Touré Roberts - The Deception of Worry

All right, let’s get into this. I want to talk today about the deception of worry. Do me a favor and just turn to somebody and say, «Worry is deceiving.» Worry is deceiving. It’s deceiving; it’s deceiving. I want to draw your attention—just stay seated—to Matthew chapter 6, verse 25. I’m going to be reading from the old-school King James translation on this one, and we’ll jump down to verse 27. It says, «This is Jesus speaking.» He says, «Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink.» Take no thought for your life. Hallelujah! «What you shall eat or what you shall drink? Nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not life more than meat and the body more than raiment?» We’ll jump down to verse 27, and it says, «Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?» This is the word of the Lord. We’re living in a time right now where more people than is appropriate—more people than what is appropriate—are either angry or worried. Most people—too many people—fall into that category. Either you’re mad about something or worried about something, and sometimes we’re worried about what we’re mad at. But Jesus says something that almost seems unintelligent; if I might be honest with you. Jesus basically says, «Take no thought about this, about that, about that. Take no thought about it.» Now, one of the things that makes us like God is our ability to think, our ability to reason, our ability to understand, our ability to know. Yet in this passage, He’s saying, «Take no thought,» and doesn’t it seem like, I mean, it doesn’t sound smart? I mean, let’s just talk about it for a second. I mean, there are things going on that may give us a tendency to worry, or whatever, and does it seem like the right strategy for something that may be looming ahead is to take no thought about it? Let’s just—can we just have a real conversation? Because sometimes what happens is we read something aloud, and we say «Amen» on the outside, but on the inside we’re like, «But yes, here in plain English Jesus said, 'I don’t want you to take thought.'» In another translation, that word translates to «worried.» It ultimately does mean worry, but it does have to do with taking thoughts. He’s not saying, «I don’t want you to think.» He’s saying, «I don’t want you to think in an unprofitable way.» Are you tracking with me? If we look up that word, you know I like to study words, that word that was translated «take no thought» has the idea of not being distracted or divided. So it actually means when He says «take no thought, ” it means to worry, and it has the idea in it, if you study that word down to its origin, of being distracted or being divided. So when He’s saying, „Take no thought, ” basically what He’s saying is, „Don’t take in an unhealthy thought that will cause you to deviate from the thoughts that I’ve caused you to think.“ I’m going to take my time; you’re going to get it today. If the idea in that word is „don’t be divided,“ „don’t take a thought,“ „don’t be distracted,“ „don’t be divided,“ then what that implies is that I can’t be distracted from a direction I wasn’t on. The only thing that makes a distraction valuable or equitable is if I’m headed in a direction. Are you tracking with me? I can’t be distracted from distraction; I can’t be distracted from nothing. I can only be distracted from a mission. So that word, „take no thought,“ again has the idea of being distracted or being divided. The question is, „Divided from what?“ Divided from a central, positive, purpose-filled, and powerful thought and direction. Write this down if you’re taking notes: Your life should be consistently governed by a powerful, positive thought. I’m going to say it again—and it probably should be up there—your life, your life, all of our lives right now, should be consistently and constantly governed not by randomness. Your mind is not a white space; your life is not a whiteboard. All of us ought to be full of a thought at all times, and not just any thought, but a powerful, positive thought. I’m going to give you one: Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 11. God says this: „For I know the thoughts I think toward you.“ In other words, my whole perspective of you is a thought. When I look at you, I don’t see you as all these many different things—no, no—when I look at you, to me, you are a thought. And the Bible says it is not just any thought, „For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,“ says the Lord, „thoughts of peace.“ Thoughts of Shalom—that’s wholeness, that’s prosperity, that’s good, that’s well-being and well-doing. So you are a thought. Before I put you in your mother’s womb, I knew you. You started as a thought, and right now you are a thought, and it’s a good thought, it’s an awesome thought, and it’s a thought that should ultimately govern your lives. So I’m not living in randomness; my life is governed by a thought. Because if God governs my life by a thought, then I need to do the same thing. I’m going to take my time today.