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Luke 12:22-34

Fear Not:- Life part 2

When Michele and I got married we and our families put a lot of effort into the ceremony and celebration. It was a lot of work and it wasn’t cheap either. Some might argue that we could have used the money spent on the wedding on giving ourselves a financial head start.

I think the way we do weddings is a reflection of the way God does creation. It is elaborate which is a nice way of saying wasteful. Jesus tells us to consider the lilies of the field. God makes everyone one of them more beautiful than King Solomon’s finest outfit. God puts as much effort into their function as he does their beauty. All of this despite the fact that lilies are short lived.

God elaborately clothes the fields with lilies which are here today and gone tomorrow. How much more is God both capable and willing to cloth you, to provide for you your basic daily necessities? The answer is God is very capable and very willing. None of us need the ward robe of a King. What we wear is plain compared to King Solomon and the fields dressed with lilies. Jesus is calling us to consider God’s generosity to the grass so that we can be captured by his generosity towards us.

When Michele and I got married we wanted our family and friends to celebrate our wedding with us. Our union meant a lot to us and we made our day as special as we could, for our family, friends, us and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Nearly twenty years later we can both say that Jesus has indeed been our provision. There have been many times when we worried but in every case we have repeatedly had our doubts proven wrong. In our relationship with Christ we can ‘fear not:-Life’  the Rev

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Luke 12:22-34

Fear Not:- Life

Being a husband and the father of four kids means I can readily relate to the gold fish in the picture. There are many expenses that come with a wife and kids but they are not all financial and they are not all bad.

Typically we are encouraged to measure everything according to a monetary value. When there is a flood it isn’t long before we are told how much the damage will cost. Jesus would say that life is more than money. Money cannot buy love or trust. Money cannot bring you back from the dead. Money can’t heal a broken heart or give hope to someone who is depressed.

Life as a husband and a father is difficult and expensive; financially, emotionally and faithfully. I can view my wife and kids as a drain on my life or I can see them as central to my life. As I give up my personal space, time and effort to provide for, love and disciple my family I begin to realise that life is more than surviving each day, or being able to put food on the table, or being able to watch a movie without being interrupted.

Life is about living ‘with’ and ‘in’ Jesus Christ. It is about learning to enjoy my wife and kids as Christ does. This involves me learning how to see my family as Christ does so that I can begin to love them in a Christlike way.

My relationship with Christ is the first thing to go from my mind when I worry. When I worry I’m alone and my circumstances look negative and overwhelming. Then the needs of my family feel like a drain on my life. What I need then is to be reminded that Christ indeed cares for me and is caring for me. Only when I turn to Christ will I fear not:-life.  the Rev

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Luke 12:13-21

Fear Not:- Money

Money is very versatile. It can represent status, importance, power, accomplishment. It can provide security, pleasure, opportunities, freedom, medical care and almost anything we can imagine. It is little wonder that money becomes a worry magnet.

It would be a very easy mistake to think that having more money would improve your life. The reason for this can be more subtle than you think. Being so versatile money can be used to access what our heart values, needs, wants and craves. For example if I crave acceptance and fear rejection then I might use money to buy the life style that my friends are living so that I can fit in with them. Alternately I might use money to impress people to win (buy) their respect. Or I might buy food that comforts me when I feel left out, rejected or hurt.

Money is the vehicle that delivers what your heart wants. Christ says “Beware greed.” He then gives a case study in which a man has lots of money but ‘gets dead.‘ All that money is useless to him. Money can’t solve or get you what you need most which is a generosity towards God. Contentment has nothing to do with the abundance of your possessions, nor your family nor your friends. Contentment comes from being in a close relationship with Jesus Christ.

The difficulty I have is that in practice I find this hard to believe and live out practically. My heart has been saturated with the pleasures and the comfort that money can afford. Giving up money would feel like giving up my life. Christ came to help me learn this one lesson, that I have everything in Christ and I really don’t need or want for anything. I don’t have to add to Christ. When I learn this lesson I will fear not:- Money.  the Rev

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Luke 12:1-12

Fear Not

Christ says in Luke 12:22 “do not worry about your life…”. Do you think he was serious? I’m sure you would agree with me that we should not murder, lie, give into anger but worry doesn’t seem all that bad and it is so common. Who doesn’t worry? It is commonly thought that worry is something that makes us human.

Worry is fear. Worry is being anxious. The disciples were worried when they were caught in a storm. They were afraid for their lives. They were anxious about drowning. Christ said to them “Fear not… for I am with you.” Christ’s opponents were trying to accuse him, trick him, expose him so that they could reject, humiliate and discredit Christ. They attacked his ministry by accusing him using casting out demons by Satan’s power. They sought to provoke him by their many traps.

At no point did Christ’s opponents cause Christ to doubt himself or his Heavenly Father’s relationship and care of him. We see much of Christ’s care, concern, compassion and even righteous anger but never do we find Christ worrying. In all of human history Christ is the most human person, who was without sin.

The implication is that worry is sin. Paul commands us to ‘be anxious for nothing...’ Philippians 4:6. This means we have hope because Christ came to set you and I free from our sin. Christ came to set us free from our ‘worrying.’ The first step to freedom is acknowledging that worrying is a sin and it is something that needs to be replaced by a new found faith and courage in Christ.  My hope is to tackle some of our biggest fears, our fear of what people think (of us) and our fear of what people do (to us).  the Rev