A Cure For Care

Q: What does the Bible say about worry and anxiety?

The Bible teaches us not to worry, assuring us that God provides for our needs (Matthew 6:25-34). In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus instructs us to take no thought for our earthly needs, emphasizing that life is more than food and clothing. He reminds us of God's providence by pointing to the birds of the air, which do not sow or reap but are fed by God. We are much more valuable than these creatures, and therefore we should trust in God's provision. The passage concludes with the encouragement to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, assuring us that all our needs will be met as we do so. This teaching is both a comfort and a challenge to believers to prioritize spiritual concerns over earthly anxieties.

Q: How do we know God will provide for our needs?

We know God will provide because He promises in His Word to meet our needs (Philippians 4:19). God's provision is grounded in His promises found in Scripture. In Philippians 4:19, Paul writes, 'And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.' This promise stands as a testament to God's faithfulness and sovereignty. Just as God feeds the birds and clothes the flowers, we are assured that He will care for us as His beloved children. Understanding this encourages us to live a life free from excessive worry and to focus on seeking His kingdom and righteousness, trusting that He knows our needs even before we ask (Matthew 6:8).

Q: Why is trust in God's promises important for Christians?

Trust in God's promises is foundational to a believer’s faith and helps combat anxiety (Proverbs 3:5-6). Trusting in God's promises is essential for Christians because it anchors our faith in the assurance of His character. Proverbs 3:5-6 urges us to 'trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.' This reliance on God fosters peace amid life's uncertainties and trials. Recognizing God's past faithfulness encourages believers to confront their doubts and anxieties, knowing that He who has promised is faithful (1 Thessalonians 5:24). A life trusting in God’s promises reflects an understanding of grace, reinforcing our love and gratitude towards Him who cares for us unconditionally.

Q: How can Christians overcome worldly cares?

Christians can overcome worldly cares by seeking God's kingdom first (Matthew 6:33). To overcome worldly cares, Jesus instructs in Matthew 6:33, 'But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.' This pursuit redirects our focus from earthly anxieties to spiritual priorities. When we actively seek a deeper relationship with God and strive to live according to His will, we gain a heavenly perspective on our lives. This shift in focus lessens our attachment to material concerns and enables us to trust that God will provide for us. Considering our lives in light of eternity fosters contentment and lessens our fears and worries, empowering us to live boldly and faithfully for His glory.

Let's turn again to Matthew chapter six. Matthew chapter six. I hope you followed carefully as I read this text to you a little while ago. Verses 19 through 34 will be my text. And I want to try to preach to you tonight on the subject of cure for care. We have entirely too many fears. For a people to whom the Lord has said, fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

I read that text several times today And I keep asking myself, why can't we believe God? Why can't we believe God? Has he not proven himself faithful time and again, proven himself faithful? Since the day we first met him, has he not proven himself faithful?

David heard God's promise and believed him. His faith in Christ quietened his fears, so that he could say with honesty, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we all are. Right now, we're walking through the valley of the shadow of death. This life is the shadow of death. David said, while I live in this world, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. We all have far too many doubts and fears concerning God's mercy, love, and grace. For a people to whom the Lord has said, him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. To whom the Lord has said, I give unto you eternal life, and you shall never perish. That's what he said. That's what he said.

Now I know Some of you have trouble in this area, and I acknowledge my own. I acknowledge my shameful, baseless, sinful doubts, but I won't excuse them. I won't excuse them. On what grounds, on what grounds do we dare question the mercy, love, and grace of God? On what grounds? We have absolutely no reason to entertain the slightest shade of doubt.

God who promised will fulfill his promise. God is not a man, the prophet said, that he should lie. Mr. Spurgeon reasoned like this, and I like his reasoning. He said, the scripture says, he that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life. I believe the Son of God, I have life. That's pretty good reasoning. The scripture says, God says, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. I believe the Son, I have life. That's good reasoning. I don't believe him like I should. I don't believe him like I want to. The more I believe him seems like the less I believe him, though I have all the more reason to believe him, but I do believe him. And believing him, I have life. Why should we question that, ever?

The Apostle Paul didn't. He just didn't question it. That man recognized his sin. When he came to the end of his way, he said, I'm the chief of sinners. But at the same time, he said, I know whom I had believed. And I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. He said, I'm now ready to depart. I'm looking forward to meeting him who will give me the crown of life. And he'll give it to you, too, if you love his appearance. He's not looking forward to it.

The apostle said, if God be for us, who can be against us? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justify it. Who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Who shall separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus, our Lord?

Now, in the light of these things, I refuse. I have God helping me. I refuse to doubt God's love for me. Because of something I have thought, said, or done, I refuse. His love's unconditional. His love is unconditional. I refuse to question his grace because of my sin.

While I acknowledge the abundance of my sin, I will at the very same time rejoice in the superabundance of God's grace. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. I'm not going to be suspicious of God's mercy, because I don't deserve his mercy. Mercy is for the undeserving, not the deserving. I stand undeserving. Mercy is mine. I stand before God a sinner. Grace is mine. I stand before God without anything. Everything is mine then, in Jesus Christ the Lord. You understand that? We've got every reason to believe him.

And we spend entirely too much time grumbling and complaining about our trials and troubles and our lot in life, for a people to whom the Lord has said, in the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. One of the most astonishing things on this earth to me is the trials and troubles take me by such surprise. Why on earth be surprised? The Lord said you're going to have them. He said you're going to have them. We shouldn't be surprised when they come. We ought to expect them.

Every ounce of gold in this world that has been refined and perfected and made valuable, made worth something, every ounce of gold in this world. Not one of you ladies would wear gold on your fingers where they find it. Every ounce of gold in this world that has been refined and perfected and made valuable has been put through the fire. That's the way it's refined. Every diamond in this world that sparkles with beauty has been dug out of the earth, broken off from the earth, cut and roughly shaped so that it sparkles and shines and attracts your eye. Even so, the Lord God has chosen us in the furnace of affliction, and he will break and cut and polish his jewels.

So Peter says to us, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you. Trouble is not strange. For the believer, the absence of trouble is strange. I'm convinced the longer you live in this world, as a child of God, the greater your trial is going to be.

The greater your heartache is going to be. The greater your trouble is going to be. From several sources, the trouble that you experience in family and among relations and associations in this world is going to be greater the longer you live. The trouble you experience in this world, just living as a believer in this world, it's gonna be greater the longer you live and walk with God. And the trouble you experience in yourself, in the keen awareness of your sin, the longer you live, the greater it's gonna be.

God in his wise and good providence graciously gives us trouble a little at a time. He gives us a little at a time to prepare us for greater troubles. A wise father will take his children and in raising them, he'll not attempt to fight all the battles for them. He'll not attempt to straighten everything out for them. A wise father will let the child now and then fall on his own fanny and hurt his own fanny every now and then because he's gonna have to learn to sooner or later. A wise father will every now and then let his child endure some pain and some difficulty and some hardship and learn to get along because he's gonna have to learn to get along. Our Heavenly Father, in his infinite wisdom, in our infancy, sends us little troubles. They seem horrible at the time, but they're just little troubles. He's preparing us for greater troubles.

And in this world, Bob, we haven't seen anything yet. Not you, not me. You're gonna have tribulation. And you're not gonna get out of it till you get out of this world. We have entirely too much attachment to this world, entirely too much attachment to this present life.

For a people who are looking for a city whose builder and maker is God, we know, I think I can speak this for every one of you here tonight, we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Just like that. We know it. You're convinced of that, aren't you? We know that immediately departing from this life, the believer enters into glory. We know that. The sooner, the better. We know that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And there's a sense in which, honestly, every believer can say with Paul, I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Believers are people who long to be with Christ.

Yet it is so difficult for us, every one of us, to turn loose of this present existence. Now, I can't explain that, but I know it's so. I know it's so. I know this too. The only way for us to be delivered from these carnal principles, the only way for us to escape these fears and concerns and doubts and grumblings and this undue attachment to this world is if we can get hold of something better.

I've told you the story a number of times. Brother Marvin Stoniker's dad, Gerald, used to own a restaurant. His brother owns it now down in Tioga, Louisiana, just outside of Borough where Brother Milton Howard pastures. And it's a good restaurant, seafood place. I've eaten there a number of times. One evening, there was a big crowd there. Of course, when they got big crowds and volume's the key to the business, you want to get folks in and get them out as quickly as possible. There's a man sitting there who met his little boy, just a little three, four, five-year-old boy. And that fellow was trying to get his boy to get cleaned up and get out of there. He had a corn cob.

He had eaten every bit of the corn off of it, nothing but just butter dripping off of it. But he'd eaten every bit of the corn off of it, and the boy didn't want to give it up. And the father wasn't smart enough to know you can make a child do what you want him to do. But he just, he was begging and pleading and begging and pleading.

And finally, Gerald decided it'd be worth a candy bar. He walked over something behind his back, and he said to the father, he said, do you mind if I try something? He held out a candy bar to that boy. and he dropped that corncob and he just got that candy bar just like that. Just as happy as he could be. He found something better. Are you interested in something better than this? Something better than this present state of affairs? I am.

I'll tell you this, our religious works will be dropped like a hot potato. If ever we see and get hold of Christ's finished work, our boasted good deeds will be of no value if ever we see and are allowed to and made to see Christ's finished work on behalf of sinners. His perfect righteousness, His perfect atonement, His complete satisfaction. If you see it, or if God will allow, if God will make you see it, you'll drop your goodness. I promise you, you will. You'll quit holding on to it.

Our righteousnesses will appear to us as they really are, nothing but filthy rags when we behold God's righteousness in Christ. Our goodness will wither and die when God shows us his goodness, grace, and glory in Jesus Christ. When Isaiah saw the Lord, he saw the goodness, the grace, and the glory of the Lord in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. He saw him sitting in his glory, and then he cried, Woe is me, I'm undone.

I'm a man of unclean lips, I'm a sinner, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Everybody around me's sinners. Nobody can help me. What are we gonna do? And then the Lord came, and in mercy, with a loud call from off the altar, he sent his angel to touch his lips, and he purged him of his guilt and his sin. He said, now you speak for me. Now you're mine.

Find me a sinner who has seen the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'll show you a sinner who's quit arguing about his goodness, he's quit defending his worthiness, he's quit fussing about the power of his free will and his decision, like that boy in the restaurant. You'll drop your worthless, greasy, corncob of self-righteousness. If ever you see Christ in his full righteousness and able to get hold of it, you'll do it.

More than that, our fears and doubts and grumblings and complaints against our little trials. Now, let me say it the way it really is. Let me say it the way it really is. our fears, our doubts, our grumblings, and our complaints against God and his purpose and his providence.

You look at it that way, it's not so easy to bear, is it? See, the trial is not the object of our complaint. The difficulty is not the object of our fear, but rather the one who sends the trial and the one who sends the difficulty. Those things too will disappear just in proportion to the faith that we have in the Lord our God.

Listen to his promise. Just listen to it. You can read it at your leisure. In Isaiah chapter 43, God sends fear not, For I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I'll be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon you.

For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. Now I'm gonna tell you something. Just in proportion, as I believe what God said right there, I'll cease to fear difficulties, the fire and the waters of trouble in this world. Listen to what he says again in Isaiah 46 in verse four.

Even to your own age, I am God, your redeemer, your savior. And even to whore hairs, I'll carry you. I have made you, I will bear you, I will even carry and deliver you. Even when you're a feeble old man, I'll take care of you. I'll take care of you. Now, the more I believe God, the less I'll live in fear. And the less I believe God, the more I'll live in fear.

It's just that simple. It's just that simple. We have far too much anxiety, care, and fear. Far too much concern for earthly material things, for a people to whom the Lord has said, as he does here in Matthew 6, your heavenly father knoweth that you have need of all these things. If Rex and Debbie's four children should live in the four corners of the earth, regardless of where they're found, regardless of how old they get to be, the only thing that Rex needs to be made aware of ever If he has the ability to take care of it, is they need something. That's all. They really need something. And if they need it, he'll take care of it. That's called being a daddy.

Now, if your heavenly father knows what you have need of, why should you be concerned about it? If my heavenly father knows what I have need of, why should I worry about it? That's what our Lord deals with. in this passage this evening. God has promised that he will supply all our needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. So why should I fret if God's promised to provide? Why should I concern myself about that which God himself has promised to do? And let's look at these verses here in Matthew 6, 19 through 34.

And let me show you what the Son of God teaches us. If we seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, I mean really, if that's what we want, if that's what we live for, if we seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, if we truly seek the will of God, the glory of God and the kingdom of God in Jesus Christ, we have absolutely no reason to concern ourselves with any earthly thing. Absolutely no reason.

Once the Queen of England was looking for an ambassador. I've forgotten where, I read this long time ago. She's looking for an ambassador. And she found a very prominent prosperous businessman in London and she called him into her quarters and she asked him to be an ambassador to this country.

He responded, he said, Your Majesty, I'm honored by the request and I'm honored by the trust you put in me, but my business, who will take care of my business if I do to take care of the Queen's business? And she said, you go take care of the Queen's business, I'll take care of your business. And I, Heavenly Father, will take care of your business if you take care of his business. Them that honor me, he said, I will honor, and his honor bound to do it. Now, let me show you three things that our Lord taught in this passage, and I'll wrap this up in just a few minutes, but I want you to get these three things.

First, he gives us a warning against worldliness. Look at verse 19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth. where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. What a warning. The worldliness against which our Savior here warns us is the love of the world.

It may or may not be manifest in the way you dress, in the way you speak, in the pictures you go see or the pictures you don't go see. But worldliness is the love of this world and what it appears to provide. Worldliness is conformity to the principles, aspirations, and behavior of unregenerate men. Worldliness, Griffith Thomas wrote, is a spirit, an atmosphere, an influence permeating the whole of life and human society, and it needs to be guarded against constantly and strenuously. Worldliness. One of the greatest dangers we face in this world is worldliness.

It's one of Satan's most well-disguised snares. Satan is a wise, crafty, master deceiver. Now, I'm not much of a trapper, never have been, never trapped anything in my life, but I've got enough sense to know that if you don't disguise a snare, you're not gonna catch anything. And Satan doesn't lay out a snare and say, now, fellas, here is willingness, be sure you step in it. That's not what it, he puts it out and disguises it cleverly.

It seems most reasonable for us to pay close attention to business and seek happiness and prosperity in this world, so long as we don't let ourselves get into sins of gross immorality or anything of that kind. But here our Lord warns us that worldliness is the rock upon which multitudes have wrecked their souls and ruined themselves forever.

I've been pastoring, trying to, I don't know much about it, I frankly admit it, but I've been trying to pastor, trying to guide folks in the way of life eternal, in the way of righteousness and truth since I was 20 years old. That's 24 years nearly. And I've observed a few people, I've observed a few people, not many, a few, who have been taken in the snare of lasciviousness. But I can't tell you how many people I've seen taken in the snare of worldliness, the love of the world. Oh, how much it has cost some people to have what they thought they had to have in this world. I know men whom I fear have lost their souls to get a house, or to get a job, or to get a position, for they've forsaken the worship of God altogether.

Now, this text talks about laying up treasure in heaven. And I know this modern charismatic foolishness, this health, wealth, prosperity nonsense that greedy preachers preach and tell you, if you'll send some money to them and line their pockets, then you'll be rich in heaven and lay up treasure in heaven. I know what they preach. Let me say a word concerning it.

There's only one way you lay up treasure in heaven. And that's if you trust Christ, who is our treasure. He is our treasure. If you found that treasure hidden in the field of scripture, and you made it yours by faith, you've laid a treasure in heaven. So that everything God gives to sinners is yours in Christ. That's the only way you lay a treasure in heaven. Not by doing good deeds, not by sending your money to the mission field, not by doing this and not doing that, you lay a treasure believing on Christ, the Lord our treasure. And then our Lord says, where your treasure is, there will your heart be.

Now I wonder where my treasure is. I wonder where my treasure is. It doesn't take long to find out, if you're honest. It won't take long to find out, where's your heart? What occupies your attention? Your thought, your care? That's your treasure. I guarantee it. I don't have to guarantee it, the Lord said it. Where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. Where your heart is, that's where your treasure is.

Ask God to teach you to look upon everything here constantly in the light of eternity. Oh, God, teach me that. To look upon everything here constantly in the light of eternity. I mean, ask God to give you grace and seek grace earnestly to value nothing on this earth more than you will value it when you have to leave it. Nothing. Nothing.

Wonder how important that new house would be tonight if I knew I had to leave it tonight. Wonder how important that new car would be tonight if I knew I had to leave it tonight. Wonder how important that new job would be tonight if I knew I had to leave it tonight. Beware of worldliness.

Turn over a few pages to Matthew 13. I haven't read this to you in a few weeks. And it's worth reading every now and then. Verse 21. Verse 22, our Lord says, he also that received seed among the thorns is he that hears the word and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches.

Choke the word and he becometh unfruitful. J.C. Ryle wrote, Open transgression of God's law slays its thousands, but worldliness its tens of thousands. Joseph Alain made a proper observation from this text. He said, there is no sure evidence of an unconverted state than to have the things of this world uppermost in our aim, love, and estimation.

Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So I say to you who are born of God, set your affection on things above. On Christ, for Christ is our treasure. Set your affection on him, not on things on this earth. Secondly, our Lord gives us an exhortation to singleness of heart.

In verse 22, the light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. Therefore, the light that is in thee, if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.

What on earth is he talking about? Same thing, read the next verse. No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot, you might want to underscore that word, cannot.

That means there's not any possibility. You cannot serve God and man. It can't be. It can't be done. It is impossible to serve Christ and the world at the same time. The ark of God will not stand in the same house with David. It won't happen. It won't happen. You will come nearer bringing the North and South Pole together than you will to serving God and mammon. It will not happen.

Christ must be king in our hearts, ruling over us so that his will, his glory, his kingdom receives the devotion and commitment of our hearts. Unless our lives are so ordered, everything is confusion. The whole body is full of darkness. Paul's motto must be ours, this one thing I do. Believers are men and women of one thing. David said, one thing have I desired, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The blind man who was made whole and received the sight said, this one thing I know. I was blind, but now I see.

The Lord Jesus spoke concerning Mary, who had chosen that better part, and he said, one thing is needful. He's the only thing needful, the only thing needful. If you get him, you get everything. If you miss him, you miss everything. And Paul said, this one thing I do.

For getting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Now, if you do, then your whole body's full of life. Find a man of purpose. A woman of purpose. I mean, really, purpose. Somebody who's flat determined to do something. Somebody who is flat determined to go somewhere.

Somebody who is just flat determined, this is what shall be. and you find somebody who will not be turned aside, who will not be deterred, who will not be altered, who will not be detoured, who will not be set aside, they're going to do something, because they're determined to do it. Oh God, make us decided in our commitment to Christ, so that we can say with Joshua, as for me and my house, This one thing you can count on, buddy. This one thing you can count on.

As for me and my house, we may live down on skid row. We may run around with ragged bitches. We may have this difficulty and that difficulty. We may not have two pennies rubbed together. Nobody may know our name, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Gonna do it. For how on earth can a man Make a statement like that. It's called commitment. It's just called commitment. We're gonna do it. And then lastly, our Lord gives us a cure for care. In verses 25 through 34, you see, he knows our hearts. He knows how quickly we turn off warnings against worldliness. Men hear these kinds of warnings and they say, well, that's not talking to me. I'll just, we'll leave that alone. He's not talking to Chris tonight, he's talking to Lindsey. He's not talking to Lindsey tonight, he's talking to Buddy. He's not talking to Buddy, he's talking to Alberta.

Oh no. Our Lord knows how quickly we turn it off. And so he forewarns us. And he nips our excuses for worldliness in the bud. Because he knows how attached we are to earthly things by nature. I've heard every kind of excuse in the world for me and forsaking the worship of God, a little at a time. It's always a little at a time.

Got to provide for my family. I live in this world. My old buddy, Harry Graham, He and I were sitting together one time, and somebody made that statement, said, I've got to live in this world. Harry said, that's one thing I don't have to do. That's the one thing I don't have to do. All I've got to do in this world is die in it. I don't have to live in this world. And so there's no need to compromise.

One old boy said to a friend, there's so much I want to do for the cause of Christ that I'm going to go make a fortune, and I'm going to use it for the Lord. He's still got his fortune. He's still got fortune. You gotta act while opportunity knocks. Seize the opportunity. The Lord will always be there. I wouldn't count on that. I wouldn't count on that. Knowing our hearts, our Lord just kind of wipes away the excuses we give.

In verse 25, he forbids an overly anxious spirit. He says, therefore, say I unto you, take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, what you shall drink, or for your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than meat and the body more than a suit of clothes? Four times in these verses, he says, stop being careful. Stop being fretful. Stop worrying. Four times he says that. Take no thought for these things.

Now, granted, prudent provision and prudent care about our earthly responsibilities is not only all right, it's right. We are required to work and provide for our families. If a man will not work and provide for his own family, he's denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. But greed, worry, and tormenting care about earthly things is contrary to faith. Now, to cure us of care and to teach us to trust him, the Lord reminds us of God's providential care over everything he created. He sends us first to the birds of the air. In verse 26, he said, fellas, behold the birds, the fowls of the air.

Did you ever see one of them pulling a plow? Did you ever see one of them working? They sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather in the barn. Yet your heavenly father feeds them. They literally live. Every bird. I don't guess there's an exception. Every bird that flies in the air literally lives on the seed and the worms and the grubs it gets today. Every bird. None of them stack up for tomorrow. They just live on God's daily provision. you're much more valuable than they are. God doesn't care for the birds.

He said that for your sake. And then he sends us to ourselves and points out the uselessness of worry. Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature? Stand on your tiptoes all day long, you're not going to grow any. You can hang upside down all day long. You're not going to go in. You cannot, by your anxious care, make yourself to be what you're not. Can't be done.

I will drift off a little bit into the silly, but the silly sometimes has a way of applying with barbed arrows to the important. Now I realize I could spend a little money and get more hair, or at least look like I had more hair. And I spend all my time fretting and worrying because I'm losing my hair. It's kind of silly. It's just kind of silly. One of these days I'm going to start polishing my head instead of covering my hair. I recognize that.

But all the fretting and all the worrying in the world isn't going to change. That's just a fact of life. And our Lord tells us here, you sons and daughters of God Almighty, what's the benefit of your fretting? What's the benefit of your anxiety? What's the benefit of your care? You can't do anything about those things you fret about.

And then he tells us to observe the flowers of the field. And why take he thought for clothing? Worried about what you're going to wear. That's not really the gist of the text. The gist of the text is worried about whether or not you're going to have anything to wear. Why worry about that? Why worry about that nonsense? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They just spring up out there. Goddamn 127, the spring of the year, you'll see those lilies popping up. Just grow. Just grow.

They toil not, neither do they spend, yet I say unto you that even Solomon, in all his glory, wasn't as pretty as one of these, wasn't arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, just we, Shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

And then he tells us that earthly care is just altogether unworthy of one who claims to live by faith. We say we believe God. We say we're the heirs of eternal life. We say we trust the Lord Jesus Christ. We say we trust God's providence. He says in verse 31, therefore take no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed?

These are the things the Gentiles seek. You see that? Unbelieving pagans live and die for these things. Folks who don't know God live and die for these things. And then our Savior makes this gracious, glorious promise. He says, for your heavenly father knoweth that you have need of these things, but seek ye first the kingdom of God. Seek this. The word first means preeminently. The word first has the idea of to the exclusion of everything else. Seek this, the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

And all these things shall be added unto you. David said, I've been young, and now I'm old, and I've never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed-begging bread. No good thing will the Lord withhold from them that walk uprightly, who trust in him. All things, the scripture says, are yours, for ye are Christ, and Christ is God's.

Your father knows what you need. That's nothing. Is it? God make that enough. Your father knows what you need. And then in verse 34, our Lord seals up his instruction with this word, this part of his instruction, this matter of care. He applies a universally known and acknowledged fact. Take therefore no thought for tomorrow, for tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Don't you find it amazing in yourself that all fretting and all worrying that you ever do about anything or about any situation is about things that are totally outside your control? Did you ever worry about anything you could handle? Anybody? Ever fret about anything that you had to hold on it? Why, no, that's nonsense. You fret about what has been or about what might be. or what has been, you're not gonna change, and what might be, you don't have any apprehension of at all. So why carry troubles that you don't have? Why fret? Why worry? If God is pleased to send tomorrow, he'll send you grace sufficient for tomorrow. And if God's pleased to send trouble tomorrow, He'll make it possible for you to bear the trouble tomorrow. So don't fret about tomorrow. Don't worry about tomorrow.

But rather cast your care on him. For he cares for you. Or I'd like to be able to do that. I won't do that. I want to cease from care and cast my care on him. His shoulders are broader than mine. He can carry loads I can't imagine carrying, and he can work out difficulties I can't imagine working out.

You'll be turning, if you will, to hymn number 354. We're going to sing that in a minute. Let me tell you how it came to be. Joseph Scriven, or Scriven, however you pronounce his name, is an Irishman When he was a young man, he was engaged to be married, just head over heels in love with a young lady. And the day before they were to be married, his fiancee was found face down in a pool of water where she obviously had fallen and drowned accidentally. And Scriven was heartbroken.

After a few years, when he was 25, he migrated to Canada. He was a carpenter by trade. But he lived a melancholy, sad, morbid man all his life. He never got over the heartache. He spent his life deliberately living in poverty, just in a room here and there, live boarding houses here and there, all his life long. He'd help widows and poor folks do patchwork on their houses and such as that, just scratched out a living. He spent 40 years like that. When he was 65 years old, he lay in his room dying.

And one day, one of the neighbors who was tending to him came in and she saw a piece of paper, just some scribbling on it. And she read it. And she said to him, said, Joseph, did you write that? He said, the Lord and I did. And as he was leaving this world, he found what he never found while he was living in this world. And this is what he wrote. What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

A Cure For Care

What does the Bible say about worry and anxiety?

How do we know God will provide for our needs?

Why is trust in God's promises important for Christians?

How can Christians overcome worldly cares?

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A Cure For Care

What does the Bible say about worry and anxiety?

How do we know God will provide for our needs?

Why is trust in God's promises important for Christians?

How can Christians overcome worldly cares?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

Comments

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