WHY NOT WORRY (1): EVERYONE HAS A TIMELINE

(Luke 12:22-34)
June 28, 2015
Intro Americans are the most stressed-out people who have ever lived. We
ooze anxiety! Some of us even organize anxiety. Lucy asks Charlie Brown if
hes worried about the world blowing up. Charlie responds, It all depends
what day is today? Lucy reports, Its Tuesday. Charlie replies, Well, on
Tuesdays I worry about personality problems. Thursday is my day to worry
about the world blowing up. If we dont have something to worry about,
well find something. One guy went to the psychiatrist to get cured of worry.
The psychiatrist hypnotized him and wiped out every anxious memory. A
week later the guy was back. Its worse than ever, Doc, he said. Whats
the problem now? asked the psychiatrist. The guy replied, Im worried
because Ive forgotten what Im supposed to be worried about!
We know anxiety kills, but we just cant seem to help ourselves. The late
advice columnist, Ann Landers, received 10,000 letters a month in her heyday.
When asked the most common topic, she answered fear. People feared losing
their health, their job, or their family. They were afraid of upsetting a
neighbor, alienating a friend or committing a social faux pas. Our world is
filled with fearful, anxious people, and we are not immune.
The Mayo Clinic reports that statistically 80% of their total case load were ill
either in reality or artificially due directly to mental stress. 80%! Not long ago
there was an article in a leading medical journal entitled, Is Stress the Cause
of All Disease? It suggested that while medical attention centered on bacteria
at the turn of the 20th century, today mental anxiety has center stage.
So how does the gospel we believe as Christians inform this trend to anxiety?
Well, I Pet 5:7 suggests, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares
for you. Phil 4:6 commands: Be anxious for nothing. Its a command, and
yet we find ourselves as anxious as anyone else. Why? Because we have a
small God. We have depreciated God to the point that He is basically
irrelevant to daily life, and when we have done that we have removed the one
possibility to live differently. We have brought God down to size, and now,
when we need Him, we are amazed that we cannot find Him.
George Mueller, the great man of faith who used to literally pray food onto the
table of his orphanages in London in the late 1800s, said, The beginning of
1

anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of
anxiety. Another way of saying that is, When anxiety walks in the door,
faith walks out. The two simply cannot co-exist. Worry, anxiety, fear they
are all red flags that say faith is absent. We cant live in faith and anxiety at
the same time.
Worry depreciates God. Worry cuts God down to size. Not that we by our
actions can either actually add to or take away from God. He could never be
increased nor diminished by His creation. Impossible. But what we can do is
diminish God in our own life. We can cut Him down to size as far as we are
concerned. We can render Him ineffective to us. Let me say it another way.
Worry makes us big and God small. Worry inflates the wrong thing. Faith
makes God big. Worry makes me big.
Thats what this passage is all about. Jesus has just been talking about money
and materialism. This section is a continuation of the same subject, only now
Jesus is specifically targeting worry. And He is saying it has no place in the
life of a believer. Faith builds God up in our eyes; worry diminishes Him.
Jesus shows us 7 ways that happens. I hope as we examine those, we will be
motivated to get serious about the sin of worry and eliminate it in favor of
faith. Seven ways worry makes God small.
I.

Destroys Gods Peace (22, 29, 32)

V. 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.
Now, notice, Jesus isnt saying, Dont be anxious about the luxuries of life
that you have or dont have. No Hes saying, Dont be anxious about the
necessities. Food and clothing are pretty basic, and Jesus is saying actually
commanding Dont worry about it. That pretty much eliminates anything
from the worry list, right?
Now, notice that He doesnt say, Dont do anything about the necessities.
Hes not saying, Sit back and relax. Ill take care of you. We know that
Paul often made tents to finance his missionary work. He says in II Thess
3:10, For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If
anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. Jesus is not encouraging
laziness or irresponsibility. But He is commanding against the attitude that is
worried about whether or not there will be enough for next week, or next year
or for retirement. Hes saying dont get uptight about even the basics, like food
2

and clothing. In the previous section, He has warned about covetousness. In

fact, they are to store their treasure in heaven. But if I do that, now Im
worried that I wont have enough, right? And Jesus is saying to His disciples,
Dont go there. Go do what you can to meet the need, but dont worry
about it. Leave the worry to me.
V. 29 extends the thought: And do not seek what you are to eat and what you
are to drink, nor be worried. In v. 30 He tells us what we are to seek:
Instead, seek his kingdom. So, when Jesus says, Do not seek what you are
to eat, but seek his kingdom is He advising against working for food? No,
Hes not. Hes using hyperbole exaggeration to make a point. How do we
know? Matt 6:33 gives us a parallel passage to this. There Jesus says, But
seek first the kingdom of God. That clarifies the intent. Hes not saying,
Dont seek food and clothing for this life, but Hes saying, Dont seek
that first. Dont let that be your priority. Seek Gods interests first then
seek what you need and Hell make sure youve got all you need and more.
Now, we get a little more help on this when we unpack the word anxious.
Its the Greek which comes from a root which means to
divide, to draw in different directions to distract. Jesus is saying, Dont be
torn apart with worry about this life about food and clothing. His point is
the same as it was to Peter when he was walking to Jesus on the water. Peter
was fine as long as he kept his eyes on Christ fully trusting Him. As soon as
he began to look around at all the things that could go wrong, he became
divided with torn allegiances. His anxiety went thru the roof as he began to
consider, Who do I trust? Jesus or my common sense that says people dont
walk on water. Anxiety destroys the peace of God because it gets us focused
in multiple directions. It fractures us.
Stuart Briscoe tells of going to preach at a cold, drafty old church in England.
The fellow who met him there showed him around and then started talking
about the difficulties. They needed new carpet, but could not afford it. There
were problems with the organ. The choirmaster had just gotten fired. The
pastor was no good. Finances were in dire straits. They had a problem with
vandalism. Briscoe says, After about half an hour he seemed to be running
out of material so I asked, Tell me about the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell me
about Jesus. The man looked like he had been kicked in the shins. He
paused, then said, Come on; we better get going. So distracted. So anxious.
So torn. Why? Never thought about the perfection of Jesus. Theres nothing
wrong with Him, Beloved. Focus on Him and anxiety will melt into nothing.
3

II.

Defies Gods Perspective (23)

V. 23: For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. This is
the overriding principle of this passage. This is a universal truth. But we do
not naturally perceive this truth. We are born with a predisposition exactly 180
degrees counter to this truth. Our physical senses teach us that there is
nothing more important than survival; therefore, food is our first priority.
Clothing for protection and to attract attention are a close second. That is our
natural predisposition and it takes a radical realignment to change that bent.
In fact, we could not know that it is wrong except someone higher than us
reveal that truth to us. Gods view of reality differs radically from our natural
perspective. So we have to decide. Is it Gods reality, or ours? Anxiety defies
Gods perspective in favor of my own. Jesus urges a higher perspective.
Now, please note, Jesus does not say, Life is not food. He does not deny nor
diminish our physical existence. Eastern religion says of physical existence,
Ignore it; its not real. Jesus says, No, its real all right. But its not all.
Life is food, yes, but it is much more than food. Food is minor compared to
the greater reality of your eternal existence. Thus Jesus is teaching us that
what we can see with our senses is only a small part of reality and if we are to
get Gods perspective on things, we have to look way beyond what we
naturally perceive. We have to look to the eternal spiritual realities that exist
beyond the temporal physical realities. When we are anxious about food and
clothing as tho they were the most important things in our existence, we are in
defiance of Gods perspective. We need to be re-focused.
Life is more than food because death is not the end. And the body is more
than clothing because the body is only the outer shell of my inner reality.
When I worry about food and clothing, I shortchange my whole existence. I
am like the rich man in vv. 16-20 who was building bigger barns to house all
the things he had laid up for the comfort of his body. God called him a fool,
but think about it. He wasnt so much a fool for making provision for now;
he was a fool for making no provision for the rest of eternity. If there were
no hereafter, no eternity, no accountability, no life after death, no spiritual
reality; he would hardly have been a fool. He simply wouldnt have been able
to enjoy the fruits of his labor for lack of time. His foolishness was dictated by
the fact that life is more than food, and the body more than clothing, and he
had made provision only for food and clothing. He had ignored his eternal
existence which was far more important. Now his soul was required of him
4

and he had made no provision for his soul. Things end; people go on. Thats
why life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. He was living
by his own warped perspective and ignoring Gods real perspective.
Our perspective is way too small. Were like someone being confined in a
house all their life. It is a comfortable home, with little areas for planting food
and solar panels for generating heat. We get very comfortable in our little
world, worrying our way to continued existence. Only after many years does
someone knock on the door and we open it for the first time to find a whole
wide world of possibilities outside that we had never imagined. Now we must
decide stay with what we know or begin to explore the wonders beyond.
That is what Jesus is offering when He says, life is more than food, and the
body more than clothing. This is a view of reality we could never have had it
not been revealed by someone outside. But it has been. Now we know. Now
we must choose. Whose reality will we live ours or Gods?
Arthur Rubenstein, the great Polish born pianist became a US citizen in 1946,
but he was frustrated with the bureaucracy. He arrived late for lunch one day
with the writer, Clifton Fadiman. He entered and ordered then apologized,
Sorry to be so late. For two hours I have been at my lawyers, making a
testament (will). What a nuisance. One figures, one schemes, one arranges,
and in the end what? It is practically impossible to leave anything for
yourself! Thats a man who was suffering great anxiety in defiance of Gods
perspective of reality. You cant of course, leave anything to yourself. That
assumes that life does consist of food and the body for clothing! How much
better had he been sending it on ahead, making preparation for eternity rather
than only for now.
How do you send ahead? Let me give you one example. In Radical David
Platt tells of a young man named Daniel, a member of Platts church in
Birminghan. He was an honor graduate with a degree in mechanical
engineering. Coming out of school he had many attractive offers, including
one for a high-paying job at a nuclear power plant that would also pay him to
go on for a Masters and Ph.D degree. But two years earlier, Daniel had
become a follower of Jesus Christ a true disciple who was learning what it
means to deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow Jesus. He now lived
to make much of the glory of God. So he turned down the attractive job offers
he had to work within an engineering program designed to help impoverished
communities around the world. His father emailed Platt soon afterward saying,
"Daniel has made a very radical departure from my long-held and
5

traditional value system. I have raised my children with solid Christian

values and naturally have expected them to grab the brass ring of
opportunity and settle into a productive family life." He went on to describe
how much he had learned from his own son and how proud he was that Daniel
had let go of the pursuits of this world in order to "take the gospel to places
and peoples unknown to him." Daniel is living in Gods reality that life is
more than food, and the body more than clothing. Platt tells of seeing Daniel
soon thereafter and reports he is pursuing unprecedented opportunities God is
giving him from America to Africa to Asia to pursue a much greater dream
than hed ever had before. Daniel has opened the front door of a limited
human perspective and is now living outside in Gods reality.
Have you been outside lately? What that means will be different for each of
us, but we must be asking, what does it mean to me that life is more than
food? Ask God, whats look like for me? Defying Gods reality brings all
kinds of anxiety about how to make sure we have enough. That melts away
when we begin to believe and live like there is more than just this world.
Conc The greatest example of this is, of course, the life of Christ. If life was
just food and clothing Jesus never would have gone to the cross. He could
have and would have preserved His own life, confirming that survival is the
highest good and physical life is our most precious possession. But life is
more than food, and the body more than clothing and so He went willingly to
that cross to pay the price for the penalty of our sin to make available the most
precious possession of all eternal life in and with Christ. Do you have that?
Have you made provision for that or is your total focus and attention and
anxiety centered on this life?
Just outside the Superdome in NO there is a statue called Rebirth that
depicts Steve Gleason blocking a punt. It recreates the moment early in the
first quarter of the first game the Saints played in the Dome after a 21-month
absence after Hurricane Katrina when Gleason blocked a punt which was
recovered in the end zone for a touchdown igniting the most successful
season in Saint history to that time. Gleason was etched into Saints lore,
retiring after the 2008 season. But in 2011 he was diagnosed with ALS Lou
Gehrigs disease. He has now lost most of his motor skills. He was
interviewed by Peter King before a recent Saints game. King boldly asked the
obvious question, Have you thought to yourself, How long do I have to
live? Gleason answered, Yeah, which is a really good thing to think as a
human. King responded, Why? Gleason answered, Because we all have
6

a timeline, Peter. Most of us dont live like we have a timeline. Are you
living like this life has a timeline? We all should because life is more than
food, and the body more than clothing. Lets pray.