The Remedy for Worry, Part 1

Sermon 54 in Series

Luke 12:22-28

[22] 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. [23] For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. [24] Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! [25] And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? [26] If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? [27] 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. [28] 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 he clothe you, O you of little faith!

DEEP SHEET: Sermon Study Questions
1.  How does Jesus’ teaching on anxiety/worry flow out of what precedes? How does the parallel passage in the Sermon on the Mount reinforce this connection?
2.  How does this passage taken in context encourage us to dig beneath our worry to discover its roots? Why is a selfish, money-seeking and pleasure-seeking life a worrisome life?
3.  What is the difference between healthy concern and anxiety/worry? How do we sometimes try to excuse or justify our worry as normal or healthy?
4.  How does it help you to see that Jesus’ teaching on worry comes in the form of an authoritative command? Why is it helpful to see it as sin/disobedience?
5.  How does worry weigh us down and prevent us from seeing the creation all around us? What would it look like for you to stop and contemplate the created order more intentionally?
6.  What is Jesus’ argument regarding the birds and the lilies? How does he reveal that a worry problem is a faith problem?
7.  How do vv. 25-26 highlight the futility of worry? What does it mean to say that it is only subtraction, not addition?

References: Philippians 4:4-20 (corporate reading); Luke 11:39; Matthew 6:19-34; 1 Corinthians 12:25; Proverbs 6:6-11; Luke 12:15; Matthew 4:4; John 4:34; Romans 6:14; 8:13; Colossians 3:5; Job 38:41; Psalm 147:9; 1 Kings 10:4-7; 1 Peter 5:7.