We're turning to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew's gospel chapter 6 will commence at the 24th verse, Matthew chapter number 6. The verse number 24 is where we'll begin our reading and we'll read to the end of the chapter. Matthew chapter 6 and the verse number 4, the Lord Jesus Christ is the speaker here. It is the Sermon on the Mount and he is speaking in the verse 24, he said, no man can serve two masters. For either ye will hate the one, and love the other, or else ye will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, or yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the foils of the air, for they sew not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? which if you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature. Why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin. Yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Wherefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." We end our reading at the end of verse 34. Let's pray, and we pray that God will minister to your heart today. Our Heavenly Father, We bow before thy word. Rejoice, O God, that we have found thy word to be greater than great spoil. It is our delight. We thank thee that it's food for our lives. We thank thee, O God, that by it we are instructed. And though we even be foolish, and though we be ignorant and illiterate and uneducated, though even a fool shall not err in the ways thereof. Lord, we pray that today our hearts might be instructed and might find benefit and profit to our very lives, O God, as we meet around the Word. Grant, O God, the help of Thy Spirit. Be aware that unless the Holy Spirit takes truth and applies it with power to the heart and to the conscience, then nothing of value, O God, will be benefited and nothing of value will be known within our lives. We may as well have sat at home, but we pray for the workings of the Spirit, the ministry of the Holy Ghost, for it is His work to reveal Christ to us and to lead us into all truth. Help, O God, this preacher, we pray, and give me clarity of thought and mind, for I pray these my prayers and petitions in and through Jesus' precious name. Amen and amen. I suppose today that we could say that the message today is seen to be complementary and supplementary to the message that I preached last Lord's Day on the subject of fear, because really the life issues that we want to consider today are the byproducts of our fears. Today I want to speak to you on what the Bible has to say about anxiety and worry. Anxiety and worry. I'm sure if I was to do a straw poll in this meeting house today and ask the question, has there ever been a time in your life that you've found yourself to be anxious? You've found yourself to be worried? I'm sure that from the oldest to the youngest, Without exception, every individual would have to say, yes, there have been times in my life when I have found myself to be in an anxious or to be in a worried state. Now in researching for today, I went to the National Health Service website to see what it had to say about anxiety. It defined, first of all, what anxiety is. It said, anxiety is a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear, that can be mild or severe. It went on to say that everyone has feelings of anxiety at some point in their life. For example, you may feel worried or anxious about sitting an exam or having a medical test or a job interview. During times like these, feeling anxious can be perfectly normal. However, some people find it hard. to control their worries. Their feelings of anxiety are more constant and can affect their daily lives. Anxiety is the main symptom of several conditions, including panic disorder, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, and social anxiety disorder. In 2017, the Prince's Trust did an online survey of young adults living in Northern Ireland between the ages of 16 and 25. Of the almost 2,200 young people that were surveyed, 60% of them said that they always or they often feel anxious. In the United Kingdom, it is believed that a sixth of our population, around 10 million people, struggle with anxiety on a daily experience. From personal experience, I remember the night before I was about to sit my final undergraduate exam at Queen's University. I remember waking up that night and I felt that I couldn't breathe. I felt I couldn't breathe. I became so anxious that my friend called the ambulance and I found myself the night before my final examination in the Royal Victoria Hospital. And I was diagnosed with having what is known as a panic attack and was brought on as a result of stress and anxiety and worry associated with my final exams. Now, I was discharged and I did the exam. and the Lord helped and all that. But anxiety and worry, they are real issues that people face in our society. And I find it to be so as I go around the congregation that there are many and they find themselves anxious. or they find themselves worried about some situation that God has by his providence brought them into. So today we want to think about these issues and what the Bible has to say about the issues of anxiety and worry. Now the first place I want to answer the question, from where does anxiety and worry arise? From where does anxiety and worry arise? Well, looking at the problems of anxiety and worry from a human viewpoint, the source of anxiety and worry can widely vary from person to person, and it is often dependent on that person's age, and dependent on that person's circumstances. You think of a child. There's very little things that, or there's things that a child worries about that they really do not need to worry about. A child may become anxious about going to bed in the dark. Or they may become worried about having mislaid some toy of theirs, some comfort blanket that they've found, or they have been comforted by during their life. A teenager, they're not going to be worried about sleeping in the dark about some toy that they've lost, but they're going to become concerned or worried about an examination. Or maybe they're going to be concerned about what their peers think about them in their class. or in their place of work. A young person, they're going to become anxious maybe about remaining single for the rest of their lives. That causes them great anxiety or how they're going to get on to the housing ladder or how they're going to pay off a mortgage. A middle-aged person, they might be worried about the size of their pension pot or about the well-being of their children or aging parents, whereas an older individual may find themselves concerned about various personal health issues or scares or to who's going to care for them when they can no longer care for themselves. Many are the sources of our worry and our anxiety. If we look at it simply from a human viewpoint, Whenever we come to consider the life issues of worry and anxiety from a biblical viewpoint, we have to say that such emotions arise once again because of the fall of man. Because of the fall of man. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in their innocent state were never found to be in an anxious or in a worried state of mind. However, when the fall occurred and Adam and Eve fell from innocence into sin, we find themselves becoming anxious and worried about the approach of God in the Garden of Eden. We find them hiding themselves among the trees of the garden and we find themselves to be afraid. But if you turn to Genesis chapter 3, you'll find a very interesting verse with respect to the fall. Genesis chapter 3, this is the chapter that reveals to us how men fell and how mankind fell from their innocent state. You'll find what God pronounces with respect to the woman. I want you to look at the verse number 13. No, the verse number 16. The verse number 16 of Genesis chapter 3. God is speaking here, and this is what God says to Eve. Now, there are two sorrows in that verse. And you would think that those sorrows are the same word, but they're not. If you just get out a concordance, you'll find that these two words in Genesis 3 verse 16 are two different Hebrew words. Now the second word, sorrow, translates to mean painful toil or pain. in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children. And any woman who has given birth to children by natural means you'll understand that completely. You'll understand the painful toil, the pangs that you endured in the bringing forth of that child. But that sorrow is not the same sorrow as the first sorrow in our verse. I will greatly multiply thy sorrow. This is what God says to Eve, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow. And that word sorrow, it literally translates to mean worrisomeness, worrisomeness. I will greatly multiply thy worrisomeness. It comes from the verb to worry. And so we find that worry on at least the part of the woman at this stage, is part of the consequences of the fall. Now, is that not true? I speak to every woman here today, maybe every mother. Are you not the worrier of the family? Is it not you that lie on the bed at night? The children are out, maybe, with their friends, and you are lying there worried, and your husband, well, he's away to the land of Nod. He's happy and content, but not you. You're the natural worrier within the family. The Bible commentator Albert Barnes said concerning God's sentence of sorrow here upon the woman in Genesis 3, verse 16, this sorrow, seems to extend to all the mother's pains and anxieties concerning her offspring. And so he sees it further than the giving of birth to children. He sees that this is part of a mother's lot in life as a result of the fall. She is going to become a worrisome being. She's going to become worried naturally. It is a part of the fall. But in Proverbs chapter 5 and the verse 6 and 7, you'll find another interesting verse. Sorry, Job, I think. Maybe it's Job. I possibly have this reference wrong. Try Job and the chapter number 5. Job's friend, Elipaz, is speaking here. Yes, it's Job chapter 5, verse number 6 and 7. Job chapter five, verse six and seven, although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither does trouble spring out of the ground, yet man is born onto trouble as the sparks fly upward. Now we've thought about woman, but here we have that man is born onto trouble as the sparks fly upward, just as it is natural. for sparks to arise from a piece of wood that abides in a fire, just as natural as it is for a spark to fly upward. So trouble for mankind is natural. Man is born onto it. It's our lot in life. But the very interesting thing is that word trouble can again be literally translated worry. Man is born onto worry as the sparks fly upward. You go into the New Testament, Lord Jesus Christ, what did he speak of? He spoke in that great parable, the parable of the sower. He spoke about the cares off this life. The worries, that's what he was speaking of, the anxieties of this life. He would speak elsewhere about the cares off the world. When we think, Peter, of what he said, casting all your cares, all your worries, your anxieties upon Christ. What do we find Paul saying to the saints in Philippi? Be careful, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer with thanksgiving make your requests known unto God. Here we have the Lord Jesus Christ and we have his apostles stating that living in this world brings with it its cares, its anxieties, and its worries. And whenever we strip everything back to its bare bones, we come to see that worry and anxiety arises from simply living in a fallen world. And living in that fallen world with bodies and with hearts and with minds that have been affected by the fall. Worry, because we live in a fallen world. Thank God in glory. There is nothing that will cause us anxiety. Thank God in the glory of the hand there will be nothing that will cause us anxiety of mind or of heart. We'll be glorified. We'll be like Christ. We thank God for that. But in this world, we're going to have times when we're going to sit down and we're going to just feel worried and anxious. Maybe that's you today. You've come to this house. Something's on the horizon. Something has happened in a week that has passed. You've come to God's house and you're sitting here worried. You're anxious. Well, let that anxiety and let that worry remind you that you live in a fallen world and that you need to be delivered from that worry and that anxiety by the power of the gospel. Maybe you're not a Christian. You ought to be worried. You ought to be anxious, anxious about your present state before God, worried about where your eternal destiny is, for you know not Christ yet as Lord and Savior, and so your worry and your anxiety should be multiplied a thousandfold if you know not Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. You ought to be worried that you are an object of condemnation. You need to be saved, born again of the Holy Spirit. And so we think about where our worry and anxiety arises from. But let me move on and quickly answer a second question, because our third question is the longest today. We need to rush on. What are the effects of anxiety and worry? What are the effects of anxiety or worry? Well, anxiety and worry affects a number of different realms in our lives. We need to remember that we are not only body, but we are spirit, we are soul. We are made up of different constituent parts, and yet we are whole. We are one man, we are one woman, but there are different realms in our lives that worry and anxiety can affect. Can I say first of all that it can affect the mental realm? Excessive worry. And do you know this to be true? Excessive worry can disturb the peace of mind that we want to enjoy. Peace of mind. Did you know that the word worry comes from an old English word or English term which means to choke or to strangle. And anyone who has dealt with worry or anxiety knows that that is the exact impact that it has upon a person's life. It strangles or it chokes your mind. And at times it can cause you to think in an irrational way and even behave in an irrational way. Find a verse in Proverbs 12 and the verse number 25. Listen to these words. Heaviness in the heart of a man maketh it stoop, but a good word maketh it glad. Heaviness in the heart of a man maketh it stoop. That word heaviness translates to mean anxiety. Anxiety in the heart of the man maketh it stoop. The word is depressed, depressed. Anxiety causes depression. That's what the Holy Spirit says. Heaviness in the heart of a man maketh it stoop. But look at it. But a good word maketh it glad. You think of that. You think of some individual that you know that's downcast and discouraged. A good word will make that person's heart glad. And where will you find a good word for that person? For your own intellect? From some book? some psychologist. No, you'll find a good word in the book of God, in the word of God. The promises of God will make glad the heart of the individual that is depressed, that is downcast because of anxiety, because of heaviness of heart. And heaviness of heart is but a picture of heaviness of mind, a depressed state of mind. And so anxiety and worry can affect the mental realm, but anxiety and worry can affect the physical realm. Excessive worry can be detrimental to a person's physical health. I am told that excessive anxiety can cause some people to eat too much. while others go to the other extreme and they don't eat enough? Have you found yourself so worried that you can't eat? And that can lead to food disorders. can lead to excessive worry, can lead to food disorders. Worry tends to interrupt the most healthiest of patterns. Warriors get less exercise, I am told, less sunlight, less sleep. They're less interactive with people as they withdraw themselves into cocoons of anxiety. Literally, people can worry themselves sick. Have you ever heard that statement? You're worrying yourself sick. You can literally do that. through excessive worry. J.R. Miller was a preacher, he said this, worry exhausts vitality more rapidly than nature can reinforce it. It is like friction in machinery and grinds away the very fiber of life. Worry therefore both impede progress and makes work unduly costly and exhaustion. I'm going to quote an individual, you'll know who it is. His name was John Calvin. You've heard of him? The great Protestant reformer, the man who stood for God, the one who gave us the institutes, and we thank God for that, the one who stood against the teachings of those who opposed the doctrines of grace. John Calvin was prone to anxiety. Did you know that? Prone to anxiety. This is what John Calvin said, those who are extremely anxious wear themselves out and become their own executioners. Those who are extremely anxious wear themselves out and become their own executioners. There is no doubt that worry and anxiety can affect our physical well-being. But most importantly, it can affect us in the spiritual realm. Worry does significant damage to your spiritual usefulness. Because if you're forever worried about everything and anything else, you will have no headspace to concern yourself about your own spiritual well-being about the prosperity of the church, about the advancement of the gospel, about the salvation of the lost. So consumed do you become with your own worries and with your own anxieties that your spiritual life will begin to suffer. And when that happens, then you are no use for God and for his service. Well, you may say, well, preacher, where could you back that up with respect to a biblical example? Well, if you turn to Luke's gospel, chapter 10, I'll give you an example. Give you an example of a person who lost out spiritually with God because of needless anxiety and worry in her life. The person I refer to, she lives in a village some one and a half miles east of the city of Jerusalem in a little village called Bethany. You'll know her name. Her name is Martha. Martha, the sister of Mary and Lazarus. You'll remember that the Savior had grown to love that little company, that little family. He frequented their home on a number of occasions. In Luke chapter 10, we read of one of those occasions when the Savior came to visit. Now, Mary's immediate response to the Savior coming through the door was that she dropped everything, everything that she was doing, and she sat down to listen to the word of God through the Son of God. However, we read concerning Martha, Notice verse 40, but Martha was cumbered about much serving. Cumbered about much serving. The literal translation is she was distracted with care. Distracted with care. And that as a result, do you know what it did? It caused friction within that home. Because Martha is misjudging Mary. That's what happens when an individual gets to a state of mind that they're so caught up with themselves, they start to find problems and issues with others within the family. It happens within physical families, it happens within spiritual families, the family of God, and she's covered about with much serving. It leads her to misjudge her sister's intentions as she sits at the feet of Jesus, and it draws this rebuff or rebuke from Christ in the verse number 41. Martha, Martha, thou art careful. and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful." The Savior speaks of Martha being troubled and careful about many things. He was literally saying, Martha, you're too anxious about secondary matters. Matters that are causing you to miss out on that which is the most important thing, sitting at my feet and hearing my word. Martha missed out because of anxious care, because of worry and anxiety. Is everything right for the master? Is the dinner on? Is the kettle boiling? Is the food ready? Is the house tidy? All of these things, they were legitimate things, yes. but they caused her to become over-anxious and over-concerned and worried, instead of just sitting at the feet of Jesus. And that needless worry and that needless anxiety meant that this woman, she failed to gain the spiritual benefit that should have been gained from a visit of the Son of God to her home. Now you may say, well preacher, that never happens to me, does it not? Do you not sometimes come to God's house and the burdens of life are so great, and the troubles of life are so great that you sit in God's house so preoccupied with your worries, so full of anxiety about something that has happened or even something that may happen, and you fail to gain any profit as the Word of God is being preached? You're just sitting there worried. Really, what the preacher says goes on, one ear goes out the other, because you're so over-anxious and so worried. You know, at times in God's house, we find ourselves just like Martha. We're cumbered. We're careful and troubled about many things. And that is always detrimental to our spiritual well-being. What she missed. by becoming so anxious and worried. And what Mary gained by having a submissive heart. In all three realms, whether it be mental, physical, spiritual, we do see that worry and over excessive worriedness, anxiousness, is not beneficial to the well-being of the child of God. So how do we deal with anxiety? How do we deal with this worry? That moves us on to our final consideration, our final question. How can, by God's grace, how can I combat anxiety and worry? I want to highlight a number of biblical truths that will enable you at least to rise above your worries and your anxieties. It may not dispel them. but at least it will help you to combat and to cope with anxiety and worry. And for memory's sake, they all begin with the letter S, the letter S. The first truth that I want to bring to your mind, the first truth that will help us combat anxiety and worry is the biblical truth of sovereignty, sovereignty. The Christian, gotten themselves entangled in the snare of needless worry is a Christian who has forgotten or at least has put to the back of their minds the biblical truth that God is sovereign over all things. Daniel 4 verse 25, the most high ruleth over the kingdom of men. The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men. And I believe that a Christian's anxiety, a Christian's worry, will be in proportion to their understanding and to their acceptance of the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. If you're a person who is anxious, If you're an individual who's worried about everything, even worries when you have nothing to worry about, you actually worry that you have nothing to worry about. There might be individuals like that. That might be your makeup. If you're such an individual, then it is most likely that you do not have a clear biblical understanding of the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. God has purposes. and those sovereign purposes he is working out by his providence on behalf of every child of God and the ultimate aim of those purposes is his glory, the glory of his name and the good of his people. Child of God, let me remind you that there is not a single circumstance not a single circumstance over which God is not in supreme control. There's not a trial, not a temptation, not an affliction of body or soul, not a loss, not a cross, not a painful bereavement, not a vexation of heart, not a grief of mind, not a disappointment, not a state, not a case, not a condition which is not under God's sovereign control. God is on the throne. He's on the throne. Joseph Charles Philpott, he said, God has sovereign supreme disposals over all events and circumstances. And then he said this, if we could see by the eye of faith that every foe and every fear, every difficulty and perplexity, every trying or painful circumstance, Every looked-for or unlooked-for event, every source of anxiety, whether at present or in prospect, are under His dominion and at His sovereign disposal. What a load of anxiety and care would be taken off our shoulders. What a load of anxiety and care would be taken off our shoulders. He is in sovereign control. And since his purposes are going to be fulfilled no matter what, why, child of God, expend your energy? Why expend your time on fretting and worrying about that which he has sovereignly proposed to do? One preacher said, the sovereignty of God is a comfort for suffering saints acting to remove anxiety. There have been times in my life that I have not understood why. Things that have come into our home that we question why. But in those occasions, I have rested my head on the sovereignty of God. God doeth all things well. So then why worry? Why fret? Something else that will help us to combat our anxiety and worry is the biblical truth of sonship. Sonship. We've eventually got to Matthew chapter 6. We're not going to preach it out and to exegete it, you'd be glad of that. But we did read Matthew chapter 6 and really this thought of sonship is what Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is emphasizing to his disciples. Now it's obvious that these individuals, they seem to have found themselves to be in an anxious and in a worried state of mind. What were they concerned about? The basics of life. What are we going to wear? What are we going to drink? What are we going to eat? And as the Lord Jesus Christ addressed these anxious disciples, he speaks in verse 32, and he reminds them in verse 32 that their heavenly father, Their heavenly Father knew that they had need of those things. He speaks in verse 26. Yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Speaking about the birds of the air. Your heavenly Father feedeth them. And by referring to God as the heavenly Father, the Savior is reminding his followers of their relationship with God. They're members of God's family. They're sons of God. And the Savior's argument was simply this, that if God the Father can care for the birds, and if He can clothe the lilies of the field and the grass of the field, can He not care for those who are His own children? Is it something that is outside His power to do? That He cannot provide and care for His own children? Of course he can, because he's our Father. Today's Father's Day, and we think of our earthly fathers, but what are they compared to our heavenly Father? Our Father in heaven, that is the relationship that you're in. You're in relationship with God, you're part of his family. And so those issues of life that you concern and worry and fret yourself about, your Father knoweth. that ye have need of those things. Your relationship with the Lord is one of the best guards that you have against ascending into crippling anxiety and worry. God is your father. God is your father. You are his son, you are his daughter if you know Christ as Savior. And being in such a relationship then, why have we any reason to worry? Thank God we can look up into You can look into the face of the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity and rejoice that that same one has a father's heart. He's got a father's heart. And that his heart beats with unutterable love towards you and I who are his children. Sonship. You have a father in heaven who'll take care of all of your needs. So don't worry, don't fret, and don't be coming over anxious. The third truth that will help us to combat anxiety and worry is the biblical truth of security. Security. Worry can arise in our hearts because we fail to recognize how secure we are in Christ Jesus. As Christians, James Smith remarked, if the devil knows that he cannot devour us, he will do all that he can to worry us. He can't devour us, but oh how often does he worry us. Does he not come to the young believer, even the older believer, causes them to worry? causes them to worry that their repentance was not sincere enough, that they did not say the right prayer when they first trusted in Christ, that their flawed living and their frequent sinning has caused them to become disqualified from being a child of God. However, whenever we come to understand in scriptures that we shall never perish, and neither shall any pluck us out of God's hand, and whatever comes our way, even death itself, we can rest assured that we are secure in Christ. We're safe in Christ. So why worry if you're safe in Him? Maybe the devil has brought you to a state of worry. He's caused you to become over-anxious about things that you need not to be anxious about. Let us not be ignorant of his defices, but let us remind him that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, and no one can lay any charge against God's elect. I'm secure. I'm secure in Christ. So why need I worry? The fourth truth that will help us to combat anxiety and worry is the biblical truth of sympathy. Sympathy. When I speak of sympathy, I'm speaking of Christ's sympathy for us. In sympathy, he invites us to do something. 1 Peter 5, verse 7, he invites us to cast all our care upon him, for he careth for you. The sympathizing great high priest invites you and I to throw over to him all our care. All that causes you anxiety today, he invites you to cast your care upon him and allow him to deal with that which has caused you such worry and concern. Will you do that this afternoon? Will you take your anxieties and will you cast them upon your God by prayer? Will you bring that which troubles you and leave it with him? A. W. Pink said, nothing is too big and nothing is too small to spread before and cast upon the Lord. There is no care, there is no anxiety, there is no worry, there is no distress, no perplexity too small. If it's lying heavy on your heart today, that cannot be laid at the feet of Christ, for he careth. for you. He careth for you." The sympathy of our great high priest, the sympathy of Christ. It was Mr. Spurgeon who quipped, there is no need for two to care. There is no need for two to care. For God to care and the creature too. there is no need for the two to care. So leave the worrying to God, the one whose brow never bears a furrow of worry, and get on with living for God until he comes or calls. The fifth truth, and I need to go quick, that will help us to combat anxiety and worry is the biblical truth of sin. The Lord Jesus Christ here in Matthew chapter 6 said on three occasions, verse 25, verse 31, verse 34, take no thought. The literal wording, yes, we have it here, take no thought, but it can be translated, don't be anxious. Don't be anxious. Don't be worrying. And then Paul, the apostle, he reiterates the same command in Philippians 4 verse 6, be careful, I've quoted it before, be careful or to be anxious for nothing. Now what are these? These are commands. These are commands. Jesus Christ is commanding us not to be anxious. And the Apostle Paul, by inspiration, is commanding us to be anxious, or not to be anxious. Now when we choose to disobey a command, what is that? Sin. It's sin. And so to worry, to become over-anxious, violates the clear commands of Christ and the clear commands of Scripture. One Reformed preacher said, worry is not a trivial sin because it strikes a blow both at God's love and at God's integrity. Worry declares, he said, our Heavenly Father to be untrustworthy to His Word and to His promises. His worry declares our Heavenly Father to be untrustworthy in His Word and His promise. Have you ever saw your worry as sin? Being overanxious? Have you ever saw it as sin? God has told you not to be overanxious. Oh, that we would see worry for what it is. You see, worry really stems from a particular sin, and it is the sin of unbelief. It is the sin of unbelief. Unbelief in God. And unbelief is a sin. Oh, let us repent of our worries. Let us turn from our anxieties, and let us seek cleansing from our sin. Finally, final truth that will help you and I to combat our anxiety and worry is the biblical truth of submission or surrender. It is whenever we take our lives out of God's hands and we come under our own control that we find ourselves gripped with anxiety. You see, the secret of freedom from anxiety is freedom from ourselves and abandonment the abandonment of our own plans. And that will only ever come about when our minds are filled with the knowledge that our heavenly Father can be trusted implicitly to supply all our needs. You'll be able to surrender to God fully and completely whenever you understand that your heavenly Father is able to supply all your needs. And then as we surrender ourselves, our lives to God and submit ourselves to His providential and His loving care, then we will find that He can deal with that which causes us worry. It comes to my mind. whenever John Wesley's house burned down. John Wesley's house burned down and an individual came to him and he said, Mr. Wesley, what are you going to do now? Your house has burned down. He says, it wasn't my house, it was God's house. You see, he had submitted even his own home to God. And so he really left it to his heavenly father to care for him even in the ashes of his own private residency. It was really God's house. It was really God's house. Well, let me encourage you to do this today. Surrender your all to Him. Cast your care upon Him. Yes, do that. But do more than that. Cast yourself on Him. Throw yourself to Him. Surrender your life to God. Yield your life to God. And by faith, trust. Whatever he sends into your life has been designed by an all-wise and by an all-loving God. With this thought I close. Worrying the life of a Christian is an illogical thing, and it is for this reason I say that. No, a Christian can believe that God can redeem them. A Christian can believe that God can break the shackles of sin. A Christian can believe that they can be taken from hell to heaven. They believe that a Christian can be placed into the kingdom of God and given eternal life, and yet they don't think that God is able to get them through the next couple of days. It's not illogical that God can do all of that. but he can't see you through the next couple of days or weeks or years. Listen folks, if he has done the greater, he can surely do the lesser. He can surely guide us through. Let us have done then with our worries, believing the God who has wrought the greatest work in our lives, is able to deal with those lesser issues that cause us worry and fret and anxiety. Cast your care upon Him, on who? Your heavenly Father, who careth for you. Submit it all over to Him and allow God and His providence to unravel the mess and to bring glory to His name and bring good to your life. Why worry when you can pray? Trust Jesus, he'll be your stay. Don't be a doubting Thomas. Rest fully on his promise. Why worry, worry, worry when you can pray? May God help us to do so. Let's bow in prayer. And we thank you for listening. We value your attention. We appreciate that. And I trust that it has been a benefit to you. Maybe you know an individual that could benefit from hearing of such a word. Let them know about the messages and sermon audio. Get a copy for them. May God help us to be delivered from worry. May God help us to just trust God. Trust God that He knows what is best for our lives. Our loving Father, we rejoice that we can call Thee such today, our loving Father. We submit our worries and cares over to Thee. We confess, O God, that we have not heeded the Master's command to take no thought, to not become anxiously concerned about the basics of life, but we have allowed, oh God, by our living in this world to become so consumed with such things that that is all that we think about. That's all that we invest our time and energy into, the work of God and the furtherance of the gospel. that comes far down the list of priorities. Oh God, forgive us, we pray. There is much that causes us worry. Our family, the nation, oh God, our own spiritual well-being. We cast them over to thee. We ask, oh God, that thou wilt intervene and show thyself to be the father that thou art to thy children. Bless the word. May, O God, the fellowship of all persons within the Godhead be the portion of every believing child of God. For we offer prayer in and through Jesus' precious and worthy name. Amen and amen. Thank you.