The Birds of the Sky and the Flowers of the Field

Introduction

This week there is a little bit less of this “earthly living vs. Kingdom living” going on. Instead, this passage starts a new section of the Sermon on the Mount.

Starting in this section, Jesus gives us instructions for how we should live, regardless of anything else. Instead of a contrast, Jesus simply tells us “live like this.”

Today, Jesus uses this structure to tell us how to handle anxiety.

Anxiety statistics

Gen-Z has high rates of anxiety, depression and suicide. Medically diagnosed anxiety is present in roughly 61% of Gen-Z.

Beyond that, 43% of Gen-Z who battle anxiety self-reported having an anxiety attack every month.

Depression rates paint a similar situation. According to a study by the Walton Family Foundation, roughly 42% of Gen-Z battles depression.

The same study shows that suicide rates have risen, with up to 18% of Gen-Z saying that their challenges are so hard that they would be better off dead,.

Gen-Z is not alone. There is a mental health crisis in the United States of America. But the GOSPEL gives us good news and HOPE in this area just as it does in EVERY AREA OF LIFE!

Main Point: As Followers of Jesus, we are set free from all anxiety!

Jesus structures His teaching about anxiety like this- Jesus gives us an instruction in verse 25, then gives us three examples to back up His statement from verses 26-32. Then, in verses 33-34 Jesus gives us a summary statement.

Body

Matthew 6:25 CSB

25 “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 and the body more than clothing?

Jesus begins this passage by actually referencing back to what we looked at last week.

In context, we find that Jesus was just instructing us to pursue righteousness rather than earthly gain.

Rather than running after earthly power, position, or influence, we are instructed to run after the KINGDOM OF GOD!

And now, Jesus says that we don’t need to worry!

We don’t need to worry about what we eat, or what we drink, or about our body, or our clothing- so what we look like!

We don’t need to be worried!

Like we saw last week, outward appearances are not the be-all, end-all of life.

In fact, we aren’t supposed to be chasing after them!

And if we are not chasing after them and making them an idol, then we don’t need to worry about them!

Jesus asks a rhetorical question at the end of verse 25. He says, “Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing?”

Obviously the answer to that question is yes! Of course there’s more to my life than just what I eat. Of course there’s more to my body that what I eat!

If I break my arm, the doctor doesn’t say, “I’ll tell you what, go to Target and go get a new shirt.”

But there’s a deeper point that Jesus is making.

Think about what troubles you. Think about what ways you down. At some point in life, we have all been there- even the people who say they “never get anxious” have at some point had a concern.

And listen, typically the question we find ourselves asking is “how is this going to work out?”

Jesus is telling us- “Listen, you don’t need to worry. God is going to provide your needs.”

It’s very similar to what we see in Matthew 6:11

Matthew 6:11 CSB

11 Give us today our daily bread.

God is going to more than provide for every single one of our daily needs. It’s not even a question!

But I want to challenge us this morning- Jesus isn’t just saying, “Don’t worry” Jesus is going PAST THAT and is saying, “TRUST GOD WITH YOUR NEEDS!”

We could think of faith as a muscle. The more that we RELY ON GOD rather than ourselves the more that our faith grows and is strengthened BECAUSE WE SEE GOD AT WORK!

And here, Jesus is challenging us, PUT YOUR FAITH IN GOD FOR YOUR PROVISION!

Next, Jesus is going to give us 3 examples of how God provides- 3 examples that we can remind ourselves of when we are struggling with anxiety- and let me be clear- we will all feel anxious at times. That isn’t the problem- the problem, much like with anger, is what we DO with our anxiety!

Our anxiety- although real- cannot run our lives.

And I want to specifically speak to a situation in our culture- one near and dear to my heart- and that is the state of Gen-Z.

Listen, friends, if you are Gen-Z, or if you work with Gen-Z people, then please hear me- far too often our generation is CONSUMED with this level of anxiety.

And when that runs out of control we see terrible things.

We see things like suicide rates that skyrocket. Anxiety isn’t the ONLY reason for that, but, it is a BIG reason for it.

Let me challenge us- friends, hear these three examples that Jesus gives, learn from them, and let’s apply them both to our own anxieties and also when we are with friends who are CONSUMED BY ANXIETY!

Listen- the GOSPEL BREAKS CHAINS AND SETS FREE! IT BREAKS THE CHAINS OF ANXIETY AND SETS US FREE!

Let’s look at the first of these three examples together.

The Birds of the Sky- God will Provide

Matthew 6:26–27 CSB

26 Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? 27 Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying?

The first thing that Jesus talks about is how God will provide our DAILY NEEDS!

And the example that Jesus gives is the example of birds of the sky.

Jesus reminds us that birds don’t farm- they don’t plant, they don’t harvest, they don’t store food, they don’t go to Aldi or Walmart to get food.

Yet, GOD FEEDS THEM!

And the truth is that GOD FEEDS THEM!

GOD FEEDS THE BIRDS!

But then Jesus says something that might catch us off guard- “Aren’t you worth more than they?”

We might start to think, “But God made the birds too!”

But here’s the truth- Jesus is bringing us back to Genesis 1-2. In Genesis 1-2 we see three things that back up this statement.

First, unlike anything else in creation, MAN IS MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD. Genesis 1:26-27

Genesis 1:26–27 CSB

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.

(Remember, Man is made in the image of God, not the other way around).

Here’s the significance to that- MAN HAS A SOUL and we can RELATE TO OUR GOD!

NO OTHER ANIMAL CAN!

Second, when God created man, HE CALLS MAN VERY GOOD- unlike anything else. Genesis 1:31

Genesis 1:31 CSB

31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good indeed. Evening came and then morning: the sixth day.

God singles out MAN in creation to say that it is VERY GOOD.

Literally, God calls man ABUNDANTLY OR EXCEEDINGLY PLEASING!

God’s creation of man is DIFFERENT! God makes MAN IN HIS IMAGE AND THEN CALLS HIM VERY GOOD!

Thirdly, God gives man a specific job. Genesis 1:28-30

Genesis 1:28–30 CSB

28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.” 29 God also said, “Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the surface of the entire earth and every tree whose fruit contains seed. This will be food for you, 30 for all the wildlife of the earth, for every bird of the sky, and for every creature that crawls on the earth—everything having the breath of life in it—I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

Do you see the job that God gives man?

There’s 5 parts to this job- this first Biblical commission- just as there are five parts to the Great Commission.

Man is to: Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it and rule over it- or STEWARD IT!

God gives HUMANITY THE RESPONSIBILITY OF STEWARDING THE WORLD!

Notice, verse 28 doesn’t say, “AND LOOKING AT THE ALMIGHTY HUMMINGBIRD, GOD SAID”

It’s GOD TALKING TO MAN!

MAN IS SINGLED OUT AS DIFFERENT!

And JESUS, 100% God and 100% man, THERE AT CREATION AS COLOSSIANS 1 tells us- MAN, YOU ARE WORTH MORE THAN THE BIRDS OF THE SKY!

Yet, even in that- GOD PROVIDES FOR THE BIRDS OF THE SKY!

This is part of God’s PERFECT PROVISION!

God perfectly provides for EVERYTHING- including the birds of the sky!

And then Jesus asks another rhetorical question- “Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying?”

This also has a simple answer- NO! NO I CANNOT! I can worry as much as I want. I can be as worried about something as is humanly possible. But, it will still not make me live longer!

In fact- the opposite could be true because of the effects of stress on our health!

And here’s another part of what Jesus is teaching.

So often, our anxiety happens because of something OUTSIDE OF OUR CONTROL!

For instance, one of my least favorite days of every college semester was syllabus day.

It wasn’t my least favorite day because of getting TO CLASS, it was my least favorite day because I’d be given this syllabus that would tell me everything I COULD NOT CONTROL for the semester!

Here’s my point- anxiety comes, but much more rarely from something that we already know.

Typically, anxiety comes because of the unknown!

But worry about it isn’t going to help us live longer!

Instead, we need to TRUST GOD WITH IT!

The Grass of the Field- God will clothe us

Matthew 6:28–30 CSB

28 And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. 30 If that’s how God clothes 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?

Next, Jesus addresses clothing, but we should really look at this as OUTWARD APPEARANCE.

First, Jesus addressed provision and NOW, Jesus addresses anxieties over our outward appearance.

Jesus’s proof of why we can trust God in this is the WILDFLOWERS of the field.

The wildflowers don’t do anything special to look good.

That’s just part of HOW THEY ARE.

Wyoming flower box.

Look at the second comparison that Jesus makes- Solomon, the wisest and wealthiest king of Israel could not compare to the beauty of a wildflower created by GOD!

And then Jesus challenges us with this- WE ARE CLOTHED BY THAT SAME GOD

And if God does that for plants of the field, HOW MUCH MORE WILL HE DO IT FOR US?

And here’s the challenge for us- how often do we find ourselves anxious about something external?

I’m going to answer that for us- SO OFTEN!

Let me just use an example that is growing in frequency- body image. Body image could be summarized how we see ourselves. How do we view our external body.

And listen, it’s a huge thing in America. There’s a lot of diet culture, or this idea that we just need to lose 5 pounds, or get that perfect beach body. Now, please hear me- we need to take care of our bodies. But, we don’t need to become obsessive.

But here’s the scary thing- the Emily Program- one of the most important ED programs in the country, based out of the University of Minnesota- says that around 28% of college students (and this number is from 2021 and has continued to rise) were engaging in behaviors that exposed them to an Eating Disorder.

Let me give some reasons that these start- because it typically isn’t from what we expect:

- Unfamiliar environment- anxiety that comes with that

- Living away from family and supporters- anxiety that comes with that

- Different foods- and the anxiety that comes with that

- Change in routine and loss of structure- leading to anxiety

- Increased workload- which raises anxiety

- Academic and Financial stresses- WHICH CAUSE ANXIETY

- Fear of looking a certain way- social anxiety

- Boredom which can often lead to anxiety!

Listen, anxiety is ALL AROUND US!

That’s just for students, but it isn’t JUST students that deal with this.

Adults deal with this, parents deal with this, teenagers deal with this!

In fact, I found a statistic a few years ago that 30% of teenage boy athletes in Australia have taken steroids TO LOOK STRONGER!

Body image issues are an epidemic. And these root causes go back to something- ANXIETY! ANXIETY!

- And listen, we don’t need to sit in this anxiety- we don’t need to sit in a world that is defined by our outward appearance, because GOD DOESN’T DEFINE US BY OUR OUTWARD APPEARANCE! INSTEAD OF DEFINING US LIKE THAT, GOD MADE US AND GOD FORMED US HOW HE WANTED! WE DON’T NEED TO BE ANXIOUS!

Listen, we don’t need to be anxious about our outward appearance. We don’t need to be consumed by anxiety to the point of killing ourselves like we saw in our introduction. WE ARE SET FREE! JESUS SETS US FREE FROM ANXIETY!

And I want to take a quick minute before we move on to address this practically.

First, if you are here today and you are feeling chained by anxiety, GOD HAS SET YOU FREE! RUN TO GOD!

Second, if you are here struggling with BI. If you are realizing, “Oh man, I totally am struggling with those things that Daniel just mentioned” then let me encourage you- talk to someone- talk to me, talk to my wife who literally works with Eating Disorders every day, talk to SOMEONE! Let me encourage you, you don’t need to be alone in this!

Third, let me challenge us- we need to be building people up with how we speak. It isn’t our job as Christians to talk about someone’s body. It’s our job to see people as what they are- GOD’S CREATION as we read in Genesis 1 and Psalm 139.

Rather than judging, let’s LOVE that person!

The Gentiles- God provides for everyone, regardless of their faith

Matthew 6:31–32 CSB

31 So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

Here’s our third example. Again, Jesus tells us not to worry- and why? BECAUSE GOD TAKES CARE OF ALL PEOPLE, including the gentiles!

And we shouldn’t just look at this as “non-Israelites.” Instead, we need to understand that here gentile is used to talk about people who DO NOT KNOW GOD!

So to boil this down, Jesus is reminding us that GOD PROVIDES FOR EVERYONE, not just those who worship Him.

So therefore, how much can we rest knowing that GOD WILL PROVIDE FOR US?

How much more can we rest knowing that God provides for all people and that we can call Him ABBA or FATHER!

Matthew 6:33-34

Matthew 6:33–34 CSB

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. 34 Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

And here is Jesus’s summary statement.

What is the first thing that we are called to do? SEEK THE KINGDOM OF GOD!

THE FIRST THING THAT WE ARE CALLED TO DO IN LIFE IS SEEK THE KINGDOM OF GOD!

That takes priority over ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING ELSE!

SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD!

And what will happen?

WE CAN REST KNOWING THAT GOD WILL PROVIDE ALL OUR NEEDS!

So first, we need to seek to be more like God and as we do that, we should TRUST GOD TO PROVIDE!

Let me be clear- our needs are not met ONLY if we approach God with a certain level of righteousness- remember, even those who HATE GOD ARE PROVIDED FOR!

Instead, what Jesus is getting at is what our focus should be.

Our focus doesn’t need to be worrying about our daily needs; instead, our focus can and should be SEEKING THE KINGDOM OF GOD!

Our focus SHOULD BE ON GROWING TO BE MORE LIKE GOD RATHER THAN WORRYING ABOUT WHETHER SOMETHING WILL WORK OUT!

And so, we don’t need to worry about the future. We don’t need to worry about tomorrow and what tomorrow will bring.

Instead, we need to SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS- something that we are called to do daily!

So, let’s talk about how we can practically do that.

Application

Seek God’s Kingdom by Knowing God

BE SAVED!

3 circles- BROKENNESS- ANXIETY!

JESUS- COMES BRINGING FREEDOM FROM SIN! (EMPHASIZE THE BEAUTY OF WHAT JESUS DID AND THE HOPE THAT JESUS BRINGS! CALL TO IMMEDIATE REPENTANCE!)

Seek God’s Kingdom by GOING WITH OTHERS

(You aren’t alone! RUN AFTER GOD WITH SOMEONE! BE DISCIPLED AND DISCIPLE! GET HELP!)

We need to OBEY JESUS’S INSTRUCTION IN MATTHEW 6:33 and SEEK THE KINGDOM OF GOD!

Matthew 6:33 CSB

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.

And when we are SEEKING THE KINGDOM OF GOD WE NEED TO GO WITH SOMEONE!

Adventure movie example- WE DON’T SEEK HIDDEN TREASURE ALONE! SO DON’T SEEK THE KINGDOM OF GOD ALONE! RUN AFTER GOD WITH SOMEONE! BE DISCIPLED AND DISCIPLE! RUN TOGETHER!

And as a specific example, let’s think about anxiety.

ANXIETY THRIVES ON ISOLATION!

YOU FOUND FREEDOM FROM ANXIETY! DON’T KEEP IT TO YOURSELF! SHARE IT!

EVANGELIZE WHEN SOMEONE IS STRUGGLING! (4 I’s)

Invest by… (BEING WITH THEM IN ANXIETY!)

Invite by… (SHOWING THEM FREEDOM!)

Involve by… (TEACHING THEM HOW TO BE FREE!)

Ignite by… (HELPING THEM HELP OTHERS!)

GO WITH SOMEONE! DON’T DELAY!

And if you are struggling- in any way, but especially with anxiety; don’t keep it to yourself. Don’t try to “hide” it, BRING OTHERS IN!

Seek God’s Kingdom by Letting Go of Anxiety

Practical strategies

1- Recognize that there’s a problem

2- Humble yourself before God

1 Peter 5:6 CSB

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time,

3- Bring your anxiety to HIM

1 Peter 5:7 CSB

7 casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you.

4- Walk in Freedom

5- REPEAT!

Pray

What do we need to apply:

Salvation- GO SEEK GOD!

Anxiety- LET GO! GOD HAS THIS!

Priorities- FOLLOW GOD! (BRING OTHERS!)