us to be unconcerned about our work or how we'll provide for ourselves, or to be unconcerned about taking care of our bodies, our health and our safety. No, in fact, if someone gave us that kind of advice, we should reject it. A person who is completely unconcerned about life, we would say that that person is naive, perhaps even irresponsible. That's where it's important that we distinguish between concern and anxiety. There are two different things. When you're concerned about something, you're a little bit uncertain of the outcome, but you put in the work to see the task to completion. But when you're anxious about something, Well then you panic, you're panicky, you're struggling to sleep, you struggle to think about anything else and you find yourself acting compulsively. Anxiety is being fearful or worried about some uncertainty and then allowing that excessive fear to take over so that you begin to catastrophize and think that everything will go the wrong way. Imagine preparing for an important presentation for your boss at work. Well, concern in this situation will recognize that, okay, I have an important task that I need to complete. I have expectations upon me. And then, Acknowledging the significance of the presentation, one takes proactive steps to ensure success. So you might take, spend extra time looking over your PowerPoint slides to make sure there's no typos and to make sure the font is all the same size and style. You might rehearse your talking points. You might double check your work. You might ask your colleagues for feedback to see if there are ways you can improve your presentation. And so concern, in this example, is constructive. It allows you to be better and do better at the task. However, what does anxiety look like in this scenario? Well, anxiety might manifest itself as excessive worry, self-doubt, leading to racing thoughts, which leads to physical tension in your body. You have difficulty concentrating. And you lie awake at night catastrophizing what might happen. Well, if this presentation goes badly, I'll be the laughingstock of the company. My boss will hate me. I'll lose my job. And if I lose my job, well, then how will I provide for my family? And on and on, the mind begins to spin and spiral downwards. And you feel that overwhelming pressure that unless you perform perfectly, it's all going to go wrong and your world will end. Anxiety is a problem. And it's a problem for a number of reasons. First of all, anxiety doesn't give us anything. In a moment, Jesus will ask, and which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? What's Jesus' point? His point is that anxiety is futile. It's a waste of time. It can't give you anything. It adds nothing to your life, and in fact, it actually takes from your life. Excessive worry takes our time as we spend hours churning in our minds our worst fears and all possible worlds of outcomes that might happen. Worrying takes our peace as we catastrophize every situation, as we turn every molehill into an insurmountable mountain. Worry takes our rest as we lay awake at night, anxious about tomorrow, tossing and turning. And then when we wake up the next day, we're too tired to work hard and that only further fuels our fears and anxieties. Worry steals our health as we can suffer the physical effects that come from worrying. Worry steals our hope as we fear the worst for the future. And yet as bad as all of these things are, these are only symptoms of the real underlying problem of anxiety. The real problem with anxiety is that it is a manifestation of fear rather than faith. Think about it. Your anxiety tells you that you're all alone. There is no one there to help you. In every situation, in every circumstance, you need to figure out the solution by yourself. There's no one there, especially not God. You and you alone need to figure out the problem. You need to find the way to protect yourself and guard yourself from every catastrophe that's bound to happen. Your anxiety denies that there is a God who is governing the universe, who holds you in his hand as the special objects of his love. And in that way, excessive worry has us living like practical atheists, fearful and faithless. Anxiety is a problem. But Jesus is about to talk us through our anxiety, helping us to overcome our problem. And he does so by applying two promises, one for this life and another for the life to come. So secondly, let's consider the promise of this life. Jesus tells us not to be anxious, for life is more than food and the body more than clothing. He's saying, your life is bigger than its basic needs and concerns. Your life is more than the food you put in your mouth and fill your bellies with, or the clothes you wear. Yes, you have needs and you have concerns in this life, but don't be anxious about them. Don't let them consume you. Then Jesus points our gaze up to the ravens flying in the sky. The ravens have something to teach us about anxiety. Verse 24, consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. How much more value are you than the birds? Now, the raven is somewhat of an odd bird for Jesus to choose to illustrate God's care and concern. In a previous passage, Jesus illustrated God's concern and provision for us through the illustration of the sparrow. And the sparrow made a little bit more sense because sparrows were sold in the marketplace and you could actually eat sparrows. But ravens are of a different nature. Under the laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, you couldn't eat ravens. You're not even supposed to touch them, lest you become ritually defiled. And yet, Jesus tells us here that despite the low status of the raven in the Mosaic economy, God still provides for the raven. He takes care of them, and they're on his mind, as it were. Next, Jesus makes a how much more argument. If God values the unclean, worthless ravens that you don't even think about because you don't even want to touch them, how much more does he care for you? How much more does he value you? You, who he has redeemed for himself. Anxiety feeds on uncertainty. The uncertainty of how we will be provided for makes us fearful and anxious. We fearfully ask, what if this happens? Or what if that happens? But here, Jesus deals with our anxiety by removing all uncertainty. God's provision for you is not uncertain. He promises it. If he feeds the ravens, Be assured, dear Christian, he will feed you. He will provide for your needs. Well, next, Jesus highlights the futility of anxiety. Look at verses 25 to 26. And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his lifespan? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? It's amazing how naturally anxiety comes to, I'd imagine all of us, maybe some of us more than others at times, but I imagine we all struggle to some degree with fear and with anxiety. Have you ever woken up at night worrying about the things of tomorrow, or the things of next week, or even the years to come? The bills you have to pay, the upcoming doctor's appointment, or perhaps some kind of relational problem. A relational problem with a loved one, or maybe someone in the church, or in the workplace. And when you wake up or you're lying awake because you can't sleep at all and you're tossing and turning things over in your mind, it almost seems like worrying is the rational thing to do. Right? There's a perceived problem. I need to figure out the problem in order to get some kind of closure. And so I need to spend all this time churning it around in my mind. And then what you find, of course, is that as you analyze your problem to death, you don't have more peace, you have less peace. And the more you worry, the more you worry. And eventually you may even find yourself panicking because of the perceived problem. But Jesus says, essentially, when has that ever worked for you? When has anxiety and this fearful tossing and turning and excessive worry, when has that done anything good for you? Has it ever added an hour to your lifespan? Can you point to any good fruit that it has produced in your life? Well, Jesus has been pointing up to the birds in the heavens and now he points everyone's gaze down to the ground as he points to the grass and the lilies growing from the soil. He says, 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. 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? Well if ravens are of such little value and yet God cares for them, how much more insignificant is grass and lilies of the field? Ravens don't have barns and store food and how much less do Grass and lilies provide for themselves. I mean, ravens can fly around and they can do interesting things, and birds can perch at our bird feeders, but grass kind of doesn't do anything. It just sits there and it stays there and it grows over time. Jesus even notes how dried grass is used as fuel for the fire. Grass is here today, it's gone tomorrow. And yet despite the short and insignificant lifespan of grass and lilies, God still provides for their needs and he tends them as a gardener tends for his plants. And if God cares for insignificant grass again, how much more dear Christian does he care for you and provide for you and value you? You know, have you ever wondered, have you ever had that thought and wonder to yourself whether God is too busy to be concerned with your small and insignificant life. You know, we've heard Christians at times talk that way. But not only does it misunderstand the infinity of God, a God who is not bound by time because he's created time. And so, yes, he has all the time in the world in his hands, as it were. He's not limited by time in a way that we are, with our abilities and ability to address various concerns. But it also misunderstands his level of care. If he has the time to care for each blade of grass, again, how much more time does he have to spend caring for you, dear Christian? And he knows what you need. Verse 29, and do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. You see, this is why we don't have to be anxious. This is why we don't have to strive to anxiously secure our lives with possessions as the one man did earlier in the Gospel of Luke as he built barns or the other man as he was antagonizing Jesus over his inheritance. That is the way of unbelievers. Unbelievers seek after these things, meaning they dedicate their lives to greed and to the accumulation of possessions and stuff in order to secure their life. But you, Christian, do not need to follow that path, for your Father knows what you need and He will provide. And beloved, it's important that you not only hear this and you know this to be true, but that you actually rest your faith in this truth. Because notice how Jesus next gently chides his disciples in verse 28. Oh, you of little faith. Why does he chide them for having little faith? Well, he does so because anxiety is driven not by faith in God, but by a fear that turns us inward. Our anxiety causes us to look within ourselves and ask, what more works must I do to secure my life? Anxiety tells the teenage girl that if she doesn't wear the right clothes, she'll be rejected by her peers and her social life will be over. And so she spends hours on front of the mirror agonizing over what she's to wear. Or it tells her that if she doesn't look a certain way or be a certain weight or body shape that no one will love her. And so she's driven either to bulimia or anorexia or to throw herself into the arms of the first young man that shows her any attention. Anxiety tells the small business owner that unless he can solve every single problem that might be posed to his business, everything he's worked for will crumble and fall apart. And so he's awake up late at night when he should be sleeping, agonizing over every decision and every problem with his business. And he loses sleep night after night. In that sense, anxiety is works-based. Anxiety drives us inward, causing us to ask, what more works must I do to secure my life? What must I do to be sure and certain that everything will be secured for me? Well, if anxiety is the thing that turns us inward, Faith then is the antidote to anxiety. The antidote is to look outside of ourselves and look to God's gracious provision. Anxiety says, what must I do? Faith says, what has God done? And what does he continue to promise to do for his people? And it trusts him to do those things. So when you feel anxious about your value, about your provision. Remember the lilies and the ravens who neither work nor save, and yet God values them and he takes care of them. He provides for them. And how much more does God value you in Christ? How much more does he care for you? How many more promises has he made to you, more so than ravens and grass? Martin Luther, described the flowers and birds as our teachers. He said this, the flowers stand there and make us blush and they become our teachers. Thank you, flowers, you who are to be devoured by the cows. God has exalted you very highly that you become our masters and our teachers. And so, in faith, look to the flowers and to the birds and learn from them as you see the cardinals and various birds land on your bird feeder. Think of how they're provided for and remember your own provision. Know that God is sovereign and this is his world that he rules and he reigns over with absolute sovereignty. He has no competition. He has no equal and he has made you for a purpose. You are not the result of a random event that happened billions of years ago. You have a purpose and a design. You were created by God in his image, and now he has brought you to himself and bought you for himself through the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. You are of great value to him, and if he cares for and provides for the rest of creation, be assured that he will care for you. Well, as wonderful as these promises are of God's care for us in this life, ultimately, there is an even greater promise. And that's the third thing we see, the promise of the life to come. In verse 29, Jesus told us not to seek after the things of this age. And now in verse 31 he says, instead seek his kingdom and these things will be added to you. Now to seek something in the language of Jesus is to strive after that thing. It's to make that thing your goal, your purpose for living. What you seek is the thing that you're constantly thinking about. It's what you spend your time on. It's what you live for. And so when Jesus says not to seek food and clothing, he's not saying forget about your responsibilities, don't worry about making the dinner today, it'll make itself, or the children will clean up after themselves and change their own diapers. No, that's not what Jesus is saying at all. Rather, this seeking is tied back to verse 23 where he said, life is more than food and clothing. And verse 15 where he said, life doesn't consist in the pursuit of possessions. And thus, when he says not to seek wealth and the things of this age, what we put into our bodies, our food and clothing, he's saying, don't live for these things. You weren't made to accumulate stuff and enjoy yourself forever. No, but that's the lie of our age. The lie of our age is that this life and the material world that we live in is all that there is. And so live it up. This is your best and only life. And so you'd be a fool not to eat, drink, and be merry to accumulate the stuff of this world and enjoy it. To live for today, to live for yourself. But Jesus calls us instead to seek something that is much greater. And he backs it up with a promise. Instead of seeking possessions as the highest good, Jesus tells us to seek the kingdom. And what is the kingdom? Well, the kingdom is heaven. Jesus is referring here to your heavenly salvation that has been won for you by himself through the cross and resurrection. It is the eternal life that you will enjoy with God for all of time. And this, Jesus says, is to be the thing you seek. Life, true life, isn't found in steak and lobster dinners or drinking the finest and most expensive of wines or whiskeys. True life isn't found in having the nicest home or the trendiest, most expensive car. No, true life, Jesus says, is found in seeking his kingdom. This should be your first pursuit. And so Christian, is this your pursuit? Is this what you are seeking? It's worth considering. What are you seeking? What is it that you spend your time thinking about? What do you spend your money on? Do you spend time seeking the kingdom and investing in this treasure of heaven? Now, of course, we all have jobs that we have to go to, whether it's inside the home or outside of the home. We have children to clean up after. We have diapers to change. There are so many ordinary things of life that fill our time, and so they should. But in the free time that you have, whatever little you may have, what do you spend your time seeking? Is it always and only recreation and leisure to the exclusion of seeking the kingdom? Do you spend time in prayer and in the word? Do you find yourself seeking fellowship with other believers where you can discuss the points of the sermon from last Sunday or discuss the things that the Lord is teaching you and maturing you in? Well, you must ask yourselves these questions. And if need be, repent before the Lord. And where you have found yourself seeking the things of this world to redirect your gaze to Christ, to love for Him and love for His kingdom. However, while these questions should challenge and convict you, much like Jesus' rebuke for being of little faith, they're not designed to cause you to be anxious then about seeking the kingdom. Seeking the kingdom should be our concern and our highest goal. It should be our priority. But Jesus does not want us anxiously seeking the kingdom. Because notice how the very next thing Jesus says is, fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. So even as Jesus has spent a chapter calling us not to be fantasizing over the stuff of this age, and instead we're to seek the kingdom, he also says, don't be fearful. and don't be anxious as if the kingdom is something you will search for but never find. Rather, you can seek the kingdom without worry because past tense, the father has delighted to give you the kingdom. God is not waiting to see how hard you seek in this life and maybe if you work hard enough in this life and you search hard enough in the next life, maybe he'll begrudgingly award you the kingdom of eternal life if you've worked hard enough and if you've strove anxiously for the kingdom. No, quite the opposite. Instead, what Jesus tells us is that the Father has willingly gladly and with a smile on his face, given you the kingdom through faith in Christ. And therefore, you are to seek the kingdom. Yes, something that involves works, but not ultimately through works. Instead, it's by faith and not by fear, which you are called to seek the kingdom. Being a pastor for almost seven years, I know that some Christians can be very anxious about their standing before God. They wonder, have I done enough for the kingdom? Have I earned enough religious capital so that God will be pleased with me? Outside of the Lord's Day, have I attended enough religious meetings? Have I done enough personal Bible reading or Bible studies? Have I done enough good works that God will be pleased with me? Sometimes we can put this burden of anxiety on ourselves, but sometimes others, just like the Pharisees, can add religious burdens on our shoulders. And as a result, we find ourselves perhaps, yes, seeking the kingdom, but seeking it out of fear and anxiety instead of faith and love through the Lord Jesus Christ. But whatever the cause of this anxious seeking, Jesus wants you to hear this morning, These words, fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. What this means, beloved, is that even as Jesus calls you to strive for the kingdom and to seek the kingdom, you do not need to be uncertain about God's care for you, either in this life are his promise of the kingdom to you in the life to come. Therefore, you can seek his kingdom and you can serve in his kingdom in the confidence that through the blood of Jesus Christ, you stand in the Father's good pleasure. And finally, because you have been given the kingdom, Jesus says, invest in the kingdom. Verse 33 and 34. Sell your possessions, give to the needy, provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Now, when Jesus says sell all your possessions and invest in heaven, he's not here giving a universal command against private property. Rather, he's contrasting the mindset of the nations, which is to live for stuff and get as much stuff as you can in order to secure your life. He's saying, no, if that's your view, get rid of it all. What truly matters is the investment you have in heaven, to live for the kingdom. And thus to sell everything is a call to find our life and our security, not in the things of this age, but in heaven itself where Christ dwells. And he tells us, whereas the wealth of this life can be or is insecure, it can be stolen by robbers, the government can destroy it through borrowing and through money printing and through inflation, Whereas the stuff of this age is stealable, if you will. Your treasure in heaven is safe and secure in Christ and in the life to come. Well, these two promises, God's promise to provide in this life and his promise to provide in the life to come, are the antidote that you need, dear Christian, for your anxious soul. And so, what are you anxious about? What are you anxious about? Remember the words of Jesus to Martha. Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken from her. This good portion is eternal life. And so, this morning, Jesus says the very same thing to you. Yes, there are many troubling things in this life. There are concerns, there are fears, there are challenges. We have many of those things, but this one thing is necessary. Subordinate all of these things to the one thing that matters, seeking the kingdom by faith. And so then, beloved, let us by faith seek this treasure in the assurance that it is the Father's good pleasure to give us Christ and Christ's heavenly kingdom. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word that speaks directly into our situations, to our fears, to our concerns, and to our worries. And Lord, we ask that going from this place, you would cause your word to fill us, that we might indeed have received your word by faith, and that in faith we might trust more and more in the King who gave himself for us, that we might be rich in him. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Let us take a moment to meditate upon the word.