On the mount and we're gonna be finishing off the sixth chapter. So if you could open there, that would be great We're gonna be in Matthew chapter 6 Starting in verse 25 and then we'll go down to the end of the chapter I'm gonna read it and and then we'll get into the content and context of what our Lord and Savior is talking to us about here today. Here the word of the Lord starts off in verse 25. Therefore I say to you, do not worry 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?

Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin.

And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven will he not much more clothe you oh you of little faith therefore do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for after all these things the Gentiles seek for your heavenly father knows that you need all these things but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Let's pray. Father, we do pray for your help here this afternoon and that you would instruct us and help us, oh Lord.

We see here so clearly the theme of worry just threaded throughout all of these verses and we pray, Father, that you would deliver us and help us to focus and trust in you, the God who is there, the God who is faithful. Help us now, we pray, amen. Amen. Well, we just, if you recall, came off of kind of right in the middle of a section that is teaching us on our relationship with things. And the Lord is really telling us that life in the kingdom is different than life in the world.

It's totally different in its affections and our God is different and he wants our focus to be different as well. And so remember mammon, just the verse ahead of what we just read, where you think of mammon just for a second, right? Mammon, not too different than what our brother was preaching this morning about useless Idols. Well, mammon is really that ageless idol and it promises comfort and a smile in this life. And Jesus is saying to his disciples there on that hillside, he says, don't kid yourself, you're not going to be able to serve both God and this idle mammon.

You're gonna have to make a choice. There's gonna have to be a clean break. And so the question arises, well, if this is the case, how should I think about my provision in this world? Because after all, mammon gives us so many promises about safety and comfort and provision in this world and No doubt if you've if you've got any level of responsibility for family or even if you've just you know you're living this life even as a single person, no doubt you're always asking questions, what if? Or, well what about this issue or that?

And like men of the world, you know, men in the kingdom are afflicted with that five letter word, worry. And so I wanna talk to us today how we can kind of confront the worry epidemic, if you will. And if you know anything, you've paid attention to what's going on in our age, you'll notice that really, worry specifically has taken itself to new heights, really, in our age. It's monetized like no other time in history. People are making money from it.

There's actually an industry built all around this whole matter of worry. You could call it the worry and depression industrial complex in the US and it's a market that actually brings in revenue of about 12 billion dollars every single year and to just give you some context of that it's larger than Major League Baseball just to give you some parameter there and so what are we to make of worry well I think the thing we have to come to terms with is that it really is one of the most powerful forces on earth and it lies just below the surface kind of guiding our decisions our our overall perceptions and our desires in this world you know the things that just take up so much of our our mind and The reality is that we're living in an unstable and uncertain world. So it's natural in a world like that to worry. And even as Christians, as I mentioned, all of us kind of seem to have this burden on our back. It's not the burden of sin like, you know, Christian as he was in pilgrim's progress carrying that burden of sin.

But nevertheless, we've got this burden of worry. It just never seems to leave us alone. And so Charles Spurgeon, who was a man, he was acquainted with depression. He was attacked on all sides. I think he would admit that he would fall victim oftentimes to worry.

He had these kind words to say and I find it just so helpful, so pastoral. He says, I would not blame all those who are much given to fear, For in some it is rather their disease than their sin, and more their misfortune than their fault." I think what he's saying here is, worry isn't just something we turn on and off. And If you ask anybody, I think most people would want to do away and be done with worry, but it just kind of seeps back in and you've got to fight it off again all the time. And so my prayer this afternoon is that, you know, that this will really be helpful to some of us perhaps that are struggling with worry. And I think this really does come through in the spirit of Jesus himself as he's Ministering here to his saints on that hillside and so we're going to confront the Epidemic of worry head-on and what you notice in these verses before us is that the Lord he says do not worry three times in this whole, in this section.

And I want to kind of break it down like this. He tells us to do, to look at three things. He says, look at nature. He says, look at your father. And then look at today.

Those are kind of the three simple ways that you can understand this section here. And so why shouldn't you worry? The Lord starts off, he says, look at nature. In verse 25, he says this, therefore I say to you, do not worry 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." Notice that, that therefore, right, again, he's just told us to make God and heaven our security, not earth and mammon. So he's referring back to that.

But then the Lord is seeming to say, I want to introduce you to what God is really like. Can he be trusted? And he starts off by saying, do not worry about your life. I think perhaps when you go to the King James version, it's perhaps maybe wrongly rendered and a lot of people would feel, I think, over the age is really, really guilty about this because in the King James it says, take no thought for your life. Kind of giving the impression of a carefree, maybe, approach there.

But I think the best way to render this is probably, stop being perpetually uneasy about your life. That's probably a better way to think of it. And there's a difference between prudent cares, things that you need to take care of, like the provision for your family, and anxious cares which just consume you. And one can easily devolve into the other. Of course we know scriptures like if a man doesn't work he should not eat and if a man doesn't provide for his own household he's worse than an infidel right And so it is normal for a young man to be under a burden, to bear the yoke in his youth as Jeremiah talks about it, to take on something that's maybe gonna crush him, but on the other hand it could actually make him.

But there's a stress that's going on all the time. Life under the curse means the sweat of your brow. And so I think this isn't contradictory to that. I remember talking to a young man a while ago, And I asked him, he'd been married for about a year, and I said, so how is it? He says, it's expensive to be alive, to stay alive.

And he got acquainted with that right quick. And so the message isn't, Don't worry because there's nothing to worry about. Just live a carefree, easy life. That's not what Jesus is saying. We ought to care.

The souls of our children, we've got that on our mind. We've got, maybe that might even keep us up at night. That might be a lawful care. You can't save them, but you care so deeply and you're praying for them that perhaps a night watch or two might be called for. Maybe our desire for our neighbors to be saved and to come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ or you look at the trajectory of our nation and it's something that you have a lawful care about.

You might preach a sermon about certain aspects of that or write a book or write something about that or have a discussion around that. These are lawful cares. You've got bills, you've got future plans, you've got health issues, car troubles, relationship struggles, all of these. But there are other kinds of cares, what Martyn Lloyd-Jones called killing cares. Killing cares.

Think about that. Cares that become so big that they end up rendering God small. And maybe you have some killing cares that are preoccupying you. You know, we pick up these burdens when we wake up in the morning and then it follows us all through the day and even into bed at night, maybe even stealing and robbing us from sleep. That's what happens.

You know, I was thinking about, for example, just our upcoming generation, so the young men and women that are just launching out and starting families or about to start families. And you think about this for a second, just to really kind of put it in context here. You know, the last 60 years there's been some sort of, I would call it like a cultural jihad that's been waged across every single facet of society. And you know, the boomers, You've read all that they do and they think they've, for the most part, stolen your future, just so they don't have to have recessions. For the most part, you've been left politically homeless.

What's the difference really and truly at the end of the day between the Democrats and the Republicans, at least at the national federal level. There's zero trust that you can really put into your institutions. They've all rotted from within. And then to add insult to injury, you're expected to joyfully absorb the results of ridiculous decision making across areas like immigration, foreign wars, economics. And so what do you do?

Well I think this is what this sermon is actually about, that you have a God that is a God for all seasons. And what you can do is let crisis grow your faith and be someone who refuses to be crushed and vexed to hopelessness, to be black-pilled, to just give up and say forget it and live this kind of life of cynicism. That's not what the Lord is saying here, but rather what he's doing is heaping up for us reasons to trust in him. And so he says Look at nature and God's providence. And what I want to argue for you here today is what Jesus is saying, and you'll notice us here with the birds and you'll notice it with the flowers.

What is he really doing? He's making an argument from the lesser to the greater. He's saying birds and you, flowers and you. Follow with me here and see if you can, if you get the same thing here. He says look at the birds of the air for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns Yet your heavenly father feeds them.

And then he asks this question, are you of not more value than they? And so I have a question, even for you children today, think about this, have you ever seen birds with pockets? Have you? You've never seen it, have you? God gives them enough for the day.

And what he's saying, I take care of the birds. Will I leave you destitute? That's what he's saying. I conferred on you the greater blessing. Remember what I did for you?

I gave you my son. I gave you my name. I've given you eternal life. Shall I not be trusted to confer on you the lesser blessings like your daily bread, food, clothing and drink? This is what he's arguing to these saints here before him.

The things I give to the birds, I'm gonna provide for you. And so then he asked that question. Well, The answer is in the question, isn't it? Are you of not more value than they? And so that's what I really want to nail down for us today.

I want us to think better thoughts of God. Better thoughts of God and his thoughts toward us. Because that's what Jesus is trying to compel among his followers. He could have said do not worry because it's sinful but notice what he's doing he's drawing them in and giving them reasons to trust in God because he's so good. And so you might have had that experience where you've gone through days and you wonder has God forgotten you You don't really doubt God's existence.

You don't doubt that he's active in the world It's just that well, you know, he's active elsewhere He's doing things for other people, but there's a chance perhaps I might have fallen through the cracks. And this is really if you go back this is I think why we should be so thankful for scripture because we have example after example after example of God taking his time. He makes a promise but it takes time to fulfill but he never ever forsakes his people. Nail that down, nail it into your heart, that one promise. You know David says in Psalm 13, you can imagine him just lifting up his hands, he says, how long, oh Lord, will you forget me?

How long will you hide your face from me? You know David had a tough life. You can read the highlights, but some estimate that he waited 14 years from the time that he was anointed by Samuel his victory over Goliath and the time that he actually became king that's that's a long time 14 years He was told he's gonna be king. And then it's like going back, you were in end of 2025, go back to 2011. Where were you?

What were you doing? It's a long time. Some of you weren't even born 14 years ago, but you could look at Abraham 24 years from the time that God took him out of Ur of the Chaldees to the time that the son of promise, Isaac, is born. You see this kind of thing all the way through. And so not only was David subject to just simply waiting, but he was actually on the run.

And he was in caves, he was feigning madness. It wasn't a pleasant existence. But David also knew this. He says in another Psalm, "'How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God. "'How great is the sum of them.

"'If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awake, I'm still with you." And I just want you to think about that for yourself, that God's thoughts, if you're a Christian, If you have been bought by the blood of Christ, that his thoughts toward you are more in number than the sand. You could spend lifetimes and lifetimes and you'll never get to the bottom of counting how much sand there is. That's how God thinks of you. And that's what he wants you, his son or daughter, to do.

He wants you to rest easy in his care. He wants you to believe that I'm not like mammon. I'm not uncertain. I'm not unsteady. I'm not here today and gone tomorrow, like riches that can just take wings and you see them, you can't even get them because they fly off.

You can lose it all in a stock deal, you can lose it in a business deal, you can lose your health, but your position with God in his care for you is not gonna change, Even though there might be days where it seems like he's silent. And you have to believe that. So follow the logic from the lesser to the greater. See how I treat the birds? Are you not more valuable than they?

He wants them to really believe that. Of course, the whole Bible, it tells us that we're infinitely more valuable because we've got a never dying soul we bear the image of the living God imprinted but not only that now you're a son now you're a daughter and he's giving you eternal life So He took care of you by saving you and starting you on this path. He secured your eternity. What do you think is going to happen in the middle? This is the problem, isn't it?

That's why the Lord spends the bulk of the Sermon on the Mount dealing with what happens in the middle. Where are we most tempted to doubt God? In the middle. When you've waited five years or something hasn't gone the way that you wanted or you can fill in the blank with a number of things that worry and eat at your soul. This is what the Lord is trying to confer upon us and so in verse 27 he introduces us really to our inability anyways.

Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature. This isn't so much about adding a cubit's 18 inches, right? That's not so much what he's saying, adding a cubit to your height. I think it's more likely referring to the extending of your lifespan, really the addition or adding to its duration. And so he's saying, by worrying, are you really making any progress anyways?

In fact, worry actually has a converse effect, doesn't it? We think worry does something constructive for us, but the reality, it's a thief. It contributes to disease, to poor health, to fracturing of relationships. It doesn't help, really. And so the Lord is really telling us that here it ruins our countenance, it steals our joy, it does nothing for us.

So Jesus is kind of reasoning, So why are you worrying so much? As though you can actually change things by worrying and I want to ask, you know Are you taking maybe too much upon you if you're subject to worry? Are you bearing burdens? Maybe that you weren't meant to carry? Martin Lloyd-Jones, he says it like this.

This was actually just something I thought was very insightful. To become burdened and worried is the particular temptation of women, especially those who are responsible for the care of the home, but it is by not by any means confined to them. So women who are homemakers are subject to worry. I know as someone who's in business, you know, there have been times I'm racing to quarter end, maybe the last day of a quarter, and I go and get a coffee in a coffee shop, and I look at that barista, and I look at them, and that person has no idea it's quarter end. Here I am under this massive burden.

I would change places with that barista, just to have an ease of the burden of stress and worry. See, we're all subject from the homeschooler to the homeschool mom, to the businessman, to you name it. Worry just permeates all aspects of society. And so I just wanna ask, what is your worry doing for you? Is it improving your life?

Is it improving the life of those around you? And I think some of us, you know, we get so accustomed to worrying that we would probably be worried if we had nothing to worry about. That's how bad it can get. And so the Lord here, he then, as if that isn't enough, he gives you the picture of the birds, but then it's like he's repeating himself and he goes now and he gives us flowers. He says in verse 28, So why do you worry about clothing?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? And so we go from birds to lilies and you take a flower. And I know some of you have done this. One of the most astoundingly beautiful things when you look up close at a flower, you see the detail, how intricate it is, the colors, all of these different things.

There's so much variety between this flower and that flower. And then he looks at Solomon, who is scripture's richest man. And he couldn't even compete With a simple lily in terms of its beauty. It's just innate beauty and yet that little lily is here today and It's gone Tomorrow and so God he not only values you more than birds but he values you more than the grass of the field. And as beautiful as they are, the thing that he wants us to understand is that they're passing, They're transient.

And so he lavishes lesser things, something just so temporal as a flower, an annual, doesn't even live for the whole year, it doesn't come back the next year perhaps. And he gives them such beauty, but it's only fleeting and it's only for a time and he says I want you to believe that I'm gonna take care of you as well and so not only does he roll the burden of sin away when he started you on this race when he justified you but he wants to also take away the burden of worry these are the two burdens the burden of sin he's taken that away but the burden of worry, that's another matter isn't it? But he knows us, doesn't he? Look what he says, oh you of little faith. He knows me.

And he's pointing out where we we go wrong you were saved by faith again eternally secure but again I want to just say what about the particular sections of your life do you have the faith to believe that the same God who saved you is going to be the same God to provide for you all your life through. And so Jesus is basically making that argument. And then he goes on to the second reason. So look at nature, our first reason. Why shouldn't you worry?

Look at your father, the second reason. Look at verse 31 and 32. He says, therefore do not worry saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For after all these things the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly father knows that you need all these things." And so he draws another contrast. He's looked at the birds and us and the lilies and us, and now he looks at the children of the world, those who do not know God and us.

You were a child of earth before, some of you remember that very vividly. Just like those around you. And rightfully so, the man in the world, the Gentile in this case, he doesn't know God and so he has much to worry over he should be worried because to him life is out of control there's no one above it's just kind of random acts of chance who's to know who's to say what will happen tomorrow it's a very it's a terrible way to live but you you're not like that you're in his kingdom if you're a citizen of heaven you're saved by faith and trusting in Jesus Christ. You have a father who directs all the affairs of your life. This is the beauty of being a Christian.

So again, I just like to say I'd like to invite you to have better thoughts of God. Better thoughts of God more specifically towards you. Think better thoughts of his thoughts towards you, your value to him. And by doing so, the Lord is hoping, and he's preaching here, that you would be free from sinful worry and anxiety. So let this be the domain of those who trust God.

You know, Paul, the apostle, he reasons the same way in Romans, and when he says it like this, he tries to reason with these people. He says, he who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? I love how scripture just doesn't just make statements, trust God, but it really seeks to draw us out. God is so good in that he does that.

So instead of giving way to anxiety and worry, here's what you should do. You should double down on pursuit. And that's what verse 33 says. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things, the things that the Gentiles spend their whole lives scurrying about trying to acquire maybe good things, not all evil property or some sort of measure in the world. All these things, God I'm going to take care of you is kind of what he's saying here.

And sometimes I think this is incorrectly taught, you know, we kind of look at a list, you know, put God at the top and, you know, make sure you've got Him there and then everything else in that order. But I think rather than, you know, a list per se, I don't think he's after that, but rather a lens. So not a list, God at the top, and then family, and all the things that you can do, but rather if you have God seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. So that becomes almost like the lens that colors everything. How do I run my business?

Or how do I operate in this particular role? I think that's kind of what he's saying, in that the seeking of God's kingdom and his righteousness infects all the aspects of our lives as best as we can. And so what does this mean, this word seek? It means to strive after, or I love this word, to crave. Crave the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

And men in this world, everyone's a seeker, aren't they? All men crave. They're driven to get out of bed in the morning to go out and pursue and do cross oceans and do all types of things. And we just learned in that previous verse, for after all these things the Gentiles seek, but he wants our craving to be of a different sort. It's to be in the pursuit of things that are preeminent, which is God and his glory.

And so it's really a great paradox. What I mean by that is the byproduct of taking our focus away from things and resetting them on the Lord, the byproduct of that is that he's going to ensure that we are provided for physically. You would think that by pursuing those things, that's going to be the thing that guarantees you security, but he says, no, it's the opposite. Put me first, put me as really the lens and seek me and I'm gonna take care of all the other things. It reminds me of that proverb that describes God's economy, you know, where he says it like this, there is one who scatters and yet increases more.

How can that be? You're scattering and yet he increases more. And there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty. You grasp it so closely, but it ends up just evaporating and passing through your fingers. It's a great paradox.

And so look to your father, look at nature. And the third one is Why shouldn't you worry? Well, look at today. And we'll end with this in the final verse of this chapter. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. And so it's not wrong, I think we've hammered that home, it's not wrong to plan for the future. In fact, it's good. But just like in the Lord's Prayer, we were instructed to pray for daily bread, there are daily troubles, daily struggles within, without, all sorts of things going on at any given moment But I think what the Lord is saying with all of this remember that God isn't a deistic God You know like the deists believe that maybe God just wound the clock up Put it and just let it run and things are kind of running on their own He's not like that at all, but rather he has a very present help in time of trouble He's the furthest thing from indifference As it regards you than you can ever imagine And I love how Francis Schaeffer described him. He describes him as the God who is there.

He's the God who is present all the way through. And so, just remember that at once he's the sovereign God, he's the ruler of all the universe. He's also the God of his people. And he's a father who not only knows us, but cares for us. And he demonstrates that by lavishing upon us the greatest gift he could ever give, which is his son, Jesus Christ.

How shall he not with him also freely give you all things? Is he gonna take care of you? And so I just wanna ask us here as we close, just this final question. Why do you think the Lord devoted so much time to this topic of worry and anxiety. Last sermon and this sermon.

That's all we've been dealing with. The things, our relationship to the things in this world. Well, I think it comes through clearly. It's because it's something that so dreadfully affects and infects all of us. But I think also the fact that Jesus himself, he's a true doctor of the soul and look how he just cares for us.

He knows us. And so this final bit of advice is not from me but it's from the Apostle Paul, you know, Philippians chapter 4. And this is something I constantly am reciting to myself because I worry often and I need to wrestle it down. But he says it like this, be anxious for nothing, But in everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do pray that you would adjust our thinking. Help us Lord to have better thoughts of you and your thoughts toward us. Oh Lord, We're so subject to fears and worry and anxiety, these things that ought not to dominate us. Lord, we pray that you would help us.

We are of little faith so often, Lord. I know I am, and we just pray that you would help us build up our faith and strengthen us with these thoughts of looking at nature, of looking at you and just regarding today and seeing how faithful you have been Lord. We've never missed a meal, you've provided all things even to bring us to this very day. Lord we praise you, We ask you now to just help us as we go in to practically walk in the things that we've heard today. Lord, we pray that rather than worry, we would have trust in you, the living God.

In Christ's name we pray, amen. Amen. Well, we are dismissed. God bless you.