“Worry, fear, anxiety�
BibleClass.com.au Teaching Series Series: The Sermon on the Mount Part: #27 Main Scripture: Matthew 6:25-34 Teacher: Dr Paul Iles Date: 04.11.2012
Inline, direct scripture quotes are italicised. Block quotes are indented. The New King James Version is used unless otherwise stated. This transcript has undergone minor editing to ensure readability.
The MP3 audio of the study upon which this transcript is based and a learning guide are available from http://bibleclass.com.au/
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The Christian Living in the World
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oday we return to Matthew 6:19-34. Recall that the Lord Jesus is dealing with problems which can beset the Christian as we are living in the world. Please understand that we are talking about the Christian, because although the same problems beset everybody, the same answers are not available to everybody. The answers outlined here are available to those who know God as their Heavenly Father, which is a point that we dealt with a few weeks ago during the studies on the Lord’s Prayer, and have continued to develop since. We made it clear last week that there are two problems dealt with in this section: 1. The first problem runs from verses 19-24, plus verse 33 which is the conclusion to it. It is that you could spend your time and energy laying up your treasure on earth. 2. The next problem is stated from verse 25 to the end of the chapter, and that problem is that you can be worrying about daily living - just the pressure, the worry, the demands of it. The devil doesn’t mind which of these you fall prey to, as long as you fall prey to one or the other because the outcome is ultimately the same. Either way, you fail to be focused on the Lord. Either your heart is after that treasure or your mind is full of turmoil and confusion. The world has defeated you. You’re not walking with the Lord and you are not going on for the Lord. To summarise His teaching on the first problem: • First you have the statement of the problem in verses 19-20: “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.”
• Second, we’re given three reasons why this is a problem: • Where your treasure is, that is where your heart will also be. It will take up and occupy your real desires. • The light of the body is the eye, and if your eye is focussed on the wrong thing, then there is no other source of light. You’ll be in total darkness and you’ll no longer see or discern things properly. Your focus is wrong, therefore you’ll get everything else wrong. • Laying up treasure both on earth and in heaven at the same time is like trying to serve two masters. It’s impossible. Both masters will demand total allegiance, which you cannot give. God demands that you serve Him with all your heart, soul and strength. You will therefore, ultimately, love one master and despise the other. Jesus says here that you cannot “serve God and mammon” - meaning earthly possessions. • Finally, we’re given the antidote to the problem: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Also remember that we asked the question, “What is my treasure?” Your treasure is the thing that you value most. The last thing you’re going to give up. If the thing you value the most is here on the earth, then those three problems will confront you. Furthermore, it can (and often does) disappear in an instant - the moths and the rust get in.
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Therefore, ensure that the thing that matters most to you; that you’re devoted to and committed to, is up there in heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ is. Ultimately it’s Him, Him, Him! He is our eternal, our heavenly treasure. He matters most. He influences my life completely. He has my love and my allegiance totally. He has got my heart. He has got my mind. I am seeing things clearly and perceiving everything properly, because my eye is focussed on the right thing. What’s left? Nothing. He has got all of you. That is what the Lord is teaching. If you can’t live in the world with Him as your first love, then slowly but surely you will find yourself sinking. The world will finally swallow you up. That’s what the world wants to do to the Christian: swallow us up so that we fit into their mould and become part of them. Result: we’re not doing anything for God. By contrast, the conclusion to the problem in verse 33 tells us that, if we do put the Lord first, then everything else work out anyway! It’s quite true. Everything you need will be supplied as you learn in your life to put the Lord first, you’ll be staggered the way things work out when you’re faced with the choice of what to do first or what to put first. If you choose to put the Lord first, and it costs you something, it will always work out for good. [For detailed teaching on this first problem, refer to study #26, “Treasure in Heaven”]. To summarise His teaching on the second problem: • First you have the statement of the problem in 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?”
• Second, we’re given two reasons why this is a problem: • Because there is more to life than the physical - clothes, food etc. Seeking after such things is really the business of the life of the non-Christian who has no regard for this fact. It’s how the world lives. The truth is, they have nothing else to be concerned about. Their life doesn’t go outside those things, but... Our life IS more than clothes! • Because these needs are supplied by God: He feeds the birds of the air and He clothes the lilies of the field. How much more significant are we, His own children? By worrying about them, we firstly cannot add so much as one cubit to our stature (we won’t improve ourselves, extend our life and so forth), but also He condemns such worry by calling these worriers, “you of little faith” - and we’ll talk about this in detail shortly. Finally, we’re given the antidote to the problem: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
There are enough concerns in one day, so don’t take anxious thoughts about what tomorrow might need.
Specifically note that He says ANXIOUS thought. Don’t let that be the thing that’s consuming your mind. Leave tomorrow look after tomorrow when you get there. Live a day at a time. Realise that tomorrow is in God’s hands. Use today’s grace for today’s problems.
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Now that is the summary of those two problems which we looked at in detail last week. They are the two ways in which the Christian can become overwhelmed by the world. We are going to look in detail, today, at this business of anxious thought and the issue little faith. Please understand: if Satan can’t get you to love the world then he will just overwhelm you with life. I don’t care how spiritual we might think we are. I don’t care how old or wise or mature we might think we are. Somewhere, we have proved that the demands of life and its cares and its problems have just about overwhelmed us. To make it worse, what we’ve done is, instead of focusing upon God and the day, you’ve been consumed with the problem and tomorrow.
Anxious Thoughts Clothing & feeding the body
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erse 25 says, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life.” Remember, in the Lord’s Prayer, what we prayed? “Give us this day our daily bread.” That request is about what you’re going to eat, drink, wear and so forth. Please understand that you should not be consumed with worry about providing for those things. The Lord Jesus actually forbids it! After all, isn’t life more than food? Did God give you life just so you would spend all your energy making sure you keep it going or did He give you a life so that you would live it for Him? Did He give you a life so that you might know Him and you might enjoy Him? Where did you get your life from? Why did He give you a body? Where did you get your body from? Who owns your body? He gave you a body so that you can present it to Him a living sacrifice [cf Romans 12:1] and use all your energies and all your faculties - your eyes, your ears, your hands, your feet - to serve Him. He gave you a life so that you can live for Him, you can enjoy Him, you can know Him. Jesus tells us that He will look after just those simple things - ensuring you get enough to keep your physical needs going. But the world says, “No, no! My body is mine, not God’s! I’m going to look after it; I’m going to use it the way I want to use it. My life’s my own! Oh, I’m so concerned to make it work and have a good life and to have a good time and to be successful...” Meanwhile, the Christian says, “No, I’m going to glorify God in my body. I’m going to yield my life completely to Him. There are physical problems, yes, but I understand that my Heavenly Father who made it all, who is above it all, who is powerful and beyond it all is greater than all my needs... He knows my needs and He will look after me. He is Sovereign, he is Creator and He is Sustainer of all things.” The right perspective When you are consumed by, and do have worries about your body - eating, drinking, what you wear etc., go back and pray as the Lord instructed you to pray. Quietly think it through and say, “Our Father who is in heaven.” Remember how we discussed the significance of this. Suddenly you recall that you have got a Father. He is in heaven, He cares and I am His child. He gave me life, and He gave me this body that I have got - I am going to give it to Him! Did you see what just happened? All of a sudden you have everything in the right perspective. You’re praying properly, you’re thinking properly, and you’ve gotten a sense of calm about these things. It isn’t overwhelming you.
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Feeding the birds
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esus explains with an illustration in verse 26. We’re told to look at the birds - they don’t sow and they don’t reap, nor do they store up their food for tomorrow or the next day or the next day... Yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Now He is not their Heavenly Father - He is just their creator. If He is just their creator and He takes care of them how much more will that same creator who is also your Heavenly Father look after you? Lazy birds are hungry birds But please understand something vitally important. The birds to NOT just sit around and do nothing. Some people say, “Wonderful! God is my Heavenly Father, so I am just going to sit about and do nothing, and all my needs will just fall on my plate.” Sorry, but it does not work that way. Have you ever seen a bird in the morning? I tell you what - he is incredibly busy. He’s diligent. He’s careful. He never sleeps in, because he’ll miss the first worm and go hungry for the day. The food is certainly there, but even the birds have to go out and get it. Jesus is not teaching that you can shirk responsibility, be lazy and leech off others for your basic provisions. Of course you must take responsibility for your life and be diligent. Cutting through But if you are diligent and you are taking the right approach, with the right mindset, with the understanding that God will care for His child, then the peace of God will fill your heart. As you live each day, facing its demands, difficulties and challenges, somehow you rise above it. Somehow, you plow through it. Have you ever seen a ship on the sea? If it’s a little ship, it gets tossed about in the storm like a cork. If it’s a big ship, however, it just cuts right through the waves. The waves will crash right over the top of it, and it’ll just keep on going. When you’re living a life of faith in your Heavenly Father, the waves WILL come. Life will NOT be easy. Problems will NOT disappear. Your finances WILL go wrong, people WILL hurt you, sometimes you WILL wonder how you can get through, the devil WILL target you... But I can cut through because my faith is in God! That’s the point. Your Heavenly Father can take care of these things. Simple comfort I went to visit old Laurie this week. He was feeling better and he told me a story. He said in his usual gruff voice, “Brother I’ve been thinking about that verse. The Lord said to the disciples, “where is your faith?” I thought about it and I said, “My faith is in God.” Then he paused and said, “I’ll be alright.” You get the idea? I could say that’s very simple, but it’s true. My faith is in God. I understand my Heavenly Father.
Adding to your stature
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n verse 27, He asks whether, by being consumed with these anxious thoughts, anyone can add so much as one cubit to their stature. Whether that means height, or length of life or something else doesn’t really change the meaning. The answer is that nobody can do that. Whether it’s height, length of life... It’s futile.
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So, where does anxiety get you? I don’t mean wise concerns, but rather a situation in which you’re overwhelmed. Where does it get you besides away from the Lord and in a mess? It’s easy to relate to this. Life in our society does drown you. It does overwhelm you. I can relate to it, I know all of you can relate to it... But that doesn’t change the answer to the question. What does your worry achieve? Nothing. Next is a repetition of a similar theme from the previous example where He says that your body is more than clothes. This time, He says that your body is more than height. It’s not just for display and so forth... Once again we’re reminded that our body is for God.
Clothing the lilies
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he next example concerns the lilies in the field. Look at them and see that God has provided them with very beautiful external clothing, even though they are so transient - they pass on and disappear so quickly. By contrast, you are for eternity! Don’t you think, then, if God is able to so carefully look after something that is just for a short time, that He is interested in looking after your affairs? You’re going to be with Him for all time!
Rejoicing always
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hilippians 4:4 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” When you’re worried, you are not rejoicing in the Lord. Believe me, you are not! In your distress, you’ve gotten your focus and your thinking wrong - what have you forgotten about? You’ve forgotten about your Heavenly Father so that you can rejoice in the Lord always. He says then, in verse 6, to “be anxious for nothing.” That’s a tough verse because it is complete and absolute. It forbids all kinds of worry. He says, rather, “in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” So what do we do instead of worry? We pray and give thanks to our Heavenly Father. If we do that, then “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Your mind and heart will be kept. You’ll settle, you will calm and you will change.
Dealing with anxiety
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ne of the biggest scourges in our society is anxiety. Easily one of the commonest problems that I face in dealing with patients over and over is the fact that there’s anxiety and there is depression. Now don’t get me wrong - I understand that you can be most definitely overwhelmed by anxiety and by depression and it can take a grip on you and give you a jolly good shake. There is that physiological component. But there is always that mind component as well. You will find that your prayer life has gone askew somewhere. It may not be the only cause of your anxiety, but it will always be a part of it. A man was seeing me once who was so anxious and depressed, it was absolutely dreadful. He had a major inherited problem. It was one of the worst I’ve ever seen. He used to tell me what he did when the days were really bad. He said, “I wake in the morning and I can’t make it. It’s as black as the midnight. I could start to shake before I even think. It’s like a pit yawning in front of me.” So, he said, “I get up and I sit on the side of the bed and I want to pray and I don’t know how to pray, so I say ‘Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed by your name, your kingdom
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come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give me this day my daily bread. Forgive me my trespasses as I forgive them that trespass against me for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory amen.’” Then, he says, “I get my hymn book out and I read a hymn. Then I try to sing a hymn. By the end of that much of it has lifted. I can cope.” Think about that will you. I have great respect for that man. He lived his life daily drawing on the Lord for strength, although he had enough reasons to just give the whole thing away both mentally and physically. Just the burden of getting through a day was enormous, but what did he do? He learned to pray. He learned the secret of Matthew chapter 6.
You of Little Faith Letting faith out of the box
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he last thing the Lord Jesus says to them on this point is, “O you of little faith.” He is saying this to Christians and what He means is that our root problem in these matters is so often that we have little faith. Little faith is faith that is not big enough or is insufficient to cover all of your life. See, when you get cast down or consumed by worry and anxiety, that is what begins to master your life - faith gets forced out of the basket to make way for them. We all attest to the fact that we have faith, “I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and He is going to look after all of my spiritual needs, and He will take me to Heaven. I have faith!” Do you just? Why is it then, that this one who can look after your soul and take you to Heaven and yet you worry about your daily bread, family, relationships, career, finances and innumerable other things? You see, the truth is that you have got “little faith.” You have got little faith because it’s stuck on one area of your life; it’s not big enough to cover the rest. It’s in a box. This is a major thing: you’ve got your faith, but it’s all fixed on the one thing - your salvation. You say, “Well that’s good!” Of course it’s good, but it’s not good enough! You need to understand that this is insufficient in the sense that you haven’t grasped the fact that faith affects every part of your life. It’s just like our Christianity - that affects every part of our lives. You say, “I’ve been saved! I’m a Christian!” “When are you a Christian?” “Well... Especially on a Sunday. I go to church on Sunday” But I see you out on Monday and well, your Monday life is another kind of life. I used to hear teaching in the church about this notion that you have a spiritual life, a home life, a work life, a church life... And you sort of split them up. Sadly, that is exactly what we do! Here’s Mr X and he’s got this faith of his, and it makes him sure he’s going to Heaven! My word it does. That’s good fantastic! But it also makes him sure that his sins are forgiven. Good! Fantastic! But what about his faith, tomorrow, in the real world? Where is his faith to overcome the real world? Or is this “little faith” which is confined to the spiritual part of our lives, and doesn’t cover the whole?
Living by faith
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et’s have a look at Hebrews 10:38. Here you will see what faith does for you. “‘Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.’
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But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.”
Why don’t we draw back? Because we’re living by faith. We are not just using our faith to get eternal life; we’re not just using your faith to get salvation. You have got a faith which affects every part of your life and you live by the fact that you believe in and you trust God for everything about your life: your body, your mind, your heart and your soul. Absolutely everything is taken over and committed to the hands of your God. Hebrews 11 follows directly, telling us about all manner of different people who had massive problems. By faith Abel... Imagine for a moment living in Adam and Eve’s family. Imagine how miserable they could be when they woke up in the morning - they’d blown it. They’d lost Eden. They had no direction. They lost their connection with God. Not only that, but now they’ve got to figure out how to survive in a newly hostile world. The animals want to eat them, the weeds are out of control and they’ve got to make a living for themselves. The breakfast table could have been one long moan, couldn’t it? Abel, the first person here in Hebrews 11 lived under those circumstances. But what did he decide to do? He determines to take a sacrifice and give it to God. He determines to recognise Him and to put himself under His authority. What did Abel do? He lived by faith. By faith Noah... What about Noah? Would you like to be in his position? Would you like to be Shem, Ham or Japheth? Imagine it, “How did you go today Dad?” And the reply comes, “I preached all day and I hammered all day and I’m as hot as hot could be and I haven’t got much of the ark done. Goodness me, there’s another 100 years to go before I even finish building the thing and all the time I preached they laughed at me. As a matter of fact we haven’t got any friends, son. None at all. Everybody just thinks we’re crazy.” But what did Noah actually do? He lived by faith. And so you can go through Hebrews 11 and get a survey of all these people who lived by faith.
Laying hold of God’s promises
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ittle faith does not lay hold of all the promises of God. You believe some of them - yes, you believe that He will take you to Heaven... But He also said that He would take care of you day by day. Faith lays hold of and believes ALL the promises of God. Faith reads the word of God, and having read it just practices it! It’s like that old saying, “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.” Consider for a moment how many times you’ve read the Bible and seen an instruction or a direct answer to a problem and you’ve thought somewhere inside, “Well it’s alright to talk like that, but you’ve never been in my situation. This is different.” And then you go back to living your own life with your little faith tucked away in its box, not laying hold of all the promises of God! What’s your faith for? Sunday? No! “The just shall live by faith.” Faith ought to take the scripture as it is, believing it, applying it and living it, but little faith stops short of that. Little faith reads all
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those promises - that you have a Heavenly Father, that He feeds the sparrows, clothes the lilies and so forth and says, “That’s lovely. That’s so nice,” but goes right back to worrying about all the same issues as soon as the Bible is closed. “O you of little faith!” Where is your faith? Where is it? Use it! Apply it! Faith and feelings Do you know what happens to you when you’ve got little faith? You live on your feelings. “I feel miserable today! Nobody actually loves me,” (maybe it’s true), “I’ve got no support, I’ve got this tremendous problem,” (probably true also). And so you find yourself, what? Living on your feelings. But faith lives on God who is outside your feelings! Faith looks up to something that is outside of yourself. When you have got little faith, you get to that point where your feelings will overwhelm you. In today’s world, that is destructive. We hear a lot about how it’s good to obey your feelings, but believe me, it’s absolutely destructive. These matters will overwhelm you and your usefulness for God will be ruined. May the Lord strengthen our faith. [“O you of little faith” is continued in the next study (Part #28 of the series)]. END
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