Our Favorite Sin, Part 1

Today from Chuck Swindoll. Have you ever stopped to consider this personal question? Of all the ways you stumble in the Christian life, what's your favorite sin? Which one gives you more trouble and surfaces more frequently than all the others?

Scary question, right? Well, today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll continues teaching from Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount. You'll be relieved to learn that Jesus answers this question for us in His eloquent and convicting message to those gathered on a hillside. We begin today by reading from Matthew chapter 6. Chuck titled his message, Our Favorite Sin. Today I want to talk about your favorite sin and mine.

I'll give you a little head start. I want to dedicate it to all who have worried in the past, all who are worried right now, and all who are planning this afternoon to continue to worry. That pretty well reaches all of us. Hope you paid attention to what you sang. In the song, Like a River Glorious, not a surge of worry, you sang.

Not a shade of care, you sang. And tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take Him at His word. So we sang of trusting.

We sang of not worrying. Now we have the opportunity to hear Jesus' words regarding the subject as recorded in His magnificent Sermon on the Mount. If you did not know before now, it's contained in the 5th and 6th and 7th chapters of the Gospel by Matthew. He has a gathering of people around Him, not far from the Sea of Galilee, on a gentle slope that leads up from there, most likely on the north side. If you travel to Israel, you will walk where they sat. He sat among them to talk about what it means to follow Him with the right mindset, which is different from those around them, and certainly contrary to the way they had been taught all their lives.

By priests, rabbis, Pharisees, scribes. Jesus' words in chapter 6 verse 8 give us the theme of the sermon, Do Not Be Like Them. Throughout my growing up years, I can still hear my father telling me, You be different. Don't be like those around you. You've got to think differently. You've got to respond differently. You've got to live differently for you to make a difference.

And I'm grateful for that kind of training, quite possibly you heard the same as you were growing up. That's what these people are hearing from Jesus. So when it gets to the subject of worry, He doesn't mess around. We're going to look at verses 25 through 34. Found Matthew 6 verse 25. Jesus' words, For this reason I say to you, Do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink, nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air that they do not sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

And who of you, by being worried, can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow.

They do not toil, nor do they spin. Yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today, and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith? Do not worry then, saying, What will we eat, or what will we drink, or what will we wear for clothing? For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things.

Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Amen? Amen. And now the message from Chuck, titled, Our Favorite Sin. Worry does not empty tomorrow of sorrows.

It empties today of strength. So said the late Corrie ten Boom. We all believe that.

Theoretically, we would agree that it is true. When you worry, you are filled with fear rather than the strength to handle the things of the day. Even though we know in our minds what Peter has promised the readers in 1 Peter 5, verse 7, casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. He has a concern for you. We know the promise is there, and yet we have these worries. And we look at them, we pray about them, and we give them to God only to pick them up and carry them with us to the next hour or two of the day.

It's like they're our best companions. Edith lived in Darlington, Maryland, and she was a mother of a house full of kids. And one afternoon, she came home after shopping, and as she got inside, she saw five of her youngest children huddled together in kind of a circle, concentrating on something that had their attention. She tiptoed up nearer, and when she did, she saw and was aghast to see that they were playing with a number of baby skunks right there. And she screamed, children, run!

Each child grabbed a skunk and ran. Exactly what we do with our worries. Exactly what we do. We don't leave them there. We pick up those stinking little things, and we carry them with us as if they are companions.

How wrong. What is worry anyway? The term worry, as translated here in Matthew 6 and often in the New Testament, is the Greek word merimnao, M-E-R-I-M-N-A-O, from two words, merizo, to divide, and nous, for the mind, thinking, perceiving, to divide the mind.

When we are worried, we are divided in our mind between what we know we should be doing and yet captured by the habit we have been doing all our lives. And we're divided. Our trust is divided.

We could say we are pulled within. We're struggling with this nagging concern. We're churning on the inside over this worry. Now, why is it wrong? Think about it. Worry is simply distrusting the promises of God. I wouldn't say that to a person who doesn't have a God or doesn't have a Savior, but I spend most of my life dealing with those of us who do, and therefore I can say it is wrong because you are, by your worrying and by my worrying, saying to God, I don't trust you.

I know you're in charge, but you've obviously somehow distanced yourself from this situation, and I must give myself to it. And you know what happens when we do that? We not only churn, we block the entrance of truth. We gag on it.

Why would I say that? Over in Mark 4, verse 19, Jesus is telling the parable of the sower, talking about different kinds of soil. When he gets to the thorny soil, he interprets that, that your soul, your heart, is often like the thorny soil.

And he names the thorns, the cares of this age, the deceitfulness of riches and the lust or the evil desire for other things. Choke the word. You hear that word? Choke. The Germans have a word, Rergen, W-R-G-E-N. I spoke with Mike Spiegel, who is German, and his wife, Stephanie, also German, in the theology department at Dallas Seminary, and I asked Mike for help on this word because I had read somewhere that it was a cognate of that German word, our word worry.

Is it true? Does it literally mean to choke? His response was, today it means to retch, to gag, to throttle. It doesn't mean worry as much as it means to have a gag reflex, to heave, to retch. The old idea of choking is a great image, he said, of our attitude toward things that trouble us and what God's word could do to settle that. We retch it. We gag on it. So to put simply, what you're hearing right now, you won't digest if you're worried.

It'll land in your head, and you will hear words being spoken, and you may even write something down that you think is of interest and might be helpful. But if you stay worried, you will find the word of God is choked. It doesn't find its way into your life to take root, to bring growth and maturity. That's why it's wrong.

Now, how is it conquered? This is no great insight, you know, before I tell you prayer releases you from worry. I really mean prayer. Philippians 4, stop worrying about anything, and now the anecdote, but in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God. Worry about nothing, pray about everything.

Say that with me. Worry about nothing, pray about everything. Again, worry about nothing, pray about everything.

Now, you've said it. The real issue is, will you do it? I don't mean like a lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep kind of prayer, or God bless this food and make our bodies strong and free, that we may use our health and strength and serve his Lord to thee, pass the potatoes. Not that kind of prayer.

I'm talking about a prayer that says, oh God, this has me stumped, I'm crippled in my walk, I'm preoccupied with concern, I'm breaking out in a sweat at night, I'm bothered about this, I've been struggling with it for X number of days, it's time for me to stop, and I give you this concern right now that I've been nursing all this time. I can't solve it. It's impossible for anyone on this earth to solve it. You are a master at solving impossibilities. I give it to you, I trust you with it. That kind of prayer, where you turn your fear into trust. That way you prove you have a master that you are leaning on.

Remember our last closing words in a previous message? You cannot serve two masters. Verse 24 of Matthew 6. You'll serve one or the other.

In this case, it was wealth. Now he gets into the subject of worry. That's why he says, for this reason, as he connects verse 24 with verse 25, remember, Jesus is speaking, he's not giving them verses. So Matthew records all of this and many, many years later, those who helped put the Bible together added numbers and gave us verses. But all of this ran together into a sermon, into one sentence following another. And so he says in the sentence that follows, you can't serve two masters for this reason, for this reason, I say to you. And now he gives repeated commands. If you haven't marked them yet, get out your pen. I really mean it. And be ready to mark four times in this passage the very, or virtually the same words that Jesus gave. Look, if you will, at verse 25.

I say to you, do not be worried. That's a command. It's not a suggestion. It's not a nice option.

It's not a multiple choice. This or six other ideas, this is the single command and he means it so seriously, he repeats it yet again and yet again. Verse 31, do not worry then. Verse 34, do not worry.

So if you will allow me, I think this will drive it home. He is saying, stop it. Stop it. Stop the worry. Quit it. That's how serious he is.

They've never heard preaching like this in their life. Talk about relevant, talk about stunning, talk about convicting. Do not worry. Do not worry. Stop it. It corrodes your inner peace. You are obsessed with things that you have no business dealing with or spending your energy on.

Things you can eat or things you must drink or the clothing you must wear. Spurgeon calls that the world's trinity of cares. And he even adds tomorrow when you get down to verse 34. Do not worry about tomorrow.

What a waste is that? You haven't even seen the sunrise or the rainfall, whichever may mark tomorrow. Stop and think about it.

All through our lives we've heard things like this and we have the evening news to thank. A mild recession is sure to come. Worry about it. We're entering into another great depression. Worry about it.

The job market is the lowest it's been in our history. Worry about it. The big quake is soon to hit. Now, you don't hear that here in Texas, but when we lived in California those 23 years, there was hardly a month had passed that we didn't hear. The big quake is coming. The big quake. Our kids were raised with the big quake fear. The big quake still doesn't hit. They've now got a movie out on it. I was watching the other day.

I'm pulling my feet up thinking I'm going to get wet while I watch all the water from the Pacific pouring into California. The big quake is coming. You know what died? Contentment died. Peace died.

You spend all of your time worrying and worrying and therefore you're not really satisfied with anything. You noticed? Came across an interesting piece written by a man not that old. I'm impressed with his wisdom as he writes a piece he titled Present Tense. Listen to it.

Story of our lives. He writes, It was spring, but it was summer I wanted. The warm days and the great outdoors. It was summer, but it was fall I wanted. The colorful leaves and the cool, dry air. It was fall, but it was winter I wanted. The beautiful snow and the joy of the holiday season. It was winter, but it was spring I wanted.

The warmth of the blossoming of nature. I was a child, but it was adulthood I wanted. The freedom and the respect. I was 20, but it was 30 I wanted. I was mature and sophisticated. I was middle-aged, but it was 20 I wanted. The youth and the free spirit.

I was retired, but it was middle-aged I wanted. The presence of mind without limitations. My life was over and I never got what I wanted. What a waste.

I'll say it, what a shame to live our lives like that. God gives you your life and mine one day at a time, reality, one minute at a time, and we mess it up by worrying out the hours of the day and tomorrow and the next week and this concern and that one and virtually anyone I could name, you cannot change a bit of it, and it's all filled with mystery. And even when he does give an answer, we don't like the answer.

Like the guy repairing his roof and he starts to slide, and he slides to the edge and he finally grabs the gutter and he's swinging out a couple of stories above the ground. He goes, help! Is there anyone up there that can help me?

And he hears this voice. I can help you. What can I do? Just tell me what to do. Let go.

Is there anyone else up there that can help me? We don't want to let go. We don't want that answer. We like these worries.

We like hanging on to these stinking little things that drain our energy, make us so pathetically negative. Let go. And the one who tells you that will catch you. Trust me, and the one who says that is trustworthy. Now, let me quickly add, he won't do what you expect. I found two things about the will of God. First of all, it is often a mystery.

I can't figure it out. The second is surprising. I would never have guessed the answer would have come as it came.

Or came at the time he planned for it to come. So I realize when I say to you, do not worry. Actually, I'm not saying it.

I'm just quoting our master. I'm acknowledging that there's mystery in trusting him. There's surprise.

Your wife was taken, but your neighbor's wife wasn't. I don't know why. Your child didn't live to adulthood, and our children have all lived to adulthood. I don't know why. I can't explain that. One of our children needed back surgery, and your child didn't. I don't know why. She had to go through that, terrible pain.

All connected with it. We lost two babies that we wanted to have, and God chose before their birth to take them. I don't know why. I don't know why. But our worrying over losing them would not solve losing them.

It would not give us contentment. You're listening to the Bible teaching of Chuck Swindoll on Insight for Living. And there's much more on this topic Chuck needs to address. In a passage that contains Jesus' renowned Sermon on the Mount, Chuck is teaching from Matthew chapter 6. Today's message is titled, Our Favorite Sin. And to learn more about this ministry or these messages, please visit us online at insiteforliving.org. If you're prepared to dig deeper into Jesus' teaching, I'll remind you Chuck has written a book on this passage.

It's our featured resource today on Insight for Living. As students of the Bible, sometimes we complicate what it really means to follow Jesus. Well, in his book called, Simple Faith, Chuck shows us how to replace legalistic, performance-based religion with the kind that Jesus described in the Bible.

One that offers genuine peace, freedom, and rest. To purchase a copy of Chuck's classic book, Simple Faith, call us. If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888.

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You can also go online to insight.org. And then as we enter into the weekend, remember you're invited to join us online for the Sunday morning worship service at Stonebriar Community Church. In addition to hearing Chuck's sermon, you'll also participate in the Congregational Singing. You'll find all the instructions for streaming the live worship service at insight.org slash sundays. Join us next time when Chuck Swindoll continues his message about overcoming our favorite sin. That's Monday on Insight for Living.