quarter going. Again beloved, our text this morning is 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 6 through 7. We're going to mostly focus on those verses and especially in what is said in verse 7 related to what you sang just now in Psalm 55 verse 22. But we will look at a little bit of what follows, so please keep it open. 1 Peter 5, verses 6-7, hear now the word of the Lord. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. I'd like to read that again, but verse seven is especially what we're focusing on this morning. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. Casting all your care upon Him. for he careth for you. As I said, as we were about to sing Psalm 55 and having verse 22 in view, casting your cares upon the Lord, he'll keep you steadfast. I want to ask you as we look at this text together today, to be honest with yourself before the Lord. What are those things that are burdening you most? What are the things that are a heavy care on your heart? And I encourage you to come to this very familiar scripture we'll often quote to ourselves and others often. and pray the Lord will really help you do that today. Well last week when we sang outside, not this morning I was hoping he would return, but last week when we were singing outside as we do to get the neighborhood's attention before we come into worship singing part of Psalm 122, I was really blessed and I drew your attention to at the end there was this beautiful bird, I'm not sure what it was actually, who who came down and decided to join us and sang along with us. And it was a beautiful warble. And he kind of stayed there afterwards as I was greeting him, almost as if to say, thanks, it was nice to be here. And it was just a wonderful reminder of Matthew 6, 25 to 26, where Jesus says, don't take thought of your life, worrying about what will happen, but behold the birds. and how God takes care of them and they don't worry. How much more will your heavenly father take care of you? And we need that reminder because we have real troubles, especially as the church, especially as we see the last day approaching when the Antichrist for a short season will make it even harder to serve the Lord. You know, we go through much tribulation to enter the kingdom of God, let alone just all the difficulties of a fallen world under sin. And the context Peter is talking about is really suffering and these kinds of things as we are closer to the end, that naturally we would have concerns and cares even about that. And so he's writing to relieve us of that concern by giving it to God to carry for us. Christians are called upon to bow before Christ and cast their every burden upon Him because He alone can carry them and He will lift them up above it all because He cares about them. Give that to you as the idea of our text. And I know I'm mostly restating what is said, but as my homiletics professor pointed out, when you're getting at the main point of the text, when it's a short verse, it will often seem as if you're just repeating that. So if you'll bear with me and let me essentially repeat it. Here's the point. Christians are called upon to bow before Christ and cast their every burden upon him because he alone can carry them and he will lift you up above them all. because he cares about you. Notice in verse six, you are commanded to be humble. Humble yourselves before the Lord under his mighty hand. You see, it does take humility to bow before God's difficult providences, doesn't it? They can be heavy on our soul and we can struggle and argue and complain and murmur. We have to humble ourselves before the Lord, receive what he gives us so that we can offer it back up to him to carry it for us, trusting him. So we're called upon first to humble ourselves. But notice it is his mighty hand that laid you low, but also which can powerfully lift you up. and your hand and my hand are not strong. But God's hand is mighty and powerful. We have to be careful to think we're gonna do all these things with our hands. We have to do our duty. The birds, they make their nests, they do what they're supposed to do, but they do it because they don't paralyze themselves in worry. And that's why they do what they can do, and God uses that. But at the end of the day, it's God's hand who provides the materials, gives us the strength to do it, gives us the time to do it, and lets that nest stay up there. I was noticing in the breezeway, I was talking with Mrs. Renner last week, I said, you know that bird's nest from last year is still up there. I think, right? That's not a new bird's nest yet, is it? It's a little early, but every year they're there. So wow, that nest is still there. They know where to put it and God protects it. And we need God's mighty hand to lift us up and protect us, not take things into our own hands. That's always failure. That doesn't mean we don't offer up to the Lord how we are doing what we're responsible for, which is an act of faith within the providences He gives us. But ultimately we are saying our times are in your hand and we ask that you would provide. And He's mighty to do that. He's mighty to lift us up and bring us through this. We can't imagine how we're going to get through. in due season, notice that, in due time. The Greek word kairos, I believe it is, has the idea of an appointed time. You have to trust in God's providences that he has appointed times, even as Hebrews says, our death. He has appointed times that He brings us through in each one of them. And for the Christian, remember Psalm 23, He brings us through the valley of the shadow of death, but straight into heaven. He has an appointed time for all of us that we can submit ourselves to in humility and trust Him and He lifts us up and holds us through it and will bring us up through it, keeping us above the water. We don't have to tread water, we can't tread water. for very long. He holds us up and keeps us from drowning. As the, I believe it's Isaiah talks about, he's with us through the fire, he's with us through the floods. We are to cast what up? Cast all your cares, all your cares, but first all things, all, cast everything up. You don't try to hold on to one thing as your own thing to worry about, you cast it all up. Because only He can care for you for it, you can't. You're completely dependent upon the Lord. Cast it up, because He's completely mighty to take it. Cast all things, everything, including your what? Your cares. Cast all your cares. The Greek word, I think you know, is the one often we talk about, it's translated anxieties. What are you anxious about, beloved? cast it up right now. In this worship service, before God, in the divine dynamic of worship with Him in our special presence, cast it up to God right now. give that anxiety, give that worry, all those anxieties, all those worries, cast them up to the Lord right now. Those anxieties, which are the things we tend to try to hold on the most, and control the most, and they don't allow us to worship, they crowd out, all that worry crowds out our worship, which thus crowds out our comfortable fellowship that we could have with the Lord, as we would humble ourself and cast it up on Him. who alone is mighty to deliver, who alone is mighty to carry us through. But you have to throw it up. That's the other thing to keep in mind here is you have to be active about it, and frankly, in a sense, violent about it. Casting is not this, right? Unless that's all the strength we have, I suppose. Of course, these are figures of speech, but casting is Right? I have in view, you know, I endeavor in these YouTube shorts when I'm rocking the kids to bed, but get all these good illustrations out of it. And somehow, I'm not much of an angler, but somehow I've been seeing a lot of fishermen recently catching all these fish. But you know what? When they cast it, one thing that always impresses me is how far that line goes. But here's how they get their line to go way out into the water. They don't just go, they don't start here and go, I think any fisherman would turn around and say, what are you doing? Are you just going to drop the thing in the water? I mean, there's times for that, I suppose, in certain places. But usually, what is it? You've got to look backwards, especially if there's, you bring it back and you, and then the, And see, the Greek word for cast could be throw. Throw your anxieties upon the Lord. Get them off you. Think of it as something else. I don't know, like a bug or something. Get it off. It's only gonna cause you problems. And you don't want that thing crawling into your nose, right? Or under your bedsheets. Throw it off. That's how you have to treat your cares and worries. It isn't that they're not real. It isn't that you can't talk about them. It isn't that you can't be in sorrow and struggling over them, but don't bear the burden on yourself with them. It'll destroy you. It'll drag you down. You can't bear the weight, but God's mighty hand, throw it up to him and guess what happens? Catches it immediately. And that big strong weight that you have on the line to get it to go far, it's not heavy to him. He can bear it. And you have to throw it to Him. Cast your cares upon Him. Why? Here's, I think, probably the most encouraging motivation that we, I think, forget. Because He cares about you. Did He not send His own Son to die on the cross for you? To spill His blood to give you everlasting life? What does Paul say in Romans? If He sent His Son to die for us, will He not also give us all things? Ultimately the resurrection and eternal life in heaven forever with a new body? But He cares about you. He's loved you from all eternity. He's chosen you as His own, His beloved. He cares for you. Cast your cares onto God because He cares for you. There's a little bit of wordplay there, at least in the English, but I like that. I think it's helpful to remember, but don't miss, He cares. Don't forget that last part. Cast your cares on God because He cares for you. That is, He cares about you. The Greek word for cares could be concerned. He's concerned about you. He's not worried as you and I are, but he's concerned. He's given this to to bear and he wishes to help you bear it. He wishes to bear it for you because he cares about you. Psalm 40 verse 17, but I am poor and needy. Yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and my deliverer. Make no tarrying, oh my God. The Lord is my shepherd, right? Psalm 23, I shall not want. Jesus Christ is that great shepherd of the sheep. You know, there are those scriptures in Deuteronomy where God says, I carried you like a father does a son through the wilderness. And I believe it's in Isaiah where it speaks of Jesus, the good shepherd, carrying the sheep on his shoulders. He can bear not only his burdens, he can carry you. And aren't we our worst burdens in how we handle our concerns. But he cares, he thinks about you. He doesn't just give you these things to go through and sit back and let's watch what happens, even if He's ordained it. No, He is–remember we've just studied with Providence, Chapter 5 of the Confession, He is involved intimately in your lives. He has a plan, and He's working that plan out in your life for His glory and for you in your glorification. And He shows His power and glory by getting you through and delivering you through, showing His faithfulness. And so beloved, Jesus beckons you to bow before him with Matthew 11, 28 to 30. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Come to me, ye who are weary and heavy laden. And he commands you in Matthew 6 verse 34, to take therefore no thought, and it's the same Greek usually remember we've seen, take no care, don't worry, no anxiety, 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. And as I know I've shared with you many times in sermons and in private pastoral counseling, at some of the hardest times in my life, this has been the most merciful command. Sometimes the way I just stopped causing myself so much difficulty with worry is because Jesus tells me not to. It's just such a merciful command. It's just simply to obey Jesus. I'm not going to worry about tomorrow, because Jesus tells me not to. And that's enough, and frankly that's the only way I can do it. I'm just gonna trust Jesus, He tells me not to worry, let today be enough. Today's enough. What'd he say about the lady that serves him with the, you know, the oil on his head? Hey, leave her alone. She's done what she can. I preached a sermon on that years ago when I was struggling. I did what, love Jesus and do what you can. And don't worry about what you can't. Today, build the nests as far as you can build it today. Lay in it tonight. Trust God. Don't worry about how it's all gonna work out. Just Because the other thing is, you worry about tomorrow, you miss the moments of today that will be gone tomorrow. And they're not all bad. And even in the difficult situations, there's a rich spiritual fellowship with Christ, Paul speaks about, and fellowshipping Him with His sufferings, but also with one another. God uses it all for your good. Don't miss those moments today by worrying about how it's all gonna work out tomorrow. Do what you can today. Let today be enough. I don't know about you, but I just find that extremely liberating because God tells me to, Jesus tells me to. I'm gonna cast my cares on Jesus and I'm not gonna worry about tomorrow and I'm gonna live with him today. How liberating. What a wonderful command. So Paul, as you know, in Philippians 4, 6 to 7 says, be careful for nothing. Same idea, don't be anxious. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. You can go back and hear the sermon on that but it was something like this turn your worries into prayers It's as simple as that and then you have God's peace that passes all understanding doesn't make sense to anyone else But you have it because you have Christ who's your Great Shepherd and he can take those cares you throw up to him because he cares about you and He can care for you through it Psalm 37 verse 5, commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass. Psalm 55 verse 22 that you just sang this morning, cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. And that was a sermon I preached previously that I connected with this text today, but I preached that Psalm text. And I gave you further context. And if you wanna revisit that, the sermon was called, Saints, the Lord will sustain you. And beloved, as you're being called upon to cast your cares upon the Lord, trust his mighty hand to lift you up. and to take care of you because He cares for you. Trust the Lord will sustain you. Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ, not even death. And recall Proverbs three, five to six, we had a sermon on not long ago. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct thy paths. I think I asked Fernanda if she was able to hear that, either because she might have been exhausted and distracted caring for the kids in the training room, or she might have been home that day, I can't remember. Sometimes I've encouraged her to stay home when she's not feeling well with the pregnancy, and I remember her response was, yes, I need to do that, but it's so hard, we gotta do that. Like, that's exactly right, but that's the point, right? It's hard, it's hard for us to let go, but we have to remember we're not God. God is God, we have to trust in Him and not in our own ways, which is always going to be worry in the end, right? And we make bad decisions when we worry, we miss moments, and we destroy moments when we worry. We have to trust the Lord. I didn't sing it for you then, but I shared it with you in Facebook later. And if you don't mind, I'm going to give you a little bit today, because these things really stick in your head. Sixpence, None the Richer is a band that was pretty well known when I grew up. And one of their songs just comes to my mind with Proverbs 3, 5 to 6, which is mostly what the lyrics are. I don't have the whole thing memorized, but I'm going to sing part of it for you. I want it in your head when you go. I encourage you to find it on the internet. Go back to our Facebook, you'll find it. Ask me, I'll send you a link. Six pence, none the richer. It's called trust. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight. Don't worry about tomorrow. He's got it under control. Just trust in the Lord with all your heart. And He will carry you through. I wish I had the rest memorized, but let me give you the first line of the next verse. Lord, sometimes it is so tough to keep my eyes on you when things are going rough. I want to go to the rest of the lyrics, I don't have them, but let's go right back to the chorus. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your path straight. Don't worry about tomorrow. He's got it under control. Just trust in the Lord with all your heart, and He will carry you through. You cast your cares and he's gonna carry you. And he can carry all your burdens for you because he cares about you. Matthew Henry says this about the text. I won't attempt to sing it, of course, but it does touch the heart. I hope it touches you like that song. He writes this, and bear with me, it's a bit long, two quotes by him I've put together, but it's worth it. Learn, he says, from this, from our text, 1 Peter 5, 6 and 7. Learn, first, the consideration of the omnipotent hand of God should make us humble and submissive to him in all that he brings upon us. And learn number two, learn humbling ourselves to God under his hand is the next way to deliverance and exaltation. Patience under his chastisements and submission to his pleasure, repentance, prayer, and hope in his mercy will engage his help and release in due time. He goes on to say, now that's particularly verse six. Now he goes on to say this more related to verse seven that we're focusing on. Throw your cares. which are so cutting and distracting, which wound your souls and pierce your hearts upon the wise and gracious providence of God. Trust in him with a firm composed mind for he careth for you. He is willing to release you of your care and take the care of you upon Himself. He will either avert what you fear or support you under it. He will order all events to you so as shall convince you of His paternal love and tenderness towards you. and all shall be so ordered that no hurt but good shall come unto you. Now, there's something else I want you to notice in the text about how the Lord does all this. He uses means. The you is plural. You're not in this alone. You're the body of Christ. The you is plural. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you, plural, y'all, or all y'all in Texas, that he may exalt all of you in due time. But he's speaking to you as one, casting all your, plural, cares upon him for he careth for you, plural. The context is God's people, the church, making it through life that is under the curse of death and the wrath of the world and preparing to see God's judgment. Peter knows what he's been sharing with them in previous chapters and verses would possibly cause them a lot of worry. So he's seeking to comfort them through what he's telling them will be difficult. He's speaking to God's people, the church, who are also together, trusting Christ to carry them all through together and lift them all up together in their new spiritual bodies as his one body on the last day. So through it, good times and bad, we apply Romans 12, 15. Rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep. Mindful of where we were with 1 Corinthians 12. Everyone's important, including the weak and those that seem to be the least, they're actually most important. And the Lord uses us to lift up one another. And in the lifting up of one another, we together are lifted up in Christ. As Christ's body, we carry one another along in Him. As Christ's body, we carry one another along through Him. But there's also something else I want you to notice. This is all to protect you all together as the church from the devil who would divide and destroy you. Look at verse 8. We've spent a lot of time with this verse with our Wednesday night studies about sin and how much Satan's trying to make us sin. But notice the protection afforded to us here. Don't let your worries bear you down, cast all your burdens unto the Lord Jesus that He would bear you up individually and as a church to protect you from the devil. Look at verse 8 of our text. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Thus, beloved, look at verses 9 to 11, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. See, beloved, you need to recognize what our text is today comes right before that the devil's hunting you, looking to destroy you. What's the best way he's going to destroy you and drag you down? to get you to drag yourself down in depression and despair with your heavy burdens. They are heavy burdens. Be safe to recognize that. But like Psalm 42, Psalm 43, why are the cows down on my soul? Why so disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, who is my help and my countenance. The devil wants to turn you away from God. The devil wants you to turn away from one another. And He's going to use your problems and how you handle them poorly to do that. He's gonna want you to think you have to take this into control. He's gonna want you to think that you have to be able to bear it all and look strong before the world. He's gonna try to keep you from expressing your weakness and your need to reach out to your brethren to hold you up as Joshua did with Moses. He's going to want to hurt you and break you by your burdens. And if you don't give them to the Lord, He will. Or rather, He'll get you to break yourself. The devil is hunting you, Christian, to drag you down into devastating despair, to divide and destroy you. You must lift your eyes up unto the Lord, who is your help, and unto Christ, who is the author and finisher of your faith. Now hear that as individual Christians, but hear it again as the body of Christ and as this branch of the vine of Christ. You all must lift up all of your eyes unto the Lord, who is all of your help, and unto Christ, who is the author and finisher of all of your faith. Indeed, you have many heavy cares on your heart, but you have brethren who care. Together, cast all your cares upon Christ who cares. And that is the message for you this morning. Cast all your cares upon Christ who cares. Let us pray. Lord God, we offer up to you right now. We lay them at your feet. We cast them upon your throne, our heavy burdens. We cry out to you in our desperation and our difficulty and in our despair. Lord, lift us up by your mighty hand. Let us lift up our hands in praise and worship and supplication to you. Take these burdens off. We cannot bear them, but you can, our mighty loving God. Lift not only our burdens, but lift us up in soul and body and carry us as a father does his son through the wilderness. As the Lord Jesus, the great shepherd carries his sheep. And let us be part of that as your body, lifting up one another, rejoicing and weeping together, turning our eyes together to the Lord, trusting that you will preserve your church and the saints will persevere to the end. And then you will come back, you will raise our bodies and we will have new spiritual bodies. And we will see that our Redeemer lives with our own eyes and our own flesh. and we will worship you together in eternity. And never weep again. and have no burdens there. Let us experience more of heaven on earth as citizens of your kingdom, as we would give it all to you. Help us, Lord, to not be shy about it. Help us to throw it up at you and know you will catch it and you will catch us and you will carry us through. We confess our sinful disbelief And we recognize our horrible adversary that will seek to drag us down before we get home. as all the yabbats come to mind, and the distractions take us off, but let us think, not on those things, but think on you. Let us turn our worries into prayers, trusting that then we will have the peace of God that is not of this world to keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, this peace that passeth all understanding, even our own. our own ability to make sense of it all and process it, but not our ability to benefit. So Lord, we pray that you bless us with your peace as you help us to cast all our cares upon you. So thankful to be reminded that you care about us. And you will lead us through the valley of the shadow of death into the house of the Lord where we will dwell forever. and into the resurrection and the great eternal day in the new heavens and earth. Oh Lord, keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And we pray in his name and all your people cry.