Do Not Worry

Let's continue our discussion on "Anxious For Nothing." Jesus comes right out and says it three times in Matthew chapter 6:  "Do Not Worry."  That's a big ask. But He goes on to explain exactly how we can get there from here. There are a series of points in this podcast, so I'll list them here for reference.

- Invest Fully In Your Mission
- Manage Your Inputs
- Announce Your King
- Trust The Creator
- Ask Critical Questions
- Schedule Faith First
- Just Get Things Right Today

We can do this. We can find peace and focus in any situation... in Christ. He will guide us there. If you are interested in a journal to help along the daily pathway, head over to www.excelstillmore.life.  

Transcript

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Hello, welcome back for season two of the Excel Stillmore podcast. I am your host, Chris Emerson, and I'm here to encourage you with tips and strategies to help you deepen your faith, build stronger relationships, and do the most with your life in Christ. Thank you for joining. Let's get started. Welcome back once again. I'm so glad you're here. I hope that the text we will cover today in Matthew chapter six will literally change your life. There are few passages in all of the Bible that have had a deeper impact on my day-to-day living than the one we will be discussing today. We are in Matthew chapter six, the Sermon on the Mount, and we are listening to the words of Jesus. He sat all these people down around him, and he began to preach this sermon with a simple purpose to explain to them who are kingdom citizens, what kind of people belong to the Lord, and it is powerful. The title of our episode today is very direct. If you look back, I don't usually use titles that are this definitive, but today I'm just quoting our Savior. He said in Matthew 6, do not worry. When it comes to anxiety, being distracted, being pulled away from spiritual focus and burdened in this life, he said, My people won't live like that. And what I think you will find just amazing today, in the same text where he said, Do not worry, he actually shows us how. These are incredibly practical things you can do today to alleviate that stress and strain in your life. Give me just a second to tell you why this episode exists at all. It wasn't supposed to. A little over a week ago, I preached a sermon at the Lindell Church called Anxious for Nothing. It was a study of the book of Philippians, chapter four, and also Matthew chapter six, but it ended up being a long sermon, longest I'd preached all year, like fifty something minutes. So that night, last Sunday night, I thought, I wonder if I can take all of that data on not being anxious and shrink it down into one twenty minute podcast so people can reference it without having to go through the whole lesson. Well, the answer, apparently, is no, I can't do that. I tried last week, but by the time we hit the 20 minute mark, I'd only covered half of it. We walked through the text in Philippians chapter four, and the episode title matched what was in that passage, Anxious for nothing, and that was about as far as we were able to go. If you would like more information on living a life without stress and burden, I recommend you check out that episode, and if you have done that already, then it's time for us to move our way into the teachings of the Lord. In Matthew chapter six, three times Jesus said, Do not be worried. Verse twenty five of Matthew chapter six, do not be worried about your life, to what you will eat or drink, or your body, as to what you will put on, is not life more than food and the body more than clothing. In verse thirty one, he said, Do not worry then, saying, What will we eat or drink or wear for clothing? And then finally, at the end of the section in verse thirty-four, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. I just want to make sure you're clear on what he's saying here. He's saying, Whatever is going on in your life in the flesh right now, do not worry. Even if it's the most basic things like where will my next meal come from, or do I even have a place to sleep tonight? Do not worry. If it has anything to do with tomorrow or the next day or next week, do not worry. There are no exceptions to this rule. Now, to help you understand that word just a moment, it doesn't mean you won't be concerned about things, and it doesn't mean you won't plan for things. What it means is you and I will not be distracted from God and his kingdom and our joy in him by any physical care, not sickness, not sorrow, not job loss, not marriage problems, nothing. We learn to trust in him. This is a faith issue. Worry is a faith issue, and so he will help us strengthen our faith, and as a result of that, we will see those worries dissipate. There will still be things to pray about, life will still be hard, but nothing in this life will have the power to pull us away from our King. Are you ready for this? This may be transformational for you today, and honestly, I pray that it is. I will be showing you a list of points in this text over the next few minutes. They are not all easy, but the Lord has guaranteed that they will get the job done. And as we live life with fewer burdens and begin to handle situations better, you'll find that so many things that were hard will get easier if we do them the right way. Okay, so we need to jump in here. I have identified seven things that Jesus said that can help us to live more peaceable lives. They come straight out of the text, and I hope that you will take some time this week to study them as well. The first one comes from verses nineteen through twenty one. Jesus said, Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Number one Christians must invest fully in our mission. Do you know what your mission is as a Christian? God's people live with a singular focus to get to heaven and take people with us, to lay up treasures in heaven, to do things that honor God, to do things that draw people to heaven in the end. We may have a savings account, we may have a retirement plan, we may drive a nice car, but who cares? Those things can be taken from me at any moment. That's the way life is, but what cannot be taken away is everything I invest in my relationship with God and the faith of my family. If that is truly the mission, then whatever the devil tries to do here, even so much as taking our health and our life, it cannot stop us from the joy of why we are really here. But to the extent that I get distracted from my mission, there is no limit to the things that the devil can do to confuse me, distract me, and hurt me. So that's really where it all begins, and hopefully you begin your day focused on the true mission, it will help with all of this other stuff. The challenges we're facing with masks and worship abilities and political changes. We just need to stay on mission. Now let me give you a series of points here of those seven in the middle that are really subcategories of that. If you really would like to stay more focused on heavenly treasures, here's something to consider. Verses twenty two and twenty three say this The eye is the lamp of the body. So then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness? Our second observation here is the need to manage your inputs. Now we talked about this a little bit last week with Philippians four, so I won't hang on too long here, but what goes through the eyes fills the soul. Whatever we are watching every day, reading every day, looking at every day, devoting our attention to all of that is coming inside of us and it's taking up space. If you'd like to be less worried about politics or the coronavirus new stats, or the drama of friends and family on Facebook, here's an idea, turn off the television, shut down the social media, and read the word of God. Read the word, pray, have biblical discussions, listen to sermons on a Monday. We are laying up treasures with everything we cast our eyes towards. And the more we do that in the direction of spiritual things and Christ centered things, the more we will have Christ in our hearts, dominating our thinking, and pushing away things that used to sit right in the center of our brains and distract us and discourage us all day long. The verse that follows that adds a little extra to this. Verse twenty four says no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other, you cannot serve God and wealth. A third observation here is maybe we need to get off the fence. If I'm living every day, trying to manage my inputs, that's a great start, but not really sure what I'm going to do today. I'm not sure what I'll be thinking about most of today. And if there is some difficult decision of staying encouraged or getting discouraged, I gotta be honest, I don't know which one I'm going to choose. If that's the way we are approaching every day, then we are probably incurring a lot of internal struggle, being pulled by the world and by God and not really sure which way it's going to go, that causes stress, uncertainty, and despair. But what if you got up every morning and the first thing you did was announced your king? You said, God, I serve you. Every decision that has to be made today, I'm making it right now. I stand with you. I may accidentally falter along the way, but I'm not going to ride the fence and just see which way the wind is blowing. I trust you. So let me put these points together and add that one to it. It starts with invest in your mission, lay up spiritual treasures. How do we do that? Number one, manage our inputs. Number two, you have to get off the fence before the day even starts, announce your king. And as I just said, maybe what we ought to do more and better is just trust our Creator. Jesus goes through this beautiful section while he's telling us do not worry about our life, where he talks about the birds of the air, verse twenty six, they do not sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet God takes care of them. Aren't you worth more than they are? The lilies of the field they grow, even the blades of grass are born when God decides it's time for them to live, they live as long as he chooses, and they pass away when their time has come. I encourage you, especially when life is at its hardest, to just look around at the power of God. Do you see what he has built? Do you witness the cycles that stay in place to make life possible? Are you in awe of his power? If God causes the sun to rise every day and the stars and all of their majesty to continue to sparkle throughout the sky, and if God even causes my grass to grow, whether I'm a big fan of that or not, I've got a pretty good idea that he knows how to take care of me, that he will take care of me. I have a living soul made in his image. As I said, to some extent, being distracted by cares and stressed out all the time is really a faith issue, and I don't mean that in an insulting way, I mean that in an optimistic way. If we can see him and know him and grow in our understanding of his power to calm the seas and raise the dead, what would we fear then? I'm excited about growing in my faith and eliminating anxieties from this world. So there are a couple of other really interesting things going on in this text. Right in the middle of that section where he talks about trusting God, Jesus asks us some very fascinating questions. So one of the points I'd like to make here is be sure and take a moment and ask yourself some critical questions, some true self-evaluation moments on how things are going and how you are choosing to deal with the challenges in your life. He asks things like, Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? That's a great question to consider. Are you not worth much more than the birds that God cares for all day long? Verse 27, who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? That's a very Dr. Phil question, like, how's this working out for you? Feasting on Facebook drama or watching tons of cable news and getting all angry about life and what's happening? Is that making your life better? Does God have a better plan for that? The truth is, stress and worry and anxiety actually make our lives shorter. Worry and stress contribute to health problems and vices that shorten our life. And Jesus is kind of like, ask yourself some critical questions here. Isn't your life worth more than what's going on around you? Don't you trust that God can handle this? And what are you really getting out of all of that anxiety? Okay, so just a couple of things left. Let me run you through this. Get focused on the mission. How do we do that? Manage our inputs, start the day by getting off the fence and announcing our Savior, trust the Creator and look for evidences of His power and ask yourself some very important personal questions. Now at the end of the section we have two final points. Verse thirty three, you probably know well, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. What an awesome idea. Let's try that. If we're concerned about what's going to happen today, how will things go at work? How will things go with my health? How will things go with my family? Here's an idea. Let's start the day in prayer and just pray about all of that. Let's start the day in the Word and let God speak to us. Let's start the day planning to do something in kingdom work that is valuable no matter what else happens. And then let the rest of it happen as it will. Even if everything else goes wrong, you've done three really great things today, and it was a day of investing in a future heavenly citizenship. Part of the way that we show that we truly do trust in God that He will provide for us is we are willing to stop grinding over those things and just do the things that matter. Do the things that we know honor Him and let Him do the heavy lifting when it comes to the things of this world. If you're sick, pray, read and serve, and see what God will do. If you are unemployed, pray and read and serve, and then go put in some applications. But seek first the things that mirror your true treasure. There is a peace that comes from that that nothing in this world can diminish. Alright, so I'm really glad I actually have a couple of minutes for this last point, because I think this can all become very overwhelming very quickly. I have laid out a heavy instruction from Jesus that many of us find quite difficult, do not worry, and I've walked you through a series of principles Jesus is teaching. This is not a one point or a three-point discussion, there's a whole bunch of stuff going on. And I think people can get, well, anxious about that. They can listen to this podcast, and maybe you're thinking, I really do need to turn the corner on this, and changes are needed, and I watch way more television than I read the word, and I spend way too much time on social media, and this all just seems like too much. And then we begin to get anxious about the need to make changes, and I don't want you to feel that way. First of all, we're talking about Jesus here. He is a God of mercy, forgiveness, and grace, and if you're ready to get better, he's ready to help. And I think his last piece of instruction captures that well. He said do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. So listen, look towards heaven and lay up treasures there. Learn new behaviors. But in the end, just get things right today. All you are responsible for is today. You may not be able to manage your inputs for the rest of your life, but I believe you could do it today. You may not think to ask yourself critical questions for the rest of your life, and you may not always schedule faith things first, but you could do it today. If we are the kind of people who focus on the now and connect our hearts to Christ today, and we do that day in and day out, one at a time, the benefit is incredible. You know that I recommend the daily journal as a way to get things kick started. There are a lot of different ways to do it, but all of them involve the day you're living and making the best of it. Listen, Jesus has an incredible peace plan for your life. He has shown us the way in this beautiful chapter so that you can live and spread this most outstanding message. Do not worry. Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you enjoyed the program, please remember to share with your family and your friends. Also, you can go to excelstillmore.life to sign up for emails, order the three month journals, or just catch up on old episodes. So until next time, let me leave you with this whatever you choose to do today in the name of the Lord Jesus, excel stillmore.