03.06.2011 Sermon on the Mount - Does Worry Drive You to God?

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Philip Yancey – author of What’s so Amazing about Grace? - recently wrote these words in an article:

Whenever I talk about grace, people ask, what about cheap grace? (Bonhoeffer wrote a book about that) Well – far be it from me to contradict him, but it seems to me that grace is free. Jesus pushes the ideal higher and higher so that no one can meet it.

You haven’t murdered, but you have hated… - you haven't committed adultery - but you have lusted. Nobody can pass that test. Jesus is setting things to such a level that we can’t attain it – Give to everyone who asks of you! Turn the other cheek! Be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect!

We all fall short – we all fail the test on a regular basis.

Then in the same sermon, He proclaims grace so low that no one can fall below it. There is nothing that a person can do that His grace can’t forgive. There is nothing that goes below the grace of God - Grace is as low as the cross. It tells us – just as we sang – it is through the cross that God takes care of everything – God’s grace is available and adequate.

The ideal is pushed higher and grace is pushed lower and the branches of the church do just the opposite. It used to be wrong and it not wrong anymore. OR another branch will say, we don’t want those people here in our church. Jesus holds both in tension. The ideals are so high that no one can meet them and grace is so low that no one can fall below it.

Lord, thank You – what you did on the cross covers all of us, no matter how we’ve failed You – You are able to lift us up from any point in life. There is no soul who has gone too far for Your grace to reach – Your grace can reach anyone – we are grateful for that. You lifted up me, and each of us here, when we were going down. Help us to understand and be grateful – that You loved us and that we might have life.

I am going to shift gears – today’s passage - a passage most talk about from the Sermon on the Mount. It talks about worry and anxiety. None of us has worry and anxiety, right?

Matt. 6:25 "For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, [as to] what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, [as to] what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?

When you are in Honduras, you don’t hear the news – and that is a blessing. It helps so much to ignore it! Ignorance really is bliss. But as soon as we landed in Atlanta – we heard that something was going on in Libya – and it is obvious – there are soldiers filling the concourse being deployed throughout the world. And then we get to Columbus, and we see that gas has gone up 30 cents a gallon! Immediately, all of these things begin to put weight on our lives – and the tendency is to get anxious and worried. But Jesus is saying – don’t worry about this.

This comes in a context Matt. 6:24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. You have to choose whom you are going to serve. And people quote me as quoting Dylan – well, I never liked that song anyway… - If you don’t focus on stuff and money – the question comes up – who will take care of me? If I am not concerned about the things of the world – who will care for my needs? Worry/concern/anxiety – has a good and a bad. There is a good. 25% of the time in the Bible – it is used in a good way –

Phil. 2: 20 For I have no one [else] of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.

Genuinely concerned – anxious for your welfare. This is a good sense of the word – and Jesus will show how it goes wrong. When worry goes wrong – it is dependent on the direction of the worry or concern. You have a choice of two masters – and now you have a choice of two providers – either God will provide for you, or worry and anxiety will provide for you.

Worry is wrong when it moves us away from God toward our self and own efforts. Worry/concern is good when it moves us toward God.

Secondly, there is the proportion of our worry. How much under control is the concern? If there is a bill coming up, you SHOULD be concerned. But is it proportionately appropriate? Is the concern taking over or taking your focus off of God.

In this passage, Jesus is talking about our basic needs. For them, it is food and clothing. You can tie in rent, mortgage payment, utilities, car payments, etc. How do you tell someone who does not have a food supply not to worry? How do you tell someone whose mortgage is coming up and they don’t have the money to pay for it not to worry? I am not saying this is simple! I don’t just tell people who come for financial counseling to just not worry about it! Jesus gives answers – first in the end of this verse:

Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?

Yes, life is more than food, but if you don’t have food, life won’t last long. But I think what Jesus is saying – God created your life and body – can He not provide for that which He gives. If He created you, He can provide for you.

He goes into an illustration –

26 "Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and [yet] your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27 "And which of you by being anxious can add a [single] cubit to his life's span? (or hour to one’s life?)

This is not a prohibition against farming or gardening! He is comparing and contrasting – The birds don’t, and God provides. We sow and reap – and yes, it is God who provides. Your heavenly Father feeds them – and that is key. God feeds them and God cares for them. The birds learn to be content with how God provides. The direction of their concern is toward God –and the direction of their concern is appropriate. If God provides for birds, how much more will God take care of you?

We must understand how valuable we are to God. God cares about us and we are the most valuable thing on this earth. He provides for everything in creation – and we are the most important part of creation – it exists as a place for us to live and thrive. If you don’t understand how much God cares for you, it is impossible NOT to be anxious and stressed. The only solution is to be convinced that God is completely concerned about my life. We also have to go back to the birds – who were content with what God provided.

Matt. 6: 28 "And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29 yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these.

Solomon, of course, had everything he ever wanted – he made Bill Gates look poverty stricken. Dyes were expensive, so only the rich had colorful clothes. God makes things so colorful that even the richest can’t clothe themselves in such beauty.

30 "But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is [alive] today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, [will He] not much more [do so for] you, O men of little faith?

If God takes so much effort to make them beautiful for a couple of days…will He not much more clothe you? He goes back to the value – you are worth so much more than the most beautiful flower. Think of the creative energy that went into making all the flowers and colors of the world. People get doctorates studying these things – and they still don’t know all the varieties – and how much more God cares for us.

O men of little faith? When you are stressed and anxious and worried, you do not believe that God cares for you.

? 31 "Do not be anxious then, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'With what shall we clothe ourselves?'

These are basic needs – eat, drink, wear. A lot of our anxiety occurs when we move beyond our necessities. We were taken care of in Honduras – someone would wake us up, had breakfast prepared, and we go out and work, and then someone shows up with lunch. Our basic needs were covered. Jesus is saying – we need to live like that in the real world.

32 "For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. 34 "Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. [Each] day has enough trouble of its own.

He does a little play on words… runs after – seek – this kind of seeking that the unbeliever does – eagerly seek – that is what they do – they are so stressed going after the things that are necessary to live – and the answer is to replace that concern with the steady concerned, ongoing way, of the things of God. What does God have for me today? How do I make my life available to God today? To begin each day – what does God have for me?

Your Father knows you need them all – he knows.

The direction of our worry needs to be toward God – and the proportion needs to be under His love and care for our lives.

This promise is conditional – Seek first – and then…

By giving God His rightful place, that gives us the freedom that He will provide for our basic necessities. The reality is that God does that in a variety of ways. There are some whom God provides for in unbelievable, wondrous ways. And then there are people – and God provides that they barely scratch out a living. That is hard.

When we got to Honduras – we are the Americans coming down to serve the poor Hondurans. The first place we go is to the church – and I get out – and it is amazing! It is 5 times the size of our building and their parking lot is 10 times the size of ours – and I think – How will I help these people? We need them! It was hard for me – until we went out to the villages to build a house for the poor people. For some reason, God blesses some in one way – and maybe we are not in that way. That is where our anxiety comes in- we start believing we need all that. It has to be fair and even out – but the reality is that it is not fair. We hear someone telling a story of God providing a new car – one day – we were having ice cream – and Cindy says – Don’t give them too much! And I’m dishing out the ice cream – and I said – whoops – I gave him too much –

Go back to the birds – they are content with the provision of God.

In reality – there are Christians who are called to get less. But there are some who are called to get NOTHING – but to serve and die. God calls some to that. And they suffer for the cause of Christ – they don’t have jobs because of their Christian faith.

The folks in Honduras – the poor ones – were much more content than the Americans were.

The message is to be content with what and how God provides for us.

He closes with this

34 "Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. [Each] day has enough trouble of its own.

Give us this day our DAILY bread. Today’s provision – that is what God promises you. Tomorrow’s provision – that is all on you. Today’s anxieties – those are on God! Each day – has enough trouble of its own. We all agree with that!

Sufficient are the troubles of the day.

He is calling us to the focus of the direction –where is the direction of your worry and concern – does it lead you to trust in God – who loves you and cares for you. He knows what is going on in your life. Whatever the struggle is – He knows. He will choose how and what to provide. You don’t have that option. He has it.

Then the proportion of our concern – we cannot let it control us.

Let’s pray