He Cares For Us

Turn with me, if you would, to the book of 1 Peter, chapter 5, and we're going to look at two verses, verses 6 and 7. Hear God's Word. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you.

Let's pray. Father, we come to you tonight, I come to you this evening, asking, Lord, that the Holy Spirit speak to us from your scripture. Lord God, give us the teaching that we need from these verses that will build us up in our faith, in our love, in our gratitude for what you have accomplished in Christ Jesus. Father, let the words of our mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight. And it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. It's amazing when you go to put together a sermon and then you come in and not knowing what the bulletin is and we have a time of prayer and in that time of prayer we'll pray that God be with us, that we don't get torn up inside. Eddie prayed that we have the understanding that the glass is not half full, that God is, and so therefore we can rest. And it ties right to the scripture passage that God led me to preach on this evening. I mean, when you sit and humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you. That's what Will and Eddie was preaching when Eugene finished the prayer. He prayed the same thing, that God take our cares, our anxieties, our worries, and give us His peace.

That's what I want us to look at tonight. Do any of these following questions sound familiar? Do you ever say these in your mind or say them out loud? How am I going to be able to, you can add the last word yourself, how long will I have to suffer with or through this?

How many times do I have to? Or the big one, what are we going to do? If you're like me, those questions fly through our minds a lot day in and day out. They are the type of questions that we ask ourselves or ask others who are in situations with us when we are dealing with concerns, anxieties, and worries. And all of us, even Peter's original audience, deal with the same issues and that is why Peter addresses it here in this portion of the text. If we look in 1 Peter, in this portion, Peter is giving guidance to the believers, the exiles of the dispersion, the saints of God that are exiled in the dispersion, and he is giving them practical application of how to live as Christians. In chapter 3 of this book, he declares to them the work that Christ has accomplished on their behalf. In chapter 4, he is addressing their need to love one another and not be surprised when fiery troubles come to the Christian, but instead rejoice because they suffer as Christ suffered. Then here in chapter 5, starting a little bit before where we read, he calls them, all of them, to humble themselves so as not to be God's enemy. If we look up above, it says, clothe yourself all of you with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud. So when we decide that we are something, we become, we make ourselves someone God opposes or also put his enemy, but he gives grace to the humble. So Peter is instructing them here to be humble and to go before God and receive his grace, and we move into our text, and we see that this outpouring of grace is realized to us in an amazing truth that we can cast our anxieties upon God himself, and in the proper time he will exalt us.

I want us to think about that just for a moment. God, the right holy and just God, will exalt us, the depraved sinner who runs from him, who scorned him, who sinned to the degree that he had to die on the cross to make right, but at the proper time, God will exalt us. And not only will he exalt us, he will take our anxieties and our worries and our burdens off of us and give us his grace in order that we may live, but why? Why does God give us this type of grace?

Is it because we deserve it? Is there anyone sitting here tonight who truly believes that there is any form of good in them that God would look upon and recognize and say, oh, Jay, you did that so well, you deserve this? Because as I look in the mirror, I see a man who has failed as a husband. I see a man who has rebelled against his parents.

I see a man who has failed as a father. Not every day, not every situation, but many times what I have done in my life has not been that of what we see when we look at the life of Jesus Christ and what perfection and heart, a lowly heart and gentleness is. I have wanted my way.

I have demanded my needs. I have sinned against God, as David said, against you and you alone have I sinned. There is nothing in any of us that causes God to give us this grace. But he gives it to us anyway, and our text explains to us why he does. In verse seven, it says, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. We read through these texts quickly many times, and these little phrases at the end we may not pick up on, but that declaration by Peter should astound us. The God that I just described earlier not only gives us his grace and allows us to cast our anxieties, but he does it because he cares for you, for me. It is not some ethereal, theological.

God is one who is above and set apart from us, but desires relationship to the point that he comes in the form of a man and dwells with us. God cares for you. When Peter said that, I wonder what the church, what the saints in the exile when they read that, how glorious that statement would make them feel and how glorious that statement should make us feel tonight. I would like us to spend this evening's time meditating on that truth.

God cares for you. We're going to do it in three different ways. First, I want us to look at how this phrase is so different from man's normal thought. The truth that we see here, the true and living God, is so much different from all of the other world religions and gods that men create and try to serve. Second, this truth is evidenced by the fact that God calls us to cast our anxieties upon him. We are not left to ourself. We serve a God who comes to us not only to save us, but to walk with us day by day, knowing what we face and able to overcome the obstacles that we see before us and finally looking at that this truth in and of itself should bring believers peace and assurance.

Let's look at it in the first sense. God's care for us is opposite to man's idea of God or faith or religion. Have you ever heard someone say, we all believe in the same God, but different religions are just different ways to get to him?

Did you ever drive down the highway and see the car with the big old bumper sticker coexist and it's to give us the understanding that all the world's religions or the religions in that bumper sticker all have a way to God and it's just a different way? Just for the sake of making sure because I didn't want to misrepresent, I did some research and basically the four main world religions when you do a search other than Christianity or Hinduism, Buddhism, New Age or Spiritism and of course the Muslim religion. So when you start and look and see what they believe, a Hindu is a very religious man. They believe in one being of oneness, they call him Brahman, and they believe that he is represented or it is represented by several different gods or goddesses and they can pick whichever one they want to worship, but that their position in life is determined by actions of a previous life and they believe in a reincarnation until their actions are determined. The actions in a life are such that that make them right with their God. They must live a good life, possibly either through devotion to one of the gods, growth in knowledge through meditation or dedication to ceremonies and rites which purify them and make them worthy and acceptable to the God that they have created. Buddhism, very similar that you are reincarnated and in these reincarnations you have issues based off of past sin.

They don't truly have a God. It is just a pursuit of spiritual enlightenment that they're going to be able to become spiritually pure if they meditate properly, if they restrain themselves from sensual desires, that if they fast and if they're able to extinguish their desire of satisfaction of self. New Age Spiritism, which came into the United States probably in the 80s where it was most first talked about, they sort of combine the two. They use some of Eastern religion, they use some of Hinduism, some of Buddhism, but they have a really weird take that almost ties in with our secular humanist culture and that is in the sense that man is his own god. Now in secular humanist culture, they're not going to even refer to God in a sense, it is just human beings are the top. In the New Age Spiritism movement, they say that all men, women are deity in and of themselves and that everything around them that has life is part of that deity. They are going to use meditation and good works and they are going to try to lead lives that make them acceptable to the deities around them so that they can come into the fullness of their own divine essence.

Again, a very works-based way of becoming right. Finally, we take a look at the second largest religion behind Christianity and that is of the Muslim religion. They believe there is one almighty God, infinitely superior to man.

Sounds familiar? Can we coexist? They believe that that God is transcendent of humankind, that He created them but He has no desire to interact with them other than what He has set forth in His teachings and that being through the Prophet Muhammad. And that they can achieve paradise, heaven, only by disciplined religious rituals and the performance of good deeds or the giving of their life for their faith.

Again, fully man-centered. When we turn to the Scripture, when we turn to the revelation of our God, the true and living God, we see a completely different story revealed. If we turn to Genesis 3.15, you don't have to go there. I'm going to read it real quick. We have a declaration at the curse.

Remember what has happened. God has created man in His own image and that means man and woman. He removed a rib from Adam and He fashioned the woman but in Genesis it tells us that they were made in the image of God both male and female. They were placed in a garden. They were given great grace and they were given one instruction that of the tree of the fruit of knowledge, they shall not eat lest they die.

What did they do? Eve is tempted and she eats, she gives to Adam, he eats and they are exposed because they have rebelled against God Himself and they are set out. Now, you would expect Genesis 3.15 to say then, in order for man to become right again, he must be perfect in what he does. He must not sin. He must do these rights, these rituals. But in Genesis 3.15, God says this, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring.

He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. That is the curse given to the one that tempted Eve that brought sin into this world and we see that it is God who is going to correct the fall that Adam and Eve entered into. It is not by a work of Adam and Eve but it is by God raising up one of the seed of Eve who is going to come and deliver His people. John 3.16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Again, not you have to forsake, you have to, it is God who in His working sends His Son in our place and does what we cannot do. And we see at the very end of the Bible in Revelation chapter 1 verses 4 through 8, John to the seven churches that are in Asia. Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before His throne. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings on earth. To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood. If we stop at the end of verse 5, we see a completely different story than man's design and desire for rightness with God.

It is not about self-flatulation, it is not about becoming a better in this life so my next life I may be better, it is about Jesus Christ, the firstborn of the dead who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood and made us a kingdom priests to His God and Father. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. But God doesn't stop there even. He says, Behold, He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him even so.

Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come the Almighty. When we sit and see that kind of introduction in the final book of our scripture and tie it to the first declaration of the gospel in the very first book of scripture that we have in Genesis, and all throughout this scripture we have this red line of redemption that is the story of Jesus Christ and what God must do for us. He must interact, He must come down to us or we are the worst of all, we are lost because without God none of us can be right. So when we sit and look as Peter is explaining to these Christians in the early church and to us today, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so in the proper time He may exalt you casting all your anxieties on Him.

Why? Because He cares for you. Left to our own machinations, left to our own imaginations, we want to make ourselves able to be righteous and we cannot be. But what scripture tells us is what we cannot be God is and God will make a way through Himself for us. The second point I'd like us to look at from this, that God cares for you therefore we are to cast our anxieties upon Him. In verse 6 and 7, just read it, we hear Peter commanding them to cast their anxieties upon Him. The question that comes to my mind as we look at that text is what does it mean to cast our anxieties? And are all our anxieties, anxieties we should cast on the Lord?

The text says all but I'd like for us to think a minute and I'm stealing a little bit, excuse me, from Spurgeon on this. I read a sermon that he touched on these topics and he said, it is not necessary that all our anxieties go to the Lord because some of our anxieties are sinful anxieties brought on by the imaginations of our own mind. You ever think of that? We have anxieties that we create out of sinful thought and we become anxious and tortured by them because in a sinful manner we dwell on wrong doctrine, wrong thought that comes to us from culture. We allow pollution of the world to corrupt our minds and cause us anxieties and Spurgeon says we want to make sure that we don't take sinful anxiety to God but I would tell you that Peter is telling his believers take all your cares. Take all your burdens, take all your anxieties because we must confess our sin and in that confession God will bring to us what our cares and anxieties and we know them.

But when we look at it in the Strong's Concordance, the Greek here and I'm going to kill it, I'm sorry, it's Epi-Ripto and it means, that's the word for cast, it means to throw upon. And if you want to think in a way that would make sense to us, we have a heavy load that we are carrying along and there is a platform or a table and we place that load fully, not trying to help support it, fully upon it and step back and relax. We throw upon the Lord those things that are burdens, that are anxieties, that are concerns and worries to us and the question then becomes why?

Why would we do that? When God want us to learn, to carry and become stronger when we carry these burdens but what scripture teaches us is that we become stronger when we become weaker and more reliant upon God. We find our strength in Him, not separated from Him. We find our strength walking in Christ, not trying to walk away from or our own, along our own path outside of Christ. Scripture tells us that we are to put on the whole armor of God, that we are to walk in the Spirit and in that whole armor we have Jesus Christ that clothes us. I would like you to turn to Matthew 6, 25 through 34 because Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount attacks the same teaching that Peter gives us in chapter 5 but it's a little bit more clear and specific on what he's saying. Jesus says these words, 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. 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? And which of you being anxious can add a single hour to his life, his span of life? 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 of his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you? O you of little faith, therefore do not be anxious saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. It is amazing as Christians how often we can appear to the world beaten down, overcome by the problems around us, when Jesus himself in his teaching tells us the very things that we get most concerned about. What is it we would do if the economy does this?

What happens if the Democrats pass that huge tax bill and I have to give up 62% of my money? These are real concerns folks. I don't want to belittle them, but I want to tell you that God is saying don't worry about it because I am the one that provides for you. Every need that you have I will provide. Do I want to do those things?

No. But on the other hand I can't get so wrapped up and beaten down thinking that the world is winning over top of me when God says as a believer I will provide what you need when you need it. If you walk through Jesus' teaching he touches on you will need clothing, you will need food, you will need shelter and he says that God is so in tune to us that he knows our needs and that he is the one who will provide. How do we know that that truth we can rest in? Because those things if you want to think in the light of scripture are simple.

To us they can be daunting and intimidating and challenging, but I want us to realize that we waver many times. We don't give our anxieties and our burdens because we want to figure out a better way because we truly do not believe how God has revealed himself in scripture and that we can trust that. I do not say that to you as much as I say it to me in the mirror every morning when I look and I am concerned about how I'm going to fix the problems that are before me that day. And it is very humbling to start your day by opening scripture and seeing the Lord as he reveals himself explained to me that in no situation was I in any way capable of caring for myself, but that situation especially of my relationship with him. Houses and food and clothing are small when we look at the problem of sin before a holy right and just God. And that holy right and just God took care of my sin problem by becoming incarnate in flesh in this world living as I live under the law doing it perfectly and then giving himself as a sacrifice and by doing that taking my sin. When we read God so loved the world or God cares for you do we realize what that means that Jesus as the writer to Philippians said set aside his glory emptied himself and humbled himself to the point of a servant not just to come and live right and die but to take the very sin that I commit upon himself.

That's love folks. God cares for you. God loves you so much that he stood in your place and took your sin and died and God the Father raised him from the dead to show that the power of sin was canceled. Praise the Lord. Then where does food and clothing and shelter fall upon a God that is so great that he can do such a tremendous work. We read the psalmist say proclaim the deeds of the Lord. That's the deeds of the Lord. We said here forgiven.

We said here right. We are saints because of what Christ Jesus has done. Do we live in that truth. You know I was blessed growing up. We serve a very sovereign God who sustains everything and I was born into a Christian household. Some of you may have heard my testimony.

I don't remember a time not knowing the name Jesus or the work that he did and it took God's hand to move upon me even in that to realize my sin and my separation and my need for Christ. But I grew up in a household that that hymns were a very big part of our day to day. My mom would be singing hymns washing the dishes. She'd be singing hymns when we were weeding in the garden. She'd be singing hymns when we were riding in the car because you only had a.m. radio.

Everything else was staticky. One of her favorite hymns was from what was the tabernacle hymnal and it's called Does Jesus care. And I want to read you the questions. I don't know if you know this hymn but it's called Does Jesus care and it says Does Jesus care when my heart is pained too deeply from earth and song. As the burdens as the burdens press and the cares distress and the ways way grows weary and long. Does Jesus care when my way is dark with a nameless dread and fear as the daylight fades into deep night shades does he care enough to be near. Does Jesus care when I've tried and failed to resist some temptation strong when for my deep grief I find no relief though my tears flow all the night long.

The last verse is Does Jesus care when I've said goodbye to the dearest on earth to me and my sad heart aches till it nearly breaks. Is it ought to him does he see the chorus is a resounding. Oh, yes, he cares. I know he cares his heart is touched with my grief when the days are weary the long nights dreary. I know my Savior cares that him was sung at my father's funeral was sung at my mom's funeral was sung at my aunt's funeral was sung at every funeral. I know I went up to up there and it is a great him driving us to Matthew 6. It is a great him driving us to first Peter five does Jesus care in my worst moments in my most overwhelming moments does Jesus care what I'm going through. Yes, he does to the point that he's saying take that burden and cast it upon me and I deliver you. The scripture is filled with I deliver God delivers us through and with that it brings us to the third point God's care for us should bring us peace and assurance to the believer.

I'm going to share two texts with you and touch on them slightly and I'm going to finish with what Spurgeon said because I think he said it better than I can. But John 14 one says this let not your hearts be troubled believe in God believe also in me that's Jesus speaking to his disciples in the upper room and he is telling them let not your hearts be troubled believe in God believe also in me. Why should that bring them comfort will John 10 22 through 30 at the time of the Feast of dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter and Jesus was walking in the temple and the colonnade of Solomon. So the Jews gathered round him and said to him.

How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ tell us plainly Jesus answered them. I told you and you do not believe the works that I do in my father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand. I and the father are one.

The celebration that we come every Sunday morning to worship Jesus Christ rising from the tomb God becoming man God taking our sin God paying the debt of that sin and then God resurrecting from the dead ascending to heaven and seated on his throne and Jesus Christ at this moment interceding for you and me. And why does he do it? Because he cares for you because he loves you Spurgeon said it this way. Let the thought of his special love to you be the very essence of your comfort. I will never leave you nor forsake you God says that as much to you as he did to any of the old saints of old fear not I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward. Oh I wish beloved that the Holy Spirit would make you feel the promises being spoken to you out of this vast assembly forget the rest and only think of yourself for the promises are unto you meant for you.

Oh grasp them. It is ill to get into a way of reading scripture for the whole church. Read it for yourselves and specially hear the master say to you this morning let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God believe also in me. Imagine him. Imagine that you hear him say I have prayed for you that your faith fail not.

Think of that. That is the words Jesus said to Peter Satan has asked this if you but I have prayed that your faith fail not. That is the same Christ who intercedes for you and I at this moment. Imagine you see him walking on the waters of your trouble for he is there and he is saying fear not.

It is I be not afraid. Oh those sweet words of Christ. Lord speak them to me speak them to your poor sorrowing child yonder speak them to each one of us. If you are here tonight and you do not know Christ this is not your comfort. I pray that if you've heard anything from the word of God that it drives you to the cross of Christ because that is your only hope. But if you are here tonight as a believer our assurance our peace is not found in us it is found in Christ through God and we have it because he cares for you.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father your word is so magnificent and Lord God I pray that tonight as we take this edification that you provide for us. Yes it is true that we are not worthy and that it is by grace and grace alone but Father it is because of your love for us. We praise your name tonight. We praise your name as God Most High. We praise your name as the Son and as the Holy Spirit for the work that you do in bringing us to yourself. May all honor and glory be yours. In Christ Jesus we pray. Amen.