Well, good morning.
My name, as has already been mentioned, is Luke Lillivigen.
I got to talk to Jim Franks this morning, and he asked me, you know, he said,
you've been here before, and I said, yes, I have.
The last time that I was here in this room, I was being examined for ordination in this presbytery.
And I'm glad that I'm feeling much less anxiety today than I was back then.
But certainly our prayers are with Andy and his recovery, with Matthew Capone and his much-deserved time off.
And I am very thankful to all of you for the opportunity to come and to worship the Lord together with you.
We're going to look at a passage today in the Gospel according to Luke.
We're going to read together.
It won't be in your worship guides.
So if you have a Bible, you can open that up, or I've been told it will be up on the screen possibly.
So we're going to look in Luke chapter 12, beginning in the 22nd verse.
And Jesus said to his disciples,
And yet God feeds them.
And 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?
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 the heavens that does not fail,
where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, Lord God, we do thank you for the gift of your word,
the assurances of your love,
and the opportunity that we have to come and to hear them together,
to be reminded by the power of your Spirit
that we indeed are dependent upon you.
And so, Lord, I pray that today, through all of this,
that we would be conformed more and more to the image of your Son.
Amen.
It's in his name that we pray.
Amen.
So what is it that makes you anxious?
Now, in my everyday life, I'm a hospice chaplain.
I work in Pueblo, driving all around the city to people's homes,
all over the place,
to visit with people who have been diagnosed
and given less than six months to live.
And so, when I go to meet with them,
oftentimes, it's just me and the patient,
just the two of us.
And so, I get to ask them really personal questions,
like, what makes you anxious?
What keeps you up at night?
Now, in a place like this,
I would love to walk out with a microphone
and ask you, one by one,
what is it that makes you anxious?
But my wife warns me that this might make you more anxious.
So I'm not going to do it.
But instead, I want to recognize
that many of us feel anxious.
Jesus uses three words pretty interchangeably here.
He talks about anxiety, fear, worry.
All of these are things that we are familiar with
at some point in our lives.
And if you're sitting there thinking to yourself,
I'm not anxious, well, good.
That's awesome.
I'm so glad for you.
Two things I want to check in with you, though,
before you check out of this sermon.
The first one is, why aren't you anxious?
If you sit here and you think, I'm not anxious.
I live in a wonderful house in a safe neighborhood.
I've got a great job, well-behaved children.
Everything's wonderful in my life.
Then Jesus has very serious warnings for you.
Because the phrase, do not be anxious,
is one of those nice platitudes that we can throw out there,
that we can embroider on a throw pillow, right?
Do not be anxious.
It's easy to remember.
Do not be anxious.
It's something you can tell your kids.
Do not be anxious.
It fits in a greeting card.
But it comes in the context of a much larger passage
where Jesus is teaching his disciples.
And it comes immediately following a verse that warns us
and a parable where Jesus warns his disciples
that if you are like a rich man who builds for himself
storehouses full of grain,
that even that will be taken away from you.
Because we have no power to provide for ourselves.
So if you are sitting here this morning and saying,
I'm not anxious because everything in my life is fantastic.
I have everything I need.
Then listen up.
And to see where it is that that should be.
And if truly you sit here this morning
with the true peace of Christ in your heart,
also please don't check out,
because the people around you, they're anxious.
We live in a very, very anxious world.
In fact, the psychologist Jonathan Haidt
has labeled young kids today the anxious generation.
It is the thing that defines so many young people in our culture.
It is something that your family members,
your co-workers are struggling with.
And what could be better than hearing the good news of Jesus Christ
that you can take out to them and apply into their lives?
Because I promise you, if they're anxious,
they are searching in vain for a relief from that anxiety.
If they're not turning to Christ,
then their anxiety is going to persist.
And you have the only thing that can really address their anxiety.
And isn't that good news?
Isn't that worth tuning in to the words of Jesus to his disciples for?
So when we look at these, Jesus starts off,
and he begins right away.
He says, do not be anxious.
I want to put you at ease a little bit.
This is not an 11th commandment.
Jesus is not saying, thou shalt not be anxious.
Sometimes when we worry, we can feel like we're being sinful.
We can feel like we are failing to live up to God's standard.
But that's not what Jesus is saying here.
He's not warning them to not be anxious.
He is encouraging them.
Because he has just told them that you have no power to provide for yourself.
You have no ability to protect your goods,
your food on this planet.
You don't.
That's a hard truth for us sometimes.
To recognize that we are not in control of our lives.
We desperately want to be.
But we are not in control of our lives.
We are not self-sufficient.
This is something that many of my patients wrestle with.
If any of you have ever had to get to that point
where you need to take the car keys away from your dear mother
and say, no, it's not safe for you to be out there,
you know how tightly we cling on to the idea of our independence.
The idea that we should be able to go where we want
and do what we want whenever we want.
We are independent people who don't like to be dependent upon anyone,
even God.
But when Jesus tells us, fear not, little flock,
he's speaking to you and to me.
We are his little flock.
We are the sheep that he loves and cares for,
that he feeds out of his very own hand.
And he is encouraging us to not be anxious
because we live in a very anxious world.
Now, what is it that makes us anxious?
What is it that makes you anxious?
Is it money?
I got to tell you, I have my own monetary fears in this world.
I was very, very blessed this Christmas break
to have my daughter home from college.
It's her freshman year.
And we just sent her off.
She's our oldest, the first one that we sent away.
And there's a lot of concern on my part when she goes.
There's safety concerns.
There's financial concerns.
College is not cheap.
And so I wonder about things like,
where's the money going to come from?
How are we going to pay for these things?
Is she going to take it seriously?
Is she going to study hard?
Or is she going to be like me and goof off?
Fail classes, lose scholarships, all of those things, right?
It's so real to me because I've done that.
And at the same time that we're sending my daughter off to college,
we're getting ready to welcome a new child into our home.
My wife, who's, I'm 44 years old.
I'm not going to tell you how old my wife is.
But we're expecting a new baby.
Our youngest right now is 11.
This was a bit of a shock to us.
As we were financially preparing, I was going back to work full time.
I was getting ready to, and we made all of our plans.
They were set in place.
But God had different plans for us.
And I'll admit that that brought me anxiety to say,
how are we going to do this again?
I have to say, I laughed a little bit because my wife and I,
we got married very young.
And I had children pretty much right away.
And so I normally worship at Grace and Peace just up the road from here.
And we have a lot of young children running around with parents who aren't quite as young.
And I laughed over and over again thinking,
I am so thankful that I was wise and had my children young.
So that as they grow older, I still have the energy to do these things.
And now, of course, God laughs back at me.
And so we can be anxious about important things, right?
We can be anxious about things that matter, like providing for our loved ones,
raising them up in the fear and the admonition of the Lord,
keeping ourselves safe.
We can be concerned about the world that we live in,
the society that we occupy, the government that we elect.
These are all good and important things.
And yet Jesus assures us not to be anxious.
Because we're in a world that's telling us all the time,
over and over again, to be anxious.
Because it's such an effective marketing tool.
We live in a world where everyone is trying to make us afraid of something
so that they can sell us the solution.
Do you not have as much money as your neighbor?
Here's a get-rich-quick scheme.
Are your children not as beautiful as you want them to be?
Here are some braces that you can pay for.
Have you run out of ways to compete with your neighbors?
How about you put them into music, like my kids are, right?
How about you are afraid of the other party and so you have to vote for us?
Or you're afraid of the borders or the economy or whatever it is.
I have a solution that I can sell to you.
But none of those things are going to deal with the real anxiety that we feel.
Because the real anxieties that we have can only be addressed by Jesus Christ himself.
And so Jesus begins with the encouragement.
Do not be anxious.
And he gives us not one, but two parables back to back.
You'll see in them a very nice parallel about the ravens.
We all know what ravens look like, right?
Those big old black birds that you see everywhere, right?
Flying in the skies, eating out in the fields.
They are beautiful.
But they're not like squirrels.
Squirrels, as they prepare for the winter,
they will go around and they'll pick up all the nuts and they'll put them someplace, right?
They'll hide them.
Now, thankfully for oak trees, squirrels often forget where it is that they've hidden them, right?
But the idea of the squirrel is, I'm going to get ready for winter.
I'm going to be ready when there's no more abundance out there.
I'm going to have it sitting here waiting for me.
And what Jesus tells us is, don't look at the squirrel.
Don't consider the ant.
Look at the raven.
The raven who doesn't do any of those things and yet somehow manages to survive.
That raven is an example to us of how we should be.
Or here in beautiful, colorful Colorado in the spring when all of those gorgeous wildflowers come out, right?
That's something that we can all look forward to, driving up the road and seeing all of those colors and how beautiful they are.
And Jesus tells us that not even Solomon was dressed as beautifully as a single columbine.
And he says something really important to us.
And you can tell it's important because, like I said, there's two parallel parables, right?
Two parallel parables.
Hard to say.
And sandwiched right in the middle of those two parables is sort of the point.
So Jesus says,
And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life?
You can't.
This is something that in hospice we are very, very much aware of.
That we can care for you, relieve pain, give you love, help you deal with the leftover anxieties of this life.
But we cannot extend your life.
If there's a doctor who doesn't know that, then they should learn it really, really quickly.
Because as wonderful a blessing as modern medicine is, it cannot extend our life one minute beyond what God has already ordained for us.
And so when we live in that reality, that might make us uncomfortable.
And I think it probably should.
Because as much as we plan and scheme in this world, as much as we prepare ourselves for what is to come,
we don't know what's going to come.
We have no idea.
This is a world where we can sort of make five, ten, twenty-year plans.
But God's going to do what God's going to do.
And that might be a terrifying thought to you,
if you think of God as being distant from you.
Some sort of force who's monkeying with your life,
and you have no say in it.
But that's not who God is.
I think sometimes we, especially as good Calvinists,
can look at people who are worrying,
people who are in pain,
and we can say,
don't worry, God's in control.
And that can come across as being truly hollow
if that person doesn't know who God truly is,
what his character, his nature is.
Because so many people are taught to think of God
as a disapproving father.
Or some sort of distant bureaucrat
who makes all of the laws,
and it's our job to follow them.
But that's not who God is.
Because remember the raven.
It's not that the raven is able to survive out there
without storing up food.
It's that God provides for the raven.
God clothes the flowers.
They are beautiful because he loves them.
How much more does God love you
than he loves a bird or a flower?
The same God who sent his son to die for you
is providing for you.
He is the one who is caring for you.
He is the one who is in control of all of those things
that you can't control.
And that, brothers and sisters, that is good news.
And so when we look at it,
we see that Jesus tells us
that do not seek what you are to eat
and what you are to drink, nor be worried.
Because think about it.
How sad would it be
even if you could provide everything
that you need to eat and to drink?
If you could do those things, but nothing more.
Imagine if that was it.
You just had just enough.
But God looks at us and he tells us through his son.
He says,
but God tells us that the same things
that the nations are seeking after,
he knows that we need them.
We do need food.
In this life, we need food.
God designed us that way.
In this life, we need clothing.
So God gave us clothing.
In this life, we need security.
We need hope.
We need opportunity.
There are things that we need
that God knows that we need.
And he doesn't forget that.
Remember, this is the God who,
if you come to him and you ask for a serpent,
if you ask him for something bad,
he's gonna give you bread.
He's gonna give you something good,
something that you actually need.
This is the God that we worship.
He knows much better than we do
what it is that we need.
So God says,
don't go seeking after those things
that you think you need.
Instead,
seek his kingdom.
Seek his kingdom.
Now, what does that look like?
What does it mean
to seek God's kingdom?
It's that I'm,
I'm a PCA pastor.
I've read a lot of books.
I've studied a lot of scripture.
I have been examined right here
on this floor
to do these things.
And I want to tell you
that the answer is
go home and pray.
Learn some theology
that's seeking God's kingdom.
I want to end the sermon right here.
Go home.
Farewell.
Do not be anxious,
but instead seek God's kingdom.
But it's not immediately obvious,
then,
what should come next?
What do we do with that?
How should we apply this in our lives?
So Jesus tells us.
He looks at us
and he says,
fear not, little flock.
Fear not, little flock,
for it is your father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom.
There are a lot of people in this world
who are building up barns.
There are a lot of people in this world
who are seeking after power
and authority
in order to protect themselves.
There are a lot of people
who are building their homes
into fortresses
to protect their loved ones.
A lot of people
who are building a lot of things.
But it's not God's kingdom
that they're building.
Because we don't build God's kingdom.
God's kingdom is the one
that he gives to us.
And not grudgingly either.
I think sometimes
when we look at the scriptures
we can think of
God of the Old Testament
being the stingy God.
The God who's always looking at us
and waiting for us to mess up.
But the God that Jesus shows us
is a God who loves us
and who provides for us.
And that if we remember
the story of God's people
throughout history
we'll see that too.
If we remember
that once we were slaves in Egypt
we were slaves
in a land of sin and death
but God by his mighty right hand
brought us out.
He rescued us
delivered us
from slavery in Egypt
and we went out into the desert.
And immediately
the first thing we did
was to sing praises to God.
The second thing we did
was to complain.
God's people come out
and they sing
led by Moses
and then Miriam
and then they say
hey
Moses we're in a desert
and there's no water.
And then they look at Moses
and they say
hey Moses we're in a desert
and there's no food.
What are we gonna do?
And so God gave them water.
God gave them food.
He could have sustained them
without food and water.
But that's not how he chose to do it.
He chose to do it
by giving them food and water.
And when he gave them that food
that manna
they were sent out every day
to collect.
And every single morning
they went out
and they picked up the manna
and those who gathered a little bit
they were satisfied.
They had everything that they needed.
And those who gathered much
they had none left over.
There was nothing more
that God was gonna do with that.
You couldn't keep the manna
from one day till the next
because it was filled
it rotted and filled with worms
overnight.
God was telling them
no, no, no.
Each and every day
you will depend on me.
And then
on the seventh day
he told them
sixth day
go out and collect twice as much.
And don't collect on the seventh day.
So some of them go out
on the sixth day
and they collect all of that
they collect twice as much
and then it's left over
on the seventh day
it's still there for them.
God is miraculously providing
for his people.
And some people thought
this is great
God who's providing for me
I'm gonna go out
and get even more.
I'll go out on the seventh day.
And there was none.
God
because that's not
how God works.
It's hard.
We want to plan.
We want to control.
We want to save up
for the future.
But God doesn't
love us in that way.
He loves us in the way
that he knows
is best for us.
He loves us
by each and every day
praying for our daily bread
so that we are dependent
upon him.
Because as much as we want
to be independent
that is rebellion
against his goodness.
As much as we want
to provide for ourselves
we can't.
We can't add a single day
to our lives.
But he has the power
to give us bread
every day.
He has the power
to give us
eternal life.
And so he calls upon us
and he says
fear not little flock
for it is your father's
good pleasure
to give you the kingdom.
Because that's what
he loves to do.
He feeds us
because we need it
and because he loves
to feed us.
And again
I'd love to just
stop right there
because I'm a good
Presbyterian
and I like to focus
on God's sovereignty
and God's goodness
and God's character
and maybe not so much
on my response.
But Jesus doesn't
stop there
so I'm not going to.
He says sell your possessions
and give to the needy.
It's right there
in black and white.
Sell your possessions
and give to the needy.
The God who loves us
the God who provides
for us
he's the one
telling us
to sell our possessions
and give to the needy.
Now does that mean
you need to go home
today and sell your house
and live on the streets?
No.
I don't think that
that's actually
what it's saying.
But take a moment
to be confronted
by scripture.
And say that
the way that we
are supposed to live
in this kingdom
that God gives us
is with radical generosity.
The kind of generosity
that surprises
other people.
The kind of generosity
that when you go to work
your co-workers
will notice
and they will ask you
how can you be
so generous?
Aren't you afraid
there won't be enough?
And you can turn them
and say
I worship a God
who will never
let me go without.
I worship a God
not who has commanded me
to sell my possessions
or to tithe
or whatever
but who has freed me
from worry.
My anxieties
are not like
your anxieties
because I worship
a good God
who loves me
cares for me
and provides for me.
Isn't that good news
that you can take out
into the workplace
this week?
He says
provide yourselves.
I think what he's saying here
is by doing so
by giving to the needy
you are providing yourselves
with money bags
that do not grow old
with a treasure
in the heavens
that does not fail.
And Jesus is intentionally
juxtaposing
his promises
of verse 33
with his warnings
about
those who lay up
for themselves
treasures
on earth
and are not rich
towards God
in verse 21.
He is telling us
that instead of being
like everyone else
who's selling us
anxiety
and its solution
that we should be people
of radical generosity
and that by doing so
we are storing up
for ourselves
treasures in heaven.
And at Grace and Peace
each and every week
when we collect
the tithes and offerings
we use
it's actually the text
out of Matthew
but we use this
as a text
as a liturgy
to remind ourselves
why it is that we give.
To lay up
for ourselves
treasures in heaven
for there your heart
will be also.
And I've always read
this backwards.
One of the most wonderful
things about
preaching
is the opportunity
to really meditate
upon a passage.
Maybe a passage
that you know
really well
and to turn it
inside out
and say
is it true
the things
I've always believed?
And I have to say
that coming to this passage
for the first time
I truly believed
that
if you lay up
for yourselves
treasures in heaven
that that's your response
to where your heart is.
if your heart is
truly transformed
by the gospel
then you will want
to lay up for yourself
treasures in heaven
and not treasures on earth.
But actually
Jesus is saying it
the other way around.
And what he's saying is
if you do this
if you practice
generosity
if you practice
Sabbath rest
if you practice
trust in God
then your heart
will move
from this world
to his world.
From this kingdom
of anxiety
to his kingdom
of provision.
Because the things
that we do
with our bodies
are important.
It's not just
in our mind
hey I'm going to go home
and trust in you.
No, no, no.
I'm going to actually
do something.
I'm going to take money
out of my account.
I'm going to put it
in my hand
and I'm going to give it
to someone else.
It changes us.
It transforms us
by doing that simple action.
And so
I encourage you
this is the other
opportunity I get
when I get to go
and preach
in a congregation
that's not my own.
I get to encourage you
in a couple of ways.
Give to your church.
But also importantly
I haven't asked
but I'm sure
it is true
and Jen will tell me
if it's not.
Your church has
a benevolence fund.
A fund
that is not touched
by your elders
by the way.
It is controlled
by your deacons.
Your deacons
who have called
to serve
the needy among you
to be friends
to the friendless.
Those deacons
have a fund
called the benevolence fund
that you can give money to
and they will distribute it
on your behalf
to the people
who need it the most.
These are men
that you trust
that you know
that you will look
in the eye
next week
after you've given
that money
and you will hear them
occasionally come up
and tell you
the good things
that the benevolence fund
has done
on your behalf.
This is a radical generosity
and it's incredibly ordinary.
But this is the way
of God, isn't it?
That we don't need
manna coming down
from heaven
each and every day.
We know
that the money
in our bank accounts
comes from God.
We know
that it's not
because we are so smart
that we have
that fantastic job
or because we're
so hard working
that we're going
to be able
to keep it.
We know
that's from God.
And so because
we know that
we are free
from anxiety.
To know that
if we ever
lose those things
it's not because
God failed us.
It's not because
he turned his back
on us.
It's because
it wasn't
what was best
for us.
Because our
loving Father
is giving us
his kingdom.
And so in a few moments
we're going to come together
together and we're going
to share the Lord's
Supper.
And this right here
is the very best
example
of what it means
to be
his little flock.
It's a very
tangible
physical way
that we come together
and are fed
by God.
we're going to
prepare ourselves
to feed upon
Christ himself
who gave
himself
for us.
Because
sometimes when we
think about the
powerful God
who can give us
a whole kingdom
we can also
forget the price
that was paid
for that kingdom.
It didn't come
cheaply.
because our
rebellion against
him wasn't
small.
When we stood
in that garden
and we said
the food that
you've given us
is not good
enough food
what we want
is this food
over here.
But all of that
has been reversed.
All of that
has been
transformed
so that you
and I can
come together
at this table
and we can
be fed
by heavenly
food
and we can
reside together
if just for a
brief time
before leaving
here
in his kingdom
that he loves
to give to us.
So let us pray.
Heavenly Father
Lord God
we thank you
for the gift
of your son
for his work
upon the cross
and for his
warnings
but especially
Lord God
we thank you
for the
encouragement
that you've
given us
this morning
through the
gospel according
to Luke.
This encouragement
to not be
anxious
to not worry
as the world
worries
but to live
as your people
as his little
flock.
Lord I pray
that you would
prepare our hearts
to come into
his presence
and to feast
upon his body.
Amen.