How To Change Your Relationship with Anxiety | Matthew 6:25-34 | Pastor Neil McClendon

Are you struggling with anxiety because your definition of life is too small? Discover biblical tools to reframe your perspective and trust in the fatherly provision of God.

In this sermon, Lead Pastor Neil McClendon preaches through Matthew 6:25–34, addressing how believers can change their relationship with anxiety. Unpack why anxiety is often the byproduct of an insufficient definition of life, explore what we can learn from the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, and discover how recovering a right view of God's infinite value and care frees us from worry about tomorrow.

In this episode, we cover:

• A Proper Definition of Life: Why reducing life to what we eat, drink, or wear leads directly to anxiety.
• A Motivating Perspective: Learning from the birds that God's provision is far more reliable than our human performance.
• A Right View of Yourself: Embracing the unique value God places on human beings as image-bearers.
• A Biblical View of Anxiety: Understanding how anxiety exposes where our faith is placed and why small faith results from placing trust in finite things.
• A Right View of the Father: Resting in a Heavenly Father who knows every need before we even ask.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

It's what I call a proper definition of life. A proper definition of life. This has explosive consequence for us if you think about it, because on the surface, it looks like Jesus is saying, Don't be anxious. Hear it again, verse 25. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you'll eat or what you'll drink, or about your body, what you will put on. And then he asks this great question Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Okay? And so really what happened when I say it could have explosive consequences for us when you think about it. Because on the surface, it looks like Jesus is kind of issuing this moralism. Hey, don't be anxious. But really, when you look a little deeper, what he's really saying is the way you define life is insufficient. And this is what is making you anxious. This is why he says it's not life more than food and the body more than clothing. Because when we shrink life down to what you eat, what you drink, or how you look, when you put on that lady's thing you bought that you really feel good about, and what he says is you're going to be anxious because anxiety is the byproduct of an insufficient definition of life.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. For more information about Grand Parkway, visit our website at grandparkway.org.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Pray together, church. Lord, when we sing a song like that, and then it takes uh that every time we call your name, something comes out of the grave. Uh that that's not foreign to us. It's very familiar because we as people that were born again came out of the grave. We were born spiritually dead, but because you're rich in mercy, you made us alive. You acted upon us with a force, with a power that only God has. And so it's not foreign to us, it's very familiar. And so I'm gonna ask you, God, to do what only you can do, and from your word and by your spirit. Put some things to death in this room today and bring some things to life in us. Put some things to death and bring some things to life in us. From your word and by your spirit, God, would you do that? You didn't come to make bad people good, you came to make dead people spiritually alive. And I pray that people would stop trying to fake it, stop trying to convince their parents that this really is true. I really do believe this. If they're spiritually dead, just be dead. Then you have a you have the chance to experience life. But if you fake it, people think you're alive. So can we get tired of faking it today in this room, God? And just be honest and truthful and real. And so, Lord, we come to your word as honest people for all the believers in this room who've been raised from from death to life. Uh Lord, increase our capacity to enjoy life today and to define it appropriately. We pray in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, Amen. You can have a seat. If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Matthew chapter 6. And if you're our guest today, we're preaching through the gospel of Matthew. We preach through books of the Bible. Uh, we think that's the best best way to nourish the faith of a congregation over the long haul instead of jumping from topic to topic to topic. And today we're in Matthew chapter 6, verses 25 to 34. And I want to talk to you about how to change your relationship with anxiety, how to change your relationship with anxiety. And look at me, I want to just confess I don't have a formula. I'm not naive. I don't want to be novel. I just want to be faithful to what the biblical text says. And so Jesus is talking to people. Uh nothing's really changed. If anything, anxiety has gotten more prominent and more crippling and destructive to people in our day and age than it was back then. But it existed back then, which is why Jesus says what he says. So I just want to jump into the text and so we can just get into it. Matthew chapter 6, verse 25, Jesus says this therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you'll eat or what you will drink, nor about your body what you will put on. Is life not more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the bird, excuse me, look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, he will will he not much more clothe you? Oh, you have little faith. Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Now, when I say how to change your relationship with anxiety, I want to point to five things in the text that I think if we could reclaim and recapture these things, you have some tools in your arsenal to push back when anxiety kind of pushes in on you. And the first one is right there in verse 25, and it's what I call a proper definition of life. A proper definition of life. This has explosive consequence for us if you think about it, because on the surface, it looks like Jesus is saying, Don't be anxious. Hear it again, verse 25. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you'll eat or what you'll drink, or about your body, what you will put on. And then he asks this great question Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Okay? And so really what happened, when I say it could have explosive consequence for us when you think about it, because on the surface, it looks like Jesus is kind of issuing this moralism. Hey, don't be anxious. But really, when you look a little deeper, what he's really saying is the way you define life is insufficient. And this is what is making you anxious. This is why he says it's not life more than food and the body more than clothing. Because when we shrink life down to what you eat, what you drink, or how you look, when you put on that lady's thing you bought that you really feel good about, and what he says is you're going to be anxious because anxiety is the byproduct of an insufficient definition of life. Okay? Now, now again, I'm not trying to be formulaic and I'm not saying, oh, if you struggle with anxiety, something's wrong with you. Nope, not saying that at all. I'm just saying there are some tools that we can put in our belt today to help us push back when anxiety kind of pushes in. Uh, now the the way we define life is is super important, and there's this trend today that is producing an epidemic of tomorrow that people are starting to write about. And here's the trend. Uh, the trend is to make all the money you can, then retire. Like I was talking to someone in counseling recently, uh, and the guy owns a couple of companies, and he kept dropping this two-word phrase, and he was like, you know, private equity and private equity, and private equity is buying up everything, and hopefully I'm gonna grow both these businesses, and then private equity buy me out, and I'll be I'll be golden. Uh, and I want to retire when I'm 55. And he said, How old are you? I said, I'm 61, so I'm way past retirement age in your book. And he goes, Well, I'm 47, I'm just gonna work till I'm 55. And I said, That's great. I think it's wonderful, but here's let me caution you against this. Be careful because the trend today, and and he said private equity so much. At one point I said, Private equity is not your savior. And that didn't go over very well. And he said, because he came back with this, kind of condescending, which I that's my kind of party. He said, Well, I don't expect you to understand because you pastor a church. I said, You don't think private equity wants to buy this? Come on, man. I think Blackstone's gonna call me tomorrow and want to like push a number across the table. And he goes, So you know about this? I said, uh, yeah. Well, let me say again, private equity is not your savior, because the trend of today is like my friend, they got they're gonna build it and then sell it, and then he said, Then we're gonna decide where we want to live. And I'm like, I think it's great. Uh I decide where you want to live. But here's the thing the trend of today, but it's become the epidemic of tomorrow because people execute this master plan. I guess somebody advocated somewhere in a book or whatever, and they get to where they want to live. He said, Savannah, we're thinking about Savannah, Nashville, maybe California. Like, not California, don't go there. It's not going well out there. Uh uh, but anyway, and I said, I don't care where you live, I don't care if you sell your two companies to private equity and make a gazillion dollars like Forrest Gump, okay? Here's what I care about. Make sure you have a sufficient definition for the term life, for this thing called life. He goes, What do you mean? Because there's an epidemic of people. The trend today is this the epidemic of tomorrow is people get to their destination, like, this is where we've always wanted to live. And about 18 months in, you realize the grandkids don't want to come see you. Your kids don't want to come see you. And here's the other part there's not enough experiences there to fill up your life. And so we're seeing people in their 60s and 70s with crippling anxiety and depression. And not because they didn't plan well, they got buckoos of money, look at me. Not because they didn't plan well, it's they have an insufficient definition of life. And so when I talk about, hey, a proper definition of life, here's the thing: what changes do you need to make to the way you define life? Because Jesus, this is right out of the Bible. Jesus says, Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Why do you worry about your life? All through the Bible, you're gonna do something interesting sometimes. Just read the gospels and see how many times Jesus talks about life and how people define it and experience it. Because the way you define it informs the way you experience it. And so it starts with your definition. And he looked at me and he said, So, I mean, are you saying, everybody tries to personalize, are you saying that if you were me, you wouldn't do this? And I said, No, when I'm 55 or 65 or 75, I'm not gonna move to a city where I know nobody and start over relationally and socially. I'm not gonna do that. Because you're gonna be a lonely old man who's gonna have a great relationship with a high dollar bourbon. And I don't know if that's what Jesus died for. He goes, Well, okay, let's move on. Okay, thank you. So if you're gonna change your relationship with anxiety, you gotta have a proper definition of life. Number two, you gotta have a motivating perspective on life. A motivating perspective on life. It's verse 26. Look what he says. He says, Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Look at the birds of the air. This is the motivating perspective of life. A lot of your life will be shaped by who you compare yourself to. So you should ask yourself today before you go to bed, hey, who do I compare myself to? Who in your social grouping do you kind of check yourself against? And you look at their kids, you look at your kids. Who do you compare yourself to? Teddy Roosevelt said comparison is the thief of joy. So be careful. Be careful. Now, Jesus doesn't say, hey, look at the Joneses. You've seen their socials, they've taken four vacations, they remodeled their kitchen, and their youngest, I mean their oldest just got accepted into Stanford. You better step your game up, Susie. Now, Jesus says, look at the birds. You gotta ask yourself today why, of all the things that Jesus could have said, why point to the birds? Because there's two things you can learn from birds, okay? Right out of the Bible. What do you mean? The first one is this God's provision is more reliable than my performance. People have crippling anxiety, especially as men. We have anxiety because it's like we get all this stuff, and then we're like, oh man, I gotta pay taxes on that, and I got that, I got this, and there's a what do you mean, a service fee? Oh my goodness, what? God's provision is more reliable than my performance. Now, whether or not your capacity to believe that is informed and influenced by the way you see the world. And I love what Tim Tim Mackey says. It's a it's a long quote, but you you can take it today. He says this he said, Jesus looks at the world and sees abundance. He has a conception of the universe as a beautiful creation that is packed with opportunity and resources and potential. Jesus walked around with this deep, the deep conviction that despite all of the pain and suffering that he saw going on in the world, despite all the pain and suffering that he himself experienced, he still believed that Yahweh, the God of Israel, the creator of heaven and earth, is an extremely generous host who has given an overabundance of resources and opportunities to all of us. If you don't see the world as one where God is generous and provides, then you're going to trust in your performance. And I'm just here to say to you, when you look at the birds, you see God's provision is more reliable than my performance. They don't sow, they don't reap, and they don't store away in barns. Here's the second thing you can learn from birds. My value is not determined by how much I have in my barn. My value is not determined by how much I have in my barn. I could say a lot, but I'll just read from Jesus from Luke chapter 12. He says, This He says, Someone in the crowd said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But Jesus said to him, Man, who made me judge or arbitrator over you? And he said to them, Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Let me read that part again. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. You know who believes that in my life more than me? My children. Especially my 22-year-old. I just went and spent a couple days with her at grad school. And a friend of mine was like, hey, is everything okay? Why are you going up there? I said, just to hang out with her. Hey, men, this is free. Go hang out with your kids for more than just disciplinary reasons, okay? Or you gotta have a talk. Hey, your mother and I are divorced and we love each other, but everything's gonna be fine. Just go hang out with your kids. So I drove to Waco and I'm just hanging out with my kid. And you said, What's this got to do with one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions? Well, we sat down. I got there on Thursday. I said, babe, I'm gonna come up Thursday after work. I'll be or I'll leave work a little early because I got hours of overtime. Uh and we'll have Thursday night dinner. And she goes, Well, I got class on Friday, but I got at noon. I said, Great, we'll get lunch, then we'll get dinner on Friday, and then we'll get brunch on Saturday morning, and dad'll drive back. So I get there Thursday, she's out of class, and she goes, Okay, here's what I want to do. I want to go here for dinner, and then I want to go to Target. And I said, like a 61-year-old man, what do you need from Target? Well, nothing. I just want to go see what the Lord may have. What did you say? She goes, I gotta be open to all the Lord's good gifts, Dad. And so, this 61-year-old, because my uh my life does not consist in the abundance of my possession. Now, by the way, here again, remember I told you, read the read the gospel, see how Jesus defines life? He's winking at you right here. Once again, hey, your life doesn't consist in the abundance of your possessions. So I'm walking through Target with a car, I'm following my daughter. I saw another dad, and he was like, I feel you, bro. It's like, man. And then after I gotta go get coffee, I said, Well, don't you have a coffee maker at your apartment? Yeah, Dad, but they got cowboy sauce at Common Grounds. What is cowboy sauce? I don't know, but it's sweet and it makes it delicious. I can stick my finger in your coffee. Oh, Dad, come on, really. I'm like, all right, let's go pay $8 for this cup of coffee. One's life does not, back to the Bible, amen. One's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Jesus says that he can tell. They're kind of like, what? And so he tells them a story. It's called a parable. And he told them a parable saying, The land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, What shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. And he said, I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, Fool, this night your souls required of you. And the things that you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself, but is not rich towards God. Here's a question you gotta ask yourself. Do you think more about the size of your barns or the state of your soul? I have lunch with a friend of mine in this church on the regular. And every time, if I don't ask the question, he's like, all right, we hadn't asked it yet. Come on, ask the question. Here's the question I ask him: How's your soul? How's your soul? And he's never asked me why do you ask me that? Because I don't know his business, but I know enough about it to know he has a capacity to build bigger and bigger barns. And I don't care. I don't care how big your barn is. I don't care if you got one, five, fifty barns. I care about the state of your soul as your pastor. I don't treat you any differently. I just care about your soul. So I that's why I ask people, hey, how's your soul? Here's the third thing. If you're gonna push back against anxiety, the third thing you gotta get right is the right view of yourself. It's the latter part of verse 26. Look at what he says. After Jesus talks about, hey, look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them. Then he drops this question on his are you not of more value than they? Are you not of more value than they? Here's why you should look at the birds, because in doing so, you'll be reminded of your own value. Here's a question for us to think about today. Where do you go and what do you look to in order to be reminded of your value? Where do you go? What do you look to? Who do you spend time with that reminds you of your value? Uh I I see a young lady for counseling, she's 16. And sweet kid, uh, we kind of got to know each other. And she said, I said, Well, tell me, what do you want to talk about? Is there somewhere you want to talk about? Because I have things I want to talk about based on our last session. And she goes, Well, I just want to give you an update. My relationship, you know, it's kind of rocky, but we're kind of working through it and blah, blah, blah. And I said, Can I ask you a crazy question about you and your boyfriend? She said, Yeah. I said, When you spend time with him, do you experience your value? And she was gotten something from Dutch Brothers over here, and she was sipping on it, and she's like, What kind of question is that? And I said, Let me ask it again. When you spend time with your boyfriend, do you experience your value? Do you walk away and kind of go, Oh my gosh? I was kind of devaluing myself, but now that I spent three hours with Billy Bob here, I understand my value more than I did before. I spent time with him. Thank you, Jesus, for Billy Bob. And she's like, Well, his name's not Billy Bob. And I said, answer the question, Susie Q. Do you experience your value? And she said, No, actually. I said, You ain't got a sec. I said, What you're telling me is that your behavior involves devaluing yourself. Yeah. Yeah. I said, you should never spend time with somebody that doesn't make you experience your value. Men, you shouldn't spend time, guys, you spend high school guys, you shouldn't spend time with a girl who devalues you. You should walk away and go, man, I experienced my value with this person. Otherwise, when Jesus asks the question, you give the wrong answer. When Jesus says, Are you not of more value than they because you compare yourself to them today? You'll be like, no, who am I kidding, bro? But a right view of yourself, okay? What we need to see today is that because we have this insufficient definition of life, we think most about what we eat, what we drink, what we wear. Our anxiety is through the roof. And we've increased our dosage three times in the past two years. And so when you come along and say, hey, are you not of more value than they? Your response is like, who am I kidding? And what happens is that you just on the value scale, you start sliding. And here we are in America. This is where we are. No one's distinct or different, everyone's the same. And that is a cultural lie. Here's what it sounds like. I call it animal egalitarianism. You're like, okay, what is that? Egalitarianism is equal. In other words, we live in a world today. I don't know if you realize I first experienced this in in grad school in the ethics class. We live in a world where everyone's the same. You're the same, you're the same, these people are the same, everyone's the same. Animals are the same as humans. Humans are not superior to anybody or anything. I first experienced that's what I call animal egalitarianism. Who do you humans think you are? We were in an ethics class in grad school and they gave us case studies. And one of the case studies, there was a big development in California, and it was going to be super, I mean, take up hundreds, if not thousands, of acres. It was gonna be commercial and retail and residential, master plan community, and they're pushing dirt, heavy equipment, bulldozers, and everything, and they discovered this little salamander. And they were just like, and somebody said something, and then the Sierra Club got involved. You ever heard of the Sierra Club? It's people with more money than common sense. And they said, hey, this is on the endangered species list, and they got a court order and shut them down. And it went to court, and the court in California decided, you guys gotta stop. We're gonna make this a nature preserve because of this, and because of this little salamander that they found. A salamander is like a lizard on steroids. And so in our ethics class in grad school, we had to take sides and debate, and I'm kind of like, oh yeah. And I'm thinking, now by the way, I went to grad school, what's called seminary. It's like grad school for preachers. And so I'm thinking, this is a no-brainer. This is a can of corn. This is a layup right here. Oh my gosh. These are the other people in the class, they're that well, how many? He said, how many take the okay? Y'all will be on the opposing, you people will be in the affirming. And I was like, what are we affirming here? And so they went first and they were like, Oh, well, you know, God created the animals and humans, and we're all the same. And I'm over there just like, what? What? Here's what troubled me. This guy is gonna pastor a church one day. And he said, human beings are no better than animals. We've got to stop just just just thinking we're at the top. And I'm sitting over there and I'm just thinking what I saw on the back of a t-shirt at Rudy's one time. I did not claw my way to the top of the food chain to eat vegetables, okay? So I'm just sitting there, and then my professor said, Neil, I saw your hand up, and I'm like, no, don't call on me. And he said, Yeah, I want to hear your perspective. And I said, Well, first of all, I think my friend over here, and I said, No offense, but you've exchanged the exchange the truth of God for a lie, and you worship and serve creation instead of the creator who is forever praised. And he said, Where are you getting that, Romans 1? And I said, I'll give you three reasons why I fundamentally disagree with what. You said that animals, any animals, take this little salamander or whatever, or a hoot owl, or whatever, nothing is on the same level with human beings. And you have thought I said Jesus had a girlfriend. People were gasping. They're like, oh, what? They were sucking the paint off the wall. And I was like, you guys don't think nothing is on the same level with human beings. Are you serious right now? And then this appealed to the orphan and me. I realized I'm in the minority. It's me and about 10 people against about 60 other people. And I was like, oh, this is like a fight on the Dairy Queen parking lot in high school. I like these odds. Give me a tire or two. I'll start smashing people. And I'm just like, absolutely not. And so my professor said, Hey, hey, state your position and cite scripture. Not a problem. And so I said, hey, here's three reasons I disagree with these people. Number one, humans are the only thing made the image of God. Come let us make man in our image. He never said, Come let us make the salamander in our image. That thing doesn't have a soul. I do. Number two, humans were given the cultural mandate. Human beings were given what's called the cultural mandate. That's why theologians refer to Genesis 1.28. Well, great, what does that say? Great question. I brought it for you. He says, and God, this is in back in the garden, God creates Adam and Eve. Remember that, boys and girls? Where are my students over here? Remember that? Adam was in paradise. He had everything, but he was alone. It wasn't good that he should be alone. God said, I'll make a helper. God makes him fall asleep. He wakes up. There's a beautiful naked woman waiting for him. It's in the Bible. You should go home today and take more naps and just see what God does while you're sleeping. When your parents say, Go to bed, run to your bedroom. I'm believing God for whatever may come. I'm just trying to make it easier, kids. This is why you should read the Bible. Are you with this is in the Bible? He wakes up and there's Eve, and he's like, What a friend we have in Jesus. And then God, look at me, this is the cultural mandate. Hear the Bible, okay? This is what God says to Adam and Eve, the first humans. And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. And have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Dominion doesn't mean you mistreat it, it does mean you don't worship it. And have dominion over the salamander, the hood owl, whatever else we come up with to worship. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heaven. There's a family in our church who went trout fishing, and they said, Man, we slayed them. And I'm like, Oh, good on you, mate. He goes, but we don't like trout. Good on me. They had dominion over the fish of the sea. They gave us some frozen trout. I've been pounding it every chance I get. They had dominion over it when they caught it. I had dominion over it when I ate it. Now here's the thing: look at me. God only says this to one species, humans. Now, by the way, uh Peter calls it speciism. You know, I almost brought an ad, I don't want to frighten small children, they have an ad where half the face is human, half is a bear. Half the face is a mountain lion, half is a woman, half the face is a fish, half the face is a little boy. And they're like, see, we're all one. That is a lie from the pit of hell. No. And here's why. Because God gave the cultural mandate to humans, not hyenas. Here's the last reason. Uh I said, gosh, this was 1991. Yeah. And I said, because Jesus says so. And we mean Jesus says so. Cite chapter and verse. I said, Matthew chapter 6, I couldn't remember the exact verse. All right. He says, look at the birds. They don't sow, they don't reap, they don't store in barns. Yet your heavenly father feeds them. And then Jesus says, This are you not of more value than they? Either Jesus is a liar, I have more value than the salamander. You want to stop construction over. Put it in the glass cage aquarium, give it to a kid, and move on. After class, there were two guys crying in the hallway. I was like, what are you guys doing? I just really hurt our hearts. Oh, for the love of God. Toughen up, Sea Biscuit. Come on. What are we doing? Eat a slim gym, man. Come on. But hey, they're pastoring a church somewhere right now, wearing skinny jeans, having a latte, but I digress. Look at me. I'm not. If you're Vincey today, I'm a nice man. Look, hey, look at me. Nonsense and stupidity is destroying America. Because no one will stand up and just say, hey, what about some common sense here? I'm not, I adopted a cat, okay? I'm a nice man. I left this morning. That cat was sitting on my couch, like, hey. I'm like, yeah, yeah, I know you. Here's what I'm saying: the greatest thing you could do today, students, adults, the greatest thing you could do today is find the courage to actually believe, accept, live in, and never apologize for the value that God places on you as a human being. Here's the fourth thing. If you're gonna push back uh uh against anxiety, you gotta have a biblical view of the role of anxiety. A biblical view of the role of anxiety. Look at verse 27 to 30. Let's let the Bible do the talking here, okay? After he says this about the birds, he says, and which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to a span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin. Yeah, I tell you, even Solomon, all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, what do you mean thrown into the oven? They used it for fuel to get a fire going. Will he not much more clothe you, oh you of little faith? Now, when I say a biblical view of the role of anxiety, I mean we got that we got to learn to ask questions about our anxiety. I'm not naive, I'm not formulaic, I'm not endorsing a formula, okay? And I'm not saying if you have anxiety, you don't have faith. But I am saying this the text here, verses 27 to 30, it invites us to ask ourselves four questions when it comes to our anxiety. And here they are. Number one, what is anxiety accomplishing for me? What is anxiety accomplishing for me? It's verse 26, where Jesus says, and which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to a span of life? How's this working for me? Second question, what am I considering too much or not enough? Jesus says, consider the the lilies of the field. He's saying basically, he said earlier, hey, look at the birch. Now he's saying, consider the lilies. What am I considering too? What am I focused too much on? What am I not focused on enough? Third question, do you believe God will do for you? Where do you get that? Verse 30. But if he clothes the grass of the field which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more uh clothe you? Will he not much more clothe you? Look at me. You ever look around other people and you just think, man, they just live a blessed life. I mean, they don't worry, stuff just happens to them, blah, blah, blah. You gotta ask yourself, hey, do I I I'm not just jealous that God does that for that person, but you gotta ask yourself, can I believe and do I believe that God will do that for me? For me. And here's the last thing in who or what is my faith? Where Jesus says at the end of verse 30, oh you of little faith. Now, he's not mocking, look at me, he's not mocking your faith. If you if you struggle with anxiety, Jesus is not mocking you, I'm not mocking you. Jesus is inviting you to think about and consider something. Uh you said, what is it? When he says, in who or what of your faith, notice how Jesus ends this train of thought that starts in verse 28 and ends in verse 30 with, Oh you of little faith. We've got to reclaim the connection between anxiety and faith, between faith and anxiety, because here's what happens when our anxiety kicks up. Our faith is misplaced. It's typically in other things or in other people, okay? Now, listen very carefully to what I'm fixing to say. Our faith is little because when we put it in anybody or anything besides God, it can only be so big because faith is proportional to the nature or the thing that you have faith in. You're like, what? Hear that again. Our faith is little because when we put it in anything besides God, it can only be so big. It can only get to a certain size. What's that determined by? The nature of the person or thing you have faith in. Like my 16-year-old friend, we had a breakthrough when I said we talked about the value of the boyfriend. And I said, Hey, I'm gonna preach on this in a couple weeks. I saw a couple weeks ago, I said, I'm gonna preach on this in a couple weeks. Tell me, help me from a 16-year-old perspective. Does this make sense? I said, she, you don't experience value. I said, Who or what is your faith in? She goes, Oh, my faith is probably my boyfriend. And I'm like, Okay, help, help me. And I'm not clowning on 60-year-old girl. I said, help me, because it's tough. She goes, You have no idea what it's like. If you don't have a boyfriend, if you don't have, you know, so many socials and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you're nobody. And I said, I get it, I get it. High school's hard. I'm not making light of that. I pray every once in a while. I could go back and be a 16-year-old girl for about a year. And she goes, What would you do? Kill some people on day one. Just kidding, kind of. Uh I I said, Here's the thing. Let me just ask you this. And I'm not, I'll call Billy Bob Billy Bob. His name's not Billy Bob. I know, I know, but I'm not making light of him. I'm just trying to make a point. Can you come with me this far? Yeah, go ahead. I said, here's why your faith can only be so small. Uh it can't be big. Jesus is gonna say to you what he said, people in Matthew 6, oh, you have a little faith. Because your faith is proportional to the nature of the person you have faith in. So if if if this person's nature, when you're 16, his frontal lobe is not even developed yet. You can only have so much faith in him. This is why you were created to have faith in God, because God's nature is in it's infinite. And whoever you have faith in, that person has power over you. She goes, I don't know what you mean. It's true of a Christian. I have faith in God, God has power over me. Whoever you have faith in has power over you. I don't get it. I said, Have you ever done things with your boyfriend that you know are wrong, but you did them anyway because you didn't want him to break up? And she goes, All the time. Oh, can you just write his address down right here on this piece of paper? Why? He needs a pastoral visit. We're gonna lay hands on and pray. She said, Okay. I said, I'm kidding. Don't write an address down. Yes. So when I say a biblical view of the role of anxiety, this is what I mean. And again, Jesus is not mocking, he's inviting, he's saying, Hey, hey, oh you of little faith, okay? This is what he's about. Here's the last thing. You still with me say amen. Here's the last thing. If you're gonna come push back on anxiety, you gotta have a right view of the Father. You gotta have a right view of the Father. It's verse 31 to 34. Here it will be done this morning. He says, Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear for the Gentiles? That's people that don't know God. They seek after all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. A right view of the Father. What do you mean? I want you just to without a right view of the Father, the kingdom never comes first in your affections or in your appetites, the things you love and the things you want. Because here's why. Because you feel like it's all up to you. The pressure is all on ourselves. Because we either don't know enough about the nature of the Father, or we don't trust the Father to add all these things to us. My children, I was joking about earlier. I don't mind going to Target just to see what the Lord may have. Friday night after dinner, I said, babe, you need to do anything? You want to do anything? What would bless you? Hey, by the way, dads, let's ask our kids that question. Could they have cookie answers? Hey, what would bless you? And you can't ask the question and then edit their response. And she said, Well, I need to get some groceries. I said, When you say some groceries, see, I didn't hear groceries, I heard some. Let's define some. Well, I know H E B, there's a big H E B right here on Valley Mills. I'd like to go there and just kind of wander around. Let me get it, see what the Lord may have. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know they sell makeup at HEB? I didn't know that. I was like, what?

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What?

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I would pass a dad. You tell all the Baylor dads, my kids in grad school there. I would pass a dad and be like, help me, save me. You're on your own, bro. But here's the thing: look at me. My my daughter, my 20-year-old says she says to me, because she knows the nature of her father. And if you don't understand the nature of your father, or you don't trust the father, then all these things are going to be added unto you, you will live with this wrong view of the father. Look at me, and all the pressures on you to be for you what God said he would gladly be for you. Notice verse 32 a right view of the father factors in a knowledge of the father. Well, what do you mean? I don't know what that means. Look at verse 32. What does it say? He says, For the Gentiles seek after these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them. A right view of the Father factors in a knowledge of the Father. Anxiety happens when we live as if we're the only ones that know. And if God knew, God would do something about it. What happens is you have to say out loud, hey, my father knows that I need these things. I'm walking around H E B and the Holy Spirit's like, hey, this is kind of funny. Remember last Sunday in church? We sang a song, Everything I Need, Everything I Need, My Father has it. Sophie believes the same thing. And so I just start singing, Everything I Need, everything. And she's just throwing stuff in there, never once look at a price tag. Just slinging stuff in there. Got a thing of cheese. It was like $10.34. I was just like, what is this gold plated? And then the Lord's just like, don't say a word. Don't say a word. We're gonna we're gonna I'm I she trusts the nature of her father. I'm your provider, it's gonna be fine. Got there and rang up, and I was like, Yeah, anything else? I looked over, there's some Chick-fil-A gift cards there. I was like, hey, babe, would you like some Chick-fil-A gift cards? Well, I mean, if you're offering, give me two of these. The girl, and my daughter, the girl was smiling, and I was like, You okay? She goes, Yeah. We were rolling out to my truck, and my daughter said, Yeah, she goes to school with me, Dad. I I I I I I I recognize her. I said, Okay, all right. Wonderful. And so I'm literally, I'm not making it up. I'm singing everything that my father has. Uh everything he will supply every time. And and and I'm like rolling up there, getting, and and God very clearly said, Hey, by the way, you can be this way towards your daughter, because I'm this way towards my son. That would be you, Neil. I'm your provider. You you you you gotta know that. The right view of the father factors in what the father knows, okay? This is why Jesus said back in chapter six, early in verses seven and eight, he said, When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do. They think they'll be heard for their many words. Do not be like them. Why? For your father knows what you need before you ask him. He knows what you need before you ask him. Let me say it like this, and we'll be done. I I y'all y'all got me all lathered up here. I'm going over. Uh, when you ask the wrong questions, you seek the wrong things, and it leads you to rock and to knock on the wrong doors. When you ask the wrong questions, you seek the wrong things and you knock on the wrong doors. And there's no answer. It's not because God's not answering and says that's not God's door. You're like a drunk college kid. You're knocking on the you're trying to get in the wrong apartment. God doesn't live there, okay? And so I just want to say a right view of the father factors in the knowledge of the father, and this knowledge gives you a right posture towards tomorrow. This is why he says, Hey, don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient is today the trouble. So here's the question: Do you know enough about the father to trust him with tomorrow while you enjoy the sufficiency of today? Let me say that again and we'll be done. I know it's a lot. I hadn't preached in three weeks. This is what you get. But hear this, okay? I know it's Super Bowl Sunday, it's foggy outside. I know. Do you know enough about the nature of the Father to trust him with tomorrow while you enjoy the sufficiency of today? Let's pray together. If you're our guest, just relax. We like to teach the Bible, then we'll give you some space to think about it. So questions come on the screen, that's just for your consideration. Talk about them next time your community group meets. For right now, I just ask the Lord, hey, what had my name on it? What had my name on it today? It was a lot, and I want to understand it all. Let's just be still before the Lord. Lord, our confession today is that we trust you and we want to increase our capacity to trust in you based on what your word said to us today. This is what spiritual formation is. This is what it means to grow in Christ. And I pray for anyone in this room today that has never trusted you. They've just asked themselves, why do I not want to be in a relationship with a father like that? With a God who's that aware and that able. God, let that question rest heavily and yet lightly on them today. This is our prayer. We prayed in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

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