Do Not Be Anxious About Your Life ~ Luke 12:22-31

December 27, 2015 ~ New City Church of Calgary ~ Pastor John Ferguson
Intro: I remember vividly the Christmas when panic first set in. I was about 10 years old and we had just
opened all our presents, and there I sat surrounded with all my new stuff. Why did I feel empty? It wasnt that I
didnt like what I received. I did. Its just that I waited and waited for that Christmas morning, and it came, and it
was over. And I felt a twinge of anxiety. Though no one in the room knew it, I felt exposed.
Have you ever felt like that? Do you know what its like for anxiety to catch you off guard and grab hold of your
heart? Do you know what its like to feel exposed? Empty? To be worried? To fear?
Of course you do; its
the uneasiness you feel about 2016 b/c of the uncertainty of the economy
the worry that surfaces when you lay awake wondering what people would think if they really knew you
the determination with which you approach life making sure every T is crossed and I is dotted
the fear you feel when you worry about undiagnosed sickness you may have or how you might die
the temporary relief you feel when youve been able to check off every item on your to-do list for the day
the phobias that you battle
the inability to sit still and just be quiet
the drive you have to convince yourself and everyone else that you have it all together
Though it may look different in each of our lives, and though we might be reluctant to admit it, all of us deal to
some degree with worry, anxiety, and fear.
Charlie Brown: Ive developed a new philosophyI only dread one day at a time!
Jesus would have us know the presence of worry, anxiety, and fear speaks volumes. It speaks volumes about
what we really think about ourselves and what we believe about God, and what we really trust in. Since Jesus
invites each one of us into an apprenticeship in real lifeto join his revolutionhe knows that one of the things
that can sideline us is the presence of fear, anxiety, & worry. And so he wants to talk frankly with us about that.
Do Not Be Anxious About Your Life ~ Luke 12:22-31
CONTEXT: What you need to know Jesus has just told a parable about a rich man who lived only for this life.
He was concerned only about his possessions. Jesus: your soul is more important than your stuff.
22 And he said to his disciples, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will
eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than
clothing.
1. Jesus could have just said, Stop it! But he knows that we need to hear more. Why? Because worry and
anxiety is saying more, and that voice needs to be drowned out.
Do not be anxious about your life. Life is more than the things you are worried about. There is something
far more important that you are missing out on.
2. Jesus is going to give two illustrations, and asks you to consider your life in light of his teaching.
Illustration #1: Consider the birds
24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap,they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God
feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!

1. Ravens are scavengers, not farmers. They know nothing of sowing and reaping, nothing about building
storehouses and barns. They just go looking for food and God provides for them. They dont even ask God
to provide for them; he just does.
2. How Much More Argument: The point is not that we are to live like ravens. We do sow and reap, and
store food. The point is that if God cares about and feeds the birds, how much more will he take care of you
b/c you are much more valuable than birds.
Reflection #1: Consider yourself
25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 26 If then you are not
able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious?
1. Anxiety does nothing for you. In fact, if you can muster all the worry and anxiety that you are capable of,
you cannot add a single hour to your life.
2. Anxiety disconnects you from the God who rules over all things and as promised to provide for you.
Illustration #2: Consider the flowers
27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his
glory was not arrayed like one of these.
1. Flowers do absolutely nothing to be clothed in beauty. Its simply bestowed upon them because God is
generous.
2. King Solomon was one of the wealthiest kings in ancient times. He was decked out in royal clothing, but
Jesus says that Solomon is nothing in comparison to the glory of the lilies.
Reflection #2: Consider yourself
28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the
oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!

1. Heres another How Much More argument. If God cares for the flowers of the field which are here today
and gone tomorrow, how much more will he care for his children who are heirs of his eternal kingdom.
2. O ye of little faith. Faith = trust. You have little trust in God. If you knew the Heavenly Father like I know
him, you would see how absurd this is. Your fear reveals how small your trust in God.
Or, another way to put it: your trust in yourself is to great. Your schemes to control and manage life apart
from your Heavenly Father are too filled with self-confidence.
Key Questions: Whom do I trust? Where do I put my faith?
Application:
29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 30 For all the
nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.
1. Fear and worry and anxiety characterize those who do not know my Heavenly Father. It characterizes them
because they dont trust this God that Im telling you about that loves you and cares for you and promises
to provide for you. It characterizes those who are putting confidence in themselves to manage life, and they
are trying to live under the illusion that they can control life.
2. Your Father knows what you need, and life is so much more than your needs. Trust him with your needs.
You, on the other hand, concern yourself with something else.

31 Instead, seek first his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
1. Instead of being worried about the basic necessities of lifethings God has promised to providewe
should instead be preoccupied with something else: seeking first Gods kingdom.
2. E. Welch, Running Scared, How do you seek the kingdom? When you seek the King, you are seeking the
kingdom. If you could have asked Jesus, Where is the kingdom? he would have said, Youre getting
warmer every step you take toward him. If you touched him he would say, Youre burning up! Jesus was
and is the embodiment of the kingdom because he is the King.
When you seek the Kingdom, youre seeking a person; youre seeking the King.
Why does Luke record this account in his historical biography of Jesus? Because anxiety can sideline /
cripple a follower of Jesus b/c it takes your eyes off of his Kingdom and places them upon your own kingdom.
Life is about what kingdom you seek every day of the week.
I can either (1) seek first my kingdom and be worried and anxious about my life, or (2) seek first Gods kingdom
and be filled with his peace.
1. Interview your anxiety for truth.
(1) What is your anxiety saying? In whom is your anxiety asking you to trust?
(2) Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you
are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?
(3) Life is about what kingdom you seek every day of the week. The presence of anxiety speaks volumes.
2. Replace your anxiety with trust.
(1) Your gracious Father provides you with grace for today. For this hour. For this moment. Tomorrows
grace will be there for tomorrow. So dont borrow from tomorrow and import anxieties into today.
Illustration of Tyler falling off his bike, Dont you have a Father?
(2) Life is about what kingdom you seek every day of the week. The presence of Gods peace flooding your
life speaks volumes as to which kingdom you are seeking.
Conclusion: One last How Much More argument, perhaps the ultimate.
(1) Romans 8:32, 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?
(2) The message of Jesus isnt a sort of self-help-Dont worry, be happy kind-of message, but a radical
re-orienting of what it means to be human: that is, we are called to have such a bold confidence in our
heavenly Fathers care of us that we live anxiety-free lives. And we can do this with the full confidence
that he cares so deeply about us b/c he sent us his Son.

NCC, may you know that life is about what kingdom you seek every day of the week,
and may you be a be a people who live lives of radical trust in your Heavenly Father,
and in doing so may you show the world a different way of being human.