Replacing Worry 10-22-23
Overview
Replacing Worry
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses worry with striking directness. Three times in Matthew 6:25-34 He tells His followers, "Do not worry"—about your life, about provision, about tomorrow. This is not a suggestion to manage anxiety in measured doses (as if scheduling a daily "worry hour" could help); it is a command rooted in the character of our heavenly Father. Jesus presses His point with three searching questions: If God feeds the birds, are you not of more value than they? Can any of you add a single hour to your life by worrying? If God so clothes the lilies of the field, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
At the heart of worry is a quiet doubt that God is on His throne. One writer called worry "prayer in reverse." Another called it "temporary atheism." Both descriptions are spot on, because worry is essentially distrust about who God is, how He will act, and whether He is truly sovereign. We sometimes try to baptize worry into respectability by relabeling it "concern," but Jesus names it for what it is—and calls us to stop. Worry is not addressed until it is confessed. And when we bring it to the cross, we hear the gracious word of our Lord, who bore even this sin in His body: I forgive you.
Jesus also gives us a worry replacement: "Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness" Matthew 6:33. The word "first" can be rendered "only"—seek only His kingdom, His reign and rule over every area of life. Through baptism, we already belong to that kingdom; God has claimed us as His own and promised never to let us go. Striving for His reign means trusting that the One who has secured our eternity in Christ will surely provide what we need on this side of heaven. As Luther put it, "Pray and let God worry."
So we take it one day at a time. "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself" Matthew 6:34. By His promises and by His grace, God brings us into a life that is, by His design, a worry-free zone—where we can loosen our grip and say, "Lord, You hold every breath and every beat. I trust You."
Transcript
Would your open your Bible's please with me to the sixth chapter of the gospel of Saint Matthew 3s
for our study today? 8s
We're using a Pewadition of Holy Scripture. 10s
You're going to find that in the New Testament page 5. 12s
Matthew the sixth chapter for our time of study today. 15s
We continue in this series entitled His Questions. 20s
And we, after week, we are looking at some of the questions that Jesus posed. 23s
We hear the answers that our Lord gave to us. 31s
We hear the answers in Holy Scripture. 35s
And these questions invoke various topics that we have been study. 38s
So for example, we have studied the question that invoked the topic of the identity 44s
with regard to our Lord. 49s
The topic in which we are called by God's grace to love others because love is giving 52s
evidence of the one to whom we belong. 59s
And by God's grace, even loving the most difficult in our lives. 63s
We studied about the topic of the image of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. 68s
He's talking about the topic of why is it that Jesus addressed his mother as he did 76s
at the wedding in Kina of Galilee. 80s
And we learned that indeed he was addressing his mother as Messiah. 84s
We studied about how the good to shepherd the Lord Jesus Christ searches and finds us. 90s
And last week we took a look at the topic of how God frees us. 96s
He frees us to bring glory to him, the glory, the Lord Jesus Christ of God. 101s
He frees us from using people as a means to bring glory to ourselves. 109s
He frees us to seek the glory of God, 116s
and to bring glory to the glory, the Lord Jesus Christ. 120s
Well today we come to another series of questions from our Lord. 126s
We come to another topic. 130s
And the topic today is worry. 133s
I've heard the advocacy that one should designate a period each and every day in which you worry. 142s
Now that's your designated time to worry. 153s
It might be 10 minutes, 15 minutes could be an hour, but you just designate that time. 158s
And in that period of time is the time this advocate maintains it's the time that one should worry. 163s
And so if one thinks about something and starts to worry about something, 173s
then you have to tell yourself, nope, it's not the time to worry about that. 179s
My time to worry about that is and then you fill in the blank of when your time is to worry about it. 182s
Is that a good idea? No. No. God gives us a much more gracious and freeing word. 190s
Our text of course comes from the greatest sermon you will ever hear, which is the sermon on the 206s
mountain. Our Lord is teaching and when he comes to the topic of worry, he's very clear once again. 213s
He tells us to stop it. To stop it. Well look at verse 25. 224s
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life. Verse 31. 233s
There the scripture tells us Jesus says, therefore do not worry. 243s
And to make sure we get the point verse 34. So do not worry about tomorrow. 250s
Jesus says, don't do it. Don't do it. But like a faucet with an annoying drip or a rush of water filling 260s
at tub. We can worry all the time. We can worry about our children. We can worry about our grandchildren. 281s
We can worry about our parents. We can worry about whether the company is going to make a profit this year. 293s
We can worry about what the reorganization means. We can worry about our neighbors. We can worry about the 299s
wound with the drip with the flood of worry. And to the drip, to the flood, comes questions of Jesus. 311s
Question 1. Verse 25. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life. What you'll eat or what you 328s
eat. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They 342s
neither so and or reap nor gather into barns and yet you're heavenly Father feeds them. 352s
Are you not of more value than they? 360s
If God takes care of the animals, will he not take care of us? Question 2. Verse 27. 367s
And can any of you by worrying at a single hour to your span of life? The answer is self-evident, 381s
isn't it? The uselessness. A worry. Question 3. 389s
And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field. How they grow? 400s
They neither toil nor spin. It I tell you. Even Solomon in all of his glory was not clothed 406s
like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, 413s
will he not much more cloth you? You of little faith? 424s
Scripture tells us that we, human beings, are the crown of God's creation. The crown of his creation. 434s
If we are the crown of his creation, then won't he provide and take care of us? 442s
The little faith here that Jesus references has to do with trusting that God will provide because 452s
at the heart of worry. It's a concern that somehow God isn't on his throne that God is in 460s
us. One author puts it this way. Worry is prayer in reverse. Another author puts it this way. 471s
Worry is temporary atheism. Spot on. Spot on. 490s
Astronaut Deffner tells the story of a woman that worked in a hardware store. 504s
Her husband worked at a different company and her husband lost his job suddenly one day. 510s
Her co-worker was watching her of how she would react to all of this. 518s
As you watched her for days, then finally she went up to her and said, 525s
I know what happened to your husband. It was terrible. I know what happened to him. 532s
Why aren't you angry? Because what happened to him isn't right. I don't see anger in you. 538s
I see peace. I see calm. So how is it? I missed what happened to your husband there? 546s
How is it that you can have peace and calm? She smiled a little bit. And then she said, 554s
will I have a professional worry here? 564s
Is it a professional worry? She said, oh yes. And then she went on to tell of her relationship 566s
with Jesus Christ. Luther said something quite similar. Luther said, pray and let God worry. 578s
Now certainly both of those statements from the lady working in the hardware store or Luther. 592s
Both of those statements are tongue and cheek, right? Because certainly God who tells us not to 599s
worry certainly he wouldn't worry himself. 606s
It is a way of saying 612s
God's got it. You don't have to grip so tight. 616s
See beloved, worry is not dealt with until we confess it. 630s
Worries not dealt with. It's not addressed until we confess it. 644s
And confess it for what it is. See it. Jesus said don't do this. Don't do it. And so when we 652s
worry, what is it? It's seen. We can try and sometimes baptize our worry and acceptability. 663s
We can try and baptize it and acceptability by saying, I'm not worried I'm just really, really concerned 674s
about this. Now we're worried. Retressing about who God is, how he's going to act, whether he's 679s
on his throne, whether or not he is sovereign. Worries not addressed until it's confessed. 688s
And so we confess then all of that which today we come here with that we're worried about. 696s
We confess that for what it is. Prayer and reverse. We confess it for what it is. 706s
Momentary atheism. We confess it. And what do we hear? 717s
But we hear God's gracious word to us, one through the blood of his son on the cross, where Jesus 724s
on the cross bore all of our sin, including our sin of worry. And what do we hear? 732s
I forgive you. I forgive you. I forgive you. 743s
Verse 31, therefore do not worry saying, what will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear? 757s
For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things. And indeed, you're heavenly Father knows 767s
that you need all of these things. Gentiles here, it carries the meaning here of the unbeliever and the 773s
pagan. But Jesus is saying worry, that's what unbelievers do. 782s
Worry? That's the pagan. When we think about this here, if God has provided for us 788s
our salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, if God has provided for us all of the turnity by his grace, 798s
if God has provided for that certainly will he not provide for what we need? This side of heaven. 806s
He then gives a worry replacement. Verse 33, but strive first for the kingdom of God and his 822s
true as well. Through our baptism we are all ready members of his kingdom. God has already 836s
claimed us as his own and the waters of baptism and says, I will never let you go. You are mine. 844s
We're all ready members of the kingdom. Our hearts transformed into believers so that then by God's 849s
grace we cooperate in that which he desires for us. And so we are called and empowered by God to 859s
strive. First, it says that where their first can be translated only. So it's not first of a 868s
whole list of things that can sometimes get jumbled up. It is first in the sense of only to strive only 878s
for what for the kingdom of God, what's the kingdom of God, but it's his reign and his rule over 884s
every area of our life. That's worries replacement, isn't it? To strive only for his reign and rule 894s
over our lives. Every area of our life. Because as you are mine, you are part of my kingdom. I 908s
claimed you in the waters of baptism. I continue to change your heart. I have given you faith and I 919s
will sustain that faith and now by God's grace we act on that faith. Now our desires are changed 927s
and God says strive for this. Here's the picture and focus for life, isn't it? It's to strive for his reign 934s
and his rule over all of our life. Because what is that? That's worry replacement, isn't it? 943s
Instead of worry comes to striving. Instead of worry, it's the Lord you reign over all of my life. 952s
And Lord you have this in your hands and I trust who you are. You hold every blank in every beat. 964s
You hold my entire life. I trust you. That is the worry replacement. 972s
Verse 34 says, so do not worry about tomorrow. For tomorrow we'll bring worries of its own. 981s
Today's trouble is enough for today. Translation? 991s
One day to time. One day, and a time. 998s
Designate a portion of your day where you'll worry about things. 1010s
No. No. For God by His grace, God by His promises, God brings us into life. 1022s
That's a worry free zone. 1036s