The Arrogance of Worry

Philippians 4:4-9

“Many people went to Washington to do good. Apparently, they did very well.” –Walter Williams, economist

Two years ago, our family was visiting Karen’s sister in Atlanta. We spent a day together at Stone Mountain. Karen’s sister had a very sore toe that day, which she discovered later was broken. Her toe was especially painful while we were walking down the mountain, so I offered to carry her bag to lighten her load. Twice she refused to let me, so finally when she set the bag down to sit and rest, I just picked it up and carried it the rest of the way down the mountain. Why did she not want me to help? I wanted to help, and since I wasn’t carrying anything else, it would have been easy to help. So why would a person with a broken toe walking down a steep mountain carrying a heavy bag not allow me, an able-bodied person with no burdens of my own, to carry her bag? There is only one word for this kind of thing—pride. I don’t mean to pick on Karen’s sister, but it is a useful illustration.

Every time we refuse to allow others to help us, it is because we are too proud to ask for help. The ironic thing is that when we refuse to allow others to help us, we think that we are doing them a favor. My main point this morning is to help us see the link between our worry and our pride. We usually think that worry is just something that we have to carry. We would like to get rid of the burdens of worry and anxiety, but we see no way to get rid of them, so we strap them to our back and keep moving on through life. But here is the brute fact about our worries—we carry them with us because we want to. I know at first glance that sounds a bit preposterous, after all, who in their right mind would want to carry the often excruciating and even debilitating cares of life? By the way, have you ever seen anyone debilitated by worry? A worry becomes debilitating when it markedly interferes with your life. You may be debilitated by worry if you have some of the following symptoms.

·         You struggle to make decisions for fear of making the wrong decision.

·         You have physical manifestations like stomach problems, headaches and high blood pressure.

·         Your relationships are negatively affected due to your worries and fears.

·         You are often impatient and become angry because you cannot possibly handle one more problem, no matter how small.

When a person is filled with worry, it is like carrying around a two hundred pound weight on your back. You are constantly at the breaking point and not sure you can handle what you currently have, so when someone adds a small problem, it is like adding an extra ten pounds to what you were already carrying. If you had been walking through life without any weight of worries, the ten pound problem would be as nothing to you. There is no question that worry is cumulative, it ruins your health, it can be debilitating and it can push you over the edge.

All of these things are true simply because we want to carry our worries. We choose to carry them and refuse to let them go. Don’t believe me? It’s actually worse than this. One of our favorite verses about worry is also one of the most convicting. Who doesn’t love 1 Peter 5:7? Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. This is such a comforting verse. As I said last week, I can still remember reading this verse for the very first time as a young Christian. It struck me. As far as I know, it is the only verse in the Bible that says God “cares” for us. Obviously, the Bile is filled with language about God’s love, provision, salvation, mercy, etc. but this is the only verse that explicitly says he cares for us. On top of that, because he cares for us, we are to cast our anxieties on him. The NKJV adds a poetic play on words: casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. If all of this is so true, why do we choose to keep our cares and worries all to ourselves?

Like most questions in the Bible, the answer is found by looking at the proper context of the verse. By including the verse before this one, a lot of light is shined on the subject. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:5-7 ESV) Verse six tells us what verse seven means. In verse six we are told to humble ourselves sunder he might hand of God. I have often said that pride is the mother of all sin, so that makes humility the mother of all Christian virtues. According to this passage, one way to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God is to cast all of our anxieties upon the Lord. In other words, if we do not cast our cares on the Lord, we are taking a position of ultimate pride. Do you see why this is true? If we hold onto our anxieties, it means that we think we can handle them. It means that we believe we can do a better job than God can do. It means that we do not trust God with our worries.

Ladies—would you let your kindergarten child take your wedding ring to school for show and tell? “Here you go, honey. Just put my diamond ring in your lunch box. What’s that? Oh, of course you can let your friends play with the ring. What are diamonds for?” Men, would you allows the toddler in your house to play with a loaded handgun? “Hey Billy, toddle on over here and get a look at my new 9mm. You might have some fun with in the sandbox.” Why wouldn’t you do such a thing? Because we cannot trust small children with expensive jewelry and dangerous weapons. They are incapable of taking care of these objects, therefore we make sure they don’t get their hands on things like this? In the same way, we hold tight to our worries because at the end of the day, we can’t trust God with our anxieties any more than we can trust a three year old with a loaded shotgun. But do you see, the reality is just the opposite. We are the ones who are incapable of handling our own worries. God knows that if we hold onto our worries and anxieties, it is like playing with a loaded gun—sooner or later we’re gonna shoot ourselves in the foot—or worse! God knows that we are like little children and he wants to help us, so we return the favor by treating God like a little child. Now can you see why the Bible calls this pride? When we hold onto our worries, we are taking on the role that only God can handle. In every sense of the word, we are playing God. We are breaking the first commandment—thou shalt have no other gods before me. The only thing worse than bowing down to gods of wood and stone is to bow down to your own mighty power to handle your problems.

Did you know that worry is actually a reward? Worry is your reward for playing God. Since we decided to play god, God decided to reward us with our worries. Our worry is a reward for playing god. Our worry is a natural consequence of believing that we are more than able to take on the mantle of Creator and Sustainer of the universe.

Every time we decide to hold onto our worries, it s like we break out into a praise and worship chorus about ourselves.

I am able, more than able

To accomplish what concerns me today.

I am able, more than able,

To handle anything that comes my way.

Or if you prefer hymns, then you are singing this song.

Great is my faithfulness, O father, I am God.

There is no shadow of turning with me.

I changeth not, my compassion it fails not.

As I have been, I forever wilt be.

You see, worry is your reward for being God. So the question is, do you want to play God and hold on to your worry or do you want to let go?

This is why Peter instructed us to cast all your anxieties on the Lord. The word for “cast” is only used one other place in the NT, in Luke 19—a familiar Palm Sunday Scripture. Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They replied, “The Lord needs it.” They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

The people threw their cloaks on the colt. There is the same word which is translated “cast” in 1 Peter 5. This is a good picture of what it means to cast our burdens on the Lord. We approach the Lord and lay our burdens, our worries and anxieties on him in the same way we would lay a blanket on a colt or a saddle on a horse. I am convinced that this is what Paul intended in our Philippians passage. In everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. We cast our burdens upon the Lord through the process of prayer.

First of all, just by the act of praying we are admitting that God is God and we are not. You don’t pray to another person and you don’t pray to yourself because such prayers would not only be blasphemous, they would be useless. Sometimes when our family is in a hurry to eat a meal because we have to run off to some event or appointment, one of our kids will ask if they can pray silently and start eating. One day we were in jus such a rush, instead of saying, “Can I pray by myself,” one of our kids asked, “Can I pray to myself?” We don’t encourage this behavior J, but we do encourage praying to the only one we should thank and the only one who can help in our time of need.

When you are finally tired of playing God, cast your anxieties on the Lord by prayer and petition with thanksgiving. The word thanksgiving is eucharistias. This is where the Roman Catholic church gets their word eucharist—the bread used in their mass. Eucharist literally means good grace. As we go to the Lord in prayer with thanksgiving, we are saying, “You’re grace is good. Your mercy is great. Your faithfulness is perfect. Don’t just thank God his good gifts to you, thank him for the gift of himself. You express total confidence in God’s power and goodness to handle your anxieties. Can you do anything about most of the things you worry about? We are powerless, so why hold onto them?

Matthew 6:30-32 O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

Let’s list some of the reasons for casting our anxieties on the Lord.

1.         Holding on to them shows a lack of faith.

2.         When we worry, we look just like the pagans and godless among us.

3.         Our heavenly Father knows that we need the things about which we are concerned.

4.         Holding on to them is idolatry—we are playing God.

5.         We are powerless to accomplish what we are worried about.

6.         God is perfectly powerful to handle our worries.

7.         God wants to take our worries.

8.         We don’t want to be worried, anxious and depressed.

9.         God commands us to cast our anxieties on him.

10.     If holding our worries is idolatry, then casting them on the Lord is worship.

Let’s think about that last point some more. When we cast our anxieties on the Lord, not only are we relieving ourselves of this tremendous burden, but we are engaging in an act of worship. That’s absolutely amazing, isn’t it? I have to admit that I had never put this together in this way. Giving God our problems is worship. This kind of praying is meant to be at least a daily exercise. Make a list of the things that concern you and one by one, lay them on the Lord. Picture yourself removing the burden off your own shoulders and laying it on the broad and powerful shoulders of Jesus.

The second of three steps toward peace is correct thinking. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Let me show you how we typically misinterpret this verse before I show you the right way to understand it. We generally understand this list as a type of purity filter for your mind. Here are the good things we are supposed to think about, which will push out the negative things that enter our mind.

For example, we are familiar with the garbage in—garbage out kind of behavioral model. If we take in bad ideas and bad thinking, then this cannot help but affect us and cause garbage to come out of us. So we believe that the solution to the garbage in-garbage out problem is have a purity filter for our minds. And what better purity filter can we have than verse eight? Whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. So what we need to do is take the negative influences in life and pour them through this purity filter, which would look something like this. If you take all of the things in our lives like TV, movies, internet, etc., and pour them through this purity filter, then the result is that we won’t be so influenced by the garbage. We will only watch good movies, and read good magazines and books and listen to mostly Christian music and Christian radio.

If you listen to ten sermons on this passage I can almost guarantee than nine out of ten will treat this verse eight like a purity filter for your mind. These are nice ethical commands, and if all Christians followed, there is no doubt in my mind that we would be better off. What would happen if all of society used this filter for their minds? More people would become more moral and society as a whole would benefit. Tony Robbins and Joel Osteen could both use this list and tell people to filter their thinking through this list. This is a great list to contemplate all by itself, but it is not merely a power of positive thinking or a purity filter for your mind. This is a god list, but by itself, it is largely devoid of power. I don’t think this is what Paul had in mind.

A few simple questions will reveal the true meaning. What is the most true thing you can think of? Who is the most noble person you have ever encountered? In all the world, what is most right and most pure? What is truly lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy? Do you see? The answer to all of these questions is Christ. If you want, you can use this verse as a purity filter for your mind. As Christians we should be doing at least this much to protect our hearts and minds, but it is so much more than just a filter—it is a person.

This is a call to meditate of the wonders of the Christ—his character, his cross and resurrection. But worry had its own form of meditation. When we worry, we think deeply about the problem. We turn it over in our minds again and again. We literally exhaust ourselves in thinking about it. But rather than meditate on our problem, through prayer we give it to Christ and then our minds have room to meditate on Christ. Not only is worry its own form of meditation, but it hogs the mind. Our worries push out Christ and all things good.

Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice.

Rich Maurer

March 22, 2009