VN520515 – 6-25-17 Cast Your Cares Upon Him

We are going to go back to Psalm 55. Psalm 55 that I read. I liked it so much I’m going to read it to you again. We’re going to get down to the preaching, but before you get to that part you’ve got to go through all this long talking and explanation. Psalm 55:16-23. “As for me,” this is David talking, “As for me, I shall call upon God, And the LORD will save me. Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and murmur, And He will hear my voice. He will redeem my soul in peace from the battle which is against me, For they are many who strive with me. God will hear and answer them — Even the one who sits enthroned from of old — Selah. With whom there is no change, And who do not fear God. He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him; He has violated his covenant. His speech was smoother than butter, But his heart was war; His words were softer than oil, Yet they were drawn swords. Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. But You, O God, will bring them down to the pit of destruction; Men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.” The reason I want to go over some of this is because if we can sort it all out it will make a lot more sense to us and then we’ll get to the more interesting part or the part I like because I get to rant and rave for awhile.

Verse 16. David says as for me I shall call upon the Lord. That is what I shall do. That is his intent. The last part says and He shall hear me. I shall call upon the Lord and the Lord will save me. Some of them say He shall hear me, but the gist either way you go with it is I have this intention and I will call and He will hear. This is what I’m going to do which is pray and this is the statement of fact, He will hear. He shall. He will save me. He is going to do this. Then he goes on to verse 15. I will, morning, noon and night I will complain and murmur. David is saying I’m not going to sugar coat the situation I am in. I am going to come right out with it. God, here are the problems that I’ve got. This is the way they are and I’m going to repeat them and repeat them and repeat them. I want You to understand, God, just how miserable this is and how much this is an affliction on my soul. We hear from television evangelists who have maybe more faith than I’ve got and got more faith than what Jesus had because they say if you ever pray anything more than once you don’t have faith and God will never listen or hear and answer that prayer. Well, Jesus is the one that said when you knock on the door and the word is keep knocking, keep asking. Jesus is telling us keep right after it. David here, and the word David means beloved, his intent says I intend to stay right after this morning, noon and night telling Him what’s going on. It’s not going to be sugar coated.

I have a friend who will call up and say this is what’s going on. The person who is causing me grief is doing this, this, this and this, and then they’ve got to sugar coat it and say but they are such sweet people. They just knifed you in the back. They just destroyed you. They took your money. They did all this and then you can say they are sweet people? Don’t sugar coat it. Just come right out and say God, they did these things here. List them, boom, boom, boom, and I’m going to keep talking to You about them because, God, there is an issue here and it’s causing me grief, and it says in the second part of that verse He will hear my voice. Statement of faith. This is what I intend to do. I’ll call out to God. He will deliver me. I intend to call out to God and He will hear my voice. Statement of faith. Statement of faith. He will hear it. Not that He might hear it. He will hear my voice. Then it goes on and here’s where it starts getting a little bit complicated. He remembers this. “He will redeem my soul in peace from the battle which is against me, for they are many who strive with me.” Most of us will read that verse and say oh, what he’s saying is there are a lot of the enemy who are striving against me. That’s not the way it actually reads, and those aren’t even the English words. It says, “He will redeem my soul in peace,” so we know that when we have the peace of God that He has answered and heard our prayers. He will redeem or He will deliver. Both words are interchangeable in this Hebrew context here. “From the battle which against me, for they are many who strive with me.” He’s saying I realize, I remember this, I know this to be true that I am in this battle and there are many who strive with me. Not that the striving is against me. There’s enough striving against me, but now I’m remembering oh, there are those who are striving with me.

Christians, there’s a lot of people out there who are praying for you and if you ask they’ll put you on prayer lists all over Southern Illinois, especially through Facebook. Please pray for me. People will go whoosh. Did you know that our baptismal services made Facebook? A friend of mine who is down in the Cisne/Fairfield church area said I saw your baptismal service on Facebook the other day, at least parts of it. So, yeah, Glenwood is being watched. If you need prayer there are people out there not only in this church but in other churches who will pray for you. There are people who are willing to strive with you, but don’t forget this, not only are there Christians out there who are willing to strive with you in this battle and make these prayers before God and do it on your behalf, in Psalm 91 it says God will give His angels charge concerning you. So, there are angels out there who are striving with you because we do not just strive against flesh and blood, but we strive against powers and principalities and spiritual darkness. There are beings out there who do not like us as individuals or as a church who will come against us, but God says I’ve got angels that are willing to go to bat for you. You keep the faith and they will keep fighting. Your prayer warrior buddies, friends, churches and people you don’t even know, they will keep praying.

Here’s something that works for me constantly. When my back is really up against the wall I will stop and I’ll say okay, God, I can’t do this. I’m up against the wall here. I don’t know where the people are, I don’t know who to ask, but get somebody out there and get them to start praying for me because I really need this answer. It’s not a week, 15 days later people will start calling what’s going on with you? I’ll say what are you talking about? God has been putting you on my heart and I have been praying for you and praying for you and praying for you. I don’t even know what it is. I just know that I’m supposed to intercede for you. There are people out there that God Himself will call into active duty and nudge them and say you pray for this person here. They may or may not call but there are people who are striving with us, many who are willing to strive with us in this battle, and I don’t care what battle you’ve got, in this battle. Verse 19, “God will hear,” once again a statement of faith, “and answer them.” He’s not only going to hear me, we’ve got these people who are striving with me and David is saying He will hear them. Where two or more are gathered on the face of the earth touching anything I will hear and answer their prayers. He will do it for them. He’s saying there are people out there and if I’m the one that’s having trouble there are still people out there who are willing to stand in faith with me and God will hear and answer them.

The second part of that verse, “Even the one who sits enthroned from of old.” Now, that’s referring to God. God will hear and answer them. “Even the one who sits enthroned from of old.” Now, here’s the tricky part. “With whom there is no change, And who do not fear God.” You would think that that verse is referring, at least that next phrase is referring back to God, but it’s actually referring back to the person who or the enemy who is causing you trouble. “With whom there is no change, And who do not fear God.” It’s not talking about God because God doesn’t fear God. It’s referring to some being, some person, whatever you want to call it there, some entity that is coming against you who doesn’t change and does not fear God. What they’re getting at is this, the person who is coming against you is saying I am causing all this grief and strife. I don’t have to change because obviously God doesn’t care. I don’t have to be afraid of God because I’ve been going at this for awhile and God has not come against me. Therefore, I don’t have to worry about what God thinks, says or does because I’m getting away with it, and that’s what that verse is talking about. The enemy is saying I don’t change because God is not coming against me and I am ducking the judgment. Therefore, I am winning, I’m getting away with it, and there’s a lot of people who think that they are getting away with everything that they have done, but they are not.

So, as we know now this person or this entity with whom there is no change who does not fear God. Then it says, “He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him.” We’re not talking about God. This verse is talking about the enemy. He doesn’t fear God, he hasn’t had to change his ways, but he’s putting forth his hand against those people who are at peace with you. Haven’t you ever had a friend, a neighbor, a loved one or somebody that you thought yeah, this person is my buddy, this person is my pal, this person just stabbed me in the back. This person just trashed me horrendously. This person just threw me under the bus. This person who doesn’t change, who’s not fearing God says, or puts forth his hand against those who are at peace with him. He has violated his covenant. Those are the people you would think well, no, he’s still talking about God. No, he’s talking about those people who said you’re my buddy, you’re my pal. I’ll be there for you. I will help you. I will always have your back. If you need anything you call. I’ll be there for you. You can trust me. Trust me on this. It will be alright. Don’t worry, I’m your friend. I’ll never turn on you. And he says that person turns and violates his own covenant, his speech. That’s why we know it’s the enemy here. “His speech was smoother than butter, But his heart was war; His words were softer than oil, Yet they were drawn swords.”

I want to keep this in mind, that these are smooth talkers. They’re shmoozers. There are people who just they’ve got it. I’m not one of them, but there are people who just got it and they can just give you a spiel, send out a line, and you’re buying it hook, line and sinker, and this person even though it sounds right and good it’s not and somehow we got hoodwinked and we’re into it now up to our necks, and this is what God said at that point. “Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. But You,” David is now talking to God, “But You, O God, will bring them down to the pit of destruction; Men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.” He is saying this in that verse, there is coming a time when those people who have back-stabbed me, lied about me, the people who have turned against me, those people that I thought I could trust. Now at this point do not volunteer to be a politician unless you plan on being an honest one. Everybody says well, they’re a politician. What do you expect? Well, God expects uprightness, truthfulness out of a politician just as much as He expects it out of you or myself. Their destruction it says will come forth and it’s teaching this, that eventually God will bring them to the point where there is a judgment. He will bring them down to the pit and we talked about hell a lot back a few services ago. If you weren’t here you missed a real “hot” issue.

God is willing to stand there and let you offer or let you make your free will choices and He will let you choose to go to hell rather than choose His Son and be in heaven forever. There will come a point when He will say enough is enough. You’re not going any farther. You’re not going to shake My kid. You’re not going to shake down my kid either. Therefore, I’m going to cut, this is the point, don’t cross it. We have proof of that. In the Old Testament God told Abraham, Abraham, everything you see here is going to be yours and your descendants, but before your descendants take over they are going to spend about 400 years down in Egypt and the reason wasn’t because they needed to get down there and grow and become 2 million people, or they needed to go be slaves. What He said was this, the sins of these people have not come to fulfillment yet. It’s not quite there, but about 400 years from now, and He didn’t use the word about, about 400 years from now, Abraham, the sins of the Canaanites are going to be there and I’m going to say that’s it, no farther. It’s over with and I’m going to bring your kids up out of Egypt and I will throw them out of this land. I don’t want to throw them out before they have committed the guilt, but when they do commit it I am going to be there and pitch them out of the land. So, God is willing to let these people ramble along and they refuse to change because they haven’t been brought up short, but this is the prophecy here. We will be blessed. We cast our burdens upon Him. We will be blessed. We have to trust in faith that we will not be shaken. We have to walk by faith because, and here it is folks, we are going to be blessed eventually both here and in the hereafter because we walk by faith and not by sight, and you can take that to the bank.

You can take it as this is the Word of the Lord. This is a prophecy. This is a statement that’s out of God’s Word. This is an understanding. It’s not a straight verse, but this is what God is saying. You will be blessed. You will be blessed here and you will be blessed in the hereafter if you take your burden and cast it upon Me and let Me deal with it. We don’t have to figure out the problem. We don’t have to figure out how to solve the problem. We don’t even have to do the judgment of bringing about the judgment. There’s nothing we’re required to do except cast it on God, talk to Him morning, noon and night until we are delivered in peace. When that time comes we will be praying and we will be talking and all at once it will be God is going to take care of this. I don’t have to stay after it anymore. God will take care. I will be able to walk now in peace in the here, and I will be in His presence in the hereafter. Oh, I pity those people who have crossed God because they crossed me. We are His kids. Let me share one more verse with you, or a couple more, and it’s something that you’ve heard but usually it’s not followed by the next verse. It’s 1 Peter chapter 5. Way back toward the back. 1 Peter 5:7-8. “Casting all your anxiety,” or all your cares, “on Him, because He cares for you.” That’s where it usually stops so let’s start right there.

It says cast your cares on Him. We’ve got issues, we’ve got problems. Roll them off is the real word. Cast. Roll those cares off on Him. It doesn’t say that He is going to take care of you because you’re good. It doesn’t say that He is going to take care of you because you perform well, you look good, anything like that. It says He does this because He cares for you. That’s the reason why we can roll our burdens off and know that something is going to happen because He cares for me. He cares for you. You are a Christian. God cares about you because of who you are. You are a believer in Jesus Christ. You’ve been adopted into His family. You are His kid. He cares about you and it says He will deal with this because of who you are. That’s the understanding, but here’s the next verse right after 7, verse 8. “Be of sober spirit.” You know, don’t be panicky, don’t be flighty about this. Stand there. Be a sober spirit. “Be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Yep, cast your cares upon Him because He cares for you, but be aware. Be aware there is a devil lion out there who is willing to devour you. He’s saying I have told you this, especially in Psalm 55 where this is a reference out of, I have told you this, that the enemy is coming against you but you stand in faith. You roll your burdens off on Me morning, noon and night. Don’t sugar coat them. Don’t think that well, I’ve got to protect this person.

You tell Me the issues, you tell Me the problems, and then you let me deal with them and you keep the faith baby. I sound so 60s don’t I? You keep in faith because I said I will do this. You walk in peace because I said I will do this. Then it goes on and adds that little because there’s a lion out there seeking to devour you. When you start doubting you’re actually giving permission to that lion to chew on you. My God says He is going to stop the mouth of the lion. He did it for Daniel. I’m His child. Daniel was His prophet. I am a child of God. If He can do it for Daniel on the natural plane He will do it for me against the devil himself. He will put a stop to that lion from chewing on me, but to make sure that chewing doesn’t get to us we need to stand in faith and say my God is dealing with this. If you want to fight somebody Jesus is sitting on that throne right up there. He is the one who has made these promises and made these guarantees to me, His child. I trust Him. I defer to Him and His judgment. God the Father is going to deal with you, my enemies. So, if you want to chew on me right there is the guy you have to get permission to chew on me from. I walk by faith and not by sight. That lion can roar all it wants but it will not get to you unless God the Father says so. Now, that’s part of the burden really because you’re trusting Him saying God, I’m going to trust you. Daniel was thrown right into the pit and yet Daniel trusted God. All night long he had to stay there with that big cat who might have been licking its lips. For all we know he might have been licking Daniel and tasting. Mm, boy, this would be tasty if I could just… if I could just… I can’t get to the guy, but I would sure like to bite the guy.

It doesn’t matter. We are to walk by faith and not by sight and it is not an easy thing to do. I know that that’s a true fact. I know it, but that’s what He tells us to do, walk by faith, not by sight. Roll those burdens over. One little interesting thing before I shut up early, yes, before I shut up early is this. Barb had to look at the clock to make sure I was shutting up early. It’s that word roll your burdens on Him actually is the idea incorporated in that Hebrew word is roll this gift. God permits things to come to us and we are to view it as God is giving me a blessing. It’s hard but He promises all things will work together for the good and this is going to be a blessing to me somehow, someway, I don’t know, but this is going to be a burden and yet God is calling it a gift. He’s calling it a blessing because that enemy is going to be dealt with. That is a gift. That is a blessing. And at the same time we think about gifts as always being real positive. Roll those gifts off on Him too. If He is there protecting you from the bad things in your life think how much more He can multiply the good things in your life if you’re sharing the good things with Him along the way also. God, I griped, moaned and complained about this morning, noon and night. Now that I’ve had my answer I want to share with You the gift that You have given me. Thank you morning, noon and night for delivering me from that issue, from that problem, from that enemy.

God, I appreciate it, and He will be able to take that blessing, that gift and multiply it back to us sevenfold. That’s where the idea of casting your bread upon the waters and it will return to you. So, whenever He does hear and answer your prayers cast that bread and praise Him because that will come back again and as a multiplication. Not as an addition, but as a multiplication. Shall we pray? Father, in the name of Jesus we praise You because You are our God, because You said that You love us and You care about us. Because of what Jesus Christ has accomplished we can come to you now Father. All these things that are stressing us, and we’ve all got issues, here are these complaints, here are these murmurs, here are these issues that we are going to be dealing with or talking to You about. Father, I ask that You would hear us now and quickly bring peace and deliverance to people’s lives so that they can walk the rest of their days in joy with you and let them share that joy with You also. All glory and honor to You. In Jesus’ name, amen.

One little note I’d like to tack on. It says that those people will not have a whole life, they’ll have a half life. That doesn’t necessarily mean that everybody who hates us or comes against us is going to die halfway through their life. They’ll have a half life. They will only enjoy about half of their life when they could have been enjoying a whole life. We are Christians. We should have a whole life. Psalm 91 says and I shall satisfy the person with a long life. When we’ve finally said I’m happy, I’ve accomplished, I’ve seen, I’ve done and I’ve experienced. God, I am really, really satisfied and God will say if you’re really satisfied and you want to come home we’ll start making arrangements to get you up here. Now, that’s not a bad thing. That’s a very positive thing because I don’t know about you all, but I am looking forward to the day, to the day when I get to go to heaven and be with the Lord forever and ever and ever.