(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to Mountain Baptist Church. Take your song books and turn to song 196. Song 196 in your song books. We'll sing, I Will Sing the Wondrous Story. And if you would stand, we'll sing song 196. I will sing the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me. How he left his home in glory for the cross of Calvary. Yes, I'll sing the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me. Sing it with the saints in glory gathered by the crystal sea. I was lost but Jesus found me, found the sheep that went astray. Through his loving arms around me, drew me back into his way. Yes, I'll sing the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me. Sing it with the saints in glory gathered by the crystal sea. I was bruised but Jesus healed me. Pain was I from many a fall. Sleight was gone and fears possessed me but he freed me from them all. Yes, I'll sing the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me. Sing it with the saints in glory gathered by the crystal sea. Days of darkness still come o'er me. Sorrows pass, I often tread. But still is with me by his hand I'm safely led. Yes, I'll sing the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me. Sing it with the saints in glory gathered by the crystal sea. He will keep me till the river rolls its waters at my feet. Then he'll bear me safely over where the loved ones I shall meet. Yes, I'll sing the wondrous story of the Christ who died for me. Sing it with the saints in glory gathered by the crystal sea. Let's pray, Heavenly Father, Lord, again we just want to thank you, God, for this beautiful Sunday morning you've given us to meet in your house and to hear your word preached. I pray, Lord, that you would be honored and glorified out of everything that's said and done. We love you, for it's in Jesus' name we ask all, but amen. You may be seated and take your Blue Mountain Baptist Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs songbook and turn to Psalm 15. Psalm number 15 in your Blue Songbooks. We'll sing Psalm 15. Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor do with evil to his neighbor, nor take up reproach on his neighbor. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, in whose eyes a person is content, but he are them that fear the Lord, in whose eyes a person is content, but he are with them that fear the Lord. He that answerth own changeth not, he that putteth not out his money to usury, he that answerth to his own hurt and changeth not, he that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent, he that doeth these things shall never be moved, nor taketh reward against the innocent, he that doeth these things shall never be moved, Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle, shall dwell in thy holy hill. Amen. We're out in Baptist Church on this Sunday morning, and it's a nice sunny Sunday morning. It's supposed to get up to close to 60 today, so it should be a good day here, at least for the weather. And then our church times on here are normal, so everything should be as on the list here. We'll have our afternoon service at 4 p.m., and we'll be continuing our series, a time to every purpose. And before that, though, we'll have our soul winning time, our main soul winning time at 1 p.m. And so if you want to go get some lunch, come back here, try to get back here a little before one so we can get teamed up and go out soul winning this afternoon. But if you can't go today or if you want to go extra or you want to go other times, we do have regional soul winning times on the list here. You just want to be on the Mountain Baptist Church group as far as meetup times and places as far as where each one of these will be taking place. And the daylight savings time, is it next week? Next, what's that? 12, yeah, so next week, next weekend, we'll be doing the daylight savings time. I would say just keep that and just never change that again. So that means it's going to be light later on in the day, especially for these regional soul winning times. That's kind of the hard thing, especially when it's dead of winter and it's already dark at 5 o'clock, try to knock someone's door unless it's like student areas where you just know they're up anyway. It's a lot different when it's sunny outside and it's like 7 o'clock at night, or it's not night, but if it's like 6 o'clock and it's sunny out, then it's a lot different than when it's dark. So it makes soul winning a lot better, especially for these regional times. And so, but I'm hoping that that, I think it's in legislation that they're supposed to just keep that. Who knows if that's actually going to take place, meaning like when the clock goes forward, then they're just going to stay, that's going to be the time for the rest. So who knows, but, and then as far as upcoming events, we have the Blue Field Soul Winning Marathon coming up on the 11th, and so that is something to put on your calendar there if you want to go out to that. Brother Wade is leading that up, and so if you want to get with him on any type of details going on with that. We do have the men's prayer meeting at the end of the month, so that's for a little bit now. I was, so this Indiana, Indianapolis Soul Winning Marathon that we're trying to plan, I was actually thinking of June 10th, but then Brother Charles reminded me that actually we have a Philadelphia Soul Winning Marathon scheduled for that weekend. So we're going to have to figure out a different time. So especially the men in the church, especially those that lead up soul winning times, let me know what a good Saturday would be. Would it be like the first Saturday in June? Would it be the end of May? What Saturday would work well to do this? So just let me know, and we'll get a consensus and figure out what the best day to do that is. And so anyway, we'll figure that out. And then on the back of your bulletin there, we have the chapter memory for the month is Psalm 22. So Psalm 22 is our chapter memory. And then Matthew 634 is our memory verse for the week. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. And so that is our memory verse for the week. And it's a longer one, I know. But last week's was short. This week's long. And then birthdays. What day is it? James. So what's today? Today's the fifth. So I don't think we have any this week. And we sang to Lydia last week, right? I'm pretty sure we did. Say happy birthday, Lydia. And then anniversaries, we don't have any this week, but we do have some coming up here. And then on the pregnancy list there, be in prayer for Tiara Alesco and for Amanda Spina on the pregnancy list there. And for any other ladies that we don't know about that might be pregnant or that are trying to get pregnant, be in prayer for my wife, obviously, with the recovery process there. But I think that's about all I got for announcements at the moment. The offering box is in the back there if you want to give a tie to the offering. The mother baby room is for the mothers and babies only. Brother Anthony is going to be reading Matthew chapter 6 for us after Brother Dave sings one more song. All right. Take your song books and turn to song 184. Song 184. We'll sing I Love Thee, My Jesus. We'll sing song 184. One words can I find to tell Jesus I love Him Because He first loved me Because of my ransom He paid with such suffering Upon the cursed tree And the morning at the noontide And when come the evening shadows I love Thee, my Jesus I love Thee, my King In rejoicing and in sorrow Today and tomorrow I love Thee, my Savior and Lord O come, let us magnify Jesus together For praise becometh thee And blessings about me I owe to my Savior Who all things bought for me In the morning at the noontide And when come evening shadows I love Thee, my Jesus I love Thee, my King In rejoicing and in sorrow Today and tomorrow I love Thee, my Savior and Lord May never my praises be slow or be silent Nor e'er my love grow dumb This sinner is saved and my sin's all forgiven The Savior's work is done In the morning at the noontide And when come evening shadows I love Thee, my Jesus I love Thee, my King In rejoicing and in sorrow Today and tomorrow I love Thee, my Savior and Lord O how can I love Thee enough Dear Redeemer How e'er repay my friend How spread the glad sound of my praise And my hard love on every joyful wind In the morning at the noontide And when come evening shadows I love Thee, my Jesus I love Thee, my King In rejoicing and in sorrow Today and tomorrow I love Thee, my Savior and Lord All right, take your Bibles and turn to Matthew, chapter number 6. Matthew, chapter number 6 in your Bibles. And we'll have Brother Anthony read that for us. Matthew, chapter 6. Baba reads, Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them. Otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. That thine alms may be in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye, our Father which art in heaven, how it be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Moreover when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Wherefore, take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Therefore, no thought for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for this morning, where we can gather again and hear your word preach. I pray it should be with Pastor Robinson this morning. Fill him with your Holy Spirit and help us all to learn. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. So you're there in Matthew chapter 6, and the name of the sermon is Take No Thought for the Morrow. Take No Thought for the Morrow is that last verse there in chapter 6. I want to look back at that and look at this passage here. But that last verse is our memory verse for the week, but this is also our main verse for the sermon. It says, Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. And you may ask yourself, what does this verse mean? What does it mean sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof? And should I not think about the future at all? Should I just be living in the moment? Living just for the here and now? But in context, the reason that we're not taking thought for the morrow is for basically dealing with the evils of tomorrow. And this is really a sermon to kind of help us to not worry about things so much, not have so much anxiety about the future, what's going to happen tomorrow. The Bible is basically teaching here that the only things that you should be dealing with as far as the evils in this world are what's going on right now today, and just deal with that, what's on your plate today, and don't think about, well, what about next week? What am I going to have to do next week? What am I going to have to do at the end of the month? What am I going to have to do by the end of the year as far as getting all this stuff done? What if this happens? And specifically in this passage, we're dealing with food and raiment. We're dealing with necessities of life as far as, especially with a lot of us who have families. We have little kids. And us men, I preached a sermon about the fact that obviously the men being the breadwinners, the men bringing home the bacon, if you will. And this is something that can weigh on us as far as making sure, hey, am I going to be able to pay the bills? Am I going to be able to feed my family? Am I going to be able to pay the mortgage? Am I going to be able to, you know, and this is something that is just kind of always on our shoulders. And it's easy to say, well, I'm okay right now, but what if I lose my job? What if the economy crashes? What if the bubble finally bursts and the debt that our country has gone in is just done and we're going through this big recession or a depression or something like that to where you're just worried about stuff. And listen, they've been talking about that happening. And I'm not saying it isn't going to happen. But they've been talking about that happening. I remember I was a big Ron Paul fan and that was one big thing. He was saying this is going to bust. And that was 2012 when I remember really looking forward to his candidacy and all that stuff. And I still like Ron Paul. He's just obviously not in that realm anymore. But the idea here is that doomsday mentality of, okay, everything is going to fall apart. What if I was just for the last, what, now over 10 years, just every year I'm worried about, is that bubble going to bust? Is everything going to fall apart? And we go into this time of great trouble and all this other stuff. And I believe what God is showing us here is that, listen, you shouldn't be worried about tomorrow. Don't be just sitting here today and be like, what's going to happen tomorrow? What's going to happen next week? When it comes to things that could be detrimental, it's like, oh, is my car going to break? What if my car breaks down? What if this happens? And you just think about all this stuff. It's like, well, all these what ifs end up not actually happening most of the time. And then you end up losing years of your life stressing out over things that didn't even happen. And that's a big part of why we shouldn't be taking thought for tomorrow because there's a lot of things that just don't end up actually happening. It's like you're in this doomsday worst case scenario type of realm. And listen, I understand that because I'm always trying to think about worst case scenarios. What am I going to do? How am I going to take care of this? What's my backup plan? And ultimately what I want to show you here is that God, if you love the Lord and you're putting God first in your life, then God will take care of you. And this is ultimately a promise that He's promising those that are doing the work, that love the Lord. And I'm not just talking to save people, okay? Because this is a promise to those that are seeking first the kingdom of God. And if you're doing that, then you don't need to worry about tomorrow because He's going to take care of you. And I'm talking about food and raiment. Listen, you will not starve. God will not let you starve if you are serving the Lord and doing what you should be doing. And on top of that, He's not going to let you be naked. Basically, you're not going to be naked and starving, okay? And that doesn't mean you're living your best lifetime like Joel Osteen, you know, the best life now or something like that. I'm not saying that this is guaranteeing like this high-end life. But at the same time, in the end, I believe we love the Lord, we serve the Lord. God will allow us to take care of our families. He'll allow us to, He'll give us the funds, give us the means to take care of our families. He's not going to let us just all perish, okay? And go back to verse 25 to get context because it says, Take therefore no thought for tomorrow. So it's basically kind of showing you like this is kind of like the sum of it. But notice what it says in verse 25. It says, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on, is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? He's basically saying don't worry about that type of stuff. Obviously, those are necessities, right? It's not saying that you don't need them. But the idea here is that He's saying don't take thought for that. Don't let that be where you're just dwelling constantly like, okay, how am I going to get food? How am I going to get clothing? And just thinking about that on a constant basis, it says in verse 26, Behold the fowls of the air. So He's going to give an example here dealing with animals and with plants and the fact that it says, Behold the fowls of the air. For they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them, are ye not much better than they? So He's basically saying He gives food to the fowls of the air and they're not even working, they're not toiling for it. He just allows that food to be there. Then it goes on to say, Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto a stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? So He's basically saying like, the idea here is that can you just think about being taller and it make you taller? I know some in here would really love for that to be the case. But it's just not possible. And you just have to be content with the things that you have. And be content with how God made you. But it's kind of giving you that thought process. You know what that means? Think about this. He's giving this as an example because you can't control that. Now in modern medicine maybe you can control that and you can do some surgery to do something about it. Let's just think on the outside of this Frankenstein science that's out there. To adding cubits to your stature. A cubit is 18 inches by the way. So that's insane to try to think of. I'm going to add 18 inches to my stature. But if you think about your height and all that. As ridiculous as taking thought for adding to your height and how that's just not going to help anything. That doesn't help. You can think about it all you want. But you're not going to turn into some Jedi where you have some kind of magical force power to where you can just make yourself taller. We're in reality. We're not in fantasy land here. Taking thought about how much taller you could be doesn't make you taller. And so he's giving you that as an example. Then why are you taking thought for this? Because when it comes to food and raiment, do you realize how far out of your control that is? Think about, think about, okay, and you say well there's obviously control because I work a job and all that. Granted. But just because you work a job doesn't mean there's going to be food available. Okay. There could be famines. There could be pestilences. There could be the economy could just fall apart. And you have zero control over that. So why worry, you know, and listen, I'm not against you looking into politics and all that stuff. And listen, you can do whatever you want. But if you get into this mode of just thinking about politics and looking about like who's going to be the next, you know, president or who's going to do this or that. And you can think about all that all you want. But in the end, can you really control that? Can you as an individual really control that? Are you going to really change what's going on in that realm? So why are you taking so much thought for it? Okay. Worrying about it, right? It's like well what if so and so gets into office? Are you going to be able to change it anyway? The idea here is that don't worry about things you can't control. Because what's the point? What's the point of worrying and taking thought for things you can't control? What you should take thought for are things that you can control. Okay. And keep reading here. It says which of you taking thought can add one cube unto his stature? Verse 28. And why take he thought for raiment consider the lilies of the field? How they grow, they twirl not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. So it's basically talking about Solomon obviously who had all these riches in the world. That he didn't even have clothing that would be comparable to what God does with basically lilies in a field and how he clothes the field, if you will. That it doesn't even compare to that. So why take thought for it? Wherefore, in verse 30, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. So God knows you need these things. It's not like He's ignorant about the fact that we need to eat and we need clothing, right? But it says in verse 33, and here's the key. Instead of taking thought for those type of things that ultimately you don't have control over, I mean obviously work hard and try to make money and all that stuff, but in the end, even if you work hard and make money, who knows if that money is even going to be able to buy anything. If everything is going to be so high that you can't even afford anything, then that's not going to help anything, right? But it says in verse 33, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. So He's basically stating here, here's the promise that if you want to have food and raiment, seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. That's a promise. You do what God tells you to do. You keep His commandments. And listen, the Bible says not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together as a man of some is and so much more as you see the day approaching, that we need to exhort one another in love. The Bible talks about going out into all the world and preaching the gospel to every creature. The Bible talks about that you shouldn't live by bread alone but by every word of God, reading the Bible, meditating upon the Word, and keeping His commandments for this is the love of God, that you keep His commandments and His commandments are not grievous. If you do these things, all that other stuff is going to be added to you. You don't even have to think about that. Just do what God tells you to do. And well, what about working? Well, the Bible says if you don't work, neither should you eat. So yeah, I mean, that's part of that. The Bible says that you need to work hard. And men, we need to provide for our families. But in the end, I'm not going to... I don't want to worry about the future as far as am I going to be able to take care of my family in the future. Like tomorrow. What's going to happen tomorrow? If you have that mentality, you're going to be in this stressful anxiety type of realm and the Bible just doesn't teach that we should be in that state of mind. That actually we should be in a mind of peace. And the Bible talks about that God give us the peace of God that passeth all understanding. And then if you have any worries about anything, you take it to Him with prayer. And you bring that to Him in prayer and you leave it there. Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you. So if you have cares and you have things that you're worried about, you just put it on His plate. And serve Him and He'll take care of it. Now go to Proverbs chapter 3. Proverbs chapter 3 and verse 1. Proverbs chapter 3 and verse 1. And ultimately, listen, there's enough to deal with in a day than to worry about tomorrow. There's enough things and problems that you have today. And by the way, there's enough problems that you have that you don't need to be worrying about other people's problems. Think about, let's think about this on a church level, right? Not that our church has a bunch of problems. I'm not saying this at all. But if we have issues or problems, we have enough to deal with here that we don't need to be dealing, we don't need to be worrying about the problems of some other church that they're dealing with. Now listen, it says bear you one another's burden, so there's nothing wrong with helping out somebody. But in the end, we shouldn't be worried about, we should be like, hey we're here for you, can we help you in this manner? Can we bear your burden? Is there some way we can help you? But in the end, I'm not going to be worried about something that's not our particular problem. But don't get me wrong, I'm all for helping other people out too that have problems. But the idea here is not worrying about it, not taking this added stress onto yourself that doesn't need to be there. As far as being a pastor, for example, my worries or my, the idea of what I'm focusing on is here, and I'm not going to just worry about, okay, what are they going to do? How are they going to deal with this? Can I control it? Then why am I worrying about it? But listen, if there's problems here, guess what? I can control it and I am the one that has to deal with it, okay? Same thing with, let's say your marriage, right? Husbands, when it comes to your marriage, listen, your marriage is something you've got to deal with and something that you can control and something you can, you know, have some kind of priority as far as what you're dealing with there. But listen, someone else's marriage, what are you going to do? And listen, I'm the pastor, but listen, I can't control your marriage and I don't want to control your marriage. I can give you advice, I can tell, you know, you can come to me and ask me what you think I, what you should do, but in the end, that obligation is you, so I'm not going to be sitting around, I don't sit at home and be like worried about other people's marriage. Now, I may pray for other people and I care, don't get me wrong. There's a difference between caring about people that have problems and praying for them and hoping that things work out and worrying about it, okay? So I hope you understand that I'm not being apathetic here. I'm not like saying just like nuts to everybody else, it's about me and it's about what I, you know, so don't take that the wrong way. The idea here is that you don't worry about things you can't control, okay? That's kind of the ultimate thing that I, that I am, that I think about this, Patches, is that not controlling the, or not worrying about things you can't control. But, but focus on things you can control. You can control how you serve the Lord. You can control how much you love the Lord and follow His commandments and do, and seek the kingdom of God. You can control that. You can't control the economy. You can't control whether there's famine or pestilence. You can't control the money that's out there or the currency and whether that just falls apart and we go into an electronic currency or whatever it is. You know, it's just Bitcoin next week, who knows? You can't control that. And listen, if everything falls apart, if the whole world just crumbles, there's famine, there's pestilences, the currency just all, you know, the fiat currency just becomes monopoly money and everything just falls apart. Guess what? God says that if you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things shall be added unto you. Do you think that what happens in this world is going to affect that promise? You're like, well, where's the food going to come from? He'll bring it down from heaven if He has to. He fed the five thousand. Guess what? He can do it again. And this sermon is to really give you, listen, the thing that He states here, and it's something that, listen, we all deal with is lack, we lack faith in this area. And notice that He says, O ye of little faith. This is an area where we just have to have faith that, listen, I'm just going to do what God tells me to do. I'm going to live for Him. I'm going to love Him. I'm going to keep His commandments. I'm going to read the Bible. I'm going to do what He tells me to do. And I'm just going to let Him take care of that. I'm going to let Him, you know, let God deal with how I get what I need. And that takes a lot of stress off. Just let Him deal with it. And listen, God's better at doing that anyway. God will give you more than you think that you're going to get. And I've never yet been disappointed by what God has provided. Actually, a lot of times I'm surprised at how much God will give. So, go to Proverbs chapter 3, Proverbs chapter 3, in verse 1 there. It says, My son, forget not My law, but let thine heart keep My commandments. For length of days, and long life, and peace shall they add to thee. So notice this. And obviously this is Solomon talking to his son, but this is obviously kind of a metaphorical way of God talking to us about His laws, right? But it says in verse 3 there, Let not mercy and truth forsake thee, bind them about thy neck, write them upon the table of thine heart, so shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. And trusting in the Lord is synonymous with having faith in the Lord, okay? When we're talking about believing in the Lord, having faith in the Lord, we're talking about trusting Him. Trusting that He's going to actually clothe us. Trusting that He's going to feed us. Trusting that He's going to take care of us. And it says, In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. So notice this isn't just talking about believing on Christ and being saved. This is on top of you believed on Christ, you're a child of God, you're saved, you have eternal life, but we're talking about in all thy ways acknowledge Him, letting Him instruct and direct thy paths. We're talking about keeping His commandments and binding them upon our hearts. So these promises of Him taking care of us is if we're seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, okay? This one says, Be not wise in thine own eyes, and fear the Lord, and depart from evil. Verse 8, It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. And I preached a sermon before on tithing, but giving a tenth of your income, you're like, man, times are hard. You know, inflation's bad. You know, can I really tithe? And really, this takes faith, right? It takes faith to say, I'm going to give a tenth of what I bring in, and I'm going to give it to God, and that He's going to supply. And listen, He will. I know it's anecdotal. I know it's anecdotal because I'm just talking about myself. But listen, He does, He will, it'll be more than you imagine. And this isn't like saying, listen, give to the church because we need money. Listen, I don't police this. This is something that is obviously, I believe, commanded that we give a tenth to God so we don't rob God. But I believe that He actually holds His end of the promise. That when you do that, your barns will be filled, and your press is full, and He'll give you above and beyond. I personally believe that anything that I've ever given in a tithe, I have received above and beyond that. And it may not be on paper, money wise, but some things are priceless. Some things don't have a value to it because there's no way to value that. Think of health, for example. Health is something that is not able, you can't put a price on that. How about your children being healthy? How about your children being born? How about just the safety of your children? The safety of your family? There's certain things that we may never know what God has helped happen. There's times where I'm just like, that could have gone really bad. Think about driving on the road and just the safety that's there, that the Lord provides. And so, not everything is going to be in a monetized state that you're going to see. You look at all your checks and balances and be like, so I gained this over here. And you're like running your profit analysis on your overhead. It's not always going to work that way. But honestly, if you did that, you would be in this realm where your profit would be invaluable. Meaning it would be above and beyond value. You can't value it. So, go to James chapter 4, James chapter 4. So we have to have faith, we need to trust in the Lord that He's going to provide. That doesn't mean we just sit in our basement eating chips off our chest and say, Lord provide. That's not what it says. It says that you need to actually get up and do what you're supposed to be doing. You need to love the Lord, keep His commandments, seek His righteousness, seek the kingdom of God. And seeking the kingdom of God, you're going to be preaching the kingdom of God. You're going to be preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. You're going to be a witness for Him. You're going to love Him, read His word, want to keep His commandments. Those are the types of things that, listen, when everything falls apart, who's God going to take care of? And I believe those are the ones, and I'm not saying He won't take care of anybody else. Because God is loving and merciful and, you know, so it's not, I'm not saying that's the only people He's going to take care of. But listen, He's promising to take care of those. Another thing to think about here, you don't know if there's going to be a tomorrow. So go to James chapter 4 and verse 13. You're like, you're a little morbid. I'm just being real, okay. Listen, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. So you know what? Obviously I want to be here because the Bible says, Paul says I'm in a strait betwixt two. Having a desire to part and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. Okay, so when I think about dying, it's not like it's, the only thing I worry about with that is my family. You know, what happens with my family? Who takes care of my family? You know, that's the thing that I worry about. If I was single, I would be like Paul and be like, just take me now, you know. Why would I want to be here and struggle through this life, you know? And obviously I'm being a little facetious because even Paul was saying like, obviously there's a reason why he's here. He needs to do work, he needs to help people out, all that stuff, right? But when you have a family, this is obviously something that you would maybe worry about. What if something happened to me? What if I died? Not for your own sake, but for your family. But I just, you need to be real and know this, is that if I'm going to worry about tomorrow, you don't even know if tomorrow is going to happen, right? So you may be worrying about something that's not even on the table. Notice what it says in James, chapter 4 and verse 13. Go to now ye that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain. I mean, think about that. He's not just thinking about tomorrow, he's thinking about, this person's thinking about the next year. They got this itinerary for the year and what's the Bible say in verse 14? Where as ye know not what shall be on the morrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. And so the ultimate thing here is that we don't know what we have tomorrow, we don't know what we have next year. And hopefully everybody in here has a lot of time. Right? But we don't know that. And the point that I'm trying to get across here is not be like, well, you know, well, what was me? I might die tomorrow. The thought process here that should be is that why am I worrying about tomorrow when I don't even know if I'm going to be here tomorrow? You know? Like why would I fret about things that I may not even have to deal with? And like I said, a lot of the things that we fret about and the things that we worry about don't actually end up happening. How many times, and you can just think about this, right? I'm sure hands would raise up all through the building. How many times did you worry about something to the point of like you were just completely stressed out over something? You're just worried about it, that what are we going to do? And then it didn't happen. It didn't happen at all. And you're just like, why did I worry about that, right? But you remember how painful that was to worry about it, right? Just the stress, I mean, it affects you both mentally and physically when you worry and stress about stuff like that. And that doesn't even happen. Or it does happen, but something happens over here that just makes that go away, right? Like let's say it's like some expense, right? Something breaks down and you're just like, what are we going to do? I don't have the money to fix this. I don't know what's going to happen. And then boom, got a bonus over here, paid for it. Or someone like said, hey, you know, I just wanted to give you something to help out. Have no idea if you need this or not, but here you go. And sometimes that stuff happens where you're just like, what in the world? How did that work out? And that happens to people because God is merciful and that happens to people that aren't even serving the Lord or loving the Lord. But listen, I believe how much more will that happen to those that love the Lord because God is promising that it will take care of us, okay? Go to Proverbs chapter 24, Proverbs chapter 24, Proverbs chapter 24 and verse 19. Proverbs chapter 24 and verse 19. We're talking about evil, okay? So we're talking about sufficient of the days that evil air up. Think about this, I mean, you could worry about, you could worry about the wicked people in this world, okay? You could worry about the pedophiles out there. You could worry about the wicked people that are just out there trying to, you know, the people that hate those that do good. And you could just worry about that stuff that's going on in the world. And in the end, what you have to ask yourself is one, can I control it? Can I do anything about it? And so why am I worrying about it? That doesn't mean that you don't need to preach against it, be against it, be vocal about it and protect your family. I'm not saying that, but in the end, we need to not fret about evil men, okay? Notice what it says here in verse 19. Fret not thyself because of evil men, neither be thou envious at the wicked. So there's kind of two things that you're dealing with here. You're kind of fretting yourself over wicked people that are evil, but then you're also envying the wicked because of what they have, okay? Notice what it says in verse 20. For there shall be no reward to the evil man, the candle of the wicked shall be put out. My son, fear thou the Lord and the king, and meddle not with them that are given the change. For their calamity shall rise suddenly, and who knoweth the ruin of them both? And the idea here is that don't envy the wicked. Now I'm talking about unsaved people and specifically unsaved people that are past the hope of salvation. You know, you think about like reprobates that are out there, right? And you think about how they have all the money and they're getting away with murder. All these things that just happen. You see these people and they're just like, they're not going to get charged for that, right? The Clintons aren't going to jail. They're going to die in a ripe old age even though they committed murder, committed pedophilia, did all these different things at Epstein's Island. You know, you're like, they get away with murder and you can just fret yourself about the wickedness that's in the world and just think about that and just be worried about that. But again, they're getting theirs. God will recompense them. And we can't control that anyway. Even speaking about it might get you murdered, you know, get you suicided. I'm not suicidal, just so you know. If you find two gunshots to the head up on a mountain somewhere, then just know it wasn't me, okay? The way the YouTube algorithms work anyway, no one can see my sermons anyway because of the censorship that's being put on anybody who speaks the truth. The only people that see my sermons are people that want to see it. But that's the world we live in and that's another thing, don't fret about that. Let's think God's word is not bound and they can censor us all they want. But you know what that means is that God is going to use some other way than social media to get his word out. And you know what, God is way more powerful than Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, praise the Lord, Instagram, all those social media outlets. And listen, we'll use whatever we can to get the word out there. But in the end, I am not worried or fretting about whether YouTube shuts us down or not. I'm not worried about whether Facebook shuts us down. Because you know what that means is that God is going to work in some other realm. And let's see what he does. Let's just sit back and do the work and watch what God does. Because that's when the real miracles are going to happen. That's when the real, like you're going to see the power of God being done. Because listen, if you're on YouTube and you get a big following and people follow you on there, can you really say, well you know that was the power of God. Now God can use it, don't get me wrong. But listen, anybody can look at it and be like, well anybody can make a YouTube channel. Anybody can try to get subscribers and do all these different things and whatever to get a following. But if it happens without all of that stuff and the word gets out, guess what? God likes working in a way that there's no doubt it was him. I mean when it comes to the number of people that he uses, but when it comes to the outlet in which he does it, and the way that he does it, God is always going in the route to show so that no one can say, well it was Susan Wojcicki over at YouTube. It was Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook. They're the ones that are really the ones that got that word out there for you. It was their platforms. Listen, maybe that's why everything's getting shut down. And then that's going to lead to God working over here doing something else. So don't fret about those type of things. Don't fret about evil men trying to censor the word of God because God's word is not bound. And there wasn't Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram back in Jesus' day, but guess what? The gospel got preached to the whole world, and the Bible says that the gospel will be preached to the whole world again before Jesus comes. So guess what? It's going to happen, and how that happens we'll see. And obviously all we do is just do what we can. Go out and preach the gospel as much as you can, do what you can, and then let God deal with it. Now go to Psalm 37. Now the rest of my sermon is going to pretty much be going through Psalm 37. Because Psalm 37 is, if I were to put a name on it, is the fret not Psalm. And that's kind of what I'm talking about. When you think about it, take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. The idea here is just don't worry about tomorrow. Don't fret. Don't worry. Don't have all this anxiety about what's going to happen tomorrow. Don't worry about what evil men are doing. Don't worry about what evil is going on in the world. As far as worrying, you can think about it, you can preach against it, you can be against it. But don't just sit at home and just worry about it to where you can't even function. It's like when I preach a sermon and I get angry about a subject. Some people will maybe listen to that sermon and be like, man, he's an angry person. He must just sit at home just steaming about things. And it's just nothing farther from the truth, right? Right after the sermon I'm like, hey guys, how's it going? The idea there is that there's a time and place to be angry. And there's a time to just get angry about it, speak the truth, and preach what needs to be preached. But listen, I'm not just going to be steaming about something the rest of the day. I'm not going to let them make me an angry person. I'm not going to let them just make me live a short life because I'm worried about what they're doing. Listen, they're going to pay for their own sins. God's going to recompense them. I'm going to preach against them. I'm going to be against them. But at the same time, I'm not going to fret myself over what they're doing. Notice what it says in verse 1 here, it says, Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. Sound familiar? It's very similar to what Proverbs says. Although there's this whole psalm here. So it's interesting because Proverbs is Solomon and this is David's psalm right here. So you kind of have Solomon repeating what David said. And obviously this is all the Word of God. But at the same time, David is under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost speaking these words. But it says in verse 2 here, it says, For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Isn't that what we're talking about? Listen, trust in the Lord and do good. Keep His commandments, do what you should be doing, and you're going to be fed. Now this doesn't say do good and you'll go to heaven. I want to make this very clear that what we're talking about here is we're talking about something separate from salvation, eternal salvation. We're talking about living in this world, being fed, being clothed, being blessed. Being rewarded. Whether it's in this life or the next, this is what we should be focused on. And when it comes to this, keeping God's commandments, the Bible says His commandments are not grievous. So keeping His commandments, there's actually a lot of peace in that. It's not something where keeping His commandments gives you anxiety and you're stressed out about keeping His commandments. No, actually, keeping His commandments, that actually gives you a lot of peace. What gives you anxiety is when you don't keep His commandments and you're not in His will. That should be what gives you anxiety. But if you keep His commandments, listen, there's a peace of God that passes all understanding that you have. He has your back. He's there for you and He's going to take care of you. Notice what it says here as we keep reading here in verse 4. It says, Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. And He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord. I want you to think about this. Rest in the Lord. You know, Jesus says, Come unto Me and I will give thee rest. Take My yoke upon you. You know, and He talks about how His yoke is easy and His burdens light. And you shall find rest unto your souls. Listen, this is something that's been from the beginning of time. This is David speaking about this in the Psalms, but then Jesus talks about this later. But notice that your rest is because you're working for the Lord. You know, you're taking His yoke upon you. But listen, doing the things of God are so much, there's so much more peace and rest there than if you just go off and do what you want to do. And then the way of transgressors is hard. If you're saved and you're going to heaven, great. But listen, if you just live in the flesh, that's hard. That's going to be hard on you. You're going to not have these promises. You're not going to have these blessings that are being added to you. That's going to be a hard path. It's going to be a hard life that you're going to be living. Even though when you die, you're going to heaven, which is great. But at the same time, why don't we, on the other hand, rest in the Lord, take His yoke upon us so that, listen, I don't have to worry about all this other stuff. I don't have to worry about what's going on in the world. I don't have to worry about the economy. I don't have to worry about everything else that's falling apart. Let the Lord deal with that. And whether the Lord blesses the economy or destroys the economy, guess what? I'm going to be taken care of. Either way. So, and listen, sometimes I pray that the economy does get destroyed. Because prosperity breeds wickedness. And prosperity has caused people to forget God. And our prosperous country has bred wickedness. And you say, well, I can't believe you'd want our economy to fail because think about the fact, how are you going to feed your family? I don't have to worry about it. God will. Because I'm still going to serve Him, whether the economy crashes or it doesn't. And God says that He'll add all these things unto me. Listen, the whole world may be starving, but His seed that is serving Him will be fed. And listen, I don't want to see, obviously I'd rather see people prospering. I believe God wants to see people prosper. But at the same time, if the downfall of the economy causes more people to get saved and believe on Christ and breeds righteousness, guess what? That's better. And I'm not worried about it because God said He'll provide for me. So, let it happen. But listen, I'm going to be fed. My family will be fed. I don't know how it's going to happen necessarily, but it will happen because God says it will happen. Think about all the prophets that were in the Bible that went through persecutions. It doesn't mean that it's going to be easy all the time. It doesn't mean that you're not going to suffer persecution. Because ye and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But in the end, think about Jeremiah the prophet who was put into a pit, a mire, and was sunk down into the mire. Did he die? Did he starve? No. I mean, they were talking about giving them, you know, some of these prophets, they're like giving them water of affliction and bread of affliction, you know. They were still fed. But in the end, when Jeremiah got taken out of the mire, he was a landowner. And then the king of Babylon says, you can stay here. You can come with us. Whatever you want to do, the choice is yours. So I mean, in the end, Jeremiah won. Now, obviously Jeremiah was sad because of what happened to his country. And he didn't want that to happen to his country. But in the end, you know what that happened? That caused revival because those that went into captivity got right with God. Then God brought them back. They built the temple again. They built the wall. And there was a revival that was there. It was a rubble bowl. And with Joshua the son of Josadec and all of that that happened there because there was a down turn. But guess what? God's people were taken care of. So keep reading there. It says, Rest in the Lord, verse 7, and wait patiently for Him. Fret not thyself because of Him who prospereth in His way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off. But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be. Yea, thou shalt diligently consider His place, and it shall not be. Listen, wicked people die every day. There's wicked people that are just like, how is that person still alive? They die. They will die. Listen, the Clintons are going to die. Nancy Pelosi is going to die. The wicked people, I don't know why I'm thinking about them. There's obviously all kinds of wicked people that are out in the world. I'm trying to think off the top of my head. I try not to think about them. So just forgive me if I can't think of everybody out there that's wicked. But these people that are high up that are wicked, they're going to die one day. Joe Biden's probably already dead. I mean, I'm pretty sure it's a weekend at Bernie's. They got him up there with puppet hands and all that stuff. I mean, he's half dead at least. He's like on the brink. So when it comes to this, the Bible is stating they're going to die. They're going to be on their way out. Why are you worried about what they're getting or what they're prospering? Because listen, the prosperity of the wicked is only for this short amount of time. This little vapor of time that they have. They're going to hell when they die. We're going to heaven when we die. So even if we did have a hard life, listen, what's that to eternity? But God on top of that is saying, listen, even though you're in this life and you're going to have eternity, if you live for me, suffer for me and for righteousness sake, I'm going to feed you. I'm going to clothe you. I'm going to make sure you're taken care of. And it says here in verse 10, it says, Those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth, for yet a little while and the wicked shall not be. Yea, they shall diligent consider his place, and shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Now does that sound familiar? But do you remember in what we would, the fancy term, the Beatitudes, right? In Matthew chapter 5, you have the Sermon on the Mount, and there's all these, like, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted. But remember, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Guess what? That's not just in the New Testament. That's something that's always been the case. It says here, what does it say in verse 11? But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. So when we're talking about this, what are we talking about? Being fed. We're talking about inheriting the earth, meaning that the earth is the Lord's in the fullness thereof, right? The Lord owns cattle on a thousand hills. He can provide, He has the means to provide for us. And if He has to bring angels to bring food to us, or have, like, ravens bring food to us, or have whatever He has to do, He'll do it to keep His promise. The Lord can't lie. And I believe that if you're seeking His righteousness in the kingdom of God, then all these things shall be added unto you. That's a promise. And keep reading there, it says, verse 12, the wicked ploddeth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. And you can imagine why you could fret about that, right? You could think about, like, being anxious about that. What if we have persecution where we have protesters, because I preach against the sodomites, or I preach against the pedophiles, or I preach against, you know, whatever out there, right? And they start protesting us, and you can fret about that, you can worry about that. But what does it say in verse 13? The Lord shall laugh at him. I want you to think about that. When you have a bunch of sodomites that are protesting a church, because they preach Leviticus 20, or they preach Romans chapter 1, the Lord's laughing at them. He's laughing at them. Because what does it say? The Lord shall laugh at him, for he seeth that his day is coming. The Lord, he that sitteth in heaven shall laugh, the Lord shall have him in derision, the Bible says. He's going to laugh when their fear cometh, he's going to mock, you know, it says in Proverbs chapter 1, and I'm going to misquote that now. So let me pull that up real quick, just so I don't, like, butcher that, because I apologize. That's usually the one I have memorized, not the other one, so. Isn't it funny how that works? Proverbs chapter 1, it says, I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh. I was getting it mixed up there. So basically, when you think about people coming at you, and they're trying to gnash on you with their teeth, right, their just vile, ravening beasts that are just protesting or whatever, the Lord's laughing at them, because he knows that their day is coming. And listen, when it comes to that group, especially, their life expectancy is, like, cut in half of a normal person, so I mean, that's just facts, that's just, I mean, go to the CDC and you'll find that out. But it says, the wicked, in verse 14, have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation. You know, when people are like, oh, you know, the Bible's outdated, this is like reading the newspaper. Those that have upright conversation, they're trying to kill, they're trying to come at them, they're drawing their swords out. Verse 15, their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. Think about Haman. Haman in the book of Esther, how he wanted to kill Mordecai, and he had a gallows that he built. Guess who died on that gallows? Was it Mordecai or was it Haman? Haman was hanged on his own gallows. And they were really high, I forget what the cubits are, but it was like three stories high or something like that, something ridiculous. But he built this gallows and he ended up hanging on, and his sons hanged on them. Like, his whole family got taken out. And so when you think about this, it's that they're coming at you, but they're going to be slain with their own sword. That's how God works when it comes to recompensing the evildoers out there. They end up getting what they're trying to put on you. Now, it says, verse 16, a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. And you've got to really think about that when you can look at all the prosperous people in the world, people that have all these nice things, and you can think, well, you know, if I wasn't like putting so much time into God and into the church, you know, how much more could I make? How much more could I, you know, have in abundance? If I didn't have all these kids, I mean, good night. I mean, I'd be like hiking in Europe, and I'd be going up into the Alps, you know, I'd be doing all this crazy stuff, have all this money. Listen, if I didn't have to pay for diapers, I would be rich right now. I remember just talking about that. I was like, how much do we spend in diapers? I don't even know. Don't know? I just know this, that when my kids, whenever that is, when I'm like 50 and I don't have kids in diapers, that we're going to be rolling in the money. You're like, that diaper money is going to be my retirement fund. You know it's true, right? I mean, but anyway, so when you think about this stuff, you're like, well, you know, I could have so much money, I could have all this stuff, but listen, a little that a righteous man hath, it's better than any of these riches that the wicked people have. Listen, when you look at these people that, and I'm obviously, you know, people that can't have children, you know, my heart goes out to you, but there's people out there that choose not to have children. They choose not to have children because they want to have that life where they can do whatever they want and have the riches and have all that. They're coming back now when they're like 50 years old and don't have any kids, can't have any kids now that they're realizing the mistake they made. They're realizing just how empty their life is in the end, okay? And again, I know there's people that can't have children and Lord bless them and I believe there's other ways that you can have happiness, but in the end, when you could have had children and you chose not to, you're going to have to deal with that later on in life. And so we just need to have perspective here. It says, for the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholdeth the righteous. The Lord knoweth the days of the upright and their inheritance shall be forever. And they shall not be ashamed in the evil time. And in the days of famine, they shall be satisfied. Listen, in a time, and listen, if we're in the days where we go into the beginnings of sorrows, where there's pestilences and famines and rumors of wars, guess what? Don't worry about it. You know what? Even Jesus said that, you know, the time is not yet even. Even in that time. Guess why He tells you not to fret, not to worry about that? Because He promises that in the day of famine, we're going to be satisfied. We're going to be fooled. We're going to be taken care of because we're serving the Lord, doing what we should be doing, and He's promising He's going to take care of us. Guess what that takes, though? Faith. It takes faith. Because I can't show you the future where it takes place. You're not going to see the future when it takes place and when you're provided for. You have to have faith that, listen, if I just keep doing what God tells me to do, it's going to work out. He's going to provide. It's going to be taken care of. And, listen, the more that you go through this life and you live for the Lord and you see that come to fruition, the more experience you have and that experience worketh hope and hope maketh not ashamed. That idea of just seeing it happen, you're just like, yeah, it's happened before, why wouldn't it happen now? But if you don't have at least those first times where you're dealing with that, where you have to have faith and go through those trials and tribulations or those hard times, yeah, it's going to be hard because you've never seen it come to fruition. You've never seen it actually take place, right? Now, it says here in verse 20, But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs. They shall consume, and to smoke shall they consume away the wicked borroweth and payeth not again, but the righteous showeth mercy and giveth it. For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth. Notice that inheriting the earth that keeps being brought up. And notice that in Matthew chapter 6, it's talking about the things of the earth. It's talking about, you know, clothing, food. I mean, where do you get your clothing from? But from the earth, right? Whether it's from plant-based products or whether it's from animal-based products, you're getting this clothing, whatever you're wearing, from the earth, okay? Food comes from the earth. And so it's stating here that we'll inherit the earth, and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off. So he's showing you that if you're righteous, you live for him, you're going to inherit the earth, you're going to be full, even in times of famine. Even in times where it's not available to most people, guess what? God will make sure it's available to you. And I had some other, you know, in your time, you can go through the... Let me just get to this one portion, okay? Verse 23, you're in Psalm 37. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. So it's not saying that you're never going to fall. You're never going to have hard times. Don't get this Joel Osteen attitude out here, like, oh, you know, I'm just never going to have any hard times. No, the righteous man falls seven times and rises up again. The idea there is that you may fall, but you're going to get, you know, he's going to bring you back up. He's going to keep bringing you back up. So you're not going to fall and just be utterly cast down. In verse 25 here, I have been old, I have been young, and now I'm old. Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful and lendeth, and his seed is blessed. Depart from evil and do good and dwell forevermore, for the Lord loveth judgment and forsaketh not his saints. They are preserved forever, but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell therein forever. And you can read the rest of the passage here, but it's kind of saying the same thing. And the idea here is that David's saying, I've been young, I'm old now. And he's saying, I haven't seen his seed forsaken. I haven't seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. That's anecdotal for David, but guess what, that's the word of God that's saying this. And what's anecdotal mean? It means like your personal experience, right? Like I know from personal experience that this has happened to me. But guess what, it's anecdotal for me, it's anecdotal for David. But guess what, Jesus is promising it and the word of God is promising it. That's not anecdotal, that's empirical. That's straight up, that's the way it is. It's just the fact that David saw it himself. He saw it's true. It's kind of like David's affirming like, yes, this is true. This is what God says he'll do, and he's affirming, I was young, I'm old now. And guess what, it's true. That's what he's basically saying, yeah, it's true. That's the way God works. And now when it comes to this idea of not thinking, take no thought for tomorrow. Take no thought for tomorrow. The last point I want to make here is that I'm not saying that we should never do it and plan anything, right? Like we have so many marathons planned. Don't take any thought for tomorrow, don't plan anything. It's just like on a Saturday you got to pop up and be like, let's do this, you know, who's ready? It's not saying to not plan for anything. But ultimately when it says take no thought for tomorrow, we're talking about like evil things, right? We're talking about worrying and stressing over like things that bad that would happen, okay? So we shouldn't be taking thought for tomorrow for like evil and stuff like that, but we should be setting our sights on what we're going to be doing in the future to have goals set, right? And the idea here is that spiritually speaking, we should be looking ahead to eternity, okay? And in one case, the Bible uses this terminology of laying hold on eternal life. And it's kind of like this idea of like not thinking about like the future in this physical realm of like what evil is going to happen here. We should be looking at like there's eternity, let me lay hold on that. Let me grab on to that for a second, okay? While I'm here on the earth, let me grab on to eternal life. And notice, go to 1 Timothy 6, and the last point I'm going to make here and we'll be done, is that we need to be setting our sights on the kingdom of God. And that's really what Jesus is saying is seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. So what you should be thinking about and what you should be looking toward is eternity, okay? And you know, when you have your mindset on eternity, one, that kind of takes all that stress out of the equation, right? I mean if you think about the fact of heaven and eternity, it's kind of hard to be stressed about that. You know, if you're saved, okay? If you're a believer, then there's nothing to stress about there. You're just like, that's going to be great. Can't wait for that. It's like the light at the end of the tunnel. It's like when you have a vacation set up and you're like, we're going to go to the beach, we're going to go somewhere nice and fun. I just got trudged through this work week or this month or whatever it is. You kind of have this light that's just like, ah, yes, I'm going to go do that. And I'm going to have fun, I'm going to rest, I'm going to have a good time. Eternity is like that. You think about heaven, you're setting your sights to that. It kind of gives you that piece of like, okay, this toil is going to end eventually. I'm eventually going to be able to rest. I'm eventually going to not have to worry about everything that's going on around me. And 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 6 says, But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. Remember Job said, naked came out of my mother's womb and the naked child returned thither. And having food and raiment, let us be there with content. And that's what we're talking about here. We're talking about food and raiment. Not taking thought for that. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on the eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hath professed a good profession before many witnesses. So it's not saying that it's evil to be rich, or that money is evil. It says the love of money is the root of all evil. And those that will seek to be rich, those that are seeking to that, or will be rich, that's what you're talking about, is that that shouldn't be what you're seeking. You're not seeking riches, you're not seeking wealth. God may give it to you, but you shouldn't be seeking that. You should be seeking first what? The kingdom of God and His righteousness. And isn't that the alternative from the riches? Is that to follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. And guess what? The meek shall inherit the earth. God is promising that unto the meek. Down later on in verse 17 it says, charge them that are rich in the world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. Don't trust in your riches or your wealth. Don't trust in what you have, even if you do have a lot. You need to be trusting in the Lord. And it says that they do good, and that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. And so the Bible says, set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. The Bible says, while we look not at things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. So don't take thought for the morrow. Don't think about what's going to happen tomorrow. What's going to happen next week? And just stress out over things in this life that you don't have any control over anyway. Focus on the things of God. Focus on the kingdom of God. Focus on His righteousness, keeping His commandments, doing what you should be doing. And it's kind of like, all that other stuff takes care of itself. You do what God tells you to do, and listen, you keep His commandments, do what you should be doing. Guess what? Your children are not going to turn out right. Because you're doing what He says to do with them. Your marriage is going to work out because you're doing what the Bible says about that, right? You're loving your wife, you're providing for your wife, you're doing what you need to be doing there. So that takes care of itself. The food and rain, well, you're working hard with your own hands, and you're working quietly, and you're doing your own business. Guess what? Whether it's famine, pestilence, tornado, hurricane, catastrophes that are going on in the world, He's going to provide. You'll be filled, you'll be satisfied, even in those times. And so it takes faith, though, to know that if I just stay on the path, if I just stay the direction that God wants me to go, and I'm just doing what He tells me to do. And listen, this isn't some secret will of God here. This isn't something like, well, I don't know where I should go. I don't know what I should be doing. The Bible just clearly states to keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous. That means don't murder anybody, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't lie, don't covet your neighbor's things. You know, going on from that is, you know, preach the gospel to every creature, read your Bible, go to church, you know, do righteousness. Not that complicated. Now sometimes it's harder to do because you have a sinful flesh, but it's not some out in the sky, like, I don't know what God wants me to do. Right? And you may say, well, maybe He wants me to pastor one day. Don't worry about that right now. Just worry about doing what He told you directly in the Bible to do, and maybe that'll be something that'll open up later on. And if it doesn't, maybe He doesn't want you to do it. And in the end, listen, you don't have to be a pastor, you don't have to be in this, you know, find this secret will of God over here to just seek God, seek His kingdom and His righteousness. That is something that any Christian can do, no matter what position you're in. And so I hope this sermon helps, and at least helping to take some stress off your life. Meaning this is that don't worry about things you can't control. Don't be fretting and worrying about tomorrow, because you don't even know what tomorrow's gonna bring. Today, there's enough problems right now to worry about. Listen, mothers, there's enough to worry about with your children today than to worry about tomorrow. There's enough work that you gotta do today than to worry about tomorrow. Okay? And so just don't fret about those things. Just do what God tells you to do, and He'll take care of you. And that's what He promises to do. So let's end with a word prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. Thank you for your word. Thank you for this passage. Thank you for this promise. And Lord, we just pray that you would take all our cares upon you. We know that you care for us. And any type of stress or anxiety that we have, I pray that you would just take that away from us and help us to just serve you in peace and just with joy and to live this life the way you'd want us to do it. And Lord, we just pray to be with us as we go out soul winning later on as we come back to the next service. And we love you and prayerless in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. The day will come. Say one more song and then we'll be dismissed. We'll sing In My Heart There Rings a Melody, song one hundred and ninety one. There rings a melody, there rings a melody with heaven's harmony. In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody of love. I love the Christ who died on Calvary, for He washed my sins away. He put within my heart a melody.