Thank you so much. It is a real pleasure to be with you all. I am just, I'm really humbled even for the invitation to come and I don't really need this. I'm really humbled to stand before you. I thank God for my friend Scott and you've been in my prayers and my thoughts. I've been keeping up with your news letters that Scott sent on the internet and when he invited me a couple of weeks ago to come and share, I was just really excited and I've been telling everyone, I'm going to preach at a Presbyterian church. So it's been really good. Do I have this position? I know I'm getting some feedback. It's alright. Okay. I told Daniel, right? Daniel, that we have been in Eatonville for 15 years, although I have been pastoring my wife and I we planted the church 20 years ago and I was working at IBM at the time that we planted the church. I was an engineer with IBM here in Orlando and so 15 years ago we moved into Eatonville to the life center which is that huge church in Eatonville that you can see from our four. We moved into their old building and we purchased their old building. But as Scott has said, we met on the airplane and it's been a wonderful time of fellowship. I heard from him about a year and a half ago because we had stopped communicating for a while and I heard from him about a year and a half ago I received an email that he was planning this church and I was wondering what had happened to Scott and I was really glad to hear that he was still in Orlando and was really glad to meet his family, his wife and all of his children. So it's a real pleasure to be with you all. Would you please pray with me? Father, we give you praise, glory. We thank you for the opportunity that we have had to worship you. We thank you that you have made us qualified to worship you. That the rocks did not have to cry out in our place. That we did our part to praise you because you deserve more than what we can give you. We thank you for this opportunity. We ask that your blessings will be upon our ears that you will open them and we will hear what you're saying to us, that you open our eyes that we'll be able to see what you're showing us, that you open our hearts, that entrance of your word will bring light to our hearts. It's an awesome name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Would you please turn to Philippians chapter 4, Philippians chapter 4. I want to look at two verses in Philippians chapter 4, verses 6 and 7. Philippians chapter 4, verses 6 and 7. I'm reading from the new King James version. It says, the anxious for nothing, 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 minds through Christ Jesus. I want to talk about the remedy for anxiety, the cure for anxiety. I have been walking with the Lord for 30 years, this year makes 30 years that I have been walking with the Lord and I am amazed that how often I need to hear to not worry, how often I need to hear don't be anxious. I wish that it were possible to get an injection that would permanently prevent me from going back to naturally being anxious or to worry about various things. But they haven't invented a permanent cure, there's not an injection that we can receive to completely deliver us from those moments that we are full of anxiety and that we are worried. It is beyond my comprehension that God would love us so much that He would not want us to worry. It is so natural for us to worry. In our effect, I think that sometimes when we don't worry, we get paranoid and we wonder is that something wrong because there's just too much peace. But it is God's will that we have that kind of peace like Jesus at the bottom of the boat sleep in the midst of a storm, sleep while His disciples were acting like us, worrying and wondering what's going on. Whenever we worry, we forget that God is in control, that God is in absolute control of our lives and that God never loses control. When I worry, I forget that He is sent forth the Spirit of His Son into my heart and that I am a child of God, that we are sons and daughters of God. So whenever I worry, I act like pagans, Jesus said that in Matthew 6, whenever we worry, we act like people who don't know the Lord. But yet I find it so natural to act like people who don't know the Lord. If I could invent some kind of vaccine or some kind of medicine that would eliminate this problem, I know that I would never have another cure in the world because all of us have those moments in our lives where we worry. When we look into the Word of God, if we look into chapter 4, verse 6 and 7, there are two things in particular that I would like for you to remember. Number 1, what is your responsibility when it comes to a remedy or a cure for anxiety? Number 2, what is God's responsibility? Verse 6 identifies or reveals our responsibility for worrying. Verse 7 identifies God's responsibility. To worry means to take on a responsibility that is not yours to take, not yours to perform. Usually when we worry about something, it is something that we cannot control ourselves. So what is the cure for worrying? In verse 6, if you look please, in verse 6 it says, first of all, be anxious for nothing. There are two things in particular that Paul says is our cure for worrying, which is our responsibility. Two things in verse 6, it says, first of all, don't be anxious, don't worry, don't take on responsibilities that are beyond your capability or that are beyond your ability. Don't be anxious, that's the first thing Paul says, don't be troubled about the cares of this world. He goes on to say this in verse 6, be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto the Lord. So the first thing that we do to cure ourselves of anxiety is that we turn it all. I believe that we have the ability to turn it all and we also have the ability to turn it all. It's like a television set. We can turn from one channel to another, so it is with worry, with anxiety. We can turn it on or we can turn it all. And we allow it to continue to stay on. And it causes different harms or different problems in our bodies. It causes havoc and disharming in our homes. It causes us to not focus properly on the Lord. So Paul says, turn it all, don't be anxious. And don't be anxious about anything, anything. Can you imagine God not warning you to be anxious about anything? And I know that we live in a world that is so full of anxiety and there are all kinds of prescriptions that we can take to kind of soothe the pain but doesn't take away the doesn't take away whatever it is that we are worrying about. Sometimes we turn to alcohol to try to soothe the pain, but as soon as we sober again, the problem is still there. So what Paul is saying, don't be anxious for anything. I had the opportunity to be tested tonight as I was driving here because I got kind of mixed up on my directions. I live in Sorrento, which is next door to Mount Dora. So it's a pretty good ride here. And I got kind of mixed up on my directions and I was really concerned because I didn't want to be late. This is my first time coming here. By the way, how are y'all doing? Everybody's doing all right. I forgot to ask y'all that. Good. And I didn't want to be late. First impressions go a long way and I'm praying that Scott will allow me to come back if y'all want me to come back. But I was kind of concerned and I was like, God, out of all the nights I'm going to talk about being anxious. And I have a perfect time right now to test my anxiety and I've got your relax. Okay? I've got your relax. Calm down. Calm down. It's going to be all right. If you get there late, it'll be all right. It'll be all right. If you get there too late, Scott, preach. It'll be all right. I know he just got back from vacation, but it'll be all right. But the Bible has instructed us, commanded us to not worry about anything, about anything. Matthew chapter 6 gives even more information, more details, and it really breaks down. Jesus really breaks it down about why not worrying. He says, look at the birds of the era. Look at them. They don't plant. They don't sow. They don't reap. But every day, your father feeds them. I remember one time I was concerned, right before I went to full time ministry, as I was getting ready to leave IBM, and kind of concerned as to how I was going to provide for me and my family. And I was concerned about how the Almighty God is going to provide as if he needed my advice. And I remember one of my accounts here in IBM was when I was at IBM, it was Red Lobster. We were doing a point of sales, which is a cash register software for Red Lobster. And so part of my responsibility was to go to the Red Lobster stores and to kind of watch over and see how the software was working. And I was sitting in the parking lot of one Red Lobster restaurant, and I never forget this. There were a lot of birds just flying around in the parking lot. And this car drives up, and this guy gets out the car, and he takes out these bags, these loafs of bread, loaves of bread. And he takes the bread out of the bags, and he's just beginning to tear them up, and just throw them out, and just throw, I mean, just loaves of bread to these birds. And as I said there, the law began to minister to me, and he began to say, see how I'm taking care of these birds, they didn't have to plant, they didn't have to harvest, they didn't have to go to the bakery, and you're more valuable to me than the birds of the air. I don't want you to worry about anything, God does not want us to worry about anything. So the first cure is to not do it, just don't do it. The second cure, Paul says in this verse, he says, make your requests known. How do we not worry? How do we turn it all? Paul says, make your requests known unto the Lord, and we make our requests known unto God three ways. Paul gives us three ways in this verse. He says pray, pray, number one, pray. When we pray, we go to the Lord, and we're presented to God our needs, and our Father finds such pleasure in supplying all of our needs. And you know what? He never runs out of whatever we need. We can never exhaust his supply, whatever we need, God finds pleasure in providing it. So the first thing we do in making our requests known unto the Lord is that we pray. I'm amazed also, is that oftentimes we don't like to pray, whenever I call prayer meetings at our church, prayer meetings at our churches, when we're just going to pray, we are not going to necessarily have praise and worship, we are going to pray. We are not going to have a sermon, we are going to pray. And out of all of our services, the least attended service at our church is prayer meeting. And I don't believe y'all have that problem here, that you've got. I believe that y'all like to pray here at Christ kingdom church. But prayer is the most powerful weapon that God has given us. So the first way, the first way that we make our requests known unto God is that we pray. Jesus said, ask, and you shall receive, seek, and you shall find, knock, and the door shall be opened. The second way that Paul says after praying is supplication. Supplication and prayer is almost synonymous, but to me supplication is a more intense prayer. Supplication is, if you remember when Hannah, Hannah wanted a baby and Hannah went to the temple of the Lord and she fell down at the altar of the Lord and she began to cry out to God and she began to supplicate. This means an intense prayer, an intense begging, a pleading with God. Have you ever wanted something so badly that it became an intense prayer, that there was nothing great enough to distract you because you knew that God had what you wanted, God had what you needed, and you weren't going to allow anything to come between you and God and God hearing your requests. The word of the Lord says that the righteous cry out the Lord hears and He delivers them out of all of their troubles. The word of the Lord also says that the eyes of the Lord are ponder righteous and its ears are open to their cry. So to supplicate is a more intense prayer. There comes a time in all of our lives where we have to go to another level of praying and that new level, a deeper level of praying is when we supplicate before the Lord. It's like a burden, it's a more passionate prayer. So that's the second way that we present our requests to the Lord. First way is that we pray. Second way is that we supplicate in the third way that we make our requests known unto God that will also be a remedy for our anxiety is to offer thanksgiving to the Lord. It is very difficult to be anxious and to be thankful at the same time. It's very, very difficult. Matter of fact, if you are anxious tonight, start finding things to thank God for because there are a multitude of things that you can thank Him for. Just being able to sit here tonight and to hear the word of the Lord is something to be thankful for. To be here and just to be able to breathe, if you're not in a grave tonight, day it is something to be thankful for. All of us have something to be thankful for. And if I think of enough things to be thankful for after a while, the things that I'm anxious about begin to dissipate, begin to go down, I'm not as anxious as the anxiety begins to leave. So, the first responsibility is your responsibility. The first responsibility is your responsibility. First of all, don't be anxious. One of all, make your requests known unto the Lord. And you make your requests known unto the Lord by three ways. You pray, you supplicate, and you offer thanksgiving unto the Lord. In verse 7, verse 7 identifies God's responsibility, God's responsibility. It says, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus. In verse 7, you are in a passive position. A passive position being this is, well, first of all, in verse 6, you are not in a passive position, but in verse 6, you are in an active position. You are the one who is doing something. You are the one, you know, you, verse 6 is your responsibility to not worry. Your responsibility to make your requests known unto the Lord. Verse 7, you are in a passive position. It's almost like you're sitting in this auditorium or cafeteria, whatever it is, church tonight. It's like you're sitting in a sanctuary tonight, and the air condition does not need your help. The air condition does not need your help to run. It does not need your help to cool you off. You sit in a passive position, and you just began to suck up this nice cold air, and it just does its job. And the same thing with the peace of God. And you have done everything that you can do, prayer, supplicate, offer thanks given to the Lord. You assume, assume that passive position is a peace of God comes, the peace of God that transcends all understanding. Transcends means, do these, it's superior to your understanding. You lack the ability to comprehend. All of a sudden you don't understand why you are not worrying anymore because you have given it to God. You ask your cares upon Him, you've given your burdens to Him. So the peace of God comes upon you, and the peace of God when it comes you can't explain it to anyone. The only thing you know is, I'm not worrying about it anymore, I'm giving it to God. And the word of the Lord says that the peace of God will guard your heart and your mind. The peace of God will guard your hearts and your mind. That word, guard, is a military term, it's like a soldier, a soldier who's protecting something, he's walking, he's protecting something, and it's like the peace of God, this is what the peace of God does, he guards our hearts and our mind. Those things that used to cause us to be anxious, the peace of God said no, you can't come back. I'm guarding their hearts and their minds because they have done their part, they have done their part which is, don't worry, they have done their part which is prayer, supplication and thanksgiving and the peace of God that's surpassed all understanding with God, our hearts and our mind. God has his way of making us, if we don't assume it voluntarily, God has his way of making us assume that passive position. I remember a few years ago, our church, we were having some real financial problems, we were in a financial drought at the church. And I've always proud of myself, in my family, taking care of my financial responsibilities. And so, I take that same discipline into our church, you know, making sure that we service all of our financial obligations on a timely basis. Well we ran into some financial drought and we were not able to take care of our financial obligations, not because we didn't want to, we just were not able to do it. And the creditors began to call the church, and there's only been this one time in our church history that these bill collectors began to call the church, you guys have not paid your bills. Well, I didn't like that. And I told them, well, you know, I really don't need you to inform me of this. I am quite aware that we have not paid your bill and I got off the phone and I never forget, I was at the church office and I went into the sanctuary and I fell on my face before the Lord and I just began to just cry out to God, you know, God, you know, we don't have any money. We don't have any money. We don't have any money. We don't have any money. We don't have any money. You know, I just, I can't sleep at night. I'm just tossing and turning at night and I'm just so anxious and I don't know how to turn it off. And I just don't know what to do with God, I just don't know what to do with Jesus to the head of the church. And you said upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell should not prevail against the church. This is your church. We are the bride of Christ. You are a bridegroom. This is your church. This is your church. And I begin to resonate within me, no, what do you mean? This is Jesus' church. Yeah. Why am I worried? Why am I staying up late at night? Can't sleep. And I blew my nose and I said, you know, God, I am so sorry. I am stolen your church. I have taken on a responsibility that is not mine. I didn't die for this church. Jesus, you die for this church. You can have your church back. And by the way, it doesn't have any money. I blew my nose and I got up and I said, I'm going home and I'm going to sleep. And I went home and I went to sleep. And that was many years ago and we still in existence and we're doing quite well. But God has His way of making us, if we don't voluntarily, assume that passive position. God has His way of making us assume that position because it is God's will that we rest in the Lord, that we rest in. Amen. God bless you. Thank you for the assembly.