First Things First     Matthew 6: 25-34

²⁵“So I tell you, don’t worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food, drink, and clothes. Doesn’t life consist of more than food and clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds. They don’t need to plant or harvest or put food in barns because your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than they are. ²⁷Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not.

²⁸“And why worry about your clothes? Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, ²⁹yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. ³⁰And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won’t he more surely care for you? You have so little faith!

³¹“So don’t worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. ³²Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs, ³³and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.

³⁴“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

After a woman sued McDonalds because she wasn’t warned her coffee was hot, it seems that companies are changing their instruction manuals and product warning labels to cover themselves from product liability.. Listen to a few of these:

On a bar of Dial soap- Directions: Use like regular soap;
Swanson frozen dinners- Suggestion: Defrost before eating;
Marks and Spencer bread pudding- Product will be hot after heating;
Rowenta Iron- Caution, do not iron clothes on body;
On a string of Chinese made Christmas lights- For indoor or outdoor use only;
Sainsbury peanuts warn- May contain peanuts;
On a Swedish made chain saw- Do not stop chain with hand- will call you stumpy for the rest of your life;
On a blanket from Taiwan- Not to be used as protection from a tornado;
On a motorcycle helmet mounted mirror- Remember, objects in the mirror are actually behind you;
New Zealand insect spray- This product not tested on animals;
On the bottle top of a flavored milk drink- After opening, keep upright.

We live in an anxious world.

People are worried about almost everything.

We worry about yesterday, today and tomorrow. We are anxious about what has already happened, even though we can’t do anything about it. We are anxious about what is happening right now. We are anxious about what is going to happen later today, tomorrow or into the future.

What is Jesus speaking about in this passage?

He is addressing a care-worn, worried fear, which takes the joy out of our lives.

The word that he uses for worry is the Greek word:  merrimnan which means: to worry anxiously.

Its corresponding noun is merimna, which means to worry.

The way the word was used in the ancient Greek world was like this:  A woman writes to her husband who is absent from her: “I cannot sleep at night or by day, because of the worry (merimna) I have about your welfare.”

There are three movements that can be seen in this passage of  Scripture:

1. Jesus declares that anxiety is unnecessary in the life of the children of God.

2. Jesus declares that anxiety is unworthy in the life of subjects of the Kingdom of God

3. Jesus declares that anxiety is unfruitful.

1. It is unnecessary for us to worry.

Our text begins with a “therefore”: I say to you therefore, do not worry about your life…”

God has given us life…and if that is true…and it is; then we can trust God for the lesser things necessary for us to live that life. How could God deny us the things necessary for the very life He has given us?

What is his argument?  Essentially, it is this:  God has given you life. If God has given you life, He will surely give you what you need to sustain that life. He will provide for you food, and clothes.

Look, Jesus, says, at the flowers of the field. They bloom in a day with great beauty and then they wither and die and are good only for burning. But while in their beauty, not even Solomon, King of Israel with his fine woven garments heavy with gold and jewels can compare to their beauty. The image is one of comparison in which we could say that Solomon’s clothes are sack cloth when compared to the beauty of the flowers of the field.

If that is how God clothes the field, can you doubt that, as a child of God, you will not have what you need to wear? You need not worry Jesus says. It is unnecessary for you to be anxiously worried about the matter. God will care for you.

And then there are the birds of the field. They don’t spin or weave. They don’t plant crops. And God provides for them. If God does that for the lowly sparrow, will he not provide for you even more abundantly?

The obvious answer is yes. And because it is yes, you do not have any reason for being anxious.

Scripture tells us:  “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace that passes all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.”

That is a command. We can obey it and not be anxious. It is a choice we make and we can make it. With the assurance that God will provide for us, we will have peace of mind and heart when we trust God to provide for us.  He says He will. Try Him on it and see what He will do for you.

Don’t be planning and scheming to the point of anxiety about food and clothing. God will provide.

2. Worry is unworthy in the subjects of the King.

The Bible makes it plain that we who believe in Jesus Christ are the children of God. We are citizens of the Kingdom of God. We are merely pilgrims passing through this world on our way to a better place…Heaven…the Kingdom of God.

As citizens of the Kingdom of God…it is unworthy of us to be anxiously worried. Seek the Kingdom of God…in every aspect of your life. You are a Kingdom person and as such you have the King dwelling within in the person of His Holy Spirit.

Anxious worry is characteristic of the heathen…of those who do not know God. They are worried about any and everything. Worry is essentially distrust of God. And think about the heathen who believe in a jealous, capricious, unpredictable god. The heathen must find a way to placate the gods and he worries all the time.

To worry, to be anxious for anything is to fail to trust God. He says he will provide. Let him. Trust Him to do so. Be what you are…a person of faith. He will see you through whatever it is that you are going through. He says to us, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” He means it. He expects that we will trust Him and not be anxious about anything.

The true child of God cannot worry because he believes in the love of God.

The man who feeds his heart on the record of what God has done will never worry about the future. He has seen what God has done, what God will do for his people. That gives us a very good idea of what God will do for us in the future.  Look for what God will do for you.

Of course, if we are to seek something…let it be the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness of God. For when we do, we will always have what we need.

3. Worry is unfruitful.

Worry is useless. It is unfruitful. We cannot change the past. We have no control over the present or the future.

What do we accomplish by worrying about things? Nothing.

We will only get ulcers.

Jesus said that we cannot add to our height by worrying. You cannot add even the shortest space to your life by worrying. But you can shorten your life by worrying.

We cannot control the circumstances of life. But we can control how we respond to those circumstances. We choose how we will respond. To worry or be anxious is the wrong choice. It is a choice of distrust in God.

Our text will end with the words:  “seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.”

This is to make it clear to us that there must be a priority in our lives related to the Kingdom of God.

Put God’s things first in priority and everything else will fall into place for us.

A defendant was on trial for murder in Oklahoma. There was strong evidence indicating guilt, but there was no corpse. In the defense’s closing statement the lawyer, knowing that his client would probably be convicted, resorted to a trick. "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I have a surprise for you all," the lawyer said as he looked at his watch. "Within one minute, the person presumed dead in this case will walk into this courtroom." He looked toward the courtroom door. The jurors, somewhat stunned, all looked on eagerly. A minute passed. Nothing happened. Finally the lawyer said, "Actually, I made up the previous statement. But you all looked on with anticipation. I, therefore, put it to you that there is reasonable doubt in this case as to whether anyone was killed and insist that you return a verdict of not guilty." The jury, clearly confused, retired to deliberate. A few minutes later, the jury returned and pronounced a verdict of guilty. "But how?" inquired the lawyer. "You must have had some doubt; I saw all of you stare at the door." Answered the jury foreman: "Oh, we did look. But your client didn’t."...

He knew that the person would not be coming through the door because he had killed him.

We know that God will provide for us, because He has promised to do so. And because of that certainty, we need not worry. We must not worry. For to be anxiously worried about the things that we need to live this life God has given us is unnecessary. It is unworthy of  the citizens of God’s Kingdom which we are. It is in the final analysis fruitless, pointless. It gains us nothing.

It is a command for us to obey. We can obey it by not being anxiously worried. We can obey it by trusting God to provide what we need to live the life He has given us.

Seek His Kingdom as the highest priority in our lives and we will have what we need for life in this world and the life we need for the world to come.

 --Dennis Gleason

Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason -- November 27, 2005