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.
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