Bold Faith in a Loving God

Luke 12:1-34 - Riley Boggs

Our faith, the Christian faith, is very counter cultural, especially in the culture we live in right now. Almost everything that the culture we live in promotes, our faith denies. And almost everything that our culture denies, our faith promotes. Think about it. Our culture promotes consumerism, materialism, individualism, and says that you should seek to live your best life now. Our faith calls us to live sacrificially, alongside others, remembering that the life we live now pales in comparison with what it is to come.

This is because the worldview of a believer and an unbeliever are radically different. The way that we view the world is just not the same in almost anyway. And this is why it can be difficult to find common ground with unbelievers at times. It’s like you are both living in the same world at the same time, and yet each of you are living 2 totally different realties. I mean have you ever been in a conversation with someone who isn’t a believer and the things that they live for seem altogether different than what you live for? The things they prioritize are not even on your radar, and vice versa?

I remember one time specifically when I was working at Starbucks and I was talking to a coworker about her life, and this became evident to me. The more I talked to her, the more I realized that her entire life revolved around working at Starbucks. She found her worth, her joy, her community, her identity, and everything else, in her work. It’s what she lived for. And because this, the more we talked, the more I realized that she hated her life. She wouldn’t have said that, but you could tell that she didn’t even want to talk about her life, because in talking about it, it seemed silly and pointless. She didn’t like the thought that she only existed to work at Starbucks all the days of her life and that be it. Deep down she desired more from this life, and yet her worldview had no place for that. That girl is not alone in this. This is true of all unbelievers. When their worldview is pushed to its logical conclusion, things become incredibly bleak.

Now this is a good thing for us to think on and consider, because we need to always be living in light of our Christian worldview. Though it can be very tempting to live in the same way that our culture lives, we can’t. The things that they believe about this world and who we are and what our purpose is categorical different than what we believe, and so our lives should look categorically different. Our priorities, desires, fears, and so on should all reflect the Christian worldview that we hold to, not the worldview of our unbelieving neighbors.

The reason that I say all of this is because our text this morning deals with these kinds of things. Jesus is laying out truths that His followers are to hold to that should radically affect how they live and feel about themselves and the world they live in. And so for us, I think that is the call. As we look at what Jesus is teaching us, we need to take it to heart. He addresses things like fear and jealousy and anxiety. All 3 of these things permeate and plague our society. Everyone is afraid of something or someone. Everyone is jealous and sinfully covet what they don’t have. And everyone, and I do mean everyone, is so incredibly anxious. The truths that Jesus has for us here are supposed to combat these things. They are supposed to cause us and help us to live differently than our culture, specifically in these 3 areas. And so we are going to work through each of them, one-by-one, asking that the Lord would grow us in this way.

Now last week, we looked at Jesus rebuking the pharisees and the lawyers for being hypocrites and enforcing a law that God Himself had not enforced. They put on a holy act, but had very evil and greedy hearts, and Jesus tells them exactly that. In our text this week, Luke continues on in a similar vein. You can see that, starting in verse 1, where Luke says, “In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.2 Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 3 Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.”

Part of what I think Jesus is continuing to make the same point that He was previously. That is, that His disciples should be different than the Pharisees, and they shouldn’t tolerate any hint of Pharisee-like behavior. He says if you tolerate even a little, it will be like leaven. That is, it will affect everything, all of you. It may start small, only a small bit of leaven, but it’s affects will be all-encompassing. He is calling them to not be hypocritical, but to remember that God sees and knows all, and that only outward holiness does not hide the evil heart that can lie within.

That’s part of what I think He is doing here, but I also think He is trying to make a larger point. A point that He continues on with all the way through verse 12. Picking up where we left off, in verse 4, He says,  “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do.5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.  Yes, I tell you, fear him! 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.7 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

The larger point I think He is making is this…

1.) Fear God more than man, so that you can boldly live out your faith (vv.1-12)

The message that Jesus is giving here is not to the Pharisees, it’s to His disciples. And that’s important to remember because it changes the way we understand what Jesus is saying here. See what is likely happening is that Jesus’ disciples had become intimidated by the Pharisee’s. They were trained and respected and from the outside looked like they were at the top of their religious game. And for a rag-tag bunch of disciples, they had become a bit timid in their proclamation of what is true and their pursuit of Jesus. And if they hadn’t, Jesus knows that that will. Put simply, they were scared and will be scared. They were scared of what would happen to them if they came against the Pharisees. Jesus knows this and it’s why He tells them to not only deny the ways of the Pharisee’s, but to not fear them either.

He continues on in verse 8 saying the same thing, but making it more clear. He says, “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, 9 but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 11 And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

What Jesus is saying is this. As followers of Christ, we must fear God more than man, so that we can boldly live out our faith. Jesus does not say that the Pharisee’s can’t hurt them, they can. He doesn’t say that they can’t kill them, they can. He isn’t saying that they are safe and secure from that on this side of heaven, and so that is why they shouldn’t fear them. No, what He says that there is something far worse than that. What Jesus is referring to is hell. Eternal separation from God, and all good things, where only suffering exists. That is a far worse reality than the Earthly pain, even death, that we experience. And the difference between the 2 is that the Pharisee’s can inflict what we experience here and now, but they have absolutely no say in what happens to us in eternity. That is left only up to God.

And God does not determine this arbitrary, so that we just have to hope that we are on the good list. No, in fact that is what Jesus is laying out in verses 8-10. What makes all the difference, what determines your eternal state, is whether or not you acknowledge Christ as Lord and submit your life to Him. If you accept Him as your Lord and Savior and follow Him, if you fear God, then your eternity is sure and secure. An eternity that is worth longing for, because it is far better than we could ever imagine.

But the one who denies Jesus, who blasphemes against the Spirit, that is they deny the Spirit’ testimony that Jesus is the Christ, they will experience this terrible eternity. Not because God is evil, but because they have rejected Jesus, rejected forgiveness, and remain in their sin. What Jesus is doing is calling His disciples to consider this reality and for them to live like it’s true, and by extension, Jesus is calling us to do the same.

If you want to boldly live out your faith, you have to remember this. If you want to share the Gospel with those who hate you or think you’re weird, you are going to have to fear God above man. You cannot live like man is the authority. You cannot live like man determines your eternity. Man has absolutely no say, only God. And God has said that if your faith is in the Risen Savior, you are His, and you are valuable. And He has promised to give you the words to say, by the Spirit in you, when you stand to proclaim Jesus.

I think this is especially difficult for young people, because death seems so distant. We like to imagine living out a lengthy life and so we sort of, without meaning to, live in fear of man more than God. We think, “Well, I’m going to be with man for another 60-70 years, so I probably won’t go full force with the whole Gospel thing. I don’t want to burn too many bridges or cause too many problems and hurt my potential.” If that’s you, I want you to see that you are living just like the rest the world. The way you are approaching life is hardly any different than those aren’t following the Lord. Jesus, right here in this text, is calling you to live differently. Categorically different. If you believe that this is true, and it is, then live like it. Don’t live in fear of man, but live for God. Live out your faith boldly. I promise, you will never once regret it. Ask those here who are older. All of them will tell you that the only thing they wish is that they would’ve served the Lord more, not less. Trust that and be bold in your faith.

The second way that Jesus is urging us to live differently that the world is this…

2.) Cast your mind on eternity, so that you do not covet (vv.13-21)

To covet means to wish or long or desire for something that someone else has, that you don’t. Now it’s not wrong to say, “Hey, they have a nice house, I would like to have a nice house as well.” I don’t think that is necessarily sinful. The sin of coveting is where that desire is excessive. It’s excessive in that you won’t feel satisfied unless you have it. You can’t stop thinking about it. You are jealous of others, almost frustrated that they have it instead of you. It’s a selfish thing and leads us to very wicked places.

Our culture is so incredibly covetous. Instagram and Facebook breed this kind of thing. We get on social media and doom scroll, often growing less and less content with the life that we are living. We see what others have, look around and see what we don’t, and are often prone to coveting. We are overcome with this lie that tells us that unless I have that, or my life is more like that, then I can’t be satisfied. And to make things worse, our culture says that this is a good thing. Our culture says that satisfaction comes in earthly success and your ability to show others your success. Covetousness is the air we breathe, and it is toxic.

Jesus warns His disciples of this sin and it’s dangerous affects, and tells them how they might guard against it. Starting in verse 13 He says, “13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

In this story you have 2 men. The first man who is sinning by coveting his brother, who has received an inheritance. The second man is sinning by storing up all his earthly possessions, assuming that is all he needs in life. Jesus warns them both in the similar way. To the first man, tells him to stop troubling himself over these things, because the more than he does, the more he will find himself sinning. He reminds him that life is not all about how much you have. To the second man, Jesus calls him a fool. He calls him a fool because this man has lived as if his things are what truly matter, while neglecting to consider his eternity, which is far weightier.

I think this is good for us to hear, because it is a reminder that both those who have everything and those who have nothing are tempted to sin. The one who has nothing is tempted to sin by coveting, constantly jealous of those who do have. And the one who has everything is tempted to sin by assuming that they have no need to consider anything else, because they have all their heart could desire.

In our culture, as I mentioned, we are certainly tempted in the same ways. We live in such a materialistic consumerist world, and we have learned to justify it in a lot of crafty ways. The truth is, we are obsessed with our stuff and are constantly desiring more of it. And whether we realize it or not, there can be a lot of sinful motives woven in all of that. It’s a dangerous thing. To our culture, this line of thinking makes sense. They believe that this world is all that there is, so they better enjoy it while they can. Joy is found now, and since nothing comes later, and they must live with a never-ending, never-satisfied, desire for more.

As followers of Christ, the way we approach the world must be altogether different. What Jesus is saying here is that we must guard ourselves against these sinful things by focusing less on what we have now, and more on what we will have later. We must cast our minds on the eternal gifts that are ours, so that we live for those, and not for the temporary things that will come and go. To live like this world is forever a foolish thing, and yet we do it.

But here’s where things get tricky. There is a matter of stewardship involved here. We can’t be so unconcerned with the things of this world that we impoverish our families and neglect to give thanks for what God has given us. I don’t think Jesus is saying that saving money is sinful, in fact, I think it is Biblically wise to do this. No, what I think Jesus is saying here is 2-fold. First, we can’t live for these things. Your joy cannot live and die by the things you have. You can’t find satisfaction in the number of your savings account. All of these things are temporary and fleeting, and living for them is foolish when you consider eternity.

But secondly, I think Jesus is reminding His disciples, and us, that even when we do steward these things, we cannot let them lead us to anxiety. Whether it’s our physical body from the first point or our material things in the second. Both of them, we cannot let consume us and worry us to the point of worry. That’s the final point that Jesus makes, and the final point of the sermon this morning…

3.) Remember God’s love and care for you, so that you are not anxious (vv.22-34)

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 19.1% of the United States population are affected by an anxiety disorder. That is roughly 40 million adults in our country (https://adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/facts-statistics). According to the World Health Organization, they estimate that around 300 million people worldwide have a clinical anxiety order (https://crownviewpsych.com/blog/how-many-people-anxiety/). According to Mental Health America, 1 in 5 adults show symptoms of an anxiety disorder, and 1 in 4 adolescents (ages 13-18) live with anxiety (https://screening.mhanational.org/content/how-common-anxiety/).

Truthfully, as staggering as these numbers are, I think these numbers could be low. It genuinely seems like everyone is anxious. Everyone is worried about something and it’s affecting them. Some people are more anxious, some people are less, but hardly anyone isn’t at all. But have you ever stopped to think about what anxiety actually is? It’s a feeling, or several feelings, that sort of come over you, why? Because you aren’t sure about what is about is happening or what is about to happen. Essentially, it is worry. Worry about the present situation or the future.

I say all of this as a man who has to repent often for being anxious and constantly fights against it. I am prone to it in far too many ways, as many of you in this room might be as well. There are all sorts of reasons we could point to that would explain why the world we live in is so incredibly anxious. It’s the access to information and news on our phones that we were never supposed to see. It’s the false sense of control that we have formed from using technology in every facet of our lives. It’s the food we eat, the air we breathe, the songs we sing, and so on. It’s all sorts of things. But there is one thing that is really the root of it all. The fall of man. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned against God, humans are prone to not trusting God. We are broken. Believing what is true isn’t easy anymore. We doubt, believe lies, and even lie to ourselves.

Thankfully, the Lord in His mercy and grace, has given us His Word. And specifically in this text, He has given us truths that to cling to so that we might fight against all the anxious temptations. He starts off in verse 22 by telling His disciples, very plainly, “…do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.” You can anticipate a question coming here from the disciples, “but Jesus, how? How can we not worry about these things?” Jesus responds, “…life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.”

And then He goes into this “how much more” argument that He has used before. Jesus shows the love and care that God has for the seemingly unknown things of the world, and is telling the disciples to then consider how much more God loves them and cares for them. If you are anxious, or prone to worry, I want you to listen to these Words from your Lord. This is not Riley saying it. This is me simply reading what the Lord, your Savior, is saying to you. Hear what He is saying to you so that you might not be anxious. Verse 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! 29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Charles Spurgeon said this, “God knows the minutest details of our lives and being. It is always a great comfort to remember that our heavenly Father knows us. A dying man who had been for many years a believer had a minister at his bedside who asked him, ‘Don’t you know Jesus?,’ ‘Yes, sir,’ he replied, ‘I do, but the ground of my comfort is that he know me.”

If you are in Christ, hear this. God knows you, He loves you, and He has promised to care for you. There is no reason to be anxious for anything. This world isn’t your home, it was never intended to be. God intimately cares for all of His creation, how much more do you think He cares for the chief of His creation whom He has redeemed? That’s you. Don’t spend your life working yourself into the ground for the things you can’t take with you because you are worried about having enough. Spend your life providing where you can, and trusting that God will provide through you when you can, and without you when you can’t.

Unbelievers have every reason to be anxious. Their future is unsure. They don’t believe anyone cares for them all the days of their life. They don’t know what happens when they die. They have no security, no foundation, and are understandably anxious. As believers, we must be altogether different. We have no reason to be anxious. Our future is sure. We know our God will care and provide for us all the days of our life. We do know what happens when we die. We do have security, a foundation, and have no need to fear.

And I do want to say here that I know that it’s not as easy as turning the anxiety switch off in the brain. I know that it isn’t that simple. But I also know that the Lord is greater than any worry and anxiousness we have, no matter how impossible it seems to shake. Our bodies are tainted by sin and so we might carry it and fight it till our death. But do just that, fight it with the truth of God’s Word.

Just this past weekend, on our men’s backpacking trip, the Lord helped me see this truth a bit clearer. Our campsite was down in a kind of canyon by a river surrounded by this big rock walls. It was beautiful and awesome, and we definitely didn’t have cell service. Now I want to stand here and tell you that’s no big deal, but I cant. The truth is, the moment I realized it, I had a kind of pit in my stomach. It’s not because I wanted to watch YouTube videos and scroll Facebook. It’s that I couldn’t check in on Shelby and Thomas. It was the first time I had really been away from Thomas, and I so badly wanted to check in and make sure everything was okay, and I just couldn’t.

The evening went on, and my mind was distracted off and on, kind of always anxious, until that late that night when Logan and I were standing there brushing our teeth in the woods. We turned off our headlamps and were looking at the stars and I told him, “Man, I wish I could check in on Shelby and Thomas right now.” To which he replied, “Yep, I was thinking the same about Alyssa and Bennett.” We walked back to our hammocks, and I got in and laid there and asked prayed to the Lord asking Him to keep me from being anxious about this. To help me not lay here and worry. And because He is so gracious, I didn’t lay there and worry.

But here’s the point I want to make. What I thought I needed in order to stop the worrying and anxiety throughout the day was a cell signal. I thought what I needed was the ability to check in and to see what was happening. It seemed right. I’m supposed to protect and care for my family, right? And so I can’t really do that, so isn’t that good reason to be anxious? No, it’s not, and here’s why.

In order to stop being anxious, I didn’t need the ability to text or call Shelby, what I needed to do was to trust the Lord. I needed to believe what God has said about caring for me and my family. I didn’t need my situation to change, I needed what I believed to be true to change. I needed to ask myself questions like this. Who is Sovereign over all things? God is. Who loves my wife and son more than me? God does. Who can really protect and care for them? God can, and will.

This how we must fight anxiety. Jesus has told us to not be anxious about our life, so let’s seek to obey that. Trust what God has said. Remember how much He loves you, how much He cares for you, and all the things He has promised. Put things into perspective, loosen your grip of control, and begin to trust God with everything in your life. You will never regret it because our God is infinitely good and infinitely kind. You can trust Him entirely. This is the call of the text for us this morning. Let us be faithful to do it. Amen.