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God's Cure For Worry |11.24.24| Money Shouldn't Make You Miserable pt.4
November 24, 2024
&t=385s" target="">6:25-33
Pastor Drew Williams
Have you ever stopped to watch the birds? Maybe you've gone for a walk in the park, taken a stroll along a tree-lined street, or just sat in your backyard and noticed them flitting through the air or chirping in the branches?
[SLIDE 2] lower third blank
This fall, I was loving all the different birds that were coming through our yard, and I told Megan that I want to put a bird feeder right in the middle of our big bay window.
But the next level is to actually go out and go bird watching. And if you haven’t ever done that, let me challenge you to give it a try—because, believe it or not, Jesus actually commands us to look at the birds.
That’s right! He tells his followers to pay attention to how birds live. Birds don’t plow fields, plant crops, or hoard food in barns for the winter. They’re not stressed out about next week’s meals or next year’s housing. And yet, somehow, they always have what they need.
Jesus says this because he knows something important: their way of life has something powerful to teach us about worry and trust, especially as it comes to our relationship with our stuff and our money.
We’re finishing up a message series called “Money Shouldn’t Make You Miserable” because Jesus knew that our relationship with our money and our stuff has a huge impact on our relationship with God.
And so, right in the middle of his very famous Sermon on the Mount, he talks in detail about how his followers are called to grow in trust and grow in generosity as a part of their faith journey.
A couple weeks ago, I showed you this quick animated video, but we’re going to watch it again to remind us how all these pieces fit together into one main message Jesus is trying to tell us.
[PLAY VIDEO :: BIBLE PROJECT]
[SLIDE 3] ref
Now, I get it. When Jesus says things like, “Don’t worry about tomorrow,” it can feel a bit out of touch. After all, Jesus knew life wasn’t easy. In the very same breath, he acknowledges that each day has enough trouble of its own.
But here’s the point—your life might be full of trouble, but your heart and mind don’t have to be RULED by it.
Today, we’re looking at the last section of this teaching from Jesus. We’ll explore what it means to trust God with our daily needs—and what happens when our concern for the wrong things, or even the right things in the wrong amount, tips over into worry.
The birds know something WE often forget: God provides. And maybe it’s time we learned to trust him like they do. So let’s look together in our Bibles and see what God might be trying to show to each of us today.
[SLIDE 4] Matt 6:25
Jesus says, “Therefore…” based on the last few examples I’ve given you about how earth treasure will let you down, how generosity is one of the ways that you shine the light of God into the world, and about how wealth can be a master that enslaves you…
Based on THAT, “don’t worry about your life…” Don’t be apprehensive, don’t have ANXIETY about what you’ll eat, or what you’ll wear.
[SLIDE 5] Matt 6:26 Because, look at the birds… They clearly don’t do those things and yet God still takes care of them. Don’t you think that you, a human being made in the image of God and invited into the mission of God…don’t you think you are valued by God so much more?
[SLIDE 6] blank
And we might listen to this and say, “Ummm, I’m GOING to need to eat. And as long as I stay in civilized society, clothing is something I need as well.”
Isn’t this all a bit naive? Does Jesus really expect me to not care?
And yes, this whole visual aid and meditation on the birds and the flowers is…nice…
But, I’ve stepped on wildflowers before. I’ve seen dead birds on the side of the road before.
Was my heavenly Father not looking after them? What about THAT one?!
And maybe we immediately start to go to all the objections we have with this passage and what Jesus is saying. But Jesus is saying NOT to give in to the impulse to ruminate on all the potential problems.
No matter what is being taught, nothing is meant to be a 100% fool-proof example that can’t be picked apart. Just like many other things Jesus teaches when he uses parables and metaphors, this is meant to illustrate something for us.
Because, we all know that for SOME people, food insecurity is real. And Jesus even knows what that is like. At one point in his ministry, there was a guy who wanted to follow him and Jesus responds to the guy and says, “even foxes have holes to go home to, but me? Not so much. I don’t have a home to lay my head down. Are you ready for that?”
Jesus knew what it was like to not know where your next meal was coming from. Jesus knew what it was like to not know where you would be able to sleep that night.
But, for MOST people, the majority of their life experience isn’t living on the brink of starvation. Most of us are NOT frantically flitting from one moment to the next without any security or opportunity.
So…live like the birds. But, does that mean God WANTS us to literally live like the birds in relation to our food? Are we supposed to get off grid and homestead and become hunter-gatherers who don’t store ANYTHING but start each day and spend our whole day collecting food and getting new sticks for our shelter?
[SLIDE 7] Prov 24:30-34
Elsewhere in our Scripture we read this: “I passed by the field of one who was lazy, by the vineyard of a stupid person, and see, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction.
A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want, like an armed warrior.”
Hmm. So…which is it? Don’t store up and don’t farm? Or don’t be lazy?
See? These are two different passages each trying to teach us different aspects of how to live.
Jesus is actually encouraging us to look PAST the details of food and stuff and possessions. In our passage today, the message isn’t “don’t farm”, nor is it “don’t be lazy.” Jesus is actually saying to us “don’t WORRY.”
[SLIDE 8] Matt 6:25
Therefore, do not WORRY. And the greek word here is “merimnao”. A literal definition is to have concern or CARE for something or someone. There is both a positive and a negative meaning that can be found from this word.
[SLIDE 9] 1 Cor 7:32-34
Some positive uses of this word give the idea of attending to something, or caring for someone. In 1 Corinthians, Paul says that people who aren’t married have more capacity in their life to show concern for their walk with God, while married people naturally have concern for their spouse and family. This isn’t a bad thing, because we’d HOPE that married people spend some of their focus on caring for and loving their family.
[SLIDE 10] 1 Cor 12:25
Later in the same letter, Paul encourages members of the church to show mutual concern and care for each other, in order to create unity and love.
[SLIDE 11] 1 Peter 5:7
And then there is a very famous verse in 1 Peter that says to “Cast all your anxiety/cares/merimnao on [Jesus], because he cares for YOU.”
So we can see that having concern — caring — can be a GOOD thing. But even a good thing can become a harmful thing when it goes too far.
[SLIDE 12] Matt 6:25
So in our passage when Jesus says not to worry, he’s talking about letting our concern, our care, tip too far into worry and anxiety that we can’t control, because it now controls us.
[SLIDE 13] Luke 10:41
In one interaction with a woman named Martha, Jesus tells her that she is “worried and upset about many things,” and how that has now become something that is getting in the way of her just being in the presence of Jesus and learning from him, like her sister Mary.
[SLIDE 14] Matt 13:22
In the very famous parable about sowing seed in four types of soil, Jesus warns that the WORRIES of this life can choke out the Word of God, preventing it from taking root in our hearts.
[SLIDE 15] Matt 6:34
And the very end of our passage is where Jesus again tells us not to WORRY about the concerns of the future, since we can’t do anything about them now, and they’ll get here when they get here.
Because Jesus knows that if I spend all my time trying to manage, or control, or wrestle down all the concerns of my life, then I will have ZERO time, attention, focus left to receive the gifts of the Kingdom of God. I’ll have zero energy left to join Jesus in his work, because I’ve become overwhelmed with my concerns tipping over into WORRY and anxiety.
[SLIDE 16] Matt 6:33
So, this passage isn’t a spot where Jesus is telling us to not CARE about anything at all. Rather, he’s saying put your care, put your concern in seeking God and living according to the way of life found in the kingdom of God. Seek his righteousness, which means to spend your focus on putting your attention on the character of who God is. Because what we focus on forms us.
[SLIDE 17] mission
Trust God for our earthly needs, and allow him to transform us. That’s why every single time we get together here at New Life, we talk about learning how to be apprentices of Jesus, because we want to put our focus on him. We want to spend time with Jesus through spiritual habits like prayer and Scripture reading and serving together.
Because as we spend time with Jesus, we believe that he’ll continue to transform us to become more and more like HIM in every area of our lives. And as we become transformed TOGETHER, we also get to join in his work of serving others and telling others about the hope we have.
[SLIDE 18] Matt 6:33
And that actually brings us to another thing we have to take into account with this teaching from Jesus. Because many of us listen to this and process it and even try to put it into action in a personal way. That’s even how I’ve been talking about it today: is on an individual basis.
But the “you” that is all throughout this teaching is actually plural. Maybe it would be better to say “y’all.” Jesus isn’t just speaking to one of us. He’s speaking to the whole group of his followers, and I wonder how it changes the way we receive it when we realize that this is addressed to us as a group.
[SLIDE 19] blank
“Therefore I tell y’all…do not worry about your life, what y’all will eat or what y’all will drink, or about your bodies, what y’all will wear…
Look at ALL the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are y’all not of more value than they?
Therefore y’all should not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the gentiles (the nations, the rest of the people in the world who don’t follow God) who spend all their energy focusing on all these things…
But y’all? Y’all can spend YOUR focus and attention on seeking FIRST the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things…? They will be given to y’all as well.”
And if God is the type of provider who takes care of us by providing for us what we need…AND if he’s the type of leader who likes to invite his followers to participate in his work…it kind of makes sense that part of the way he provides for us is…through US.
How many of you know that God has provided for you through the church family around you?!
How many of you have had a friend or someone from our church family give you exactly what you need? They sent a text or phone call just when you needed some encouragement? They offered to help just when you were feeling overwhelmed? They brought over soup unannounced just when you were starting to worry about dinner.
A few months ago, we had those tables out in the atrium where folks with gardens can come share the abundance of their veggies and fruits. And I had more than one person come tell me that they had been experiencing stress and worry about grocery bills and then came to church and got to receive a whole bag full of eggplant or something that took care of dinner that night!
And I’m sure you can tell me even more stories of how God has provided for you THROUGH someone else! Or you might have stories about how God worked through YOU to help someone else. Because that’s one of the ways that God works!
“So don’t WORRY…!” Because stuff can’t save you. Being controlling and stingy with the money you have can’t save you. Money and wealth can’t save you at all. It all fades. It all runs short.
But God? Your heavenly father? Who knows what you need and loves you so much more incredibly than you can ever imagine…? He’s able to provide for you. And he knows what you actually NEED, not just what you think you want.
And when we put our focus on God’s Kingdom, what we focus on forms us, and when we spend more time learning from Jesus and trying to do the things he would do in our lives, he transforms us. And we naturally act more generous towards each other and towards the things God is doing around us.
Because being generous is one way we reflect the image of our generous God. And it’s one way that we stand out from all the people around us. It’s one way that followers of Jesus point to who God is, because let’s be honest, having a deep-seated trust in God’s providence and then living out of that trust by generously joining in with God’s work…that’s not how the rest of the world lives.
They don’t know God’s character. So they keep seeking, seeking, seeking. Stuff, security.
But the people of God? Apprentices of Jesus? We should know better.
Because we’ve seen how God acts. We’ve experienced God’s character.
God rescued his people out of slavery in Egypt.
Jesus died for our sins and then beat death so that we can experience New Life.
God helped our church 15 years ago form as a new community of BELONGING, where more and more people are finding a home and a family to be a part of.
[SLIDE 20] reflection questions
How has God helped YOU? How have you seen God’s generous providing in your life? How is God now calling you to be a part of his work? Of spreading his love? Of helping others experience his generous heart and grace and forgiveness?
How can you get involved? How can you jump on board?
What is God saying to you now, and how is he inviting you to take a next step of obedience this week?
Pastor Drew Williams
Have you ever stopped to watch the birds? Maybe you've gone for a walk in the park, taken a stroll along a tree-lined street, or just sat in your backyard and noticed them flitting through the air or chirping in the branches?
[SLIDE 2] lower third blank
This fall, I was loving all the different birds that were coming through our yard, and I told Megan that I want to put a bird feeder right in the middle of our big bay window.
But the next level is to actually go out and go bird watching. And if you haven’t ever done that, let me challenge you to give it a try—because, believe it or not, Jesus actually commands us to look at the birds.
That’s right! He tells his followers to pay attention to how birds live. Birds don’t plow fields, plant crops, or hoard food in barns for the winter. They’re not stressed out about next week’s meals or next year’s housing. And yet, somehow, they always have what they need.
Jesus says this because he knows something important: their way of life has something powerful to teach us about worry and trust, especially as it comes to our relationship with our stuff and our money.
We’re finishing up a message series called “Money Shouldn’t Make You Miserable” because Jesus knew that our relationship with our money and our stuff has a huge impact on our relationship with God.
And so, right in the middle of his very famous Sermon on the Mount, he talks in detail about how his followers are called to grow in trust and grow in generosity as a part of their faith journey.
A couple weeks ago, I showed you this quick animated video, but we’re going to watch it again to remind us how all these pieces fit together into one main message Jesus is trying to tell us.
[PLAY VIDEO :: BIBLE PROJECT]
[SLIDE 3] ref
Now, I get it. When Jesus says things like, “Don’t worry about tomorrow,” it can feel a bit out of touch. After all, Jesus knew life wasn’t easy. In the very same breath, he acknowledges that each day has enough trouble of its own.
But here’s the point—your life might be full of trouble, but your heart and mind don’t have to be RULED by it.
Today, we’re looking at the last section of this teaching from Jesus. We’ll explore what it means to trust God with our daily needs—and what happens when our concern for the wrong things, or even the right things in the wrong amount, tips over into worry.
The birds know something WE often forget: God provides. And maybe it’s time we learned to trust him like they do. So let’s look together in our Bibles and see what God might be trying to show to each of us today.
[SLIDE 4] Matt 6:25
Jesus says, “Therefore…” based on the last few examples I’ve given you about how earth treasure will let you down, how generosity is one of the ways that you shine the light of God into the world, and about how wealth can be a master that enslaves you…
Based on THAT, “don’t worry about your life…” Don’t be apprehensive, don’t have ANXIETY about what you’ll eat, or what you’ll wear.
[SLIDE 5] Matt 6:26 Because, look at the birds… They clearly don’t do those things and yet God still takes care of them. Don’t you think that you, a human being made in the image of God and invited into the mission of God…don’t you think you are valued by God so much more?
[SLIDE 6] blank
And we might listen to this and say, “Ummm, I’m GOING to need to eat. And as long as I stay in civilized society, clothing is something I need as well.”
Isn’t this all a bit naive? Does Jesus really expect me to not care?
And yes, this whole visual aid and meditation on the birds and the flowers is…nice…
But, I’ve stepped on wildflowers before. I’ve seen dead birds on the side of the road before.
Was my heavenly Father not looking after them? What about THAT one?!
And maybe we immediately start to go to all the objections we have with this passage and what Jesus is saying. But Jesus is saying NOT to give in to the impulse to ruminate on all the potential problems.
No matter what is being taught, nothing is meant to be a 100% fool-proof example that can’t be picked apart. Just like many other things Jesus teaches when he uses parables and metaphors, this is meant to illustrate something for us.
Because, we all know that for SOME people, food insecurity is real. And Jesus even knows what that is like. At one point in his ministry, there was a guy who wanted to follow him and Jesus responds to the guy and says, “even foxes have holes to go home to, but me? Not so much. I don’t have a home to lay my head down. Are you ready for that?”
Jesus knew what it was like to not know where your next meal was coming from. Jesus knew what it was like to not know where you would be able to sleep that night.
But, for MOST people, the majority of their life experience isn’t living on the brink of starvation. Most of us are NOT frantically flitting from one moment to the next without any security or opportunity.
So…live like the birds. But, does that mean God WANTS us to literally live like the birds in relation to our food? Are we supposed to get off grid and homestead and become hunter-gatherers who don’t store ANYTHING but start each day and spend our whole day collecting food and getting new sticks for our shelter?
[SLIDE 7] Prov 24:30-34
Elsewhere in our Scripture we read this: “I passed by the field of one who was lazy, by the vineyard of a stupid person, and see, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction.
A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want, like an armed warrior.”
Hmm. So…which is it? Don’t store up and don’t farm? Or don’t be lazy?
See? These are two different passages each trying to teach us different aspects of how to live.
Jesus is actually encouraging us to look PAST the details of food and stuff and possessions. In our passage today, the message isn’t “don’t farm”, nor is it “don’t be lazy.” Jesus is actually saying to us “don’t WORRY.”
[SLIDE 8] Matt 6:25
Therefore, do not WORRY. And the greek word here is “merimnao”. A literal definition is to have concern or CARE for something or someone. There is both a positive and a negative meaning that can be found from this word.
[SLIDE 9] 1 Cor 7:32-34
Some positive uses of this word give the idea of attending to something, or caring for someone. In 1 Corinthians, Paul says that people who aren’t married have more capacity in their life to show concern for their walk with God, while married people naturally have concern for their spouse and family. This isn’t a bad thing, because we’d HOPE that married people spend some of their focus on caring for and loving their family.
[SLIDE 10] 1 Cor 12:25
Later in the same letter, Paul encourages members of the church to show mutual concern and care for each other, in order to create unity and love.
[SLIDE 11] 1 Peter 5:7
And then there is a very famous verse in 1 Peter that says to “Cast all your anxiety/cares/merimnao on [Jesus], because he cares for YOU.”
So we can see that having concern — caring — can be a GOOD thing. But even a good thing can become a harmful thing when it goes too far.
[SLIDE 12] Matt 6:25
So in our passage when Jesus says not to worry, he’s talking about letting our concern, our care, tip too far into worry and anxiety that we can’t control, because it now controls us.
[SLIDE 13] Luke 10:41
In one interaction with a woman named Martha, Jesus tells her that she is “worried and upset about many things,” and how that has now become something that is getting in the way of her just being in the presence of Jesus and learning from him, like her sister Mary.
[SLIDE 14] Matt 13:22
In the very famous parable about sowing seed in four types of soil, Jesus warns that the WORRIES of this life can choke out the Word of God, preventing it from taking root in our hearts.
[SLIDE 15] Matt 6:34
And the very end of our passage is where Jesus again tells us not to WORRY about the concerns of the future, since we can’t do anything about them now, and they’ll get here when they get here.
Because Jesus knows that if I spend all my time trying to manage, or control, or wrestle down all the concerns of my life, then I will have ZERO time, attention, focus left to receive the gifts of the Kingdom of God. I’ll have zero energy left to join Jesus in his work, because I’ve become overwhelmed with my concerns tipping over into WORRY and anxiety.
[SLIDE 16] Matt 6:33
So, this passage isn’t a spot where Jesus is telling us to not CARE about anything at all. Rather, he’s saying put your care, put your concern in seeking God and living according to the way of life found in the kingdom of God. Seek his righteousness, which means to spend your focus on putting your attention on the character of who God is. Because what we focus on forms us.
[SLIDE 17] mission
Trust God for our earthly needs, and allow him to transform us. That’s why every single time we get together here at New Life, we talk about learning how to be apprentices of Jesus, because we want to put our focus on him. We want to spend time with Jesus through spiritual habits like prayer and Scripture reading and serving together.
Because as we spend time with Jesus, we believe that he’ll continue to transform us to become more and more like HIM in every area of our lives. And as we become transformed TOGETHER, we also get to join in his work of serving others and telling others about the hope we have.
[SLIDE 18] Matt 6:33
And that actually brings us to another thing we have to take into account with this teaching from Jesus. Because many of us listen to this and process it and even try to put it into action in a personal way. That’s even how I’ve been talking about it today: is on an individual basis.
But the “you” that is all throughout this teaching is actually plural. Maybe it would be better to say “y’all.” Jesus isn’t just speaking to one of us. He’s speaking to the whole group of his followers, and I wonder how it changes the way we receive it when we realize that this is addressed to us as a group.
[SLIDE 19] blank
“Therefore I tell y’all…do not worry about your life, what y’all will eat or what y’all will drink, or about your bodies, what y’all will wear…
Look at ALL the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are y’all not of more value than they?
Therefore y’all should not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the gentiles (the nations, the rest of the people in the world who don’t follow God) who spend all their energy focusing on all these things…
But y’all? Y’all can spend YOUR focus and attention on seeking FIRST the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things…? They will be given to y’all as well.”
And if God is the type of provider who takes care of us by providing for us what we need…AND if he’s the type of leader who likes to invite his followers to participate in his work…it kind of makes sense that part of the way he provides for us is…through US.
How many of you know that God has provided for you through the church family around you?!
How many of you have had a friend or someone from our church family give you exactly what you need? They sent a text or phone call just when you needed some encouragement? They offered to help just when you were feeling overwhelmed? They brought over soup unannounced just when you were starting to worry about dinner.
A few months ago, we had those tables out in the atrium where folks with gardens can come share the abundance of their veggies and fruits. And I had more than one person come tell me that they had been experiencing stress and worry about grocery bills and then came to church and got to receive a whole bag full of eggplant or something that took care of dinner that night!
And I’m sure you can tell me even more stories of how God has provided for you THROUGH someone else! Or you might have stories about how God worked through YOU to help someone else. Because that’s one of the ways that God works!
“So don’t WORRY…!” Because stuff can’t save you. Being controlling and stingy with the money you have can’t save you. Money and wealth can’t save you at all. It all fades. It all runs short.
But God? Your heavenly father? Who knows what you need and loves you so much more incredibly than you can ever imagine…? He’s able to provide for you. And he knows what you actually NEED, not just what you think you want.
And when we put our focus on God’s Kingdom, what we focus on forms us, and when we spend more time learning from Jesus and trying to do the things he would do in our lives, he transforms us. And we naturally act more generous towards each other and towards the things God is doing around us.
Because being generous is one way we reflect the image of our generous God. And it’s one way that we stand out from all the people around us. It’s one way that followers of Jesus point to who God is, because let’s be honest, having a deep-seated trust in God’s providence and then living out of that trust by generously joining in with God’s work…that’s not how the rest of the world lives.
They don’t know God’s character. So they keep seeking, seeking, seeking. Stuff, security.
But the people of God? Apprentices of Jesus? We should know better.
Because we’ve seen how God acts. We’ve experienced God’s character.
God rescued his people out of slavery in Egypt.
Jesus died for our sins and then beat death so that we can experience New Life.
God helped our church 15 years ago form as a new community of BELONGING, where more and more people are finding a home and a family to be a part of.
[SLIDE 20] reflection questions
How has God helped YOU? How have you seen God’s generous providing in your life? How is God now calling you to be a part of his work? Of spreading his love? Of helping others experience his generous heart and grace and forgiveness?
How can you get involved? How can you jump on board?
What is God saying to you now, and how is he inviting you to take a next step of obedience this week?