Be Not Anxious for Your Life, Part 1

The point: Examine your heart to see if you yearn for God's face and voice, or if your presence in church is merely for outward appearance.

Illustrates the importance of God seeing the heart's desire for Him, not just outward attendance, as the true measure of spiritual exercise.

I believe perhaps we ought periodically to repeat a couple of, a couple of sermons out of that section. For as you meet here this morning, there's only one thing that matters. Not that others see you here and think, well, you must be a pretty good Christian because you're pretty regular. But what does the Father see?

0:59 - 1:17 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon emphasizes the gravity of anxious care, explaining that it is a natural human concern that can become a curse. It chokes the Word of God, making it unfruitful, and…

A personal anecdote about his infant daughter crying from hunger, illustrating the natural, innate concern for life's preservation.

Ours went off at 5 o'clock this morning. That was her coming home present to Daddy. Mrs. Martin said that she's been sleeping to 6.15 or 6.30 all the while I was gone,

9:56 - 10:06 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are not born of the Holy Spirit, spend the rest of the day on your knees crying to God for mercy and seeking salvation in Christ.

Compares the natural reaction to a hot stove with the lack of reaction in leprosy patients, emphasizing the natural, protective concern for the body.

A person whose nerves have gone dead as you find happens with certain forms of leprosy. They don't have that natural reaction so they'll lose fingers in accidents, cut them off unknowingly, or allow an object to rest upon them because the nerves have gone dead. But this whole concept of preserving the body and preserving life, it's a natural part of life. And because it is, all of us have got to get this concern in its proper perspective or else that very concern, which is a blessing, will be a curse.

10:31 - 11:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Exercise proper foresight in financial arrangements and providing for your family, learning from the ant and the squirrels.

Uses the ant as an example from Scripture to show that proper foresight and preparation for the future are not sinful anxiety but wisdom.

You don't like to think about it, but you're going to. It's appointed unto men who wants to die. Now is it sinful foreseeing that I'm going to die to make proper financial arrangements that I not burden others with the matters of putting me away and relative to their well-being having some kind of life insurance? No, because the Scripture says, Go to the ant, thou sluggard, and consider her ways, how she stores up in fruitful times for the less fruitful times.

16:36 - 17:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Exercise proper foresight in financial arrangements and providing for your family, learning from the ant and the squirrels.

Uses squirrels as an example of animals that store up for less fruitful times, reinforcing the concept of proper foresight.

God says we're to learn something from the animals. And I mentioned two weeks ago about the squirrels who somehow know that winter's coming and they store up. And the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 12, 14 that the parents ought to lay up for the children and not the children for the parents. So if a parent sees that his child will no doubt need education and he takes proper foresight and seeks to salt a little bit away regularly, this is not what our Lord's talking about.

17:06 - 17:37 Read in full sermon

The point: Never touch a drop of alcohol to avoid the path to drunkenness.

Illustrates how a full-blown sin (drunkenness) starts with a root (the first social drink), connecting it to how covetousness starts with anxious care.

The same Bible that calls the matter of drunkenness sin would lead us back to the root of this sin and tell us to flee every occasion of evil. Therefore, if I want to be sure that I'll never be a drunkard, I'll never touch the first social drink. That just makes good sense. No man ever became a drunkard overnight.

19:25 - 19:51 Read in full sermon

The point: Never touch a drop of alcohol to avoid the path to drunkenness.

Illustrates how the sin of adultery begins with seemingly small actions like flirtatious looks and language, showing the progression from root to full sin.

And the Bible that condemns drunkenness also says, flee all that would lead to unnecessary occasions of sin. The Bible condemns the sin of adultery. But no man ever walks up to some woman, a total stranger, out of the clear blue sky unless she's a harlot who makes it known that she's selling her body and falls into adultery. No. What happens?

20:18 - 20:42 Read in full sermon

The point: Put away foolish jesting and bantering language that can break down walls of purity and lead to adultery.

Illustrates how murder begins with hatred in the heart, reinforcing the idea that full-blown sins have germ forms or roots.

And God condemns the one as much as the other. The same is true with murder. The Scripture condemns murder as a sin. But where does murder start?

21:04 - 21:18 Read in full sermon

Driving home: That's exactly what we do to God.

An analogy of a son doubting his father's care for food, used to illustrate how sinful anxiety insults God's Fatherly character and breaks His heart.

And when we're anxiously concerned about the provisions of life, we're insulting God. We're saying, God, you're more concerned about the flowers of the field and the birds of the air than you are about me. What a terrible insult to God. It'd be like having my son come up to me and say, Daddy, I've watched you dig around the plants out there in the yard or the bushes and I've watched you put bread out for the birds, but Daddy, I don't believe that you're going to buy enough food for me to eat and I'm afraid you're going to starve me to death.

29:55 - 30:25 Read in full sermon

The point: When conscious of sinful anxiety, hand it over to the Lord, casting all your care upon Him.

A humorous example of trying to change one's height through concentration, illustrating the futility of anxiety in altering what is beyond human control.

All right, go sit in the corner somewhere and concentrate for the next 30 days. I don't like my height. I shall shrink. Come on back and measure yourself.

33:58 - 34:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Beyond prayer, engage in thoughtful consideration of God's simple observations (birds, flowers) to be delivered from sinful anxiety.

Suggests that sometimes deliverance from anxiety comes not from praying, but from observing God's creation and letting it 'preach' a sermon.

That's right. The best thing you could do is to do some thinking, not some praying. Instead of going home and praying this afternoon about it, you ought to go out and sit in the backyard and look at the birds. That's what Jesus said.

35:38 - 35:49 Read in full sermon