Kingdom Principle: What would you say is your greatest allegiance? If it is not Jesus, then the things of this world have the potential to rule you. Jesus calls us here to put the things of this earth in proper perspective. Jesus is Lord over all of your earthly allegiances. 

1. What is Jesus Commanding Here?

1. We should not be OVERLY-___________________

Luke 12:22–23 (ESV) — 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. 

Jesus is not saying here we shouldn’t work or save. (Prov. 6:6-8, 13:22, 19:14, 20:7; 2Cor. 12:14; 1Tim. 5:8) Jesus is saying here we should not be obsessed with working and saving. Jesus is saying here we shouldn’t put our trust in working or saving. We should put our trust in God. 

μεριμνάω comes from the root μέριμνα (merimna), which is related to μερίζω (merízō), meaning: “to divide, to apportion, or to separate”.

So at its root, merimnáō carries the idea of being mentally divided or pulled in different directions.

Anxiety rejects the goodness and sovereignty of the Lord of all the universe.

1 Corinthians 3:5–9 (ESV) — 5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. 

What Jesus is saying here is do not be overly-concerned with your life, because you are not the only one responsible for how your life unfolds. 

1. Why does Jesus Command this?

1. God ____________________ for us

Luke 12:24 (ESV) — 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! 

To assume that we shouldn’t work because Jesus uses this illustration is to assert that we shouldn’t have bosses because ants are a good illustration of self-initiation and planning for the future. 

Proverbs 6:6–8 (ESV) — 6 Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. 7 Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, 8 she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. 

1. God is in ______________________

Luke 12:25–26 (ESV) — 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? 

Newsflash: You are not in Control!

Psalm 135:1–7 (ESV) — 1 Praise the Lord! Praise the name of the Lord, give praise, O servants of the Lord, 2 who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God! 3 Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing to his name, for it is pleasant! 4 For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel as his own possession. 5 For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. 6 Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. 7 He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses. 

Psalm 139:1–2, 13-16 (ESV) — 1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar… 13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.