Luke 12.13-34 - Anxiety's Natural Predator

Lord Jesus.

Lord, we we treasure you.

Father, thank you for building this church, planting this church.

Thank you for the incredible community, the friendships that you've knit together.

Thank you for your generosity.

Thank you for teaching us to abide with you, Lord.

To stay with you, to remain with you, to be connected to you, to walk with you through the highs and the lows.

Holy Spirit, we invite you in this morning as we seek to understand your word.

We ask that you would speak.

We ask that you would grant your voice to all of us, God.

We need it.

Same voice that spoke the universe into motion.

We ask for your blessing, God.

We love you.

Jesus' name, amen.

Feel free to take a seat.

Welcome to Skyline Church.

We're a new-ish church, two and a half years old.

I think that still makes us a toddler church.

I don't know what it's like to be an adolescent church or a puberty church.

We'll find out in a couple years.

Hope you're around for it.

We're in the Gospel of Luke still, and uh Jesus is now downhill towards Jerusalem.

He's been ministering in Galilee, but now he has set his face towards Jerusalem.

And I actually want to begin this uh sermon by telling you about really, I think, basically my maybe my only panic attack of my life.

I was uh, you're like, great, sounds exciting.

Um I was in college.

I think I'd maybe just turned 21.

Maybe I just had my first beer, maybe that contributed.

I don't know.

But basically, it was summer going into senior year of college, and I was doing the hardest class of my college career, financial derivatives.

And I had I'd had to take a semester off because of health issues, and so I was trying to catch up in the summer so that I could graduate on time because I had asked Joni to marry me.

She had said yes, which means I needed to get a job after I graduated.

But if I didn't pass financial derivatives, then I couldn't graduate, which means I get married and I couldn't get a job.

So I started to panic because I would I didn't have classmates.

It was like independent study, and it was kicking my butt.

I I'm it's like all this math stuff and craziness, and I'm not doing, I'm getting hammered on tests and homework.

And towards the end of the class, I start to just freak out because I'm looking forward into my future, questioning my financial security, and I just start to panic, controlled by anxiety.

I think it kind of spooked uh Joni, my now wife, and my parents, because I don't know that they'd ever seen that from me before, but you know, enough pressure and enough time.

In theory, it could happen to anyone, and it was happening to me.

And, you know, it lasted about 24 hours, and everyone calmed me down over the course of a day.

But at the heart of the experience was, I think, anxiety.

At the heart of the experience, natural to it, endemic to it, native to it, to anxiety, is I think fear.

In fact, I think maybe a helpful definition of anxiety is is fear of a possible painful future.

A helpful definition of anxiety, fear of a possible painful future.

And I was looking into my future and I did not like what I saw.

And yes, I ended up passing the class, I think it actually ended up with a B minus, so I didn't even, you know, it wasn't even that close.

But um, perhaps for you, the story of anxiety, the experience of anxiety, panic attacks, these types of things, you know what I'm talking about.

Even if it's just a low-grade burn that comes after you every day when you wake up.

It's all too familiar.

And in our day and age, as it as it so happens in 2026, there has been a rise of anxiety in the American experience in the last two decades.

From 2008 to 2018, the percentage of adults claiming to experience high levels of anxiety went up 30 to 40 percent, with younger people even higher.

We're kind of in a unique moment in American history as it relates to anxiety.

It's it's coming after, it's stalking way more people than it used to.

It's a big part of a lot of people's experience.

And what makes it worse is it's tied with uh increased cardiovascular failure, anxiety is, loss of sleep, premature death, hooray, dementia.

Now, is anxiety causal to these things, or is it is it just connected?

It's hard to be sure.

All we know is anxiety is bad.

Anxiety equal bad.

And we don't want that.

It's it's it sometimes it can feel like it's like this wolf circling you in a forest, coming to rob you of your joy, to rob you of your peace, to paralyze you from doing what you feel like you should be doing.

Who knows what that might be?

But it just it just takes your ability to live life from you in a way that you feel like God has designed and called you to.

Anxiety stalks us in such a way.

So, what can be done about it?

Can it be defeated?

The good news is the Lord Jesus knows all about this experience.

And actually, he addresses it in our text today.

He's gonna talk about it.

In fact, what I want you to look for, if you've got your sermon sheet in front of you, I want you to look for this main idea as we read through the Bible today.

This main idea that anxiety withers as riches and wants give way to the kingdom.

Anxiety withers like a dead branch, as riches and wants give way to the kingdom.

So, but it's gonna take us a minute to get there.

We're gonna see Jesus build towards it.

So, this is Luke chapter 12, verses 13 through 21.

Luke 12:13–21

I'm gonna have it up here on the screen.

We're gonna be in the ESV version.

I'd love for you to follow along.

Luke chapter 12, first the the section is 13 through 21.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

This is what it says.

Someone in the crowd said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

But he said to him, Man, who made me judge or arbitrator over you?

And he said to them, Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

And he told them a parable, saying, The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, What shall I do?

For I have nowhere to store my crops.

And he said, I will do this.

I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods, and I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years.

Relax, eat, drink, be merry.

But God said to him, Fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?

So is the one who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God.

So, Jesus is teaching.

He's in the middle of various teachings as he's making his way towards Jerusalem, and a man interrupts him.

And the man wants to talk about his inheritance.

So either this dude's really mad or he's just really bold or what, because he basically calls out to Jesus and he's like, Lord, teacher, tell this, tell my brother to split the inheritance with me.

Which is kind of a wild thing to interrupt somebody on that.

And basically, the the Old Testament has actually a number of laws about inheritance, how things get passed on from generation to generation.

But and it's hard to know exactly what this guy is going through.

Perhaps one of the things that's happening is what's called the law of primogeniture, if you've heard of this.

Basically, in Old Testament law, the firstborn son gets a double portion of the inheritance and takes on, you know, basically unique influence, unique responsibilities for the sort of the extended family.

So it's possible that this guy is like a younger brother and ain't happy about that.

It's possible it could be a number of different things.

All we know is that Jesus refuses to get involved, and that basically he's inferring that this man is dealing with greed.

This man is dealing with covetousness.

What's covetousness?

It's like envy, it's wanting other people's stuff.

And, you know, Jesus, this he's a guy who knows how to say no.

Okay?

He doesn't just do anything and everything people want of him.

This guy wants him involved in this random inheritance legal matter.

Jesus is like, nah.

And then he goes in to give a warning about covetousness and tells a parable, which you can imagine, it's kind of like take this guy's supposed to take this as a hint.

You know, if someone smells bad, you give them deodorant for their birthday, take it as a hint.

He tells a parable about about uh about covetousness.

This guy's supposed to take this as a hint.

And there's a few things that we get from this little parable, from this story.

Three things, basically.

The first comes in verse 16, which I don't want us to miss actually.

Verse 16, it says, The land of a rich man produced plentifully.

So there's a couple things here.

One, the man is already rich.

See that?

Two, his land is producing plentifully.

And I think what Jesus is implying here is God made that happen.

I don't know if you've ever been a farmer or been around farmers.

One of the big things that crops are dependent on is precipitation and rain.

There's a lot going on, sort of in nature, that farmers are dependent on.

And so if a land produces plentifully, of course, hard work has a piece to do with that, but there's a lot that you're just kind of up to the elements for, up to God for.

And one of the things that Jesus is implying here is that this man's crops produced abundantly because God oversaw it in such a way.

Things are not, there's things outside of his control as it relates to his riches.

And the same thing is true for us today.

You buy stocks for retirement, whatever it may be, various assets, they go up.

If you're buying stocks and they went up, were you generally responsible for that?

Not really.

Well, you might say, well, Adam, I started a business, I worked my butt off, the value of it went up, I accumulated a lot of wealth because of my hard work, to which I would say, hard work?

Of course it's a part of it.

No one's saying it's not a part of it.

All I think Jesus is pointing to here is that it ain't all of it.

In fact, I remember listening to uh an entrepreneur podcast once, and it was the guy who invented five-hour energy.

You know, like you see them everywhere.

It's like a billion-dollar company now.

And on the pod, the guy goes, Look, if if anyone becomes rich because they started a business and don't doesn't think that a huge part of the reason for that is luck, they're a fool.

That's what he said.

This is a guy who understands what Jesus is saying when he says, the land of the rich man produced abundantly.

He understands that a large portion of life is under the providence of God and outside of your control, regardless of how hard you work.

He would agree with Jesus.

So this is the first thing we see from the parable that God is, God's provision oversees so much of what's entrusted to us.

This makes us a steward of the riches and wealth that we have.

Okay?

Thing number two.

I just have to read this again because it's it's kind of it's just gnarly and so poetic of the Lord.

I mean, listen to how often this guy in this parable references himself.

It's like twelve times.

And he thought to himself, What shall I do?

For I have nowhere to store my crops.

And he said, I will do this.

I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store my grain and my goods, and I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years.

Relax, eat, drink, and be merry.

This is a man who is self-consumed.

You can see it just in the grammar.

You don't even have to see this guy in person.

There's an incredible amount of self-focus.

And I think part of what Jesus is pointing us to is that this is a temptation that lies before all of us to have this amount of self-focus.

Even in the midst of receiving things from God, there's a high chance we don't recognize it as such.

I mean, the greatest commandment that Jesus has already talked about love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Here's a man who has completely ignored the first two pieces of the greatest commandment: God and neighbor.

He's only focused on himself.

He has immense resources to affect the world in a positive way, to care for those who chance and luck swung the other direction on.

And yet he refuses.

He's simply building bigger barns to accumulate, which, by the way, is this first point here.

Jesus is showing us the worthlessness of accumulation.

The worthlessness of accumulation.

Now, look, it's important with money that the Bible does teach a balance here.

Okay?

Money is not in itself evil.

God makes a lot of people rich in the Bible.

Proverbs talks about the importance of saving, but the Bible does teach that a love of money is evil.

And so, as much as we want this kind of binary thing, is money good, is money evil, the Bible actually teaches us a balance.

It teaches us that God brings us our money alongside our hard work, which makes us stewards.

And then it shows us other examples in the Bible, not only of rich people, but people who are sacrificially generous.

You think about Barnabas in the book of Acts, he sells his land for the church.

You think about Jesus himself, you think about the Apostle Paul.

Sometimes we want it to be one way or the other, but the Bible teaches us stewardship, and God entrusts different people with different amounts of resources to steward.

And this man is doing the opposite of that.

He's hoarding it, he's accumulating it.

And when we think about our imbalance, when we think about the imbalance that we're tempted to, am I tempted to love money and hoard it and accumulate it, or am I tempted to hate it and not think it's useful for anything and avoid it like it's some type of morally unrighteous thing?

When you think about what you're tempted towards, my guess is most of us are tempted towards the former.

The idea that we need more to accumulate and to hoard.

That's the second thing that Jesus is showing us in this parable.

Our self-focus tempts us to accumulate.

And the third thing comes in verse 20, which is kind of intense.

The third thing is basically that death reveals what's important.

Death reveals what's important.

I mean, look at the way that God the Father speaks to this man in this parable.

You fool! Imagine dying and hearing that.

The things you have stored up, whose will they be?

This is a man who has missed the point of what's been entrusted to him.

And by the way, did you notice he was already rich?

A rich man, the land of a rich man produced plentifully.

And interestingly, the rebuke comes when the man who's already rich gets more and then hoards it.

Interesting.

Death reveals what's important, and his death comes upon him suddenly, and his things can't buy him worthiness before God.

He can't even take them with him.

Death exposes us in such a moment like this.

I think about um, you know, it's been my privilege over the years to walk and be around a number of people on their deathbed or close to it.

You know how many times people wanted to talk to me about money?

Zero.

I just recently finished Joseph Stalin's biography.

And uh as he gets older, this is a man who's committed immense evil, and as he gets older, he gets angrier and more frustrated and more rich, and he has a stroke and he's dying on his bed, and there's all these people around him, and he shakes his hand and holds up a fist, and everyone's like, Is he is he pointed at me?

Is he pointing at God?

What was he?

Nobody knows.

He just dies in bitterness and anger, a moment where he goes and stands before God, and I don't want to be there for that convo.

But the Lord is saying to this man, the father is saying to this man in this parable, you fool, in response to the way that the man dealt with the riches that God entrusted to him.

Death reveals what's important.

There's an old switchfoot lyric from the song Gone.

All the riches of the kings end up in wills.

It's a great lyric.

And Jesus' conclusion in verse 21 is this after he tells the bear parable, he says, So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God.

It's a warning.

He uses this man's attitude who wants Jesus to arbitrate over his inheritance dispute.

He uses this as a warning to tell a parable to his disciples and all of us, as it comes to the perfect, imperishable word of God, watch out for covetousness, for greed, for the desire to accumulate in this world, because death will expose what's important when the day comes.

And in light of eternity, this moment is so short.

And so it's worth some self-assessment.

Are we acting in a way like this man?

You know, Alex de Tocqueville, French political scientist in the 1800s, once said of the United States, this is in the 1850s, something like that, once said of the United States, he knows of no other country where the love of money has such a grip on men's hearts.

It's 1850, or, you know, getting on 200 years after that.

You think it's the same?

Better or worse?

And so when you think about the water that you swim in, you know, all of us have things that we're blind to that we're not quite aware of.

When you think about the moment that we're in, your perspective, the way that you think about money, you think you're tempted?

Which which direction is your temptation going?

I think most likely, per the Bible, per Jesus, per de Tokaville, most likely our temptation is towards accumulation and not towards eternal riches.

And so, what does it mean to be rich?

This is Jesus' counterpoint, right?

He says, such is the one who is not rich towards God.

So, what does it look like to be rich towards God instead of accumulation, instead of building more barns?

You already had a barn full of crops, building bigger ones.

What does it mean to be rich towards God?

And said, and by the way, what does this have to do with anxiety?

You're about to find out.

Last piece.

Last text, 22 through 34.

Let's see where Jesus takes it from here.

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 neither they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them.

Of how much more value are you than 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?

Oh, 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.

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 money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in heavens, 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.

If the first text was about the worthlessness of accumulation, here Jesus pivots to the worthlessness of anxiety.

Both of these things worthless in the face of the peace that the Lord God can give.

So what how does he pivot here?

If you look at verse 22, he says a very important word in grammar.

Therefore.

Therefore, what?

Well, in light of the man who built barns.

Therefore, in light of the man who built barns, don't be anxious, Jesus says.

So what he's doing is he's kind of implying the guy's motive.

He's imp part of what Jesus is implying here is the reason that this man did that was because he was anxious.

He had a fear about a potential, painful future that he wanted to control.

This is what Jesus is implying.

And a future where this man's wants, his needs are already taken care of.

So now we're just talking about wants.

A future where this man worries that his wants are not being taken care of.

And there's so many categories for us in this idea of material needs.

You think about your savings account, you think about your house where you're gonna live, who you're gonna live with, you think about who's gonna care for you in your old age, will I have a person to be with bodily?

You think about the way that our bodies can fail us?

All this stuff presents temptation for anxiety, and Jesus says, don't.

Don't be anxious.

And he gives three reasons, basically.

Three reasons.

Reason number one comes in verse 23.

It's kind of funny, it's a simple one.

Is not life more than food and clothing, Jesus says.

Paul will say something similar in Romans 14 17.

He says it this way for the kingdom of God is not a matter of Eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

There's so much more you could add to this, right?

Like your calling, the work that God has assigned to you in life.

Relationships, making disciples.

There's so many other things in life that are so important rather than just what you want to eat and what you want to drink and what you want to put on.

Imagine someone, but all they talk about is what they eat or what they want to wear.

Like the shallowness becomes apparent very quickly if that is what a person is hyper-fixated on.

Now you might object, well, yes, okay, fine.

But if you don't have those things, you don't have food and drink, you don't have clothes, then it's hard to deal with those other things.

Why do you want me to go to work naked?

I'm saying, no, not even Jesus wants that, which is why he promises to take care of your needs.

He promises to take care of your needs.

This is such a significant piece to this.

He's saying, look, if God knows your needs and promises to take care of needs, not wants, then you don't need to fixate on them.

I think I told the story, I just have to tell it again.

From the life of George Mueller, 1800s, uh guy who lived in Bristol, England, taking care of orphans.

As he gets older, he's got hundreds of orphans under his care.

Most of the time they have what they need, sometimes they don't.

One day, an admin or whatever runs up to him.

We're out of money, we're out of food.

There's like 500 orphans downstairs waiting for breakfast.

And Mueller's like, okay, let's pray.

So they pray, and he comes downstairs, and he looks around, there's a knock at the door, and the milkman comes in.

He's like, My truck broke down in front of your orphanage.

Can I give you all this milk for all these orphans?

Might as well, right?

Mueller's like, thank you.

And he leaves.

Just like expects it.

This is one of the things when you walk with God over the course of years and months and decades, you begin to see that this promise is true, that God promises to take care of your needs, and that he will, such that the peace that surpasses understanding begins to overcome you.

That's thing number one.

Is not life more than food and clothing?

This is Jesus' first point.

Second, verse 25, it doesn't add a single hour to your life.

Anxiety, worry, does not add a single hour to your life.

In fact, the medical stats show it's taking them away.

Jesus says it's a waste of time.

Now you might say, okay, duh, Adam, thank you.

Like if I know that anxiety does nothing to me, I still do it anyway.

Like we all understand that it doesn't add anything to your life, but actually to which I would say, I'm not sure we're convinced of that.

I'm actually not sure that we're all convinced, subconsciously or consciously, that trying to avoid anxiety is a good thing.

If you think about um, there's so many examples about this.

There's so many ways in which we think that fixating on something, becoming anxious about something will somehow impact the outcome.

I think about like a I think about like a a mother or a father whose kid is out late at night, and somehow you think, and you've made an agreement around how that's gonna happen, they have a phone, whatever.

They you've made an agreement, but for some reason, you just think that if you stay up till 12, that they will be safer.

Okay, this is different than like I'm gonna leave my phone off of silent.

Okay, this is different than that.

Oh, let's just take a younger version of a parent.

Let me tell you the younger parent version of this, ready?

Your baby is changed, well fed, the baby has what they need, they're great, you put them down to sleep, and the new parent goes, and they lay down, they lay down a bed, and they go, but are they breathing?

Are they breathing?

Are they breathing?

And you go and you check and you look at them, and they're breathing there, they're still breathing.

Why did you think that?

Nobody knows.

The baby's been breathing since it was born.

And they're safe in their thing, happy, hungry, and well-fed.

But for some reason you think that if you fixate on whether or not the baby's breathing, it's gonna breathe better.

No.

We're not convinced of this.

Or fixating on symptoms, medical symptoms, as you wait for a test.

If you Google it long enough, maybe it will impact it.

Or being fired.

Maybe you're scared that you're gonna be fired.

If I am picture it in my mind enough, I can influence the future, I can influence the outcome.

No, it actually just probably makes it a little bit more painful if it was to happen.

Or the outcome of like a date.

You're you're thinking you're thinking about going on a date and you hyperfixate on every possible discussion, every possible way the conversation could go, and instead you walk in like a squirrel on speed instead of filled with the peace of God.

Jesus says, don't.

Now imagine a different person in all of those scenarios.

Imagine a person in each one of those scenarios who, if they're not negligent, they've been diligent to do what's safe, to do what's right, to be thoughtful, but then they know that there's things just outside of their control, and they're not going to let the perpetual fear of a potential painful future stalk them and ruin their life.

Imagine a person filled with peace in each one of these situations, knowing that all things are in God's hands.

That's point number two that Jesus gives, reason number two to lay down anxiety.

It doesn't add a single hour to your life.

And then the final one, I'm just gonna call the ravens and the lilies.

The final reason is the ravens and the lilies.

You know, ravens in the Old Testament were an unclean bird and they were generally avoided.

And Jesus basically says, if the ravens who don't grow crops are fed, and implied in the cultural context, is and they're an unclean bird that you're supposed to avoid, if they're taken care of, how much more you?

And the lilies, do they spin?

Which, in other words, like do they knit?

Do they work?

No, they don't, yet they're clothed.

And not only that, they're more beautiful than Solomon.

They're not just clothed, they're beautifully clothed.

All of these points, one, two, and three, um, life is more than food and clothing.

It doesn't add a single hour to your day.

Have you looked at the ravens and the lilies lately?

All of these support verse 22, Jesus' command, don't be anxious.

Did you notice it was a command?

Which means if you disobey the command, it's a sin against God.

And if you disobey the command, you should confess and repent of that sin.

Now you might say, oh, okay.

Okay, Adam.

Thank you for telling me that anxiety is a sin.

This is a thing that I get assaulted by, not that I step into.

Well, Jesus would probably correct that a little bit.

Apparently, your volition and your will and your choice does play an impact on your anxiety.

But also, yes, also you're right.

At some level for us, experientially, anxiety emanates out of our minds, comes out of our soul, and it comes through your hands like water.

It feels like there's nothing that you can do.

Like we talked about earlier, it stalks you through the woods.

How do I escape this?

I didn't ask for this, I don't want this.

And what I want to point you to is that did you notice how Jesus lands the ravens and the lilies?

How he lands that plane.

It's really, really important.

Look at what he says.

Of how much more value are you than ravens?

How much more will God clothe you if he clothes the lilies?

Inherent to this final reason, and Jesus' reasoning to set you free of anxiety, to persuade you to be free from it, is this really, really important thing that you're of great value to God.

Do you see it?

Do you believe it?

That you are of this much value to God when Psalm 139 says that he knits you together in his mother's womb when you come out and live your life, you think he forgets about you?

When Pastor Justin talked a couple weeks ago that God knows the number of hairs on your head, how much more your body and your soul?

And where have you seen this more?

God's concern, God's care for you.

Where have you seen this more than the gospel?

Where have you seen this more?

Where the teacher of this teaching goes to the cross to suffer reviling, insult, torture, and death because of his care for you.

Jesus himself refused to be rescued to save our souls.

Because we were of great value to him.

Not because of something that you've done.

Remember, God came to you before you ever sought him.

But just because, if you ask why the love of God, why God?

Why do you love?

Why do you have affection towards me as sinner?

The answer is just love all the way down.

There's nothing behind it other than who God is.

Why does he love you and care for you, have concern for you the way that he does?

Just because he does.

Welcome to an infinite idea.

Welcome to the infinite character of God that is over and above time itself.

And by hammering this reason the most, it gets the most airtime.

The ravens and the lilies, how much more value are you than they?

By hammering this reason the most, Jesus is showing that the ultimate predator of anxiety, the thing that eats it, is the love and concern of God for you.

And you see it in the gospel, and the more you see it, the more anxiety withers.

The more that you see that in the forest with this wolf that's stalking you called anxiety, that you don't want, the more that you stare into the glory and the depth of the gospel, the more that you see there's a lion behind the wolf whose face shines like the sun waiting to devour it.

When God says that he provides, and I think it's in Corinthians, that he provides a way of escape from every temptation, do you think anxiety is excluded from that?

When God says you're no longer a slave to sin, do you believe this is empty, futile, nothing-isms from God's word to make you feel good and look good on a greeting card?

Or do you think it's true?

Do you think that the line of Judah can set you free from anxiety in a way that nothing else can?

And as we come to believe this, the easier it is to be convinced of Jesus' conclusion in verse 31.

If you seek first the kingdom of God, all of these things will be added to you.

And you might say, but Adam, I okay.

But I've lived in want before.

I've had things.

I've wanted certain things in life and not had them before, in which case, you're even more freed in this moment because you also see the way that Jesus separates needs from wants.

In fact, it becomes even more amazing for a season to not get your wants and only get your needs because you realize that so much of wants can just be burned off, like chaff.

So much entitlement can just be laid down.

It's not something that you actually need.

And it's freeing because you can go through life without thinking that you need all these things that you don't need.

And so not getting your wants becomes a source of liberation.

And so, in conclusion, and this is how this is where Jesus tells us what it means to focus on being rich towards God, Jesus gives us a helpful picture of the opposite of that, the opposite of anxious accumulation, giving to the needy.

It's just one off-handed example that he gives.

Instead of accumulating things, which are death is just going to expose anyway, instead of worthless anxiety, give to the needy.

And then he gives kind of an interesting motivation.

You know, there's like 30 times in the New Testament where the Bible uses heavenly treasures to motivate obedience, to motivate righteousness.

Hey, if if you're faithful here on earth, there's different degrees of glory in heaven.

There's different degrees of reward in heaven, and maybe you're kind of like, ooh, I don't really like how that sounds.

Well, the Bible does.

And this is one of 30 times where he uses it as a reason.

Now, it's also true that at least three times as much as the Bible uses that to motivate you, three times as much it uses the love of God.

In fact, weirdly, we see that in this text.

Ravens, lilies, fear not little flock.

I mean, it uses the love and grace and kindness of God three times as much to motivate you.

But interestingly, the Lord also wants you to know that there is a thing as heavenly investment.

There is such a thing.

And everything here gets burned up, but there is a place where God prepares for you with your inheritance.

And the love of God is far more influential in this, and this ratio, I think, is helpful even here.

And then he finishes with, and by the way, wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Are you putting your treasure in heaven?

The things of God, the things of the kingdom, or are you building barns on earth?

It helps us see our priorities.

Where is anxiety driving earthly accumulation instead of being rich towards God?

What imagine what it looks like for us as a church, for you as a person to become free of anxiety.

Imagine the way that people experience you when you become a non-anxious presence, a person's, a person of joy, a person of peace.

Imagine the relief in the vision that gets cast in that moment.

Well, we're gonna ask for it today.

When we do communion and when we do prayer after the service, we're gonna ask for it today.

And so I want you to begin to think as we close here and we come back up for communion.

Where have you struggled to be free of anxiety?

This ruthless fear of a potential painful future that will not leave you alone.

We're gonna ask for the Holy Spirit to change your life.

We're gonna ask that the lion of Judah devours the wolf.

Because I think that's what he wants.

I think that's what we see.

And he roots it in God's care and love for you.

And if you walk away today, only remembering one thing, remember that.

Let's pray.

Lord.

Oh Lord Jesus, we sense your care in this text today.

We sense your love, we sense your affection.

God, our lives are swimming with fears of different outcomes, paralyzing anxieties in so many categories.

Lord, you call us out of it.

Lord, we ask that you bring your power to bear on us today, who doubt your provision, who doubt this level of care that you talk about, this level of attention on us from you.

God, we pray that you would persuade our hearts, persuade our souls, and make us free.

In Jesus' name, amen.

So we're