1. Anxiety’s Symptom

a. Poor Patterns and Priorities

b. Poor Pondering

c. Presumptions of Mind

2. Anxiety’s Source

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Dear Lord, we pray again as we come before you this morning. We ask, Lord, be with us by your spirit and by your word. And we pray, Father, that you would open our hearts to that word this morning by the power of your spirit and open our ears we pray, Lord that we would hear the voice of our good shepherd, Jesus Christ speaking through His Word, Lord we pray that it would cause us to praise you and to live according to that word, your desire to be thankful to you for all that you’ve given us in Christ. And we would to seek to live our lives in devotion to him. We pray these things through Christ our Lord. All God’s people said, Amen. Amen.

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Luke chapter 12. Beginning at verse 22, Luke 12:22-34, please now give your full attention. This is the word of our God. Christ has been teaching his disciples and He says this.

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And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you then the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, 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 are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek His kingdom and these things will be added to you.

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“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

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For the reading of God’s Word, may He had his blessing to it.

What are you afraid of?

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Well, I wonder, What are you afraid of? What are you afraid of? you’re all aware that there are many different phobias listed that people have. Some of them are quite unusual, but unusual. There’s arachnophobia. fear of spiders. Right? That makes sense. That’s a common one. There is ophidiophobia, the fear of snakes. There is acrophobia the fear of heights agoraphobia the fear of crowded spaces. claustrophobia the fear of small spaces. There are phobias listed fear of dogs, fear of holes. There is alektorophobia is the fear of chickens. Strangely enough, they can be quite terrifying, I suppose.

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But depending on which survey or list that you read, the top fears are pretty consistent. In the top two, very often, consistently our fear of flying and a fear of public speaking. I remember when I was in school, I read an article about scientists conducting a study. And they tested the stress levels of people doing various activities. And they would hook up all the wires and the sensors and record the data. And it was remarkable that one of the most stressful activities they tested was public speaking. So it stands to reason why this would be one of the most, this would coincide with one of the most fearful things that people have even more stressful they found in piloting an aircraft and flying a plane.

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But you know, as you observe the culture, and the world and as you engage in the world, as believers, you know that one of the most common and significant phobias out there is christophobia. The fear of Christ, fear of Jesus Christ and not too far behind. Fear of Christ is ecclesiaphobia, the fear of church, the fear of going to church. Each of us struggles with some kind of fear. Fear of man is a huge problem for fallen man in general and manifests itself in a myriad of ways.

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Well, in the section of Luke, it takes us through Jesus journey to Jerusalem, which culminates and climax is in his triumphal entry, and then the passion. And in the context of our text this morning, Jesus has been instructing his disciples about discipleship, about prayer, about hostility that they will face. He’s taught them about the needed courage, and the sacrifice they will be called to make as they confess his name before man. And then not surprisingly, he teaches them about anxiety.

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The Lord is preparing them you’ll recall throughout his ministry, and he’s telling them what it means to be a Christian, what it means to be one who follows Jesus Christ, who’s given their all to Jesus. And sadly, you may be aware of this there are many who don’t tell the truth about what it means to follow Christ. There are those who aren’t upfront about what that means, and the sacrifice that it entails.

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Christian life is warfare, it is a battle. It takes courage. It there’s danger, there’s persecution. It is glorious and beautiful to be sure. But like a rose that is beautiful. There are thorns that rip the flesh and draw blood. There is ridicule by society there’s shunning, ostracization by the society. We have chosen a side, battle lines have been drawn.

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But Jesus draws his disciples focus here to the anxieties and phobias to which we are all vulnerable. And for us, when things like what is going on in our country in the world are happening. We’ve been going through pandemic, rioting, vandalism, the rewriting of history, the destruction of our economy. All of these things and more can drive us to worry and fear and be anxious and be angry

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What we’re going to see this morning is that Jesus has something to say about these things. And we’ll look for the next few weeks at the testimony of Scripture regarding these things: fear, anxiety, worry, and boldness.

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This morning, we will begin this study and we’ll follow Jesus as He explains these factors, these three factors from our text relating to living the Christian life in a world so full of anxiety. And so we’ll look at anxiety’s symptom, anxiety’s source, and anxiety’s solution, right the symptom anxiety, the source of anxiety, and the solution to anxiety. And in the end, brothers and sisters, we know that the gospel is the sweet consolation for the troubled Christian soul.

Anxiety’s Symptom

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And so let’s look first at the symptom of anxiety. Christ begins here and he says in verse 22, it says, he said to the disciples, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life.

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Do not be anxious about your life, he tells them not to be anxious. We have to recognize at the outset that Jesus isn’t just giving them an exhortation, or a flippant statement that we hear so often. My surfer friends growing up, like a verbal tic or an audio filler would say things like, no worries, bro. No worries. But when it counts, it’s just not helpful. It’s like telling someone to calm down when they’re all riled up. Only someone commanding them to calm down has the opposite effect as you probably have experienced.

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What Jesus, what does Jesus identify here as the symptom of anxiety or the potential anxiety for his disciples? Where does anxiety reveal itself? If we back up and make an observation we know that many, many times, many, many people try to mask anxiety and fear, right? There’s there’s a denial, there’s an escapism, whether it’s alcohol use or drugs, or other addictions, very often it begins within an attempt to escape, to escape the anxiety. To change the mind there’s an attempt to alter the mind escape by altering the mind by numbing the mind by getting out of the mind. And that makes sense because symptoms of fear lie in the mind.

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The problems aren’t found in this or that situation or circumstance in which we find ourselves the problem with anxiety shows a problem with our thinking with our mind. It shows a wrong thinking. And Scripture will bear this out, as we’ll see this morning and in the the following number of weeks.

Poor Patterns and Priorities

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When we are overwhelmed with fear, we’re showing that our thinking is wrong. And the remedy we have to be rescued from mental anxiety is not from the circumstances going on. It will be from something going on in our thinking, to restore our clear thinking. And notice what Jesus does in this passage. He says that when his disciples get fearful, and worried, they’re guilty of poor patterns and poor priorities in the mind.

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Right, he says again in verse 22, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body. What you will put on for life is more than food and the body more than clothing.

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So from way back then even to today, these are two things that cause us great worry, cause us great worry. We all know people who think and fret way too much about what they wear and about what they eat. And even subconsciously, we can begin to be obsessed with these things. And they can reorder our minds, they can confuse our priorities. We can give them far more thought than they deserve far more thought than we should. Jesus tells us that life is far more than food and far more than clothing. There is much more, life is far more important than what we eat or what we wear. Obsessing and worrying about these things steals away our focus from the Lord, distracts us from the Lord, because our life as you know, dear Christian, all of life is ultimately God’s life.

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Life is about serving the Lord. It is about living with and for God for His glory. And let’s not forget the reality of our great enemy, who is altogether content not being worshipped or even thought about, so long as people are distracted away from Jesus from living for him and serving Him. And whenever we allow or entertain unimportant things, or less important things, to have the center stage in our minds and our thinking in our lives, our thinking is off and our spirits are off. And we suffer for it.

Poor Pondering

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And so another symptom of worry is poor pondering. Right? There’s poor pondering, right? We’ve there’s poor patterns as poor priorities of mine. And there’s poor pondering or like reasoning, right, wrong reasoning. And it’s very important as believers that we think clearly. We are called to think clearly. We must learn and practice clear thinking. God’s given us minds, incredible minds. We’re to use them for His glory. for His glory. We must learn to ponder and to reason clearly and to think God’s thoughts after him. And notice in verse 24, what Jesus teaches them next.

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He says, “consider the Ravens in either sow nor reap. They have neither storehouse nor barn. Yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?” And then in 27, consider the lilies, how they grow. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. So you must develop and tune our reading and our thinking to the Lord.

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Jesus here is not merely telling them that fear and anxiety and worry are cured by getting out in the park or having a walk in the forest where we can observe creation and take deep breaths and looking at the birds and listening to the birds and observing the flowers. That’s not what Jesus is saying.

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He’s telling them to learn about our Heavenly Father from these things. He’s telling them to learn from the bird. Right? It has no storehouse it has no props. It doesn’t have anything. Yet the Heavenly Father cares for the bird. Oh, how much vastly more valuable and important am I to him than the bird!

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And the flowers aren’t just to smell their sweet fragrance? We must ponder and reflect and ask what do the flowers teach me about God? See, worry and anxiety are symptomatic of wrong thinking, of poor theology, really. Because if we’re thinking correctly about God, That’s what theology is, we think- If we’re thinking correctly about what Jesus is saying, we would clearly see that whatever situation you’re in whatever circumstance I am in, it is in the hands of my loving father.

Presumptions of Mind

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We can also have poor presumptions, poor presumptions in our thinking. We assume, we presume certain things. Alright, in verse 25, and which of you by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life. It does no good to be anxious about that which you have no control. We don’t presume it will do a thing for us. The only thing that being anxious, The only thing that it adds to our lives is what? more anxiety. More anxiety.

Anxiety’s Source

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So he talks about the symptoms of anxiety and then he moves on to the source of anxiety, because he is Jesus, the god man, he touches the issue with the needle as the saying goes, he puts his finger on the issue, on the problem. And what is the problem that he identifies? It says in verse 28. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you? O, you of little faith!

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This is the real source of our anxieties, little faith, little faith, not false faith, but little faith. And you can have real faith that’s small. And Jesus here was saying that when we are anxious, and when we worry, and when we fear about those basic things in life, it’s a sign of little faith.

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And you know, Jesus uses this phrase elsewhere in the Gospels. And that’s another lesson that we can learn and that we should learn, that we need to learn when reading the Bible to pay attention when we read similar things and common themes, and they should draw our minds to those other common things that we’ve read and those other places where he’s used this language and see what we have to learn from them. Perhaps it is the case that this is what Jesus is doing. He’s signaling to His disciples, those other lessons when he says this.

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Let’s give you one this morning. Remember the occasion, the scenario on the Sea of Galilee, right? They were in a boat. Remember, the disciples were yelling at Jesus during the storm and the waves. Don’t you care about us? We’re about to die. And actually, the fact that he was on the boat proves that he can about them. And before he rebuked the winds, the wind and the waves, What did he say do you remember? Matthew chapter eight, he says, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?”

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And what about you, brothers and sisters? What about you? What is your response to crisis, to calamity, to plague, to political madness, to whatever it might be? I pray that you will in all circumstances and stresses, drive to Christ, flee to Jesus, the god man, for there alone, it is there alone where there is peace.

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Well, what was their little faith? What was the small faith in this incident on the Sea of Galilee? There’s this great storm. Yes, there was a great storm, but with them was an even greater Savior. And where were the eyes and their minds focused? They were fixed on the great powerful storm and away from the greater and more powerful Savior.

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They said, save us, Lord we’re perishing. Save us, Don’t you care? And how much more impactful and personal not the considerations of the madness of the world but the cry and plee of our own hearts about our own selves? Lord I’m dying, don’t you care about me? right the senate makes sense.

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The cry, the macro picture Lord, false is true and true is false in the world. reasoning doesn’t matter anymore. Data doesn’t matter anymore. History, reality doesn’t matter. It’s ignored. Don’t you care about these things God? But how much more impactful, how much more the sentiment, Lord, I’m hurting, I’m suffering. I’m broken and breaking. My life is a wreck. My heart is broken and breaking. My sin is crushing me. Don’t you care? Where are you in this? Help me. Take it away, my hurt my guilt, my shame.

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Dear Christian, He is there. He is there. Those circumstances, real and valid as they may be, they must never distract us from the truth. That our great problems, all of them, are not greater than our great Savior. He is there with you in the boat, right? He died for you, He rose for you, and he ever lives to plead your case before the Father. What a joyful reality, dear Christian, glorious! And then your pain and your hurts, and then your guilt and in your shame and your depression and anxiety and worry. He’s there. He is there.

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He is there and he bids you to look away from those circumstances, away from those issues, away from all of it, and make central your Savior. The promise is not freedom from troubles in the Christian life, it’s not freedom from troubles. It’s his presence in and through those troubles. And his promise, through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, even in it all, is that you can rejoice. You can rejoice even through those things. And even when our faith is little And it is often little. When our faith is little, he does not cast us away. He does not chastise us rather our king and our Lord brings us again and again to those things which makes strong our faith: His Word, prayer, sacrament, the means of grace!

Anxiety’s Solution

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We’ll continue next week in this passage and we’ll finish up the last section, the solution, but for today, dear friends, make certain this day that you not allow another hour to pass without knowing this Jesus is the only place, the only peace in life, in all of the words of life, both macro and micro, in the world and in your heart, where there is peace.

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Ephesians 2 says he is our peace. Flee to him if you have not, taste and see and rejoice and be refreshed and renewed are the waters of salvation. For you, personally. We will struggle. You will strive, you will suffer you will have stress you will battle but with him in it all, there is peace, peace, peace of the Lord. And for those of you who do know this Jesus, oh praise Him delight in him bask in his love with us always and again flee to him in our worry in our fear in our anxiety and let us fleet to him and all of our guilt and our shame. Let us flee to him in our smallness of faith. And Jesus, this Jesus, He provides peace from our worry, freedom from- freedom and forgiveness from our guilt and shame and he provides faith and strength to our weakness. For all that is his is yours as you belong to Him as your united to him.

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So let us go forth in the peace and strength of the Lord, basking in his love overflowing with that Peace and mercy and love, spilling over to all those whom we encounter this week. What a wonderful Savior we have. Amen. Let’s pray.

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Our Heavenly Father, we thank you and we praise you, that you have sought us and that you’ve given us life. You’ve given us new life in Jesus. Lord, we thank you for our Savior. And we thank you that despite all that is going on, Lord and all the all the things that we go through, that you promised to be with us, that you’ve given us life and that you were carry us into the end. Lord we pray that you would help us to recognize more fully the glory and the joy come from the reality that we’re united to Christ, Lord help us indeed, to walk in newness of life for you loving one another, bringing you glory, Lord, we pray, we commit our lives to you and all these things. We ask all these things in Christ’s name, amen.