Sermon
Don't Worry Be Happy
July 10-11, 1999
Pastor Leighton Sheley

I'll invite you to take your Bibles and open to Matthew chapter 6. For the last number of months our congregation has been studying the Sermon on the Mount, which we find is so incredibly rich. The first four chapters of Matthew are an introduction to Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of messianic prophesies. He was the promised King and often times you'll find the phrase like, this was to fulfill, and a reference to an Old Testament messianic prophesy. Then having introduced Jesus as the fulfillment of the messianic prophesies, as the Messiah, as the King that God had promised, the author provides for us the Sermon on the Mount in which this King declares the concepts of His kingdom. 

We're reading now from Matthew 6:25 and following; "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? "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? "Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? "So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; "and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. "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? "Therefore do not worry, saying. 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' "for after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. 

Now in the previous passage, that is verses 19 through 24, we studied that a number of weeks back, Jesus focused on mankind's attitude towards luxuries; that is, the unnecessary physical possessions that mankind tends to hoard for selfish reasons. And it contained this warning, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. And it ends with this declaration, no one can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and money. 

Now in this passage that we look at, that follows that passage, Jesus now looks on the proper attitudes, the right and wrong attitudes, towards the essentials of life; what men eat and drink and wear. Now the first passage was directed primarily at the rich and this passage is directed at the poor, but you know, whether you're rich or poor, each has their own spiritual problems. The rich have a tendency to trust in their possessions, and the poor have a tendency to doubt God's provision. And whether we're wealthy or poor, or somewhere in between, our attitude towards material possessions is one of the marks of our spiritual condition. Man is an earthly creature, and as such, naturally we are concerned about earthly things. Yet we who have been recreated as heavenly beings in Christ, as children or our heavenly Father, our concerns now focus upon heavenly things even while we're still here living on earth. 

One of the supreme tests in the development of our spiritual lives is how we relate these two realms, that of the spiritual and that of the physical. The Bible has much to say about earthly wealth. Sixteen of the thirty-eight parables of Jesus dealt with money. One out of ten verses in the New Testament deals with that subject. Scripture offers about 500 verses on prayer, a little fewer than 500 on faith, but over 2,000 on money. Now we live in an age that is filled with materialism, and those who call themselves Christians in our society have a general tendency of much more following worldly trends than confronting them with the heavenly disposition. And Jesus' message in this present passage is don't worry, even about the necessities of life. He says, do not be anxious. This is not a suggestion. This is a command. He says, do not worry three times, and He gives us four reasons why we shouldn't worry. First, it is unfaithful because of our Master. Second, it is unnecessary because of our Father. Third, it is unreasonable because of our faith. Forth, it is unwise because of our future. 

First, worry is unfaithful because of our Master; verse 25, "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 (important) than food and the body more (important) than clothing? Now that phrase for this reason refers back to the previous verse in which Jesus declares that the Christians only master is God. And so what He's saying is because God is your master therefore you should not worry. Now the phrase, do not be anxious, in the original Greek, carries with it the idea of stopping what is already been happening. In other words, we are to stop worrying and we're never to start it again. The phrase, for your life. You know there are several words in the original language for life; zoe is one from which we get zoological, but the word that Jesus choose was psuche, which is a comprehensive term that encompasses all of a person's being; physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. And so Jesus is referring to life in its most fullest sense. 

You know, nothing in any aspect of our lives, whether it be internal or external, justifies our worrying when we have the Master that we do. You know worry is a sin? Worry is a sin. It's the sin of distrusting the promise and the providence of God. Worry is a sin. The English word, worry, comes from an old German word which means to strangle or to choke. And that's exactly what worry does. It's a kind of emotional and mental strangulation which often times causes severe physical afflictions as well. You know, it's been said that a dense fog extensive enough to cover the area of 7 city blocks 100 feet deep, if converted to liquid form, would hardly fill one glass of water. Just a couple gallons of water in this form can actually cripple an entire city. And in a similar way, the substance of worry is usually so very, very small compared with how we perceive it and the damage that it does in our lives. 

You know, someone has said, I've suffered a great many catastrophes in my life, and most of them never happened. A military chaplain once drew up a worry table based on the problems that men and women had brought to him in his many years of service, and he found that the worries fit into general categories. 40% of the worries were about things that never happened. 30% of the worries were about something that had happened in the past, which of course is unchangeable. 12% of the worries were about illnesses that never happened. 10% worried about adult children and friends, who were able to take care of themselves, only 8% of the worries that were brought to this chaplain over all of those years were about real problems. 92% of the worries that were brought were about things that were outside of human control, things that were better left in the hands of God. 

Worry is the opposite of being happy or contented. Paul says, I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means and I also know who to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance, I've learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need; Philippians 4:11-12. You see, a Christian's contentment is not found in the things of this world. It's not found in what we eat or what we drink or what we wear or how we appear. A Christian's contentment is found in God and God alone. 

Now there are a number of reasons that we can find contentment in God. First off, God owns everything. David proclaims, the earth is the Lord's and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it; Psalm 24:1. You know, since everything belongs to the Lord, then what we might perceive as being ours really belongs to the Lord. Which means that He has given whatever that might be to us in the capacity of stewards. We are stewards or whatever God has given us. Now if it doesn't really belong to us, but really belongs to the Lord, why should we complain if the Lord chooses to take it away?

After his possessions had been taken away, and even his children, Job said as recorded in Job 1:21; The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord. There's another reason why Christians should be content, and that is because God controls everything. 1 Chronicles 29:12, Thou dost rule over all. The New Testament also says it; Paul writes in Romans 8:28, one of my favorite verses, And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who've been call according to His purpose. God rules and controls everything and He's going to work it out for good for those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose. That's a reason for being content even in difficult situations. God is going to work it out.

There's another reason why believers are supposed to be content and that's because the Lord provides everything. One of the Old Testament names for God is Jehovah-jireh which means the Lord who provides. The New Testament, Philippians 4:19 says, God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now we live in a time when clothes and food are distributed by planes, and ships, and trucks, and trains throughout the world. You know, the bananas that we buy in the local grocery store may have been grown several thousand miles away in South America, and such are the benefits of an extensive modern transport system. If there's a famine in one part of the world, the system is large enough to compensate. In biblical times, however, food and water could seldom be taken for granted. If there was a lack of snowfall in the mountains, then the creeks would be short, and if that was the case, irrigation would be short, and thus the crops would be short, and the economy would be effected, and people would not be able to clothes. Jesus said don't be anxious for these things. The Lord knows about them. He'll take care of them. 

Jesus asked this rhetorical question, is not life more than food, and the body than clothing? You know, food and drink and clothing, it's all necessities that pertain to the body, but life is more than just simply taking care of this body. Taking care of the body has been a common obsession with man since the very beginning. We pamper it and decorate it, build it up, slender it down, drape it with jewelry, cool it off, warm it up. We practically live to satisfy these bodies. Even as Christians sometimes we get caught up in this world's philosophy that we live because of our bodies. That are bodies are actually the source of life, and since they're the source of life, by logic extension then we should serve our bodies. The body is not the source of life. You know, at one moment a body can contain life and then in the next moment be lifeless. What's changed? Why does this happen? The components of the body are still there; the blood is there, and the cells, and the bone structure, and the musculature system, but what's missing is the soul, that living eternal part that God has made. And yet, the godless invest all of their energies and their time and their attentions in trying to improve this temporary shell in its environment, and they invest nothing in the eternal soul. 

Now I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't take care of the body, because it is, after all, the temple of the Holy Spirit. You know, in the centuries previous, our life style being on the farm and so forth provided us all the exercise we needed, and now we live in societies where often times we don't get the exercise we need so a moderate amount of exercise is indeed prudent, but the Christian should never live for serving this body. There's another reason worry is unnecessary, because of our Father. Look at the birds of the air, verse 26, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable then they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow; they don't labor or spin, and yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all of his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that's how God clothes the grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 

Now the basic thrust of these verses is that we as believers have no reason to worry because God is our heavenly Father. We don't need to worry about food. You know, I don't recall in my growing up ever having to worry about food, if I was going to be fed. That was the responsibility of my father. And my father, my earthly father, does not have at his disposal the resources of my heavenly Father. I should all the more trust in my heavenly Father to provide for our need. Now, you might say, well Pastor, what about those missionaries in far off lands that are being starved in prisons, starved to death? You know, if God has called a missionary home, then they don't need food any more. It has to do with our understanding of life and its purpose. 

There's also another nugget of truth that we must not gloss over in this passage. You know, in our society we're inundated with the philosophy that humans are just another animal life form. In the circle of life they have no greater value than any other life form or animal or plant. And Jesus' question is rhetorical when He says, are you not much more valuable than they? We should never buy into this world's philosophy that men are nothing more than more fully developed life forms. There is indeed something that is special about human life. It should also be noted that God, that Jesus here, is not suggesting that birds do not work for their food. Any one who's watched a bird for any time know that birds work very, very hard for their food, but you know, birds don't hoard food or eat to excess unless they are imprisoned by humans. And perhaps that's why many who call themselves Christian also hoard, because they are imprisoned by their humanity. Birds also store up preparations for winter, when food supplies will be short. 

You know, for us to believe that the food supply systems of mankind will always function flawlessly is pure foolishness. We should make provisions for winter, for calamity. Is calamity coming? I'd say you could count on it. When? I don't know. How? I don't know. Could be an earthquake, Y2K, economic collapse, weather changes, crop failure, war, new world order, any number of reasons. Pastor, why do you think it's coming? Well, because the wrath of God is being revealed against America. You know, there are a number of different ways in which God's wrath is played out. One of them is abandonment. It's revealed to us in Genesis chapter 6 when God says, My Spirit will no longer contend with man. For his heart is continually evil and he is always prone to violence. And that was God declaring He was abandoning man. And then at the end of that same chapter we find another form of God's wrath and that is cataclysmic catastrophe in the flood. 

Has God abandoned America? Well let's look at, real quickly, Romans chapter 1 and see what we might learn from that. Romans chapter 1 reveals three stages of abandonment and they are marked by the phrase, God gave them over; God gave them over. The first phase of abandonment is recorded in verse 24 and is characterized by sinful desires, sexual impurity, and the degrading of their bodies. It's a preoccupation with sexual gratification, and such a preoccupation was typified of America in the 60s; the free love generation. The second phase of abandonment is recorded in verse 26 and is characterized by homosexuality. The advancement of the homosexual agenda began in earnest in America in the 80s, and the influence of this small, but aggressive minority, has grown to the extent of infiltrating and controlling many of the authority structures in our nation, from the local city hall to the White House. The third phase of abandonment is recorded in verse 28 and it's characterized by a depraved mind. That is a mind that is incapable of reason or logic. 

I think if you watched today's news or read the paper, you can't help but be frustrated by the total lack of reasoning capacity in our society; from common people to common criminals on the street, to common criminals running government. In Columbine Colorado some students came in and shot their fellow students, and what was governments solution? More gun laws. As though it didn't seem to make any sense to them that gun laws had already been broken by those students. It didn't seem to occur to them there might be a more foundational and fundamental reason for the students' action. The children today are being taught that there are no moral absolutes. There is no God. There is no Bible. There is no ten commandments. There is no day of judgment, but rather everything you do is relative. What ever feels right to you, is right. That's the moral code of today. You're just the result of a primal soup accident. You have no creator. You have no purpose for living. You have no hope for the future. Have a nice day. Sheer lunacy. 

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to this life? You know, the godless perceive life as a random series of events. The logical conclusion of this philosophy is that if life is random, then death must also be random or circumstantial, and so they try with everything within them to protect their life. Dr. Charles Mayo of the famous Mayo Clinic wrote, worry effects the circulation, the heart, the glands, and the whole nervous system. I've known a lot of men who died form worry. You know, they worry about living, and they worry about dying; the godless. Hebrews 9:27 declares it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment. Appointed. Appointment. We have a God determined appointment with death, and that's an appointment we will neither be early to or late. The date and the time of our death is not random or circumstantial. 

The Bible tells us that God has appointed our days. We worry about clothing or appearance. One of the predominant characteristics of this new young generation raised in a godless society by godless parents, is their preoccupation with their clothing or their appearance. They won't go out unless they look just right. In Friday's business section, there was an article on The Gap, which was bemoaning a lack of profit in their central stores, their core stores, due to what they called a "fashion misstep". They had made the mistake in choosing their clothing line and these young people, always so concerned about impressing their friends, had refused to buy anything. You know, to the believer beauty or attractiveness is not determined by what you wear, but by who you are. The glow of the joy of the Lord is far more attractive than layers of the most expensive make-up and the finest clothing. 

Thirdly, worry is unreasonable because of our faith. Verse 31 and following, so do not worry, saying. 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' "for the Pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. You know, worry is characteristic of unbelief. That's what it is. It's not believing in God. Now the word that's translated gentiles here is ethnos and it literally means a multitude or people. In it's pleural form it's used to identify non-Jews and by extension, pagans or heathens or unbelievers. And you know, unbelievers worry about what they eat and drink and clothe themselves with, and these things they eagerly pursue because they have no future, therefore they only live for the present. And what can they get in the present? Clothing, food, and drink. They only put their hope in what they can enjoy now. To worry about our physical welfare and our clothing is the mark of a worldly mind, whether we call our self a Christian or not. The faithful and trusting Christian is anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving lets his requests be made known to God; Philippians 4:6. The believer lives with this philosophy, and then say it in a song, this world is not my home. I'm just passing through. 

You know, within this rebuke Jesus also gives us a positive command, and it has with it also a beautiful promise. He says, but seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all of these things will be added unto you. That word, but, is a contrast word. And what Jesus is saying, instead of following the world in its pursuit of food and water or fluids and clothing, instead of following the world, seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. Kingdom is from basileia which does not refer to a geographical territory, but rather to a dominion or rule. And so therefore, to seek first the kingdom is to seek His rule, or His will, or His way, or His authority. Seeking God's kingdom is placing ourselves in obedience to God's rules and guidelines. Now, this is contrasted with establishing one's own kingdom, and isn't that what the godless endeavor to do; establish their own kingdom.

The song, I did it my way, would make an excellent national anthem for them. No, to seek God's kingdom is to try to win people into that kingdom that they might be saved and God might be glorified. It is to have our heavenly Father's own love and truth and righteousness revealed in our lives. It also says here, Jesus tells us we are to seek His righteousness. Now, righteousness means right standing before God, and what Jesus is saying here is instead of pursuing the theme of mankind, we should be pursuing the accolades of God. To hear those words, welcome thou good and faithful servant. Fourthly, worry is unwise because of our future. Verse 34; "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its self. Each day has enough trouble of its own. 

You know, the Scriptures tell us that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The same God who controls today will also control tomorrow. So Jesus says, don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself because it's also in God's hands. Now when Jesus says each day has enough trouble of its own, it's not an invitation to worry about the troubles of today, but rather to concentrate on meeting the trials and temptations and opportunities that are placed before us, and depend upon God to protect and provide as we have need. You say, Pastor, well it's pretty obvious that we're not supposed to worry, but Pastor, I have to confess I just have this tendency to worry. How can I overcome my tendency to worry? Galatians 5:16 tells us that we should live by the Spirit, and we'll not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 

What are the desires of the sinful nature? Pursuing worldly things; what we're going to eat, what we're going to drink, what we're going to clothe ourselves with, and so forth. Rather than pursue these, we should live by the Spirit. We should walk in the Spirit rather than the flesh. If we walk in the Spirit, we will be concerned with the things of the Spirit not the things of the flesh. There's a song in our hymnal that reads, turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim. When we focus on heavenly things, earthly things are going to dim. Rather than focusing on the things of this world, what we eat, what we drink, how we clothe ourselves, focus first on God's kingdom, God's righteousness. Isaiah 26:3, and we sang it in our time of worship today, tells us, You will keep him in perfect peace. Peace is the absence of worry. Whose mind is stayed on You.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for Your word and how clear it is, the guidance that it gives us, the direction, the hope. Lord we also know that we can't do it by ourselves. We are incapable of living like we should. Lord each and everyone of us that's here today worry from time to time, by so doing we sin because we're not trusting You and Your guidance, Your protection, and Your provision. Forgive us Lord. Thank you that Your mercies are new every morning. Thank you for Your great love for us. Thank you for Your Holy Spirit which guides us, and directs us, and empowers us. Thank you Lord. And now Lord, as we go forth from this place today we are overwhelmed with responsibility that's ours to carry Your name, to represent Your kingdom. For how can we who are so imperfect represent You who is so perfect? Give us guidance Lord; give us wisdom. Help us to faithfully proclaim the Gospel, the good news of Your kingdom. Empower us we pray, in Jesus' name and together we say, amen. God bless you.