‘DO NOT WORRY ABOUT TOMORROW’
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on January 2, 2022 under 2022 |
Bethany Bible Church New Year’s Sunday message; January 2, 2022 from Matthew 6:25-34
Theme: The Lord Jesus’ instruction teaches us not to worry about our life in the coming year.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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Every Sunday after the New Year’s holiday, I ask the Lord for a theme that would be a good one for us to think about in the coming year. And I have been led to the subject of ‘worry’.
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‘Worry’ is a big thing right now. For some of us, the past couple of years have been among the hardest in our lifetimes. We’ve grown accustomed to a prevailing attitude of worry. And what’s more, the daily news seems almost crafted to give us more things to worry about for the days to come. “Will we have enough food What will we wear? Will we have a place to live? Will we have our health? Will the world be safe? Will our own neighborhood be safe? Will we have enough money? Will our money even be any good in the months to come? Will our provisions for tomorrow be enough? Will things be secure?”
Whatever the actual outcome of the things that we worry about ends up being, it’s very clear that worry itself has become something of a norm. And the seeming unrelenting presence of it has taken a terrible toll—both on those around us and on us personally.
Well; that makes this a good time to hear a very timely word of exhortation from none other than the Son of God Himself. What He had to say about worry is absolutely valid for all times—including ours. In Matthew 6:25-34—in what we’ve grown to know and love as The Sermon on The Mount—our Lord said:
“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” (Matthew 6:25-34).
Here, the Son of God tells us, “do not worry about tomorrow”. Could there be a happier commandment to obey in 2022 than this one?
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Now; the Lord Jesus spoke these words in a specific context. In His great sermon, He had been telling His followers to avoid the kind of misguided priorities that would lead to an attitude of worry. This is very important to remember; because it won’t do us any good to try breaking the habit of worry in our lives if we also don’t stop doing the things that lead us to it.
In verses 19-21, He said;
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (vv. 19-21).
The principle is basic. What we value the most is what our hearts will always be inclined toward. And if we value obtaining a temporal earthly treasure the most, then our heart will always be inclined toward that which will eventually be lost to us—which will lead to worry. But if we value our heavenly treasure the most, then our heart will always be inclined toward that which we can never lose—and we will have the basis for an ongoing attitude of peace.
To set our focus continually on the earthly things will obscure our vision of the things that really matter. It’s like wearing earthly blinders that block our ability to see heavenly realities. That’s what the Lord meant by what He said in verses 22-23;
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (vv. 22-23).
That darkness—the darkness that comes from giving so much attention to earthly concerns that our spiritual vision becomes obscured—is a very dangerous thing to the soul. It displaces our obedient trust in God. Jesus went on to say in verse 24;
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (v. 24).
Every day it seems, the world all around us is pressuring us to focus our attention on earthly concerns to the exclusion of trust in our heavenly Father. We thus lose sight of our good Provider; and we end up living a life of worry—just like the people around us who have no faith in God at all. And yet, in the midst of it, we hear the voice of the Son of God. He speaks as One who has all authority; and says to us who are His redeemed followers, “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.”
Our Lord speaks of “worry” six times in this passage. And in the original language, it’s a word that means to be ‘excessively thoughtful’ or ‘anxious’ or ‘burdened by concern’ over a thing. That doesn’t mean, of course, that our Lord was telling us not to be properly concerned about the things that we have a moral duty to be concerned about. He wasn’t telling us to be passively indifferent toward the things in life for which we are truly responsible. Rather, He was warning us not to be concerned about such things in a way that transgresses our confident trust in our Father’s care. I believe it’s pictured for us in a passage that I read the other day from the Psalms;
It is vain for you to rise up early,
To sit up late,
To eat the bread of sorrows;
For so He gives His beloved sleep (Psalm 127:2).
That’s convicting; isn’t it? So often, we over-work because of the over-worry that comes from an inordinate focus on earthly needs—and a failure to trust God. And it makes me think that the real problem in it all is identified for us through the name that the Lord gave to His worry-prone listeners in verse 30; “O you of little faith”. That’s really the problem. We worry—and we act out from an unbalanced attitude of too much care—because we don’t have the kind of faith in our Father’s good provision that we should.
So; let’s let the words of our Lord in this morning’s passage change the attitude of our hearts. Let’s let His instruction teach us not to be excessively concerned about the daily provisions for our life in the coming year.
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Now; you can divide this morning’s passage into two parts. First, our Lord gives some reasons why we should not worry; and then, He tells us what we should do instead. So first, let’s consider …
1. WHY WE SHOULDN’T WORRY.
There are five reasons why we shouldn’t worry. And the first one is a pretty basic one. It’s because our Lord and Master commands us to stop it. In verse 25, Jesus tells us, “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.”
It’s a wonderful thing—all by itself—that we have the encouragement from the One who has all authority not to worry. But actually, His words mean more than just a mere encouragement. Grammatically, His words are put in what is called ‘a prohibition in a present imperative’. What that means is that He is actually commanding us to stop an action that is assumed to be presently going on. It’s not really just “do not worry about your life”. It’s better translated, “stop worrying about your life.” It’s as if He was saying, “You’ve been worrying about your life up to this point. Now, stop it.”
He gives this specific command three times in this passage. He also said it in verse 31; “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’” He said it a third time in verse 34; “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow …” And in these last two occasions, He put it in a different grammatical form where it almost means something like this: “Now that you have stopped worrying, don’t start worrying again.”
In other words, dear brothers and sisters, this isn’t merely an encouragement to put away worrying. It’s a command to be obeyed—given to us authoritatively by our Lord and Master who possesses perfect wisdom, sovereign power, and all authority. If He says to stop worrying, then that’s a pretty good reason to stop worrying. Wouldn’t you agree?
But our Lord gives us more. He also tells us to stop worrying, because we’re worth more to Him than the things that we worry about. In verse 25, He said, “Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?”
Dear brothers and sisters, let’s remember that the highest possible price was paid for us. As it says in 1 Peter 1, we
were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot (1 Peter 1:18-19).
Life for us is infinitely more than just the things we need to sustain it on earth. And that’s because we mean so much to the heavenly Father that He has willingly given His own Son to redeem us from eternal loss. Our immeasurable value to Him means that we never have to worry about our provisions for tomorrow. As Paul put it in Romans 8:31-32;
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:31-32).
So; let’s not worry about mere food and clothing. Our life is much more precious to God than just those things alone!
Thirdly, Jesus goes on to show us that we should not worry because our Father has already proven to be a good Provider. He has a great record of providing for His creation; and He has left the evidence of that provision everywhere. All we have to do is look around and see.
In verse 26, Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” You and I can see it by looking out our windows every day. God—our faithful Father—provides for them. And Jesus asks, “Are you not of more value than they?” You and I can be assured that the God who provides for them daily—and who values us far more than He values them—will never take less care of us than He does of them.
I believe the Lord Jesus wanted this particular point to grip our hearts; and so, He told it to us twice. He went on to say in verses 28-30, ”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.” We love to see the intricate beauty of the flowers that God has made. Even the most simple of them—the ones that we hardly notice—the ones that we tend to mow over and toss in the pile—the ones that we throw away when they begin to wilt—are clothed with greater beauty than anything than you’ll find in Vogue. “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?”
This, of course, doesn’t mean that we will always eat exquisitely or be dressed splendidly. But that’s not meant to be the point. The point is that if God provides so faithfully for things that are so much less in value to Him than we are, then we can be sure that He’ll provide for our needs. Therefore, we should never worry about such things.
Jesus tells us fourthly that we should cease from worrying because worry is a complete waste of time and energy. It accomplishes nothing at all. In verse 27, He said, “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?” No one has ever made their life one day longer or the quality of their life one bit better by worrying. In fact, if anything, worry is how many people have ended up making their life shorter, and bringing the quality of their life down much lower!
One medical resource I looked at explained that excessive worry actually triggers the nervous system to release certain hormones into our body that, in the short term, produce such reactions as headaches, irritability, fatigue, muscle tension and muscular pain, nausea, rapid breathing, shortness of breath, and an inability to concentrate. We’ve all felt those things at times. But in the long term, the results of a habit of excessive worry are a compromise to the immune system (so you get sicker from other things easier), digestive disorders (so the food you worry about doesn’t nourish you like it should), premature coronary and artery disease, cognitive disabilities, and heart attacks.
There aren’t any benefits to worry. In fact, there’s a great deal of harm that comes from too much of it. It’s clear that we weren’t designed by our Creator for worry. So, why do it?
And Jesus gave us one more reason to cease worrying; and that’s because worry is contrary to true faith in our Father. In verses 31-32, our Lord said, “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.” ‘Gentiles’ is a figure of speech for someone who is outside of a covenant relationship with God by grace. It’s a way of describing an unbeliever. And what our Lord is saying is that it is the mindset of an unbeliever—someone who does not know God and doesn’t have a relationship with Him by faith—to fret about their daily needs. By contrast, it’s the mindset of a genuine believer to be at peace and to not fret about where food and drink and clothing will come from; “For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.”
To me, this is the most convicting of the reasons that our Lord gives. I wonder how many times I have worried in such a way as to insult the goodness of my Father, and have behaved as if I didn’t belong to Him at all. It makes me think that worry is not just a bad habit that we need to bring an end to in our lives; but rather a sin for which we need to repent and ask forgiveness.
I want worry to be out of my life in the year to come—and from now on. Don’t you? And we have good reason to want that.
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So then; those are the reasons that our Lord gives for not worrying about food and drink and clothing—and along with those things, everything else: (1) our Lord commands us not to do it; (2) we are of more value to Him than the things we worry about; (3) our Father has already proven Himself to be a good provider; (4) worry does no good … and much harm; and finally (5) it’s contrary to faith in God—and even an insult to His love and providential care.
But it’s not enough to simply try to stop worrying. If you focus on ceasing from worrying, you know what you’ll do; don’t you? You’ll soon find yourself worrying about worrying. What needs to happen, then, is that we need to replace it with something else.
And so, as we read on, we find that our Lord tells us …
2. WHAT WE SHOULD DO INSTEAD.
The first thing that our Lord tells us to do is to make our Father’s concerns for us the first priority in our lives. He tells us in verse 33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
What would it mean to seek first God’s kingdom? I think it may work out into as many particulars as there are individual believers. God’s unique calling upon each of our lives may involve different things in the service of His kingdom. But I believe it would boil down to one basic thing for all of us; and that is our Lord’s ‘Great Commission’. He said;
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).
In other words, we are to seek our Father’s kingdom by doing our part in the great work of making disciples of Jesus Christ. For some of us, that may involve teaching. For others, it may involve preaching. For others still, it may involve missions work. For others, it may involve such things as praying, and giving and supporting those who do the work on the front lines. For all of us, it would certainly involve bearing a witness for our Lord to family, friends, workmates, and neighbors.
And what would it mean to seek first God’s righteousness? That would mean doing what our Lord commands, and placing a priority on living a life that is in conformity to His will. It would involve repenting of sin. It would involve having regular fellowship with one another as believers and building into one another’s life. It would involve feeding daily on His word. It would involve growing in a personal relationship of love with our heavenly Father through faith in His Son Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.
And what our Lord is telling us is that if we place the priority on our Father’s concerns for us—on seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness—we don’t have to worry at all. He will take care of our daily needs. When you find yourself worrying, shift your priorities. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness—knowing that He’ll provide everything else.
So; that’s one thing that we should do instead of worry. You might say that that’s ‘a positive action’. And the other is more of what we might call ‘a negative action’; and that is to, with our Father’s help, refuse to bear any of tomorrow’s burdens today. Jesus said in verse 34, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
Pastor James has put it this way—and he may even have been thinking of our Lord’s words when he wrote this:
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil (James 4:13-16).
God has only given us one day to live at a time. It’s alright to plan for tomorrow. It’s wise, in fact, to plan for the future when we can. But as we make our plans, we must invite God our Provider into the process. And it isn’t permitted for us to live in worry about the future. Each single day has all that—by God’s design—we are meant to bear. He takes care of the rest.
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May I close by sharing with you something I’ve been noticing people doing lately? I’ve seen them posting things like this on social media: “Good riddance to the dumpster fire that was 2021!” But there’s not much that’s optimistic about that; because I also see them posting pictures of disasters and train wrecks and saying, “Oh look! Here comes 2022!”
I suggest we not say things like that. Those are expressions of worry—and may even cross the line into speaking ill of God’s providence. It’s true that 2021 was hard; but it was also in the hand of our sovereign heavenly Father who only does good for us. And He is also sovereign over 2022; and will provide for us and care for us every single day of it. Instead, let’s make it our determination to remember the things that our Lord has taught us, and to do as He has commanded us to do when He said, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow ….”
It’ll be a very happy command to keep in 2022.
AE
