back to indexWed Bible Study (1 Peter) Lesson 12 ~ 03-05-2017
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Well, the study through 1 Peter I think has both been super good in terms of its depth, 00:00:18.600 |
And I think part of that is because although we hit many sections where the scriptures 00:00:23.560 |
in 1 Peter was giving us specific commands, there was a lot about 1 Peter that actually 00:00:29.640 |
was reiterating in repetitive fashion, was trying to give exhortation not on the way 00:00:37.040 |
of like, "I need you to do this specifically," but on the way of thinking and having an attitude 00:00:46.000 |
Especially having a worldview, a perspective on life, a perspective on God, a perspective 00:00:50.880 |
on who we are, a perspective, etc., etc., about how we're supposed to interpret the 00:00:55.800 |
world as we perceive it, especially because, again, the people that he's talking to, his 00:01:01.720 |
audience are people who's going through a whirlwind of difficulty, especially intense 00:01:08.860 |
So by way of quick review, I want to go through certain perspectives that Apostle Peter challenged 00:01:15.920 |
the Christians to have in order to have an appropriate attitude, that as they go through 00:01:21.720 |
this season, these hurdles over their lives, that come out through it, not just simply, 00:01:27.320 |
"Oh my gosh, we just need to pound out and like bear through this," but rather actually 00:01:33.520 |
So the first thing, we studied in chapters 1 and into chapter 2, that there was a great 00:01:41.920 |
So this is for your fill in the blanks right here. 00:01:44.360 |
That there was an incredible calling and salvation. 00:01:47.360 |
Remember he started off by saying, "You who are scattered," and gave this long list of 00:01:51.120 |
areas that they've been spread out to in the diaspora, so to speak, and he says, "But you've 00:01:58.360 |
And he reminds them that this salvation that they've been given, it wasn't a spur of the 00:02:01.920 |
moment, but it was planned long ago, and even angels and prophets would look intently into 00:02:13.440 |
So there was a great calling and salvation and a great expectation. 00:02:17.880 |
And God gave them many expectations in terms of who they are to be in their character, 00:02:21.880 |
in their love, in their hunger for the Word, and et cetera, et cetera, right? 00:02:26.680 |
Number two, then after giving that kind of preface, he says, "God is doing a great work 00:02:33.340 |
in you," and so he challenges them, "You need to be who you are, who God has made you to 00:02:42.520 |
And that's that section where he starts to say, "And God is purposing to do this and 00:02:46.160 |
as you're coming to the cornerstone," he says, "you are, as it were, living stones being 00:03:02.440 |
And so you have an incredible purpose to offer spiritual sacrifices to God. 00:03:06.600 |
You have a purpose to give God glory and proclaim His excellencies," and he goes on about, "You 00:03:11.240 |
need to be who you are, who God has made you to be," right? 00:03:15.320 |
And that's a perspective that we have to have. 00:03:18.760 |
What's more, he went on to a lengthy section where he started to describe different categories 00:03:24.840 |
This is number three, starting from chapter two, verse 13, he describes to them what is 00:03:30.320 |
real strength found in submission, found in submission, okay? 00:03:38.320 |
And he says, "So every single one of you submit to governing authorities, whether governors," 00:03:44.600 |
and then he talks about the workers or even slaves, and he says, "Even to those masters 00:03:53.280 |
And then he says, "To the wives, even if your husband is disobedient to the word, learn 00:03:58.640 |
And he gives the example of Christ saying, "Look what Christ has done, voluntarily surrendering. 00:04:08.800 |
And then lastly, starting from the end of chapter three into chapter four at the tail 00:04:12.960 |
end of it, he basically says, "Glorify God since the end is near." 00:04:17.480 |
He puts it in other terms by saying, like, "Just don't suffer for being silly. 00:04:23.440 |
He says, "If you're going to suffer, suffer for the glory of God. 00:04:31.160 |
Now in all of this, I'm kind of setting the pace that, so all of this, what Apostle Peter 00:04:36.840 |
has been doing, as I summarize the whole book for us right now, is he's been giving us 00:04:44.200 |
Where yes, maybe some people are just looking for a way out. 00:04:47.040 |
Maybe they're just looking for just a small glimmer of hope from Apostle Peter, but he 00:04:50.960 |
says, "No, I'm going to challenge you to go above and beyond what you thought was natural 00:04:55.080 |
to you by giving you a big perspective of what God is doing in you." 00:05:00.040 |
And challenging you to have a perspective, like, "We need to live up to this calling." 00:05:04.120 |
And what's more, God has given us an immense purpose, even through what's really confusing, 00:05:08.720 |
which is our persecution and our suffering, right? 00:05:14.440 |
So all of that then empowers the Christians to go through these sufferings with a different 00:05:21.300 |
Not one of dragging their feet, complaining, and wishing there was somebody else. 00:05:25.720 |
Maybe even being tempted that they would not name the name of Christ, but rather that they 00:05:31.520 |
And tonight, it's the carry-on of that theme of the right perspective and the right attitude 00:05:39.320 |
And what are the two things, the attitudes that Apostle Peter wants us to have? 00:05:43.600 |
Well, let's take a look at the passage and then we'll jump forward, okay? 00:05:53.560 |
He says, "You younger men likewise, be subject to your elders, and all of you clothe yourselves 00:06:01.760 |
For God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. 00:06:05.080 |
Or humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 00:06:11.120 |
casting all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. 00:06:17.200 |
Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. 00:06:21.800 |
But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are 00:06:26.600 |
being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. 00:06:29.960 |
After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His 00:06:33.560 |
eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 00:06:43.520 |
Through Silvanus, our faithful brother, for so I regard him, I have written to you briefly, 00:06:48.800 |
exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. 00:06:55.120 |
She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greeting, and so does my son, 00:07:06.720 |
From this passage, I emphasize again that Apostle Peter wants us as concluding marks 00:07:12.960 |
to have a certain perspective and an attitude resulting from that perspective. 00:07:18.000 |
And the two I want to highlight today are the ideas of humility and trust. 00:07:25.240 |
So I'm giving you two words just to hang our hats on and think about for tonight. 00:07:33.880 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your grace. 00:07:36.320 |
I ask, Lord, that you will continue to do a powerful work in us. 00:07:41.280 |
For God, we want to have the characteristics, the maturity, the wisdom, the transformation 00:07:49.680 |
Ultimately, God, we want to exhibit the characteristics of Christ. 00:07:54.080 |
And Father, we know that oftentimes through the various circumstances of life, it becomes 00:07:58.920 |
And Lord, we battle with our flesh, we battle with the sin in our hearts and in our minds, 00:08:02.840 |
but we ask, Lord God, that by your truth and by your spirit working through your truth, 00:08:10.320 |
That we might truly exhibit the power of the gospel in our lives. 00:08:17.240 |
So, in this, what I've done when I walk through this passage is on your packet, I made some 00:08:27.800 |
notes on the superscript and then underlined and bolded the main commands. 00:08:33.120 |
Just to show you that in this last section, Apostle Peter just does one of those bam, 00:08:37.640 |
bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, and gives lots of commands. 00:08:41.120 |
But if you look at it in total, again, he's giving many summary commands that aren't so 00:08:46.240 |
specific as to, oh, I want you to give this money to this, or I want you to, you know, 00:08:50.960 |
apply this word like this, but it's a lot of general insertion of an attitude that we're 00:08:57.680 |
And this perspective and attitude carries on from long ago, back in chapter 2, 13, where 00:09:03.520 |
he started saying, even though you're suffering, I want you to learn how to submit as Christians. 00:09:10.320 |
And so he says, likewise, right, just like he said before, he says, be subject to your 00:09:15.280 |
elders and all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another. 00:09:19.680 |
For God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. 00:09:22.280 |
Therefore, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the proper 00:09:29.200 |
So in this first two verses, verse 5 and 6, we notice just a very plain and obvious truth 00:09:37.600 |
God desires us to have the attitude of humility. 00:09:41.880 |
And the command simply is, he wants every single individual, not just the young men, 00:09:46.160 |
although he calls them out and says, I want you to learn to submit to your church elders. 00:09:57.080 |
Young men could have desires for leadership, whatever it may be. 00:10:00.680 |
And then he commands them again, just like he commanded the previous categories of people, 00:10:07.280 |
But the application goes to everybody, right? 00:10:09.720 |
There is a uniform, one size fit all dress code. 00:10:13.960 |
I don't know if you guys have gone to high school or something where there's a uniform, 00:10:18.520 |
There's a sense in which Christianity has a uniform dress code where he says, he wants 00:10:28.680 |
Now, as we just look at that simple command, I'm not going to sit here and then go like, 00:10:33.240 |
okay, what is humility, all this kind of stuff. 00:10:39.040 |
Let's make an observation of the text and let's identify. 00:10:42.200 |
As we walk through verse 5 and 6, what are the reasons apostle Peter gives as to why 00:10:53.160 |
So I want to throw that question out to you guys, if you guys would just shout it out 00:11:00.160 |
What are the observations in terms of why apostle Peter makes this challenge that we 00:11:19.520 |
You can put that in there as in your pride, you are going to be weak against your enemy. 00:11:28.600 |
That is when the enemy has his claws into you. 00:11:31.520 |
That is when he's going to set a stumbling block for you. 00:11:40.920 |
God gives grace to the humble, but he opposes the proud. 00:11:46.880 |
Man, if you think about reasons enough, my goodness, worst thing in the world to have 00:11:53.920 |
the most powerful being you can possibly imagine who supersedes all that you can imagine be 00:12:12.560 |
And you can look at the whole section together. 00:12:20.240 |
When you look at verse 5, 6, 7 together, that whole concept right there is challenging us 00:12:31.280 |
So sorry, I didn't mean to just cut it short at verse 6, but inclusive of the other stuff. 00:12:45.760 |
So God has a prerogative and his own timetable and he essentially commands us that we need 00:12:51.200 |
to humble ourselves because God's going to be the one who will exalt, not us. 00:13:07.680 |
So we have a couple of those things there and all of those things then come off, just 00:13:15.380 |
Apostle Peter reiterates twice, you know, that we should humble ourselves. 00:13:20.920 |
In verse 5, telling us to clothe ourselves and verse 6 telling us to humble ourselves 00:13:27.860 |
So if we were to just make, you know, small detail observations, you can add in their 00:13:31.840 |
concepts of because God's mighty hand is over us or just a simple fact because God actually 00:13:40.160 |
And so these reasons for why we need to humble ourselves start mounting up. 00:13:46.000 |
Now as we think about that command then, this is not just a small command for us, this is 00:13:52.280 |
an imperative that carries an incredible amount of weight. 00:13:56.340 |
And I want to give a little bit more description here about even that term. 00:14:00.600 |
In verse 5 where it tells us to clothe ourselves with humility, the verbal imagery is pretty 00:14:07.600 |
The literal term in the Greek means to tie oneself either with like a knot or a band, 00:14:16.560 |
And so typically, what do you wear that has some kind of string that you draw or whatever 00:14:24.120 |
A servant who puts on an apron to serve or whatever it may be or an individual who's 00:14:28.480 |
getting ready to work and so they put on something and they tie it around, right? 00:14:34.640 |
But what's more, we know that Apostle Peter has had an incredible imagery shown to him 00:14:42.160 |
Let's turn our Bibles to John chapter 13 verses 1 through 17. 00:14:47.080 |
Story we know well, story definitely worth us giving special attention to as we talk 00:14:51.760 |
about this important topic of humility, okay? 00:14:57.680 |
So I'm going to start reading for us as now before the Feast of the Passover when Jesus 00:15:01.680 |
knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father. 00:15:06.160 |
Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. 00:15:10.280 |
During supper when the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's 00:15:13.920 |
son, to betray Him, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands 00:15:20.160 |
and that He had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. 00:15:25.400 |
He laid aside His outer garments and taking a towel, tied it around His waist. 00:15:30.640 |
Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash disciples' feet and to wipe them 00:15:37.600 |
Just a quick note there, I just, this story is beautiful and this story hits so many of 00:15:41.480 |
the topics that we're going to talk about today. 00:15:43.200 |
I mentioned today's topic is humility and trust. 00:15:47.400 |
Interestingly enough, it even talks about Jesus' trust of the Father in this story. 00:15:52.520 |
Continuing on, verse 6, "He came to Simon Peter who said to him, 'Lord, do you wash 00:15:58.080 |
Jesus answered him, 'What I am doing you do not understand now, but after you will 00:16:03.480 |
Peter said to him, 'You shall never wash my feet.' 00:16:06.840 |
And Jesus answered him, 'If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.'" 00:16:12.000 |
Just a note there, you look at the reason why Peter did not receive Jesus' humble service 00:16:19.740 |
And we're going to talk about that a little bit later, so just keep that in your mind. 00:16:24.760 |
Verse 9, "Simon Peter said to Him, 'Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my 00:16:29.280 |
Jesus said to him, 'The one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, 00:16:33.320 |
but is completely clean and you are clean, but not every one of you.' 00:16:37.400 |
For he knew who was to betray him, that was why he said, 'Not all of you are clean.' 00:16:41.600 |
When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments, resumed his place, he said 00:16:45.760 |
to them, 'Do you understand what I have done to you? 00:16:49.040 |
You shall call me teacher and Lord and you are right, for I am, so I am. 00:16:53.820 |
If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's 00:16:59.400 |
For I have given you an example that you should do just as I have done to you. 00:17:02.760 |
Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger 00:17:10.000 |
If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.'" 00:17:16.840 |
Already, there is this challenge for us to clothe ourselves in humility, that the term 00:17:21.640 |
itself is incredibly vivid and you could almost hear all the tones of all that Peter experienced 00:17:26.720 |
with Christ and there is this challenge from Christ's Word Himself asking this question 00:17:34.040 |
When it comes to humility, you need to clothe yourself and as he's teaching that to his 00:17:38.720 |
disciples, he gives this incredibly convicting question. 00:17:49.680 |
A pupil isn't greater than his teacher, is he? 00:17:53.020 |
And there is this question even for us when we think about humility, when we think about 00:17:57.120 |
our willingness to put ourselves in a lower, lowly position, do we sometimes think that 00:18:03.640 |
we're too good to serve in certain capacities? 00:18:07.160 |
Do we sometimes think that we're too good to stoop down before a brother? 00:18:11.720 |
Maybe even especially like an actual sibling? 00:18:15.600 |
Do we sometimes think that we're too good to wash the dirt off of a brother's feet? 00:18:20.600 |
Did Jesus say, "No, blessed are you when you understand that this is what marks a Christian, 00:18:26.480 |
a follower of Christ, I've set you an example to do." 00:18:30.280 |
And so it comes down to our perspective because Jesus in asking that question, asked a very 00:18:35.840 |
pointed question about what we think of ourselves, that's the lesson learned. 00:18:42.120 |
How do you think of yourself and in you answering that question that either prevents you from 00:18:47.920 |
following the example of Christ or that's going to allow you to say, "No, I never held 00:18:55.040 |
I never thought of myself so greater than my brother that I would have put myself there. 00:19:00.880 |
And definitely, most definitely, I'm not greater than my master." 00:19:06.800 |
So there is this humility that is a challenge for us. 00:19:10.760 |
But we would voluntarily not only give respect where respect is due, but give respect in 00:19:22.040 |
Not only we're being humbled because God is humiliating us and putting through all kinds 00:19:25.560 |
of pain and hurt, but just like Christ as He sees His disciples, as He sees what God 00:19:30.880 |
has given and as He sees what God has placed before Him, He is more than willing to clothe 00:19:36.560 |
Himself, tie the apron so to speak, and serve the disciples before Him. 00:19:48.560 |
But can I tell you honestly for me, like, you know, one of the struggles in terms of 00:19:53.480 |
sins that I had early on was just, man, I was such an arrogant individual. 00:19:58.880 |
And back when I was a new believer and stuff, I really felt like, man, because I struggle 00:20:06.640 |
with pride and arrogance so much, I just kind of assumed you either are like born with it 00:20:15.160 |
Meaning I almost got to a point where I just kind of said, like, "You think a certain 00:20:22.480 |
And I remember a time where every time, you know, as a young believer, you're like super 00:20:25.840 |
gung-ho and you want to serve the Lord or you start learning like, you know, four guitar 00:20:29.880 |
chords and you think you're the bomb, like whatever it may be, everything in church started 00:20:35.600 |
And sometimes you learn theology and then you, you know, go pick a fight with your pastor. 00:20:41.760 |
And I remember just thinking, like, some people are just humble and some people are not. 00:20:47.560 |
That's how I thought, just being honest with you, right? 00:20:51.120 |
But truthfully speaking, that is not the way the Scriptures speak to us. 00:20:55.240 |
The Scripture is challenging us with the simple truth that us as followers of Christ all need 00:21:04.600 |
It is a, what I like to call, the reflexive verb where you humble yourself, right? 00:21:11.720 |
You put yourself under the mighty hand of God. 00:21:14.400 |
You put yourself willingly under other people and you teach yourself. 00:21:23.240 |
And I just want to, you know, as I was thinking about this passage, I was sitting here thinking, 00:21:26.480 |
"Oh my goodness, you know, like, oh my goodness, you know, like, this is the beauty of the 00:21:29.440 |
Scripture where, like, part of me didn't want to teach this because, yeah, I'm being, talking 00:21:33.920 |
about humility for a guy who struggles so much with a perception of self. 00:21:38.320 |
Like, how do people see me wanting to succeed, afraid of failure, all that kind of stuff. 00:21:44.620 |
And then to teach on this subject, I didn't know how to think of it, you know? 00:21:50.060 |
And there's a question that I was asking as I was preparing this, like, how do I take 00:21:53.060 |
this simple truth where you need to be humble and not allow it to just simply skim at the 00:21:58.740 |
surface and just say, "Okay, we get that, right? 00:22:01.020 |
We're all going to be, you know, trying to be humble, okay?" 00:22:05.680 |
And so what I'm going to do right now is do two part. 00:22:07.940 |
One, let's really think deeply about what humility is by also being convicted about 00:22:16.980 |
But what's more, what always is going to cause us to see that sin of arrogance and pride 00:22:23.340 |
in its right perspective, and we're talking about perspective today, is when we realize 00:22:33.300 |
Another way to put that is how much is pride despicable in the eyes of our God? 00:22:38.860 |
So at this time, I'm going to put up some verses on here on the PowerPoint for us, just 00:22:45.900 |
so that we can get through a good amount of passages and talk about this question. 00:22:50.920 |
We want to be convicted that surely we want to be people marked by an attitude of humility. 00:22:57.300 |
Then in terms of the opposite, the pride in us, what is it? 00:23:09.100 |
There's a passage from Hosea chapter 4 verse 9. 00:23:16.580 |
And I'm going to read Hosea chapter 13 verse 4 through 9. 00:23:30.300 |
And it says, "But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt. 00:23:33.980 |
You know no God but me, and besides me there is no Savior. 00:23:36.920 |
It was I who knew you in the wilderness and the land of the drowned. 00:23:40.420 |
But when you had grazed, they became full, and they were filled, and their hearts were 00:23:49.600 |
So I am to them like a lion, like a leopard will lurk beside the way. 00:23:53.860 |
I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs to tear open their breasts. 00:23:59.060 |
And there I will devour them like a lion as a wild beast would rip them open." 00:24:07.980 |
When there is this arrogance in us that says, "I had my fill, now I don't need you, so forget 00:24:14.020 |
He says, "I will be to you like a huge bear, mother bear who's just been robbed of her 00:24:21.660 |
That's incredibly like, you know, vivid, you know? 00:24:26.100 |
I'm not sure if you guys have seen that gruesome movie, Revenant or whatever, Revenant, I forgot 00:24:34.460 |
So you ask that question, when it comes to how much God detests an arrogance. 00:24:42.660 |
An arrogance where you say, "Because I have enough, I don't need you, I don't need him, 00:24:47.340 |
And I don't know if you guys have ever interacted with people like that. 00:24:52.440 |
People who use people, people who just simply are dismissive because, "Hey, if you're not 00:24:56.560 |
for me, if you're not held to me, then I don't need you in my life." 00:25:05.720 |
The point here is, pride believes in self-sufficiency. 00:25:12.960 |
Let's turn our Bibles to Deuteronomy, chapter 8. 00:25:19.080 |
And I'm going to read from verse 15 through 18. 00:25:21.080 |
Okay, Deuteronomy, chapter 8, verse 15 through 18. 00:25:23.800 |
Remember, the nation, after they've been traveling through the wilderness, sorry, in front of 00:25:28.040 |
the plains of Moab, getting ready to go over into the land of Canaan, and Moses is saying, 00:25:34.320 |
Because so far, it's just been sin, sin, sin, and I need to reiterate God's law to you so 00:25:40.240 |
Well, as he's talking about that, look at the convicting words that he says, starting 00:25:47.320 |
"Who led you," or he's going to describe to them how they have houses and all this kind 00:25:52.920 |
of stuff, they've multiplied and everything, but God's the one who's doing this, but they're 00:25:57.600 |
God's the one who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its fiery serpents 00:26:02.560 |
and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of 00:26:06.720 |
the flinty rock, who fed you and the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, 00:26:12.920 |
that He might humble you and test you to do you good in the end. 00:26:17.000 |
Beware, lest you say in your heart," what do they say? 00:26:20.760 |
"My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth." 00:26:24.920 |
So he says, "You shall remember the Lord your God, for it was He who gives you power to 00:26:32.960 |
The heart of the arrogant, the heart of those who are prideful constantly think, "I am capable. 00:26:40.680 |
It's the mantra of, "If I just believe hard enough, if I just try hard enough, I probably 00:26:47.080 |
Not only that, but just thinking, "I am sufficient in myself." 00:27:01.520 |
Well, when you take a look at Jeremiah chapter 13, verses 8 through 10, okay? 00:27:10.360 |
I'm going to take a moment to turn there real fast. 00:27:17.520 |
He says this, "Then the word of the Lord came to me. 00:27:20.520 |
Thus says the Lord, 'Even so, I will spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of 00:27:27.500 |
This evil people who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their heart and have 00:27:32.560 |
gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth which is 00:27:40.600 |
When you think about that again, you hear the frustration in God as He speaks to the 00:27:51.080 |
You know the people were always in custom of going to the prophets any time they went 00:27:55.400 |
into battle, any time they had a change in leadership, any time they did anything profound, 00:28:03.800 |
But in the end, they just do whatever they want. 00:28:07.640 |
In the end, they just continue to do whatever they think is best. 00:28:11.000 |
Typically, those who are arrogant continue to put themselves above instruction. 00:28:19.600 |
And there are sometimes people who I find even in modern day, they'll come to me for 00:28:27.080 |
And they'll come to an older brother for counsel. 00:28:29.880 |
And in the end, they'll just do whatever they want. 00:28:31.880 |
And I'm sitting there like, "Oh, my goodness. 00:28:40.640 |
A lot of times what they were doing was they were trying to wait to find or ask around 00:28:44.200 |
to find someone who would say what they wanted to hear. 00:28:47.880 |
The fact of the matter is, what that reveals is, they're still wanting to do whatever they 00:28:56.960 |
You guys remember the story of Daniel and King Nebuchadnezzar? 00:29:01.800 |
King Nebuchadnezzar essentially was a madman in many ways because he set up like a huge 00:29:07.200 |
statue of himself and he expected everybody to worship. 00:29:10.680 |
And in the end, as King Nebuchadnezzar continued to have his kingdom grow, he was standing 00:29:15.280 |
upon his palace looking out and all of a sudden he had a moment of glory. 00:29:20.360 |
Verse 29, "At the end of the 12 months, he was walking on the rooftop of the royal palace 00:29:26.040 |
And the king answered and said, 'Is not this great Babylon which I have built by my mighty 00:29:33.000 |
power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?'" 00:29:38.620 |
And then it says, "While the word was still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from 00:29:42.120 |
heaven, 'O King of Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from 00:29:47.800 |
And God literally puts his face on the ground and makes him graze on the grass and makes 00:29:54.000 |
And then later on the king realizes like, "What in the world was I thinking?" 00:29:58.560 |
And once he comes to his senses, if you scroll down to verse 37, this is what, or 36 and 00:30:08.760 |
36, "At the same time, my reason returned to me and for the glory of my kingdom, my 00:30:15.480 |
My counselors and my Lord sought me and I was established in my kingdom and still more 00:30:22.400 |
But now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven for all his works 00:30:27.600 |
are right and his ways are just and those who walk in pride, he is able to humble." 00:30:36.580 |
We ask that question again of just how detestable is pride in the eyes of God? 00:30:42.420 |
And scripture teaches us repeatedly that God will not stand for that. 00:30:47.040 |
As a matter of fact, even in the passage that we're looking at, it says very specifically 00:30:51.720 |
and he quotes verbatim the Old Testament saying, "God is opposed to those who are arrogant 00:30:57.080 |
What's more, Jesus himself taught against haughty eyes and pride that seeks the praise 00:31:05.920 |
So the next point is pride seeks the praise of men. 00:31:11.000 |
Jesus said in Matthew 23 verses 6 through 12, okay? 00:31:14.680 |
Matthew chapter 23 verses 6 through 12, "And they," that is the Pharisees, "love the place 00:31:21.040 |
They love the places of honor at the feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, and greetings 00:31:26.080 |
in the marketplaces, and being called rabbi by others. 00:31:29.440 |
"But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher and all are brothers. 00:31:34.760 |
And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father who is in heaven. 00:31:38.800 |
Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. 00:31:42.600 |
The greatest among you shall be your servant. 00:31:45.840 |
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." 00:31:49.480 |
Man, and then you actually, if you look at the rest of that chapter, he goes off and 00:32:00.720 |
You clean everything so that everybody can see, but you're just filled with wickedness 00:32:08.120 |
Those were Christ's harsh words to those who had this desire for the praise of men. 00:32:14.600 |
So we ask the question of, man, how, again, I'm just kind of being repetitive here, but 00:32:20.400 |
I want to add the weight of how much Scripture talks about this. 00:32:24.620 |
In terms of asking how God is angered and frustrated, not frustrated as in like, "Oh 00:32:30.520 |
man, he's threatened by our pride and what we can accomplish." 00:32:35.480 |
In many ways, there's indignation of God toward those who are prideful. 00:32:40.160 |
And there was a clear example of this in the book of Acts chapter 12 verses 20 through 00:32:47.280 |
Basically, King Herod, who was frustrated because Apostle Paul and other people were 00:32:51.200 |
constantly teaching and he felt like he couldn't, he was in a bit losing control. 00:32:55.880 |
And as he was moving from one city to this area in Tyre, the people regarded him in high 00:33:06.040 |
"Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord. 00:33:10.920 |
And having persuaded Blastas, the king's chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country 00:33:18.600 |
On an appointed day, Herod put out his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and 00:33:26.080 |
And the people were shouting, 'The voice of God and not a man!'" 00:33:29.280 |
You know, they're shouting, "Oh, this must be a God!" 00:33:33.000 |
But then look at this, verse 23, "Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because 00:33:36.960 |
he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last." 00:33:46.220 |
So far we went down this idea of how selfish pride is, how self-sufficient pride is, right? 00:34:00.040 |
But as we go through this, we realize pride continues to compete with God for His glory. 00:34:06.240 |
Pride continues to compete with God for His agenda and His will. 00:34:10.500 |
And if that continues to happen, what will happen is that pride will ultimately oppose 00:34:24.740 |
In Psalm chapter 10, verse 4 and on, this is what the Scripture says, okay? 00:34:30.160 |
"In the pride of His face, the wicked does not seek Him. 00:34:42.700 |
For those who are prideful in His thoughts all day is, "There is no God, there is no 00:34:50.180 |
If I'm seeking glory of men, if I feel like I deserve worship, then God is a threat to 00:35:02.620 |
What's wrong with the heart of pride is there is then no room for the majesty of God. 00:35:11.920 |
And so pride stands very opposed to God's presence Himself. 00:35:16.280 |
And the only final solution to that is, "I need to get rid of God." 00:35:20.940 |
You can say that many people cried out for the crucifixion of Jesus because they were 00:35:26.020 |
They wanted a Savior who was going to give them power, right? 00:35:28.720 |
But if you look at the heart of the Pharisees, they got rid of Jesus because they were jealous 00:35:36.380 |
There was no room in their religion for the Christ. 00:35:40.340 |
Because Christ had to become greater and everybody else had to become less. 00:35:45.340 |
And so likewise, if we allow arrogance and pride to reside in our life, you will, you 00:35:56.620 |
You will by the nature of your pride continue to minimize His power, continue to minimize 00:36:02.700 |
His will, and everything in terms of perspective will cater to your glory. 00:36:09.300 |
And so that's why the passage says, "You need to humble yourself, for God opposes the 00:36:18.620 |
And if not, you make yourself as one who stands, stands, challenging the God Almighty." 00:36:27.780 |
Now that first section then, I hope that I wanted to give just an encouraging and also 00:36:37.260 |
There are times when we repent of certain sins because we see it as heinous. 00:36:41.980 |
If any of you have felt the conviction in your heart after maybe you said a lie, if 00:36:47.220 |
any of you have ever felt a conviction in your heart after you did something hurtful 00:36:51.500 |
and your brother or sister in church or your family member or somebody was in tears because 00:36:57.020 |
If ever you had felt a sense of brokenness because maybe of sexual sin or whatever and 00:37:07.220 |
Have you ever felt a sense of brokenness where the same kind of weight, same kind of remorse 00:37:13.580 |
hits you because of words of arrogance that came out of your mouth? 00:37:17.900 |
Because you realize the kind of arrogance that's in your heart really stands opposed 00:37:21.540 |
to God Almighty and in terms of the things that He hates, pride stands of one of the 00:37:33.260 |
Not only are the sins that are heinous the ones that cause the greatest amount of pain 00:37:36.980 |
to me and my friends, but the sins that are actually truly heinous are the ones that really 00:37:47.020 |
And where we think the next best runner up for God is ourselves. 00:37:50.580 |
When was the last time you were broken over arrogance? 00:37:58.220 |
I want to make a transition into the next section. 00:38:05.140 |
You will notice that as He talks about the arrogance and as He talks about the humility 00:38:11.920 |
that we need to have, the challenge for us to clothe ourselves and humble ourselves under 00:38:17.660 |
the mighty hand of God, there's also this concept that runs so closely into it. 00:38:23.340 |
He says that He may exalt you in the proper time and what's more, He says casting all 00:38:27.900 |
your anxiety on Him because He cares for you, right? 00:38:34.980 |
And earlier when I asked that question, what were the motivations that you observed in 00:38:37.980 |
this passage that taught us to be humble, that those motivations all pointed to our 00:38:46.860 |
Whether it be our trust in the might of His hand, but also our trust in the care of His 00:38:53.540 |
And so what you see is that the attitude Apostle Peter wants us to have is an attitude of trust 00:39:03.580 |
This is super important for us to understand. 00:39:06.640 |
As we think about the challenge for us to be humble in our hearts and also as we think 00:39:11.340 |
about this challenge where He says in verse 7, "Cast all your anxiety upon Him," right? 00:39:20.420 |
Meaning what's the relationship between our humility and our ability to trust in God, 00:39:29.540 |
Because the passage and even in its own grammar joins the two like it's supposed to be attached. 00:39:38.340 |
Well in some versions of the Bible, those of verse 6 and verse 7 will be separated. 00:39:44.380 |
But that verse actually is one long sentence and the thought continues on. 00:39:54.320 |
We obviously know that, you know, just from the grammar and all that kind of stuff and 00:39:58.980 |
just intuitionally, yeah, if I don't believe that God is mighty, then I'm not going to 00:40:09.540 |
We instinctually know if I don't believe that God is caring, then of course I'm not going 00:40:15.740 |
But my question is not so much, okay, you have to have that humility to trust or whatever, 00:40:20.660 |
or sorry, sorry, not so much that you believe in His might or whatever, but there is this 00:40:25.320 |
question where the challenge for you to humble yourself underneath that is tied in with your 00:40:34.820 |
There's a sense in which talking in a counseling manner, talking in the respective of our own 00:40:41.300 |
lives, there are times where we have anxieties, there are times when we have fears. 00:40:46.100 |
Could it be that in those moments it's not just a simple issue of, "Well I just need 00:40:52.380 |
Could it be that there are deeper issues and the deeper issues that I'm talking about are 00:41:00.460 |
That moments when we're not enjoying the peace of God, moments when we're not enjoying that 00:41:05.220 |
kind of confidence in our Father, the thing that's keeping us away from that could be 00:41:13.700 |
There's maybe not so much like a bombastic, "Hey, look at me," kind of arrogance, but 00:41:21.300 |
Maybe there are things that are causing us to not be able to overcome that hurdle towards 00:41:28.340 |
So again, asking the question, and I want you guys to just think about this. 00:41:32.740 |
Why does trust in God equate with our humility? 00:41:36.100 |
Or another way to put it is, why is humility a prerequisite, required for us to exercise 00:41:43.340 |
Well here are two points underneath that question. 00:41:47.060 |
The first, for us to actually have trust in our Father, we have to accept a lowly reality 00:42:02.020 |
When we are exercising trust in our Heavenly Father, there is an acceptance of the reality, 00:42:07.660 |
"I do not have X, Y, and Z, or I cannot do X, Y, and Z. 00:42:12.620 |
In the position that I'm in, I admit and confess, I am in need. 00:42:24.100 |
This is a humble admission that we need to understand, and that is why Jesus, when He 00:42:27.420 |
talks about those who are blessed, He will say, "Blessed are those who are meek. 00:42:39.620 |
And the lie that we often believe is, "No, you don't need. 00:42:47.500 |
That's the kind of lies that sometimes we're attacked by. 00:42:50.780 |
But secondly, our ability to trust comes with the high reality of God. 00:42:59.820 |
Only in humility can you understand in faith the supreme power of God. 00:43:07.260 |
Only in humility can you just acquiesce and then give that and relinquish that kind of 00:43:12.260 |
authority, that kind of credence to God Almighty. 00:43:16.180 |
And that's what we're talking about right now. 00:43:18.420 |
And right here, at this point, is where our enemy seeks to devour. 00:43:25.220 |
At this point is where our enemy works his most, you know, devious schemes. 00:43:39.300 |
Every time I counsel an individual, whether it be through the struggles of life, of anxieties, 00:43:44.740 |
again, my honest belief is every single one of us, because we're struggling with the flesh, 00:43:52.420 |
Even those individuals who come off like they're the man, you know, they have fears. 00:43:56.980 |
Every man struggles with the fear of failure, you know, just going to confess that. 00:44:01.980 |
When it comes to their work, their labor, the greatest fear is like the fear of having 00:44:08.740 |
Fear of feeling like they're not being productive. 00:44:11.300 |
Fear of not being able to provide, not being able to produce, you know what I mean? 00:44:15.700 |
There's fear of being disrespected because of all that kind of stuff. 00:44:18.240 |
We have fears and anxieties over the things that we don't know. 00:44:25.420 |
And people are so afraid of stuff like that, that that's why people have things, silly 00:44:30.300 |
things like fear of, you know, stage, being on the stage, fear of sharing and speaking, 00:44:36.740 |
And that kind of stuff really, really grips us. 00:44:42.620 |
But as we think about that, every time we try to tackle one of those fears, we realize 00:44:50.660 |
And our enemy latches on and tries to give us lies, especially about the reality of how 00:45:00.340 |
So for example, the fear of future, you're never going to get a job. 00:45:04.740 |
You're never going to amount to anything, you know? 00:45:07.780 |
And people exaggerate that kind of stuff all the time. 00:45:10.460 |
I'll ask people who are very, very like in a moment of despair, like I haven't found 00:45:15.860 |
And they'll say stuff without even knowing, like I'm never going to find a job. 00:45:24.420 |
Satan's over there saying, "That's right, give up, you know? 00:45:32.780 |
This is the moment Satan desires to devour you. 00:45:42.420 |
I don't know how many people, this simple verse in 1 Peter I had to use and then talk 00:45:50.020 |
to people and say, "This passage is so powerful for you." 00:45:54.580 |
Because whether you're willing to admit it or not, by the way you talk, the little subtle 00:45:58.700 |
things you say, you have believed a huge, huge lie. 00:46:21.780 |
But often times it's through struggle and hardship where Satan will use that and say, 00:46:31.260 |
They'll come to me and say, "Pastor, I'm thinking about leaving this church." 00:46:42.540 |
And they're like, "Not you, but nobody else cares." 00:46:53.540 |
This is how, I ask you this question for homework. 00:46:54.540 |
How does Satan in real life try to devour you? 00:46:59.540 |
And that's why he'll even talk about that in his passes, does he not? 00:48:44.540 |
In the scriptures, in Isaiah chapter 51 verse 12, and I would like you to turn to this passage 00:48:53.140 |
God is going to combine this idea of humility and trust and commend us as you're going through 00:49:02.420 |
the hardest times of your life, as you're going through great difficulty. 00:49:22.260 |
Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies? 00:49:27.500 |
Of the son of man who is made like grass and have forgotten the Lord your maker who stretched 00:49:32.260 |
out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth and you fear continually all day 00:49:36.780 |
because of the wrath of the oppressors when he sets himself to destroy? 00:49:45.300 |
This is a really interesting passage, but essentially what is happening is the people 00:49:49.420 |
have failed to trust God and they are living in fear, running away from their enemies. 00:49:59.340 |
He rebukes them and says, "How prideful you are. 00:50:14.060 |
Now we asked the question, why is God asking that question? 00:50:17.220 |
Because when you do not trust, you indirectly accuse God. 00:50:22.660 |
When you do not have this confidence, you indirectly doubt. 00:50:36.780 |
Our inability to have confidence in God is arrogant. 00:50:43.140 |
I mean, imagine regular people talking to each other that way. 00:50:46.700 |
As a matter of fact, there was this one time I went to an interesting retreat with an interesting 00:50:56.300 |
And there was this young lady who I started doing small talk with. 00:50:59.180 |
And for some reason, I felt like I couldn't get beyond the small talk. 00:51:01.900 |
Well, by the last night, I went by and I was like, "Oh, you know, it's the last night. 00:51:10.260 |
And I started trying to do this more small talk. 00:51:14.300 |
And she was kind of like, "I don't know what to say." 00:51:20.900 |
So I was like, "Oh, maybe it sounds like you're not doing that well." 00:51:23.700 |
She was like, "I'm just tired of the small talk." 00:51:38.260 |
And I kind of looked at her and I said, "Well, you judged me for being fake. 00:51:48.300 |
You just judged me for being fake because you didn't believe I actually asked you. 00:51:52.780 |
Yes, it's small talk, but I actually asked you because I care." 00:52:03.740 |
Where in our lack of confidence, where God says to the Scriptures, "Believe me, trust 00:52:11.100 |
me, reside in me, take my comfort, let me heal you." 00:52:14.420 |
But we let that blow off and we keep seeking to protect ourselves. 00:52:18.540 |
We keep seeking to put up our fences, to put up our defenses, to retaliate, whatever it 00:52:23.340 |
may be, when we don't realize that every single one of those efforts actually is accusing 00:52:32.660 |
But if you talk like that to anybody else at church, then you're just going to blow 00:52:36.780 |
"You're fake, you're fake, you don't really care. 00:52:45.460 |
And so, we make this challenge and we start to understand, how is our trust in God connected 00:52:54.700 |
When we have pride in our hearts, we neglect ourselves, we void ourselves of the privilege 00:53:01.540 |
of having that sweet peace and confidence in God. 00:53:05.660 |
So that's why God is saying, especially in this moment when you're going through great 00:53:11.020 |
persecution and suffering and all the pains that you're going through, go through this 00:53:16.220 |
And one of the most humble things you can do, believe it or not, is to be carefree with 00:53:23.740 |
There are things that I'm anxious for, there are things that I'm worried, there are things 00:53:26.500 |
that I'm fearful, but I have a resolution in the character and the power of God. 00:53:35.540 |
As we believe that God truly is both mighty and that He truly does care for us. 00:53:41.340 |
And so by a way of final exhortation, we as Christians are going to wrestle with that 00:53:47.100 |
We're going to wrestle with our pride and then we're going to wrestle with our confidence 00:53:51.700 |
And that's what Paul the Peter is going to say. 00:53:52.980 |
Be sober, be clear minded, be alert, be ready, so that you would stand firm in the strong 00:54:00.740 |
That you would stand firm in the belief that God absolutely cares for you. 00:54:07.200 |
Even if all of life, everything's going sour and one by one things are starting to collapse 00:54:12.660 |
and you just feel like, man, I feel like God has it out for me. 00:54:15.980 |
I feel like I'm the target of God's attack even. 00:54:22.020 |
God has chosen you, given you an amazing calling and an incredible purpose to use you. 00:54:27.420 |
So that as we believe this, as we understand God, we would rid ourselves of all the defenses, 00:54:32.540 |
all the prideful talk, all the like, you know, stern face, thick skin, and all things would 00:54:37.540 |
be released so that we would enjoy the fruit of a church that's really humble with God 00:54:43.460 |
Where we're not being defensive with each other, so cautious walking on eggshells. 00:54:48.660 |
We're actually humble, receiving, open, vulnerable. 00:54:52.280 |
Enjoy the benefits of not competing with each other, looking out for each other, right? 00:54:57.660 |
But rather that we're actually in peace with one another. 00:55:01.780 |
And so I pray that just as Apostle Peter has said, that we would be able to go through 00:55:06.860 |
every experience and every season of our lives with a great perspective. 00:55:11.700 |
God is the one with a mighty hand and a careful hand in which we can entrust ourselves. 00:55:25.700 |
Heavenly Father, we want to thank you so much, God. 00:55:31.020 |
Just to think that you are so relentless to teach those who often are stubborn. 00:55:40.500 |
We confess, God, that sometimes we can be slow to change. 00:55:46.420 |
But I ask that we would be ever growing and trying to understand truly how powerful you 00:55:54.780 |
And that, God, we would continue just to be forgetful of ourselves because we trust you 00:55:59.460 |
That, God, we don't sit here wringing our hands about what we're going to do, what's 00:56:04.300 |
going to come of us, and what's going to happen to us because we absolutely trust you. 00:56:09.860 |
I pray, Father God, that you would grant to us great faith so that we can continue to 00:56:14.220 |
withstand the attacks of our enemy who continues to seek to put into our hearts filth, filth 00:56:22.580 |
of arrogance, filth of thinking way too highly of ourselves. 00:56:27.180 |
I pray, Father God, that more and more rather than making much of our own lives, Lord, we 00:56:34.060 |
Father, we thank you so much and pray again that through the week you would grant to us