1 Peter 5:6-9 Joining the Resistance

Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Madawan, Michigan. This is a message from Pastor Don Filsack from the series

Ready for the Storm on 1st Peter. If you'd like more information on Recast Church, please visit us on the web at www .recastchurch

.com Here's Pastor Don. Welcome, that was the main gist of it, and it's cold outside.

That was the rest of it that I was saying. It's a little bit chilly in here, but if you find this to be uncomfortable, you could just step outside the door for a minute and then come back in and be grateful that there is some semblance of heat in this room.

And I think once everybody's in here, then the bodies will warm it up and it'll be more comfortable. But feel free to leave your coats on, obviously, this morning to stay warm.

Be sure to fill out the connection card you received when you walked in. You can take advantage of that. It's got different check boxes on there, a place to leave prayer requests.

And you can turn those in in the black box over there under the sign that says welcome table underneath the clock over there.

If it's your first time with us and you're willing to, we would appreciate if you take a free coffee mug back there on the table, just our way of saying thanks for joining with us.

We recognize that to come out to a new church and check it out, we're grateful for that.

And so just our way of saying thanks to you for giving us a shot at maybe being your church. And so we're grateful for that.

Any offerings you choose to give, there's an offering envelope that's provided. Those also go in that same black box back there.

We don't pass an offering plate here. And so we just try to keep it simple and make it so that that's an act of worship on your part, not something that you feel coerced or your arm twisted into.

And so that's kind of what a mansion fund, either on the envelope or in the check memo line item, is going to go into a special fund towards eventually building a building on the property that we purchased out on East McGillan.

And so our goal is eventually to be out of the middle school and into our own nice, cozy, heated facility there.

So that's, that's the goal eventually. This morning we had the opportunity to join together with a couple of families who have chosen to dedicate their children to the

Lord and they're going to be coming up here in just a few minutes. But I mentioned from time to time that I like to think of it as really a parent, a parent dedication.

Those who step up here and introduce their families are going to get a chance to share their hopes for their children.

And they do so out of a desire to raise their children in the honor of God, in, in a way that brings honor to Him, in the method, in the way that they raise their children.

But then also it's their goal that they would raise children who in turn, on their own, will choose to bring honor and glory to their

Lord and Savior. The reason this is happening, and is going to happen up here in front of the church, instead of the privacy of their own home, and how many of you know you could dedicate a child to the

Lord on your own in your own family ceremony? Did you realize that? I mean you could do that. I would encourage you. Somebody may have mentioned just in passing conversation this morning of dedicating their child every day.

And I think there's some reality to that, isn't there? Those of you with children, even those of you with raised children who have children outside of the home, you recognize that there's a, there's still an ongoing need to constantly be giving those kids over to the

Lord and recognizing that they belong to Him in their decisions, and all of those things, and, and dedicating them in prayer.

So why do this as a special event up here? And one of the reasons we're going to do this up here in front of the church is it's a recognition of community.

A recognition that we are created for community. We believe that each family does indeed have the responsibility to train their own children in righteousness.

I, I don't buy into the notion that it takes a village to raise a child. That's not what this is about.

It doesn't take a village to raise a child. It takes God -given parents to raise a child.

And so sometimes that's a single mom. Sometimes that's a single dad. Sometimes that is both parents in a, in a healthy and functioning family.

Sometimes that's a family that's struggling. But at the same time, God gives parents to children for the purpose of raising them up.

Parents are to be the primary spiritual leaders for their children.

But we also need, we all recognize our need for accountability, right? We recognize our need for others investing in our lives to be stronger as, in particular those of you that are parents, you recognize that you gain value and strength and encouragement to do what is right in regards to your children by interacting with others in the church and by being spurred on to do what you know you ought to do.

How many of you would recognize that if you're, if you're a parent in the room, it's not always the lack of knowledge that is the problem in your parenting.

It's not the lack of knowing what to do. It's sometimes the will to do it, right? And so that's, a lot of times that's what other people can come alongside of us and help us and assist us in regard to the will to do the things that we already know we ought to be doing in regard to training our children.

We're going to dig into a text this morning and Peter is going to hold out the reality that a deeper connectedness with other

Christians helps fuel our resistance of evil and even the evil one in our lives.

First Peter 5, 6 through 9 applies to all of us. It's a text that every single one of us, whether you're single, you're, you're married, you have children, you don't have children, whatever, it applies to everyone in the room.

And so as I was reading through and I was trying to figure out, I originally was going to do a separate message that was just kind of like a child dedication, parent dedication sermon this week and kind of focus in on that.

And as I was studying for where our first Peter, first Peter goes, I said, this fits.

It makes sense. And I decided to just go forward with the very next text in first Peter this morning because it struck me as imminently connected to the difficult task of raising godly children in a fallen world.

Peter is going to encourage us to humility, something that often goes out the window in our culture regarding parenting.

I don't know those of you that are parents, I don't know if you've ever noticed that. My wife tells me that sometimes when ladies get together, they have a tendency to compare their parenting styles and what's going on.

And it's very hard to share when things are not going well regarding parenting. And so sometimes there's a pride issue that falls in there and it can be very difficult sometimes to have humility in our parenting in our culture at large, right?

Would you guys agree with me on that? A lot of us take pride in the activities that our kids are involved in and how well they're doing at this or that.

We're really quick to put those things forward to others and sometimes other people feel crushed by the weight of how awesome our family is.

And when in fact if people lived in our households, they would be less impressed than the words that we're sharing with them.

Are you getting what I'm saying in that? And so that's that's an issue and Peter's going to address humility head -on here.

But furthermore, he's going to tell us to cast our anxieties on a God who cares for us.

How many of you that are parents would recognize that that's a significant issue in raising children, anxiety?

Their anxiety involved. A couple of us agree on that. The rest of us are kind of like, I don't know. Anxiety is a significant issue.

And so he tells us cast your anxieties on God. And that's something that everybody needs to be reminded of in the room.

But certainly something that every parent needs to hear. He tells us to be sober -minded, to be watchful because Satan is real and is seeking lives to destroy.

And we're going to get into that and explain a little bit more of what that means. And then in the end, he tells believers to join the resistance.

To join the resistance against the evil one. Just like so many have joined that same resistance around the world.

I don't know if you think about that, but we together are just this morning. We are just a small tiny fraction of what

God is doing on a global scale in the world. We in essence have the opportunity and an invitation to join a global resistance against evil and the evil one.

That's a pretty cool concept. I like that thought that we are connected in a vital way to a brotherhood and a sisterhood around the world of people.

Who are in opposition to the evil one through the blood of Jesus Christ and are reconciled and redeemed because of what

Jesus did for them. And so this morning I'm going to invite some people to step forward, a family at a time.

Stepping forward and they're going to be saying, I want my parenting to be within the boundaries of this resistance to the evil one.

I want to be humble. I want to lean on God, throwing my anxieties on him.

I want to be sober -minded and watchful. I want my family to resist and be a part of this great resistance against the evil one.

So let's first open our Bibles to 1 Peter. Chapter 5 verses 6 through 9.

Before we begin the dedication portion of our service, I'll read this text. 1 Peter 5, 6 through 9.

If you don't have a Bible, you can get up and get one on the table back there or just raise your hand and one of these guys will bring you a

Bible. We've got those available for you. And we do want everybody to have a copy of the Word of God to just follow along even though this is a pretty short text this morning.

Excellent there. 1 Peter 5, short text 6 through 9. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.

Be sober -minded. Be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

Resist him. Firm in your faith knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

Let's pray. Father, I rejoice and thank you that you are a

God who cares for us. That we can cast our anxieties and throw those things over onto you.

Father, even as we have an opportunity to enter a portion of our service committed to dedicating some children to you and some parents to you who want to step forward and say we want to resist evil and we want to stand for what is true and what is good and what is right and we throw ourselves in dependence upon Jesus Christ for this.

Father, I pray that you would even give them courage as they step forward. I know stepping up in front of a crowd can be an intimidating thing.

Father, I pray that you would give them clarity in the things that they share. And Father, just just bless this time and particularly bless these children.

I ask this in Jesus name. Amen. But this time I'm going to ask our first couple to come up with their little one,

Tom and Angel Wold. I'm going to ask you guys if you can kind come on up. Do you guys want to step over here for a second?

And then Tom, I'm going to ask you to introduce your family. Okay, excellent.

So little Malachi is going to be dedicated this morning. I'd also like you to just share some thoughts that you have about that God has laid on your heart about dedicating your son this morning.

Our hope and prayer that we're able to raise him up. He's trying to throw me off balance here.

That we're able to raise him up in a way that he would seek God first in all things and that he would learn by example through us as well as his

Christ family. Okay, excellent. Well, I would love to pray for you guys as a family right now.

Father, I lift up Tom and Angel to you. Thank you for the work that you've done in their lives to bring them these two wonderful boys and particularly

Malachi as we dedicate him to you this morning. Father, I pray that he would live up to his namesake. Father, a man that was used by you in the

Old Testament to write scripture and to be a a firebrand for truth. Father, I pray that that would be reality in Malachi's life.

That he would be outspoken in his generation as a man who loves you and it honors you. Father, I pray for this family and I pray for Tom that you would raise him up to be the spiritual leader that you've called him to be in his household.

I pray for Angel that she would be nurturing and and to help her to. Tom, Father, that you would guide and bless this family and we dedicate

Malachi to you in Jesus name. Thank you guys. All right.

And Linda has a certificate and a book for you guys as well from the church. That is appropriate.

At this time, I'm going to ask Steve and Jackie Root to come forward with their family.

Steve, I'm going to ask you to do the same if you could introduce your family. That'd be great. This is the

Root gang here. We've had four children dedicated so this is pretty awesome for us and seeing obviously a lot of benefit from the body coming together around our kids.

So we got Shiloh down here, Tanner, Sawyer, and coming in at 11 pounds out of Pawpaw, Michigan.

Little Eden Noel. So we're psyched about her. Her name,

Eden Noel, we gave the meaning of abundant life. We really see in her the joy that we feel and we're excited about how

God is going to work in her life. And we just, we're just, we've got big plans for her.

I know God does and we're excited about that. John 10 is a key verse in there where Jesus talks about when we enter into the kingdom that we can live, have life, and have it abundantly.

And we just pray that her life will reflect that and just like we went through with Peter that she can, the hope that she has that she can share that with all of us and the world at large.

And yeah, like I said, we're just, we're very excited that we can come before you guys and that it's not just us.

That it's all of us and we're blessed with teachers and and pastors and just so many people that speak into our kids lives.

So thank you for that. So awesome. Let me pray for you guys. Father, I lift up Steve and Jackie and their whole family to you.

Father, again, I pray that Steve would be the spiritual leader in his household that you've called him to be. Give him strength and men to come alongside of him to give him the encouragement that he needs to continue in the battle.

Father, I pray for Jackie that you would give her strength and encouragement. That Father, you would bring people into her life as well that would invest in her and help her in the difficult task of being a mom and being a helper and being a nurturer in her household.

And Father, I pray for this little wonderful girl Eden. Father, I lift her up to you.

We dedicate her to you this morning and ask that you would make her a place of abundance. Again, like her namesake, a place overflowing with the goodness of the

Lord, a place of rest and peace for those who are his. Father, would you raise her up to be a godly young lady who brings honor and glory to you and all that she says and does and is a model and an example to others in her life.

We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you guys. Last but not least, we have

Josh and Heidi Wheeler who are going to come forward. And I'll let

Josh introduce his family. If you want to introduce those who are seated, that'd be fine. Hey, good morning, everybody.

I'm Josh Wheeler and this is my wife Heidi and our daughter

Erin is five. Our boy Judah, who's back in the classroom, is four.

There's Lucia, who is two. And this is our new boy, Hudson, who's four months now.

So we are very blessed. We feel so blessed by having such a nice big family.

A lot of days we feel like we can't really handle all the blessings that we have. But here we are.

So we're excited about Hudson. I pray for all of my kids that they will come to know the

Lord early in life, that they will know his peace and joy, their lives will be marked by his peace and joy, that it'll transcend their fears and their worries and their anxieties, that they'll become kingdom builders, that God will use their lives in a big way for his glory and that they'll see parents that don't just talk the talk but walk the walk, that are on their knees praying, that are disciplined in holy habits, reading the word every day, leading them in worship and in service and knowing the scriptures, and just that our home would be a place of joy and laughter.

I forgot to introduce one other person who's Diane, who's Heidi's mom, who's also staying with us right now.

And man, she's a huge help. We'd be, I think we'd be sunk without her right now. One verse that I really like for our kids is

Jeremiah 6 16. And it says, this is what the Lord says, Stand at the crossroads and look.

Ask for the ancient paths. Ask where the good way is and walk in it and you will find rest for your souls.

And we pray that our kids would walk in his path and find rest for their souls. Father, I lift up the wheelers to you.

I pray that you would help them to find that good path that you have set out for them, Father.

I pray specifically for Hudson and dedicate him to you, Father, asking that you would guide him and direct him all of his ways, that you would set his feet on pathways that lead to your salvation early in life,

Father, that you would use him powerfully in a mighty way. Father, just as Hudson Taylor, the famous missionary to China, was a man who abandoned all for the cause of Jesus Christ.

I pray that that would be Hudson's reality as well, Father, that he would be a man who is sold out for you.

And I pray for Heidi as she seeks to raise her children in godliness, Father, that you would give her, again, just people to come around her to give her encouragement and strength in the days that can be long and difficult and tough and nights with sick kids up.

And Father, so many different things for Josh as he seeks to lead his family spiritually. Father, I pray that you would continue to give this family strength and encouragement and we dedicate

Hudson to you in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, guys. All right.

Thanks a lot to these couples for being willing to come up in front of you all in a public way and commit to take a stand and say they will raise their children in the

Lord. That's no small thing that they've undertaken here today. And then not only that, but we have a responsibility as a church to give assistance in prayer and love and in living everyday lives with these families to give them the help that they need.

So I'd like to at this time pray a prayer of dedication for us as a church over us as a congregation and then the band will come during this prayer and lead us in worship.

Let's pray. Father, I lift us up as a congregation and ask that you would give us unity,

Father, that you would give us a sense of connectedness, a sense of responsibility for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Father, that we would not be islands but recognize that you are calling us out to be a gathering of a people for your glory and for your honor.

Father, that we would encourage people who need encouragement, that we would even rebuke when there is need for rebuke, that we would correct when there is room for the word of God to correct.

Father, that we would be a people who are loving in all that we do and say and that we would encourage these, particularly these three couples and then all others as well,

Father, who are here, that we would encourage those who are single. We would encourage those who are still in high school.

We would encourage those in the children's program all the way up, Father, to those who have kids that have departed from their home.

Father, just all the scope that you have brought together in the richness of diversity of a church. Father, I thank you.

That you've brought us together in neediness before you and in community together with others that are in need of you.

I thank you for this in Jesus name. Amen. You can be seated if you need to.

I encourage everybody to get comfortable over the next half an hour or so. If you need to get up and get more coffee or juice or donuts, supplies last there.

Those are available. If you need to get up and stretch out, if your chair starts to get uncomfortable or whatever, it's not going to distract me.

Remember, restrooms that we want you to use are out the hallway to the end. Men's upstairs, women's downstairs if you need that.

But keep your Bibles open to 1 Peter chapter 5 verses 6 through 9. That wasn't just a scripture reading, but we're going to dig in and we're going to walk through that text and that really is my outline for the morning.

And so having that open just gives you the opportunity to kind of check what I'm saying and see that what I'm saying comes out of the text versus something that I'm just kind of coming up with on my own.

So it really is God's word that we walk through every week here at Recast and this week's no different. So we're going to just dig into that.

What we see right away in verse 6 is that Peter picks up right where we left off last week speaking on the subject of humility.

He talked with us last week. He told us what to wear when we come together at church. I mean not literally what to put on, but he said to clothe ourselves in humility was the text last week.

And that was in the context of relationships within the church towards one another.

So how do we roll in service? What does the way that we interact with each other look like in a practical sense within the church?

And it is to be one of humility. Whether it is the leadership of the church or whether you are in the followership of the church, whether you are whatever ministry you're involved in, we are to clothe ourselves in humility towards one another.

That's vital. That's important. We are indeed to have that type of humility towards each other, but here in our text

Peter ratchets things up just a notch by further addressing humility in a different direction.

Here he tells us again to humble ourselves, but this time it's not in relationship to one another strictly, but it's in relationship to God.

So clothe yourself in humility towards one another. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.

We are not just to be humble in our service towards one another in the church, but we are to be routinely engaged in a mental exercise of recognizing the truth that we are under the mighty hand of God.

How many of you recognize that there's a mental exercise involved in it? There's a part of your brain that needs to be engaged to be reflecting throughout your day that you are under God.

That you are, another way of saying it, you are not God. And how many of you know that it is a natural default from Monday to Saturday and a lot of times right in the middle of Sunday as well.

It is our natural default to if we are not mindful of God in the day -to -day, our default setting is

I'm God. Have you identified that? I'm the ruler. I'm the master. I'm the leader. I'm the one who calls the shots for my life and we need this constant reminder, a mental exercise of saying no,

I am under the mighty hand of God. Is that true?

Think about that in reality. Like if you think about the cosmic scope of your worldview about the way that things truly are, are you, like place yourself in regard to, think in regards of prepositional phrases in God.

Where would you place yourself in regard to God? Over, beside, or under?

And that's what he's getting at here. We are to contemplate and consider that we are under.

Do any of us ever truly believe that we are above God? I mean in a real sense, like if you think about it and you actually are cognizant of him and you're thinking about him, does anybody ever really say, well,

I am above God? Well, we know Satan actually did so, right? Like that was his sin was to say, I can, I will rise up.

I will, I will be over the throne of the almighty. And we see what happened to him and he's actually mentioned here in this context of talking about where our position is in regard to God, he's going to mention

Satan in the very same context. But I want to point out that the hand is often a symbol in and of itself for power in the

Old Testament. So throughout scripture, the word, the idea of the hand of God is one of power.

If God's hand is for you, it is a position of power. So what we have Peter doing in our text is he's like doubling down on this statement of how awesome

God really is. The mighty, say, making a statement, the mighty hand of God is like saying the powerful power of God.

You and I are to live in a position underneath the powerful power of God.

And so that could be like, if we just left it there, that could be like, I don't really know what to do with this,

Don. I don't know how to go throughout my week. Is this supposed to be, is this fear? Is this scared of God?

Is this, I'm under his powerful power for what? What, what is, what am I supposed to do with this?

But then Peter goes on to say something that's radical and glorious with this truth. If we live our lives in genuine humility towards God, if we come to the place of the end of ourselves recognizing that he is the authority, he is

God in our lives, then there is a time coming when that powerful hand of God that is over us now will scoop down and exalt us and lift us up.

So it's a beautiful reality of living this life under the mighty hand of God, recognizing that that mighty hand is for us if we are in Christ.

And that's the very hand that will reach down and pull us up and exalt us at the end, at the proper time.

God's hand is not over his people. God's hand is not over you like the shadow of a hammer about to fall.

I think a lot of people live their day in and day out lives with that mindset that, that's, there's a, there's a sense of fear, right?

Like he's watching. How many of you, how many of you ever heard that? Like when, maybe when you were kids or whatever, you've maybe even heard it in recent preaching, but it's like,

God's watching. Do you know what I'm talking about? That God is watching over you and that's like, oh,

I'm just, is that a scary thing? Is it like the hammer of God is about to fall on you at any time?

You're living under his mighty hand and he's just waiting, mess up, squash, right? Is that, is that the picture that we have in our hearts and in our minds of the almighty?

Look at what the text goes on to say. God is over his people for love and care.

At first glance at verse seven after verse six, sounds like a new thought. Like we could go like, okay, well, yeah, he's over us, his mighty hand, we're under him.

You know, he's this authority, he's this, you know, powerful being over all things.

And so, and then now we'll, we'll just cast our cares on him. But, um, how many of you have seen that on a mug?

You've seen it on a poster, you've seen it on a sign, cast your cares upon God for he cares for you or cast your anxiety on the

Lord. It makes for a great mug. Very rarely do you see verse six in there with it. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God.

That doesn't quite make the cut on the mug. Maybe it's just too many words or whatever, but it's very quick to jump to the casting part.

But these two things are tied together. We have to dig a little bit deeper in our minds to try to think of the link between humility and anxiety.

But it's right here. The verb structure in these two verses go like this. In Greek, humble yourself under God by casting all of your anxieties on him.

How does one live a life of humility before God? By casting your anxieties on him.

Why? Glorious truth. It's my first point this morning. Because he cares for you.

God is for his children. If you are in with Christ, he is for you.

How many of you think that that's a, that's a glorious thing? That's a beautiful truth. That's an amazing reality.

Uh, Peter starts with the good news here in the text first. God is for you. He is, he cares for you and he is eager for you to cast your anxiety on him.

How many of you have a little bit of anxiety in your life? Anybody? A few of us have some anxiety, some trouble, some stresses here and there.

I, I think, you know, all of us, those of you who didn't raise your hand, you're too stressed to raise your hand. I get it. Um, I know.

Um, all of us have this sense of stress and weight that is on our shoulders and we carry.

How many of you, you, you know, you carry more than you ought to carry. I think that's probably true for everybody in the room.

We carry more than we ought to. More than is in our control, more than is in our power to actually maintain and take care of and structure and order.

Humble yourselves under God by casting your anxieties on him. If we take just a moment, the connection really comes into focus.

Anxiety often develops in our lives through the seed of pride, the opposite of humility.

So a lot of our anxiety is a result of our pride. I know that the more that I put on myself, the more

I take on my shoulders, I have to raise these kids. I have to discipline the laziness out of them.

I have to pay the bills. I have to get it all right. I have to please everyone. And do you see how that could create some anxiety in my life?

How pride, a self -centeredness of saying, I've got this one God, I've got this, I've got this, I've got this, leads to significant anxiety in a person's life.

If I perceive that everything is on my shoulders, I have to take care of everything.

That's a recipe for pride and a recipe for anxiety.

You get it? Does that make sense? But in humility, we all need to cast our anxieties on the

God who cares for us. If you feel like you just can't get it done, if you feel like the weight is too much to carry, if the stresses of this world are pressing in around you, then

I would encourage you to go with that. Go with that. Let the weight of those cares crush you to your knees, to the end of yourself, to the place where all you have left to do is to throw those anxieties on God who can take care of it, who can take care of you.

Cast your cares on the God who is for you.

He cares for you. He is poised to rescue you, and it is key. I understand.

I understand what I'm saying because, like, is he going to pay the bills? Is he going to do these things? How is this all going to work? And, well,

I mean, Peter is obviously painting in a broad brushstroke of the the cosmic scope of things in your life.

And how many of you sometimes, like, you catch this little glimpse of my life as, like, a small fraction of what God is doing in the world, and there's this big picture that he's trying to do.

And the fact of the matter is this exaltation, this solving the issues that are in your life and mine is going to happen at the proper time, at the appointed time.

I believe that that's at the return of Christ or at the time where we exit and go to heaven, and eventually we're looking forward to a resurrection.

I mean, that's the eternal hope is that this body is not going to be sown into the ground alone, but eventually it's going to be remade through the power of Jesus Christ in resurrection, but there's a time coming.

So that even if the worst that a person can do for me is torture me and take my life, do

I have hope? I still have hope. I still have hope that in the end, in God's good timing, he's going to set it all right in the end.

By the way, the alternative to this humility that Peter's calling for is a quite familiar routine

American life of independence. And I've got this one God attitude that amounts to pride that ultimately will lead us deeper into anxiety, deeper into stress, deeper into a disordered life where we cannot, have you ever have been at a point in life where you feel like you're keeping the plate spinning?

Or you feel like you're juggling and every once in a while someone just adds something else to juggle in there and you're like,

I can't keep track. Something's going to fall eventually here. I have a hard time juggling two things with two hands.

Okay, so and you kind of feel like, man, this is, there's more added, there's more added, there's more added.

So in this first section we can take comfort because God is for you if you are in with Jesus Christ.

And that's the first point. But the second point is now the bad news. Peter starts with the good news.

And the good news is really good news. Really, really good news. God is for you. Well, the bad news, he's going to take care of that by the third point.

But the second thing that he wants you to know is that you have an enemy. God is for you, but you have someone who's against you.

You have an actual enemy. He does not neglect the bad news of life.

Peter says definitively that the Christian is to live a sober -minded and watchful life.

These two words in Greek simply mean sober, like as in the opposite of drunk, and awake, like the opposite of asleep.

So it's talking about sobriety and wakefulness, alertness.

I don't believe that Peter is taking time at the end of his letter to speak about the evils of the devil's brew.

This is not speaking against literal drunkenness. There's other passages that talk about that, and a Christian is not to be literally physically drunk on alcohol.

That's for sure. But instead he is using drunkenness and wakefulness as a nice word picture.

And then the way that he ties this all together, there's even a a bit of a a very picturesque way that he wants us to be watchful and sober -minded, and this is key.

Imagine that you're out in the woods. Do any of you enjoy camping? A couple of you enjoy camping or have been camping?

Maybe you didn't enjoy it so much, but you've been. So imagine you're out at the campsite, in a tent or whatever, even if you're in your camper, and imagine that just it sounds awful close and you hear a lion roar.

Now, we're in Michigan, you know, you'd be kind of freaked out. There'd be a couple of different issues with that, right? But you hear a lion roar.

Now, have any of you ever heard a lion roar? A couple of us? I heard one, and I can't remember if it was at Potter Park Zoo or it was at another, at some zoo.

Maybe it was in Seattle, but we actually had an opportunity to hear a lion roar, and it got everybody's attention in the vicinity.

I mean, it's, of course, it's proverbial, you know, like, I mean a lion's roar, really scary, whatever. But I mean to hear one in person, it's astonishing that this creature can produce that noise and that volume.

I mean everybody, what was that? You know, I mean, I mean we knew what it was right away, and at the same time, it was just like, whoa, intense.

It's a scary thing to hear a lion roar. Now, imagine that you're camping and you hear a lion roar. Would your first response to be to grab a bottle and get drunk?

Is that what you're going to do? Like, hey, you know, family, there's a lion out in the woods. Let's get plastered.

Is that what you do? How many of you are going to curl up in your sleeping bag and go to sleep, just try to sleep him away? Is that what you're going to do?

Oh, you want to be sober and alert. One of you might stoke the fire a little bit and set a guard, and like you're like kind of back to back, like looking out, like do you see eyes?

Is there anything out there? If you have a gun, you might want to like load it. You know what I'm saying? I mean, you're going to be like attentive.

All of a sudden, something has your attention and you're going to be paying attention to it. That's the

Christian life. One of alertness, he says. One of sobriety. Having your mind clear and not clouded by the various things that intoxicate us in our culture, in our society.

How many of you know that there are a lot of intoxicants that have nothing to do with drugs or alcohol in our culture? There are a lot of intoxicants.

A lot of things that draw down our attention from spiritual things. A lot of things that draw down the remembrance that we belong to God and that he is for us.

And there is a lion. Peter says, stay sober, stay awake, because you have an adversary, the devil, and he is hungry.

Satan is a true enemy. You might, you might say to me, Don, do you really believe that there's a real devil? Do you, do you believe in a real, personal, invisible being that opposes

God and his people? This is 2015, Don. I mean, for real, do you believe in these invisible spiritual beings that fell from glory with Satan and are now his demons?

Do I believe in Satan? Yes, I do. I believe in Satan minus the red tights, the pitchfork, and the whippy tail, and all that stuff that you see in the far -side cartoons and stuff.

And he's real. He's a real, personal being. By the way, he's not, he's not omnipresent.

He's in a location at any given point. I highly doubt that I've ever personally had any, been in the vicinity of Satan.

I think he's got bigger fish to fry than me. And at the same time, does he have his, his minions, his demons that do his bidding and, and would certainly be pleased to interfere with our lives?

Absolutely. Not only do I believe that Satan is real, but I believe fully in what

Peter has to say here about him. He is the enemy of everyone who belongs to Jesus.

Bit of a downer, but you have an enemy. How many of you kind of live your life hoping to kind of avoid enemies?

Do you have one? A de facto enemy of your soul who would seek to destroy you?

And he's on the prowl. He is searching. He is seeking. He prowls about in the darkness looking for signs of weakness.

He's a destroyer who, as the Greek text says, in very picturesque graphic terms says, he would gulp you down whole.

He does not want to waste the energy chewing on you. The, it's the actual Greek word that's used here for devourer is translated, a translation in the

Old Testament in Jonah of what the whale does to Jonah. So in the

Greek version of the Old Testament, what does the whale do? He devours Jonah. What does

Satan want to do with you? Eat you whole, not chew on the way down. He wants to just take you.

And many have been devoured. In a moment of lust, in a moment of passion, men and women who shipwreck their lives through adultery, greed that destroys families, pornography that twists and corrupts the minds of men and women alike, even outbursts of selfish rage and anger that break relationships between parents and their children and spouses and he loves to get involved in families.

And I want to point this out. I, you guys have heard me preach a lot. Some of you have been here from the very beginning and I don't preach a demon behind every bush, a demon behind every sin.

You, you would, far from my mouth is the devil made me do it. Okay, and it should be far from all of our lips to accuse him of being the cause of our sin.

I would suggest to you that I'm very capable of being tempted just by myself. Right?

I can tempt myself. I imagine that I am rarely directly attacked by the plans of Satan and yet that might very well be part of his plan for you and I.

That we are not mindful of him. That he can flow and work in the darkness under the radar in our lives in ways that is deceptive and actually up front looks pretty good.

I would suggest that one of his, one of the, one of his favorite things to do in our lives is to give us religious pride.

Looks really good on the outside, always feels good to just kind of, I go to church so God loves me more.

There's, I tithe, I do this, I do that and I'm, at least I'm better than those other people and that's certainly the kind of realm that would be like Satan to work in.

And yet, here Peter identifies that you and I indeed have a fierce, deceptive, prowling, and hungry enemy.

He is real and he has a terrible plan of destruction that he would love for you to follow.

A bit of a downer, but don't forget the first point.

Who's on your side? Who is for you? Who cares for you? The Almighty God.

And you can cast every single one of your anxieties on him. Lastly, Peter wants to remind us further glorious truth that ties this in together with God who is for us.

We have a real enemy, but we are not alone. We are being told in verse 9 to join what

I'm calling a global resistance. Resisting the evil one. We have the power to resist him by firmly standing our ground and our trust in the

God who is for us. Faith and trust in God is the way that we stand firm against the plans of the evil one.

To stand firm in our faith is to trust completely in God. Really ultimately to come under his mighty hand of protection, to cast our anxieties on him, to be sober -minded and to be watchful.

But Peter adds that the same kinds of difficulty we experience in our faith are the same kinds of sufferings that are experienced by our brotherhood throughout the entire world.

We don't stand alone in this resistance against Satan. Some days it feels like that. Would you agree with me on that?

Some days it feels like you're standing alone against the tide of evil that is in the culture and society or specifically in your own heart, right?

Who else sees the crud in your own heart but you? Nobody else, even your spouse doesn't fully see the evil in you.

You're the only one who's cognizant of it. How many of you are ever weary of that? Have you ever been worn down by your own sin?

And you see it there and it's like, but we don't we don't stand alone in this battle. That's one thing that I stand up here and I look out at your faces and I see all of you out here and I know you're made of the same stuff as me.

I actually take encouragement in that in knowing that you're struggling with some of the same things that I struggle with day in and day out, week in and week out.

We're in this together. And not just us, but those around the world who call themselves followers of Jesus Christ are joined together in a resistance against the forces of evil, particularly the evil one in this world.

It's a glorious reality that we are part of this huge global resistance, standing firm against Satan based on trust in the good news of Jesus Christ.

We're not alone. All of us are to have an attitude of dependence upon God.

We are called to trust him and take our anxieties off of our shoulders and let him carry the burden for us.

Our God is for us. And that gives us encouragement as we face the reality that we have an enemy.

The call to a sober watchfulness is one that points us towards living on purpose. The Christian life is one that is constantly analyzing life through the lens of truth.

The healthy Christian, the one who is being watchful, the one who is being sober -minded, recognizes that there is an agenda behind every media.

Every song is selling you something. Every movie has a set of values that it wants you to adopt.

Every TV show has a purpose in the mind of its author. Every book has a purpose for you.

I would suggest that far more people in our culture get drunk on entertainment than at any given point are drunk on alcohol.

I think we live in a culture that is saturated with drunkenness. It's on entertainment and I see it in my own life.

I'm not just pointing fingers. We get drunk on eye candy, don't we? How many of you have ever watched a movie and were so in awe of the special effects that you couldn't by the end tell what the movie was about?

Right? You know what I'm talking about. You watched Avatar. I was like, whoa, this is awesome.

I have no clue what they're doing. No idea what they're talking about, but that was awesome. Right? And then it's like you just got a little,

I mean, it's almost like the point of the special effects is to get the drool to run down the corner of your, while you're popcorn and by the way, don't hear me saying

Christians can't go to movies. That's far from what I want to convey. But, be sober.

Be watchful. Don't get lulled to sleep. I love the idea of Mark Driscoll.

This is unique to me. Mark Driscoll talks about having a notebook right with the remote control where he would actually take notes on TV shows and be attentive to what is the message of this.

What are they trying to communicate to me? Go to a movie and then write a synopsis of what the main point was afterwards.

And have you ever gone back and watched a movie that you watched before and gone, I can't believe

I watched that. Or what's worse is when you recommend that movie to somebody else and then you're like, ah, I just like, what are the, that one scene

I forgot or those words or that, whatever. And it's like, it's like for me, Ocean's Eleven was one of those movies that I watched the first time.

I think I've used this as an illustration before, but I watched it the first time. It wasn't until like months later that I thought about what the plot of that was about that I was like, yeah,

I was kind of cheering for larceny and kind of excited about them stealing stuff. Like breaking, you know, kind of excited about them breaking the laws of God, you know, the

Ten Commandments and stuff and I was cheering for them. So you see, you see how your heart can kind of get drawn into something and it's like, ah, yeah, huh.

Kind of wasn't very sober, kind of wasn't very watchful, wasn't awake at that point thinking it through.

There's a real enemy who has a plan to, one deception at a time, swallow you and destroy you.

And it might be just getting you early on to just adopt and accept some of these worldly patterns and some of these things that these movies are, just have subtle agendas, subtle desires to tweak you off of center, off of the right path, and eventually one tick at a time you find, how did

I get here? How did I get to where I think this way? How did I get to where I have adopted this mindset?

But we're not alone. That's a glorious thing. That's one of the reasons that I believe God has created a church.

The church strictly defined is the gathering of his people in a location. The word ekklesia in Greek means gathering.

That's what we've done this morning. It's one of the only things you can't do on your own. You can read your Bible. You can even like teach yourself the word of God.

You could take communion on your own. You can sing songs in your car and worship him, but you can't gather together alone.

And he says we need each other to not forsake the gathering together because it's a law, because it's a rule that God laid down you must be in church.

No, not at all. Because we need each other. We need community. Certainly that we are not alone starts right here locally, but then there's this global perspective that Peter is talking about the brotherhood around the world across the globe that we're connected to.

That gives hope. It gives encouragement. We're not alone. Those who came up here earlier to dedicate their children declaring in their actions that they declared in their actions that they do not want to be alone in their resistance of the evil one in their families.

But they want to join the resistance of evil particularly in the realm of their parenting. They want to raise up children who will in turn join the resistance against the evil one in the next generation.

It's a glorious privilege to have an opportunity with our children's ministry that's going on back there that's passing along to the next generation a resistance of evil through the cross of Jesus Christ and through his blood shed for them.

That's why we proclaim the gospel to our kids back there. It's not a bunch of moralisms that the kids are back there being taught right now.

You know, don't take don't take stuff from your brother. Don't use bad words. Say always say yes to mom and dad.

Now some of you are like, well, I want them to know that. But um, uh, it's not just the moralisms.

It's not that's not the focus. The focus back there is to get these little hearts to recognize they need a savior.

Did you know these little kids need a savior? Jesus came to die for them and it's a recognition that that's what they need.

And so sharing that with them from an early age. We want to see our children raised up to join that resistance.

And those who came forward said they want to raise up children who will stand firm in their faith. And the starting point of our hope begins with Jesus Christ.

He who humbled himself under the mighty hand of God was indeed exalted at the proper time.

He humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. But he is now exalted at the right hand of God the

Father. And he promised that just as he was humbled, but then indeed exalted, that he will exalt all who put their trust in him to save them from their sins.

Jesus is the victor over our enemy.

And as we stand firm in our faith with our mighty commander, our resistance has not merely won the battle, won a skirmish along the way, but the war is secured through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The end is sure. And so as we come to communion, we have an opportunity to come to the table.

And as we do so, let's take the bread and the juice as a remembrance of the great victory that was won for us at the cross.

And let's also look forward to that time when those who have humbled themselves under the mighty hand of God will one day be exalted with him.

If you're here, maybe it's maybe it's your first time here and you're kind of like, okay, communion, what's that all about? If you have asked

Jesus Christ, we have an open communion. That just simply means that if you have given your life to Christ, you don't have to have been baptized here or be a member here to take communion with us.

But we do ask that you have actually recognized what Jesus Christ has done for you, that he is indeed king, he's master, he's lord of your life, and you've asked him to save you.

Then I'd encourage you to come to one of the tables. There's four tables set up in the corner of the room. At any time during this song, you get a chance to sit down, meditate, think, get up, take the cracker and the juice, and then take that at your own pace.

But be reflective, be thoughtful. And again, I pointed this out, I think last week, but some people have this mindset that sitting there in your seat, you're supposed to confess every single sin you've ever done, and if you don't, you shouldn't take the juice, you shouldn't take the cracker.

And if that was the case, none of us would take communion because we don't even remember some of the sins that we've committed this week.

That's how bad we are. Okay, we're so forgetful that we don't even know the bad that we've done. And so the hope is saying, when you come to that table, you're saying,

I need a savior. I need someone to wash over my sins and to cover me. I've put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ as that, and this is a remembrance and a thankfulness and a service of gratitude to Him for what

He has done. It should be a joyful thing. We don't come and re -crucify Jesus at this table every

Sunday. That would be pretty dire, wouldn't it? That would be pretty sad. This is a joyful reflection on how much

He's loved you. Loved you enough to die on the cross for your sins. If you believe that's true and you've asked