25" Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
People love this passage. People are drawn to this passage. People write really bad songs inspired by this passage because people really like the thought of a worry free life. But let me tell you something that is most often missed on the passing glance at this passage. This passage isn’t primarily about not worrying. If Jesus purpose in this passage was to simply say “don’t worry,” this would be VERY bad news. That’s not really helpful. Try it, next time someone you care about is worried, just say hey, I have an idea, stop worrying! They might just punch you in the face! If this was only about eliminating worry, then this would leave us worse off than before because you can’t just get rid of worry. You can just will worry out of your life. How many times have people focused so much on the worry, they only end up worrying more! Nature abhors a vacuum- it has to fill it. Worry abhors a vacuum. Some of you, you abhor vacuums too! Worry abhors a vacuum, try to get rid of it, and it will just step right back in with greater force.
If we are going to get rid of worry, it is going to need to be replaced. We are going to have to get to the root cause of worry and deal with it at it’s source. Remember, that’s what so much of this MANIFESTO is about- Jesus wants to take us deeper and deeper, as deep as we are willing to go: let’s go deeper into your life, let’s deal with you lust, with your anger, with your hurt, with your betrayal. Let’s deal with you greed, with your love of money, with your lack of devotion. Let’s go deep into righteousness, deep into prayer, deep into your issues with worry.
What do we need to fill the vacuum of worry in our lives? Trust. It’s trust. But this issue of trust and worry as Jesus talks about it, is really an issue of your life’s pursuit or ambition. Pursuing one set of priorities will inevitably lead to worry. Pursuing another set will lead to deeper trust. One direction lead to worry, another to trust. One build anxiety, the other build faith. Today I want to talk about those two sets of priorities. First we want to unpack on set, one direction on life, that leads to worry. Then we want to look at the other- the direction, the desire that leads to deeper trust and faith.
Let’s address the first issue- pursuing the wrong things, namely the things of this world, leads to worry. This passage starts with one of those “therefores,” so we have to read this in context. Jesus just finished saying, you can’t serve both God and money, you can’t serve God and anything else. You can’t serve two masters! You’ll end up serving one, and the one you serve will have profound implications for your life.
Jesus gives us some examples- you worry about food- look at the birds, they don’t worry about food, and God thinks even more of you. You worry about clothes, look at the wild flowers, they are the most beautifully dressed in all of creation. Just look at what the worry Jesus talks about is focused on- will you have enough to eat? Enough to drink? clothes to wear? Now I’m not saying that none of us have never had to worry about these things in our lives, but, for nearly all of us, we have never had to worry about such basic things. We may not be able to eat filet mignon every night for dinner, but we can certainly find a loaf of bread. We may not drink champagne, but we have clean water. We may not wear the latest fashion trends, but we have something to wear.
The thing is, these were real concerns for the people Jesus spoke with. They were one dry season away from starvation and thirst. Most had one set of clothing, and if something happened to it, then they might very well have no back up sandals, no robe, no jacket for the winter. And so, we might think, the logical flow is that if we can meet our most basic human needs for survival, we will eliminate the source of our worry and anxiety. Meet the basic needs, life will be just fine. But as we know- it just doesn’t seem to work out that way. There is something deeper going on. It’s goes to the issue true ambition or pursuit of your life.
If you decide to serve the ambitions of this world, you will live a life of worry. If you seek what this world has to offer you, your life will rightfully be consumed with worry. If you seek money above all else, if it’s number one in your life, you are going to have a lot to worry about in this world, and especially in today’s market. If you seek beauty and health more than anything else, if that is what you are about, then everyday is going to bring a little more worry into your life. If you are all about success, you are always going to worry about the next up and comer. If you are all about fame, then you will always worry about being a media darling. If you worry about pleasing other people, you are always going to worry about their opinion more than Gods.
This is the issue with worry- worry is merely a symptom. Worry, this passage teaches us, is a result of having the wrong priorities. It’s a result of seeking first the things of this world. We see that worry is actually a response of our real priorities. Worry is your litmus test to what really matters the most in your heart. Worry is going to tell you what matters most to you at any given moment of your life. Worry is huge, it plays a huge role in our lives. And worry, in a strange way, is a gift from God. It’s a grace from God, not because we are supposed to worry, NOT AT ALL- it’s that anytime we start to experience worry it is like an early warning system. It’s like the check engine light has gone off in our souls. The check engine light of our priorities is beeping and flashing and then, being aware of our worry, we can do something about it.
But the good news is that another set of priorities is going to lead to greater faith. If we start to seek first God, we grow in faith. We seek first God’s Kingdom, and his righteousness, and all this things that we used to worry about, food and shelter and whatever else, starts to fall into place in our life. This passage is really calling us to ask the question of ourselves- what is it you are after in life- the things of this world, or the things of the kingdom, of God?
The REAL antidote to the worry-free life is making sure you are seeking first God. It’s getting so singularly and sincerely focused on seeking God, that your faith in God begins to consume your fear of tomorrow. Jesus says two things about this. First his says seek first his kingdom, then he adds his righteousness. Within the context of this passage, let me just say a few things about what worry and seeking first God’s Kingdom and righteousness really means.
First, worry is incompatible with common sense. My son Justin is obsessively worried about dogs. He’s afraid that every dog is going to attack and eat him. I’ve asked him many times- Justin, have you ever been attacked, bitten, terrorized by a dog? No. Why are you so worried about dogs. Because they have teeth! He’s seen those teeth and he’s smart enough to know that they could do some damage. They never have, but the might! So he has spent now his whole life afraid and worried about dogs. The few times we’ve gotten him to pet a small dog, he has actually seemed to enjoy it. But still, even based on positive prior experience, he worries. Worry, worry about what has not yet happened, and probably never will happen, or at least, when it does happen, you have no control over it anyways, flies in the face of common sense.
Because worry is really about tomorrow, it based things that may not, and probably won’t come into being. Has anyone here ever starved to death? Frozen to death? If you did, tell me how you got better. We may have worried about stuff, but most of that stuff never happened, and even if it did, we’re still here. You can’t add one hour to your life by worry.
Second, and this is a little more counter-intuitive, worry is actually very selfish. Some of us think no, I have noble worries! I worry about my children, and i worry about my spouse, and i worry about my community, and I worry about our carbon footprint, and I worry about war in Afghanistan, and I worry about the economy... Are you beginning to notice the common factor in all those possible worries? It’s me! It’s the worrier. Worry has a way of actually making us very self-centered in our outlook an approach to life and relationships. And this is what fundamentally flies in the face of what God is trying to do- he wants you to get more focused on loving him, and loving your neighbor, and loving yourself, and that is a very hard thing to do when you are consumed with worry. Worry, in an ironic and sad way, is actually and incredibly selfish and self-centered outlook to life.
Which is why Jesus doesn’t want us to be consumed with worry, and offers to re-set our ambition on something that will cause our worry to dissipate as it’s filled with trust and faith- see his kingdom, and his righteousness.
Third, Worry is not a sin, but worry is basically incompatible with faith and trust. Sometimes people will talk about worry in such grave terms that people with sincere faith will begin to see their worry as a sin. I don’t believe that’s the right way to view worry. Remember, worry is more like this litmus test. When we feel worry creeping into our lives, it can serve a call to prayer and more active pursuit of faith and trust in God. It serves as the springboard to really go deep with God over what it is you are worry about.
SO talk to him about it. Remember, we just learned all about prayer. God, I’m worrying about my grades. OK, why are you worrying- if it’s because you’re aware that your not studying enough, then, study more. Your priorities are messed up. If it’s because you study all the time and your grades are your measure of worth and value in life, then your priorities are messed up. If you are worrying about your job, that may very well be very well grounded in today’s economy. So what is it about losing your job that is so troubling? Will you lose you value and worth as a person? Do you think you’ll never find another job? Are you so over extended financially that you have no margin- if you miss one paycheck, the repo men will literally be knocking on your door? So really, what is it that’s worrying you.
Seeking God’s kingdom means you don’t worry about what you will eat. Does it mean you shouldn’t work? Does it mean you shouldn’t labor and toil? Does it mean you shouldn’t work to feed and clothe others? No, it’s doesn’t say that anywhere in the text. It says, you don’t worry about those things because you trust in God’s provision.
He’s what else it doesn’t say. It doesn’t say that you will never go hungry. You might. You may very well pursue God and seek Him, and find yourself in times of want. You may find yourself thirsty, needy and exposed. You may even find yourself persecuted and martyred for the sake of the kingdom. Living a life wherein you do not worry about yourself doesn’t mean that you, yourself, may experience all the things that you are not to worry about. It just means you are worried about them.
Seek God’s kingdom, and his righteousness, and all these things of life- food and shelter and everything else, will fall into God plan. And in God’s plan, tomorrow with take care of itself, just as eternity will fall right into place according to God’s plan.
First, we must pursue being a part of God’s kingdom. God’s kingdom is where he rules. It’s where he dwells. This makes the first priority of the Christian life to simply become a part of the kingdom. It’s saying God, I want in. I want to be a part of where you rule and dwell. In other words, it’s saying I want to be a Christian. The first priority of our life, the thing of ultimate importance, is surrendering our life to God. This has deep implications for general state of worry an anxiety in life. If we in fact believe deep down, in the core of our being, that our lives are now consumed by the kingdom, that we are now a part of the kingdom, that our eternity is secure in Jesus, then we really have nothing else to worry about. We may experience hunger. We may be persecuted. We may be martyred for our faith, but none of that matters in the big picture because we have eternal security. We have the ultimate insurance program- We are a part of the kingdom, and that’s the most important thing. 1 Peter 5:7 tells us, Cast all your anxiety on Jesus because he cares for you!
Seek his kingdom, and his righteousness. So that we don’t get so heavenly minded that we don’t do any earthly good, he says seek his righteousness. We start to live now like citizens of the kingdom. We lay down our lives, our rule, our reign, and we reorient ourselves to the reign and rule of God. For some of us, this is not radically of course with the existing direction of our life. You have been a follower of Christ, you’ve laid down your life, you seek him. You’ve made some practical steps and practices into your life to make this happen. You make worship a priority. You make christian fellowship a part of your week. You make prayer and bible reading and conversation about the things of God the center piece of your day with yourself, in your marriage, with your kids. You make service and charity and giving a priority. You are well on the way to to seeking God’s righteousness. Good, keep it up, get better!
Some of us are farther from this. We realize that seeking God’s righteousness first is going to cost us, it’s going to change things, it’s going to be work. We have a lot of righteousness to seek in our lives, and in our world. But please never forget this, never reverse this. We passionately pursue the righteousness of God NOT because that’s how we receive the kingdom. No, we receive the kingdom as a gift from God. We pursue righteousness as our response to the kingdom. It’s about gratitude, it’s about thanks.
And that’s my final word on worry- where ever and whenever we are fostering a spirit of gratitude, worry will find no foothold. When ever we are grateful to God, we trust in God, and worry becomes the furthest ting from our minds and our hearts.
Today I don’t want to end without giving you a change to re-orient your priorities. To make seeking the Kingdom, and his righteousness, your ambition in life. And one of the best ways to do that is to take this litmus test of worry. What is it that you are worrying about? What does that say about you on a deeper level? I want you to pursue that right now. I want you to pray about that right now. I want you to change that right now.
Ph. 4:6 says do not worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition, present your requests to God. You can present that request to God today.
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