Why do you worry...?

“Why do you worry…?"

Jesus is fairly insistent about his views on worry! Twice he says "…do not worry…" Do not worry about the necessities of life—what you eat or drink or wear. He goes on to say, that we need to reset our priorities because the breath that God breathed into us that gave us our life is more important than what we consume to sustain our life. [Think about that for a moment.]

"…and the body" that God created out of the dust of the earth, out of the rib of a man, in the secret place in you mother's womb "is more important" than what we put on our body for modesty and warmth.

In that context Jesus asks a follow-up question that nails us to the wall!

"Why do you worry…?" Why do you feel uneasy and anxious about something that you have little or no control over? This week I invited facebook friends to think with me about this particular scripture and I asked the question, Why do you worry?

A youth minister in TX replied: “Because I have control issues.” Extreme honesty!But think about it and see if that isn’t true for most of us. We feel anxious and uneasy about situations that we have little or no control over—because we want to be in control! As parents we ‘worry’ over our children—or our grandchildren because they make choices [unwise choices!] that we can’t control.

Farmers worry about their crops—and Lord knows, we have no control over whether the seeds germinate or not—no control over whether the rain falls at the right time or in the right amounts. No control what so ever!

"So why do you worry?" Jesus asks.

We worry over the finances—not enough money to meet the budget (and that applies to our personal budget as well as our church budget—but in this situation there is something we can do. We can adjust our budget to match our income—so, in reality, there is no reason to feel anxious about our finances because we can be good stewards of what God has given us.

We begin a difficult process of discernment, distinguishing between wants and needs. Maybe we want the Lord to give us more—but he doesn’t promise to give us what we want
—he only promises to give us what we need. So, trusting the Lord, receiving from the Lord’s hand his provision we simply set new priorities and distribute our resources in a way that meets our obligations and brings glory to God.And this is true for our household budget as well as our congregational budget.

Another facebook friend said: “If you pray why worry, and if you worry why pray?” For her it was an either/or situation. Either worry or pray. You can’t honestly do both at the same time! That way of looking at worry puts it back as a control issue. Do I really trust God to take care of this situation or must I continue to attempt to control it?

Prayer = giving up control; handing over the control to God—submitting our self and others to God’s care—trusting God to bring good out of difficulties—trusting God to walk with us and take care of us even when we or others make bad choices.

Another fb friends admitted that worry was a ‘bad habit.’ She used to think it was her ‘job’ to worry if she ‘really cared’ about something. But she recognized this was ‘backwards and unproductive thinking.’ And that’s exactly what Jesus thinks, too. Why do you worry…?

Last week Jesus said, “Be perfect….” And today he says, “Don’t worry….” Jesus doesn’t expect much of his followers, does he!

“Be perfect, …, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Or as the Lord had said to Israel: “Be holy because I… am holy.” Last week we looked at two men mentioned in scripture as men who lived up to the Lord’s standard of holiness—Noah & Job. Noah was described as a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, a man who walked with God. Job was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. The lives of these men reflected God’s nature.

The point I want to make is that these two men had a very limited revelation of God. There were no written scriptures during their lifetimes. The only revelation they had about God’s nature was through creation itself—and from the stories about God passed from one generation to another as they sat together around their camp fires.
Even with this limited understanding of God—from creation and from oral tradition, Noah & Job were considered righteous, blameless and upright. They remained faithful to what they knew about God.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus asks his followers to consider the message that God proclaims through the natural world around them. "Look at the birds…. If your heavenly Father feeds them won’t your heavenly Father provide for you also? Are you not much more valuable than they?"

Most of you know that Thomas and I are bird watchers. We enjoy their colors—their personalities— their habits—so to get them to come closer to our windows we feed them. And especially during the recent snow, scattering birdseed seemed to make us God’s instruments of provision—because scripture says that the birds "…do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them."

So in a very real sense, we not only trust God to provide for us, but we, too, become God’s instruments of provision as we submit our will to His! Then when we stand before him on the day of accounting we will hear him say:
Mt 25:35-36. "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."

Those who follow Jesus become the called out community of faith—the body of Christ
that helps demonstrate God’s love to the world—even as we seek his rule and his righteousness. "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." v.33

Jesus says our provision comes when we make the Father’s will our first priority. Then in submission to the Lord we have eyes to see the Father’s provision and we are under no illusion that we did it on our own. Every penny that we “earn” is from the bountiful provision of the Father. Every crop that we harvest is from the Father’s hand. And seeing the Father’s provision, we become willing instruments of God’s provision, instruments of God’s grace… cooperating with the Father so that his will
is done here in earth as it is in heaven.

Do you see our interdependence with God and the importance of our participation with God so that God’s will is experience here and now?

Another facebook friend pointed out that the difference between worry and concern is that worry immobilizes but concern moves us to action. So, why do you worry…?

The opposite of worry is trust—trust in our heavenly Father’s care—even if all we know of him is through his magnificent creation we can still cast our cares on Him and receive the peace that passes understanding!

Consider the lilies....as delicate as they are... they live and die and are renewed seasonally... Even when they appear to be dead there is still life in them. Even the bulbs declare resurrection! Revealed to us in Jesus, yes, but first declared in nature.

Worry accomplishes nothing good. "...do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (6:34)

"WORRYING does not take away tomorrow's TROUBLES, it takes away today's PEACE.”

I want to conclude this sermon by reminding us of how Jesus concluded his Sermon on the Mount. A confession of faith alone does not suffice!
"Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." (7:21) We must also cooperated with the Father’s vision for this world.

Powerful acts of ministry fall short even when they are done in the name of Jesus!
"Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?" (v.22) Jesus will declare, “I never knew you.”

The final point Jesus makes is hearing and doing! "...everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.(7:24). So today I encourage you to be wise—hear the words of Jesus and put them into practice! Make your devotion to the Father’s will the major priority in your life—and become an active part of the called out community of faith. As you receive the Father’s love, become an instrument of God’s grace. In other words, hear the words of Jesus, put them into practice.