KEY THOUGHT...

“ Worry RUINS our heart leading to ANXIETY, but Jesus ANCHORS our heart leading to PEACE”

INTRODUCTION...

Worry. Anxiety. Anyone, have any experience with these two emotions? It seems to be a normal part of our lives…but all of us deal with stress and anxiety in different ways. It could be because of how we are wired or it could be what trauma we have experienced in our lives…all of this factors determine how will you hear and receive this teaching today?

[1] Maybe you are a happy go lucky person and life just doesn’t stress you out at all. Things come and go, problems arise but you are just not a stressed out person. You are the calm person in the storm, you have an extra measure of faith that God is gonna get you through it no matter what.

[2] Maybe you are just high strung and you are stressed out about everything. It makes it hard to not worry about all things.

[3] Maybe you have experienced some real trauma and are having a hard time coming to see God’s provision or care for you, reconciling those things with trusting in Jesus.

Because of our wiring or our experience, we will all process this passage a little differently…but the truth is still the same, the answer is still the same…Jesus is the anchor and God will provide

CONTEXT...

vs25 “Therefore, I tell you…”
- Looking back to the previous section that James taught a couple of weeks ago, Jesus is just continuing this challenge (vs 19-24) of not storing up treasures on earth, but laying up treasures in heaven || not that earthly things are always bad, but where is your heart? What are you truly valuing more, worshiping even? Earthly things or heavenly things? Jesus ends that section with “you can’t SERVE God and Money”, meaning only one will be your master
- Jesus is connecting worry/anxiety with our relationship to him and his provision…If earthly treasures are our master, it will most likely lead to anxiety…but if God is our master, it will lead to peace…as we trust in him. He is the anchor of our lives, he sustains, he provides, he gives peace (even if our circumstances are challenging, our funds are low and we can’t see a way forward). Satan wants to just distract us by either causing us to be a slave to earthly things or to be a slave to anxiety and worry about everything. He doesn’t want us to focus on God, his plans, his kingdom, his glory, his righteousness…we have to reorient our lives around God…the reign of Jesus in our lives…the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit…and that is where we truly will find peace…he is our anchor!

QUOTE Martin Lloyd-Jones:
“We are reminded [here] once more of the terrible subtlety of Satan and of sin. It does not matter very much to Satan what form sin takes as long as he succeeds in his ultimate objective. It is immaterial to him whether you are laying up treasures on earth or worrying about earthly things; all he is concerned about is that your mind should be on them and not on God. And he will assail and attack you from every direction. You may think you have won this great battle against Satan because you conquered him when he came in at the front door and talked to you about laying up treasures on earth. But before you are aware of it, you will find he has come in through the backdoor and is causing you to have anxious concern about these things. He is still making you look at them, and so is perfectly content” (Lloyd-Jones, 108).

- Jesus is again reorienting our hearts to his…to anchor our souls to him…and not worry, don’t be anxious

MISCONCEPTIONS:
[1] Jesus is NOT forbidding forethought or planning, he is condemning ANXIOUS AND WORRISOME forethought (James 4:13-17)

[2] Jesus is NOT forbidding having justified concerns about crucial things…he is condemning unjustified anxiety over things that we have no control over and leaving those things in the hands of our loving Father

[3] Jesus is NOT forbidding work!(2 Thess 3:10) There is no need to use this verse to justify being lazy…God provides food for the birds but they have to go catch it!

[4] Jesus is NOT forbidding us to take care of each others needs, sometimes the way God provides is through others and us as we obey Him

--> Let’s take a walk through this text and unpack some of the truths Jesus is trying to relay to his audience and us in his teaching…

A WALK THROUGH THE TEXT…

VS 24 || serve the right master…God (pursuing heavenly things)…not money (the pursuit of material things, earthly things) || backdrop to this whole section

VS 25 || “Therefore” again is referring back to vs 24 regarding who we are serving…$$ or God… || Jesus gives a command here to NOT BE ANXIOUS. He gives that same command 3 times in this passage…he really wanted us to understand this || He talks about anxiety in three different categories:
1] Don’t be anxious about YOUR LIFE(eat/drink)
2] Don’t be anxious about YOUR BODY(clothes)
3] later in vs 34 Don’t be anxious about TOMORROW
- Jesus wants us to understand the order of things…that life is more than just food and drink…and our body is more than what we wear
- There is a deeper purpose for us than just focusing on or worrying about or being anxious over food and drink and clothes…
- And so he illustrates God’s love and care and involvement in our lives but talking about how God loves and cares for the birds and flowers…

VS 26-27 || ILLUS: birds of the air [IMAGE 001]
- Key point…“Are you not of more value than they?”
- Let that sink in. || vs 27, BTW you cannot add a single hour to your life by worrying about these things ||

VS 28-30a || ILLUS: Lillies of the field [IMAGE 002]
- Key point…“will he not much more clothe you”

VS 30b || “… O you of little faith?”
- I’m somewhat comforted by this statement…the crowd he was talking to obviously were anxious about these things just like us
- Jesus is not being mean to them by calling them out, he was acknowledging he sees their situation, that they were anxious and calls them to have faith that God really does care for them [more than the birds, more than the fields]…that they have value and that they should trust in God

VS 31 || so he makes it plain… “do not be anxious…” || the second time he has given this command… || eat/drink/wear

VS 32a || gentiles means people outside of the kingdom, not citizens…but you are a citizen of his kingdom…don’t act like you are outside by being anxious, worrying about food, drink and clothes…why?

VS 32b || God knows what we need! || He is our FATHER…loving us, caring for us, providing for us, protecting us…

VS 33-34 || so DON’T be anxious, but DO something else first…
- SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS
- What does that mean? || The simple answer is tied back to the previous section on our hearts pursuit of ‘things of the earth’ or ‘things of heaven’…who are we serving, what kingdom are we building…our lives should be focused on building the kingdom of God…pursuing the entrance to that kingdom through Jesus’ death…and then living as a citizen of the kingdom by SEEKING FIRST HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS…simply obeying his commands || and the promise is that when we do those things FIRST…God will provide your needs…
- The call to "seek first" God's kingdom and righteousness connects to the other teachings Jesus has given in this Sermon on the Mount. Motives of the HEART matter, and only by sincerely putting God first can we pursue righteousness.
- Followers of Jesus should prioritize living according to the principles He has been teaching (Matthew 6:24; John 14:15). Jesus' earliest message was the same as that of John the Baptist, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17).
- To seek God's kingdom and His righteousness means to live in that ongoing repentance from sin, and to lead the kind of sincere, from-the-heart, devoted-to-God lifestyles Jesus has been describing. In response, God will make provision for whatever it is we truly "need" in order to accomplish His will.

PRACTICAL WAYS TO SEEK GOD'S KINGDOM FIRST...

1.] Set Your Alarm Clock
- set to 6:33 to remind you of this verse first thing every morning

2.] Pray
[1 Thess 5:17] “pray continually”

3.] Read your Bible
[PS 119:105] “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

4.] Memorize Scripture
[PS 119:9-11] “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. 10 With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments 11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

--> All of these are basic, simple things we an do to start our day every day by seeking God’s Kingdom first and submitting our hearts to ‘seek his righteousness’…simple obedience

FIGHTING ANXIETY AND WORRY WITH GOD'S WORD...

--> Fight anxiety with the promises of God. Fight anxiety with a massive assault of biblical truth.

1.] When you worry about what people might do to you
--[Rom. 8:31] “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

2.] When you worry about being too weak, or powerless in a situation
-- [2 Cor. 12:9] “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

3.] When you worry about the future
-- [Ps. 32:8] “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”

4. When you worry about whether God will keep his promises to you
-- [Heb. 6:17-20] “17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
-- God cannot lie…and Jesus has become the anchor of our souls…this brings hope and peace…the opposite of worry and anxiety

5.] When you worry about your loved ones
-- [MT. 7:7-11] “7 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

6.] When you worry about physical sickness
-- [PS 103:3] “He heals all your diseases”

7.] When you worry about failing and falling
-- [Phil. 1:6] “6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

8.] And just like seeking His Kingdom first…we can overcome anxiety and worry as we PRAY!
-- [PHIL 4:6-7] “6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
-- This is not a promise that problems will go away. It is, rather, a promise that God’s peace is greater than your anxiety! He doesn’t promise peace instead of problems, but peace in spite of problems.

9.] Relinquish! Trust!
-- [1 PETER 5:6-7] “6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

SPECIAL APPLICATION…

- For those of you struggling with deep anxiety…God has many ways he can heal us from these difficulties || a majority of times he heals us of anxiety and worry through the things we have talked about today || but I want to acknowledge some severe cases of anxiety that can come because of trauma or other outside sources that may need to have special attention || Medical attention, Doctors, Physiologists, Medication, Therapy || If you are in that situation I want to strongly recommend talking to a professional, start with a pastor here and we can work with you to get you the help you need || I know that for some this is a serious disability for you and we love you, God loves you, and there is help through it, please let us help you

Worry RUINS our heart leading to ANXIETY, but Jesus ANCHORS our heart leading to PEACE”

- I want to close with this verse that we have considered many times over the last year. It is found in the book of Hebrews and I find it very comforting, especially in seasons of worry, fear, anxiety…

[HEB 4:14-16]
“14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

-- Run to Jesus.
-- He offers mercy, grace, help in our time of need. Sometimes that is all we can do when things are overwhelming and he is able to handle our worst situations, our fear and anxiety…
-- Run to Jesus…Run to Jesus…Run to Jesus.