We often think of sin in categories. There are egregious sins like betrayal, stealing, and lying, and the less shameful ones like flattery, fibbing, or foolishness.
In reality, sin has no categories. But it's true that some sins cause deeper personal damage than others, like the one we're addressing today. In his renowned Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned us about the harmful impact of worry. In our attempts to control the uncontrollable, we're admitting to God that we do not trust Him, and the outcome is devastating. Chuck Swindoll begins today's insight for living with prayer. Our Father, here we are at this age in life, and at this stage of life, still dealing with this habit of life, we've been dragging with us like a boat dragging an anchor.
Worried dogs are steps. And some today are such victims of it, it controls their lives, stealing their joy, robbing them of contentment and peace. But rather than looking at someone else, today I pray that you will enable us to look within our own lives and honestly evaluate the way we're living, what we focus our attention on, what we spend our time concerned about, and even the habit of dealing with tomorrow before today has even been spent. Help us, our Father, through what we hear, to come to terms with the things that will enable us to break this habit. As we prayed earlier, I pray again for those who have served in a faithful way in uniform, keeping our country free and guarding us from the enemy. There are those whose loved ones are still engaged in the battle, in the fight for freedom, and they could very well be worried. I pray that you will rid them of the worry. Give them the confidence that you are as much there as here.
You care as much about there as you do about here. And quiet our hearts, we pray. We pray for those dealing with very difficult circumstances, painful, filled with the mystery of your will, asking themselves, how could this be? Why would God allow this?
How much longer must I endure? And even those who minister to those who are sick and even the dying? I pray that you will lift us above the pain of today and remind us of you, our sovereign God, who does all things well. May we learn as if for the first time what it means to trust in you with our whole heart, to trust and not be afraid. Speak deeply to us, especially to those who have no master, who are attempting to live their lives without the Savior.
Pray that they will realize the impossibility of that and soon come to know your Son and with Him find the peace they've longed for all their lives. Now the gifts we give to you today, our Father, we give with confidence and we trust you to use them. Each coin, each check, each gift we place in this plate, as we first place ourselves before you, use these monies for the right purposes to be spent in the right way to be handled with integrity, we pray. In the name of Christ, our burden bearer, our Lord, our Savior, our Master, we pray. Everyone said, amen. You're listening to Insight for Living.
To study the book of Matthew with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scripture studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. And now the message from Chuck titled, Our Favorite Sin. 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 chapter 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. And carry them with us to the next hour or two of the day. It's like they're our best companions.
How wrong. 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 it 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. 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. 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 can't solve it. It's impossible to 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 prayer in the 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 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, he repeats it yet again and yet again. Verse 31, do not worry then. Verse 34, do not worry. 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. And he even adds tomorrow, when you get down to verse 34, do not worry about tomorrow. What a waste is 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. We don't like the 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 is trustworthy. 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. And second is surprising. I would never have guessed that God would 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. And so I suggest after seeing the commands that you look at the questions. Just look at them. They're in front of you. There are five of them.
And they sound similar. Look at verse 25, last part of it. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
I mean, get serious. Isn't your whole life more than lunch, or supper, or your plans for the meal tomorrow? Look at verse 26, after talking about the little birds, I'll come back to them later, but look at what he says in the end of the verse. Aren't you worth much more than little birds? By the way, little birds are not given the image of God. In spite of what you may have been told, where people protect animals more than they do unborn babies, you're worth more than little birds. Part of the reason you don't worry, if he can feed birds, he can feed you. May not be the diet you planned, may not be the food we would have chosen, but we're not God.
What a relief to know that we are not the ones who are sovereign, God is. Aren't you worth much more than birds? Look at 27, here's another one. Who can worry an extra hour to your life? Some of you are so worried about your age.
Will you quit it? You're not any younger because you worry. In fact, you look older because you're worried about your age, and no one knows your age unless you tell them.
I'll get to that in a moment also. Who can worry an extra hour to your life? Look at 28, why are you worried about clothing? My goodness, you're probably like I am. You stand in a closet filled with choices. No, I don't want that suit. No, I don't want to wear that one. No, that coat had those jeans. I wore those yesterday. I don't want to wear that.
I'll wear the khakis. I don't want to do that. Who's that?
You know, I've solved it. Cynthia dresses me. She does. This tie, you didn't thank her. Ties that look bad, I chose. But when I'll choose a tie, she'll say to me when I'm getting ready to walk, you're not going to wear the tie, are you? And I go, yeah, it's a great tie. It doesn't go with the outfit. She says, you need to wear another one. So I'll pull out some and she'll say that one.
And you know what? I get compliments on what I wear and I go, thanks. I don't deserve the compliment. The one who dresses me deserves a compliment. Now, the great thing about this is that your wife doesn't dress you. God clothes you. He's your clothier. He picks what you're to wear.
He provides what you put on your body. Would you remember that when you thumb your way through the magazine that tries to convince you what you've got is not really stylish enough? Advertisement is designed to make you dissatisfied with what you have.
So you'll go out and buy what they want you to buy. You can now buy jeans and you don't have to wear them out. You can buy them worn out. They're already shredded. You have the joy of paying twice the amount for shredded jeans.
You can do that if you're dumb. But here he says, God clothes you. Why are you worried about your clothing? And won't God do more for you than grass? Look at verse 30. Look at this one. Will he not do much more for you than what's done for grass?
Grass. His point. What an absolute waste of time. What an eloquent proof of our preoccupation with the temporal is our world of worry. For most, your worry list is much longer than your prayer list. I mean, you got things on time waiting to worry about.
One lady said to me, if I don't have something to worry about, I worry about not having something to worry about. Get serious, lady. Come on. The vivid illustrations. Jesus is master at illustrating. I love his style.
When it comes to food, 26. Look at what he says. Look at the birds of the air. They were outside. They're at that gentle slope above the Sea of Galilee where there are birds that feed on the plants around there and get their drinks of water from the lake. He said, look at the birds. Look at these little birds. He takes care of every one of them.
They have no retirement plan. You know, in all my life, I don't think I could count on both hands the number of dead birds I've walked across. I don't know where they go to die, but it isn't where I walk. So I just believe he keeps them alive. Most of them wind up in the parking lot of McDonald's eating French fries.
And look how long they live. That ought to tell you something right there. If you want to eat, go to McDonald's. They're right there.
Whatever. So you shouldn't eat fries. Well, tell the birds that. They're outliving us.
I like the way Clarence McCartney creatively observed this illustration. So far as is known, no bird ever tried to build more nests than its neighbor. No fox ever fretted because he had only one hole in which to hide. No squirrel ever died of anxiety lest he should not lay by enough nuts for two winters.
No dog ever lost any sleep over the fact that didn't have enough bones laid aside for his declining years. But the clincher, are you not worth much more than they? You've got a real screwed up scale of values if you think you're not worth what a fox is worth, or a bird in the air, or a squirrel, or a dog. Made in the image of God just a little lower than the angels.
With a mind to know God and a heart to love God and a will to obey God. Animals don't have that. You're worth much more. And if he'll do that for these, how much more will he do for you? Would you believe that?
When it comes to clothing, 28, why are you worried about clothing? Observe the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don't toil or spin. Look at the lilies.
You ever studied one? Beautiful white curl as it grows up into this bloom. It's glorious. The smell of a rose. The delicate orchid.
The bright sparkle of a daisy. All of these clothed by the one who has made them. And we have the audacity to doubt that God himself can't clothe us. Please observe the words, all these things, which appears more than once in this passage. He knows that you have need of verse 32, all these things, end of the verse, all these things, 33, all these things. I've taught you to observe repeated statements.
There it is again and again and again, all A-L-L, all A-L-L, everything you could name. He's aware of it. I've never brought anything to God in prayer and heard him say, oh, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. I didn't care and heard him say, oh, I didn't know that.
Wow, thanks for telling me. But I often think I have to inform him. What heresy. He knows everything. He scrutinizes my path and is well acquainted with all my ways, A-L-L, all my ways and all your ways. All these things.
He really rebukes us in 32. The Gentiles eagerly seek all these things. What a rebuke to a Jewish audience. I mean, to them, Gentiles were dogs. They had no master. They're pagans. They're heathen. They're without hope. They have no master.
They have no God they trust as their creator. He's speaking to a Jewish audience and he said, you're living like Gentiles. And you're the ones who fuss about the Romans all the time and you're living just like them when you worry and you worry and you worry. You see, the heathen ambition stays preoccupied with materialistic things, always in need of something, always wanting more. Enough is never enough.
Stop it. His convicting words in conclusion verses 31 and 32 are worth noting. 31, look at it, those who worry model the lifestyle of the pagan.
Don't worry then what we'll eat or what we'll drink or what we're going to clothe ourselves with. The Gentiles eagerly seek all these things. And you have a Heavenly Father who knows you need all of these things. You have a Father. And he's ageless. He's timeless. He hears everything. He knows it all. And he understands you and me.
It's beautiful. Well, as a means for taking your next steps, we urge you to listen again Tuesday when Chuck continues this message on Insight for Living. And if you'd like to learn more about this ministry, please visit us online at insightworld.org. Well, we'd like to point you to a resource from Chuck Swindoll.
Whether you're wrestling with worry or you're living with someone who's given to fear, we believe you'll find this book to be helpful. The book I'm referring to is titled Simple Faith. It features 14 full-length chapters in which Chuck focuses entirely on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, including the topic we address today. Simple Faith truly represents the core of Jesus' ministry on earth as defined by his Sermon on the Mount. Plus, Simple Faith is written in the classic and approachable style you've come to expect from Chuck. So to purchase a copy of Chuck's book, Simple Faith, go to insight.org slash store or give us a phone call.
If you're listening in the U.S., dial 1-800-772-8888. These daily programs are made possible because people like you give voluntary gifts. And through your support, people all over our country and even around the world are engaging in the truth of God's Word and learning to win their battles against worry. It was encouraging to read a recent comment from a listener in North Carolina who told us, listening to Insight for Living has been especially encouraging to me over the past few years, as many difficulties have come into my marriage and family.
God has gotten me through so many challenging chapters in my life. Thank you for all that you do. Well, every single day, Chuck Swindoll's Bible teaching is broadcast from Frisco, Texas. But Chuck's voice would never be heard without the generous support of friends like you.
So thank you for taking a few moments to let us know you're standing with Insight for Living. To give a gift today, call us. If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888.
That's 1-800-772-8888 or go online to insight.org. I'm Dave Spiker. Join us when Chuck Swindoll continues his enlightening message about our favorite sin, Tuesday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Our Favorite Sin, was copyrighted in 2015 and 2021, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
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