Foundations of Truth
This is the podcast of Firm Foundations ministries. Our mission is to help you build your life on the unshakable foundation of God's Word, rooted in Scripture and anchored in the grace of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Each episode is designed to strengthen your faith, deepen your understanding, and encourage you to stand firm in a shifting world.
Foundations of Truth
Overcoming Worry: Jesus's Radical Command in Matthew 6
What if worry is more than just an inconvenient emotional state? What if it's actually a theological problem that strikes at the heart of our relationship with God?
Pastor Timothy Mann's powerful teaching from Matthew 6:24-34 reveals the radical nature of Jesus's command: "Do not worry about your life." This isn't a suggestion or helpful tip—it's a direct order repeated three times in this passage. For believers who struggle with anxiety (and that's most of us), this teaching offers both challenge and profound comfort.
Through careful exposition, Pastor Tim uncovers four compelling reasons why worry is incompatible with Christian faith: it's unfaithful because of our Master, unnecessary because of our Father, unreasonable because of our faith, and unwise because of our future. The sermon draws on Jesus's vivid illustrations of birds and flowers to demonstrate God's meticulous care for His creation and the even greater care He promises for His children.
Most striking is the revelation that worry—perhaps Christianity's most tolerated sin—actually maligns God's character by questioning His love and integrity. When we claim to trust God with our eternal souls yet worry about tomorrow's provisions, we speak out of both sides of our mouths.
This message isn't about positive thinking or denying real challenges. Instead, it offers a transformative perspective shift: remembering who owns everything (God), who controls everything (God), and who provides everything (also God). Our responsibility isn't anxious self-preservation but gratitude and faithful stewardship of whatever He entrusts to us.
If anxiety has ever strangled your joy or peace, this teaching offers the theological foundations and practical wisdom to break free and experience the contentment God intends for His people.
Welcome to Foundations of Truth, the Bible teaching ministry of Pastor Timothy Mann and Providence Church, ormond Beach, florida. Providence Church is a local assembly of followers of Jesus Christ dedicated to helping people become committed and mature followers of Jesus Christ. Now here's Pastor Tim teaching the word, turning your Bibles to Matthew 6.
Speaker 2:As I was reflecting and praying and meditating on this, I was reminded of that scripture in Luke where the Lord is specifically talking about not being afraid of people, not being afraid of man, don't fear man. And he says that he sees every sparrow that falls from the sky, every sparrow. And how much more valuable and important are you. And that was in the context of that. And then as I began to reflect on God's care and sparrows and all of that, he reminded me of Matthew, chapter 6. And sparrows are referenced there, the birds of the air, and we'll talk about that in just a moment. And I was reminded. It's almost as if the Holy Spirit was saying to me see, I told you you don't have to worry. But specifically as I was thinking about this passage that we're going to read verse 25 through 34, the heart of Jesus's message in our present passage from Matthew 6 is this Don't worry, not even about necessities. Not even about necessities. Now, that's pretty serious. He gives this command. Let's read it and we'll go back and talk about it. This is a good topic. If I were a seeker-sensitive preacher, I would entitle my sermon how to Overcome Worry. But it's really not about just overcoming worry. It's about focusing on why we don't really have to worry, and we'll discuss that as we go through this text why worry, being anxious, is wrong.
Speaker 2:Let's read, beginning in verse 25. Therefore, I say to you well, now I did something that you shouldn't do, and that is I jumped in the middle of a thought here and I started reading a text. Anytime you find a wherefore, or therefore in Scripture, what do you have to do? See what it's there for? Right? So it ties to the preceding verse right, jesus has just been talking about something else, and it was all about money. And he's just said in verse 24, you can't serve two masters, right, for you're going to hate the one or love the other. You're going to be loyal to one or despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. And so the idea here in verse 24, so we can set the context is this you have one master, you have one master, and, assuming you're a Christian, that master is the Lord Jesus, god Almighty, right, and so because you have one master, you have a master. Because of that, therefore, the next verse therefore, I say to you do not worry about your life.
Speaker 2:Now we could stop right there, and that's a what a tall order that is. Do not worry about your life at all, he expands it. 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?
Speaker 2:Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, for they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you, by worrying, can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, and yet I say to you that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Now, if God so clothes the grass of the field which is today, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, oh you, faith. Therefore, do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for after all these things the gentiles seek for. Your heavenly father knows that you need all these things, but seek first the kingdom of god, but seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. That's good, and I think I counted it up.
Speaker 2:But I think in this passage he said do not worry. Three times. It's kind of like the holy, holy, holy thing. Right, we're making a point here, a big point about something, and it's do not worry. He says that three times in this little passage and he gives four reasons. I think there's four reasons here. At least there's four reasons why worry. Being anxious, stressed out is wrong. Here they are. If you want to write them down, I'm going to talk about them.
Speaker 2:It's unfaithful. Worry is unfaithful because of our master, all right. It's unnecessary because of our father. It's unreasonable because of our faith and it's unwise because of our future. I'll say all that again, but I'll now go through it too, as we walk through this passage. It's unfaithful because of our master. It's unnecessary because of our father. It's unreasonable because of our faith and it's unwise because of our master. It's unnecessary because of our father. It's unreasonable because of our faith and it's unwise because of our future. And so, as I've said already, when we're thinking about this, idea of worry is unfaithful because of our master. For this reason, therefore, he's referring back to verse 24.
Speaker 2:Jesus is declaring here again that a Christian's only master is God. He is therefore saying to us because God is your master, do not worry. Because God is your master, do not worry. Now, a bond slave's responsibility is only to his master, and so for us, as believers, to worry is to be disobedient and unfaithful to our master, who is God. I will go so far as to say, for Christians, worry and anxiety are actually forbidden, if you want to use that term. Forbidden, it's foolish, it's sinful.
Speaker 2:In the original language, in the Greek language, the way this is rendered, this command do not worry or do not be anxious includes the idea of stopping what is already being done, in other words, stop it. That's the idea, stop worrying. It's not just do not worry, it's stop worrying and do not start it again. So that's the idea. And he says do not worry about what? About your life? Could anything be more all-inclusive than that statement Don't worry about your life? Now you say yeah, but you know I'm dealing with this, I don't know what else to say about that, other than Jesus said don't worry about your life.
Speaker 2:Soon and very soon, sister Brenda is going to have to start dialysis as she awaits her kidney transplant. When's that going to have to happen? Friday. And yet Jesus says I'm going to pick on you. And yet Jesus says to Brenda don't worry about your life. But yeah, she's having to start dialysis. That's real life. And yet Jesus says don't worry about your life because you have a master. We'll dig into this just a little bit more as we move through this.
Speaker 2:So life is a comprehensive term in the it's psuche. It's the idea of all of a person's being physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Jesus is referring to life here in its fullest possible sense. Absolutely nothing in any aspect of our lives, internal or external, according to what Jesus is saying here nothing in any aspect of our lives justifies our being anxious. When we have the master, that we do, that's what he's teaching us. That we do, that's what he's teaching us.
Speaker 2:Worry is the sin of distrusting the promise and the providence of God. And yet it is a sin I suspect that Christians commit perhaps more frequently than any other. This is probably the one, if we're going to pick a sin, this is it most likely one. If we're going to pick a sin this is it most likely you say well, that's not me, I don't, you know, I don't do that. Well, you've got another one, that's fine. But you've got one, trust me, you've got one.
Speaker 2:The English term worry comes from an old German word meaning to strangle or to choke, and that's exactly what worry does, doesn't it? That's what it does. It's a kind of mental and emotional strangulation which probably causes more mental and physical afflictions than any other single cause. I'm not a doctor Well, I am, but not that kind. But if I were to have to guess, my mother-in-law got cancer from worry. You say, that sounds stupid. She's stressed about anything and everything, wouldn't you agree? Even she would have agreed with that. It's been reported that a dense fog, extensive enough to cover seven city blocks, a hundred foot deep, is composed of less than one glass of water divided into 60,000 million droplets. And so, in the right form, in the right form, which is fog, a few gallons of water can cripple a large city.
Speaker 2:In a very similar way, the substance of worry is nearly always extremely small compared to the size it forms in our minds and damage that it does in our lives. Someone who said worry is a thin stream of fear that trickles through the mind which, if encouraged, will cut a channel so wide that all other thoughts will be drained out. Worry is the opposite of contentment and trust. It's the opposite of it which should be a believer's normal and constant state of mind. Not worry, but contentment and trust should be our normal and constant state of mind. Worry is the opposite of that.
Speaker 2:We should be able to say with the Apostle Paul in Philippians 4, 11 through 12, I've learned to be content in whatever circumstances. I am, I know how to get along with humble means. I am, I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity In any and every circumstance. I've learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. And so a Christian's contentment is found in God, in the Lord, and only in him, in his ownership and in his control and in his provision of everything we possess and will ever need.
Speaker 2:Why? Well, first of all, mark referenced this in his prayers. He was praying before he took up the offering. God owns everything, including the entire universe. David proclaimed in Psalm 24, 1,. The earth is the Lord's and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it, everyone who dwells in it, is the Lord's, not in the sense of being redeemed, but in the sense of him being ruler over them. He also said in 1 Chronicles, 29, 11,. Thine, o Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth. So everything we have now belongs to the Lord and everything we will ever have belongs to him. And so why then do we worry about his taking from us what really belongs to him? Why do we worry about that?
Speaker 2:One day, when he was away from home, someone came up running to John Wesley and said your house is burned down. Your house is burned down. To which Wesley replied no, it hasn't, because I don't own a house. The one I've been living in belongs to the Lord, and if it is burned down, then that's his responsibility, not mine. And I don't think, from what I've read about Wesley historically, I don't think that was a glib statement of his. He lived that way. In all honesty. He had been very successful as a businessman, as a pastor. In so many ways. He was an entrepreneur. He made a lot of money all the way through his life. When Wesley died he had not a penny to his name. He gave it all away. Everything, everything belongs to the Lord.
Speaker 2:Second, we should be able to trust and be content, because God controls everything, even storms. Scripture says that very clearly. David gives us the right perspective. He says 1 Corinthians, 29, 12,. You rule over all, and in your hand is power of my, and it lies in your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone. Daniel declared Daniel 2, 20 through 21,. He said let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to him, and it is he who changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and establishes kings. Wisdom and power belong to him, and it is he who changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and establishes kings. He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding. Now, those weren't just idle words for Daniel, because the events between Daniel 2 and Daniel 6 were separated by many years, and when the jealous commissioners and underlings tricked King Darius into ordering Daniel thrown into the den of lions, it was the king, not Daniel, who was worried. You can read about that. It says the king didn't sleep all night long. Daniel apparently slept very soundly next to the lions whose mouths had been closed by an angel. I don't know if I could have done that.
Speaker 2:Third believers are to be content and trust the Lord, because the Lord provides everything. He not only owns everything and controls everything, he also provides everything. He's the supreme owner and the supreme controller. He's also the supreme provider. The supreme controller. He's also the supreme provider, as is indicated in one of his ancient names Jehovah Jireh, yahweh Jireh, which means the Lord who provides. That's the name Abraham ascribed to God when he was provided a lamb to be sacrificed in the place of Isaac. And so if Abraham, with his limited knowledge of God, could be so trusting and so content, how much more should we who actually know Christ and who have his whole written word? We have every reason to. As the apostle assures us, god will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 2:Now, the needs that Jesus mentions here, back in Matthew 6, the needs that he mentions here, are the most basic right what we eat, what we drink, what we put on. Those are the things that every person in every age has ever needed. But I think, because most Western Christians, like us, have those things pretty much in abundance, we're usually not too often worried about those things. But throughout Bible times, however, you need to understand food and water could seldom be taken for granted. When there was little snow in the mountains in Lebanon, there was little water in the rivers, and if inadequate rainfall came, there was little water in the rivers. And if inadequate rainfall came, it was a real problem. Shortage of water naturally brought shortage of what Food, which seriously affected the whole economy and even make clothes harder to buy. And yet Jesus told them don't worry about those things. Those things are important and the Lord knows and cares about our need for them.
Speaker 2:As Jesus goes on to explain, he he very rhetorically here asked the question is life not more than food? Is the body not more than clothing? All three of those necessities pertain to the body, and Jesus says that the fullness of life is more than merely taking care of the body. And yet taking care of the body has always been a common obsession for people. Even when we're not starving or thirsting or naked, we still spend an inordinate amount of attention to our bodies. Not to say that we shouldn't. We have to be careful.
Speaker 2:The Apostle Paul did say physical exercise profits a little. You get what you put into it. I guess right. He said our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. So those things are important. But at the same time we pamper our body, we decorate it, we exercise it some of us. We protect it from disease and pain, we build it up, we slender it down, we adorn it with jewelry, we keep it warm or we keep it cool, or we train it to work and play, we try to help to get it to go to sleep A hundred other things to serve and satisfy our bodies. And Jesus says that's not your life.
Speaker 2:Even as Christians, we get caught up in the world's idea that we live because of our bodies. And since we live, since we think we live because of our bodies, we live for our bodies. We know better, of course, but that's often the way we act. Our bodies in themselves are not the source of anything. They do not give us life, but are given life by God, who is the source of all life Spiritual, emotional, intellectual and physical. Therefore, whether the Lord gives us more or gives us less of anything, it all belongs to him as owner, controller and provider. And so what's our responsibility in all of that? Our responsibility is to thank him for what he gives us and to use it wisely and unselfishly for as long as he entrusts it to us, selfishly, for as long as he entrusts it to us. And if he takes it away, we say, like Job, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Speaker 2:Worry is unfaithful because of our master. Secondly, worry is unnecessary because of our father. Verse 26 through 30, that's what he talks about. So the basic thrust of these verses is that a believer has absolutely no reason to worry because God is his or her heavenly father. Jesus is basically saying have you forgotten who your father is? Have you forgotten who your father is? And to illustrate his point, he shows how unnecessary and foolish it is to worry about food, to worry about life expectancy and to worry about clothing. He mentions these things Now there's a lot of birds in northern Galilee and I suspect it's likely that Jesus probably pointed to some of the passing birds as he is talking and he says look at the birds of the air.
Speaker 2:That's an object lesson. He called attention to the fact that these birds do not have intricate and involved processes for acquiring food. They don't sow, they don't reap, they're not farmers, they don't store it up in barns. And, like every other creature, birds have their life from God. But God does not say to them in effect, I've done my part, now you're on your own. No, the Lord has provided them with an abundance of food resources and the instinct to find those resources for themselves and their baby birds. Your heavenly father feeds them. That's what he says. And if God so carefully takes care of such relatively insignificant creatures as birds, how much more will he take care of those who are created in his own image and have become his children through faith? He says are you not worth much more than they?
Speaker 2:Now, as a little side note, let me say this Jesus does not suggest that these birds do nothing to feed themselves. All right, anyone who's ever observed them, even for a little while, you become impressed with their diligence and their persistence in foraging for food. Birds spend the greater part of their time and their energy finding food for themselves. Birds spend the greater part of their time and their energy finding food for themselves, for their mates, for their young. They don't worry about where their next meal is going to come from, though. They gather food until they have enough, and then they go about with whatever business they may have until the next mealtime. What kind of business does birds have, I don't know, flying around I guess. By the way, birds only eat excessively when humans put them in a cage. Right, I'm not making a statement on whether or not you should have a bird. I'm just saying they never worry about their food. They never stockpile their food. Now, certain species store seeds or nuts for winter, but they do so out of an instinctive sense, not out of fear or worry, much less they do not stockpile simply for the sake of gloating over their hoard.
Speaker 2:In their own limited way, they illustrate what we should know that the heavenly father feeds them. We should know that. And yet no bird is created in the image of God or recreated in the image of Christ. No bird was ever promised airship with Jesus Christ throughout all eternity. No bird has a place prepared for him in heaven. And if God gives and sustains life for birds, will he not take care of us, who are his children and who have been given all of these glorious promises? Yes, he will Worry about longevity.
Speaker 2:Second illustration here has to do with life expectancy. Our culture is obsessed with trying to lengthen life. We exercise, we eat carefully, we supplement our diets with minerals and vitamins, we get regular physical checkups. Or maybe you're like me and do none of that and you do other countless things in hope of adding a few extra years to your life. And yet what the Bible says is that God has bounded the life of every person. Now, exercise, good eating and other common sense practices, I think, are very beneficial when done in a reasonable way and looked at from the right perspective. They no doubt, no doubt, can improve the quality and productivity of our lives, but they will not force God into extending our lifespan.
Speaker 2:You can worry yourself to death, but not to life. Dr Charles Mayo of the famous Mayo Clinic wrote worry affects the circulation, the heart, the glands and the whole nervous system. I've never met a man or known a man to die of overwork, but I've known a lot who died of worry. So this gift of life is a gift from God to be used for his purposes, for spiritual concerns, not selfish and earthly ones. Our concern should be to obey, honor, please and glorify him, leaving everything else to his wisdom and care.
Speaker 2:Worry about clothing. That's verse 28. Using flowers as an illustration, now, obviously, some of the people to whom Jesus spoke perhaps had little clothing, no more than maybe one set of covering for their bodies. And he pointed again to their surroundings, this time to flowers, to assure them of God's concern and God's provision. He talks about the flowers of the field, the lilies of the field, and he points them out. Now, those beautiful decorations of nature. Now, those beautiful decorations of nature. They make no effort to grow on their own. They had no part in designing themselves or coloring themselves. They do not toil, they do not spin.
Speaker 2:Jesus said, stating the obvious, he says yet I say to you that Solomon, in all his glory, did not clothe himself like one of these. Even the naked eye can see the amazing detail and shading and the coloring of a flower. Under the microscope it shows itself to be even more marvelous and intricate than anybody could ever imagine. And Jesus said yet even Solomon, one of the most resplendent kings the world has ever known, all of his glory, did not clothe himself like one of these little flowers which anyone could pick by the dozen.
Speaker 2:Probably Our worries today are seldom for necessary clothing. Just go look at our closets. If Jesus told those, though, who had but one simple garment not to worry about their clothing, what would he say to us, I wonder? And despite their beauty, however, flowers do not last long. He says that. But if God bothers to array the grass of the field with beautiful but short-lived flowers, how much more is he concerned to clothe and care for his very own children, who are destined to eternal life? To be anxious even about things that we need to survive? Jesus says it's sinful, oh you of it's of little faith. A person who worries about these kinds of things, which I have from time to time, may have saving faith, but doesn't have the faith to rely on God to finish what he's begun. We freely put our eternal destiny into his hands, but at times we refuse to believe that he'll provide what we need.
Speaker 2:Worry is really not a trivial sin. We pass it off as well. It's just everybody does it. It's not a trivial sin because it strikes a blow at both God's love and at God's integrity. Worry declares our Heavenly Father to be untrustworthy in His Word and His promises. So for us to avow belief in the inerrancy of Scripture and, in the next moment to express worry is to speak out both sides of our mouth. Moment to express worry is to speak out both sides of our mouth. Worry shows that we are mastered by our circumstances and by our own finite perspectives and our own understanding, rather than by God's word. Worry is not only debilitating and destructive, but it actually maligns and impugns God, and when we're not in the word, like we should be, so that God is in our mind and in our heart, then Satan moves in to that vacuum and he plants worry, and then worry pushes then the Lord even further from our minds.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to. Foundations of Truth, the Bible teaching ministry of Pastor Timothy Mann, and Providence Church, ormond Beach, florida. Providence is located at 1151 West Granada Boulevard, ormond Beach, florida. If you'd like to contact or learn more about Providence Church, go online to theprovidencechurchorg. If this program has ministered to you, please feel welcome to call the church at 386-310-4997 or write us at 1151 West Granada Boulevard, ormond Beach, florida, 32174. If you feel led by God to financially support Foundations of Truth on this station, visit the giving link at theprovidencechurchorg. Until next time, continue to build your life on the Foundations of Truth through Jesus Christ and God's written word. Join us next week at this same time on this same station.
