Humble Before God
Notes
Transcript
Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Life can sometimes be mundane or lacking excitement.
We have our ups and we have our downs.
Like Jordan was saying on Monday. We tend to think about things negatively too.
So sometimes we even look at everything around us as if it is glass half empty instead of half full or actually full.
Yesterday, I found myself down because it was raining. I failed to really see the benefit of rain when fires were raging all around me. Funny how that is.
Today, I want to talk to you about how we can find that perspective. How we can receive from a good God who is constantly giving us rain in the midst of fires.
I’m going to give you three applications from 1 Peter 5:5-11 but first let me summarize them with one sentence.
“We must be humble before God”
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
Humble yourselves.
Getting low before God. Not taking life on our own. Not leaning on our own understanding. Not ignoring His purpose for everything we experience.
”We must be humble before God”
Easier said than done right!
Now let me show you from our text some practical ways we can be humble before God…
First we need to…
Look Up
Look Up
casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
Casting your anxieties on God means you are looking up to him for your help and support.
And the good news is that he wants to carry our anxieties. Not just the big ones… But all of them. It explicitly says in the original language to cast ALL of our anxieties on him.
He wants to hear our complaints. He wants to bear our load. Because he cares for us!
He cares enough for us to acknowledge in this book that we can’t carry every load we try to carry. He cares enough to tell us that he can!
So, first we…
Look Up
Second we…
Look Out
Look Out
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
As we carry our loads to God, we have to understand that there is one who is roaming around seeking to throw more on to us.
He is seeking any and every opportunity he can to destroy us. To hurt our witness and cause us grief.
Now, you might think, “how does this equal humility before God”.
Well, its found in the short phrase “Resist him, firm in your faith…”
Our resisting the enemy as we look around, watching for him, isn’t by our own strength. It’s not by us trying shoo him away. Or back hand him when he comes around…
We resist Him by “our faith”. Meaning. Our trust and security in God’s provision and love. That Christ has defeated our enemy. And that Christ is sufficient for dealing with him now.
We look around in faith in Christ. We look around knowing that Jesus is standing next to us ready to fight for us.
So, we…
Look Out
Look Out
Lastly, we…
Look Forward
Look Forward
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
”Suffered a little while…” - Understand that this present experience is temporary. It’s both behind you and currently with you… But something better is coming.
Bible scholars agree that Peter is talking about when Jesus comes back for us and glorifies us with new bodies, free of sin, sickness, and death.
At that moment, which is forward in the future, all our present mundane moments, hard and sad moments, everything we’ve had to endure while living and suffering in a broken and sinful world will be erased and we will be made new and pure and have joy like we’ve never had before.
God will restore you to the humanity he envisioned before sin entered the world.
So we…
Look Forward.
To humble ourselves before God…
We Look Up…
To God for help with all we experience here.
We Look Out…
Trusting that God will fight satan for us.
We Look Forward…
Knowing that God will send Jesus back for us.
We aren’t meant to live life in our own strength or our own understanding.
We are meant to live it dependent upon God for everything we need.
We need God to help us with our current mundane lives.
We need God to fight satan for us.
We need Jesus to come back for us.
All these things God will provide for us if we look to him in faith.
Just like we God provides forgiveness and salvation through us looking to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection in faith.
So, be humble before God!