At Last A Life
Kicking the Worry Habit
Matthew 6:25–34
Pastor Carl Toti
October 22-23, 2022
WORLDVIEW SEGMENT
“INFORMED TO PRAY EMPOWERED TO ACT.”
STRAINING GNATS
Matthew 23:24 (NLT)
Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel!
“In the essential’s unity. In the non-essentials liberty. But in all thing’s charity.” — St. Augustin
“If the devil is not able to destroy a Christian’s witness by making him apathetic, he will try to do it by making him a fanatic.” —Unknown
At Last A Life
Kicking the Worry Habit
Matthew 6:25–34 (NIV)
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 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? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 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, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
MAIN IDEA: It is not what we are worrying about that harms us but worry itself is what is killing us.
“Fuhgeddaboudit!”
—New Yorker, Slang
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WORRY AND ANXIETY
Worry is temporary.
Anxiety is persistent.
THREE TAKEAWAYS
CONSIDER
Psalm 77:11-12 (Living)
I recall the many miracles he did for me so long ago. [12] Those wonderful deeds are constantly in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about them.
CONSOLE
Psalm 94:19 (NIV)
When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.
Proverbs 3:21 (Msg)
Dear friend, guard clear thinking and common sense with your life; don't for a minute lose sight of them.
CAST
1 Peter 5:7 (NIV)
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
Two Days We Should Not Worry
There are two days in every week about which we should not worry; two days which should be kept free from fear and apprehension.
One of these days is Yesterday with all its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains.
Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control. All the money in the world cannot bring backYesterday.
We cannot undo a single act we performed; we cannot erase a single word we said. Yesterday is gone forever.
The other day we should not worry about is Tomorrow. With all its possible adversities, burdens, its large promise, and its poor performance, Tomorrow is also beyond our immediate control.
Tomorrow's sun will rise, either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds, but it will rise. Until it does, we have no stake in Tomorrow, for it is yet to be born.
This leaves only one day, Today. Any person can fight the battle of just one day. It is when you and I add the burdens of those two awful eternities Yesterday and Tomorrow that we break down.
It is not the experience of Today that drives a person mad. It is the remorse or bitterness of something which happened Yesterday and the dread of what Tomorrow may bring that renders a person wild with
anxiety. Let us, therefore, live but one day at a time.
- Author unknown.
