Good morning! It’s good to be with you all today. Last week we saw the folly of laying up treasure for yourself. If you recall, Jesus says “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself in heaven and is not rich toward God.” Jesus’s concern is where our treasure is.
The problem the disciples of Jesus faced was missing out on what life is truly all about. Seeking and treasuring the things of this world will only prove to be vanity. Maybe you come here knowing full well that pursuing the abundance of possessions is a vain pursuit (much like Solomon). You keep searching for something different, something better, something more, and you are always left with a feeling of emptiness. Perhaps you are struggling to get by and are worried if you’ll have enough money to buy food this month or support a loved one. Maybe you’re thinking if you just had more, fill in the blank, all your problems would be fixed, and you’d be happy and content.
Do you want more out of life than the never-ending longing for more? If so, today’s passage is instructive for you. As we’ll see, it is instructing us that the kingdom of God is to be sought above all things, for that is where true treasure is found. Anxiously seeking provision and possessions is shown to be a futile pursuit that demonstrates a weak faith in a foolish treasure. To combat this anxiety Jesus demonstrates three key truths to keep his disciples on track as they follow him. First, life is more. Second, you are worth more. And third, the Kingdom provides more.
If you have a Bible, you can go ahead and open to Luke 12. We’ll be in verses 22 through 34. You can find it on page 818 in the pew Bible.
22 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.
The first thing to note is the audience Jesus is speaking to. He turns from the crowds in verses 13-21 to the disciples in verse 22 and following. This is something we see frequently in the gospel accounts. Jesus will speak to the crowds, often in parables, then turn to his disciples and give further insight into what he just said. He has instructions for those outside the kingdom that differ from those inside the kingdom. To one group he calls fools, to another he patiently instructs in the ways they should live.
The instruction Jesus gives here is very straightforward: do not be anxious about your life, specifically about food and clothing. The very fact that he is compelled to give this instruction is revealing of our propensity to be anxious. Anxiety is normal for those who live in a fallen world that is marred by the effects of sin. Because of sin, man’s ability to think and reason is clouded, thereby we think and do things that are incongruent with truth and reality. We see this clearly laid out in Romans 1:21-23 as Paul speaks of the condition of the unrighteous:
21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Such was the condition of us all before Christ. As Ephesians 2 demonstrates, we were all dead in our trespasses and sins and were by nature children of wrath.
While Jesus acknowledges the reality of mankind’s desperate condition, he is intent on restoring sanity in the minds of his disciples – on giving them a mind that “thinks God’s thoughts after him”. His goal is a transformed mind that loves and values what God loves and values.
Biblically we find that anxiety is at its core a spiritual issue – as can be seen in Jesus’s prescription for anxiety, among other things. As embodied souls, it can sometimes be difficult to discern between spiritual and physical ailments, but we should not try to cure issues of the soul by means that are strictly focused on the physical.
God is in the business of transforming minds and hearts to love and live rightly. Friends, if you struggle with anxiety, there’s hope for you. Do you believe that?
Before we go too much further, it’s important to define what anxiety is and is not. The word used here for “anxious” describes a mental state of being pulled in opposite directions. It paints a picture of destructive overthinking—where you are so torn between the present and uncertain futures that your mind is paralyzed and fragmented.
In a little more practical terms, one author puts it this way:
Anxiety is not mere concern. It is not the type of fear that helps us survive in a dangerous situation. It is not concern for the moment that we put our sixteen-year-old behind the wheel for the first time or for our sick child’s health. Rather, it is an ongoing,
fearful restlessness wherein we imagine hypothetical circumstances of loss. The anxious one is playing the prophet by looking into the possible futures and imagining what it might feel like to lose something we love. Therein, common anxiety develops when we fear losing something we find truly precious. That over-concern spirals into a vicious circle of spiritual—and oftentimes physical—damage.
As we continue, I want you to keep in mind that last part – that anxiety develops when we fear losing something we find truly precious, as it is a key idea.
I recently had the joy of buying a car. Now, I say that a bit tongue in cheek because if you’ve ever done so you know how long and drawn out the whole process can be. I tend to be someone who likes to analyze different things and make sure I’m making the absolute best decision before I move forward. Just ask my wife!
This instance was no different, although this time it was a bit extreme. I spent several nights test driving various cars, went to six different dealerships, nearly bought a car twice only to back out at the last second, stayed up past midnight a couple days in a row researching the different options, all before finally settling on one. Seemingly every waking moment for a couple weeks I was consumed with this decision.
Now, you may be sitting there thinking that was perfectly fine to do. In fact, you may think I was being a good steward of the resources God has given me and my family. And in part, I would agree with you. I initially told myself the very same thing. But the reality is that I was anxious, and it took me a while to realize it. I had a mind that was so divided and preoccupied with the cares of this world that I missed out on the more important things of life.
The anxiety led to a real loss – one that I not only sensed but could eventually see. I lost my sense of peace, time with my family, time with the Lord, sleep, my ability to work heartily unto the Lord, and much more. Why? All because I valued financial security and the approval of man more than the kingdom of God. I feared getting a “bad deal”, going with the wrong car, etc.
My experience buying a car is one thing. I think we can all agree that in hindsight it’s a bit silly to be anxious about something so ultimately insignificant. But what about the more fundamental concerns of life? You know, the things we actually need to live like food, water, and clothing? What’s so wrong with being anxious about those things? Jesus has much to say, so let’s dig in and find out.
First, in verse 23, we see that life is more: “Life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.”
At first glance I think we would all say, “Of course, Jesus. I know there’s more to life than food and clothing.” But I think we are too quick to justify rather than examine ourselves. Perhaps you don’t worry if you’ll have enough food or clothing for the day. After all, about 92% of Americans have 2 to 3 meals a day and we throw away an average of 70 pounds of clothing a year.
We live in an unbelievably abundant society. And yet, I would venture to say we are just as anxious, if not more, about food and clothing as at any other time in history. We are consumed with what we consume – seeking to fulfill our every desire at every opportunity without realizing what we’re feasting on is all just a bunch of “junk food” that never satiates. The ability to get whatever we want whenever we want it is only making things worse, not better.
My point is that it can be easy for us to simply move past this verse as if we don’t need to hear it. We largely have what we need to live and never think twice about where our next meal will come from. And yet, we cannot stop thinking about food and clothing.
Take a moment to think about it from the perspective of the disciples who left everything to follow Jesus. They didn’t have side hustles. Following Jesus was their life, and it required the abandonment of self and trust in God to provide all things needed for life. They faced a very real temptation to be anxious about the necessities of life given what they were called to do. We are no better, even in all our abundance.
It reminds me of the Israelites after the exodus as they journeyed to the promised land. They were going to a land of freedom – a land flowing with milk and honey. And yet, along the way they became so anxious about food that they wanted to go back to Egypt!
Numbers 11:4-6 says, “4 Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. 6 But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”
They literally had manna from heaven provided for them daily, and yet they grew weary and discontented with God’s provision. They were so caught up with the present that they failed to see, by faith, the riches of their inheritance in another land. They failed to see that life is more than food and clothing, so they set their hearts to go back to somewhere far inferior to what lay ahead.
Like the Israelites, we must look, by faith, beyond the here and now to see that life is more than food and clothing – that something greater lies ahead that is worth our undivided pursuit.
What do you think life is all about? What are you anxious about?What things do you seek and strive for?
May we keep in mind Paul’s words to Timothy: But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and[c] we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
Second, verses 24-28 show that you are worth more.
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! 25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? 27 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!
Here we see two arguments from the lesser to the greater. God’s providential care for the ravens and lilies is something for us to behold. The word “consider” in 24 and 27 means more than taking a brief look at something. Rather, it is to fix your attention intently on something. The idea is to look so closely that you learn a lesson from it.
When was the last time you did something like that? When have you taken time to slow down and really observe God’s providential care for all of creation? Anxiety tends to creep in when we focus on ourselves, but when we expand our horizons and see the glory of God in his care for his creation then we gain valuable insight. We see this truth throughout Scripture.
Psalm 104 is just one example of many:
You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
they flow between the hills;
11 they give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they sing among the branches.
13 From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
14 You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate,
that he may bring forth food from the earth
15 and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart.
As glorious as the ravens and lilies are, God has declared mankind to be the crown jewel of his creation. This is evident in the creation account of Genesis 1:26 and 27:
26 Then God said, “Let us make man[a] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
No other thing in all of creation is made in the image of God. Moreover, nothing else is given dominion over the whole world. This is no insignificant point. As an image bearer of God you are far more valuable than the ravens and lilies.
If God’s care for the ravens and lilies is something to behold, and it is, then how much greater will his care be for you who are worth far more? I think this is something that many of us fail to remember.
Are you filled with shame and regret at what you’ve done in the past or even what you did this morning. Maybe you feel unworthy of God’s love and care, so you have a hard time understanding how God could value you more than the rest of his creation.
Friend, if that’s you, look to what Christ has done for you. Consider, observe intently, the cross of Christ and what it cost to redeem you. Look to Christ and see just how much more valuable you are than all the rest of creation! You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
As we move on, we see in verses 25 and 26 that anxiety is essentially a futile exercise. 25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?
I think this is probably one of the harder things for people to grasp. Most people don’t want to be anxious, but one of the main reasons for being anxious is a belief that it can produce something productive or good. Yet, God tells us quite the opposite. Jesus says that being anxious cannot add a single hour to your life. In other words, it can’t accomplish anything of importance! So why bother?
I can’t help but think about a Bob Newhart skit in which he plays a psychiatrist. A patient enters his office, sits down, and begins to tell him about all of her anxieties. In response, he simply tells the patient two words: Stop it! Perhaps you think God looks at you with the same attitude and “stop it!” response when you are given to anxiety. Or maybe you just constantly tell yourself to “stop it!”. You know you shouldn’t be anxious, so you beat yourself up thinking it will eventually work.
And while we do need to repent of our anxieties, we also need to look to Christ as we do so and remember he paid the debt for our sin. What’s more, that there is no condemnation for those who are in him.
Some of you may read the “O you of little faith” of verse 28 and be filled with a sense of shame and condemnation. Maybe you think or have been led to believe that your anxiety is simply due to not having faith, so when you are anxious all you can think to do is just stir up faith from within yourself and everything will be better. But you know you fail, and in the end you are left wondering if your faith is even real. After all, if it were real you wouldn’t be anxious, or so the thinking goes.
Hear me clearly on this: Anxiety can be a sign of a complete absence of faith. In such cases, anxiety serves as a light on your dashboard instructing you that something is seriously wrong. The most immediate and urgent thing to do is trust in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will have peace with God.
For those who are in Christ, who by grace through faith have been born again by the Spirit of God, your anxiety is not from an absence of faith, but rather from a small and weak faith. The operative words here are “little faith”, rather than “no faith”. We see even the apostles asking Jesus to increase their faith in Luke 17:5-6. The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you.’”
It is not a rare thing to have little faith. Importantly, salvation does not depend on the amount of faith, but rather on the object of faith. As Spurgeon once said, “It is not great faith, but true faith, that saves; and the salvation lies not in the faith, but in the Christ in whom faith trusts.”
And yet, Christians consistently and even persistently struggle with having little faith. So how do you know if you have little faith or a lot of faith? A strong faith or a weak faith?
Here are a few things to consider from William Gurnall:
Can you believe without the crutch of sense and feeling?
“Maybe in days past you have basked in God’s love and the rays of His favor; and as long as the sun shone in your window, your heart was light. You thought you could never distrust God again or listen to unbelieving ideas. But how is your heart now that these demonstrations of His favor stopped? Because you can no longer see His love, does your eye of faith lose sight of His mercy and truth in the promise?”
Are you content with the changes God’s providence brings into your life?
“When God turns your health into sickness, your abundance into poverty, and your honor into contempt, how do you talk to Him about it? Is your spirit bitter and discontented? Or are you satisfied to agree with God’s sovereignty in your present situation, not from ignorance of the affliction but in assurance that He is working these things together for good because He called you and you love Him?”
Can you wait patiently for God to answer you?
“Weak faith is all for the present; if it cannot have its desires met instantly it grows jealous and comes to sad conclusions – the prayer was not heard, or he must be one whom God does not love. But faith strong enough to do business with God can wait.”
Brothers and sisters, I don’t make this point to condemn you, but to stir your hearts up to be stronger in faith. We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Jesus knows our weakness and frailty. He knows our propensity to sin and anxiety, but he wants us to move beyond anxiety to faith and trust.
So, how do we increase our faith?
Matthew Henry is insightful here when he says: “Our inordinate cares are owing to the weakness of our faith; for a powerful practical belief of the all-sufficiency of God, his covenant-relation to us as Father, and especially his precious promises, relating both to this life and that to come, would be mighty, through God, to the pulling down of the strong holds of these disquieting perplexing imaginations.”
Henry lays out three beliefs to combat weak faith (all of which we see clearly in Luke 12). First, the all-sufficiency of God. Second, his covenant relation to us as Father. And third, his promises relating to this life and the life to come.
Christian, God’s Word is instrumental in producing and preserving faith – in understanding his all-sufficiency, his covenant relationship to us, and the promises we have in Christ in this life and the life to come. That the Word is breathed out by God means there is simply nothing like it to equip and strengthen us. Feast on it and give yourself to the study of God and his amazing works.
Remember the words of Psalm 111:
Praise the LORD!
I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart,
in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
2 Great are the works of the LORD,
studied by all who delight in them.
3 Full of splendor and majesty is his work,
and his righteousness endures forever.
4 He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered;
the LORD is gracious and merciful.
5 He provides food for those who fear him;
he remembers his covenant forever.
6 He has shown his people the power of his works,
in giving them the inheritance of the nations.
Another means of grace for increasing in faith is the body of Christ. This looks like regular fellowship with the saints under the preaching of the word and the observance of the ordinances, but it goes beyond that. We are to bear one another’s burdens, exhort one
another daily, humbly, gently, and patiently bear with one another in love, confess our sins to and pray for one another, and much more.
We need God’s Word and each other to grow in faith.
Lastly, the kingdom provides more in verses 29-24:
29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, seek his[d] kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 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.
Here we see a comparison between the nations and the disciples. What is different about the two? For one, we must acknowledge that there is a covenantal difference – that is, that God has entered into a special relationship with the disciples that he has not with the nations. Do you see the tone? “Your Father knows that you need them.” Fear not, little flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” These are terms of affection, not condemnation!
God cares for all of humanity in his common grace. But he cares for his covenant people in a special way. Not only is he the Almighty God who rules and reigns over all things, but he is your Father who delights to give you his kingdom! Oh, what fears and anxieties would be
released if we were to comprehend the riches of this truth! As Romans 8 says, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
The Bible says that “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”
Friend, do you know God as your Father? Are you trusting in Christ to save you from the curse of the law or are you thinking your good deeds can do so for you?
If you don’t know him as Father then you are still a slave to sin, fear, and anxiety. I urge you, turn from trusting in yourself to trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ and inherit the riches of God’s kingdom. His kingdom provides more – more than food and clothing, more than the abundance of possessions, more than fame and fortune, more than anything you could ever desire. It provides a treasure that lasts forever and cannot be taken away from you, unlike every other treasure of the world. Who would willingly trade imperishable treasure for that which is perishable? And yet, we do that quite frequently when we anxiously seek provisions and possessions.
Christian, your Father knows what you need! Not only does he know what you need, but he can uniquely provide for your needs because of who he is. Are you living as if you are a child of God or as an orphan that belongs to Satan?
There’s a sharp distinction between those who anxiously seek provision and those who seek the kingdom. We simply cannot seek both simultaneously. As Jesus says in Matthew 6: “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.”
To seek the kingdom is to put yourself in submission to God’s will in every area of life. As God’s people we are to be under God’s rule in God’s place.
In seeking the kingdom we must forsake seeking food and clothing. The amazing thing is that we actually get what we need when we do so. But the opposite is not true. We cannot seek possessions and provisions and gain the riches of the kingdom.
This is why Jesus tells his disciples to sell their possessions and give to the needy. It would be easy to provide caveat after caveat regarding Jesus’s words to sell your possessions and give to the poor, but there’s no need to do so. Jesus is not telling his disciples to become communists. Instead, he is instructing them to lay aside the things that will weigh them down as they seek the kingdom. He’s calling them to actions that demonstrate where their treasure actually is.
Do you need to do the same? I will not venture to speak to your specific situation, but if the Lord has convicted you of treasuring the wrong things, then I would encourage you to prayerfully consider what it would look like to walk in repentance and obedience. For some, it may very well look like selling everything to follow God wherever he leads.
At the end of the day, Jesus is concerned with your heart: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” If you recall, I previously said that anxiety develops when we fear
losing something we find truly precious. In this way, what you love is seen in what you are anxious about. As such, Jesus is reorienting his disciples loves and affections according to what is truly important in life: the kingdom of God.
So I ask you, where is your treasure? Do you want more out of life? More than food and clothing and every other fleeting pursuit? Do you seek a better treasure than what this world can provide? Seek the kingdom, sell your possessions, and store up real treasure in heaven, for life is more, you are worth more, and the kingdom alone provides more.