About this sermon
Jesus tells his disciples not to be anxious about what they will eat, drink, or wear, for the heavenly Father who feeds the birds and clothes the lilies knows what they need. He shows them who they are, persons of more value than the birds and children of a Father in heaven, and how to live, seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness one day at a time. Faith in him drives out worry as believers start living the way he made them to live.
Sermon transcript
Please be seated. It’s good to be with you again, and I want to ask you to turn with me in the Scriptures to Matthew chapter 6, beginning in verse 25. Matthew chapter 6. I try not to be one of those guys who goes to a church several times and ends up repeating a sermon. So I keep a list of what I preach and where I preach it.
And I was looking back and saw that last October when I was here, I said that all of us need to hear a sermon once a year on contentment. And all of us need to hear a sermon once a year on fear. And all of us need to hear a sermon once a year on worry. Well, in October we talked about contentment. So tonight let’s do worry. Matthew 6, beginning in verse 25.
Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, 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. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Therefore, do not be anxious saying what should we eat or what should we drink or what should we wear for the Gentiles seek after all these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them all, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Please pray with me. Oh Lord, I know these are familiar words to many of our hearts, and yet we need to hear and heed them again. And so help us to do that by your Holy Spirit. I pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
I honestly have watched about a half dozen YouTube videos in my entire life, but one that I did enjoy is one that maybe you have seen. It’s gone around. It’s Bob Newhart, the comedian, in his role as a psychiatrist. And a woman comes to his office and says she needs some help. And he says, well, that’s fine. The counseling session will only last about five minutes, and it will cost you only $5. She then describes her problem. She has a fear of being buried alive in a box. And his response to her is, stop it. Stop it. S-T-O-P-I-T. Stop it.
Worry, anxiousness, threatfulness. We all know about it. Some of us know a lot about it. In a world of sin and suffering, we worry. We like to describe worry, I like to describe worry as distracted care. We’re supposed to care about things. But worry is when you care so much that you are distracted from what God is calling you to do. And so what do we do when we worry? Jesus says, don’t worry.
Is he just doing what Bob Newhart does in the video? Is he just saying, stop it? I don’t think he is. I think he’s wiser than that because I think he knows that if he just says, stop it, he won’t really help us. In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ is cultivating our hearts. He is shaping the paths of his disciples. And he knows they are susceptible to worry. So yes, he makes the command, don’t worry. But he also brings words of both comfort and challenge as we think about this issue. And I hope and I pray that his words will help us to move even a little bit more beyond worry. How does he do it? Well, he speaks to who we are. And then he speaks to how we live. So who are we?
Well, we’re creatures made in God’s image, but we’re fallen creatures. And that means we don’t have physical ease. It doesn’t mean we have freedom from care in this world. It means we worry. And so what Jesus does is he addresses us with two truths about who we are. Here’s the first. We are physical, but we’re more than physical. eating, drinking, keeping warm, keeping cool. We concern ourselves with those things and we should. God made us as physical beings.
Jesus has just before this been speaking about money. We get money. We use money. We care about money. It helps provide for our physical needs in this physical world. But what do we do with money? We tend to treasure it. We tend to worship it. We possess it. It begins to possess us. We become distracted by it, even obsessed by it. We have a tendency to live for health and for wealth and to think that is all that matters. Even if we would never subscribe to what we call the prosperity gospel, we have a way, even in our reformed churches of thinking in those terms.
And so Jesus says in verse 25, is not life more than food and the body more than clothing. Again, we’re physical creatures. We need food. We need clothing. We’re more than that. We’re physical beings, and yet we are also spiritual beings. And Jesus says, yes, you will be concerned with food and clothing, but you should be far more concerned with other things as well. So do you care about your physical needs? Well, that’s good. But do you think about your physical needs so much? Your needs of today so much? that you forget that you’re more than physical.
Jesus says in verse 32, the Gentiles seek after all these things. That’s the way of the world. The way of the world is to simply think about the physical, to simply think about food and clothing and things like that. And we can be drawn into that where we become obsessed with the world and it’s worry.
I remember reading a few years ago about this thing called, and you can Google it if you want, called the Copenhagen Consensus. This is a bunch of smart people who get together and talk about all the problems of the world. And they listed 22 core issues facing humanity. You ready? air pollution, biodiversity, chronic diseases, climate change, conflict and violence, data for development, education, energy, food security, gender equality, governance and institutions, health systems, infant mortality and maternal health, infectious diseases, infrastructure, illicit financial flows, nutrition, population and demography, poverty, science and technology, trade, water, sanitation.
Don’t worry out. Now are those things nothing? No, they are not nothing, but are they everything? Jesus would say no. Life is about our health, and we need wealth to some extent, but there’s more to us than that. You see, if you forget that, you become consumed with worry. If you remember that, you have a bigger perspective on what your life is all about. And you begin to be freed from worry.
So that’s the first statement Jesus makes about who we are. We are physical, but we are more than physical. And then he also says, we are part of creation, but we are a greater part of creation. In verse 26, He says, Look at the birds of the air. Are you of not more value than they? In verse 28, Consider the lilies of the field. Will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
God delights in His creation. And yet, we’re made in the image of God. And He has placed a definite value on us as the apex of His creation. And if you are here tonight and you are united to Jesus Christ by faith as Savior and Lord, you know He has placed an infinite value on you. He has given His body and His blood for you. Again, that’s not the perspective of our world. It’s not the perspective of our culture. We live in a world and in a culture that tends to flatten out the distinctions between us and the rest of the creation.
I’m from Cincinnati, so I paid careful attention a couple of years ago where there was that story from the Cincinnati Zoo. Do you remember it, where the young child fell into the gorilla exhibits? And the zoo personnel thought the child was endangered, so they killed the gorilla. And there was quite an uproar about that. Now, what do we say about that? Is it too bad? Is it sad even that the gorilla had to be killed? Well, yeah. But there’s a deeper issue there. Did that child have unique worth, even beyond the worth of that gorilla? As I observed that discussion, I wondered if people really saw that he did. You see, to God, he does have unique worth. To God, we have unique worth.
We’re a part of creation, but we are a greater part of creation. And that means that unlike anything else in the creation, we can go to one we call Father for our needs. Philippians 4 says, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God. Nobody else in the creation can do that. Gorillas can’t do that. But you can. Paul says you should.
He says, The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. So here you are, you’re worried and you’re anxious and you’re fretting. And Jesus says, don’t worry, but he doesn’t just say, stop it. He says, see that you are so much more than a physical being. Yes, your physical needs are a concern, but you’re much more than that. And I care for all of you. And then he says, see how much more you are than just another creature. Yes, they are valuable, but you are of infinite value. You can call God your father. You can pray to him and trust him. So we start to get beyond worry when we see who we are as more than physical beings and as the greater part of creation.
But then Jesus speaks to how we live. Now, near the end of this passage, there are two statements that really guide us in a very practical way. I want to take them in reverse order. Here’s the first statement that guides how we live. Today is sufficient. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious about itself. Sufficient is the day for its own trouble. That’s divine wisdom. The past is past and you can’t do anything about it. The future is future and you can’t do much about it. All God gives you is today. And so Jesus says quite simply, focus on today rather than tomorrow. How do we do that? I think it’s a spiritual habit that we develop in our hearts and even with our words.
I remember last year sitting and praying with a woman who had fought very difficult battles within her heart and mind and body. And she was talking about her oldest child going to college several hours away. And this was the first child from this family to go to college. She lived in a community where almost nobody goes to college. And she was struggling with it. She was worried about it.
But then she pointed to a wristband on her wrist and it said one day at a time. In a very practical way, I think it is good to have visual reminders of Jesus’ call to worry about one day at a time. I’ve in the past sometimes used a calendar that you change every day. Once a day. You might, as you make your lists, just make a list of just today. I’ve used in talking to people who’ve gone through great struggles, an image that was given to me by a woman in a previous congregation where I served.
She talked about the umbrella of God’s grace. She said, we walk every day under the umbrella of God’s grace. And we get ourselves in trouble when we get out past the umbrella. So we stay under the umbrella of God’s grace today. So, so, so take whatever image you like. Make one up of your own. I don’t care. The point is that worry begins to fade, says Jesus, as you live today. So today is sufficient. Then the second way Jesus speaks of how we are to live.
The kingdom is first. Verse 33. but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. God’s kingdom, His rule and reign growing in this world. In all you do, you want to be a part of advancing God’s purposes. God’s righteousness, His claim on your life. He wants you to be godly. And so in all that you do, you want to live righteously before Him and others. His kingdom is first. The kingdom is first.
Now, what does that have to do with worry? I thought this was a sermon about worry. I thought Jesus was talking about worry. What is this stuff about the kingdom? Well, think about it. From a negative standpoint, when you worry, it keeps you from serving God and His kingdom. If you’re just worried about physical needs, if you’re forgetting your special place in God’s care, if you’re racing far beyond today, you won’t do much but survive, and you certainly won’t be thinking about serving God’s kingdom. You’ll be like a scared puppy, that puppy who hides in the corner, never ventures out and does anything that would lead to any risk or to any struggle. You see, worry paralyzes you, and it keeps you from serving the kingdom.
More positively though, I think kingdom living frees you from worry. You see, when you seek God’s kingdom, when you seek God’s righteousness, your world gets bigger. Your view of the world gets bigger. Your life becomes bigger. Worry fades. Worry flees. When you have this vision of something so much bigger than you, your worries start to seem a whole lot less large. There’s a dramatic picture of this from church history. It’s the story of this monk named Telemachus. Maybe you’ve heard the story. It’s from 5th century Asia.
He’s going about his daily chores and his tasks, and he wants to just kind of do what he’s doing, but the Holy Spirit says, no, you’ve got to go to Rome. You need to go to the heart of the Roman Empire. And he goes to the Colosseum, and he sees the gladiator.
And these weren’t NFL games. These were fights to the literal death. And he’s appalled by this, and he stands up, and he literally runs into the arena and says, stop. And people laugh at him. And the crowd says, gladiators, kill him. And he cries out in the name of Christ, stop. And a gladiator takes a sword and kills him. Now the story goes that when people saw that, that was the beginning of the end of the gladiator fights. Why do I tell you that story? You’re probably not going to do that.
Your kingdom service may be very different, but you see what happened in that man’s mind and heart? He opened his eyes to the reality of sin and suffering in the world. He saw a call to serve God’s kingdom. And with his heart set on God’s kingdom, he wasn’t worried about his life anymore. He was simply worried about serving the Lord. And where he fled, seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. If you’re a believer in Christ, you want to serve the kingdom. with the godliness that you exhibit, with the things that you do.
And as you do, it will help you with worry. And now what does this service look like? We can go on and on and on about this, and I won’t do that. But let me just give you a couple of ideas. When you serve the kingdom, you serve the people around you with integrity. I want to honor God in my work. I want to honor God in my play. I want my life to reflect my faith in the workplace, on the softball field, in the grocery store.
You see, if I’m just living for myself, I’m going to be quiet. I’m going to be inconspicuous. I’m going to do only what I have to do to survive. But if I seek God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, I will tell the truth. I will humbly but boldly defend Christ. I will defend the defenseless. I’ll love those who hate me no matter what the cost. And you say to yourself, well, if I live with integrity, something bad might happen to me. But if you live with integrity, with your eye on the kingdom, you’re not worried about bad things happening to you. God says, don’t worry.
Serve me. And trust the results with me. And so we live with integrity. It also means we serve with generosity. When I have worry in my life, my generosity is squelched. But when worry begins to flee, I serve with generosity. I give my time, I give my talents, I give my treasures, and I trust Him for the results. Whatever I have, whatever I am, worry flees, and I give generously. Oh, what if I’m going to suffer loss? Well, maybe you will, but Jesus says, don’t worry about it. Be generous.
Trust your life to me. See what he’s saying here? If you just see yourself as just a physical creature, if you just see yourself just like the rest of the creation, you’ll live in this worried, stressed, anxious mode. And you won’t seek God’s kingdom and righteousness. But if you follow Jesus’ words, if you live with integrity, if you live with generosity, you’ll honor Him.
And something will happen to you. You’ll find that worry begins to flee. See, we don’t conquer worry. by sitting around and worrying about worry. We conquer worry by remembering who we are in union with Christ and by living a day-by-day life of pursuing God’s kingdom and pursuing God’s righteousness.
So what’s Jesus done here? Instead of just saying, don’t worry, Jesus has shown us who we are, that we are not mere physical beings. We are spiritual beings, that we are not just another part of the creation. We are a greater part of the creation. And he’s also shown us how to live. We don’t live for yesterday. We don’t live for tomorrow. We live for today, a today where we have the opportunity to seek God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness now.
So do you struggle with worry? Do you struggle with anxiety and fretfulness? Of course you do. Almost everyone does, in one way or another, in one form or another. Bob Newhart says, stop. Jesus says, with my help, start. Start seeing who you are. United to Christ. With a Heavenly Father. If you see who you are, faith in Him will drive out worry. Start living in the ways I’ve made you to live. Live for My Kingdom. Live for My Righteousness. For every day that you call today. You see, as you start, you’ll stop. As you start to live in these ways, you’ll stop worrying. You’ll move beyond worry. You’ll never fully get beyond it in this life, but you really will.
Really. Let’s pray. Oh Lord, help us to start seeing who we are before you. Oh Lord, help us to start living for You each day. And in this starting, O Lord, would You do the work of stopping worry in our hearts and lives. I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.