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Sermon
The Gospel of Matthew

Anxiety or Assurance?

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March 16, 2025
Matthew 6:25-34
Steven Lee
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

Fear & Anxiety

Transcript

0:21Let's pray. Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Cause your word to instill in us hope and trust and confidence conform us to the image of your son Jesus. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. I think I've done this before, but I'll do it again. How many of you know what this is? Show of hands, Not very many of you. How many of you have one in your car? Uh, not very many of you, but okay. This is one of my anxiety induced purchases. It's an emergency hammer has a little sharp tip. There's a little seat seatbelt cutter on the back. And I bought it about a decade ago when I was worried that if my car somehow ended up submerged in one of our 10,000 lakes and I had to get two or three or four of my children out of car seats, that it was going to be a life saving tool.

1:26You'll be pleased to know I haven't driven into any of our lakes up to this point. I've never used this tool, but someone was glad to capitalize on my worry and anxiety of a worst case scenario. Some of you are thinking right now I gotta run out and get one in case that happens. Anxiety is a multi-billion dollar industry, isn't it? Anti-anxiety medications are some of the most prescribed drugs, many turn to therapy and psyche. Psychiatric help and self-help books. There's all sorts of wellness products to help stave off anxiety and emergency hammers to prepare for worst case scenarios. Anxiety is everywhere, everywhere.

2:17Our world is anxious about global politics and tariffs and egg prices and artificial intelligence and financial markets and interest rates, and we haven't even begun to explore our own personal anxieties yet this morning there's no shortage of things to worry about. So what do we do in this age of anxiety? Well, uh, first we can notice that it's not anything new. Jesus in our passage here this morning, turns his attention to the topic of anxiety. He begins in verse 25, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life. That is probably a command that is applicable at all times in all places until he returns.

3:17Jesus audience like us is tempted to be anxious. They were worried about what they would eat or drink or wear, and many of them lived sort of subsistence lifestyles where they didn't have a lot saved up. And, and yet while many of our worries differ, we too are tempted by anxiety. Don't show your hands. But I wonder how many of us this morning feel a sense of anxiety, even knowing that the preacher's gonna be talking about anxiety makes your anxiety increase.

3:50How do I pay for school? Who will I marry if I get married at all? Do we have enough for the braces or for college for our kids? Will I have enough when I get old? We worry about our appearance, our acceptance, our health, our safety and our aging. We worry about our relationships and our friendships. We worry about work, the fear of failure or getting laid off, or if I'm going to find another job, we can even worry about big existential questions. Have I somehow wasted my life? What's my purpose? What am I put here on earth to do? Anxious worry is a long standing human temptation. Now, notice the flow of Jesus' argument.

4:45If you look at your Bible last week we looked at chapter six, 19 to 24. Jesus was teaching his disciples not to lay a up earthly treasure, but to lay up heavenly treasure, to devote themselves to God and to God first in in fact even give away some of your earthly treasure in order to store up heavenly treasures. And the natural question that comes about in that moment is, if I'm giving away my stuff, who's gonna look out for me? Who? Who's gonna care for me?

5:17Who's going to look after my needs and what I need? And our passage is Jesus' response. He will meet our needs and he is the one who is looking out for us. If we're devoted to Christ and his kingdom, we will have our needs met by our heavenly Father who knows us, who sees us and who cares for us. Jesus is trying to instruct his disciples away from anxiety and worry, but he's trying to reorient their priorities. Put God first and foremost, you have to get the order of things right. Yes, we have to care about what we're gonna eat, what we're gonna drink. And this morning you probably thought about what you would wear and yet get the priorities right.

6:09Do not be anxious because God provides for his children. So Jesus is not teaching his disciples to have a who cares attitude. Like, ah, whatever happens, happens don't have to plan, we're just gonna float through life. That would be sort of this Buddhist enlightenment teaching where you detach yourself from desire or the things of the world. Rather, Jesus is teaching his disciples how to trust in his good provision. Jesus reorders his disciples priorities to begin with God rather than self. Now before we jump into our passage, I wanna note one more thing. I think there is a difference between normal anxiety, sinful anxiety and anxiety disorder.

6:59So let me just spend a little bit of time on this. I think there's the category of normal anxiety that is not sinful. So first Corinthians chapter seven, verse 33, Paul says that the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife. So in other words, married men care about serving and loving and pleasing their wives. And I think he actually means this. He, he's just stating a fact and it's, it's not a sinful reality, it's just the reality. Or Philippians two 20, Paul writes this about Timothy. He says, I have no one like Timothy who will be genuinely concerned or anxious for your welfare.

7:37So he's commending Timothy to the Philippians saying, this is a guy who really cares about you. The word anxiety or concerned, I think is a healthy concern that is commendable or normal. So there's this category of normal anxiety that is not sinful. If you lose your wallet and you don't have your driver's license and all your credit cards, you are anxious in that moment. And you should be right. If someone you love in a car crash, the normal human response is worry. Now normal worries become sinful anxieties when they become all consuming or paralyzing or irrational and they're accompanied by a lack of trust in God.

8:21And I think that's the key. We lose sight of God's presence in our world and in the midst of our fears, the type of anxiety that fails to trust God has an improper or idolatrous concern. And so I think what differentiates sinful anxiety from normal anxiety is what we do with it. Do we bring it to the Lord? Do we trust that God is in the midst of it? And then there are things called anxiety disorders. I'm not a medical doctor, so just bear with me. I, I think there's this pattern of irrational worry or fear or panic attacks or nightmares or even flashbacks to kind of certain traumatic events in your life.

9:05And there's even medical conditions that can cause anxiety like a thyroid condition or menopause or nutrition deficiencies or misuse of drugs or stimulants and prolonged suffering from a medical condition. And, and so in many cases, anxiety disorders can be a combination of normal anxiety and sinful anxiety, but then even physiological realities. And so when I use the word anxiety throughout the rest of this sermon, what I mainly have in view is that middle category of sinful anxiety that fails to take into account of God in the midst of our stories. Now, I believe that our passage gives us four central truths to fight sinful anxiety, four central truths to fight sinful anxiety.

9:55And the first one comes in verse 25. And that first truth is that life is more than stuff. Life is more than stuff. Look with me at verse 25, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body. What you will put on is not life more than food and the body more than clothing. And the answer to Jesus kind of rhetorical question is, yes, of course life is much more than food and clothing. The problem isn't working to earn money, but rather it's the self-centered preoccupation with our needs apart from God. Jesus is calling out the self-centered preoccupation with our needs apart from God.

10:44Of course we need food to eat and clothes to wear, but there's a faith-filled way to go about those things and there's a faithless and sinful way to go about those things. And the question is, is God in the picture? And is God in the plan? Jesus gives us rhetorical question is not life more than food and the body more than clothing. And I think what he's doing there is he's teaching us this foundational truth. And that foundational truth is that God is the one who gives. Life is not life more than food, the body more than clothing. God is the one who gives life. Acts 1725, God himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

11:32Or Genesis two, seven, we see that God breathes into us the very breath of life. God upholds the universe by the word of his power by him. All things hold together. Job chapter 12 verse 10 says, in his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. And so what this shows us is that God is sovereignly in control of everything, including our very lives themselves. Every single breath that you take, every single beat of your heart, every single biological process that goes on in our bodies is controlled by God. And if he cares for those things and not just cares, but if he controls and ordains those things, will he not care for our smallest needs?

12:25That that's what he's trying to say. God is the one who gives and sustains life. And if he gives you life, is he not going to sustain your life? We could look at Philippians four 19 and it says, and my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. It's speaking of God's sustaining provision or Psalm 1 0 4, 14, you cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate that he may bring forth food from the earth. God doesn't just give life, he doesn't just sustain life. He's created the entire world, structured the universe in such a way that it brings forth food for mankind.

13:19And because God gives and sustains life, our concerns can be more than just food, drink and clothing. So what do we exist for? Life is much more than stuff life is about glorifying God. One Corinthians 10 31, whether you eat or drink, obsess and think about those things all the time, well, that's not what it says. Whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. Our existence is much more than just getting food. That's what animals do. You think about your average squirrel, their life is consumed with getting more nuts. More nuts. That's all they're thinking about. More acorns, more nuts, more nuts.

14:09I don't see squirrels, suntanning, or going out for just a swim. And yet we were made for much more. If you're just striving after what you're gonna eat or drink or filling in up your 401k, you're living like a squirrel. When you should be living like a child of God, to worry about such necessities is to lose sight of God, his provision, his sustaining grace and your duty to live for his glory. So that's the first truth. To fight sinful anxiety, life is more than stuff. Now look with me at verse 26 and 27, we have the second thing, which is that God cares for his creation. Second truth, God cares for his creation.

14:57Verse 26, look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? The illustration is pretty straightforward. God feeds the birds, he's gonna feed you. Now, some of you are watching those like bald eagles I think at Bear Valley online, right? And they just had some babies and one might say bird watching is a very biblical hobby because our passage says, look at the birds of the air. That's your dad joke of the day. There there are some birds that we love and rightfully so, right?

15:43Bald eagles, uh, peacocks. My kids loved pair green falcons growing up like, ah, fast birds, wood ducks. But if you consider the pigeons of New York or the seagulls, when you go down to the beach in Florida, those are like the rats of the sky. You don't care for much. They don't care for them much. They're kind of pest like they're rather unimportant. And, and what God is telling us is that he feeds them sometimes with your food on the beach, but he feeds them. Birds instinctively trust God and his creation for their needs. And if God cares about something so unimportant, how much more will he care for us?

16:27We are the apex of God's creation. We were made in his image. We were shaped and fashioned by God himself. He breathed the breath of life into us. He made us with souls that will live for all eternity forever and ever and ever. We will never die. And so if he's made us as the apex of his creation in his own image, will he not care for us? Psalm eight, six says that mankind was made just a little lower than the heavenly beings and is crowned with glory and honor. CS Lewis says, you've never looked upon a mere mortal. Uh, this is a glorious reality. We've been given dominion over the earth, including the birds of the heavens.

17:25Jesus is not saying that we can be lazy and not work, and you don't have to think about your needs. The birds instinctively work constantly to find food. The point is to trust God in our work and to work while trusting God. It's to work while praying. Give us this our daily bread. Jesus is calling for an attitude of trust in the midst of our labors. Do we ultimately believe that God is at work in our work to give us what we need? Or are we striving in our own strength? God cares for his creation? Will he not care for you? He gives another rhetorical question. And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

18:20In, in other words, anxiety accomplishes nothing because you can't make your life longer. In fact, we often know that stress probably shortens our life. And and, and so the reality is that anxious worry is unproductive, un unhelpful. It, it's entirely useless. And so why be anxious at all? Look with me at verse 28 to 32nd illustration. Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They need their toil and their spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so closed the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, owe you of little faith.

19:09Same logic is used here as was used in the earlier section. God cares for the lilies. How much more is he going to care for us? The wild flowers of ancient Israel don't sit there and spin cloth out of wool, nor do they toil under the hot sun. And yet these flowers are arrayed with splendid, amazing colors. Now Solomon is called the mind. He's the great king of Israel. And I I looked in the Old Testament, they don't talk about how well dressed Solomon was, but the queen of Sheba comes into Solomon's kingdom and she admires everything going on saying, you have like the best kingdom in the world that I've ever seen.

19:56Like mind is blown. But what does she do? She compliments the clothing of his servants. Your servants are clothed like the kings of old. How much more is Solomon clothed with glory? And and what he's saying here, what Jesus is saying is Solomon doesn't even hold a stick up to what God himself does with the flowers. Now look at verse 30. Will he not much more clothe you, owe you of little faith, God even cloth the grass, which is here today and gone tomorrow. This phrase, little faith suggests that those who are obsessed with how they look fail to take God ultimately into account. The root of anxiety is unbelief in God.

20:43The root of anxiety is unbelief in God's provision. God's promises and that God is good. Our society is so obsessed with our clothes and our bodies with beauty creams and injections and anti-aging serums and plastic surgery and vein striving for whatever is the most ideal. And yet all of that fails to remember that God is the one who made us. And not mainly so that we would look 20 years old for the rest of our life, but so that we would reflect his glory, we would reflect his goodness to the world. That's what you were made for. God's sovereignly cares for his creation. He oversees the systems and ecology that enable flowers to bloom.

21:38He ensures that the soils have the nutrients. He ensures that the rains fall and and the waters, the soil. He ensures that the sun shines to enable photosynthesis, that the air is full of carbon dioxide, that the temperature is just right and that the bees and the butterflies and the wind help pollinate the flowers. God ordains and overseas every single detail down to the smallest one. Will he not care for you and elsewhere? We're we're told. He knows the hairs on our head or the lack thereof. He, he knows every single one of our needs. Not apar will fall to the ground apart from God. So how do we fight sinful anxiety? Life is more than stuff.

22:26God cares for his creation. And then third, God provides for his people. God provides for his people. Look with me at 31 to 33. Therefore do not be anxious saying, what shall we eat? What shall we drink? Or what shall we wear for the Gentiles? Seek after these things and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. So why are we not to be anxious? Because that is how pagans live. Uh, the word Gentiles refers to non-Jewish people and it assumes that they're pagans who don't know God. And what do do they live for?

23:13They live for food and drink and clothing. They don't know God's fatherly care for them. Their lives are marked by laying up treasures here on earth. But Jesus' disciples are to be different. Why? Because we have a heavenly Father who knows what we need. Look with the verse 32. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. He not only knows, but he sees us. And the implication is that he's going to provide all that we need. Uh, which of you, who, who's a parent, uh, sees your toddler, you know, at at the water fountain over here and they're trying to get a drink and they, they're just not quite tall enough, they keep pressing and which, which of you dads just stands back and laughs?

24:07None of us? We go and we pick 'em up. Some of us are tempted just to pick up other people's kids so that they get the, the drink that they need. And if we do something so simple, will God not do so much more for his children? Now, we might be tempted to think, but you don't know the scope of my problems. And yet anxiety is not primarily about our circumstances or our situation. Anxiety can adapt to whether you have very little money, you can still be anxious and if you have a lot of money, you're anxious about different things, but you can still be anxious. Anxiety will grow and shrink with our various circumstances and situations.

24:50Uh, the the truth that is being drawn out here is that we need to keep in mind that we have a heavenly Father who is for us. He is on our side. He gives the heart of his teaching in verse 33. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. This positive command seek God first and he's gonna take care of your needs. That's kind of our broad big point here. Seek God. He's going to meet your needs. He cares for his children. Don't hold back wholeheartedly. Follow the Lord. So how do we seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness? What does that actually look like?

25:35Uh, I think here we can go back to Jesus' masterclass, um, prayer. How did he teach us to pray? What were the first three things we're to call for or to pray for? Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. When we're anxious, we kind of instinctively pray. Lord, just take it away. Fix it. And instead he wants us to pray. Lord, let your glory be seen, cause your name to be glorified. As I walk through this trial, this suffering, uh, where, where I'm anxious, I want you to get glory for yourself in this right now. And I wanna see more of your power. Or do we just say, Lord, fix it. What does it mean?

26:27All these things will be added to you at one level, I think it is, to teaching that God provides for his children. God provides for his children. Psalm 37 25 says, I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. This has a proverb like quality. I've not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. And my guess is for most of us immediately what comes to mind is the exception. Like I know of Christians throughout history who have experienced deprivation and starvation. And so what are we to make of that? Like there have been people who've starved to death, famines.

27:09Well, I think what this is stressing here is God's perfect knowledge of his people. So nothing happens to us, good or bad, apart from his will. He knows what we need. He numbers our days. He knows the hairs on our head, and so he will give us precisely what he deems is best. And so we're to live with the knowledge that his sovereign, meticulous care is holding us. Jesus says, my sheep know my voice. No one can snatch them out of my hand, not even by starvation or deprivation. I will ensure that I keep my people all the way to the end. And he may use for some starvation as a means to bring them to their ultimate destiny, to be with Christ face-to-face forever.

28:05But it does not call into question his care or his goodness. And let me just illustrate this with second Corinthians one, eight. This is Paul writing and he says, we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Instead, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. And then he says, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God. And so yes, we will face persecutions and trials and sufferings, and those are to turn us away from trusting ourselves to ultimately lean on God. So how do we fight sin? Anxiety, life is more than stuff. God cares for His creation. God provides for his people.

28:55And then lastly in verse 34, God holds tomorrow. God holds tomorrow. Jesus gives this concluding word. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. In other words, the time to worry about tomorrow is indeed tomorrow. We've live day by day dependent upon God's good provision for today. Now, this is not a life that doesn't schedule and doesn't plan, but it rather it refuses to worry about what might or might not happen because we know that that is useless. It's a waste of time. Anxiety accomplishes nothing. And so Jesus tells us that God will take care of our needs.

29:46Psalm 27, excuse me, Proverbs 27, 1 says, we do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring. We can't control the future. We shouldn't presume upon it. We shouldn't focus on it in such a way with anxious toil. His grace is sufficient for the day and it should not be wasted on worrying about tomorrow. So we have four truths about how to fight sinful anxiety. Life is more than our stuff. God cares for his creation. God provides for his people. You're his children. And then God holds tomorrow. And so the thrust of this passage is keep your eyes focused on Jesus. Seek first my kingdom.

30:44Seek first the righteousness of my kingdom. Don't be anxious. God is going to provide for his children. So Jesus has been arguing from the lesser to the greater in each of these, I care for the birds. How much more are you? And yet Jesus often argues from the greater to the lesser, doesn't he? Romans 8 32 says, he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things God has provided our greatest need, forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with the holy God. We were estranged, we were enemies, we, we were fallen. We hated him. And yet in his kindness, he reconciled us.

31:37He gave us the blood of his son to be a mediator, to be the lamb of God, to be our sacrifice. And so if he's given us the greatest, most glorious, the most costly thing in all the world, is he gonna withhold from us some tiny little thing, our food and drink and clothing? No. And the same is true for whatever ails us and makes us anxious today, our world tells us that no one is going to look out for you. So you gotta look out for yourself. That's the constant barrage that our world preaches to us. No one else cares about you. You gotta look out for yourself, look out for number one. And yet the Bible teaches us that God is watching over us so you don't have to.

32:30And so seek after his kingdom, his glory, his honor. First and foremost, I remember hearing a story of a friend who adopted an older child who previously lived in an orphanage, and that child would sometimes hide food after dinner because that's what they did at the orphanage. Everyone had to look out for themselves and there was always a limited supply. And so whenever there are some snacks, he would take some and store it away and save it for later. And, and this child had to unlearn this habit because he was now a son of a family where his earthly father and mother would provide for him. How many of us are like that child this morning?

33:20We're just anxiously trying to think through the future, figure it out ourselves, storing up without God in the picture because we've forgotten that we're children of the most high king that your beloved children of God. Now most of us would like to be less anxious. But you know, the question becomes how? Like what do I do? Like the sermon's great and all, but like what do I do pastor? So let me read two famous anti-anxiety verses for us. You guys know these. First is Philippians four, six and seven. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

34:20The second is one Peter five, seven, cast all your anxieties on God because he cares for you. Based on those two verses, I wanna share four ways or one pathway of how we combat anxiety. And so four practical ways for us to pray using the acronym of pray. So PRAY. So the first, the p is to present our anxieties to our Father. P present our anxieties to our father. First thing we need to do is to actually admit that we're anxious and bring those anxieties to God. It's an opportunity to discern is this normal anxiety and concern is the sinful anxiety? Either way, we still need God's help. And the most important step is to pray and to present these to the Lord.

35:14Too often we get anxious. And what's the first thing we do? Let's Google how to fix it. Let's try to solve it on our own. Little bit more elbow grease. And yet present your anxieties to your heavenly Father. Second P, or excuse me, we did the PR. We call God's provision and blessings. Recall God's provision and blessings. And so we are to remember God's goodness to us in Christ Jesus. This is the Philippians four, six prayer with Thanksgiving we're to call the mind all that God has blessed us with. God cares for his creation, provides for his people, cares about the birds. How much more is he gonna care about me?

35:57He's given me breath. He's given me salvation. He's given me this church family. He's given me my extended family. He's he's given me all that I need. And so whatever makes me anxious in this moment, uh, I can be thankful for all the other things that he's entrusted to me and given to me. He's given me so many of my essential needs. He's given me his word that I might know Christ. He's, he's given me the reassurance of fellow brothers and sisters. Thank you Lord for all those ample blessings. So p, present our anxieties to our father, our recall, God's provision and blessings. And then a ask for what you need. Ask for what you need.

36:39So, Lord, It's wisdom that I need. Would you give me that wisdom in this moment? Lord, would you provide me with a spouse in your perfect time? Would you give me wisdom for this situation? Would you give me a new job? Would you give healing to this ailment? Or would you give me sustaining grace to be able to endure it? Would you save my son or daughter or parents or grandchild? We can ask God because he is our heavenly Father in the very next chapter. And he says, which Father, when his son asks for bread, is gonna give him a stone. No one does that. I won't do. That is what the Lord says. He will give good things to those who ask him.

37:23And so asking is an exercise of showing our deep and profound dependence upon God. It's to bring our anxieties where they belong at the foot of the cross. So p present our anxieties to our Father. R Recall God's provision and blessings. A ask for what you need. And then y yield to God in faith. Yield to God in faith, yielding to God in faith is anticipating the peace that will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. We're saying, Lord, I trust you with this and so I'm leaving it in your hands. So often what I am tempted to do is to pray about things. Lord, I've I've, I've presented them to you.

38:07I I'm asking you to fix it. Uh, I'm recalling your promises. And now let me take it back 'cause I'm gonna go fix it now. And and it's not to say that we don't have any part, but we yield to God in faith. We say, Lord, we're gonna cast these anxieties on you, and we're gonna resist the temptation to try to figure it out ourselves. So this is what it looked like for me this week. I don't often get anxious though this hammer tells me otherwise. Uh, but the Lord wanted me to apply this sermon so I felt anxious this week about something. And this is how I prayed. Lord, I I'm feeling so anxious about this particular thing.

38:50It makes me sick to my stomach and I just do not know what to do. It. It's hard. I feel like I'm pressed between two sides. And so, Lord, I I'm bringing it to you, recognizing that my my heart and soul feel anxious in this moment. And yet you have been so faithful. You've given me all that I need. You've given me wisdom. You've given me a church family. You've given me people who pray for me. You have been so gracious. You've given me your son, Jesus. How will you not with him? Give me wisdom for this tiny situation? You will. And so, Lord, I'm asking that you would fix it, fix this situation.

39:34I don't know the best pathway to take in this particular thing. And yet you do solve it for your glory and for my good and for the good of all the parties that are involved. Lord, I need your help. And now I just entrust it to you, Lord, I I'm handing it over. You have to show your power for your glory, for my good in, in solving this particular issue. And help me to walk by faith and faithfully carry out my part in Jesus' name. Amen. And so that's how I prayed.

40:17Let me leave you with this last thought. God cares about us more than we care about ourselves. I know that doesn't seem possible because we care about ourselves a lot, like a lot. And yet God cares about us more than we care about ourselves. Our care is finite and it often slips into selfishness. And yet God's care for us is deeper and wider and greater than we could possibly fathom. Let me just close with reading Psalm 1 39, 17 and 18. How precious to me are your thoughts. Oh God, how vast is the sum of them if I would count them? They are more than the sand. God's thoughts about us are infinitely vast and they're marked by love.

41:16So why, okay, should we not be anxious? We have a heavenly Father who loves us and cares for us, who thinks about us constantly, who has given us his son Jesus, and who will provide all that we need. He will hold us fast and bring us to glory in his perfect wisdom, according to his perfect plan and in his perfect timing. Let's pray. Father, help us to trust you. Help us to be less anxious, to fight sinful anxiety by casting our cares upon you because you care for us. You care about us. Make that increasingly true in our hearts and minds. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Sermon Text

Matthew 6:25-34

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