Worry, Trust and Kingdom Living part 1

Amen. It's good to be in worship this morning. It's very good to see you. As always, the highlight of what we do is open up God's Word and to be instructed by God's Word. Although there are a lot of good things that we do. I mean, I love seeing your children and seeing our teenagers. I just love being with God's people and doing God's work. The most important thing, though, is that we would come and sit at His table and have His Word open for us and explain to us. And it's my privilege to do that. I think back to a couple of words that we sang earlier.

If I am weak, if I fear, you know, if we were honest, every one of us could raise our hands and say at times we're very weak. Even when we are strong, we're really more weak than we know. If I am weak, if I fear, what does it say? The Lord is good. God is good. And He wants to persevere in us. I promise His Word says that. And we're going to see that this morning. Well, if you would take your Bible and turn back to where we were earlier in our Scripture reading, that would be Matthew chapter 6. Now, we read verses 25 to 34, but we will only divide and cover and study verses 25 to 30. I think I said that earlier.

This will be a part one and a part two. So you really have a preview of where we're going next week. You can study ahead and kind of get that in your mind and your heart before we meet next week. Well, here we are. We're finally back in our series in the Sermon on the Mount. And remember the title of the series. We've been calling this study, The Extraordinary Christian Life. And all throughout this study, I believe that God has been showing us that the true Christian life is in fact an extraordinary life. Now, I say this often and I say it again.

It's not that we have an ordinary Christian life and then we have this extraordinary Christian life that certain people can live. No. Cultural Christianity has fed us that life. There's only one Christian life, the true Christian life that we see here explained in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. And it is an extraordinary life. Now, the last time we were here in this study was back in November. And being that it has been so long, we do need to make sure we remember what Jesus is doing here and why. You could say it like this. We need to be reminded of the purpose of the sermon. Now, in doing that, we need to look at a little bit of background here.

The sermon in the Mount is found in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. And this preaching event took place at the beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry. If you go back into Chapter 4, you'll see that He had already called His disciples and there were already great crowds that were beginning to follow Him. You can really see that in verse 23 to 25 in Matthew 4. So there's a great crowd here and Jesus is teaching there on that hillside. That's why it's called the Sermon on the Mount. And most all of the crowd there would have been Jews. If not all of them, I have said numerous times that I think there was some Gentiles scattered there.

But I have envisioned these events like this. Jesus is preaching there on the hillside with all of the crowds listening. And I have envisioned in my imagination, we have those disciples, those eager disciples there maybe on the front row. One commentator that I read way back in my study said that this was like an ordination service for them. And it was. And I imagine those skeptical, scoffing religious leaders, they're in the back. You know where their arms crossed? Now if you're on the back row this morning, I'm not aiming at you. That's just kind of how I see it.

And you know those skeptical, scoffing religious leaders soon became scheming murderers, did they not? Because they didn't like what Jesus had to teach. But we also need to remember that Jesus was doing several things all throughout the sermon. We've seen that Jesus was revealing true kingdom living and he was exposing the false external religion of the Jews. And especially the religious leaders of the day. Simply the Jews had taken the Old Testament scriptures, the religion of Judaism, and they had made it all about externals. We've seen that over and over.

They had either reduced God's word, what God's word actually said, or they had either added to what God's word truly said. And this was all to accommodate them in their religion. But Jesus was explaining that the true religion of those in the kingdom was all about the inside of the man. Jesus taught that true kingdom living starts with the heart, it starts with the heart change. And then it's all about the Spirit of God taking the word of God and working it out on the inside of the man. And that produces true kingdom living. Now real quickly I want to show you what I mean here.

I'm just going to pick out one of the portions of scripture that we've studied. In chapter 5 of verses 13 to 16. In those verses Jesus is teaching how we, true Christians, are to relate to the world. We know these verses. Jesus teaches that we are to be the salt of the earth. We are to be the light of the world. See? He's teaching that God does a work in us and enables us to be that in the world. But it wasn't the case with these religious leaders and the Jews. They were hypocritical religious frauds there in the earth. And they cast a shadow of a rotting religion of externals everywhere they went.

Well, we finally come to where we left off back in November. In November we covered verses 19 to 24 in two messages that I titled "Treasures in Heaven." Now you might not realize this, but verses 19 to 24 are connected with the verses that we read earlier. Verses 25 to 34. And all of these verses deal with how we are to relate to money and to possessions. And even the basic necessities of our life. Now I want to get a little more specific here. Verses 19 to 24. That that we've already covered. Deals with our attitude. It deals with our approach towards unnecessary physical possessions. Possessions in monies that we can see more of a luxury.

And the question out of those verses is this. Will we make our investments in heaven and in kingdom work? But then Jesus makes a shift here in verses 25 to 34. Here Jesus deals with our attitude and our approach towards necessary physical possessions. Possessions that would be less of a luxury and more of a necessity. And the question that comes out of these verses is. Will we trust God in all of the necessities of life? Now let me show you where we fit here. See we got to find ourselves in the mix. And what we have here we see that the rich are truly tempted to trust in their wealth and in their possessions.

We see that primarily in verse 19 to 24. But not so with the poor. The poor are really tempted to doubt God in his provision. And we see that more in verses 25 to 34. But a question. Are we rich? Are we the rich? Are we the poor? We got to answer that question. You see by the world standards we are rich. We are filthy rich. You study the lifestyles and the average income of other peoples in the world. And by the standards and the culture of the time right here when Jesus was teaching we are filthy rich. But see that really doesn't matter.

If we are rich or poor or right down the middle our attitude and our approach to money, material possessions and even the basic needs of life it all points to our heart. It points to our spiritual condition. It points to who we are. You see. Now before we get into examining our verses. Not only must we see where we fit. We must see how we are going to approach this. This is vital folks. We've got to get this. You need this more than you know. We must not see this teaching as some kind of a black and white manual. No. This is relational. Yes this is instruction but this is relational.

Not some type of dry ABC 1 2 3 check off the list instructions to do away with worry in our lives. Notice that two times there's a phrase throughout the verses. Your heavenly father. We see that. See in verse 26 we're going to cover that this morning. And then verse 32 which we'll cover next week. See how it's relational. He says your heavenly father. So this is relational. It's not mechanical. And that is vital for us to see is true Christians. You see our heavenly father wants to reveal to us our attitude and our approach to money. Material possessions and even the basic needs in our lives.

So as to reveal our spiritual condition our heart who we are. And remember this. It is the condition of our heart that dictates how we live. Who we are dictates how we live and how we live in regards to all of these matters points back. It reveals the true condition of our hearts the true condition of who we are. Now what's the theme of the message. What's the theme of the message. The theme of the message is worry but more the theme of the message is worry. And also the theme of the message is trust. Now right here I need to make a little confession. I really do not like to ride in the passenger seat while my wife is driving.

Yes I have opened a can of worms. See I worry when she's driving. I worry a lot. Oh all kinds of anxieties and fears just coming to my mind and in my heart. And oh sometimes it comes out in my conversation. You see the problem is this. If she drove just like I want her to drive I wouldn't worry. I wouldn't have to be anxious. Isn't that right. It's getting deeper isn't it. See the question is why do I worry. I worry because I don't trust her. See now I'm being honest. I worry when she drives because I don't trust her. I don't trust her driving. And if I don't trust her driving what am I saying.

Really she takes it personal because she's saying you don't trust me. And maybe that's something in my life and in my marriage I need to work on. Maybe we can talk about that in small groups and we can keep each other accountable. Well that really does relate more than you know. What's the title of the message. Worry. Trust. And then this might surprise you. Kingdom living. We're going to get more to the kingdom living next week. Let's see what we have here. We're going to see what Jesus has to say about our worries and our anxieties. And oh it leads to how we deal with trust. That's in verses 25 to 30.

And then next week we're going to see how all of this comes to a crescendo. It really comes to a pinnacle in a way in which might surprise you. Because this is all about kingdom living. Now we're going to look at verses 25 to 30 in two ways. Two ways. Number one I want us to see that worry is sin against our Lord. That's right out of verse 25. Worry. It is sin against our Lord. Let's go back and read the verse. "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 it.

Is not life more than food and body more than clothing?" Now right away we need to see that Jesus teaching here in verse 25 it is connected to what he taught in verse 24. The English Standard Version that I'm reading from this morning. It uses the word "therefore." The New American. It uses the phrase "for this reason." Now simply this phrase points back to verse 24. So that means that what Jesus is saying and teaching in verse 25 it is connected to what Jesus taught in verse 24. Well in verse 24 Jesus says that no man can serve two masters. Go back and look at verse 24. This was the crescendo of that portion of teaching.

"No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other." And here's the statement. "You cannot serve God and money." So what Jesus is saying here is this. You can't have money as your master and God as your master. And this is what Jesus was saying here in these two verses. Because God is your Lord. Because God is your master you must not worry. You see? So this command not to worry is connected to God's lordship over the lives of his people. Now a pretty basic question and we need to ask it. What is the meaning of worry?

The English Standard Version and the New American it uses the word anxious. Now this is a key word. We've got to get this. It's mentioned six times throughout these verses and this word is at the heart of this teaching. Simply it means to go beyond healthy thought. It means to go beyond healthy thinking. It speaks of perplexing and distressing thoughts and cares in life. It speaks of thoughts that lead to despair. Worry. I think many of you get it. Worry. Anxious thinking. Now you might have the King James Version in front of you and you need to take note of what it says. The King James says take no thought for your life.

Now honestly the King James Translation doesn't capture the meaning of what Jesus is saying here because Jesus is not saying don't work. He is not saying don't plan. He's not saying don't plan about matters in life. Remember what we learned in Proverbs? The Proverbs are full of teaching that call God's people to work, to plan about matters in life, even to save for the future. If we zoom on over into the New Testament, Paul even rebuked the Thessalonians there for not working and not meeting their own needs. So this is all about worry. Unhealthy thoughts and unhealthy thinking. Perplexing and distressing ways of thinking.

Thinking or ways of thinking. And even patterns of thinking that lead to despair. This is all about worry. This is all about anxiousness. Anxious thinking. Even worrisome patterns of thinking in the mind and in the life. Now we need to go a little deeper here. We need to go a little deeper and wider in two ways. First we need to see the reality of this worry. The reality of this worry. The construction of the language here does not speak to a possibility, but a reality. The idea here is of stopping worry and anxiety that is already in the heart and in the life.

So Jesus is not dealing with a possibility that these people listening would worry. No, He is aiming. He is aiming straight at the reality that they did worry. It was in their life. And He knew it and He was aiming at it. But then second, the object of this worry. Jesus first says, "Don't worry about life." There in the verse. Then He goes on to mention food, water, and clothing. Now the term life is a general word. It is an all inclusive term that speaks about all of life. Physical matters, spiritual matters, emotional matters, all things. All of life. And then He moves on. And He names a few specifics.

Notice the things Jesus mentions are not luxuries in life. In no way. These are basic necessities. Food, water, clothing. It does not get any more basic than that. Now we take these things for granted in our day, do we not? But they were never taken for granted in their day and time. These people, folks, were one drought away from famine. See, they were a simple agricultural society. A very simple agricultural society. Drought or an inadequate amount of rain meant no water, no crops, and no crops meant no food, which meant they didn't have the money for even the basic things like clothing. You see? So Jesus is aiming at their worry.

He's taking aim at their anxieties all of life, and even the very basics, the food, the water, the clothing. You see? So notice this command here. Now remember the context. Jesus says to this great crowd, "Oh, all of the Jews there, maybe there was some Gentiles there, the disciples are there on the front row, they're eager." And then we have those scoffers there in the back with their arms crossed because they didn't like anything Jesus was saying. And what is he saying? God is to be your Lord, he is to be your master, and you can only have one Lord and master.

And Jesus is calling his people to stop worrying, to stop fretting about life, all of life, yes. But even the very basic necessities. So this wasn't just a command. Jesus was aiming at real problems in their life, real worries, real anxieties that pertain to life and death necessities for them. But Jesus continues. Next he gives this great principle. There's this question here at the end of the verse. Let's go back and look at the verse.

"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life," there's that broad term, "what you will eat," see he's getting specific, "what you will eat, what you will drink, nor about your body what you will put on it." Now here's the principle. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Now notice what Jesus is doing here in the question. It's important for us to see. He is turning their life around right in front of them. He's turning it around right before their eyes. He is revealing their perspective on these basic necessities in life and he is aiming to change it. He's saying something like this.

"Is it your life more important than the things you think are so important?" Food, drink and clothing. He is saying, "You were worrying about all of life, even the basic necessities, but is it your life more valuable than that?" See it's perspective. Maybe this will help you. I've had some valuable lessons in my life about perspective only because the Lord blessed me with a grandfather that lived to be so old. I've shared many times about my grandfather with you. You do the math, he was born in 1908. He lived to be 99 and a half in five days and the beauty of my grandfather was he had his mind all the way to the end of life.

He had some very odd and very eccentric ways and people in the family would not make fun but kind of laugh behind his back. As I got older I realized we were just looking at things different. Perspective. I'll give you an example. When my grandmother passed away, my mother was going through some paperwork and things like that and she found the receipt from when he bought his home. See in 1934 he bought a home across town and he and his brothers and his dad tore it down and moved it and built it. See he had saved up enough money working away during the Depression and he was able to buy a little piece of land. So what did he do?

He bought a home for $65, tore it down and moved it and built that home there. Now we wouldn't do that. Perspective. You got to remember he grew up during the Depression. Before the Depression he was the son of a sharecropper. All of his life his mother and father never owned a piece of land, much less a home. All his life he moved from one house to another to another to another and oh I'm telling you when he bought a piece of land and he got a $65 house and it was his, he was living like a king. Perspective. You know all of my life he never had hot water in the kitchen.

Kitchen sink was right there by the stove and he had one of those old fashioned kettles. You know when you boil the water it would whistle. I think I'd pay $100 if I could have that old kettle. See he boiled the water. People in the family kind of laughed. See it was perspective. He grew up in a day when you went out to get the water. He grew up in a day when you went out to get the water and it might not be the best water and to use his terminology you had to pack that water in the house. See he was just happy to have water in the house. See it's perspective.

All my life if you were staying with him and you wanted to take a bath you had to go outside and turn on the hot water heater. Yeah you had to go flip the breaker. You know why he didn't leave it on? A hot water heater was a big luxury. Perspective. See he grew up in the day when you had to go out. He said growing up boys just hit to the ponds and the creeks to take a bath. And he said women they had to carry water in the house. They had to heat it up on the stove and fill a big tub. It was a big chore just to take a bath. See it's perspective.

The reason we had a hard time understanding the way he thought was we were looking at his life from a different perspective. And see for these Jews specifically his disciples it was all about their perspective on the necessities in their life. Jesus was changing their perspective. Yes in the necessities in a very very big way. Now for us what do we need to learn here? There's really a lot. How does this apply to us? Yes these are basic necessities. We do not think about these things much. Why? Because we don't live like them. But this relates to us in a big way. Now think with me. Follow with me. Everything Jesus named related to what?

The body. Food. Drink. Clothes. And with this question Jesus was showing us that the true meaning of life is far more than taking care of the body. Go back to the question. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? You see Jesus is showing us that the true meaning of life is far more than taking care of the body. And think about our lives for us in our time and in our culture. We are engrossed. We are obsessed with our bodies even to idolatrous levels. Listen to a list that I ran across this week. I added to it and changed it and made it my own. But listen. See we pamper our bodies.

We decorate and we adorn our bodies with jewelry, makeup, and all types of clothing. We protect our bodies. We go to great lengths to protect our bodies do we not? We go to the doctor. We take medicine. We eat right. We take vitamins and supplements. Why? To keep our bodies healthy and to keep our bodies from sickness. We exercise our bodies. We work to build up our bodies. And oh if we get a little too big then we die to slim down our bodies. We spend lots of money to simply keep our bodies warm and cool. Think about that. How much money do we spend just to stay warm and just to stay cool? We train our bodies. We train our bodies to work.

We train our bodies to play sports. We even work hard to get our bodies to sleep and to rest. Some people have to work real hard there. So my question for us is this. Can we have the wrong perspective here? For us, is it life all about food and clothing? Oh it's different than those in that day. It's completely different. But see the principle still applies. Can we have the wrong perspective here? For us, isn't life all about food and clothing? Have I ever told you all about the chicken bone lady in India? I don't think I have. I usually remember the stories I've shared. I went in 2014 to India.

And I don't know if you know much about their class system. It's very rigid. The bottom of the bottom as far as classes call the untouchables the Dalits. They are the untouchables, the forgotten. They don't even have basic documents like birth certificates. And we were going through one of the slums where the untouchables live. And I watched a lady dig through the trash and she was getting chicken bones out of the garbage. And she was boiling them to make a broth to eat it. No meat, just boiling the bones.

Now listen folks, it would be just as much of a sin for her to worry about food and water and clothing as it would be for me to obsess over food in my body like we do in our culture. See? Let's move on. Number two, I want us to see that worry is sin against our Father. Subtle shift, but very important for us to see. Worry is sin against our Lord. And now worry is sin against our Father. Let's pick up in verse 26. Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow, reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable or are you not of more value than they?

In which if you by being anxious can add a single hour to the span of the length of life. And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies, the flowers of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you even Solomon in all of his splendor, all of 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. Now these verses are tied to verse 25, but there is a shift.

Jesus says that his people have no business being tied up in all of this worry, all of this anxiety, not just because God is their Lord and Master, but also because he is their Father. Two times he uses the phrase Father, and I mentioned that already. So with that shift in mind here, from an emphasis on Master to an emphasis on Father, we will see that Jesus begins to illustrate. He begins to illustrate how this worry, this anxious living, is totally, totally unnecessary. First illustration, birds and food. You could change it by saying bird food. Birds and food. Look at verse 26. Look at the birds of the air.

They neither sow nor reap nor gather in the barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Now I am not sure if Jesus used his hands. We don't know, but it's almost like he pointed and said to those listening, "Look, look at the birds. See the birds flying over your head? They don't worry about food like you do." Actually that is just what Jesus did. Now again, we don't know if he used his arms and hands, but by pointing out the birds that they were so accustomed to, Jesus was reminding them that every animal created by God was fed by God.

And then with this carefully aimed question, Jesus says to his people, "Are you not more valuable than the birds?" I mean he hits them right between the eyes. Now folks, I want to pause here because of what we see going on in our culture, and I need to listen close. Teenagers, children, you really need to listen to Brother Chris here. Man is not a mere animal. We are not like animals. God created man in his own image and in his own likeness, and no animal was created in the image of God. Not only that, but true believers are blood-bought by Christ, and Christ did not die for any dog or any cat or any bird. This is a big difference.

God gave the creation and all the animals for man. He didn't give man for the creation for the animals. See, the lost, sin-sick world will turn that around. But Jesus is saying this to the disciples. Notice that they were of much more worth. They were far more valuable than mere birds. Why? Because God is their father, and their father cares to feed the birds. He most certainly can and will feed them, you see. Now the second illustration, adding time to life. You could call this time in a bottle. Look at verse 27.

"In which of you, by being anxious, worrisome, can add a single hour to the span of a length of his life." Now there is some debate here as to the meaning of the verse. Some believe this verse deals with height, while some believe this deals with the span of life. You might see a footnote there in your Bible. But the best translation from the original, it really is about span of life. That's why the English Standard Version reads it that way. Now what is Jesus doing here?

Jesus aims another question straight at his people, and he says this, "With your worry, even about the very necessities of your life, can you add a single hour to the length of your life?" Now remember, those necessities were real. They were one drought away. And what is he saying? With your worry about these very important necessities, can you add one hour to the length of your life? Well, the answer is no. So Jesus is assuring his people that their Father has determined all of the days of their life, and all of their worries can extend their life beyond the time that is appointed, the time of death.

And then third, the third illustration, flowers and grass. You could call this a flower arrangement. Look at verse 28, and now to verse 29. "And why are you anxious about clothing?" Consider, look at the flowers, look at the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon, in all of his splendor, all of his glory was not a raid 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?

Now, one commentator said the fact that Jesus references flowers and grass in the field suggests that Jesus had flowers and fields in view. Maybe Jesus was pointing at the fields nearby, maybe he was using his hands and pointing at the flowers. Of course, we have no way of knowing if he was using his hands. But that is just what Jesus was doing here. And notice what he's teaching. He is telling his people that the beautiful flowers of the field, they don't even look for food like birds, and they are even more beautiful than Solomon, King Solomon in all of his glory and all of his splendor.

Of course, Solomon was one of the most powerful, the most wealthy kings that have ever lived. And kings like Solomon were dressed in the finest, the most expensive clothes in their day. You see the comparison? But there's more. Jesus says these beautiful flowers and grasses of the field are here today and gone tomorrow. They're burned up. Now, what does this burned up mean? See, in their day, they used dry grasses for fuel for their ovens. This is a reference to cooking. Simply the beautiful flowers and grasses of the fields that God definitely cares for the next day, just fuel in some woman's oven in their home.

Now, notice that Jesus aims another question at his people. Jesus says to them, "If God closed the fields with flowers more beautiful than Solomon in all of his splendor and glory, then how much more will your father clothe you?" Now, notice what Jesus is illustrating here. This is very important. Jesus is saying to his people that God is your father. God is your master, yes, but he is your father. Why do you worry about life? Why do you even worry about the basics? Your father feeds the birds, and they're not even made in his image.

Your father has numbered the days of your life, and no matter what happens that cannot be shortened, they are determined. And your father has clothed the fields around you with great glory, and he can clothe you. Now, for us, what do we need to learn here? Oh, there's a lot here that we need to learn. First off, we need to see that we are more important than birds. Right off the top, we need to see that we are more important than birds. Now, I don't think I've told you about my pet bird at my house. I have a pet bird. It causes a little marital anxiety. See, there's a swallow that keeps building a nest under my porch.

Last year, she built a nest under my porch, and I refused to let anybody in the family disturb the bird. Couldn't turn the lights on at night? Leave the bird alone. Well, guess what? The eggs hatched, and the baby birds flew away. Well, after that, we cleaned the mess up, you know, and life goes on. Well, guess what? The swallow comes back. See, some of you don't know that birds will come right back to the same place. And so my pet bird is back, and her eggs have hatched, and guess what? I've been guarding the bird. I've been guarding those baby birds. Don't turn the lights on at night. We don't want to bother the bird.

See, the bird is more important to me than it is to anybody in my family. But think about it. God feeds that bird. Sometimes I'm in my office, and I can see her fly from the nest, feed all in my yard, and take food right back to her babies. God feeds that bird. Back during our ice apocalypse, God took care of that bird. He gives that bird the ability to come back to the same place and nest right under my porch. My wife loves it. But listen, folks, we are far more important to God than that bird that comes back under my porch every year. And look, some of you, you worry. Some of you, you worry, and you worry some more, and you keep worrying.

Some of you are eating up with all kinds of anxieties, and honestly, that bird under my porch trusts God better than you. Some of you even have health problems because of worry. Some of you spend endless amounts of time and energy on worry, all while that bird trusts God, trusts God, trusts God every day. Think about how we treat our bodies. Worry and anxiety, it's a sin. And you know, doctors will tell us that worry and anxiety, it can even shorten our lives, but all that we do for our bodies, it can't extend our lives. It can't extend our lives even one hour. You know, it's almost like Jesus knew what Hebrews said.

"Disappointed unto man wants to die." He did. He wrote it. Now, that question we need to ask, is it a sin to exercise? Is it a sin to try to be healthy? Oh, is it a sin to go to some length, to go to the doctor, and to just try to be healthy in life? No, it's not a sin. As a matter of fact, I think we should. But the question must be asked, when does it cross the line into unhealthy thinking and into an unhealthy way of life? See, the Holy Spirit of God has to show you when we've crossed that line into worry and anxiety, you see? But remember the great principle of verse 25. You need to underline and highlight that question, folks.

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? And remember, folks, it's all about a heavenly perspective. This is a kingdom perspective. Jesus is trying to turn things around for us, see? Life is more than food. Life is more than the body. It is more than clothing. I want to illustrate this for you. I'm careful what I look at on my phone. I look at the news on my phone. You know, we have to be careful. We can be right in the middle of hell in two clicks. I look at news articles on my phone. And you know, sometimes I look at news articles, and I know what I shouldn't click on.

You know, I don't know much about these people, but I know they have a TV show, The Kardashians. I saw a headline that one of the Kardashian sisters, some unauthorized photographs, have been sent out. And I could catch enough of the headline to know that the photographs were unauthorized because they had not been touched up. I got it. You know what hit me? She isn't living. See, her life isn't about life. It's about her body, about what she eats. You see? And look, Hollywood movies, television shows, will try to convince you that she's living. She's not living. That's not life. That's definitely not kingdom life. For her, it's all about food.

It's all about the body. It's all about clothing. It's all about appearances. See? That's backwards. Jesus says that's backwards. So the question I have for us is this. Are we not more important than the birds? Come on, folks. Are we not more important than the flowers of the field? I planted a bunch of flowers on my porch. I'm more important than those flowers. And can we add to our lives with all of these anxieties? No. Now, church, what do we need to see here? We need to see that worry is a sin. I think that's pretty obvious. All these unhealthy ways of thinking, all this fretting, all of this anxiety in our lives, it's a sin.

And listen, there are even lots of anxieties that can capture some of us in our thinking, and that is all a big ball of sin. And look, folks, it's relational. It's not mechanical. You can't view this as an ABC 123 list to just remove the worry. It's relational. This sin is against the person of God. He's supposed to be our Lord. He's supposed to be our Father. And this sin is against the promises of God, because He has promised that He would care for us. How many times did He promise He would care for us right here? And this is a sin against the providence of God.

Listen, folks, God in His sovereign will and plan ordains life circumstances for all of His people. Sometimes people have it hard. Sometimes people have it good. And I don't understand the great mysteries there. Really, He is in charge of all things. And our worry and our fretting and our anxious living is a sin against God's providential plan in our lives. Now, think with me here. What are we telling God when we worry? What are we telling God when we worry? When we are in these patterns of thinking that causes all of these anxieties, what are we telling God? We don't trust Him. Remember my passenger seat confession?

Ultimately, what does it do for my wife when I tell her I don't trust her? It hurts. It makes her mad. See, how does God feel? Think about it. When we don't trust Him, how does it... See, it's relational, folks. And listen, folks, worry is not some little white sin, you know, like a little white lie. No, it is a sin. And when we worry like this, it is a denial of God's love for us. It discredits God's integrity. It disconnects and denies the credibility of God's promises in His Word. And look, when it's left unchecked, what does it destroy? What does it do? It destroys. It destroys far more than we know.

So you see, folks, it's not enough just to stop the worries. It's not enough just to get rid of the anxieties. It must be replaced by something. A trust in God. It's relational. A trust in God. A trust, a loving submission to the God that we know. He bought us on the cross. He saved us. We know Him. We walk with Him. See, we remove the worry, and it's replaced by God. That's the title of the message. Worry, trust. That's Kingdom living. Now, one more thing real quick. I think we need to see just a couple little words here at the end of verse 30. Go back to verse 30.

"But if God so closed the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you?" Notice, "O you of little faith." Now, what does that mean here? Really, if we scour through the Scriptures, we see three kinds of faith. We see those who have great faith. Great faith. This is a faith that is untied from all of the worries and fears and anxieties. Abraham's a great example. There was a time he didn't have great faith. Famine came, he went to Egypt. He wasn't supposed to do that. Oh, he was fearful that God's promises weren't going to be fulfilled in his life.

Oh, he had worries and anxieties. So what did he do? He took another wife. Oh, but he finally got to that place where his faith grew and he had great faith. And what did God say? "Abraham, I want you to sacrifice your one and only Son." And he followed through. Great faith. But then we have some that have little faith, weak faith. That's what he's saying here. Now, these people are Christian. They're born again. And see, this faith is bound up in worries and anxieties. And look, that's what the problem was with the disciples. It took a great work of God to grow them out of that. Remember Thomas?

He gets called the "doubting disciple." Thomas at the end, "I'm just not going to believe unless I see the scars on his hands." Listen, he was doubting and discrediting the very words of Christ. He had weak faith. And he's missing out on so much. See, there are many of you, you have a weak faith. You just can't get past all of these things and grow to the point where you have a great faith. And you know what happens? Because you wallow in that weak faith. You have victory this week, and you're going to defeat the next week. "Oh, Monday and Tuesday are good, and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday are bad." Oh, one little thing comes along.

The legs are knocked out from under you, and you wallow in your anxieties and fears. Listen, you've got to trust and obey and let God do this work in you to grow you to that place of great faith. Abraham did, you can. But then there are those that have no faith. They're not born-again people. See, there are people here that are worried to death about death. There are people today that are worried about their sin. There are people today that are worried about their spiritual condition, and you should be. I'm not going to placate you. You need to rush to Christ. You need to repent of your sin. Believe in Christ.

Why would you sit there and hold on to your sin and your rebellion against God? And you know it's taking you right down to the pit of hell. Listen, I have faithfully taught you, don't sit there. Come to Christ. You must have Christ. Otherwise, you'll do like so many did. Walk away. You know the perplexing thing about Jesus' earthly ministry is that so many heard His words, saw His miracles. They heard the greatest preacher that ever lived. They looked into the face of the very Son of God. They saw the miracles of miracles, and they walked away. Now, I can't perform a miracle, and I'm definitely not the Son of God. God has brought you here.

God has brought you here to hear these truths, to hear this teaching. God has brought me into your life to declare these truths. Don't walk away. Come to Christ, and you can come into what is called kingdom living. Kingdom living. Let's pray. As always, we commit what we've studied to the Lord. We'll take a closing verse or two, and then we'll dismiss.