This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Avalon Park, Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. I'm going to be reading this morning from Psalm 55. If you'd like to join me, I'm going to be reading verses 1 through 23. Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea. Hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught at the voice of my enemy at the stairs of the wicked, for they bring me down, suffering upon me, and revile me in their anger. My heart is in anguish within me. The terrors of death assail me, fear and trembling have beset me. Horror has overwhelmed me. I said, O that I had wings of a dove I would fly away and be at rest. I would flee away and stay in the desert. I would hurry to the place of shelter far from the tempest and the storm. Confuse the wicked, O Lord, confound their speech for I see violence and strife in the city. Day and night they prowl upon its walls, malice and abuse are within it. Destructive forces are at work in the city, threats and lies never leave its streets. If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it. If a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him, but it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God. Let death take my enemies by surprise. Let them go down alive to the grave for evil finds lodging among them. But I call to God and the Lord saves me. Evening, mourning and noon, I cry out in distress and he hears my voice. He ransoms me unharmed from the battles waged against me. Even though many oppose me, God who is enthroned forever will hear them and afflict them, men who never change their ways and have no fear of God. My companion attacks his friends, he violates his covenant. His speech is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart. His words are more soothing than oil, yet they are drawn swords. Cast your cares upon the Lord and he will sustain you. He will never let the righteous fall. But you, O God, will bring down the wicked into the pit of corruption, blood, thirsty and deceitful men will not live out half their days. But as for me, I trust in you. Hey, well, good morning. Thanks for reading that, Catherine. Thanks for letting me be here this morning. Thanks to all of you guys for being here. This is your first time coming here. We're especially glad that you're here. If you're someone who brought a visitor and you were telling them, man, Scott's the best preacher. He's going to be so into this. I'm really sorry to let you down. But I'm happy to tell you that next week we will return you to your regularly scheduled programming. You'll hear about Auburn, you'll hear about football. And if you're having a really good week, you'll hear about football at Auburn. But today, since I'm up here, we're going to talk about nothing but loss, which is going to be great. So actually, surprise, Scott, we're just going to watch an episode of loss for the sermon. No, we're not going to do that. That would be fun. But you should watch loss, which the season series finale is next week, which is not that important, but it is. Which is sad. But anyway. Hey, well, we're going to take a look at Psalm 55. I've never used a clicker. I'm going to use this clicker in a minute. This Psalm is one that has kind of continually come back to me over the course of the past year. It's one that the Lord just kind of reminds me of this message repeatedly. And it's been really interesting the ways in which he's brought it back to me and reminded me of it. I think it kind of started last summer. We took a group of high schoolers to do this camp at Covenant College, which here's a picture of this camp. We went to this camp at Covenant College with about 200 other high school students. If you've never been to Covenant College, it's on Lookout Mountain by the Georgia Tennessee border. It's an amazingly beautiful campus. And so we went to this camp. In each night, we had worship times. And one of the worship times that we had there was really, really great. And I think anyone who was there could tell you probably knows which worship night I'm talking about. We had this night for whatever reason, things just kind of really clicked. And it was one of those nights as a youth director that you really kind of long for when you're going on these camps. And so I remember kind of walking out of that service and we went to our huddle time, which our huddle time was just kind of where you get together with your church and you kind of talk through and process the things that you've been hearing in the services. And so we got to our huddle time and I remember just kind of walking out there thinking, which we could just keep singing because we were all just really feeling the presence of the Lord in that moment. And so I remember thinking, gosh, which we could just keep singing. But then all of a sudden these kind of distractions started popping up. And we were going to keep singing. Michael had brought a guitar. But then one of the strings broke or a couple of the strings broke. I don't remember what it was, but suddenly we didn't have a guitar to sing with. And so we just kind of started singing on our own. Actually, this is the spot where we were doing it at. And we were just kind of sitting there singing. We kind of had this one distraction with the strings breaking. And we had another distraction when this other group that was not affiliated with our camp showed up. It was actually this group from Michigan that was there to do a missions trip in inner city Chattanooga. And they just kind of showed up and they were really loud and they were playing their guitar. And it's like, man, they have a guitar. We don't have a guitar. And they were just kind of loud. There was a lot more of us than there were of them. So we were trying to kind of savor this moment, not thinking they're messing with our moment. What's their deal? And so it's just weird because all these kind of things were distractions all of a sudden. But then something really cool happened. And someone from this group kind of came over and said, hey, do you guys want to join us in singing? And so it was really cool because all of a sudden something that had started out as a really big distraction became an answer to even unspoken prayer. So it was very cool to see how the Lord provided for us in that particular moment. And so the group taught us all these songs. And one of the songs they taught us was called Cast your burdens on to Jesus. And over the course of listening to that song and thinking of that song, I realized that the theme of that song comes to us from Psalm 55 verse 22, which is what we're going to be spending most of our time looking at this morning. Psalm 55-22 says, cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you. He will never let the righteous fall. And so what I would like for us to do is to kind of go through a couple of the verses and thanks again to Catherine for reading it. We're not going to sing the song. Is that what you're thinking? You can do that for the talent show. That would be amazing. Especially if it was solo. That'd be awesome. But what I want us to do is just kind of take a look through this song and kind of talk through it and kind of spend the rest of our time looking at verse 22. So the first verse that's up here is this is a song that comes from David. Here's what he says. He says, listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea. Hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I'm distraught at the voice of the enemy at the stairs of the wicked. For they bring down suffering upon me and revile me in their anger. So we can talk from the beginning of this song. This is rough times for David. He's crying out to the Lord. The first thing he says is listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore me. Do not ignore my plea. Hear me and answer me. I don't know about you guys but I don't really ever use the word plea really often. But when I do use that word and I'm pleading for something, I'm like serious. I mean business. So David is really upset and it tells us he's distraught. That something is really weighing heavily upon his heart. That not only is something weighing heavily upon his heart but that he wants the Lord to help him through it. He calls out to the Lord. Hear me, Lord, and answer me. And so we see that in these first three verses. In the first, in the verses that kind of follow it, we learn a little bit more. He continues on and says this. He says, my heart is in anguish within me. The tears of death assail me. Fear and trembling have beset me. Horror has overwhelmed me. I said, O that I had the wings of a dove. I would fly away and be at rest. I would flee far away and stay in the desert. I would hurry to my place of shelter far from the tempest and storm. And so in those five verses, we learn more and more about how hurt David is. We learn how upset he is saying that fear and trembling have taken him over. That horror has overwhelmed him. And then the next couple verses I really love about this song. It kind of typifies, I think, with a lot of times with the Psalms, you really, really well, as that we can identify with them very easily. Because David goes on and he's saying, if I had the wings of a dove, I would get out of here. I would be totally out of here. And so I can imagine that every single one of us in here can very easily think of a time where we thought, man, if I just didn't have to deal with this if I could fly out of here, I would be out of here in a heartbeat. Maybe you've had one of those times up this during this week. Maybe you had one on the way here to church. I don't know. But what I love is that David is totally speaking our language in this song, that we can totally relate to that and understand what he's talking about. And so we see how upset he is that he even wants to get the heck out of there. But why is he so upset? And so we find out, we begin to learn more about why he so upset a couple verses later. In verse 12, starting in verse 12, David says this. If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it. If a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God. And so we learn that he's been betrayed. Not only has he been betrayed, but that a friend has betrayed him. And so what's cool about this song and the song is kind of surrounded specifically. So he's probably Psalms 52 and Psalm 54. They all kind of have this theme of David being betrayed. But in this one, it becomes more personal because he's being betrayed, not just by an enemy, but he's being betrayed by someone who he considers a friend. He goes on and says that this is a man like himself, his companion, his close friend. So they're obviously, they're pretty tight as how we would probably look at it. But then he goes on, this last thing tells us that they walked together at the house of God. And so this is not just any friend, like just someone that he knew just in passing. This is someone who shared the same faith as him, who trusted the Lord as well. And so for us, it would be like someone from another Christian brother or sister or someone in our church betraying us. So imagine what that would feel like to be kind of in that position. Like I thought, I don't think Brad or Bannock's not here today because he's at home recovering, I think. But the first person I thought of with this was Brad. I've known Brad for a really long time since we were in college. And so we've done ministry stuff together, and we've done just kind of normal life stuff together. And I thought, you know, what would it look like maybe today if I were to go back and betray Brad? Because Brad is certainly someone I would say that I have a religious fellowship with. And the first thing I came to my mind was like, man, how lame would it be if I made a Facebook group about Brad? And it was like, it said, Brad or Bannock is a loser. It was my Facebook group. But then to top it off, I invited him to join that group. You know, and it pops up on his status. Not only does he see it on his status V. Jason's created a new group, but he's invited you to this group. Brad would be pretty mad at me, I would think. And rightfully so. I think that would totally be justified for him to be upset with me like that. Because that's not how you expect someone. And that's not how someone who loves Lord treats their friends. John Calvin has this quote in one of the commentary that I read for him from him, where he says, the bond of religious fellowship is the most sacred of all. And so in this Psalm, we see that bond broken. We see the trust in that bond just completely shattered. And we see David exhibit how that can really tear you up inside. And so David continues to talk about this friend in verses 20 through 21. He's trying to find out that this friend, really friend is not a very good word for this person. Probably like this person sounds more like a punk is what I think. But it says that my companion attacks his friends. And so he's not only attacking David, but he continues to attack other friends. It says that his speech is smooth as butter yet war is in his heart. And so we see that he says one thing but does something else. And so this friend is really pretty much just a hypocrite. And so there's all this anger, there's all this frustration that's building up inside of David. It's building, it's building, it's building. And then when we get to this part, we get to verse 22. And you kind of see this turn. And I thank even when Catherine read it, you kind of got a sense of that turn in the passage. We see this in verse 22. He says, cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you. He will never let their righteous fall. But you, O God, will bring down the wicked into the pit of corruption. Blood thirsty and deceitful men will not live out half their days. But as for me, I trust in you. And so this verse, specifically verse 22, we looked at this verse over the course of a couple of weeks. And youth group in the fall. And so that's one of the reasons that I wanted to mention it today is because we've talked about it. And it's very cool how the Lord continually mentioned earlier how he just keeps bringing this song back to mind. But I wanted to take a look at verse 22. It kind of has three lines within it. And I kind of would like for us to just look at each line and see how they all work together. So we see David starting out in the beginning of this song, really distraught. He's really upset. He's really just angry. And we see him throughout the course of the song, all of a sudden his heart kind of changes. And we see him begin to remind himself to cast your cares on the Lord. And so we see this word cast. And it's obviously being used as a verb. We're not talking about the cast of a player like someone who's on the cast of a lost, something like that. We're talking about just cast, like in the sense of throwing something away from you, kind of getting it, pushing it aside. And the first thing that came to mind when I think of the word cast, maybe you guys think of this as well as just when you go fishing. I'm not a fisherman, but I've heard the term cast your line. And when you cast your line, I don't even know if this is the right motion. So sorry if I'm offending somebody who's a really good fisherman. But when you cast that line, that line goes far away from you. That line goes out to where the fish are. It goes out to where it belongs. That's where that line belongs. You want that line to be out where the fish are. And so I feel like when we look at it that way, cast your cares on the Lord. Our cares belong with the Lord. And so David encourages us to throw those cares at the feet of the Lord. When we talked about this in youth group, Andy Kellogg mentioned someone else he had heard, talk about this song. And they use the term continuously cast your cares on the Lord. Which I thought was a really good distinction because I was thinking about fishing. Like you throw out your fishing line. You sit there, you wait. And if there's nothing, nothing's biting, you kind of reel it back in. And I realize that's a really great way to kind of look at the way we cast our cares. At least the way that sometimes I cast my cares. I'll be really great about maybe throwing it out there and letting it sit there. Maybe for a day, maybe two, if I'm having a really good week. But maybe when things maybe start not being answered as quickly as I would like them to be answered. Or when they're not answered in the way that I would like them to be answered. I kind of start to reel it back in and think in God, you're not doing what I think you're supposed to be doing. And I kind of reel it back in and try to manage it and do it on my own. And that's not the kind of casting we're talking about. We're talking about continuously casting your cares on the Lord. So that even when you sense yourself kind of reeling your cares back in continuously putting them at the feet of the Lord. And so how do we cast those cares on the Lord? I think David gives us a really great example and a great model of that in this song. Because when we hear, we know that at the beginning of the song he says, hear my prayer. And so I think one of the easiest ways, if not the best way for us to cast those cares onto the Lord, is through prayer. And so in Philippians, Paul writes this, he says, do not be anxious about anything. But in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. And so here's even Paul, later on in the Old Testament, going along the same lines, cast your cares onto the Lord and present your request to God. And the peace of God will guard your hearts and guard your minds. And so David tells us we can cast our cares onto the Lord and we can do that by praying. But then that second part of that, verse 22 says, once you cast your cares on the Lord, that he will sustain you. And so if something sustains you, it means that it holds you up, right? It supports you, like the foundation of a house. And if we look again at this verse from Philippians, I think verse 7 tells us how he sustains us. It says that when you present your request to God, the peace of God will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So when you present your request to the Lord, when you cast those burdens onto the Lord, you're allowing your God will sustain you by giving you his peace. Earlier I mentioned that we went on a trip with the high schoolers to Covenant College last year. We got back from that trip on a Wednesday night, I think, was when we got back. And then that following Monday, we took a group of middle schoolers to middle school camp. And here's a picture of those of us that went to middle school camp, which was really, really fun. And as we had a really great time at this camp. But the Sunday before we went to that camp, the day before we left for that camp, I remember really, really not wanting to go to camp. For two specific reasons. One, I'd gotten sick on the way back from the high school camp on the bus. I've gotten this really bad science infection, and I get really horrible sinus pressure for whatever reason. And so I remember just not feeling well and only having a couple of days in between each camps, in between each of the camps. And then I also remember that Sunday, some of you guys will remember David and Laurie Bailey, and they had a son named Thomas. That Sunday was their last Sunday at Christ Kingdom. And so I remember being really bummed, because I'd become good friends with them. And so I was really bummed that that was the last Sunday. I was going to see them, and that they were leaving that Sunday. Or sorry, they were leaving on Friday, and we were still going to be coming back from camp. And so I was just remember being upset about that, and really not being in the mood to go. And so when I went to bed that night, I remember lying down to bed, and my mind was just kind of racing, and going kind of crazy. And I thought, you know, maybe I should just try to lay down and listen to some music, and just kind of chill out. And so I remember laying down, listening to music, and just kind of sitting there. And then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, I just remember I was crying, and I was just crying, and I was crying out to the Lord in need of him. And I remember it took me completely by surprise, because I was not like going to bed thinking, gosh, I'm so upset, I'm just going to pray about this. I was just mad, and so I lay down, and just all of a sudden, I just really started crying out to the Lord. And when we got home from Calakwa that week, or later on, that week, I wrote about that night in my journal, and I thought I would just share what I wrote about that night, because I think it relates really easily to what we're talking about from Psalm 55. Here's what I wrote about that particular night. I wrote when it came time to get to bed. I think my mind was racing, and I had a hard time falling asleep. I say I think that's what happened, because I don't totally remember what led to what happened next. I cried a lot. More than I have in a really long time. I sat, I listened to songs on my iPod and bed, and I bawled, sad, angry, and upset over various things. I cried out to you, God, in need of you. It was probably for an hour or so. It was one of the most refreshing times I've had in recent memory, and I woke up happy. It was so good to let that emotion out. Some of it I didn't even realize was there. Feelings I didn't even know were that needed to be released, found it, and I sang along with songs in between tears. I think that night of crying to you has sustained me, Lord. I felt like I was incredibly patient at Calakwa, and I can't help but imagine that that was a big part of it. Thank you for listening to me that night. I guess that is what it looks like to cast your cares on the Lord. That comes from Psalm 55-22, and the following line says that when you do that, he will sustain you. So thank you, Lord, for being true to your word and allowing me to bring those concerns to you. Whenever I look back over that, one of the things that always kind of catches me off guard is when I wrote, I wrote how I cried out to you, God, in need of you, is probably for an hour or so. And then the next line says it was one of the most refreshing times I've had in recent memory, and I woke up happy. Every time I read that, it kind of catches me off guard because I start to, that's not what I expected to read. But what I feel that particular time for me was a total, what it looks like for me to cast my cares onto the Lord and to allow him to sustain me the way that he wants to sustain me. Because that week at Calakwa, I think those who were here, we had an awesome time, and it was so, so much fun. When I think that was such an incredible turn in my own heart, that could only have come from the Lord. And so it reminds me that God will sustain us because he has sustained us since we've been conceived and that he will carry us, that he sustains us because he loves us and because he made us. It reminds us because he is our Heavenly Father who's done whatever it takes to carry you, even if that means becoming man and taking on the weight of our own sins, he will sustain you. And so then we get to this final part of the song that word David says, and he will never let the righteous fall. I read that, I read my read that, and I just kind of think, gosh, you know, the word righteous, that's such a big word in my mind. And the truth is that on our own, we are not righteous. On our own, we are unrighteous. We fall short of the glory of God, which means we are on our own, not in right relationship with the Lord. And what I think is really cool about one of the things that the Psalms do is how they point towards Christ. And so what happens if we're not righteous? Well, fortunately for us, that's not the end of the story. Fortunately for us, that's where the story kind of gets really, really good, I think. Paul is the author of the words in Romans that tell us the wages of sin is death, but later on in second Corinthians, he says this, he says, God made him who had no sin to be righteous for this, sorry, to be right. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. And so God could have treated Jesus, Jesus lived this perfect life, and God could have treated Jesus the way He deserved to be treated. But this verse tells us that He didn't, this verse reminds us that Jesus treated places with us, and that we've not just received forgiveness, but we've also received the reward of righteousness that comes only through his son Christ, that we've received, not only received mercy, but that we've received righteousness on top of that. So you've not only been forgiven, we've all been given this incredible reward of righteousness that comes only through faith and Christ. And so the gospel is about this complete trading places of you and Jesus, because Jesus took the punishment for the sin that we committed. And so we can praise the Lord, because when we look at this Psalm, we now know that the righteous will never fall, and we can know that the word be reminded of the scriptures that tell us that the righteousness of Christ has been credited to our accounts. And so we can find peace in that. I read that entry from my journal, talking about where I felt like I truly cast my cares on the Lord, and that was back in July, which was almost like a year ago. And I think I've maybe had one night like that since. And in truth, I kind of wish I had a night like that at least once a week, only because it really allowed me to feel what it was like to have the Lord sustain me. Because what I've learned recently is that I'm much better at casting my cares onto myself than I am about casting them onto the Lord. And so whether we realize it or not, what I want us to think about is where are we casting our cares? Are we casting them onto the Lord? Which is what we're called to do in Scripture, and what the Scripture tells us will sustain us? Or are you casting them somewhere else? Are you casting them on to someone else? Which I don't mean to say that you can't look to others for help, because the Scripture certainly tells us to encourage us to bear on another burdens. But those people should never take the place of the Lord. And so are you casting your cares onto the Lord? And I think this Psalm gives us this great model of what it looks like to be in this place where you just angry and just distraught and just furious and upset, and then to kind of let the Lord work through your heart, work in your heart and bring that to him. I think it's David gives us this great model of it. And so are you casting your cares on the Lord? But then the second thing that I thought about was, are you ignoring your cares? When I was in eighth grade, my mom passed away from cancer, and one of the things that I've realized recently is that instead of casting those cares onto the Lord, I just kind of buried those cares. And what this Psalm reminds us is that the Lord wants to care for you, that he wants the opportunity, he wants to sustain you, he wants you to cry out to him as your heavenly Father. And so whether you're casting your cares onto someone else, or whether you're maybe just ignoring those cares entirely, know that the Lord, you were designed to be sustained by the Lord. And that he is your heavenly Father who has done whatever it took to care for you, and whether even when that meant the death on a cross. And so I don't know what your cares are this morning, maybe there's something going on with a family member or a friend, or maybe there's finances, or maybe you have a project due in school, or maybe you're getting ready for college, or I don't know, there's a million things that I'm sure you can plug right into that. But the encouragement that I want to leave us with this morning is to cast our cares on the Lord, and know that he will sustain you, that he will be faithful to his Word and carry you through. So if you would please pray with me, and then we'll continue on.
God, I thank you for this morning, Lord, I thank you for the opportunity we have to look at your Word. God, I thank you for your Word that tells us that we can cast our cares onto you in that you will sustain us. Lord, I pray that we would know that you care about the concerns and the worries of our heart, the Father that you want to hold us through those. So God, I pray that you would humble each of us and bring us to places where we are reminded of our need for you, that we cannot do life on our own Father, but that we were designed to do life in community with others' Father and to do life with you as our faith in you. And so God, I pray that you would remind us of that truth this morning. It's in your name that we pray. Amen.