In this sermon, the speaker reflects on their personal experience of memorizing and knowing Bible verses, and how they mistakenly believed that knowing the Bible made them more spiritual than others. They then share a specific incident from January 1954, where they were taught a lesson about the true meaning and application of Philippians 4:6-7. The speaker emphasizes the importance of making our requests known to God through prayer and thanksgiving, and highlights the peace that comes from trusting in God's provision. They also mention how birds serve as a reminder that God takes care of His creation and provides for their needs.

On the Sermon on the Mount, we'll look at Matthew chapter 6. If we chose, or if we had to decide, which was normal and which was a choice, and your three choices were worry or anxiety, apathy or trust, do you have to choose any of those? You have to choose trust. You have to choose trust. I think you have to choose to worry. I don't think you have to choose to be apathetic, but maybe you have to choose that one also. Sometimes people are apathetic and they think they're trusting, when really they just don't care. They're not in an anxiety mode, but they're not in a trusting mode. Here it doesn't include that, and so it includes the other two, about the worry and the trusting. So I think those two are decisions that you make. But let's look at the text. Matthew 6, 25. Therefore I tell you, Matthew 6, 25. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap or stow away in barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow, they do not labor or spend, yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will worry about itself, each day has enough trouble of its own. I could probably take a couple of hours just talking about each phrase here, because it is loaded with a lot of questions and answers that God seems to think are self-evident. But he still brings them to our attention. One of the first things we notice is that worry is a practice of little faith. He keeps saying little faith. He mentions three areas of worry, all having to do with our life. What we eat, what we drink, and how we are going to wear clothes. I think this will probably include houses. He doesn't mention houses here, but a house is another means of protection or survival. I've included in the word clothes that all of it has to do with how do I take care of the necessities, the absolute necessities of my life. After we have the necessities of our life, we have a lot of people still worrying about clothes and food and drink, but they're no longer necessities. They are the luxuries of clothes and food and drink, and people still are anxious about them, because they think they need them and what would they do without them. He said first don't worry about it. When we get an imperative, a command, and we still worry, we have just disobeyed the command that says don't worry. So we have to say that not only worry itself is a sin, but it's doubly a sin because we are told not to do it. It's like do not commit murder. We're told not to do it. We commit murder. It's sin. We are told not to worry. We do it. It's sin. It is not some sort of I can't help it. That's the way I'm made. It's just not that way at all. It's a direct disobedience to a clear command of God. Now he gives us reasons and how he makes it easy not to worry, but first he says don't do it. So the first thing we recognize, when we do do it, we've disobeyed God, it is sin. And again, it's worry connected to fear at all. Is it? And all fear, all little phobias that we have are related to the ultimate fear, death. If somebody has claustrophobia, is it just claustrophobia? What's he really worried about? Suffocating. Dying. If he's afraid of heights, what's he afraid about? Falling. What's going to happen when he lands? He's going to die. All these fears, fears of airplanes, fears of crowds, agoraphobia, are all little fears of the ultimate fear of death. And worry is, maybe I'm stretching too much, but worry is connected here because this is worry has to do with life here. Worry has to do, what will happen? But when people are fearful or worrying, they say, I cannot help it. Now it may seem sort of callous to say, yes, you can, you've just chosen to disobey, but, and person may not, it may not make sense at all, but that's what has happened nevertheless. They've chosen to disobey. He gives us reasons why we should not worry. And the first reason is that we are more valuable in God's eyes than birds. And birds don't worry. Birds don't worry. And the reason they do not worry, because they don't have to worry. God has provided an ecological system that provides food for them. They don't have banks. They don't save up. And they don't need to save up. God made them so they don't need to save up. He takes care of them. And he says that we are more important than birds. So if he has taken care of birds, and he says, and you are more important than they, he will take care of you. There's a verse in Peter that says, cast all your anxiety upon him, for he is anxious for you. If somebody's going to worry, it's going to be God. God, cast all your care upon him, for he cares for you. That's God's business to care. And he says he's capable of caring, because he's taking care of millions of birds and millions of species all over this world. And they didn't have to save up. And because we're more important than birds, we don't have to either. We don't have to worry. That's his business. He will take care of us. We'll try to get to some practical application. I think this is practical application, but I want to say it this way. Unless you understand what the text says, you cannot apply it. You just don't jump from anxiety and worry to no anxiety and no worry, without understanding what God's way out is. Okay, that has to do with food. God provides food for birds. Now he's talking about clothes. Verse 28. Why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. They don't make clothes. But they've got clothes. And they've got pretty clothes. They don't work. They don't worry. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon, who was a king, a very wealthy king, in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. The richest man in the world couldn't dress himself as pretty as God dresses a flower. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? In other words, he said you're more important to him than flowers are. Flowers are very transient. We're not transient. We are more important to God than flowers. Not only will he take care of our basic needs of clothing, but he'll take care of it in pretty clothes, nice clothes. I know some people think that if you're poor, poor trusting God, then you'll have the bare minimum and it'll look awful. Now, he's talking about pretty clothes here. He's not talking about warm clothes. The whole issue is how pretty it is, not how warm it is. He's talking about luxury in clothes here, because he uses Solomon as an example. He uses flowers as an example. So, he's talking about looking nice, not just keeping warm. You do not have to worry about it, because God thinks it's important to wear clothes and to look nice. Yes, Barbara. Oh, no, he's talking now, because we're worrying now. Yes, he said the flowers die, but he's talking about now, when we're alive, that God is going to provide clothes, and I think he's saying that look nice. Now, it's pretty hard. I wandered through one of the department stores the other day and I thought God can do better than this. They didn't look very nice. The colors are on there. I thought they should go out and look at the flowers and see how to design clothes. Not very pretty. I remember a few years ago, all the clothes on the rack were what they call earth colors, off shades of purple and brown and rust and just pretty bad. And everybody thought they had to wear them because that's what was in style, whether it looked right or not. God, though, is, we do not have to worry about what we wear. He said we are more important than flowers. So, the first two cases of food and clothing, he compares it with objects and nature that he has created and provided for, and what he is saying is that our position in God's sight is a much higher position. And God knows that. Verse 31, so, and the so is a conjunction based upon those two statements, so do not worry. And expressions of worry are sayings like what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear. Those are expressions of worry. He said don't say them. Now, he gives another reason not to worry. The first two reasons he gave was our relative value in relationship to birds and flowers and our, and his capability of providing for birds and flowers. He has a much greater capability of providing for us. Now, he gives another reason. Verse 32, it's a conjunction again, the word for, for the pagans run after all these things. One of the reasons you should not worry is that's what unbelievers do. Do pagans run after food, drink and clothing? A person who is not a Christian, what's most important to him? Well, these kinds of things. He said one of the reasons we shouldn't do it is that's what unbelievers do. They run after them. They are anxious about it all the time and when we do the same thing, we are just like pagans. So, major reason not to do it is that's what the unbelievers are doing. Okay, the next reason is why not to do it? Your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. God created us with stomachs. God created us with a need for food and drink. So, he knows we need them. God created us with a need for clothes, where the wild animals have fur coats all the time and we don't have any fur. So, we need clothes to keep warm and to look nice. Two reasons not to. This is what the pagans do and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. Okay, now we have actually three reasons. The birds and the flowers, one reason. The pagans, another reason and your Father knows you need them, the third reason. He tells us not to worry and tells us why we don't have to. Verse 33, he gives us an alternative in place of worry and this alternative doesn't seem like an opposite. It's like saying, don't be sad, be happy. Those are opposites. But he says don't worry and he says something else that seems to be unrelated to not worrying. It's not a direct opposite. It's his spot. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. If we are not worried about these physical things we need but we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then these other things will be added to us. Our food, our clothing and our drink. This is saying a lot of times when you have a negative command it says that don't do something and then we think okay I won't do it. I'll concentrate on not doing it. What happens when you're concentrating on not doing something? That's all you think about. That's all you think about. Let's suppose something's bothered you from the past whatever and you say I will forget it. So you decide to forget it. How do you go about forgetting something? Think about it all the time. Which means you say I'll concentrate on forgetting it which means you just focus on it and memorize it even more. In order to carry out a negative command without concentrating on a negative command you do something positive and when I concentrate on seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness I'm not concentrating. I'm not worrying. I'm not thinking I won't worry, I won't worry, I won't worry, I won't worry, I won't worry. It's wrong to worry, it's wrong to worry, it's wrong to worry and just the nature of it means what? I'm worrying. So this is the real way. He gives us several reasons why we shouldn't and don't have to because God knows that we need and God takes care of but the real way out is don't think about not worrying. The real way out is get your mind set on something else. In this case seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness and verse 34. Therefore do not worry. Therefore is another conjunction. Do not worry about tomorrow and this is another key phrase. None of us ever worry about right now. It's impossible to worry about what's happening right now. Got that? An impossibility to worry about what's happening in this instant. You following? You cannot worry about right now. You can only worry about what's going to happen the next second. People are never afraid about what's happening right now. It's always what's going to happen tomorrow or the next day. The nature of worry and the nature of fear is always future and it is always imaginary. It's always future. It's always imaginary and I don't know how I saw this. I wish I knew what it was. I might even get somebody to make me a similar copy but I saw this plaque. Only time I ever saw it. Where? I don't know. It was a picture of an old man sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch and the caption said, I have had many troubles in my life most of which never happened. Because all of his troubles were anticipated worries about what was going to happen and he lived. He ruined his present by worrying about tomorrow and what he worried about tomorrow never happened. Tomorrow he worried about what was going to happen the next day and it never happened. Worry is always future. Worry is always imaginary. I have to choose to do it but the best way to choose not to do it is not say I won't, I won't, I won't but is to do this positive thing what gets you involved with your time, your energy, your focus, your prayer, everything is seeking first the kingdom and when you do that you find out you're eating and drinking and you have progress. Heather was talking about beggars and now some cases just a situation the beggar cannot help being a beggar. He just cannot help doing anything else but some of the beggars like this fellow shivering since we don't know his background but my guess he got into some worry and despair and became immobilized so he couldn't do anything positive. But there are other people who have similar bad situations and they focus on something positive and it may not still be great but they don't end up in this despair situation and despair says there's no hope and people get themselves that way by worry. Now the Lord Jesus said I want you to seek first the kingdom and God providing for you is God's business. Your business is to seek first the kingdom. You say well can I pray? Sure if you pray without anxiety because he tells us when we pray with anxiety you're wasting your time. The double-minded man is unstable in his ways let not that man think he should receive anything of the Lord. The person who is worrying when he tells us to pray tells us to pray in faith. Let's jump down to the seventh chapter for just seven seven. I'll probably get back to this verse 34 again but I knew you're thinking well what about praying? Here it says ask and it will be given you given to you seek and you will find knock and the door will be open to you for everyone who receives everyone who asks receives he who seeks finds and to him who knocks the door will be open. What this is saying is God is very responsive to knocking very responsive to seeking very responsive to asking but asking and worry is not asking the way. What you're saying is God I don't trust you. I just do not trust you. I'm going through the motions of saying the words but I don't think you're going to come across you're not going to open the door you're not going to respond. Worrying on your knees and calling it prayer. We have been guilty of worrying and we we go in and out of worrying and there's absolutely zero reason in our life for ever worrying again. We have God coming through on these things not only consistently daily for food but also for the unusual and we just received yesterday somebody two or three days ago I met him once or twice I don't know him called from another city some distance away and and called he said do you have enough money to go to your daughter's wedding. I said yes we've got the tickets we probably don't have enough to eat you know but we'll get there and back and yesterday a check for several hundred dollars came from this fellow that I barely know. Now we would be guilty of lying if we said we hadn't worried what we were going to do but that because we have worried but God knows God knows these things. Now we have asked and we have received but we knock and the doors open and I anticipate that as we keep on asking in a trusting way God will keep providing for what we need. Now I also know this he won't provide a dime extra or maybe maybe a dime extra but he he doesn't overwhelm way beyond our needs. He might someday and then we say well how come the extra and then we'll find out how come the extra because he anticipated a problem that happens the next day. So well I've gone pretty much through the text I wanted to go through you have another portion in Philippians 4 where it says be anxious for nothing Philippians 4 6 and 7. Maybe I should comment on this this is something from happened a long time ago but I memorized it probably pretty close to 40 years ago this verse Philippians 4 6 and 7 and sometimes when you've memorized the verse not only do you think you know it mentally but you also think you know it spiritually and you also think you've applied it and sometimes people know so much Bible they think they're living the Christian life just because they know a lot of Bible and that was my situation I knew a lot of Bible at least in pieces and I thought because I knew it I was more spiritual than people who didn't know it which meant just about everybody else because very few people know the Bible and I remember it was the 1st of January 1954 we were at a conference up in at Mount Hermon and it had rained the whole weekend and it was Sunday morning and we had a combined service with the inner varsity staff for this conference Douglas was six months old and I remember the preacher for that morning at the worship service was a German seminary student and I was turned off for two reasons one I didn't like his accent and two he said he was going to speak on Philippians 4 6 and 7 and I just mentally rejected oh that's too bad this guy with his German accent is going to teach him something I already know so well because I've memorized it so I was just sort of not paying much attention and I remember he said let's look at the text here hey do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your request to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus and he asked these people were Christian officers in the navy most mostly naval academy graduates and inner varsity staff members and he said how many of you make your request known unto God and everybody raised their hand and he said how many have your requests answered by God everybody raised their hand and he said how many thank God when he answers your requests and everybody raised their hand and he said how many do not thank God until he answers and everybody sat there sort of dumb like that he said he said the text says you make your request with thanksgiving you don't thank him when he answers you make your request with thanksgiving when you ask you thank him you don't wait till he comes across and then thank him and I said boy this is wonderful this is how you're not anxious you thank God when you make your request so I was rather pleased by having learned something even though I wasn't prepared to learn it and after the service over everybody packed their gear and went home well I was in charge of our conference so I was down at the business office paying all the bills in fact I'm 49 Roy Grayson I think he had four children and this was the first of January 54 and he graduated in 49 maybe only had three I'm not sure but anyhow there are only two of us there and we were parked into the trees he was parked in trees this way I was parked in trees this way and the hill went up like this it was very steep hill it had been raining solid all weekend and as I came up the hill from the office I saw that he had the hood up in his car and he had a 48 Studebaker and it was a straight six engine with no cover over the spark plugs and the spark plugs just stuck out of the top and there's a little puddle of water around each spark plug and his car wouldn't go and he was drying out the spark plugs and the car just never ever started so he said well Jim if you give me a push so the two of us pushed the car backwards up the hill and then he jumped in the car and took off down the hill out of gear very steep hill it was a whiny thing like this I thought well I'm glad he's an airplane pilot I didn't want to do this so he disappeared out of sight and I went over to our car which was a 48 Nash I know you've never heard of Nash's or Studebaker's but anyhow it wouldn't start I couldn't see any puddle but it just wouldn't start I had nobody to push me it was Bessie and Douglas so I just sat there and prayed and stepped on the starter the starter on this was underneath it didn't have a key the starter was underneath the clutch so you put the clutch in you hit the starter button and stepped on the starter nothing happened and I kept praying and stepping on the starter and finally the battery wore down and it's gone what I do I'm an 80 I'm gonna have to get back to Monterey and I just and so I sat there and I said Lord what are you trying to teach me Bessie was in the cabin with Douglas of Lorraine what are you trying to teach me and the voice almost a voice from so what did you learn this morning well I learned to make my request with thanksgiving instead of with worry ah wonderful so thank you God and I said thank God for starting this starting the car and stepping on the starter and nothing happened I said well God I'm sorry I just was plugging the formula saying the magic words but I really do believe what I learned this morning that I'm to make my request for Thanksgiving and I thank God I thank you with all my heart for starting this car I stepped on the starter and just roared just took off Bessie and Douglas got in the car and we drove down the hill and got down the bottom of the hill and Roy was his car was parked down the road and he was coming up to my car and I said Roy I'll give you a push he said you don't have to my my car's going I said guess how I got mine started it was sort of a superior fashion and he said he said I know you thanked the Lord it took me 30 minutes to think of it too now this was teaching me the difference between praying in faith and praying in anxiety and when I pray in faith I thank God years later this is in 49 I mean that was in 54 and I think probably in 58 and 58 sometime maybe it was 57 I think that was the winter winter of 58 we were in Christian work in Washington DC and I was in trouble with the chaplain at the naval academy and he wanted to see me to chew on me and and I think we had 55 cents to our name at the time but there was gas in the car and I left Bessie with the 50 cents and and took the nickel and drove the 30 miles to the naval academy we lived in Washington DC and I was driving in a snowstorm and went down there and parked and went in to see the chaplain and after I'd seen the chaplain it was pretty rough I came out and it turned out I'd left my lights on I'd driven in a snowstorm and the car was dead and I forgot all about this never even occurred to me I panicked I didn't have a dime for the telephone I had a nickel so I went over and went over to the math department to look up a Christian math professor I knew and he's home sick in bed I used the math department phone to call him and told him what the situation was he said you stay right there by the telephone and somebody will come in from another office and give you ten dollars or something like that so I hung up pretty soon another fellow I think it's probably Mr. Hawkins gave me ten dollars I called a tow truck and got a push or a jump or something like that went I went out to see this friend who was sick in bed and I explained to him that we were we were broke and he said well I'll loan you I think with 25 dollars counting the 10 that was already so maybe another 15 so I drove home and got home and Bessie told me that Joe Carroll had called and was coming out for dinner and Bessie said well you have to you know the refrigerator was empty Bessie didn't know what to feed Joe Carroll Joe Carroll was a and is a very powerful teacher of the word if you want to hear his tapes we had them over at the store we'd known him in Japan and in the Philippines and he was used of God to get missionaries back in fellowship was gone I said well Bessie don't worry I have money so I went out to the store safely and bought certain items both we bought something for dinner but I also remember buying the items that you need for little children the things they put in the refrigerator we had I got some cheese and some eggs and some milk I remember it's five half gallons of milk I bought and cheese and eggs those are things I remember and something for dinner well Joe Carroll arrived with Sam Obetz and he had cashed in an airplane ticket and they'd gone to a supermarket and they came to the house filled with groceries and he had they duplicated everything I bought everything I bought well I mean at least the things that were in the refrigerator I remember it's five half gallons of milk in the refrigerator he had five half gallons of milk whatever cheese he had the cheese whatever eggs it was a snowstorm so we put it out in the snow but but it was duplicated exactly number and what I'd gotten and this was a gift and the other had been borrowed and the other had been done out of anxiety and this had been done out of the provision of God in other words I had done the one out of anxiety and God knew I had needed these things all the time and duplicated it I was miserable Joe could see I was miserable so he asked me what the problem was after dinner I told him what the problem was he said does God always provide I said always but he wasted a very last minute and he always provides but it's generally so anti-climactic I'm not up to rejoicing when he does and like and he said Jim you got it all wrong you don't know Philippians 4 6 and 7 he said that's your problem he said we start he said what you're doing you are worrying on your knees first calling it prayer and you're doing everything backwards here it says be anxious for nothing first well it says something earlier than up in verse 4 it says rejoice in the Lord always then it says do not be anxious three it says let your crest be made known with thanksgiving and next is the peace of God he said you're doing everything backwards he said you start out with rejoicing in the Lord always I said well it sounds good how do I rejoice in the Lord always and these circumstances he said well you read you'd read scripture on joy I said give me tell me some scripture on joy he said Philippians is a chapter on joy a book on joy and 2nd Corinthians is on joy so he went on his way he went on his way and I thought well when I spent that borrowed money it was duplicated stick for stick I'm not going to spend any more of this borrowed money but the next day I had to leave for West Point I had some leftover money I had a rail travel car to catch the train I was just on the way to West Point I was to speak at a businessman's luncheon in Newark New Jersey and the train would go to Newark and I had a travel car to get catch the train I used the 50 cent to get to the train I got to the train with 50 cents I used the travel card to get to Newark I had no idea how I was going to get to West Point after I got to Newark because now I was dead broke and I was not going to touch that borrowed money I know boy I hope that hotel I'm speaking at is not on the other side of Newark I'm going to get there so I walked out of the train station and there was a hotel across the way so I walked over and oh what I did what did I do in the train I read 2nd Corinthians and by the time I reached Newark I was filled with joy now the circumstances hadn't changed a bit but I was filled with joy I went into the hotel and spoke with real power to the businessman okay and they were paying my lunch but I had no expectation of an honorarium or anything they bought my lunch but afterwards I shaked hands I shake your hands with this fellow and there's a $20 bill in my hand and that's how I got to West Point but the $20 bill was from this fellow back in the summer of 49 and this was this had been 58 57 58 back in the summer of 49 I asked Jack Wurtzen if he knew any missionaries I could pray for he said yes you pray for Dick Hightower he's in East Africa I did not have any letters on him I didn't know what he did I had no idea what Dick Hightower did I just had this name I knew one missionary Dick Hightower so when I was at my last year's academy I prayed for Dick Hightower when I was praying for missionaries when I went to the Korean War when I was praying for missionaries I got to know some more out there but in the meantime I always included Dick Hightower never got his prayer letter never knew what he's doing didn't know anything and did that off and on for years the man who gave me the $20 was Dick Hightower and I and later on from Joe Bailey I told Joe Bailey this story and Joe said to Jim he said Dick Hightower was home from the mission field because all of his family had polio and he didn't have a dime and he gave you a $20. Faithfulness of God. Doing it God's way now I've done it I've done it my way and God answered anyhow I did it God's way with joy and God but to do it with joy is the way to do it. One of the things that I've learned over the years not just from these passages but from other passages that do not seem to make sense to Christians because Christians say let's be realistic let's be real this uh this isn't real and then they'll wonder why I have such wonderful experiences and I've had the bad ones too but I mean how they have that wonderful experience it's because I will act on the text even though I don't know that it's ever worked it'll seem unreal and I'll do what it says and God honors his promise. I wish that I acted based upon the text more often when I do it always comes out like this. If I say no let's do it the humanistic way it I suppose consequently just in those provisions two of our favorite verses are Matthew 6.33 and Philippians 4.67 that they are they are God's guarantee of how he does things. Here in Philippians 4.67 he doesn't say he'll give us our request he says he'll give us the peace of God and the other he says he'll give us our necessities. Here he says he gives peace there he gives necessities. Questions? It's always imaginary. Yeah but sometimes your imagination is accurate. Could be. I mean like something happens and you know your father or your father or somebody's going to blow up and you're worried about the blow up and it just blows up and you're worried about it at any time or especially if you're non-christian you know them well and you're worried about it and it's not it's an answer it's based on knowledge of the person. Well the major thing is that but it also governs your reaction later to the blow up when it happens because you go into it with this worry and fear and then you don't take it well when it happens. If you go on okay I know it's going to happen but it's nothing to be anxious to worry about it's just going to happen. It's an event that will happen and consequently when he blows up I can take it with some sort of equilibrium where if I go on worried I'm not going to take it with any equilibrium I just I just guaranteed my reaction to this anticipated blow up. So the major thing there we got two solutions one is the peace of God and the other is the actual provision so we can go in we can go in with peace even though you say well we know something like this will happen but sometimes we are surprised and it doesn't happen what is the whole history is that it would happen. There are some other funny little things that uh this is I think funny. Bethy sent me off for some bare necessities and we had three dollars and three cents and I went off to Safeway store with the three dollars and three cents and I took Heather with me who was preschool and she was at that time rather round and jolly and she uh we got off there and I liked some dumb I said I wasn't counting up but I was off the shelf I wasn't adding up my head to see if it came within three dollars you know until I got into the chute yeah until I got in the chute and while I was there waiting to get waited on Heather asked me for a penny for some gum so I gave her reached in and got one my three cents and she ran off to the gum machine and got some gum and about that time I realized that I hadn't been figuring up in my head whether this little amount of money was going to come over three dollars and I turned around to count and maybe take some of it back I and I was just about to the cashier and the lady behind me had a great great big basket just heaped full of all kinds of expensive stuff and her name was Huddy Shields and she was in Bessie's Bible class and she was a wife of a very wealthy man who ran several super giant stores and I said oh here I am I haven't got time to figure it out the lady's going to count it up and say that's four dollars and six cents and I've got three dollars and two cents and I'm going to have to take this little bit back to the shelf in front of Mrs. Shields who was in this Bible study and count all this stuff and I thought Lord I can't do this it'd just be too embarrassing and I was just praying desperately what to do when she was clicking it up and she said that'll be three dollars and two cents took the three dollars out and got my other two pennies and gave it to her and thank you very much and went home now you know that stands out but there have been a lot of those kinds of things of God's goodness providing just about quitting time so any other questions I do not want to point to our experience I want to point to the text we acted on the text and God honored the text these a lot of these things in scripture are in one sense conditional promises some are just promises and some are conditional promises that is they are promises if you believe him God provides let's thank God father we thank you very much for this time together we pray that it will help each one of us trust you more both for necessities and for peace