Fearless [11-9-25]

November 9, 2025

Luke 12:22-34

“Fearless”

Here’s what sets the stage for today’s passage:

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 a 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 toward God.”

Luke 12:13-21

Jesus makes it clear that money isn’t everything. But, boy, does it cause people to get stressed out. And Jesus covers both ends of the material spectrum. Money, finances, and material things disrupt spiritual and emotional equilibrium. Whether it’s too much or too little, money messes with our minds.

Here's a pithy observation from Charles Spurgeon:

“Observation shows us that there is a fascination in wealth which renders it extremely difficult for the possessors of it to maintain their equilibrium; and this is more especially the case where money is suddenly acquired; then, unless grace prevent, pride fumes, and he who is respectable in poverty, becomes despicable in prosperity. Pride may lurk under a threadbare cloak, but it prefers the comely broadcloth of the merchant’s cloak: moths will eat any of our garments, but they seem to fly first to the costly

furs.”

Money and health, and all the things surrounding those 2 broad subjects, are the cause of most of our worries. They absorb so much of our time, attention, and emotional energy. Which is why Jesus follows his story of the rich fool with a powerful command:

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.”

Luke 12:22-23

Don’t misunderstand. Jesus is not calling us to be indifferent toward life. He isn’t saying we should shun material things. That’s why he taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” The things from God and from the creative hands of those created in the image of God are all good. One of my favorite Psalms affirms:

O Lord, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.

Out of the mouth of babies and infants,

you have established strength because of your foes,

to still the enemy and the avenger.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,

and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings

and crowned him with glory and honor.

You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;

you have put all things under his feet,

all sheep and oxen,

and also the beasts of the field,

the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,

whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8

God provides. God desires we have provision for our daily needs. But there is also a warning. It’s something you might want to write down:

BEWARE OF THE TYRANNY OF THINGS.

That’s a warning from Jesus. And lest we misread or mistake his intentions, Jesus commands us not to worry. The wording and the words make it very clear. Therefore, I tell you, do not worry. And there’s a primary reason for that. Here’s the second thing you might want to write down:

ANXIETY PREVENTS US FROM BEING FOCUSED ENTIRELY ON GOD.

Problems arise when we get so focused on protecting and insuring our material well-being that we go to pieces when it’s threatened or taken away from us.

Don’t misunderstand. We understand when and why people get stressed out. We understand why people worry. We understand why people get anxious. We understand why people have panic attacks. Perhaps that happens to you or someone you love. Could be you’re the source of someone else’s anxiety. Who knows? It can be frightening living in an often unexplainable world. There are so many unknowns. Bad things can happen without warning. Out of nowhere. At times, it’s hard to figure out why we’re here and where we’re going. It’s easy to explain why people take drugs and abuse alcohol and go on eating binges or shopping binges and engage in all sorts of wild or risky behaviors. Anything to distract from life’s worries and cares. Anything to override the unknowns.

All while Jesus commands us do not be anxious about your life.

There’s no denying we live in an anxiety-ridden culture. We live in a time of comfort and prosperity. We have conveniences and technological and medical advances beyond compare. Yet…yet, we seem to be riddled with anxiety, stress, and worry. So many people are living with a finger poised over the panic button.

We’ve got a psychological and medical health complex highly tuned to intervene. They will stop at nothing to help people with stress. With worry. With anxiety. No anxiety goes unaddressed. No worry goes unmedicated. No fear goes unsedated. But guess what? Unless you get to the root, most

anxiety goes unrelieved.

People live with worry. People can’t fall asleep at night because anxious thoughts are racing through their minds. People live with stress. We talk about “managing your stress.”

Then along comes Jesus. He says, “Stop it.” “Eliminate anxiety from your life.” We are considering three key sections here:

Verse 22…do not be anxious.

Verse 29…nor be worried.

Verse 32…fear not.

All three can literally be translated as, “Stop it.” Sounds like a command, right? Stop!

I love what novelist Arthur Somers Roche once said about being anxious:

“Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.”

Years ago, I read some facts about fog. Fascinating stuff. Fog can delay

school. It can cancel school. Ground planes. Cause accidents. All kinds of misadventure and mayhem. Here’s what I learned about fog. A dense fog

covering nearly five acres is composed of about one cup of water. Not much water but it can cripple entire regions. Our word for “worry” comes from an old German word, which means “to choke, or strangle.” Worry can be that debilitating. An emotional or spiritual fog.

Listen to Philippians 4:4-7:

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

What’s the point? Turn your cares and troubles over to God. His Son, Jesus Christ, has already told you not to worry. Note it’s not a suggestion. It’s a solid command, carried forward by Paul. Do not be anxious about anything.

Charles Spurgeon captures it this way:

“Now, if in any future day the shadow of a disaster should cross your path, and you should be in fear that your beloved ones are lost, I pray you, if you are Christian people, exercise faith at such a time, and stay yourselves upon God. Recollect, if you become so anxious as to lose your clearness of mind, you will not be fit for the emergency. It may be that by retaining calmness of soul you will be of service; but by giving up the very helm of your mind, and allowing yourself to drift before the torrent of anxiety, you will become useless and helpless. In patience possess your souls. The world is in God’s hand after all.”

With that blessed assurance, let’s pick things up at verses 24-26:

“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 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?”

First off, I love the humor here. They knew about life spans back then.

They knew about average length of days. We know that certain practices or habits can subtract from your life span. Jesus invites them to consider the preposterous notion of trying to add to your life span. Imagine the revolution in longevity if anxiety could add to your life span?

Knowing how preposterous that is, Jesus invites us to consider my favorite classification of birds…corvids. Once, while driving somewhere with our granddaughters, I shared some interesting tidbit I had just learned about crows. Crows are my favorite corvid. And I learned that crows have the intelligence of an average 8-year-old child. It was a few weeks before our youngest’s eighth birthday. Her older sister, Lorelei, chimed in, “Just think, Liesl. In two weeks you’re going to be as smart as a crow.”

I love crows. And our granddaughters.

In Jesus’ day, ravens, another type of corvid, weren’t so loveable. They were classified as unclean and an abomination:

Leviticus 11:13-15 - “And these you shall detest among the

birds; they shall not be eaten; they are detestable: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture, the kite, the falcon of any kind, every raven of any kind.”

But what does Jesus say? God feeds them. God cares for them. Like all birds, they neither sow nor reap, but God provides food for them. Last month, we had a dead squirrel in the parking lot. Our crow buddies were picking at its carcass. Weirdly, all they did was pick the fur clean off its formerly bushy little tail. I took a picture of it. I have judiciously decided not to show it. But circle of life. God was feeding and caring for our crows.

Remember our celebration from the Book of Psalms about how, through nature, God provides for us. Jesus is showing us how God feeds birds in the same way that He brings forth the harvest for us. It’s all a good thing. It’s all a sign of how much God cares for us. So don’t be anxious. Do not be anxious about anything in your life, Jesus says.

We’ll pick things up next week with the lilies of the field. These are wonderful assurance of God’s goodness and grace as we move toward Thanksgiving.

Let’s close with one more Spurgeon observation:

“If there are any of you in great trouble, I would like to remind you of this fact, that faith in Jesus is the best cure for every care, the best balm for every wound. Get you away to Jesus; at the foot of his cross is the best place for mourners. All our other sorrows die where Jesus’s sorrows are revealed. Faith in Christ is what you need beyond everything else”

Let us pray:

WE THANK YOU, FATHER , FOR THE FACT THAT WE CAN LIVE FREE OF ANXIETY…FREE OF STRESS…FREE OF WORRY…AND FREE OF FEAR…BECAUSE OUR LIVES ARE COMPLETELY IN YOUR CARE. FILL US WITH JOY AND GRATITUDE. IN THE NAME OF OUR RISEN LORD AND SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST. AMEN.