Good morning, Grace. Let's continue to worship our God this morning by considering His Word. I invite you this morning to turn back to 1 Peter. We're continuing our exposition of chapter 5. And this morning we find ourselves in verses 5 through 7. We're going to be spending the bulk of our time in the latter part of verse 5 through 7, but for the reading this morning I'm just going to read verses 5 through 7. So let's give our attention to the reading of God's Word. 1 Peter 5, verses 5-7. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. 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, because He cares for you. Let's ask the Lord for help one last time this morning before we enter into an exposition of the Word. Father God, we have sung some pretty bold things this morning. My faith finds rest in God alone. I will cling to every promise of Your Word. Father, so many of us this morning have stood shoulder to shoulder with other saints singing those things. There's a sinking feeling within many of our hearts that we don't always believe those things, Father. We do want rest, but we want them outside of faith and trust because faith and trust at times are so dangerous it seems. It's dangerous to not know exactly what's going to happen next in any given trial. It's dangerous, Father, not to have all the details so that we can, like those preparing for the apocalypse, be ready for every conceivable contingency. It's hard to trust You, Father. But would You remind us through this word of Peter's this morning that faith is the best option, that trust is the best option, that Your sovereignty is such that You have our best interests in mind. Father, would You remind all of us, preacher and congregants alike, that You are sovereign and that we might find rest in it. We ask all these things in Your Son's name, Amen. Most of the time when I go into a retail store to maybe get a computer or go onto a car lot to buy a car, I'm always a little anxious. I kind of feel like a deer frolicking in the woods with hunters surrounding me for the kill. Especially on a car lot. Many have been the times when I've walked across the boundary line of the car lot and I'm starting to look at cars and one by one the car salesmen come out of the woodwork and you can just see the plastic smile on their face and the dollar signs in their eyes. And it makes me anxious. They're ready to make a buck at my expense. But then there's other times when I'm actually pleasantly surprised and maybe you've had this experience too. Like recently I was looking for and researching a computer and I set my sights on this one computer that was very expensive and had everything that I thought that I needed but I thought I'm just gonna call a consultant from the computer company and see if they could help me out. And as I called, the consultant asked me a bunch of questions. What are you looking for? What are you trying to do? What kind of work are you doing? And after all his battery of questions, he basically said, you know, this option that you're thinking of, it is more expensive and it's got more horsepower, but it's not the best for you. You actually need this one, which is four tiers down. And I was pleasantly surprised. I mean, here's a guy who could take advantage of my naivete and dig into my pocketbook, but instead, he actually wanted to help me. I mean, I felt like tipping the guy. Is there any way I can just give you a tip over the phone? But sometimes, you get better than what you expect. And I think in the case of worrying, that's something that we need to hear. I know that many of you in this place worry. Some of you worry more, some of you worry less, some of you it depends on what the issue is but at any point in our life we may find ourselves worrying and I wonder if you ever think as you're in the midst of that loop of worrying as you're Thinking about that conversation you're gonna have that hard conversation You're gonna have with somebody or that big decision that you're gonna have to make and you just can't get it out of your mind It's just running like a loop and like a cycle in your mind. Do you ever stop and think is there something better than this? Is there something better than being really something of an addict? An addict that's got to get that next hit. He's just waiting and waiting and biding his time and focusing. Or another analogy might be this. You're a slave. You're a slave to circumstances. You're a slave to a situation and you feel like, is there liberty somewhere? Is there something better than worry? I mean, what is worry after all? It's natural for us to worry, but worry is focusing inward. It's natural for people who don't know the future. Worry prefers self-protection over what? Over trust. Worry can hear many encouraging words, even from God, and stay unmoved. That's how powerful worry is. Worry can be life-dominating. And you know what? If you're listening, worry can reveal to you that you love something more than Jesus. Worry crowds out Jesus' power, worry crowds out Jesus' promises, and it crowds out Jesus' control of your life and all the things that He does and does not bring into it. That's what worry does. Is there something better? Yes, there's something better. And God, through the apostle Peter, gives us what that is. You might even call what Peter gives us in this passage an antidote to worry. Not in the sense that you just take it once and you're inoculated and you never worry again. It's something, it's a belief, it's a conviction, it's an attitude, it's a characteristic that we constantly have to run back to in order to steal ourselves from worrying. And it's something that worriers wouldn't expect. In a word, what does Peter tell us? He exhorts us to humble ourselves under God's sovereign hand by casting all your cares on Him. Now I want you to notice something about this before we unpack it. This is not two commands. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and cast your worries on him for he cares. This is one command that thankfully tells you what to do, how to do it, and why to do it. Notice. Humble yourselves, and then the participle for casting is what we call an instrumental participle, meaning it's telling us the means by which we humble ourselves. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God while casting or by casting all your anxieties on Him. So it tells me to humble myself under God's sovereign hand. How do I do it? By casting your anxieties on Him. Why should I do it? Because He cares for me. And so, do you see how practical this is? God doesn't just dish out commands and say, now figure out how to do it. No, he gives us a command, he tells us how to do it, and he tells us why to do it, all in this little compact section of 1 Peter 5. And what I'd like to do this morning is I'd like to take this command and the promises attached to it and show how it is God's antidote to worry and in the midst show in four ways how this command from God, the what, the how, and the why, how it points up and exposes what worriers do and how God's something better is an antidote that we can grab onto and expect to find peace in the midst of. So let's consider these for a moment. Once again, we're considering what this promise, this exhortation does, and what it points up about worry in the midst. So here's the first thing. What does it tell us? tells us that warriors strive against something they cannot control. Warriors strive against something they cannot control. What does Peter say in verse 6? He says, "'Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God.'" Now what is this phrase, the mighty hand of God? We see it all throughout Scripture. Sometimes it's just the hand of God. Sometimes it's the strong hand of God. Sometimes it's the mighty hand of God. But the mighty hand of God basically refers to God's sovereign control over every single detail of your life. The good, the bad, and the ugly. It's what God brings about. You might call it providence. Providence is God's mighty hand. And isn't that interesting because we all know that God doesn't have a hand. He's speaking anthropomorphically here. He's attributing to God attributes of humanity. But we all understand this idea, this picture of a hand, right? I mean, think of it for a moment, a hand that brings good things, a hand that brings bad things, a hand that brings mundane things, a hand that brings ugly things. And back of all of it is God's sovereign providence. And those are words that you need to be accustomed with. Words not only that you should be accustomed with and familiar with theologically, but practically. God's mighty hand is the providence that He brings into our lives. And it's used throughout Scripture in at least two ways, and I want you to highlight them for a moment. Sometimes, first, the mighty hand of God is used to speak of bringing the children of God out of circumstances where they have no control. I want you to think of the children of Israel being brought out of Egypt. Before Moses came along, do you think that there were times when they tried to maybe lead a rebellion and get away from the Egyptians, get out of the house of slavery, or maybe individually try to get away, you know, escape? Of course. And every time, Egypt's strong and mighty thumb brought them back under their oppression. And then Moses comes along, and he's able to do some pretty amazing things. But in all the amazing things that He does, He brings them to a point just outside of Egypt where they are facing a sea right in front of them, which they cannot cross, and behind them they can hear the roaring wheels of the chariots coming for them. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place. There is a situation where they had no control. They were under God's mighty hand. And what did God do? He brought them out of the circumstance by taking the obstacle in front of them out of the way. And sometimes that's what God does. We've all been in situations where we've been in that rock and that hard place, and God, by His providence, by His grace, and by His mercy, in His time, brought us out of it. So that's one way that the mighty hand of God is used. But a second way that it's used is to bring us into, listen, to bring us into and keep us for a time in a circumstance where we have no control. Now there's a number of ways in which this is used, but I'll draw out two. In the book of Ruth 1.13, remember what happened? Naomi had a husband and two sons. Her husband died. Her two sons married. Her daughters-in-law, one of which was Ruth, and then they died. And then now, here's Naomi. She doesn't have a husband. She doesn't have two sons to carry on her name. And her daughters-in-law want to stay with her. And she says, no, go away because the mighty hand of God has come against me and I am exceedingly bitter. The Lord had brought her into the place where she was not going to have an heir apparent as it were. He had brought her into a place where he did not provide for her somebody to take care of her. And sometimes that's the situation that the Lord puts us in. Job likewise spoke to his friends about all the things that the Lord had brought upon him. And he said that all of this, does not everybody know that all of this is from the mighty hand of God? And maybe for some of you this morning, that's the way in which the mighty hand of God is working on you. He has brought you into, and for the present, is keeping you in a circumstance over which you have no control. You say, well, what's the point, Josh? The point is what Peter says in verse 6. Verse 5, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And then he says in verse 6, therefore, what's the conclusion, Peter? Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. What is he saying? There's nothing else that you can do but humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. Try as you may, you will not escape the providences that the Lord is going to bring in your life. You can't. But you know what we as instinctive warriors wish this verse said? This is what we wish this verse said. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God so that He can give you control. That's what we wish the verse said. We want control in situations where we don't have it. Now, is that an instinctively bad thing to desire? No. No. If my kid has cancer, I want control to alleviate him of that disease. I'm gonna do everything in my power, every ethical thing in my power to make that go away and relieve the pain in my son's body. But what if God doesn't bring it? Well, that's where this verse leaves us. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. You know, in most of our trials, dear congregation, God doesn't give us control. What does He give us? He gives us grace. Grace to get through it. Grace to be sustained. Grace, listen, to grow by. You see, one of the things that we are so reluctant to see in so many of our situations and circumstances which bring worry and anxiety is oftentimes, most times, it's those very circumstances by which the Lord is trying to show us something about ourselves. And you know what? God is so wise. Oftentimes He sends shots across the bow to try to show us something about ourselves, maybe a defect in our character, maybe something that needs to grow, maybe something that needs to be sharpened. And in those good circumstances, we don't see it. I've had a few people come and tell me that I need to be more humble, or a few people come and tell me I need to be more gentle, but whatever, they're all wet and I've got it all figured out. So God turns up the heat a little bit, right? He says, okay, well maybe this will get your attention. And He brings a calamity, He brings a tragedy under His mighty hand that wakes us up. What is it that's going to open our eyes to see and unclog our ears to hear the voice of God through the conduit of that trial? Grace. That's why God says, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that He can lift you up. He gives you grace to get through it. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. So the antidote, the antidote to worry on this first head is grace. Recognizing the power and the efficiency of grace. But here's the second thing I want you to notice. Warriors live in the future but not far enough in the future. What do I mean by that? Warriors are incredibly creative in all the things that they concoct that might happen. They imagine that there's going to be a wildfire, it's going to consume their house, they imagine that people are going to break into their house. They lock the doors, they go back because they forgot that they locked the doors or didn't think that they locked the doors or don't trust themselves that they locked the doors. So they go back and keep locking the doors or they wash their hands four or five times because maybe the first time and the second time and the third time didn't get all the germs. And if they get a germ, they'll get some flesh-eating bacteria that'll eat away their face and they won't have a face anymore. I mean, it's amazing how creative we can be, isn't it? Ed Welch says, any experienced worrier can go for days leapfrogging from past to future and back again, never landing in the present. When they travel into the future, they see it in technicolor and vivid detail. Before they go for a routine physical, they can hear the doctor pronouncing the dire diagnosis. We're incredibly creative in what? Listen to me very carefully. Looking into the future. You know what we need to do? We need to look further into the future. I want you to look at 1 Peter 5, where I'm getting this, verse 6. Now, some commentators have tried to say, well, what this is saying is, in any given dark providence or difficult providence in which you find yourself, humble yourself under God's sovereignty, and He will get you out of that trial. Okay? Well, I do see this as a promise, whatever it's saying, but if that's what the promise means, then God has not kept His promise to numerous saints throughout the centuries. Because numerous saints throughout the centuries, God has brought, let's just say, a terminal illness like cancer. That's something to worry about. That's something to be anxious about. And yet they steal themselves to submit themselves to God's mighty hand. And did He exalt them? No. Oftentimes, the very providence God brought into their life to humble them is the providence that He used to take them home. They weren't able to say, God exalted me. No, I think the better way to understand this is when he says at the proper time, in the Greek it's just the kairos, which just means a season, a time, an appointed realm, if you will. And the way that Peter uses day and time and revelation throughout his epistle always refers to what? To the end. He's talking about the eschaton, he's talking about the new heavens and the new earth. So what he is saying here is, in verse 6, "...humble yourselves therefore unto the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time," that is, the day of visitation, chapter 2, verse 12, chapter 1, really throughout, God will come and Christ will break through the clouds, and at that appointed time, He will make all things new. and the inheritance that He has promised you, which is undefiled, imperishable, unfading, kept in heaven for you, will be yours, then your head will be exalted as you have submitted yourselves to the will of God. So, let me clarify, I am not saying that the way that God operates is that he doesn't bring us out of trials. No, he does. But what I think Peter is getting at here is he has a more holistic view of things. Take all your trials, all your providences that cause anxiety and fear and worry to crowd in your heart and take this into perspective. Don't look into the future like, oh, in 10 years I'll get past this, in four months I'll get past this. Look further into the future to the new heavens and the new earth and see that Christ will wipe away every tear and eradicate every disease. This is why we make so much here at Grace Covenant Church about being eschatologically oriented in our understanding of the promises. Everything is ultimately fulfilled in the end. And listen to me, if what God is going to do in the end for you, giving you a new body, restoring the whole earth, giving you a mindset that will wipe away every tear, no tear, no grief over lost loved ones, but all things made new, even my mind, such that all those that God glorifies and all those that God damns, I rejoice in. I know that's hard. I know that's hard. It's hard for us in our unglorified bodies right now to conceive of that. But if I am in the new heavens and the new earth, and I know that one of my loved ones, for example, is in hell, there will be tears. But God says he's going to wipe every tear away. So what does that mean? He's going to so radically reconfigure my mindset that whatever glorifies God is something I rejoice in. So the end, the end is what we should be looking for. So coming back to what warriors do, warriors look to the future. What's going to happen here? Look further into the future. And isn't this what Jesus says? John 16, 33, I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. but take heart, I have overcome the world." He's talking about new heavens and new earth. He's talking about eschatological promises. Notice He doesn't say, you will have tribulation, but take heart, I may or may not bring you through it. He's not focusing on the temporal, He's focusing on the eternal. He's focusing on the eschatological. So the second problem that worriers face is that they don't look far enough into the future. And the antidote is, humble yourselves into the mighty hand of God and at the proper time, when he makes all things new, he will exalt you. Thirdly, thirdly, worriers are false prophets with poor success rates. You know, such dire predictions that we make, oftentimes, are not impossible. This is one of the hardest things to deal with, with worriers. I've counseled worriers, I will continue to counsel worriers, and one of those worriers is myself. I have to talk to myself, I have to preach to myself, and in the course of any given week, any given day, I find myself prognosticating about things that are going to happen. a job that may be lost, loved ones that may fall prey to illness, or the economy collapsing, or my car breaking down, or getting fired from my job, all these different things. And then you know what? It's possible. That's the thing. It's possible. One of the things you can't tell warriors regarding the temporal affairs is that there's nothing to worry about. That's not going to happen. No, it can happen. It can happen. And so what do we do? We often say, well, statistically, the likelihood of a plane crashing directly on your car while you're driving is not very likely. But you know what warriors are really good at? Finding the statistical anomalies, right? Yeah, but it's possible. Yeah, it is possible. And that's what makes it so difficult. But can I just bring something to your mind? Number one, this is why it's hard to prove worriers wrong, because you're trying to approach the situation logically. But one thing you can show worriers, either others or yourself, is this. They have a very poor track record. They have a very poor track record of the dire circumstances that they imagine actually coming true, right? At least in the details. Things are not always as bad as you think they're going to be. Sometimes bad things happen, yeah, but they're almost never as bad as we think they are. So let me take a biblical definition and job description of a prophet and lay it before you for consideration. One who is a prophet according to Deuteronomy 18 is one whose every prediction comes true 100% of the time. So if you are going to be a successful prophet as a warrior, you have to have a perfect track record. And guess what? You don't. You don't have a perfect track record. So if you think about the credibility of your prophesying, it should be that which discourages you from putting stock in the things that you prophesy. So what is the antidote to being a false prophet without authority? Well, Peter says, cast all your cares and anxieties on him. Let me tell you three things that this means. Okay, three things. We need to stop seeking control and make much of grace. As I've already said, this means that we accept what God has brought in our life. We do everything that we can to change it. We should. Without sinning, we do everything that we can to change it. But whatever still remains, we accept it. That's what God's scepter has brought. That means that God intended to bring affliction and just leave it in your life for a little while for reasons that He has not disclosed to you yet. We don't know how long it's going to be, but we do know that it's there. So we need to stop seeking control where control cannot be found and accept and make much of grace. Secondly, what does it mean to cast your anxieties on Him? Casting our anxieties on the Lord, listen, is faith. Casting our cares on the Lord is faith. It's not blindly saying, oh, these things aren't important, these things don't matter. No, it's not saying that at all. It wants you to take sin seriously. It wants you to take heartache seriously. It wants you to take affliction seriously. It's not that they're there, it's what you do with them. And when you cast your cares on the Lord, what you're doing is you're exhibiting faith. Let me give you an example. Abraham was called to leave his fatherland, to leave his kin, and to sojourn to a land that was not his own. You think Abraham had some questions about that? I mean, is there a Wawa on the way? I mean, like, God, is that really you talking? I mean, you know, like, how long do you want me to be? What am I going to do when I get there? I mean, I'm sure he had a lot of questions, but there's a reason why he's a permanent fixture in Hebrews chapter 11's hall of faith. You want to know why? He trusted God. He trusted God for the unanswered questions that he did not have at the present. And he trusted that when God was pleased to reveal those things, he would, but the big picture was God said, go. And what does God tell you in the trial you're in right now? Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, and at the proper time, he will lift you up. What about Noah? I mean, Noah is even more radical in my mind. Here's Noah at a time when it had never rained. And because it had never rained, it had never flooded. And God says, Noah, build an ark. Okay, Lord, you're gonna have to give some specifications and design structure because I don't even know what that is. Okay, I'll give it. But refresh my memory, God. What's coming? That's what's coming. I don't know what that is. So you want me to make an ark so that we can avoid rain, which I don't know what that is, and a flood, and I don't know what that is, and people are making fun of me because they think that I'm just creating things out of thin air. You want me to trust you? Yeah, I want you to trust me. I want you to do it. You think Noah had questions? He had questions, but he was content to trust that the Lord was smarter than him, wiser than him, and had a plan. And guess what? How did it fare for old Noah? It boded pretty well for him. Consider that when anybody tells you something like telemarketers and you know, all these types of things, you always want to consider what? You want to consider the source, right? So somebody calls me with this vacation package that's too good to be true. I got to consider the source. I don't know this person. They have an accent. They're probably speaking in India somewhere, which means, you know, I mean, outsourcing all that kind of stuff, trying to go through all my head. But I don't know this person, how can I trust them? Who is the source of the one who's telling you, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God and he will lift you up? It's God. And what is his track record? Our track record is pathetic in prophesying the future. What is God's track record? Every saint that he determined that would be brought into spiritual rest after their death has been brought there. Not one has been lost. That's God's track record. God has never put you through something that you cannot handle. God will never put you through something that you cannot handle. That doesn't mean that you won't make a bad decision and handle it poorly, but it does mean with the temptation, 1 Corinthians 10.13, He will provide a what? A way of escape. This is the God who is calling us to trust Him. But here's the third thing. Still asking the question, what does it mean to cast your anxieties on Him? And this is really important. Please listen very carefully. Casting your anxieties on Him is trust. And trust is meant to work in hindsight and in the absence of foresight. What do I mean by that? Let me give you a little analogy. A man wakes up late for work one day, and it's a big day. He's got a proposal that he's got to give to his boss and his work group at 9 a.m., and it's a very important proposal. In fact, his promotion is riding on this proposal. but he wakes up late. His alarm clock didn't go off for whatever reason and he gets up, he scurries around, he grabs a pop tartan and puts it in his mouth and gets his suit coat on, grabs his briefcase and he's running out the door and he gets into his car and sure enough the traffic is crazy. And he's behind people that can't decide if they want to drive or park. I mean, this guy, I mean, he is just, every light that he comes to is red. It's like as if the powers that be said, oh, he's coming, let's make sure we put the light red because we don't want him to have an easy morning. And he's stressing out and he's like, Lord, why are you putting me in this situation? You know how important this is. And just questioning the track record and legitimacy of God's sovereignty the whole way to work. And as he gets closer, as he gets closer to the building where he was supposed to give a presentation, he sees two plumes of smoke coming out of both of those buildings. And within moments he sees those two buildings crashing to the ground. What does his anxiety turn into at that point? Thankfulness. Lord, thank you that that alarm clock didn't go off. Lord, thank you that people don't know whether they're parking or driving. Lord, thank you for the red lights. Isn't that crazy? You know what that is? That's hindsight. That's 2020. Have you ever had an experience like that? You wanted something so badly, so desperately, but God's mighty hand kept it from you, and later down the road, you saw that if he had given it to you, it would have been a disaster. It's in those circumstances that we thank God for keeping us from something that we wanted so badly. But here's my question. Why can't we do that before hindsight is 20-20? because we haven't learned to totally trust God yet. We are intoxicated with having our way right away. We operate with this tunnel vision that only sees our desired end when all the while God may, in most cases, and in most cases does have a different end and a different design for us. You see, trust expresses itself in gratitude, listen, in gratitude when we don't know the immediate outcome of the circumstances. I want you to listen to Paul in Philippians chapter 4, verses 6 through 7. Paul front-loads his trust in thanksgiving before he knows the outcome of the circumstances and implores us to do the same thing. Philippians 4, 6 and 7, he says, Notice this. with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Jesus Christ." Wouldn't it be liberating, church? Wouldn't it be liberating in those cases when certainty and control are off the table, they're out of reach? If we could actually trust God's well-planned-out arrangements, instead of losing hours and days and even years of our life worrying about what might be. You see, there is rest here. That's what Peter's getting at. There's rest here. Peter knows your and my need, that we need rest. This is why Jesus says, come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And Jesus offers rest from your worry. He offers rest from your anxiety. He offers rest from your fears by trusting in His raw sovereignty. But what are three ways that we often try to help warriors? Well, we start by saying, well, worry doesn't help. Thank you, Captain Obvious. That was spectacular. That's true. It's not wrong. It's true. Worry doesn't help. And then when that doesn't work, we add, well, look, worry has more in common with astrology than it does with a careful weather forecast. Sometimes I wonder if there's a distinction between those two things. But then finally they try to assuage the worrier by making the environment more secure if possible. They want to give statistical security. So Ed Welch gives this great story. He says, an empty nest wife was petrified to be alone. She had visions of murderers and robbers and rapists invading her home. And so her husband asked the local police officer for records of crimes committed within a three mile radius. Other than the disappearance of a cell phone and a case of beer, the area had been remarkably free of crime for over the last five years. You think that assuaged her conscience? No. She still had fears. So then, you know what he did? Her husband installed alarms in the house and positioned motion detectors outside, but her fears only grew while their bank account shrank. Put it bluntly, warriors don't listen very well. It takes something more powerful than logic and statistical probabilities to assuage our fears and anxieties. What was this husband doing? Well, he was trying to love his wife, he was trying to serve his wife, but he was giving his wife security through what the world offered. And a worrier is always going to find the statistical anomalies in what the world offers. He wasn't helping her. He was hurting her. We need something more. We need something not from below, but something from above. And this is what Peter gives us. So fourthly then, worriers doubt God's paternal care. It's not so much that worriers doubt that God is there. It's that worriers doubt that God, listen, is good. We doubt that God is good. You know what we think about God sometimes in our worrying? He's out to get me. How many of you have done this before? I do it constantly, and I repent in sackcloth and ashes, but when things are going really well, we're waiting for the hammer to drop, right? God is around the corner. He's like, oh, Josh is having way too much fun. We're going to do something about that. Here's a trial. Here's a trial. Here's a trial. How do you like them apples? Is that our God? Peter says, cast your anxieties on Him, for He what? He's a cosmic killjoy? No, He cares for you. Do you see the paternal care in the Father's mighty hand? The paternal care in the mighty Father's hand is this, His intention for you is good. When we begin to doubt the goodness of our Father's care, the antidote is this, remember His intention toward us. His intention toward us is summed up in Romans 8, 28. All things work out for the good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Are you gods? How do you know if you're gods? How do you know if you are one of God's children? How do you know if you are an object of God's affection and care with His mighty hand? If you have turned from your sins and trusted in the person and work of Jesus Christ? It is in that position, in faith union with Jesus Christ, that every intention of God's providential revealing of history is for your good. The trial you're in right now, the anxieties that you're wrestling through right now, they are for your good. God is doing something through them. So finally, consider this. Jesus conquered all things through humility and submission. What is so incredibly fascinating to me, as we consider the big picture in all of this, is how did Jesus conquer the world? How did He do it? Did He do it by a brute force of strength? A display of strength, toppling all of His enemies? No, you know what? You know how Jesus conquered all? Through humility. Jesus conquered all through humility and submission to the Father. He had something on His plate that if we were to combine all of our anxieties and all of our worries in just this congregation, they wouldn't even be a drop in the bucket to what Jesus had to do. You talk about stress. Have you ever worried so much that your sweat turned into blood? Jesus did. because he was considering the prospect of taking upon himself the unmitigated wrath of God for your sins and my sins and the sins of all his elect. That is a heavy task. Did he take his marbles and go home? No. Did he say, Father, I don't like the arrangements? Give me control. He's submitted as the second member of the Trinity. What was the arrangement? The arrangement was the covenant of redemption. Son, if you become a man, born of a virgin, born under the law, live a perfect life, and go to the cross, I will resurrect you, seat you at my right hand, and I will give you my children. and he submitted himself to that will. Here's my question for you. Isn't that enough to convince you that humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God is that which will give you peace? What more do we need than the example of Jesus Christ? Nothing you will experience in your life will be as catastrophic and extreme as what Jesus has done. And how did He conquer? He conquered through humility. He conquered through submission. May the Lord give us a spirit to do the same for His honor and glory. Let's pray.