Don't Worry Be Happy!
Luke 12:22-34
Sermon
by Maxie Dunnam

If you ask me to name the top ten songs on the popular music chart, I couldn't do it. But I do listen to popular music, and often times it teaches me.

The song from which I got the title for the sermon was popular many years ago. But I wasn't preaching through the Gospel of Luke then, or dealing with Matthew's record of the sermon on the Mount. So it's only now that I can use this popular song as a springboard for a sermon. You remember it.

Here's a little song I wrote. You might want to sing it note for note.

Don't Worry Be Happy. In Every life we have some trouble,When you worry you make it double.Don't worry Be Happy.

Ain't got no place to lay your head,Somebody came and took your bed. Don't worry Be Happy

The landlord says "Your rent is late,”He may have to litigate. Don't worry Be Happy! Ain't got no cash, Ain't got no style, Ain't got no girl to make you smile.

Don't worry Be Happy

Cause when you worry
Your face will frown,
And that will bring Everybody down,
Don't Worry Be Happy.

Look at me. I'm Happy!

That sounds superficial, doesn't it? But is it? Listen again to Jesus in our Scripture lesson, verses 22-24. He said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds.

You can't miss what Jesus is saying, can you? Don't worry Be happy! We shouldn't go any further in the sermon without clarifying the meaning of anxiety, because this is the center of Jesus' teaching - - don't be anxious about your life.

When we think about anxiety today, we think primarily in terms of relationship, or position, or security in life. We're anxious because we're afraid we're going to be rejected by someone else. We're anxious because we feel we're going to lose our status, our prestige, our position, our reputation in society. We're anxious because we feel we're not secure enough financially to face the future.

But that's not the way the Bible talks about anxiety. It's a much deeper problem than that. Jesus talks about it as the basic human condition. He says that we are anxious because we are separated from God. That's the nature of anxiety. It may take different forms in our life - - depression, despair, resignation, run away ambition, idolatry, making a god out of something that isn't God. What is the root of all this - - the cause of our worry and anxiety. Jesus would say it's basically a lack of trust in God.

What is the root of all this the cause of our worry and anxiety? Jesus would say it's basically a lack of trust in God. Listen to Him: "Consider the ravens; they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!" What good does your anxiety do? "Can you add one inch to your lifespan by being anxious?" No, in fact it's just the opposite. You ask any doctor and they will tell you. Anxiety will decrease your life, not add to it. So it's dumb to be anxious, and unnecessary, because God has already provided all that you will ever need in this life. Everything you need God has provided. Your anxiety is the result of not trusting God. So if you are addicted to covetousness it's not that you love things so much, it's because you have lost God, or at least lost sight of what it means to believe in God". So anxiety is a spiritual problem. Its root is in our relationship to God.

With that as our foundation, let's move through our Scripture lesson for some affirmation about anxiety, or what I'm calling worry - - because put in the vernacular Jesus is telling us, "Don't worry - - be happy!"

I.

First, you don't have to worry if you live in the light. Listen again to verses 2 and 3 of our Scripture lesson.

"Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops.”

Isn't it true that much of our anxiety comes from our fear of being found out. The other day I saw a chameleon - - the first I'd seen in a long time. He was as green as the leaf on which he rested. I watched him closely or I would have lost him when he moved from the leaf on to a brown limb and changed his color.

Watching that amazing creature of nature, I remembered Carl Sandburg's story about the chameleon who did well changing his colors to match his environment until one day he accidentally crawled onto a scotch plaid sport coat. He had a nervous breakdown heroically trying to relate to everything at once.

We're like that. We try to be all things to all persons and so we don't live in the light. We hide some things from some people - - and other things from others. Too often how we act on the outside is not consistent with what we feel on the inside. That's one of the greatest sources of anxiety: Our fear that people will know us as we actually are - - our fear of being found out. Luke gives us good advise as an anecdote for anxiety. Live with integrity, knowing that nothing is hidden that will not be known. So remember, you don't have to worry if you live in the light.

II.

Then there is this second admonition which we draw from our Scripture lesson: You don't have to worry if you know that you are important to God. You don't have to worry if you know that you're important to God. Listen to verses 6 and 7.

"Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God's sight.

But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

Alsy Carleton was a Bishop in the Methodist church. His wife obviously had a great sense of humor. On one occasion after Bishop Carleton had recovered somewhat from an automobile accident, someone asked Mrs. Carleton if he was alright. She said "He's not alright, but he's back like he was." The Bishop himself said that shortly after they were married, Mrs. Carleton's mother his own mother-in-law asked her daughter if Alsy was "The answer to her prayers?" And Mrs. Carleton responded "He's not what I dreamed of, but he's what I got; so I guess he's the answer to my prayers."

There are always folks around us to bring us down to size.

One day Lady Astor said to Winston Churchill, "Mr. Churchill, if I were your wife I'd poison your tea." He replied, "Madam, if I were your husband, I should drink it."

There are always people around who will bring us down to size. What we need is to be brought up to size. That's what Jesus is seeking to do to bring us up to size. Can you believe it? God notes even the fall of sparrows, and we are more important than sparrow. What a power way He put it "Even the hairs on your head are all counted?" You don't have to worry if you know that you are important to God.

III.

Now a third truth: You don't have to worry if the first priority of your life is the Kingdom of God. Let's read verses 27-31 again.

"Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you-you of little faith!

And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying.

For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them.

Instead, strive for His kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well."

Do you see it? This is what it means to believe in God. To know that God knows your need, to seek first his kingdom and to trust him to provide everything else.

I'm sure you noticed that in our Scripture lesson I skipped from verse 12 to verse 22. In those verses that I left out is the story of the rich man who tore down his barns to build more barns. Jesus called him "Rich fool." His harvest had been so plentiful that he felt totally secure. because he didn't even have enough space to store all that his land yielded. So he exercised a false security. He said to himself, "I will tear down my barns and build more barns, and I will say to my soul, soul take your ease, for you have ample goods stored up for you for many years. Eat drink and be merry."

But Jesus said to him "You're a fool and tonight your soul is required of you. " And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? Then Jesus added this cryptic word in verse 21 "So is he who lays up treasures for himself, and is not rich toward God.

Then Jesus moves from there to talk about our worry and anxiety concluding with a warning about how futile all that worry is. Assuring us that the Father knows our need, therefore we're to seek His kingdom and all other things will be added to us.

You don't have to worry Jesus is saying if the first priority of your life is the kingdom of God.

Back in December of 1990, Jerry and I visited our Methodist church in Czechoslovakia. I was deeply moved by that experience. It is a small church, but a strong church of a few thousand members. It is a very committed church. One pastor who came to spend the day and the evening with us in a seminar, spent more than one-half of his monthly salary to buy the gasoline to come to the meeting. And when I looked at them, I saw in them a people who were filled with great hope. But no wonder. Until November 1989, every church in Czechoslovakia was forced in to itself. They could have no signs outside; they could have no public notices; they could make no public declaration; they could not even ring their own bell. Think of that. And then in November 1989, a group of students confronted a group of young soldiers and that was the catalyst that brought the revolution to full flower. Everybody took to the streets and the old regime knew it was over. It was decided, that on November 27 at noon everybody in the country would walk out of their home or out of their business or out of their office or out of their factory or out of the field. Everybody would simply walk out into the street, and at 12:00 noon, November 27, 1989, every church bell in every church in Czechoslovakia would be rung at 12:00 noon. Bells that had been silent for forty-five years began to ring. In my imagination, I've thought about that so many times since. I got to thinking about how would you like to have been a pigeon?

Could you just imagine what it was like to have had a nest in a church tower forty-five years and hadn't been disturbed and suddenly the bell starts moving? Some of those pigeons were Methodist, and when the bells start ringing, it shakes up pigeons, especially Methodist pigeons who haven't had anything exciting go on in the church for years. They don't know what to do. But that's my fantasy, back to the story. Dr. Schneeberger, who has visited our church and is a friend of one of our members, Dr. Andrew Lasslo, said for the first time, they were able to put a sign out in front of our church. And do you know what the sign said? This was the sign that was hung in the front of the little Methodist Church in Prague: "The Lamb Has Won." What a truth. What a victory.

The Lamb wins! Not the bear, the Lamb!Not the tiger, but the Lamb!Not the lion, but the Lamb!Do we believe it?

Are we confident that Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, can transform human lives and restore the whole creation?

Do we believe that if we will seek first the Kingdom of God, then all else necessary for life and meaning and happiness will be added? We don't have to worry if the first priority of our life is the Kingdom of God.

When we really hear what Jesus said, the song with which we began is not as superficial as it first sounds: "In every life we have some trouble, when you worry you make it double. Don't worry Be happy!"

Do we need to rehearse? You don't have to worry if you live in the light. You don't have to worry if you know how important you are to God. You don't have to worry if the first priority of your life is the Kingdom of God.

FINAL GREETING: I don't suggest that during this week you surprise all your family and friends and companions at work by constantly singing "Don't worry Be happy." I do suggest that you surprise them with the amazing calm and poise that can be yours if you keep claiming the promise of Jesus: "How much more will God take care of you...oh you of little faith."

Maxie Dunnam, MaxieDunnam.com, by Maxie Dunnam