Matthew 6:25-34: The Antidote to Our Anxiety

Matthew 6:25-34: The Antidote to Our Anxiety

The passage of Scripture we’ll be looking at this morning is Matthew 6:25-34. It says,

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? ²⁸ And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ³⁴ “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.  

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Let’s pray: Father, we find it written that “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Help us to view your word that way this morning—not merely as an interesting subject for study or as a helpful resource for various situations but as our very life. May we experience it as that, through the ministry of your Spirit. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

One of the most common ailments that people in our society suffer is anxiety. And I could cite plenty of statics to support that statement—such as the number of people who are on anxiety medication or the number of people who seek counseling for anxiety. However, I actually don’t even think I need to cite any of those statistics—because I think the vast majority of us are probably already aware of how widespread this issue is in our society.

And anxiety can be a crippling thing. As a nineteenth century businessman named John Lubbock once said, “A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work.” I also appreciate the point that the nineteenth century preacher Charles Spurgeon made when he said that “Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strengths.”

And one of the most common sources of the anxiety we often experience is our finances. I remember when Becky and I were first married, we went through some very stressful times financially. I think I’ve mentioned before how I used to be a door-to-door salesperson for an internet provider. So, yes, I was that guy who’d knock on people’s doors and try to sell them internet. And the very fact that I would take a job like that shows you just how much Becky and I needed the money. I was trying to get through seminary and pay our apartment rent and our other bills, and money was pretty tight.

Then, we became even more stressed out about money when we thought that Becky had unexpectedly become pregnant at the very beginning of our marriage. Now, it turned out that she actually wasn’t pregnant, but, for a short time, we thought she was. And that was incredibly stressful—because we weren’t financially ready for that yet. We weren’t financially ready for Becky to quit her job and for all the additional expenses associated with a new baby.

So, for me, as the provider of the household who was trying to get through school, it felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders. Wherever I went, that weight was there. When I got up in the morning, that weight was there. When I would go around knocking on people’s doors, that extra weight and pressure were there. And honestly, it almost consumed my attention for a little while.

And that’s precisely the kind of anxiety Jesus is addressing in today’s main passage of Matthew 6:25-34—an anxiety about not having enough and about our basic needs not being met. Thankfully, though, as we’ll see, Jesus explains to us how we can break free from this anxiety.

Now, in the previous verses, Jesus has just instructed us not to lay up treasures on earth but rather to lay up treasures in heaven. He gives those instructions in verses 19-20 and then elaborates on them in verses 21-24. So, that’s been the primary thrust of Jesus’s teaching so far. Stop laying up treasures on earth, and start laying up treasures in heaven. But that might very well lead someone to wonder, “What about my earthly needs? Laying up treasures in heaven sounds like a wonderful idea, but I still have some very legitimate earthly needs that have to be met. So, what should I do about those?” That’s the concern Jesus addresses in verses 25-34.

And the main idea he communicates in these verses is that God wants us to be free from anxiety so we can be focused on his kingdom. Again, God wants us to be free from anxiety so we can be focused on his kingdom.

So, let’s explore what Jesus has to say to us in these verses. He begins in verse 25 by stating, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on….” In other words, don’t be anxious about your basic needs being met. This command not to be anxious is also repeated in verse 31 and in verse 34. Jesus then says in the second half of verse 25, “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” In other words, isn’t there more to life than the material necessities we’re so often tempted to be anxious about?

After that, Jesus explains why all the anxiety that so often plagues our lives and weighs us down is simply unnecessary. He says in verses 26-32, ²⁶ “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? ²⁸ And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.”

So, the argument Jesus is making here is essentially an argument from the lesser to the greater. If God’s already taking such good care of lesser things such as the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, how much more can we count on him to take care of our needs?

And I love how Jesus uses such simple illustrations in these verses of birds and lilies to teach such a profound truth. Just as God takes care of all of the lesser creatures in his creation, he’ll also take care of the highest creatures of all—us, whom he’s made in his own image.

In fact, those of us who are Christians can be assured that God will take care of us not only because we’re humans, who have been created in his image, but also because of our status as God’s own dearly loved children. Notice in these verses that Jesus refers to God twice as our “heavenly Father”—once in verse 26 and again in verse 32. His point is that God isn’t distant or detached from our needs but rather is a Father who love us more than we could ever imagine and is committed to provide for our every need. Just as we’d expect an earthly father to love and provide for his children to the best of his ability, God—as our “heavenly Father”—will do these things perfectly for us. God isn’t a negligent Father but one who’s absolutely committed to take care of his children.

As I was preparing to teach on this passage, I stumbled across a poem by an author named Elizabeth Cheney. Note that this isn’t the current politician Liz Cheney but rather another woman from a long time ago named Elizabeth Cheney. The title of the poem is “The Robin and the Sparrow,” and it goes like this: 

Said the robin to the sparrow,
“I should really like to know,
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so.”
Said the sparrow to the robin,
“Friend I think that it must be,
That they have no Heavenly Father,
Such as cares for you and me.”

The point, of course, is that there’s no need for the anxiety we often carry within us about our earthly needs being met—because we do indeed have a heavenly Father whom we can trust to provide for every need we’ll ever have and to take care of us in every situation we’ll ever face.

You know, growing up, my family never had very much. We always lived below the poverty level, we were never able to afford cable or anything like that, and I can only remember a handful of times when we went out to eat at a sit-down restaurant. Money was very tight. At one point, we actually had to live in a very old and primitive log cabin without indoor plumbing because we didn’t have anywhere else to live.

And looking back as an adult, I see how little we had and how stressful it must have been for my parents. But growing up as a kid, I was barely even aware of our financial situation. Of course, I noticed that we didn’t have many of the things other families had, but the possibility of us not being okay financially never even really occurred to me. I don’t remember having even one anxious thought about our situation because I had absolute confidence that my parents were going to take care of me.

And here in Matthew 6, Jesus reminds us that, even in adulthood, while we do have the responsibility of working and earning a living, we still don’t have to be anxious. Just as my childhood was free from anxiety, our adulthood can be free from anxiety as well—because God’s a good Father who always provides for the needs of his children.

In fact, when you think about it, all the anxiety we often have about our earthly needs actually amounts to doubting God’s fatherly goodness. To whatever degree we’re anxious, that’s the degree to which we’re doubting the character and promises of God. So, our anxiety about material things is actually a symptom of a deeper issue—namely, that something’s wrong with our view of God.

And of course, the ultimate way we know that God loves us and that he’ll provide for our earthly needs is that he’s already provided for our greatest need—the need for eternal salvation. You see, the Bible teaches that all of us, in our natural condition, are in a predicament far worse than any financial hardship we could ever face. Essentially, we’ve sinned against God and therefore deserve to be punished for our sins for all eternity.

However, God loved us so much that he did something unthinkable. He demonstrated a kind of love that’s higher and greater than any love we’ve ever seen before. God the Father sent his only Son, Jesus, to come to this earth as one of us—a real flesh-and-blood human being—and endure the infinite punishment our sins deserved. Jesus did this by dying on the cross. You might say that we owed a debt to God’s justice—a debt we could never repay. Yet Jesus stepped in and paid that debt on our behalf. He suffered God’s wrath on the cross so we wouldn’t have to suffer it in hell.

And because Jesus then rose from the dead three days later, he’s now able to rescue us from our sins and the punishment our sins deserve as we put our trust exclusively in him for that rescue. That means renouncing our confidence in anything else we might be tempted to trust in to make ourselves right with God—such as our own moral accomplishments—and instead putting our confidence in Jesus alone. And when we do that, we can have absolute certainty that Jesus will do what he’s promised and cleanse us of our sins and give us the gift of eternal life.  

Yet here’s the question for those of us who have already embraced this glorious gospel message: if we’re trusting God to provide for this tremendous need of eternal salvation that I’ve just described, why do we so often struggle to trust him to provide for our earthly needs? If we’re trusting God for eternity, why do we struggle to trust him for today?

Paul puts it this way in Romans 8:32. He asks, speaking of God, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” In other words, if God even gave up his own Son for us, how could we possibly think he’d withhold anything else? So, when you think about your earthly needs in light of God’s extraordinary grace and provision in the gospel, all of the anxiety you once had seems kind of silly. How strange it is to think that the God who provided for our eternal salvation won’t also provide for our earthly welfare!

Then, back in our main passage, skipping past verse 33—which we’ll circle back around to in a few moments—Jesus concludes his teaching about anxiety in verse 34. He states, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” As one commentator points out, the reason Jesus says this is because, even when we don’t have anything to worry about in the present, we still seem to be so committed to worrying that we often find something to worry about in the future.

Yet, it really doesn’t do us any good to worry about things in the future—especially given the fact that the things we so often worry about in the future may or may not happen anyway. I’m reminded of the well-known quote by Mark Twain, in which he says, “I've lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” “I've lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” How much of our lives is spent in needless worry about the future?

So, it’s no wonder that Jesus tells us not to do that. He says that we should let tomorrow’s troubles take care of themselves and instead focus our attention on what God’s given us to do today. And of course, we do this ultimately with the confidence that God holds our future in his hands and will take care of us just as surely in the future as he will in the present.

So, let me encourage you to surrender to God whatever in your life is making you anxious. Entrust it all into the hands of your “heavenly Father,” who loves you and cares for you more than you could ever imagine. As I once heard it said, “When we put our problems in God’s hands, he puts his peace in our hearts.” That peace is available for you if you’ll let God bear your burdens instead of you trying to bear them.

Yet, as we look at this passage, we see that Jesus not only tells us not to be anxious but also instructs us to do something else. Returning to verse 33, Jesus says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” The word “but” in this verse indicates a contrast. In contrast to those who are perpetually anxious about their earthly needs being met, Jesus says that we’re supposed to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” In other words, take all of that energy you’d otherwise use to be anxious, and use it instead to pursue the kingdom and righteousness of God.

Now, if you remember back to verse 25, Jesus has already hinted that our focus in life is often directed toward the wrong things. Jesus asked, “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” In other words, isn’t there more to life than the material things we’re so often anxious about? And we see that idea come into full fruition here in verse 33, where Jesus tells us that, instead of allowing ourselves to be consumed with anxiety about earthly things, we need direct our focus to eternal things and “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.”

The “kingdom of God” is a favorite phrase that Jesus often used to speak of the rule and reign of God in this world. That rule and reign currently exists in the hearts of Christians but will one day cover the entire earth in a very outward and visible way. So, seeking the kingdom of God means striving to see rule and reign of God extend to the hearts of more and more people. And the chief way this is accomplished is by sharing the gospel with people and striving to lead them to faith in Jesus. In addition, seeking to advance God’s kingdom also includes our efforts to help other Christians grow closer to God. So, basically, Jesus is telling us to invest our lives in things that really matter—things that have eternal value.

Because the reality is that God’s only given us one life on this earth, and each of us has to decide how we’re going to use the life God’s given us. It reminds me of something a man named C. T. Studd wrote over 100 years ago. He wrote a poem in which the following two lines are repeated at the end of each stanza: “Only one life 'twill soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last.” “Only one life 'twill soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last.”

And if you do a little reading on C. T. Studd, you’ll discover that he didn’t just say those words—he lived them. Studd was a missionary in the 1800’s first to China, then to India, and then finally to Africa. But before he was a missionary, he was actually a very famous cricket player for England. Cricket was a very popular sport in England, and C. T. Studd was very good. And his talent actually won him international fame even beyond England.

But he became convinced that God was calling him to do something other than play cricket—that God wanted him instead to be a cross-cultural missionary. To put it in some of Studd’s own words, “I [knew] that cricket would not last, and honour would not last, and nothing in this world would last, but it was worthwhile living for the world to come.” So, Studd packed his bags and left for China, and then, I like I said, he’d later go to India and Africa as well, where he ended up dying on the mission field—just like so many other missionaries of the 1800’s. So, Studd took his own words seriously. “Only one life 'twill soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last.”

And whenever I think about that, it makes me want to make sure that I use my life in the wisest possible way. I want my life to count for something. One pastor named Tim Kizziar said it well when he stated that “Our greatest fear…should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” You see, it doesn’t matter how “successful” you are if you’re successful in the wrong things. So, for me personally, I want to be successful in the right things—as I hope you desire as well. And that means doing what Jesus tells us to do in verse 33 and “seek[ing] first the kingdom of God.”

And as you’re reading that, take careful note of the word “first.” Jesus tells us not just to “seek the kingdom of God” but to “seek first the kingdom of God.” That means seeking God’s kingdom above everything else—even our own lives and well-being. And that’s one reason why I appreciate the story I just shard of C. T. Studd so much. His story exemplifies so much of what it means to seek first God’s kingdom—which he did by leaving behind the fame to be found in athletic accomplishments and even leaving behind the comforts of an industrialized society in order to spread the gospel in the furthest corners of the world.

So, what kinds of things are you focused on in your life? Are you preoccupied with earthly concerns and constantly obsessing and being anxious about material things, or are you focusing your attention on the kingdom work God’s given you to do?

In addition, we also see in this verse that Jesus wants us to focus not only on the “kingdom of God” but also on “his righteousness,” which refers primarily to us developing righteous character. And I could spend a whole other sermon talking about that.

Then, at the end of verse 33, we see the result of seeking first God’s kingdom and righteousness, which is that “all these things will be added to you.” Now, when you first read the previous verses in this passage about God providing for our needs, it sounds like Jesus is offering that as an unconditional promise—that is, a promise that’s valid regardless of how we live. Just like God takes care of the birds and lilies, he’ll also take care of us.

However, as we see in this final portion of verse 33, the promise of God taking care of us is actually conditional on us seeking first God’s kingdom and righteousness. It’s only as we “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” that “and all these things will be added to [us].” All of the things we’re so often tempted to be anxious about will be added to us if and only if we prioritize the things in our lives that God says are most important. So, is that what you’re doing? Can you honestly say you’re following Jesus’s instructions to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness”?

And as we think about what exactly that might look like in each of our lives, there are plenty of things it might include. As I mentioned a few moments ago, seeking first God’s kingdom can involve anything and everything we do to spread the gospel.  

However, if you consider the larger context of this passage, I believe a huge point of emphasis in all of this is on the way we steward the wealth God’s entrusted to us. Jesus says everything he says in this passage in the context of giving us instructions about managing the money God’s placed in our care.

So, when we think about what it means to seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness, we need to think about it as it relates to our finances. What does it mean to seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness when it comes to our personal finances? Obviously, it would include giving generously for God’s kingdom purposes in this world.

Yet I think we might be able to get even more specific than that in our application. Notice again the word “first” in verse 33. We’re instructed not just to “seek the kingdom of God” but to “seek first the kingdom of God.” And when I read that and think about giving, I can’t help but think of the way God instructed the Israelites to honor him by offering to him what was called their “firstfruits”—or the very first portion of their crops. The Israelites would actually have a festival each year in which they’d offer this first portion of their harvest to God. So, it’s not like they’d calculate how much of their harvest they wanted to keep for themselves in order to be reasonably comfortable and then merely give the leftovers to God. Instead, they were actually commanded to give the very first portion of their harvest to God. You can read more about that in Deuteronomy 26:1-10.

And in a similar way, I believe a clear implication of the word “first” here in Matthew 6:33 is to give God the very first portion of our finances. Instead of just giving God whatever happens to be left over after we’ve already spent what we felt like we needed to spend, we need to first set aside the percentage of our income we believe God would have us set aside—as I’ve said before, I believe 10% is the percentage modeled in the Bible—and then figure out a way to live off of what remains. I believe that’s what it looks like to put God first in our lives and in our finances. 

Just like most of us probably have taxes automatically taken out of our paycheck before the money even hits our bank account, we should strive to be just as disciplined in our kingdom giving. Before we do anything else with our paycheck, we should first give whatever percentage we believe God would have us give on a regular basis and only then consider the rest of the money to be available for whatever material needs we have.

And if we’ll do that, I believe we can claim the promise of verse 33—that “all these things will be added to [us]” as well. And I can tell you from personal experience that that promise is absolutely true. You know, earlier in the message, I told you about the financially stressful season my wife and I went through at the beginning of our marriage, when money was unbelievably tight. And it was briefly even tighter when we thought for a little while that Becky was pregnant, and I didn’t have a job that could come anywhere close to supporting a family. But even apart from us thinking Becky was pregnant, I was still pretty anxious about our financial situation during that season of life and felt, in many ways, like the weight of the world was on my shoulders.

Yet, by God’s grace, even during that season when finances were incredibly tight, Becky and I continued to give generously to the church we were a part of. I know we gave at least 10% during that season, maybe even 15. So, we were trying in that way to “seek first the kingdom of God.” And guess what? God took care of us.

And it was so cool the way he did it. That company I was working for selling internet ended up going out of business. It just went bankrupt. Apparently, I didn’t sign up enough customers to keep the company afloat. But right before the company went bankrupt—like, literally, just a few weeks before—God opened the door for me to another job—a job where I was actually using my college degree and that paid a pretty decent salary actually and that I really enjoyed doing. And I wasn’t even actively seeking that job; it just sort of fell into my lap through a friend of a friend. But I know me getting that job at exactly the right time was no coincidence. Instead, I know it was God keeping his promise here in Matthew 6: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”