1 Peter 5

Intro

This is our last sermon in this series

The book of 1 Peter

How many of you have read that book before?

Before we get into any book

I always like to give you guys some background

On why any book is written

The book of first and second peter were both written by

WHO

Peter good job

If you know your bible

This is the same Peter that was one Jesus closest diciples

Same Peter that walks on water

Same Peter that cuts a mans ear off to protect Jesus

Same Peter that also denies Jesus 3 times

Same Peter that Jesus tells he will build his church upon

Scholars believe that Peter wrote the book

Sometime between WHEN??? 62-64 A.D.

Which most scholars belive was only a few years before Peter was matyerd for his faith

And he was primarily writing to scattered Christians

likely in WHERE?? Modern day Turkey

Around this time mass persecution of Christians hadn’t happened in Rome YET

But it was starting to become more difficult

Alot of them were experiencing

Social rejection Insults and slander Economic hardship Family tension Increasing pressure from Roman culture

Overall scholars belive that Peter simply wanted to encourage early Christians to continue in their walk of faith

Later over time they would come deeply persecuted

By a certain Roman emperor WHO???? Nero

Today as we look at the book I want to just look at chapter 5

You will learn as we go through this book

There is alot of content

And honeslty I would encourage you

Read, read, read this book on your own

Because I could do an entire series just on Chapter 4 of this book

But we aren’t going to do that

You will learn that as we go through it

Its all about your walk with God

When I walk with Jesus how should i live?

How should I act?

How should I think?

These are all things that this book tackles so well

So to get us started off today

1. Look after what God has given you

1 Peter 5:1–4 “And now, a word to you who are elders in the churches. I, too, am an elder and a witness to the sufferings of Christ. And I, too, will share in his glory when he is revealed to the whole world. As a fellow elder, I appeal to you: Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly—not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. Don’t lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your own good example. And when the Great Shepherd appears, you will receive a crown of never-ending glory and honor.”

Have you ever had something that is super valuable that you are supposed to take care of?

I will never forget when I was got my second phone

I was a Samsung s5

The first week that I had it I gave it to someone

They dropped it

bounced off a table and it the concrete floor

I remember I was so angry at my friend

I told my mom about it

I remember what she told me

She said “you can’t be made at your friend”

“Be mad at yourself”

You gave him your phone

You had this thing that had value

But you didn’t take of it

you didn’t protect it

In this first part of 1 Peter He is talking about something similar

He talks about being an Elder of the church

Being an elder means

that you are someone who watches over the church

Not a pastor

But certain people selected to watch over and protect the church

to make sure everything is going how it is supposed to

Peter explains in this scripture

That as elders

you are given the people of the church

to take care of

You are to watch over them

It uses the word flock

He gives them an instruction

don’t just Lord over it

Doing whatever you see fit

Don’t just forget about them

Take care of them in best way you can

with good care

Even though none of us in here are church elders

God has still given us things to watch over

relationships with our friends

relationships with our parents

relationships with our siblings

Most importantly our relationship with the Lord

We are called to love one another

Walk in humility

forgive one another

Because here is what I want you to hear

Don’t let your lack of care result in the loss of a blessing

It is a blessing that we have the relationships that we have in our life

And for some of us we have forgotten that

Because of that

There are times:

in our slefishness

in our pride

in our “lack of care”

We forget what blessing we have

Have you ever heard that old saying

count your blessings

There is some truth to that

And I would challenge you

If you are in this room

And you think to yourself

I am not blessed

START COUNTING

If you really think about it

God has blessed you in more ways than you realize

Don’t let a lack of care

effect how you view and see those blessings

2. Put on Humility

1 Peter 5:5–6 “In the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders. And all of you, dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.”

How many of you know who that is?

That is Tim Dodd

He has a youtube chanel called everyday astronaut

Where he makes all sorts of content:

about space

Space travel

Astronauts

and things of the like

However one clip from his channel stand out over all his clips

2022 Tim Dodd was touring a SpaceX facility while interviewing

None other than the owner of SpaceX himself

WHO KNOWS

Elon Musk

During the interview

as they are walking

Dodd asks a simple question that leaves Elon Frozen

He asks him about the boosters on ship

Changing them to have gas thruster systems

Elon at first says that they don’t need them

Then Elon stops for a minute and literally says

“You know what, now that you mention it”

“We are going to fix that”

Why does this story stick out to me?

Why do I find it so significant?

Because in this moment

You have one of the most powerful

intelligent men on the planet

with some YouTuber that really loves rocket ships

Tim Dodd steps out and makes a suggestion to him

Elon Musk has the humility in that moment to say

“You know what”

“Thats a good idea”

“We do need to fix that”

Even though he has all this power

and all this authority

He still had the humility to accept some feedback

In our scripture Peter is talking about walking in humility

And I love the point that he makes

He says:

“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble”

The truth is

We are meant to walk in humility

“Adam I can do that. thats not hard”

“I’m a humble person”

Being humble can be easy until its not

Being humble can be one of the hardest things that you will ever have to do

True Humility is proven when pride is most tempting.

When you have such a huge opprotunity to be prideful

And you still respond humble

That shows true humility

What do I mean by that

When you are so fired up about something, but someone proves you wrong

When you have had the ball all game, but you decide to pass it to someone else to give them a chance

The comments you choose to make about someone else. how much they know or don’t know about something

When you spend years studying something, but you except feedback from somone regladelss of how much you think you know

Peter shows us that we need walk in humility

When we do

The Lord sees us

He acknowledges us

Choosing to not live out of the flesh

But to walk by his Holy Spirit that lives in us

3. Stand firm with one another

1 Peter 5:8–9 “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.”

How many of you have ever heard of the Gimli glider story?

I didn’t think so

In 1983 Air Canada flight 143

Was flying from Montreal to Edmonton

with 69 people on board

With captain and co-pilot

Robert pearson and Maurice Quintal

They get about 41,000 FT. up in the air

And both engines loose power

Both pilots quickly realize

Their plane was not refueled before they had taken off

So what did they do?

They had find out where they were going to land this plane???

And how they were gonna do it with 0 engines????

Maurice used to serve in the Canadian air force

Knowing that they weren't going to get all the way to their destination

He knew their was a base called Gimli station just near where they were

So now they knew where they wanted to land. the only question is how?

Robert Pearson for many years was an experienced glider pilot.

So what did they do

Maurice Quintal safely directed and flew the plane to the near by military base

While at the same time

Robert Pearson constantly was doing math, calculating and directed Maurice

on how they should descend the plane to the ground safely

They did it.

everyone on the survived

They landed the plan safely

Where I am going with this whole story?

In this story these 2 guys looked after each other

In this moment of panic

They made sure that the other person was okay

And they worked together

And to be honest

If they didn’t

Things would have gone very badly

IN OUR SCRIPTURE

Peter talks about the importance of being aware of the enemy

Peter describes the devil

He says:

“ He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour”

Just as much as God is with us

God will protect us

God has power over the devil

We still have an enemny

An enemny that we need to be aware of

And the unfortunate truth is

As long as we are still on this Earth

The devil is constantly trying to push us away from God

As I talked about last week

Many times its not so obvious

I think many of us think the Devil is obvious

Like he is going to show up

“Hey I am going to cause destruction now”

NO

it happpens through small sins that grow

Through frustations twords others / that turn into unforgiveness

Through Wishing you had that things someone else has / that turns into Jelousy against that person

Through one or two more tik toks that turn into an addiction to these screens that you can’t break

That is how the Devil tries to get us

“So Adam what are we supposed to do????”

Peter makes a point to us

1 Peter 5:9 “Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.”

You are not alone in these temptations

You have other people that are around you

So the question that we need to ask

Who is your co-pilot

Just like our story earlier

Who is going to help you in times of crisis

Not just when things are bad

But who is going to help you stay on course with God

Because i think if we are honest

Some of us

don’t just feel like we don’t have someone to be our co-pilot

WE PICK THE WRONG PEOPLE IN LIFE to be our co-pilots

We need people who will draw us closer to Jesus

Help us when the devil tries to hurt us

4. Remember what is to come

1 Peter 5:10–11 “In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. All power to him forever! Amen.”

Peter ends with such a powerful ending to 1 Peter

because of Jesus

We get to share in Eternal Glory with God Forever

But what stands out to me even more

Is what he says God does for us

“He will restore, support, and stregnthen you”

I have talked about this previous Sundays

But when I graduated highschool and got t college

My faith waivered

I struggled with knowing who I was supposed to be

Lived a double life

I ended up getting plugged into a young adult ministry

and God completley changed my life

And I can now say

That God did all 3 of those things in my life

He restored the broken things in life

He stregnethed my understanding of who he was

And my hope for the future

God had brought support into my life with freinds at YA bible study

Here is what I want you to hear

Plant your life on God’s character

What does Peter say next?

“and he will place you on a firm foundation. All power to him forever! Amen.”

When we believe and understand the restoration, stregnth, and support

We can go through life planted on his firm foundation

Because God did those things in my life

I could stand firm

On who God said I was

What does that mean?

What does that look like?

It means saying no to the things that we shouldn’t do

But just the same as that

Saying yes to the things that we should do

There are things that we ought to say yes to

What is a way that you could stay planted and focused on the future that God has for you?

Who can be someone to help you follow through with that?