[0:00] If you all would turn your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 6.
[0:19] ! Matthew chapter 6. In our culture today and in the mental health industry, kind of one of the biggest buzzwords that we hear is anxiety.
[0:34] It's something that it seems to affect the daily lives of many people in our culture today. And there are different levels of anxiety. There are different causes. There are different things that people will fixate on that cause anxiety and will even lead people into things like panic attacks.
[0:54] I remember the first panic attack I ever witnessed. I had never seen one. I didn't know what one was. I was in high school. And it was my best friend who was having girlfriend problems.
[1:05] And he just physically started shutting down is what it looked like. He couldn't catch his breath. His arms started hurting. I thought the guy was having a heart attack. So not knowing what was going on, we called an ambulance.
[1:18] They came and gave him some oxygen and he was fine. But this anxiety that he was having, this panic attack that was going on, it was pretty scary because he was so fixated on this that, again, when it looked like it was being taken from him, he just mentally couldn't handle it.
[1:38] And this is something that many people deal with in our day and time. And you have news media that is purposed with keeping you on edge, trying to keep you thinking that the other side of the political aisle has your destruction at heart.
[1:54] You've got social media in the lives of many adults and especially with our young people today that is leading them to compare their lives to unrealistic snapshots of these perfect pictures that people keep placing or these perfect short videos that show how perfect other people's lives are.
[2:13] You've also got people that maybe they stress about money and are constantly checking the stock market or prices of goods at stores. Or maybe you're someone that stresses about the future.
[2:25] Am I saving enough? Do I have enough in my retirement account? If the government shuts down and things go dark, do I have enough to make it on my own?
[2:35] That COVID really sparked this in a lot of people. And in a lot of ways, honestly, it really showed how much we can't rely on the government for our well-being in some ways.
[2:47] Well, now that I've got everyone biting their nails, reminding you of what you need to be anxious about in this life, I think it's a good time to go to God's word. Now, I'm going to start off by saying this.
[3:01] I'm not a psychologist. I'm not a licensed professional counselor. There's a lot that I just can't speak to in the medical industry just because I'm not that knowledgeable on it.
[3:13] But one thing that I can share with you is that God's word does speak to anxiety. I can tell you what Jesus says about anxiety in this text that we're going to be looking at today.
[3:25] Now, the things that I mentioned above, world events, resources, finances, these things aren't inherently sinful. And they are things that many times we should be informed on, but they are not the things that should consume us and affect our relationship with the Lord.
[3:43] And that is what anxiety does. And that's what we're going to be looking at today. When the what ifs of life have taken a front row seat in your emotions and in your self-worth and in your spiritual life, that is when anxiety becomes a problem in your life.
[3:59] Now, listen, God has called us. He has called us to be stewards of his world, not slaves to it. God has given us emotions and mental faculties to be used for his glory.
[4:13] I wanted to read a couple of verses really quickly to you all. First, Timothy 1.7 says, For God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.
[4:25] Proverbs 4.23, Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Ephesians 4.22-24, Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
[4:54] Finally, Philippians 4.8 says, Finally, brothers, Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on these things.
[5:14] The Bible is clear that our minds, our emotions, they are meant to be used for the glory of God, but Satan has corrupted that. He has found a way to turn these things against us when we fixate on variables that aren't in our control.
[5:33] And finally, when we think that things are starting to get in our control, something happens that makes us realize that we're not in as much control as we thought we were. And that's why the main idea of our text that we're going to be looking at today as we go into Matthew chapter 6, the main idea is this, that God calls us to be free from anxiety through faith in him.
[5:55] God calls us to be free from anxiety through faith in him. Now again, I just wanted to point out that I am not an expert in the area of mental health.
[6:06] I am not a counselor or a psychologist, but I do know what God's word says about the issue, and it does speak to this. And we're going to see Jesus clearly talk about this today in his sermon on the mount.
[6:17] So if you all would stand with me as we read our text today. Starting in verse 25 of Matthew chapter 6. Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.
[6:37] Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them.
[6:49] Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing?
[7:00] Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
[7:11] But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is today alive and tomorrow, is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
[7:23] Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat and what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them all.
[7:35] But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, again, here's this command again, therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
[7:51] Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. This is the word of the Lord, church. You all may have a seat. As I said earlier, this text was an excerpt from the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon to ever be preached.
[8:07] And the fact that Jesus chose to include these instructions on anxiety shows that he recognizes it's a real issue for us as people, particularly this group of people.
[8:18] If you go back to this time period, these are Jews that are under Roman occupation. It is a very oppressive rule. They were a conquered people. And in the midst of their toil and strife, Jesus is reminding them that there is someone greater who is watching over you, who is watching over their needs.
[8:39] And it is in that truth that they need to rest, that all of us need to rest. Because again, when we focus on the what ifs, we lose focus on the certainty that comes with believing and having faith in a sovereign God.
[8:55] Now we may not be a conquered people like the Jews were at this time, who are depending on the mercy of their oppressors for survival. But we are still people that live in a fallen world who is ruled by Satan and seeks to conquer us with all these distractions that are begging for the affections that should only belong to God.
[9:17] Again, many times pastors are kind of told to stay in their own lane when it comes to things like anxiety.
[9:33] But I want to tell you that the Bible is clear on this. The Bible clearly addresses things like anxiety. I'm not going to make any claims about medicine or about professional counseling or psychiatry.
[9:45] I'm simply up here to exposit God's word and tell you what it has to say about these things that all of us deal with on a daily basis. Now the first effect that anxiety has on our life, we're going to look at two primary effects that anxiety has on our life.
[10:02] But the first effect is this. Anxiety leads you to doubt in God's provision for you. It leads you to doubt in God's provision for you. As a natural human, we have needs.
[10:18] Now I don't ever want to downplay that. We all have needs. That's just part of being a human being. We need food. We need clothes. We need water. And God has established himself as the great provider for all these needs.
[10:33] Really, where this doubt comes from, where this anxiety comes from, it's rooted in where we store up our treasures. What are the things that we value most? Next, in verse 25, Jesus starts off with this again.
[10:50] He says, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about the body. What you will put on is not life more than food and the body more than clothing.
[11:05] Notice what Jesus says here. He doesn't say that these needs don't exist. He is telling us, though, that there is a sovereign God who is keenly aware of our needs and that there is more to life than experiencing the fulfillment of these needs.
[11:25] As a matter of fact, I think it's worth noting that having these needs, it's not, it is not a symptom of the fall. When God created the heavens and the earth, when he placed man in the garden, one of the things that he said, that all the trees in this garden are for food, for you.
[11:44] There was also work that was to be done. Adam was put in charge of the garden. So these needs that we feel, these were things that happened before sin entered the world. Now, what sin has done, though, is that it has caused us to keenly focus on these things to where we forget about the fact that we're dependent on a perfect God.
[12:05] That's what the garden was like. Yeah, Adam and Eve worked. Adam and Eve ate food. But in the midst of all these needs, it was in perfect harmony with faith in their perfect creator who was their ultimate provider.
[12:24] And to be clear, we are supposed to be good stewards of the resources that God has given us. But one of the ways that God provides for us is by giving us the ability to work and provide for ourselves.
[12:36] Now, again, that provision from God was never meant to replace the provider. God has given us, he sings, as an act of grace on his part. But sin has led us to become a people who are consumed with worry about maintaining the gift rather than worshiping the giver.
[12:54] So what insights does Scripture provide for us in all this? As we look at this passage, there's a couple that we can look at that will help us reprioritize the things that we value in life and how we view these things in our life.
[13:10] And the first one is this. We need to observe God's provision. We need to observe God's provision. Again, Jesus is trying to refocus his followers to make them productive kingdom citizens.
[13:28] He's not trying to build them up to be an overcomer or to be a better version of their current selves. Now, he's trying to refocus their priorities to make them productive kingdom citizens that are living for God.
[13:41] Now, we can observe God's provision from the rest of creation. Jesus was very clear about this. In verse 26, he said, look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into the barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
[13:59] Another one, Jesus says, consider the lilies of the field and how they grow. They neither toil or spin, yet the Father clothes them in such a magnificent way. You know, as I was reading this passage and studying it, I was thinking about our house.
[14:12] We have this robin's nest that's right outside our kitchen window. It's ugly. It's covered in mud. It has some bird poo on it here and there. But we don't tear the nest down because one of our favorite things about spring, and we know that spring is coming, is because the same robins come back and lay eggs in that nest every year.
[14:31] I think we've gone through probably three rounds of hatchlings now, and it's been so fun to watch because as we're watching these birds, they're just constantly going. They're constantly adding to their nest.
[14:43] They're constantly bringing food back for the babies, and even when the mom bird is just sitting on the nest, we call them mama and daddy bird. That's what the kids like to call them. It's great. We'll even see the dad come and feed the mom while she's keeping the eggs warm.
[14:57] They are constantly going because God has provided food for them. We can observe that just like Jesus said in his text. And of all the hatchlings that we've seen go through, I've never seen one die of hunger.
[15:13] Maybe a couple of predators here and there, but never hunger. So we can observe this and make the conclusion that God is going to provide for us too because Jesus says it is so.
[15:26] Because the heavenly father's love, it far surpasses the love of birds, of grass that's thrown into the fire the next day. And we can place our faith and our stock in that.
[15:39] Now the next realization that we can come to or the next way that we can kind of reprioritize our thoughts here is realizing that anxiety is a sin.
[15:52] Now this may seem like a strong statement, but stick with me here for a minute as we go through this. In this small section of Jesus' sermon, Jesus says three times, do not be anxious.
[16:06] We also see it repeated in other parts of scripture. This is a command that we're supposed to be following. Now this goes beyond recognizing that you have a felt need.
[16:17] We all have needs. We've all got bills to pay. We've all got kids to feed. We all need clothes on our bodies. The real question is this though. Do you believe that God is going to provide these things for you?
[16:30] Do you believe that God is sufficient to meet your needs? When these things might seem slim for a time, do you rest in the provision that God has provided?
[16:46] Or do you become embittered wondering why you don't have enough? Or for me, whenever I come across extra money from time to time, I get excited, but then unforeseen bills or expenses show up that eat up all that extra money.
[17:06] Do I become bitter about the fact that I don't have enough to outlast all these bills? Or do I become grateful that God has provided those extra finances to cover those bills?
[17:19] Listen, we're all going to have problems in our life. And anxiety is a sin because what it leads to is a doubt that God is sufficient for our needs.
[17:30] In John 16, 33, Jesus again says this about having problems in this life. He said, I have said these things to you that in me, you may have peace.
[17:43] In the world, you will have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world. Trouble will be part of this life, but the one who holds eternal life wants us to trust in him.
[18:01] Now the third insight that we can look at is this. We need to rest in God's omniscience and his omnipotence. Now if you skip ahead to verse 32, Jesus says, your heavenly father knows that you need them all.
[18:16] Speaking about the needs that Jesus was talking about. Jesus is reassuring the people that God is keenly aware of their needs. And we can know that God is going to use his power for our good and not our harm.
[18:31] So much of our anxiety is rooted in our frailty and depending on our own means, which are limited at best. We have no ability to control anything outside of the here and now.
[18:45] And even that is very limited in and of itself. We can make tentative plans for tomorrow at best, but we don't really know what tomorrow is going to hold.
[18:58] We can only depend on people so much. Even our own health, other things that we think are within our control. Sometimes we get news that goes against everything that we have planned and worked for with our health because we have fallen bodies.
[19:15] God knows our needs. And we have the promise in his word that he will work all things out for our good, even our needs. An easy thing to slip into with this as well.
[19:29] One guy that I like to listen to a lot, his name is Dr. Greg Gifford. When you realize that God is sovereign and that he is going to meet all of your needs, he says you've got to fight the urge to become what's called a beach bum Christian.
[19:42] In other words, God's sovereign, he's going to meet all my needs, so I don't need to plan. I don't need to think about the future. I don't need to pay my bills. I don't need to save up enough food to feed my family for the week.
[19:53] God's got this covered. That's the opposite response that we're looking for here. Paul speaks to that in 2 Thessalonians when he says if you don't work, you don't eat. We are called to work.
[20:04] God has given us the ability to provide and that is a gift of his grace and we need to be doing that. As far as letting go of anxiety, our first response that we're going to look at, how we respond to all of this is let go of anxiety through prayer.
[20:23] Our life is going to be filled with things that cause us to worry. We're all going to have health problems. We're all going to feel the weight of financial burdens.
[20:35] We're all going to watch the news at some point and just see how wrong everything seems to be going in this life. As far as having stress about outcomes in our personal life, there are some people that are going to try to tell you as well that your outcomes in life are going to be completely dependent on your faith.
[20:55] In other words, if you just have enough faith, you'll get the outcomes that you desire. That's not in scripture. True faith is trusting God with the outcomes and being at peace with his will.
[21:08] One of my favorite verses to go through when talking about anxiety is Philippians 4 verses 6 and 7. It says, Do not be anxious about anything.
[21:21] There's that command again. Do not be anxious about anything. But in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts in your minds in Christ Jesus.
[21:43] You see that? We have a command. There's three things in this short passage that we just read. There's a command, do not be anxious. There's the response by letting God know about our anxieties through prayer and supplication and thanksgiving.
[21:58] And then we have the promise from God, which is a peace that transcends all understanding. Now what that means is that this is a peace of divine origin.
[22:13] This is a peace that does not come from within ourselves. It is not a peace that we can make enough preparations for. This is a peace that is given to us by a holy God that no matter what we face in this life, that peace cannot be touched.
[22:30] Now it may be attacked. Satan will definitely try to attack that peace. Satan will definitely try to get us to refocus our hearts on these anxieties. But when we lift these things up to God, what he promises is that we have a peace that will transcend all understanding and he will guard what is most important, which is our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.
[22:53] You can't get much more secure than that. If we doubt God's provision, then the adverse is also true.
[23:04] We are depending on something else for our provision. And this brings us to our second point. The second effect that anxiety has on our faith and our relationship with the Lord is that anxiety leads you to deviate from living as God's people.
[23:20] Anxiety leads you to deviate from living as God's people. Jesus' teaching brings up a comparison in these last four verses which is between those who are part of God's kingdom and those who are not.
[23:38] He says the Gentiles chase after these things or the Gentiles care about such things. When he says Gentiles, yes, there's a very real cultural difference there in that time between Jews and people that aren't Jews which are Gentiles.
[23:51] But when we look at it today, Jesus is really talking about anyone that is outside of God's kingdom. Anyone that is not a child of his. Anyone that does not depend on him. I want to read verse 31 and 32 again to you.
[24:08] It says, Therefore, do not be anxious saying, What shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
[24:19] food, water, clothing, again, these are not sinful things by nature. Recognizing those needs in your life is not a sin. But a question to ask is how much emotional capital are we investing in these things?
[24:37] How much time do we spend stressing about these things in our life rather than handing them over to God? When these things become sinful is when obtaining these things has become the goal and end in our life.
[24:51] It becomes our own form of idolatry. When we have come to a point where God is no longer a factor in our provision. Anxiety over our provisions is, honestly, it's rooted in bad believing.
[25:08] Believing that we as creatures are no longer in need of our creator. That all we need for our daily sustainment is our own efforts. we place all this stock in our own merits and abilities and we've become anxious when we realize just how out of control these elements are in our lives.
[25:29] Now here's the good news in all this. Yes, God is sovereign. God has all the power but God is also not idol. He is actively involved in our lives.
[25:41] All throughout scripture we can see a God that is not distant. We see a God that is intimately involved with the lives of those that are following him, with the lives of those that are depending on him.
[25:54] He is not idle in providing for you. That's why Jesus says your heavenly father knows that you need all of these things. So as an earthly father I know my children's needs.
[26:09] I care deeply about my children. And Jesus again draws this same comparison in Matthew chapter 7. He says, If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?
[26:28] So as much as I try to be a good father I am certainly not perfect but as much as I try God is going to be infinitely better. The truth that our heavenly father is our good shepherd does not change the fact that we will have needs but living in light of this truth it does cause us to not shake in fear when we face these needs.
[26:52] We just know who it is that we can lean on. Now here's the problem with placing all of our stock and value in the things of this world. It's never going to be enough. There's always going to be more money to make.
[27:04] There's always going to be more food to buy. There's always going to be newer clothing to try to accumulate for ourselves. That's why I go to this passage in Ecclesiastes chapter 2 when Solomon said this in verses 9-11.
[27:18] So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. All my wisdom remained with me. Listen, Solomon was the greatest well, I don't say the greatest he was the wisest and the richest king that Israel ever had.
[27:34] And he goes on to say, And whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.
[27:47] Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
[28:01] Again, this was a man who literally had it all. As far as worldly needs, Solomon didn't really have any. He didn't have any that he was ever wondering, where is this going to come from? No, he was the richest man that has ever lived.
[28:15] He brought Israel into this era of financial prosperity and having all of these things at his disposal. He says it's all vanity. It's all vain.
[28:26] So what can satisfy us then? What is it that we can find our satisfaction and our fulfillment in? In Ecclesiastes 3.11, he says he has put eternity into man's heart.
[28:41] God has made us to find rest and peace and fulfillment in him. Not the temporal things of this life. If we seek to find our fulfillment in the things of this life, it's only going to be followed by anxiety because in the end, these things don't last.
[29:01] We are made to find our sustainment, our fulfillment in the things that are eternal because we have an eternal creator. And that is only when we will find true rest is when we find it in him.
[29:16] To the temporary pleasures of this world, the author of Hebrews said this in chapter 13. He said, keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have.
[29:28] For he said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. What more do we need in life than that promise there? He said this so that we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper.
[29:39] I will not fear for what can man do to me? Church, the Lord is your helper. And when we have placed our trust in God, we have a peace that is unbreakable.
[29:56] Now yes, we're still going to struggle with anxieties. We're still going to struggle with fear at times. That's part of being in a world where we are constantly attacked by Satan. But we can always go back to our unbreakable fortress, which is the peace that is beyond our understanding, that is provided to us by a holy God.
[30:17] The second group of people that Jesus mentions in this passage is that people of the kingdom will care about the things of the kingdom. I want to read these last couple of verses to you here.
[30:31] In verse 33, he says, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
[30:44] Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. So there's a very stark difference here with these two peoples, between the Gentiles, those that are the people of the world, and those that are the people of the kingdom.
[30:55] There's a stark difference here between the things that we care about. As you read through Matthew chapter 6, this whole chapter is just a gem for wisdom regarding anxiety and placing our trust in God.
[31:10] And that is always going to be the real difference between the people of the world and people of God's kingdom. Being people of God's kingdom doesn't mean that our needs are any different.
[31:21] We just know who to look to. We just know who to rest in. As we look through these different scriptures in Matthew chapter 6, I just want to read three of them here for you.
[31:32] Matthew 6, verse 9. When Jesus was teaching his followers how to pray, one of the first things that he said is our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
[31:46] Give us today our daily bread. In verses 19 and 21, Jesus says, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.
[32:01] But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys or where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
[32:14] Verse 24, Jesus says, you can't serve two masters. You can't serve God and money. When you live in this world, you are either going to be a slave to the things of this world or you are going to be a slave to God, a loving master who has your best interest at heart, who will provide for your needs.
[32:41] I read verse 34 and 33 earlier. And I want you to see where God wants our hearts to be focused. He laid out two things for us.
[32:54] He said to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. Now seeking God's kingdom, it means a couple of things in the life of a believer.
[33:09] First, it's something that we long for. We long for God's kingdom. We are promised the return of Christ. We are promised a new heaven and a new earth where all the former things are going to pass away.
[33:23] And that is something that we long for. The hope of this should make the infatuations of this world just pale in comparison. Second, it also means that we want to see God's kingdom glorified.
[33:38] When we seek God's kingdom, we want to see God's kingdom glorified in the here and now. We live in kind of an already but not yet type of reality. We are citizens of God's kingdom but we are also still waiting for all the promises that God has made about his kingdom to be fulfilled.
[33:55] So in the meantime, we live to see God's kingdom glorified on earth. Every decision we make, every cause that we take up, every affection that we have should be filtered through this reality.
[34:12] That we are kingdom citizens and our lives are called to reflect that in every facet of our lives. And Jesus is telling the crowds this because when we have a kingdom focus, the affections of this world, the treasures that this world has to offer that cause us so much anxiety will begin to fade.
[34:36] Our hearts will begin to be focused on the things that are glorifying to God. When our love for God and his kingdom grows, things like money begin to be seen as not blessings to maintain, but blessings to be used for the glory of his kingdom.
[34:53] Food and clothing are no longer seen as a reflection of our affluence and our personal worth. They are reminders of God's undeserving blessing on our lives and his provision. Church, our needs were never meant to be a source of anxiety.
[35:09] The reasons why they have become so is because sin has entered the world and taken our hearts away from God who is the provider of all these needs. We have forgotten who it is and to what end we are supposed to be living.
[35:25] So our final response, so we kind of close things down today, is that we need to let go of anxiety through a righteous pursuit. We need to let go of anxiety through a righteous pursuit.
[35:36] We need to put God in his proper place in our lives. Church, our greatest need in this life and the next is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
[35:51] That is our greatest need. And that greatest need has already been met in Christ. Jesus Christ is the righteousness that we need for all of our eternal hope.
[36:02] Believer, if you have this hope, if you are a born-again believer, then you have this hope inside of you that your greatest need for eternity has already been met and that you can stand before God justified one day.
[36:16] Now, if you are an unbeliever and you are here, then I want you to hear this too. Your greatest need is also righteousness. And without that hope, there is much to be anxious about in your life.
[36:31] Without that hope, there is no peace with God and there is no peace that transcends all understanding and there is no eternal hope. Romans 3, 21 through 24 says, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.
[36:49] Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
[37:09] So believer, you live a righteous life, a righteous pursuit in light of that truth. That there is nothing in this world that compares with the glory that waits for you because of what Christ has done, because of what he has already provided for you.
[37:28] Your righteousness and your eternal worth, it will never be found in the things of this world. It is always going to be found in what Christ has done for you and what God has promised for you in the future. Unbeliever, for you that are here today, this hope can be yours as well.
[37:46] Sin has corrupted all of us to wrap our joy and our identity in the things of this world when our identity should be wrapped in the God who made us in his image. You are not a product of this world, your joy was never meant to be found in the things of this world as much as we might try.
[38:03] Our joy was never meant to be found in these things, which is despite why living in the most prosperous nation in the world, we can't seem to get our society happy as a whole because our satisfaction is found in the wrong things.
[38:17] We are in a mental health crisis like we've never seen before and the ultimate answer is to find your fulfillment and joy in the very God who made you. I want you to notice one more thing.
[38:34] In light of all that God has promised and given, he still sees our problems and our struggles and my heart breaks a little bit whenever I hear Christians tell me things like, well, I shouldn't be complaining.
[38:45] I shouldn't be asking God about my problems. He's already given me so much. Why should I ask for more? Peter said this in 1 Peter 5 verses 6-8.
[39:02] He said, Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you casting all your anxieties on him.
[39:14] And this is the most important thing here. Why do we do that? Because he cares for you. Church, we have an almighty God who has all the power, who has all the sovereignty, who has provided so much for you but he still cares for you.
[39:40] God did not redeem you and then reject you in this world until one day you meet him in eternity. No, he is still an active part of your life. He wants you to depend on him because he knows this life is too much for us.
[39:54] That's why he remains active and involved. That is why he makes himself available to cast all of our cares and anxieties on him. That truth that God cares for you is so humbling and should be an ever-present reminder that we are never alone in our anxieties.
[40:11] We are never alone with the troubles of this life. God has made himself available and he has let his love for you be known. So I want to close with a familiar passage that I'm sure most of you know by heart.
[40:28] I'm sure I'll hear people reciting it as I read it. But it just reminds us of the role that God plays in our life as our good shepherd who meets all of our needs.
[40:43] Even though when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we can do it without fear because he comforts us. He is with us. I want to read this passage and then we'll close in prayer.
[40:56] Psalm 23. And pray this over your life as we read through it. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.
[41:08] He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
[41:24] Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff they comfort me.
[41:36] You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. you anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
[41:52] And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Let's pray. Amen. Father, you are a good God.
[42:05] you have made your love and affection for us known. And Lord, in our frailty, Lord, we focus on many things and allow them to take the affections and the devotion that should belong to you.
[42:26] So Lord, I just pray over every believer that is here today, Lord, that they would find rest and assurance in your ultimate provision. Lord, that they would, in faith, always cast their anxieties on you.
[42:40] And Lord, as we have seen today in our text, Lord, anxiety is a command that we are to follow and we choose not to follow it. Lord, it is sin. So Lord, I just pray, Lord, if there is anyone here that needs to repent of this today, Lord, I pray that they would come to you.
[42:55] Lord, that they would experience the goodness of their good shepherd. Lord, that you would restore their souls. Lord, I pray that we would always stay focused on your sovereignty, your omniscience, your omnipotence, knowing that you already know our needs beforehand.
[43:13] Lord, I pray for those that are here today that are not believers, Lord, that are not saved, that have no relationship with you. Lord, my greatest desire is that they would have that relationship, that they would know Christ as their savior, that they would know what it means to have their souls restored, to be able to depend on you for all their anxieties, for all their cares, but most importantly, for the righteousness that they so desperately need to be made right with you.
[43:42] Lord, I pray for this time ahead of us as we enter into a time of response. Lord, I pray that you would move, Lord, that you would work in a way that only you can. I pray for all these things in Jesus' name.
[43:53] Amen. Amen.