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Do Not Be Anxious

Leading the Way / Michael Youssef
The Truth Network Radio
January 3, 2025 12:00 am

Do Not Be Anxious

Leading the Way / Michael Youssef

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January 3, 2025 12:00 am

While it can be easy to get distracted by the security money can bring or the peace health can provide, Dr. Michael Youssef expounds on Matthew 6:25-36 and reminds us that, regardless of circumstances, the faithfulness and sovereignty of our Lord and Savior provides the ultimate peace and security.


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Thank you for joining listeners throughout six continents for Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yousaf. Well recent years have sadly planted a lot of seeds of anxiety, elections, natural disasters, economic turmoil, then add in daily life and many have welcomed anxiety right into their homes.

Then not knowing how to get rid of it before it does more damage and completely takes over. Well today on Leading the Way, Dr. Yousaf tackles the realities of the anxious life with a message he's called, Do Not Be Anxious. Together we'll look at the comforting words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 6 where worry and fear is seen from God's perspective.

Here now is Dr. Michael Yousaf to begin this episode of Leading the Way audio. Matthew 6 25 to 36 Jesus is speaking to his own and he was saying, There is no need for you to be anxious and worried like those who don't know me. Now whether rich or poor or everyone in between, our attitude toward material possessions is the clearest indication of our spiritual temperature.

Did you get that? Our attitude to possessions is our clearest indication to our spiritual temperature. Our greatest distinction between those who know and love Jesus and those who don't is the level of anxiety that we have, the level of worry that we have about life. Of course I'm talking about those who know and love Jesus. I'm not talking about those who try to express some sort of bravado attitude and I'm not worried, I am this and I'm this. Mostly I've found when that happens it's a smokescreen. But when those who love Jesus become anxious and worried, and we all do at some point, I can tell you when.

I'll give you the timing on when that takes place. It is because we have had a temporary amnesia as to who our Heavenly Father is. It is because for that moment we have forgotten who is our Heavenly Father.

There are the moments when we forget the privileges that we have as children of the King of the universe. The very heart of Jesus's message here in this passage in Matthew 6, they said don't worry about the necessities of life. In fact in those few verses there are three times, three times where our Lord Jesus gives us a command.

These three times were not suggestions, they are not recommendations, they are not nice things to do, they commands. This command is found in verse 25, 31 and 34. I'm going to show you four things, I'm not going to expound on them, but I'm going to come back and show them to you in the biblical context. First of all he's saying worrying is wrong because it indicates distrust in the nature of God. He is saying that worry is totally unnecessary because of who your Heavenly Father is. And thirdly he is saying worry does not make sense, why?

Because it is inconsistent with faith. And fourthly finally says worrying is very unwise because of our certain future, our known future. Worry is like a rocking chair, you know you see people sitting in the rocking chair on the porch, rocking, rocking, rocking, that's what worry is like, you're rocking.

It gives you something to do, it takes you nowhere. But today I want to focus specifically on verse 27, I'm going to come to the rest of it, but verse 27, who of you by worrying can add a single day to your lifespan? Now some translations say an hour, it doesn't matter, any period of time. Now beloved listen to me, this admonition of Jesus is the exact opposite of what our culture is force-feeding us. Now I've been regular in exercising physically, some of the folks in the gym who are watching me working out so hard, they would ask me the question, what do you want to live to be a hundred?

And I immediately respond, I said no, the physical workout does not add one day to my life. Oh you should see the puzzlement on their faces, because they fed this stuff that says that if you take care of yourself you live long. Listen to what Jesus said again, verse 27 which of you or who of you by being anxious can add a single day to your lifespan?

Now I don't want to make the mistake that I often tell you not to make and that is not to put the text back in its context, it's very important. And so in the few verses before 27 Jesus talks about the source of anxiety, the very source of worrying. Matthew 6 19 to 24 Jesus says if money and the accumulation of worldly possession is your God then you worry, you will worry. You will be anxious if your net worth is your master, in fact you will never have a worry-free day in your life if that's the case. The first thing you need to know if you are in this situation I can tell you one thing for sure, Satan will eat your lunch every day and maybe your dinner as well. Hear me right, at this point at this point if you have made that to be your God all the sermons in the world will not help you, all the preaching in the world will not relieve your anxieties, all of the books on the subject that you can read will not deliver you from that anxiety, all of the counseling in the world will not help your worry.

Why? Because the God of mammon is a very merciless God because that God is an enslaving God, because that God is an all dominating God, because that God is an all controlling God, because that God is a all possessive God, because that God is a cruel slave master. That is why please please please please do not get me wrong, I don't want you to get me wrong, I beg you not to get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with money and possession, did you get that? Nothing wrong with money and possession, nothing wrong with money and wealth, I have some very dear friends whom I know personally, they literally live and work so that they can make money, in order that may give that money to the work of the kingdom. As a friend of mine said, you cannot serve God or mammon, but you can serve God with mammon, and therefore the question is not the possessions, the question is, are your possessions possessing you? When that happens you will never have a worry-free day, you will always live in worry and anxiety, so the question is, what is the antidote to worry?

Are you ready to hear it? The cure for worry is using of one's possessions to serve the living God. The real worry free life is only possible when the resources that God gave you, make no mistake about it, God gave you, are used for reaching the lost. Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 6 24, here's a use of translation, if you are a slave to accumulation and stacking up of more and more and more, more stuff, then you can be sure that slavery to worry is not a part-time hobby for you, slavery to worry is not a partially controlling of you, that slavery to worry will not have only a temporary effect over you, no no no, why? Because a slave is at his master's beck and call, a slave serves the master's will and whim, a slave who is fully owned and controlled by his master, a slave is totally obligated to his master, a slave is totally obedient to his master, and Jesus said you cannot be a slave to mammon and the servant of God at the same time, it's an impossibility, it's just an impossibility, if accumulation and more and more and more is your master, then worry is your lot in life, if materialism is your master, then you can be assured that anxiety is going to be your permanent companion, if all of your treasure is on this earth, not in heaven, then you can be assured that worry is going to be your bosom body, Jesus said these are two masters, two, no third, just two, and he says these are dramatically opposed and they cannot coexist, now don't shoot the messenger, that's what Jesus said, there is the one that commands us to walk by faith and fully trust him and then there's the other who demands that we walk by sight of what we see, there is the one who calls us to acknowledge God and only God as the source, and then there is the other who pumps our pride and give ourselves credit for all of God's blessings, there is the one who tells us to set your mind on things that are above and things that are in heaven where Jesus is, and then there's the other who says your earthly security, your net worth, is all that matters, there is the one who calls us to see the things that are unseen by the rest of the world and the things that are eternal, and then there's the other who wants us to focus all of our, in fact forces us to focus our attention on what is seen and what's temporal, who is my master, who is my master, that's the question, asking yourself the question who is my master is one of the most important questions that you can ask in life, why? Because answering that question will determine the level of anxiety and worry in life, verse 25, Matthew 6, Jesus said for this reason I say to you do not be anxious, you say what reason, what is he talking about, what reason? The reason of knowing who your master is, hear me right please, when it comes to worry and anxiety it makes no difference whether you are poor or rich, did you get that? Let me repeat that, when it comes to worry and anxiety it makes no difference whether a person is poor or rich, why? Because your attitude toward material possessions which is the accurate measurements of your spiritual condition, it's your attitude, it's how you react to them, here's the problem, when you think that you are self-made, oh we hear a lot about self-made man, when you think you made it all yourself, then you're going to worry because you feel that's up to you to protect what you made, if you think that you're the one who did it, then you're going to have to worry about protecting it, in reality God is the one who gave it to you, now whether you acknowledge it or not, God is also can take it away in a heartbeat, I've seen people literally lost millions overnight, it's like the man who had a large real estate holdings and his pastor was saying oh bless God, God did it all and God owns it all and he took the pastor out and he pointed out to this incredibly vast real estate and he said you mean to tell me that I don't own this and the pastor said I'll tell you what, ask me that question a hundred years from now and I'll answer you, that's it, ask me a hundred years from now, but when you know that God gave you everything, God gave you everything and that you are using it for his glory, you will be at peace, you'll be at peace, why?

Because just as God gave it to you, he will multiply it to you, he will multiply it to you, so that you can keep multiplying in the work of God and he will multiply it too, so you can multiply to the work of God, I have seen this too many times to doubt it with my own eyes many many many times, God is not looking for a puddle where the water comes in and stays there, he's looking for conduits, as I pointed out to you earlier from Matthew chapter 6, he commanded in those few verses commands three times, verse 25, 31 and 34, remember the four reasons I gave you earlier as why worry is a sin, why worry is wrong, I'm going to repeat those ones from the scripture, all four of them, in verse 25 of Matthew 6 worrying is a distrusting of the intentions of God toward you, did you get that, verse 25, secondly verse 26 to 30 worrying is a disbelief in the sovereignty of God, thirdly in verses 31 to 33 worry is a distortion of the character of God, it's a distortion of the character of God and finally verse 34 worry is a distrust in the promises of God, here's another problem about worry, worry is like a baby, how does the baby grow, by nursing the baby, okay, what is the same way, it's going to get bigger and bigger if you keep on nursing it, in fact worry comes from the German word meaning to strangle or to choke and that's exactly what worry does, it's the kind of mental and emotional strangling, I am told by some physicians, friends of mine, people I trust completely, that they have had patients in their clinics who are in physical pain and they run all the tests known from MRI and all the other tests, there's nothing wrong physically with them, but they're in pain, the Bible would diagnose this as worry or strangling of your emotions, listen to me, just as the wind blows unless you stop it, just as the water flows unless you impede it, just as light will glow unless you buffet it, you and I and yeah including me, I'm not preaching at you, I'm preaching myself as well, you and I are going to worry unless we deal with it, unless we deal with it, here's something I hope you'll never forget, worry is the opposite of contentment, contentment is with Jesus calling all of his children to have, why, because God has peace in himself and he wants us to have it because God has tranquility surrounding his throne in heaven and he wants us to have it because God has serenity filling the courts of heaven and he wants us to have it, he wants you to have it, he wants me to have it, his peace cannot be fabricated, oh many tried, they cannot fabricate it, his peace cannot be duplicated, his peace cannot be falsified, his peace is above and beyond explanation and someone may ask well Michael is there a falsified fabricated type of peace that is not the peace of God, yes absolutely, I hear about it all the time in the media but these are band-aids on tumor, so the question is do you know what the number one cause for worry and anxiety, losing what you have, so number one, losing of what I'm talking about health, wealth, whatever it is, even life and going with that, that's the biggest anxiety causing fact, so they naturally go for more and more and more and more but the source of contentment is seeking the praise and the honor and the glory and the things of God, the secret of contentment is being generous in giving of yourself and sharing Christ with others, on the other hand the cause of worry is misplaced priority, instead of being focused on Christ it's focused on who what's going on around me, what's the latest in the news, what's gonna happen, how many people did this and how many people went there and how many and I've seen it, even among God's people, the source of contentment is losing yourself in obedience to the Lord, the source of worry is focusing on how dangerous this world is, the secret of contentment is how I can share Christ with the lost, the cause of worry focuses on what I don't have and how do I get it, the secret of contentment focuses on bringing glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, I hear people all the time I'm worried about how dangerous this world is, well I see the world is dangerous but I want to challenge every believer to do some soul-searching, wherever you are, whatever you are, start today, do some soul-searching, ask the question am I anxious and worried and if the answer is yes then why am I worried when my God promised, when all of the promises in the Word of God are for me, will you do that, let's do that together right now, Father each of us deal with different areas just because we are different and even you deal with us differently and you don't deal with two of us in the same way and so I pray and I come against the spirit of worry and fear and anxiety and I pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ that they will experience victory like nothing before in this life and that they will build their eternal future now, Father I pray for every person who is worried and anxious and you give them the Holy Spirit right now to lift up their eyes from the conditions and what they experiencing, to look up to the great day that is coming when we're going to reign and rule with you, I thank you that the moment those of us who love you close our eyes in death we're going to be with you, what a deal, so Father I pray that you might bless your servants, my brothers and sisters in Christ in Jesus name, Amen. Encouragement to surrender the worry and the fear in your life, this message from Dr. Michael Youssef is called, Do Not Be Anxious. Thank you so much for listening to Leading the Way and allow me to quickly remind you that Leading the Way is much more than audio messages on the radio or programs queued up in your podcast playlist. Leading the Way is a global hands-on ministry reaching across six continents in 28 languages. Recently a young woman reached out to share how Leading the Way has impacted her and her life. Let me summarize, a 22 year old woman recently shared how she opened her heart to Jesus but was unsure of the next steps. She came across the radio program in her community and shared how it helped her learn more about God and better understand what it means to live as a Christian.

She also shared how Dr. Youssef's messages helped her make decisions when facing negative social pressures. She's so thankful for her church and for the daily encouragement she gets from Dr. Youssef and the ministry of Leading the Way. Friends, please pray for this young lady and for many others who rely on Dr. Youssef and other radio Bible teachers to guide them in their faith and life decisions. In addition to praying, I hope that you'll consider partnering through your generosity today.

It is such a great joy to join God in what he's doing all around the world through Leading the Way. Here's how to get in touch with us. Give us a call at 866-626-4356 or ltw.org. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth around the world. Learn more at ltw.org.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-05 10:06:33 / 2025-01-05 10:14:23 / 8

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