This sermon was preached on Sunday 8th February 2026.

Bible Reading: Matthew 6.25-end

There are few things as annoying and unhelpful when you are feeling stressed, worried and overwhelmed than for someone to tell you, ‘Don’t worry.’ It is annoying, though, isn’t it? You think, ‘Oh, wow! Thanks for the great advice. If only I had thought of that sooner, everything would now be fine.’ But the reality is that just wishing worries away doesn’t deal with the root cause of our worries. Saying, ‘Don’t worry about the water dripping from the ceiling,’ doesn’t repair the roof. Or saying, ‘Don’t worry about what to eat,’ doesn’t put food on the table. Nor does saying ‘Don’t worry about what to wear’ help you when your drawers are nearly empty, except for that holey sock and ripped jeans. 

So, it seems baffling that Jesus thinks this will be an effective message for people who are worried. Jesus is a wise dude, so he knows that telling a worried person, ‘Do not worry,’ isn’t very effective. But there is a reason why he tells people this. 

Look at how our gospel reading begins. Jesus says, ‘This is why I tell you: do not be worried about the food and drink you need in order to stay alive, or about clothes for your body.’ So, the natural question we have is what did Jesus say beforehand that led him to drop his ‘therefore’? His, ‘because of this, I will now tell you this.’

In the missing preceding verse, in Matthew 6.24, it says: ‘You cannot be a slave of two masters; you will hate one and love the other; you will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.’ Jesus was not talking about worry, but he was talking about the bigger question of who you are going to serve in life. Will you serve God, or will you serve money? Money does mean physical money, but more than that, it is a shorthand for the ways of the world. So, what Jesus is saying is, are you going to pursue that which is of God, or that which is of the world? Because you cannot do both. 

It’s natural to ask at this point, ‘Well, why can’t you do both?’ People can have two jobs simultaneously without any issues. Many people juggle work and family life alongside each other, and that seems to work well. So, why can’t we both serve God alongside our material wealth and possessions? Surely, managing our money and resources carefully is a form of good stewardship? 

The truth is that you can’t serve both God and money, and if you follow the analogy of a slave and a master, it makes a bit more sense. 

Jesus says that a slave cannot have two masters. You will be loyal to one and hate the other. The reason is that a master of a slave is not interested in sharing their slave. They are theirs and expect and demand full effort in serving them. If they worked for another master, they have failed and are not giving 100% effort to their first master. Additionally, if two masters have conflicting demands, the slave cannot go in both directions. 

The language of master and slave can feel quite jarring to our modern ear. But take the example of a marriage. You can only be married to one person. If you tried to be married to two people, it wouldn’t work. It never works in the movies, and it doesn’t work in real life. If you had two husbands or two wives, you would find that sharing your affection and efforts between the two would ultimately leave you with two failed marriages because neither had the 100% commitment that is required in a marriage. Similarly, our relationship with God requires 100% commitment. God doesn’t just want some of us; he wants all of us, the full 100%. And because we are in a relationship with God, a requirement for 100% commitment makes sense, as it would in any relationship. We cannot split our attention between God and money, because that is not how relationships work. 

But none of us are trying to have a relationship with money, wealth, or material possessions. Surely these things are just part of life, including a life with God. But Jesus is talking about more than just money and possessions. He is addressing the big question everyone faces. Are you going to turn to God or to the world? To the ways of heaven or the ways of the earth? Yes, God created the world and works in it, but Jesus is asking who will be the one you make your god? The one who is your primary focus, the one around whom your life is centred?  

I remember when growing up, and I felt that in my teenage years, God was beginning to lead me on a path towards ministry. There were many times when people tried to tell me to pursue the world over God. They never said it directly like that, nor intended to say don’t follow God, but there were many times when people said to push my calling further down the road. 

I remember the conversation I had with my sixth-form tutor when I told her I was turning down all my UCAS offers, including offers from three Russell Group universities, to attend a CofE theological college in Bristol to study theology. She said to me, “Why not do the universities first, and then go to the theological colleges later?” You might never get the chance again. She meant well when she said it, but underneath it, there is this tension between God and the world.  

A few years later, I reached a point when it was clear that God was calling me towards ministry, and at that point, you hear people say to you, ‘Why don’t you get some experience in the real world, or why don’t you get a job and get settled before embarking on this calling?’ Again, all of this was said with warm wishes for me, but underneath it was the question of what was more important to me: where God was calling me, or where I could go in the world? 

Much of the pull toward the world was not bad, but it came from a place of ‘do this now, or you won’t get it later,’ or ‘you need this extra experience, extra money, extra security and stability before you go into ministry.’ You need to take these steps toward the world, or you will suffer as a result. You need them for your future. 

This is the tension Jesus was addressing in his teaching. How often do we turn to the things of the world first to get us through life? We need to work hard and save money to pay the bills, put food on the table, and keep us going through retirement. Working hard and saving are good practices, but behind them lies the belief that these are the things that will get us through our problems, rather than God. Whereas Jesus says that instead of trying to solve our problems by turning to the world, we need to turn to God, who can deal with the things that cause us worry, and God will take care of us.  

Jesus says, look at how God feeds the birds, who don’t work, or plant seeds, or have a repeat Tesco order, yet God still feeds them and takes care of them. The bird doesn’t worry about food and still gets to eat because God provides the food the bird needs. God solves the bird’s worry about food. So why don’t we turn to the same God who can provide the food we need when we are hungry and the clothing we need when we are cold?   

Look at how in Genesis 1, God brought the world into being in its glorious beauty without any help from us. If God can create the world from nothing, then why would we think that God cannot deal with our problems and issues? God is bigger than the whole universe, and our problems are only a small speck in that universe.  

When we turn to God, we can give our worries to him. Giving our worries to God is not neglecting them or shirking our responsibilities; it is turning to the God who can truly help. When we give our worries to God, we do not need to worry about our problems and difficulties, because God can and will take care of them for us. Whereas, if we turn to the world to get us through our problems, we will worry, because nothing about the world can guarantee anything to address our worries. But God can. 

When Jesus tells us, ‘Do not worry,’ he is telling us that we have nothing to worry about when we put our trust in him and give over our difficulties and worries to him, because we have turned to a God who is bigger than all our problems and will bring us through them. That is a promise from God of which we can be certain. 

Instead of worrying, Jesus tells us to ‘be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these other things.’^[1] Let us put God and his kingdom first in our lives. That means asking ourselves each day and in each situation: ‘how can I best serve God?’ This will include asking, ‘how can I best serve God in how I use my money?’ But the distinction here is that the focus is on turning to God and his work for our lives, rather than on money and resources as the things that will sustain us. It’s about our heart’s priority and direction. 

This week, whatever life throws at us, let us turn to God first. He is always there as our ever constant and reliable provider, foundation, and support. His love and care for us will never fail, and when we turn to him, everything will be taken care of, and we will have no need to worry. It doesn’t mean that things won’t feel hard or challenging, but with God, we can be certain that he will bring us through whatever challenges we face. It is in the knowledge of this truth that Jesus says to us, ‘do not worry.’ So, do not worry, because God will always provide for us. 

Amen. 

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^[1] Matthew 6.33 [GNB].