Don’t Worry, Our Father Has Us Covered :: Matthew 6:24-34

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Jesus said, don’t worry (v 25). Then he followed that up by twice saying, stop worrying (vv 31, 34). 

[Introduction]

Worry is a first commandment sin.

What is the First Commandment? You all know this one well. In Exodus 20[:3]: and Deuteronomy 5[:7], the Lord your God declared that you will have no other gods before [him]. In other words, God says you’ll have no need to worry. And what does this mean? It means, as Luther teaches us in the catechism ... we should fear, love, and trust in God above all things. Why? Because we trust he has us covered. 

When we worry that we are NOT like everyone else and believe like everyone else, we become idolaters just like Aaron and the Israelites, who worshiped and danced around the golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai. ... When men worry about their political and familial stability, they become idolaters like King Solomon, who used that as an excuse to marry 700 women from the kingdoms of the world. That ultimately led him into the worship of Ashtoreth, a god of fertility, and Baal, a lord of filth. ... When women worry they won’t have financial security because of pregnancy and then choose to kill their child through abortion, they become idolaters just like the Canaanites, Ammonites, and Phoenicians, who sacrificed their children to Molech  in worship for the same reason. ... And let’s not forget that when we become idolaters, we’re just like Ahab and Jezebel, the most evil of the evil kings and queens of the Northern Tribes of Israel. Ahab not only allowed his wife to take charge of the religious persecution and moral corruption of the people, he allowed her to do everything she could to eradicate the Divine Service.

But we like to think we aren’t that bad, don't we? 

I mean, we tell ourselves that it’s not like we have statues of Dagon, the Philistine god of grain, on our farms. 

Or do we? 

4. Idolatry is a matter of the heart.

Idolatry is seen in the way we work and worship and pray and worry about the things we pour our heart into. When we realize our heart isn’t in the right place, we know we have an idol. 

Spiritually, idolatry is putting anything in the ultimate position of importance above, before, or in addition to God. Here, we are talking about our feelings. Our traditions. Our unreasonable, blinding obsession with control. Our sentimental words that aren’t found in Scripture. ... Here we are talking about elevating our spouse or child or parent to the place of God by depending on them for our identity. ... We’re even talking about the way we chase career success, and how we handle the accumulation of financial security and material possessions ... you know, mammon.

Today we also find idolatry in the follow your heart theocracy advancing in our culture, and in our refusal to receive the gifts of God, whether it is his grace, his forgiveness, or life itself. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, nothing is more wicked than the sin of idolatry. Idolatry is rooted in pride, false faith, and a desire for self-sufficiency as we tell ourselves: I can do this on my own. I don’t need anything from God. Just being here is good enough.

Which is why Jesus said, No one is able to serve two lords, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You are not able to serve God and mammon. Because of this, I say to you, Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will clothe yourself with. Is not life more than food and the body [more than] clothing? (vv 24-25)

And yet we worry. 

3. But when we have our worship right, there is nothing to worry about. 

Right worship begins in the Divine Service. This is the service God has given us. In this service he teaches us how to express our belief, our trust, our faith that God alone is most important in our lives. We worship God rightly in this service to him. We serve him rightly in obedience to him. We receive his words rightly when we believe what he says and do what tells us to do ... serving our neighbor, especially fellow Christians ... loving our neighbor as much as we love ourselves ... and forgiving one another just as much as God forgives us. Here, all worry is alleviated through Divine means.

Mammon worship on the other hand is quite different. Mammon worship ascribes great value to you and me and what we have and the way we feel. Mammon worship puts us up front. Mammon worship causes us great worry, an unbelieving anxiousness and focus on the things of this world. Mammon worship is found where we find our heart.

So what is mammon? As you should know, mammon isn’t just money ... it is everything we rely on apart from God. When mammon is our god, we serve ourselves and feelings first to protect our mammon. This leads to worry. When mammon is our god, we stress OUR forgiveness first, and we worry whether we have it. And when we amass for ourselves the things in life ... nevermind our neighbor ... we worry we don’t have enough. 

Mammon is the ultimate false god. Biblically, you can find mammon by these names ... Baal and Asherah and Dagon. Culturally today, you can see it in consumerism, nationalism, and humanism ... as well as MAGA, MAHA, and DSA. 

But mammon is not God. Mammon is an imposter. Mammon is spiritual but not religious. And mammon says it is but one of many ways to the good life. 

2. Only God can deliver on that ... and he has. ... He alleviates all our worries.

And you know his name. He is the creator, redeemer, and sanctifier of the heavens and the earth, the day and the night, the sky above and the waters below, the sun and the moon, the corn and beans, the birds and lilies ... and you and me ... and he still takes care of us. He gives us all of his first article gifts ... clothing, shoes, food, drink, house, home, wife, children, land, animals, and all that we have. And he still takes care of us.

Even when we fell into the sin of idolatry over and over and over and over ... he came to us anyway. He came to us as only he would ... conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin. He knows our every need. ... He has lived with us, walked with us, and taught us. ... He has healed us and given us new strength. ... He has opened our eyes and ears. ... He has laughed with us and cried with us ... and then in all of his righteousness, died for us on a cross, giving up his body and shedding his blood for the forgiveness of our sins, the very body and blood he offers to you today through the Lord’s Supper. And because he fulfilled all righteousness, God raised him from the dead. And he has raised you too ... in your baptism ... the very baptism he poured upon you, the very baptism with which he sanctified you, uniting himself with you, so that you will have eternal life and continually hear his absolution of your sins.

1. So why on earth do any of us ever think we have something to worry about?

As Jesus says: Look at the birds of heaven. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Father, the Heavenly One, feeds them. Will he not carry you through [the day] more than they? And which of you by worrying is able to add one measure upon the days of his life? And concerning clothing, why worry? [Let] the lilies of the field teach you how they increase: they neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you: Not even Solomon wrapped himself in all his glory like one of these. But if God in this way clothes the grass of the field that exists today and tomorrow is casting it into the furnace, will he not clothe you that much more, O You of little faith? 

Therefore, stop worrying, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we clothe ourselves with?’ For the pagans seek all these. For your Father, the Heavenly One, knows that you need all of these. But seek first the kingdom and the righteousness that is his, and all these things will be added to you (vv 26-33).

Brothers and sisters in Christ, only a fool ... only an idolatrous fool ... would prefer mammon. The Divine Gifts of the Kingdom of God given to us are too glorious. 

Through his word and sacraments, God, for Christ’s sake, gives us what we need most ... faith. Through faith, he enables us to seek him where he is found, to trust that he is always with us, to believe that through him we will receive his righteousness and peace. 

Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry itself (v 34a). 

AND REMEMBER, YOUR FATHER, THE HEAVENLY ONE, HAS YOU COVERED

He has numbered your days before one of them came to be. He has given us our Savior who has carried every burden you’re tempted to worry about. And when he rose from the dead, he left you with nothing to worry about. He is risen! 

That’s why, in a few moments, he who clothed you in his robes of righteousness will feed you his very bread of heaven that casts aside every anxious, self-sufficient, mammon-worshiping moment of your day. Receive it. Trust it. And when tomorrow’s worry comes knocking ... and it will ... you can tell it what your Father has already told you: Today, I have everything that is sufficient for my needs ... in Jesus’ name. 

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