Sounds a lot like Psalm 23 - “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Jesus is teaching his disciples to relax in the unhurried, un-anxious Way of the Master. But you simply won’t be able to do this unless you are building on the kingdom teachings of Jesus’ teachings along the way. When we re-orient our treasures as Jesus has already spoken of, then we have done much of what is required for today’s lesson.

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If we are still consumed with the worries of food and clothes, even holding these things as earthly treasures, then we might still find ourselves doing a fair bit of worrying. Jesus once again as he does many times throughout the gospels, makes mention of the birds of the air. They are valuable but not as valuable as people! And look how the heavenly father cares for them.

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Here’s where you might start struggling with the old thinking that this sermon is a little naive, a little fantastic even fairy-tale-esque. What on earth is Jesus talking about? life requires effort to feed our families. Yes, the birds also work hard, yet they don’t store away food for the week ahead, they rely on daily finding what they need from the abundant grace of their creator. This is the essence of kingdom living. Learning to trust that the kingdom of the heavens is real and there is a power source which is more real in the spirit realm than what we see and feel in the physical realm. The kingdom of the heavens, is among us which means the king of the kingdom is with us by His Spirit and he knows what we need.

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Jesus doesn’t leave the anxiety examples at food and shelter, he knows that many of us find our appearance before others to be a great source of stress. He says, check out the flowers! Solomon with all his

limitless human resources couldn’t hold a candle to them in their beauty. Unspiritual pagans treasure these things, they run after these things, they stress about these things. Don’t be like that Jesus says.

Treasure the matters of the king and his kingdom. Whether you’re blind, meek, poor or persecuted, rich, successful or beautiful. Seek first the invisible kingdom of God which makes itself manifest through God’s church on this earth for his glory in the gospel.

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When we choose to abandon outcomes to God, letting go of anxiety, we are able to focus on the kingdom of God and the righteousness of loving people as God has loved us in Christ. To finish off, Jesus humorously says “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” And he of course is right.