How to be freed from worry

Welcome

Special called business meeting right after service today

We are also going out witnessing at 2:00 this afternoon

And a rep from the KBC is going out with us

Pastoral prayer

God’s will in this building

Souls to be saved

Let Your Word transform our lives

INTRODUCTION

Has anyone ever said this to you: “You’re going to worry yourself to death”?

We hear this all the time, but do we truly grasp the truth that it carries?

Worry or stress causes more problems than the actual things we are worried about:

3 out of 4 doctors visits are for stress related illness

Stress increases heart disease by 40% heart attack by 25% stroke by 50%

In 2020 a poll was taken by the American Psychological Association from 3,013 adults. 41% of these gained on average of 30 lbs over the course of 1 year due to STRESS!!

The connection between stress and health is amazing.

Doctors claim the more someone worries they may get sick, the more likely they are to contract an illness. The more you worry about the health of your heart, the more damage you will do to your heart. The more you worry you will get a cold, it becomes more likely that you will catch the cold.

BUT Worry is not only bad for our physical health, its also bad for our spiritual health!

Matthew 6:25 (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?

Jesus commands us to not worry about our lives!

The Christian life is NOT to be centered upon fear of what tomorrow will bring BUT TO LIVE in the knowledge that it is God is GOD ALMIGHTY who holds tomorrow and it is God ALMIGHTY who takes care of His children

But how do I know that God is going to take care of me?

God has proven Himself faithful by the way he takes care of His Creation

Matthew 6:26–27 NASB95

“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?

1st Example: Have you ever noticed that the birds are always fed?

How many of you have ever seen a bird pulling a plow?

How about a bird that owned a barn?

How about a bird that planted its own bird seed to grow more bird seed to get him through the winter?

Birds do not have to sow, reap, or store, because God always feeds them

They do not have to worry about how they will feed their young, or have a place for shelter, or make it through harsh winters.

Heres the question God is asking us?

“Are you not worth much more than they?”

You are so valuable to God, that He made you in His image!

You were made in His likeness, adopted as His own, and will be cared for like a good Father takes care of His own child.

In fact, God will take better care of you than your own earthly parents ever could

2nd Example: How about the Lillies of the field

Matthew 6:28–30 NASB95

“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!

Here is what He is saying: God can create greater beauty with the flowers in a field than the wealthiest man who ever lived with an endless amount of money!

How many of you love the buttercups that come up all on their own?

They may even come up this week as the weather gets up around 70*

How many of you have seen a pair of blue jeans or a lady’s dress that can match the beauty of God’s Creation?

There is no comparison!

If God can make these flowers in the fields so beautiful, that will only be here for about a week, then shouldn’t we trust Him to cloth us as well?

Does God care more about a flower than he does about His own children?

Of coarse not!

Jesus Christ did not die for the flowers of field, BUT He did die for you and I?

There are two problems with Worry:

Worry is it is pointless!

(v 27) “And who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”

There is absolutely no benefit in worrying!

It does not change the outcome of our circumstances!

It does not meet our needs!

It does not fix the problem that we are worried about!

It adds no value to our life at all!

In fact, it robs us of the good things in life!

This is why Jesus says, “Do not worry about your life!”

Worry steals our peace!

Worry damages our health!

Persistent worrying for more than two weeks, according to psychology today, can be destructive to your health.

Worrying causes hypertension: increases risk of cardiovascular disease Depresses the immune system Causes ulcers in your digestive system Raises the risk of diabetes Can cause depression Causes you to go bald. (we have some worriers here today) Accounts for memory loss Worry has no value to us

Worry replaces faith!

(v 30) “You of little faith”

It diverts our attention away from God and onto our problems!

In other words we begin to live like the world as if there is no God

Worry means we have stopped trusting Jesus to meet our needs

Because we forget that God takes care of the birds of the air

And we forget that God dresses the lilies with more beauty than money can buy

And what worry says is God I do not think you can handle this OR I do not think you really love me!

Why did God send Jesus to die a terrible death on the cross? What motivated Him to do that?

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

If God loves us that much, then shouldn’t we think that he is going to meet our needs as well?

Three important things I need to address:

There is a difference between needs and wants

Jesus does not promise to give us everything that we want

Notice He speaks about food and clothing (basic human needs)

We cant plug in a bigger house or a new car or whatever other thing we may want

God is not our magic genie who has come to give us whatever we want to make us happy

Jesus is also not saying that we no longer have to work

This does not exempt us from the responsibility of earning a living

We cannot sit back on the sofa and say God is going to provide for me I have nothing to worry about

You’re going to be selling that sofa to buy dinner next month

1 Tim 5:8 “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

It also does not exempt us from taking care of our health

It is wrong to assume we should never go to the doctor because God is going to take care of us

Many people have died by thinking this

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pray or ask God to heal us

But God’s way of healing may very well be through the hands of a physician

God created medicine, he created the knowledge to treat illnesses

MOST IMPORTANT: This promise only applies to people who allow God to rule their lives!

Matthew 6:31–33 (NASB95)

“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.

Seek first God’s Kingdom and God’s righteousness

I want you to think about a Kingdom

Who rules the Kingdom? The King!

And John the Baptist told us in Matthew 3:2

Matthew 3:2 NASB95

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Revelation 19:16 NASB95

And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

When Jesus Christ came to earth, a new Kingdom began!

It is the Kingdom made up of believers who have repented of their sins and been born into this kingdom through the Spirit of God!

And Jesus Christ rules the lives of everyone in this Kingdom!

And what this verse promises friend is that everyone in this Kingdom is promised to be taken care of and have all of his needs met, says the sovereign KING JESUS CHRIST!

But to anyone outside of this Kingdom, they are on their own!

To be in this Kingdom you must be under the rule of Jesus Christ!

It is to live a life of submission to Jesus Christ.

This means we obey him with our finances, our relationships, our morality, our free time, and every other area of our lives!

It means submitting to the will of God no matter what God wants us to do! Who would dare so NO to the King of the Kingdom! Those that say no to God would be denied access into His heavenly kingdom!

It is also to join in on the mission that jesus Christ has begun! It is the spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world so that people will be saved!

It is also not to lose sight of the fullness of the Kingdom of God to come! It is to live our lives for what lies ahead and not merely for today! It is to live for eternal things not merely the temporal things!

CONCLUSION

Here is my question for you: What are you seeking?

Look down into the depths of your heart and ask yourself is your greatest ambition in this world to serve and live for God!?

(v 32) “The gentiles (unbelievers) seek after all these things” Unbelievers spend their lives seeking to build their own kingdom here on earth! Their ambition is to get as much of this world as they can! They are live for owning a house or getting a bigger house, or having a big retirement account, or to have the perfect family, or however they think this world can bring them peace and happiness!

But all of those things are perishing! They will not be here in 50 years, or 100 years! And too many people sit in the church spending their entire lives running after these things only to miss the Kingdom of God altogether!

BUT the Kingdom of God is an everlasting Kingdom! It will never perish! It is ruled by an eternal King who will always be KING! It alone contains true treasure that will never rust or be eaten by moths! And it is promised to those who have come under its rule of its King Jesus Christ!

Do not spend your life living for what is dying because when you die you will spend eternity living with the dead! Be a wise and hear this message today, those who are not ruled by God now will also not be ruled by God in heaven!

But the grand promise of this whole sermon is: If you live under the rule of God now, have nothing to worry about both in this life or in the after life! God is going to take care of you and meet all of your needs!

Ever since I gave my life to Jesus Christ I have never missed a meal. In fact God has given me an abundance of what I have needed. God has blessed me so many ways I couldn’t tell it all to you before tonight!

Question: Who rules your life?

If you do not know the answer to that question then it is probably not God. There is not another day promised in your life, but there is an offer today for you to let Jesus Christ be your King. How can you do that?

Jesus gave this message to the world: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”. Turn from your sin, ask God to save your from them, and let God begin to rule your life!

Give your life to Him by faith, and trust Him to lead you!

Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ ”

~PRAYER~

Business Meeting

Prayer

Call this meeting to order

There will only be two items of business voted on or discussed today

Moving into the new building at Salem Baptist Church address at 2828 Elmo road, Pembroke ky

Allowing the purchase of items needed for the move of up to $2500.

Meeting adjourned