Humble Living in Treacherous Days
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Read 1 Peter 5:6-11
Pray
1 Peter is a book for a suffering church. A church experiencing treacherous days.
While our experience of suffering may not be exactly like that of our brothers and sisters from the first century, Peter’s words are still applicable for us today because the sources of suffering then are still the same sources now.
Suffering is a result of a cosmic rebellion of demons and humans seeking to steal God’s glory and throne.
You can summarize it in two words that begin with S.
Satan
Sin
I know that many in this room are struggling through making sense of our world right now.
It appears we’ve just exited a pandemic.
Many of you lost loved ones.
Some of you lost jobs.
Our economy is in shambles.
Your gas and grocery budgets have quadrupled.
World War is being teased.
Just this week, another terrible evil in Texas claimed the lives of children and teachers.
We might live in a different day than Peter’s original audience. But we still live in the same treacherous world broken by satan and sin.
But Peter here, is giving us somewhere to cast our eyes.
Our tendency is to look at the headlines, the gas pump, the bills, the death, and all the destruction caused by satan and sin and then loose hope!
Peter is essentially telling us to look three places so that we might find strength and a firm footing in this battlefield..
First,
Look Up!
Look Up!
Humbly look up to God for help...
1 Peter 5:6a (ESV)
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God...
Notice the position Peter is telling us we are in. Or, better yet, think of it as the location he is telling us we are at.
We are “under God’s mighty hand”
This is an allusion to Old Testament Wandering Hebrew Exiles who were being guided and protected by God.
8 And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders.
The book of 1 Peter is known to many as a book for Elect Exiles.
At the beginning, Peter even calls his readers by this title, “elect exiles”.
Here Peter is showing us that, while our days our filled with turbulence, God is still leading, protecting, and guiding us as we navigate this treacherous battlefield.
He is doing this because we belong to Him.
We belong to him because he has caused us to be reborn into his family and now we enjoy the benefits of his guardianship.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
If we belong to Him, and he is leading, protecting, and guiding us, then it only makes sense that we humbly receive His aid and protection.
This is what it means to humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand.
Many people would interpret this phrase to mean that God wants to be a kill joy and stifle our human freedom.
Grumpy Voice: “You better humble yourself and do what God says or else he’s going to get you!”
We must not interpret this command from Peter that way.
Because it’s not what he intended
Because it’s not the way Jesus portrayed God in His life
While many would interpret God’s mighty hand as a hand of oppression, Jesus showed us that God’s mighty hand is actually a hand of help and love!
Even Peter is showing us this!
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
“So that”
God doesn’t want to tear you down!
God wants to lift you up!
In fact, think of it this way...
God’s hand is extending downward towards you in order for Him to grab from you the very things that weigh you down.
7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
The reason humility is essential in doing this, Humility under God’s mighty hand, is that pride is what would cause you to hold on to all your anxieties and worries and then try to remedy them yourself or though human efforts.
This is not the only place where anxiety and worry are addressed. There are several commands from Jesus, Peter, and Paul to not worry or be anxious. They tell us to take the things that would cause anxiety to God in prayer.
They tell us this because anxiety, as many commentators I read say, anxiety is actually a result of pride.
Pride, both in our unwillingness to let God remedy the things that cause anxiety, and in our constant obsession with ourselves.
Not everyone has anxiety like this, but consider for a moment examples of anxiety inducing things:
I’m not going to be able to pay my bills.
Everyone is going to be looking at me when I get up to speak.
What if I mess this up and everyone laughs at me?
I don’t know what I would talk about if I went to that social gathering.
Beloved, each of these examples have self at the center. Either, I wont be able to fix something or I’m at risk of being hurt or shamed.
Either I need to have power in myself to overcome or I’m at the center of the problem.
I know the reality is that this isn’t an exhaustive list and that it may even appear to make light of what many of you deal with on a day to day basis.
Please hear me and, I believe, hear Jesus this morning.
Jesus cares more deeply than you do about the things that weigh you down with anxiety and fear.
Your children’s future.
Your lack of having children.
Your fear of commitment.
your fear of moving on.
Your health and future.
You care a great deal about these things. But Jesus cares infinitely more.
You do not have the power to change the majority of the things that cause you fear and dread. And in reality, they may never change.
You may suffer. You may loose your job. Your kids may reject Jesus (This actually weighs heavy on me because I minister to many of your children.) But the reality is, our greatest fears may become a reality.
But the question is...
Will you grab the hand that has been extended down to you!
Will you look up and grab the hand!?
Will you humbly look up to God for help?
Applications:
Write out a list of the things causing you anxiety, pray over them, then write out bible verses for each.
Examine your heart this evening before you go to bed. Ask yourself...
Am I acting like all of these things giving me anxiety depend on me?
Look Up..
Second...
Lookout!
Lookout!
When I say “look out”, I am saying it as a warning.
Here me say it this way…
LOOKOUT!!
Be on the lookout for the enemy’s tactic and your own vulnerability.
8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Be sober-minded: When you drive a car you need to be sober so that your senses and judgements are not impeded.
Peter is saying that Christians who are not on the look out for the enemy’s attacks are essential drinking and driving.
They will likely harm themselves and harm others because their senses and judgements are impeded.
They will attribute natural causes to supernatural occurrences.
Beloved, satan is real. Demons are real.
Your enemy is a lot stronger, smarter, and more patient than you are.
He actually wants you to think he isn’t real and that he isn’t working. Christians who are most susceptible to his attacks are the ones he has convinced that he isn’t active in their lives. He’s convinced them that they have all they need in order to manage the temptations, problem, and pains that he has caused in their life.
Back to the last problem we discussed. Human pride.
You can’t navigate his attacks on your own. You aren’t that strong, smart, and patient.
Which takes us to the next verse.
What is our main weapon against satan?
Is it what we do or don’t do?
no...
It’s what we believe and trust.
1 Peter 5:9a (ESV)
9 Resist him, firm in your faith...
Fight the devil with faith in Christ.
Not faith in yourself, not faith in human cunning, not even faith that everything will work out in the end like your hoping.
But faith in the one who is stronger than all.
You could call it a “humble faith”.
James even alludes to this fact that humble faith in God is also at the root of your fight against satan.
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
As Phil Wickham would say, “Oh God, the Battle Belongs to You”
This is what all Christians are burdened with. We are all burdened by our attacks from satan and are all leaning and trusting God to overcome him in His way and His time.
9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
We are all called to set our faith in Christ and His deliverance as we endure this battle in this treacherous world.
Application: Lookout and do that which proceeds from faith!
Marinate your mind in God’s Word and His promises.
You don’t need to know your enemy as much as you need to know your savior.
Knowing your savior more and more will help you recognize imposters.
Are you married? Do you have children?
Pray with your spouse daily.
Confess sin regularly.
Get in the Word with your family!
Satan is winning in many marriages simply because you don’t do these things!
Don’t waist your time becoming intoxicated by netflix or disney plus!
Be soberminded!
Get yourself into community! Lions prey easiest on prey separated from the pack!
Lookout!
Look Forward!
Look Forward!
Look forward to Jesus’ return and your subsequent glory!
1 Peter 5:10a (ESV)
10 And after you have suffered a little while...
I have to say this real quick. This is so so important.
Just as you read and interpret the bible considering the context every particular package. (what’s in front and what is behind).
You have to do the same thing as you consider and interpret your life.
“A little while!”
When you consider your life and it’s length you have to consider that this small blip that starts at your conception and ends at your last breath, and then every moment of suffering or attack, whether it lasts an hour or a lifetime, compared to the reality of eternity, it is just two words, “A little while”.
This is the difference between living in light of the moment or living in light of eternity.
Are you single, anxious you will never marry? Beloved, even if that is so, it’s only a little while before the great wedding feast.
Are you deformed or sick? My friend, even if you are never healed or your life is filled with constant pain, it is only but a little while before you see the hand of Him who hold joy and pleasure forevermore.
Look. Look. Look.
10 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.
Beloved, look at what is waiting for you!!
His eternal glory.
Restoration.
Confirmation.
Strengthening,
Permanence.
Jesus is coming back for you!
And with Him, he will bring all that your heart and soul knows it was made for.
You struggle now, you hunger now, you suffer now.
C.S. Lewis, when he was commenting on the sufferings of this “little while”, he said this...
“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”
The reason you are so keenly aware and sensitive to the pain of this “little while” is because you were made to be retrieved by Jesus!
He is coming. And this is both our hope and our warning!
”Jesus left this earth quietly, but he will return loudly. He slipped away; but he will come roaring back.”
Dane Ortland - Deeper
11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Application
When the intensity of this “little while” seems to overtake you, remind yourself of what awaits you!
If, by your lunch hour, you have been overwhelmed by this treacherous world, pull out your bible and read the last chapter of revelation!
If those you love come to you with the sorrows of this world, compel them to consider the joys of the next and their means of access: Jesus.
Look Forward.
Recap
Humbly, look up to God for help!
Lookout for the enemy’s tactic and your own vulnerability!
Look forward to Jesus’ return and your subsequent glory!
Invitation
These treacherous days are due to a cosmic spiritual war we are all caught up in.
Peter’s words for us this morning are only helpful if we are on the right side of the battle.
Those who have not placed their faith in King Christ are on the side of the enemy and destined for eternal loss.
You might think that sounds harsh or even divisive. But its true. King Jesus said this,
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
But, the amazing fact is that Jesus is the only king to ever give up his life for his enemies.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Life-Group Questions
Why is it important to see God’s mighty hand as a hand of help and not a hand of oppression?
Do you go to God first with your anxieties or somewhere else?
Why do demons want Christians to doubt the miraculous and supernatural?
Why is it important for us to stay in Christian community? Is there such a thing as a Christian Lone Ranger?
Why is it important for us to remember that this present experience is only “a little while”?
What are some ways you can daily put your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus returns? (see 1 Peter 1:13)