Worry Free Living

This portion of Scripture contains some things that you're going to find familiar to you and that's because much of what Jesus says here in Galilee, He also said in Judea in .

In fact, the passage in is a direct parallel to .

As we pull the passage together, the thing that ties it all up is a statement that Jesus makes three times essentially:

Verse 22, "Do not be anxious,"

Verse 25, “Do not be anxious”

verse 29, "Do not keep worrying,"

Verse 28. “Why are you anxious”

Verse 32, "Do not be afraid."

Verse 31,34, “Do not be anxious.”

Anxiety-Free living is part of what the Lord offers. It's part of the gospel message. It is what we have who are in the Kingdom if we want to take it.

· I understand why the world is stressed out.

· I understand why people are anxious.

· I understand why they worry.

This world is a crazy, unstable, scary place isn’t it?

I understand why they have panic attacks. It's frightening to be dangling in this mysterious universe and feeling all alone and not being able to figure out why you're even here and where you're going.

I understand why people take drugs and drink and go on eating binges and shopping sprees and wild adventures and all kinds of things to fill their minds with other thoughts.

We are living in an anxiety-ridden culture.

It is amazing we are the most indulged, the most lavished society ever, this is the most comfortable society that has the most but it seems to be the most anxious, stressed out, and panicked culture ever.

We have a massive medical world that exists to do nothing but help people with stress. No worry goes unnamed, undefined., undiagnosed. And un-medicated.

The term in our society is "to manage it."

You take a course, listen to a lecture, buy a cd on stress management, or take a medication.

Jesus comes along and says, "I'm not going to teach you how to manage your stress, I'll eliminate it."

A hundred million people are estimated worldwide to have panic attacks, just out of nowhere to feel a terrible, terrifying panic. This is huge.

Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent every year on anxiety treatments.

The best the world can offer you is to manage your anxiety. Jesus offers you to eliminate it.

Does that sound like a good deal? Get rid of it all together?

The GOAL of the day is to take a group of stressed out worrisome people this morning, and let us leave this place fully trusting in God.

In fact, you can basically translate verse 22, "Stop being anxious," verse 29, "Stop worrying," and verse 32, "Stop being afraid."

"A dense fog covering seven city blocks...are you with me?...a dense fog covering seven city blocks, a hundred-feet deep is composed of less than one glass of water divided into 60 thousand drops. Not much there... but it cripples the whole community." Well that's what can happen in worry. You can have something the size of one glass of water cripple a whole community.

The word "worry" actually comes from an old German word, which means to choke, or strangle. It's talking about mental strangulation through fear and anxiety and stress and worry.

Now there are only two realms in which you can worry. Physical/ Spiritual. So that is precisely what Jesus says you don't need to worry about.

In verse 22 He says, "Don't be anxious for your life," and by that He means what you eat, and your body, what you wear. Stop worrying about that, the basics of life.

verse 32, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Here he is talking about the Spiritual level. You're left with nothing to worry about, nothing to be anxious about, nothing to be stressed about, nothing to panic over.

So we conclude that if you do worry as a Christian, worry is a sin.

But it's a sin that rises from a failure to understand God, a failure to understand His sovereign love, a failure to understand His sovereign care, a failure to understand His sovereign resources.

Worry Comes When We Fail to Understand God: So this morning our focus is on God.

· You are God’s PRIORITY

First of all, worry is a failure to understand divine priority... Let's go back to verse 22.

Luke 1222 And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.

Matthew 625 “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?

That's not hard to understand and yet there are some things below the surface there that I think are going to open up a deeper understanding of this.

First of all, He said to His DISCIPLES.

That is significant because if you are not a disciple of Jesus, if you are not a follower of Jesus then this certainly does not apply to you.

If you are not a follower of Jesus then it is certainly rational that you drink all the Alcohol you can, that you partake in all the drugs that you can because this world is very stressful and there’s not a whole lot to calm your fears It doesn’t matter if you are talking about the physical or the spiritual.

You being a “Follower” of Jesus Christ makes a big difference to the way that you handle the World around you!

“Therefore I tell you," What is the reason? Why is Jesus telling his followers that they do not have to worry?

The reason verse 21, you make a choice in life as to whether you lay up treasure for yourself or are rich toward God.

So you make a choice...either you are selfish and materialistic and keep everything/ or you lay up treasure in heaven. That's the choice you have to make

24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Being a slave was not like being an employee, you didn't go to work at 8 and finish at 5.

You can do that in our society and then you can go to work somewhere else at 7 and finish at 2 in the morning. You can serve two masters in our culture, you can have two jobs.

But you couldn't in a slave environment because you were owned by the master and there was no way a slave could serve two masters, impossible.

And so in the spiritual realm, you either serve God or money, you're either rich toward God, or you indulge yourself and that's the point He makes.

Now He says, “Therefore I tell you,”

That's the transition because here's what they would be thinking: "Well, Jesus is saying we ought to be rich toward God and not save money and build bigger barns and store up money and make ourselves wealthy and all of that,

But if we give it all to God, what about us? What's going to happen to us? Who's going to take care of us?

I mean, we live in a dog-eat-dog world, right? Who's going to take care of us if we don't care of ourselves?

Have you ever asked a question similar to that?

God if I really follow you with everything I have my life is going to change… I’m not sure I want my life to change…

The answer to that question is really pretty simple: Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

That is an honest question that must be answered before we can ever serve God whole-heartedly.

Follow me for a moment… If you live your life in the belief that all that matters is the physical… Food, Shelter, clothing, hobbies, stuff…. You will never matter Spiritually.

The whole text revolves around the idea that we need to serve God whole-heartedly.

Well the answer, of course, that the Lord gives here is this, that God's going to take care of you.

, "Casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you."

So if He asks you to give up everything like He did to the rich young ruler in , then what you should do is sell everything you have, give your money to the poor.

Remember the response of the man? Not on your life, he said. Turned around and walked away for he was very rich. And he wanted his money and he didn't want to give it away and depend on God.

, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-yes even his own life- he cannot be my disciple.”

“Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”

Whooaaa… Jesus you are asking for alot

And many of us spend our whole life asking is it worth it?

What Jesus is saying is how desperate are you?

How much do you want to be in this Kingdom? IT’S WORTH IT

You see the issue is that many are going through this life as though it’s not worth it.

Let’s say you are going through this life double minded. According to the Parable of the Soils what will happen is that the deceitfulness of riches will come up in your life and choke out your love and zeal for God.

In other words, salvation is for people that are desperate enough to say, "Look, I don't care what it costs me, if You want everything I have, I'll give it. Whatever it is, I'll give it."

Even if You don't ask, like Zacchaeus in , the Lord gives the gospel to Zacchaeus and Zacchaeus says, "I'm going to pay back everybody I ever extorted anything from in multiples." It just came out of his heart.

The Gospel should change us to realize what matters and what doesn’t matter.

And in the words of the Apostle Paul, he said this,

“I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.”

What's the secret? Trusting God. Sometimes you have a lot, sometimes you have a little, but you always have enough.

Why? Verse 19, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” He knew that God would take care of him!

Do you trust God to that point? You come into His Kingdom and you can trust Him to meet your needs. Now this is an issue of divine priority.

Let's go back to the text and I'll show you how this works. "Do not be anxious for your life."

Now what do you mean by "life?" Your physical life, “what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.”

Now this deeply concerned people in Jesus' day. I mean, they basically lived to survive. There were no fast-food places, no stores to go buy the endless elements of clothing that are available to us.

Life was about getting enough food each day to survive and the clothes you needed to stay warm and to be protected from the blazing heat of the Middle Eastern sun.

Jesus says, "Look, don't worry about your life, don't worry about what you're going to eat to support your life. Don't worry about your body, what you're going to put on."

Verse 23, For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.

Here's another way to say that. You exist for a higher reason, okay? Life is more than food and you have a body for more reasons than just clothing.

God didn't make you so that you could be like an animal.

I'm not here just to exist. It's in God that I live and move and have my being

God has a purpose for my life. I'm under divine priority.

The simple idea is this: For those who are in the Kingdom:

· If God gave you life, and He did,

· If He wants you to live, and He does

· If you're alive, if He brought you into His Kingdom, and He has,

· Then He has a purpose for you to fulfill in His Kingdom to His glory and so He will sustain you to that fulfillment.

I mean, it wouldn't make any sense for God to say, "I will save you and I will give you eternal life, I'll give you spiritual life, and I have a purpose for your life and a destiny and a plan and a purpose and I gifted you and I've called you, and I've laid out circumstances and, man, if you can just keep yourself alive to fill this deal out, this will be really good." No.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.

He will provide what you need to survive. So be rich toward God and you will have the promise that as you're rich toward God, He'll be lavishly rich toward you.

You don't have to build bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger barns to take care of yourself, to protect yourself.

Be wise, be faithful, don't be foolish, be a good steward, do some planning for the future, but you're not the one who has obligated himself to your care, God has.

So you have to understand the priority, right? And the priority is spiritual purpose.

Your life is not about food. Your life is not about clothing. It's not about making sure you can survive.

So what’s your job? STAYING IN THE WILL OF GOD

· This doesn’t mean that tribulations will never come- They will.

· This doesn’t mean that sickness and death will never come- They will.

But in the midst of the good and bad times you realize that God is in control of your life and that He knows what He is doing!

You Have DIVINE PROVISION

Secondly, worry fails to understand divine provision. Look at verse 24,

Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!

Now I think He picks birds because they're sort of fragile...they just are here and kind of gone, short-lived for the most part, certainly the ravens or the crows.

Every raven that's ever lived God wanted to live?

And for however long God wanted that bird to live, He provided its food.

And if God feeds birds don't you think He's going to take care of making sure you can eat who have the highest and noblest capacity to give Him glory?

Now it may well have been that as he was standing on the mountain north of the Sea of Galilee on that sloping hillside, he might have just pointed up as a flock of birds flew by. And by the way, Palestine is full of birds.

Galilee many consider the crossroads of bird migration. When birds across Europe, all the way from Western Europe clear through Eastern Europe, migrate south as they do every year for the winter, they all fly through Israel. That's true even today.

More Israeli pilots have been killed by birds coming through the cockpit of their jets than by the enemies of Israel.

They migrate through Israel because west is water, and there is no food flying across the Mediterranean, and they migrate...they can't go east because it's barren desert, and there's nothing there. And Israel is fertile, and they can land now and then for supplies.

So perhaps Jesus looks up and sees a flock of birds.

He says, "Look, they don't sew. They don't reap. In fact, they just fly around and pick up the seed you sew. They just come down and eat the crop that you're growing. They don't gather into barns, yet Your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?"

There's no worry in their lives. There's no anxiety in their lives. There's no attempt to pile up goods. You don't see them flying with a little briefcase full of extra food in case they need it.

They're not worried about some unforeseen future or some unforeseeable event.

That doesn't mean they don't work. Did you ever see a bird lying on its side taking a nap?

And we're not talking about the fact that you don't work, and it's not to say because God provides for us we don't work.

They work and we work, but it's God who providentially provides.

And look at the end of verse 24, "How much more valuable you are than the birds?" If He sees to it that the birds have food, don't you think He'll see to it that you do?

Our Lord's argument here is from the lesser to the greater.

DO YOU REALIZE HOW IMPORATANT YOU ARE TO GOD?

You are valuable to God!

You don't need to spend your life worrying about whether you're going to have enough, whether you're going to have enough now, whether you're going to have enough when you retire, whether you're going to have enough in the future. Your God promises to sustain you to the end of His purpose.

"This life is like an inn, you spend a couple of nights there, but you never forget where your home is."

Paul said, "It's nice to be here, but I would rather depart and be with Christ, but I have to be here for your sake."

But he also knew when it was over and he said, "I've finished the course, I've kept the faith, I've run the race, I'm ready to go. The time of my departure is at hand." And until that day, He knew how to be in abundance and how to be in little and God supplied all his needs because He always does that for His own.

TRUST GOD

If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?

Only God has determined the length of your life, you can't add to your own life by anything that you do. That's His privilege.

What has your worry and anxiety ever done for you?

Have you ever solved a problem because of your worry?

Have you ever made someone well because of your worry?

The reality is there is not one positive thing that you worry and anxiousness has ever accomplished for you. It’s not your privilege to decide these things, it is truly God’s.

· Divine Preference.

Consider the lilies, 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. 28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!

You certainly are more valuable to Him than lilies and He takes good care of them.

· Divine Paternity

32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Compare this to our enemy… He comes to ‘Kill, Steal, and Destroy” but our father find pleasure in giving us His Kingdom… Boy that’s good.

How often do we get those two confused…

So many people believe that the ‘evil one’ has this wonderful life to live… but it’s not true folks!

· WHAT’S THE POINT??

Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. [1]

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

You are free to fulfill your calling because God will meet your needs!

What is keeping you in life from being the man that God has called you to be?

What is holding you back from going all out surrendered to the Kingdom of God?

What is keeping you from proclaiming the Word of God from the mountaintops of your work?

What is keeping you from living this life the way that God has called you to live this life?

YOU ARE WITHOUT EXCUSE!

I AM WITHOUT EXCUSE!

This text this morning takes our excuse away… DON’T WORRY ABOUT YOUR JOB, DON’T WORRY ABOUT PROVIDING FOR YOUR FAMILY, DON’T WORRY ABOUT YOUR REPUTATION…. DO WHAT GOD CALLS YOU TO DO AND HE WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU!

R. Mounce says, “Worry is practical atheism and an affront to God.”

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

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