For a scripture reading, we turn to Matthew chapter 6. And we'll read verses 19 to the end of the chapter. Recently read verses 1 through 18. This evening we read verses 19 through 34. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt. and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air. For they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, for how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet, I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, Shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient under the day is the evil thereof. It's that last verse that we'll spend some time considering this evening. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient under the day is the evil thereof. New Year's morning, we looked into the future and we looked at the end of history, the final day, the return of Jesus Christ, that blessed hope that we have. Focusing upon and hoping for his appearing. The text that we consider this evening, still at the beginning of the year, Talks not about the end of history, but about tomorrow. How do we deal with tomorrow? And the text tells us, take no thought for the morrow. The text gives us instruction then regarding worry. When it says, take no thought, the text means literally, don't be anxious. Don't worry. Don't be anxious about tomorrow. Don't worry about tomorrow. Worry, you understand, is a terrible thing. It's a devastating thing. It's devastating for our body. It can deprive us of much needed rest, sleep for the body. can cause all kinds of physical problems, far more than generally speaking doctors diagnose, contributes anyways to many, many physical problems. It can lower our immune system so that we're more susceptible to becoming ill. It can contribute to premature aging. can even contribute to an early death, if we can speak of it that way, understood properly, putting perhaps quote marks around the word early. But it is also a devastating thing where he is for our mind, for our psychological life. Worry causes pain of heart. Anxiety and worry causes weakness and it weakens our ability to handle things. It weakens our ability to control our emotions. It weakens our ability to think clearly and productively. It can contribute to depression. Now understand, many other things can contribute to depression. not saying that inevitably there's always the connection that one who worries becomes depressed or the one who is depressed is so because of his own fault because of his own worry that's not the intention that's not the meaning but worry can lead to and contribute to depression in some cases Worry can contribute to anxiety that grows so great that it cannot, almost cannot be managed and cannot be controlled. Worry can contribute to other instabilities, psychological instabilities as well. Worry is a terrible and devastating thing also, and more importantly yet, for our spiritual life, and that doesn't surprise us because our physical life and our psychological life affects our spiritual life as well. All three are connected and interrelated one with another, but worry and anxiety is devastating also for our spiritual life. It hinders us from serving God as we ought. It is a disabling power within us. It interrupts and displaces our faith, our believing in God. It deprives us of our comfort and therefore deprives God of His glory in us. For all these reasons and many others, our Redeemer, to whom we belong body and soul, has said to us, do not worry about tomorrow. We consider His words and the text we find them in under the theme, Tomorrow's Worry, forbidden. Tomorrow's worry forbidden. First of all, the strict command. Secondly, the implied requirement. And thirdly, the loving reason. When Jesus says here, don't worry, he doesn't mean don't care about anything. Jesus isn't saying the kind of followers I expect and I call to follow me ought to be those who give a shrug and wander along through life without any concern. They don't have any cares or any aspirations, any desires. Jesus, our Savior, is not saying to us here, Get rid of all desires and aspirations, for that's the way to alleviate suffering, and that's the way to find peace of heart and soul in me. That's, as I understand it, fundamentally the main teaching of the false religion of Buddhism. Take away all desire. Want anything for wanting leads to disappointment and to sadness and to suffering. Get rid of all your wanting and you will find a state of bliss. Christ is not saying to us, don't set goals. It's not saying to us, don't strive, don't work hard when he says, don't worry about tomorrow. In fact, Scripture tells us that we should. We should labor and we should work hard. Even with regard to our natural earthly life. Here below, 1st Thessalonians. For verse 11 says, and that you study to be quiet, that is, make a concentrated effort, work hard to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you that you may walk honestly toward them that are without and that you may have lack of nothing. Nor does the scripture say don't strive, don't work hard, don't labor, don't make it your care and concern that you please God. Again, Scripture speaks quite the opposite of that. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 9, for one example, wherefore we labor, the Apostle Paul says, we work strenuously, wherefore we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him, that we may be well pleasing to our gut. We give much care, concern, and attention to these good pursuits. Text doesn't mean either. Don't make provision for tomorrow. Don't make any plans about tomorrow. Don't think at all about tomorrow. Have absolutely no thought about tomorrow. Again, take no thought doesn't mean let no thoughts into your mind about tomorrow, but it means Don't be anxious. Don't be worried about tomorrow. Don't let uneasiness about tomorrow find a place in your mind, in your thinking. Don't torment yourself with thoughts and anxious concerns about tomorrow. Now he does not say, don't worry about tomorrow because there will be no trouble tomorrow. It's not the message of our Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't say to us here in the text, don't worry about tomorrow because tomorrow is going to be great. Nothing bad is ever going to happen. Expect the best, be optimistic. Only good and pleasant things will come. Therefore, you have no reason to worry about tomorrow. We know better. And the scripture instructs us better than to come to that conclusion. The very text itself. The end of the verse says sufficient done to the day is the evil thereof. Every day has its own evil that is trouble. Every day has its own bad things that take place, inconveniences at the least, difficulties, hardships, temptations, struggles, guilts, deprivations, unpleasant, painful things will occur. that we can be sure of. As long as we live in this fallen and sin-cursed world, tomorrows will have their troubles. And we know that. Life here is hard. And then we die at the end of it all. And so we are, knowing that life here is difficult and there are many troubles, we are then prone to worry, to worry about that trouble. So that as we look out over the new year, we worry about the new year. We worry about the trouble that might come to us in this new year. We're prone to that anyway, some more than others. But there is that tendency in all of us to look forward to things that we dread or that we think about as negative things that are going to come about in life or things that we think might happen in life. We're not even sure that they will, and often they don't. But we tend to look forward with concern and worry and anxiety. Perhaps those who have taken new terms of office, special office in the church, look forward to the next three years with worry or anxiety. Will I have what I need? Will I have the strength, the ability, the wisdom to do my work and my calling? Children can worry about assignments or often more likely about their friendships. and they may have anxieties over how they fit in or will they fit in or what will occur tomorrow or more distantly in the future. We have worries. We're prone to worry about our children. We're prone to worry about our grandchildren. Their marriages, their health. What will become of them in the future? What about further down the road, the persecution. But what about even tomorrow and the next day and the next? All the temptations that the world brings before them? What will become of them? And we worry. We worry when we're waiting for an answer. We're waiting to find out what's going to occur. Something big in life, important, is about to happen. And we wonder what's going to be the result. Perhaps we wait for test results. Gone to the doctor, had some testing, and we wait. And we're prone to worry. What will the results reveal? What will happen? All kinds of trouble we allow to come into our mind and cause us to worry, Jesus says, don't. Don't do that. Don't worry about tomorrow. Don't worry about tomorrow at all. It speaks very plainly and directly. Take therefore no thought for tomorrow. For tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. It may seem to us as we read the text that the text is saying or that our Lord is saying to us, you have enough to worry about with today's concerns. You have plenty there to keep you occupied with the problems and troubles and concerns of today. You can be worried enough about today. You don't need to worry about tomorrow. You can worry about tomorrow when you get to tomorrow. You ought to worry about today when you have today. But Jesus doesn't mean that. Rather, he means worry must always be deferred, must always be pushed off into the future, must always be pushed away and resisted. For we worry about things in the future, don't we? We don't worry about things that are right there in front of us and that we're dealing with right at the very moment. Things, the troubles that are ours at the present moment, we deal with them or we endure them. We might be afraid of them, but we endure them. We deal with them. We don't worry about them. We worry about the things in the future. Worry is a very different thing than dealing with something. Worrying is turning the thing over in our mind and looking at it from every possibility. And every time we look at it, we see negative things coming out of the thing that we're considering, whether it's real or whether it's imagined. Worry is about the tomorrow, the future. Jesus says, when you think about tomorrow, don't do it. Don't worry. Don't let tomorrow's worry come into today. The troubles of tomorrow need to be dealt with tomorrow, not today. Block them out of your mind today. Don't let them enter your mind today. When you think about tomorrow and you begin to worry about tomorrow, stop, put that worry aside. Say, that's for tomorrow. That's not for today. Today, I will deal with what God puts in front of me today. For tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself, Jesus says. Tomorrow is over there. And we can even think of the Lord as personifying tomorrow. From that point of view, you can think of it this way. Jesus is saying tomorrow is over there being worried about itself. Leave it be. Don't go over there and join it. Don't go over there to tomorrow and put your arm around tomorrow and begin to worry with tomorrow about tomorrow. Let tomorrow worry about itself. but it be worried about itself. It's good advice, good instruction. Good instruction not only about tomorrow, but about those who want to worry about tomorrow as well. You can tell them, don't worry about tomorrow. We ought to tell one another that. Don't worry about tomorrow. But we ought to be careful that we don't find ourselves going over with someone who is worried about tomorrow and begin to join with them and begin to worry about tomorrow with them. No more than we ought to go over there by tomorrow, worrying about itself and join tomorrow. Then we ought to join someone who is worrying about tomorrow. Worry is something that is easily transmitted. Something that we easily partake of. Someone begins to speak of tomorrow with fear and worry and concern. It's so easy for us to join right in and to run along and allow ourselves to be overwhelmed with that same worry and concern. God says to us, Jesus says to us, don't do that. stay away from worry and concern. And this is a strict command that he gives to us. He doesn't come here with a well-meaning suggestion, with a well-intended piece of helpful advice, but he comes to us with a command, with a strict command. And then we ought to stop and realize that, yes, it is that the Lord commands us how to think. Sometimes the responses or the thought is or the statement is made. It's just how I think. It's just how I am. This is just the way my mind is going. This is how it is. And I can't help it. But our Lord Jesus Christ comes to us in this word and throughout the scripture, and he says, I am here as Lord, not only of your body, as master, as ruler, not only of your activities, but also of your very thoughts. And I have the right as your Lord to tell you how you may think and how you may not think, and I am here to tell you, you may not worry. You may not think of things in that way. That may not be the way you let your mind go. We need to be strict with ourselves in this regard, especially if we're prone to worry, or if we're given to worry, or if that's a weakness and a besetting sin that we have. Jesus says, take no thought about tomorrow. He doesn't say, take a little thought, take a few thoughts, let yourself indulge in it a little bit. Jesus says, take no thought about tomorrow. You know, we already said that doesn't mean we may make plans about tomorrow. It means we may not worry about tomorrow, but still the way it's expressed here in our King James Version, when it says, take no thought. Makes the point very plain, doesn't it? Don't let one worrisome thought torment your mind. And when you find it there, when you find it there in your mind, and you find that you're beginning to think that way again, then banish it. Drive it out. Say no. Answer it with the word of Jesus Christ. I may let no worrisome thought, not even one, have a place, an unmolested place in my mind. It calls us then, doesn't it, to constant repentance. This is a matter for repentance. how we think, whether we worry or not. It's humbling, isn't it? How often we worry. And then when we recognize worry is sin, because Jesus here says in the text, don't do it. Whenever I do it, it's sin. That's humbling. How often don't I then sin in that way? And I must repent, constantly repent, daily, and even multiple times throughout the day, especially if there's a particular thing that we imagine in the future or a particular thing that we know will occur in the future that causes us concern, especially under those circumstances. We need to be on constant guard and repeatedly fall upon our knees and confess our sins to the Lord. Tell him we're sorry. We're disobeying him yet again. Giving in. To worry. And then. Take hold by faith. Of his forgiveness. And if his righteousness. and know that God views us through him and sees us as pure and holy and forgiven in him. And then in gratitude again, rise up and seek to continue, to continue to block out the worry and to continue to take no thought, no anxious, worrisome thought for tomorrow. Hold up this command over against those thoughts. It's another way to do battle as we repent and as we believe and as we return then to the battle, another way to do battle. way to do battle over against our worry and our doubt is to take this very Word of God, meditate upon it, put it in our hearts and minds, keep it close at hand, and when we find worry, we hold this Word of God or we bring this Word of God to bear upon that worry and we say, You must leave. My Lord Jesus Christ requires it, commands it. Get out of my mind. My Lord has said, and he's the Lord and master of my mind and all my thoughts. He has said, you don't belong here. You may not be here. I may not worry about tomorrow. And if we may not worry about tomorrow, then certainly we may not worry about next week either. And certainly we may not worry about next year either. If we may not worry even about tomorrow, then the point is we may not worry about anything in the future. Ever. Without any exceptions. Without any excuses. Take no thought. No anxious, worrisome thought. about tomorrow. That's our Lord's strict command with regard to worry. But what then? What positively ought we do? What ought we engage our minds in positively? Minds cannot be blank. We cannot have zero thought about tomorrow in our mind. How must we view tomorrow? How do we deal with the future? And the answer, very simply, beloved, is trust God. Trust God. That's the first commandment of the 10. Trust God. That's implied in the text. The whole Word of God as a whole brings that same calling to us constantly. Trust God. And the context also indicates that that's the idea implied in our text. In verse 30, Jesus says, Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Indicates that trusting in God is what's at the heart of all of this. calls us to have faith in God, and having faith in God means to trust in God, seeing God, knowing God, through Jesus Christ, our Savior, trust in Him. We can't worry and trust at the same time. So we can't say I have some worry in my mind, but I'm trusting God. The fact is the two are at war with one another. The two are at odds with one another. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ comes to us and says, get rid of the worry, chase it out, block it out, take no thought for tomorrow. Why? Because you're called to be trusting in God. You can't do that when you're worrying. Trust in God. displace the worry with the trust. And continue to trust in God. And as we trust in God and have faith in God, the worry isn't given a place and it can't come into our mind, or at least it cannot rain. In our mind. Heidelberg catechism indicates what we said just a moment ago that this is the first commandment that God enjoins or requires of us. Question 94 says, what does God enjoin in the first commandment? Gives us an answer to that. But then, and in the course of giving us an answer to that indicates that idolatry is really breaking the first commandment, idolatry. And so question and answers 95 follows up and says, what is idolatry? And the answer is this, idolatry is instead of or besides that one true God who has manifested himself in his word to contrive or have any other object in which men place their trust. Placing our trust in any other object or living in distrust, that is in worry, is not trusting in God, is idolatry, is breaking the first commandment. God says in the first commandment, trust in me. I am your God. And he means by that to don't be like a Gentile. Don't be like a pagan. Don't be like an unbeliever, but be as I have made you to be one of my own children. Trust in me. Brings that out in verse 32 again in the context. More immediate context for after all these things. After telling us, take no thought. Of the things that you're going to eat to the things you're going to wear things you're going to drink. And then he says, for after all these things do the Gentiles seek. That is, after all these things do the unbelievers seek. That's his meaning. Gentiles in that sense, unbelievers, pagans, those who don't know God, those who are not redeemed by God, bought with God, loved by God. Unbelievers. live that way with all those concerns and all those anxieties and all those worries. You have God, one God. Trust Him. Verse 24 in the context brings out another important thought in that connection, another important connection here. Verse 24 says, no man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. And then Jesus concludes with these words, he cannot serve God and mammon. And that's in the very same context where he talks about trusting, or rather not worrying, with regard to tomorrow. Notice, again, the flow here. Ye cannot serve God and man, and therefore, I say unto you, take no thought. Don't be worried for your life, et cetera. What he means to say is when you're worried, when you're giving in to worry, you're really serving mammon. You're serving the things of this world. You're taking the things of this world and of this life and elevating them to a position they may not have. You're putting them in the place of God. And you can't in the end serve God and mammon and the things of this world. Don't be worried then. Put aside the worry with regard to the things of this life and trust in God. Don't put above yourself the wrong master, the things of this world. For then worry will take mastery over you. When that's your God, mammon, the things of this world, then worry will be the way that you live. And it will keep you in the end from serving God, the true God, your God. Trust brings you under God and keeps you serving Him. Trust in His power. Trust in His power. Trust in His providence. He controls all things. He's the Almighty God. Nothing is outside of His control. Tomorrow is entirely in His hand. Entirely in His control. He's decreed it from all eternity. Trust in Him. He'll control tomorrow. and trust in his wisdom. Nothing is outside of his plan. All things work together for the good of his people. Now one thing is outside of that, all things of the verse, all. God is all wise and is able to make all things completely and perfectly work together for our good. And trust is love. He's a powerful God who controls all things according to his providence, and he's an all-wise God, so that not one thing is outside of his thought and outside of his control, but also he's a God who loves us. Worry. You know, Worley says, I'm not sure either. I'm not sure that God is powerful enough. I'm not sure God is wise enough. Or I'm not sure God loves me enough. And often all three. Again, what a terrible, grievous sin is worry. Trust in God's power. Trust in His wisdom. Trust in His love. And you can. Because He is that God. And He does control all things in His wisdom and in His love for you. He loves you. That's the reason the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, who clearly loves us, says to us, now don't worry. He doesn't give us that calling because it's simply another task that He, as some slave master, requires of His slaves. But He comes to us as our loving Lord, our loving Master, and He says this is good for you. This brings glory to me. Now, in my love, I tell you, as this is best for you, don't worry. This brings glory to the God who you love and the God who has saved you. Don't worry now. Trust in him. God who tells us this in Jesus Christ clearly, as we said a moment ago, clearly loves us. And again, we don't need to list out all the different ways that he's manifested that we know them and we can. If we do begin to be distrustful, we can go through them and we can list them out ourselves individually or as families. We can list out all the many, many ways God has revealed that he loves us, but now For now, our purpose can be accomplished by simply looking once again at the cross of Jesus Christ. God so loved us that he gave us his own son, and Christ so loved us that he gave up his own life, not only gave up his life, but entered into the agonies of hell on the cross for us. not only to demonstrate His love for us, also to work out our salvation for us, but in addition to that, yes, to display His love for us, that we may never doubt or have any reason anyway to doubt or to wonder if He loves us or how much He loves us. From another point of view, beloved, He's your Father. He's our Father. And it is love for us. As a good, loving Father, He makes our needs His concern. Again, the context, verse 32. For after all these things did the Gentiles seek for your heavenly Father, Know it that ye have need of all these things. Father in heaven knows our needs. Father who loves us. And again, almost really don't need to say father who loves us because the word father means he loves us. That's included in the word father. But so that We don't miss that. We say it again, the Father who loves us, knows our needs. They are His concern, our needs of today, but also our needs of tomorrow. He knows them. Trust in Him. Rest in His love. Know that all things are in His control. And remember once again that we're small, we're children. The word father means we're children. We're very small and weak and dependent children. He is great. He is the father. And because we are small and because we are weak, we cannot handle tomorrow. Not today. We'll handle that tomorrow by his grace. Not today. Tomorrow is his business. Tomorrow is not ours. Tomorrow belongs to the Father, it's under His control, and He's great enough to control all things for the good of us tomorrow. Today, today is our business. Today is our calling. Today we have our calling to trust in Him. Leave tomorrow. to the sovereign God who controls all things, that even today, as we're called to trust in Him today, we depend upon Him for the grace to work in us so that we can and so that we do. And we trust then that with the troubles of today, we'll have the grace supplied by our heavenly Father because He loves us. to deal with the troubles of today. And we can trust that with the troubles of tomorrow will come the grace also to deal with those troubles tomorrow, not today. The Lord warmly comforts us of that in Lamentations chapter three. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The grace that is ours for today to handle the trouble of today that we taste today, which is not given for us yet today, To deal with tomorrow, we'll be there also tomorrow when we awake. And God will give us the grace that we need to deal with the evil, the troubles, the hardships tomorrow. All is in his sovereign, wise, loving control. Don't worry about tomorrow. Trust in Father. Amen. Father, we thank Thee. And we pray that Thou will forgive us. For even as we have heard Thy word, we recognize how weak and sinful we are. We're reminded again of how often we run ahead of Thee, we break outside of Thy good boundaries for us, and we seek to occupy ourselves with things that do not belong to us. Give us grace, Father, to leave tomorrow alone, to not be worried about the things that belong to tomorrow, not to be worried either about the things of today, without us, give us grace today. And we're able to deal with them today, one day at a time. Thou dost lead us, thou hast and thou wilt lead us through all of our life. Give us the wisdom, we pray, and the grace today to trust in thee. And to rest then quietly as thy children in that perfect trust in thee, which is ours and which thou has given to us in love and through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Assure us too, Father, that we are forgiven for all of our weaknesses, infirmities and sinful doubting and give us even in that gratitude to continue to strive to trust in Thee. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen.