The context:
Jesus teaches on fasting, the right attitude about treasures and now He teaches about anxiety and how to handle it now mo matter how many times we hear it we need to hear it more don’t worry
Easy to say, hard to do
The purpose of this section is in part to highlight that what goes on in public is a by-product of what goes on in private how, you give, how you fast, how you pray, what and where your treasure is.
Jesus does not teach us to despise the pleasures of life, but he did say by implication that if we see life in this reductionist manner, we are going to have anxiety.
And frankly I believe that is where Christians’ anxiety comes from.
We say our values are above the worlds, but in fact we often believe there is little more to life than what we eat, drink, or wear.
The key to knowing whether we are Christian or religious may be revealed here
Our attitude and behavior reveals who and what we are
We are again focusing on appropriating the grace of God and the Holy Spirit
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says this section is addresses to common folk people just trying to make both ends meet
But whether rich or poor the idea is to rid yourself of distractions
So many are preoccupied with getting, some are preoccupied with keeping or holding either one can be a distraction
Sometimes the distractions are legitimate
I mean who would argue with anyone about being responsible, wanting to plan and save
Or having goals as it relates to the dream house, the dream car, or the ideal mate all of these are legitimate goals
It is the shrewd operation of the devil to cause us to become obsessed with these things
God wants undivided loyalty and devotion
It is not that we don’t have the same needs as the unbeliever we have a different approach/means of getting our needs met.
he secular world, seek material things because they overestimate their significance.
The key to understanding this pericope may be verse 32
For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
a. The unbeliever chases these things
b. Your heavenly Father knows your need
It is like a riddle/conundrum
The answer to one question will solve the riddle/conundrum
Who is your father?
I. The danger of life being reduced to tangible things
Eat –destroy
Drink –soak up
Wear - adorn
For the religious person, carnal person life is nothing more than what I can achieve, what I can have, what I can do, and where perhaps where I can go.
There is the appearance of stability
There is the appearance of having it all together
When I can’t control the things life crumbles
Look at the chapter again
1. Giving I don’t mind giving but let it be on my terms
Giving must not be merely an act of righteousness
Here is the test
Do you blow trumpets (make noise) when you give
Don’t be a hypocrite
Praying
Don’t be a hypocrite
Fasting
Don’t be a hypocrite
II. Trust the pattern and practice of our heavenly parent
A good way of knowing what a person will do is by what they have done
What has he done already?
The birds-watch birds, fix your gaze on birds
There are millions and millions of birds, and by and large they are healthy and happy.
None of them are suffering hypertension, none are suffering stress-related diseases, and certainly none of them are worrying.
God takes care of them even though, unlike us, they do not sow or reap.
And God will take care of us too. That is the obvious meaning.
Said the robin to the sparrow:
“I should really like to know
Why these anxious human beings
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.”
Well said! But the truth is even stronger because the birds do not, in fact, have a father.
Only we, his children, can call God our Father. What’s more, the birds do not bear his image, but we do! Jesus’ question, “Are you not much more valuable than they?”
The lilies
Shamefully the birds and flowers must become our teachers
*****To deny you is to deny himself
The body is a gift of God, will not the giver of the gift take care of the gift which is in this case the recipient
Will He not maintain or sustain it
“Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?”
Since life itself comes directly from God, why should we worry and fret about his giving us the food and drink necessary for life? He will not go halfway.
He gave you life, and he will maintain it as long as he wills.
If there is a God who has given us the great gift of life (and he has!), we do not need to be anxious about the little things we need day by day.
Here is another question that Jesus asked that must be asked and answered.
What does worry accomplish?
His word is out
Jer 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
III. The Remedy:
Simple Command, Sufficient Promise
The two aspects of verse 33 will help us set our priority
Seek the King the Kingdom and its righteousness and
Here is the promise all these things will be added to you
Seeking God is our only responsibility
I hear you, you say that you have been looking for God
If you have been seeking Him while doing something else or if have been looking for Him while on your way to something else
If you have shared Him with anything or anyone else then you will never find Him
Seeking Him must be the only thing!!!!
Here is the picture; it is that of a lover pursuing his beloved
It is not a onetime event
The command is to regularly consistently seek God
As our situation changes our needs change
The manner in which we seek Him also Changes
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own” (v. 34).
“Tomorrow,” the future, will have trouble.
It is unavoidable.
No Christian should ever be caught in what I call the “then syndrome.” “Then things are going to be trouble free.”
“When I get married, then I’ll be beyond trouble.”
“When I have children …
when I get a promotion …”
It is futile to try to live a problem-free life.
You can spend all your time and energy fortifying the castle of your life, but there is always a place that goes unguarded. Tomorrow will have its challenges and trials, no matter how hard you try to prevent them.
We are not to worry about tomorrow. Worry will not destroy tomorrow’s trials, but it will sabotage our strength.
George Macdonald put it this way: “No man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow’s burden is added to the burden of today, that the weight is more than a man can bear.”7
Worrying does not enable you to escape evil. It makes you unfit to cope with it. The truth is, we always have the strength to bear the trouble when it comes. But we do not have the strength to bear worrying about it. If you add today’s troubles to tomorrow’s troubles, you give yourself an impossible burden.
Also, worry makes us subject to miseries that we otherwise would never know. A line from Faust says it perfectly:
Phil. 4:6 In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by
prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be
made known to God.
1 Pet. 5:7 Casting all your anxiety on Him because it
matters to Him concerning you.
Your condition is not your conclusion
A box of roses
