SPEAKER_01: The apostle Peter was born with his foot in his mouth.
SPEAKER_01: Brash and outspoken, he was ready to fight at a moment's notice.
SPEAKER_01: One time, he actually cut a dude's ear off.
SPEAKER_01: He was brave and he was a coward.
SPEAKER_01: Peter was a contradiction.
SPEAKER_01: He walked on water with Jesus, he healed the sick, and gave sermons to thousands.
SPEAKER_01: And after his worst moment, when he had abandoned Jesus, he was restored by his loving Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus actually gave him the name Peter, which means rock.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter was stubborn like a rock.
SPEAKER_01: As he grew old, this stubborn Jesus follower gained wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: Wisdom which he shared with God's church in his letters.
SPEAKER_01: He was still imperfect, but God used him.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't that give you hope too?
SPEAKER_01: To know this very flawed man with a foul mouth was used by God in powerful ways.
SPEAKER_01: Peter's words come from a man who soaked up the presence of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: A man covered in the dust kicked up by his teacher's sandals.
SPEAKER_01: His letters are challenging and must be wrestled with until we fully understand.
SPEAKER_01: Peter was a contradiction.
SPEAKER_01: Peter suffered, betrayed his best friend, embarrassed himself, and eventually grew into a wise teacher.
SPEAKER_01: If you are sometimes abrasive, sinful, or broken, you'll find hope and solace in Peter's words.
SPEAKER_01: They echo the heart of Jesus and they challenge us to suffer well, stand up for goodness, and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So open your Bibles, open your minds, and let's learn together as we continue in our series, Peter the Rock.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, so we're gonna be in 1 Peter 5, 6 through 14.
SPEAKER_00: Are you there with me?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody got a bound Bible?
SPEAKER_00: Just, you know, those are my favorite things in the world, so I like seeing them.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for showing me yours.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, uh, verse six.
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
SPEAKER_00: Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time.
SPEAKER_00: Casting all your cares on him because he cares about you.
SPEAKER_00: Be sober minded, be alert.
SPEAKER_00: Your adversary, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.
SPEAKER_00: Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.
SPEAKER_00: The God of all grace who called you his eternal glory in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm trying, let's see.
SPEAKER_00: The God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little while.
SPEAKER_00: To him be dominion forever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Through Sylvanus, sorry, a faithful brother as I consider him, I have written to you briefly in order to encourage you and to testify that this is the true grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Stand firm in it.
SPEAKER_00: She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends her greetings, as does Mark, my son.
SPEAKER_00: Greet one another with a kiss of love.
SPEAKER_00: Peace to all you who are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for another day we get to gather as your people.
SPEAKER_00: It's an honor, it's a gift that we don't take for granted.
SPEAKER_00: We ask for your mercy on the families of the victims at Brown University, for the Jewish community that was so viciously attacked at Bondi Beach in Australia yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: God, we pray for our friend Miss Denise, who is in the hospital this morning with a blood clot.
SPEAKER_00: Please be healing her.
SPEAKER_00: We grieve those who are victims of gun violence this morning in Southeast, in Palestine, and throughout our world.
SPEAKER_00: But Lord, we do not grieve like those who have no hope.
SPEAKER_00: We recognize as dark as this world is, sometimes your light shines brighter in the dark.
SPEAKER_00: By the power of your Holy Spirit, help us to shine bright for justice, for mercy, for love.
SPEAKER_00: Let us not be infected by hatred, but instead let us love those who hate us.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to radiate your compassion in supernatural ways that drive out hate.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord above all, would you drive out any hatred, prejudice, and sin hidden in our own hearts?
SPEAKER_00: Please teach us this morning from your word.
SPEAKER_00: May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of our hearts be pleasing to you.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this all in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So our text this morning starts with a therefore, and uh that means that when there is a therefore in the Bible, you want to see what it is therefore.
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
SPEAKER_00: Um just a quick recap.
SPEAKER_00: Um last week the scripture said that our elders need to be humble.
SPEAKER_00: Elders, pastors need to humble themselves and seek God when they serve the church, not for selfish gain.
SPEAKER_00: Then in response, we as the church need to humble ourselves to trust our leaders and pastors as long as they are leaving, leading godly lives.
SPEAKER_00: We are also told to humble humble ourselves in the way we treat each other.
SPEAKER_00: Um that's very much like horizontal humility, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Um not horizontal, wait.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, horizontal.
SPEAKER_00: And then today is more about vertical humility.
SPEAKER_00: So um we are told to humble ourselves to each other.
SPEAKER_00: Now we see we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.
SPEAKER_00: But when you humble yourself under our Lord, it might still mean suffering.
SPEAKER_00: It might mean pain, and it might not just be a short season, it might be a long season.
SPEAKER_00: And so today I'm gonna give you three traits of radical humility.
SPEAKER_00: Three traits of radical humility.
SPEAKER_00: As a pastor, we always have to add that adjective, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Like we can't just say humility, we gotta add radical to it.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so here we go.
SPEAKER_00: Our first one is this trusting God in the mess.
SPEAKER_00: The first trait of radical humility is trusting God in the mess.
SPEAKER_00: It says in verse 6, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares on him because he cares about you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, none of us are good without God.
SPEAKER_00: That's the point of humility, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like we must see ourselves as we truly are, unworthy children of God.
SPEAKER_00: Then we trust him with everything else, knowing he cares for us.
SPEAKER_00: If we humble ourselves and trust our God, casting all your cares on him because he cares about you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what I love about this is like Peter is a fisherman.
SPEAKER_00: Like that is what Peter was about.
SPEAKER_00: He was fishing when God found him.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus found him and said, Hey, follow me, Peter was fishing.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus died and Peter didn't know what to do, he went fishing.
SPEAKER_00: Here he says, casting your cares on him.
SPEAKER_00: What I love is Peter is using a fishing term.
SPEAKER_00: Peter uses the same term a fisherman would use to cast his nets.
SPEAKER_00: But here he's saying, cast your cares into the loving arms of God because he's trustworthy.
SPEAKER_00: Peter told the Christians in Asia, humble yourselves.
SPEAKER_00: But for real, many of them were already humbled.
SPEAKER_00: If you know the history of the Christians that were coming out of the Roman Empire, you know that they were being humbled daily.
SPEAKER_00: Christians spread across the vast Roman kingdom were consistently put in their place.
SPEAKER_00: They were at the bottom of society, they were below their pagan contemporaries, and they were looked down upon by their Jewish neighbors as being a part of a Jewish cult.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't totally spread out across Asia because they wanted to be, though, were they?
SPEAKER_00: They were forced.
SPEAKER_00: They were forced to flee their homes if they wanted to live.
SPEAKER_00: If you wanted to follow Jesus in Jerusalem or any other Roman province, you were preparing yourself not to fit in.
SPEAKER_00: You were preparing yourself to endure some hatred and some anger.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Carrie Jobs, she says this many anxieties result from professing faith in Christ in a polytheistic society that is hostile to exclusive claims of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: She says the loss of status and respect, loss of family standing, loss of friends, perhaps even the loss of one's livelihood, and in extremes cases of one's life.
SPEAKER_00: These are real possibilities for Christians of Asia Minor.
SPEAKER_00: See, these Christians were suffering.
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't like somebody on social media is mocking you, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like they were seriously suffering.
SPEAKER_00: And suffering can cause you to do two things.
SPEAKER_00: One, increase your faith in God, or you can just look at it and say, Man, this ain't worth it.
SPEAKER_00: How easy would it have been for them to abandon God with encouragement from the people around them, from the people they love, people that they love that were cheering for them to leave God, for your family and friends, your business would have more customers again.
SPEAKER_00: But instead, they daily chose to humble themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Most likely their exaltation was going to come not in their lifetime, but in their death.
SPEAKER_00: But it would come.
SPEAKER_00: This is why they were called to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God.
SPEAKER_00: But this means as a Christian, sometimes we have to go to the scripture and humble ourselves by saying, God, you know better than me.
SPEAKER_00: You do.
SPEAKER_00: Now we've had a good bit of marine lair lately here in San Diego, and I love it, except for when I go surfing because I'm a little bit blind, and when I'm surfing, I can't see the shore right now.
SPEAKER_00: And like normally I'm like, hey, I'm gonna stick right by this house, and then um, you know, I'll be all right.
SPEAKER_00: And then I'm like, I don't see the house, I just don't know where I am, it gets a little spooky, and I know eventually I'll get in.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but sometimes you find yourself in fog with God, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: Like, like you're in the fog, and God says, move forward.
SPEAKER_00: He sees above the fog, only he can see above and beyond the despair and the destruction that is in front of you right now, friends.
SPEAKER_00: But when all you see ahead is danger and death, sometimes we have to say, like, God, I cannot see this path forward.
SPEAKER_00: It's dark, it's foggy.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to move forward, but I'm going to trust you with it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to humble myself because I know you are good and trustworthy.
SPEAKER_00: See, humility is not just trusting God in hard times, though.
SPEAKER_00: Humility means trusting God when you even disagree with Him.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, um, like the thing is, is like I've sat down with plenty of you and I've heard it's okay that I'm sleeping with my boyfriend or girlfriend.
SPEAKER_00: God's fine with it.
SPEAKER_00: So, of course, one of your elders who loves you very much, I I will show you 10 Bible texts that show you otherwise.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, I made a printout of those Bible verses for people to make it easier.
SPEAKER_00: I just got tired of like looking them up.
SPEAKER_00: If you humble yourselves under your leaders, um, you might listen to us sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: You might think that we have your good in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: If you humble yourself under God, you will listen to his word.
SPEAKER_00: But when you say, I don't need to listen to my leaders, okay, fine.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'll just be honest with you, it's a little annoying, but I understand because I'm fallible, right?
SPEAKER_00: But when you say, I like what I'm doing, I know what the Bible says, but I don't want to do what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you're putting yourself in a dangerous position, friends.
SPEAKER_00: You are refusing to humble yourself under God.
SPEAKER_00: You are saying you know better than God, or worse, you are saying you know exactly what God has to say, and you don't want to do it.
SPEAKER_00: You don't care.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a dangerous position to be in, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Like you're falling prey to the trap of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: He wants you to exalt yourself, your needs, your wants above God.
SPEAKER_00: First John 1 8 says this if we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And the truth is not in us.
SPEAKER_00: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and he is righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar.
SPEAKER_00: And his word is not in us.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, we have people in this room that are uh from the newborn stage, uh, sometimes to their eighties and their nineties.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have read many books, some of you have high college degrees, or you might have been on the streets for such a long time that you've learned a lot of those lessons the hard way.
SPEAKER_00: And you as well as me might be tempted to think you are wise.
SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, God has always existed, and God will always exist.
SPEAKER_00: And I ask you to consider who has true wisdom you or the being who has always existed, the one who created wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: There's a book in the Bible called the Book of Job.
SPEAKER_00: It's spelled Job, if you're looking for it, where God allowed the accuser to mess with a godly man named Job.
SPEAKER_00: God had a plan to use Job's suffering for his glory, but Job couldn't see it.
SPEAKER_00: Job didn't know that many thousands of years later we would be encouraged by his suffering.
SPEAKER_00: So he kind of just came at God.
SPEAKER_00: Even though Job was a good dude, he accused God of some things.
SPEAKER_00: He called the Lord out and he basically said this God, if you are so good, why am I suffering so much?
SPEAKER_00: I've lived my whole life for you and for others, and it's clear you don't even care that I suffer unjustly.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing Job was described by God as a good and godly man who sought the Lord's heart and he still lacked the wisdom that God has.
SPEAKER_00: So when he had the audacity to challenge God, God clapped back.
SPEAKER_00: In Job 46, this is this is what God says.
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind, get ready to answer me like a man.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you're in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: When I question you, you will inform me.
SPEAKER_00: Would you really challenge my justice?
SPEAKER_00: Would you declare me guilty to justify yourself?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have an arm like God's?
SPEAKER_00: Can you thunder with a voice like his?
SPEAKER_00: Now God said a lot more than that.
SPEAKER_00: It goes on for several pages.
SPEAKER_00: And Job ended up listening.
SPEAKER_00: And Job apologized.
SPEAKER_00: That's humility, right?
SPEAKER_00: He humbled himself under the mighty arm of God and he was exalted for it, but not till after the worst things happened to him.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes to humble ourselves is just to trust God when we are struggling, to surrender to him our anxieties, and trust he will pick us up, not in the way we want, in the way he wants, though.
SPEAKER_00: Humility is not weakness, friends, it's strength.
SPEAKER_00: It's the ability to say we are limited while God is not.
SPEAKER_00: But how can we be humble when we all read the Bible through the lens of culture?
SPEAKER_00: We all have a culture that we read the Bible through, do we not?
SPEAKER_00: Every culture has different blind spots.
SPEAKER_00: My culture has different blind spots.
SPEAKER_00: Your culture has different blind spots.
SPEAKER_00: But we have to humble ourselves and say, God, your command, it makes me squirt.
SPEAKER_00: But I trust that you are wise and I trust that I am not.
SPEAKER_00: The good news is, even if you lack humility at times, friends, he's always waiting to forgive us.
SPEAKER_00: Humble yourselves under the mighty God of the hand of God and he will lift you up.
SPEAKER_00: He's not like us, though, when someone has wronged us.
SPEAKER_00: Have you noticed that when somebody wrongs us, this is what we tend to do.
SPEAKER_00: We get all grumpy, like we wait, we wait inside the house with our arms crossed, just waiting for that person to come apologize to us.
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm annoyed at you for being stupid or mean to me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just waiting for you to crawl back to me.
SPEAKER_00: Like, and I want you to crawl back to me through the dog door, right?
SPEAKER_00: But that's not the way God is, is it?
SPEAKER_00: No, he's on the porch, straining his eyes to see you, searching the horizon like the good dad that many of us never had, a loving dad who desperately wants his children to come home to him, who would do anything to bring them home.
SPEAKER_00: That's our God when we go to him with humility.
SPEAKER_00: But as long as you listen to what you think and want, more than what God wants for you, no one's gonna be able to help you, friends.
SPEAKER_00: Not even God.
SPEAKER_00: Because you've told him you don't want to do things his way.
SPEAKER_00: You've told him not to get involved, and he's gonna honor that.
SPEAKER_00: He will always allow you to choose hell, isolation, eternal pain over him, but he hates it.
SPEAKER_00: He hates it.
SPEAKER_00: He wants his kids in the house instead of running around in the dark with wolves and other plagues that menace his children.
SPEAKER_00: That's the good daddy is.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm pleading with you this morning, friends, repent while it's today.
SPEAKER_00: Humble yourself under God's mighty hand.
SPEAKER_00: It's better to suffer for doing right than suffer for doing bad.
SPEAKER_00: Because our suffering for good will one day end in glory.
SPEAKER_00: Compared to God, though, we don't know.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: We are not even a newborn compared to God, but we still lecture him like we are his parents.
SPEAKER_00: We like to lecture him.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Don't run in the street, we say, You're not the boss of me.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Be careful trying to date someone who doesn't take their faith seriously.
SPEAKER_00: And we respond, God, I'm lonely.
SPEAKER_00: And that person is never gonna show up.
SPEAKER_00: This person in front of me is nice and uh fine, and they don't really value that much, but they're here right now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna trust you for later.
SPEAKER_00: When you do that, you are saying to God, I'm gonna wear black at night and I'm gonna run in the street because you're not the boss of me.
SPEAKER_00: And God comes pleading with us, child, choose life.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you say in your like little kid voice, I've read books written by intelligent toddlers that say it's fine to run in the street.
SPEAKER_00: Or we might say, I've talked to all my toddler friends, and I've watched 17 hours of convincing Instagram and TikTok videos about how I will be healthier if I wear all black and I run in the street at night.
SPEAKER_00: I read the toddler paper, I have my doctorate in toddler street running.
SPEAKER_00: And every expert says toddling in the street is good for you.
SPEAKER_00: But that's human wisdom, isn't it, friends?
SPEAKER_00: You might say, I don't need that ancient sky god and his ancient book telling me what to do.
SPEAKER_00: But friends, we do.
SPEAKER_00: We do, he's eternal, he's wise, and he's absolutely loving, he's trustworthy.
SPEAKER_00: But we have to humble ourselves and admit that he might know better than us.
SPEAKER_00: Humble yourselves under the mighty arm of God, it will do you well eternally.
SPEAKER_00: And if you are faithful, the world is going to consistently correct your faith.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, follow Jesus, but don't let it get in the way of anything else they'll say to you.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay if every religion is correct, so long as they say love.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, we're cool with you, so long as you just say love and that's it.
SPEAKER_00: But I just tell you, that kind of love is so cheap.
SPEAKER_00: Like pimps say that they love a woman.
SPEAKER_00: Can I say that?
SPEAKER_00: We'll find out later.
SPEAKER_00: But it's a lie, and it sends those women to hell on earth.
SPEAKER_00: They want to water down Jesus' message when they say this to you.
SPEAKER_00: They say, Follow your Jesus guy, but don't claim he's God.
SPEAKER_00: Follow Jesus, just be about justice, not love.
SPEAKER_00: Follow Jesus, just be about love, not justice.
SPEAKER_00: Don't condemn your own sins, follow your heart, follow your feelings, seek your truth.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, if we go against any of this cultural garbage that they are spoon feeding us, they will mock us.
SPEAKER_00: They will call you a bigot.
SPEAKER_00: But early in our text, Peter called us strangers and refugees in this world.
SPEAKER_00: We don't fit in and we shouldn't fit in.
SPEAKER_00: If we humble ourselves, we are going to be teased, ostracized, left out, humiliated, and sometimes lonely.
SPEAKER_00: But we don't just humble ourselves, we humble ourselves under a mighty, compassionate, loving God.
SPEAKER_00: Hard times always come, but if we trust God at His Word, we can band together with the family of God, resist the devil, and have hope for a brighter tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: What a hard question, though.
SPEAKER_00: Are we willing to give up everything, knowing that you will win if you stay in the fight till the end?
SPEAKER_00: The good news is that he will be with us when we suffer, and he will exalt us at his proper time.
SPEAKER_00: His.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 8 35 is one of my favorite texts in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, the whole Romans eight is my favorite chapter in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Who can separate us from the love of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or a sword?
SPEAKER_00: It is written, Because of you we are being put to death all day long.
SPEAKER_00: We are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.
SPEAKER_00: No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
SPEAKER_00: For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing should be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's a good promise.
SPEAKER_00: Now, just because we honor God in humility doesn't mean we shouldn't respect our adversary and prepare for him.
SPEAKER_00: We can acknowledge that God is bigger and stronger, but we can still understand there is one who would love to wreak havoc in our families, in our churches, in our minds.
SPEAKER_00: And so our second trait of radical humility is this being alert and preparing to resist the devil.
SPEAKER_00: Being alert and preparing to resist the devil, no days off.
SPEAKER_00: Even the greatest athletes prepare for their opponent.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest warriors prepare for their enemy.
SPEAKER_00: We have to do the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: If you look at some of the greatest athletes, they're always studying game tape.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8 says, Be sober-minded, be alert.
SPEAKER_00: Your adversary, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.
SPEAKER_00: Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of suffering, sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.
SPEAKER_00: So he's saying, Stay alert.
SPEAKER_00: Know the devil would love to destroy you.
SPEAKER_00: Stay strong in the faith even when you suffer.
SPEAKER_00: But as a believer in Jesus, you don't got to suffer alone.
SPEAKER_00: You have friends all over the world from all times of history that get you and they get your suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why would Peter use a lion to describe the devil here?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, number one, we know a lion is powerful, they got big teeth, it's kind of scary.
SPEAKER_00: Um, they can easily eat sheep.
SPEAKER_00: We've been described as sheep throughout this text.
SPEAKER_00: But also many of Peter's readers were likely immigrants from Rome, refugees from Rome.
SPEAKER_00: What did they do to Christians in Rome?
SPEAKER_00: What did they do to them in the Great Colosseum in Rome?
SPEAKER_00: They threw them to the lions.
SPEAKER_00: Feeding Christians to lions for Rome was like going to see the Padres play.
SPEAKER_00: It was a common occurrence, probably 162 times a year.
SPEAKER_00: I got nothing to back that up.
SPEAKER_00: That's not real.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it was a normal part of Roman life.
SPEAKER_00: Christians from the Roman diaspora understood why lions were scary because they might have seen people they love killed by the lions in front of them.
SPEAKER_00: So they were told, humble yourselves under God, respect an enemy who seeks to devour you.
SPEAKER_00: Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Tony Evans says you can conquer Satan, but only through faith and obedience to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The way to prepare for the devil, though, is not to focus on him alone, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But instead to focus on things that draw you closer to God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I know many of you, church, uh, that sometimes Sunday feels like an elective.
SPEAKER_00: Now, because the weather is like slightly bad, you guys are like hardcore here right now.
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh my gosh, it's like 62 degrees and foggy.
SPEAKER_00: You guys are like the warriors right now here.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but for many people in the church, like church can feel like an elective.
SPEAKER_00: Gathering with the church can feel like something I don't really gotta do.
SPEAKER_00: It's something I can do, it's something I'll do uh because it's kind of nice.
SPEAKER_00: It feels extra to you sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: And then the moment you struggle, you have nobody that you've developed a deep relationship with, and your relationship with God is shallow.
SPEAKER_00: So I tell you now, know your enemy, prepare for challenges to your faith now, be in community, be in God's word, be in prayer now.
SPEAKER_00: The devil will tell you bad things about the Christians around you.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: His goal, his goal is not to help you get healthy, his goal is to tell you, oh man, you need to find a perfect church.
SPEAKER_00: These people around you, man, they're sinners.
SPEAKER_00: His goal is for you to always be looking for the best church and never fully known, never fully in community, because it's easier to get you isolated that way.
SPEAKER_00: It's why when someone leaves our church, I call them and say, How are we doing?
SPEAKER_00: Are we in a church?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have leaders that you trust?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have people that you can trust?
SPEAKER_00: Guys, because it's easier for the devil to attack you when you are alone.
SPEAKER_00: Be humble, respect him, but learn that the way to oppose him is to go to God and be in his church.
SPEAKER_00: So a while back there was this thought experiment that everyone was talking about on social media.
SPEAKER_00: People had created like um like videos about it and stuff, and it was this idea, right?
SPEAKER_00: If a silverback gorilla fought a hundred dudes, who would win?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you guys remember that.
SPEAKER_00: That was like a year ago, maybe.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but what I will tell you is the majority of scientists agreed, um, even scientists who studied primates agreed that the humans would win.
SPEAKER_00: The humans would win because they work together.
SPEAKER_00: Um, primatologist Michelle Rodriguez says that gorillas, quote, pick their battles, and that in this situation a gorilla would try to flee.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, the devil also picks his battles.
SPEAKER_00: When a group humbles themselves and seeks to serve each other and be in community, be united in Jesus, it's easier for them to resist the devil.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says, resist the devil and he will flee from you like a gorilla.
SPEAKER_00: I think it says it, I'm quoting it a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: But when he can get you to judge someone or someone in the church, or just judge the church, not saying there's not bad churches or we don't get it wrong, but his goal is to get you isolated and alone, and that's when he will attack you.
SPEAKER_00: The term that is used here for the devil is adversary.
SPEAKER_00: This is the same term someone might use in court.
SPEAKER_00: Another, probably more helpful term that many Bible scholars use is accuser.
SPEAKER_00: Accuser.
SPEAKER_00: When he gets you alone, he points out your flaws, he points out your mistakes and your sins, and he tells you you're not worthy.
SPEAKER_00: He loves to do this to you.
SPEAKER_00: He knows if he can get you thinking about your sin enough, or even about him, you'll stop thinking about God.
SPEAKER_00: That's his goal.
SPEAKER_00: He knows if he can get you thinking about your sin or my sin enough, you'll stop being in community and you will hide in dark corners because you're ashamed or you're bitter.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he accuses you, yes, but our accuser doesn't get the final say, does he?
SPEAKER_00: Martin Luther was quite aware of the accusations of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what Martin Luther said.
SPEAKER_00: When the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this.
SPEAKER_00: I admit that I deserve death and hell.
SPEAKER_00: What of it?
SPEAKER_00: For I know the one who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf.
SPEAKER_00: His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where he is, there I shall be also.
SPEAKER_00: We know who wins, friends.
SPEAKER_00: There is no doubt.
SPEAKER_00: Give God glory now for what he has already done because the war is over.
SPEAKER_00: Even if battles and skirmishes continue, the war is over.
SPEAKER_00: But while we wait, we prepare with humble trust in God.
SPEAKER_00: And it all starts with that humility.
SPEAKER_00: Understanding it is God's mighty arm we sit under.
SPEAKER_00: We don't beat the devil by being awesome.
SPEAKER_00: We don't overcome sin in our life because we are naturally holy.
SPEAKER_00: We overcome sin in our life because of the power of God's love and his sacrifice on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: This is the beauty of the gospel that when we were far off, when we were enemies of God, God made a way for us, sent his son Jesus to this earth.
SPEAKER_00: God and man died on the cross for our sins, rose again, showing that he was bigger than our sin and death.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you don't have confidence today, it's time to give your confidence to God that he did that on your behalf, and you can sin and go back to him, apologize, repent, seek to follow him, and no matter how much you try, you still mess up.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay because he's got you.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about you being perfect, it's about his perfection.
SPEAKER_00: And when you give your life to Jesus, he gives you his Holy Spirit, which helps you overcome your sin.
SPEAKER_00: You can fight depression better, yes, you can fight the lies that are intending to destroy you and your relationships.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 6 says to put on the whole armor of God against the schemes of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: For our struggles are not against flesh and blood, but rulers, authorities, cosmic powers of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Stand with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, your feet sandal with readiness for the gospel of peace.
SPEAKER_00: Take up the shield of faith which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
SPEAKER_00: Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, notice all these things are defensive except for the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: It is an offensive weapon.
SPEAKER_00: And we hope our church is teaching you how to properly read the word, using the word to interpret the word.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, notice uh sometimes you'll hear somebody quote the word, but they won't necessarily tell you where it is, and they'll say it fast, like, have your Bibles out.
SPEAKER_00: When someone's trying to teach you, have your Bibles ready.
SPEAKER_00: Because I have heard just this last week a social media influencer who said it's okay to sin, because everyone does, technically, um, or because our culture says it's okay.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, What?
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Yeah, we're gonna sin, so just you know, try your best.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, even if you're like like okay, I'm okay, I'm okay with this sin.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna do it.
SPEAKER_00: That's okay, though.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, this is a social media Christian influencer right now that says, Hey man, if I cuss, I'm alright with that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't mind.
SPEAKER_00: Technically, it's a sin, but yeah, I'm just gonna keep doing it.
SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, uh, I don't do these other things either.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, wow, that's really bad theology.
SPEAKER_00: You should probably have your Bible out uh when you listen to that dude, or like my recommendation, block that dude.
SPEAKER_00: The social media, same social media influencer has said it this last week.
SPEAKER_00: He said the Trinity is like a person with three different roles like a father, like a brother, and like a son.
SPEAKER_00: Heads up, that's called modalism, that's like an ancient heresy.
SPEAKER_00: Like, that ain't it.
SPEAKER_00: We know that God is like the Father is God, and He is a person we call the Father.
SPEAKER_00: We have the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit fully God.
SPEAKER_00: Fully God, three separate persons, though.
SPEAKER_00: That is a consistency in Orthodox theology over the years that is informed by Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: So careful, have your Bible out ready to fight this crap that you hear on social media daily.
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, the devil is a roaring lion, but our God is not intimidated by lions, is he?
SPEAKER_00: It's why we humbly trust him.
SPEAKER_00: Peter's readers would have known the Old Testament history of those who walked with God.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, they were afraid of lions, but they also knew what happened to the prophet Daniel when he was thrown into the lion's den for following God.
SPEAKER_00: What happened?
SPEAKER_00: He shut the mouths of the lions.
SPEAKER_00: So we know that God can shut the mouth of the lion.
SPEAKER_00: And that brings us to our third trait of radical humility.
SPEAKER_00: Trusting God will make all things right one day.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, church, we are in what the uh what anti right calls the yes but not yet.
SPEAKER_00: The yes but not yet moment in history.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little while.
SPEAKER_00: To him be dominion forever, amen.
SPEAKER_00: So when you suffer for following God, there comes a day when he lovingly restores and strengthens you.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we suffer, but as Indian pastor Chris Ganakin says, he says, troubled times are not endless.
SPEAKER_00: The God of all grace has called believers not only to suffer, but to share in his eternal glory.
SPEAKER_00: But this promise sometimes feels a bit vague to me.
SPEAKER_00: Does it not feel that way to you guys?
SPEAKER_00: Like, when, oh Lord, will you restore us?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see what we're seeing?
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Yeah, I'm above the fog, guys.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: But church, we just don't know the when.
SPEAKER_00: We know the who, and that's what we have to put our trust in.
SPEAKER_00: Him, the God of all grace, is an important descriptor of our God.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we call him the God of all grace?
SPEAKER_00: We call him the God of all grace because Adam and Eve, when they sinned against God and they tried to hide from him, he sacrificed animals and made clothing because he loved them.
SPEAKER_00: We call him the God of grace because Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: God took a hundred-year-old man, desperate for an heir, and gave him a child, and even made him the father of all nations as an old man.
SPEAKER_00: We call him the God of grace because in Egypt Israel had suffered for hundreds of years, and God, by his mighty hand, which is what they said about him, they called it his mighty hand, saved them from slavery when they called out to him.
SPEAKER_00: He performed great miracles, parted the waters, and sent them on their way to safety.
SPEAKER_00: We call him God of grace because Israel in Babylon was suffering under another bad king, but God delivered them and even gave them the favor of a better king who would help them rebuild their own temple.
SPEAKER_00: We call him the God of grace because King David, one of the men we read in the Bible, cheated on his wife with another man's wife, had the man killed, God confronted him through the prophet Nathan, David repented, and that God of grace still restored him.
SPEAKER_00: We call him God of grace because the apostle Paul was out there murdering people, murdering Christians in his misplaced religious zealots, zealousy, zealousy, zealousness, whatever it was.
SPEAKER_00: But he was killing Christians and God made him blind.
SPEAKER_00: God called him to repentance, and God said, I'm gonna use you to move forward the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he's of God of grace.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't use the best person, he used the worst.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul calls himself that.
SPEAKER_00: This was the time when Rome, the oppressor of the Christians, was declaring their kingdom forever, though.
SPEAKER_00: This was the Pax Romana, if you took that in school.
SPEAKER_00: The Roman peace all over the world.
SPEAKER_00: And anyone who was sat under the peace of an oppressor knows that it's not peace, it's not true peace.
SPEAKER_00: Carrie Job reminds us.
SPEAKER_00: The price of that peace was iron fisted power.
SPEAKER_00: The iron fisted power of Roman might that tolerated not even the suspicion of a threat to its glory.
SPEAKER_00: That was the epox Romana.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, Rome looked powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Rome looked unbeatable, unstoppable.
SPEAKER_00: But God's kingdom looked weak.
SPEAKER_00: People were hiding and worshiping secretly in tombs.
SPEAKER_00: Tell me which kingdom looks bigger to you.
SPEAKER_00: But God's kingdom is the only everlasting kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God continues in perpetuity today, when Rome is long gone.
SPEAKER_00: Hold on, I'm gonna cough.
SPEAKER_00: And now we can look back and we can laugh when people said the everlasting kingdom of Rome.
SPEAKER_00: We can laugh because we know it was fallible and it was weak and it had misplaced its priorities.
SPEAKER_00: But when you are under the thumb of Rome in that moment, friends, when you are suffering from addiction, when you are suffering from anxiety and depression, a bad boss, looking for a job when you're in debt, look, or maybe a house, even you just want a place to live.
SPEAKER_00: When things feel hopeless, we can hope in God whose kingdom is forever.
SPEAKER_00: We know how this all ends, but we also know it it has an end.
SPEAKER_00: It will end.
SPEAKER_00: Now I've always fantasized about going back in time to give myself stock stock tips.
SPEAKER_00: Is there anyone else who has ever had that?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, some of you might want to be like back to the future and just like you know, bet on sports or something.
SPEAKER_00: But I've always thought, like, man, how cool would it be to go back in time?
SPEAKER_00: Just be like, hey, here's the deal, Dale.
SPEAKER_00: August 2000.
SPEAKER_00: I would have just graduated from uh from high school.
SPEAKER_00: I would have told myself buy as much Apple stock as possible.
SPEAKER_00: You will do fine if you buy this stock and you hold it until November 2025.
SPEAKER_00: So say I did that.
SPEAKER_00: I'd be like, sell everything you have, Dale.
SPEAKER_00: So I would sell my Berry Bonds baseball cards because like nobody was sure that he was using steroids yet.
SPEAKER_00: It was worth a lot of money at the time.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I would sell my old amplifiers, I would do chores for money, I would save up all the money that I would normally spend on Carl's Jr., little Caesars, and those empanadas from the Filipino bakery that were like my kryptonite around that block.
SPEAKER_00: Valerios.
SPEAKER_00: Say I could save up$2,000.
SPEAKER_00: Who's to say if I could or not?
SPEAKER_00: But I would tell myself, don't sell that stock when things look bad.
SPEAKER_00: Don't sell that stock when you when you see things dropping and dropping and dropping and dropping.
SPEAKER_00: And I would say, trust me, I know better.
SPEAKER_00: And then what would happen?
SPEAKER_00: I would buy that stock for an equivalent of$1.09.
SPEAKER_00: And the crazy thing would be that on September 28th, 2000, Apple would have its biggest single-day drop ever, where they went down 51%, losing hundreds of millions, hundreds of billions of dollars.
SPEAKER_00: The very next day it was 55 cents.
SPEAKER_00: December 1st, it was 30 cents.
SPEAKER_00: The bombing of the World Trade Center happened on September 11th, and that made things really worse in November of 2001, where it was back down to 32 cents.
SPEAKER_00: September 2002, 26 cents.
SPEAKER_00: But I would say don't sell when things look bad.
SPEAKER_00: Don't sell when when things are down.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to go up.
SPEAKER_00: In those few months, Apple stock lost hundreds of billions of dollars.
SPEAKER_00: But my advice would be young Dale, with your stupid outfits and your frosted tips, if you want that Dodge Viper, don't sell.
SPEAKER_00: Wait until November 2025.
SPEAKER_00: Wait until November 8th, 2025, when it's$277.18.
SPEAKER_00: You'll have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
SPEAKER_00: Would it make the drops in 2001 okay?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Like, yes, the drop is okay right now because I know what's coming.
SPEAKER_00: Would it make the drop in 2008 okay?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if any of you knew about the financial decline that happened in that season.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it would be gone from my mind because I know what's coming.
SPEAKER_00: I would have generational wealth, but only if I stayed close to the promise given to me.
SPEAKER_00: God's promises are not small, they are not weak, and they're so much bigger than stock tips.
SPEAKER_00: They're grand.
SPEAKER_00: But we have to wait for them sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: And only he sees the end, only he can see past the fog in your life.
SPEAKER_00: We have to humble ourselves and trust him in these moments.
SPEAKER_00: We wait for glory.
SPEAKER_00: We don't sell low.
SPEAKER_00: We wait on God.
SPEAKER_00: Glory is always waiting for.
SPEAKER_00: It's always worth waiting for.
SPEAKER_00: Don't sell on God when things feel low.
SPEAKER_00: Wait on God when things feel low.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 40, 30 through 31 says, Youths may become faint and weary.
SPEAKER_00: Young men may stumble and fall.
SPEAKER_00: But those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength.
SPEAKER_00: They will mount up with wings like eagles.
SPEAKER_00: They will run and not grow weary.
SPEAKER_00: They will walk and not grow faint.
SPEAKER_00: God is worth trusting.
SPEAKER_00: It is worth humbling yourself before God.
SPEAKER_00: Don't sell on God when it seems low.
SPEAKER_00: He will exalt you at the proper time.
SPEAKER_00: City Life Church and guests, I'll close with this.
SPEAKER_00: Hard times will always come, always.
SPEAKER_00: For everyone.
SPEAKER_00: But if we humble ourselves, trust God at His word, we can band together with the family of God, resist the devil, and have hope for a brighter tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Will you pray with me?