Sermon Tone Analysis

In Matthew 6:19-24 Jesus focuses on the attitude toward luxury, the unnecessary physical possessions men store and stockpile for selfish reasons.

In verses 25-34 He focuses on the attitude toward what men eat, drink, and wear, the necessities of life that they absolutely must have to exist.

The first passage is directed particularly at the rich and the second particularly at the poor.

Both being rich and being poor have their special spiritual problems.

The rich are tempted to trust in their possessions, and the poor are tempted to doubt God's provision.

The rich are tempted to become self-satisfied in the false security of their riches, and the poor are tempted to worry and fear in the false insecurity of their poverty.

Whether men are wealthy or poor or somewhere in between their attitude toward material possessions is one of the most reliable marks of their spiritual condition.

Man as an earthly creature is naturally concerned about earthly things.

In Christ we are recreated as heavenly beings and, as children of our heavenly Father, our concerns should now focus primarily on heavenly things even while we still live on earth.

One of the supreme tests of our spiritual lives, then, is how we now relate to those two worlds.

The heart of Jesus' message in our present passage is: Don't worry-not even about necessities.

He gives the command, Do not be anxious three times (vv.

25, 31, 34) and gives four reasons why worry, being anxious, is wrong.

* It is unfaithful because of our Master

* It is unnecessary because of our Father

* It is unreasonable because of our faith

* It is unwise because of our future.

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I. WORRY IS UNFAITHFUL BECAUSE OF OUR MASTER

* /"For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on.

Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?"/

(Matthew 6:25)

#. /for this reason/ refers back to the previous verse, in which Jesus declares that a Christian's only Master is God

#.

He is therefore saying, /"Because God is your Master, I say to you, do not be anxious."/

#. a bondslave's only responsibility is to his master, and for believers to worry is to be disobedient and unfaithful to their Master, who is God

#. for Christians, worry and anxiety are forbidden, foolish, and sinful

#. in the Greek, the command do not be anxious includes the idea of stopping what is already being done

#. in other words, we are to stop worrying and never start it again

#. absolutely nothing in any aspect of our lives, internal or external, justifies our being anxious when we have the Master we do

!! A. WORRY IS THE SIN OF DISTRUSTING THE PROMISE AND PROVIDENCE OF GOD

#. yet it is a sin that Christians commit perhaps more frequently than any other

#. the English term /worry/ comes from an old German word meaning /to strangle/, or /choke/

#. that is exactly what worry does

#. it is a kind of mental and emotional strangulation, which probably causes more mental and physical afflictions than any other single cause

* ILLUS.

Meteorologists tell us that a dense fog extensive enough to cover seven city blocks a hundred feet deep is composed of less than one glass of water-divided into sixty thousand million droplets.

In the right form, a few gallons of water can cripple a large city.

#. in a similar way, the substance of worry is nearly always extremely small compared to the size it forms in our minds and the damage it does in our lives

* Someone has 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, which should be a believer's normal and consistent state of mind

#. every believer should be able to say with Paul, /"I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances 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 have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need"/ (Phil.

4:11-12; 1 Tim.

6:6-8).

#. a Christian's contentment is found in God, and only in God

#. in His ownership

#. in His control

#. in His provision

!! B. FIRST, A CHRISTIAN SHOULD BE CONTENT BECAUSE GOD OWNS EVERYTHING

#.

David proclaimed

* /"The earth is the Lord's, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it."/

(Psalm 24:1)

* /"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."/

(1 Chron.

29:11).

#. everything we now have belongs to the Lord, and everything we will ever have belongs to Him

#. why, then, do we worry about His taking from us what really belongs to Him?

* ILLUS.

One day when he was away from home someone came running up to John Wesley saying, /"Your house has burned down!

Your house has burned down!"/

To which Wesley replied, /"No it hasn't, because I don't own a house.

The one I have been living in belongs to the Lord, and if it has burned down, that is one less responsibility for me to worry about."/

!! C. SECOND, A CHRISTIAN SHOULD BE CONTENT BECAUSE GOD CONTROLS EVERYTHING

#. again David gives us the right perspective:

* /“Thou dost rule over all, and in Thy hand is power and might; and it lies in Thy hand to make great, and to strengthen everyone."/

(1 Chron.

29:12)

#. the Prophet Daniel declared:

* /"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 epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men, and knowledge to men of understanding."/

(Daniel 2:20-21)

#. those were not idle words for Daniel

#. when the jealous commissioners and satraps tricked King Darius into ordering Daniel thrown into the den of lions, it was the king, not Daniel, who was worried

#.

Daniel 18 tells us that slept fled from /"the king during the night, but Daniel apparently slept soundly next to the lions, whose mouths had been closed by an angel/

!! D. THIRD, A CHRISTIAN SHOULD BE CONTENT BECAUSE THE LORD PROVIDES EVERYTHING

#. the supreme owner and controller is also the supreme provider

#. one of His ancient names, Jehovah-Jireh, means /"the Lord who provides"/

#. it is the name Abraham ascribed to God when He provided a lamb to be sacrificed in place of Isaac (Gen.

22:14)

#. if Abraham, with his limited knowledge of God, could be so trusting and content, how much more should we who know Christ and who have His whole written Word?

#. the Apostle Paul assured the Philippians, and us, /"God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."/

(Phil.

4:19)

#. whether the Lord gives us more or gives us less of anything, it all belongs to Him, as owner, controller, and provider

#. it is our responsibility to thank Him for what He gives and to use it wisely and unselfishly for as long as He entrusts us with it

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II.

WORRY IS UNNECESSARY BECAUSE OF OUR FATHER

* /"Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not worth much more than they?

And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life's span?

And why are you anxious about clothing?

Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these.

But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith?"/ (6:26-30)

#. the basic thrust of these verses is that a believer has absolutely no reason to worry, because God is his heavenly Father

#. /"Have you forgotten who your Father is?"/

He asks

#. to illustrate His point Jesus shows how unnecessary and foolish it is to worry about food, about life expectancy, or about clothing

!! A. DON'T WORRY ABOUT FOOD

* /"Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not worth much more than they?"/ (6:26)

#. as Jesus says this, it's easy to imagine Him pointing to some passing birds as He says this

#.

it's a good old fashioned object lesson

#.

He calls attention to the fact that birds do not have intricate and involved processes for acquiring food

#. they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns

#. but the Lord has provided them with an abundance of food resources and the instinct to find those resources for themselves and their offspring

#. if God so carefully takes care of such relatively insignificant creatures as birds, how much more will He take of those who are created in His own image and who have become His children through faith?