Life of Christ - Worry and How To Beat It

You know, in spite of all of our modern science and technology, our world still doesn't offer a lot of serenity and a lot of real peace, does it? I mean, there you are sipping your diet soda with saccharin, sitting in your asbestos line building, talking on your cellular phone right next to high voltage wires, right under the hole in the ozone layer. You've given up high fat beef that's laced with antibiotics for low fat fish that's laced with PCBs.

Your Chinese food has MSG, your bacon has nitrites, your apple juice has ALAR, your milk has growth hormones, your water has chloroform you tanned for years without sunscreen, and your short mayo with a bald spot which means you're ripe for a heart attack. Now, that's kind of the way the world goes, huh? Every time I read the paper, it's like, not another one. And the more we learn, it seems like, the more reason there is to worry. If I were to ask you what defined worry, it'd be interesting probably what definitions we got, wouldn't it? People would say things like, well, I don't know, anxiety, fear of the future, that feeling of uneasiness down in the pity of stomach that you get sometime, fretting, the jitters. Lon, I can't define it exactly, but everybody knows what it feels like. And you're right, most of the world knows exactly what it feels like because our world is full of it.

People who are so burdened down with the cares of life that they've lost the joy in living. And this is what we want to talk about this morning. We want to talk about worry because that's what Jesus talks to us about in our passage, worry and how to beat it in our lives.

And the message that's here is really a liberating message if we really get a hold of it and make it real for our lives, which is what I want to try to do with you this morning. Let me just say before we begin, there's a difference between worry and legitimate responsibility. Let's make sure we understand that.

Legitimate responsibility means I have certain obligations, certain duties that I need to carry out and do to the best of my ability. Worry goes the next step into fretting about what the outcome is going to be. We're not talking about responsibility being bad.

We're not trying in any way, nor is Jesus to convince you just to lay at home and pop chocolates and watch The Price is Right. There are legitimate things to get out there that you and I are responsible for doing. The reason that we're talking about worry is that worry goes the next step. It goes to the step of them fretting about how it's all going to work out.

Okay? I like what Stonewall Jackson said. He said duty is ours, consequences is God's. Duty is ours, consequences are God's. And that's kind of the right balance.

So we're not talking about duty now. We're talking about fretting over the consequences. So let's look at it together. Here we are, Luke chapter 12, beginning in verse 22. Then Jesus said to his disciples, now let's stop right there for a second. Say, well, Lon, we only got into this six words.

I know, but let's stop for a second. It's important we understand the audience to which Jesus is addressing this, or we're not going to interpret it right. Jesus said to his disciples, if you look down in verse 30, you'll notice that Jesus is talking to people for whom God, it says, is their father, down in verse 30. Jesus is addressing his comments here to a very restricted audience.

And that audience is the audience of people who have embraced Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and their personal savior. The Bible tells us that to those people, John chapter one, God gives them the right, the authority to become the children of God. As I've told you many times in the Bible, the Bible teaches that all people are God's creation, but not all people are God's children. God's children are those people who have uniquely put their personal faith and their personal trust in Jesus Christ as their personal savior. Well, Lon, then what you're saying is that Jesus is talking about worry here only to Christians.

That's right. You say, well, why? Doesn't he love the rest of the world? Sure, he loves the rest of the world. But the reason that these words are addressed to Christians only is that Christians have a special relationship with God that allows us to manage anxiety in a way the rest of the world can't. And Jesus's words here are going to be talking about that way of managing anxiety that comes from our relationship with him. If you're here and you've never trusted Christ in a real and personal way to be your personal savior, then may I say to you that the first step to your having real peace in your life, the first step to your beating worry in your life and being able to be calm and serene even in the middle of the worst storm is not therapy, it's not drugs, it's not hypnosis, it's not meditation, but it's a new relationship with Almighty God. And if you're here and you've never embraced Christ as your personal savior, I want to invite you to enter a whole new dimension of living where anxiety and where stress does not have to control your life.

Where does that relationship come from? Where does that new dimension of living come from? It comes from knowing Jesus Christ in a real and personal way. If you've never done that, I hope that as I talk to the rest of the people here who have, that you'll really think about it because it's one of the great byproducts of knowing Jesus Christ in a real way. Now for those of us who have trusted him, what does Christ say about worry? Well, he wants to tell us, verse 22, Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life.

Do not worry about your life. Jesus said there is a distinctive lifestyle that he wants Christians to lead, a lifestyle that has some very noticeable elements, one of which is peace and serenity and calm and an absence of fretting and worrying in the worst storm. This is a distinctive part of the lifestyle he wants us to live. And then in telling us about how to live that way, Jesus in this passage, in a sense, dissects worry and tells us that worry is based on a wrong view of four things. He wants us to see why worry makes no sense. The whole basis of worry is all wrong. It's based on a wrong view of four things.

Now let me show you what they are. Number one, worry is based on a wrong view of God, a wrong view of God. Verse 24, Jesus said, Consider the birds, the ravens, they don't sow, they don't reap, they don't have storerooms or barns, yet God feeds them. Jesus said, Look how God runs zoology, friends. Birds just go about doing what God created them to do. The birds don't get all stressed out about life. I mean, when was the last time you ever saw a bird carrying worry beads, huh? Birds don't do that. Birds just do what they're supposed to do, and God meets their every need.

True? And God does the same thing in the world of botany. Look how he runs the world of botany. Verse 27, Consider how the lilies grow.

They don't labor, they don't spin, yet I tell you that even King Solomon and all of his splendor wasn't dressed up like one of them. God orchestrates the rain, the sunshine, the pollination, and the seasons so that the vegetation of the earth has everything that it needs. Now, the point is, if God runs zoology that way and if God runs botany that way, why would God run his family any differently? And Jesus says he doesn't. Look at verse 28. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown in the fire, how much more will he clothe you? His own children, who are worth much more to him than birds and lilies are worth, how much more will he clothe you? When we as Christians fret and get all stressed out about whether God's interested and whether God's involved and whether God cares and whether God's going to take care of my every need, we have a wrong view of God. The right view of God is his eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me.

You know, the first time I ever heard that song was in 1971. I was a brand new Christian. I'd been a Christian maybe two months. I was hitchhiking around the country with my dog and I was here in Alexandria just stopping over and I met a man and he wouldn't invite me to his house. I think I looked like too much of a shady character.

But he let me spend the night down in his storefront, which was down in Alexandria. And there was a television in there and it was in the evening and I was sitting there and I was feeling real lonely. You know, my family were not doing flips because I had made this decision to become a Christian. And I felt like I had no money. I had no job.

I had no family ties. I felt all alone. I had no direction for my life. I was 21 years old. I didn't know where my life was going. I was scared.

I felt insecure. And I turned on the television and guess what was on television? Billy Graham Crusade was on television. So I turned on the Billy Graham Crusade and I began watching the Billy Graham Crusade and on came this woman named Ethel Waters.

She was an elderly, calorie challenged black lady and she came on television and she was a descendant of slaves and she told a little bit about the suffering that she'd been through and then she opened her mouth and she began to sing. Why should I be discouraged? Why should the shadows come? Why should my heart be lonely and long for heaven and home when Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is he, for his eye is on the sparrow. And she looked right in the camera and said, and children, I know he watches me. I tell you, I got chills up and down my spine.

I got tears in my eyes. And it's like God was speaking to me through this woman. In fact, every other time I ever got to watch Ethel Waters, I did it. I love that woman. She's dead now with the Lord, but I love that woman. She ministered to my heart and she said to me, Lon, I watch every little bird.

Every one of those things got a number in heaven and I'm watching you relax. Now, Dean sang that song at my request this morning. Ethel Waters, he ain't. But considering that he's male instead of female and white instead of black and young instead of old and skinny instead of fat, all things considered, he did a great job.

I mean, really. But no matter who sings that song, the message is just as powerful that there ain't no mountain high enough and there ain't no valley low enough and there ain't no river wide enough that Almighty God won't meet your every need if you're one of his children. And friends, if you think anything different, number one, you have a wrong view about God.

Number two, worry is based on a wrong view about life. Look at verse 23 here. Life is more than food and the body is more than clothes. And skip down to verse 29. And do not set your heart on what you'll eat or what you drink, Jesus said. Don't worry about it, for the pagan world runs after all these kinds of things. Your father knows that you need them, but seek first his kingdom and all these other things will be given to you as well.

God will take care of them. Now, what Jesus is trying to tell us here is that life is more than just the physical, that there is a spiritual side to life as well and that of the two of them, the physical side is really the less important side. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 4 that man does not live by bread alone, but he lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And have you learned yet that worry takes a lot of emotional energy, that worry takes a lot of concentration, worry takes a lot of effort, worry takes a lot of focus. And what Jesus wants us to see here is that it's much more important to spend all of that energy and all of that concentration and all of that effort and all of that focus on the spiritual things of life, on our relationship with him, on our walk with Jesus Christ, on our obedience to the word of God, on our personal holiness and our personal integrity and making our lives count for eternity, that this is where our energy and our focus and our concentration ought to be, not on the physical things of life. And Jesus said when you concentrate on the spiritual issues of life, don't worry about it, I'll take care of the physical things. Friend, when we let the physical issues of life become uppermost in our lives, instead of concentrating our energy on our relationship with Jesus Christ, we have a wrong view of life.

Third, worry is based on a wrong view of the future. God's promise to us as Christians about the future is, look at verse 28 right here, if God clothes the grass of the field which is here today and thrown in the oven tomorrow like he does, then how much more will he clothe you? And skip down to verse 31, Jesus said, seek his kingdom and all of these things will be given to you as well. What Jesus is promising us about the future is, when you need anything at all, I'll take care of it. Whatever you need, I'll take care of it. I'll be there right on schedule.

I won't be ahead of schedule, but I'll be right on schedule. Maybe I'm weird and you say, you are. Well, okay, I accept that. But I'm always thinking about things in the future and thinking, I don't think I can handle that. You ever like that? I go to visit people in the hospital who have cancer and who are taking chemotherapy and they've lost all their hair and I walk out and I go, I don't think I can handle that, God. I don't think I can handle that. I want to die in an airplane crash. But don't hook me up to chemotherapy. Don't put me in the hospital. I don't think I could deal with that. Just let me die in a plane crash.

My wife gets very nervous flying with me when I say stuff like that. But I don't think I can handle something like that. I see people who've lost a wife or they've lost a child or they've gone through some horrible loss to someone in death and I say, I don't think I can handle that. I look at people who've had financial disaster, their whole world's falling apart and say, I don't think I can handle that. Or who are having surgery or health problems. I pray with people who are going into major surgery, they're going to cut them open and pull their heart out their chest cavity and all and I go, no way.

I could not do that. I would be a basket case in the hospital. Or how about pregnancy? I don't know about you, every pregnancy we had, I worry whether or not the baby's going to be okay. I mean, am I going to have a down syndrome baby? Is the baby going to be normal? And I find myself thinking, if we had a baby that wasn't, I don't think I can handle that.

Any other people think like that? Well, you know, I've got a painting somebody gave me one time and here's what it says. It says, the will of God will never lead you where the grace of God won't sustain you.

Isn't that a great painting? The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God won't sustain you. You know the problem when we begin looking at life and begin saying, I couldn't handle that. I couldn't handle that.

Oh, no, I couldn't deal with that. The problem is we're looking at the future, but we're looking at the future without God's grace being there. You understand what I'm saying? Friends, you don't get dying grace until you're what? Until you're dying.

Right. You don't get cancer grace until you've got cancer. You don't get go broke grace until what? You're broke. Then you get to go broke grace.

I'm telling you, we have a handicapped little girl now and God has given us handicapped grace. I didn't think we'd ever be able to deal with this, but we have been. And you see, when we worry and we fret about the hypothetical future, we've got a wrong view of the future. There is no future.

Listen to me. There is no future that you and I, as Christians, will ever get to where God's grace won't be there at the same time to see us through. And when we worry about these hypothetical future things, you know what? We've got a wrong view of the future. Fourth and finally, worry is based on a wrong view of worrying.

Say what? No, it is. Look, verse 25, who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Well, if you can't even do something like this, if you can't even add 60 seconds to your life by worrying about it, then Jesus said, why are you worried about anything any bigger? I mean, the point is that worrying has a wrong view of worrying. Worrying implies that by worrying you can do something about it. But the truth is, by worrying, you can't do a thing about it. Worrying won't change one single thing. Jesus said it won't even make you live one second longer. I mean, look, friends, if worrying caused people to live longer, Felix Unger would be 200 years old. True?

And so would Dr. McCoy, Rabbit, Radar, George Costanza, Martha in the Bible and every Jewish mother alive would all live to be 200 years old. But they don't. Why? Because worrying doesn't change anything. It never has.

It never will. Jesus's point is people worry because somehow they feel that worrying about it will help it. But it doesn't.

It makes no positive difference at all. So these people have a wrong view of worrying. Let's summarize. What have we learned? We've learned that for Christians, worry, number one, has a wrong view of God. Worry says God's not going to take care of us.

And that's not true. Number two, worry has a wrong view of life. Worry says the physical issues of life are the most important and I've got to get all stressed out about making sure I've got all of them.

And that's not true. Number three, worry has a wrong view of the future. Worry says that God's grace won't be there when we need it. And that's not right. And fourth and finally, worry has a wrong view of worrying. Worrying says if I worry, it'll make some positive difference in how things go. And that's not true. So if worry is based on all four wrong presuppositions, Jesus said, why do it?

It's based on everything that's not true. Now that's the end of what our passage tells us, but it leads us to ask the really important question and you know it, don't you? What is it? So what?

That's right. You know, a few years ago we took a poll in our young marrieds class about what things they worried about. Now that was a number of years ago.

They're all old marrieds now, but they were young marrieds back then. And we said, what are some of the things you worry about? It was a very interesting poll.

I kept the answers, put it in my file because I figured one day that I would need it again. You want to hear some of the things they said they worry about? No? All right.

I could make the sermon a lot shorter if I skip this now. Okay, let me tell you some of the things that showed up. What are some of the things you worry about?

Ready? First one, money. And they didn't mean that they were going to have too much of it.

You know what I'm trying to say here? Money. Here's some others. Losing your husband or your child or some loved one in death. That was something else they worried about. Failing at work and having the boss yell at you. Getting up and speaking in front of people. A lot of people worry about that. Becoming disabled and having to be put in a nursing home. Now, why would people 25 years old be worried about something like that?

I don't know. They said they were worried about having babies and having to go through labor. Hey, ladies, don't worry about that. I've been through it four times with Brenda. Piece of cake.

Don't worry about it. Making bad decisions and really screwing up their life. Letting God down in their lives. Some of them worried about flying. You ever worry about flying? Are you a member of the white knuckle club? My wife is.

Especially when she flies with me. Here's one. Bugs.

That was on there. Worried about bugs. Heights.

People worried about heights. The question we ask is what do people worry about? The answer is just about everything.

You got it. Just about everything. Now, how are you going to beat this in your life?

How are you going to beat worry in your life? Well, Jesus gives us the answer right here in this passage. You say, really? I didn't see it. It's here.

Maybe you didn't catch it. Watch. It's right in verse 28. If this is how God clothes the grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow is thrown in the fire, how much more will he clothe you? Here it comes.

O you of little what? Faith. Aha.

Aha. What's the solution to worry? Faith. Faith.

Right. What's the solution to fear? Faith.

That's right. Jesus says that worry comes from unbelief. Worry comes from unbelief. And you can be sure if you're worrying and you're fretting, you're not really believing God. And if you're really believing God and you're really trusting God, you won't be worrying and you won't be fretting.

So how do we beat worry in our lives? We beat it with faith. You say, well, Lon, faith in what? Well, faith in an all-sufficient God. A God who's engaged in his creation down to the level of the sparrows. A God who's in control of his creation down to the level of the sparrows. A God who's interested in his creation down to the level of the sparrows. And a God who has promised every Christian his presence, his power, his provision, his protection, his partnership, his peace, and his providential control of every detail that comes into our life. Friends, light and darkness cannot exist in the same space at the same time. And this kind of faith in this kind of God cannot exist along with worry in the same space at the same time.

They're mutually exclusive. If you're believing a God like this is running your life, you're not going to worry. And if you're worrying, then there's obviously a dip in your believing that a God like this is really running your life. How are we going to confront worry? We confront it with faith.

You say, yeah, but Lon, that's kind of kind of ethereal. I mean, I can't really kind of lock on to that. Help me lock on to this thing.

Okay, I'd like to do that. You know, I tell people, preachers are no good unless they tell people so what and how. If the preacher doesn't tell you so what and how, he's no good.

Forget him. So I've told you so what, now I'm going to try to tell you how. How can we lock on to this thing so that it works in our life?

Give me some handles, Lon. Give me some practical steps that make this work in my life, okay? In closing, let's do that. How are you going to fight worry with faith? Give me some practical steps. I got five.

Real quick. Number one, when you're there and you're getting ready to fret and you're getting ready to worry and you can just see that it's starting to cycle down, how are you going to fight it? Step one, remind yourself worrying doesn't do any good anyway.

Isn't that what Jesus said? Worrying doesn't do any good anyway. The only thing worrying will do is make you sick.

It may not lengthen your life, but it very well could shorten it. Corrie Ten Boom, the great woman of God said, worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles, it empties today of its strength. That's a great quote.

Listen to it again. Worry doesn't empty tomorrow of its trouble, doesn't change that, but it will empty today of its strength. Number one, remind yourself worry is not going to make any difference. Don't do it.

It makes no difference. Number two, remind yourself that God is in absolute control. That what's happening to you now, or what you're afraid of happening to you in the future, that it's not a matter of accident, that it's not a matter of fate, that whatever happens to you in the future will not be something where you're at the mercy of people or the mercy of circumstances. No way that God is involved and engaged and interested in his creation down to the level of the sparrows.

His eye is on the sparrow, his eye is on you, and he's got your whole life in his hand. It's all part of the master plan. God is in control. You're not the victim of circumstances or people or fate or accidents or anything else. God is running the show. Third, make the decision that you're going to trust God.

Okay? Remind yourself that worrying doesn't do any good. Remind yourself God's in control and running your life according to the master plan. Third, you've got to make a decision. Am I going to trust God or not?

I'm saying you want to beat worry in your life. You have to make a decision. I'm going to trust God. I may not understand how he's running my life. I may not like how he's running my life.

I may not be able to figure it out. I may not even agree with what he's doing in my life, but I'm going to trust him. I'm going to trust him that all of this is working out according to his plan and for my benefit. Peace comes to the Christian who trusts.

Fourth, if you're ready to trust God, then lay your burdens down at the foot of the cross. I had some people come up after the last service and say, what does that really mean? Does that mean like the same thing as taking them and kind of just giving them to God? Same thing.

Same thing. Take them and visualize your burdens as a box or visualize your burdens as a bowling ball or visualize it as a backpack that you're carrying on your back that's causing you to bend over and stoop over under the weight and take it to the foot of the cross, put that bowling ball down, put that box down, take that backpack off and lay it there and say God, I can't carry this stuff no more. That's too much for me. I'm going to leave it right here and let you deal with it God. I want to exchange it for the peace of God. You take the bowling ball, give me the peace of God. You take the backpack, give me the peace of God. And friend, when you do this, the issue is surrendering control.

You understand that? This is what has to happen at the foot of the cross. Surrendering control. Surrendering our own way and our own will which is clearly not what's best or God would have done it your way. But you know the gap G-A-P, the gap between the way we want it to be and the way God knows it needs to be, that gap in between is where worry lives.

Have you learned that? It's like a spiritual petri dish in between those two poles where worry breathes and it spawns and it grows and if you want to get rid of worry in your life, you've got to close that gap. Get rid of it.

How do you do it? You do it on your knees in an attitude of surrender at the foot of the cross where you lay your burdens down and give them to God and exchange them for the peace of God. The Bible says that if we will do that, we will get the peace of God, Philippians chapter 4, that passes all understanding. God's willing to trade you. Your bowling balls for his peace.

He's willing to trade you. Your backpacks for his peace. All you got to do is go to the foot of the cross in an attitude of surrender and say, God, I'm here to trade. My problems, my burdens for the peace of God.

Fifth and finally, once you've laid your burdens at the foot of the cross what? Leave them there. Leave them there.

Far too many of us as Christians play this game. You know this game? Lay it down, pick it up. Lay it down, pick it up. Lay it down, pick it up.

Lay it down, pick it up. You know that game? It's a miserable game. If they boxed it and put it on the market at Toys R Us, it would never sell. Nobody would buy that game.

It's a terrible game. Lay it down, pick it up. Lay it down, pick it up. And that's what we do. We take our things to God. We lay them down. Five minutes later, there we are again, ready to pick it up. We fight all day long and finally lay it down one more time. Ten minutes later, we're back, picking it up again. We lay the backpack down, pick it up. Lay the bowling ball down, pick it up.

What a terrible game. God's ready to stop if you are. God's ready to stop if you are. I had a lady call me on the phone. I was talking to her and she said, I've got terrible problems.

I had terrible burdens. And I said, well, what you need to do is visualize them like a big old backpack on your back. Take them to the foot of the cross. Take the backpack off. Lay it down.

Trade it for the piece of cotton. She said, Lon, I do that all the time. And then I come right back by. On the next round, I go around the circle. Next time around, I reach out and pick up the backpack and put it on my back again. She said, I can't stop doing that.

I said, okay, I've got a suggestion for you. The next time you go, go get on your knees and visualize that backpack, okay? And when you take it off, don't just lay it at the foot of the cross, but visualize yourself taking a hammer and the biggest nails you can find out of your pocket and nailing that backpack to the cross. Don't just lay it down. Nail that thing to the cross and put as many nails in it as you can get, all right?

And the next time you come by, just remind yourself you don't own a crowbar. She said, oh, that sounds profound. Actually, I just thought of it. But anyway, she said, I'll try it. She called me back about a week later and she said, it's amazing.

It's great. She said, I even wrote a little tiny card called, I don't have a crowbar. And I keep it right where I pray. And every time I pray, I look at this little thing and I go, that's right. I don't have a crowbar. I don't know. I'm probably not going to win any award with that, but it works.

And it'll work for you. Friends, you don't have a crowbar. You don't need a crowbar. You don't want a crowbar. Nail those things to the cross with the biggest nail you can find and then write a big old sign on the top that says, no crowbars allowed. I had one guy come up after second service said, well, Lon, I still try to peel it off with my fingers. Well, you can try, but you won't get those nails out with your fingers. Don't let yourself try. The point is, when we lay it down and we give it to God, leave it there.

Leave it there. You can't carry those burdens. They'll kill you.

They will kill you. And I love what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 11. He said, come to me, all you who are labored down and heavy burdened, he said, and I'll give you rest.

You'll find peace for your soul. Now listen to what he said. He said, for my burden is light and my yoke is easy.

You know what he was saying? He was saying there's a lot of problems that come our way that are too much for your shoulders to carry. You can't carry them. But he's got big shoulders, bigger shoulders than anything you ever thought or dreamed of. He can carry them for you.

So he's inviting you to come and give them to a set of shoulders who's big enough to really carry them because yours aren't. They'll kill you. You know, my little girl has epilepsy and I don't know what the future holds for her. She's two years old and many times I allow myself to begin thinking, well, I wonder what the future holds. I wonder if she'll ever be able to go to school. I wonder if she'll ever be able to hold a job. I wonder if she'll ever be able to earn a living. I wonder if she'll ever marry. I wonder after I'm dead who'll take care of her. I'll tell you something, that is a guaranteed formula for spiritual disaster, what I just laid out for you.

I can't deal with that burden. I'm telling you within a matter of a few seconds, I have spiraled down so bad that I'm in bad, bad shape. And what I've got to do is take those things and where have I got to take them, friend? Huh?

Where? You tell me. To the foot of the cross. And what have I got to do? I've got to nail them right in, right? I can't carry that burden. There's no way I can deal with that. It'll kill me. My shoulders aren't big enough to carry that kind of weight. I've got to leave that with God.

And you know what? There's a lot of things in your life that if you try to carry them on your shoulders they'll kill you. They'll sap all the joy out of your life. They'll sap all of the vitality out of your spiritual walk.

They will destroy your life. Isn't it neat that God made a way? You don't have to carry them. That's what knowing Jesus Christ in a real and personal way is all about.

Is you've got access to the foot of the cross. The rest of the world doesn't. But you do. So use it. Use it.

Take advantage of it. Take all those bowling balls and backpacks that you've got and go take them and leave them there. Let the bottom of the cross for you look like the biggest junk pile you ever saw. With all of the junk in your life just pile it up down there. And let God give you the peace of God that passes understanding.

It'll work. It'll make you a happier person and it'll make you a better representative for Jesus Christ as the world watches your life. Let's bow together and pray. I want to give you just a moment of silence. I suspect there's probably a lot of us here who've got all kinds of burdens and problems that we're carrying. And I suspect that maybe some of us this morning need to take them and deposit them at the foot of the cross.

Nail them there. So if that's you and you need to do that, then let's give you a moment of silence and give you a chance to do it. Heavenly Father, I'm so grateful that your eyes on the sparrow and we know as Christians that you're watching us. Lord forgive us for the many, many times that we allow ourselves to be consumed with worry and fear. Forgive us for the many times we allow our life to spiral down and unravel.

We lose all our joy and all our resiliency because we're worried about things we have no business worrying about. Forgive us Lord for the many times we let our lives be a very poor picture to the rest of the world of what a Christian ought to be because we let ourselves get caught up in fretting. I pray this morning you would remind us dear Lord that there's another way to live that you have for us as Christians, a better way that will make us happier, make people around us happier and allow you to use our life more significantly to draw people to Christ. Lord I pray that you would teach us these little simple steps where we can convert our burdens into the peace of God in our life. Thank you that you love us so much that you made a way for us to make that transaction and I pray Lord that we would not be so foolish that we wouldn't take advantage of it each and every day. Father I pray you change the way we live because of our being here and being in contact with you and the word of God today and we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. ... ... ... ... ... ...