Take your Bibles with me and turn to Luke 12. Luke 12.

There is a funny story I think about all the time. It goes like this:

Bob and Joe are two fish swimming through the ocean, and having a chat. Joe says to Bob, "Bob, the water is really warm today." Then the swim on for a minute. After a minute, Bob looks at Joe and says "Wait a minute, what is water?"

There are many things in this world that are so common, they are like the water we are swimming in, they are all we've ever known, and so most of the time we don't even realize they are there.

I'm convinced one of those things is worry and stress. People are very worried and very stressed out.

Statistics tells us that 3/4 of people in America have reported times of being so stressed that they cannot cope.

15% of all adults are on some kind of mood-altering or anti-anxiety medication, and strangely, 1/4 of all college students take anti-anxiety medication. College Students! Who has less to worry about than College Students?? That should be the most care free time in their life, and yet they are just eaten up with worry.

That doesn't even count the people who self-medicate their stress away with alcohol or marijuana.

Stress and anxiety are literally killing us. They make our health worse across the board. And anxiety is on the rise.

Gen Z actually reports the most stress, with 54% of our youngest working generation saying they have been so stressed that they couldn't go to work or school.

We are just swimming in anxiety and worry. It's a very contemporary problem. But that doesn't mean it's a new problem. In fact, 2,000 years ago, Jesus told us how to handle stress and anxiety.

Are you in Luke 12? Lets read from verse 22 to verse 34 this morning:

[!bible] Luke 12:22-34 - KJV 22. And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. 23. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. 24. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? 25. And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? 26. If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? 27. Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? 29. And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. 30. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. 31. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. 32. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. 34. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Last week, in the passage right before this, Jesus was teaching to a large crowd about hypocrisy and he was interrupted by a man who wanted Jesus to get onto his brother and make sure he got his fair share of the inheritance.

And so in our text last week, Jesus told us to beware of greed. We looked at the story of the rich fool and we talked about being rich toward God.

This passage is a continuation of that story, only here we aren't told to beware of greed, we are told to beware of worry.

Before we get into the meat of this message today, I want to lay a bit of foundation.

I believe that the most important thing about you is what you think. What goes on in your heart. Every wicked thing you could possibly do with your body is preceded by some wicked thought or desire.

This is a foundational truth in the scripture. We live or we die in our thought life, in our hearts.

[!bible] Proverbs 23:7 - KJV 7. For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

[!bible] Proverbs 4:23 - KJV 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

Jesus talked about this in Matthew 15:18-19

[!bible] Matthew 15:18-19 - KJV 18. But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 19. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:

So the Bible establishes that the real distinction in our life, the real thing that matters is what is going on between our ears. What is going on in our soul.

And if that is the case, then there are essentially two ways to live: We can live by worry, anxiously focused on earthly things.

Or we can live by faith, seeking the kingdom of God.

Jesus says one path destroys us. The other path gives us life.

So what I want us to do today as we consider this passage is really to think about these two ways of living: living by worry and living by faith.

Today, we are only going to get to the first way, worrying over earthly things.

Let's pray and we'll get into our message.

The first choice we have, and the default choice is to live a life consumed with worry over earthly things.

So let's talk about:

Way to live #1 - Worrying over earthly things

Jesus started this section with a command: "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on." (vs 22.)

This is kind of a theme of Jesus teaching. He talked about this in the Sermon on the mount. He talked about fear and worry about as much as any other subject.

In this passage of scripture, I think we can identify four things about worry that are bad.

First, worry is distracting. Jesus said for life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.

God wants us to live for more. We are not to be animals. Consumed with the next meal or the next outfit. We were made in the image of God and God has far bigger plans for our life than just earthly, temporal things.

But when we give into worry, we obsess over the most basic, things.

• What are we going to eat?
• What are we going to wear?
• Where are we going to live?
• Where are we going to work?
• Will people like us?
• Will people abandon us?
• Will I get there safely?
• What is going to happen to our country?
• And on and on..

We can invent all kinds of things to worry about. The mind is a factory of worry that never takes a day off.

All of these things keep us from thinking about what God wants us to think about: God's kingdom, God's purposes, God's glory. Worry crowds out what matters most.

Worry is a distraction.

But worry is also delusional.

Worry does not help us, at all. Jesus asked the question in verse 25:

[!bible] Luke 12:25 - KJV 25. And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?

You can't worry another inch onto your head. (All of us know short people who have tried.)

You cannot worry another day onto your life. Worry is, mostly, a pointless exercise. It is bringing tomorrows troubles into today, but it's actually worse than that, because 99% of the things we worry about don't actually end up happening.

So instead of just dealing with your actual troubles, the things God has on your plate right now, you are burdened with a bunch of "what ifs" "and how will Is" that will almost certainly never happen.

One poet said:

Worriers feel every blow
that never falls
And they cry over things
They will never lose

As I was reading this week, I read an interesting story about Abraham Lincoln, back when he was roaming around these parts as a travelling lawyer.

On one day, they were riding their circuit, going from court to court, and it started storming. This was a problem, because they had to cross lots of streams and creeks with their horses and there was always the fear that they could be swept away.

Well, they made it safely through all of these and only had one left, the Fox river, which was the biggest one. They stopped an old circuit riding preacher and asked about the Fox river and here is what that preacher had to say:

I know all about the Fox river, but I have one rule about it: I never cross it until I reach it.

Too many of us try to cross problems before we reach them, we bring tomorrows problems into today, and we forget that God promises to help us get through it, day by day.

And that leads me to the third thing that is bad about worry:

Worry is disbelieving.

When we worry, we are basically saying in our soul "God doesn't care about me, God isn't going to take care of me."

==As one preacher said "Worry is a mild case of Atheism."==

Jesus used two illustrations to make this point in our text:

The first is was ravens. Ravens are dirty birds. Unclean to the jews. They are scavengers. They just fly around looking for a free meal. (kind of like the goobers that drive our allies in Mattoon looking to pick up junk to sell).

But do you know what, God makes sure those dirty birds never go hungry. If God takes care of the dirty birds, can't we trust that He'll take care of us?

The second illustration Jesus used was the lilies. The field flowers. God has made it so that the grass of the field has beautiful flowers on it. That grass is kind of pointless, it is either going to get burned up or go into a cows belly.

And so Jesus was saying "if God takes so much care to decorate worthless grass, don't you think he'll make sure you have adequate clothing?"

We are God's children. We are His special creatures. Of course He is going to take care of us.

Because of everything going on with Noah, we've decided we need to put three of our kids in school. This is a new thing for us. So we've spent a lot of time this weekend buying backpacks and binders and lunch boxes and school lunches.

And do you know what? I'm happy to do it. Because they are my kids. I love them as much as anything in the whole world.

My dad came to visit this week, I was really hoping he'd be here today, but he got summoned home. You know, he came with presents and he came with a debit card. He tried to pay for every meal. He was happy to do it, because I'm his kid, and these are his grandkids.

Do you think I am a better Father than God? Of course I'm not. He is giving special care to us - and when we worry, we are basically saying in our hearts that we either:

1. Don't think God exists (or)
2. Don't think God cares (or)
3. Don't think God can take care of us.

Worry is a fundamentally faithless and unbelieving act. It essentially says "God isn't real to me."

It is the opposite of faith. The opposite of trusting in God.

So listen, worry is distracting, delusional, it is an act of disbelief and there is one more thing we see in this text about this first way to live:

Worry is defining.

Look at verse 30, I think this is an interesting verse:

[!bible] Luke 12:30 - KJV 30. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.

The Gentiles at this time were those who didn't know God. They were pagans. So Jesus was saying here that if you live in worry, you live like a godless person.

When you live in anxiety, you are living in practical atheism. When you worry about temporal things all the time, you are showing the world who your God really is.

At some point this last week, I found myself watching a few minutes of a documentary about female Japanese prisoners of war, at the end of world war 2.

These Japanese woman had been propagandized to believe that if they ever fell into American hands they would be enslaved, abused and raped.

But that isn't what happened. They were clothed and fed and every measure was taken to protect their dignity and keep them from being touched.

This baffled these women. They couldn't understand it. Why would these American men act this way? Why wouldn't they touch them? Then one of the older women who had known some Christian missionaries spoke up and said this "Maybe they act this way because their God is always watching."

When we live in worry, consumed with the here and now, what are we saying to the watching world? We are saying that our God isn't watching, that He doesn't care or that He couldn't help us if He did.

But when we live in peace, trusting God even in difficult circumstances, we show the world that our God is real, that He is watching, and that He cares for His children. The question is: which testimony will our lives give?"

Next week we are going to talk about the second way to live—seeking the Kingdom of God. We're going to look at what that actually means and how it sets us free from anxiety. But I don't want you to wait until next week to start fighting worry.

So let me leave you with this: Worry is a choice. It may not feel like a choice—it feels automatic, like breathing. But Jesus wouldn't command us "take no thought" if we couldn't help it. He wouldn't say "fear not" if fear was inevitable.

This week, when you feel worry creeping in—and it will—I want you to do what Jesus said in our passage: Consider.

Consider the ravens. Consider the lilies. Consider your heavenly Father who loves you more than you love your own children.

And then make a choice. Will you believe what your worry is telling you? Or will you believe what God has promised you?

The world is watching. Your kids are watching. Your co-workers are watching. And more importantly, God is watching—not to judge you, but to care for you, to provide for you, to prove Himself faithful to you.

So this week, fight worry with faith. Fight anxiety with trust. And when you fail—because we all will—come back to these verses. Come back to the God who feeds the ravens and clothes the lilies and loves you more than you can imagine.