Anxiety vs Sovereignty (Pt 1)

Matthew 6:25-34 and the First Sermon on Anxiety vs Sovereignty

Remain standing and open your Bibles as we read our text for the sermon, Matthew chapter 6, verses 25 to 34. I had originally planned to do this all as one sermon, but as the week progressed and I was preparing, it looks as if I'm not going to be able to do that, so we will split it into two parts.

But we will do the first part today, as this is our longer series in the Sermon on the Mount, but we're going to read the whole passage that I'll be looking at both today and next Sunday. Matthew chapter 6, beginning in verse 25, says,.

Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, not 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. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his lifespan?

And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Our Father and our God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word. I pray, Father, that as I preach, that you would keep me from error, as I am certainly capable of preaching error. And I pray that you would protect me and protect the congregation.

And Father, that also you would open the hearts of your people to understand the truth and depth of your word. And Father, as we look at such a relevant passage of Scripture in regard to the fact that so many of us deal with worry, so many of us go through our lives with severe doubt and affliction of heart.

May it be that the words from this passage convict us and give us encouragement to trust in your sovereignty in all things. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. There was a group of seminary students who were given a sheet of paper by their professor.

And the professor said, I want you to take this sheet of paper and I want you to write on it one word. I want you to think of the attribute of God that gives you the most comfort. The attribute of God that gives you the most encouragement.

And I want you to write it down on a piece of paper, fold it up and hold on to it. So all the students took their pieces of paper. They wrote down the one word. They closed the paper as an envelope and held it in their hand.

And the professor went around and he said, I wonder how many of you wrote love? No one. How many of you wrote his mercy? None. How many of you wrote grace? To a man. Every one of the students in seminary in that class wrote a derivation of one word.

Sovereignty. What is it that gives us most comfort in a world that seems out of control? In a world that seems totally depraved. And it is. It's that God is in control. That God is sovereign. Our passage today deals with anxiety.

And beloved, we are commanded against anxiety in this passage. And my purpose in today's message and on into next week is that I want to demonstrate that the reason for anxiety in the life of a Christian is that we take our eyes off of the sovereignty of God.

The reason for worry and doubt and anxiousness is that in those moments we forget who's really in control. If God is sovereign, the reason why I titled the message anxiety versus sovereignty, because I really believe this to be the truth.

If God is sovereign and maybe I should replace that automatically since God is sovereign, not if as if it were some doubt. But since God is sovereign, we have no reason for anxiety. And if we are experiencing anxiety, then at that moment we have lost sight of his sovereignty.

And at the end of the day, the issue will always be anxiety versus sovereignty. George Mueller, the great teacher, preacher and evangelist, wrote this. He said the beginning of anxiety is the end of faith and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.

The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith and the end of or the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety. Now, I want to share with you something by way of testimony, and I don't I try not to talk about myself a lot in messages.

It's in fact, it's frowned upon because it's not about me. It's about God's word. But I want to by way of testimony, I want to share something with you. This is not an area wherein I have reached any level of perfection through the years I have been given to serious bouts of anxiety and worry.

And I've often said that I relate most of the apostle Peter, even though the apostle Paul tends to be the one I preach from the most. For some reason, maybe it's because he wrote so much. I don't know.

I like Paul, but I relate to Peter more. And a lot of times I relate to Peter more because he was known for two things, impetuousness and anxiety. Well, maybe that's why we relate. But it was Peter who wrote toward the end of his ministry, first Peter, chapter five and verse seven.

That we are to cast all of our anxieties on to God because he cares for us, cast our cares upon him because he cares for us. As a person who has dealt with the sin of worry, I want to express to you that I can tell you by way of testimony.

One thing that Jesus says here in the text today, I have experienced the truthfulness of it. And that is this, worry does nothing positive. As much as I have experienced worry, I've never had one day where I ended a day of worry and said, man, I'm really glad I did that.

In fact, it has been said, and I believe it, that a day of worry is worse on your body than a week of work, that it's more stressful. It consumes more energy. It's more painful. And your body goes through so much turmoil in a day worth of worry.

It'd be better if you just spent a week doing nothing but hard labor. Worry and anxiety do not make situations better. In fact, they often make situations much worse than they really are. It's been said that worry is like a rocking chair.

You do a whole lot, but you don't go anywhere. And the thing is, our world feeds anxiety. It feeds worry. Think about the 24-hour news networks. This just in, major turmoil. This just in, there's been this or that or the other.

Why do they keep everyone so riled up all the time? Because an anxious viewer is a consistent viewer. I've got to know what's happening. I've got to know what's going on every minute of the day, because something may happen that I don't know about.

I've got to keep my eye on it all the time. And it gets worry, worry all the time. And we've got to keep this going 24 hours a day, so we've got to on and on and on. Advertisements force us into anxiety.

I don't have the latest thing. I don't have enough things. I don't have the best thing. And it forces us to worry. And we're a people given to worry. And it's a useless and a harmful practice. And yet we do it over and over again.

Now, something I want to help you understand is something that I have come to understand. And remember, I've told you this many times. You get 45 minutes of this after all week of me thinking about and preparing.

So I've thought through many of these things and studied on many of these things. I've had to sit under my own condemnation for a week. You get it for just a short time. But one of the things that has really come to bear on my own heart is that worry is a sin.

We don't often think of it as a sin. But when Jesus says, do not do something and it's a command that we not do something and yet we do it. Are we not then violating his command? Are we not then going against his command?

And if we are going against the command of our almighty God, is that not sin? Unreasonable worry is sin. Now, I add the caveat unreasonable because as I was studying this week and as I was thinking this week, I said I need to add a qualifier.

And the qualifier is unreasonable because there is such a thing as righteous concern. And that's not what Jesus is addressing here. For instance, this week we went to the mountains after our trip to the conference, the Bible conference.

We went a couple hundred miles north. Not even that long. We just went right up into Tennessee and got to go to Ruby Falls. We didn't go in, though. It was too far to walk, too much money, and they wouldn't let us take a stroller.

So three strikes and you're out. So we didn't go in, but we went up on top of the mountain where there was a battlefield on top of a mountain. And there were all these Civil War relics and things there for you to look at.

And while we were up on top of the mountain, there were cliffs that dropped off hundreds of feet to hard, rocky ground below. And there was this young man, had to have been 22, 23 years old, and he would run out to the edge and stop and look down.

I got news for that young man. Gravity hurts if you tempt it such. And I got to thinking, you know what? I don't like heights personally. But even if I wasn't afraid of heights, I know better than to run out to the edge and stop and look down.

Not because I'm necessarily worried, but because that's a righteous concern. That's a normal concern. You know why little babies run out into traffic and parking lots? Because they don't know any better.

They don't know that a 2000 pound automobile can run. Right and right over them. As we grow, we understand our concerns are heightened, our understanding of life and death is comes to bear on us. And we don't just go stand out in the middle of the street and tempt God, you know, the New Testament demonstrates to us that there are some things which we are allowed and supposed to be concerned about.

The Apostle Paul in 2nd Corinthians 11 28 and Philippians 2 20 in both places, he says he has great concern for the church. And guess what? The word concern there is the translation of the same Greek word which is used here when Jesus said, do not be anxious.

It's the same word. But the Apostle Paul says, I have concern for the church. 1st Corinthians 12 25 says believers in the church are to have concern for one another. Same Greek word, same idea. We are supposed to be concerned with one another.

1st Corinthians 7 says that married couples are to have concern for one another. Same word. So my point is this. There are things that we are allowed to be concerned about, but that's not unreasonable worry.

And that's the point, the distinction that needs to be made. Jesus was called in Isaiah 53, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Right, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. We know that. Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus.

Jesus wept over Israel. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. The city who stones the prophets and kills those who are sent to you. How often I would have gathered you as a hen gathers her children. But yet you were unwilling.

Jesus expresses concern for Jerusalem. And the reason why I'm saying all this is because sometimes people hear Jesus said, do not be anxious for this. Do not be anxious to that. And you think what Jesus is saying is, don't worry, be happy.

You know, we talked about that this morning. I said, Jim, I said, let's talk about some songs we want to do today. And I said, this song, it's anxiety is the subject. And he said, well, let's do don't worry, be happy as a joke.

We joke back and forth, you know. And we all know that song. But that's a flippant worldly look at real issues. We are supposed to take concern about righteous things. I take concern every time I come into this pulpit because I am handling the word of God for the people of God on the Lord's day.

And I know the danger of preaching false teacher. I know the danger of teaching falsely. And I pray God keep me from preaching that which is untrue. We are told to fast and pray. Why? Because our hearts are burdened for something, an individual or a situation.

This family yesterday, I see these three children, one too young to even know what's happening. Her mom's in the casket. And my heart is burned. I stopped on the way home and cried in my car. I wanted to be strong for the young man when he was there.

But afterwards, I couldn't anymore. And that kind of, I mean, that I don't think that's a sin to be concerned for those children. And I don't think that that's what Jesus is talking about here. And I don't believe it is.

Unreasonable worry is something that we are commanded not to do. And that's the point that we have to consider in this. Is Jesus is addressing unreasonable worry. And he's saying that unreasonable worry is a sin.

Not that we're never to have concern about anything. But that we are to judge our thoughts in accordance with the word of God. And have we begun to be unreasonable in our worry? A .W. Pink, the great Reformed Baptist teacher, said this.

He said, Worrying, and he's talking about unreasonable worry. He said, Worrying is as definitely forbidden as theft. This needs to be carefully pondered and definitely realized by us so that we do not excuse it as an innocent infirmity.

Have you ever met anybody that worries all the time? And they just have their life given to worry? That's what we're talking about here. John Wesley said this. He said, I dare not worry any more than I dare curse or swear.

Because he looked at it as the same type of sin. Now, before I go on, I want to also make another distinction. I'm sorry I'm spending so much time on the introduction, but this is such a deep subject.

I want to address one other thing, and that's the difference between sadness and depression and worry and anxiety. Because, beloved, while those things often can go together, they are not necessarily always tied to one another.

And believers can and do experience bouts of depression and sadness and malaise and melancholy. And I wrote an article recently. I don't know how many of you read my articles. Byron and Lee and some other men come together and we write articles for the church and we post them to our website.

And one of the articles I wrote was after the death of Robin Williams. You know, he committed suicide and I don't want to get into that. But I wrote just an article about the history of depression and the reality in the life of people.

And the point of the article is that some of the most godly people in history have dealt with the issue of sadness and depression in their lives. Charles Spurgeon, the greatest preacher that I know of, especially in his age, dealt with times of depression and he wrote about it in a great deal.

Martin Luther in the 1500s wrote some of the most exquisite writing on the subject of depression and worry in the life of the Christian and how to deal with it. And it was so advanced for the time in the sense of modern pop psychology and all the garbage that comes out in the Sigmund Freud and all this junk that's out today.

It had such an understanding in depth. My point is simply to say this and I want to make sure I'm being clear. Just because someone is feeling depression or sadness does not mean that they are in sin and that that by itself is a sin.

Physical illnesses can bring about depression. Depression. Medication can bring about depression that's devoid of worry. I know people who have this expression of malaise, but it's not accompanied by unreasonable worry.

It's just it's something that they're dealing with physically and it can happen. But I say all that to also say this. There are times when it is sin. So we have to examine ourselves if we're dealing with depression, if we're dealing with these things.

Is it a sin? Is there something simple in our life that's bringing this out? We need to examine ourselves. It's not just we can't just write everything off and say, well, it's OK. We need to be honest with ourselves.

Is there something in our life that's bringing about this feeling of depression and anxiety? I will tell you, there was a time in my life where I was feeling severely anxious, severely depressed. I went two weeks without eating, which for me, pretty big deal.

You know what? I wasn't saved. I was under the condemnation and conviction of the soul. I was 19 years old and I felt abandoned and lost. I had a wife who loved me. I had parents who loved me. I had friends.

I grew up in the church. But I was lost and I knew it. And it led to a depression in my soul. And it did take me getting on my knees and calling out to God. So I'm not telling you that if you're depressed, there's nothing wrong with you.

But I am telling you that if you're depressed, it might not be sin. But you need to you need to examine your heart. And if you need counseling, you need to come to one of the elders and we want to help you.

Because we don't want just just two weeks ago, a young 15 year old boy at a church, not a stone's throw from here, committed suicide. And they just did the funeral last week. I want to know. The elders want to know.

We want to help you if that's you. You don't have to go through this alone and you don't have to feel ashamed. OK, that's so important. We understand. I couldn't go through this sermon without saying that.

So all that as an introduction to what Jesus is going to say about worry. Jesus is talking about unreasonable worry in this passage. And that does apply to all of us at some point in our life. We all have times where we feel like the check's not going to last as long as the month.

We all have times where we feel like the cupboard's not going to stay filled as long as it should. Or our clothes are going to wear out sooner than we have money to buy new ones. And that's the type of worries that Jesus is talking about.

He's talking about provisional needs. And that's what we're going to talk about today as we go to the text together. He's going to give us three reasons why worry, unreasonable worry, is a sin from which we need to repent.

And we're going to look at the first point today. Next week we'll come and deal with points two and three. But we're going to look at the first point today. Jesus reminds us of God's sovereign provision.

Verse 25. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious 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.

Now, anytime we come to a passage that begins with the word, therefore, you guys have sat under me long enough. Most of you, you know, when you come to the word, therefore, what does that mean? It means it ties to what came before it.

Anytime you see the word, therefore, you need to go back above and understand the context because it's tying what's coming to what came before. It's a hermeneutical principle of interpretation. So what did we learn in our last study?

Jesus talked about storing up treasures on earth. He said, do not store up treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasure in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and thieves do not break and steal.

For where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. The light of the eye is the lamp of the body. And if the light within you be dark, how great is the darkness? And he goes on to say that you cannot serve God in money.

So what's Jesus's whole context here? He's talking about luxury and wealth and riches. Then he says, therefore, do not be anxious. So he switches from luxury to necessity because he talks about wealth and storing up treasures and all these things.

He's talking about excess. But now he switches and says, don't be anxious about what you're going to eat, what you're going to drink or what you're going to wear. Beloved, I don't know if you realize this or not, but those three things are pretty important.

We all need food to eat. We all need something to drink and we all need clothes to wear. What do we say when we see on the television the children overseas that are hurting? They're poor. They're hungry and naked.

Right. That's always the way we express that they're hungry and naked. Because we're saying they don't have the necessities of life, they don't have the food and they don't have the clothing that is needed.

And as I said, most of us have felt anxiety over necessities. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand, but I honestly believe that every hand would go up if I were to ask this question. How many of you have ever worried about the necessities of life?

And if I started listing things, I already mentioned the groceries not lasting as long as they should, the paycheck not lasting as long as it should. And some of you may be a little bit well or well or more well off.

Sorry, you may be a little more well off now than you were when you were younger. But many of us remember when we were very young and just starting out and you were literally the paycheck to paycheck living.

And some of us still, you know, we pretty much feel that we live that way forever. We have this need for these necessities. So really, this is this is so relevant. Because we all have necessities and we all at times worry.

And Jesus is saying, don't do it. He's saying, do not worry about necessities. And you say, how could I not worry about necessities? It's in the name. They are necessary. Thus, I have to have them. How can I not be concerned about them?

Jesus gives us three examples as to why we ought not worry. And they're right in the text. He gives us the three things are birds aging and dying. I'm not as good as John MacArthur. I can't make these all start with the same letter.

I'm sorry. Birds aging and dying and flowers are Jesus's three examples. Let me look at it for some birds. He says, look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns. And yet your father, your heavenly father, feeds them.

Are you not more valuable than they? We call this an a fortiori argument. A fortiori means from the lesser to the greater. If God takes care of the birds and they are lesser than you, how much more will he take care of you who are more important than the birds?

That's the a fortiori argument. I wasn't there when Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount. But I'm going to make a thoughtful statement that I think. I imagine there were birds there. He's on a mountain in Israel.

Many birds migrate in that area. In fact, it's a place where there are thousands of birds that go through annually. Jesus probably looked out, saw a bird and said, look right there. Look at the birds.

They don't sell and they don't reap and they don't gather into barns. Yet God feeds them. Now, I want to make comment on that because some people read that and they say, Jesus is telling me I don't have to work.

Slow down, because that's not what Jesus is saying. God provides for the birds, but the birds do participate in that provision. Birds don't just lay back with their feathers on the ground and their beaks open and God sprinkles worms into their mouths.

Birds go about picking at picking seeds. They go about picking worms. They go about doing these things. God provides the food and their responsibility is to go out and get it. And God gives them an instinct to go and do that.

God has given you and I a mandate to work. And along with that mandate, he's given a condemnation. He said for the one who doesn't work, he will not eat. Right. So there's a mandate and a condemnation.

The mandate comes to us in Second Thessalonians 3 10. If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. So the mandate is there. We are not ones, as Martin Luther said. He said there are some people so lazy that they believe that they just need to lay back with their mouths open and God will drop in a roasted goose.

Same thing. The point of Jesus is not that we don't have to work. The point of Jesus is that we don't have to worry. Hear that again. Jesus's point is not that we don't have to work. Jesus's point is that we don't have to worry.

He says God provides for them. He'll provide for you. God ensures that they have. God will ensure that you have. And by the way, don't let the health and wealth crazies come along and mess this passage up for you because they will.

They'll say that what's in view here is BMWs and mansions and stuff like that. No, this is necessities. As one of my professors, Dr. Powers, often used to say, as he tended to repeat himself a lot, I used to say God will always provide our needs, but not our greeds.

You know, and that's the promise of this passage. Our needs will be met. God will meet our needs. And if we sit and worry about our needs, we wring our hands about our needs. Then what are we saying to God?

God, you obviously are not sovereign enough to take care of me. You obviously are not loving enough to take care of me. Even though you're my father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. I just can't trust you with my necessities.

You say, well, I would never say that with my mouth. No, but we say it with our worry. We speak it with our heart, not with our lips. Now, the second thing we see, example, is aging and dying. Verse 27, and which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life?

Some of you says can add a single cubit to his stature. That's the King James. And yeah, no, it's OK. Yeah, the King James says add a single cubit to the stature. Remember, the cubit was the distance between your elbow and the end of your hand.

And some people think that the translation in the Greek should be span of height. But in context, I think that in regard to this, I think it's more appropriate how the ESV translates its span of life, because the way the Greek is here could go either way.

But I believe that span of life, because the idea is this. You can worry all you want about the length of this life and you ain't going to make it any longer. And how many people do we know that they spend their whole lives worried about making this life a little longer, making this life a little, you know?

I mean, just just kind of consider how much time we spend trying to maintain health and vitality. Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't eat healthy. I'm not saying we shouldn't exercise. But I am saying this.

The Bible tells us very clearly that our days were fashioned before us, before anyone was ever known. Psalm 139, that our days were formed for us, yet as though there were none of them. God has ordained the day of our birth.

He's ordained the day of our death. This past week, 43 years old, mother of three children, goes to sleep at night. No health issues, no drug abuse, no nothing. Dies in her sleep. Is that scary? Yeah, a little.

But at the same time, it demonstrates that God is in control and not us. God is sovereign over the very length of our days, not us. The very best we can do is increase our quality of life while we have it.

We cannot add one minute to our life. And yet, we worry about it all the time. We worry about the length of our life. We worry about how long we're going to live. And, oh, if I do this, I'll add five years to my life.

No, you won't. You won't add a minute past what God has given you and you won't take a minute away. You might say, that's fatalistic. No, it's not. It's biblical Christianity. What I'm telling you is that your God is sovereign.

He's not up for grabs. The future is not up for grabs. And that gives us confidence to kill our anxieties. So we see the birds. God feeds them. We see aging and dying. It's up to God. It's not us. He is sovereign and we are not.

And finally, the flowers of the field. Verse 28 and 29. And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Now, that is essentially the same argument that he made about the birds. The birds are lesser. God feeds the birds. You are greater. You're made in God's image. Birds aren't made in God's image, but God takes care of them.

He'll take care of you. Look at the lilies of the field. Look at the flowers of the field. And by lilies here, the Greek simply means just wildflowers. It's not any particular type of flower, but just look at the wildflowers.

And, you know, this past week when we were in the mountains, all the beautiful mountains of the field. It was like a it was a tapestry of beauty, all different colors. I saw it and I said, you know what?

God clothes the mountains. He clothes the fields. So, too, will he clothe us. Yet how often do we sit and wonder, am I going to have enough? Are my needs going to be met? Are my ends going to meet? The hands of the Christians should be calloused from putting our hand to the plow of God's kingdom, not from wringing our hands together in doubt over his provision.

You hear what I just said? Because that's Jesus's point, which we're going to get to next week. He says, instead of worrying all the time about these things that you need, focus on God, focus on his kingdom, and all those things will be added unto you.

All of your needs will be met. But do we believe that? Do we trust that? Beloved, I wonder sometimes if we do, because our worry often says we don't. Now, I want to end with a story, because I think it'll tie everything together.

I want to ask for your focus just for another minute. There was a young man, preteen, young boy, who was adopted out of foster care. This story hits close to home for me. As many of you know, we adopted Ashley and Cody out of foster care.

But this was another child. I remember when I first heard this story, it broke my heart. But it really painted a vivid illustration. And like I said, I think it ties everything up today. This young boy was adopted out of foster care.

And he was adopted by a family. And this family really loved the young boy. I mean, just doted over him and took care of him. New clothes, good food, new backpack for school. All that he needed was there.

And in giving him all these things that he needed, they even sort of spoiled him a little. That happens, you know. Well, one day the mom, the boy is at school. And the mom goes into the room where they had, the room they had given him.

And she's just straightening up, you know how moms do, and kind of straightening up the room. And she pulls back the bed from the wall just so she can get in behind and sweep. And she finds behind it two apples, a bag of chips, a couple of pieces of candy.

Tucked away in a corner where no one could see it. She didn't understand, what is this? So he came home from school. Mother and father were there. And so they're sitting there. And they say, come here and I want to talk to you.

You know, mom was in your room today. She's looking at your room and she found this stock of food. And the boy got ashamed. He kind of hung his head. And he was scared. And they said, what is this? Why is this this way?

You're not in trouble. Just be honest. Why are you hiding food? And he said, I have been in five different homes. And in those homes, there were many nights where I went to bed hungry. So it became my habit that when I would eat, I would take extra and I would hide it in my room.

For the nights that I would go hungry, I would have something to eat. And the mom and dad, they said, look, you are not a foster child anymore. You have been adopted. You will never, ever go hungry again.

You don't have to hoard. You don't have to hide. We will take care of you. Beloved, the Bible says that if you have come to Christ in faith, you have been adopted by God. And he will meet your need. Father in heaven, we thank you.

We thank you for the powerful provision and promise which comes in this passage. We thank you for the adoption that comes in knowing Jesus Christ. Let it be, oh God, that we never be anxious for what we need.

But that we always be willing to give you our concerns. To give you our needs. To cast our cares upon you. Because you care for us. I pray for every believer under the sound of my voice. That they would commit themselves to repentance of worry.