Matthew, 6:25-34

So I noticed that in the past two studies, we did First Peter last time and this one this time, I keep getting the don't worry passages. So I think the Lord or Vern is trying to tell me something. I like it, every time we have one of those. It's just always me. And the funny thing is most of my friends say I'm pretty laid back, but evidently maybe we've got this secret worry thing going on that I don't tell anybody about. Don't ask April, because she'll probably tell the truth. All right, so we're hitting worry again, which is fantastic. This is, for me at least, and especially even before and just as much so now, it's just a beautiful and wonderful and encouraging passage. For me, really well known, commonly quoted.

I'm going to try to pace less today. I'm going to try to pace a lot less today. I know I was firing through. My folks said that I wore a hole in the floor, but they must have had it redone. In any event, I'm going to try to move back and forth a lot less. I pace when I'm on the phone, too. It drives April nuts. We live in a shoebox, so essentially I've got to walk circles around her every time I'm on the phone, and she can't stand it.

It's what I do. I'd like to offer an apology when I made a mistake. Oh, which would mean I made the mistake first. So if you want to take a... Oh my, that's fantastic. Okay, well thank you. So if you want to on your handout, cross off that little bit there and write in 25 through 28 or 27, as it were. 27, sure.

So we've kind of tried to take to the habit of reiterating our essential premise as we've approached this study of Matthew. And I actually don't think any one of us here is new, so I'm going to probably just bypass that today. It's so hard for, we were just talking about earlier this week, this is such a tough class for someone to just drop into. There's so much, there are two or three courses on context. How do we start into this?

Before we could even open it there were three and then obviously chapter five was rife with difficulty and trying to suss out which one's which and where does everything go and what can we draw application from and what can we definitely not. Actually chapter six has been the easiest part about this whole passage and as we get to chapter seven we'll find out that's Chapter 6 is really the smoothest road that we've got because the things that the Lord talks about, not practicing your righteousness towards men, and what we'll talk about today, not worrying, and the money issue, are all things that are kind of more universal in character. about more of the universal character of God, things that he expects out of all of his people, of all dispensations, of all the people groups, whether it was Jew or Church, or the nation of Israel or the Church. So that's what's made this set of studies so particularly easy. The only thing that was really controversial in the whole deal was what we call the Lord's Prayer, and how that's really not actually is really geared towards the Jewish audience and really not totally appropriate for us in the church. So, let's see. So, yep, that's what that's all about. So that's good. So, as we move into the passage today, let's read Matthew 6, 25-27.

It says, for this reason, I say to you, do not be worried about your life as to what you will eat or what you will drink, nor for your body as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you, by being worried, can add a single hour to his life?

So, just going back to where we've been, just going back to where we've been, it's amazing, another way to bring across what the Lord said, it's often brought across, don't store up for yourself treasures in heaven, but another way to possibly translate it would be, stop storing up for yourself treasures in heaven. So stop doing it, is another way to look at that.

It's really amazing, and this is something that we didn't really get to last week, but also I didn't really put in the study, so not in the way of repetition to say that these were heavily taxed people. I mean, I get my paycheck, and I think, I made this much gross, and how did it get down almost half? How does that even happen? So I sometimes feel like I'm heavily taxed, but nothing compared to these folks. This is really amazing. Did anybody see the nativity story? Wasn't that fantastic? I just saw it this weekend. I was blown away. I loved it.

But that was a great example of that heavy taxing and that heavy taxation. People just standing in line and, okay, you don't have enough, we'll take your donkey. You don't have enough, we'll take your land. But I'll die, so what? You know, I mean, it's heavy taxing and it's taxing without care.

So most of these people didn't have just a whole bunch of extra money lying around. Most of the peasants, the commoners, I mean, they're called commoners, right? Because most people are among them. It's the biggest, the larger groups of people didn't have a bunch of extra money, and what they did have was, generally speaking, taxed out.

So when Christ was saying, don't store up for yourself treasures on earth, he was really talking to these quite valuable people. And it even got to the point where there were a bunch of different, just like we have, a bunch of different denominations of money. And the larger one, you know, the biggest coin, had Caesar's picture on it, and that was the one you'd use to pay taxes oftentimes. So wealthy people would just hoard these up, and the poorer folks may not ever have one, much less, if they got one, they'd be holding on to it so they could pay their taxes. So he's saying, don't hoard these up, which actually brings an interesting point that when Christ, when they were asking Jesus and trying to end Luke, 20, 22 through 26, when they asked him if it was good to pay taxes to Caesar, he said, well, show me one of their coins. This was the coin that he pulled out, the one with Caesar's inscription, with Caesar's picture, where he said, given to Caesar what is Caesar's. So it's pretty fascinating stuff. Thus, Jesus' command to stop storing up and hoarding earthly treasure would have struck to the heart for those real wealthy folk, for sure.

So this leads into a section on worry pretty smoothly. I suppose there's two ways to look at why this is such a smooth transition. Let's see. If you're the wealthy person, you're thinking, well, if I don't store up treasure for myself, then I'm gonna just be worried all the time about what I have. If I have to think about or worry about where my next meal's coming from, that's just gonna get me all caught up and I'll be so worried. So Jesus is saying to that person, stop worrying.

And on the same side of the coin, Other side of the coin, as it were. You've got these. So how this coin talks got me all turned around, flipped, as it were. OK. On the other side, there's these there's these other people who are lucky enough to get one of those so that they can pay their taxes. you know, see one of these things.

So they're thinking, Jesus is saying, don't store up for yourself treasures in heaven. I'm in no danger of that. There's no chance that I'm going to store up treasure for myself in heaven, or on earth, I'm sorry, store up treasure for myself on earth, because I can't physically do that. It just doesn't pay off.

So it's pretty fantastic in that respect. Additionally, as we move into the next section, It says the last verse we looked at in a previous study was Matthew 6, 24. Actually, it's the last half. Jesus closes it with a rather powerful summary statement. You can't serve, you cannot serve both God and wealth. So, I think what this is starting to address is who's your real master? who you're really serving at one level.

Verse 25 is the topic statement for the next five verses. You noticed last week we talked about what was the topic statement for the last two weeks. Does anyone remember? I don't know if your Bibles are open. What was the topic statement for chapter six as we talked about it? Christ has this tendency, at least in these two passages, to give a topic statement and then kind of talk through it. So the topic statement, the talk through it was almsgiving and prayer and fasting. What was our topic statement on that? Externalism. Yeah, exactly. He was talking about externalism.

Does someone want to read Matthew 6.1 for us? Does anyone have a Bible open that they can read for us? Excellent.

So that was his topic statement. He was saying, this is what it is, don't practice your righteousness before men, and then almsgiving prayer fasting were the examples of that, the way that he illustrated that truth. So in the same way, verse 25 is a topic statement for the next nine verses, or more safely, well, more safely, the first half. So we could kind of outline our whole lesson today, if you liked, just like this is written out here. We'll address all the verses. It says, for this reason, I say to you, do not be worried about your life, what you will eat and drink, which he looks at in verses 26 and 27, nor for your body or what you'll put on, which he expounds on in verses 28 through 30.

And then he makes a summary of the negative imperatives, verses 31 and 32, and then a positive imperative in command, like what should be there instead, in verses 33, and then a reiteration of the negative imperative in 34. So Christ, just like a good teacher, has structure to his teaching. I think we often imagine that Jesus kind of walked up on a hill, which, being God, probably could have and would still have great structure to his sermon. And yet, at the same time, it's not just, oh, and I forgot this. Let me tell you about this. No, he was pretty deliberate about the way that he did things. And so concise, too. It's really impressive. Anyway, so, call to something more.

As far as towards food and drink, what would the worldly attitude towards that be? What would the worldly attitude towards food and drink be? Eat, drink, and be merry. I think that gets it right in a nutshell. Eat, drink, and be merry. There was a Greek poet who was a proponent of hedonism who said, my God is my stomach. I make all my sacrifices to my stomach. That's what I'm concerning myself with. And even Lao Tzu in the Tao Te Ching said, therefore the sage in the exercise of his government empties their minds, fills their bellies, weakens their wills, and strengthens their bones.

So here's this worldly idea of, hey, just get fat and happy. Just eat. Just eat. Be full. Worry yourself about making yourself full. food, not even in a spiritual sense. Just see to your physical need of hunger and everything else will work itself out. I think that's it. Eat, drink, and be merry.

But Christ, in contrast, says it's not life more than food. Don't you think God made you for more than just to have a full belly? I think there's more to it than that. Obviously, the hedonist would disagree, but this is God speaking. So Jesus is drawing their attention to the fact that God has a glorious purpose for this world and for his people, and the importance of which far surpasses a full belly or a nice outfit. Which, as you can tell, I don't have very many nice outfits. So that's something that I take very seriously.

Okay, looking around, Jesus now takes his examples from nature. It's amazing to think that Jesus is going to give examples from nature as he's the author of nature. I just thought this was fantastic because Jesus often gets cited as a good teacher because of this sermon and because of pointing out, well, this is the way it is in nature, and lots of great teachers after this have emulated him and said, look at that and see how that is. Jesus wrote nature.

He made it. He put it together. He saw it fall and he knows what was still intact and what's not still intact after that. I just think it's so fantastic that he's really referring to his own writing or his own book at one level. And it's really, I don't know, I always just took it for granted that he just kind of, Jesus was pretty observant. He looked around. He saw those birds. He made those birds.

It's really awesome to me that when Jesus talks about nature, it takes an example from nature. He's taking an example from something that he's done, something that he himself has authored. So it's really fantastic in that way. So he shows them how their needs are met by the design that he himself has put forth.

Please notice that in this example, the Lord is not by any means suggesting that we should cease to work lazily and whistle along. Let's just maybe have a show of hands. Who thinks the Lord is saying we never have to work again? Me too. What is he saying in contrast to that? You don't have to worry about that. The basics are going to be provided. And sometimes what I see in the world is if someone is that lazy, They barely have the basics, but it's their own fault. It's not because God is not coming through on it. They're not working for them. They're not talking spiritual things. We're only talking physical things.

Isn't that amazing? And I think, oh, yes. Yes, even though God provides grace. the birds and everything, they still have to go and get their food. If they just sit around, they're not going to get anything. Exactly. When was the last time you saw a bird not looking for food? He was dead.

They know when they're in the sprinkler or the rain. They know. They change their bath. And then after the ground is wet, they... They know that that's the time to go after the worm. That is fantastic. But that's exactly it. The Lord provides the food, but it doesn't excuse the fact that the bird is pretty much constantly out looking for it, out working to get it. You don't see a bird wringing its wings and going, I hope there's a worm tomorrow. But at the same time, the bird puts out the work. So that's pretty fantastic. The dead bird joke. I love that. So what is then the difference between working for your food and worrying about your food? Certainly. Just worrying will definitely leave you pretty hungry, huh?

So, let's see. He's not, I guess to reiterate what we've already said, is that he's not saying that the Lord's going to provide for you to just sit around and not do anything. In fact, although, as Nancy pointed out, oftentimes the truly, truly, truly lazy people, by God's grace and providence, sometimes do still wind up having their basics met, just amazingly enough that his, let me say, his grace goes that far. Yet at the same time, what he's not, what he is saying is that they need not fret about it.

Do your part. Your needs will be met. He's not promising any lavish steak dinners every night, but he is saying that this is the way that Jesus is saying, this is the way that I put it together. This is pretty fantastic. And not to put additional stress and worry and fear into that. Jesus had just told them, and he's going to kind of reiterate this point again, your father already knows that you need them, what you need before you ask him.

And it's encouraging to them to rely on the loving care of the father that will look after them and protect them. I just think it's fantastic. I don't know. I could never look into the Jewish mind of this time, but I would imagine it would be at least, we'll be touching now, that Jesus is saying, and God the Father, He's personally looking out for you.

He knows what you need personally, not just what Israel needs, not just what, but Jesus is kind of, not kind of, Jesus is bringing this personal point in and saying, you don't need to worry about it. because God knows what you need, which I imagine would be a bit of a departure possibly from maybe some of the other teachings of the day. All right, the results are in. Jesus set forth his premise, giving an example from nature, and now he asks them to evaluate what the outcome may be. Most humans, we need Most often, as humans, we need not worry. We need not will ourselves to worry.

Too many W's, really, in that sentence. That's part of the problem, anyway. Yeah, you know, it's funny. Tongue twisters never sound like tongue twisters when you're typing them. It's just bizarre. I don't know why that is. They're not finger twisters. Finger twisters are rarely tongue twisters. So there you go. Maybe, actually, someone has had this experience.

I can't even imagine it. Has anybody reached a point in their life or a point, I really need to worry more about this? Note to self, worry for 45 minutes about you know, oil prices. The to-do list, exactly. Before I do it, I need to worry at least 20 minutes. I remember when I was a teenager, and I'm not sure where these things are, but worry things?

No kidding. Were those something out of... But they were just little beads. They were just a little... Well, you had also a worry stone. It was a big rock that had a groove in it, and you took it in your hand and you just rubbed your thumb through that groove, and supposedly it was supposed to alleviate the...

Oh, take away the worry! I wasn't trying to remind you to worry, though. It was just saying, okay, I can do this while I'm worried. Okay? Did it work? No. I don't think so. Worry beads. Wow. But the purpose of them was to actually get you to not worry, or worry less? Well, the purpose was to alleviate, was to make you feel good while you were worried. It sounds like the purpose was to make a lot of money. Oh my! Gene, did you have something? Okay. I have a card that says, why worry when you can pray? Isn't that it? Amen. Amen and amen. That word is kind of like putting an accelerator with an emergency brake on. I did that this week. The sound is... What is that? Am I driving on gravel? No, I'm destroying my automobile. What a shame. Marvelous, marvelous.

The reality is that no one needs to tell us to worry. We don't need to will ourselves to worry or remind ourselves to worry. Oh, I forgot, I really have to worry about that today. It just doesn't happen. It's something that happens. It's something that comes out of us, something that we do quite naturally. It's completely distinct, and this is the distinction that I have to make in my life.

Worry is completely distinct from planning, from praying, from thinking about something, or asking advice about something. So... I just was thinking of a question. What's the difference between concern and worry? Where do you draw the line? Because the Lord never said anything or there's nothing in the word that I know that concern is bad, right? Sure, absolutely. Yeah, I think concern doesn't take much to kick over into anxiety maybe, but concern of itself I would say you can have godly concern for a person, right? Or godly concern for an issue.

You listed some things here. Planning, praying, thinking, asking advice. Those are all constructive things. Right. And concern can be behind that. Concern can be behind worry, and so it's a question of where does it go next? So if concern is the source, the question is how is it going to play itself out?

So I think in my life, I know I'll say, well, don't worry, don't worry, don't worry, don't worry, don't worry, don't worry. And so then I won't, I'll even go so far as to not plan, pray, think, or ask advice of others. Because, oh, that just seems too close to worry. Well, that's not what the Lord has at all. He wants us to plan. He definitely wants us to pray. He definitely wants us to ask advice, but worry is useless. All those things are constructive. Don't you think worry is just so self-centered? We can solve this problem, right? And we can't? So, I was the worst. I tried to be all incredible.

If you're driving somewhere, You expect that you're going someplace, but worried as getting caught on the turnabout, you know. You're getting nowhere, but you're still using gas, which is a big deal today. And that's, I mean, I think that's exactly what we're getting at. This planning, praying, thinking, and asking advice are all constructive. They're all good. And I think what Vern said when we talked about 1 Peter, and remember, not all of us were, of course, in the 1 Peter class.

Remember when we studied 1 Peter 5.8? peer-related anxiety, your cares, and your worries to pride, which kind of leads into that self-centeredness again. I was reading this week that George Mueller said that where anxiety begins, faith ends. Where faith begins, anxiety ends.

And also, Arnold Gableine, I was reading, he said, anxiety looks unbelievably ahead. Say that again. Anxiety looks unbelievably ahead. It draws dark pictures of despair and occupies the mind with a day which may never come. Wow. Fantastic. You memorized those in one reading. Oh, well that's impressive too. Those are excellent. No, no, go ahead.

One of the things I was looking at this last week, Titus 2.13 talks about the Lord's coming forth as our blessed hope. And where is our blessed I hope not? The blessed I hope not. Don't have one of those. I, to add to those, those are fantastic quotes. That's absolutely knocks the ball out of the park. One thing we talked about, First Peter, and discussed this issue, Verne said, the difference between, sorry, concern and anxiety or worry is whether or not you can trust the Lord with it.

That's where you draw the line. If you can give it to the Lord and trust the Lord, okay, pray about this issue, and I trust you to take care of it, then that's concern. But if you continue to hold on to it and wring your hands and wring on over it and you can't trust the Lord that the Lord is going to handle it, take care of it, then you've gone into the realm of worry. I don't think you can be focusing on the Lord and worrying at the same time. That's probably the key for me. I'm not focusing on the Lord when I'm worrying.

If you're focusing on Him, then you won't be. I was just trying to think for myself. Now I can tell the difference. That's fantastic. Kind of like how you can't shout and think at the same time. You know, it's a proven fact. Like if you're fighting with someone and you're yelling, you've raised your voice, you can pretty much assure that you're not thinking anymore. You're just yelling.

I think that Bonnie's statement is really an important one for parents to remember. I wish I had heard that statement when my kids were young. But it even applies if they're older and they're married and have if you have grandchildren, if I am worrying about my children, whether they're infants or adults with their own families, I'm not focusing on them more. And I think that's, you know, because that's kind of, that's one of those places where the rubber meets the road. That's our everyday life, especially as mothers. Mothers are just notorious carriers.

And there's kind of that statement, why do I need to worry That's awesome. Isn't that fantastic though, as we focus on Christ, that all that stuff goes away. That's brilliant insight. Thank you so much. That is absolutely, yeah. Couldn't you have called me while I was writing this? I would have put it in there. Fantastic. Always the hard part, right?

So, the Lord's point here is that worry accomplishes absolutely nothing. In fact, it only wastes the time that we do have. The further irony is that anxiety, worry, and stress can only both destroy the quality of life and shorten life altogether. that which we do most naturally in concern of the risk of life lost is the thing that is most likely to deplete that life in every case. So it's just this pretty fantastic thing that the thing we do naturally is the worst thing for us in difficult times. And the thing that we should do, look to the Lord, is the most difficult.

So, Amen. We'll fire forward into Matthew 6, 28-34. It says, And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow. They do not toil, nor do they spin. Yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all of his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothed the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will not much more clothe you, you of little faith. Do not worry then saying, what will we eat, or what will we drink, or what will we wear for clothing?

For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things. for your heavenly father knows that you need all these, need all these things. That's funny. I read that twice, didn't I then? But verse 33, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

So moving on to clothing. Another point that can cause great worry is the issue of clothing. Having enough clothes can be a primary worry. And then the worry that clothes would be attractive or appropriate. And of course, that seems a bit foolish. So what sorts of things do we worry about when it comes to clothing, maybe even today? Sometimes I worry that other people don't have enough clothing.

Can I get you a blanket or something? We have this culture where people have plenty of clothing but they don't seem to wear them. That's such a lovely outfit if you were wearing three of those. That might be appropriate. Just carry around a blanket, those poor unclothed people. So how did that taste of Colorado yesterday? Wow, yeah, hot day, amazing, just amazing.

A lot of the focus on clothing is the style. of whatever era you're in. And now it's high-end stuff that seems to be advertised and sold and that's what people are looking for. But you go back 35 years, when we were teenagers, and it was in California, it was the hippie movement. And so it was old jeans, not the ones you bought There was a distinctive style. that was hippie, and it made a statement. Clothes make a statement. Certainly.

Well, then you get into my, of course, like you said, that ebb and flow of things to look new and high and refined, and then to look really kind of low and unkempt. When I was growing up, I grew up in a time when you would buy things that looked old. They were manufactured to look old. You went to the store and spent $45 on jeans that were ruined.

Exactly, you can choose. Do you want to expose your knee or part of your calf or thigh? It's just amazing. It's pretty amazing. Oh yeah, the bleaching out. It's fantastic. Coming back down to that, so one of the big worries that we get regarding clothing or that comes regarding clothing is, am I in style? I don't want to be wearing the old ratty stuff if the new shiny stuff is what's in, right?

So people concerning themselves, oh, everyone's looking at me, which is obviously most prevalent in middle school and high school. You just think everyone's always looking at you. So you got to make sure you look good. And you get old and you realize, who wants to look at me? Not that distinct as I walk down the road. But in any event, So one thing that we can worry about on clothing is how we look to other people.

People that we will never talk to, never know, never have an investment in our lives and yet that can be, that's one of the big, I mean, I work in a place. where no one from the public really sees me. I'm not ever supposed to interact with everyone else. And yet they want me to wear a tie and a nice iron shirt and dress slacks every day, which I don't necessarily, you know, burr against much. But I have asked occasionally, so why am I wearing this if no one sees me anyway? And even if they did see me, I don't care.

I'm a bookkeeper. I'm not in this for prestige. I think there's probably other careers to go through for prestige, and bookkeeping, as far as I know, isn't really one of those, like, hi, I'm a doctor. Hi, I'm a lawyer. Hi, I'm a bookkeeper. Sure, why not?

There is something to the public when they come into an establishment. I don't know. I like to see people looking like they cared about what they wore that day. And I think it gives me a little more confidence in the company. So I think that's probably part of it, really. And there is the point to that. Oh, for sure. For the sales team, I'm all for it. For me? I don't get paid like that. If you weren't meticulous about your person, will you be meticulous about those numbers? Orders in the mind.

Yes. It makes a statement, just like we talked about earlier, and whether they were worried about beautiful clothing or the food or whatever, it's a statement that the clothing makes no matter what you're within, and he's saying that's not God's going to provide that. Most certainly. Most certainly.

And it's just silly for us to parade ourselves around, essentially. So I think from, I don't think I know, from the Lord's perspective, how silly it must be for people to worry, fret, and concern over their appearance in their clothing, when the most fantastic unclothing on earth can't even hold a candle to the wonders of nature. I mean, we could make a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful dress, and I'm sure you can go to a museum or a clothing history exhibit and see a beautiful, beautiful dress, and it still is not nearly so beautiful as a single flower that the Lord has made. Not nearly so delicate and not nearly so impossible to put together in its uniqueness.

So I guess that's the other reason why. to show off that, you know, what we've been creating is. And, you know, I've never been Not necessarily on purpose. here here here here here here Well, and it's definitely a cultural, don't talk about a worldly, cultural lack of priority that would convey the idea that this is value, this is meaning to this younger generation, to my generation. It was that way when I was growing up and going through school.

I think the scary part is that it's valueless. You know, that there is no standard about character in regard to appearance. you know, moral standards, that kind of thing. It sort of went away because God got out of the middle. He's not the center. For almost everyone. And it's gone. I mean, you can no longer meet a person and assume that they've been to church even once in their life in America. Well, some of them wear those to church. I mean, they don't say anything. They just wear whatever they feel like.

You need to pull this together for us, because we've talked about style, we've talked about lack of propriety, and I don't think all of that was Jesus' point here, and yet it is part of style. I'm not totally certain I can. I think we've actually just wasted 20 minutes, but it was so much fun. I think it was worth it. So I would say, though, that all the worry about how we're looking, all the worry about it was Christ's point to say, that's not time well spent. Just as we get back to this, I think, honestly, at this time, it was more of a subsistence level worry.

I'm worried that I won't have a cloak tomorrow. I'm worried that if this cloak runs out, I'm not going to have another one to put on and then I'll freeze to death. I mean, Old Testament law says if someone owes you something and you take his cloak, go and give it back to him that night so he doesn't freeze at night.

So this was not our Our stupid 20th century attitudes of excess and our stupid views of what it is to be attractive and this and that really don't translate back. Because I think they would have looked at that and said, that is the stupidest thing I've ever seen in my life. So, I mean, I think we can discount it and say that everything said today is valuable and true and definitely needs to be addressed. And yet at the same time, I think we've come so far into the realm of the ridiculous from where Christ was at the time.

I mean, oh my, I couldn't even imagine. Oftentimes the beginning of the semester can be overwhelming time for college students because the whole semester's work is laid out. Just moving back to worry. I'm sorry. Moving away from the fact that clothing is another thing to that gets worried about. I don't know.

Everyone's been at school. You ever sit down at the first day of school and have the teacher say, or whoever's involved, say, yeah, you're going to do three eight-page papers, one 25-page final paper, a midterm exam. We'll have quizzes twice a week. And by the end of the class, everyone, I have five more classes. And all this, it's just way too much. You have a tendency to get overwhelmed.

Or maybe at work, if you like. At work, someone comes in and says, we need to get all this stuff done. It needs to be this, this, and that, and gives all the specs and everything about it that needs to happen. And it needs to be done by hopefully not Tuesday. It's a holiday weekend. Oh, sorry. I thought you were handing that to me.

It's so easy to get overwhelmed and not realize, now wait a minute, I have two months, I have three months to do this. If I go one day at a time, really a college course isn't that much work. You're spreading it out over three months, that's not that much. And yet we have this tendency to see the whole pile up and just wring our hands over it.

And I think that can be the way it is in life, start worrying about, oh, I mean, everything's fine now, but in five, ten years when we have two more kids or three more kids, then we won't be able to fit in this house. Well, that's tomorrow. That's all stuff that we couldn't address now if we wanted to. It's all in the future, which comes back to Joanne's quote, saying that worrying for the future is worrying about a day that may never come.

So it's pretty fantastic. So the reality is that all those assignments, all those things that are given in advance are given in advance so that you can plan for them, right? Not so that the students will feel like they have to go home that night and do everything. The only way to restore order is to look at it all and say, what do I have to do today? As is the case in any situation in life.

What about the worrying Christian? Hey, right on time. Cool. Obviously, we're not in the church given this command to seek first after his kingdom and his righteousness. However, we are given command or are given commands or if you like advice concerning worry and anxiety, casting all your anxiety on him because he cared for you.

As life's troubles and worries come to face us, this verse seems to have a bit of a different focus. It's not cast all of your anxieties in the plural, but cast all your anxiety in the singular. So it's not that repetitive casting, but it's once and for all cast your anxiety on Him. So when you see yourself starting to worry, don't just cast that worry. Say, I'm going to cast all the worry.

I'm going to cast what I'm worrying about now, and what I was going to worry about next, and what I was going to worry about next and next. It's really fascinating that another way to bring across this verse Rather than, because he cares for you, is because you are his charge. Because he has taken responsibility for you. So why do you need to worry?

Because the person, I mean, my dog, I don't think he worries much. Because we've fed him twice every day of his life. He has no reason to believe that that pattern is going to break. I saw this great bumper sticker, it says, Dear God, please let me be the person my dog thinks I am. It's really true. Dogs just have this natural love and devotion and trust for their master oftentimes, especially if you don't betray that trust. Well, God will never betray that trust and never has betrayed that trust.

Those are the hands we're in. And that's why we need not worry. We're not our own responsibility, but rather his responsibility. This puts us in better hands than any insurance company, institution or earthly association could ever offer. We'll close with Philippians 4, 6, and 7. It says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I think we're sitting on like two more minutes, if anyone has a question or anything else to add. We can go back and talk about revealing clothing again, if you want. I was just talking about the large prayer, and it seems like a lot of it Human nature seems to be attractive or needs or something. The ritualistic, because it seems like that really draws to people.

And is that, I'm just not sure where to put that with Christianity. I mean, I know a lot of the church have intended prayers and rituals and stuff to make people comfortable. I don't know, but is that wrong? Well, I think as long as you never turn the tradition or the ritual into either something that God would have us do this, God told us to do this, because we have a ritual here at Holly Hills, don't we? We have a way that something usually goes. We come into the prelude and we sing a song, have the announcements. We're used to having someone up front. We're used to the way things go. Now, we don't say that we don't worship that ritual. We don't say that ritual's from God, or that if we broke from that ritual, that we would be under some penalty or risk of not doing it right, which I think is where the danger is.

But I don't think there's any problem in routine, especially if you found a routine that's good and a routine that is productive. A good example would be, it might be- But wouldn't it also be, you get a routine and then you don't have to think about it. I think that very much could be the case. I think that easy is very much the bottom line. You can do it without thinking so hard about it. If I do things in a completely different order, which is supposed to be good for your brain, I'm likely to miss one. You know, and therefore it's not as good as something else I might do for my brain.

Sure. You know, but things that need to be done, I do much better in a routine way. Well, at work, my whole world is routine. And if I mess up my routine or if I try to change up my tradition, my routine, my schedule, things get missed and things don't get done, just like you're saying. Absolutely. So there's a place for routine, certainly. And I think there could be a place for, you could call it ritual, if someone religiously woke up every morning 30 minutes before they had to leave the house and spend some time in the Word and prayer.

And I think it's the routine of our service. We're different every week. We wouldn't attend to the lesson as well. Yeah. Because we'd be busy thinking about how everything was rearranged. The mechanics of it, sure. And does this work, and did I like it, and whatever, and that's not where our focus is supposed to be on. For sure.

I find I've gone to some churches, you know, and you stand up and you say this prayer, and I feel like that I haven't I've never had time just to be quiet and to think about the Lord, because I'm too busy doing all this stuff. But I don't know if that's because I'm just not used to it, or if it's wrong. Or maybe it's just wrong for me. I don't know. It's just interesting to think about. It is. Bert, did you have a... You said, I think, the key word, think.

Because that's what Jesus put the focus on. You know, here's the Gentiles who say this again and again, as they go into this ritualistic repetition. Why do they do that? Because they think that they're getting some advantage by repeating this as if, you know, beating God over the head with something, you know, gets through to them and the rest of it doesn't. Yeah, certainly. Certainly. So there it is. There it is.

I think we should pray and close up because we're past our time. Joanne, did you have something to add, though? I think about traditions and the things that they do is a fleshly thing. It's of the flesh. You're trying to make something, make God do something, feel something to that effect. Sure. All righty. It's like the praying public thing that he talks about in Matthew. Sure, most certainly. Yeah, I think so.

All right, so let's go to the Lord real quick and we'll call it good. Heavenly Father, we praise you and thank you for this day, for the time that you've given us to be in your Word. Thank you for the sermon that you gave to these people at that time, Lord, and thank you for the many applications that it still has for us in a different time as a different people today. Pray that you'd bless his service. Let us all hear your word, sing your praises, and come to know and love you more. In Jesus' name, amen.