Lighthouse Baptist Church
and Christian Academy

Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and your body more important than clothes?

Matthew 6:25

He's saying that worry is irrational, unreasonable.

In the first place, we often worry about the wrong things. Jesus says it doesn't make sense. It's useless.

Jesus is saying, if you're going to worry about something, make it matter.

• Don't worry about the external, worry about the eternal.
• Don't worry about what you're going to drink, what you're going to wear and stuff like that.

If it's not going to last, don't worry about it. To worry about something you can change is stupid. To worry about something you can't change is useless. Either way it's unreasonable to worry.

Have you noticed when you worry the thing gets bigger in your mind? Somebody criticizes you, you start worrying about it. If you worry about something long enough, pretty soon you think the whole world is against you. It gets exaggerated. Worry is unreasonable.

He gives us an illustration from nature.

Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable that they are.

Matthew 6:26-29

God says you're more valuable that the birds. Then He says in the next verse, "Why do you worry about clothes. Look at the fields of lilies. They don't worry about theirs. Yet King Solomon in all his glory was not clothed as beautifully as they are."

First He says, look at bird watching. I'm not an ornithologist but from my point of view as an amateur, if anybody's on God's welfare role is the birds. What do they do? They chirp and they twitter and they fly around and take up land that could be developed! But what do they really do? Yet God says, I take care of them and aren't you more valuable that they are?

Then He says, look at the flowers. Have you ever looked closely at a flower? It's not even going to last 6-8 weeks, yet look at the intricate design, the attention that God gives to flowers. He says, they're not even going to last and yet look how much attention God has paid to them in designing them.

Here's the point: animals don't worry, flowers don't worry. There's only one thing in all of God's creation that worries - human beings.

We are the only thing that God has created that doesn't trust God. We're the only thing that worries. And God says this is unnatural.

God satisfies the desires of every living thing.

Psalm 145:16

All of creation trusts God except mankind. Worry is not natural.

• You said, "I'm a born worrier." No, you're not. Worry is a learned response.
• You learned it from your parents.
• You learned it from peers, from brothers and sisters.
• You picked it up.
• You may have a natural inclination but you're not a born worrier. It's something you learned.

In fact, you have to practice to get good at it. Some of you are very good at it because you've had a lot of practice at worrying. Since it's learned it can be unlearned.

Worry is unhealthy. Your body wasn't geared to handle worry. God didn't wire you up to handle worry. So when you worry, you take it out on your body.

• You have stomach problems,
• you have muscle problems,
• back problems,
• digestive problems.

It causes all kinds of ailments and illnesses and health issues when you worry because your body was not designed to handle worry.

Have you heard somebody say, "I'm worried sick." They may be. I read that in America we consume 165 tons of aspirin a day. Seven and a half billion headaches a year. That's a lot of Excedrin! Why? Because worry is not only unnatural, it's unhealthy.

It doesn't work. It doesn't change anything. It's useless.

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

Matthew 6:27

He says, Why are you worrying?

• Worrying cannot make you taller. It cannot make you shorter.
• Worrying cannot make you thinner as much as you'd like it to. It can't make you bigger. It can't make you smarter.
• Worry cannot make you live longer, add even an hour to your life.

In fact, what it does is the opposite. It shortens your life. Studies have shown that people who are chronic worriers actually live less long than those who don't worry. People who have peace of mind tend to live longer.

When you worry about a problem it doesn't bring you one inch closer to the solution. It's like sitting in a rocking chair. A lot of activity, a lot of energy, a lot of motion, but no progress. No progress at all - stewing without doing. It doesn't work because worry does not change anything.

Worry does not change the past. As much as you'd like it, it can't change the past no matter how much you worry about it. Worry cannot control the future, no matter how much you worry about it.

So if it can't change the past and can't control the future, what does it do? It messes up today. That's all it does. Every time you worry, all you're doing is robbing yourself of happiness right now.

Worry does do one thing. It makes you miserable. It changes you - from a happy person into a miserable person.

Worry weighs us down.

Proverbs 12:25

Worry causes more fatigue than work. People worry more than they work. It does tear you down, wear you down.

Then finally Jesus says...

If God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won't He more surely care for you, O you of little faith.

Matthew 6:30

The bottom line is that worry is always the misunderstanding of what God is like. Anytime you start worrying all kinds of alarm bells ought to go off in your mind, warning, flashing lights that say, "Something's off here.

I've forgotten who God is.
I've forgotten there is a God.
I've forgotten what He's like.
I've forgotten He's with me all the time," and I just start focusing on myself.

If I don't know God and if I don't know what He's like, then obviously I'm not going to trust Him. And if I don't trust God, the bottom line is I'm going to live a life of worry. I'm either going to trust God or I'm going to live a life of worry.

Many people say, "I trust Jesus Christ for my salvation, but I still worry." Think about the illogic of that.

This is foundational. This is the bottom, the foundation. Matthew 6:32, the first part of the verse, Jesus says (Message paraphrase) "People who don't know God and the way He works worry over these things." If you don't know God, if you don't have a relationship with Christ, you ought to worry. You have every reason to worry. If you don't know God and you don't know Jesus Christ, you're on your own.

Honestly, if I were trying to live my life without God's help, I would be very worried.

Worry is practical atheism. Every time you worry, you're acting like an unbeliever.

• You're acting like there is no God every time you worry.
• You're acting like it all depends on you.
• You're acting like an unbeliever.
• You're acting like an atheist. When you worry, you may as well just be an unbeliever.

You may have committed your life to Christ but you don't know Him so intimately or you forget it and you go back and start worrying again and again. You need to get to know God better.

Jesus said,

Don't be worried or upset. Believe in God and believe also in Me.

John 14:1

That's the starting point. Believe in God and believe in Christ.

That's the first step - get to know God.

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Don't worry at all. Your heavenly Father already knows perfectly well what you need. And He will give it to you if you give Him first place in your life and live as He wants you to.

Matthew 6:31-33

Any time you let something replace God as first place in your life you're going to worry.

• You were made by God.
• You were made for God.
• You were made for a purpose.
• You were made to have God at the center of your life.

Anytime you take God out of the center of your life and put anything else there, no matter how good it is, you're going to worry. You're setting yourself up for anxiety.

• Worry is always an indication of mixed up values.
• Worry is always an indication that God has slipped out of first place into second or third or fifth or twentieth place and you've elevated something else as being the most important thing in your life.

What's the most important thing in your life right now?

• Is it your career? Your family?
• Is that the most important thing in your life?
• Is it appearing successful?
• Is it being popular with some friends?
• Is it maximizing the amount of pleasure and thrills you can have?
• Is it a hobby?
• Is it making money?
• Is it achieving a certain level of status and success and prestige?

These things could be all fine and good in their proper place but they were never meant to be first place in your life. They were never meant to be your God. Because God didn't design you to live that way.

It's ironic about money, whether you've got it or not, you're still going to worry about it. Worry about getting it, worry about keeping it, worrying about losing it. Whether you've got it or not. Stop living for things and start living for God.

So don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will have its own worries. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:34

Jesus is saying don't open your umbrella until it starts to rain. There's two days you should never worry about - yesterday and tomorrow.

Why should I live one day at a time? A couple of reasons:

1. If you're worrying about tomorrow, you can't enjoy today.
2. You can't stop and smell the roses, you miss today's blessings. It's ok to plan for tomorrow. In fact, Jesus said you ought to plan for tomorrow. But you can't live in tomorrow. You can only live in today. Plan for tomorrow but you have to live today.
3. When you're always worried about tomorrow, the future gets overwhelming.

Jesus says trust God to care for all my needs.

Worry and trust cannot fit in the same heart together.

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Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about what will happen to you.

1 Peter 5:7

"Give them all" literally means drop them, let them go, turn them lose. Unload them on God. How do you do that? How do you give all your worries and fears to God?

One way is to memorize all the promises in the Bible. There's over 7000 of these promises and they're there for you to claim. Seven thousand. Memorize every one them! If you do one a week you're going to have at least 50 more at the end of next year than you do right now. This is like an insurance policy for believers.

The reason you're worrying is that you don't know what's covered in life.

• You haven't read the policy.
• You haven't looked at the promises.
• You haven't seen the things that God has already assumed responsibility for so you think you're responsible for them.

You need to get to know God and you need to get to know God's word so you don't have to worry any more.

The second thing you need to do is pray. Pray instead of worry. Every time you have a crisis you have two options: pray or panic. Those are the options.

Don't worry about anything, instead pray about everything. Tell God your needs. If you do this you will experience God's peace which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand.

Philippians 4:6

If you prayed as much as you worried, you'd have a lot less to worry about. And if it's not worth praying about, it's not worth worrying about either. Pray instead of panic.

What's the result? Incredible peace of mind. "You will experience God's peace which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand."

What's got you worried this morning? What are you worried about? Whatever it is, give it to God. Give it to Him today. Don't walk out of here with a worry in your heart or your mind. Those things that are beyond your control are not beyond God's control. If you just give them to Him.

"Dear Father in Heaven, I admit that I often forget that You are with me. I often forget what You're like. Would You please forgive me for that? I need to get to know You better. I need to get to know Your word better, Your promises. I want to believe in God and I want to believe in You, Jesus. Help me to put You first in every area of my life. Help me to live one day at a time, not worry about tomorrow but to focus on what You're doing right now. I want to trust You to take care of every one of my needs - financial, relational, physical, social, spiritual, mental - every need in my life You've promised. Help me to trust in You more and worry less. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen."