Freedom from anxiety

if you would turn with me to Matthew chapter 6. We also have it on the screen as well coming up. Matthew chapter 6. Oh, we don't. Okay. Well, I will read it. So, we're all good. We will read it this morning. Um, we have Jesus going through the sermon on the mount. Very famous teaching. People have longed to love Jesus's teaching on the sermon on the mount. and uh and he's been telling us all sorts of things about what it means to live the kingdom, what it means to live as disciples of Jesus. And so this morning uh we're going to take a look at uh another part of that and it's found in 6 verse 25. Jesus is talking about anxiety today. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns. And yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? And which of you being anxious can add a single hour to his lifespan? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the liies 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 clothe the grass of the field, which is today is alive, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, oh you of little faith? Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, "What will we eat or what will we drink or what will 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 about itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. This is God's word. You know, to some degree, we all are anxious. We all have maybe a lowgrade sort of anxiety in our lives. I don't really think of myself as a fearful or anxious person. But as I meditated on this text, I realized that in many ways we all kind of carry these these thoughts about how do I provide and what will I wear and what will I put on? And we do think about these essentials of life. Um, and it's not necessarily bad to think about them, but we can easily fall into this sort of worry that slowly can become the driving force of our life. Uh, we think about ways to make sure in just subtle ways to to make sure that we have we can live, we have a roof over our head and clothing. But what Jesus is talking about here is that one of these things can become driving forces in our life. In some ways, it can become this thing that we say, "Oh, I've got to take this job so that I can make sure I can afford to live and I need to make sure that I I I get the side hustle that I start in my life so that I can make sure I make a little bit more money so that I can afford whether it's the kind of life I want to live or that so that my necessities can be." And what can happen over time is that we can even we can say no to many things because we're so consumed and focused on the essentials of life that sometimes we're not available to the things that God wants us to be available in our lives. And one of the things that Jesus is getting at is that he wants us to be available to him. He even points out in this text that like is not life more than these things? Is it not more than food and clothing and shelter? We think, well, man, that's pretty essential. And yet, we can become so consumed with making sure that we're we're going after those things in our lives and that they fill our lives, that we work longer hours, we pick up the side hustle, that in some ways we begin to say and we preserve and we protect the things that we have. And when we do that, we can be less free, less generous, less giving, less available with our time to God's time. Uh what would it look like if we didn't worry? What would it look like if we said, "My job is to be faithful, and ultimately God's job is to provide." I mean, that's ultimately what Jesus is getting at here is that we tend to worry about these things and they can become so all all-consuming in subtle ways, in small ways. I feel this in my own life that we don't think about it and it can create a kind of worry and an anxiety about the whatifs in life. And what we can do a lot of times is we can say if I don't get this promotion or if I don't work these hours or if I take off from here or if I reorient my way of living to be more kingdom oriented it may cost me this or this might be the result. you know, maybe I get fired or people don't think well of me or I get judged because I'm living a different way or it seems careless and reckless and all these things can can begin to consume us. But what happens a lot of times is that what we're doing is we're we're looking into the future and we're projecting this cause and effect relationship and we're painting a picture. We're painting a picture of like this is what the result will look like. And often times what happens is it's a false reality because we what we don't realize is that the pictures that we paint don't often include God in them. The surprise of God, the provision of God, the protection of God. We think that it's all up to us and under our control to do these sorts of things and to live a certain way. And yet in many ways it enslaves us so that we're not available because life is more than these things. I have a friend that was recently um telling me about his son. His son was complaining because they were on spring break and um and they uh they were staying home and all his friends were going different places and they were traveling far and wide and uh and you know he said, "Dad, we're not going anywhere for spring break." And he was kind of spiraling. you know, he's a 13-year-old and and uh and he said, you know, he said, "It just it just doesn't seem right. We we never go anywhere. We never do anything. I mean, you just work all the time. You work and then and then you you save this money and then and then you don't have any fun and you're not available to do any of these things and then what's going to happen? I mean, your 401k, you get all your money in there and then you retire, but then you can't do anything fun and then you die." And and he was like, "Okay, back away from the cliff." And he had to kind of pull his son out of the pit of despair. But I think his son was making an observation about life sometimes is that we can kind of be caught in this sort of rat race of making sure that we're provided for and that we're protected and that we feel secure and we can be so that the essentials of life, the necessities of life can become these things that that drive so much of our daily rhythms of life that sometimes we're not available to the things that God wants us to be available in our lives. We don't have the availability uh maybe in the way that this this young boy was pointing out to his father to be available to to coach his team or to you know life is not about vacations but to be available for time and family or the ways that God might want to use us to serve those around us to love those around us. See the problem with this thing is that sometimes when we live this way too much of our time and mental space gets consumed by this lowgrade anxiety in our life. And Jesus points out that we can worry too much about these things and this and that this worrying can prevent us from living and being free in certain ways. and talking about people who are anxious about insul they're insulating their lives and ensuring that they have enough goods to survive. He says that there is more to life than the essentials. We call them essentials, but are they essential if they consume us and enslave us? Are we really living if we are focused or tied down to striving for things that aren't enriching our life? That's not to say that work's bad or that going after the essentials in life. I want to balance it. But there is something very challenging that Jesus is getting at here. And if our life begins to be consumed in such a way in which we are only available uh to work and to sleep and to get up and to do it all over again. Is that a good life? And I think Jesus is hitting at something more. He's calling us to something more. In fact, in a way, when we live this way, we're not really that free. We're not free sometimes to live the values. Think about your own life. Think I think about my life even these ways. There are things that I have that I'm like, if I had more time, I would do this. I would be available in this way. And yet I I I feel this obligation to to make choices that often times don't give me the availability to be available for certain relationships or for certain people or to serve in some ways. And as I thought about this this week, I just I'm looking oftentimes through this sermon on the mount and I'm challenged by it. I'm constantly challenged by it because I see the words that Jesus says and I see the modern context that we live in, the culture and the values and the way of life and I feel that what Jesus is suggesting here is frightening and it's scary and and not just in this text but in all the things that he's been saying like poor in spirit to be humble to turn the other cheek to live these types of values. They're radical. They're hard. They seem impractical and impossible to live in our lives. And yet I see so many times that the saints of old. They did live that way. They were courageous. They did take a step. They did do hard things. Abraham, go leave everything. I'll tell you when we get there. What? And he has to walk out into this. Moses, go back. I know you're wanted for murder. Go. I got it. I got it. I'll protect you now. Go. What? I'm gonna die. Are you going to watch over me, Ruth? The committed na Naomi faithfully follow her back to her people. Leave your people behind and follow her. Be a be a help to her, an aid to her, even in her elderly age. Okay? And she goes, "The life of faith is it's scary and it's hard. And yet when I read this text and I look at it, I begin to see in here that Jesus is not just pointing to anxiety. He's saying,"I will take care of it. My father in heaven provides for these kinds of things. Will you trust me?" Because life, as he says, isn't just about these things. It's more. It's grander. And I want my people to be available to me in all sorts of ways to do the things that I'm calling them to. But you can't do it if you're just consumed with the essentials. If you're just living this lowgrade anxiousness in your life, be free. And the the the the Christ life, guys, is the free life. It's the free life. But we're often not free. And we don't even understand in subtle ways how we don't resemble the lives of some of the saints of old. Even the ones in the New Testament, I read about the things that they did and how they were available, how they sacrificed and life was hard. And yet through that, through that death in their lives, God began to birth so much life, so much of the kingdom. And Jesus not only wants us to tell us to let go of certain things, but he wants us to embrace a certain kind of direction for our life. So why are we so anxious? Why do we find ourselves in this world just carrying anxiety? In fact, I read a study that said that health professionals say that one in three people over the course of their life not will have anxiety but will have some sort of anxiety related disorder in their life. So that's like a serious level of anxiety. So all of us probably carry a level of it. But some people even one in three will carry a great deal of anxiety. And I think part of it is is it's always rooted in the beginning. It's always rooted back in Genesis because at the end of the day, we lived in relationship and fellowship with God. Adam and Eve lived in that fellowship. God provided for them. God blessed them. God ensured that there was no need in their life because he was their God. He was the one that would give them all that they needed. And one of the the sad and the tragic things in life is when they turned from that and when they said I will I will I will I think God is holding out on me. When they believed the lie of the enemy that Satan would tell them that there's more for you. You will be like God. You will know good from evil. Something birthed in that lie did not make them more free. It did not bring them into greater places where like oh we're like God. We know good and evil. We're now more free. Yeah. It gave them a freedom. A freedom away from God. A freedom that led to a kind of slavery in their lives because now God was no longer the provider and protector. They would go out on this trajectory of their own, seeking their own way to be their own God. But the double-edged sword with that is that you have to be your own provider and your own protector. And sometimes we want that. We want that kind of freedom in our lives. I will look to my own hands to provide for my needs. I will be my protector. And we can we can live in life in that way where we where we sort of arm up. We make sure that we've got enough in our 401k. We got to and I'm not kicking. I don't want you to hear this the wrong way, but things like this can consume us so much that we're always preparing in our lives. We're always making sure that whether it's health or whether it's finances or whether it's the the amount of ways that we spend our time that we can live in certain ways that make us not free, not available. And and and it's because we want to be secure. Well, I I can't I can't give a certain way because man, if I do, I you know, and I give to this person, that means I have less. And I mean, and I need to keep things stored up. And if I don't, what happens? I might I might I might like lose my house. I might be in trouble. Or if I take off from my my work or something too much to go serve on this mission trip, my boss is going to be mad and and and I'm not going to get that promotion or that raise this year. And and then what were we doing? We're painting the picture. And then this is going to happen and then this is going to happen and this is going to happen. And so we sacrifice oftentimes because we're ultimately serving that anxiety that is in our hearts because now you have to provide. You have to protect. You have to preserve. And it takes God's job away from him and we no longer look to him to be those things in our life. We look to ourselves into our own hands. And yet in the same time that's a slavery and it can be frightening. And the reality is is what we begin to understand is you're always vulnerable. You can be the CEO of a company and yet a competitor can make a product different from yours that's superior to yours and instantly the market can change and you can find your business losing all of its contracts and it's gone. You can save up all the money and amass all of these different investments and finances and the stock market crashes. The economy crumbles and then what are we left with? You can have all the the the the money and everything save for retirement. Heart attack 50. What has it all been for? And so quickly we begin to realize the vulnerability, the frightening vulnerability in our lives. And yet we're always trying to arm up and protect and preserve and make sure that we're safe and everything's okay so that we can feel this security. And what's happening is when anytime we look to ourselves and not to God, we realize at some point that we are vulnerable and there's nothing we can do about it. And it makes us anxious. It makes us anxious. In uh in World War II, Germany built up this this wall called the Magino Walls. Anybody familiar with this? The Magino walls. They knew that France built up this wall to protect against Germany that along their border hundreds of miles. this giant fortified wall, cannons, everything to make sure that the Germans could never invade France. Spent billions of dollars and 11 years building this wall. Famous little story if you're not familiar with this. It's fascinating. So, uh, World War II starts off, you know what the Germans did? Well, they invaded Belgium. They went through Belgium, which was a really puny and weak country. Oh, they didn't have any wall on the b border of France and Belgium. So Germany just circumvents the wall, goes right through Belgium, invades it and comes in and takes over France instantly. Just like that, within a matter of weeks, they got tanks in Paris. They built up and spent 11 years and billions of dollars. And just like that, the Germans just went around the wall. And in our own life, we can do that where we are preserving and protecting in certain ways. And yet, it's just a facade. We're vulnerable and it frightens us. That's why we're afraid because we've now begun to have to look to ourselves and to our own autonomy to preserve and to protect and it scares us. What seemed like liberation to Adam and Eve wound up becoming slavery. Now it may seem you know of course we would say you know everybody worries but it can be this thing that we carry in our life which slowly begins to control and dictate the kinds of choices we make in our life and the result of it is that kind of slavery and that worry by the way can also in our lives lead to sort of an anger. We can look at the world around us and we can fear and we can see these different forces like the economy or politics or business or unfair business practices or whatever the forces of the world around us and in our helplessness and in our anxiety. We can become angry about the way that things are going because it threatens us. And anytime we feel threatened, that's when anger can kick in in our lives. And it becomes a force that drives us in so many ways. Um, and over and over in our lives, we find that we live in a way that can make us try to always protect, to preserve, to keep up. you know, in the in the story of uh Mary and Martha in Jesus's time, if you're familiar with this, you know, Jesus is visiting Mary and Martha, two sisters, and Mary is just sitting at the feet of Jesus. She's just soaking up his teachings and his lessons. She wants to be with Jesus. She recognizes who he is. She recognizes the life and the good and wants to absorb all of that for her. And Martha in the meantime is running around and she's occupied. Well, I mean, if there's no food for all these people, what are we going to do? And and somebody has to do these dishes because I mean, if if everything begins to overflow and and so people need to need to be fed and people people that we've got to make sure the house is good and uh and she was trying to keep up these social pretenses, right? Because she's consumed in a in a sense being anxious to make sure everything is cared for. And there's a good in that. There's a service in that, right? Just like there's a good in working, there's a good in in in in putting our hands in the soil and digging in and doing things. But when it begins to steer us away from ultimately God himself and the things that God is calling us to and the things that God wants for our lives for us to be available for, those things can become bad things. And we know this in so many ways of life. Good things when they become the dominant thing in our lives become bad things in our life. And that's why Jesus even corrects Martha who's angry in that moment. Mary's chosen the better thing, Martha. It won't be taken from her in our lives. In that same way, Jesus is calling us to live the Mary kind of life to not try to do God's job, to not try to step in. And and I understand, you know, you would say, Stephen, well, we still need to be responsible. Absolutely. We're called to be faithful. We're called to to to to work. We're called to to to be faithful in our relationships, in our places of work. We're called to be faithful in our homes. We're called to be faithful in our communities. Absolutely. So, that's not what I'm suggesting here in any way. But I hear these words subtly Jesus saying something about our lives is is more bound and less free. And so, what does Jesus want for us? What's he really getting at here when he talks about anxiety? When he looks and he says in uh in verse 25, he says, "Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, 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? Our life is more than this." And as he goes on, he kind of talks and says, "God provides for us." And then what does he do right there? He tells us, you know, because we get consumed in verse 31, therefore don't be anxious, saying, "What will we eat? What are we going to drink? What shall we wear?" He says, "The Gentiles, the pagans, if you will, the people who don't follow God and trust God, this consumes their kind of life. That's the slavery life. That's the life that's always consumed by those things. They're good things, but they're not everything. And I want you to be consumed with more. I want you to have a higher and bigger vision. And what does he say? Verse 33, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things what they'll be provided. God will take care of it. He's got it. be available to me. Don't try to be your own provider. Work. Be faithful. Show up. Don't be lazy. The scriptures remind us to work. You don't work, you don't eat. But ultimately, the food comes from God. And we shouldn't be consumed in a way trying to maintain those kinds of things in our life. Jesus wants us to live the free life because in the free life, we're available. And who knows what God may do? who knows the ways and the small ways. God just says, "Take this one little step. It's not always a big thing. Be available in this small way. Create a little bit more space in your life to step in here to serve or to volunteer or to call that person or to write that note. I don't know what it is. It's different for every single one of us, but just that small act of obedience, God begins to to to break down a little wall in our life and begins to tweak the course of our life so more and more we are available. say, "I got that. I'll take care of the needs. You follow me. Do what I'm calling you to." And we need to create space in our own life to hear these words from Jesus and say, "What is it for me, Lord? Where has this begun in my own life?" And I've been challenged by it this week. Where in my own life am I not available to you? I can look at all the ways that I am available to you, but is there still something that's consuming my heart where I'm worried too much? Because I do worry about it. not in a like overwhelming way, but it does get its way into our thoughts. And Jesus knows that. And that's why he's talking about it here today, that we can live a way that enslaves us where we don't step out in faith. And we were made for more than survival. We were made to thrive. You were not made just to survive. You were not just made for the essentials of life. You're not just a mere animal or a blade of grass. God has called us to all sorts of beautiful things. To be stewards, to be ambassadors, to be sons and daughters of God. I mean, he has this grand vision for his people all the way from the beginning and even today. And yet, we can get so caught into the ra rat race of life that we we and we and it's just our normal flow of society that we don't just look up every now and then to breathe the air and to to take on and say, "What is your vision for living God? How can I be more available to you? And what does that look like? And that's the kind of life that Jesus wants to call us to. And I realize it seems hard and it seems impossible in many ways. But with God, when he provides, all things become possible. So that we're free to give. We're free to be available. We're free to love. We're free to step out. You're free to be like an Abraham. You're free to be like a Ruth. You're free to be like a Moses. You're free to be like a Paul or so many others. Free to be like a Barnabas. Barnabas sold his field and I thought like why'd you give up all that stuff man like he just generous free to God what do you want and the question for us is that same thing Jesus wants something from each of us but he also wants to give us a great gift guys a great gift that frees us from slavery and not not just a you know we often think about the slavery of sin but in little ways we're in we can be enslaved to these rhythms of life that are against the kingdom kind of economy I hope this like makes sense of what Jesus is getting at, what he's talking about here, what he I I hope that this just that we can see the challenge and the hardness of it, but yet the beauty of it. But the question in all of this is how in the world do we do something like this? And it's not just Jesus who talks about anxiety. Paul talks about it. Even Peter talks about us casting our cares and our worries on God for he will sustain you is what Peter reminds us. Paul says to us, "Be anxious for nothing but in everything through petition and prayer." Well, pray petition, supplication, and prayer. Make your requests known to God. and the peace that passes all understanding will guard your heart and will guard your mind. So what we begin to do and I I quote these because I want us to think about it in terms of the head and the heart and the hands as we respond to Jesus's word. And the first that Jesus tells us is just mentally understand that God loves you. That God wants to be your provider. that he set it up in the very beginning that way that that in the very beginning that we can trust that he wants to care that his son Jesus right now is calling us. Let go of some of these things that weigh you down. Let go of some of these things that occupy the mental space in your life and the time in your life in ways that I want to be in that space and I want to invade those places so they're now more free to me. And so Jesus wants to invite us just mentally to change the way that we think about life. To change the way that we think about God, to change everything about about our openness and availability to him in our heads, that we realize that God loves and that God is a provider that we are called to be responsible, but God is called to be the one that gives. I plant the seeds in the ground, but who makes the rain rain? Who makes the sunshine? Who gives the growth? God gives it. It always comes from him. And we should never forget that. And that should bring great comfort that at the end of the day, if pestilence or famine strike, that God can still protect. That God can still make a way. He can send me down to Egypt to go get some food if I need to. He can have somebody provide. That ultimately I can look and say, "I can't do anything about it." But I can trust in one who does. The mind begins to be guarded. I can take these cares. I can present them to God. I can make my petitions and requests known. And what it said, and the peace of God will guard your hearts, your mind so that you're at peace, your ease, and it emboldens us. And it gives us courage in ways to step out to be obedient to the things that God is calling us to hear the things that God is calling us to. Because when our mental space is clogged with worries and cares, that mental space isn't available to hear and to listen to what God is saying to us. And in the heart, our heart comes down to trust. At the end of the day, the antithesis of it all is that to to anxiety is trust and trust to anxiety. They work against one another. If we have anxiety, it's a fundamental lack of trust in God to do his job. And something about our heart at times can look to our own hands or can look to other things around us and say, "These will give me the security that I need." and our heart can start to love and want and desire and hold on to those things. They're imagin walls. Life can just circumvent it. It'll just go around and all of a sudden you can prepare and protect all you want, but we don't know what life can throw at us. The only sure, the only comfort is is to trust in the character and in the sovereignty of God. That's what Jesus is saying here. Your father has knows your needs. He's trying to get us to look at the character of God even in this passage here. And the fundamental question is will you trust him? Will you trust that God works all good for uh works all things for the good of those who love God and who are called according to his purpose? Romans 8:28. Will we believe that? Will it work its way down into our hearts in such a way? Because if it will not, remember anxiety is the destroyer of faith. It compromises our trust and faith in God. Anxiety crushes faith. But on the other side of that, the trust is the antidote is the antidote to anxiety. Faith and trust in God is the antidote. And if we will give our hearts to God and say, "I will trust. I will hold on to the promises. I will rest in the in in the character of God. I will remember who he is. I remember who he's been for me and I will remember who he's been for other people. Now, there's something in life that sometimes we will look around and we'll say, "What? Well, what what about that story over there? I I don't think you prover provided there. I don't think you protected there." But we don't know all the details of those stories. We don't know the grand scheme of how God is working. And there's a danger in trying to make snap judgments and observations and scenarios around our life and to try to step in and presume that we have the full perspective and the full scope of life. We don't. God's ways are higher than our ways. He works beyond time and space. We still have a view of just this life. God says, "I look beyond this life. You think I can't restore and renew beyond this life?" You don't You think, "Oh, it's lost. It'll never come back. You think I can't raise it back up? You don't think I can work beyond even the grave itself?" God asks us to see things differently. Rest your heart in him. Trust him. bury it down deep in that and your faith will grow strong in that. And when it waivers, turn your heart to him. Turn your prayers to him and learn to rest with thanksgiving in the character of who God is. I can't see it. I can't know it. I'm I'm I'm afraid and I'm fretting, but I'm going to turn it over to you. And in that in that surrender, the surrender of our will, the surrender of our heart to God, the peace of God begins to replace the fear of God, the fear of of the world and the anxiety of life. It replaces it. And that's what God wants us to do is come with our hearts. So it's not just a mental thing, it's a heart thing as well, but also with our hands, right? Hand your cares over to God. Give them to him. trust him. So with our heart and our head and our mind and our hands, we turn these things over to God and then we become more free in our life to live the kind of life that Christ is calling us to. He's calling us to live against the flow. That was a popular term that I that I used to have when I was growing up in youth group back in like the 90s and stuff and maybe you've heard it too, but it's against the flow of the culture, against the flow of the day, against the flow of society. Jesus is this is not just trite easy words to live. None of this stuff about the sermon on the mount should be easy. And as religious people sometimes we just go right over it. We just hear the words at surface level and don't think how hard, how difficult, how radical it is to live these things out in our life. But we ought to just meditate on these in such a way that we think, I want to respond to that. I want more for my life. I want more for your life. I want to be available. I want to see beauty. I want to see great things happen through my life and through your life. I want and it's in small ways. It's not that you're changing the world. You change small ways around you when you're just available to being obedient to God. When you let go of the things that hold you back the fear and the anxiety that often times and take place in our mental life and in our physical life so that we can't be the kind of people that God wants us to be. I want to be free. And every day and every month and every year, I want to be more free. And I think sometimes I'm in a slavery and I don't even realize it. Not a slavery to sin or not these big sins, but a slavery to anxiety, a slavery to distrust that God can be and will be who he says he will be. And I try to kind of always think about how it's going to play out, how life's going to look if I don't do these certain things instead of saying, "I'll be obedient. I'll step out. I'll do like Abraham. I'll obey you." And in that, the words of Jesus begin to take shape in our life and begin to form us, but also begin to work through us in the world around us. And so, this is what he calls us to. Now, I know I know that we can have reasons to doubt. And I know sometimes that we can look at other other things in the world and say, you know, I'm not sure I can believe. I'm not sure that God's been good. And so many people have just deconstructed their faith because they'll look at the world around and they they can't make sense of it and they say, I'm not sure that God is what he said he was going to be. But again, you can't always understand the ways of God. And one of the best examples that I always love about this, the it's really the theme of the book of Genesis in many ways. Joseph grew up and in his teenage years, his brothers took him and they sold him into slavery and he's taken down to Egypt in his life. And then Joseph gets to be a servant in a guy's house. Things are looking okay, but his master's wife accuses him of rape and he's thrown into prison. Falsely accused and then imprisoned in prison. And then he gets a shot. He interprets a dream for somebody that serves Pharaoh and he thinks, "Put in a good word for me." That guy forgets about it. Just over and over it seems like things are going to be okay for Joseph. And then they just go back down and down and down every time. And then 14 years have passed and one day Pharaoh has a dream. Joseph stands before Pharaoh as an as a prisoner. Interprets the dream and Pharaoh says, "You're in charge over Egypt. The only person that has more power in Egypt is you is me. That's it. Your second in command. And everything about Joseph's life changes. And then eventually he meets his brothers and he and he tells them who he is. And they're just horrified because they know, I mean, he's about to take us out. But Joseph understands the way of God. And he says this thing. He says, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." And in our lives sometimes we can't make sense and we think that's evil. That's wrong. But Joseph had learned to process the ups and downs of life and say, "God is good and he means it for good." That he is working all things for good, for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose. So God has called us to thrive, not just to survive, to make our life about a new purpose, to start and to be obedient. And it, you know, how do how do we start? How do we go down this path? And it's really ultimately just ask God. We want to turn and let go of things that have held us back so that we can be more free and then say, ' Lord, where? Maybe even just to ask the question, if I had if I was not worried about these things, if I was not afraid, what would I do differently? And that doesn't necessarily mean that's the Lord, but then take that to prayer and ask him, is that you? Have you put that in my heart? are you calling me to this? And I believe that God will put things in all of our lives that he is calling us to just small things sometimes, but that small act of obedience will begin to send you down in a direction where the will of God begins to take more and more shape in your lives. Jesus is the ultimate example of that. Trusting in the life that God called him to, that God would provide. He was called to preach and proclaim the kingdom. And God just in every way began to provide for him through the means of different people. Um and through his sacrifice he brought us salvation so that we are part of God's household. And in our father's house he protects and he preserves even in ways beyond this life. And friend if God will take care of you like that then you do not need to worry. No one can take from you what God gives. People can't take honor away from you when they slap you in the face because God can give honor in place of that. People can't steal from you nothing that God cannot repay. You see that? You cannot lose anything that God cannot provide for. You cannot lose your own life in a way that God can't raise it back up. Do you see how freeing that is? That frees Christians to say, "I can't have anything lost. And now I can be available in every way. I can turn the other cheek. I can live courageously because God is my provider. He is my protector. No one can change that fact." And in that life, guys, we live the free life. This is what Christ is calling us to. Don't be anxious. Don't be consumed by these things. Life is more than that. And when you come, seek this kingdom. Don't worry about all that other stuff. I got it. Seek the kingdom and all the other things will be added unto you. Let's pray