Good evening, everyone. We're going to go ahead and get started with Bible study. So why don't we take a couple of moments to prepare our hearts for worship. Father, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word. We thank you so much for your word that it gives us-- it allows us to learn more about you.

And it allows us to understand our value and our worth. We just pray, Lord, as we come tonight, you give us humble hearts, teachable hearts to receive your word, that we would not only be hearers, but doers, and live out your truth to those around us, that you would use us as lights and your ambassadors to proclaim your name further.

So we thank you. Would you give us strength if we're tired after a long day, that we would offer you this time, that it would be pleasing to you. We love you. Pray all this in your name. Amen. Why don't we all stand for a time of praise? I have a maker.

I have a maker. He forms my heart. Before even time began, my life was in his hands. I have a maker. I have a maker. He forms my heart. Before even time began, my life was in his hands. He knows my name. He knows my every thought. He sees each tear that falls, and hears me when I call.

I have a father. I have a father. He calls me his own. He'll never leave me, no matter where I go. He knows my name. He knows my name. He knows my every thought. He sees each tear that falls, and he hears me when I call. He knows my name.

He knows my every thought. He sees each tear that falls, and he hears me when I call. He hears me when I call. He hears me when I call. Lord, I give you my heart. I give you my soul. I live for you alone. I wake every moment I'm awake.

Lord, have your way in me. This is my desire. This is my desire to honor you. Lord, with all my heart, I worship you. All I have within me, I give you in praise. All that I adore is in you. Lord, I give you my heart. I give you my soul.

I live for you alone. Every breath that I take, every moment I'm awake. Lord, have your way in me. This is my desire. This is my desire to honor you. Lord, with all my heart, I worship you. Lord, with all my heart, I worship you. All I have within me, I give you in praise.

All that I adore is in you. Lord, I give you my heart. I give you my soul. I live for you alone. Every breath that I take, every moment I'm awake. Lord, have your way in me. Lord, I give you my heart. I give you my soul. I live for you alone.

Every breath that I take, every moment I'm awake. Lord, have your way in me. Amen. All right. Well, good evening, everybody. As we all get settled down, let me--I'll give you about 15 seconds, and then I'm going to pray and get us started. Let's pray together. Lord, it's easy to assume that for many of us in this room that that song we just sang was probably difficult to sing.

And if we're honest, we don't want you to have your way in our hearts, for if all of us did, our worship would be a lot more vibrant. Our lives would look different. It is our confession, Father, that our flesh is very weak, easily entangled, and there is a constant tension wanting you, yet at the same time, wanting the things of this world.

And I know that that plagues every person to varying degrees. And it is our confession that it's not effort or zeal that can fix that. It is our confession that it really is just all your grace. It's your kindness that leads us to repentance, and we ask for your kindness today in our Bible study, in our small group time, in our learning, and that as we learn how to better abide in you, that in your time you would bear fruit in our lives.

Help us not to just study the Bible tonight just to learn more, but help us really to feed off it. So we entrust our time into your hands, knowing that you are faithful, and would you allow, God, your word really to sharpen and grow our hearts, and if need be, first break and humble.

So we thank you, Lord, for just this time that you've given us to look into your word. In Jesus' name we pray. I'm going to read the first 11 verses of chapter 5 to you. We're almost done. We've got 14 verses left. We're doing 7 today, and we're looking at 7 next week.

Chapter 5, verse 5 on, it kind of is another little section, but we're breaking off today at 7. So I'm going to read all 11 verses for you. So follow along with your eyes and your ears. "Therefore I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed.

Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion but voluntarily according to the will of God, not for sordid gain but with eagerness, nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge but proving to be examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

You younger men likewise be subject to your elders, and all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another for God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves into the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, but resist him firm in your faith knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

To him be dominion forever and ever. Amen. So you guys have been here. This is our 16th week. We've got two weeks left, today and next week. So you know the first two questions. Number three is just in light of the growing hostilities, what were Peter's instructions to those in the church?

And there are two specific groups and then one, I guess, collective that he's speaking to. So go ahead and do that and then at 820 we'll resume for our time of wrap-up. All right? 820. All right, let's gather back together. If I can have you guys wrap up your final thoughts, and then slowly turn your attention up to the front.

I pray, Father help us to understand clearly how you would have us to apply these truths in your Word. I pray that you would give us wisdom and discernment as we grow in knowledge. And as we grow in wisdom, Lord would you fill our hearts with greater humility and love.

I pray all these things in Jesus' name. Let me start with just some just outline related stuff that I want to just put up here for you. So normally I'll just start out with like the red words, kind of the important words that I feel like are kind of hinge words that help me understand the meaning.

And there are two therefores in there. And if you guys remember what we looked at in chapter four is a lot of suffering, right? And we're looking at today, there's all these instructions for church life. And the connection is this. When there's chaos, when there's rampant pain, persecution, some degrees of suffering, and things don't make sense.

The natural tendency for people is to blame and to point fingers. Right? You leaders are not handling this well. You leaders are responsible for the gas prices going up. You guys have basically cost the lives of these children who died. You guys are the reasons why it's just, right?

The previous administration, and then the previous administration says, the previous administration, everybody is quick to blame. And there's a reason why I feel like younger men specifically are called out. Because younger men have fire. Like, we need to, you know, these old fogies, they don't know what they're doing.

We need to take charge. So human nature always sees that our struggle is against flesh and blood. But reality-wise is our struggle is not against flesh and blood, right? But against the principalities, against the spiritual forces of evil, against the forces of darkness. So this is an instruction with a therefore on church life to people in the midst of chaos.

So that you understand how to do life, a normal Christian life, in the midst of chaos, and letting God sort it all out. Okay? So that's the, so here are three, two groups that are addressed, and that's all in the purple. Elders and younger men. And then all of you is everybody.

Those are the three groups. And with each group, there is a command there. So that's the yellow. Do your eyes go there? You see it? So for the elders, the verb is to shepherd. Okay? In the King James it says to feed, but it's to shepherd. To young men, as it said to all citizens, to slaves, to wives, it's the same word.

Be subject. And then to elders and young men, to everybody in the church, there are two imperatives there. It's to clothe and to humble. And even with clothe, what do you clothe yourself with? Humility. Not with more strategy, not with more greater organization, not more with like data, it's be humble.

Okay? So those are the yellow imperatives, or the imperatives. And then the other stuff I'll let you look at when you get these, when you can download them from the internet. Okay? So here are three take-home truths from chapter 5, verses 1 through 7. And here's the first one.

Christ-like shepherding is done through the joy-filled exercising of oversight, compassionate stewardship, and faithful modeling of Christian living. Why do I get this super nerdy, long, awkward sentence? It's... Do you see the underlined participles there? So this is what shepherding entails. Okay? Christ-like shepherding is done through joy-filled exercising of oversight, compassionate stewardship, and faithful modeling of Christian living.

How many of you guys know that there was recently a report published centering around the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest denomination, with hundreds of cases of abuse? Okay? Yeah, that's a very damaging report. And the problem, I don't think is denominational, because Southern Baptist just is the largest denomination in the world.

But it's kind of what plagues every denomination in every church. The SBC only gets the attention because it's big. But I think our generation, one of the biggest problems of churchianity today is that leaders are placed way too quickly. The wrong people are placed way too quickly in leadership.

Would you guys... I'm not sure if you would kind of agree with that. And that's why it takes a long time to raise up a leader, to test a leader, to train a leader. And the common element of every spiritual leader that's qualified really should be terror, humility, and love.

You need a leader who's biblically literate, true or false. Yeah, because the leader is saying, "Thus saith the Lord." If the leader has no idea what the Lord is saying, he shouldn't be talking. Okay? But if you have a biblically literate spiritual leader, he's going to be a combination of humility, terror, and love.

Interesting juxtaposition. And that leader, in every step of his ministry, as he grows, you're going to see a growth in greater humility and disgust with himself, terror before a holy, holy, holy God, but a great compassion toward people. But usually when we select leaders now in churches, those who get the most notoriety...

Sorry, notoriety is the wrong word. Fame are the gifted people. The exceptionally gifted. Right? So, one of the biggest admonitions from this chapter for the leaders is Christ-like shepherding. And Christ-like shepherding... Actually, you know why that command and that exhortation to not under compulsion? Because this calling for leadership should be a super heavy one for every elder in the church.

Where there's almost like, "I don't want to do this anymore!" Because it's so heavy a burden. These people are not easy to love. But I need to not love them with just a fleshly, like, human-empowered love? I need to love them like Christ loved... That is a high call.

And I need to model for the flock, "Holy, holy, holy living? Who is up to this task?" So every spiritual leader who is real and authentic should have a desire to leave it. But that's why that admonition is there. Not under compulsion, but willingly. You take up your cross daily.

So, not lording it over the flock. You know, the lording it over the flock is not the problem, that's the symptom. So when you look at verses 1-4, you can immediately apply that as prayer requests for the leaders at this church. That we would persevere in that. Especially as the church is growing.

You know, one thing on Saturday, this past Saturday, we have a Saturday leaders meeting every week. You guys know that, right? This week we're just praying for different things. And Pastor Peter prayed something that just caught my attention. And this is what he prayed. He said, "Lord, help us not to touch your glory, but help us to stay out of the way." And I know he's prayed that many times in front of, in my presence, before.

But for some reason this past Saturday, kind of, "Huh, why did he pray that?" "Help us not to touch your glory, and help us to stay out of the way." And I was like, "Maybe the fruit that's coming out of this ministry is because of a prayer of a leader like that." Who is like deathly terrified to touch any of the credit.

So keep praying that the leaders of the church are those who are seeking to shepherd well. Amen? Secondly, the take-home truth that we can get from here is all believers are called to pursue the grace of God. Which is kind of weird, because how do you pursue grace? It's a free gift.

"I want it!" Right? How do you pursue that? But that's what the text is saying. Pursue it. Because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Okay? And there is a multiple call for humility here. Clothe yourself with humility and humble yourself, right? You guys notice that?

So we're called to actively pursue humility. Think about that. What does that look like? If I were to say, "Sarah, be humble." What's she going to say? "Dude, I totally am." Is that what she... Do you realize humility is not something that you attain through effort? Nod your heads if you understand that.

Is humility something you attain through effort? Yes or no? No. So I feel like it's important to define what humility is from kind of a biblical definition, so that we would know how to pursue it. So let me take a little moment to go through what it is not.

So what humility is not. The first one, humility is not an external show or pretense. Colossians 2 calls it false humility, or the more literal translations actually call it self-abasement. "Oh no, I am not worthy." Like some people talk like that. Especially in Korea, they talk about that all the time.

That's how you introduce yourself. "Oh, this presentation is so poorly done, but please pay attention to it." "Oh, this meal totally sucks. I didn't cook. It doesn't taste good, but please have some." That's a weird Asian trait, right? "No, no. Oh, you sing so well." "No, I don't. I suck." "And why did you do special praise?" That's just part of our culture.

But that's not humility. Would you guys agree with that? Humility is not a pretense of, "Oh no." That's not humility. Got it? So if you're good at something, be okay with being good at it. You don't need to pretend that it's no good. It is also not an inferiority complex.

Inferiority complex is broken pride. It's wounded pride. Would you agree? "I'm not as good as that guy." That's not humility. That's your pride kind of saddened. Moses was the humblest man on the face of the planet. It says in the book of Exodus and Numbers. At the burning bush, was he humble or was he arrogant?

That man was arrogant. Because God's anger, it says, burned against him. In Exodus chapter 4. Because what was Moses doing? "No, I haven't. I can't. I am not a good talker." Acts 7.22, he was trained up in all the wisdom. And he was powerful in speech and in action.

Acts 7.22. He's like, "I can't. I've just been feeding sheep for 40 years. Don't send me. Send someone else." And he engages with God that way to where God's anger, it says, burns. You guys following that? That's not where he was humble. He was proud there. Because if you had sent me when I was 40, Lord, I would have been good.

But now at 80, 40 years of not using a language, you forget. So that's it. Inferiority complex is not humility. Third, a gentle and quiet personality. We know gentle and quiet people who are super stubborn, super not humble. This has nothing to do with personality. So Ephesians 5.11, it's these gentle folk that actually don't speak out when they should.

So a quiet and gentle personality. So trying to become more humble doesn't mean you're always just like, "Okay, I just shouldn't talk at all." No, because then we'd have a really boring Bible study. "Oh, that'll let other people speak." Humility is not about just being more quiet. Although it helps.

Lastly, humility is not cowardice or passivity. 1 Samuel 17, David, the youngest son, is sent on an errand from his dad to take food to his brothers. How many of you guys are familiar with this story? When he's there, he sees Goliath spewing forth offenses. And he's like, "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine?

How dare he?" Eliab, his oldest brother, you know what he actually says at that moment? "You're arrogant." No, but that's actually David being so humble. "I am so offended that this uncircumcised pagan giant dude would dare say such things about my God." And where everyone else is shuddering in fear, Goliath's like, "Let me at him." He is humble here.

He is not passive here. John the Baptist, we've been learning about him on Sundays a little bit of his... when he's in the womb, actually. Is he... you know what? John 3, 31, humanly, is so offensive. He must increase, I must decrease. Was John a coward? Was he passive?

He gets beheaded for speaking out against one of the Herods. You guys know that story, right? Humility is not cowardice or passivity. And sometimes, humility actually gets mistaken for arrogance. You guys understand how that can happen? "Who do you think you are?" Is a lot of times how that's interpreted.

"Dude, don't rock the boat." So this is what humility is, okay? It's not something we necessarily achieve through human effort. But what it is, is the attitude that results from putting God in his rightful place and then in turn, us kind of getting out of the way. You guys following this?

The attitude that results from putting God in his rightful place. And that runs throughout the course of 1 Peter 4 especially and 5. If God is all powerful, all good, all worthy of trust, I just need to follow him and not complain or grumble or be anxious. Even though Satan, next week, verse 8, he's prowling around like a hungry, roaring lion, I don't need to fear him.

Because God is God. But if he's my father, he's his father, he's her father, he's his father, I need to steward these relationships not with condescending attitude just because I'm more experienced or I think I'm smarter than everybody else. But I need to steward these relationships in love. Because we all have one father, one Lord, one spirit.

So if God is God in my life, my interaction with everybody around me, Christian and non-Christian, but especially to those in the church, as it says in Galatians 6, I'm going to be so kind and compassionate and yet not cowardly. So humility is not something we necessarily achieve through human effort, it is the attitude that results from putting God in his rightful place.

So when it says clothe yourself with humility, it's not saying put on an act. It's saying figure out a proper theology of who God is and who you are not. Does that make sense? Because once we figure that out, as a Christian, your view of self should go down every year because you are just dirty.

Your view of God should go higher, higher every year because he is holy, holy, holy, and even holier than I had ever imagined him to be. Where I am really unworthy. But man, he loves me. And my desire is simply to please him. And I want to be like him.

He loves wretched people, I want to do the same. That's what clothing myself in humility should look like as I progress in my faith. Not lording it over those who are farther behind me, but just being patient and watch, because do I have control over any of your hearts?

No. Even if I strive to be the best pastor that I possibly could, I will make a very little impact in your life. It's all God. I'm just called a steward and when he says go, I go. When he says speak, I speak. When he says sit, I sit.

That's all I am. Because there's one chief shepherd. I'm an under shepherd, or I actually like to call it, I'm a sheep dog. Just get pet when they need some comfort. And if they need a little bit of extra encouragement, and just for the rest of my time, and just be jolly.

Okay? I don't know if Pastor Nate would ever be mistaken for a sheep dog, but me, that might work. Okay? Third, take home truth. In every season and circumstance, trust and obey, because there's no other way to be happy in Jesus. And that's this passage. I find myself very discouraged by the affairs of the world.

There's another shooting today. Right? And as soon as something happens, something shows up on the media, you got all kinds of people chiming in with all kinds of, this is their fault, this is your fault, this is your fault. We can fix it like this. It's like, duh, you don't see it, you're so dumb.

You guys just need to calm down that the problem is not in, let's say, a denomination. It's all over the place. Can you cure racism and greed and stupidity out of a person's heart by legislation? No, you cannot. The only way you can change a person is by changing their heart, and the only way to do that is by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

My instinct tells me to blame somebody. But as I walk by faith and not by sight, I'm reminded my struggle is not against flesh and blood. So I need to pray. So trust and obey, and be active in your trusting and obedience. Okay? So hopefully you guys, that doesn't sound like a political statement, right?

This is what the scripture is telling me to do in my application in my life. So this is, next week, we're done after next week. You guys should not celebrate. I'm actually kind of up like, yay! Because I'm like, oh! But next week we're done. 17th week of 1 Peter, we're done.

8 through 14. But if you can this week, circle back all the way to verse 1. Go through the 105 verses. Just go through it again. And then perhaps, take note of the three most significant themes in the letter. Okay, now that we've almost heard suffering every week, fear a lot, about humility and God's sovereignty often, be subject, be subject, be subject, that's come up.

So what are the three most significant ones that catch your eye? And then, maybe write a one sentence summary of 1 Peter. And if you did that before you studied this thing, maybe the sentence will be different. So kind of try that as a little wrap-up exercise in addition to the last seven verses.

Tonight, what are the ways in which you can better support and pray for the shepherds in your church? So my encouragement is, hey, perfect time to just apply this. Pray through this. Help PPC not to be lording it over those entrusted to his care. Right? Help Pastor Mark not to shepherd under compulsion, but with eagerness.

You could pray all of this. Because we will wrestle with all of these things. Okay? Help all the pastors not to be fond of sordid gain. Whatever it is, pray for those things. And then, what are the areas of pride in your life? Because remember, God is opposed to that.

AKA hate. He hates pride. So what are the areas of pride in your life that are hindering your relationship not just with God, but with others? I think a lot of times people say, "Oh, I can't believe that God is good." And that's more their pride than their ability to see the evidence.

Right? Three, what are the anxieties in your life that you need to cast on the Lord? How can your group members pray for you and keep you accountable to those things? So, we're going to reconvene next week. Spend the remainder of your time together in your groups just praying for these things.

And then, we'll call it a night. Alright? Amen. Amen. Thank you.