He Cares for You

Please stand for the reading of God’s Word

1peter 5:6-7 “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

Pray

Intro

Thanks to the church and to pastor Kevin for trusting me to bring the word while he and a lot of the men of the church are away at camp!

Name, family

Nazarene history

Current work at Water Street through Compass

Yall can I tell you I had a whole other sermon already written and then yesterday at noon… God said nah

It was a good sermon but apparently it was’t what God wanted for me to preach today

So as I enter into this I’m trusting that God has already made the paths that need to be made… he’s already prepared the soil for what it is that is gonna be said today

Humble yourselves

root of humble is to lower yourselves

not thinking higher than you should

Humility is a quality of servants. It is the quality that Christ took on

Philippians 2:8 “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

… he humbled himself becoming obedient..

Peter is calling us to humble ourselves

Do that the same way Christ did. By being obedient

Humble yourself enough to realize that you don’t know everything

That maybe the one who created you knows what’s best for you

Maybe the one who created you and your children knows what’s best for them

The one who created marriage, knows what’s best for it?

Bringing who you are and what you are First to the Lord and seeking to know his will for your life over your own ability to figure it out

If you don’t humble yourself… you will be humilitated

Same root word

It is better to sit at the foot of the table and be exalted than to be at the head and be sent away

Therefore

When you see a therefore… see what it’s there for

In this case Peter is referring to the verse prior that says god gives grace to the humble… not the humiliated.

Since God is the one who gives grace to the humble… enter into that state of humility under the mighty hand of God.

Trusting that being humble in God is greater than being proud in the world

The opposite of humbling yourself under the mighty hand of God is what...

Exalting yourself above and among the powerlessness of the worldly… so at the wrong time - the time that is the absolute worst - you will be humiliated by that world that you put your faith in

Leaning on your own power and understanding is like leaning on a broken crutch… it’s gonna let you down

Casting all your anxieties

Did some word study… you know what the word All means in the greek

Pas echos the hebrew word Kol...

It means ALL

What’s outside of all? Nothing

Casting them on God

The image here is of throwing something once and for all

This version of cast is the opposite of fishing…

Any fisherman in here? Where you cast and then reel it in...

When we cast our anxieties on the Lord we don’t go back for them. We don’t reel them in. We give them to him

WHY

Because he cares for you

WE are expected to throw our anxieties on the altar because the God of all creation not just tolerates you, but he actively and actually cares for you

He not only loves you, but he cares for you. He thinks about you. He wants to work out his best in your life

If you’re struggling casting your cares on the Lord, there are a few possibilities

1 - You don’t know him

You may know about him, but you don’t know him

I thousands of connections on social media. I follow pages of actors and pastors and musicians

I can learn a lot about them… and never know them

Some of you under the sound of my voice know a lot about Jesus… and yet don’t know Jesus

Some are huge fans of his work. You like the idea of a loving God who cares for creation… however you’ve been living your life absent from a relationship with him

You may know OF Jesus but you are functioning in the world, of the world, by your own reason and logic… a functional Atheist who acknowledges the idea of God.

2. You know him but you don’t trust him.

You have met the Lord and yet the way the world looks, the way your life expereince has been leads you to believe that God doesn’t or couldn’t care about you

Pay attention

If you are hearing this sermon then God wants you to know that he loves you. FULL STOP

That means he loves you no matter what youve been through, no matter what decisions you’ve made, no matter what you’ve done to mess up your life… GOD LOVES YOU

He loves you no matter what happened to you

Listen very carefully

If you’ve been victimized by sinful man. That breaks God’s heart and I want you to know that God is not only the God of grace but the God of justice and he will right every wrong

He wasn’t absent during those nights of crying… my bible says in Psalm 34 that God is near to the brokenhearted

He is Emmanuel, God with us

His heart is broken at injustice, and abuse, and discrimination, and violence done toward his creation. That was not God’s perfect will for you, but it was sinful mans actions that has caused brokenness in your life.

But My GOD heals broken things and can bring redemption from every situation.

My God works in all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his name

3. You don’t know how

You are not humbling yourself because no one has ever demonstrated to you how to live in a relationship with Jesus in action.

You’ve never seen how to cast your anxieties on him.

This is why community is so important

How you gonna walk in a path you’ve never seen?

Its not impossible… if you have the Holy Spirit and the Word of God…however

God gave us each other

That means older men and older women in the faith.

You don’t need to look like the Christian walk is perfect

its in our imperfections living life with others authentically that the younger generations of believers gets to see how to trust God with their mess

The more you are authentically seeking Christ, in community, the more you will learn from others and be able to teach others how to trust God with your ALL

T