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Why Worry?

Pastor Jeremy Schultz
February 27, 2011

There was once a man who was always worrying. He worried about his children, his job, his wife, his health and so on. So one day a friend of this man noted that he was extremely calm and peaceful. “Why are you suddenly so calm?” he asked. “You always worry about everything! What happened?” The former worrier replied, “I just hired a man to do the worrying for me.” “Wow!” exclaimed the friend. “How much are you paying him?” “A thousand dollars a week,” the man replied. “A thousand dollars a week?! You can't afford a thousand dollars a week!” The worrier responded, “That's his problem!”

Now that's just a humorous and quick glance into the topic that Jesus tackles today. But isn't it interesting to note that the very things we worry about today, gave Jesus' first followers fits too! The Master knows all about the real need for food and clothes. They were a daily challenge for the average day laborer then - just as they are for us now. Jesus knows how hard it is for you to make ends meet. He knows what worries you and troubles your sleep. And yet He says to you today, “Do not worry.”

Do not worry about the physical things - “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.” He seems to know us pretty well. These are exactly the types of things that we do worry about. We worry about our house and whether we'll be able to keep it if we have to miss a mortgage payment. And we worry about our job and whether we'll have enough income to match all of our expenses. We worry about our savings being depleted. We worry about all these things. I heard someone once say that, in contrast to how bad off you may think you have it, if you have two pair of shoes and your choice of what to eat, you're rich. And I suppose that he's right. But for the last couple of years, we've been living in a time nobody's seen since the 1930s. A time which no one under the age of 60 has ever seen! We're not accustomed to doing with less. And with things the way they are, we worry. Concerns over the basics of life can be all consuming.

But Jesus says this. “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” Birds swoop in and out of their nests. They are some of the busiest little creatures that you ever did see! This spring, you'll again see them down on the ground pulling up worms. They're constantly busy, but they never ever have to doubt that their God is going to provide for them. He always does. Jesus asks, and “are you not more valuable than they?”

The obvious answer is - Yes...you are! You are so very precious to God. Remember who it is that he's talking to here. You're not a bunch of birds. You are HIS PEOPLE! And just like His people, that He rescued and redeemed from their exile in Babylon, you are precious to Him. God who told them, “Can a woman forget her nursing child?” “Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you! Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49:15). God tells you the exact same thing! He will never forget you!

Why do you worry about these physical things? The pagans run after them and your Father knows that you need them all. But it's not just the physical things of life that we worry about. So Jesus says:

Do not worry about the future. “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? Again, He knows us well. We worry about how high the gas prices will soar. And we worry about the unrest around the world. We look at what's been happening at the state capital in Wisconsin and can imagine more political battles on the horizon. We worry about the taxing of our pensions and we worry about the state and federal deficits. We worry about getting older. We worry about who's going to care for us. Who is going to support us? We worry about our children and what kind of adults they will become.

But God says, “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” I've got it under control. The same God, who holds you in His hand, will hold you tomorrow as well.

Robert Burdette, American Humorist and Clergyman in the late 19th century, wrote a piece called “God's Days.” In it, he says, “There are two days a week upon which and about which I never worry - two carefree days kept sacred - free from fear and apprehension. One of these days is Yesterday. Yesterday, with its cares and frets and pains and aches, all its faults, its mistakes and blunders, has passed forever beyond my recall. It was mine; it is now God's!

“The other day that I do not worry about is Tomorrow. Tomorrow, with all its possible adversities, its burdens, its perils, its large promise and performance, its failures and mistakes, is as far beyond my mastery as its dead sister, Yesterday. Tomorrow is God's; yet it will be mine!

“There is left, then, for myself but one day in the week - Today. Any man can fight the battles of today. Any woman can carry the burdens of just one day; any man can resist the temptation of today. It is only when we willfully add the burdens of these two awful eternities - Yesterday and Tomorrow - such burdens as only the Mighty God can sustain - that we break down. “It isn't the experience of Today that drives people mad. It is the remorse of what happened Yesterday and fear of what Tomorrow might bring. But these are God's Days. Leave them to God.”

Tomorrow is not something to be afraid of. Tomorrow belongs to God. Tomorrow, you will still be in the palm of His hand! He will still be caring for you until the final tomorrow, when you will be in glory with Christ!

Therefore, today Jesus shows you a better way. It is way around all the worry over physical things and future things. It is the way toward perfect peace. Jesus says, “But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”

Jesus says that this whole time, you've been miss-focused. All this time, you have been trying to serve two masters. Instead of obsessing and worrying over the physical and the future, you should be seeking the spiritual. Jesus says, “Seek first the kingdom.” But lest we turn that into a work of the law, let's understand something. The kingdom that Jesus is speaking of here is centered in Him. What Jesus is saying is - “seek how God is reigning in Me! Seek what God is doing in Me! Seek the righteous deeds of My salvation.” And oh, by the way, when you do this... all these other things, well, you're going to have them too!

It's an incredible promise! And God is faithful. He'll show you - that you don't have to worry!

Once there was a carpenter that was hired to help restore an old farmhouse. But he had a rough first day on the job. A flat tire made him lose an hour of work, his electric saw quit, and then his old pickup truck refused to start. The owner of the house drove him home and all the way the carpenter sat in stony silence. On arriving, he asked the man who had driven him in to meet his family, but before he walked through the front door of his house, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands. When opening the door, he underwent an amazing transformation. His tanned face broke out in a smile and he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss. Afterward, the carpenter walked the owner back out to his car. As they passed the tree, curiosity got the better of the owner. So he asked about what he had witnessed earlier. Oh, said the carpenter. That's my worry tree. Every night, I come home, I hang my worries on that tree and say, “God, all these worries I've been stewing over, I'm giving to you here now at the worry tree. I'll pick them up from You tomorrow if You seem to be telling me there's anything I can do about them. Otherwise, I'm turning them over to You. The funny thing is, He never asks me to take them back up!”

No, He never asks that. And He never will. He's got it all under control. And you are in His hand. Why worry? Amen.