Mat 6:25-34; Worry Feeds on the Unknown Future.

Class Outline:

Thursday September 26, 2024

 

Idea: Worry is fueled by the future and Jesus drains this power away.

 

Intro: The future is unknown. People fear the unknown. Jesus is going to tell us how worry feeds on the future and He is going to use the kingdom of heaven to rid our hearts of that aspect of the world. The Lord knows the future. He promises us that He will take care of all of our needs and He guarantees our future. Do you believe this? He asks.

 

MAT 6:31-34

 

Final addition to His teaching on worry - time (the future). 

 

Now that the principles have been taught, one important addition: worry feeds on time - the future.

 

While pursuing the kingdom and His righteousness, you may still find yourself worried about the future. 

 

Worry is such a danger to us that the Lord personifies it. Tomorrow will worry for herself. Sufficient in the day [is] her evil.

 

This last line tells us also that today is just as full of evil as tomorrow. Why worry about tomorrow when today is just as bad? Worry does not change it, so worry is useless and achieves nothing at all. 

 

So we must seek first a place where there is no time, or at the least, it is irrelevant - the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness.

 

How many things have you worried about that never came to be? 

 

All of us are, to use our Lord’s images; farmers who plant and work very hard in a fallen cursed world by the sweat of our brows. We weed, tend to the soil, we prune, we look to the sky, to the weather and pray that God brings the right portion of rain and sun that our harvest may be plentiful. 

 

Parable of the sower (MAT 13:18-23). Treasure of the field and the pearl (MAT 13:44-45). 

 

Seek first: Not seeking to enter but, as members, seeking everything about it - its life, way, truth.

 

First means to look at all things through the eye that looks to and from heaven (Phi 4). The Word, prayer, the Spirit.  

 

You set every issue before righteousness and then you evaluate the right course of action. Soon this will not be mechanical but second nature. 

 

We must be looking to heaven, to the kingdom coming, while not forgetting about our work on earth in the Father’s will. Because Paul did this, he could write: 2 Cor 4:17-18. 

 

Seek 2 things: related by not identical: Kingdom of heaven and His righteousness. 

 

We are not to just look forward or up to the kingdom come. We are to pursue God’s righteousness (the way, truth, life of the kingdom). 

 

Pursuing righteousness is coming to know about it and its manifestation in life through faith and works and perseverance. Righteousness is the way of heaven. It is holiness. It is learning and living in what holiness means.

 

Righteousness is the Lord’s breastplate. Seeking it makes you stronger in life’s battles. EPH 6:11, 14; ISA 59:17. 

 

In Christ Jesus you have nothing to worry about, not even death. Do you believe this?