Winning the War of Worry

The heart of Jesus’ message in this text is to not worry. We all know how easy it is to say, “don’t worry”, and how difficult it is to apply this truth to our lives. However, Jesus gives the command three times for us to “not be anxious.” He also gives us four reasons as to why or anxiousness is wrong: (1) it is unfaithful because of our Master; (2) it is unnecessary because of our Father; (3) it is unreasonable because of our faith; (4) it is unwise because of our future. In the power of God, we can stop worrying and never start again. There is hope! I pray we all win the war over worry today.

Matthew 6:25-34

I. Worry is Incompatible with Christian Faith (25-30)

a. “He is making the birds our schoolmasters and teachers. It is a great and abiding disgrace to us that in the Gospel a helpless sparrow should become a theologian and a preacher to the wisest of men…Whenever you listen to a nightingale, therefore, you are listening to an excellent preacher…It is as if he were saying “I prefer to be in the Lord’s kitchen. He has made heaven and earth, and he himself is the cook and the host. Every day he feeds and nourishes innumerable little birds out of his hand.” – Martin Luther

II. Believers are not exempt from earning their own living

a. “God wants nothing to do with the lazy, gluttonous bellies who are neither concerned nor busy; they act as if they just had to sit and wait for him to drop a roasted goose into their mouth.” – Martin Luther

III. We are not exempt from responsibility for others.

IV. Believers are not exempt from experiencing trouble

a. “We know the sight and the sound of homes collapsing in flames…our own eyes have seen the red blaze and our own ears have heard the sound of crashing, falling and shrieking. Against that background the command to look at the birds and the lilies might well have sounded hollow. Nevertheless, I think we must stop and listen when this man, whose life on earth was anything but birdlike and lilylike, points us to the carefreeness of the birds and lilies. Were not the somber shadows of the cross already looming over this hour of the Sermon on the Mount?” – Dr. Helmut Thielicke

V. Worry is incompatible with common sense (34)

VI. Seek First God’s Kingdom