Matthew 6:25-34 - Don't Be Anxious
Tom Shrader examines Jesus' teaching on worry from Matthew 6:25-34, explaining that anxiety is a sin that demonstrates distrust in God's promises and providence. Using examples of birds and flowers, Jesus shows that our Heavenly Father provides for creation and will certainly care for His children. Rather than worrying about food, clothing, or tomorrow's troubles, believers should seek first God's kingdom and righteousness, trusting that He knows their needs and will provide.
“Worry is the sin of distrusting the promise and providence of God, yet it's a sin that Christians commit perhaps more frequently than others.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Sermon on the Mount
Recorded: 2002
Duration: 43 min
Themes: anxiety, worry, trust, provision, faith, priorities, contentment, peace, struggling with anxiety, financial stress, worried parent, overwhelmed believer, new christian, young adult, facing uncertainty, dealing with fear
Scripture: Matthew 6:25-34, Matthew 6:19-24, Job 38:41, 1 Thessalonians 4, Daniel 2, Romans 8:28, James 1:17, 2 Corinthians 4:16
Theological Themes: providence, god's provision, kingdom priorities, divine care, biblical discipleship, christian living, stewardship, spiritual maturity
Full Transcript
We are continuing our study in Matthew chapter 6. Today we're looking at verse 25 through the end of the chapter. If you mark in your Bible, you see it there in verse 25: "do not be anxious." You see it again in verse 31: "do not be anxious." And in verse 34: "do not be anxious." So you get a sense right away we're going to talk about anxiousness. Worry would be synonymous with that—I'll probably use the word worry most of the time. Jesus is saying don't do this, don't be anxious.
Don't be anxious for what? Well, He says don't be anxious for your life. When Jesus uses the word life here, He's talking about a word that encompasses all that pertains to life—all of our physical, material, emotional, and spiritual needs. The word anxious, and some of your translations may even render it "stop worrying," includes the idea of stopping something that's already begun and not doing this in the future. Stop worrying. So apparently these people were worrying, and He says don't worry.
The Connection to Treasures and Masters
Why? The answer is right there in verse 25 in the first couple of words: "for this reason." That phrase "for this reason" is very similar to saying "therefore." So Jesus ties this whole thing together.
Let me remind you what we saw last week. Verse 19: "Do not lay up treasures for yourself on earth." Verse 20: "But lay up treasures for yourself in heaven." And then two terrific phrases. Verse 21: "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." If you're heavily invested in the things of this world, then your heart's going to be in the things of this world. If you're heavily invested in the kingdom of God, then your heart's going to be in the kingdom of God.
I was talking to somebody a while ago and they were getting ready to send a missionary out. They said, "How do we get people involved in this? How do we get people really committed to this?" I said, "I'll tell you how: have them pay for it. Have the people write a check to send the guy out, because when I put my money there, my heart goes." It's a really simple principle. It's not complex at all. Where your treasure is, that's where your heart's going to be.
He doesn't say put your money there and then your heart will be there. He said listen, in the flow of your life as you're figuring it out, wherever you place your treasure—time, energy, effort, money—when we talk about treasure, we're talking about all those things: time, energy, effort, money. Wherever you put that, that's where your heart is.
Here's the principle from verse 24: "No one can serve two masters." You can't do that. You can't possibly serve God and money. It's impossible for you to do that. You cannot serve two masters. You can work for two employers—many of you have done that. Maybe some of you are doing it even now where you have a couple of jobs, and you did it maybe through school or whatever. We've been in situations where we've had two or three employers. You can do that.
We're not talking about employers here; we're talking about masters. We're talking about somebody who has total and absolute control and authority over you. You can't by definition have two of those people. That's impossible to have happen. I can't take two guys and have total allegiance to both of them, because inevitably there's going to be some conflict in their agenda. Jesus said you can't do that.
The Nature of Worry
Don't be anxious. Here's a sentence somebody wrote: "Worry is the sin of distrusting the promise and providence of God, yet it's a sin that Christians commit perhaps more frequently than others." The English term worry comes from an old German word meaning to strangle or to choke, and that's exactly what worry does—it strangles you or chokes you.
Six or seven years ago, I was at a point in my golf game where I said it's either got to get better or I'm going to quit. I can't handle it. I'm not that good, but I just can't emotionally go out and shoot 90. I can't handle it. I mean, I'd rather just stay home. So I started reading some of the classics. I got a book by Hogan and a book by Bobby Jones, an old book by Julius Boros—I got about five of these teaching books.
The frustrating thing was all five of them basically said different things. But the one thing that all five said was this: you cannot put tension into your golf grip. You cannot hold this club tightly. Well man, I got a death hold on this thing. My arms are shaking before I take it back. They said it's like holding a bird in your hand—holding it loosely enough to keep it and contain it but not to hurt it. I'll tell you what, it really was helpful. You cannot hold it too loosely because your reflex is just going to be to tighten up. But the point was this: the minute you grab it tightly, your forearms tighten up, your shoulders begin to get tight, and the tighter you get, the shorter the backswing is. When it's loose, it just begins to flow. There's nothing in it.
Worry comes from that German word that means to strangle. All of a sudden I got a hold of this so tightly. It's a sin—it's one of those sins unfortunately that we've institutionalized as okay. Somebody called you today, somebody from your small group or your accountability group, and they said, "I need to see you this afternoon. It's important. I'm really involved in some sin and I want to talk to you about it." You'd say, "Well come on over about three." Your mind would be racing, wouldn't it? What did he do? What did she do?
The Nature of Worry
What happens when someone wants to confess something to you? You sit down and they say, "I just got to confess this to you. I got to get it off my chest. It's just eating me alive." You say, "That's fine, you can tell me anything. What is it?" And they respond, "I'm a worrier." I'm looking for some sin here, but worry? We would almost dismiss that, wouldn't we? That is exactly what we would do.
I watch it, and I don't mean to criticize this, but I watch how we institutionalize some of these sins. I've watched people who will sit around with their fourth donut and a cup of coffee and criticize people who overindulge or who drink a beer and smoke a cigar. But that's okay. In fact, you can't really even have Christian fellowship if you don't have caloric items there to devour. Krispy Kreme would be out of business if it wasn't for the Christians on their way to church.
I love this phrase. It's been reported that a dense fog extensive enough to cover seven city blocks a hundred feet deep is composed of less than one glass of water divided into sixty thousand million droplets. In the right form, a few gallons of water could cripple a large city. In a similar way, the substance of worry is nearly always extremely small compared to the size it forms in our mind and the damage it does in our life. Someone said worry is a thin stream of fear that trickles through the mind which, if encouraged, would cut a channel so wide that all other thoughts will be drained out.
The Opposite of Contentment
We've been talking a lot about contentment. Worry essentially is the opposite of contentment. Paul said, "I've learned the secret to life. I know how to live with a lot. I know how to live with a little. I know how to be content in all my circumstances." There's contentment. Paul says it's the secret to life. What's the opposite of it? Worrying in every circumstance.
Jesus says, "Don't be worrying. Don't be worrying about what you're going to eat or what you're going to drink or what you're going to wear." He talks about the necessities of life. It strikes me as I think about it and prepare this lesson—it strikes me how that doesn't mean that much to us. I almost immediately have to say, "Well, He's talking about all the things in life," but to that culture it meant a lot. Don't worry about what you're going to eat.
A Modern Example
Last night, there's a great example. Last night I discovered a salad that I like. Rubio's has this chicken salad—it's chicken on top of greens—and I got it the first time when I was just in my office and Susan had stopped by and dropped one off. I took about four bites and said, "This is incredible. Why is this salad so good?" Well, I discovered why it's so good. It's got cabbage in it.
So last night, about six or something, Susan said, "Are you hungry?" I said, "I'm kind of hungry." She said, "What would you like for dinner?" I said, "I'll tell you what I'd love. I'd love one of those salads from Rubio's." She said, "You will not be eating any cabbage after five o'clock at night." I said, "Really? Why is that, sweetheart?" She said, "Well, you aren't eating cabbage. What else do you want?" I said, "Well, now I'm kind of hacked. I want one of those salads." "Well, you're not going to have a salad. I'll make something."
So we go down, and I hear her down there messing around. I'm kind of hacked off a little bit. I walked down and said, "What are you making?" She said, "Well, I'm making salmon." I said, "I don't want salmon. I want a salad from Rubio's." She said, "Well, you're going to have salmon and fruit." Now I'm pouting. I said, "Well, I'll just get a balance bar or something." She said, "You don't have to eat it. Tyler's coming over. Haley will be here. Sarah will be here. You don't have to eat any of it." I felt like a little kid. I said, "Well, okay." Then Tyler came in and had his salmon. I said, "That looks pretty good, Tyler." So I ate about four pounds of salmon.
Our Abundance vs. Their Need
You see, we don't even relate to this: "Don't worry about what we're going to eat." Whether it's Rubio's or whether it's Baja Fresh or whether it's In-N-Out Burger or whether it's P.F. Chang's—our options are all over. We don't worry about that. These guys were worrying about what they were going to have to eat. They were worrying about what they were going to have to drink.
I worry—worry is not the right word—but I try to make sure every Sunday that I look as sharp as I can look. So I spend a lot of time making sure I got the right stuff, making sure everything's pressed, making sure everything's coordinated. "Don't worry about what you're going to wear." He's not talking about that. He's talking to a guy who's worried about whether his one shirt is going to last, not about whether he's got the right tone of beige or whether this clashes.
See, that's what He's saying. There's a sense in which the more I can free myself up from these things, the better off I am.
A Story of True Perspective
There's a great old story about John Wesley. John Wesley's house burns down, and a man comes running up to him and says, "Your house is burned down! Your house is burned down!" Wesley replied, "No it hasn't, because I don't own a house. The one I've been living in belongs to the Lord, so if it burns down, that's one less thing for me to worry about."
Now, I presume that's not actually true, because I don't think anybody thinks that way. But isn't that interesting? It's true in principle.
The Reason We Don't Need to Worry
Now, verse 26. He says, "Listen, you don't have to be worrying about this, and here's why." Why do you not have to worry? Why do you not have to be concerned? Well, the reason is Jehovah Jireh—it means the Lord will provide.
I can't build a case out of this. I spoke to a guy yesterday who's a seminary guy, and he's got his master's degree, and he's actually going to do a lot of work for us at the church. We were talking about preaching style and preaching and a variety of things. I was trying to relate verse 26 here to him, because I said, this is something. Because I don't think you guys teach it at the seminary, and yet Jesus did it. But it was good enough for Jesus, but not good enough for the seminary prophet.
And I know I'm reading into it here, but Jesus says, look at the birds of the air. Here's what I think. Jesus is sitting there and saying, don't be anxious about what you're going to eat or what you're going to drink or what you're going to wear. And about that time, and He said, look at the birds.
Teaching Like Jesus Did
Let me just tell you when you're teaching, because many of you teach. It's amazing to me how many of you are teachers and pastors who come to this stuff. I just met a guy in a bookstore, and somebody introduced us, and we're talking. And he said, what are you doing? So we're going back and forth, and we're talking a little bit more.
And he said, what's your last name? And I said, Schrader. And he said, I listen to your tapes every week. I said, oh, well, I don't want to talk about that. He said, you have freed me up in the pulpit.
I said, good, good. I said, how did that happen? He said, you freed me up to say chicks. That's my claim to fame. It's not that I opened up His eyes to any truth or how God works, but he said, I always say this stuff, and everybody's all over me, and I just figured if you could do it. And this is kind of the mantra of my life. If you could do it, I could do it.
You understand what he said? I think that's what Jesus said. Look at the birds. If you're teaching, don't make this stuff any more complicated than it needs to be. This isn't that tough. Jesus isn't sitting around with these guys slicing and dicing. He's saying, listen, let's talk about this. Here's the lesson. Look at the birds.
The Simple Lesson of the Birds
Look at the birds. They don't sow. They don't reap. They don't gather in barns, yet their Heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you worth more than they are? What He's saying is, they don't have these elaborate plans. Now, never would we be against planning. But He said, how do they survive?
How do the birds survive? You see the answer there in verse 26, by the way? How do they survive? It's the same way you survive. Your Heavenly Father feeds them. Job 38:41, God prepares for the raven the nourishment when its young cry out. And the point that Jesus is making is, if God takes care of the raven, wouldn't you think that somehow He's going to take care of you?
Luke has a cross-reference passage here where he uses this phrase, consider the raven. I was teaching through the Gospel of Luke, and I was teaching some other book, and I just come across that word that's translated consider, and it means to think over, to ponder, to contemplate. It's more than just think about it. It's seriously contemplate. Think about the raven.
Well, if you think about the raven for any length of time, it's in the same context as this, you realize that the raven just simply does what he was created to do. He eats. He eliminates what he eats. He procreates. He nourishes His offspring. They're very busy.
Birds Work Hard But Don't Worry
When Jesus says, look at the birds, He's not saying, look at the birds over there, and they're over there, siesta. I mean, the birds are hopping around, looking for something to eat. They're working. They're meticulous. I mean, we've got stuff at church where we've got to put sticky stuff up in this area and a screen over here, because those birds are in here, and they're building a nest.
He's not saying, don't be busy. But I never see a bird saying, you know, I need counseling. That's what I need. I need somebody to work me through this. I'm stressed out. I'm burnt out. I think all those things come into it.
I understand they aren't human beings, but I understand that there's a lesson there. Take a look at them. They work hard. They do what they're designed to do. At the end of the day, God feeds them.
Worry Doesn't Add to Your Life
Verse 27, which one of you, by being anxious, can add a single cubit to your lifespan? We live in a time where we're trying to figure out, we're trying to prolong life, see how long we can make this last. We'll extend it out. And He's saying, you think worry is going to help you in that?
Dr. Charles Mayo from the Mayo Clinic says this, worry affects circulation, the heart, the glands, the whole nervous system. I've never met a man or known a man to die of overwork. I have known a lot who've died of worry.
Now, there's a little bit of, I understand his point there, but I would go at it a different way. I would say, listen, you're going to die when you're going to die anyway, whether you're worried or not. When I get done here today, I've got to go to the doctor's office. Hopefully this will be fast. I've got to go to the doctor's office, and then I've got to go to the gym. And then I'm going to go home and get something good to eat, and I'm going to get a light nap because I'm really tired.
None of that is going to make me live one day longer. I mean, I'm a little stud muffin that will be walking across the street, and some truck is going to hit me. It isn't going to matter. You don't work out and eat correctly and do all these things to extend your life. You aren't going to extend your life. You do them to increase the quality of life. And worrying about it isn't going to help you a lick.
Consider the Lilies
He said, don't worry about the food, what you're going to eat. Don't be worrying about life and how you make it longer. Here you go. Don't be worrying about clothing.
Verse 28, and why are you anxious about clothing? Observe the lilies of the field and how they grow. What He's talking about here is just literally they look out into the field, and they're just these massive, beautiful colors of flowers.
I think of the desert in the spring. The desert in the spring is even more beautiful than some of these lush green areas when they bloom because the contrast is so striking. You make that drive up toward Payson and it's just bleak and rock, and a week later it's just alive with colors and reds and yellows and oranges.
He said look at those. Look at them. They don't toil. They don't spin. It's the same idea. "Yet I say to you Solomon in all his glory didn't clothe himself like this, but if God so arrays the grass of the field..." Do you see it again? Who feeds the raven? God does. Who clothes the field in its beauty? God does. "If God does that which is alive today and tomorrow thrown in the furnace, will He not do so much more for you, all men of little faith?"
The word "furnace" here is also translated "oven." When a woman was cooking in that day and age, you would have this clay pot, this oven, and you would build the fire and put the stuff in and try to cook it. If you wanted to really cook it, you would gather around literally the grass—the dead grass and the dead lilies of the field, everything He's talking about—and you would throw them under and around the fire and light them, and now it cooks. He said, "Listen, they're alive today and tomorrow they're absolutely gone. Why are you worried? God's going to take care of you."
God's Elaborate Plan of Care
Think about it. He saves you. He sent His Son to die for you. Before the foundations of the earth He decided He was going to save you. He's put in history this elaborate plan, but He's not going to make sure you got clothes to wear or food to eat? No.
One author writes this: "Worry is not a trivial sin because it strikes a blow both at God's love and His integrity. Worry declares our Heavenly Father to be untrustworthy in His promise, in His word. To avow belief in the inerrancy of Scripture and then in the next moment to express worry is to speak out of both sides of your mouth. Worry shows that we are mastered by our circumstances and by our finite perspectives and understanding rather than by God's Word. Worry is therefore not only debilitating and destructive—it maligns and impugns God." Serious business when we listen to it that way.
The Summary Command
And in the summary, verse 31: "Do not be anxious saying then what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we clothe ourselves, for all these things the Gentiles seek, for your Heavenly Father knows all these things."
When He's speaking of the Gentiles here, He means more than just people or a group of people. He's talking about the non-Jews. In our context He'd be talking about non-believers, not pagans—those who worship a false god if they're spiritual at all, those who have no hope. Again, John MacArthur writes this: "Those who have no hope in God naturally put their hope and expectations in the things of now."
There's a great phrase: we are people who have hope. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, Paul's trying to deal and answer the question of what happens to us when we die. We're Christians—what happens to us? He has a line in there where he says we grieve not as people with no hope. What he's saying is if you go to a pagan funeral, there's no hope there. We have hope. We grieve—we grieve differently—but the whole message that we have is we are people of hope.
A Story About Hope and Hopelessness
I went to Sarah's graduation Friday night, and it was really interesting because I did not go to my own graduation. I just didn't think it was that big a deal, and Susan did not go to her graduation. In the years since, I haven't given it one thought. But apparently Mrs. Schrader has been handicapped by this event her entire life, so she was going to make sure that Sarah will never regret this. Sarah said, "I don't really want to go," and I said, "Hey, let me help you out here, buddy. Get your cap and get your gown because we're going. Mama wants a graduate."
So afterwards Sarah came over and she said, "Mom, thanks for making me do this because it was really cool. I'm going to remember it all my life and it was a lot of fun." Susan said, "Well that's great," and she walked away. I said, "What a liar. Why are you lying?" She said, "No dad, it was really cool." In the middle of this I said, "You really thought it was cool?" and she said, "It was really cool, but it didn't have much meaning." She didn't mean meaning for her—she meant the hopelessness there.
This gal gets up at the end to pray, and she can't say "in Jesus' name" or the building will fall down. So she can't pray. So here's what she said: "We're going to pray." Said, "Let's pray." So I bowed my head. She said, "Let's pray to the earth," and I said, "Really." So I looked down. I know Haley very well—I looked down and Haley's going, "Oh boy." "The earth, thank you for teaching us our limits as we look at the ant. Thank you for teaching us to be strong as we look at the tree." This thing went on and on and on.
Sunday I mentioned this in church, and a lady was very frustrated with me and spent 25 minutes telling me how frustrated she was because she thought my mocking that—which I wasn't, I'm just explaining to you my response to the prayer—was an insult to Native Americans. I said, "Okay, tell me why," and she said, "Because that's what they pray to. They pray to their god, and you're certainly not going to judge them, are you?" I said, "Well, obviously I am. I'm going to judge anybody. I don't care about Native Americans or—I don't care about any of that. I'm not trying to insult any group. I'm just telling you if you're putting your hope in the earth, you got some serious issues. There is no hope here. It's all going to blow up and go away. I mean, that's what it is."
And so for many of you, because many of you are in exactly that place, you've put your faith and trust in a God, but it's not the God of the Bible. It's a God of your own making.
Let me help you out here. She can't get done for you what you need to get done. No, it just isn't going to happen. Paul is saying, "Listen, we don't grieve like those with no hope." Jesus is saying your Father knows you need this.
Then He adds this: what do you do? Well, verse 33: "Seek first His kingdom." The word "but" there is also translated "rather" or "instead of." In other words, instead of putting all your faith and trust in all this stuff in here, seek first His kingdom and seek first His righteousness.
One author writes this: "Seeking God's kingdom is losing ourselves in obedience to the Lord to the extent that we can say with Paul, 'I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, in order that I might finish the course and the ministry which I received from the Lord.'" I like that phrase, man, because some of you have dismissed the fact that God's given you a ministry.
You Have a Ministry
You have a ministry. God saved you for a reason. It may not be like Paul's. It may not be like mine. Mine certainly isn't like Billy Graham's, and mine's different from this guy over here. That's not the point. The point is not for you to compare yourself to anybody else. The point is to understand God left you here for a reason.
Seek first His kingdom—to lose yourself in obedience to Him. We have a song that we're singing at church, and it's called "Lord Reign in Me": "Every thought, every word, Lord reign in me." That's exactly what He's talking about here. Lord, let Your kingdom come. Let it start right here. Lord, You reign in me. You control every thought. You control every word. You control every action. God, You reign in me.
I seek for You to be the master in my life. I want Your kingdom and Your righteousness instead of all of this stuff that we hunger and thirst for in the form of a car, house, or a boat, or good tickets to a game, or standing in line. Who is that goof that sleeps in line for two weeks to see a Star Wars? Let me help you out, my friend. This is not complicated. We can go next week, and we'll be the only ones there. That's the way to do this.
You think 40 years from now you're going to sit around: "You know, my kids, I slept out for two weeks to see Star Wars." They're going to go, "Dad, you've been an idiot from the get-go. You're not just nutty at the end. You're nutty your whole life." Don't we do it?
Don't Be Anxious for Tomorrow
So here's the end. Verse 34: "Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." And everybody said amen. Each day has trouble in it, and apparently there were people here who were worrying about tomorrow. Did we make sure you understand what He's saying here?
You had people here who were worrying about tomorrow: "What about the future? What about this?" And Jesus is saying you got enough problems right here. You don't have to create some for down the road. You're not to worry about two months from now or two years from now. Don't worry about it.
Five Guaranteed Ways to Eliminate Stress
The first talk I ever remember giving really in a setting where I was invited—somebody said, "Just do whatever you want to do"—I did a talk that I titled "All Stressed Up and No Place to Go." And I subtitled it, because I worked on it (I wish I could find the notes; I'm not very organized; I have no idea where the notes are), but I changed it over the years to "Five Guaranteed Ways to Eliminate Stress in Your Life."
Let me give them to you, and we'll close. Let me give them to you. And I'm not going to expand on them, and they are not—if you're sitting there going, "Oh wow, this will be profound," let me help you out. It may be profound, but it's really simple.
**Number one: Things are temporary.** We spend all this time trying to get, accumulate, protect, retain, maintain things that are going to go away. "Therefore we do not lose heart," Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:16. "Though the outer man is decaying, the inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not at things that are seen, which are temporal, but things that are unseen, which are eternal."
When somebody says to you, "You walk by faith," He's not just talking about faith in Christ, or faith that you can move mountains, whatever. He's talking about faith that what God says is true. And we're dealing in a world here that has eternal consequences, and they're not always tangible. And this world's fading away, and it's temporal.
I can't remember the year. It would have been about '74 or '75. Chevy came out with a Malibu design that had a great look to it. I liked it anyway. Well, I ended up getting one. I bought this brand new powder blue Malibu with a white vinyl roof and a white interior, leather interior. Looked like a pimp driving down the street in this thing. Had my hat. Looking good. Poor pimp, because it was a Chevy. I'm looking good.
Last week, I'm at a stoplight, and a car comes up next to me, and it's one of those Malibus. It's all rusted out, it's all beat up, and it just pulls away, and there's a cloud of dust. And I'm thinking, "I wonder where my blue Malibu is." Because I spent and went into debt, and I did all this stuff to get that Malibu. Malibu Classic. I'll tell you where it is, my guess. It's with Jimmy Hoffa somewhere. That's where it is. It's gone. It's in a giant stadium at one end of it or whatever.
God Is in Control
Here's the second thing: Things are temporary. Here's the second thing: **God's in control.** Remember I told you these weren't all that complicated, but they're profound. Daniel writes this in Daniel chapter 2: God's in control.
R.C. Sproul phrases this: "There's no maverick molecule." There's not one single molecule in the universe that's not under God's control. If there were, that single molecule could come back and circumvent all of God's plan. Subvert it. Turn it around. God's in control.
That doesn't, by the way—and I just give the caution because I know how you think—
I think this way—that doesn't mean I'm apathetic or complacent. It means God's in control. I still work. I still plan. I still prepare. But God's in control.
Listen, I know that for some of you, business is tough and life is tough and things are hard, but what you need is a little perspective. I was just talking to somebody who was a missionary in Zaire, talking to her this morning. They were going back after 11 years, and they said everything they left is run down. They left a generator to try to provide some electricity, but for the last six, eight years, they haven't had the money to get the fuel to fire up the generator. And I'm saying, all right, how cool do I want to set this air conditioning? God's in control.
God Forgives Sin
Here's the third thing. This may sound odd to you. God forgives sin. A lot of your stress and worry comes from sin.
We're a nation with epidemic proportions of phobias and addictions and all these things. Look at the first abnormal behavior in the history of mankind—it took place in Genesis 3, where all of a sudden, Adam and Eve eat the fruit, they hear God, and they hide. Here's the first abnormal behavior in the history of man. What causes abnormal behavior? Sin.
I'm driving along the other day, and I have no idea how this happened, but what pops into my mind is something I did probably almost 30 years ago. An event. Something I did. And it was so bad and so awful. I mean, it is so humiliating and so embarrassing, but not just that—it's just so sinful and dirty. And all of a sudden, my mind started replaying this, and I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, we better stop the tape. Hey, I've been forgiven of that. I can't go down that road very far. I don't have to be in bondage to that guilt.
There are three or four people in this country that if we brought them in here and gave them a microphone and just said, "Tell us what Tom's really like," there wouldn't be a soul in here the next week. I mean, my life is filled with sin. Now, the last 20 years hasn't been as bad as the previous 30. Some gal came up to Susan and said, "I'll bet living with Tom is terrific. I'll bet you guys just laugh from the time you get up to the time you go to bed." And Susan said, "Yeah, he's a real scream. He's a lot of fun." She said, "Do you know he probably laughs more for you than he does for me? He ain't all that great. Have I told you about the cabbage?" That's what she's thinking. Sin.
All Things Work Together for Good
Here's the fourth thing. All things work together for good. Romans 8:28, you know it. In fact, don't say it out loud. But in your mind, get the quote—Romans 8:28—in your mind. Don't say it out loud, though.
Now, what I will do often, but we're not going to embarrass you, is to say, "Somebody give me Romans 8:28," and somebody will say this: "All things work together for good, for those who love God and are called according to His purpose." Well, indeed, that is part of Romans 8:28. Then it's all about you, baby. All things work together for me, because I love God and I'm called according to His purpose. But that's not what the verse says.
The verse starts at the beginning. "And we know"—so you can write "fact" by your verse in your Bible—"and we know God causes all things to work." The verse isn't about you and everything will be okay. The verse is about God and who He is. It's right in the whole discussion on all of those that He foreknew, He predestined; all that He predestined, He called; all that He called, He saved; and they'll be glorified. This is all about God.
If you only had verse 28 of Romans 8, you would know a lot about God. Because if all things work together for good, then God must be all-powerful, because He had to be able to work them all together for good. But He'd also have to be all-knowing, because He'd have to know how to use all His powers. And He'd also have to be all-loving, because He's motivated to do the best. We know a lot about God from Romans 8:28.
Ultimate Security in God's Plan
Here's what we know about ourselves. Ultimately, everything's going to be alright. In an ultimate sense, nothing bad can happen to you. Even the bad things—and we can go around the room, and you guys will give testimony to it—some of the worst things in my life were the moments of greatest joy, greatest triumph, greatest teaching.
So you're going to have bad stuff that happens to you. You're going to have kids that get sick. You're going to have spouses that get sick. You're going to get cancer. You're going to die. You're going to have hardship. You're going to lose a job. You're going to get fired. All this stuff is happening. It's all coming. That's your life. If it isn't happening now, duck, because here it comes. That's just the way it is. That's life. We expect that to happen.
What we have is a promise. All things work together for good. Now, that doesn't apply to everybody in the room. All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. If you're here praying to the earth, you're not a God lover. You love a God that you make in your own image. You love a God that you create. The God of the Bible? No thank you.
In fact, here's how you say it. When we talk to you about the God of the Bible and hell and that, you say, "My God would never." And that's exactly right. You built one just like you wanted it. No, He's not going to do that.
God Doesn't Change
Here's the last thing. God doesn't change. James 1:17: "All good things come down from the Father of lights, with whom there's no variation or shifting shadow." He doesn't change.
Why is that important? Well, that's important because all the things He said before are still true now. Jesus is still the way, the truth, and the life. We want to walk around like it's 2002, like we're really smart and have all this stuff figured out. I'll tell you how smart you are. I'll give you a Jonathan Edwards sermon that he delivered to farmers who didn't graduate...
from third grade who understood what he was saying and you're going, "Well, I don't get it. This is deep." You're not that smart. That's the point. And this isn't a bunch of new stuff. This is profound, unchanging truth.
The Simple Truth: Don't Be Anxious
So here's the message: Don't be anxious. It doesn't mean that you're cavalier. It doesn't mean that you're just whistling through the graveyard. It doesn't mean you aren't going to have bad things. It means the Father who fed the birds and clothed the flowers is going to take care of you.
It may not be what you'd want. It may not be the way that you'd prescribe. It may not be in a 4,000 square foot house—it may be in a two-bedroom apartment. It may not be driving a brand new car, maybe an old car. It may not be filets, maybe 99 cent cheeseburgers. That's not the point. You just wanted to be fed.
It's like with your kids. This just pops into my mind. It's like all these people: "Oh, do you want a boy?" "We don't care. Ten fingers, ten toes. That's all we want." By the time that kid's a little bit older, they went, "Well, you dope. You can't do this and you can't do that and you can't throw a baseball. You mean that's all you can get on a test?"
Yeah, they've got an overriding genetic problem. They got your genes. That's all they're going to get on a test. That's the problem. That's all they're ever going to get. That's all the farther they can go. Why? Who you, who couldn't hit a hundred ninety in t-ball, why do you think you're going to have a kid that hits 400? It's not going to happen. You're dumb as a post and didn't get out of high school and you think you're going to have a Rhodes Scholar? I don't think so. But we go, "God, just give us ten toes and ten fingers" and then He gives you what you asked for and you go, "That's not enough. I want a stud."
Anyway, I have no clothes, let's pray. That's the ending.
Father, help us live this way. Help us not be anxious. Not because we're so smart, so handsome, so pretty, so bright, but because we serve a great God. We know no one can serve two masters. Father, my prayer is that we're serving the one right master, you. That our heart belongs to you, our life belongs to you. God, thank you for these people. It is such a treat for me each and every week to come in and see these people who have so much to do, so busy, so many things going on. God, you take a lot of time out of their schedule to be here. Father, I pray you use this time for your honor and glory. We ask that in Jesus' name, amen.
Have a great week. We'll see you next week.