This sermon emphasizes the importance of humility, trust in God, vigilance against spiritual adversity, and the promise of divine glory after suffering. It encourages believers to cast their burdens on God, remain steadfast in faith, and find strength in shared human struggles while looking forward to eternal life with Christ.
A CHRISTIAN MESSAGE
By WARD PIMLEY
Pastor, Journalist, Author
BIBLICAL TEXT SOURCE
“Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” – 1 Peter 5:6-7 NKJV
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” – 1 Peter 5:8 NKJV
“Resist him [the devil], steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 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. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. AMEN.” – 1 Peter 5:9-11 NKJV
PREAMBLE
GOD VALUES OUR HUMILITY. The reason? Because it is only when we are humble that we can learn and that we will turn to Him for strength and guidance. When we walk in our own pride, we arrogantly believe all of our achievements are because of our unique skills and abilities and that profit is our due.
When we are humble, we put aside our foolish pride and learn from the Creator, the One who fashioned us and knows us. Moreover, He loves us, so we can count on Him to give us good direction.
We all know this, but like Adam and Eve before us, we refuse to listen. How grateful we are, then, that we worship a God who is patient with us and more than willing to forgive us. AMEN!
PART 1. “Humble Yourself. God Resists the Proud.”
- Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time. – 1 Peter 5:6 CSB
- God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. – 1 Peter 5:5b CSB (Prov. 3:34; James 4:6)
- Proud people will be ruined, but the humble will be honored. – Proverbs 18:12 NCV
HUMILITY IS A PREREQUISITE TO LEARNING.
A woman often asks a man, “Are you teachable?”
She wants to know if the man in her life will honor her and consider her desires as well as his own. That is, will he listen to her?
- Someone who is proud and boastful will not listen.
- Someone who will not listen to instruction will not learn.
- Someone who will not learn will not change.
- Someone who will not change wil not grow.
- Someone who will not grow will not improve.
That’s called “stubbornness,” and stubborness gets us nowhere! (Stubbornness is the opposite of determination. One is foolishness; the other is goal-oriented and purposeful.)
My guess is we al know someone very well who can be stubborn. Right? (Hint: Look in the mirror.)
God is tell us here, through the Apostle Peter, that He values our humility, not our pride.
Remember, it was Lucifer’s pride that got him kicked out of Heaven. We know him as Satan, the great devil.
Adam’s pride cost him Paradise, as he listened to his wife Eve’s invitation to eat the forbidden fruit instead of listening to God’s command not to eat the forbidden fruit.
Eve’s pride caused her to listen to a snake instead of listening to her husband’s instruction of what God had told him.
Bottom line: Neither Adam nor Eve listened to God.
Pride got in their way.
Sound familiar?
Somewhere in this message you probably find yourself. I know I do.
I’m not happy about that. I’m not eager to admit it, but I am very grateful that I worship a God who understands human weakness and is willing to forgive us.
That’s why we worship Him!
PART 2. “He Cares for You.”
Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. – 1 Peter 5:7 BSB
I CAN SEE this image so clearly. It repeats in my mind.
A man (or a woman) humbly comes to the foot of the cross and lays down his (or her) burdens, just as the Lord in Matthew 11 bids us do.
“Come to Me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
So, we kneel in prayer, asking God to show us mercy and take our cares away; and after we are done praying, and we are ready to leave, we pick up the bundle we had placed at Jesus’ feet, fling it over our shoulders, and walk away with it. Or, if it is too heavy for us to lift, we drag it along the ground.
Over and over and over again we do that. Why? Why are we so unwilling to part with our burdens, our heartaches, and our sorrow?
How many of us hold firmly onto past grievances, unwilling to forgive others – or ourselves – and we live in our pain, even glorifying our pain, honoring it, worshipping it. We want to share it with others. We want them to know every little detail of how we hurt, and how unfair life has been to us.
Unfortunately, for many of us, there are two things we will not do:
- We will not blame ourselves.
- We will not leave the burden with Jesus.
Now, you might say I’m exaggerating. Maybe, but if so, it is only to make a point. Our tendency is to walk for years with every heartache and defeat and misery. Yes, they will go away for a time, and we can dull the pain with various addictions (alcohol, drugs, sex, movies, exercise, family, work, busyness).
We feel lost without our pain. We often keep pain because we’re familiar with it. It’s like a smelly old jacket with paint stains and rips that we keep in the closet. It’s not a good style statement, but we’re used to it, and it’s a comfortable fit.
Jesus calls us to give our hurts and pains over to Him. He can take it from us and heal our souls.
Why does He call us?
Because, as our text says, He cares about us and wants to heal us.
Let’s leave our burdens at the cross.
PART 3. “Be Alert. Your Adversary Is Stalking You.”
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. – 1 Peter 5:8 ESV
DO YOU EVER feel you’re being watched? You don’t see the person watching you, but you can feel his or her presence.
You can just sense it. My wife and I sometimes look around and see our Puppy staring at us. The textbooks say she’s *lurking*. Shi Tzus lurk.
The Bible says Satan lurks.
He’s prowling around you, maybe this very moment, looking for a chance to devour you, to catch you off your stride, to knock you down. He never tries to help you up or encourage you or enlighten you – it’s always to visit some harm on you.
Peter tells us here to be “watchful,” anticipating his evil presence. Why is that? It’s so you can resist him better, so you can arm yourself with the armor of God sooner, so you can fling yourself into the waiting arms of Jesus Christ for protection beforesomeone hurts you or you hurt someone else.
Remember those nine (9) fruits or characteristics that comprise the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5)? It’s actually one fruit with nine parts:
LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, AND SELF-CONTROL.
Those traits that comprise the one unit or fruit (singular) are prayers that God gives us to sustain during Satan’s attacks, during spiritual warfare, when our heart breaks, when we’re angry and frustrated, when we’re discouraged or hurt, or when we’re __ (fill in the blank here with your pain).
Being sober-minded means being clear-headed. It is the opposite of unfocused vision or distorted sound or tipsy walking or loose lips or impatient temperament.
It’s recognizing you have an enemy who wants to take you away from God, and he’ll use any temptation at his disposal to lure you into his lair. Those temptations, not surprisingly, are the ones that speak to you. He watches what tempts you, and then he uses those temptations to harm you.
Jesus warned us about him with these words: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” – John 10:10 ESV
Somewhere in this message is you!
Yeah, that’s you! and it’s me. That’s why God put this verse in the Bible: It’s because He cares about us, and He longs to help us. He tells us what’s wrong with us so He can help us. He tells us to be watchful; to be careful; and to place our trust and confidence in Him.
Remember what we said earlier about people not listening? Those who don’t listen don’t learn, and those who don’t learn don’t change.
Non-listeners are non-learners. Don’t be a non-learner. Pay attention and trust God.
PART 4. “After Your Suffering, He Will Glorify You.”
Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. – 1 Peter 5:9 NKJV
BROTHER (SISTER) YOU are not alone. You are not unique.
Whatever you are going through right now, someone else also is going through it; another someone else already went through it; and yet another someone else is about to go through it.
You are an individual, and God knows your name, but the suffering and pain and hurts that you experience are common to all mankind. Sorry, you are not the only one. The world is not dumping on you. The world is broken. Our sin tarnished God’s perfect creation.
The Apostle Peter wrote this verse to encourage believers facing persecution and hardship. He wanted to assure his flock that God will not abandon those who suffer for their faith. You can be assured that God can use your life to show His grace to those around you, whether it be family or friends, staff or fellow residents.
Some people have it better than you do; some have it worse. All have something. Everyone suffers.
Suffering is part of the human condition, but those who believe in Jesus enjoy the promise of an eternity in Paradise with Him.
The Bible says (in Romans) that the universe is “groaning” until Jesus returns, when He will right all the world’s wrongs and govern justly.
This world is not our home. This world never will feel “just right” to us, even though some individual moments might feel comfortable. We spend our lives in discontent; always wishing for something we don’t have or lamenting something we do have.
We rarely just feel at ease.
The saving grace is that Jesus told us in advance (John 16:33) that we will have trials and tribulations in this world but to take heart. Why? He said, “Because I have overcome the world.”
This devil that bothers us has nothing on Jesus. He cannot harm Jesus. Yes, he will put Him on that cross, but then Jesus will rise from the dead and defeat Satan and death and evil and sin.
Listen to this admonition from the Book of James. James was the half-brother of Jesus. (That is, Mary was their mother; Joseph was James’ biological father but only Jesus’ legal father.)
This is what James said about trials and tribulations in this life:
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers [and sisters], when you encounter trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” – JAMES 1:2-4 BSB
FINAL WORDS
OUR TRIALS MAKE us stronger.
Just like an oyster becomes a pearl through friction, we humans become stronger in our faith walk as we soldier through difficulty, trudging through one step at a time, ever onward, ever upward.
You have heard the secular expressions, often associated with sports or other competitive endeavors: No pain, no gain. You must give something to get something. You must hurt a little to reap the glory. You must struggle to learn, to grow, to mature, to become stronger.
Facing difficulties ~ and placing your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as you do so ~ will help you become a stronger man or woman in your faith walk, and you’ll draw closer to Jesus Christ in the process.
More important, Jesus promised (Matthew 28:20) to be with us every step of the way.
PRAYER
ABBA FATHER, GRACIOUS GOD – We thank You for Your gift to us of life – of temporal life on earth and the promise of eternal life in heaven.
We thank You, God, for giving us the gift of Jesus Christ dying on the cross, paying the price we could not satisfy for our sins, taking the wrath of God upon Himself to spare us from that terror.
O Lord, our God, bless each one of us, we pray, with guidance from the Holy Spirit so that we might be ambassadors for Christ, living out the gospel in our actions so that we can earn the right to share the gospel with our words – our testimony – our thanksgiving.
We lift this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus.
BENEDICTION
To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 5:11 NKJV
Peace be to you all who are in Christ. 1 Peter 5:14 NASB
AMEN and AMEN
Ward's Words | BY WARD PIMLEY 