Kingdom Mindset: Matthew 6:25-34
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Intro: Today it is estimated that at least 1 in 3 13-18 year olds have anxiety. Today the rate of suicide among teenagers has risen by over 50% compared to 10 years ago. This is a real issue among your generation, but this has been a big issue for a long time, and Jesus knew this. So tonight we’re going to examine how we’ve been so wrong about our approach to anxiety, and what we need to do to truly fix it.
Intro: Today it is estimated that at least 1 in 3 13-18 year olds have anxiety. Today the rate of suicide among teenagers has risen by over 50% compared to 10 years ago. This is a real issue among your generation, but this has been a big issue for a long time, and Jesus knew this. So tonight we’re going to examine how we’ve been so wrong about our approach to anxiety, and what we need to do to truly fix it.
CIT: The source of our anxiety comes from doubting God. In order to beat this anxiety we must have proper priorities and perspective.
CIT: The source of our anxiety comes from doubting God. In order to beat this anxiety we must have proper priorities and perspective.
Anxiety doubts God. (Matt. 6:25-32)
Anxiety doubts God’s provision (Matt. 6:25)
Anxiety doubts God’s care (Matt. 6:26-31)
Anxiety doubts God’s knowledge (Matt. 6:32)
Proper Priorities beats anxiety (Matt. 6:33)
Our priorities inform our perspective (Matt. 6:34)
Anxiety doubts God (Matt. 6:25-32)
Anxiety doubts God (Matt. 6:25-32)
Jesus tells his disciples here to not be anxious about what they will eat or what they will wear, food and clothing. This sounds obvious to us because just about all of us know where our next meal is going to come from and aren’t operating with only one pair of clothes. However, in the 1st century context of this passage, Jesus’ disciples are dealing with just that. They don’t know where their next meal is going to come from, or if they’ll have enough money to buy food, and they don’t have a closet full of clothes that they can wear.
Anxiety doubts God’s provision (Matt. 6:25)
Jesus takes their anxiety though and holds it in front of their face to show them their wrong thinking. He says, “do not be anxious about your life…nor about your body...”
Jesus tells them to not be anxious about their life and body, what they will eat and what they will wear because God has given them life and a body to begin with, and if he has given us a life and a body won’t he then provide the things that sustain our life and body? Therefore, to have any anxiety about what you will eat or what you will wear is to doubt that God can provide for your needs.
Anxiety doubts God’s care (Matt. 6:26-31)
Jesus takes it a step further and teaches his disciples that their anxiety over food and clothing is not only rooted in doubting if God can provide, but it is also rooted in doubting if God even cares about them or their needs.
So, Jesus gives an example from creation to teach his disciples, and us, that God cares deeply about us and our needs.
Jesus points to the birds and shows that they don’t farm because even they trust that God cares for their need of food.
Have you ever seen a pigeon with a rake? Or a crow driving a tractor? No, because even they know that God cares for them with their needs.
Jesus then points to the grass and flowers to show that they don’t worry about clothes because God has provided beautiful clothing for them because he even cares about grass that is here today and gone tomorrow.
Have you ever seen a rose knitting a sweater? Or a lily wearing boots? No, because even the plants know that God cares about them.
Therefore, if God cares about worthless grass and birds how much more does he care about those who bear his image, those whom he knit together in their mother’s womb.
If we are anxious about things as simple as basic needs then this shows that we doubt that God can provide for our simplest needs or that he even cares about them.
Friends, God does care about you, he can provide for you.
Anxiety doubts God’s knowledge (Matt. 6:32)
Jesus pushes into this anxiety one last time by showing his disciples that the Gentiles are the ones who are out their worried about food and clothing.
The word there for seek is a very strong word. It has the feeling of longing after something with every thought. Every thought the Gentiles are worried about if they will have food and clothing.
For us, the Gentile is the unbeliever, the non-Christian. The unbeliever is constantly anxious about their simplest needs and wants and the most frivolous things, every thought is on the things of this world, things that Jesus has just told us moth and rust will destroy. The un-believer is one who can understandably be anxious about what they are wearing. The un-believer is someone who can understandably be anxious about what they are eating. Why? Because they don’t have the assurance that God knows, cares about, and can provide for these needs.
But we, as Christians, are not so. We are not anxious about these things because our heavenly Father knows we need them, cares that we need them, and will provide for these needs.
So, to have anxiety even about our simplest needs is to doubt God’s ability to provide for us, his care for his creation, and his knowledge of what his creation needs.
Proper Priorities Beat Anxiety (Matt. 6:33)
Proper Priorities Beat Anxiety (Matt. 6:33)
Seek first
Jesus uses the same word here for our seeking as he did with the Gentiles, but he takes this strong seeking and makes it even stronger. He says seek first, to have every thought taken captive first by one thing. We are not supposed to be like the Gentiles, or unbelievers, in seeking diligently the things of this world. We are to go above and beyond what they do. We’re called to scratch, claw, fight, and die for one thing, and that is to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.
The Kingdom of God and his righteousness
Follow me here. You cannot be a citizen of the Kingdom of God if you are not righteous, but you cannot be righteous if you are not a citizen of the Kingdom of God.
So, if we are, by God’s grace through faith in Christ, truly citizens of the Kingdom of God we should be concerned with one thing and one things only. And that is righteousness, God’s righteousness in fact. Jesus makes that clear in the previous chapter, he says, “You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” And if we are obsessed with being righteous as our heavenly Father is righteous we will be obsessed with being a good citizen of the Kingdom of God. And if we are obsessed with being a good citizen of the Kingdom of God we will be obsessed with being righteous. And so on and so on.
The tool that Jesus is giving us to beat anxiety is replacement. We replace seeking after things of this world, like the unbelievers do, and we seek first the Kingdom of God. How does that beat our anxiety though? Because when we are truly obsessed with being a proper citizen of the Kingdom of God and are truly obsessed with being righteous as God is righteous then we will not even begin to consider if he is able to provide, if he cares, or if he knows. Because all we care about now is him, and that’s exactly where God wants us to be.
And all these things will be added to you
When we seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness we begin to trust that he can and will provide for our needs.
When we seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness we begin to trust that he does care about and for our needs.
And when we seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness we begin to trust that he is the one who truly knows what we need.
Our Priorities inform our perspective (Matt. 6:34)
Our Priorities inform our perspective (Matt. 6:34)
Verse 33 is what makes verse 34 so powerful. The Kingdom of God and his righteousness is the only way that we can not be anxious for tomorrow and focus on today.
Once Jesus had taught his disciples that they key to beating anxiety is replacing our worldly priorities with Kingdom priorities he now moves to show us the practical outworking of this prioritizing of the Kingdom.
The practical outworking is this, “Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
The outworking of our prioritizing of the Kingdom of God and his righteousness is that we are not to be anxious about tomorrow, we should focus on today.
This teaching that Jesus gives us here in verse 34 is not unique to the Bible. If you do your research you will see that nearly every world religion, cult, or philosophical system will teach this as the way to beat anxiety. But here’s the thing, this way of beating anxiety is like shooting a water pistol at a forest fire. We can say all day that all you have to do is just not think about the future just focus on what is right now. But if that’s all we have there’s nothing to stop us from thinking about the future, there’s nothing to replace that anxiety, we’re not using the right tool.
One time I tried to change the oil in Abbey’s car when we lived in Texas, emphasis on one time and tried. I wanted to be the manly man who could provide for his wife in the moment. So I read every article, watched every video, I even had a Skype call with my friend who worked on vehicles in the Marine’s just to learn how to do this. I get the oil drained and I feel like a champ now I just need to get the oil filter out. Little did I know though that for Abbey’s car I needed a special wrench to get the oil filter off. So what do I have to do? I had to drive to the mechanic in a car with no oil in it just to get an oil change because I didn’t have the right tools. I did more damage to the car than before, I got incredibly angry and embarrassed, and I thought I was gonna freeze my fingers off all because I didn’t have the right tool.
If you want to truly change the issues in your life, if you want to fix your anxiety, you need the right tool. It’s not going to be motivational TikToks. Its not going to be a positive mindset. Its not even going to be your friends or family that can fix this anxiety you have. It is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone!
Conclusion
Conclusion
So what is it tonight that you are anxious about? I’m talking to the generation with an epidemic of anxiety, so what is it? Friend, the only thing that can help your anxiety right now in this moment and in the future is seeking Jesus. He’s the only one that can bring peace to your chaos.