Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of
Trinity Sermons. Are you worried? There is lots
in the world to be worried about right now, from
natural disasters, to wars, to our money, to
our relationships falling apart. We all worry.
But what does Jesus have to say to us in that
worry? How does he offer us comfort and guidance
to make it through? That's what we're going to
be looking at in today's sermon. Today's reading
is from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, verses
19 to 34. Do not store up for yourselves treasures
on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and
where thieves break in and steal. But store up
for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths
and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves
do not break in and steal. For where your treasure
is, there your heart will also be. The eye is
the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy,
your whole body will be full of light. But if
your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will
be full of darkness. If then the light within
you is darkness, how great is that darkness?
No one can serve two masters. Either you will
hate the one and love the other, or you will
be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and money. Therefore
I tell you, Do not worry about your life and
what you will eat or drink, or about your body
and what you will wear. Is not life more than
food, and the body more than clothes? Look at
the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap
or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly
Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable
than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single
hour to your life? And why do you worry about
clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow?
They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that
not even Solomon, in all his splendor, was dressed
like one of these. If that is how God clothes
the grass of the field, which is here today and
tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not
much more clothe you, you of little faith? So
do not worry, saying, what shall we eat or what
shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For the
pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly
Father knows that you need them. But seek first
his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these
things will be given to you as well. Therefore,
do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will
worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble
of its own. The word of the Lord. There are some
people who do not worry at all. You know, in
fact, we have to take their blood pressure just
to see if they're alive. In fact, the rest of
us, we worry why they're not worried. And on
the other hand, there are others of us who worry
about just about everything. In fact, we have
worries and worries and worries, and we even
have backup worries, just in case we don't need
to worry about these things anymore. And then
there's the rest of us who are somewhere in the
middle of all that, you know, that we kind of
worry and we kind of don't worry. So what I want
to do this morning to get started is I want to
ask you three questions, okay? And you can answer
these questions by a show of hands. Just to let
us know where you're at. So here's the first
question. Who of you, by worrying, can add a
single hour to your life? Show of hands. Okay,
good. Second question is this. Who of you, by
worrying, may have actually subtracted hours
or days from your life? Show of hands. Okay,
okay. And the third question would be this. Who
of you, by worrying, have somehow managed to
improve the quality of your life? No. Okay, it's
kind of what I thought. So let's just recap.
So we know that worrying won't extend our life.
That in fact, worrying probably shrinks the length
of our life. And that worrying doesn't add anything
to the quality of our life. So then the question,
of course, is why on earth would we worry? So
as your priest, as your pastor, let me just say
this to you. Stop it. Okay, Libby, you can come
back up. We're done. That's it for today's sermon.
We're going to move on with the rest of the service.
No. Fortunately, we can't do it just like that
because actually we know that worrying and the
command that Jesus gives us not to worry is one
of the hardest commandments in the entire Bible
to obey. I think that we feel we have this responsibility
to worry. That if we're not worrying, then somehow
we're not... paying attention we're not paying
attention to the 24 7 news cycle out there we're
not paying attention to those social media fear
loops, that we're not paying attention to the
economic uncertainty. And so we are under constant
pressure to plan. We're under constant pressure
to predict our lives. And we want to control
things. And we think that if somehow by stressing
enough and by worrying enough, we might actually
be able to control the future somehow and prevent
bad things from happening. But of course, we
know that's not true. In fact, if you were to
look at the definition of worry, the word worry
comes from an English word which means to choke
or to strangle, which means that worry is like
an assassin who sneaks up behind you and puts
you in a headlock and slowly drains the life
out of you. In Greek, the Greek word for worry
is this word merom nao. And that has a slightly
different meaning. It means to be pulled into
directions. And that makes sense because... People
who worry, on the one hand, our hearts and minds
are pulled toward God, wanting to trust God.
But on the other hand, we're also pulled toward,
what if this happens? What if that happens? What
about next week? What about next year? And that
is why people who worry are often, I think, so
very distracted. It's because part of their mind
is over here, and the other part of their mind...
is a million miles away, thinking about something
that might happen in the future. Divided minds,
fragmented hearts. So, we're in... The middle
of this teaching series called Summer on the
Mount, where we're looking at Jesus' amazing
teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. It's found
in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. And Jesus talks about
and teaches us so much in that really condensed
piece of teaching. He talks about marriage and
forgiveness and prayer and love and money and
all these things. And today, Jesus is going to
talk to us about worry. And so I want to invite
you, if you want to follow along, we're basically
just going to go through that. passage on worry.
It starts in Matthew chapter 6, verse 25. If
you have a Bible, you can open it up. If you
want to use your phone, you can turn it on. Because
we're just going to go through what Jesus says
there. I just got back from a week's vacation
where I didn't have a worry in the world. And
I was thinking about worry. I was thinking about
this message today. And I was doing some reading
of Jesus' words. I was reading everything from
John Stott to Rick Warren to Martin Lloyd Jones.
And I think that after all that, I want to share
with you some of what I've learned. I think five
reasons here why Jesus says we shouldn't worry,
and then three other things that we can do instead.
And I just want to remind you that in order to
help you follow along, we've created some sermon
notes, and whether you're here in person, you've
got these paper sermon notes, but we've actually
now started creating fillable sermon notes through
our church app. So if you're watching online,
you can just go to the church center app. You
can click on the three buttons in the bottom
right corner, and then you can see the sermon
notes are available up there. So anyways, here
is the first reason why Jesus tells us not to
worry. Simply this, it's not worth it. It's not
worth it. Jesus says that most of our worry is
misplaced. and that we are worrying about the
wrong kinds of things. It's just not worth it.
Many of you have heard about that study from
the University of Cincinnati that said something
like 85 % of the things that we worry about never,
ever happen. And the other 15 % of the things
we worry about, even though they may come to
pass, the consequences and the results of those
outcomes are not nearly as bad as we thought
they would be. Worry is literally not worth your
time. It is not worth your energy. And that is
why Jesus says, therefore, I tell you, do not
worry about your life, what you're going to eat
or drink or about your body and what you will
wear. And this is important. Is not life more
important than food? And the body, more important
than clothes. I think you should circle those
words. More important. More important. Jesus
is saying there are so many things that we obsess
about. So many things that we worry about that
simply aren't worth it. They're not that important.
There are more important things in life. And
he goes on and he gives a couple of examples.
He talks about what we eat and what we wear.
And I want you to know that when Jesus taught
his first audience 2 ,000 years ago, many of
them did not know where their next meal was going
to come from. Or certainly next week's meal was
going to come from. And many of them maybe only
owned one garment or two, maybe. And so if Jesus
is going to tell people like that, don't worry
about food. And don't worry about what you're
going to wear. What would he say to people like
us today? We, who open up our fridge and we worry,
oh, should I eat this hummus now? Or should I
eat it tomorrow? Well, if I eat it tomorrow,
I might not. Might go bad by tomorrow. We have
a full fridge. Or we walk into our closets and
we look at all our clothes and we think, oh,
geez, I have nothing to wear. If I wear this,
somebody might remember that I wore this two
weeks ago. And what would they think if that
were to happen? We are not hungry people. We
are not starving people. And we are not naked
people. And yet we... are still very, very anxious
about even little things like these. Now, Jesus
has nothing against food or clothing or your
body. Jesus created our bodies. But what he's
saying is, it is not worth worrying about things
like this. Because in the kingdom of God, you
are not what you eat. In the kingdom of God,
you are not what you wear. You are not even just
a body. In the kingdom of God. In the kingdom
of God, you're not measured by your pantry or
your refrigerator. You're not measured by your
mirror or your wardrobe, right? Is not life more
important than food? Jesus says, is not life
more important than clothes? You're more than
that. How much stuff are you worrying about right
now that just isn't worth it? life is more important
than those things. That is the first reason Jesus
says why we should not worry. The second reason
Jesus tells us not to worry is because it's not
how we're made. You've probably heard someone
tell you, hey, I was just a born worrier. I just
came out of the womb and I was a worrier. And
I don't think that's true. I don't think any
of us are really born worriers. Worry is a learned
behavior. It's something that we learn from our
parents. It's something that we learn from our
friends or our partner or whatever. In fact,
I came across, oh, I did that thing. It did that
thing where it goes through all my slides to
the very end. Anyways, here it is. We're going
to come back. I came across this study. It was
in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
It found that children of anxious parents were
significantly more likely to develop anxious
thinking patterns themselves. Why? Because they're
observing and they're imitating their parents'
responses to stress. is not natural, in other
words. It's not how we're made. It's not what
we were designed for. It's something that we
learn throughout life. Now, Jesus actually gave
an example to prove his point. He does a little
bird watching. Now, I'm no ornithologist, but
I don't think that birds worry that much. I mean,
birds, what do they do? They maybe build a nest
once a year. They sing a few songs. They flutter
around, they eat whatever is within arm's reach
of themselves. I have never seen a bird put together
a five -year strategic plan. I have never seen
a bird anxious or worried. I've never seen a
bird go grocery shopping or have to plan meal
preps or budgets. Birds kind of live in this
all -inclusive resort kind of lifestyle. And
yet... And yet they're always taken care of.
And then Jesus moves from birdwatching to botany,
and he starts talking about the flowers that
are in the field, the grass that is in the field.
This grass is so beautifully clothed with flowers.
These flowers only may last six weeks, and then
they're gone forever. So you see, plants don't
worry. It's not natural. Animals don't worry.
Birds don't worry. Now, some of you will say,
oh, Rob, what about an antelope when it sees
a lion coming? And that is true. When an antelope
sees a lion coming, its stress response goes
through the roof. It moves into fight or flight
mode. But when the lion is gone, The antelope's
stress returns down to normal. The antelope does
not sit around thinking, oh, what if the lion
comes back tomorrow at 3 p .m.? What will I do
then? The antelopes don't do that. Only humans
do that, right? It's not natural for us to do
that. Now, the good news is, therefore, if worry
is something that we learn, then it's something
we can unlearn. And that's what Jesus is teaching
us, that when we enter into the kingdom of God
and follow him, then the more we trust Jesus
and the more we trust God, the more we learn
this kingdom life, the less we will worry. We
will unlearn our worrying tendencies. Okay, so
number one, worrying is not worth it. Number
two, worrying is not how you were made. And number
three, Jesus tells us that worry is actually
just, not helpful. Worry doesn't work. Whatever
you think worrying is going to do, it just doesn't
work. It is completely unproductive. It changes
absolutely nothing. You can't worry yourself.
millimeter taller. You can't through worry get
any shorter. You can't through worry lose any
weight or get any thinner. And Jesus says that
by worrying you can't even add a single day to
your life. Who of you by worrying can add even
a single hour to your life? The answer is nobody.
Nobody. Worrying doesn't add life. It actually
subtracts life. I remember hearing the story
of this guy who was so worried that his house
was going to be broken into by a burglar. You
know, for years and years and years, he lay awake
in bed listening to every sound out there. If
he heard the creak of a door, he would, oh, is
it the burglar? If he heard the wind, he thought
it was a burglar. He heard a cat yowling. outside.
He thought it was a burglar, and for years and
years, he had security systems installed. He
had doorbell cams. He had a sprinkler system
installed with a motion detector, whatever, and
for 20 years, he sat there worrying, and no burglar
ever came, except finally one day, a burglar
did come poking around his house, and he ran
down to confront him, and he said, hey, You're
late. I've been waiting for you for two decades,
right? Now, see, you might say, oh, see, he was
right to worry. He was right to worry. The burglar
did eventually show up, but I will tell you this.
He may have been robbed once by that thief, but
he was robbed thousands of times by his worry.
When you worry about the past, you cannot change
it. When you worry about the future, You can't
control it, right? Worry can't change that. It
can't change that. It only messes up with your
life right here and now today. That's all it
does. It's not helpful. It's not useful. It's
completely unproductive. Now, fourthly, though,
I think this is perhaps the most important point
that Jesus makes, in that Jesus says worry is
just not necessary. Worry is completely unneeded
because God already knows what you need and will
provide for you. I want you just to imagine there's
a little girl sitting here at the breakfast table
and she's sitting there, you know, swinging her
legs. You know, she's not worrying. She's not
worrying, oh, I wonder if there's enough food
in the fridge. She's not sitting there calculating.
the grocery budget. She's not biting her nails
wondering if mom and dad remembered to pay the
hydro bill this week, right, or this month. She
is just sitting there. She's sitting there waiting
for toast. Mom's going to bring her some toast.
Now, why? It's because she trusts her parents
to know what she needs and to provide it. In
fact, it would be very strange to see a five
-year -old pacing back and forth wondering, oh
my gosh, what if the peanut butter is gone? And
oh goodness, what if we can't afford cereal this
week? Or what if mom forgot that I actually like
apple juice or whatever? That is how we treat
God. You have a father who knows what you need
before you even ask for it. So you can stop stressing
and sit down at the table and trust that your
daily bread is coming. Jesus puts it this way,
if God cares so wonderfully for the flowers,
won't he surely care for you, you of little faith?
When I find myself worrying about things, it's
actually a sign, that I am misunderstanding who
God is. And if I don't understand him, then I'm
not going to trust him. And if I don't trust
him, then, of course, I'm going to worry instead.
So the real question I think we have to ask ourselves
is not what am I worried about, but it's what
do I believe God is like? The promise is that
God knows your needs. And that as his children,
you don't need to worry. He's not surprised by
your needs or unprepared for your needs. He's
not stingy when he provides. He's your father.
Paul wrote these words. He says, my God shall
supply all your needs. Now, he doesn't say he'll
supply all your greeds. But I think when we think
of things like, will God provide for rent? Will
he provide for my mortgage? Will he provide for
that health expense, that dental bill I didn't
see coming? For those car repairs? If God cares
so wonderfully for flowers, who are just here
today and then they're gone tomorrow, won't he
surely care for you? Oh, you of little faith.
Fifthly, And finally here, Jesus encourages us
not to worry because when we worry, we are setting
a bad example. What do I mean? I mean, Christians,
on the one hand, go around and they preach about
this Heavenly Father, this Heavenly Father who
loves us and gives us our daily bread. We would
tell people, oh, you should trust in God. I trust
in God, da -da -da -da -da. But then when we
go and live lives of worry, we are actually undermining
our very message. Because we are not trusting
the God that we claim to follow. And so why would
anyone else want to follow God? Why would anyone
else choose to trust God when apparently from
our own behavior we don't? trust God when we
are so, so worried. Jesus says, the pagans run
after all these things. And now pagans are those
who don't believe in God. And so yes, if you're
a pagan, maybe you should be worried, right?
Because if you're out there in that big old world
by yourself, you're on your own, it's a dog -eat
-dog world, and you've got no one to depend on
but yourself, yeah, okay. Maybe worry is an appropriate
response. But Christians, ought to be different.
We have this Heavenly Father who says, I will
supply all your needs. And that's why R .H. Mounts
writes that worry is practical atheism. And I
think he's right, that when we worry, we're actually
acting as if a loving God does not exist. We
say we believe, but then we act otherwise, and
onlookers, can only be left to surmise that we
actually don't really believe in this God that
we proclaim. Take it a step further. Worry isn't
just about not trusting God. It's actually about
playing God. See, when you worry, you're assuming
God's job, his responsibility, thinking that
somehow by worrying, you can control. The uncontrollable.
I thought only God can do that. No, but I'm going
to do that, right? So whether it is that we're
worrying that God won't come through or whether
it is that we're pretending to be God ourselves,
all of it undercuts our message. All of it looks
like unbelief in the eyes of a watching world.
So there you go. I just spent 15, 20 minutes
telling you a whole lot of nots. Worry is not
worth it. It's not how we're made. It's not helpful.
It's not necessary. It is not a good example.
But the Sermon on the Mount is not about the
nots. It's not all about the don'ts. It is about
the do's. It is about the yeses. It is about
how we do live in God's kingdom. So just as we
close, let's move a little further in that passage
from the don'ts to the do's. And from the nots
to the oughts. And let's see how we can resist
the stranglehold of worry. Here Jesus tells us.
According to Jesus, peace comes. From putting
God first. Now remember what the definition of
worry was. It was to have a divided mind. Kind
of over here with God. Kind of over here worrying
about these situations. But Jesus says that therefore
the solution is to undivide your mind. To focus
your mind just on God. And to put God first.
That's how you avoid worry. Right? That's why
he says seek first the kingdom of God. And his
righteousness. And all these. things will be
given to you. Worry is like this warning light
on your dashboard. Warning, warning, warning.
It is telling you something is off. It's telling
you you have prioritized some other thing in
your life ahead of God. Something else has crept
into first place for you. Something other than
God. Could be a relationship. Could be a job.
Could be finances. Could be your health. Could
be parenting. Anything. Whenever and wherever
God is not first, that area will become an area
of worry for you. So the solution is to put God
back in first place. And when you do that, when
you seek the kingdom of God first, life gets
simpler. Life may not get easier, but it gets
simpler because now your trust is anchored in
one person, and that one is someone who will
provide. always for you. That's why at some point
in your life, every person has to decide, what
am I going to live for? What is that one thing
that I'm going to live for? And the way that
you answer that question will determine a whole
lot about how much you worry in life. And I just
want to say, if you've never even done this before,
you could just pray even a simple prayer today
just to say, Jesus, Take it all. Take my past.
Take my present. Take my future. Take my worries
and my problems and my finances and my health
and my relationships. I give it all to you, and
I want you to be first in my life. The second
way Jesus tells us to break free of this thing
called worry. It's just to take life one day
at a time. Look at what he says. He says, therefore,
do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow is
going to worry about itself. Each day has enough
trouble of its own. I was thinking about a way
to explain this. And we like to shop at No Frills
in our house. And No Frills sells these amazing,
very durable big bags that hold so many groceries.
And so often when I go into the store, I'll take
three or four of these with me. But because they
hold so much, when it comes to the checkout,
I usually just fill one so, so, so full. And
then I have all these empty bags. And then I'm
like haul. They call them haulers, by the way.
I'm hauling this thing to the car. I could put
my back out. The bag could rip. The food could
fall and be destroyed. And that is exactly what
we do when we carry the weight of tomorrow before
it comes. When we carry the weight of yesterday
rather than just today, right? Every day has
its own set of challenges. So just put the things
for today in the bag for today. Don't, you know,
stuff all of yesterday's problems into that bag
too. Don't stuff all of tomorrow's problems into
that bag as well. You can't bear that weight.
You can't. The good news is that God gives us
life. in these 24 -hour packages called days.
And of course we've got to plan ahead. Planning
is wise, but don't take yesterday's problems
and put them into here. And don't take tomorrow's
worries and put them into here. The 24 hours
in front of you has enough to worry about today.
And if we spend so much time worrying about yesterday
and tomorrow, then we're actually going to miss
out on whatever God is trying to show us today
anyways. In fact, in a few weeks, Kyla is going
to preach to us about the Lord's Prayer. And
what does Jesus teach us in the Lord's Prayer?
Does he say, give us today our monthly bread?
Does he say, give us today our weekly bread?
No, he says, give us today our daily bread. Because
Jesus wants us to learn to depend on him one
day at a time. Not a year at a time, a day at
a time. Finally, after everything Jesus taught
us about worrying, after saying, hey, live one
day at a time, seek the kingdom, there's still
one more reason that we can stop worrying and
trust him completely. And that's because God
has so shown us that he is trustworthy. Paul
says, he who did not spare his own son, but gave
him up for us all, how will he not also along
with him? graciously give us all things. Paul
says it plainly. God has already given you his
very, very best. He didn't hold back his own
son. He didn't hold back from the suffering and
pain of the cross. So why do you think God would
suddenly get stingy on you now? I mean, Jesus
was the most precious thing to God. So he gave
you Jesus. Do you think he's now going to forget
about rent and groceries? Or your next job? The
cross is the ultimate evidence that God is for
us, not against us, and he will give us what
we need. I mean, imagine someone gives you a
brand new car. They just give you the keys to
a brand new car. And as you're getting in, you
stop and say, wait, wait, am I allowed to use
the air conditioning? Of course you can use the
air conditioning. car is yours, right? If someone
gives you the car, they're obviously giving you
access to everything inside the car. And that's
what Paul is saying. God already gave you the
keys to everything in his son, Jesus. Why would
he suddenly pull back when you ask him for peace
and provision and direction? John Stott puts
it this way. This is the logic of heaven. The
greater gift includes the lesser. If God gave
us Christ, nothing else we could ask for would
be beyond his generosity. So when that voice
of worry starts to rise up in you, here's a question
to ask. Just remember, has God not already proven
himself? Look at the cross. Look at the empty
tomb. Look at Jesus. He's got nothing left to
prove. And we have every reason to trust him.
So in the end, worrying isn't so much really
about what is happening around us. It's actually
who we believe God is. If we see him as small
and distant and unreliable, we're going to live
divided lives full of anxiety. But if we believe
he's our loving father and our daily provider,
the one who already gave his own son, then we
can trust in his care and confidence. Trade your
worries for steady trust. Seek first the kingdom.
Live one day at a time. And remember, the God...
gave his best will never fail to give us what
we need. Thanks be to God. Amen. Thank you for
listening to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons.
This sermon was recorded at Trinity Church Streetsville
in Mississauga, Ontario on August 10, 2025.