Trust the Only Father Who Gives What Is Good :: Matthew 6:24-34

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Jesus said, Do not worry in your life (v 25a).

[Prayer]

Heavenly Father, we thank and praise you for all the good things you give. Grant us the faith to trust in You above all things. Grant us Your peace from above. And grant us joy in Your grace now and in the life to come, through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

[Introduction]

There is a reason we worry and become anxious about what’s about to happen: We don’t trust God. ... We are idolaters. ... There’s a reason why we feel crushed when we don’t get what we want when we want how we want: We don’t trust God. ... We are idolaters. ... There’s a reason we grumble and complain about the gifts that come from above: We don’t trust Our Heavenly Father. ... We are idolaters. There’s a reason we stop coming to church: We don’t think we need God. ... We trust ourselves. ... We are idolaters. When your heart does not take refuge in God alone ... but clings to something, anything, that YOU THINK is better for you than what God alone always gives, then you have an idol. 

1. You have never thought of yourself as an idolator before, have you?

But you love sex more than God. You love money more than God. You love football more than God. You love food and drink more than God. You love your cows, land, and spouse more than God. You love your life, health, and wealth more than God. You love your children, your father, your mother, your family, your church more than God. You love the Word of the Day on the latest he-said-she-said-they-said more than God. You love order, predictability, control, politics, nation, flag more than God. Yes ... deep down ... you love yourselves, your feelings, and your traditions more than God, no matter how many times all of those change! 

Maybe you don’t love all those things all at the same time, but all of that and so much more is an expression of idolatry. When we love something more than God we are idolaters. God said, you will have no other gods before me [or ... in addition to me] (Ex 20:3). He said, You will love Yahweh your God with all your heart (Dt 6:4). He said, no one can be a slave to two lords (v 24a). ... What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things (SC). To fear God above all things means to take seriously he will punish unbelief (idolatry). To love God means we cherish and adore him more than ANYTHING else and gladly devote our lives to him. To trust in God above all else means we rely specifically on God to give and give and give, keeping all his promises to us. 

2. [All sin is rooted in idolatry]

Jesus is teaching us that we can’t even get through this first of the Ten Commandments before we are confronted with the realization that we are idolaters. Every thought, word, and deed, everything we have done and left undone has been corrupted by sin,  idolatry. Each one of us invariably are in a constant quest to find peace and happiness apart from God. And when we feel we don’t have that peace, we blame each other and even God for our discontent. 

Jesus said, No one can be a slave to two lords for he will either hate the one and love the other, or else he will cling to one and look down upon (or despise) the other (v 24). It doesn’t matter how close you feel you are to God. The Israelites saw God every day and night in a pillar of cloud and fire for forty years. They actually got to hear his voice speaking his Word to them. But they didn’t really fear, love, and trust in God above all things. No sooner than God had freed them from their bondage in sin ... no sooner than he led them through the water of baptism ... no sooner than he had fed them with the bread of heaven ... they grumbled and complained that His gifts weren’t good enough ... The freedom he called them into wasn't good enough. No sooner than God had catechized the people at the foot of Mount Sinai (Ex 19-31), the people cried out to Aaron, Arise, let us make for ourselves gods who will go before us (32:1). 

3. Our idols are terrible lords over our lives. 

They demand our thoughts ... our affections ... our time ... our hopes, dreams, and desires. But even when we pray and pray and pray ... thinking that if we simply tack on “in Jesus’ name” to our Amen ... thinking that will give us what we want when we want ... we are left hopeless. Our idols ... most especially the one called me, myself, and I ... are deaf. Our idols never satisfy. They are mammon. You are not able to be a slave to God and mammon. 

You have probably heard this Greek word mammon translated as money. That isn’t wrong. But it really isn’t right. Mammon is every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation. When we possess mammon, we feel ... note the feeling here ... happy and secure. When we lose our mammon, we feel ... note again the feeling here ... insecure and unhappy ... irritable and angry ... abandoned and divided ... anxious and worried. That is sin. 

Worry and anxiety are rooted in greed and covetousness. Worry and anxiety are sin.  This false god is constantly raising the bar in our life. Worry never gives us security ... it never gives us peace ... it never gives us contentment. Sometimes we mask the degrees of this sin by saying we are more concerned about others ... that we don’t care about money or our stuff. But that doesn’t make it less of a sin. When we are not seeking God’s kingdom and his righteousness, we are seeking ourselves. 

4. Therefore, the sin you always need to confess is idolatry. 

So repent every one of you in the name of Jesus ... that is, mourn the sin of self ... and rest with the gifts that your Father gives you ... knowing that God’s kingdom and his righteousness has come in Jesus. He frees you from worry and enables you to turn to freedom in Christ.

YOUR FATHER, THE HEAVENLY ONE, THE ONE JESUS TAUGHT YOU TO PRAY TO, IS ALWAYS GIVING AND GIVING AND GIVING

5. He has always done that and he always will. So now why bow to your mammon?

Though you continue to do what you hate ... just like Paul in Romans 7 ... you have been delivered from idolatry and ushered into the kingdom of God. God gives. Fix your eyes upon Jesus (Hb 12:2). He gives. Set your mind on the things above (Col 3:1). God gives. The kingdom of God has come upon you in baptism. The kingdom of God has drawn near to you through Word and Sacrament. The kingdom of God proclaims the only Gospel, the good news of what God gives. The kingdom of God rules over us by grace, which is the forgiveness of sins, notably today that one called idolatry. 

Unlike mammon, which never does anything for us but requires everything of us, God in Christ has done and continues to give everything for us and requires nothing from us. He who knew no sin took our sin upon himself and ensured it was nailed to the cross. Jesus shed his blood, cleansing us from sin ... because without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins (Hb 9:22). By his suffering and death on a cross for our sins, he paid the enormous debt of our idolatry. And then he gave you his joy through his resurrection. Now that He is Risen! ... He is Risen Indeed! Hallelujah! ... he has given you the promise to make all of us one, just as the Father and Son are one. 

This Gospel is the reason we have the confidence that we are the dear children of our Father ... the One that is in the heavens, the one who taught us to pray the Lord’s prayer. With these words, God tenderly invites us not to worry in your life, about what you will eat, or what you will drink, or even for your body, what you will wear. ... See the birds of the heavens that they don’t sow nor do they harvest, nor gather into barns. And Your Father, the Heavenly One, feeds them. Aren’t you of much more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one measure to his age? And concerning clothing, why worry? Consider the lilies of the field, how they increase. They don’t toil, neither do they spin, yet I tell you not even Solomon in all his glory was wrapped like one of these (vv 25-29). 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God continues to give and give and give all things to us without putting conditions on what he gives. In his Word and Sacraments, he continues to bestow on us individually all the blessings of the salvation he earned for the world. He continues to wash you clean of idolatry. He continues to declare you forgiven of idolatry. He continues to give you his body and blood that proclaims his Gospel. So now we can ask with Paul in Romans 8, If God is for us, who can oppose us? Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him on behalf of us, how will he not also give grace with him? (Rm 8:31-32).

[Conclusion]

The forgiveness of sins is yours in Christ. So share it with each other. It eliminates worry. Stay rooted in God’s Word. It frees you from anxiety. Continue returning to the Divine Service. It strengthens you in the Faith that overcomes worry. Through his Divine Service, God gives you confidence that he will always care for all of our needs in both body and soul here. 

Now you can ... Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, [knowing] all these things will be added to you (v 33) ... in Jesus’ name.

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