Seek First Gods Kingdom and Never Worry Again
Intro: Well morning friends and visitors. My name is Matt Johnson and today we continue our study of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Over the past few weeks Jesus has been asking us to consider THE STATE OF OUR HEARTS. And today Jesus wants us to recognize the worry, anxiety and fear that is so often plagues our hearts.
Prayer: Well friends today Jesus uses the word “WORRY” 6x in just 9 verses. That’s a worry. But the original word is better translated ANXIETY. The worry in this passage is really at that point of becoming a debilitating anxiety and an irrational fear. We know this because in Luke’s Gospel – this EXACT SAME TEACHING about the birds of the air and the flowers of the field – finishes with the words “Do not be afraid.” So do you struggle with anxiety and fear? Do you sometimes find yourself PARALYSED by worry about things you cannot control?
Today 16% of Australians report they have suffered with anxiety for 12 months or more. That is about 1 in 6 people in Australia. But anxiety is much, much higher among young people. ANXIETY spiked among young people during the Coronavirus pandemic and it has not really come back down. THAT’S A PROBLEM. There is also a growing pool of evidence that the more liberal, progressive and woke young people become the more likely they are to have poor mental health. (Slide 2)
This is a graph that comes from DATA produced by PEW RESEARCH during Coronavirus. It was tracking A) the percentage of people suffering mental health issues against B) whether they held traditional conservative family, values or progressive woke ideals. As you can see the more white people especially (represented by the pink) move left in terms of progressive, woke idealistic ideologies the more their mental health declines. So about 11-15% of people with conservative, traditional family values report mental health issues. But that jumps to 38% among people with secular liberal progressive ideologies.
Now among young white females (18-29) who are on the far left when it comes to feminism, racism, sexual freedom, abortion rights, environment etc etc. that number jumps to 57%. The ONLY DEMOGRAPHIC that has worse mental health is the LGBTQIA community where ABS statistics suggest 74% have mental health issues. It seems God and biblical, family values are good for your mental health.
Now if you don’t believe what I’m saying just do a google search later. There are plenty of reports that are now assessing this trend. THE CONSERVATIVES usually claim that the radical left is suffering because they tend to reject belief in God. Without faith in God there is no anchor for our souls. BUT THE RADICAL LEFT usually claims that the only reason they have a significantly higher mental health issues is that they are more willing to talk about their mental health issues than conservatives. Personally, I’m not sure about that…
But sadly, wherever you are on the progressive-conservative spectrum ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION is being reported at a higher rate among young people. Now as I said last week – many believe social media is effecting young people’s mental health. FIRST, young people don’t feel like they measure up to all the “beautiful, popular influencers” on social media. SECOND – social media algorithms are constantly bombarding them with everything wrong from 1) climate change to 2) microplastics to 3) AI taking all the jobs. I don’t know if you saw it, but this past week Facebook & YouTube were found guilty for wrecking a young woman’s mental health and forced to pay US $3m in damages. Anxiety and depression amongst young secular people is a real problem.
But today Jesus says…
Point 1: Do NOT Worry for God Cares about His Children
Show: Matt.6:25-27 (READ)
Explain: Now as you can see Jesus tells us that in Gods Kingdom we should not be ANXIOUS. Six times in just nine verses Jesus speaks about anxiety. The point is – if we are following Jesus – (we should not be anxious or afraid) because we are MORE VALUABLE to God than any bird or flower. THE LOGIC of Jesus’ argument is this; IF A) God looks after the birds and flowers – HOW MUCH MORE B) will he look after us – if we are truly his children.
You can see this in the end of verse 26. Jesus says “are you not much more valuable than they?” Jesus is talking about the birds and the flowers. You are MUCH MORE VALUABLE to God than flora or fauna. But do you really know and believe this? SADLY, most young people today have been raised on A TERRIBLE DIET of atheism and evolutionary theory. THE IDEA that everything came from nothing is the most ludicrous, stupid, unscientific theory man has ever devised. And while there are GAPING HOLES in evolutionary theory and atheism when it comes to abiogenesis, genetics and the fine tuning of the universe – nonetheless we keep teaching our kids in school there is NO GOD and everything came about by PURE CHANCE.
So think about this. First we teach our kids they’re NOT SPECIAL. They’re just slightly more evolved monkeys. And then we teach them there is no good Creator God watching over us. We are ALL just accidental nothings on a lump of rock hurtling through space at 108,000 km/hr hoping we don’t run into an asteroid or get scorched by a solar flare. No wonder all the young people have mental health issues. When there are HUGE GOD SIZED PROBLEMS like environmental warming, microplastics, nuclear war, runaway economic debt and now Artificial Intelligence – BUT NO GOD SIZED SOLUTION it’s all a bit overwhelming. No one can face all that alone – without getting a little paranoid, anxious and afraid. I get it.
We’ve taken away God (who is the spiritual anchor for our souls) and social media companies have created algorithms, so that if our kids look at one bad thing for more than 2 seconds – they’re sent more and more bad things. And then our kids find themselves “DOOMSCROLLING”.
Friends I need to say that secular evolutionary atheism is A PURE LIE conceived in the depths of hell to destroy our kids. So let me assure you there is a God and He made you in his perfect image. You are fearfully and wonderfully made by God as both men and women. You are not trapped in the wrong body. Who God made you as A MALE or A FEMALE is exactly who you are meant to be. Don’t let people put more lies into your head. Just look down and you’ll know who you are. And who you are – whether MALE OR FEMALE is valuable to God. You are made in His image. You are Gods child and He is your Father.
(Gospel) In fact, you are SO VALUABLE to the Creator God – that He came into this world in the man Jesus Christ to die on the cross for your sins. Yes, humanity has rejected God. We’ve all become atheists and stupid evolutionists. We’ve WRECKED God’s planet and BROKEN His rules and we now think a dog deserves humane treatment while we abort our babies. But nonetheless God came into this world and took all the consequences of our sin upon himself to save HUMAN BEINGS. As Jesus died on the cross – he was taking the punishment for all your sin – because he loves you. Now how awesome is that?
You are so valuable to the Creator God – that not only did HE make you in His image. He also came into this world and died on a cross to save you. That’s love. How many people do you know who love you that much they would die to save you? Now you need to DECIDE whether there really is a Creator God and whether he really does love you that much? Thankfully, if you really look at THE EVIDENCE for yourself – you’ll see that there is a God and Jesus Christ was His promised Son.
And this is the beginning of good mental health. If there is A) an all-powerful God and B) He loves you – C) you can leave all the God-sized problems in His hands. You can stop worrying about them. Truly, all the problems facing young people today are TOO BIG for you to fix anyway. That’s why Jesus says in verse 27 – who of you can add a single hour to the length of your life by worrying? Jesus is putting things into perspective. You can’t. When your time is up, your time is up. So if you can’t add a single hour to your life – what makes you think you’re going to fix all the God sized problems in the world? You can’t. God sized problems need God sized solutions. So A) YOU CAN DESTROY your mental health worrying about things you can’t control or B) YOU CAN TRUST there is a God, He loves you and He has a plan to take care of all these problems. And he does. Jesus is coming back to fix all the problems in this world – because they are too big for us to fix. So if you are a young person just get on with living your life for Jesus.
Excursus: Now before we move to the next point – I want to show you how Jesus finishes his teaching on worry in Luke’s gospel (Slide 5). Friends, in Luke’s gospel we see the teaching from last week about TREASURE and the teaching from this week about WORRY are completely blended together. We know the two sections go together because Matthew 6:25 begins with the word THEREFORE…. You see there is SOMETHING ELSE that can DIVIDE our Christian hearts. It’s not just 1) earthly treasure vs heavenly treasure or 2) light vs darkness or even 3) God vs money. Our Christians hearts are also divided between FAITH and FEAR. All too often Jesus calls us to do something in faith and then our fears and anxieties stop us. If Jesus calls you to do something and you think about it too much – you’ll start to WORRY about all the things that could go wrong. WORRY about those things too much – and there is NO MOSES confronting Pharoah, NO JOSHUA leading Gods people into the Promised land and NO DAVID defeating Goliath. Whether you realise it or not – there is a war taking place in your heart between faith and fear. And in too many Christian hearts today – fear is winning
Point 2: Do NOT Worry for God is worthy of your Faith
Show: Matt.6:30-32 (READ)
Explain: Well please understand that THE REAL ANSWER to worry, anxiety and fear is MORE FAITH. Jesus has a go at the Jews calling them people of LITTLE FAITH because they are worrying about everything like pagans who don’t know the true God. I wonder what Jesus would say to us if he was here today? (PAUSE) Little faith or great faith? THE REAL PROBLEM with anxiety and fear is spiritual, not physical. The problem arises because of a lack of faith in God and His provision.
Now I’m not saying that ANXIETY and all the other PHOBIAS people have are not psychological or medical problems too. No doubt problems in the spiritual realm often lead to problems in the physical realm and perhaps even vice-versa. BUT THE REAL PROBLEM is still spiritual, not physical or mental. Now that doesn’t mean that if you suffer with anxiety or depression that you should NOT talk to a doctor or psychiatrist. Sometimes our irrational fears and anxieties become so bad that they actually begin to change our brain chemistry. So sometimes it may be necessary to seek medical intervention. But saying all that – the Bible is clear THE REAL ROOT of mental health problems is spiritual, not physical. I think it’s sad that even with Christians the main answer today for mental health problems is to mask it with pharmakeia, rather than fix the real problem with God’s help.
The Bible is abundantly clear in Romans 1 (and Deuteronomy 28) – that the consequence of rejecting the true God and his plan for life is that He gives us over to A DEPRAVED MIND (Rom.1:28). So mental health issues are linked to rejecting God and not properly trusting God. The answer to such problems according to Roman’s is not pharmakeia but I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is health and righteousness for all who believe (Rom.1:16). Jesus is saying something similar. There is a solution to fear and anxiety and it is more faith in God. That’s good news because it means our mental health can improve with Gods help.
The most common phrase in the entire Bible is “DO NOT BE AFRAID”. It occurs (depending on your Bible translation) between 80-100 times and it is found in the Torah, the prophets, the wisdom literature, the gospels, the epistles and even Revelation. So the thing God tells us to do more than anything else is “DO NOT BE AFRAID.” Now why does God have to tell his people not to be afraid so many times in Scripture? (PAUSE) Well, obviously we have a major problem with fear. Part of the problem is SIN makes us feel GUILTY and when we feel guilty we become afraid of Gods JUDGMENT. Remember when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden – they became afraid and they hid from God (Gen.3:10). Sin immediately led to fear.
Apply: So part of the reason A) we become FEARFUL is that we stop trusting God to take care of God sized problems. But the other reason we become FEARFUL B) is that we know we are doing evil stuff and we face Gods judgment. Now the good news is that if you trust in Jesus and become a Christian you don’t have to worry about Gods judgment anymore. Jesus takes the punishment for all your sins at the cross. But the Bible is clear that Satan (or the devil) uses our FEAR AND ANXIETY to stop us coming to Jesus and/or obeying Jesus. Satan constantly tells us all the things that will go wrong if we trust and obey JESUS. I’ll show you in a minute some Bible verses.
So when Jesus says be GENEROUS. Satan says you’ll go broke. When Jesus says get MARRIED and have children, Satan whispers you’ll end up divorced and the earth is overpopulated anyway. Jesus says WORK HARD and I’ll bless you. Satan whispers you’ll never get ahead, you might as well be lazy. So Jesus calls for FAITH in Gods Kingdom and Satan tries to instil FEAR. So the most common phrase in the Bible is “DO NOT BE AFRAID.” And more than 20x God says “Do not be afraid, for I am with you” says the Lord. So here’s the real question. WILL YOU A) Be afraid OR B) will you trust that God is with you?
There is a battle in your heart between FEAR and FAITH. Let me show you some Bible verses (Slides 8-9). I really want you to see that there is actually A BIGGER PROBLEM in our hearts than temptation for money and earthly treasures. I believe the thing that hinders a Christians progress in the Kingdom of God (more than anything else) is fear and anxiety. Every person listed in the Hebrews 11 – hall of faith had to first overcome fear before they became great in Gods kingdom. In nearly every positive command of God in the Bible faith must triumph over fear before you will OBEY. So you need to be alert to when FEAR is getting the better of you and then you need to consciously choose FAITH (and tell Satan to get behind you).
Point 3: Do NOT Worry just Seek Gods Kingdom – each and everyday
Show: Matt.6:33-34 (Slide 10)
Explains: Well there are TWO THINGS I want you to take on from these last verses. First faith is active – it seeks to do something for Gods kingdom. And second faith does something TODAY, it does not worry about tomorrow.
Here’s the point – when Satan makes you afraid – you become PASSIVE and you do NOTHING at all. A) You don’t get down on one knee and propose. B) You don’t have children. C) You don’t give generously to Gods kingdom and D) you certainly don’t do anything risky like taking on the Goliaths of the world with just a few stones. Instead, you spend all your time in your own head – thinking about all the things that could go wrong and you do nothing! WORSE YET, many of us convince ourselves this is even GOOD STEWARDSHIP. I’m analysing all the possibilities both good and bad before I invest my time, money or energy in some action. And you know what often happens? NOTHING. NOTHING AT ALL. We live in a fallen sinful world where lots can go wrong. So if you indulge all those fears – you will often do NOTHING for Gods Kingdom. But there is another truth – in this fallen world God blesses those who live by faith.
So when Jesus says seek first Gods kingdom and Gods righteousness – he means get off the couch and do something today. Don’t wait until tomorrow. Don’t stay in your head. Do something positive for Gods Kingdom today. Real faith is ACTIVE. Fear and anxiety is PASSIVE.
And Jesus is saying that we need to do THIS EVERY DAY. Simply ask what does God want me to do today? According to the Bible, I need to go to WORK to provide for my family. I need to work HARD and not be lazy. I need to help THE POOR and I need to SHARE THE GOSPEL and I need to love my brothers and sisters in Christ. And here’s the best bit (that alleviates all fear) IF YOU DO THAT EACH AND EVERY DAY – simply focussing on what God wants you to do today – you don’t have to worry about tomorrow. God will take care of tomorrow if you take care of the things He wants you to do today. Say it to yourself (Slide 11). God will take care of tomorrow. If I take care of today. I believe that’s Jesus’ PROMISE to us when he says “Seek first Gods Kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.” If you take care of what God wants you to do today (and every day) then God will take care of what you need tomorrow. GOD PROVIDES us with enough GRACE to get through each day. But God doesn’t provide tomorrows grace for us today. Thats tomorrow.
There is a wonderful picture of this in the Old Testament when the Jews were collecting MANNA. While they were travelling through the desert God gave them special manna to eat each night. But they could only collect enough for one day. If they tried collect tomorrows grace today – it would go bad. So instead of giving into fear – they simply had to trust that God will give us enough grace to get through today and tomorrow he will give us enough grace to get through tomorrow. But God doesn’t give us tomorrows grace today. He gives us todays grace for today. So instead of worrying about tomorrow – simply take up all that God is GIVING you TODAY and do something for His kingdom and His righteousness TODAY.
Then tomorrow do the same thing and the day after the same thing and the day after that the same thing and I believe you will discover God is faithful and He always supplies ENOUGH GRACE for each and every day. You may not know how you are going to get through tomorrow. IT MAY EVEN LOOK IMPOSSIBLE. But I believe Jesus is promising B) you will get through tomorrow if A) you are faithful today…
Friends, as followers of Jesus, I believe the biggest battle in our hearts is between FEAR AND FAITH. Satan is trying to make you weak and timid so that you remain passive. Jesus is calling you to be strong and courageous so that you can overcome the world. So what will you choose – Fear or FAITH.
