Worry Warts
Matthew 6:24-31
Introduction
I. What do people worry about?
A. Results of a national poll: Industry Week Magazine
1. Own health and fitness - 73%
2. Lack of time for family or leisure pursuits - 49%
3. Their children’s problems - 43%
4. TIE - Job related stress - 43%
5. Personal investments - 39%
6. Estate planning - 37%
7. Relationship with children - 34%
8. Aging - 30%
9. Income Level - 22%
10. Their marriages - 21%
B. Findings from the study
1. Estate planning comes before relationship development with spouse and children
2. The more important things such as relationships were low on the scale - is this a sign of under value?
C. What do you worry about?
* Finances - Do we have enough money?
* Family & Friends
* Being alone in life
* Failure at something
* Eternal existence
Read Text
Main Body
I. Worry is unfaithful
A. The Nature of Faith
1. “If we worry, we can’t trust; if we trust, we can’t worry.”
2. The nature of faith is simply a matter of trust
a.) We put our trust in many things
Airplane: we arrive at our destination safely
Mail: it will get where it is going
Car: we have faith that it will start: we take these kinds of things for granted
b.) Do we ever place our trust in God?
B. Life a matter of trust
1. The nature of life is guarded by God
a.) God guides us in life – we choose if we follow Him
b.) God wants us to have a fullness of life - He wants the best for us,
2. Worry is merely a thief
a.) Worry robs us of the quality of life God wants for us
b.) Worry places our focus more on our problems than on God
C. The nature of worry
1. Worry is rooted a German term meaning to strangle or choke worry chokes the quality out of life,
2. Worry is destructive
a.) Quote: “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.”,
b.) Worry corrodes and corrupts the mind – removes our focus in life
c.) Worry will erode the good and positive thought and replace them with negative and damaging thoughts
II. Worry is unnecessary
A. The Widow’s Story: A widow who had successfully raised a very large family was interviewed by a reporter, she had raised six of her own children and adopted 12 others, she always maintained stability and confidence, the reporter asked what her secret was, the woman said that she was in a partnership, she replied - “Many years ago I said, ‘Lord, I’ll do the works and you do the worrying.’ And I haven’t had an anxious care since.”
B. Worry about food:
1. The example of the birdsBirds always seem to have food, birds have been provided with rich resources of food and the instinct to find that food, they spend a great deal of time and effort to find food - they never store it up, they live from day to day
2. God’s care for us
a.) God takes care of birds
1.) Birds are not made in the image of God
2.) Birds are promised to be eternal heirs with Christ
3.) Birds do not have a place prepared for them in heaven
4.) There are aspects of God’s special relationship with humanity
b.) God will take care of us If God takes this much care of the birds, how much more will he care for you?
D. Worry about longevity:
1. America’s quest for longer lives
a.) We do all sorts of things to increase our life span
b.) all of these things are beneficial and helpful to our bodies and need to be done
c.) However, when we place too great an emphasis on these thing they become harmful,
2. Life is a gift from God
a.) God has entrusted our bodies and our life span to us - good stewards of God’s gifts
b.) Dr. Charles Mayo -”Worry affects the circulation, the heart, the glands and the whole nervous system. I have never met a man or known a man to die of overwork, but I have known a lot who died of worry.”
c.) Worry has a negative effect on us and if we want to increase our quality of life and possibly the length, we need to stop worrying
d.) God has given us the gift of life, it is to be used for His purposes, our task is to obey - leave everything else to Him
E. Worry about clothes:
1. The example of flowers
a.) Flowers have no effort to change or color themselves
b.) Flowers have amazing detail and often brilliant color - created by God,
c.) Solomon was one of the most famous and splendid kings of Israel, even in his riches and fantastic attire - he would not compare to the flowers of the field,
2. God’s care for us
a.) However it is important to see that the flowers last only a short time
b.) Once the flowers withered they were used in cooking fires
c.) If God takes this much care to “clothe” the fields - How much more will He care for you?
III. Worry is Unreasonable
A. Worry is inconsistent with faith:
1. Worry and faith do not mix
a.) God is the creator of the universe - He is our caretaker
b.) He knows our needs and makes provision for those needs,
2. Lost people have reason to worry
a.) Jesus makes specific mention about pagans or gentiles who do not believe in God - they have no hope in the future
b.) All they have is the present and must seek what they can now
c.) They don’t believe God cares for them or will take care of them, thus there is reason to worry
B. The grand solution to worry:
1. We must place our focus on Christ if we are to abandon our worries
2. God is to be the #1 thing in our lives - making the divine priority
a.) God’s Kingdom
b.) God’s Righteousness
IV. Worry is Unwise
A. Preparation for tomorrow
1. Be prepared
a.) “Worry is the interest we pay on tomorrow’s troubles” E. Stanley Jones
b.) To make preparations for the future is sensible, making good plans is always wise
c.) Making these preparations the focus of life is unwise, to obsess and worry about what tomorrow holds is foolish
2. God is still the same
a.) God is God today and He will still be God tomorrow and the next day and so on
b.) If God cares for us today, he will not change his mind tomorrow,
B. Tomorrow will care for itself
1. Today is our focus
a.) “No man ever sank under the burden of today. It is when tomorrow’s burden is added to the burden of today, that the weight is more than a man can bear.” Gordon MacDonald
b.) It seems if we do not worry about things today - we focus on worry about things for tomorrow
c.) We need to focus on meeting the challenges of today, rather than worry about the uncertainty of tomorrow
d.) Each day has enough trouble without adding worry about the next day,
2. God is there for us everyday
a.) God has promised grace and provision for me and you everyday
b.) He gives us the strength to take each new day as it comes
Conclusion
I.The story of Fog: A dense fog - covering 7 city blocks, 100 feet deep, contains less than one full glass of water, all of those droplets taken out of proportion cause a lot of trouble, worry is much like fog, it causes perspective to be clouded, it causes difficulty in manuvering the roads of life, it slows us down to get where we really want to go in life
II. Key Questions
* What is a burden for you today? Give it to God
* Are you under a load of worry? Give it to God
* Are the troubles you are facing seem to have you overa barrel? Give them to God
