doing that, don’t be anxious now, and don’t be anxious in the future”.

We’ll see this more as we develop our main idea, but at its core, worry is essentially a lack of confidence in God’s sovereignty.

It is failing to trust in God and His promises.

It basically denies the faithfulness of God.

So I think it’s pretty clear that worry is indeed a sin.

Before we proceed, it’s also a good idea for us to define “peace”.

Most dictionary definitions of “peace” revolve around an absence of conflict.

But the Biblical concept of peace, both in the Old and New Testaments, is much broader that that.

It includes harmony, wholeness, completeness, health and prosperity.

It is both external and internal and it comes only from God.

It is the opposite of worry.

So what does this passage teach us about how to receive that peace in exchange for our worry?

Jesus gives me peace in exchange for my worry when I obsess over His kingdom rather than the things of this world

Many times in life we find that the best way to conquer a harmful passion is to focus on a greater and healthier one.

Focusing too much on earthly matters like food and drink and clothing and health will always breed anxiety and worry.

Focusing on the eternal matters of God’s kingdom instead delivers us from those worries and brings us peace.

Jesus begins this part of His sermon with this command:

…do not be anxious about your life...

The word translated “life” literally means “breath”.

In the New Testament, that word primarily refers to a person’s physical life.

And we see that here as Jesus uses three illustrations that all deal with our physical life, or as we’ve put it in our main idea, the things of this world.

It is important to note here that these are not bad things.

In fact, it is good to eat and drink, to wear clothes and be healthy.

And it is certainly okay to think about those things and have a healthy concern for them.

The problem occurs when that concern turns into an obsession.

And then near the end of this section, Jesus gives us the antidote with these familiar words:

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness...

And the promise is that when we do that, God will provide for our needs without us having to obsess over them.

Application

Fortunately for us, this passage, along with a few other places in the Bible provide us with some very practical insight on how we can do what Jesus has commanded here.

HOW TO DEVELOP THE RIGHT OBSESSION

Trust that God loves me and knows what is best for me

Everything else I’m going to share with you this morning depends on developing this mindset.

If you don’t genuinely believe that God loves you and knows what is best for you, you will keep worrying, even if you try everything else I’m going to suggest today.

Jesus basically argues from the lesser to the greater here.

He talks about how God feeds the birds of the air and clothes the fields because they are part of His creation and He cares for them.

But God loves us and cares for us to a much greater extent.

So if He provides for the needs of birds and fields, we can be confident that He is certainly going to provide for our needs.

Not only that, God knows far better than we do exactly what we need.

Because He is all-knowing and all-seeing and all-powerful, He knows exactly what is best for us and He has the power and authority to make sure that is what we receive.

One word of caution here.

This is not an excuse for idleness or laziness.

Even though the birds are fed by God they don’t just sit on a branch waiting for food to fall into their beak, except for when they are first born and are dependent on their parents to feed them.

Although God provides the food, they still have to search for it and gather it.

The Bible is full of verses that warn against laziness and praise the value of hard work.

But we are to do that within the context of knowing that ultimately all we have is from the hand of God.

Cultivate contentment

I ran across this Greek saying this week that I think summarizes this principle really well:

He who has no possessions is free of many worries.

The idea here is that the more stuff we own, the more stuff we have to worry about.

I would also say that the more expensive stuff we have, the more we worry.

I drive a 14 year old vehicle that still runs very well, at least in part because I’ve done my best to take care of it.

Over the last 14 years, that car has accumulated some pits in the windshield from flying rocks as well as a few scratches and dings.

So while, I try to do my best to avoid them, I don’t really worry about incurring a few more.

But if I were to go out and purchase an expensive brand new car, I’m pretty sure that I would be worried about those same dings, dents, and scratches.

I think that a lot of worry is generated because the things we possess tend to possess us.