1 Peter 5.6-11

I love it! It is an awesome time to hang out with friends and our awesome staff. Every week we get to play fun games, and we get to spend time in God’s word.

I remember being at youth group when I was younger and before I was saved. And I remember thinking that the messages where my least favorite part. But I can tell you that I got saved through the preaching of someone at a wednesday night. The fun is great, but this is the most important. So let’s focus and see what God has to tell us from His word.

-Can anyone remind me what series we’re in?

(1 Peter)

-And what has been our theme for 1 Peter?

(Survival Through Hope)

-What have you been learning through our study of 1 Peter?

(we have a certain hope in Christ, we are called to be different and live holy, how we are to respond in trials, how we interact with the world)

1 Peter is a great book that helps us. When we see our world crumbling, when we have trials, when the world hates us, we can survive through hope.

But tonight our series comes to the end. Tonight we are going to look at Peter’s final charge for us.

Open you Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 5.

Here in chapter 5, Peter starts by talking to the elders, the leaders of the church and in verse 2, Peter tells them to shepherd the flock and to lead under Christ, who is called, ‘the Chief Sheherd’, in verse 4.

So let me ask you, if Christ is the Chief Shepher, he is the head Shepherd, than who are we?

(flock or sheep)

We are his flock, his flock of sheep.

Now, we are called sheep in many places in the Bible. In Psalm 23, it says the Lord is my what? He is my Shepherd.

Psalm 78, God says his people are like sheep.

John 10.11 says ‘“I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.’

Over and over we are called sheep. And this is kinda funny because, well sheep are not the smartest animals in the world. Let me list off a characteristics of sheep and I want you to see if this sounds at all like us.

Sheep have no sense of direction. They get lost so quickly.

Sheep get scared at the littlest things. I hat to admit it but I get scared sometimes. Mostly becasue Emily will wait outside of the bathroom and then, just appears out of nowhere. This has happened to me too many times.

Sheep are also defenseless. When wolves come, sheep are not like packin a gun. The only thing they can do is run. They need a shepherd.

Sheep also are kinda clueless. They will just eat anything and everything. Part of the reason they need a shepherd is because they will just eat everything in sight and then they will have no more grass to eat and they will die becasue again they have no sense of direction. They will also eat something even if it is bad for them. They will consume anything.

Sheep also get lost. When danger comes or they get seperated. They will just run in any direction. They do not know what to do. And they need someone to come after them and guide them back.

We act like sheep at different points in our life. And we need a shepherd. So Jesus calls us his sheep.

But we do not want to be clueless sheep. In our final passage in 1 Peter, Peter will give us 5 things all of God’s sheep need to be like.

If we were sum up everything that Peter is telling in these last verses, write this down, we could say that God’s Sheep are Obedient Sheep, God’s sheep are obdient sheep.

If you are truly one of God’s sheep, if you are a child of God, you will be an obdient sheep.

Open up your Bible to 1 Peter 5. Let’s read verses 6-11.

(read verses 6-11)

Peter ends his letter with a charge for the sheep of God. If you one of God’s sheep then you will be an obedient sheep.

And Point 1: Obedient Sheep are Humble.

Point 1: Obedient Sheep are Humble.

Look back down at your Bibles. What are the first three words?

Therefore Humble yourselves.

Peter starts off verse 6 with this comand to humble yourselves. But why does he say that? Well whenever you see that word therefore, you need to look back.

Let’s look at the last verse. Look with me starting in the middle of verse 5. Peter tells the flock of God to,

‘clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’

Peter just told us that we need to be humble because God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Someone tell me, what does it mean that God is opposed to the proud?

God actively hates the proud. God hates pride.

Pride is a deadly sin.

What pride actually is Pride is giving ourselves the credit for something that God has accomplished. Pride is taking the glory, the praise that belongs to God alone and keeping it for ourselves. Pride is really just self-worship.

Who here has been prideful before?

(everyones hands should be up)

Let me give 5 ways pride looks like.

Self Focus

This sounds kinda basic. But pride is when you only think about yourselves. When you only think about me, me, me. You could be like, “wow, I am so awesome.” or maybe you say “but what about me.” Pride looks like when you only think about yourself or how does this make you feel better.

2. Talking about yourself

Who are you? Are you the person that whenever somene else is talking, you start talking about how you are better then them.

Like you friend says, ‘I went Texas for vacation,” and you go, ‘well I went to Hawaii’, then your friend is like, ‘I saw dinosaur bones’, then you go ‘well I rode a real dinosaur’. You just keep telling everyone about yourself or you just try to keep the conversation all about you. I know I tend to do this.

3. You are desperate for attention.

This is like the last one, you always are wanting people to look at you, or say nice things about. You just are like, ‘please pay attention to me’

4. People pleasing.

This one is really hard. Are the person who wants everyone to like them, so you are willing to do anything? You are like, ‘oh your thirsty, heres my water.’ ‘your cold, heres my jacket.’ ‘oh you want me to hit myself in the face, ok (hit yourself in the face.’ You are willing to do anything, just so people will think your cool, or will like you.

5. Depresion or fear

Now this one is hard. Depresion, is those extreme lows. Where you are so sad, where you hate the world and hate yourself. i know some of you are feeling like this. But this is a form of pride. You are thinking to much of your situation and yourself. And fear is like it. you are so scared or so anxious of this situation that you are not seeing God rightly.

So if you struggle with these, well talk to us, we are here to help. But Peter has a command for you. He says ‘humble yourself’.

If you want the basic definition of humility it is this, Humility is seeing yourelf rightly by seeing who God really is. Humility is seeing yourelf rightly by seeing who God really is.

Because of who God is, we should want to be humble. Jesus actually gave us two of the best views of what humility actually is.

Jesus first who is God, left his throne in heaven and came and was born into this world. God became both fully man and fully God. And it was not Jesus came and then was born to was the richest family. He was born as servant, he was low and he did this so that he could live the perfect life for us. He saw other people as more important than himself.

Jesus also washed his disciples feet. Do you remember this? Jesus who is God, savior and Lord of all. Took a servants towel and got on his hands and knees and washed the nasty feet of the disciples. And it not like they were walking around in yeezies and so there feet were sorta clean. No the walked in sandals or no shoes at all. And the walked in mud and dirt and animals just did their thing right in the street and the walked through it. But Jesus still washed their feet.

So in the same way, we all need to look at Jesus as an example. We need to ‘clothe ourselves with humilty’ luke it says in verse 5. Humility should be our favorite shirt.

We need to see others as more importantly than yourself. 8th graders, you should be serving here and hanging out with the 6th and 7th graders. You should asking, how can you encourage then and help them. Instead of just standing trying to look cool in the corner. We all need to see each other as more important than ourselves.

Now look back at our Bibles. in verse 6, We need to be humble under the mighty hand of God. This is a reference to the old testament. Really what it measn for us, is we need to see God working in our lives and humbly trust him, even when trials are going on.

And we need to remeber that also in verse if we are humble God my exalt us in the proper time. Really what this means is that God will gives us grace and he may even lift us up. As we are beign humble God will lift us up.

So please I beg of you, see that you are prideful. This is the sin that starts all sin. It is at the base of all sin. It is something that we all struggle with.

So see your need to be humble. Serve each, realize that you are nothing and it only because of God that we are even saved, get your eyes off of yourself, and get them onto God. Give God the credit. And see God as God and see Him as great.

Point 2: Obedient Sheep are Trusting

Obedient Sheep are Trusting.

Look at verse 7 (read verse 7)

Verses 6 and 7 are connected. So part of being humble is by casting your anxiety on to God.

Who can tell me what Casting means?

(it litterally means to throw onto to something)

If you want to be humble, you will stop thinking and looking at yourself and that includes your fears, your troubles, your worries.

I know this is hard. Some of you are going through some really hard things.

Maybe there are issues at home, or you have bad friendships, worried about school, or making people happy, or over something that you have done, or whatever.

These fears and worries can stop us in our track, they paralyze, we feal like we can’t move on and that no one will understand who you are truly feeling.

If you are like me, I try to just push these fears and I try to not let it bother me. We try to handle these on our own.

But that it is not what we are supposed to do. Fear and worry is just another form of pride. And God hates pride. But he loves his sheep. He tells us in verse 7 here, that we can give our fears and worries to Him, because he cares about you.

What?!? The God of the universe cares about our problems. He knows what you are going through. And God says, give it me. The one who has the power to change things wants you to give Him your problems.

Now we do that trhough trust in him, we need to pray to him and place our fears on Him. And God may not get rid of what you are fearful of, but God can give you strength.

Listen as I read Philippians 4.6-8

‘Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things’

Don’t worry but instead trust God and think on what good. God has a plan for children. Trust him. If you love God, he will work all think for good. That means that he will work that bad friendship for good, your parents divorce for good, and anything that are you are fearful or worried about, he will work all for good. It may not look good to you but we all need to trust God. And when we trust God and we are give him our despairs, suffering, and discouragements then we will be able to expierence an amazing peace, because he cares for you.

So Obdient Sheep are humble, they are trusting.

Point 3: Obedient Sheep are on Guard

Look back at your Bible in 1 Peter 5.8

(read verse 8)

We NEED to be on guard, we need watch out because the Devil, who is our enemy is here. He is out and about and he is ready to attack us and devour us.

Satan and his demons are looking right now for ways to temp you and me, he is ready to discourage us, and persecuate us. Satan wants to take Christians and pull them away from Christ and convice us to abandon God.

Think back to Job. You remember Job?

Satan tried to pull his focus from God. He did this by taking all of his possessions, creating physical pain, and by having his family die and turn on him.

But we need to be like Job. No matter the circumstance. It does not matter if you are having the hardest time in life, even if the Devil himself is trying to atatack you. We all need to be like Job and be on guard.

Look back at your Bible, we need to be of sober spirit. This is the idea that we need have our mind be clear. We need to get our eyes focused on Christ. This remind me of Hebrews 12.1, where it says ‘let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us’

We need put away all sin and anything that can pull us from God. This could be like what are you listening to? Is it going to be helpful, is it keeping your focus on God or is it pulling away from God? Or what about what you read and watch? What are you filling your mind with? Is it stuff that will point you back to Christ or is it stuff that may not be sin but it is not helping you focus on Christ?

We need to know that Satan is ready to attack us when we are weak, so we need to be clear headed and focusing on Christ.

If you look at your Bibles again, you will see that we need to also be on the alert. We need be on guard, watchful ready for anything.

These two things give us the image of walking down a dark, scary ally. Has anyone ever done this before?

I have done this a few times. I remember walking with Emily down an ally. Let’s paint the picture here, it was dark, maybe a flickering light, it was wet and there were puddles, there was weird noises, it was terrifying.

Ok maybe it wasn’t that bad. But all I know is that I am supposed to be the man, so I am trying to be manly. I am trying to not look freaked out. But I am walking, holding Emily’s hand. And in the other hand I am holding onto my keys ready to protect myself, because I did not know what was around any corner.

This is the same way we are supposed to act in our Christian life. We need to be ready. We should ready ourselves by praying, pray for your hearts ad others heart. Stay in the Bible. Read it and pay attention to what it says. We should be committed to these things.

Being on guard is a deep concentration on God and not on the things of this world.

Point 4: Obedient Sheep put up a Fight

Point 4: Obedient Sheep put up a Fight.

This point is the next step after point 3. We need to watchful and on guard. But then verse 9 says this ‘But resist him, firm in your faith’

We need to be able to resist the Devil and fight against him.

This is just like what it says in Ephesians 6. We need put on the armor of God, so that we will be able to stand firm against the Devil.

Everyday be ready for a battle. You will be battling with your own sin and you will battling with the Devil.

So i want all of us to do these 5 things, really quick.

Know the Truth

Again this goes back to the last point. Keep truth, keep the Word in your mind. Everyday DO NOT FORGET the truth. So often we go, ‘I am too busy’, ‘I am too tired’, or ‘I will do it later’ but later never comes. Everday we need to read the word, study the word and think about the Word. I know we talk about this alot but it so important. You are never going to be upset about reading the Bible, it will only be for our good.

2. Live by the Truth

First you need to know what the Bible says, then you need to live by. God’s sheep need to be obedient sheep. We need to live by the Word. Our lives are our way of worshipping God. So live by his word

3. Get time with other Christians

Look back at your Bibles. In verse 6, ‘resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.’

Do not think that you are alone in your struggles. Whatever you are going through, it is not new. Others will understand. Get time with you Dgroup leaders because they have been through a lot and they are here for you. No matter what you have done or what you are going through we can help you focus on God and encourage you. Also we need get good Christians friends in our lives. I know how important that is. If we don’t have friends pointing us back to God then it is soooo hard to resist and stand firm.

4. Pray often

We have talked about this, but remeber that God is there to help us. Hebrews 4 reminds us that we can now pray to get mercy and grace to help, to help us in our time of need. So use it. Pray often, pray in thankfullness and pray for help.

5. Praise always

We started our series with this idea of praise. Even when life is hard, praise God. God is worthy of our praise. He is great, He is mighty and we need to praise Him. He is here for the Christian and has done so much for all of us already.

Be ready for a battle because everday we are battling. Do these five things. We need to keep these on the front of our mind all day so that we can survive.

Last point, Point 5: Obedient Sheep are Real Sheep

Obedient Sheep are Real Sheep.

We have looked at the characteristics of obdedient sheep, but none of it matters if you are not one of God’s sheep.

Verse 10 tells us that ‘the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.’

God will do all of those things but only if you are called by Him.

There are many here who have heard the gospel. They can tell me the gospel. But please listen.

Without God, without a relationship with God, you have a problem.

Because of your pride God is actively against you, there is no one to cast your worries on, you have to hold onto on your fears, the devil will be able to get you, and you cannot put up a fight against him. You can pray and read all you want but if you do not love Jesus and do not have faith in Him, it does not matter.

But you have even bigger problems. You have deal with the punishment of your sin. Everyone of us has sinned against God. We all have lied, we have been angry (which murder in the sight of God), we have all disobeyed God, we all have been prideful.

And because of our sin we have a problem. I want us to see the weight of our sin. Sin is anything that is against God. We were brought into this world by God, He is the one who shaped us and knows us, He even knows the number of hairs on our head. God has done so much good for us. He has shown us His beauty through the creation around us. But even with everything that God has done with us, we still have rebelled against God. we have said with our actions, ‘God I know that you are good, I know that you made me, but I do not care. I am going to do what I want.’ We have seen God and His glory and then spat in His face. And because of that we have a problem. God needs to punish us for our sin. It is like if you litter on the side of the road, right in front of the sign that says $500 fine, if you get caught, you will need to pay the fine because you broke the law.

We all know that sin is the problem, we have already been caught. God knows that we broke the law, so we need to pay up. And the payment for our sin, for any sin, is death. And that death is an eternal death. It is punishment that last forever and ever and ever and never stops. That is what is in store for You. O n your own, you cannot get out of the punishment. You can be nice to your sister, you can be the greatest kid in your school, and you can give all that you have to the poor, but that will not do anything because you broke the law.

But God loved us so much that He created a way. He made a way, He made a way to avoid the punishment. If I committed a crime and I was told that I could avoid jail, I would do Anything to avoid it.

God gave us a way to avoid our punishment of torture. He sent us Jesus. Jesus lived the perfect life, with no sin, He did this because we can’t. Then Jesus died on the cross for our sins and took on the wrath and anger from God. He took the punishment for us. Then He rose from the dead 3 days later and He defeated sin and death.

And all you need to do put your faith in Him. All you need to do is turn from your sin, and put your whole heart and life in submission to Christ and do this in faith to Him and Him alone. He is the only way to be saved. You cannot do enough good things, you cannot trust in anything else to save you. Only Christ can. So I tell you right now this day, Put your faith and trust in Jesus and you will be saved.

Some hear all of this know they are not a Christian, they know that they have not trusted God, they have not put their full life and faith in Jesus. Do not wait. Do not wait another second. You do not know you may not make home tonight. So I beg of you, do not wait until you are older, do not wait until camp, do not wait until you have time to think about, but instead believe today.

And that is where we end this series. Peter has shown us through our time today that God’s Sheep, God’s children are real sheep, they truly believe in Him, they are humble, they trust, they are on guard and ready to fight off the enemy.

Throughout this whole series Peter has been trying to guide us in our Christian life. No matter what is going on in life. No matter the sin, joy, or trial we are facing. We can face it, we can survive it only through the true hope in Jesus. The true hope in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.