Casting Your Cares

Scripture Text

1 Peter5:6-7 & 2Kings 5: 10-15

Intro: The scripture texts for this message tells us in very specific terms what we are to do when we have a problem, situation, or circumstance we can’t handle or solve on our own. Our Father in Heaven wants to help us through everything we have to face in this life, but we must come to Him on His terms and not ours. 

I. We are to humble ourselves before God. 

1 Peter 5:6 (NKJV) ⁶ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, First we are to humble ourselves before God. 1081This means to offer oneself as lowly and submissive; in a spirit of lowliness; to present oneself as lowly; to be of low degree and low rank; not to be high-minded, proud, haughty, arrogant, or assertive.

     A humble person may have a high position, power, wealth, fame, and much more; but he carries himself in a spirit of lowliness and submission.

     He denies himself for the sake of Christ, his Savior and Lord.

II. We are to cast all our cares on God. 

   a. 1 Peter 5:7 ^acasting all your care upon Him, Care here means (worry, anxiety, or concern). Then we are to cast our cares. Cast means to fling; to throw; to hurl; to toss. Let go of them completely, not holding on or taking those cares back.

   b. Why you should cast all our cares on Him. [1 Peter 5:7b]  because He cares for you! The word cares here means God is the One who supplies the provisions of what is needed for the well-being or protection of His children.

III. We are to be obedient to what God tells us to do. 

 a. God tells Naaman through the man of God what he is to do for his healing. 2 Kings 5:10 (NKJV) And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean."

 God has told us in the scripture text for today what we are to do. [1 Peter 5:6-7 above]

 b. We are not to argue or try to rationalize what God tells us to do as Naaman did. 2 Kings 5:11-13 (NKJV) ¹¹ But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, "Indeed, I said to myself, 'He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.'
¹² Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage. ¹³ And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, "My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, 'Wash, and be clean'?"

     Disobedience can cause us to miss God’s best blessings for us.

 c. Obedience brings results. 2 Kings 5:14-15 (NKJV) ¹⁴ So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. ¹⁵ And he returned to the man of God, he and all his aides, and came and stood before him; and he said, "Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.

    Obedience is a test of how real our faith is. When we do what God says to do then He will do what only He can do. Will we trust God enough to take action on what He says and leave the results to Him? God says “Cast all your cares on Me.”

Conclusion: To show our faith in God and to give Him all the glory we have the privilege of bringing our concerns to Him because Jesus’ died on the cross for our salvation, healing or whatever we need as we ask, seek, and knock on Heaven’s door.

     When we do what He is showing us to do, He will do what only He can do!

Invitation: Have you been healed of your sins against God? If not now is the time to call on Jesus confessing your sins and asking Him to forgive and save you. The bible says in Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is eternal death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Jesus waits to save you right now.

      Now is the accepted time for your salvation! The decision is yours to make! 

Set Your Mind

Scripture Text

Colossians 3:1-4

Intro: If you’re wondering why it’s so difficult to control your thoughts and maintain your faith, remember that your mind reflects what you feed it. The apostle Paul in these verses, knowing how important our thoughts are, gives us some wise advice on how to help control our thoughts and maintain our faith. We should think on these things!

I. Think about our resurrection with Christ. Colossians 3:1 (NKJV) ¹ If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Romans 6:4-5 (NKJV) ⁴ Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. A believer's life is a life that is raised with Christ. When a person believes, asks for forgiveness of their sins and really surrenders their life to Christ, God forgives the person's sins and accepts them in Christ. God begins to consider the person as having died to sin and risen with Christ

II. Think on things above. Colossians 3:2 (NKJV)  Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. If you desire to become all that the Father created you to be, you must (set) or put (your mind) in a particular place, prioritize that which is above and not here below. Fill your mind with His ways and the principles found in His word! We are to not let the things of this earth control the thoughts of our mind and heart. The things on earth are temporary and the Things above are permanent.

III. Think of having died to this life. Colossians 3:3 (NKJV) For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. This is the reason we are to set our minds on things above. The moment we received Jesus Christ as our Savior, we were made new creations, we died to our old life. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT) Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! Paul explains true Christian behavior is putting on the new self in Christ and regarding the earthly nature as dead. We change our moral and ethical behavior by letting Christ live and reign within us, controlling our minds so that he can shape us into what we should be. The resurrected Christ gives us power through His Spirit to live victoriously over the sins and trials of this world and to bear the fruit of God's Spirit as we walk throughout this world. Our life now is hidden with Christ in God, it is not in this world.

IV. Think of your resurrected body.Colossians 3:4 (NKJV) When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Our thoughts and praise should center upon the wonderful the new and glorious body God has promised us. The resurrection of Christ gives us a living hope, the hope of glory. The resurrection of Christ Jesus guarantees our resurrection. 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 (NKJV) ¹⁵ For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive

     and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Therefore comfort one another with these words.

 Our minds and praise should focus upon the glory of heaven which shall be ours when either God takes us home or Christ returns. The resurrection assures that God will judge the world by Christ.

     Our minds and prayers should be focused upon evangelism and the terrible fact that the wrath of God’s judgment is upon all unbelievers. Every Christian will have to give an account to Christ and all those who have rejected Him will be eternally separated from God in Hell, a place of unimaginable fire, darkness and eternal torment.

Conclusion: You must ask God to help you sift through everything that enters your mind each day and choose for God’s truth to take precedence in your life. It’s your choice, an act of your will.

 Prayer and Invitation: Lord Jesus we want to honor You by the way we think. Please reveal and purge the thoughts that displease You, and if there is anyone reading this today that does not know You as their personal Savior and Lord, we ask that You might have Your way in those hearts and call them unto You this day. We pray and ask these blessings in Your name Lord Jesus. Amen!