Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

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How to win over worry Matthew 6:25-34 Dealing with Feelings Sermon Series Sermon #5 [Open with Film Clip from City Slickers scene with man talking to his wife about his worries about aging] What keeps you up at night? A woman awoke in the middle of the night and excitedly told her husband she was sure that she heard someone in the house. The man had heard that so many times he wasn’t afraid. But to satisfy his wife, he quietly slipped downstairs and turned the lights on, whereupon he found himself face to face with a burglar. The intruder instructed the homeowner to be quiet, that he had already gotten all he wanted – he had the money, jewels and silverware in a sack and was ready to go, and if the man behaved, nothing would happen to him. The man, wide‑awake now, assured the burglar that he had no intention of raising an alarm, but he said, "I have a favor to ask of you." "What is it?" replied the burglar. "I wish you would wait here until I bring my wife down. I want you to meet her because she has been looking for you every night for over twenty years." Thomas Haliburton was right, “To carry care to bed is to sleep with a pack on your back.”   Many live in such dread of bad things that might happen to them that they cannot enjoy the good things that do. They’re like the patient in the mental hospital, holding his ear close to the wall, listening intently. An attendant finally approached him. "Shhh!" whispered the patient, beckoning him over. The attendant pressed his ear to the wall for a long time. "I can't hear a thing," he finally said. "No," replied the patient, "and it's been like that all day!"   It isn’t the Age of Aquarius, it’s the “age of anxiety.” We constantly find things to worry about. Think about it. We worry about time, money, our jobs, family relations, our weekend plans, the weather, our children. Les Carter says that we are “a society of worry-aholics.”   Worry takes its toll on us as human beings. But it’s greater damage is to our faith. It hurts us spiritually. The fact is that “if we worry, we can’t trust.” And if we can’t trust, we can’t walk with God, enjoy our Father’s blessings or even grow spiritually. Worry is serious. Fortunately, the opposite is also true, “if we trust, we can’t worry.”   Please mark this down, worry is a sin. Jesus died on the Cross to pay for the sin of worry. Yet we humans, because we live in the world of fear rather than the realm of faith, too easily succumb to worry. As part of the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord gives a prescription for worry, Matthew 6:25-34 (p. 685). Three times in this short passage Jesus command us, “Do not worry!” Our loving Heavenly Father wants each of us to win over worry. He does not want us to be defeated by the sin of worry. How can we win this battle? 1. What is worry? If you are going to win a battle, it is imperative that you know who your enemy is. According to the National Bureau of Standards, a dense fog covering seven city blocks to a depth of 100 feet is composed of something less than one glass of water. That is, all the fog covering seven city blocks 100 feet deep could be, if it were pulled all together, held in a single drinking glass, and it would not quite fill it. This can be compared to the things we worry about. If we could see into the future and if we could see our problems in their true light, they wouldn't blind us or fog us in. Instead we could relegate them to their true size and place. If all the things most people worry about were reduced to their true size, you could probably stick them all into a water glass, too. A Swedish proverb states, “Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.”   Basically, worry and anxiety are the same. They are the evil twins. Periodically, all of us have some anxiety. Sigmund Freud was the first to make the distinction between normal and neurotic anxiety. Normal anxiety occurs when there is real danger and when it makes sense to be anxious.   When the astronauts on Apollo 13 had mechanical problems and were in danger of being lost in space, anxiety was natural and normal. Abnormal anxiety though is when one has intense feelings of discomfort and panic when danger is either minimal or non-existent. Personal perspective does enter in to the equation. Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between neurotic and normal anxiety. For example, when I was a kid, my brother had pet snakes. One weekend he even took care of his school’s de-venomed rattlesnake. At the time we had a housekeeper and she announced that she was not going to clean his room as long as that rattlesnake was in there. Neurotic or normal? With the way that I feel about snakes, I think that it was real normal. But to my brother, Mark, who was used to handling snakes, it was neurotic.   Our English word worry comes from an Anglo-Saxon root meaning “to strangle or give pain.” That suggests that worry is a choking, harmful emotion that saps one’s energy and strength. Interestingly, the Greek word translated worry in Matthew 6 means “to be pulled in different directions.” Worry pulls us apart. Worry is associated with discomfort and pain.   There are many ways to define worry. Let me suggest though that “worry is uncomfortable, painful or even harmful feelings that come from responsibility that is either not truly ours or that we do not have control over.”   Let me illustrate. If I knew that I were going to have to buy a thirty-seven cent postage stamp to mail a letter tomorrow, it wouldn’t particularly bother me because even a poor preacher usually has that much change in his pockets.  I have a reasonable expectation of meeting that obligation and would have no worry. But suppose our Leadership Team decided that it was my obligation to pay off the indebtedness of our church tomorrow. If I assumed the responsibility of discharging that note tomorrow morning, I would have a lot of anxious care because I would be utterly incapable of discharging that debt.    In a few moments we’re going to work our way through this passage in Matthew 6 and we’ll see that Jesus in His command was not talking about worrying about those things that are within our control or that we are even responsible for. We are to take care of our God‑given responsibilities. But Jesus was talking about assuming somebody else’s responsibility, namely, God’s responsibility which we ourselves cannot assume because we cannot take His place. When we make His responsibility our responsibility we find that we have assumed a crushing weight that we are incapable of carrying.  Only God knows how many of His children have been broken because they were not willing to let God be God and to let Him fulfill that which He has assumed as His responsibility for us. We have assumed that responsibility which He never put upon us; and we have been broken in body, health, mind, strength, and energy because we have not fulfilled the command to leave the things of God to God and to assume only those things that God in His will has entrusted to us with our limited capacity. That’s why worry is so over-whelming. It is not legitimately our responsibility and it is out of our control.   Think about the things that most of us worry about and you’ll see how they fit this definition. We worry about our children, our health, dying, our jobs, security, accidents, decisions, money, bills, aging, war, happiness, our reputation and the weather. How much control do you have over the weather? So why do we worry about it? Or how about your health? Have you ever met anyone who planned to get cancer? Then, some of us worry because we have nothing to worry about. Talk about something completely out of our control.   If we don’t have a job, we worry about it. If we do have a job, we worry about losing it. If we don’t have a car, we worry about it. If we do have a car, we worry about it breaking down. If we don’t have any money, we worry about it. If we do have some money, we worry about losing it. If we are not married, we worry about it. If we are married, we worry about keeping our mate. If we don’t have an education, we worry about it. If we do have any education, we worry if it’s enough. If we are sick, we worry about it. If we are not sick, we worry about getting sick. We’re like the guy who said, “I have so many troubles that if anything happens to me today it will be two weeks before I can get around to worrying about it.” 2. Worry is a poor investment.   A. Worry is a waste of time and energy. “Worry is like a rocking chair, it give you something to do but doesn’t get you anywhere.” Worry lives either in a future that is uncertain or in a past that cannot be changed and causes us to end up being miserable in the present. It drains us physically, mentally and emotionally. John Watson points out that worry “does not empty today of its sorrow, but it does empty today of its strength. It does not make you escape evil; it makes you unfit to cope with it.” Worriers exhaust themselves and often exhaust those around them.   For example, when a worrier is entertaining and having guests over, there are hectic preparations beforehand and unrealistic demands that those guests must see nothing out of proper place. Great energy is poured out to get the house cleaned, but at what cost? The worrier’s stomach is tied up in knots, and the entire family is frustrated! But meeting responsibilities takes priority over all else, including... enjoying the guests. That’s why some are in the C.H.A.O.S. Club – “can’t have anybody over syndrome.”   Sometimes worry just paralyzes. The worrier is so consumed by worry that they stop dead in their tracks, afraid to take any steps for fear that any step might be a wrong step.   And worry often hands the worrier a high bill by way of sleeplessness or ulcers. Dr. W. C. Alvarez of Mayo Clinic stated that “eighty percent of stomach disorders are not organic but functional...most of our ills are caused by worry and fear.”   B. Worry can result in personality quirks. Ever met a control freak. Worriers often obsess about every detail so that nothing can go wrong. They are also insecure and have a lack of confidence. They live in dread, waiting for the second shoe to fall. Worry tends to be an anti-social behavior. Because one is so focused about the details of life, they have difficulty focusing on something more important, the relationships of life. A worrier has difficulty engaging in conversations or becoming interested in the lives of others because they are so obsessed with potential “dangers” in their own. 3. Worry is a sin. If we think of worry as a sin at all, we think of it as a “little sin,” in the same category of a little white lie or a little complaining or gossip.   Students at the Barnstable High School in Hyannis, Massachusetts got a little extra in their lunch one day. One student found a slice of thumb and a bit of a nail in her turkey and tomato sandwich. It seems that one of the cafeteria workers at the high school severed the top of her thumb in a slicer. Students were pretty grossed out. Some were going to choose to instead go to an area fast food restaurant. Others said that they would boycott the cafeteria. I’m not sure what the big deal was...it was only a little bit of thumb...just like “it’s only a little bit of worry.”   Worry is a sin. It’s not a weakness or a failure. Nor is it to be rationalized away because everyone does it. It’s a sin that must be confessed and repented of. Three times Jesus repeats the prohibition in Matthew 6, “do not worry.”  Sadly, not many believers have ever come to the Throne of Grace and said to God, “I worried today. That worry was a sin and I’m confessing it, and by your grace, forsaking it.”   Worry is serious. When we worry we say by our actions, “God, I just don’t think that I can trust you.” Worry questions the person and character of God.   Worry also questions the reliability of God’s Word. As evangelicals, as those who adhere to orthodoxy, we state that we believe in the inerrancy of Scripture. When we worry though we are saying that God’s Word is not trustworthy. Instead we’re saying that this life and the circumstances that we are in have more validity than the Bible. When we worry we close our eyes to God’s Truth and believe what we are seeing by way of experience.   Friend, instead of worrying, let God’s track record in Scripture and in your own life assure you that worry is needless and that you can trust your Heavenly Father!   A. Worry is a sin because it is inconsistent. Mt. 6:25 “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?” Jesus’ point is “Who gave you the body that you live inside? Who established its requirements for food, clothing, shelter? Do you think that He left the country? Don’t you think that the One who designed you can also meet your needs?”   In essence, this is an argument from the greater to the lesser. The God concerned about bigger details of a body and life, is not going to overlook the smaller details of our need for food, clothing or shelter. It boils down to this. If God provided the greater, won’t He also provide the essentials needed for survival? For instance, if a jeweler gave you an expensive diamond ring as a gift, wouldn’t you expect him to give you a box to put it in? If we buy into a Creator God, then we must buy into a Sustainer God, or we’re inconsistent.   B. Worry is a sin because it is irrational. Jesus’ first argument is irrefutable. The God Who gave us life can certainly sustain that life...but the follow-up questions is, “Will He?” Jesus attacks the second question from the opposite direction...from the lesser to the greater – in this case, from birds to humans, v. 26. How much thought do we give to birds? When was the last time you were driving down the road, saw a dead bird and stopped to have a funeral? We don’t give birds a second thought – but God does.   Now Jesus is not suggesting that we are not to work. Birds work hard for their food and survival. You’ll never see a robin sitting on a tree limb waiting for a worm to fall from the sky. They scratch and peck to find their meals, but they don’t worry. Their Creator takes care of them and He will take care of us. And God has given us abilities that He has not given sparrows. Not only can we can work, we can plant, reap and store. Birds can’t store up provision for a rainy day. But they don’t worry and neither should we. It’s irrational.   C. Worry is a sin because it is ineffective, v. 27. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a great basketball player. I wanted to be the next Pete Maravich. I would shoot hoops for hours in my backyard. I even went out for basketball as a freshman in high school, but there is no midget league. At 5'8" basketball proficiency was not going to happen. I could worry about being taller all I wanted but I wasn’t going to get any taller.   What if we were talking about days instead of inches. Jesus could have said, “Which of you by worrying can add a day to your life?” The answer is that we can’t add a day, an hour or even a minute. Our lives are in God’s hands. Worry distracts us. It multiplies misery and subtracts from our happiness.   Many of us worry because we take life too seriously. The national life expectancy is now 77.2 years. But what if we could walk through a cemetery, and after listing date of birth and death, what if the tombstone also listed the amount of time lost to that person through worrying? I wonder what it would say. What will yours say? Have you already wasted five, ten, twenty years of your life with needless anxiety? The only thing that worry changes is us. It makes us miserable. It’s an ineffective use of time. “Worry does not rob tomorrow of its sorrow, it robs today of its strength.”   D. Worry is a sin because it is illogical. Spring is just around the corner and Spring fever has hit. Some of you can’t wait to start digging in the dirt and planting flowers. Jesus talks about how common field flowers, not garden flowers, are beautifully clothed, vss. 28-30. These poppies and other field flowers were often gathered and used as fuel for baking bread. They would be cut, gathered, dried, then put in an oven and lit. It would make a hot fire for an instant or two, just long enough to heat the oven. Then, the burned grass would be removed and bread loaves would be placed in the heated oven.   Don’t miss this – though field flowers were good for nothing but making a fire, God dresses them in great beauty – more splendid than one of King Solomon’s robes. Solomon dressed himself but God dressed the flowers. Grass is passing but people are permanent. All of us will live someplace forever. But if God cares about temporary flowers, surely He will provide a wardrobe for us as eternal image-bearers. You’ll never see a flower having an anxiety attack, why should we? If God cares and takes care of field flowers, it’s illogical to think that He does not care about us or will not meet our needs.   E. Worry is a sin because it is irreligious, vss. 31-32. When we worry, fret or get anxious – we’re acting like pagans. The goodness of God is the essence of faith. Worry is the total denial of it. It shouldn’t surprise us that as our world becomes more and more godless, anxiety is an increasing issue. But you and I are not part of this godless, dying world – so why do we think like them? When you and I succumb to worry, we are acting like atheists.   Worry is natural for a pagan. Who can he really trust? He is a victim of luck or fate. Is that what we are depending on? Luck or fate? Or, are we trusting a loving Heavenly Father?   My kids never worry if there is going to be food in the house (they may be concerned about what type of food) but they’re not worried about starving to death. Why? Because they trust their Dad and Mom. If we can trust our human parents to love us and care for us, can’t we trust Abba Father? When we worry, we are acting like a pagan!   Two Disclaimers: Before we look at how we can win over worry, let me share two simple disclaimers.   1) Don’t worry does not mean don’t plan. That’s not Jesus’ point at all. No one who takes the time to read the Gospels would say that Jesus has a problem with planning. Jesus planned for His ministry after His death, resurrection, and ascension. He spent plenty of time preparing His disciples for Jerusalem and beyond. He also taught that we shouldn’t break ground on that new high‑rise until we’ve done the paperwork (Luke 14:28). To live without planning isn’t pure spirituality; it’s pure insanity.   2) Don’t worry does not mean don’t be concerned. Some quote Phil. 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything” as an excuse for a careless lifestyle. You know, “Don’t worry, be happy.” That’s not what Jesus is talking about. If you aren’t concerned if your children are playing near traffic, you’re a poor parent. If you’re not concerned about walking off the roof of a skyscraper, you’ll learn the meaning of that old poster that said, “Gravity: It’s not  just a good idea. It’s the law.” There are things you need to be concerned about. There’s a difference between carefree and careless.  But realistic concern and restless anxiety are totally different. What’s the fundamental difference? Concern focuses on the present; worry is attached to the future. The present is before us, and there are actions we can take. The future is beyond our control. 4. You really can win over worry... All of us are going to fall into the sin of worry periodically. That’s why we need the Cross. There is a major difference though between falling into worry and staying there. For some worry is like driving through a small town, but too many stop and take up residence there. There is a major difference between giving in to worry and becoming a worrier. Walter Kelly was a worrier who said, “When I don’t have anything to worry about, I begin to worry about that.” How can we win over worry?   A. Identify it is as a sinful, destructive habit. The greatest problem for many believers is that worry has simply become a mental habit. They do not occasionally worry, they are a worrier. It’s become part of their person and identity. Many have modeled what they learned from their parents.   When I was a kid, my Dad was always worried that the IRS was going to come after him. I found that when I became an adult that I was worried about the IRS. Why? I had learned to worry. I realized that I didn’t need to worry about the IRS. If I did something wrong, they would simply give me a penalty and I’d pay it. It was fixable...but I didn’t need to worry about it.   John Jay Chapman said, “People get so in the habit of worry that if you save them from drowning and put them on a bank to dry in the sun with hot chocolate and muffins, they wonder whether they are catching cold." Some of us are just in the habit of worrying and we need to kick the habit.   B. Rest in God’s sovereignty. Habitual worriers are those who are trying to control their own lives. That’s Jesus’ point in Matthew 6. You and I are not in the driver’s seat. God is in control. And we must submit to His being in charge of our lives. A worrier is a pessimist. They look for the worst. When we trust the Father, we know that nothing can happen to us without His consent. When bad things happen to us, He’s still in control. We have confidence in His promises, Rom. 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”   C. Give your cares to Someone who can do something about them. Who do you tell when you’re worried about something? Why not share your worries with God, Someone who can do something about them? That’s the principle behind two wonderful promises in Scripture, Phil 4:6-7 (p. 832) and I Pet. 5:7 (p. 859).   Recently, I had a problem with my laptop. I have a warranty so I called Dell about the problem. They attempted to have me solve the problem and I laughed. The surest way to turn a small computer problem into a huge computer problem is to have me fix it. They sent out a service tech who had my computer fixed in thirty minutes. Give your concerns to your Heavenly Father and leave them with Him. Most of us give them to God and then we go pick them back up. Leave your worries with your loving Heavenly Father.   D. Focus your energy into that which you do have control over. That’s exactly what Jesus instructs us to do in Matthew 6:33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” The key to victory over worry is to get your priorities in order. It’s no accident that Jesus’ instructions on worry are after His warnings about money and possessions. When we focus on God’s kingdom and His will, He’s going to take care of us and meet our needs. Put God at the center of your life and you do not have to worry.   Most of us worry about the trivial as far as eternity is concerned. When we have Biblical priorities, it gives us perspective. Are you worried about how much you’ve lost in your retirement account? Are you as concerned about how much your investing in eternity? Which one really matters more?   When we put our energy and focus in what matters to God, when we invest in His kingdom – He’s promised that He’ll give us a return on our investment that a pagan world can’t even imagine, “all these things will be given to you as well.”   Recently, Scott and I were talking about how sad it is, even at Grace, that so many believers miss out on the blessings of serving the Lord. We have time, it seems, for everything else. Sadly, when we are pressed for time, we always cut ministry rather than the temporary passing things of this world.   Friend, are you investing your time in God’s kingdom? That’s part of the key to victory over worry. If you’re spending your time on the things of this dying world, you are going to have a problem with worry.   E. Learn new mental habits, Phil. 4:8. After Paul told them to give their cares to God, He then instructed them to have new mental patterns. This is essential ammunition in the battle against worry. It will free us from worrying about tomorrow’s stress or yesterday’s mess. Mark Twain said, “I’m an old man and I’ve known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.” Instead of worrying about things that you can’t fix or can’t control, instead think of these wonderful blessings. Paul is urging us to have a mental garden where we go and smell the roses. Too many spend time at a mental city dump. Stop going to the dump. Spend your mental time in God’s garden of blessings! It’s the GIGO principle. GIGO means “garbage in, garbage out.” Phil. 4:8 teaches, “garden in, garden out.” Which one would you rather have? Conclusion: The bottom line is – “worry about nothing, pray about everything.” George Mueller said, “The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.”   A widow who had successfully raised a very large family was being interviewed by a reporter. In addition to six children of her own, she had adopted twelve other youngsters, and through it all she had maintained stability and an air of confidence. When asked the secret of her outstanding accomplishment, her answer to the newsman was quite surprising. She said "I managed so well because I'm in a partnership!"   "What do you mean?" he inquired. The woman replied, "Many years ago I said, 'Lord, I'll do the work and You do the worrying.' And I haven't had an anxious care since."   Do you want to be free from worry? Enter into a partnership with your Heavenly Father. Give your worries to Him and invest your life in His kingdom and you will be worry free!