No Need To Worry (pt-1) - [Matthew 6:25-34]

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Amen, thank you. I've given myself some self -imposed worry in my life.
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I thought it'd be cool to jump out of an airplane one time and so I worried like mad because the flight instructor said to us, if you jump out and the chute doesn't open then do all these steps to get rid of that chute so you can open up your spare chute.
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I said, well what happens if the spare chute doesn't open? He said it just wouldn't be your day then.
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I was pretty worried. I was down in Acapulco when I was 19 years old with my mother and we decided to go scuba diving illegally, means without training, and we were 40 feet under or so and they had told us and taught us when it seems like it's hard to breathe and it's hot and you're struggling with your breathing, just give us the little, you know,
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I'm out of air business, I'll turn on your reserve tank and you can swim back up to the boat. So I was so nervous underwater,
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I'm breathing too fast and too much, I'm figuring somebody should run out of air before I do, but it seems like it's getting harder to breathe, but maybe it's just me.
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So we continue exploring some of these boats and some of the wreckage down there and I don't know anything about scuba diving, just swim and keep your mask on, that's about all
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I know, and all of a sudden it, I ran out of air.
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They said that if you run out of air, make sure you have a buddy system set up so you can borrow your friend's air, but my mom was swimming away from me, so I didn't know what to do, so I immediately swam over to the drill instructor, the, he should have been, he should have said, thou shall not go in the water, but anyway we got the air turned on and he sent me back to the boat.
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Those are kind of self -imposed worries. I've got a question for you this morning, do you worry?
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You will. He said no.
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We all struggle with anxiety, we all struggle with worry. I preached
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Matthew chapter 6 about worry four years ago and I thought for myself this week, I'm probably the only one that needs to hear that message again, but just in case there's anyone else in the congregation who does, let's turn to Matthew chapter 6 for an updated and revised message on worry and anxiety.
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I love the Scriptures for many reasons, but particularly today I love them because they are transchronological.
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In other words, they transcend time. God the Creator knew that He could write a book for the people in Palestine 2 ,000 years ago that would apply to us today.
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The Bible is not old and outdated, the Bible is very, very relevant because it is the supernatural
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Word of God from God our Creator, and everything we need to know about life and living is found in this book.
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To push this subject just a little bit before we start, one preacher said, why, we may well ask, has the pulpit for so long, he's talking about worry, maintained a criminal silence about worry instead of condemning this flagrant sin.
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That convicted me to want to preach it again because I struggle with worry, because I know you struggle with worry, and we want to honor
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God. As you know, Matthew chapter 6 is right in the middle of five and seven as Jesus gives what we call what?
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The Sermon on the Mount. How the disciples should live in light of their Heavenly Father.
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And today we'll look at verses 25 through 34, at least we'll start to work through this, as we take a little excursus from the book of Ephesians.
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Matthew chapter 5 verses, chapter 6 verses 25 through 34 on the issue of worry.
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I'm going to make the outline very simple today, they're all going to start with different letters and there'll be an acrostic,
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A -B -C -D -E -F, that'll work out the ABCs, if you will, of Christian living, so we can be free of worry, free from worry.
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Now to start off, I'll just say this, we can either do it God's way or we can do it our way. I've tried my way, it doesn't work.
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I still worry and I'm so thankful to the Lord that he would care for us enough and have compassion upon us enough to tell us that we should not worry,
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A, and B, what to do when we do worry. It's God's goodness. We sang a song today about God has spoken.
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Can you imagine if God did not speak? He just speaks in nature and he speaks in the universe, but specifically he doesn't talk to us.
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It is by the grace of God and a proclamation of his favor that he tells us, that he talks to us through his word.
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I don't want anyone this morning here to worry. Before I start though, I want you to worry only under one circumstance, and that is if you're not a
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Christian. This message isn't for you, this is for God's people. This is for those who call themselves children of God by God's grace.
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If you are not a Christian, I want you to be afraid. I want you to worry not necessarily about your car or your finances or your health, but I want you to be worried for the wrath of God is real and God is holy and he has indignation every day because of his holiness and because of sinners of sin.
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There's only one hope for those who fear and that's have the Father's wrath poured out on the
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Son on their behalf as they look to the cross by faith. But for all of us who are Christians, no worry.
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Let's take a look at Matthew chapter 6 verses 25 and following and our ABCs regarding the solution of anxiety and worry.
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A, the first letter for our acronym and our outline this morning is admit that all worry and anxiety is sinful.
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All anxiety and all worry is sinful. Letter A, and we'll get each one of these from the text.
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I'll be reading from the New American Standard this morning. All worry and anxiety is sinful.
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That right there will start a fight. I emailed my friends a couple weeks ago and I said all anxiety and fretting is sinful and I got this huge treatise back.
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This was an unbelieving man and he said it can't be. You mean to tell me anxiety is sin?
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His email didn't really say that but that's the you know all caps reply email. You can put as many smiley faces on you as you want in your email but still he didn't like it that I called anxiety sinful.
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By the way if it's only me who says anxiety is sinful, well then chuck it.
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What does God say? It doesn't matter what a man says. What does God say?
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Matthew 6 25. For this reason, Jesus is speaking, I say to you do not be anxious for your life.
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Well stop there just for a moment. Jesus said for this reason I say to you do not be anxious for your life.
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And if you notice the first word there in that phrase it refers us up to something else. For this reason. What reason?
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If you remember in Matthew chapter 6 verses 19 for instance, don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.
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Verse 21, for where your treasure is there your heart will be also. He's talking about money and God.
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With a summary statement in verse 24, no one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.
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You cannot serve God and wealth. And so this is just a logical conclusion out of this this discussion of God and money.
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Jesus is now saying well of course if we're gonna not worship money the disciples may say well that's gonna cause a lot of problems in my life about buying things and I'm gonna be anxious for my life and the things that are in it.
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But he says no for this reason I say to you do not be anxious. It's a command and it's an ongoing command.
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Never ever be anxious and if you are anxious the text implies what? Stop it.
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You cannot be anxious. Now the King James says take no thought. Guess what take no thought meant in 1611?
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Don't be anxious. He's not saying don't think about it. Walk around and try not to think.
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Walk around, shave your head, put on a robe and just go all day. Maybe you wouldn't worry then but here he's saying no stop worrying.
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And that Greek word for a worry stems from a word that means to what? To choke.
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To strangle. You asked Jay Adams why men live to be 70 years on average and women live to be 80 years on average.
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He said because of the slow death of the tithe. Strangling. Cutting off blood supply.
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And you can imagine when you're laying up at night worrying it's that maybe sometimes literal but that figurative feeling of it's just strangulation.
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It's the word literally means kind of divided care. It means a division where you're you can't figure things out and you're ripped up about it.
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You're torn up about it. Your stomach's in knots and can't think about anything else.
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And in this particular case Jesus says don't be anxious for your life but to make it broader remember Philippians chapter 4 says be anxious for what?
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Nothing. Be anxious for no thing. So even though the text Jesus is dealing with life and the things about life it is a good command for all of us that we'll insert here with that first A.
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Anxiety and anxiousness and worry is sinful. Look at the text again
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Matthew 6 25. For this reason I say to you do not be anxious. Now he elaborates a little bit. For your life as to what you shall eat or what you shall drink or for your body as to what you shall put on is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
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And here Stott deals with what he calls the Trinity of cares. The Trinity of cares.
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What you eat what you drink and what kind of clothing you have. He's saying it's such a low goal.
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It's such an unworthy goal to say that's what I live for. Shooting way too low.
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How long you live about your life what you eat your food what you drink your water and what you put on your body your clothes.
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And he's going to be making the argument that if these things we shouldn't worry about how about the lesser things like what kind of car you drive and other things that we sometimes worry about.
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You say well easy for you to say. Well let me flip it back around and say hard for these people to hear.
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They didn't have a price chopper. They didn't have a Shaw's. They didn't have a Costco. They didn't have a BJ's. They didn't have opportunities to export all kinds of things because if there was a flood or a monsoon or fire or something or a drought or famine it was very very difficult.
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They look to God for their food and that's why Jesus said earlier in the chapter give us this what? Day our daily bread.
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Because it had to be given by God to them. Say uh pastor you don't know my circumstances.
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Everybody else doesn't. My doctor said it was okay. I can't help it.
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At least I don't worry as much as the other guy. My support group says it's fine and natural.
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Who wrote this? When God says we ought not to worry when we respond with anything else other than acquiescence and agreement then we sound like this.
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Moses said to Aaron what did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?
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Aaron said do not let the anger of the Lord burn. You know this people yourself that they're prone to evil. They said to me make a
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God for us who will go before us for this Moses the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt we do not know what has become of him.
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Exodus 32 and I said to them whoever has any gold let them tear it off so they gave it to me
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I threw in the fire out came this calf. It's easier to see the excuses in other people.
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It is crucial for us to admit anxiety is sin. Worry is sin.
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Why is it so crucial? Psalm 38 18 says for I confess my iniquity
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I'm full of anxiety because of my sin. 1st
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John 1 verse 8 if we say that we have no sin we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
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If we confess our sins he's faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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Why is it so important to say God if you say anxiety sin I say it is sin too please forgive me because there's then mercy.
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Proverbs chapter 28 verse 13 if you confess something of sin turn your back from it
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God gives you what? Mercy. If I'm in a pinch and I'm anxious
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I don't know about you but I want the mercies of God I need his compassion and you can just read tons of stuff about how this is not sin.
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I got on ADAA which is the Anxiety Disorders Association of America's website they said 19 million adults suffer from anxiety disorders.
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They said it costs the US anxiety more than 42 billion dollars of a year.
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They said that more than 23 billion dollars is associated with the repeated use of health care services as those with anxiety disorders seek relief from symptoms.
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Do you have anxiety disorder? I do. Here's the test.
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Do you have two or more of these for six months or more? One Are you ever restless?
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Do you have restlessness? Do you feel keyed up or on edge? Got to have these for six months and you'll have
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GAD is their technical term. I'm restraining myself.
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Easily tired? Problems concentrating? Irritability?
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Muscle tension? Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep?
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Are restless and unsatisfying sleep? Quote, if you answered yes to at least three of these six, some people say it's two, then it is possible you have
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Generalized Anxiety Disorder, a treatable medical condition. GAD.
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GAD zoots. So I want to say eat GADs although you'll think about some kind of email.
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It is treatable in the sense that if God in his mercy and his care, he cares for us, he doesn't want us walking around worried all the time, biting our fingernails, upset and concerned about these things.
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In God's love and his grace and his mercy, he spoke. He's not speaking out of this chastening hand that, you know, you bother me too much kids.
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He's talking about with fatherly love. The love that a father would have, a love that a mother would have for their children to say we want what's best for you.
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And I want real answers. When I'm anxious about my health or my mother's health or the church or the finances,
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I need real help because saying that what I have is a disorder or a syndrome or a disease runs smack in the face of 1st
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John chapter 1. To confess means to agree with. God, I agree with anxiety that I have a sin.
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Well now the mercy comes flooding. The scripture verse out on the sign today says, anxiety in the heart of man,
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Proverbs 12 25, weighs it down but a good word makes it glad. You got a way down heart?
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Let me give you a good word from scripture and you'll be glad. Funny little song, maybe you've heard it sung sometime,
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I will not sing it, but it's called the Worry Warthog song. My name is Worry Warthog, I worry constantly.
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Instead of trusting in the Lord, I live in what? Misery. I want the rest of those lyrics and if anyone here has those, please send them to me because I typed in Google lyrics for Worry Warthog and I could not find them.
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I need those lyrics. Anxiety is sin.
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Now once in Jude it says that they anxiously long for the return of Christ, different word.
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That's just eager anticipation, but anxiety? Sinful. Let's go back to the text in Matthew chapter 6 verse 25,
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Jesus at the end of that verse asked a very wonderful question to make us remember that life is more than just meets the eye.
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Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Answer? Yes, it's exactly right.
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A, admit all anxiety and worry is sin. How are you doing on that one? B, believe that your
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Father is loving, good, and provides all your needs. The first one is kind of negative, don't do that, this is positive, believe this.
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B, believe that your Father is loving, good, and provides all your needs. Your Heavenly Father is the one of which
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I'm speaking of. Your Heavenly Father is loving, good, and provides for his people.
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Now if you don't do this you might have to result to something else. These are some of the world's options for dealing with anxiety.
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Get up 15 minutes early in the morning so you don't have to start the day frazzled. Might cut down on some anxiety.
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Say no thank you to extra projects that you don't have the time or energy for. 30 minutes of brisk walking per day.
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You know there's all kinds of things that may be fine and good. I like this one, put brain in gear before opening mouth. That will cut back on anxiety.
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Don't sweat the small stuff. Laugh. I mean some of those might work but I need something better than that, more tangible, something more real.
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You could take the G. Gordon Liddy approach. He's always a kind of a tough guy. He had two anxieties in his life.
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Remember those two? Actually had three. Electrical, high voltage electricity, heights, and rats.
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Those are what he was afraid of. So he, not on the same occasion, but climbed up an electrical pole and on another occasion ate a rat.
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That is the Bulldog approach to dad. You could read a book,
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Anxiety and Depression by Robert Priest. You could listen to tapes, control your attention by life skills.
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You could call up 1 -888 -ANXIETY. It's true. You could take
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Xanax, Valium, Activan, or any other benzodiazepines.
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You could take some beta blockers maybe, Enderol. You could take trisolidic antidepressants.
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You could do what a Christian has asked of his people, to stop worrying. Minereth Meyer said in their book,
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Worry -Free Living, we suggest sitting aside 15 minutes in the morning and another 15 minutes in the evening for active worry.
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Worry -free. Gad. They said worry -free living involves confining the natural worry we all feel into a designated time slot of only 1 % of 12 hours.
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It may be natural, but it's not supernatural. Did you know Adam never worried? Adam never worried.
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I wonder what I'm going to call that animal. I would worry about that in my flesh. There's no worry in heaven.
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Can you imagine not one worry? One professional group said, among the professionals who can help worry are psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and counselors.
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However, it is best to look for a professional who has specialized training in cognitive behavioral or behavioral therapy and who is open to the use of medication should they be needed, end quote.
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I'm just going to toss all that and say, let's go to our Father who created us. How about that?
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And it's free. It's free. A, admit that worry is sin.
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B, believe in our good God. That's what Jesus said. Say, Pastor, I don't like what you're saying.
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I love you, but I'm sorry. This is what Jesus said. These are the words of Christ.
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And look at, they're doctrinal. Can you imagine? They're doctrinal. It's talking about the providential care of the
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Father. Kind of a lesser argument to the greater. But Jesus said, look, verse 26, look at the birds of the air.
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They do not sow, neither do they reap, nor they gather into barns, and yet your heavenly
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Father feeds them. Here's a great object lesson. Are you not worth much more than they?
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Beloved, I hate it when I sin. I preach to myself when I sin because, I mean, when
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I sin, especially with anxiety, because it is impugning the love of God. I would be devastated if my son or my daughters came up to me and said,
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Dad, we're not sure you can take care of us. What would you do?
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I would not like that. If I had been a sluggard and sloughing these responsibilities off, that might wake me up.
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But if I have provided for them, and all their lives in the past I provided for them, then for them to come up and say,
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I don't think you can take care of us anymore, Father. How much more with God? Here, Jesus is pledging preservation.
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He says, God the Father has made you. He will then what? Take care of you.
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Look at the passage again. He says, look, it's an imperative. And this is not something that's just take a look.
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You know, you're looking down and then you quick look up. This is like a stare. This is a take a picture, it lasts longer.
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This is a gaze. This is something that you look at so you contemplate what you're looking at. Serious thoughts.
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That's why that idea when, if you're worried, take no care, in our language today, isn't any good.
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Take no thought, I mean, because we're supposed to think. And that's what he says. Think. First he says, stop worrying.
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Then he says, look. Remember that old thing, stop, look, and listen? This is the look part. Stop. Now look.
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Look at those birds out there. Think about it. Martin Lloyd -Jones says the essence of worry is the absence of thought.
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He says, look at the birds. By the way, in Luke 12, the parallel passage, he says, look at the ravens.
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A dirty bird, a literal dirty bird, an unclean bird.
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If Jesus will take care, Jesus says the Father will take care of unclean birds. Is he going to take care of you?
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Do birds have a soul, by the way? Do all good dogs go to heaven? See? Here we have a bird that has no soul.
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God did not breathe into the, into the bird, a living immortal soul.
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And so he's using this illustration from the lesser to the greater. If God will take care of the lesser, won't he take care of the greater?
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And it's emphatic in the original language. Are you not worth more than they? Much more.
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Birds are not made in the likeness and image of God, are they? They are not eternal. They are not immortal.
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When was the last time, December 31st, look back in your memory, December 31st, 1999, at noon, did you see the birds all lined up at Sam's Club stocking up for water with sweat on their brow, biting their, whatever they have on their, biting their feathers, yeah, biting their fingernails, in line for Y2K.
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But you don't understand, Pastor, we won't even be able to make pencils tomorrow. Stocking up is good.
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Working is good. Second Corinthians chapter 3 verse 10 says, if you don't work, you don't eat.
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The birds worked. But the point here is, the birds don't worry about that.
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If God cares for birds, how much more does he care for me? Are you? Quinzel said, nobody ever saw an earthly father feed his birds and abandon his children.
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It's a pretty rare thing. Oh, he feeds a lot of squirrels and a lot of birds, but the kids, they don't, they don't eat.
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It's just God's love and his care. And the text says, he always feeds the birds. Psalm 147 .9
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says, he gives to the beast its food and to the young ravens which cry. Job 38 .41,
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who prepares for the raven its nourishment when its young cry to God? Answer? God.
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Now again, we have to work, we have to plan. That is a good thing, but Jesus isn't saying that we shouldn't do that because he talks about working.
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But here he's saying not to worry about it. God, true or false, feeds people today like he fed
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Elijah in the brook. And the ravens just fly the food over.
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True or false, God feeds people today with manna from heaven six days a week. Go collect it up.
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Big conveyor belt that comes from the sky. You just go put your mouth underneath it and just a variety of things come in your mouth.
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No, we're to work. God has ordained the end. He'll take care of what he's created. He's ordained the means.
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Work. So the question is not work. The question is not responsibility from work. The question is worrying when we're doing it.
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It all comes back to the goodness and character of God. God's good. He's always good.
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Think about these two attributes together. The goodness of God, and the immutability of God.
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In other words, God never changes. God's goodness never changes either. His holiness doesn't change.
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That's why some people really don't like God because just for one iota, if God could stop being so holy, maybe he would just skip over me.
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What I've done wrong. But no, he's always holy. On the encouraging side, he's always good.
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He never says, I'm having a bad day. I'm sick. You don't deserve it. No. Romans chapter 8, verse 32 says that if God has given us his son, he did not spare his son.
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Will not he give us much more? In other words, if God gave us his son, now he's going to go,
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I'll let my son die on your behalf. But when it comes to food tomorrow, no, he's always good.
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Unchangingly good. And Jesus said, you need an object lesson. Go out and look at the birds. Be a bird watcher.
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That's a very biblical thing. As long as you're not watching the birds for just the birds, you're watching the birds, recognizing who made the birds and who provides them for the birds.
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Luther said, you see, he is making the birds our schoolmasters and teachers. It is a great and abiding disgrace to us that in the gospel, a helpless sparrow should become a theologian and a preacher to the wisest of men.
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Whenever you listen to a nightingale, therefore you are listening to an excellent... How about this one?
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It's a common poem. I don't know who wrote it. Said the robin to the sparrow, I should really like to know why these anxious human beings rush about and worry so.
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Said the sparrow to the robin, friend, I think that it must be that they have no heavenly father such as cares for you.
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And if you notice the text, it does not say that God is a father to the birds. He is called our father.
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He's the creator of the birds but not the father. Furthermore, look at verse 27.
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Of which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life's span? Well, that's interesting.
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He's trying to make the point worry is useless. Worry is unproductive.
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Worry cannot make anything happen that's good. Now, what is he trying to say? Different translations will translate it differently.
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One is you can't make yourself one cubit higher. A cubit is from the elbow to the longest finger, typically 18 inches.
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Some people think up to 22 inches. So, if you worry, can you make yourself very tumble?
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Shack, you know, can you make yourself bigger by worrying? Well, that could be but outside of being a kid, do you ever worry about being taller?
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Maybe some do but I remember when I was a kid, I wanted to be a basketball player. I had it all in my mind.
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I was going to be a 6 '6 point guard in the NBA. So, we had those little growing beans and we put the growing bean by the door in my room and I didn't think there's any sin in praying for being taller.
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So, we would pray and mom would mark us off with just growing and growing. My father's was 6 '4", 250.
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My mom's probably 5 '10". I go, I know it's in my genes. I'm going to rock. George Gerben and Magic Johnson put into one body.
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That's me. Six, one and a half and now
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I'm shrinking. With these two bad discs, I'm getting shorter. So, once in a while, you might say
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I want to be taller and worry about that but you know back in those days, no one in Israel was saying we want to be taller.
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The average height was maybe 5 '5", a little bit shorter. Now, that was not a concern how tall they were.
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They weren't saying, well, my knees are going to be messed up in the airplane or anything else. So, you can either translate it, adding one cubit, 18 inches to your height or adding life, adding length of life and that's why
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NAS translates it. Verse 27, and which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life's span?
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Point is, worry is unproductive and you can't live longer if you worry. Matter of fact, on the flip side, if you worry, you may live to be shorter, a shorter life.
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Job 14 .5 makes it clear, since his days are determined, the number of his months is with thee and his limits thou has set so that he cannot pass.
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God has ordained the way you'll die the day you die and if you worry or if you don't worry, it's not going to go longer.
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Stonewall Jackson said, quote, my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed.
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God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that.
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So, if you worry, it's not going to do any good, not going to make you live longer. He gives another illustration.
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Look down at verse 28. This is another kind of subhuman illustration and why,
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Matthew 6 .28, the Lord says, why are you anxious about clothing? They were.
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Observe how the lilies of the field grow. They do not toil, nor do they spin. Squirrels collect nuts, but here, these don't do anything.
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Yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. And here he uses a different word and it's only used here in the
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New Testament for observe. See it right there in the middle of verse 28. Command to notice, to learn, to be in school about.
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If you've ever seen like a jeweler's loop, a little magnifying glass that you could put up to things, it's almost like take a magnifying glass and look at these flowers.
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Matter of fact, that'd be a really neat thing you could do with your kids. Just to show the intricacies of a tulip.
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I was out taking a walk yesterday and I walked by this house and there's tulips everywhere. And if you went up and took a magnifying glass of those tulips and you just see the artisanship and the craftsmanship that God made putting those things together and they're not even working for it.
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What a great field trip. The splendor and majesty and pageantry and pomp, even more so than Solomon.
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And Solomon was a pretty big shot when it comes to pomp and circumstance. Queen of Sheba said, we better go check out
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Solomon for all that stuff. The meticulous and lavish care of God for these flowers.
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He says even furthermore, verse 30, but if God so erased the grass of the field, even the grass is wonderfully put together, which is alive today and tomorrow and thrown in the furnace.
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Here's how much more again. Will he not much more do so for you, O men of little faith?
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Birds don't live forever. Grass even lives for a shorter amount of time and when the grass is done doing its duty, you put it in the what?
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Fire and it's burnt up. God provides for all these things with his tender, compassionate, providential care.
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And then he says something that strikes my heart. Will he not do more for you,
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O men of little faith? What's worse? Making the statement,
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I don't believe in the Bible. I don't believe in Christ's death and resurrection. I don't think my father will provide for me.
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O men of little faith, it's not, he's saying, he's not saying you don't have any faith, but he's saying it just shows little faith when you think here are the lilies, here is the grass, here are the birds.
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God created all those. He's given them life the greater. Won't he give them sustenance the lesser?
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We have eternal life. The flowers just are there and gone. The grasses even just burn up faster.
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And here he's not saying it's useless to worry. You can't get taller and you can't have an extended life.
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It's not uselessness. Now it is faithlessness. My old pastor said a
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God who would lavish such beauty on temporary fire fodder certainly will provide the necessary clothing for his eternal children.
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You say what does this matter? So what? It makes all the difference in the world. Listen to what Hudson Taylor said the great missionary to China.
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Let us give up our work, our plans, ourselves, our lives, our loved ones, our influence, our all, our all right into God's hand and then when we have given all over to him there will be nothing left for us to be worried about.
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That helps me. Speaking of great, a great
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God who worked through fragile men, listen to what George Mueller said. The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.
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Did you get that? Oh man of little faith. The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.
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So what's the summary? Look at verse 31. Do not be anxious then saying what should we eat?
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That was a big deal back then. That's why there was five thousand men and then the children and then the women who huddled around Jesus because they needed food.
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What should we eat? What should we drink? With what should we clothe ourselves? Verse 32 is such a great verse.
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For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
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Don't act like an unbeliever. Don't act like a Gentile. Don't act like somebody who thinks there's no
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God to provide for them so they're running around hither and thither and pell -mell everywhere to try to take care of all these issues.
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And it's even more indicting for us because back then it was a matter of survival. For us now it is a matter of fashion.
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For them it was a matter of do my kids eat today. For us it's a matter of well you know how do I keep up with the
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Joneses? Your father knows you need all these things.
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Can you imagine God and his omniscience? With a word he creates a universe. Oh for God how they gonna eat?
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Then calculate that into my plan. No. First Timothy chapter 5 says if you're a provider and you don't take care of your own family you are worse than an unbeliever.
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How much more God taking care of us? He's not going to be considered that way at all.
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First Peter 5 7 says casting all your anxiety upon him because he what? He cares for you.
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It matters to him about you literally. Matters. And so I need to get it in my mind and so do you.
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When you say I'm worrying you are deciding not to trust God. It is a calculated premeditated act that says
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I am NOT trusting God. You say well I don't know if it's premeditated or not I didn't mean to do it. We could argue about that later.
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But if you are worrying certainly you can say I am NOT trusting in God this moment.
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E. Stanley Jones says worry is a species of myopia. Nearsightedness. You can't see past your clothes and your food or the other things you have issues with.
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Health and finances and everything else. Salvation of children. There are other things we may worry about. Friends and relatives who are not walking with the
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Lord. But when you just see up close you can't tell. You need to look beyond to see the goodness of God.
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And not just beyond maybe we could say you need to look up. Pagans worry.
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I may want to be a lot of things in my life but I don't want to be a pagan. Worshipping a
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God that doesn't talk. Worshipping a God that doesn't see. Worshipping a God that doesn't hear. Kind of crafted out of the wood and in this half
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I make this God to worship. In this half I throw in the fire to keep warm. Choosing not to trust
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God. And of course we have to work. Of course we're gonna have trouble. We have responsibility but we don't have to worry.
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Let's go to C. And we'll just introduce this and then we'll have to wait till next week. No you know what let's not introduce it.
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Let's go to Lamentations 3. As we continue with letter B. A. Admit the anxiety of sin.
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B. Believe that God is providential in his care and his love for his people.
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Lamentations chapter 3. You know this from the song probably but let's see it in our own
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Bibles. And so we can see the liberal, bountiful, complete, and new mercy of God every day.
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Next Sunday we'll learn about how we shouldn't worry about tomorrow but this will help for those issues that are there for tomorrow.
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Lamentations chapter 3 verse 21. Jeremiah writes under the inspiration of the
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Spirit of God. Just a refreshing little nugget in the book of Lamentations.
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In a book of weeping. In a book of sorrows. This I recall to my mind.
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Lamentations 321. I'm gonna look. I'm going to observe. I'm going to think.
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I'm recalling this to my mind. And that to me beloved is one of the great things with the Christian life is just remembering.
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I know plenty to live from now until the day of glory but now I just have to remember what God has done. Who He is.
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Therefore I have hope. I've recalled this to my mind. Therefore I have hope. How can you have hope if you're the worrywart?
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If you're the fretter? You're concerned. What about my future? And what about this? And what about the kids? And what about retirement?
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And where should we go? And what should we do? And have to make decisions to move? And should we stay? Recall this to your mind beloved.
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So you can have hope. The Lord's loving kindnesses and not just the Lord King. Of course it's the
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Lord King. But what's the writer trying to tell us? All caps Lord. Yahweh. The personal name of God.
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The personal name of God who keeps His promises. The only promise keeper in the Bible. God. The Lord Yahweh covenant keeping
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God's loving kindness. Love with the promise. Indeed never cease.
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His compassions for His compassions never fail. What does
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Lamentations 3 .23 say? They are new every morning.
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Great is thy faithfulness. God has made us.
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God says there's going to be new mercies today and when tomorrow comes I'm sealing my thunder from next week but that's okay.
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When tomorrow comes if it does come God's mercies will be there waiting for you. His faithfulness is great.
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So when we go around and say well I'm not really sinning I'm just kind of perturbed. We have all these kind of code words.
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I'm just frustrated. But when you're really worried you say God please forgive me. Cleanse me.
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Wash me. Make me whiter than snow. Before thee and thee only have I sinned and done what is evil in my sight.
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Thank you that you're a God who forgives. Thank you that you're a God who cares enough to tell me what not to do for my own good and your glory and God help me to believe in you.
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Help me to remember your providential care. Help me to look backwards and say from day one when I was born to day minus nine months when
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I was in the womb to now I am a walking testimony of 43 years of God's faithfulness.
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Not because I'm great. I don't mean that but I am alive. I've been provided for. David said
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I've been young and I've been old and I've never seen the righteous begging for bread. I have never missed a meal.
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God in his goodness and kindness is not gonna let me worry about it if I'm walking in the
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Spirit. Believe that your Father is loving good and provides all your needs and here they're new every morning.
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I don't like stale bagels. I don't even like stale Krispy Kreme doughnuts and I would love
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God's stale grace. Anything from God I would take stale but it's never stale. It's always there new.
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It's always there fresh. It's always there great and so this week beloved when you hear a message about worry you will be given the trial this week.
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I almost guarantee you I'm not a prophet nor the son of the Prophet. God will let you see if you're living out what you're learning because guess what happened to me this week while I was trying to preach this message.
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Mike here's a chance to try to live it out and God won't love you less if you don't live it out with an aid because God's already given you an aid because you're in Christ but because he's loved us we want to please him and then next week we'll look at part two about worry and why we don't have to worry and why we can trust
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God for every good thing. Isn't God good to us? We were gonna sing 380 just a closer walk with thee but guess what we have to sing instead.