walking the real Christianity my name is Dale Partridge this is a 100% listener supported audio Ministry of relearn. Org our mission at rather. Org has to bring the church back to the Bible a free videos podcast and articles that strength in biblical and Theological literacy here in the church if you feel the Lord is leading you to support our ministry in any way you can always do so at relearn. Org forward slash donate you know that the past two weeks I've been bringing scripture to bear on the vaccine mandates in vaccine passports that are facing the church around the world tens of thousands of you have listened and shared those episodes and I literally received probably a few thousand messages from people all over the world and all those people
 many of them have been encouraging and even hopeful but still there are some out there in a good amount of people that are worried and even afraid I've been anxious about the months and years to come in our world that is changing so rapidly I thought it would be good to offer a short teaching on what the Bible says about anxiety and that's going to be talking about today I want to offer just three points of practical application and for those of you who have just would have found themselves in an anxious heart or having an anxious Heart during these trying times I wanted to talk to Pastor just for a minute if you're a pastor and you're listening to this right now I just want to encourage you to really look at your sheep and to see what the enemy is using to bait your flock into fear right now I'm an expository preacher I preach verse by verse
 every now and then I will preach on vital topics are doctrinal issues of one thing I tried to never do is ignore the spiritual needs that are facing the flock both of my online flock here and as well as the flock in our local church now I'm not telling you as a pastor to preach out of what you know is in the headlines every week now I'm talking about recognizing that we are in a fast-paced season of Rapid change is driving lots of confusion and fear in people in the church and it's forcing Christian to seek out biblical answers for very difficult biological questions for some reason however many pastors aren't speaking about the very things they're sheep are consumed with us at our our world is changing rapidly and we have to be willing to see how this is affecting those in our car
 how is the times and the news in the things that are coming out with their just under more pressure than they were just a few years ago in our preaching process from 2019 and before is not sufficient today the same was true for pastors of previous generations walking through large world-changing events for example of World War II or the Vietnam War there's just a lot of information and events that are shaping and consuming on the minds of those in the church in other words you know politics are shifting laws are changing morality is disintegrating before our eyes suicides are up people are dying of covid-19 depression are on the rise hundreds of thousands of employees are being laid off for refusing to be vaccinated a freedoms are being Stripped Away in several different countries hundreds if not thousands of churches are being pressured by local governments to conform to worldly standards
 social media does it help it highlighting tragedy after tragedy we do get them means right to bring a little bit of humor in between but there's an obvious you know political Cold War forming among states and Nations and we can feel it we can feel the divided we can feel the tension in the pressure and we can't simply preach without assuring our congregation that we see this and we know how they feel now I guess I'm not suggesting that you to start writing sermons for every hot issue in the month I'm just want to encourage pastures out there to look at your flock in to see what the world is doing to their souls and then look to the scriptures and identify the truth that can correct their thinking and mend those maladies you pick a book preach it faithfully and if there's one thing that I've learned being trained under a doctor Steve Lawson
 the Master's Seminary is this a passage of scripture wild only has one meaning the author has one intended meaning to that original audience it can't have many applications and you know we'd be searching for applications to meet our flocks needs where are M flock where they're at and they need to know that we are here laboring for them in this way during this time nothing more frustrating to to be walking into church week after week having specific issues that you're really overwhelmed with and the pastor really not seeing that and or addressing that now we can address every person's needs but we know that a lot of us here are struggling through the rapid change
 okay now I'm going to get off my soapbox just for now but hopefully that was helpful for pastors and even for those of you who are just members of the church that are looking for a church that would really Shepherd you really Shepherd you according to what's going on in the world and in the church and obviously primarily according to the scriptures but I'd like to share about a resource that has helped so many people during these difficult times several studies have revealed that the pandemic especially in the beginning month drove pornography usage through the roof and if you are a Christian somebody in the church struggling with pornography and your being overwhelmed with the guilt and shame that comes with pornography and you're ready to be set free from the bondage of that sin I want to ask you to enroll in our short gospel-centered program that stand in victory.org
 over a thousand people have gone through the program this past year and have found freedom to the truth of scripture and the truth of the Gospel that the program is extremely affordable and it's really easy to use it's just super easy to navigate it's a good user interface it's a very simple it's 3 videos 3 PDF three little task that's all it is simply go to stand in victory.org to enroll it's me teaching on these specific circumstances for my own story house hopefully that'll be helpful for those that choose to move forward now as I said earlier I want to speak to the issue of anxiety in the church I understand that the days in which we live are not conducive to generating peace but I believe that we as Christians
 don't have conditional peace I believe that were to have unconditional peace in other words what would it be like Paul who can have peace as he sits and dimes in abundance of the local church and corn and he can have peace also as he sings songs and hymns with his backlash open at the bottom of a prison floor in Rome it's far too many of you are allowing your peace to be robbed by your anxiety into many of you are allowing your anxiety to actually worried others and too many of you are not really acting as these beacons of light as we are to be of use beacons of light and joy and peace in our homes but you know on the contrary were radiating worry and fear into the people around us try on Edwards from the Believers in the 1800's he said anxiety is the poison of human life
 the parent of many sins and of more miseries
 Matthew 6 25 to 34 Jesus offers a short and vital teaching that should shape your view of anxiety and modify your thinking in a way that can eliminate the vast majority of worry in your life that we got to remember that Jesus didn't come to manage your anxiety he came to eliminated and so let's read together and I'm going to offer some biblical Exposition on three parts of this passage of scripture and then close out of this episode from the ESV again this is Matthew 6:25 through 34
 it says therefore I tell you do not be anxious about your life what you will eat or what you will drink nor about the 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 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 by tell you even Solomon in his glory was not arrayed like one of these
 but if God so clothe the grass of the field which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven with a will he not much more clothe you so 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 that is those in the who are lost at this point you can't even change that at the lost for the loss to see 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
 suits walk through this there's released three specific versus that I like to talk about now I'm cuz I'm not going to be able to do an exposition of the entire passage the verse 25 says therefore I tell you do not be anxious about your life
 the verse right before this is worth 25 at I'm talking about the first 24 in the previous paragraph says no one can serve two masters for they will either hate the one and love the other or will be devoted to the one and despise the other you cannot serve God and money
 let me see the word in our verse two were talking about here therefore remember whenever you see a there for you ask what it's there for which in this case it's operating as a result Clause meaning since you can't serve two masters and you person that loves Jesus serves God don't be anxious about your financial life Jesus is saying money is not your master so don't worry about money God is your master so worried about God that this is why the end of this passage he closes with but first seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you say that God the creator of Heaven and Earth and also the creator of you his elect son or daughter that the one he chose he does know
 abandon his children to their needs
 and you know we see him actually was a Jesus supporting that argument by demonstrating how God does not abandon even the Birds and the grass or the flowers he has his rhetorical question are you not more valuable than they implying it if God creates and cares for the base things of the world does he not create care for his own children I mean the answer is of course he does right but for those who at this moment are anxious about sustenance where our money or providing for yourself and maybe you just lost your job over the vaccine mandate for maybe it's just you know you've had some other unforeseen circumstance
 ask yourself as a child of God have you ever skip the meal have you ever not had a roof over your head I wants her to Hebrew scholar discuss the term Faith the word faith of the principle of Faith as an ancient pictograph in this picture graph was a man in a rowboat and an even while he was growing and he was his back was facing the direction the boat was moving and he couldn't see where he was going he trusted his Direction because of what was behind it like what he was had already passed and he's looking at his past and it actually gives him the confidence of moving forward in the future that he can't even see
 in other words look at God's faithfulness in your life
 the history of God's Providence in your life and determine if you can trust him
 as your provider going forward that's an important evaluation verse 33 later Jesus says but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you
 essentially Jesus is calling us to faithfulness
 this is the reigning application from Jesus on anxiety so the solution to anxiety in worrying this is Jesus's application and practical application it's seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness this is this is the solution
 and you saying
 people who prioritize the pursuit of money either with her heart or with their hands either don't love God or they're sadly misdirected children of God
 and God's children are not to prioritize the pursuit of money with their hearts or with their hands they're to prioritize the kingdom of God
 and not that really is the mission of the church to preach the gospel in to radiate the principles of the Kingdom to the broken world around us and then he makes this point that says and his righteousness but first seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness and this is interesting because he's saying in this faithful life that you're living in pursuit of the kingdom of God do not operate in a way that leads you to believe that your Pursuits will be deemed righteous
 no there is nothing that we can do in the flash that is righteous even our good works are filthy rags according to scripture so so what are you saying is that seek first the righteousness of Christ which is the very requirement to the entrance of the kingdom of God it's very easy for us to start thinking that we're going to live a moral life and that we're going to start doing good things and we're going to start showing up to church and we're not doing this for my heart of seeking the righteousness of Christ were trying to glorify God in our actions many of us start doing this from a religious Behavior modifying moralist perspective that is not what God wants God wants us to seek the kingdom of God and his purposes his priority and his righteousness we know that we are not righteous we know that Christ is the only righteous one and all things done to glorify Christ
 can be righteous in us all things to glorify self will not be will not be honored in the same way that got it asked us to do here in verse 33
 and he concludes with this wonderful promise post the, right and it says and all these things will be added to you now this is you know we got to get them some some grammar here right there's a demonstrative pronoun here all these things while we need to know what the antecedent to these is what is the disease in this is always important as you read scripture you want to know the antecedents to all of your pronouns right and it's not just he she him her it could be that those you know someone then you know that there's so many different types of of pronouns that you need to really mark it you know they're they're they're out there and you want it really always identify the antecedent in this case
 what are the fees that will be added to you while the context tells us very clearly that there's three things that will be added to us sustenance which is just food and drink clothing and life span Jesus is saying that if you prioritize your pursuit of the kingdom of God and his righteousness instead of pursuing your own kingdom God will be sure that your needs are met according to his will for your life now and short the passage really is teaching that when you seek the kingdom of God you'll receive everything you need and more but if you only seek those base and immediate needs that you're looking for money or clothing or or hell you might only receive the things that you're seeking and nothing else
 John Trapp is a Bible commentator from the 1600s he was born I think it's 1601 and he wrote something quite beautiful about this principle he said
 there was a old Jewish philosophy that goes something like this seek that to which other things are necessarily connected let me tell you a story that my best illustrate this from traps writings he says a king said to his particular friend ask what thou Wilt and I will give it unto the he thought within himself if I asked to be made a general I shall readily obtained it I will ask something to which all these things shall be added he therefore said give me thy daughter as a wife this she did knowing that all the dignities of the Kingdom should be added unto this as a gift
 and so what are you saying here is that
 he saying don't ask for something small ask for the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you and so we need to realize that our priority is not to focus on the little things which is such a habit of The Flash to go oh my goodness I need to focus on getting this amount of money to do this thing I need to get this test done or we need to get these things done in order for this to happen if there's so many worries of this world
 and Jesus is saying sure there's nothing wrong with planning to something wrong with being wise with our finances these are all principles here when you talk about one thing you talk about everything so I got to kind of show that I understand the bigger web but what I'm saying is make sure that you are primarily seeking the kingdom of God and doing it in a state of God's grace according to his righteousness and not your own
 but didn't Jesus closes with his final statement in verse 34 he says therefore again we just know as a result of all of this don't be anxious about tomorrow
 this is why it's so important to understand the sovereignty of God if you haven't studied the sovereignty of God
 that will really help you in overcoming any anxiety and worry you have about what's going on in the world we don't need to worry about what's happening tomorrow we don't need to worry about what's going to happen in the future because we know who is in charge of the future and when you trust who is in charge the what doesn't demand so much attention
 and our Sovereign God has a plan for us filled with tomorrow's specifically designed for our sanctification and since we are not the author of tomorrow's we should not be worrying about the things that we can not control and so instead let us focus on
 the works of the Lord has given us which is to worry about the kingdom of God and I use that word worry in a positive sense to concern ourselves with the kingdom of God in the righteousness of Christ and allow the king to worry about the tomorrow's John MacArthur said do not worry about the future even though it will have its share of problems they have a way of working themselves out at a time just deal with them as they come for there's no way to solve them in advance providing for tomorrow is good but worrying about tomorrow is sin because God is the god of tomorrow just like he is the god of today Ian McLaren
 at the statement that I thought I would share he says what does your anxiety do it does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow but it does empty today of its strength it does not make you escape the evil it makes you unfit to cope with it when it comes
 so people the Christian call
 is not too worried about it still pray I'm going to close with Philippians 4 6 that says do not be anxious about anything
 how many things can we be anxious about nothing do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God
 I understand when life is filled with the unknown I understand what it's like to lose an income Source I understand what it's like to wait for life-changing medical test results
 But anxiety is not the solution prayer and the pursuit of the kingdom of God is the solution so I hope this episode was helpful and edifying for your walk with Christ if you are a regular listen to the show thank you so much you guys and your loyal listenership has been continued to keep the show going and for those who have not left review if your new year can you haven't left reviewed you don't even need to write anything you just need to go to the podcast app & Tap The Stars however if you do want to write something I will read it I read every single review that's left of thank you so much for those of you who've left such encouraging notes and even those who have often critiqued the show I've taken note of those things and try to apply them to how we operate this program also if you don't follow our ministry on Instagram
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 lasting want to remind you if you were interested in enrolling in our program at standing victory.org for being set free from the city pornography again you can go to stand in victory.org I'm not no thank you guys for listening to this episode of real Christianity my name is Dale Partridge and I will see you next week
 thank you for listening to this episode of real Christianity if your regular was no to this show would you personally consider making a donation to support our ministry efforts simply visit relearn. Org forward slash donate again that's relearn. Work for donate and for those looking to explore the idea of joining or planting a church in your home you can download our free pdf ebook titled the basics of biblical House Church by visiting relearn. Org for house lastly do you have a theological question you would like answered on the show submit your question at relearn. Org forward slash question thanks for joining us on this episode of real Christianity we will see you next Wednesday