Don’t Worry, Be Holy - Part 1: Understanding Life

Understanding Matthew 6 in Light of Worry and Kingdom Priorities

Well this morning we continue on in Matthew chapter 6 and we're heading towards the end of this chapter as we have come away now from the The three paired statements of the last several verses up to now verse 25 this morning.

We're reminded there the questions that Jesus posed forth with these paired statements. Questions that are meant to examine our lives to elicit our faith. Questions that are meant to guide us into self examination.

What is my treasure? What what are the things that I'm desiring. Am I seeing clearly is my whole life my whole body full of light. Because I'm single-minded. I have a simple understanding of the faith.

I Haven't thought thoughts too far for me. My eyes have not been lofty. I've had a a Clear sight of the Lord. A clear desire to follow him. A straightforward and fixed desire for him. For his kingdom therefore, I'm not double-hearted.

I'm not double-minded. I'm not unstable in all of my ways and then of course as we saw even last week. For that reason, I I know who I serve and I know to whom I belong. I Have a master because no man can serve two masters.

And so the the eye that helps me to see clearly my whole life is full of light. I know to whom I belong. I know who it is that I serve. I know the one that I've put my trust in he alone is my treasure.

Who do I have on earth that compares to him and heaven? There's no one bought him. He's the one that I desire. He's the one that I see. He's the one that I belong to. So these these questions this way of framing the issue is now Guiding us to verse 25 and beyond.

And as we move toward the end of Matthew 6 I've kind of mapped out how we're how we're going to approach this. This course verse 33 perhaps is one of the most significant parts of chapter 6. What I'd like to do is have four Messages leading up to verse 33 and this morning will really be the introduction to the next three messages.

So we'll have four messages on this matter of worry. From verses 25 through 32 and then with verse 33 will finish out the chapter in four parts as well. So this is gonna be part 1 of 4 and then at verse 33 we'll look at the kingdom of God as part 1 of 4 and I've titled at least these first four parts.

Don't worry.

Be holy.

That's my summary of the end of Matthew 6. Don't worry. Be holy. And of course, that's a little pun on the the famous song by Bobby McFerrin. Wrongly attributed to Bob Marley. It's Bobby McFerrin. Some of you probably have it as a ringtone.

I remember vividly years ago being in, Florida. We've come off of a red-eye flight because of like three delays and we're sitting in this little Airport transit car and some of the people from our flight their bloodshot eyes.

Everyone looks absolutely miserable. There's other people that have come on that are about to miss their flight and they're panicking for this thing to get moving so they Can make it to their gate and have some hope.

And so you're either completely zombified and exhaustion or completely stressed and in this mode of panic and what's playing across the Little radio speaker in the car this song. Don't worry be happy.

But the soundtrack did not fit the scenery at all. But the lyrics in that famous song a one-hit wonder. Many decades ago. Here's a little song. I wrote you might want to sing it note for note. Don't worry be happy.

In every life we have some trouble when you worry you make it double don't worry be happy. Well, I would alter that a little bit. Not to the dismay of Bobby McFerrin. But in my mind what Jesus is is going to emphasize here from verses 25 to 32 is don't worry.

We're gonna see over the next several weeks why we should not worry that Jesus gives some concrete reasons. And as we I think look into them and open them up a little bit. We'll understand Really how ridiculous it is for us to be gripped and consumed by fear.

Jesus really wants his disciples to come away with with this absolute confidence and trust that leads to peace and Kingdom mindedness and so verses 25 through 32. The big emphasis is do not worry. Don't worry.

He's gonna come back at the end in verse 34. He's gonna come back to remind us that sort of bookend this emphasis. Don't worry. But verse 33 really gets to the heart behind that why you should not worry why this is a point in the Sermon on the Mount.

That's so important for Jesus to demonstrate. It's so that we will be holy. Seek the kingdom first. In other words seeking the kingdom is living in light of everything. We've received up to this point from the Sermon on the Mount.

I Think in Jesus way of emphasis. He's saying you'll never be able to arrive at the Beatitudes Chapter 5 you'll never build your house on the rock chapter 7 if your life is consumed by panic and worry if you want to be kingdom minded if you want to live out kingdom values if you want to build on the rock if you Want to be blessed with all of the blessings that flow out of Matthew 5 then your life cannot be consumed by worry.

And so don't worry, but be holy now again this morning. We're just introducing this and I want to give sort of an introduction to this matter of worry or anxiety and then before we close I want to look at two two aspects of The teaching that we're going to walk into in the next several weeks.

We'll get at that by understanding something about what we are and Then something about what we must become. All right. So introduction what we are what we must become and that'll introduce us for the next several weeks to come so we're looking at verse 25 and I've titled this this part part one.

Understanding life that's Jesus point here. To understand our lives rightly. Understanding life and the things that life consists of verse 25. Jesus says. Therefore I say to you do not worry about your life.

What you will eat or what you will drink nor about your body what you will put on is not life more than food and the body more than clothing. So that's verse 25 and you'll notice we've transitioned now away from this matter of greed.

Therefore you cannot serve mammon and God with transition now subtly from greed to anxiety. This is perhaps less clear in Matthew 6 in the parallel, which is Luke 12. It's abundantly clear and Luke 12 the parable that precedes this teaching is the parable of the rich fool.

Look at how full my barns are. Therefore I'm Content, you know I need to build bigger barns because I have so much more to store and the parable ends fool your soul is required this night and then Jesus goes right into therefore I tell you do not be afraid and so the transition from Greed to anxiety is a little more ambiguous than Matthew, but in Luke the point is clear.

For all that anxiety about needing a bigger barn and being able to amass more resources have more food buy more clothes. What good has that done? That kind of drive that kind of greed that kind of worry.

Living a life that's been consumed by these desires or these needs is a life that is wasted a life that will never arrive at the kingdom and. So this concern remains. Jesus has been establishing from the very beginning of chapter 6 that his disciples will have a singular Devotion to God and will not live like the Gentiles.

Will not live like those who who only have their hopes set in this world whose treasure is on the earth and not in heaven. Those who are trying to serve both God and mammon whose lives are consumed by earthly desire even arising from earthly need.

That's where Jesus is going in Matthew 6. He essentially asked the question we'll be there in a moment from from James what is your life and When James asks that question think about your life. What is your life?

What is life? What is life meant to be? What is life meant to look like? What is life for and when James asks that question that penetrating question? What is your life? He's asking in the same context.

We'll see it in a moment. It's interesting that we speak of life in compartmentalized ways. We speak of married life home life work life. We have little aspects of life little vignettes of our life and Jesus says no no, no, no, you need to be singular.

Don't compartmentalize your life. Don't don't fragment and fracture the way that you're living. Don't have in neat little areas different aspects of your life. And I think that's because of this kind of mindset.

This is mr. Wonderful. If you ever seen the show Shark Tank Mr. Wonderful, not exactly maybe a good financial advisor not a good life coach and Here's why here's one of the things that he said in an interview.

He said working 24 hours a day is not enough anymore. You have to be willing to sacrifice everything if you want to be successful. This includes your personal life your family life. Maybe even more if people think anything less they're wrong and they will fail.

So that's mr. Wonderful's view of life if James were to ask mr. Wonderful, what is your life? He says well, which which life? My business life my family life my personal life. Oh, well, I don't have a personal life my family life.

I've sacrificed my business life. It's booming if ever there was a parable for mr. Wonderful. It's the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12 again. Here's where James is asking the question come now you who say Today or tomorrow we're gonna go to such-and-such a town.

Let's spend a whole year there. We'll trade we'll make profit. But you don't know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? You're a mist that appears for a little bit of time and then vanishes you ought to say if the Lord wills We will live and do this and do that.

So that's James 4. Notice how James does not compartmentalize life. He says oh, well, your plan is to go away for a year and to do really well. Well, that's great for your work life. What about your personal life?

And what about your family life? And what about your church life? What about your spiritual life? That's being double-minded triple-minded quadruple-minded that's not having a singular life a singular aim a singular desire treasure fixed in a singular place a James asked the question.

What is your life? Then he tells us really drawing from Psalm 39 as well as the whole book of Ecclesiastes. I'll tell you what your life is.

It's a breath.

I'll tell you what your life is. It's a mist that's here for a little bit of time and then it vanishes. You want to think about life rightly. Here's how you ought to think. If the Lord wills I will be able to live.

If the Lord wills I'll be able to do anything. How could I plan out a year without any thought to the Lord as if my life is my own when tomorrow is not sure. And so that becomes the prayer in Psalm 39.

Oh Lord. Let me know my end. What's the measure of my days? Let me know how fleeting I am. In other words give me the wisdom. To not think that I can carve up my life and all of these different directions and pursuits and I can have Absolute confidence to plan something out and intend for all of the success in one area.

Even at the cost and expense of other areas. No, let me know the ends that I can live with the right perspective. Unite my heart to fear your name. I don't know about you. I don't often pray Lord. Let me know my end.

That's a that's a biblical prayer. Psalm 39. Lord remind me how fleeting I am who prays like that. Let me know the number of my days. Let me know my lifespan. Remind me how fickle I am. Remind me I'm a breath.

Remind me that I'm like a blade of grass here for an afternoon gone the next day. That's a biblical way of praying. It's a biblical way of framing your life. That's not to say that. The breath is something dispensable.

As Jesus says your Heavenly Father is the one who's given you the breath of life. He's the one who cares for you as we'll see over the next several weeks. He cares for the sparrows. He cares to clothe the hills with grass and lilies.

Your father knows the things you need and he cares for you. So the major emphasis is there the point is to frame your life in a right way. I don't fragment it. I don't compartmentalize it. It's all here together and the whole thing all together.

Is this a short little breath and yet that little breath is filled with needs and hopes and ambitions and trials and blessings and losses and comforts and worries. There's a lot packed into the little breath of life.

And that's what Jesus is speaking to do not worry about your life. Get some perspective on your life. What is your life? Now some of us are more acquainted with worry than others, but I think we've all experienced it maybe only.

Maybe only toddlers are really spared from worry just for a little moment in time. And what we'll touch we'll touch on that toward the end of the message. But we all worry to one extent or another. We're all.

We're all facing various worries. Various seasons produce all new kinds of worry. We just go from sets of worries to sets of worries as the seasons of our lives change. When we're healthy, we're worried about whether we'll be successful when we're successful.

We're worried about whether we'll be healthy. We're always worried. By something gripped by some form of anxiety the forms may change as our seasons change. But the thing that doesn't change is that our lives are always met with worry and of course worry.

Can weigh down can literally even destroy someone's life. We have now these categories like post-traumatic stress disorder. That's essentially anxiety. Physiologically ruining someone's life. That's how powerful stress worried trauma anxiety can be it has Physiological dimensions to it.

You've seen footage of shell-shocked soldiers. Who though they're in a place of absolute peace and absolute security. They cannot stop the tremors. They cannot stop the the nightmares. They cannot stop the physical ramifications of what they've gone through the stress the anxiety that that's unleashed in their lives.

That's how powerful it is. Jesus commands his people not to be gripped by a kind of fear. That allows our lives to implode or prevents us from accomplishing the things that God has willed for us. Fear worry anxiety is something that prevents a disciple from being single-minded single-hearted from being able to actually Accomplish the will and the values of the kingdom if we would seek the kingdom first and its righteousness.

Then our lives cannot be gripped cannot be steered astray by anxiety and worry. Of course anxiety doesn't just occur in the big things like trench warfare. It can strike with really small things. Sometimes anxiety comes from the most Minuscule unrealistic fears in our lives.

Sometimes we're anxious and it's so minuscule. We don't even know why. You just you're just in a way of worry. You actually haven't understood where this sense of anxiety is even coming from but it's there and it's palpable.

We have these things called panic attacks. The thing about panic attacks is. It's hard sometimes to discern where that panic is even being triggered. It seemingly comes out of nowhere. It's not necessarily the the end of a train of thought.

It's not necessarily a circumstance or experience it it seems to just come out of nowhere and all of a sudden you're going well. Why am I sweating cold? Why is my heart beginning to to burst in a new rhythm and and all of a sudden you're gripped and you're suffocating.

It's that feeling that that cold sweat that anxiety. That's the power of worry and that word worry anxiety in the original. It actually has this idea of division inherent within it or the idea of being pulled apart.

Of being separated and that's what it feels like to worry. You're being pulled. You're being strained. You're being stretched. That's the feeling you think of the old medieval torture rack and they would just stretch.

And keep turning that wheel and stretch the limbs that's what worry is like. It's this straining stretching gnawing kind of fear.

Now.

Of all ages. Ever since the fall humans have dealt with worry and anxiety with deprivation with need with fear. What happens right after the fall? Fear enters into the life and experience of humanity a fear that humanity had never known.

Adam and Eve had not known fear. They had not known guilt. We don't think deeply enough about that. How worry anxiety fear our conditions that arise from our fall into sin from the separation and gulf that Erupted between God and man and then was also outflowing between man and his neighbor.

There's this gulf this isolation this alienation this hostility between God and men. And this is where anxiety and fear arises. We don't connect these dots. But again in the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve had no fear.

No guilt. No anxiety. No worry. Everywhere they looked was something new to try some new beast to name some new fruit. They've never tasted some new way to glorify and adore God some new task to advance His image over all that he had made.

I remember as a as a boy how terrified I was of spiders because I I stayed up one night and Somehow I got the TV channel on to some horror film called Arachnophobia and I must have been like 11.

And.

It was just you know, this spider that basically would Would kill anything and it had been you know. Smuggled off a cargo plane from the rainforest and made its way around this little suburb and for years I was absolutely terrified to take the trash bins to the corner of the street.

My dad would say, you know Ross. Why don't you take the trash down tomorrow's trash day and I'd be like, okay, you know. And I'd wrap my hands in paper towels and I'd Look all the way. It would be like a 30-minute process to get this bin and if I saw any little flickering thing, I would kind of absolutely freak out.

That's not how Eden was. The creeping and the crawling things weren't all that creepy they weren't all that intimidating. I'm I'm far more brave when it comes to spiders nowadays just to assure people.

It's the wonders of marriage that you become the insect terminator in the home. My point is we don't know what human life is like apart from fear. But Adam and Eve knew what human life was like apart from fear and Jesus now is the first fruits of a new creation speaking to disciples that will be the Vanguard and the foundation of those who are being transformed into him is his image by one degree of glory to the next and he says to them if this is true that you're following me then.

Since I am the true Adam you will more and more have lives that are characterized with a lack of fear. That's not what humanity was meant to experience. It's not what life consists of. Your life will not be gripped by worry consumed by fear.

Clouded by guilt way down with this kind of burden. He says not if you're following me not if you know me now in a fallen world and in a fallen body. They'll always be aspects and and lingering effects of that.

The point is I came to liberate you from these things. I Came to give you life. Life overflowing. I came to give you joy the kind of joy that I have with my father. I came to give you peace peace that can only be known when you enter into my joy my kingdom.

And so we have to understand where does this fear? What does this worry? Where does anxiety arise from? It's common to our age it's common to the culture. So every human age has dealt with fear since the fall.

But I would say uniquely here in the West in our sort of postmodern Era, I think we're uniquely held captive to anxiety. All all humanity has dealt with fear and anxiety because all humanity has dealt with fear need lack Envy greed these things that cause fear and worry and anxiety to arise.

But if ever an age or a culture has been characterized by anxiety, I think it would be ours former civilizations. Understood enough about human experience to realize fear and anxiety is part of human condition.

It's part of the state of humanity. They didn't think it a strange thing to have needs or to be anxious. Nowadays for some reason in modern life though we have More resources more stability more economic prosperity more technological comforts and helps more more ease more time frankly just think of the wonders of aspirin the wonders of penicillin the wonders of Surgical techniques all that we know about physical anatomy.

We come through various ailments and more often than not there's a way that that can be remedied a way that we can be made whole a way that we can overcome some of the Pain or impact of that condition that disease that bodily breakdown.

Former ages didn't have any of these things and yet they understood worry and anxiety is just a part of life. Nowadays, we're like wait a minute. You're you're anxious. We need to prescribe you something for that.

Wait a minute. You have worries in your life. Well, that's that's not right. You shouldn't have any worry. And so people spend a lot of time trying to escape or navigate around anxiety and worry there's ways you can do that Professionally medically clinically there's ways that people do that sort of off the books so to speak.

It's all an escape from anxiety. We live in an age of anxiety. That was the observation of WH Auden. We live in the age of anxiety. Anxiety and in his understanding is the umbrella term for modern life an Anxious age.

Jonathan Haidt wrote a very Significant landmark book some years ago the age of anxiety. It rings true That by the way is why a lot of Christianity has been reduced to what has been called Moralistic therapeutic deism and I would emphasize that term therapeutic.

It's just anxiety counseling writ large. That's what Christianity has been reduced to and a lot of quarters. You're living in an anxious time you have a lot of worry in your life come to Christ. You don't have to be so full of worry.

We'll help you deal with your anxiety as if that's all that the Christian faith was about. I Don't misunderestimate what Jesus is saying here to his disciples. Do not worry. But as we say It's not just that he's saying don't worry.

It's for the point of be holy. That's the issue. That's the drive. This is the problem of worry. It's a normal atmosphere for our lives. But then we normalize anxiety or worry rather than confront it rather than examine it rather than go down the trail to understand.

The source.

How are we wrongly viewing God? How are we wrongly viewing our life or the expectations of our life looking at where we were last week? Have I forgotten my identity as a servant that I'm here to accomplish the will of my master that he sees fit to provide And align all of his providences in my life so that I can accomplish his will and find myself complete in him knowing that he works both good and evil together for his calling for his glory and.

So the worry is the normal atmosphere more so than ever in this age of anxiety. We can never normalize worry. We can never treat anxiety as just this this common thing that we all have in our to harbor.

Jesus says no.

Don't worry.

Don't worry. Don't have anxiety Paul will say to the church at Philippi be anxious for nothing.

Why?

Why is there such a thing as a fidget spinner? You're thinking like It's up there with the pet rock who thinks of these things. Why are we so nervous that we have to have our hands occupied. You can't even sit in a classroom or in a park bench without something to kick some tick.

Why why do we have this anxiety that grips so subtly we fret about like this this chipmunk. Consumed with the need to gather consumed with the next and the next and the next thing. So that's on the one hand a kind of anxiety that makes us almost manic.

There's a frenzy of worry. It's the kind of anxiety the kind of worry that looks like a frenzy that looks frenetic. It looks like a panic attack, but then there's also an anxiety that goes in the completely opposite direction.

It's sort of a depressed anxiety. I would put it this way. It's anxiety defeated. If the sort of frenetic frenzy is anxiety struggling then anxiety defeated looks like I Just sleep half the day. I Let everything around me crumble.

Bills are not paid. Work is not attended relationships deteriorate and wouldn't you know, I have no anxiety. I Found the key to life. You've allowed yourself to be absolutely consumed by anxiety to the point that you can't even look at the direction of your responsibilities.

You can't even maintain the most basic relationship. Your life has been paralyzed by anxiety. It's not for lack of it because you've been drowned in it essentially. So you see we're. We're not talking about just consigning yourself to circumstances and calling that faith.

It's not this fatalistic attitude about life and it's just that's peace just hey say lovey. What can you do life goes on? That's not what Jesus is calling his disciples, too. Whether it's that frenetic manic anxiety that grips and suffocates its victim or the escapism.

The need to find ways to Sort of drug ourselves away from dealing with difficult situations and circumstances dealing with needs dealing with dashed hopes dealing with idols. You can see if there's some that want to be free from anxiety so they can simply get on with a carefree Self-centered way of life.

That's not what Jesus is is offering for his disciples when he says do not worry. It's not I want you to have peace so you can go on and accomplish all the things you want to do and just have A lot of joy and live your best life now.

It's not Matthew 6. It's not don't worry be happy. It's don't worry be holy. It's not the peace that the world offers. It's not that the joy that the world pretends to have. It's the peace and joy that Jesus intends a peace and a joy that only comes by knowing him and serving him according to his kingdom.

That's the peace and joy that comes through this call not to worry but to seek first the kingdom. And Paul will say that the kingdom consists of peace and joy. Not of eating and drinking but of peace and joy.

One other aspect here that's so vital is this and this is of course is in line with everything we've considered in the past three messages from Matthew 6. More than anything else our worries our anxieties reveal what drives us.

I Can't emphasize that point enough our worries our anxieties. Reveal what drives us? You want to know your deepest desires? Trace the source of your deepest worry your worry your anxiety. Will lead you will reveal to you your greatest hope the thing that's driving you.

You want to know what your ambition is? Look what your worry is. You want to know potentially what your idol is. Look at what your anxiety is. What you will be most anxious about will will reveal to you what you hold to be most Valuable and that may be a good thing.

That may be a good thing. Or it may be something awful. You may value something worth valuing. You think of a a parent when they lose sight of their child and. And they're absolutely seized with terror.

Why. Because they value that child so much. They can't imagine life without that child and so they're absolutely consumed with panic and fear. Until they find where that child is till they call them out of the the hiding place.

And all of a sudden it's like they can breathe for the first time in a few minutes that that value Has revealed. Why that anxiety came about that that child is so precious that worry and panic set in upon the parent.

Think about your reputation. If you're really worried about your name because it's it's being slung around or spit upon or dragged through the mud. If if your Reputation means life to you the world to you.

If as Proverbs says a good name is worth more than gold and silver and you really hold that true. Not in the proverbial sense, but almost in a carnal sense. Then you're filled with worrying anxiety. Well people think of me.

Will I still have friends? Well, I find friends if people think of me in this way if I'm viewed in this way, what's gonna happen to me? What kind of reputation will I have that anxiety that worry has revealed what you value most what drives you?

Anxiety always seems like it's centered on those things outside of us on That goal on that life change on that relationship on that career. But the reality is anxiety is not centered on the things outside of us.

It's centered on the things within. Where's your treasure. Jesus says that's where your heart is. What are you worrying about? What are you anxious about? That's what's driving you. That's what you value most.

Our hearts our minds our faith. If we're being honest for most of us. That that phrase that the man said I believe Lord help my unbelief. Looks often like I trust you Lord help my anxiety. We're called to trust and we find it very hard to trust.

Jesus here commands us not to be gripped by worry and Yet we're gripped by worry. Much of the virtue of the Christian life is interwoven for this very reason. If my worry reveals what's driving me if my anxiety reveals to me the thing I value most and Christian virtue.

Kingdom values are interwoven with how I handle my worry. My anxiety can drive me to be deceptive. My worry can drive me to be manipulative. Do you see it. Christian virtue is interwoven. Kingdom values being practice is interwoven with how you handle worry anxiety for this very reason.

Think of Abraham lying about Sarah. He was worried. He was anxious. That's something bad might happen to him that he might somehow be killed because his wife was so beautiful. So he lied he he twisted the reality of his relationship to try to satiate his anxiety.

You see.

Consider the parable of the sower in Luke 8. Jesus says that the seed which fell among the thorns Represents those who heard the gospel, but as they went on their way they were choked with. Worry. This is the counterpart to what Jesus is getting out of here in Matthew 6.

The gospel goes out the message is heard the seed has been sown. It's fallen among thorns. And what are those thorns? The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who heard the gospel and as they go on their way, they're choked.

They're suffocated with worry. What kind of worry the kind of worry right here in verse 25? With worry and riches and pleasure in this life and they bear no fruit. Do you know that there are many who have heard many who profess to believe but they don't persevere.

In the faith, why is it because they didn't hear the gospel? No, they heard the gospel. It's because they never began to walk the Christian life. No, they began to walk the Christian life, but the gospel got strangled by their anxieties.

And so they could never bear any fruit everywhere around us in every direction in every circumstance in every relationship in.

Every ambition.

The world is preaching to you Be anxious for everything and God's Word says Be anxious for nothing. You could not be more further apart. Do not worry about Your life that is God's desire for his people.

We're going to be unpacking this right in weeks to come. But just notice that this is God's desire and this is not the only place God communicates his desire. How often does he remind us of his provision of his care.

How often does he tell his people. Do not be afraid. Fear not I haven't changed My promises my character are sure. Because God has commanded this we can be assured that our life of faith our growth in the faith is designed to make us less And less and less anxious.

How does God do this work? How is he going to peel us away from the worries that would strangle the gospel strangle the Word of God at work in our.

Lungs.

Well, if we're talking about the language of the sower in the seed one thing we could say is God does this work gradually? What we know about God as a farmer as a vine dresser is he's a patient farmer.

He does this work gradually. He sows patiently. He waters faithfully. Consistently. Frequently even but it's a gradual process. It's not like We had our dear sister Miss Hume some years ago, Mrs. Hume some years ago donating a tomato plant to the McDonald household, which was wonderful.

We are not like God. We do not consistently frequently water. What has been sown? And so it was like every three weeks were like, oh, yeah the tomatoes and here's a big bucket of water. Hopefully that'll hold them for a while until we remember again another three weeks later.

By the end of the season we have overgrown and bursted tomatoes you know maybe two that had gotten some of the water and then a bunch that that shriveled and Somewhere deep in the soil is buried that vine.

I'm glad God is not a gardener a vine dresser like I am. God sows patiently he waters faithfully. But it's a process God wants to deal with worry and anxiety in your life. How is he going to do that patiently?

Gradually he's going to prune you one of the ways God will deal with worry and anxiety in your life. Paradoxically he might give you more to be anxious about more to be worried with. So that he can take you through that.

God doesn't take you out of worry. By not bringing it to you bringing circumstances that will try you or vex you. He actually brings you out of worry by taking you into the place that you have to work.

He loves to show that his presence is Protective he loves to show the difference that he makes. He loves to glorify himself. By displaying his deliverance, but he can't do that if he doesn't bring you into the furnace in the first place.