Luke 12:22-34

Sermon Notes

Luke 12:22-34

Tune My Heart

Pastor Jim Thomas

“My central claim in this book is that these two trends — overprotection in the real world and underprotection in the virtual world — are the major reasons why children born after 1995 became the anxious generation.”
Jonathan Haidt , The Anxious Generation

“Heads down. Phones out. Fingers scrolling. This is the humanoid posture of our age. We see it everywhere. Sit in a coffee shop and look around you. All eyes on devices. We see it in ourselves too. From the rising of the sun to its going down, we scroll our way through the day. We scroll our way through life. And we are scrolling ourselves to death.”
Brett McCracken

1. The Prohibition

• Greek: merimnao, used three times (v.22, 25, 26) – to be anxious, fretful, to be overly mindful, obsessing over.
• Greek: meteorizomai, used once (v.29) – worrying, of doubtful mind, imagination run amuck like a ship tossed at sea by wind and waves, buffeted and battered all about, writing narratives about what might/might not happen.
• Greek: phobeo – to be afraid (v.32)

“The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.”
Lily Tomlin

“All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God… The one thing that keeps us from the possibility of worrying is bringing God in as the greatest factor in all our calculations.”
Oswald Chambers

“Worry is not believing God will get it right, and bitterness is believing God got it wrong.”
Tim Keller

2. The Perspective

“Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strengths.”
“I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages.”
C. H. Spurgeon

“Anxiety is only the context for sin, not its cause. Our base problem is unbelief. Failing to trust the infinite God, we live anxiously, restlessly, always trying to secure and extend ourselves with finite goods that can’t take the weight we put on them.”
Cornelius Plantings, Not The Way It’s Supped to Be

“At root, sin is not wrongdoing, it’s wrong adoring. Sin is riveting our hearts on any treasure or security that replaces the treasure and security we can only find in God.”
Tony Reinke

3. The Prescription

Jesus is the human soul’s A-440 and God’s kingdom is our True North.

“The way to be anxious about nothing is to be prayerful about everything.”
D. A. Carson

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
Philippians 4:6

“And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:19

4. The Promise

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

• Fear not – because we are so often afraid.
• Little flock – because we are like sheep, often weak and vulnerable, always needy.
• Your Father – not a distant deity, but a Father who delights in His children.
• Gives you the kingdom – a gift, not wages earned, but grace lavished.

“The branch of the vine does not worry, and toil, and rush here to seek for sunshine, and there to find rain. No; it rests in union and communion with the vine; and at the right time, and in the right way, is the right fruit found on it. Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus.”
James Hudson Taylor

“While it looks like things are out of control, behind the scenes there is a God who hasn’t surrendered His authority… A frightened world needs a fearless church.”
A. W. Tozer

“Here now was a God who does not want our goodness but our trust. All the struggles and all the anxiety could be replaced with massive confidence and simple faith, receiving the gift.”
Michael Reeves, The Unquenchable Flame