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I have to make sure my kids get to where they need to get with Kim being gone. That's why we have all these men today looking very frazzled, because their wives are gone and they're having to get the kids ready by themselves.
Well, tomorrow, gay marriages will be legal in the state of Massachusetts. If you can put those two words together, it's not marriage in God's eyes. Are you nervous? Gas could be $3 a gallon in no time.
A little anxious about your financial planning? Those loved ones that are in your family or your next-door neighbors? What if they don't repent and believe before they die? What about their salvation?
What about their eternal souls? A little worried about them? What about November 4th? A new president will be elected. What if your guy doesn't make it? Worries, angst, cold sweat, disquiet, distress, fidget, forebode, fretful, nervous, uncertain, uneasy, full of consternation, and tension.
Those are all synonyms for the word worry. What are some antonyms for the word worry? What are words that are exactly opposite of worry? I found this quite interesting this week. Calm, relaxed, secure, tranquil, and the best one of all, assured.
Assured. This morning, as you know, we're going to look at part two at the forbidden fruit of the Christian. Worry. Let's turn our Bibles to Matthew chapter 6. The forbidden fruit for the Christian, worry.
And if you are a child of God, by the grace of God, through Christ alone, through faith alone, to God's glory alone, then God doesn't want you to worry. So much so that He's told you in the Bible not to worry, and if you start, stop.
Worry is sinful. Because God wants His children to be relaxed, to be tranquil, to be assured that God is good and He's still on the throne. Now, this is part two for this morning, and we're going to look at C, D, E, and F today, Lord willing.
Maybe we'll have to go into part three, but we're going to look at the title with A, B, C, D, E, F. Kind of an acrostic. Acrostics are good mnemonic devices, easy for me to say. Easy devices for memory.
For instance, Psalm 145. There's 22 Hebrew letters of the alphabet, 21 verses in Psalm 145, and each one is the start of a new letter of a Hebrew alphabet, except one. Psalm 19. Every section, there's 22 sections in Psalm 119, and each section starts with what?
The Hebrew letter that corresponds, to try to get us to remember these things. I think some pastors spend so much time figuring out how to alliterate a sermon that you don't really get it. But here, I think we want to alliterate this so with an acrostic, you can remember that God doesn't want you to worry.
And today's going to be the over-the-counter prescription, so you don't have to worry. You're not going to need to go to a doctor or anything else to see what the Bible says, and I think it's good for God to tell us, don't you?
You don't want your kids worrying. You don't want your family concerned that you can't take care of them. And here, God, as a good father, as a loving father, wants to make sure we don't exhibit the traits in our own flesh, which would be worry and concern and fret and forebode and nervous and finger-biting and sweating.
Sometimes I sweat because I get enthusiastic. Sometimes I sweat because I get nervous. I remember getting up in speech class in a seminary to stand up and preach before people. I felt like there was a mountain.
What's a geyser? Oh, faithful, the geyser in Yellowstone. Except instead of shooting up every so often, it was pouring down, sweating with nerves. And the Lord doesn't want us, when it comes to our life, our salvation, the gay marriage issue, the presidential elections, he doesn't want you to worry.
And I, for one, am a worrier. Left to my own devices, I worry. You say, but you're the pastor. For those of you that know me well, you know I struggle just like you do. I'm not somehow up here, cloaked in this little force field shield of impervious Teflon to sin.
We all worry, and left to ourselves, we do. And so I'm so thankful that God, and here in particular, Christ, in his goodness and his grace, says, I don't want you to worry. And these are some reasons.
He could just say, don't worry, without giving us promises, without talking about how good he is, but no, he gives us wonderful information through Christ. Let's have some review. A, how to deal with anxiety and worry.
A, admit that all worry and anxiety is sinful. All worry and anxiety is sinful. Take a look at Matthew chapter 6, verse 25, Jesus, on the Sermon on the Mount. Right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, or close to it, talking about his father, and your father, if you're a Christian, is tender, providential, care.
Here, he says, I don't want you to worry. For this reason, I say to you, for this reason, we've been talking about money issues, and so if you're not to deal with money issues and worship money, now you might worry.
And he says, for this reason, I say to you, do not be anxious for your life. Do not be anxious. The King James, I think, says, take no thought, which meant, don't be anxious. It could be translated, take no care.
Have a life that's full of cares? Well, don't have those cares. And literally, it's a command that says, stop worrying. All cases, all situations, when we include Philippians chapter 4, be anxious for what?
Nothing. Here, Jesus is saying, don't be anxious for your life, and things that go along with it, but the command is broader in the Bible, systematically. And look at his argument. Don't be anxious for your life, as to what you eat, what you drink, what you shall, nor for your body, what you shall put on.
And here's the argument, is not life more than food in the body, more than clothing? Of course. And since God has given us a life, won't he give us things to take care of our lives? And the answer is yes, and he wants us to use our mind to think that way.
Now, some of you said, even last week, what about concern? Isn't concern good? Don't I have to provide for my children? Don't I have to work hard? Don't I have to take a hold of their hand and say, don't cross the street?
What if I lose my kid? I remember I was in Six Flags a couple of years ago, and I was horsing around. I know, hard to believe. Horsing around, and I took my eye off of Luke for one second. Okay, maybe five seconds.
I turned around. We're in that kind of little wade pool, and there's a thousand kids out there, and maybe more, and Luke is nowhere to be seen. And you can just feel it in your gut. And all these things going through your mind.
Will he drown? Will somebody pick him up? And all that. And he was wandering around, and he knew Mom was by the lawn chair. The only thing is, there's like about 500 lawn chairs, and he was just walking to the first lawn chair.
And you say, what about that? I think the concern that God has given me to say, I'm a father, and I need to protect my son, and I'm built even larger for that protection mode. Let's go get him and help him.
It's fine. But when it's worry, God, what am I going to do? I'm anxious, and I know you can't even see him, and I'm fretting and anxious. Then it turns into sin. Concern is good. When it turns over into fretfulness and anxiety, I didn't say it.
Jesus did. Don't be anxious for anything. And here he said, don't be anxious for your life. You have to work hard. 2 Thessalonians 3 says, if you don't work, you don't eat. So it doesn't mean you can't work.
Concern is good. But when it turns into worry, and when it turns your eyes from who God is and what he's promised to do, given your kids, now he'll take care of them, then that concern can turn to worry, which God doesn't want us to have.
The state of uneasiness and apprehension about the future, God says no. Is not life, look at the passage in verse 25, more than food and body, more than clothing? Of course. We know life is like that.
The Talmud said, man is born with hands clenched, he dies with them wide open. So Jesus is trying to get that eternal perspective here where life is about more things than just what we put on it. B, the ABCs regarding the solution to anxiety and worry.
A, admit all worry and anxiety of sinful. B, believe that your heavenly father is loving and good and he takes care of his children. It's even in our bulletin today. Did you notice the Heidelberg Catechism?
It says in the bottom, the almighty and everywhere present power of God, whereby, as it were, by his hand, he upholds and governs heaven, earth and all creatures. So the herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, yea, and all things, not by chance, but by his fatherly hand.
God says, first of all, if you are worried, say, God, I confess that worry sin. Confession means to agree. I agree, God, that I am worried and I'm not trusting you. Now, there's the positive side here.
B, believe that your father is good and loving and kind. It's cured here. This is kind of the antidote, thinking about not yourself and your own situation, but you kind of look up to God. As my grandma would say, I almost said my old grandma.
That doesn't sound right, does it? My older grandma. I don't mean an old grandma like that in a derogatory way. But my grandmother, Kim's grandmother, says, when you have a problem, you gaze on the Lord and glance at your problems.
You don't gaze at your problems and then glance to the Lord. So here is, you look to yourself, you're self-consumed, you're anxious, you don't have enough resources to take care of that problem. Your flow chart can only go so far in the future.
But if you say, God, I know you're good, you've made me, and if you've created me, won't you therefore sustain me? Answer, yes. If we say, God, I'm worried, it directly or indirectly calls into question the care and concern of Heavenly Father for us.
We talked about it a little bit last week. By the way, what's worse than being anxious? What's worse than being anxious is focusing on yourself and not the Lord, and then having anxious feelings which are masked with medicine.
You say, people take medicine so they don't feel anxious anymore. And with all love and with all tenderness and with all kindness, I want to tell you, if you don't, if you're a modern-day leper and you take your finger and touch it to the stove, you're not going to know there's a problem.
In God's goodness and kindness, He has made us so we have physical reactions to things that hurt us. And when you're not focusing on the Lord and you're focusing on self, you should feel anxious. But it doesn't stop there.
Then you say, God, I'm anxious. Why am I anxious? I've just been concerned about myself and I've been concerned about my checkbook and how I will provide and how I will take care of all these things. I'm like Atlas with the world on my shoulder.
God, forgive me. God, cleanse me. God, wash me from this so therefore I can have the good feelings of the peace that comes, and we'll talk about it later. You don't want to have your symptoms taken care of.
You want the root taken care of. In other words, if you feel down, it's like when I drive out of the parking lot sometimes on a Thursday or whatever day, I'm kind of down and moody and depressed and just bugged.
The whole world's after me. And I would be called what we'd say depressed. And I'm just down. What's worse than being down? Doing the wrong things before God. And I should feel down, but I feel happy.
I'm just so happy. I'm not obeying God. I'm not reading His Word. Everything's great. I got joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Everything's wonderful, and I should be feeling rotten. The good peace that comes from God is when we acknowledge we feel depressed.
God, we feel no joy. There's no fruit of the Spirit in my life. God, I'm walking according to the flesh. Please help me. Let me see that. Let me see my life as you see it. And then God, forgive me. And then how do you feel?
You're driving down the street. Four on the floor. You are really joyful. You're happy. And so what's worse than not being anxious is doing things that should give you anxiousness, and you don't feel it because you're too drugged up.
If you're taking all kinds of drugs for anxiousness, you should go to your doctor and say, Doctor, could you help me get off of these? And then you come to the elder board and say, Could you help me get off of these as well?
Because when you feel anxious, it should be the litmus test for you to go, I'm not walking in the Spirit. I'm not thinking about God. Something's wrong here in Denmark. What's that one little cartoon?
We have met the enemy. The enemy is us. I'm the enemy. And again, God has given us these feelings, not so we're robotic, but he's given us feelings so we can recognize, for instance, Proverbs 28, verse 19.
Happy is he who keeps the law. You obey God, how do you feel? Happy. If you feel bad, what does that tell you about obeying the law? You haven't been. When Cain killed his brother, how did he feel? High-fiving everybody?
It says his countenance fell. When your countenance has fallen, or you feel anxiety, you back up a little bit and say, What have I been doing that God would grant me feelings commensurate to what I've been doing?
Feelings are good. When you feel anxious, say, God, I just hate this feeling of anxiety, and it just feels like I'm on 5 ,000 cups of espresso, and I'm trusting in myself and all this stuff. What have I been doing?
And you stop and you think, I forgot all about the Lord. I forgot to do what my other grandma says to do and start doing the ABCs of God's attributes. God's almighty. God's beautiful. God is compassionate.
God D... I don't know. You just think of things, and by the time you get to about Q, where you can't figure out an attribute for God, you're thinking the right way. God, I'm not meant to live a life apart from you and acknowledging your presence, and when I do, I will feel depressed, and when I do, I will feel anxious.
And I'm not mean to tell you that. I'm your friend. But if you go out these doors, they'll say, you know, 18 million people have anxiety disorder, and you do too. By the way, on a side note, tell your doctor if you're on the medication, things that aren't working, what should I do?
And I'll tell you, there are two answers for him, from him or her. One, increase dosage, psychotropic drugs. Two, change the prescription. I don't know about you, but I need more hope than that. Change dosage or change the medicine.
How about if you do things God's way, there is hope for you. That's what I need. That's what I want. Christ gives a little object lesson here so we can get our mind on the Father. Verse 26. Look at the birds of the air.
They do not sow, neither do they reap, nor do they gather into barns, neither do they go to Sam's, neither do they build sheds, and yet, in spite of all that, yes, squirrels get nuts, ants do those things, but they're not worrying when they do it.
Yet, your Heavenly Father feeds them. Somebody said to me this week, I actually was getting anxious, and I went outside, and I watched the birds. Somebody's listening. Amen. That's what Jesus said. Go out and see the object lesson, and you turn off PlayStation, and you go, look at God's provision for them.
I can't believe they're out there doing what birds do. Not fretting, not sweating, not anxious, not anything else. God provides for them. And then here comes the punchline at the end of verse 26. Are you, and now us as well, because we're brothers with the disciples, children of Christ, are you not worth much more than they?
God gives life. God maintains life. You look at the birds. It's a command to look. You say, yes, I see that. God gives them life, and He sustains their life. How about Israel? In the wilderness, Deuteronomy 2 .7, for Yahweh your God has blessed you in all that you have done.
He has known your wanderings through this great wilderness. These 40 years the Lord your God has been with you, you have lacked not a thing. 40 years in the wilderness, God made Israel nation, and does God keep them by preservation?
Of course. Look at verse 27. This is all in review. By which of you, being anxious, can add a single cubit to his life span? Remember last week, it's either grow 18 inches this way, or live longer. Not too many people want to be 18 inches taller, and so the best way to translate this is, if you worry, do you think you're going to live a longer life?
Answer, you'll probably live a shorter life, humanly speaking. But if you worry, it's not going to help, it's going to be useless. Next illustration, verse 28. Why are you anxious about clothing? They didn't have many clothes back then, usually one or two outfits, that was it.
Observe how the lilies of the field grow. They do not toil, nor do they spin. Yet I say to you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, and he had a lot of glory, did not clothe himself like one of these.
He said, take a look at that. Fix your eyes, take a good stare, look at those lilies. Little rabbits might go around collecting rabbit sustenance, but these flowers, they don't do anything. They don't toil and try.
Then he gets to the heart of the matter, verse 30, but if God so raised the grass of the field, which is alive today, and tomorrow is thrown in the furnace, will He not much more do for you, O men of little faith?
When I am sinfully anxious, I am not trusting in the Father, and His provision for me. Verse 31, the psalm, do not be anxious then, saying, what should we eat? What should we drink? What should we clothe ourselves?
We know God knows all those needs, for all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. He knows that. That's why the psalmist can say in Psalm 46, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, therefore we will not fear.
How about Psalm 94, if we should say, my foot is slipped, thy loving kindness, O Lord, will help me up. When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, thy consolations delight my soul. Well, let's go to C.
A. Admit all worries sin. B. Believe your Father is good and provides for what He's created. C. I kind of had to stretch this one a little bit, not because it won't make the point, but just the word. C.
Chase after God's kingdom. In other words, serve God and His kingdom first. With the pursuit of seeking and determination like hound dogs in England trying to chase down its prey, chase after God's glory.
I wanted you to get a C in there, but that's really what this word seek means. Verse 33 of Matthew 6, but seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. All these things shall be added to you. A seek. This is a demanding word, a tracking word, a deliberate word, a word that requires energy and purpose, striving and trying to obtain.
I could use it as this illustration. I met Kim by the providence of God. It's a wonderful story of God's grace. I moved into an apartment in Brentwood, California, and I said to the landlord, his name was Hyro, I said, Hyro, there's a vacuum cleaner in the closet, and that's not mine, and as a bachelor, I'll never have any need for that.
I didn't say that part, but it was going through my mind. You know, orange shag carpet that high, who needs a vacuum cleaner? He said, well, if the old tenants come, you can just give them that back, but in the meantime, you can keep it.
Well, it's probably two weeks later. Knock, knock, knock. Here comes somebody at the door. I look through the little peephole. Here's this beautiful lady out there, and I open the door and say, hi, how are you?
You know, I'll buy all the Girl Scout cookies you got. She said, well, the lady upstairs that I met, I know you know her, and I just moved in across the street, on the other side of the street, and I don't have a vacuum cleaner, and I just want to know if you've got one, because I'm trying to clean up the place.
I said, I've got a vacuum cleaner. That's exactly right. I loaned her the vacuum cleaner, got on the phone immediately, and my search, and my seeking, and my striving with the pursuit that I must have for wedding bells began that day.
I called the girl upstairs. Her name was Sharon, but she was in a cult, and they changed her name to Aria, so I said, Aria. I said, she actually, I remember meeting her, and we would jog together. She wanted to be in the Olympics and stuff, and we would just run long distance together, and I said, she said, I want you to come meet my spiritual mentor.
I said, well, what's your spiritual mentor's name? Jesus Christ. I was a Lutheran that had a little bit of knowledge, and I knew it wasn't Jesus Christ, like, come to our church today, you'll meet Jesus Christ revealed in the word.
She meant, there's a guy who says he's Jesus Christ. His name was John Rogers. He says he's Jesus Christ, and you can come meet him, and I thought, there's no way I'm going to meet this Jesus Christ guy, because I know there's one, and he was dead, and he was raised from the, he was dead, buried, raised from the dead, and he's coming back, and this guy you're worshiping, who gave you this name, Aria, no can do.
But I called up Aria, and I said, you've got to get me this Kim's number, because I've got to go out with her. She said, I'll call her and ask for you. I said, great. She called me back and says, Kim doesn't want to have anything to do with you.
Second route of doing things, as you men know, let's just be friends. Right? Let's just, we don't have to date, let's just pal around. But it was that idea of not just, well, I'll seek, just kind of look, I don't see anything, that's it.
You say, all right, instead of worrying, God wants us to do something productive, and that's to say, I'm on this earth to worship God, and to serve him, and to promote his kingdom, not mine. Let's get busy to the task of that, and now let's pursue, and with all my determination, to seek, and to investigate, and to say, I'm in here to live for God.
As I wanted to marry Kim, and to say, I want to live with you the rest of my life, I would stop at nothing short of saying that should happen. And God says, instead of worrying, get to work for the kingdom of God.
You're focused on self, therefore, worry is the byproduct, focus on the Lord, and serve him. In the text there, it's an imperative, present means, it's a command all the time, to devote serious effort to realize this desire.
Colossians 3 uses the same word, if then you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above. And in your text in Matthew, it gives you a list of options, it could imply that. It's not just seek God's kingdom, it's what?
Seek first, implying there are other things that you could seek. Priority number one, I'm going to work for God's glory. And there's something about that, I can be very anxious, somebody calls me with an emergency and says, I've got an emergency, my life's falling apart, my health's falling apart, all these things are falling apart, and I rush to try to help them, and what happens to my own mind, when it comes to my own worries, as I'm helping somebody who's suffering.
I don't think about myself as much, because I'm concerned about God and His kingdom. He says, get your focus off yourself, be like Paul, Acts 20, 24, but I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself.
I don't have time to worry, that I may finish my course, and the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God. Get busy for something that will last, instead of saying, I'm going to worry about things that might not even happen.
One man said, happy is the man who is too busy to worry by day, and too sleepy to worry by night. You're too busy serving God, and God will take care of you. Look at verse 33 of Matthew 6, and all these things regarding your life, what you eat, what you put on, shall be added to you.
If you live all out for the Lord, He will provide for you. It's almost like a blank check. You say, I'm going to serve you God, and I am just going to use all my effort and strive, and I'm here for one thing, and that's to see your son's name lifted up.
God says, of course I'll take care of you. Philippians 4, 19, and my God shall supply all your needs, according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Psalm 84, 11, for the Lord God is a sun and a shield.
The Lord gives grace and glory. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Serve the Lord, you walk uprightly. He's not going to hold back things from you. God's not some kind of cosmic killjoy up there, like an Easter egg hunt.
You're getting warmer. You're getting closer. No, he provides with bountiful, lavish extremes. Let me put it in layman's terms. Instead of chase after God's kingdom, I could put it this way. You should be too busy serving God to worry.
Too busy serving God to worry. D, don't worry about the future. Don't borrow trouble. Right from the text. Look at Matthew 6, 34. Admit all sin. All worry sin. Believe that God cares for his children.
C, chase after serving God. And D, don't worry about the future. I found some statistics this week. The average person's anxiety is focused on 40 things that will never happen. 30 things about the past that can't be changed.
12 things about criticism by others. 10 about health. And 8 about real problems that will be faced. Number one, things that are going to be in the future, we worry about. Look at Matthew 6, 34. Therefore, do not be anxious for tomorrow.
For tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. That's an amen for sure. Today's got enough trouble. Why borrow? Why double trouble? And if Satan can't get you or your own flesh can't get you away from being worried about things that happened today, well then let's just extend it on for tomorrow.
Martin Lloyd-Jones says, if it cannot get to us to be anxious and burdened and borne down by the state and condition of things that actually are confronting us, it will take this next step. It will go one into the future.
The vital thing is not to spend every day of your life in adding up the grand total of everything that is ever likely to happen to you in the whole of your life in this world. If you do that, it will crush you.
And I know that by experience. Don't you? What if you lay in your bed? Well, what if this happens? And then that happens. And then that happens. It becomes this huge big snowball that you're just going to get smashed.
Here's a great slogan I found. Fears may be liars. Fears may be liars. It's not going to happen maybe even tomorrow. And so why worry about something that doesn't, might not even happen. And if it does happen, will God's grace be there waiting for you to take care of it?
Of course, John Piper wrote a good book called Future Grace, that why would God give you grace for today to deal with something that's not going to come till tomorrow? In the future, there will be grace for you to do what he's called you to do because first Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13 says God's faithful to do that.
I always tell people and they say, well, we were going to get married. How many couples do we have this? You're getting married. Five couples, four couples. And sometimes couples do so many things together.
They, and all their decision making together and hanging out together all the time. It's almost like they act like they're married. And then trouble comes because why would God give you marriage grace until it's time to get married?
When you say I do, you will have now new grace to act like a married person. But before you say I do, you're going to have enough grace to act like somebody who's engaged. And that's about it. That's why these engagements that last, you know, 19 and a half years, forget about it.
So easy for you to say, pastor, it was 30 days for you. That's right. I told you seeking, pursuing. We have slogans like this. Don't cross that bridge until you what? Come do it. Psalm 118, 24. This is the day which the Lord has made.
Let us be rejoiced. Let us rejoice and be glad about tomorrow. Oh, sorry. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Today's the day. This isn't smart, but it proves the point. An English executive, Jay Arthur rank decided to do all his worrying on Wednesdays.
When anything happened that annoyed his ulcer, he would just write a little note, put it in a worry box. And then on Wednesday morning, he would open that up. The interesting thing was, the story goes that the following Wednesday, he opened up the worried box, the worry box.
Most of the things that had disturbed him the past six days were already irrelevant and didn't even come to fruition or never would. I don't want you to have a worry box, but I want you to say, Lord, why would I worry about tomorrow when tomorrow may never come?
One lady said, it ain't no use putting up your umbrella till it rains. Another man said, anxiety is interest paid on trouble before it's due. God never built a Christian strong enough to carry today's duties and tomorrow's anxieties piled on top of them.
Theodore Kyler. E. A. Admit it's sin. B. Your father's loving. Believe that. Chase after God's will and glory. D. Don't borrow trouble. And E. Entreat God to help you. Let's turn to Philippians chapter four.
We'll go away from Matthew and look to Philippians chapter four. Entreat God to help you. In other words, entreat is a synonym for pray. That's what I'm after. Pray. When trouble comes, you should be praying.
Instead of relying on your own resources and your own ingenuity and your own flow charts and your known if then issues, you say, I've got to go to the Lord. I've got to pray. I'm anxious. It should be programmed in your mind.
I feel anxious. I feel the pressure. I feel like I'm in a vice grip. God help me. Our rain, he said, the way to be anxious about nothing is to be prayerful about everything. That's exactly what Philippians chapter four is saying.
And by the way, where's Paul? He's down on the Mediterranean Sea. The little drink with a little umbrella in it. Talking to Timothy. Paul's in jail. And we don't know if he's in the Mamertine prison or not, but the Mamertine prison was a small little prison that you can see.
If you go to Philippi today, I would love to go see it. And in the back, it was the big sewer area. And they would just fill that. So full of people that pretty soon you just, the guys in the back would just get smashed into the sewer and just get drowned in sewer water.
And Paul, can you imagine in prison? He may die. He's not sure that he's going to get out. We know he will, but he doesn't remember when Paul said, I died daily. That's not some kind of spiritual thing.
I'm just dead to myself. Even though he knows that Paul says when he wakes up today is probably going to be the day. I get my head chopped off. I'm ready to go today. I died daily. Here he says, Paul, how could you be anxious for nothing?
Literally in the imperative, if you're worrying, stop it. Stop worrying. And isn't this interesting? This is not what a psychologist would say. Psychologists would say, stop worrying. It's all going to be okay.
Stop worrying. It's not as bad as it could be here. He gives something that only the spirit of God would do, but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, verse six, let your request be made known to God.
In all things, the answer to anxiety is prayer. And look what he does. Here's how, by the way, before we look any farther, here's what I do. If I'm thinking unbiblically, I'm anxious. There is a thought of biblical truth.
And I say, I need to pray. God, help me get out of this. God, stop it. God, I don't want to be anxious anymore. God, you're going to have to help me and you're going to have to do something right away.
God, inject your supernatural power into my life immediately. And what does he say? Does he say, pray like that first? Or does he say something else? He uses the word prayer way before he uses the word petition.
Instead of going to God with here are my needs. We go to God on our faces saying, God, we worship you. We adore you. That's the word for prayer here. When we sang, we bow down tonight. You come at six o 'clock for prayer time.
For those that are able, the men, at least we'll be in the back and we're going to be on our knees praying to God. And we're going to start with what? God, give me our God. You are so great. You are so provisional.
You are so sovereign. You care. You care for the people in the Bible and you're the same guy and you care for people like me for your glory. So other people say that God of Jacob is an awesome God. So when you want to pray, when you're in a pickle, before you start with your one, two, three, four, five exit strategy requests, you start praising God for his attributes, just like that little acronym acts.
What's the first a and acts? Adoration. Then he says petition here. These are the things I need, God. And what's so good with Thanksgiving? God, thank you. God, thank you. That whatever you send your children is good.
God, thank you. That whatever decision you have made in my life for good or bad, in my view, is your perfect wisdom. It couldn't be more smart to you, God, than to give me that trial at this time. God, I'm so thankful that when you gave me this trial in your wisdom and goodness, you're giving me enough grace to get through it.
God, thank you. That since you gave me your son, Jesus Christ, he was the substitutionary atonement for me. He paid for my sins. Your wrath went out on him. I am so blessed and so graced that whatever you give me, even if I don't get out of this trial, you are to be praised.
And did you notice it doesn't say you're going to get out of the trial when you pray. Be anxious for nothing because if you pray, God's going to give you the escape hatch. You pull it and out you go. Out you go.
No, here we pray, God, we are surrendering to your goodness and every bit of your good pleasure. And this is not, by the way, auto suggestion. If I just kneel down and just start praying to God, it's kind of like self reflection.
And, you know, it's not as bad as I think. And you just kind of talk to yourself. I remember in sales, I drive down the street with these, how to be a high powered sales technique tapes. And you were supposed to say to yourself before you go into close a good deal, big deal.
I'm a good sales rep. People can't say no to me. I can sell better than the competition. I can see that check that's before my eyes for commission and what I spend it on. One time I went to a corporate business meeting and they said, here's the new commission program.
Put your head down and I want you to think about what you're going to spend that money on and then draw a picture of it. Some kind of, you know, if you talk to yourself good enough, you can't say no to me.
Prayer is not that. And by the way, let's throw this out for those of you who are on the verge of sleeping. Prayer itself does not change things. Prayer doesn't change things. I see that on people's houses.
Prayer changes things. Okay. I mean, I'm not going to be one of these guys that runs around and every time I walk into your house and there's some kind of theologically half correct statement, I whip out my, my gun and destroy your art deco work.
No, I don't mean that, but I mean, technically, it's not your prayer and you're talking that changes things. And you would agree with me that ultimately the one who changes things is, in this case, the peace of God, where God gives you the peace.
God changes things. The ordained means of change is prayer, but it's God who does the work on your behalf. True. It's not prayer in and of itself. Mormons pray and things change. No, we pray to God at the throne of grace that he might have his goodwill done.
And then God, through prayer, changes things. So instead of prayer changes things, you can just add a little plaque to the left. God through, because then you'll always be reminded that it wasn't your prayer that did it, but it was God ordaining the ends.
Prayer requests changed and the means you actually praying. God should be glorified in prayer. And if you say prayer changes things, you say, God, that, yeah, that's what I mean. Okay, that's fine. Then don't change it.
I'm not all about that slogan. I'm about that. God receives the glory and look who gets the peace. We get the peace and look where the peace is from the peace of God. That's what we need. Not that our prayers give us tranquil thoughts.
No, the God of peace, which surpasses all your comprehension. You just can't imagine. You can't get over it. You can't figure it out. Isaiah 26, three says, thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on thee.
Here is the whole Old Testament idea, the Hebrew idea of Shalom and wholeness. Here, this peace of God, which you can't figure out. We'll do what? We'll guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Do you know what was outside the city in Philippi when Paul was there in jail?
The Roman guard. And you know what they had? They had centuries. And then in many cities, they'd have guard towers and garrisons, and they'd have people out there and they'd have to stay on duty, guarding the cities.
And if Paul wrote this to the church of Philippi, they would go, oh, we have guards around our city. And here he uses that term. It will guard. God's peace that he gives you is not going to fall asleep on duty.
God's peace that he's going to give you while you're anxious isn't going to mess up while there's a shift change in the guards. Guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. He's going to protect you like a guarding a garrison from all assaults.
And it's all through Christ Jesus. Paul can't stand himself. It's traced back to the Savior. All good gifts are through him. I like this proverb. Lord Jesus, it's not in the Bible, but it's biblically true.
Lord Jesus, make my heart sit down. God, I'm anxious. God, I praise you for what you've done, what you have said. God, make my heart sit down. And here in prayer, God wants us to be drawn closer to him because worry is pushing us away.
This is wonderful. Mary Crowley. Every evening I turn worries over to God. He's going to be up all night anyway. I don't like it when my kids worry. Ever catch your kids biting their fingernails? They just probably bite their fingernails anyway like mine, but in that worry kind of thing.
Kind of, you know, spin their hair, whatever their little idiosyncratic things are that they do. Now, I'm a sinner saved by grace, but I still have compassion on my kids. I don't want my kids to worry.
Walking around, you know, making a little mark here on the carpet of the floor. You get home, what's that? Well, the kids are pacing up and down worrying. I want to say, Daddy's here. Talk to your father.
He will help you. And it's like when the kids were really little, they would be screaming in the night, who knows what they were dreaming about, and I would just hold them super tightly, not enough that they couldn't breathe or anything, obviously.
You have to always qualify things as a pastor because you get in enough trouble anyway. Just hold them, not just kind of gently, but nice and firmly, right up to your chest. And then I would sing a song that only my kids would love the music to.
And I would sing, Everything's All Right in the Father's House. Everything's all right. I'm singing really quiet now. And I would rock back and forth. And I'm sinful, and I want my kids not to worry. How much more does God not want His children that have been told by Him that if God did not spare His Son, He did not withhold His Son from us, won't He give us all these things?
Everything else in life? Same thought in Romans 5 .10. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
If we were enemies and God loves us, now we're His children. Won't He continue to love us? Absolutely. Well, what should I think about? Look at Philippians 4 .8. There could be a connection here with worry.
He could break a new thought, but He could say, instead of thinking about the wrong things, let's get your mind on the right things. Finally, brethren, think about these things when you're worried. Have your mind not emptied.
That's no remedy for anxiety, but fill it with good things. Biblical things. Whatever's true. Whatever's honorable. Whatever's right. Whatever's pure. Whatever is lovely. Whatever is of good repute. If there's any excellence, and if they're worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.
Think about these things. When you have a problem with worry, get yourself in the Bible, because you'll see God's perspective on things that you could never see before you looked. Well, we're out of time, so next week we'll look at F.
And I'll tell you what F is before we start, and we'll look at it next week. F? Forget not that God does not worry. I guarantee you this. At 8 o 'clock tomorrow, when the gay weddings start, the gay marriages start, whatever time it is, God will not be biting His fingernails.
And He's not biting them now. And we'll learn that if God's not worried, why should you be worried? I'm not worried if God's not worried. That should be the plan. I challenge you this week to. A, do some gardening.
B, watch some birds. C, praise God through the prayer of calling out for adoring Him. And D, would you read your Bibles? 2 Kings chapter 23, the story about Josiah. How about this for a challenge? Why don't you read 2 Kings this week?
That's your homework assignment. And I want you to see how God, in His goodness and His greatness, never frets, never falters, never stumbles. And even though almost every king does what's evil in His sight, God says, I'm on the throne, and I'll raise up my own.
Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we are thankful this morning for Your goodness and kindness towards us. And I pray that You would help us by Your Spirit's empowerment internally that we would not worry.
That, Father, we would be pricked in our hearts by Your Spirit to pray, to confess worry as sin, to think about Your good provision, to be serving in the local church so we forget about ourselves. And, Father, that when it comes to tomorrow, and maybe some even here today, have a big thing tomorrow, something happening at work or school or the medical tests come in, other issues, Father, I pray that You would guard their hearts and minds, that You would give them peace as they seek Your good pleasure and are thankful for all that You have given them this far.
And, Father, this week we might see nature, and we might learn through the preachers of the wrens and the robins and the lilies. Father, we want to be children who, when other people see us, say, they serve a good God.
Help us to that end, in Jesus' name, amen.