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[0:00] I may be about to mess up my own introduction, but that psalm we have just read is so pertinent to this morning. So we're going to do Matthew 6, the very last part of the chapter.

[0:14] But what was clear in that psalm was God was saying, basically I'm it. I mean, there is nothing greater than me.

[0:27] I made it all. I rule it all. The cattle on a thousand hills are mine. Again, there's nothing here that doesn't belong to me and over which I don't have absolute authority.

[0:41] And this this session that we're going to do is about the topic of worry and anxiety, which is one that we all struggle with.

[0:51] And I'm just thinking back. Many of you all know I used to be an outdoor pursuits instructor.

[1:02] And one of the things I had to do to be successful at that was to generate trust in the people I was teaching. And so when they had to try something, it was a bit adventurous, like an Eskimo roll or something like that.

[1:18] I had to say to them and they had to trust. When you do it, if you don't come up, I will get you out. And they would try it, trusting that I would get them out.

[1:30] Now, of course, after a little while, they'd all seen me get other people out of trouble. And so they knew that I could. And so the trust was based on something that they could, in their minds, they could grasp and say, yes, I know he can get me out of trouble.

[1:46] So I'll give it a go. And the same was true of going down rapids. And when I was on the side in my wetsuit and my life jacket with a rope saying, if you come unstuck going down this rapid, I'll get you out.

[2:01] And they knew that I could. So they had to go. Without that trust, they just said, I'll give it a miss. I won't bother. I'll stay at the top or I'll walk round or something. And that's a very, very poor parallel with needing to get a perspective on God that puts him in his right place.

[2:21] But it's a little more difficult than that because it's not just that we trust him to keep us safe in this life.

[2:32] But actually, it goes far beyond that to keeping us safe in eternity. And we'll return to that later in this talk.

[2:43] So just by way of a very, very brief recap.

[2:53] If you remember that we've reached this point. And we are today going to look at verses 25 to 34 of Matthew 6.

[3:08] But up to this point, what we've had hammered home to us time and time again through the preceding chapter, chapter 5, and thus far through chapter 6.

[3:19] We've had the content of our hearts called into question. That the problem, as you see in bold type on the screen, the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart.

[3:34] Something I think I've said every week now for about 10 weeks. And the point is what he was saying to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount right up to this point is the problem you have is your hearts are not right.

[3:49] And it must have been incredibly daunting for them to hear that because those who sought after righteousness would seek after being like the Pharisees.

[4:02] And what Jesus was saying was you've got to be far more righteous than the Pharisees if you want to get into heaven. Which in itself must have blown their minds. And then they've been challenged again and again.

[4:13] It isn't just the committing of the act, but it's the heart desire to commit the act, even if you don't do it. So if you even think murderous thoughts, you're guilty of murder in your heart.

[4:24] If you even look upon a woman with adultery in your heart, even though you don't carry it through, it counts. Because you've sinned in your heart.

[4:35] So always, always, always Jesus is saying your hearts aren't right. And what he was saying to them all along was you need to have your hearts changed. And if you think for a moment to John's Gospel chapter 3 where he talks to Nicodemus, what he says to Nicodemus is you can't enter the kingdom of heaven unless you're born again.

[4:56] So something has to happen to the heart that is supernatural. Because Nicodemus quite rightly says, what are you saying? How can I go back into the mother's womb and be born again? That's ridiculous.

[5:06] Jesus is saying, unless you are born of water and of the spirit, you can't enter the kingdom of heaven. What is interesting about this is that Jesus was saying this in preparation for a time when it would apply.

[5:24] It couldn't apply at the time that he said it because he had not yet died. He hadn't risen. He hadn't ascended. And he hadn't sent the Holy Spirit in order to make this heart change to people.

[5:39] So the prophecy written in Jeremiah 31 verse 31, which we've talked about at some length, couldn't happen yet. So he must have been preparing them for the time when it would happen, which was the day of Pentecost, 50 days after the resurrection.

[5:57] So he was giving them these instructions as a kind of futuristic thing. And when we read this, it becomes apparent because as you read it, you think, it's all very well to say that, but how do I actually do it?

[6:16] And of course, what Jesus was saying was, he was talking to a load of people that do get consumed by worries and anxieties of one sort or another.

[6:29] And yet he was telling them not to worry. So, but to reach that point of not worrying, you have to have a proper perception of God.

[6:42] And you only get that when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and sets you free from fear. And the Holy Spirit hadn't descended at this point.

[6:53] So you see the kind of paradox that he's in, where he's on the one hand saying, don't fear. And it gets even more complicated than that, but I'll leave that complex until we get a little bit further on.

[7:07] And he's dealt with our response to wealth, because our human nature response to wealth is first of all to get it and secondly to hoard it.

[7:19] And so he's dealt with that and said you shouldn't cling on to wealth. And then he talks about the eye being the lamp of the body, how what we take in through our eyes can lead us to prioritise wrong things.

[7:32] And choosing to use as our light things that are actually darkness. So what we pursue with our eyes, we talked about what happens when people pursue, I don't know, fast cars, fast motorbikes, pornography, whatever it is.

[7:50] You pursue it and you go looking for it. The eye being the lamp of the body actually means that it's not a window into the body.

[8:02] It's what the body uses to seek out things like you would use a torch or a lamp. And he was exhorting them to say, make sure you're looking for the right things.

[8:14] Look for things that are godly and righteous, things that will bring you light and make you light. And he finished off by saying you can't serve both God and mammon.

[8:26] In other words, you've got to pick and choose. And lots of translations say you can't serve both God and wealth. And the question is not whether you have wealth, it's whether wealth has you.

[8:39] It's where the ownership is, because there's nothing wrong with having wealth. If Nicodemus was probably the richest man or one of the richest men in Israel at the time that Jesus spoke to him.

[8:52] And Abraham was a faithful, faithful man, and yet he was also incredibly wealthy. It's not whether you have wealth, it's whether wealth has you. In other words, does it become something that consumes you, something that you have to have, something that you begin to worship?

[9:09] You pursue it more than you pursue God. And what he was saying was you can't serve both. You have to choose whom you're going to serve, as it says in Joshua 24.

[9:19] Now, so we're now going to read this section about worry.

[9:32] And you can use the word worry or you can use the word anxiety interchangeably through this. Now, what you have to remember is these disciples, when they were at the crucifixion, they were all terrified.

[9:48] So they hadn't at that point paid a lot of attention to this part of the Sermon on the Mount. They were all very worried, very anxious. So much so that they ran away, with the exception of John and Peter.

[10:02] And so it wasn't until later, until after the resurrection and until after Pentecost, that they actually came into the good of what had been preached in the Sermon on the Mount.

[10:19] Now, after the ascension, they willingly went to death for their faith. Whereas prior to Pentecost, they were running and hiding and so on.

[10:34] So they went from mouse to men. Overnight, when the Holy Spirit was poured out. And this was a supernatural change.

[10:46] And we should seek God for the same supernatural change for ourselves, if we are beset by worry or anxiety or whatever. I seem to have missed.

[11:02] That's the one I'm looking for. So let's read it. It's on the screen, but you can also read it from your Bible. Verse 25. 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.

[11:25] 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.

[11:36] Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you, by being worried, can add a single hour to his life? Which is a slightly dubious translation.

[11:48] It's a single cubit to your stature, but it's also a single cubit to your life span. How can you add even a cubit to your life span by worrying?

[11:59] 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 his glory clothed himself like one of these.

[12:15] But if God so clothed the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith?

[12:25] 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 things.

[12:40] 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.

[12:51] Each day has enough trouble of its own. How do we even begin to not worry?

[13:06] And clearly they didn't succeed until the Holy Spirit came upon them, and that's a clue for us, that we will get rid of worry when we continually pray and turn to God, and when we have a right perception of God.

[13:20] Now, I talked about the rescue situation, where the perception of the kids I was looking after was Ray can get us out of trouble. And in that respect, they were correct.

[13:32] However, in every other aspect of life, it would have been a wasted belief. But in the one aspect of life where they were dependent upon me, they could trust me. So, fair play.

[13:44] How do we get there when it comes to God, is my question. The first thing that we should realise is that the people to whom this was preached, where Jesus is saying to them, you can trust me, God is bound to look after you, look how he looks after the lilies of the field, look how he looks after the birds.

[14:19] He feeds them, doesn't he? And he clothes the lilies of the field, and so on. And that is said to all these disciples, almost all of whom died for their faith in violent circumstances.

[14:33] And so, my first, and I think most important point of this, as I was studying it, I thought, how do we reconcile this death and destruction when Jesus has said, don't worry, God has got you?

[14:52] And they could have been forgiven for saying, I thought you were looking after me. This is actually the very place that the word faith movement fails.

[15:03] Because what they would say to you is, if you die an early death for any reason at all, you didn't have enough faith. Which is absolute codswallop, particularly if you die a martyr's death, it takes faith to stand up and sit for a martyr's death.

[15:22] You have to have immense courage and immense comfort and confidence in what's happening to you should you suffer a martyr's death.

[15:35] You only put your head in the noose for a martyr's death if you're confident about what comes next. And I think one of the reasons that we struggle is, in verses 31 and 32, what we've just read, Jesus is really rubbing in the fact that God cares for them.

[16:03] Don't worry about anything. Not food, not drink, not clothing, not your life, nothing. Don't worry about a thing. And then they all go and get killed. So we've either got a contradiction in the scriptures here or we're supposed to look at the wider picture, which involves getting this perception of God that is bigger than just having my daily needs met.

[16:29] In fact, it goes as far as even if my daily needs aren't met, my eternal needs definitely are. And they are far more important than my needs today.

[16:40] If I starve to death today, it only puts me in heaven sooner. And without that eternal perspective, we will always worry. We will always be concerned about things which Jesus said, you shouldn't even be concerning yourself with these things.

[16:57] And he said it to a bunch of people who couldn't respond until the Holy Spirit came sometime later at Pentecost. Is that all clear? Right.

[17:08] So, the lilies of the field. I looked at that, exactly, I looked at that scripture and I thought, how on earth can you say that Solomon in all his glory wasn't dressed as beautifully as the lilies of the field?

[17:25] And I was thinking of a lily in a pot, which is the only ones I've ever seen. I've never seen a field of lilies like this. And that is absolutely beautiful. And far more beautiful than Solomon would have been.

[17:39] And that's what he was referring to, not the lily in the pot that you have on the shelf at home, but a whole field of them in contrasting colours. And if you notice, they grow in a field that also has grass growing in it.

[17:52] And so what you have is, the scripture there said, if he dresses the grass of the field like this, which is there one day and then thrown into the furnace the next, how much more will he look after you?

[18:09] So once again, it clearly speaks of a level of beauty which is eternally inherited.

[18:21] These disciples went on to be persecuted, cast out of the synagogue. Being cast out of the synagogue means you couldn't get work. Not getting work means you couldn't feed yourself or your family.

[18:32] You couldn't buy new clothes. So they were almost certainly a raggedy down-at-heel bunch when it comes to their presentation in public.

[18:45] So this must have been speaking of another time when their appearance and the provision for them would be absolutely vast beyond measure and beyond description.

[18:56] Very similar to what we read about in Psalm 50 this morning. So if we just turn, and you'll forgive me, I'm spending a lot of time going around this passage rather than making my way through it.

[19:12] But that's deliberate because the whole passage seems to make one large point to me. It says don't worry. And don't worry about any of it. So in Scripture, how is that carried out?

[19:26] Now if we turn to the book of Hebrews chapter 1, chapter 1, and chapter 1, and before we read it, I'll just remind ourselves that the Hebrew Christians of the day were, they were being heavily persecuted, at this point not martyred, but heavily persecuted, and they were suffering everything that I've just spoken about.

[19:54] They were being cast out of the synagogue. They were being not allowed to earn a living. They were impoverished. They were suffering hardship. They were suffering violence at the hands of the Romans and suffering violence at the hands of the Jews who had rejected Jesus.

[20:12] So these were Hebrew Christians being persecuted by their own people and also by the Romans. And they wanted to go back into Judaism. They wanted to ditch their Christianity and go back into Judaism just to avoid persecution.

[20:29] And the line of thinking was, if we go back into Judaism, it's still the same God we're worshipping. That was their line of thinking. But of course it would leave out Jesus.

[20:41] And salvation is in Jesus. So it would have been going away from what could save them. And so the writer to the Hebrews is exhorting them, do not go back into Judaism.

[20:55] Stay with Christ. That's what you get through the whole book. We're not going to read the whole book this morning, but we are going to start with, what was it that the writer to the Hebrews said to them to give them this right perspective on God?

[21:11] Because if you don't have a right perspective on God, you will worry. It's just, if I don't know that God has got me, and not only has he got me, but he's capable and wants the best for me, if I don't know those things in my heart, then I'm going to worry.

[21:30] So it says this, from chapter 1, verse 1. God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers, in the prophets, in many portions, and in many ways, in these last days, has spoken to us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also made the world.

[21:53] So, this Jesus, who is God's mouthpiece, and the one who loved us, and the one who died for us, is the one through whom he made the world.

[22:07] So that makes him pretty big, and pretty powerful, to my way of thinking. Arguably much more powerful, than anything I could be worried about. Reading on.

[22:17] And he is the radiance of his glory, and the exact representation of his nature, and upholds all things by the word of his power.

[22:28] When he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of majesty on high, having become much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they.

[22:42] So what it's saying is, this Jesus, forget angels, this is the one who created the angels, this is the one who is so vast in his potential, he created the world, and he is the exact radiance of the glory of God.

[22:59] There is nothing bigger than him. He radiates the same power and authority that God does. Reading on.

[23:13] And these are all superlatives. A superlative is something that cannot be exceeded. Right? So Jesus is described in superlative terms. For to which of the angels did he ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you.

[23:30] Right? God has never said that to angels, but he said it of Jesus. And again, I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.

[23:41] Now if you've had a good dad, that is incredibly meaningful. I have a childhood memory of some bloke getting, I won't bore you with the story, it's too long-winded, but the short version is, this bloke started getting really antsy with me, and I was about nine, I think, and my dad appeared.

[24:05] And my dad only hit him once. And we were beside the docks, and he went straight over the rail and landed in the water.

[24:20] My dad's bigger than your dad. But the thing is, our dad is bigger than his dad. You know, we have a big dad. He can take things on for us.

[24:34] Reading on. And again, I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. And when he again brings the firstborn into the world, he says, and let all the angels of God worship him.

[24:51] And of the angels, he says, who makes his angels win? Or spirits. And his ministers, a flame of fire. But of the sun, he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of his kingdom.

[25:10] You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions. And, you, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.

[25:25] They will perish, but you remain, and they will become old like a garment, and like a mantle, you will roll them up. Like a garment, they will also be changed.

[25:39] But you are the same, and your years will not come to an end. But to which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?

[25:51] Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation? Now, the Jews put angels on a pedestal.

[26:04] There were lots of angelic stories. Most of you read a lot in the Old Testament of angelic visions. And angels were up there. They were big. They were powerful. They were to be feared. You were to be in awe of angels.

[26:16] And what this writer is saying, angels are nothing compared to Jesus. Not once did God ever say to the angels, come and sit at my right hand. And the point is that Jesus, this one that we just read about, who's bigger than angels, who is more powerful than angels, who created the earth, who created everything and owns everything, loves us.

[26:47] A simple statement. He loves us. Which hasn't yet answered the dilemma, but at least it puts God in his right perspective. There's a paragraph in the middle there.

[27:02] Central to this exhortation is the belief, or possibly the fact, that God, both the Father and the Son, and of course the Holy Spirit, is the greatest, most awesome, in the literal sense of awesome, as in one with whom we would find ourselves in awe, most magnificent, most superlative, most authoritative, and wonderful being there has ever been, or ever will be.

[27:29] Now when you have that, we need a two-fold perception. One is, that is God. He is our Father, and that is God, and he is huge, and powerful, and loving.

[27:45] And the second thing we need is that, and he loves me. And so that day that my dad lashed out on my behalf, God could do that at any moment for me, and would do it in appropriate circumstances.

[28:07] Turn to John's Gospel, chapter 16. You may have gathered, that what I'm really trying to do, with this time, is to reconcile, what seems to be, a difficult thing to reconcile, which is, on the one hand, Jesus saying, don't worry about any of it, and on the other hand, they all suffered, at the hands of men, and most of them died martyrs' deaths.

[28:36] In fact, in terms of the 12, 11 of them suffered martyrs' deaths. The only one who didn't was the Apostle John, who they did try to boil in oil, if tradition is to be believed.

[28:50] And God allowed him to enter the hot oil, but didn't allow him to be burned, which must have flummoxed everybody. But John chapter 16 says, you've got to remember, that this is just before the crucifixion, and just before he promises, to send the Holy Spirit, and he says this, these things I have spoken to you, that you may be kept from stumbling.

[29:22] And of course, fear and worry, is a major stumbling block. Probably the biggest stumbling block. If people are going to recant their faith, it will be because somebody's threatened them. Verse 2, they will make you outcasts from the synagogues, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering a service to God.

[29:45] Now that's exactly what the Jews did. They thought, this Christian cult has gone far too far, and we're doing God a favour if we kill them. These things they will do because they have not known the Father or me.

[30:03] But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.

[30:17] And what he's saying, similar to the Sermon on the Mount, really, is I'm saying these things to you to carry you through the time after I've gone and before the Holy Spirit comes. But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, where are you going?

[30:34] But because I've said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I did not go away, the Helper, the Holy Spirit, will not come to you.

[30:48] But if I go, I will send him to you. And he, when he comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, concerning sin because they do not believe in me, concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you no longer see me, and concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged.

[31:11] And I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth, for he will speak on his own initiative.

[31:22] But whatever he hears, he will speak, and, sorry, yeah, he will not speak on his own initiative. But whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will disclose to you what is to come.

[31:35] He will glorify me, for he will take of mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are mine. Therefore, I said, that he takes of mine and will disclose it to you.

[31:50] So, they're all in a situation where they are about to be persecuted and Jesus is telling them that they're about to be persecuted and he's telling them in advance that this is going to happen whilst having already told them don't worry about a thing in the Sermon on the Mount.

[32:08] So, it does seem like a paradox, doesn't it? So, the only way I can see of reconciling this is if we take an eternal perspective.

[32:31] And so, if you turn to 2 Timothy 4, Now, in 2 Timothy 4, Paul, who is the beneficiary or one of the beneficiaries of the teaching that you've just heard from John 16, he has this view at a time when he is facing certain death.

[33:12] And he says this, it's in verses 6 to 8. He says, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come.

[33:25] I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day and not only me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

[33:41] So, the Apostle Paul doesn't seem to be unduly worried and in fact when we read through Acts he has deliberately put himself in this situation. He had an opportunity as a Roman citizen to have his matters with the court dealt with locally and he demanded as was the right of a Roman citizen to go to Caesar.

[34:05] and as soon as he said I want to go to Caesar he was signing his own death warrant. But, Caesar needed the gospel.

[34:18] And so, Paul, far from being oh, if I go there I'm going to get killed was, I don't care, you need the gospel. His sight was on not the fact that he might die tomorrow, the next day, in fact it was a couple of years hence that he actually died because he spent some time in prison.

[34:39] And while he was in prison he did that well-known thing that worried men do when they're in prison. He preached the gospel to everybody including the guy to whom he'd been chained on the journey. You note when you read about his journey and he's on board the ship he's cooperating, he's helping to preserve the lives of others when his own life is in danger and he's cooperating with the centurion because they've now got three months travel to do across land because the weather was too bad to make it by ship and the ship had been wrecked and all of this stuff going on and there's not a sign of worry in Paul, not even a smidgen.

[35:17] He just, he's got this job to do and the job that he's got to do is to get to Caesar and give him the gospel. And he was facing beheading and he knew it but there's no sign of worry because he says there is laid up for me right, in future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day and not only me but all of you as well.

[35:46] Anybody that loves his appearing. So there is an eternal perspective. Paul had no expectation that he would escape these things.

[36:00] I won't turn to it but 1 Corinthians 9.27 Paul teaches about self-discipline and winning this race against adversity but I won't turn to 2 Corinthians 11 return there.

[36:24] 2 Corinthians 11 and Paul gives an account of a part of his life in verse 25 he says start in verse 24 he is talking about his own life to the Corinthian church and he says five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes now 39 lashes was often a capital punishment in that people didn't survive it he received that five times so this is a servant of the God who just said don't worry about a thing right five times I received 39 lashes three times I was beaten with rods once

[37:24] I was stoned three times I was shipwrecked a night and a day I have spent in the deep I've been on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers dangers from robbers dangers from my countrymen dangers from the Gentiles dangers in the city dangers in the wilderness dangers on the sea dangers among false brethren I've been in labour and hardship through many sleepless nights in hunger and thirst often without fear in cold and exposure there's never a sign of him saying Lord why are you doing this to me why am I suffering this because his eyes were not on this life his eyes were on the next life so I doubt whether he ever uttered such a prayer and said Lord can you take the heat off I'm finding this a bit of a struggle in 1 Peter 3 verse 14 Peter writes but even if you should suffer for what is right you are blessed do not fear their threats and do not be frightened now you cannot do this if you haven't got God in his right perspective and if you haven't got an eternal view on your life there's nothing wrong with asking for blessings in this life and where possible

[38:49] God will provide them and I can testify to that in my own life where God has always prospered sufficient to do the work of the Lord sufficient I've never had to take money from the church in order to pay my way or anything like that God has always provided but in a situation which I fear might be coming perhaps fear is the wrong word I expect might be coming on this nation in the near future is when we get persecuted for believing and when believers can't go and buy food unless they take a certain mark or cooperate with a certain ungodly regime I can see that just around the corner with all that's going on and people getting locked up for writing down what they think they don't actually have to do anything now to get locked up you just have to think it and say that you've thought it and that's enough to lock you up but to enter to 2nd Timothy 2nd Timothy chapter 1 and verse 7 it says this and this is the big challenge for me

[40:11] I will tell you it says for God has not given us a spirit of timidity in actual fact some of your versions will say he has not given us a spirit of fear God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and it says here and discipline love power and a sound mind right what this says to us and it's a hard thing to take but it should instruct us is if I'm going around worried all the time I'm not living I'm not dwelling in God's provision because God didn't give me a spirit of fear what God gave me is a spirit of love power and sound mindedness so when I allow myself into worry and stuff like that fear I am not living where God wants me to live now I say that not to condemn anybody but to exhort everybody to start living in the right place and

[41:18] I'm not pretending it's an easy transition to make because most of us have had a lifetime of practice at worrying and what God is asking is that we do a different thing I've put all sorts of scriptures up there which I'm not going to have time to look at but Psalm 34 would be a good one to look at and when you get the notes there's a whole slide of extra scriptures you can play with Psalm 34 verses 4 and verse 17 now this was a this psalm represents a prayer of David during a time of trouble and distress and in verse 4 he says I sought the Lord now that's the first thing he gets into a time of distress a time of fear a time of anxiety a time when he's under military oppression and he says

[42:28] I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears and then down in verse 17 he says the righteous cry now the righteous the righteous are those who are saved right remember you had righteousness imputed to you when you got saved credited to your account so the righteous cry and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their and my version says troubles but it says fears it's the same word as we've just read in verse 4 he delivers when the righteous cry out to God he delivers them from their fears now I can't speak for you but when I get in a fearful state I often don't cry out to the Lord I cry out to I don't know what I kind of oh what am I going to do I wonder if Fred can help I wonder my fear response doesn't drive me into the arms of the

[43:31] Lord as it should so I think God wants us to practice crying out to the Lord when we have fears from which he would need to deliver us and note he doesn't necessarily deliver us from the death and destruction that's about to happen he delivers us from the fear of that and we become courageous in circumstances that would otherwise drive us away in Hebrews 13 verse 5 and in Deuteronomy 31 verse 6 we read he will never leave us or forsake us now I have to finish with this scripture in Revelation and we'll read it as a finishing statement on the whole subject of worry our destiny is described in Revelation and we'll go to two places we'll start in verse 6 sorry in chapter 6 verses 9 to 11 now all the saints that have gone before us and because we're not at the end yet there will be some more added to this number before it all comes to a conclusion it says this when the lamb broke the fifth seal

[44:59] I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained and they cried out with a loud voice saying how long oh lord holy and true will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth so this is all these people who heard the sermon on the mount and they're now in heaven having been martyred and they're saying how long will it be lord before you avenge our blood and there was given to each of them a white robe and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer until the number of their fellow servants and the brethren who were to be killed even as they had been would be completed also there will be a time of reckoning and a time of beautifying and a time of uplifting of the saints and I'm not going to read all of it but just turn to Revelation 19 and we'll finish with this I'm not going to unpack any of this

[46:05] I'm just going to read it verses 1 to 10 after these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying hallelujah salvation and glory and power belong to our God because his judgments are true and righteous for he has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality and he has avenged the blood of his bond servants on her so this is after the avenging of the blood that we read about in chapter 6 and a second time they said hallelujah her smoke rises up forever and ever and the 24 elders which are representatives of the church by the way and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God who sits on the throne saying amen hallelujah and a voice came from the throne saying give praise to our God all you his bond servants you who fear him the small and the great then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and I believe that great multitude is both us and the angels together and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder saying hallelujah for the Lord our

[47:19]  God the almighty reigns let us rejoice and be glad and give glory to him for the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride that's us has made herself ready it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen bright and clean for the fine linen is the righteous act of the saints and then he said to me he said to me right blessed are those who are invited to the married supper of the lamb and he said to me these are the true words of God then I fell at his feet to worship him but he said to me do not do that I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold up the testimony of Jesus worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy and what I would suggest you do when you get home is read chapter 21 right the way through to verse 7 of chapter 22 because that then shows you where we're going to be living and what kind of beauty we will be not only experiencing ourselves but the environment in which we live will be beautified beyond anything you could even imagine father I thank you that you don't give us this exhortation not to worry in an empty fashion where you just say to those who are worried oh don't worry but you actually give us a whole eternity to look forward to in which there is no place for worry and father you allow us to enter into the spirit of that now that lord we can enthrone you and we can we can build you up and appreciate your magnificence as much as we can on earth that will enable us to see you as the capable rescuer and the one who has our eternal well-being in mind even if we should suffer on this earth and father we glorify and magnify your name for the great and wonderful god that you are who has left nothing out of your plan in jesus name amen amen