Because He Cares (1 Peter 5:7)
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A big question that teenagers have is, “Do people care about me?” Nearly every teenager asks this question. A woman went to a psychiatrist once and told him that she had a inferiority complex. She said, “I don’t have any friends, I don’t have a job, and I don’t do anything but sit at home and watch Oprah.” After listening to her complain for an hour about all her problems, he thought for a moment and said, “Well, the good news is, I don’t think you have a complex about it at all!”
The truth is, no one is inferior to anyone else. We all desire acceptance and someone to show us they care about us. Just a quick bit of advice: if you realize that the people around you are asking this question, too, and you show them that you care about them, you’ll have more friends than you could ever count. So the answer to the question is that, yes, people do care about you. But you might be asking yourself, “If that’s true, why doesn’t it always seem that way?”
Sometimes it’s because we have unrealistic expectations. You might want a friend to hang out with you for the day. If they choose to stay home and do homework, does that mean they don’t care about you? No, it means they have desires and expectations of their own. Sometimes it’s because the loving thing isn’t always the fun thing. Would it be loving for a parent to give their child everything their child wanted all the time? No, that would be a very unloving thing to do!
Sometimes caring for a person means not giving them what they want so that you can give them something better. More than anybody else, Jesus cares for you and gives you exactly what you need when you trust in Him.
“Cast all your cares upon Him, because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)
This is now our third night looking at this verse. The first night I spoke about casting our cares upon Christ, focusing on those things that worry and burden us. Last night I spoke about how we must cast our cares upon Him, stressing the fact that we must turn to Christ. Tonight I want to speak about the next phrase in the verse, which tells us why we are to do the first part: it’s because He cares for you.
Jesus cares about what you’re going through. He doesn’t want you to hurt. All the pain we experience in this life is a result of sin. Sometimes it’s your own sin. Sometimes it’s another person’s sin. Sometimes it’s from the first sin and the Fall of the human race in the Garden of Eden. But since sin is in the world, we often hurt because of it.
I often hear the question, “If God is real, and He loves us, why is there so much pain in the world?” The truth is, pain in the world isn’t God’s problem, it’s our problem. But even though our pain isn’t God’s problem, He cares about us so much that He took it upon Himself to deal with our problem. He invites us to cast our cares upon Him. He does this because He cares for us.
The Bible describes God in many ways. It tells us that God is just, that He is righteous and pure, that He knows everything and that He can do anything. The Bible also says that God is love. But when we hear that, we need to make sure we understand it according to how the Bible describes Him as loving rather how we would expect Him to act loving. We’ve got to admit that we don’t know everything, only God does. We might expect a loving God to save everyone, despite whether or not they believe in Him.
But that’s not what God does. God respects our decision to trust Jesus or not, and if we choose not to trust Him, we’ve chosen to spend eternity separated from Him, living in Hell instead. God will not force us to go to Heaven, we have to choose to go there. We do that by trusting in what Jesus did for us.
Jesus cares about you so much that He died for your sin. Jesus cares for you whether you care for Him or not. Jesus longs for you to know Him. When you trust in Him, He gives you eternal life. Eternal life starts today. It’s about knowing Jesus, and being known by Jesus. This relationship gives you hope. It gives you peace. It gives you joy.
Jesus not only wants to be your Lord and Savior, but He wants to be your Friend. He is the Friend who sticks closer than a brother. He wants to be the person you run to when you’re happy, and when you’re sad. The Bible instructs us to rejoice with those who rejoice, and to weep with those who weep. Jesus wants to be that kind of Friend for you.
The truth is, other people care for you, too. Your parents care for you, your friends care for you, your teachers care for you, your church cares for you, I care for you. How many of you have unlimited texting plans? You know people care for you because you send and receive over 3,000 text messages per month! But all of these people, including myself, will let you down.
But Jesus will never let you down. He’ll always fulfill His promises to you. And He’ll always be with you, no matter what you go through. Cast your cares upon Him.
Pastor Chris Huff has been with us since July 2009. He and his wife, Abby, have four children. Chris is originally from St. Louis, MO and even though he was raised as a city boy, he has a small town heart. Chris is all over the internet, so you can find him on Facebook, Twitter,… (read more)
