Philippians chapter number 4, I’d like just to read verse 6 through to verse number 8. “Do not be anxious about anything, 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 understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” And Matthew chapter 6, verse 25. “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, and 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 in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is today alive and tomorrow thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Father, we come to You this morning asking that You would send Your Holy Spirit to change us and to conform us to the image of Your Son Jesus. Lord, may our fears fade away in light of the glory of God and the love of God and the mercy of God demonstrated through Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh God, I pray You will be magnified as we look at Your word together in Jesus’ name. Amen. Sasha was a 60-year-old retired teacher with severe social anxiety. Previously, she had not a problem with this while she was teaching. She was confident, capable during her early years as a teacher, but since retirement, things have changed for her. She cries during everyday tasks. She avoids people, and she often feels overwhelmed. Sasha feels safest and most relaxed when she’s away from people, particularly when she’s alone with her husband on camping trips. Since childhood, she felt unwanted, overlooked, and shaped the core belief that she was unimportant. And teaching had become the main place where she felt valued, where she felt competent, and where she felt that she was in control. And retirement removed her chief source of identity, security, and self-worth. Same is true of Jeff, a 39-year-old manager of a successful investment firm, who’s now unable to focus and finds doing his job almost impossible. He feels foolish in front of his colleagues and is experiencing overwhelming anxiety, panic attacks, and disrupts his daily, this disrupts his daily functioning. In the night, he often wakes up drenched with sweat, tingling, and immobilized by fear and intensely nauseated. His thoughts about himself and his career have become increasingly negative. And so it is with Helen, this 28-year-old chemistry student, whose intense anxiety has now come upon her with regards to her university exams. The effects of this has kept her from, she has been avoiding lectures, she's been not at campus, not studying, not, not doing anything related to university, and she is growing sadder. She’s becoming socially withdrawn. She’s having insomnia. She’s having headaches, fatigue, stomach aches, constant worry, and she is in turmoil of soul. She grew up in a highly pressured family where her father tied her worth to getting a degree. And her core beliefs include, “I am nothing unless I have a degree. I always have to please my family, and I have to do everything perfectly.” And these beliefs has led to automatic thoughts, as it were, in her mind, where she feels that she cannot cope, that there is no second chance for her, were she if she were to fail, and that she would fail in life if she failed academically. Now, these are just a sample of some cases that have been noted by psychologists concerning people that have presented to them in their office with troubles like these. What is common among these cases? What is the common link between Sasha, Jeff, and Helen, and any other, perhaps you this morning, or any of us that battle with severe anxiety? Well, the common thread between them all is that each one has a set of core beliefs that shape the way that they interpret dangers and difficulties. Their core beliefs may be derived, and it’s not really that important where they were derived from, what is very important is what you’re doing about those core beliefs, may have derived from upbringing. They may have derived from their personality, and they tend towards a certain kind of way of thinking. But these core beliefs have so shaped them that they become the way they interpret life, that produces somewhat at least appears to them as an automatic response. And therefore, their fear, or the situation, or the thing that they dread most, becomes, as it were, that which is under a magnifying glass. And the problem with looking at something through a magnifying glass is that is all you see. It’s disproportionate. The magnifying glass focuses in on that object, the object that they fear, and it is so narrow that when you look at something through a magnifying glass, you can’t see its relationship to anything else around it. But it becomes the focus entirely of your attention. Have you ever been scared by a shadow? Happened to me the other week. You know, checking on Johanan in the middle of the night. And I walk into his room, and as soon as I walk into our room, I see this shadow of like a person on the wall, on the right-hand side. And I was afraid for just a moment, just a split second, until I looked in front of me and thought, “Ah, this is his robe that’s hanging on the edge of his house bed.” And his lamp is shining on the robe, you know, and yes, the shadow was caused to be on the wall. This shadow is disproportionate to the actual object which it is representing. And although the shadow represents the object so that there’s some true representation between the shadow and the thing it represents, yet it is disproportionate. And I believe that’s a lot of how anxiety looks like for us. A set of core beliefs that cause us to interpret a certain fear that we have that is disproportionate to the rest of the realities that exist in our life, and it’s like we’re looking at this huge shadow. And so what begins perhaps as an ordinary concern, like doing well in your exams or, you know, making an impact in your workplace or being successful or simply staying alive, which are good things that we should desire, well, it becomes a disorderly, disorderly concern, a disproportionate concern, and now your whole life feels attached to it. Now your entire well-being hangs on it. Now it feels as though nothing else matters in comparison. And there is that pestering, doubting voice, obsessively fixing your mind on these things. And you feel like you have no power to change, and it overwhelms your restless heart and leaves your soul in a state of dread and fear. Now the anxiety that we’re speaking about this morning is not the good anxiety, which could be translated as concern. I hope there are some things that you are concerned about. Paul said he had anxiety about the state of the churches. Good. That’s a good thing to be concerned about. You know, we should have a measure of healthy concern about things of the future. We should be as those who plan and as those who prepare and those that measure and weigh. We need to see the value of doing these things. But there is a fear which destroys, there is a fear which cripples, and there is a fear which harms you. And this is the bad anxiety to which we’re referring to this morning. The anxiety that we’re talking about this morning is the anxiety whose favorite word is “what if?” Whose favorite TV show is the news. Who speaks the loudest when everything is meant to be quiet. Whose closest friends are nervousness, stress, panic, perfectionism, men’s applause, and unbelief. Who loves to reside in the hearts that seek identity through performance, opinions of others, and personal achievement. Who takes ordinary human desires and magnifies them until they become the controlling, debilitating fears, leaving you helpless and insecure. That is the anxiety to which the scripture forbids us to have. Elijah, a man of God, prophet of God, had a great victory on Mount Carmel and and destroyed the prophets of Baal. But Jezebel, the queen at the time, said, “If this man is not dead soon, it’s going to be a big problem.” So what does she do? She pursues his life. What does he do? Well, the Bible says he runs for his life. The Bible says he was afraid, and he flees for his life. Such fleeing and fear caused him—this is where it gets a little bit out of hand—caused him to desire death. Isn’t that amazing? Here’s a man who’s running from death, now desiring death. It’s crazy. And he’s afraid, and he arises, he runs for his life, and such fear causes him to long for death, and he views his life as a big failure. He says, “It is enough, now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” The fear causes him to fall into self-pitying despair that leads him to think that he alone is the only one left of the prophets of God and the ones that have kept the word of the Lord. And God shows up. And God helps him see what is actually true and proportionate to his fears. The way the scripture speaks to helping us through anxiety in the two texts of scripture that we would, we look at and we will look at, is that it presents to us as David Powlison called a triangulation, and it’s the idea of a triangulation of hope. And the Bible has a very unique and powerful way of doing this. A triangle has three points, two on the horizontal and one at the vertical. And what the Bible does is it takes our situation, okay, the thing outside of us, the thing that troubles us, the thing that we fear, and it then explains us, our heart. It speaks to life inside of us. And it connects the anxiety within us and the situation outside of us to the God who is above us. And the Bible does this so well in such a way as helping us understand that our situation and our trouble within ought to be looked at in light of the God who reigns above, in all wisdom, all power, whose work is refuge, whose work is salvation, who is a God who provides for the needs of His people. And the scripture, by doing this, does one predominant thing that I want us to at least consider this morning, is that it fights for a God-entrenched worldview. What the scripture seeks to do is to help us have a core set of beliefs by which we interpret what’s going on around us. A core set of beliefs that interprets what’s going on around us with a God-entrenched worldview, with a view towards God. And therefore helps us have a proper and proportionate response to trials, to afflictions, to fears, and to threats that come our way and will come our way. The text, both texts here, include a command: don’t be anxious. Both of these passages give us an exhortation. Philippians saying, “Pray and think on these things,” and Matthew telling us to seek first the kingdom of God. And both these texts give us a promise of God’s intervention. You see that the peace of God shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. That’s in Philippians. And in Matthew, also, we have, “and all these things will be added unto you.” By who? Your Heavenly Father. And so the passage does all these things. Now let’s look at Philippians chapter 4 together and see if we can observe this triangulation of hope and see how it may help us in our anxiety and also help others in their time of anxiety. Let’s see the horizontal and the vertical relationship here. Philippians chapter 4 verse number 6, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” I want us just to focus here on the horizontal. Do not be anxious about anything. The anything is that which is outside of us. Okay? This is the thing that threatens us. This is the thing that we are concerned about. This is the thing that we fear. The anxious is the trouble within us caused by the thing outside of us that we fear. You see what’s happening here? Don’t be anxious for anything. The anything is the things outside of us that troubles us within. But, what does it say in verse 6? “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.” And there’s the introduction of the vertical. And what he is helping us see is that we, there is God. Isn’t that an amazing thing? If you look at your situation and your anxiety, it often doesn’t include God. In fact, life is quite fearful without God. Situations are very fearful without God. But what Paul wants the believers to understand is that that which is troubling them internally that is outside of them, they must bring to God. God, the God above them, the God outside of them, the God who is over them and over the circumstances, they are to acknowledge. They are not only to acknowledge, but they are to approach. Now, the problem with with how we look at this idea of prayer is that we think of it too often in a way that is unhelpful. We think of prayer as a mechanism to dump information on God. You’re not going to get too much help by doing that. We need to see prayer not as just transactional, like a request dump, but we need to see prayer as communion. Prayer functions primarily not about supplications. That is not the main thing about prayer. The main thing about prayer is you in the presence of God. The thing about prayer is bringing us to God. Prayer is about man who is on earth being brought to God in communion with the living God. It’s more than just request them, it’s more than just transaction. Not saying that there’s no communication to God in prayer, but it’s more than that, much more than that. It’s relational. It is there before the God who made the heavens and the earth, who rules over all that we are told to bring our supplications and to make our requests known to Him. And when we think of prayer as communion, and if we think of prayer as fellowship with God, and if we think as prayer as being brought into the presence of God, then we see not prayer merely as that which I’m coming to bring my request to, but as communion with the living God, and not only communion with the living God, but that communion with the living God then recalibrates the way that I interpret the world. In the presence of God, our perceptions are corrected and recalibrated. When you in prayer look to God with thanksgiving—I love that it puts thanksgiving in there because that will really shape the way you view things. Imagine in the heat of your anxiety and fear, you go to the God and you’re seeking to be in His presence, and then you are thanking Him for all the good things that He is and all the good things that He does, and to all the things that could be but are not, and how the thing that you fear most could be much worse than what it is, but it is not. And you start thanking and praising and communing with this living God. And then you start to bring your request to this God who is so big and awesome and mighty and sovereign, who is near you at this present hour. And you say to Him, “God, I am afraid of this.” It would be very different, wouldn't it, than to you sitting in your car biting your nails, or to rolling around in bed trying to rack your brain, or in your workplace when you take your lunch break and you’re fretting about what your boss might say to you in this next meeting. It changes the way that those threats are perceived when we take it to God in prayer that is the prayer of communion, that is the prayer that recalibrates our thinking because it is a prayer of thanksgiving. And the result of this triangulation, by taking that which is outside of you and that which is and you know, that which is in your heart, that anxiety, and and reading all that in light of who He is and coming to Him, the Bible teaches us that this actually changes things in our lives. Because the very next verse says, “And the peace of God,” verse 7, “which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Isn't that amazing? The guard your hearts and minds. It is your heart and mind that is most vulnerable in fear and in anxiety. But here, the peace of God will stand as a guard with a shield before your most vulnerable heart when you are in the presence of God, communing with God, and talking to God, and bearing your burden before God, and entrusting Him with the things that you fear most. When the cup of your soul’s anxiety is properly poured out into the ocean of God, you will find a fullness that swallows up all your fears. God will fill you with a certain peace and will protect your hearts and minds in Christ. It’s an amazing truth. A truth that we don’t often experience because we give way to fear and do not give way to the presence of God. A fear that we allow to consume us because we do not have a God-entrenched worldview about what is going on around us. And then he goes on to give some preventative measures, protecting us against anxiety in verse number 8, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” The exhortation serves as a preventative. He’s not telling us to be ignorant about things that are around us and saying, you know, just just don’t know what’s going on in the world and hide yourself in a little cove somewhere and, you know, if you don’t know, ignorance is bliss. That’s not the call of the passage. The call of the passage is not to stop thinking. That’s not the call of the passage. And the word thinking doesn’t have the idea of just thinking in general, it’s the idea of dwelling. We’re saying, don’t make your mind dwell on things that are unprofitable. Things that you have no power to change, things that you have no control over, things that will only propagate fear and anxiety in your life. Stop thinking on those things. In fact, you know the filtration system when you go on to a website? This is the filtration system. You only want to see things that are lovely and honorable and of good report and trustworthy things and praiseworthy things. These are the things you want to hit search on and focus on. And if something comes to you and you’re you’re you’re reading things and you’re learning about things that cause fear, let your God-entrenched worldview shape the way that you interpret that thing. And you know what? You can actually look at something that is pretty ugly and see the wonder of it in light of the glory of God. You see how God-entrenched worldview doesn’t drive us to a cave somewhere to hide, it actually helps us look at evil in light of the glory of God and the sovereignty of God and the power of God and the justice of God and the wisdom of God. Think on these things. Because what you think on, you will feel, and what you feel will begin to eat you up inside. And you are perhaps having anxiety and panic attacks and things like this because you have sold your mind to that which you should not have sold your mind to. You have given your heart, your affections, your emotions, you have created core beliefs and worldviews around things that are unbiblical, things that are unhealthy, things that are unlovely, things that are untrue. And because of those those things, you have now interpreting the things that are outside of you with this set of core beliefs and you will feel as if you are stuck. Come with me to Matthew chapter number 6. You’ll see the triangulation here again. I’m not going to focus on it. You’ll see it. You’ll see how food and clothing, you know, are the things outside of us that we we fear and desire. You see the anxiety that’s inside of us, and then you see a whole exposition on the great God who provides for us. But I want us just to focus on this text of scripture from the three questions that are there. There has more, but there are three key questions in this passage. In verse number 25, we are told here, “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, and the body more than clothing?” The first question is, “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” The question here exposes anxiety’s wrong estimation of life. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? It exposes anxiety’s wrong estimation and emphasis about life. Anxiety has a misplaced emphasis upon what is important in life. But here the passage tells us life is that that that life is more than food and the body more than clothing. That what matters most is not food and clothing for which we have been designed for. We haven’t been designed for food and clothing. We’ve been designed for more. God wants us to have food and clothing. Yes, we are to eat and drink and to have these things, but the life is more than that. The body is more than that. We’ve been designed for, as He will show in this passage, ultimately and fundamentally for the kingdom of God. That is our ultimate end for which we’ve been created. And anxiety magnifies food and clothing to a place that it should not have in our lives. And so the question is very challenging because it helps us think about what are the things that we have perhaps idolized or made us feel that we cannot live without. That then begins to occupy our attention and to inform our core beliefs. What should occupy our attention primarily? Comforts or Christ? You tell me, what is more important, what you wear or who you are? What you eat or how you live? What car you live in, what, you know, what sorry, house you live in or what car you drive, or whether your life belongs to God and that you have a home in heaven made and prepared for you by God. What matters more? The earthly and worldly securities for which you strive, or security in Christ, knowing that your sins have been forgiven and that you have fellowship with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. What matters more? The things of this life or the fact of the glory of God? You know, if we have the glory of God as our ultimate goal for which we strive, the consuming passion, the thing about which we think of and live for, the kingdom of God, then the things of this life won’t take such preeminence in our lives and then we won’t be as anxious about them. Look at question two, verse 26. Are you not of more value than they? The end of verse 26 says that, “Your heavenly Father feeds the birds, and are you not of more value than they?” And this question exposes anxiety’s failure to comprehend what God values. It’s a question of comparative value. Are you not of more value than they? Then what? The birds. This is the end of an argument, by the way. The question, the argument ends with this question, “Are you not of more value than they?” And the argument goes a little bit like this: If God cares for the birds, which are these little two-legged creatures with wings, that are not made in the image of God, that eat all just kinds of things of trees and worms in the ground and little bits and pieces, and if the God of heaven and earth gives thought to them, feeds them, has gives them attention, cares for them, looks after them, which are not even near as valuable as a human being, he’s saying, what are you to be worrying about then? They eat, they sleep, they have a house, they have a place of lodging, they have their rest. What about us? Do you think God’s not going to provide for us? This is the simple argument of the passage. But something we miss in the passage is this: Your heavenly Father feeds them. Listen to these words. Your heavenly Father feeds them. God is not their heavenly Father. He is their creator, but they are not in that relationship with God where God is their Father. They are not adopted as children of the living God. But your heavenly Father—you see, your heavenly Father, did you forget about Him? He’s in heaven. He’s enthroned. He’s king of all the universe. He rules and reigns over everything. And by the way, He’s your heavenly Father. Yes, the one the one that gives food to the birds, them, them. But you have a heavenly Father who controls and governs the universe, and He is your heavenly Father. Now, what do you think? Do you think the father values the son more than the dog that is in the house? Of course, the father will value a son more than the dog in the house. You better hope so, the way some people treat their dogs today makes you concerned. The point is this: the father loves the son, right? More than the animal in the same household. This is your Father’s world, and you who believe in Jesus are your Father’s children. Now look at the way that He looks after the dogs and look at the way that He looks after the birds and look after the way He looks after all the pets. You don’t think you’re going to have food on your table when they have food on theirs? You don’t think you’re going to have drink in on your table when they have drink in their bowl? You see the craziness of it all? He’s your heavenly Father. This is taking the situation outside of us, the thing that we fear, and the trouble within us, and lifting it up to God who is our heavenly Father. Do you see Him as your heavenly Father? How important to you is the doctrine of sonship and adoption? How does it play out into the into your anxieties? And this is why in verse number 30 He can say, “O you of little faith.” A good, healthy rebuke for the one that thinks that God cares more for animals than He does for His own children. That is quite offensive to God, actually. You are of more value than they. And the third question is, which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? This question exposes the futility of anxiety. Anxiety ultimately controls and achieves nothing. It is futile. It cripples, it disables productivity, and ultimately cannot affect change. What will your worrying do for the Strait of Hormuz this morning? That’s the Iran conflict, by the way, if you haven’t been watching the news. Honestly, what is your worrying and stressing about what’s happening right now in Iran going to do? What going to change what’s happening over in Iran? Look, if you had a direct line to Trump, by all means, stress and sort this out for us. Speak some sound sense into the situation. But but the thing is, your anxiety is not going to change that one bit. It will change the dynamic of your family relationship. It will change your relationship to God. It will affect the way that you you live and and and and what’s happening in your life, but it’s not going to change anything on the ground. It’s not going to get any more oil through that channel, or any more fertilizer to keep us from a famine. I’m telling you, it’s not going to help. And this is the futility of anxiety. You can worry all you want, but you tell me if your worry is going to make you live longer. It won’t. God has set the day of your birth, God has set the day of your death, and you can stress about living as long as you want to live, but all your stress won’t make an ounce of one more minute to your life longer. You won’t live a day longer. That’s the futility of worry. Do you think life is in your hands? You know, do you do you think that that worrying will save you? Do you think fear will stop you from getting sick? No. It won’t. Do you think anxiety will give you children? Do you think being anxious will change your spouse? These things are ultimately in the hand of God. Be concerned about them to the point that you must act on the things that you must act on, but leave them to one who is called your heavenly Father, who feeds the birds. You see that the point? The birds go out and get their food, but who feeds them? God does. This is not a fatalistic type of mentality. God’s going to feed me, so I’ll I’ll roll up my sleeve, you know, not I’ll I’ll be a a lazy bum and not got to work. That is not what’s being said in the text. You do what you do in obedience to the commands and will of God, and you will find that your heavenly Father has more concern for you than for birds, and He will feed you. He will give you the grace that you need when you’re fretting and anxious. He will give you the strength and meet you with love and kindness when you are in your deepest trouble. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain that you rise up early and go to bed late, eating the bread of anxious toil, for He gives His beloved sleep.” Every passage that we’ve looked at and perhaps every passage on fear and anxiety in the scriptures, all want us to turn our attention from what is happening inside of us and outside of us and to relate them to the glory and grace of God that is there for us. It all says to us, lift up your eyes. Stop looking through the magnifying glass. Lift them up. This is a disproportionate view of what’s going on around you. Look at your life, look at your troubles, look at your fears in light of God. Bring your requests to Him and let Him speak into them. The one who governs, the one who knows, the one who hears, the one who provides. The scripture says to us time and time again for the anxious soul, behold your God. Look at Him. Really look at Him. Don’t look at Him superficially. Look at Him seriously. Get a good hold of Him. Get a good understanding of Him. See how He invades the entire creation and governs everything in your life. See that He is sovereign over all and king over all the universe. And this is why the scripture says in 1 John chapter number 4, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love cast out fear because fear has torment. He that fears has not been made perfect in love.” What is that passage telling us? That the the reason why we fear is because we do not have a proper understanding of God’s love toward us. Because the your heavenly Father doesn’t be considered in the midst of our fears. Fear has to do with punishment, but God is not one who is after punishing His children. Disciplining, yes. Punishing, no. Big difference, by the way, between punishment and discipline. And what I mean by this is that God is not against us, He is for us. God is not meeting out to you every sin that you’ve committed, He's remembered them, and now what He's doing, He's is going to make sure that every aspect of your life is affected by every sin that you’ve committed, as though He’s opened up the books on the day of judgment and said, “Ah, you’ve gone wrong here, gone wrong there, gone wrong there.” 40 lashes for 40 sins. No, that’s not how God works with His children. Discipline is different to retributive justice, which will come upon the ungodly. Discipline is for children. And what discipline is about, about your heart being turned to God. And God will allow trouble in your life and God will allow things in your life and God will chasen you so that you can turn your attention to Him, so you can lay hold of Him, so that you can see Him, not because He’s against you, but because He’s for you, because He’s your heavenly Father. There’s a big difference between that. And where we get anxious sometimes, because we think God’s after us. God is not after us in the way to punish us. He’s after us in a way to save us, in a way to redeem us, in a way to help us. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.” You say, how am I really going to know that I’m more value than more sparrows? Look, let’s just finish with this to help you understand that. Look to the cross of Jesus and ask yourself if you’re valued by God. Let’s have that debate looking at the cross of Christ. Let’s have that discussion whether God cares for you or not when the bleeding Lord is hanging there, wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? You know, the all things for which you stress and worry about? Paul says that cross shows us that the that this God who is for us, who is in control and governs all things, graciously desires to give us all things, and the way that we know that is because He gave us His Son. The best of His things. The things that you cannot put a price on. The precious blood of Christ as a lamb without spot and blemish. And you wonder whether God’s going to look after you? You wonder whether God loves you? You wonder whether God’s going to take care of you? Look at the cross and ask that question again. Take your anxiety, the thing that you fear most, and and put it up against the bleeding Lord and see the love of God displayed to us in Christ Jesus and ask yourself whether God’s going to care for you or not. Spurgeon said, “We should never have known Christ’s love in all its heights and depths if He had not died, nor could we guess the Father’s deep affection if He had not given His Son to die. The common mercies we enjoy all sing of love, just as the seashell when we put it into our ears, whispers of the deep sea whence it came. But if we desire to hear the ocean itself, we must not look at the everyday blessings, but at the transactions of the crucifixion. He who would know love, let him retire to Calvary and see the man of sorrows die.” You know, you can hear the the you can hear the sea from the seashell, but there’s nothing like beholding the sea. You say God cares for you because He feeds you? It’s true. But why don’t you go take a look at the cross and see the sea of God’s love and commitment to you, and see a covenant love that will never be broken. The cross has written on it, God is for us. Therefore, look at the cross. “Martha, Martha, why are you anxious about so many things? But one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” You see that? Mary’s sitting at the feet of Jesus, communing with Jesus, while Martha is anxious about many things. The call of these passages is to stop being anxious about many things because Jesus is there before you in the word, and He wants to speak peace to your soul and remind you of His love for you and the fact that He will care and provide for you. So be anxious for nothing. Let us pray.