Are You Casting Effectively?
Scriptures: 1 Peter 5:6-10; James 4:7
Introduction:
When I was younger, my father taught me how to fish. He took me to a pond and showed me how to place the weight on the line so that the line (bait) would sink. He also taught me how to attach the plastic bob on the line so I could tell when a fish was actually trying to take the bait. I loved using the bobs even though my father told me that an experienced fisherman could tell by the slight movement on his line that a fish was taking the bait. Well I was not an experience fisherman and I loved watching the bob with great anticipation as it started to dance on the water as the fish would start biting. Sometimes when the fish would start nibbling I got so exited that I would yank on the pole before the fish swallowed the hook and I would miss it. There were other times that if a fish did not jump on the line immediately I would start to reel it back in to my father’s dismay. And then there were many times when I got it right and actually caught a fish.
When my father was teaching me how to fish, the most important lesson that he taught me was how to cast my line into the water. For those of you who know how to fish you will know what I am talking about. It took some skill and coordination to learn how to cast it right. For example, if you push the release too soon, you ran the risk of releasing the hook during your back swing and the hook connecting with your clothes or someone else’s clothes during your follow through. If you did not cast it out far enough, you’d end up in the weeds close to the pond and get stuck in the bushes in front of you. If you did not hold the pole tight enough in your hand the pole would end up in the water. Once you cast it right then you needed to have enough patience to leave it alone so the fish could find it – something I struggled with. When my father was teaching me how to cast he would sometimes use words that he reserved for those most frustrating moments as I worked my way through each of the situations I just mentioned. But the most important lessons in casting that I had to learn was how to cast the right way so that the line did not get tangled up and cause more problems; casting to the right destination so I had a better chance of actually catching a fish; and leaving the line alone once I got the first two right.
This morning I want to draw on my limited understanding and experience in casting my fishing line to bring to you this message that I have titled “Are You Casting Effectively?” I will not be talking about our casting a fishing line, but about casting all of our cares on God. We will be examining five verses of Scripture from First Peter the fifth chapter as we answer the question are we effectively casting our cares on God.
I. The Things We Care About
Our Church is embarking on an assignment that none of us a year ago thought was a possibility. (For those of you reading this, we are evaluating a church building down in the city in an area that is not the best area to be in.) As we prepare ourselves to make the move to downtown Kansas City, there are many thoughts that are running through our minds. There is the unknown about the area. There is the unknown about the building. There is the unknown about what God truly has in store for us there. And for some of us there is the unknown as to whether or not God is even directing us to go there. All of these “unknowns” are normal and for the most part expected for us as humans. However, there comes a time when we must cast our cares about what is causing us anxiety on Him and believe that He will work it out.
There are many things in this life that we care about that causes us to experience anxiety. We care about the safety of our families. We care about our job security. We care about our friends who are experiencing trials and tribulations. We care about the world around us and our local communities. We care about our homes and other possessions. We care about our health. All of these things that we care about can often cause us to worry and suffer anxiety from time to time because something is not right. This morning I want you to consider with me if we are truly casting your cares effectively on God. Turn with me to our foundational Scripture found in 1 Peter 5:6-10. I will be reading from the Amplified translation.
“Therefore humble yourselves, demote, lower yourselves in your own estimation under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you, casting the whole of your care, all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.” (Verses 6, 7)
II. To Cast Effectively I Must Acknowledge My Weaknesses
The first thing Peter wrote, and I am making this personal to me, is that I should humble myself, demote, lower myself in my own estimation under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt me. Why is this important? The first reason is because I cannot learn from anyone if I am not humble enough to think they can teach me something. When my father was teaching me to fish, I was young and I knew he knew more than me. Because of our relationship I had no problem humbling myself to allow him to teach me. When I recognize my weaknesses (in the case of learning to fish I did not know how to fish and I wanted to learn), I am open to receiving help from others and this action (receiving help from others) is humbling in and of itself. The second reason I should humble myself is because if I am not humble, I will not come to terms with the fact that I really need to cast my cares on God. We have taught people that God helps those who help themselves and there are some things we should do for ourselves versus asking God to help us at all. I am coming to understand that in doing this we are setting ourselves and others up for failure. When I try to do it on my own and fail even after someone else succeeded, then that compounds my failure and sense of self. If I get in the habit of turning everything over to God and listening for His guidance in every situation, then and only then will I know for certain that my actions are in line with what He wants me to do according to His plan for working the situation out. When my actions line up with His plan, I do not fail because I am just an instrument being used to fulfill His plan and not my own. In my current state, I still struggle with this from time to time.
For the past several months I have been dealing with some things personally in my professional life. I have tried every way that I know to work things out. For those of you close to me you know that it is not easy for me to ask for help, especially if the help is for my personal benefit. I would rather suffer alone than ask for help. This did not just extend to allowing others to help me; it actually went so far as me not allowing God to help me. In my personal situation that I have been dealing with for the past several months and trying to do it myself, I have not gotten very far. God has repeatedly directed me to give it to Him, to release it, but there were elements of this that I just could not seem to get right. I think I turned it over to Him and then just like when I was learning to fish and did not get a bite immediately, I would reel the worries back to me and take it from His hands. When I focused on why I could not cast my cares on Him and leave them there it boiled down to me being willing to humble myself; to ask for help; and then release it into His hands. If I humble myself and admit that I cannot handle this any longer, I admit my weakness and my heart is open to receiving help. As long as I am trying to develop the answers on my own, I close God’s hands. When I demote myself and lower my estimation of myself, I open myself up to allow God to intervene. When He intervenes, then I will be exalted – not because of anything I did for the situation, but because of God coming in and me allowing Him to work.
Once we have humbled ourselves and recognized that we need Him, Peter says we should be “casting the whole of your care (all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all) on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.” Peter tells us that we should cast all of our cares on God. Not some of them, but all of them. I have had the problem of casting my cares on my family; my friends; co-workers, etc; everyone but God. How do I know this? Well I have talked to all of them about my problems and received their advice which often conflicted with each other. Do you see why Peter said we should cast them all on God? Our loved ones and friends care about us but they do not always have the right answer and they cannot take away the worries, only when we give our cares to God and leave them there that the worries are released. As we read further in the verse, Peter not only tell us what we should cast on God, but he tells us why we should do it. He says that we should cast everything, all of our worries and concerns on God because He cares for us. Not only does God care about us, but He cares about us affectionately and watchfully. This is important. When my father was teaching me to cast, you know what he did? He watched out for me while I was doing it. He not only told me how to cast, but where to cast and where to stand while I was doing it. It was not just about the technique, it was also about the safety. He did not want me hooking myself (nor him) or falling into the water. This is how God affectionately and watchfully looks out for each of us – because He cares for us. As we cast our cares on Him, He watches to make sure we are okay and sends us comfort and peace throughout the process. So we must understand how to effectively cast our cares on God.
This is so simple, yet so hard to do. Remember when I told you how I was learning to cast my line and I would get impatient and start to reel it back in? This is what I often find myself doing when I cast my cares on God. I give them to Him but as soon as I do I start to reel them back in because I do not see anything happening immediately. I want to cast my cares on Him and get an immediate response. I do not want to wait. I do not want to be patient. I want to cast the cares and then immediately see that everything is fine and dandy. In my heart I know spiritually that everything is fine, but I want to see it in the natural, with my own two eyes. I want the actual manifestation of what God has done to be seen as soon as I put my cares on Him. If I am walking down the street carrying a heavy load and someone walks up and says “Let me help you” and they take part of it, I know immediately that part of my load has been lifted. This is what I want when I cast my cares on God. I do not want to think about them anymore. I do not want to remember them. I do not want to lose the sleep contemplating any responses that I might need to make. I want to turn them over and then experience the freedom one gets when life is good and there are no worries. Even though I want all of this and can actually have it, I often do not get it. Why? Because of what Peter says in verse eight and nine.
III. Balanced and Focused
“Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring (in fierce hunger), seeking someone to seize upon and devour. Withstand him; be firm in faith (against his onset – rooted, established, strong, immovable, and determined), knowing that the same (identical) sufferings are appointed to your brotherhood (the whole body of Christians) throughout the world.” (Verses 8-9)
So let me break this down to you. Even though I want the peace and relief that should come immediately when I cast my cares on God, I do not always get it. The reason is I am not always balanced. To be balanced fully and at all times requires some things. First I must be temperate. When I am temperate I have a level of self-restraint and/or self-control in all situations. This means that I am not flexing too much to the right or left when things get stressful. When I think of temperate I think about my older brother Barry. He tends to have calmness about him when he addresses situations. Because I tend to be a man of action, sometimes his calmness seemed like a weakness. However, the more I understand about being temperate, I recognize that I am a man that needs to be more temperate and it represents strength versus a weakness.
Peter also states that we should be sober minded. To be sober minded means that your mind is alert and focused. After Peter tells us to be balanced, he warns us to also be vigilant and cautious at all times. To be vigilant and cautious goes along with being sober minded they mean to be alert, watchful and focused. There is a reason Peter is instructing us this way. When our cares and worries become so great and we lose our focus we then become the hunted. In the second part of verse eight Peter states “for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring (in fierce hunger), seeking someone to seize upon and devour.” When we are not balanced, alert and focused, we become the prey that Satan is hunting.
Let me use this example. If you stand on your feet with your eyes open and you are not under the influence of any drugs or alcohol, you can stand still because you are focused. If you keep your eyes open and raise one foot, you can stand still for a while because your eyes are helping you to focus which helps you remain balanced. Now here is where it gets interesting. If you continue to stand on one foot and close your eyes, your body will begin to shift and you will start to wobble. Why does this happen? Because your eyes allowed you to focus and remain balanced and when you closed them, you lost your focus thus your balance. This is what happens when we lose our balance spiritually, we begin to wobble. Let me give you another example.
When someone is “under the influence” of the alcohol people can easily recognize it. They recognize it because the person is not balanced; they slur their words, wobble when they walk, and cannot stand still (balance). This is why if a person is pulled over because they are suspected of being under the influence, they are given what is called a sobriety test. The sobriety test is designed to test if you are sober and temperate (in other words clear minded and self-controlled.) If your mind is not clear and you are unable to control your speech, your ability to walk straight, and your hand/eye coordination is off, you are not balanced and easily recognized as being under the influence of something. All of these “signs” are seen by others as the evidence that you are under the influence. On holiday weekend, the police patrol the highways looking for people who are driving under the influence. In other words they are hunting for those who are violating the law. How do they identify them? They identify them by the “signs”; the way they are driving. When the police see a car weaving back and forth across the center line, they know the person is under the influence of something and they pull them over for their own safety and for the safety of others.
Now let me bring this home so that you understand clearly what God is telling us. When we lose our balance through the worries of this life we become the hunted. Satan is out there looking for those who have lost their balance so that he can come in for the kill. He can easily recognize Christians who have lost their balance because they are wobbly; unfocused; and their speech is slurred. We demonstrate our wobbliness when we are worried, stressed and anxious. When we are worried we cannot focused. When we begin to waver in our faith as evident in what we say about what God is able to do, we are as the alcoholic who is slurring his speech. All of these things are signs that Satan looks for as he is out there “like a lion roaring (in fierce hunger), seeking someone to seize upon and devour.” Does this make sense? The only way we can defeat this foe is to know when and where he is attacking and this can only take place when our minds are clear, alert and focused. This can only happen when we cast our cares, our worries and our anxieties on God. Look at verse nine.
“Withstand him; be firm in faith (against his onset – rooted, established, strong, immovable, and determined), knowing that the same (identical) sufferings are appointed to your brotherhood (the whole body of Christians) throughout the world.” When we are balanced we are able to withstand Satan’s attack. We withstand him because our faith is not shaken because we have seen the evidence that whenever we cast our cares on God, things change. By faith we do not have to understand the fullness of how he is attacking because we know the victory is already ours – if we remain focused and balanced. Because we are balanced and not wobbly, we are able to withstand him. Jesus' own brother James tells us in James 4:7 to “…..Resist the devil, stand firm against him, and he will flee from you.” Whenever we are in a battle, if we withstand our enemies and resist them, they eventually give up and leave. James tells us that when we stand against Satan and resist him, he will eventually flee from us. It does not mean we will not have some battle scars or injuries, but in the end we win. Peter tells us the following in verse 10: And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, Who imparts all blessing and favor, Who has called you to His Own eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself complete and make you what you ought to be, established and ground you securely, and strengthen, and settle you.”
Being a Christian does not mean that we will not suffer. As a matter of fact, it guarantees that we will suffer. Being a Christian does not mean that our life will always be easy and we will not have trials and tribulations, the opposite is true. However, being a Christian does means that we have an avenue; a means of dealing with everything that we face. We have a God who is the one and true God who is carefully watching over us and is more than capable of bringing us through everything that we face – if we truly cast our cares on Him and leave them there.
Conclusion
When my father was teaching me how to fish, I know there were times when I frustrated him. There were times when after I had learned a little bit I thought I knew enough to do it on my own. There were times when He told me what to do and yet I thought I knew a better way. Through all of these times my father was patient and allowed me to learn from my own stupidity. When I truly began to learn what he was teaching me, my father allowed me to try some things on my own because he knew that I was able to do it because I had taken the time to learn what he had taught me.
God is the same way. He desires that we allow Him to teach us and just as important, to help us. The only way this can happen is that we learn to cast our cares on Him effectively. When we turn our worries over to Him, we must leave them there and allow Him to take care of them. If we are not able to do that, then we are like that person who has consumed too much alcohol and is unbalanced. They are not sober minded and in control of their physical or mental being. They are wobbling and everyone who sees them know that they are unbalanced. When we are that unbalanced, we become the hunted, the one Satan focuses on because he knows we are in a weakened state and are easy prey. I do not know what cares and worries you are carrying this morning – but the fact is that if you are carrying any, you are out of balance. I spent a lot of time the past few months being out of balance and it is not a good place to be. When I am not in balance, my focus is not what it should be and my mind is not clear. When I am not in balance I spend more time looking at my situation and all the contingencies versus looking at God and turning it over to Him. There is a song that we used to sing in my former Churches that said “Jesus can work it out, I called on the Lord and He worked it out.” The condition was He could work it out if we let Him.
Whatever you are carrying today will you join me and give it to God so that we can all get back into balance. Are you casting effectively or are you casting and reeling it back in before God has an opportunity to do anything with it? May God bless and keep you is my prayer.
