Speaker: When it comes to humility, we can choose to be humble or we can be humbled.
We can choose to be humble or we can be humbled.
I often find myself humbled in, in many ways, in this life.
For example, when I, I travel, I get in a plane and I fly over the, the,
the farmlands and over the cities and, and the crop circles not made by UFOs.
In case you haven't been listening with the the Daily Bible Podcast.
Uh, if you are curious about that, you should listen to the Daily Bible podcast.
We talk about things like aliens and UFOs in the Bible.
Um, but, but flying over all of that space, all of these people, and I
don't know any of them, even sometimes just driving through stretches of
Texas and I'm, I'm driving past other cars and I'm driving past businesses,
and I'm driving past neighborhoods, and I'm driving past schools, and
I just realized I don't know any of these people and they don't know me.
It's humbling to think about how small we are in situations like that.
I remember back in high school, I was humbled when I made the baseball team
and I thought pretty highly of myself.
I was like, look at me, I still got it.
And then my coach said, burner, you're on the team because you're a good encourager.
AKA, here's your spot on the bench.
I was humbled in in, uh, college as a freshman.
I took Greek one and they tell you if you take Greek one, you know enough to
be dangerous and enough to commit heresy.
So I went back to take Greek two and I walked in not having.
Looked at my Greek all summer and my Greek prof said, if, if you have
not looked at your Greek all summer, you need to drop my class right now.
So I humbly got up and went to drop his class, uh, in marriage and parenting.
I can't tell you the number of times I've been humbled just by my own sin, my own
shortcomings, the way I failed my wife sometimes the way my, I fail my kids.
And, and, and I'm humbled by those things.
But Peter's gonna tell us this morning, he's gonna tell you and me this morning.
That, that we as believers in Jesus can actually choose humility instead of being
humbled, and that that is far better.
As believers, as Christians, we are in dwelled by the Holy Spirit
and the Holy Spirit enables us to be able to choose to be humble.
Something that certainly doesn't come naturally, but maybe we
should start by asking ourselves the question, what is humility?
It's a word that we throw around.
It's a word that sounds good.
It's a word the world understands as well.
But what is humility?
Somebody once said, humility is not thinking less of yourself,
but thinking of yourself less.
You can also think of humility as a relational term in that it has to
do with your relationship to God and your relationship to other people.
Tom Shriner said this about humility.
Humility is the oil that allows relationships in the
church to want to run smoothly.
Humility is the oil that allows relationships in
the church to run smoothly.
And Philippians the apostle Paul, tells us that Jesus humbled
himself, he humbled himself.
In fact, Paul says, to the point of death, even death on a cross.
So as we consider humility, it's, it's a, an attribute, it's a, a trait of
Jesus, and it's one that you and I are called to emulate, to model, to imitate.
In fact, if, if Jesus humbled himself to the point of death, even
death on a cross, I think we could conclude that humility is not just.
Something a Christian should have, but a, a trait that a Christian must have.
If I want to be like Jesus and Jesus demonstrated humility, then I should
be one that also lives in humility.
In fact, it's not only imperative for Christians, I, I, it's imperative
for every single person that's ever walked the face of the planet.
Right after talking about how Jesus humbled himself to the point of death,
even death on a cross, the apostle Paul goes on to say this, that there will come
a day when Jesus will be exalted and at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow
and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.
And so at some point in time, everyone's gonna be humbled by God.
As Christians, we have the opportunity to humble ourselves now to be
humble rather than to be humbled.
And that is far better for us to choose to be humble rather than
to be humbled when it's too late.
Take your Bibles and open up to one Peter, chapter five.
We're gonna be in verses five through seven today, verses five through seven.
One Peter chapter five, Peter begins and he's continuing from
our, our thought last week.
We talked about what it looks like to be a pastor who pastors last week.
And so he is now, uh, uh, continuing some of that thought in, in the
first part of our verse here.
He says this, likewise, you who are younger be subject to the elders.
Elders.
There, I think is a reference back to the pastors, the overseers, the elders, like
we talked about last week, one office, three different words that the Bible uses.
So Peter's writing to this church and he's telling those in the church, especially
the younger ones in the church, Hey, you need to be subject to the pastors
in the elders, probably because those that are younger find it more difficult
to subject themselves to authority than those who have lived a little while.
And so Peter's implication here is not that the rest of the church doesn't need
to be sub subject to the elders, but rather, hey, you who are, are young.
Make sure that you're following the lead of the elders that God has given to you.
It's a, a posture of humility that then Peter pivots and, and applies to
not just the, the young people in the church, but everybody in the church.
And that's where he goes on and he says this, clothe yourselves, all of
you with humility toward one another.
For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility towards one another.
It could be argued that two of the most important components in
any sermon are the introduction.
In the conclusion.
In the introduction, my job is, is to give you a reason to listen, to hook you.
Right?
So hopefully that's happened this morning that you're listening 'cause
you're thinking, okay, if humility is essential, and if I can choose humility,
I, I wanna know what that looks like.
I wanna know why.
I wanna know how, but the conclusion is equally important.
Whether it's a sermon or a letter that you receive or a book that you're
reading, because the conclusion is, is the, the parting words from the
preacher or the author or the director, and, and those parting words are more
often than not, those are the ones that are gonna stick with you when you go.
And so it's fascinating to me that, that Peter chooses in a letter that he's
talked about so many amazing things.
Think back to the introduction when he talked about the
inheritance that's to be ours, this imperishable unfading inheritance.
That's, that's being prepared for us.
That God is guarding us by power through faith for salvation, ready
to be revealed in the last time.
Think about the fact that Peter talked about us being built together
as a, a living temple for the Lord where stones being amassed together
by the master builder, by God, and, and, and yet at the end, what he
returns back to is this idea, hey.
Be humble with each other.
Peter's talked about humility before in the letter.
He talked about it in verse 22.
He says, having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for
a sincere, brotherly love, love one another, earnestly from a pure heart.
I, I'm gonna find it hard to, to love somebody if I'm not
humble towards that person.
One Peter four, eight.
Above all.
Keep loving one another earnestly.
Since love covers a multitude of sins, we're gonna need
humility towards one another.
That's not just loving, but that's also merciful towards one another.
I'm gonna cover that sin over with my love for you.
That requires a humility.
And then in one Peter three, eight, he uses the same word.
Here he says, finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly
love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
So when Peter says, clothe yourselves with humility, he's
saying, clothe yourselves with.
Humble mindedness.
It has to do with our, our mindset, how we think about one another.
In fact, right after this, he's gonna get into verse eight,
that's next week, be sober minded.
And, and so our humility begins with how we think, and it, it, it's, again,
it boils down how we think about our relationship with God and how we think
about our relationship with each other.
And Peter says, we need to clothe ourselves with that type of mindset.
The word there, it refers to enveloping yourself, wrapping yourself tightly
in a garment, and fascinating.
And, and we have to do that because we have to do that with
intentionality because that, that doesn't come naturally to any of us.
In fact, we wake up not clothed in humility, but still clothed in
the vestiges of the old man who has been crucified with Christ,
and yet he still lingers until the Lord calls us home to be with him.
And so to be intentional about humility, we have to, and this is why
Peter commands it, clothe ourselves.
We have to wrap ourselves in humility.
I don't know for sure because it doesn't say this, but I wonder if Peter didn't
have something in, in his mind here.
Think back to the, the, the passion week triumphal entry has happened at this time.
The, the disciples think that Jesus is there to, to become the
king, to establish the Kingdom.
King.
David is, is in the back of their minds, king Solomon.
They're thinking Jesus is gonna be the greater one 'cause
he's the promise Messiah.
And then all of a sudden Jesus says, Hey, it's, it's Passover.
Uh, why don't you go prepare a, a, the Passover meal for, for us?
This is how you'll find the room.
And, and so the disciples are great.
They're not thinking anything different at that point either.
So they, they go and they prepare the Passover meal, and then Jesus
and the, the disciples, they recline 'cause that's what they did at
this time to eat the meal together.
And maybe some of the disciples were thinking in their
minds, oh, you know what?
We didn't have the, the household servant here to wash the feet.
But that's okay.
That's okay.
You know what?
We're gonna have plenty of servants.
Jesus is on the way to the throne.
Everything's gonna be great.
He's the Messiah, he's the king.
And then what does Jesus do?
He gets up.
He takes off his outer garment, and he wraps himself in the garment of
a servant, and he washes their feet.
Clothe yourself.
Wrap yourself in humility, all of you towards one another.
Again, it doesn't happen naturally, but it is essential for us as believers.
We have to be humble towards one another.
Peter's giving the precious real estate of some of the last words he's writing
to this church, at least in this letter, to say to them, again, be humble.
Why?
One of the reasons is given for us.
In the text, he says, because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
The grace of God is far more than just your ticket into heaven.
The grace of God is his favor.
The grace of God is his kindness towards you.
The grace of God, I would even say is, is his pleasant disposition towards you,
his happiness, if I can make it that way.
Point number one, if you're taking notes is this, choose humility
because it makes God happy.
Choose humility because it makes God happy and, and maybe I could
alter this statement because God is immutable, he, he doesn't change.
So you are not fixing a bad mood with God by being humble.
That's not what I'm trying to imply.
But because God is all of his characteristics and attributes at the
same time, 'cause he never changes.
So he is holy.
He is wrathful, he is justice.
He is mercy.
He is grace.
He is anger, he is love.
He's kindness.
He's happiness because he's all of those things at one time.
This is more about what are you experiencing in
your relationship with God?
Is the way that you're living drawing his favor, or is it drawing his opposition?
So that's what I mean when I say choose happiness.
Choose humility rather, because it makes God happy.
You will experience his favor as Peter puts it.
It.
I have these horribly ugly pajama pants that are insanely comfortable.
They're, they're black and gray, and if I don't even know what the shapes
are on them, they may be braille.
I have no idea what these things are.
They're just ugly.
And my favorite thing is now my kids care about what dad is wearing
when they're seen with them.
So my, my twins will get up in the morning, uh, on Saturdays,
and we do donuts on Saturdays because we like to be unhealthy.
And it's a common grace and don't, you don't need to send me the emails.
Um, we don't do it every day.
It's just on Saturdays.
Um, but we, we, we love to do that and we go to HEB, uh, because
it's cheaper than the donut shops.
So they're like, dad, are we doing donuts?
Yep, we're doing donuts.
And then they look at me and they see me wearing those pants and they're
like, dad, are you gonna change?
And I'm like, why?
Well, because we don't wanna be seen with you in those pants.
So I change in order in part to make my kids happy, because
I don't wanna embarrass them.
When you choose humility, it makes God happy.
Not because otherwise it would embarrass him, but even
worse it would make him angry.
Peter says, God opposes the proud.
He opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble to oppose it.
It it appears in James four six as well says, but he gives more grace.
Therefore it says God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
To oppose is to resist.
And, and there it may be that this is thinking about eternity.
That that God's opposition to the proud is ultimately realized
through their eternal damnation.
And I would say yes.
I, I do believe that that's the ultimate example of this.
But I don't think it's just eternity.
And I think this is also prevalent for, for believers,
it's relevant for believers.
We need to take this warning as well that that if we are prideful as believers, that
God is going to be in opposition to us.
Certainly we don't want that.
Even if our eternity is secure in Christ, we don't want to draw his
opposition in the here and now.
So God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble again, his
favor that he gives to the humble.
We'll get to that in just a second.
Uh, but think more with me here.
This is a quote from the step two agent.
The step two agent is the Greek translation of the Old Testament.
So the Jesus and the Apostles, this was their Old Testament Bible.
This is what they quoted from more often than not.
And uh, and this is what they, they cite, and that's why Peter goes to it so often.
And so the Tugen, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament.
So it's a translation.
Well, Proverbs 3 34, in the, he in the, the Greek translation of it
does say just this, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
If you look it up in your English standard version, which is what we use here and
what what we preach from here, it's gonna read this toward the Scorners.
God is scornful, but to the humble, he gives favor.
Similar idea there.
God opposes the prophet, gives grace to the, to the humble toward the scorners.
He's scornful, but to the humble, he gives favor.
The ESV is based on that, the Hebrew text there.
And I think that's helpful for us because it reminds us that what this
means when it says God opposed, the proud is God is gonna mock the mocker.
God is gonna be scornful to the one that scorns him or his followers.
And so this is the, the warning that that Peter is providing here.
Uh, that is one that, that we should take to heart as well and ask ourselves,
okay, what would pride look like then as a follower of Jesus, if I
wanna be humble because I'd rather have God's favor than his opposition,
then I wanna make sure that I know what pride actually would look like.
This isn't an exhaustive list, but if you wanna put yourself in the
crosshairs of God's displeasure, and I assume none of us in this room would
would say, yeah, sign me up for that.
This is what that might look like.
It could look like just going through the motions at church.
You're not here because you want to worship the Lord.
You're here because you feel obligated.
You're here because you're worried about appearances.
Because if you don't show up, then maybe people will think less of you.
You're here because your spouse has nagged you enough to get you here.
You're here because you have a twisted view of, of Christian karma, which
isn't a thing, and you think, well, if I show up at church, then maybe
this business meeting that I'm gonna have this week is gonna go well.
That's, that's a prideful reason to, to show up at Church.
Pride in a Christian's life also might look like going to the Lord only when you
need something from him and your prayer life is, is dry until you need that thing.
Lord, I, I need this promotion at work.
Lord, the bills are, are, are mounting and we don't have a way to pay it.
Lord, my, my, my child is, is sick when my marriage is, is hard right now.
Lord, I, I need something from you, but outside of that, you're
not really going to him again.
That's a prideful heart.
It's not a humble heart recognizing that we need everything from the Lord and
he has given us so much to begin with.
Another expression of, of pride in a Christian's life might be
harboring unconfessed and unrepentant sin, thinking that it's okay.
I, I'll deal with that later.
I know it's sin.
I know Jesus died for my sins, but you know, it's, it's, it's just the one thing
that I have and I'll get rid of it later.
That's such a, a prideful heart before God.
Instead of being humble and broken and contrite over our sinfulness and
saying, God my sin, this sin that I'm holding onto that I love cost you, Jesus.
You put Jesus to death because of this sin.
Pridefulness in a Christian's heart also might look like planning to sin.
Thinking about that sin that you love and thinking about, when's the next
time I'm gonna be able to do that?
That's an arrogance before the God of, um, who is omniscient, that knows the
thoughts of your hearts, that knows a word before it's even on your tongue.
Pride in your Christian's heart might look like planning without seeking his will.
We're gonna be studying James in the the fall together and James says, you who
say, Hey, today or tomorrow, we're gonna go do this and that and the other thing.
Hey, you better say instead, if the Lord wills, then we're
gonna go do those things.
And so pridefulness in a Christian's heart forgets that he is the sovereign
God who ordains our steps and we need to seek his wisdom and his guidance.
A prideful Christian May also be an L-shaped Amen Christian.
And what we mean by that, and our sending pastor used to say, this is you.
You're listening to a sermon.
You're like, come on this, this, this works because this
person over here needs it.
And so you've got the, the L-shaped there.
Instead of listening, saying, man, I need this.
A prideful Christian is steeped in self-righteousness and self dependence.
He says, man, my, my track record is so impressive.
Look at what I've done for the Lord, or self-reliance saying,
I, I, I don't need to pray.
I don't need to ask the Lord for anything.
I can figure my way out of this.
The prideful heart is one steeped in unforgiveness as well.
It's a heart that says, yeah, I know what God has forgiven me of,
but I can't forgive this person over here, what they've done to me.
A prideful heart is a legalistic heart as well, who says, if you wanna be
as good of a Christian as I am, you need to do this, this, this, and this.
Those are all things that draw the opposition of God, the ire of God that put
you in the crosshairs of his displeasure.
And you can't expect to, to get away with a prideful spirit
because God opposes the proud.
That's what the, the scriptures say to us.
God opposes the, I mean, it's just right there.
It's not just me saying this as a pastor saying, Hey, be humble
because God opposes the proud It's, it's God's word saying, God opposes.
Anytime we read those two words, it should send a shiver down our spies to
say, I don't want God to oppose me ever.
And so we can't expect to get away with a prideful spirit because God opposes
the proud, and that might look like his hand of discipline in your life.
The Lord disciplines his children like a father, disciplines his
children because he loves you.
And so maybe God's gonna go after pride in your heart by bringing
discipline into your life.
Maybe God's gonna go after pride in your heart because you are going to
feel that your faith just dries up.
You're gonna feel a distance from him.
You're gonna feel like your Christianity is sterile.
It's gonna feel like going through the motions because God's after
that pridefulness in your heart.
The worst case is you may be self-deceived thinking that you're saved when you're
not saved, and God may fully turn you over to your pride and just say,
if you want yourself, your agenda, your pleasures, then fine have them.
God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble shows.
Favor kindness to the humble.
Uh, uh, uh, if we talked about what pride looks like in a believer's
life, let's do the same thing for what humility can look like in our lives.
I, if I wanna make God happy with my life and how I live in
humility, what does that look like?
Uh, a few suggestions here.
Number one, a, a consistent awareness of your need for
him in relationship with him.
You desire to be in the word of God.
You desire to pray, not because you have a checklist of things
to do, but because you love him.
And humbly, you wanna come and sit before his word and hear from him in his word.
And humbly you wanna come before him and pray and praise him and give him
thanks for what he's done in your life.
And so to be in the word, and, and, and to pray, a humble Christian is also
one who has prayers that are marked by more adoration in Thanksgiving
than a laundry list of your complaints and, and, and supplications.
You're gonna spend time just praising God in prayer, saying, God, you are good.
You are holy, you're powerful.
You're kind, you're the provider.
Even when you don't always see all of those things showing up
in your life, you're going to acknowledge that he is those things.
You're gonna humbly sit before him in, in adoration also Thanksgiving.
You're gonna say, God, thank you for the blessings that are in my life.
Even in those times where you are sitting there saying, I've got this
trial that I'm walking through, the, the, the humble heart looks for the
good things God has done and says, God, I wanna return thanks to you because
that's gonna get your, your favor.
You're pleased when I am thankful before you.
A humble Christian also keeps short accounts with God.
You're not going to to let sin remain in in your life.
You're not gonna harbor unconfessed sin.
You're gonna be like King David.
You're gonna say, Lord, shake me out and get the pocket lit of sin
outta my life, wherever it is.
I may not even know it's there, but I want to know 'cause I want
to keep short accounts with you.
I wanna confess and repent from my sin.
The humble Christian looks to grow with every interaction with God's word.
Whether that's a sermon or a podcast or your time in the word during the
Daily Bible podcast or whatever it is you're looking to grow every single
time you open God's word, Lord, shape me by your spirit dwelling within me.
Use the word of God as the medium to make me more like Jesus.
The humble Christian looks to serve others and bless others.
I would say even daily.
And how can I serve another believer?
How can I serve somebody at my workplace?
How can I serve my family?
How can I bless them?
The humble Christian, pray for others.
The humble Christian forgives others.
Because they're aware of how much they've been forgiven, and the humble Christian
shares the Gospel with others as well.
Again, this is a humility that's gonna draw the favor of God.
He's gonna be pleased with you.
You will know his happiness, you will know his favor.
I want you to think about two passages.
I I, I mentioned humility is about our relationship, both
with God and with other people.
And so I want you to consider two passages where we see this at work.
The first is Luke 18, 10 through 13.
This is a parable that Jesus tells.
And so it says here, it says, two men went up into the temple to pray.
One a Pharisee and the other, a tax collector, the Pharisee
standing by himself prayed.
Thus, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners
and unjust and adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
Stop there for a second.
Think about that list of things that I said.
This is what a, a prideful person looks like.
You see in the the Pharisee, the self-reliance and the self-righteousness,
and you see that, that he's more impressed with himself than he is with God.
Even to the point of saying, God, I'm, I'm so thankful I'm
not like this guy over here.
Remember, pride exposes a a, a wrong relationship with God.
Humility exposes a right relationship with God, and so the, the tax, the,
the Pharisees getting it wrong, and you would expect the Pharisees would
be the one that should get it right.
Instead, let's go to the tax collector in verse 13.
But the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes
to heaven, but beat his breast, which is a, a sign of mourning.
Saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
That's the heart of humility, that's the heart that, that is aware of
God's kindness, even after salvation, that we would always say, God, you
are so kind and merciful to me.
I don't deserve your grace.
I don't deserve your mercy, and yet you bestow it upon me.
I'm so thankful for that.
Jesus is gonna say the, the tax collector, he's the one that went away justified.
So our humility has to do with our, our relationship with God.
Be the tax collector, not the Pharisee.
But it's not just our relationship with God, it's also
our relationship with others.
And we read this in Philippians chapter two verses three and four.
Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty concede, but in humility, count
others more significant than yourselves.
Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also
to the interest of others.
Paul right after this says, and have this mind among yourselves, which is
yours in Christ Jesus, who though he counted equality with God a thing, he
didn't count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself.
And he went on to say, humbling himself to the point of death, even death on a cross.
And so Paul is calling us to a humility towards one another
that is a Christ-like humility.
And so this is what it looks like for us to be humble with one another.
And so humility that pleases God is humility that's rightly oriented between
us and Him and us and one another.
And we see that here in these two passages.
To be a prideful Christian is in many ways an oxymoron.
To be a Christian is to be marked by humility, as Peter said, to clothe
yourself, to wrap yourself in humility.
And Peter's gonna double down on that to clothe yourself.
That's the the opening command.
He's gonna double down on this in verse six.
He says this, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty
hand of God, so that at the proper time, he may exalt you.
Verse five, clothe yourself in humility.
Verse six, humble yourself.
Both of them are commands.
Anytime we sign, we see repetition.
In the Bible, it's like God's highlighter at work.
And so when we see two commands right off the bat here, be humble.
Having to do with our pursuit of humility.
That should jump off the page for us and say, okay, this is something
I need to really key in on.
Be humble.
Clothe yourselves with humility.
Be humbled under the mighty hand of God.
Humble yourselves.
Therefore, the therefore, when we see therefore in the Bible, we ask, what
is the, therefore what, therefore why?
What's it?
Therefore, he's using this as a, a, a way to call our minds back to something,
and I believe it's what we just read.
Therefore, because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to
the humble, humble yourselves.
Humble yourselves.
It's actually in the Greek.
It's, it's a passive verb, which means that this is something that means we
are receiving the action of the verb.
In other words, be humbled yourselves.
So clothe yourself with this, with humility.
That's that's the act of pursuit of humility.
But to be humble as a Christian in a way that pleases the Lord is gonna involve
both an active pursuit of humility and a passive pursuit of humility.
And God is going to put us as Christians.
In other words, in positions where we will be humbled under his mighty
hand following Christ in a christless world is going to do just that.
Following Christ in, in a world that hates the Savior that we love
is going to put us in positions where we are going to be scorned.
We are gonna be mocked, we are gonna be persecuted.
Remember Peter said, don't be surprised at the fiery trial when it
comes upon you as though something strange were happening to you.
Why?
Because part of God's will in your life is that you would be
humbled under his mighty hand.
At least right now, God's will for this.
We seen it earlier in the, the letter one Peter 2 21.
For to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for
you, leaving you an example that you might follow in his steps.
God has called you to follow Jesus into suffering, to be humbled as Jesus was
humbled to the point of death on a cross.
One Peter three 17.
It's better to suffer for doing good if that should be God's will.
It's gonna be God's will for us at various times in our life to suffer, to be humbled
in pursuit of good one Peter four 19.
Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will in trust their souls to
a faithful creator while doing good.
See, our pursuit of humility is both active.
Clothe yourself and passive.
Be humbled under God's mighty hand.
And it's a call for us not to resist that.
In fact, it's, it's a perspective shift that Peter's after to be
humbled under the mighty hand of God.
You might hear that and think of this as be humbled under his thumb, right?
We use that phrase sometimes if, if you're under someone's thumb, then
they're, they've got this lordship kind of, they, they've got a control over you.
It's not a, you don't wanna be under anybody's thumb.
That's not what it says.
It says, be humbled under the mighty hand of God.
Running behind this, I believe, is the exodus of Israel from the Old Testament
because time and time again in the Exodus account, it was referred to as God's
strong hand, let his people out of Egypt.
In fact, we read about it in Exodus chapter 13, verse three.
It says this.
Then Moses said to the people, remember this day in which you came
out from Egypt out of the house of slavery for by a strong hand, the
Lord brought you out from this place.
By a strong hand.
The strong hand of God is meant for us to, to understand two components about that.
Number one, it's meant for us to think about his authority and his power.
The mighty hand of God, pastor has, has alluded to it during
our worship time, who he is, he's the God of the universe, right?
I often think about Exodus chapter 19, when God met with Israel in Exodus
chapter 19, he descended upon Mount Sinai and the mountain was shaking
under the presence of the glory of God.
And then it says Moses spoke and God answered him in
thunder, and the people fled.
Right?
That's the same God that we're here singing songs to this morning.
Same God, that's the same God who you are praying to about that
situation at work, or about having another baby, or about your marriage
or about your health problems.
That's the same God, the mighty hand of God.
So it's about his power.
And Pharaoh came to know that, didn't he?
Because God used the mighty hand to cause Pharaoh and Force Pharaoh, and to compel
Pharaoh to eventually say, okay, go.
And then we ultimately saw his mighty hand as Pharaoh's army chase them, and
then the Red Sea crashed back over them.
So it's his power, but it's also his power to deliver.
So we are humbled under the authority and the power of God and the magnitude
of God, but also under the grace and the mercy and, and the protection of God,
which is also what his mighty hand does.
To be humbled under that mighty hand is not something that we should resist.
It's not to be under his thumb, but under his hand, under his guiding,
protecting, delivering, leading hand.
And so that's why Peter wrote, be humbled, humble yourselves, therefore
under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he can exalt you.
Uh, there is going to come exaltation for the believer.
If you're here this morning and you're a follower of Jesus Christ,
when you die and stand before Jesus, you'll hear from him, him Lord.
Willing, well done, good and faithful servant, enter
into the joy of your master.
The apostle Paul said that Jesus Christ has been raised and seated at
the right hand of God, and he says that we will also be raised and seated
with him in the heavenly places.
Your exaltation is going to come, Christian, just not here.
Be humbled.
Trust him, knowing that one day your exaltation will come and
it'll be far better than anything else this world can offer you.
God's economy is paradoxical like that, and God's economy the way up is
down and the verse is true as well.
The way down is up.
If you desire that exaltation, if you desire to be raised with
Christ, if you desire to hear well done, good and faithful servant,
enter into the joy of your master.
What that looks like here and now for us is to pursue a life of cultivating a
humility under the mighty hand of God.
Point number two, this morning is this.
Choose humility now for exaltation later.
This is about delayed gratification, right?
Nobody likes delayed gratification, but it's good for us.
If you think about somebody who's saving money for a down payment on a house
that's delayed gratification, you may sacrifice some things here that you wish
you had in order to save, to be able to put the down payment on the house.
Or you think about working, maybe you've been working for four
decades, five decades, and you're, you're closing in on retirement.
You've got a few years left, and you think to yourself, man, I'd like to be
done now, but I'm willing to continue to put in the work now because the payoff's
gonna be great once I'm able to retire.
Or maybe it's just working out so that when you get older, your, your
body still is gonna operate in a way that is, is gonna let you be there for
your family and, and everything else.
Or maybe it's just as simple as putting the phone down at night
when you're scrolling so that you can get some rest and wake up in
the morning feeling refreshed.
Nobody loves delayed gratification because they don't like the delay when
it comes to us desiring, exaltation.
We're gonna have those, those competing.
Voices in our life, one of those voices is gonna say, Hey, get it now.
Get exaltation now.
Work for the applause of man in the world.
Now
the other voice is gonna say, Hey, let it go now.
In fact, rather than seeking exaltation, why don't you exalt Jesus
now so that in the future, as the word of God says, he will exalt you.
Delayed gratification.
Back in the parable about the Pharisee and the tax collector.
Jesus said this in Luke 18.
He said, everyone who exalts himself is gonna be humbled, but
the one who humbles himself will be exalted again in God's economy.
The way up is down Mark 10 43 through 45.
Jesus is talking to his disciples there.
He says, it must not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you
must be the servant of all and whoever would be first must be the slave of all.
And then he says, why for even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Our pursuit of humility now for exaltation later, a huge component
and drive of this is we want to be as much like Jesus as we possibly can be.
To follow Jesus now is to follow him in humility, the example that he left for us.
Have you ever wondered why though?
Why does God want us humble?
Now, why doesn't God put Christians in some of the most powerful
positions, faithful God, honoring Bible, believing Christians?
Why doesn't he make life easy on us?
Now, why doesn't he put us in positions where we do get exalt while
the world looks at the church and says, look how great Christians are.
We love Christians.
Go team Jesus.
Why isn't that happening?
I think there's a few reasons.
First, we've just talked about it.
He wants us to be like Jesus.
And when Jesus came, Jesus came not as the the, the glorified one,
but he came as the humble one.
And he's called us to follow him in that second, I, I believe it's also
because salvation really demands our full surrender to the Lord.
And, and when we find ourselves in, in positions of abject humility before
God, we are so much more aware of our need for him in a dependence upon him.
And so it's not just about coming to him in faith, but then after that it's,
it's about saying, man, my whole life is, is meant to, to realize I need you,
Lord, for everything full surrender.
I think also it's because God desires all of the glory and so he doesn't
wanna put us in positions right now where we would be tempted to say,
when we get to eternity, did you see the kind of life that I lived?
Did you see how great I was?
People thought I was amazing.
He doesn't want that at all.
He wants us to stand before Jesus.
Say, Jesus, thank you for getting me here.
I you get the glory.
I think he also wants it because it's a sign that we
are growing in christlikeness.
So embrace that.
Choose humility now for for the exaltation to come.
Because the exaltation to come is gonna be way better.
We can't look for exaltation from the world or expect it here because Jesus
told us the world is not gonna exalt you.
Jesus said The world is gonna hate you.
Uh, John said the world in all that's in it, and he, he listed, he says, the,
the, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life.
He says, none of that is from God.
Paul said before Christ, all of us we're following the, the prince, the,
the course of the world governed by the prince of the power of the heir.
That that's Satan who's ruling over this world.
Uh, Peter has said, this is not our home.
We're exiles, we're sojourners, we're aliens and strangers.
James said, you wanna be a friend of the world, you're gonna be an enemy of God.
So do you see Christian, how we can't pursue exaltation from the world and also
expect God to welcome us into eternity?
If you're seeking the acceptance and the adulation, the exaltation from
the world, instead of embracing the humility that comes from identifying
with Jesus, we should not expect that the Father will welcome us in saying,
well done, good and faithful serve.
Right.
'cause our exaltation isn't about this place.
It's about being there with him.
If you find yourself battling pride, which I think is every single one of
us in this room, if we're honest with ourselves, the greatest cure for it is
the gospel, is to go back to the cross.
It's to go back to that moment where we realize, man, I have nothing.
I need everything.
Where you cast yourself in full surrender before the Lord and said, Lord.
I need you.
I trust that you died on the cross in my place to pay the penalty.
I could not pay so that my sins might be forgiven and that you gave me
your full righteousness, something I could never earn or merit, and
that you rose again from the dead so that I can live with you forever.
The gospel is such a good thing for us to go back to if we're battling pride.
Choose humility now for exaltation later.
The gospel is the message that says.
Uh, God is gonna save us in spite of us, and then he is gonna bring us to
be with him, which is the exaltation that we're talking about here.
And so this is why Jesus and Peter, I think, emphasized this because we
need to be like our savior here so that we'll be with our savior there.
And this is not saying you have to earn your salvation by being humble.
This is rather saying, if you are saved, you will be humble.
It's part of what it means to follow Jesus.
It's why it's one of the essential attributes of any follower of Christ.
Again, let me take you back to the triumphal entry.
Jesus is on a donkey, humbly mounted on a donkey.
It, it was a sign of a, a, a king who was coming in, in a
sense of peace into a town.
But this was the Zechariah prophecy fulfilled, and the disciples are
excited, and the crowds are shouting.
Hosanna.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, and they're, they're there.
They're, they're.
They're excited, they're hyped, and then they get in and Jesus, the,
the next morning proceeds to turn over the tables in the temple and
they're going, this, this, this is it.
It's happening.
They're looking at each other going, it's gonna happen.
He's gonna take the throne only to find that three days later, he's gonna
be betrayed, he's gonna be arrested, he's gonna be beaten, he's gonna
be flogged, he's gonna be mocked.
He's gonna be stripped naked, he's gonna have the hair pulled out of his beard.
He is gonna be nailed to cross.
He's gonna be killed.
In all of their thoughts of glory vanish like that,
uh, most of them run away.
Luke 24, Jesus has now risen from the dead.
He comes on two guys walking away from Jerusalem.
They've heard this crazy rumor that Jesus rose from the dead, but they don't buy it.
They're dejected.
They're downtrodden.
Jesus comes up to him and says, Hey, what, why?
So glum, and they look at him and they say, do you not know what happened?
Are you the only one back there in Jerusalem?
A few days ago?
They crucified Jesus, the one we thought was the Messiah,
and then Jesus preaches the greatest sermon ever preached when he goes back
through the Bible and says, let me, let me show you two how God has said it
was necessary, that the Christ should suffer first and then enter into glory.
This says the eyes of them were eventually opened after they have that meal with him.
They see him and he vanishes from their sight.
There Didn't our hearts burn within us when he was telling us these things,
and that was the light bulb for them.
They got it.
It wasn't about the kingdom now, but the kingdom to come.
And then Jesus is gonna gather his disciples in Matthew 28.
He's gonna say, Hey, listen, I've got a mission for you.
You need to go and make disciples teaching them all that I've commanded you.
Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And a little bit later, right before his ascension, the, the disciples are
there and they're still struggling.
They're like, Hey, is now the time?
Is it now?
Do we get to be with is exaltation?
It's now, right?
Jesus, he says it.
That's not your concern or my concern right now.
Here's what I want you to do.
Go and be my witnesses.
Listen y'all, if we're gonna be followers of Christ, we need to understand that
our exaltation is not gonna come here.
It's gonna come there.
And some of you may be like those disciples on the road to Emmaus right
now when it comes to your faith.
You might be sitting there thinking, man, I'm not getting the recognition that I
deserve for all the good that I've done.
Or maybe you're just sitting there and you're thinking, you know what?
Since coming to faith in Christ, life hasn't gotten easier.
It's gotten harder.
Man, my, my job is harder because now I'm, I'm not compromising
anymore the way that I was.
And now I don't know if I'm gonna get that promotion.
I don't know if I'm still gonna be employed.
Or you may be sitting there saying, man, my, my marriage problems are still here.
I thought coming to faith in Jesus that that was just
gonna make my marriage better.
Or you're thinking to yourself, man, I, I've lost relationships
with people that I, I cared about.
They've cut me out completely.
They don't wanna be around me anymore because of Jesus.
Maybe that's you and you're sitting there going, we, I, I, I thought things
were gonna be different with him.
And so maybe this morning, this is an encouraging reminder to you that the
exaltation, the hope that you have in Christ is that one day he's going
to exalt you to be with him there, humble yourselves, therefore, under
the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time, he may exalt you.
The way up is down the way down is up in God's economy, so embrace that humility.
In verse seven, our last verse, some English translations start a new ver a
new sentence here, but I think it's, it is better the way that ESV has it just
to continue the thought because he, he goes on to say this, humble yourselves,
therefore casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.
And so this is a way that this is, is continuing a, a thought by modifying
that command, humble yourself by casting your anxieties on him.
In other words, if, if you want more humility, it's gonna look
like more trust in the Lord.
The things that make us anxious, our anxieties, they, they come from
things that are so often traceable to a lack of trust in the Lord.
And a lack of trust is more often than not connected to a lack of humility.
Peter says, casting all your anxieties on him.
The word casting, it's the same word used when the disciples cast their
cloaks on the donkey that Jesus sat on as he wrote into Jerusalem.
It's no longer mine.
It's not in my possession.
I'm gonna take it.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna transform it.
It's not mine.
So you to cast your anxieties on the Lord and, and just think about
Peter's original audience here.
And what they were up against, the, the fiery trials that were going on
there amongst them, that they had Nero either on the throne or almost
on the throne at this point they were facing, uh, per they were exiles.
They, they weren't home anymore.
And then they just had all of the other anxieties that every other human
being has faced for all of eternity.
And so think of, of those anxieties, and Peter says, humble yourself
and, and cast those on the Lord.
Why?
Because he cares for you.
Because he cares for you whether you've got your Bible on, on your,
your device or, or the, the paper.
Just look at that verse, look at verse seven with me.
'cause I don't want you to hear the pastor saying, God loves you.
God cares for you.
God has a plan for your anxieties.
I want you to look at what the, what God's word says.
I want you to see what God is saying to you this morning.
Casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.
The Psalm 55 22 says this, cast your burdens on the
Lord and he will sustain you.
He will never permit the righteous to be moved.
But again, that is a move to cast your burdens on the Lord.
That is a move that involves a humble trust in God.
The posture of humility is a posture of faith.
Trust in God to be faithful to us and to himself and to his promises.
The humble person has sought refuge as we just looked under the mighty hand of God
and trust him to deliver him and protect him because he trusts that God does
indeed, as this verse says, care for him.
And so this final point that we're gonna see this morning is that humility is
anchored to our willingness to trust that God is good and does care for us.
Point number three is this, choose humility because it shows off faith.
Choose humility because it shows off faith.
We don't often think of anxiety and humility as connected concepts,
and yet Peter, Peter puts them in close proximity here and here's why.
Let's think for a minute about our anxieties.
What is often at the root of anxiety?
I think the answer is fear.
Fear and, and, and specifically we're anxious about things that we are afraid
of because we can't control those things.
That's when anxiety grips our hearts when we come up against something that, I'm
afraid of this because I can't control it, and that's what we begin to experience,
that the, the worry that grips.
So maybe it's, man, I'm, I'm anxious about the results of a biopsy because
I can't control those results.
Maybe it's, it's you're trying to have kids and you're thinking to yourself,
I'm, I'm anxious about how the, the pregnancy test is gonna come out
because I can't control the results.
Maybe you're anxious about your marriage because it's been tense at home, and
you're thinking to yourself, I'm anxious about when there's gonna be peace and
resolution and I can't control that.
Or maybe you've got an adult child that's not walking with the Lord and
you're thinking, I'm anxious for their soul because I can't control that.
Our battle against anxiety is one that is a battle for control, and the heart
of our desire for control is in itself a lack of humble trust in God's plan.
Anxiety that won't seed to God says this, God, I don't trust
what you're doing right now.
I feel like I know how I would do it better, but since I can't
control any of this, I'm just gonna worry about it all instead.
And you're exactly right.
You can't control it.
You can't control the biopsy results.
You can't control the fertility test.
You can't control the outcome of the, the marital spat that you're in.
To an extent, you can't control what your grown children are gonna do.
You can't control whether the strait of her moves is gonna open or shut
down or any of these things that could cause fear and anxiety in your heart.
But rather than be frustrated by that, can I encourage you to look at that
as a, a mercy of God because it's part of his passive humbling of us.
See God will often lead us Christian to feel our infinitude, our,
our finitude and his infinitude.
He will lead us to feel our limitations.
He will lead us to realize I can't do this.
And he'll say Exactly, but you know, the one who can and he cares for you.
And that's why we're able to cast, to, to take it from ourselves and to, to throw
it onto him because he cares for you.
God of the universe, the God of creation, the God of Mount
Sinai shaken the mountain.
Look at the Bible again.
He cares for you.
He loves you.
He cares for you.
Humility doesn't look at anxiety as an invitation to self-sufficiency.
Humility looks at anxiety as an invitation to trust God more.
What does that trust look like?
How can I do this?
How can I cast my anxieties on God?
What, what, what would that practically look like for me?
Let me just give you a few suggestions here.
Uh, first and foremost is, is prayer.
Uh, the feeling of anxiety should be an immediate, like Pavlov's dog
response to go to the Lord in prayer.
Philippians four, six.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer in suppli supplication, let
your request be made known to God.
And here's what I wanna suggest for you.
If you're out there going, okay, so I just pray, God, I'm worried about this.
Then what I wanna suggest a, A model for you.
Maybe you're familiar with it, maybe you're not.
This is the ax model of prayer, adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication.
This is a great paradigm for you to work through as you're praying just in general,
but especially even as you're praying about those things that cause you anxiety.
Adoration battles are anxiety.
When we praise God for who he is, it battles our anxiety and increases our
trust in the Lord because it reminds us of his character and his goodness.
Lord, I'm gonna praise you for who you are.
You're good, you're sovereign, you're, you're, you're kind.
You have done good things in my life in the past, and I'm, I'm
praising you for that confession.
Confession battles our anxiety by allowing us to confess the sins of
unbelief that abide at the root of our anxious thoughts to say, Lord, I
believe, help my unbelief in this area
Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving battles our anxieties because it, it, it gets our minds on the blessings
of God, that our anxious thoughts so often obscure when we're consumed with anxiety,
we can forget how good God is to us.
And forget to give him thanks.
And so if we intentionally say, even though I don't feel it right now because
I'm, I'm worried about all these things, I'm gonna stop and thank God for the
good things that are going on in my life right now, man, that will be so good to
give your confidence a boost in God, if you've been good to me in all these areas.
What's stopping me from believing that you're gonna be good in this area?
Right.
And then supplication.
This is where we ask, that's a fancy word that just means requests.
Supplication.
This battles our anxiety by naming those things that we're anxious
about and asking the Lord to bring the resolution we desire.
And so pray.
Use this model.
If you've got a different model that works great, but go to the Lord in prayer.
It's a great way to roll our anxieties over to him.
In fact, I'd say it's necessary.
The second way that that we can find this is by just experiencing the
community of believers in this room.
God has put you in a church like this with brothers and
sisters in Christ that love you.
This is why we stress community.
Getting connected in community groups because you will have relationships
with other believers that you can go to them and say, Hey, will you pray for me?
I'm battling anxiety right now.
I'm, I'm worried about this right now.
I need you to speak truth in my life right now.
I'm struggling to see God's hand at work right now.
Can you help me right now?
Go to your brothers and sisters in Christ with that?
That's a humble posture before the Lord that's trusting him to use them
to help you in that, that process.
And then finally, another asset in your battle against anxiety
is having a robust theology.
Um, knowing God more deeply, does that come through spending time in his word?
Yes, absolutely.
But maybe you're gonna pick up a, a systematic theology, or maybe
you're gonna pick up a book like the one on the back of your worksheet,
uh, knowing God by JI Packer.
And you think, well, how does reading about God's holiness and
his omniscience and his omnipotence help me right now in my anxiety?
It, it, it reminds you who, who you, you know, who you love, who you serve.
And, and when you look at what you can't, you're gonna be
reminded of the God who can.
And so having a robust theology is so, so good.
Towards that end,
humility looks at whatever produces anxiety in our hearts
as an invitation, not towards self-sufficiency, but to trust God more.
And when we do that, man, it shows off our.
Maybe you're going through a, a stretch right now and you've got coworkers, you've
got family members, you've got other people that aren't believers that are
gonna say, how are you so calm right now?
Open door spotlight, center stage for your faith in God?
Because I can't, but I know the God who can, lemme tell you about 'em.
When it comes to humility, you can either be humbled or you can choose to be humble.
And the better option is always gonna be ch to choose to be humble, to choose
it because it makes God happy, right?
It draws his favor rather than his opposition to choose to be humble
because it, it leads even though you're walking through humility now
to, to exaltation later that we're hoping and hearing the Lord say,
well done, good and faithful servant.
Enter into the joy of your master and to choose humility because it
reveals and shows off your robust faith in God because he cares for you.
'cause he loves you.
Let's pray.
Father, what a glorious truth.
Even just that last couple of words that I said was that, that you, the Lord of
creation, the Lord who is sustaining all things, the Lord is keeping,
who is keeping us on this planet?
Because you're sustaining gravity and you're sustaining the spin of
the, the planets and the planet, your emotion and all those things.
Lord, you are the guy who loves us, who cares for us, who says to
us, let me have your anxieties.
Cast them on me.
Throw them on me.
I will sustain you because I care for you.
Lord, what a glorious truth and reality.
That is what a a phenomenal reality is, that we get to walk in humility before
you, and there's joy to be found there.
There's contentment, there's satisfaction to be found there, and so God, I pray that
you'd guard our hearts from an infatuation with an exaltation that might come from
men or from the world around us, but that we would seek ultimately the exaltation
that awaits us when we go to be with you.
And to be with our savior, Jesus Christ.
We pray this in his name.
Amen.