1 Peter: The Devil’s Opinion

During the advent season, we are called to celebrate the first coming of Christ and anticipate His second coming. This means we celebrate the fact that sin has lost its power over believers and anticipate the day sin loses its presence among believers.

But in a season filled with joy and anticipation, we still feel the pain and tension of living between the two comings of Christ.

Although the devil has lost its dominion over us, he still has an opinion that can influence us. His lies create in us a spirit of arrogance, anxiety, and apathy.

In 1 Peter 5, the Apostle gives us 3 ways to resist the roaring lies of the devil.

You can take interactive notes here. At the end of the message, you can email the notes to yourself.

I’m Diana and I’m gonna, uh, read the scripture today. It is one Peter five, five through seven, and let me find it , in the same way, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another because God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares on.

He cares about you. Amen. Thank you, Diana, so much. You guys go ahead and open your Bibles to that part. First Peter chapter five. This is our last time we’re in the book of First Peter. Now, Thomas Aquinas, I don’t know if you’ve heard of him before, but he was a Italian Dominican fryer philosopher and theologian of the 12 hundreds.

He’s actually considered one of the most influential thinkers in the history of Western philosophy. And theology. So his best known work is called Suma Theological, and he analyzes and it gets really, really heady, but it’s theologically and philosophically what it takes to possess and have hope. This is an important topic to talk about.

It’s all throughout. First Peter, how to have hope in the midst of suffering. And the reality is, you and I need hope, like we need air. Hope empowers us to live right, although the rewards seem to be going to those who live wrong. So hope he argues, and I think you actually can see it in this biblical text that we have here this afternoon.

Hope must have three characteristics and it should be on your notes. Number one, its object must be in the future. So what’s actually pretty ironic about the human life is most of the gifts, what excites us is when it’s ahead. You’ll notice most people when they receive, we talked about this in Ecclesiastes, when you finally get the riches you thought would make you happy, then you’re not as happy anymore.

It was actually, you were more hope-filled when it was just down the road. Once you get all the things you thought you wanted, you are left empty. So hope must always be in the future. Secondly, the object must be possible. So what you’re putting your hope in must have a sense of possibility. Now, in the Christian faith, we believe the scriptures are clear that with God all things are possible.

But if you meet somebody who is depressed, downcast does not want to live any longer, it’s because. The future, the hope that they have no longer seems possible, and they cannot think of anything else except just to end their own life. But the third part of hope that I think is really hard for us, especially here in the West, is he argues Hope must be arduous.

Arduous means difficult, hard to possess. Coincidentally, the devil, , we’re talking about the devil today cuz it’s in one Peter five. The devil wants to con convince you of the exact opposite. He wants to convince you. The hope that you want is not in the future. It must be fully had today. He wants to convince you that your hope probably is just not possible, right?

You cannot see anything good ahead. And certainly one of the biggest lies that I think we fall for in the American West is we believe hope should not be arduous. The devil wants to dec tempt you, deceive you, and make you think your life should be easy, and it should be quick, and you should have all that you need, right?

but the biblical text says these things instead. It’s in the future. That’s why we look for the coming kingdom of God. It is possible because of what Jesus has done on the cross on our behalf, and though it is arduous. One Peter five, look at verse eight with me. It says, be sober minded. Be alert. You’re adversary.

The devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for anyone. , he can devour, resist him firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings, this is interesting are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world. One way we can be encouraged is to know we are not in this battle alone, not just within our local church, but throughout the world.

Christians are suffering. I want you to write this down. This is kind of the main idea of today’s text, the devil, prowls and roars, until his opinion becomes yours. It’s been way too long since I’ve rhymed, so here we are guys, prouds and roars, until his opinion becomes yours. Isn’t that interesting? The devil here is roaring.

All he has is a voice. He cannot actually attack you in the sense that we would be scared of with a lion. His power is, in his opinion, especially if you take his opinion as your own every day. He is roaring lies about your future. He is roaring lies about what’s not possible and what is possible, and he is roaring lies about what should and should not be arduous.

And so this is actually why we celebrate Advent. . Advent is a wonderful time to remember. The devil is still prowling and roaring, but you and I have victory. Let me explain it to you this way, theologically, advent, and again, is just the season leading up to Christmas Day, and at the first coming of Christ, Jesus defeated the Devil’s dominion.

So we’re celebrating Jesus coming in as a baby, fully God, fully man, in the form of an infant, living the perfect life. And then at the cross, he died for your sin and. And at the resurrection, the cross on the resurrection, the devil no longer has dominion over your life. This is what we celebrate for sin and deception.

Is no longer the dominating power for the saints in Christ Jesus. Now, do we have sin? Yes we do, which leads to the next point, but we can step into righteousness legally. When God looks at us, he sees Christ in us, so the devil does not have dominion. This is why you may even hear like Christians cannot be demonically.

Possess, but they can be demonically oppressed, which is a whole nother talk. I can’t believe I just stepped into. Now, here’s the next line. Here’s what we’re looking forward to with advent. So advent, we’re celebrating Jesus came to defeat the devil’s dominion, but at the second coming of Christ, Jesus will delete the devil’s opinion.

So Advent is we celebrate that Jesus came, but we also look forward to the second coming of Christ because today, although the devil does not have dominion over your life, because of the blood of Jesus, he still has an opinion. And every day you and I are called to fight against his opinion with the truths of God.

That’s when someone says, amen. We’re all right. All right. So sin and deception are no longer present when he comes again today. It doesn’t have power, meaning we can say no, we can defeat it, but we have to apply the blood of Jesus. But one day it won’t even be a fight. It won’t even be a struggle. You won’t even be tempted to believe in lies.

But today you and I can still believe the lie. The lie about our. The lie about where we can put our hope in the lie that maybe right now your life should be easier than it is. And so I want us to figure out by using this passage in one Peter five, how do we today between the two comings of Christ, fight against the devil’s opinion?

Let’s pray. Father, I just ask you that you would just fill us in this. . God, we just ask you that this word would, uh, give us knowledge, but more important than that, God, may we, uh, take action. May we be doers of the word God, may we, uh, listen to you Holy Spirit, as we reflect and ask tough questions about where we’re at in life.

But may we be encouraged to get honest with you, God, because every time we’re honest, you have so much grace and love for. We receive that today. In Jesus’ name, I pray everybody says Amen. Amen. Point number one. According to verse five, in Christ you have a future. In Christ. You have a future. I get that by looking at verse.

Five. Last week we talked about pastors. Now he’s moving on to verse five. In the same way you who are younger, be subject, other translations say, be submissive to the elders. All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward. One another. This clothe yourself line is this imagery of actually tying around an apron or a towel around your waist.

What I love is that Peter is the one riding this, and so we can remember ge, uh, Peter saw Jesus tie a towel around his waist in John 13 and Jesus nail kneeled down and the disciples. He’s saying, look, all of you, clothe yourselves with humility because we are following the Jesus, the king of kings, the Lord of Lords, who stoop down and even wash the feet of this author, the apostle Peter.

This is really hard for us. Be subject submissive, live in humility. But here’s what I’m learning more and more as I read the biblical text. This is one of the most common themes throughout the. You are never more like the devil than when you have a stubborn spirit and you are never more like Christ when you have a submissive spirit.

Rebellious, stubborn spirit is of the devil. Submissive humble spirit is of the Lord. So he is saying, look in the middle of suffering of hard. Hold on to hope and how we do that, clothe ourselves with humility towards one another because God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. One commentator this week says, pride.

If you want to simply define pride, pride is simply the resistance to the grace of God. , anytime you resist the grace of God, you are entering into pride. And here’s what really scares me. If God resists you, you can’t pull anything off , right? And there’s a lot of things in my life that I feel like I have resistance against and it’s really hard to find victory in.

But if God himself resists you, you are done before you have begun. But if he gives grace to the humble, sign me up for humility. Now, I wanna give us a few ways. What does pride look like in the Christian? Okay, so I actually think there’s at least two ways pride can look like self-pity and self praise.

Write that down. Self-pity says I have no future. Most of us don’t think of pride in this way cuz we think of self praise. Oh, I’m all the best, I’m all that. But in many ways, pride, especially for the Christian, tends to be, I have no future. If you struggle with self-pity, your wounds. Have become your world even more scary.

Maybe your illness has become your identity. One of the shocking passages in scripture, John, chapter five, Jesus goes to a man who is known for not being able to walk. Jesus goes up to him. Verse six. You know what question he asks? He goes to this man and says to the, to the disabled man, this was his identity.

Disabled. We don’t even know his name. Do you want to be. . Now, why would Jesus ask a disabled man, Hey, do you want to be healed? I’d be like, yes, Jesus. If I was his disciple, come on, he hasn’t walked in years. Of course, Jesus, can we skip the formalities? Can you just heal him so our movement can grow? Why does Jesus ask this question?

The reality is some people don’t want to be healed. You live life long enough. Some people actually want to stay the victim, and that is pride. pride loves self-pity more than anything. Think I have no future. Okay, let me change your future. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. And so we actually miss out on the grace of God because we would rather stay the victim than to step in to victory.

And Jesus and Peter warns us saying, look, God resists the proud. See, God wants to shower his love and grace on you. And one way we turn it away is simply by not. and we pull the false humility card and say, oh, just poor me. Reality is we need to step into what God has for us. And so thankfully in that story, they wanted, he wanted to be healed and Jesus healed them.

But in other stories, you have Jesus, he left his hometown. Why? Because they did not believe, they did not want to be healed by Jesus, the one that they grew up with. So that’s the question for us. Question for you. Do you believe you have a. self pity says, I have no future. It’s just focused on yourself. And the moment God wants to give you one, you shun it.

But the second way we can have pride is self praise. Self praise says I am the future. Self praise wants to constantly feel like you are all that and a bag of chips. Some ways that I, I wrote down what are some ways that I have exhibited self praise in my life, cuz I certainly don’t wanna keep living that way.

I put, you learn to hide your insecurities by exaggerating your strengths. You ever do that, hiding your insecurities by exaggerating your strengths, or you have fallen for the lie of self praise if you turn every conversation into something you have done. The reality is God resists that kind of person.

Luke 14, you don’t have to turn there. It should be on the screen. He warns us of self praise. I loved this. I love what Jesus does. So Jesus told a parable to those who were invited when he noticed, look how present Jesus is. He looks at the people he’s with. When he noticed how they would choose the best places for themselves in the Jewish context, where you sat was really, really important the closer you were to the host.

D uh, dignified and worthy. You were. And so, man, going to a party was exhausting and just stressful because you’re trying to prove how great you are. And so you’re trying to get as close to the host as possible. So Jesus sees all this anxiety and, and he says this, he says, when you’re invited by someone, so a wedding banquet.

Don’t sit in the place of honor because a more distinguished person than you may have been invited by your host. You never know who else is coming. They didn’t have a Facebook rsvp, right? Okay, so verse nine, it says, now the one who invited, both of you may come and say to you, Hey, give your place to this man, and then in humiliation you’ll proceed to take the lowest place.

Next verse. But when you are. Go and sit in the lowest place so that when the one who invited you comes, he will say to you, friends, move up higher. You’ll then be honored in the presence of all the other guests. I think one more verse, it says, for everyone, and look at this phrase, it’s familiar to first Peter five.

For everyone who exhausts himself will be humbled and the one who humbles himself will be ex. . What is Jesus saying here? Look, exhausting yourself. Oh, sorry. Exalting yourself is exhausting yourself. I gave that away. Exalting yourself is exhausting yourself. Right. We are living this game trying to find hope by being better than those around us, and God is saying, I resist that kind of pride.

You cannot have the favor on your life if you live in that kind of pride. Look at verse six, verse Peter five, verse six. It says, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time. Either you humble yourselves or the Lord will humble. . So how do we have.

How do we push through? We have a future, but our future is not in our hands. Our future is in the mighty hand of God. And so when there is stress, when there is, oh, is God gonna take care of me? We don’t run to self pity. No, no, no. We are open to the grace of God, but we don’t run to self praise. We don’t act like we have it all going on.

We are just who we are and trusting in the goodness of God to see us and exalt us. At the moment we. My future is in God’s hands, so I don’t need to worry. Now, in this passage it’s saying, be sober-minded, be alert. So I think this passage is in verse eight. It’s telling us to examine. So before we move on to the the next idea, I want us to ask this question.

Ask yourself this question, do I reek of arrogance? Verse five and six is pretty clear. If you want the grace of God on your life, it cannot coexist with arro. arrogance can be self praise or it can be self pity. Be honest with yourself. This is an invitation to repent. Turn away from that way of life. It’s an empty way and there is no future but the devil roars.

And once you to keep going between self praise and self pity, but in Christ, we have a future in Christ. self denial. That is when we are taken care of. Number two wants to point out in this text that in Christ all things are possible. Remember, the enemy wants to say you have no future and that no things are possible, which is why we have so much anxiety.

First Peter five, verse seven. It says, casting all your cares on him. Other translations, which I, I’m kind of in favor of, in, in this text it says, casting all your anxiety on. . Why? Because he cares about you. I love that line. Like why would we bother God with all of our anxieties? Well, because he loves us and he wants to know about it.

I think this word, this word casts I is this, um, in the Greek, it’s meaning to decisively and deliberately give God your problems. I know some pastors, they, they take this so literally in their own life that they literally write down their worries and they cast it. Uh, so like I have a friend, it feels so youth pastory.

But he writes down his anxieties and he throws it into a fire. I have a fire like every night, so I should do this exercise cuz it helps with the fire anyways. But in his mind he’s saying, okay, God, I am actually bodily doing what I want to do spiritually. I’m taking my anxieties and I’m giving them to you.

We’re actually so excited and the coming new year, we’re gonna do a whole series on Sabbath and we’re actually creating right now a Sabbath box and this, this box, I’m so pumped. We’re giving you all sorts of things like a candle. Um, more things coming. We’re still in the design process, but we, we have a lot of great things happening with this box, but one idea we’ve had is to use this box to put your phone in for 24 hours so you’re just not with your phone.

So you can actually be at rest with the Lord. But another way you can use this box, and Pastor Kayla wrote this on the Sabbath guy we’re gonna be giving you next year, is you can write down your. Because the beautiful thing about Sabbath is the day where you’re not even thinking about your cares, you’re just focusing on the goodness of God.

And you can write down your worries and put it in that box, and it’ll be just, just put it away, right? So this Roaring Lion wants you to be so consumed in your cares, you can’t think of anything else. Right. The volume is up on your anxiety. Therefore, you cannot run to anything else. Write this down. I say this all the time, but I think it’s so helpful.

Your vision of God’s love determines the version of your hope. How much you cast your cares on God is dependent on how much you think God cares about you. This is a beautiful thing. If Jesus loves you enough to take your sin, he certainly loves you enough to take your so. This is how good God is. And so if you’re having trouble casting your cares on God, spend some time learning about how much God loves you.

Timothy Keller, he put it this way, he says, anxiety is always a refusal to see how much God loves you, how much God cares. . Now let me be clear, this gets really difficult because I think we didn’t, we tend to ma uh, fail to make the distinction between clinical anxiety and sinful anxiety, right? So let me, let me make this right off the gate.

Clinical anxiety. We believe that there are chemical reactions within your brain and your body, and we believe a lot of times that takes medication. I am no doctor. Um, but I do know the church has hurt people in the past by just saying, just cast your cares and move on. And you’ve done all those things and yet you still have a lot of issues and anxiety and it’s debilitating.

And so we are a church that says, yes, go to a doctor. Let’s figure out all the different ways we can care for you. But I do think some. So many of us claim what’s clinical is actually sinful, right? We say we’re so anxious and we think it’s beyond our control. And yet after a five minute conversation with you, I realize you have, like, you barely sleep, right?

You’re, you watch Netflix all the time, right? You’re never in your word. You never have moments of silence. Of course, you’re. Right. Like there are just certain natural things that make us anxious and let us help you walk through your life to make practices that change that. But I do think we have used the, the, the language of anxiety or culture is so prevalent we almost have no longer, it’s no longer in the sinful category.

We just think it’s something you have or you don’t. But in many ways, our anxiety stems from our arrogance. It stems from our own sin. So with the sober. We need to ask ourselves, am I riddled with anxiety? Is this a clinical issue or a sinful issue? And I think only you can answer that, but I want to ask you, how often do you meditate on the love that God has for you?

If the answer is never, maybe it’s a sin problem, maybe it’s just simply not focusing on him, how often do you give your worries to Jesus? , you can’t say there’s no victory in anxiety if you haven’t at least done these real, natural, practical steps in applying the scriptures, doing the word by casting your cares on him.

Why? Because he cares for you. Now, the devil, he pros and roars until his opinion becomes yours, and he wants you to think your future’s not. He wants you to be caught up in your anxiety, but the scriptures are calling us to be sober minded, be alert, recognize the devil is trying to devour us with his opinion and we can fight it with the truth of his word, which leads me to number three in Christ the good is always arduous.

man. The more I live life, I don’t know whose fault it is, but like for so long I have assumed if I am living the Christian life the right way, then it’s the light way, right? And it’s easy. And I know Jesus says my yoke is easy, my burden is light. But then he says, die to self, right? Like, carry your cross.

It’s so hard to balance these things together. But look at verse 10. That’s proof here. It says, the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself. He’s not even sending his angels to do it. It’s not, no. He himself will restore, establish, strengthen, and supports you after you have suffered a little.

See God in his sovereignty knows some of the greatest gifts in your life cannot come without suffering Some of the greatest uh, maturity. Building this love extending in your life can only come after a season of suffering. But the Roaring Lion wants to convince you the suffer. is because you serve a distant God.

The suffering is because maybe God doesn’t love you, that that’s so far from the truth. See this roaring lion, he wants to convince us. He has convinced me many times that this life should be easier. It should be faster. Moses, he led the Israelites outta slavery and what did he do for 40 years? Wander in the wilderness.

David was anointed. at a young age, but then spent the next 15 years running from King Saul until he was appointed King. You had the Apostle Paul. He had this miraculous encounter with Jesus, and then he spent years in silence and hiddenness and obscurity in Arabia. We love to skip that part, right? The way the Christian life Aquinas calls it.

The arduous good. The arduous good, the reality. , everything good is arduous and everything good is slow. I was reading a book this week and it talked about the olive tree and it’s so interesting cuz Jesus always talks about the kingdom of God and he, and he references things like gardening and things like an olive tree.

Did you know an olive tree does not produce fruit for eight years? Eight years, not a single fruit. But as you know, there are olive trees. I’ve seen them that are in Jerusalem today, that Jesus walked amongst 2000 years ago. It’s slow, but sure, this is how the Kingdom of God works in your life. Now, why does God do this?

Because we don’t know what to do. When things are easy, we run away from God. Nehemiah nine verse 28 should be on the screen. Um, Pop over. Perfect. Nehemiah nine, they realize they’re in exile. The people of God have been cast away and now they’re coming back rebuilding the wall and they’re recognizing here’s why we’re here.

Here’s how we are at this point, where we were exiled and now we’re back. And so all of Nehemiah nine is incredible. They’re reading the word of God and repenting. and recogni reciting how they’ve turned from God. And it says, but as soon as they had relief this talking about their ancestors, they again did what was evil in your sight.

The moment they got what they wanted, they turned right back to the worship ball. The moment they got what they wanted, they turned right back to idolatry. And the reality is God has put it in our life where life is hard because if it’s not hard, it doesn’t become. Beth Moore. I don’t care what you think about her in recent days, but she actually warned the younger generation, uh, this week on Twitter of thinking Popular ministries are always easy and always successful.

She has this line, she says, I believe God’s way of working of appointing or allowing us to continually face difficulties and disappointments and opposition is in no small part for our deliverance. It is a gift. An unwanted gift often, but a gift. Nevertheless, and I love this line. I think it’s the heartbeat of this passage.

What God wants for Jesus followers is for us to be filled with his spirit, not with ourselves. How do we be filled with this spirit hard. After suffering a little while, but after going through this suffering, this text is promising us. We will be restored, established, strengthened, and supported. So with a sober mind, I want us to ask ourselves, am I ruled by immediacy?

What does that mean? Are you a prisoner of the. Can I not see beyond my fleshes appetite? Am I judging my fruit in a season of pruning? Am I judging how much God loves me for the moment I’m in now? See, the reality is God, he is slow, but sure. And we are so much more in the presence of God and operating in the kingdom of God.

When we recognize God doesn’t work in the immediate all the time, we love to share those stories. This guy, man, he, he, he was a murderer and a drunkard, and Jesus saved himself and now he loves everybody. He’s never struggled. How great. But there’s just as many stories of God’s grace in your life where every day it’s a battle to fight out your old ways, in the old way of thinking and to choose goodness to pursue God in holiness even though life gets hard.

See, God is calling us to resist these lies, the lies of arrogance, that you don’t need God for your future, the lie of anxiety that your. Isn’t possible in the live immediacy that life should just be easy. Friends, life is hard, but God is good. Reminded in James four, James says the same phrase. He says, resist the devil and I love what he adds and he will flee from you.

This word resist in both passages is actually written an hes active imperative. You know what that means, ? Probably not. I didn’t, I forgot. Aris, active imperative means doing something in the present because of something that happened in the past. What is Peter saying? He said, resist the devil today because Christ ultimately resisted and conquered him at the.

See, we can only do this in the present because of the victory of what happened in the past. Christ has secured the victory. Jesus has already stripped Satan of deception, of his power, but he still has a presence. And in this moment, we are called to gather, to step into the fight. Okay, G Uh, the devil has no dominion over me, but it is my choice to pursue the good life, to study the scriptures and make sure the devil has no.

Over me. So I want us to give us three next steps and I’m done. What are three ways we can apply this text today? Number one is to practice grace, especially if you’re one struggling with pride. I want you to take the challenge to practice grace. What do I mean by that? I want you to apply in your life God’s favor over you.

For those of us who struggle with condemn. Those keep beating ourselves up for the life that we have lived in the past. Give yourself grace cuz God has given you grace in Christ Jesus. Also, I think the way to practice grace this week is to give grace to others. I know for me, I was frustrated with somebody this week.

I was on my prayer walk and I realized God was saying, Trey, the problem’s, not him. It’s you. Give him grace. Give him love. Quit holding him to that standard. You don’t hold yourself to that standard. Give him. How can you practice grace this week to your life and the lifes to those around you? Number two, practice gratitude.

It says casting all your cares on him because he cares about you. How does he care about you? Count all the ways. God has been so good. How has he loved you? How has he cared about you? Instead of tho, don’t throw those away. Keep ’em. Practice gratitude. In the third one that was challenging for me this week is to practice delayed gratification.

Peter’s saying, after you have suffered a little while, then you’ll be restored, established, strengthen and supported. Don’t forfeit your future. For the immediate, by the spirit of God, you and I are called. To delayed gratification. This can happen in so many ways. May maybe this week you abstain from a meal.

Maybe you fast this week, training your body to wait, training your soul to wait. Would you take one of these practices this week? Because this is what it is saying. God wants to pour his grace and love on you. He wants to keep you protected from the enemy. And how we do those things, how we step into them is to apply the grace in our life, be grateful for the way that God cares for us.

And to remember that so many of the gifts God wants to give us will come after we have suffered a little.