Show Notes
Matthew 6:26-30
Pastor Steven Lauer
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Let's pray.
[00:00:08] O Lord our God, we thank you for the greatness of your loving kindness and mercy. We thank you that you are even now impressing that upon our hearts by the work of your spirit, so that we would know that we have peace with you, that we are welcome in your presence, welcome before your throne, welcome in your home, and that we are part of your family, your sons and your daughters, princes and princesses of the heavenly King.
[00:00:43] O Lord our God. We ask now then, a very great request, sir. We would see Jesus.
[00:00:54] Show us as we open your word, the Lord Jesus Christ in all of his splendor, his glory, his love toward us weak sinners.
[00:01:06] And we ask that you would take our trembling hearts and quiet them, and that we might be at peace before you.
[00:01:15] Change us as we behold your glory shining in his face. Change us from glory into glory, more and more into the image of your son Jesus, for we plead with you in his name. Amen.
[00:01:31] Please be seated.
[00:01:36] In addition to our sermon text this morning, From Matthew, chapter six, I want to first read with you from Matthew 22.
[00:01:45] So if you'll turn in your Bibles to Matthew 22, we'll read together the parable of the wedding feast, Matthew 22:1 14, and then turn back to Matthew 6 and read beginning in verse 25. So Matthew 22:1, Hear God's word.
[00:02:06] And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast. But they would not come again. He sent other servants, saying, tell those who are invited, see, I have prepared my dinner.
[00:02:29] My oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered. Everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.
[00:02:38] But they paid no attention and went off. One to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants and treated them shamefully and killed them.
[00:02:49] The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
[00:02:55] Then he said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready. But those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. And the servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found both good and bad.
[00:03:15] So the wedding hall was filled with guests.
[00:03:19] When the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.
[00:03:26] And he said to him, friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?
[00:03:33] He was speechless.
[00:03:36] Then the king said to the attendants, bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen.
[00:03:49] Then, turning now to Matthew 6, Matthew 6, we'll read verse 25 through the end of the chapter. Our sermon is going to focus on verses 26 through 30.
[00:04:03] Here again God's word for you and for me. 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.
[00:04:22] Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
[00:04:27] Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them.
[00:04:39] Are you not of more value than they?
[00:04:46] And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life?
[00:04:53] Why are you anxious about clothing?
[00:04:58] Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.
[00:05:02] They neither toil nor spin.
[00:05:05] Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
[00:05:13] What if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven?
[00:05:21] Will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
[00:05:28] Therefore do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear?
[00:05:36] For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
[00:05:44] But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
[00:05:59] Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Thus far God's word.
[00:06:10] We're dropping here into the middle of what we call the Sermon on the Mount.
[00:06:14] We call it that because Matthew, chapter 5, 6 and 7 are one continuous speech or sermon teaching of Jesus. That happens if you look back at chapter five, verse one. We read there that Jesus went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him, and opening his mouth, he began to speak to them, saying, Then he gives this wonderful sermon, beginning with the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of of heaven. This whole sermon is about Jesus kingdom and how we as his disciples are blessed in his kingdom, and we're called to live in his kingdom. And here he wants us to know that we are not to be worried in his kingdom, but to trust in Him.
[00:07:05] This truth is found as a Command in verse 25.
[00:07:10] Do not be anxious about your life, what you eat, or what you will drink. Do not Be anxious about your body, what you will put on, in other words, clothing, what you wear, what we find there is command not to worry.
[00:07:28] In particular, focused on worrying about the things that sustain our life, our most basic needs in life. And that that's its own sermon.
[00:07:37] But you find, as you explore this idea of worrying about life and food and clothing the body, that all of the other worries we have in life tend to relate back to our most basic needs. We worry about our jobs and how they go, because if we lose them, there goes food. If we don't have food, we can't feed our children and we go hungry.
[00:08:03] You see the pattern. And just about every other worry you have in this life is either somehow related to these root worries about the basic needs of life. And Jesus says we're not to worry. And in verse 25, he gives a first reason.
[00:08:22] And that reason that he gives there is that basically this. He argues from the greater to the lesser. If you're familiar with arguments from the greater to the lesser, he argues from the greater life and your body. If God has given you life and given you a body, then you can trust him that he'll sustain that life and clothe that body.
[00:08:47] If God has given you what is greater, he'll give you what is less, what is easier, smaller.
[00:08:54] So don't worry. That's his first reason.
[00:08:57] But we want to press on to verses 26 through 30, where we find a series of further reasons that Jesus gives for why we are not to worry.
[00:09:08] Before we jump into Jesus reasoning, we need to think a little bit more about this command not to worry. And I'm deliberately choosing the word worry because I think in English, and particularly in our day, worrying has to do with the things that we're conscious about. Our thoughts understand that when we say the word anxiety, sometimes that evokes the idea of physical feelings that come perhaps from an illness. Jesus is talking here about those things that we are consciously doing, worrying about food, clothing, and so forth.
[00:09:47] So I'm going to choose the word worry here.
[00:09:50] There are very few of us who are free from worry.
[00:09:55] If you're free from worry, we'll get to that later.
[00:09:58] But most of us immediately identify with Jesus words here, don't we? Being worrying or anxious about things in life.
[00:10:08] Now, the first thought here about this command, why does Jesus make it a command, not worry?
[00:10:16] Is because worry is opposed to or the opposite of faith.
[00:10:23] If you are worrying, you are not trusting God. The two are in opposition to each other.
[00:10:30] If you are worrying about this or that, Matter, you're not trusting God about this or that matter. If you're worrying about food and whether you have food to eat, you're not trusting that your Heavenly Father will provide for you. You see how they go together, and Jesus brings them together very Clearly. In verse 30 when he says, o you of little faith, it's a loving rebuke, but it's a rebuke nonetheless. If you're worrying about all of these things and not trusting God, you are of little faith. So to worry is opposed to faith.
[00:11:05] Second thing I want to point out here about this command not to worry that Jesus gives us is that this ought to be an encouragement to us, this command and this reasoning that Jesus gives us for why we ought not to worry.
[00:11:23] It comes from the heart of our loving King, the one who loves us and gave Himself up for us.
[00:11:33] Don't take Jesus words here as a stick that's beating you over the head.
[00:11:39] Jesus is reasoning with us. He's wanting us to see why it is that we do not need to worry and therefore we ought not to worry, but rather that we should trust our Heavenly Father.
[00:11:53] Jesus is God, but he's also man.
[00:11:57] All of the cares that we have in this life, Jesus has experienced.
[00:12:04] He knows what it's like not to have food and to go hungry. He did that for 40 days and 40 nights. He knows what it's like to have a body that's weak and tired, facing temptation.
[00:12:19] He knows our deepest struggles.
[00:12:23] So this comes from the heart of someone who identifies with, has experienced our weakness, and he wants to draw us away from worry and to trusting our Heavenly Father.
[00:12:36] One further thought about this command, it's opposed to faith. Worry is opposed to faith. This is love of Christ that drives us to this command.
[00:12:51] But a final thought about the command itself is that this is a command not to worry and be anxious.
[00:13:01] Not just a suggestion. It isn't even just an encouragement.
[00:13:06] It is a command, do not be anxious.
[00:13:11] This command is repeated in other parts of the Scripture. For example in Philippians chapter 4, where Paul says, be anxious for nothing.
[00:13:26] When the Scripture gives us commands and we don't follow them, what do we call that?
[00:13:35] Sin?
[00:13:37] Yes, to worry instead of trusting our Heavenly Father is actually sinful.
[00:13:43] So there is a weightiness to Jesus command here, as filled as it is with his love and his concern for us.
[00:13:51] This is an area, just like every other area of sin that Jesus addresses in the Sermon on the Mount, where he wants to set us free from this sin and show us a better way, a way of faith and trusting in God.
[00:14:05] You see our worries about our children, about our jobs, about food and clothing and shelter, our worries about the government and elections that maybe are coming up.
[00:14:16] Those are matters of whether we trust God, and we trust his providence and his care for us. And to distrust him is sin. So this is a weighty matter.
[00:14:31] It's hard enough for us to worry, but then to find out that worrying is sinful.
[00:14:41] But you need to see Jesus compassion, His love for you. When you worry, you're being drawn away from Jesus.
[00:14:50] When you worry, you're not trusting him.
[00:14:54] And that leads to trouble.
[00:14:57] Now, Jesus understands our worries not just because he's experienced the circumstances of life, how painful it is to go without food and so forth.
[00:15:09] But he knows, because he has a human nature, though he's never worried sinfully. He knows the kind of trouble we get ourselves into when we worry.
[00:15:20] He knows how hard it is for us to stop worrying.
[00:15:24] This isn't just a bad habit, let's say, like if you eat too many sweets, it is a habit, but it's deeper than that. If you eat too many sweets, what do you do?
[00:15:35] Well, what can you do?
[00:15:36] You cannot put them in your shopping cart when you're at the store. And you can take them out of your house and get rid of them. And you can sit with whatever feelings of hunger and sweet tooth that you deal with, but you can do things about that bad habit of eating too many sweets that are fairly straightforward.
[00:15:55] But Jesus knows that when we go about worrying, it's not like we can just take the sweets out of our house, fight, and get rid of the habit.
[00:16:05] Because everywhere we go, we carry with us the thing that does the worrying.
[00:16:11] Down here and up here.
[00:16:14] The mind worries. The heart is moved anxiously to worry.
[00:16:19] It's far deeper than just a bad habit of eating too many sweets.
[00:16:24] Worry, as we give ourselves over to it, takes deep root. It. It grabs a hold of the mind, it forms thought patterns, doesn't it? And then that begins to take root in our hearts, in our feelings. Our hearts are shaped by our worries.
[00:16:40] What you find here in these verses is that Jesus understands that this is how we worry and what it does to us.
[00:16:48] And so he addresses it not just with one command and one reason, but many reasons.
[00:16:55] He reasons with us. He grabs ahold of us and he works with our worry. He knows that worry in our hearts is like a weed that has roots that have grown deep.
[00:17:07] And you can't just rip the top off.
[00:17:10] He's taking a hold of it. At the base of the plant, and he's shaking it.
[00:17:15] He's grabbing a hold of that worry in your hearts, and he's moving it back and forth to break it loose from the soil so that he can pull it out completely and replace it with faith.
[00:17:28] Sometimes we have to chew an idea on an idea, right? We have to mull it over. We have to look at it from this angle and that angle.
[00:17:35] And over time, as we ponder the matter, it begins to shape how we think. And it becomes a part of us.
[00:17:42] And we accept the truth and we live in it.
[00:17:46] That's the sort of thing Jesus is doing in these verses as he gives us reason after reason not to worry but to trust our Heavenly Father.
[00:17:55] I want to look this morning at three reasons that you shouldn't worry according to Jesus our Savior.
[00:18:03] First of all, you shouldn't worry because of the birds.
[00:18:07] You shouldn't worry because of the birds. Secondly, you shouldn't worry because it's futile.
[00:18:13] It's pointless.
[00:18:15] Thirdly, you shouldn't worry because of the flowers.
[00:18:20] First reason he gives you not to worry is because of the birds.
[00:18:25] Remember the Sermon on the Mount? Here Jesus is sitting on an actual mountain teaching his disciples out in the open air. And he says, now I've commanded you not to worry.
[00:18:38] Look at the birds that are flying around.
[00:18:41] Consider them.
[00:18:44] And of course, if you're a bird watcher, this is your theme verse. Jesus commands bird watching, right?
[00:18:51] All of us should take that hobby up at least a little bit, according to Jesus.
[00:18:56] What's he doing?
[00:18:59] What would a bird have to worry about?
[00:19:03] Watch the birds. What do the birds do?
[00:19:08] What are they always doing as they fly around?
[00:19:12] They're looking for food, aren't they?
[00:19:16] If you have a bird feeder in your backyard and you watch the birds, what do they come to the bird feeder to do?
[00:19:23] To eat the seeds, right?
[00:19:26] If you have chickens. I don't know if anyone here has chickens. If you have chickens, what are the chickens always out in the yard doing? They're pecking and they're scratching at the ground, looking for insects and grubs to eat.
[00:19:38] Do we have vultures around here?
[00:19:41] Turkey vultures? Yeah.
[00:19:43] And when you see them flying, circling off in the distance, you know what they're doing.
[00:19:50] They found food, a dead carcass on the ground that they can land on and peck at and get food.
[00:20:00] That's what birds are always doing. What do birds not do?
[00:20:09] Birds don't work.
[00:20:11] They don't plant. They don't hoe and tend the fields. They don't harvest.
[00:20:18] Birds don't work.
[00:20:20] Birds don't go to school and study hard in high school so they can go to trade school and start a career or go to college and find a different career.
[00:20:29] They don't work hard and save and invest so that one day they can retire, live in their nice home and visit their grandchildren. See, birds don't plan and save and they don't worry about any of this stuff. They don't work and they don't worry.
[00:20:47] But the result of all their not working and they're not worrying about anything is that they always have exactly what they need.
[00:20:55] There's bugs in the grass for the chickens, there's dead carcasses for the vultures. There's fish for the eagles. Right?
[00:21:04] What's Jesus saying?
[00:21:07] You are worth far more than the birds.
[00:21:13] God loves the birds. He made the birds.
[00:21:16] But you're made in God's image.
[00:21:19] You're not just any old creature. You reflect God's glory in a special way, different from the rest of his creation.
[00:21:28] What's more, if you belong to Jesus and you're a disciple in his kingdom, then you become a child of the Heavenly Father.
[00:21:36] You're his son, his daughter.
[00:21:39] You're a prince or a princess in his kingdom.
[00:21:44] If God takes care of the birds, he will give you what you you need.
[00:21:53] Probably a little bit more here.
[00:21:59] God is the Creator of birds.
[00:22:02] He's your creator too, but he's your Father.
[00:22:09] He's not just your creator, he's your father and you're his child.
[00:22:15] Fathers always feed their children. Even most evil fathers on earth feed their children if they're able to.
[00:22:26] But God is good, not evil. Perfectly good, as we read this morning.
[00:22:33] So as you're driving down the road and your stomach is turning and churning because you're worried about what happened at work or you're worried about what's going on with your children.
[00:22:47] If you're worried about their faith, look out the window around here. You will probably see a bird within a few minutes as you're driving along.
[00:23:01] And give your thoughts over not to worry, but to what Jesus says about the birds. And your heavenly fathers care for them and say, look at that bird. My Father cares for me and loves me far more than he loves the birds. If he takes care of them, he will solve whatever this thing is that I'm worried about. I will trust in Him.
[00:23:29] So don't worry because of the birds. Secondly, don't worry because it's futile.
[00:23:34] Now, this one's obvious. We know this. I think by instinct, we know that worrying accomplishes nothing. It does absolutely nothing except to irritate the people around us, to give us ulcers, to disrupt our sleep. Right? I mean, it does a few things. It does nothing of any good towards whatever problem it is that we're worried about.
[00:23:58] Now, even though we know this, we need to hear it, apparently, because we still worry, don't we?
[00:24:05] Jesus wants us to hear it, to face this reality that worrying is pointless.
[00:24:13] We're wasting our time if we worry.
[00:24:16] Look at verse 27.
[00:24:19] Which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his lifespan?
[00:24:26] This reminds us again of what all of our worries go back to. We're worried about life and sustaining life.
[00:24:35] And no matter how much you worry about the things that sustain life, you cannot add a single hour to your life. Now, the imagery here in the verse is that you can't add a qubit, literally, to your lifespan. You think of your life as measured in distance. Let's say I'm 40 years old, so let's say 40 miles.
[00:24:59] My life is represented by a distance of 40 miles.
[00:25:03] I can't, by worrying, add even a cubit, which is about 18 inches. I can't add a cubit to the 40 miles of my lifespan. Or as our translation renders it helpfully, I can't add an hour to my life. Well, what's a cubit of 18 inches compared to 40 miles? It's nothing. What's an hour compared to 40 years of life?
[00:25:26] It's nothing.
[00:25:29] It's minuscule. I can't add even the smallest amount of time to my life by worrying about whatever this matter is.
[00:25:42] Now, the lesson here is again obvious.
[00:25:45] Worrying is absolutely useless.
[00:25:49] We can't solve anything by worrying.
[00:25:55] Now, here we go on a left turn.
[00:25:59] Maybe you're sitting there saying, I don't worry.
[00:26:04] I never really worry about my life. I'm pretty carefree.
[00:26:08] Good for you, I suppose.
[00:26:10] But let's probe that for a minute.
[00:26:13] Why don't you worry?
[00:26:16] The rest of us worry. Why don't you worry?
[00:26:20] And think carefully about how you answer this.
[00:26:22] If the reason that you don't worry is that you're trusting your Heavenly Father, then praise God. This sermon is to encourage you more in that.
[00:26:31] But if the reason you don't worry about life is something like this, then you're no better off than the rest of us who do worry.
[00:26:41] If you don't worry because you say, I've got a full bank account, my investments are doing quite well, I'm only 40 and I'm all set. I could retire today. That's not me, by the way.
[00:26:57] But if that's why you're not worrying, then you really need to think about this.
[00:27:03] If you don't worry because you say, everything I have is insured. I've got great insurance on my car, my health, my life, my house, everything's covered. I don't need to worry. If something bad happens, think again.
[00:27:18] If you say again, this is not me.
[00:27:22] If you say, I don't worry because I'm so talented, I'm doing a great job raising my children, I don't worry about them, that's definitely not me.
[00:27:31] If you say I'm not worried about my job, I'm so talented, I can get a job anywhere, I can do anything. There are some people that truly are quite talented.
[00:27:42] If this is you, then think again.
[00:27:45] If you're still young, you've got health, Life seems to be your oyster. Everything is in front of you. Death is so far off, you don't ever think about it. And so you don't worry.
[00:28:00] And you need to think again.
[00:28:04] Jesus comes and says to you in Luke, as he said to the rich man who had everything he wanted and his soul was satisfied, and he did not worry. Jesus came to him and said, you fool, this day your life will be required of you.
[00:28:22] You see, if this is you, this is why you don't worry. You've done the very thing that Jesus has just warned you against doing. Look back a few verses here in Matthew 6.
[00:28:35] You have laid up treasures on earth.
[00:28:38] Your heart has trusted in earthly things, and therefore you don't worry.
[00:28:48] You have no way of keeping yourself alive.
[00:28:52] You didn't give yourself the gift of life, and you will only have that life so long as God wishes to give it to you.
[00:29:02] Give up your treasures on earth.
[00:29:06] Give them up.
[00:29:08] You would be better off worrying, because at least if you were worrying about this life, you would be ready to hear the words Jesus has for you. The words of comfort, of hope, of his Father's care for you.
[00:29:24] I digress.
[00:29:25] Worrying is as futile as trusting in the things of this world.
[00:29:30] That's Jesus point here.
[00:29:32] So don't waste your time worrying. Your life depends on God's will, His providing you life.
[00:29:39] So long as he wants you here, he'll keep breath in your lungs and your heart will continue to beat.
[00:29:46] Don't worry because it's a waste of time.
[00:29:49] But thirdly, finally, don't worry because of the flowers.
[00:29:54] Again, Jesus is sitting on the mountain.
[00:29:58] You can just imagine.
[00:30:02] Look at the lilies of the field.
[00:30:05] Consider them.
[00:30:07] And he points to the wildflowers on the slopes of the mountain he sits on.
[00:30:12] Now. Before our family got sick, we loved to hike and climb mountains. And hopefully, by God's grace and his healing hand, someday we will be climbing mountains again.
[00:30:22] One of the wonderful things about hiking in the mountains is when you come around a bend and you see a meadow or a hillside covered with beautiful mountain flowers.
[00:30:36] Now, it's not like the flowers in the shop that you go to buy. They're all kind of the same shape and size.
[00:30:42] Mountain flowers are gorgeous. All shapes, sizes, colors, patterns, and the ground is covered with them. It's truly glorious when you round that bend and your vision is filled with these beautiful, glorious flowers.
[00:31:00] Puts a smile on your face and it fills your heart with praise to God.
[00:31:07] Where do these beauties come from? Whether in the flower shop or out there in the fields, God causes them to grow.
[00:31:16] That's where they come from.
[00:31:18] See, the birds have some level of ability, they have some power to fly around and find food and eat it.
[00:31:26] They can dig and catch a worm, right? They can find seeds.
[00:31:31] They'll decide, I'm going to eat here, I'm going to eat there.
[00:31:35] But the flowers and the grasses have nothing.
[00:31:40] The seeds fall where they fall.
[00:31:43] They take root and they spring up as God causes the sun to shine on the flower and the rain to fall.
[00:31:52] Flowers and grasses are utterly dependent on God for everything, everything in their growth and existence.
[00:32:04] Flowers and grasses, though, are of the least of value.
[00:32:10] Birds might be sold a few for a penny, Jesus says, but wildflowers, no one will buy. They don't sell them in shops, do they?
[00:32:22] You can pick them for free on the side of the road and no one cares about them.
[00:32:28] They grow here, they grow there. They, they may last a few days, a few weeks at most. They shrivel up, they die and they're gone.
[00:32:37] Jesus says, at most. This is back when you cooked with wood in your cook stove at home.
[00:32:46] Jesus says, at most we might gather the dried up grass. When we run out of sticks and we don't have any logs to burn, we might gather the grass, use it for fuel in the cook stove.
[00:33:00] See, flowers and the grass beneath them that they clothe are truly inconsequential.
[00:33:08] The birds are nothing. We have that expression, it's for the birds, right?
[00:33:14] But grass and flowers, we mow it, we spray it, we try to get rid of it.
[00:33:24] What does God do with such an inconsequential plant as the grass of the field, he clothes it, Jesus says, with more beauty and glory than King Solomon of old did. If you remember, King Solomon was the wealthiest of Israel's kings.
[00:33:44] It was under him that Israel's kingdom reached its high point in terms of its borders and its power.
[00:33:52] The wealth of Africa and ancient near east, all of it poured through on the main trade routes, poured through Jerusalem.
[00:34:01] Solomon was the wealthiest and richest of all the kings of the Bible.
[00:34:07] And no doubt he clothed himself in robes that you and I have never seen the beauty of.
[00:34:18] And God clothes the grass of the field with more beauty than Solomon had.
[00:34:24] And Jesus says, you're his child.
[00:34:29] You are a child of the Heavenly Father. If the grass, which matters not is clothed with the glory of the flowers, then you need not worry.
[00:34:41] Your loving Heavenly Father will clothe you perfectly.
[00:34:48] So maybe you're doing the dishes, fretting about this or that, worried about the deepest, darkest things that trouble you.
[00:34:58] Let your eye gaze out the window and spot that little dandelion growing in your yard. Now, I know around here you don't have grass, you have rocks. But I've noticed that the dandelions that still somehow spring up in the yards around here. So you have that pristine yard you're trying to keep clean. You see that dandelion and instead of thinking, I need to get that sprayed, I need to go rip that weed out instead, see that wildflower and say, what am I doing? Worrying my Heavenly Father will care for me and deal with and bring me through whatever this problem is that I'm worrying about.
[00:35:38] Don't miss Jesus message in the flowers. Every day he's speaking to you. When you see that flower, your Heavenly Father loves you and will care for you and clothe you.
[00:35:51] So Jesus gives you three reasons not to worry. He feeds the birds. He clothes the grass of the field.
[00:35:58] And worrying is pointless.
[00:36:01] But perhaps if that's all that we said about this passage, and I exaggerate here, if that's all we said about this passage, we might be able to substitute Heavenly Father for Buddha or Allah.
[00:36:20] I could preach this sermon Again, I exaggerate to Buddhists or Muslims, perhaps even to atheists.
[00:36:29] All of them would agree that worrying is pointless, right?
[00:36:35] Perhaps they would all argue whatever version they hold to that.
[00:36:41] We see that the fates or whomever nature cares for, the birds of the air and the grass of the field. So if the impersonal forces of the universe take care of the little things, maybe they'll take care of us.
[00:36:58] Again, I exaggerate to make a point.
[00:37:02] There's Something more here.
[00:37:04] Something more that Jesus doesn't want us to miss.
[00:37:09] Solomon in all of his glory. All of the wealth of the ancient world. He had it all.
[00:37:18] Silver was so common in Jerusalem, it it was treated like stones.
[00:37:23] It was worth nothing.
[00:37:25] That's how wealthy he was.
[00:37:27] He wore the richest of royal robes. No doubt embroidered with gold.
[00:37:34] I don't even know how you do that.
[00:37:38] Why is it that the flower's beauty exceeds Solomon's robes?
[00:37:50] That's what he says, doesn't he? If God so clothes the grass of the field which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
[00:38:04] Solomon the grass of the field. And he promises to clothe you more richly, with more glory and more blessedness than he clothes Solomon with flowers.
[00:38:19] Why? What's Jesus getting at?
[00:38:22] God promises to clothe you similarly to the grass of the field. Where do the flowers come from?
[00:38:33] Solomon's robes came from his tailors.
[00:38:36] No doubt that he paid handsomely. They were skilled.
[00:38:40] Best robes anyone ever wore.
[00:38:42] His tailors made them. Who clothes the grass of the field?
[00:38:47] God himself.
[00:38:49] The flowers come from God's hand.
[00:38:52] Whatever it is that Jesus promises your heavenly Father is going to clothe you with, comes from your Father's hand.
[00:39:01] He's talking about something greater and better than earthly clothing.
[00:39:10] The disciple of Jesus is different than a bird or a flower.
[00:39:15] Millions of birds die each year.
[00:39:18] There's a drought, their food source dries up. The same drought kills the flowers. A wildfire rips through and the land is barren.
[00:39:27] What about people?
[00:39:30] They die too.
[00:39:32] There's only so many hours God will add to your life and you will be gone.
[00:39:41] What is it about the disciple of Jesus?
[00:39:45] What is it that you can hope in that your heavenly Father will clothe you with?
[00:39:53] Jesus offers you something greater than earthly life.
[00:39:57] He came that we might have life and have it abundantly.
[00:40:03] He came so that you would have eternal life.
[00:40:09] That you would be forever in the presence of your heavenly Father, beholding him face to face.
[00:40:15] Solomon's robes were glorious. But the really glorious thing about Solomon was the temple that was filled with God's glory. That pointed God's people to a time when they would live with God in in his house forever.
[00:40:30] The thing greater than Solomon is Jesus and the eternal life that he gives you his disciples.
[00:40:39] To live in God's presence forever, however, requires a special kind of glorious robe.
[00:40:48] A righteous robe. Pictured in that spotless, blameless lamb that Solomon offered in his temple.
[00:40:55] A lamb with no sin.
[00:40:58] Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
[00:41:05] He is that perfect righteousness which God provides and that he clothes his disciples with.
[00:41:13] Remember the story that we read from Matthew 22.
[00:41:19] God is preparing his kingdom like a father for his son, his Son's wedding day.
[00:41:28] And one day, Jesus is going to bring his people into His Father's presence to present you, his disciples, his church, as his bride.
[00:41:40] And what do you need to be at that wedding feast?
[00:41:44] Jesus says you have to have wedding rights.
[00:41:48] And those wedding robes are the righteousness of Christ Jesus.
[00:41:55] This is the garment that God offers to all who turn to Jesus in faith.
[00:42:03] Why do you not need to worry?
[00:42:06] Because Jesus has made peace between you and the Father and he has betrothed you to himself and he gives you his glorious righteousness so that you would be accepted of God and you would have life forever with Him.
[00:42:24] Why worry for your body, for food, for your life, for clothing?
[00:42:31] You don't need to worry about any of these things.
[00:42:34] God has provided all of it for you in Jesus, Son. Shall we pray?
[00:42:43] Our wonderful Father in heaven, we confess that our view is so small, our hearts so concerned about little things, that we miss the greatness of your love, the permanence of the salvation that you have brought us in Jesus. Something that no one can take from us, from us. Something he has secured by his righteousness for us.
[00:43:14] A forgiveness that cannot be rolled back because his blood was shed once for all for us.
[00:43:23] O Lord our God, we ask that you would fill our hearts with a vision of Jesus, that our faith in him would be strengthened and that the worries of this life would melt away.
[00:43:36] That as we encounter the troubles of this world, we would turn to you in faith.
[00:43:42] O Lord, we confess, though that worry takes deep root in our hearts, we frequently give ourselves over to it. We don't even realize it until we've been doing it for hours and even days.
[00:43:55] O Lord, in your mercy deliver us.
[00:43:59] Bring us back to Christ.
[00:44:02] Strengthen our faith in him that we might serve you for his sake. O Lord our God, now we confess to you and bring to you all the great cares and needs that we have.
[00:44:12] Lord, our bodies are weak, we are sick, and we need you to heal them.
[00:44:20] We have aches and pains. We ask that you would take them away.
[00:44:26] We have hearts that are wounded, relationships that are broken. This troubles us. Lord God, bring us healing.
[00:44:34] We have trouble with our jobs.
[00:44:37] We fret and worry because of how well we do or aren't doing or how well the markets are. Going or what's going to happen with this or that election.
[00:44:46] O Lord God, help us to see your hand, your providence, you ruling through Jesus. For our sake, we ask that you would give us what we need in each of these areas.
[00:44:58] Give us the rulers we need, give us the strength to do our jobs. Give us faith in you that we would serve you with courage and with joy.
[00:45:08] O Lord, we bring these things to you. In Jesus name, amen.
