Why Are You So Worried?

Introduction

Good evening, everybody. Good evening. It’s so good to see you tonight. Open your Bible, please to Matthew chapter 6. I want to look at Matthew chapter 6. I’m going to start in verse 25. It’s going to be in Matthew 6 a lot. Just need you to get a Bible and be journeying along right there with me. Kind of uh kind of a difficult evening on the weather side of things, isn’t it? I’m reminded of uh some brethren in North Carolina told me about this fella, an older brother, he just always had a good word, just a tremendous optimist, always had something good to say, and one night, the Sunday night they come to services and just rainy and stormy and nasty out like that, just horrible.

Everybody just kind of waited to see what this brother would say, and sure enough, he’s about the last one to the building. They’re all kind of waiting there in the foyer, and he just drenched to the skin, raining and lightning and muddy and wet, and he came in, he kind of shook himself and he said, Wow, aren’t we glad that every night’s not like this? And I think maybe that’s where we are this evening. We’re thankful for the rain and the good things the Lord provides for us. But I guess we’re a little glad it’s not always like this. But I’m thankful that you’re here and thankful there’s some young people here, and I’m thankful that you’re interested in serving the Lord and learning about his word.

Let’s get in the word right now. This is Matthew 6, and in verse 25. Jesus says, Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing. Read not very long ago about a fellow who took his daughter to Disney World. Guess you folks know a little about that. And uh, she was about four or five. She was determined to write on Space Mountain. Oh, that seemed like a tall order, but she was just determined she was going to write, and they did write it, and she just loved it. Just loved it. In fact, they wrote it several times.

A couple of years went past. She’s a little bit older. They went back to Disney World. She’s about six or seven now, and they headed straight for Space Mountain. But Daddy noticed as they’re in that long line that his daughter was very somberly reading all of the warnings about riding on Space Mountain. Warning after warning. Finally they got up close to time to get on the ride, and she said, Daddy, I don’t think I want to write. He said, honey, we wrote this two years ago. You loved every minute of it. We just wrote it and wrote it and wrote it. What’s the deal? You don’t want to write it now. She said, Yes, Daddy, but now I can read. And I think sometimes that’s how things are.

The more educated you are, the more stuff you know about. And sometimes that means there’s just more things to know about, to be worried about. We start getting in junior high, and all they can talk about is what’s going to happen in high school, and your grades count, and you got to do good now. And then we get into high school and we start beginning to worry about what our grades are going to be like now and what we’re going to make on the pre-SAT and what we’re going to make on the ACT and what grades we’re going to finish with, and are we going to be able to get into college? And is there going to be enough money to pay for college? And then we’re worrying about that most important of all questions.

Does the cell phone plan Dad got me have enough text messaging on it? There’s just all kinds of things to worry about. I should tell you, young people, that doesn’t end when you get into college. Get into college and we start worrying about am I going to find the right person to marry? Or maybe we start worrying about are we ever going to find anybody who wants to marry me? And that doesn’t end in college either. We get married, and then along come children. Oh my children are just little walking worry factories. They toddle around trying to find something to make mom and dad anxious about. And of course, our media doesn’t help any of that at all. The other night on the news, the newsman breathlessly said, in the most dramatic voice he could muster, the drought is over, but now there’s a new concern.

Well, thank you for that. West Nile virus and global warming and terrorism and the price of gasoline. So many things to be worried about. All of that makes it so that Americans are a nation of people popping pills and treating stomach ulcers and checking into mental hospitals and fueling ever rising rates of alcoholism. And in our young people, it means that suicide is one of the leading killers of young people in this country. The stress and anxiety and worry of day-to-day living is literally killing people. And it is strangling many disciples, especially many young disciples, walk with the Lord. That’s why Jesus wants us to get a handle on worry. In this great Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is asking that piercing question about worry. Why are you so anxious?

Why are you so worried? Why are you so wrought up? And I want you to understand clearly that Jesus is not condemning planning. Lots of planning in the Bible. Moses plans, David plans Nehemiah plans Jesus plans. And Jesus is certainly not saying that there’s never going to be anything that causes concern in our lives. If you’ve read the story of Jesus praying at the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus had some concern, didn’t he, before he went to the cross. But Jesus does in this wonderful section of preaching, focus on the kind of obsessive anxiety that gets our minds and hearts to be pursuing something other than God. Jesus is talking about the sort of worry that leads us away from trust in God, even to the place where we’re in sin.

In fact, as you look at Matthew 6 and verse 25, the word there for worry or be anxious, depending on the translation you’re holding this evening, is actually a compound word. It comes from two words that mean divide and the mind. The divided mind. And in fact, if you’ll just jump up a verse to verse 24, Jesus says there, no one can serve two masters, for he’ll either hate the one and love the other. He’ll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. And there Jesus is talking about a divided mind. And as soon as Jesus mentions a divided mind, he says, I want to talk about what divides lots of people’s minds. I want to talk about worry.

1. We Don’t Recognize How Good and Generous God Is

And as he works along in this text, in an amazing sort of way, Jesus helps us see three reasons why we often are so worried and what we can do about it. Let’s read a little bit in this text and see if we can get some of that. Let’s read again, beginning verse 26 now. Look at the birds of the air, Jesus says. They neither sow nor re eat nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow he’s thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you? Oh, you of little faith? Think right there, Jesus is already starting to help us. Jesus is already challenging us in our worries, and he’s telling us that one of the reasons we worry so much is because we just don’t recognize how good and generous God really is. One fellow said the cure to worry is to go outside. And I think he got that from Jesus. Because Jesus says when you have anxieties, you need to go outside and look around at nature and see all that God has created and made. Ever see a bird with gray feathers from worry?

Ever see some flowers that are wilting because they’re all wrought up and concerned that they’re not as pretty as the flowers in the next patch over there, so we’re just gonna will.

Watch the birds and look at the flowers and look around and see that God cares for his creation in an incredible and truly amazing way. Then Jesus says, creation’s insignificant compared to you. Compared to you, that’s just nothing. If God will do all that for birds and for flowers, what do you think he’ll do for you? How do we manage to overlook that? How have we managed not to see that? Haven’t we all been richly blessed by God in an abundant way? How many of us came to services this evening hungry? That wouldn’t be me. Treated to a wonderful meal this evening. Tried to eat a little blooming onion. Could hardly get any. It was being devoured so quickly at my table, but I got a little.

And along with that, a whole lot of other really good food to eat. And I expect you probably the same. In fact, the problem in America is not that we’re going hungry. What’s the problem in America? The problem in America is that we’re not going hungry enough, isn’t it? And how many of us here tonight are wearing the same clothes to church that we wore last night? Which would be the same clothes that you wore on Sunday? In fact, the same clothes that you wore on Saturday, because you only have one set of club. No, me neither. Go to the closet and we choose, don’t we? What we want to wear and what goes with what? What will the weather be like? Do I want to wear something in case it’s cool, something in case it’s warm?

How many of us tonight are going home and we’ll go home to our cardboard box under the bridge because we’re homeless? Lord’s cared for, says. Lord’s cared for us in an abundant and in an amazing kind of way. Somehow we manage to overlook, all that God has done for us. How can we be so anxious, so concerned when God is constantly providing for us? Now, what young people are thinking is, Well, Mark, my parents provide all of that for me. They’re the ones that provide the house and the food and the clothing and all of that. My parents are. And I’m aware of that. I’m a parent, and am absolutely aware as the parent of two teenage daughters, of my responsibility in that direction, particularly in the responsibility in the clothing department.

Oh my, I know all about that. But here’s the thought, young people. Have you ever thought about that God is providing those blessings through your parents? Boy, there’s an unusual idea. Parents are a channel of blessing. Think about that, though. Look at those birds. They don’t just sit around all day twiddling their wings, waiting for God to rain bird seed out of the sky. They have to go and do. They have to get involved in getting their food and taking care of their families. I want you to see, though, that Jesus still says, God provides for them, even though God didn’t just plant bird seed right down in front of them. And in the very same way, Jesus is saying that the things that God gives to us, to you and to me, often come through others or even through our own effort, but it’s still God who blesses us.

However, those things, those good and great gifts, as James would describe them, however, they’ve come into our life, it still adds up to God’s care. God uses, God moves, God blesses. In the end, it’s still God who’s caring for us, and we must never ever forget it. In Philippians, please. Look in Philippians, the fourth chapter. In Philippians chapter 4. Notice what Paul says there, beginning verse 11. In Philippians 4 and in verse 11. There we read, in Philippians 4 and in verse 11. Paul says, not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance I’ve learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.

Paul got it, didn’t he? Wherever he was, whatever was going on in his life, Paul says, I’m not going to worry about that. Now, understand very clearly that that didn’t mean Paul realized all the workings of God or even necessarily liked what was going on in his life, such as in Philippians when he’s in jail. But he knew. He knew God was watching out for him. That God had always cared for him, and he was not going to allow the present circumstances, as miserable as they might be, to cause him to decide, God’s forgotten me. God’s caring for me. God’s always cared for me, and I’m not going to give up on trusting him now. I wonder how many of our young people need to get it like Paul got it.

Young people, we need to quit taking for granted the care of God and all the things the Lord has richly given to us. We need to remember sometimes that there’s an awful lot of people in this world who don’t have enough clothes, who don’t enjoy air conditioning, who don’t have even enough food to eat. Instead of whining about what we don’t have, what we need to do is count our blessings. And we need to give God all the praise as we realize what a great job He’s doing, providing for us. When we do that, we’re going to stop worrying, aren’t we? Look a little further with me in Matthew 6. Let’s see what else we can see there. In Matthew 6, we stopped reading in verse 30.

2. If We Live Like Gentiles, We Will Worry

Let’s read just a little bit more, please. In Matthew 6 now, verse 31. Jesus says, therefore do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all of these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. We need to focus on that word Gentile for a moment. Who’s that? Well, be willing to guess. That’s probably most of us this evening. Gentiles are non-Jews. And in Jesus’ day, those were the people who are outside the knowledge of God. They were not part of the chosen people, had not received the revelation that the Jews had received. Maybe if we substitute the word pagan here, we get a better idea of what Jesus is talking about.

These Gentiles, these pagans, they’re the folks who don’t know about God. They don’t care about God. And as a result, they don’t worship God. Jesus says those folks are going to worry. That’s what Gentiles do, verse 32. They seek after all of this stuff because they don’t have God in their lives. They don’t go and worship the Lord. They don’t have Him as a living reality as part of their existence. But Jesus says, we’re going to be different than that. And as a result, we shouldn’t be worrying. We know the Lord. We worship the Lord. And that worship ought to have a transforming effect in our lives. You know what I mean by that? Look back in Isaiah, please. Look at Isaiah 6. In Isaiah 6.

There’s a wonderful account in the sixth chapter of Isaiah of the prophet of God seeing the Lord. And I want you to notice how Isaiah is transformed as he sees the Lord. In Isaiah 6 and in verse 1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. And above him stood the seraphim, and each had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, with two he flew, and one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundation of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called.

The house was filled with smoke. And he said, I said, Woe is me, for I am lost. I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For eyes have seen, my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. And one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning call that he had taken with the tongue from the altar. He touched my mouth. He said, Behold, this is touch your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin is atoned for. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Who shall I send? Who will go for us? And then I said, Here am I. Send me. You see that Isaiah saw God.

As a result of seeing this amazing vision of God, Isaiah is changed. He has changed. Do you notice? He sees himself in a new way. Seeing God causes him to say, what? Verse 5, I am lost. I am a sinner. When you see the absolute holiness of God, then you see how far you fall short of that. And I would tell you as well as he looks at this, that this fuels his trust. I think you’re going to have a really hard time getting a hearing if you’re part of the American Atheist Association with Isaiah after this vision in Isaiah 6. Hey, I want to tell you there is no God. Isaiah would say, I saw him. But maybe most importantly of all.

Isaiah said, I’ll go. I want to do the will of God. Now let me ask you about worship. Isn’t it so that when we worship God, what we’re doing with the eye of faith is we’re seeing God. Isn’t that so? We have come before the throne of God to honor and exalt and to worship and adore him. As a result of that, like Isaiah, we ought to be changed, transformed right down to the core of who we are. The hang up here. The trouble here is that we don’t see worship that way. That is certainly not how worship is viewed in our society, is it? What our world is interested in is being entertained. I just marvel at how much Americans thirst for nonstop entertainment. Everything has to be exciting.

Everything has to be thrilling. Everything has to be fun. My wife and I were taken to a very nice steak restaurant a couple of months back, and here we were in this really formal environment and all the stuffed shirt waiters and all of this stuff. I was pretty sure at any time they’re going to say, You, you don’t belong here. Out. Really a nice place. There’s a TV in the corner. Blairing away. We just got to be entertained all the time. And in society at large, what does that mean church has become? That’s right. Church has become entertainment. And don’t tell me that attitude doesn’t affect us. Let me ask you, young people, you ask one of your friends to come to church. They come, and we’re going out the door.

What’s the first thing we say? What’s the first thing we say to our friend? We say, well, how’d you like it? See? How’d you like it? Were you entertained by that? Did you think that was good? Did you like that? What exactly are we looking for there? Looking for some like kind of five-star rating? Well, yeah, I thought the guy that gave the prayer, he was a little lengthy, but he said some good things, and he got a little cliche towards the end. Song leading five stars on that. The guy was right on pitch. Sermon a little long, gonna go about two and a half stars.

My dad asked a fellow one time, you’ve been studying with him a little bit, finally, fellow came to church. Got done with church. My dad looked at him and said, How do you think the Lord liked what we did today? And he said, What do you think? What do you mean? My dad said, Do you think the Lord liked what we did? Because worship is for God. Young man said, This is a different kind of place than any place I’ve ever been. Look in Psalms with me, please, in Psalm 19. In Psalm 19, young people, here’s the operative principle for all of worship. In Psalm 19, read with me at the end in verse 14, please. In Psalm 19 and verse 14, there the psalmist says, Psalm 19, 14, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight.

Oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Worship is for the Lord. It’s about God. He’s the one that says thumbs up or thumbs down. He’s the one that’s reviewing what we are doing and deciding if it is acceptable for him. What’s amazing about that worship, though, is that when worship is done in that way, not as entertainment, not as something to gratify me, it is. It is transformational. As a wonderful fringe benefit. When we come to honor God, when we lift up God and glorify him, I am changed by that. Look at Ephesians 5 and Ephesians 5 and verse 19. In Ephesians 5 and verse 19. There we read.

Can we be unchanged by that? Sing songs like Anywhere with Jesus. I can safely go. How can I sing that? And then go and be worried. What about that song? Count your many blessings. Well, Jen, we have that song in this songbook. What numbers count your many blessings? I meant to look before we got up. Let me borrow a songbook here from the front row. What numbers count your many blessings? Well, let’s all just look together. Don’t worry. We’ll take time. It’s 392. 392. Let’s just look at 392. Think about singing this song. I’m just absolutely amazed at how it demands that we not worry. Look at 392. Count your many blessings. When upon life’s billows, your tempest tossed. When you’re discouraged and you’re thinking all is lost, those are the kind of times we get to worry in, isn’t it?

What should I do? I should count my many blessings, name them one by one. It’ll surprise you what the Lord has done. I think Jesus said that in the first part of the sermon, didn’t he? Then look at verse number two. Are you ever burdened with a load of care? Does the cross seem heavy you’re called to bear? I’ll tell you, I just worry about that. I’m not going to be able to keep up like this. I just can’t do all of the things that I need to be doing. I’m anxious about that. Count your blessings. Every doubt will fly. You’ll be singing as the days go by. So amid the conflict, whether it’s great or small, don’t be discouraged. God is over all. Count your blessings.

Angels will attend. They’ll give you help and comfort to your journey’s end. How do we sing that? And go forward from this place to worry and fret and be anxious. How long have we talked about Ephesians 5 19 to say it’s a mistake to bring instrumental music into the assembly? And I should be very clear about that. I believe Ephesians 5.19 teaches that, teaches that abundantly clearly. But you know, there’s more in that passage than what not to do. Ever notice that? That passage isn’t just saying there’s some things not to do. That passage is saying there’s some things that need to be done, need to be done deep in our hearts. And that we need to sing, and as a result, that singing is going to change us.

Unless, unless maybe this is just all an act. Is that what this is? In Texas, Texas, I work summer camp. Our junior camp, we have little kids ages 9 to about age 12. It’s a wonderful experience. It’s the best week of my life. I just love being there. I love everything about it. But of course, one of the difficulties of camp with little kids, nine year olds, is we get a little bit of that homesickness. And this last year at camp, we had a little girl, she was just weeping like Jeremiah. I mean, she was getting to it. And mama was trying to love her up and so forth, just couldn’t get her to stop. And finally, Mama had to go. I mean, this time for mama’s to be gone, and mama finally gave her a hug.

She’s just crying, and the mama turned and went away. And as soon as the mama got out of sight. The little girl immediately dried her tears and stopped crying. She looked at her counselor and she said, I have to do that for my mom.

That little girl was running the camp by the end of the week.

Now listen to me carefully. Is that what happens in this room? We cry a few holy tears during the Lord’s Supper. We sing out like we’re really meaning it when the singing comes. Try to stay awake during the preaching a little bit. And then we say, you know, I gotta do that for God. And then when we get back to our regular lives where we’re concerned and burdened and anxious and worried and right in the middle of the rat race like everybody else, it’s just a Sunday morning act.

Jesus says if we live like Gentiles, we will worry like the Gentiles do. Young people. We’ve got to stop trying to make worship into something that entertains us. And we need to start paying attention to what we’re singing and what we’re saying and what we’re amening and what we’re doing. If we will, we will come from this place different, fortified, built up, renewed, changed, transformed. Worry will seem foolish. Pointless. I cannot worry. I just sang, Lord, I believe. I won’t abandon that just because something bad happened. I just took of the Lord’s Supper as a result of that. I can’t question the love of God in my life. I sang, I prayed, I thought about the word of God, my perspective on life, on what matters, on what I need to be doing.

3. Seek First the Kingdom of God

It’s all different now, in a way that excludes obsessing about food and clothing and shelter. Young people, we’ve got to stop waiting on worship to do something to me and realize that worship in a way is about me coming before God so that I am changed. It transforms me. If I will push away the words that obscure my view of God. Let me say one more thing from Matthew 6. Would you look at that text again, please? Look at the very last two verses. In verse 33, Jesus says. In verse 33, Jesus says, seek first. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Verse 34, therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself.

Tomorrow will be anxious for itself. The ESV says sufficient for the day is its own trouble. What is it, young people, that you’re seeking first? The answer to that question often isn’t very different from the answer any middle-aged person or any old person would be. What we’re seeking is to build our own kingdom. We seek our own kingdom. We seek to build and construct what we want, a comfortable life with the people we like and who like us and who do things that we think are fun and cool and neat and we want to be with them. And part of that for an awful lot of people kept neatly in its appropriate slot is some measure of Jesus. Jesus on Sunday morning, or maybe if they think they’re kind of fanatical about it, Jesus on Sunday night and Wednesday night as well.

But let’s not kid ourselves. The center of their life, the first thing on their agenda is not the kingdom of God. It is all about me. And isn’t that where our worries come from? That is exactly where our worries come from. We are worried that our kingdom will not be built as fast as we want it built. We worried that something will threaten it and that it will not be as perfect as we dreamed, or that it will not be as maintained as well as we would like. Honestly now, young people, how much of your anxiety is about a soul who’s never heard the gospel? How much worrying do you do that the elders have announced they may have to withdraw from a brother or sister because they’ve turned away from the Lord?

How much of your worry is about brethren in far lands like China who are persecuted for their faith? Or brethren where it is illegal to own a Bible, like in much of the Middle East. Tell the truth. Those aren’t our worries, are they? We’re not even thinking about those kinds of things. Paul said that he had the concern about the churches, 2 Corinthians 11, verse 28, but that’s not exactly our concern. We’re worried about us, ours, me, my. We’re worried about our own kingdom, not the kingdom of God. And that’s why Jesus asks all these tough questions along the way. Questions like, isn’t life more than food? Isn’t the body more than clothing? And yet the truth of the matter is, most of us would have to answer, well, actually, no.

The most important thing in my life is clothing, ladies. Or the most important thing in my life is food, gentlemen. And it’s not just food and clothing, is it? It’s movies and it’s grades. And it’s did she notice me? And has he noticed her? And am I going to get a car when I turn 16? Or will I have to drive the family minivan to lose or cruiser? We worry, don’t we? We worry about all of those things and we pour ourselves into the things of life as if that is all there is.