Charles Stanley - Overcoming Worry
What do you worry about most in life? Is it your health, your marriage, your children? Maybe you worry most about what other people think about you. Maybe it's because you're worried because you don't know what God thinks about you and you're concerned about that. Maybe it's your finances. What is it that you worry about most? Do you know why you worry? Say, "Well, I've got lots of things to worry about".
Well now, wait a minute. Why do you really worry? Ask you a few questions. Do you believe there's a God? Yes. Do you believe that God loves you? Yes. Do you believe that God is in control? Yes. Do you believe that God answers prayer? Yes. Do you believe that God keeps His promises? Yes. Do you believe Romans eight twenty-eight when he says He causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and to those who are called according to His purpose? Yes. Then tell me why do you worry?
You see there's one thing to be concerned about things, to have a genuine sense of responsibility, to be concerned about things, things that need to be corrected. But worry is something more than that. And what I wanna talk about in this message is this. Not some pie-in-the-sky kind of possibility. I wanna talk about a legitimate, genuine, real, practical, effective way to overcome worry in your life. You do not have to worry. It is not the will of God. It is not the plan of God. You say, "But you don't know my circumstances". You know, you could say that about every sermon you ever hear. "But you don't know my circumstances".
I don't have to know your circumstances. I know that God knows them. And because He does know them, He would not say, "Do not worry, do not worry, do not worry," if He intended for us to worry. So, what we wanna talk about is this. How do we overcome worry in our lives? How do we dispense with it? How do we put it aside? And so, I want you to turn if you will to Matthew chapter six, the Sermon on the Mount.
So, beginning with this twenty-fifth verse of Matthew chapter six, listen to what He says. "For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor for your body, as to what you'll put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing"? So, He's asking the question. "Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they"?
And then He says, "And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow, they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Do not worry then saying, 'What shall we eat?' or, 'What shall we drink' or, ' what shall we wear for clothing ?' For the Gentiles," that is those who are unbelievers, "eagerly seek all these things, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own".
Now, when you think about worry, what do you think about? The very word itself means to be drawn apart. When a person begins to worry, something inside of them happens. They get drawn in two different directions. And usually it's because of something you hear, some circumstance that causes you to have a feeling of danger or threat in some fashion. And if you'll think about it, how powerful worry is. And when you begin to mix what you're thinking with your imagination and think about what happens when you begin to imagine in a circumstance all the things that could possibly happen to you as a result of this.
All the things that could happen to your friend or your loved one or somebody else. Or what could possibly happen to you on your job and what could possibly happen to your finances. When you begin to get your imagination all mixed up with all of that, what happens is you begin to realize the powerful effect that worry can have on you. So, it's this being drawn and pulled apart. And all of us at sometime in our life or the other have worried about things that we look back and say, "Well, you know, that was absolutely unnecessary". But at the moment we were caught up in it. And we felt the pain of it.
And we suffered as a result of it. And there are some people who are chronic worriers. In fact, they wouldn't even know what to do with some of their time if they didn't have something to worry about nor would they have much to pray about if they didn't have some things to worry about because they have just taken upon themselves like this awesome sense of weight. And they are bending down emotionally and mentally over these things that they're so concerned about that's not just a legitimate concern, but now it's a very weighty thing in their life. So, what we have to ask is this. Why do we worry? What's the real cause of it? Why do you worry? Why do you fret and fume?
And you see, the very word for anxiety here and care and worry are all the same Greek word. So, we become anxious, we become worried. And so, what we have to ask is why do we worry? Well, certainly worry is the result of a faith failure. That is, if I'm not placing my trust in Him, I'm gonna worry. And lemme just say this. If you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you have a lot of legitimate reasons to be worried, to be anxious, to be fearful. Because you see, you never know how long you're gonna live or what's gonna happen to you. You never know what may happen to you. What kind of disease you could catch. What may happen to you financially.
What about your job? You have lots of reasons to be worried if you're not a believer in Jesus Christ. Because you see, what I'm about to show you here and to share with you is this. These are promises, these are words that Jesus spoke to those who were following Him, who trusted Him, who believed in Him. And so therefore, He was saying to them three times, "Do not worry, do not worry, do not worry". He would never have said that if He intended for those who follow Him to be worriers.
Now, there's a difference in being a believer in Jesus and a follower. A person who is a believer in Jesus is one who has placed their trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and have received the gift of eternal life. A follower of Jesus is a person who has done the same thing, only a follower of Jesus now wants to learn the commands of Jesus. A follower of Jesus wants to be obedient to Jesus. A follower of Jesus Christ desires and strives to be obedient, to place their trust in Him, and to do the things that the Lord Jesus Christ commanded us to do. And to remove from their life those things that do not fit who we are. So, worry does not fit a follower of Jesus.
Now, let's look to see what Jesus said about the reasons you and I need not to worry. So, this is not my reason, these are His reasons. So, I want you to look at this twenty-fifth verse again and think about this for a moment. When He said, "Do not worry," these are not suggestions. And he's not talking to people who have it all together. He's talking to people, many of whom were slaves, who were living in difficult circumstances and situations. He says, "Do not worry". So, when you look at these verses, I want you to see a little bit of the background for a second because you'll notice He says in verse twenty-five, "For this reason". What is He talking about?
Well, notice if you will in the same chapter now, verse seven. He says, "When you're praying, do not use meaningless repetitions as the Gentiles do. They suppose that they'll be heard for their many words". That is, He says, "The ungodly". He said, "Now, don't act like them". "So do not be like them; your Father knows what you have need of before you ask Him". Now, think about this. Remember this. Before you and I ever come to Him with any need that we have, He already knows exactly what we need.
Now watch this carefully. Sometimes what I think I need is not what I need. Sometimes what you tell God you need is not really what you need. He knows exactly what you need. So sometimes we are in agreement 'bout what we need. Sometimes He knows what we think we need is not what we need, but He knows exactly what we need. So, He reminds us of that. Then if you'll notice in verse nineteen. He says, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal; store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break and steal, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also".
That is, don't, listen, don't focus your attention on things material. Focus your attention upon things spiritual. Layup treasures in Heaven. Right thinking, godly thinking, walking in the Father's will, doing His bidding in our life. So, He says, "Look, the Father knows all your needs". Don't spend your time laying it up, getting more and more because, listen. How much is enough? How much is enough? And you know it's interesting that people who have almost nothing, who have very little in life, just get by in life, they worry.
On the other end of the spectrum are people who are multi-multi-multi-millionaires and billionaires. You know what? They're worried too. The first fella over here is worried because he doesn't have anything. The second guy's worried about he's got so much he doesn't know what to do with it. He's afraid he's gonna lose it. You know what? Materialism, material things are not the solution and the answer to the needs of our life because you see if the only needs we have, if our only needs were material, even that wouldn't be adequate, because what's enough? Our needs are spiritual as well as material needs.
So, listen to what He says now, He says, in verse 21, your treasure's there where your heart is. He says the eye is the lamp of the body, so then, "If your eye's 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"! For example, watch this, if your focus of attention is upon material things, He says, "You know what? It's gonna show up". He says, He says the eye is the light of the body.
If you wanna know what somebody's feeling, if you wanna know what they're really like, if you wanna know something about their personality and their whole aspect on life, where do you look? At their hand? No. Feet? No. What do you look at? You look 'em square in the eye. You know what? Because we reveal what we are in our eyes. And so, He says, "Look," He says, "have singleness of eye". Not upon these things. Because if you're interest and you're living, if you're living in the circle of material things and that's what your interest is primarily, you're gonna have reason to worry.
And then notice what He says in the next verse. "No one can serve two masters, either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can't serve God and wealth". That is, you're either gonna be mastered by the material or mastered by the Spirit, one of the two. Then He says now here are His five arguments of why you and I should not worry. Now these are Jesus's arguments, not mine. Listen to what He says. First of all, He says It's needless.
Look at this, verse twenty-five, "For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you'll eat, or what you'll drink, nor for your body, as to what you'll put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing"? He says, "Look, you're worried about all these things. What's really important is life"! And God created you and me. He created us, listen, and He gave us the gift of life. And so, what Jesus is saying is, "Look, you're worried about these things. You're distracted by the material in life. I created you. If I created you to be one of My children, can I not take care of you? Can I not provide for all your needs"? He says, He says, "Do not be worried about your life".
God created you. He'll provide for you. But if you're living in disobedience to Him, and you've refused to accept Him as your Savior, and you've decided that you're an atheist or an agnostic, or you're prideful and arrogant and you don't want any church and Bible and any kind of religion in your life, then expect the consequences. He's talking to His children. A child of God, those who've accepted Christ as their Savior. God is their heavenly Father. He says, "Look, you don't have to worry about things because look who you are". Look in verse twenty-six. He says, "Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they"?
Now for example, He says look at the birds of the air. He says The Father, the Father takes care of them. Birds have this innate built-in instinct. They can fly for miles and miles and miles, come right back to the same place. They don't have a map, don't have a compass. Neither one. They can go some other part of the world, come back to the same place. Well how in the world do they do that? You see, He says the Father's provided. Listen. The Father's provided all the worms they need, all the insects they need, all the grain they need. In other words, whatever they need the Father's provided. And birds don't fret and worry.
Now think about this. Have you ever seen a bird nest that was full of food? You never have. I've photographed a lot of 'em and you know what? They either have a bird egg in there or they're empty. And the bird'll fly back. And you'll see the bird grab a worm and come back. He's got that worm wiggling in his beak. And those little beaks are open and he drops one in this one, flies out again. Do you think he stores all that up week at a time? Does that bird come on the perch and wings a-flicking, head shaking, just worried to death about what he's gonna eat? No, he doesn't. And you see, he doesn't toil, he doesn't fret, he doesn't work. What happens?
Here's what Jesus says, He says, "Look, if the birds of the air have enough", listen to what He says, "Birds of the air, they don't sew, reap, gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they"? Do you know what the crowning pinnacle of the whole creation is? It's you. God created you. He says, listen, "Let us make man in Our image". God made you in His image, that is in the way we operate, not to look like Him necessarily, but we can believe, we can trust, we can be grieved and happy and all the rest. He made us in His image. And so we're the crowning jewel of God's creation.
And He, listen, He created you and me to bring Him honor and glory. He desires that we obey Him. And He said, listen, in eternity future, He will point to you and me as His children and declare over and over and over again the greatness of His power and of His grace, that He reached down and saved sinners like us. Listen, if God loves you enough to send His only begotten Son, Jesus, which He did, to die on a cruel cross, which He did, in order to atone for your sin and mine, which He did, will He not then take care of the material things in life? Those emotional trials and difficulties and hardships we face in life? Yes, He will. And Jesus is laying these down as arguments. He said, "Look, it's needless. And it's senseless," He says, "It's senseless for you to be worried about something when the Father takes care of birds".
Then notice what He says in the next verse. "And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life"? So more than likely He was saying this. Why are you worrying? How useless it is to be worried because, for example, He says can you add any time to your body, now watch this, not by good health but by worrying about it? "So afraid I'm gonna get sick. Huh, you know I could come down with a disease". Why, worrying about it doesn't lengthen your life nor does it make you healthy. It'll make you unhealthy. And then listen to what He says. He says, "It's faithless".
Look at this, verse twenty-eight, "Why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow, they don't toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all of his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith"?
Now what is He saying? We don't have to worry about material things because we have a heavenly Father who's already demonstrated that He's willing to do this for birds and for flowers. And you're the crowning glory of God's creation. And you're worried about material things? That God won't take care of you, that He can't answer your prayer. You're concerned that, well, maybe you're an exception. You're not an exception. If you're a child of God, you have a loving heavenly Father who is absolutely committed to meeting your needs.
You say, "Well, I have needs that are not being met, and I'm worried about them". What you have to ask yourself the question is this. Am I walking obediently before God? Am I trusting Him? Am I manipulating my own circumstances and doing it my own way? So, He says, "Look, it's absolutely useless and it's faithless". And then He says, "It's excuseless". He gives us all, listen, all of these arguments and then He comes to this. He says, "The Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things". And He says, "Look, look where their mind is, look where their heart is. Look what they have their attention upon".
What is it? "I'm worried I won't have enough. I'm worried I'm gonna lose. I'm worried about losing my job. I'm worried about this and worried about that. I won't have enough, can't pay my rent, can't do this, can't do that". Where is God? You say, "All right, Jesus said we should not worry. There are consequences. There are reasons for it. Now what do I do about it"? Now, I want you to listen very carefully. This isn't some pie-in-the-sky. This isn't just another sermon. This is the truth, practical, livable, workable, powerful, life-changing, worry-vanishing truth.
So, I want you to listen carefully. Now watch this last verse I wanna read here. Watch this. Verse thirty-three says, on the basis of all this. "But instead of doing the other seek first His kingdom, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you". Now let's explain that. I want you to be sure to get this down. I wanna give you three things, very important things. When it comes to the solution of getting worry and anxiety out of your life, remember this now. This is number one. When you are tempted to worry, something hits you in the blind side.
Number one, now get this down, remember this. Remember that your Father, your heavenly Father knows exactly what the need is, He sees the need, and He is with you in that need. Remember that He sees it, He knows exactly what it is, and He's with you. So, whatever you face, you're not facing it alone. He knows better than you do exactly what the need is. So, He sees it perfectly, and He knows all about it, and He's with you in it. That's number one.
Now watch this next very, very important point. Watch this. If you're gonna cause anxiety and worry and caring to vanish from your life, here's what you must do. You must view, listen, you must view the circumstance, the problem, the heartache, the cause, you must view every single circumstance in your life, listen, in the context of your faith. Now watch this carefully. That is, in the context of your understanding of who God is and His promises. Must view everything that way.
Now watch. If you take a camera, for example, and a lens and let's say that I wanna focus on my friend here on the first row. Well, if I just pick it up and put the lens in the camera and just look through there, he may be totally out of focus. And if he's out of focus, I just say This is a blur. That's all it is, it's just a blur. But if I turn the lens properly, I can focus till I have absolute crystal-clear sharpness. I know exactly who He is. I can see the difference in the hairs on his head. Crystal sharp.
Now here's what we do. Something comes along, gets our attention and all of a sudden, we begin to be anxious. What do we do? Watch this. We turn our focus, listen, on what is bothering us. And when we do that, we just blur God right out. And so what happens is, watch this carefully. Whatever the circumstance is, you want to view that in the context of your faith. Now what does your faith say? Your faith says that God is your heavenly Father. He loves you so much that He gave Jesus Christ, His Son at the cross, crucified Him, killed Him in order to save you. That's part of your faith. He's promised to meet every one of your needs.
That's part of your faith. He loves you unconditionally. That's part of your faith. He desires to meet the desires of your heart and the needs of your life. That's part of your faith. He has all power, knows all things, part of your faith. Therefore, listen, whatever comes into my life, I've gotta put it, listen, in the context of my faith. Here's my faith represented by my hands. Here's my faith. So, everything must be viewed from the context of my faith. That is, I wanna see it the way God sees it. In order to do that, my focus must be upon God and not the thing. Okay, here's the thing I'm concerned about, Father.
Now, watch this. When your focus gets off of the cause of worry, and you focus on your heavenly Father, here's what happens. Your faith goes into action cause now you're looking at things from His perspective. And this is why He says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you". Now watch this, I'm not finished. Watch this. So first of all, I'm gonna remember that my heavenly Father knows the need, sees the need and is with me in the need. The second thing I'm gonna do when this anxiety hits me, I'm gonna view that in the context of my faith, in the context of my heavenly Father, who He is, my relationship to Him. As His child, He's my Father, my provider.
The third thing that's so very important is what He says in this verse. Lemme explain it and I'm gonna apply it. He says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God". Now, kingdom means rule. There's the kingdom of God in Heaven, He rules over Heaven. Kingdom of God on earth, He rules over earth. Kingdom of God in your heart. That is, the rule of God in our heart is simply His Lordship, He rules, He reigns. Now watch this. If He's ruling in my heart, I am walking in obedience to Him. So, the rule of God in my heart is I'm acknowledging Him as my Lord and Master and I'm submitting to His rule, I'm obeying Him. He says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, His rule, and His righteousness".
Now when you got saved, God clothed you in His righteousness and therefore we're accepted before God because of the cross and the gift of righteousness. But there is a righteousness that is growing each day in your life and mine. That's the work of the sanctifying process of the Holy Spirit, doing what? Listen, maturing us into Christlikeness, that is the character of Christ in our life. So, here's what He's saying. You want your needs met? You don't have to worry. Make, listen, seek ye first: priority.
Number one, above everything else in your life, here's what He says. You live daily, uppermost in your thinking to obey God today and to grow in Christlikeness. God, whatever You need in my life today to bring me into Christlike character, so do it. He says when you seek first the rule of God in your heart, that I want to be obedient to Him above everything else. I want the righteousness of Christ, the character of Christ to be mine. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, His rule, His righteousness, His character, and all these things.
Listen, this is a promise of the sovereign God of the universe. All these things, all these circumstances, you do not need to worry about that because He is going to take care of it. That is exactly what that passage of scripture means. Now, Jesus says, "Do not worry, do not worry, do not worry". Now, let's put, that's negative. Don't do it. You know what He's really saying? "Trust Me, trust Me, trust Me". You decide whether you wanna keep worrying or whether you wanna live in victory.
You say, "But you don't know my circumstances". Wait a minute. What's the first step? My Father knows my needs. He sees them and He's with me in them. Nobody else has to know them. He knows them. You do not have to worry. Listen, it would be a contradiction of His character to tell us not to do something that we cannot help but do. And you can't contradict His character. He's absolutely perfect. It is a matter of focus. Listen. Not when you get in trouble.
Seek ye first. Make it the priority of your life every day to walk obediently before Him. And ask Him to, listen, to recreate the Christlike character of Christ in you, His rule, His reign in your life. And you know what'll happen? You'll spend time thanking Him, praising Him, making requests, interceding for other people. Then when it gets down to your worry-list, it'll be gone. God'll take away your worry-list and replace it with joy and contentment and peace. I promise you in the name of Jesus He will do exactly what I've said. He wants to do it. He, listen, do you think it's any compliment to God for His children to walk around with a long face, worrying and complaining and moaning and groaning and having pity-parties?
Listen, that's no compliment to a God who, listen, who has an infinite supply of all things. So, you have to make a choice. Today, I stop worrying and I set my focus on the living God who loves me unconditionally. Amen? Now, maybe you're one of those persons and you've never trusted Jesus as your Savior and you say, "Well, how does all of this fit me"? It doesn't fit. Because you see, you can't focus on God until first of all you deal with the sin problem in your life, asking God to forgive you on the basis of what He did at the cross.
Surrendering your heart and your life to Him, and saying, "All right Lord, I've blown it, I've messed it up, I've sinned against You, I'm asking You to forgive me. Not on the basis of my goodness, but on the basis that Jesus paid the penalty two thousand years ago at the cross. I'm asking You to forgive me of my sin, receiving You as my Savior, accepting the gift of eternal life". At that moment and from that moment on you have the right to focus upon Him and watch Him do His awesome work in your life. Listen, you'll be surprised at how free and liberated and joyful and happy and peaceful your life can become.
And Father, how grateful we are that in a single verse You can say so much. And I pray the Holy Spirit will seal this message. Do not let one person escape it until we become Your joyful, contented, happy, excited, productive followers of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.