Having a Kingdom mindset cures having a worried mindset.  Do not worry about tomorrow. 

 1) What do we treasure? (v19-24) - Jesus is diagnosing the issue of our worry with three metaphors: treasure, light, and slavery:

1. Our treasure - what we prize most dearly - is in the wrong place
2. We are allowing darkness into our life instead of light
3. We are serving a master of the wrong kind

It is important to note here that there is a difference between worry or a feeling of anxiousness and struggling with mental health and anxiety.  Worry and anxiety can often be thought of together like happiness and joy.  Jesus ultimately has the victory over anxiety. Worried people don’t think negatively about life, they think untheologically about life.  We get worried not because we have a low self-image of ourselves, but instead because in all of our thoughts, there is no room for God.

The second metaphor Jesus uses what are we filling our minds with: light or darkness?  Being filled with light equates to being generous. The most generous people I have known, are not worried about giving their possessions/finances away because they don’t treasure their possessions or finances. They are filling their eyes (what they gaze at) with light.  We move toward what we gaze at.

The third factor Jesus points at is serving a master of the wrong kind.  It’s not impossible to serve two masters, we do it all the time.  But we were made to be worshipping creatures; when we stop worshipping God, we don’t stop worshipping, we just choose to worship something else. These terms “devoted to one” and “despise the other” translate as “choose one or the other.” God is Lord whether we think so or not.  Jesus isn’t prohibiting things, He is prohibiting the love of things.

2) Why do we worry? (v25-32) Don’t worry, the cure is not “do not worry.”  Jesus is not saying that the cure is do not worry. He is saying that feelings of anxiousness begin with worry. And He will tell us how to avoid worrying about things that may seem trite.  There are circumstances where worry is not only good, but the absence of it is biblically irresponsible. There are also circumstances where is not only evil, but its very presence in our lives signifies unbelief and disobedience.

From this text, the non-worrier could be tempted to become more arrogant thinking they had it right the whole time. The worrier could feel rebuked and ashamed for their constant worrying. Imagine how the friend and the family of the friend would take this verse?   Jesus is telling us to think through our situation and transform our thinking by the renewing of our mind (Romans 12:2). 

How can we transform our thinking about things we worry about?  He is using examples to prove that we were purchased by God with Jesus’ life.  Surely He will provide for our every need!  He wants us to look at our lives and our material resources and understand that we are stewards of it. Our homes, our finances, our business, our families. We don’t possess them. They are gifts. How much more loosely would we hold onto things if we understood from the onset that they belonged to God? God sets the boundaries of our lives.  It’s only when we take our lives out of the Father’s hands and try to put them under our own control that worry becomes sinful.

3) Seek the Kingdom first. (v33-34).  I love this definition of seek: an unceasing quest.  When we unceasingly quest for the Kingdom of God, above all else, He will give us everything we need.  This is a promise for God’s children exclusively, not all men indiscriminately.  When Jesus says, “will be given” it is important to note He doesn’t specify when God will provide.

Worry that reaches the point of sin stems from the suspicion that God will not provide.  Jesus is using a Jewish type of reasoning here called a Fortiori Argument which means “If something less likely is true, then something more likely will probably be true as well?”  If He cares for the birds and wild flowers, then surely He cares for us and will provide for every need. 

 Ready for a gut check?  Quote:  “Worry is practical atheism and an affront to God.” - Robert Mounce.  More mildly put, lack of uncompromising trust in God is an affront to God.  What if the single most defining attribute of a believer in Jesus was that we didn’t worry flippantly? We instead lived with HOPE and lived in light of the Kingdom? Here is the cure Church. Seek the Kingdom first. We will discover two things when our hearts are set on His Kingdom and living righteously: all we need, He will provide and many of the things we thought we needed, we discover that not only did we not need but we now don’t even want.

So don’t worry. Don’t allow yourself to feel anxious.  The goal of the Christian life is this: Always first, the Kingdom of God.  Having a Kingdom mindset cures having a worried mindset. When our priorities regarding Heaven and Earth are Kingdom focused, God will provide our fundamental human needs.

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