Upside Down Living #17 - Confidence in a Time of Anxiety
Message Description
Dr. Kurt Bjorklund looks at the passage in Matthew 6:25-34 on worrying about the future, Jesus’ simple command to not worry, the lesson of the birds, the lesson of the flowers, and the power of prayer in the midst of our anxiety and worry.
Message Transcript
Welcome, it's great to be together this weekend at Orchard Hill in the Strip District, Butler County, Wexford, online, wherever you are, however you're participating. Hey, before we jump into the teaching today, I just want to encourage you to vote. We know that elections have consequences, and this is just an important election as they all are. And I just want to encourage you to vote your values, the values that we hold as a community, because those things do have public policy implications that are significant. And so, I just encourage you to be part of that and to be gracious to people who see the world differently in the next several days and weeks.
Let's pray together, father, we thank you for a chance to gather Lord we pray for our country. As we enter into an election and potentially some disagreements over how a transition should work or what should be done. We just pray that you would work and keep our country unified and moving in a direction that's good for all people, father, we pray for those of us who are gathered here today, that you would help us just to see and understand your word fully God, if I've prepared things that don't reflect your truth, I pray you'd keep me from saying them. And if there are things that would be beneficial, I pray that you would help me just to say those in this moment. And we pray this in Jesus name, amen.
Years ago, I did something for the very first time that I had never done before, which is why, I guess you do it for the first time. And that is I went rappelling! And I had gone with a group, and I think we have a picture, that is not me by the way in the picture, but this is a picture of what it may have looked like. And I remember standing on the top of this cliff and for the very first time, you turn around, and you're ready to go off backwards. And when you're ready to go, you have to lean back and literally, at least in this case, it was probably 70-80 feet high, and you have to trust that this rope and all the stuff that's there is going to hold your weight. And it's a moment that is full of anxiety, the first time especially, because even though you tell yourself, it's okay and it's going to work, there's something in you that says, this is a scary moment to step off this cliff, lean backwards, and trust the apparatus to hold.
Well, the reason I bring that up is that moment of decision in the midst of anxiety is exactly the moment that we face thousands of times in our lifetime. Sometimes it's a moment about, will I move forward with a decision about a life choice when I'm anxious about what the outcome may be or how it may work out, or maybe we're anxious about something with our resources and we have to make a stressful decision and we aren't sure exactly which way to go. And so, we're sitting there saying I'm not entirely certain, and we still have to decide or there's decisions around our health. Well, Jesus addresses this issue of anxiety and worry in his most famous teaching. The Sermon on the Mountain, it's found in Matthew chapter 6, verse 25 through 34, and we've called this series Upside Down Living because Jesus so often tells his followers about a way that's different than the world.
And it's not that anybody in our culture or that culture enjoys anxiety and worry. But the reality is many times we still worry or are anxious about a variety of things in our lives. I don't know what it is for you today. For some of us, it might be something with our health, money, or with a big life choice. It might be something with our kids. It might be something in our marriage. It might be something that we haven't even told anybody else about, even those closest to us. And we're feeling the pressure of it. And Jesus comes along, and he gives this the striking simple command, “Don't be anxious.” Now, here's what I find interesting or challenging about this. Jesus in a sense, here, is commanding our emotions. He's saying don't feel anxious. Well, I don't know if you've ever tried to tell yourself not to be anxious.
How does that work out for you? It probably doesn't work very well to just say, oh, don't worry about it. I mean, it almost feels like that was that old song years ago, “Don't Worry, Be Happy,” like telling somebody just don't worry, be happy That's all you need to do. It'll work out. And it almost seems like Jesus is just coming and saying, don't worry, be happy, it's all good. But in the New Testament, emotions are commanded consistently.
And this is important because we tend to think that emotions just are, and that we have no control over them. And therefore, we can't help our emotions. In other words, we are happy. We are joyful. We are hopeful, we are anxious, or we're not, but there are 14 different times that the New Testament commands emotion. It commands us to be joyful, hopeful, and to rejoice. And here we're commanded not to be anxious. And, the reason I highlight this right away is, the New Testament does not shy away from saying you have the ability to choose your emotional state and to shape the way that you feel about something.
Again, our modern world tends to say, no, no, no. The emotional way that I experienced the world just is, and I have choices of behavior, but not choices of emotion. Now, Jesus says, don't be anxious or don't worry about your life. And then he says, this verse 25, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” And so, Jesus just simply takes these common issues of his day, which could still be in many ways, common issues of our day, and he says, don't worry about it. Don't be anxious. This is something that is part of life.
And then he gives us two kinds of lessons if you will, from two very practical things that show us the things that we tend to worry about. The first I'm going to say is the lesson of the birds. And he says this in verse 26, it says, "Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns. And yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they, can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" And so, the lesson of the birds is Jesus basically saying, here's what I want you to do, I want you to look at a bird, and watch the birds, and that you see it's common wherever you live. You can see birds unless you're in the North, in the winter, in which case birds are South.
But by and large, you can see birds. And he says, birds don't do a whole lot of anything and yet they always have enough. And then he says, aren't you more valuable than birds? And the reason that he's driving this, is our tendency again, is to say, I need to arrange everything to make sure that I never have a lack of or short of something. And Jesus says, I want you to look at the birds. You're more valuable than birds. And what we tend to have, and this is an old phrase, but we tend to often have a scarcity mindset rather than an abundance mindset. And this scarcity mindset means that there isn't enough to go around, there aren’t enough material goods, and so I have to get it because if I don't get it, then somebody else will get it and there won't be enough, rather than an abundance mindset. And it's almost like Jesus is saying, look at the birds. They understand that there's an abundance. That there's enough that they don't have to worry about something.
And then his second lesson is the lesson of the flowers, which we see in verse 28 and following. He says, “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
So, the lesson of the birds, in a sense, is about security. It's about saying, will I have enough of whatever it is I need. But the lesson of the flowers or the grass of the field, I'm going to say, is about splendor because it says, “your clothes.” Now clothes, certainly in that culture, like ours, were meant for protection. And a lot of common people had maybe one outfit of clothes, but as people got more and more well-to-do, what they did is they added clothes. And the more clothes they had, the more they showed their standing in society. I mean, can you imagine people ever being that shallow as to buy clothes, to try to appear, to have a whole lot? I mean, that's what was going on then.
And so here in our culture, what I believe this is ultimately talking about is splendor. Because the way that people use their clothes was to adorn themselves, to look a certain way, to say, look at me. Now, certainly we could talk about literal clothes here and there are a lot of us, probably if we're honest, spend more time and energy and money trying to adorn ourselves with clothes. But it isn't just clothes. We do this in so many ways where we worry about how we come across, how we look, and how competent we appear.
You see sometimes it's about appearance, but sometimes it's not about our physical appearance, it's about our mental appearance, spiritual appearance, our appearance as a person where we try to weave these stories so that people will look at us and say, you've got it together. And here, what Jesus is doing is he's saying, I want you to learn the lesson, not just of the birds, that they always have enough, that they have security, even though they don't do much for it, but I also want you to learn the lesson of the grass and of the flowers, which are here today and gone tomorrow Jesus says. And yet, I adorn them all the time with splendor. Will I not take care of you? You of little faith.
I saw a video recently. It was a spoof of what they call the millennial engagement. And the video had this man proposing to this woman. And she immediately says, well, wait a second, do you have a photographer? And before he proposes and he's like, yeah, he's over there. And she said, okay, okay, great. And then he starts to propose again. And she's like, well, wait, wait a second. Now you have the photographer, do you think I could be the one that they're looking at rather than you, you could you turn around, and then it just goes on and on. And the spoof is moment after moment, everything that that he tries to do, to say, I'm in the moment, I'm proposing to you, gets washed away by her desire to have the perfectly produced video to show everybody the engagement. And then at the end, they have this product that shows her hair flowing and him proposing, when really, he just got frustrated, and they got mad at each other.
You can Google it, “millennial engagement.” But the reason I bring this up is this is what splendor seeking looks like. Now I'm not picking on the millennial or engagement issue. This isn't a millennial issue. This is a human issue where what we do is, we say, I want to be seen a certain way. And so, this is what I worry about. This is what I'm anxious about. So, we end up being anxious about our security and about our splendor. And what Jesus says here is, that this is what the pagans run after. Now, here, he uses pagan not in a derogatory way. He just means, this is what people who don't have a God, run after. And it becomes a covering for self-trust. And it assumes that we know what we need more than God knows.
I saw an article recently of a famous actress and she was bemoaning her divorce of a couple years ago. And she said, I've never recovered after this divorce. And I thought, that's an interesting statement. Now I haven't been divorced so I don't know how devastating or hard it is. I think it's probably one of the hardest things to go through in this world. But what I found striking was her complete rawness around it, just to say, I am devastated by this. And what she said is, I never envisioned that I would have two kids that would not have a family to grow up in and have to be brought up with a single mom. And what she was saying was, I have a vision of how things should be, and the fact that it isn't, that is devastating.
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Now I appreciate her passion to see a family be the right kind of environment for her kids, but what she's doing is she's saying this is all about how I see things right here and now. Jesus is saying whatever your situation is, look at the birds, look at the flowers, and see that they have security and splendor and they don't work for it the way that you think they do. Notice also that Jesus really is saying, understand that worry doesn't really help you because it doesn't change the situation. I don't know if you've ever been in a car with somebody who drives poorly and you are sitting there thinking, oh my goodness, am I ever going to get out of this car alive? And you can sit there and worry, and you can get tense, grab the sides, and do all kinds of things, but it doesn't change the situation. It does nothing to change the vulnerability you experienced in that exact moment. And Jesus is saying, who of you can add anything to your life by worrying. He says, it doesn't do anything for you. It doesn't change the situation.
And ultimately what it misses is knowing the value that we have to God, that God is good. And that God knows what we need. I was thinking about this the other day. We have two dogs. My wife can't say no to a Lab rescue dog, evidently. And so, our first dog that we had, it's not our first dog, but the dog we had before we had the second one, is the big dog Zion. And I've probably talked about Zion once or twice before. But Zion every evening, when it's about his dinner time, will start to wine. And he whines I think because he's saying, will you feed me today? I don't know if you'll feed me today. I'm concerned that dinner isn't coming. And Zion will whine because in my estimation, he's saying, will you really give me dinner again. I can't trust you, even though every day he gets dinner.
Every time that Zion ends up wining like that, what he's doing in essence, at least from my vantage point, is saying, I can't trust that you're going to give me dinner again. And so, he starts to whine, to say, will you feed me, even though every day, since we've had this dog, he has had two meals. In fact, he could go without a meal once in a while, it wouldn't hurt him. And yet he still whines to say, will you give me dinner? I'm not sure you'll give me dinner. You see worry is in many ways a conversation that we have with ourselves about things that we cannot change.
But prayer is a time when we bring things to God and ask that he work in those situations and bring about change. This is what Philippians chapter 4 verse 6 and 7 says, "Don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, make your requests made known unto God and He will give you a peace that passes understanding." In other words, what I tend to do, what we tend to do, is worry. And we act like my dog, Zion saying, I'm not sure that you're going to be available, God, to work in any way in my life. And we end up worrying and bringing all kinds of trouble into our lives that we can't do anything about.
Now Jesus has an antidote, to this. Verse 33 says, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." And I would just simply say, this is really about what we value, what we prioritize. Now, the word kingdom has appeared several times in this teaching of Jesus in Matthew 5-7. And the kingdom idea is where the rule or the way that God wants things, that's where it is, or the way anybody wants something, that's what it is. That's what it means to have a kingdom.
And so, to seek God's kingdom is to say, I want to seek the way that God wants things to be in this world, in my sphere of influence. And His righteousness means the justice or the way that God wants things to be. And so, they're in some ways used here almost synonymously, but the point is to say, when you seek God's kingdom and God's righteousness first, then God says, I'll add these things to you. You don't have to worry about them. But what I tend to do, probably what you tend to do, is say, well, can I really trust that even though you've provided before, you'll provide again?
One of the reasons that this really undercuts a faith in God is because if you've come to Jesus as your savior, it means that God has provided for you an eternity that is secure, based on Jesus' work, not your work, not my work. And, what we sometimes do is we say, God, I'll trust you to save me from hell, and from sin, and from eternal torment, but I won't trust you to take care of what my little security or splendor needs are. And it says, if he's saying no, no, no, seek my kingdom, seek my righteousness, and you will have more than you ever realize that you will need.
And then it says this verse 34, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” And so, Jesus says, not just that we are to seek His kingdom, but he says, as you do this, that you will have a perspective that says tomorrow has enough trouble. Don't bring tomorrow's trouble into today because that's what we do when we worry, when we're anxious, as we bring tomorrow's trouble into today. And what we need to do is have a perspective that sees who God is and how he can work.
I love that the word “therefore” begins this passage verse 25, therefore, which goes all the way back to what we looked at last week. This idea of money and investing where Jesus said, no one can serve two masters either. You'll love the one and you'll hate the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. And then he says, therefore, don't worry. So, he says, prioritize me in your resources, in your life, in every area of your life, and you will have everything that you need. And then he says, therefore, don't worry about tomorrow because today has enough of its own trouble.
I was thinking about this, and I don't know if those of you who've been parents remember when you took kids to get a shot. If you ever took a kid to get a shot, that's a tough moment because the doctor comes out with this needle thing or the nurse. And they, from the kid's perspective, are going to do one of these and jam it into them. And the kid just loses it, generally the first time, like "Ah, I don't want a shot" and they start crying, and they cling to you as their parent, like don't let this doctor do this to me because this person is scary. They have a big, scary needle, make them leave me alone. And, as a parent, what do you do now? I realize there are anti-vaxxers out there and stuff, so, maybe as a parent, you do something else. But what you do is you peel the child off and you say, no, this is for your good. It's precisely because I love you that I want you to get this shot. And you assure the child, and ultimately, it's their trust in you that lets them say, okay, I'll take this because you have told me it'll be okay.
Now, some kids just fight it all the way, but you know what I'm saying and what Jesus is doing here. I believe He's saying, there will be days when you'll feel like your security and your splendor will never be what you think it should be, will never be enough, but I want you to not worry about it, but to seek my kingdom because in doing that, what you will do is you will come to see that I will provide for you better than you even think that I will. Won't I value you more than the fields that are filled with flowers and adorn you with more? That's what Jesus is saying. Victor Hugo said this. He said, “Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones. And when you have finished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake. In other words, you don't need to worry.
Now, now here's the piece that I really need to do drive home, because it would be easy right now to say, okay, God cares for all of us like the birds and the flowers so don't worry, be happy. But Jesus is available this way to those who have come to him as their savior. In other words, you can't say that the kingdom is important to you and all these things will be added to you, unless you've come to actually embrace Jesus and who He is. The way that you can live without this kind of anxiety or worry is by saying, I have trusted the God of the universe with my eternal salvation through Jesus Christ and that is why I don't worry about that. And because I haven't had to worry about that, I can trust him for all of these other things.
But if you've never come to trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, then you don't have a God who looks at you and says, you're more valuable than the birds or the flowers. Not that he doesn't think that you're more valuable, but he doesn't treat you like a child because at this point you have not been adopted into his family. What Romans talks about is this idea of adoption, that when we believe, when we come to faith, we're adopted into God's family and that then we become His children in such a way that he does what he talks about right here.
So, how do we defeat worry and anxiety in our lives? We name it and see it for what it is. We look to God and see who God is in our lives and then we bring our cares, our anxieties, and we unburden ourselves. We give them to God. In fact, first Peter chapter 5 puts it this way, verse 7, "Cast all of your anxieties on Him, because he cares for you." To cast means to say, I'm going to throw these on to God. I'm going to take them from being my anxiety. I'm going to say, here you go, God, you take it today. You have it today. But right before that is the verse that says humble yourselves, verse 6 of first Peter 5, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time."
In other words, it isn't, God, here I give it to you and I demand that you do something, but there's a humility that says, God, I don't know what's best, but you do. I don't understand where my security or splendor should come from, but you do, so I give it to you. And I'm going to be humble enough to wait for you to do it in your time, your way. And God may not come exactly when you want him to come, but he will always come on time. And what that means is there will be days when you'll sit around and you'll say, it doesn't seem like God's working. It doesn't seem like God's doing anything. And that's why my anxiety is growing, but God may be doing something so great in that time that it will work beyond anything that you can imagine today.
But if you press through and say, I'm going to get this for myself, what you'll do is you'll adorn yourself with the splendor or you'll provide your own security rather than seeing security that the God of heaven wants to give. I don't know what you are anxious about today, what you worry about, but I know enough about people to know that every person has something that they say, I'm concerned about the direction of this, how it’s going to work, and how this is going to impact me. And what I know is that Jesus comes along and He says, I don't want you to worry about this because I am in charge of your security, and I'm in charge of your adornment, and it will be what I deem it to be. And it'll be better than what you can make for yourself. And collectively, I hope that as a church community, that one of the things that's true about us, is that we're not anxious in a world that's anxious.
When people are really fired up about what's going to happen in the weeks and months ahead, or how the economy will go, or where the virus is going, or what's happening with health or mental health, or whatever it is that we're not confident about in the world right now, that we'd be able to say, we're okay, because we know a God who says, don't worry, you're more valuable than the birds and I'll adorn you more than the flowers.
And that sense of calmness in an anxious world will be winsome because people will say, I actually want to know that there's something more than just what's happening here and now. And I want faith in something that's bigger. And that's the invitation that God gives to all of us, to you today, to say, God, will I trust you, for what it is, that it concerns me the most. Father, thank you that your word speaks to our anxieties and our worries, and God, I pray that you would help me and each person who's here to know you as our savior and our father, and trust you with our security and our splendor. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
