Casting All Your Care Upon Him - Hans Waldvogel — From the Pulpit & Classic Sermons

Welcome to the From the Pulpit in Classic Sermon series. Each week we bring you a different message from some of history's greatest speakers in the Christian faith, and powerful sermons from modern preachers too.

This week we have Hans R. Waldvogel with his message, Casting All Your Care Upon Him.

Casting All Care Upon Christ

Care him, for he careth. Now why should he care? Why should he number all the hairs on my head? Well, because every hair needs help, needs attention. People say to me, what? Your hair is still not white, and you still have a nice crop of hair.

Yes, I have a good caretaker of my hair. Really, really good. There was a time when I lost almost all my hair, but the Lord brought it back. And since then I haven't worried about one hair on my head.

Jesus Christ knows how many I have, and He knows what, and He has provided for each hair on my head. I suppose I have a hundred thousand at least. I never counted them, but He's provided for each one of my hairs an oil well, a supply of oil to keep it lubricated.

I don't have to spend a lot of money for all the calabrese to keep my hair alive. Jesus Christ really takes care, and why should He bother? Why should He bother? Not just to make me pretty, but to glorify His name, because I belong to Him.

My father used to care for my hair. I don't know how many times he spat on it and combed it. He says, now you, why I'm going to be ashamed of you if you come among the people without your hair combed.

He cared. I didn't. Didn't bother whether I combed my hair or not, but my father did. And my mother cared when my ears weren't clean. She took strong solution and washed them. I didn't care. Corn grew in my ears, why?

My mother washed them so clean 70 years ago that they're still clean today. But Jesus Christ wants to care about everything concerning my being from beginning to the end of eternity, and I dishonor Him when I don't cast all my care upon Him.

Seeking God's Kingdom and His Righteous Rule

Not only that, but I rob Him of His honor and His kingship. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness means that I must seek to let Him reign within me. I must seek to make room for Him to be the absolute provider and the absolute ruler of my life.

And that means my whole spirit and soul and body. And if I do that, He has promised to preserve me blameless. Mind you, my whole spirit and soul and body, blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And what for? Not that I should be honored in that day. He promises that too. But it's the honor of my Lord Jesus Christ that's at stake. If He doesn't bring me through, Moses said to God, if you kill these people, they deserve it.

You could destroy them in a moment, but where's your honor? The Gentiles will say, well, He wasn't as strong and He wasn't as powerful as He said He was. He wasn't able to bring them through. And He wasn't near as merciful as He said He was, else He'd have forgiven their iniquity.

And in that day, the Bible says, we shall be the glory of Christ. And when the apostle Peter talks about it, he says, though now ye are in heaviness through manifold temptation, Barnabas says, we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom.

It is by these testings and by these trials that I'm given a chance to make my choice between the devil and Jesus Christ. And that's the choice I must make. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness means that there is a kingdom, thank God.

And I can make my choice. I can enter into that kingdom by choosing Jesus Christ to rule, to take His great power and to be master. And that kingdom must be within me. And it is there that sin reigns.

Oh, where sin abounded, and it certainly did abound. And God said it abounded so much that in many hearts it chokes the Word. And that Word does not bring forth fruit unto the kingdom of God. But, if I guard my heart with all diligence, and I say to it that Satan shall not have dominion and sin shall not have dominion, I choose Jesus.

That's my choice. For instance, He says, In nothing be anxious. I had to learn that lesson before I really got established in the ministry. And I'm so glad that God did not let me go. I was born anxious.

My father always told me that I, when I was three days old, I laughed for the first and the last time. And when I was five years old, I had the measles. And then, it's hard to get along with me after that.

I worried about everything. I went to school, and if my schoolwork didn't come out perfect, I'd worry for days. I wouldn't talk to anybody until that thing was corrected. I was just full of it. Full of worry, full of anxiety, full of fear, full of all that.

When I was twelve years old, I was sure that I was going to die within a year or two. So many people died of consumption at that time. And I had a cough. That's why I hate cough. And so, I was sure I had consumption.

And I worried silently and quietly. I worried. I didn't dare go by a cemetery. And when I came to God, He said, Listen, you've got to make your choice. In nothing be anxious. Let me take over. That's the wonderful thing.

Making Room for the Prince of Peace

We think, well, it's quite wonderful not to be anxious and not to worry and not to fret and not to care. But that's not the issue. The issue is to make room for Jesus Christ who is the King of glory, the Prince of Peace who has conquered, glory to God, who has conquered and purchased me with His own blood that I should not live unto myself but unto Him.

We are His workmanship. But that word workmanship I understand means masterpiece. You are His masterpiece if you let Him have His way. That's the idea. When a boy, when in Switzerland or Germany, any young man learns a trade.

I had to spend five years learning the jewelry business. And after five years, you have to pass an examination. And by this, you have to make a masterpiece. Now, Barber told me the masterpiece he had to make for an exhibition.

He had to shave a man or many men and he had to take a pair of tweezers and he had to take a large piece of paper and glue, put glue on it. And then he had to take a million pieces of hair and make a picture of a house.

That was his masterpiece. He was ruled by his masterpiece. A jeweler would have to make a brooch or a lavalier or a bracelet himself. He had to make it from bottom up to the top and finish it. And that went on exhibition for everybody to look at and to examine.

And I remember in my shop, whenever I saw a piece of jewelry, I could tell who made it. We had a man who had the name that he was a good jeweler. He happened to be, they called him the French jeweler and they advertised that among there.

But I said he was a butcher, not a jeweler. I could tell by every piece of jewelry that he made that he didn't know much about making jewelry, but he got away with it somehow. There was another man, when I saw a piece of jewelry by him, I made googly eyes.

I never saw such wonderful work. And that man took his time. And when he made a piece of jewelry, you know, it had to be as clean looking at from the front as from the back. Every part of it. He was a master.

His masterpiece honored him and that's what he was after. Jesus Christ is making a masterpiece that will honor him in the day when he presents you and me to the Father as the finished product. And in the meantime, I must work with fear and trembling to be sure that I don't interfere with his will.

Prayer, Thanksgiving, and Trusting God's Work

Oh, this mighty will of God. And when he says casting all your care upon him, he means to say I cannot finish my masterpiece if you fool with it. If you put your paws to it. If you worry over it, you take it out of my hands.

That's what we do. But when we don't worry and don't fret, then the Bible says in nothing be anxious, but what? In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and then God takes over.

And how does it take over? Why, the Prince of Peace comes to take his work, his masterpiece. And he works it out. And maybe you don't know how he does it? You don't know, but that's where faith and confidence comes in.

How many times we have committed our bodies to him when we were sick. And then when God allowed some test to come our way, then we took our bodies out of his hand again. And we began to worry. And God has to stand aside.

I tell you, God is a great Master. My Lord Jesus Christ is a great Master. And He's a great Savior. And He is one that knows how to finish the work which He has begun. And that was one of the first lessons I had to learn when I came to God.

I had to learn to trust Him for every penny I needed. It was an interesting lesson. It was a difficult lesson. How many times did the Lord hit my knuckles when I tried to fool with it? Leave it to me.

Learning Trust Through a Six-Dollar Trial

I told you how my first lesson was to get six bucks. Six dollars. I owed six dollars. I had been robbed of the money by a saint. And now I didn't have it. And I had to pay a bill. Six dollars. And for a whole month I worried and grunted and groaned and murmured in my heart.

I remember walking down the street and looking at the bushes and think now, Lord, what's six bucks between you and me? Why you could turn these leaves into five dollar bills. Honestly, I thought He could.

But He didn't. Now why didn't He do it? I reached into my pocket. I thought, well, the Lord could create it in my pocket. He didn't do it. I said, now why? As long as I said why, I found fault with God.

I got nothing. Nothing. After one month's time in a meeting in Zion, in the faith home, I learned my lesson. God took all the fear out of me. God made me look at Jesus instead of into my pocket. And instead of at the bushes.

And when I got a sight of Jesus Christ, the peace of God filled my heart. And next day I got six dollars. Not one penny more or less. And in a most miraculous way, from both of them, from people from whom I could never have expected it.

God just showed me that He is not only able, but willing to take care of His own kingdom and His own honor. But as long as I interfere with His honor, nothing doing. Then I honor the devil. The devil comes around and he wouldn't be a good devil if he didn't test you.

That's his job. When Jesus was baptized with the Holy Ghost, the Spirit drove Him into the temptation. And if need be, ye are in manifold temptation. What for? Not to be defeated, but that the trial of your faith may be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

Faith That Grows During Trials

And He'll never say, well, I remember the trouble you were in, but I happened to be on a trip. I couldn't take care of you just then. Or maybe it was a little too... He'll never say that. He'll never say, Abraham believed God and He hoped against hope.

And He waxed strong in faith. Now that's the test of true faith. The longer the trial lasts, the stronger your faith will grow if your eyes are upon the promise and Him that promised. Sarah counted Him faithful that promise.

What do you do? You count Him faithful that promise. And it isn't a matter of just making a comfortable life for myself. But it's a matter of making a comfortable life for Jesus. He wants to live with me.

He wants to make His home with me. He wants to feel at home here. He wants to see that I have perfect confidence in Him, no matter what all hell does. He has already won the fight. And now to learn this grand lesson and the peace of God which passeth all understanding.

Why, that's Christ. He'll keep your heart and He'll keep your mind. And I find in my travels that very, very few Christians will obey this command. They'll obey other commands. They'll stop drinking beer or smoking cigarettes.

Listen, to be worried and to be anxious is worse than smoking cigarettes. It is. To me, it would be a greater sin. I would dishonor my God. If I murmured, I'd say, My Lord, You made a mistake. You didn't know what You were talking about there when He said, He careth for you.

Beloved, it's His honor, not my honor. Not my comfort. Let me be tested. Let me be tried. Abraham, the Bible says, was fully persuaded. That's faith. Not to feel. He didn't feel. He saw His body now dead.

And the deadness of Sarah's womb, that didn't stagger Him at all. He didn't stagger at the promise of God. Beloved, I'm talking seriously. We won't see one another for a long time. I'm really serious.

All Things Working Together for Good

If you don't learn this lesson, you dishonor your God. Your God who said, All things work together for good. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God. All things belong to Him.

All things are possible to Him that believe us. But we like to have it thrown at us, you know. When I was a boy, I told you, before I was saved, I devoured the newspaper every day at my lunch hour. And I was especially fond of Mutton Jeff.

When I got saved, I quit. I had no more room in my heart for that business. But one day, I went to hear a favorite evangelist, Paul Rader. That's Miss Schultz's patron saint. He was a wonderful preacher.

And one day, he was using an illustration from a cartoon of Jigs and Maggie. They loved corn beef and cabbage. And he used it with such a skill that I said, Well, I must see what that is. And so I looked at a cartoon of Jigs and Maggie.

And you know, it's been a blessing to me. Maggie and her daughter, naughty women, they went to a great big department store in the city. And I don't know what they did, but the manager flew at them and disgraced them and dishonored them.

And they came home weeping. Sniff, sniff, boo-hoo. And Jigs wanted to know what had happened. Why they told him what a fresh manager that was and how he had bawled them out. So Jigs put on his stovepipe hat and he went down and he bought the store, the whole store.

And then he fired the manager. And then you should have seen Maggie and her daughter walk into that store. Everything belonged to them. That's why God says we should come with boldness. We have a high priest who is made higher than the heavens.

The prince of this world is cast out.

Oh, let's believe it. You've been listening to the From the Pulpit and Classic Sermon series. This week you heard Hans R. Waldvogel with his message, Casting All Your Care Upon Him. Tune in next week for another powerful message from God's Word on From the Pulpit and Classic Sermons.