Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the importance of casting our cares and anxieties on the Lord, as these burdens can rob us of the abundant life Jesus offers. He encourages believers to pray and trust God, reminding us that our struggles with anxiety can lead to sin and affect our relationships with others. Beach highlights the need for selfless love towards our neighbors, which can only flow when we are free from our own burdens. He urges the congregation to recognize their anxieties and to seek God's help in overcoming them, so they can serve and love others effectively. Ultimately, he calls for a deeper reliance on God's love and grace to transform our hearts and actions.

teach us how to cast our cares and our burdens upon him because so often it's our burdens and our cares and our anxieties that rob us from the life that he's come to bring us, see? And then we end up being like Scrooge, bah humbug, because of our anxieties. So remember that, 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 7, casting all your cares upon him for he cares for you. Philippians chapter 4, be anxious for nothing, not even one thing is what it actually says, not even one thing. Every time we fail to cast our burden on the Lord, and if we can't cast it on the Lord, if we fail to go to God in prayer and tell him, Lord, help me, I'm having a really hard time casting this on the Lord, and we live in a state of anxiousness about anything, even one thing, then what we're doing is we are setting ourself up, number one, to lose peace. We're setting ourself up to live in a state of unrest. We're setting ourself up to become very vulnerable to sinning by anger and wrath and bitterness and frustration, and that affects our behavior, and you know our behavior affects one another, see? So the Lord wants to help us to cast our cares upon him. He knows what each of us are going through. Now listen, the one next to you might be clueless, but that's okay. He knows. Do you believe that? Do you believe he knows exactly what you're going through? And do you also believe the scripture that says God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted and tried and tested beyond that which you are able, but will with that temptation make a way of escape that you may be able to what? Endure. Recently the Lord spoke to me and said to me, your greatest sin, son, is unbelief. Unbelief. And as I pondered that, I realized that what he was saying to me was failure. When he said unbelief, failure to believe in who God says he is. Failure to believe in who God says he is. Then I began to read through much of the New Testament and discover that Jesus oftentimes said to his own disciples, oh ye of little faith, why do you have such little faith? And so therefore what we are confronted with on a daily basis is our need to pray, oh God, help me to trust you. Help me to trust you. Help me to trust you. Help me to trust you. So I recommend in light of this wonderful visitation of God's spirit and the confirmation that he's given us in his word, I recommend that you would sometime soon go home, possibly husband and wife together, and make a list. Make a list of the things that you know either are or have the potential to really trouble you and get under your skin. And take that list when it's complete. Some might need a few pages. It doesn't matter. Take that list and go through it one by one in prayer and cast every burden by faith upon the burden bearer himself, the Lord Jesus. Cast it on him and you'll find he'll give you peace that passes your human understanding, which remember is the condition of rest when you don't understand. Now that's a quality that people who don't know the Lord can't have. People who don't know the Lord have a jolly attitude when everything is going well. But as soon as things are not going well, as soon as they can't understand the why in their life, they turn to drinking, they turn to drugs, they turn to frustration, anger, wrath, they turn to vengeance, they turn to depression, suicide, divorce, all kinds of actions. And it's all because they can't understand something and they have been hurled into a life of unrest. And their unrest is tormenting them. But God doesn't want us to fall prey to this. He wants us as his children when our understanding fails. And I don't know how some of you might. Most of us are old enough to know where life is going to deal with us in such a way where we're not going to understand the why behind it. And as soon as your why, as soon as your mind, your understanding fails to grasp why, you just don't know why, Carl. Why did that happen? Why did this have to happen? And everyone's got this in their life. There's a why somewhere. When that why and the understanding cannot grasp and come up with a reasonable answer, if we don't take that to prayer and refuse to let that turn into an anxiety, but beg God, beg God, oh God, help me, oh God, I cast this upon you. I go to prayer. And if it means I have to go to prayer for an hour every night, if it means I have to go and call a brother or a sister that I'm in close relationship with and say, come help me. Don't run, brothers and sisters. Don't run. Don't run from your giants. Don't run from your anxieties. You're going to run right into the devil's trap. Right into the devil's trap. God's talking to us now through His Word and through His Holy Spirit. Don't run like the world. Don't run like the world does. When your world isn't working out, when your plans aren't working out, when things aren't working out, when relationships aren't working out, don't run. That's why Jesus came this morning in the manner that he did and stood in our midst and relentlessly offered grace because he sees our anxieties and he sees the potential of those anxieties. If they affect us the wrong way, can lead us astray. So, don't run. Don't run. Today, are you running? Please listen. Listen. Say, Lord, let me hear your voice. Are you running today in some way from something that troubles you? There might be something that you've tried with all your might to figure out and you might have even thought you had a solution and you failed. You failed. And so, therefore, you're not going to deal with it anymore. But instead of casting it on the Lord, it's smoldering inside of you. It's a smoldering condition and it's turning into more and more and more of an anxiety, more and more and more of a trouble, more and more and more of an issue in your life. And it's affecting your relationships with people. It's affecting your walk with God. And you find that in this condition, the enemy will come to you and say, oh, go ahead and give in to that little fleshly desire. Whereas normally, you wouldn't because the Lord would be satisfying you. But because you're full of anxiety and the devil whispers on your ear, go ahead and give in to that little, you deserve it. You need some comfort. You need some comfort. Come on. It's how he comes to us. That's when we're tempted to overeat, overindulge in a lawful pleasure or indulge in an unlawful pleasure. This is why we need to be so aware that God's word will help us to understand what's going on in our life. But not only God's word. This is why we need one another and we need to speak into each other's lives. And encourage one another. Always remember God wants us to understand the why. Why are we depressed? Why are we angry? Why are we dissatisfied? Why are we upset? Why are we frustrated? Why do we just feel uneasy? God knows. And his word will reveal it to us. I'll never forget the story that a minister once told many, many years ago. A story of about a husband who over a course of time became very angry. Just an angry man. Angry at his wife. Angry at his kids. Short. Insensitive. His words were not tender. And finally after the advice of some of his friends, he decided to go talk to a man who spent his time searching the scriptures and helping people by bringing them to the word of God. And so he went and talked to this man and he said, I have a problem. He said, I just find anger and I don't know why. I don't know why. So the man said, well, just tell me a little bit about your life. And so he told him a little bit about his life and he got to the point where going to work, etc., etc., driving home and he comes home. And when he would come home at night, he would meet his wife and he'd have a lot of things he wanted to talk to his wife about. Being a man in the world. Being involved in different types of responsibilities. But whenever he got home, his wife didn't have the time because she had a lot of kids. She had kids at home. And so he began to talk to this man and say, you know, I'd like to come home and come to a nice dinner, but I don't. Oftentimes I come home to, hey hon, see what's in the fridge. Then I want to come home and I want to be able to talk to my wife and I can't because she's got to deal with the kids and everything. And as this brother in the Lord was listening to this man talk about his life, the Holy Spirit revealed to him through the Word, listening to this brother's talk about his life, that this man was angry because he had expectations about the kind of treatment he should be getting from his wife and they were not being met. And he developed anger over a time and bitterness and hardness of heart. And this very wise pastor opened up the Bible and began to show this man that as a husband he was to love his wife selflessly, not thinking of his own needs, not thinking of what would be nice for him. And began to suggest that instead of coming home from work and saying, where's my dinner? Where's my time with you? Come home from work and say, how can I help? How can I help? And as the man heard this, the Holy Spirit convicted him. And for the first time in a long time, he no longer was seeing the effects of his anger and that was bothering him. But he suddenly discovered the root cause, selfishness. He went to the Word of God, confessed it. And do you know what happened to this man? He started coming home at night and he wasn't thinking of himself and he started asking how he could help. And his anger totally disappeared and the effects of that anger started to disappear. There was a great change in the whole family. All because the Holy Spirit and the Word of God through a brother who was sensitive enough to God to help him, was able to go to the root of the problem. Brothers and sisters, let's pray that God will help us get to the root of our problems. Don't be misguided because sometimes we might think that the cause of what's going on in our life might be something that's totally unrelated. For example, when God came to Adam and Eve after they sinned and God asked Adam, Adam, Adam, what's wrong? What did Adam think? Adam thought the problem was who? Eve. And so sometimes we might be aware of something going on in our life, something that's not right. And we might, in a misguided way, begin to assume that this is because of something when in fact it's not Eve at all. It's not Eve at all. So, may the Lord help us today to come before Him and let Him search our hearts. And as we were saying before, God wants us to be able to learn how, through the Word of God, through the truth of the Scripture, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to get to the root of what's going on in our life so that we will not be burdened by these things because these burdens are keeping us from something very, very important. And that's an abundant life that Jesus came to bring to us. I'd like to invite you to turn your Bibles to Luke, please, beginning in verse number 30. Luke chapter 10, beginning in verse number 30. I pray the Holy Spirit will help us to deal with our burdens because, brothers and sisters, it's the burdens that we fail to learn how to cast on the Lord that's keeping us from experiencing something here that Jesus is going to teach us. Verse 30, chapter 10. A certain man went down to Jericho, a Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him he passed on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed he took two pence, and gave them to the host, and said take care of him, and whatever you spend more when I come again I will repay you. Now Jesus is asking this question, which now of these three do you think was neighbor to him that fell among the thieves? And he which was the lawyer that Jesus was speaking to said the one that showed mercy on him. Then Jesus said unto him, Go thou and do likewise. Verse 27 of the same chapter connects this statement of Jesus with what Jesus is trying to teach. And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. Now do you know why Jesus is helping us this morning with our burdens and our cares? Because he loves us so much. And he knows that when we don't cast our burdens upon him, we can't really love him and others the way he wants us to. When we are full of anxiety and cares, we're not seeking out in the selfless love of God to help others. Generally when we get overcome by our own cares and our own burdens, we end up sitting on a what? Pity pot. And it's all about me. And it's all about now. And we're missing a blessing because Jesus said it's more blessed to give than receive. Verse 37, Go and do thou likewise. 1 John chapter 4 verse 7. The great love of God is so overwhelming and so unspeakable. It is more vast than all the oceans in the world. It's more vast than the universe itself. And yet when we are overcome by our cares and our anxieties and our burdens, we lose sight of this vast ocean of God's love. And without even trying, we start thinking all about who? Us. 1 John chapter 4 verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another. Love seeks out our brother and our sister. And that's why we need one another, because maybe a brother or a sister is really being overcome with an anxiety or a burden. And maybe God wants to use you, your weak earthen vessel, to encourage the brother, to help the brother, to pray for the brother. Maybe the Lord wants to use you like He did use that pastor in that illustration I gave. Take some time. Talk to me. What's wrong? What's going on? And maybe as you listen, the Holy Spirit will say, hey, listen to the Word of God. Perhaps this might be the cause of your problem. But no matter what the scenario is, let us love one another. Love seeks out the welfare of our brother or sister. There is a love, if we can call it love, that people who don't know Jesus has. But it's a very self-centered thing. You know, Jesus said, what praise do sinners have? They love one another. They care for one another. But it's conditional. In other words, they care for each other as long as what? There's something in it for them. Exactly. That's nature. And let me tell you something. Some of you parents might stumble over this, but do you know your human love for your children? You might think that, oh my, nothing can touch that. You're wrong. You're wrong. That human love can go a long way for your kids. But you let those kids grow up and cross you and betray you, and that love for them will turn to hatred. No. Yes. Yes, it will. How about your human love for your spouse? No way. I love my wife so much. Until she doesn't do what you want. Hello? What's the problem there? Problem is, we need something greater than what we have in ourself. We need the love of God that is shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Spirit. That's sacrificial love. The love that is in God's heart is the love that was demonstrated on the cross. That's the love that you and I don't have in ourselves. Even in all of our human love, which has a place, but that's going to fail. Everything's going to fail in ourselves. And that's why God says, come to the end of yourself so you can enter into what? Into Christ. Into the fullness of Christ and find resources in Him that you don't have. So beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. For in this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only Son into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love. Not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation or an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Brothers and sisters, please listen. The Holy Spirit is here seeking that we might cast our cares and cast our burdens and cast our anxieties upon Him so that we will not be blinded to the ocean of love that is before us. An ocean of love. The very life of God Himself wants to flow through us. 1 John 3, verse 16. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. See? Whenever the love of God is mentioned in Scripture, it's always described by an action of sacrifice. There's never a place in the Bible where the love of God is mentioned where there is the absence of sacrifice. Never. But there's a lot of places in the Bible where human love is mentioned, where you have an action, but it can be changed in a moment. It can turn from love to hatred. But whenever God's love is in action, you always have sacrificial, self-giving service to one another. Verse 17. But whoever has this world's good and sees his brother have need and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? Verse 18. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. If a man abides in the love of God, that man will live a life, listen, of action. An action that can be defined by serving others. The greatest hindrance in the love of God flowing through us and in us out to others is getting snared by our burden, by our anxiety, by our care, by our worry. What did Paul and Silas do at the midnight hour in the jail when they were put in fetters and chains? It says they prayed and they sang praises. What time of night was it? The midnight hour. Midnight praise. But they prayed first. They prayed because they were in a difficult situation, weren't they? Do you think that they were tempted and possibly prone in themselves to become a little bit worried and full of anxiety, seeing that they had been put in shackles and it's possible they could have even been executed? So what did they do? They prayed. They cast their burden on the Lord. They couldn't understand what was going to happen, but because they cast their burden on the Lord, they became vessels through whom God was able to flow. And what happened? They sang praises. And then God sent an earthquake and broke everyone's chains, everyone's shackles. They had a revival. People got saved and they were freed. Yeah, it's his life. Right. Now, if Paul and Silas were placed in those shackles and they started saying, oh my, oh, I think it's over. I thought the Lord loved us. It's just not working out the way I thought it would. I mean, God promises us in prayer and look at it. They wouldn't have been able to reach out by the love of God. They had to cast their burdens on the Lord. Go and do likewise right now. Listen carefully right now. Right in everyone's life right here. There's a there's a there's a wounded man. Listen carefully, please. I'm going to close on this. There's a wounded just like in this story in Luke chapter 12. Listen, there's a certain man, listen, within your sight. Who's wounded. He's in need of help. And the Levite and the priest has already passed by him because the Levite and the priest weren't in there and they don't want to get dirty. They didn't understand this sacrificing love. It could be a mother. It could be a father. It could be a brother. It could be a sister. It could be an employee. It could be a friend. Somebody, the Holy Spirit is dealing with. There's someone wounded. But nothing's been done. Here's why. It's very simple. Very simple. Because our burden became too big to see the need. The burden has blocked the flow. And some of us it's been for days, others months, some years. And all Jesus is saying to us this morning, it's very simple as this. If you'll cast your burden on me and trust me about those things that you have been so anxious over, I'll give you my peace. I'll take that unrest from you. I'll put the song back in your heart. Now, the circumstance might not change, but you won't need it to change if you cast the burden on the Lord. But not only will I do all that, I'll give you eyes to see that wounded one that needs oil, wine, a tender touch, a helping hand from Christ. You can be my hand. You could be that hand. But we have to be willing to repent. We have to be willing to repent and say, Lord, forgive me because I failed to cast my burden on you. I failed to trust you. I, like the 10 spies, I saw the giants in my life as if they were bigger than you. Forgive me, Lord. I confess this to you. I confess, Lord, my unbelief to you. Help me. And as we come to him in sincerity, asking him to help us, the burden will be lifted. The song will come, and you'll find Jesus very near. And all of a sudden, the thing that used to bother you won't bother you because you've cast it on the Lord, Pedro. And then all of a sudden, you'll start becoming concerned about what? Others. What an exchange, huh? Let's bow our hearts. Has the Lord spoken about someone that is wounded and in need? And you know it, but you've not been able to give them oil and wine. And now you see the cause. It's not because there's a shortage in heaven. It's because you became too concerned about what Jesus said, don't worry about, cast it on him. And I believe if we really cast it on him, God's going to give us an opportunity in his own timing to reach out to that person that before we couldn't reach out to. Father, help us today to see your love, to see your grace. Help us, Lord, to recognize every anxiety and every care and every worry that we have failed to cast on you. Help us, Lord, today to cast that care on you so that in casting it on you, we can have that peace, we can have that song, we can have that joy. And most importantly, we can love one another, care for one another, and reach out by your love and minister life and grace to our brothers and sisters, and maybe not even our brothers and sisters. How many go to a restaurant regularly, a certain Dunkin' Donuts or restaurant or anywhere? How many people might, how many of you maybe see someone regularly? You might not even know. And you almost sense like, I think God's bringing this person to my life. But you've never, ever contemplated whether the Lord wants you to speak to this person. Is it possible that it's because every time you see this person, you're struggling with your own worries? You're struggling with your own anxieties? What if your anxieties were free and you saw this person? Could it be that the Lord might give you life to speak to this person? I was on a run and a walk a few days ago, and I ran by Dunkin' Donuts, and I had a schedule all set. I had it all planned, Brian. I had it all timed out. And I jogged past Dunkin' Donuts, and there's this guy that I've known for years. He was sitting out on the bench. And I have to confess before God, I prayed, Lord, don't let him see me. Because I knew he would call me. And I didn't have that as part of my plan to reach out to someone. I wanted my own time. Now, I know no one can relate to that. I wanted my own time. Give and give and give and give. And you say, all right, now this is my time. So I prayed, and that was a prayer God didn't answer. And I heard my name. But more than that, I heard the Lord speak to me. And He said, Son, stop. And so I stopped. And for 30 minutes, God stopped my plan. This man poured out his heart about his wife's recent surgery and everything. Poured out his heart. And then at the end, we prayed together. And the Holy Spirit touched this man in a wonderful way. But I could have missed it. Because I was tempted to be concerned about me. May God help us to see the door that's set before us. And hear the words of Jesus. Go and do likewise. He's dealing with me about that tendency in my heart. And that is this. This is my time. There was a time when He let me do that, but He's dealing with me about that. This is my time. It's not my time. It's never my time. It's always His time. It's always His time.