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In the name of Jesus, amen. Dear saints, our Lord Jesus says to us today, do not be anxious. Don’t worry. So if you are not anxious and you’re not worried about anything, you can take the next 20 or 50 minutes and read the Psalms. Or maybe you have a friend who needs to hear it, but we want to hear what the Lord is saying to us, why he gives us this instruction, why in fact he commands us not to worry or to be anxious about clothing or food or drink or anything else.
Before we get into that sermon from our Lord Jesus, I just want to underline one verse from the Old Testament reading. That’s Genesis chapter 15, verse 6. And the story is where the Lord has come to Abram, his name is not yet Abraham, and the Lord has already visited him a few times and given him the promise. In fact, the Lord has extended to Abraham the promise that he gave to Adam and Eve in the garden, that the son would be born, the seed would come forth who would destroy the devil in all of his works. And now that promise is given to Abraham, that from Abraham would come the offspring who would destroy the devil in his kingdom, would come the Messiah.
But Abraham’s old, Sarah’s old, they don’t have any children. He says, Abraham is visited again by God, and God says to him, how can this be? I don’t have any children. And I’m not getting any younger. It doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to have children at all. And the Lord takes Abraham out of the tent, and he shows him this night sky full of stars. And he says, count the stars, and your offspring will be as many as the stars in heaven. And verse 6, Genesis 15 verse 6 says these words, “And Abraham believed God, and God accounted it to him as righteousness.”
There’s a lot of different ways to be righteous. I mean, it depends on the standard that we have. I think to be righteous means that you’re not condemned by whatever standard that you’re under. So you can have righteousness if you’re a student. You have righteousness according to your schoolwork. That means you do all your assignments and you turn it all in and you finish all your homework, and the teacher declares you righteous by giving you an A+. Or you can be righteous according to your HOA by keeping your yard cut all the time. Or you can be righteous according to the lifeguards by not bringing any glass containers or not swimming 30 minutes after you eat or whatever. There’s lots of standards of righteousness.
And even in the scriptures, there is the standard of God’s law, the Ten Commandments. “You shall know their God. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.” And all of the other commandments. That’s the righteousness of the law by being obedient and keeping the commandments. But into the midst of all of these different kinds of righteousnesses, which involve our doing and our acting, the Lord throws something totally unexpected. He says that Abraham is righteous by believing, by trusting the Lord in his promise. By believing the words that the Lord speaks to him, he’s accounted righteous. The Lord takes that faith and says, now Abraham, you’re ready to stand before me on the judgment day. You’re ready to inherit eternal life. You are, by my holy standard of perfection, righteous.
That verse, I think if you look at Paul’s letter to Romans and then also to the Galatians and all the others, but especially Paul’s letter to the Romans is a 16-chapter meditation on that one verse from Genesis 15. That Abraham believed the Lord and it was accounted to him as righteous. We just have to know that text and we have it in our hearts because that’s the righteousness that the Lord gives to us when we believe. And it’s connected to not worrying, which we want to talk about now.
Because Jesus preaches this. And here I want to… there’s always a danger in preaching. I was thinking about it, especially with this sermon. The danger in preaching is that you all leave here and remember what I preach, and you’re like, well, we’re not, that’s not our danger, pastor. No, the danger is you remember what I preach, but you forget the words that were underneath it, the text itself. And for whatever reason, that seems like a real danger today with this text that I can say, and I’ll say a few things about not worrying and not being anxious, that you’ll leave and you’ll remember those words.
What I really want you to do is to leave here remembering that the Lord Jesus has words for us about anxiety and worry. I’m going to pull out five things from the text, but there’s so much more there. And maybe here’s the whole thing, that all of us have different worries, all of us have different anxieties, all of us have different fears that capture our own hearts. All of us have different things that we’re seeking after. All of us have trouble in this life. Here’s what I want you to know. Your Lord Jesus has something to say about it.
Now, this is especially important because there are so many people who are going to offer to help you with your worry and your anxiety. I mean, you can read books about it. You could go to counselors and therapists to talk about it. You could read stuff online or look at videos or whatever. There’s a lot of people who are going to offer help with anxiety and worry, but we have the very most precious thing of all that our Lord Jesus, God in the flesh, who took all of our sins and carried all of our sorrows and endured all of our difficulties and burdens, that he actually preaches a sermon to you about worry and anxiety, and you have it.
So when you’re worried and when you’re anxious, I want you to turn to these words from our Lord Jesus, Matthew chapter 6, Luke chapter 12, and know that the Lord has answers for us there. So that’s my preface because I know that I cannot even begin to scratch the surface of the wisdom that the Lord Jesus has for us. We’re just going to look at a couple things, but there’s more for you there. And I want you to know that there’s something for you there that you can go back to these words over and over and over again.
Now, they’re especially precious to me because, and I mentioned this to you before, that my grandfather, when he died, this was the gospel text for the sermon. And he would go to these words over and over again. And to hear the story told by my own dad about it, it was because my grandfather was a fighter pilot back in World War II, and all of the guys in his unit that went to the Pacific were killed in the war. Most of the guys that went over to Europe were killed. He was shot and had to crash land his plane, and he just figured that every day after that, every moment after that was a gift from God.
And if that’s the case, if every single day and every single moment is a gift from God, then what is there to worry about? Everything, you’re already living in the bonus. But here’s the thing that’s interesting to me, is that was true also of my grandfather long before he almost died. And it’s true for us, before you go to war, after you go to war, before you almost die, after you almost die, every single moment, from the moment that you’re conceived and born into the moment when the Lord calls you home, every single moment is a gift from God and is a treasure that He gives to us.
And this is what Jesus is impressing on us when he says, don’t be anxious, don’t worry. In fact, Jesus is going to give some specifics. I think, and I was trying to figure this out, the difference between anxiety and worry. I think I have a rough idea. There’s just one word in the Greek that kind of explains them both. But if you guys will let me suggest something. I think that worry, the difference between worry and anxiety is this. When you’re worried about something, you can identify the source of the worry. Okay? So, for example, when he says, don’t worry about what to eat or don’t worry about to drink, you’re worried about starving to death. You’re worried about thirst. You’re worried about being covered. You’re worried about the provisions of life.
Anxiety is where it’s more difficult to determine the difference. Like, I feel anxious, but I don’t know exactly why. I don’t know the source of it. So, worry has an identifiable source and anxiety doesn’t. But Jesus is taking up both of them. And he goes at them with five different things. The first thing Jesus does is he says, if you’re worried, I want you to think about two different things. And then he says, I want you to think about this little riddle. And then he’s going to give us a command and a promise.
So let’s run through those things I think we’ll have in the text. The first, Jesus says, if you’re worried about this life and the things of this life, and you’re worried about food and drink and clothing and shelter and all the temporal provisions that are needed, if you’re worried about the stuff of this life, I want you to meditate on the birds and I want you to meditate on the lilies.
Amen. First, consider the birds of the field. Jesus says they don’t sow, they don’t plant the seed, they don’t harvest, they don’t have barns, they don’t have checking accounts, they don’t have retirement, they don’t have any of these things, and yet, and yet, your heavenly Father takes care of them. Not one of them falls to the ground without God knowing about it. How much more, Jesus says to us, how much more are you? Are you not more valuable than the birds of the field?
And then Jesus says, when you’re done thinking about the birds, I want you to think about the lilies of the field. I want you to think about the flowers, the clovers and the dandelions. And I want you to think about this. And I want you to think about how King Solomon, even in all of his glory, was never dressed like one of the flowers of the field, which grows today and tomorrow is gone and it’s harvested and it’s thrown into the oven. It’s not even there anymore. And yet your father clothes the lilies of the field. Are you not more valuable than they?
So Jesus teaches us to meditate on his father’s provision of all of the world and think that if God is taking care of the birds and he’s taking care of the flowers, how much more will he take care of us? And then Jesus asks a question. Now, this is a dangerous question that he’s going to ask. It’s kind of a riddle, but it’s something that he wants to think about. He says, which one of you, by worrying, has added an hour to your life?
Now, I have to tell you that Jesus, when he asks that question, is kind of… Oh, he’s kind of making fun of us. Because we’re all tempted, and I don’t know why, but I am too. We’re all tempted to think that worrying helps us solve the problem. But we know that it doesn’t work. I tried this, I’ll tell you, I won’t, okay, I won’t tell you names of how the conversation went. But maybe there was a unnamed husband and wife. And maybe the unnamed wife was worried about something. And maybe the unnamed husband said to his unnamed wife, well, you know what we should do? We should worry some more, and that’ll fix it.
Now, that did not go so well for an unnamed husband. But really, I think that’s actually what Jesus is saying to us. He’s saying, look, you think you’re going to fix the problem by worrying about it? and make it go better? In fact, in Matthew, Jesus says, which of you by worrying has added an inch to your height? Which of you by worrying has added a day to your life? Worrying doesn’t solve the problem. But here, there’s something that’s stuck in our minds, and I don’t know where this comes from. But we think that if we’re going to be serious people, if we’re going to be responsible adults, if we’re going to engage in this life in a meaningful sort of way, we think that that worry and anger is what it means to be serious.
If I’m serious about, for example, if I’m serious about politics, then I have to be worried and angry about it. That’s how I show that I’m serious about it. Or if I’m serious about the future of the world, I have to be worried and angry, and that’s how I show my seriousness about it. If I’m worried about the truth being preached in the church, I have to be worried and angry to show how serious I am about it. We think that for whatever reason, worry and anger show our seriousness in which we’re engaging life. That’s not biblical. The Lord does not connect those two things. You do not have to be worried to be serious. You do not have to be angry to be serious.
In fact, the Christian who belongs to God and who knows that our Heavenly Father is taking care of things has a light-hearted, joyful approach to life, which is our serious theological thinking about things. That we know that the Lord will take care of us. So Jesus wants us to think about this. You think that worrying and being anxious is going to fix things. How does that work? It doesn’t add an hour to your life. In fact, it probably takes a few hours off of your life. So don’t worry.
And then Jesus is going to give, and this is the main thing, he’s going to give a command and a promise. Now, the command that Jesus gives here deserves special consideration because worry is… which is that fear that motivates us to seek after certain things in our own heart. Worry is going to have us seeking for food and for drink and for clothing and for the things of this life and spending all of our time and our energy and our effort and our thought and imagination in seeking after all of these things.
And what Jesus is going to do is he’s going to replace that seeking and that fear with something totally different. Here’s his command. He says, seek the kingdom of God. In Matthew chapter 6, it’s a fuller exposition of it, and Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all of these things will be added to you. So instead of seeking after all of the things that the pagans are seeking after, all of the things that the Gentiles are seeking after, all of the things that the non-Christian is seeking after, in worry that the Lord isn’t going to provide for us.
No, instead the Lord, Jesus, it’s like, here’s this worry that’s seeking after all this stuff. He pushes it out with, he says, your heart is to be seeking something else. Your heart is to seek His kingdom, His word, His spirit, His kindness, His presence and promises, His wisdom, His comfort, His life that goes on forever and ever. Your heart is seeking after those things. And then your Father who’s in heaven, who’s looking down on you, will give it to you. Not only will He give you the kingdom, but He’ll give you everything else that you need. And that’s the promise. He says, your Father desires to give you the kingdom.
And I think that that’s the final fifth point that Jesus is giving to us to think about our anxiety. And I think it’s the main thing. If there’s anything, if we have all this anxiety and all this worry, if there’s one thing that we need to remember, it’s that our Heavenly Father is not only that he has promised to take care of us, but that he shows us that he wants to take care of us.
I was thinking about this. There was a time in my own Christian life, this is when I was a baby Christian some years ago, where it seemed to me like, well, I wanted to go to heaven, but I wasn’t exactly sure if God wanted me to. Like, I would love to live forever, but it seems like God is the thing that’s standing in the way. Like, I was trying to convince God that He should let me in. And he was up there and he wasn’t quite sure about it. And maybe he was going to make an exception and let me sneak by or something like this.
In other words, I think some of you have experienced this because we’ve talked about it. Maybe not everybody, but the sense was, it was like I was trying to get to eternal life, but it was God himself who was kind of pushing back and resistant. Like, I wasn’t, here’s the problem. I wasn’t convinced that God actually wanted to save me. I don’t know if you’ve ever thought that or if you’ve ever had that concern or that imagination.
I know that a lot of people who are not Christians who have grown up outside the church have that concern. They walk in the church and they’re worried that the building is going to crumble or something like this. Like God is after them. He’s out. He wants to get them. But here’s this promise to you from Jesus that your Heavenly Father desires to give you the kingdom. It’s what he wants to do. He’s not like reluctantly holding his gifts there. And he’s like, well, okay, I guess I’ll give you some love. Or, all right, I’ll give you some mercy. It’s what he wants to do. He loves you. He likes you. He desires your salvation. He longs for you to be with him in heaven. He’s hoping and working and doing everything so that you can be with him.
That’s why he sent his son Jesus and why we have this great promise, that he did not spare his only begotten son but gave him up for us all. How shall he not also together with him give us all things? Your Heavenly Father wants to provide you with all that you need for something to eat, something to drink, something to wear, all that you need until He finally calls you home and clothes you in the robe of righteousness that lasts forever.
It’s what the heart of God is for you. He longs for you. He loves you. And this is our confidence. If your Heavenly Father, who takes care of the birds so that none of them go hungry, and he takes care of the grass so that it’s dressed in these beautiful flowers. If you’re a Heavenly Father who loves you and sends you his son to die for you, if he loves you, then what is there to worry about? Your life is in his hands, and his hands are pierced. His hands are gentle. His hands are generous and kind.
So Jesus says, fear not. It is your Father’s desire to give you the kingdom. And this is our confidence in life and faith. In death and sickness and in poverty and good times and bad, it is your Father’s desire to give to you the kingdom. May God grant this promise that it pushes all of the worry and anxiety out of our hearts and replaces it with thanksgiving and faith. May God grant it for Christ’s sake.
Amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.