If I haven't met you, my name is Nick as John introduced me. I've been a servant leader here for the past three years
I've been hanging out in the kids ministry for the past several months. So you might have seen me a little bit or walking around
I I've just been busy with that and really enjoying that but I am really excited to be here this morning
I'll forewarn you now. I should say this before every time I speak. I just talk fast. This is just who I am
I'm gonna try to slow down
But I repeat myself pretty often
Today we're gonna be talking about worry or really the instruction to not worry
Which is always easier said than done, right?
I don't even need to explain worry to you guys. Everybody just knows what it is. We just all
Develop that ability to worry
And Jesus's words this morning have served countless generations of Christians before us and they can serve us today
Not because of any new revelation, but because they are not like the wisdom of our age
There's no psychoanalysis here. There's no emotional therapy
There's truth and these words speak to our hearts more powerfully than a thousand. Well-meaning self-help books
Before we get started, let's pray
Father in heaven your name be honored as holy
We pray that your word would be released like a roaring lion into our lives
That we would be shaped by it
That we would be molded into its image
That your truth would have power
To accomplish your will
we humbly submit our lives before you and
Receive from you in Jesus name. Amen
We're gonna be talking about Matthew 6 25 through 34, I'm gonna be reading from the CSP it'll be up on the screen too
Therefore I tell you don't worry about your life what you will eat or what you will drink or about your body what you will wear
Isn't life more than food in the body more than clothing?
Consider the birds
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 even add a moment to his lifespan by worrying?
And why do you worry about your clothes?
Observe how the wildfires 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 closed 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 are we gonna wear?
For the Gentiles eagerly seek all 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
So good preachers tell you where they're gonna go
So I got four points this morning and then two points of application. Okay, you know where we're gonna go
And these nine verses i'm well aware that they are a common text in church
One of those just really familiar ones. They're easy to preach easy to grasp and they're very comforting
So i'm walking on well
Worn ground
But as is common with a lot of these types of texts to the Gentiles
Common with a lot of these types of texts two issues often pop up
One we often read it as like this floating text separated from the preceding verses like the context doesn't matter
Kind of like jesus just randomly started a new sermon in the middle of his sermon and then nothing else matters about what's around it
And the second one flows out of that first one
That the full meaning is often missed
I know I have incorrectly applied these verses in the past
And I must not be that unique because every commentary I read did the exact same thing
They all battled against all this bad application that was out there
So today let's just try to avoid those problems by looking at the context
Last week if you were here john preached through jesus's teaching on money and treasure
You can store up treasure here on earth or in heaven
Your choice you can have a generous eye or a stingy eye
Which really reveals how your heart views money in value of everybody around you
And then finally jesus brings it to a head. Are you going to be a slave of money or to god?
You can only serve one master ultimately
And then jesus randomly switches tones right like out of nowhere. He then moves to talking about worry and anxiety
Really not that big of a change though
He's actually trying to seek to comfort those who are struggling and ease their worry
Because of money
Don't worry about your life. He repeats it twice. Don't worry about your life
This is like a warm hug, right?
To the worried and weary just tired
How good does it feel to hear jesus like lean down speak directly into your heart?
You don't have to be anxious. I will provide for you. I will make sure you have enough
Man those those words right there those simple words. That's a full sermon in itself
But I got a time commitment and I can't stop just yet
so
Ironically this sermon has caused me a lot of worry
I have deepened my faith in the word of god
I have had to work and rework and rework it and then yesterday I was blessed with a migraine and so I could barely work
And this morning guess what I felt a migraine and on I was trying to fix my sermon to add the last couple notes
My printer ran out of ink and my phone updated and so while I sent the email to alissa to get it printed
I couldn't call her to actually have it printed. I was like, oh my god
I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry
I couldn't call her to actually have it printed. That is how I drove into church this morning
So I've had to preach my first point to my heart so much this morning and it's this seek dependence
Jesus instruction is pretty plain. Don't worry and the categories of things to not worry about are the big ones
Don't worry about your life
Don't worry about your food. Don't worry about your drink. Don't worry about your clothes and you're kind of like saying Jesus
Don't you know we would die without those things?
But he says don't be anxious about these things
But before I go too far I need to explain this this word worry
The greek word is miramnao
It's not important to remember but it occurs 19 times in the new testament
And and the idea behind worry
Is pretty simple. There's usually a negative one like we would consider anxious and anxiety, but there's also positive concern
So paul uses it to express how the love loving concern a husband should have for his wife
So it's positive
But most of the time it's negative
So why I bring this up is Jesus isn't commanding don't feel concerned about the future
Jesus Jesus's command to not worry is a lived experience we all have
When when the good concerns that we should have
Grow so large it blocks out our awareness of god's love
Resulting in our hearts a lack of trust in the lord and then taking things into our own hands
I'm thinking abraham and sarai
Maybe they're gonna sexually abuse their slave
To make things work for them because they didn't trust god's promises
Jesus can tell us to to not worry about food because the right concern
for food and focus
Ensures you have food, but it doesn't doubt that the lord is going to be providing for you
Wants you to get that don't miss this the right concern and focus on food ensures you have enough
It just doesn't doubt the lord's provision
But doubting the lord is wickedness
Worry is like an ugly flower growing from the root of distrust in the lord
And let me give you an example of this good and bad worry in the same thing
So i'm gonna say now um my wife who's sitting up here
She gave me a lot of examples for the sermon and we've talked about all of this and she has read my sermons
She knows what i'm going to say
Our third child aiden
She's in the nursery was born really fast from start to finish an hour and a half
Bethany almost didn't make it to
The hospital bed aiden actually popped out so quickly that she didn't get the fluid out of her lungs
So when she came out she couldn't breathe
It was silent
It was silence. There was no cry
And it still gives me dread whenever I think about that. I know exactly what it was
So when bethany was pregnant with joash, who's our fourth
We talked to our doctors about planning for delivery and a quick birth because babies usually come faster than the last one
And we wanted to be prepared all the doctors said as soon as you feel something come in don't wait
They even said if you think you're not close enough to a hospital call an ambulance and get over here
They weren't they didn't want to take chances and neither did we
Our planning wasn't a lack of trust in god, but a loving concern for our son joash
Our worry was for joash to be safe
We weren't doubting the lord
I trusted the lord
I just didn't want to have to deliver a baby in my house and then like suck out all the juices with the nozzle thing. No
Not not not what I want
Bethany did have all the stuff we were prepared but again just not what I was hoping for
However
Bethany did have worrying fear
Lots of it her thoughts took her away from trusting the lord. She she was scared to have the baby at home
She was scared that the baby wouldn't be safe
Bethany's imagination kept filling her mind with all of the scenarios and all the scary things that could happen that didn't ever include
God
She moved from wisdom and preparedness to anxiety doubt and a lack of trust in god
She acted as if he wasn't in control of life
same event
different kinds of worry
One trying to use wisdom and preparation and one full of mistrust and doubt in god's goodness and power
In the end joash had a normal birth and we have our son and it's fabulous
But it's just an example of what it means to be on either side of work
Of what it means to be on either side of worry
And I expect that most of you you've got this lived experience, you know this
Like i'm not talking anything strange here in english. We might say concern versus worry. Jesus just uses the same term
And i'm just trying to highlight that the text supports this idea
It's not a weird thing
And living wisely means preparing and planning for the future, which is deeply biblical. It is all over the old testament and new testament
Let's keep moving
Next we come to jesus's example of not worrying birds of the sky and plants of the earth
Jesus's examples revealed the dependence upon the lord and is the right posture for all created beings
And this is where i'm trying to draw that point from
Dependence is normal jesus's examples and instruction point us further than just stop worrying
Like just don't do the thing and you're going to be fine into a humble posture of dependence
I don't have time to walk through jesus's examples like they're a fabulous deep theology of provision, but that's a whole sermon not going there
But here's the key idea. Here's the summary of that sermon the birds are dependent upon the lord to provide food
The flowers are dependent upon the lord to help them grow
Conclusion you should remember you are dependent upon the lord for your life
so
Remind yourself of your dependence on the lord constantly
For food for clothes for water for work for energy for everything
Jesus teaches us to lean into our dependence
He never gives away out of it
No money no security no ability will remove your dependence
Or put another way your dependence on the lord isn't the problem to be fixed
It's actually the beginning of the solution
Really want you to hear that your dependence on the lord is the beginning of the solution
To help this stick I wrote a book. Sorry to help this. I wrote a book. Hooray. You're dependent
It's coming out next year
Hey, I help me with the cover. So it's yeah, just don't read too closely
But here's the thing here it is once you start seeking to be dependent upon god
Instead of pushing against it
Your eyes get open up to the multiple ways that he is that you are lacking and he is providing
Which then stops you being worried because you're like, I don't got it
Thank you god
And our culture is full of people and we know these people who have never looked into the mirror and told themselves
You can't do it
But you know what comes with that deep self-awareness
freedom
Freedom to look around and see all that god is providing for you. Look at the birds
Look at the flowers. Let them be your teacher
So point one seek dependence point two expect enough
Jesus simple thesis is that you shouldn't worry because god provides enough
God provides enough for the birds and the plants he can provide enough for you
And that had to be a powerful message to his audience
Most of them were poor most of them probably lived off whatever they could grow on their land or maybe doing a little fishing
And then there was the roman soldiers all around them to remind them right remind them of their oppression
One bad farming season one bad injury during some hard labor could immediately turn into food insecurity for them
So how does jesus comfort them seven times?
He makes a statement about god providing for his creation such as your heavenly father
Feeds the birds god closed the grass of the field your heavenly father knows that you need these things
All of these things will be provided for you
And notice the familiar relationship
God and you together in a family verse 26 yet your heavenly father feeds them
Your heavenly father god god provides for the birds, but the birds are not considered his children. You are
Or in verse 32 your father knows your needs. He knows your medical needs
He knows your housing needs. He knows your parenting needs
He knows that egg prices are insane
And the age is probably going to need an escort here soon when she brings them back to church
And no matter where you are in life
You need to be reminded of these words
I have an amazing job. I love my job. I would have never been able to imagine I get this job
I got great benefits. I have amazing pay and I have a lot of job security
and it
these words
Just that god's going to provide
Feels like sand in my fingers. None of it matters
I have I have the god of heaven and earth intimately aware of my needs and I can expect him to provide enough
What else do I need?
But be careful to not twist these words
These words are not promises made to you individually
Like if as soon as you become a christian you get a coupon book for a free mcdonald's meal for the rest of your life
These aren't promises that you get to go to the bank and cash in so you don't have to work every week
This is a sermon
To a group of people 2 000 years ago. Those analogies don't even make sense. Just be aware of that context
Jesus is highlighting that the lord uses natural means to provide
There are a number of miracle stories. Jesus could have pulled from manna in the wilderness for 40 years
Shoes in the wilderness not wearing out for 40 years and jesus didn't rely on those things jesus relied on the natural things
because
He sees that god controls the movement of bugs and fish to feed birds
He he keeps the sun shining so that photosynthesis can do its magic stuff and plants can grow
That's what normally happens and our expectation should be that god will provide enough
Not always miraculously if he wanted to he could
But enough food and water and safety and health and everything else that we need
Unlike the gentiles in verse 32 we they're bound to worrying about this stuff. We are not
We get to expect good from the lord
And when this is our expectation that the lord will provide for us
We were able to truly live our lives. We are freed to seek the kingdom and that's point number three
reading from verse 32
For the gentiles eagerly seek all 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
It's going to be up on the the the screen
But I want you to understand seeking the kingdom means to desire as first importance the spread of
And the participation in the reign of jesus christ. That's what it means. It has a definition
You don't get to just put your own definition in there
It means to desire as first importance the spread of and the participation in the reign of jesus christ
You might have missed it, but seeking the kingdom is is being contrasted with worrying about your life
You can either be anxious about your physical needs or you can seek the kingdom. That's what jesus is putting out there for us
This means worrying isn't being concerned about your physical needs
This means worrying isn't being denounced just as a bad action or a frivolous mental activity
But as a selfish ambition because it reveals the selfish desires of your heart
And john's thought explains this idea wonderfully in his sermon on the mount commentary
And I just want to read a little bit
Jesus is not talking so much about anxiety as about ambition
Now heathen ambition focuses on material necessities, but this cannot be right for the christian
The christian must have something else a higher ambition
As the supreme good which he will energetically seek not material things but spiritual things not his own good but god's
In fact no food and clothing but the kingdom and righteousness of god
jumping ahead
What then is our christian ambition?
Everyone is ambitious to do something or be something often from early years
Ultimately, there are only two possible ambitions for human beings one can be ambitious either for oneself or for god
There is no third alternative
This is just like jesus spoke in the preceding verses. This isn't out of nowhere
There are two treasures. There are two masters. Which one are you going to serve?
Are you going to
Are you going to do john's example last week? Are you going to follow the master with a sweet siren call that's going to leave you shipwrecked?
And really unsatisfied or are you going to submit to a god who can fulfill your heart's deepest longing?
Do you see how jesus moved from anxiety to revealing our desires?
It's important to follow because while jesus is gently counseling the anxious
He's also speaking past their immediate problems in calling to their hearts to look up and see god
Yeah, he wants you to leave worry behind. He doesn't want you to have to deal with it anymore
But he's really calling us to forsake the sinful dreams of our hearts
Let go of relying upon your own strength. Let go of following your own wisdom. Seek the kingdom and you will have enough
He loves you too much to leave you
Resolved with just no worries
He wants you to follow him into complete surrender
So to lay it out
You can keep worrying about your body your clothes your house your job your kids everything else that you do or do not have
You can keep pursuing the best life your imagination can conceive of
And keep all of the plates spinning above your head and hoping none of them come crashing down
or
You can expect your heavenly father to provide enough and let your heart be filled with the ambition of seeking the kingdom of our savior
And be honest with yourselves
When was the last time you got a dream fulfilled that had left you really?
joyous for a long time
In my experience our dreams are pretty mediocre pursuits in the end
Likely to leave us burnt out or have a broken relationship somewhere
You want the american dream have it have a house have a kid two kids two cars
Get a vacation every year
Job paying six figures great
How long until you get bored with it?
a couple weeks a couple months
Here's the silly example from my life, and this is a true story. Okay
My father-in-law recently blessed us for christmas with a new fridge. It's a fancy french door fridge 29 cubic cubic feet
Um, it has wonderfully cold water and delicious ice
I didn't like our old fridge because it was normal sized
Um, and I had to constantly move things around or like reorganize or take stuff out to get to the back
You know like real big first world problems here
And so right before it got delivered
I was moving stuff around in it and and I heard my heart say I can't wait for my new fridge
My life will finally be better and I will be happy like i'm not joking. I really felt this way
My life had been incomplete until my french store fridge showed up
Sorry kids. Sorry wife like not real joy
Um, I need french doors. That's where true happiness is
So kin's laughing with me you guys never felt this way really i'm alone on this island
You get that you get that new gadget you get a promotion that's a nice one
You finally get grandkids
And you finally say to yourself ha now I will have a happiness now. I will have joy
To quote the great theologian jim carrey
I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so that they can see that it's not the answer
Are you going to argue with such a famous person like he had the money he had the money
He had the place and what did it leave him with?
emptiness
Or as c.s. Lewis summarized we are all content making mud pies when we have been invited on a holiday at the ocean
We now reach the final verse of our text
Culmination and see what the expectation of this world is where is jesus going to lead us
Verse 34 therefore don't worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will worry about itself each day has enough trouble of its own
Here's my final point expect trouble
Jesus lived in this world surrounded by dirty smelly people just like you and me
He knew what it was like to have a hard life
He doesn't teach the end of worry is the end of problems
The song don't worry be happy fabulous song terrible theology
Removing worry by seeking the kingdom really is the reverse to living an easy life
Really is the reverse to living an easy life
Moving for a life full of worry about this world worry about money worry about your knees. That's normal
You're going to get a lot of support there
But worrying about the kingdom seeking the kingdom is living so counterculturally that the result will be more trouble
Jesus expects a life full of kingdom ambition to result in consistent trouble really hard trouble
Family splitting trouble job losing trouble person persecution producing trouble
And that is the promise repeated throughout the sermon on the mount and the lived experience of most christians
We are exiles we're waiting for an entrance into our kingdom, this is not it
We're outcasts
And until that day comes the common refrain is always going to be life is hard and then you die
Yes, there's an amazing hope for after this life
I'm not denying that and jesus wouldn't deny it either
But there's no expectation to get out of the troubles of this life
But we do have one expectation that we can't hold on to
The more trouble we face the more we grow independence
Which allows us to be more fully seeking the kingdom
And we see that jesus's teaching here is actually meditative and self-reforcing
Let's go to the last part of the sermon
We see that it works in circles seeking dependence pushes me towards more reliance upon god
So I can be more prepared for the next trial or trouble that comes into my life
But the troubles that come simply push me back up towards seeking more dependence
Again, jesus gives no off ramp for our troubles. We have no way out of them
He will be with us
But he's not going to exclude us from them, but neither is he anxious about the troubles that are going to come
And the same goes with expecting enough and seeking the kingdom
The more I trust the lord in every situation for every need the more I am let loose to pursue the kingdom and its obedience
And with more obedience comes more avenues to trust his provision growing in awareness of his provision
Draws me closer to him and produces more spiritual fruit in my life
When my deficiencies and sins are exposed what do I get?
I get to be better positioned to be more prepared for the next trial
I get to be better positioned to grow in christlikeness
Jesus is driving us to see our need and be like him
He wants us to keep going through this cycle. That's why he doesn't give us an off ramp
That's a lot of theology. I recognize that. I'm good at this part
Other parts I'm not so good at
So I want to make sure that we understand this
And we need a heart change
So I got two points of simple application for us
The first one
Is consider
consider
Dr. Kurt Tom Thompson
Neuroscientist explains that you become what you pay attention to and john quoted this last week you you become what you value
Pay attention to it. You're gonna it's gonna reinforce into you you become what you pay attention to so step one consider scripture
Meditate on it read it think on it a lot and a lot and a lot more than you are right now
Do it over and over and over again. We we covered nine verses this morning
Matthew 6 24 sorry 25 through 34
You can easily read these verses out loud. I timed myself yesterday in a minute
So if you want to cultivate a life with less worry more trust in the lord and deeper focus on the kingdom read these verses
15 20 times a day
When your mind starts going off to anxiety about what am I going to do here?
What am I going to do here? What what am I going to do about this problem with my kids?
What am I going to do about this this bill that I have to pay?
Go read the verses
Just sit there and read them two times
Try it for a week try it for two weeks
See what will be cultivated in you
You couldn't even imagine how deep they can get how much worry will will be exposed and get away from you
I don't struggle much with worry if you interact with me in life. I got a pretty stressful job actually
but worry is not something that is really
kind of around me all the time, but
Spending the last two weeks meditating on this verse. I just see how much worry I actually have
Like it just exposed like no, I am not trusting the lord this morning. Boy. Oh boy. Was that really really obvious?
So when you feel it creeping in
You're gonna check your phone
I don't know. I checked the stock app on my phone way too much. I don't do anything with it
I just like oh the number went up
I'm just going to replace that with reading these verses
So consider consider consider consider scripture you are what you pay attention to so if you want to be something different
Do something different and you'll quickly become a different person
next step
imagine
And this one comes from living with my life who struggles deeply with anxiety. I love you, babe
I love you, babe
Again she's reviewed everything i'm saying
And there's a there's a tendency of those who struggle with anxiety and worry and I have several of them around me and they all
Do the same thing they can all imagine the worst possible scenarios like 15 steps deep
Like they're in it and they're like, wow, none of that has happened
And I don't think any of it's gonna happen
It's like my kids are climbing on the playset and all of a sudden. Oh, they're gonna fall and break their leg
Oh, and then it's gonna get infected then we have to amputate their leg and now they're gonna be on crutches for the rest of life
Like babe slow down
They're fine. They're a kid
So what what this does constantly doing that we all do this in our own way is it creates neural pathways
And and that's just a bunch of neurons together that like streamline how you think
Okay, it's like a well-worn road or a walkway through a field
It's like if you're pushing a cart and every single time you push the car you want the exact same way
It's going to create a rut and that rut is going to be self-reinforcing
It's going to push the cart back into the rut to make sure that it keeps doing that and that's what we have in our brains
We're all we're all humans here. We all got this. Okay
So how do you break that? How do you stop that?
What you actually have to do is reverse those neural pathways
Get rid of the old ones and build new ones and it's really hard to do
Anybody who's tried to learn a new skill, that's what you're doing. It's exhausting
So not saying that this is easy, but it's just what we need to do
so imagine
Take the bad thing that you see and you can imagine all the bad stuff that can happen
And then shortcut it and say what if god allow the bad thing to happen? But what could he do with the rest of it?
If the bad thing happened, I don't know if it's going to happen or not. What would it look like in a year?
What would it look like in five years?
Or maybe the bad thing's not going to happen and you can imagine how god is going to provide for you through
Whatever circumstance you're in think of all the ways that he could be doing that
I don't know. I don't know what they are. I don't know what your circumstances are
But if I spend time doing this, you know what it fills my brain with
I can expect god's power to show up in my life. This isn't like a magic spell to wipe away worry
Like i'm not saying that
I'm just simply saying that if I can imagine
God can do it. He could do it 10 times better than I can imagine like his creativity and power are limitless
Like i'm i'm very limited and so I want that to show up. I'm going to allow it to show up simply by imagining it
And his he'll show up and he'll do it he'll do what he wants to do and it'll be so much better than what you can imagine
Those are my two application points i'm going to close out the sermon with a really quaint little poem
And I want to share this poem because i'm i'm very confident. This is what pastor jeff would like to share at the end of
this sermon
Said the robin to the sparrow
I should really like to know why these ancient anxious humans rush about and worry. So
Said the sparrow to the robin friend. I think that it must be that they have no heavenly father such as cares for you and me
Let's pray heavenly father
Please help our unbelief, please help our worry. Please help our anxieties our our deficiencies in trusting you
You are good and righteous and kind and please reveal it to our hearts that we would see you in that way
Please help us to be dependent upon you. Please help us to seek your kingdom above all else that our desires would be fulfilled in you
And that your your son would reign in our lives
In jesus name. Amen