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Please be seated and turn in
your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 5. In this particular chapter, Peter
is addressing various groups in the congregation. He starts
with the leaders, with the elders. He encourages them to give proper
oversight. to the flock as God's deputy
shepherds, shepherds of the chief shepherd. He then addresses the
younger members of the congregation, and then he widens his comments
to everyone, to the whole group. And that's what we pick up in
verse 5 of 1 Peter chapter 5. Likewise, you who are younger,
be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you,
with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud, but
gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore,
unto the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time He
may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He
cares for you. Be sober-minded. Be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls
around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him
firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are
being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after
you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has
called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore,
confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To Him be the dominion forever
and ever. Amen. Here's a question that
I've been pondering this week. Fear. Fear. Is it rational or irrational? Is it logical or illogical. Do all of our fears and worries
and anxieties that emerge from our hearts, do they make sense? Some phobias just sound plain
bizarre, and here's an example. Arachibutrophobia. This is the
fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. It's
an actual fear that people are paralyzed by. It actually inhibits
their daily life. They're just afraid of peanut
products. Now from us, from the outside,
perhaps that sounds silly, but for the arachibutrophobic, it
makes sense. He can give you a list of reasons
why he should be afraid. Let's take something that's a
little bit more common, probably a little bit more known to all
of us. The fear of rejection. Some people are so afraid of
being rejected that they will withdraw from or avoid other
people. They're afraid that if someone
rejects them, they will be alone. So they choose isolation to avoid
isolation. To me, that doesn't sound rational,
doesn't sound logical, but yet Every fear has its own sort of
twisted interpretation of the world. Every fear has its own
logic. The fearful person can give you
reasons for why they are afraid. The children's author Hans Christian
Andersen was always afraid that he would be buried alive and
so when he would go to sleep at night he would place a note
on the bedside table that said, I may seem dead, but I'm very
much alive. Just in case someone came by
and he was in a very deep sleep and they tried to awaken him
and he wouldn't rouse from that sleep, they shouldn't go put him in
a coffin. I only seem to be asleep. See, he had reasons for why he
believed that, why he acted the way he did. So, fearful, anxious
people can always give you reasons for why their fears make sense.
If you're afraid of bridges, Bridges do collapse. We've seen
videos of this. If you're afraid of flying, planes
do crash, even if the statistics say that that's extremely rare,
that airplane travel is very safe. I was sitting next to a
couple on a plane several years ago and the wife was very talkative,
the husband was not, he was looking out the window and as the wife
and I were chatting, she turned to say something to her husband
and he grunted in response and she said to me, he's very much
afraid of flying, he's a very nervous flyer. Well, that was
my cue to bring good cheer into this situation. And I said, Sir,
you know that you have a better chance of winning the lottery
than dying in a plane crash. Airplane travel is very safe.
I have no idea where I got that from. I think I must have read
it somewhere. But I thought, this will be just what he needs
to hear. And he responded very soberly,
No one ever died from not winning the lottery. Looking back, I probably should
have led with the sovereignty of God or something like that.
But he was determined, from his perspective, there were good
reasons for why he should be a nervous flyer. Even though the statistics may
say it's only one in a million, from his perspective, he was
that potentially one in a million. where Peter's epistle is addressed
to a group of Christians who have every reason to be anxious
and fearful. We're told in chapter 1 that
this group of believers are grieved by various trials. That's chapter
1 and verse 6. They are oppressed, persecuted,
abused by individuals in power. You see, the Roman Empire at
the time was not very friendly to Christianity. So there were
outbreaks of localized persecution, so many of Peter's readers were
enduring that kind of either verbal abuse, discrimination,
perhaps even physical abuse. They had every reason to be anxious
and afraid, and yet what does Peter do? He gives them better
reasons to not be afraid. As if to say, yes, you may have
these legitimate reasons, legitimate concerns to be afraid, but here
are some better, superior reasons why you should not be afraid.
So I want us to see some of those reasons tonight. Why is it that
we are so often given to anxiety and fear and worry? How do we
combat it? How do we address it? I'd like
to suggest that we move from fear to faith. when there is
a climate of grace created by a caring Savior who confirms
and establishes our circumspect faith. First of all, there's
a climate of grace. A climate of grace. And Peter
addresses that first in chapter 5 and verse 5. He begins to address
the elders of the flock in the first part of the chapter and
then he turns to the younger members of these congregations, and he
encourages them to be subject to the elders. He's getting to
this topic of humility, submission and humility very much closely
connected, and then from submission to humility, from humility to
anxiety. These are all connected in this chapter. Now he doesn't
give age parameters as to who the younger members are that
he's addressing, but in general, apparently the younger members
of the congregation, however old they were, were not very
deferential or respectful to the elders, and so he has to
remind them be subject to those who are in these positions of
leadership. But then in the second half of verse 5, the discussion
shifts, the discussion, the audience that Peter is addressing begins
to widen. He now encompasses everyone, directs his comments
to everyone. He says, clothe yourselves, all
of you, with humility toward one another,
for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. So
you create a climate of grace in your local community of believers
by tying on, fastening on, humility. In other words, the interpersonal
relationships that are existent in your local body of believers,
the fundamental characteristic of those interpersonal relationships
is humility. Clothe yourselves, all of you,
with humility. And the verb that Peter uses
here It has the idea of a servant fastening on an apron to tend
to the needs of the household. Perhaps Peter had in mind here
the very actions of Christ when in the upper room Jesus laid
aside his garments and he fastened on the towel and he then washed
the disciples' feet in humble service of his disciples. See,
redeemed people, those who have been redeemed, those who have
been washed by the blood of the Lamb, their lives should be characterized
by humility and love and mercy and grace. Meaning that we look
at people in a very large-hearted way, in a generous way, instead
of a critical, cramped, opinionated way. When we approach conflict,
we are in it for the other person's good. But when we, with this
climate of grace, when we express anger, it's not anger for the
glory of self, a destructive, punitive type anger, it's an
anger that is for the glory of God, zealous for the glory of
God. It is constructive, it is helpful. So we are quick to resolve
conflicts, we're quick to come to the aid of those who are wounded,
we're quick to forgive, to use edifying speech that would build
up others rather than tear others down. A climate of grace. Now, Paul gives a very practical
definition of humility in Philippians chapter 2. I'm sure you're familiar
with it, where he says, do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but
in humility, do what? Count others more significant
than yourselves. There's a good practical definition
of humility. Where I labor out of love, because of the grace
of God that's been shown to me, I labor to make others successful. So it's more about this corporate
collective we, us. How can I make others within
the body of Christ successful? How can I build others up? How
can I resolve these conflicts that I'm in so that there can
be peace and purity within Christ's church? It's more of a corporate
collective we rather than I, me and my pursuits, my interests. Pride is a very cruel master,
an unrelenting master, and that's what feeds, we'll see later,
this is what feeds anxiety. The proud person is often a very
anxious person, because the proud person is very self-important,
very self-trusting. Instead of seeking to create
a climate of grace in their relationships, there is suspicion and distrust,
there is defensiveness. So the humble person is at rest,
seeking the well-being of others. Giving of themselves for others.
And Peter here quotes from Proverbs 3.34, God opposes the proud but
gives grace to the humble. That whole quotation applies
to daily living because the verbs are in the present tense. God
continually opposes the proud. God continually gives grace to
the humble. It was the summer of 1966. There
was a Christian conference being held in London. And one of the
workers of the conference, a fellow named Doug Nichols, was out sweeping
the front steps of the conference center. It was very late at night.
Everyone had gone to bed. It was about 1230 in the morning
when an older man approached him. This man was very plainly
dressed. And he asked Doug if this was
where that particular conference was being held. And he said,
yes, this is the place. But most everyone has gone to bed. It's
very late. But the man said, well, I've been traveling all
day. Again, very plainly dressed, plainly spoken individual. And
so Doug began to try to find this older man a place to sleep. And they found a room with about
50 people all bedded down on the floor. So he found a spot
for this older gentleman. He did not have any bedding or
blankets or pillows, and so he found some padding for him to
lie down on, a blanket and a towel to use as a pillow. And the man
was very appreciative, said this would be just fine. And then
Doug asked this man if he'd had dinner. The man had been traveling
all day and had not had a chance to eat, so he took him to the
kitchen and fed him some food. And as they began to talk, this
older man shared with Doug that he and his wife had been working
in Switzerland for several years, where he had a small ministry
for hippies and travelers. And he spoke about how the Lord
had converted many of these individuals to Christ through their ministry.
When he finished eating, they both retired for the evening.
Well, the next morning, Doug was in big trouble. The conference
leaders came to him and said, do you realize the person you
made sleep on the floor last night? He's the featured speaker
of our conference. His name is Francis Schaeffer.
If you don't know Francis Schaeffer, profound apologist, Christian
apologist, celebrity-like figure in the 60s and 70s. Francis Schaeffer. We had a whole room set aside
for him, a private room where he could sleep and you made him
sleep on the floor. Well, Doug had no idea that this
was Francis Schaeffer and Francis Schaeffer never let on that he
should be entitled to any of this. There was no sense of entitlement,
no sense of self-importance. To me that's an example where
he fastened on humility and sought to create a climate of grace
wherever he went. Create a climate of grace and
humble reliance upon, secondly, a caring Savior. And here's where Peter makes
the connection between humility and anxiety. Look at verse 6. Humble yourselves, therefore,
unto the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time He
may exalt you, casting all of your anxieties on Him, because
He cares for you. Now for all of my fellow worriers
out there, verse 7, no doubt, is maybe your life verse, something
that you quote on a daily basis or a weekly basis. Perhaps it's
even turned into a mantra, where this is something I quote on
a regular basis, to deal with the regular anxieties and worries
that arise in my heart. And I'm not opposed to that,
I think that's a good thing, but there is a sense in which
the take one verse of scripture and call me in the morning approach
to to our problems, it has a very shallow, shallow results. You
know, if we treat scripture as a pill, if I just take it for
a couple of weeks, then I'll be healed of my maladies and
I can move on. Well, there are different degrees of anxiety,
different ways that we respond in anxiety. For some of you,
you may feel like it's overwhelming, it dominates your life. For some
of you, it's just a low grade anxiety. And I think this verse
addresses all types. But verse 7 doesn't make full
sense without verse 6. And here's what I mean. That
phrase, casting all of your anxieties on Him, actually modifies the
opening phrase of verse 6. Humble yourselves. Which gives
us the secret, if you will, to dealing with sinful anxiety. Humble yourselves. Meaning that
the sinful anxiety that emerges from my heart is fueled by, motivated
by, a certain sense of pride. A sense of self-importance. We
attempt to control all of our cares, we attempt to control
our lives, to remove any kind of pain or discomfort or trouble
from us instead of humbly entrusting them to God. Now every emotion
that we have has a good and bad form. The line between good and
evil runs between sinful anxiety on the one hand and biblical
anxiety. There is a good sense of anxiety, this is what Paul
had for for the churches. He said, I'm anxious for the
churches that I've helped to found, that they will be prosperous,
that they will thrive. That's 2 Corinthians 11, 28.
So that was a good kind of anxiety, a good kind of emotion. But there's
also an anxiety that is sinful. Another good kind was Paul was
concerned about his friend Epaphroditus, and actually used the word anxious
to think about his friend Epaphroditus in Philippians 2. So there's
a good anxiety that expresses love and concern for other people. that does good, but there's an
anxiety that is negative, that is sinful. It's a frenetic, frantic
attempt to control my world. To control my world. And that's
the kind of anxiety that I think that Peter is addressing here.
The anxiety that wants to control what we cannot control. To know
what we cannot know. To attain what we cannot attain.
How will my kids turn out? Will I get Alzheimer's someday? Will I get cancer someday? Will
I ever be married? Will I ever have money? Will
I have enough money to cover next month's bills? Will I have
a job when I finish college? These are the kinds of questions
where we're attempting to control the uncontrollable. Yes, to a
degree we have a measure of control. We have some contribution that
we can make. But to fashion my life, to create
my life in such a way that I seek to eliminate all pain, all discomfort,
all suffering is a recipe for disaster. It's a recipe for more
anxiety. So it's no accident that Peter
would come right out and say, and emphasize the mighty hand
of God. Look again at verse 6. Humble
yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. That
hand of God symbolizes God's control, God's power, His reign,
His rule. This is what Exodus refers to
when it says that God delivered Egypt with His mighty hand. This
instrument of power, this instrument of control. Humble yourselves
and submit under that mighty hand. You see, anxiety is our
way of playing God. Where we attempt to control our
world, to seal it off, it's airtight from any kind of pain or trouble.
You know, it might happen this way. We're diagnosed with an
illness unexpectedly and we begin to panic. Our culture worships
good health. Good health is a good thing.
It's a gift from God, a blessing from God. But so often I think in
our culture it's elevated to this idolatrous worship of good
health. It's salvific. It can save you.
If you don't have good health, you're destroyed. You can't possibly
have a good productive life. And so I get this diagnosis and
I begin to panic and overreact and I clean out the cupboards
of every possible food that might bring a relapse. So I remove
any kind of harmful chemical from my home. And my fear begins
to intrude on those who are nearby, nearby relatives where my diet
restrictions also become their diet restrictions. Or perhaps
it's not an illness or it's a relationship that has gone sour. It's brought
much pain and heartache to us. And so we construct a wall of
defense around ourselves. No one can get in. No one can
talk to us or deal with us or address any of our problem issues.
We push everyone away. And what that does, it only feeds
anxiety. Anxiety feeds on anxiety. Avoiding
what you fear only breeds greater fear. Nothing so empowers fear
more than fleeing some fearful event, and so anxiety is what
activates this fight or flight response. It's a good thing that
God has put within us for our own defense, for our own good,
for our welfare, but that can become a hyperactive vigilance. It becomes stuck in the on position. where I'm always at red alert.
I'm always searching my surroundings for anything that might threaten
me. Someone has said that fear is like a pack of wild dogs.
It just multiplies. Fears just multiply. They feed
on each other. And so the way to conquer anxiety,
to deal with it, is not by pushing it aside and acting like it doesn't
exist, but bring it into the light. So that the promises,
the blessings of scripture can actually address those specific
fears and anxieties and worries. This is what the psalmist says
in Psalm 94. When the cares of my heart are
many, when the cares of my heart multiply, your consolations cheer
my soul. So anxiety wants to be boss,
it wants to take control, it doesn't trust very easily. So
we batten down the hatches, we secure ourselves in this hermetically
airtight environment so no one can get to us and we can't get
to anyone else, no one can hurt us. And here Peter comes in and
he says, Humble yourselves by casting your anxieties on your
caring Savior. Submit under His mighty hand,
instead of frenetically trying to control your world, Submit
these cares. What does he mean there by casting
all of your anxieties? It's a very intentional word.
This idea of throwing willfully, persistently, actively, throwing
my cares and anxieties upon the Lord. It's not just passively
waiting and sitting around for the Lord to lift my anxiety,
but actively, intentionally pursuing the mercies of the Lord. Now
the background here for verse 7 is Psalm 55, 22. Cast your
burden on the Lord and He will sustain you. Peter borrowed some
of the words from that verse. So it means we willfully, intentionally
throw these cares upon the Lord, but it also means that we acknowledge
our inability to handle these cares. Lord, do what you are equipped
to do. That is, be God. Rule the universe. And I will
do what I'm equipped to do and that is trust and rely and depend
upon you. But notice how Peter does not
stop there. He actually provides a motive. It's not just some sheer force
of my will that I defeat these anxieties. You know, an anxiety-ridden
heart does not trust well. It doesn't trust people. He doesn't
trust the Lord. So Peter here helps us. He helps
to nurture our trust by revealing the character of God. Cast your
anxieties on Him. Why? Because He cares for you.
He tells us something about the character, the nature, the actions
of God. He cares for you. He is intentionally,
personally, individually caring, compassionate about you. Meaning
He wants the best for me. He knows what's best for me.
So I can go to my Heavenly Father. This is what the Gospel of Luke
says in Jesus' discussion of this anxiety. It says, fear not,
little flock. Your Father will give you the
kingdom. He intends good for you. He wants to hear from you.
So you take these anxieties and you name them, you list them,
you list the stressors of your heart, the anxieties of your
heart, the fears of your heart, that sound maybe so bizarre and
irrational to so many other people, but you have legitimate reasons
for why they are troubling you. It doesn't sound bizarre to our
Heavenly Father. You go and you cast those cares
upon Him, knowing that He cares for you. So Peter doesn't give
this, this is the one command here in this passage, he doesn't
give it, It's the one command in this verse. He doesn't give
it in just a vacuum. He gives it with also a knowledge
of God that helps to expand our understanding of who God is.
He will always give you what is best. So in our anxiety, when
we attempt to control the uncontrollable, to attain to the unattainable,
to know the unknowable, How will my kids turn out? Will I get
Alzheimer's? Will I have money for next month's
bills? Will I have a job next month? Yes, those are good concerns,
but here Peter gives us better reasons to take all of these
concerns and anxieties to the one person who can do something
about them and who has your best interest at heart, meaning he
is preeminently trustworthy. I was on a plane one time in
Asia. Towards the end of the flight,
we hit some severe turbulence and it felt as if the pilot was
losing control of the plane. I was frightened. Everyone around
me was frightened. Here I was sitting in my seat.
I had no control whatsoever of this plane. Have you had that
sensation before? But the thing that kept me, I
guess you could say, grounded, anchored, was that I quoted Psalm
46.1 in my mind. God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble. I will not fear. Just said that
over and over again. Not that it was a mantra devoid
of meaning, but I think at that moment, when that sudden terror
flooded my heart, I could give you a rationale for why I should
have been afraid and why I was afraid. But at that point, I didn't need
to reprogram my mind to think about a tropical beach somewhere
on a deserted island. That was not going to help me. I needed to dwell on the character
the provision, the love, the protection of my Heavenly Father. And that's what Peter does here.
You cast your anxieties on the Lord as you grow in your knowledge
of Him. The two go together. The two
should be operating together. Now it's entirely possible that
for some of you, the fear will not dissipate. It's possible
that whatever anxiety you're dealing with will pester you,
will nip at your heels for the rest of your life. Or you may
conquer one fear only to have it replaced with another fear.
So the question is, the real question is, how will I respond
in my anxiety? Will I look to Christ for help
even if the anxiety remains? Will I turn to Christ in the
midst of my fear and say, Lord, help me? I think Peter sums it
up very well. In 1 Peter 4.19, he says, let
those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls
to a faithful creator. while doing good. Sometimes the
most courageous thing we can do is carry on, obey the Lord,
even in the midst of all of those fears and worries and anxieties,
entrusting our soul to our faithful creator, the one who rules, the
one whose mighty hand we are to submit to and humble ourselves
under. And what does that do? It means
we are continually casting those cares upon the Lord, resting,
trusting, believing the promises that He will care for us. Fear not, little flock. God has given you the kingdom.
Therefore, boldly, not with this stuck, hyperactive vigilance
that would seek to control my world and eliminate every pain
and sorrow, But do good in trusting your
soul willfully, actively, persistently, casting your cares upon the Lord,
knowing that He will care for you. As we pray together.
The Anxious Christian
| Sermon ID | 8813209521 |
| Duration | 29:37 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | 1 Peter 5:5-10 |
| Language | English |
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