Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Don't Worry! Part 28 of 31
TEXT: "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? 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? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 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? Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble" (Matthew 6:25-34).
IDEA: Worry and anxiety are fixtures in modern life.
PURPOSE: To help listeners sense that anxiety is not foreign to people's lives.
What is the broad subject that Jesus is talking about in Matthew 6:25-33?
I. Would you agree that anxiety is the neurosis of our age?
A recent survey of predominantly college-age young people asked, "What is your basic feeling about life?" Sixty percent answered, "Fear."
Bill Hull, in his book Anxious for Nothing, wrote, "Anxiety is the official emotion of our age." He enlarges on that, saying, "The American eagle is our symbol; the stars and stripes are our flag. Francis Scott Key gave us our national anthem, and make no mistake about it, anxiety is our national neurosis."
Minerth and Meier, in their book Happiness Is A Choice, state frankly, "Anxiety is the cause of most psychiatric problems."
Anxiety is not something we do intellectually. We worry with our internal organs.
Dr. Charles Mayo wrote, "Anxiety affects the circulation, the heart, the glands, the whole nervous system and profoundly affects the health."
Anxiety is our modern life's great plague.
II. If worry changed things for the better, it would be worth doing; but it doesn't do that. It makes things only worse.
Drugs and alcohol seem as though they take away anxiety or make us feel stronger and more adequate to deal with it.
Do resolutions not to worry actually work?
III. Jesus had a lot to be worried about outwardly, but inwardly He had peace.
He lived a tumultuous life from the time He was born until He died, but inwardly He had peace. Even when His enemies were hounding Him in Jerusalem, Jesus offered His disciples "My peace."
Do you think the disciples believed He could do that? Do we?
