And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous he was afraid. And Peter remembered the Word of the Lord how He had said to him, “Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.” You have been born again. This new life did not come from something that dies but from something that cannot die.
The title of today’s talk is called Don’t Feed the Lions. Don’t feed the lions. And everybody knows if you read first Peter five, most people camp out in verse nine, eight or nine there where it says be self controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion. I believe that this entire chapter leads up to verse eight. That verse two through seven, set the table for that scripture in verse eight.
So we’re going to take a look at that today. So let’s start reading now in first Peter five verse one. To the elders among you I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings and one who will also share in the glory to be revealed. Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers, not because you must, but because you’re willing, as God wants you to be.
Now listen, notice this right here, of all the vices, moral failures that you could have pointed out to church leaders, notice what Peter especially warns church leaders about. He didn’t say lust. He didn’t say anger. He didn’t say anything else. What he said was this, not greedy for money. Of all the things, all the warnings he could’ve given leaders of the church, he says, “Listen, watch out for this thing. Don’t be greedy. Don’t be greedy for money and stuff.” He says, “But eager to serve not lording it over those entrusted to you but being examples to the flock.”
Let me stop here for a minute, I didn’t plan to say this but I thought of it, so I think it’s brilliant. All right, every time I get to speak from time to time in front of pastors. And I tell them I said, “Listen, do you know who the worship leader of the church is?” The Senior Pastor, the guy who’s leading. And that’s why I sit here, and that’s why I worship because I’m leading by example. And I tell Senior Pastors this, I said, “When I find a Senior Pastor who does not worship, who does not lead the congregation in worship, most of the time it’s because he is accustomed to being worshipped.” And that’s exactly the response I get back from the pastors.
Listen, we’re here to point our attention toward Christ and Christ alone. And if it ever becomes about something else, then we’ve missed it, haven’t we? And this is what Peter’s saying, listen. “Don’t lord it over them. Don’t be eager for money but be an example to the flock.” Eager, eager, eager to serve.
All right verse three; “Not lording it over those entrusted to you but being examples to the flock.” I just read that. Verse four; “And when the chief shepherd appears you’ll receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. Young men in the same way, be submissive to those who are older. All of you, men, women, young, old, all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another because God opposes the proud that gives grace to the humble.”
In other words, if you’re living a prideful life, God literally is in opposition to you and not working for you. He’s opposing you. Isn’t that an amazing scripture? God opposes the proud. I don’t want God to be opposing me. I want God to be for me. It says, verse six; “Humble yourselves therefore under God’s mighty hand that He may lift you up in due time and cast all your anxiety on Him because he cares for you.”
Now here’s verse eight. Here’s the key; “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Verse nine is amazing: “Resist him; standing firm in the faith because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing this same kind of sufferings.”
You know Pastor Mathews, our pastor of local outreach. He’s also connected to our global ministries and I’m telling you, I wish every Sunday I could stand here and tell you the amazing stories of what’s going on around in the world. And we need to do a better job of that I know, but right now as we speak, there are men and women who literally, especially in countries like Iran, and Afghanistan, and throughout Asia, where Muslim countries, where they’re doing a tremendous work.
And right now, it’s in the evening in most of those places, and right now there are small groups of people gathering together, worshipping God under threat of arrest and death. Right now, do you know how many Christ followers there are in Iran right now? About three million. If you loved Israel, can I tell you the best thing you should do? Pray for Iran. There’s an amazing move of God happening in Iran right now. Literally hundreds of people a day are giving their lives to Christ in Iran and it’s all happening in little house churches underground together. They’re patiently enduring the suffering for the sake of Christ.
And yet we gathered here and I’m so grateful for the freedom in our country. But sometimes I think we forget what other people around the world are suffering for the sake of the Gospel. And I think it’s our duty as free believers, as free people to pray and earnestly seek God on their behalf, so that they might enjoy the same freedom; but more importantly that the Gospel would be fearlessly proclaimed. And this is what Peter’s reminding us of today.
Let me ask you a question. If there is a roaring lion who seeks people to devour, and I grew up and I had pastors and church leaders tell me, “Hey you know our enemy is a lion but he doesn’t have any teeth because of the cross.” That’s not what Peter said. Peter said our enemy has teeth because he can devour you. He can destroy our lives.
There are certain things that the enemy really likes to feast upon. There are certain things that the enemy is looking for in our lives as an open door to get into our lives to devour us. And I want to raise our awareness this morning. I do believe in a big God and a defeated enemy. I want you to know theologically, I do believe in a big God and a defeated enemy. However, I think we need to be aware of our enemy’s tactics, aware of how our enemy operates and what he’s looking for in our lives. Let’s look at verse two again.
It says, “Be shepherds of God’s flock.” Here’s the first thing that lions feast on. Lions feast on the unprotected. Lions feast on the unprotected. This is why I want to talk about church more and more, about what church should look like. And one other thing, can I tell you the single greatest compliment that I get from New Life, when I’m walking around, when I’m meeting people, it might surprise you the compliment that endears me more than anything else. It’s not, “Hey that was a good sermon.” I appreciate those. But that’s not my favorite compliment or anything else.
Here’s my favorite compliment that I get, “Pastor Brady, it feels safe here. I feel protected here. I feel like my family is covered here. I feel like there’s a sense here that things are safe and protected.” To me that means more to me as a pastor than any other compliment that I get; “That we feel safe.” I’m not talking about safe from physical harm because we can’t guarantee that. Because we live in a violent, evil world and we know that first hand, that we can’t guarantee physical safety.
What I’m talking about is spiritual protection; where there is health, where things are in order, where there are things in place to protect the body from false teaching, from false leaders, from whatever the enemy might bring against us. There’s a sense of protection. And that happens because there are elders who are leading, who are serving, who are governing, who are praying and providing oversight over the church.
I believe; listen I know some of you are sitting out here today and you may not be a committed member of this fellowship. You might be someone who’s just visiting for the first time. You might be someone who occasionally comes to New Life, who kind of comes when it’s convenient or maybe comes when you can, may be because of work or whatever. But can I tell you something? The safest place you can be is under the covering and protection of a healthy fellowship. I have never met a mature Christ follower and I … and this statement’s going to sound kind of out there, but I’ve thought about this statement and I believe this statement. You cannot be a committed mature Christ follower unless you’re committed to a local fellowship. You can’t. There are no shortcuts.
God has called us to be a part of a big messy church family. And I’m telling you, you cannot be a mature Christ follower if you’re not coming under the covering, the protection, the family, the fellowship of a local healthy church. I have no ambitions for New Life to be big, but I have a big ambition for it to be safe, for it to be healthy, for it to be a place for families and families and people can come and grow, and be protected from the lion that’s out there. The lion feast on the unprotected.
Now we’re going to look at several parallel passages this morning. The first one’s from Matthew twenty-six and we’re going to stay. So if you want to turn to Matthew twenty-six, we’re going to look at some parallel passages because I think it’s important this morning to remember that Peter wrote this book that we’re reading this morning, based on experiences that he had with Jesus.
And especially in Matthew twenty-six when Jesus was in the garden, about to be arrested, there were several conversations that happened that influenced Peter greatly. Let’s look at one here, Matthew twenty-six verse thirty-one; “And then Jesus told them, this very night you will all fall away on account of Me. For it is written I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.” “I’ll strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.” That prophecy came true. In fact when Jesus was arrested just a few hours later, all of the disciples fled.
And this is why it’s important for shepherds, overseers, and elders to be men and leaders who are Godly and mature who care, who are eager to serve, not greedy for money. Because when you have that covering over a local fellowship like we do at New Life, there’s a sense of safety and protection. The sheep are not scattered. The sheep grow and become healthy because lions feast on the unprotected.
Let’s skip down now in first Peter and look at verse seven and verse five; “All of you. All of you clothe yourselves with humility.” Here’s another thing that lions feast upon. Lions feast on the proud. Lions feast on the proud. Matthew twenty-six, let’s go back there verse thirty-three; “Peter replied …” This is the arrogant young Peter; this is not the mature Peter who wrote first Peter. This is the young arrogant Peter who’s still being formed. And he says, “Even if all fall away on account of You, I never will.” “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered. “This very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown Me three times.” Peter the arrogant man, Peter the arrogant said, “Even all these other guys become cowards and run away, not me. I will stand right here by You.”
And by the way before the rooster crowed that night, on the third time Peter was gone. He was already denying Christ. He said, “I don’t know the guy. Never heard of the guy. Never walked with the guy. Have no idea who you’re talking about.” So later on, twenty-five years later, Peter had learned his lesson. Peter said, “Clothe yourself with humility.”
Now the image here is literally a putting on a work apron. Is Rob here? Where’s Rob Stenner? Is he here? Where is he? Oh here’s Rob. Hey Rob, come up here, Rob. Now let me ask you a question, if I were to invite a couple of guys over to my house and say, “Listen, I really need some help. My back deck is rotting, decaying, and I need somebody who can just help me paint that deck, we can do it in one afternoon. And Rob showed up like this. And Pastor Garvin, come up here.
Pastor Garvin lives in my neighborhood. And let’s say Pastor Garvin here showed up like this. Now which guy do you think is really ready to help me paint my deck? Right here. By the way, the tag is still on your hat, I don’t know if you knew that. Right there is a sale tag. All right. Now, I know this from experience. I would probably rather have Pastor Garvin help me paint my deck, but Rob is the one that showed up ready to paint my deck.
This is the image that Peter is showing us. He said listen, “Clothe yourself with humility.” And what he’s saying is, when you are asked to do something, are you prepared to do it? Are you wearing the clothes of someone who says, “I’m here to work. I am here to serve. I’m not here just to watch or to supervise or to point out errors. I’m here. I’m clothing myself with the garment that’s necessary to do the work.”
And this is what Peter is saying, “Clothe yourselves, put on the necessary garment in the spiritual realm of being willing to serve.” Thank you guys very much. Aren’t they very nice male models there, thank you very much, yes.
Here’s the point. What are you wearing right now? If God spoke to you, “Go serve the poor. Take care of the widows. Take some meals to somebody who doesn’t have food this Thanksgiving.” Are you clothed? Are you ready to work? Are you in the spiritual realm willing to do whatever it takes if God speaks to us? What are we clothed with? This is what Peter’s saying listen, “The enemy comes and feasts on those areas of our life where we say, ‘I won’t do that. I’m not going to do that. Someone else should do that.’” That’s the thing. That’s the very thing the enemy says, “That’s a feast. I’ll feed on that.”
In fact the enemy will come to you and say, “Listen, people are as talented as you shouldn’t have to do those kinds of things. People of your importance shouldn’t have to get as dirty as the rest of them. You’re a teacher; you don’t have to set up chairs.” And Pam and I and the kids, we were there yesterday handing out turkeys. We enjoy it. I was there. We went and took some meals too. And in fact yesterday, I’ll tell you this, we went to the first house we went to.
We went into this house, there’s a young boy there by himself, and the school had told us the families that needed meals this Thanksgiving. So we worked through two local schools to find out who really needed help this Thanksgiving. And these are people who are working. These are the working poor who just need help. They just need a leg up. They just need somebody, just to give them a little boost. And we showed up at their house. This little bitty house was falling apart. I mean literally it was in the back of a cul-de-sac. We walked in this little boy answered the door. His mom was working.
On the table was their dinner from the night before. A couple of bowls and noodles and the house was in disarray. We took that food in and we encouraged him. We just gave him the Thanksgiving meal. When we get out to the car, Pam just breaks down. And see what happens is, this is why I’m calling you to the city. You need to see what’s out there. We live up here in the north part of Briar Gate or wherever we live. I’m telling you the needs in our city are overwhelming. They’re tremendous.
We got to put on the work apron. We just can’t sit up here and talk about it. We just can’t sit up here and just have prayer meetings about it. We got to put on the apron. We got to clothe ourselves with humility and say to God, “Whatever you call us to do, I’ll go do it. It doesn’t matter how dirty it is. It doesn’t matter how inconvenient it is. It doesn’t matter how messy it becomes. I am here to serve. I am here to give my life away and I’m calling on our church to be that church, to clothe ourselves with humility and get busy.” Get in the game.
Then he says in verse seven; “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” Lions feast on the anxious. Can I tell you what anxiety is? Anxiety is a feeling that if I don’t take matters into my own hands, God’s not going to do it. God is not meeting my timeline, therefore I have to take matters into my own hands. And the lion feast, our enemy feast on that; this worry, this fear, this anxiety, this thing that’s keeping you up at night.
Can I tell you that sometimes, we’re asking God to move and God says I can’t move because your hands have a death grip on it? Let go. Let go of the problem. Quit trying to figure it out all the time. And I believe in planning. And I believe in wisdom. And I believe in writing things down and praying about it. I’m not saying not to plan. I’m not saying not to ask for counsel. But at some point, the bible says we make our plans but God directs our steps.
At some point we’re going to have to take our hands off the problem and trust God that He really is God and that He’s pretty good at being God because He’s been God for a really long time. And this happened in the garden. Peter had seen this first hand. Matthew twenty-six verse fifty. It says, Jesus replied, “Friend, do what you came for.” And remember the crowd was there to arrest Him now. He’s about to be arrested. He said, “Friend, do what you came for.” Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested Him. And with that, it said Matthew now, Matthew was much nicer. One of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out, and struck the servant of the high priest cutting off his ear. Now Luke throws Peter under the bus because Luke says, “It was Peter.”
Matthew says, “Look I don’t want to embarrass anybody but one of the disciples grabbed the sword and cut the servant’s ear off.” Luke goes, “No, it was Peter.” Here’s what Peter did; Jesus had told him what was going to happen and he said clearly to them, “I’m going to be arrested tonight. I’m going to go to the cross. I’m going to be murdered and I’m going to die. But take heart in three days, in three days, I’m going to come back from the grave.”
Well Peter wanted to take matters into his own hands. “You’re not taking Jesus!” WHACK! You see in the Jewish world there were really two ideas of the Messiah. There was a Messiah that would lay down His life and there was another idea that the Messiah would be someone who’d live forever and would reign on the earth.
Peter didn’t want Jesus to be the Messiah that died on the cross. Peter wanted Jesus to be the messiah who would live forever and re-establish their geo-political greatness and rule over the country and rule over the world. So when Jesus says, “No, I’m not that Messiah. I am the one who’s going to go die for the sins of the world.” Peter goes, “No! I’m taking matters in my own hands. You’re not going to die!” WHACK!
May I ask you a question? What are you trying to do in your own strength today that if you would just have faith? Faith to believe that God is at work and it’s secret. It may be hidden from your sight. You may not be aware of it right now, but God is at work. He’s at work for you. He’s moving for you. There are unseen things that are happening right now, that if you could see them, you would probably sleep better at night.
But that’s not the point. God says, “It is impossible to please Me without faith.” Without faith you can’t please Him. God wants you to trust Him. Look back at verse six here. Verse six; “Humble yourselves therefore under God’s mighty hand that He may lift you up in due time.” The due time part is the problem, isn’t it? Listen let’s be honest. It’s the due time problem that’s the problem. Due time, whose time? My time or His time? My time or His time? I told you the story. Pam and I prayed for ten years for children, “Go God, give us kids. Oh God, heal our bodies. Oh God, give us children, give us kids, give us kids.”
The whole time there were so many frustrating days. In fact in the last three or four years of that stretch, we wouldn’t even go to church on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. We used to avoid that altogether, it was so painful. Baby-Dad occasions when we’d see all our friends dedicating their babies, we were happy for them, but inside we were aching and asking God, “Why don’t you do what we’re asking you? Why aren’t You at work?”
All of a sudden, two little kids get brought right into our world because something was happening that we could not see. An invisible thing was happening. We had to trust God that He was at work. Even though we couldn’t see it, we couldn’t put our hands on it, we couldn’t quantify it; it was just God at work. And then at some point, you’re going to have to … listen, at some point here today, this morning some of you just need to let go.
Say, “God I’ve done everything I know to do. I’ve prayed. I have fasted. I have prayed prayers of faith. I am believing You. I am trusting You. So Lord, today I humble myself before You. I humble myself before You, that You may lift me up in due time.” In due time. Then listen to what He says. Let’s keep reading in First Peter. In verse eight it says, “Be self-controlled and alert. Be self-controlled and alert.” This is a common thing by the way throughout first Peter and second Peter. About the idea of being alert, about being in control.
Do you know why Peter knew this was important? Let’s look at Matthew twenty-six. In Matthew twenty-six, “Jesus had simply asked His disciples, ‘Can you not pray with Me for one hour? I know it’s late at night. It’s past our bedtime and we just ate a big Passover meal and so it’s time to go to bed. But I’m asking you, could you (inaudible 0:21:19) with me for one hour and pray because the moment has come. The time has come for Me to be glorified. The time has come.”
Verse forty Matthew twenty-six; “And He returned to His disciples and found them sleeping.” Here’s the problem, lions feast on the lazy. Lions feast on the lazy. And I think all of us in this room including myself, we’re all have timed … there are things that we neglect. There are things that we just quit working on.
Let me ask you a question, when you stop working on your marriage, what’s going to happen to your marriage? When you start taking your husband or your wife for granted, what’s going to happen to your marriage? It’s going to come to a screeching halt. And there are people in this room that they’ve been married over … in fact, raise your hand if you’ve been married over thirty years. If you’ve been married over thirty, isn’t that great? Wow! I love that. Now I should have said, how many of you have been married thirty years to the same person, but I won’t ask you to raise your hand.
I had a guy tell me one time, “I’ve been married about thirty-five years to five women.” Okay, you kind of missed the point. All right, here’s my point. I’ve been married twenty-one years and for those of us who’ve been married decades, we know this to be true. You can’t neglect it. I don’t take Pam for granted. Now I assume Pam’s going to be with me forever and always. I am living under that assumption. But I’m not living under the assumption that I can just ignore her, just neglect her, stop praying for her, stop encouraging her.
And this is what Jesus was saying. It wasn’t a matter of praying an hour that meant anything to Jesus. He said, “Listen, stay alert.” We’re in a critical moment right now. Be alert. I’m not asking you to pray an hour every night. This wasn’t a regular nightly prayer meeting; this was a special time where Jesus was saying, “Be alert.”
Listen to what He says; “Could you men not keep watch with Me for one hour?” He asked Peter. Then why did He not ask all the other disciples? Why did Peter always get picked on? He wasn’t the only one that fell asleep. But He says to Peter, “Could you not stay awake with Me one hour, Peter?” I mean Peter was ADD. I think really he was, you know. That’s why Jesus was saying, “Listen, Peter… Peter?” “Bird?” “But no Peter, come back here. Peter?”
The spirit is willing but the body … listen, watch and pray, verse forty-one. “Watch and pray. Be alert and pray so you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the body is weak.” And then you know he went away a second time; he went away a third time, he comes back—they’re asleep every time. Our enemy feast on anything that you neglect.
If we neglect our bodies, start eating anything we want, and then we wonder why we’re full of disease and sickness ten years later. We neglect our marriage and wonder why our marriage is not what it used to be. We get busy with work and forget about our kids; we wonder why they ended up rebellious and away from the church. We come up here and have church in our big building and ignore the poor of our city and we wonder why our city is not what it used to be. We complain on the talk shows and we complain with one another but we’ve neglected the city. And we wonder why what’s happening to all the poor? Where are all the poor? Where do all these homeless come from? What’s that—why are all these kids out on the streets? Because we neglected it.
Listen, we are the change agent of the earth. Can I tell you this? Anything we engage in, it will change for the better; anything. We are the carriers of His presence. We are the carriers of His Holy Spirit. We are the people of the spirit. The Word of God is a sword in our hands. Any issue that we engage in will change for the better; anything. Just pick them out, there’s a hundred issues. A hundred problems we could address in our city and we’re going to find three or four and go after them.
We can’t solve every problem in the city, but God’s going to direct us to a handful. And I promise you we get engaged, we get after it, it will change. The crime rate will go down. Poverty will go down. Prosperity will come back because anything we engage in will change for the better. It’s absolutely guaranteed in the scripture. The problem is we just get lazy. We just stopped doing it. We know the problems out there but you know I’m busy, I’m raising kids; I’m just doing stuff. I got busy Brady. I got distracted.
I’ve been distracted before. There were years went by before I ever went into a poor neighborhood and helped anybody. And I’m ashamed of that. There were years, and I used to do that everyday. Pam and I were talking about it yesterday.
What we did yesterday, we did every Saturday morning for four straight years when we were first married. Same neighborhood, same twenty homes; we visited them every Saturday for four years and then we moved to another city and we got lazy. God’s call on my life whether any of you go with me or not, my call is to go find those who are disenfranchised, the poor, the widows, the orphans and to be their advocate, to be their voice, to be their justice if I have to be; that’s my call on my life and I know that.
And I’m not going to go a long stretch of time anymore without doing it. I’m not going to neglect this call that is in me. And all of us, if we were honest in this room, we probably are areas of our life right now that we’re neglecting. We’re not focused. Just engage in your marriage. Just breathe in to your marriage a little bit. Breathe in to your kids.
I use that phrase because I met with a man this week, a member here, and his kids are just great. Great kids. And I’m about to be the dad of a teenager next year and I say, “Hey tell me you’re kids are great. How did that happen?” He goes, “Brady, it’s very simple. Just breathe into them. Lean into them. Give them a part of you everyday. Just breathe into them, talk, engage, care about them. Get into their world a little bit.” That sounds simple but that really is profound.
Just breathe into your marriage. Breathe into your kids. Lean into that thing. It’s amazing what happens when we just engage, connect. The lion is rendered powerless if we would just engage. In verse nine; “Resist him, standing firm in the faith.” Here’s the deal, we don’t have to wrestle this lion to the ground—that’s already happened at the cross. All we have to do is turn around and go, “Chk, chk, chk. Stop it!”
I’ve been to Africa, you know, and they tell you that the lion … there’s a whole bunch of theories about the way to survive a lion, you know? But the Swahili know this. They just look at the lion and go, “Sssst, chk, chk, chk.” And it reminds the lion, “You are not the king of this jungle, I am. I am the king of this jungle. You stop it!” Just stand firm. A little spine about us. Look the enemy in the eye and say, “You’re not going to have my kids. You’re not going to have my marriage. You’re not going to have my health. You’re not going to have our city.” Chk, chk, stop it!
Oftentimes I felt when our kids were young, I didn’t have to spank our kids because I would just say, “Chk, chk, chk. Stop it.” Parenting, the type and shadow the authority we have against our enemy. God gave us this as a type and shadow to show us, “Listen, you have authority. That’s been settled.” I am the boss at my house. I don’t have to argue with Aber McCalley about that. That’s been settled. It was settled at birth. As long as they’re in my house, I’m in charge. I don’t have to argue about that. I don’t have to lord it over them.
When I was a young boy, I was a heart patient as a young boy, so I was really frail until I was about twelve or thirteen. I was the target of bullies. I’ve told you some of the stories about being bullied. But I remember the confidence I would have if my dad was with me. My dad was a real man’s man. He’s a real guy. I just remember feeling different when my dad was with me. I just felt like about six inches taller, about forty pounds heavier. I just felt like dad’s here, I don’t really have a lot to worry about. I don’t think anybody’s going to bother me.
And this is the picture that Peter is painting for us. So at the beginning of first Peter, Peter opens up. Let me read this to you. This is fascinating to me. At the very beginning when he writes this letter, listen to this. First Peter one verse three; “Praise be to the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you.”
Listen to this verse five; “Who through faith …” he’s talking about us, “… we are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” Literally he’s saying, “Listen, God Himself is shielding you with powers like being with dad on the playground. He is my shield. God is our shield, and it’s kept for you. It’s not going to perish, it’s not going to spoil; it’s not going to fade. I am going to keep it for you, you’re going to make it, you’re going to do it, you’re going to win. I’m here, My power’s shielding you.” Listen to what he says, so that was the beginning of the letter; before I tell you anything else in this letter remember God’s power is shielding you. He’s kept this inheritance for you. So we went through a lot of this.
Chapter one, two, three, four, five, now we get to the end of the letter. The end of the letter Peter says, “Now remember this …,” what I told you in the beginning of the letter, first Peter five verse ten; “And the God of all Grace who calls you to His eternal glory in Christ.” Remember he’s reminding us of heaven. He’s reminding us of our destination. This is not our home. We are pilgrims, sojourners, and he says, listen let me remind you about heaven. He says, “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 forever and ever. Amen.”
Beginning of the letter; at the end of the letter he reminds us, “Look, dad’s on the playground with you.” And he’s taking you somewhere. And you might suffer some. You might have hardship. Remember this, dad is with you. Now stand up a little bit. Come on; take your shoulders back a little bit. Lift your head a little bit. Have more confidence in who you are, and speak to the lion; “You’re not going to consume me. You’re not going to devour me. You’re not going to devour my family. You’re not going to devour my marriage. You’re not going to devour my finances. You’re not going to devour my health. And God I take my hands off this today. I humble myself to You because You’re going to lift me up in due time. I’m going to close myself with this garment of humility because God I’m here to work. I’m here to serve. And to prove it I’m going to walk around with these garments on as a reminder that I am here to work. I’m here to get my hands dirty and the dirt of humanity until you come and set all things right. In the meantime I’m going to help You set things right. I’m going to engage in the problem. I’m not going to ignore the problem. I’m going to get involved. I’m going to do it, and the lion will not devour me.” That’s what Peter said.
So I want to pray for you this morning. I want to ask you a question. What is it today that you need to take your hands off of? What is it today that you need to give to God? You’ve done all you know to do. If you haven’t done, if you haven’t planned, if you haven’t prayed, you need to do those things. But I can just spot, I can tell you across this room this morning. There are many of you that are exhausted with the details. You don’t know what else to do. You’ve done all you know to do.
I want to encourage you right now. Okay, I really want you to leave here knowing, God it’s like putting a seed under soil. Any good farmer will tell you that if you follow the laws of planting and soil. Underneath that soil, something secret is happening. You can’t see it. But it’s germinating. That dead seed that you planted under good soil, it’s about to explode with life. It’s going to germinate and explode underneath the soil and then over the course of time a little green shoot will start popping up above the soil. But in the mean time something hidden is happening under the soil. Something is exploding with life and potential in areas that you cannot see.
Are you catching this today? You can’t see it. That’s the point though. God, if You would just show me what You’re doing. That’s not the point. God wants you to trust Him. By faith, believe. God, You’re at work in that prodigal son and daughter. That’s a big issue this morning. I really feel that prophetically. There’s a big, big portion of you this morning that you did everything you knew.
Let me say this to you. Listen to me, parents. If you have a prodigal son and a prodigal daughter, those they’re grown and they’re away from God, you did the best you knew how to do. Did you make mistakes? Yes you did, but you did the best you knew how. You didn’t purposely hurt them. You did all you needed to do. And you’re praying right now. You’re modeling the best thing you know to model.
So Brady, if I told you what they were doing; I’m embarrassed to even tell you. Listen, that’s not the point. You know how good the Holy Spirit is at bringing people to Jesus? He’s really good at it. All of us in this room who are Christ followers, you know how that happened? Not because somebody won a theological debate with us. You know why we’re Christ followers today? You know why? Because the Holy Spirit showed us Jesus and we said, “Yes.”
So let me ask you a question. If He can do it with your messed up heart, you think He can do it with your kid? If he can rescue you from darkness, can He rescue your child? I think He can. I was hoping for a more of a response there. Let me ask this group over here, you all look more spiritual. If God can redeem and rescue your messed up soul, set you in the light, bring you out of the darkness, you think He can bring your child out of the darkness?
Yes!
Yes He can. Yes He can. Yes He can. That’s not in my notes. I’m just really pulling out what God said. This is the thing you need to let go of today. This is the thing you need to trust God for today. The invisible work of the Holy Spirit and someone’s life that you’re praying for.
Can we just pray right now? I can feel really this is God saying to us right now, “Let’s pray for the prodigal.” There’s a set—by the way, there’s some prodigals sitting in the church here today too by the way and the Holy Spirit’s already tugging on your heart to come back to Christ. You know better in what you’re doing. You know in your heart, you’re not going to be able to keep doing what you’re doing because the Holy Spirit’s going to make it miserable for you. It’s not fun now, it’s not going to get more fun later because God’s hand is on you and it’s inescapable. You’re not going to escape His grasp.
Kick as you may against the goads, God is calling you back to this family, to this fellowship. And I don’t know why I’m saying this today. There are some of you sitting in this crowd right now, and you’re saying, “I thought it would be more fun than it is.” Well it’s not. The world is a mess. It’s awful out there. And you think what you’re doing is going to give you joy and peace. It will not. Check back in with me in about six months, let me know if that’s working out for you. It’s not going to work out. I’ve done all that stuff and it just didn’t fill my heart with anything.
It was Christ who gave me choice. Christ that gave me meaning for anything. So let’s pray together this morning, alright? Would you just focus on the Lord right now with me and pray. Maybe you don’t have a prodigal in your life. But God wants us to pray. I really feel God say, pray then for the person next to you. We’re family, right? We’re a big family in here so let’s begin to pray right now for those you may not even know. You may be sitting next to a man or woman right now whose heart is broken by their children and you need to pray with them. You don’t have to know all the details. Just pray with me right now.
Father in heaven, we thank you so much that the Holy Spirit is able to draw people’s hearts to You. So Lord right now in Jesus’ name we pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to be released into the lives of every son, every daughter that we’re praying for. And Father, let the prodigal come home. Lord, I pray they would come to their senses. They would have a longing in their heart to return to their Father’s house. They would have a longing in their heart to return to the Father’s house. That You would draw them back. That You would draw them here. Not to a church building but Lord to a family; to knowing you, to loving You.
Father I pray for marriages in this room right now. I pray, Lord right now that we would lean in and breathe in to our marriages. We would lean in. That we would not neglect the man or the woman you’ve called us to live with and be with in this. Lord we thank you right how. Give us the faith to turn our hands lose, to let it go, to surrender to You. Give us faith Lord, a new trust in You. That You are at work in the invisible realms. Places that we cannot see. Places that we cannot imagine. But Lord, You are at work. Your sovereignty, we acknowledge Your sovereignty today. That You are at work in our lives.
Father I pray now across this room that the enemy, the lion would not devour any part of our lives. Nothing about us will be devoured. Lord I pray to be alert. That we be self-controlled and alert. That we will be willing to resist the enemy, standing firm in our faith. Resist him, standing firm in our faith.
In fact right now can we just resist him right now? Say, in the name of Jesus … now this is how you resist him, it’s the name of Jesus in which you resist the lion. In the name of Jesus I resist you. I resist you. Maybe there’s a specific area. There’s a very specific area where you need to say, Lord Jesus in the name of Jesus, with the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, I resist, I resist, I resist. Just make him go away. You got it. You can do this. You can do this in the name and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, I resist! Standing firm in the faith that I have, and though it might be small, I still stand firm in the faith and I resist the enemy. I push back. I stand up, I push back.
So Father we thank you right now that the enemy is resisted. I pray right now for every man and woman in this room, every student, every child that we would stand firm in the faith resisting him; resisting him. In Jesus’ name. In Jesus’ name.
