Healing From Life's Hurts // Healing From Worry and Anxiety

We are in Matthew chapter 6 and we are continuing a series we started a few weeks ago called Healing From Life's Hurts.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Healing from Life's Hurts.

Have you ever tried to stop doing something, but it felt impossible to stop doing it?

Yeah, okay, all right.

Uh how about how about January 1st rolls around?

New Year, new me.

I'm not eating any more junk food.

I'm not going through fast food.

I'm not doing any of that anymore.

But by the time January 10th hits, New Year, same you.

All right.

It can be hard.

It can be hard to stop doing things.

How many of you know what I'm talking about?

Now I bring this up, I bring this up because we get to Matthew 6, and Jesus tells us to stop doing something that seems impossible.

Especially if you have a tendency to do this.

Jesus tells us in Matthew number six to stop worrying.

Stop having worry.

Now, let's just let's just be honest.

It's just us in the room this morning.

How many of them in your life you have ever, ever, maybe just one time, you have worried about something in your life.

If that's you, raise up your hand.

How many of you are like me and you're like, this is this is a question that I can raise up both hands for, right?

Yeah, right, right.

We have a lot to worry about.

We got family, we got finances.

We we got responsibilities, we got Raiders fans are really annoying.

We um there they we got a lot of things to worry about.

And you know, I was reminded of this the the other day.

We live in um we live in the wonderful state of California.

Yeah, that's right.

And something about living in the wonderful state of the of California is uh is these things called taxes.

Ooh.

We have quite a bit of those, don't we?

Right?

And part of the the taxes is we have to pay for the car registration.

Car registration.

You guys know car registration?

Part of part of getting your car registered is you have to pass smog.

Part of passing smog is you can't have your check engine light on.

You're laughing.

You may know where this is going.

So so it's that time of year where we have to get our car registered, but the problem is our check engine light is on.

So the other day, I found out that to take care of that, it's gonna need a lot of work.

And when I saw that text, I started thinking, how are we gonna do this?

What are we gonna do?

How come this kind of stuff always happens at the wrong time?

Is this just the beginning of a bunch of other repairs?

And in the moment when I got that text, my first inclination was worry.

And in my mind, I'm like, it's normal to worry about something like that.

But Jesus would tell me, actually, it's not normal if you're a follower of Jesus to worry about something like that.

And I would tell Jesus, that seems impossible.

And when we read Matthew chapter six, what Jesus would tell me, what he would tell us about worry is he would say, Really, worry is a memory problem.

Worry is a is a is a memory problem.

Now I'd say, Jesus, I don't have a memory problem.

I'm too young for that.

I'm only I I am, I think so.

I'm 37, I'm healthy-ish, I I take my vitamins, I eat my greens most of the time.

I don't have a memory problem.

Jesus would say, Nate, no, if you if your worry is growing, you have a memory problem because you have forgotten something that is causing you to worry.

You have forgotten who your heavenly father is.

Because what we're gonna see in this text is when it comes to worry, our worry shrinks when our view of the father grows.

When our view of our heavenly father grows.

Now, in Matthew chapter 6, some translations say don't worry, some translations say don't be anxious.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

These both come from the same word, it's a Greek word, marimneo, which means to be anxious, worried, unduly concerned, or distracted by cares.

It literally means to be pulled apart in different directions.

Here's what worry is.

They're getting ahead of me back there, okay?

Here's what worry is.

I'm ready to go.

Here's what worry is.

Worry is dwelling on problems that you cannot control.

Anxiety is the emotional and physical experience that often results from prolonged worry.

And what we're gonna see in the text is worry will shrink when our view of the father grows.

And before we get into it, I just want to say this if you have ongoing physical anxiety, it would be worth speaking to a Christian counselor or speaking to a Christian therapist about that that can give you some biblical wisdom and help you work through some things.

Because that's been very helpful to me in my life, and it may be helpful to you in your life as well.

And as we get into text, we see first of all that Jesus gives a very impossible, a seemingly number one, impossible command, a seemingly impossible command.

So let's pick it up in Matthew chapter 6, verse number 25.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

If you're ready for it, would you say amen?

Amen.

All right, let's try it one more time.

If you're ready for it, would you say amen?

All right, that's what I like.

That's what I like.

Okay, this is gonna be the amen service.

I'm feeling it right now.

This is gonna be the amen service, all right?

Here we go.

Okay, Matthew 6, verse 25.

Matthew 6:25

It says, Therefore, I tell you.

Now you know who's talking here?

Jesus is talking.

This isn't Paul, this is Jesus.

Jesus says, Therefore, I tell you, and here are the two words that seem impossible.

Therefore, I tell you, what are the words?

Don't worry about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.

Isn't life more than food in the body, more than clothing?

No, I say, wait, Jesus, I say, hey, but these are necessities in my life like food, drink, clothes, these are necessities.

Are you telling me, Jesus, not even to think about these things?

Jesus isn't telling us not to think about these things, but he's telling us not to give a disproportionate amount of energy to those things.

There's a difference between thinking about something and giving a disproportionate amount of energy to something.

Because what worry is, is worry is giving a disproportionate amount of energy to something.

And let's be honest, when we worry, when we worry, it's depleting, it's draining.

It's a burden.

And this is why Jesus says, this is why Jesus says, hey, hey, hey, hey, don't worry.

But in the process of us not worrying, he teaches the people here that what we have to do is we have to make some rational considerations.

Number two, rational considerations.

Now it's funny to me that Jesus is gonna get pretty rational here because there are times when worry is very irrational.

You ever worried about something?

And you think about it and you look back and you're like, why did I even worry about that?

That was so irrational.

Didn't make any sense.

Like, for example, you you call a family member and they don't answer the phone.

And immediately you're like, is everything okay?

That's strange you didn't answer the phone.

So you you you quickly you call them again and they didn't answer twice.

You're like, oh my goodness, they didn't answer twice.

Or are they okay?

Something happened.

So you decide you're like, I'm gonna I gotta call them again, I gotta see what's going on.

They don't answer the phone for the third time.

You're like, I know it, they're dead on the side of the road right now.

Yeah.

Call them one more time.

By the fourth time, you're like, they don't answer.

You're planning their funeral.

You just know.

You just know, am I gonna ask Pastor Nate to do it?

Am I gonna like ask somebody else?

Or like and it's like, hey, they just didn't answer the phone.

And then and then you call a fifth time, and they pick up and they're like, Hey, is everything okay?

Like, you're alive, you're alive.

Sometimes we're can be irrational, and what Jesus tells us to do is Jesus gives some rational examples to help us understand who our heavenly father is.

Notice what verse number 26 says.

It says, Consider the birds of the sky.

They don't sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them.

Aren't you worth more than they?

He asked them a logical question.

God takes care of the birds.

Aren't you worth more than the birds?

And the answer is yes.

Humans are made in the image of God.

So because humans are made in the image of God, humans have intrinsic worth and value.

No matter what somebody's told you, no matter what you think about yourself, you are valuable because you are made in the image of God.

And what Jesus says is, Aren't you worth more than the birds?

And verse 27, he asks another question.

He says, Can any of you add one moment to his lifespan by worrying?

Church, let me ask you, can anybody add one moment to their lifespan by worrying?

Not one moment.

But doctors tell us that worry can shorten our lives.

Doctors tell us that that worry has all types of medical complications that can go along, that can go along with it when we've been doing it for years and years and years and years.

Verse number 28.

He says, Why do you worry about clothes?

Observe how the wild flowers of the field grow.

They don't labor or spin thread.

You ever like it's kind of comical if you think about it.

Like there's not a flower that's like stressed out.

Like, I need to grow.

Like it's time for me to bloom.

Why haven't I bloomed yet?

They don't labor or spin thread like right.

Verse 29, yet I tell you that not even Solomon and all his splendor, the the richest man in the in the in the entire world, not even him, he was adorned like one of these.

And verse 30 if God closes clothes the grass of the field which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow.

Another question won't he do much more for you?

Come on, won't he do much more for you?

Oh, you have a little faith.

Birds, flowers, grass.

What is he doing?

He's getting us to consider who our heavenly father is.

Because worry shrinks when our view of the father grows.

Worry shrinks when our view of the father grows.

And what he's trying to get us to consider is some really important things about our heavenly father.

First of all, he's trying to get us to consider and understand that God is all powerful.

That God is all powerful.

Who do you think, who do you think allows the grass to grow?

God?

Who do you think allows the flowers to bloom?

God?

God is all powerful.

You know that if the earth, which is kind of crazy, you think about it, the earth is it's like this massive ball.

Said that for you, flat earthers out there, okay?

It's just like hanging there in like space.

And if it were to move, realize this, one percent closer to the sun.

You know what happened to all of us?

Death.

We'd all burn up.

One percent.

You know what scripture tells us that God holds the sphere of the earth in his palm?

That's how powerful he is.

In fact, it says in Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands.

You want to see the greatness of God, you want to see how big God is.

Just go to San Francisco and look on the beach, just go to a mountain and look out, look at a sunset and see the beauty of a sunset, and it shows us how powerful and how great God is.

When you see that, when you see that, the only explanation is man, there is something a whole lot bigger than me that created all this.

God is all powerful.

This text also shows us that God, so God is all powerful, He is omnipotent.

This text shows us that God is all knowing.

He knows what's going on with all the birds, every single one of them.

You know what I think about birds half the time?

I think they're annoying because they poop on my windshield.

Like, but God cares and God knows about the birds.

God is all-knowing.

It says in Psalm 139, you know when I sit down and when I stand up.

You understand my thoughts from far away.

Theologian tells that the word is God is omniscient, He is all-knowing, God is all-powerful, God is all-knowing, and God is the caregiver.

Who's caring for the flowers?

Who's caring for the grass?

God in Isaiah it says that God cares for his people more than a mother cares for her newborn.

You can rest in the fact that God cares about you.

That God cares about you.

I remember a season in my life when I was unable to fall asleep at night.

I was going through a season of deep betrayal, and I had a hard time turning my mind off.

All the what ifs, all the things I didn't understand.

And I try to go to sleep and 1 a.m.

2 a.m.

3 a.m.

I just couldn't shut it off.

So we know exactly what I'm talking about.

Your mind just won't stop spinning.

Your mind just won't stop racing.

And you've tried, and you've done this, and you've done that, and it just you're just overwhelmed.

And I remember in that season, and there was one thing that sustained me in that season, it was this.

It was who my heavenly father was.

That God was all-powerful, that God was all-knowing, and that God cared about me.

And yes, my world was being flipped upside down, but here's what I know: that God is all powerful, that God is all-knowing, and that God cares about me.

And I don't have all the answers, and I have a lot more questions than answers, but here is the one thing that I know that God is all-powerful, that God is all-knowing, and God is the caregiver, and he cares for me.

And worry shrinks when my view of the Father grows.

So, because of who my father is, notice what Jesus says in verse number 31.

So don't worry.

Don't worry.

Pretty clear.

He says it again.

What will we eat?

Or what will we drink?

Or what will we wear?

Remember who your heavenly father is.

If you're worried about it, this is a memory problem.

Like if you're worried about these things, it's a memory problem.

Look what he look what he does for the birds.

Look what he does for the grass.

Look what he does for the wildflowers.

He's all powerful, he's all knowing, he's all caring.

So because of this, I can say, do not worry.

Why?

Because I just showed you who he is.

Well, I want to give you guys an example of this.

A couple weeks ago, I gave a visual illustration in part one of this series, Healing from Life's Hurts.

And uh and Ben told me, Ben, Ben said, he said, Hey man, it had been a minute since you've given a visual illustration.

That was a good illustration there.

So this is what I'm gonna do for you guys.

I want to give us another visual illustration to communicate this, and it's honestly one of the best ones I've ever seen about this, okay?

I think so.

If if I can say so myself, okay?

But I stole it from somebody else, so you know I can say that, all right.

So we we got a box right here.

This right here is our worry box.

You know why it's big?

Because we got big worries.

Some of you came in the room, you got big worries.

We also know that God is with us as his followers.

We know that.

We talked about this in week one of this series, healing from life's hurts.

Jesus or God the Father, God was with Joseph everywhere he went.

The Lord was with him.

We know this, but sometimes what happens is our worries feel so big because they're right in front of our face.

They're in our text messages, they're in our emails.

It's a worry and it's big.

And what can happen because our worries are so big, we can forget that God is all-knowing, that God is powerful, and that God cares about us.

And because of that, our worries can be so big, and though God is present with us, God seems small.

But when our view of the Father grows, when we remember that God is all powerful, when we remember that God is all-knowing, when we remember that God cares about us, this is what's going to happen.

We're going to see that our God is big and our worries are small.

We're going to see, we're going to see that no matter what the worry is, no matter what the problem is in our life, it doesn't change who God is.

That God is still all powerful, that God is still all knowing, that God still cares about us.

And I can get a diagnosis, I can get a bill, I can get a job situation, something going on with my job, I can have a family issue.

And that doesn't change the fact that God is all powerful, that God is all-knowing, that God cares about me.

And when your view of the Father grows, your worries will shrink.

And if you find your worries growing, it's probably because your view of the Father has shrunk.

And when you see the Father rightly, this is what you're gonna realize.

You can give your worries to him.

And when we don't live like this, Jesus tells us in verse number 32 of this text, we're actually living our lives like people that don't know God.

So when I live my life in a way where it's like, yeah, yeah, I mean, my worries are so big, my worries are so overwhelming.

Like I'm worried about all these things.

We're living like somebody who doesn't know God.

Look what it says in verse 32.

Verse 32 says this.

It says, I'll move this over.

It says, for the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things.

They eagerly seek all these things.

And your heavenly father, he knows that you need him.

So those that don't know God, what are they doing?

They're they're worried about this, they're worried about that.

They're they're seeking all of these things, no matter what, at all costs.

Jesus says, Y'all need to calm down.

Your heavenly father knows that you need them.

So here's what you need to do.

Jesus gives us one job in verse 33.

One job.

You ever told somebody that message.

Something else.

You said you have one job, bro.

Jesus says, Hey, every one of us, you got one job.

Here's your one job.

But seek first.

Uh uh, yeah, you got all that stuff going on.

I know you got this.

I know you got no that your job isn't to worry about that.

Your job, my job is to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things.

You know what all these things are?

Everything.

All the stuff we worried about, all these things will be provided for you.

You got one job, bro.

To seek first.

You got one job, sister.

Seek first.

And Jesus gives us this an invitation, number three, to consecration.

Now, if you read the text, you might say, What's the kingdom of God?

Here's what the kingdom of God is the kingdom of God is God's purposes, God's ways, and God's reign.

And the text, this is not just a command, because he tells us to do this.

What this is, is this is an invitation because there's a promise that if I, Nate, if I seek God's kingdom first, he's gonna take care of all the stuff that I'm worried about.

And this verse is really the crux of the passage because Jesus promises every single one of us, if we do our one job, if we do our one job, he's gonna take care of everything else.

Now, we can think that it's up to me to figure out everything else, especially those of you that are like me, that are type A.

I one time had a therapist tell me, she was like, You're overly responsible.

I was like, That's great.

She was like, that's not great.

If you're like me and you're like, I need to do this, I need to do that, I gotta get this stuff done.

I'm gonna figure things out.

That might be part of the reason we can struggle with worry.

But Jesus says, Nope, you got one job, bro, is to seek me first.

Now, here's the challenge is we often have things in our life that compete with God's kingdom being first place.

It's not always bad, sinful things either.

Sometimes it's a good things that compete with God being first place in our life.

I'm gonna ask the ushers to to come forward and I'm gonna ask them to pass out a little card, and on the card it says this.

It has a blank.

Yeah, if you guys can pass them out to everybody.

If we Miss Trisha, can you help them?

Um, Rick, can you guys help them?

Can we get these cards passed out?

It has a blank and it says, This, what you fill in the blank, competes with God in my life.

Now, all of us have something.

I'm not even saying this is this is first place over God, but we all have something that competes with God in our life.

Maybe for some of us, maybe for some of us, what it is, what competes with God is our hobbies.

Maybe for some of us, what it is, it's our job.

For me, this is what I put.

This is just real.

I put life responsibilities because I got a lot of stuff going on.

Life responsibilities can compete with God in my life.

Now, here's here's why I want us to take a moment and fill this out.

Because this allows us to identify in our lives.

You can grab a pencil or you can grab a pen or you can steal a pen from the person next to you.

This helps us to identify what is competing with God in my life.

Because when I put God's kingdom first in my life, here's what's going to happen.

My view of God is going to grow and my worries are going to shrink.

But when God is not first place in my life, then my worries will shrink.

Or my worries will grow.

Here's what I'm gonna invite you guys to do.

This is some self-identification.

This is important.

Self-awareness is a huge part of growth.

It's for us to say, what is it in our life that's competing with God?

I want you to write it down.

Now, at the end of this message, I want to give real quick three simple decisions you can make to put God's kingdom first in your life.

One, you can give God the first day of your week.

As I'm giving God the first day of my week, my view of God is gonna grow because what's happening is I'm I'm gathering with the church, I'm hearing his word taught, we're seeking worship songs.

My view of God's gonna grow because I'm learning about him.

You give God the first day of the week, that is seeking him first.

Here's another way you can seek God first is by give God the first part of your day.

In Luke chapter 6, verse 30 38, or um, Psalm uh chapter 5, it says, In the morning, you hear my voice, in the morning I plead my case to you and watch expectantly.

Luke 6:30

Here's what that can be.

I know y'all have kids.

You some of you guys are super busy.

This is what you can do.

Take a few minutes in the morning and read a little bit of scripture.

On the way to work, talk to God, listen to worship music, prioritize.

Hey, God, you're gonna have the first part of my day.

I'm gonna spend time with you this morning.

And number three, here's another way we can put God's kingdom first is by giving God the first part of your income.

Luke chapter six says, give and it will be given unto you.

A good measure, pressed down, shaking together, and running over.

When I choose to give and obey God in my finances and give at the tide at the 10% level, what I'm doing is I'm telling my heart, God, you are first in my life.

God, you have first place in my life.

I am giving to you.

And this is what else we're gonna see.

We're gonna see God provide for us.

God's gonna provide, and we're gonna have some incredible testimonies of that.

And when God provides, our view of him is gonna grow because we're gonna say, Look, I chose to put you first and give, and you provided, I see how great you are.

And when you seek God first, he promises that he will add all things to us.

We're gonna end this service a little bit different.

Is we're gonna have this box right here.

We're gonna put this right down here at the front.

I'm asked the worship team to come on up here.

And I'm gonna invite you to take your card.

Whatever you wrote.

I don't know what's what competes with God in your life, might be different than mine.

But I'm gonna invite you to take your card and drop it in this box and say, you know what, God, this competes with you, but your first place in my life.

I am choosing on this Sunday morning that I'm gonna seek you first.

And I'm claiming your promises.

I'm claiming your promises that if I seek you first, that you're gonna provide all things for me.

I'm gonna take you at your word.

We're gonna have a moment where we choose to say, God, I'm gonna seek you first.

Let's all stand to our feet right now.