Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, December 26th. Stress is a way of life for many people, but believers in Jesus don't need to live that way. Real joy and peace can be ours as we deal with all our anxieties, God's way. And so as we think about it and think about what Jesus said about it, Jesus said a lot about it, and He tells us how we're to handle it.
So I want you to look, if you will, beginning in this twenty-fifth verse of the sixth chapter of Matthew. He says, For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life. As to what you shall eat, do not be anxious for your life. Do not be anxious for your life. Do not be anxious for your life. Do not be anxious for your life. For what you shall drink, nor for your body, as to what you shall put on, is not life more than food, and the body than clothing. Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single cubit to his lifespan? And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the linters of the field grow.
Nor do they spend. Yet I say to you that even Solomon in all of his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. But if God so raised the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith? Do not be anxious then, saying, What shall we eat? What shall we drink?
With what shall we clothe ourselves? For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things.
But seek first, he says, the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things should be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Amen?
We'd all agree to that, wouldn't we? Each day has enough trouble of its own. Over and over and over again, Jesus says, Don't be anxious. Don't be anxious. Don't be anxious. Because He knew that He was talking to people who were very anxious about their life. Now, when you think about anxiety, you and I can't ever blame God for our anxiety. He says, Do not be anxious if somebody walks up to you in one of your anxious moments and says, Well, now, don't be anxious.
We would say, Well, now, wait a minute. You don't understand my circumstance. You don't know what I'm thinking. You know what I'm feeling.
You know what I've been through. And you tell me, Don't be anxious. But Jesus said, Don't be anxious.
If He said that, He must have had a very specific and a good reason for saying, Do not be anxious. Each time He says we are not to live in anxiety, what He does, He takes a different aspect of nature to bring the truth through our hearts. So what I want us to do is to look at this passage in the light of He says, Now, hear the thing. Listen, these are the things that cause anxiety within our lives.
Now, verse twenty five. For this reason, I say to you, Do not be anxious for your life as to what you shall eat, what you shall drink, nor for your body as to what you shall put on is not life more than food and the body than clothing. When He speaks of life here, here's what He's referring to. He's referring to our total being. That is, our physical being, our spiritual being, our emotional being.
That is our entire life. He says, We don't have a real good reason to be anxious. He says, Don't let your life become one of anxiety. He says, look in verse twenty six. Look at the birds of the air. They don't sow, neither do they reap, nor gather in the barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Now watch this. Are you not worth much more than they? What is His first reasoning for our anxiety? One of the primary reasons we live in anxiety is because we have a poor sense of our self-worth.
Listen to what He says. He says, Are you not worth much more than they? If God is concerned about birds, is He not concerned about every aspect of your life? It is our poor self-image. Sometimes the result of growing up in a home where oftentimes there was child abuse, sometimes because you grew up in a home where you were criticized, deeply criticized until they absolutely tore your self-image apart. Oftentimes it's because of guilt over past things that we think, Well, God, how could you care for me?
How could you love me? When I look at my past, Lord, how in the world could you be interested in all of these things in my life when these things are so true and looking at yourself and being critical? Sometimes it's because you think, Well, Lord, how could you care about me when I don't feel significant?
I don't have a significant job. I seemingly am a nobody in this world of billions of people. Why would you be concerned about me? Because He loves every single one of us. And you see, the Heavenly Father loves us with an unconditional love.
He is personally interested in every single thing that concerns us. So He said one of the first reasons that people live in anxiety is they just don't think God seemingly cares and they don't seem to have a concept of God that is proper that He is a Heavenly Father. He said a second reason that people live in anxiety is simply this. They attempt to change things they cannot change. They attempt to change things in life that they have no control over. Look at this.
And I think it's interesting. He said, Now, which one of you, as if anybody in the crowd that he was talking to could possibly come up with an answer? He says, Which of you, by being anxious, can add a single cubit to his lifespan? Not some, but a single cubit to his lifespan.
He says, Who can make the difference? Well, you know, anxiety is the killer. Anxiety causes heart problems, problems in your whole circulatory system and your whole nervous system. That is, you've never heard anybody worrying themselves to life, but you've heard about people worrying themselves to death because they're so anxious because it affects the human body. It affects every facet of the body. When a person has a panic attack, it's like when anxiety goes out the top.
A person with a panic attack seemingly loses control. And so therefore, anxiety is a killer. Anxiety brings on all kinds of physical problems and emotional problems in a person's life. And so Jesus said, Now, look, there's some things in life you cannot change. You can't change your lifespan. God has given to your lifespan and you can't change it. So what he says here, he says, Look, you're being anxious because you're trying to do something that's impossible to do.
You cannot, no matter what you do, extend your life beyond what our Heavenly Father has planned for your life. Trying to change things in life that absolutely we have no control over creates a great deal of anxiety. But listen to what he said in this third part now.
He says in verse twenty eight. Why are you anxious about clothing? Why are you anxious about it? Now, for them, it was a whole different story.
For them, it was a matter of either having something to wear or not having to wear. And so he says, Why are you anxious about that? Observe how the lilies of the field grow and don't toil nor do they spin. So he was simply saying this. He said, Now, if God would beautify this grass and these flowers, which are going to grow, die, end up being burned up in an oven. He said, Now, why are you anxious about these things? He says, Why should you be anxious about these things?
Oh, ye of little faith. What does he say? He says, Here's the third reason that you and I live in anxiety, because we have we failed to trust God to meet our needs. And if we don't trust him, what are we going to do? We're going to be anxious. And so think about how the Lord Jesus, how he works in your life and how he provides for you.
And he says, If he will do that, if he will do that for flowers, how much more will he do that for you? Now, he says, Oh, ye of little faith. The truth is, watch this carefully. Anxiety is no more than unbelief in disguise. That's what anxiety is. Something comes in that makes us feel very uncertain and very threatened.
And so what do we do? We become anxious. We become worried and we either get depressed or we become scared about what the possibilities are, the things that could happen. This is not to belittle difficult, trying times that people go through.
But here's what he says. He says, It's futile to be anxious about it. We don't have to be anxious about these things, he says, because what I want to tell you, he says, is that the Heavenly Father is caring for you.
Now think about this. All of us who are believers have done what? We have looked at the Word of God and we've looked at our life and we've said, one of these days I know I'm going to die. The Bible says that Jesus Christ went to the cross and paid my sin debt in full and that if I receive him as my personal savior, that means that when I die, I know I'm going to be absent from the body, present with the Lord. And so that my whole eternal future, I am going to trust in the hands of my Heavenly Father who promised to forgive me of my sins and to save me and one of these days take me home to heaven.
Now think about this. It doesn't make sense for me to bet my whole eternal future on a God who has promised to do for me after I die something I have no control over and at the same time not trust him daily today for something I need. If I can't trust him today for some material need or some circumstance, why do I think I'm going to trust him and how can I trust him for my eternal future which I have absolutely no control over when I won't trust him for something that I at least can get my hands and my fingers in and do something about it? He said, why would we believe that God is not trustworthy? Now here's the sin about anxiety.
Here's what it's all about. When I am anxious before God and I allow that anxiety to capture me and dominate me and begin to control my life, what am I saying? I'm saying, first of all, God, I don't trust you. It's a slam against God's integrity and a slam against God's promises and a slam against God's character.
Do you mean to tell me that the God who said, my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus, does he mean that or does he not? And this is why people face death with great anxiety. Listen, great fear in their life.
Why? Because they haven't trusted him for the little things all down through the years. And so what he's simply saying is one of the reasons people live in anxiety is they did not know the Heavenly Father who is their father and they don't trust him. Now, let's look at it this way. A person who's not a Christian, we can understand why they don't trust him.
Absolutely. But those of us who are his children, he says, why do you live in such anxiety? Is it because that your self-image is such you don't think you're worthy of God's preparation and God's care for you? Is it because you're living over here and trying to change things that you cannot change? Is it because you just don't trust this God who says he's the Heavenly Father who will provide all your needs according to his riches, not according to yours? Is that the reason you're living in anxiety? Because, you see, as I say again, and I said again on purpose, anxiety is simply unbelief in a camouflaged emotional term. But the truth is, it is unbelief.
God, I know that's what you said, but somehow I'm not sure you will do exactly what you say. Well, look at the fourth reason, if you will, and notice what he, notice what he says here beginning in verse thirty-two. He says, now, for all these things that Gentiles eagerly seek. Now when he talks about Gentiles, usually what he's referring to is those people, for example, who are not Jews, or sometimes he just means other people out there who are unbelievers. He said, now look, all these things that Gentiles eagerly seek, for your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
The truth is our Heavenly Father knows what we need before we need them, and He's never come up short. But what does he say? He says one of the, listen to this, one of the reasons people live in anxiety is this reason. They attempt to find contentment and security in life following the world's pattern. Now what does the world do? How does the world operate? Here's how the world operates. The world operates on the basis of material things.
And so what he's simply saying is this, he said, look, this is how the world, this is how the world operates. Don't operate the way they operate. And my friend, if you're not a Christian, what is your security? You don't have any. You say, well, I've got stocks and I've got bonds and I've got money and I've got houses and I've got, you know what? No, you don't. God owns it all. He owns every single thing. You may have it in your name, but listen, how fast can you lose it? Just like that.
And besides that, you could lose your health just like that. And what is he saying? He says, look, don't allow yourself to get caught up in the rat race. Don't allow yourself to get caught up in trying to and trying to live up to somebody else's expectation or to have as much as someone else does or put on the kind of front that oftentimes people put on. He's, you're not going to find joy and peace and happiness in that.
One of the causes of anxiety is simply that. And that is following the world's pattern when it doesn't work for them and it's not going to work for us. And it is foolish for us to follow their pattern when we have the resurrected Christ living on the inside of us moment by moment, day by day. This is the almighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who's made us the promise that every single need we have, he will meet. And he's not going to come up short. Then what do we have to be anxious about? He's promised that we have his word, that he will meet every single need.
Therefore, he says, you look at the world and you follow their pattern. How foolish. It's empty.
It's void. It's not going to work. Then listen to what he says. Now, he sort of turns this around and he turns into a positive statement. He says, but look, verse thirty three. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things that you are anxious about, he says, shall be added to you.
What is one of the primary reasons? Look, one of the primary reasons for anxiety is misplaced priorities in our life. Here's what he says. Now watch this.
This is so simple. He says one of the reasons that people are anxious is because their priorities are out of order. He says, now, this is the way you to live. When he says, seek ye first, not second, third, fourth or fifth, seek ye first the kingdom of God. What does he mean by the kingdom of God?
The kingdom of God is not some geographical, some political entity, but he's talking about the rule of Christ in our life. He says, seek first, that is, first of all, make this your priority. Submit your life to Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life. Secondly, allow him to create his godly character in your life.
Submit yourself to him and allow him to conform you to his likeness. And you know what he says? He says, then all these things, what things? Every single thing you and I need, he says, will be provided. He didn't say you'd have to struggle and fret and fume.
You didn't have to be anxious about it. He says, he'll provide it. Look at that. He says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be, notice what he says, added to you. Because our heavenly Father, when you and I submit to his will, and you and I allowing him to conform his character in our life, you know what he's saying? Not only will he meet our needs, but God is going to give us more than our needs. Do we not quote that verse, delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you what? The desires of your heart.
God is a good God, and he says he's stored up goodness for us. He says, now listen, one of the reasons that people are anxious is, and living anxiety is because their priorities are all out of order. He didn't, listen, he said, seek first.
Make this the first priority of life. He says, when you seek the rule of Christ in life, that that's first. And you want to be conformed to his likeness? He said, look, you don't have to worry about all these other things.
I'm going to give you, provide for you exactly what I know you need and what I want you to have. What an awesomely, listen, liberating, freeing experience to know that God the Father assumes responsibility. Listen, he assumes responsibility for the things in life that we need and what we desire. Now, either Jesus Christ told the truth or he lied. If he lied, let's shut the book, close down the church and forget it. But if he told the truth, listen, how foolish, how foolish and empty and vain. What a failure we come up to be when we don't put his rule in our life, his character in life is number one.
That's number one. Does that mean we'll always succeed at it every day? No. Does that mean we won't sin?
No. But listen, conforming us to his likeness. What is he doing? Conforming us to his likeness. He is sending into our life those things, difficulties, hardships, trials, good things in life, doing what? Focusing our attention upon him, sifting and sending out our life, those things that don't belong there, whatever they may be.
Here's what happens as the years go by and God conforms us more and more. What does he do? He gets deeper and deeper and deeper.
We see things never seen before. And what does he do? He goes all the way down to the bottom of our heart, as we say, scraping up stuff that we've never seen before.
What is he doing? Conforming us to the likeness of his son. And so when I think about people who come to church every once in a while, people read the Bible every once in a while, people pray every once in a while, only they get in trouble.
Then they wonder why they have anxieties and why they have this need, why they have that need, why they have the other need. Here's what Jesus said. He said, if you make your first priority, if you make it your first business every day, if the number one on the top of your list is today, I submit to the lordship of Jesus in my life. Today, I want him to conform me to his likeness, whatever it takes.
Here's what he said. You and I don't have to worry or be anxious about anything else in life, no matter what. Now, friend, would you not agree if that's the truth? And it is that it is very foolish for us to put anything else in life first other than Jesus Christ. Thank you for listening to today's podcast titled All Our Anxiety. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
