Audio Transcript:

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Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. This is the time that we find out who the faithful Christians of Mosaic are. Anyone who shows up when we lose an hour of sleep, halleluiah, you got extra reward in heaven. Your spiritual Venmo just went cha-ching, welcome. If you're new or visiting, we'd love to connect with you. We do that through the connection card, either the physical one that you can get in the back or the virtual one that you can get in our app or on our website.

One quick announcement. For the next three weeks starting today, we have prayer nights, 5:00 PM today and the next two Sundays. The structure will be we'll have prayer in the beginning. We'll have some worship. And then we'll have a 20-minute sermon or so from a brother in the congregation who's discerning the call to full-time vocational ministry. And then we'll have some more prayer as a congregation. Why are we doing this? Primarily to set our hearts on Lent, to prepare ourselves for Good Friday. That's April 2nd. And then also Easter, which is April 4th. Easter, we will be having three services. All the information you can get online or I think it's in the worship guide.

Easter is one of the best times of the year to invite friends to church, friends who perhaps had some exposure to Christianity and then walked away or friends who just haven't been in church for a while or friends who don't know much about Christianity, but you say, "Hey, this is part of my tradition. If you respect me and my faith, you should come to church with me. We will just preach the gospel and pray for people to get saved." So, plan on inviting friends and praying about that.

With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's Holy Word? Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a good God. You are a good father. You are perfect, Father. You're a father who is great and you're a father who is good. Great in that you are all powerful and good in that you enjoy to give us good gifts. You enjoy to meet our needs. You enjoy to provide for us so that we glorify you, to satisfy us so that we are satisfied in you. Lord, we thank you for Jesus Christ.

Jesus, we thank you that you came and you met our greatest need. You lived the perfect life that we would not, could not live. You went to the cross to die of the death that we deserve. You died in our place in order to reconcile us with the God of universe. Therefore, meeting our greatest need, that of reconciling us with God, that of forgiveness, that of justification, that of imputed righteousness. We thank you, Holy Spirit, that you are real, that you are with us, that you are a person, that you love us and you long to fill us and lead us and seal us.

I pray, Holy Spirit, come to this place, lead us, prepare our hearts, enlighten our minds, illuminate our hearts, our souls, and feed us from the Holy Scriptures, and teach us that we as the children of God have nothing to worry about. Our eternity is secure. Every single detail of our lives is under the control of a sovereign God, who is great and who is good. We love you, Lord, and we thank you for that. Deepen our trust in your faith, in our obedience and allegiance to you. Take away any burdens that we are carrying that we should not be. We cast them upon you, because you are God who cares. We pray that you bless our time with the Holy Scriptures and pray this in Christ's holy name, Amen.

If you're new, we're going through the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher to ever preach, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the son of man. He came to show us that there's nothing that we can do to be saved. There's no righteousness that we can do. There's no path that we can follow in order to make ourselves right before God, just before God. Therefore, we need to repent of our sin.

We need to acknowledge our spiritual bankruptcy. We need to believe in Christ. The very moment that we repent and believe, we become children of God. At that moment, we go from just being creation, just being image bearers of God who are sinful and broken and ostracized from God, we now become his children. As his children, he wants us to live with the richness of the title of a child of the God of the universe.

Last week, Jesus commands us and shows us that we are not to store or hoard treasures here on Earth. Instead, we are to have an eternal perspective on this life, on material things, on money, on everything that we have. Instead, we have to lay up treasures in heaven. What that does is sets our priorities that God is first, heaven is first, eternity is first. Everything else that God gives us here is for our stewardship. We had to steward it well for his glory and to serve our neighbor. A failure to view riches or possessions from proper perspective promotes anxiety. That's what God wants us to meditate upon today.

My wife and I, we've been here for about 11 years, I think, coming up on 12. Our second apartment was in Cleveland Circle on Lanark Road. It was a one-way street. We're on the second floor. We love that place. One of the things that we loved about that place is the magnolia tree outside of our window. If you know anything about weather in Boston, spring lasts about three days. It goes winter, spring for about three days, and then it's summer. Fall is nice. But every spring, we would look forward to the magnolia tree blooming outside our window. The flowers were white and purple. It was glorious.

If you know anything about weather in Boston, it could be spring one day, and the next day, it snows. So, don't get too happy about the weather. It was like 70 this week. We might still get a snowstorm. Who knows? So, the magnolia tree blooms. And then it snowed. It was winter, nasty, heavy, wet snow. It just covered this magnolia tree and the branch is just drooping, just cracking. They started breaking under the pressure of this snow. So, I went outside. If you know anything about Boston driving, you got to have a shovel in your car. You always have to. In the trunk of your car, you have to have a shovel.

So, I got my shovel, I go outside, and I started cleaning off the tree. As the snow fell, you saw just the tree almost sigh a breath of relief, just breathe a breath of relief. The weight is gone. The burden is gone. Well, I like that image to show that's how we look when we are burdened by anxiety. In this past year, it's been a year of the pandemic. This past year, you've seen just the physical effect of stress and anxiety on people as if they're just walking around with concrete blocks on their shoulders of stress, anxiety, worried, thick with anxiety, worrying about what?

What are you worried about? What have you been worried about for this past season? Perhaps it's your health. Perhaps it's the economy, where's it going, politics. Perhaps it's school grades, GPA, loans, job, career, your looks, weight, your hair, your clothes, school, grade, et cetera, succeeding, doing something that's actually meaningful or valuable or meeting someone, relationships, meeting the one, marriage or having a family, providing for your family, raising children that love Jesus in a world where it seems like everything is against that. All of that can be summarized with fear of the future. We don't know what's coming. So, we fear the unknown.

Someone said that "Worry is a conversation you have with yourself about things you cannot change." That's what Jesus wants us to focus on today. He delineates between concern, things that we can actually change and work on and worry, things we can't and things that we don't give up into the hands of God. We all fear and the root of anxiety is fear. The most frequently uttered commandment in Scripture is, "Fear not." The way that we fight fear of the future is with faith in a God, who is your Father. Through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we have adoption as children of God. We can become sons and daughters of God by grace through faith. Therefore, we can trust him to provide for all of our needs.

So, today, we're Matthew 6:25 through 34. Would you look at the text with me? "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? 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? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 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? 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. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

This is the reading God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time, do not be anxious; second, focus on your father; and three, seek after the kingdom.

"Do not be anxious," he says that in verse 25 and then repeats that at the end of the pericope. He says, "Therefore I tell you do not be anxious about your life." First thing I want to point out is there's different kinds of anxieties. Some of them God-given, some of them are not. There's a God-given emotional anxiety, given as a response when we are in danger, the flight or fight response, when we are in danger perhaps at night, when we're in danger perhaps you're in the woods, when you're in danger on the mean streets of Brookline. As Pastor Shane once said, "When you're getting chased by a turkey, they're mean. Stay away from them. Even in your car, they will attack your car."

There's an anxiety that comes or there's a natural anxiety that mother feels or father feels when an infant is sick or an infant needs to be fed. Those are God-given. Disordered physiological response, a clinical anxiety, which is a chronic condition that perhaps soldiers get or first responders or victims of abuse, that's not what Jesus is talking about here. Sometimes there's also natural consequences of sin. If you rack up gambling debt through sin and folly, you should be anxious about paying that off, et cetera. When we bear the consequences of the sin in our life and our body. Today, Jesus is talking about different kinds of anxieties. He's talking about the sinful response to physical things in our life in terms of God's providential care.

When we do not trust him to provide for our needs, that's what Jesus Christ is talking about here. He isn't saying to not work. He isn't saying not to provide for yourself and for those around you and not to have enough to be generous with us. That's not what he's talking about. God expects us, his people, to work hard and be amongst the hardest workers and to be responsible. Some Christians have taken these words of do not be anxious and used that as an excuse to justify laziness or irresponsible behavior. I had an uncle who would rack up credit card debt and any debt he could. He wouldn't pay it off, because he said, "Jesus is coming back soon. Don't worry about it. Also, Jesus said, do not be anxious about anything."

That's not what Jesus is talking about. You got to interpret Scripture through other Scripture. We do need to be responsible. You do need to wear a seatbelt. There are examples like that where you do need to care for yourself or your family or others. Jesus isn't saying don't plan, because we have the parable of the tower where Jesus says, "Do not be like the foolish builder, who starts a project. He didn't sit down to the very beginning before the project to figure out, "How much do I need to have in my account before I embark on a project like this?"

There's the parable of the general. You don't go into war if you don't have enough firepower, manpower to take on the other army. Jesus isn't forbidding sowing and planning. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about the difference between proper caring and concern and fixation on physical things on those matters. He's not saying, "Don't worry about your job. Stay at home. God will take care of your food. He'll send you Uber Eats." That's not what he's talking about. What he's talking about is don't be fixated on the material things of life, the food, the clothing, the housing, et cetera.

James talks about, "Hey, when a hungry person or person in need comes into your community, you can't just tell that person, 'Oh, be warmed and filled. Go therefore and be blessed.'" That would be sinful for us not to do what we can to provide for people's needs. You can't just tell that person, "Do not be anxious about food," when they're hungry. We are to care. He's not saying, "Don't worry, because there's an absence of problems in life." No, there's not an absence of problems in life. He's not saying that your life can be free from problems. He's saying that your life can be free from worry despite problems. Your life can be free from anxiety despite the problems of life.

There's a difference between anxiety and concern. Concern is when you can do something about it, you're concerned about it, then do something about it. Anxiety is when you can't do anything about it and you don't want to leave it up to God. Robert Frost said that more people die from worry than from work because more people worry than work. That's what he's getting at here is focus on this anxiety that's paralyzing. Jesus' concern here is with our priorities and what flows out of that. He uses the phrase "Do not be anxious" as an imperative twice in this text. He used the word 'anxious' or 'anxiety' six times in this text. Marimnao is the verb. Merimna is the noun.

Other places in Scripture, God talks about being careful to not let physical concerns pull us away from the more important concerns, which are the spiritual ones. Matthew 13:22, the parable of the sower, "For what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares..." That's the noun, merimna. "... of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves on fruitful." It's all about priorities. He's saying, "When you seek first the physical things of life at the expense of the spiritual things of life, the Word of God bears unfruitful."

Luke 21:34, this is talking about the second coming of Christ. "Watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down by the dissipation and drunkenness and cares..." Again, merimna. "... of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap." If you look at seven blocks of a city and you see fog come down, the fog can be 100 feet thick. But if you take all of that fog and you put it and you turn into water, it'll fill just one glass. So, from God's perspective, that's what our worries look. They fog up our sight. They fog up everything around us. But God says, "Hold on, hold on, view these things from an eternal perspective." Do not be anxious is a commandment from the Lord. Therefore, anxiety about material things can be a sin.

Worry can be a sin. Therefore, we need to repent of that sin. Worry's foolish on many levels. Worry never solved the problem, never dried a tear and never lifted a burden and never removed an obstacle and never made bad things good and never made good things better. It's foolish. Philippians 4:5 and 6 says, "The Lord is at hand. Because he's at hand, because he's with us, therefore, do not be anxious about anything." Worry kills joy. Worry causes stress. When we assume the position of God, we say, "God, you're not doing your job. I'm going to do your job better than you're doing your job. I can control things better than you do," and we assume that it's never productive.

So, instead of that anxiety, instead of being anxious, he says "Don't be anxious. Instead focus on your Father." Any parent knows this, when a child has an object that they're fixated on that will cause them harm like a knife, if a child grabs a knife, you can just take the object away, but then there's a meltdown. The wise parent is prudent, understands two steps ahead, four dimensional chess. If you're on baby number four, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You know what happens right after you take the object away, there's a meltdown. So, what you got to do is take the object and replace it with something else. And then you sell it to them. You got to market to them. Oh, look at this wonderful thing. And then you get rid of the other object. This is the trick that got Jesus.

Don't be anxious, but there's a vacuum. You can't leave it in the vacuum because then you're going to get anxious about not getting anxious and getting worried about not getting worried. So, you got to fill it with something else. What he's talking about is perspective. Don't be focused on these things. Be focused on these things. So, focus on your Father. God is your heavenly Father. God will take care of your food as a believer. That's Matthew 6:25. "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."

Don't be anxious. The present is imperative. It's constant and continuous. You got to fight this on a daily basis. You got to tell your heart, "Oh, so, why are you restless. Heart, why are you restless? Why are you worried? Why are you stressful?" You got to preach to yourself. You got to ask questions like Jesus is asking some rhetorical question, "Isn't life more than food?" Of course, it is. You need food for life, but life is so much more than these things. And then he goes, "Hey, look, if I don't worry about the physical things of life, who will?" Tremendous question. Jesus says, "Your Father, your heavenly Father."

Matthew 6:26, "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?" I love this verse for many reasons, particularly because we get a theology of ecology or environmentalism from one verse. In our world today, there's a worldview that's being pushed that humans are equally valuable with animals and with the planet. From Jesus' perspective, that's just not so. Birds are great. They're industrious. They care for themselves in many ways, but they don't feed themselves. They don't plant crops. They don't harvest. They don't store them. It's God that feeds them.

Jesus emphasized them that it's not in their heavenly Father. God isn't father of birds. He's not father of dogs. He's not father of cats. He's not father of animals. He's God over them. He's creator over them. He doesn't say, "Their heavenly Father." He says, "Your heavenly Father." Meaning you are special. Humans are special. So, in terms of caring for the environments, we should, et cetera, it's God's creation, but there's priorities that humans are infinitely more valuable than animals or even creation itself.

We're created in the image of God, your heavenly Father. You're created through Jesus Christ, and then God has bought you dear Christian through the blood of Jesus Christ. So, you are doubly his and doubly precious, infinite and value worth to your heavenly Father. Food here, he talks about food. He starts with food. Food is a wonderful servant to sustain life. It's a terrible, debilitating idol, that we are not to be consumed with what we consume, with food. Particularly, Jesus did teach us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," but only on a daily basis. God does meet those needs.

The other thing I just want to point out here since we're talking about the environment, talking about becoming children of God, this only applies to Christians. If you are not a Christian, you are not a child of God. You're a creation of God. You are not yet a child of God. In and of ourselves, we are so rebellious and wicked and sinful that in and of ourselves, we are not children of God. We are rebels. God needs to send his Son, his ultimate Son, Jesus Christ, to live a perfect life that we would not live and to die the death that we deserve.

We deserve that death for our wickedness, our disobedience, our preoccupation with material things, our idolatry. Jesus died on the cross for our sins, so that we could be adopted into the family of God. On the one hand, that sounds so exclusive. It is exclusive. If there were another way, God would provide another way. There was no other way. We're so sinful that that's what it took, the Son of God to die on the cross, but he's so loving that he was willing to take it. It is exclusive, but it's the most inclusive, exclusive truth in the history of the world. Everyone can become a child of God.

So, if you, today, you're not sure, am I a child of God? You should be worried. If you're on the fence, you're not sure, you should be worried. Jesus here is saying, "Don't sweat the small stuff," but he's not saying don't sweat the soul stuff. You got to know where your soul is. Are you reconciled with God? Are you saved by grace through faith in Christ? Are you a child of God? If so, do not be anxious and focus on the Father. If not, repent of your sin, become a Christian today, a child of God by receiving God's gift of salvation, becoming adopted into his family.

He goes on. He says, "Oh, as a child of God, God will take care of your life." That's verse 27. "And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?" In the original, in the Greek, it's talking about, "Can you add a single qubit to your height?" Obviously, you can't. It's a metaphor for life. Can you add a single minute? Can you add a single second to life? The point is that worrying is fruitless. It's foolish. It's pointless. It can't lengthen your life. It could actually shorten your life. Doctors tell us this all the time that stress has all kinds of physical implications. Worry effects not just the length of life, but also the quality of life.

Here, we get into the sovereignty of God and his deep theological waters, but hang with me because I know you can, because you came to the early service when we lost an hour of sleep. We're going to talk about it real quick about the sovereignty of God over every single minute of our life real quick. God is sovereign, over everything, over every single detail of life, including the very second that we are conceived, including the very second that we are born, including the very second that we die. It's all predestined by a great sovereign God.

Job 14:5, "Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass." You have appointed his limits that he cannot pass. I'll never forget I was at a funeral of a family member and I heard a sermon on this text. They were saying, "There's nothing you can do to add a second, pass the second that God has allotted for you." He knows the very beginning. He knows the very end, limits that he cannot pass.

Psalm 139:60, "Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them." Every single day of your life is determined by God. This is something that you need to meditate on. But I'm telling you, once you do, once you realize that God is in charge over every single moment, every single second of your life, there's a freedom that fills your soul. Fear of death is absolutely removed. There's a fearlessness not in a responsibility, not a recklessness, but a fearlessness in that God has appointed for me a purpose in life.

He's designed me in such a way to fulfill that purpose. He will give me the talents and the power of the Holy Spirit to fulfill that purpose. But the very second that I'm done fulfilling his purpose, he's taking me home. So, if you're still here, you have a job. You have a purpose to do. You have something to accomplish for God. So, he's saying this in the perspective. You can't lengthen your life. So, why worry? Worry is a sign that you don't adequately know the sovereign God. You don't adequately trust him. You haven't yielded to him.

We are in the hand of God the Father. As Jesus says in the Gospel of John, "There's nothing to pull us out of his hand," but we try to. We try to pull ourselves out of his hand. We try to take the wheel from God into our own hands. He says, "Don't do that." He also said, "God will take care of your clothing."

Matthew 6:28 through 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?" How often you think about clothing? Well, you thought about clothing today or you made a conscious decision about what you're wearing today.

In my household, my wife and I, we don't just have to think about what we wear. We also have four little human beings, female human beings, little girls. We think about what they wear the night before, put all their clothing. They plan out their outfits. It's all very sweet. My daughter Elizabeth asked me today, "What are you preaching?" I said, "Not to worry about your outfits." We know, we think about this all the time. We think about clothing all the time. We're programmed that way. We're programmed that way through marketing.

How big is the clothing apparel industry in the US? $368 billion. What's the size of the secondhand resale market? $28 billion, that's people getting rid of their stuff. What's the size of storage in the US? This is my favorite, $90 billion dollars, $90 billion when people don't have room in their place and then they go and rent space for their junk and they pay money for on a monthly basis, which doesn't make any financial sense to me. Take that, go put in a secondhand store, and then buy new stuff. We're worried. We're worried.

Jesus says, "Don't be worried about the clothing. Look at the flowers, they don't work. They don't buy or earn in terms of their beauty. They just grow. They grow and God blesses them." Jesus brings in King Solomon. Even in the time of Christ, Solomon's royal regal opulence was proverbial. Everyone knew that he dressed well. Will he not much more clothe you? Of course, he will. He provide for us.

Here, Jesus brings them in. This is the punchline. This is how he lands things, "O you of little faith?" This same phrase is used four other times in Matthew, little faith. Once where Jesus with the disciples in a boat on the Sea of Galilee and storm comes and they're freaking out as he's taking a nap. He gets up and he said to them, "Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?" Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm. He also told Peter when Peter wants to walk on water. He's going great. As he's focused on Jesus, he stops focusing on Jesus. He starts staring at the winds and the waves. He panicked. Jesus said, "O you of little faith."

Jesus provided miraculously in terms of bread. He drove out demon of a little boy. Every time he's saying, "you of little faith, you of little faith." So, worry is fed by a little faith. So, meaning that the opposite of worry isn't just tranquility. The opposite of worry isn't just optimism that things will work out. The opposite of worry is faith. Faith on this side, the opposite of faith is worry, anxiety. Faith, lack of faith. So, actually worry, anxiety is equal to a lack of faith. It's practical atheism. At that very moment, you're practically not trusting that God exists. Or it's deism that God can't do anything. He's there, but he doesn't care. Or a finite theism, he doesn't have the power to be counted on.

Jesus says here, "You're little in faith." You need to grow that faith. That's what he's getting at. The reason that you worry or you're anxious about material things is because your faith is little. It's there. That's great. As a child of God, God gives you the gift of faith. Now, we as children of God, we need to exercise that faith. We need to put pressure on that faith. We need to test that faith. It's like a muscle. You need to grow it by exercise, by using it with weight and reps. So, here, the question is, you got to ask, "Do I believe in God? God, do I believe in you? Do I believe that God is great and that he is good? Do I believe that God is greater than my greatest problem? Do you believe that God is bigger than your biggest problem?"

Some of us, we have big faith, but because of a wrongheaded theology, we believe in a small God who's not sovereign, who isn't great and who isn't good. Big faith in a small God leads to anxiety. I'd rather have small faith in a big God. That small faith when exercised becomes a big faith. George Mueller, the great prayer warrior and minister of God said, "The beginning of worry is the end of faith. The beginning of faith is the end of worry." Mark 5:36, "Do not fear, only believe. God will take care of your needs."

Matthew 6:31 through 32, "Therefore do not be anxious, '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." Again, do not be anxious. He puts anxiety on the level of being a pagan, a non-believer in Christ. Pagans, people don't trust in God, don't believe in God. They got a laser beam focused on the physical things of life, of having enough, of storing up, of making more.

What he's saying is that these believers, the pagans, they're actually believers in that they have misplaced faith. They don't believe in God. They believe in something else. They believe in themselves perhaps, or they believe in having enough money, or they believe in having a correct career. In this sense, Jesus is saying that we are all believers, every single one. You can't but believe. You can't live life without exercising your faith. Every single one of us do. If you don't believe in God as ultimate, then you will believe in other things. You will believe in government. You will believe in politicians. You will believe in what the government tells you, what the CDC tells you, what the who tells you, what the people in authority in your company tell you. We believe these.

You can't live without faith. Every time you get into an Uber, you trust that person. Every time you get in an airplane, you trust the pilot. Every time you go to a restaurant, you trust whoever prepared that food. That's faith. He's saying in this case, the pagans, they trust in themselves to provide for themselves. In a sense, they're living as orphans.

Jesus is saying, "Stop, stop living as an orphan. Stop thinking, craving, desiring like the world. Don't seek after these things. Instead, seek after your Father. Stop living beneath the privilege of being a child of God. Stop living beneath the privilege of being a child of the King of the universe." I'm not saying the privilege is the financial stuff. I'm saying the privilege is greater than that. The joy, the freedom, the satisfaction that is ours in Christ Jesus, we experience royal freedom.

There's two ways that you can ask a question about God and help. You can ask, "Will God help?" or you can ask, "How will he help?" If you ask, "Will God help?", you know that question. We've asked that question. That's a question riddled with anxiety and frustration... God, where are you? Do you even care? ... with despair. But when you are a child of God and you know that God is good and God is great, he will provide for you. You say, "How will he help?" I'm excited. It's filled with anticipation, confidence, eagerness, gladness. I can't wait to see how God will help. It completely changes the way that you live on a daily basis. So, look to God the Father.

Third, seek after the kingdom. So, this is how Jesus really lands a whole section. This is Matthew 6:33, but contrast that with everything else, worrying about stuff, "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." It's about priority. What are we seeking first? Are we seeking material things and then secondarily spiritual things, or are we seeking first God, this kingdom and his righteousness? This is a question of living by faith or by sight. That's why he said, "O you of little faith, increase your faith." If you increase your faith, now, you begin to see life as you should, from internal perspective, spiritual perspective.

Physical isn't all there is. Faith knows that worldly possessions and pleasure are temporary. Faith knows that worldly possessions and pleasures, they crowd out love and service to God. Faith knows that you need not worry about having enough for life because God our heavenly Father always cares. And then the other thing that he's use doing here is he's saying there's two ways to live. That's why he says, "They seek after stuff. You seek after spiritual things, God." There's only two ways to live either for your kingdom or for God's kingdom. So, we as God's children, we have to seek his role and his reign in our life.

God, where am I not submitting to you? First thing in the morning, God, how can I serve you today? How can I honor you today? How can I further your kingdom today? Stop worrying about your little kingdom. Start seeking God's big kingdom. The word 'seek' here is zeteo in the Greek. It's a word that's used for a hunter, a hunter that's not hunting for sport, hunting for food. It's a hunter that every single one of his sense is on alert, focused, always on the lookout, bow and arrow ready. He's saying, "In the same way, Christians should be thinking, seeking."

God, how can I further your kingdom? God, what can I do today to honor you as a servant of your kingdom? How do we overcome love of the seen with a love for the unseen God and Christ and the Holy Spirit and the Trinity? How do we do that? How do we get away from seeking stuff to seeking God's kingdom and trust God for taking care of all of other stuff in terms of priorities? How can we get rid of that? We get rid of that through the gospel.

Whenever you see that in your heart, priorities are out of whack, you look to the gospel and you look to the cross of Jesus Christ. You say, "What's happening at the cross?" What's happening at the cross is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is meeting your greatest need. You don't have a greater need than to have your sins forgiven. You don't have a greater need than to have the debt of your sin forgiven. You don't have a greater need than the wrath of God being absorbed in the Son of God, so that you don't have to bear that wrath for all of eternity.

When you look to the cross and you see what Christ did for you, because he loves you, will he not with that give you all things? Of course, he will. If he cares that much about your greatest need, he obviously cares about your lesser needs as well. This is what allowed the first century church to grow as it did. A lot of people look at Christianity and they're like, "Prove to me that Christianity is actually work of God. Prove to me that it's true." I just point to the growth of Christianity despite persecution. Islam grew the way it did by the sword. Christianity grew the way it did despite the sword. The early Christian, every single one of the disciples of Jesus Christ, except for John, who was exiled to Patmos, every single one of them, they went to the death, because they knew this is true. They knew that Jesus Christ did rise from the dead. They saw him with their own eyes and that they were willing to testify to the death.

The early church was persecuted by Nero and by Caesars, et cetera. Despite the persecution, the early church grew by 40% per decade. So much so that by the fourth century, when Constantine's in power, he says, "How do I solidify? How do I consolidate my power? I'm going to pretend that I'm a Christian." No one really knows if he's a Christian. I think his wife became a Christian. But Christianity grew despite persecution. Why? Because they knew this was true. First of all, the eyewitnesses and then Christians later experienced the work of the Spirit in their heart. They knew that there was a treasure beyond the treasures in this life.

Look at Hebrews 10:32-34. "But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened," after you became Christians, "you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. What's going on in that text? That means people who persecuted them for the faith said, "We are going to take everything you have unless you recant, unless you turn from Christ." They joyfully gave it up, because they had a treasure that was greater than that stuff.

What in the world could do that in your hearts? The gospel of Jesus Christ, where you understand that no treasure is greater than of Christ. So, devote yourself to the gospel, which now begins to transform you. That's how we seek the kingdom and his righteousness, folks, in the Gospel. Love the gospel. Recognize what God has done for you through the gospel. We do that through Scripture. We do that by abiding with Christ by reading Scripture and prayer on a daily basis. Seek first.

Before you do anything else on a daily basis, seek first the kingdom of God. You wake up. First thing you do, seek first the kingdom of God. Before coffee, with coffee, with coffee. We're not extremists here, with coffee. With coffee, you grab your Bible, you pray, you meditate, you worship God, you meditate upon God.

Luke 10:41 through 42, this is Mary and Martha. "The Lord answered her, 'Martha, Martha, you are anxious,'" marimnao, "'and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.'" I bring this as an illustration because there's two concerns here. There's two anxieties here. There's two worries here. There's two seekings here. Martha is anxious and seeking about the physical things. It's a good thing. She wants to meet the needs of Christ and his disciples. Mary is concerned about the spiritual things. Jesus, teach me. Jesus, I want to set at your feet. Jesus, what do you have to say to me? I say that to set up the next text.

This is Second Corinthians 11:24 through 28. This is St. Paul, who tells us in Philippians, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, present your requests to God." That same guy who says do not be anxious about anything, that same guy in Second Corinthians 11:24 through 28, he shows us every single thing that he's worried about, all of his persecutions that he experienced.

He says, "Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false prophets; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from all the other things..." That phrase is a set up. This is my greatest challenge. "... there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety," merimna, same word, "for all the churches."

So, a guy that tells us, "Do not be anxious about anything," is telling us that he's anxious about the churches. This is what it looks like to seek first the kingdom of God. You care more about God and his cause and his kingdom and his churches, because that's how the gospel goes out that this is God's plan of reaching the world, to plant churches. You care about that more than physical things. Churches and planting churches, et cetera, serving other Christians that you know that you're committed to. I say that 1 Corinthians 12:21 through 26, this text is perfect. If anyone is wondering why churches practice church membership, why does Mosaic practice church membership?

Read 1 Corinthians 12. "The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require.

But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members," of the local church, of the body, of the local body, "may have the same care," marimnao, same word, "for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together."

Part of seeking the kingdom and seeking the righteousness of God is also seeking, "How can I meet the needs of my brothers and sisters?" This happens in Mosaic naturally through community groups. We do our best to cultivate and we pray that God continues to do it, but this is something we need to ask ourselves on a daily basis, "Whom can I serve in my family? Whom can I serve in my local church family on daily basis?"

Philippians 2:19 through 21, testament about Timothy, "I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned," marimnao, "for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ."

Timothy's seeking the interests of Jesus Christ. How? By seeking the practical interests of the believers in Philippi. I want to serve you. Jesus, I want to serve you. Jesus, I want to honor you. Jesus, I want to love you. Jesus, I want to care for you. Jesus says, "What have you done for the least of the least?" That's what's going on in that text. He says, "Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added on to you." That's fascinating. It's fascinating because if you compare that to the teaching of Buddha, Buddha said, "Seek first the kingdom and you will need none of these things." Jesus says, "No." Jesus is realistic. He understands that we need physical things. We need food. We need clothing. We need a place to live. He knows these things.

These things will be added on to you by the Father. If you care about the Father's priorities, the Father will take care of your needs. If you care about the Father's glory, he'll take care of your satisfaction, and not just your needs. This is fascinating, because in Philippians, it says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, present your request to God, present your requests." The Psalmist says, "Delight yourself in the Lord. He will give you the desires of your heart." We have desires, unmet desires. Delight yourself in God. Seek first God. God's like, "I want to meet a desire. I want to meet a request," not a need, a request every once in a while.

Sometimes he says no. The mother of James and John, Mrs. Zebedee comes to Jesus and says, "I request. I want you to meet this request before I tell you what the request is." Give me a blank check. He says, "What do you want?" She says, "I want my sons to sit at the right and the left of you in your kingdom." He said, "You know what you're asking? Can they suffer the way I suffer?" She says, "Yes, they can." "Okay, they will," he said, "but it's not it's not for me to..." He doesn't give her that.

But then I think about Cana in Galilee where Mary comes to Jesus and they're at a wedding. She's like, "They're out of wine." Tell me, is wine a need at a wedding? Only if there's dancing involved, then wine is definitely a need. You can't have a dry wedding and dancing. You can't do that. It's either both or nothing. Is it a need? It's not a need. It's not a need. Just have some more water. Jesus is like, "Okay, here you go, a miracle." Every once in a while, but the point is that God is a good father. He'll provide what we need, not necessarily luxuries. But every once in a while, he blesses us beyond.

Matthew 6:34, "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." This is fascinating, because he doesn't say there's no trouble ever. He's saying this trouble today. He recognizes. He recognized that today, there's unavoidable worry. He recognizes this. Today, there are things that you are concerned about. You should be concerned about, that you're responsible for. You should work to take care of those things. What he's saying is by saying, "Sufficient for the day is its own trouble," let's limit the concern and the worry for today. We only live in today. Stop being so focused on tomorrow, because we never live in tomorrow. When tomorrow comes again, it's today. Let's focus on today. That's what he's saying.

Be responsible for today. By the way, this is a life hack. If you do what you need to do today, if you focus on taking care of everything you need to focus on today and you wake up and you say, "Today, I'm going to focus," and you just keep going, that leads to a very productive life for Christ. Let your requests be known to God. I thought he already knows them. Of course, he does. Prayer isn't about informing God. He already knows. Prayer is about releasing, releasing our burdens, casting them upon him.

1 Peter 5:6 and 7, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you." So, do you have anxiety? Do not turn to diversions. Do not turn to diversions. Instead turn and direct yourself to God, your burdens to God. The way to fight anxiety is with the promises of God. Romans 8:31-32, "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?"

I'll give you some promises from Scripture that you can use to fight anxiety. When you worry about what people might do to you, look to Romans 8:31, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" When you worry about being too weak, recall 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." When you worry about future decisions, recall Psalm 32:8, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you." When you worry about whether God will fulfill his promises to you, recall Hebrews 6:8, where it says, "It's impossible for God to lie."

When you worry about your loved ones, recall Matthew 7:11, "How much more will the Father give what is good to those who ask?" When you worry about physical sickness, recall Psalm 103:3, "He heals all your diseases." When you worry about getting old, recall Isaiah 46:4, "Even to your old age, I shall be the same, and even to your grain years, I shall bear you." When you worry about failing and falling, recall Philippians 1:6, "For I'm confident of this very thing that he will begin a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Amen. Let's pray.

God, we thank you that you are a great God and a good God. I pray that you strengthen our vision, our understanding of your greatness, of your sovereignty. As we look to a big God, I pray that you take our little faith and you expand it, that you make it more robust, that you solidify it. So, we become a people who never question your sovereignty, never question your character, never question your power, never question your love. You prove to us both your power and your love on the cross of Jesus Christ. Thank you, Jesus, for that. Because you met our greatest need, we thank you in advance for meeting the rest of our needs. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.