Delivery from Worry Fear and Anxiety

Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. For thou art the God of my strength. Why hast thou rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Oh, send out thy light and thy truth.

Let them lead me. Let them bring me to thy holy hill. That's where we are tonight.

We're at his holy hill. And to thy dwelling places. Then I will go to the altar of God.

To God my exceeding joy. And upon the lyre I shall praise thee. Oh God, my God.

Why are you in despair, oh my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him. The help of my countenance and my God. Shall we pray? Our Father, we thank you that we now can come before the table of the Word.

And we thank you that you have so abundantly blessed us in the Word. And open it to us, Lord. Bring it down into the very center of our lives.

Into those areas that we will see its work. And the very minute details of our lives. That you can speak to our needs tonight.

Bless your people. Give us ears to hear. Anoint thy servant, I pray.

In Jesus' name. And everybody said amen. Amen.

You know, a modern parable might go like this. Worry is like a seed. If you plant it and it's allowed to grow, it will become fear.

Fear, when nourished, becomes anxiety. And anxiety, if it's not cut down, if it's not cashed down, will grow into a monstrous torment. Or let me put it another way.

Let's suppose that these three things, worry, fear, and anxiety, are like brothers or sisters. Worry would be the child. Fear would be the adolescent.

And anxiety would be the adult. You're familiar with a scripture that says, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Well, so it is with the emotions and the attitudes and the feelings of worry, fear, and anxiety. When worry is allowed to be conceived, it brings forth spiritual death. Or when fear and anxiety are finished with us, and if they're allowed to be fully developed, if they're allowed to be fully nurtured within us, the result is that we are shot off from the presence of the Lord.

Mentally, physically, and spiritually, worry and fear is dangerous to our well-being. Mentally, we can't think right. We can't act right.

We can't do right. We're going to see a man of God in the Bible who did a crazy thing because of fear. The hospitals, the mental institutions, the health care services of our society are overburdened trying to reach out to people who are obsessed by their worries and by their fears and their anxieties that they don't know what to do with them.

They don't know where to take them. And as a result, it unleashes in them a torment that leads to suicide in some cases or medication or they have to put them on medication or whatever. And did you know that physically worry and fear can take its toll upon your body when you have fears or worries that it secretes acids in your stomach that is injurious to your health? Now, worry, fear, and anxiety is not befitting to a trusting child of God.

When a Christian worries, he's living in the wrong climate because any kind of worry is foreign to our life in Christ. These attitudes are contrary to what the master said at one time. He said, In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in me peace.

Now, none of us are immune from an occasional worry or fear. I would be less than honest with you if I said to you that I never worry or I'm never uneasy about certain things or certain situations in my life. I am, and I do.

Now, I'm not talking now about healthy kinds of fears. There is a certain kind of healthy fear. I feared across the street against the light and in New York even with a light.

I fear anymore getting into a cab since I've been taking a few cab rides since we've been here in Manhattan. I fear that. I fear when on an airplane, it gets into air turbulence.

I fear. I don't fear that it's my time, but I fear that maybe it's the potty's time. The most fearful ride I ever had in my life was riding with a missionary in South Africa, driving like a madman, three preachers in the back, and I want to tell you, next to me was Ralph Wilkerson, who's not a relative, but he's a preacher in California, and he was praying in tongues and he was pleading the blood of Jesus and everything.

I've never been more scared in all my life. But I'm not talking about healthy kinds of fear, or I'm not talking about an occasional worry, but I am speaking tonight about and against paralyzing thoughts. I'm talking about living in a state of worry and fear, being a worrywart, if you please, and living in such anxiety that we are closed off from the presence and the peace of God.

Psalms 37 and 8, David quoted it Sunday night. It says, Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Threat not thyself in any wise to do evil.

And the word threat is the biblical word for worry, and literally its root comes from, you know where its root comes from? It comes from hot wax. And what it literally means that when you fret, you get all worked up. You get all hot under the collar as it were.

It's like hot wax. And you know what they do with hot wax? They take it and they manufacture things. And that's what happens with worry.

We begin to manufacture things that are just wax. There's nothing to them. You just knock them down.

There's nothing to them, but they're real to us. We manufacture them out of the hotness or the warmness or the wax that's within us. And the scripture says there in Psalms that I just read to you, it says that we're not to worry in any wise because it leads to evil.

In other words, my friend, I want to show you tonight that worry is a sin. Over a dozen times, Jesus told his disciples and others, he said, fear not. And I realized as I studied this that Jesus was not only giving a promise, but he was making a command.

Psalms 53 and five refers to the people of God and it says this about them. There were they in great fear where no fear was. In other words, there was no need to fear.

Psalms 118 and six, you don't need to turn to it. I'll have you turn to some scriptures in a moment. But Psalms 118 and six says, the Lord is for me.

I will not fear. Oh, I like that. I like that.

The Lord is for me. I will not fear. Now I want you to look with me tonight at some biblical characters, some men of God who were beset or they had a lapse in their life of faith and they feared.

They worried, they feared, had anxiety. And we will see what worry and fear does even to the people of God, but yet it displeases the Lord and it ought not to characterize a child of God who is walking in faith and obedience to the Lord. Turn with me if you will to first, the Old Testament to first Kings chapter 19.

First Kings chapter 19. And while you're turning there, if you continue to listen to me and let me ask you this question. Have you ever had a time in your life when you said to yourself, that's it, I've had it.

I have had it. That's enough. I can't take it anymore.

Now, if any of you had, you don't have to raise your hand, but you know, nod or do something. If you had a time like that. Well, there was a preacher like that.

His name is Elijah. And I want you to read about it with me in the 19th chapter of first Kings. It says, Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with a sword.

Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, So may the gods do to me and even more if I do not make your life as the life of one of them prophets that you just killed by tomorrow about this time. I mean, she put a contract out on Elijah. And verse 3, And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Bathsheba, which belongs to Judah and left his servant there.

And he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree and he requested for himself that he might die. And he said, it's enough now. It's enough now.

In other words, I've had it. He's telling the Lord, he said, God, I've had it enough of this. It is enough now.

Oh Lord, take my life for I am, am I not better than my father? My fathers have gone on to their reward in their grave. Lord favor me. Let me go with my father.

Let me go into the grave. I've had it. I suppose that's a form of Christian suicide.

I don't know. But let me ask you, can you identify with Elijah? Well, if so, welcome to what I call the juniper club. You see the juniper club meets under the juniper tree.

And what takes place there are lavish parties, lavish parties under the juniper tree. And there's only one person there and it's a pity party. And the only trouble with a pity party is that you're the only one there.

And if you've got worries and fears and distress, then you ain't a lot of fun to be with, even with yourself when you're in that state. And that's the way Elijah was. In fact, when you throw a pity party, occasionally you will find other people who will party with you.

But you may as well not be with them because they're going to be so engrossed in their own feelings and thoughts and worries that they're not going to help you any. And so you're each going to be there throwing your own personal pity party, worry. Now the juniper tree is made up of Christians like Elijah who are battle weary.

They physically and mentally and emotionally and spiritually are drained. Oh, they know that God is alive. They know that he's real.

They know that he's powerful. They have not backslidden, but they think that he sometimes goes on vacations, especially when they're in trouble, and he ignores their needs, and sometimes he doesn't answer phone calls when they try to reach him. And this was exactly the case with Elijah.

Now consider this, that Elijah had just come out of a great evangelistic crusade. And in that crusade, he had been challenged by the most popular cult of the day. In fact, 450 prophets from the New Age movement came, the New Age movement of that day, and came to challenge Elijah, and he withstood them, and God was faithful to them.

And you know what happened to those 450 prophets? They were slain in the Spirit. I mean, they were slain by the Spirit. They were laid out, killed, dead.

And listen to what the Scripture said. And when all the people at the crusade saw it, they fell on their faces, and they said, The Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God.

Now my friend, if you were Elijah and you had experienced that, wouldn't you come away with that, with a great testimony? Wouldn't it seem like you would be ready for the next great battle or spiritual warfare and go at it with great enthusiasm? But that did not happen to Elijah. Instead, he is spiritually and physically and mentally drained. And the threatening words of one woman, think of it, one woman's words presented a threat to him, and he runs away, and he hides, and he goes into a state of depression.

Now please follow me. Elijah's journey into the wilderness and the state of mind that we find him in under the juniper tree is not unlike what Christians experience today. You see, Elijah's fear was brought on because he mistakenly believed that wicked men or women could have the upper hand.

Let me say it again. He mistakenly believed that wicked men could get the upper hand with the people of God. Elijah forgot what we so often forget.

Psalms 37 and 1 says, fret not, worry not thyself because of evildoers, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither like the green herb. In verse 10, for yet a little while, yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be. Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall not be.

Consider his place. But think of Elijah again. He boldly faces 450 satanic prophets.

He challenges the king, and yet a threat from Jezebel causes him to run away and throw a pity party. Why? Because he did not consider the place of the wicked in relationship to the place of the child of God. Elijah worried that evil persons might get the upper hand.

Now if there ever was a place, New York City, and if there ever was a time when it appears that wicked men and women are getting their way and getting away with their schemes, it is now. I flip over the paper today and I see a woman who had shot her husband She spent 75 hours in prison and she's out and her husband complains and said, I spent more time in the hospital than she did in prison. And it would appear in our court system and everywhere we look that wicked people have the upper hand.

And seemingly the scoreboard reads sinners 99 and saints 1. But I want to tell you my friend what that 1 represents. That 1 represents the cross of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah.

There was a man, a famous ball player, Yankee, in this city who made a statement I thought about today and when you put it in a biblical context it makes sense. Yogi Berra said, It ain't over until it's over. And what God says all through the word of God, you put that in a biblical context, my friend, it ain't over until it's over.

Hallelujah. God is in control. Neither be thou envious against the worker of iniquity.

For evil doers shall be cut off. But those that wait upon the Lord they shall inherit the earth. Hallelujah.

There's another place in Psalms, I don't have time to get into it, it says whenever you think about all of the wealthy men it says they don't have enough money to redeem themselves. They don't have enough money to redeem themselves. Now Elijah's fear was even deeper.

He believed that something evil was about to do him in. And he said, It's enough now, Lord. Lord, you take my life so I won't have to suffer the humiliation of this Jezebel doing me in.

God, you do it before she does it. Now let me ask you tonight, does the devil ever get you on the run like this? You fear something terrible. Something awful is going to happen and you're going to be destroyed or bedridden or hospitalized or immobilized.

I know people, and Brother Dave spoke about it Sunday night, who have the fear of poverty. People who fear cancer. Some who are fearing AIDS today.

Others who have a fear of losing their mind. Some who have a fear that something that happened in their family line, something very terrible, something very bad, and they live with a fear that maybe someday that same ailment or that same problem is going to overtake them. There's a fear of losing one's maid or the fear of losing one's child or losing one's loved one.

The point is this. Name something good and Satan will come like a Jezebel to the man of God and will say to you, ha, ha, tomorrow or next week or next year, about this time I'm going to do you in. And note what she said who was going to do it.

She said, so let the gods do to you. She was not speaking about the God of Elijah. In other words, Satan was using that woman as a tool to come to a man of God or a woman of God, especially after you've experienced a great victory as Elijah did on Mount Carmel.

And then the devil will come and he'll use any tool possible to destroy you and put worries and fears and depression upon you in order to break your relationship with him. We need to recognize what's behind our worries. Now, let me tell you about another man of God.

Go with me to 1 Samuel 21. David, the worried warrior. David, the worried warrior.

1 Samuel chapter 21 and verse 10. It says, Then David arose and fled that day from Saul. I think that King James uses the word fear.

He fled in fear from Saul. And he went to Achish, king of Gath. Now, I want to show you in this, and keep your Bibles open right there.

We're going to follow a few more verses here, but I want you to see that David in this incident, in this account, David's behavior at Gath and before the king is a type of a believer who changes his normal Christian behavior because of the fear of man. Now, let's take a look at this. The situation with David is this.

He is fleeing from Saul. And this fear was a healthy fear. We can't fault David for fleeing from Saul.

His life was under attack. He rightfully had to seek refuge somewhere. And so we can't fault him for that.

But then he goes and he seeks sanctuary away from Saul by going down to Gath, which is a territory of the Philistines. And he does something there that is not befitting the conduct of a king. Look at verse 11.

It says, But the servants of Achish said to him, Is this not David, the king of the land? Did they not sing of this one as they danced, saying, Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands? You see, what happened, David didn't think he was going to be recognized for who he was. But some of the king's servants recognized him and said, Oh, this is David, the giant killer. In fact, they sang the number one hit tune on the parade at that time.

That was the hit tune all around. Saul has slain his thousands, but David his tens of thousands, which was a testimony to the power of God working through his life. And so David hears this.

And when they found out who he was, the giant killer, he should have been encouraged, but instead he was discouraged. And the fact that the Lord had given David power over Goliath should have given him faith that this king would not harm him. But instead David is gripped with the fear of a man.

And so he resorts to trickery and fakery and deception and he acts like a madman. Look at verse 13 or verse 12. And David took these words to heart, these words that they talked about him.

Instead of encouraging him, they overwhelmed him, they gripped him with fear. And David took these words to heart and greatly feared Achish king of Gath. So he disguised his sanity before them and acted insanely in their hands and scribbled on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down into his beard.

What a sad picture of a man driven, a man of God driven by the fear of a man. David becomes a graffiti writer on the walls of Gath. He acts like he's on crack or LSD or an escapee from Bellevue.

He disguised his, before the acted insanely, look at it again. He scribbled on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down his beard. You see, the point is this.

The fear of man distorts godly behavior. David put on another face because he feared man. And how stupid and foolish and silly we sometimes act when we fear what others will think about us or we're worried what someone else may say about us.

And the fear of man, you see, leads to a distorted witness of our faith. It leads to ungodly behavior. It leads to compromise.

It leads to a distorted witness. And you see, there are Christians who fear man. And they're the kind of Christians that when they're with the Christian crowd, they put on the Christian face.

And when they're with the other crowd, they write on graffiti walls. They laugh at the jokes. They act insane just like the rest of the world because of the fear of standing up for your testimony before the Lord.

But it's even deeper than that. There are Christians who will come to a church like this where we believe in righteousness and holiness. And then they'll turn around and go to another church that is compromising the message.

And because they fear man, they won't say anything. They won't do anything. Proverbs 29 and 25 says, the fear of man brings a snare.

Listen, I know men who are pastors who are leaders in their denomination, but because they fear a man over them or they fear their denomination, they'll go along with certain things and you sit down with them personally and they say, well, I don't agree with that. But they don't have the courage to stand up because they fear a man. There are pastors who are afraid to preach the truth.

Pastors who will say, yes, we believe in your message, but don't ask me to preach it in my church. Fear of man. I quoted Psalms 118.6 before.

I didn't finish it. It says, the Lord is for me. I will not fear.

What can man do for me? Excuse me. What can man do to me? It says. I was just trying to see if you were alert.

The Lord is for me. I will not fear. What can man do to me? God before us.

I don't care who's against us. Go with me to Genesis chapter 12. Let's look at Abraham.

He's young in the faith. And here we see the worried, anxious husband. Did I say Genesis? Yeah, Genesis chapter 12.

Beginning at verse 11 or verse 10. Since there was a famine in the land, and so Abraham went down to Egypt to sojourn there for the famine was severe in the land. It came about when he came near to Egypt that he said to his wife, see now, I know that you are a beautiful woman.

And it will come about that when the Egyptians see you that they will say, this is my wife and they will kill me, but they will let you live. Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you that I may live on account of you. And it came about when Abraham came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful and Pharaoh's officers saw her and praised her to Pharaoh and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.

Therefore, he treated Abraham well for her sake and gave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels. But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. And Pharaoh called Abraham and said, what is this that you've done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say she is my sister so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife, take her and go.

And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him and they escorted him away with his wife and all that belonged to him. Now, this is a type of the kind of needless, groundless worries and fears that very often overtake us, that have no basis in fact whatsoever. There was no reason for Abraham to subject his wife to this deception.

And as it turned out, when Pharaoh finds out if he had been the man that Abraham thought he would be when he uncovered the deception, my goodness, he would have taken Abraham's life right there and then. But he didn't. And there was no need for Abraham to do it.

It was a groundless fear. And how often do we perplex ourselves with fears that are altogether groundless. We fear where there is no basis to fear.

In our minds we often see rivers that are uncrossable where no river exists. We sometimes worry and think about coming into some famine when there is no famine. Or we're dodging darts that are never hurled.

And I want to say to you, quit burying yourselves in imaginary graves. You see, there are groundless fears, groundless worries. I remember when I was a little kid, my parents were taking me to Pittsburgh, Christmas shopping, and waited for weeks and weeks to go.

It started to rain, freezing rain, and we were driving almost near Pittsburgh, and all of a sudden a car came and swerved, and we could see it happening. It was all right there in front of us. We knew exactly we were going to crash.

And it came and it crashed into us, and fortunately nothing happened. But at the moment of the crash, right after the crash, my mother screams out. She said, I've lost my voice.

I've lost my voice. And you see, some of our worries make just as much sense as my mother worrying about, I've lost my voice, screaming out, I've lost my voice. And some of you sometimes, I've seen people come and say, I'm losing my mind.

Oh, my friend, if you have the presence of mind to think that you're losing your mind, you're not losing your mind. You see, we probably have more distresses from blows that never fall upon us than we do from those that actually come. In my own life, if all the things that I ever worried about came to pass, I wouldn't be here today.

You see, the rod of God does not smite us as sharply as the rod of our own imagination. Our needless fears are often our chief tormentors. Now, listen to me carefully.

The trouble with worry and fear is that when we see it and we think it's going to happen and it exists only in our minds, it's as if it actually exists, even though it only exists in our mind. Abraham was convinced that something terrible was going to happen to his wife, never mind that there was no ground for his fears. His mind created a situation that was not real, but he thought it was real, and so he suffered the same as if it was real.

And it's interesting to trace the word, the origin of the word worry. The Greeks thought of worry as something that tears a man in two and drags him in opposite directions. The Latin word for worry suggests a turbulent force.

I guess that's why I worry on an airplane. The Anglo-Saxon or Latin word for worry suggests a turbulent force responsible for turmoil within. And the Anglo-Saxon word is descriptive of a power gripping a man by the throat as a wolf seizes a sheep and strangles all the vitality out of it.

And you see, like Abraham, worry chokes. It chokes the life of faith. Now, very quickly, let me go back now and talk about these three men again on how can we be delivered from worry, fear, and anxiety.

Go back with me to the 19th chapter as very quickly I must move into this. Back at the 19th chapter of 1 Kings, Elijah had a supernatural visit from God. And among other things, he came and he gave him angel food.

Verse 5, chapter 19, And he laid down and slept under a juniper tree. And behold, there was an angel touching him. And he said to him, Arise and eat.

And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, Arise, eat, because a journey is too great for you.

So he arose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food for 40 days and 40 nights and horrored the mount of God. And then he came there to a cave and lodged there. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him.

My friend, if you are beset by worry and fear, the first thing you need to do is start questioning your fears. The Spirit of the Lord would say to you, as he said, look at verse 9, And when he came there to the cave and lodged there, behold, the word of the Lord came. And when the first thing, when the word of the Lord comes to you, you begin to question your fears.

And the Spirit of the Lord will say to you, What are you doing there in that state? Get into the word and it will rebuke your fears and your worries. Somebody has said, feed your faith and your doubts and fears will starve to death. And believe me, my friend, as you make it a regular diet and practice of getting into the word, if it be in this church or it be on your own, you get into it.

And believe me, as the Course says, turn your eyes upon Jesus and look full in his wonderful face and the things of this world, the anxieties of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and his grace. Hallelujah. Elijah spent 40 days and 40 nights on the Mount of God.

And I just think what might have been the word of the Lord that came to him. Here's just a few samples. Psalms 27, 1 to 3, if you want to turn there.

Psalms 27, it says, The Lord is my light and salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life. Whom shall I dread? When evildoers come upon me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and my enemies, they stumble and fail.

Though a host encamp against me, my heart will not fear. Though war rise against me, in spite of this, I shall be confident. Hallelujah.

Then in Psalms 35, Psalms 35, Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me. Take hold of buckler and shield and rise up for my help.

Draw also the spear and the battle axe to meet those who pursue me. Say to my soul, I am your salvation. Let those be ashamed and dishonored who seek my life.

Let those be turned back and humiliated who devise evil against me. You see what David should have done. All David had to do was to look at his sword.

You know, when he went down to Gath, he was carrying the sword of Goliath. And that sword was a trophy of the grace of God, who in the power of one swing did something mighty for him. You see, David was overcome by fear of man because he lost sight of the faithfulness of God.

David, who with one small stone killed the giant because God was a power behind it, yet he's afraid of one man his own size. And the sword that he carried in his hand should have reminded him of the faithfulness of the Lord and the fact that God says, you know in his word, God says that we are not to fear man, but man has to fear us. The Bible promises that.

He said, man has to fear us. God promised Israel after they crossed the Red Sea that they're enemies. He said, we'll be afraid of you.

And it's very clearly taught in the scripture that no one is to fear man, but man who is outside of God must fear us. In the last days, it says, men's hearts will fail them because of fear. Here's another Psalm.

In God whose word I praise, in God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me? Timothy said, for God hath not given us a spirit of timidity or fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Hallelujah.

And then what about Abraham? You see, Abraham had not learned to trust God with the daily cares of life. You're familiar with the scripture, Matthew 6, 34. Don't need to turn to it.

Let me read it to you. Therefore, do not be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

You know, at the University of Wisconsin, they took a survey on worry, about the things we worry about. And here was their outcome. Here was their finding.

40% of what we worry about never happened. 30% of the things that happened couldn't be changed by all the worry in the world. 10% are petty worries.

12% are health worries. 8% are real legitimate worries. Jesus said, and which of you, by being anxious, can add a single cubit to his lifespan? Or you know, you might put that another way.

You look at your finances or you look at your bills at home. Have you ever, by thinking about your bills or thinking and worrying, been able to add one dollar to your bank account? That's the same principle of it. Jesus said, who, which of you, by being anxious, can add a single cubit to his lifespan? Has worry ever made you healthier? Jesus spoke of the person upon whom the seed of the Word is sown, but it never produces salvation.

This is what he said. This is the man who hears the Word and the worry of the world chokes the Word and it becomes unfruitful. And the word that Jesus used for choke means vision or distraction, something irritating the mind and consequently throwing one's true perspective out of focus.

You see, when we carry the burden of worry, I want you to know that it's a burden of your own choosing. God didn't place it there for you. Jesus said, and let me close with it.

Jesus said, we are not to carry our burdens, but we are to cast them. First Peter five and seven says, casting all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you. Paul said, don't give place to the devil.

And I realized as I was studying this, that when I worry or that when you worry, you give place to the devil. You give him a room, you give him a place to sit in your mind. And a worried saint contradicts the truth that our sufficiency is in Christ Jesus.

It damages the reputation of God as our father who really cares about his children. My parents, how would you feel if after you served your children a meal, they would turn to you and say, when's our next meal? Are you really gonna put another meal on the table for us? Or what if my daughter who goes off to school every morning and said to me, my wife and I in the morning, are you gonna be here when I come home? I mean, are you really gonna be here? Are you gonna still live at this house? And what must be the feelings of our God who has promised to meet our needs according to his riches in glory? And yet we as children give way to unchristian anxiety. Isaiah said, thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusts in thee.

Hallelujah. Let me give you one more illustration. Turn with me very quickly.

Luke or Matthew chapter four. You know the story. Jesus sends his disciples out on a boat and he's with them.

And this is Mark chapter four. He said, let's go to the other side. And leaving the multitude, he took him along with them just as he was in the boat and other boats also with him.

And there arose a fierce gale of wind and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. And he himself was in the stern asleep on the cushion. Jesus wasn't worried about the storm, but and they awoke him and said to him, dear teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Now, listen to me.

If they said that to him when he was awoke, imagine what they must have said and must have felt when he was asleep. The very kinds of thoughts that we often get when we are going through our storm and we're saying, where is he? He's sleeping. I can just hear the disciples saying, now look at him, he's sleeping.

Verse 39, in being aroused, he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, hush, be still. I believe King James says, peace, peace, be still. And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.

Listen, my friend, I'd rather be in a rocky boat with a calm captain than in a calm boat with a rocky captain. Jesus was asleep because he had everything under control. And so he does in your life, cast your fears, cast your worries before him.

And he wants to speak to some of those tonight in this auditorium.