The Sin of Worry - Zack Morgan

Lesson Transcript

Well, good morning. It's great to be here. Welcome all the visitors, uh, to our Sunday morning service. Daniel, I'm just going to move the computer over a little. Are we good? Okay. Um, Daniel said that I was fidgeting with the computer last time I got up to speak and it unplugged it, and, uh, he's going to have to do a bunch more editing, so, um, just making sure I don't goof anything else up for him. Um, so, uh, for our visitors, I am doing a two-part series on, uh, uh, worry and anxiety.

I, I spoke about, uh, anxiety last time, and today we're going to look into the sin of worry. Now, um, I don't know if I've ever heard anybody call worry sin, and, uh, I was thinking about, I thought Elam had a good, a good point. Uh, he said that sin tends to be a little bit more deeper than what we think, or I was thinking a little bit more broader. Um, we often think of sin as something that is really, uh, really horrible, really, you know, some really bad thing.

But, um, I've never met Lynn Martin, Caroline's dad, but I've heard, um, him quoted from other people, especially when I was at Shippensburg quite often. And one of his quotes is, uh, I don't know if it's original with him, but what he would say is, "Sin is missing the mark." So missing, missing what God has intended for us to be, the life that God has intended for us to live.

And I can say that not only has worry caused me to miss the mark, but worry itself is missing the mark, uh, hindering me from living life to its maximum potential in Jesus. So when I, uh, preached on anxiety, I, um, I shared a quote. A quote from last time. And the difference between worry and, and anxiety is worry is temporary. There is a concerning situation and you worry about it. Anxiety is persistent even when concerns are unrealistic. It often compromises your ability to function.

So, um, I, Jason, I can relate to what happened to you when you were studying for your message. I was, uh, studying for this message yesterday, and I'm obviously studying for a message on worry. And something I, I struggle with computers. I somehow my computer shut down. I was in the middle of it, and then it popped back up, you know, wasn't able to completely recover your document from, um, your, your worry sermon. And I was like, and I just scrolled down and I, I saw something.

I was like, "No, I lost a whole bunch." And I, before even looking, I was going around the house going, "No, no, no." Like, and ironically, it's about worry. And I go back in, it, it maybe took me another 30 minutes to get back to where I was before. But, you know, that's kind of how worry works a lot of times. At the moment, it seems really bad, but once you actually deal with it and face it, it tends not to be as bad as what we think. And that's about 80% of the time what we worry, the things we worry about.

Once we face it, once we go through it, it's really not that bad. I had another situation, and this happens with my work quite often, but, uh, recently I, um, there's a project where I installed some windows. I do, uh, as you all know, I do construction, carpentry work. And, uh, one of the windows, maybe after I installed it, maybe two months later, it broke and it was cracked. Um, and so my client wanted to know if there was a warranty on the window.

And I had put a bunch of windows in, and there's some picture windows in there. And the, the siding that I put on was, would have been very difficult to take off if we had to replace the whole window. And, uh, and so, so I wasn't sure about the warranty on these windows and all that. I figured it'd be covered under the warranty, but it was something where it was over the weekend. I just kind of thought about it all the time. What am I going to do about the windows?

How am I going to charge them for labor if I have to have a lot of labor? And it wasn't that big of a deal, but I thought about it a lot. And, uh, I called my supplier up, um, on Monday, and he says, "Oh yeah, that those windows are covered by lifetime warranty." A lifetime warranty of, doesn't matter if you throw a bat through it. You pitch a ball there, there, if the window's broken, we cover the window.

I was like, "Okay, great." And, uh, then I, I go out to the job and it ended up just being a window, uh, one of the double hongs, and you can easily pop the sash out and just replace them. And what I ended up doing was just, um, calling my supplier up, ordered the windows, and then my client actually picked up the window and put it in himself. It just took like two minutes. So it was like, okay, I ruined my weekend for nothing, you know?

And that's, that's, like I said, that's how worry has worked for me about 80% of the time, but not always, not always. And that's kind of what I want to talk about. We, we know that, we know that sometimes we worry some things actually happen, some bad things actually do happen to us. And, um, and that's kind of, that's, that's what I want to talk about today. Jesus talks about worry. Um, Matthew 6, we're going to be looking in Matthew 6.

I'm going to be reading, uh, from this passage, and I want to share with you, I shared with you tools, um, for anxiety last time. And I want to, and there's the, there's three steps that I want to look at, uh, on how to combat the sin of worry. So it's going to be Matthew 6:25-34. This is Jesus. Therefore, I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment?

Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these.

Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore, take no thought, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for to, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. So what's the command? Jesus says, don't worry. One thing I find interesting about worry and, uh, people worrying is that since it's so prevalent and it's such a common thing, it's like this is an optional command from Jesus. And I'm speaking even in Kingdom Christianity. It's, it's almost like this is a suggestion from Jesus. Jesus says, don't worry.

And, you know, since it's so, so much a part of our lives, worrying, and if you want to use archaic, uh, word, fretting, it's, it's a suggestion, but it's not. This is not an optional command. This is something we need to take literally. So the command is, don't worry. And why? Because you have a good Father. You already have, you have a Father that already knows, um, all the things that you need. And when I, uh, when I spoke on anxiety last time, I, I, I shared with you my story on how I work through anxiety.

And, um, and the, the breakthrough point came when I realized that I had a God that loved me. I had a good Father. And that was really where I came and was able to break through with my, uh, struggle with anxiety. And what's the remedy? Matthew 6:33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Jesus offers us a holistic remedy for the sin of fear, sin of worry.

If I can use the word holistic, because Jesus doesn't say to do specific things like positive thinking to combat worry or proactively trying to eliminate any potential problems that may come our way, but instead to seek the kingdom of God first and everything else will be taken care of. It's an action that involves your whole life, everything about you. It's, it's a lifestyle. That's how we combat fear is, fear and worry is to, to seek, pursue the kingdom of God, uh, with everything, our, our whole life.

It's, it's, uh, it involves everything that we have. So that's our step, the step number one is seek first the kingdom of God. And seeking the kingdom of God first is putting the kingdom of God before yourself. And a good way that I've come to be able to gauge, be able to gauge my life is by how much, how much am I focusing on evangelism? How much am I focusing on, um, on the kingdom of God? Or am I worrying about work and finances? It goes hand in hand.

When I, when I'm worrying about work and finances, finances, things like that, I realize I'm not focused on the kingdom. I'm realizing I'm not focused on evangelism, and that's not the driving force in my life. So that's step number one, uh, to combat the sin of worry is seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. So moving on to the next verse, Matthew 6:34. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Jesus is simply saying, don't borrow trouble. Don't borrow trouble. Um, and I don't know if this is unique to me, but one thing that I find myself every once in a while is I wake up in the morning and I feel refreshed and I feel, I feel good. And then I'm like, oh, what was it that I was worrying about? What was it that I was worrying about? And I'll think about it and think about what was it. And I was like, oh yeah, I was worrying about my customer hasn't responded to text.

Maybe they're not happy with what I did. You know, oh yeah, yeah, that's right. And I, and it becomes like this pacifier. And it's almost like I've, I've become distracted with the super superficial things of life, um, like work and what people think, money. And that those things that I, I worry about, it's almost like it distracts me from the actual, the difficult things of life, like evil and death and sickness and suffering in the world. Um, and that might be unique to me. I, I don't know.

But so while I'm calling us to find victory over worry, I'm not looking for a happy go, lucky, Christian, uh, carefree Christian life myself. And my question is, we as the church, can we let go of worry for our own life, the things that we worry about ourselves? And can we engage in the, with the world in their sorrow? Can we stop worrying about what could happen to me and realize that someone is going through and experiencing my very fears today? That's not very comforting. Jesus said, don't worry about tomorrow.

There's enough trouble today. And so that's what I'm, that's what I'm asking is, can we live in the moment? Can we, can we face the problems that exist today? And let's, let's face the problems that exist today and deal with them and not, not face the problems that don't exist. Jesus didn't say that you yourself will have enough trouble in each day. And maybe we feel like that sometimes. But he simply just said, there's enough trouble in each day. And I like to paraphrase it.

There's enough trouble in each day that will keep all of you busy every day. So step number two to deal with, to fight against the sin of worry, help other people face their trouble in the world today. And I thought that goes well with what we read in Hebrews. Help other people face their trouble in the world today. So I'm going to move on, uh, I'm going to look in at a few verses in Matthew, Matthew 7:7, verse 11, through, through verse 11. This is, uh, Jesus continues on here.

And he says, ask and it shall be given, shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you whom his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?

If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your, shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? So in, uh, Matthew 7, verse 11 here, it says, if you then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give, give good things to him that ask him? And there's a, and Luke writes in 7, uh, Luke 11, verses 9 through 13.

And this is going to, this is Luke's version on, uh, what Jesus said here. And he says, and I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? So I believe God is the one who supplies our physical needs. And I find it fascinating that Jesus uses the analogy of a father providing for better things for his children than what they ask for. As, as our heavenly Father, when we ask for physical things, he gives us the Holy Spirit. And that's the best gift.

So even when we ask for the physical things of life, and God gives us the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. And, uh, I was just thinking about the gift of the Holy Spirit and, and who the Holy Spirit is. In John 16, uh, 11 and 13, Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit. And he says the Holy Spirit is a guide in all truth. And one thing that I've, I've asked the Father for is that I will have the Holy Spirit even to guide me in the ways of how to provide for myself with the physical things.

And I believe that the Holy Spirit will guide us in all truth, even when it comes to how we provide for our families. And in John, uh, 16:7 there, he says the Holy Spirit is the comforter. He called, he refers to him as the comforter. If I, if I don't go, the Holy, the comforter can't come. And I've, I've thought of that as well. Is the Holy Spirit can comfort us in times of sorrow and need. Uh, he's the comforter. So step number three is ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So I'm just going to go over this, uh, what, what I went through. First of all, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Our mental and emotional energy should be focused on how to help the kingdom of God grow. And that leads us to help other people face their trouble in the world today. You know, Jesus doesn't promise absence of problems, but he does promise us the Holy Spirit.

And that's how we can work through the, uh, that's, that gives us the strength, that gives us, uh, the power to be able to, uh, to be able to, uh, do what he has called us, called us to do.