Luke 12:22-34 - Don't Worry

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The following sermon was preached on August 10th, 2025, on the basis of Luke

Luke 12:22–34

chapter 12, verses 22 to 34. piano plays softly.

Music.

Our sermon texts from Luke chapter 12, verses 22 to 34.

Luke 12:22–34

Then Jesus said to his disciples.

Jesus said to his disciples, Why do you worry about the rest?

Consider how the wildflowers grow.

They do not labor or spin, yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all of his splendor

was dressed like one of these.

If that's 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?

And do not set your hearts on what you will eat or drink.

Do not worry about it, for the pagan world runs after all such things,

and your father knows that you need them.

But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

Do not be afraid, little flock, for your father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.

Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourself that

will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail,

where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.

This is God's word.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we talk about Abraham a decent amount in church.

So I'm assuming that maybe you've considered this before. Maybe a preacher has

said this to you before. Maybe I have. Maybe I forgot.

Have you ever considered what life was like for Abraham?

Abraham was called by God. I kind of mentioned this before, that he was called

by God from a faraway place to go to a different faraway place.

He was in what we know as modern-day Kuwait, and God called him to go all the

way to what we know as modern-day Israel.

And he couldn't take the straight shot cutting through the desert in Saudi Arabia.

He had to go up and around. It was a long travel.

He had to leave the place where his family had been and go to this completely new land.

Kind of a scary proposition, perhaps. But he did it.

He packed up everything he had, and he went. And when he got to Canaan,

the land of Canaan, life was not easy.

Abraham went through some famines. You might remember that story.

He went through a famine and he had to flee to Egypt for a little while.

There was fighting. He had to defend himself. He had to defend his family, defend Lot.

There was family drama, a decent amount of it in the land of Canaan.

I think it's safe to say that life happened in Canaan for Abraham and his family,

and it couldn't have been easy.

You know, a lot of those things that I described, we might not deal with famines.

You might not be entering wars that you're fighting to defend yourself.

But I think you can relate to the fact that life is a little messy.

We can relate to that. Life is not easy. But for Abraham, he had the added difficulty

of living before the fulfillment of God's promise.

It was the promise in the first place that brought Abraham from Kuwait to Israel.

It was that promise that was so good that he was willing to pack up his life and move.

Here's the promise. He promised Abraham that he would have a son.

That was awesome. Because that was a dream that him and Sarah had had for a

while. And they had to mourn.

They had to mourn the fact that Sarah was past the age where that was typically possible.

And so they had them war in the fact that they didn't have, they weren't going

to be able to have kids, even though that was a dream of theirs,

even though they wanted a child.

And now God has come to them and said, you're going to have a son.

This was amazing. This was amazing for Abraham and Sarah.

But the promise was even better than that because God said, not only will you

have a son, but your family tree one day will be a forest.

You heard different words. He used a different picture. he said,

actually, his descendants would be more numerous than the stars in the sky and

the sand on the seashore.

Amazing. That's an amazing promise, right? But we're not done yet because the

promise gets even more amazing because God says that every nation on the earth

will be blessed through Abraham,

which, long story short, is the promise of the Savior, that from Abraham's line,

the Savior would come that would bring blessing to the entire world.

Amazing promises. We read from Genesis 15 today and you heard Abraham's doubts.

He was worried about the fact that his heir was going to be Eliezer of Damascus,

his servant, because he didn't have a son yet.

God had promised him these things, but it hadn't happened yet.

They didn't have a son. They lived in the land of Canaan, but they didn't own it.

What gives? The truth is, Abraham, a lot of his promises that God had made to

him, Abraham would never get a chance to see for himself in his lifetime.

Eventually, Abraham and Sarah would have a son named Isaac.

Eventually, long after Abraham was dead, his descendants would number over a

million people that God would rescue from slavery in Egypt.

Eventually, that nation of people would march across the dry bed of the Jordan

River with Joshua leading them into the promised land,

to the land of Canaan, and God would give them victory after victory after victory

in the promised land, giving them that land.

Eventually, all of God's promises would come true because maybe as no surprise

to you and me, God always keeps his promises.

But in Genesis 15, it hadn't happened yet for Abraham.

And there's some difficulty in that, isn't there? There's some difficulty in

knowing the promises that God has made that lie ahead of us.

But you still got to live here now.

I think you know that tension because God has made you promises.

He has made a promise to you that one day you'll live with him forever in heaven.

You'll be in the presence of God for eternity.

He has promised you an existence where there's no more painful relational dysfunction.

Whatever that is for you in your life, if you have some dysfunction in your

family, if you have some fighting that's going on amongst friends,

if there's something that's bringing you all this anxiety, all this worry,

all this promises you an existence where that's all gone.

You live in perfect harmony with the people around you and with God.

He's promised you an existence where there's no more crying or tears or pain

because the old order of things, the sinful way of things has passed away.

You won't have to mourn the death of a loved one anymore when you're with Jesus forever in heaven.

You won't have tragedies that happen in heaven. You'll get to live in an existence

where that doesn't happen.

He's promised you an existence not only where you're at harmony with God,

but you get to see the loved ones that have died in the faith,

who have died believing in Jesus, that you miss so dearly.

You're going to get to see them again, and you get to live at perfect harmony with them too.

These are amazing promises, promises that we hold on to, but they all lie in the future.

You're not experiencing those yet. And there's tension in that.

In holding on to the future promises of God, but also realizing I have to live

in the here and now. It's tough.

I'll give you a few examples. Take Lena, for example.

Lena's a single mom. She works a job and a half just to pay for her apartment

and for her kids to go to daycare.

Her kids can't have designer clothes. She can't afford it.

They really want to play travel sports, but she can't afford that.

She's just doing the best she can to afford the basic needs of life and to keep

her 20-year-old car running.

And she worries, like real worry, because her margins are so paper thin that

one tragedy, one financial setback could cause it all to crumble.

Or imagine a guy like John. John's worked really hard his entire life.

He kind of had humble beginnings, but he worked really hard to get to the point where he is now.

Him and his family live, fairly comfortably, but he sees the people around him

and he knows that that can change very, very quickly.

And he worries. He worries everything that he has built will someday all be lost.

Or Maria. Maria just graduated from college. She had a great time in college,

but now reality is starting to sink in a little bit.

She hadn't thought much about student loans when she was in college,

but now she's thinking a lot about them.

They're piled high and she's trying to figure out how's life going to work now with that payment.

And I got to find housing. That's not college housing. Apartments are expensive.

Insurance really is not fun to pay. Eggs cost so much.

She worries. She worries how she's going to make it all work.

Those are just examples. Maybe a couple of them resonated with you in a few different ways.

Or maybe you can just think about your own ways that you find worry coming into your life.

But worry is not a modern invention.

It's something that Jesus talked about long ago.

And when Jesus addresses worry, he very simply just says, don't.

Don't worry. Do not worry. And when Jesus addresses something,

I think it's important just to remember that Jesus never says something without thinking about it.

He never says something without reason or without purpose for us.

And so he's addressing worry for the people at that time and for us today because we need it.

Because we do worry all the time about all kinds of things.

And though this worry is a behavior,

Jesus is actually really concerned about the heart of that worry.

He's worried about the deeper issue, where that worry comes from.

You see, worry is really just kind of a desire for control.

We want control. Sometimes we give ourselves the illusion that we have control.

But then when we have these moments in our life where we realize,

maybe I don't have as much control as I thought I did, we worry.

And worry is not trusting in God. It's the opposite of that.

It seems like kind of an innocuous thing sometimes to worry that it's harmless. Everybody does it.

But worry is essentially telling God, I don't think you can do this.

I don't think you got this. I don't think you will help me in this.

It's a deep heart issue that Jesus addresses because it is serious.

But Jesus is interested at addressing the very heart of this issue.

And he's going to give three reasons why worry is something that a believer

does not have to have in the three reasons.

I'm going to give you this, this statement ahead of time. The third one's the

most important. Okay. But he gives, he does give you three.

The first one, he calls you into this picture.

Imagine the birds of the sky, the flowers of the field. He says,

God takes care of them. Do you think they worry?

God takes care of them. How much more won't he take care of you?

It's an argument from the lesser to the greater. He's calling you to remember creation.

Because God created everything that exists and he cares. It's right to say that

he cares about all of his creation.

But you remember the way creation happened, right? God created the plants and

all that exists on the earth. And what was the last thing that he created?

Humans. The last thing he created was humans. And he created humans different

than the rest of his creation.

He said, when he created man and woman, he said that they were created in the image of God.

And he gave them a responsibility that he didn't give to any other animals or

plants. the responsibility was they were to rule over his creation.

Humans, man and woman, were meant to be the crown of God's creation. They were.

And so if God takes care of and cares about the birds, if he cares about the

grass, the flowers, well, then how much more won't he care for you,

the crown of his creation?

Trust him. Trust him. The second reason he gives is maybe an intensely practical

one. we talked about it in the children's devotion today, but what does worrying get you?

He kind of asks you that, right? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?

Actually, the word in the text is cubit, which is about 18 inches.

So who of you by worrying can add even 18 inches to your life?

Somehow I feel like that even communicates it better.

Your worrying about something doesn't change anything, not externally anyways.

It changes something for the worst in your heart.

But who of you by worrying about something that you can't control,

you don't get more control when you worry.

It doesn't get you anything. So trust in the one who is in control of all that exists.

Trust in the one who created all that exists and who is intensely involved in our world here.

But the third reason I said is the most important.

If you're looking at the text, you can go to this verse. It says,

do not be afraid, little flock. We sang this in the first him too.

Do not be afraid, little flock, for your father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.

He's taking care of something far greater than the food on your table,

the clothes in your closet, or the roof over your head.

Jesus, your father, has given you the kingdom.

The kingdom is the fulfillment of the promise that he made to Abraham.

Remember, I said that the end of his promise, the greatest promise that God

gave to Abraham was every nation on the earth would be blessed through him.

Through Abraham's descendant, blessing would come to all people.

Through Jesus, blessing would come to all people. By Jesus' death on the cross,

he has forgiven you of all of your sins.

By his resurrection from the dead, he has given you the sure hope of eternal life.

These are blessings that God has poured out on you and has poured out on you

to bring you into the kingdom.

Though heaven is something that we are looking forward to, you are in the kingdom of God right now.

When God created faith in your heart, whether that was in baptism or through

the word, he brought you into the kingdom and he has ruled your heart through faith.

Because he's done this for you, everything else is so teeny tiny in comparison.

If your savior was willing to suffer hell for you, don't you think he'll provide for you?

If he could rise from the dead, don't you think that he could put food on your table?

Absolutely, of course. That's the gospel. It's the gospel motivating our trust in him.

It's the gospel motivating us to not worry about those things because we trust

the Lord to take care of us.

And guess what? We have kind of an advantage that Abraham didn't have.

Abraham had all these promises from God and he would only get to experience

the fulfillment of one of them in his life.

He had a son. He got to see Isaac. So he got to see the fulfillment of one of those promises.

But you, you have the blessing of the entire Bible.

You have all the times that God made a promise and kept it, including the greatest

promise that God ever kept, the promise of Jesus, a promise all throughout the Old Testament.

And he came and he fulfilled all of those prophecies. He did what he said he would do.

And that gives you confidence that he will continue to do all the things that

he has promised that he will do for you.

But you might be saying, yeah, but we still got to live here and now.

We still got to live in this, this veil of tears. So how does it work? How do we do that?

I think Abraham teaches us that it's not a linear path.

Abraham had so many ups and downs in his life. If you have a chance to read,

start reading a Genesis 12 and read about eight chapters and you'll,

you'll get the whole story of, of Abraham.

He had ups and downs, times where he doubted, times where maybe he didn't prioritize

Jesus and the promise that God had given him in his life. He was chasing after earthly things.

He's a human. He did all those same things that you and I do.

But his faith is what made the difference.

God then says through the writer to the Hebrews that Abraham was in the hall

of faith. He was commended because he believed the things that had not yet happened.

He believed and it was credited to him as righteousness.

So how are you and I to live? Jesus says, seek his kingdom and all these things

will be given to you as well. He's saying there's a priority.

There's a priority we are to live. Yeah, we have to trudge on in this life,

but seek after the things of his kingdom.

Seek after the heavenly things. And guess what? but he has promised he'll provide

for your needs than those earthly things as well.

So seek after the places where your faith is nourished and grows.

Let that be in church here as we gather together to hear God's word,

as we encourage one another.

Let it be as you spend a whole lifetime digging into God's word and learning more.

Let it be the encouragement that you receive and that you give amongst the body of believers.

Seek after the time in prayer Put some of those earthly worries and concerns

to the side and chase after these heavenly things because God has promised to

take care of the rest of it as well.

He said, where your treasure is, your heart shall be. God has secured treasure for you in the gospel.

Let your heart's treasure be that gospel of Jesus, those spiritual things.

And guess what? He'll give you those earthly things as well. Amen.

Hey, Pastor Wilkie here. Thanks for listening to this week's sermon.

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God's blessings on your week.

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