How Can I Live a “Lion Alert” Life?
1 Peter 5: 5-14
Introduction
“In the jungle, the mighty jungle the lion sleeps tonight.” Do you recognize that once popular song? While it is true that most lions sleep from time to time, in our sermon text the Apostle Peter speaks of a lion that never snoozes.
He says that this lion has been devouring unsuspecting prey from the beginning of time and remains on the prowl. That lion of course is the Devil and his aim is to take as many of us to hell with him as he can.
Therefore if Peter had written that popular song his opening lyrics would have gone something like this. “In the jungle, the mighty jungle the lion snarls tonight.” Since the Devil is out to get us it would be good to know WHAT MAKES US LION ALERT AND NOT LION DESSERT. The Apostle Peter will show us that there are five things that keep us lion alert.
Read Scriptures: 1 Peter 5:5-14
I. Live a Humble life.
Vs. 5-6 “Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”
It was pride that got Satan kicked out of heaven. We are taught from scripture that it is pride in our lives that goes before destruction.
What does that mean in Proverbs 16:18 “pride goes before destruction”.
It means that we allow ourselves to get too close to sin, because in our pride we think that we could never fall in that way. “Well I can kiss him in the back seat of his car; I won’t let it go to far.” Nine months later you are trying to figure out how to raise a child and finish high school.
No preacher sets out to fall into sin. The problem is that so often we are called upon to go into some sin thick places and minister to some really sin sick people, and we are not on full “lion alert” then that is how some fall to temptation.
In our lives we must live a humble life under God’s might hand, because none of us are above falling into sin, but if we live humble lives, realizing who we are as fallen creatures, and rely on the power of almighty God to stand up to temptation, then we can live on full lion alert.
II. Live without second guessing God.
Vs. 7 “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
When we “cast our cares or anxieties on the Lord” that makes us lion alert because the Devil likes to use our cares and concerns to get us to second-guess and doubt God. In fact the word “anxiety” means “diversion” and is used in the story of Mary and Martha.
As Mary sat at Jesus’ feet, Martha fussed about the kitchen worrying about whether or not there would be enough food to eat. Her cares and concerns so diverted her attention from the one thing needful of listening to Jesus so that she even complained to Jesus that Mary wasn’t doing anything to help her.
The Devil continues to plant diversions doesn’t he? Is it the exams you have coming up? Graduation preparations? Is it the prospect of starting a new job or the stress of losing the one you have? Satan will stop at nothing to get us to rely on ourselves instead of God so that we end up worrying and breaking the first commandment.
Don’t become lion dessert but remain alert by believing God and truly casting your cares on Him. There is no better place to take your concerns than to Jesus. Jesus loves you and has promised to care for you. Therefore do what the Greek verb “cast” implies. Take every care and concern and pack them one by one into a bag that you then give to Jesus to carry.
God will take care of our problems better than we ever could so what’s the use worrying about them if we’ve handed them over to Him?
That sounds so easy to do but do you know what often happens? We carefully pack our concerns into a bag and take them to Jesus, but we don’t let go of the pack. We think that if we don’t at least keep an eye on our problems they will never get solved.
Therefore instead of letting God carry our problems and lead where we should go we try to lead God instead and end up treating him like a dumb pack animal. That’s not the way to remain lion alert. Let the Lord bear your burdens and let the Lord lead!
III. Live with an understanding of who the enemy is.
Vs. 8-9 “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”
In order to live on full lion alert, we need to understand that our enemy is not other people, it is not the preacher, or the church, or anyone in your family, the real enemy is Satan. His desire is to devour you.
It was Martin Luther who said that the Devil climbs over the fence where it is the lowest.
We need to understand our enemy. Satan is going to exploit your weakness, until he sees that it is not a weakness anymore.
He doesn’t play fair. If we are going to live on full lion alert then we need to understand who the enemy is.
IV. Live with an understanding of who God is.
Vs. 10-11 “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.”
When you fall turn to Jesus for forgiveness because he has defeated the Devil by refusing to fall for any of his tricks and he undid the Devil’s handiwork by taking the punishment of hell we deserved.
Can you imagine how disappointed the Devil must have been at Jesus’ resurrection? Here he thought he had defeated God’s Son but in reality he had been totally defeated.
Since the Devil could not defeat Jesus he has gone to plan “B” - attacking us, the crown of God’s creation. Be ready for those attacks, the Devil doesn’t want you to believe that Jesus won forgiveness for you. He will bring up past sins and shake them in your face and asks how a just God could love anyone so filthy?
The answer is that one word that can topple Satan, Jesus.
Through Christ the victory is ours. Through Christ, God will restore us to the glory God intended people to have before sin entered the world.
Through Christ God has made us strong so we can carry out works that please Him. Yes, how could God love us? God loves us because of Jesus. If we remain in Christ then the lion’s roar will sound more like an annoying yelp from a little dog. We need to live with an understanding of Who God is, He is almighty and all powerful and all forgiving.
V. Live leaning on each other to get through this life.
Vs. 12-14 “With the help of Silas, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it. She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark. Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.”
I want to take Peter’s closing words for this last point. We need to live leaning on each other to get through this life, to stay on lion alert.
Peter mentioned two of his closest friends: He says, “with the help of Silas”, and he mentions Mark, who is John Mark, who wrote the gospel of Mark.
What that says to me is we need each other, we are called to carry each other’s burdens. It is hard to live this Christian life, but when we have faithful brothers and sisters to pray for us and lift us up it makes it a bit easier.
Conclusion
Some of you in this congregation today, I don’t know how you do it. You face trial after trial, and yet because of your pride you face it alone, and it takes a toll on you. I am asking you to turn to the Lord Jesus today, he doesn’t just want to help you he wants to carry you, will you come. Some of you need to come for the very first time and receive Him for your very own, come today.
(Thanks sermoncentral contributors)
