The Guardian of the Heart   -    Matthew 6:25-34

 Sermon  by Pastor Dennis Gleason - Sunday, March 2, 2003

Our text today is found toward the end of chapter six of the Book of Matthew and begins with these words of Jesus:  “Therefore, do not be anxious for your life…” 

Recently, I heard someone say that he had awakened in the morning to find the power was out.  His first thought was that we were at war with Iraq.  War with Iraq is a distinct possibility and it could have dire consequences for many of us.  However, most of us will not be directly affected by it beyond higher gasoline prices and a minor inconveniences.  This comment betrays an anxiety that is almost debilitating.  That is the world in which we live.  People are anxious.  People are worried about all kinds of things.  What would you have thought had it been your power out that morning?  I would have wondered: what time is it?  Will I be late for work?  Is the furnace working?  Why the difference?  I think personally appropriating what Jesus has to say to us about being anxious or worry in this passage is the answer.  

Let’s look at this from the personal experience of another person:  

In 1555, Nicholas Ridley was burned at the stake because of his witness for Christ.  On the night before Ridley's execution, his brother offered to remain with him in the prison chamber to be of assistance and comfort.  Nicholas declined the offer and replied that he meant to go to bed and sleep as quietly as ever he did in his life.  Because he knew the peace of God, he could rest in the strength of the everlasting arms of his Lord to meet his need.  So can we!  One man can go to the stake after a good night’s sleep; while another can hardly function because the power is out and it must be signaling a war had begun.

Worry is faith in the negative, trust in the unpleasant, assurance of disaster and belief in defeat...worry is wasting today's time to clutter up tomorrow's opportunities with yesterday's troubles.  A dense fog that covers a seven-city-block area one hundred feet deep is composed of less than one glass of water divided into sixty thousand million drops.  Not much is there but it can cripple an entire city.  When I don't have anything to worry about, I begin to worry about that. --Walter Kelly.      

The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety. 

Jesus tells us that we should “not worry about our life.”  This worry is,  “a distracting of the heart from the real object of life.”  It is something that divides, separates or distracts us. Worry or anxiety is looking in two directions at the same time and therefore not really seeing anything.  

Perhaps we could illustrate this by looking at an incident in the lives of Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus.  

We find this story in Luke 10:38-42.  Jesus had come to visit in their home.  He rebukes Martha who is busy trying to take care of Jesus.  He says, “You are troubled, i.e., distracted, worried.”  She did not know where she wanted to be or what she wanted.  Her focus was on her sister Mary and the fact that she was wasting her time listening to Jesus and not helping her get stuff ready to serve Jesus.  Martha was distracted from the main objective of life by this worry.  

Mary had chosen to be with Jesus and she had made the best choice.  She had a single purpose or aim and that was to be with Jesus and she was not going to be distracted by things like food.  Martha was so focused on serving Jesus that she missed the real point of being with Jesus. 

What is the real object of our lives supposed to be?  The object of your life and mine is to give glory to God.  When your eye focused on the Kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33) you need not worry about anything.  This is the message Jesus is giving us here.

Let’s go back to the beginning of our text for today.  It begins with the word “therefore”.  When you read the word “therefore” in the text of your Bible, you should wonder what it is there for.  What has caused the writer to draw a conclusion that follows?  Why does Jesus state this so clearly:  “Therefore, do not be anxious for your life…?”  He uses the word “therefore” again twice more in verses 31 and 34.  

His argument would be that since you have become my disciple committed  to live your life based on the Beatitudes, and have gotten the issues of the treasures of your heart straightened out there is nothing for you to be worried about.  

But people do worry don’t they?  Have you  thought much about the things that cause people anxiety?  An average person's anxiety is focused on :

40% -- things that will never happen.

30% -- things about the past that can't be changed.

12% -- things about criticism by others, mostly untrue 

10% -- about health, which gets worse with stress 

8% -- about real problems that will be faced

 These things should not trouble the disciple of Jesus Christ.  It is as if Jesus were telling us
Wait a minute!  Consider this before you become anxious.  Isn’t your life more than food?  Isn’t your body more important than clothes?  

Take this life of yours…where did you get it?  Where has it come from?  The obvious answer to those questions is that your life came from God.  We didn’t create life.  We are alive because God willed life to be and it was so.  Life is a gift from God.  

Therefore, if God has given us life, do we actually think that he will suddenly deny himself and his own methods and not see to it that life is sustained and enabled to continue?  He will provide for us.  He will give me what is sufficient to keep my life going.  It is that simple.  You can count on it!

Jesus’ argument follows in his discussion of the birds of the air and the flowers of the field.  The birds don’t sow and plan for the future as man does.  And yet God provides for them.  The flowers of the field, more beautiful than any of the ornate clothing of even Solomon himself, bloom for a day and then become fuel for the fire.  “Are you not worth much more than they?”  Jesus asks. ( verse 26)  

His argument is that if God takes care of these, is it conceivable that He will not care for the needs of the highest order of life He created?  It is a rhetorical question that demands a “no” for an answer.  

His second argument is that worry is useless.  Verse 27 makes that clear:  Can we add even a single cubit to our life span?  Think about this for a moment.  Worry can’t affect the past.  The past is past never to be undone or redone.  We can use the past to spur us on or as a guide for better action in the future, but we can’t do anything about what has already happened.  So why worry about it? 

What about the future?  Worry about the future is wasted effort.  The biggest troubles you and I will ever have are those that will never come.  Future reality is seldom as bad as the future of our fears.   

J. Arthur Rank, an English executive, decided to do all his worrying on one day each week.  He chose Wednesdays.  When anything happened that gave him anxiety and annoyed his ulcer, he would write it down and put it in his worry box and forget about it until next Wednesday.  The interesting thing was that on the following Wednesday when he opened his worry box, he found that most of the things that had disturbed him the past six days were already settled.  It would have been useless to have worried about them.  Start your own worry box.  Wednesday is as good a day as any to check out what is in the box. Let me know what happens when you do.

Let’s go back to the argument of Jesus regarding worry or anxiety.  What he is telling us is this: Anxiety or worry is unnecessary to the children of such a Father as God.  (Verses 25-30).  Anxiety or worry is unworthy in the subjects of such a Kingdom as the Kingdom of God.  (Verses 31-33).  Worry is a characteristic of the heathen and not of one who knows what God is really like.  And Anxiety is unfruitful.  

Worry is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but doesn't get you anywhere.

How then do we defeat worry?  

If we shouldn’t be anxious or worried, how do we get it to work in our real life?  There are two things that really work that we should understand about anxiety or worry:  The first of these is found in Matthew 6:33.  Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.”  When the single most important thing in your life is faith in Jesus Christ and when the greatest desire in your life is seeking the Kingdom of God, you will find that God provides what you need.  There will be no room for worry.  Worry is a lack of faith.  Faith in God through His Son Jesus Christ will put an end to worry. 

The second thing we need to understand and take advantage of is the peace of God.  

The Apostle Paul has this to say in Philippians 4:6-7:  “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and lives in Christ Jesus.”  

When you begin with a thankful heart to rehearse the things that God has already given you , you will find the antidote to anxiety or worry:  the “shalom” of God.  The peace of God will be yours.  It will overwhelm you and guard your heart and mind. 

This peace is harmony in your relationship with God and the rest and contentment that follows from it. Thankfulness is the key to receiving this peace of God.  It is as I communicate with God in prayer and make my specific requests known to him that this peace comes to me. 

Prayer is an indication of my trust and faith in God.  It is the symbol of dependence in my relationship with God.  And when I trust Him and pray with a thankful heart something interesting happens.  God’s peace functions as a sentinel around my life.  

How can I illustrate this principle?  

Have you seen the advertisements on TV about the Internet provider that is symbolized by the butterfly?  In one of their commercials, there is this man dressed in a butterfly suit…wings and all.  He is on the porch of this person’s house.  When the person is deluged with offers, requests and great “opportunities” from the internet and says “No!” the butterfly pulls the lever and the person making the offer falls down through a trapdoor and the next one steps up onto the trap door and down they go too!  The message of the commercial is that the guardian…this internet provider…will protect the subscriber from all kinds of evil on the internet.

The Peace of God, like a sentinel, patrols around the heart.  It protects and guards your physical, mental and spiritual life.  You are as safe as if you were in an impregnable castle.  Anxiety or worry has no place to rest in your life and trouble you.  Paul’s message is “ Stop being anxious…” which means that we either stop being anxious or that we go on refusing to become anxious.  It is a command that we can obey!  Faith in Jesus Christ and a thankful, prayerful heart will stop worry in its tracks.  

Let’s end our thoughts on worry and anxiety with this thought:

Every evening I turn worries over to God.  He's going to be up all night anyway.  -- Mary C. Crowley, Be Somebody. 

She did. Will we?

-- Dennis Gleason