How to Win in the War with Worry

SPEAKER 01 : 0:00

Pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers has introduced people all over the world to the love of Jesus Christ and has impacted untold numbers of lives by presenting profound truth simply stated. Thanks for joining us for this message. Here’s Adrian Rogers.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:16

Would you take God’s Word and find again the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 6. We’re going to begin reading in a few moments in verse 25 and read right through verse 34. Do you ever worry? Well, I know you do. I do. We all do, but we ought not. As a matter of fact, to worry is a sin, not just a weakness, but a wickedness. I want to speak to you today on this subject, how to win in the war with worry. All right? Now, let’s begin to read here in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 25. And every worrier, that’s us, Pay attention. Our Lord is speaking. He says, Therefore I say unto you, take no thought. The word here actually means worry. No anxious thought for your life. What ye shall eat or what ye shall drink. Now 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? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his 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 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, therefore 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 when our Lord says, take no thought, The word for thought there is a word that may be translated worry. It’s a root word which means to divide. That is, worry divides our minds. It is a distracting thing. It is a dividing thing. And you remember what the apostle James said in James chapter 1 and verse 8, that a double-minded man… is unstable in all of his ways, and there’s nothing more destabilizing than worry. Now, when our Lord says, take no thought, He’s not talking about not planning ahead. He’s not talking about having a flippant mind. Happy-go-lucky attitude that does not provide for tomorrow. As a matter of fact, the Bible takes the ant that provides her meat in the summertime for the winter as an example. The Bible teaches that we should remember the law of sowing and reaping. God is not saying that we ought not to make provision for tomorrow. God is not saying that we ought to just go through life in a lackadaisical, happy-go-lucky, flippant way. It is not foresight, but foreboding that is forbidden. Not foresight, but foreboding that this passage deals with. If you would win in the war with worry, first of all, you must recognize the cause of your worry. What is it that people worry about? Well, it’s very interesting here. Our Lord has summarized them for us right here. First of all, people worry about food. How are they going to get enough to eat? And maybe that’s not your worry, but for many people in many places of the world, that is indeed a very big worry. Look, if you will, in verses 25 and 26. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink. Nor yet for your body what ye shall put on, is not the life more than meat, that is food, and the body than raiment. Behold the fowls of the air, they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Here’s the logic of our Lord. Are ye not much better than they? Now, if God Almighty takes care of the birds, and you’re so much better than a bird, isn’t He going to take care of you? The logic is this. What farmer would feed his barnyard chickens and starve his beloved children? Now, He’s not telling us that we ought not to work for food. God feeds the birds, but He doesn’t throw it in the nest. Remember, we told you that. And the birds must work. The early bird does what? He’s the one that gets the worm. And the Lord is not saying not to work. What the Lord is saying is don’t work. Worry, but not only do we worry about food, we worry about fashion. Look again in verse 25. He tells us there not to worry about raiment, what we shall put on our bodies. And then look at the discussion in verse 28. And take no thought for raiment, that is clothing. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin. Yet I say unto you that even Solomon, and he was the most opulent, rich, incredibly decked out king that you can imagine, even Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now the flowers fade. The flowers bloom today, and then they’re cast into the ovens. The women of this day would heat their oven with the grass, the straw of the field. And what our Lord is saying is, if God takes such care of fading flowers, aren’t you worth so much more? And then not only does He mention food and fashion, but He mentions fitness. Look in verse 27. And this is what so many Americans worry about. And which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto a stature? Now, He’s probably not talking about making yourself taller. You cannot worry yourself taller, however. But the word here says, Stature is translated by many, lifespan. What he’s saying is that worry cannot lengthen your life. You just can’t worry yourself into a longer life. Now he’s not saying again that you ought not to take care of yourself. He’s not saying that you ought not to jog. He’s not saying that you ought not to exercise. He’s not saying that you ought not to eat nutritional food. He’s not saying that you ought not to get proper sleep. He’s not saying don’t do that. But what he’s saying is that worry won’t lengthen your life. You can worry yourself to death, but you can’t worry yourself to a longer life. That’s what he’s saying. He’s saying, now look, in the area of food, in the area of fashion, in the area of fitness, and then in the area of the future. Now, many of us who have the food that we need and the clothes that we need and we have the strength that we need today, that’s not enough. Now we say, but I may not have it tomorrow. So look down in verse 34. And he says, and take no thought for the morrow. Now he mentions the future. He says, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Now remember, it’s not foresight but foreboding that our Lord says we’re not to do. We’re not to reach out into tomorrow and borrow trouble. We’re not to pull tomorrow’s clouds over today’s sunshine. Somebody has done a study about what the average person worries about. Evidently, they took a survey and they found this, that 40% of what people worry about, 40% of the things that people worry about never happen at all. 30% of what people worry about have already happened. They’re in the past. So 40% is not going to happen. 30% has already happened and you can’t do anything about it. 12% of what the average person worries about is in the area of criticism. What people say about you. Most of it untrue. 10% deals with your health. according to this survey. And worrying would only make that worse. And then when you add all of these together, that’s about 92%, you only have about 8% of the things that are considered to be real problems. And even these, worry, will not do any good. But it’s incredible that we worry about a lot of things that are not going to happen or already have happened. Like the little lady who said, don’t tell me that worry doesn’t do any good. Most of the things I worry about never happen. So worry really is sort of a futile thing, what our Lord is saying. I read recently an interesting thing, that in a dense fog, I mean a dense fog that would cover seven city blocks, 100 feet deep, Do you know how much water it takes to make a fog to cover seven blocks 100 feet deep? Less than a glass full. Less than a drinking glass full. It is divided up into more than 600,000 million little droplets. And that’s what worry is like. Worry is not like a thunderstorm where it just rains and thunders and lightning. You can put up an umbrella. You go inside. Wait for the storm to come over. And that happens to all of us. We have storms and we have to deal with them. That’s not worry. But worry is like that fog. It’s like that less than a glass of water that just permeates all of our life. Now, our Lord, first of all, says that we should recognize the cause of worry. And then He goes on, secondly, to help us to understand the cost of worry. Once we recognize the cause, we need to realize why. The cost. Now, worry is a costless thing. The very best thing that you can say about worry, I mean, if you want to say something good about it, the best thing you could say is not good, and it is this, that it is useless. It’s absolutely useless. Look, if you will, in verse 27 again, which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit to a stature? Just by worry, I mean, it doesn’t do any good. Well, Ben said there are two categories and classes of things we should never worry about. A, those things that we can do something about, and B, those things we can’t do anything about. Now, if we can do something about it, then don’t worry. Do something about it. And if we can’t do anything about it, worrying only makes the matter worse. For every evil under the sun… Either there’s a cure or there is none. If there be one, seek till you find it. If there be none, never mind it. Which of you, by taking anxious thought, can add one cubit to stature? Worry never dried a tear. Worry never lifted a burden. Worry never solved a problem. The best thing that we can say about worry is that it is useless. But worry is absolutely harmful. And harmful, number one, to you, to yourself. There are few forms of dissipation that will do more damage to you physically, emotionally, and spiritually than than worry. Worry will do the same thing to you that sand will do to machinery. And it’s not the big things that get most of us, it’s the little things. I read that where a mighty lion may destroy and kill, still little ants will pick the carcass far cleaner than the mighty lion. It’s the little ants. that seem to nibble at us. Worry is harmful to ourselves in every area. Worry is harmful to other people. Have you known folks that when they walk into the room, it seems like somebody turned the lights off? You know people like that. I know people like that. They brighten up the room when they leave. These are just… These are just the worriers. And not only do they worry themselves, worry is contagious. And they’re just spreading this gloom and this worry everywhere. There ought to be a place where we could quarantine these people. Just lock them up and let them worry one another. Worry is harmful to the self and worry is harmful to other people. And then worry is a wound in the heart of God. Do you know how our Lord remonstrates with them? Look, if you will, in verse 30. 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? Now watch this little next phrase here. O ye of little faith. Do you see what worry says about God? O ye of little faith. Do you see what an insult worry is to God? Do you see how this worry says to Romans 8, 28, that all things work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose? Do you see how that points the finger in the face of God and says, God, that’s a lie? Verse 31, Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? Now watch verse 32. For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. The ethnoi. What’s he talking about there? The peoples of the world. The people who don’t know Jesus. Do you know what our Lord is saying? Beloved brother or sister in Christ, What our Lord is saying is that when you worry, you are living like a pagan. That’s what he’s saying. He’s saying that’s pagan. It’s faithless. Oh, you of little faith. You’re like the people of this world. You’re thinking like the world. You’re not thinking like somebody who has a heavenly father. Worry, I say, is a wound in the heart of God and it is an insult to the providence of God. All right, then thirdly, let’s move on. Our Lord talks about the causes, and we must recognize the causes. And then He talks about the cost and the curse, and we must realize the cause, the curse of worry. But then our dear Lord deals with the cure. And this is not just pop psychology. Our Lord gives us just a very real, very practical, down-to-earth way to win in the war with worry. Number one, this is so simple. Trust in the Lord. Look, if you will, in verse 32. For after all these things do the Gentiles seek for your heavenly Father. Just underscore that phrase. Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. You don’t have a need in your life but what someone who loves you so incredibly that he gave his dear son, the Lord Jesus, to die for you. He knows all about this. And so, just simply trust in the Lord. That’s what I call the father factor. The father factor. You have a heavenly father. Hey, if you could fast forward in the gospel of Matthew, you’d come to Matthew chapter 10 and verses 29 through 31. Our Lord again is on this same subject. He says, “…are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?” And one of them shall not fall to the ground without your father. He doesn’t say that a sparrow won’t fall. He doesn’t say you’re not going to have trouble. But he says God is right there. He attends the funeral of every sparrow. And then he says, but the very hairs of your head are numbered. Friend, he knows things about you that you don’t know about you. You think he doesn’t understand. You don’t understand how much he does understand. Not a person here knows how many hairs you have on your head except a few guys that I’m looking at right now. The very hairs of your head are numbered. And then our Lord says, Fear not, therefore are ye not worth more? Are you not of more value than many sparrows? Said the robin to the sparrow, I would surely like to know why these anxious human beings rush about and worry so. Said the sparrow to the robin, I think it must be that they have no heavenly father such as watches you and me. Are you not worth more than a sparrow? There is the father factor. Robert Louis Stevenson used to delight in telling the story about a ship that was at sea. On a rocky coast, it was very important that the ship not be washed upon the reef. And it was a stormy, blustery time. And there was a sailor and some other sailors that were beneath the waterline in that ship that was being tossed and turned. They knew the danger. They knew that they were in a peril and danger. And they were wondering, are we going to make it? ONE OF THOSE SAILORS BENEATH THE DECK COULD TAKE IT NO LONGER. HE LEFT HIS DUTY, WENT UP TO THE PILOT HOUSE, PUSHED OPEN THE DOOR AND THERE WAS THE CAPTAIN OF THE SHIP IN THE PILOT HOUSE, STEERING THAT SHIP THROUGH THOSE TREACHEROUS WATERS. THE CAPTAIN KNEW THAT THE SAILOR WAS WORRIED AND HE DIDN’T SAY A WORD TO THE SAILOR. HE JUST TURNED AND SMILED AT HIM. THE SAILOR WENT BACK DOWN BELOW THE DECK And he said to his fellows, he said, don’t worry. It’s all right. He said, I have seen the captain. And he smiled at me. I like that. You know, I think that’s what we need to do. Just see the smile of God, don’t you? You know, that God is in control. Somebody wrote a couplet like this. In the morning, lean your arms upon the windowsill of heaven. and look into the face of your God, and then turn to meet the day. Isn’t that what we need to do early in the morning? Get up and see that we have a Father in heaven who knows, He cares, He loves. Friend, He really does. There’s the Father factor. There’s the Father factor. And then there’s another factor, which is the focus factor. Do you know that a person… Who is worrying is a person whose mind is out of focus. Remember what we told you? He’s double-minded. Now what our Lord says is that you need to get your focus back. Look again, if you will, in this passage of Scripture now in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 33. But seek ye first. First! First, the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things, food, fashion, fitness, future, be added to you. Just seek God first. You know what many of us do? We try to put things first and God second. Now, we don’t exclude God. We don’t exclude God, but we just try to kind of add God in. You know, for many people, living the Christian life is doing the best we can with God’s help. That’s what many of us do. The best we can with God’s help. But that isn’t the Christian life. Our Lord does not want a place in your life. He demands, deserves preeminence. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and these things will be added unto you. You say, Pastor, it won’t work. But before you tell me it won’t work, I’m going to ask you this question. Have you tried it? Have you tried it? Don’t tell me it won’t work if you are not a person who has obeyed the Lord. After the father factor, your father knows what you have need of. He knows. Then get your life in focus and seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And do you know what God is saying in this passage? Our Lord is saying, you take care of my business and I’ll take care of yours. You take care of my business and I will take care of yours. You put me first. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and I’ll take care of all of these things that are bothering you. God is more than able to take care of the things in your life. Now here’s the third factor. Now, there’s the father factor, there’s the focus factor, and there is the future factor. Now, look, if you will, in verse 34. Therefore, take 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, what’s he saying? The father factor, trust in the Lord. The focus factor, put first things first. The future factor, don’t borrow trouble. Don’t borrow trouble. Don’t do it. Take no thought for the morrow. The morrow should take thought for the things of itself. Do you know what you do when you take thought and worry about tomorrow? You borrow trouble. Do you know what worry is? Worry is the interest paid on borrowed trouble. That’s what worry is. Worry is the interest you pay on borrowed trouble. Now what God has done is God has arranged your life with a perfect ecology. We talk about the ecological problems in the world today. Well, here’s one where people get their concern out of balance. Now, what does God do? God engineers your problems. Did you know that God has arranged some problems for you today? God is up there in heaven saying, well, I’m going to give her this problem. I’m going to give him that problem. I’m going to give this one that problem. God is preparing some problems for you. You say, I thought God loved me. Yes, he does. And that’s why he gives you some problems. Did you know that we would not come to God? We would not trust God. We would not lean upon God if we didn’t have some problems. Did you know that? Back in the Garden of Eden, God said to Adam, cursed is the ground for your sake. He didn’t say for your punishment, but for your sake. It is trouble that reminds us that we live in a sinful world. It is trouble that tells us we must come to God. And so God gives us every day some evil. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. The evil for what? He doesn’t mean sin. He means problems, difficulties. That’s the kind of evil He’s talking about. We all have it. God gives it to us to cause us to depend upon Him because we’re frail human beings and we need some trouble. All sunshine makes a desert. And so our Lord gives us some trouble. But with the sufficient trouble, God gives us sufficient grace. So sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. What God does, God gives us grace for today, not for tomorrow. God doesn’t give us grace for tomorrow, only for today. Now, if you begin to reach out into tomorrow, and we said you pull tomorrow’s clouds over today’s sunshine, what you do is you upset that ecology. The Bible says, as your days are, So shall your strength be. God did not give me strength for tomorrow. Now, listen. If you fail to understand the future factor, if you began to reach out into the future and drag the future into today, here are three terrible things you’re going to do to yourself. What does this do? Well, in the first place, it buries blessing. Did you know… that God not only has given every one of us today some difficulty, but God has given every one of us today some great, great blessings. And the danger is that you get the ecology out of balance and you do not see the blessings of today. There are plenty of blessings around if you just look around and not let worrying about the future blind you to them. I was in my study and a couple came to me and they said, WE NEED TO TALK WITH YOU. HE WAS A HANDSOME, STRONG-BODIED YOUNG MAN. SHE WAS A BEAUTIFUL, SWEET GIRL. AND THEY HAD A PRECIOUS, BEAUTIFUL BABY. AND THEY CAME IN AND THEY WERE ALL TREMBLING. THEY WERE ALL, THEIR BROWS WERE ALL KNITTED UP WITH DEEP FURRERS THAT OUGHT NOT TO BE ON THE BROW OF YOUNG PEOPLE LIKE THAT. AND THEY WERE, THEY WERE ABSOLUTELY BEAT DOWN. I SAID, TELL ME YOUR PROBLEMS. WHAT’S WRONG? And he said, economically, we’re distressed. He said, we don’t have any money. And he said, I can’t get a job. And he said, I am just so worried about the future. And I said, well, before we talk about the future, I said, I want to ask you a question. Sir, you look healthy. Are you healthy? Well, he said, as far as I know, I’m in perfect health. He said, I can’t feel a pain anywhere. I said, young man, did you know that there are multimillionaires in this world who are sick, who would gladly give all of their wealth to have your body? Did you know that? I said, do you love your wife? Oh, he said, she’s wonderful. I said, well, the Bible says a good wife, her value is far above rubies. I said, would you sell her for $100? He said, $100. He said, I wouldn’t sell her for anything. I said, well, there are a lot of people who’d love to have a companion like you have. I said, how much is that little baby worth? Oh, they said, our baby is worth all the world. I said, don’t you know there are people who would give the world to be able to have a baby? I said, you’re an American, aren’t you? He said, yes. I said, did you know that there are people who are leaving all of their fortune, everything they have in other countries, just so they can come and live here in America? And I said, now look at you. I said, look at all you have. And you have failed to appreciate what you do have, worrying about what you don’t have. And one of the things, my dear friend, that worry does is it buries blessings. That young couple walked out of my office, boy, I’m telling you, they were on top of the world. They realized for a moment just how much they do have. But not only does worry bury blessings, it steals strength. It steals strength. You see, worry is not just useless, I’ve already told you. It’s harmful. Not only does it take the joy out of today, it takes the strength out of tomorrow. You see, what happens is this, that when you do get to tomorrow, you get to tomorrow out of breath because you have been carrying a double load today. Did you know the God who designed you knows how much you can bear? He knows your frame. Do you know that? A truck, we say that’s a ton and a half truck. That’s a two-ton truck, a five-ton truck. What do we mean? Not how much the truck weighs, but how much the truck can carry. Now, the manufacturer of that truck knows the frame, the chassis of that truck. And so he says, don’t ever put a load on that truck that it ought not to bear. Now your father, according to Psalm 103, he knows your frame. So as your days are, so shall your strength be. God is not going to give you a burden that you cannot bear if you use the strength that God gives you. But what we do is this. We overload today with tomorrow’s problems. And therefore, friend, we break down the springs of life and it’s no wonder that we have to call a wrecker to haul us in. Because what we have done is just simply overloaded our spiritual truck. And not only does it bury blessings, it steals strength. It breaks us down. I heard of a stevedore down in New Orleans who was unloading a ship. And he was walking off the gangplank with a load when the gangplank broke and he fell in the muddy Mississippi. He went under one time and came up and yelled, help. He went under a second time, came up and yelled, Help! He went under the third time and came up and said, If somebody doesn’t come help me, I’m going to have to drop one of these anvils I’m holding. I think some of us are like that. We’ve got a load of care under this arm and a load of care under that arm and saying, Why am I sinking? Why am I sinking? When our Lord has said, Take no thought for the morrow. The morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. It bears blessings. It steals strength. My friend, it does. So, the third thing, and finally, it produces problems. Did you know that the thing you worry about may happen just because you worry about it? You know what Job said? Job said, the thing I feared, the thing I feared is come upon me. Have you ever gotten behind a person driving, they expect every light to turn red? Time they get there, it has. Huh? Have you ever done that? There are people who go through life that way. And our Lord says, listen. Don’t worry about tomorrow. He didn’t say not to plan for tomorrow. He said don’t take anxious thought for tomorrow. The morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Don’t let worry bury blessings. Don’t let it steal strength. Don’t let it produce problems. Live today. This is the day the Lord hath made. I will rejoice. and be glad in it. That’s what our Lord says. Now, listen. Listen. We said there’s the Father factor. You remember that? The Father factor, your heavenly Father? Listen to me very carefully. It’s very important that you know that He is your heavenly Father. And the only way He can be your Father is is for you to be born into His family. And the Bible calls that the new birth. The Bible says concerning the Lord Jesus, He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on His name. Have you believed on His name? The word believe doesn’t mean just intellectual belief. It means trust. Trust Him. Trust Him. Believe on Him. Pray like this, O Lord Jesus, I believe on You. I receive You. I believe You’re the Son of God. I believe You paid for my sin on that cross. I believe that You were buried. I believe that You were raised from the dead. by the power of God. And you told me if I would trust you, you would save me. And I do trust you right now. Friend, I promise you on the authority of the Word of God, if you trust Christ, He’ll save you. The same Jesus that saved me so many years ago when I was a teenager will save you. And the same Jesus that has kept me and kept millions will keep you. And the same Jesus who is filling me with joy this moment will fill you with joy. Oh, I want you to know Jesus. Today, I’m going to ask you to give your heart to Jesus Christ. To trust Him with all of your heart like a little child. To say, come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Forgive my sin and save me.

SPEAKER 01 : 34:34

If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with Him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.