Get in the way, know the truth, live the life

Transcription

1 COVENANT PULPIT SERMONONTHEMOUNT Get in the way, know the truth, live the life August 12, 2012 WORRY Matthew 6:25-34 (NIV) Pastor Trent Casto Covenant Church of Naples PCA 6926 Trail Boulevard, Naples, FL (239)

2 A young woman brings home her fiancé to meet her parents. After dinner, her mother tells her father to find out about the young man. The father invites the fiancé to his study for a drink. "So what are your plans?" the father asks the young man. "I am a graduate student in theology," he replies. "A graduate student in theology. Hmmm," the father says. "Admirable, but what will you do to provide a nice house for my daughter to live in, as she's accustomed to?" "I will study," the young man replies, "and the Lord will provide for us." "And how will you buy her a beautiful engagement ring, such as she deserves?" asks the father. "I will concentrate on my studies," the young man replies, "and the Lord will provide for us." "And children?" asks the father. "How will you support children?" "Don't worry, sir. The Lord will provide," replies the fiancé. The conversation proceeds like this and each time the father questions the young idealist insists that the Lord will provide. Later, the mother asks, "How did it go, Honey?" The father answers, "He has no job and no plans, but the good news is he thinks I'm the Lord. Sometimes I think this is how we Christians can come off to others who don t share our faith. We re like people who blindly trust in an invisible person to meet all our needs and the world doesn t get it. It looks like foolishness to them. The world is falling down all around us and we re simply not disturbed because we know that the Lord will provide for us. Sometimes that s what we look like to the world. But let s be honest with each other for a second. More often than not, we Christians are exactly the opposite. No one is going to accuse us of having a blind faith in a God who s going to meet all our needs. We re the ones who are caught up and worried about the things of this world to such a degree that when the world looks at us and our lives, there s no indication that we have any trust in any higher power whatsoever! We re just as worried about the economy, we re just as worried about the upcoming election, we re just as worried about the price of gas and instability in the Middle East. Now, the young graduate student in theology probably doesn t quite have the full biblical view of how God s provision works. Nevertheless, what he says is not so far from the truth. He believes in God s presence, God s love, and God s care and therefore he s free from worry. The degree to which we are unsure of our Father s presence, love, and care is the degree to which we ll worry when times get tough. Jesus once again lays it all on the line in the passage we read today. He says flat out, Do not worry. In fact, he doesn t say it one time, but three times in this passage he gives us an explicit command saying,

3 Do not worry. And so, the application for this entire message today is exactly this: Do not worry. When you walk away, if you don t know what you re supposed to do, I can t help you. Jesus says, Do not worry. What I want to do is tease out WHY you must not worry. And we can break it down into three points: Don t worry because it s senseless, it s faithless, and it s beneath you. I. Do Not Worry Because Worry is Senseless. It s senseless for us to worry. But it s worse than that. 1. Worry reduces our perspective on life. Jesus makes this point in verse 25. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? While the NIV translates this more important, quite literally this says Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes. Life is more than food and clothes. It can t be reduced to matters of mere survival. And that is indeed what Jesus is talking about. What is more essential to our survival than food, drink, and clothing? Yet, Jesus says if you re worried about these things then you have reduced life to something purely materialistic. Your worry has caused you to lose perspective on what is truly important. And listen, if Jesus says you shouldn t reduce life to mere matters of survival, then how much more ought we not reduce life to issues that are not even as important as survival! And that s what we do when we worry: the object of our worry becomes the thing that all the meaning in our life boils down to and we lose perspective on the relative importance of things. 2. Worry comes at the cost of peace and gives nothing good in return. Listen to what Jesus says in verse 27, Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? We worry about failing an exam, we worry about finding a job, we worry about finding a mate. We know worrying comes at the cost of peace. One cannot both worry and be peaceful at the same time. But look at this, Jesus says you trade your peace for worry and it gives you nothing good in return! You can t even add a single hour to your life by worrying. But you can trade the peace of trust for the misery of worry. Along with it you can have all the terrible mental, emotional, and physical effects that accumulate when your life is characterized by worry and anxiety. So, what s it going to be? Don t worry, Jesus says, it s senseless. Let me show you an illustration of this from the world of sports. One of my favorite things to do is play golf. One of my least favorite things to do is putt. Nevertheless, it s necessary and in many cases it s the difference between a birdie and a snowman (sorry to you non-golfers). So

4 when it comes to putting, the pressure is on and the stakes are high. Those of us who are less restrained by temperament will line up the shot, take a couple practice strokes, and then strike the ball. And it s at this point for many of us, after we ve struck the ball, that the real work begins and where our flexibility training pays dividends. You see, after you strike the ball, the only way to control it is through twisting the body into strange shapes while uttering deep guttural sounds and occasionally giving commands to the ball like get there, get there! I don t know if there have been any scientific studies of this, but I m pretty sure that not one single person has ever twisted their body enough or spoken with enough authority to make the ball go into the cup. But it doesn t stop many of us from trying on every single hole. It s senseless, but most of us do it. The same is true with worry. Not once has anyone ever worried enough that they eventually got peace. Yet, that simple fact doesn t stop most of us from trying it anytime we face uncertainty. But don t you see? It s senseless for us to worry. It reduces our perspective on life, it robs our peace and joy and gives us nothing good in return. II. Do Not Worry Because It is Faithless. It s not only senseless, but it s faithless and this charge is much more serious than the first. I ve recently been teaching a series at The Well on Thursday nights called Standing on the Promises of God: How Believing God Makes a Difference. And the whole premise of this series is that while most of us don t have any trouble believing in Jesus, we do have a great deal of trouble simply believing him! Isn t it stunning that we trust this guy for the salvation of our very souls from sin, death, and hell, yet we don t believe him when he says he ll take care of us? David Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes, It is a poor type of Christianity that has this wonderful faith with respect to salvation and then whimpers and cries when confronted by the daily trials of life. So let us allow Jesus to challenge our little faith, which is really no better than no faith at all. Consider these questions of self-evaluation: 1. Don t you believe you re extremely valuable to your Father? Look at what Jesus says in verse 26, Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? The answer Jesus expects from his listeners is, Yes! Of course we re more valuable! It isn t that the birds aren t valuable to him, but that you are much more valuable to your Father. Don t you believe that? And Jesus goes on to point out that if your Father takes care of the needs of the birds, wouldn t you expect that he ll take even better care of you since you re more valuable?

5 He goes on to make a similar point in verses 28-30, And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Again, the expected answer is of course! The grass and wildflowers are here for a matter of weeks or months and then became fuel for the cook stove. Yet, the fact that their existence was so short did not keep God from giving special attention and care to their clothing. If he took such concern for grass and flowers, will he care less for you who are made in his image? Of course not. The problem, however is that we don t believe him. Now, understand this first caveat: Faith in God s provision does not exempt us from work. The bible is as clear about this as anything. The graduate student in theology I referred to in the beginning cannot sit back and twiddle his thumbs and assume the bills will be paid. He must work. Yes God provides for the birds and for the flowers, but the birds are busy about finding the food God has provided and the flowers are busy about the process of soaking up sun and nutrients from the soil to produce their clothes. God feeds them both, not by stretching out a divine hand and dropping it in their laps, but by providing them the ability to feed themselves. And that leads to a second caveat: Faith in God s provision does not exempt us from providing for others. Because what we find in the world today is that there are a great many people starving, thirsty, and dying of exposure and many of them are Christians. So does this mean God isn t providing? No. It means that we who have received more than we need aren t appropriately distributing. This may rub you the wrong way, the way it rubs me, but I won t apologize for the Word. Because it s in this same book from Matthew that Jesus not only tells us that our heavenly Father clothes and feeds his children, but that we are to be busy feeding the hungry and clothing the naked (Matthew 25:31-46). As John Stott wrote, The fact that God feeds and clothes his children does not exempt us from the responsibility of being the agents through whom he does it. i God will provide, but it doesn t mean we don t have to work for it and it doesn t mean we won t be the means by which God provides it for others. 2. Don t you believe your Father knows better than you do what you need? When you are worried, I think if you could just simply ask yourself this question, most of your worry would dissipate. And Jesus invites us to do exactly this in verse 31, So do not worry saying, what shall we eat? or what shall we drink? or what shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you

6 need them. He doesn t say it, but I think it s implied that not only does your heavenly Father know what you need, but he knows better than you know what you need. Every parent knows this in regards to their own child. It wasn t very long ago that we were planning to take a family walk together through the neighborhood and it was a big deal because Hudson was going to get to walk himself instead of riding in the stroller. So we were headed out the door when I notice that he is wearing his fireman boots which are pure rubber and come up to his knees. They have to be uncomfortable and I can foresee blisters developing after about ten steps. So I say to him, Hudson, you really ought to get some other shoes on. This walk isn t going to feel very good in those boots. And what does he say? Yes they will. I want to wear these boots. We go for the walk and guess what happens: somebody ends up getting carried home. As the father of a four-year-old and a two-year-old, I know better than my kids know what they need. Despite how much they might protest and how sincere they may feel, at this age at least, I know better than they do what is good for them. Now consider the life, age, experience, and information gap that exists between me and my kids and the ridiculousness of them thinking they know better than I do what they need. Then consider the life, age, experience, and information gap that exists between you and your Father in heaven. Don t you believe that your Father knows better than you do what you need? Should we worry when what we receive from his hand is not what we were expecting? Be encouraged Christians, you need not worry when you know your Father values you as he does and when you know that he knows better than you know what is best for you. Finally, III. Do Not Worry Because Worry is Beneath You. It s not only senseless, it s not only faithless, but it s quite simply beneath you as a Christian. Here s why: 1. Your Privileged Position Provides Privileged Pursuits and Possibilities. Here s what I mean: the only thing an orphan on the streets of Mongolia has on his mind is where he s getting his next meal. No one is taking care of him; he s got to take care of himself and so long as he s in that position his pursuits can never rise above the concerns of mere survival. But you are a child of the King and that means you have special privileges and you can pursue things that others can t because you don t have to worry about certain things that others do. In fact, Jesus says you have one thing to be concerned with and then everything else will fall into place. Look at verse 33: But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. To seek first the kingdom is to seek to

7 spread the reign of Jesus Christ, starting with our own lives. If you re going to worry about anything, worry about this: is every single department of my life under the rule and reign of Jesus? Is my home, my marriage, my family, my morality, my vocation, my money, my everything is it all under the reign of Christ as king? And am I seeking to extend this reign in winsome ways to those around me and even to the furthest reaches of the earth? This is to be the focus of your worry, Christian. This is the focus of your healthy concern. Jesus says that if you re concerned with this, you can be sure that all the rest of your needs that could tempt you to worry will be taken care of. It s beneath the child of a king to be worrying about the basic essentials for survival. Life is about more than those things and the children of the king can enter into that more because God himself has promised to provide the necessities. This is great, right? According to all that we ve read, life should be pretty easy for us since God s going to take care of us. But actually, we know it s not quite that simple. Allow me to share with you one final caveat about trusting in God s provision. Faith in God s provision does not exempt us from trouble. Jesus says in verse 34, Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. It s interesting that the passage concludes with this statement. Right up to this point, a person could read this passage and naively think the Christian life will be an easy pie-in-the-sky affair without troubles and so of course we won t have to worry. But that s not what he says. He says don t worry about tomorrow s troubles, because today has more than enough to keep you busy. Jesus doesn t tell us we won t have trouble, that banks won t fail, that planes won t fall, that kids won t make bad decisions, that famines won t happen; he simply tells us through it all not to worry. This is not an easy teaching. But let me share with you something God has been teaching me lately. Here s what he s been teaching me: God is ruthlessly committed to my good and therefore to conforming me to the image of Christ. He will make me mature, and he will not fail. As a parent, I am sometimes at a loss as to what to do to help one of my children overcome a weakness or character defect or behavioral issue. But our Father is never at a loss. He knows exactly what needs to happen in our lives to help us reach maturity and he will give it to us. Sometimes this comes in the form of pleasant experiences and sunny days. Sometimes it comes in the form of dark and rainy ones. But when those troublesome days come, I can still be free from worry and free to seek his kingdom and righteousness because two things are certain: my Father values me and he knows what I need better than I do.

8 But how can you know that for sure? When your life is falling apart or has the potential to fall apart, how do you know God isn t just being mean or neglectful? Here s how: You can know that God your Father loves you, values you, and will do what is best for you because you have seen his love and value for you revealed in the cross of Christ. God loved you and valued you and knew what was best for you and even though it cost him his one and only Son, he gave him up for you. There is nothing more he could have done to show his love for you than this! There is no more valuable gift! No greater pledge of commitment than the sacrifice of his Son. And he commanded us to gather every so often and to celebrate a meal together we call The Lord s Supper. This meal symbolizes the fact that God is for us, that he values us, and that he knows what is best for us. And so if you find yourself in times of trouble, tempted to worry or even swallowed up by worry, come to this table and look to the cross and ask yourself, Doesn t my Father value me? Doesn t my Father know better than I do what I need? Though perhaps my world as I see it is falling down around me, don t I have cause for celebration today? Can t I let go of my worries and instead take hold of my Lord who has given himself to me spiritually in the Supper? Then brothers and sisters, when you see the senselessness of worry, the faithlessness of worry, and the fact that worry is beneath you, you can get busy with your first calling: to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Let us all leave worry behind today and seek the kingdom together. i John Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, 167.