Mike Bickle emphasizes the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 6:25-33, focusing on overcoming anxiety and fear, particularly in relation to finances and daily needs. He explains that anxiety can hinder our spiritual destiny and that we must prioritize seeking God's kingdom and righteousness over earthly concerns. Bickle highlights that God cares for us more than the birds and flowers, urging believers to trust in His provision and to resist the temptation to worry. He encourages a shift in mindset, advocating for a life free from anxiety through faith and reliance on God's promises.

Turn to Matthew chapter 6. Father, we thank you for this glorious understanding from Matthew 6 that you have given your people in the Sermon on the Mount. Lord, I ask you for understanding of it. Lord, that you would call our heart forward to you in a new way. We thank you in Jesus' name, amen. Well Matthew 6, verse 25 to 33 is our 17th session on the Sermon on the Mount. It's talking about overcoming anxiety, but related to money and provision and food and clothing, etc. So it is related to finances just like the passage before. Paragraph A, Jesus is addressing how we are to pursue our destiny related to finances. Now I don't mean just our financial destiny, but how we're to walk out our divine calling, walk out our divine assignment, and how we're to relate to money in a positive way and how to avoid relating to money in a negative way because we need money to walk out our divine assignment. Now our destiny begins in the Sermon on the Mount with walking out the eight beatitudes. My number one calling and destiny in life isn't what I do, but it's what I can become as a person that walks out the eight beatitudes. That's my highest destiny is in my walk with God. It's your highest destiny. But the issue of money or the lack of it gets in the way and it quenches our ability to walk out the eight beatitudes. But also our destiny is in Matthew chapter 5, verse 13 to 16, becoming light and salt. We all have a divine assignment. We have a mandate we're to walk out and that mandate over the years changes. But often because of fear related to finances, it quenches that mandate in our life. Or right here in Matthew 6, it talks about in verse 1 to 4, doing charitable deeds. But those deeds often get quenched and put to the side because we're afraid that we don't have enough money. Fear over finances shuts down so much of our destiny in our spiritual life. And so that's what Jesus is really talking about, how to remove the obstacles that shut down our destiny. Now the way that we pursue our destiny, I still hear in paragraph 8, is radically different than the way the world does. We have a, we carry our heart in a very different way. Because when the world thinks of their destiny, it's so deeply related to prominence and money that those are the two probably biggest issues when they pursue their destiny. But we can pursue our destiny with a free heart, with peace. You know the pressure on people as they're trying to achieve what they think their destiny in life is, I mean one of the main reasons for youth suicide is the pressure of not being able to attain to their destiny that their parents or somebody has put on them or themselves. So this anxiety of coming short of our destiny is a huge problem. I mean again, it's one of the major reasons for youth suicide, it's not the only reason. But not managing fear related to this, again it quenches our spirit in a major way. Verse 25, Matthew 6 verse 25, therefore, now that's the key word we're going to come to in a few moments, because therefore is going to link us back to verse 19 to 24. Jesus is not starting a new subject on anxiety. He is talking about how anxiety related to our life goals can quench and shut down our life goals. I'm talking about our kingdom goals. So verse 25, we'll get there in a moment, but therefore, I just want you to circle that word and make note of it because it's linking backwards to the subject he just completed. He says, I say to you, do not worry. Now, six times in this passage he says, do not worry. Because worry is one of the major issues or anxiety that destroys our spiritual life and it destroys our natural life too. It ruins relationships, it's fear and anxiety gets into the relationship. We talk different, we process different, we hear different, when we have anxiety in the relationship, it hinders the relationship. Doctors will tell you that anxiety is one of the leading causes of sickness. Just getting free of anxiety will make a lot of people healthy physically and it will restore a lot of relationships because they will talk to each other, they will hear each other differently when anxiety is minimized in their life. But again, anxiety shuts down our spiritual destiny as well. It's a killer, it's a thief. This is not a small issue. You know, a lot of folks will kind of make light of this, they say, well, I worry a lot. Worry is like cancer, emotional and spiritual cancer working in you. I have no doubt it's probably related to physical cancer in some situations. I'm not a doctor, I don't know how that really works. But it's certainly related to many illnesses. Simple anxiety is. So Jesus is talking about health right here, not just money and not just destiny. He says, verse 25, don't worry about your life. Now He points out the three main essentials of life, food, drink and clothing. And in verse 31, He points those out again. But in verse 25, He says, isn't your life, doesn't it consist in more than what you eat, what you drink or what you wear? Your life has a bigger purpose than that. Matter of fact, you have an eternal mandate. It's so much bigger than what you eat right now in this next season of your life or what you drink or what you wear. Why are you so fixated on that is what Jesus is saying. Verse 31, He says it again, don't worry, don't worry. He points out the three essentials of life again, about what you eat, what you drink, what you wear. Now in our modern world, we would throw in housing, we would throw in car, we would throw in cell phone and computer. But those aren't really essentials. Now coffee, that's you know, and I'd like to throw in air condition when it's hot. Those two are a little different. You can live without a computer, but anyway. Paragraph B, the King James uses the language, take no thought. You've heard that phrase, take no thought for tomorrow. That's the King James translation of this version that says do not worry. And the take no thought, I don't like that because it can easily lead you to non-biblical conclusions. Because the Bible tells us to plan for tomorrow. The Bible never says take no thought for tomorrow. I think that's a disastrous translation. We are supposed to think about tomorrow, but we're to think about it through godly wisdom, not through a spirit of anxiety. So he's not telling us not to plan, he's saying don't plan with anxiety. That's what he's saying. But plan with godly wisdom and confidence that you and the Holy Spirit are in partnership together. Paragraph C, he says the word therefore. And again, it points back to the topic he just covered in verse 19 to 24. And in verse 19 to 24, he made three major points. He said everyone has to choose what their primary treasure is, in verse 19 to 20. Is it earthly treasure or heavenly treasure? Then he says everyone has to choose the lifestyle they're going to live. They're going to be increasing in light or they're increasing in darkness, even believers. The way, because of the choices they're making. He's talking to believers in this whole sermon. Some believers, they have light, but the choices they make, they're actually growing in darkness. They're diminishing the light by their lifestyle as born again believers. And then he talks again to believers, he says you have to make a determination who is your primary master, God and his values, or money and earthly treasure. So he's kind of repeating the same thing again. But here's the point. When he says therefore in verse 25, therefore do not worry, he's saying the only way you're going to be equipped emotionally to overcome the dominion of worry, because worry has dominion in so many believers' lives. He's saying the only way you will get free of it is not just divine information that God is good, and we're going to get that in a minute, and Jesus is going to point out that revelation that God is good, but he's going to say you have to make choices to live for heavenly treasure, to pursue light, and to make God your master in reality, or you won't have the internal mindset to overcome anxiety. Now a lot of people skip the word therefore, and they just futilely try to overcome anxiety without linking it in, anchoring it into, making heavenly treasure the priority over earthly treasure in their life. They skip that part, and they try to go to a prayer line to get free from anxiety. And I think you can get some freedom from anxiety in a prayer line, but it's only temporary. It's kind of like a shot in the arm, like an adrenaline shot that kind of catalytically to jumpstart you, but if you don't make radical decisions to make earthly treasure secondary to heavenly treasure in reality, not just poetically, but real, you're not going to be equipped to overcome this thief, this taskmaster called worry that plagues the whole human race spiritually, relationally, as well as physically it plagues the human race. So what he says, that if you will make a fierce determination that you will live for God as your master, and for heavenly treasure, and for light, you will live with a very different paradigm. You'll have different goals. You'll process information differently. The information that causes your friend to worry doesn't cause you to worry because you're aiming at a different target as your life goal. Now I want to live free from worry because that is one of the most liberating ways to live. I mean to be fascinated with Jesus and to be liberated from anxiety, I mean that's the kingdom of God. We were not created to live under the taskmaster and the thief of anxiety, though so many believers seemingly are content to live there, and they shrug it off, you know me, I just worry a lot. I think, no, that means your life is in disarray on the inside, and I think that's the vast majority of the people in the kingdom of God. Maybe it's not. I hope not, but I fear that it is. Because we only have liberty over anxiety on Jesus' terms. And His terms are in the five verses before verse 25, verse 19 to 24, and in the verses that follow verse 25, the four principles that He's going to lay out for us. It's only in that context can we hope to enjoy liberty from anxiety. Paragraph D, He says in verse 25, also your life, it's much more than food and clothing. It's much more than even, it's not just clothing, having enough clothing to be warm and protected, but even today, the fashion-minded mindset of the earth today that's consumed with what they wear. Jesus is saying, take a step back. Your life is so much more than looking cool, if you could only grasp that. And so much anxiety is linked to our clothing. The fear of not having clothing in the essential way, or fear of not having the right clothing we could add in our day. And it creates so much fear and competition and rejection and anxiety, and so much vain imagination in people's minds about, will they be accepted, not be accepted? Will it work, not it work? And Jesus is saying, that's the wrong conversation to be living with. You're supposed to be in conversation with me, not with yourself managing all of that rejection and fear and anxiety, because He has bigger things for us. Beloved, we're called to enjoy the kingdom and the king, and to promote the kingdom and the king, and to experience the kingdom and the king, that's what we're called to in verse 33, He lays it out. But anxiety will quench that in our lives. Roman numeral 2, I mean, yes, Roman numeral 2, the four reasons that Jesus gives why we are to actively resist anxiety. He gives us four reasons to strengthen us, so that we can not yield to this devastating life-destroying mindset that's so common. That we wouldn't yield to it, we wouldn't succumb to it. We can enjoy the liberty of having a vibrant spirit. The four, well, I'll say them, one, two, three, four, and then we'll look at them just a minute or two on each one. We are more valuable to God than all the rest of creation that God has proven throughout history that He cares for. He's going to say, Jesus is going to say, the Father has proven through history, His care for the birds and His care for the lilies of the field, the flowers, the wildflowers, and He's going to draw a few principles related to that. He's going to say, if God has proven that He cares for them, how much more does He care for you? That's point one. That's reason number one. And He'll give a few, some of His rationale and develop that in the verses ahead. Number two, He tells us, worry doesn't add anything to your life. This negative imagination about how bad things might be never, ever enhances your life. That's the second reason. He goes, He's very pragmatic. He goes, it doesn't gain you anything. It saps your energy, hurts your relationships, gets in the way of your dialogue with God, hurts your money, hurts your body, and you don't gain nothing. Why are you living in that vain imagination about how bad things are probably going to be tomorrow? And more times than not, they never even end up that way. Number three, the reason that we are to actively resist anxiety. God knows all of our needs. This idea that when we see that God sees us, when we understand He's actually watching with the intention to intervene. Beloved, that's one of the most dynamic realities in life. Then number four, He tells us, today has enough trouble. Let tomorrow take care of itself. There will be grace tomorrow when you get there tomorrow, is the idea. You can't picture tomorrow with peace, solving all the imaginary problems, and some of the problems are real, and some of the problems are exaggerated, and some of the problems are completely fabricated. Some are real, some are real but exaggerated, and some are totally fabricated. And Jesus says, you don't have grace today for the problem that happens tomorrow. I haven't given it to you. So you're on your own processing all of the potential negatives of yesterday with anxiety. And the reason Jesus does it this way, I mean, because He could give us grace for like a week at a time. I've suggested that to Him a few times. You know, like in the Old Testament, they picked up manna every morning, and they could not pick up manna enough for the next day except for on the Sabbath, or the day before the Sabbath. If they picked up manna on Monday and they got a little greedy and they got enough manna for Tuesday, the manna would rot and worms would get in it. And the Lord's given a principle, He goes, I'll meet you today for today. Why? Give me grace a month at a time, it will save you time and save me time, and we'll both be happier. Again, I've suggested that, He's never, He doesn't take any of my suggestions. And the reason He wants dialogue in the present tense with us, He goes, no, if I give you grace for a week, and you have peace for a week from now, you won't talk to me for a week, and I'm so committed to the relationship with you. I'll give you grace one day at a time. Lord, I'm different than those other guys. I'll talk to you, just give me the grace and the money a month ahead of time. He doesn't. Okay, let's look at these, each one of these four reasons. Paragraph B, first one, we are more valuable to God than the rest of creation, the rest of creation. Verse 26 to 30, now Jesus reasons from the lesser to the greater, meaning the lesser is His care for the birds and His care for the flowers of the field, the birds of the air. If He cares for the lesser, then it only is logical He cares for the greater, which is His children that are His eternal children. Now, worry results from not seeing that God cares. And the devil is there regularly to really stir this up in our imagination. Now Jesus is going to use two illustrations from nature, first the birds of the air and then the flowers of the field. But the premise, before we look at this, I have written here, God gave dominion, you've got to understand this or you might apply this passage wrong. God gave humans, Adam and Eve, dominion over creation. Back in Genesis 1, here's what this means. It means that we have a role in partnership with God in the bringing forth of God's purposes in creation. And what I mean by we have a role, there are natural means that God requires us to employ while He blesses us in the overall miracle of creation. Like if the farmer doesn't plant the seed, God won't plant it for him. God will cause the miracle of the seed to grow, but the farmer has to plant the seed. The farmer has to pull the weeds. God won't pull the weeds. God won't plant the seeds. But the farmer can't make the miracle of life come forth in a seed. God says, I'll take care of that part and I'll produce the sun and the rain. I will do all of that. But you do your small part, but your part is critical. But your part, when all the information is laid out, your part is essential, but it really is small. That's the point He's going to make in a minute. Meaning, I don't care how diligent you plant seeds and you plant the seed and you water and weed the seed, I don't care how diligent you are, it doesn't compare to the miracle of that life and that seed being produced. I mean, God's impact or God's part far exceeds our part. So even though there are natural means, or some people use the term secondary causes, meaning the farmer planting the seed, the miracle of the harvest is still far beyond the effort of the farmer. It's like our prayer life. I mean, we pray. Think about what prayer is. It's so weak. We tell God what He tells us to tell Him. Prayer can't earn anything. I hear people say, we're praying to earn something. Forget it. I mean, the miracle of what He does, because we mutter out what He tells us to tell Him, I mean, we like bring one dollar to put it on the table. God puts a million on the table. We mix it all up and forget whose is whose. That's how He runs all of creation, but we do have to bring our part to the relationship. That's the point. Now He's going to look at the birds. He says, go look at the birds. And different preachers have made sermons about, you know, the birds are our teachers. You know, our seminary in the sky is the birds. Look at the birds. And we really need to consider the lesson of the birds. They don't sow. They don't plant seeds like a farmer. They don't reap. They don't pull out the tractor and reap. They don't store the grain in the barn. They don't do any of that. But in the context of the created order, they still get fed. And the point is, aren't you more valuable than they are? Now number one, it's important to understand this. This is a key point because some miss it. The birds are very diligent and industrious. The birds don't sit on a lamb, open their beak, and God extends a angelic hand and puts a worm in their mouth. He doesn't do that. He doesn't send an angel and the birds go, I'm just going to kick back on the lamb. Well, then in what sense does God feed birds? I mean, they have to search for their food. They pick for their food sometimes. They hunt their food. I mean, they fly miles to get food. I mean, that must be a lot of work to fly miles. Here's the point. The birds are very hardworking. But even with all their hard work, they're very industrious, they still are dependent on God to do more than they do. That's the point. I mean, though they fly and though they go dig that worm, still the miracle that the worm can give them nutrient in life is far bigger than the work they bring to get the worm. Now, here's the point. The point isn't that birds should not work, they should just chill out and lay back and let God give them worms. That's not the point. The point is God will do more than their effort can ever accomplish, but their effort is critical. Now, he says, now look, verse 26, humans, they have a lot more advantage than birds do. They're far more skillful. Humans can plant the fields. Humans can reap with a tractor, farmers. Humans can gather into barns and have food for tomorrow. So you have, he's saying, you have so many more advantages of skill and you have so much more advantage of the fact of your value to me because birds are here today and gone tomorrow and you live forever. You're my children. So if I, says the Lord, will use the process of creation of a bird working, but I will give the bird far more than the bird could ever achieve by their own effort and the birds are temporary, but you're eternal, but you even have skills way beyond them. Why shouldn't you even trust more? You have more going for you than the birds do in terms of value and in terms of skill. You could even store it in the barn and even it's my process to help you do that. So why are you so nervous? Look at creation. I have for thousands of years proven that I take care of birds and I take care of people. That's what he's saying. Birds are not as valuable nor as skillful. And so we are valuable and skillful, but God says, how much more than will I take your labor and give you far more than your labor could produce? That's what he's saying here. Okay, let's look at top of page two. So what I'm saying here in A, B, and C, this idea of trusting God for provision is not an endorsement for a lazy lifestyle, not because we, it's, we are involved in the creation processes that God has given to humans to participate like the birds have their role to participate, but we have to participate in the process. But the return is far beyond what we could do. Again, a farmer can plant and sow, but the miracle of making a seed turn into grain is far beyond the work of planting and sowing. God says, take a step back, think it through. Think it through how consistently miraculous I am in sustaining creation. And you are eternal. You are my children. How much more will I do this for you if I do it for birds? Number two, now he's going to go to a second illustration. This isn't about birds of the air with food. This is lilies of the valley or lilies of the field with clothing. He's going to talk about clothing now. He's going to illustrate God's care and extravagance in providing for covering and clothing. Verse 28, he goes, just like the issue with birds, let's look at clothing. Birds and food, flowers and clothing, the two analogies. Look at the lilies of the field, and the word lilies, as commentators will say, applies to many different types of beautiful wild flowers, you know, in the hillsides of Galilee, et cetera. They're so magnificent. Some of the many different types of flowers, so it's not limited to lilies. The Greek word here. Now he says, Jesus says, notice, they don't toil, meaning they don't cultivate fields and try to make them beautiful, like a farmer does. They don't spin. They're not like the woman who takes the material and turns it into a beautiful garment. So they don't cultivate beautiful fields outside, and they don't spin and make beautiful garments through labor in their house. They don't do either one of those. They don't have that ability like humans do, but they are arrayed, in other words, they're clothed with more beautiful garments than wealthy King Solomon. Now King Solomon was the wealthiest man in the world in his day. He was King David's son, and Solomon was famous for wealth and wisdom, and he had the most beautiful, elegant garments, and he was well known for that. Jesus said, these flowers are actually more beautiful than the clothing of Solomon, and they don't do the cultivation of fields nor the sewing of clothes like Solomon had the ability to do, but they actually are more beautiful than Solomon. How did that happen? I hear in verse 30, if God so clothed the grass of the field, or these flowers, many different types of wildflowers, they are alive today, and a few days or a few weeks, they're gone. They're dried out, and when they're dried out, they're gathered and thrown into the oven as fuel to make the food in the houses in the ancient world. I mean, they only lived a few days, a few weeks, maybe a few months, then they dried out, and they were fuel for an oven for food in the house. So God says, take it all the way through. He goes, we have these lilies, these wildflowers that have no ability like humans do. They don't have longevity like humans do. They burn overnight. I mean, they're gone in a few days, a few weeks, a few months, depends on which flower you're talking about. But God says, I'm so careful and extravagant to bring them forth adequately and in beauty. If I will do it for an unskilled flower that can't toil or spin, and for a short-term flower that's going to be fuel for somebody's oven tomorrow, won't I do it for you? What are you thinking? That I probably won't do it for you. Who gave you that idea? Then he says at the end of verse 30, oh, you of little faith. And in the place of the word faith, you could put the word, oh, you of little confidence. But in other words, you could put, in terms of a practical application, oh, you of little dialogue with God. You could put the word dialogue in many times where it's faith. I mean, it doesn't mean that in the Greek, that's not what I'm saying. But in real practical life, it means that, I mean, that's a part of what faith is. Oh, you of little dialogue with God's heart. Or you could put the word, oh, you of little insight into what my father's like and what history has proven about how diligent and careful he is over things far less valuable than you. Because you have so little insight. You're so focused on yourself, you can't see the theater of beauty that testifies of God's diligent, consistent, historic care for that which is far less important than you are. He goes, look, I'm shouting at you everywhere you look. I take care of my creation. I intervene. He does require means or secondary causes. He does require, again, the birds to go flying at the worm. He cares. He requires the farmer to plant the seed. He does require that. But what he gives is so much beyond what their effort could ever do. Okay, now notice he says, here in verse 28, to consider, consider the lilies. Paragraph A, learn from them. He says, look at these uncultivated fields. They were not laid out strategically for beauty. They became beautiful on their own. There was no intelligent design of a farmer cultivating the field. And they're short-lived wildflowers. They don't even have a purpose. Over a few days, a few weeks, a few months, and then they're in the oven. But God is so faithful in it. How much more will He do this for you? Okay, let's look at paragraph C, reason number two. He says, worry doesn't add anything. Which of you, by worrying, can add one cubit to his stature? Now that's a, that's not a good translation, in my opinion, and I'm not a Greek scholar. But reading many commentators on this, they all agree with this. That the word cubit is a, is the span of a man's hand. Or sometimes they would measure things like this. It's a span. So it would mean a lifespan or the height, the span of somebody's height. So a cubit could talk about how high you, how tall you are, or how long you live when it's connected to this word stature. So he's really saying, which of you, by worrying, can add more height to your body? That's not what he's saying. Which of you, worrying, could add more longevity to your life? That's the point he's making, and I break that down a little bit in the notes here. I only say that so you can make sense of this, of this principle here. Jesus is saying, you can't make yourself taller, and you can't make your life longer without the work of God involved. So you're going to need the work of God. So worry can't make it happen. It's going to take the working of God if you're going to be taller, or you're going to live longer. Now, a cubit is 18 inches. You know, a lot of guys, they don't want to be 18 inches taller. Anyway, that's another problem for another day. So he's talking about the length of life, paragraph one. Worry is more likely to shorten our life than it is to lengthen our life. That's obvious. That's medically proven, because so many illnesses are linked to worry. And a great medicine, I mean, it's connected to just believing Jesus to heal you, but I tell you, there's another part of that same medicine. It's giving thankfulness that He's looking at you and providing, because that's preventive medicine. Getting free of anxiety will spare us of many illnesses. And the medicine is thanksgiving. Take a little dose of thanksgiving every day for about two or three years, and a lot of illnesses will go away. If people could just say, thank you God, your eyes are on me. Thank you that my life is planned. Thank you that my times are in your hands. Thank you that you've done so much already for me. Instead of anxiety, that medicine will actually cure many people, in that preventive medicine sense. Top of page three. So why worry? It doesn't add anything, is reason two. You know, I've said this over the years, I'm sure I got it from somebody, but I've said it for 30 years. I forgot who I got it from, but somebody says, well, aren't you worried about tomorrow? I mean, what's going to happen? In many situations, you know, everybody, you know, if you've been around a while, you've got so many situations that could go bad. And I said, no, I said, I'm not going to pay twice. I worry today, and then next month it happens, and then I worry then. I pay two times for this, I pay the bill twice for the same problem. I go, no way. And I mean that. I said, I am not going to pay two times. I'm not going to pay the bill twice. And about 90% of the time I get there, I don't even have to pay the bill once. I said, I'm just not going to do it. If when I get there that day, it turns out disastrous, and I don't have any confidence that God can help, well, then I'm in big trouble. But then I will start worrying, but I'm not going to worry until then. I'm going to get there and be convinced God can't help me, then I will start worrying. But I'm certainly not going to worry now. Reason number three, Jesus said, don't worry, he says it six times, about the essentials again, what you eat, what you drink, or what you wear. And the reason God knows, he knows what we need, and he's proven in history through our first reason, through the birds and the flowers, that he does interact, he does intervene. Our number one need is to be able to see that God sees us. If we can see that he sees us, a thousand lesser spiritual problems are taken care of. I mean, our hugest need is we can't see that he sees us. And when we do, the fear and anxiety goes way down. I mean, the measuring our life by somebody else goes way down. Wondering if our clothes are cool enough and everybody will like us, the thing goes down. When we connect with God's eyes, and that's what Jesus is saying right here. Because actually, worry is losing the awareness that God is looking at us. Like I said, if something's going to happen bad in a month, well, when I get there, I'm better that day, and if I am convinced on that day that even God can't help me, then I'll worry, but I don't even want to think such a thought. I mean, there's no such thing as even God can't help me. So there's no point in worrying. I mean, the miracle of God could come any moment. And that's the way he leads in the relationship, because he keeps us dialoguing with him right through the process. Anxiety I have here is confidence in the wrong things. Our negative imagination is what we end up with confidence in, our negative imagination, or the words coming from somebody else's negative imagination. And many times, that negative imagination that I have, or that a friend has, when it's devoid of confidence in God, the devil takes advantage of it and inspires it with demonic power called the spirit of fear. Beloved, my negative imagination or yours, or your friend or my friend that's talking to me with a negative imagination, and a demon sees that we're disconnected from confidence with God in that mindset, he will see that vulnerability and inspire with demonic power a spirit of fear, and the thing will escalate to another level. Then again, you'll talk to people different, you'll talk with anxiety, you'll be meaner to them, you will push harder, you won't listen clearly, you won't speak clearly, listen clearly, understand clearly, smoke is in your eyes, it hurts relationships, it hurts your body, it hurts your spiritual life, it hurts your finances, it's just smoke in our eyes. Ugh, sounds horrible. Reason number four, paragraph E, God gives sufficient grace for today. This is a strange concept, I mean, what Jesus says, I mean, strange to our, surprising is what I mean. Verse 34, he says, don't worry about tomorrow, there it is, he says it, worry again, for tomorrow will worry for its own things. That's the part that's unusual. That's proverbial. It's a proverb type thing. He's saying tomorrow, when you get there, the situation will be such that it will take care of itself, and if you want to go negative, you'll have reason to be negative, if you want to go positive, you'll have reason for positive, wait till tomorrow before you decide how you're going to feel about tomorrow. Don't decide today how you're going to feel about tomorrow, because tomorrow has its own trouble. He goes, I'll give you grace tomorrow, but I'm not giving it to you today to process tomorrow. Because if I do, you won't talk to me tomorrow, and I'm so jealous for the relationship of father-son, father-daughter, I so love the dialogue that I'm actually going to withhold the grace for tomorrow till tomorrow. Now it's interesting, this touch of reality here. He says in number three, Jesus reminds them that tomorrow has its own trouble, and the word for trouble is the word translated many times as the word evil. Tomorrow has its own evil. So Jesus wasn't telling us that we would never be troubled by circumstances, he was telling us our heart didn't have to be troubled by them. He goes, trouble will touch our circumstances, and there will be miracles to avoid it, there will be grace of God to endure it, there will be authority to change it, so we can avoid it sometimes, change it sometimes, and endure it sometimes, and he'll give us grace to live in the midst of that trouble and to avoid it, to change it, or to endure it. But our heart doesn't have to get involved in the trouble. You know when Jesus was with the disciples out in the sea, the storm came on the sea, and the storm got inside of each of the disciples, they were absolutely freaked out, they were screaming and hollering, ah, we're dead, we're dead, we're dead. The storm never got inside of Jesus. The storm was always on the outside, and what Jesus is saying here, the storms will come, but the storm doesn't have to get on the inside. Jesus was sound asleep, like a little baby sleeping in the midst of a storm, because the storm never got on the inside. Now he tells us, I got a few things written here that, number four, I'll just read number four, his provision for necessities is not a promise that our life will be trouble-free, but our life can be free from anxiety, though trouble and circumstances does not have to mean trouble in our heart and anxiety. Romans number three, now he gives the key point here. This is the highlight of the whole thing. Seek first the kingdom. Seek God's kingship in your life and in the nations, the spread of the kingdom. Seek righteousness. Now he's not talking about the gift of righteousness. We're given the gift of righteousness as a free gift, but when we receive the gift of righteousness, we are to hunger that righteousness would increase in our own life, and that righteousness would spread through our labors. He says here, seek righteousness. In other words, invest time and energy to grow in it. In Matthew five, verse six, he said, be hungry for it, hunger and thirst for it. The whole language of wholehearted commitment, read paragraph A, right here, seeking first the kingdom, top priority, this idea of it being top priority, this is the same language of verse 19 to 24, the passage we just looked at. Number one, seeking righteousness implies not a passive kind of casual approach to righteousness, making it more important that our money, our honor, and our comfort, making righteousness more important than getting more money. If we lose money because we choose righteousness, we've chose right. If we lose relationships, or we lose some promotion in the eyes of man because of righteousness, we've chosen right. You just want to do it with love. So it's not, you chose righteousness, but you're a little mean and defensive about it. Don't do it that way, because you might lose the relationship because you're mean and defensive, not because you chose righteousness. I've seen some pretty mean, righteous people, and that, of course, is not really righteous, but you know what I mean. Righteousness is the distinctive lifestyle of a believer. We have comfort or righteousness, Jesus says, choose righteousness. Top of page four. Now what I have here, I'm not going to read it, but I just want to leave it with you. Paragraph B, C, D, and E. I describe briefly, but I give you a grid to think about, how about believers in famine-stricken zones of the earth? How are they supposed to relate to this? And Jesus actually doesn't, in paragraph C, He doesn't address Christians in famine or Christians in persecution. That's not His point. His point here is that people would have confidence that their Heavenly Father, they can trust their Heavenly Father. That's what He's focused on here. You can go to Romans chapter 8, I don't have it written down here, verse 19 to 22, where Jesus talks about, I mean the scripture, Paul talks about how sin, in the general sense, has affected creation and has contributed some to famine. Sin. He talks about how sin, even in the specific situation, various regions of the earth, they defy God and there are consequences of drought and famine. But some of them aren't related to a situation of people in that time, but just sin in general being a part of the human race. Jesus is not addressing those theological issues right here. But whatever you do, you don't take this passage and go to a person in a region devastated by famine and tell them they don't have faith. Well, Matthew 6 says, if you had faith you'd have food. No, because there's other theological constructs of which famine and persecution and judgments of disasters are explained in other theological constructs, not here in Matthew 6. That was not Jesus' point here. Paragraph F, I'm going to give you three principles. No, paragraph G, three principles. God has not promised us abundance. Now, everybody abundance. He does give abundance, but you never know who's going to get the full abundance. But He does promise us our necessities. He does promise that. He doesn't promise us freedom from work. We have to work. He doesn't promise us freedom from responsibility to help other people in need, and I skipped that point a minute ago. You'll have to read the notes if you want. And He doesn't promise us freedom from all trouble in our circumstances. What He promises us is freedom from worry and freedom from lack of basic necessities. And again, there are those regions of the earth with famine and drought that there's a bigger question, I mean there's a bigger situation theologically to address if you're going to address that in a responsible way. So the three things, paragraph H, one, we have to work to earn our living. Number two, we're not exempt from helping the Christians in the famine areas because part of the way God meets their need is through other believers that have more than their basic necessities. And number three, we're not exempt from experiencing trouble. My very favorite paragraph of this whole thing is this last one, which I'm going to leave it to you, but it's the life that's free from anxiety. It's called the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. Gentle and quiet spirit means free from anxiety. It is so precious to God when we live free from anxiety. It's so beautiful to God, and I give you a little bit on that, but I'm going to end with that now. I'm going to invite you to stand. I'm going to ask the Lord just to touch some of you. Again, anxiety is a killer. It's a killer spiritually, it's a killer physically, it's a killer relationally, and the enemy is stirring us all up with anxiety. I mean there's not a person in this room that doesn't struggle with it, but struggling with it doesn't mean, battling is what I mean by, doesn't mean we have to yield to it. Beloved, let's resist this thing by moving in the opposite spirit of it. But if you're in the room and you're saying, I would like prayer for this, because I am strong. Again, everybody battles this in one way or the other, but we don't have to yield to it just because we're battling it. If you would like prayer for this, I'm going to invite you to come up and stand on these lines. We're going to take a few minutes to pray over you. We've got to rush through this. It's a glorious passage. I just really want you to study it more, read through this a little bit more, maybe even tonight if you're here for another hour or two, go through the notes and talk to Jesus about it, because we covered it so fast. It's so glorious. I want to lead you in repentance. Repentance means changing your mind, that's what repentance means. We change our mind, we're going to have confidence in what God says, not confidence in our negative imagination. We're going to break our agreement with our negative imagination. We all have a good, healthy dose of negative imagination, we all do. But it takes effort, it takes a conscious decision to denounce it, to defy it. And not just once, and to speak God's Word, these verses in Matthew 6, take these verses and speak them back to the enemy when you have anxiety. Say, God cares for the flowers of the field, He will care for me, it is written. Take a moment and say, Lord, I just, I go to war against this. I declare war on this, I want to live liberated. I want to live free from this. I don't want to be driven to a place where my life is hurt relationally and financially and physically and spiritually and every other way. So many families are injured because of anxiety, and they speak to each other with anxiety. They listen with anxiety, and they respond back in anxiety, it's horrible. I break my agreement with it, and Holy Spirit, I say yes to Your Word. Lord, I ask You, I ask You for the Spirit of grace. I ask for the Spirit of grace to come right now, touch our hearts. Because in a prayer time, we can get, you know, it's like a little jump start, a little catalytic boost, you know, but we've got to agree with the Word or it won't stay. So Lord, I ask for a Spirit of grace. I rebuke the spirit of anxiety, and I rebuke the spirit of fear right now. I ask for grace, kind of something to touch tonight, while we're getting a hold of the Word to speak the Word back to the enemy. It's my shepherd. Jesus, You are. I won't be wanting. You are my shepherd, Jesus. I won't be wanting. I believe Your Word, Lord. I declare, I will not yield to fear. You are with me. You're always with me. Even when I'm walking. I'm going to invite folks to come up and pray for folks. Just pray that a Spirit of grace will touch them tonight. A Spirit of glory will rest on them. I will not yield. Father, I ask You even now by Your Spirit to come. You are with me. Release a Spirit of grace on their hearts. You're always with me. Maybe I'm 40 or 50 of you. Come on up. Pray for two or three people each. Lord, I ask You for prophetic dreams. I ask You for a Spirit of glory to rest on them.