A Study of the Book of Luke
Sermon # 33
The World’s Most Acceptable Sin
Luke 12:22-34
Worry is the number one mental disorder in America. “The Mayo Clinic claims 80-85% of total caseload is due directly to worry and anxiety. Many experts say that coping with stress is the #1 health priority of our day. One leading physician has stated that, in his opinion, 70% of all medical patients could cure themselves if only they got rid of their worries and fears. We know that medical science has closely tied worry to heart trouble, blood pressure problems, ulcers, thyroid malfunction, migraine headaches, a host of stomach disorders, amongst others. For example 25 million Americans have high blood pressure due to stress/anxiety; 1 million more develop high blood pressure each year. 8 million have stomach ulcers every week 112 million people take medication for stress related symptoms.” [Craig Simpson. “Don’t Worry About Anything.” SermonCentral.com]
In our previous study we learned about “The Folly Of Seeking The Comfortable Life.” In this part of Jesus’ sermon we saw how he dealt with the subject of greed, this subject when a man in the crowd cried out the Jesus, requesting Him to instruct his brother to give him his share of the inheritance. Jesus refused to act as a judge or arbiter, but did not hesitate to point out that the problem was greed, and then to teach that even for those who are able to attain an abundance of possessions will find that life does not consist of possessions. His parable of the rich fool drove this point home. In the previous section Jesus spoke to those who have more than enough about their preoccupation with “getting ahead” and now He speaks to those who are worrying about “getting by.”
Understand with me that life was hard in biblical Palestine, roughly equivalent to the life of the poor in Third World countries today. In many parts of the world people struggle each day for food and clothing. They live on the fringe of survival.
Note that this section is addressed not to the crowd but to the disciples. Verse twenty-two, “Then He said to His disciples, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on.”
Some translations render verse twenty-two “for this reason I say to you.” Since these words are addressed to the disciples the implication is that worry is one of the besetting sins of believers. Even as believers we are not immune to worry, because we live under the same pressures of society that everyone else does. It is even possible to worry about being a worrier. We know that we shouldn’t worry but we just can’t seem to keep from worrying. We need to recognize that the Bible says worry is a sin. “It is, however, one of the socially acceptable sins in the Christian life. We would never smile at a Christian who staggered into his home night after night drunk and abusive. But we often smile at a Christian friend who worries. We would not joke about a brother or sister in God’s family who stole someone’s car, but we regularly joke about worrying over some detail in life.” [Charles Swindoll. Living Beyond the Grind. Book I (Dallas: Word, 1988) p. 176]
The primary New Testament word for worry is (merimnao) which means “to take thought of” or “to be careful about.” He is not calling for thoughtless existence or the absence of appropriate concern. It would best to understand
It is this same word Jesus used when He said, “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on….” (Matthew 6:25 - KJV). And Paul used it when he wrote, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6). Those appear at first glance to be good things. But the Greek term actually gives the picture of a divided mind. The worrier has a mind that is torn between the real and the possible, the immediate and potential. He is trying to fight the battle of life on two fronts at the same time and he is bound to lose the war. The worrier attempts to live the future today but that is impossible, the future isn’t here and the future isn’t his. To worry is to be distracted or preoccupied. No matter what else you doing, part of your mind is worrying. Worry superimposes the future on the present. Worry is the painful preoccupation with the consequences of what “might” happen. The Lord forces us to think about why we are not to worry in the following verses.
TWO REASONS THAT WORRY IS A BAD IDEA.
First, he tells us that worry is foolish in verses twenty-three – twenty-four. "Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. (24) "Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?”
Worry is especially foolish for Christian. To worry is foolishly to forget who we are – we are children of the King. It is like a woman worrying about how her hair looks as she sits in a boat about to be swept over the Niagara Fall.
McClaren the great preacher of the 19th century said, “What does your anxiety do? It does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but it does empty today of its strength. It does not make you escape the evil; it makes you unfit to cope with it when it comes. God gives us the power to bear all the sorrow of His making, but He does not guarantee to give us strength to bear the burdens of our own making such as worry induces.” [Ian Maclaren. www.bible.org/illus/w/w-54.htm]
Secondly, Worry is not only foolish it is futile. (vv. 25-27) "And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? (26) "If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? (27) "Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (28) "If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith?”
The Greek word translated “stature” can also mean “lifespan.” Worry cannot lengthen life but it certainly shorten it. In fact worry can rob us of two things in life, we won’t live as long and we will be unable to live happy and fulfilled life. People get ulcers not so much from what they eat as what is eating them. The alternative is not to be care-less but to be trust –full. “In his book Run Today’s Race, Oswald Chambers observes that all our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God.” [ Gary Inrig. The Parables: Understanding What Jesus Meant. (Grand Rapids: Discovery House Pub., 1991) p. 105
Consider that if worrying is so futile an activity because it does not work, why are we consuming so much of our time and our energy doing it?
The raven demonstrates God’s provision of food and the lilies of the field of God’s provision of clothing. It seems pointed that the Raven which is not even considered a clean bird, and that God still provides for his daily needs.
When I think of these lilies of the field I think of the flowers that we have in our front-yard called “day lilies.” They are called this because the bloom only seems to last for a day. They are beautiful but they are very short lived and they have no real purpose other than their beauty.
If then two such unimportant and insignificant things as ravens and lilies receive such generous provision from the hand of God, will not God’s children fare much better?
“Worry is wasting today’s time to clutter up tomorrow’s opportunities with yesterday’s troubles.”
FOUR GREAT PRINCIPLES FOR OVERCOMING WORRY!
Just telling us not to worry isn’t very helpful, however. People who tell us that usually seem unrealistic, uninformed, or patronizing. A simplistic “don’t worry be happy,” just won’t cut it. So how can we attempt to overcome worry? In the text we find three great principles for overcoming worry.
Principle One. Trust God. (vv. 29-30).
"And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. (30) "For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things.”
Jesus literally says here that believer’s are to stop seeking and stop doubting or worrying. This is not a suggestion this are imperatives, they are commands.
We must choose to trust God for those things that are beyond our control. Whenever we start to feel anxious we can give our burden over to the Lord. (1 Peter 5:7) is the invitation of God to “Cast all your care upon Him for he cares for you.” Another translation of this verse (LB) puts it this way, “Let him have all your worries and cares, for he is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you.” Scripture says that God is a very presence help in a time of trouble (Ps. 46:1). Since God is a help in “the time of trouble” in worry you are on your own.
Principle Two. Put God First. (v. 31)
"But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.”
We need to get our priorities straight. If we let the wrong thing be “number one” it will create an enormous amount of stress and worry in our lives, but when we put God first, it is amazing what will happen.
Seeking the kingdom of God is the means to achieve the meeting of our material needs. Now wait a minute that doesn’t make sense! But then the Christian life is often the opposite of what would seem right. We gain our life by loosing it, we lead by serving, and we have our material needs met by not worrying about them, but by seeking the kingdom as a priority.
Principle Three. Don’t Give In To Fear (v. 32) “Do not fear little flock for it is your Fathers’ pleasure to give you the kingdom”
In verse thirty-two Jesus really gets to the bottom line, WORRY IS REALLY FEAR! Jesus tells the believer that they are to stop being afraid, it is this fear that manifests itself in our lives as worry.
The antidote to fear is faith. Dr. E Stanley Jones explained this many years ago when he said; “I am inwardly fashioned for faith, not for fear. Fear is not my native land; faith is. I am so made that worry and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil. I live better by faith and confidence than by fear, doubt and anxiety. In anxiety and worry, my being is gasping for breath—these are not my native air. But in faith and confidence, I breathe freely—these are my native air.
A John Hopkins University doctor says, “We do not know why it is that worriers die sooner than the non-worriers, but that is a fact.” But I, who am simple of mind, think I know; We are inwardly constructed in nerve and tissue, brain cell and soul, for faith and not for fear. God made us that way. To live by worry is to live against reality.” [Dr. E. Stanley Jones, www.bible.org/illus/w/w-54.htm]
Principle Four. Reduce Your Worry Load (vv. 33-35)
The next few verses are pretty tough. Not that tough to understand but tough to apply. I have to make a confession at this point, I started to skip over them and before I am finished you may wish I had. But these verses are important, verse thirty-three and thirty-four say, “Sell what you have and give alms; provide for yourselves money bags which do not not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. (34) For where your treasure is there your heart will be also”
There is no place in either the New Testament letters or the Book of Acts that reveals that believers were expected to sell all their property as soon as they were saved. The believers in Jerusalem did take these words of Jesus seriously and many did sell of there possessions (Acts 4:32). But they did not sell them immediately nor did they sell every thing they had.
So what do these words mean, “Sell what you have and give alms (v. 33). I think that it is interesting that while we often worry about “necessities” such as food and clothing, we often are literally laden down with non-essentials, luxuries. In order to excuse our self-indulgence, we just add to the list of what is essential. Thus, the list of “necessities” always exceeds our income, and thus we never have money to give. Jesus solves this problem quickly, does He not? He tells those of us who are, in our minds, “barely getting by,” to sell off some of the excess baggage.
Why is that we tend to think of our obligation to give to God only in terms of the cash we have in hand? When the offering plate is passed, we go to the wallet. We go for the greenbacks, at least those with small denominations. We think that our only obligation to God in terms of material things is that which we have in cash.
Jesus tells us to convert non-liquid assets into liquid ones, so that we are never hindered from giving by a “cash-flow” problem. Now this, folks, is down right threatening. The problem of the disciples, like us, is not our “lack of having enough to get by,” but rather our having too much for our own good. [Robert Deffinbaugh. A Disciples Perspective on Possessions. www. Bible.org /docs/nt/books/luk/deffin/luke-44.]
Jesus concludes this thought in verse thirty-four by saying, “For where your treasure is there your heart will be also”
“David Gooding writes, ‘Heaven is scarcely a reality to a man who is not prepared to invest hard cash in it and in its interests; but by the same token it becomes more of a reality to the man who is.” [David Gooding. According to Luke. p. 241. As quoted by Inrig. p. 106.
The crucial issue in life is not the amount of our treasure but the location of it.
