THE LIFE OF CHRIST
PART 29
Last week in our series on the life of Christ, we focused on laying up treasures in heaven instead of here on earth. The overall message as make God your number priority in your life. Jesus will continue with this theme of putting God first, but this time He will be talking about worrying. If we are focused on the things of this life, then we will worry, but when we focus on God and look at the big picture it will help us not to be worrywarts.
I am going to do what I did in our last lesson. I am going to give a brief commentary about what Jesus says in the remainder Matthew Chapter 6, then I am going to present a lesson about worry based on these verses. Let’s begin with part of our text starting in:
Matthew 6:25 "
Therefore I say to you, do not worry 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?
Verse 25 to the end of
the chapter is an extension of what looked at last week. So, the main thought
is going to be the same. Put God first in your life and do not get tangled up
in pursuit of riches or worldly gain because it will just cause you to worry,
when you should not.
As Jesus says, life is so
much more that what you eat or drink or what you will put on your body because
this life is temporary and it will not last. While food, drink, and clothing
are necessary things, the most important thing is putting God first and living
by His Word because our true treasure and our eternal hope will be in heaven.
Jesus goes on to say:
Matthew 6:26 "Look
at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns;
yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Regardless of what some
people think, Jesus makes it clear that we are more valuable than animals.
Since God takes care of the birds of the air by providing them with the things
they need to survive, then He is certainly going to provide us with what we
need. Just as a bird must go out and hunt its food, we too must make an effort
on our part to go out and get those things that God has provided for us.
Then Jesus asks:
Matthew 6:27
"Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
Worrying about things
will never change the outcome of events. For example, if you worry about your
children flying on an airplane, your worrying will not change whether that
plane lands safely or crashes. Since worrying cannot change anything, Jesus
asks:
Matthew 6:28
"So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how
they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29
"and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these. 30
"Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and
tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you,
O you of little faith? 31
"Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we
drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32
"For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father
knows that you need all these things.
Jesus is making a strong
case of how God takes care of nature. First, he takes care of the birds.
Second, the lilies of the field grow and are beautiful and more magnificent
than Solomon’s glory, which is a big statement to the Jew because they
considered Solomon as being magnificent because of his great wealth and wisdom.
Third, God even clothes the grass, which does not live for long at all.
If God takes care of all
these things, why on earth should you worry about God clothing you and
providing for you? Obsessively worrying about such things is a sign of weak
faith. We must remind ourselves that our God is alive and is powerful and knows
what we need to sustain us. It should bring us great comfort to know that we
are in the mighty hands of God. Yes, we may struggle at times, but we must
learn to have the same attitude as Paul in:
Philippians 4:10 But I
rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished
again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak in regard to
need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I
know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full
and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through
Christ who strengthens me.
Next, Jesus tells us
exactly how we can increase our faith to the point where we do not worry about
everything under the sun, and how we can make sure that we are laying up our
treasure in heaven. He says:
Matthew 6:33 "But
seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall
be added to you. 34
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its
own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
If you want to be a
strong Christian who has complete confidence in God no matter what bad things
are happening around you, then learn to put God first in your life, and God
will provide for you. Focus on the problems you are dealing with today because
if you are already worrying about the problems of tomorrow or even next week,
then you are going to be overwhelmed. So, focus on today’s problems because
they are enough to handle as it is.
Now that I have finished
giving you a brief commentary of these verses, I now want to expand on these verses
by talking about how we can deal with being a worrywart.
A worrywart is defined as a person who tends to worry habitually and often needlessly.
I believe that worry ranks up pretty high on the list of things that Christians struggle with on a daily basis. The reason for this is because we have so many things we can worry about. We worry about our health, our possessions, accidents that may happen, growing old, criticism, terrorism and the list could go on and on.
How about you? Do you find yourself worrying about every little thing in your life? In other words, are you are worrywart? Did you know that Jesus teaches us that we are not supposed to worry about such things in Mat. 6:25.
The word “worry” in the Greek means divided or distracted. This is what happens when we worry, we become distracted by our anxiety, and it can get to the point where it consumes us making it to where we cannot think or do the things we should be doing.
There are many problems that can come from worrying too much. For example:
1. Worrying can affect your health. Medical experts tell us that prolonged worrying or anxiety can lead to serve physical problems. It can produce (ulcers, headaches, backaches, change of blood pressure, heart attacks, and depression). Worrying can become crippling if it is not properly controlled.
2. Worrying can disrupt our spiritual productivity. When worries consume our thoughts, we tend to focus only on those worries. By doing this, we tend to leave the Lord and His will out of our lives. We find little time for prayer or Bible study; and it will lead to a reduced interest in assembling with the saints.
3. In (Phil. 4:6ff), Paul explains that if we worry too much, then God’s peace that He offers to us will diminish.
4. Worrying affects the way we treat others. When we worry a lot, we tend to be harsher towards our family, friends, and co-workers. We get so wrapped up in our worries that we lash out at those we love the most.
Worrying doesn't accomplish much. As someone once said, “Worrying is like a rocking chair; it will give you something to do,
but it won’t get you anywhere.”
In order to help us not be worrywarts let’s look at some things from the Bible that might help us. Our first point comes from the apostle Paul in,
Philippians 4:6 Be
anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which
surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus.
The word anxious carries
the same idea as worry and Paul clearly teaches us not to be anxious or worry, but
instead bring everything to God in prayer. So, when we find ourselves starting
to worry about something we need to take what we are worrying about and turn it over to God through prayer
and allow God to deal with our problems. That’s exactly what He wants us to do.
Peter tells this,
1 Peter 5:6
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you
in due time, 7 casting all
your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
Psalm 55:22 Cast your
burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you;
God
wants us to put our problems into His capable hands.. He wants us to have
enough faith in Him to know that He will take care of our problems. This does
not mean that He will miraculously save our loved one from what we are worrying
about, but we can know that He will make the best outcome come from whatever
the situation may be. Now this is very
important. Once we turn our worries over to God, we must leave them there and
allow ourselves to be free from our worries knowing that our problems are in
very good hands.
A
great example of this is a story a preacher told me once about an older woman
in their church. She was one one those kind of women that could be described
the way Tabitha was in:
Acts 9:36 At Joppa
there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas. This
woman was full of good works and charitable deeds which she did.
She was a very giving
person and a great encourger. She seemed to have an endless supply of energy.
She started feeling bad one week, so she went the doctor, and she found out that
she had cancer all throughout her body. While this might make most people worry,
this woman did not show any signs of worry, she simply accepted what was
happening to her and she would tell people that it is ok. Death is a part of
life, we must all go at some point, but to die in the Lord is gain. I may not
know exactly what awaits me on the other side, but I know that it means I will
be with the Lord.
This woman’s words
reminds me of what Paul said in:
Philippians 1:21 For to
me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 But if I live on in the
flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall
choose I cannot tell. 23 For
I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with
Christ, which is far better.
A
Christian woman like that understood what it really means to put your trust in
God. Can you imagine how many people she continued to encourage in the last
days of her life? I hope all of us can learn to not worry like this woman by
putting our trust in God.
For
the remainder of our lesson, we are going to take another look at the verses we
examined at the beginning of our lesson from the sermon on the mount in Mat.
6:25-34. As I said earlier, everything Jesus is about to say in these verses is
built upon what He said leading up to this point. Jesus had been emphasizing
that we must learn to trust in God and lay our treasure up in heaven instead of
putting our faith and trust in this old world. Now Jesus is going to give us 4
reasons we should not worry and why we should trust in the providence of God.
1.
Matthew 6:25 " Therefore I say to you, do not worry 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?
Too many times we get
wrapped up in worrying about material things such as clothing or worrying about
what we will eat or drink that we forget about the more important things in
life. Many times, we put too much emphasis on our physical lives so when our
first priority should be our spiritual lives and what we are doing to grow in our
relationship with God. When we allow ourselves to become so preoccupied with
our physical selves, it will push us further and further away from God. So, one
thing that is important for us to do as Christians is to follow the words of,
Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God
In
order for us to defeat the worries in our lives, we must take a time out and
really think about God almighty and what He has done for us and is capable of
doing for us. We must learn to trust in His wisdom and to allow Him to direct
our steps. When we develop this kind of trust, it will make it much easier for
us to take the following passage to heart:
Romans 8:28 And we
know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who
are the called according to His purpose.
Without a doubt, we
should not worry because God is control. Yes, bad things can and will continue
to happen to faithful Christians and while we may not always be able to see how
good is coming from these bad situations, we must continue to trust in God and
His timing.
Jesus makes his second
point in:
Matthew 6:26 "Look
at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns;
yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Jesus is teaching us that
God provides for His creation. Just as birds have to rely on God’s providence
to survive, so should we. One thing I have noticed about birds is that they are
always singing and you don’t find any birds with worry lines. Birds don’t worry.
They simply live each day to its fullest. While God provides them with food, He
doesn’t make it appear in their nest. No, they have to go search for their
food. The same thing holds true for the Christian. God provides us with what we
need, but like the birds, we must seek it out.
Not only is Jesus is showing
us the providence of God with the birds, He is also teaching us that we have
far more value than the birds. So, if God is going to pay attention to birds
and make sure they are cared for, how much more do think He will take care of
us who are made in His own image? Jesus makes a similar statement in:
Matthew 10:29
"Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to
the ground apart from your Father's will.
30 "But the very hairs of your head are all
numbered. 31 "Do not
fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
It
is important for us to realize that we are children of God and that He loved us
enough to give us His best, His only begotten Son. Don’t you think it speaks
volumes that if God loved us enough to give us His Son as a sacrifice, that He
is going to be there for us? Thinking about God’s love for us and how He cares
for us should help us not worry about everything under the sun.
Jesus
3rd point is this,
Matthew 6:27 And which of you by being anxious
can add a single hour to his span of life?
Worrying about things will never add to your life.
Think about this. Can you name one time in your life where worrying added any
benefit to your life? Can you think of a time that worrying about something
changed the outcome? The way I see it, there are only two things you can worry
about.
You can worry about things you have no control
over, or you can worry about those things you do have control over. However, it
makes no sense to worry over these things because you cannot change the outcome
of those things that are out of your control. For those things you have control
over, you should not worry about them either, just simply do what you need to
do to get the desired outcome that you want.
Besides, most of the things we worry about never
happen in the first place. So we waste a lot of our time on senseless worrying,
which distracts us from what we should be doing.
A great example of this is found in,
Luke 10: 38 Now it happened as they
went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha
welcomed Him into her house. 39
And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His
word. 40 But Martha was
distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, "Lord, do
You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to
help me." 41 And Jesus
answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled
about many things. 42
"But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will
not be taken away from her."
Martha
was so concerned about cooking, cleaning, and other things that she missed out on
the greatest use of her time, listening to the words of Jesus. All her worrying
did not add one thing to her life. However, Mary reaped the benefits from the
wonderful words of Jesus because she did not allow herself to be distracted by
the worries of this life. So, I hope we can all realize that worrying is a
waste of time.
Jesus
makes his 4th point of why we should not worry in:
Matthew 6:28
"So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how
they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29
"and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these. 30
"Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and
tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you,
O you of little faith? 31
"Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we
drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32
"For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father
knows that you need all these things.
Once again, Jesus
makes a similar point as He did with the birds. Now, one thing I want to point
out is that lilies could be found just about anywhere in Palestine, so Jesus
uses this common plant for His illustration as He compares their beauty to that
of Solomon’s grandeur. Again, we need to keep in mind that the Jews thought
very highly of Solomon and his glory, so Jesus was driving the point home that
God’s providence of providing for these lilies was even greater than the glory
of Solomon.
Just as God provides for the lilies and the grass
in the field, He will also provide for us. In verse 30, Jesus tells us that
those who worry about food and clothing have very little faith, and He compares
them to the Gentiles of that time who worried about such things because they
were so worldly. Then He sums up the providence of God by saying that the Farther
knows we need these things. So, Jesus has given us 4 different reasons we
should not worry.
As Jesus continues,
He gives us 2 ways on how not to be a worrywart. The first way is found in:
Matthew 6:33 But seek
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added to you.
The word “seek” means to
search for or strive for. This means that we are doing our best to put God and His
kingdom first in our lives. This means we must train ourselves to be looking
out for ways that we can serve God. When we do, Jesus tells us that everything
else will fall into place. Whatever we really need will be provided for us.
When we focus our
attention on serving God with our whole heart, mind, and soul, we are going to have
less time for our minds to worry. In addition to this, when we are looking for
more ways to serve God, we are going to be more active in studying His Word,
living our lives for Him, and we will spend more time in prayer. All these
things combined will increase our faith and trust in God and make it easier for
us overcome the problem of worry and it will give us peace in our lives beyond
measure.
The second way Jesus
tells us to overcome worry is found in:
Matthew 6:34 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its
own trouble.
This is great advice.
It’s important that we stay focused on today because there are plenty of issues
that we have to deal with today without trying drag in possible problems we
will have to deal with tomorrow. We need to understand that worrying about tomorrow
is unproductive because we cannot change the future of those things that are out
of our control. The more we worry about tomorrow and the next day, the less
time we have to deal with the problems that need to be taken care of today.
In conclusion, I hope
this lesson has taught you that there is a real problem with being a worrywart.
Not only can it cause you physical harm, it can also cause you spiritual harm.
We looked at 4 different reasons from Jesus of why we shouldn’t worry. He
basically tells us that we must learn to trust in God and His ability to
provide for us and to help us with our problems. We also learned 3 different
ways to overcome worry. First, Paul told us to turn our concerns over to God
through prayer and allow Him to take care of our problems. Second, Jesus tells
us to seek the
If we will apply what we
have learned in this lesson about worrying, we will be more focused on living
for God and will be much better at dealing with worthless worries.