What To Do With Life's Cares!

[0:00] of John 14, 27, when Jesus told His disciples, Peace I leave with you.

[0:14] My peace I give to you. We think about Romans 8, verse 28. It's so well known. We don't really preach on it very often because it is so well known that all things work together for good to them who love God and who are the called according to His purpose.

[0:34] But today, this morning, we're going to be looking at 1 Peter 5, and verse number 7, and this is the verse, Casting all your care upon Him.

[0:45] We alluded to it last week. Casting all your care upon Him. Why? For He cares for you. And as we prepare this morning to dive into this text, we're going to be looking in a few different verses this morning, but very quickly, we're going to break down this text into how it relates to us.

[1:12] And the first thing that I see in this verse is that you are in this verse. All of us are in this verse.

[1:22] What does it say? Casting all whose care? Casting all your care. So that's what Peter is saying. Casting all of your care, individually, every single one of us, our cares are in this verse.

[1:39] And there's so much in this world that is caustic to our emotional well-being. The things that we see, the things that we hear, the people that we are around so much, they might just be difficult people.

[1:56] They might be people that are always negative. They might be people that are always grumbling or people that are always just, they want you to feel bad so they can feel better.

[2:08] So much in this world is not helpful to our emotional well-being. There are difficult people. There are difficult times, financial, hard times, maybe health issues.

[2:24] Much of this world system is anti-God, unfriendly to family values. And so there are a lot of cares that we might have, a lot of things we might be anxious about, things that we might worry about, things that may take away our hope or take away our emotional well-being.

[2:44] But God cares all about us. And that's what we get from this verse, that our cares are things that God is concerned about, that we can give to Jesus, we can give to God all of our cares.

[3:00] Not our neighbors, but our cares. Concerning our neighbors' cares, we can lift them up in prayer, we can intercede, but when it comes to our prayers, God cares all about us.

[3:13] Do you realize that He knows us by name? I don't have to, that's like we're preaching to the choir this morning. But in John chapter 10, in verse number 3, the Bible says, To him the doorkeeper opens.

[3:28] To whom? That person who is in the body of Christ, in the family of God. And the sheep hear His voice, likening us to sheep, and how they relate to their shepherd.

[3:43] The sheep know the shepherd's voice, and He calls His sheep by name. I can only imagine these shepherds that have hundreds and thousands of sheep that they're caring for.

[3:58] But God is unlike any earthly shepherd. He knows us all by name, and He leads them out. And we mentioned John 3, 16, For God so loved the world.

[4:11] Do you realize that God not only loves the world, but He loves you? He not only loves the world, He loves the individual. He not only loves everyone in this world, He loves us all individually.

[4:27] And that, when we think about our cares of this life, and we think about all that we're going through, all that we might be thinking about, caring about, worrying about, anxious about, God cares about those individual cares that you and I have.

[4:42] Think about Zacchaeus. As Jesus was walking, the wee little man was He. He was up in a sycamore tree. And what did Jesus say? Zacchaeus? Come on, boys and girls.

[4:55] You come down. Why? Because I'm going to whose house? I'm going to your house today. And so Jesus cares about everyone. He cared about Zacchaeus.

[5:06] He was surrounded by the crowds. But here was this man who thought he was too wicked, too sinful, but he wanted to see Jesus.

[5:18] And so he climbs in a tree so he could get a better view. And Jesus said, Wait a minute. Zacchaeus, you come down. Because I'm going to your house today. And he's saying, Who?

[5:29] My house? What about all these people? They're more important people than I am around here. Zacchaeus, I'm going to your house. What about the woman that touched the hem of his robe? Stranger?

[5:41] Someone who probably wouldn't have been given a second look by their religious leaders because of her impurity, because of her flow of blood. And Jesus said, Who touched me?

[5:55] And she was healed of her illness. What about the children? Remember what the disciples said? Jesus, tell them to go away. Tell their parents to keep those bratty kids away because you have what?

[6:10] More important things to do. And what did Jesus say? Allow the little children to come. Let them come.

[6:21] Why? Because it's just like these. This is what the kingdom of heaven is like. Because they come with this pure, childlike faith. And that's how we are expected to come to Him.

[6:35] Even the demon-possessed. Think about that. You know, we think, Well, you know what? We're not so bad. And Jesus loves us. God loves the individual.

[6:46] What about those who were possessed with demons? Jesus cared enough about them to cast the demons out. And so they could get a change of clothes. And they could be in their right mind again.

[6:58] And they could get back into their role in society. Jesus cares about everyone. If Jesus had time for all of these people, Jesus has time for you and your cares.

[7:13] And for me and mine. So, our cares are in this verse. And we see next that your cares are in this verse.

[7:27] Not only are our cares in the verse, but our cares are in this verse. We see in verse 7 again, Casting all your cares upon Him.

[7:41] All different kinds of cares that you and I might go through. Cares about family. Cares about children. Cares about wife. Cares about husband. Cares about finances.

[7:51] Future. Job. Job security. Public opinion. Business. State of the economy. Debts. Our health. Health of others.

[8:03] Our mental health. World conditions. War. The nuclear destruction. We're talking about North Korea and other countries.

[8:14] Every care that we're carrying is in this verse. Casting. How much of our care? Verse 7 says, Casting all your care upon Him.

[8:27] Take this list. It's not an exhaustive list. Add whatever care that you or I might have. And we can know that our cares are included in this verse.

[8:39] Casting all of our care upon Him. Because He cares for us. Do you realize that cares are roadblocks to blessings? Because when we're worried and we're anxious about something, we're not focusing upon the blessings that we already have.

[8:56] Or the blessings that God wants us to experience, we're so focused on some of the things that are negative. Some of the things that are painful. Some of the things that hurt.

[9:07] So cares can be roadblocks to blessings. But with cares removed, when we take our care and we give it to God, then we can experience the joy of the Lord.

[9:22] The joy that God wants us to have. Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 10 says, Then He said to them, Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared.

[9:38] For this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for what is our strength? The joy of the Lord is our strength. So the strength that we receive is when we realize what or how blessed we are in God.

[9:55] And the joy that we can experience, even when life is not joyful, even when life is painful, just like the Apostle Paul, Peter, Barnabas, Silas, all of these others who were persecuted for their faith, that even in the midst of the bad times, they were able to experience the joy of the Lord.

[10:15] And Paul was able to understand that the weight of the pain of this life was nothing compared to the weight of glory that was awaiting him in heaven one day.

[10:27] So your cares are in this verse. Your cares are in this verse. But we also see that Jesus is in this verse as well.

[10:44] Casting all your care upon whom? Upon who? Upon Jesus. Casting all your care upon him for who cares for you?

[10:57] Jesus. Upon whom do we cast our care? Jesus Christ. And so we know that whatever we're worried about, whatever we are anxious about, our Savior is the one who's ready to receive them.

[11:14] Casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. And no one understands like Jesus. Just like the song says. No one cares for me.

[11:27] Like him. Like Jesus. Does Jesus care when I feel like I've been hit in the gut? Jesus cares.

[11:39] We know that he does. Does Jesus care when I feel the weight of the world upon my shoulders? He cares. And he waits to take care of all of our cares.

[11:53] For they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall soar. And that is the way Jesus is waiting on you and me.

[12:07] He's waiting to take our cares from us. He is waiting to replace them with the joy of the Lord. Our cares are roadblocks to blessings. The moment we take that pack off of our back and release it and cast it onto him, give them to him, he can replace it with the joy of the Lord and he can help us to be able to experience the joy that only he can give.

[12:34] Casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you.

[12:46] Do we ever sometimes wonder if he cares? Now, I don't think theologically we don't think that because especially those of us who have been, who have grown in the Lord, who know theologically that God does love us, we know in our minds, we know in our heads that God cares about us, we know that God will never leave us, God will never forsake us, and we know that in knowledge.

[13:25] But do we sometimes wonder and do we sometimes feel like in the moment, where's God? Why doesn't God take care of this pain?

[13:36] Why doesn't God change this circumstance now? And so sometimes we might wonder if he cares about this situation right now.

[13:51] But we know that God does care and that God, that everything, as we said in Romans 8, 28, everything works together for good. To them who love God and to the ones who are called according to his purpose, the believer, the follower of Jesus Christ, everything can be used to glorify him and can be used to grow us.

[14:13] So do we ever wonder if he cares? All we have to do is just go to the cross when we wonder. Jesus cared about us enough that he walked that lonely road, that lonely way to the cross, up that hill, allowed the soldiers to nail him to the cross, to lift up that cross, and in agony to die for you and for me.

[14:46] If we ever wonder, all we need to do is go to the cross. The one who cared enough to save us will care for all of our cares.

[14:59] Your cares are in this verse. Your cares are in this verse. And Jesus is in this verse as well. So this morning, as we think about our next steps, our next step is, know that God cares.

[15:15] But then we have to take action. Give him your cares. Turn them over to him. Let him deal with them.

[15:28] It is just like when we have a problem that we don't know the solution to and we give it to someone else and they say, don't worry, I'll take care of it for you.

[15:40] It's just like that. We give it to God who says, I can take care of it for you. And then we don't have to worry about it. I know on the job sometimes there might be something that you delegate and there are certain people to whom you delegate that you literally do not have to worry about that anymore because you know that they will come in before deadline and it will be taken care of properly.

[16:09] With God, we know that he cares. We know that he can take care of it. And plus, he can take care of it better than we ever could ourselves.

[16:22] And so the next step would be just give it to God. Delegate that responsibility to Jesus.

[16:33] And say, Lord, you take care of it and I will trust you for the outcome. And in doing so, we can experience the joy of the Lord knowing that God will take care of it in his time.

[16:49] Let's pray. Lord, this morning, as we think about the worries, the cares that we may have, we thank you that we can trust you. We thank you that we can delegate all of those cares.

[17:00] We can give over to you everything that we are concerned about, whether it's finances, whether it's family, whether it's job security, whatever it is.

[17:12] Lord, we know that all things will work together and you will take care of all things in your time, for your glory, and for our benefit. Lord, be with us today.

[17:25] Lord, we thank you for what you're going to accomplish in our lives and through our lives. Help us this week as we go about and talk about you as we share the hope that we have in Christ to those around us.

[17:42] Lord, we pray this in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen.