In the sermon 'A Cure for Anxiety' by Jeffrey D. Johnson, the speaker discusses the increasing anxiety and fear in the world since 2020 due to events like COVID and political climate. He reminds us that the Bible commands us not to be afraid and suggests two things to cure anxiety: humbling ourselves under God's mighty hand and casting our cares on Him. By humbling ourselves, we submit to God's sovereignty in our lives, trusting that He will exalt us in due time. Casting our cares on God means truly letting go of our anxieties and trusting Him to take care of us, just as He cares for the lilies of the valley.

The first thing I want to say is I don't know what 10 minutes is. My name is Jeff Johnson. I'm from Arkansas. And you know, The thing that's been troubling to me for the last two years since 2020, it seems like in 2020, our country, the world has fallen off a cliff. Something changed in 2020, I don't know what it is.

COVID and just the political climate, It got where we couldn't trust anybody. Can't trust the news, can't trust the government, can't trust maybe even the FBI, can't trust anyone anymore. Troubling days that we live in, it's made us appreciate the church all the more, it's made us appreciate the truth all the more, but such troubling days leads us to be anxious and fearful. I know if you have children you can't help but think, what are they facing? You can't help but wonder about the future for them.

You've got grandkids, and it's scary. It's easy to be filled with fear. But I wanna remind all of us, remind myself, that we're commanded not to be afraid. 360 something times in the Bible it says fear not. It's a sin to be anxious.

There's no excuse for it. We are anxious at times. But we can't go, well, it makes sense. We have a reason to be anxious. Let me tell you what anxiety is.

It's the feeling that we have of frustration when we realize we're not God. We have this false assumption as long as we can predict the future that all is well. It's when we can't predict the future that we get scared. When we don't know tomorrow, we get frightened. And that's when anxiety kicks in or concern.

But all it is, anxiety is, is a lack of trust. And if you have your Bible, I just want to point out two things real quickly. I think this is one of my favorite verses. I used to say it's my favorite verse. I can't for sure say it's that now, but it's definitely up in my top two or three favorite passages.

1 Peter 5, verse 6 and 7. And it's really kind of a cure, two things to do to cure your anxiety, especially as you think about tomorrow. Two things. First thing, according to verse 6, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you. Tomorrow he's gonna exalt you at the proper time.

Whatever that means, he's gonna bless you. What if I could tell you with certainty, no matter what you're facing right now, no matter what you're worried about, if it's a bill or if it's spending money that you may not think that you can afford, whatever it may be about your kids, your grandkids, what if I could tell you with certainty it all ends well? It's going to be fine. What if I could tell you with certainty that it's going to end well? But the reason you mistrust that is because right now, there are circumstances you're fighting against.

There's things in your life you don't like. I don't like, I wish I could change, but I can't change it. The first thing you must do is be humble. You're not God. This is not your world to control.

This is not your life to dictate. You have to humble yourself. And here you have the imagery of God. He's got this mighty hand. It's a sovereign hand.

And you can fight all you want. You can squirm, you can wiggle, you can be anxious. You can fight the mighty hand of God all you want, but you can't bulge, move, change that hand. Whatever the mighty hand of God is doing, he's going to do. If you like it or not, he's in control of every circumstances of your life.

Now you can fight, but the key is submitting. Humble yourself. Just, God, you know best. I don't like this, but you know best. I'm not you, you're wiser than I am.

I have to humble myself under this mighty hand of God. But he gives you his promise. You will be okay. I will exalt you in due time. I will take care of you in due time.

So that kind of leads like, humble yourself, and then trust God. Trust Him with your life. Trust that mighty hand of God who's controlling every aspect that you're going through. But there's more than just humbling yourself, trusting in God. The thing you must do is cash your cares.

You have cares. The word cares here can be translated anxieties, things you're concerned about. And if you are honest with your conscience, you all have something, I have something that I'm worried about, I'm concerned about, something is dear to me, something I'm worried. I have four kids, I'm so concerned about their salvation, the three youngest ones. That's probably my biggest concern in my life.

What am I to do with that anxiety? I don't want them to go to hell. I don't want them to die. I don't want them to marry unbelievers and have a life of hardship, of sin. Worried about that, but what am I to do with that?

I'm to take the things I care about, my anxieties, and cast them. The problem is when we pray, we cast our prayers, our petitions, our concerns on God, but we pick them back up. We pray, then we go, okay, there you can have them, God, but after we pray, we wanna go put them back on and carry them with us. But it's part, reason we do that is we're just not trusting God. We're not truly casting them off.

I'll give you this quick illustration. When I was in college, my dad kept on saying, Jeff, you've got to get another job. I had this job, I had to travel everywhere and appraise houses. And it took me all over the state. He says, you're going to ruin your transmission.

Your car's on the last leg. You don't need to be doing all that traveling. Soon enough, he was right. My transmission went out. I'm a poor college student.

And for the next week, I had to borrow your car, walk to school, walk to college classes. And I was so anxious about calling my dad and what am I going to do? How am I going to get out of this? I don't have the money to fix my car. For two weeks I didn't call my dad, scared to death, worried.

Dad's going to say, I told you how that goes. Finally I broke down, I had no other choice. I said, Dad, you were right, my car's broke. And you know what he said? Huh, don't worry about that, son.

We already got money set aside for that. What else is going on with you? And it was like, what? For two weeks, what? And it was like the burden was lifted off of me and the next day I had to walk to school.

He didn't fix it the next day. In fact, it took another month. But I didn't have to carry it. I didn't have to go, is it going to be okay? Because my dad gave me his word.

He told me. It's like, that's sufficient. Now, do you believe God or do you not believe God? You know, you pray and you say, Lord, here it is. But you're like, well, do you need him to actually verbally tell you, I got you?

When he's got his word, he says, I'm going to exalt you in due time. I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to provide for you. All things are going to work well and good for your soul. I know what I'm doing.

Do you need a verbal, extra biblical verbal statement or can you just take his word for it? You know the reason I love this verse, and this is my last thought, I don't know if 10 minutes again this might be 15, I don't know, my last thought is is this. The reason you can cast your care upon a God who has a mighty hand is because that mighty hand knows how to take care of a delicate flower. The lilies of the valley he cares for. And I know you're a delicate, you have delicate emotions, you're fragile, you're weak, You're like a little wick that's sometimes feels like it's about to burn out.

But this mighty hand cares for you. The same word, cast your anxiety upon God, is the same word is that he is anxious for you. Now I know what it means to be anxious about my children because I love them so much. That's how God feels about you. No matter what you're going through, your God, this mighty God who has a mighty hand, is more worried about it than you are.

You can trust Him. One, He's sovereign. Two, He's delicate and He cares for us.