Sometimes in speaking about worry, I've asked the congregation, how many of you have problems with worry? And it's amazing. Hands go up all over the place and people start grinning at each other and nodding and that kind of thing. If I did that here this morning, that's probably what would happen. And then I ask again, how many of you have problems with lying? And then I get a few brows that are wrinkled and maybe one or two hands that go up like this. And then I ask the question, how many of you have a problem with lust? And I get this kind of thing. Maybe one person go like this. You see, worry is the respectable sin. Talk about other things, but when you talk about worry, it's okay. Everybody smiles. Everybody nods. Everybody raises his hand. You say worry is a sin? Absolutely. Worry is a sin. Respectable in the sight of most of God's people, they don't recognize it as a sin. But worry is a sin. And until you recognize it as such, and are willing to deal with it God's way as such, you're never going to deal with worry properly. How do you know it's a sin? That's what you're thinking right now, some of you. And you're saying, I don't see that this is a sin. Well, what is a sin? A sin is doing what God forbids or not doing what He commands. Now listen to Philippians 4 verse 6. Don't worry about anything, but instead in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving make your requests known to God and God's peace that goes beyond all understanding, like a sentinel will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus." Did you get that? Don't worry. God's saying, don't do it. If you do it, that's a sin. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, that's what you are to do. If you don't do that, that's a sin. So on both hands, It qualifies as sin, doesn't it? Clearly in that passage. And you know, you're thinking, wow, it says, don't worry about anything. But it's said in everything by prayer and supplication. And that may trouble you. Not anything, but in everything. It shouldn't trouble you. It ought to make you happy. Because those are absolutes. You don't have to decide when God gives you an absolute, whether you can or whether you can't, or under what circumstances you can or under what circumstances you can't do something. When God says in nothing and in everything, he is giving you absolutes. And that is, he's deciding the issue ahead of time, and there are no qualifications allowed. That makes it easier on you, doesn't it? You ought to be happy with absolutes. You ought to be able to say, oh boy, I don't have to sit back and worry about when I can worry. Worry about when I don't have any right to worry. No, you can't ever worry and please God. And in everything, instead of worrying, you ought to be praying in order to please God. So that's a pretty interesting beginning to this passage, isn't it? Where you have some absolutes from God that mean you've got a clear answer. No ifs, ands, buts, or maybes. Now look what he says. Instead, in everything by prayer, that's just a general word for prayer, and by petition, that's the word for specific requests. It's a word that means instead of praying, God bless the missionaries, you ought to be praying, God bless missionary so and so, Joe Smith, who needs a typewriter or a computer. Typewriters are gone. who needs a computer, what I was going to say, instead of a computer, don't send him a typewriter. That's what some people do for missionaries. They send all the old junk that they don't want to get rid of, instead of giving them the best stuff of what they really need to do their job. So you pray specifically for that man and specifically for his need of a computer. So, by prayer, general prayer, specifics, with Thanksgiving. You say, how can I pray with Thanksgiving about everything? If my grandmother were hit crossing the street by some drunken driver who was just swerving down the street and he hits her and she's in the hospital and she's all full of bandages and difficulty and probably the rest of her life she's going to be crippled. How can I thank God for that? Well, you don't thank God for that drunken driver. Not one bit. Nor do you thank God for the broken bones. But what you thank God for is what He's going to do with that situation. Because He says all things work together for good to those who love God. And if she loves God and you love God, then somehow, even through that tragedy, Some good is going to come from it. And that's what you thank God for. Not for the tragedy itself. You recognize it as a tragedy. And you don't look at that drunk and say, it's OK, we're just going to thank God. No. You look at that drunk and you say, you were wrong. That was sin. And you try to lead him to Christ. But you do not, for one minute, excuse his drunkenness and his driving. But you do thank God. for what He's going to bring out of that, whether you see it in this life or not. Because God always has something good for His people in every situation, even a situation like that. And it says, if you do, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, make your request known to God, That God's peace that passes all understanding will guard your heart and your mind like a sentinel guards the place where he is posted in order to keep anything from going the wrong way. The peace of God will guard your heart and your thoughts in Christ Jesus. Inside, you're not going to have those feelings and in your mind, you're not going to be racing over things this way and that, but there's going to be a peace. from God that passes all understanding. You say that's a lot of talk, and I've tried that. I've tried it. I've prayed about my problems instead of worried about them. And I've brought specific prayers, too. And I've looked for that peace, and it just doesn't come. It doesn't happen. It's not even the peace of any sort, let alone the peace that passes all understanding guarding my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus. I've tried that, but it doesn't work. How many of you were thinking that way when you heard me say pray? I know you were, because you've tried it, and it didn't work, did it? Were you saying, Adams, that the Scriptures are wrong? No, I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying that you've got a problem if it's not working. The problem may be that you've caught the Christian disease. You know, there's a disease that only Christians get. Well, maybe you didn't recognize it. As a matter of fact, I discovered it, and so I get the right to name it. It's named plactosis. Placosis. Maybe you have it. I don't know. There are a lot of Christians who have caught that disease. Placosis. They find a precious section of Scripture like this one. God's peace that goes beyond understanding will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus. And they put it on a plaque. Or they go buy it on a plaque somewhere. And they hang it on a wall. And they never again look at that passage in its context. They always look at it from now on, on that plaque hanging on the wall. And so they suffer from plaqueosis. What they need is a good case of context, a good dose of context to heal them from that disease. You see, that isn't the end of this passage. And when you take a portion of scripture out of a larger section that has a context to it, you miss some of the key points in that passage and you may go astray. That's the problem. I think that what we need to do is to find all the passages that people take out of context, find the size and the shape, and then go and start building context plaques. that just have a hole in them, the shape of that section that's been taken out of context, where you can put it over the passage and hang that on the wall along with it, and then you'll have the whole thing. You see, that's the problem. People don't read the context. This passage goes on. It doesn't end by saying, peace of God that goes beyond understanding will guard your hearts and minds. Look at verse 9. It says the God of peace will be with you. It's still talking about peace all the way down to verse nine. So there's something more to this passage. There's a context. Let's go on and see what else it says to do about worry as well as pray. Prayer is essential. Prayer is right. Prayer is important. Prayer is absolutely required. But it's not enough. What do you think about? Listen to this. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is serious, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there's anything morally excellent, if there's anything praiseworthy, focus your thinking on these things. Aha! So it's not just a matter of prayer. It's a matter also of filling your mind with the right kinds of things. Not only do you have to empty out those worries, as Peter says, casting all your care on him because he cares for you. But instead of the worries, instead of the cares, instead of the difficulties that are troubling you, You need to repackage your mind with a whole bunch of different kinds of things. And you know in our day it's hard to do that. It's very hard. If you spend time talking to people, if you spend much time on the computer looking at what's going on in the world, if you look at television, you're likely to be filling your mind with all kinds of stuff that isn't going to help you. when it comes to dealing with worry. It's going to hinder you. It's going to push your mind in the wrong direction. All you've got to do is think about the problems in your own family and your difficulties in your own life. Children, relatives, all the difficulties that are involved in interpersonal relations in a family or in a country. Is the country going to be the same country that I grew up in? What's going to happen to my children? Those are the kinds of things that people are thinking about today and that's about all they're thinking about when they start to think about their children. Because they see the country going to the dogs and they don't want their kids to go along with them. So they worry about their country and the world. Now we have Countries that are saying they're going to take over the United States. They're going to bomb us. They're going to do everything to us. They want a world caliph. And they're going to take over the United States as well. I'll see you in New York, says one of the chiefs of this group. I'll tell you, there are plenty of things to worry about if you want to worry. You don't have any trouble finding them. All you got to do is look anywhere. Look inside. Look around you. on every hand, look at the television, talk to somebody, and you haven't talked five minutes before they're beginning to tell you how bad things are here, there, and everywhere. No. You've got to refill your mind with the right kinds of things if you're going to get rid of worry. You can't keep bringing into your mind more and more of the same garbage that creates worry. Look what you're to do instead, whatever's serious. So much of our society isn't. Whatever's just, how much has gone in the wrong direction, and how many injustices are being done to people everywhere. Whatever is pure, I don't need to say two words about that. You know the filth that's around you everywhere. Whatever is lovely, how many times have you thought about anything that's lovely lately? Lovely. think very much anymore about lovely things, do we? Because there's so much garbage everywhere. And then, what is ever of good repute? What you hear that says, if this is good, then you're going to go find it. And whatever is morally excellent and anything that's praiseworthy, focus your thinking on these things. Not only should you empty your mind in prayer, casting all your cares on Him, but you should now repackage that mind, refill that mind, which has been emptied with all sorts of the right things. You've got to get rid of those negative thoughts and start focusing on some positive ones that have to do with God's Word and God's things and what God has done. He's made a beautiful world. Sure, we've messed it up in so many ways. But you can still find beauty in this world, can't you? Whatever is lovely. Whatever is beautiful. I mean, just a goldfinch on a feeder looking at that beautiful bird. There's so many things like that. Flowers everywhere. God is so good to us in giving us the world He gave us. We don't see it anymore. All we see is the filth and the trash and the garbage of this world that man has brought into it. So, we need to refill, repackage our minds. Well, that ought to do it, huh? No, that won't do it. That won't do it. There's something else as well. There's a third factor here in this context. See, you want to hang Two contexts, two plaques on the wall without context plank. We've got to get the context here, all of it. Goes on to say, whatever you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice. The King James says do, but that's not adequate. The Greek word is to practice it, do it over and over and over until it becomes a part of you. And then the God of peace, the God from whom peace comes, the God who gives us peace that passes all understanding, will be with you, bringing His peace into your life. That's the answer. Stop worrying. Start praying. Bring these matters before God. Don't just pray, but focus your mind and thoughts on all the right things. That's God's leash law on your mind. Many times your mind's going to go in the wrong direction. And you've got to grab that leash and say, come on, mind, come on. I know you want to go that way, but you're not going to go. I'm going to pull you in the right direction. And so you've got to get that mind heading in the right direction. And then what you've learned by teaching, received in that teaching, and heard in that teaching, and seen in practice in the life of Christians like Paul, then the God of peace will be with you. All this, of course, is what Christ has done for us. He came into this world and shed his blood for our sins. And so we have a Savior who saved this Apostle, the Apostle Paul, who have more reasons to be worried than any of you ever will have. Somebody who was beaten, left in a pile of, left at a ring of people who hated him as though he were dead after they had tried to stun him to death. The Apostle Paul, even though his body was wasting away day by day and year by year, could see the future, could see the goodness of God and did these things. And he did not worry. He thanked God for every opportunity he had to serve the Savior who had saved him by His grace. He had talked about that instead of talked about his worries. And so he wanted those who heard him to remember what he had said. What you've learned and received and heard. Those things I want you to be thinking about instead of the things you are thinking about. Those things that you've seen me do, I want you to practice. You see, it's not enough just to pray, and it's not enough just to think properly, but we have to actually do by the power of the Spirit of God dwelling within us those things that please God. We have to do them, and we have to do them over and over until they become a part of us instead of the worry that's a part of us now. So, Here is a passage from God. It's very clear, very plain as to how you deal with worry. You don't deal with worry by trying to get rid of it in some human way, but you follow God's word. Follow the word of the one who shed his blood for your sins. and who wants to give you a worry-free life of peace and prosperity spiritually in Christ. Let's pray. Father, we come to you today and we know that we worry. We know that we violate your commandments. We know that we sin by not bringing everything in prayer. by not filling our minds with things that are good, but filling our mind with trash. And we know, Lord, that we need to act differently. There are many concerns that we have that are valid and legitimate, but we try to do them, try to meet those concerns that have to do with tomorrow. We can't do tomorrow's work today. We pray that you will help us understand that each day has enough trouble of its own and that we ought to deal with the problems day by day that come our way, but not to try to handle tomorrow's problems, which are not yet here. So help us, Lord, to do the things that we ought to do as we think of worry, that we may be unlike those around us who have no reason to not worry. We have every reason that there is in Christ Jesus. We pray in His name.