Why Worry?

This episode of All In with Pastor Jordan Easley has been made possible by the generous support of viewers like you. Welcome to All In with Pastor Jordan Easley. Today's message is about to begin, and we invite you to prepare your heart and mind to hear an inspiring message from God's Word. We hope and pray for God to speak to you today as you seek to live your life all in for Jesus Christ. And now from First Baptist Church in Cleveland, Tennessee, here's Pastor Jordan Easley. How many of you are golfers in this room? Any golfers in the room? You play golf, you may not be good at it, you own sticks. Anybody who's a golfer? There's like nine golfers in our church. Well, you're gonna hate this opening story then, all right? All right, let me tell you a little story real quick. A couple of months ago, I was traveling and an airline lost my golf clubs. And I know that doesn't sound like a big deal to you. It's a big deal to me though, and I have the microphone, so I'm gonna tell you anyways. It was a big deal because these were nice golf clubs. They were brand new, I had saved up for a long time to get the exact golf clubs that I knew that I needed to act like or appear like I know what I'm doing on a golf course. So they're new, they're shiny, they're custom fit to me.

And I put them on a bag and we put it on the airplane and the airplane lost my golf clubs. And that shouldn't happen. It was a one-way flight. It was from Austin, Texas to Knoxville, so it has to be in one of those two places, right? Is this just me, that makes sense, right? It has to be, but no one knows where they're at. And so I'm frustrated, I'm upset, and let me just say, for two months, we were calling the airlines, we were placed on hold, we were emailing back and forth, we were submitting receipts, we were filling out forms, all of this. Customer service experience was absolutely horrible. But finally, the airlines came back to us and they admitted that they were wrong. They admitted that the golf clubs were gone. They looked, they were nowhere to be found. So they admitted that, but then they wrote us a check to cover about half of what the golf clubs cost. And even though it was only half, I took that check, I was like, fine, it's over, it's done, whatever. I'm going straight to the golf shop, I'm gonna order another set of clubs that's about half as good as my old ones, but I got them. But when I got the clubs in my hands, I made a promise to myself, I made a commitment that never again, never again in my life will I put my golf clubs on an airplane and fly somewhere. You don't even know what I did this past weekend?

You guessed it, I put my golf clubs on an airplane and I flew somewhere. And there I was, once again, guys, I'm standing in front of baggage claim and I'm like, oh no, hundreds of bags are going by. I'm talking about the carousel was spinning every single color, every single shape, every single size. And I stood there for a long time thinking, it's happened again, no golf clubs at all. In fact, I'm stressed out, five minutes goes by, seemed like an eternity, but five minutes, I'm standing there, I'm stressed, my heart starts racing, my mind starts spinning. I've got all these scenarios going on in my head. I'm thinking, dude, they're still in Atlanta and they never got on the plane or maybe they did get on the plane and somebody saw them and thought, maybe I need to keep these golf clubs for myself. Or maybe they're here and they just didn't bring them out on the thing. Maybe I'm about to relive this nightmare of two months of customer service all over again. I mean, in that moment, you can probably identify, I was stressed, right? I was frustrated, I was pacing the floor back and forth, but then I realized something. I realized that I was standing at the wrong carousel. And this whole time my wife is over here saying, just pointing,

saying, your golf clubs are right there, 20 feet away from me the whole time. My golf clubs were there at oversized baggage. She's just shaking her head like, dude, what's wrong with you, right? I mean, like the whole time. But you know, I'm sitting there thinking, that is exactly what worry does in our life. Think about this. Think about the worry in your life. That's what it does. We stand in the wrong place, we focus on the wrong things and we spin scenarios in our head all the while the peace we're looking for is just a couple of paces away. And it's just waiting for us to stop and waiting for us to trust God and waiting for us to understand that we may not be in control all the time, and that's okay. You know, we're walking through a series right now called questions that Jesus asked. And the question we're gonna hear Jesus ask today is out of Matthew 6, verse 27. And I want you to think about these words. Jesus asked the question, can any of you add one moment to your life by worrying? Can any of you add one moment to your life By worrying and as you consider that question, I want you to understand what's behind the question

Jesus is telling us today worry in your life Will not add it will only subtract When you worry that worry will not add to your life. It will only subtract from your life It won't make your day any longer. It won't make your load any lighter, but it will make your heart a lot heavier So I want to challenge you today to think about that question think about it in the context of of Jesus looking into your life and Asking you that same question today Knowing your circumstance knowing your situation knowing what's weighing on you even right now as I speak these words I want you to imagine him asking you the question. Can you add one single moment to your life? by worrying Now, how would you answer that question? The answer is obviously no right shake your head if you're tracking with me The answer to the question is no we cannot add a moment to our life by worrying and yet Even though that is the obvious answer. We still try don't we we still try You know worry is one of those things that connects all of us It connects every single one of us no matter who you are. No matter how spiritual you are No longer no matter how long you've walked with Jesus or followed the Lord Every single person in this room knows exactly what it's like to carry Anxiety and the funny thing is most of us worry about things that are completely out of our control We worry about things that that haven't happened yet We worry about things that probably never will happen. We worry about the weather that we can't change We worry about People that we can't control we worry about future that we can't predict we worry about the past that we can't undo I Was up all night worried that my clock wasn't gonna fall back or fall forward or whatever. We did whatever happened, right? But we worry about those things We worry about our kids safety or our health or our finances or our jobs our reputation. We lose sleep over imaginary conversations Like we we replay the worst-case scenarios in our heads in our minds Like a broken record over and over and over again, and if we're honest worry has never made anything better Worry has never made your paycheck bigger. Amen Worry has never made your kids behave better. It's never made your future any clearer

all worry does is Make your heart heavier and I believe that's why Jesus asked this question in Matthew chapter 6 He asked this question because he wanted us to consider wanted us to think about where our worry was really pointing our life If you know Matthew chapter 6 you realize that this is right in the middle of a sermon that Jesus was preaching in Matthew 5 Through 7 called the Sermon on the Mount. I think this is the greatest sermon that's ever been preached And it's like Jesus in this text in this context He's he's sitting on a hillside if you've been to the Holy Land, you know He's sitting on that hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee And as he is preaching this message, he's preaching it to a bunch of ordinary people like farmers and fishermen Mothers day laborers shepherds who had come from the fields around and he's preaching this message To people that had real worries in that day These aren't the kind of worries that many of us have right now I mean, they weren't worried about is the Wi-Fi signal gonna be strong enough and they weren't worried about Traffic on Paul Huff after church. I mean they were they were worried about things like man Where's my next meal gonna come from? Or how am I gonna survive the next? Tax from Rome or am I even gonna be able to keep my family alive throughout this season as we get ready for the next? Life in first century Galilee was very hard. The economy was unstable at this time in history Rome was oppressive Families in the Bible they were living day-to-day hand-to-mouth So when Jesus says don't worry about your life what you'll eat and what you'll drink and what you'll wear Understand he wasn't talking to people who had plenty He was talking to people literally had nothing and that's what makes this moment so powerful in Scripture think about it right in the middle of their uncertainty Jesus leans in with a heart of compassion and he asked this question. He's saying can any of you add one moment to your life? by worrying It's like he's saying to them. I know that you're afraid right now. I Know that you're you've got question marks next to what's gonna happen next. I know that you feel like you're hanging on by a thread But worry won't change your tomorrow it will only rob you of today. That's the message of Christ in his passage He wasn't scolding Them when he said that he was shepherding them

He was gently exposing the futility of worry because he wanted to lead them on a new path that ended at peace Do you get what what this is saying? He's he's not trying to shame them right here He's trying to shepherd them And that's what this whole passage is about and really to help us get there Jesus is going to show us three different shifts in this passage And I hope you're taking notes because I want you to write these three things down These are three holy exchanges That move us from worry to worship and from panic to prayer And from control to surrender and we'll get there in just a second. But the first thing I want you to See in this text is this jesus is going to tell us don't just worry worship Don't just worry worship. It is it's one or the or the other In verse 25 when jesus says don't worry about your life, he's not saying stop caring about what's happening That's not the message He's not telling you to ignore your bills. He's not saying you need to pretend that your problems don't exist What he's saying is stop living like you're alone in them You're not alone in your problems See the word jesus uses for worry here in the greek is the word mermineo It literally means to be divided or to be pulled apart That's what that word means And really that's what anxiety does It tears us apart. It divides our thinking Worry causes your mind to go in one direction while your faith is pulling you in the other direction Have you ever witnessed that before have you ever walked through a season where that was the truth of your heart? It's like man, I know and I believe that god is good But there's another part of me that wonders if he's actually going to come through for me this time Here's what jesus says for the that moment He says stop letting your life be pulled apart by things. Your father has already promised to provide He is your father and he is good and this is jesus speaking reminding us of that very thing

Jesus is speaking in his text and and you can almost imagine him as he moves forward pointing to the sky As he gets to verse 26 He says consider the birds of the sky They don't sow or reap or gather into barns Yet your heavenly father feeds them Aren't you worth more than they? What a beautiful picture He's comparing us to birds, right? And he's saying hey if if god takes care of the birds animals who Don't even have a checking account, right? Don't you think that god will take care of you? I mean think about that the next time you see a bird hopping around your yard That bird isn't pacing back and forth wondering where breakfast is going to come from You've never seen a bird on a fence post with a tiny cup of coffee saying man I just don't know if i'm gonna make it till tomorrow That's not the scene that you see in your yard But but but instead what does a bird do when you see a bird? What is what is he doing? You know what? He's doing he's singing And he's flying He just does what god created him to do and somehow every single day God provides for the bird Now listen if god takes care of the birds of the sky don't you think He's going to take care of the people that he created in his own image Don't you believe god will take care of his kids? You know, sometimes we forget how valuable we really are to god You my friend are the crown of his creation And maybe you need to be reminded of that today And yet you as the crown of god's creation spend so much of your time worrying about things That he's already promised to handle

Have you ever realized that most of the stuff that we stress about is stuff That will never even happen I mean most of the things we worry about Will never happen. We worry about the future before it arrives We think about conversations that will never take place. We think about Outcomes that will never come true meanwhile the birds They just keep singing Here's what I want us to realize about worry Worry is worship in the wrong direction I don't want you to think of worry as a lack of worship. No worry is redirected worship You see we can point our life at anything and what you point your life at is ultimately what you worship See what you focus on is what you will fear the most and so you point your life at god You'll fear god and and fear him appropriately But when you point your life at other things that you fear in another way Guess what that is redirecting your worship to something that's not going to lead you down the right path It's going to lead you down the wrong path if you focus on your problems Your problems will always feel bigger than your god But when you point your life at god, you'll realize that he was always bigger than your problems See worry and worship are different things Hurry magnifies the chaos in your life. Worship magnifies the Christ of your life. They're two different things. They're two different destinations, and where you point your life will determine what you experience in life. When you worship, even when you're worried and you worship, something changes and shifts inside of you. Have you ever noticed that? Have you ever walked into this place

and you're carrying a load of anxiety? You're worried about this circumstance. You're thinking of this scenario over and over again, and something happens when you raise your hand as you start worshiping and praising the Lord. Something happens when you read the word of God and you're filled with the spirit of God. Something happens when you encounter Jesus because you're pointing your life at something that does something to the worry, right? Have you noticed that? Listen, the storm may not stop, but your soul starts to settle. That's what happens. Worship doesn't always change what's around you, but it will always change what's within you, amen? It'll always change you. There've been seasons in my own life where worry was winning. Now, I'm no different than you when it comes to this. Listen, there have been many nights where I'm wide awake at three o'clock in the morning looking at the ceiling fan, thinking through all the things that I'm concerned about, all the things I'm worried about. And I learned a long time ago, if I don't have a plan for those moments, I'm gonna get zero sleep, amen? And so I decided a long time ago in those moments when I'm worried, when I'm anxious,

when I'm thinking about things that may or may not happen, I stop, I pull out a notepad and I write some things down. And I write those things down in a category on my notes that say things I'm surrendering to God, things I'm giving to God. And I just know if I don't write those things down, if I don't choose to give these things to the Lord and to trust Him with these things, I'm gonna be up all night long with my mind racing 90 miles an hour. But let me just tell you, after that happens and I write those things down, let me tell you what I do next. I sit there in the dark and over and over again, I will say to Him all the things I'm thankful for that are still good in my life. I will say and declare to God, thank you for all the things that are still good in my life. And let me just say, every person in this room has a list of things that are still good in your life. No matter how bad things get, no matter how scary things seem, there are still some things that you can thank God for today and sometimes it's the simple things. It's like, God, thank you that I have a roof over my head. Thank you that I have a family. Thank you that I have breath in my lungs right now, but I thank Him. And here's the reason I do that in those moments.

It's because I know when I redirect my worship, my worry starts to lose its grip. When I redirect my worship back to God, my worry starts to lose its grip. In fact, if you're a note taker, get this down. You ready? Gratitude and anxiety have a hard time holding hands. It's hard to be grateful and worried at the same time. So gratitude and anxiety have a hard time holding hands. And I think that's why scripture says in Philippians chapter four, don't worry about what? Anything. But in everything with prayer and thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And what happens when we do that? Check it out. He says, and the peace of God will guard your heart and mind. Let me show you the way this is intended to work from God's design. The Lord says, worship builds a fortress around your peace. So you want to have peace in your life? Awesome, have peace. Pursue the Prince of Peace. Trust Him to give you peace. But guess what? Then you better point your life at Jesus and worship Him appropriately because that worship is gonna build a fortress

around that peace. It's gonna protect your heart, protect your mind. When you choose to worship instead of worry, God places a guard named peace at the door of your heart. There's a story I love in the book of Acts and you've known this story probably. It's Paul and Silas. Remember this story? They were in a Philippian jail and the Bible says that at midnight, not at midday when the sun was shining and things are bright and cheerful, but at midnight, the darkest part of the night, they began praying and singing hymns to God. Now listen, as they're doing this, they don't know if they'll ever be freed from that prison. They didn't know if they would live to see another sunrise. But with that being known and with that uncertainty, they still chose to worship instead of worry. They could have worried, they chose to worship instead. And the Bible says, as they sang songs of praise, God shook the prison and he set them free. I love that because that's what worship does. Worship shakes what worry built. Think about this in your own life. What is worry built? What does that fortress look like? What does that wall look like? Like you know what when you redirect your heart to worship worship will shake the walls of whatever worry built in your life When you feel like the walls are closing in when anxiety starts to creep up when you just don't know what tomorrow's gonna look like

He said that's your cue. That's when you've got to lean in you got to do what Jesus says to do You got to look up in those moments Look up to the Father who feeds the birds Look up to the one who clothes the lilies look up to the God who holds your life together Even when you feel like your life is falling apart Listen, your peace doesn't come from what you control. It comes from who you trust Who do you trust in those moments where you're stressed out when you're anxious when you're worried in those moments? Who do you trust? That's what happens when we worry that's what happens when we worship. So Jesus reminds us don't just worry worship But secondly, we're gonna hear him say don't just panic pray Don't just panic pray Hey, let's be honest today our natural response to pressure is panic most of us when the temperature rises Our first reaction is to freak out any freak out people in the room Come on, when things get a little crazy you typically panic you get that phone call and you look down at your doctor calling unexpectedly What's the first thing you do? Oh, right. I mean like, you know, oh no, I'm dying It's over. I just call to set the next appointment, but you think it's the end of the road, right? You get that phone call about your kid. You're like, oh no, here we go Your boss sends an unexpected email you panic your car starts making a weird noise you panic when pressure starts to mount Most of us have a panic kind of reaction Our our heart rate typically goes up our mind starts running wild we begin imagining every single possible outcome Except for the one where God is still in control We very rarely get there. That's not our first reaction We typically panic and let me just say Jesus is very aware of your natural propensity to panic That's why he asked the question he said can any of you add one single moment to your life by worrying He's basically saying I know you think your anxiety is productive, but it's not It's not getting you anywhere We go on to read his words in verse 28. He said why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow they don't labor or spin thread

Yet I tell you that not even Solomon and all his splendor was adorned like one of these If that's how God clothes the grass of the field which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow Won't he do much more for you you of little faith? Now that's an interesting phrase. He basically just called us out for being You of little faith, but I want you to realize he right here. He's reminding them. He's not just talking down to his followers He's reminding them that you have a father that has always been faithful You have a father that's always been faithful See what he's doing He's teaching us that the same God who paints the flowers of the field the same God who clothes the grass that grows wild and unexpected He's the same God that knows exactly what you need He knows what you need and he knows when you need it and Jesus is saying hey If I take care of all of these things that are temporary Don't you think you should trust me to take care of of those? That are eternal Listen, this is why panic doesn't make sense in the kingdom of God because panic says this Panic says all of this is up to me All of this is is my responsibility That's what panic does but prayer on the other hand prayer puts you in a position that says all of this is up to God None of this takes him by surprise and in this moment He's giving me the option and he's giving me the opportunity to trust him or not Jesus goes on in verse 31 to say so don't worry saying what will we eat or what will we drink or what will we? wear for the Gentiles eagerly seek all of these things and Your Heavenly Father knows that you need them right here. Notice. He draws a Contrast between Gentiles and them who is that about? Well, he's basically saying there are believers and there are unbelievers And there are people who who don't know God and he's saying they spend their whole life chasing these things And worrying about these things and he they're trying to panic over these things because they feel like they're in control of all these things But then he looks at believers and he says you are not one of them You're different from all of these other people who worry about all this other stuff and what makes you different is you have a father And your father already knows what you need Need long before you ever ask him for things.

That means you don't have to live like an orphan if you're a child of God. You don't have to act like you're on your own when heaven is on your side. He's saying when panic rises, you can pray and believe that my father knows me, he knows what I need, and he knows when I need it. That word worry is a fascinating word. It's the same word that was used earlier. It's mermineo. It means to be pulled apart. And that's what panic does. Listen, panic. Panic is what pulls your piece apart piece by piece. Panic pulls your piece apart piece by piece. But you know what prayer does? Prayer takes all of those pieces and hands them right back to God. See, prayer is how you realign your heart to heaven. Prayer is the key to realigning your heart to heaven. What did Paul say just a couple minutes ago? Paul said, he said, don't worry about what? Anything. But pray about everything. I'm gonna say it again. Don't worry about anything, but pray about everything. That's what Jesus was saying to his followers on the hillside here in Matthew chapter six. That's also what Jesus is saying to us. He's saying to us that every anxious thought

that we have is an invitation to speak to our father. Every time your heart starts racing, your stress level goes up. He said that ought to be your cue to pray. Let me show you how practical this is. When your kid gets sick, what's your first reaction? What's your first response? Most of us is to run to the drugstore, run to the doctor, we run to this, that, we chat GBT, help, we're doing all the things, right? Here's what Jesus is saying. When your kid gets sick, the first thing you ought to do is pray. When your finances look tight, your first response ought to be to pray. When your heart feels heavy, pray first. When your future feels foggy, pray first. Because prayer isn't pretending that everything's fine. Prayer is proclaiming that God is still faithful. That's what prayer does. So that's the message today. Don't just worry, worship. Don't just panic, pray. And lastly, I want you to get this down. Don't just seek control, seek the kingdom. Don't just seek control, seek the kingdom. As Jesus wraps up this section of his sermon, he's gonna land the plane with one of the most famous verses in all the Bible. After talking about worry,

after pointing to the birds and the flowers, after reminding us that we have a father that knows us, he knows what we need, now he's gonna give us a command that completely flips upside down the way most of us live our lives today. He says this in verse 33, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be provided for you. I believe this verse is really the key to everything we're talking about today because worry really isn't about your circumstances. Worry is about your priorities. It's about where you're prioritizing certain things. And let me show you what I mean by that. In fact, get this in your notes today. Worry is going to point you to certain things in your life. And what I want you to see is worry grows wherever God isn't first. Worry is gonna grow wherever God isn't first. Let's test that and just see if I'm right. When your job is first in your life, you're gonna worry about your job. When your relationship is first and God isn't first, but your relationship is first, you're gonna worry about your relationship. When your kids are first, you're like, that's not a bad thing, I'm supposed to be a good parent. You are, but they were never supposed to be first. But when your kids are first, guess what?

You're gonna worry about your kids. When your money is first, when your investments are first, when those things have captured your heart in a way that God hasn't, that's your focus, guess what? You're gonna worry about your money. You're gonna worry about your investments. But on the flip side of that, here's what Jesus is gonna say. When God's kingdom is first in your heart, it will never lead to worry, it'll lead to peace. Peace will follow that. That's why Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God. That word seek, it means to pursue with passion and priority. So he's saying seek with passion, seek with priority, not those things that are temporary in your life. He's saying seek the things that are eternal in your life. And here's what he promises us when we do. He says, if we make God's kingdom our focus, he will make our needs his responsibility. That's what that means. Seek first the kingdom of God. and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. People are like, why haven't these other things been added to me? Well, because we haven't put God's kingdom first. But he says when we put God's kingdom first, he will put our needs as his responsibility. Keep going. Let's read this passage together. Jesus is going to wrap up in verse 34 saying, therefore, don't worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will worry about itself.

Each day has enough trouble of its own. You know, we spend so much time worrying about tomorrow that I believe many of us are missing out on what God is wanting to do in our hearts today. We're so worried about tomorrow that we're missing today. And Jesus is saying in this passage, hey, stop borrowing trouble from the future and understand that I've given you enough grace for today. So today I want us to wrap this thing up by personalizing the text. I want us to internalize the question. I want us to almost imagine Jesus locking eyes with us, asking this very question because it is as important today as it was 2,000 years ago on the hillside in Galilee. Jesus is asking you personally, can you add a single moment to your life by worrying about whatever it is you're worrying about? Let me just go ahead and tell you, the answer is still no. It has not changed. You cannot add a moment to your life by worrying, but you know what you can do? You can add peace to your life by trusting. I'm going to say that again. You can't add a moment to your life by worrying, but you can add peace to your life by trusting. You know, I'll never forget a moment where I visited a young mom in the hospital many years ago. She was sitting by her newborn baby's bed, and there was a tiny baby in that bed that was hooked up to all sorts of tubes and monitors, and it was making all sorts of noises. And honestly, in that moment, the doctors didn't know if this baby was going to make it. In fact, the doctor told me in the hallway that the baby probably wouldn't make it. So as I walked in and I saw that mom for the very first time, what I expected to see on her face was fear and anxiety. But I didn't see that. I walked in and looked at this lady, and instead of seeing fear, all I could see was faith. In fact, she was humming a Christian song.

I don't remember what it was, but she was humming this song and had tears running down her cheeks. And I remember asking her a simple question. I said in that moment, ma'am, how are you staying so calm in this circumstance? And this is what she said. She said, I'm not calm because I'm strong. I'm calm because I finally realized that right now I'm just not in control. God's got him, and God's got me. And that baby, by the grace of God, is alive and healthy today. But even if that baby hadn't been, what I saw that day was that mother had already traded her worry for worship. I think that's what Jesus is inviting us to do today. I think that's what Jesus is inviting you to do right now. He's not asking you to pretend that you don't have any problems. He's asking you to trust him when you do. If you're looking for biblically grounded tools to help you grow in your walk with Jesus, I want to invite you to explore all the free resources available to you at our all-in website. Because of the generosity of our ministry partners, we're able to offer these free resources at no cost to you, including our popular Bible in a Year Reading Plan, a helpful guide to strengthening your prayer life, a devotional for parents, and a virtual tour of the Holy Land. Every resource can be mailed directly to your home, making it easy for you to begin using them right away. To order your free resource right now, simply visit GoAllIn.tv or follow the instructions on your screen. Thank you for joining us today. I'm praying for you, and I can't wait to see you again next week for another episode of All In. Hey, we never want to end our broadcast without giving you the opportunity to know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior.

If you'd like to make the decision to trust Jesus and want to know more about what it looks like to follow Jesus, get in touch with me right now. Follow the instructions at the bottom of the screen so that we can pray for you and also put information in your hands right away. Today we celebrate your decision and look forward to being a part of your personal journey of going All In with Jesus Christ. This episode of All In with Pastor Jordan Easley has been made possible by the generous support of viewers like you. We hope today's message encourages you as you strive to live your life fully. committed to Jesus Christ.