God Cares For You

Introduction

Good morning. It’s great to see you all again.

Put yourself in the situation aced by first-century Christians living in the part of the Roman Empire known as Asia. You heard wonderful news about the one true God sending His own Son into the world to save people from their sins. This Jesus of Nazareth was executed on a Roman cross but three days later rose from the dead! Then He went back to heaven with the promise to return one day soon for those who love Him. You embraced this message and found a joy and peace that you had never known. But friends, neighbors, government officials, and even family members became antagonistic and began to criticize and harass you. Then the persecution turned violent. You huddle secretly with other discouraged Christian friends. You find yourself sacred and confused. If God is all-powerful, and if this gospel is true, why the intense sufferings?

One day a letter arrives. It’s from Peter, an eyewitness of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and a fearless leader of the church. He understands firsthand what it means to suffer. Peter’s words are filled with hope and promise. He reminds you that this world is not your home and that God has called you to something higher, deeper and greater. You can endure. You will have victory! As you submit to God’s eternal purpose with humility and trust, you have a unique opportunity to bring honor and glory to this world that is watching us to the One who has saves you through grace.

When things in life seen to from bad to worse in a big hurry, it’s great to know we will come to the end of the tunnel. We will be cared for. We’ve all be there, some of us are going through that right now. When we are going through the fog of uncertainty, many of us cherish the thought of knowing someone who cares is there to travel through the fog with us.

I’d like to invite you to turn in your Bible with me to the book of 1st Peter. We’ll be reading from Chapter 5 and verses 6 and 7.

1 Peter 5:6–7 ESV

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

Pastoral Prayer

Peter talks to us about humility. The word humble means not to be proud, a person who not arrogant. It’s a person who reflects a spirit of submission. In this context, its a spirit of lowliness that allows God to bring the blessing. The way Peter writes here brings contrast to the world around the early disciples. Many of the pagan virtues were that of physical perfection, manly courage and proud self-control. Humility was inconsistent with the prevailing image of the quote-unquote perfect man.

True humility is not a sense of worthlessness. The humble person doesn’t not think less of themselves. It’s not self-depreciation. Real humility, or lowliness, is the highest virtue. Humility is to know ones true position before Almighty God. Since God resists the proud and ours his grace on the humble, believers are encouraged to be humble. Some time back the truck was in need of some maintenance repair. There were somethings I needed to take care of. Well, I decided I would be able to take care of some of the issues myself. Some things worked and other things turned out to be a complete disaster. It could have definitely used the touch of a skilled master. Looking back, it would have been best to allow humility to have the right-of-way.

For Peter, the supreme example of humility is Jesus, who know that He came from God, that He went to God, yet took a towel, and stepped down to wash the feet of the disciples feet. Jesus was humble in that He was not ashamed to do a slave’s task. Peter is urging his readers to submit, or humble themselves, under God’s working in their lives, as if to the skillful hand of a surgeon. Some of our challenges are very delicate and intricate, and sometimes they require careful navigating and precision. Only the hand of God can provide this precision.

“The mighty hand of God” is descriptive of God’s sovereign power at work. We pickup the concept of God’s sovereign power in the Old Testament. This brings to mind the Exodus where the Lord brought deliverance for Israel for Egypt. In the story of the burning bush, God and Moses are having a conversation. God lets Moses know that he will be lead to Pharaoh to bring God’s people home. During the conversation, you can see how Moses uses him human reasoning:

Exodus 3:19 ESV

19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.

Moses understands Pharaoh will not give up so easily unless he “is compelled by a mighty hand.” God would have to intervene some how to allow the Israelites to leave Egypt. To be put “under the might hand of God” can also mean to come under God’s protection. Again, take the Israelites in Exodus for example. While they were in Egypt, they were suffering, as slaves for many hundred’s of years. That is until Moses is lead to them. God through Moses was able to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When they left the land of the Egyptians, yes the rejoiced to leave the land, yes life was hard, yes things happened, yes they wanted to return to a lifestyle of bondage. But! God was faithful and true.

In verse 7 and following of the 3rd Chapter of Exodus, God tells Moses that he has heard His people crying. He has seen their misery. He knows every tear that has fallen. God has decided the time is now. He had come to rescue them, allow them safe passage out of the land of the Egyptians. The rescue came in God’s timing. His help will come at just the right time. We’ve all heard the expression that timing is everything. When God’s driving - the bus is never late. Peter’s words cam e at just the right time for some. For the Israelites, we could consider God’s arrival as the bus just made its stop for pick up.

Peter let’s his readers know here in the second half of verse 2, “at the proper time He will exalt you.” The word exalt is a verb. We have an implied action. The word means to elevate or to lift up.

Psalm 113:7 is beautiful in that it gives praise to a loving and merciful God:

Psalm 113:7 ESV

7 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap,

The Lord lowers Himself to His creation and lifts the poor and needy. Psalm 113:7 talks about a person who’s feeling low, and puts their trust in the Lord God to lift them up. This describes a position of something that could be draining of being in a situation of misery.

In verse 7, we are given a couple things to consider and look forward to. We are given something of a commandment to be observed and hope. Cast means to throw upon something of someone. Psalm 55:22 has echo to verse 7.

Psalm 55:22 ESV

22 Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

Psalm 55 has to deal with a betrayal of a friend that David experiences (verses 12-14). The thought is this was the cause to the potential anxiety David might have felt. Anxieties is a feeling of apprehension, uneasiness. We can look the these another way. Anxieties can include worry, stresses and simply our daily struggles. These are distractions. Distractions pull our attention from the One who will really be there.

To say that we are “casting all your anxieties on Him” is demonstrating a significant level of trust. Peter is literally saying to thrown you discontent, discouragement, stress, worry, daily struggles, questions, pail, suffering and whatever other trials you might be going through onto the Lord with confidence that He knows what he is doing.

The prophet Nahum, prophesied during a time a constant threat from the Assyrians. This was a constant and ominous threat that lasted for a while. Nahum’s prophecy gave hope to the people who faced wickedness and violence:

Nahum 1:7 ESV

7 The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.

Christians can do this. It’s because, as a believer in Jesus Christ, you can trust His love, faithfulness, power and His wisdom. The we serve God is a just God, He is also good to his people. He blesses those who trust Him. God is a God who is the never-failing protector. He does this “because He cares for you.” Don’t you just love the word cares?!? It’s a very comforting word to hear. Especially to know that this is one of the many attributes of God.

The word care means to think about, to be concerned about. the One true living God cares about you. God care for you because He loves you. This is the heartbeat of the Gospel! God want to be part of every area of your life. This is because you matter to God!

Now, I’m not aware of where you are at in your personal walk with God today, but God desires to be with you, to walk with you, to love you!!

A well known passage in the 11th Chapter of Luke in verses 2 through 4.

Luke 11:2 NKJV

2 So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.

I’m not going to ready, but please bring up our next slide. Verse 2 through 4 is the Lord’s prayer. I once heard a person who came to the Lord talk about how powerful these words are. When we started to read, the person said, “stop right there.” We had just started, but stopped at the first two words of the prayer - Our Father. This person said, and it’s something that will stick with me, they said, “if our heavenly father is in control of all things, and he cares for me as His child, then all life takes on a different meaning.”

Conclusion

In Matthew chapter 24 in verse 28 and following, this is where we can read about Peter being called out of the boat onto the water with Jesus. Peter became afraid and began to sink into the water. We hear about how Peter cried out - Lord save me! Jesus did not just stand there saying, “Peter let’s see how well you can swim, or cheering him on - come on Peter you can do it.” NO! “Jesus immediately reached out His hand and took hold of Him (ESV).” Jesus got down to his level. Jesus went to where Peter was and exalted him. Jesus reached down and lifted him up out of the situation causing him distress.

If you want to be lifted up, no matter how deep or sticky you might think the mud is, Jesus is right there. All you have to do is surrender. You might be a person who has learned the only person you can depend on is yourself. I want you to know you can depend on Jesus. You can let go. Let God take over.

Are you in God’s care today? Would you like to be? Do you need prayer today? How can I pray for you?

Closing Prayer