Sermon Series: Hope Fully.  This is our final Sunday in 1 Peter.  But don’t worry, we aren’t done with Peter yet!  We will be jumping into Peter’s second letter for another 6 weeks or so.  Life as an exile – as a temporary resident – isn’t easy.  But it’s all a part of God’s grace for you.  Peter’s perspective is eternal.  He knows that we stand between the two advents of Jesus Christ.  We know that Jesus has already come and will come again.  We are living in the between.  And life in this season of humanity isn’t easy.  But God’s grace remains.  What you are experiencing is truly part of God’s grace for you.  Read 1 Peter 5:6-12

1) Waiting on God is normal. (vs. 1-7)  Last week, we looked at the passage where Peter was restored by Jesus.  Three times, Jesus told Peter to feed me sheep.  Peter was instructed to strengthen the church after Jesus left.  Peter ends his letter doing just that.  Verses 5 through 11 are a big dose of encouragement to everyone in the Church.  And in the first 4 verses, Peter gives encouragement (and challenges) to pastors and elders of the Church.  Let’s jump in with verse 5 – well, the second half of verse 5.  Let’s pick up where Peter says “all of you”.  This is where Peter is addressing everyone in the Church.  ⁵ In the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders. And all of you, dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  If you were writing a letter to the church who is about to go under the persecution of a terrible leaders, what would you tell them to do?  In your own power, what would you write?  I have to think I would tell them to get strong – to start protecting themselves – do the things they need to do to stand strong.  But what does Peter – under the guidance of the Holy Spirit – write?  Have humility.  Dress yourself in humility.  The image is that is putting on an apron where you are about to go to work.  And the trait that Peter wants his fellow follower of Christ to have is that of being humble. 

Look at the first part of verse 6:  ⁶ So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.  Why are we called to a life of humility?  Quote: “True humility, as opposed to a contrived, self-degrading humiliation, flows from recognizing one’s complete dependence on God and is expressed by the acceptance of one’s role and position in God’s economy.” – Karen H. Jobes.  We humble ourselves before God because…Being dependent in God’s economy is stronger than being independent in the world’s economy.  Which is why Peter follows up being humble in verses 5 and 6 with the call to let God carry our worries in verse 7:  ⁷ Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.  Not only should you give your burdens to God, but you also get to give your burdens to God.  Illustration: Kids overpacking and then I have to carry it.  Let God carry your burdens.  So, we humble ourselves and realize that we are not God and we have limited control.  Because we humble ourselves, then we choose to let God carry our burdens.  When we are yoked with God, our burdens become light. 

But here’s where it gets very difficult:  We want the burdens to disappear.  Our prayers so often are asking God to remove the burdens instead of carry the burdens.  When we give up control of our burdens, we then put ourselves under God’s timing of when those burdens go away.  What does the second half of verse 6 say?  ⁶ So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.  At the right time.  If you write in your Bible, you should put this: Right Time = God’s Time.  I think the main reason we don’t humble ourselves and we choose to carry our own burdens is because we don’t want to wait on God’s timing.  Illustration: The Mosaic of Suffering.  I’ve used this illustration before, but I wanted to add another element to it.  It’s worth coming back to frequently. 

1) Not seeing the big picture - We can trust God because He sees the whole picture.

2) New element: waiting on God’s timing to change the picture or reveal the picture.  We have to be okay if the picture doesn’t change in the timing we want.

Here’s what I want you see:  When you are living as temporary residents in this life, you will humble yourself under God.  And that means waiting on God is normal.  It’s good to have this humble confidence in God.  It’s normal to wait.  It’s also good to have bold resistance to Satan.  And that’s what we see next:  Resisting the devil is normal.

2) Resisting the devil is normal. (vs. 8-9)  A normal part of the Christian life is resisting Satan.  What does Peter say in verse 8?  ⁸ Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.   What does Peter not say in verse 8?  “Hey guys, I’m not sure if Satan is taking a break right now or not. You may need to watch out for him. But he also might be over in Africa, so you don’t need to worry about him right now. Just check your doorbell camera and if he’s not knocking at your door, then you’re good.”  Peter is emphatic about the schemes of Satan.  Because Jesus was emphatic about the schemes of Satan.  What did Jesus say in John 10?  ¹⁰ The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.  Satan wants to bring you down.  He’s like roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.  Satan is depicted as two different animals in the Bible.  Do you know the other one? Sure you do.  Satan is like a snake.  Why? Because he’s cunning and sly and just gross.  Satan has a snake-like approach.  Illustration: A snake slithered over my foot in the woods at grandma’s house.  You don’t see a snake usually. You’re free to walk around not worrying about getting bit.  If Satan is a snake, then there’s not much I can do about it – I’ll just keep walking deep into the woods. And if I get bit, well, what was I supposed to do?! I didn’t know the snake was there.  We do this spiritually.  “My husband and I aren’t connecting. We seem to be drifting apart. We are fighting more. He’s just the problem right now.”  Have you thought Satan might be the enemy in your marriage?!  “My kids are making bad choices and make bad friendships.”  Maybe Satan has become the primary influencer in his or her life.  “Church isn’t what it used to be.”  Maybe it’s not you or the church. Maybe it’s Satan. 

We can’t make the mistake of only seeing Satan as a snake.  How does Peter depict Satan here?  A lion. A lion doing what?  Roaring. A lion has two modes: stealth mode and attack mode.  You don’t hear a lion until what? It attacks. If Satan is roaring, he’s attacking.  I read this from another pastor this week: “The odds of being attacked by a shark is 1 in 3.7 million. And people still don’t get in the water. Grizzly Bear: 1 in 2.1 million. And people still don’t go in the woods. Your chances of being attacked by a supernatural lion? 1 out of 1. And yet you don’t live aware of that. He’s got your number. He’s either roaring, or in stealth mode. But he’s there.”[1]  That means resisting the devil is normal.  If you aren’t actively and consistently resisting the schemes of Satan, you have left your life open to the abnormal. 

So what do we do?  Look at verse 9:  ⁹ Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.  We arm ourselves with the right weapons.  Illustration: The Ghost and the Darkness Movie.  “You went into battle, with an untested weapon!?”  What are our spiritual weapons?  Prayer.  Community.  Scripture.  Confession.  He’s the amazing thing about each of those:  Not only do they help you resist Satan, but they also draw you closer to God.  The closer you are to God, the harder it is for Satan to devour you.  And oh, the promise we are given in verse 10 should drive us every day to be close to Jesus.  Here’s what we see in the final verses of 1 Peter:  God fulfilling His promise to hold you up is normal.

[1] https://summitchurch.com/GetFile.ashx?Guid=fdb8ec11-5040-41e6-8987-348c416a2084

3) God fulfilling His promise to hold you up is normal. (vs. 10-14)  I couldn’t think of a better end to Peter’s letter than verse 10.  It’s one that you should have marked, underlined, highlighted, and starred.  It’s a promise that you can run back to over and over again.  It’s a promise that whatever you are experiencing in life right now, it’s truly part of God’s grace for you.  Look at verse 10:  ¹⁰ In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation.   Let’s pull back for a minute and think about the truths in Peter’s letter.  In chapter 1, we are told that we have a great inheritance waiting for us.  In chapter 2, we are told that we also belong to God ⁹ But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession.  And now, as we walk this life knowing we belong to God, which makes us temporary residents of this world, we have this promise that God will take care of us.  Verse 10 is talking about this life as much as it talks about life in heaven.  And again, we see the whole idea of waiting on God.  “A little while” is all in God’s timing. But look at what happens in God’s timing. 

Restore -  Peter knew this Greek word.  It’s the same word used when talking about the disciples mending – or restoring their broken nets.  It’s also the same word used to describe a doctor setting a bone back in place.  I love this!  Our God takes what is broken and makes it whole again.  God takes your life and makes it whole again.  It’s a promise! 

Support - Once God restores us, He sets us up so that we won’t fall over again.

Strengthen - Now that we are restore and in a position that we won’t fall over again, Jesus gives us the strength to stay in that position. 

Place you on a firm foundation - Now that we are restore, we won’t topple over, and we have the strength to stand, Jesus places us on foundation so that we can’t be moved.

Don’t you love that promise!  We should live in that promise.  That promise should be normal in our lives because God is all about restoring lives.  It’s no wonder that Peter immediately follows up verse 10 with this:  ¹¹ All power to him forever! Amen.  Peter is fired up because he knows this truth first hand.  Peter went from the courtyard of denial to the beach of restoration.  Jesus holding up Peter, became normal to Peter.  Your hardest days in this life can be your best days in Jesus.  When the world brings you down, you can stand on Jesus.  The world can only bring you down so far because nothing can crumble the foundation of Jesus.  Isn’t that amazing?!  Isn’t God good?!  Peter put this bow on his letter with verse 12:  ¹² I have written and sent this short letter to you with the help of Silas, whom I commend to you as a faithful brother. My purpose in writing is to encourage you and assure you that what you are experiencing is truly part of God’s grace for you. Stand firm in this grace.  Do you believe that?  That what you are experiencing is part of God’s grace for you.  It’s so hard.  I struggle to maintain that perspective.  But the truth remains.  I want us to close by asking you to try and really believe that what you are experiencing is God grace. I am asking you to make three choices for seeing God’s grace in your life.  I am going to put three statements on the screen.  Two of them are for you to fill-in-the-blank.  Maybe you need to write these down.  Maybe you just need to start thinking about them.  But I want you to make three choices:

1) God, I choose to believe it’s your grace that I should wait on ________.

2) God, I choose to believe it’s your grace that I should resist _________.

3) God, I choose to believe it’s your grace that you will restore me.

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