Antidote to Fear and Worry | Luke 12:22-34

INTRODUCTION

What is the antidote to fear and worry?

How are you coping up with the lock-down and the situation the world is in right now? Are you pulled apart with the cares of this world? Do you spend your time in worry, stress, fear, anxiety or do you operate in God’s peace and enjoy every moment of the day?

How to live in an anxious world and yet have peace and joy in life?

Do not Worry

Luke 12:22-34 ²²Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. ²³For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. ²⁴Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!

Why Worry About the Rest?

²⁵Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? ²⁶Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? ²⁷“Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ²⁸If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!

Your Father Knows

²⁹And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. ³⁰For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them.

Seek His Kingdom

³¹But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. ³²“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. ³³Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. ³⁴For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

A survey was taken to find out what emotion was the most prominent in people’s thinking and by far anxiety is number one. Worry, anxiety, and fear are the same thing emotionally. There are stairs in a flight of steps, expressed and experienced on different levels and intensities.

Worry: Is the least of it. Worry is to mentally dwell on difficulty or trouble.

Fear: Fear is a negative emotion caused by a real or preserved threat to our wellbeing. There is petty fear and real fear. You open a gate and a pit-bull chases after you, that is a real fear. You get into your room and suddenly you find an insect and you are afraid.

Anxiety: Anxiety means to be distracted or pulled apart in their mind. We have stock market anxiety for job loss. How many of you get nervous hearing about the corona count?

Worry is the least level but worry can become fear, anxiety, stress, and depression. We are commanded in the Bible not to worry, not to fear, and not be anxious. God created us to live in peace and you can lead a worry-free life in Jesus Christ.

I. Reasons We Should Avoid Worry

1. Worry Is Not Scriptural

2. Worry Affects Our Health

Stress, anxiety, and worry are the number one reason for disease and doctor’s visits in the world today. It is a killer at every level, it shortens our life.

3. Worry Divides Our Mind

It is a distraction. Steals our joy and peace.

4. Worry Slows Down Our Productivity

Wastes your time.

5. Worry Affects Relationships

If effects your relation with other people.

6. Worry Leads to Unwise Decisions

Anxious people jump ahead and make wrong decisions.

Worry and fear are not usually treated. Anxious people go to the doctor and find something that will calm down or sleep better. Jesus is telling, I don’t want you to suppress your feelings, but I want to take it away completely.

In Luke 12:22-34; Jesus speaks about anxiety-free living. If you notice the emphasis of this passage comes in three particular commands: ²²Do not worry about your life. ²⁹Do not worry about it. ³²Do not be afraid. Simply speaking, stop worrying. This passage parallels our Lord’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6.

Our salvation is not just eternal peace and joy, but here and now there is peace and joy to be found. Worry-free living is part of what the Lord offered those who put their trust in Him.

II. Scriptural Antidote to Worry

1. You are God’s Priority

Luke 12:27-28 ²⁷Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ²⁸If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe (see the priority there.

You are his priority, the prime of his creation) you—you of little faith!

Jesus is talking about the wild grasses that grow on the sideways. Look at those flowers. If you take a petal off of a flower, even a wildflower, and you look under a microscope at its intricate texture, color, design, form…it’s amazing. You can take the most beautifully manufactured garment and look at it under a microscope and it looks rough, and you look at a flower petal and there’s a refinement there that only God can make. Jesus says, “Look, they don’t spin to get their clothing and not even Solomon in his splendor was dressed like one of these.”

Now the best-dressed man in the history of Israel was Solomon. Solomon had the finest garments, but even Solomon in all his glory didn’t wear things like the petals of a flower. If God prioritizes to take care of the flowers you are God’s priority. You are God’s supreme creation and he will take care of you till your last breath.

2. God Will Provide For You

Luke 12:22-23 ²²Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. ²³For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.

Luke 12:24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!

Jesus talks about the issue of food and clothing here. Those are the two things people are concerned about. He feeds birds and birds that have no spiritual value. They can’t sow, they can’t reap, they can’t store. They hatch and fly around a little while and disappear and yet God feeds them. You are so much more valuable than they are. God will provide for you.

3. He Will Sustain You

Luke 12:25-26 ²⁵Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? (Some text says to add a single cubit to his height.) ²⁶Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

A cubit is a measurement from the elbow to the end of the finger, about 15 inches. Nobody increases his height from 5’7″ to 7’3″. And if you did, for us it would be a big thing but God says it as a small thing.

Some text says about prolonging your life. People in our world today are obsessed with this idea of health. We have all these vitamins, exercise, medications, eating right, etc. This generation’s engaged in health mania. It’s not wrong to be disciplined, eat healthily and take care of your health. That is good but with that, I’m not going to add one day to my life. God has numbered your days and he will sustain you till the end.

So, if you can’t even do that very little thing by all your worry why are you worrying? Worry doesn’t help. Worry makes no contribution.

Luke 12:26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

4. He Is Your Father

Luke 12:30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them.

Here for the first time in the discourse, Jesus speaks of God as our Father. We do not have to worry about anything because God is our Father.

I have two children, Sam and Grace and I absolutely love being the father. They are never a bother to me and what would hurt me the most is that if they did not let me be their dad.

God is greater than any earthly father. He loves you, He knows every hair on your head, He knows everything that you are facing and what he loves the most is to daddy us through every circumstance of our life. Our father in heaven knows you need things in this world. He is a provider, protector, and all that you need is available to you from God.

What are you worried about? The root issue of all fear, worry, and anxiety is an orphan spirit.

If you don’t have God as your Father, who’s your father?

John 8:44 You belong to your father, the devil.

You either have God as your father and don’t worry or the devil is your father.

How do you tap into your father’s potential?

Luke 12:31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. Seek God’s Kingdom.

Do you want food and clothing? Have the desire to live a full life? Want to be free from worry? You want God to be your Father? Don’t focus on worldly things. Instead of worrying about your money, life, food, and clothes, let the dominant enterprise of your life be to seek the Kingdom of God; worship God, serve God, and proclaim Christ.

Now I want to show you something by contrast. What happens if the kingdom is not your priority?

Haggai 1:5-6 ⁵Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. ⁶You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough, you drink, but never have your fill, you put on clothes, but are not warm and you earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

That does not look like provision, why?

Haggai 1:7-9 ⁷This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. ⁸Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord. ⁹“You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house.

Why does God do that? You put the kingdom first then your works will be fruitful. You are not taking care of my house, but you are taking good care of your house.

Seek God first. You want God to take care of your worries, your whole life has to be directed at the Kingdom. The first seeking is to seek to enter the Kingdom.

Luke 16:16 The good news of the kingdom is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.

That’s the first thing you have to do is you have to come to the Kingdom. It requires repentance and turning to God and enter the Kingdom. Once you’ve come in, seek only those things that exalt Christ and honor Christ. Give your life for salvation, for righteousness, for obedience, for truth, for worship, for witness.

Colossians 3:1-2 ¹Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above. ²Set your mind on the things above, not on earthly things.

Jesus says if you do this, everything else is going to be added. And everything else means you’re going to live out the full years of your life, you’re going to have enough food and drink to survive and be clothed and all that if you just seek the Kingdom.

And that is a constant principle in the Bible.

Psalm 34:9-10 ⁹Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing. ¹⁰The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Psalm 37:25-26 ²⁵I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. ²⁶They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be a blessing.

God takes care of the righteous.

Isaiah 33:14 The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: “Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?”

The question is who can survive God’s judgment?

Isaiah 33:15-16 ¹⁵Those who walk righteously and speak what is right, who reject gain from extortion and keep their hands from accepting bribes, who stop their ears against plots of murder and shut their eyes against contemplating evil— ¹⁶they are the ones who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress. Their bread will be supplied, and water will not fail them.

In other words, righteous people, his bread will be given him, his water will be sure.

This is an old principle. Same promise, God takes care of those who belong to Him and are faithful to Him. Make Jesus your priority and let Him take care of everything else.

As long as we passionately pursue the Kingdom, He promises that He will sustain us to the very end of His plan.

III. Overcoming Worry

1. Acknowledge It

As long as you will not acknowledge it, it will not be solved.

2. Prayer and Thanksgiving

Philippians 4:6-7 ⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Bring it to God in the spirit of thanksgiving. I am thankful that he is my God. He is with me. He understands my condition and he has promised to help me.

3. Seek His Kingdom

4. Trust God as Your Father

5. Release Your Worry

1 Peter 5:7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Psalm 55:22 Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.

CONCLUSION

The moment you release it you will be surprised how God will take care of your fears. Worry, fear and anxiety are a choice. When people are free from it, they become light, a smile comes on, there is a new perspective all of a sudden. That is why worry, fear, and anxiety is bondage. You do not have to live in worry, fear, and anxiety unless you choose to. Let’s Pray.

You Are God’s Priority | God Will Provide For You | He Will Sustain You | He Is Your Father

Luke 12:28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! You of little faith.

The issue of fear and worry is a faith issue. Do you think the God who is calling you to be His child is going to let you down? If you are God’s priority what are you being anxious about? What are you afraid of? What are you worrying about? Why the panic? Well, what is it about Me you don’t trust?

Now He’s not saying these people didn’t have any faith. He called them “men of…what?…little faith.” They are the ones who believe in Him. Jesus is speaking to His disciples and He says it’s possible for you to worry, but if that is the case, you have a problem with trusting Me.

There are only two categories of worry. You’re either going to be concerned about something physical things or you’re going to be concerned about spiritual things, heavenly things. For a child of God worry in either sense is unnecessary. In regard to our material needs, Jesus says in

Luke 12:30 Your Father knows that you need them.

In regard to our spiritual needs:

Luke 12:32 Your Father been pleased to give you the Kingdom.

Worry then is unnecessary.