Jesus's Antidote for Anxiety Part Two

Jesus' Antidote for Anxiety Part Two

If you're visiting us this morning, we are making our way through Jesus' sermon on the mount, and this is the second in a two part message on anxiety. Anxiety is a very real issue to millions of people with an estimated 40 million Americans suffering from some type of anxiety disorder. You can find a number of books written to offer help overcoming anxiety, books with titles like Monkey Mind, The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook, and a book with the intriguing title, Anxiety as an Ally: How I Turned a Worried Mind into My Best Friend.

God knows that fear, worry, anxiety, and stress are very real issues in our lives and speaks over and over again to our fears. The most frequent command in the Bible is fear not, do not be afraid, as the Lord assures us that we do not need to live our lives in fear. In Matt. 6 we find Jesus' own version of the command not to be afraid.

Matt. 6:25-34

The key verse in this passage is verse 33: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Last week we saw that worry is a heart issue that often reveals that our priorities in life are wrong. Jesus connects the question what are you worried about? to the question, what are you living for? Jesus encourages us to store up treasures in heaven rather than live our lives accumulating earthbound treasures, knowing that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. The way we store up treasures in heaven is by living a life of giving and investing in the work of God, rather than a life of getting and accumulating. And what we invest in the kingdom of God out of love and devotion to God is safe forever. Therefore, Jesus says, do not be anxious about your life. The first antidote for an anxious life is to invest our lives out of love for God in the work of the kingdom.

Let's look at two more ways that seeking the kingdom of God is Jesus' antidote for anxiety.

1. Seeking the kingdom first reminds us of what's most important in life (vs. 25)

Anxiety by its very nature throws our perspective and our priorities out of whack. In Japan it is so common for people to work themselves into an early grave that there's a word for overwork death: karoshi. Overtime isn't mandatory in most cases, but fear of not getting promoted or advancing in their career keeps many workers working dangerously long hours at the risk of their health.

Seeking the kingdom of God first will help to reorder all our priorities in life. If we get the first thing right, everything else begins to fall into place. Jesus reminds us of an important priority in the second half of verse 25: is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? We need food. We need clothing. But life is more than those things. If we lose sight of that, we lose sight of what's really important in life.

Jesus says that our priorities should be different than that of the Gentiles (shorthand for those who don't know God) who seek after all these things (food, drink, clothing). The problem isn't that the Gentiles need food and drink and clothing - of course they do, the problem is that they're making these things their number one priority - they've reduced their lives down to "what will I eat and drink and wear?" They spend their lives pursuing things like eating better, drinking better, and having nicer clothes to wear. Getting better stuff is what life is all about to them.

It's not hard for us to fall into that trap too. Being anxious about life isn't just being worried, it's all about getting our priorities out of order so that we give ourselves to things of lesser importance. We start to seek life in stuff. We think that security, or significance, or value, or meaning in life can be found in owning a nicer car, a bigger home, or having a higher paying job. None of these things are wrong in and of themselves, but when they push their way to first place and displace more important things, that's when they become wrong.

Being anxious about life can lead us to pour ourselves into our career and let our family and friends go neglected. Being anxious about life can lead us to be so focused on the trouble our kids get into or inconvenience they cause, that we forget to enjoy them and enjoy the season they're in. Being anxious about life can be having our minds so fogged over with worry about what tomorrow holds that we don't appreciate things like a beautiful fall day, or a glorious sunset, or a quiet walk in the woods. Being anxious about life can make us think that it's all up to us, rather than trusting God to establish the work of our hands. I know firsthand what that's about - white knuckling life as the mind feverishly tries to work our anxieties out. We are living as if it's all up to us.

Ps 127:1-2 reminds us it's not: Unless the Lord build the house, those who build it labor in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil. It's not the toil that's bad, it's anxious toil, losing sleep, burning the candle at both ends, letting other important things go in pursuit of that thing, thinking that it's all up to us to make it successful. God wants us to work, He doesn't want us to worry. Keep life in balance: work hard, sleep peacefully, go to your kid's ball game, eat dinner with your family, spend time with God in prayer and His word, be involved in your church, keep all the important spokes of life in balance. Anxiety gets our priorities out of whack as lesser things take on an out of proportion importance to us. It's the Lord who builds the house, who gives our labors success. The more we get that, the more we will trust and the less we will worry.

In this one line, is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Jesus is reminding us not to lose sight of the greater blessings that God has given us. God has blessed us with life and life is more than what we need to stay alive. Sometimes what we think we need for a full life simply leads to a cluttered life and keeps us from enjoying and being thankful for the things that mean the most.

Sometimes we just need to stop and just thank God for the blessings in our lives. For life, for love - the people we love and the people who love us. Thank God for the blessing of friendship, for family, for the food, the drink, the house we have. Instead of feverishly pursuing more, thank God for what we have. Even if you drove here in a 1993 Ford Pinto that lost its muffler six months ago, go outside and thank God for that car. If you can buy a new one, do it! But we should thank God for the blessings we have now and truly count our blessings rather than be anxious about what we don't have. Seeking the kingdom first reminds us of what's most important in life.

2. Seeking the kingdom first replaces anxiety with trust in our heavenly Father

Jesus then spends a lot of time assuring us that our heavenly Father cares about our needs and will give us what we need. He wants us to know and believe that we're not on our own, and that our heavenly Father cares about us and what we need.

He calls our attention to the birds of the air and says, your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of

much more value than they? (vs. 26) and then a couple verses later he points out the lilies of the field and asks us, if God clothes grass of the field this luxuriously, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (vs. 30). How much does God value us? How much does God love us? How committed is God to caring for us? Jesus calls Him our heavenly Father. Our Father. The more we get that, the smaller our anxieties and fears will become.

ILL: for a couple of years we had a rabbit that we kept outside on the side of the house. Over time the kids seemed to lose interest in this rabbit and the task of feeding it seemed to fall to me. So out into the cold and rain I would trudge to make sure it had food and water. It was important to me to see that the silly thing was fed. And I hated to see it cold in the winter, so we made up a little shelter and put some old towels in it. I cared about it and would go through considerable inconvenience to make sure it wasn't cold or hungry. But the gap between my concern that the rabbit was fed and warm and that my children were fed and warm is immeasurable because the gap between the love I feel for my children compared to the love I felt for the rabbit (to be honest, I didn’t love the rabbit at all - but I did like it) was immeasurable. If God feeds the birds of the air, how much more will our heavenly Father feed us?

There's an old poem by Elizabeth Cheney that I learned as a new Christian because Phil Keaggy put it to music many years ago, and it says,

Said the robin to the sparrow,
“I should really like to know,
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so.”
Said the sparrow to the robin,
“Friend I think that it must be,
That they have no Heavenly Father,
Such as cares for you and me.”

It's a cute poem and brings home the truth of Matt. 6, but did you catch the theological error in the poem? God never says that robins and sparrows are His children and that He is their heavenly Father. He is their Creator and their God, and He does provide for them, but that's Jesus' point: if He takes great care to provide for them, when He's not their heavenly Father, how much more will God who is our heavenly Father provide for us all that we need? The gap between His love for them and His love for us is immeasurable.

Jesus says, our heavenly Father knows we need the things we need, which means He cares about the things we need, and as we seek first the kingdom, everything else we need will be added to our lives. It's our heavenly Father who adds it. Seeking first the kingdom doesn't mean we live without what we need, it means we don't live for what we need; we live for something far bigger: God's kingdom.

Do you see how seeking first the kingdom reorders our entire lives? Instead of the things we need for life being what we pursue, they become added to our lives. As we seek God's interests, we trust Him to take care of our interests. Trusting God our Father helps us store treasure in heaven by living a life of giving rather than a life of hoarding. A life of investing rather than a life of accumulating. A life of thriving rather than a life of surviving.

If you're going through a time where anxiety is very real, Don't pull in the sidewalks on everything else in life and shrink your life down to just that one thing. Trust in your heavenly Father and sow kingdom seeds in other directions. If money is a major concern, don't stop being generous, sow seeds of generosity. If you feel emotionally drained, don't stop giving and hoard what energy you have (unless for a short time), give to others and look to your Father to supply what you need. Seeking first the kingdom replaces anxiety with trust in our heavenly Father.

3. Seeking first the kingdom of God frees us from the fear of tomorrow so that we can live today for the glory of God

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:34 ESV)

A lot of fear is located in the future, in tomorrow: what will happen tomorrow? What if this happens tomorrow? What if that bad thing happens tomorrow? What if that good thing doesn't happen tomorrow?

Think about it, we can lose today being worried about tomorrow, and then when tomorrow is today, we can spend it being worried about the next day…and if we spend all our todays worrying about tomorrow, we can come to the end of our lives having lost all our todays worrying about tomorrow. This isn't something we plan, this isn't something we want, it's the product of anxiety. Jesus calms our hearts and assures us once again: Therefore (because you have a heavenly Father who is adding what you need to your life) do not be anxious about tomorrow.

Jesus doesn't say we won't have troubles. Life has its ups and downs. It has its challenges. It has its trials. It has its heartaches. Seeking the kingdom first doesn't mean a trouble free life. But God will give you grace for the troubles you face today. And then He will give you grace tomorrow for the troubles you face tomorrow. Don't look for tomorrow's grace today.

It's ok to plan for tomorrow and beyond - Jesus isn't telling us not to plan for tomorrow, he's telling us not to worry for tomorrow. Jesus is encouraging us to trust God for the grace to face the challenges and hardships of today. When tomorrow comes, then we'll trust Him to provide the grace we need for tomorrow's troubles and challenges. Give us this day our daily grace.

If you're in a stressful season, God knows and cares. Don't think for a moment that because the trial isn't lifting immediately that God must not care. If you're plagued with worries and anxious thoughts, God knows and cares. He cares about the situation causing those anxious thoughts and He cares about your struggle with anxious thoughts. Will you lay them on the altar before God? Will you surrender to His will and put His kingdom first, come what may?

Live today for the glory of God, and then wake up tomorrow and live it for the glory of God. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Let's pray.

Sing: Completely Done

If you're not a Christian, seeking the kingdom begins by knowing this important truth: you could never earn heaven. You could never be good enough to earn salvation. None of us could. But in another place in the gospel Jesus offers this amazing promise to those who will hear and believe: Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. What we could never earn, the Father is happy to give to all those who believe in His Son Jesus. On the cross Jesus paid the entrance fee for heaven by giving his life as a substitute for our sins. Your part is to believe that Jesus died for your sins and receive him as your Lord and Savior, and when you do, Jesus promises that the Father will happily give you the kingdom.