Matthew 6:25-34
Kingdom Realities: Living Like God is REAL!

It is good to remember at this point that the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus' statement defining the reality of what God's Kingdom Community on earth was to be like. We can't reduce these words to some sort of therapeutic prescription for "curing worry". Instead, what Matthew reveals here is a radically different set of priorities that when adopted by the believer result in a life that exudes CONFIDENCE IN GOD accompanied by a profound sense of SERENITY.

It's not so much about getting rid of worry, but LIVING LIKE GOD IS REAL. The kingdom reality that Jesus is pointing to in these passages is the fact that the disciple is dependent on God on a moment to moment basis. Likewise the church, the community of disciples, is equally dependent on God

What do you worry about the most in life? Would this worry change if you were more conscious of God in that area of your life? How so?

Many people react negatively to this passage because they think it is a call to behave imprudently or irresponsibly, especially in planning for the future. Far from it. We are not forbidden to plan for tomorrow. What we ARE forbidden to do is live in a state of unending anxiety because we believe (1) we can control tomorrow and (2) God is not in control of tomorrow.

God actively encourages planning for the future in the Bible. Look up Genesis 41:25-41; 46-49. What do these passages tell us about God's view of planning for the future?

Defend or refute the following statements using the Bible to support your claims.
•    Anxiety is a negative quality in the Christian's life because it reveals a lack of faith.
•   Anxiety is a negative quality in the Christian's life because it is a fruitless endeavor.
•   Anxiety is a negative quality in the Christian's life because it robs life of joy.
Can you give personal examples that support or refute these claims?

God desires us to have a moment by moment dependence on him. Worry contradicts this sense of dependence and in reality exhibits the belief that God cannot be trusted with the future. In order to correct this destructive attitude Jesus offered several examples of God's trustworthy nature.

1. Anxiety about Life. Matthew 6:25
Essentially this means that if God cares enough to give us life and a body want he care enough to give us the things that are necessary for life?

2. The futility of trusting in hoarded wealth. Matthew 6:26
The very world of nature testifies that God can be trusted to provide for our needs. Nevertheless, the Bible clearly DOES NOT condemn prudent saving for the future (many animals store up food for the winter & don't forget the story of Joseph we just read!). But the Bible DOES CONDEMN hoarding wealth or amassing possessions because we don't trust God with the future. Look up Exodus 16:13-20. Does this story have any bearing on what we are discussing here?

3. The Absurdity of Worry. Matthew 6:27
This shows the foolishness of much of what causes us to fret. We often fret most over things which we have NO CONTROL! Is worry more likely to lengthen or shorten one's life?

4. Remember How Much God Cares. Matthew 6:28-30
God cares enough to give the flowers that live for just one day unsurpassed beauty. Does God care about us AT LEAST AS MUCH as he does the flowers?

According to the National Bureau of Standards, a dense fog covering seven city blocks to a depth of 100 feet is composed of something less than one glass of water. That is, all the fog covering seven city blocks 100 feet deep could be, if it were gotten all together, held in a single drinking glass; it would not quite fill it.

This can be compared to the things we worry about. If we could see into the future and if we could see our problems in their true light, they wouldn't blind us to the world -- to living itself -- but instead could be relegated to their true size and place. And if all the things most people worry about were reduced to their true size, you could probably stick them all into a water glass, too.

5. Don't Live Like Atheists! Matthew 6:31-32
The pagans epizetousin after such things (run after). The sense is of a frantic attitude about meeting the needs of life.

If we really believe in God, then why do we worry about life in the way that those who do not know God do? God knows and cares for us, but we so often leave God out of the equation.

I recently received a call from a panicked individual who was upset about a situation that truly did seem disastrous. They responded to the problem with fear and panic. I responded with fatalistic resignation. BOTH OF US FORGOT THAT GOD WAS INVOLVED IN THE SITUATION! I found out later (after much worry!) that the situation had "miraculously" turned out all right.

6. A New Direction for Life. Matthew 6:33-34

The disciple is to live with a HOLY OBSESSION. The call to seek after God's "righteousness" is to live a life of total submission to the will of God.

Most of us live with our lives divided into compartments for leisure, work, family, and God. This leads to a life of conflicting priorities, frustration, and unfruitful discipleship. Jesus calls us to let God out of the little box we put him in. We have one great purpose in life, one reason for existence: to love and serve God. This purpose is to be the dominating influence in every area of our lives. It colors our entire existence. Living with and for God is the holy obsession to which Jesus calls us. When we live in harmony with the purpose for which we were created then our needs are met!

When I was at Duke Divinity School I purposed in my first semester that my studying and labor would NOT be for the purpose of merely getting good grades or excelling in an academic sense. Rather, I remember praying in my first Christian History class (Dr. David Steinmetz was the instructor) that I would study for the purpose of bringing glory to God and pleasing him alone. I really meant that prayer and that purpose remained with me until I graduated. I was conscientious and hard-working – but I never lived under the burden of dread-filled anxiety the way many of my classmates did in relation to their academic careers.

In fact, I shared my approach to seminary education with a couple of friends before chapel one day at school and they informed me that my view was simplistic, naive and maybe a little irresponsible. I maintained that I had decided to practice Matthew 6:33.

It worked: I completed my studies at Duke and graduated Magna cum Laude.

"In the end, just as there are only two kinds of piety, the self-centered and the God-centered, so there are only two kinds of ambition: one can be ambitious either for oneself or for God. There is no third alternative" (EBCNT, quoting Stott, p. 172).

Look up and comment on each of the following verses. Isaiah 26:3; 1 Peter 5:7; Philippians 4:4-7
What do they mean? How can we apply them to our lives?

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