Deo Gloria
Sermon for August 10, 2025
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Luke 12:22-34
Theme: Do Not Worry!
- Your Father promises to provide what you need.
- Your Father has given you the kingdom.
Do you ever worry? I know I sometimes do. I worry sometimes about my health and if my cancer will ever come back. I worry sometimes about my car and how long it will keep on running before I’ll have to make some major repairs. I worry about our kids sometimes and our grandkids. What can I say? I’m a parent. Do you ever stop worrying about them—about their safety, about their health and prosperity, that they’ll always stay close to their Savior Jesus? So how about you? What do you worry about? Your job? Your health? Your kids and grandkids? The economy? The weather? The crops? The start of another school year?
There are lots of things we can worry about, lots of things that can cause us anxiety and stress and restless nights, but Jesus tells us not to. In fact, he says it three times in these verses, doesn’t he? You see, the fact is worry is not good for us. It’s isn’t healthy either mentally or physically. And it undermines our faith and confidence in God. So how do we combat it? How do we combat worry and push aside those anxious thoughts that creep into our minds. In these verses from Luke ch. 12 Jesus gives us a number of tips, a number of truths to bolster our trust in the loving care of our heavenly Father and an abundance of encouragement not to worry.
Let’s start in v. 22. “Then Jesus said to his disciples: Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes”(vv. 22+23). So there’s reason #1. What’s more important: What’s for breakfast or What you’re doing with your life? What’s more important? The kind of jeans you wear or the fact that you’re 50 pounds overweight and your blood pressure is sky high? Don’t sweat the small stuff. What you’re going to eat and what you’re going to wear are minor things in life. Focus on the important things and let that other stuff go.
Jesus continues, “Consider the ravens. They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!”(v. 24) Last week we heard Jesus talk about a rich man who wanted to build bigger barns so he could have a place to store all his crops. Ravens never store up anything. They are scavengers. They just live day to day. So which one is held up as an example for us? The ravens—not that Jesus wants us to be a bunch of scavengers, but that he doesn’t want us to worry. Ravens don’t worry. They don’t sit around and say, “Hey, Bill, that squirrel the truck ran over sure was tasty. But what are we going to eat tomorrow? What if the trucks don’t run over any squirrels? What are we going to do?” No. If it’s not a squirrel tomorrow, maybe it’ll be a dead fish that washes up on the shore, or maybe some garbage that falls out of the back of a garbage truck. They just don’t worry about it. They know there will always be something for them to eat, because God provides. Aren’t you much more valuable to God than a raven? Of course you are! So isn’t God going to provide for you too? Of course he will. So don’t worry.
“Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?”(vv. 25+26) Did you catch what Jesus said? Adding an hour to your life is a very little thing. I don’t know about you, but I would think adding an hour to my life would be pretty big deal, a lot more important than what I had for supper last night, but Jesus says it isn’t. He says it’s a very little thing. And you and I can’t do it—at least not by worrying. We might shorten our lives by worrying. We might take hours or days or even years off our lives by worrying, and give ourselves a few gray hairs and a few ulcers along the way, but we definitely cannot lengthen our lives by worrying. So if we can’t do such a little thing and add even a single hour to our lives, why do we worry about the rest of these things, which aren’t even half as important?
Reason #4: Look at the flowers.
Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is 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, O you of little faith!(vv. 27+28)
When’s the last time you saw a lily out working in the garden? When’s the last time you saw a lily sitting at a sewing machine, sewing a new blouse or a new dress? You’ve never seen that? I never have either. And yet God dresses them in these beautiful outfits, which bring so much color and so much beauty to our gardens and our flower beds. And even Solomon doesn’t compare—one of the richest men who ever lived, a man who probably wore some of the finest clothes in the world—even he, in his royal robes, doesn’t compare the flowers. And yet what happens to the flowers of the field? Well, back in Jesus’ day, after their petals fell off, they were cut down and used as fuel to cook food. Aren’t you more important than that? Aren’t you more important than a bunch of flowers? Of course you are! So won’t God provide clothes for you as well? Of course he will. So don’t worry!
Jesus continues, “And do not set your heart 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”(vv. 29+30). Now we’re really getting to heart of the matter, aren’t we? “Your Father knows that you need them.” Contrary to what many other religions teach, the God of heaven is not some impersonal, uncaring higher power who couldn’t care less about what is going on in your life. The God of heaven is your Father, the God who gave you life and adopted you into his family as his very own child, the God who loved you so much that he gave up his own Son for you, to suffer and die on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins, so that you might be forgiven, so that you might be in a right relationship with him both now and forever. The God of heaven is your Father.
And he knows. He isn’t oblivious to what’s going on in your life. He isn’t so consumed with his management of the rest of the world and the rest of the universe, that he doesn’t have any time for you. He’s the one who made you. He’s the one who gave you life. So doesn’t he also then know what you need to live? Of course he does! And is he really going to forget about one of his own, one of his dearly loved children? Is he really just going to let you starve? He provided for the Children of Israel for 40 years in the desert. You and I don’t live in a desert. We live in one of wealthiest and most prosperous and most fertile countries in the world. He knows what we need and I think he is more than capable of providing what we need.
And that’s exactly what he promises to do: “But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well”(v. 31). Did you catch the promise? “These things will be given to you as well.” Jesus doesn’t say, “They might be given to you.” He doesn’t say, “There a good chance they might be given to you.” He says, “They will be given to you.” You have God’s word. You have God’s promise. And God does not break his promises. People do. Your friend said he would help you with your landscaping project this weekend, but then Saturday came and he was gone fishing. Your co-worker said he would help you finish up that big project you’ve been working on, but then he bailed and left you to do it by yourself. God isn’t like that. When he says something, he follows through. When he makes a promise, he keeps it. So when it comes to food and clothes and our other daily necessities, we don’t have to worry. God promises to provide them for us. And we can absolutely confident that he will follow through.
There is one other reason Jesus gives us, one other reason you and I don’t need to worry. We find it in the last three verses:
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 yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.(vv. 32-34)
“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom”—no, not that kingdom, not the one located down by Orlando; his kingdom, the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is yours and everything that goes with it. The glory and beauty and majesty of heaven is yours. The peace and joy of heaven is yours. The perfect health, the perfect life, the perfect rest that never ends is yours. The blessed reunion with Christian family members and friends is yours. The awesome privilege of living with God and with all the angels of heaven is yours. The love of God that never ends is yours. The protection of God and his holy angels is yours. The providential care of God is yours. His comfort in times of sadness, his strength in times of difficulty, his wisdom in times of confusion, his forgiveness for every sin and every failure. It’s all yours and can never be taken away. It’s yours as a gift of his mercy and grace, because we certainly didn’t earn it, did we?
The truth is because of the many sins we have committed, because of our endless worrying and lack of trust in our Father’s care, because of our dissatisfaction with the earthly blessings he has given us and our neglect of the more important spiritual blessings he wants to give us, you and I have done more than enough to be kicked out of God’s kingdom for the rest of forever.
But look what God has done! In his grace and mercy he has taken all of sins away through the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. In his grace and mercy he has qualified us to be members of the kingdom of light. Through the waters of Holy Baptism he has adopted into his family and made his own, dearly loved children. And since we are his children, he has given his kingdom to us.
So seek his kingdom. Don’t seek what the world seeks after: food and clothes and cars and phones and video games and Tickle Me Elmo dolls and on and on and on. There are more important things than that. Seek God’s kingdom and his righteousness and his peace and his forgiveness and his strength and his love. Seek it in prayer. Seek it in his Word. Seek it in regular worship. Seek it daily devotions on your own or with your family. Seek it living a godly life day by day, a life that brings glory to God and blessing to others and yourself. Seek his kingdom and don’t worry about the rest. Your heavenly Father knows what you need and he promises to provide. Amen.