Sermons

Key takeaways

• “Fear God” and “fear not” came out of the same mouth in the same speech. Matt’s claim is that they are not in tension at all — the fear of God is the thing that frees you from fearing everything else.
• The man who wrote “do not be anxious about anything” had been lashed five times, beaten with rods, stoned, shipwrecked three times and left adrift at sea. He was not writing from a comfortable life.
• If we love comfort and fear discomfort, Paul’s life is a train wreck and his command is nonsense. Reorienting what the heart fears and loves is what makes the command legible.
• There are worse things than dying. Hezekiah begged for fifteen more years, got them, and spent his reputation and his nation’s future in a single act of pride.
• Worry cannot add an hour to your life, and a longer life is not necessarily the best thing that could happen to you. Who we live for matters more than how long we live.
• The ravens and the lilies are not a promise of a well-stocked closet. Jesus had nowhere to lay his head and Paul went cold and hungry, and both were seeking first the kingdom.
• Three verses after “don’t be anxious about what you’ll wear,” Jesus says sell your possessions. If the passage were about getting things, that is an unaccountably sharp turn to the left.
• Jesus interprets his own words, and his reading is the one to use — “it’s the true north, it’s plumb.” A reading that makes him make less and less sense as he keeps talking is the thing that’s wrong.