"Grace For The Humble" (1 Peter 5:5-7, George Galli)

Like Daryl was talking last Sunday we have a shepherd Jesus and and all of us that are um that fathers called to teach it's just our job to pick up on what God's doing, right?

Walk in that humility, understanding who we are, who we're not, and give God the glory.

And that's all of us.

Whatever we're doing, right?

We all have we all have a ministry, we all have a mission, don't we?

God's called us all to work and labor in the kingdom.

And and so we're blessed, we're thankful for that.

We're um going to take some time uh in 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 5 through 7.

1 Peter 5:5–7

We're gonna talk about grace.

We all need grace.

Show of hands, who needs grace?

Okay, pretty good.

As Siri's sitting here telling me about grace right now.

I hate these things.

They listen all the time.

So we're gonna spend some time talking about grace today out of uh 1 Peter chapter 5, uh verses 5 through 7.

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

We'll read it here shortly.

Before we do, though, um, and you might ask yourself, well, why am I starting out talking about anxiety?

Well, anxiety is what creates a fear in us, which begins to inhibit us from operating and walking in what God's called us to do.

So we need to understand how God's grace is going to take that anxiety away.

So we need to understand what is that anxiety?

Where's it where does it come from, and and and what does it do, and what's our responsibility?

We know in Matthew, the Lord told us to cast all our burdens on him, right?

Yep.

And to take up his yoke.

And the beautiful thing about a yoke is it takes the power of one, and then when you add another, it's exponential.

Deuteronomy says one puts how many?

A thousand to flight.

Two?

Ten thousand.

That's amazing.

By the time we get to another, we're we're we're now a hundred, we're a hundred thousand.

Five, we get we get to a million.

In the power that God has given us as we work together to move forward the call of God in the kingdom.

That's a beautiful thing, isn't it?

None of us are operating alone.

None of us have to struggle alone, none of us have to fear alone.

Right?

So we're in a world and we're inundated.

The world's constantly telling us everything we have to worry about.

The moment you turn on the TV, what do you hear about?

You hear about the war in Iran.

You hear about how terrible the economy is.

You hear about this this killer of uh waterborne bacteria that that five people have died in South Carolina.

It's a flesh-eating disease.

That's all you hear in the news.

I've got to ask myself, why do we listen to the news?

What do we get out of it?

Well, it's it's wise to know what's around us so we're ready, right?

But is it wise to let that stuff always fill our mind?

We get it everywhere.

Every one of us in this, in, in, under, under this pavilion right now is connected somehow to social media.

I I can with with ivory soap confidence say everybody here has something coming across their phones right now, telling them something on social media or the news.

And if it hasn't just this moment, it shortly will.

Right?

So they're constantly giving us all this economic uncertainty.

We're faced with relationship struggles, health concerns, endless comparisons through social media.

What a mess.

Even the television shows, how many more and more reality shows do we need to show us how insufficient and inadequate we are compared to the beautiful people?

The world is flooding us with this anxiety and fear and doubt.

And so it's become so common, beloved, we we we consider it to be part of normal life.

And we don't even recognize those things.

The anxiousness, the fear, the pressures.

We we don't recognize it anymore because it's become normal to us.

So in this world filled with pressure, God gives us a different way to live.

In 1 Peter 5.7, he's not only telling us to stop worrying, he shows us why we worry, how humility opens the door to God's grace, why we can confidently place every burden into his hands, into the hands of a God that truly cares for us.

Okay?

And he says, 1 Peter 5.7, excuse me, 5.5.

You younger men likewise be subject to your elders.

And all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you at the proper time.

Now, he's concluding his letter.

In chapter 5, Peter's kind of wrapping up everything that he's talked about, you know, of uh regarding spiritual uh warfare, sufferings, the return of Jesus, um our responsibility and how we relate to each other, as pastor past uh excuse me, as uh Pastor talked about the judgment that we face a couple weeks ago, as uh Daryl talked about the responsibility of pastoral leadership and how they're to operate and what our responsibility is to them.

He's wrapping all of this up, and and and he says, likewise, subject yourself to your elders, and all of you clothe yourself with humility toward one another.

So there's a mutual submission that we're to walk in.

And and and I I I want to call out there in verse 5, as he talks to us about submitting and humbling ourselves to each other, what humility really is.

It's placing yourself in the proper order, it's thinking of ourselves the right way, it's knowing who we are, and guess what?

Who can finish that?

Who we are?

It's knowing who we are and who we are not.

Somebody said that we can summarize it.

We have to know who we are in Christ.

Apart from Christ, Paul said there's nothing good that's in me.

Now, is that something that's when we talk about humility and take that into perspective that there's nothing good in me, is that going to now cause me to think I'm inferior?

Does humility think it's that you're inferior?

Being humble?

No.

Moses, the humblest man, the Bible tells us, knew exactly who he was and stood up to the biggest single power in the world at the time.

Confronted Pharaoh and commanded Pharaoh to let his people go.

Does that sound like somebody that's fearful?

Insecure?

Humility, my friends, has nothing to do with insecurity.

It's knowing who you are in Jesus, walking boldly and confidently in that.

But at the same time, knowing that it's God that goes before us.

Right?

And he says, when we don't clothe ourselves in humility, he reminds us, and he quotes, out of Psalm 34, probably one of the most powerful common statements in all the scripture as it relates to us, God opposes the proud.

In Psalm 34, it says, His face is set against those that work evil.

When God's face is set against, that means there's no hope.

The whole punishment of hell is God's removed his presence and his availability to his presence from us.

I say us, those in hell.

When we know Jesus and we're confident in our salvation, walking in that born-again relationship with the Lord being our Savior, we have no fear of that, right?

But what's the what's the penalty of sin?

Hell.

What happens in hell?

God removes the availability of his presence from those that are condemned there.

Okay?

And it says he opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

So as we're talking about this, let's understand now what grace is.

Grace is an empowering from God to accomplish what he has placed in us to do.

Grace is an enabling from God to do what God has called us to.

Now, there's something, you know, as as we're we're we're we're going through this, I want you to listen with a question.

How does humility help me receive grace?

Walking in that humble uh humility, knowing who God has called me to be, who he's made me to be, and and aware of who I'm not, how does that afford me grace?

How does that give me that gift of God that enables me to now walk as God's called me to walk?

Do what God's called me to do, be who God's called me to become.

So, first thing, humility positions us to receive God's grace.

And there are two commands that he gives us here: clothe yourself in humility and humble yourself under the hand of God, right?

Ephesians chapter 4, verses 22 to 25 tell us to put off the old man and put on the new.

Ephesians 4:22–25

It's walking in and applying what God has worked in us.

And the second, or excuse me, the first is it's a command that relates to how we deal with each other, how we relate to and associate with one another.

And the other one is in regard to our relationship with God.

And where Ephesians tells us that we need to take off and put on, James chapter 4, as we relate to God, and his sovereignty tells us that we ought to say, if it's the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.

James 4 · chapter mention

And so a humble person walking in God's grace, with all that the world is filling us and surrounding us with, that wants to oppress us, beat us down, and keep us in a corner like a beaten dog, that acknowledgement and submission to God's grace brings us to where we recognize, regardless of what's around me and how I'm like feel naturally, I can walk in what God's told me to do.

I can be who God's called me to become.

And whatever his will is, that's what I'm gonna do.

And not try and figure it out myself, because that's what anxiety does to us.

That's what fear does to us.

It makes us want to handle it and deal with it ourselves.

Okay?

Now, in John chapter 13, as we're talking about clothing ourselves, relating to one another, if you have your Bibles, go to John 13.

John 13 · chapter mention

And in verse 3, there's a beautiful thing here.

Jesus is nearing the end of his life, end of his earthly ministry.

And in verse 3, knowing that the Father had given all things in his hands, and that he had come forth from God and was going back to God.

See, that's humility.

Jesus was about to go through the worst time in his earthly ministry, be rejected of everyone he created, even his own disciples that walked with him for three years.

Everyone God made, the Lord Jesus brought life to, is about to reject him.

And knowing where he came from, that he emptied himself, like the scripture says, of his Godhead, and came in the form of man and took on our flesh, knowing that he was going to go back to God, the Bible says that he did that with joy in his heart, because he would bring every one of us, his children, to righteousness.

He got up from supper and laid aside his garments, taking a towel, he girded himself.

Then he poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he girded.

So he came to Simon Peter and said to him, Simon said to him, Lord, don't wash my feet.

Jesus answered and said to him, What I do you don't realize now, but you'll not understand here.

Excuse me, but you will understand hereafter.

That is very small print.

You will understand hereafter.

Let's think about what's going on here culturally.

Jesus is removing his garment and he's putting upon him a servant's apron, and about to do the job that the lowest person in society was to do, and that is wash feet.

And and it seems kind of odd, you know, if you think about it, but again, understand what was going on.

Um they were work walking on, they didn't have nice paved pathways, manicured grass, right?

They they had dirt roads, dusty, and they had a lot of cattle, and as the cattle were going by the same roads that they would walk on, what do horses and sheep and goats and cows do while they're walking?

Literally while they're walking, exactly.

It was a very arid land.

What happens when things that once contained moisture are out in the sun being beat upon all day with a breeze blowing across them, drying it all up?

What begins to happen?

As then another animal walks on it, as people come walking by and tread on it, as a cart rolls over it, what happens?

It breaks up, and it now becomes part of the very stuff you're walking on, that dirt path.

So all these folks, they didn't they didn't have these e-bikes.

They didn't have carts.

Your average person couldn't afford a cart.

Your average person couldn't afford a donkey to ride on.

You had a donkey, you had a Cadillac.

They were walking on that stuff, in that stuff.

And they didn't have, you know, nice Reebokes and Air Jordans and you know, all that other stuff.

It was sandaled feet.

So all of that would get on their feet, drying them up, cracking their feet, and and all that filth would get on their feet.

Now they'd come into somebody's house.

Do you want that in your house?

You know what's on there.

Do you want that stuff in your house?

No.

So what would they do?

They'd get the lowest person in society to now come gird themselves, wash those feet.

It would refresh that individual.

How many of us work hard?

Let me see your hands.

If you work hard.

Not enough of us.

Let's talk afterwards.

We we all work hard.

We're all we're in shoes, right?

If you've been in shoes all day, what's one of the first things that you want to do when you don't have to be in shoes all day?

You want to take them off.

One of the first things I do when I get home from work, I kick my shoes and socks off, and those toes expand like you've never seen toes expand.

Okay?

Relaxing, getting comfortable.

And if it's really bad, you even dip them in water, right?

You go to the tub, you wash them off, rinse them off, right?

In part to relax and refresh you, and then to hopefully save everybody else in the room.

So the the lowest person in society would now do that.

And it was also, you know, to refresh that individual and protect your property, make things comfortable, right?

For everybody.

But I want you to also understand when I said the lowest individual, because you had other levels of slaves in Israel at this time.

You had those that were considered the bottom, and they were usually slaves that were from other nations.

But you had Jews that were also slaves, right?

They would come and indenture themselves to the house for a number of years, and and eventually, when that agreement was over, they could become a bond slave, where they're actually part of the house.

Okay?

That person that was that Israelite could actually legally, if the master of the house came to them and said, wash those feet, that slave had legal right to say no.

I'm not going to do that.

Because that job was that demeaning and degrading.

Our Savior, the King of Gory, the one and enthroned, the one who's enthroned in the clouds upon the praises of his people, in eternity with God the Father in the presence of the Godhead, did the most menial thing any person could do.

And he looks at Peter who says, No, Lord, you're not going to do that to me.

He says, if you don't let me do this, you have no idea what I'm about.

That's what he's saying.

If you're not willing to come and empty yourself and serve yourself in that capacity of those that are in the kingdom, you have no idea why I'm here.

And that's when Peter jumps and says, Lord, wash my whole body.

Let me understand this.

So what does that have to do with receiving God's grace?

Put yourself in that position.

It would take a whole lot of humility and grace to serve that way, wouldn't it?

And think about the times, the situations that you might be aware of where, you know, 11 o'clock at night, you're in bed, resting, sleeping even, because you got to get up at 0 dark 30 to get your life going, to go to work, to do whatever it is you have to do.

And you get that phone call.

And the person on the other end is broken and needs ministry.

You could reject it.

You could say, no, I'm not doing it now.

How about we get together tomorrow?

I'm in bed right now.

How about, you know, how about I reach out to you when I my lunch break, 11 o'clock.

I'll give you a call at 11 o'clock.

That person needs us now.

It takes a lot of grace to walk in that, doesn't it?

It takes a lot of humility to know who we are and who we're not, to receive that grace from God that'll empower us and strengthen us.

Right?

So humility, rightly positioning ourselves, rightly thinking of ourselves, who we are, what our reason for being is, that humility allows God's grace.

It puts us in a place where we can now freely receive that free-flowing grace.

Because we've taken his mind.

Philippians chapter chapter 2, verses 3 through 8.

I'm going to try and see it in this.

I got I gotta get a bigger text.

Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

And he says in verse 3, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.

Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others, having this attitude in yourself, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men.

Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.

For this reason, God exalted him.

God exalts those who are humble.

And I love how it says, even though from eternity he was God, in the presence of God, he didn't think that was something to hold on to so tightly.

Neither is our pride and opinions of who we are.

Pastor Dan says it all the time.

And I I'm real bad about remembering quotes and things like that.

But he talks about you, you know, nobody can you can't receive anything with a fist.

It's got to be open handed.

And when we Hold on to something, we can't receive anything else.

It's only when we let it go that we can hold more, that we can receive, right?

So like we said, God opposes the proud and and and uh gives grace to the humble.

But humility, guys, humility is not simply an attitude, okay?

It's something intentionally put on, worn, and demonstrated.

Okay?

This humility that we're talking about is intentionally put on.

You have to make up your mind.

You have to, with intention, say, walk, do those things that are true humility.

Because it's shown.

Any man can proclaim his own goodness, the Bible says.

But you can't hide who you are.

Because what you do consistently over time manifests exactly what's going on in here.

The second thing, you know, the first one that we talked about was how humility positions us to receive God's grace.

Well, humility expresses itself by casting every anxiety on God.

2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 9, the Lord said, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

2 Corinthians 12:9

Therefore I'll boast in my weakness, so that his power would rest on me.

That power is literally strength, the enemy, dunamis.

Okay?

And and think of the word dynamite, dynamo.

The root is this Greek word, power.

Okay?

And he says, My um my power is made perfect in weakness.

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Paul's response to that was so I'll glory in that weakness.

Oftentimes we try we hide from it.

We don't because because we we we we think that if if I'm gonna be real and transparent and talk about my shortfall, talk about where I'm struggling, talk about my fear, my anxieties, that in some way somebody's gonna think I'm not really that spiritual.

And by by having that kind of mentality, it really puts us behind.

It limits us, it hamstrings us.

Okay?

It's like a bird with its wings clipped.

It's still a bird, but it can't do what it's supposed to do.

It can't fly.

It gets up a little bit, flutters around, gets off the ground slightly, but it can't soar.

And the Bible tells us that we're to soar like the eagle.

He says in 1 Peter 5 and verse 7, cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Casting is literally looking at something and considering it worthless and wanting nothing to do with it, and throwing it with all your strength, all your might, getting rid of it as far as you can, casting it away from you.

He says, Do that with your anxieties.

We could read this verse.

Humble yourselves by casting all your anxieties upon him.

And anxiety, it often grows by trying to control outcomes so that uh the outcomes that belong to God.

Okay, anxiety often grows by trying to control the outcomes that belong to God.

You know, our our finances, our advancements, uh on the job, our positions, um, the salvation of loved ones.

These are things that they we all deal with them, don't we?

We all have a loved one that we want to see come to the Lord.

Or we all have a loved one that maybe did make a profession of faith, walked in it, backslid, and we want to see him come back, right?

Everybody here, you know, if you work, you'd like to earn more.

Right?

If you got a job, you'd like to earn a little bit more.

You earn a little bit more by getting advancement, right?

You'd like to know and and and and believe that that you're receiving what you know the the results of what you put in.

Relationships, struggles, right?

Get two people in a room, you're bound to have some conflict sometime.

I I love my wife with all my heart, but I'm telling you, sometimes it gets it gets kind of wintertime's not so bad because that friction actually lowers the gas bill and increases the temperature in the room.

No, no, that's not.

Get two people in a room.

One, you get one person in the room, there's gonna be conflict.

I don't know how that happens, but I've been totally alone and mad at myself.

All the rest, yeah, me too.

Crazy how that happens.

So, so anxiety often grows from trying to control the outcomes that belong to God.

And and the humble person is gonna say, Lord, this is in your hands, not mine.

But it takes it takes a lot of grace to be able to do that.

It takes a lot of strength.

Honestly, it really, really does.

It takes a lot of strength to cast something away.

The proverb is true.

A dog, what?

Returns to his vomit.

Now, how many of you have ever thought about yourself being that dog and what that vomit is?

Remember what we just said?

Cast away your anxiety.

Something you're looking at that's totally worthless, nobody would ever want.

This is can we say vomit?

Do you want to hold on to vomit?

Do you want to keep it?

Put it in a bag, save it for later?

What do you do with it?

You get rid of it as far away as you can.

Make it go.

But the proverb is a true saying: a dog will return to his vomit.

If we don't allow God's grace to infill us, to empower us, my grace is sufficient for you.

In your weakness, my power drives you and gives you the ability.

You're not going to receive that power without grace.

You're not going to receive grace without humility.

We on point?

We got to let it go.

Ephesians 1, verse 11 says, God works all things according to the counsel of his will.

Ephesians 1:11

James 4, remember what we said?

You ought to say, if it's the Lord's will, we will live and do it.

Let's put it in today's language.

If it's the Lord's will, I'm going to live it.

When we say live it, what are we talking about?

I'm going to apply it.

It's going to become part of me.

You're going to look at me.

That's our goal.

That's where we're wanting to be.

I'm going to look at you.

You're going to look at me.

And your behavior is going to, without doubt, cause us to know you are doing exactly what God has told you to do.

You are being exactly who God has made you to become.

You are being that person you're going to become.

Matthew chapter 10, 29 to 31, not even a single sparrow falls to the ground outside of your father's care.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

Even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

If we know this, if we know that God works all things according to the counsel of his will, that not even a sparrow falls to the ground, not even one hair on our head isn't, God isn't aware of.

Some of us made that job easier.

How in the world do we think it's okay to hold on to anxiety, fear, worry, doubt?

On and on.

How is that okay?

What are we doing?

We're saying, God, you're not enough.

Your sacrifice, Lord, wasn't sufficient.

Now, how many of us would put that into words?

I doubt none of us here would dare say that in conversation.

What do our actions at times express?

Come clean, dirty.

If we know God's in control of all things, why do we struggle to let go of our anxiety?

Pride and anxiety feed each other.

It's a progression that we're to do to overcome this.

But pride and anxiety feed each other.

Pride keeps us holding on to what God says let go.

Keep holding on.

God says let it go.

Everything, what it says, pride keeps us holding on to what God says, let go.

That is, everything depends on me.

If I don't do it, it don't get done.

Ever say that?

Well, okay, yeah.

God's not going to come down and clean our toilet bowl.

But if I don't work 30 extra hours a week, yeah, I know that's going to take me away from fellowship with the believers and doing what, you know, some of the things that we're doing in the kingdom.

But if I don't work those 30 extra hours of overtime, I'm not going to pay off the fourth car I bought.

Maybe you shouldn't have bought the fourth car.

Am I stepping on a toe?

I'm sorry.

But let's be real.

Maybe we shouldn't have bought that fourth car.

Maybe we got to come to understanding we don't need 35 pairs of shoes.

Maybe we don't need every known source of entertainment to mankind.

All we're doing is entertaining the inundation of more things that are going to feed the anxiety and the pride and the fear.

Say it again.

Come clean, dirty.

I love you.

I'm not trying to step on anybody's toes.

I'm just trying to be real.

It says, I can handle this.

I gotta control the outcome.

I can't fail.

I don't want to be known as a failure.

Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, most people know this, and I don't remember the numbers.

Somebody can fix it for me.

Trying to create the light bulb that changed the world had 700 attempts that didn't work.

Was he a failure?

How about this?

I ain't doing it because I don't understand it.

If I understand it, I'll do it.

I got I'm not going to do it if I don't understand it.

How do I know it's true?

Your spirit will bear witness.

Get to doing, and God's going to reveal it to you.

Abraham, talking to a servant, sending him to find a wife for his son, said, How do I know?

How do I know that that's the person?

Abraham looked at him and said, God will direct you while you're in the way.

I'm not going to do it if I don't fully understand it.

That's stupid.

Only a fool jumps in not knowing the outcome.

No.

A Christian jumps in not knowing the outcome.

Because our confidence is in what did we say?

I apologize, I've got to look back here.

God works all things according to his counsel and his will.

That's how we have the confidence to jump in and not knowing the outcome.

Because we know that God is in control.

Humility transfers where pride and anxiety feed each other and only spiral us down.

Humility transfers responsibility to the one who can bear it.

And that's Jesus.

Humility, the humble person says, God is sovereign, God is wise, God is good, God cares for me.

I'm not in control.

So the progression is putting on humility, humbling ourselves to God's authority, casting all our cares on Him.

So in closing, Peter's leaving us with a simple but life-changing choice.

We can carry our burdens ourselves, or we can place them into the hands of the God who's able to carry them for us.

Pride keeps us gripping what God has asked us to surrender, and humility opens our hands to receive his grace and his peace.

Let go of that thing that's holding you down so you can receive the grace from God that's going to cause you to rise.

The same mighty hand that rules over all creation is the hand that lovingly cares for each of his children.

Don't just hear Peter's words today, live them.

Humble yourself under God's mighty hand, receive the grace he freely gives.

Cast all anxiety on him, trusting that he cares for you, that his care for you is greater than your greatest concern.

And the invitation that we have here right now, beloved, that the Scripture is giving us, don't try harder, trust deeper.

Amen?

Thank you, Father.

Lord, we are so grateful, Lord, for your grace that you flood us with, Lord, as we come to you and humbly submit and yield to your sovereignty.

We don't have to understand everything, Lord God.

We don't have to know the end and the leading up to and the results.

What we have to know and be confident in, Father God, is that you care for us.

And that you, the all-powerful God, the creator of all the universe, hold us in your tender hand.

That same hand that holds the universe caresses us and comforts us.

Father, we thank you in Jesus' name.