In the sermon 'Never Worry, Always Pray,' Jason Dohm explores Philippians 4:6-7, emphasizing Paul's call to shun anxiety and embrace prayer. The sermon outlines two key admonitions: to avoid worry and to turn to prayer in all situations. Dohm explains that prayer, particularly when paired with thanksgiving, serves as an antidote to anxiety, offering a peace from God that surpasses understanding. This peace is unique because it persists even amid external turmoil, guarding hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. The sermon encourages believers to lower their threshold for prayer, bringing even small concerns to God, and to recognize that worry can subtly accuse God of being unable or unwilling to care for them. The peace of God acts as a protective garrison against anxiety, highlighting the importance of prayer not just in desperate times but in everyday life. Dohm concludes with practical applications: repent of worry, lower the threshold for prayer, and actively seek God's peace, trusting in His faithful care.

Sermon text today is Philippians chapter 4 verses 6 and 7, but I'm going to start reading in verse 1. Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord beloved. I implore Eodia and I implore Syntaki to be of the same mind in the Lord and I urge you also true companion help these women who labored with me in the gospel with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice.

Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing. Button everything by prayer and supplication. With thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Let's pray.

Oh Lord God we thank you for this text and we thank you Lord for the privilege it is to now hear it preached. Lord, I pray that you would be with Jason, that you would strengthen him. Lord God, that you would help him as he brings this sermon to preach it with the full authority of scripture. Oh Lord God, please help us as the hearers to hear and to not be like the man who looks in the mirror and walks away and forgets. Lord, please help us as we hear this sermon.

I pray that you would be glorified by it. In Jesus' name, Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is, Never Be Anxious, Always Pray. And that really is a summary of what Paul was calling the Lord's people to. To shun anxiety.

And to embrace and cling to prayer. In the two verses before us this week, we have these two admonitions. There are things Paul wants from you. And then there's a promised blessing for obedience. If you obey these two admonitions, these things that Paul wants from you, then you will receive this blessing.

It's a wonderful blessing. Don't worry ever, And pray always. And if you'll obey that, God will bless you with peace that will guard your heart and mind. That's really all that's said in these two verses. So as we go to look at them under the microscope, let's ask for the Lord's help.

God, I pray that through these two verses and through the work of your Holy Spirit, you would put us to rest in you. Our hearts are prone to be filled with tumult, to be churned up with all the things that press on us from every side. But I pray God that you would change us into a people who bring everything to you. Minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, come and unburden ourselves at the throne of grace. We would come to you that we might find help.

We might find grace in time of need. Thank you for your Word. I thank you that this Word brings us face to face with things about ourselves that ought not to be so. So use your Word to press on us God. It's good.

We welcome it. We want to be a people who welcome the pressure that your word puts upon us to change and be different. Help us Lord to be different in Jesus name. Amen. So we have two verses.

We'll just be looking at them each verse by itself. So hopefully you are open to Philippians chapter 4 and you have your finger in the text. Follow along as I read verse 6 where Paul writes, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Here in verse 6 we have the antidote for anxiety, thankful prayer. So if you're taking notes on the handout and you're filling in blanks, it's antidote, Anti-antidote, and thankful.

The antidote for anxiety. Thankful prayer. Antidote is just a word that means a medicine given to counteract a particular poison. So if you get bit by a poisonous snake or a venomous snake and you go to the ER, they'll give you the antidote. It counteracts the venom.

And in this case, Paul is laying out a venom, a poison, and it's worry, it's anxiety, It's being anxious. And so he gives us the medicine that will counteract that. It's prayer. It's thankful prayer. Paul is contrasting two options.

We have to pick one. You have to pick an option here. You are choosing. Worry. So pressures come from the outside.

Don't they? They press in on us from the outside. And hear your options. Worry or prayer. So they stand in stark contrast and you pick one.

We are exhorted to never worry, but we are thankfully not left there. In other words, it's not don't worry period and he moves on to the next subject. That would sort of be cruel of Paul to do that. He tells you how not to worry because I think our experience shows it's hard not to worry. We have an inclination towards worry.

There's a reason that Paul is giving an exhortation here. He's not exhorting us about things that we don't have an inclination towards. He wouldn't use the room in a short letter if we didn't need it. So the point is we need it. Because he's talking about it, it's an indication that we need it.

We have an inclination towards worrying. And so he comes with an antidote for this poison. A medicine that we can take to counteract the poison of worry. He hasn't left us just with an admonition, don't worry, period. He's told us that prayer will counteract these anxieties that come from the pressures that are pressing in on us.

He has given us the way to hold ourselves back from worry. Prayer holds you back from worry. And worry has so many ways to seep into our hearts and minds. And so we are to pray without ceasing. We are to pray in everything.

If you don't pray without ceasing, if you don't pray in everything, then worry is going to find one of the gaps and seep in through the gap. We are given this way to hold ourselves back from worry. But we must think of it in these terms. This conquers that. This is what Paul is saying in verse 6.

Prayer conquers worry. So if you don't want to be conquered by worry, conquer worry. And how do you do that? By prayer. Prayer conquers worry.

Long before Paul, Jesus taught about worry, actually quite extensively in Matthew chapter 6. So turn to Matthew chapter 6. We're finding over and over again in the letters of Paul, he's really re-teaching Jesus, what Jesus says in the gospels. You can tell who instructed Paul. Jesus instructed Paul.

He helpfully unfolds what Jesus has taught. But at other times we find Jesus helpfully unfolding what Paul teaches. So is the case in Matthew chapter 6. It's actually an expansion of what Paul is teaching on worry. In Matthew chapter 6, I'm going to begin in verse 25 and read through the end of the chapter which is through verse 34.

Matthew 6 beginning of verse 25. Follow along. Jesus says, Therefore I say to you, Do not worry about your life. Now, I'm already stopping, I'm sorry. The reason why, even though it says, be anxious for nothing in Philippians 4, I'm feeling free to just substitute in worry, is that when Paul says, be anxious for nothing, be anxious, the Greek word that is being rendered be anxious is actually the same Greek word that is translated worry here in Matthew 6.

In Matthew chapter 6 we are going to see the word worry used 6 times. If you want to know what a text is about, look for the repetition of a word. This is a text about worry. Worry, worry, worry, worry, worry, worry, worry, worry. And it's the exact same Greek word, so this is what is in view.

This time I'll keep reading, starting in verse 25. Therefore I say to you, Do not worry 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? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them? Are you not of more value than they?

Which of you, by worrying, can add one cubit to his height, to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." So here you have a repeated argument from the lesser to the greater. He does this a couple of times in sequence. And he argues about really mundane things, sparrows and grass. And he's arguing if God cares faithfully for the sparrows, not even one of them falls to the ground without him knowing it.

He feeds them, He clothes them. If God cares faithfully for the sparrows, and they're less than you, Mankind is the crown of the creation of God. If he faithfully cares for the spares, of course he'll care for us. If God cares for the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow, it's gone and you don't even miss it, How much more will He care for us? According to Jesus, Christians who worry have lost sight of God's faithful care.

It's really an indictment of people who worry. Jesus is confronting us when we worry here. He is saying it is a sign of something, it is a sign that we have lost sight of God's faithful care. Worry is actually a subtle accusation against the willingness and or the ability of God to care for us faithfully. I'm going to say that again because this is key to what Jesus is teaching in Matthew 6 and Paul is teaching in Philippians chapter 4.

Worry is a subtle accusation. It's subtle in that you haven't necessarily intended it that way, but the implication of your worry is that God is either not willing to take faithful care of you, faithfully take care of you, or He is not able to faithfully care for you. Which of those propositions are you willing to make? Which of those propositions are you willing to make? Which of those propositions are you willing to stand behind?

I'm willing to stand behind this. God is not willingly, He is not willing to faithfully care for me. Willing to stand behind that proposition. None of us in our right mind are willing to stand behind that proposition. God is not able to faithfully care for me.

Nobody in his right mind, no Christian in his right mind is willing to stand behind that proposition. But That's the implication of our worrying. One or the other or both. He's not willing or he's not able or he's not willing or able to faithfully care for me. Our worry is making a declaration.

It is casting doubt on God's willingness and or ability to faithfully care for us. Which is not a small thing. It's also worth noting that the Lord's Prayer is earlier in the chapter. We read this long section about worry and how we shouldn't worry because God is both willing and able to faithfully care for us. Is he willing to faithfully care for us?

Well, Taylor took us to Romans 8. He sent his son. He sent his son. How will he not willingly also give us all things? If you need proof positive that God is willing to faithfully care for you, look to the cross.

It makes no sense that he would crush his son. He would be pleased to crush his son in order that you could be saved, but he's not willing to clothe or feed you. Hello? And ability. He's the God who made everything that we know.

He's given you every breath you've ever breathed. He's sustained you up to this point. What evidence do you have that He's not able to faithfully care for you? What witnesses are you going to call that say that God is not able, the one who raised Jesus from the dead, he has the same power at his disposal to care for me and you? So When we examine scripture and we examine our own histories, they both say the same thing.

God is abundantly willing to faithfully care for me. God is abundantly able to faithfully care for me. So My worrying doesn't make sense really. Neither does yours. Early in Matthew chapter 6 is the Lord's Prayer.

Jesus has already given the antidote by the time he starts talking about worry. He's already told us, just come to me, ask me for your daily bread, I'll give you your daily bread. Come to me, confess your sins, I'll forgive your sins. The things that make us worry, Jesus has already said, pray like this. Come, lay down your worries, bring them to me, I'll bear them.

Prayer is the way in which we keep sight of God's faithful care. Prayer is how we do it. We are prone to lose sight of his faithful care. So, how do we shake off that disposition to forget? Well, prayer, prayer, prayer.

It keeps it in view. God's faithful care is in view when we pray. Now, back to Philippians, chapter 4, verse 6. We are told how to let our requests be made known to God. How do you do that?

By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Prayer is simply coming to God to speak with him. That's what it is. I want to communicate with God And prayer is the vehicle for that. Supplication is a type of prayer, it's a subset of prayer, where we make requests.

Not all prayer is asking God for things. There's praise. There's confession of sin. There are many subcategories within prayer. Supplication is one of them.

It is making requests. Ask, seek, knock. These are supplications. So how do we let our requests be known to God? Through prayer we come to God to speak to Him and we ask, we seek, we knock.

Instead of being filled with anxiety about things, we are simply to go speak with God about them and ask Him. Don't be satisfied with, well, I just feel anxiety. I guess that's life. Jesus and Paul are telling us it does not have to be that way. It doesn't have to be, well, I have pressures so I feel anxiety and there is nothing to be done about that.

So I just bear up under it and deal with the anxiety. No, We are to go to God to speak with Him about these things that make us anxious, that cause us to worry, and to ask, to seek, and to knock. If you go ask Him for bread, He's not going to give you a stone. If you go ask him for a fish, he won't give you a serpent. Not even a human father does that.

God is so much more predisposed to give a favorable answer to His children when they come to Him with reasonable requests. Requests that are according to His will, His Word. In the speaking with God, this making of requests is to be mingled with thanksgiving. In other words, we ought to be weaving in something with those requests? Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving for what? You can't think of anything? Thanksgiving for what? Are you born again? Not a bad place to start?

Did you get your daily bread yesterday? How about the day before yesterday? How about last month, last year, last decade, every day of your life? Have you seen God in His beauty? It doesn't have to just be things that He's done in His faithful care for us.

There's plenty of blessings to count there. But certainly just what He's like would give you plenty to thank him for. It will not do for us to endlessly present new requests without acknowledging his goodness and faithfulness and kindness to us up until this very second." I think the parents in the room, I'm speaking to the parents in the room, I think we have experience with this. I think all of our children go through a period of time where they're learning about thankfulness, where it's just an endless series of requests. I thought that might be where I got the amen in the sermon.

Endless series of requests. No acknowledgement of the thousand things that have already been given and done in their favor and on their behalf. And at some point, the parent, to cause this disease, to cause learning to take place, shuts off the faucet. Until there's a level of acknowledgement of the thousand things that have been done in their favor on their behalf. We're going to shut off the faucet for a bit.

So that there's some perspective here on where we are. My willingness and my ability to do good to this child is not going to be called into question by a forgetfulness about the history of their life up until the second. God is not different in that respect. He expects us to have an acknowledgement and a memory of the history of our lives up until this second. And to not have lost sight of, Yes, the needs of the present are real needs.

He has beckoned us to bring them to Him. But we come with an acknowledgement that God has faithfully cared for us every second of our lives up until this second where we still have current needs. This is the added benefit of making us mindful of all those kindnesses that it's a worry killer. I'm speaking of thankfulness. The added benefit of thankfulness is that it is a worry killer.

It's due to God. So we should be thankful even if it wasn't a worry killer but there's an added benefit here. Thankfulness kills worry Because God's faithfulness up until this second is in view through our gratitude, our rightful gratitude. It's not made up, it's real. It's for real mercies.

And it kills worry and anxiety. The truth is God doesn't need prayer. He doesn't need prayer. We need prayer. We need prayer.

Matthew 6 just before the Lord's Prayer, the verses leading into it say that God knows what we need before we even ask Him for it. Prayer is not to inform God. In our text when it says, make your requests known to God, It's not saying that God is ignorant until you voice them to God. It is an invitation to come and unburden ourselves. We are really the beneficiaries here.

He already knew, but it gives us an opportunity to express our gratitude, and to come to Him acknowledging our dependence upon Him. God doesn't need us to pray, He already knows. But we need to pray very badly. Because it puts us in the state in which we need to be a state of dependence. We are dependent, but often we don't feel dependent, and we need to feel dependent.

Prayer does that for us. It is really a gift. It's a gift that brings us into thankfulness that we would neglect if we weren't praying. It brings us into a state of consciousness of dependence that we would neglect if we weren't praying. We need prayer.

Here's a question. For me to ask myself, and for you to ask yourself. Is prayer a desperate measure for desperate times? Well, yes. If we're in desperate times, prayer is the measure for desperate times.

But is it only? The nature of my question is, for you in your life, is prayer only a desperate measure for desperate times? Is it the last resort? No! Paul is teaching us that it should be the first resort in everything!

In everything. In everything, in everything. It cannot be that our view of prayer is that I handle things up to a certain threshold and then when it's really bad I call in the big guns and God is the big guns. I got my threshold. I can handle it, I can handle it, I can handle it, I'm almost out of time, I can't handle it, God help!

We're being taught against that. We're being taught against that in our text. We should consider the comprehensive language being used. Be anxious for nothing. There is no anxiety threshold here.

It's okay up to this point. Now pray. Be anxious for nothing. In everything make your request to God. There's no prayer threshold here.

There's no anxiety threshold. There's no prayer threshold. It rises my need until finally I pray. This is absent in the text. In fact, it is against what Paul is teaching in the text.

Verse 7. Lipians 4 verse 7, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Here in verse 7 we have the result, or the blessing that is promised. Heart and mind guarding peace. So if you are filling in blanks on the handout, heart, mind.

The result is heart and mind guarding Peace. This is what happens when we obey His command to speak to Him instead of worrying. We lay hold of the antidote. In other words, that's what verse 6 said. Lay hold of the antidote.

Give yourself the anti-venom. Worries the venom, prayer is the anti-venom, I command you to lay hold of it. It's what God is saying to us through verse 6. And when we obey, the promised blessing is that He gives us peace. It is the peace of God.

God is the source of it. It flows from God. It comes from God. In verse 9, when we get there, he'll be called the God of peace. The peace of God comes from the God of peace.

Any order is fine. It means the same thing. He is the source of peace. Peace is the polar opposite of worry. They define the ends of the continuum.

You can't get beyond. Those are the ends of the line. Worry, anxiety, peace. All the way to the other end of the line is peace. And thankful prayer stands between them.

This is bad. Worry and anxiety that come from real pressures. There is nowhere in the text where it is even insinuating that there is nothing real behind the worry. There are real pressures. Life brings real pressures, real sources of anxiety to your doorstep every day.

Me too. But the worry is not good because it is a subtle accusation against God. Over here, peace, that's good. We want peace. And right in between them is thankful prayer.

This peace of God is described which surpasses all understanding. So this is the peace of God. The world has a peace. That's not the peace of God. That peace comes from somewhere else.

The source of that peace is some other source. We are talking here about the peace of God, and it surpasses all understanding. This is what distinguishes the peace which comes from God. This peace is not rooted in the absence of external turmoil or conflict. The peace of God, the peace which flows from God, comes from God, is not rooted in the absence of external outside turmoil or conflict.

It is inexplicable. It is beyond understanding simply because this internal rest thrives in the presence of external turmoil and conflict. So what's confusing about the peace of God? Why does it surpass understanding? Why is it inexplicable?

This is why. It thrives in the presence of external outside pressure and conflict. That's actually when you feel it. That's actually when you're aware of it. Peace that comes from other sources flies away in the presence of external turmoil and conflict.

The peace of God thrives in the presence of it. Listen to John 16 verse 33. Jesus says, These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

In the same verse, in me you may have peace, in the world you will have tribulation. This is the peace of God. It flows from God. It comes from being in Jesus. In me you will have peace even though in the world the promise is that we'll have tribulation.

Cheer up. Jesus has overcome the world. You can have peace that thrives in the middle of the tribulation that the world comes and puts on your doorstep on a daily basis. My experience is that often being with the Lord in prayer conveys this peace. Haven't you been wound up in knots before?

And you go and you have a sweet prayer time. It's a sweet time of being in the presence of the Lord and the peace comes. And not one thing has changed. Not a single thing has changed. You've done nothing but pray.

What a foolish way to say that. You've done nothing but pray. And here comes the peace. You're going to leave that time of prayer, and the external pressures that the world has brought to your doorstep that day are going to be what it was before you went and prayed. But your light is a feather.

You've been with the Lord. Your light is a feather. Isaiah 26 verse 3. Isaiah 26 verse 3, You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. This is what happens in prayer.

This is what happens when you go and speak with God. You feel the anxieties starting to rise, you're starting to worry. This is not going to be the end of this story. I'm going to speak with God. God will keep you in perfect peace when your mind is stayed on Him when you trust in Him.

Perfect peace. Amazing. A peace that defies understanding and explanation. Perfect peace. Stay your mind on the Lord.

Go be with the Lord. Go speak to the Lord. And this peace of God is said to do something very specific for us. It guards our hearts and minds. The Greek word that is translated guard, you go to the lexicon which expands the definition.

Here's what you see. To protect by a military guard to prevent hostile invasion. This is a Greek lexicon. The expansion of what the word means in its fullness. Now listen to it again.

To protect by a military guard. You're posting the army. You're setting the army on watch to prevent hostile invasion. Isn't that what worry is? Talking about seeping in through the cracks.

It's a hostile invasion. The Expositors Bible commentary picks up on that expanded definition and says this, The peace of God is the peace that God possesses and bestows on others. It will become a garrison standing guard over the hearts and minds where anxiety and fear lurk." So the Expositor's Bible commentary is painting a picture of a garrison. The military guard posted between anxiety and your heart and mind. Sweet.

Anxiety and fear are lurking, ready to invade heart and mind. Between them and the heart and mind stands the peace, which surpasses all understanding, the peace that flows from God. Consider what Calvin says about our hearts and minds. Calvin says, the mind means the understanding, while the heart denotes all the dispositions or inclinations. So heart and mind.

The mind is your understanding, your thoughts, your thinking about things. Your heart is your dispositions or your inclinations, what you find yourself drawn towards. Isn't it when our thinking and our inclinations are under attack from worry that we do stupid things? That's what I find. Isn't that what you find?

Do you have any history of this? It is when My thinking, my inclinations are under attack from worry. The world again today has brought pressures to my doorstep. The temptations to worry are rising and I give in to the temptation. I don't pray.

I don't go to speak with God about these things. But I'm turned into a balled up. Wrapped around by worries. That's when I do stupid things. This is at the root of so many of our sins.

This brings up an important question. Am I the victim of worry? Think about that. Am I the victim of worry? Think about that.

Am I the victim of worry? Have you ever said this? I know I shouldn't worry, but I can't help it. And I will confess when I'm worried it feels like there's nothing I can do. It feels like I can't help it.

But Jesus and Paul are training us to stop saying that. Stop saying that. You are not the victim of your worry. I'm going to bring three witnesses. The first witness is this text.

It tells us there is an antidote for the poison of worry. That's what this text says. So my first witness is right here. Philippians chapter 4 verse 6. Worry is a poison and it has an antidote and that is prayer.

You're not the victim of it. It doesn't mean that worry is not real, but it means you have recourse that will work. You are not helpless. My second witness is John chapter 14 verse 27. Listen to what Jesus says in John chapter 14 verse 27.

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Jesus says, I'm leaving you with peace.

I don't give it like the world gives it. Let not your heart be troubled. That is evacuated of all meaning if you are the victim of worry. The statement by Jesus, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid, must mean that you have something that you can resort to that works when you are faced with worry and fear. It must mean that.

It means nothing if it doesn't mean that. My third witness is Colossians chapter 3 verse 15. The first part of it. I'm only taking the first phrase. Colossians chapter 3 verse 15.

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts. There's that word again. Let. Let. Jesus knows, Paul knows that there's a torrent rushing in the other direction.

So they're not blind to that, they're not ignorant of that. But they also know that the Christian has resources. The Christian has something that he or she can draw upon to stop the torrent in its tracks. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts. The God of peace gives peace.

We are told to give ourselves over to it in prayer, in thankful prayer. A final comment. The last phrase is, through Christ Jesus. The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Those are not throw away words, not in any way.

All of this is only possible in and through Christ Jesus. Our antidote to worry and anxiety is prayer. Have you forgotten who you were? In that state, how are you even going to come and speak with this holy God? In our family, we're reading through Esther in preparation.

We're headed to Esther after Philippians. We're going to preach through a couple of Psalms and then straight to Esther. And Esther wants to come to the king, but if you come to the king without an invitation, you forfeit your life. Unless he happens to extend the scepter, which he is under no obligation to do. This is a human king.

This is a guy. Just a man. God made all things. He made the universe. And from eternity past to eternity future, He is holy.

Don't you remember what you were? Like, how are you going to come? How are you going to speak with this God? How are you going to get an audience with this God? Where a human king, you can forfeit your life if he doesn't invite you.

Through Christ Jesus, the only antidote for my worries is prayer. And the only way I can come into the presence and speak with this great King is through Christ. It's His blood, it's His mediation. He stands between me and this Holy God. His work makes it possible for me to come and unburden myself.

This holy God makes us his children through Jesus Christ and he makes it so we just come cast our cares on him. Marvel at what is being said here. God the King invites you to come. Just bring your burdens to me. Just come cast your cares on me.

I care for you. We should be filled with wonder at what is being held forward to us here. The King tells you to come. Take my yoke upon you. My burden is easy.

Find rest for your souls. Applications. Three. They're so obvious I'm embarrassed to say them, but I'll say them anyway. Number 1.

Repent of worry. Repent. Repent of worry. You have subtly accused God of either being unwilling, or unable, or both, to faithfully care for you. Repent.

Now some of you are wired so that you're now going to worry that you worry. God is inviting us to come and unburden ourselves of that. Don't do that. There are tender consciences, and I am not meaning to mock tender consciences. I wish mine was more tender.

There are people who are wired with very tender consciences who will now worry that they worry. I just want to say that's completely against what our text is saying. We're invited to just come and unburden ourselves of that. If you're worrying and you repent, God will forgive you and cleanse you and you'll be free in light as a feather. That's what he wants for us.

Number two. Lower your threshold for prayer. Whatever it is. You've got one, I've got one too. Lower it.

In everything. Bring smaller concerns to Him in prayer, this week and always. Lower the threshold and don't let it creep back up again. Number three, go get peace from God. Go get it.

We're told how to go get it. You want it? Don't languish wanting peace. You're just told. Paul told you how to go get it.

In everything, by prayer and supplication, make your requests known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Go get it! Father, we find You so gracious in Your Word. It does. It surpasses our understanding.

Why would You be kind to us? How are we different from any other rebel that you should set your affections on us, O God? Thank you for the beauty of two verses. Just two verses. So much good to be squeezed out of just two verses.

Help us to see the beauty of it, and help us to come to you. Help us to see you as a Father who wants us to come and unburden ourselves. Come and enjoy your presence. Be freed from the things that concern us. Cause us such turmoil.

Thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your faithful care. Every second up until this second of our lives, You have sustained us, cared for us. You brought so many of us salvation through the working of your Spirit, convincing us that the Bible was true and that Jesus Christ really did die for sinners. Thank you Lord, in Jesus name, amen.