Well, many of you would be familiar with the teaching on worry back in the Gospels, where Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, speaks about, look at the birds of the field. They don't work. They don't have a barn. But they don't worry. And then look at the lilies and how they are clothed so beautifully. We might say this time of year, look at the trees. They didn't do anything to look so beautiful. And so we could say, shall not your Heavenly Father feed you and clothe you? And are you not worth much more than these? And so it's a teaching of Jesus that we can even look at nature, which doesn't worry or make plans or fret, and go, well, if God takes care of that, why would he not take care of me? I'm worth much more than a tree, a flower, and a bird. Many of you will also know the experience of worry. You know what it's like to be up late at night, to wait for a teenage son or daughter to get home. Or maybe a much younger child who's sick, and the fever isn't going down, and it's 5 a.m., and you wonder, do we go to the emergency room? You haven't gotten any sleep, and for some reason, late nights always feel like things are worse. It just exaggerates the situation, and you're worried. Or what it is to think about the job, and you can't get it off of your mind. like the young man who was like 31 years old. His name was Barrett, and I worked with him. He was a contractor, and he told me every night he would basically fall asleep after three hours laying in bed, finally get exhausted. He could not get his work off his mind. Worry is something that many of us are familiar with. We know what it's like to be so distracted talking to somebody that though we're facing them and maybe even looking at a preacher and giving eye contact, our mind is somewhere else and we can't get it off of the fact that I keep thinking about it, keep thinking about it, keep thinking about it. And so worry is a form of fear. It's a special form of fear in that it commands our mind, our attention, we can't get rid of it. So tonight I want to look at worry. How are we supposed to deal with worry according to the scriptures? What does the Bible say about dealing with worry in particular? If you were here last week, we looked at anger. We looked at putting off and putting on. We saw from Ephesians chapter four that when it comes to transformation, it's not just enough that we need to stop doing something. We also need to replace it. And that really, if you remember from last week, really we have not changed until we've gone all the way from having put off to then putting on something. And so I know that I've not changed from my thieving ways, according to Ephesians 4, until I'm finally working and giving. So a thief is no longer a thief only when they're finally working and giving, being generous. And so somebody is no longer an angry person if they are tenderhearted, kind, and forgiving. Once those habits are now put on, and literally the language is clothing, once that new clothing is put on, then we know finally the anger has been put away. So we saw last week the test of anger is time, the cure of anger is the cross, and it's the cross that enables not just my mind but the spirit of my mind to change so that I can finally put off something and put on something new. We're gonna see a similar thing tonight when it comes to worry. I'm really intrigued by this, honestly, in the Bible. It surprises me. I find when I ask the Lord. Well, what's the opposite? What do we put on and Sometimes it shows up in a surprising way and tonight. I think it may be that Say now what is okay? I'm gonna stop worrying God What do I put on? We actually put on humility And so we're gonna find that in 1 Peter chapter five. This is gonna be our text tonight. So if you would look at 1 Peter chapter five with me. I'm gonna reference the two stories that pastor read for you a little bit ago. But 1 Peter chapter five has just a few verses that are really intriguing. And this idea of worry being connected to pride. Peter has been going through all the various groups of people. He's gone through slaves. He's gone through husband-wives relationship. He's gone through the church with elders. And he ends in this passage in chapter five with the young men, to be subject to the elders and to clothe yourselves, then he says, all of you, both old and young. All of you need to put on humility towards one another for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. This is verse five. So there you see a literally put on. You clothe yourselves with humility. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, may lift you up, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. So humbling myself requires that I cast all my anxieties on God. So the putting off is I cast my anxieties, and the putting on is I clothe myself with humility, which tells me that a worrisome person is a proud person. If you think about it a little bit, if I'm worrying, maybe I'm that 31-year-old contractor, maybe I'm that mom with that child, maybe I'm the co-worker, whatever. If I'm worrying, who am I thinking about a lot? It's me. It's my concerns. It's my fears, right? What's going on in my life, I'm thinking about me. And so I may be looking at you, talking to you, but my mind is not engaged in your business because I have this big fear, this big load on my mind that I'm not able to get off. Text of the Scripture speaks of throwing it, throwing it off of me. Instead, it's on me, and it kind of feels a little bit like one of those leeches that kind of sticks to you and can't get it off. It's stuck to my mind, and I just can't get these thoughts out of my mind. And so the whole time that I'm doing my job, driving down the road, or engaged in conversation, I just can't get this off of my mind. So at that moment, I am more important than you. Because what preoccupies my mind is my concerns. Okay, I hope you can see that. So the challenge is, well, okay, here's the mom. I'm not concerned about me. I'm concerned about my kid. You know, it's like fever, you know, gank going away, I'm just really worried. And so it's not me, it's my child. And some measure, sure, there is a sense in which love requires attention, thought, and different things, but if I can't cast it onto the Lord, number one, I'm disobeying it here, if I can't fully and truly get it onto him, it is still ends up being my concern, and what I'm lacking is, what it says here is I'm lacking A trust in God's timing, at the proper time, and a trust in God's care. I really wonder whether he really cares, and I'm very fearful at this moment. I'm not walking in trust, I'm walking in fear, and I'm walking in anxiety about the timing. I want it to happen now, and it's not happening now, so I can't get it off of my mind. I'm not talking about thoughtlessness, I'm not talking about the fact that this is going to require a plan, it's going to require attention, what do we do right now, let's call the doctor, or let's stay at home, let's make a decision, I'm talking about that what Jesus would call that fear that adds no value. Can you add a stature to your height by worry? And he says, no, it's that mental activity that won't go away, that's not actually producing a decision, producing anything productive in action, it's just sitting there in fear and twirling and twirling and twirling and twirling and twirling. Does that make sense? If that's the kind of thing that we need to get rid of, In our pride, we need to throw it off. And so, how do we do that? Well, the text tells us. that there is a truth, and we saw from Ephesians that if we're to put off and put on something, there's a truth that enables the spirit of the mind to change. We would call it attitude or orientation. A whole different outlook happens, and how that happens, and according to this text in verse seven, when we truly appropriate, grab by faith the fact that God really does care for me. His sense of care for me is what enables me to drop the matter. Sometimes I hear people say things like, you've got this, God. Incompetence, like they pray and they say, you got it, God, you take it, you run with it. And then they walk away free of it. Not that they don't maybe get back to their job or start caring for their child, but there's something like the leech has been pulled off, the whole care has been thrown on God, and now it's like, go God, go with it, run with it. And you end up, we use words like I dropped it, right? I'm not carrying that load anymore. The language in scripture is truly throw it. It means I'm not holding it anymore. But I know a lot of times in my life, just a few weeks ago, I remember there was some criticism in my life, and it was like, this is, you know, somebody saying you're not doing it right. And then I wonder, you know, I worry about it, I fear about it, and then I hold it, and I remember going about my job for an hour, and then two, and I finally had to just stop and just look at the Lord and say, this has got to get off my mind. I just got to get rid of this. and it became something firm, I just got to throw it, which is the command of scripture, cast it onto the Lord because he cares for you. Otherwise, we end up spending time in prayer where I'm holding it and God's holding it. We're kind of sharing it. I think I call that worrying in God's presence, you know It's like I'm coming to God in prayer But I ain't willing to drop it Lord because I haven't seen the answer yet and I haven't seen how you're gonna do it yet And I'm really concerned about this God. And so please please and I won't let it go. I won't let it go You follow me and I gotta let it go this text tells us that the way to let it go is is to appropriate, through faith, really believe God cares for me. Now in general, there's a general way God cares for me and specific ways. Both are gonna help. If we look at it generally, it's gonna come through realizing, as we saw last week, the demonstration of God's love for us in the cross. If God the Father did not withhold his own son, Is he gonna withhold anything less from me? That's an argument, but it's exactly what Romans 5 and then 8 says. God demonstrates his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. It is a once for all history demonstration. No matter what I see in my life, good or bad, no matter what happens or doesn't happen, this fact is real and it is the bedrock of our faith. The cross happened. God delivered up his own son and didn't hold him back. And Paul says in Romans 8, that if God did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things? So if I don't have it in my life right now, it must be either because I don't need it or I don't need it now. But I can trust his love. Otherwise, if I turn to him and say, could you give me another demonstration? I could use another sign. That would be insulting. Because there would be a sense of what more can I give you, Bob Snyder? I already gave you Jesus, my son. What more could I, it would be, well I could use this sign, I could use this sign, that would cheapen Jesus. It would say, well he's not enough. As if somehow his glory, his infinite worth isn't enough. You know, no. He demonstrated by giving his son, therefore, I need to believe if I'm lacking this or that, it's either because I don't need it in general or I don't need it yet. Because if it's a matter of need and he's already showed me he loves me and he's gonna meet my needs, he cares for me. That's the first. The other? You have a general way of saying, how does he care for me? The other is, is through the promises of God. Many years ago, I was a pastor of a local church down 127, down in the Hudson area. And a friend of mine said, you need to blog. I said, okay, I'm gonna blog. You know, start writing up little articles. And I wrote up a little article on Philippians 4. I actually got a response back. If you've ever blogged, it's really fun to get a response back. Somebody sent me a comment back that was not just fishing for another comment. It was like somebody read it and benefited. It was a mother who had prayed about a child who was perennially sick and different things and never found peace in prayer. She read this article and she was excited. She wrote back to me and said, this helped me. Philippians where it says be anxious for nothing, but in everything with prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God I Told in that blog I said if we want the peace of God that comes and protects our mind and our heart The peace according to verse 7 that exceeds our Understanding in other words. I don't even have to know what's going on God or understand it If I want that peace that's promised to me that puts away anxiety all worry I need to pray But I need to pray in a particular way with Thanksgiving I And I've found that if my mind can grab onto a promise of God and can actually say thank you. You got it. Thank you for this situation. Thank you that those who wait for the Lord are never put to shame. Thank you that those who wait for the Lord gain new strength. Thank you that you cause all things to work together for good. Thank you that you withhold nothing good from those who walk uprightly. Thank you. You follow me? If I can say thank you, I can drop it. But if I have not found a promise or an aspect of God's goodness or risen to the case, which I should, that the cross is enough of a demonstration of his care for me, I can't drop it. It's too important. It feels too important and I just can't get rid of it. But if I can say thank you, I can drop the matter. In that same church, we had a woman who was diagnosed with like a pre-leukemia situation. So it's like a certain blood disorder that was on its way to leukemia, and she was beside herself with fear. It consumed her mind until the family called me in. Could you talk with mom? Or could you talk with my wife? I mean, it is just difficult. I remember opening the Psalms to her and encouraging her to read the Psalms and Desiring that she would get to the point as it says in 119 verse 67 it is good for me that I was afflicted That I might learn to keep your statutes That woman did eventually come to a place of peace and And praise the Lord that God brought her to that level through the trial. But if you and I can look a problem square in the eye and label it, you are good. It is good for me to be afflicted. If I can do that because of what God's gonna produce out of it, as James says, in any trial, consider it pure joy. It's not. But I'm going to label it pure joy because it completes what's lacking in my life, James 1, 2 through 4. If I can label it good because of what it's going to produce, I can say thank you. And if I can say thank you, I can drop it. I don't know what you're going to do, but it's going to be good. I don't know what you're going to do, but I know you care for me. I don't know what it is, but thank you, God. You got it. Go God. Does that make sense? So this is the passage. If I look at this passage, I think, okay, I gotta put off worry, I need to put on humility. In other words, I'm not all that consuming, I'm not all that important, that every thought needs to be focused right here, even if it's my loved one. I need to be able to somehow cast it on the Lord and grab a promise that I know that this'll turn out in some way or another for your glory and for the good of those who love you and are called according to your purpose, and I'm gonna thank you in faith ahead of time. I don't know what it is. I'm gonna trust you. If I can do that, then I'm saying, God, you're more important than me, and others are more important than me. I'm gonna put on some humility. Okay, so now we're gonna do a couple case studies. This is what Pastor Matt was reading. Because there's two times in the Gospels where somebody actually tells Jesus, don't you care? And now you gotta be honest with me. There's been times in your life where you've looked at Jesus and said, don't you care? I mean, we're not different than those disciples, are we? And so here's the two times that it tempts us to think we don't care. We forget we lose sight of his sovereignty, or we lose sight of our priority. If we lose sight of his sovereignty, that's Mark chapter four, when they're out in the boat, or if we lose sight of our priority, that's Martha in her home, then we're gonna start questioning whether Jesus really cares about us. So picture with me, seasoned fishermen, They've been out on these boats, they found one, they dug one up, 26 feet long, all right? About four feet deep. These are not small boats. It can hold Jesus and his disciples. It's a big boat. Sea of Galilee, though, is 800 feet below sea level. It's in a pit, and the winds can spike up and swirl the waters, and these seasoned fishermen are caught out there in the waves, and in the stern of the boat, they used to have an awning and a covering over it, in the stern of the boat, in the back of the boat, is Jesus asleep. and furiously rowing is not helping, and the waves are starting to crash in over the boat, and it's starting to fill up, and you can feel the fear, the panic, come over these seasoned fishermen, and they turn back to Jesus, just like the Psalms. Wake up, God. Or the Psalm says, arise, oh Lord. I don't know if you've ever noticed that in the Psalms. It's like the psalmist is actually telling God, you're sleeping. You're sitting on the job. Would you stand up and do something? Don't you care that we're drowning? We're perishing. Don't you care? Now, it has an element both of danger This is not just, you know, I'm in pain even, I'm dying, it has the element of time. If you don't do something soon, we're gonna be done for, okay? So it has both elements of both danger and time involved. And so, if you remember, Jesus gets up, stands up, looks at the waves and says, hush! Perfectly still. Now can you imagine what it was like to go from a big storm to all of a sudden placid water where you can hear everything? And then turn around and realize, who is this man that even the wind and the waves obey him? It tells us in the text, they weren't now afraid, they were very afraid. I sometimes get the idea like, it's like, Before they were afraid of what's outside the boat, now they're very afraid of what's inside the boat, and they're in a boat, you don't run away, okay? We will get rid of our worry if that change happens to our perspective, that we become more fearful of what's inside of us, no, of who's inside of us, than what's outside of us. And we forget about His sovereignty, not just His power that He can control waves and winds. No, not just what He can do, His power, but His sovereignty, what He can command, and it stops. So take your problem. A sickness, a disease, a family crisis, a lack in your life that bothers you, that worries, and you can't stop thinking about it. Imagine Jesus standing up and looking at it and commanding it to stop. He could do that at any moment. You say, well he hasn't done it yet. Yes, humble yourselves that at the proper time he may exalt you, right? It's his timing, he's got his timing. But until he does, no, he has the absolute authority to command that to be different. Do we not often cheapen it and say, act like our problems are big and our God is small? It's the exact opposite. One of the Puritans, John Owen, pointed out from Isaiah chapter 40, that when God's people said, why do you say, O Israel, and assert, O Jacob, our way is hidden from the Lord, and the justice due us escapes the notice of our God. They're having a national pity party, that what we deserve is not coming our way. The Puritan preacher pointed out, God did not talk even about this or that. What he did is he focused right on the sovereignty of God, the Lord, the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth does not grow weary or tired and his understanding is immeasurable. Vigorous young men stumble badly, right? But those who wait for the Lord gain new strength and mount up with wings like eagles and walk, not get tired, run and not grow weary. Our fear and doubts of whether he cares for us, one of the ways that we grow doubting about his care is we lose sight of his sovereignty. Not just his power, but his ability to command situations to change. Can you imagine Elijah? Syrian army surrounding the city? One of those guards in the city laughing at him when he said, tomorrow, grain will be sold at the same price as it used to be, when they're tempted and have been even eating their own children out of famine. And he says, nope, tomorrow, everything will change. In a day, it will go back. You remember at the Red Sea, at the shore, where they were afraid when the Egyptian army and Moses said, Stand by and watch the deliverance, the salvation of our God. After this day, you will see this army no more. That's the kind of God we serve. At any moment, at any time, when he rises up, at a moment, at a twinkling of an eye, this life will be gone forever and we will be changed. We need to keep that in the forefront of our mind and say, you know what? If God wanted to, he could change it in a moment. So there must be a caring, loving reason that he hasn't done so yet. I'm gonna trust him because if he didn't withhold his own son, he will not withhold a good to me unless I don't need it right now. But when he does, it will change in a moment. The second, The second story is about Martha. If we forget about his sovereignty, we also forget about our priority. I relate a ton to Martha. I think I'm a masculine version of Martha, okay? Because I feel like God would look at me and say, Bob, Bob, you know? You are worried and bothered about too many things. Because Martha has been doing all these things around the house, and we go, they're all good, She's got Jesus and a bunch of men hosted in her house. Would a woman of the house not be concerned about making sure they're fed, making sure everything's are tidy, well-kept? Wouldn't you be concerned about that? And then this sister, probably younger, is sitting at his feet. And to make matters worse, he isn't doing anything about it. And I could just imagine she's walking behind him with a little huff, a little extra scurry of the skirts, just to kind of make a little noise, and like, come on now, don't you see I'm doing a lot of work around here? And like, old Mary over there. And then finally it's got to her, and she comes to Jesus and says, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work? Don't you care? And I think we do that as busy Americans. Wow, don't you care, God? Man, I mean, do I have to work day and night, 24-7, 365, and you don't care about my life? I mean, Lord, I'm always going here, and I'm going there, and other things. And I look around me, and all these people aren't really doing their job. And I think about my husband. It's like, man, does he realize how much I do around this house? And then, of course, he's like, does she realize how much burden I bear at the work, you know, and this and that. And like, well, I work, too, and it's like, well, I got a lot of, well, how about, you know, and all this care and all this burden and all this concern. And then there's Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus. And you're like, what a slouch. But we hear Jesus say, right, Martha, Martha. You are worried and bothered about many things, but only one is necessary. And Mary has chosen the good part, and it will not be taken from her. Now turn it around. You've hosted a lot of people in your home. How many times have you hosted the Son of God in your home? You got the opportunity to have Jesus in your home, and you're worried and bothered about all these things around the house, rather than seize this opportunity to talk to the Savior himself. When you turn it around like that, it's like, what were you thinking, Martha? Right? It's kind of like me. I get grandchildren, right, from Florida come in. What if I act like it's a normal day, and the grandchildren have driven 20 hours? They didn't drive, they were driven there, okay? 20 hours brought them there, and here are these precious grandchildren, and I act like it's a normal Saturday, go about my day. Well, this and that chore's gotta be done, right? You'd look at me and say, Grandpa, what are you doing? You got the grandchildren there. How do we insult Jesus? We have Jesus. We have time. Okay, you get the point. Do you realize Paul uses the same kind of logic in 1 Corinthians 7 where he warns single people, maybe you shouldn't get married. He says in 1 Corinthians 7, I don't want you to have cares. Same word. I don't want you to have worries. I want you to have undistracted devotion to Jesus. It's the same word used for Martha. She's distracted and worried about many things. That may be an argument for some of you in the room not to get married. I'm not saying it is or isn't, but it is if you get married, and there could be a lot of show of hands right now that comes with it, a lot of cares, a lot of extra things. Kind of like Martin Luther said, when he got married at age 43, after being a monk, it was quite different to wake up in the morning and see pigtails. You know, it's like, life changes. Kids come too, he had six. You know, so there's a lot of cares that comes with the family. And Paul's like, you know what? If you wanna serve Jesus undistractedly, I'm just cautioning you, maybe you wanna think twice about getting married. Now, he's not saying it's a sin, but it reminded me the New Testament actually holds out as a priority, make sure you don't unnecessarily burden yourself. with things that Jesus never called you to bring into your life, but you thought it would be a great hobby, a great task, an extra addition. I can fit it into my life. And then all of a sudden, you're stressed, and you look up to heaven, you say, Jesus, don't you care about me? And Jesus looks back and says, well, yes, I do, but that's why I warned you. Do you want to add that extra activity? Was it really necessary to sign your children up for that third or fourth activity in town? Was it really necessary that you added that, you know, added object to your life that now you need to maintain, dust, and make sure it's kept up? And then finally, once you've not used it for a year, now who could really use it? Because I really don't want to throw it away. Was it really necessary to have all that stuff? So if one way we can question the care of Jesus is we lose sight of his sovereignty, I think the other way we can question the care of Jesus, we lose sight of our priority, and we added on a bunch of stuff in our lives that we didn't need to, and created worries that were never there by Jesus' design. So I'm not gonna ask for a show of hands. Who's a Martha in the room? Who's a disciple, one of the disciples in the boat, But I dare say, for those of you worrying tonight, for some of you, it's external circumstances you didn't call upon. A storm hit your life. You didn't ask for it. I want you to remember tonight, Jesus has the sovereignty to stop the storm at any moment. And because he hasn't, he has a good design for you and you can trust him. Wait on the Lord, believing He cares for you, and cast that care, believing He cares for you. And for some of you, it's internal. You have not controlled your desires, thought it through carefully, and you have added a whole bunch of extra cares to your life, until now you are stressed and questioning whether God really cares about you. But really, if you were to backtrack, you would see it was unnecessary things brought into your life that have now burdened you. I'm gonna ask you to start considering unloading some of those and sitting at the feet of Jesus and waiting on him to make the call and the decision. Because when it comes right down to it, if we really need it, it will come. He who did not withhold his son will not withhold what we need. But if we really need it, it will come at His time, so let us humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, His sovereignty, that He may exalt us at the proper time. I hope this is an encouragement to you tonight not to worry. Because if you refuse to take this counsel tonight and to hold on to worry, What you're saying to God and to others is, I'm most important. I don't trust you, your timing, or your power, or both, or your care for me, and so I'm gonna continue to think about my concerns and my people and my whatever responsibilities first in my life and not drop it. And rather, in response, let us humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, believing he truly cares for us, and then in thanksgiving for that care, throw that anxiety on him. And in doing so, may the peace of God that passes understanding guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. Amen. Thank you.