Kingdom Life: Do Not Be Anxious (Matthew 6:25-34)
The Heart of the Sermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount begins with re-orienting truths about God’s view of a blessed life. It is not those who think they have it all together who get God’s blessing, but those who know they don’t—those who know they need God. It is not those who are powerful in the world who get God’s blessing, but often those who are not, who know that they truly have nothing apart from him. It is not those who think they are righteous in themselves, but those who understand their need for God’s righteousness. The defining difference between people of the kingdom and people of this world is our awareness of our need for God. Is the King at the center of our lives? Is it him that we seek? Is it him that we serve? Or have we set up a kingdom and a life that excludes him?
The Sermon on the Mount repeats itself many times over, and many of its topics are getting at this one question: Is God your treasure? Is God, in the person of Jesus Christ, your treasure?
Last week we began a second group of warnings from Jesus. The first group had to do with loving the praise of men rather than fearing and seeking the attention of the God who sees. This second set of warnings highlights how often material things swallow up our love for God and our service to his kingdom.
Money is powerful, but it is a bad god, and it cannot coexist with God on the throne of your heart.
Today’s text continues in this vein of warning, with a call from our Lord to live life free of anxiety and full of trust in our Father—the result being the fruit of a life lived in service to Christ’s kingdom rather than to our own wants and desires in this world.
No one is exempt from a need for this word. All of us experience anxiety about tomorrow. This is not something we usually find to be a one-and-done sanctification, but rather a process of sanctification as we daily surrender our lives and our families to our God and meditate on his precious promises for all who come to him with their need.
I found myself anxious this month in a more intense way than usual—not perhaps about what I would eat or wear in the short term, but about the needs of my family more broadly in the long term. But I have felt the gentle call of my Father to repent of this sinful anxiety and to put my trust in him again. I hope that you will hear the same today and put your faith in God afresh.
A Command for Citizens of Heaven (v. 25)
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life…”
Those who understand that this world and all of its treasures are passing away, and who understand that treasure in heaven is the only thing worth building toward, should not be anxious about their lives.
In fact, Jesus commands his disciples not to be anxious about their lives. It is unfitting for citizens of heaven, for children of the Father, and for servants of the King.
“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?”
In this country, it is rare for us to worry about food and clothing. However, these fundamental needs represent many other areas of need and desire far broader than food and clothing. “Do not worry about your life or your body”—these two words capture a much broader domain where we can easily find ourselves anxious.
What do you worry about? What makes you anxious today?
Are you anxious about the way you look, your health, where you live, your kids, your happiness, or whether God will give you good things?
Do not be anxious about these things. It is unfitting for a citizen of heaven. It is unfitting for a child of God and a servant of the King.
Jesus wants us to know that anxiety is ultimately a lack of trust—a lack of faith in the goodness of God. Verses 26 through 30 highlight the goodness of God on display in creation in order to expose our little faith in our Father, who cares for our needs.
Look at the Birds of the Air (vv. 26–27)
Verse 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? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?”
Birds are perhaps the most nomadic creatures imaginable. I often wonder about them when they appear out of nowhere at the bird feeder or in our backyard, making themselves known by their song, happy as can be. They don’t have a house of their own. They don’t have barns. Who feeds them? Our heavenly Father. “Yet your heavenly Father feeds them.”
And listen to this: “Are you not of more value than they?” The implied answer is yes! You are. You are a child of God—so why are you anxious?
Verse 27 adds another point that exposes the folly of anxiety: “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?”
What is our worry even able to accomplish? It cannot add a single hour to our life—not one. Implied again is that our lives are in God’s hands. We belong to him. Our lives were made to image him and bear fruit for him. We were bought with the precious blood of his Son and adopted into his family. He has paved the way for us to have eternal life with him—so why are we anxious about this life?
Consider the Lilies of the Field (vv. 28–30)
Verse 28: “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?”
Consider the lilies. What a beautiful phrase. Consider all the flowers of the field, or the trees around us. They are beautifully clothed—and how? Is it because they toil and spin? No. God clothes them. Even flowers that live a single day, that are alive today and gone tomorrow, he clothes more beautifully than Solomon, the wealthiest of kings.
“O you of little faith.” This feels blunt, even somewhat cutting, if you apply these words to your own heart—but they are so often true of each of us. My brothers and sisters, I don’t want you to receive these words from our Father as meant to tear you down, but as words meant to build you up, to call you to something greater. God is calling you and me into fullness. He is calling us into freedom. He is calling us to himself. He is welcoming us to rely on him in all of his fullness and goodness.
Don’t you see that anxiety is cheap and empty? It is empty because it all leans on me, myself, and I, and on what I can scrape together in this world. It is empty because it relies on temporary things—people, jobs, status, health—all fleeting.
Your Father Knows What You Need (vv. 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. 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.”
In contrast to kingdom people, the Gentiles—that is, those outside the covenant, or for us we could insert “the world”—are anxious about all these things. Why are they anxious and seeking after these things? Because God is not in the picture. They do not know their need for him. They do not understand their unrighteousness apart from him. They do not understand the weight of eternity. So they live for now. They live for today’s happiness, today’s food, today’s clothing, today’s pleasure. They do not understand that there is so much more to life than this.
Sadly, they do not know the heavenly Father who understands the human heart, the human body, and all the needs we have. But we do. By God’s grace we know that “your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.”
But we must be reminded. Every day we need to know that he is the one who made all things, who gave the world and its food and its clothing and every resource on this planet to us, and called it good. We need to be reminded that he understands our personal desires. Luke’s Gospel tells us that he knows and numbers every single hair on our head, which makes these promises all the more personal. These are not just generic words from King Jesus, but words of personal knowledge of each and every human being—especially his children.
So we must not be like the world, slipping into the same way of thinking. Instead, we must put our faith in our good heavenly Father. He wants us to trust him with our lives and every facet of them. He does not withhold from us. He knows what we need.
Seek First the Kingdom (v. 33)
This is why we read this beautiful promise in verse 33: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
God is powerful—more than able to give you “all these things.”
If the call of Jesus is to leave anxiety and put our faith in our God for all of our lives, then the welcome is into all these things that we need as we seek him first.
What do you feel worried about? Trust the Father to give you all these things.
What do you anxiously toil over and lose sleep over? Trust the Father to give you all these things.
Anxiety and the Call to Surrender
Now, there is a qualification that Jesus makes that is important. If we seek the kingdom and his righteousness first, then all these things will be added to us.
I think it is good to consider that sometimes the Lord withholds good things from us when we have yet to surrender areas of our life to him. Like a good father who disciplines his children, our Father withholds—in other words, disciplines us—at times for our good. It would be unloving and unwise for him to give us things that would destroy our soul. So the condition Christ lays out for us is that the Lord requires surrender, open hands with all of our lives before the one who owns our lives.
What about you? Perhaps the thing you are anxious about is the thing you have yet to surrender to God. Oftentimes, anxiety offers a hint to Christians about areas that need further surrender.
When you feel anxiety, ask yourself: Do I trust God to give me good in this area? Am I willing to trust him if he says no? Do I believe that he only gives me what is good and for my flourishing?
As we surrender all things to our Father with open hands, trusting that he is good no matter what, God loves to give all things to us. I experienced this with Kate. I have experienced it with money and work and friends—with essentially every area of life under the sun. The more I clung to and gripped the things I desired, the less I received; but the more I opened my hand in surrender, the more I felt the Lord pour out. Again, this is fatherly discipline, not a transactional relationship. This is love and personal knowledge of what you truly need.
What do you need to surrender to the Lord? God requires from his people hearts that are centered on him—hearts that seek after him as their first love, hearts that want his kingdom more than anything on this earth, hearts that long for God’s righteousness to pervade our very being, our households, our neighborhoods, our city, and our world. God desires that our treasure would be him.
These areas of anxiety are showing you areas that need greater surrender, fuller faith, and deeper trust and love of our heavenly Father.
The truth is, seeking the kingdom and his righteousness is a fruit of our faith. It is not something grounded in our hard work or our ability to muster enough strength in ourselves. Rather, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness comes out of a deep-seated belief that God is sufficient and more than able to give us all we need in this life and through eternity.
In other words, the life that God requires of you and me is made possible as we come to him. He supplies the strength we need to live the life he requires. It reminds me again of John 15 and the call to abide in him. Apart from him, we can do nothing. But if we remain in him, it is the Father’s good pleasure that we bear much fruit.
Do Not Be Anxious About Tomorrow (v. 34)
Brothers and sisters, “do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
Jesus knows that life is difficult and full of many troubles and anxieties. In this cursed and fallen world we will experience various trials: fear, pain, lack, money problems, relational strife, death. But there is a way to carry these burdens that is holy and a way that is sinful. Sinful anxiety misses the heart of the Father and keeps the burden in our own hands. Holy concern acknowledges the brokenness of the world today, and then moves toward God, “casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). He cares for you. He cares for you even when he says no or wait. He cares for you in your pain and welcomes you to lay every care on him.
And as we do that, we will find that worrying about tomorrow actually feels unfitting. We will believe that tomorrow can be anxious for itself, that we don’t have to worry about it. Trust in your Father, who has made you a son or a daughter, who has supplied everything you have needed—chiefly in giving us his own Son, who would cover our sin with his blood and reconcile us to our God, in whom is life.
Christ Is Our Treasure
If we have been united to him, we have nothing to fear and nothing to worry about, because we have our treasure. If everything in this world falls apart—our bodies, our finances, or anything else under the sun—our inheritance is still kept for us, still undefiled and imperishable in heaven. Our Lord Jesus Christ has won. So set your gaze on him. Store up treasures in heaven as you believe in him and bear fruit in his name.
Be free to seek first the kingdom and his righteousness, knowing that all things will be added to you in this life. For some that will mean abundance, and for some it will mean having just what we need. And in either circumstance, we will be content in Christ. Everything else we might gain in this world is rubbish in comparison to him.
Let’s open up our hands right now before the Lord and surrender our wants and desires to him. Let’s cast our cares at his feet. Tell him you trust him, that you believe he is good even as you wait. Offer your obedience no matter what and tell him that you are willing to seek his kingdom first even when things don’t make sense. Come to your Father who cares for you. Let him feed you. Let him clothe you with his comfort, his righteousness, his love.
Let’s sing Abide together as we stay in this posture of surrender.