Jesus On the Irrelevance of Worry
Part 10 in series Hearing Jesus Again
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
July 19, 2008
I want to talk to you tonight not from a standpoint of success, but more from a standpoint of struggle. Throughout this series I have made no claim to have mastered all that we have talked about. None of us can make that claim. But tonight I want to talk to you about something Jesus said that I struggle with – perhaps more than anything else. It’s a complicated topic and I hope to deal with it in a way that is fair and accurate, but most of all gentle. Because I know I am not alone – that many of you, as I speak tonight, will see your own struggle in my own. Before I start I want to tell you that for the most part I have always seen my life as an open book, but this is an area that has always just been too embarrassing and humiliating to talk about. But I feel I cannot treat this topic honestly without going there.
I struggle with fear, and I have all my life. I can recall being a very small child and lying awake in bed at night and worrying. My main worrying obsession as a child was with locking the doors. I would ask about this every night and every night I was reassured by my parents that the house was secure. But this was not good enough. I would lay there listening to the sounds of the house – creaking floorboards and pipes, wind causing various rattling noises, or just the sound of silence – and I would worry. I would worry that somebody would get into my house somehow and take me and do something to me. I would worry about my parents being harmed. I would worry that Jesus would come back to take the Christians to heaven and that I would not be included and would be left to fend for myself.
As I grew up, I discovered just how much there is in this world to worry about. I can actually remember the first time I ever heard about nuclear weapons. Whoa. It’s too terrible to be true – but it is. I remember the impact it made on me at a young age when I learned that old (and sometimes young) people in my church had died. I remember developing a fear that maybe I might die. Nuclear war and fear of disease and death were the main things I worried about as a teenager. I grew up assuming I wouldn’t live to age 30 – surely I would contract some terrible disease that would take me before my time. I worried all the time. Sometimes I worried until my chest hurt and I couldn’t breathe. Then I worried that the chest pain was a heart attack – Jesus calling a 14 year old boy home with a heart attack! I also worried – a lot – about being attacked by someone. I had a mental picture in Jr. high that I would one day bend over to get a drink out of the fountain and someone would stab me. Irrational? I know. In a moment I’m going to show you that ALL worry is irrational, but this is so fun, let’s keep going. The stabbing worry was the beginning of a brand new, very scary and worrisome, realization. I’m never completely safe. If someone were crazy enough, or angry enough, it would be easy for him to hurt or kill me. The existence of terrorism (and a lot of wars that we may or may not call terrorism) in the world proves this to be true. Now I worried not only about specific things but I carried around a general feeling that I was always unsafe and vulnerable to crazy and angry people.
As I got into high school and then into my early 20’s and had logged plenty of hours of watching movies and TV and nightly news, my worries grew darker and more violent. I worried about very strange things, like being buried alive. I had begun studying, of all things, forensic psychology and was studying the methods and minds of history’s most violent killers and of course this became part of the cycle of worry and fear.
By 1993 worry had become such a huge part of my life that one day I was getting ready for work and realized I was just too afraid to go out in public. I picked up the phone to call in sick at work. Just as the manager answered the phone I slammed the receiver down. Fortunately I had studied enough psychology to know where that road leads. Make that phone call just once, give in just once to fear, to anxiety, and it takes you over. You now consider yourself “sick,” and incapable of functioning in the world, and you end up stuck in a terrible downward spiral. So I kept going to work and living my life, but I would sometimes be in a public place and would have terrible thoughts and visions of a bomb blowing everyone away, or of a flood drowning my children in front of my eyes, or even a wave of killer bees moving in and killing everyone I loved. If TV tried to drum up fear about it, it always worked on me. I was the first to sign up to worry about any and every worrisome thing. In fact, I can’t think of anything scary that I haven’t spent a good amount of time worrying about in my life. Ebola, AIDS, nuclear war, being murdered (in whatever horrible way you can imagine), practically every horrible disease you can imagine, being abandoned by my wife and children, losing my job and not being able to support my family, having my debts called in and not being able to pay them and going to jail. You name it, I’ve worried about it. And when I say I’ve worried about it, I don’t mean I’ve thought about it – I mean I’ve seen it. I’ve been there.
I’ve seen my kids suffering and dying. I’ve seen my life destroyed by some stupid sin that I committed. I’ve seen myself buried under 6 feet of sand in a small pine box and wondered how I would feel down there, and what that would be like, and how my family would feel to get the news that I was gone. I have seen our planet devastated by war, nuclear and otherwise. I have seen myself dying of every known disease. (Strangely, I don’t know that I ever imagined what it would be like to have MS – you never end up worrying about the things that actually happen. When they do happen, they’re not really like what you worried about anyway.) I have seen every natural disaster imaginable, even including the sun expanding and enveloping the earth, even including a meteor hitting earth and darkening out the sun so that we all freeze to death). I have seen myself huddled in my basement with my family and a few bottles of water, some duct tape, some plastic, and a couple cans of beans, struggling to survive the aftermath of – whatever. Any and everything.
With all this focusing on all these terrible things, you’d think by now I’d know exactly what I’d do in case of every possible emergency. You’d think I’d have a master plan. But I don’t. Not even close. You know why?
The words anxious and worry both come from words that mean, “to choke.” I have not developed any kind of plan because 1) you can’t come up with a plan for everything that can go wrong in this life – let’s face it, a LOT can go wrong!; and 2) because I have spent a lot of my life choking. If I came up to you right now and put my hand around your neck and began choking you, what would your plan be? Your “plan” would probably be pretty shortsighted – probably a one-item plan to figure out a way to get some oxygen. That’s what worry has done in my life. When I have been worrying about all these things during all these terrible times of my life, I have not been formulating plans about what to do and how to deal with everything. I just wanted some air. I just wanted to be able to breathe. I just wanted to be able to go out to dinner with my family on a nice spring day and enjoy my time with them without seeing them all dead in my mind, in living color.
I have spent vast portions of my life being choked by worry. Worry has robbed me of some of the best moments life has to offer. Worry has turned beauty into horror again and again. Worry has tied my hands, kept me from being as effective as I could be in my family, in my job, in my writing, in my music, and in my relationship with God. Any of you ever talk to me and go away thinking, “Man, that guy’s intense.” Try carrying around the stuff I’ve carried around most of my life and living happily and carefree. You can’t do it.
I’m sorry to do this to you. Spending parts of my life worrying about all of these things has not been pleasant. It isn’t pleasant for me now to talk about, and I know it’s not pleasant for you to hear about. And I know not everybody struggles with fear on anywhere near the level that I have struggled with it. But one thing is certain. We all have our fears. We all have our worries. We have all choked on anxiety.
Tonight’s message is called The Irrelevance of Worry. See why I couldn’t stand up here and just preach this to you without being honest with you? I am nothing if not a living testimony to the fact that fear and worry and anxiety are irrelevant. They accomplish nothing that is beneficial in human life. Try to imagine how much of my life I have spent worrying -- lost in these nightmares that have consumed my mind and controlled my emotions for hours, days, weeks, and months. Now contrast that with the rock solid reality that I am blessed beyond measure. The REALITY is that after the immense blessing of standing here before you tonight, I will go home and end the evening with a woman in my bed who loves me, and three beautiful girls tucked safely into their beds in a comfortable home. The reality is that I work in a nice office where I am basically my own boss and have the incredible good fortune to be able to craft and control my own schedule. The reality is that in spite of having MS, I have lived symptom free most of my life. Even this terrible disease turns out not to have been much to worry about, and even if it was more severe, worrying still wouldn’t have helped! The reality is that I live every moment of my life in God’s rich favor. What a shame that I have ignored the realities of my life so often, and exchanged them for hellish nightmares about what might be but probably won’t. In doing this I have lived with so much less freedom and joy and gratitude than God created me to have. Worry and fear and anxiety have choked out the presence of God’s Spirit in my life at various times. They have darkened my life, though God desires that it be filled with his light. They have filled me with despair, when I serve a God who has overcome the world.
Fear is irrelevant. Worry and anxiety are irrelevant. Every moment I have spent focusing on potential horror to come (but usually not to come) has blinded me to the actual blessing that is already here. I speak to you tonight from a heart that knows what it’s like to try to live freely while you are choking, from a heart that loves you and does not want to see you, or me, waste another second in fear and worry. In a moment I want to turn the attention off of me and put it onto you. I want to look at what Jesus had to say about worry. Then I want to put those words in the context of the rest of the Sermon on the Mount that we have looked at so far. Then I want to ask you some questions.
Matthew 6:25-34 (NIV)
25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.
29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
30 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, O you of little faith?
31 So do not worry, saying, ’What shall we eat?’ or ’What shall we drink?’ or ’What shall we wear?’
32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Each day has enough trouble of its own. Amen?!
Jesus begins this section with the word “Therefore…”
Matthew 6:25 (NIV)
25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear…
We see that word and it clues us in that what Jesus is about to say on worry is directly connected to what he has just finished saying. What is it that Jesus has just finished saying? Let’s look at what he has just said in the Amplified Version so we can really hear what he’s saying.
Matthew 6:24 (AMP)
24 No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise and be against the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (deceitful riches, money, possessions, or whatever is trusted in).
It’s unfortunate that most of our modern translations today have removed the word “mammon” and simply translated it “money.” Mammon actually implies much more than “money.” Mammon, as the Amplified Version tells us, implies riches, money, possessions, or whatever we have placed our faith in. Whatever we have placed our faith in. Jesus is saying you can only have one ultimate loyalty, and it will either be to the kingdom of this world, or to the Kingdom of God. Please hear this. Jesus doesn’t say you SHOULD not serve both God and mammon. He says you CANNOT. It’s not possible. One or the other will determine who you become. One or the other will have your allegiance. I’ve heard of a few who have been offended at some things I have said. Who is he to say maybe we have too much money? Who is he to say Jesus loves Iraqis and Iranians as much as Americans? I won’t answer that question because you know who I am and what I’m called to do, but I will ask another question. If our sincere desire is to follow Jesus in every way, with everything we have and everything we are, why are there any topics off limits? Should there be areas that are exempt from Christ’s Lordship?
This is what Jesus says. Either the God of all life, or else Mammon, the god of this world, will have your allegiance because you cannot serve them both. And in this context Jesus says,
Matthew 6:25 (NIV)
25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
Why does Jesus say this? Because Jesus’ purpose in the Sermon on the Mount is to tell you how to live in God’s kingdom! Jesus had laid this out for us all along. In the kingdom of Mammon, all you gotta do is not kill your brother. In the kingdom of God, you have to learn to love him. In the kingdom of Mammon, all you gotta do is stay out of bed with your neighbors’ wife. In the kingdom of God, you gotta deal with your desire for her. This will get you -- in the kingdom of mammon, all you gotta do is pray and fast and give money. In the kingdom of God, you gotta do those things not to bring attention to your own holiness, but to allow God to quietly create holiness in you. (A vast portion of religion belongs not to the Kingdom of God, but to Mammon – to the Kingdom of this World. Anytime religion becomes hurtful, bloody, violent, fanatical, brutal, insensitive, trendy, simplistic, aligned with parties/money/government, self-seeking, pleasure-seeking, self-promoting, or self-worshipping, it is not Kingdom religion but rather the only kind of religion that can ever come from Mammon.)
In God’s Kingdom you have stopped fending for yourself. You have learned to genuinely love your neighbor and even your enemy. You have learned to let God handle outcomes and not run around trying to manipulate people to get what you want. In other words, you have learned to trust God.
In the heart that has learned to trust God, fear and worry are simply irrelevant. You have already given yourself to God and are laying everything in his hands always. Therefore there is no place for worry. Now where does this place me and my experience with worry? Where does it place you?
As for me, my experience with worry goes far beyond what most people deal with. It has a long and complicated history that I am working on unpacking, and I need to learn to think in new ways, and I’m in counseling right now to learn to do that. But even in this case, I have noticed that my anxiety and worries almost completely disappear when I am living close to God. When I drift away from God – even through normal things like busyness – I find myself feeling fearful again. Why? Because like Jesus said, you CANNOT serve both God and Mammon. When you are fully, whole-heartedly serving God, there’s no room left for fear in your heart.
1 John 4:18 (NIV)
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear…The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
When you are not fully, whole-heartedly serving God, Mammon creeps into your life – concern about the world and the things of the world. Money, power, war, nations, economics, troops, accidents, disasters – those are all things that relate to this world, but have no relevance, and therefore no ability to create fear, in God’s world!
So what are you to do with your worry? First of all, if you have struggled much of your life with chronic and deep-seated worry, get some help. Everyone in this room needs help with something, and the fact that not everybody is getting help doesn’t change that! Just like you don’t assume that praying over your broken arm will put it back together again, don’t assume that simply praying about your worry will alleviate it. Just as Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead but then told Lararus’s friend to unwrap the stinky grave clothes and set him free to live, perhaps a counselor or other professional needs to come alongside you and help set you free from fear – unwrap those stinky patterns and habits of ingrained fearful responses and help you experience the life and peace God wants for you.
Second, if fear is not a constant force in your life at times, but you struggle under a low-lying cloud of occasional and fairly normal worries, check your heart. We cannot serve God and Mammon. See where your heart is with regard to God. Do you believe God is Master of Life? Do you believe your life now is just the smallest speck of an eternal life that stretches out before you and that because of God absolutely no irredeemable or permanent harm can ever befall you? In other words, do you believe that you are perfectly safe in the world God has fashioned for you? Check your heart – are you invested more in the Kingdom of God than in the Kingdom of Mammon or this world?
Third, stop feeding your worries and stop supporting those who do! Not long ago the concerns most people had involved their immediate communities where they could get active and make a difference. Today we are bombarded from sunup to sundown with all the worst news from every corner of the earth, little or none of which we can do anything about. So if you find that you worry about things, stop feeding your worries and stop supporting the media that does it. If you were addicted to pornography but convinced it’s wrong and you shouldn’t be viewing it, would it be a sign of strength to go to websites where there are naked girls and just try hard not to look? Terrible idea. Stupid! So if you struggle with worry and anxiety, remember that Jesus said it is wrong and unneccesary! Knowing that, do not take in the information that makes you anxious. There’s nothing you can do about it anyway. Remember, each day has enough trouble of its own. Put down the paper. Turn off the news. When you go to McDonald’s, where they run CNN around the clock, sit with your back to it. You should be focusing on your family anyway. Stay off of websites that feed your fear. And remember that if the media doesn’t scare you, they won’t be able to sell you anything. Remember that the most powerful instrument in the world (the American media) is set up to keep you 1) always wanting more; 2) always afraid.
Fourth, remember that waiting until you are scared to death about something in your life or in the world and then running to God might not help a whole lot. Give fear a foothold in your life and you will struggle to get it gone. It might take days of reorienting yourself to God and to his world, where your worries and fears are irrelevant. If that’s the way to get out of fear, then it’s the way to stay out.
Fifth, and this is related to the fourth, steady your mind on God. Focus on him, take your concerns to him, and trust him.
Isaiah 26:3-4 (NLT)
3 You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!
4 Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.
Psalm 46:10 (NIV)
10 "Be still, and know that I am God…
Philippians 4:8-9 (NIV)
8 …whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
