A Word for Worriers

Adriene Rogers was a motivator, an encourager, and a leader of the faith. He was also passionate about presenting scriptural application to everyday life circumstances, and you'll hear that in today's message.

Now, let's join Adriene Rogers. Now, this is a word for worriers. Now, I know it doesn't really apply to you, but you can give this on to somebody else who may need it. Actually, all of us, if we would be honest, worry more than we should worry, and actually, we shouldn't worry at all according to this passage of Scripture. Look, if you will, in Matthew chapter 6, beginning in verse 25. Now, these are words of Jesus, not a pop psychologist. Jesus said, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought. Now, let's just stop there, and the Greek word doesn't mean that you're not to think, literally think, but the idea is anxious thought, worrisome thought. Take no worrisome thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink. Yet for your body, what ye shall put on, is not the life more than meat, and the body more than raiment or clothing? Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.

Are ye not much better than they? And which of you, by taking thought, that is, by anxious care, can add one cubit under stature? And why take ye thought for raiment?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? For take no thought, saying, What shall we eat?

Or what shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek? For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow. For the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Now worry really is a serious problem that we all must face and in some way or another we worry, the ignorant worry that they know so little and educated, are concerned that they know so much. The poor fret and worry because they don't have any money and the rich fret and worry because they have assets and they're afraid somebody's going to take them away. The old worry because they're facing death and the sunset of life and the young worry because they're facing an uncertain future. And it just, we just worry as we get older, you know, we're afraid we will get older and then we're afraid we won't. So we just worry.

It's just a, it's kind of built into human nature. But in verse 25 and verse 31 and verse 34, our Lord tells us not to do it. Actually the word worry or anxious thought has the idea of division, being pulled apart, being double-minded.

James tells us that a double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways. Now when Jesus says take no thought for the morrow, He's not saying that we're to live a careless, happy-go-lucky flippant life that does not consider the future. To the contrary, Jesus taught us to consider the future, to prepare for death and after death. And He said before we go to war, we ought to decide whether or not we have enough to fight the battle.

If we go to build a tower, we ought to consider whether or not we have enough to finish the tower. Jesus is not against planning. He's not against looking toward the future and doing as we ought to make ready for the future. But what He is warning against, as a matter of fact forbidding, is foreboding. That is to worry about the future. Now in this passage of Scripture, God doesn't merely tell us not to worry, but He tells us how not to worry. And if He just simply told us not to do it and we were not able to do it, all that would do would be to increase our worries. So why do we worry? What is the cause of our worry? Well, the Lord summarizes that right here in chapter 6, beginning in verse 24, and you're going to find out about four or five things that we all are prone to worry about.

The first is finances. Look in verse 24. For no man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Now mammon is just a word for the God of riches, the God of wealth. You can't put money first. When you worry about money, it's just a way of making money your God rather than God your God. So He mentions finance in verse 24, He mentions food in verse 25.

Look at it there. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life what ye shall eat. He tells us how foolish that is to worry about food. He says God feeds the fowls of the air. Isn't He going to feed you?

Aren't you worth more than they? There was a wonderful logic about Jesus' teaching. The inference is what farmer would feed his chickens and starve his own children. If God takes care of the fowls of the air, won't your heavenly Father take care of you? He's not saying we ought not to work for food. The chickens scratch for their food, but He's saying that God doesn't throw the worms in the nest.

The birds have to go out and get them, but God feeds them. And then not only do people worry about finance and food, they also worry about fashion. Look again in verse 25. He says here in verse 25, for your body what ye shall put on.

And so many today are worried about fashion and the clothes that we're going to wear. Verse 28, he says again, and why take ye thought for raiment, for clothes? Consider the lilies of the field.

How they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If God puts these beautiful robes on the flowers that fade, how much more, he says, will it take care of you? And then he mentions not only finance and food and fashion, but he also mentions fitness.

Look in verse 27. And which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to stature? Now, we're asking ourselves this question, does that mean can you wear yourself taller?

The commentaries that I've studied said this does not primarily refer to height, but it refers to length of life. And what he's saying is that you're not going to be able to make yourself live longer. You're not going to increase your lifespan, add to your lifespan by worry. Again, the Bible's not against exercise. The Bible's not against diet. It's not against vitamins and proper rest.

I hope you do all of those things. But worry is not going to lengthen your life. It's going to shorten it.

You'll wear yourself to death if you want to. And Jesus not only mentions fitness, but he also mentions what most of us are more prone to worry about than anything else, the future. Look, if you will, in verse 34. Take no thought therefore for tomorrow, for the morrow.

For the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. So just look at all the things he says don't worry about. Don't worry about finances. Don't worry about food. Don't worry about fitness.

Don't worry about fashion. Don't worry about the future. Just don't worry about these things. Many of us worry about all of these things or some of these things. I was doing some reading on this subject of worry, and I came across somebody's statistics. I cannot vouch for the statistics, whether or not they're accurate, but I can certainly say that they are interesting.

Listen to this. Forty percent of the things that we worry about will never happen. Thirty percent are about the past, which cannot be altered.

It has already happened. Twelve percent of the things we worry about deal in the area of criticism by others, and most of that is untrue. Ten percent of what we worry about deals with our health, and worry and stress only makes that worse.

Eight percent are about real problems that must be faced. So much worry is, as we're going to see in a moment, the best you can say about it, it's useless, and most of the things we worry about never come to pass anyway. I think about a little lady who said, don't tell me that worry doesn't do any good. Most of the things that I worry about never happen, and worry has a way of just capturing us unnecessarily. Now, those are the things we worry about, maybe some things that Jesus did not list, but think not only about the cause of our worrying, but think about the cost. What will worry do to you? Why does our Lord forbid it? In the Psalms, he says, fret not thyself, it tendeth only to evil. Well, look, if you will, in verse 27 again.

Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto stature? That tells us that worry, the best thing you can say about worry is that it's useless. It is absolutely useless.

That's the best thing you can say about it. It never solved a problem. It never lifted a burden. It never dried a tear.

It is absolutely useless. When I was a youngster, somebody told me something I've never forgotten. Somebody said, Adrian, there are two categories, two classes of things you should never worry about. Number one, things that you can do something about. If you can do something about it, don't worry about it.

Do it. The second category that you should never worry about are things you can't do anything about. If you can't do anything about it, worry's not going to change you.

Now, that may seem to you like it's simplistic, but a lot of wisdom there. Two categories of things you never worry about. Number one, things you can do something about. Number two, things you can't do anything about. And that covers the waterfront, doesn't it? That's it.

There's nothing else at the best. Worry is useless, but worry is absolutely harmful. Worry is harmful to you physically.

It'll do the same thing to you physiologically that sand will do to machinery. I read this interesting comment on worry. It said that little ants can pick the carcass of a dead animal cleaner than lions can.

Just a lot of the ants. And it seems like it's those little things that seem to pull us down, but not only is worry harmful to you, it's harmful to other people. Do you like to be around people who are neurotic and who worry all the time? I mean, I know individuals, when they walk into a room, it seems like somebody just turned the lights off.

And they brighten up the room when they leave it. I say that, but it's kind of cruel because seriously these people need our pity and they need our love. But worry's harmful to you.

It's harmful to other people. But have you ever thought what a wound in the heart of God that worry must be? How worry must hurt our God? Look in verse 30. The power of God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith.

Now, little faith is an insult to God. If you were to speak about me and sell sorts of nice things about me, and if you want to do that, I give you permission. But then say this one thing about Adrian, you can't trust him. Well, no matter what else you may have said about me, and then to say that I'm not trustworthy, you just cut the taproot of my character. You can say God is good, God is great, God is strong, God is grace, God is love, God is this, God is that, but I don't believe him.

I don't trust him. Well, the Bible says, he that believeth not God hath made him alive. Worry just says God, Romans 8, 28 is not true.

It says all things are working together for good to those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. Worry is an insult to the face of God. We have children, Joyce and I, but suppose when my children were small, I came home and found my four children in the corner sniveling and crying and trembling. And they would say, well, children, what's wrong? And they would say, well, Dad, we're afraid that the money's going to run out in the family. And so therefore we're going to have to move out of the house. And Dad, we're afraid that, we're afraid Dad that we're not going to have food to eat. And Dad, we're concerned that we're not going to have clothes to wear. And Dad, we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.

It may get worse. Dad, we're terribly concerned. Well, how do you think that would make me feel as a father if I saw my children feeling that way? That would grieve my heart. Well, make me feel like my children feel like I cannot take care of them. The truth of the matter is that since I'm only human, I may not be able to take care of them, that is in and of myself. But be that aside, I would be deeply grieved to see my children sniveling and crying and trembling thinking that their father was not able to take care of them. Worry says to our heavenly Father, Father, this is too big for you.

You can't handle this. It's beyond you, God. We're concerned about things that are going to get out of hand. And that's the reason he says, wherefore if God so clothed the grass of the field, verse 30, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? And then he goes on to say in verse 31, therefore take no thought saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed?

Now watch this next phrase and it'll hitch right between the running lights. Verse 32, for after all these things do the Gentiles seek. What he is saying is this. You are acting like pagans when you worry. Worry is pagan.

When he says the Gentiles, he's talking about the pagans. He said, that's the way the people of this world think. Now, we've talked about the things that we worry about. We've talked about that worry is harmful to us. It's harmful to others. It is an insult and a wound to the heart of God. It is the hallmark of small faith when we worry. Worry is faith turned inside out. That's all it is. Well, pastor, that's fine.

You've got me under conviction. Can you give me some help? Well, God can and he'll do it through his word and I trust through his preacher tonight. Let me give you some factors that will help you.

The first factor is what I want to call the father factor. Look, if you will, in verse 32. For after all these things do the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all of these things. I want you to see God as your Father.

He is your heavenly Father. Now, we talk about our obligations to God. Has it ever dawned upon you that God has an obligation to you?

When somebody brings a child into this world, do they not have an obligation to that child to take care of that child? Do you think that God someday is going to be accused of child neglect? Do you think that God brought you into this world, created you to begin with and redeemed you to forsake you?

No. He that spared not his own son, but offered him up freely for us all, so with him freely give us all things. If God loved you enough to send Jesus to die for you, you don't have to doubt his love anymore. And so there is the father factor.

He is your Father. Now, you're in Matthew chapter 6. Just turn over to Matthew chapter 10 for a moment and look, if you will, in verse 29. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall to the ground without your father, but the very hairs of your head are numbered.

Fear ye not, therefore. Ye are of more value than many sparrows. Now, if God attends the funeral of a sparrow, and he does, not a sparrow falls, nobody knows about it. If God attends the funeral of a sparrow, is not your heavenly Father going to take care of you? Put your trust in him, said the robin to the sparrow.

I would surely like to know why these human beings rush about and worry so, said the sparrow to the robin. I think it must be they have no heavenly Father such as watches you and me. If God takes care of the birds, he's going to take care of us. So there's the father factor. Remember that he is your father. He will not abandon you. The Bible says, when my father and my mother cast me off, then will the Lord take me out. And secondly is the focus factor.

Once you settle the father factor, then you can focus on something else. And the focus factor is to focus on the will of God. Look, if you will now, in verse 33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. What things?

Finances, food, fitness, fashion. Put God first. Now there's one thing about God. He will not work in second place.

I've heard people challenge Matthew chapter six, verse 33, but I've never known anybody who ever put it into practice to see it to fail. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Do you know what worry is? Worry is just simply the symptom that tells you you have things out of focus. You are focusing on the wrong thing.

You're focusing on food or fashion or fitness or finance or future, but you're not focusing on the father. Seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. What God is saying is this. You trust me enough to take care of my business and I'll take care of yours. I believe that with all of my heart.

If we'll put him first. You see, God is more able to take care of the things of life than you are. Most of us feel, well, you know, if I put God first, then I'll be neglecting the things and the things may slip away from me. That's wrong. That's just a lack of faith. You don't see God as your father.

Now, he's the source of everything. You think it's up to you to conserve the things that you have? Well, they can slip away. Riches have wings. They fly away.

And not only can they leave you, you can leave them and air bubble hit your brain tonight. Then who shall those things be which you have provided for yourself? So how do you not worry? There is the father factor. See God as your father. Your heavenly father knows what things you have need of. He is your father. He brought you into this world.

David said, once I was young and now I'm old, yet I'm not seeing the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. Now, there's a third factor. The first factor is the father factor.

The second is the focus factor. You focus on the things of God, not on things of this world. It's not to say these other things are not important. He knows what things you have need of. He knows you need food. He knows you need clothes. He knows you need recreation. He knows what you have need of.

I got an invitation to preach in Florida one time with my grandchildren down there, and I accepted the invitation, and George said, Adrian, you're not accepting that invitation just because the grandkids are down there, are you? I said, well, God knows where my grandchildren are. God is good. God is good. God knows what things we have need of. God knows when we need sleep. God knows when we need fun. God knows what we have need of. God is good all the time. Now, there's the father factor.

There is the focus factor, and primarily there is the future factor, and this is very, very important. I want you to look at it in verse 34. Therefore, take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself, sufficient unto thee day is the evil thereof.

Now, if you've been around churches very much, you've heard this before, but you need to hear it again. God has arranged your life and my life with a sort of an ecology. God sits at master control, and God plans the events that will come to us. If he doesn't cause them, he allows them, and God allows, God engineers for me, for you, difficulty for every day.

Some days are more difficult than the others. Now, the Bible calls it evil. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Now, the word evil here does not mean sin. It means difficulty, like we would say that's an evil smell. It means vile or difficult or a problem. You may think that the devil is causing your problems.

No. Back in the Garden of Eden, what did God say to Adam and Eve? Cursed is the ground for your sake, not for your punishment, but for your sake. The worst thing that could happen to sinful people such as we would be to live lives without trouble.

Good, we never seek God. So God gives us enough trouble every day to cause us to turn to him and to get the grace. So sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Sufficient what? Sufficient grace for today's problems. Now, God doesn't give us grace for tomorrow's problems. God says, as your days are, so shall your strength be. God doesn't give me strength today for tomorrow's problems.

That's what he's saying. Look at this verse again. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Save that till tomorrow. See, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

God gives you sufficient evil and God gives you sufficient grace. Now, if you take things that belong to tomorrow and you bring them into today, I'm not talking about planning now. I'm talking about concern, worry, anxious thought. You reach out to tomorrow and you borrow problems.

You bring them over to today. We call that borrowing trouble. Now, if you borrow trouble, you're going to find out that the interest is very high.

What is the high cost of borrowed trouble? Number one, it buries blessings. When you bring tomorrow's trouble into today, it makes it more difficult for you to see today's blessings because not only will you have today difficulty, but you'll have delights today. Not only will you have burdens, you'll have blessings.

Now, listen to me carefully. Worry does not take the sorrow out of tomorrow. What it does is to take the joy out of today.

It's very important that you understand this. You see, what worry does is to pull tomorrow's clouds over today's sunshine. Now, there are plenty of blessings today if you will think about them, but if you go out into tomorrow and begin to worry about things that God does not intend for you to worry about and you bring that into today, it's going to make you blind to blessings today.

You're not going to see all the blessings that you have. I had a couple come to see me. He was a handsome man. She was a beautiful girl. They were in their early 20s. They had a little baby with them, and I wondered, well, what could the problem be? The woman was in tears. The man was near tears.

I said, well, tell me what your difficulty is, and without telling you the whole story, the difficulty was they didn't have anything they said. They didn't have a house. They didn't have a car. They had a meager job, and they saw everybody else had all these things.

They didn't have them, and I looked at that man. He was well-built, mobile-looking, handsome. She was beautiful.

The baby was gorgeous. I said, I want to tell you kids something. You don't know how wealthy you are. I said, would you sell this baby? Oh, no. I said, not even for $1,000? No. I said, well, let's try 500.

No. We wouldn't sell our baby for anything. Oh. I said, well, now, sir, your health. I said, you know, there are a lot of people who don't have a baby who would give almost anything to have a baby like you have. I said, let's look at your health. Suppose a millionaire were to come to you and say, let's do a head exchange.

Take your head, put it on my body, take my head and put it on your body, and we'll just exchange, and I'll have your body. I said, if it's such an operation were possible, would you exchange your body for an old man's body who was about to die if he were to give you millions of dollars? He said, no, of course not.

Okay. I said, you know, there are a lot of people who give everything they have just to have their home back together. I said, you're an American.

Have you ever lived in a foreign country? No. I said, do you know that there are people who are leaving absolutely everything they have who are leaving absolute fortunes behind just to come to America, just to get on this shore, and to have nothing just to be here? I said, look, look at that baby. Look at your health. Look at your marriage. Look at the land.

You are wealthy. Boy, they straightened up and began to feel so good, and folks, that wasn't rhetoric. They were wealthy, but what they were thinking about, they're focusing on what they felt was an uncertain future rather than thanking God for the blessings that they had right there. What does worry do? Worry buries blessings.

I'll tell you what else worry does. It steals strength. It steals strength when you worry about tomorrow. Remember, God does not give you strength today for tomorrow's problems. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 33 verse 25, as thy days, so shall thy strength be. I appreciate these words. God hath not promised skies always blue, flower-strewn pathways all our life through.

God hath not promised sun without rain, joy without sorrow, peace without pain, but God hath promised, watch this now, strength for today, rest for the labor, light for the way, grace for the trials, help from above, unfailing sympathy, undying love, but what does God promise? Strength for today. You see, worry just saps strength. Worry is wasted energy. Worry doesn't get us ready for tomorrow. It doubles up the load today, so when we get to tomorrow, we get to tomorrow out of breath. What does worry do? It bears blessings. What does worry do?

It saps strength. You know, the Bible says in Psalm 103 that God knows our frame. You know what that means? Well, he knows how much you can bear. I was working my way through school. Among other things I did, I drove trucks. We learned what a two-ton truck was, a ton and a half truck, whatever the load was, the frame, the chassis, you're just supposed to put so much load on it. You're not supposed to overload a truck because it has a frame that'll just carry so much. God knows your frame. Do you know why there's so many wrecks on the highway of life and God has to send a wrecker out to pick you up?

You've overloaded your truck. God knows your frame. Now, God's not going to put more on you than you can bear, but you can reach out into tomorrow and try to carry loads that God did not give you strength for. Jesus said, take no thought for tomorrow. The morrow shall take thought for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. As your days are, so your strength. Now, worry bears blessings.

You can't see today's blessings. Worry steals strength and therefore worry produces problems. Worry really can produce the very things you're worried about. Job said, the thing that I feared has come upon me. Some people, you've been behind them. They expect every light to turn red and the time they get there, it has. Tomorrow has two handles, fear or faith, and you can take it by either handle. The Bible says fear has torment.

So, what do we do? There's the father factor. Just keep saying to yourself, God is my father. He knows what I have need of. How foolish for me.

What an insult it is to him. What a wound in his heart when I worry. There's the focus factor. I'm going to seek the kingdom of God with all of my heart and trust God to add these things to me. And there's the future factor. I will leave the future in God's hands. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Father, seal the word to our hearts and Lord, teach me and teach us what to do with these burdens and these problems. Lord, not to be overly concerned, not to take anxious thought.

I want to tell you something very clearly and I want you to listen to it very carefully. The Bible says your heavenly father knows what you have need of. I remind you that if you're not saved, he is not your heavenly father.

I hope that doesn't insult you, but it is so true. If you're not saved, he is not your heavenly father. He is only the father of those who have been born into his family. And you're born into his family when you receive Jesus Christ as your personal savior. The Bible says of Jesus, he came into his own and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he the authority to become the children of God. When you receive Jesus, you become a child of God. So if you would like a heavenly father to watch over you, to take care of you and to bring you into heaven, you need to receive Jesus as your personal savior. Pray, dear God, I am a sinner.

I'm lost. My sin deserves judgment, but I need and I want mercy. Jesus, you died to save me. You promised to save me if I would trust you.

I do trust you now with all of my heart. I believe you're the son of God. I believe you paid for my sin with your blood on the cross.

Thank you for doing that. I believe that you were raised from the dead by the power of God, and I trust you and you only to save me. I take myself off the throne of my own life, and I enthrone you, Jesus, as my Lord, my savior, my God, and my friend. Take control of my life and begin now to make me the person you want me to be. In your name I pray. Amen.