I'm turning this afternoon to Philippians chapter four, and we will read verses four, excuse me, six and seven. Philippians chapter four, verses six and seven. Be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. And may the Lord bless that reading unto our hearts. And may we see here today in these two verses, very simplistic, but it is still nonetheless very profound. We as men, we are given to turmoil and sin and chaos, And men long for peace or tranquility. We see that throughout the news, throughout the world. We have an organization that supposedly is what's called Peace Keepers. The United Nations is an organization that wants to see peace throughout all the nations of the world. We pay a particular attention to peace in the Middle East, which currently we're having a little bit of a standoff with Iran. But yet, we are concerned for these things. Men are concerned over peace. They long for peace. And so yet, it is fleeting though. Of course, the true source of it is God's peace, as we read in verse 7. And the turmoil or the tranquility smashing that goes on within our lives is caused by anxiety, which we read of in verse 6, be careful for nothing. If you have a newer translation, it's translated anxiety or worry. Anxiety is something that plagues all men, just like fear. There are none who can say that they have not experienced anxiety at some point. It is something that touches us all at some point or other in our lives and in different circumstances. Millions of dollars are spent by men all over the world to be free of worry. Christ himself, as Brother David read earlier in Matthew 6, speaks of worry. Do not concern your things for the physical requirements of this life. Do not be concerned like the Gentiles, he says. And I've always greatly enjoyed that passage where he talks about Solomon and that the flowers of the field, as beautiful as they are, were more beautiful than Solomon in all his glory. And what a God do we serve that makes up these plants to be more beautiful than all the gold and silver and silk and things of this world that men can erode themselves in. Between visits to professionals, medication and books, that's where this money is spent. They come away with mantras and self-will and 12-step programs and all of these things to derive peace. within their hearts, within their minds. Of course, none of these things will ever give long-term peace of mind. When the burdens of life press in upon us, what are we to do? Well, the apostle in verse 6 gives us the answer to that. What are we to do? Well, he says we're to go in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving unto our Lord. We are to make these requests known unto Him. And in doing so, do we turn to men's wisdom or do we turn to God's wisdom? That's what we have recorded for us in the Word of God. God's ways are not ours or His thoughts are ours. And so He has given us a clear path into seeking this peace of mind within our hearts and minds. If God is the God of peace, then should we not turn unto Him? If He is not the great Father, we say in the Lord's Prayer there in Matthew 6, what it says, pray to our Father in heaven, our Father. If He is a fatherly figure unto us, does He not concern Himself over our troubles and trials? Yes, He does very much. And what a gracious Lord He is that He is even concerned over these things. God delights in us when we put more trust in him and we put more into his lap to be taken care of. Our relief comes in the simplest of methods, as I said, prayer and supplication. It doesn't get much easier than this. We can trust the admonitions here given by the Apostle Paul. I mean, not only is it the Word of God, that He was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Think for a moment. As you're studying the Scriptures and you're coming to books to study, learn about the men that wrote them. And very clearly you'll start to see a pattern of how the Spirit, He didn't just pluck men out of nowhere with no background or experience to write these things. He picked men that had experience to write these things. This morning, Brother Mitchell was going through Ecclesiastes and throughout Ecclesiastes, the writer there, the preacher says, what does he say? I have done all these things and under the sun and they are vanity. Well, Solomon could write such words with experience because he did that. But if we had had a man, say like Amos, or one who was a prophet that was just a shepherd, What words, what meaning, besides it being the word of God, would that hold? A man who would just have known about the sheep and the mountainsides and the wilderness, how could he write anything like, I have tried all these things and they are empty. And so the Holy Spirit had prepared Paul to write these words and pen them for us and for our own edification. This epistle was written by the hand of a man who had learned to be content with whatever circumstances the Lord had placed him in. And you can go to 2 Corinthians 11, and there's a long list there of the trials and tribulations Paul had been through. But yet, he found contentment. He trusted in the Lord. He knew that that is where his strength came from. Do we turn to the world or do we turn to God for our worries? Now, let's start by our condition. Be careful for nothing. Now, of course, here, the be careful, this is where The King James, if you have a newer translation, somewhat starts in antiquity where, be careful there, it's really a negative statement. But if you just read it through, it seems like it's almost like to care for nothing. But that's not what the apostle is saying. It means it's a better translation to say to be anxious, which is to be troubled with cares or worry. as we would also say. Now, of course, you find the same Greek word earlier in this book, the Philippians 2, verse 20, and it has a totally different meaning there. It has a more positive meaning. In verse 20, it says, For I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state. This is somebody who feels an interest in. And back in our text in verse six, this is not for us to fill an interest in nothing. We're not being commanded to be empty of all concern. It's not an imperative for us to be what's called blissful ignorance. It's a word I haven't heard in a very long time until I thought about it when I was studying over this. We're not to be, as the old wives tell, to be the ostrich with the head buried in the sand when it comes to worries and anxieties. We have very many things to be mindful of, do we not? We have our physical bodies. We're told in the scriptures to take care of those and to eat the right foods and exercise and to be concerned over them. If we get sick, we go to the doctor or seek treatment for these things. Same with our spiritual. The Lord says, you know, to be devotionally communing with me in prayer and meditation and to be busy about good works and reading the scriptures and learning these things. If we were just blissfully ignorant, we wouldn't do any of those things. We would say, what's the point? We don't need this. We can just sit in our homes and do nothing. We also have concerns over our work and money and bills and family relations, transportation issues, food, raiment and health. But what Christ is talking about and what Paul means too is when those things become so larger than life that it crowds out God. It becomes to the point that it presses in upon us and it then starts to block out God. Turn with me to Mark chapter 4. We read this text earlier this morning, but I'll read verse 19 to you out of that. Mark chapter 4 verse 19, and he's talking about the sowing of the seeds and the interpretation of that parable. Let's start in verse 18, please. And these are they which are sown among thorns, such as hear the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things, enter in choking the word, and it becometh unfruitful. This is what worries and anxieties do to us. It chokes out the word of God. It chokes out our reliance and trust upon Him. It chokes out our joy and peace of mind. I was reading in Good Providence, I was looking at the news just the other day, I think it was Saturday morning on my phone, and there was an NPR article that was talking about anxiety. Now in this article I skimmed through it, but it was talking about dealing with anxiety with a significant other and how to best minister to that person, even though they didn't use the word minister, but that's the word I'm using, but how to best help that person and not to be forceful upon them or force them into the doctor or certain medicines. But at the end, it talked about the horror of anxiety and worry. It was that you were missing out on life events. And yes, in some sense, that is a sad thing. But what about spiritually when we miss out on trusting the Lord? When our joy and peace in Him starts to shrink and fade away? This is the true travesty of anxiety. And we are prone to it. We are still in this flesh, as I said, all men are prone to this, even believers. This is not something that is just the unbeliever. But as believers, we have a course of action, a certain course of action, and that's what's given to us here in our text. In this, when worry and anxiety come upon us, it causes us to focus on earthly concerns. This is what I was saying, it chokes out our connection with the Lord. And we have an example biblically of this. What about Peter walking on the water? He wanted to come out to Christ as he walked on the water. And Christ said, sure, come on. And he goes out and he starts walking. And as soon as he starts to focus on the wind and the waves, what happens? He sinks and the Lord has to bear him up. All he had to do was keep focusing on the Lord and he would have walked all the way over to him. He had already started to walk on the water, but yet he started to sink. And so we very quickly can find ourselves swallowed up And in this swallowing up, it greatly stresses our trust in God's wisdom and His sovereignty and His power. Because we let these things become, we turn the molehills into mountains. The everyday concerns. Where is the next meal going to come from? Where is our clothing? Where is the cars broken? That's the only way we have to get around. But are these things greater than the great Creator Himself? That's where the focus shifts and we start to say, no, these things are greater. And we are now pressed upon instead of just saying, we know our Lord is great and he can do as he so chooses. Now, we talked about the anxiety itself, what it is and how it affects us. What about our remedy? This is our condition. We talked about our condition now, our remedy. Dear friends, what are we to do when we sink under anxiety? Are we to slip into despondency? Should we try to bear it up in our own strength, our own physical strength? Do we find us some 12-step program or a mantra to repeat over and over again? No. Why slip into activity in these things when we have the remedy right at hand? Does He not say He is with us and He will not leave nor forsake us? But in the next part of verse 6 it tells us, But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Now what are we to take to God? Is it just certain things, large items in our lives, large troubles? Well, the Word says everything, all things, even the smallest of things. We serve a wonderful and caring God who wants to hear our troubles. As the Lord Jesus Christ says in his pattern prayer, what does he say? Our father, let us draw comfort from those words that he is our father. And despite knowing all things, he still wants to hear us plead to him. He still loves for us to come unto him, just like when we have children and they have issues and they come to us, we enjoy helping our children. We want to because we love them. And He loves us also. And we see this over and over, these themes in the Psalms. In Psalm 34, verses 5 and 7, it says, we can cry to Him and be saved from all our troubles. Over in Matthew 7, 8, it says we can ask and receive. That was our own Lord's words Himself. Ask and receive. Search and find. Turn with me over to 1 Peter. What does the Apostle Peter say? 1 Peter 5, verse 7. Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. This is the Lord we serve. This is the God whom wants us to come unto Him when we are anxious or we're not sure what tomorrow holds. Because He is sovereign and all controlling and does all things. We were talking earlier about Paul being experienced the right to pen these words. Paul had a comfort in the one who had started a good work in him and was going to finish it. He wrote those words earlier in even this epistle. Same over in Romans 8. What does it say? To those that love Him, He worketh all things to good. Now this business of prayer back in our text, what manner are we to take everything to God? We have two words here, prayer and supplication. Now if you look in the Greek, those are not synonymous. Prayer is a different Greek word than supplications. Prayer really speaks more of how we are to enter into the Lord's presence to ask these things. It is how we communicate with God, as we all well know, and it's a spiritual communication with our Heavenly Father. It is an act of worship. It is to be done in reverence. We don't just saunter into His presence as if we're a good old lost friend or as if we're buddy-buddy. We have reverence. Even in those times of prayer when we can't enter into our prayer closet, we're to still speak and act as if it is an act of worship. One sweet hymn, one stanza from that is, and we've sung it here, and it's just a dear hymn, Sweet Hour of Prayer. Sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a world of care and bids me at my father's throne, make all my wants and wishes known. And that's just one stanza of it. But that whole song is very, very beautiful. And how taking our troubles and the cares of this world to him for our supplication. And then the second word here, the supplication. These are the specific requests. Are we not to pray specifically? That's how we're to intercede, intercessory prayer. When we pray for others, we should ask specifically for their wants or needs or their needs, excuse me, not wants, their needs. And so it is the same with our own. If we are having worries or doubts, take them to him and be specific. This is also, in the nature of it, it is a humble cry. It is falling at the feet of Christ and begging for His mercy and grace to be poured out upon us and to help where we are in trouble. Do you take all your difficulties to the Lord or just the large ones? None of our issues are ever too small for our Heavenly Father. One of the greatest Examples of prayer that I know of in the historical church is George Mueller of Bristol. They fed many an orphan on just prayer alone. And there are so many examples in his life. And if you've never read one of his biographies or his autobiography, I would recommend getting it and reading it. It is glorious. Now, I must admit, I have his autobiography. It's about 700 pages and I have not made it all the way through. I had to put it down eventually. And it's just because it gets very mundane. But what's glorious about it is he's recording even when they're looking for 50 pence. He doesn't just record these great triumphs of bread appearing from out of nowhere or milk appearing, but even just the little minute things of the life that they prayed about. And they prayed about everything, even if they just needed a penny for a bill. And so that is the example that we need to have in our own and to follow. Even the smallest of things, they are not too small for our Heavenly Father. Now, of course, we can't always enter into the prayer closet if we're at work or somewhere like that, but we can, you know, walk quietly around or whatever is available to you and lift up your hearts in prayer. You can do that. That's extemporaneous prayer. That's a glorious thing to learn to do, to be always in prayer, as we are told in the scriptures. Is this your practice? Even when maybe you're driving down the road and you're thinking about some issue that's going on, or a bill, or where money's going to come from, do you lift these things up to Him? This is making our requests known to our God. Now, it's not just enough that we pray and we have supplications and we come humbly before Him. It has to be with thanksgiving. They have to be wrapped with thanksgiving. This is the wings of prayer. Without thanksgiving, the prayer goes nowhere. We should always be thankful unto the Lord. This implies humility and submission to God's will as we are thankful for what he's done for us and what he will do for us. And there's really three places that you can be thankful for in your prayers. It's his past favors, what he's done in the past, recite those things. Do we not have the same thing in the scriptures? It's got historical accounts, and that's the whole purpose. Because the Lord is recording what he has done, and that's like the promises of God. We know because he's done these things, he will do the same thing in the future. We can be thankful for present blessings. as he's pouring them out. Have you ever had that happen? You've been waiting, you've been praying over something and all of a sudden the Lord makes it happen and all you can do is stop and thank him for it. And then of course we can thank him for firmly the future grounded assurance, or for the future, the grounded assurances for the future. And these are the promises. John Eady, in his commentary, says, we are to be thankful that he is on a throne of grace and is ever accessible, that he is never weary with our asking, and that his gifts are never exhausted and their adaptation is surely a matter of thankfulness to be ever expressed before him by all supplicants. Have you ever thought about that? The fact that we can always talk until our Heavenly Father. He doesn't have office hours. He doesn't go to bed at 10 o'clock sharply. And you better not call after 10 o'clock. He is always welcoming. We can always fall at that great throne of grace and speak unto him. And oh, he never gets weary of our asking. As parents, we sometimes get weary. when the children keep asking. And ours seem to be like parrots. It's like a broken record. They just keep asking and asking and asking. But yet, he never gets weary. And sometimes there are worries in our lives that it seems like that's all we do is ask. But yet, he is kind and merciful and longsuffering toward us. Now, the results. We see the results of this. We've talked about what it is for the anxiety or the worry, and now how do we deal with that, which is prayer. What about the results? What are the results? Verse 7, and the peace of God. This is the results. We have talked about anxiety and its effects upon us. Our response to the anxiety should not be to do nothing, nor to challenge it or try to take it up in our own strength. But we should carry everything in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving to God. And then of course the peace comes. This is God's peace. This is not ours, this is not man-made, manufactured like men typically do. This is God's peace and it is placed upon His people. Now the opposite of that would be sin. Sin is not peaceful, it's chaotic. It causes turmoil and tumult. We see that in the garden in the beginning. What was it? God says it was every day of creation. He says it is good. And then we find in chapter 3, Satan enters the garden. And then after that, our dear Heavenly Father comes to commune with the first parents. in the cool of the afternoon, and they hide from him because of their sin. The chaos and the fear had already entered. Now the peace here is not meant, through most of the commentators that I read, they all have different opinions about what this peace really means. Some believe it is the peace that Christ gives in salvation. I don't take that position. I think it's not spiritual peace, which of course is deliverance from sin through Christ, because Paul is talking to a people that are already believers. I mean, believers are going to be the ones who understand to be prayerful unto God. They're going to be ones that have the ability to pray unto God. And so I think this is a different peace that enters in. It's a peace of mind, a tranquility of mind, as you can say. It is that it doesn't necessarily do away with the circumstances right away, but it allows us to think and be calm and know that the Lord is working and is working those things out. God is the source of this peace. Second Thessalonians 3, 16. Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace. Always, by all means, the Lord be with you all. Now the greatness of this peace, it is great. The text says, which passeth all understanding. And that is exactly what it does, because the carnal man has no understanding of these things. The world knows nothing of this peace. They have Band-Aid peace, where they can get in a room and mediate to some agreement, some conclusion together. But yet, that always is faulty. Romans 8.6, For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Christ says, I give peace, not as the world giveth. And so we see that He is the God of peace. And this of course is just like the love of God. I talked about earlier in the epistles, the love of God that passeth all understanding. And it really does. Because when we go to people and share with them the Gospel message, they can't understand how a God would send His own Son to bear a perfect and holy son who would bear the sins and go to die for the guilty, though he was innocent. They cannot understand and grasp this because it takes the spirit moving upon their hearts to get them to understand, to enlighten their minds. And great is our God of peace, the one we serve, the one who never tires of our petitions, Now, further in our text here, it talks about the passeth all understanding. And then it says shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Now, the shall keep there, this is in the Greek. This is basically what does this piece do? What is it doing for us? What guards us? The shall keep in Greek is a military term. That's actually a kind of paradox there. Peace that's militaristic, that guards. There's actually very much to make out of that. But it's the standing guard, it speaks of a state of a security. It walls us in like we're in a keep or a castle. And now this verb is in the future tense. And that's what I was talking about earlier. Just because we pray to him about our issues and worries, he then takes that, it doesn't mean that he goes right then and there and takes care of the circumstances. He bears us through it. We then have peace about what he is doing and how he is doing it. And we rely upon him to act and work. And then, you know, giving ourselves over to his will and whatever that will may be. And so that is the piece that its future in tense, it goes into the future. And I think also you can take that also in the future tense that even in the next event of anxiety or worry, you have this experience previously, you know, to go back to prayer and supplication. And so that's the continual into the future. This also shows us that Quite frankly, this life, we're going to have anxieties and worries. Why would it need to continue into the future if once we get Christ, everything is good and hunky-dory? No, that's not the case. This peace guards our hearts. The word in Greek there is kardia. It's the word we get cardiology from. And so here's the hearts. of course, is the inner man. And then that, of course, bubbles up to our minds. It's what drives our minds. And so it's the heart and the mind. But in the heart, we know that the issues of life come forth. Proverbs 4.23. And then, of course, it's our thinking, as I said, in our minds. It's our thinking. It's what bubbles up. When our hearts are bad, what are our minds doing? They're bad also. That's why The Arminian theory of free will is hobbled, because the will is just a driving vehicle. It's what drives, allows us to drive a decision. But if the corrupt root, if the root is already corrupt, it's not driving anywhere. And our will, of course, is included in this. Our feelings, all of that is included in these. It's a protection on these issues, on this, and also on our minds. The thought life, the peace of Christ Jesus is a fortress that keeps us safe from our anxiety. The whole man is guarded. Isn't that a wonderful thought? It's not just one part or the other, it's the whole man. It's not just the heart and not the mind, but the whole man. Do you trust in him today? Do you, as you're going through worries, Do you go to Him with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving? Or are we practicing what George Mueller and those men learned to practice? Where every little thing, even if it's over a penny, that they would take it to the Lord in prayer. We have so many great examples of this, not only in Scripture, but also in the history of the church. And we should strive to be like these men in that aspect. that we are constantly placing our trust in and upon the Lord for our deliverance. We enter into this fortress by trust and prayer. When worries come to attack and harass, you don't have to become frozen under the weight of them. You don't have to feel weighted down because we have a great Father in heaven. We have one who is greatly concerned for us. and listens when we cry. Take those burdens to the one who can lift them. It's not Christ say, take my load upon you. It's light. And this is what we are to do. We are to go forward. Our Father in heaven delights in us, in helping us. Stop whenever you are at this point and lift up your heart in prayer. And he will place you in the fortress of his peace. And aren't you glad that he is not like men who at times we go to petition for help or support and either they don't have the resources or they don't have the concern. How often do we do that? We go to family or friends and they can't help us. Maybe they're in the same situation. but yet we can always rely upon our Father in heaven. Let your requests be known to God today. Amen.