Leaning Into The God Who Cares | Pastor Tim Payne

You know, we could say, "What a storm!" But we could also say, "What a God!" "What a God!" What's up, Kelsey? Kelsey's here from Liberty! What's up? Yeah, let's go. Hey, look here. What a God! What a God! David said this, "I would have fainted "unless I had believed to see the goodness of God. "I would have fainted. "I would have lost it. "I would have lost my mind. "I did not been for the goodness of God." You know, this storm, Isaiah's, three storms in our country at the same time, three Bible names, do yourself a fave, go back and look at the three storms and look at the meaning of each one of the words. God had a word for this country. Even in the storm. You know what I, I can honestly say. You know what the storms teach us? That he's in the storm. He's in the storm. He could be like, "No, no, no, I don't want any part "of the storm," or, "No, no, no, no." He could be distant during the storm,

but he heard your prayers. He heard your cries. The Lord knew before I was ever born. I would be a Shiloh, where the temple, the tabernacle was, excuse me, the tabernacle, and where the ark where the presence of God dwelt with his people for 400 years. God knew I'd be looking at the same mountain that Hannah looked at when she prayed and asked God for a son. And I got to pray there right next to a cave. I got to pray over our church family, and I prayed. I prayed for you. I prayed for your marriages. I prayed for your businesses. I prayed for your kids. I prayed over your homes and your cars that God would protect you in this storm. And you know, the storm didn't come to stay. The storm came to pass. Came to pass. And we're still standing. And the sun still came up. And he's still on the throne. Nobody liked him. We paused last Sunday. We paused. We kind of pivoted. We paused the gatherings to say, "You know what?

"We're gonna go be the hands and feet of Jesus." And I know I've only heard a drop in the bucket compared to all the stories that are out there where you connected and you served and you helped and you talked to your neighbors and you cooked a meal or you helped them with their generator or you cut down trees or removed branches and help rebuild a fence. We got some pictures here. We'll go through these pictures pretty quick, but just a very, very few pictures out of so many. But I just want to say I'm proud of you. I just want to say God is proud of you. He saw you, he knows your work, he knows your labor. He saw everything you did. He saw that you did it for his glory. And you know what? When we love other people, that is attractive. That's how we came to Christ, right? It wasn't with him putting his finger in our face telling us how horrible we were. I don't know about you, but Romans 1 works for me. That it's a goodness to God that leads us to repentance. Yeah, it was the goodness that hooked me. It was the goodness. So this one lady that lived here, she was a single mom, four kids. We prayed over before we left and I told her at the end, met her and I said, I got you little tears in her eyes and she's so thankful and I said,

I got really good news for you. You only owe us $3,700. And she looked at me and I said, I'm just joking. I said, that was all for free because Jesus loves you. And I said, but you know what? You can't come to church and we got church this Sunday. Invited her, we prayed over them. I said, the best thing we can do for you is not get all these trees out. She had two trees, crushed fences. I said, the best thing we can do is pray for you. God loves you and God sees you. And aren't you just thankful that we get to bring the presence of God, right? Like God is present everywhere, but we get to change the temperature because the spirit of God that's within us. And so at all times, in all places, we lift up holy hands, we prayed over her family. She was so thankful. I believe she's going to come check out the church. I want to show you the last picture. Go to that last picture, if you will. I thought this was cool. Here's your sign. Here's your sign. God says, I know the plans that I have for you. I was praying Psalm 97, Psalm 91, Psalm 27. But I got this from a friend when I was over in Jerusalem. He watches online, comes to the church occasionally, I said, yeah, I think so.

If you look at the picture real closely, you'll count 10 trees that are down. They're not small. And God said, you ain't touching the sign. And this is the future home of Momentum Church. So I received it. So thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. I want you to turn around and say good morning to two people. You only got a few minutes for us. Good afternoon. Thank you, Chuck. I don't know if any of you guys like to fish. We got any anglers in the house. First fish I ever caught. I caught with a hot dog. It was a carp. And I was so proud of that big carp. It was almost as big as I was. I thought my uncle was funny when he said, just trust me, this will work. That's all we had. We're down to the last. Last little hot dog. I threw in the water, caught a fish. My dad had started a church in Homestead, Florida. He was a car salesman, and he was a church planner. He called that bibokational. He was working to pay the bills, and he was working to build the house and God's house. And he led a guy, a salesman to Christ.

If you're a Christian, the best thing you can ever do, the best thing you can do is pray. The best thing you can ever do is pray. I believe right up there with that, the best thing you can do is point other people to Jesus. My dad, five, eight, pointed big old Sergio, six, seven, six, eight, three, something to Jesus. Sergio was a big man in every sense of the word. He was a big man. He was a different man after he met Jesus. He became a gentle man, where he used to be a harsh man, an angry man. God changed his life. How many of you like God changed my life? God changed my life. God changed Sergio, and Sergio began working with our teenagers, began working with our young people. And there was a youth activity, he was taking on fishing. This is in Homestead, and I got the invite. I was in third grade and I was stoked to get to go hang out with the cool kids, the older kids. And so they put a rod in my hands. They explained to me how this fishing rod works. I'm going to cast this in just a second, so y'all get ready. There's no hooks that don't be scared, let's see if I can get it to the back. I've never been more tempted, if you only knew, if you only knew how honest I'm being right now. It could go viral, and then they left the church. But I'll try to be wise here in this moment, this brief moment. So I took that rod, and here I am the littlest person, the youngest person, and when you're small and young, man, you've got to show off, man, you've got to pretend like you belong there. So what did I do, boy?

I took that thing and I cast it as hard as I could, and I knew, kind of felt like before it even hit the water, I knew I caught a fish. And then I was like, "Oh, I definitely caught something here." I started, I yanked, started reeling. I heard a scream. I was the first scream. In my third grade mine, my mind failed me because it should have registered that that was not a fish screaming. But you would have thought I caught a big fish, and I went in all in, like I'm getting this thing. I caught Sergio's wife. I caught her hair. She had beautiful hair, and the hook, she was about five, four, five, three, five, four. He was real big. She was real small. And I'm telling you, but it was a big scream because it was a big cast and a big real. And I just knew I'd caught the biggest fish that day. He was Sergio's wife and all of a sudden Sergio, who I want to say he was from Cuba, but it's a long time ago. But Sergio's brown, big, strong man, but now he was red. And he was walking. I could have it, but he could have a step on me. He's like, "What are you thinking?" And I'm like, "I'm not, but I need new underwear because I'm pretty sure." I was scared to death. I thought he was going to eat me. But he's going to kill me because I caught what I thought was a fish, but it was his wife's hair. And after that moment, I was happy to put the pole down. I was a little shy.

I didn't want to cast very quickly after that. Because evidently, I didn't cast correctly. And there's this verse I want to leave you with today. And my goal today is that this verse will lift you and encourage you today. I changed the series we're in, The Blessed Life. It was part three of three. I said, no, I don't think that's what we need. I think we need a word of encouragement today. So I bring to you first Peter 5'7, casting, casting, casting. Here's what I know. That day, when I cast it and I caught and she cried, it was a while before I cast again. And you can be a believer for a long time or be a believer for a little time. And you can cast what this verse says. It says, casting all your cares on him, for he cares for you. And you can cast. You can send a prayer out. And then if you're not careful, it doesn't get answered how you prayed it, when you prayed it. It doesn't look like God even heard a word you said. And so if we're not careful, we can have distance between our cast. Because we get discouraged and we put the casting down. But our Bible says, ask, seek, and knock. Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. And so this word, casting, means we are to continue to cast. You cannot cast once and expect to catch a whole bunch of fish. And I would say you cannot cast your prayer once

and expect to get a bunch of answers to your prayer. In the Old Testament, Elisha told his servant go out. It's going to rain, go out and look. And he sent him seven times. And sometimes, if it took Elisha that many times, it might take you more. It might take me more to keep on casting. I want to give you three points today, it's real simple. Keep on casting, number one. You've got to keep on. You've got to keep on casting. The devil is betting and banking that you won't cast. Because if you don't pray, you miss out on God's best. Because prayer can do anything God can do. So as soon as you're like, I'm done. We've all been there, guys. We've all been there. We got discouraged. We quit praying for our co-worker to come to Christ. You believe in God for a baby only to have your third miscarriage. So you quit praying. You're over here. You believe in God. And you're praying for the right husband or the right wife. And you walk through a horrible divorce. And you're just like, I'm just done. I'm done. I'm numb. Have you ever been there before? Have you ever been there where you had something very important

to you, very close to you? And you are surrendering it to God only to feel like it never even made it above the roof. And so what do we do if we quit casting? But the verse says, casting. So keep on casting. Maybe it's that job. Maybe you believe in God, you're like, you know what? I'm believing for a child. Maybe you're believing for a child to come back to Christ. Maybe you're believing in a restored relationship. Maybe you launched a business, you had a dream, and it failed. And so you've just given up and you are not thriving. You're just surviving. You're scratching your clonk, crawling clonk. And you're trying to just survive. And but God put a dream in your heart. See, there was time between the dreams that God gave Joseph and the fruition of the dream. And so sometimes what hangs in the balance of our discouragement is we quit casting and what hangs in the balance is unanswered prayers. And the same God who never changes says, keep on casting. Casting. So tell your neighbor right now, look at him and say, keep on casting. Ryan, keep on casting. Number two, casting all. God doesn't want some of it. God wants it all.

That's right. Not just the PG part, the rated R part. There's nothing you can say that God don't already know. Every word we say is recorded. God knows. And God wants you to bring, if it bothers you, you ought to bring it to him. Casting all. about with God. He already knows your heart. So you can cast it all. Every bit of it. Casting all your cares. It's personal. It's great to pray for other people. And I heard someone recently. I've heard this a few times in my life. I never understood it. But I heard someone in Israel say, "I don't pray for myself because I don't think that's right. I shouldn't pray for myself." And I looked at him. I was like, "Which Bible are you reading?" That sounds really spiritual, but it's very shallow. 'Cause J. Bez, his name J. Bez means he was born in pain. It's like your mama saying, "You are a pain in my side. That's what your name means." That's what his name meant. He was started out on a rough road. He didn't get to pick. And then you know what? We know that name because he had the audacity to pray one prayer in the Bible that is recorded. And he said, "God bless me. Bless me indeed. Enlarge my coast. Enlarge my business. Keep your hand upon me. Keep me from sin that I wouldn't call shame or pain." That's called the prayer J. Bez. And we know the name J. Bez because J. Bez asked God to bless him, to help him. So casting all your cares, your cares are your worries, your anxiety, your fear, your problems, your hang-ups. That thing about your personality, you're still trying to fix. Why do I get angry so fast? Zero to 400. What does that happen? Why do I say everything I think? Why is my childhood still affecting my adulthood? Casting all your cares. Why am I still struggling with anxiety? Why am I still battling this area of temptation, casting all? Casting it all. Keep on casting. Cast it all. Casting all your cares. If it is a burden to you, you ought to cast it to him. Let me say it again. Whatever is a burden to you, I've got a kid that's not listening. It's a burden to you. Cast it to him. I've got a boss that is making it so hard right now. Cast it to him. Our marriage is under attack. Cast it to him. I have more bills than

I have money. Cast it to him. My car won't start. Cast it to him. Casting all your cares on him. Free cares for us. In Israel, I got to go back to the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives is looking into the Old City of Jerusalem. There's the Eastern Gate where Jesus is going to come back. You're up on a mount. You're looking in part of the Mount of Olives is a garden known as the Garden of Gethsemane. It was in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus sweat great drops of blood because he was carrying the weight of the world. But he was also carrying you. He asked his best friends, his CFO, CEO. He asked, "Hey guys, this is in our circle. Pray for me." They didn't pray. They slept. And I always thought those dirty dogs, "I would have stayed awake. Wouldn't you have stayed awake for Jesus?" I'm telling you, "I've never had a red bull, but I'd drink a red bull last night. I like red bull. You ever had a red bull?" He gives you wings. I mean, I'd drink three red bulls if I had drink a red bull to stay awake to pray for Jesus. Like, wouldn't you do that for Jesus? But this trip, I got a little contextual understanding that when they were leaning and eating, which is what you would do, the table was lower. It's not like us with big chairs, not a high top. The table was low and they still do this today. And they eat on the ground and you're something about being grounded. Something about like, "Hey, we're all here. We're family. We love each other." One thing about the Jews, one thing about Israel's culture, they love their family. They love being together. It's called community. the one whom Jesus loved was leaning on Jesus. John was saying, it was me without saying it was me. He tried to be humble, but maybe struggling. The one whom Jesus loved was leaning on. He was leaning, and what you would do is you would all eat close together, and you would eat, and they would eat. They were full, and then they had, Jesus said, take the bread, take the wine. And then, you know what they do after they eat a big meal? Same thing you do. It's called Thanksgiving afternoon. You have every intention of watching the cowboys

and believing they might win this one. (congregation laughing) Or Detroit, or Chicago Bears, whichever one's on, Thanksgiving Day, and you doze off because you ate too much, and they had eaten a meal, and then they had taken the Lord's supper, and their bellies were full, and their eyes were closed. And what does Jesus do? Jesus leans in, and Jesus cast his cares on his father, and he says, father. Now, remember, he taught us how to pray. Jesus said, you should pray like this. Our, which are, and... (congregation talking in foreign language) Thy will, thy will be done. Thy will be done on earth as it is heaven, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this thing, but thy, your will be done. And now, Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane, and he's saying, father. The same father he taught us to pray to is the same father he called out to. And he says, father, take this cup from me. Let this cup pass from me. But nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. And he drank that cup. That cup represents the blood that would be shed, and he went to Calvary. We went to the pit where they held him.

I'd never been there before. This was my third trip. But after that, when they arrest him, there was a pit that Jesus was put in a room. The Bible says it would be a very small room. Maybe the size of some of your, maybe think master closet. Jesus was in this room by himself, awaiting the crucifixion, awaiting to pay the price for our sins. You think he felt alone? You better believe it. You think there was some anxiety? Oh yeah. Go back to the Garden of Gethsemane where he's pouring it all out to God. And he's hitting the ground, and he's in such great distress. It's a medical term that his sweat is actually now blood. That's the stress he was under. That's the weight he was carrying. And where did he carry it? Well, we know he carried it to the cross, but first he carried it to the Father. Where did he carry it to the cross? Because we carry it to the Father. And when Jesus was in that room awaiting, I can only imagine there were steps we saw. They excavated. These were the steps.

There was a hole where they would lower people into, and then a smaller hole where they would enter a little water, a drink, maybe a little piece of bread, just a little bit. And Jesus was there all alone. And being in that room was holy, man. We prayed. There's about 25, 35 of us, I guess, in that room. And we prayed out loud. We sang a song. We read scripture. We wept, man. This was where Jesus was. And he cast his cares on him because he knew that his Father cared for him. Why should you keep on casting? Casting it all. Casting all your cares all the weight. You know why? Because he cares for you. It'd be cool if the Bible says he cares for us. But the Bible says he cares for you. Put your name right there. It's really cool to read the Bible and put your name for God so loved the world. John 3 16, for God so loved Timothy, Jason, Payne. Then he gave us one. Casting all your cares on him because he cares for you, Tim. He cares for you.

I don't know if you struggle with your luggage when it's time for a trip. you got the cubicle and you just get it all and you're like yep twenty-seven pounds every time. That's all I take. Or if you take the whole house. I don't think there's any middle. I think it's one or the other. It gets to the airport and you know it doesn't weigh fifty pounds. You know it weighs about eighty-seven pounds. But you're going to do your darness not to when you lift it up. You're looking at your smile and you've been real nice because you're like I know I'm guilty. And you put it on that scale knowing you should have bought the scale at home goods you should have weighed it but you know this is more than fifty and you're just hoping for mercy. You know it's cool to travel light especially when you have a long journey ahead of you. And I would say today some of us are trying to fake it till we make it. He said he's about I don't suppose to be forty-nine. It's all good. And you could just cast it on him and some of you say I don't have the strength to cast anymore. Anyone know what I'm talking about there? Will you like how can I cast when this is crushing me? So you just let go. Just drop it, right? Just drop it. When you let go that's when you'll let God show you. He had you the entire time. So casting all your cares, plural, on him, Jesus. Here's what I want you to hear today. Here's what I want you to remember today.

Here's what I want you to live in today and this week. He cares for you. So just cast it. With heads not bowed and eyes not closed. How many are carrying a lot right now? You're carrying a lot. You've got some serious weight, some things you're going through in your life, some things you're walking through. How many say yeah? Y'all got some cares? Well this seemed to be very effective in the first two gatherings and I trust my faith that would be very effective in the third. I want you to come right now and pray. I want you to slip out of your seat right now and just come pray. Casting. Who needs to cast? Who is crushing? Who needs to just drop it? Just let it go. Say God I can't. I can't. I don't even have the strength to cast it anymore. I'm just going to let it go. I need you to pick it up because I don't even have the strength to pick it back up and cast it. How's it going to drop it at your feet? Casting all your cares on him because he cares for you. You can cast it. And sometimes what we do guys is we cast it to Lord and then we take it back. We reel it back to us.

We reel it right back. You can leave it with him. And then just as you can track that package, the Amazon will be delivering even right up to the storm, right after the storm. You can track that I cast that care on him and he's got it and my blessing, my answer to prayer, my deliverance, my healing is already en route. So the next time I come back, I say, Jesus, thank you. Thank you that you still have this burden. I'm not going to pick it back up. Thank you, Jesus. You got me. You got me. I'm just going to leave it with you. Thank you. And give me this daily breath. Give me the strength today not to take it back, but to leave it with you. If you're here today and you're watching or you're watching online, maybe you came. Blackwater you got invited and came to our prison campus, God Behind Bars, someone invited you. And you're like, I'm not a Christian man. It's okay. But I got good news. The Bible says today is the day of salvation. You can become a child of God right now. Maybe you're watching online the pando app because your son, your husband, your uncle, your father, it's in prison right now and they told you about this app and you're watching. You live, you live on the west coast, but you're watching right now. God loves you, and He's for you, and the proof is the cross. See you and I were born sinners, and you and I continued to stay in sin. Sin is missing the mark.

When God said don't, we did. When God said do, we didn't. So you have two types of sins, the sins of things we do, and the things we... So we're all sinners. Everybody. We're all sinners. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. But here's the good news. The good news is while we were sinners, Christ died for us because He's for us. He's for you. That's why I died for you. And the Bible says that the punishment of sin is death. That means separation from God. You are a soul. One day you will die. We watch Hulk Hogan die. We watch Dolly Parton die. No one gets a pass. It's appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment. But here's the great news. The great news is Jesus took our judgment on the cross so we can receive peace with God. If you will just receive the gift of God. Jesus' blood, His blood, holy, He's a Lamb of God, only thing that could wash away your sins, and He gave it freely. It doesn't cost you a thing. It costs Him everything. But the step we take is we call on His name, and we ask Him to do for us what we could never do for ourselves, and that is wash us clean. Save us. Forgive us.

Of all of our sins. Make us new. And teach us how to live, and He not only will forgive your sins, He will give you His Spirit. It's a Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit will guide you and lead you into truth. No wonder, no wonder we call Him the Savior. That's how much He loves you. I'd like you to stand your feet in the presence of God. If you're not a Christian, I'd like you to call on His name. You're not calling on my name. I can't change your status with God. Jesus, who is God, can change your status right here, right now. All you have to do is confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God the Father raised Him from the dead. The Bible says you do those two things, and you will be saved. You'll be forgiven. You'll become a child of God. Not everyone's a child of God. You want to be a child of God, because if you're not a child of God, you're a child of the devil. Let me make it real simple to you. If you're a child of God when you die, you go to God's house. If you're a child of the devil, you go to the devil's house, and the devil's all talk, and it's all lies. You want heaven. I'm going to lead you in a sinner's prayer. You're not going to pray to me. You're not going to go through me to get to Him. I just got a mic.

We're going to go right now to Jesus. Pray this with me, would you say Jesus? I confess I'm a sinner, and I need you, I need you to be my Savior. I'm guilty. You are holy, so wash me thoroughly, thoroughly. I believe you love me. I believe you bled for me, believe you died for me, and you rose again. I declare you are Lord, Jesus is Lord, and I give you my life right here right now, all of it, and I receive your life. Now, teach me how to live in Jesus' name, man. If you prayed that prayer, you're at Blackwater, I want you to hold your hand up on three. If you're watching online, you're watching the Pando app, our campus, online campus, hey, let us though. Text Jesus to the number on the screen. But in Blackwater, and here in Pensacola, I want you to do this, and we're going to clap, and then we're going to give you a gift. It's like spiritual protein. It's going to help you. Some really good things. It's a good gift to celebrate your spiritual birthday. It's a birthday bag to celebrate your spiritual birthday. And then we're going to clap. Why? Because Satan lost another one. I don't know about you, but that makes me real happy. I don't know about you, but that makes God really, really happy. On the count of three, hold it up. One, two, three, hold it up. (congregation applauding) God bless you.

Blackwater, hold it up. God bless you. You're watching online. Text Jesus to the number on the screen. God bless you.