# How to handle your burdens

December 1, 2025

Jesus never fails. Sometimes he makes it so where he’s all we have to show us that he’s all we really need. And he never, ever fails.

Turn your Bible, if you would, to First Peter. Chapter number five, First Peter, chapter number five. We’re going to look at just really one verse. We’ll read two, getting to one verse.

It’s a very familiar passage, but I felt like the Lord would have us to focus on it. I was at the hospital with Michael and Nanian and Abby on Wednesday, I think it was, before Thanksgiving, and they wanted me to pray whatnot. It felt like they were just wanting the verse, so I mentioned this verse. And then Daniel said, well, where’s that found out? And I told her 1 Peter 5:7, and then she said, oh, I don’t hope that’s right.

They put me to the test; had to look it up. I prayed, Lord, I was right, finally. Trying to tell my wife I was right. She’s not convinced of that, you know, but I’m working on it. First Peter five, First Peter five.

First Peter five and verse—we’ll start verse number six, verse number six, First Peter five and verse number six. Would you please stand just to show the word of God respect and to get you awake also?

Here we go. First Peter five. We’ll start in verse number six. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.

This is such a cardinal law, rule of life. This whole world is the opposite of that. We try to exalt ourselves, our stores, everything we talk about, tell—we’re always exalting. But that’s not God’s plan. God’s plan is: humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God.

By the way, it’s not what you look like in front of everybody, walking with your head down, saying, “I’m so humble.” No. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. Elijah didn’t look real humble when he was mocking the prophets of Baal over there, but I guarantee he humbled himself before the Lord. That’s the key. If you humble yourselves before the Lord, you’re probably truly humble.

Humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you. Would you rather you exalt yourself, or God exalt you? Man, God exalt you—that’s a pretty good deal. God’s exaltation comes through the pathway of humility, always, always.

The verse we’re trying to get to, as we preach, we just get going, you know. It’s the next verse here. Here’s the next verse. Just 11 words, but these 11 words can change your life. How to handle your burdens. We’re about to find it out in 11 words. Just 11 words. Here it is. Look at it: “Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.”

It’s like the first six words are what we do, and the last five words are why we do it, in God’s part, if you will. Let’s read those 11 words out loud together, would you please? Here we go, verse number seven. Casting all your care upon him, for he careth.

Years ago, the Wall Street Journal, when there were more newspapers, printed this article. It was an article about a girl named Sally. Sally was just a fretful girl. She would get so fearful and fretting and just anxiety and all the rest of that, that would make her sick over the least little thing. She would just get so worried, and she’d literally get sick.

So her grandpa had an idea. There was a snowstorm a little bit after that. He took her out, and he said, “Now, Sally,” a little 10-year-old girl, “I want you to look out and I want you to see which trees the snow broke a lot of limbs off of. Then I want you to notice the type of trees that it did not break many limbs off of.”

They began to look at the trees and the leaves and all that. And Sally eventually, through the guidance of her grandpa, ended up at the conclusion that he was trying to get her to end up at. And this is the conclusion: She noticed that the trees that had the big leaves—if the leaves were still there—those trees had a lot of limbs that broke off.

Then the pine trees and trees that have small little leaves, the needles, pine needles—the snow would just kind of roll off. It wouldn’t stick as much. And he said, “Now, Sally, if you had let all those worries and cares that really bother you roll off, your limb won’t break, if you will.” But those trees—and it was, you know, beginning of winter, some still had the large leaves—he said, those trees, they hang on to the weight, they carry the weight, and it breaks them.

Now notice this verse here. Let’s just look at some words here in that verse, verse number seven there. What’s the first word in verse number seven? Casting.

Here’s the interesting thing: If you look at Strong’s Concordance, I don’t always follow what the Greek word means or Hebrew, but he says the Greek word there for casting has to do with throwing upon. Now, if I’m going to throw—we’ll take this water bottle—we’ll try to flip it up like these young folks know how to do, and I won’t do that. That was completely upside down. Let’s try it again. We’re going to try that. Oscar says, “Ain’t no way.” Almost, almost.

But here’s the thing: I cannot throw that while I’m hanging on to it. If I’m going to keep it in my hands, there’s just no way I can really cast it. I can throw as hard as I want to, but in order for me to cast something, I must let it go.

Now, here’s the thing about it: That’s a little humbling because we’ve got to let it go out of our control. And that’s, I think, where it ties into that verse number six up there. By the way, if you notice in the King James Bible, there’s no period at the end of verse number six. If you notice the first word, it’s kind of like a continued casting. Verse number six, he says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.” Then he goes right into—no period—he goes right into casting.

There’s a little bit of humbling of you letting go of it and saying, “I’m not in control anymore. I’m not going to control my destiny about this situation. I’m going to let go of it, I’m going to cast it.”

Friend, it is so important that we learn to cast, cast all your care upon him. And that’s the step of faith for you to let go. Sometimes that is the hardest thing in the world: to let go of something.

It’ll come in different forms. Sometimes letting go of something is simply thanking God for allowing it in your life. That’s maybe your way of letting go. But you can’t cast something unless you let go of something. That’s so important.

You ever see someone who has so much going on in their life? I mean, they’ve just got tons going on, and I’m talking about a good Christian here, tons going on, and yet they’re still happy and they’re not going crazy? Well, more often than not, if they’re doing these things for the Lord, they’ve become a good caster. Because the better you are at casting all your care upon him, the easier life is, and the happier life is, not so burdened down with all of life. It’s key that I learn, I grow in casting.

I’m going to use these two guys. Macyo, would you come? I’m going to get you standing right there, Macyo. And we’re going to get Ethan. Ethan, I’m going to give burdens to both these guys. Now, Macyo, when you get a burden, I want you to put it on the table right behind you. That represents the Lord, casting all your care upon him. And Ethan, I want you just carry your burdens.

Now, our burdens are songbooks. Would you just start handing me some songbooks here? Thank you. Here we go. Ethan, there’s a burden. Good deal. Ethan can still move his arms a little bit. Can you move your arms a lot, Ethan? Not too bad.

All right, good deal. Hold it over your head. He’s got it going. All right, good deal. We’ve got two more burdens here. Macyo, would you take that burden? Maybe that first burden was financial burdens. This burden here is called the dentist. Anybody know what I’m talking about right there? They said, “Either we can pull that tooth, but we don’t suggest it at your age,” or you can get a root canal, that’s $1,500, $2,000. Then you’ve got to come back, get a crown, that’s another $1,000. And your insurance pays for 5% of it all. Macyo, how you doing? He’s amazing.

Ethan, how are you doing? Can you hold them up? Good. Can you touch your toes while you’re holding them? Let’s get some more burdens. Maybe these are relationship problems. We just got off of Thanksgiving. You were with family; that’s always interesting, right? Macyo got some relationship problems there, and he’s putting it on that table, which represents casting all your care upon him. Here we go, Ethan. Ethan has those relationship problems, and he knows how to handle them all; he’s got it.

Let’s see. These problems here represent you just feel inadequate in life. Anybody ever feel like that? If you’re breathing, I think you felt like that at least once. All right, we’ll put that over here on Macyo. And Macyo says, “Well, the Bible says God works with you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” So he gives that to the Lord, right?

Here we go, Ethan. Good. Let’s keep going here. All right. Car problems, amen. Hey, I know the best mechanic in all the world, amen. Come on now, yes, sir. A smart man right there. How are we doing, Ethan? Ethan’s a mechanic; he’s got it all taken care of. Can you extend him out a little farther than that?

Man, destroying church property, my goodness. Let’s see. What are these problems? Job, employment. Anybody ever think about killing a boss? We’ve got one honest man here. All right, here we go, Macyo, right there. And he said, “Wait a second, God put him there. God’s allowed him to be there. So God’s got a reason,” so he puts it on the table. Good.

Here we go, Ethan. By the way, Ethan makes good hamburgers. And so he’s got it. He’s got it. Should we have him go up above?

Let’s go ahead and do a couple of them. Help me out. What’s this represent right here? Health. Oh, my goodness. Anybody as you’re getting older, you’ve been introduced to Uncle Arthur? Knee pain, back pain. All right, health problems. Here we go. Macyo, he’s a smart man; he knows Jehovah Rophe—the Lord is my healer, amen. So he gives it to the Lord. How are we doing, Ethan? Can you hold them straight out? Pretty good.

What’s this problem here? Help me out. Marital problem. A lot of people, that’s a major deal. Marriage. Or let me just say this: your marriage never quite reaches the level you dreamed of it becoming, and the devil just uses that in your life. Come on now. And then we’re supposed to be content, and you battle that. Anybody out there? All right. Well, Macyo, he says, “Well, the Lord, in the Bible says, with food and raiment, be content.” So he’s got a Bible. How you doing, Macyo? He’s doing great. Can you move your arms? Look at that. Ethan says, “This is not fair. Years of therapy, you’ll get out of it.” This is a marriage problem. Ethan gets married, by the way.

How are we doing, Ethan? Can you hold it out? Can you run about 10 laps around here? But let’s do one more. We’ve got two more songbooks. We’re going to let these represent wayward or problem with our children or grandchildren. Boy, that could be a burden to a dad and especially to a mom. That’s like a weight of a thousand pounds. The Bible talks about it. The devil will get you holding on to that. He’ll make you think it’s your responsibility to their 140 years old. He’ll get you in that trap.

When they’re growing adults, you’re responsible for how you raise them, but they’re responsible for the decisions they’re making. Amen. Look at Ezekiel 18 about that. Macyo says, “Hey, Lord, I’ve not been perfect. When I’m not perfect, forgive me. I want to be honest about it. I’ll even ask the children to forgive me when I haven’t been right about it. But Lord, they’re yours. And they’re a grown man, they’re a grown lady. I’m putting them in your hands.” Man, Macyo, you look like you’re doing pretty good. He can do whatever. Can you do a jumping jack? Look at that. Can you do a push-up? He said, “No problem, man, no problem.”

So this is children, wayward children or grandchildren. And Ethan says, “Well, they’re mine. I’ve got to control everything they do for the rest of their life.” How you doing, Ethan? Can you do a jumping jack? How about a push-up? Hey, let’s give them a hand. Thank you, guys. I hope that sticks in your mind. There are too many Christians walking around with about 20 songbooks all the time.

Casting—help me out—what’s the first word? Casting all your care. You can’t hang on to it while you’re casting. By the way, nobody’s perfect at it. But as we grow in the Lord, we don’t grow when handling everything; we grow in casting everything. Casting all your care for him.

By the way, look at verse number eight. We didn’t read it. We’re looking at verse number eight, but let’s look at it. Right after it says, “Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you,” what’s the next thing? “Be sober.”

Let me just stop here for just a second. “Be sober” doesn’t mean non-alcoholic—though that, don’t be drunk, for sure—but it’s about being serious about the Christian life. You’re not a Christian that someone else says is a joke of a Christian.

Be sober. Then he says, be vigilant. Be vigilant. It’s kind of like a military term. It’s when someone’s in the military and they’re willing to stay in shape because they know there’s about to be a battle. They’re aware, they’re alert. That’s the war that is going on. So it’s be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, who? The devil, walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Now, here’s the thing: I think God put that “Casting all your care” and then the next one about this spiritual warfare because you’re not going to be good at spiritual warfare, at fighting the devil, carrying all these songbooks. You’re not going to be an effective warrior for the Lord if you’re carrying all those weights. But once you learn to cast, and you’re able to fight, you can even do push-ups and jumping jacks because you’ve been casting all your care upon him. Don’t live life carrying all your burdens. God never wants you to do that. God never asks; he doesn’t want that for you. He’s got something so much better: freedom, joy, happiness—casting all your care upon him.

Hudson Taylor, you know, I mentioned him. Very old. I like him. Great missionary, great, great missionary. And he’s in heaven now. He started the China Inland Mission and sent hundreds of missionaries to China when missionaries weren’t going to China. He had spent a life on the mission field over in China. His first wife had died; he had buried her. Had a child die; buried them. He went through financial problems, just about any problem you can imagine he went through, and more. I think at this point his second wife had passed also. He was an old man.

He was out of the country because those people that loved him said, “You just need a break; get away somewhere.” And so he was in another country. His health was shot. He had over 80 missionaries there under his care at the China Inland Mission, and his health was just shot. He was an old man at this point. And the Boxer Rebellion happened in China. That was very anti-foreigner; they were kicking all the foreigners out of China. Really, anti-Christian riots were happening; they were killing foreigners and Christians. And Hudson Taylor is responsible for young married couples, families.

He was old. He said at this point, when they began to tell him about the Boxer Rebellion, he said, “My health was so shot. My mind was shot. Really, at that point, I could not pray like I wanted to. My mind was just so…” He was just basically in a bed, and his health shot. But he said this amazing thing towards the end of his life, after the Boxer Rebellion happened: He said, “I can’t even pray like I want to, but he said, I can trust.” And he lay there, and he trusted God through that time. What do you call that? You call that a mature Christian that grew at casting. Casting.

Now, let’s keep going. We’ve covered one word out of 11 words. We’ve got 10 more words. What’s the next word? Casting what? Nothing too small.

Nothing too small. You see, here’s the amazing thing about it: Something that is small to you is big to someone else, and something that is big to you is small to them. That’s why you really can’t judge on that. Well, there’s really no big deal because it may be a big deal to them. You don’t know the personality, their mindset, you don’t know their past. So he doesn’t say, “Well, it reaches a certain level, then he just says, casting all.” There’s nothing too small. Everything. Everything.

Casting all. Help me out. What do you think the Bible means when it says “all”? You’re Bible scholars. I’m impressed. Nothing too small, nothing too big. Someone said, “Has it ever occurred to you that nothing’s ever occurred to God?” Everything. The economy? He has his own economy in heaven; it’s always good, no matter what.

Casting all your care. It’s amazing what care is. Sometimes care can just be a bad, bad day. Anybody ever wake up with the grouches on your back? You just wake up—I don’t know how it happens—you went to bed right with the Lord, you wake up just mad at the world. Isn’t it like that? Especially if you had that food late at night, you know.

Casting all, all, everything, nothing too small, nothing too big. Traffic? Yeah. How many drove somewhere for Thanksgiving, out of town for Thanksgiving? How many of you cursed while you were stuck in traffic? No, don’t raise your hand. Casting all.

Hey, here’s a good practice. I did it this morning. I haven’t been good about this, and I’ll be honest with you, but I thought, well, I’m going to try this this morning. This morning, I wrote down a list of my cares. And I just started—I didn’t worry about giving it to the Lord or anything like that. I just wrote down my cares, and I ended up with about 15 things on my list, just right now, anything that bothers me, anything that I might be tempted to worry or just cares, burdens—I just wrote them down.

Then, once I got the list completed, then I went back through the list, and one by one, I said, “Lord, that right there, that care right there.” Our school. Can I tell you, one of ours is our school. I would like for our school to grow. We need another teacher or principal next year, and that can be a care of my life, and the devil can get me on that. And that’s one of the things. Then I went back down through that list, and I said, “Lord, this school thing, I’m going to give it to you.” He’s the one that started the school.

How many of you were with us when we started the school in that back building? See how many were with us on that day that we surrounded that building and put our hands on and prayed for it? You were there? Well, that’s it. If you were there, all right, maybe a third or close to half of us. I’m surprised not more of them. You know what? By the way, I can’t make the school grow. I’ve tried to. And I said, “All right, Lord, I’m giving that to you.”

By the way, you can’t cast unless you let go of it. Can I kind of say this: In letting go of it, then you’re releasing the responsibility, but you’re also taking on the responsibility when he tells you to do something about it. You do it because you gave it to him. That may mean he says, “Go apologize for something.” Hey, preacher, you’re going from preaching to meddling right there. But whatever he tells you to do, you do it because you gave it to him. That means he’s in charge of whatever the situation is, and so you follow his instructions about that situation. That’s a little bit of the humbling part, but you cast; it gives you the strength to fight against the devil, first and foremost.

But you just make that list and you go down through the list. We had an evangelist years ago come through. His name was Monty Watts. Anybody know Monty Watts? Some of you do. He has a book out, From the Iron Lung to the Pulpit. Back in the day, he had a rare disease. When he got it, he was, I think, a 10-year-old boy. I have my notes here. He was a 10-year-old boy in Ohio. There were only two other people that had that disease in Ohio at that time, period, and both of them died. And he’s just a 10-year-old boy, and he ends up spending two months in an iron lung. How many know what an iron lung is? It’s a big, huge compartment you go inside, and the iron lung breathes for you. They have different things nowadays to do that.

And he lived in there two months, and God raised him up. Of course, as an adult, he became an evangelist, but he had so many health issues. He wore braces on both his legs—I’m not talking about the hidden one; I’m talking about braces, braces, the metal with hinges on it and all the rest. If you don’t oil it, it squeaks. I’m talking about braces, braces on his legs. And he had him tell me, “Hey, Pastor Paul,” he said, “you don’t know what humbling is until every time you go through the airport, they have to search your legs.” You know, and then you get a woman in there that’s searching your legs, and she’s kind of talking about you, oh, she’s, you know. And he said that’s just humbling; you have to put up with all that all the time.

But he preached for us once. I’ve heard him say things along this line. We were talking one day. “Hey, how you doing, Brother Watts?” He said, “Man, I’m doing great.” I was like, “Wow.” He said, “This morning I got up”—if I remember right, he stayed old for years ago, I mean, you know where sleeping in is over the back cracker, but you know what I mean by sleeping in? I think that’s where he stayed. Picked him up. I said, “How you doing?” He said, “I’m doing great.” I thought, “Wow, that’s pretty good.” I’m convicted already.

And it’s because I got up this morning, and the way the term he would use, he said, “I transferred all my problems over to God this morning.” He said it’s like a transaction, like when you sign the title on a car. He said, “I transferred all my problems over to God. They are God’s problems. I don’t have any problems. I’m doing really good.” And he was happy.

Now, he had gotten good. By the way, this thing about nothing too small—that’s very important because a lot of times those small things you’re practicing, you think, “Well, when it gets a big problem, then I’ll give it to God.” You won’t be good at it because you’re not giving God the small problems. But as you just live, you just get used to it, get in the way of living, you get in the habit of casting all your care, then it makes it a whole lot easier for the big things. Monty Watts was light years ahead of me. I’m doing good; I transferred all my problems.

Now, we don’t have time to cover it all, but let’s go back to that verse, First Peter 5. Look at verse number seven one more time. What does he say? Casting how much of your care? Casting all your care. Whatever your care is, it’s going to be different than everybody else’s. Who cares what they think? You’re going to cast your care, whatever your care is.

Casting all your care upon him. These last five words are awesome. Help me out. What are the last five words? “For he careth for you.” Why does God want you to cast all your care upon him? Because he cares for you. I’m so thankful we have a God that cares.

The devil’s agenda, the Bible tells us in John 10:10, the devil’s agenda is to steal, kill, and destroy. That’s the devil’s agenda. God says, “I care for you. I love you so much. You can cast all your care upon me, for I care for you.” Here’s what I’m trying to get at: I don’t want anything to do with the devil and his thinking, his music, his thinking, his dress, his thinking, his alcohol, his thinking, his advertising. I don’t want to be associated with that. I just do away with the devil’s things. I don’t understand a Christian that wants to hang out and hang around devil, devil, devil stuff. His agenda is to steal, kill, and destroy. Now, I don’t want to think I’m better than anybody else because the sinner saved by grace, but I’d rather separate from the devil and all his junk.

Praise the Lord, we serve a God that cares.

There was a Japanese lady years and years ago, and she was so burdened. She went to the temple, and she got what they call an oracle lot, and she read the lot, and this is what it said: “There is no help for you. Lean on your own shadow and go on.” She was just so discouraged, so despondent. She grabbed another lot. It said, “Look to the sun, moon, and stars.” She thought, “How do I do that?”

And praise the Lord, a little later on, she heard of missionaries that said God loves you so much, He gave His only begotten Son, left heaven, came down to this earth, and shed His blood for your sins. He loves you. “For God so loved that He gave His only begotten, and whosoever believeth in him shall not perish.” And she said, “Oh.”

This is what she said. I think the Holy Spirit was working. She said, “I’ve always thought there ought to be a God like that that loves us. I finally found him.” She gladly received Jesus as her Savior.

But the greatest burden in life, if we really get serious about life, is where are we going to go for eternity? There are only two places you can go to. There’s no purgatory in the Bible. You won’t find that in the Bible. There’s no place in the Bible about that. By the way, there’s no levels to heaven and angels and all that; there are rewards, but there’s not all that. Let the Mormons teach that. There are two places according to the Bible that you can go to: it’s either heaven, the abode of God, or hell, the wrath of God. What a difference. Heaven or hell.

And that great burden—it’s a burden greater than the burden that Ethan had to bear. Ethan says, “This isn’t fair.” It’s a burden so heavy nobody can carry it, because if we have to be good enough to go to heaven, the Bible says you’ve broken the least of these commandments, and in James, you’ve broken them all. Nobody can carry that weight.

So when it comes to the heaviest burden in life, where are you going to go for all eternity, heaven or hell? God says, “Cast that burden over here. I’ll carry it.”

I think last Sunday night we preached over there in Luke 15, and the good shepherd left the 99 and went and found that one sheep. Father, aren’t you glad he left the 99 and came after you? And when he found that sheep, the Bible says he put it on his shoulders. He carried it, rejoicing. You don’t carry the weight of your salvation. By the way, you don’t save yourself, and you don’t keep yourself saved. He’s the one that saves you; he’s the one that keeps you saved. He loves to carry your burdens.

One illustration, and I’ll be done. I had some other things. Would you leave him alone? But this is a true story, a pretty amazing story. We were in Ellis Funeral Home years and years ago. How many know Ellis Funeral Home up in Nashville? It seemed like it used to be the funeral home. You know, it’s kind of getting older; people don’t use it much anymore. Back in the day, it was a place; their prices were good. Anyway, I was preaching a funeral there, I think for a lady named Mary Fisher. My wife remembers better than me. It was for a person that had passed.

In the middle of this funeral, I can’t remember if it was a man or a lady, but someone—my wife says—had a seizure. I don’t know about one of those seizures where they’re just sprawled out, their body’s lacking, their eyes are rolling back, and all the rest of that. And everybody in the funeral—I mean, just panic. Nobody’s listening to me. And she just, or he just has a seizure right in the middle of a funeral.

And the amazing thing is this person basically had this seizure and fell back into the hands, almost literally, real close to it, of a doctor. I’m talking about a medical doctor, not a PA or a nurse—those are great, but I’m talking about a doctor. And we stopped and had a prayer, “Let’s pray for this man right now.” And there was one individual that just would not let it go. They kept saying, “We need a doctor! We need a doctor! We need a doctor! Someone call this!” And the man kept saying, “I am a doctor. It’s such and such type seizure. You know, things are going to be okay.”

And this person just would not let it go, and somebody doing something. And I’m about to do something—I’m going to shut you up, you know. I’m joking, of course. But it was amazing to me how God had the doctor right there, a medical doctor, and this person kept yelling for a doctor. And the doctor said, “I don’t know how many times, I am a doctor. It’s under control. I got it.”

And of course it was. I’m like that sometimes. Somebody to call a doctor, somebody to do this, and I’m just panicking. God says, “I am the doctor. I got it.” And he says, “Cast it.” Here’s the hard part: You can’t cast without—you got to let it go. But as I grow in the Lord, I grow in casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you.

Dad and a little son went fishing one day, and they had all their poles, and they had their tackle box, and their dad, and their chairs that they sat in. You’ve got to have some lunch or something to drink, you know. And Dad was carrying a bunch. The little boy said, “I want to carry mine. It’s a long way to the fishing hole.” And about halfway, Dad said, “I’ll carry that for you.” He said, “No, no, I’m a big boy now.” And the boy was just tired. He kept dropping everything. “Dad, I got it. I’m a big boy.” Finally, the little son said, “All right, Dad, I’ll let you.” Do you think that Dad was mad about that? That’s where your heavenly Father is. “I can carry that.”

Casting all your—one more time, say that out loud with me. Here we go. Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Good, good job.

Original File: 2025-12-01 - Pastor Paul Chisgar ＂How to handle Your burdens＂ - Sunday AM 11⧸30⧸2025