Anxiety: The Stress Test of Faith - Matthew 6:25-30

We'll get into our passage today.

Let me read it for you again, just the portion that we're

going to be in Matthew 625 through 30, it says, therefore,

I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will

eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will

put on. Is not life more than food in

the body, more than clothing. Look at the birds of the air.

They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your

heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than

they? And which of you, by being

anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life?

And why are you anxious about clothing?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.

They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon and

all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is

alive and tomorrow's thrown into the oven, will he not much more

clothe? You owe you of little faith

today. I've entitled the message

anxiety, the stress test of faith.

When you hear these words, don't be anxious.

In that passage, Jesus says the word anxious or don't be anxious

6 times and you think, well, that's almost like an impossible

task. That's like you're asking me not

to breathe, right when I when, when you're asking me not to

worry. But we need to understand that

worry really robs our joy and it tests our faith to show who do

we really trust in this life in all the circumstances that come

up, especially as we come up to this busy season at the end of

the year, So many things going on, you know, things needing to

be buttoned up and who are we going to put our faith in?

And often times it's in ourselves, but yet we can't

handle the weight and the pressure and the stress of all

that's put on us. And so that leads to anxiety.

It leads to worry, it leads to fear.

What am I going to do? And so my, the main idea for

today is this, don't let your faith be dwarfed by anxiety or

worry. Instead, trust the big sovereign

God who cares for you. So let's get through this.

I've got I've got 4 things I want to say as we walk through

each one of these verses in the Scripture.

And the first point is this, that there's more to life than

worrying about survival. It says this therefore I tell

you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat,

what you will drink, nor about your body.

What you will put on is not life more than food or the body more

than clothing. Now Jesus starts this with

therefore and every time there's a therefore, you got to find out

what it's there for. And it's the context of the

verses that we looked at last week, which was talking about

possessions, about money and possessions and how we put our

faith and trust in those things. And we try to find joy and all

the things that we own. And how that can turn into

idolatry where we we love those things.

We serve those things more than we think about love or serve

God. That can happen in all of our

lives where we we think about the things that we own and, and

all, all the cares of, of maintaining them and it can take

up significant amounts of time in our lives.

And Jesus is saying, don't worry about your possessions.

He said store up your treasures, not on earth, but in heaven,

because things in life are temporary, but the things in

heaven are eternal. So spend your time thinking

about heavenly things. And then he goes on to say,

therefore, I tell you, don't be anxious in the in the King James

version, it says, take no thought for your life.

And in this commentary it says thought or forethought for

temporal things in sense of in the sense of reflection or

consideration is required alike by Scripture and common sense.

It is that anxious solicitude, that oppressive care, which

springs from unbelieving doubts and misgivings, which alone is

here condemned. And So what he's saying is

thinking about or considering the things in life is normal.

We all have to have possessions. We all have to take care of our

our bodies. We've got to in context, we've

got to have food and drink and clothing and shelter.

It's not saying never think about these things.

That's not what Jesus is saying. The problem is, is when it turns

into anxiety and worry about these are these are elements

that are a part of our survival. And we we are so concerned and

worried if that we're going to get these things, not trusting

that the Lord's going to provide for us as he has our entire

life. We're worried about tomorrow.

We're worried about the next day, about the week that the

years to come. How will we eat?

How will we have the basic necessities of life and we're

worrying about these things almost seems not rational when

if we look at our lives and we've, we've been taking care of

our whole lives. Why at this point are we

worrying again? And it's like this cycle of

anxiety and worry over and over again.

And in fact, somebody once told me 90% of the things that we

worry about actually never happen or never come true.

And, and part of faith or trust in, in realizing that things are

just going to turn out well is looking back to the past, not

worrying about the future, but look back to the past and say,

well, I was provided at this point.

And I know all of us can look back at times in our life and

say, yeah, I had a lot of anxiety there and it was

probably pointless. I shouldn't have been so worried

because everything worked out. But that word again, it's it's,

it's, it's about thinking. Anxiety comes from our thought

life. The Greek word translated there

means to be drawn in different directions.

So our mind is thinking and being pulled apart in all kinds

of different directions. When we're worried about that

thing that we're worried about, it starts in the mind and and

anxiety actually means to meditate on a particular issue.

And so you think about meditation and you think of

maybe some, some kind of like Eastern religion where they're

just sitting there and they empty their mind and they're,

but really meditation is not emptying your mind.

Meditation is about thinking on one thing intensely.

And when we're thinking on that one fear or that one worry

intensely, that's what it makes the anxiety grow and the worry

grow and the fear grow. We become more disturbed by that

thing we're meditating on, and the more distracted, it robs us

of that wonderful experience with the Lord Jesus Christ.

So what are we meditating on? We think about our needs, our

needs, the things that ultimately have been provided

for us our whole life. And yet for some reason worry

springs up. And I think a lot of that comes

from the idol of security. I think all of us want to feel

safe and secure. And so we want to have kind of

things saved up like a, a, a nest egg.

And, and, and what Jesus was talking about last week was you

cannot have two loves, two things that you put your trust

in, in the same place in your life.

It's either God or money. So which one are you going to

trust in? It doesn't mean that you

shouldn't be smart with your money, but who are you going to

trust in? And life is more than just

worrying about the basic necessities of life.

And in fact, when we're so worried about all these

different things in life, it robs our joy in Jesus.

In John 1010, this is a famous saying he uses, but he says the

thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy.

But I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.

Someone who is riddled with anxiety cannot live an abundant

life, a life to the full. And I would argue that not only

is Satan the thief that comes to steal, kill and destroy, but all

sin is that as well. Sin is the thief.

It promises safety, it promises pleasure, but yet it only ends

up leaving us empty. And when Jesus says do not be

anxious about your life, that is a positive command.

And so in many cases, we can say that anxiety and worry are sin.

I had a mentor in my life and, and, and he's so funny because

he always just drills me and catches me in mid sentence when

I'm talking. And I I'll say, I'm worried

about this or I'm worried about that.

And he'll say, hold on, wait a minute, you're sinning about

what? You're so correcting me.

Am I all right? And so every time I think about

worry, I have to go back to all right, Is this just concern?

Is this just godly concern or is this lack of faith?

I mean, because that's the difference between healthy care

or healthy anxiety versus unhealthy or sinful anxiety.

And so throughout this passage, then that was kind of the the

introduction of these verses. But throughout this passage,

then Jesus starts to ask 3 questions and I believe these

three questions are going to challenge our anxiety about

life. And so let me let me ask the

first one to us. And it's don't you know that you

are valuable to God? If you knew the way God sees you

and how he values you, you probably wouldn't worry as much

because he cares for us. When you have something of

value, you take great care of it, right?

Well, that's us to God. And so let's look at the

passage. It says, look at the birds of

the air. They neither sow nor reap nor

gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not of more value than they?

You can imagine Jesus preaching the sermon and there are birds

circling up in the air, a Sparrow.

And he says, look up, look at these birds.

You see these in your everyday life.

They're not worried or concerned about having a stockpile, a

whole barn full of feed. No, they live trusting that

they're going to get their food day by day because God is the

one who created them and God is the one who takes care of them.

And now he's using this argument.

I'm not saying that birds have faith in God.

I, I don't think that they're that smart or capable of faith.

And, and you could, you know, argue that about all animals.

The dogs go to heaven. I'm not sure, but I'm sure that

there will be animals in heaven. I know that.

But what he's doing is he's arguing from the lesser to the

greater. Again, sorry to the PITA people,

but animals are not as important as persons as human beings.

He's saying look at these birds and in another passage he says

they're about they're worth about a penny.

He says, look at these birds that are of very little value to

me. I God takes care of them.

How much more will then he take care of you?

Are you not of more value than these birds that he created?

In fact, the Bible says we are created all human beings in

God's image, Imago day in his image and likeness, and that

puts this this value on us. He he sees us as his special

creation, humans that can have a relationship with him.

Not even the angels can have the same relationship with God that

we can. God did not send his Son to die

for the angels. In fact the fallen angels will

never be able to be forgiven, but human beings can.

This is amazing if you think about it.

I love Psalm 139. It says this and starting in

verse 13 how God has cared for us from the moment of

conception. Even it says, for you formed my

inward parts. You knitted me together in my

mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully

and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, my

soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you

when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths

of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed

substance. In your book were written every

one of them. The days that were formed for

me, when as yet there was none of them.

How precious to me are your thoughts.

Oh God, how vast is the sum of them.

If I would count them, they are more than the sand I awaken.

I am still with you. The psalmist David there is just

praising and and considering, looking into and helping us

remember how God cares for us. His thoughts towards us are like

the sands of the sea. He's been caring for us and he

knows every one of our days even though they haven't happened for

us yet. He knows the beginning from the

end and he's taking care of us. And, and one thing in this

passage that we have to zero in on then is your heavenly Father.

He's our Father. We are not orphans.

We don't have to worry about who's going to give us shelter

or food or clothing or love over and over again.

Jesus in this gospel, especially when he got to the Sermon on the

Mount, starts talking about God as our Father over and over.

Just go back to chapter 5 all the way through Chapter 7 and

even in, in, in the Lord's Prayer when he says pray like

this, Our Father in heaven, we talked about that a few weeks

ago. What does this mean?

Well, if he's our father, he's going to take care of us.

He's the provider, He's the protector.

But when I think about how a father wants his child to see

him, I think about my own kids and and dads in the room, think

about this. You want your kid to look up at

you and just know that they're secure, right?

Like when my dad's around, nobody can mess with us, right?

When my dad's around, I know I'm not going to go hungry.

When my dad's around, I know that he's going to shower us

with with love and sometimes it might be even disciplinary.

He won't let me go too far down the wrong path.

He won't condemn me, but he'll come down that path after me and

he'll try to drag me back into right relationship with him.

That's what I want my kids to know me for and I think fathers

would would, would agree with me on that.

We want our kids to look up at us and know that they are safe,

that they are taken care of. And oftentimes as earthly

fathers, we struggle at this and we're imperfect and and we even

have anxiety about playing this role in our kids lives.

But yet now think about a perfect, holy, all powerful God

who's our father who does this perfectly right?

We can look up at Him and know that we're safe.

We know that we're secure. We know that we're going to be

provided for. And yes, that takes faith, but

faith pleases God. He provides for His most

treasured possession, as it says.

Are you not of more value? Yes, we are of infinite value to

God. In fact, He sent His Son to be

the sacrifice to take the place for our sins so that we could be

His prized possession. I love this verse also from the

Psalm. When we think about him taking

care of us as we go into even Thanksgiving and being thankful

about Thanksgiving, it says oh taste and see that the Lord is

good. Blessed is the man who takes

refuge in him. Oh, fear the Lord, you his

Saints, for those who fear Him have no lack.

The Young Lions suffer, want hunger, but those who seek the

Lord lack no good thing. When we're eating these meals

that we're going to sit down and probably over indulge ourselves,

we should think about not just the physical taste of how good

that food is, but think about how good the Lord tastes to us.

The the blessing of the food, the bread of life that we take

in and nourishes our soul. In fact, when when Jesus used

the word picture to help us, something that we do regularly,

I think when we are taking in any of our sustenance.

That's why people give thanks before they eat, right?

They pray before they eat, always thanking God for a meal.

And I know that that can sometimes be, you know,

ritualistic, but at the same time, we need to have a habit of

being thankful to God for being our provider.

And we can do that every single meal.

Now, Mike wanted me to remind you guys.

Pastor Mike preached a sermon on fastening a couple of weeks ago

and remind you that you can still take part of trying to

fast and pray before the Lord either before or after

Thanksgiving. So try it.

Try to fast and go without the sustenance for a while, having

that discipline and, and relying on God and seeking him and all

the times that you'd be cooking and eating, get ready for that

meal of feasting. You can do that before or after

Thanksgiving and many of us will be doing that as well.

So I just wanted to remind you of that.

But I want to move on to the next question.

Then we talked about, don't you know you're valuable to God?

But the next one then is this, does anxiety have any benefit?

Like does fear, worry and concern play a part of the life

or should I just be a carefree person?

The answer is no, you shouldn't just be a carefree person.

You should be concerned about health and safety and things

that matter. In fact, Paul in the New

Testament uses the same word about anxiety when he talks

about as he was going around planting churches.

It says in Second Corinthians 11/28 and apart from other

things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for

all the churches. So is Paul sitting there?

No, he genuinely has a concern and a care for these spiritual

children that he's, he's been taken care of or helped see come

to faith, became born again. And in these churches that he,

he wants to grow up and be healthy, right.

So we have those concerns about our own family members whom we

love. And in fact, sometimes that fear

or concern can help steer away from danger or help us have the

hard conversations that we need to have.

And so in one sense, there's a a benefit to the emotions that

lead to healthy faith and understanding.

You see, anxiety is emotion, fear is emotion and emotion

worries and emotion. And, and sometimes that keeps us

from danger and bring safety. So we don't have to say emotions

are bad. But when it turns into that

meditation that we're talking about, where you're fixated on

one thing that's going to be your demise possibly, and you

can't get out of it so much so that you're in this cycle of

worry, that's when it becomes sin.

And, and quite frankly, it does not add to our life.

It probably detracts from our life, maybe even kills us

quicker. But let's see what Jesus has to

say and which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to

his span of life. What's he saying here?

Now in the original Greek it's interesting the word hour there

is actually cubit and this, the word span is a measure or a

height. And so in other translations, it

will say who can add a, an inch or a measurement to his height

to his stature. Maybe you've heard that before.

But in the context of this, either way that works.

But in this scenario, as he's looking at the birds and and

talking about their survival, it's not necessarily it doesn't

have to be about height or adding, adding a height to

yourself or growth. In fact in Matthew 10/29 it says

it like this. Are not 2 sparrows sold for a

penny and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from

your father. So this passage I believe, is

worrying about your life all the way to the point of death,

thinking that anxiety or constantly meditating and

obsessing over safety is actually going to bring us

health. When actually what he's saying

is, don't you know that you cannot change the course of your

life the way God has seized it in his timeline?

Being able to see all things, being omniscient being meaning

that he knows everything and there's an exact time when you

and I are not going to have this humanly life anymore.

When we pass away, God knows that time again.

He's going from the lesser to the greater.

If he knows when every single bird dies, he knows the end of

your days. That means that God is all

knowing, but yet he's also the one that is keeping us alive at

the same time. He's not just some transcendent

being and and he's he's spun the world into motion and he said

everything and everybody's now living their lives and he's just

like, I'm going to stay out of this and see if they survive or

not. This whole passage really is

talking about no, God is the father creator who provides he

steps into humanity. He actually did it physically,

but even now miraculously and supernaturally comes in and

redirects so that his will will be done.

Dangerous is the man who believes that God keeps him

alive. Why is that?

Because I'm not worried about death.

I'm not worried about the next little thing that's going to

come and Take Me Out. Yes, I'm going to take care of

my body and take be a good steward of what God has given

me, but I'm not going to be constantly worried about a

threat here or there everywhere. We're prepared.

I'm prepared. I'm not saying that I don't

struggle with sometimes worrying or having thoughts that I

shouldn't be meditating on, but I am.

What I am saying is that if you want to be more productive in

life then start trying to fight the anxiety with faith because

in this passage it says basically you don't have the

power, only God has the power. That word add or can or can add

is the word dynamite which comes from the word we use dynamite

which is power. You do not have the power to add

any other any more time to your life.

It's just not within your possibility to do so because God

is sovereign. So trust them, take risks, use

your talents and abilities. Don't hold back when you feel

the Lord is calling you to do something by faith.

The the the Christian faith is a risky 1 and it has been for 2000

years. We need to take risks for the.

Lord, I love what? Philippians chapter 4 verse 5

Philippians 4:5–7

through 7 says if you're struggling with this anxiety,

what do I do? How do I get out of that cycle

of thought and meditation? Well, it says I love the

second-half of five. It says the Lord is at hand,

meaning the Lord is close, He is very near in fact, right with

you and right in you if you're a Christian.

So therefore do not be anxious about anything, but in

everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving.

Let your request be made known to God, and the peace of God,

which surpasses all understanding, will guard your

hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Prayer can then be the cure and the antidote for anxiety.

Prayer is placing your anxiety or the things that you are

worried or caring about into the powerful, omniscient, omnipotent

or all powerful God. And so that is what we need to

be doing. Prayer is simply just talking to

God and anxiety is talking to ourselves.

If you think about it, when you are worried or anxious and

you're in those cyclical thoughts, what are you doing?

You're saying things to yourself over and over again.

How about we break that cycle by talking to God instead of

ourselves. And I believe the Lord's Prayer,

as we looked at a couple weeks ago, which is in this chapter,

shows us again that he is the provider of Our Daily Bread, our

needs, and even our our spiritual needs.

He forgives us. He protects us from the evil

one. These are the prayers that we

were praying, right? So next question then is this,

Don't you know that God has our lives covered?

Verse 28 And why are you anxious about clothing?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.

They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon and

all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Again, we're talking about, you know, just our regular everyday

things that we need. And he says, look, look at the

the grass. Look at this field and how it's

got little daisies and beautiful flowers popping up.

You know, some of you might think that those are weeds, but

I heard one day somebody once told me that weeds are just

misplaced flowers, right? So if you have them in your

garden boxes or whatever, just realize that they're natural.

But look at it seriously, like you look at the fields or the

mountains, all of God's creation and you see that there's beauty

in it, right? There is beauty that God is

woven into his creation, which again is of less value than his

the the human beings that he created.

It says they, they don't consider how they grow.

They in fact aren't doing any work or toil in growing.

They just naturally come up. It's a process, a natural

process of, of growing. That's actually what that word

means in in the original language to increase in size by

natural process. And then the word for toil is

labor, hard work to become weary, to lose heart.

And So what what he's saying his God takes care of the growth of

the grass and the lilies of the field.

And here we are toiling and working and striving and

becoming weary of where we're going to get our security from.

And then he goes on to Solomon Solomon's clothes.

If you think about this, Solomon's clothes were made by

human hands. And he says man cannot basically

what he's saying there is man cannot bring more beauty than

God can in all of Solomon, who has arguably the richest and

most wisest man. Whoever lived had all of these

treasured possessions and gold and rubies and everything a man

could ever desire in his lustful flesh.

Solomon had it all, even the the most expensive clothing.

But I heard, I heard recently from a sermon that my cousin did

on this, he said take a microscope and 0 in on clothing

and what do you see? It's just really ugly little

strands of fiber that are woven together.

But take a microscope and look at a flower or a Lily or

something beautiful in creation and 0 in on that and it just

never ends. The beauty that you find in

God's creation under a microscope, living organisms and

DNA and things coming together to make this living thing or

this living plant to, to be what it is.

And think about that then in us as well.

God cares for his creation and He makes us beautiful.

Don't you know I would ask this question another way.

Don't you know that you're already beautiful before the

Lord in this world? I know we struggle with in a, in

an age where everybody's trying to look like, you know what,

what the perfect body image is, you know, male or female, and

it's plastered on billboards and commercials and YouTube shorts

and Instagram fitness people. And so drawn after like, I, I

need to look like that. I want to look like that.

And you don't know all the stuff that they have to go through to

look like that. The, the, the, the, the meals

that they don't eat, you know, the starving of themselves, The

Who knows what their relationships are at, like at

home, because they're trying to look a certain way.

And God says, don't worry about that.

Yeah, take. Care of yourself and try.

To be healthy. But don't worry about the way

that you look. You are beautiful to me already.

I've made you that way. But pride?

I would believe is a part of anxiety because anxiety says

I've got to do something about this.

I've got to take it all into my own hands.

I've got to be more successful. I've got to have more security.

I've got to look better, have things that I can surround

myself with that make me feel better.

But first Peter 5-6. I love this, it says.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so

at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties

on Him, because He cares for you.

We need to humble ourselves. If we're going to accept the

care of God otherwise, we'll be striving in our worry and our

anxiety and living somewhat of a defeated Christian life out

there in the world. Part of.

This passage that we're not. Getting into but in in verse. 32

it says for. The Gentiles seek after all

these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them.

Christian, I'm speaking to you today.

Don't you know that people that have no faith are worried about

all this stuff? This should.

Not and this is kind. Of the main gist of it is, if

you are a believer in Jesus, you follow Christ, you are a child

of God that lives by faith, then why are you acting like the

unbelievers? Why are you living like the

unbelievers that are so worried and concerned about all these

things? Don't you know that your Father

takes care of you? He has your life covered.

We'll go on in this passage, but if God so.

Clothes the grass of the. Field, which today is alive and

tomorrow's thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe

you, O you of little faith again, from the lesser to the

greater the the. The grass, the fields.

Of grass are beautiful with the lilies that are in them that God

delicately and intricately made. But I've done so much more with

you. He says that grass gets thrown

into the oven because what this means is that grass was a cheap

way to to like a, a kindling and to get that initial heat of a

fire starting and they they had to use and we often have to use

fire a lot in this life to cook and do all kinds of things.

And he says that's how cheap grass is.

It's here today, it's gone tomorrow.

But if I make. Grass that beautiful, that is,

that lasts. A lot less longer than you.

Do. There's also something else to.

This you know, the clothing. One thing that makes us the most

valuable to God is that he closed clothed us.

The Bible says with Jesus Christ.

It says in Galatians 327 For as many of you as were baptized

into Christ have put on Christ so many other.

Passage talk about put. On Jesus or the righteousness of

Christ, we have these these holy garments.

Now, now, don't get that wrong. That's a spiritual term doesn't

mean we need to wear physical clothes that represent some

spiritual term. This is it's saying that we've

been clothed with Christ. And so remember in your anxiety

then, to put on Christ, because he is most beautiful, and by

putting on Christ makes you most beautiful, you see, because

Jesus is God's one and only Son, the eternal Son sent from the

Father. But God loved us so much that he

came. Down as a human being.

Lived a sinless life, grew up, died on the cross for our sins,

took our place for the punishment that we deserve.

All of our lack of faith and trust in God and having idols

and trusting in other things God says.

I'm going to take care of that because I love you so much and I

value you and so. If you're a Christian, remember.

That you're, you're valuable and worth a lot to the Lord because

he died for you and. So that last piece there.

Is kind of the key O ye of little faith.

That's in the the Bible several times.

Jesus says it at least four other times in in chapter 8

verse 26, he he said, Oh you of little faith.

After they were going across the Sea of Galilee and the wind and

the waves had popped up and he they said, what are we going to

do? He was asleep on the boat.

Jesus was and the disciples was so afraid for their lives that

they said, what are we going to do?

We're basically going to die and he wakes up, tells the Wind.

And the waves to calm. To be still.

In another passage. In chapter 1431, they're on the

same lake and Jesus is. Walking on water and he.

Tells Peter, come out, come out, walk on the water with me.

And Peter actually miraculously is allowed to walk on water for

a little while. But then what happens is he sees

some waves in the weather getting bad again.

He fears and starts sinking. And what does Jesus say?

Why did you doubt, O you of little faith?

Again. They're in a boat and they're

crossing over after Jesus had just fed the 5000 and they're

they're worried because they hadn't taken any bread with them

and, and and they said we don't have any bread.

How are we going to survive? And Jesus says, oh, you have

little faith. I just I just provided

miraculously for 5000 men plus women and children and you right

after that are doubting me. This Is Us.

Right right after God delivers us or or teaches us some kind of

new lesson. It's like a day later, a week

later, we've forgotten what He did.

We forgot to be thankful for what He did.

And now we're back to our doubt. We're toiling and striving in

our anxiety, worried about life, and we've forgotten all that.

God has done that. Word little or little faith.

There is, is, is. It's really talking about a.

A lack of faith or small? Faith or a faith that doesn't

last, right? That's what I was just talking

about, a faith that does not last.

When hard times come up or things that you do worry about

come up, your faith is gone. But just remember this.

Jesus also talks about how a mustard seed can move mountains.

Faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains.

And So what does that mean? That we don't have to have it

all figured out. We don't have to have God all

figured out, but if we have enough faith in God that he can

save us from our sins, which is the the greatest need that

humanity has, we could. There's no possible way we can

earn our forgiveness and our righteousness by doing more good

than we've done bad in this world.

That's not how it works. We cannot do that if God can do

the impossible by taking a Sinner and making him a St.

Then he can take care of all these other.

Needs that we have because it's. Not about how big your.

Faith is it's about how big the God is that your faith is in.

I want to quote MacArthur, who was also quoting AW Pink can't

figure out. He reworded it a little bit and

so I have to quote them both. But he said this worry is

needless because of God's bounty, senseless because of

God's promise, useless because because of its impotence to do

anything productive and faithless because it is the

characteristic of unbelievers. We should not be known as a

worrying people. And that's what Jesus is getting

at here today. And so, closing again with the

main, main idea, Don't let your faith be dwarfed by anxiety or

worry. Instead, trust the big sovereign

God who cares for you. Let's pray.

Dear Lord, we come to you. Father, we come to you this

morning. First acknowledging how.

Powerful you are, how mighty you are, how loving you are, caring

you are. Forgive.

Us we repent for. Lacking faith, forgetting our

faith, forgetting all the wonderful things that you've

done or delivered us from already the the, the Providence

that you've been a part of in our lives.

Help us, Lord, to trust you and to fight anxiety and worry and

Father. Just we need.

Reminders over and over again about this and so help us Lord,

to be drawn to your word, to be prompted to go to prayer rather

than to get into the cycle of anxiety in our minds.

We love you Lord, in Jesus name, Amen.