Sheep Never Worry
Luke 12:22-34
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. 23 Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 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! 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
27 “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. 28 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! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 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. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
We are a Prozac nation. We are depressed, anxious, worried and stressed out. The four pharmacists in our church could tell you how many drugs are prescribed that are related to stress and worry. We take drugs for depression. We take drugs for anxiety. We take drugs for panic attacks. We take drugs because acid swims in our stomach. We take drugs to help us sleep, to wake us up, to make us less fearful and to alleviate our worries. I am not against drugs because I know many of these things are biochemical in nature, but I also know that many drugs are merely crutches which allow us to hobble through life. Worry literally sucks the life right out of us.
But Jesus’ words are straightforward—do not worry about your life. Is it really that simple? Can I just decide to stop worrying? Some people say that worry is a sin. I wouldn’t outright disagree with that statement, but rather than a direct sin per se, I think that worry is a symptom or warning sign of other sins. When you worry it is like an alarm ringing in your soul telling you that something is wrong. For example, much worry is a direct result of the sin of unbelief. If we don’t believe that God cares for us and has our best in mind, then we will inevitably worry and fret. But the problem is that we ignore the warning signs. The second day of my sister’s visit last week, my brother-in-law asked me if we had any 9 volt batteries in the house because he heard a constant beeping in the basement coming from a smoke alarm with a dead battery. It surprised that he noticed because I no longer did. I did hear the beeping for the first few weeks, then after that I stopped hearing it. It just became background noise to me. It is not safe to ignore a smoke alarm just as it is not safe to ignore your worry. Your worry is an alarm telling you that something is going wrong.
1. Life is more than materialism and hedonism (23)
There are ten reasons not to worry and the first comes in v. 23, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Our prosperous culture just doesn’t get this verse, because if we were to say, don’t worry about what you will wear, someone will think we mean, “don’t worry of you wear a blue shirt or a red shirt. We all have closets full of clothes and even if we don’t like them, we don’t have to worry about having no clothes. But those to whom Jesus was speaking did have that concern. Food and clothing are the basic necessities in life and most first century people did not take these for granted. We worry about how we will afford the high heating bills this winter, but they worried about having food on the table tomorrow.
But no matter our worries, Jesus’ words apply to all of us—Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. This section on worry is inseparable from last week’s message on materialism. Jesus is saying that life is more than materialism and hedonism. When we worry we show that we are more concerned about created things than we are the Creator. Created things—even good ones—push Jesus out of our lives. Your worrying and fretting are a screaming alarm warning you that materialism and hedonism are alive and well in your heart.
2. God cares for lesser creatures—how much more us (24, 28)
The second reason not to worry is based upon the very nature of God. Does God care for us? Is he the kind of God who desires to meet our basic needs, or has he forgotten about us? In verses 24 and 28 Jesus uses the illustration of the ravens and the lilies of the field. Through the created order God has set in motion that ravens will be able to feed themselves and that flowers are beautiful works of art. If God cares for these lower created things, then how much more will he care for you and I who are made in his own image? As Jesus said, we are much more valuable than birds!
Now of you are a deist then you are allowed to worry. A deist believes that God got creation started but he no longer intervenes in the world. God did his creation thing and then left the room. That means we are on our own. It’s every man and woman for themselves. If you are a deist then you should worry about food and clothing, because God certainly isn’t worried about it. So which is it, are you a deist and believe that God can’t help you, or do you just enjoy worrying?
3. Worry is useless because we are powerless (25)
The third reason not to worry is one of the most practical reasons. We should not worry because worry is useless because we are powerless. Jesus said, Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Do we have ultimate power over life and death? Can we add even a single hour to our lifespan? We are powerless over such things so worrying about them is the most useless of endeavors.
Last week I read an article about biomedical researchers who manipulated the genes of single cell organisms and extended their lifespan by a factor of six. They have begun to have success with human cells as well. http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=257995&area=/insight/insight__international/ Assuming this would actually work, that would mean an average lifespan for humans would be 470 years. Do you believe it is possible for a human to live to 470? Be careful how you answer the question because if you say no, then you are undermining the book of Genesis. As Christians we know that people have lived 12 times longer than we do, so it is theoretically possible to extend average lifespans. Does this then give us the right to worry? No, because it is still a false sense of control. Statistically speaking, but not being a smoker, I am adding many years to my life. If I wear a seatbelt I am adding days or months ate least. If I eat right and exercise, I add more years to the average, but this is the mere illusion of control. I don’t actually have the inherent power to guarantee an extra hour to my life. Ultimately worry is useless because we are powerless. Just ask yourself, when is the last time worry accomplished anything?
4. Worry is a sign of unbelief (28)
The fourth reason not to worry is because worry is always a sign of unbelief. In using the illustration of flowers, Jesus said, 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! Did you know that when Jesus said, ‘you of little faith”, he did it by using a single word? The word is oligopistoi. Therefore, every time you worry you should be asking yourself, “Am I oligopistoi? Am I a little faith kind of Christian? New Christians are supposed to be little-faith kind of people, but if you have seen God’s hand of provision in his word and if you have experienced it often in your life, then we should not be a little-faith believer. But we are. Everyone worries therefore everyone has little faith, but the key is to recognize this. Don’t ignore the warning signs of your worry. They are a powerful reminder that we struggle with practical belief. Just because you say you believe in God does not mean you practice that belief. Worry exposes our practical atheism. We are believers on paper but atheists in practice. Just admit it. Tell the Lord something like this. “Lord, I am worrying right now because I doubt your goodness and love. I confess with my lips that you are all-powerful, but my worry reveals that I think you are a weak and uncaring God. Forgive me Lord.”
5. Unbelievers worry and seek worldly things (30)
The fifth reason not to worry is because the unbelievers worry and seek after worldly things. Jesus said, And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things. Did you catch that? Jesus just called you a pagan. Maybe you have been called worse, but this one is true. A pagan is someone who worships other gods. Throughout the history of the world, atheism has been practically non-existent. People almost always believed in some kind of god, but. Pagan gods have very limited power, so people created several gods to rule the world. The sun-god, the moon-god, the food-god, and most everyone’s favorite, the fertility-god. As Jesus said, pagans would run after their gods, offering each of them sacrifices and libations to appease them and get what they want. But the problem with pagan worship is that the worshipper is never quite sure if the god would give them what they wanted or if the god would punish them. I don’t like being a pagan—what about you?
6. Your Father knows you need them (30)
The sixth reason for not worrying comes on the heels of the last. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. This is no pagan god that we worship. He is our heavenly Father and he can only give good gifts. Recall that Jesus trained his disciples to pray for what kind of bread? Daily bread, because even two days of bread showed a lack of faith. It sounds strange to pray this way. “Lord, give us this day a week’s worth of bread, because I am not really sure you will be here the next six days, so could ya just give me a little extra?” This was the whole point of daily manna in the wilderness. The got as much as they needed and it rotted after one day. All we need to know is that our Father knows.
I don’t think I ever told you about my stint in the Navy. Before I completed my undergraduate I investigated doing my internship in Medical Technology through the armed services. I went to the Army and after an hour conversation they told me they did not have a matching program. When I visited a Navy recruiter I was told that I had to go through their day long testing at the recruitment center. That should have been my first clue that something was wrong. Finally at the end of a long day I was allowed to speak with someone about this internship possibility. The recruiter immediately began to put heavy pressure on me to sign-up. When I refused, he brought in three other recruiters. I kid you not. Here I was, a naïve 20 year old with four high-pressure recruiters trying to coerce me into the Navy. The told me that all I had to do was sign up and if I changed my mind, I could just call my local recruiter and he would get me out. Out of sheer desperation, I signed up and was officially sworn into the Navy’s delayed entry program. They used gross lies and extreme coercion, but they had a new recruit.
You can guess what I did the next day. I drove to the local recruiter’s office and told him I changed my mind. Do you think it worked? Hardly. I was given the run around for the next eight months. Finally I was given my sealed orders and I was supposed to ship out the next day. This is the point that my dad really got mad. He drove me up to the recruitment headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio and was bound and determined that I was not going to ship out. Never in my life had I ever seen my dad so determined about anything. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I knew this one thing—I had complete confidence in my dad. He was not going to let the Navy take me away. I went all the way to the Commanding Officer, but I never shipped out. My dad saved me, just like I knew he would. Our heavenly father knows what we need and we should have even more confidence in him than I had in my earthly father.
7. Seek God, get your needs—seek your needs, miss God (31)
The seventh reason to not worry comes at v. 31, But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. Here is another way to say the same thing. If you seek God, you get your needs, but if you seek your needs, you miss God. The Father knows our needs and will give them to us, but he is especially pleased to give us the kingdom.
Why do we get so consumed with the
things of this world? C.S. Lewis called this world the shadowlands.
That’s a great picture, isn’t it? If we could only see the things we are
clamoring for as shadows. If we could only realize that when we worry, we are
worrying about shadows. We are grasping for the shadowlands when the Father
wants to give us the real thing. Our Father is pleased to give us the kingdom,
but we tend to prefer shadows. That’s why Jesus said to sell our possessions and
give them to the poor. We need to continually 
break
our love for the things of this world. Giving is to materialism as kryptonite is
to Superman—it drains it of its power.
Did you know that God is the perfect economist? He has developed the greatest wealth transfer system in the universe. If you give away your wealth in this life, it doesn’t actually go away, but instead it is transferred to the next life. Out time is also an earthly treasure. When we give our time and talent to the Lord by serving others, we transfer that treasure as well. As you well know, I am no prosperity theologian. I would never promise that for every dollar you give it will come back to you double. But Jesus promised that every dollar, every hour and every talent you give away here will return to you as heavenly treasure. The only way to actually lose this treasure is to hold onto it.
8. Sheep never worry. (32)
The last reason to not to worry is because we are sheep, and sheep never worry. Sheep instinctively trust their shepherd to lead them to food, water and safety. True, a real sheep will get scared when the wolf attacks, but they do not spend the rest of their lives fretting and worrying. There is no Prozac for sheep!
As I said earlier, I encourage you to consider times of worry as a warning bell to alert you to deeper issues. Like this diagram, follow your worry to its source and deal with it there. I am not immune from worry. I get tension headaches. I have stomach problems which I think are related to stress. Some stress and worry are unavoidable, but let’s all practice working through our worry instead of dwelling on it.
Be a good sheep. Follow your shepherd, because sheep never worry.
Rich Maurer
December 4, 2005