And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 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! 25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Luke 12:22-34

Introduction

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mothers here with us. And for you in particular, I find today’s message an appropriate one for you, “Do not worry.” Because anyone who has been a child or who has a child, knows how frequently mother’s can worry. How often you have spoken or you have heard the phrase, “Mom, don’t worry!” And worry just seems to be part and parcel with the job of bring a mother. But it doesn’t have to be that way as we learn from Jesus.

Last week, we learned about the parable of the rich fool, the man who believed that he could keep building bigger barns, forget God and others in his abundance, and then kick back and relax. Only his best laid plans were for naught as God would take his life when he least expected it and he became the ultimate fool. So following this parable and the warning of verse 21: “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God,” Jesus lays out for us in verses 22-34 how then we should live in light of this consequence. That is, if my worth and value and esteem and identity and goals and pursuits are not in the abundance of my possessions, then what difference will placing all of this in God have in my life? The answer is actually quite simple, we can be free from anxiety according to verse 22: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life.” In fact, in this verse, Jesus commands us not to worry.

And what a novel concept that is, because it seems as though there is more anxiety today than there ever has been. And anxiety has led to all sorts of ills physically, emotionally, and spiritually, affecting virtually every person. According to the CDC, 15.7% of people told their doctors that they have faced depression at some point in their lives. The US Health Care system spends about $42 billion a year (about 1/3 the cost of all treatment for mental health) on issues dealing with anxiety. The use of psychiatric drugs like Ritalin and Prozac and Zoloft have increased dramatically for preschoolers. More than 15 million US children are on antidepressants.

And we don’t even need statistics in research to bear out what we see day to day. People are perpetually worried and anxious and it not only impacts our emotional and spiritual health, but our bodies break down due to stress from worry and our children become anxious due to our anxiety. It doesn’t have to be this way. Jesus commands us not to worry about the things of this life because He offers something far greater than this. So do we get to this place free from worry? We need to truly see why we should be free from worry and believe it and preach it to ourselves regularly. And in today’s text, Jesus provides 4 reasons why we should not worry.

Life Is More Than Food and Clothing (vv. 22-24, 27-28)

The first reason we should not be anxious is that our lives are more than food and clothing according to verses 22-24: “And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 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!” When Jesus says, ‘do not be anxious,’ he’s not saying, “Do not worry when you go through hard times.” He’s not speaking about a particular instance. The present continual tense of the verse emphasizes the consistency and persistence of freedom from worry. This is about a lifestyle change and not a momentary fad of freedom from worry. Christians should stand out from the crowd because they are free from the power of anxiety according to these verses.

So the only way you will have this freedom is if you fully buy into Jesus’ reasons why you should not worry. You have to take Jesus at His word, that life is more than food and clothing. Now most of you in this room do not really worry about food and clothing, per se. At least, you don’t think of the worries for clothing and food in the same way that someone in sub-Saharan Africa might be concerned for such things. And yet, so many of us do worry about food and clothing, not because we lack them, but because food and clothing have become two of life’s most extravagant and disposable pleasures. For example, in 1997 the Dept. of Agriculture estimated that 96.4 billion pounds of the 356 billion pounds of edible food produced that year was thrown away. The British threw away in one year 4 million apples, 1.2 million sausages, and 2.8 million tomatoes. And yet, despite the amount of food thrown away, 66% of Americans are considered overweight or obese according to a 2003-04 health survey. And all of this while more people are dying of starvation around the world. And then of course, there’s Food Network which has made fine dining and being a ‘Foodie’ in vogue and dining at Michelin ranked restaurants are a must.

And then of course, there is clothing. There used to be a day where spending $30 on a pair of jeans was extravagant. Now, the latest pair of ripped, washed out Rock & Republic jeans will cost $300. Businessweek makes this incredible comment on founder of Rock & Republic Michael Ball: “What [Ball] is able to do is get the consumer of many different age segments and deliver on the implied promise that these jeans will make your life better, you will feel better.” Wow! Jeans will make your life better. But of course, so many people, because of ideas such as this, are cluttered with worry as to how to get such jeans to make life better which actually doesn’t make life better. It makes life worse. When Nike first created the Air Jordans in the eighties, raising the threshold of the pricing for sneakers into the $100 category, they became the most wanted shoes, even in the poor inner-city neighborhoods couldn’t afford them. Parents would buy their kids these sneakers despite their inability to put food on the table. Kids would beat up other kids and steal their shoes. I’m sorry to say, life doesn’t get better when our clothing becomes more pricier. And Jesus is right, life is more than food and clothing whether you have very little or an abundance of them.

To illustrate this point, Jesus points out the ravens. In the classical world, ravens were considered the most despicable of all birds. In our day, ravens aren’t considered too highly either, often the subject of horror movies and dark poems. But for our God, even the raven is considered His creation and He cares and provides for them. But then, how much more will God provide for the needs of His own children, if He should provide for the ravens. Similarly in verses 27-28, Jesus describes the lilies: “Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!” I have been watching the series Life on the Discovery Channel with my kids. And in watching the vastness of the different types of plants and animals that are filmed is simply mind-boggling. Watching the vast array of colors, the different techniques of survival, the perfect symbiotic nature of each organism, leaves me amazed of the creative power of God. God has decorated each plant, like the lily, so wonderfully. And yet, as amazing as each one is, all of that pales in comparison to His greatest creature, the human being. And furthermore, as great as humans are, far greater are those who His own Son died for who now His sons and daughters.

You see, Jesus isn’t merely telling us to be free from the worry over food and clothing in this text. It’s to be free from the burden of our possessions, just as He spoke of in the parable of rich fool. Money, possessions, comfort they control us in ways we can’t even imagine and they drive our anxiety. How many of us ‘worry’ over our children’s future, retirement, health, mortgage, the economy, etc.? For so many of us, our anxiety is directly proportionate to our bank accounts, and it matters not how much money there is. For some having a certain dollar threshold in the account, whether it’s $100 or $1 million, is cause either for alarm or a big sigh of relief. Our face, and even our heart rate and muscle pains reflect how much we depend on our resources and fear its loss. These things are not only our security, but our god. Jesus tells us that if we only knew just how much He provides for His children, we simply wouldn’t worry because the security he provides is truly the only recession-proof investment.

Worry Adds Nothing to Our Lives

The second reason we should not be anxious is that worry adds nothing to our lives according to verses 25-26: “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?” Most of you know that worry doesn’t actually add anything to our lives. In fact, worry takes away our lives, especially when we consider the physical ailments that come with worry: muscle strain, high blood pressure, insomnia, heart risks. And notice, we often worry about things we cannot control or where our imaginations take us. We can worry about a doctor telling you to come in for a talk after taking some blood tests. It could be wondering over a conversation that didn’t go so well with a friend, or whether the money you have in the bank will be enough to pay off the past due bills, or whether your test scores will be high enough to get into the school of your choice. Generally, it’s something about the future, something that often you have no control over. But as Jesus insightfully warns us, worry does nothing to change that outcome and it can only harm us. Proverbs 12:25 describes anxiety well: “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down.”

So if worry does nothing to help us, why do we worry? It’s the very question Jesus asks in verse 26. It doesn’t make sense if we truly believed Jesus. Again, we have to look at the lilies and the grass again in verse 27-28: “Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you.” The lilies are beautiful not because they work hard to gain their beauty. They are beautiful because God created them that way. In other words, God’s providential care for these flowers is all-encompassing. And so if God cares for such flowers in this way, how much more God should care for his people. And the same with the grass, grass is incredibly transient. In Jesus’ day, grass was grown and then cut for fuel and for baking goods. It was essentially insignificant. And though grass is finite, God also clothes the grass. So both lilies and flowers, though they are clothed by God, do not last and are a testimony to each of us, that we are exceptionally precious in God’s sight and we need not worry because of His providence.

When our team was in China, providence was the theme between the four of us that we reflected upon throughout our trip. And as John Calvin reminded us, we were no more safe at home sitting at our dining room table eating with our families than we were going up the mountainside on slick, rain-covered roads without wearing seatbelts on a road system where rules of the road were non-existent. If our God is everything we believe Him to be, then His care for us is in all circumstances. And our lives will not end any earlier or later than it should. I can’t tell you how much peace that brought us and how that led to pray and trust Him. This is not a reason to be reckless, but it is to say that our lives, if we take Jesus at His Word, should be free from worry. Prov 20:24 reminds us: “A man’s steps are from the Lord; how then can man understand his way?” We can’t understand God’s ways. And the moment we try to, the moment we begin to worry because suddenly we feel as though our lives are in our own hands and we need to do something about it. Again, we become experiential atheists regardless of what we say we believe.

So you can see then why Jesus says in verses 28-29: “O you of little faith! 29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.” Worry is a characteristic of a person of little faith, or the experiential and/or momentary atheist. If God has blessed us richly, promises us in His Word that He will faithfully provide for us, will we trust Him? If the God who did not even spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, tells us that He is dependable and trustworthy, does it make sense that we should be free from anxiety in our lives? Worry betrays our hearts’ lack of trust. We don’t really think God will meet our needs and we don’t think God truly has our best at heart. So we worry to figure out ways we to control our own destiny and circumstances. Instead, we must remember that God promises to care for us so we need not worry as Peter reminds us: “Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” (1 Pe 5:7)

Your Father Knows All of Your Needs

The third reason then that we should not be anxious is that your Father knows all of your needs according to verses 30: “For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.” Jesus tells us it’s quite common for the world to be anxious. It makes sense stress, anxiety, depression the scourge the scourge they are today. And how does our culture, our world deal with stress? Psychotherapeutic drugs, physcotherapy, yoga, fitness classes, anger management skills, ‘happy hour’ time (when people are so unhappy), and so many other band-aid solutions that ultimately do nothing more than create more stress and more worry. The nations seek freedom from worry, but they cannot find it. And the reason is that a life apart from God is something that one should worry about. If I believed that my efforts and works and reputation alone got me to where I needed to be, then I would always be concerned of losing them. And I would do all that I could to figure out how I could better fix my life to be in a position of prosperity and to do all that I could to maintain my position. That’s the way the world operates, with the oft-misquoted biblical (which is in actuality a worldly saying), “God helps those who helps themselves.” The nations of the world seek after these things.

Again, this isn’t to say that God doesn’t care for our needs or that working hard is wrong. In fact, Jesus says: “You Father know that you need them.” And so Jesus provides a contrast to the world’s perspective of freedom from worry in verse 31, “Seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.” ‘Seek’ is in the present continual tense. In other words, we should continue to seek his kingdom throughout our lives. And what does this mean? It means remembering why Jesus came and what He came to accomplish, our salvation and to usher in a new age where He alone would reign as King. It means that we remember what it took to accomplish this task, His suffering, death, and resurrection. And it means that if God should grant us grace upon grace, a time where we will be with Him eternally in fellowship, then we simply wouldn’t be so caught up with what we don’t have, or what we’re missing, or what we’re fearful of, or what could have happened if only we had…Seeking his kingdom is the most freedom we can possibly have because when we are in Christ, cherishing the Gospel, we know that “neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39) And anything that we have, is simply lavished grace. It’s God’s will to choose what we have added to us and we’re content with that, whether we have or have it taken away.

A few months ago, Shua was backing out of the driveway of Charlie and Grace’s house and she hit their neighbor’s car by accident. When she arrived home she told me about it. I had surmised it would cost us about $1000 and I was pretty close (thankfully in the end, insurance covered it). But I had assumed it would be paid out of pocket. It’s not like we have all of this money sitting in the back so $1000 would be pretty significant for us. But for some reason, when she told me, I wasn’t too bothered. Yes, it would affect us. Yes, it might make a difference in our budgeting for other things. But I think I realized something that moment, money is fleeting. And is it worth being angry at my wife for an accident that she didn’t intend? No. Was it worth being upset by, for something that 10 years from now would be a blip on the screen? Was it worth frustration, worry, anxiety? No! I hope I’m learning this lesson. But like you, I have to keep on seeking His Kingdom. I have to remember what He has saved me from. And oh how I want to be free forever from worry because our Savior has set us free.

It is God’s pleasure to give us His Kingdom (v. 32-34)

The fourth reason that we should not be anxious is that it is God’s pleasure to give us His Kingdom as Jesus says in verses 32-34: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” I have to stop here because here is the grandest reason why we should not worry, it is God’s pleasure to give you His Kingdom. But it cost God His Son to give us His Kingdom. We see this especially in Isaiah 53:10:

The Lord was pleased to bruise him; he has put him to grief; when he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. (John Piper’s translation)

God was pleased to bruise His Son not because it brought Him joy to see His Son experience suffering, but rather to see that what is accomplished through His Son’s work as the latter part of verse 10 points out. God had taken His beloved Son to take all that He despised in each of us as sinners and placed it upon Jesus. And His Son would do this without defense and without malice. It pleased God to do this because it is God’s good pleasure to welcome us home forever in His presence. Nothing was withheld from us from the Father and everything He held dear was given to us.

And so 1) do not fear, little flock (v. 32). And so sell and give to those in need (v. 33). From such a wondrous truth as this, shouldn’t we then be willing to serve others. And my friends, serving those in need has a cost. Selling your possessions, giving to the needy, caring for the poor is burdensome. You can use those resources yourselves. If I give to missionaries from my budget, that’s money I could have used to put my kids in more classes or to spend on something I might enjoy. If your HG or the church has an outreach to the poor or to the community, it will cost you something to attend. It might cost your money, or time, or energy. Maybe you think you’re really busy and that’s something you can skip. Maybe you have your checklist of all the things you need to do and there’s such a flurry of anxieties in your heart. But by giving of our time and energy and money and care and compassion to others, even if there is a cost (and there almost always will be), you will not be disappointed. Jesus promises us that as we seek first His Kingdom, we will receive far more than we put in. And the motive for our selling and giving has to be in response to God’s good pleasure to give so freely to us, not for our obligations towards God. The person without worry, fear, and anxiety is the person who knows God’s good pleasure and is free to care for others even at a cost.

Conclusion

Jesus says in verse 34: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” In other words, what you worry about reveals what your treasure is. Maybe for you moms, it’s be known as a good mother. For some of you, it’s money or what money buys. For some it’s your family. For some it’s your health. For some it’s your career. For some it’s your career. For some it’s your friends’ approval. But remember John 8:36: “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Cease striving and know that God promises you joy unspeakable. It’s the Father’s pleasure to bring you into His Kingdom forever where you will be free forever, where there are no tears or pain. If you want to be free from worry today, know what it cost to save you. And know that God is pleased with you regardless of you, but because of His great Son’s work for you!