Mhm.
Speaker: I don't know if you guys know this about me, but I was a
multi sport athlete in high school.
I, um, played two sports at once.
I marched and I was in band at the same time.
And I got P.
E.
credit for it, just so you know.
So I was in marching band in high school, and my band director was terrifying.
My band director looked like Shrek, um, but Mexican.
And I was terrified of this man.
In fact Something he said all the time still sticks in my brain.
My wife loves to apologize for things and whenever we apologize for
something, here's what he would say.
Don't be sorry.
Be better.
Don't be sorry.
Be better.
And he was dead serious.
He wasn't joking.
And I could not play in front of this dude.
I played trumpet, the best instrument.
And I just would shut down.
I would be all shaky.
I would forget things.
I was so scared of this guy.
And I was pretty good.
But I was not good in front of this guy because I was afraid.
I was so nervous and so worried that it would shut down.
And I'm sure you guys have felt like that, maybe not around people, but
maybe in certain situations where you just feel so anxious, so worried,
so nervous that you can't function.
Your brain shuts down, you start shaking, trembling, maybe you start sweating.
You can't think straight.
If someone asked you two plus two, you would say 27.
You don't know anything and see.
If you don't learn how to look at your anxiety and push through and
trust the Lord and find some sort of peace and comfort, you're going to be
stuck in that situation over and over and over for the rest of your life.
Because as you get older, your anxieties are only going to come
to life in bigger situations.
If you think tests are hard, what about a job interview where your whole family
is counting on you to make money?
Or if you think.
You're, uh, you know, being, trying to decide what to wear in
the morning before school is hard.
What about when you're trying to figure out what to feed your
kids, or how to take care of them?
Or when you're carrying a child, and you're not sure if
your child is gonna be okay.
So, if you don't learn how to deal with your anxieties now, as
a young person, it's only going to get harder as you get older.
So, it's really important to grasp that right now.
So, Jesus actually talks about anxieties right here in the Gospel of Matthew.
So, go to Matthew chapter 6.
Matthew chapter 6.
We're going to be continuing our series in the Gospel of Matthew, and you
guys probably have heard this before.
It's a very famous passage, but Matthew chapter 6
I'm going to be covering verses 24 to 34.
Now, if you were paying attention last week, you know that Pastor Rod
already preached on verse 24 last week.
But, I'm connecting these because I think Jesus is connecting them as He talks.
And do you know why?
What does verse 25 start with?
It starts with a word, compound word.
It says, Therefore, and when you come, read a therefore in the Bible.
You know what you're supposed to ask?
What's the therefore therefore?
There we go, all my Sunday School graduates.
It's coming through in the clutch.
So what's the therefore therefore?
Well let's read verse 24.
Look at it there with me.
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love
the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and money.
So Jesus is saying, hey, you have, you can't have divided loyalties.
You can only really ever truly serve one person.
You can only have one most important thing in your life.
Therefore, verse 25, I tell you, don't be anxious about your life, what you're
gonna eat, what you'll drink, nor about your body, what you'll put on.
Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Isn't there more to life than what you wear and what you eat?
Look at the birds of the air.
They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your
heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they are?
And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour To his span of life.
Does being anxious ever help you?
That's what Jesus is asking.
And why are you being anxious about clothing?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.
They neither toil nor spin, right?
They can't make their own clothes.
But I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory, the richest man in history, was
not arrayed or clothed like one of these.
But if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is alive and
tomorrow is thrown into the oven.
Will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall
we drink, or what should we wear?
For the Gentiles, the people who don't know God, seek after all
these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all
these things will be added to you.
Therefore, third time, don't be anxious about tomorrow, for
tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Today is enough trouble of its own.
So there's a long passage that Jesus talks about anxiety, and what he's really
pointing out here is that your anxiety, your, your worry, your concern is a
matter of your attention, your focus.
What anxiety comes down to is what you're focused on.
What you're looking at.
What's preoccupying your thoughts.
What you're concerned with.
That's what anxiety and worry comes down to.
And so what I want you guys to grasp today is that anxiety is a
matter of what you're focused on.
And so Jesus, he says, doesn't just say don't be anxious.
Instead he says something else.
He says seek first the Kingdom of God.
And the way I put that for you is to focus.
on God, His righteousness, His priorities.
And let me see, I closed my slide app.
Now I need to get it open again.
This will help me do much better staying organized for you.
I'm, I don't have it up.
So I'll need you to run it from the back.
So we want to focus on God's priority, on His fatherly care
for us and His lasting kingdom.
Instead of worrying about what we think we need.
That's what we want to focus on.
Is we want to fight anxiety with our focus.
Instead of focusing on what we think we need, right?
What we wear, what we drink, what we eat.
We want to focus on things that matter.
Things that help us find peace and comfort.
Now look with me back at verse 24.
I think there's a reason here.
Why Jesus Connects, verse 24 and 25.
He's talking about your master, right?
Verse 24.
No one can serve two masters.
So what he's saying is if you're mastered by this world, you will
be anxious about worldly things.
If your master is money, or fame, or approval, or people's opinions of you,
or success, you're gonna be mastered, controlled, serving, worldly things.
But if your master is God, if you're serving the Lord, you'll
be concerned with His glory.
You want to make God look good, and His priorities, or His kingdom.
Your master, and we saw earlier in verse 19, right, where your,
or verse 21, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
So, your master and your treasure capture your focus and your concern.
Your master and your treasure capture your focus and your concern.
See, Jesus makes anxiety an issue of your focus, your attention.
If I put it another way, anxiety is paying too much attention to
the wrong things, and not enough attention to the right things.
You're being too concerned about something.
And so we want to focus, instead of focusing on what we think we need, or
our worries, or what we're concerned about, we want to focus on God's fatherly
care and his lasting kingdom, instead of worrying about what we think we need.
And that's the main reason Jesus gives his disciples not to be anxious.
He says, don't be anxious.
Why?
Why, why should I not be anxious?
He says, you kept saying that over and over.
Well, the first thing is to remember that God will take care of you.
So point number one, write it down like this.
Remember your father.
Remember.
Your father,
Jesus keeps drawing their attention back to who God is and, and what he's like.
Look at the, in the end of verse 26, he talks about the birds and he says,
but your heavenly father feeds them.
And then he goes down and talks about the lilies and then verse 30, but if
God closed the grass of the field, so Jesus keeps bringing their attention
back to God away from their concerns.
So, when you're anxious, you need to remember your father.
The first thing you want to remember about your father is that he knows your needs.
He knows your needs.
Now, I just heard Angelo say this to his son, Levi, about five minutes ago.
Levi walks in here without a jacket.
And Angelo's like, where's your jacket?
And Levi goes, outside.
And he's like, I think you need your jacket.
And Levi's like, I don't need my jacket.
Angelo is much smarter than Levi.
I think we can all agree to that.
Angelo is a billion times smarter than Levi.
He knows what Levi needs.
He knows that Le Even if Levi doesn't think he needs his jacket,
he knows Levi needs his jacket.
Levi doesn't think he needs it, but Levi doesn't know that he
might get sick if he's cold.
Levi doesn't know that it's gonna get colder in an hour.
But Angelo knows that.
Angelo is a loving father, a caring father.
He knows what his son needs.
Now, your father in heaven knows your needs better than you do.
See, compared to God, we think Levi might be silly compared to Angelo, but compared
to God, we're way dumber than Levi.
And God is way smarter than Angelo.
And so, us, talking back to God, God, I don't need my jacket.
We look so silly when we think, oh God, I know much better, I
know so much better than you.
I know what I need.
I know what's best for me, God.
See, God is a genius.
God knows everything.
God made you.
He knows exactly what you're like, what you need, how your thoughts work.
God knows exactly what's good for you, what's best for you.
You know, sometimes we don't know what's best for us.
We don't know exactly what we need.
We don't know ourselves perfectly.
But God knows us perfectly.
And so He knows our needs even better than we do.
The second thing I want you to remember about God is that
He wants to meet your needs.
God wants to meet your needs.
Something over and over again in this passage that Jesus says
is, don't worry because, why?
Because God will take care of you.
God knows what you need and He wants to do something about it.
Now, something that revolutionized my Christian life a few years ago.
was when I realized that God is more committed to my good than I am.
God is more committed to my good than I am.
God's more committed to my eternal happiness and satisfaction and
security and safety than I am.
I want me to be happy, but God actually wants me to be
happier than I want me to be.
I don't know if you've ever thought about that before.
But because of the first part, God is wise and knows our needs.
He knows exactly what's best for us, and He wants to give that to
us, even when we don't want it.
And when we're anxious, it's because we're either receiving something
that we don't want from God.
Like, God, I don't want this test.
God, uh, I'm scared about what my friends think of me.
God, I'm afraid of what's gonna happen if this happens in my family.
But we don't know that God actually is using that for good.
And not just kind of good.
It's actually way better than anything we could come up with for ourself.
And God wants us to not have to worry about it.
He wants us to not worry.
That's the whole, it's not like, Oh, don't be anxious, don't be anxious.
You suck because you're anxious.
No, God's like, I don't want you to be stressed.
That's what, that's where God's coming from.
That's God's heart for you in this passage.
It's just, I don't want you to worry.
I don't want you to, to be so concerned about what, what
you're, what you think you need.
I want you to trust me and let me take care of you.
And the third thing I want you to remember about God is that
God is able to meet your needs.
And maybe this is the easiest for you to get so far, but God
can give you what you need.
And so something you'll talk about in small groups is that if God doesn't
give you something, Guess why?
Well one, he's smart so he knows you don't need it.
Two, he loves you so he knows it's actually better for you not to have it.
And three, he could give it to you and so obviously he doesn't want to.
So you don't need to worry about not having something
and being stressed about it.
Or, oh what if I, what if I get this thing?
That would be so much better if I, if I could maybe sin
in this way or do this thing.
Well no, you don't, you don't need to worry about it because God
Has what's best for you in mind.
Maybe you're anxious because you're like, Oh, well, if I obey God, then
this isn't gonna go very well for me.
Right?
These people aren't gonna like me.
Or those people won't be friends with me anymore.
Or I'll get made fun of, or I'll lose this opportunity.
I won't get into that school.
I'll miss out on that experience.
What God's saying in that moment is, you don't need that.
It's not good for you.
I have something better for you.
So trust me, and let me take care of you.
Now, it might not seem like, Oh, this is just gonna calm me down if I
just remember some facts about God.
But, I think that's exactly what Jesus is saying.
Jesus expects these facts, and reasons, and promises to make a difference in your
anxiety, and what you're concerned about.
When Jesus says, and something that really shocked me when I read this
passage is, in this whole passage about anxiety, Jesus never says to pray.
Never mentions it.
Instead, he tells you facts.
He tells you reasons.
He argues with you.
He gives you promises to believe.
Because he expects those to make a difference in what you're concerned about.
He'll say something true to you and he expects that to make a
difference in how you feel and what you're, what you're focused on.
Where you put your attention.
. So if Jesus expects those to make a difference, then what do I do
when, when it's hard to believe?
'cause we've all been there.
I I, I'm nervous.
I, I know what the right thing to do is, but I, I'm stressed about it.
I, I don't know what to do.
Well, the, the link between facts or promises and getting to where your heart
needs to be of peace or comfort is faith.
That's, that's how you get from facts, arguments, and reasons to
peace, comfort, and trust in the Lord.
And so, the second thing to do in anxiety is to strengthen your faith.
See, the opposite of worry is faith.
I had a professor in college who had this really memorable line that stuck with me.
For the past few years, he said anxiety is a mild form of atheism.
Anxiety is a mild form of atheism.
So, when you're anxious, you're functionally living
as if God doesn't exist.
You're living as though God wouldn't, doesn't care about you,
or can't do what he says he can do.
Or isn't involved in your life.
So anxiety is a mild form of atheism.
And so the opposite of anxiety is faith.
So, how do I get faith when I don't have it?
Well, I have three things for you.
How do I get faith when I don't have it?
Well, the first thing, so strengthen your faith is point two.
The first thing to how to strengthen your faith is to ask God.
Ask God for help.
We're going to see this all over the Bible, but specifically in the longest
chapter of the Bible in Psalm 119.
Psalm 119 is actually a very emotional psalm.
It's the longest chapter in the Bible.
It's all about the Bible.
So, and what you find.
Are these very high highs of like, Oh, I love the Bible.
The Bible is the greatest thing ever.
God is amazing.
It's so easy to obey God and i'm read this and i'm like, man, I wish
I was like you dude And then you find stuff like this Incline my heart to
your testimonies and not to selfish gain Now if this dude is such a rock
star christian and loves god all the time, why does he need to say that?
Because he's human he needs help and so we ask god god my heart You Is
in, you know, incline is, is like on a treadmill when it's like leaning,
right, or like you're going up or down.
Incline like bending or leaning.
He says, my heart naturally leans towards selfishness.
God, I need your help.
I need you to lean me the other way.
Towards your testimony.
That's God's Word.
And so, he's crying out to God.
And you see this, I just started reading the psalm and wrote down
all the times that it happened.
I gave up after 36.
I was like, there's, there's 176 verses and there's way
more than what I put on there.
But, he's over and over asking God, God, help me believe your Word.
Help me love your Word.
Help me want to do your Word.
And so, don't just be like, oh, well, I read this passage and it
didn't make a difference in my life.
Ask God to help you.
Ask God, help me believe your promises.
So when you're worried about, oh, you know, uh, If I, my friends at
school find out that I'm a Christian, they're gonna leave me, right?
Then, what do you do?
Uh, okay, I need to know something about God.
I need a fact or a reason, right?
So that's when you have to know God's Word, and you say, Okay, um, Jesus said,
um, I will never leave you or forsake you.
Okay, great.
Even if my friends leave me, I'll always have Jesus to embrace me and love me.
Okay, God, that doesn't seem much better.
I'd rather have my friends than Jesus.
I think that's where a lot of you are at, right?
I'd rather be with my friends than be with Jesus.
Well, ask God.
Help me want Jesus.
God, I really have a hard time choosing you over my friends.
Please help me to love you.
To, to, to want you more than I want the approval of my friends.
Ask God for help, and He wants to help you.
God's not like, alright, once you ask four times, then I'll God wants to help you.
He wants you to, to not have to worry or be anxious.
And the second thing Is to argue with yourself.
I know this sounds weird.
I almost made this the whole point instead of strengthening your faith I almost
made it argue with your weak faith.
Look at our passage again in Matthew 6 Look at verse 30 So Jesus is talking
and he says but if God Closed the grass of the field which today is alive and
tomorrow is thrown into the oven, right?
So there's God cares.
He makes the grass grow.
He makes sure that the birds are okay, even in the winter and the snow.
Did you go outside after the snow?
And we saw like birds and squirrels.
I was like, man, they were outside.
They didn't have a heater.
They didn't, they survived all of that.
So God clothes the grass.
He makes it grow.
He takes care of it.
Will he not much more clothe you?
And then this phrase right here, O you of little faith.
Did you know that that is actually just, it's one word in Jesus original language,
and it's probably a word that he made up.
Jesus is like, I'm going to be Shakespeare before Shakespeare and
make up a word that didn't exist.
And so Jesus loves this word.
He uses it in the Gospel of Matthew specifically.
And so I looked, okay, when does Jesus use this word?
When does he say, oh, you of little faith?
Well, he uses it.
When he's arguing with his disciples about why they don't believe.
So these are the three other times in Matthew he uses it.
Why are you afraid?
Are you of little faith?
That's when he's calming a storm, I believe.
Are you of little faith?
Why did you doubt?
So this is all related to fear and anxiety.
Or are you of little faith?
Why are you discussing with yourself the fact that you have no breath?
Right?
And then look what he does, especially at the bottom here in 16th.
Do you not perceive?
Don't you see this?
Or do you not remember?
Or, how is it that you fail to understand?
You see, these are all, this is all up here.
Don't you understand this?
Don't you remember this?
He's almost arguing with the disciples.
Hey, come on, don't you, don't you remember?
I Control the wind and the waves.
Don't you remember I can give you food.
Don't you remember I can take care of you Don't you remember I can do anything.
Don't you remember?
I love you, and I think that's what Jesus wants us to do With our anxiety.
He wants us to to look at ourselves and say come on self Like don't
you know don't you under don't you remember God look look what he's done.
Look what he can do Look how powerful God is.
Look what he said in his word.
When has God let you down?
He wants you to argue with yourself.
In fact, one way to look at this passage is eight reasons not to be anxious.
I put them all up here.
You don't have to write all this down.
But basically what I did is I just went to the passage and went, okay, this
entire passage is basically just Jesus giving you reasons not to be anxious.
And I think what he wants you to do is he wants you to do this with yourself.
He wants you to look yourself in the mirror and say, well, look,
why am I so worried about whether God's going to take care of me?
Isn't my life more than just existing?
Isn't it just more than more than just eating and drinking and staying alive?
Isn't there more to life than that?
Or reason number two, look at the birds.
God takes care of them.
Aren't you much more important than a bird
or reason number three and so on.
Right?
So all of these are arguments.
It's for why you don't have to worry.
And this isn't just something you do once, and, oh, I read Matthew
6 and I'm never going to be anxious for the rest of my life.
That's not how this works.
You have to argue with yourself regularly, hey, Louis, don't call yourself
Louis, but hey Louis, why should I, why are you being anxious right now?
Why are you so worried about what your parents are going through?
Why are you so worried about what that person at school thinks?
Why are you so worried?
about the tornado sirens going off.
Don't you know that God is stronger than a tornado?
Don't you know that God is in control of your parents and their relationship?
Don't you know that God's approval lasts way longer than
the approval of your friends?
Don't you know that following God's commands is way better
for you than hanging out and and doing whatever you want to do?
Your friends want you to do.
Don't you know that God's word is so much better for you than snoozing
your alarm six times in the morning?
You have to argue with yourself and say, come on, self.
Do you not understand?
All right.
So when you're worried and in your anxiety, when you're, when
you're paralyzed by fear, you have to put some effort in to get
faith and argue with yourself.
But guess what?
It's not just you doing it on your own.
God wants
That's why we started with ask God, God will help you.
And the third thing you do to strengthen your faith is what this
passage is really all about is to redirect your focus or your attention.
Jesus, what he's done in this passage is made anxiety a matter of your attention.
So, for our third point, I want you to sharpen your focus.
Sharpen your focus.
So there's three things when you're anxious that you need to worry about.
You need to worry about your father.
You need to worry about your faith.
And you need to worry about your focus.
I went to a Baptist seminary, so they all had to start with the same letter.
So, your faith, your father, and your focus.
Those are your keys for dealing with anxiety and worry.
So, the first thing to focus on is what we talked about in the first point.
Focus on examples of God's care.
Look what Jesus does in our passage.
He gives three commands.
The first two are look at the birds and consider the lilies.
Now these words in Jesus original language aren't just, oh, look at the birds, cool.
It's like study them, consider them.
Look, and understand, and think about what's going on.
And that's what he explains, right?
Those are some of the reasons he gives not to be anxious.
It's like, if God takes care of the birds, isn't he gonna take care of you?
So look at God's care for birds, and then think, think about it.
Right?
Don't just look and be like, oh cool, there's a bird.
But look at the bird, and think about, man, God is the reason
that bird's alive right now.
God is the reason that that bird made it through the snow last week.
And if God cares about that, you know, God knows about that bird's last meal.
God knows about that bird's parents.
God knows about where that bird's nest is.
God knows about where that bird's migrating.
God knows everything about that bird.
And surely, if God knows everything about that random bird, He knows more
about you, and He cares more about you.
Now, there is something that I did want to bring up when we're talking about
God's care is what Jesus says, right?
He says, doesn't God feed the birds and clothe the lilies, right?
But the birds still have to go get their food, right?
So what I don't want you to do is take this passage and be like, Oh,
I don't have to do any homework.
God's going to give me good grades.
I don't have to study.
God's going to give me a good test score.
I don't have to do anything with my life because God's going to take care of me.
That's not what Jesus is saying.
But, God provides for the birds through their work.
Right?
The bird has to go fly somewhere and find something and eat it.
Or hide something for the cold weather so it can come back
to it when the snow melts.
The bird has to do work to provide for itself.
But God is the one providing for the bird through the work.
So, That's just a side note in case you were like, well, Lewis said to not work.
That's not what I said.
So anyway, first thing is when you're in, when you're anxious,
focus on examples of God's care.
Of how God is caring for what's, what's happening.
And that's the, one of the main things Jesus wants us to do in this passage.
But also there's great questions that you can ask.
There's questions that you can ask about yourself and your life or other believers.
This is why God puts you in a church, so that there's other people who've
maybe gone through a situation that you've never gone through before, and
it's your first time, you know, going to a new school, or moving out of state.
And you can say, oh man, well God has provided for those people,
so maybe He'll take care of me.
So these are just some questions that I thought of.
How has the Lord taken care of me in the past, right?
That's an easy one.
Okay, well, God's kept me alive up to this point.
Or God's made sure, you know, the situation in the past where my parents
had a hard time, but God made sure that they could get through it.
Or, oh, I had to go to a new school, but God provided friends for me.
Or, I had to get to a new small group, and I had a new leader.
But, you know, God is gonna take care of me, because he'll
connect me with other leaders.
He's always provided people for me in the past.
Or, how has God helped people in similar situations, right?
You can use your Bible.
You can look at church history if you've read missionary biography.
That's why we VBS all the time.
It's like, look how God provided for those people.
Well, he's the same God.
He's the same loving Father.
Amen.
And then this one, this third one is really helpful.
What has God given me right now to help me through this battle?
Because it is a battle with anxiety.
It's not a walk in the park with your worries.
You're fighting.
You're fighting for faith.
You're fighting to put your attention somewhere that, that matters.
And so think, what resources has God given me?
You know, oh, he's given me friends to talk to, a small group
leader, my parents, or his word.
He's given me things that I can use.
So, the first thing to focus on is examples of God's care.
The second thing is on how you can pursue God's priorities.
And that comes from verse 33.
I'll read it for you again.
Verse 33 says, But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these things, right, what you eat, what you drink, what
you wear, will be added to you.
Amen.
So Boom.
So, so far, up to that, up to verse 33, Jesus said, don't be anxious,
don't be anxious, don't be anxious.
And now he gives a positive command, but instead, instead of worrying about what
you're going to wear, what you're going to eat, I want you to be concerned about or
focus on what I have for you, my kingdom.
And what that means, seek first the kingdom of God, is
put God's priorities first.
God has plans and purposes and, and, uh, things for us to do.
And he has values and ways we're supposed to live.
So maybe you're saying, maybe you've heard most of the sermon and been like, Oh, you
know, Lewis, I don't really get stressed.
I'm just not that worried.
I'm not a really worried person.
I'm very calm.
Well, Jesus is making anxiety way more than just about stress.
According to Jesus, anxiety
It's when you are too concerned about something that you
don't need to worry about.
So it could even be you're too concerned about your own success, or you're too
concerned about your own appearance, or you're too concerned about what
people think of you, and you're not stressed about it, but that's your focus.
And he's saying that's not what you should be worrying about.
You're worrying about something that doesn't matter.
Remember, we talked about your master and your treasure, so you're, you're
serving something that's not gonna last.
Remember, Jesus said, lay up treasure in heaven.
The approval of your friends at school is not gonna last.
I don't even remember the ASB president from my high school
or my middle school, right?
I don't think anyone does.
And so, the approval of your peers is not gonna last, but the approval of God will.
And so, Your misplaced concern is another way that maybe you're not stressed
about it, but you're consumed by it.
You're serving something.
So pursuing God's priorities.
There's some helpful questions that I, again, I put together
for you to think about, right?
See this word here, seek.
It's not just like, oh, maybe I'll accidentally glorify God today.
That's not gonna happen.
You have to think about it, pursue it, and go after it.
See, we talk about misplaced concern.
The Gentiles, right, the people who don't know God, They are pursuing, or they're
focused on, all these things that don't matter, that you don't need to worry
about, because God knows you need them.
That's why you don't have to worry about them.
That's like asking your dad, you're going on a road trip, Hey dad, do we need gas?
Duh.
Of course I filled up the gas tank before the road trip.
That's what it's like when you're like, Oh God, are you going to take care of me?
Of course He is.
He knows you need to be taken care of.
He's gonna take care of you.
So, when you're anxious, instead of thinking about,
Oh, I'm anxious about this.
I'm anxious about this.
Oh, I'm so worried.
Oh, what's this person gonna do?
Think about, Oh, how can I love Jesus right now?
Turn your focus, your attention to that.
Or, how can I make God look great?
Or, who can I serve?
Who can I help?
Who's someone that needs me to love them right now?
When you're anxious, turn your focus away from yourself.
Don't be like someone who doesn't know God and think about all the things you think
you need, but instead turn your attention, your focus, to what God has for you.
And guess what?
All these things will be added to you.
God will take care of everything else.
God doesn't want you to have to worry about all that stuff.
There's so much for you to worry about, and God's like, no, don't worry about it.
I want you to focus on what I want for you, because what I want for you,
remember we talked about God is good.
He loves you.
He wants you to focus on the things that are good for you.
So you don't have to worry about all the other stuff.
So the third thing to focus on, focus on examples of God's care, focus on
how you can pursue God's priorities, and then I want you to also focus on
what God puts in front of you today, not what might happen tomorrow.
And that's how our passage ends in verse 34.
Therefore, don't be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow
will be anxious for itself.
And that's such a Jesus is, like, such a genius, such a wise teacher,
to come up with a statement like that.
Don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow's gonna worry about tomorrow.
Today's got enough for you to worry about.
I heard someone say this, worrying about tomorrow multiplies your problems.
Because you don't have to worry about tomorrow's problems
yet, so don't worry about it.
When I was in school, back in the day, so long ago, like a year ago, Um, I had A, so
my, the way my school schedule worked, I always had projects due over Thanksgiving.
I don't know why, but I always had a big project due because we come back
from Thanksgiving break, and then you have one week, and then you have finals.
So all my professors were like, Oh, we'll just make all the projects
due the week before finals so you can study for your finals.
Thanks, now I have to work on it over Thanksgiving.
Thanks, professor.
So, over Thanksgiving, I have to do all, I, I didn't have a Thanksgiving break
where I could just not do anything.
Thanks.
I always had projects to do, but, I came up with this theory, based on this
verse, that I'm going to pass on to you guys to help you get through school.
People would ask me, oh, like, well, are you going to start your project, or
are you going to work on your project?
And I'm like, no, Thanksgiving?
I'm just going to, I'm going to enjoy my family and do that thing.
That's a Friday Lewis problem.
So Thursday, I'm not gonna worry about it.
Friday Lewis can deal with that.
That was my theory for school.
I was like, I'm not gonna worry about over Thanksgiving, but
Friday Lewis can worry about that.
And Friday Lewis might even be smarter.
Because he has 24 hours more of experience living.
So Friday Lewis is actually better equipped to do his homework.
And don't take this and procrastinate.
That's not what I'm telling you to do.
I know, I know some of you.
And that's what you're gonna do.
That's a good point.
But, that's what Jesus is saying, essentially, He's saying don't
worry about tomorrow's problems when you haven't gotten there yet.
Because you don't know what God's going to do in between today and tomorrow.
God can do something, He can do a lot of things in between today
and tomorrow, or the next day.
And in fact, something else that Jesus said earlier in this
chapter, when He asked us, when He taught us to pray, He said, What?
Pray for your daily bread, your today bread.
He didn't say pray for tomorrow's bread.
God provides for you day by day.
That's how God works.
He doesn't want you to worry about tomorrow's problems with today's grace.
Today's grace is for today's problems, and then tomorrow's
grace is for tomorrow's problems.
So God is giving you what you need day by day, so you don't have to worry about it.
Because your worries, when you're worried about the future, here's
the thing with anxiety, right?
It affects your imagination, right?
It affects your, Oh, well, if, if I show up to school wearing this, or looking
like this, or if they see me talking with those people, or if I get this
grade on the test, then my parents are gonna think this, and then I'm gonna,
see, I had this thing that I was told from certain people at my school about
my grades, um, A was average, B was bad, C was can't have dinner, D was don't
come home, and F is find a new family.
Now, that might sound harsh to some of you, but from my culture, that's normal.
Um, but when you're anxious, when you're anxious, I know that sounds
crazy, but when you're anxious, that's what your mind does, right?
Your brain will go, oh, if my parents, my parents will kill me if they find out
that I got a 44 on my Algebra 2 test.
Or, oh, if I don't get into this school, this is going to happen.
Or, oh, if my friend sees me with this person, this, and you
just steamroll down the road.
And, and suddenly you're saying, oh, I'm going to get disowned
from my family over a quiz.
That's not how it works.
Let's see, your anxieties, your worries, will build an imaginary future for you.
Because you're so worried about tomorrow's problems.
Don't let them do that because remember what Jesus just said in
in earlier in last week's sermon.
He said, lay up for yourselves.
Treasure in heaven.
That's the future.
You should be focused on your eternal future, not the future.
Your anxiety makes up in your head.
Don't worry about tomorrow's future that your anxiety built for you.
That it's not real, but also, God wants you to be worried about something else.
He wants you to be thinking about, oh, how can I store a lasting
treasure that matters forever that's not gonna go away in heaven?
So that's the first thing from this verse that I want you to look at, but also,
God knows about tomorrow's problems, too.
God actually knows about tomorrow's problems way better than you do.
God knows way more about tomorrow that you're worried about So you can
trust Him to deal with tomorrow's problems when you get there.
So you can say, God, I'm gonna trust you with tomorrow.
I'm gonna focus on what you have for me today.
God's given you today for you to live right now.
You don't have to worry about tomorrow yet.
You can worry about it when you get there and ask your questions and fight
for faith and argue with yourself.
You can do all that tomorrow with when you face tomorrow's problems.
But today, Focus on how can I serve God today?
What does God have for me today?
Who has God put in front of me right now, today?
You don't want to be so worried about tomorrow that you miss out on, Oh,
I should have, I should have shared the gospel with that person today.
Oh, I forgot to serve my sibling.
I forgot to bless my, my parents in that way.
So God has you alive today for a purpose and don't waste your
energy worrying about tomorrow.
See anxiety, as you see the top is a battle for your energy.
God's given you limited energy for today.
Don't waste it worrying about tomorrow.
You're not gonna solve tomorrow's problems wasting your energy on them today.
Use the today energy, your daily bread for today, on today's concern, which is
how can I put first God's kingdom today?
Now,
one thing that I don't want you to walk away from this sermon thinking
is Is that God is far off, and distant, and disappointed in me
whenever I get anxious, and just, ah, can't be anxious, can't be anxious,
don't be anxious, don't be anxious.
Suppress my feelings.
Don't be anxious.
That's not what I want you to walk away from this sermon.
This sermon is not a bunch of rules for you, on how to not
worry and make God not mad at you.
That's not, that's not what this is about.
This isn't about, oh, God hates anxious people.
That's not what this sermon's about.
This sermon is about a Father who loves you and wants to take care of
you and doesn't want you to be worried He's not giving you rules to follow
just because he's he's offering you life true life that you don't have to
be consumed by your worries and and other other people think of you and How
this is gonna work out in the future.
He doesn't want you to be worried about that Because He loves you.
He wants what's best for you.
And so He's offering you life and holding you out.
But see, the thing is, is if God isn't your Father, you don't have
access to that sense of care.
Because you don't have a Heavenly Father who's looking out for
you, and taking care of you, and protecting you, and guiding you.
And so, This sermon is also an offer
Because you don't have to be worried, but if you reject God you Naturally will be
because like we talked about the beginning your your master is Not something that can
protect you and give you comfort if your master is the approval of your friends
or if your treasure is worldly success You are going to be worried because that
treasure and that master cannot give you the security you're longing for.
And the only way to find security and peace is a Heavenly Father who
loves you and is all powerful and all wise and all knowing and wants
you to not have to worry about all the things that you're worried about.
He wants you to be able to say, I'm here today.
To live today for your glory.
To put your kingdom first, so I don't have to worry about anything else.
So I'll pray for us, and we talk more about that in small groups.
Heavenly Father, we're so grateful that you don't want us to be
worried, that you care about us.
You don't have to give us special attention.
You're not obligated to want to take our worries away.
But you love us.
And so, you do.
So God, I pray that you help us to see you as a caring, wise father who knows what's
best for us, who knows what we need,
and is always working for our good.
Help us to trust you.
Help us to trust you when we don't understand things, when things happen
in our lives that don't make sense, that make it seem like you're not good, that
make it hard to believe your promises.
Help us to argue with ourselves and fight for faith so that
we can learn to trust you.
Pray this in Jesus name.
Amen.