Under Pressure

1 Peter 5:1–11 NKJV

1 The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: 2 Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; 3 nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; 4 and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. 5 Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” 6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. 8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 11 To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

I want to talk to you about dealing with pressure.

Whenever I think of pressure I often think of a sponge. When a sponge is under pressure, whatever is in it will come out.

This is the same as us (cf. Matthew 12:34). Whatever is in us, whether good or bad, will come out of us.

From the time of childhood to adulthood the pressure on our lives increase. At each stage things get tougher. When you are a child the worst thing is having to go to bed. As a teen there is homework and high school. At college-age the pressure increases to discover your identity and career goals. And then comes the pressure of rent and responsibility of survival.

And as things continue to get more complex in the world, we are under increasingly more pressure.

Haven’t you felt it?

The good news is that God knew we would be under pressure and has made a way to use that pressure for our good (Romans 8:28). We can turn to God in faith and learn to leverage that pressure for our good and God’s glory.

Releasing Pressure

As I said, our world is increasing in complexity. And with that complexity comes more pressure. We feel this pressure in cultural changes. We feel this pressure in financial change. We feel this pressure in our workplace and in our schools.

The thing about pressure is that it is always looking to escape. And isn’t that what we do when we feel under pressure?

When things get hard many times our default way of blowing off steam is to retreat or numb ourselves.

But pressure in the hands of God is powerful.

Illustration: A pressure cooker uses the pressure from steam to cook food. Generally, the higher the pressure, the faster you can cook food without burning it.

James 1:2–4 NKJV

2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

When we learn how to let God work in our lives we will discover that pressure becomes a powerful tool for good in our lives to shape us and form us into godly men and women.

Dealing With Pressure

The pressure that we are under is working to influence and shape us. It can crush us into dust or it can form us into diamonds.

There are three ways that pressure works to influence and shape us.

We Are Under Pressure to Conform

Romans 12:1–2 NKJV

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

We are constantly under the pressure to conform to the world. This pressure consists of adopting cultural biases, values, and norms.

A simple but clear picture of this pressure to conform to the world is the pressure to identify your pronoun. This was never a thing thought necessary by any culture in human history until now but if you do not identify yourself in our culture by attaching these things to your bio you run the risk of being canceled and cut off and being called something nasty.

This is only one example. On everything from sexuality to spirituality the culture wants you to adopt its view of what is right and true. And increasingly it is trying to add more pressure by threatening silence or rejection.

We are being encouraged to not be conformed to the world, but instead we must be conformed to the will and ways of God. The pressure of God to change is not external. It’s not the fear of punishment. It is an internal one as we renew our mind and are changed by the truth of the riches of God’s patience and goodness (Romans 2:4).

Illustration: Milgram’s Experiment in 1963. Paid unskilled to highly skilled professionals to play the part of teachers (with “learners” as a plant). Learners were strapped to electrodes on a chair. Teachers, the volunteers, had to administer electric shock for every wrong question. There were 30 switches from mild shock of 15 volts to severe shock of 450. Four prods to keep the volunteers shocking the “learners.” 1) Please Continue. 2) The experiment requires you to continue. 3) It is absolutely essential that you continue. 4) You have no other choice but to continue. 65% continued all the way to the 450 volts. All of them continued to 300 volts. Ultimately this study was about obedience to authority. But the pressure of the “authority” caused people to do things that they were not comfortable with doing.

We need to understand that there is pressure on us to conform and fit the mold of the world. We are also given the invitation to be conformed to the image of God in Christ.

Do not allow yourself to be conformed to the pattern of this world and shaped by the corruption that is in it (2 Peter 1:4).

Choose to adopt the culture and values and norms of the kingdom of Heaven which is kingdom of goodness and mercy and justice.

We Are Under Pressure to Perform

Hebrews 4:9–10 NKJV

9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

We are also under pressure to perform. The constant message that we have heard from our youth is that we can “do anything” we set our hearts to. We are told that we need to hustle and grind and produce and perform if we want to make it and matter in the world.

We feel the pressure to do what others are doing even if we think it is wrong or are uncomfortable about it. We feel the pressure to fit in and that means going along with behaviors and actions that are culturally acceptable.

When we come to Christ we are invited to the rest of faith. We stop working and striving for acceptance. We do the works of faith by trusting and following Jesus.

Illustration: TV Show, What Would You Do? Where actors play out moral problems to test people’s responses. You can see the pressure this places on people and even the discomfort they feel as they are unwittingly put into a situation to decide how they are going to act.

We are constantly being pulled on to perform and act according to what the world around us expects.

God has a different expectation and it is much less complicated.

Micah 6:8 NKJV

He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?

You are under pressure to perform. The question is will you do what the world says is acceptable or will you choose to enter into the rest of faith and do the works of God?

Choose to submit to God in faith and do justly. Love mercy. Walk with God. Choose to allow His will to influence and shape your actions in this world.

We Are Under Pressure to Transform

2 Corinthians 3:18 NKJV

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Not only are we under pressure by the world to conform to their worldview and act according to their definitions of right but we are also under pressure to become like them.

Its not enough for you to let them do what they are doing. Instead you have to do it too. Otherwise, you are against them and your presence is offensive.

As Christ followers we are predestined to become like Jesus and ultimately share in His glory (Romans 8:29-30)

We can choose to become what the world wants us to be or the things we have been labeled to be, or we can become the person that God predestined us to be.

Illustration: There are stories about the famed artist Sir Edwin Landseer who started a trend. He was in an inn in Scotland when he saw a fisherman accidentally knock a teacup out of a waitresses hands and it spilled onto the newly whitewashed wall leaving a dark stain. The fisherman was horrified and apologized profusely. But the artist thought he could do something with the stain and asked the owner if he could. After a short time, he created a drawing of a royal stag. He transformed the ugly stain into a work of art

We are under pressure to change and become something other than ourselves. We can allow ourselves to become like the world around us or we can become a new creation in Christ.

We become transformed after that which we behold. Continue in Christ. The more time we spend focusing on Him the more we become like HIm.

You are under pressure to change. The question is who you will become and what will that look like?

You choose. What will you invest your time in, the world or the kingdom?

Conclusion

We all are under pressure.

We feel this pressure to conform and adopt the values and customs of this world or those of God.

We feel this pressure to perform and adopt the behaviors and embrace the pursuits of the world or the works of God.

We also feel the pressure to change and transform according to the expectation of the world or the image of Christ.

We can’t get away from the pressure but we can allow the pressure to lead us to become patient, resilient, and godly.

This pressure in the hands of God will produce a great glory in us.

1 Peter 1:6–7 NKJV

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,