The Worry About Tomorrow

 

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 13 MARCH 2022

MATTHEW 6 VERSES 25 – 34 – THE WORRY ABOUT TOMORROW

Stress, anxiety – these are real issues we are facing today.  For the best part of 2 years, we have had to live under COVID 19.  Everything closed up right around the world.  The pressures that put-on families who couldn’t visit each other.  Isolation in homes.  No normal working or shopping.  Places we might have loved to go to were not accessible.  A difficult time.  Now we are seeing reports coming through of how that time has affected the mental health of so many.  Newspapers, social media and televisions are now reporting on the war in Ukraine.  We are going shopping and things are doubling in price.  We see things that are spiralling out of control.  These things do affect us.  There is nothing new about worry.  Concerns, cares, anxiety, stress – we see it even here in this portion of scripture.  Jesus is gathering his disciples around him and is looking into their hearts.  Today I can see the outward appearance of everyone here but that doesn’t reveal the anxiety going on in the heart.  These disciples were worried.  They had sat with the Lord and heard him speak and pray but they were worried about how they would feed and clothe themselves in the days that lay ahead.  Jesus takes them aside and assures them that their heavenly Father knew everything they were thinking and feeling.  He lifts their minds to the air and the birds.  They don’t sow nor reap nor gather into barns, but their heavenly father knows all about them and feeds them.  Then he takes them down to the wildflowers of the field.  They don’t sew garments together, yet the heavenly Father cares for them.  He tells the disciples they were far more important than the birds of the air and the flowers of the fields.  God knows all about us.  What is Jesus saying to these disciples?  What answer does he give for their worries and anxieties – verse 33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”

It is not just a matter of not worrying but we must be sure we are seeking the kingdom of God first.  In the midst of all the worries, trials, calamities, concerns for tomorrow our focus should be on the kingdom of God.  Did we thank God for this new day when we opened our eyes this morning?  We are not immune to everyday pressures.  We are called upon this morning, living in that situation to set aside that worry and seek God.  To live an honest and upright life in front of men and women that they might see.  Matthew Henry that great bible commentator was mugged on one occasion.  He lifted his eyes to heaven and said, “I thank you that I have never been robbed before and that although they took my money, they spared my life and that although they took everything it wasn’t very much and that it is I who was robbed and not I who robbed.”  Our focus should be on God and God’s way.  Colossian 3 verse 1 “if ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.”  Paul is talking about dying with Christ.  When Christ died on the cross, he was dying for your life and mine.  He was also being raised with Christ.  A relationship with Christ.  Romans 6 verse 4 “we are buried with him by baptism into death.”  Baptism is symbol of a new life that Christ gives.  Dying to old life and raising to newness in Christ.  Even so we also should walk in the newness of life.  Seek with a focus because we are children of God, not dwelling on things around us but on Christ. 

Seek first the kingdom of God – this seeking has got to be done first.  Priority that must be essential to put God first.  He was saying to the disciples – you will not prove this until you put God first.  We have to do that today. God first in our family, our community and our nation.  Then we might see a move of God in our nation and our land.  Hezekiah was a godly king who turned the people back to God.  The Assyrian army were on the march.  Jerusalem was in their sights.  Hezekiah in his palace was in a dilemma.  He didn’t know which way to turn.  We often think in such situations “why does this all come upon us?”  There is nothing actually wrong, it is just living in this world that is sinful.  2 Chronicles 32 verse 19 “And they spake against the God of Jerusalem, as against the gods of the people of the earth, which were the work of the hands of men.”  Every day they lived with the taunting of the enemy, they were despised, and they denounced God.  Hezekiah knew the threats were real. He saw the nations fall before Assyria.  The army were at the very gates of Jerusalem.  He could do nothing to prevent it.  “And for this cause Hezekiah the king and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz prayed and cried to heaven.”   Maybe you will feel you are in a helpless situation.  There is only one source of focus – to keep our eyes on the God of heaven.  God says, “call upon me in the day of trouble and I will answer you.”  Elijah the prophet lived in dark days when famine and drought were rife.  His circumstances changed for him very quickly one day.  He was by the brook Cherith when the water dried up.  God told Elijah of a widow woman ready to take him in and sustain him.  The woman looked at Elijah, then looked at her son.  She knew she had only enough meal to make one meal for her and her son.  She was out gathering a few sticks to make a fire and bake that last meal when Elijah turned up.  Elijah told her to do as she planned but instead feed him first.  Then she could make another for her and her son.  He was asking to give what she had to the Lord, to make him a priority.  She went and did according to the word of Elijah and she “did eat many days”.  She proved God in the time of adversity.  God has promised to add to us if we will only seek him first.

How are you to do it?  Not in a flippant way but fervently.  To come with a passion.  That is what the widow woman today.  Her focus was on God and his will for her life.  She was seeking God first and in earnest as she sought.  She set all her own needs aside and put God first. “For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.”  The woman meant business with God.  There is a wonderful lesson here.  In the midst of rising costs don’t cut back on what you put into God’s work.  Don’t neglect God’s work.  Whenever we put God first God will not fail us.  Jesus told the disciples to seek first the kingdom of God, to make sure everything is God’s then “all these things shall be added unto you.”  James 5 verse 16 “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”   “But without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Hebrews 11 verse 6)

We are to seek faithfully.  To focus on him is one thing, to do it first and fervently is another but to do it faithfully is another aspect.  This widow woman did exactly what Elijah told her to do.  She believed God and God sustained her.  She acted on her belief.