The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being in samples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder, yea, and all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the proud, giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, unto the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Father, I come to you today and I thank you today for all that you've done and I ask you to be strong and mighty in me in this moment that I can deliver your message with your heart. And I pray that all of us would hear from thee today. Bless the hurting, the sufferer today. May they find fellowship in their sufferings. and joy in Jesus. Well, thank you for it if we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for standing. Please be seated together. Peter's audience was much like mine this morning in that they had two things in common. One, they had endured trials. Or B, they knew someone who was enduring great trials. How many of you were greatly affected by this hurricane. Will you raise your hand? Some of you. How many of you would say, I know someone greatly affected by this? That's Peter's audience today. Notice in the fourth chapter, in the twelfth verse, Peter says, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you. Do you ever think of a strange thing when trouble comes your way? Don't trouble trouble if trouble troubles you because if you trouble trouble then you'll have double trouble. I'm not looking for trouble. Is it a strange thing? In the Bible, the idea of strange connotes the idea that it's not for me. The Bible talks about strange fire, strange flesh. The idea doesn't belong to you. And when trials come into our lives, we feel like we don't own those. They don't belong to us. They don't belong to us. And so in our minds the enemy of our contentment in troubled times is our comparison of the condition of peaceful times. C.S. Lewis wrote a famous book called The Problem of Pain. In it he said pain would be no problem unless side by side with our daily experience of this painful world we had received what we think of good assurance that ultimate reality is righteous and loving. We compare our good times and our bad times and disown pain as our own. Notice in verse 13 of chapter 4, But rejoice in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. Now the word partakers, you'll notice in that verse is where we get our word fellowship or koinonia, we are partakers with Christ. Paul says in Philippians 3, 10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. And Peter says here, if we will be partaker, if we will fellowship in his sufferings, we will share in his glory. Notice again that when he comes, when his glory shall be refilled, ye shall be glad also with exceeding joy. This burden that you're carrying is a momentary burden but a permanent glory awaits the Christian. In Acts chapter 14 verse 22 the Bible says, confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must, the verse says, we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of heaven. So in other words, when troubles come our way, we ought not be surprised. When difficulties come our way, we ought rather to be surprised by the prevalence of goodness than we are the temporary moments of badness in our lives. Pastor Sexton used to talk about the parentheses in our lives. You ever read a book or a novel or a newspaper article and there's helpful information contained between the parenthesis marks. You wake up sick and you don't feel well and you make this absolute statement, I hate being sick. I've always been sick. Men are prone to do that. Can I get an amen from all the women? I mean, the common cold is God's way of helping men know the pain that women endure during childbirth. I mean, we understand that. But we must, through tribulation, enter into the kingdom of heaven. All of us are going to go through trials in our lives. But Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4.17, Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Matter of fact, James gives a promise of a crown. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord promised to them that love him. We're going to go through trials and obstacles in our lives. but be of good cheer. Jesus said in this world ye shall have tribulation but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Remember the disciples bobbing up and down in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea and Jesus came walking on the water because when waves were over their head they were under his feet. He rides above the storm today. We can trust him. So Peter gives a timely reminder to the ultimate trials of life in which timeless truths help us to gain proper perspective over our troubles. I just want you to notice the last verse of chapter 4 before we get into chapter 5 verse 19. Wherefore, let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful. What an interesting word. Creator. God is the creator. Day 1, day 2, day 3, 4, 5 and 6, God says what I made is very good. Do you agree with God? He is a faithful creator. Now I want you to notice first of all the proper spirit of the Christian. Before we get into these famous verses in chapter 5, I want you to think first of all about the emphasis on humility that begins this section. The proper spirit of the Christian is, write it down, humility. Humility. God resists the proud. He gives grace to the humble. I love humility when others have to express it. I love humility in marriage as long as I'm not the one that has to be humble or humble. Who says humble? It must be a Tennessee thing. I'll move on. Humility. Humility. The proper spirit of a Christian enduring trials is humility. Notice, first of all, he speaks of the humility of the shepherds. Humility of the shepherds. Verse 1. The elders who are among you I exhort and who also am an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre and of a ready mind. Neither is being lords over God's heritage, but being ensembles to the flock. He's teaching the shepherds this idea of humility, first of all, There's the humility to submit to the sheep and there are these two ideas you'll notice in verse number two, feed the flock which is among you taking the oversight thereof. Notice the shepherd is among and over. He's among and over. God has placed him in a position of authority between himself and the sheep, the shepherd between the great shepherd and the sheep that belong to God, not lords over God's heritage. They are God's people. I know a lot of preachers. I am one. And we talk about our people. The fact is I don't own any people. I steward God's people. So there's a level of humility to number one to submit to the sheep. Someone said you can't be a good shepherd without smelling like the sheep. And you can't be a good sheep without hanging out with the shepherd. That's just the way God's economy is designed. And then he says the humility of the shepherd is seen in feeding the flock of God, submitting to the word of God. So first of all we see the humility of the shepherds. Then notice we have the humility of the younger to the older. He says in verse 5, likewise you younger submit yourselves unto the elder. That is a word for America today. Submit yourselves unto the elder. Number three, he says there is the humility of God's people to each other. Verse five, yea, all of you, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. Can I ask you a Bible trivia question? Which of the 12 disciples were exempt from the ministry of foot washing in the upper room? I heard someone say, Judas, he might have exempted himself. But Jesus gives no exemptions in this ministry of humility. Paul says in Philippians chapter 2, In lowliness of mind, let us each esteem other better than themselves. Look not to your own selves, but unto the things of others. Others, Lord, yes, others, let this my motto be. Help me live for others that I may be like Thee. There's the humility of God's people to each other. And notice this word he uses in verse 5, and be clothed, be clothed with humility. The word is only used, clothed, used one times in our Greek New Testament. It means to girdle oneself. It's the idea of putting an apron on for labor or it's the badge of servitude. It's similar to what Jesus did in John 13. He rose from supper, he laid aside his garment, he took a towel and with it he girded himself and he began to wash the disciples' feet. And that girdle lets everyone in the home know, I'm the least of all. It's not about me, not about my agenda, not about my stuff, not about my kingdom. It's about others. And what God wants me to do is live in humility, in service to God and for others. I wonder if this message meets us where we are today. Humility. Notice number four, there is humility last under the hand of God. Notice again, he says in verse 6, Now I have another question for you. What can God's hand not do? I want you to think of that mighty hand of God. Do you see it? What can God's hand not do? I'm talking to sheep today. I'm talking to sheep that sometimes get confused about life. And we get confused about life and God when we see great trouble in the natural world. We make accusations against God. How could a good God allow bad things into my life? But Peter says here. The basis of fellowship and usefulness and joy in life is humbling ourselves, not just to each other, humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God. You might say, I've prayed prayers like this before. I have a moderate back issue. Sometimes it flares up on me. It flared up on me a few weeks ago. I'm always trepidatious when I leave the country. We were somewhere the other day and there was a palm tree leaning up, had been blown over and it was leaning on a roof. And someone said, wouldn't you like to climb up that palm tree and play on that roof? And I said, what are you, 12? And I said, no, I would not like to do that. Lots of things sound fun to me. That does not sound fun to me. So why does it not sound fun to you? Because in my mind I have back problems and I can imagine myself, Ryan, you know where I'm going with this. I hurt my back climbing the tree and now my back is in full spasm mode as I'm on a rooftop, everybody else is playing and I'm nursing my wounds. I think like this. I was in the Philippines a couple of years ago and my back was really, oh, it's trouble. They gave me this really nice mattress. that was like that thick. And it was so great, I found about six of them to stack together. I liked the one so well, I wanted five or six of them. And when I laid down, the mattress just went right around my body like this. And my back was hurting so bad. And I'm kind of limping around and I have a hard time sitting and all this kind of stuff. I just think like that. And I'll say, God, you can't let You can't let me have problems or I'll go sing somewhere. I have some meetings coming up that I'm supposed to be singing at and Marie could testify. Ninety percent of the time when I go sing somewhere, you know what happens to me when I go? I get sick. I get sick. And it's God's way of reminding me, you know what, if I don't give you something to trust me for and think about, you'll go up there and sing and not even ask me for my aid and my assistance, but I'm going to give you an opportunity to trust me. What can God's hand not do? There's nothing God's hand cannot do. Can I get a witness? But when his hand seems severe to us, we say to him, that's a strange trial. You can't do that to me. Why can't he not? He's God. He doesn't think in a short term way. He has eternity at his fingertips. Isaiah says he sees the end from the beginning. Someone noted that grace and pride are eternal enemies. Pride demands that God bless me in light of what I think I deserve. Grace deals with me on the basis of what is in God, not on the basis of anything in me. So the proper spirit of the Christian is, say it with me, humility. humility. Number two, we notice the proper effort of the Christian. The proper effort of the Christian. Look, if you will, in verse number seven, casting all your care upon him for he careth for you. I'm going to shock your spiritual sensibilities for just a moment. Did you ever think that the most arrogant and prideful thing that you do is to carry your own worries and to care for the things he promised to provide. The most arrogant, prideful thing we do is to carry our worries when Peter says we're to cast all our cares upon the Lord. Curtis Hudson used to say when he and his wife got married that they determined that he would make all the big decisions in their marriage and she would make all the small decisions in their marriage and 50 years later he discovered that they had never made a big decision. And we make that agreement with God. We really do. We really do. When I need to find a spouse and I need to find a job and I need to choose a house and I have a promotion I can accept or reject, I'm going to bring God into that but all the other stuff, God, I'll figure that out and I'll bring you in when I need you. Is it just me? Is it all of us? We're not careful to bring everything to God, everything to God in prayer. All your care upon him, for he careth for you. And we've done a really good job of normalizing our sin. We're anxious, we're careful, I'm discouraged, I'm depressed. It really is just a telltale sign we're not casting all our cares upon God. Spurgeon gave the illustration of moving your house and you invite some movers in to help move your furniture and you hear them knock on the door and you open the door and you let them in and to much to your surprise they're carrying satchels and great burdens on their backs. How unreasonable would it be for someone to carry my burden if they're having trouble with their own? Notice what Jesus said, Matthew 6, verse 31, Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things did the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have needed all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought, for the morrow shall take thought, for the things of itself sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. So Spurgeon tells us to cast our burden on the Lord with both hands. Everybody got your hands? Our right hand will speak of prayer. Our left hand will speak of faith. How do I cast my burden on the Lord? Number one, we cast it with the hand of prayer. We tell God what our burden is. Cast it with prayer. I've done that a million times. How many of you have done that a million times? I've set the burden down. And I've looked at it and it's such a nice burden. It's a pressure. I love that burden. We're like married now. We're married now. It's like a pig. You can't have a pet pig and then name it and then put it on the dinner table. No, Mary, no, you can't do that. I mean, I've made an idol out of this thing. It's my constant companion. So by prayer, I tell God, here's my burden. Spurgeon says we must cast with the hand of faith that does what? It trusts God's power to handle the situation. Have you placed your burden at the feet of Jesus and not revisited that burden but truly left it with God? Truly left it with God. May I remind you this morning there are two problems with burdens. First of all, we become weighted down with our own problems. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1, Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. And let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus. First of all, our burdens weight us down." I've told you the story before, but when Moriah was born, I was 30 years old. I was quite overweight and something just happened in that moment. I was 30 years old and I just felt really poorly. I was maybe lightheaded in the afternoons and needing a nap at 30 years old. I'm like, this is ridiculous. I told little Debbie, you just get on out of this office. I don't need you around anymore. It's actually Skittles and Mountain Dew. I had some bad habits in college, you know. I'll preach on your sin in just a moment, so don't you amen mine too loudly, alright? Knucklehead. Brother Dave used to tell me that I graduated from the John Hagee School of Ministry. That is wrong. That's wrong. I said, I've got to do something about this. And I brought God into it. I really did. I tried to lose weight lots of times and I brought God into it. God, I need your help. I cannot do this on my own. I'm more than just big boned. I need to lose weight. And so I brought God into it and he helped me. Well, we are, because of an abuse of, contact lenses, I was wearing glasses. And we were going on vacation and I'm having these horrible headaches, I mean, terrible headaches. We'd be in the store and the fluorescent lights would start to twinkle like this and I'd see, I'd have starry vision out here and it just kind of zooms in on you and zooms in on you and zooms in on you until you're kind of seeing through what you feel like is just a pinhole. And then it just stops and 30 minutes later, bam, it just hits you, knocks you down. I'm like, so I do what you do. I went to webmd.com. Twelve years ago, I had six months to live. I don't know how I'm still around. But I am going to die. I have a brain tumor. I have every classic sign of a brain tumor. So we're on vacation. I'm having these what are called ocular migraines. I feel terrible. I don't know what to do. So we are at J.C. Penney, the ultimate place to find deliverance. We're in J.C. Penney. The ophthalmologist is in the office and so we go in there. He does a simple eye test. He says, do you realize that your glasses are 25% too strong for you? I said, what do you mean? He said, your glasses are 25% too strong for your prescription. He said, any health changes lately? I said, well, I sent back my diploma from the John Hagee School of Ministry. I said, I lost quite a bit of weight. He said, you ought to go get your blood work done. I go get my blood work done, come to find out my blood glucose is so changed because of losing weight that it affected, it restored my vision. Think about that. And when he said that, my mind went straight to Hebrews chapter 12. Seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us. My weight was blinding me. When you are burdened down, you just don't see things the way God wants you to see them. And the second problem with burdens is that you're so preoccupied with your burden, you can't help someone with their load. Will you notice quickly what Galatians chapter 6 says? What an instructive word for the church today. Galatians 6 verse 1, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, Ye which are spiritual, restore such in one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Can you quote Galatians 6 verse 2 with me? Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. I know people so under their own burden they will never be able to help others bear their burden. I know some people that are so guilty, guilt-ridden about their past that they have confessed to Jesus. but they carry that guilt around. They can never help others find deliverance in the free pardon of God's grace in that Jesus' blood can wash us from all sins. And we live such preoccupied lives with our own living in our own sphere that we never see others around us that truly need Christ. So we see the proper spirit of the Christian, the proper effort of the Christian is to cast our burden, cast all our care upon the Lord. That's the proper effort. What do you do? Don't wig out, spaz out, don't do that. Cast your burden on God. Ask God, teach me how to give my burdens to you. Matter of fact, some of you are killing your physical body through emotional stress. And you're going to turn to someone to help you solve it. Hey, listen friend, we'll never find from a doctor what we were made to find in Jesus. My wife's a counselor and she's the best I know, but you will never find in... The best she can do is to point you to Jesus. Because you can't find in a human what you were made to find in God. Number three, I hasten to give you the proper enemy of the Christian. The proper enemy of the Christian. Notice, he says, be sober. Let me do it this way. Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you, be sober. Be vigilant, because your adversary is the devil, is a roaring lion. He walketh about, and he seeks whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world." Notice the word, he walketh about. He walketh about. I looked up that word, walk, and it's in the Greek, the word peripateo. And I remembered, yeah, that's what Aristotle used to do. He was called a peripatetic teacher. And a peripatetic teacher basically is kind of like a circuit riding preacher in the educational world. So he walks from place to place and he gives instruction. Or you're a disciple of Aristotle and he says, Oh, follow me. Let's walk down the road together. And Deuteronomy talks about this. He says, Thou shalt teach them diligently when thou sittest in thine house and when thou risest up and when thou walkest by the way. So when you're walking down the way, you make observations and you teach spiritual truth. So that's the word that Peter uses here. Satan is a roaring lion. He walks alongside of you. He seeks and he may devour. Now, I know the illustration of a lion. It's pretty cool. In a diabolical way, it's pretty cool what lions do as they isolate their prey. I've seen on National Geographic. We were at Blue Springs a couple years ago and there was this big bird on the bank of the spring and there were these alligators that were stalking this bird. And you know where I'm going, don't you? And this alligator, he's stalking this bird and you can see his jaw start to open like this. And this woman is screaming, fly, fly, fly to freedom. And I looked at her and I said, shh. She goes, that would be the worst thing ever. I said it'd be the greatest thing ever. I got my camera out. I can't wait to submit it to NationalGeographic.com, right? And so the lion, he roars in a circular way. He roars. He isolates the prey. He might bring other lions into it, maybe a gazelle or a zebra. Now knows he is encircled, he is surrounded till the point he feels so surrounded and so isolated he lies on the ground and he waits for his demise. I understand that principle but this devil he's talking about, this adversary of the brethren, he walks about. Can I ask you a question? Has he been walking with you lately? Same word, if I can show you, same word, pattern of Jesus, Matthew 4, verse 18. And Jesus, peripateo, Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee. Same word, Matthew 14, 25. And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them, peripateo, on the water. Who are you walking with? Did I ever tell you the story about Dr. Tom Malone? Dr. Malone was a great preacher of the Midwest. He was up in Michigan one night. He'd been preaching out full schedule. He gets in his car. He's on snowy I-75. It's late at night. He's all by himself. He's alone. He's tired. And the devil starts walking with him. Does he ever do that to you? He's just walking and he's talking and he's criticizing you and he's misinterpreting and misapplying what Jesus said. He's walking down the road and Dr. Malone is just so sick of it, he just pulls off on the side of the road. He gets out of his car, he walks around the car, he opens the passenger door. He said, you get out, devil, I'm going home with Jesus. You just get out. You didn't laugh. You thought the literal devil was in the car. No, it wasn't the literal devil, just in his own spirit. I'm not walking with you anymore. I'm not going to listen to you anymore. I'm going to cast my care upon the Lord. He cares for me. Verse 9, whom resist steadfast in the faith. And I want you to notice this and I'll be done. There's two ideas in this passage. We find them in James as well. Resist the devil. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Some of you, I mean, there's a place that you always fall. There's a time of day you always fall, same circumstances you fall, and you still go to that place that time of day, like he's not going to be there. He's going to be there and you're going to fall. The habits of sin I'm talking about. Resist that. How do you resist? You resist by humbling and submitting yourself to God.