Thank you.
We're delighted to welcome Kevin Gabriel this morning, who is preaching for us this morning.
Kevin is serving in the church in Douglas Baptist, and maybe, Kevin, as you come up,
you can read the passage, but maybe you can also say a couple of sentences about you,
who you are, why you're here, and what you're doing here.
But thanks, Kevin.
It's good to have you.
Good morning.
If you would open your Bibles with me to 1 Peter 5.
So thank you, Alex, for introducing me.
Yeah, so my wife, Christine, and I are members of Douglas Baptist Church, so just a few minutes
up the road.
We moved here from Canada in January.
We have two beautiful children, Owen, who is two and a half, and Ellie, who is a year
at the end of this month.
So that's a little bit about us, but we're just delighted to be serving with you all in
Ireland and just joining in the work that the Lord is doing here.
We're going to be looking this morning at 1 Peter 5.
Let's read from verse 6 down to verse 11.
Peter writes these words.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Be alert and of sober mind.
Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout
the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have
suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast.
To him be the power forever and ever.
Amen.
Let's pray as we come to God's word.
Lord, we thank you that you are a speaking God.
What grace that you would not leave us on our own to blunder our way through life, trying to figure out
how to live and what to do and who we should be.
But you have spoken into this world.
And more than that, you have come into this world through your son, Jesus.
And Lord, we look to you now for help.
Lord, we are weak and we struggle.
We are in need of your help this morning, as we are every day.
So Lord, would you help me as I speak?
And would you help each of these brothers and sisters who are here as they listen?
Lord, would you encourage us through your word and change us to be more like our Savior, Jesus?
Amen.
I wonder if you've ever thought before about the connection between suffering and anxiety.
Typically, when life is going well, we tend not to be as anxious, do we?
There's no unexplained medical concerns.
The kids seem to be doing well.
Our bank accounts are in good shape.
We're holding a solid job.
What is there to worry about?
But even when life is going well, we can still battle with anxiety, can't we?
And there's many reasons for that, certainly.
But at least one of them would be we look at the sufferings of other people and we wonder if they will happen to us.
Maybe a friend's child is diagnosed with cancer.
Well, is my child healthy?
Or a co-worker loses their job.
How steady is my job?
We worry about the present sufferings that we endure and about the future sufferings that maybe we will face.
And if we were to try to explain that connection there between suffering and anxiety,
we might say that anxiety is the mental response that accompanies suffering.
Anxiety is that acting out of possible futures in our minds.
That's how Jesus describes it to us.
He says,
What shall we eat?
Or what shall we wear?
Where will we live?
When will this end?
What will she say?
What will I do?
How will this turn out?
Will he be okay?
We're acting out futures in our minds.
And sometimes those anxieties spring up on us like a stubbed toe.
Right?
They're all consuming.
Maybe it's a call from a doctor or from a family member.
Other times anxiety is like a throbbing paper cut.
It's subtle, but it's distracting and it just won't go away.
Maybe it's financial concerns that we're facing.
So I would ask you, take a minute right now,
what anxieties are you currently facing?
Whatever it is, whenever it happens,
we are all tempted to turn to anxiety in the face of suffering.
We feel alone, vulnerable, betrayed, abandoned, weak, and weary.
And anxiety is a natural response to that.
But as Christians, we know that God wants us to live our lives
free from the burdens of anxiety, don't we?
We read verses like in Philippians 4 where it says,
be anxious for nothing.
But maybe when we read a verse like that,
instead of helping us,
it just pushes us further down the spiral,
wondering, why am I struggling so much with anxiety if I'm a Christian?
So friends, how do we deal with our anxieties?
When the sufferings of our lives cause us to feel abandoned or alone,
and we start acting out those possible futures in our minds,
where do we turn?
How do we please the Lord in those moments?
Well, this question is exactly what Peter is dealing with here in 1 Peter 5.
This passage comes at the end of a letter that is written to a group of Christians
enduring intense suffering.
And here, Peter is addressing this issue of anxiety and how it relates to suffering.
And he's giving instruction on how do we please the Lord?
How do we trust the Lord in these kinds of circumstances?
And in short, Peter wants to show us that we can trust the powerful God of grace because he cares for us.
And he shows us that in three stages.
First, he shows us that there is a God who is above our sufferings.
Then he shows us that there is an enemy who is behind our sufferings.
And then he shows us that there is a glory that is beyond our sufferings.
Now, before we get into that, I do just want to affirm that mental health struggles like anxiety are complex
and multifaceted and anything but simplistic.
And there's many reasons why many of us struggle with anxiety.
Physical reasons, emotional reasons, spiritual reasons.
So I'm not trying to be simplistic this morning.
What we talk about is not the only word on anxiety or the only way to approach it.
And it's not the only way the Bible approaches it.
But it is one way that God speaks about it.
And so we want to listen to his voice in this passage.
So first, let's look here at the God who is above our sufferings.
We see that in verses 6 and 7, the first two verses.
And notice that verse 6 begins with therefore, meaning it's connected to the previous section, right?
Before this, in the verses above this, Peter gives several instructions to the elders of that church.
And then he reminds the church to be subject to their elders.
And then he extends that call to the whole church by calling on them to clothe themselves in humility
because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
And with that context in mind, Peter then fleshes out what does it look like to humble yourself before the Lord?
How do we do this, particularly in the context of our sufferings?
How do we humble ourselves, put ourselves under a God who brings suffering into our lives?
And Peter offers three answers for us in these two verses.
And those answers are three truths about who God is.
He says God is mighty.
God will lift you up in due time.
And God cares for you.
Now, before we look at those three answers, I want to just draw a connection between those three things
and something that I read in a Jerry Bridges book a few years ago.
Jerry Bridges has a really helpful book called Trusting God.
And in that book, he says that there are three things we need to believe if we're going to trust God in the middle of suffering.
We need to believe that God is sovereign, that God is wise, and that God is loving.
So think with me about how this works.
You need to imagine that if anxiety is a virus, you need three vaccines to counter it.
That's what he's saying here.
And to miss out on any one of those vaccines means you won't be able to trust God well.
So think about this.
If you believe that God is wise and loving, but not sovereign,
you'll believe that God has good intentions, but he's kind of wringing his hands helplessly.
He wants to help you, but he doesn't have the power to do so.
And so you'll feel like things are spiraling out of control.
Okay, well, what about if you believe that God is sovereign and loving, but not wise?
Well, you'll believe that God wants to do good to you and has power to do good to you,
but really has no idea how to do good to you because he's not wise.
And so you'll feel like, God, what are you doing?
Why is my life going this way?
Well, what about if you believe that God is sovereign and wise, but not loving?
Well, then you'll believe that God is a cold, controlling tyrant.
Maybe he is doing what's good for you, but there's no love in it,
and so you'll feel bitterness and doubt.
God, why do you even care about me?
I wonder, is there any one of those three that you tend to forget more than the others?
Because all of us, I think, lean towards forgetting or overemphasizing one of those at the expense of the others.
Now, look at these verses, and notice how Peter draws those three things together as he comforts these believers.
First, he says, humble yourselves under God's mighty hand.
There's the sovereignty piece.
Whatever your situation, whatever your suffering is that's provoking your anxiety,
we are told to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.
The situation is in God's control.
Now, second, why should we be humble under God's mighty hand?
Because he will lift you up in due time.
There's the wisdom piece.
Do you see that?
The piece of wisdom.
God knows the times.
He knows the seasons of your life.
He, in his wisdom, knows the right time to lift you out of your suffering,
to exalt you, whether that is in this life or if it's in the next life.
He also knows the improper time to do that.
In his wisdom, he's working the timing out.
And then third, the third thing he says is,
cast your anxieties on him because he cares for you.
There's the piece of love, right?
God loves you in the midst of your suffering.
And the word here that's used for how God cares for you,
we can use the word cares almost as a parallel for anxieties, right?
Like the cares of the world are over me.
That's not the word that's being used here.
He's not saying, you know, God is anxious about you.
The word that he uses here for God cares for you is the word that we read in Mark,
where they are in the boat, the disciples are in the boat,
and there's a storm, and they wake Jesus up,
and they say, don't you care that we're perishing?
That's the word that's used here.
This is, if he says God cares for you,
he's saying that God has concern for you.
He takes you into account.
He loves you.
So do you see how these three things come together
like a triple vaccination against anxiety?
God's mighty.
God will lift you up in due time.
God cares for you.
And that then leads Peter to address this question of,
okay, so what do I do with my anxiety then?
I mean, we might know that those things are true about God,
but what do we actually do when anxiety attacks?
And in light of the mighty, wise, caring God,
Peter calls us to cast or to throw our anxieties onto him.
Peter is calling us to take those anxieties that are weighing us down
due to our sufferings and to throw them onto the Lord.
Instead of bearing the weight of these things ourselves,
we in faith throw them onto his shoulders.
Instead, the Lord is in control.
The Lord will lift me up.
The Lord cares for me.
Now, how do you do that practically?
Because throwing a burden onto someone else
takes conscious effort, doesn't it?
To unburden yourself
takes conscious, focused prayer
to give these things to the Lord.
In Philippians 4,
another book in the New Testament here,
Paul contrasts be anxious for nothing with,
but in everything, pray.
So really, to unburden ourselves,
to throw these things onto the Lord means to pray.
But beyond that,
we need to help each other in this, don't we?
We need to remind each other of these things that are true about God.
Help each other to take these burdens off of our backs
and put them onto the Lord's back instead.
So I would encourage you,
if you are bearing anxiety alone,
share it with another Christian
who can help you throw it onto the Lord.
Or if you know a Christian who is suffering,
then pursue them.
Help them.
Pray for them.
Remind them over and over
to cast that onto the Lord.
So I ask you,
where do you turn
when sufferings weigh heavily on you?
Maybe there are some sitting here
who have given up your belief in God
because of the sufferings you've endured.
Or maybe you've never experienced much suffering yourself,
but as you look at the world around you,
you reject any God
who would allow this kind of suffering.
But let me ask you,
if you turn away from God in your sufferings,
do you have somewhere better to turn instead?
And if you are turning away from God,
are you turning away from this God?
This caring God?
Or are you turning away from a God
you've created in your own mind?
Maybe some of us,
when we feel the weight of anxiety and suffering,
we turn to something to help numb us,
to forget our worries.
Maybe that's drink,
or maybe it's something less damaging,
like watching a show,
or playing a game,
or scrolling through social media,
or listening to a podcast.
Now, we need to rest.
And it's good for us to do things,
maybe like this,
that we enjoy with people that we love,
things that lighten our spirits,
and that help us to bring rest to our souls,
and take our minds off of heavy things.
That's good.
But it's not helpful for that to be your ultimate strategy
for dealing with sufferings.
Because the problem is,
the thing with suffering and anxiety is,
it's going to be right back tomorrow,
when you wake up,
or when that TV show ends.
When sufferings can't be ignored,
when anxieties pile up and stare us straight in the eyes,
we must be learning and helping each other
to throw those anxieties to the Lord.
Well, why is that so important?
Because in the next two verses,
Peter gives us an answer,
because we have an enemy who stands behind our sufferings.
Peter reminds us now,
in verses 8 and 9,
that there's not only a God above our sufferings,
but an enemy behind our sufferings.
And notice with me that there's two commands
he gives at the beginning of verse 8.
He says,
Be alert and be sober-minded.
Sober-mindedness brings that imagery of drunkenness,
doesn't it?
To be sober is to have an alert mind,
a mind that is not dulled by alcohol,
or something like that.
It's to possess your own senses,
to hear and see and think
and make decisions clearly.
Alertness, the other command,
brings in the imagery of sleep.
We could translate this word here,
just be awake.
Don't be drifting off to sleep.
Notice what's going on around you.
We need minds, Peter is saying,
that are clear and awake.
Why?
Because of your adversary, he says.
We go through life, friends,
with an adversary who opposes our faith.
And look at how he's described there in verse 8,
like a roaring lion
looking for someone to devour.
Our enemy's intention is to swallow people up.
Now that's a very familiar verse,
probably for many of us.
We often quote this in context like
maybe sexual sin or addiction
or these kind of things.
We say, you know,
the devil seeks to swallow us up in these ways.
And that's true.
But what is the specific context here
of this verse?
Anxiety and suffering, right?
That's what we're dealing with here.
Now maybe you've never thought of Satan
and associated him with your anxieties.
Because without a sovereign God in the picture,
our culture views these things
that happen to us just as cosmic accidents.
We don't really have control over our sufferings.
It's just life in a survival of the fittest world.
So when suffering comes
and we respond with anxiety,
for many of us it just kind of feels natural.
But Peter is reminding us here
that we have an adversary out there
behind our anxieties
who is seeking to devour us
through our anxieties.
And in verse 9,
Peter instructs us
how do we respond to him?
We resist him.
We oppose him.
We stand against him.
And he describes that resistance
for us in two ways.
Peter says to resist Satan
we need to have
a specific orientation towards God
and then we need to know something
about the church.
Look, the first thing he says
there is stand firm in the faith.
That's the orientation
we need to have towards God.
That brings us back
to our first point
we've been looking at
that Satan would desire us
to think that God is not in control,
that God is not wise,
he doesn't know what's best for us
and he doesn't care for us.
And faith resists that.
But then look at what Peter says next.
He says,
because you know,
what do we need to know
in the midst of our suffering?
You know
that the family of believers
throughout the world
is undergoing the same kind
of sufferings.
Okay, the family of believers here,
that of course means
the universal church,
the church through all of space and time.
And we are to resist Satan,
Peter says,
by knowing that they are experiencing
the same kind of suffering.
How does that work?
Here's what I think Peter is saying here.
When suffering comes into your life
and you begin to give yourself over
to anxiety because of it,
the devil is seeking to devour you
by getting you to feel alone.
Right?
No one cares for me.
No one is with me.
No one has experienced anything like this.
Where is God in this?
I'm all alone.
We all feel like that
in the midst of our suffering,
don't we?
And Peter steps in at this moment
and he says,
no.
What you are experiencing
is happening to your brothers and sisters
all over the world.
Don't listen to Satan.
You're not alone in these things.
And friends,
there's very relevant application
for us here
as churches,
isn't there?
As local churches
and as a universal church,
as we journey through life together,
we must not let others feel alone.
We must not let them feel alone
in their sufferings.
When we know of trials
that other people are enduring,
of anxieties that they are facing,
we need to stand with them,
assuring them
that they're not alone
in these things.
God has not abandoned them.
Think back to the imagery here
that Peter is using of a lion.
If you've ever watched
a nature documentary,
who does the lion go for?
The strongest bull in the herd?
No.
Right?
The lion goes for the weak,
the young,
the immature,
the vulnerable,
the isolated,
the struggling.
In other words,
all of us
at different times in our lives.
Right?
We need to remember
that these types of people
at their seasons
of their lives
will be particular targets
for Satan's
and we need to remind them
that they're not alone
in this battle.
So if any of you here
are suffering today alone,
beginning to maybe feel these things,
to give yourselves over
to your anxieties,
I encourage you,
speak with a trusted friend,
speak with your elders
here at the church.
Your brothers and sisters
around the world
are experiencing
these kinds of things too.
A part of life's journey
for my wife Christine
and I involved
a number of miscarriages
before our children were born.
And as we began to share
about those things
with other people,
we had multiple couples
tell us that they had experienced
miscarriages as well
but never told anyone.
Some of them for decades
had never told other people
that they had endured that.
Friends,
don't suffer alone like that.
Share these burdens
with others
so that they can help you
to bear them
and to remind you
to be sober
and alert
to Satan's devices
so they can help you
throw those things
onto the Lord together.
Now,
with all that said,
just knowing
that other people
are experiencing
the same kinds of sufferings
doesn't really give us
ultimate hope,
does it?
I mean,
suffering together
is better than suffering alone
but it really doesn't sound
like much of a final redemption
to me
to just suffer together.
The question is,
is there an end
to our suffering
and our anxiety?
Well,
that's what we're going to see here
in the third part.
We've seen the God
above our sufferings,
the enemy behind our sufferings,
now let's look at the glory
beyond our sufferings
here in verses 10 and 11.
And the first thing
that we need to notice
in these verses
is that there are no commands.
The first two sections
were full of commands
but in these last two verses,
no commands.
As Peter turns his focus
to glory,
he just spills out
encouragement
and affirmation
after one another.
Commands
and our obedience,
in other words,
are not the final word
in these things.
The God of grace
is the final word
in our suffering.
And this is the way
that Peter introduces
this section
with the God
of all grace.
We suffer
and struggle
and sin
and we give ourselves
over to anxiety
again and again
but God
does not run out
of grace
to us.
Notice how Peter
describes the Lord
here
as the one
who has called you
to eternal glory
in Christ.
What does God
call us to?
Eternal glory.
Life might be filled
with suffering
and anxiety now
but God's intention
for us
is to share
in eternal glory.
But what is the assurance
that we'll receive
that glory?
I mean,
if we look around
at our lives today,
for many of us,
our lives look like
anything but glory,
don't they?
But notice those
next two words,
in Christ.
We are tempted
to look at
our surroundings,
our circumstances
and to doubt
that God cares,
to doubt that God
is wise,
to doubt that
he is powerful.
Suffering abounds,
sin abounds
in our lives,
our circumstances
worsen
and we wonder
where is this care
that we are promised
in verse 7?
But friends,
where do we look
to see God's care
on full display?
In Christ,
right?
Where do we look
to see his wisdom
on full display?
In Christ.
Where do we look
to see his power
on full display?
In Christ.
In the trenches
of our lives,
we need to look
to Christ
as the ultimate evidence
of God's care for us.
We look to Jesus,
the suffering Savior
who knows our pain,
who knows our suffering
and defeated it
once for all
on the cross
and now lives
to intercede
for his people.
We are members
of Christ's body
and so if God
has raised Christ
from the dead
and brought him
to eternal glory,
which he has,
then he will surely
raise us from the dead
and bring us
to that same
eternal glory.
Now notice
that Paul
contrasts the God
of all grace
and eternal glory
with the reality
of suffering
in our life
being a little while.
You see the contrast?
All eternal
contrasted with little.
Paul wants us
to see our suffering
in perspective here.
Just to illustrate this,
I think my son,
Owen,
who is two,
loves playing
with little trucks,
what little boy doesn't, right?
When he was about one,
I was taking him
for a walk
and we came across
a real,
massive,
moving bulldozer.
And when I looked down,
my son,
Owen,
was literally
shaking in fear
at the raw power
of this machine
that was in front of him
just pushing dirt.
I think Peter
is taking us
and saying,
you think this bulldozer
is big?
So far,
it's all you've ever known.
You should see
a real bulldozer.
You think this suffering
is big?
So far,
it's all you've ever known.
But you should see
eternal glory.
That's what Peter
is doing for us here.
Friends,
our suffering
will not last forever.
God is not calling you
to trust him eternally
with your anxiety
and your suffering.
You won't need
to cast your anxieties
forever.
It's just for this time,
Peter is saying,
just for a little while
until your faith
becomes sight.
This time of faith
is coming to an end
soon.
Remember,
faith doesn't carry on
into heaven.
Paul tells us that
in 1 Corinthians 13.
Faith,
hope,
and love.
Only love carries on.
Faith ends.
Think of the joy
of faith
no longer being
a part of your life.
All of God's promises
right there in front of you
all of the time.
No room for doubts,
for questions,
for struggling,
for wondering,
for anxiety.
Your faith
is sight.
That's what's in store
for you,
Peter says.
And as you journey
your way there,
Peter reminds us
that we're not left
to our own devices
in this.
Look how Peter
ends the verse.
He says,
this God,
this God of grace,
this God who called you
to his eternal glory,
he says he will
restore you,
make you firm,
strong,
and steadfast.
This, friends,
is how God cares
for us,
even today.
Even in the midst
of our suffering
and anxieties,
God promises here
that he will mend us,
he will support us,
he will strengthen us
and establish us.
So come,
God calls to you today,
all you who feel broken,
he will mend you.
Come all who feel shaky,
he will support you.
Come all who feel weak,
he will strengthen you.
Come all who feel
that your life
has no foundation,
he will establish you.
How do we know
that he'll do this?
Look at the end
of verse 11.
To him be the power
forever and ever.
Amen.
That word power
is the same word
for God's mighty hand.
Back in verse 6,
that God under
whose powerful mighty hand
you humble yourself today,
to that God
belongs power
forever and ever.
Nothing will stand
against his good purposes
to bring you
to glory one day.
So friends,
today we have seen here
in 1 Peter 5
the God above our sufferings,
the enemy behind
our sufferings,
the glory beyond
our sufferings.
So for those here
who may not be Christians
this morning,
where do you turn
when your suffering
and your anxiety
pays you a visit?
Won't you come
to this God
who cares for you
in our brokenness
and our weakness?
come to the one
who sent his son Jesus
into this broken world
to die for us
and remake us
and bring us
to his eternal glory.
And for those of us
who are Christians
here this morning,
as you face sufferings
in life
that provoke anxieties
in your heart,
remember,
you can trust
the powerful God of grace
because he cares for you.
Let's pray.
Lord God,
we thank you
for your care.
And we pray, Lord,
I pray for all
of these brothers
and sisters,
these believers
here this morning.
Lord, would you
help us,
give us the faith
to see Christ,
the one who cares for us.
Help us look to Jesus,
the ultimate evidence
that you love us,
that you care for us,
that you will establish
and strengthen us
until the day
when our faith
will be sight.
And we will dwell
with you
in eternal glory.
Lord, help us
until that day,
we pray.
Amen.
Thank you, Kevin.