truth that we embrace and we believe with all our hearts. And I'm thankful today that he is worthy, not that one day he will be, he already is. And I give him thanks for that. Today I'd like to invite you once again to turn to the book of Philippians. We are rounding third and heading for home as one broadcaster used to say. And so it won't be long that we will be finishing up this wonderful book. I hope it's been a blessing to you. It's certainly been a blessing to preach through. And as we enter into Chapter 4, we've been in there for a few weeks now, I think we come to some verses today that for many of you will be familiar, perhaps for many of you these verses are verses that you have prayed many times, that you have read many times, and perhaps you have leaned on many times. And so, I hope to offer you something today, not necessarily that's new, but something that is encouraging, that is helpful, and most of all, that will introduce you, if you've never met the Savior, who carries our griefs and our burdens and lifts our anxious thoughts to something higher. And so, I've titled my message today, WORRY. And you notice it's spelled out in an acronym, because I saw one message titled, and I thought that it was a good way to remember the word WORRY. And that was the acronym WORRY ONLY ROBS REST from you. So WORRY ONLY ROBS REST from you, the acronym WORRY. And I want to preach to you this morning from Philippians chapter 4, verses 6 and 7. And I'm going to ask, if you're able to, one last time, would you stand with me as we read just these two verses together? and give God the reverence that He deserves this morning. Philippians 4, 6, and 7 says this, Be anxious for nothing, 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 and minds through Christ Jesus. Father, thank You again today for the sweet spirit of worship that we have felt here. Thank You for Your presence. that is always with your people today. Lord, we pray that your word would go forth with power and a gentleness that sometimes is needed. Lord, that you would speak to hearts, comfort hearts, mend hearts, and most of all, regenerate hearts that are lost today. Lord, thank you for the pleasant opportunity, the precious opportunity to gather here today, Lord, with God's people. and worship you. Father, I pray today, most of all, that you would increase and I would decrease, as we've talked about for 2025. May our buzzword, keyword, if you will, be selfless, and may we put others before ourselves, especially put you before all else. Thank you, Lord, again, for your love and grace to us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Thank you for standing. I want to share a story with you that I read this week. about an Anglican bishop who lived maybe 100, 150 years ago now by the name of R.C. Trench. R.C. Trench was a theologian. He has commentaries and sermons that are still read today. But one thing I didn't know about R.C. Trench was that he had a morbid fear, perhaps we would call it today a phobia, about becoming paralyzed. And one evening, R.C. Trench was at a gathering with people, and there was a lady that was sitting next to him, and she heard R.C. Trench muttering to himself mournfully, saying, It has finally happened at last. I have total insensibility in my right leg. I can't feel anything. And she tenderly looked over at R.C. Trench and said, Your Grace, it may comfort you to learn that it is my leg you are pinching. I use that illustration as we talk about worry because many times we worry about things that never come to fruition. Or, in our minds, we create problems that aren't really there. Remember last week when I preached, I told you, don't believe everything you think. The Word of God is truth. Our thoughts can sometimes deceive us. There was another story I read about a family that was moving their elderly grandmother across the country to live with them, and she had never flown before in her life, and she was very anxious about the trip. They met her at the airport after the plane landed, and as they walked up to her, her daughter said, well, did the plane hold you up okay? And the grandma answered, well, yes, but I never did put my full weight down on it. And another way I wanted to say that illustration to you because I think that many of us are like grandma. We never put our weight fully down on God. We trust Him to some measure, but we're not giving Him everything in our life. One person said that worry is like a rocking chair. It keeps you busy, but it doesn't get you anywhere. Very true. And so, as we look at our text today, I want to offer you a couple of points that I believe will encourage you, help you, and maybe enlighten you to some new things you never thought about. So, first, I want you to see that Paul writes in verse 6, the first part of that verse, He gives us a word about problems. He gives us a word here about our problems. Now, in the English translations, for the most of them that I looked at, it says something to the effect of, be anxious for nothing. In the Greek language, The sentence is structured, whatever the first word in the sentence is in Greek is what gets the emphasis. So this in the Greek starts out with the word nothing. So nothing be anxious is how the Greek reads. And it wants to put the emphasis on that word nothing. Remember when we talked a few weeks ago from Philippians about the command to rejoice in the Lord. That's not just a suggestion. It's not just something that sounds good. It's something that we are commanded to do regularly in our life. Well, I hate to break it to you, but this is yet another command. Be anxious for nothing. It's not just good advice. It's not a suggestion. It is something that God commands us to do. Now, I didn't read verse 5 to us today, but I think it's important in the context to see why Paul would give this command to us. It's not just something that we are to try to do in our own strength. Notice with me what Paul writes in verse five. Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. That word, that last part of that verse can be interpreted two different ways. The Lord is at hand could mean he's close to returning. which is one way of looking at it, or it can just simply mean His presence is always near to us. I tend to believe the latter, but both are true. The Lord is at hand. Because of the Lord's nearness to His people, we can be anxious for nothing. I want us to look at that a little bit deeper this morning. The word anxious is one of those words where we might be able to come up with a lot of different meanings for it, if we're honest. The Greek word is merino, and merino can mean a worry, an anxiety, or it can mean a care or concern. The root word of that means to go to pieces or literally to be pulled apart. Have you ever been so worried about something that you literally feel like you're going to pieces? It's pulling you in all different directions. That's a perfect example and definition of this word. The old German word for this meant to strangle. Have you ever felt the weight of anxiety so much it feels like it's choking you out? All those are very good examples of what this Word can mean for us in different settings and different times in our life. Someone said that anxiety is like a small trickle of fear that meanders through the mind until it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained. It can certainly be consuming. And for many people, sadly, anxiety has controlled your life for such a long time that you've forgotten what it's like to be free of it. And I want to try to offer you some hope and encouragement today. I'm not preaching a message of complete deliverance and healing. That is certainly possible with God, and I know it is something that He is able to do. But I want to encourage you that in this life you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, because He has overcome the world. And I want us to see that when we think about this word, this anxiousness, this care, this concern that we have, it's not always a bad thing. There are times when we have concerns and cares that are positive. So I don't want you to think that when we have any kind of concern or care or thought, that it's a negative thing. Let me give you a couple of verses where this word, merino, in the Greek is used in a positive light. A couple of chapters back in Philippians, when we went through this, Philippians 2.20, Paul says, So he was saying, I want to have other like-minded people that are concerned about you. It's a good thing to have a concern for other people. We ought to do that. We ought to care for people. When someone is sick, when someone is missing, when someone is shut in, we should have a care and concern for them and show that by the way that we love and serve them. in 1 Corinthians 12, 25, Paul writes there, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care or concern, merinao, for one another. Those are positive uses of the word. When you are worried about someone in a positive light, that is a good thing. That is something that we ought to have. But, The usage here, to be anxious for nothing, is in a negative light. And that's what I want us to look at today. I read to you, or quoted to you just a moment ago, a portion of this verse, but I want you to see John 16, 33. I want you to hear these words from Jesus Himself. He says, These things I have spoken to you, that in Me, I want you to notice those two words, in Me. That's a position. That's a place. for us to be. As believers we are all in Christ, but remember we talked about the fact that as believers we have got to strive to stay abiding with Him. It's not that He leaves us, but as we rest in Him, as we trust in Him, as we rely on Him, as we abide in Him, we find His power is sufficient for us. So, in me, He says, you may have peace. The result of abiding in Christ is many things, one of which is peace. But notice what he says next. In the world, that's also a position, and that's the default position of everyone that lives, Christian or unchristian alike. We are all in this world. We are not of this world as believers any longer, but we are still here in this world physically. And because of that, he says, you will have tribulation. It's unavoidable. In Christ we have peace. In the world we have tribulation. And these two things are constantly going at each other. They are constantly pulling us. Remember the word anxiety? To be strangled, to be pulled in two directions. Be of good cheer, he says. I have overcome the world. And as we look at that again, I want you to just hear me on this. In me, you may have peace. We can't put a price on peace. People are searching frantically in life to have some kind of peace. Peace of mind, just peace from the noise of life. But I want you to remember this. I want you to see this in God's Word. Peace is not in your circumstances. Peace is not an ideology. Peace is a person. The Prince of Peace alone gives us what we are searching for. He is the source of peace. And so when Paul writes, Be anxious for nothing, he's not giving us simply a command to try to work to achieve. Because let's be honest, how much control do we really have over the thoughts that come into our life? Very little. We have control over what stays in our life, but thoughts constantly bombard us from all sorts of directions, don't they? And as those thoughts come in, we are to take each captive, weigh it against the Word of God, and do with it what is necessary. But when we read these words, be anxious for nothing, I want you to view them in this light, rather than just trying harder, trying to contain your thoughts, trying to push back all the noise in your life. I want us to think about the fact that peace is a person. And the invitation to be anxious for nothing is not to strive harder to not be an anxious person, but to rely more on Christ. This is an invitation Not to take all of your anxieties and try to deal with them, but to cast them upon Jesus. To allow Him to carry the weight that is crushing you. To allow Him to be your burden bearer, rather than just trying harder to do something that you'll never be able to do in your strength. It's an invitation to exchange your anxieties for Jesus. and rest in His presence. Because I can tell you this, and I want to be clear about it. To some degree, anxiety will never completely leave us because of this flesh. But I can promise you that Jesus will never leave you either. So just as much as you can focus on the fact that there will always be trials, tribulations, anxieties, I would focus all the more on the God that is with you and will never leave or forsake you. And trust that when those thoughts and those anxious moments come into your life, know what to do with them. Know who to give them to. Know who you are resting in and who can deliver you from those things. Not only is there a word about our problems, be anxious for nothing. Paul then next gives us, number two, a word about prayer. I want you to see the second half of that verse. Be anxious for nothing. But in everything, notice the contrast, be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. Corrie Ten Boom said that any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden. When we are troubled, when we are anxious, when we are fearful, that is a good time to fall upon your knees and cry out to God. That is a good time to look to your source of strength. The psalmist wrote, I lift my eyes unto the hills, from where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. In those worrying, troubling moments, we can fret and fear and wring our hands, or we can fold them in prayer and ask God to help us in our time of need. I want to say this, and I want to say it in a gentle way, because I know for anxious people this will only compound your worrying, And so I want to be truthful with you this morning, but I want to say it gently. Worrying is a sin. Anxiousness is a sin. When we embrace it, when we believe that our worries, even our problems, are greater than God, we have made an idol. We've made an idol of our problems. Anything that takes precedence over God is a sin. And in that sense, anxiety can consume us to the point where we believe the lies that it tells us over the truth that God does. And I want you to hear me on this. When you have those anxious moments and they are consuming you, Paul tells us to pray. And one of the ways that we pray, as we do every week when we open the service, is to confess. to confess to God. He's not standing there in anger, ready to toss you aside when you come and say, I've blown it again, Lord. Confess, Lord, today my anxieties have gotten the best of me. I've looked at all of the things around me. I've felt the thoughts inside of me, and I've allowed those things to be bigger than you. And I'm coming to you today asking for help, asking for forgiveness, asking for your strength and your power to deliver me from these anxious moments. When you come to God and confess your struggles, He hears you, and He will help you. But so often we let the anxieties overwhelm us, and we try in our own strength to push them out. And the thing about anxiety, the thing about obsessive thoughts, is the more you fight them, the stronger they get. Because you're not strong enough. The more that you give them precedence in your life, the more that your mind says, oh, this must be true. Then your body starts to react to those thoughts. Because God made us to have emotions. And there's times when fear is a good thing. It keeps us from dangerous situations. But anxieties create fears of situations that aren't really scary. Or perhaps we think they are, but we don't know for sure what the outcome is going to be. But either way, we give precedence to those things. Our body reacts to what our mind is telling it to do, and before you know it, we're a mess. Mentally, physically, and spiritually. And God is saying in those moments, this invitation, be anxious for nothing, but in all things, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. He's saying, come to me, all you that are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Throughout the Bible, we see a God that invites His people to come to Him. He doesn't drive us away in shame and discontent. He tells us to come. And many of you have carried this burden for so long. And again, I'm not preaching a message today that if you just come and pray a prayer, you'll never again battle this thing. But I'm telling you that this is the key to victory. The key to victory is not just always coming to God one time, and there it is, like a genie, your problems are removed. But to understand that God is available to you at all times. And you need to keep coming to Him. And keep coming to Him. When anxiety comes, go to the throne room. When worries come, take it to God. And when it overwhelms you, confess it. And ask the Lord to give you strength in your moment of weakness. He can do it. It's an invitation to us to rest in Christ, not to work harder, not to become more anxious, and not to despair in doubt, but to depend on God. Paul is inviting them to pray. One of my favorite verses is 1 Peter 5, 7, which says, cast all your care, merinao, cast all your anxieties, all your concerns, all your troubles, upon Him. For He cares, different Greek word there, it means He sees you. He's interested in what you're going through. He doesn't push you aside or blow you off or think that you're a burden or a problem. Cast all your anxieties, your cares upon Him because He cares deeply for you. That is the God that we serve. And in those moments when Paul says, pray and come to Him and carry all your anxieties to Him, I know the excuses that sometimes come up in our minds. Well, I don't know how. I don't know how to pray. What if I do it wrong? What if I say the wrong thing? Or people say, well, I don't want to bother God with my little problems. There are people with so much bigger problems than me. I want to say to you that God desires to hear from his people. And he's not standing there as a judge worrying about if you get the right words out. He's not critiquing you on your eloquence of speech. God looks at the heart, and He's asking you to take a step of faith. I preached a funeral this week, and one of the family members came up and spoke about his grandmother and said that she would always ask one of the boys to pray at Thanksgiving or Christmas or the dinner. And he said, I always knew that I should pray, but I couldn't. I was afraid. And he would always say, Grandma, why don't you pray? It's your tradition. Why don't you keep it going? And there in that funeral, at that visitation, he said, Grandma, I know I never had a chance to do this when you were here, but I want to pray today, and I want to do what I'm supposed to do. And there in front of that visitation, he prayed. And I was so thankful that he took that step of faith, because that's what prayer is. It's a step of faith. We are praying to an unseen God, known in our hearts by faith, but we don't see God with our eyes, and so it's a step of faith to pray. It's a step of faith to believe that He hears, and it's a step of faith to believe He will answer. Without faith, it's impossible to please Him. but we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. And so I want to encourage you to never feel like God is too busy for you, that He's more concerned with someone else than He is with you, or that you have to have the right words. Just pray, church. Pray. And if you can't find the words to pray, trust that the Holy Spirit that lives within you will intercede for you. But go to God, even in just your tears. go to him and ask for his help. One writer said that the power of prayer, I love this, power of prayer is in the one who hears it, not in the one who says it. The power of prayer is in the one who hears it, not in the one who says it. You're putting undue stress and anxiety on yourself to speak a certain way, to talk a certain way, to try to pray, well, so-and-so can pray so good and I'm nothing like that. He didn't make you to be that person. He made you to be you, and He wants to walk with you in your walk of faith. So pray, child of God, with thanksgiving. Remember a few weeks ago, He said to rejoice in the Lord, and now He tells us in all of our prayers, never forget to be thankful. Even in the difficult times, we should be thankful. God is doing something. in our life. God is working in the situation. Just because the answer hasn't come yet doesn't mean that there isn't an answer. Doesn't mean that God won't do something. He's giving you a chance to believe before you see it. We have to all the time see the results. We're skeptical people, aren't we? We're cynical. This world makes us that way. And so we often say, I won't believe it until I God says, believe it before you see it. That's the difference. When we are dealing with God, we have to believe that He is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above what we believe, think, or ask. Faith is the key. Ephesians 5.20 says, give thanks always for all things, not just good things, not just things we want. Give thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. That means, if we are to take that verse as it's written, to give thanks always for all things to God, that means, church, today, that the diagnosis you got at the doctor is not great. That the situation you might be in this morning might not be great. That the trial that you're currently walking through in life is not great. But it also means that God is great. That God is great. And you don't have to wait. until your doubts are gone, your fears are gone, your anger is gone, and your anxiety is gone before you go to Him. You go to Him with those things. You go to Him despite those things. You see, so many people say, I'll come to church when I do this first. When I clean this up, I'll go to God. When I do this, I'll read my Bible. After I do this, that's not how this works. You're always going to have something in your life that would keep you from Christ were it not by His grace and His shed blood that reconciled you to Him. Stop looking at the things that you think are a barrier and see that He's torn down the wall of separation that kept us from Him, and we have access to Him now by grace through faith. You see the difference? This is an invitation today, an invitation to lay down your anxieties, to lay down your worries and your burdens that you have carried for so long. and rest in Christ, the Christ who loves you and gave himself for you. He is with His people. That's what He wrote in verse 5 and all through the Scriptures. The Lord is at hand. He is near to the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He will never leave or forsake us. Over and over, the Bible tells us of a personal God that loves us and communes with us. We are the ones that move away, not Him. But He is always there. Distance is not something that we can speak of with an omnipresent God. He is always there. You may feel far from Him, but He's not far from any one of us. He's near to all of us. He is the Great Physician that heals us. He is Jehovah Rapha. He is El Roy, the God who sees. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the Lily of the Valley, the Rose of Sharon, the Great I Am, the Alpha and the Omega. All of the things that God says He is, He is. Do you believe that today? Do you trust Him today? Because so many of you are saying right now, yes, I believe it, but... There is no but. He either is or He isn't. He is either able or He's not able. Will you trust Him today? One of my favorite songs, it has a chorus and it says, Why should I worry? Why should I fear? When this very same Jesus, He is always so near. He lives in my heart, and He hears when I cry, and I'll call on His name until the storm passes by. Will you call on Him today? Will you trust Him that in the midst of the storm, He is with you? Paul gives us a word about prayer, and finally, he gives us a word about promises. Look at verse 7. The invitation to come. Stop being anxious about all these things and pray to Him about everything. Trust Him. And the result, the peace of God, the peace of God, there's nothing comparable to the peace of God. Again, in the hospital room, there ain't nothing like it. On the deathbed, there ain't nothing like it. Do anything you face in life, I can't explain it to you up here today. You have to experience it. But when you abide in Christ and you give it all to Him and you trust Him, there is a peace that comes that is indescribable. And that's what Paul says. The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. You will only get to verse 7, church, going through verse 6. I wish that we could skip verse 6 and go right to verse 7 and just have the peace. But you've got to cast your cares upon Him. You've got to rely on Him. You've got to trust Him as you go through the tribulations. And when you learn that secret, when you believe that truth, Verse 7 will become a reality for you. The peace of God that passes all understanding will become a reality in your life. Listen to what Jesus told the disciples in John 14, 27. He says, Peace, I leave with you. My peace, I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. We all have times where our hearts are troubled and we are afraid. But again, Jesus has left you His peace. Some of you keep picking up the troubles and the trials and leave the peace part laying there. How about today you lay down those burdens and let Christ carry them? How about you rest in Him? Because the peace of God comes from the God of peace. That's the only place that you will find it. The Bible tells us that by our faith in Christ, we were once enemies of God. If you're here today and you are lost and you have been told by the world that God loves everyone, that is true to a degree. God does love everyone. But God also is a just and righteous God who will punish sins and iniquities and will judge all those outside of Christ. And in this moment, right now, as you hear my voice, if you've never placed faith in Jesus Christ, you are an enemy of God. You are at odds with God. The Bible tells us that in places like Ephesians 2, 1-3, Psalm 7. He's angry at the wicked all day long. That's what the Bible says. And you don't have to stay in that place. Romans 5-1 talks about the fact that by faith, We have been reconciled. We were enemies. God brought us back together by faith in Christ. And now we have peace with God. His anger, His wrath, His judgment has been appeased by the blood of Jesus Christ. And our relationship now with God as believers is one of peace, harmony, togetherness. But until you have that relationship with God, you will never have peace from God. You can't have the second without the first. So the invitation here today is first and foremost, come to Jesus for salvation. Come to Jesus and be saved so that your separation can be reconciled. That what Jesus did on the cross was love you so much that He died for your sins. and that He took the punishment that you deserve and one day will face if you don't get right with God. And you come by simple faith, simple trust, saying, Lord, I've tried it my way, I've done it my way, I'm not good enough, I'm not powerful enough, I'm not worthy enough to ever enter your kingdom. But if Jesus can do it for me, I want it. I'm going to come to Him today and trust that He can save me like so many others have done. And when you do that, you will have peace with God. And then you can focus on having the peace of God that comes along with that relationship. Because the world looks at this, and I'm going to close with this thought. It surpasses all understanding. The world thinks we're crazy. The world thinks we're foolish. The world thinks it's insane for us. It's a crutch for us to take all of our problems and say that God is going to take care of them for us. That's just a way to get through life, but it's not a reality. Don't believe that language and that talk and that lie. God is not just a theory or a thought. He is real. And unless you believe that and know that, you still haven't met the Jesus that I know. He's as real as anybody in this room. He's as real as I am standing here today talking to you. He is alive without a shadow of a doubt. He came out of that tomb three days later. He was seen of many people, and He ascended back to the Father. Right now He's seated at the right hand of the Father, and He's coming back for His church. That is the Jesus that is in this book. That is the Jesus that I have trusted, and that is the Jesus that you have to trust. Do you know Him today? If you do, the world will think you're crazy, but I'm telling you there's a peace that passes all understanding, and He says He will guard our hearts and minds. I'm glad to have Jesus watching over my heart and mind, because both of them are prone to wander. My heart goes in many different directions. My mind goes all over the place sometimes. and I need somebody to keep guard over it. We're supposed to keep watch over it too, but I'm glad that Jesus keeps watch over that. When I fill my life with His Word, when I surround myself with like-minded believers, when I abide in Christ, there is a guard, that's a military term by the way, a stand watch. If you've ever served in the military and you had that duty where you had to stand watch, it's a serious thing. You don't sleep, you don't probably even blink. Right? And that's what this Word is telling us, that God does for us. I'm going to invite Cal to come with Shane to lead us in our invitation hymn today. And as they're coming, I want to share this last story with you. When aviation was just beginning, when it was just starting to really take off, there was a pilot that was going to be making a cross-country flight, one of the first ones. The plane takes off, well into his route, traveling. About two hours in, he hears a noise under the dash of the cockpit. And after listening for a moment, he realizes that it's a rat up underneath there, gnawing on something. And he didn't know if it's chewing a wire, if it's chewing a cable, or what was going on, but he knew it was serious. He knew that this was a problem. And so as he sat there wondering what he ought to do, he finally had this thought. And he took the plane and he began to climb. He began to climb higher and higher, ascending up into the altitude. And slowly the noise began to get fainter and fainter until eventually it stopped. The rat had died. That lofty atmosphere was more than it could handle. When you ascend into the presence of God, a lot of the things of the world will fall off. A lot of the things of the world will die. But the problem is, I think that we're a lot like that rat. Worry is a lot like that rat in our life. It keeps gnawing and gnawing away at our peace and our joy. and our strength. And the invitation in this text today is to ascend high enough, near enough to God before those things are choked out and die. Will you trust Him today with your soul, with your situations, and with your sanctification? Father, we come to you today, Lord, just asking you to move in our life and in this invitation, Lord. Many here today have come in with overwhelming burdens. And Lord, I pray today that they are encouraged to truly lay those down and trust you with them and leave them here today with you. God, have your way in our hearts. Most of all, if someone's lost today, God, that they would Stop trying, stop striving, stop working to make you happy and realize that in Christ they will already be accepted if they'll just turn to Him and ask. So Lord, as we give this invitation, draw and save and encourage and help. And we give you all the thanks for whatever you do here today. In Jesus' name, amen.