Don t Worry

Matthew 6:25-34

Matthew 6:25-34, “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? 26 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? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 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? 31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of

God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added

to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Matthew 6:19-24 luxuries

Matthew 6:25-34 necessities. False religion motive is money. So, in our text in Matthew 6:19-24 we have three alternatives.

• Two treasuries.
• Two visions.
• Two masters. 1. Where is your heart? 2. Where is your focus? 3. Who are you serving?

Planning for tomorrow is time well spent. Worrying about tomorrow is time wasted. Don’t worry. That is the heart and the soul of the passage. Worry 5 times V 25, V 27, V 28, V 31, V 34,

The Lord is calling for us to cease from worrying. Now, I guess all of us must admit that worry is a part of life.

Matthew 6:25-34 on the necessities. He gave us three principles in verses ¹⁹ to 24. 1. Earthly treasures corrupt.

2. Yearning for earthly treasures blinds your spiritual

vision. 3. You must make a choice between God and money. Can we not at least worry about the basics, if not the luxuries? No. Not at all.

So why worry about those things? Jesus gives three reasons why you shouldn’t worry. 1. Father 2. Faith 3. Future It is unnecessary because of your Father. It is uncharacteristic because of your Faith. It is unwise because of your Future.

1. Father.

The Lord gives three illustrations

• a) Food,
• b) Future,
• c) Fashion.

These are related to Him as our Father. V 26, 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? V 27, Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? God gives us life, We are His children, God bounds our life by His sovereign decree, and God wants us to live that life to its fullest.

• Don’t worry about what you wear.
• Don’t worry about how long you live.
• Don’t worry about what you are going to eat and drink.

God takes care of all that.

• God will give you food.

• God will give you clothing.
• God will determine the length of your life and sustain it.

2. Faith

The reason worry is a sin is because it is uncharacteristic due to our faith. It is unnecessary because of our Father. It is uncharacteristic because of our faith. V 31,“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

Stop being anxious, or in this case, don’t start being anxious.

What shall we eat?

What shall we drink?

With what shall we be clothed? Same three things. Another statement of the same principle as in verse 25. Don’t worry about necessities.

Why?

V 32, For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. He is saying it is uncharacteristic of our faith to act like ungodly people. This is for the worldlings. Worry for us,

• Needless because of God’s bounty,
• Senseless because of God’s promise,
• Useless because of our impotence to do anything,
• Faithless because it is putting us in the category of an unbeliever.

The pagans, people without God, and the word “Gentile, pagan, heathen,” all the same word. It means “people without God, without Christ.” These people worry about that.

Why not? That’s all they have going for them. They live for this world. They live to grasp and possess. They have got to get it on their own. They don’t have any God to supply for them. They don’t have any God to promise them anything. They don’t have any divine resource to come to their aid.

So, what happens is they have to grasp, and they have to do it all on their own, because they are on their own. They are ignorant of God’s supply, and have no claim on it, anyway. So anxiously and worriedly, they set their minds on all these things. But for a Christian it is senseless.

By the way, it is also excuseless. It’s not a trivial sin but a serious one. Just to show you how the gentile has no outside source for this, even when gentile people invent a god, inevitably their deities are not deities that they look to in a trusting way.

Whenever the nations of the world build their own gods, they are typically the gods of Satan. They are the demons who are behind those gods.

• They are gods of broken promises.
• They are gods of lack of compassion.
• They are gods of fear.
• They are gods of dread.
• They are gods that must be pacified.
• They are gods that everybody is afraid of, not that everybody counts on.
• They are not gods who supply.

The people still have to do it all on their own, and they just have to keep shoving this god back by making sacrifices, or whatever their religion calls for. Since they have vague ideas about the future life anyway, life becomes consumed in the obsession to get and to gain comforts, wealth, security, prestige, and their gods don’t help them a bit.

For after all these things the Gentiles seek. The word “seek” there is the idea of an emphatic seeking. They seek it with all their might, totally consumed in material gratification. Eat, drink, be merry. Tomorrow we die. It’s over. Grab all the gusto you can get. Do it now, man. This is all there is.

Now imagine a child of God, a Christian, approaching life this way. It’s ludicrous. It’s unworthy for us. Our faith, the Christian faith, says God will supply all my needs, and God can be trusted. If I worry about my food, or I worry about my physical welfare, or I worry about my clothing is to have a worldly mind.

Philippians 4:6, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; Those who do not trust in God’s goodness and God’s promise miss the whole point of being a Christian. So many people are just empty in their profession.

They say, “we love Christ, and we serve God.” But they don’t believe God for anything. They worry about everything. They are in the world. They are like the world.

John 17:15-16, I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Romans 12:2, And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Sons of the King do not conduct themselves like the devil’s beggars. Do I face life like a Christian or a pagan?

When things are difficult or the future is insecure, how do I react? Because you will tell yourself a lot about whether you trust God or not. Does my Christian faith affect my view of life? Do I always place everything in the context of my faith, every trial, every anticipation, every reality?

Your Life Has Purpose Your life is not only valuable, but your life also has purpose.

When you became a Christian, you were

• Given the right to be called a child of God (John 1:12),
• Adopted (Ephesians 1:5),
• United with the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:17),
• A member of the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27),
• Chosen and Special (1 Peter 2:9), and a
• Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19)

You were designed for a purpose far greater than to enjoy momentary pleasures. V 32, For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Do you know the difference between the gods of the gentile and our God?

The gods of the gentile are dumb, ignorant, non-existent. They don’t know anything. They couldn’t help their people anyway because they don’t exist. They are ignorant. But our God knows. If you believe that our God loves and cares, that’s the first section, and now you see that our God knows.

If God knows what I need, and if God knows my life, then all I need to know is that He cares. If He knows and cares, then I’m home free. That is the essence of what Jesus is saying. For your heavenly Father in contrast to the gentiles, He knows that you have need.

God not only has the knowledge of your need, but He has the resources, and then He has the love to provide.

So, what should you worry about? Nothing. It is unnecessary because of your Father. It is uncharacteristic because of your faith.

3. Future

The reason not to worry it is unwise because of your future. It is unwise because of your future. A very nervous airline passenger began pacing the terminal when bad weather delayed his flight. During his walk, he came across a life insurance machine. It offered $100,000 in the event of an untimely death aboard his flight. The policy was just three dollars.

He looked out the window at the threatening clouds and thought of his family at home. For that price it was foolish not to buy, so he took out the coverage. He then looked for a place to eat. Airports now carry a good variety of eateries, so he settled on his favourite, Chinese.

It was a relaxing meal until he opened his fortune cookie. It read, “Your recent investment will pay big dividends.” V 34, Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

The future going to have its own trouble. Just wait till you get to it. It’s unwise because of your future. Don’t worry about tomorrow. Planning and providing for tomorrow is good. Worrying about tomorrow is sin. Because God is the God of tomorrow just like He’s the God of today!

Lamentations 3:22-23, Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

God feeds you like He fed the children of Israel, just the manna you need for the day you need it.

Exodus 16:15-20, So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: ‘Let every man gather it according to each one’s need, one omer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent.’ ” 17 Then the children of Israel did so and gathered, some more, some less. 18 So when they measured it by omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered

little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one’s need. 19 And Moses said, “Let no one leave any of it till morning.” 20 Notwithstanding they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them.

Even though Moses had told them to collect what they need for that day still people collected for next day and kept it. Manna on Sabbath.

Exodus 16:22-26, And so it was, on the sixth day, that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. 23 Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.’ ” 24 So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. 25 Then Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. 26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.”

But still people would not keep quiet!

Exodus 16:27-29, Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. 28 And the Lord said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? 29 See! For the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. Sabbath year rest for the land.

Leviticus 25:4, but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. So, what will happen to the 7th year?

How will they eat?

Leviticus 25:18-22, ‘So you shall observe My statutes and keep My judgments, and perform them; and you will dwell in the land in safety. 19 Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell there in safety. 20 ‘And if you say, “What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?” 21 Then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years. 22 And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest.

Even this they failed this is the reason they went into captivity.

2 Chronicles 36:20-21, And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, 21 to fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfil seventy years. Worry is a tremendous force. Worry will endeavour to defeat us. Worry will endeavour to destroy you today. It will try to get you to see things today to get you upset and to get you anxious, but if it loses out today it will just keep shoving you into the future until it finds something that gets you. That’s the way worry functions.

There are some people so committed to the sin of worry that when they have nothing in the present to worry about, they just keep marching down the future until they find something. The Lord says you have got enough to deal with today. You take the resources of today for the needs of today or you will lose the joy of today.

Lack of joy is a sin, too! More people lose their joy because of tomorrow, and they miss the victory God gave them today. God gives you a glorious and blissful day today.

Psalms 118:24, This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it. Live in the light of that day and fullness of joy of that day and take all the resources God supplies for that day and use them. Don’t push yourself into the future and forfeit the joy of today over some tomorrow that may never happen. Fear is a liar.

It mostly never tells the truth. But it will cause you to lose the joy of today. The Lord forbids this. Tomorrow is going to be anxious about itself. Let tomorrow be for tomorrow. Each day has enough trouble for itself. God only gives strength for one day at a time. God hasn’t given me the grace for tomorrow yet. I don’t get that until tomorrow.

Sometimes you talk to a person who worries a lot, and they worry about dying or something. They concerned about it everything, and then somebody in their family dies. God gives a wonderful grace, peace, and sustains them and they can’t understand it.

They will say to me, you know it’s so wonderful how God has sustained me and supported me. Sure, there’s a normal sorrow, but I feel strength, and then confident and there’s even a gladness in my heart that this one I love is with the Lord, and I feel His strength.

That’s exactly right because God gives us grace for the hour that we need that grace. But if you want to sit now and worry about that, you are going to double your pain without any grace to deal with it. Better you should singly endure it with the grace to sustain it.

I refuse to worry about tomorrow, or the next day, or the future, because I don’t have any resource for that. I don’t want to double my trouble without any resource to give me grace at that moment. So, I shoulder the burden of today and as I see God lift the burden and carry it away from me, I can enjoy today and let

tomorrow bring its own trouble. I don’t cripple myself by worrying about a future that I can’t live in.

Hebrews 13:8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Christ will be doing the same thing tomorrow that He was doing yesterday. So, if you have any question about the future look at the past.

Did He sustain you then? He will sustain you in the future. With Him there is no past, present, or future. So, worry is a forbidden sin. It is incompatible with a Christian’s Father. It is incompatible with a Christian's faith. It is incompatible with a Christian’s future.

We are not spiritual orphans. God didn’t leave us in a phone booth. He didn’t dump us in a storefront. He loves us, and He cares for us, and He has all the resources of eternity at His hand in our disposal. Worry is sin.

Poor man and rich man conversation about thanking God story.

Isaiah 26:3, You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. That’s where perfect peace comes from and the opposite of worry. Put your trust in Him, stay your mind on Him! V 33, But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. You get your thoughts on the divine level and God will take care of the physical.

God doesn’t want us involved in the physical. He wants to free us from that. So, God says, “I will take care of that. You get on about the business of the kingdom.” “But” in contrast.

• Rather than worrying or being like the gentiles.
• Rather than seek what the Gentiles seek,
• Rather than being materialistically oriented,

• Rather than being consumed with the possessions of this age, seek the kingdom.

“Seek first,” “First in a line of more than one options.” Of all the things you can choose from in life to be occupied on, Of all the priorities of life, this is number one. Of all the things you have to be concerned about, There are many things in life that we must take some care about but of all these things, number one thing is the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

We have a long list of things. That’s number one.

Matthew 22:36-40, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

What does it mean to seek the kingdom? The kingdom is simply Christ’s rule, the rule of God, the reign of God, the dominion of God, the kingdom of God, that we should seek that which is eternal!

We studied it in Matthew 6:10 where it says, “Your kingdom come,” in our prayers. We are to be lost in the kingdom of God. The apostle Paul on his way to Jerusalem preaching the gospel of the kingdom, prepared to defend his faith at the point of a sword. Then comes Satan, “Don’t go, Paul. Don’t go because when you get there you are going to get in a lot of trouble.

They are going to put you in prison. They might take your life, Paul.”

Acts 20:18-24, And when they had come to him, he said to them: “You know, from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you, 19 serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews; 20 how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, 21 testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. 22 And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. 24 But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received

from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Paul was seeking the kingdom. That’s what will make somebody go to a mission field in obscurity, and say goodbye to all the fashions, fancy foods of the world to eat in very simplistic terms and to dress the same way and isolate their whole life to that situation because they are not nearly so concerned about those things as they are the advance of the kingdom.

That is what makes somebody preach Christ to the point where they don’t even fear for their own life, because the kingdom is far beyond any other concern.

Where is your heart, again?

Where is your preoccupation?

Are you more concerned with the kingdom?

Or are you more concerned with this world? Are you pouring all your energies into the God’s eternal kingdom? Seeking the kingdom means you seek to bring people to Christ, because you seek the kingdom growing, you seek the gospel of the kingdom to be preached, you seek that people should become redeemed.

We do not spread the gospel because of a sinful imperialism, or triumphalism. We do not seek to advance the kingdom for any selfish goals. We seek to advance the kingdom in the preaching of Christ because a glorified God is the issue.

So, we preach Christ and that extends the kingdom. Seeking the kingdom means that I seek Christ’s rule to be manifest in my life. I seek the kingdom of God to be revealed in my life as righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit manifests His kingdom.

Romans 14:17, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So, in my life when the world sees righteousness, when it sees peace, when it sees joy instead of worry, it knows the kingdom of God is there. You could say, “I want people to be saved and I want to tell them all about Jesus,” and run around worrying, fretting, anxiety, concern, care, and all that stuff all the time and nobody’s going to believe you have got anything they want.

They are certainly going to question the power of God.

The kingdom of God is manifest in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, and that overcomes the worry. So, we seek the kingdom when we seek to bring people into the kingdom, we seek the kingdom when we let it be manifest through us.

We seek the kingdom, too, when we long for Jesus to return in His millennial glory. The Bible says I will be a joint heir with Christ. We will reign with Him forever and ever. We will have a new heaven and a new earth throughout all eternity. We will have all the majesty and the riches of eternal heaven.

By the way, the whole earth is going to be destroyed, anyway, and the Lord is going to make a whole new one. So, the kingdom is to seek that which is yet in the future, the granting of that eternal glory that comes from Christ when He gives His saints His own kingdom.

It is to see the kingdom manifest in my life through righteousness, peace, joy, and it is to desire to win people to Jesus that the kingdom might grow and expand.

Secondly, He says we seek not only the kingdom, but His righteousness, holiness. If you have to chase something don’t chase money but holiness. Pursue it.

• When you pursue, pursue godliness.
• When you pursue, pursue holiness.
• When you pursue, pursue righteousness.

Some of us spend all our time after money, cars, houses, clothes. How far afield we are from what we should be after.

Psalm 84:11-12, For the Lord God is a sun and shield;

The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly. 12 O Lord of hosts, Blessed is the man who trusts in You! God will take care of those who seek His kingdom and seek His righteousness.

Solomon provides for us an excellent illustration. Solomon didn’t pray for riches. Didn’t pray for fancy clothes. He didn’t pray for fancy food. He didn’t pray for a long life.

Solomon prayed for what? Wisdom. When he got wisdom, he got all the rest. Nobody was ever dressed like Solomon, fabulous wardrobe, nobody was ever as wealthy as Solomon. Nobody ever could put on feasts that could match him, just feeding his wives and concubines would have been a monumental event, and they had to eat three times a day.

Incredible. He sought wisdom and in the getting of wisdom all the rest was residual. If you worry, it’s a sin, because it is unnecessary due to your Father. It is uncharacteristic of your faith. It is unwise because of your future.

Don’t worry. Trust and He’ll bring it to pass.

Application

I think if we are honest, all of us have been excessively worried about recent events.

Our worry has probably fluctuated from under-worried to over-worried and back again. It is as though media and society are pressuring us all to be worried about the necessities of life. 1. Give up control. We have no idea or control over what will happen in the coming weeks. Worrying excessively about tomorrow will not help anything.

Today, we could die from driving, from a blood vessel wall, or a million other things.

Ecclesiastes 7:14, In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.

We have no control over what tomorrow will bring. 2. Focus on today and make the most of it. Solomon said this throughout his book of Ecclesiastes. We are here today and gone tomorrow. Tomorrow is probably going to be like today, but it could also be a total reversal of what happened today. We do not know.

We have no control or understanding of what tomorrow will bring, and we can do nothing about it. So, enjoy God's blessings for today with a desire to please Him and spread His glory. Use wisdom as the Proverbs say to extend our lives. Wisdom will extend our lives, but Jesus tells us that worrying does not add an hour.

3. Have Faith. Excessive anxiety is an indicator of how little faith we have. Like Martha, we make ourselves busy with many things instead of focusing on the most important thing. In times of trouble, remember to nourish your soul with study and prayer.

Our prayer life needs to pick up, and we need to lay our fears in the hands of a Heavenly Father who loves us and cares about all that we are going through. We must put God first in our lives.

Jeremiah 2:11-13, Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for

that which does not profit. 12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, 13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

This is what anxiety is, a broken cistern, or well. The only way to alleviate any anxiety is to know that there is someone greater than us in control. We can trust His wisdom and power and submit to His rule. We need to value a relationship with God over wealth, long and happy life on this earth, close relationships with others, or anything else because death is inevitable, and all that stuff will disappear in a moment.

God is the only one who has power over death. When we get rid of excessive worry by focusing on His kingdom, God promises to provide what we need until the day God calls us home to be with Him for eternity.