The following sermon was presented by the Rev. John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia, on February 26, 1984. The title is, Don't Be Anxious, and the scripture reference is Matthew 6, verses 24-34. 

I'm sure that the passage that George just read is one of the most beloved passages in all the Scripture, certainly the best-loved portion of the Sermon on the Mount. And in it, there are at least three great central affirmations that I submit to you every Christian who would live the victorious life of faith needs to know and believe at the very center of his or her being. And I suspect that if I just rattled them off, Proposition 1, Proposition 2, Proposition 3, you'd all nod and agree, yes, we believe that.

But when you really get down to it, and when our lives begin to get involved, I wonder if we do believe it, if we believe it the way we thought we did, if we even understand it the way we thought we did. Maybe we need to take a little bit deeper look. Three great central affirmations in the teaching of the Lord Jesus Himself.

The first is that God knows what you need. God knows what you need. Please notice that it does not say He knows what you want.

although I'm sure that's equally true he knows what you want and that may not thrill him but that's not what it says what it says is he knows what you need not he knows what you think you need he knows what you need the God who formed you in your mother's womb who fashioned you into the person that you are now and the person that you're still becoming. The God who caused you to be born at this particular moment of history, in this society, with this particular family and this set of friends, and these stresses and strains upon you. The God who knows you more intimately than you know yourself.

The God who delights in every aspect of your unique individuality. that God knows what you need. But that raises a question.

What I need for what? Because if it's not what I want, what is it that I need? God knows what you need in order to become the you that He's calling you to be.

God knows what you need in order to become more fully and more completely the person that He has formed you to be. Apart from which there is no lasting satisfaction or joy. I wonder if you believe that.

I wonder if you really do. Because when you look around you, maybe when you look at yourself, you become immediately aware that sometimes terrible things happen to people. ghastly, almost unthinkable things happen to people.

And we hear folks saying, and you've heard somebody say it this week, maybe you've said it this week, do I really need that? Do I really need that? For the Christian, the answer is almost always yes.

But you see, we've made the mistaken assumption that needing it, whatever it is, needing it, is a matter of correcting us for what we've done wrong. So that the question, do I really need that, translates into, what have I done to deserve this? Right?

But that's not always the case. God may have allowed this, whatever it is, to come into your life not to correct you, but to perfect you. Somebody said, Most people don't get that the first time through.

God may have allowed something ghastly, or at least unwanted, to come into your life, not because He's correcting you, but because He's perfecting you. One of the toughest verses in the whole Bible is in the fifth chapter of the book of Hebrews where it's talking about the Lord Jesus Himself. And it says, though He was the Son, the Son of God, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, though He was a Son, He learned obedience through the things He suffered.

You say, wait a minute. He's already God. He's already perfect.

He is therefore already perfectly obedient and yet he learned obedience through the things he suffered. Did I really need this? Yes, you did.

If you were going to become even more perfectly obedient. You say, how can that be? I've often used the illustration of a balloon.

It's already full of air. And yet you can blow more air into it and it becomes still fuller. Jesus was already perfectly full of God, perfectly full of obedience, and yet God wanted to blow more obedience, more perfection into Him.

And He allowed ghastly things to happen to Him. Did I really need that? Yes, you did.

If you're going to become all that I want you to be, And so Jesus' most famous prayer is, Father, here's what I will. Here's my desire, but I know that You know what I really need in order for me to become what You want. And therefore not my will, but Yours.

Do you follow what I'm saying? Do you dare to believe that even in the midst of unspeakable adversity, God is working out a plan and a purpose to bring you to perfection? I wonder if you do.

God knows what you need. The second great affirmation is God cares. And how important that is.

Because if you take the first one by itself, and that's all we have to say on the subject, you might end up with the view that God is forever tinkering with the machinery of His universe as if it were some kind of unfeeling involvement. He just wants to make it function better. But that's not what Jesus says.

He says, God cares. It's not, Lord, You're going to make me perfect even if it kills me. No, God cares.

God cares for you. Consider the lilies. How incredibly beautiful they are.

The richest king in the history of the world, in the finest apparel that men could devise, didn't begin to clothe himself with garments as lovely as the ones that God gives to the flowers. And God cares more for you than He does for flowers. Or think about the birds of the air.

Not one of them ever planted a field or harvested a crop or gathered it into a granary and cared for... Not one of them, and yet God feeds them day after day, year after year. And He cares more for you than He cares for the birds.

When it says God knows what you need, it's not just a matter of God knowing what you need in order to make Him happy. God knows what you need in order to make you, finally, ultimately happy. Blessed.

Because the only lasting joy and the only perfect satisfaction is for me to end up in the center of God's will. We run down all kinds of side alleys seeking joy, but the only lasting joy is for me to accept what God wants to do in me and through me and with me. God is working out His purpose, but when I own it as my purpose, I begin to discover how deeply He cares for me.

Augustine said our hearts are restless. They're distracted. They're questing.

They're endlessly seeking something. They're restless until they find their rest in me. Jeremiah compared us to a lump of clay and God is working that on His potter's wheel and He's fashioning it and shaping it and sometimes He starts over and works another part of it to make us into the vessel of His choosing.

And our fulfillment comes as we stop resisting Him and allow Him to make of us what pleases Him based on the confidence that He cares for us. That still may leave you a little bit unsettled until we come to the third great affirmation, and that is God provides. Will He not also clothe you?

Will He not also feed you? It's not just that He knows, and it's not just that He cares, but He provides according to that knowledge and that care. The problem is that when you read all of that over against the biography of Jesus or over against the story of many, many great men and women of faith or even over against what Paul said to the Corinthians.

It doesn't quite mesh. Jesus says God is going to provide and Paul says we're in deep trouble. Pollyanna says God is in His heaven and all is right with the world.

Paul says God's in His heaven and we're in a heck of a fix. we apostles we who have been entrusted with the mystery of the gospel we've become the off scouring of the world we've become as refuse says we're weak we hunger and thirst we're ill clad we're buffeted we're homeless we're reviled we're slandered and we appear as men sentenced to death God provides how do you put those two scriptures together? yes God provides and that's the great theme of 1st and 2nd Corinthians that's the great theme of Paul's life yes God provides he sums it up in six words 2nd Corinthians my grace is sufficient for you that's what God provides my grace is sufficient for you not necessarily will God provide what you want, not necessarily will He provide what you think you need, not necessarily will it turn out the way that you had hoped it was going to turn out, at least in the short run, but whatever comes your way, God is going to provide sufficient grace for you to cope.

1 Corinthians 10, 13, God is faithful and will not let you be tempted or tested or tried above your ability to handle it. He will not. But with the testing will provide a way of escape.

That's what God provides. Because He's working out a purpose. And in the midst of that purpose, He's going to provide sufficient grace for us to handle it.

And so the key to victorious Christian living is trusting that He knows what He's doing. And this particular passage in Jesus' sermon translates into a call and an encouragement to do just that. Did you notice that five times in ten verses, Jesus says, don't worry.

Don't be anxious. Do not be anxious. I'd like to do a little experiment.

Don't get nervous now. It's okay. the results so far this morning have been fascinating if there's anybody here who is worried in the last week would you just raise your hand for a second some of you are lying anybody that's worried this morning anybody that's worried during this sermon okay you saw the results now just by way of comparison would all those who have committed murder this week please raise your hand no I wasn't sure grand larceny anybody in the choir all those who have committed adultery this week perjury anybody bear false witness anybody lie during the last set of questions do you see that from Jesus point of view to indulge in anxiety is as much a sin as doing any one of those other things.

Do you know that? Five times in one paragraph. He says, don't be anxious.

Why? Because anxiety is the opposite of faith. Anxiety is doubt.

And it says, I do not believe that God knows. I do not believe that God cares. I do not believe that He's going to provide.

That's why I'm anxious. and that's sin and Jesus commands us not to do that we're not doing too well on that are we I'm fascinated with the way this particular section ends Jesus says a fascinating thing because you see have you noticed that anxiety is always always always about tomorrow week or an hour from now or five minutes from now. It's never about now.

It's always about the future. See, I can cope with right now. And so can you. Every one of us is coping.

Some better than others, but we're coping. But anxiety comes in when I say, if one more thing happens, I can't handle it. And you see, God has already promised, if one more thing happens, I'm going to give you that much more grace so that you can handle it.

And if I don't give you more grace, then you don't need to worry that it's going to happen. We look at somebody else in just a terrible situation. We say, if that happened to me, I couldn't handle it. It's not going to happen to you unless God equips you to handle it.

And that's His promise. And Jesus commands us don't be anxious because the God who provided for you yesterday and the God who is providing for you this very moment will be there tomorrow and tomorrow will take care of itself. you trust him right now let's bow our heads together dear Lord Jesus Christ thank you for loving me forgive me when I've doubted the extent of your love I entrust myself to you again just now and forever Amen