Matthew 6:25-34
We’re going to read some scripture, and we’ll multitask here. So, this is from Matthew chapter 6, verses 25 through 34. Did you ever wonder what Jesus would say to us if He could talk to you directly? Well, we have His Word, and I’m thinking if Jesus was here, and He is, He would say these words to us. So, this is from the Sermon on the Mount, and I think this is what Jesus wants us to hear this morning. I’m going to read Matthew 6 beginning in verse 25, and you’ll see the theme here, you’ll hear the theme that’s over and over through this passage.
Jesus said, therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, about what you’ll eat or drink, or about your body or what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin, yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, you of little faith? So do not worry.
What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them, but seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Here it is a fourth time. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own. Some of us can say amen to that. All right, so 37 years ago, there’s a song that came out, and I remember this song. It had an interesting title, a catchy tune.
It was sung by a fellow by the name of Bobby McFerrin. And the words to the song and the title are, Don’t worry, be happy. As I thought about the words of that song, and I don’t think Bobby Ferrin took those concepts from Scripture, but I want to tell you this morning, the only people on the planet that can genuinely not worry and be happy are Christians. That’s really the theme of the Apostle Paul in the book of Philippians that we studied a number of months ago.
Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Paul’s writing from prison.
He recognized that God had him there for a plan and a purpose. And he also writes, and we’ll look at this verse in a little bit, do not be anxious about anything. Do not worry about anything.
And then he gives us some instructions. And I propose to you today that the people that can only genuinely do that are believers, and there’s some reasons why, and so we’ll look at that in a little bit. So, it’s confession time.
James 5:16 says, therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other. So, this morning, if this was a Warriors Anonymous group, and we’re all sitting in a circle, and I walked in the door, I would have to stand up and say, hi, my name is Ron, and I struggle with worry. Now you would think, because next month I’ll have been a follower of Jesus for 62 years.
You would think after 62 years of following Jesus that a person would not be struggling with this concept of worry. And yet, I think if we’re honest, we all have these worries in our life. Growing up, we worry, and we get into those middle school years, and we worry about grades, and we worry about fitting in, and we worry about whether we’re going to make the sports team or not.
And then life gets even more challenging. You get into high school, and you graduate, and you try to have to figure out, okay, what’s God’s plan for my life? Am I supposed to go to college? Am I supposed to go into the military? Am I supposed to go into the workplace? And that brings all sorts of different worries in our life. Perhaps we get married, and we begin to worry.
And then parenting comes. I don’t want to discourage the young parents here, but having raised three boys and now having eight grandchildren, this is the easy part when they’re young. Because as they get older, the ramifications of choices get greater.
They begin to drive. That begins a whole new set of worries. I remember my mom, when we were teenagers, we would be driving and getting home for our curfew, and my mom would always say, well, I can’t go to sleep until I hear the garage door shut.
And I would, say oh come on, Mom, you know, don’t worry. And then we became parents of teenagers, so we worry about driving. We worry about dating.
And quite frankly, I felt like once you launch your kids, you wouldn’t have any worries. And the opposite’s true. You worry about their marriage.
And then grandkids come along, and all those things cycle of things that people have to go through, you become concerned about. Are they going to be followers of Jesus? What about our grandkids growing up in the culture in which we live? And so, worry. And yet Jesus says, don’t worry.
Now, there’s some consequences to worry. There’s some spiritual consequences. Mark chapter 4 verses 18 and 19, Jesus is telling the parable of the Sower.
And he says, the seed, the Word of God is sown among the thorns, and some hear the Word, but the worries of life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things come in and choke the Word, making it unfruitful. So, Jesus says, some people don’t receive the Word of God because they’re worried. And maybe that happens on Sunday mornings at times where we’re so worried about something, we can’t even focus on what God wants to say to us through His Word.
Worry has physical effects on us. Now, this is going to sound like the prescription commercial, and now you’re going to hear all the side effects. You know, like, well, why would I take that with the 12 side effects? Listen to this.
This is the physical consequences of worry. A lifestyle of constant worry has serious consequences on the body’s system, cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, immune, and others. Anxiety, literally, this is Proverbs 12:25, weighs down the heart.
Ongoing fear and worry can contribute to a wide range of problems. Here, might as well depress each other this morning. Digestive issues, dizziness, fatigue, frequent illness, headaches, high blood pressure, inability to concentrate, insomnia, irritability, loss of appetite, loss of libido, muscle aches, tension, rapid breathing, shortness of breath, rapid heart rate, palpitations, or chest pain, stomach aches, nausea.
I’m almost done. Trembling, twitching, and if left unaddressed, uncontrolled worry can lead to depression, anxiety disorders, and even heart attack. So, when Jesus says, don’t worry, he has some good reason why he says, don’t be fearful and anxious and worrying all the time.
It’s not good for your spiritual life. It’s not good for your physical life. The good news in the next half hour this morning in 25 minutes or so is that God has given us some resources to help us have victory over worry.
And so, we’re going to look at that this morning and see some biblical principles that spiritual disciplines that will help us if you’re like me in our challenge to not worry. So, let’s look at our outline here. Here’s the first truth.
i. Be aware of the strategy of the enemy
Be aware of the strategy of the enemy. Simply want to say that we’re in a spiritual battle. This is Ephesians chapter 6. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, authorities, powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
I should have read verse 11, put on the full armor of God so that you may stand against the devil’s schemes. So be aware of the strategy of the enemy. Paul’s writing about the devil’s schemes.
The Greek word there is methodeia. We need to understand how Satan works. And one of the avenues that he works in our life is that he wants us to have a worry-filled, anxiety-filled life rather than experiencing the joy that God wants us to live with.
John 10:10, the words of Jesus, the thief, that’s our enemy, the thief comes only to what? Steal, kill, and destroy. That’s Satan’s goal. He wants to steal your joy.
He wants to divide and conquer. But Jesus says, I have come that you might have life and you might have it to the fullest. And so, Paul writes to Timothy and says, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind.
So, we need to understand this is a spiritual battle. And our enemy wants nothing more than to have us living an anxiety, fear-filled, worried life. Now here’s the second point, and then we’re going to get to the main point.
ii. Acknowledge what the scriptures tell us about worry… worry is sin
The second truth is this. Acknowledge what the Bible, what the scriptures tell us about worry. And here’s what we need to acknowledge, that worry is sin.
Now, we tend to categorize sins, and this will be an oxymoron, but when we think about things like worry and pride, those are acceptable sins in Christian circles. That’s why it was kind of easy for me to stand up here and admit, like, I struggle with worry. You know, if I would have stood up here and admitted, like, I’m a kleptomaniac, you know, and I steal all the time, you’d be like, whoa.
But the sin of worry is kind of an oxymoron, acceptable sin. But what we need to realize is its sin. I mean, Jesus told us four times in Matthew 6 what? Don’t worry, don’t worry, don’t worry, don’t worry.
And so, when we worry, we’re sinning. Philippians 4:6, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything with prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God. And so, the first thought here is we’re going to think about how we can have victory over worry is that we need to acknowledge that when we are worrying, we are sinning.
And at the core of the sin of worry is this, what it boils down to is we’re not trusting God. At the core of the sin of worry is we’re not trusting God because they’re mutually exclusive. We can’t say, well, I’m trusting God while we’re worrying about it.
No, we’re trusting ourselves. And so, acknowledge that the scriptures say, and it tells us that worry is sin. What did Jesus say in Matthew 6? Like, hey, trust me, I’m going to provide for you.
Look at the birds. They don’t work, and I provide for them, and the lilies of the field, and I clothe them. He’s basically saying, have faith and trust me.
And that’s easier said than done. And so, acknowledge that worry is a sin. Now, here’s where we’re going to spend the rest of our time and most of our time.
iii. recognize the truth of 2nd Peter 1:3 and practice spiritual disciplines
And here’s our third point, and then we’re going to think about six spiritual disciplines that will help us have victory over worry. Point number three is this, recognize the truth of 2nd Peter 1:3 and practice spiritual disciplines. Let me read you 2nd Peter 1:3. Peter’s writing to believers, God’s divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life.
And so, Peter says, God has given you and me all the resources we need to live a godly life, which includes not worrying. And so, my question as I read this, like, okay, what are some of these things, these godly resources that he’s given us so that we don’t have to worry? And we’re going to look at six of them quickly this morning of how we have victory over worry, and that’s what we’ll spend the rest of our time on. Here’s the first one, there’s six of them.
I don’t know if I have these on the screen or not. Maybe we do, we do. Here’s the first one.
Well, if worry is a sin, what are we to do with sin in our life? Now, some of you might say, well, wait a second, I thought Jesus forgave us all of our sins. He has. There’s a difference between our position in Christ and our practice.
And while we are justified and Jesus has forgiven us of all our sins, there’s also a daily battle in the Christian life where we continue to sin. And the psalmist says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord won’t hear me. Maybe, you know, like, God’s not hearing my prayers.
Maybe that’s because sin blocks our communication with God. So, here’s what 1st John 1:8 and 9 says. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves.
We’re not going to reach perfection, glorification until we get to heaven. So, if someone says, well, I don’t sin anymore. We’re like, no, you’re deceiving yourself.
1. Confession
The truth is not in us, but if we confess our sins, He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so, here’s the first step. We need to admit and confess; worry is a sin.
2. steadfast focus on God
Lord, would you forgive me for trusting myself and not trusting you? Here’s the second spiritual discipline to have victory over worry, and it is a steadfast focus on God. So, when difficulty comes into our life, and I’m this way all the time, we begin to focus on our circumstance rather than focusing on Christ or rather than focusing on God. And the Bible tells us that we need to have a steadfast focus on God.
1. God’s character
Hebrews 12, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Keep your eyes on Him and specifically two areas here, His character, who God is. Isaiah 26 verses 3 and 4, you will keep Him in perfect peace.
Those whose minds are steadfast, that means focused. Focused on what? Our circumstances? No. Focused on God.
2. God’s promises
You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord Himself, is the rock eternal. And so, we need to focus on the character of God when we’re tending to worry.
Someone said trusting God means to rely on in and place confidence in who God is. It is an act of submission to the self-existent eternal God. The character of God, that God is sovereign, that means He controls everything.
He’s already written the last chapter of human history. Read the book of Revelation, the book of Daniel, and He knows our circumstances, whatever they may be. He’s in control.
As my friend Benny Matthews, who has a wonderful ministry in India, Benny Matthews says all the time, I’ve heard him say this dozens of times, he says, God is large and in charge. And that’s true. And we need to remember that, not only that He’s in charge of the world and our political state and the state of our country, but He’s in charge of our lives, that He’s sovereign, that He’s infinite in wisdom, and that He is perfect in love.
So, we need to focus on who God is, His character, and His promises. And there’s all sorts of promises in the Bible that can help us with this whole matter of worry. And so, a steadfast focus and trust in God gives us a well-being, knowing that God has everything under control, even when things feel out of control, that God is in control.
3. prayer
He’s sovereign, He’s infinite in wisdom, and He’s perfect in love. Well, here’s a third spiritual discipline, and I don’t know if I have these in the right order. Maybe this should have been the second one, if we think about chronological order, but prayer, prayer.
We quoted Philippians 4:6, where Paul writes from prison, be anxious about nothing, don’t worry about anything. Okay, so what am I to do next? But in everything with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. If we were to paraphrase that verse, we would say, don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything.
1st Peter 5:7, casting all your care upon Him, upon God. Why? Because He cares for you. And so, we pray, and it doesn’t mean that that’s all that we do.
Sometimes it’s prayer, sometimes there’s some action steps we need to take, but when we do all that God’s asked us to do, then we need to trust God and realize that He’s going to do His work in His time. And so, prayer is an essential spiritual discipline to help us have victory over worry. And I’m trying to make that my first response rather than the last resort.
4. Live in 24/7 increments
Well, that’s, I think God wants us to have a first response of prayer when trials come, circumstances are difficult, we need to pray. Here’s number four, spiritual discipline. Live in 24/7 increments.
In other words, as the song says, how do we live our lives? One day at a time. That’s the only way you can live it, really. And so, we need to live our lives one day at a time.
And this is what Jesus told us when we read Matthew chapter 6 and verse 34. Here’s how He concluded that section, therefore, do not worry about tomorrow. Now, it doesn’t say don’t plan for tomorrow.
In fact, we need to plan. Some of us like to plan way far ahead. The Bible just says, hold your plans loosely.
It’s okay to plan, James chapter 4. Hold them loosely because God might have another plan. But we should not worry about tomorrow. We need to live one day at a time.
Corrie ten Boom said, worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, it empties today of its strength. So, we need to enjoy today as God’s gift to us. James Watkins wrote a book titled Overcoming Fear & Worry.
Let me read you what he has to say here. In today’s vernacular, obsessing and worrying about tomorrow instead of enjoying the gift of today is called future tripping. We’re all guilty of tripping over the future.
When I’m tempted to worry about tomorrow and beyond, I mentally talk myself off the ledge by appreciating the gifts of today. And then he lists the gifts that God has given them. And so, we can plan for tomorrow, we can prepare for tomorrow, but don’t worry about tomorrow.
God wants us to enjoy today. And so, here’s where I started future tripping. And granted, at this point in time, our two oldest grandkids were probably 11 and 9, like, oh man, I’m worried when they get their license, how are they going to navigate the corner of Sharon Hollow and US 12? And this is going to be very dangerous for them. And maybe they need to take another road, and avoid this corner.
And all of a sudden, I’m worrying about what’s going to happen five years from now. Are our grandkids going to be okay? And all of a sudden, like, that’s what future tripping does. God says, no, do not worry about tomorrow.
What’s the old hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness, that is strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Someone made a saying, a saying, God helped me yesterday and today he will do the same. How long will he do this? Forever.
Praise His name. And so do not worry about tomorrow. Well, here’s the fifth spiritual discipline to help us with worry.
5. praise and gratitude
Not only confess it as a sin and focus on who God is and His promises to provide for us and care for us and to pray and to live for today, not worry about tomorrow, but praise and gratitude. Praise and gratitude. This is a great, great way to overcome worry.
Let me read Colossians chapter 3 verse 15, Paul writing to the church at Colossae. Here’s what he has to say, Colossians chapter 3 verse 15, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. The word literally means umpire.
Let God’s peace rule in your heart since you are members of one body and were called to peace and be thankful, be thankful. We just finished studying 1st Thessalonians 5, in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. And so, when we begin to live a life of thankfulness and gratitude and praise to God, um, we begin to see our worries go by the wayside.
The book of Hebrews says, therefore, let’s continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that openly profess His name. So, um, put some Christian praise music on that points you to God and to who he is and to give thanks for all the gifts that he’s given you today. That’ll help us chase those worries away.
Here’s something else. The next verse says, do not forget to do good and to share with others for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. So, by the way, praise God.
And also, can you find somebody else in your circle of friends or your neighborhood that needs, needs some help or some assistance? And as you reach out to them, you’ll find yourself uplifted and you’ll get your focus off of yourself onto other people. And that’ll help you have a victory over worry. Here’s the last one.
And then we’ll, we’re going to close with a, a wonderful worship song that I think will encourage you. Um, we’re going to watch it on, on video, but here’s the sixth one. Um, God’s given us everything we need to live a godly life, confession of sin, steadfast focus on God, on His character, His promises.
6. embrace community
We need to continually pray instead of worrying, live for today, don’t worry about tomorrow, praise and gratitude. Uh, number, number six is embrace community, embrace community. Hebrews 10:25.
The author of Hebrews is encouraging the Hebrew Christians to continue to live for God. Let me read verse 24, let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, loving others and doing good for others, not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day approaching, that word day is capitalized.
It’s talking about the fact that Christ is coming again. And so, here’s what can help us with worry when we have a community of believers to help us through life’s trials. And that’s why the Bible says in Galatians, we are to bear one another’s burdens.
WE ARE NOT ALONE IN OUR STRUGGLES!!
So, when we’re going through struggles, don’t go through them alone. Find somebody in the community of believers that you can share your struggles with, a loving, caring group of believers that will pray for you, will encourage you and say, how can we help you? That’s one of the reasons why we meet together regularly. That was what it meant to be a part of the early church in the book of Acts, the community of believers.
They were sharing life together. They were sharing meals together every day. And the Scripture says that there were no needy people in the early church.
They didn’t have a welfare system, a government welfare system. The church took care of their body of believers. How did they do that? Some people, when there was a need, sold their house or their land and brought it to the church leaders and say, hey, is there anybody in the community of believers that has a need? Give it to them.
And so, this is why oftentimes, and it hasn’t happened lately, but I’ve over the years had dozens and dozens of calls of people that are going through the church directory and they’re calling churches and they’re asking for help and assistance and money, and then they’re telling a story that you’re not sure it’s really true. Oftentimes, one of the first questions I’ll ask them, like, well, are you part of a church family? I’m not trying to be mean. I’m just saying, you know, one of the benefits of being a part of a church family is that if there’s somebody that’s a part of community Bible church and they have a financial need or a physical need, we want to know about that because, excuse the vernacular, we’ll have your back.
We just need to know about it so we can respond. And so that should ease your worries. I’m not going through this struggle alone.
I have some fellow believers that are going to pray for me and encourage me and maybe give a helping hand and maybe help meet a financial need. And so, victory over worry. God’s given us everything we need, confession, focus on God, prayer, live for today, praise and worship, and encourage one another.
Our oldest grandson has a t-shirt that I love. He wears it oftentimes and it says, faith over fear. And boy, do we need that, don’t we? When life comes at us, faith over fear.
So, Bobby McFerrin said, don’t worry, be happy. And the way we can do that is to implement these truths in God’s Word. Now, the flip side of this is if there’s a person here that has never received God’s gift of eternal life and put their faith in Jesus through what Christ did on the cross in pain for your sins, you need to worry because your eternal destiny is at stake.
And those that don’t receive God’s gift of eternal life are going to spend eternal separation from God in a place called hell. And so that’s why I said the only people that should not worry and can be happy are Christians. And so, if there’s somebody here that’s never put their faith in Jesus, I’d encourage you to do that today.
I would love to show you how you can do that. All right. Well, I want you to know this message was mostly for me because it’s easy to worry, isn’t it? And God says, don’t do it.
And as we follow His Word and these biblical spiritual disciplines, we’ll have victory over worry. It’s a daily battle, isn’t it? But we need to choose to obey, and so I hope that’s helpful.