When Anxiety Attacks

All parents bequeath to their children different kinds of legacies. My question for you this evening is what legacy? Are you bequeathing to your children? Abraham bequeathed the art of worry to his kid. What legacy will you leave? Because at the root of your anxiety, at the root of your worry, is a dis that God will supply. Your needs. It is a distrust in the sovereign almighty God of the universe. It's equivalent to saying, God, I know you mean well. God, I know you are holy. God, I know you are sovereign.

God, I know you are omnipotent, omnipresent, all-knowing. I know that you are a God of justice and righteousness and mercy and love. And I know that you rule the universe, but God, Let me take care of my problem.

That's what anxiety is. God, you can't come through. You can't handle my need. And so we distrust God. We distrust His promise and we distrust His providence. And sad to say that every one of us falls in this category. We're not perfect. We all sin. So God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. To explain one more time. Let me tell you what you need to do when anxiety attacks.

For that, turn with me to our text this evening, Matthew chapter 6. And there's a phrase in Matthew chapter 6, recorded in verse number 30, that says this: O men of little faith, when we worry, Christ says, Oh, you have little faith, how could that be?

When I have done so much for you for so long, how can you be so little in the faith? When you think of food, when you think of clothes, when you think of your life, we must ask ourselves this question: if God can save your soul from hell, Do you think that he can give you clothes to wear? If he can prepare a home in heaven with him for all eternity, Do you think he can determine what you'll have to eat today and tomorrow and the following day? That's the bottom line. Answer? Well, only you can answer that, based on your faith.

One author said that worry is interest paid on trouble before it's due. Question is: When anxiety wells up in your life, when anxiety attacks, what do you do? Jesus. Tries to explain that to us this evening. Three points: the counsel on anxiety, the cause of anxiety, and the cure for anxiety. I'm sure you can't wait to get to point number three, but you're going to have to.

Got to go through point one and two first. Got to go in order. First of all, the Council of Anxiety. It's in verses verse number 25. Let's read it together. For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life as to what you shall eat or what you shall drink or for your body as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body then cl. Two things I want you to notice.

First of all, the exhortation and number two the question. The exhortation is found in three verses. Verse number 25, verse number 31, verse number 34. Do not be anxious. Do not be anxious, therefore, do not be anxious. Jesus says these words: here's the counsel on anxiety: if you went to Jesus.

And you said, Lord, I'm here for my counseling session. I am anxious. I am extremely worried about whether or not my child is going to live. I am extremely worried about what clothes I'm going to wear. I am extremely worried about how I'm going to feed my family. Jesus has counseled us This stop being anxious, cut it out. Well, gee, Lord, thanks for the words of encouragement. I'm all cleared. I'm ready to go home and I'm ready to stop worrying. That's what Jesus says.

Don't do that. There's no need for you to do that. And we're going to explain that in a moment. But Jesus says, here's the exhortation: stop worrying, stop becoming anxious, stop having a divided mind, start or stop choking, stop strangling.

The mind of God within the heart of man as you seek my direction. Don't be divided. How can that be? How can I just stop it? Notice what Jesus says: for this reason.

What reason is that? For this reason, well, you got to go back to last week's lesson. If you missed last week's lesson, you to get the tape. But in verses 19 and 24, he says, Look. I want you to go back, and for this reason, because earthly treasures are corrupt and blind your spiritual vision and draw you away from serving God, don't worry about these kinds of things. Don't do that. Those things should never become your preoccupation. And you can't serve two masters, for either you will hold to one and despise the other, or you'll love to one and forsake the other.

That's what he says. Very simple. That's the exhort. And then, right on the heels of that, he gets a question: Is not life more than food and the body than clothing? Is not your life more than these things? Answer for most of us? No, it's not. Our life consists of those things. Our life consists of food, and our life consists of our future. It consists of our fashion design, doesn't it? None of us, of course, are going to raise our hand and say, Yeah, that's what my life consists of. Who would admit to that, right?

Your body, I hate to tell you, is not the end of everything. Your body. Your life is not wrapped up in your body. Your life is contained within the nature of God. You were designed. To worship him. You were designed to honor him. You were designed to pay homage to the creator of the universe. You can't do that if you're wrapped up in the here and now.

That's the counsel on anxiety. Be anxious, don't do that. Stop it. Cut it out. Is not your life more than all those things? Next time you find yourself worrying about your future. Next time you find yourself worrying about your fashion. Next time you find yourself worried about your food, ask yourself, is my life wrapped up in this? Or is life more than this? And then see where the Spirit of God takes you emotionally. But number two, the cause of anxiety: three things.

The basics in life, the breadth of life, and the beauties in life. These are the necessities, so we think. The basics in life is verse number 26, that's my food. The breadth of life, verse number 27, is my future, and the beauty in life. Verses 28 to 30 is fashion. Let's look at them together.

First of all, verse number 26: Look at the birds of the air that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not worth Much more than they? The illustration he gives about food is about birds. He says, Now, consider the bird. They don't gather around and come up with a strategy to keep themselves alive. No. Birds just kind of fly around doing whatever they want to do. When they get hungry, their instincts tell them to eat, and so they eat. They eat a worm, they build a nest. They do whatever needs to be done. They don't go around stockpiling birds, stockpiling worms. They don't have a worm bank that they put all the worms in and keep them in there so that when the baby birds get hungry, they open the bank and take out a worm and.

Pluck it. Now they go get a worm out of the ground and go feed their baby birds. They build a nest. They'll build lots of different nests so they can go from nest to nest to nest and have a nest down in San Diego by the beach and a nest up in Arrow Springs so they can go up there and in the wintertime ski. I mean, they don't do that kind of stuff. When they need a house, they build a house. They don't worry about where those things are going to come from. Job 38:4 tells us that baby birds cry out to God and God feeds them.

Psalm 147, verse number 9 says, He gives to the beast its food and to the young ravens which cry. Now that doesn't mean birds sit around and are idle. No, they search for food and they search for insects and worms and they prepare their nests, but they don't build bigger nests. They don't store up worms. They never over. They don't do that kind of stuff. We're the ones who stockpile things. So, when it comes to the basics of life crisis, look, look at the bird.

I take care of those birds, man. They're all taken care of. They're never starving to death. I feed them. Aren't you more valuable than they are? I mean, you're made of my image. I created them and said they were good. I created you and said you're very good. See the difference? But number two, the breadth of life.

Verse number 2. And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single cubit to his life's span? Which of you being worried about having a heart attack or being worried about getting cancer and dying or worrying about not making a home in the freeway for an accident? Which one of you by worrying are going to add any more days to your life? Can you tell me that? Can you add a cubit distance from your elbow to the tips of your fingers, which is about 18 in? Does anxiety produce a longer life? Answer?

No. In fact, anxiety will give you a shorter life, not a longer life. But isn that true we are worried about our future? We're worried about how long we're going to live? We're worried about whether or not we're going to see our kids grow up. We're worried about whether or not we're going see our grandkids grow up. And to me, that just baffles my mind. Because you see, I can't imagine a child of God not wanting to go home to be with the Lord. I can't imagine that. I can't imagine people saying, I can't wait to be with Jesus.

I can't wait to go home and be with the Lord. When a child of God is saying, Amen, I am so committed down here. I want to be here. I want to invest here. I want to put my roots in here. I want to say, wait a minute, wait a minute. Do you understand kingdom living? Do you understand God? Do you understand heaven? Do you understand a right relationship with the living God of the universe? Evidently, you don't because you want to be here and not there with Him. See that? But boy, we're concerned about our future.

And boy, we're going go to the health sp and we're going to eat vitamins and we're going to exercise and we're going do all the right things. I got an idea. Here 's an idea I got, okay? Go to the health b, put up a sign. Guaranteed long life. Guaranteed well life. Put it up. Open up your shingle and see who comes to see you. And when they get there, you read them Ephesians chapter 6, verse number 2. You want to live long? You want to live well? The commandment with the promise. Honor your mother and your father.

And your life will be well upon the earth, and you will live long. That's the cure to living long. That's the cure to living well. You put that in the hell spawn, nobody's gonna go see you. Wow, we're not gonna do that, man. I got exercise. I gotta eat right. I got do the right things, man. Now, folks, I'm not against exercise. I'm not against dieting. I'm not against those kind things. Please don't hear me say that. I think that you ought to at least diet and exercise and get yourself in shape. I don do those things, but you need to do those kind of things.

All right? And if you feel that that's what you need to do, do it. But the point is, your attitude. If your attitude says, man, I to do this, man, I got to look good, I got to live long, I got to live well, and the Only way to do it is to do this. God says, no, no, you ain't going to do anything.

You can't worry. And add one single cubit to your life. You will live long, obey me, obey my word. Follow what I say. Honor your mother and father. You will live well and you will live long. Most people don't want to do that, though, do they? I've got to see now, man. I'm not going to honor them. They're whacked out. They don't know what's going on. So we begin to devise our own plans. Christ says, if you're going to worry about your life, nothing you can do about it.

We'll talk about that in a moment. Third cause of anxiety is the beauty of life. We must hurry. It says this, and why are you anxious about clothing? Why are you anxious about clothing? This is fashion. Now, no, this is not clothes to wear. This is the right clothes to wear. We're not worried about whether or not we got clothes. We're worried or whether or not we're going look good in the clothes that we got, right? That's what we worry about. We don't want to go around looking like a geek, right?

You want to look good when you go to church. You want to look good when you. Well, maybe some of you don't by evidence of what you're wearing tonight, but most people want to look good when they go to church. They want to look good when they go to work. They want to look good when they go to school, right? So they're concerned about wearing the things that are in style. And so we got to get the right stylistic kind of clothes on. It's not about wearing clothes, it's about looking good in the clothes I wear.

And isn't that true that our society has made a God out of fashion? Sure, it has. Just watch TV. In case you don't. Watch it every once in a while. And you'll see that fashion is a God. Read the magazines. Look at the counters.

Everything is about dress and looking good and having the right style. So, Christ gives an analogy about lilies. He says this. Observe how the lilies of the field grow. They do not toil, nor do they spin. Here's a great analogy. Look at those flowers, those wildflowers on the hillsides of Galilee.

Those irises, those scarlet-colored poppies. They tw not. They don't spend their time changing their colors. Observe how they grow. They grow effortlessly. They grow gorgeously. They grow freely. They grow easily. And then he says in verse number 29, Yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. Let me talk to you about fashion, Jesus says.

Remember Solomon, richest man in all the world? He can't compare to where what I desire. I'm the ultimate designer. You can wear your Calvin Klein's. You can wear your, well, I don't know anything else. Whatever it is you wear. Would you wear something? Jesus says, where would I put on?

And Jesus says, don't worry about your future. Don't worry about your food. Don't even worry about your fashion. Why? The cure for anxiety. Point number three.

The number one cure for anxiety is this: you have a father who sustains you. You don't have to worry about a thing. You've got a father that sustains you. Latter part of verse number 26, Christ says, Look, are you not much more than these birds?

Answer: Of course you are. You're created in the image of God. You're designed to be joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And no bird has ever or was ever prepared a place in heaven because birds don't go to heaven. They had no souls. They're not created in the image of God. But you have a place in heaven. Over in Psalm 34, listen to verses 9 and 10. Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints. For to those who fear him, there is no want. Do you get that? If you find yourself wanting more, it's because you don't fear God.

Verse number 10. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing. Boy, that's good. That's our God for us. You got a father who sustains you. Number two: the second cure for anxiety is that there is a faith that satisfies you.

If you have true faith in God, it does satisfy. Verse number 31. Do not be anxious then, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink? With what shall we clothe ourselves? For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek. Stop right there. The pagans, the unbelievers, the ones with no faith. This is their ambition in life. This is what they seek after. The right cuisine, the right look, the long life. This is what they're after if they could just bottle up life. If they could preserve their lives and still look good in doing so, that's what they seek.

That's what drives them. That's what motivates them. Everything is about food. Everything is about. Fashion. Everything is about their future. That's what the pagans seek. People without God. They have no divine resource. They have no heavenly Father to sustain them. They are ignorant about God. They are ignorant about His supply. So they anxiously set their mind on these necessities in life and you. Because you have faith, should never do that. Because you are to live like a child of the king. The Christian faith says that God will supply all my needs, that God can be trusted.

So he goes on to say, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Here is the faith that satisfies. But you ought to be different. There's a great contrast. This is what the unfaith people do, the pagans do. This is what the faith people do, the Christians do. They seek first.

That is. Prot. That is, in a long list of things to seek after, the number one thing that the Christian seeks after is what?

The kingdom of God and His righteousness. A true faith kind of walk is going to seek after the kingdom where God Himself is the ruler and reigner of the world and the righteousness that will sustain a man and make him look like a child of the king. And not look like a child of the world. And so the true child of God is going to have a faith that will satisfy him. Why? Because when he does what God has designed him to do, everything else that he needs is going to be added unto him. You have no need to worry.

Just seek me first. When my wife died back in the early 80s. I said, Lord, your word says that no good thing, Psalm 8, 11, no good thing will the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly. Bible says, Whos findeth a wife findeth what? A good thing. So, Lord, if no good thing A wife, will you withhold from those who walk uprightly? I am claiming that you will give me a wife that I can love and a woman who can be a mother for my son. I believe that. But I'm going to seek you first.

I'm going seek your righteousness. I'm going to pour myself into your word. I'm going preach your word faithfully. I going to preach it consistently. I'm going to give you the glory for the death of my wife and I going to give you the glory for being alone and I'm going to worship you. Praise you, but I'm going to claim the promise of your word: no good thing will the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly. And for those of you who have been with us, you know the story. God gave me a beautiful wife, a wonderful woman, a tremendous mother to my son, and five more children.

God is good. He does everything just right. All these things shall be added unto you. You need something? God says, Don't worry.

I'll take care of it for you. You seek me, my kingdom, my righteousness. Here's the bottom line: it's not praying for what you need. It's pursuing who you need. That's the Christian life. It's not praying for what you need, it's pursuing who you need: God Himself. And all these things shall be added unto you. And thirdly, the cure for anxiety is: number one, you've got a father that sustains you.

You have no need to worry. You have a faith that satisfies you. You have nothing to worry about. Now, let me back up just a second.

That doesn't mean because you're single or your wife dies that God's going to give you somebody else to marry. That was God's plan for my life. Doesn't mean that's God's plan for your life. If you seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all you want is Him, it makes no difference whether you're married or single.

Because all you want is him, right? And that's the bottom line. But thirdly, you got a future that's secure.

Your future is secure with God. And it says this in verse number 34: Therefore, do not be anxious. I going to sum it up for you. God says, I going to summon up for you.

Because of all these things, let me sum it up for you. Don't be anxious. Stop being anxious. Don't be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. That's good. If you knew what tomorrow is going to bring, you'd be a miserable wreck today. It's a good thing God didn't tell you. And God knows that. The Bible says, give us this day our daily bread.

Doesn say, give us tomorrow's bread for the day. God gives you bread for the day. You don't give you bread for tomorrow. Because, number one, you don know whether or not you've got tomorrow.

Only God knows. God doesn't give you grace for tomorrow, He gives you grace for today. You don't need grace for tomorrow because you ain't there yet. He doesn't give you mercy for tomorrow. His mercies, Lamentations 3:2, are new in? Every morning. So don 't worry about mercy tomorrow. Wait till you wake up tomorrow to receive your mercy. Because they're new every morning. So, if you're worried about getting grace tomorrow, getting mercy tomorrow, getting things taken care of tomorrow, don't do that, Christ says, because tomorrow's been a trouble of its own.

I'll take care of that tomorrow. I am the same yesterday, today, and forever, Christ says. He does not live in the realm of time as we live. God says, You look at the past, remember how faithful I was?

Because of the past, you can trust me today. And because of the past and today, you can trust me tomorrow, but don't worry about tomorrow. That future is secure, it's secure with me for all his children God desires. A life of faith, not flurry. His will for them each day is this: that they should trust and not worry. Do you trust? Do you believe in God? Faith gives us a future that is secure.