Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Enjoy the message. Now.
I know this message is for somebody because the devil was fighting me to be able to deliver it. So let's go forward together now into the word of God. Peter has an instruction here. He says, in the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. Everybody over fifty say amen. All the parents say amen. This is your verse. Peter's a little older now, he's got that. He's got that senior citizen discount swag going on in
this letter that he's writing. He's got that aarp swag. Amen, and all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another. Because God opposes the prow but he shows favor to the humble. 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 a sober mind. Your enemy, the devil.
Prows around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. But resistant, standing firm in the faith because you know that you're not the only one going through something. The family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. Touch somebody, say, you're not a You're not alone, You're not the only one.
You're not the only one. You're not crazy. It's a battle.
We all must fight, some fears, we all must face some things, we all must go through, and we're.
In this together. Amen.
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, make you strong, firm and steadfast to Him be the power forever and ever and ever and ever.
And ever and ever and ever.
And let the church say, Amen, Amen, I want to speak to you for a few moments today on the subject when anxiety attacks? What are you going to do when anxiety attacks? Amen, you may be seated in the presence of God. Thank you, worship team. Then they do good.
Following my random little Come on, didn't they do good following that little.
We have the best musicians on the planet at Elevation Church, the best volunteers on the planet who.
Do the technical stuff, the.
Best cameraman on the planet. Watch these cameramen switch back and forth real quick. Go from the yeah, just go back and forth a bunch of times. Just watch. Just watch this.
That crazy, not cool.
They do all this stuff that you don't even know about behind the scenes to bless you so you can hear the word of God. I appreciate all our volunteers back in ekas the parking lot, all of our ushers ushing with excellence for the glory of God. Ay Man, I just feel grateful today for everybody. Hey, my mom and I were texting this morning. We were talking about my memory and how I remember weird little things from my childhood, and she says that I remember some of
them incorrectly. But one thing I know I remember was around age sixteen at Monk's Corner United Methodist Church when Aunt Jackie she was really my aunt, but I called her Aunt Jackie because when I was a little boys to go over to their house all the time and she let me watch dukes of hazard and she pulled me aside because I had made a commitment to Jesus Christ as a sixteen year old boy, and she could see the passion and enthusiasm from my eyes, and she
had changed my diapers. And she was at that age where you can say whatever you want to say, kind of like Peter was when he was telling the church there the people of God who were under persecution and under attack at the hands of the Emperor Nero. And Aunt Jackie pulled me aside and she was telling me some words of wisdom.
She said that she believed that.
God had a plan for me and that God was going to use me and do something special for me. She said, I even told our committee. She was on the committee. The Methodist Church has a lot of committees. They have committees on committees. For God so loved the world that he did not send a committee, but Aunt Jackie was on all the committees, and the Flower committee
and the Chair committee. She said, I told the committee that you wouldn't be here much longer, that this was the church that you were raised in, but that God was going to use you for other things, and we need to let you go when God calls you, because he's going to use you, and you're going to speak and she was saying all these things to me, and again I had been only.
A Christian for a short time, so I was encouraged by it.
Then she shifted gears and she went into this real serious mode and she was like, but the devil, the devil doesn't like you, and he wants to use you as target practice, bring you down.
As God he's raising you up. So she told me don't. This is the Southern way to say.
First Peter five six, which says humble yourself under God's mighty hands.
She said, don't get too big for you. It's a Charlotte thing.
You know. We're regional national church now, so I have to tell him don't get too big for your breeches and keep yourself low so God can raise you up high.
And she told me that because she said, the devil is after you.
He does not like the passion that you have for God, and he's after you.
And I'm glad she.
Told me that second part because I don't know if a lot of Christians get told that second part. And so I thought I would join in with Peter, who said you're enemy. The devil roars like a lion looking for someone he can eat. Alive, looking for a family, he can tear apart. Looking for a future, he can ruin before it even has a chance to get started. Looking for a church, he can divide, looking for a nation, He can divide looking for an addiction.
He can plant in.
The heart of a fourteen year old so that they'll never live a normal adult life. The devil is busy, The devil is active.
She told me.
And the interesting thing about it is she was saying that to me, I think because she thought God was calling me to preach. But you don't have to be a preacher to have a bull's eye on your back. In fact, I want you to write.
Something down for me.
If you care anything at all about your future, your family, or your faith, write this down. The birthmark of a believer is a bulls eye. Peter is here to teach us that we are born again into a living hope. But as you are born into a living hope, you are also born into an eternal struggle and a very real battle.
The day that you become one with Christ the enemy. Now, I want to be careful here because this is what we do.
Sometimes we get way too carried away about all the stuff that the devil.
Does you know.
Someone will say, well, I've just been under it. Let me get my white girl boye on. I've just been under attack lately. So like lately, I see like the devil's been attacking me and so much, and it's just like so Bad's like my mom and my dad and everybody, like my teachers and everything.
And like my iPhone.
I was charging in it the other day and I've charged I know, I charged it overnight, but then I.
Woke up and it was dead, and it's just the devil knows your charger. It wasn't the devil.
People on my job, they just hate me because I'm a Christian.
I'm just under attack. My boss doesn't like me. I'm just under attack.
Right now, I know you're not under attack, you're underperforming. Your boss doesn't like you because you're not doing a very good job commensurate with the paycheck, that they haven't trusted to you. But yet there are those times, and there are those seasons where you just get a sense that I feel like I'm under attack.
And it's something only Christians say. It's not something you would say if.
You didn't believe in God, because you wouldn't believe in the devil, so you would just say everything's falling apart or whatever. But do you remember when President Bush was reading to the elementary school class, and there's a famous picture of his chief of staff and to go up to him while he's reading a book and say to the President, the second plane hit the second tower on nine to eleven, and he said America is under attack.
And he told the President that, according to his account and his record after the fact, he said America is underattack. Peter is walking up to a church under attack and speaking to them on a personal level.
I want you to know.
That you're under attack now, just the preacher, because people will come up to me all the time and say.
I'm praying for your preacher. I know the devil wants to take you out.
Well, I look right back at him and say, well, I'm gonna pray for you too. Write your name down, because he'll take whoever he can get. He's after construction workers and sophomores in high school and stay at home moms and attorneys, prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
And I wonder, is it you?
I wonder is that you he's been after with thoughts that repeat themselves over and over again in your mind, thoughts of worklessness or thoughts of anxiety. This seems to be Peter's primary focus is that the attack of the enemy often manifests itself in an overwhelming sense of anxiety.
I know this is the manifestation of the attack, for if it were not the manifestation of the attack, Peter would not singularly lift it in verse seven as the focal point of his admonition to the church under attack.
I feel like teaching today. Are you ready to learn?
Give me about thirty minutes, because you're under attack, and there are some things you need to know about this attack. The good news is it is not an ambush. Peter says that the devil is like a roaring lion. That means he gives you a warning before the warfare begins. And so sometimes we act really surprised by things that we go through and ways that we struggle, and we've come into situations that are harder than we expected them to be, and we ask God to do great things
in our lives. But the battle begins and we act like we weren't warned. No, Peter said, this lion. The devil is not silent. He's a rule.
Come on, give me your best roar. I've never done this before.
I've done a lot of touch your neighbors, but somebody roar at your neighbors.
Saying, devil's all up in your face.
He'll let you know is coming.
And what you need to know if you are under attack. And I will not have you.
Raise your hand because perhaps the very people who need this message the most would be the most reluctant to admit that this is for me. But he said, when you find yourself in a season of attack, that roaring lion is in your face.
Now, I'm thinking right here, Peter is gonna.
Say run, because to me, that's the only reasonable advice when you're faced with the roaring lion. Hello, I don't even like dogs very much. Holly's scared of rats. Can you imagine if she saw a lion. But he doesn't say rhyme. Instead, he challenges us to resist. And it's a certain type of resistance because he says, to those who are under attack, you need to come under the mighty hand of God. I want you to see that phrase because it touched me so deeply in my study.
I was hoping to explain it to you for a moment today. The three things that the hand of God represents. This is verse six. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, an image that would have been familiar for a Jewish audience, for it was with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm that God brought his people out of Egyptian slavery. And Peter wants him to know that same hand of God that has been actively fulfilling his purpose throughout human history is still reigning over your life.
Humble yourself under that mighty hand. The hand of God represents his plan. I don't know about you, but I'm thankful that God's plan for my life has prevailed, even against my own plan that I thought was better Sometimes. How many are grateful for the hand of God. If you're grateful for the hand of God, just wave your hand at me. God's hand is not like your hand.
It's an invisible hand. You can't see it, but you definitely know the effects of it when it moves, because after you've lived a little while, Peter said, I saw what happens in the hand of God, the plan of God.
I saw what happens.
See, Peter is not writing this as advice unsolicited, And he's not writing this as advice uninformed. Peter is a grown man now, a grown Christian man, now getting a little polder about relaying his advice from his experiences. And who better to tell us about the hand of God than a man who walked with Jesus Christ in the flesh. Who better to describe to us the function of the hand of God than the one who saw his face. Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.
Peter didn't just trace the hand of God. He saw the face of God. And now he says, to those who were under attack, up under depression, up under disappointment, dealing with failure, hit rock bottom, don't know what's next, freaking out, crying yourself to sleep at night, feeling all alone, he says, to every believer, You've got the upper hand. The hand of God is mighty, the hand of God is strong, The hand of God is over your life.
You will prevail. His purpose will come to pass, for I know the plans I have.
For you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you, not to harm your plans to give you hope in a future. And if you find yourself under attack today, you need to know that the hand of God is guiding you, leading you that same hand to split the sea open so as people could walk right through it. The hand of God will make a way where there is no way. The hand of God will bring a rock a water out of a rock in.
A dry place.
The hand of God is over your life, and he has a plan, plan, the plan of God. The hand of God represents the plan of God. The hand of God represents the provision of God. These all start with the letter P because that's what I do, the provision of God. And who better to remind the church that is under attack or a believer who is under attack that the hand of God is the place where bread multiplies than the one who saw five thousand fed with
just a few loads and a few fish. Anytime you see seeing a skid snackpack from Captain D's multiplied into a buffet, you know something about the provision in the hand of God. And Peter was right there, and he saw what happened when they put the bread in Jesus' hand, and so he knew that at times where you feel like you're in a place of lack, that your provision is never dependent upon your own ability to provide for yourself or your own ability to create resource for yourself.
But anything you put in the hand of God will multiply. Anything you put in the hand of God will multiply. Anything you put in the hand of.
God, it just keeps coming, It just keeps coming. Don't have any witnesses.
You've been through some hard times in your life, but hope kept coming. You've been in some tight places, you felt like you were running out, you didn't feel like you could make it to the next day. But somehow, blakeney strength kept coming, surely kept comming. Tomorrow kept coming in spite of your past. Because the hand of God is a hand of provision, and it's a hand of protection.
God has me in his grip.
Who better to help me see that the hand of God will protect me than the one who tried to walk on water the end of the Bible. Go study this story in Matthew chapter fourteen, where Peter got out there. He's trying to make his way to Jesus. He's coming toward him, and about the time he gets there. Because sometimes it's right when you're on the verge that you start to sink. I never saw it before. Can I
take a moment? Okay, I'm gonna take a moment. You said I could in Matthew chapter fourteen, because I was just gonna mention it. But you act like you came to here preaching today. I don't know what's happened at University City, but there's some hungry people for the bread of life.
At Valentine.
It says that Peter in the storm, got out of the boat, and when he walked out on the water, he did pretty good.
Watched this. He came toward Jesus.
Y'all got that scripture of Matthew fourteen. He came toward Jesus, but when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink. Cried out, Lord save me. So he cries out before he goes completely under. So he's sinking, but he's not sunk. He's going down, but he's not out. The lion is prowling, but he has not prevailed. You follow me, Watch this, says one I never saw. Verse thirty one says that immediately that's the word, Jesus reached.
Out his.
Do it again immediately, Jesus reached out his Immediately Jesus reached out his hand.
Noticed the construct of the narrative. Jesus is not walking toward Peter. Peter is walking toward Jesus.
When Jesus sees Peter falling and hears him crying, he reaches out his hand, and Peter is close enough for Jesus to reach.
The problem with some of us, isn't.
That we're sinking, is that we won't stay close enough. Come on for God to get us in his grip.
But I came to.
Announce to that lion today, that liar the devil, that I'm in his script, even when I'm going down, even though the winds and the waves are roaring and raging in my life, I'm in this script.
Somebody said, I'm in his script.
I'm in his gript. God's got me in his grip. He's got me in his grip. He's got me in the hand of his protection. He might let me suffer a little while, but he won't let me stay there.
He is my God, and I'm in his hand. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God.
Doesn't matter how well you can walk on water matters how close you are to his hand. Doesn't matter about your intelligence. It matters about your surrender. It doesn't matter about your ability. It matters about your surrender. Humble yourself. I'm preaching to somebody. I'm preaching to somebody so straight you can't even no. You're trying to hold back tears. But God sent a preacher with a message. You might as well go ahead and cry out, Lord, save me.
I can't do this on my own. I am not enough by myself.
Humble yourself.
Under the mighty hand of God. He'll lift you up and do time. He'll get you up. He'll lift you up and do time. He'll let you go down low enough to know that you need him, and bring you up high enough to let the.
World know that he's with you. Come on, come on, come on.
Verse seven is what I've been trying to practice, that I can be under attack and not anxious. Cast all your anxiety on him. He cares for you, and trying to do that because I felt like after Codorin's revival, I felt like I went under an emotional attack, and I don't even know that I'm still out of it yet.
Part of it is probably because.
Of adrenaline and physiology factors that have to do with getting up ten nights in a row, and all of the hosting of trying to put up with guests for ten nights make them feel special.
Part of it, though, had to be spiritual.
And.
It was like for ten nights.
If you weren't here in our church, you know you basically missed out on life by not coming to Code Orange survival. But not only did our city go through a shaking after the revival, I went through a shake in And I don't want to get up here and use you for a counseling appointment because I don't want to have to.
Pay your hourly fear or anything like that.
And I don't want you to worry about me because I promise you I'm good and I love my wife and my kids and we're good and everything like that.
Don't send me these emails. We're praying for you, pastor.
That's not the reason I'm telling you this, And it'll make me feel like you missed the point if you send me an email.
I don't want a cart or anything like that.
Flowers cookies trying to get me fat on carbohydrates because you think I'm struggling.
I don't want anything. I don't need any of that. I just want to say something.
While we were in here talking about ten nights, ten years, celebrating ten years, I felt overwhelmed about do I have what it takes for the next ten And it's like, once you've gone real high with God as a leader, I think you feel a.
Pressure to go higher.
But then it's kind of hard because you feel like maybe you've gone as high as you can go. And maybe you feel that way as a parent, not as a preacher. Maybe you feel that way in your business. And I don't know I'm preaching to but I'm gonna open myself up here a little bit for you today if it'll be helpful.
Because anxiety attacked me and it hit me kind of hard.
And I wasn't staying in the bed or anything like that, but I didn't go get addicted to something, some kind of pills or anything like that, but it was a thing in my mind.
You don't have what it takes. I don't have what it takes. I can't do you know, I.
As far as I can take them, I don't know if I'm the one to do it.
And all this stuff that was going through my mind.
That's how I got over the first Peter chapter five, because I know that scripture.
I love that scripture. That scripture has helped me before.
And sometimes when you are up against the fight, you got to go back to a weapon that you know. I can't fight Goliath in this armor. I got to get a slingshot. So it was kind of like just a well known verse. And I went back in there and considered the context of Peter who fell asleep in the garden of Gethsemane while he was supposed to be watching Jesus back. Jesus came over to him, gave him two wake up calls. He hit this snooze button three times?
Are you still sleeping? And I looked at how Peter was telling the church to be alert, which is translated elsewhere in the New Testament. Be prayerful, the enemy eats Christians who sleep in times of.
Battle, be alert to what's going on.
Realize that the birthmark of a believer is a bull's eye.
The devil doesn't like it one bit. That you're moving forward in your relationship with God.
I started taking the verse apart because the word of God really is while I live by, not just while I make my living off of So I went into verse seven real hard, like I needed an answer. When anxiety attacks, it'll drive you to seek God, to seek his hand. And I was looking for him because he said cast all your anxiety.
While I was reading it.
Since I knew Peter wrote it, and he's a fisherman, I wondered, was he picturing like casting the nets from one side of the boat to the other, just because Jesus told him to Sometimes anxiety in our life.
As a result of our unwillingness to be obedient.
And when he casts the net to the other side, maybe that's a word for somebody. He said, cast all your anxiety on him.
Do it his way. Now, we fished all night and caught nothing, Peter.
Said, But because you say so, I'm gonna cast my net on the other side.
I've been trying to do this my way.
I've been trying to handle it on my own. But ask my net on the other side.
However, it was in verse five and six that I found my answer.
For In verse five he says, in the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders.
All of you clothe Greek word tie on, tie on.
That's not the Greek, that's the translation of the Greek word tie it on like a towel, like Jesus did when he took on the role of a servant, and he got a towel, a servant's towel, and he put it around his waist. And when Peter saw him tying on that towel, he said, no, you don't tie.
On the towel, Jesus, you sit on the throne. But Jesus tied on the towel.
And I wonder, as Peter is telling them to clothe themselves in humility, is he having a flashback of the Savior who laid his riches and glory aside and made himself nothing found in the appearance of sinful man, and became a humbling himself, even to death on the cross. As he tied on the towel and washed Peter's feet, Peter's response, no, Lord, you can't wash my feet, Peter said. Jesus said, Peter, shut up. That's not the exact conversation, but it's the essence of it.
And he did what he came to do.
The son of men came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for men. But maybe my biggest problem was the fact that I always thought that verse seven put it on the screen police was the instruction where you say, cast all your cares on him, because he cares for you. Your anxiety's on him, because he cares for you. You know, you go to the word of God sometimes and you try to pluck up these little promises and try to do
stuff and just by like that verse that verse. But back up and catch the essence of the text verse six, Humble yourself therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time, cast all your anxiety on him.
He cares for you.
To really understand the essence and profundity of the connection, you need to see a more literal translation of verses six and seven, because Peter is writing this letter in Cooin a Greek in the Greek language.
As Peter is writing this letter, as you.
Will see demonstrated in verses six and seven, these are not two separate sentences. It reads like this, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty end of God, so that at the proper time He may exalt you watch his comma. What happens next is predicated on whether or not what happens in verse six is applied.
In Greek. It is one sentence, humble.
Yourself therefore under God's mighty hand, that he may exalt you in due time. Watch this, casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. See. I've been trying to cast my anxieties and keep my pride. But the thing about it is you need to know that the pride and the anxiety come in the same package. So if you insist on doing it your way, then expect to feel like.
The weight of the world is on your shoulders because it is.
You can't just do verse seven because you decide to God.
Take it off me. God, take it off me. Take I'm so worried. God, make me not worried anymore. Or don't you care if we perish?
That's what Peter said one time in the boat.
Don't you care that we're drowning? Don't you care? Don't you God? Don't you?
You said, cast all my anxieties on you.
I'm casting them. I'm casting them. This doesn't work.
See look at the word anxiety, because I'm telling the Lord in my in my prayers. I don't know if I can do it, and I don't know if I can do it, And I just need you to give me a sign that I can take the church for it in the next ten years.
And I just need to D D take this anxiety. I'm casting it on you, Lord. I am casting it on you, all of my anxiety. And after I prayed this way for a little while, the Lord spoke to me in my heart. Now this is not an out loud conversation.
I want you to think I'm really, really crazy, but this is the impression that I got.
The Lord said, are you done? Now? Shut up, Peter done.
Now look at the word anxiety. Look at how it's spelled in English. Look at what is in the center of the word.
Do you see it?
Show them on the screen, at the center of your anxiety if you really trace it. I'm not talking about a medical condition.
I'm not a pharmacist. I don't know about all that. I am not a neurologist. I'm saying spiritually.
Speaking that the Lord told me, at the center of your anxiety is your pride. The reason that you're so anxious is because you've got you at the center, and you can't sustain it because it's not your throne. I mean, even listen to your language. The Lord said, I don't know if I have what it takes. I don't know if I can do it. I don't know if I can make it. If I have, I have, I have, I have, I have, I have.
I ah A A I. You can't spell anxiety without eye. It's right in the middle. And you know what other word I is in the middle of pride.
And maybe the reason that you've been carrying carrying anxiety that you can't get rid of is because you've been bearing weight that you weren't meant to bear. You better humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, because if you stay weight down with pride, you're going to be waved down with anxiety and God can't lift you up. I don't know if I have what it takes to make it through the next ten years, God said to me, did you have what it took to get through the first ten?
Boy?
You better cast your net on the other side. You better call out to me in the time of the storm and humble yourself, casting all your anxiety on him. See it's not a command to cast your anxiety on him.
It's a result.
The command is to humble yourself under His mighty hand, and when you do, the anxiety.
Goes with the pride. If you would get.
Yourself out of the center and get God on the throne and lift your hands to him and say, I need you, Lord, I'm a sinful man. Can't step without you, can't breathe without you, can't eat without you, can't pray without you, can't parent without you, can't preach without you, can't work without you, can't live without you.
No peace without you, no joy without you. God.
Now I'm ready to lift you up above the wind, above the waves, above your pride. My mom lost eighty pounds over the course of two years.
Eighty pounds.
That's like an Elijah and one fourth of an Abbey.
Eighty pounds. Eighty pounds. That's about how much you curl with one arm. Eighty pounds. But you know what was weird. She didn't just lose weight.
See, my mom had bad knees and a bad back. In fact, I wanted to give my mom the house that we lived in when we moved into another house, but she couldn't take it because it had stairs.
She said, I can't.
I would love to live in that house, but the bedroom is upstairs and I can't climb the stairs.
You know what's a weird thing, though, Because she would go to the doctor.
About her knees and the doctor about her back, and my back and my knees, I got bad knees and got a bad back.
When the weight came off, the pain went with it.
I always shook a see her today, she is like an Olympic rower.
Do you remember the social network.
The Winklevoss When she was she's she rose. How much does she roll? Fifteen thousand meters a day?
I don't know. I'm making this up, but.
She rose a lot, and she can climb the stairs, and she can dance, and she's lively. It wasn't her knees, it was the weight. Is the reason that you're so anxious because of your pride? Maybe the anxiety is the fruit and the pride is the root. If you would pluck it up by the root, the fruit couldn't grow. Get yourself out the center. Get yourself out the center. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God.
Well what if I look stupid?
Some of you are about to try something right now that you never tried before.
What if I look stupid, I got good news for you.
Everybody else is thinking about themselves, not you, so they won't even notice.
But if I ay, ay ay ay. Who better to teach us about humility than Peter? Huh.
He was sitting around the table having dinner with Jesus one time. Jesus said, all of you are going to fall away. Look what Peter said? What's that other verse I gave you Mark fourteen? I think I gave that to them this morning. Yeah, because the Lord was speaking to me. I appreciate this message one time before, but the Lord was speaking to me about it for this particular group, and he reminded me what Peter.
Said when Jesus said, you.
Know, you're all going to hit rock bottle, Because sometimes the only way for you to find your foundation is to hit rock bottom. Sometimes that's the best place to build from. Sometimes that's the best place to lead from. Sometimes that's the best place to be a better husband from. Is the place of Lord save me. Not call me to come and I'll come, but Lord save me. And then the hand of God gets involved. But Peter didn't know this, and so he sitting around the table.
He says, Uh, even if all fall away, I will not, I will not.
I will not, Jesus said, before the rooster even gets his second crow out of his mouth, You're gonna be telling people you don't even know me.
And that's exactly what happened. And Jesus warned Peter of the attack.
And sometimes we don't listen and we don't hear, so we're surprised when it comes and we act like this, We act like it's an ambush when it's when it's really it's really normal.
It's normal to be attacked. It's normal, Jesus told Peter.
Satan has asked for all of you, and specifically, he's asked for you to sift you as we to sort out what's real from what's not real. But I pray for you, Peter. I pray for you, Peter. You're gonna fail, Peter, but I'm not. You are shaky at best, Peter, but I am a solid rock at the bottom of your failure.
I pray for you, Peter.
And now, Peter writes decades later, to a church under attack, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God.
For your enemy the devil. What's he like.
He's like a roaring lion. He's looking for somebody to devour. He's looking for somebody who he can shred to pieces with doubt and fear and selfishness.
He's looking for somebody that he can get to walk away.
And as a pastor, I'm just sick of having to make phone calls and visits for people every week who are being devoured by the enemy. So Peter says, this is a time for resistance. This is not a time for you to run. This is a time for you to resist. Yeah, but he's a lion, Okay. He is a lion, and he might be licking his lips, and his fangs might be sharp, and he might have you in his sight, and you might have failed, and you might have done it, and you might be going down.
But you need to know.
One thing about this lion, Peter says, is that after you have suffered a little while, God himself will step in and restoy you and make you strong. He's a lion, but the lion is on a leash. He can only go so far, he can only do so much. He can't keep you down forever. Humble yourself under the hand of God. And in due time, come on.
This is somebody's still tied. This is it.
Anxiety stops here, Depression stops here.
There stops here.
In due time, he will lift you up. Feel the hand of God reaching down for somebody today you've been going down. If it's you, lift your hand. If this you lift your hand. If this message was straight to you, stand up on your feet.
Lift both your hands in the air.
If this message was straight to you, straight to you, straight to your heart, straight to what you've been dealing with, straight to the battle you've been fighting.
Lift your hands. God.
We thank you for your hand of favor, your hand of provision, your hand of protection, your hand of power, your hand of purpose. We humble ourselves under your hand today. We know that the lion is loud, but we know that the suffering won't last long. It is not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed to us.
So we look it in.
The face today and we declare the name of Jesus is greater. The name of Jesus is higher. You have all power in your hand, all authority on heaven and an earth has been given to you. Now lift your people God, Lift your people. Lift your people, as we lift you up in this place. Lift their heads, God, lift their heads. Fry their tears, calm their hearts. Speak to the storm, and the storm will cease.
We declare in the name of Jesus, this is our due time.
Trouble won't last always, and the enemies that we're afraid of today will be our testimonies in our tomorrow.
I'm gonna say that again. The enemies that you fear today.
Will be your testimony of triumph in your tomorrow. God said, it's just a little while. The God who has called you into his eternal glory what lasts forever. After you've suffered a little while, he himself will restore you.
Peter said, I know about it because I've been there. I've had me at the center. Was so bad. I didn't know if I could ever bounce back.
I went back to my fishing business because I figured God didn't have any more use for me.
But when I was going down, that's where I found his hand. When I was going down, that's when he reached out to me.
Just when it looked like the lion had me in his sights, That's when the God of all Grace, the God of all provision, the God of all power. Do I have a witness that immediately he reached down and picked you up.
Come on, Let's.
Call on his name, Tonate, Let's call on his name, Savior of the world.
Call on his name, see Jesus, to thank you for joining us.
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