[Music] Jesus sat down on a hillside on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee there was grass everywhere flowers dotting the landscape and it's Jesus sat there and taught a multitude how big is a multitude I don't exactly know in my mind I'm thinking maybe a hundred two hundred people I don't exactly know but Jesus taught those people the most amazing sermon that's ever been preached we call it the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Mount deals with a lot of things the overarching theme is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus to have his values to have the priorities of his kingdom dominate your life and in this particular section of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is talking about material things materialism and how we should regard those things as disciples of Jesus Christ so let's start at verse 25 and consider these words of Jesus 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 now the first thing I want you to notice is that Jesus's words beginning in verse 25 he says therefore I say to you and we understand that when the Bible says therefore or when Jesus spoke these words he's connecting his idea with what he said before so what did Jesus say before what we talked about it last week Jesus spoke about if we want to be his disciples we must have a particular attitude towards material things if we really want to be his disciples we must value heavenly treasure more than earthly treasure if we really want to be his disciple we must recognize that our heart and our treasure go together you can't give God your heart without also giving him something of your treasure and then thirdly we realize that Jesus said to the disciple that we must realize that we can't serve both God and material things Jesus put it like this way no man can serve God and Mammon and there's a lot of debate as to what that word Mammon where it came from but everybody knew what it meant it meant material things it meant somebody's net worth that that either you're gonna live for material things and materialism or you're going to have a mind and an eye toward spiritual things so building on that idea of putting the priority of things more spiritual than material jesus says thus to us notice what he says in verse 25 do not worry about your life just look at those words do not worry about your life now those words aren't hard to understand might be really hard to live but it's not hard to understand Jesus looks at you and he looks at me and he says hey everybody you're worrying too much you're worrying about material things notice what he says there in verse 25 do not worry about your life what you will eat 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 and the answer to that question is yes your life is more your life is more than the food you put in your mouth now I know you're going after that super organic really healthy stuff you know you're following all the latest food things that you're supposed to do or maybe you're watching those food programs and your real foodie and you know how to cook it just right just what to make for yourself and just what restaurant you go to even if you're eating the best food all the time do you realize that your life is more than the foods you eat it's more than what you drink it's more than the clothes that you put on your back life was meant to be more than material things now notices when Jesus said what you will eat or what you will drink or what you will put on think about how much our life revolves around those things I mean look every one of us ate something today or I suppose most of us did every one of us or I suppose most of it drank something here today I'm very happy to see everybody wearing clothes here tonight isn't it probably true that we spend more time thinking about what we're going to wear and dressing ourselves than we do seeking God in prayer or in the scriptures it's not right we give more attention to material things than we do to metate than spiritual things and here's the point life is more than those things now food and drink and clothing is necessary we're not trying to say that it isn't necessary and we're not trying to say that God doesn't care about those things but God is trying to tell us life is more but if you live as if the food you eat what you drink and the clothes you put on your body if that gets almost all your attention in life then friends you don't have much of a spiritual life now when we have an excessive focus on material things our life is often filled with worry but yet our life is more than these material things that's why we don't have to worry and here's one of the problems there is a difference between godly responsible concern and an ungodly untrusting worry I mean you go home and it you have a car um it's not worried to say hey maybe I need an oil change maybe I got to take care of my car maybe I need to do regular maintenance and just to think about that that's just being responsible but worried goes into a different category although all over again it frets over things it gets very anxious it has its peace disturbed because of those things oftentimes we will excuse worry just by saying we're being responsible and friends I don't know all the time where the line between responsibility and ungodly worry is but I want you to do this I want you to say right now to yourself that you're gonna seek the Lord about it that you'll just talk to God about it and you'll ask God God am i trying to excuse an ungodly worry in my life by just calling it godly responsibility I think that if you ask God those questions he will speak to you and give you the answers but the general sense is pretty plain God wants us to have more concern on spiritual things and oftentimes put less concern on material things and if we do that in many cases we will be free from the torment of worry now when Jesus told us don't worry it would be enough for him to speak to us and say well Jesus why shouldn't I worry and Jesus just says because I told you so I mean he's gone he has the right to tell us whatever but do you realize how much God loves us that not only he tells us what to do but so often he tells us why he gives us reasons because he doesn't want us just to obey Him he wants us to also share his heart and his mind so starting at verse 26 jesus is going to give us three reasons not to worry ready for this three reasons not to worry so let's read starting at verse 26 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 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 need the toil nor spin and yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory was 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 oh you of little faith I see in those verses three reasons why we shouldn't worry the first one is found in verse 26 when Jesus says look at the birds of the air your heavenly Father feeds them now I don't know if you've ever seen I've never seen a bunch of starving birds I've seen seagulls kind of act like they're hungry and go after stuff but you know they they don't seem to be starving they just seem to be hungry I've never noticed a birds dead all over the street because they don't have enough to eat the birds seem to get along pretty good and Jesus says if God gives the birds enough to eat isn't he also gonna take care of you do you realize that sometimes we think that a bird is more valuable to God than we are we need to understand we have a father in heaven who cares about us we have a father in heaven who loves us and we need to leave those concerns with him God I'm not going to worry about this I'll let you be concerned with it although I need to add this the birds don't worry but they certainly do work you'll never see a bird just with its beak open to heaven saying God drop something down in my mouth no the birds are out there working man I look in my own backyard I see the crows come and take the walnuts from our walnut tree and fly up way high drop him on the street so they smash and then they swooped in those crows are pretty industrious they know how to break walnuts I see the hummingbirds fight it out over our hummingbird feeder I see them doing all kinds of things working for their food so when we say that we trust in God to provide we're not saying that we don't feel like we have to work no we're just saying we don't have to worry the birds don't worry but they certainly do work and so we shouldn't be afraid to work either but the real point is in verse 26 are you not of more value than they when we understand that God loves us and cares for us then we don't worry as much that's the first reason the second reason is found in verse 27 he says which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature in other words if you worry because you're too short is all the worrying in the world gonna make you one inch taller now Jesus said one cubit which is about eighteen inches or two feet it's certainly not gonna do that you you're not gonna add any length to your height as you worry now what's interesting is that in some translations because there's a little bit of ambiguity in the ancient Greek here and some of the translations such as the Inc ESV it says that he can add a single hour to the span of his life so it's a little unclear whether Jesus meant our height or whether he meant the span of our life but the meaning is clear in either one you're not going to add to your life anyway by worrying there may be worse sins than worry but I don't know if there's any more unproductive sins from worry than worrying I mean look bank robbery is probably a worse sin than worry but at least then if you rob the bank you get some money from it what does worry give to you nothing nothing it'll give you an ulcer it'll stress you out it'll cause health problems matter of fact not only does war not add to your life where it takes away from it all the stress and anxiety that you carry because you won't yield these things to God it doesn't add anything to your life and so Jesus is speaking very logically he says number one understand your Father in Heaven who cares about you and he'll care for you just like he cares to the birds but then number two he says worry is useless you're not gonna help yourself at all with all your worrying so give it up and then the third reason is found in verse 28 he says consider the lilies of the field how they grow I'll tell you what friends you never saw a flower worried did you flowers just aren't into that matter of fact I like the image that Jesus uses in verse 30 he says that God so clothes the grass of the field with beautiful flowers I mean we have the scene right there from the exact place where Jesus taught this there on that sloping hillside going up from the Sea of Galilee Jesus they are sitting on the grass he looks around at the grass you could just see Jesus motioning as he says this he says listen here's all this grass of the field and God thought well this grass is kind of naked it's kind of plain why don't we clothe that with some beautiful flowers and it's if God said I want to clothed the grass with flowers and I'll spot the flowers everywhere and Jesus said look at the beauty of those flowers it's more beautiful than anything that you could put on yourself as far as clothing goes you see what he says is if God takes care of the grass and the flowers he will take care of us and then he adds at the very end of verse 30 did you see that oh you of little faith now we need to remember that Jesus preached this as a sermon and sometimes I can tell you as a preacher it can be awkward when you're preaching and talking about specific things because maybe you don't want to make eye contact with somebody on a specific point because you think you're picking on them or maybe you do want to make eye contact because you do want to pick on them I wonder if Jesus said those words Oh of little faith and he looked right at somebody you I'm trying to be very diplomatic and look over the heads of everybody right now you Jesus says you you're the one of little faith now listen little faith and I'm gonna paraphrase Charles Spurgeon here he says little faith is not a little fault because it fundamentally denies the goodness of God when we have little faith we're denying that God is a good god who cares about us I think about what it would be like in a home where let's say there's a little boy about five years old and the five year old boy goes up to his father and he says dad we need to talk well sure son what's wrong as dad I'm really worried about the electric bill you know it's Christmas time and we put a lot of lights up this has got to be a lot more money on the electric bill dad I don't know if we can make it this month what are we gonna do about the electric bill what would the father do he'd laugh and he say listen son it might be difficult to play the electric bill this month it's gonna be bigger than normal but you know what that's my worry it's not yours let me worry about it don't you see that in so many of the things that we worry about that's what God says to us he says let me worry about it I love that phrase in first Peter when first Peter it says this that we should cast our cares upon him because he cares for us so often I've used that image to just think that there's a burden of cares on my shoulders and what does God want me to do with those he wants me to cast them off myself and God says my shoulders are more than big enough to carry him put him on me David I didn't mean for you to carry the stress and the worry and the strain from this David let me carry these things and also like what it says in the book of Philippians where he tells us this be anxious for nothing but in everything let your prayer be made known to God Thanksgiving isn't that beautiful what should we be anxious for nothing but instead pray leave it before God this is what Jesus is telling us matter of fact to quote Spurgeon again back on the idea of little faith he said Oh little faith learn better manners in other words it's just not showing good manners towards God when we have little faith towards him so Jesus is going to apply this principle now look at verse 31 therefore do not worry he says it again 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 notice it therefore do not worry Jesus invites his disciples to have a freedom from worry especially the worry that comes over undue concern regarding material things friends when material things have too big of a place in our life when we're too concerned about what we eat what we drink what we wear what we drive where we live when those things play too much of a role in our life defining who we are and how much value we have in this world then we're gonna worry over those things we need to have the right perspective that has a light touch on material things and a stronger grasp of spiritual things you ever hear about a writer and a Bible commentator his name was Matthew Henry he lived about I don't know 250 years ago and Matthew Henry wrote a commentary on the entire Bible and lots of people read it well Matthew Henry's commentary includes a portion where one time he describes a prayer he prayed after he was robbed can you imagine that a man who's a Bible teacher in a comment somebody robbed him somebody mugged him and he was yet thankful to God even though he was robbed well how was he thankful to God notice what Matthew Henry said he said lord I thank you and then he gave four reasons first that I've never been robbed before wasn't that a nice way to think yeah I was robbed today but you know what there's good news I've never been robbed before thank you Lord then he gave a second reason that although they took my money they spared my life well that's another reason to be thankful isn't it yeah the guy took my money but he spared my life then he gave a third reason to be thankful that although they took everything it wasn't very much I suppose that's a nice way to put a spin on it and the guy took everything in my wallet praise the Lord I didn't have very much and then he gave a fourth reason to be thankful he said that it was I who was robbed not I who robbed in other words he thought about the guy who robbed him he said Lord I can thank you for this that I'm not the guy who did the robbing I'd rather be the one who was robbed than me be the one who sins against other people well isn't that a beautiful attitude that shows a light touch towards material things otherwise somebody saying oh I got robbed my life is over that's the worst thing and they'd be depressed for three weeks over it he says listen even in something sad and unfortunate is that I'm gonna find a reason to thank the Lord now Jesus adds something else here in verse 32 that we need to pay a little bit of attention to he says for after all these things the Gentiles seek Jesus contrasted the life of those who don't know God and are separated with him from those who his disciples I mean remember Jesus spoke to an audience that was almost all Jewish people so Jesus using a figure of speech and speaking of Gentiles as those who don't know God he said listen when you are so worried over material things it's like you don't even know God I'm gonna say something that sounds kind of tough but friends it's true here it is it's that if we have the same worry over material things that those who don't know God have then it's a shame to us we have a loving Heavenly Father that we have a personal relationship with we should have a greater trust in him which brings us to verse 33 and before we read verse 33 I want to tell you something about this verse that very early in my Christian life this verse was impressed upon my heart and upon my mind and I thank the Lord for it it's been a verse that's really kind of helped shape me in my early Christian years I came to a knowledge of Jesus Christ when I was 13 years old I was raised in a nominally Roman Catholic home we would go to Roman Catholic Church and I would go to catechism and I even had my confirmation in the Roman Catholic Church and I have to say my experience in the Roman Catholic Church for me personally it wasn't negative I didn't get a bad view of God from the Roman Catholic Church but neither did I get a good view of God sometimes I say that it was like a great big zero when it came to God nothing negative but nothing really positive either but I'll tell you when I was 13 years old I heard someone really teaching the Bible and preaching the gospel his name was Greg Laurie and he gave an invitation to receive Jesus Christ and I gave my life to God and from my earliest years as a Christian I had a real hunger for God's Word and this is one of the verses that impressed itself on my heart from a very young age in my walk with God and this is what it is Matthew chapter 6 verse there it says but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things what are the these things Jesus is talking about what you'll eat what you'll drink what you're wear that the material concerns of life it's as if Jesus says this to us you put the priority on seeking me and my kingdom and I will relieve you of the worry over material things I will take care of you ladies and gentlemen Jesus is telling us to put a priority on the kingdom of God but listen let me explain to you what I mean by that for some of you if I talk about putting a priority on the kingdom of God just hearing those words stresses you out you say Here I am I'm working a job I'm trying to go to school I'm trying to manage with my family I'm trying to raise a couple of teenage kids and now you want me to add on top of that seeking the kingdom of God no you misunderstand what it means to seek the kingdom of God this kingdom of God is not another priority that you add to your life it's something that you let affect every priority in your life let me explain it to you this way if I as a husband and a father say yes I want to be a godly husband and a good father to my children that's not something I add in addition to seeking the kingdom of God by doing that in a godly way that's a way that I seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness I let that over arch everything in my life in everything I do I go to work at 9 o'clock in the morning on Monday I want to seek your kingdom when I'm at work today Lord I go to school I want to seek your kingdom at school today I get along in my home I want to seek your kingdom at my it's something that we let over arch everything in our lives we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness now nobody should think that Jesus is telling you to sell everything that you have and go join a monastery that that's how you seek first the kingdom of God no Jesus still has a concern for material things in your life listen the same God who told you to pray like this give us this day our daily bread that's just earlier in Matthew chapter 6 he cares about your daily bread but it's the same God who told you man does not live by bread alone God has a place and a role for material things in our life he just wants us to give more attention to the spiritual then most of us do I'll say another difficult thing here and I don't say this to offend anybody here tonight but maybe it would offend somebody if you live your life only concerned about what you eat what you drink what you wear the car you drive the house you live in if these things make up the main concerns of your life you are living life at the level of the animals I don't say that to insult you I'm just trying to get you to think animals don't have a spiritual life at least that we can detect oh look I know that you think your dog prays when he gives you that certain look and I know you're convinced that your dog is going to go to heaven with you fine I'm not gonna argue that point with you but just to say this we can't detect any kind of spiritual life in our animals think about your dog what concerns your dog every day sleeping eating barking drinking out of the water dish and seeing what the girl dogs in the neighborhood are doing that concerns your dog's existence how many people live their lives basically at the level of animals God means you and I as men and women made in His image to live for something higher oh do we need to eat and drink and clothe ourselves absolutely we do but that shouldn't be the purpose of our life we live for something higher we can live for something spiritual and to connect with God on that very level now I want you to notice something else Jesus didn't only tell us to stop worrying he told us to replace our worry with a concern for the kingdom of God it's not just stop worrying no stop it stop it no replace your worry with a dedicated pursuit of the kingdom of God you can replace your worry with concern for God's kingdom because he says notice it at the end of verse 33 and all these things shall be added to you if you put God's kingdom first and if you think that your life is more than what you eat and drink and the clothes you put on your back then God says I will take care of you and God will even guide you into a higher and better kind of life now I can imagine somebody saying David you don't know me I'm a warrior I just worry about things like crazy I don't know if I can stop worrying about things I think verse 34 the last verse we're going to look at today is almost Jesus's word to the person who says that they can't stop worrying okay is that you you don't have to raise your hand but just say if you are that person that says I can't stop worrying then you need to especially pay attention to what Jesus says in verse 30 or where he says this therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about its own things sufficient for the day is its own trouble okay here's a way to think about worry if you absolutely have to worry then tell yourself I'm only gonna worry about stuff that concerns me today I'm not gonna worry about anything in the past what can I do about that I'm not gonna worry about anything in the future what good is that if you feel like you must worry then only worry about what concerns you today do you realize that's gonna wipe out about 90% of the worry in your life but you can say alright I'll worry about today and today only today has enough for me to be concerned about sufficient for the day is its own trouble this is what Jesus tells us to do not to live in the past not to live in the future but to live in the present day and to trust God today and to be freed from the torment of worry in just a moment I'm gonna pray and when I pray I'm gonna especially pray that if there's any of you who have been truly tormented by worry that Jesus Christ would set you free I don't think God wants you to live that way and if you'll say Lord would you teach me everyday how to seek first your kingdom and his righteousness God will show you and help to free you from the torment of worry but before I pray I do want to say one more thing sometimes when I look at the Bible and think about what I want to say as I teach through a passage sometimes I look at a passage and try to look at it through the eyes of somebody who's a complete skeptic I mean they've never read the Bible before at all they just read it cold they haven't heard about Jesus they don't know anything about the Christian life here it is just words on a page and they're reading and reacting to it and I imagine buddy reading this where it talks about the care that God has for us and how he cares for us as a loving father and I imagine somebody reading this and saying huh what does God ever done for me well it's a valid question let me give you an answer first of all if I were to really explain all that God had done for you that would be the sermon that never ends we could talk about it from beginning to end about all that God has done for every human being much less those who are his people but I want to talk most especially about one thing that God has done for you that means you can truly trust him and know that he loves and cares for you it's when Jesus the Son of God came and walked among us on this earth the same Jesus who spoke these words in the Sermon on the Mount were at the end of his earthly work he gave himself to be crucified as an innocent victim and that wasn't just a travesty of politics and a travesty of justice it was more than all that it was Jesus offering himself to God in heaven as a perfect sacrifice for our sins that Jesus the innocent one would stand in the place of all of us guilty ones me and all of you included and that Jesus would do this has the most radical dramatic act of love that has ever been practiced on this earth let me tell you something God can give you no greater demonstration of his love and care than what Jesus did for you at the cross he can do nothing greater than that because at the cross Jesus gave it all you can know that God loves you you can know that God cares for you because of what Jesus did for you at the cross now God has done much more for you than what Jesus did on the cross but he can never do anything greater for you than what Jesus did at the cross that's why I'm so happy now that after I pray I'm gonna talk to you about us coming to the Lord's table and deliberately remembering what Jesus did for us but let's pray right now and I want us pray especially for anybody here who's had great difficulty with worry let's pray together father I'm so glad to be here tonight with people who obviously put a priority on spiritual things or they wouldn't be here tonight unless they wanted to seek your kingdom I'm so happy that they're here God and I'm so happy that this is an active demonstration of their seeking after your kingdom but Lord my prayer is that each and every one of us would continue to seek after your kingdom every day of this week that we wouldn't just be sundae seekers of your kingdom but we would be everyday seekers of your kingdom and lord I pray that in that true deep life seeking first of the kingdom of God that you would set many people free from the torment of worry lord I think of the mental torment I think of the physical torment I think of all the difficulties that come to us in life because we're worried and stressed out Jesus as we look to you the God in heaven who really cares for us would you please help us to cast our cares upon you knowing that you care for us thank you lord set us free here this evening we pray in Jesus's wonderful name amen you