Happy last day of March! Today we’ll be looking at Matthew 6:25-34:
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.
I thought this passage would be another timely one with everything going on in our world today! Three times in this passage, Jesus commands us to not be anxious or not worry. But there are some specific things Jesus tells us not to worry about, and they all center around selfishness. See there’s a sense of holy worry for the spiritual well-being of your church family. There’s also a sense of holy anxiousness to see God’s kingdom coming to bear fruition on earth. But the kind of worry we should not make the focus of our lives is material things. Jesus focuses on 3 things: what we eat, what we look like, and the clothes we wear. These three things are external things that have little to no bearing on the spiritual well being of all of us (I say little because God created our bodies as good, but they are marred by the fall).
There’s a wonderful little book that just came out called ‘Don’t Forget to Remember’ by Ellie Holcomb that we bought for our kids (there’s also a fun album that goes along with it!), that walks through various aspects of creation that God has given to us to remind us of is never ending love for us. Things like the sun’s warmth that reminds us God’s love is right with us all the time. Jesus is here making the exact same point. Worrying is a waste of time because God takes care of all of his creation (which includes us!). Even birds, this text tells us, are to remind us that God will provide everything we need!
We end with the reminder to worry about God’s kingdom instead of ourselves. As I preached yesterday, none of us have control over the economy, and as of right now we can’t even do anything against this virus (apart from practicing social distancing!). But what we can control is what we’re focusing our attentions and thus our lives on. If we focus on God and his kingdom, we don’t need to worry about the other things, but if we focus on the other things we’ll never arrive!
SONG:
Today’s song is from that Ellie Holcomb album titled ‘Don’t Forget to Remember’ and you can listen to it on YOUTUBE or SPOTIFY.
FREE STUFF:
Many of you know I kind of love reading history, and have a special fondness for church history. Thus, one of the podcasts I listen to every week covers this very topic! It’s a very quick listen as it’s only 5 minutes long, called ‘5 Minutes in Church History.’
Pastor Mike's Musings 