We are in a summer series going through the Sermon on the Mount, and so we're gonna be in Matthew chapter 6 this morning. Matthew chapter 6. Last week, Craig preached on the section in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus talks about material things. How we can relate to the material possessions in life. And Jesus warned that while our earthly possessions can be eaten by moths, they can be stolen by thieves, heavenly treasure is eternal.
Jeffrey Heine:And Jesus goes on to teach how we should regard these temporary things, like money, saying that no one can serve 2 masters. You can't be a servant of both God and money. And as Jesus is teaching us about treasure and confronting us with the question of what we believe is having ultimate worth in our lives, he instructs his listeners to store up treasures, not on earth, but in heaven. And in that section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives a remarkable kingdom principle that we looked at last week with Craig. It was a good thing that Craig preached last week, and not this week because his wife had their baby this morning at, like, 2 in the morning.
Jeffrey Heine:And we didn't have a backup plan or anything like that. So it's it's good he had he had last week. But this was the principle that we looked at, that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Your heart, Jesus says, follows what you treasure. So if you are so engrossed with or in Jesus's words, in slave to obtaining worldly possessions, or if you're consumed by the need to protect your possessions from decay or defending them from being stolen, then those possessions are your treasure and your heart is with that treasure.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus gives this picture of being a slave to stuff. And the kingdom principle is this, what you treasure reveals what you love. And today in chapter 6, as we continue on, we will look at how Jesus goes from the external activities of gaining and maintaining material possessions, what Craig called our wants. And now Jesus goes on further to talk about our needs. And it's helpful to parallel this movement from wants to needs with what Jesus has been doing in this sermon so far.
Jeffrey Heine:So as we move from wants to needs, we're going from the external to the internal. He's already done this as he talked about murder, external, and then moved to anger, internal. He did it with talking about adultery, this external sin as it moves to talk about lust and the internal. And now, he's doing that as he goes from the external. This accruing of of material things, of gaining stuff, and then having to defend that stuff and protect that stuff.
Jeffrey Heine:He moves from the external of worldly possessions to the internal. Our worries, and our anxieties about even the most basic things in life, what we eat, what we drink, what we wear. That worry is on the inside. And that's what we're gonna explore together today. So look with me.
Jeffrey Heine:Matthew chapter 6 beginning with verse 25. And let us listen carefully, for this is God's word. Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life. What you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes?
Jeffrey Heine:Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes?
Jeffrey Heine:See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not toil or spin. And I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, o you of little faith? So do not worry saying, what shall we eat?
Jeffrey Heine:And what shall we drink? And what shall we wear? For the pagans run around after all of these things. And your heavenly father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Jeffrey Heine:Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray.
Jeffrey Heine:Father, we are reminded this morning that Christ is risen, and we therefore have hope. So, Lord, would you lay hold of our hearts this morning by your spirit that we might trust you in the depths of our being, love you with all of our strength, and obey you in all that we do. Meet with us now by your word and spirit. Speak, Lord, for your servants are listening. We pray these things in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen. I know that I'm getting older because I've stopped having nightmares about school. I used to always have those nightmares where, it's been an entire school year and you've forgotten to go to one class the entire time. Maybe some of you that's actually happened to you. It's always a math class for me.
Jeffrey Heine:I feel like that's revealing. But, if I could, I would still be in school today. I love school. I miss this time of year picking out school supplies, new folders, bouquets of newly sharpened pencils. I love a fresh notebook too.
Jeffrey Heine:Have you ever gotten a new notebook notebook or a journal and waited days, maybe weeks before writing in it? Not because you didn't want to use it, but because you were trying to decide the first thing to write in it? Am I alone in this psychosis? Uh-huh. Okay.
Jeffrey Heine:Sometimes I'll have a new journal for weeks without writing in it. I have it in my head that the first thing written down should be somehow worthy, somehow significant enough to break that pristine blankness of the pages. Because opening lines matter. They can achieve so much. My favorite part of writing a sermon is writing the opening line.
Jeffrey Heine:It can be daunting tasks, but I love it. A good opening line should be worthy to break the pristine silence of the room. In songs, films, in books, opening lines are so important. They can tell you a lot about what has happened or what will happen as the story unfolds. You'll recall some of the classic lines of literature.
Jeffrey Heine:Call me Ishmael from Moby Dick. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. A tale of 2 cities. Mister and missus Dursley of number 4 Privet Drive were proud to say that they were perfectly normal.
Jeffrey Heine:Thank you very much. The classics. Each of the gospels have their own take at an opening line. Matthew begins with a reference to old testament lineage, writing, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham. John starts his gospel with a callback to the opening lines of the of the Bible, of Genesis.
Jeffrey Heine:In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Also find it interesting what the gospel writers choose to offer as the opening opening line for Jesus, what they choose to present as the first words of Jesus in their gospel. In Luke, it's when Jesus is a young boy, and he's gone missing. And Mary realizes that Jesus is missing. She's frantically trying to get back to her son.
Jeffrey Heine:And in Luke's gospel, the first words out of Jesus' mouth are to his parents, where he says, why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house? In the gospel of John, the first recorded words from Jesus come when John the Baptist sees Jesus walking through a crowd and he calls out, behold the Lamb of God. And 2 of John's disciples start following Jesus, literally, like they're following behind him, walking behind him. And Jesus turns around and sees that they're following him.
Jeffrey Heine:And the first words out of Jesus' mouth in the gospel of John is when he says to them, what are you seeking? What are you seeking? It was part of a ritual between a rabbi and a new disciple. This new follower would come to the rabbi desiring instruction or spiritual enlightenment. And part of this initiation ritual was the rabbi asking, what are you seeking?
Jeffrey Heine:It's similar to how today, if you visited a counselor or a physical therapist or a personal trainer, for the first time, they would ask, so what brings you here today? That's a form of asking, what are you seeking? What are you wanting that brought you here? And the rabbi's question is a deep one. What are you desiring?
Jeffrey Heine:What are you longing for? What are you seeking? I think it's an important question for each one of us to ask today. Because I think in answering this question, we start to get to the heart of what Jesus has to teach us about our anxieties and our worries. Answering this question, what are you seeking, it helps us find our coordinates and look honestly at both what we are worried about and where our trust actually is.
Jeffrey Heine:As we saw that in the previous section, the kingdom principle that Jesus offers, where your treasure is reveals where your heart is, well, here, Jesus gives us another kingdom principle. This one gives us insight regarding our worries and our anxieties and it's this, your worries reveal what you are seeking. Your worries reveal what you are seeking. The big theme of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount is the kingdom of God. And Jesus is teaching us that our worries, our anxieties, even the most fundamental and basic elements of our life, these worries have to do with the kingdom of God.
Jeffrey Heine:Because Jesus wants all of you, your whole being. And your worries reveal what you are seeking, and that is remarkably valuable to know. So let's keep 2 questions at the front of our minds today. First, what are you worried about? What are you anxious about today?
Jeffrey Heine:And secondly, what do your worries tell you about what you are seeking? And if your answer is, I'm not worried about anything, Well, hakuna matata, buddy. Because the rest of us are wide awake to the crushing realities of life, and one day you will be too. Might have been a bit harsh. Sorry.
Jeffrey Heine:What we worry about most is directly connected to what we are seeking. And if Jesus is after our whole hearts, and he is, then we must travel the path and follow the thread from our worries all the way to what we are seeking, our desiring. And in doing so, we will begin to understand what it is that we are seeking in our lives. And giving attention to our worries and our anxieties, we we might be surprised at the difference between what we think we are seeking after and what we truly are. So look with me at verse 25.
Jeffrey Heine:Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Jesus begins this section, instructing us not to be anxious about our life. And he goes on to describe what he means by about your life. He means, what we will eat or drink or what we will put on. And then, Jesus moves into a series of rhetorical questions for his listener.
Jeffrey Heine:And he mixes in some illustrations throughout. And he does this to to bring about reflection, to force us individually to reckon with our answers. So that first question is, Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Now, this question helps us to realize that the way he was defining your life as food and drink and clothing, really, he was he was using what his listeners thought life was really about. Life is just these daily concerns of eating and drinking and clothing, these these fundamental needs.
Jeffrey Heine:And Jesus asks, isn't life more than that? See, he's just talked about possessions and material things, and and he posed that question of, isn't life more than just the accumulation of stuff? And now, as he looks at the most basic needs in life, he says, surely, life must be more than that too. Jesus turns our attention then to the birds of the air. In Luke, it's recorded as he speaks of the raven, which was both a beautiful bird, but an unclean bird.
Jeffrey Heine:And that God would show attention to this unclean bird was important. He says, Are you not more valuable to God than those birds? That they're not worrying, they're not toiling, that the father feeds them. They're not storing up in barns. They're not breaking their backs over these things.
Jeffrey Heine:They're not consumed with just these worries of life, and the Father feeds them and cares for them. Jesus goes on to ask a third question. He says, and which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to your life? He's asking, what is gained by your worry? Can you lengthen your day with your anxieties?
Jeffrey Heine:This is very important. This is a very important point about worry. The point is being raised about its effect. What can it gain? What is the benefit of worry?
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus is underscoring the futility of our worry by pointing out that you can't add a single moment to your life with your worries. Your worry about life cannot add. But the father, the father is the one who gives life. He is the one who has given each of you every moment. Even this one right now is a gift from your Father.
Jeffrey Heine:And Jesus is saying that your worry is weak, but your father is strong. You know that feeling when you're driving and you need maybe to make a left turn into traffic, and you're waiting for the right time to pull out. And it looks like you could go, but you hesitate. And then you say to yourself, maybe even out loud, I totally could have gone. And more often than not, at that exact moment that you are saying, I totally could have gone, you still could go.
Jeffrey Heine:Your observation that you could have gone is now preventing you from going. So often in life, we get in these stuck places, places of hesitation and uncertainty. And our worries are that stuck place. Do you ever find yourself fixating on a problem or an issue, and you're aware enough to know that your worrying is not going to make any actual real difference in the matter. And at that moment, you have a chance to pull out of that anxiety and move on, but you hesitate as if you're thinking, maybe a little bit more worrying will make the difference.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus asks, who by being anxious can add a moment to their life? What are all of your worries and your anxieties? What are they doing for you? Jesus brings up another image. He gives the illustration of God's trustworthiness in verse 28, saying, consider the lilies of the field.
Jeffrey Heine:How they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all of 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? The ravens don't sew and the lilies don't toil.
Jeffrey Heine:It is God who cares for them, and they exist in that contented trust. So what about us? Jesus says, Us, oh, little faith. The word little here does not mean little in amount. It means little in strength.
Jeffrey Heine:And what Jesus is saying is that we can often trace our worries as a symptom of the bigger issue of trust. Our daily worrying, It's not sinful, it's a symptom, a symptom that reveals our need, specifically our need to trust God more and more. We all worry. We all have anxieties. Things that keep us up at night.
Jeffrey Heine:Things that cause us to break down or to lash out or to give up. And while we all have worries, we don't all worry about the same things, nor do we all worry in the same way. Some of us experience anxiety very differently. And some of you, if you're like me, you read these words of Jesus and you start to feel like maybe they're condemning you. In our passage today, I don't think that Jesus is condemning us, especially those of us who suffer from clinical anxiety disorders.
Jeffrey Heine:Not at all. I think that Jesus is calling every believer. He's helping all of us and encouraging us to dig underneath all of our worries, to dig all the way down to our most basic and essential needs in life, like sustenance and clothing. And in doing this, I think Jesus is first telling us that God, your heavenly father, cares about the most basic aspects of your day to day life. Your father cares even more than you do.
Jeffrey Heine:He cares about you. And what this means is that the opposite of anxiety is not tranquility, it's trust. Trust. Jesus isn't simply directing us to the absence of anxiety. He's welcoming us into trusting him, wholehearted trust, more and more each day.
Jeffrey Heine:So, if it's alright for this moment, I'd like to speak directly to statistically 38% of you who endure clinical anxiety disorders. Having an anxiety disorder does not mean that you're failing as a Christian. And if at the advice of your closest people and your physicians you found a balance of counseling and or medication that is helping you, thank God. So please hear and believe that you are welcomed as every child of God is welcomed. You are welcomed by Jesus to place your trust more and more each day in him, even and especially in the most basic, most essential aspects of life, even and especially in the places where deep worry and anxiety exist, which means that no matter how great your anxieties or how trivial your worries are, Jesus is always inviting you to deeper trust.
Jeffrey Heine:He's welcoming every one of us right now to trust him more than we did when we woke up this morning, not because you're failing at trusting him, but because he is truly even more worthy of your trust than you have ever imagined. He's not just outlawing anxiety, he's welcoming you to trust him with all that you are. Considering our worries is helpful because they begin to reveal what we are seeking. And part of trusting Jesus more and more is recognizing that we are broken people in need. My in laws have a farm in western Kentucky.
Jeffrey Heine:And if you asked what they raise on their farm, it's not livestock. It's not crops. It's rescue dogs. Don't know if you've had much experience with rescue dogs, but, they aren't always cute inspiring stories of friendship. Some of these animals have been mistreated, and and there's a deep brokenness that will always require a deep gentleness, because those dogs don't trust anyone.
Jeffrey Heine:And in light of the fall of humanity and the brokenness all around us in the world, we too can act like rescue dogs. Jesus calls us to trust him. He calls us to lay down our deep seated fears and to trust him. And so often, right when he gets close to us, we take off running, no matter how badly we know we need him. The book of Isaiah is one of those places where I see this picture of the people of God acting like rescue dogs.
Jeffrey Heine:Chapter by chapter in Isaiah's prophecy, God is laying out this appalling rebellion and rampant distrust of the people of God. And for 39 chapters, we read about sin and its consequences and the horrific sins against the Lord by a callous and careless people, not even remembering their God. And after all of those words of woe and suffering, the Lord takes breath and says, comfort. Comfort my people. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.
Jeffrey Heine:Cry to them that their warfare has ended, that their iniquity is forgiven. Jesus isn't condemning you for your worries or your anxieties. He's speaking tenderly to you, saying that your warfare has ended. Your sins are forgiven. Like a compassionate person gently approaching the rescue dog, extending their hand to be smelled.
Jeffrey Heine:No sudden movements. No tricks. No intimidation. A gentleness that says you don't have to worry. Your worries are symptoms, symptoms of thinking that you are alone, or that no one cares for you, or that there's no one you can trust.
Jeffrey Heine:And Jesus says, I am with you and I care for you, and you can trust me. I need Jesus to overwhelm my distrust with a faith that I know I can't muster on my own. I will run from him like a rescue dog every time, no matter how and and his comfort. And that is the good news of God's irresistible grace in Christ Jesus. On my own, I will resist the grace I so desperately need.
Jeffrey Heine:But through God's graciousness and his greatness, he overwhelms our fears, our distrust, our worries. He makes us his own, and we are called to seek his kingdom above everything else. And he says in verse 31, so do not worry saying, what what shall we eat? What shall we drink? And what shall we wear?
Jeffrey Heine:For the pagans run after all of these things, and your heavenly father knows you need them. But seek first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. The call is not just to cease worrying, it's to seek the kingdom.
Jeffrey Heine:More than material possessions, even more than our basic needs in life, because seeking the kingdom is greater than our highest want, and it is more critical than our deepest need. More than food and clothing and drink, our need is found in Christ himself. Our worries and concerns reveal what we are truly seeking, and we are called by Christ to grow in desiring his kingdom above everything. So that the deepest hunger of your soul is satisfied in Christ. And the most glorious arraignment of your soul is when you are clothed in his righteousness.
Jeffrey Heine:So how do we address our worry? Jesus says that the antidote to anxiety is seeking the kingdom. We don't combat our anxieties with mere distractions. We address our anxieties with the promises of God's kingdom and Christ's perfect righteousness. Tomorrow, Jesus says, will worry about itself.
Jeffrey Heine:Each day has enough trouble of its own. But you are more valuable than the raven in the sky and more beautiful than the flower in the field, and you are beloved more than you could possibly imagine. The kingdom of God is this calibrating reality that speaks to our deepest fears and anxieties. And there is a massive difference between denying our anxieties, pretending like they don't exist, and addressing them. Addressing them deals with them, not just to make them go away, but to speak to them tenderly the words of Christ's comfort and his promises.
Jeffrey Heine:Your warfare has ended. There is a deliverer. And no matter how severe our anxieties and fears might be, the word of peace from Christ is not only greater, it is final. There is deliverance. And I think that Jesus knows what it's like to worry as we do.
Jeffrey Heine:And he gives us a picture of what to do with our worries. Jesus was worried in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night that he was betrayed and would be handed over to the authorities to be crucified. And he wasn't worried because he was sinning or because he was weak. Both Mark and Matthew record that Jesus was full of deep anguish, and he said to his disciples, my soul is very sorrowful even to death. And the language here means he's full of anguish, depressed, and dejected.
Jeffrey Heine:And what happens next is what I think we are being taught to do. In the garden of Gethsemane, full of painful anxiety, Jesus takes his worry, his deep anguish and sorrow, and he takes it to his father. He goes to the father. He cries out to him, blood dripping from his anxious brow, and Jesus chooses to trust his father. His circumstances don't change, they only get worse.
Jeffrey Heine:His sorrow doesn't change. His heart breaks all the more. It's his trust that changes. It's put into action. Jesus prays to the father, not my will, but yours.
Jeffrey Heine:That is the prayer of an anxious anxious heart that's choosing to trust in God. Not my will, but yours. Worry cannot achieve what we so desperately want and need, but trust can. And trusting Jesus is seeking his kingdom. Seeking the kingdom of God is this regulating and calibrating force to all of our worries.
Jeffrey Heine:And in Jesus Christ, our Lord, there is rest for every anxious soul. The Holy Spirit strengthens our faith so that we might cry out, not my will, but yours, and mean it. Because the kingdom the kingdom is what we are seeking, and the kingdom is what, by God's grace, we find in Christ today. Let's pray. Oh, lord.
Jeffrey Heine:Teach us to trust, and help us to be honest with one another, honest with ourselves, and honest with you. Lord, help us to think and ask what we're seeking. Help us to follow what we're worried about today. The worries that are weighing so heavily on so many hearts today, what are we worried about, Lord? Help us to see it that we might seek you in your kingdom.
Jeffrey Heine:I would speak tenderly to us. Remind us of the truth of the gospel, the forgiveness of sins, the newness of life. Remind us, Lord, by your spirit. We pray these things in the name of Christ our king. Amen.