October 27, 2024 | All-Powerful Care

Transcript

As we turn our attention to 1 Peter chapter 5, I want to ask you two questions that I just want you to think about for a minute. First, if you imagine a proud person, what does that look like? I just want you to think who or what, don't put a face on it please, that's probably not helpful, but think about characteristics.

What characterizes a proud person?

And a second question. If you were talking with someone and you thought, I see pride in this person and I want to help them. Maybe it's a child that you want to see be less proud. Maybe it's a parent you want to see be less proud. Maybe it's just a brother or sister or friend. How would you tell them to work on being more humble?

I want you to start with those two questions, because we read last time, and didn't talk much about it, But the end of verse five, where he quotes this from the Old Testament: God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

That sounds serious enough that we need to know what pride looks like. And we need to know, how do I work to be more humble? So with those two questions in our mind, I'm going to read just a couple verses, beginning in verse six. 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.

Let's pray. God, You know our hearts. You've said that You oppose the proud, but You give grace to the humble. And we desperately need Your grace today. So please help us to be humble before You. In these next few minutes, in the rest of this day, in the rest of this week, in all of our lives, help us to be humble before you and before your truth as you've revealed it in your word.

In Jesus name. Amen. This text starts, "Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God." There's a couple things humility is not that I think we can get confused sometimes. Humility doesn't mean that I think everybody else is better than I am. I think sometimes we think pride means I think I'm better than everybody else, so therefore humility must mean I think I'm terrible at everything and everyone else is better than I am. Well, that's not where this text drives us at all. In fact, this text doesn't say anything about a comparison between you and another person. It talks about your relationship to God. And that comparison could be, "Well, I'm gonna humble myself before them because they're a better carpenter than I am, or a better chef than I am, or a better whatever."

You could take your pick and put any skill you want to put, but we could also do the same thing morally, and we say, they are much more patient than I am.

But humility is not about viewing yourself negatively. Humility is about viewing yourself rightly in your relationship to God. Which means somebody can come and say, Oh, everybody's better than I am at this skill and this skill and this skill. Somebody they could, same person could come and say, this person's way more patient than I am, they're way more kind than I am, they're way more loving than I am. And I still have absolutely no idea if they're being humble or not, because it's about their relationship to God.

Notice, this starts, this text begins, Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. He doesn't tell you, put yourself under the mighty hand of God. You're already there. In one way or another, we could think about Old Testament Israel. If you think about the example of the Passover, at the end of the plagues, God's hand in judgment with the last plague was going to come on everyone in the land of Egypt, Israel was told celebrate the Passover in this way: put the blood on the doorposts of the blood of the lamb on the doorposts and on the top, and then you will be protected by God's hand. But everyone in Egypt was under God's mighty hand one way or the other. They were under his hand in judgment or under his hand in protection.

This text points you to the same reality. We are all under God's mighty hand. The question is, what is your attitude? What are you trusting in while you are under God's mighty hand? You can be under his hand as a fist in judgment or as a shelter. If you have God's hand as a shelter, and you and your pride try to stand too tall, then that shelter doesn't help you the same way.

It would be kind of like, if you imagine World War II, when people were down in foxholes and trenches. I would not want to be six foot six at that time.

But so many times I want to have an elevated view of myself where I actually am in some sense as being too tall for my foxhole. I'm trying to take control of things that I was never made to control. I'm trying to make sure life works the way I want it to in my pride and make sure everybody sees me the way I want to be seen in my pride.

And I need to, I'm under God's hand either way, humble myself under it.

If you try to stand too tall under a shelter, I've reminded my kids like to, um, sometimes they'll make tents or forts with the couch cushions and the sheets. I know some of your kids have probably done that too. And when I get in there, it's very spacious for my two and a half year old. She's got lots of room.

I get in there and I'm pushing up against the top of the pillows and I'm knocking things over with my shoulders, trying to climb in. I feel, now it's not a heavy pressure, but I feel the pressure of standing up too tall under that shelter.

If you cling to pride, you feel the opposition, the pressure of God's hand. God opposes the proud.

But, if you adopt an attitude of humility, you feel the protection of his hand. God gives grace to the humble. So, this text tells you to have the right attitude towards God in his might and in all of his character, really.

There's a man named C. J. Mahaney who wrote a book, it's a really small book called Humility, it's a great book on humility, highly recommend it if you want to go read it. His definition of humility, of pride, is contending with God for supremacy.

Because, it's not about my relationship to other people, it's about God. It's saying the opposite of the song we just sang, where we sang, you are God and we are not. Pride is doing the opposite of that. It may not say, I'm going to try to be God in everything, but in some area of my life, pride says, I'm going to take God's place here.

I'm going to make sure that my reputation is taken care of. So I'm going to boast and I'm going to brag rather than leaving that in God's hands. And instead, like we read at the end of chapter four, entrusting our souls to a faithful creator while doing good. As soon as you think, I'm, I have to control all the circumstances of my life.

As soon as you forget that God can accomplish far more than you ever could on whatever is concerning you today, that's pride. So we could say. Don't be too tall for your foxhole. We could talk about if you had a shield, that's not the time you want to be really big. Sometimes in our pride, we try to, we puff ourselves up so that we're too big for the shield that's going to protect us.

Or we could say, don't try to be God. Now, one of the things I want to do throughout this text, I want to give you some practical thoughts of how do I do this? Because there are two questions. What's a proud person look like? Hopefully we're starting to answer some of that question. Second question, how do I tell people to work on being humble?

Well, if, if humility is about our relationship to God, then the first thing is anything that feeds worship should starve pride. Anything that feeds worship, that sees God as He is, as bigger and glorious and wonderful, anything that does that recognizes I'm not that. So that means, when you read scripture, when you pray, when you sing together, when we gather together and have corporate worship, when we remember Jesus death, burial, and resurrection through communion, all of those things should be feeding worship in our souls.

We don't read the Bible just to have Bible trivia night. We read it to worship God. We read it because this is what God has communicated to us. And so if that is helping worship to grow. Then it is also working to starve pride. When you bow before God in prayer, you think about when you pray. I don't mean about, although this is true too.

I don't mean about the things you think you can't do anything about, but what about the things you pray for that you say, I could go work on this right now. I could go work harder to be kind and loving, but I need to stop right now and pray and ask God to do this because I need Him. That kind of prayer is humbling myself.

It's to say, I'm not God. He has to work and I can't. When we gather together, do you think about attending church as I'm like building up merit as a good Christian? I did something good on Sunday. Or is it an opportunity to remind every one of us that God has poured out his grace on us, and He's worthy.

Any of those things, if they are feeding worship, they're starving pride.

Another one. This comes from Mahaney's book. I love this picture. Sleep. You realize sleep is an act of humility, if you approach it right. In your whole life, you have to spend about a third of your life in an unconscious state. And there's nothing you can do about it. You can try and say, I'm going to cut it down and I'm going to get it down to a few fewer hours.

Sure. But if any of you have ever decided, you know, I'm just going to try and stay up. That will last for a little while, and then you'll be reminded you are not God.

And especially when there's so much weighing us down. I know you've all had those nights where you lay down and you think, I just can't get my brain to slow down because I'm concerned about this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this. And it's an act of humility to say, God, you can accomplish far more on all of these things while I sleep than I could while I'm awake. So I'm going to rest because you made me where I need sleep.

It's a practical step to remember who God is, to remember worship, and to bow in humility. Another example of a practical way, some of you will love this one, some of you won't, you could go play golf. And those of you who play golf know golf is humbling, because you'll hit.

If you're like me, you'll hit 20 terrible shots and then you'll hit one that makes you go, I want to come back and play again. And then you'll be in another one. Oh, I'm going to hit the same shot I hit last time. And you won't. It's humbling because it reminds you you're not God. You make mistakes. Now translate from golf.

You say, I may not really want to play golf fine, but there's a million things in this life that you can't do perfectly every time, that you may not be very good at. And sometimes we try to protect ourselves now. I'm only going to do the things I'm really, really good at. Sometimes do stuff that reminds you, you know, this is fun and I enjoy it, and I'm not really good at it. And I can't consistently do it perfectly. And when you do, instead of being frustrated that you're not God, be reminded you have a God who perfectly does everything that He does every single time.

There's practical ways. There's ways we can think about how do we view God rightly so that we are humble underneath his hand, because humility is about your relationship to God.

Next thing I want you to notice: humility is part of a transformed self love. Now, maybe you go, wait a minute. I didn't think we were supposed to love ourselves. I thought that was how this thing worked. Well, depends on your definition of love. The Bible says you, you should never worship yourself, of course. We're not to live in a self centered way.

We're not to act in selfishness, but scripture never tells you to not act in self interest. It says, don't worship the wrong thing in self interest. In fact, scripture tells you do exactly the thing that is absolutely the best for you. Follow Jesus. That means I die to myself. Yes, it also means you walk in newness of life and have eternal life.

The Bible never holds before you, this is bad for you, but do it because that's just what you have to do. Notice the way he talks about it here. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. Why? So that, at the proper time, He may exalt you. He's saying, this is better for you. It's much better for you if God exalts you at the right time than if you try to exalt yourself in your own little cardboard kingdom right now.

So pursue what's really better for you. And humility says the little kingdom I build is nothing compared to the kingdom God builds. So let me follow that. Think of Jesus story. Maybe you remember, He talks about a dinner party, and there's the honored seats and the less honored seats. And He tells the people listening, when you go, don't choose the most honored seat. Sit down like you own the place and then have the guy come up and say, "um, actually, you need to sit over here." That would be embarrassing for us. We know that. We think that's not what I want to do. He says, instead, take the place of less honor and the host may well come and say, "no, please come sit up here." This is better for you.

In the same way, Peter is, or, Peter is pointing to these people and telling them, you need to go humble yourselves. Don't try to claim all of this honor that you think you want now. Instead, humble yourself so that God will exalt you at the proper time.

So, if God has caused you to be born again, that's how Peter starts his book. The Bible calls this regeneration. That means you have a new set of desires, a different view of what is really good for you. And He says, that's what you need to pursue. Humble yourself with the goal of saying, what I want more than anything else is not that I would exalt myself, but that God would exalt me at the proper time. I want to pursue that.

Think of Jesus going to the cross. He didn't go to the cross because He loved to hurt. He went to the cross for the joy set before Him because He said, I will go in obedience. I will die. But He knew I will be raised and exalted to the right hand of my father. We are to humble ourselves like that.

Now, again, practically, if humility is about worship, ultimately, and humility is also about recognizing what's truly good for us, it's two things I want to suggest, and they're about the way we talk about one another.

These are things that starve pride. They don't necessarily make you humble, because you could say all kinds of words. But one, praise others when you see good in them without comparing them to yourself. Wow, you're so much better than I am. Fine, I don't think most people mean bad by it. But it doesn't matter if you're better than I am. Who cares?

You say God. I'm so grateful that I see this grace in this person. Go tell them. I see your grace when you show love and kindness to that person. I see how God's working in your life. Praise them. It's great. When people do that for you, because sometimes it's hard, as hard to receive praise as to give it, do the same thing and accept praise from other believers, without comparison.

Somebody comes up and says, "oh, you did such a great job in this thing that I saw you do as you were working and teaching Sunday school. You did a great job." Don't go, "well, yeah, but I'm not as good as other people." Thank you, God, that you gave me this grace.

Praise one another and receive praise without comparison, because that comparison is like the poison of pride inside all of those conversations. And really it's God who's doing all of that and giving us his grace anyway. So humble yourself by worship, by pursuing what's truly good for you. And then verse seven, casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you.

My first question this morning was imagine someone who's proud and think about the characteristics. Did you picture somebody wringing their hands in worry? Probably not. And yet, that's where this text goes. Humble yourselves under God's mighty hand in this way by casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you.

Alright, so let's break that down. Casting your anxieties or casting your cares. What kind of things do we cast on God? We need a little bit of background for the word here that's used for cares, whether it's the noun or the verb here. The word that's used is used in Philippians 4:6. Many of you could quote that. "Don't be anxious about anything." Don't have these kinds of cares. "But in everything pray with expectation and thankfulness."

Interestingly, though, Paul, earlier in the same book, Paul has said, use that word for something different. See, at first, in Philippians 4, He says, don't be anxious. If I could paraphrase, but use the English word that's the same. In Philippians 2, He says, I have nobody like Timothy who will be genuinely anxious for you.

And you say, wait a minute, Paul. You're saying it's great that Timothy cares for them. And over here He says, don't care. It's great that Timothy is anxious for them. Over here, He says, don't be anxious for anything, which is it, Paul? What's going on?

Well, we could go through those texts and we'll say, like, we might do this. We use different words. We say, don't be worried. But we talk about concern as something slightly different. And we have different ideas of what that means. Worry is I'm operating out of fear for myself. I'm not sure that God is really trustworthy and able to do what I want Him to do.

Or what is good in this situation. And so I have sinful fears, negative emotions rule in my life. I'm not joyful. That's worry. That's Philippians 4:6, "don't be anxious about anything." Over here. Timothy is Anxious for you, we'll say concerned for you. There, instead of a fear for Himself, it's a concern and love for others. Instead of being unsure of God's sovereignty, Timothy is excited that God is at work in their lives and he wants to help. Instead of negative emotions ruling, Timothy is responding where he has sadness and challenges, but he has joy that surrounds the negative emotions.

All right, so with that background, to say the Bible recognizes worry and concern and sees differences, what are we supposed to cast on Jesus?

And the answer is here, it's not limited in either way. So cast all of them. If you have sinful worries out of fear for self or a lack of trust for God, cast that on Jesus. If you have not sinful worries, but real heartfelt concerns that you say, I do trust God, I do have joy, It's not about concern for me and fear for me.

It's love and concern for others. Cast that on Jesus too. I think sometimes we hear this and think cast all of the sinful worry stuff on Jesus, but I've got to deal with my concerns or maybe the other way around. Jesus can handle my concerns, but I've got to make sure I don't have these sinful worries in my life.

No, he doesn't limit the word either way here, casting all of your anxieties on Him, all of your cares. So the ones you call worry, sinful fears, doubts, cast those on Him because He cares for you. The ones you call concern, love for others, trusting joy when you have difficulties, cast those on Him, too.

All right, so you say pastor Jed, that sounds really good. I would love to cast all of my anxieties on Him. How? What am I supposed to do? Well, Peter's first answer is where you have to go first, and that is: Worship is the answer to starve pride and build humility, and a humble heart, cast your souls on God. So you have to worship. You have to fight through lies to know who your God is.

You have to say, I have all these worries. I don't know all the right answers, but God does. And not only does God know everything, let's say it stronger. God is the Lord or the master of all knowledge. The only reason anyone can know anything is because God made it to be known in the first place. He is the master of all knowledge.

No ignorance makes anything even the slightest bit harder for God. It's not just that He knows it and He can work through it. It's, if you don't know enough about what you're trying to do, it makes it more difficult. You might figure it out. But it makes it more difficult. No ignorance makes it any harder for God, because it is the mighty hand of God. He has perfect knowledge of your soul.

Have you ever been anxious and not really known why? See, I can't even put it into words, but I know there's some kind of concern here. Guess what? God knows exactly why your soul is anxious. God knows exactly what is going on in your heart and mind. He knows what will go on tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day.

The first step of casting your cares on Him is to know who you're casting your cares on. The Master, the Lord of all knowledge. We could broaden that to say, well, wisdom. The lie says maybe God knows all the facts, but does He have enough wisdom to work out all the situations I face?

By the way, if any of you feel concern, care about the political state our country is in and the infighting and all of the things that go along with that, do you believe God has the kind of wisdom to know the absolute best goals and the best ways to reach those goals?

We'll hang on to those cares all the time if we don't know who we're casting our cares on. Maybe it's not knowledge, wisdom, maybe it's power. Maybe you think, is God strong enough to deal with all of my concerns? I mean, I have some pretty big concerns. The truth is scripture says, His is the kingdom and the glory and the power. It belongs to Him. That means if anybody else has any power, it's only because God loaned it to them. They don't own it. His is the power. That means nothing is too difficult for Him. Psalm 115 says, our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. Nobody's stopping Him.

Ephesians three says now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

No weakness or tiredness makes anything any harder for God. I think sometimes we hear God has all power and we think He can accomplish it, but sometimes it's more difficult for Him because that's how we work. You might be able to go and exercise, run, lift weights, and you might be able to move a certain amount of weight, but when you're tired, it's harder.

Do you realize your God never gets tired? It's never any harder for Him. It wasn't harder for Him when Daniel was thrown in the lion's den. It was no harder for Him to protect Daniel. It wasn't harder for Him when Israel was enslaved in Egypt. He could still protect his people. It's never any harder for our God because our God never rests because He is tired. Our God rests because He is finished. We rest because we're tired all the time, but we bow before the mighty hand of God.

How about time? Do you ever feel like you're limited by time? I don't have enough time to accomplish what I want. God has never had that limit. God is never rushed. God's never thinking, well, I just can't wait for it to get to this time and it's almost there, I wish it were now. God doesn't interact with time like that because He is the master, the Lord of time. He has no limits related to time. We could go on and on and on.

We could talk about God's not limited by being in the right place. God's not limited by depending on someone else to do something. And if they don't do it, He can't accomplish what He needs.

When we cast our cares on God, we are throwing our cares on the one who has no limits and can perfectly work out every situation for his purposes. If you don't know that, and you don't believe that and truly worship that God, you aren't going to cast your cares on Him. You'll keep them for yourself.

So you entrust your care to Him. This goes back to the picture of entrusting your soul to God from chapter 4. You take all the cares, all the concerns in and around your soul, and you say, God, I'm putting those on you. I don't have to carry them.

Just a real practical way, a few times as I've thought ahead to this passage over the last few weeks, I've started to lay down and had worries and concerns in my head, and I've just stopped and thought, that's one of those cares I need to throw on God. All right? And pray, God, my heart wants to cling to this and worry and work this out and all of these things, and I don't need to do that. God, it's yours, and you know what I find immediately?

It's still sitting right here. That's not a two minute solution. But it's a continual. No, this is a care that does not belong to me. I'm going to humble myself under God's care and say, God, this belongs to you. God, this belongs to you. You've said you care for me. And you work through that process, talking to your God, relating to your God. And over time, that care stays with Him. It comes back and then you have to cast it on Him again.

But that's what we're called to do by this text, is to cast your care on Him. So for worries, for sinful worries, you say, God, this is sin. I want to turn from that. And you cast it on Him and leave it there. For concerns, things that you say, I really do need to worry about how am I raising my children? It's a genuine concern. It's a good concern. But I take that care, I cast it on Him. And then while I can, I work to try and raise them up so that they know God and know Him well. But God is the one who determines where they end up, not me. That care rests on Him.

So if humility is about your attitude to God, and if we are supposed to cast our cares on Him, and that's part of being humble, and if we worship and say, he's the God who knows everything, he's the God who has all power, all wisdom, time doesn't limit Him, space doesn't limit Him, no limits at all, why don't we cast our cares on Him?

I think it's because we missed this last phrase or we don't believe it. Cast your cares on Him because He cares for you. It's one thing to say there's an infinite powerful God who can handle all these things. It's another to say He cares for me enough to handle them for my good.

He doesn't say cast all your anxieties on Him because he's strong enough to deal with them. That's true. That's not the reason he gives you. He doesn't say cast all your cares on Him because you can't handle working out all the cares. Again, that's true. That's not the reason he gives you. He says if you're God's child, He loves you and cares for you enough to care for all of your concerns.

To work all things together for good. Jesus used this word care in John 10. he said, here's the sheep. And if the hired hand comes, and danger happens, the hired hand just leaves. Why? Because he doesn't care for the sheep. But Jesus then says, I am the good shepherd, I know my sheep, and my sheep know me.

Jesus, the perfect shepherd, He showed how much He cared for us. He humbled Himself. To come live among us. We had all sinned. We had broken God's law. We had rebelled against our purpose, the way He made us. We had revolted against our King and yet the same King came and lived among us and died in our place.

And the beautiful teaching of substitution is that God treated Jesus like He was us, like He had sinned, so that He could treat us like we were us. As if we were Jesus. What grace. If He cares for you that much, can He care for every concern and worry that you have on your heart? Will He care for that if He cared for you enough to come and do that. And not only die for you, but to come back from the grave and invite everyone to entrust your soul by faith to this creator.

God poured out this grace to say, You can have this righteousness and eternal life if you will just turn from trusting yourself and your sin to trust in Him. If you'll just humble yourself before Him. And say, I can't deal with all of these things, but you will care for me, so I cast all my cares on the mighty God.

You'll never know the peace and joy of casting all your cares on Him if you're not convinced by this good news that He died for you. You can come and say, I hope God will work these things out and care for me. But you'll never be confident of that unless you're also confident that God Himself came, lived on this earth, and died for you to show his care for you.

And if you know that He cares about you enough to do that, you know, every concern on your heart today is not too big for God to care for you.

In this text, Peter weaves together themes of humility, worship, and worry. As you humble yourself in casting your cares on Jesus, you are also lifting Him up in worship. This word that's used for cast, casting, throwing. It's an interesting word. It's only used here and in one other place in the New Testament.

That's in Luke 19, where Jesus tells his disciples, go and get this donkey, this colt for me to ride in in the triumphal entry at Palm Sunday. He sends his disciples to go get it, and He knows right where it's going to be tied up because he's the Lord of all knowledge. He goes to his, his disciples go in and they say, yes, the master has use of this donkey.

And the owner, because Jesus is the Lord of everything and knows how to work out all these cares, the owner says, absolutely, take Him.

Then the disciples throw their cloaks across the donkey as a saddle for Jesus to ride. They cast their cloaks. That's the word that's used here. We're to do the same thing. We humble ourselves by casting our cares on Jesus. And just like Jesus rode that donkey as King, we are lifting Jesus up as King when we throw our cares and He rides as the ruler of every one of these situations for his glory and for your good.

We cast our cares on Him and He rides as the master of our lives as the savior of our souls. And as the king of his universe, you might feel like you don't have a whole lot to offer to the king of the universe. And I'm sure that those disciples thought this cloak's not a big deal,

but He needs nothing from us. He's king, whether or not we acknowledge it. And yet every care you have, every concern you have, every worry you have is an opportunity for you to humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. To throw that care on Him and to worship Him so that He rides as king. And all of it is not because He deserves it only, although that's true.

It's because He cares for each one of you.

So it's not the only picture of what it is to be proud, but the person who rings their hands figuratively. In worry, who says, I have to care for all of my anxieties and concerns. I have to control it. I have to work it out. I have to protect myself. I have to do all of these things. That person, which is all of us at many times, we have to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God so that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all of your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.

I invite you to take a moment and just respond in, in silent prayer before God. Whatever cares have come to your mind this morning, whatever worries, concerns that are there, I believe God's spirit has been pointing those out in this room this morning. Would you respond in worship and cast that care on your great savior? Humble yourself before Him. I'll invite you to take just a moment of silence, and then I'll pray, and we'll sing.