Anxiety-Free Living, Part 2 B

God has a priority for us. He will make provision to see that priority fulfilled. Understand that it's pointless to worry.

It won't accomplish anything more than raising your blood pressure. But that doesn't mean you won't be tempted to do it, especially when you're facing difficult circumstances. So how do you master the skill of anxiety-free living? And is a life free from anxiety regardless of circumstances? Is that truly within your reach right now? Bring those questions to today's Grace To You broadcast as John MacArthur reveals a little more of the biblical formula for saying goodbye to your worries.

All of them, once and for all. Here he is now continuing his study titled, Anxiety-Free Living. Let's return in our study to the 12th chapter of Luke, Luke chapter 12. And we are looking at verses 22 through 34 under the title, Anxiety-Free Living. In this passage, our Lord unfolds this whole issue of why we are not to worry and be anxious and be afraid, either in the material or the immaterial, the physical or the spiritual, the earthly or the heavenly realms.

Number one, worry is a failure to understand God's priority...worry is a failure to understand God's priority. Verses 22 and 23, He said to His disciples, For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life as to what you shall eat, nor for your body as to what you shall put on. For life is more than food and the body than clothing.

Now here's the point here. God didn't create you just to survive. God didn't create you just to have you eat and wear clothes so that you could make it. God did not create you to fulfill some physical goal or objective or purpose or design. Your life is far more than eating.

Your life is far more than clothing. God's purpose in giving you life, God's purpose in giving you a body is not material, it's not physical and it's not earthly. It is immaterial, spiritual and heavenly. We were made for His glory. We were made to serve His glory, to serve His purpose, to honor Him, to bring attention to Him, to proclaim the gospel, to live out Christ and the power of the Spirit in the world. And as long as that's the divine priority, that's God's priority or purpose for us, He will sustain us to the end of His purpose. Second, we said, worry is a failure to understand God's provision. That is to say that everything you have comes from God.

It may come through your work and through your savings and through your diligence and through your talents and your training and all of that, but in the end, it really is God's pledge to you that sustains you. And that leads to the third point, worry is a failure to understand God's privilege. Worry is a failure to understand God's privilege. Here's the point, we are not the determiners of the span of our lives. This is divine privilege, so you don't want to be ignorant of God's privilege. It is His privilege to determine where we're born, to whom we're born, when we're born and how long we're here. God has given us life, He will sustain that life until our service is done.

Worry makes no contribution. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Number four, worry is a failure to understand divine preference. Look at verse 27, here's an illustration.

Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, but I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory didn't clothe himself like one of these. And the point is this, if God...verse 28...so arrays the grass in the field which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you, O men of little faith?

Come on, do you understand God's preference? By the way, if you're wondering why it talks about throwing the grass into the fire, there's a very good reason for that. People cooked everything in those days, of course, the staple was bread. But they cooked everything in a clay oven and the way that they regulated the temperature of that clay oven was with dried grass. And so they would go out into the hillsides and they would collect all of the dead, dry grass, bring it together, keep it in a storage place and whenever they wanted to get the fire hotter, they put more in. And if they wanted it hotter yet, they put more in and they could regulate the oven that way. You regulate yours with a little dial, right?

You want 250, 350, 450, whatever. Well they knew pretty well how much dried grass it took to raise the temperature of the fire. And so He's saying, look, this stuff has short life and look how God clothes it. He's made a commitment to the delicate beauty of things that perish sometimes in a day. How much more will He clothe you? This is again the typical Hebrew argument from the lesser to the greater. God prefers you. You don't really think He's going to put that kind of a garment on a flower and not cover you when He wants you to accomplish His purpose and you're His own beloved children. If He made such lavish beauty to clothe plants that die in days and have no spiritual value, how much more will He take care to clothe the crown of His creation, the bride of His beloved Son whom He has elected and redeemed?

No wonder Peter said, casting all your care on Him for He cares for you. And if you still live in fear and doubt and worry, then you fall into the category of the end of verse 28, O men of little faith. Now He's not saying these people didn't have any faith. He called them men of what? Little faith. They're the ones who believe in Him. He's directing this, it says in verse 22, to His disciples, those who are true believers and those who are becoming true believers. And He says, it's possible for you, He says, to worry and fear and be anxious, but understand this, if that is the case, you have a problem with trusting Me. And that's a serious problem because would you agree with this? He's worthy of our trust, right?

You can trust Him. So in verse 29 He says, do not seek what you shall eat, what you shall drink. Don't make that the pursuit of your life, that's what He's saying.

And don't keep worrying. You know, in those days, I mean, they had to make it every single day. They had to find a way to get food every day, every single day.

It was the preoccupation of their whole life. He said, stop...stop. That should not be the pursuit. He doesn't mean in a reasonable sense, don't prepare your meals, don't work to earn your living.

You know, like Paul says, if you don't work, you don't eat. He is saying, do not make that the pursuit of your life. That's not what you live for. Don't live as if there were no caring God. Don't live as if that God had no promises or no power or no knowledge of your situation.

And don't keep worrying. And if you do, you don't understand God's priority, God's provision, God's privilege to determine the end of your life and God's preference, His personal preference for you over anything else He's created. And there's a fifth principle and worry is a failure to understand God's paternity.

Paternity is a wonderful word from Latin, pater, Father, God's fatherhood. Don't you understand that God is your Father? Verse 30 and 31, for all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek, but your Father knows that you need these things. God has a priority for us. He will make provision to see that priority fulfilled. He is the one who has the privilege to determine how long we live. He prefers us because He is our Father.

It all works together, it all hangs together, it's all sequential. Here for the first time in the discourse, Jesus speaks of God as Father, your Father. We know He's talking to those who believe and all the way down to us who believe these apply, these truths, those whose Father is God. And it's in contrast to all these things being eagerly sought by the nations of the world.

For all these things, the nations of the world eagerly seek...eagerly seek is a very strong verb, zeteo means to strive or seek, epizeteo is the word here, it's compounded, they strongly strive for. I mean, hey, this is human life. If you don't have God as your Father, who's your Father? The devil, John 8.44, okay? If the devil is your Father, he makes no promises, provides no benefits. He's not about doing good in your life, he's about doing evil, so you're on your own.

The only good that does come into your life is basically common grace, it is God letting the rain fall on the just and the unjust and it's very temporary, but no unbelieving person can make any claim on God. The unbelieving world has no promises from God, no commitments from God, no pledges from God, no guarantees from God for anything. So according to verse 30, eating, drinking, clothing, all these things, the nations of the world strongly pursue. That describes life among the unregenerate. It's a battle for bread. It's a battle for survival. It's a dog-eat-dog world. The world lives to acquire material things. They're all about survival.

Why? They're dead to God. They're dead to spiritual life.

So being spiritually dead, all there is is the physical world. Not being children of God, having a father, the devil, who provides no good thing ever, they are therefore left to themselves only to sort of reap what little they can from the common grace of God. Being ignorant of God, ignorant of God's provision and being unable to lay any claim on God's promise or God's power, they live to survive. Those people in spiritual darkness without the life of God may create religion and they may create a God that they hope will help them, but the deities that they create are only a reflection of evil men and demons. That's why the gods of the world are wicked, devious, selfish, violent, untrustworthy, indifferent, capricious, evil and merciless. So people are left to the gods that they believe in only in the sense that they...not that they think those gods may benefit them, but that they just hope those gods won't harm them. There are little benefits, you know, that they think those gods deliver, like when they get a good harvest and they thank the moon god, or the mountain god, or whatever, but they're just really reaping common grace that God has built into the world. Their gods don't help them because their gods are demons, impersonating the gods they think they worship.

They're on their own. Unbelievers feel the full weight of survival. But verse 30 says, your father, in contrast, knows that you need these things. He knows that you need them. It's not a question of power, it's not a question of resources, it's not a question of love, it's not a question of compassion, not a question of sympathy, it's not a question of mercy, it's just a question of knowledge. If God knows that you need it, that's the big issue, isn't it? I mean, you could say, well God has the power to give you those things, but that still leaves you with the idea, well I wonder if He knows I need them. We know He has the power and the resources, so the most comforting reality is that He has the knowledge.

Your father, in contrast to all the lifeless gods of the pagans, is your father and he acts as a father acts and a father is a provider and a protector and your father knows what you need. All that you need is available to you from God. What are you worried about? What are you afraid of? What are you anxious about?

But how do you tap into that? How can I be assured that I'm going to get all that my father has for me? Verse 31, here is the key, very important principle, but seek for His Kingdom and these things shall be added to you. You want these things? You want food, drink, clothing? You want to live a full life?

You want to be free from worry, free from anxiety, free from fear? Don't focus on those things. Don't focus on food. Don't focus on the body. Don't focus on drink. Don't focus on health.

Don't focus on those things. Focus on this, the Kingdom of God and you seek His Kingdom and believe me, these things will be added to you. And in Matthew 6 verse 33, Jesus put it this way, but seek ye first His Kingdom, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. Instead of worrying about your bank accounts, instead of worrying about your length of life, instead of worrying about your food and worrying about your clothes, instead of focusing on all that, let the dominant enterprise of your life, unlike the world, the dominant enterprise of the world is food, clothing, money, the future, health, that's all they have.

That's all they have to live for and they're on their own. But the dominant enterprise of my life and your life is the Kingdom of God, the sphere of salvation, the gospel, Christ. The focus of our life is to worship and to serve and to proclaim Christ and to live obediently to the Word of God, to pursue truth and holiness and love, Colossians chapter 3 says it in straightforward language, if then...verse 1...you have been raised up with Christ, and you have, could be read, since you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above. Stop seeking the things here, seek the things above, live your life for the Kingdom and all the others will be added and God may add a lot more than you need in many cases, certainly has in most of our lives.

You can take whatever God gives if you're seeking His Kingdom with all your heart, then be a good steward of it. But He says, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Seek Christ's honor, Christ's exaltation, Christ's glory, seek to proclaim Christ as Lord and Savior and King and ruler, submit to His will, submit to His Word, submit to His authority. Verse 2, He says it this way, set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth, for you have died to this life and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your whole life has to be directed at the Kingdom, at the sphere of salvation, the sphere where God rules as King and Lord.

Everything you do is for His honor and His glory. The first seeking is to seek to enter the Kingdom. In Luke 16, 16, entering the Kingdom is described as seizing the Kingdom.

It says everyone is forcing his way into it. That's the first thing you have to do is you have to come to the Kingdom and understand that it's difficult. It's hard because it requires repentance, self-denial, self-sacrifice, humility, meekness, mourning, hunger, thirst. Start by entering the Kingdom. Start by believing the gospel. Start by self-denial and embracing Jesus Christ and hungering after righteousness and turning from sin.

Start that way. Enter the Kingdom. Once you've come in, seek only those things that exalt Christ and honor Christ. Give your life for salvation, for righteousness, for obedience, for truth, for service, for worship, for witness. Back to that parable, little duet of parables in Matthew 13, sell all to buy the pearl. Sell all to buy the treasure hidden in the field.

It's self-abandonment. Give yourself away to the Kingdom. Live only to honor Christ, only to exalt Christ, to advance His name, advance His gospel. Be devoted to what is eternal, not what is temporal.

And by the way, this is not an isolated principle. I mean, Jesus says here, if you do this, everything else is going to be added and everything else means you're going to live out the full years of your life, you're going to have enough food and drink to survive and be clothed and all that if you just seek the Kingdom. And that's not new to these Jewish people, listening to that. I want to show you, they would know this because they would know the Psalms very well. Psalm 34, for example, and in Psalm 34 there are a number of verses, we'll start in verse 8, Psalm 34 verse 8, O taste and see that the Lord is good. How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. Verse 9, O fear the Lord, you His saints, for to those who fear Him, who worship Him, who honor Him, there is no want. Verse 10, the young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing. That's what the psalmist says from God. Verse 15, the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ears are open to their cry. God knows, God hears. Verse 19, many are the afflictions of the righteous, the Lord delivers Him out of them all. God takes care of His own. Psalm 37 is very similar.

This is great. Evil-doers, what happens to the world? What happens to the nations of the world? Well they wither quickly like grass, verse 2, they fade like the green plant. But on the other hand, what about God's children? Trust in the Lord, do good, dwell in the land, cultivate faithfulness, delight yourself in the Lord and He'll give you the desires of your heart.

You delight in Him and He'll take care of all the rest. Verse 5, commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, just trust Him and He'll deliver, He'll do it. Verse 7, rest in the Lord, wait patiently for Him and He will provide. In fact, verse 9 says, evil-doers will be cut off and those who wait for the Lord will inherit the land. Verse 11 says, the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity. In other words, the psalmist again understands the provision of God if he is honored and trusted he provides.

And then down to verse 25, we'll skip a few of the others. I have been young, says David, and now I'm old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread. God takes care of the righteous.

Seek the Kingdom, seek righteousness and everything else comes from God. Isaiah 33 is another Old Testament text on this. Verse 14 talks about sinners being terrified and trembling and it talks about the consuming fire of God's judgment and the continual burning of His judgment.

And the question is asked, who can survive this? Who can survive God's judgment? Others in Zion are terrified, you know, God's going to come, He's going to bring a judgment. Isaiah was predicting the judgment which ultimately was the Babylonian captivity and they're all wondering who's going to survive. And verse 15, he who walks righteously speaks with sincerity, who rejects unjust gain, shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe, he who stops his ear from hearing about bloodshed shuts his eyes from looking upon evil.

In other words, righteous people. He will dwell on the heights, you'll escape. His refuge will be the impregnable rock, His bread will be given Him, His water will be sure. Now there are many others, but you get the picture.

This is an old principle. Same promise, God takes care of those who belong to Him and are faithful to Him. Seek the Kingdom, His Kingdom and all that that means, the whole of the rule of Christ and let Him take care of everything else.

And you know what? He will not supply in a meager way. You'll inherit the land.

You'll have an abundance. God will give you more than enough in many cases because He knows you can be trusted to be a faithful steward of it because you are rich toward God and you seek treasure in heaven and that's where you'll invest what He gives you. Don't be a part of that association in verse 28, the little faith association. Don't get involved in the sin of doubt, fear, worry. God's priority, God's provision, God's privilege, God's preference, God's paternity as our Father indicates that we do not need to worry. And as long as we passionately pursue the Kingdom, He promises that He will sustain us to the very end of His plan.

And I don't know about you, but I don't want to be here one day beyond that. That's His promise. There's one more point. Worry is a failure to understand divine pleasure...pleasure.

Love this. Verse 32, don't be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen...what's the next word...gladly...gladly in the N.A.S. to give you the Kingdom.

It's not as if God's reluctant. This is His delight. What delights God? The same thing that delights a father, to provide for the children he loves. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur.

Thanks for being with us. John is a pastor, author, and chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. His focus today, helping you experience anxiety-free living. John, a question about this matter of anxiety. Of course, we want to be understanding with people when they're worried about something. But for believers, as we've seen in this study, Scripture actually commands us not to be anxious. So let's say you're trying to help a fellow Christian who seems to worry constantly. At what point should gentle encouragement give way to a much more pointed call to obedience? Yeah, I think that would come on two levels. Number one, that would come at the point where you recognize that these doubts are related to a misunderstanding of salvation.

At that point, you have to stop him and say, wait a minute. You're not understanding salvation correctly, or you're not understanding the eternality of salvation. You're not understanding the character of God. You're not understanding the promises of God. For example, the obvious one, that God will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. So if you're anxious about things, then you're essentially saying God doesn't keep his word, or he can't keep his word.

He's working at it, but it's not working very well. So any constant anxiety for a believer essentially distrusts the promise and the word of God. At that point, you need to be pretty direct with someone. The second thing that I would say would cause you to be equally direct would be to say to someone, the reason that you are so anxious is because you have allowed sin into your life. And there's a pattern of sin. I think that person might not even be eager to recognize that pattern of sin. You know, we have the sins that easily beset us, the familiar sins. And when a person gets into a pattern of tolerating those sins and allowing those sins and repeating those sins, anxiety is an inevitable result of that because you cannot enjoy assurance. The Lord wouldn't provide that for you if you're walking in a sinful pattern. So we want you to know how to live in your Christian life joyfully, in a fulfilled way, and not be anxious. And it comes down to sound doctrine, sound understanding of God and the word of God and the promises of God, and it comes down to godly, holy living. And that's what we've been trying to say through this series on anxiety-free living.

God does care about your condition, your state of mind, your response to circumstances that would tempt you to worry. And so we've been looking at God's love and provision and His promises and trying to show you how you can live a life that's free from anxiety. We want to arm you with encouraging truth that you can share with someone else. You can download the series called Anxiety-Free Living, two MP3s, great for reviewing again.

The transcripts also are available to enrich your study time. And a reminder also about the book we mentioned earlier in the week called Anxious for Nothing. It provides practical biblical help for dealing with your most difficult trials. So get a copy of Anxious for Nothing for yourself, maybe someone else as well, who needs guidance in handling the struggles that they're facing. And it's affordably priced, as always, from Grace to you.

Right. Friend, you certainly don't have to look far to find something to worry about these days. But no matter the news of the day and whatever setbacks you may be facing right now, you really can be content. John's book Anxious for Nothing will show you just that. Order your copy today.

You can reach our customer service team at 800-55-GRACE, or go to our website, GTY.org. When people tell us they battle with fear and worry, we point them to this book, Anxious for Nothing. It unpacks some of God's most powerful promises on why His children never have to be afraid. Our number one more time, 800-55-GRACE, and our website again, GTY.org. Our website is also where to go to download the series John wrapped up today called Anxiety Free Living. Both the audio and transcripts of those messages are free.

That's also true for every message in our archive, 3,500 total messages. And if you're looking to fill your day with verse-by-verse teaching, just take advantage of what we call Grace Stream. That's a continuous loop of John's sermons we run, and it goes from Matthew through the book of Revelation, takes a couple of months to get through all of that, and then the sermons repeat. Jump into the Grace Stream today.

You'll find it at GTY.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, with an important question for you. Can you lose your salvation? John answers that tomorrow in a lesson he calls The Song of Security. Don't miss the next 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You.