Worry-Free Living [11-16-25]

November 16, 2025

Luke 12:22-31

“Worry-Free Living”

We’re spending more time on these verses than I thought we would because once we got into them, I realized we should linger a bit longer. It is a powerful teaching. With powerful words. Speaking power into our lives.

Let’s start with a few affirming questions.

Who gave you life? God did.

Who redeemed you? God did.

Who has a purpose for your life? God does.

In whose Book of Life is your name written? God’s book.

If God so generously pours such grace and mercy into your life, you can be assured that He will supply all your needs. Notice I said needs. Not wants. God will provide you with all you need.

God has given us life. As a devoted follower of Jesus Christ, He has an unfolding plan for your life. God will sustain you. That truth is punctuated by Jesus is verses 30-31:

“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.”

God has an unfolding plan for you. He will sustain you. God will sustain you to give Him glory and to fulfill His plan through you to contribute in positive ways to life around you. Amen? No matter what YOU may think you need or want, you don’t have to build bigger and bigger and bigger and better barns to take care of yourself. You don’t have to do that, because God has created you and He sustains you. So be wise. Be faithful. Don’t be foolish. Be careful and generous with your money. Do some planning for the future. But know that no matter what you do, ultimately, God will sustain you. He has promised. God has promised to sustain you until your life ends. And then, guess what? When your life is over, an unimaginable provision will be given to you. Heaven. You will live eternally in the presence of your Savior, Jesus:

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,

to receive glory and honor and power,

for you created all things,

and by your will they existed and were created.”

Revelation 4:9-11

With that hope, promise, and seal, why worry? We understand our priority. Our priority is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Our priority is to help

others. Our priority is to build a strong community of faith. Our priority is to tell others about Jesus. Our priority is to love our families and our communities and each other. Our priority is to, as I shared from Charles Spurgeon last month:

“Be kind. Let every tone of your voice, every gesture of your limbs, every look of your face show the kindness of your heart.”

You are called to live for the purpose of God. It’s that simple. God will sustain your life. Worry illustrates a failure to understand how and why God loves us.

With that in mind, let’s look at Luke 12:22-31 once more:

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 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, O 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.

What is verse twenty-two? It’s a command. Jesus says, “Do not…” It’s a command. Do not what? Do not worry.

As we saw last week, the first example given by Jesus involves ravens. I love those guys. {Show short video}

Next up are lilies. By lilies, the text means all grasses, especially of the flowering type. Here are a few pictures of what Jesus is talking about:

Show pictures {3}.

Who doesn’t love flowers? Who doesn’t love things that bloom? They are beautiful. These things thrive the way God made them. In the conditions God provides. Even in their most transitory stages of life, God provides for them. In the briefest of moments, God is providing. When Jesus says, they are “thrown into the oven,” up until that moment, God provides for them. Even when thrown into the oven, God provides for them because they are being used for one of their created purposes. Grass is thrown into ovens to regulate the heat. Simple yet effective. God provides for the grasses. And then they are used to regulate the heat as bread is baking, providing for us our daily bread. It’s a beautiful circle of life.

Jesus calls for an end to anxiety. He calls for an end to worry and fear and panic. Why? Because those things can be debilitating. They can distract us from the important things in life. And they can drive a wedge between us and our relationship with God. As Jesus affirms, “Be of good cheer.” How can you be of good cheer if you’re gripped with worry or fear or anxiety?

What do you worry about? What concerns you? Before answering, think

about how tall you are. Would you like to be taller? Say you want to add an inch or two. Can you dial that up by worrying? Absurd, right? That’s what Jesus says. That’s how effective worry is in your life.

Think about your health. Lots of people are consumed with concern for their healthiness. And a measure of that is reasonable and rational. It’s good to be good stewards of the bodies God has given us. But it seems as if we have worshiped at the altar of health and longevity. Why were we so easily manipulated during the last pandemic? Because of our fear of illness and death. Not that we go chasing after poor health and poor health habits. But there’s only so much we can do. Sure, you can kind of pay attention to those nutritional factoids posted on everything you eat now. But who wants to live a life ruled by that? I want to eat a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup in ignorant bliss, thank-you very much.

Barring total nutritional and dietary irresponsibility, there’s only so much you can do to impact your allotted time. It’s not wrong to be disciplined. It’s not wrong to practice moderation. We do well to avoid the sin of

gluttony. It’s wrong to be foolish about what you eat. The bottom line is,

God has created the great big beautiful world with wonderful food where we can make good choices. But worrying about and obsessing over any of this is not going to add a day to our lives.

What does Jesus say? Worry doesn’t help. And worrying doesn’t make up for what we think we lack in our lives. I love how Paul frames it in Philippians 4:12-13:

“I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

We simply rest in peaceful assurance, knowing how much God loves us. What did Job say? It’s in a beautiful song we sing. The Lord gives. The Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. God will sustain our lives until the end. Worrying will do nothing to change that.

Anxiety and fear will do nothing to change our financial issues. Or issues surrounding material possessions. They are simply signs of the foolhardy

pursuit of wealth.

We all know the dangers of the pursuit of greater riches. People do stupid things in that pursuit. People do illegal things in that pursuit. People do shady things in that pursuit. It’s a tale as old as time itself. Remember what Moses warns the people of Israel about:

“Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart,

‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’

Deuteronomy 8:11-17

Here’s something you might want to write down:

A LIFE ORIENTED TOWARD RICHES RATHER THAN GOD IS A LIFE ORIENTED TOWARD DEATH.

“Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be,” Jesus asks.

The rich man in the parable suffers from the peril of plenty. In 1871, the New York Tribune published "The Revised Catechism" by Mark Twain. It was a satirical piece that parodied the Westminster Catechism, replacing its religious tenets with a cynical view of the Gilded Age's worship of money and materialism. In it, Twain rephrased the question, “What is the chief end of man?” with the updated response – “To get rich. In what way? Dishonestly if he can; honestly if he must.”

In another lampoon of what drives so much of our culture, someone quipped:

“We can’t make enough money to buy all the stuff we want but don’t need.”

That there is refrigerate-able. An equally apropos observation is:

“Wealthy people, without Christ, have plenty to live on, but nothing to live for.”

Jesus says we have a wonderful Heavenly Father, so we have everything to live for. All we need is available to us from God. Why, then, worry? What are you worried about? What are you afraid of? What are you anxious over? Knowing what Jesus reveals to us about God, then why fear? Just stop it. Jesus says, “Don’t do it.”

Next week, very appropriate for the Sunday before Thanksgiving, we’ll close with Luke 12:32-34. Until then, a question for your consideration:

IF TODAY WERE YOUR LAST DAY ALIVE, HOW WOULD YOU SPEND IT?

Because I came up with the question, and had time to think it over, I have

the best, right, and only answer. I would spend my final day doing exactly

what I’m doing now. Worshiping with the lovely people of Covenant Church. Then later, sharing a wonderful meal with my family. Simply being with them. Doing what’s most important.

Let’s close with a benediction from Charles Spurgeon:

“MAY EACH BELIEVING SOUL AMONG YOU HAVE A DEEP PEACE! MAY ALL YOUR TROUBLOUS THOUGHTS COME TO AN END, AND EVERY ANXIOUS MIND CALMED! PEACE! BLESSED PEACE.”

And together, the beloved of God said:

SOLI DEO GLORIA…

To the Glory of God Alone