to go before our Lord in prayer, asking of our own needs and the needs of the church, but also the needs of the broader community, society itself. And so let us quiet our hearts now as the Lord calls us to Him in prayer. Will you pray with me? Our Heavenly Father, we thank you, O Lord, that we can come as your children, making requests to you. We think of our country here today, O Lord, with the news that happened last night concerning former President Donald Trump and the assassination attempt therein. We lament, O Lord, the current state of our own democracy by that act alone, as it recalls us back to previous eras, eras that were almost a lifetime ago. We lament that state. We pray for President Trump and we pray that he will have a quick recovery from this, that you'd be kind and gracious to him. We praise you, O Lord, and thank you in your kind providence that the bullet that was shot at him did not kill him. and thinking of the fallout that would descend upon our own country if that would have happened. If inches were changed in the trajectory, the results of our country is just almost unthinkable. And so we thank you, O Lord, for your grace. But we also pray, O Lord, for those who are harmed. We think of one who's dead and a few other, O Lord, who are in the hospital. We pray for their families that you'd be kind and gracious to them as one mourns and others suffer. We pray, O Lord, that at this time Perhaps more than any other time, there would be a revival. Revival in the families to call upon you as their Savior, but also, O Lord, in the hearts in this nation. We pray, O Lord, for an end of division. We pray, O Lord, for peace in our land, and we've seen that peace disturbed in the last 24 hours. We pray, O Lord, that you would use the church in this regard as a proclamation of truth that we would be a people of truth, declaring the truth to the ends of the earth, that we, O Lord, would show the nation a way forward of being a gracious, peaceful people, declaring the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. O Lord, use us as Christians in this society to recover the truth of Christ, to remind our neighbors as ourselves of the great glory that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. But we do pray for our country. We pray for the upcoming election and the tumultuous nature therein. But we pray, O Lord, for the saints here, that we, O Lord, even in the midst of this, would recognize a city that is not our own, as we long, O Lord, for the great celestial city, the city of God that beckons us perhaps more today than others. Be gracious to us in this. We also pray, O Lord, for the mission of your church. We think of Reverend Halbert as he serves in Honduras, and as a friend of mine goes there to serve alongside him, we pray that you continue the ministry there, that churches continue to be planted in your name, and that you continue to receive the glory for those churches being planted in the wellspring of people converting to you. We pray, O Lord, that you would bless Aaron's ministry, and that of Josh's as well, as he comes to serve alongside Aaron. And we pray, O Lord, more churches would be planted, that the ministry would expand, and that the people of Honduras would come to a greater understanding of the truth found in the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for a softening of the heart there, that the field would be plentiful and ripe and pretty, and that their proclamation of Christ would be received well. O Lord, we pray that their churches be full and that in that fullness they would go out and plant more churches, that the ministry would multiply greatly there as we pray for it to multiply greatly here in our home. Therefore, O Lord, we pray for the lost in our own community. O Lord, may we be a city on a hill, light on a lampstand. May all, O Lord, see the work of Christ from Providence Presbyterian Church, but also other churches within our community that profess faith, true saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But we pray for the lost. We pray those who do not know you amongst us, but throughout our little slice of society here. We pray that you'd soften their hearts, that they would wake up today perhaps ready to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray, O Lord, that you'd use our witness, our profession, our example to draw others to you yourself. O Lord, give us courage. Give us might. Remind us, O Lord, that we are called to be heralds. sharing the faith regularly, welcoming people in normally, and being kind and steadfast, being a people of grace and truth. We pray also, Lord, for those who are graduating amongst us this morning. We think of Daniel, Hannah, Grace, and Abigail. We pray, O Lord, that as they transition to various stages in life, whether it be continuing education or other adventures, we pray, O Lord, for your countenance to shine upon them. that the stage that they enter is often an unshaky stage, a stage of realizing perhaps new truths, formalizing and solidifying who they are as people. And so we pray, O Lord, that you would keep them, that you would call them regularly to your throne of grace, that they would not forget you, O Lord, in their 20s. but that the profession they have today would continue throughout all their lives. They would grow closer to you and not squander the time that you've given to them even today. Be gracious to them, be kind to them, and call upon them regularly, oh Lord. We pray all of these things in Jesus' holy name, amen. Well, I invite you to turn with me to the Gospel of Luke. The Gospel of Luke will be in chapter 12, chapter 12 this morning. My sermon title, oddly enough, was chosen before last night, as you'd expect, and calls back to the former president's own presidency. It's quite odd how the Lord works sometimes when you think of introducing illustrations. But would you stand as we hear from the Word of God this morning? We are dealing with the idea of money today. I promised the deacons at least once a year. I would have some sermon that touches on the idea of money and our own wealth. And so today is that sermon. The deed is fulfilled. My requirement is here. But we'll be looking at our own approach to being perhaps content in this world and what we do with the excesses that the Lord gives to us. And so this is what we see in Luke chapter 12. Here's the word of God. Someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But he said to him, man, who made me a judge and arbiter over you? And he said to them, take care and be on guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And he told them a parable saying, the land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. And he said, I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. And there I will store all my grains and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, Fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So I will be the one who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God. And he said to his disciples, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, What you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. Consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouse or barn, and yet God feeds them. of how much more value are you than the birds of which you bring by being, of which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his lifespan. If then you are not able to do the small thing, as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will I clothe you? Oh, you of little faith. And do not seek what you will eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried, for all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom. and these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide for yourself with money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our Lord stands forever. You may be seated. Money makes the world go round. I was thinking in 2020, I decided to download an app called Robinhood. This was right after I received money from the federal government. Perhaps you recall, like I, receiving a check in the mail with Trump's name on the top, and many said, these are our Trump bucks. And I thought, as an American, how should I spend my Trump bucks? And so I downloaded Robin Hood. I went to the local Academy Sports. I bought a shotgun, as you'd expect, in the midst of that time. And I decided to invest all my other money into Robin Hood. And I remember seeing this joke of a cryptocurrency in Robin Hood that I just had to buy. And so I saw this Dogecoin. This Dogecoin. You might not even know what it is, but I could buy a Dogecoin for two American cents. And so I bought 10,000 Dogecoins. I bought as much as I humanly could buy. thinking that perhaps I could make something with it. But there was something that happened curiously. I was curious. After I bought those doge coins, I couldn't take my eyes off my screen. I watched in utter joy as it raised from two cents to seven cents, thinking about all the money I'd made, only at night to wake up with notifications. Telling me I'd lost all that money and now I was just as poor as I started. I remember wondering day in and day out for a couple weeks there as I invested into Robin Hood, I could not take my eyes off the screen. Money became all that I thought about. And you might say, Scott, there's not much to think about during the pandemic. We were laid up in our homes. Well, you know what I did with my time? I just stared. I pinned Robin Hood to the corner of my screen and I watched as I wrote sermons that money go up and down. And perhaps if you track the Dogecoin value, you could see the quality of my sermon teeter at the time. I was fixated on wealth. I was fixated on wealth. I was wondering, will I retire tomorrow? Or will I be eating rice and beans the rest of my life? And it seemed to be influx every day that I looked. And now we have a passage before us that calls into question that very behavior. The idea of unadulterated fixation on one's own state in life. What I learned from my past self is my own discontentment. I was discontent with what the Lord had provided me and perhaps you are here today and you're discontent with what the Lord has provided for you. A few passages ago we dealt with a parable of the Good Samaritan where Jesus calls us to learn how we can begin to enjoy God's good favor and that was to love our neighbor as ourselves. Today we get a parable that turns us to the other side of the commandments. How are we to have good favor with God? It is to love God with all of ourselves. You remember in Mark when the Lord says, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength. And that is the focus of our passage today. A selfless love that we are called to have towards our God. A selfless love. And there's no better way to explain the selflessness that we are to have towards our God than using one of the idols that tempts each and every one of you here today. Money and possessions. The material. And so Jesus goes after our selfishness with our own selfish assets. Those who are more concerned at looking at the screen of their own wealth. than having compassion for the poor and the downcast among us. While there are many idols, this is the idol that probably every one of us can have some concept in our own mind. We think of it every day, whether we know it or not. Are we the rich fool in this parable? Are you the rich fool? Maybe you are. We might not be building bigger storehouses. Maybe few of us do. But how often are we thinking about buying bigger homes that we do not need? How often are we contemplating and justifying in our own minds that the TV we have today is insufficient and we need a larger TV? The pixel count has gone up, they say, and therefore the TV proportionally also has to go up because of the viewing distance and angles. You rationalize it all to yourself. So you buy a larger one that you do not need. Perhaps you spend thousands of dollars on phones just in a year to spend more thousands of dollars on phones. Nothing is wrong with each of these ideas in and of themselves, but perhaps they reveal the motives of our own heart, the contentment that we there lack. And so what I want you to see today, I want you to see more than anything, is that since earthly riches are temporary, I want you to invest in the kingdom of God. Earthly riches are temporary. Your money, your possessions, they are a temporary thing. That's what Jesus makes clear here. The thing that you so love, that you so idolize, whatever it is on this earth, is most likely fully temporary. It is not permanent. It will go away. It is here today, but gone tomorrow. And so since it is temporary, I want you to invest in the kingdom of God. But in order to learn this, you must first learn the problem of covetousness. This is what we see in verses 13 and 15, the problem of covetousness. If you are to get away from investing in the temporary and investing into the kingdom of God, you must recognize covetousness and the problem of it. We see it with this man that comes on occasion to Jesus. Jesus is offering a lecture, perhaps even a sermon to a crowd, and in the midst of that sermon, in the midst of that teaching, a man disrupts. He doesn't merely raise his hand and wait to be called on. He stands up and begins barking at Jesus, his requests. And what does he say? Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. This isn't the first request that Jesus has gotten in the gospel. Actually, Jesus is always seeming to fulfill people's requests. Many people have questions, and Jesus responds favorably. You think of all the things that Jesus has done up until this point in the gospel of Luke. He has gone out and He has healed people on request. He has made their lives better. He has raised them from the dead. He has rectified their issues. He's cast out their demons and those who have oppressed them. Jesus has done much good by many requests. He helps blind men see, the lame walk, the dead live. But this request is not received well. Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. This man's request, though it seems reasonable at the time as it deals with inheritance, comes from this heart of covetousness. He covets what is his brother's. He is impatient. He is unsatisfied. with the lot that he has in life, so much so that he wants to expedite his inheritance. Perhaps you're reminded of the prodigal son in this idea. He wants his inheritance and he wants it now, he doesn't want to wait. An inheritance is no small potato. As you've dealt with, perhaps, inheritances in your own lives, an inheritance can really destroy a family. Even families that love each other well, that are tight-knit, an inheritance can jeopardize their future as a family, especially if the parents do not outline them clearly. If you leave it up to your kids, you have done a disastrous thing because you will force them to fight over what is yours. So inheritances are no small potatoes. And in this society, not our society, but the ancient society, an inheritance was everything. You did not make your riches based on the work of your own back. You made your riches off the inheritance that you would receive from your family. And so this man is seeing an upgrade in his life. This is the only chance he has to have a better life is through this inheritance from his father. And he can't wait to have it, so much so that he appeals to Jesus. Help me and help me quickly. Improve my lot in light. I'm reminded of a story. from a family friend, and when he was talking about a house that he had bought off the market that was foreclosed, how did he obtain that house that was foreclosed? Well, it was because the people that owned the house previously died in the house. And one of the daughters in the house at the time decided that she did not want her sister having any of the house. And though she owned the house and that she was supposed to sell the house, she sat on the house. And in that sitting on the house, she was so spiteful in the sale that she decided not to pay her property taxes on the house. This lady decided that instead of making any money, she'd rather make nothing and give it to the state because of family disparity. Inheritance is no small thing. There's no doubt about it. This man has a big request. But will Jesus acquiesce? Will he help the man in the midst of this family dispute? Oddly enough, perhaps to your mind, he does not. He does not. What does Jesus say? But he said to him, man who made me a judge or arbiter over you? It is perhaps a tongue-in-cheek statement. As we know that Jesus is the judge over all. You think of the spiritual realm. Jesus says to him, I am not the judge or arbiter over you. Why would I help you in this matter? It's because Jesus is noting perhaps a difference in his calling here. as he is on earth. He has not come to judge in the civil realm. He is not concerned with petty disputes between brothers on how quick one can get his inheritance. This man wants Jesus not to be a mediator in his family disputes. He wants Jesus to be his representative in family disputes. And we know Jesus has come not to divide, but to unite. And so Jesus has no interest in taking up this man's dispute. He has no interest in being his lawyer. It'd be much better if this man would say, hey, can you help mediate the issue that I'm having in my family? But this man presumes he is in the right. And in that presumption of being in the right, he wants Jesus to prosecute his case for him. And this is where Jesus has the response on why he would not. because he sees the man's heart. It is not merely about restoring a relationship or making it right. It is about his own personal greed. And so Jesus says to him, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. That is the warning. It is the heart of the man. And sometimes perhaps as we are thinking We are thinking of an idea like this, a situation like this. We might have right intentions. We might have the right end idea. But our heart is an important factor. You might be doing the right thing wrongly. And doing the right thing wrongly is coveting in the midst of hoping for something good to happen. Look at the covetous heart here though. What is it mean to be covetous? Well, the Greek used here, that word, means that you want something in excess. It refers to the attitude of always wanting more beyond even what is needed. It is a heart that is never satisfied. And that is the man here. He is covetous because he is not satisfied. J.D. Rockefeller, in the height of his wealth, owned 1% of the entire U.S. economy. I don't want to know how much money that is, but it perhaps makes Bill Gates and Mr. Bezos look like paupers. He owned the United States in some regard, and I remember that famous question that was asked of Rockefeller, how much money does it take to make a man happy? And perhaps you know the quote all too well, he just says, just one more dollar. A man who owns 1% of all the GDP in America, the net value of our entire economy, is unsatisfied. He is covetous. He is struggling with what this passage is saying right here. Offering all of your desires and appetites on the world. He is covetous. Rockefeller was covetous. This man is covetous. Perhaps you are covetous. Perhaps you have an insatiable appetite for more. You're never satisfied. You want more and more for your own satisfaction. You want more wealth and you rationalize. You say, think of all the people I could help. I can help my kids go to college. I can help them pay a down payment on a home that seems unaffordable. Think of all the good I could do. In my family, we would often talk about the lottery in this exact way. I'd hear from family members, oh yeah, go to school. Don't worry about how much it costs. I'm going to win the lottery one day. And then you won't have to worry about all those loans and bills. Golly. Snake oil. not being satisfied in our own life. The 10th commandment in the Shorter Catechism says this, the 10th commandment, do not covet, forbids all discontentment with our own estate and the envying or grieving at the good of our own neighbor and all inordinate motions and affection to anything That is, this is what Jesus senses in this passage, and he likely senses it in our own congregation as well. Our heart can be overwhelmed by discontentment. And you might say, well, Scott, I like the amount of value in my life, and so I don't need anything more. I am a content person, but I want to ask you perhaps a provocative question. Do you have a heart of complaint in any way? Are you a person that complains regularly about something? Perhaps you are. And that complaint, those regular complaints that you have roll over your mind regularly. Sometimes you say out loud. Perhaps you tell the same person your complaint over and over and over again. What does that reveal about your heart? It reveals discontentment. Perhaps it's discontentment for your spouse, for your job, for this house. It's just not configured in the right way to make my family work well. Perhaps it's your family, your car, I remember at RTS constantly, a student constantly complaining about the workload of the school. Whenever I saw him, he was complaining, complaining regularly. He didn't have a job, oddly enough, and didn't have a family, and so he had all his time focused on school, and he would complain about the workload to a bunch of men married with full-time jobs with full families of kids about his workload. He was discontent. What was he discontent with? You might say, well, he was just complaining about the workload. He was discontent with the difficulty of life. He wanted the easy life. He wanted to breeze through seminary with a lighter workload, where he got A's for just showing up to class and doing nothing. That is the type of life he wanted, and so he was discontent with the workload of seminary. You see how easy it is. Covetousness, envy, they are all sown in this idea of discontentment, and therefore we have to guard our hearts. Are you a content person? Do you complain regularly? Those are the questions I wanted you to ask in this first question. Because if you say yes to any of those, if you do an inventory on your own contentment as it relates to complaining, you might realize that you actually value the temporary more than the eternal. That you value the earthly riches rather than the eternal riches. The second thing I want you to see though, yes, there is a problem of covetousness. The second thing I want you to see though is that there is foolishness in greed. There is foolishness in greed. And this gets into the main substance of Jesus' parable. Look down at verse 16. The land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what shall I do? I have nowhere to store my crops. And he said, I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. And there I will store all of my grain and all my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink. and be merry. What does the beginning part of this parable reveal? It reveals a man obsessed with his own state in life. If you look down at that passage, you see five my's and six I's. This parable of Jesus reveals a man who's all concerned about my. My crops, my greeneries, my storehouses, my wheat, my good things, my soul. I will do this. I will do that. He's a greedy man. He has a full barn and he says, well, what will I do with all that I have? Well, this crop is so good, I have enough money to tear down the old and bring in the new. It's about me, me, me, me, me. It was not about God or anyone else, but about himself. The man was totally self-absorbed. That is what greed does to one. It keeps your eye on the screen as you watch your riches go up. and obliterate in a moment's notice. Jesus paints a picture, whether you want to admit it or not. You might say, well, I'm not like that parable rich fool. But Jesus is painting a picture of everyday people. Of everyday people. These are ordinary, normal people in this parable. These are our neighbors. Perhaps we're honest, this is ourselves. If your crop, if you were a farmer, or whatever sphere of life that you find yourself in, if it had bountiful, uncontrollable success, your barns were bulging, what would you do? What would you do? I know what you'd do. I know what I would do. I would tear down and build more. I would expand. It's time to expand the business. It's time to grow. The man asked himself, where can I store all that I have for myself? He already has a sufficient number, and he decides to grow. But Jewish pious advice throughout the Old Testament actually addresses this, and I think this is why Jesus uses this parable. When dealing with an ample bounty, when you come into great inheritance, great wealth, when the Lord provides greatly for you, what is the Jewish wisdom? It's that if your storehouses are full, you must then give away your excess. You have everything that you need. And according to wisdom, a fool, a fool is one who seeks in the midst of everything being satisfied, lusts for more. Knowing that if he lusts for more, as the Proverbs tell us, he will now have to hire more people, build a greater house, build a greater business, instead of being satisfied with what he has. The larger, larger. A few weeks ago, we had a mini-series on the Lord's Prayer, and you'll remember that one petition where we asked the Lord to give us our daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. You'll remember or recall that I appointed you. We don't pray, give us this year our yearly bread. This man is thinking in the years, not the days, of asking God, yes, provide for me every year. And Jesus is warning that we should ask the Lord to provide us our needs every day. Building larger granaries, building larger security, larger nets. The Lord wants us to remember to rely on Him. This is a hard issue. This is not so much a success issue. Don't hear what I'm not saying. You might hear this and say, well, Scott, the Lord has made me successful and you're just poo-pooing on it. I'm not. The Lord does bless us with great wealth and the issue here is the heart. The heart of the matter. How does God respond to the greed? He did not want to build larger storehouses to provide more for others. He wanted to build larger storehouses to provide for himself, for eons. He wanted to set and establish his way. Why? Well, the passage says, so that he can relax, eat, drink, and be merry. He had the hope that I had in 2020 when I invested into Robin Hood. If these doge coins become 70 cents, which they did, but I sold them. I wouldn't be your pastor probably, I'd be somewhere else, doing nothing, relaxing, eating, drinking, being merry. Oh, how I wish that I had diamonds for hands, as my friends say, instead of these paper hands. Agreed. You can see it well up in me even now. The greed, what does God say to that? Verse 20, "'Fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' You just finished building the storehouses. They are now at half capacity. This man is maybe thinking like I was thinking. Maybe the price of grain will go up and I'll sell it and I'll sit pretty for the rest of my life. What does the Lord say? This night, your soul is required of you. You see, no matter what we do, we do not have control over time. In the midst of money making and merry making, the Lord calls this man a fool. Why? Because though he might have control of his temporary assets that are given by the Lord, he has no control over the future itself. He tries to safeguard his future by thinking and over preparing today. even though he has no control over tomorrow. His own death is inevitable. And in this parable, the Lord reveals that his death comes in the moment of the completion of his worth. Today your life is required. It reminds me of another oil magnate. You think of those who just made oodles of money throughout that great boon. Peter Moore tells of an old story of a man who desired that he wanted to be buried behind the steering wheel of his gold-plated Rolls Royce. And so they rented the equipment at his burial to scoop out an inordinately large hole in order to fulfill this man's request. And as the crane was lowering, it's recorded that one man said, man, that's really living to be buried in a Rolls Royce. And now it's really dying. His wealth, no matter how great it is, goes into the grave with him. Not all rich folks do this, not all prosperous farmers like the one in Jesus' parable do this. But it reveals the heart. There are perhaps then two kinds of fools. I want you to warn you on two ends. There are those who worry about bigger barns and those who worry about skimpy pantries. This covers all of us. One man is preoccupied by the abundance that he has. Another one is preoccupied perhaps of the deficiency that he himself fears. In either case, the Lord says, do not be covetous and be weary of any form of covetousness. Whether you be the man in the Rolls Royce being buried in it, or you're the woman, the mother, in the home wondering, in the midst of this inflation, will my pantry be full? The issue of covetousness comes to both, and the antidote for that greed is contentment and joy. Understanding what the Lord has. We'll get to the last point as it outlines it, but understanding what the Lord has for his people. Ecclesiastes 5 builds on this point well when it says, This is Solomon speaking. Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun, all the days that the Lord God has given to him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them and to accept his lot and to rejoice in his toil, this is a gift from God to them. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with the joy that he offers to him." Again, this is not about being overly rich. It's about accepting the lot that the Lord, your God, has given to you in this life. The counterbalance to covetousness and greed is understanding you can't take it to the grave with you. You can't. There's no reason to be greedy because the most that you can procure in this life will end up being not yours in a mere few years. Many Westerners live in a materialistic society. We are consumers of the culture and it bombards us with every message that in order to be successful means that you must have more things, better things. Advertisers goad us, do they not, with the promise of more and more fulfillment. more and more bliss, more and more well-being, that if you just purchase my product, if you just get the new thing, you will be totally satisfied. Such activity breeds within us discontentment though. It's the reason why we buy new phones every other year, though the one that we currently have is fine. Because we are promised greater fulfillment. It's a greed that wells within our hearts and infects all of us. But there is good antidote here. That's the last point. Don't leave with the negative. The last point is that there is freedom in depending upon God. There is freedom in depending upon God. And that's his last large section. We don't have the time to meticulously outline it thoroughly, but look at verse 22 with me when it says, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body and what you put on. For life is more than food and the body is more than clothing. Consider the ravens. They neither sow nor they reap. They have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. How much more are you? Your life, your provision, your health, your material things are not worthy of worrying about. That's what the Lord Jesus says here. There's no reason to be anxious about these things because the Lord will provide and care for you. You might not have your ideal life, the life that you fantasize in your head, but the Lord will provide. He will provide for all your needs. Do not mix up needs and wants as you're tempted to do where you need that new TV. No, you just want it. The Lord will provide your needs and the needs are outlined here. Your life, your provision. You're closed. The Lord will provide those things and therefore do not be anxious over them. The assumption that Jesus has in this passage is that the more you own, the more problems you have, the more anxieties that it will create. Jesus, who owned nothing, might say, if you own nothing, your life would be a little easier and simpler. And perhaps it was. You remember when you go back all those years when you were children, perhaps even now as you are children, life just seems so burdenless. You went to college and you owned nothing. You just owned your dorm room perhaps and what was in it. You didn't even own the furniture. You just had a few things to your name and life seemed so easy. And then you graduate college, get married and have kids. It's a little more complicated. There are a little more anxieties because we begin to accumulate. My family's moved three times, four times, five times, I don't know how many times since my wife and I got married, and every move becomes more difficult. Becomes more difficult, why? Because we have more things, so more problems. And we have more kids, so more problems. It's hard. It's hard to move because we've amassed. There are more anxieties. with the more things that we have. But the Lord reminds us that those temporary things are not worthy of being anxious about. The thing that we couldn't fit in our U-Haul. The thing that we thought was valuable that we can no longer keep. They're just temporary. The Lord is saying be loose with them and let them go because you will not keep them forever. are temporary. Therefore, do not be anxious for them. Instead, rely and depend upon me." The Lord says, my wealth and my value is worth more than all of your wealth and your value. Therefore, depend upon me. Do not be anxious. An anxiety website defines your anxiety in three ways. Perhaps we think that anxiety is not that big of a deal, because it's just something that maybe we have in our mind. I'm a little anxious in my mind, but anxiety has its way of working out throughout our lives. It has three components, perhaps, if I trust this website. The first is that there is a physiological component. This is the physical symptoms. You think of an anxious experience, your muscles tension, you begin to sweat, your heart starts to pound. You might think you're having a heart attack if you have a panic attack. It could be physiological, but it's also a psychological thing. There are emotional symptoms, restlessness, sleeplessness, irritability, failure to concentrate, the feeling of impending fear. But there's also a social component where we seek to cling to others that we, myself, might stabilize ourselves. We need reassurance and we look for it everywhere. Perhaps you've experienced some of these. We can all experience them. I experienced this yesterday, oddly enough. Some of my own ruling elders can give you reports of it. Over-worrying, over-anxiety, over a meeting, a 15-minute meeting. The night before I lost sleep. over a 15 minute meeting. Anxiety overwhelms us and therefore the Lord reminds us that it is worthless. Why worry? Jesus says, In verse 25, and which of you being anxious can add a single hour to your life? If then you are not able to do as small of a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? If anything, the Lord Jesus Christ could probably say, the more anxious you are in life, perhaps the more you lose your life. as you run out of time because you're so overwhelmed. But Jesus says you cannot add an hour to your life with the anxieties that you have in your life. You see the mortality rate remains steadfast. It is a hundred percent. All of you will die. No doubt. Because of that, You should be a little looser with what you have on this earth. You should be perhaps a little looser with eating healthily. Exercising regularly. I'm not saying don't do it at all. But if that is your grounding for existence, you obsess over these temporary things. Well, maybe I can extend my life just a little longer because I eat all these perfect foods. All curated so perfectly. Because I exercise so Dedicated, with so much dedication. Bad news for those who seek to have control over every little detail in their life is that the Lord himself knows and has appointed the day for you to die. And you can't add a minute or take from it. Now I'm not saying after church, you know, start smoking packs of cigarettes every day. Don't be like my grandmother who loved her Winstons. What I am saying is that the meticulous nature of focusing in on those minor things to have control in our lives. It reveals the anxiety of our hearts. And what does Jesus say about that sort of living? That is the life of the pagans. He says that is the life of the world around you. The world around you is living in that sphere of constant dread and anxiety, trying to extend their life by coveting and greeting over the world that they might extend their life just a little longer. Jesus says, may that not be you. May that not be you. Logic and reason can't get rid of our anxieties necessarily, but the Lord calls us to be confident in him. Why? Because his kingdom, as the passage closes, his kingdom is forever. His kingdom will not fail. The riches that he has stored in his eternal storehouses will never end. Though you seek to increase your lot in life, his life is to the maximum. and therefore we are called to depend on him. Do not worry. Worry is a thief. It steals your time. Your thoughts turn into troubles, and rather than praying for them, you become obsessed about worrying about them. It steals our rest. We lie awake late at night, anxious about tomorrow, wondering what it will be, then being too tired to work. And so what does that create? It creates more worry, more anxiety, because we can't fulfill the job that we have. Worry is a thief. It steals from us. It steals our obedience. It tempts us to sin. It tempts us to irritability, to addiction, to laziness. It leads us to overwork. It steals our hope, draws us away from Christ, and depresses us. Kierkegaard says this about this idea of worrying. feel every blow that never falls, and they cry over things that they themselves will never lose. Perhaps you can empathize with that. I know I can. I can empathize that very intimately just within the last 24 hours of my own life. Warriors feel every blow that never falls and they cry over things that they will never lose. Kierkegaard was speaking to me. Perhaps he was also speaking to you. Since earthly riches are temporary, I want you to invest in the kingdom of God. Yes, you could have bigger homes today. Yes, you can have larger TVs. Yes, you can buy more expensive phones with promised new features that will change your life. But all of these things will pass away. And they are a prison for your soul. Instead, depend upon God as the passage concludes. Depend upon God for all your riches. Cast aside your covetousness. Cast aside your greed. Cast aside your anxiety and depend upon God for his riches are eternal. Cling to Christ while he may be found. Let us close in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that you've sent the Son, that we might have life in him, and in that life, you provide for all of our needs. Protect our hearts, O Lord. Protect everyone's heart in this room against covetousness, against greed, against anxiety, and teach us the great discipline of Christ of clinging to the rock while he may be found. We pray for all of this in Jesus' holy name. Amen.