Matthew 6:24-34 • At the End of Worry
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Now, I know that what we want to do as the family of God is gather around His Word. So, would you with me look at your Bibles? Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6, as we will be looking at verses 24 through the end of the chapter, which is verse 34.
Here is that glorious passage that is known as the Sermon on the Mount, as the Lord Jesus with in this passage uses particularly sweet words to remind us of His and His Father's care. I know many of you will recognize these words as I read, and nonetheless, as we hear them again, they will draw our hearts to our Savior. Matthew 6, verse 24. Jesus says, "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. You cannot serve God and money. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor 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. They neither sew, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to a span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spend, yet I tell you, even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. But 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? Therefore,
do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear?
For the Gentiles seek after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
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. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Let's pray together.
Father, we thank you that even your word allows us to address you as Father.
In doing so, somehow you bend to us from heaven itself, and the creator of the whole universe expresses his intimacy toward us. You are our Father. But, Father, in this world, there are troubles and trials that make us wonder sometimes what kind of fatherhood this is. And so we pray this day from your word that you would encourage us, enable us to see what you would have us see through Christ's own ministry that would enable us not only to claim you as Father, but to claim the peace that you would give. The peace that doesn't in this moment take away all trials,
but may in this moment give us a peace that passes all understanding because we know you.
Grant us this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
So, don't worry, be happy.
Now, if a Caribbean singer with a big smile and a catchy tune includes those words, I smile. "But if the Creator God who examines my heart and will judge my soul says to me, "Don't worry,"
then I worry." I mean, I can't help it. How do you not worry? I mean, if you're told not to worry, don't you now start to worry about not worrying? And there's plenty to worry about. I mean, I just kind of go over the events of my life in this last week. I mean, when Katie has car trouble going from St. Louis to Peoria, then I worry for my daughter. And when I recognize that I'm seeking to serve a church that's in the midst of a campaign to pay off a large debt at the same time that we are in a very tight budget trying to maintain ministry, I worry. And when I'm told that
because of my great preaching, I'm expected now to grow the church so we have no more worries,
I really worry. And I have a feeling I'm not alone. My concerns pale compared to the parents who have seriously ill children,
or to the parents, or excuse me, or to the children who have increasingly dependent parents,
to the business leader who is struggling to maintain a company responsible for dozens, maybe hundreds of families in a time of economic stress, or just an independent contractor who's trying to feed his family in a time of economic depression where there are not contracts to be had. Not worry? Really? Just saying don't doesn't make it so. In fact, if you tell me don't worry, I worry. The Savior helps us. He helps us in this very passage where three times He gives this sweet but awful command, "Do not be anxious, don't worry," by using those commands to bracket three key words that are meant to help us in a world full of anxieties. Those three key words are "Father," "Faith," and "Tomorrow." The need of a heavenly Father's care occurs as you just consider what this passage is and its placement in the Word of God. Yes, Jesus clearly says, verse 25, "Do not be anxious about your life," but that command in itself is in the midst of another set of commands that we may forget about in the Sermon on the Mount. Do you know why? Because most of us know, or we've seen in Sunday School literature, if not in actual pictures of having been taken in our day's age, this setting for the Sermon on the Mount is an absolutely beautiful setting. Has some of you been to Israel and actually been to the Temple of the Beatitudes? Yeah, some of you have been, and you know this is one of the most beautiful places in the world. I mean, you're on this gentle, sloping hillside above the Sea of Galilee, which on a sunny day is just like this blue azure jewel of water. And then on this hillside there really are wonderful wild flowers growing in abundance. And even now, there is one of the world's most beautiful churches on top of this hillside. It is an absolutely lovely place and can make us think of how sweet and lovely is the Sermon on the Mount until we actually read the words.
Do you recognize that in this Sermon on the Mount, what Jesus is doing is He is elevating the law of God to such a high level that it is meant to actually crush the hearts of God's people. I mean, when you feel the burden of, do not worry. You have just felt, as it were, the apex
of the number of worries that Jesus has actually put in progress that should be happening in your heart. After all, remember what this Sermon on the Mount is. Jesus is taking the Old Testament law. Remember the refrain He uses? "You have heard it said, but I say to you," and He's actually heightening the expectation of what God says is required for holiness. Because He says the religious leaders of His time had taken the law and just put it in legalistic terms. And He's saying, "I'm not ultimately concerned for just your legalistic observance for the law. I'm concerned for what your heart actually needs to observe in order to follow the law of God." You want to see? Just back up a little into the Sermon on the Mount and look at words that you already know. This part about not being anxious is toward the end of chapter 6. But if you will go to verse 12 of chapter 6, you're right in the midst of the Lord's Prayer, where one of the phrases that worries us the most appears. "Father, forgive us our debts as," what?
"We forgive those who sin against us."
Oh my, really? Is that the standard?
And of course, that's not all that we have learned in the Sermon on the Mount. If you will go back into the fifth chapter and look at the 44th verse, Jesus says, after saying, "You have heard, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy," verse 44, "but I say to you, "love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you." Do you feel the crush? Do you feel the weight?
There is more. If you'll back up a little bit further, you can go to verse 38. "You have heard it said, and I for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you," verse 39 of chapter 5, "do not resist the one who is evil, but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." People hurt you, insult you, hurt your family.
Turn the other cheek, that they may feel the weight of what they're doing, but this is what you are to do for their sake. But don't worry. Really? Go back even further, verse 27 of chapter 5, "You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery in his heart." Don't even look in a way that is not honoring the purity that the Lord intends for your marriage and your relationships. You can back up further, verse 21 of chapter 5, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders shall be liable to judgment." Well, I'm not very worried. I haven't murdered anybody. But then there comes verse 22, "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel, and whoever says,
you fool, will be liable to the hell of fire." Did you ever call someone foolish?
Did you ever call them a bad name? Danger. Eternal danger. And if you haven't felt it by those words, you would certainly feel it by chapter 5 and verse 20. Jesus says, "For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of God." He doesn't say if your righteousness meets the standards of the Pharisees, if you will legalistically observe the law and not murder and not kill and not commit, he says unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees and you actually have no anger toward your brother, and do not identify other people as foolish, and do not have lust in your heart, and actually have forgiven people as you have been forgiven, then you qualify for heaven. Now you're not worried, are you? No, suddenly all of us feel the amazing crush of the requirements of God. And that is actually what is meant to happen because we are meant to understand we cannot take care of this problem. Someone else has to. And that is why Jesus begins to turn our eyes, not to our accomplishments, but to our Father. If you let your eyes go back to chapter 6 and verse 24, you may remember that Jesus begins by saying, "No one can serve two masters. He will hate the one and love the other. He'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." Now the translators of that word money have actually taken the Greek word for mammon, which means earthly priorities. It's really a larger concept than money itself. And he's simply saying if you're depending on the things of earth to rescue, to get you out of worry, that's not going to work. Why won't it work? Because you've already recognized how high are the requirements of God that you cannot meet. You are going to need someone to take care of this for you. Who takes care of things that cannot take care of themselves? Well, you know the answer to that. Verse 26, "Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" What's Jesus telling us? Not just the need of a father, but ultimately the nature of a father. He is the one who is already provided for you. That was what the end of verse 25 was about, "is not life more than food and body more than clothing." Hey, you're worried about food and clothing? Well, listen, if you're worried about food and clothing, that means you already have life and a body. And if God's already provided you life and a body, He's already given you the more important things. Now, I confess to you while that's the argument, it doesn't comfort me a lot.
And so Jesus expands the argument. Hey, He hasn't just given you life and a body.
Look at the things He takes care of, the birds. They can't take care of themselves. They don't sow or gather into barns, yet your Father takes care of them. And then a less animate set of objects is chosen. Next, remember, verse 28, "And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spend. Yet I tell you, even Solomon, in all of his glory, was not a raid like one of these." What is the common denominator of birds and flowers? They can't take care of themselves, but they are taken care of by God.
What we're being told of here is simply the nature of the grace of the heavenly Father.
He provides for those who cannot provide for themselves. Who are those people?
We're those people. Really? Never lust, never be angry, never worry. Is that really who you are? If you cannot provide that for yourself, someone else is going to have to provide it. And that notion of a heavenly Father who would be willing to provide what you cannot provide for yourself is the beginning of the comfort. It's not the end of trial, but it is the beginning of comfort. Listen, some of us parents are in the position now of getting ready for the next few weeks for our children to go off to college. And I've told each of my children, including this last one who will be going to college for the first time, my own experience of going to college for the first time. I was going to a college that I had never visited in a town I had never been in. And I was excited. And I can remember putting all my worldly possessions into the back seat in the trunk of our family car. By the way, a lot of my worldly possessions take more space than that now.
But I got all my worldly possessions into the car. And my dad drove me going up Highway 55 from St. Louis to Chicago. And I was so excited. You know, I can remember the beginning of that journey, just talking and laughing and being happy. And then as we got further and further from home, and closer and closer to the place I did not know, I got quieter and quieter until my dad finally looked at me and he said, "You're scared, aren't you?" And I said, "I am. I'm scared."
And then my father did something that I have told each of my children. Driving up Highway 55, he pulled out of the main highway onto the median, stopped the car, turned the engine off, and turned toward me. He said, "Now you look at me.
I don't know what's going to happen at that school. I don't know if you'll do well or if you'll do poorly.
But you are my son and nothing is going to change that. And if you do well or if you do poorly, you always have a place in my home. I am your father. You are mine and nothing will ever change that." "Did it make all my trials go away?"
"No, but gave me a peace to know of my father's care, regardless of what came."
It's what Jesus is sweetly and wonderfully doing in this place. He over and over again is making us aware of the trials that we do face and will face and yet sang at the same time. "Remember the nature of your father. He provides for people who cannot provide for themselves. You are such people even as the birds and the lilies are such things. If God so takes care of them, do not doubt that he your father will take care of you too, even if there may be trials that come." If that is what is being promised to us, how do we claim that that father nature for our own heart's peace? What Jesus tells us that too, it's really the end of verse 30. Jesus concludes talking about the birds and the flowers by saying verse 30, "If God so closed 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?" What Jesus is asking us to do is to put our faith in the character of the father rather than the character of our circumstances. He hasn't pointed to the birds and to the lilies to simply say, "Listen, there won't be another trial." He actually says, "Remember the lilies go into the oven at some point and we're going to learn a little bit later in the passage, tomorrow has its own share of trouble." We are not being pointed to the circumstances of the earth but to the character of God. And when we begin to look at the character of God and focus on that, his fatherly nature, his gracious nature of providing for those who cannot provide them for themselves, if that's our focus, then we have some chance at peace even in a world of trouble. Let me just confess to you this week how I rediscovered it. Some of you now that we're here have seen me out on the road, so my morning activity is to exercise by running. I know it looks more like walking, but going down the road is at a quick pace. And I listen to scripture verses, that's my form of doing devotions. So, let's listen to scripture and often what can happen when I'm going down the roads and focusing on scripture is my mind loves to think on the things of God, but I would have to confess to you that's not always where my mind goes. When I'm just out by myself and not forced to think about other things, sometimes my mind begins to wind about the difficulties and the challenges of my week or days or upcoming days. That's where I was this week. Now listen, moving you all have made very sweet for us, but there's not a person in the room who doesn't know moving has its own trials and traumas, right? I mean, there are just things that happen. And as I was going down my exercise path this past week, there was a particular morning in which, I don't know how to tell you, I was just winding down and down and down. Yesterday's challenges, tomorrow's challenges, I was going into a deeper and darker place with virtually every step. And then, as I was working on this sermon,
which is what I was supposed to be thinking about, I patched, I passed this little patch of wildflowers. I mean, this wonderful quilt of Queen Anne's Lace with blue applique morning glories coming up, and I suddenly thought, "If God so takes care of the flowers," and I'm thinking, "that's what I'm supposed to be believing." But what I have to remember is, why did God do this, and how did God do this? I mean, think of it. I'm now kind of down at the bottom of this pit of worry. And at this very moment, I have passed this patch of wildflowers, which is not in most of my other path. So somehow the Lord had to time my pace and make these flowers bloom right in this place. And I begin to think, "Now, when did the seeds actually have to fall from these flowers and their parents before them?" So they would be blooming right at this point, that I'm right in this step, that I see them right now when I need them. And by the way, when did those parent flowers have to have parent flowers that would…? And you begin to go through this infinite regress, and you begin to say, "God had this wonderful convergence of His providences to give me the opportunity just to be reminded of the beauty of the flowers that He takes care of at this very moment that I'm wondering about His care for me." And suddenly I have to think, you know, God planned this not just hours ago or days ago, but who knows, maybe millennia ago,
just to comfort my heart in this moment that I needed.
I love thinking not just about the character of my circumstances, but the character of my God. And that's what Jesus is doing here. He's saying, "Just look about you. Already you have some things and all around you are other things that God takes care of." Focus on that.
Because, folks, there's so much else that may cause us to focus on the bleaker aspects of this world.
I can remember some years ago as my job at that point was going to many different churches and doing conferences and getting out at an airport and being picked up by an old friend. He's a leader in his church, and yet as he picked me up and we began to go to the place that I would be speaking, he began just couldn't help himself to pour out his heart about the difficulties of his family in life. Though a church leader, a son in prison, a daughter living in a relationship that she shouldn't have been in, and a church in absolute turmoil. And he said to me, "Brian,
how can I trust God if all of this is going on in my life?"
When people ask those kinds of questions, I must tell you, I just panic and I'm not sure what to say or do. I know some of you feel the same. What do I say now? But somehow the Holy Spirit just gave me the opportunity to think these words, Sam. We trust God not because of the character of our circumstances, but because of his character revealed at the cross. What will this Jesus do? This one who is speaking about God's care for the lilies and the birds and things that can't take care of themselves, this same Jesus will go to the cross and pay the penalty for you and me who also cannot take care of ourselves. We cannot do all that God is requiring us to do here. We will never measure up, and yet here is God's character being revealed in the person of Jesus Christ who is speaking to these people saying, "You need somebody other than yourselves." And by the way, subtext, "Here I am." Here is the wonderful message of the provision of God, and he's saying, "How do you claim this provision in faith? Look to who I am." God is not merely promising you his goodness on the basis of his preservation of the birds, but on the presence of his Son. Here is Jesus who is here for you. That's the great explanation of the gospel that's here for people who cannot take care of themselves, and it's the very thing that is actually setting them up to be able to handle the things that we know are so difficult to handle. Where, after all, does the passage go? Jesus ultimately says, verse 33, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Now, my simple translation of that in my mind is,
"Do the right thing and trust God to take care of the rest." You may not know how it will work out. It may not work out great in this life, but do the right thing and trust God to take care of the rest. Why can you do that? Because, verse 32, you're not like the Gentiles who are just seeking after food and clothing without the help of God. Gentiles was that Old Testament word for those nations who are without God. You think, "That's not who you are." The reason that you can face God, face the troubles and face God in them is that you recognize he's with you. After all, Jesus is with you. When Jesus says, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," I worry again,
because I recognize that's not always what I can or do accomplish. And so, Jesus ends it all with one more command, verse 34, "Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Now, if you just look at that verse,
undo itself, it may not help you a lot. I mean, I recognize there is just, you know, patent practical advice there. Don't import into today tomorrow's trouble. You know, don't do double duty today. You've got enough to worry about today. Don't just do double duty and bring tomorrow into today. But you know what? I'm not exactly sure how always to do that. I mean, after all, we are expected to plan, right? I mean, Jesus even tells us to plan in other places. So, you have to think about tomorrow, but the difference in planning is stewarding God's resources,
worry is doubting he will provide. Well, can I be concerned for other people? Yes. Caring for other people is part of your calling.
Doubting that God will care for you is part of your worry.
But tomorrow, even Jesus says it will have a certain amount of trouble.
I know it's wise not to import that trouble into today, but that's just kind of standard human advice. Remember Mark Twain, reputed to have said, "I am old and I have spent much of my life worrying about troubles, most of which have never happened."
Think how different that is from the psalmist. "I have been young and now I'm old.
Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread." Always the Savior keeps pointing us back to the character of God and saying, "The way that you are going to face tomorrow is ultimately by recognizing God will be there too." The same God who is Father now, the same God that's providing Jesus now, the same God who takes care, yes, of flowers and lilies, but the God who is providing Jesus his Son, that is the one who gives you the ability to face tomorrow. After all, recognize at the end of today's worries, what do you have? Well, just tomorrow's troubles.
But at the end of all of our tomorrows, what do we have?
Jesus.
Jesus. If you would, could you kind of let yourself just go from the place that you are right now?
And picture yourself in the place where Jesus is talking, to think of the impact of what he says and where he stands. We're on that mountaintop.
In the gentle sloping that goes away down to the Sea of Galilee, there are wildflowers all about us. But in the sky above us are the birds.
And Jesus points to them and he says, "Look at the birds of the air. They don't sow or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father takes care of them." Now, I understand that to some extent,
but folks, after all, I've seen the sparrow hit on the road.
And even the flower patch that was such comfort to me will wither and die one day.
So as Jesus is pointing to the birds and the flowers and he says, finally, this amazing question,
"Are you more valuable than they?" At some point, the eyes of the people in answering that question have to look away from the birds and they have to look back to him.
Because the ultimate promise for the peace of God is not the preservation of the birds,
but the presence of Jesus who comes to die for them so that when they cannot take care of themselves, they know that they are eternally taken care of by him. Where are you now?
Worried about difficulties, worried about sin.
Look at the birds of the air.
God takes care of them and the flowers even puts them in your path when you need them.
But most of all, most of all, what God did was he sent Jesus to die for you
and to make you right with God forever as you put your faith in him.
I won't promise you no more troubles, but I will promise you a father who will love you through them and will embrace you eternally beyond them as you and faith look to him and know at the end of all your tomorrows is Jesus. And with that knowledge, you can truly have the peace that passes understanding. Father, would you work your will and ways into our hearts?
There is not a one of us here that doesn't struggle with worry. And yet even when we're crushed by that worry and the worry that we worry, we may turn to you, the God who sent Jesus, and recognize that all our sin has been put on him. And ultimately, Father, even the trials are being turned to make us more dependent on the one who will hold us eternally away from the shame and away from the trials and away from the tears as we look to you through him.
You make us right and give us the security that we need in Christ Jesus.
Father, give us that peace now, we pray, as we look to the work of Jesus to give us peace, even in these moments we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.