In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of putting God first in our lives. He urges the audience to let go of worldly distractions and commit fully to God. The preacher highlights the exchange of our sinful lives for the offer of God's presence and salvation. He also addresses the issue of worry, encouraging the audience to trust in God's care and not be consumed by anxieties. The sermon concludes with a strong warning about the consequences of disobedience and a reminder of God's love and redemption.

It's good to see you here tonight, and I trust you've had a good day since you've been praying. We're grateful for God's movement. Let's open our Bibles tonight to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12 tonight. The Gospel of Luke, chapter number 12 tonight. And we'll read beginning at verse number 4, and then jump later on in the chapter. Now listen to the title of the message, Freedom from Fear and Worry. Freedom from Fear and Worry. Do you know what the most respectable sin in the house of God is? Worry. Why? Because most people that you and I know worry about something. That's why God has so many fear nots in the Bible. Because He knows we're so apt to worry and be fearful. And here in the Gospel of Luke, we have several portions of Scripture that give us an indication of how to have victory over fear and worry. Let's look at verse number 4, chapter 12 of the Gospel of Luke. And I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I warn you, whom ye shall fear, fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear. Now that's the healthy kind of fear. That's the fear of God. The fear of the only one who's capable of judging us. There's very little fear of God in the house of God. People want to live the way they want to. And when you try to confront them, they're not living right to get flying mad at you and pout like bullfrogs. Amen? One day every soul in this world will stand before Almighty God, including this preacher. And that's the one we should fear with a healthy fear. I had a healthy fear of my father as I was growing up. Why? Because my daddy was the kind of fella, if I crossed the line, he would put the Board of Education to the seat of understanding. Amen? And so I had a healthy fear of my daddy. Here's what else he says. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, or eight cents? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But even the very hairs on your head are numbered. Fear not therefore, ye are more value than the sparrows. God knows every hair on our head. Now some people make it easier for God to count. But He still knows the number of hairs on our head. I want you to look at verse 22. And He said unto His disciples, Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life. What you shall eat, neither the body what you shall put on. For the life is more than meat, the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which neither have storehouse or barn, and God feedeth them. How much more are you better than the fowls? And which of you, with taking thought or worrying, can add to a statue one cubit, or one and a half feet? Has worry ever helped you grow any, once you've reached adulthood? How good if I said, folks, I am worrying myself to death. I want to be six foot five inches. Would you worry with me? You'd say, preacher, that's absolutely ridiculous to worry. Because you're not going to grow. Then why are you worrying about things God says not to worry about? Why do I worry about things God? Because we don't trust Him. Here's what else He says. If ye then are not able to do the thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? Why do you worry about the thing you can't handle growing any further? Why are you worrying about this other stuff that I want to handle? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They toil not, they spin not, yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Here's another. If then, if God so clothe the grass, which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast in the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O ye of little faith? Now, God kind of specifically tells us why we worry. We don't have any faith. And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be of doubtful mind. Don't you be filled with anxiety. We have these medical terms, having anxiety attacks. You know what they are? They're worry fits. Let's call them what the Bible says, anxiety attacks. And why do we, oh, your chemical imbalance, your lithium levels too high or low, and when the proper stimulus, you're going to blow a fuse and have an anxiety attack. No, that's just proving they're not trusting Jesus. Now, in rare cases, I'm sure that in medical situations, you could have a certain tech, but I say in the majority of cases, it's a sin problem, not a sickness problem. And you know what we've done today, folks? Now, I want to just chase a little rabbit, excuse me. We have humanized man's way of getting help, and added a little verse of Scripture to it, and it's called Christian psychology. It's no such bird. Well, I like Dr. Duflin, he talks in the afternoon, because he makes me feel good. That's exactly what these guys do, make you feel good, so you won't repent of sin. Hello. But they make me feel good and tell me, yeah, but you never hear these fellows talking about the work of the cross, you never hear them talking about the work of the Holy Spirit, you never hear them talk about spiritual warfare, but they'll tell you what's wrong with you. And they've taken from Freud, who was at best a pervert, and Jung, who was known to be an occultist, and out of that system of thought said, we've got to help God out, because what we're doing doesn't work. You know why it's not working? Because most churches don't have enough power to blow the wings off of that. So that's why we send drug addicts and alcoholics to rehab centers, because in the old days, when a drunkard got here and got on a conviction, son, he repented and got the power of God on him, he'd go home and break the bottles and walk a straight line, because God has set him free of sin. Amen. And that's just my opinion, it's not in the sermon, but I felt like running that rabbit for some reason, and I believe God was in it tonight. Amen. Yes, I believe He was. Now, we're not through with this yet. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after. He said, everybody in the world, the heathen people seek after those things, and your Father knows that you have need of all these things. Don't you know God knows what you need before you need it? But rather, seek ye the Kingdom of God, and Matthew says, and His righteousness, and what? All these things shall be added unto you. There's a dishing machine built in heaven when you seek God and His Kingdom, and His righteousness, all these things will be added unto you. Fear not, here's another, fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. Notice, God likes to have pleasure, what? To give us His Kingdom, and when you have His Kingdom, you've got everything that's involved in it, and that includes cattle on top of the hills, and the hills that the cattle set on. Now, let's bow together in prayer, and would you ask God to do something tonight, and I probably need to ask Him to do this with me too. You ask God to open your eyes to where you're at with Him, and where you're in relationship to this problem. You see, before I start preaching something you've already made up your mind, that's not a problem with me, you're going to be surprised. It's not a problem, it's a sin. Let's bow together. Father, thank You for Your Spirit. We pray that You'd open our eyes to where we stand before You, and there would be a clear revelation of how we have victory in Jesus Christ. We commit this time to You, in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, I want to ask you a couple of questions to help me preach this sermon. Can one of you tell me something that in the past has caused you to be fearful of the Word? Just raise your hand and tell me. The fear of man, what somebody else thinks about me, especially when you've blown it. What else has made you fear or worry? Just help me. Money, not having enough money. You read the paper, depression's coming. We heard a rumor down at the factory, they're closing it down. Right? Money, fear of man. What else? Oh yeah, can't your kids worry you? Oh, look at the drug scene. Look how they're acting. Oh my, they're going to not get saved. Oh my. I mean, just worry. I thought those children were gods. If you're a Christian, didn't you give those kids to God before they were born? Then what you worry about is something that's His. Losing your job? Yes, that's a good one. Someone else, what have you worried or been fearful about? Just, you're helping us. Boy, the rest of you must be victorious tonight. I must have had the wrong sermon preacher. Bigger than I am. Huh? Bigger than I am. Yeah, people bigger than me in the old days, right? Amen. What else? Fear of the future. That's a good one. What else? You've missed a couple of good ones that I've worried about from time to time. What about this? How are you going to die? Especially if somebody in your family has died a painful death. And the devil told me, my daddy died of cancer two years ago. And the devil told me, you're going to get the same thing and be... And I said, I just went through about ten minutes of being worried. I was fixing to go to the doctor and get a check-up. I'm being honest. What do you do? I said, well, if I die that way, that's up to Jesus. I'm not going to worry about it. He could come back. Yes, sir, young man? Fear of life. That's right. Fear of the after death, after life. That's one thing every lost person ought to be concerned about. And I think they have a right to be worried about that. Yes, what else? You've missed a couple of good ones. What about the fear of having your home broken in? Crime. Fear of getting mugged. What about the fear of failure in the Christian life? Doesn't that freeze people? If you fail one good time, you know, because of pride, you say, I just won't do anything else anymore because I messed up. I've heard that excuse so many times. I said, I bet I can guess what you're going to tell me. You can't do it because you messed up in the past. How do you know, preacher? I've heard it about ten times today. No. Now, from a human perspective, those things are legitimate reasons why we should be fearful and worried. Do you know what God says? I don't know how many hundreds of times in the Bible. In fact, I started flipping in Isaiah and about every other chapter, He said, fear not, fear not, fear not, fear not, fear not, fear not. Why did God say that? Because He knows we have a propensity to do that. And can I tell you this tonight, folks? Fear hath torment, but perfect love cast out fear. Now, those are some of what I call peripheral reasons. Let me first of all tonight talk about basic reasons why we fear and worry. And there are really four major roots that all the rest of them offer. Okay? Number one, we have a mistrust in the person of God. I want you to notice what it says in verse 28 of Luke chapter 12. If then God so clothed the grass, which today is in the field, tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O ye of what kind of faith? Little faith. Now, what does that mean? Who do we have faith in? Who do we have faith in to save us? Somebody tell me. Jesus. Now, let's ask this question. I'm going to ask a lot of questions. If you and I had enough faith to trust in somebody we'd never seen with our eyes to save us from hell, and if I asked this about everybody here tonight, if you died right now and you go to heaven, oh, yes, preacher, yes, I'm trusting Him to take me to heaven. If you and I can trust Him to get us to heaven, why can't we trust Him to meet our needs here? Because there's no security in our relationship with Him. You see, I can leave my home and go in these meetings and rarely do I ever think about my wife running around on me. Rarely. And so every once in a while the old devil said, you see that boy looking here at church? Hey, man, I got a pretty wife. You know, this old boy's eyeballing, and I'll put the evil eye on him. Put my arm around her and tell her to kiss me. Get that out of your mind, brother. Isn't that awful, brother? That's right, man, I don't like getting afraid, but that's... I don't know if I'm trusting God, but they won't mess the monkey with her. But you know why? Because I know my wife and how she's acted in the past and her background and what she's told me. And I trust her explicitly. I trust her explicitly. I'm getting to know your preacher. I trust him. Amen? Amen? Why? Because if God gave me peace, I could. Now, for some people, God won't give you peace to trust in. Amen? That's right. Now, if I can trust in my wife and even trust in your preacher, how much more can I trust in somebody whose words never violate him? He never lies to me. He tells me, I'm going to take care of you, son. I love you with an everlasting love. My thoughts toward you are good, not evil. I've got you in my hand and nobody can pluck you out. Your name's written down in the Lamb's Book of Life. I'll seal you into the day of redemption by my Spirit. I'm your father. You know, a father is somebody who takes care of his children. But you know why we work? Because we don't have faith in our Jesus. You know why? Because we don't believe he can keep up his end. The problem's on our end. We're the ones having the problems. We mistrust the person of God. And if I don't trust him, he says, now listen, son, don't look at the circumstances, look to me. I'll feed you. I'll take care of you. I'll clothe you. I'm going to get you to heaven. I'll meet all your needs. But what happens when you get down to nothing? That's a good place to be. You'll never learn to trust him until you have nothing. I know of a preacher, you know when he starts getting worried when his bank account gets down to $2,000? Man, I wish I had that problem sometimes. You know what I mean? He starts worrying. It's down to $2,000. I've only got $20,000 in my bonds. You know what he's telling me? I'm trusting in money. What kind of trust do you have in Jesus? When do you start worrying? We start worrying when enough pressure comes on us to test our faith. God said we'd have trials of faith. And it always measures what kind of faith I have. That's how you grow in faith. Faith is like a muscle. See, the last two days I've been walking around your town. Why? Because I want to be in shape. I want to keep my body functioning. I don't want to wear out because of lack of exercise. I've been walking around your town. Walking, walking, walking, walking. You know what my legs have done? Gotten a little sore. Why? Because they've been exercised. Faith is like a muscle. The more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. You know why some of you don't have faith? Because you've never exercised faith in Jesus. Whenever predicaments get hot on you, you go to somebody else rather than God. Our kids get sick. What do we do? Run them to the doctor. Why don't you say, Lord, do you want to heal them? You get in financial trouble, what do you do? Get out your plastic God. Charge something up on it. Amen. Number two, misplace priorities. Make us worry. Why? He said in verse number 29 and 30, Seek ye not what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations or heathens of the world seek after you. You know what he's saying? Some of you are seeking the wrong things. And because you seek the wrong things, you're going to be worried. If you're doing anything less than 100% seeking God and His kingdom, you'll be totally in him, you're going to worry. Because if your priority and my priority is not the total will of God and doing what God's told me to do, then I'm going to give ground to worry. Why? Because the things I'm seeking after aren't worth having because they rust and rot away. I know of people that are trying to have the body beautiful. They're jogging themselves to death. You know? They're living for their beauty. You know what's going to happen to all of us? We're going to wrinkle up and get ugly. Maybe not ugly, but just old. If you notice around the size of my hair, I'm getting a little gray. And maybe getting a little loose right here. I don't know. Somebody told me there's a little bit going here. I got baldness in my family. And the next time you see me, I might be crowned on. I don't know. You know? And I could have a pain. You know, I'm not as strong. Hey, listen, these bodies are decaying. If I live to keep this body beautiful, this body will disappoint me because I could be disfigured in the wreck. I could be paralyzed. What if I'm living for money? Well, just like the dear sister said, we could have a depression and nobody have anything. That might be the best thing that ever happened in this country. We'll find out where our God is. You see, I'm to the place, if you're seeking God in His kingdom and right with Him, He'll send ravens to feed me and you. He'll give me an ingenious way. I can always shoot a deer. I know how to catch fish. Amen. Our folks have a little old cabinet at the lake in North Carolina and I can catch fish. Amen. If you're living for your kids, and I know a lot of people, they live for their children, not God. You know why? Because you know when you get depressed? When your kids disappoint your goals. And a lot of times, God's goals are not really what your goals should be for your children. We made an idol of the family. Although the family ought to be right there with God. Our families can get us out of places. We want our families. That's why I had to couple my church. We stay home on Sunday night. It's family time. No, it's hell time. Oh, we get our Bible and have family devotion. We don't need to be in the local church. Folks, God ordained the local church. And if you have a good family, they need to be authority of the local church and faithful to the local church. I don't care what Dr. Duflanky, Miss whatever says, has this parachurch ministry that gives you better ministry than your local church. You're flat wrong if you do that. We can put trust and have a priority of being good at something. Hunting, fishing, knitting. My hobbies. My TV program. I had two gals in my church. One Sunday evening, I went to prophesy. You know what I said? I said, some of you are going to go out of here, get in sin, and God's going to take your picture and put it on the front page of the Hagerstown Mail. Well, that night I didn't know what was happening. They had a bridal shower and ladies paid seven bucks a piece, fifteen hundred of them, for this bridal shower. Preacher, why did they do that? Because of a soap opera star was there. One of these big hunks on General Hospital was the emcee and they went out to yuggle and google at him. And two of my gals that sang in the choir that night went out there and didn't tell their husbands where they were going. Guess what happened on the third page of the newspaper the next day? I took all kinds of pictures. Guess who ended up on the third page of the newspaper? Three of my members. And another girl that was a Baptist deacon's daughter. You know what one of them was doing? Had a camera like this. Another one was like this. They called the church at nine o'clock in the morning, squalling like babies. Oh, what are we going to do? My husband didn't know they're mad at me. And my wife was there. I got to laughing, cackling. God, call them into sin. Hallelujah. Then I got mad as a hornet. I said, those stinking girls out there sinning made a mockery to God. I was laughing, crying and upset at the same time. Why? Because they had publicly sinned against Almighty God. What did you do? I didn't let them off the hook. They said, what can we do? I told Paul, I said, they know what they need to do. What was that? That public sin demands public apology. Oh, preacher, you're carrying it too far. I'm carrying it as far as God does, because they were absolutely making a mockery of their God, lusting after another man publicly. That's the big time stuff, isn't it, folks? That Wednesday night, both those gals got up in the pulpit. And I'm getting to the punchline. One girl who was in her late twenties said, for 13 years, I've adjusted my entire afternoon schedule not to miss that soap opera. Yet, we'll do that. If something's important to us, folks, we'll flat do it. But if it's left up to what God wants us to do, we won't do it, because we have misplaced priorities. That's why you got a crowd of your church members sitting at home, poked up like a bullfrog. They have misplaced priorities. They don't want to get right with God. And you can tell them I said so. Amen. Yes, being in a place like this, we're preaching. I'm not the best preacher in the world, but God's been talking heavy duty around here. You know what they're saying? I can be right with God my way. No, you can't. There's only one way. What? Repentance and faith. Restitution, adjustment. Night after night, God peeling the layers off the onion, folks. That's what they're saying. Son, I'll tell you, that thrills my soul. Amen. I'd like to be in the pew listening tonight, letting God work on me. Amen. Some of you say, I wish you were too, Brother Orr. Amen. Number three. A reason for worry is when you have misfortunes that have pained your life. You know, there are people who have programmed because you had something negative happen to you if you grew up and all you ever saw was hell. You know what you can do? You can get so programmed that you say, nothing can ever happen good to me. Some of you were rejected big time as a young person and you were put down and put down and put down and put down and put down and when God comes along and says, you're beautiful in Jesus Christ, you know what happens? You can't believe it because the devil's lied to you so long. Or when you say, well, I was trusting God and then this tragedy occurred and I don't understand. Why did God let that happen? Folks, we're never to ask why. We're simply to trust that it worked for good. A lot of us cast doubt on the integrity of God when we doubt that when something happens that seems to be evil to us, God's really working it for good. It has to do with our failures. See, some of you have had big time spiritual blowouts. And you know what? The devil has been a master at doing your life, reminding you constantly how sorry you've been in the past so you won't ever try to walk with God again. Because it seems like every time you try to walk with God, you have a blowout. And then you get this, I can't live up to what they're preaching nowadays. I know you can't. That's why he let you blow out to get you so desperate. You have to trust Jesus to do it. Have you ever blown out? You better believe I've had a blown out tire, transmission trouble, and a blown engine at the same time in my life. That's why Paul said, I've been knocked down, but praise God I'm not knocked out. Isn't that wonderful? Listen, all of us are going to fail, let's be a good one. In fact, failures are the bumps you grow on. But if you've had misfortunes, pain in your life, you can be programmed to never trust God. I know of an individual right now that has been programmed by bad church situations, by health problems, and by family conflicts. She's so full of unbelief that even when God does something, she says, I don't think it will last very long. I'm around her a lot. What does that do to you? I had to have a fight of faith, keep my faith up, because sometimes she convinces me everything is awful bad. I want to tell you something you need to do, folks. Be around people who have great faith. You know why some of you have never had faith? Because most of the people you run around with see the negative. Negative, negative, negative, negative, negative, negative, negative, negative, negative. Folks, there's always a positive that gets hooked up to a negative that makes the bad boy run. Negatives are good. If you see the positive of God, shoo! Number four. You have a misconception of the providence of God. Notice verse 25. Which of you, with taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit? Now, I know some people that have tried to get taller, wearing elevator shoes. And I heard one fellow hung upside down on these shoes trying to stretch out to grow. I mean, you know, people do strange things. I've heard of people, you know, doing strange things to get taller. I want to tell you this, folks. Your worrying cannot change the way you look and who you are. You know what the problem is with some of you here tonight? You've never been satisfied with what God made. I never liked my freckles until I got saved. What do you mean? Well, I wanted to be 6'2", blue eyes, blonde hair, 210 pounds, budging muscles. And every time I walked a room, the girls go, boy, look at that one. Here I'm 5'11", about 135 pounds wet when I was in high school. They call me the needle, like I said last night. And I didn't like my freckles. I said, I bet I could get rid of those. Somebody said, you put lemon juice all over your face and lay out in the sun, those freckles disappear. They lied to me, didn't they? A million more popped out. I wanted to be smarter. I wanted to be born into a wealthy family. In fact, in college, when I dealt drugs, I would lie to people and tell them my family had money because I wanted to be recognized as being a kid with money. You know what I'm saying? I didn't appreciate what God made. Can I tell you folks, everybody here was fearfully and wonderfully made by God. And there's not one mistake in this room. You're perfect before God. And I tell you, the only way you and I will ever be satisfied is when we are complete in Him who is head of all principality and power. When you're filled with God's Spirit, you'll be satisfied. If He's satisfied, I'm satisfied. Well, I'm not satisfied. Big deal. Talk to Him about it. He's the one who made me this way. Warts and all. And all of us have our warts, you know. Personality-wise, some of you are shy, some of you are boisterous like your preacher. He said, Come to church tomorrow night! You know, I'm going, You know, Ask Him. If He wasn't that way, I'd be disappointed. He's telling me today, He said, You're kind of quiet. I said, I am. But once I get started, I can have a motor mouth too. Amen. Why? Because God never makes mistakes. Now, here's the problem. A lot of people try to convince you that He made a mistake with you. Because your husband can do that, can't he, wives? Well, that's not what I'm barking for when I marry you. And wives say, I thought you said you'd make more money. And you're sorry, good for nothing, lazy bug. Do you know what I mean? And kids often, what they call the peck system, they find, it's like, my daddy raised quail for a hobby. And he had as many as 5,000 quail that he just raised just for a hobby. And I noticed, when we got these little chicks, we had them in the brooder house, and I had the incubator, and they'd hatch out, and we just were fascinated with those little chicks. And they'd get bigger, and they'd find a weak one. And you know what they'd do? They'd peck on it, kill it. Do you know what happens? In a society, you find a weak one, and what would they do to you? They'll peck on you. And somebody here tonight was pecked on, and that's why you've been mad at God, and that's why you can't trust Him, because somebody pecked on you, and it wasn't God pecking on you, it's the devil. That's how the devil has ground to make you worry. What about this? What about when a tragedy occurs? How many of you really believe that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord, who are called according to His purpose and will? Can we have a vote? Okay. If we believe that, then why do we get upset with God when something happens that's tragic? And we sit and do like this to God. That's not right. Look at all the people not living right. They never have problems like this. David had that problem in Psalm 77. He said, well, look at the wicked, they're prospering, I'm doing right, things are going wrong. He said, I never figured that out until I went to the house of God and got the presence of God, and then God showed me their end. We mistrust the person of God. We have misplaced priorities. Misfortunes have pained our life. And we have a misconception about the providence of God. Those are the four major grounds for all of us worrying and fearful. Now, the good part is, what about the remedy for fear and worry? There's a three-fold remedy tonight. And the first one we never like to hear is the word that starts with R. It means repent. You know why some of you have never had victory? Because you've never called it what God calls it, S-I-N. We say, well, my mother worried, my grandmother worried, my daddy worried, I was in a home where everybody worried, and you don't know how my family's messed up, and you don't know how my job's going, and you don't know how my health is. If you had all these problems, you'd be worried too. No, God calls it sin. And until you repent of it, you'll never have victory over it. It's not a problem. It's not a character flaw. It's sin. And until we call it sin and repent of it, that means to have a change of mind that leads to a change of heart that leads to a change of behavior. You're leaving it because you don't want to be that way anymore, and you'll do everything God tells you to get away. Number two, you've got to have a revelation. And that's what we pray for. Now, if you ever listen with your heart, I want you to listen. I want to lift up how big a God we've got for the next ten minutes or so. Will you allow me to do that? Can I make Jesus about as big as maybe I can? I know I'm not going to do justice to Jesus, but I want to tell you how big our God is, okay? Can I tell you something that helps me not to worry and you to worry? That we're the possession of God. We're bought with a price. We're not our own. The Bible says in the book of Isaiah 43, 1, Fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. He said here in verse 24, Are you not much more better than the fowls of the air? And God's taking care of that crowd? A bird? How many of you think you're a little bit better than a sparrow? Raise your hand. Amen. I'm glad there's a thinking crowd tonight, preacher. Everybody's really in the spirit tonight. You know, I rarely get 100%, but I'm on target tonight. Amen? Now, God says, I own you. Now, do you take care of your property? What if you bought a brand new car that's worth $30,000? Say somebody gave you $30,000. You bought a $30,000 BMW. Would you take care of that baby? You better believe it. I pause that thing up twice a week, and when I go to the mall, I park it across three parking lots and I open the door and scratch it. I put covers on the seats. I keep the old chains white because I knew how valuable that property is. I'm going to take care of it. I only ask how many of you parents take care of your children? Don't they belong to you as they belong to God? When your child goes, Mama, my stomach's hurting. You say, oh, turn over and go to sleep. You're fine. No, you mamas jump up and run over. Wake up, honey. They're crying. Wake up, honey. You know, my little boys, when our first boy was born, you know, we'd never had children before, obviously, and that old boy got spoiled. What do you mean? Well, when he was dry and fed and not sick, he wanted attention about 2 o'clock in the morning. How'd he get attention? He would grunt one time. Both of us would be up in our beds. Oh, my God, he's dying. Why? Because we want to take care of what belonged to us. Now, if you take care of a car, and you take care of your kids, and they belong to you, don't you think God likes to take good care of His property? In fact, you know how much God paid for us? He had to buy us with the blood of His Son. Now, that's a high price to pay for wicked people like us. And when He buys us, He never throws us away. He never casts us away. I don't have a gut that does that. Man, when I know I'm in possession of God, that gives me peace. I don't even worry. If God owns me, He's going to take care of me and you. Number two, I want to talk about the perception of God. Now, this is enough, like I said the other night, to make a backslidden Episcopalian shout. Now, listen to this one. He says, Your Father knows that you have needed these things. He said, There's not a spare that can fall to the ground that God doesn't know about it. Now, how many spares do you think there are in the world tonight? Millions probably? And how many of those millions are probably falling to the ground right now, being shot or being eaten alive or dying? Would you say maybe a couple thousand? Do you know our God is so big that He knows where everyone falls right now? I'll tell you how great He is. He even knows the number of hairs on the head. Mine probably has 125,432 hairs right here. He knew when a couple dropped out when I washed my hair this morning. That's how much my God knows. He knows my thoughts afar off. He knows my down sitting and my up rising. Now, if we have a God that smart, don't you think He knows what you need before you ask Him? Parents, have you ever seen when your kids have a need for something and before they could even tell you they had a need, you gave it to them? Have you ever seen your kid getting, you know, the nose getting all runny and before you know it, you've got a whole bunch of fun underneath there under that nose getting them to blow it. Man! And He knows what you need before you ask Him for it. And He wants to give it to you if you live right. And you're sitting right here worrying when our God's that big and knows everything that's going on. In fact, He sees the beginning from the end and has got it all together because He's above time. He's in the now. And you're sitting here trying to help God out worrying. Man! Do you see how... You know why this was written? To help us to see just how foolish it is to worry and fear. Yeah, we do a good job of it, don't we? Number three, let's talk about the presence of God. Isaiah 41, it says, Fear not, for I am with thee, for I am thy God, I will strengthen thee. Psalm 23, 5 says, Yea, thou walk to the valley of the death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Do you know what keeps me and you from worrying? I know who's with me all the time, the presence of God. He said, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you, and here's where some of you have made a mistake. You said, I don't feel Him. You don't live in your feelings, you live by faith and by fact to know that He's here even if you don't see. I remember one time in my house, my brother and I slept together in the same room, we had double beds, I mean, twin beds, and one night the wind got to blowing, and there was a big bush outside of my window, and I was half asleep, and I forgot that bush was out there, and the way the moon was shining that night, that bush was scratching across the window. And it looked like a great big old hen coming in through that window. And I was in that bed going, Daddy! Daddy! Man, before I knew it, my daddy came running in that room, he said, click that button. What's wrong son? He said, Daddy, there's somebody breaking in the window. You know, and my daddy said, Son, that's just the old bush scratching. I said, Daddy, you sleep with me for a little while. And I made my daddy get in bed with me that night, Jules. Amen. You know what? I knew my daddy was there. Whenever trouble came, he'd come running. Never, ever, ever when I grew up did I ever get worried when my daddy was in the car with me because I knew my daddy could handle it. He was a man's man, son. I played football on a high school team that my junior year went to upper state playoffs. I was a quarterback. And we had a good team that played this team that had eight players, I believe, that went to college for scholarship. I mean, they were animals. And halfway through the first half, we were getting beat 17 to nothing. And there was a heckler, a fellow from my hometown that was a heckler. What you mean? He busted players that weren't doing good. He was four rows behind my daddy giving me a fit. Get over there! He's losing the game for our skinny thing! Get him out of there and put Baker in! Get him out of there! My daddy was sitting four rows above him. My mother said, he took it for the first half. About the second half, my daddy was about, he stood up, he stood up and my mother said, quick, he said, you shut up. He said, Gauman! The thing was Gauman. He said, Gauman, turn around here. He said, that's my boy you're talking about? He said, I got a hundred dollar bill in my back pocket, says right now I can take you behind the bleachers and whip you, friend, shut up. And son, my daddy was the kind of man, he wasn't a big man, but he was strong and he had a reputation. He had a monkey with him. And old Gauman goes. And my mother goes. And my dad goes. What did you do when I did? I went, what a daddy. Folks, I want to tell you this, we got a God. Thank God, whenever you cry out, He's right there. But if you worry and fear, you can't sense Him, because faith negates what the Bible says. If you don't have faith, you can't get in on God's goods. What about the provision of God? I mean, this thing's going to break the dam in a minute. What? Verse 31 says, Rather seek ye the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Now, will God lie to us tonight? If God says, you seek Him first in His kingdom, He says, the very things that get you through life will be added. We don't even need to worry about it. Isn't that wonderful? That's better than Washington saying that the recession's over. Isn't that wonderful? But you know what you do? You pick up the paper and say, interest rates are going up, recession's going. Oh my, I'm going to lose my job. Folks, He may come back for you if that happens. In fact, let me tell you, before Jesus comes back, economically, you're going to have a blowout. Why? Because the Antichrist will step on the scene and he's going to be the one that's going to solve the economic problems of the world. So what you getting so upset about? There was a man that worked at a rescue mission that needed $200 one day for a big need there at the rescue mission and he was getting a little fretful and he was talking to a friend about it and said, Brother, I want you to pray about this need. I don't know how it's going to be met. And this boy is a little spiritual than this rescue man called Ed. He said, Well, Brother Ed, you might want to ask God to open your eyes. You might already have it. And old Ed said, Oh, don't you think I'd know? If I had it, I'd have it. And those spiritual boys said, I don't know, Brother Ed. So that other fellow left and old Ed went to the chapel and locked the doors and shut the blinds and got on his knees. He said, Now God, if I've got something I don't have, would you show me? He said, God said, Go to the window. And when he opened the window, there was a bunch of those rescue mission boys underneath some trees picking up some things on the ground. And they were cracking them. They were pecans. And when he looked up at the pecan trees, they were propped up with with bores and it was harvest time. They shook those pecan trees, put them in baskets, took them down to the market, had exactly $200 worth of pecans. You know what God did? Fifty years before that man had the need of $200, God put it in the heart of a farmer, to plant pecan trees. If that farmer was a spiritual man, he said, Lord, why am I planting these pecan trees? He said, There's old Baptist preacher about fifty years from now that's going to need $200 to plant them. Even before you and I had a need, God had the supply in heaven. Let me ask you a question. What came first? Our lungs. And one of the TV executives heard my testimony and said, We'd like you to be on the program. And he said, I'd like you to share a two-minute testimony. So I shared, on the old time Gospel Hour TV program, 300 stations, my testimony. There's a fella in Florida walked in from his church, turned on his TV, and what he did, there I was starting my testimony, and the minute I started speaking, he said, the Spirit of God told him, I want you to pay for a school. I got a check in the mail from this fella for $300. And I, you know, contacted him, thanked him, and about Christmas time, he sent me one check for $1,000 and another check for $500. And the exact amount of money he sent in paid for my seminary to the penny. But you know, folks, what I had to do, I had to seek Him first in His Kingdom and obey God before He lets the goods go. You know why some of you have never gotten the goods? You've never gotten out far enough to trust Him. I'm about to lose my hour. Let me tell you, the dam's getting ready to crack. What about the peace of God? Didn't He say, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is set upon Thee, for He is our peace, He is the Prince of Peace. Be anxious for nothing, but with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to the God. And what the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will what? Keep your heart and mind. Or the Greek word there is garrison your heart and mind in Jesus Christ. That means God will garrison you with peace if you do what? With thanksgiving, praise seeking. Didn't He say, My peace I leave unto you? My peace I give you? Didn't He say, Give us peace? Folks, you know, when you need peace, it's only when you need it. I was working for a security force at Liberty, and I had a fellow that worked with me. His name was Paul Dalton. Fine man, preacher. Good preacher. One of the sweetest, loving, merciful men I ever met. I wish I had some of that. One night I was working with him at the checkpoint there at the mountain, and I got a phone call, and I answered the phone, and it was his wife, Diane. And Diane said, Charlie, this is Diane. She was crying. I said, Diane, what's wrong? She said, Is Paul close to you? He said, Well, he's right outside the door. I said, Don't tell him this. His mom and dad have just been murdered by his brother-in-law and his sister's dying, and his brother-in-law just killed himself. I said, Don't tell him. The chief's coming to tell him. And Paul was looking at me, and of course, folks, when somebody says something, it's hard for you to hide something like that, isn't it? Wouldn't that be hard for you to hide it from him? He was looking at me. He said, What happened, Charlie? I said, Well, Paul, it's Diane. What happened? Is she okay? Oh, she's fine, Paul. He said, Well, what happened? I said, Paul, I can't tell you. You tell me right now what happened. Now, he knew his brother-in-law had threatened his mother and daddy several times that week. He said, Did my mother and daddy get killed? Just like that. That's what he said. Now, folks, how would you like to be the bearer of bad news? I said, Paul, they're dead. Now, how would most people respond if you got that kind of information that your mother and daddy had been murdered by another loved one and your sister was dying? Most people fall apart at the seams and go into hysterics. Here's what he said. He said, Let us pray, my brother. Folks, I want to let you know I have never been in the presence of God in that situation. He got on his knees and I can't remember the exact prayer, but he said, God, I just want to thank you that my mother and daddy is in heaven. And I want to thank you for having him this long. God, I want to thank you for the peace I'm experiencing. I pray for my sister that she will live. And at that time, excuse me, he didn't know his brother-in-law had killed himself at that point. He said, I pray for my brother-in-law that you'll touch his heart and help him repent of this awful sin. God, he needs you. And the peace of God, I mean, he was in shock, but he had such peace. I went with him to the hospital. There was his sister with blood all over her. She was dying. I took him the next day up to where his parents had been shot and walked in the home with him. Not one time did he doubt the integrity of God. Phew! That boy knew something about peace. And Christians all over the place have nervous breakdowns when tragedy comes. You know why? Because they're not hooked up with one who can give them peace. That's why they're popping pills. That's why they're drinking liquor. That's why they're going to entertainment because they're trying to go to another source to get peace. What about the protection of God? The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Fear ye not. Stand still to see the salvation of the Lord which He will show you today. Fear not for they that be with us. It's more than for us. Can I tell you something? God takes good care of His young ones. Darlene Rose was a missionary and on her tape, you had her life story in your library. You ought to check it out and read that thing. I read a good bit the other night. Thrilled myself. She was a missionary and she was in a festive place. Listen ladies, how would you like to live in a place where you'd have to put mesh wire over your bed because big rats about the size of cats would get on there and try to get in there with you? And she slept through that stuff with rats going shh, shh, shh. You know what they'd do at night? Rats would get in and they'd actually chew through the door because they were so big and her and another lady would get out there and get brooms and beat those rats out the door. She said one night she got up and heard a bunch of monkeying around there. She went up there and there's one of these natives with a machete fixing to chop her head off. She said for some reason she took that broom and started chasing him. He ran out the door. Now that takes a miracle does it? Talking about protection of God. Here's a fellow with a machete and she gets her broom and says something and he takes off running. Do you know something? For the next number of years she was there, this is on the tape, I don't think it's in the book because I looked for it. She said those natives never came back. Years later after her husband had been martyred and she went to the states and actually went back to that place. How would you be willing to go back to the place where the very people you were menacing to were the ones who killed your loved one? Now we know nothing about that kind of commitment, folks. The minute something goes wrong we get mad at God and leave church. We know nothing about loving Jesus the way He is. We've got our own terms of service. She ran into one of the fellas that was out there and he had gotten saved and she asked him, she said, why didn't you fellas come in there and get us? He said, because those two big fellas with swords, that flaming swords wouldn't let us in. God had left two angels out there with flaming swords and those guys saw them and they actually flipped out and wouldn't come in there. There was a lady in the church I pastored in Hagerstown, her name was Miss Laura Stewart. I wish you could meet her. Eighty-six years old, one of the sweetest ladies I may have told you about the other night. She had a sister that in her seventies she started taking care of her sister who had Alzheimer's disease. She lived upstairs. Can you imagine an eighty-year-old lady taking care of her seventy-year-old sister who had Alzheimer's disease and her sister was a bit obese? But her sister had a strange habit. She would buy five-pound bags of peanuts and open her back door and feed squirrels in her room. Can you imagine walking in her room and finding about twenty squirrels jumping around eating? I mean, of course, you think about disease, you think about all kinds of stuff, you know, biting her sister and there's her sister feeding these squirrels out of her hand and she could not get her to quit. This went on for several years and she was concerned and she said, Lord, would you take care of this? Now, it's a true story. She said one day she woke up early in the morning and heard this quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, and there's a big old black crow out there. All morning long that crow was just jabbing, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, and she said, Lord, get that crow out of here. He's driving me crazy and she looked out the window and guess what happened? That old crow, the minute he saw a squirrel, he'd die by him and run him off and for just about a week that crow stayed there and ran every squirrel out of the community and those squirrels neighbor came back in the house. Is that protection? And you say, you say, my God can't take care of your problem? When I got saved, I moved back home after nine months. God had strengthened me enough to move back in that environment where all the dope dealers worked. And I played a game of basketball in my hometown with a bunch of boys in the gym. And it was one of these games where the black boys played the white boys, which was, you know, that's hot stuff, man, you know, just whip them. And I was playing, and I jumped out of bounds and jumped up in the air and threw the ball off one of the other player's legs. And I said to him, I said, it's out on you. That fellow jumped in my face. He said, you white blankety blank, I'm going to tell you, blankety blank. He did like this. And, and, you know, he was about my size. And in my old days, I may have tangled with the dude. Now, there had been a riot break out, but son, I was going to clean his clock, Brother Neal. And the Spirit of God said, you don't play in an environment like this. So I said, time out. And boy, he was all over me. And, you know, tension was up. I said, I'm quitting. And, you know, and it made it worse. And I said, what did you quit for? He said, my God told me I don't need to play in this environment. And that just set the whole crowd off. Well, I always carry a little red New Testament in my back pocket, Brother Jules. I've never done this, and I'll never do it again. That's just immaturity and zeal. I was walking out and doing that fellow just had just said one thing too much. I said, friend, come here. And he thought I was going to do what you want. I said, do you see this book? This is a Bible. I'm a child of God. I want to tell you what this Bible says about what you do. The Bible said it'd be better for you to have a rope tied around your neck and a boulder at the end of it, and you'd be thrown in the depth of the sea. And, friend, it wouldn't surprise me if God didn't send a lightning bolt through this ceiling and strike you dead if you wouldn't shut your mouth. It got deathly silent in that place, and this friend said, leave that dude alone, man. I just, true story, no exaggeration, because there are three old backslidden boys from my home church who went to the preacher and said, I've never seen anybody say that. And preacher, we were afraid that bolt would come through that boy so convinced that. Now, folks, what are you worrying about when God said, I'm your defender? What you worrying about your children for? What you worrying about your life for? Isn't it not in God's hand tonight? The peace of God, the protection of God, the provision of God, the perception of God, the presence of God. Is not our God big enough to keep us from worrying tonight? The last point is this. We can repent, we can have a revelation, but then we need to see our responsibility, and this is where you and I flunk out. What's the responsibility? Seek God and His Kingdom first. You know why some of you worry? You don't seek God first, you put Him in where He fits in. He's a bridge over troubled water. All the time some of you pray is when you get in trouble. Number two, you've got to pray, supplication, you've got to pray. Number three, you've got to be full of the Spirit. What's one of the fruit of the Spirit? Peace. If you're not full of the Spirit, you'll never have peace, you'll never believe God. What's another? The Scriptures. Great peace have they which love thy law. Nothing shall offend them. You know what this book does? Give me great and precious promises that when the circumstances tell me things are bad, this book tells me things are great. What are you going to believe? Your circumstances are God. What do you mean, preacher? I mean this Bible tells me what's really happening. That's God's Word to me. Don't you believe God over your circumstances? But boy, the circumstances are looking bad. Trust God. He said He'd take care of you. My friend Manly Beasley was in the hospital, died six times the year before he died. He had a ministry. You know how much his ministry needed every year, brothers? 400,000 years to operate. Why? Because once a year he went to Europe and brought in communist pastors that cost him 200,000 just to get them in. He paid the bill and taught them about revival for 17 years. Do you know what happened during that entire time he was in the hospital? He didn't have to cut one missionary. You know why? Because God gave him a promise. What was that? God would maintain the cause of the afflicted and he just believed what God said. And God just had people all over the country that did not even know he had needs in money. Now what would you do if you lost your job? Oh, you'd just absolutely, someone would absolutely have a conniption. What's the minute somebody gets sick? Oh my, we're just about ready to go under. Could it be because we don't have a real trust in Him? Could it be that we have misplaced priorities? Could it be that we have a misconception of the providence of God? And could it be that misfortunes have so pained our life that we've been programmed to think in the negative? Now, I'm going to make one other statement and then I'm going to close this out. Some of us have faith in faith. The people that talk the biggest about faith, a lot of times are those who have no faith at all. Why? Because faith produces spiritual work. There's always a product tagged to faith. You know, if you have faith, that's something, there's some substance out there you're going to have to have. That's either peace or money or healing or victory. Martha had counterfeit faith. I almost preached on Martha and Mary, the difference between striving and resting tonight. I might get to that, God gives me liberty. You know what Martha's problem was? She said, Jesus said, do you believe, He said, I believe you're the Christ. I believe you're the resurrection of life. But when it came to the tomb and Jesus said roll the stone away, you know what Martha said? He's been stinking the grave four days. And that's where your pastor said that verse. Jesus said, did not I say to you that if you'd believe, that you'd see the glory of God. Her problem was a faith problem. He was there. He could raise, if he hadn't said Lazarus, the whole crowd would have gotten up. Amen? If he'd said, get up, all those graves would open up, scared me to death. One dead man four days, but I saw one man raised from the dead. In the funeral home, don't you think you'd believe something? There's a bunch of worry warts in here tonight. There's one or two big ones. And you've made excuses all your life. Repent. Call it sin. And say, God, give me such a vision of you that I'll trust in you totally. The peace of God. The provision of God. The protection of God. The presence of God. He's here tonight. And bondages can be broken by him. Let's bow together in prayer. Our pianist is going to play, and God's spoken to you tonight. The prayer room's available. Many need to go there tonight. Because God doesn't want you to be tormented. Fear hath torment. But perfect love casteth out fear. Such a sweet spirit in here tonight, my brother, wasn't it? I wonder why. Because God's just given you a sample of what you can have personally. There's a sample. But see, you've got to be willing to adjust. And some of you are going to have to give it some of those toys you've got in your life. The movies you watch on TV. Your involvements in life. Your commitment in life. God's got to be first, or you won't have it. I'm going to pray, and then our pianist will play. It's up to you. God's given you a great proposal tonight. He's offering you himself. What a trade. You for God. The exchange life. Lord, set the captives free. Drive this day calm. Lord, free people of bondage. In Jesus' name, amen. If God's spoken, you can slip to the prayer room right now. Amen. Amen. Amen. You've got to call it sin. Quit making excuses. Worrying about dying. Worrying about losing your mate. Worrying about your children. Worrying about money. Worrying about your future. Worrying about what friends think about you. Who would say preacher God's speaking to me? I'm not a big worry warp, but there are times I certainly can worry.