Transcript
We're studying through the life and the teaching of Jesus from the Book of Matthew. Now there's this section that starts in chapter five of Matthew. It's called the Sermon on the Mount and it goes chapter five, six and seven. It's one of the most famous sets of teachings from Jesus and we're past the halfway point. We're making our way through this sermon. Last week we looked at verses 22 through 24 and we talked about having a spiritual focus and a spiritual loyalty. Remember this is Jesus training, those who would be his followers. And he's describing for them a new society, not just a personal relationship with him, but literally imagine like Moses, when he got the 10 Commandments, went up on the mountain and then he taught Israel how to be a nation. This is Jesus saying, Hey, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
I'm inviting you into a new kingdom. He starts the whole thing off by saying the gates of the kingdom are flung, wide open for the poor in spirit, for the meek, those who are suffering, those who are sorrowful, those are the people that are welcomed into this kingdom and he's gone on from there to lay out and describe, here's what it looks like to be in my kingdom. So last week he talked about just this devotion, this devotion to God and having this focus and loyalty. I was reading this week, and I love this one word that this commentator used for this idea of having a single eye. Remember we talked about that and how that's a difficult metaphor to translate over and understand how the metaphor works. He was saying a modern concept of this eye, of having a single eye or a single focus is the idea of having goals.
We talk so much about it's the new year. Let's set some goals for this year. And what Jesus is teaching his followers, he's saying, listen, if your goals are not singularly focused on my kingdom, they're not lined up with my kingdom, then your whole life is going to be this confusing mess. So there needs to just be this simplicity, this loyalty, this focus in on my kingdom in order for your life to emit bright, shining pure light that's coming from it. So that's what we looked at last week and today we're going to look at Jesus's teaching about anxiety. Anxiety. Now this is one of my favorite movies. Do you know the name of this movie? What about Bob? He's holding his book there called Baby Steps. Bob was paralyzed by anxiety, but his shrink also had his own set of issues. And so it's this wonderful movie about which one is actually the one who needs the therapy the most, but poor Bob, he is paralyzed by all these phobias and fears and anxieties.
In fact, the most recent data shows that approximately 19% of US adults have experienced anxiety disorder just in the past year. That's what is that one in five? The prevalence of this is higher in females than in males. 23% females, 14% males over the lifetime, over their lifetime. About 31% of adults are estimated to experience an anxiety disorder. Almost a third of adults when considering the severity of these disorders, and a majority, 43% of adults with an anxiety disorder just in the past year experienced mild impairment while 22% had serious impairment and 33 moderate impairment. So taking that into account, this whole conversation around anxiety is more apt and appropriate than ever. And so beginning in verse 25, Jesus says this, therefore I tell you, don't worry about your life, what you'll eat or what you'll drink or about your body, what you'll wear. Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Consider the birds of the sky. They don't sow or reap or gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you worth more than they can any of you? Add one moment to his lifespan by worrying. And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wild flowers of the field grow. They don't labor or spin thread, yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all of his splendor was adorned like one of these. If that's how God clothed the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won't he do much more for you? You of little faith. So don't worry saying, what will we eat or what will we drink or what will we wear? For the Gentiles eagerly seek all of these things and your heavenly Father knows that you need them, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be provided for you.
Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Let's pray. Lord, we are going to study this verse here with hearts that are sincere. We anticipate just that whisper of your spirit in our hearts, in our minds as we're studying it. We give you full permission to dissect who we are, to convict us of sin, to teach us, to train us in righteousness. God, we are spiritually hungry for your work. We don't want to be an anxious people. We want to occupy our place in life with a non-anxious presence. Oh God, would you gift that to us? We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So let's look at this together. What I'd like to do is give you a bit of an outline of what's in these 10 verses. So it opens up with a command to not worry about your life.
And then verse 26 through 30, there are these two illustrations that are given to support that command. And then verses 31 and 32, the command again is reiterated and we have the antithesis is seeded. This idea of the antithesis is seeded in gentile living. Don't worry because that's what the Gentiles do. Verse 33 is an alternative is recommended and a promise is paired with it. Can't wait to look at that promise. And then verse 34, the command is reiterated and made applicable to the moment. So six times, six times how many times? Six times. We have the word worry in this passage. This is one of those places where if you are struggling with anxiety, you've got to go back to it because Jesus, if he's your king, Jesus says to you, stop it, stop it, stop it. And he gives you a framework, kind of some therapy that you can do in order to free yourself from anxiety.
So here is, well, this is where we're going. The concept of worry and anxiety is given handles, maybe we could say or it's made concrete because he says, not only just stop worrying, but he says, stop worrying about this. Stop worrying about that. In fact, there are three things that he says to stop worrying about. Did you see them there? What you eat, what else, what you're going to wear and what else? And drink, drink, eat includes with the food. There's a third thing at the end. Don't worry about tomorrow, don't worry about tomorrow. What's going to happen tomorrow. Let's look at this first verse in verse 25, the opening command to not worry about your life. You like my little emoji there? Yeah, that's the worry one. Thank you. Thank you. Therefore, okay, this is Jesus talking in my Bible, this is in red.
This is the middle of the sermon. This is not some just like nice your therapy appointment. Then you got to decide this is Jesus the Lord, the Christ saying to you. I tell you, don't worry. Stop it about your life. Stop worrying about your life. What you're going to eat, what you'll drink or about your body, what you'll wear isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing he has in mind. The worrier, the person that's concerned food and clothing, he's got in mind the person that's got to hoard stuff, right? You ever watch Buried Alive? Yeah. What is that? What's going on there? There's a lot of different psychological things there, but there is an underlying fear in the hoarder's life that if I don't hold onto this stuff, I will lose some of my identity.
This is a picture of somebody trying to be secure to alleviate anxiety. I've had the privilege of working with hoarders in my life for some weird reason, and I love hoarders. They're like dear to my heart, I would be a hoarder if I didn't read the Bible. Probably hoarding is fun. Stuff is fun, right? I mean, walking around your place is fun too, but there's something fun about just stuff. And so I have cleaned out hoarder's houses and it is traumatic. It is emotional, it is painful and usually it only happens and usually I've been called to the scene because it's literally a crisis in the community. On one occasion it was a renter and the guy had to sell his house and the guy went to the same church that I was at and he said, listen, I've got a renter. He's a little bit older, a guy, he's a little bit unique and he's a hoarder and I have to clean this place out.
Would you come and help? And I said, absolutely. And just in the most loving way, we had to just go in and it's always, Hey, go and distract that guy. Get him into the other side of the room and we're going to just come through with garbage bags and we're going to just start throwing stuff away. On another occasion, literally the city law code enforcement officer, Ms. Huffman, she came to me and said, listen, we are trying to clean up downtown. We are a growing city and we've got to get this place cleaned up. And we have right on Main Street, this guy who has lived there for 60 years and his entire two acres is full of stuff and the city we're going to pay to put a dumpster, not like a little dumpster, not like a 40 foot dumpster on his property. We are getting a team of volunteers and we are going to clean that property.
We are going to empty it out. The guy a week before it happened had major heart surgery, so he wasn't there. Somehow he found out about it, took himself with his chest, still freshly scarred and stapled together. He took him himself to that property. He was so upset that his stuff was being, he had plenty of warning, he was told it was going to happen. He knew what was going on. He was in really bad shape, and I sat with him and distracted him for two hours as the rest of these 40 volunteers just threw away a small portion. We didn't even touch the house. We were just working in the yard, the stacks of stuff. Literally when I wasn't with him, I found a newspaper clipping from the end of World War II out of Australia about the Japanese bombing Australia or something like that.
Yeah, a fresh newspaper clipping from the forties in the front yard in this stack. It was crazy. So hoarding is this symptom of an internal unrest of I've got to hold on to this stuff. And yet Jesus is saying, look, in my kingdom, you do not need to stop. You need to stop worrying about this stuff. And he's asked this rhetorical question. He says, isn't life more than food and body more than clothing? Let me ask you that. Is your life more than food? Is your body more than clothing? It's amazing how life can get reduced down to that level. Those who are, we talked about hoarding, but then there's also the issue of obesity and being overweight. I think my BMI right now is five. I'm technically considered overweight. I know I'd say that to people and they're like, nah, you're not overweight, and that's because they probably weigh more than I do, but that's fine.
There is like a health metric and where you're supposed to be at, and unfortunately in the US we have this unhealthy relationship with food where we don't answer this question and we say, no, my life is pretty much food. I've had this vision of making this sign that I put into my kitchen that says, this is not a temple. This is a fueling station for the mission of God. Because here's the thing, here's the, we engage food culturally as an event, as almost not just an event, but as a sacred worshipful event. We're worshiping ourselves, we're worshiping our tongues. The pleasure of, so you go in fast and all of a sudden you realize, oh my gosh, I'm a worshiper of food and pretty much I have three worship services a day called breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and if I miss one of those worship services, I am not okay in my religion, right either is a disconnect between me and my God, the body.
And then you have other people that are caught up in materialism and pretty much it's like, where's the next mirror just to make sure that my clothing is right, my outfit is right, and yet Jesus in his teaching is he's saying, stop it. Stop worrying. Stop worrying about these things. Now as we go through this text, I'm going to show you some of the objections that people have as they hear Jesus is teaching and then I'm going to try to respond to those objections. Critics argue that the passage, this passage seems to suggest that one should not plan or be responsible for their future potentially leading to an impractical or irresponsible living. If you follow this, you would be irresponsible. You need to be prepared, and they think that that's what Jesus is saying. The response to that is that Jesus is not teaching against prudent planning, but against anxious worry. In Luke 14, 28 through 30, Jesus speaks about the importance of planning using the example of someone building a tower. The emphasis in Matthew six is on trusting in God's provision and not being consumed by worry, not on abandoning responsible planning.
Let's keep going to the next section here, which are these two illustrations to support the command, the two illustrations. The first is the one about the birds. He says, think about the birds. Think about the birds for just a second. What's your favorite kind of bird? Raven. Raven, okay. Yeah, you would be, you're from Baltimore, the eagle. Yeah. You're from Philadelphia, of course, yes. What else? A car. Those are so beautiful. They're red. Yeah. Yeah. What else? What other birds wood. Oh, those are cool. They're like, right, hang on there. And they're like doing the thing with their nose and their beak. That's pretty wild. Yeah. Yeah. I like peacocks. What'd you say? I said hawk hawks. Yeah, the swoop down. They can go. Incredible speeds. So Jesus says, look, consider the birds of the sky. Now here's what he wants you to think about. Okay? They don't sow. What's sowing? That's like planting the seeds, right? Like a farmer. They're not being farmers. What's reaping? Collecting the harvest. They're not going through the agricultural process like a farmer gathering into barns yet. Look at this. Your heavenly father feeds them. And then there's a question. Do you see the question? This was not a question that was condoned by peta.
It didn't make it past their comms department. When Jesus said this, he says, aren't you worthy more than they like? You are worth more than the birds and your father is feeding the birds. Can any of you add one moment to his lifespan by worrying? Do you notice all the questions here? When somebody is asking questions, what are they doing? What happens when a question is asked? There's a break, right? A question is asked. There's someone is leaving kind of a hole in the thought process and you've got to fill it in. It's a great communication tool asking questions. Jesus is asking questions and he's asking this question. In other words, what does worrying do? Is it going to add to your life's span? What's going to change about your life By worrying, what do you accomplish? The master teacher here laying it out, you look at this bird, isn't that a beautiful, that bird is eating its meal.
It has not worried at all. It's not anxious. It didn't have anything to do with that tree there growing. It didn't have to produce the red fruit, and yet God is providing for that bird, and Jesus says to you and I, you are worth more than that bird. Your life is of greater value, of greater. Why. Can I ask you a question? Why Jesus said that? Why is your life worth more than the bird? Why is he allowed to say that? Because we're created in the image of God. That's right. We're created in his image. He didn't make that bird in his image. He created it. It's beautiful because he made it, but it doesn't bear the image of God, and so it is not of equivalent worth, so let's reverse the logic. He does care for you because you bear his image. He's aware of the things you have need of because you bear his image. You're intended to be cared for by him, and yet you have this working example of this bird that he's caring for, and we get kind of wrapped up in what's going to happen? Where's my food going to come from? Where's my clothes going to come from? Alright, and then the next illustration here is the flowers. Why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wild flowers of the field grow. They don't labor or spin.
Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all of his splendor was adorn like. You know who Solomon, who's he talking about with Solomon? King Solomon, right? King Solomon was the zenith of progress for Israel. It was called the golden era, right? David did all this work to set up his son Solomon for success. Solomon is the wisest king, the wisest man of his day, and he just flourishes incredible wealth. One of the seven wonders of the world is Solomon's hanging gardens, right? Incredible. And yet Jesus comments and says, these flowers don't even compare. Solomon doesn't even compare to these flowers, these lilies of the field. And then we have another question. If that's how God closed the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won't he do much more for you? Oh, you of little faith, it's amazing.
Won't he do much more for you? That right there is something worth writing and sticking on your bathroom mirror. This is Jesus, your Messiah, the one who rescued, he died for you on the cross so that you could be reconciled to God and here's what he's saying to you about stuff, your relationship with stuff, the things you're worried about in your life. He says, won't He the Father do much more for you than the grass? Do you believe that? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Take that one to the bank and he comments. He says, what's lacking is faith. He's getting in there poking you. It's like your friend in junior high like poking you in the side. You a little faith, come on. You got to believe this. You got to believe that he's going to do much more for you. He's going to do much more for you.
Let's look at another objection to this. Some might view the passage as advocating for a passive reliance on divine provision. I am going to sit here, arms crossed until God provides for me. They're dismissing the need for human effort or initiative. It could give birth to a lazy lifestyle. That may be one of the fears that comes up, but instead, here's the response to that argument. The Bible balances trust in God with the value of work. If you don't believe me, go look at second Thessalonians three 10. It talks about, look, if you don't work, you don't eat right. Jesus's point is about the attitude of the heart, prioritizing spiritual over material concerns and not encouragement to inactivity. He's not saying sit and twiddle your thumbs. He's saying Stop worrying about it and get to work. One of the greatest gifts that God's given us is this ability to work in the world with him.
Sometimes work is considered this evil thing or this negative thing. I've heard Christian say, oh yeah, work is That's a part of the curse. We got to work. Work is horrible because Adam sin and no work happened and was commanded before sin ever came into the world. Adam and Eve were told, Hey, rule over the garden. I want you to subdue the garden. I want you to tend to the garden. Take care of this garden that I'm putting you in. There was a good work that they were called to. We are designed to work. God has created us in his image. He works. We are called to work. We're also called to rest, and so we next go into this command being reiterated and the antithesis seated in Gentile living, so here we go. So don't worry. He says again, what does he say? Don't worry, don't worry.
That's right. Yeah. Don't miss this. That's what the sermon's about, right? We could cover it in five seconds. Don't worry. That's the sermon saying, what will we eat? What will we drink or what will we wear, right? Those are the questions. Who's asking those questions? The Gentiles are eagerly seeking all, who's the Gentiles? Anybody who's not Jewish at the time. Anybody disconnected from God's kingdom? He's saying those who are genetically disconnected, they're not in his kingdom yet those outsiders who are far away from God, this is what they're worried about. They're asking these questions, what are we going to drink? What are we going to eat? What are we going to wear?
He says, you're heavenly Father knows that you need them. He knows that you need them. It is amazing just the amount of anxiety that exists because people act like Gentiles. What does it mean to be a Gentile? It just means you're a foreigner. What are you a foreigner from? You're far away from God's kingdom. I mean, that's the idea. It's not this DNA am I have this disposition towards anxiety because I don't have the DNA of the Jews. No, no, no. He's talking about, Hey, they're far away. They just don't know this stuff. We know it. We know it. We're accountable before God and we do not need to sit there and think and worry and be torn up inside over our anxiety. Another objection. Here's another objection. The directive to not worry about basic needs may seem insensitive to those in poverty or crisis.
We're a church that's blessed with people that are still trying to make it. They've got a rough past. I've always wanted to be a part of a church like this. Before I was here, I was a part of a church with a lot of wealthy people. It was very boring. Nobody thought they needed anything and it sucked, and so I moved to Baltimore so that I could be in close proximity to people who are real, where life is real and sometimes things break down and people get sick and people die and relationships break down and all that stuff, right? And so is Jesus being insensitive when he says, Hey, stop worrying. Do you think? Was he not being caring? No, of course we know Jesus is loving. Jesus is teaching, acknowledges the reality of these needs. He acknowledges the reality of these needs. The emphasis is on trusting God's care and not allowing worry to dominate our lives, recognizing that our value to God is greater than the material concerns themselves.
Your Father, he just says in that last verse, he says, your father knows the things that you have need of, and then the alternative recommended and then I promise is paired with it, and this is the contrast that exists. You're either living on one side of that but or the other. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be provided for you. You got to decide what's going to occupy your heart. You're going to be taken up with seeking after food and clothing and what's going to happen tomorrow? You're going to be worried about that or are you going to seek first God's kingdom? This is what you've got to decide. You've got to decide, are you going to let God's kingdom be the priority? I love this picture. This is from Black Friday.
Let me just say, could we just replace the boxes there with going for God's kingdom as a church where we're just knocking down the doors? God, we're going for your kingdom. We're here, we're going for you. But sometimes the setting's not very loving, right? We want to do this together. No, we're not throwing any elbows as we go for the kingdom, but there's an intensity about Black Friday. There's this beating down the doors. There's like everybody's checking their clock. It's 6 0 1. Why didn't they open up yet? Right? Let's go for it. Let's seek first the kingdom of God. One commentator says this, the whole theme of this section has been that God will take care of his people, so we should put our trust completely in him. Our father is the supreme giver. Do you hear that? He is the supreme giver and it is tragic when we whom he loves care more for ourselves than for him.
He is better at caring for us than you are for caring for yourself. He knows what you have need of. He has your best interest in mind. Your lack is not his oversight. Your low bank account is not that he just kind of forgot about you on the backside of the wilderness, God loves you and he knows what you have need of, and he's calling and inviting you into a relationship with him. The commentator goes on, he says, so Jesus says, we must not just refrain from the things of the world but actively replace concern for earthly matters with an overriding concern for the things of God.
There is one more argument that comes up about this. There is a concern somebody may say There's a concern that focusing on seeking God's kingdom could lead to neglecting earthly responsibilities. If I'm seeking first God's kingdom, what about my kids? What about my schoolwork? What about going to work? And they see it as a dichotomy, right? Is that the term for it? False dichotomy as if seeking God's kingdom is against doing the things he's made you responsible for. The idea is no, be a citizen. Occupy this land. Live with a non-anxious presence as you engage the responsibilities that he's given you. Here's the response. Jesus advocated for a balanced life of loving God and loving others. Seeking God's kingdom involves practical expressions of faith such as compassion and justice, which have tangible impacts on worldly matters. Let's keep going. This last verse, the command is reiterated and made applicable to the moment, to the moment. He gives some sense of timing. Here's the verse, therefore don't worry about tomorrow. Why? Tomorrow. That's right. Tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble in its own, and so this is not against planning. It's not saying, Hey, don't plan for the future. It's saying the condition of your heart. As you look into the future, you've got to guard it. It's not a disposition of anxiety and fear.
Oftentimes, anxiety is related to the future. I think that's the difference between fear and anxiety. Fear is very much in the present. Anxiety relates to worries over the future. As we reflect on the richness and the depth of Jesus's teaching out of Matthew, we're reminded that the Christian life is not one of passive resignation. You're not called to passivity but of an active ongoing trust. Jesus calls us to a radical reorientation of our priorities, urging us to place our trust not in the uncertainties of this world, but in the steadfast unfailing faithfulness of our heavenly Father. In this world where worry and anxiety often loom large, Jesus offers a different narrative. He points us to the birds of the air, the lilies of the field, not as examples of carefree living, but as reminders of God's providential care. This is not a call to abandon planning or responsibility, but an invitation to rest in the assurance that our lives are held in the hands of a loving father.
As we seek first his kingdom and is righteousness, we are promised that our needs will be met. This is not a prosperity gospel that equates faith with material blessing, but it is a promise that our deepest needs, love, security, purpose, and belonging will be met in God. We are called to live in the present, engage with the world around us with compassion and justice, reflecting very nature the character of Christ. In closing, let's remember that our worries about tomorrow cannot add a single hour to our lives. Instead, let's embrace each day with faith and trust, knowing that our future is secured in the hands of God who cares for us more deeply than we can imagine. In so doing, we find true freedom from the anxiety and worry and the freedom to live fully in the present, serving God loving others. Let's step into this week with this assurance in our hearts, living out the radical trust filled, trust filled life that Jesus calls us to.
I want you to take out your card, your index card on one side of that card, you've written out the things that cause anxiety in your life at different times. Maybe your anxiety level isn't super high right now, but these are the things that you wrote down as sources of anxiety. What I want you to write on the backside is that God's got it. God's got it. He is got it. God knows. I want you to write who God is on the back. What verses, and once you're done doing that, share a pen with somebody else. Here's an extra pen right here. God's got it. What else did our text include? What did it say about God? He knows He knows, right? What else does he say?
Provide.
He will provide. These things will be provided for you. Will else does he say? Don't worry. He says, don't worry. He straight up says it right.
He's got
This. He's got it. I'm going all the way back here.
The other thing you can write on that card, it may take some time, but I would just say, I would pray and say, God, what can I observe in creation, in nature? That just shows me, you got it. Jesus gives this example of the birds have food. He made these flowers. Maybe that's good enough of a response, but you look at the ocean, all that water, maybe you've got a concern about lack and all you need to do is you just need to think about how big the ocean is or how big the universe is
And the breath of light. We don't control how we wake
Up. Yeah. Amen. Yeah. We've got the breath that's in us, right? You think about all the functions right now going on at a cellular level in your body, breathing, circulation, digestion, all, and I'm not a medical. I know we've got medical people in here and I would slaughter it. Yeah. What else? I think
Just being grateful here,
What he's provided. That's another thing you could put on there. It's like your history. How have you seen God work already up to this point? What's he done for you? How has he proved himself to you? Yeah. Amen. Do you know what a sacrament is? A sacrament. The idea of a sacrament is the overlap between heaven and earth where you're on earth, but you experience a piece of heaven. In the Protestant church, we really have two official sacraments. One is baptism, the other is communion. If you're a Catholic, you've got the seven sacraments and they've included it, which I don't know about those seven sacraments specifically, but I think there's a lot of areas where heaven crosses over with earth, where we experience God's presence on earth, but we have one clear sacrament which is taking communion together. It's us on earth, but we are joining God in a heavenly reality when we take this meal together.
So let's pray and then I'm going to invite you to come forward, take the elements back to your seat and we'll take communion together. Father, we thank you for loving us, caring for us, and knowing on our card the things that cause anxiety, the things that we have need of, and you're bigger and better than what is on that side of the card. God, we entrust to you are worry, our anxiety, our concerns. We don't want to have a little bit of faith. We don't want to be those ou of little faith. We want to be those of like, yeah, we've got a lot of faith. We're okay because we have so much faith. Anxiety isn't racking our life because of how much we trust in you. We love you. God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for putting up with us and our anxiety. Deliver us. Let us be a church that's delivered from anxiety. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.