Psalm 23; Matthew 6:25 – 34

For many of us we start a new year fresh and ready to go.  We’ve had a rest and holiday to recover from last year and we’ve made plans for this year which inspire and enthuse us.  This fresh outlook puts us in a very different emotional state than we were in at the end of last year.  But we know the pattern of life tells us that we won’t stay like this for the whole year.  Life will get on top of us, we’ll become stressed with work, family, friends and church.  What started out as achievable goals will turn into overwork. 

The question I want to address over the coming weeks is how do we deal with the stress that is in our life?

  One way is to use this stress reduction kit that I was issued when I worked for the Government.

Another one is found in a study that was conducted by the University of New South Wales about 5 years ago.  Eat junk food.  The study showed that mice who were fed junk food, experienced much less stress than mice who ate healthily.  Initially I thought that this would be a good way of solving our stress problems.  Instead of having church for the next 7 Sundays we’d all pop down to Macca’s and have a Big Mac and we’d reduce our stress.  However, our weight and cholesterol levels would have increased, causing us to stress about our health.  So it probably isn’t the best idea.

For many people the way to deal with stress is to have a break.  Go away for the weekend or a holiday.  Or separate themselves by time and distance from the cause of the stress.

Whilst holidays are important, we need to be careful that we’re not running from the means of our cure.  Another study that came out of NSW Uni showed that for Ministers who burnt out that in their period of recuperation they ceased their spiritual disciplines.  In doing so they cut themselves off from the practices and the one that provide nurture, life and healing.    

Jesus tells us “come to me all you who are weary and I will give you rest.”

So as we think of the things that stress and weigh us down, we look to God and the answers he provides in the 23^rd Psalm.  In here we find more substance and less cholesterol than any junk food we can have.

The first cause of stress that we look at this week is worry.  In Proverbs 12:25 we read “that anxiety weighs down the heart.”  We all have things that we worry about.  Things that at times will keep us awake at night, will distract us from enjoying life, will give us grey hair and lines on our faces. 

What are the things that you worry about? 

Jesus tells us “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.”  He tells us this for a very good reason.

Firstly, it distracts us from the kingdom of God.  Whilst we’re worrying and becoming pre-occupied with our lives here, we’re taking our attention away from God, the mission that he calls us to and the life he wants us to express.  When we’re worrying about ourselves, we’re distracted from our calling as disciples.

Secondly, it's unhelpful because it never accomplishes anything, it never solves anything.  It is stewing without doing.  It's like racing a car engine, it creates a lot of smoke and noise but you don't go anywhere.  Worry has never solved a problem.  You cannot change the past if you worry about it.  Worry cannot control the future.  It only makes us miserable today.  It's unhelpful, it doesn't work.  It is unreasonable.  It exaggerates your problems, makes mountains out of molehills.  It just makes problems seem bigger and bigger.  The more we review something when we’re worried about it, the bigger it gets.  To worry about something you can't change is useless.  To worry about something you can change is pointless, change it, rather than worrying about it.  It is unhealthy.  When we worry we get ulcers, backaches, headaches, insomnia.  Our bodies were not made to worry.  We’re made for better things.  When we worry we think that we concentrate our efforts on controlling the uncontrollable, of affecting that which we can’t affect, of exerting an influence that we don’t have. 

The antidote to worry is found in the first verse of Psalm 23.  “The Lord is my shepherd.  I lack nothing.”

The Psalmist had no need to worry, because he had God as his shepherd.  Living in an agricultural society the writers of the Old and New Testament made many comparisons between God and a shepherd.  What do they see as the comparison? 

A shepherd provides.  He provides food, shelter, the basic necessities for his sheep.

A shepherd protects.  He defends against enemies, harm.

A shepherd guides.  He leads sheep when they're confused and don't know which way to go.

A shepherd corrects.  Any problem that comes along, he sorts out for them.

David, the writer of the 23^rd Psalm named God as his shepherd.  The one who was able to provide for him, the one who was an antidote to the stress in David’s life.

Many years later, Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount that his followers were not to worry.  In doing so he makes two points.  The first is that our life is more than material possessions.  The second is to look at the way that God provides for birds of the air.  The conclusion that he draws in verse 33 is that the priority in our life is to be a living relationship with God, through Jesus himself. 

This relationship doesn’t mean that we stop working, sowing, reaping or meeting our earthly needs.  Nor does this relationship say that these things are unimportant.  Just that they are less important than the righteousness that comes from trusting in God and participating in his kingdom as disciples of Jesus.

So the admonition to not worry is in effect a call to trust in the provision, protection, guidance of Jesus who calls himself the good shepherd.  It is to surrender to the work of the Spirit in our lives and a sign of the kingdom of God amongst us.

Seeing Jesus as shepherd is saying that he’s in control of our lives.  And when he’s in control of our lives, worry is not an issue.  Because when we worry about something, whatever it is, the issue behind it is control.  Our worry is our desire to control and our realisation that we can’t control it. 

Worry is always an attempt to control the uncontrollable.  Worry is assuming responsibility God never meant for us to have.  Worry is a warning light.  Whenever we start to worry we should see it as a flashing beacon that says we’re trying to control too much.  When we seek to take control, we shove God out of his rightful place.

So that’s all fine and good, don’t worry, instead follow Jesus who is the shepherd of our lives who provides and guides and corrects and protects.  But how?  But I’m sure you’re waiting to hear how.  How do we do this?

The answer is through prayer.  In 1 Peter 5:7, we are told to “Cast all of your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”  Peter is telling us to unload everything that we have to worry about.  Go back to the beginning of the sermon and think again about those things I asked you what you worried about. 

Peter says take all of them, each and everyone and give them to God.  It’s not just telling him about them and then keeping them as our own problem.  Peter tells us to give them to God and not to take them back.  Why?  Because God is the good shepherd who will leave the 99 sheep and go out to look for one lost sheep.  One sheep who is lost in an unhelpful, unreasonable unhealthy wasteland of worry.  We unload on him in prayer.  Pray in the middle of the night when you’re lying awake worrying.  Pray when you’re fretting unable to concentrate on anything because you’re worrying.

If your mind is in a whirl because you’re worrying, you can easily translate those thoughts into prayers.  Just tell God what’s confusing, what you’re anxious about.  Express your total and utter inability to find anyway out.  Share with him the possibilities and why you don’t think they’ll work.  Cry about the other people who are involved and your concern for them.  Tell God that you’re looking to him to show you the answer.

And then know, know that in his way and his timing things will work out.

We discovered this for ourselves when we moved from Rockhampton over 10 years ago.  In 1996 and 97 we were experiencing a lot of things, that were very anxiety and worry inducing.  I was starting to firm up a sense of call into ministry, but still had some more questioning to do.  Wendy wanted to be back in Brisbane, but it didn’t seem there was going to be much of a way for this to happen.

Then in April 1997 I applied for and was told unofficially that I’d got a job in Brisbane.  The official notification of this job didn’t come out for over a month, so I sat on tenderhooks waiting.  Turned out that the head of the interview team, had just been slack.  We wanted this job badly.  Not knowing about it also affected my decision about applying for other jobs, both in Brisbane and Rockhampton (the department I worked for had created a number of similar positions throughout the State, which were the next logical step for me to take).  Eventually, the job came through. 

Then we had to arrange for a date to move.  This couldn’t happen until our house in Rockhampton sold.  1997 was a very bad time for house prices.  We had friends who’d bought and when they left Rockhampton couldn’t afford to sell because their property value had dropped by $20000.  We had no body look at our house for 3 months.

At the same time the office I was working in Rockhampton was understaffed and they wouldn’t let me go. 

Wendy was teaching and wanted a transfer.  The staffing officer in Rockhampton told her flat out that she wouldn’t get a transfer.

Lots of things to worry about.  But as we trusted God, listened to him and followed him, things worked out. 

We sold our house, for what we bought it for, a good result at that time.  It settled on the day that I was to finish work in Rockhampton.  So we could all leave together.

In Brisbane we were able to find a great house, that met all our criteria.  At the church that we were led to, I met an older man who mentored and grew me a lot in my Christian faith. 

Wendy got a supply job within weeks of being in Brisbane.  And at the beginning of 1998 she got a transfer and a permanent job in Brisbane. 

Everything worked out for us, as we trusted in God, waited patiently for him and listened to the sound of Jesus’ voice.

Worry is a key source of stress in our lives.  And it’s something that God wants to be rid of, so that we can live as disciples of Christ’s and live out our passion for him. 

How do we rid ourselves of worry?  We embrace the relationship with Jesus that he offers to us.  The relationship in which he says he is our shepherd who provides, protects, guides and corrects.