Being Anxious for Nothing..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. brothers and sisters and friends, it is indeed a great privilege to have this opportunity to address you from the Scriptures. I'm going to invite you to please open up your Bible to the book of Philippians, the book of Philippians chapter 4, this being the last Sunday of this year.

And as we start with 2024, I thought that I would share something with you from my heart that I've been meditating upon in the last 2 or 3 days and also the result of some of the conversations that I have had with the brothers and sisters. My dear brother and sister and friend, I want to speak to you today about being anxious for nothing. being anxious for nothing. And the verses that I want to call your attention to are found in Philippians chapter 4. Now, brothers and sisters at the back, you can hear me, right?

You are so good. I can put my voice a little bit lower than that. Okay, we're going to be addressing verses 6 and 7, very well known verses in which the apostle Paul is going to call us not to be anxious about anything, but in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving to make a request known to God, and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will keep, will guard our minds and hearts in Jesus Christ. This is the instruction that the apostle gives in verse 6 and 7. I want to speak to your soul, I hope by the Holy Spirit, about being anxious for nothing.

I'm going to invite you, my dear brother and sister, to read with me from verse 4 up to verse 13. And I want you to pay careful attention to the context because the apostle is going to mention important things that are going to help us understand verse 6 and 7, in which the apostle gives us this instruction not to be worried or not to be anxious about anything. Let us read... paying careful attention to each one of God's words by faith, not as a repetitious activity that Christians do on a Sunday, but rather by faith, by the Holy Spirit, asking the Lord that He will speak to us, not so much through the preacher, but even as we just read the Scriptures, that the Lord will speak to our hearts as we read Philippians chapter 4 from verse 4 up to verse 13. This is the Word of the Lord and I'm reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is inhonorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is any worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, the apostle says, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity.

Not that I'm speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Amen.

This is the Word of the Lord. My dear brother, my dear sister, my dear friend, let me just start by asking you a very important question. And my desire is not to confront you, but by the grace of the Lord, by the Word of God, just simply to direct the attentions of your hearts and the attentions of your mind to what the apostle has here in mind in verses 6 and 7. What do you feel about tomorrow? What comes into your heart and into your mind when you think about tomorrow?

And when I say tomorrow, I'm not referring to Monday tomorrow or 2024, the next year, but I'm referring to the future. What comes into your mind and into your heart when you think about the future? When you think about your future and the future around you? What is that emotion? What is that feeling?

What are those thoughts that come into your mind and into your heart when you think about the future? Is it perhaps worry about the future? Is it perhaps concern when you see all the things that are going on, perhaps in your personal or family life or in the life of society? Is it perhaps anxiety that comes into your heart? And the reason why I'm asking you that question is because in the Old Testament, we have kind of like an insight into how a saint will give an answer to that question.

In Proverbs 31, the famous chapter about a godly or virtuous woman, we have in verse 25, the answer that that virtuous or godly woman gives to that question. And that she says that she rejoices in the future. that these virtues, this godly woman, when she sees the days that are ahead, that the response of her heart, that the response of her mind is that she rejoices at the future. Some other translations may say that she is glad in the days that are ahead. My dear brother, my dear sister, my dear friend, can you join this virtuous and godly woman of Proverbs 35, verse 25, whose heart is in gladness when she sees the future?

Is your heart filled with gladness when you think about what it is to come? And the reason why I want to bring your attention to how you feel about the future is because how you feel about the future tells much about your present faith. The present state of your faith is seen in that which you feel and think about your future. And the reason why your future tells us much about the present state of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is because faith is intrinsically connected to the future. The Scripture says in Hebrews 11, verse 1, that faith is the certainty, the conviction, the assurance of things that we hope for.

That faith is this certainty, this conviction, this assurance of things that we have not seen, things that are in the future. Yes, it is true that faith points our eyes into the past, to the things that the Lord Jesus Christ has done and has accomplished and has achieved. But the same faith also allows us to look into the future and to be certain, to be assured, to have the substance and the conviction of the things that we hope for and the things that we have no sin. How will you feel about your future? What comes into your mind and what comes into your heart when you think about your future and the future in general tells much about your faith in the present state.

And that is because your faith is connected to that future. And someone might say, well, brother, Hebrews 11, verse 1 is speaking about only the things that Scripture has revealed, that we can be certain only about those things that the Scriptures have revealed in the pages. The Scripture certainly is not telling us that we can be certain about the things that have not been revealed in the Scriptures, brother. My dear sister, I will tell you that it is because we have certainty about the things of God in the Scriptures, is that we can have the heart of the woman of Proverbs 31 and rejoice about the days that are ahead. Because all temporal matters are to be understood and interpreted in light of the eternal matters.

I might not know what is going to happen to me next year. I might not know if my children are going to be saved next year. I don't know what is going to happen with my marriage next year. I don't know what is going to happen with Australia next year. I don't know who the prime minister is going to be.

And I don't know what the economy is going to be next year. I don't even know what the social and political and economic order of the world is going to be. But one thing I do know through the Scriptures, And that is that in the end of the day and the ultimate truth is that God is victorious. And if God is victorious, all other things that pertain to my life are to be understood and interpreted in light of the glorious truth that God is victorious. And if by grace, through faith, my dear brother and my dear sister, you are a Christian, the victory of God is yours.

If by grace, through faith, you are united to Jesus Christ, then the future victory of God is yours. What does it matter what is going to happen to me next year? What matters what is going to happen with our families next year? What matters what is going to happen with the world next year? What ultimately matters is the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And our goal is to point everyone to the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ has not only redeemed your past, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed our future. The power of God unto salvation, the gospel is revealing the righteousness of God from the beginning of faith until the end of faith. The gospel of God is working in us from the very beginning until the end and we can be completely assured. that the work that He has started in each one of His people and in His church, He is going to bring to completion.

Absolutely all things that we see in the temporal are to be understood in light of the eternal things. And my dear brother, my dear sister, the glories of the gospel is not only that we have been forgiven, but it's that through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have also received the promises of God from the many types of humans that exist upon the earth. Blessed is the genuine son and daughter of God, because to him and to her has been revealed what is going to be the final outcome of this world. Only the Christian, by the revelation of the Holy Spirit through the Scripture, knows that the end of all things is the victory of the Lord. Only the Christian has the certainty that the outcome is going to be the victory of the triune God.

And in doing all of that, the Scriptures and the Spirit gives us these glorious promises. Not only that we're going to be recipients of all the spiritual blessings in Jesus Christ, that we are already blessed in Jesus Christ, that we are already seated at the right hand of the Father in union with Christ, but also informs us about our daily living. that we know the apostle says in Romans 8, verse 28, we know that all things work together for good for those who love Him, for those who are called according to His purpose. The apostle Paul, The same that wrote Philippians chapter 4 here, he says, we know that not most of the things, that not those things that seem to be positive, but all things work together for good, for those who love God, those who are called according to His purpose. The same apostle, my dear brother, the same apostle Junir, that Christians by the illumination of the Spirit are to know that all things work together for our good, this purpose of conformity to Christ.

He also knows that many times we don't experience that. He also knows that many times we are anxious. He also knows that many times, even though we have this glorious reality and even though we know the end of the movie, even though we know the end of the story, even though we know the end of the redemptive history, even though we know that, that we worry. that we are anxious. And that's why the apostle is going to give this instruction here that we have in verses 6 and 7, not to be anxious about anything, not to be anxious about anything.

My dear brother, my dear soul, my dear friend, my only goal, I don't know if the Lord is going to give words to be clear from the text, but my only goal for my brothers and sisters and whoever is present within the sound of my voice is this. to encourage you to trust the Lord. As simple as that, nothing intrinsic and nothing super complicated, not a love deduction, just simply to encourage your soul to trust the Lord. Because the ultimate reason why we are anxious sometimes about the things that happen in our lives, while we know that all things work together for a good, is because we are lacking in trust. in the Lord, who is the one who holds all things, that is the one that sustains all things, that is the one that guides all things, that is the one that is sovereign above all things.

I want to encourage your soul, I want to encourage your heart to trust the Lord. And I want to do it here from this passage that we have in front of us. Only three things I want to do, my dear brother and sister, from these two verses, verse 6 and verse 7. First, I want us to pay attention to the instruction that the apostle gives us. And that instruction is given in the first part of verse 6.

Do not be anxious about anything. I have in the ESV, you will have in a different translation, be anxious for nothing. Do not be anxious about anything. The first thing that I want us to consider from the text is the instruction that the apostle gives. Second thing that I want us to consider from the text in the second clause of verse 6 is the remedy for that anxiety.

But in everything, in everything, with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make your request known to God. That is the remedy that the apostle is going to give us. And then finally, what I want us to consider in verse 7 is that fruit that comes from following the instruction. The fruit in verse 7 is that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and your minds in Christ Jesus. Three things I want to do.

I just simply want to bring to your attention the instruction that the postal gives us. Then I want us to consider the remedy to anxiety. And then finally, I want us to see the outcome or the fruit of what it is to obey, or at least to follow the instruction that we have in verse 6, not to be anxious about anything. Let me start with instruction. Pay attention with the words that we have in English there.

Do not be anxious about anything. Do not be anxious about anything. Brother, sister, feel the weight of that statement. Do not be anxious about anything or be anxious for nothing. God, through the Spirit and in the Apostle and in the Scriptures, give absolutely no room for a justifiable anxiety.

Do not be anxious about anything. The text does not say you can be anxious about the serious matters, but the small matters, don't be anxious about those ones. No, do not be anxious about anything. The text does not say that we can choose some of the circumstances in which we can be genuinely anxious and some others that we should not be anxious, but no, the text says, do not be anxious about anything, feel the weight. That's something that seems to be such a normal human experience, yet what we have in these instructions is that there's no room for anxiety.

And if that was not weighty enough, let me inform you, my dear brother and sister, that what we have in verse 6 is not only a description or a suggestion that the apostle has given us, but it's rather an imperative and a command. What we have in verse 6 is an imperative, is a commandment in the category of you shall not or you shall. We have a commandment that says that Christians are not to be anxious about anything. Feel the weight of such a statement by your brother and sister. I don't know about you and certainly I don't want to put my experience into the text or your experience into the text, but let me just simply confess that I have experienced anxiety, even when I have been a Christian, yet the Scripture says, do not be anxious about anything.

It is very important, I think, that we will at least consider what does the apostle mean by anxiety? Because otherwise we might be just simply confusing feelings that people can righteously feel and experience with anxiety and put upon our shoulders a law or a commandment that the Scriptures does not give us. Let me just simply tell you something about this word, anxiety or anxious. Only the apostle Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ are the ones that are going to use this word that explain this doctrine of anxiety the most. This word is very particular because it's used not only positively, not only negatively, like in this case, do not be anxious about anything, but sometimes it's used actually positively for genuine concerns that a person will have.

Actually, the apostle has said many times that he has been concerned for the church in such a way that he will actually use a similar word than the one that we have here. So there are instances in which a person can feel a certain type of concern, a certain type of worry that the Scripture categorized as righteous and that it is permissible. How are we going to know the type of anxiety or the type of anxiousness, if that is a word that exists, I had just made up, anxiety that the Bible is condemning there in verse 6? I think that if we just simply take the two passages that we have in the Scriptures that speak about this anxiety, we're going to get a biblical definition. So come with me, please, to Matthew 6, in which the Lord Jesus Christ is going to speak with the same words and with the same ideas about this type of anxiety that is prohibited in verse 6.

Matthew 6. Now, brother, sister, my dear friend, we're going to be reading from verse 25 up to verse 34. And it's not my intention to make many comments out of this passage, but I'm just going to be focusing your attention to one verse that is going to give us, I think, insight into the nature of the type of anxiety that both the Lord Jesus Christ and also the Apostle Paul are referring to both here in Matthew 6 and also in Philippians 4. Let us please read together from verse 25 to the end of the chapter. And even though I'm just going to be referring to one verse, I just ask you, read paying careful attention to these words, brethren.

Because these are not only the Scriptures, but these are the words that come from the mouth of the Savior. They are the Scriptures still, but this is going to speak to the heart of this matter. Matthew 6, this is the words of our God, in our Savior Jesus Christ, as they were given to the disciples. Matthew 6, verse 25. Therefore I tell you...

Now, this is Christ. I'm really sorry that you're hearing this in a Colombian accent, but these words were said uttered by our Savior. Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, What you will eat or what you will drink, not about your body, what you will put on. It's not life more than food and the body more than clothing. Look at the birds of the earth.

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 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, will He not much more clothe you? Pay attention. Oh, you of 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. And then the apostle before he starts in verse 6, he says, Rejoice in the Lord always.

Rejoice in chapter 4, before he gives the instruction to not be anxious about anything. Anxiety is the faithless worry about tomorrow that takes away the joy of the Lord that is your strength. Anxiety is the faithless worry about tomorrow that robs you, that takes away from you the joy of the Lord that is your strength. It is faithless because the person is not trusting the Lord anymore. It is faithless because now this person has changed the Lord for himself.

It is faithless because now this person is blind. It is faithless because now the life and the work of Christ is now so confusing to the spiritual eyes of that person that now they are just worrying in the flesh about the tomorrow. And because of that faithless worry about tomorrow, They are taken away from the joy of the Lord that is our strength. My dear brother, my dear sister, there are certainly times when we can be genuinely and righteously concerned about matters that are going to take place, but all of our concerns and all of our worries may be rooted in faith in the Lord, knowing that He is the one that controls the future in His hands. Because if we think about the future, knowing with certainty that it is He the one that has control about our lives and the future, then we're going to abide in Christ.

And if we abide in Christ, we abide in the joy of the Lord that is our strength. Only when the eyes of the Christian are closed to the spiritual matters, our souls are filled with sorrows and anxiety. But when the eyes of the spiritual heart of the Christian are open to Christ, what He has accomplished, the things that He's doing and the things that He will do, then absolutely everything in this life loses value. counted or lost for the excellency of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, the words of the Apostle. Anxiety is a faithless worry about tomorrow that takes away the joy of the Lord that is your strength.

And in that way, now I return to the text in Philippians chapter 4, and I want to call your attention now to the remedy. The remedy that the apostle will give us for this faithless pursuit of the tomorrow in the flesh that takes away the joy of the Lord. The apostle is certainly here going to give us the remedy. He says in the second clause of verse 6, In everything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. What is this glorious remedy that is going to protect me from a faithless heart that makes me worry about tomorrow and takes away the joy of the Lord that is my strength?

What is this heavenly remedy that is going to come from the divine court and is going to be poured into my heart so that I will not be taken captive by my unbelief and I will worry about tomorrow and the things about tomorrow being taken away from the joy of the Lord? What is this heavenly Christ-centered remedy that is going to prevent me from looking to myself as the one who can accomplish and the one who can do things, but rather look to Him as the one that controls all things? One word that we will expand... Surrender. Surrender, that's the way they pronounce it.

Surrender, surrender, and not only surrender in a general sense, my dear brother, as someone who gives up and now is careless and passive about the matters of life, but surrender to God. I did not check in the English grammar, surrender to God is the way that you say it, right? Surrender to God. And how is that surrender to God manifested? on your knees, my dear brother and sister, because when a person goes in the private place to his or her knees, that person is not only entering in fellowship and communion with God, but that person is saying the Lord.

You're the one who knows the future. You're the only one who controls all things. I'm coming before you, Lord, and I surrender to any attempt to solve my issues on my own. I'm coming to you as the one that is confessing that you are powerful and in control of absolutely all things. Prayer is the fruit of faith that shows that a sinner has come to the realization that the Christian life is not lived in our own strength, but in the power of Christ through the Holy Spirit in communion with this triune God, in prayer.

Prayer is this public and private confession that I need my Lord. And pay attention to the type of prayer that the apostle gives us here, not only prayer, but supplication. Something that is coming from the internal agony of the heart of the person. Something that is coming from the depths of the soul of the person that is saying, Lord, I'm coming before You, You're the only one who understands. You're the only one who knows.

You're the only one who has the outcome of this in your hands. You're the only one to whom I can come. I could go to this person. I could go to the president. I could go to the prime minister.

I could go to this reputable person to solve this or that. but Lord, I am coming to you, because there is a surrender to the Lord in supplication. And even in times of trial, the one that surrenders to the sovereignty and to the control of the Lord of all things in the secret place in prayer is one that comes with thanksgiving. Independently, independently Lord of the outcome of this situation, independently of what, if I like it or not, if I experience it or not, what my feelings tell, independently of it. Thank you, Lord, because even though my mind is not enough to comprehend the details and the reasons and the causes and all the variables that when you put them together, you can come to a reasonable conclusion, even though I don't have the ability to dissect all of these things in my brain, I know that you are sovereign above all and whatever you do is good.

Surrender to God. But this surrender that the apostle presents to us, surrender to God in prayer, has a couple of characteristics. The first one is that it's a complete surrender. Did you pay attention there to the word starting with the second clause? Do not be anxious about anything, but in most things, but in everything.

in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Surrender to God, that is total surrender. Not only when you are facing circumstances that are so difficult for you to fix in your understanding and based on your previous experience that you have been so good at dealing with and solving in the past, but now perhaps you find yourself with complications and you're not consulted anymore so that you can come to me. No. Surrender to God that is complete, because partial surrender is only a manifestation of a prideful heart.

I can generally speaking deal with the things of my life on my own, I will come to you just simply when I just really cannot solve it on my own. Total surrender, complete surrender, dependency upon the Lord on absolutely all things, manifesting from the heart that we depend upon the Lord and that we confess both privately and publicly that He is my Lord and in absolutely all things we depend upon Him. Brother and sister, we live... We live in a time in which society has exalted us so much that you think there that the breath or the air that you're breathing or the blood that your heart is pumping is yours. But if it's not because of the grace of the Lord, there's no word that is uttered.

If it's not because of the Lord, there's no day that is given. If it's not because of the Lord, there is no child that is born and there is no situation that takes place. If it's not because of the Lord, absolutely nothing takes place. And if the Christian has had a revelation of the power of God in the person of Jesus Christ, how are we not going to be surrendered completely to the Lord? How are we going to be acting in our own strength?

That is an insult to the one that we say that we love. Surrender is to be complete and total. A second, another characteristic of this surrender is that this surrender has to be humble. Humility is the key ingredient to be surrendered to the Lord. Pay attention to what the puzzle says in the second clause.

By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. Let your request be made known to God. A superficial reading of that text will bring a carnal or fleshly mind to think that the Lord has to be informed, that the Lord has to be informed about the needs of the person that is coming and praying. Oh, my dear brother, my dear sister, that you may not fall into that error, because the Lord who knows all things already knows what are going to be the prayers of His saints before they even utter them. The Christian does not have any need to inform God about their request.

What the apostle is trying to manifest and explain here is that the one that comes from the secret place of prayer, surrendering to God, is coming with such a humility that says, Lord, I need you. This request that I bring, you can only solve. This problem that I have, you can only solve. This situation that is so deep in my heart, I cannot bring to anyone else. I cannot inform anyone else, not even the closest friend that I have, not even my spouse or my wife or my husband, not even the best of my friends can look into this need that I have in my heart, only You, so Lord, I'm bringing all my vulnerabilities before You.

Because even my pride many times will prevent me from speaking to others, but brother, Lord, I'm coming before You. and manifest in my heart, this is the feebleness of who I am. This is the neediness of who I am. This is my request and dear brother and sister, that requires humility. Humility is the key ingredient to fight anxiety.

Humility before the Lord is the key ingredient to fight anxiety. Because anxiety is doing your own things in your own flesh, because you are faithlessly living your life and thinking that you can solve your problems in the future. But humility is the key ingredient to fight anxiety. This is not only said by the Apostle Paul, but even the Apostle Peter is going to expand on this. If you come with me, please, to 1 Peter chapter 5.

1 Peter chapter 5. Humility is the key ingredient for fighting anxiety. A prideful man will remain in the ways of anxiety. A prideful man will not generally come to his knees. A prideful woman would not generally come to her knees.

Humility is needed. 1 Peter chapter 5, if I find it on my Bible, 1 Peter chapter 5. Pay attention to verse 5. The apostle is giving instructions to the younger people in the church. Verse 5, follow with me, please.

Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. As the apostle is writing that instruction to the younger, he's writing this instruction to the younger. You can still understand what I say? As the apostle is writing this instruction to the younger, then he knows that the younger are going to be tempted not to be submitted to the elders because they are not humble, because they are prideful. So the apostle now knows that there is a hindrance to this admission of the younger to the elders, and that is pride.

I don't need that person to be my elder. I don't need that person to guide me. I don't need that person. The apostle knows that. And that's why now he has the thought of humility entering into his mind.

Verse 5, likewise, you who are younger be subject to the elders. Now he changed it to the whole church. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with what? With humility towards one another. For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Once the apostle has given this instruction to the church about humility and submission one to the other, now in verse 6, the apostle is going to take it to general humility. Pay attention to this verse 6, "...humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time He may exalt you." How am I going to humble under the mighty hand of God? Verse 7, Casting all your anxieties or cares on Him.

Why am I going to cast all my anxieties and cares on God? Why, brethren? Because He cares for you. Oh, brethren, He cares for you. Submit yourself under the mighty hand of God, that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him.

Why? Because He cares for you. The only way that a person is going to come to the realization that whatever trial, whatever difficulty that I'm going through, it is the result of God's providence and God's love for me that I'm a Christian, is when that person realizes in a humble way that he knows better than I do. And because He knows better than I do, whatever comes my way is not only the will of the Lord, but it's the best for my soul, because He cares for you. And realizing and growing in understanding of God's care for us, my dear brother and sister, is not something that is understood with the mind.

It is something that the Spirit of God has to progressively teach in your heart. We have been told to manifest partial, fake, fleshly love. So it is very difficult for us to genuinely experience the love of God that has been manifest in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we are very good at saying that God loves us and that He cares for us. But when it comes to the genuine experience of God's love and God's very care for our soul, distant from the heart.

It is easier for us to experience and to have the weighty hand of judgment upon us, and to have the darkness of our guilt upon our shoulders, and to believe that God is going to send us to hell because we did this or that, than to feel the forgiveness and the love and the care of God. Why? Because we look to ourselves and we are so prideful that we want to please God with the type of life that we live, our work, our words. But He cares for us and not because of who we are, what we have done. His name is Christ and it's not Nelson or it's not your name.

His name is Jesus Christ and He is the reason why He cares for His people. And we are going to be tempted to question and to doubt the care of the Lord. Don't you remember what happened there in the end of Mark chapter 4, when the disciples were with the Lord Jesus Christ on the boat? And then the storm came and everything started just to move and to collapse, I suppose, and the Lord Jesus Christ was sleeping in peace. The Lord Jesus Christ was sleeping.

And what is the comment or the question of the disciples? Lord, Lord, don't you care that we are perishing? Don't you care that there is a storm and that we are perishing? Are you so selfish, Lord, that you don't care about your people? Brethren, in the midst of tribulations, we are going to be tempted to question the sovereign hand of the Lord upon our lives and to even be tempted to believe that He does not care for us.

But brother, sister, He cares for His people. He cares for us. And because He cares for us, we are to be humble in the presence of the Lord, because without humility, we're not going to be able to fight anxiety. Without humility, we're going to be filled with pride and with pride, we're going to try to solve issues in and of ourselves. What is the remedy for this anxiety that is this faithless pursuit of worries about tomorrow that take away the joy of the Lord that is my strength?

To submit or to surrender to the Lord completely, entirely. in humility, knowing that He is the one that upholds my life and that He knows better than I do. And because He knows better than I do, I will just simply come in the secret place and say, Lord, thank you. Thank you for what you have done for me. Now, with the little voice that I have, I want you to call your attention back to the text, Philippians chapter 4.

You can still understand what I say? Philippians chapter 4, I said to you that I wanted to share the instruction not to be worried about anything, not to be worried about anything. Second, I wanted to share with you also the remedy for that. Surrender to God that is complete and that is humble, that is manifested in the secret place of prayer. Now I want to share with you there in verse 7, the fruit of obeying that commandment.

Now, I don't have much voice, and I think that I'm not going to be able to say everything, but dear brother and sister, pay attention to verse 7. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. The fruit the blessing of obeying the commandment that we have in verse 6, do not worry about anything, but in everything with prayer and supplication, give thanks to the Lord and make your requests known to Him. The outcome, the result of it, the result of not being anxious, but rather trust the Lord in all the ways is peace of God. The peace of God and whatever thing I say now about this peace of God is going to fail.

And it's going to fail because of what the text says. Did you pay attention to what the text says about this peace of God? Surpasses all understanding. There's absolutely nowhere that I can now bring to you that will bring you close to what the peace of God is. You will know by virtue of the presence of the Holy Spirit in you.

Many of you have told me, I don't know, brother, why, but I'm just at peace. I don't know why, brother, but I'm just simply going through this and I have the peace of the Lord. I don't comprehend and I don't understand why, but I have peace. Certainly, there's absolutely nothing that I can say that will bring you close to the meaning of this peace. But let me just try to give you a couple of things here.

First... This peace that we have here in verse 6 is not the objective peace into which we enter by virtue of our forgiveness when we are saved. In other words, this is not the peace with God that we have through the Lord Jesus Christ, Romans 5, verse 1. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the objective peace of the Christian that is the result of being forgiven.

That peace is always there. We are not enemies of God anymore. We are not under the wrath of God anymore. We are not... enemies of God anymore.

We have terms of peace that are not going to change. The type of peace that we have in verse 7 is the experiential peace. This is the peace of God, not peace with God, but the peace of God, the one that you experience in your heart. the one that you feel within your soul, the one that leads you in paths, the one that gives you this sense of assurance upon the Lord. This is the type of peace that is the result of obeying the commandment of not being anxious about anything.

Now, the apostle is the one that mentions this concept of peace the most in the New Testament. And actually he is borrowing this from the Old Testament. You might have heard the word Shalom. Shalom is this word that they use to speak about peace in the Old Testament. And this word shalom is very closely related to another very important word, and that word is rest or Shabbat, the Shabbat rest.

They're so close together that many times in the Old Testament, they will use those two words interchangeably, this shalom and this rest. This peace of God will bring this sense of completeness and this sense of this experience of rest. In the Old Testament, this can be seen primarily through the work of creation. And in Israel, God started to create from day one, before He started to create, He created heavens and earth and everything in them, and the creation was without form, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the water. As He created in day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 6, He completed the creation, and then He entered into the state of rest.

This is what we understood as Shalom. Completeness and rest. Then for the people of Israel, they were given the commandment of the Shabbat or the Sabbat. And they were supposed to work from day one to six. And when they completed the works, they enter into this state of rest.

That was the point that many times before they greeted and before they enter into the Shabbat, they will say Shabbat Shalom. This peace brings this sense of completeness, this sense of rest. And sometimes we confuse this peace just simply with the absence of chaos and with the absence of confusion. But the peace, the experiential peace of the Bible is not one that is absence of something, but this peace is the presence of something. And that is rest.

and everything is in order. That was typified in the Old Testament. We have come and arrived to the fullness of that rest in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the one that provides rest to the soul of the one that is weary and heavy laden. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

The peace, the experiential peace of the New Testament is no other thing than a faithful rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Pay attention to me in the last 2 minutes that I'm going to try to elaborate on this. The experiential peace, brother and sister, experiential peace is this faithful rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when I say in, I'm actually speaking about being in the Lord Jesus Christ. Pay attention to the illustration that the apostle presents to us in verse 7.

It says, "...and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will do this..." Pay attention. Will, which word do you have there? Guard.

God what? Your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. The word that we have there, God, it is a word that is used only a couple of times in the New Testament. It's a word that all the times is speak about the fortifies, the fortress that a city will have around it. Or sometimes when you will put a guard or a guardian, perhaps you say that in English, a guard or a guardian to come and to protect someone that is in prison or someone that is outside of the walls of a city that will be built to guard that which is inside of the city.

This word is always used that way and that's why the translators in English have very wisely chosen that word guard, because that is exactly what the peace of God does in the person of Jesus Christ. The fruit of not being anxious about anything is experiencing this peace that is going to bring us into communion with the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ will become our strong city. He will be the one that is going to protect our mind and our hearts. Think about this. Anxiety happens when your mind and when your heart are attacked by your own thoughts and the thoughts that come from outside of you.

But when you are peacefully resting in abiding with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself becomes the strong city of the Christian and is Him the one that protects the Christian, his mind and his heart. That's why it says in Isaiah chapter 26 from verse 1 and onwards, that we have a strong city. Salvation has got put for walls and bulwarks. Enter the nation, the righteous, open ye the gates that the righteous nation may enter in. That will keep in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusted in thee.

It is this picture of this city of God in which He builds these walls of salvation and He builds this gate through which the righteous nation enters in. And when the nation enters into this city of salvation that is built by God Himself, that will guard him in perfect peace." It's the same word, "...that will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee." Oh, my dear brother and sister, Christ Jesus is the fortress of our hearts.

Christ Jesus is the strong city of our minds. Christ Jesus is the one that protects us from the darkness of this world. Christ Jesus is the one that protects us from the darkness that is inside of you. It is Christ Jesus, the one that leads us in the ways of security and safety. It is Christ Jesus, the only one that can give us the peace that surpasses all understanding.

It is only the Lord Jesus Christ in whom we can fight and be victorious over anxiety. It is only the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that can point us to those still waters of rest. And it is only the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that will protect us from ourselves. The call for the sinner and the call for the Christian is come to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the strong city.

He is the place of rest. He is the one that protects your heart and your soul. He is the one that is in charge of leading you through this life. And when you know that, my dear brother and sister, your soul is only directed to trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

If by grace through faith you are a Christian, my dear brother and sister, your life is not falling apart. Your life is falling into place because all things work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. You might not enjoy what you're going through. You might not like the taste of it. You might think that this is not something that I deserve.

But if you are in Christ Jesus, your life is not falling apart. He's falling into place and not because you're so good that you can live your life in a wise manner, but rather because your life is in the hands of God, who has promised that we'll bring the work that He has started upon you and He will bring it to completion, my dear brother and sister. Trust in the Lord and let us look to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one that solves the matters of our hearts and in Him alone, we can rest and we can trust. Why are we going to look to ourselves?

Why are we going to look to the world? How are we going to look to the world as if the world was going to give us this peace of God? They cannot. Only God can give us this glorious peace. And that happens through the person of Jesus Christ.

But there are some people that are within the sound of my voice who are not in Jesus Christ. There are some people within the sound of my voice that they have not come to genuine faith and repentance to the Lord Jesus Christ. And if the Christian, by having this glorious truth of the gospel and this glorious promise, many times lives in anxiety or fears, how much more you who are outside of the Lord, how much more you that are outside of the strong city, how much more you that are living within the walls of the lofty city, How much more you that are not living within the heavenly Jerusalem or the city of God, but are living within the walls of the city of Satan? How much more are you prone to be taken captive by darkness and unrighteousness and all evil thoughts? So I implore and I beg to you, dear soul, whoever you are, that you will come to Christ, because there's going to be one day in which your anxieties will be nothing compared with the hell that comes ahead of you.

There will be one day in which there will be no more time and there will be no more days for you to come before the Lord Jesus. There are people that are sitting in these chairs that they know that they are not in Christ and they continue to listen to the proclamation of the gospel and they are willingly choosing to fall or to continue in the ways of the flesh. I implore that today is the day of salvation. Come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And to you, my dear brother and sister, I only say what I said from the beginning.

How do you feel about the future? Because the way that you feel about the future tells much about your faith. Remember that the future is in His hands and whatever comes ahead is in the hands of the Lord. So rejoice, not because of what is going to happen with your life next week or next year, but rejoice because your name has been written in the book of the Lamb who loved you so much and gave himself for you. Let's pray.