Time to Get Rid of Your Worries Reid Temple AME Church Mid Week Instructions Pastor Washington
Top Ten Worries Diet Job security Rent/Mortgage Credit card debt Low energy level Overdrafts and loan Overall fitness Lack of savings/financial future Growing old Overweight
1 Samuel 10 : 2 When you leave me today, you will meet two men near Rachel s tomb, at Zelzah on the border of Benjamin. They will say to you. the donkeys you set to look for have been found. And now your father has stopped thinking about them and is worried about you. He is asking, What shall I do about my son?
Time Spent Worrying Each week, we spend 14.31 hours worrying That equals 744 hours of worry every year Which turns into 45,243 hours of worry over a lifetime That equals 1885 days in a lifetime spent doing nothing but worrying Which means that we spend 5.2 years of life captured by worry. No wonder we have trouble sleeping No wonder we feel under so much pressure No wonder we find it hard to concentrate For most people it isn t just one thing it is many things wrapped together.
Jeremiah 17 : 8 He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.
Strangled by Worry To worry is to give way to anxiety or unease; allow one s mind to dwell on difficulty or troubles. The word itself from the old English means to strangle or to seize by the throat. Worry is excessive concern over the affairs of life. The key obviously is the word excessive. Worry happens when you are so concerned about the problems of life that you can t think of nothing else. Worry is an all-consuming feeling of uncertainty and fear. Worrying displaces God in your life.
Matthew 13 : 22 The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.
Worry Is A Sin Worry is a sin for two reasons: First, because it displaces God in your life. When you commit the sin of worry, you are living as though God did not exist. When we worry we are living as though we alone can solve our problems. Second, worrying is a sin because it distracts you from the things that really matter in life. As long as you are worrying, you can t do anything else. You are strangled by worry.
Mark 4 : 19 But the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.
Legitimate Concerns How can you tell when the legitimate concerns of life have become sinful worries? 1. When the thing you are concerned about is the first thing you think about in the morning and the last thing you think about at night. 2. When you find yourself thinking about it during every spare moment. 3. When you find yourself bringing it up in every conversation. Seen in that light, most of us worry a lot more than we would like to admit.
God s Answer to Worry God s answer to worry is stated in one verse. Casting all your cares on him, because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7 To get a broader prospective, MSG version says, Live carefree before God, he is most careful with you. You can throw the whole weight of your anxieties upon him, for you are his personal concern (Phillips). Look at the different words that are used for the problems of life: Cares.Anxieties..Burdens. Worries. That covers all of life. No matter which word you choose. God makes the same invitation to all of us. Take your cares, burdens, worries etc.
A Definite Action: Cast All Your Cares on Him Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you. Psalm 55:22 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. Psalm 56:3 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will act. Psalm 37:5 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? Matthew 6:25 Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matthew 6:34 Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God. Philippians 4:6
Luke 21 : 14 But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves.
We Are to Release Anxiety. We tend to hang on to our problems. Odd as it seems, we feel more comfortable when we are worrying about finances or family or future. We all like to be in control don t we? Worry gives us the illusion of control There is a fine line between worrying and legitimate concern. Peter is not telling us to blow off all the concerns of life. You have got to think about things like your job, education, finances, children, health, friendships, and your plans for the future. Every day you make decisions that touch all these areas.
Deliberate Release: Cast All Your Cares on Him. Set down with a piece of paper and begin to write down the things that are troubling you. How many things are important? How many are trivial? What on the list do you not have the power to control? Some things on the list will take care of themselves. Other things will involve God s timing. Once you write down the things on the list, rip it up and throw it away. The very act of ripping up the list is part of what it means to say cast your cares on the Lord.
Divine Destination: Cast All Your Cares on Him. Either God carries our worries or we do. If we do, we will be divided, distracted, disturbed, confused, frustrated, and burdened. If God carries the load, we may still have trouble and difficulties, but no consuming anxiety, no dominating fear, no undue concern, and no hopeless despair. Here is another way of saying it. Jesus will carry your backpack as you hike toward heaven. It is not just your burdens will be carried, it is that the Lord of universe will carry them for you. Jesus will personally carry all our worries for us. We don t have to lug that heavy weight when Jesus will do it for us.
Delightful Reason: Because He Cares for You. Ponder those simple words. What truth they contain, what hope in the time of trouble. He Cares For You. The word in the second half of the verse means something like to fix your thoughts upon it means thought is given to you. Here is the great truth that makes this verse so powerful. Our father has us on his heart. He is always thinking about us. Lift you head up child of God stop worrying. Pull those shoulders back put that smile on your face take your burdens to the Lord and leave them there.
Can God Be Trusted? Many of us fear that if we cast all our cares on him, somehow he will mess things up. That is why people sometimes say, pray for the opposite of what you want because God gives the opposite of what we most desire. When you move past the problems we think we have, if you dig down deep you will find that our deepest problems are theological. Until we settle the issue worry will rule over your life. We fear that if we submit our lives to Jesus he will mess things up for us or Jesus will ask us to do things we don t want to do or send us places we don t want to go. We secretly fear God can be trusted to take care of us.
The Heart of Our Faith The heart of our faith declares that God cares for me. He proved it by sending his own Son to die for me. The issue was settled on the cross. When we come to God we don t have to convince him to hear us. We don t have to chant or shout or burn incense or ring a bell we come as his children and gladly he hears us. We don t do anything to make God care for us. We start from assurance that God cares for us. God made us, came for us, died for us, rose for us, and will come again for us.
Questions: What will tomorrow bring? Will our health hold up or will we have a heart attack or sudden stroke? Will we end up in nursing home or waste away in a hospital? What about our children? Will they serve the Lord? What if something happens to them? Who will take care of us in old age? Singles worry if they will ever marry married couples look at all the divorces and wonder if they will make it. Will we live to see our grandchildren? We all have concerns about our career and we wonder where we will be in 10 years.
Luke 12 : 25-26 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
Conclusion: Don t worry about tomorrow because God is already there. He is the God who goes before his people. God promises to be with you no matter what happens to you tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and all the days after that. You can live without fear because God has you on his heart at this very moment. He will not forget you, indeed he can not forget you. We all have our concerns. But, we can live without suffocating worry that strangles our faith and drains our joy. We are told in the bible to fear not.