Now, wouldn’t we say that any sane person would choose to give up what he can’t keep anyway in order to get something more valuable that would last forever? Of course we would. Well, that’s the choice that lies before us as we figure out how we want to handle our money. We can keep it and use it to store up treasures here where moths and rust will destroy it, where thieves will steal it, and where it will remain when we die. Or, we can use our money to pour into work of advancing the Lord’s kingdom, and store up for ourselves the reward of eternal treasure that will never go away.
That was a paragraph in my sermon manuscript from two weeks ago when I preached on Matthew 6:19-24. And it was my hope that we would all be captured by a vision that says, “I don’t want to just pursue getting more and more and nicer and nicer possessions on earth. Rather, I want to invest my money into advancing the Lord’s kingdom and the commission he’s given the church.”
But I also understand that sometimes the choices aren’t that simple. In fact, for most of us, the choice isn’t between building bigger and bigger barns in order to store up grain and goods so that you can relax, eat, drink, and be merry for the rest of your life (as the rich fool in Luke 12 did) and giving toward the Lord’s kingdom. Sometimes it feels like the choice is between giving to the Lord’s kingdom and ensuring you have enough to buy next month’s groceries. I mean, some of you have no doubt written a check to the church or given to care for the needs of a brother or sister and felt a bit of anxiety in your heart that says, “If I give this, I don’t know what I’ll do if my car breaks down next month.” Perhaps every time you give, your heart is gripped with questions about how you’ll be able to pay for basic needs that could be coming your way next year, next month, next week, or the next day.
Well, one nice thing is that Jesus is aware of that reality, so right after telling us to store up treasure in heaven and not on earth and to serve God and not money, he addresses this issue of dealing with our anxiety concerning our basic needs being met in Matthew 6:25-34. And his command concerning such anxiety is pretty simple and straightforward; he commands us not to be anxious. Three times in the text (in v. 25, 31, and 34) he says, “Do not be anxious.” “Do not be anxious about your life?” “Do not be anxious saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’” “Do not be anxious about tomorrow.” Again, we cannot claim that we were confused on whether or not Jesus wanted us to be anxious about life, our basic needs, or what tomorrow holds. He makes it clear.
But, in his typical gracious and caring way, Jesus doesn’t simply say, “Don’t be anxious because I said so” (though he could). He spends the entire section we’re looking at this morning giving us reasons why we don’t have to be anxious. And I think that the best way that I can use this time to be encouraging and edifying to us as well as faithful to the teaching of Christ in this text is simply to walk us through these reasons. Why is it that the Lord says we can use our monetary resources to give and thus store up treasure in heaven while having no need to feel anxious about having our basic needs like food and clothing met? Here are his answers:
Jesus says in verse 25, “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. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” When Jesus says, “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” most commentators agree that he means more important. That is, life is more important than food and the body more important than clothing.
Our response to that might be to say, “Sure, that’s true. Life itself is more important or more valuable than food and my body is more important than the clothes I put on my body. But why make that point?” And here’s why I think Jesus is saying it. His point is that God, our Father, has already given us life and bodies. And if he’s already done the greater, more valuable thing, then what makes us think he won’t take care of the lesser, less valuable thing? Of course he will. What God has already given you (your life and your body) should serve as a faithful and consistent reminder that God is able to provide what is needed to sustain your life (food) and cover your body (clothes). Second:
In verse 26 Jesus says, “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?” This one is pretty straightforward. God feeds the birds. He is working in all things in his creation, directing them to their appointed end, and therefore the Bible has no problem saying that when a bird works and pulls a worm out of the ground that God provided that food for that worm. And if God can and does take care of making sure birds have food, then don’t you think you can trust him to make sure that you have food? That’s the point.
But I want to note one other element that I’ll note again in a second. Do you realize how gracious the Lord is in using this specific example? Here’s what I mean. Periodically throughout the year I will begin my morning sitting on our deck, drinking coffee, and praying. And every time I sit out there, thinking I am going to have peace and quiet with the Lord, the birds remind me that that is never going to happen. There are so many of them around my yard, chirping, singing, hopping all over the place. And one reason the Lord made the birds so plentiful and so noticeable (whether you and I want to notice them or not) is so that we might have a consistent reminder that our Lord will care for us. After all, he feeds those happy, chirping birds, and we’re much more valuable to him than they are. A third reason why we should not be anxious about our basic needs being met:
Jesus asks a question in verse 27: “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” The answer, of course, is none of us can do that. No one every said, “I’m sure glad I spent all that time worrying. Look what it accomplished.” Being anxious doesn’t actually change anything, does it?
But what’s difficult for us is that it feels like it does. For some reason, being anxious feels like we’re doing something. Now, this is something I personally battle at times. There have been times in my life that I’ve felt anxious about something, forgot what it is I was feeling anxious about, and then started feeling anxious that I was forgetting something that I needed to be anxious about. That silliness only makes sense if being anxious actually accomplished something, but it doesn’t. And Jesus makes that clear. None of us can add even one second to the span of our lives by being anxious. Therefore, don’t be anxious. But Jesus doesn’t stop there. Next, he notes:
Jesus now focuses on the issue of clothing. He notes in verses 28-30, “And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, 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 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?”
Again, Jesus gives us a gracious example from nature. The lilies of the field have beautiful color to them because the Lord makes that happen. When he created the world, he decided that amidst the green with which he covered the ground he also wanted colorful flowers. And I think we all appreciate and enjoy that beauty.
And, perhaps surprisingly, the Lord also made some of those beautiful flowers so that they’re open and beautiful like that for an extremely brief time period. Now, why would God do that? Well, one reason he does it is so that we might say to ourselves, “If God is able to make those flowers so pretty and they’re hardly around for any time at all, then how much more is he able to provide clothing in this life for his children like you and me, whom he loves, whom he gave his Son for, and who will live into eternity?” And the answer is: of course he will. And it is on that note of our value as God’s children that Jesus gives us our next reason.
Jesus says in verses 31-32, “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 all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.”
Ok, so let’s break down this reason in parts. First, God has made you his child. That’s why Jesus can refer to God as “your heavenly Father” as he teaches his disciples. And that means that he loves us. In fact, he made us his children by sending his Son to pay the penalty for our sins when we didn’t care one bit about being reconciled to him. He graciously redeemed us, reconciled us, and made us his own, not even sparing his own Son in the process. So God (the all-powerful creator and sustainer of all that is) is our Father, loves us, and has redeemed us at great cost to himself. That is who God is, the one who’s committed to you.
Now, Gentiles (which is Jesus’ way of referring to those who don’t know God as their Father) make their entire lives seeking and securing and being worried about having all they need and more. And though that seems normal to us, we must remember that they don’t have the same relationship with God that we have. Do you see?
Let me put this in tangible terms that might help us. Bill Gates is worth a little over $79,000,000,000. Just to put that in perspective, if my math is right, that would mean that if Bill Gates spent $100,000 every day, it would take him more than 2,164 years to spend all of his money. Now, let’s say that Bill Gates was a good friend of yours, really loved you, and said to you, “You’re a very important person to me, and I’m going to make sure along the way that you have what you need in life. In fact, I continually take care of people who are a lot less important to me than you are.” Would you worry about having food, drink, and clothes? Of course not. Bill Gates could pay my grocery bill for the rest of my life with what is equivalent to spare change. The Lord owns everything, and is making declarations in this text just like I imagined Bill Gates could have said to someone he loved.
But, on the other hand, maybe you would worry because Bill Gates is probably a busy man, and there is a good chance that he could just get caught up in other matters and not notice that I’m in need. Now, unlike Bill Gates, your Father knows what you need. Nothing goes unnoticed in your life. And he owns everything. If you and I were gripped with anxiety about having our needs met, then it shows that we don’t trust our Father and sends a message to the world that God isn’t trustworthy.
But of course he is trustworthy. And we have every reason to trust him. But, you might say, “Well, he has told us not to be anxious, and he has told us how valuable we are to him, but I don’t feel like he’s made an explicit promise to take care of my needs.” Well, that’s why he’s given us verse 33, our next reason not to be anxious about our basic needs being met.
Jesus says in verse 33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” That is, make it your priority aim in life to obey the Lord, live for his purposes, and seek to show in everything you do that Christ is king and eternity is real. Make that a priority in terms of guiding your thoughts, actions, how you spend your money, what you do with your time, etc. And Jesus says, “If you do that, your Father will make sure you have what you need.”
In other words, if you pour your money into advancing the Lord’s kingdom, you don’t have to fret over whether you’ll have food and clothing tomorrow. The Lord has made a promise to you. Now, someone might say, “Isn’t is presumptuous to give when you know that you’re going to have needs coming up, and if you give today you’ll need the Lord to provide for you tomorrow?” That’s a fair question.
But here’s my answer: it’s not presumptuous when the Lord has made a promise. In fact, it shows your willingness to trust the Lord and believe his promises. What we sometimes label as being presumptuous I think may simply be a label to cover our lack of trust. In Mark 12, there’s a lady who “put . . . everything she had, all she had to live on” (Mark 12:43) in the offering box, and Jesus noticed, drew attention to this with his disciples, and praised her.
Now, I’m not saying that any of us is bound to give in any certain amount to the Lord’s kingdom. We’re free to give as our hearts are moved, and hopefully our hearts have been moved to give generously, for the Lord loves a cheerful giver. But what I am saying is that I don’t think any of us will get into eternity and think, “I just wish I’d been more sparing in my giving.” But I do think many of us could say, “I wish I’d simply trusted the Lord more.”
Now, you could point out that there’s a problem with this promise in verse 33, and that problem is that believers die. What about the Christian who is captured, persecuted, and starved to death? What about the believer who is persecuted, stripped of his or her clothes, and left to freeze to death in a room? It doesn’t look like the Lord provided for their basic needs. What do we say about the promise of verse 33 in light of that?
I think we say something like this: God promises that as we seek first his kingdom, he’ll give us everything we need so that we can live and glorify him as long as he deems we have life. That is, I don’t think the promise excludes the Lord using our lives to glorify his Son by dying for the faith, even starving or freezing to death. However, this promise does mean that as long as the Lord deems that we have life, he’ll make sure we have what we need. As long as the Lord deems for you to live, he’ll make sure you have what you need to live. That is his promise. Finally, Jesus gives us one more reason:
Jesus’ final reason not to be anxious is in verse 34. Jesus says, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Now, that seems like an odd statement, but here’s what I think Jesus is saying. He’s noting that each day comes with a certain amount of troubles, and the Lord gives grace for them. He meets your needs each day with sufficient grace. But he doesn’t always give you everything today that you need for tomorrow, or next week, or next month, or next year. So, don’t be anxious about tomorrow. Simply trust that the Lord will give you grace and all that you need to glorify him for each today.
Now, I know I’ve shared this with a number of you, but perhaps it will be an encouraging example to share it with the whole church. When we were in Louisville, Lili’s heart had been moved to adopt, and she was praying that if we should adopt that the Lord would move my heart as well. And he began to, and we began researching about the process, and one day, sitting at a desk on the second floor of the library at Southern Seminary, I called Lili and told her I thought that’s what the Lord wanted us to do. We had looked at all kinds of options, but our hearts kept coming back to Russia, which was the most expensive option, costing (after all the travel, etc.) about $55,000-60,000.
And I had none of it. None in savings. None of it anywhere. So, I said to the Lord in my chair in the library, “If this is really what you want us to do, I take it that you’re telling me that you want me to pray and ask you to give us $55,000-60,000 as we need it to do this adoption. So, if that’s not what you want me to do, you need to stop me. I’ve got nothing to gain by running off toward this.” Then, I got up, walked out of the library to call Lili and ran into a friend who told me that he and his wife had been praying for a free housing option so that they could begin paying off student loans, and out of the blue a guy who owned an apartment complex had contacted them and told them that if they’d be willing to host events like Mother’s Day brunches for the apartment complex that he’d give them free housing.
So, I left that conversation saying to the Lord, “If you mean to dissuade me from asking you for $55,000-60,000 for this Russian adoption, it seems like you wouldn’t have had me run into David Lyles whom you just gave free housing.” I mean, I didn’t even know it was an option to ask the Lord for free housing!
And sure enough, as we went through the adoption process, the Lord met our needs every step of the way. Lili and I had decided that we were going to keep our giving just as it had been before the adoption, not decreasing it the least bit. After all, we needed what only God could provide, and holding back my giving was far from sufficient to meet our financial needs. And we never regretted it.
But then a ten day stretch came that I’ll never forget. Lili and I owed two $5,500 payments, totaling $11,000, and we had zero. And I became gripped with anxiety. I sat in my office, not knowing what to do. If we didn’t have the money, it meant we’d broken the adoption agreement with the agency, and it’d be done. And I really felt the Lord had confirmed so many ways that we were doing what he wanted us to do. So, I thought about calling my mortgage company and asking for a home equity loan. I mean, I had paid off part of my house, and they would surely loan me the $11,000. But I didn’t know if I should. Was this like Abraham and Sarah looking at Hagar and thinking, “That’s how the Lord could do what seems impossible to us”?
So, I called the mortgage guy, praying, “Lord, don’t let them approve the loan if this isn’t what you want.” Nobody answered. I left a voicemail. He never called back. Interestingly enough, after the adoption was done, months later, he called me and offered me the ability to refinance our home with no closing cost. And when I asked him why he was willing to do this for me while he wouldn’t call me back about getting a loan, he said, “What voicemail?”
Anyway, about a week out from the day when the payment was due, Lili’s grandmother died. And in the midst of dealing with that sadness, I was also still gripped with anxiety. Then, only a few days before payment was due, Lili’s dad sent a copied letter to all three of his children, saying that Granny had left us some money. Now, Lili’s parents didn’t know about our specific need. No one did. I thought this was the answer, but it was a $1,000 check. At any other point in my life, I would have said, “Thank you, Lord.” On this occasion I said, “Lord, you know that’s $10,000 short.” Again, I fretted. Then, when we were only one to two days away from needing the full $11,000, we got another letter from Lili’s dad, copied to all three of his children.
It read, “A couple of days ago we sent each of you the money Granny had left you. She actually left your mom and me more than that, and we need it much less than each of you, so we’re writing each of you a check for $10,000.” I think I wept when I pulled out that check, realizing that the Lord had given us exactly $11,000 within a day or two of our need.
And I could multiply those stories through the adoption and throughout my life. But sadly, I can also multiply stories about my anxiety as I’ve looked ahead and worried about having all I need for tomorrow. So, I need this text. I need to be reminded of my own stories. And I need to be reminded that my Father who loves me has already met my greatest need when he sent his Son to live, die, and be raised for me. And if he has done that, I have no reason to be anxious about him meeting my needs as long as he deems I have life. Therefore, let’s express our trust in him and give thanks to him now as we come to the table. Amen.