Getting Vertical Part 6  2 Chronicles 32

1 Peter 5:8-9

8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith,

 

The Christian life has been described as a Battle –

A) Adversary the devil prowls about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour

 

B) Tactics – Fear – Loves to get us afraid – fearing circumstances

 

C) Intimidation: Life is going to swallow us up

 

D) Doubt

 

Tonight we see an event in the life of King Hezekiah where the enemy took on flesh and blood

A) King Sennecarib -  Assyrians

 

B) Brutal army – Vicious – no mercy

1) Skin alive

2) Prisoners – Hooks

3) Skulls – Mark

 

C) Threatening to invade!

1) Outside of the city –

 

D) Sends his Generals into the city to deliver a message --                  Read Verses 9-17

Here is what the King is trying to do!

A) Produce fear –

 

B) Intimidate – Other nations and other gods failed

 

C) Doubt – You think that Your God will save you

 

2 Kings 19 Gives us Hezekiah’s response

 

14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.

 

 

1 Peter 5:7

“Cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”

A) Cast – Energetic word – doesn’t say – lay it aside – but cast it – throw it out there  to the Lord

 

B) FWY Friday -  Cast the traffic – ( Every time it started to move)

1)    So I started doing it too

 

C) The Word also carries the meaning of making a deposit

1)    You deposit – your money into the bank for Protection & for them to take care of it

 

D) Idea is the same here – Deposit your cares into the hands of the Lord / So He can take care of it

What Cares: All!

A) Family cares – Spiritual cares / Provision

Marriage / Ministry – God says unload it man!

 

B) Our cares can consume our mind – overwhelm us – they can cause us stress – anxiety

 

C) But they cause God no stress at all.

Spurgeon

Care to us is exhausting, but God is all-sufficient. Care to us is sinful, but God’s care of us is holy. Care distracts us from service, but the divine mind does not forget one thing while remembering another.

 

But Peter doesn’t tell us to Cast our cares upon the Lord because – he can Handle it.

A) Do it because He cares for you – do it because you are important to Him

 

B) Do it because – He is interested in your life.

                  TURN TO LUKE 12:22-32

 

Then He said to His disciples, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on.  23 Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.

 

C) To a world where men are overcome with worry, Jesus said: Don’t worry

1) More to Life than provision!

Illustration:

 24 Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?

 

God Is In To Trivia

A) Many times we feel that something is too small to bother the Lord with, so we bother each other.

 

B) We feel that something is too small to burden the Lord with, so we burden each other.

 

C) The Bible tells us that God transcends time and space.

 

D )He is so vast that by way of illustration we are told that He measures the universe between His thumb and little finger. 

1) Because of that we sometimes are prone to think that God is so great that He couldn’t possibly be concerned about my car keys.

 

 

E) God takes care of the birds everyday – You who have been made in His image/ more important to Him

 

    Relationship with you – you are more valuable.

We are valuable to Him

 

Jesus continues by asking what good does it do to worry?

 25 And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?  26 If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? 

 

Doesn’t help !

 

Another illustration by contrast:

27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  28 If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith? 

 

29 "And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind.  30 For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. 

 

Love this – Your father knows your needs

You be of a different mindset than the World.

A) Those in the world are consumed with this life

 Their needs, their wants – Covetous to the core

 

31 But you seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. 

 

B) Matthew 6:33 Seek first the kingdom : Priority and Passion – the Kingdom

C) One final thought:

32 "Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

 

Your heavenly father takes great pleasure in blessing you. He gets a kick out of it.

A) Surprise – He loves to blow our minds

 

B) Me with my kids – or my wife –

 

C) So Cast ALL YOUR CARES -  ALL MEANS ALL -  because HE CARES FOR YOU!

 

D) Hezekiah took the Lord and cast it before the Lord

 

Notice that Hezekiah began his prayer with worship

15 Then Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said: "O LORD God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

 

A) It has been said that worship wipes out worry. There is Biblical basis for this.

 

B) In teaching His disciples about prayerJesus taught that worship should be at the front of our prayer.

 

C) The first reason for this is that God is worthy of our worship.

1) He created us for that purpose and He has sought us for that purpose.  

The second reason for this is that worship brings perspective to our problems.

A) When I begin to focus upon the glory and majesty

of God,

 

B) my problems, that seem insurmountable, begin to

shrink in the light of His greatness.

 

C) EXAMPLE: IF you stand at the foot of the Himalayan mountains, they tower over you, some 29,000 feet in height.

 

D) But if you go up in a satellite, they are insignificant.                  

E) The way to see beyound the immensity of our problems is to get ABOVE them.

1) The way to get above them is to worship the Lord.

 

Hezekiah sought God’s Glory    Read Verses  16-19

 

 

God responded

 

 

Tonight Cast your cares