In God We Trust — Anton Bosch

Jesus' Command Not to Worry

We're in Luke chapter 12, Luke chapter 12, and we'll read 22 through 34. Luke chapter 12, reading from 22 through 34. Then he said to his disciples, therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, nor about the body, what you will put on.

Life is more than food and the body is more than clothing. Consider the ravens, for they neither slow nor reap, which have neither storehouses or barn, and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?

And which of you, by worrying, can add one cubit to his stature? If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith? And do not seek what you shall eat, or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind.

For all these things the nations of the world seek, and your father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you. Do not fear, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Sell what you have and give alms. Provide yourselves money bags, which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches, nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

So the context obviously is the rich fool that we looked at last week, who said he will break down his barns, and he has plenty for many years, and the God says, tonight your soul will be required of you.

And so putting our trust in earthly things. But this is the flip side of the coin then. So first of all he says don't put your trust in material things, but now he's going to say put your trust in the Lord.

He cares for you. And so we begin then in verse 22, and he said to his disciples, therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, nor about the body, what you will put on. This is a command.

Remember we've spoken about this idea before, that we say, well, you know, the Old Testament contains 10 commandments, or 613 additional commands, or 603 additional total, 613 according to the account of rabbis.

In the New Testament we say, well, you know, there's no commands. There's no laws. It's all grace. And yet there are over 2 ,000 commands in the New Testament, and this is one of those commands. And it's a very simple command, and the command is, do not worry.

Do not worry. There is no difference, and we've emphasized, and we must keep emphasizing this, there is no difference between this command and the command, you shall not kill. They both come from God, and God doesn't, you know, he's not like us.

Sometimes we say things, and well, you know, we don't really mean it. Then we say other things, and we really mean it, and you know, kids are very good at discerning by the tone of the parents' voice how, you know, whether this command is a number 10 command, or whether it's a number 1 command.

They figure out. No, no, this is, this doesn't, you know, she's just talking. This doesn't, God doesn't have number 1 and number 10 commands. He has, all his commands are his word, and they all endure forever.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will endure forever. And so this is one of those commands. Do not worry. And we say, well, you know, that's a, that's a stupid command. No, it's not. It's at the very core of our faith.

Don't worry. And of course, the problem is that we all worry. We worry about many, many things. Now, in the passage, he's going to deal specifically with material things, and I suppose that that's probably the biggest area of, that we worry about.

But we worry about all sorts of other things as well. In this last year, with a COVID pandemic, we've, we've had all sorts of other worries. People worried about getting sick. Others worried about dying.

Others worried about losing loved ones. Others worried about losing their jobs. But the things that we most worry about are material things. And it doesn't matter whether you're rich or poor. The rich worry about losing their money.

The poor worry about getting money, sometimes at the level of survival. And I want you to notice that as we go through this passage, he's dealing with the issues of survival. He's not dealing here with the issues of whether I buy a second car or a second house or, or even a house.

He's dealing with food and clothing, the very, very basic needs of life. And he says don't worry about those things. Most of us in the Western world don't worry about those things so much. We worry about the latest purse, or all sorts of other, latest cell phone.

All sorts of things that are really not that important, and yet those are the things that we often worry about. I don't want to make light of worry, because it's, it's something I struggle with. And, and I, I don't know that, you know, and I did consider the possibility of asking for a show of hands, and I thought, no, I won't embarrass you.

But, but I, I bet that there's, there's no one here that doesn't worry at some stage or the other. Some of us just worry more than others. And, and, you know, as I was going through this message in my mind during the night, it sparked off worries.

I mean, just, just think about it. The point of the passage is don't worry, and as I was meditating on the passage, I began to worry about the things that we worry about. But he says, do not worry. Now, of course, it's, it's easy to just say that, and we, we say that to one another all the time.

You know, when someone expresses concern about something, or anxiety about something, we say, ah, don't worry about it. It's, it's very much part of Australian language. I think you, the phrase you hear there more often than, than not is, no worries, mate.

In other words, it's not a problem. Don't worry about it. It's easy to say, don't worry. And, and of course, God knows when he makes this command that it is something that we do struggle with. And so he gives us some answers, and he gives us some solutions to those things.

But at the end of the day, it is something we must wrestle with. You see, the thing is that we, some of us wrestle with carnal things, and we say, well, you know, once I get victory over those things—you know, over anger, and unforgiveness, and lust, and those sorts of things—you know, once we get past those things, well, then we're cool.

We, you know, we're fine. We don't, we don't have a spiritual problem, because I don't have a problem with those kinds of things anymore. And yet we can get past all of those things and say, well, I've arrived spiritually, and still worry, and by worrying, I'm still being carnal.

Because at the end of the day, at the heart of worry is a lack of faith. And a lack of faith is simply a float of no confidence in God. Remember this idea of faith. We've attached the sort of spiritual idea of faith—it's sort of a spiritual thing that you do.

But faith is not so much a spiritual thing. It's simply a natural thing of trusting. We have faith in our motor cars, mostly, to get us here this morning. We turn the key, or press the button, and we have faith that the thing is going to fire up and it's going to bring us here.

So we have faith in—but we don't call it faith. We just say, well, you know, my car's reliable, I trust it. Well, the word trust and faith is the same thing. We can trust God. And on what basis do we trust him?

Well, he's going to give us some of the reasons why we can trust him. But one of the reasons he doesn't include is because he is trustworthy. How do you know that your car is reliable? That's assuming you have a reliable car.

How do you know it's reliable? Well, because it never fails. Every time you turn it on, it starts. Every time you put it in gear, it goes. And after having done this a few times, you get to a place where you say, well, yeah, I don't even think about it anymore.

It's going to start, it's going to get me where I need to go. I trust the car. We trust the electricity company that when we flip the switch, the lights are going to come on. That's simply faith. And in the same way as we don't really have not physically seen God, we don't see how he is working behind the scenes to do the things to provide for us, in the same way, I don't think any of us—maybe some have seen the power-generating plant where our electricity comes from.

Now, if you go up into the high desert, you'll see the solar farms and the wind farms. And not so far away here is a power-generating plant with three big red and white stacks driven by natural gas. But very few of us understand how it all works.

How does the sun get translated into electricity? How does the wind make electricity? How does the gas get—you know, we don't understand how that whole system works. And where exactly does the line run?

Can I see where the line goes from here to the power station? We just trust that when we put the switch on, when we flip the switch, the power is going to come on, the lights are going to come on. And the same is true of our relationship with God.

We don't have to understand all of the details of how God works and why he does what he does. But what we do need to do is come to a place where we say, He is reliable. He is trustworthy. He has never failed.

And that's the whole heart. And I don't want to speak about faith. I want to get to this aspect this morning. But that's the whole issue of faith in the Old Testament, is that God proves himself to Israel as being trustworthy and reliable.

And so he brings them out of Egypt. He gives them ten miracles. And on the tenth miracle, he brings them. And each of the steps, he is proving himself, and he's saying, Trust me. Trust me. I'm reliable.

And God has proven—if you've been a Christian for any length of time—God has proven his reliability. He has proven his faithfulness. He has proven that he is trustworthy. And therefore, we ought to trust him.

And when we worry, we're saying, I don't trust God. When we deal with people, we have every reason to worry, because people are untrustworthy, generally. People are unreliable. We never know whether someone's going to do what they said they will do.

But God is not a man who said it and will not do it. God does what he says. So we can trust him, and we can trust him for all of our needs. And so he says to them, Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.

Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. It's exactly the same point that he made concerning the rich man and his bonds. The rich man measured his life in the size of his bonds and the amount of wheat that he had stored away.

God says, No, your soul is going to be required. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. We do need a mind change from the here and now to that which is beyond here and now. Remember earlier on in the chapter concerning persecution, he said, Don't worry about those who kill the body, but worry about him who can cast both soul and body into hell.

And so what we see is so important to us, and yet the point that he is making over and over, whether it's in the issue of persecution, or whether it's in the issue of the rich man who extends his bonds, or whether it's in his teaching about do not worry, is that there is more to life than what we can see and feel and touch.

There is a spiritual dimension, there is a spiritual aspect to life which is more enduring, more important. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn, and God feeds them.

It's interesting that in the previous section he spoke about the sparrows, yet here he is speaking about ravens. Why does he change from sparrows to ravens? Well, just because he wants to make the story interesting.

No, there's a reason for that. Ravens, and I think Tatcho and I had a discussion the other day about the difference. We didn't know the difference. I looked up the difference. Ravens are much bigger than crows.

There's differences in the way they fly and so on, but if I saw them, I still wouldn't know the difference. They're all blackbirds as far as I'm concerned. And we have millions of them here, literally millions.

And so why does he say ravens or crows? I think the words are really interchangeable. The difference between a sparrow and a raven is not the size so much. Of course there's a big difference in size, but the difference is that a sparrow is a clean animal as far as Jewish custom is concerned.

In other words, you can eat a sparrow. A raven is an unclean animal because it lives off carrion, it's a scavenger, and so it is unclean. You can't eat it. Now, what he is saying is that even the unclean animals, God cares for them.

The scavengers. You remember in the Old Testament, we came across the ravens as well, how that they provided food for the prophet Elijah. And so here we have, I believe that Jesus is making a reference to that.

That's the other reason he's using the story here, because he is reminding us that not only does he care for the ravens, but he can use the ravens to care for us. And God used an unclean bird to provide food for the prophet, and God provides for the ravens.

Now, obviously we need to bring a balance here. This does not teach us to be slothful and lazy. Neither does this passage teach us not to invest wisely. Those are things that are dealt with elsewhere in Scripture.

The point of the passage is not to put our trust in those things, but to put our trust in the Lord. And one of the things I was thinking about in the night as well is those who have 401ks and investments are putting their trust in the stock market.

And if anything cannot be trusted, it's the stock market. And yet we trust the stock market more than we trust the Lord. We need to get our minds right. I need to get my mind right. We trust the banks more than we trust the Lord.

So he's not saying don't sow and reap. He does not rebuke the rich man that we spoke about last week for the fact that he worked wisely with his land, that he plowed and sowed and reaped and used the right seed and did all of the right things.

He doesn't rebuke him for that. That was what was required of him. He was doing his job. He was doing the right thing. But it's because his confidence was in those things rather than in God, that his treasure was here on earth rather in heaven.

So this passage does not teach us to be lazy. It does not teach us to be slothful when it comes to our finances and to not save. I've come across Christians who have died unexpectedly, in other words young, and left their families in a terrible mess because they said, no, we don't believe in insurance.

We don't believe in saving. We trust God. No, God has called us to make provision for our families and to work and to provide. And if we do not provide for our families, he says we are worse than an infidel, worse than an unbeliever.

So we have a responsibility to do our part, but we need to trust God for his part. And remember, as in all of these things, there's a bit that I have to do and there's a bit God has to do. And I'm going to come back to that in a few moments, so keep that thought in mind.

So consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap. They don't have storehouses or barns. In other words, they have no way of making provision for tomorrow. The squirrel that got flattened out on the road is not going to be there tomorrow.

He's got to find another dead squirrel tomorrow or something else. But God feeds them. God feeds them. Remember what he said about the sparrows. God cares for the sparrow. Not one falls to the ground without the Father's involvement and knowledge.

And in Matthew, he's without his will. Of how much more value are you than the birds? Now, it's just so simple. Now, we spoke about the value, the cost of sparrows. How much value did a sparrow have? Well, you could get two for one-sixteenths of a penny.

You could get two, sorry, five for two pennies, two-sixteenths. How much you pay for a raven? Nothing. It has no value as far as money is concerned. Nobody's going to buy a crow unless, of course, you've taught the thing to talk.

But other than that, nobody's going to pay you for a crow. So he says, you are of more value than the birds. You're more value than the crows. You're more value than the sparrows. And we know the value.

Let me remind you, we spoke about that two weeks ago. What has a man profited if he gained the whole world and lose his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? So the whole world does not buy one soul.

The only price that was worthy that could meet the price of our souls was the blood of the Lord Jesus. We are not redeemed with corruptible things of silver and gold, but with his own precious blood. How can you compare you or me with the birds?

We are of more value than the sparrows. We are more value than the birds. And so obviously the point is that God, if he cares for the birds, cares for us. And if he cares—how much does he care for the birds?

A hundred percent. So if he cares for the birds a hundred percent, how much is he going to care for us? A hundred percent. Totally, completely? His care for us is not 80 percent or 70 percent. He fully, totally, completely cares for you, for me, for every one of our issues.

Worry, Prayer, and Faith in God's Faithfulness

And so here's the other side of the question of which of you, by worrying, can add one cubit to his stature? Cubit is—depends on different interpretations. It's basically the length from the tip of your elbow to the tip of your finger, and there's no clear understanding of exactly how much that is, but it's somewhere between 18 and 22 inches.

So the point is, can you change your height by worrying? And the answer is obviously no. We can't even do something as simple as that. Many of us try and change our weight by worrying, and that doesn't even work.

And that's something we have some control over. So he says, if you can't change the most basic things about yourself, how can you change things that are outside of your control? By worrying. And if you then are able to do the least, why are you anxious—not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest?

You see, the point he's simply making is worrying has no value. It does nothing. It does not work. It doesn't change anything. You go to bed, and you worry, and you can worry all night, and you can wake up in the morning, and nothing changed.

It's still the way it was before, unless God intervened. But God does not. You see, here's the thing. God does not respond to our worrying. Be anxious for nothing, but by prayer and thanksgiving. Prayer changes things.

Well, God changes things in response to our prayer. Worrying does not change things. And we think that worrying equals prayer. Worrying is not prayer. Worrying is when I speak to myself about the fact that the sky is going to fall on my head.

Prayer is when I come to God in faith, and I tell him the things that I have need of. But I do it with thanksgiving. Why with thanksgiving? And it's not—there's a whole bunch of nonsense being taught that you thank God in anticipation for what he's going to do.

Well, I guess there may be some truth in there, but that's not the point that Paul is making there. The point he is making is when I thank God, I'm reminding myself of God's faithfulness. What do I thank him for?

Not in anticipation, but I thank him for all the things he's taken care of in the past. And when I thank him for that, that generates faithfulness in a way, in a sense. Because I'm reminding myself as I thank God, and I say, what do I have to be thankful for?

What does the hymn say? Count your blessings. Name them one by one. That's tremendous advice. It's based on Scripture, but there's not a Bible verse that says, count your blessings, name them one by one.

But it's very biblical. And so here's the problem, is when it comes to thanksgiving, we say, well, thank you, Lord, for everything you've done. No! Thank him specifically for everything he has done for you yesterday or today, thus far in your life.

Because in the process we're expressing gratitude, but in the process we're reminding ourselves, yes, God is faithful. He has never failed us. He has provided up to this point, hitherto, ebenezer, hitherto has the Lord brought us.

And if he has brought us thus far, he will see us all the way through. And so worrying is not prayer. And here's the challenge. Here's some practical advice, which I try and live by. Not always successfully, but I try.

Change your worrying to prayer. When you worry, stop worrying and start praying. And as I've said, there's a difference. Because prayer can change things. Worry changes nothing. In fact, it does change.

It gives us ulcers and blood pressure, high blood pressure, and shortens our life and makes life miserable, and robs us of sleep, robs us of peace. So the only thing that worry does is negative. It doesn't help us in any way.

But prayer changes things. If you're not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? Consider the lilies or the flowers of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. And yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

I'm amazed every time on Sunday afternoons when I go walking in the mountains at the flowers that grow. When I first came to California, I looked at the hills and I thought, well, this is a miserable place.

There's nothing here. It's all brown and dead. And if you've never bothered to get out of your motor car and to walk in the mountains or the hills here, you've never seen the magnificence of God's creation.

Right through the year, but especially this time of the year, what looks just brown and dead and miserable from a distance, when you start walking, you start seeing these little flowers. And they're beautiful.

Yeah, they're not like the flowers you buy at the flower market downtown, big things like that. No, they're often just little things. But when you stoop down and you look at them, you see the beauty. You see the perfection.

You see the magnificent colors and the shape. And in the midst of the harshest of conditions, no rain for months and months, intense heat, many of them grow on the pathway where you walk or the fire roads where the fire trucks ride.

And yet out of the hardness of that soil comes a little growth and a little flower. And Jesus is right. Those flowers are more beautiful than Solomon or any other person who's dressed with the finest of clothes.

You say, well, how can a flower be more beautiful than that? Remember Solomon with all his gold and his purple and his the best clothes that you could get. He was spectacular. Remember Sheba, the Queen of Sheba, she came, traveled for months and months and months to actually come and see the spectacle.

And I'm saying that in a positive sense of Solomon. He was worth traveling to go and see. You see, the difference is that when you start analyzing Solomon's finery, you start seeing the flaws. And the closer you look, the more flaws you will find in Solomon or the most expensive Gucci suit or Armani suit or whatever.

But when you look at that flower, the closer you look at it, not only don't you find flaws, but it becomes more intricate, more beautiful, more spectacular. And you can put it under a microscope. And as you look under a microscope, it just becomes more and more beautiful.

That's the difference. The things of this world look good from far, but they're far from good. But the things that God has made are perfect in every way. If then God so close the grass, which today is in a field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, it's just disposable.

How much more will he close you, O you of little faith? See the argument going from the small to the great. God cares for the birds. Will he not care for you? If God cares for the flowers in the field, will he not care for you?

And then he says, O you of little faith. And I don't think anyone who's ever read this passage or heard this passage preached. This does not—this applies to everyone who's ever read this passage and who's ever heard the passage preached.

Because all of us are of little faith when it comes to these things. And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. It's just summing up the whole thing. Don't be so concerned about these things.

For all these things the nations of the world, or the Gentiles, seek after. And your Father knows that you need these things. I've forgotten the poem, but there's a poem. Maybe you know it. But the sparrow talking to the fly, was it?

But the question was, why do people worry? Why do humans worry so much? And the answer is because we have a Father, and they don't. Now, that's a harsh statement, and yet that's true. You don't see the birds worrying because they know they have a Father who cares for them.

We worry because even though we have a Father, we almost live as though we don't have one. And so your Father, your Father knows that you need these things. Notice he doesn't say God. Of course it's God.

Of course he has all the power, and he has all the money, and he has the cattle on a thousand hills. But he's our Father. And if we as fathers, Jesus says elsewhere, he says, if we as human fathers who are frail and weak know how to give good gifts to our children, will our Heavenly Father not provide for us?

But seek the kingdom of God. Matthew said, seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you. I'm coming back to the point that I raised earlier. You see, we have to do our bit and God does his bit.

And that's true in salvation, and it's true in every area of our lives. The problem is that we have to figure out what I have to do and what he does. And the problem is that when it comes to worrying, we want to do what he does while not doing what we should be doing.

Now that sounds confusing. Jesus is saying, your job is to seek the kingdom. God's job is to provide for you. But we want to do the worrying about the providing, and we say, well God, you take care of the kingdom.

And of course it makes some kind of sense, because well, the kingdom is God's business, and my financial future is my business. And that's where, as Christians, we've got to change our minds. We've got to get our minds in the right place.

No, your future is God's business. The kingdom is our business. And when we do what God has asked us to do, to seek the kingdom, he takes care of the rest. But when we do it the other way around, it just doesn't work.

Now I know it's counterintuitive. I know it's not what we as human beings like to—the way we think about things. We say, no, no, my job is to worry about the future. No, it's not my job. My job is to seek the kingdom.

God's job is to provide for tomorrow, and to take care of tomorrow. We've got to get these things right. And when we do, things work. Seek the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you.

Now, this is not—I know the prosperity people like this verse. In fact, I once saw a number plate surround, like a little message, with this verse on it. The guy was driving an expensive German motor car.

So what he was saying is, I sought the kingdom, and God gave me the German car. That's not what this verse says. What will be added to you? All these things. What are these things? Food and clothing. Says nothing about Maseratis, or BMWs, or Mercedes-Benzes, or whatever Carroll's buying.

You cannot use this verse and say, well, I'm seeking the kingdom of God, therefore God's going to make me rich. This has got nothing to do with being rich. It has nothing to do with fancy motor cars or fancy anything.

It has to do with the basics of life. Now, I understand that we live in a slightly different time, and I want to just contextualize this a little bit. Because today, because of the environment in which we live, our needs go a little beyond just food and clothing.

We need somewhere to stay as well. Those days, it wasn't, it was just different. You could, you know, you could build yourself, you know, a shack somewhere. It really wasn't, it wasn't a problem as it is for us today.

And so I believe that he does provide for us somewhere to stay. He does provide food. He does provide clothing. And yes, by his grace, he gives us luxuries as well. He doesn't have to. It's not part of this deal here.

But it's part of his goodness and his grace. But we've got to get the priorities right. Now, the same way as I didn't ask who has a problem with worrying, because I know I'm not going to ask, how many of us lie awake at night seeking the kingdom of God?

Because the answer is going to be very few. And yet you can see in that the problem. We lie awake at night, and I know not everybody worries at night, but some of us do. And we worry about these things, and we don't give the kingdom a second thought.

And yet he says, no, you've got to get it the other way around. When we wake up at night, let's seek the kingdom of God. And remember, we spoke about that in the context of the Lord's prayer. Your kingdom come.

I need to have this kingdom come in my life first. It needs to come in my family. It needs to come in our church. It needs to come into our society. That's what we should be chasing after. That's what we should be looking for.

And folk, I believe with all my heart, and I believe based on my experience of having lived this Christian life, that this is true. And there are others here this morning who can testify to the truth of this.

That when we put God first—and I'm not just talking about putting God first in terms of your giving. We're going to come to that. But when we put God first in our thoughts, when we put God first in our energies, in our devotion, in our drive, in our ambitions, he takes care of the rest.

He does. He is no man's debtor, to use a phrase which is overused. Seek him first. Seek his kingdom first. Put God first, and everything else will be sorted out. He'll sort those things out. All right, verse 32, we're almost through.

God's Good Pleasure to Give the Kingdom

Do not fear, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Precious verse. Do not fear, little flock. Now remember, a verse or two before, he said—three verses—oh, hang on, where is it?

No, I lost it. Oh, ye of little faith. Here he says, do not fear, little flock. In other words, he knows we're weak. He knows that we may not be big in number, we may not be big in faith. And even though we're just a little flock, and I'm—I don't—he's not meaning this church.

He's meaning his church in general. There are few on that narrow way. But he says, don't fear. It is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. So what is he saying? He's saying, you're worrying about food and clothing when, in fact, the father wants to give you the kingdom.

In other words, he says, how foolish to worry about food when, in fact, he's got the kingdom for you. What does the kingdom entail? All of God's glory, all of his majesty, all of his riches. And yet we want to settle for something so small as material things, when he has something far greater for us—a kingdom that endures forever.

Treasures in Heaven and Christian Priorities

Sell what you have and give alms. Provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old. Treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. Now, as I said in the introduction, this is not saying that we don't save or that we should give all our money away unless God asks you to do that, and there are times when God does ask people to do that.

But generally, he doesn't ask us to do that. But he's speaking about priorities. Where is your emphasis? Is your emphasis on building up treasures—and remember, it's against the background of the guy who built the bigger barns—are you laying up treasures here on earth?

Is this your focus? Is this your emphasis? Or is your emphasis on making an investment in heaven? We spoke about that last week, I think. It's foolish to put money into an account that's going to lose your money.