The Cure for Anxiety

In one paragraph

The pastor opened 2022-02-06 back from a trip to Costa Rica, picking the sermon back up three-quarters of the way through the Sermon on the Mount. He preached from Matthew 6:25-34 on worry, and what Jesus actually offers as a replacement for it. The passage opens with an imperative: do not be worrying about your life. The pastor pointed out that the Greek word behind "worry" carries the sense of...

Read together

1. Matthew 6:25-34 the main text of the sermon, read in full and expounded throughout
2. Luke 12:22-31 parallel version of the sermon on the mount passage, mentioned as having been covered in an earlier series
3. Psalm 90 Moses prays that God would teach us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom
4. Matthew 6:19-21 do not store up treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, cited as the immediate context above the for this reason phrase
5. Matthew 6:22-23 the eye is the lamp of the body, cited as part of the passage immediately above the anxiety text
6. Matthew 6:24 no one can serve two masters, you cannot serve both God and wealth, cited as directly preceding the for this reason
7. Matthew 5:6 blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied, linked to seek first his righteousness
8. Matthew 5:10 blessed are those persecuted for righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, cited to show the kingdom is available now
9. Luke 6:35 God is kind to ungrateful and evil people, quoted in the offertory prayer

Talk about it

1. The pastor described worry as 'being drawn apart in different directions' and called it a 'divided mind.' Where in your own life do you feel that kind of pulling in multiple directions right now, and what is it that is dividing your focus?
2. Jesus points to the birds and the lilies not as examples of laziness but as examples of creatures doing exactly what God designed them to do. What do you think God has designed and wired you to do, and are you doing it?
3. The pastor said that worrying about what God has planned for you and whether you might miss it is itself an anxiety-ridden way of thinking, and that the answer is simply to seek God earnestly. How easy or hard is it for you to trust that promise in practice?
4. The sermon connected the command not to worry directly to the passage just above it about serving two masters, and called worry a form of practical atheism. Does that connection change the way you think about anxiety? Why or why not?
5. The pastor mentioned that reacting to someone else's control or legalism by going lawless is still letting that person control your life, and that the answer is to turn your eyes on Jesus rather than staying in either ditch. Has that kind of reaction ever shown up in your own life, and what did seeking God look like in that situation?