How Can I Get Victory Over Worry? | Dr. David Jeremiah | Matthew 6:25-34

God Turned My Question Marks Into Exclamation Points!

I think some Christians are embarrassed to go before the throne in heaven and say Lord God I’m having a real struggle here and I need your help I believe if you read the Psalms of the Old Testament you will see David pouring out his heart to God in every imaginable situation you can come up with and they aren’t uh veiled prayers they’re not nice prayers they’re gut level prayers Lord God I need help so let me just suggest to you you have a father in Heaven you have a family on Earth both of them were

created to be helpful to you and don’t try to do all this by yourself by worrying cuz it’s going to get you nowhere you’re in the family ask yourself who you are step up and be counted as a child of God so that’s Jesus Take on worry that’s given to us to help us understand it remember it’s inconsistent it’s irrational it’s ineffective it’s illogical and it’s irresponsible and that’s why Jesus says don’t do it we itself is a concern over the future worry is concern about something

that we cannot do anything about that we cannot even be sure about one who worries looks off into the future but the problem with the person who does that is twofold first of all the future is not here and secondly the future is not his no one but God knows its true shape and according to the Bible worry is concern over the unknown and uncontrollable future remember the day Jesus met with Mary and Martha if you want to know the poster child for worry in the New Testament it had to be Martha Jesus addressed her he

said to her Martha Martha you are worried and troubled about many things and that is what describes so many of God’s people today were worried and troubled about many things now let’s get it straight we live in a world that makes it very easy for us to worry can I get a witness all this stuff that’s going on in our country today and around the world the diseases the Wars all of it if we allow ourselves we can get consumed with worry about all of that but when worry takes over in our lives men and women as Christians it makes it

very difficult for God’s word to have any impact on us in fact when Jesus was teaching on the sewing of the sewer and the seed he said that sometimes when the word of God is sown in the hearts of people it falls among thorns and these Thorns grow up and they choke the word of God out of the heart and in detailing who those Thorns are in Matthew Chapter 13 one of them is the cares of this world Jesus said when you get so caught up in the cares of this world it will take you away from your ability to hear and understand and profit from the word

of God Chuck swindall says that worry pulls tomorrow’s Cloud over today’s sunshine so if there’s one place in the Bible where you’re going to find out what the Bible says about worry it will be in this passage in Matthew chapter 6 here Jesus uses the term worry six times and the expression don’t worry three times here’s the don’t worry verses verse 25 chapter 6 of Matthew do not worry about your life what you will eat or what you will drink or about your body what you will put on Matthew 6:31 do not worry

saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear Matthew 6:34 do not worry about tomorrow so if you want to have the distilled teaching of Jesus on the subject of worry it comes in two words don’t worry now before we deal with jesus’ thoughts on this I want to tell you first of all what he is not saying some people read the old translation that deals with the subject of anxiety and in the original King James version it says this be careful for nothing and I know a lot of people who

live that way don’t you they’re careful for nothing that was kind of my life first when I was a young person you know Carefree Jesus is not telling us when he says don’t worry that we should never plan that we should never be concerned about the future that we should never be strategic in the way we live our lives ladies and gentlemen Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness planning what was going to happen next he planned for the Last Supper he tells us don’t ever enter into a project unless you count the cost

Jesus was a planner so he’s not talking about do away with all planning you know I know some preachers that live like that you ask them why don’t you study well I just open my mouth and the Bible says the Lord will fill it well you can only try that two or three times on one congregation and you’re working somewhere else you know the problem with all of this thought about not taking this seriously is wrong Jesus is not only not talking about not planning he’s not saying that we shouldn’t have concerns how many of

you know it’s right to have concerns God has given to us the mechanism in our body so that when things happen we’re alerted adrenaline flows we know what to do your child runs out into the street where there’s traffic you need to be concerned about that and go into action but men and women there’s a great deal of difference between worry and concern worry sees problems concern solves problems worry lives in the unknown future concern lives in the present and you need to understand the difference

between those two Jesus is a masterful teacher so he’s going to give us five things about worry that we need to know these are so Central to this subject and when I put the study Bible together that many of you have I actually listed them in a sidebar so they would always be next to this passage I believe this is so critical to where we are today with so many people um you know in anxiety even among God’s people so Jesus said here’s what you need to know about worry worry first of all the Lord Jesus said

is inconsistent read with me the 25th verse of the sixth chapter therefore Jesus said I say to you do not worry about your life what you will eat or what you will drink nor about your body what you will put on is not life more than food and the body more than clothing the point is that God would not have given us life and he would not have created our bodies without seeing to the provision of those things that are necessary to sustain us if you believe in a Creator God you also Must Believe in a sustainer God or you’re not

consistent Jesus said first of all worry is inconsistent if God has given you life and your body he will help you with the other things that go with it now secondly Jesus said that worry is irrational verse 26 look at the birds of the air for they neither sew nor reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly father feeds them are you not of more value than they God Almighty provides for the birds don’t you think he’ll provide for you are you not much more valuable than the birds wor he is inconsistent and it’s

irrational but here is the whole core of it the middle point of the five is the key point it’s ineffective it doesn’t work worry never accomplished anything and it never will the only thing it does is destroy the person who does it and listen to what Jesus is saying in verse 27 which of You by worrying can add one cubit to his statute what Jesus is saying why are you doing something that doesn’t work he’s saying a cubit was 18 in he’s saying you can’t worry yourself into being 18 inches taller than you are I’d