Let Tomorrow Do the Worrying
Matthew 6:25-34
Harry Stoliker
September 21, 2008 EBC
My great concern today is to help you and me to figure out how to conquer
an old foe. This foe is common to us all, there's not one of us here who hasn't
wrestled with it many times. That foe is anxiety or worry, fretting that bends
your heart and mind to distraction and exhaustion.
I wish there was once single, effective answer that I could give you that
would automatically free you from this, but you already know, that isn't going to
happen. Someone once said: "For every difficult, gnarly, complex, thorny, deep
problem, there's a clear, simple, obvious, unambiguous WRONG answer!"
The good news is that there is a BIBLICAL answer for the problem of anxiety.
Let's work through our text in Mt. 6:25-34 and pull out point that make up
this biblical answer to worry.
1. V.25 begins with "Therefore…" Jesus is saying that his teaching
on worry is preceded by another teaching that is the foundation of
how to conquer worry. We must grasp what comes before the 'therefore'! What
is this foundational teaching that comes before the 'therefore'? It is summarized
in V.24 "You cannot serve two masters…" Worrying in effect is trying
to serve two masters: God and self. Worrying about your life, your food,
your drink, your clothing and your body amounts to self-worship. That immediately
takes your focus off God, His glory and His kingdom. If your treasure is
in the wrong place and you are serving the wrong master, you can bet you are going
to be tortured by anxiety!
Let's put this point under the category of "Unmasking Anxiety."
Take the mask off of what worry really is. Call it what it is, don't water
it down and make it sound noble. Sinclair Ferguson said: "Anxiety is a symptom
of a deeper spiritual sickness." Sometimes we kid ourselves
and pretend that it is noble to be concerned about the future. Yes, it is
fine to be concerned about the future and make responsible plans;
however, we all know that making wise, calm, responsible plans that we
entrust to God's sovereign goodness is not what keeps us up at night,
gives us ulcers or wakes us up in a cold sweat or paralyzes us in life!
One of the first things we must do to conquer anxiety is to UNMASK it for what
it really is!
How does Jesus tackle the problem? He says: "Don't worry about your life…"
I got a call recently from a woman who was asking us to pray for their family.
They are in a local church in our area. Her husband has been very, very sick for
a long time. He still manages to drag himself to work somehow, through
shear determination. He has severe headaches and much pain that no
one has been able to diagnose. This had been going on for 13 years
or so. They have two kids with one on the way. The husband is very, very discouraged
and fearful that he is going to eventually lose his job and lose his home
to foreclosure and put his family in dire circumstances.
Wouldn't you say he has good reason to fear the future? It sure seems
it from a human level. Yet, Jesus says: "Therefore I tell you, DO NOT worry
about your life, your family, your needs, your kids, your future."
How does Jesus approach his divine healing process for worrying? He begins
to ask his disciples a bunch of questions!!! He tries to make them think,
to make them use their powers of deduction. He reasons with them!
Sounds like what God did in the OT in Isaiah 1:18 "Come now, let us reason
together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as
white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."
Listen to the questions and ask why there are so many!
V.25 "Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?"
V.26 "Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into
barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
V.27 "And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span
of life?
V.28 "And why are you anxious about clothing?" And so on throughout
the passage…
So let's further unmask anxiety: it's simply BAD thinking! It's
confused thinking. Admit it. When you worry about the future you are
being irrational, illogical, unreasonable. You thought process is
unsound, unstable. Here is good logic: "If Father
feeds the birds, he will also feed me!" "If Father clothes the lilies,
he will also clothe me!" If Father takes care of the grass that is
temporary, then he'll take care of my eternal soul!"
Well, you might say, that is more of a diagnosis than a cure! What's the
cure? The cure is this: Romans 12:2 "Do not be conformed to this world, but
be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern
what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. The reason
you are always to up tight, taking medication, swallowing bottles of
Rolaids and losing sleep is because you're not thinking biblically about life.
"Worry is a thin stream of fear that trickles through the mind, which, if
encouraged, will cut a channel so wide that all other thoughts will be drained
out."
A whole series of bad thoughts and poor theology is what is driving your anxiety
and controlling your life. The only way to conquer them is to stop fueling
them and replace them with the truth about God and the future.
This is the cure: putting and end to the lies and filling your mind with the truth,
fighting the lies with the truth. David Powlison calls it a "truth-encounter."
The ONLY thing that can overcome the darkness of the lies that fuel anxiety is the
light that is the Truth of Scripture.
Let me further "unmask" worry with 4 more statements:
2. Worry is powerless to accomplish what you think it can accomplish.
V.27 "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" Some
worry about dying prematurely. Some worry about not being able to care for
loved ones in the future. I understand these, but Jesus is clearly
telling us that worry is powerless. It cannot secure what we
desire for the future. You can't add a single second to your lifespan through
anxiety, just the opposite! Why invest so much energy in something that Jesus said
was totally powerless!!
There is some question about the Greek word here, whether it means span of
life or stature. It could mean either. That's why some translations
say that worry can't add a cubit to your height. Either way, anxiety doesn't
work! It is God who determines our span of life and our stature. Would you go
out and spend thousands of hard earned dollars on a car that didn't have an engine???
No. Then stop spending so much spiritual energy on anxiety.
3. Worry is an insult to the Fatherhood of God.
V.32 "…your heavenly Father knows that you need them." Worry says:
"I'm not going to have enough food! I'm not going to have anything to drink; I'm
not going to have any clothes to wear!" This amounts to saying that you have
a bad, irresponsible Father in heaven! Next time you start worrying; just
unmask it for what it is! Say to God: "You are a bad Father!" "You are not taking
care of me!" "You are setting a bad example for your people!" Jesus already
told us about Father's concern for us. Matthew 6:8 "Do not be like them, for
your Father knows what you need before you ask him."
The Bible says that men are supposed to provide for their families and if
they don't them are worse than unbelievers! 1 Timothy 5:8 "But if anyone does
not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has
denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." When you give into anxiety
you are insulting God and calling him worse than an unbeliever! Are you sure
you want to do that?! Not only that… you are trashing your Father's promises
to be a good Father to you. He said "…all these thins will be given to you as well."
(V.33)
Wow! Listen to this: "The devil succeeded in uprooting Eve from a joyful trust
in the Father's lavish provision. But she was not alone in entertaining and
acting on doubts about the Father's grace. Men by nature doubt it, for Satan has
been successful in persuading them that God's presence in their lives will
mar them forever. Many of our anxieties and our reluctance to take the divine
medicine for them – spring from this basic suspicion." (Ferguson)
4. Worry is a denial of your faith. Matthew 6:30 "But if God so clothes
the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,
will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?" Worry is living
in little "faith-ville." Paul said in Rom. 14:23 "Whatever does not proceed
from faith is sin!" This is a stark unmasking of the sin of anxiety.
Notice in this verse the PROMISE that Father will value his children much more than
his creation. Spurgeon said: "Lovely lilies, how ye rebuke our foolish nervousness!"
Martin Luther: "You see, he is making the birds our schoolmasters and teachers.
It is a great and abiding disgrace to us that in the Gospel a helpless sparrow
(or blade of grass) should become a theologian and a preacher to
the wisest of men." What does creation preach to us? God is in control of all things
and He rules the future, so do not fret!
Here's how John MacArthur put it: For some reason, we think of doubt and
worry as "small" sins. But when a Christian displays unbelief…or an inability
to cope with life, he is saying to the world, "My God cannot be trusted,"
and that kind of disrespect makes one guilty of a fundamental error, the heinous
sin of dishonoring God. That is no small sin. Worry is not a trivial sin,
because it strikes a blow both at God's love and at God's integrity.
Worry declares our heavenly Father to be untrustworthy in His Word and His
promises. To avow belief in the inerrancy of Scripture and in the next moment to
express worry is to speak out of both sides of our mouths. Worry shows that
we are mastered by our circumstances and by our own finite perspectives
and understanding rather than by God's Word. Worry is therefore not only debilitating
and destructive but maligns and impugns God."
5. Worry makes you act like a pagan. V.32 "For the pagans run after
all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them." Notice
the incredible contrast given here. Pagans are running after the basic
necessity of life. They are sweating, striving, yearning, relentlessly pursuing
material things; and the child of God has them delivered to him by his
heavenly Father. That doesn't mean the Christian doesn't work hard, but that
Father generously supplies and fills our hearts with peace in the
process.
Thomas a Kempis: "Oh, how great peace and quietness would he possess who should
cut off all vain anxiety and place all his confidence in God."
Jesus further gives us the antidote for anxiety in V.33 "But seek first
his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well."
Can you see the context of this verse now! Don't run after what the
pagans seek, rather run after the kingdom and righteousness of God! Every
man is running in one of these two directions. IF you spend your energy running
after the Kingdom and righteousness of God, you won't have any energy left
over to be anxious about pagan interests.
Summary on How to Defeat Anxiety:
- Call it what it is: sin and unbelief.
- Believe there is plenty of grace for you to gain victory in Christ over this sin.
- Place complete trust in Father's goodness. Listen to this incredible quote:
"The secret of freedom from anxiety is freedom from ourselves and abandonment
of our own plans. But that spirit emerges in our lives only when our minds are filled
with the knowledge that our Father can be trusted implicitly to supply everything
we need."
Someone who is getting eaten up by worry needs to get out of himself,
stop trying to control his own life, and start seeking first the kingdom
and righteousness of God.
- Get to work serving in God's church, serving and loving people in general.
- Replace mental garbage with Biblical truth
- Trust and embrace the reality of God's sovereign control of all your tomorrows.
Father will prove Himself faithful, so stop worrying and start rejoicing
Let's pray,
H.