In verses 6 and 7, we are again on the subject of anxiety and prayer, as I think I made it about part of my first point when we had the tornado warning. So I did rewrite the introduction of some of the first points. We're going to preach a whole sermon, but not a sermon and a half, Lord willing. We are on the subject of prayer and anxiety from Philippians chapter 4 verses 6 and 7.
Let me invite you to give your attention to the reading of God's Word. 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. Amen.
The best withers, the flowers fade because the breath of the Lord blows on on the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of God stands forever. May He write it on our hearts tonight. The more responsibility you have, the more occasions you have to be anxious. I know we sometimes smile at the carefree life of little children, and yet don't we also grow to long for and welcome as we mature greater responsibilities like the responsibilities of marriage or of parenting, of building a business, of providing for ourselves and others.
The responsibilities of improving our community or laboring for Christ's kingdom or being involved in helping the Church of the Lord Jesus. This is part of maturing, is it not, that we have added responsibilities and therefore more occasions for anxiety. How do we handle these responsibilities without being crushed by the weight? One of the most famous praying Christians in history is George Mueller, at least in English speaking Christianity in 1834.
At the young age of 28, he began a ministry for orphans in England. When he started, there were accommodations for about 3,600 orphans in all the land. Most orphans lived on the street twice or more were imprisoned even at the young age of 8. In his lifetime, he built five orphan houses and cared for over his lifetime 10,024 orphans.
He inspired others too. Some 50 years after he began his project, over 100,000 orphans were cared for in England alone. Though he had no resources of his own for the work, he was not independently wealthy. Though he had hundreds or thousands, we might say of reasons to be anxious.
Little children without mothers and fathers. He prayed and saw God provide. He gave three chief reasons for undertaking the work of building these orphanages. Numbers two and three were the spiritual and temporal welfare of the children.
His number one reason in starting these orphanages was this, that God may be glorified. He said, should he be pleased to furnish me with the means? In its being seen that it is not a vain thing to trust in him. In other words, as he repeatedly says in his diaries, the orphan houses existed to display that God can be trusted and to encourage believers to trust God.
One of the more spectacular answers to prayer was the morning that some 300 orphans sat down for breakfast, but there wasn't anything to eat. The kitchen was bare. Where's the food? The little girl asked.
You talk about a reason to be anxious. He said to her, God will supply and he simply prayed, Lord, thank you for that which we are about to partake. Give us this day our daily bread. Then there was a knock on the door and the baker showed up with loads of bread saying at two in the morning I felt awakened.
It was impressed upon my heart that I should bake bread for the orphanage this morning. They all prayed and got it. I already got the answer prior to it. Immediately at the conclusion of his prayer, God supplied.
God can be trusted. This is why George Miller started these orphanages. This evening I want you to consider three things. The power of prayer, principles of prayer, and the promise of prayer from our passage tonight in the first place, the power of prayer, verse 6.
The Apostle Paul says to us, do not be anxious, but pray and the peace of God will come. In other words, God gives us a means to handle anxiety. He gives us means of grace, channels through which he works, things he gives to us to accomplish his ends. He doesn't always or ordinarily just zap people out of nowhere.
But he ordinarily has means by which he brings blessing. And so elsewhere, Paul will say this in 1 Corinthians, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who are perishing, to save those who believe. In other words, elsewhere it's by the foolishness of preaching he saves sinners. God uses the means of proclaiming the good news to bring the gospel home to the heart so that people can believe.
He uses means. And so we are committed to doing God's work, God's way, as best we know how. We're committed to that. And one of the means God uses to do his work is to hear and answer prayer.
And so the Apostle Paul says, if you're anxious, pray. Didn't Jesus himself teach us, ask, and it shall be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives, he who seeks, finds, and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. And he sincerely means that.
And so it's incredible as well, isn't it? His brother James in James, chapter 4, says, you do not have, because you do not ask, or to put it in positive, if you had asked, God would have acted to meet your need. Now, the other James 4, and he qualifies that. We're not asking for Lamborghinis and receiving.
But these are precious promises that God is a prayer hearing and a prayer answering God. And in this passage, he says, relief from anxiety comes and answer to prayer. So avail yourself of this means, the Apostle Paul says to us, the hymn writer, put it well. What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear.
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. But oh, the peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. The Apostle Peter says to you, cast all your anxieties on him, on God, because he cares for you.
And so we are encouraged to pray because there's power, and powers of the power of God, it works through means. And that's the first thing I want you to see. Now the second is the principles of prayer from verse 6 and following. The Apostle Paul says, don't be anxious about anything, but in everything that your request be made known to God.
And I want to walk you through at least four things the Apostle Paul is telling us. Number one, bring your worries to him. Bring the causes of your anxiety to the Lord. He doesn't say, you have no reason to be anxious.
So quit worrying. He's no fool. There are a lot of things to worry about. In fact, the more responsibility you have in life, the more there is to worry about it.
We say students worry about their futures, parents worry about their kids, people worry about their jobs. And the Apostle Paul is imprisoned. And he has every reason to be concerned for his future and for the well-being of the church. And he says, take those anxieties to the Lord.
We worry because we care. Do we not? And Paul says, if you care, don't worry, but pray. And so Paul says, bring it all to Jesus.
I want to say this to you. When you come to worship, bring it all with you. Sometimes you hear a prayer at the start of worship, some point, Lord, as we worship. Help us to clear our minds and get rid of all our distractions of the day and all the cares of this world and focus only on you.
And the Apostle Paul would say to us, no, focus on the Lord and bring to him all the weight of your day, all the trouble of your life. Turn out your hearts like water before the Lord. Don't be all of them. That's what the Apostle Paul would say to us.
So bring your worries to the Lord. And secondly, let your requests be known to God. I would say to you as specific as you can. Does God answer prayers like, bless me, bless them, bless so and so?
Of course he answers those prayers. He blesses it. He knows better than us. How did he just that?
But you'll notice how specific Jesus is in the Apostles are when they tell us to pray. Jesus would say to you, when you pray, pray, God let your name be honored. Let your kingdom come. Let your will be done.
Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts. Lead us not into temptation. Deliver me from evil.
He's very specific. The Apostle Paul and all of his letters will have a paragraph or more of various pointed and specific prayers because he cares. So be specific. Not because God doesn't know, but because we need to tell him what troubles us and get off our chest.
And be specific. Not because God doesn't know, but because we'll recognize the answers when they come to specific requests. It'll be much clearer to you if you've been praying for somebody to come to faith in Jesus when they do that God answered that prayer instead of just generically bless them. You might, that's perhaps easy.
You might see the correspondence. But you understand what I mean. Be specific and you'll see God answers specifically. And then he says, pray about how much everything.
I want to say to you that nothing is too large to ask of God. The hymn writer John Newton who gave us amazing grace and some wonderful other hymns. In one of his hymns said this, Thou art coming to a king, large petitions with the bring. For his grace and power are such none can ever ask too much.
You understand as a congregation, we're asking the Lord to build a church in Silom Springs and we're asking the Lord to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars over at least a five-year period from outside resources, not from within the congregation, through the partnership of believers and churches and presbyteries in the domination. Hundreds of thousands of dollars and it is not too much to ask the Lord to do. He's great. He owns it all.
But nothing is too small for him or to leave to him. We think some things are way too small, but children don't think that way. Do you think, how do you care it knows a child will come up to you and say I hurt myself and you'll look and you'll be examining the finger trying to find even the smallest drop of blood and there's nothing that you can see with your eyes. You look closely.
You kiss them. You offer a bandage. You offer to pray with them. Why?
Because though it is a small thing to you, it is a big thing to your child, whom you love. And so you attend to their worry about their fingers. It does not the Father love his children. Listen, if we won't come to God with little things, there is little we will ever come to him about at all.
Life is a mountain made up of little bits of dirt. The years of your life are just a collection of seconds. Everything is little to God. Who are you to say, this is important enough to trouble you with, but this over here would be too much bother because it's way too insignificant.
And so be specific and bring all everything, large and small to the Lord. And pray, he says, in the fourth place, fourth principle with thanksgiving. Yeah, right. You're kidding, right?
My heart is a bundle of worries. We want to say to the Apostle Paul. I'm so anxious. I can't see straight.
I'll be thankful when the prayer is answered, not when I make the prayer. I'll be thankful when I have the peace which passes understanding, not while praying that I might have the peace which passes understanding. How can I be thankful? Why command that as part of the prayer?
It's impossible we would say. You don't want me to fake thankfulness, do you? No. So what is Paul saying?
And how can I do it? Well, here's at least a little bit of what I think he might be saying. He's saying, really, be thankful. And so to be thankful, you'll have to deal with your heart.
You'll have to repent of thanklessness. You'll have to stir up thankfulness. And how do you do that? By considering something worse than what's making you anxious now and considering something better than the peace of relief you'll feel.
What do I mean by that? What am I talking about? I would say this, consider the cross as you pray, the cross upon which the Lord of glory was crucified for sinners. And it is at the cross that we learned that there is something worse than what's making you anxious now.
What makes you anxious now? Problems at work, relationships, money, sex. What's worse than those in trouble in that area? How about this?
My sin and the eternal separation from God deserves. That is far worse and yet consider something better. Jesus intervened for you while you were yet a sin or Christ died for you. While you were ignorant of your problem, unconcerned for your future, unenxious about hell.
Jesus came for you. Jesus died for you. Jesus provided safety for you so that you could be at peace with God and God could be at peace with you. Now if God handled your greatest problem with his costliest gift, don't you think God can and will handle your smaller problems too?
Of course he can. Of course he will. He's committed to do all things well for you. The cross gives you that confidence.
Your circumstances will not. Let the cross teach your heart. God cares for you. Jesus reasoned in an unsailable logic in Matthew chapter 6 after saying, asking a child to give him to you, seeking to find.
He said that. He said, which of you fathers? If your son asks for a fish, he would give him a snake. Or if he asked for bread, he would give him a stone.
If you then, being evil, he says, know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more would your father in heaven delight to give good gifts to those who ask him? Let the cross teach you that there are worse things to be anxious about and that there's something better, Christ's intervention on your behalf. Let the cross make you thankful and let that strengthen your confidence to trust him.
But bring your worries to God. Let your specific requests be known to God. Pray about everything large and small and pray with thankfulness. The thankfulness that the cross produces.
It is, as Alec Motier says, it is through prayer. Anxiety is resolved by trusting God. And in thanksgiving, anxiety is resolved by the deliberate acceptance of the worrying circumstances as something in all lives. All loving.
All knowing. All sovereign God has appointed for you. Because he loves you. Which the cross proves.
This is the confidence that we can have. And it's a beautiful statement in the 1500's Heidelberg Catechism in Answer the Question. What is my only comfort in life and in death? The answer is that I with body and soul, in life and death, am not my own.
But belong into my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who with his precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins and delivered me from the power of the devil. And so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair, can fall from my head. Yay, that all things must be subservient to my salvation. Sorry with that kind of confidence, with that kind of thankfulness because of the cross of Christ.
And finally, the promise of prayer, verse 7. Repalance of Paul says, pray and God hears and God answers. He says, that answer is not always what we expect, however. Paul doesn't say let me request me, make known to God, and he will fulfill every petition just as you ask.
He says let me request me, make known to God and what? And the peace of God will guard your heart. It's true. God gives us what we ask for and without delay, like George Mueller, who prayed for bread, and it showed up on the doorstep at the moment he needed.
But it's also true, sometimes God answers us after a long delay. Like in the case of Monica, the godly mother of the very famous Augustine from the 400s, who Augustine lived a profligate life. He sewed his wild oats, he brought grief to his mom's heart, and spruped tears. She prayed for her wayward son, and I wish it came along and said to her very boldly.
It is not possible for the son of so many tears to be lost. Now that was perhaps more than we might say, but that encouraged her to keep praying. And after 17 years of weeping before the Lord, God answered her prayers abundantly, and Augustine was brought home to faith in Christ and became a pillar in the church. But it took 17 years of praying.
Sometimes there is a long delay to a specific request. It's also true that sometimes God gives us not what we ask for, but something better. Calvin said it was because God answers our prayers as if we had prayed them wiser. But here, what does the Apostle Paul say?
Here God answers our prayer by changing us, not our situation. That is sometimes how God answers prayer, not by doing something about the world that worries us, but by doing something internally within us. A different example of that is the Apostle Paul who had a thorn in the flesh he says in 1 Corinthians 2. He had a thorn in the flesh and he prayed three times more to remove this thorn from me.
Whatever this trouble was, and the Lord said no, but my grace is sufficient for you and my power is made perfect in the week. See what God was doing was doing something internally in the Apostle Paul, not changing his circumstances here. God promises you something, but what he promises is this, peace, relief from bearing the weight of the world on your shoulders as you dump your problems onto his. And relief from bearing the weight of the world on your shoulders as you grow in the conviction that God is working all things for the good of those who look to him and believe in his son.
This peace he says passes our ability to reason it out. It is not entirely explainable. It is beyond understanding. It is supernatural, experiential.
This peace he says will guard your heart and will stand and watch for you at night while you sleep. J. Adam still has a story to conclude. J.
Adam still has a story of a little guy who was a terrible warrior. He walked around with his head bowed about everything, carrying the weight of anxiety and a joy. Everybody pitied him. He went and went and went and bumped into him and was overwhelmed by the change in him.
The first of his brow was gone. He was walking upright. He was a sparkle on his eye in his step. He said, hey, you look out.
This friend says, what happened to you? You look like a new man. Yes, I am. What happened is this.
I found a man who now does all my worrying for me. Really? That's incredible. How much does he charge for that?
The chi-ass. 300 bucks an hour. 300 bucks an hour. How can you afford that?
That's his word. Yeah. The story, of course, is about the gospel. You're great.
Loving Savior invites all of you to cast on Him all of your anxieties because He cares for you. He loves you deeply. He gave His life for you to bring you safely to the Father, to provide for all your needs in ways wiser than you know. And He can cope with what burdens you.
So hand them over to Him in prayer. Let's pray. In our Father in Heaven, would you help us even now to bring all the way to the world that we carry and pour it out like water and cast it all on you because you care for us? Oh, be a very present help in time of trouble.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Let me invite you to stand as we sing a song in response to the grace of the Lord.
It is well with my soul.