The Word of God comes to us this morning from Matthew chapter 6 as we once again return to our consideration of our Lord's Sermon on the Mount. We will read together verses 19 through the end of chapter 6, verse 34. 19 through 34. The text I have indicated is Matthew 6, verses 25 through 34. And I must confess here at the beginning that after the order of worship was already printed and as I started to put my thoughts on paper, I knew that there was no way I was going to get through this entire text. So I just tell you up front that we're going to consider point one this morning. Point one. Trusting the kingdom provider with contentment. And the Lord willing, as we gather together next Sunday morning for the Lord's Supper as well, we will consider the rest of this text. Matthew 6, beginning at verse 19. Hear now the word of God. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness? No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow? They do not labor or spin, yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow, is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. each day has enough trouble of its own. There ends the reading of God's holy Word. We pray His blessing upon it this morning. Well, beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, as we have studied this sermon so far, we know that Jesus is teaching, so we kind of go back to the beginning, we know that Jesus is teaching believers, first of all. He's teaching kingdom citizens. And He's teaching them about life in the kingdom of God, about what that life is to look like, what the believer's life is to look like in the kingdom of God. And therefore, he begins by teaching about what kingdom character looks like as outlined in the Beatitudes, being poor in spirit, mourning, being meek, hungering, and thirsting for righteousness, and all those other things. And then he goes on to teaching about being light to this world through lives that point others to Jesus Christ. And then he teaches about transformed hearts that apply the law of God to our thoughts and our heart motives and not just to our outward actions. And then you may recall that in the first part of chapter 6, he teaches about works of service that are motivated by pleasing God and not drawing attention to ourselves. And now in this passage that we read together, Jesus is teaching about the believer's relationship to the things of this world. Beloved, God cares about you and me in this world on this earth because it's His. Because He made it. And our lives and our very existence on this earth is also a part of His kingdom. And our Lord would have us to understand that things and possessions are not an end in themselves. Those are not that for which we are to live. But things and possessions are a means to the end of serving God here in preparation for glory. And therefore, as we saw in verses 19-24, Jesus commands believers to not store up treasure on earth, to not serve or become a slave to the things of this world, but to give all of our allegiance to Him. Serve God. Not money or mammon or the things of this world. But also then, in the text before us this morning, not only are we taught in the previous text to give our all to Him, but we are taught now to expect our all from Him. Indeed, it is so easy to become preoccupied with possessions and with getting more because we worry about the future and fail to trust God to provide, to take care of us. Yet our Lord would have us to understand that just as earthly possessions can become an idol and depose, throw God off of the throne of our hearts in the same way earthly needs can easily become a source of worry and anxiety which also deposes God by fostering a lack of trust. And the kind of worry that Jesus is talking about is a symptom of little faith, as He says. Christians are called to be in the world but not of the world. And by the grace of God, we keep from becoming of it by trusting the kingdom provider. trusting the kingdom provider. Verse 33 says again, but seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Jesus reminds us. We need to remember and understand Jesus reminds His listeners and us who we are, whom He is talking about. He reminds us twice very vividly when He speaks of your heavenly Father. He's talking to us as children of God. Why not worry? Because He is your Father. Trust Him. Trusting the kingdom provider, first of all, and again, only considering today with contentment. Contentment which is contrary to worry and anxiety. It's no doubt I trust to any one of us that Jesus is addressing worry in this passage. Three times he says, do not worry. Most likely because that's what seems to come naturally for us as human beings, as those who struggle with sin. But the opposite is contentment. When he says do not worry, he is calling us to be content. Again, which is contrary to worry and anxiety. We can all identify with worry. All ages, boys and girls, young people, young adults, middle age, those who are older, we can all identify with worry. We worry about all kinds of different things. We worry in the dark. We worry about what others think of us. We worry, or should, about getting good grades. We worry about making the team. We worry about getting sufficient financial aid for college or about getting into the appropriate college. As parents, we worry about our children no matter what age they are. Even if they are full grown, we worry about them throughout their lives and the situations and circumstances that they face. We worry about paying our tuition or we worry about our 401k or retirement plan. We worry about our job security or getting a job if you just graduated from college. We worry about medical treatment being effective. We worry about fires, and especially if we've lost a home, how will we get back on our feet? We worry when we've lost a loved one, how will I go on? We worry about, well, you can fill in the blank. Because there's all kinds of things. And of course, there are also those out there who try to cause worry and anxiety among society, most often for their own agenda. Trying to cause worry and anxiety about global warming or bank bailouts or the stock market or foreclosure rate or joblessness or terrorism. Some of these things are legitimate. Some of them are not to worry about or be concerned with. Worry, anxiety, is one of the most persistent temptations that many of us struggle with. I do very severely sometimes. Yet Jesus says, Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Now, what is Jesus not talking about here? Well, first understand that He is talking about the whole of our life. Our life lived on this earth in the body that God has made. our existence here on this earth. And He focuses, of course, on the things that are essential to it. Food and drink and clothing. The necessities of life which then represent the circumstances and situations that any one of us might face in our own lives. But He is not talking about, when He says, do not worry, and He talks about the birds, He is not talking about idleness. He is not saying, go ahead and sit back and do nothing. He is not talking about taking on the attitude of, que sera, sera, Whatever will be, will be. Because even the birds, you see, though they do not plant, we know that boys and girls, don't we? Though they do not harvest, they do not store food away, yet they also don't sit on a branch and wait for a worm to drop into their beak. They're busy, aren't they? Watch them. They're busy going around collecting that which God has provided for them. Jesus is not talking here about legitimate cares and concerns of life that each and every one of us is called to deal with because we live in a world of sin and sin's effects. But He's talking about how to deal with them. We are to be diligent. We are to be conscientious. The writer of Proverbs says, Consider the ant. Stores away. He's busy. Paul in 1 Timothy 5 says, If anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. In another place, he says, if a man will not work, neither will he eat. But, beloved God, God Himself has set seasons for sowing and reaping, seed time and harvest. God Himself calls us to work. He calls us to be diligent and conscientious, to use the talents and the abilities that He has given and the means that He has provided in order to provide and to plan and prepare even for the future without endangering the present. Yet in all of this, and this is key, in all of this, trusting God to provide the increase. Unless the Lord builds the house, the laborers labor in vain, the workers' labor in vain who build it. Trusting God to provide what we need and being content that He does know our needs as Jesus says He does. You see, the kind of worry that Jesus is warning against here is sinful worry and anxiety that draws our attention and our confidence away from God. He's talking about the kind that is a mighty power and an active force that most, if not all of us, have probably experienced. The kind that dominates one's life even with the little things. The littlest things drive us crazy. We worry about them. It is an inner anxiety that becomes fixated on where is it going to come from? Or how am I going to get it? Or when is it going to come? Or what if? Or what if not? That seems kind of legitimate, doesn't it? If we've got a family to care for and provide for. And again, there are legitimate cares and concerns of life that our God calls us to be conscientious about. Yet, sinful worry controls the whole of one's life and thinking so that one only sees everything in the light of that anxiety. For example, if you lose your job, It's not just the job anymore, is it? It's food. It's clothing. It's a house payment. It's tuition. It's insurance. It's this. It's that. There's a ripple effect. It's the kind of worry Jesus is talking about is the kind that one becomes obsessed with and loses sleep over and just cannot get it out of my mind. So that the whole of one's life and all of one's happiness begins to depend on and is controlled by whatever it is that one is worrying about. The worrier becomes consumed with it. It torments that one. It removes trust from and destroys inner peace with God. It is filled with hopelessness and despair. And again, what if this or what if not that? One commentator says, distrustful and distracting care. And incidentally, the word that we're talking about here has to do with distraction. You remember Martha and Mary, the sisters, and the incident where Martha is going about taking care of business around the house, and Mary, she's only sitting at Jesus' feet. And Martha says, come on, Lord. And the text says that she was distracted. And he says to her, Martha, you are worried and you are distracted by many things. The commentator says, distrustful and distracting care about supplies of temporal need is a sure sign that the heart is fixed on earthly things. It is sinful worry because in effect it is believing that God won't take care of me. I confess that He will. But when I worry in this way, it is really believing that God won't. And it fails to accept His providence that He knows best that what He provides or doesn't provide is what's best. It is a lack of trust in one who knows what His Heavenly Father can and will do. Jesus says, do not worry. And instead, He calls for contentment which is found only in trusting God for His provision and care which is then gleaned from creation. He gives us some wonderful examples beginning at verse 26. Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow? They do not labor or spend. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. Observe creation, Jesus says. Look at the birds. See how the lilies... In other words, watch them closely. He is saying study them. Examine them. Understand them. And take in these facts about them. And when you do, what a lesson they teach. Lessons from birds. Again, we know that we don't see them driving tractors or working in the office. They don't use the means that man uses. They don't plant seed in the ground or harvest a crop or store it up in a barn with a guaranteed supply for months to come. They live from day to day. From meal to meal. And God provides worms and bugs and seeds for them to feed upon. And even in winter, where the snow covers the ground, you would think that they ought to starve, right? But they don't. They sing. Birds are carefree. Instinctively finding what their Creator has provided. And really, with this lesson from birds, what an admonition for you and me. Because God has shown us, hasn't He? Often, in many ways, how He provides for us. Because we do plant. We do harvest. We do store up and save. We do diligently work as He has called us to do. He gives us jobs. He gives us savings accounts. He gives us retirement plans. He shows us how He will provide for us in some ways. We do what God has given us to do, empowered by Him, trusting that He will provide through that. And beloved, praise God that we don't have to live like the birds. Praise God that He does not make us wait for the blessings to simply appear. For the worm to come out of the ground. Or to wonder how or where we will get a little bit of food for tomorrow. Yet sadly, sadly, and I know you're going to understand what I'm going to say, even though He allows us to look back you know hindsight we say is 20-20 even though He allows us to look back and to see His hand of blessing again and again and again and again and again and again and again still today we often worry will I have enough for tomorrow? Will I have enough for the days to come? And we worry about what I have to do to provide instead of trusting what God will do. Jesus says, look at the birds. Just watch them for a little while. And if you do, you cannot help but to see that they are provided for and in them, that is your answer. God will provide. And the lessons from lilies. Fitting we talk about lilies on Lily's baptism day. Lilies are beautiful. What a beautiful baby. No doubt Jesus is talking about wildflowers in open grassy fields, some which no human eye ever sees and no hand touches. Beautifully, wonderfully made without the effort of man's work of spinning wool and sewing garments. Solomon's wardrobe was glamorous, it was glorious, it was fit for a king, but even it could not compare to the intricate glory of the lily made by the hand of God. Lessons for believers, beloved, here, that if God provides for these lesser creatures, how much more will He provide and care for His ultimate creatures, man, and more specifically, as Jesus addresses here, kingdom citizens, His children, those who are called to trust Him with contentment, which is assured by life itself. The very life that God has given to us assures us, is to assure us. Again, Christ's focus is not on all of mankind because unbelievers and pagans don't understand these lessons from birds and lilies. But those who have been given new life in Christ can and do. In the second part of verse 25, Jesus says, Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Then look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns that your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? And verse 30, If that is how God clothes the grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow was thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Life itself is to give us assurance. Life that is given by God. society we know makes this life about food and clothing and drink and just you know it you see the advertising all advertising teaches us that these are the things that make the person these are the things that make life life and life worth living and so we know that so many are rushing after these things because that's what they are taught by advertising by our society that that's what it's all about. Yet, these are only meant to serve this life that God has given to us and not to be served. Jesus' point here, beloved, is that if God has given this greater gift, life and the body, and as our Father, life in Christ Jesus, then our Lord is saying that He will give what is necessary for it to sustain it, to enable it, to sustain and enable us to fulfill the purpose He has for us. We have that guarantee that Paul gives in Romans 8, verse 32. He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also along with Him graciously give us all things? He's already given us the greatest gift. Christ Jesus. He has already saved us. For those who believe, saved us from eternal torment in hell. And Paul says, Just think about that. If that is true, and it is, He's going to give us all that we need, all that He knows that we need for this life and the life to come. In essence, Jesus says, remember who you are. Remember who you are. Compared to the birds, you are created in the image of God. He has given to you a soul and faith to know Him. Compared to the lilies in the grass which are temporary here today and gone tomorrow, you have been made to live in eternity. Compared to unbelievers, you are children of the Heavenly Father. You have been saved in Jesus Christ. You belong to Him. Yet interestingly, Jesus says, Oh, you of little faith. Notice He doesn't say, Oh, you of no faith. but you of little faith. He again is talking to believers, confessors of Christ. And we know that sometimes it's easy to have, to confess saving faith in Jesus Christ and to confess confidence of eternal life one day that is unseen. It's out there, sort of, somewhere. Yet at the very same time, we struggle sometimes with a lack of confidence with regard to this world that is filled with sin and its effects which we can see and we can feel today. We are a part of its reality right now. And we tend to want to separate the two. But Jesus says, uh-uh. You cannot separate the two. God doesn't separate the two. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, remember who you are. Remember what I have done for you. And as long as you are on this earth, I'm not finished with you yet. Verse 33 again, But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. The Lord willing, we'll consider that and much more of this next time. But this is God's promise for us, for this life too, this life which He has planned for each and every one of us. it's interesting jesus says who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life now some translations say can add a cubit to his stature the words have the same can be translated the same ways but but a cubit is 18 inches and and because jesus is talking here about something little not something big it is agreed by most that he's talking about adding on to the span of life but with these words a very simple reminder of the uselessness and the futility of worry. Young men, even if it is talking about height, you can stand in front of the mirror as long as you want. You can hang upside down on the swing set as long as you want. You're not going to grow any taller unless God determines it. A simple reminder of the uselessness and the futility of worry. It is a waste of time. You cannot add even one second to your life. God has determined it. He will not give us one more second of life than He has determined, but neither will He keep from us or rob us of one second of life than He has planned. He has every moment of ours in His hands. Our time is in His hands to be used for His glory, Not to waste with worry, but to delight in contentment and confidence in Him with His promise. As David says in Psalm 55, Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you. Or Peter in 1 Peter 5, Cast your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. Or David again in Psalm 37, I love this one, I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. What comfort for Christian parents, for young Christian parents, as children are born, baptized, young, wondering how are we going to get them through grade school, high school, college. How are we going to do it? You don't have to worry. God says He will provide. You know, another illustration He could have used instead of birds and lilies is young children, even as we sang, With childlike trust, O Lord, in Thee I calmly rest, contented as a little child upon His mother's breast. One thing that children have, and those of us who are older remember it, probably most of us, except for maybe in the Depression days. I never worried at mealtime that there was not going to be something on the table. God always provided, indeed, through the blessing of my mother. Indeed, this does not mean that God will never allow us to face hard times with having little. He might in order to draw us closer or to draw us back to Him. Yet, He will always give what we need. There may be times when He takes away everything or it seems like everything so that trust in Him is the only thing that we have left. Yet even then we are able to look back and see that He provided even then. Trusting the kingdom provider, content to know that He loves us and cares for us. Again, David's words, I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread are to encourage us to trust in the Lord with all of our hearts. As parents, to model that trust for our children. as more mature believers, to model it for newer believers, as a people of God, to model it for the world that when we face temptation to worry and doubt, instead of running around in hopeless despair, turning to our Savior, falling to our knees, placing our burden at the feet of Jesus who says, I love you. You'll be okay. I've already guaranteed it. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we are reminded indeed so vividly of how weak we are. Maybe not every moment of every day of our lives. And maybe not all equally. But yet we do struggle with worry and anxiety. We are so short-sighted. You call us to look long at Your Son, our Savior. Indeed, to be reminded of what You have done for us, that we are Your children, that You love us, that You care for us, that Your hand is not short, that You have all that we need and you will give it. Indeed, Father, you've also given to us talents and abilities and strength to carry out the tasks and duties you give to us by which you provide. We are so grateful for these things. Father, drive worry and anxiety of this sort far from us more and more day by day that indeed we would trust in you more and that trust may be evident and visible to those with whom we have contact in order to point them to You, the great provider. We thank You, Lord, for Your love and Your care and Your blessings to us in Christ Jesus. In His name we pray. Amen.