Friday, September 27, 2013

Don't Worry! Part 30 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: Don't be anxious about yesterday or tomorrow. Today is enough to be concerned about.

PURPOSE: To help listeners appreciate why living for today is enough.

Do you think that Christians who plan for tomorrow lack faith?

I. Thinking about tomorrow isn't wrong if we are people of faith.

James 4:13-17 warns about the way we make plans.

We can talk as though life were in our hands, not God's.

We can sin in the way we make plans if we don't consider how we might do good in the days to come.

Jesus gives us some practical advice about thinking too much about the future: don't let anxiety about the future spoil today (Matthew 6:34).

Both some non-Christians and Christians say "Amen" to this observation by Jesus.

Kahlil Gibran, in The Prophet, asks the question, "For what are your possessions, but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow, but what is fear of need but need itself? Is not the dread of thirst, when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?"

"There are no words anywhere that can evoke more foreboding than the words, 'what if, what if'.' You begin to speculate about this possibility or that thing could happen, and pretty soon it does not matter that the well beside you is full and always has been."

Ian McLaren asked, "What does your anxiety do? It does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but empties today of its strength. It does not make you escape the evil, but it makes you unfit to cope with it if it comes."

George MacDonald wrote, "No man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear" (Better Than Gold, p. 45).