First Baptist Church Litchfield
chapel 1/28

      • Isaiah 41:10ESV

  • Light Of The World (John 8:12)
  • Small as a Mustard Seed (Matthew 17:20)

      • Matthew 6:25–27ESV

  • Sovereign One
  • The Gospel Song

      • Matthew 6:25–34ESV

  • Empowered by the Spirit, Guided by the Word

  • He can do it…I don’t think so.

    Let me start with a scene you can picture. A man named Charles Blondin became famous for walking across a tightrope over Niagara Falls. Not over a little creek. Not over a gym balance beam. Over Niagara Falls. Thousands of people watched him do it. One day he pushed a wheelbarrow across the rope.
    Then he looked at a boy in the crowd and asked, “Do you believe I could wheel you across?”
    The boy said, “Yes.”
    Then Blondin asked, “Will you let me?”
    And the boy said, “No.”
    That is the difference between belief in your mind and trust in your heart. His brain said, “Blondin can do it.” But his heart said, “Not with me in the wheelbarrow.”
    And if we are honest, that is exactly what following Jesus can feel like.
    We say, “God is good.” We say, “God is in control.” We say, “God will provide.” We know the verses. We can repeat them. We can pass the Bible quiz.
    But then Monday hits.
    A friend group shifts and you feel rejected. Your parents are stressed and the house feels heavy. Your grades are slipping and you wonder if your future is falling apart. You compare yourself to others and you feel behind. You start thinking, What if I fail. What if I disappoint everyone. What if I am not enough. What if the worst thing happens.
    Life starts to feel like a tightrope. And anxiety feels like the wind.
    Then Jesus comes to you in Matthew 6 and says something shocking. He says you do not have to live on that rope alone. You have a Father. He knows you. He values you. He cares for you. He rules over you. And he invites you to trust him, not just to agree with facts about him.
    So here is what we are going to see this morning.

    When you seek Jesus and his kingdom first, your heart learns to trust your Father’s provision, care, and knowledge, and your anxiety loosens its grip.

    That is not a sentence for a poster, but a lifeline for a teenager. And Jesus proves it with four pictures in Matthew 6:25-34. Birds. Flowers. The Father’s knowledge. And a kingdom.
    Let us walk through them together.
    And as we do, I want you to keep Blondin’s question in your mind. Do you believe God can hold you.
    But also hear the harder question. Will you let him.

    Point 1: Trust Your Father’s Provision

    Jesus begins in Matthew 6:25.
    “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”
    Then he gives a picture.
    “Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
    Jesus is not saying birds are lazy. Birds work hard. They hunt. They build. They gather. But birds do not live with the crushing fear that the universe is against them. They do not wake up panicking about tomorrow. They live as if someone built this world to hold them.
    Jesus says, your Father feeds them. And you are worth more than they are.
    That is providence. God seeing to it.
    Think about your phone’s GPS. You put in a destination and it starts guiding you. You might take a wrong turn. You might miss an exit. But the GPS recalculates and still moves you toward the destination.
    Now multiply that by infinity. Your life is not random. Your story is not accidental. Even when you make choices you regret, even when other people sin against you, even when life feels unfair, your Father is not staring at the sky confused. He is not panicking. He is not wringing his hands.
    He is providing. He is governing. He is seeing to it.
    Joseph told his brothers, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). That is providence. Human evil, real evil, and yet God steering the story without becoming sinful himself.
    Paul says, “God works all things together for good for those who love God” (Romans 8:28). Not some things. Not easy things. All things.
    And when you doubt whether God will provide what you need most, Jesus points you to the cross, whether you realize it or not. Because at the cross God already answered the biggest need you have.
    “If God did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things (Romans 8:32). If God has already provided forgiveness, adoption, and eternal life at the cost of his own Son, he will not forget you now.

    What should I do?

    Students, anxiety often reveals what we believe we must provide for ourselves.

    Ask yourself, what am I most afraid of losing.

    That fear is often the place where God is inviting you to trust his provision. This week, when anxious thoughts come, practice turning them into prayer. Say, Father, I cannot see how this will work out, but I trust you to see to it.
    Now Jesus moves from birds in the sky to flowers in the field.
    Jesus has shown us that our Father provides. But maybe you are thinking, That sounds distant. Provision feels mechanical. So Jesus goes deeper. He shows us not only that God provides, but that God personally cares.

    Point 2: Trust Your Father’s Care

    Matthew 6:28 says, “And why are you anxious about clothing. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”
    Flowers do not work for their beauty. They simply receive it. Jesus says God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Then he asks a piercing question. “Will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith.”
    Jesus is not insulting his disciples. He is exposing the heart of anxiety. Anxiety is not mainly about circumstances. Anxiety is about trust.
    The psalmist says, “As for man, his days are like grass” (Psalm 103:15). We are fragile. We are limited. We are easily shaken. But that same psalm says, “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him” (Psalm 103:13).
    God knows how fragile you are. He remembers that you are dust. And he does not despise you for it.
    Think about a parent watching a toddler learn to walk. The child wobbles. The child falls. The child cries. A good parent does not yell, “Get it together.” A good parent moves closer.
    Your weakness does not push God away. It pulls his compassion toward you.
    That is why Peter says, “Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Not because he tolerates you. Because he cares.
    This is where the life of George Müller helps us. Müller cared for thousands of orphans in England. He never asked people for money. He prayed. And time after time, God provided food and clothing at the last moment. Müller once said, “The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of faith is the end of anxiety.”
    Faith in what. Faith that God is a Father, not a vending machine. Faith that God cares even when the cupboard is empty.

    What should I do?

    Some of you carry anxiety silently. You smile at school, but inside you are overwhelmed. Jesus invites you to bring your real fears to your Father.
    Not polished prayers. Honest ones. This week, try naming your anxiety out loud in prayer and then say, Father, I am trusting your care even when I feel small.
    Jesus now moves even deeper. He shows us not only that the Father provides and cares, but that the Father knows.
    Provision answers the question, Will I have what I need. Care answers the question, Does God love me. Now Jesus answers another fear beneath anxiety. Does God even understand what is happening to me.

    Point 3: Trust Your Father’s Knowledge

    Matthew 6:31 says, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat. What shall we drink. What shall we wear.”
    Then Jesus gives the reason. “Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.”
    God’s knowledge is not passive awareness. It is personal understanding. Jesus says God knows your needs before you ask him (Matthew 6:8). Psalm 139 says God knows your thoughts before you think them and your words before you speak them.
    Think about a coach who truly knows an athlete. Not just their stats, but their limits, injuries, and potential. A bad coach pushes without care. A good coach trains with wisdom.
    Your Father is not guessing. He is not late. He is not confused. Deuteronomy 29:29 reminds us that some things belong to God alone. But what he has revealed is enough to trust him.
    Again, George Müller helps us. In one season of deep need, money arrived just as the orphanages were about to run out of food. Müller later realized the gift had been nearby for days. God knew the need long before Müller did. God delayed not because he was absent, but because he was shaping faith.

    What should I do?

    Some of you are waiting for answers. You are praying and nothing seems to change. Jesus invites you to trust that delay is not denial and silence is not absence. This week, when you are tempted to assume God does not see, remind yourself, My Father knows what I need.
    Now Jesus brings everything together with one command.
    If God provides, cares, and knows, then what should shape your priorities. Jesus gives one clear answer.

    Point 4: Seek Your Father’s Kingdom

    Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
    Jesus does not say ignore your needs. He says reorder your loves.
    Anxiety grows when earthly things feel ultimate. Peace grows when God’s kingdom becomes central.
    Jesus already told us, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). If your treasure is popularity, grades, sports, or success, anxiety will rule you. If your treasure is Christ, security grows.
    Peter reminds us that believers have an inheritance “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4).
    This is where the life of David Livingstone speaks powerfully. Livingstone gave his life to bring the gospel to Africa. He faced danger, sickness, and loss. Yet near the end of his life he said, “I never made a sacrifice.”
    Why. Because when God’s kingdom is first, obedience feels like privilege, not loss.

    What should I do?

    Ask yourself this question honestly.

    What am I seeking first.

    This week, practice a small act of kingdom seeking. Serve someone. Pray for someone. Obey Jesus in a place you usually resist. Trust that God’s kingdom is worth it.

    Surrender

    Let us go back to Niagara Falls.
    The boy believed Blondin could push the wheelbarrow across. But belief was not enough. Trust required surrender.
    Jesus stands before you in Matthew 6 and says, You do not have to walk this rope alone. Your Father provides. Your Father cares. Your Father knows. Your Father reigns.
    The question is not whether God can carry you. The question is whether you will let him.
    When you seek Jesus and his kingdom first, your heart learns to trust your Father’s provision, care, and knowledge, and anxiety loosens its grip.
    So students, will you stay on the edge believing facts. Or will you climb into the wheelbarrow and trust your Father with your life.

      • Matthew 6:25–34ESV

First Baptist Church Litchfield
pastorjason.fbcl@gmail.com
217-324-4232
http://www.firstbaptistlitchfield.org/
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