1 Peter chapter 5 in your Bibles, I consider it a great privilege and a humbling privilege to be able to speak to you guys tonight. I know you've had a lot of preaching, and I'd be nervous if it was just me coming up here giving my own thoughts, but I can trust that the Word of God will never return void, and that if we'll open our hearts up once again, God is always faithful to give us something that we can apply in our lives. 1 Peter chapter 5 in your Bible. As Peter is coming toward the end of his epistle here in 1 Peter, it's almost like he reminds me of a mom who's giving a child instructions before they go to camp. I don't know if you guys went to Christian camp. I went pretty much every year of my life. Before going, my mom would constantly give me this barrage of instructions. Now, make sure that you don't spend all your money on candy, you know. And she would say, make sure that you put on deodorant and make sure that you take a bath and the pool doesn't count, you know. And I remember coming to college, it wasn't a day of instruction, it was like two weeks straight of instructions. I didn't know how to wash clothes, I didn't know how to iron, I didn't know how to make my bed. But you know, I look at Peter, and as he's coming to the end of this epistle, I see an intensity in his heart to try to help those that he's writing to in this epistle. And previously in verses 1-4, just to give you a background of this chapter, verses 1-4 we see the need for godly guidance. And Peter's talking about things that we need in our Christian life. And thank God for the godly professors here at this school. Thank God for the godly pastors of the churches you just came back from, from services tonight. Thank God for the godly guidance that God gives our parents, Christian parents and Christian leaders. And then in verses 8-11 we see the need for a firm faith. that no matter what circumstances and trials come into our life, God wants us to stand firm in our faith in Him and to trust Him no matter what is going on. Later on in verses 12 through 14, we see the need for a Christian kindness. We live in a world that just flat out is really rude. You know, you can have such a great impact by just when you go out to eat at McDonald's, being nice to the person behind the register. Maybe they mess up, maybe they don't take your order perfectly right, but you know, if they messed up and all of a sudden, instead of responding with a rude attitude, you responded with kindness, you wouldn't believe what kind of doors it would open for you. Because people expect for other people to be rude to them. But God wants us to have a Christian kindness. But the thing that I want to talk about tonight that all of us desperately need in our lives is what we find here in verses 5 through 7. Let's read, if you would, read out loud with me. I'm going to say the reference, and then if we would all read together verses 5-7. We see a humble heart. Let's say it together. 1 Peter 5, 5-7, Likewise ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you." Now, tonight I could take you to example after example after example in the Scriptures of how pride has an incredible destructive influence. And I can show you the incredible impact of pride on the life of a person. But I want you to realize tonight that pride isn't the only thing that has a big impact. Humility can have a huge impact in your life. You know, many years ago, There's a professor named Stuart Blackie. He was a professor at a university in Edinburgh. And he was a speech teacher. And on one particular occasion, he was having his students give some oral readings. And a particular student went up on the platform, was getting ready to do his oral readings. He had his book in the wrong hand. You were supposed to hold it in the right hand. And as he went up there, the professor saw him. And he stood up and he thundered out, put your book in the right hand and have a seat. About that time, the student looked over at the professor. And he held up his right arm to show that he had no right hand. That professor, you imagine it was dead silence. Everybody was uncomfortable. And that professor walked up there on the platform, put his arm around that student, gave him a hug, and he said, I'm so sorry. I didn't know. And he went on to apologize to that class and to that student. Later on, that story was being told by an evangelist in a revival. And at the end, during the invitation, a man walked up to the front of that church, and he asked if he could give a testimony. And when he was allowed to, he raised his right arm up to show that he had no hand there. And he went on to tell everybody that he was that man. And if it wasn't for that tremendous demonstration of humility by his professor, he would have never asked Jesus Christ to save him and be his Savior. Humility can have an incredible impact in our lives. In these few short minutes, I'd like to preach a message to you on the impact of humility. And young people, when we realize the power of humility, we must bow our knee to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. I want to see several things from our text here in 1 Peter chapter 5 that are going to help us to have this impact of humility in our lives. Notice, first of all, humility is the source of submission. Humility is the source of submission. Notice what our text says in verse 5. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Ye, all of you, be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. I want you to understand tonight, for us to obey others as we ought to, and ultimately for us to obey God like we ought to, we have got to have this ingredient of humility in our lives. DL Moody said, be humble or for sure you'll stumble. There's a lot of truth in that. And where pride is the root of rebellion in our lives, humility is the source of submission. As we think about this idea that humility is the source of submission, first thing that comes to my mind is that pride gets us to think that we're more important than somebody else. I think about that and I remember back in my sophomore year I don't know what they were thinking but they allowed me to be a resident advisor here in the college my sophomore year and we used to be over at the fish camp off 74 and I was over about 20 guys I don't remember the exact number but I was younger than most of those other guys and those guys it was a learning experience for me and little did I know that a couple years later I would travel in a quartet where I would have to obey somebody who was quite a bit younger than me But you know what? You'll never obey even people that are older than you. You'll never submit to your elders, as it says here, or to one another if you don't have humility in your lives. I think of a good Bible example when I think of Saul, King Saul. And I think about how when God had called him to do what God wanted him to do in being a king, Saul almost rejected it. He didn't feel worthy to do that. He had a humble spirit about himself, and how the Lord used him at the beginning of his reign. But then later on, you remember the story about how God wanted him to destroy the Amalekites. And you study back about what the Amalekites, how they had affected Israel, and what a pain they had been to Israel. And you know, God is a God who takes care of our enemies. Thank the Lord for that in due time. And you know, he wanted to take care of the enemies at that point. And he told Saul, destroy all the Amalekites. You remember the story. The prophet comes to Saul. And Saul, I can just imagine, you know, in the pious, maybe a pious voice said, Blessed be thou of the Lord, I have fulfilled the commandment of God. And I can just imagine about that time, all of a sudden, off in the distance, you heard a... The prophet looked at him and said, What is the bleeding of the sheep that I hear? Didn't I tell you that God commanded you to destroy everything? And he went on to blame the people. And by the way, when we have pride in our life, it causes us to not see the problems in our own life, but to focus on the problems of others. And we look at Saul there, and as I go down in that passage, I come to a point where Samuel was talking to him and he said, "...when thou wast little in thine own sight." You know something? God cannot powerfully work through us if we think that we're something big. You know when he can use us? It's when our focus isn't even on us. It's when it's on the Lord of heaven. And later on there he goes on and says, Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord? Saul started out great, probably a lot like a lot of Bible college students. But at some point in his service for God, he went from having a small idea of himself to thinking he was more important than God. And as a result, he thought, I don't have to obey God. I know what's best for me. And every time we decide to sin, that's exactly what we're saying to God. God, you don't know what's best. I do. And I'm going to do what I want to do. But you know, when I think about humility as the source of submission, I also think about the fact that pride gets us to think that we're the exception to the rule. Haven't we seen that a lot? I don't know how much you keep up with politics and whatnot, but haven't we seen that a lot in politics and in the news? I think about recently the famous winner, Chris, I don't remember his last name now. Phelps, I think it is, right? Michael Phelps, that's what it is. Michael Phelps. I can tell how much I keep up with the news. Michael Phelps got in trouble for drug use. You know, he probably thought that he's the exception to the rule. I think about the Illinois Senator that was going to be filling the position of Barack Obama and how he probably thought he was the exception to the rule. And politician after politician and preacher after preacher get the idea of, oh God, you need me. You know, God, I think I can get away with this. I think this will be okay in my life because, Lord, what would you do without me here? We allow pride to get in our life. It causes us to think that we're the exception to the rule. We don't obey God like we ought to. We don't submit to Him. I think about an Old Testament example in Uzzah. There's so many things I'd like to talk about in these different passages, but we don't have time for that. But we'd like you to think about Uzzah for a second. You know, David was wanting to bring the ark back, and that was a great thing, that was an exciting thing. But if you remember the command, the very clear command that God had given, and that was not to touch the ark. This was a symbol of God's holiness. You remember the story? Another problem, this is a whole other message, David put it on a cart when God said to put it on staves. But anyhow, we'll save that for another time. Here was Uzzah bringing with some other priests the ark back. And it was supposed to be a special day. It was supposed to be something exciting that was happening. And I don't know if you guys ever had something happen where it happened fast, but it was almost like slow motion in your mind. You're thinking through everything. I can just imagine as they were pushing that cart there, and all of a sudden they hit that rock, and the ark began to fall. I wonder what went through Uzzah's mind. I know it's not here in the scriptures, and maybe this is a bit of speculation if you would allow me to have a little bit of a sanctified imagination tonight. But I wonder if maybe Uzzah thought that he would be the exception to the rule. And he thought he would do God a favor. I want you to understand tonight, it's a blessing to serve God. It's a wonderful thing and a humbling thing that he would use us Piles of dirt. But I want you to understand, we're not doing God any favors. We're humbly serving Him. Uzzah reached his hand out, perhaps with a heart thinking that he was doing God a favor, that he was an exception to the rule, and just like many other pastors, he fell because of pride. You know, tonight, humility is the source of submission, but we also see in our text, humility is the basis for blessing. I want you guys to see this. Now, if I were to ask tonight, who here wants to be blessed? I'm sure everybody's hand would go up. I mean, as long as our brains connect, we would all want that, correct? We would all want God's blessing in our lives. Nobody would keep their hand down. But I want to tell you something tonight. There's something different between wanting God's blessing and actually getting it. But we see here that humility is the basis for blessing in verse 5 the second part and be clothed with humility For God resisted the proud and giveth grace to the humble Somebody has said if someone truly knows God They'll never be never become prideful And if we truly know ourself We won't be lifted up You know, I think about Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6. We heard that earlier today. And how he saw the Lord and what was his reaction. Did he stand there with an attitude of pride? No. He humbly fell before the Lord. God is a good God, young people. And he wants to show his goodness to us. And I fear that sometimes we let the charismatics and Pentecostals and the prosperity gospel groups scare us off from the idea that, hey, God does want to bless us. God is a God who, the Bible says, every good gift and every perfect gift coming from above, from the Father of life and who is, there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He is a good God. Don't ever forget that. And he wants to bestow his blessings on our life. Oh sure, it's not always in a monetary fashion, but he does want to bless us. But I want you to understand tonight it comes through being humble. Proverbs 16 and verse 19, better it is to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud. And just real quick as an encouragement to you guys, I want you to observe some blessings in the scriptures for which humility is the basis. Number one, to the humble God gives His grace. We already saw that here in our passage, but another passage, James 4 and verse 6, But He giveth more grace, wherefore He saith, God resisteth the proud, but He giveth grace unto the humble. God gives His goodness to us, something we don't deserve when we simply humble ourselves before Him. To the humble God promises His presence. The Bible tells us in Isaiah 57 verse 15, "...For thus saith the High and Lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place. With Him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit. To the humble God supplies His support." I know you guys just went through midterms, but you ever feel like you need help in life? I want you to know something. When we humble ourselves, God is there to support us. Proverbs 29 verse 23, a man's pride shall bring him low, but honor shall uphold. The idea there is to support. Honor shall uphold the humble in spirit. You see, it's a person who's full with pride that the Lord steps back from and says, no, you're going to have to learn your lesson first. But it's the person who will humble themselves before God and say, God, I can't. And that's when the Lord looks at us and says, I know, and that's when I can. And God supplies his support. He gives his grace. He promises his presence. He supplies his support, number four, to the humble. God offers his audience. I can tell you, I remember times when some of my friends had already started dating here at college. I wasn't the most handsome guy. I am now, but I wasn't then. I'm just kidding. It's amazing the transformation that happens after you get out in the ministry. But I can remember when some of my friends had started to date, I remember sitting out right in front of that library. And I'm telling you what, I felt lonely. You ever been there? Man, I was lonely. And I can remember opening up the Scriptures. I remember turning, you know, I wasn't one of those who just opened the Bible and put your finger, but that day I did. And I remember reading passages. It's like the Lord sat down next to me. Put His arm around me. He gave me a spiritual hug. He said, you know what, I'm all that you need. And I thanked the Lord, he provided a wife for me. He'll do that for you too if you'll trust him, or a husband. But you know what, what a great thing it is to know when we go through trials, he's there listening to us, if we'll have a humble heart. He offers his audience 2 Chronicles 34, 27, because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest His words against this place and against the inhabitants thereof, and humblest thyself before Me, and didst rend thy clothes and weep before Me, I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord." God gives His grace. He promises His presence. He supplies His support. He offers His audience. He renders His remembrance. I think about my kids and how they want to be noticed. You know my son will draw something and and I may not be able to recognize what it is But he brings it up to me, and he wants me to see that you know he loves it when I'll take whatever that is Stick it up in my in my office Put it up there on the wall. He walks in the office a week later, and I think it's hard his heart's encouraged that daddy remembers him I Want you to know something tonight? To be humble the Lord's gonna remember you They'll remember you. The Bible tells us in Psalm 9 and verse 12, when he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them, he forgeteth not the cry of the humble. He renders his remembrance. God provides his pardon. In Job 22 and verse 29, when men are cast down, then thou shalt say, there is lifting up, and he shall save the humble person. All of us that are saved know that in order to be saved, we have to first realize, I can't. Lord, I need you. I am drowning in my sins, so to speak. Lord, I need that you would reach out and save this wicked sinner. But you know, not only does he save us, but he also cleanses us. As we stumble from time to time, if we'll humble ourselves, say, Lord, I'm sorry. I was wrong. Forgive me. God provides his pardon, but you know, last he revives his redeemed. What we need is revival in our lives, isn't it? What we need for our families, what we need for our churches, what we need in America, and what we need an ambassador about this college is revival. But I can assure you of this, you'll not have revival if you don't first humble yourself. 2 Chronicles 7 and verse 14, if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Hey, humility, it's the source of submission. You having problems submitting to the authority here? Submitting to your professors? Submitting to your parents? Maybe it's because there's a lack of humility in our lives. And you know what? Humility is the basis for blessing. You feel like you haven't had as many blessings lately? You've been discouraged? Humble yourself before God, and he'll begin to pour his blessings upon your life. Number three, in our passage here, humility is the path to promotion. I gotta tell you something. This makes absolutely no sense to the world. And by the way, it makes no sense to a carnal Christian. But someone who understands the wisdom of God in the Scriptures realizes that the way up is always down. In our passage, verse 6, "...humble yourselves therefore unto the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time." I was talking to my wife and it just hit me. I was thinking about how they used to knight knights. What did a knight have to do in order to become a knight? He had to kneel down and humble himself before he took that high position. What did a king have to do? He had to incline his head for them to place that crown on him. And I don't know why they did that. I don't have the history behind it. But isn't it interesting that before they took that position of authority, to remember the fact that I must be humble. And when we look at this, the path to promotion, really, it's ironic. The world doesn't understand that the way to go up is to go down. And we look in the Scripture, and the way that humility is set up, we see a lot of ironies. And just quickly, I'd like to share some of those with you. First of all, smallness in the Scripture becomes greatness when humbleness is at the heart of it. Smallness becomes greatness. Matthew 18 and verse 4, Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child the same as greatest in the kingdom of heaven. If you want to be great, make yourself small. If you want to be great in heaven, lower yourself. I'm convinced when we get to heaven, the people that are going to be closest to God's throne are going to be people that you and I have never heard of. I don't think it's going to be such and such preacher. I don't think it's going to be Pastor Brandon Lawrence. I think it's gonna be those who are able to serve God. Maybe in places where no one ever heard of them. Missionaries that were faithful. Maybe didn't have a lot of converts. They didn't have so many hundreds a year saved. But you know what, they were just humbly served God. Smallness becomes greatness. Poor becomes rich. When humility is the focus in the scriptures. I think about the woman with Elijah, the woman of Zarephath. And Elijah came to him and said, God wants you to make me a meal. And she was literally picking up twigs to make their last meal. And she said, we're going to die. We don't have any more oil in the cruise. He said, if you do it anyhow, God will provide for you. And she made herself poor. And what did the Lord do? The Lord made her rich. You know, it's a great thing here, and I know you hear it a lot, but if you'll give, God's hand is much bigger than yours. If we'll be humble in what we have and realize, Lord, what I have isn't mine anyhow. It's yours, and you've just loaned it to me. If we'll make ourselves poor, the Lord will make us rich. Weakness becomes strength. I think about Paul's infirmity in 2 Corinthians 12 and verse 9, and he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." Later on he says, "...for when I am weak, then am I strong." You've got to stop trying. And just depend on the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings, whose muscles are bigger than ours. But pride gets us to think that we can handle it. And we can do it. God says, no, depend on me. The things He allows in our life, realize, they're so that we draw our attention to Him and not on us. Hiding becomes revealing. Just quickly, I think about Moses and how he started his life off in a humble manner. He went from the bulrushes to become a prince. But then later on, God had to humble him again, and He put him on the backside of a desert before He would make him the leader of Israel. Hiding becomes revealing. You know, right now is a time of hiding. God has hidden you here at Ambassador Baptist College so that one day he can reveal what he wants to do through you in the ministry. Don't waste this time. Take it seriously. God has hidden you because one day he wants to reveal what he wants to do through your life. Shrinking becomes growing. In John chapter 3 and verse 30, we read about John the Baptist where he said, he must increase, but I must decrease. I love that. What's interesting is in Luke 7, 28, when the Lord was talking about John the Baptist, He said, For I say unto you, among those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. Here's a guy who said, you know what, I'm not even worthy to unlatch his sandal. I have got to shrink and he's got to increase. The Lord looked at him and He said, you know what, that's greatness. That is greatness. Shrinking. becomes growing. Bowing becomes rising. Wasn't Christ a great example of that? Before He rose from the dead, He first went down into the earth. Bowing becomes rising. James 4 and verse 10. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up. Little becomes much. I love this song. Little is much when God is in it. We're going to be singing in our choir this Sunday. Little becomes much when humility is at the key. Lucas I'm about to say it in Spanish. Sorry preaching Spanish from time to time Luke 1610 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much. And he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. Impossible becomes possible. Matthew 19, 26, But Jesus beheld them and said unto them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Hey listen, humility is the path to promotion. Don't lift yourself up. That's the last thing God wants you to do. Hide yourself behind the cross and the Lord will lift you up. There's one more thing I want to share with you guys. I can't stop without sharing this with you. This has been just an incredible thing for my own life, but we see in the same passage, it's a phrase, it's a portion of scripture all of us are familiar with. In verse 7, casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. But you know, as I read through the scriptures here, the Lord showed me that He put this phrase here in the context of humility for a purpose. Because I believe that the answer to anxiety is humility. There's so many times I think back to college days and I remember people who had, including myself, struggles with worry. How am I going to pay my bills? Who am I going to marry? How am I going to pass this test? Where am I going to minister? Anxiety. God gives us the answer. You know what it is? Humble yourself. You know, I think about this. He who worries about all really is not humble at all. If I'm worrying about the problems in my life, what am I doing? I sit there in my dorm room, or I sit there in my house, and I think about how I can figure things out, how I can maneuver things. Isn't that pride? Pride is right at the heart of worrying young people. The first thing I see with this worry is an evidence that I think that I'm the best person to handle my problems. Hebrews 13, 5 says, Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have. For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do to me. Hey, when we're truly humble, we are going to trust God the way that we ought to. We're not going to sin the sin of worry. Which I think also worry is an evidence that we're too focused on ourselves. Luke chapter 12 and verse 22, And he saith unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, neither for the body what ye shall put on. You know, you say, well what about if I'm worrying about somebody I love? One of my relatives. Isn't that okay? How's that pride because if you think about it even in worrying for someone else, what are we worried about? I worry that my son's gonna die and I think about how that's gonna affect my life I Worry about what's gonna happen in a relationship with a boy or girl And I think about what that's gonna do to me pride still at the heart of it And God says, cast all your care on me. I care for you. Humble yourself and realize you're not the answer. I am. And you won't have the problems with worry that so many people have. Let me tell you, preachers aren't immune to this. Tell you what, you're going to have to learn to trust the Lord a little bit more than just your bill. God's going to put you in circumstances to teach you. You've got to humble yourself. I'm gonna tell you tonight, if you'll humble yourself, the impact of humility on your life, you can never imagine what God will do in your life. Won't you be humble? Won't you follow the Lord's example? Bow your knee to Him and allow Him to lift you up. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I know that's what you've laid on my heart. And Father, I don't hardly know any of the students here this evening, except for a couple of names for the service. But Lord, your spirit knows them. Lord, you know what they're going through. And I don't know, Lord, that there isn't some students here that are struggling with submitting. Maybe tonight, Lord, they've realized pride is at the source of that. Lord, I don't know if there are some here tonight that are discouraged and they're wanting so bad your blessings, but they're going about it all the wrong way, Lord. Would you help them to humble themselves? And Father, I pray that you would encourage us and realize that if we'll go down, Lord, you'll lift us up. Lord, if we'll cast all our cares upon you, We'll humble ourselves to realize that you are the only one who really can handle our problems. And Father, then, oh, then we'll see your power. Would you allow humble hearts to be evidenced here at Ambassador Baptist College? In Jesus' name, amen.