The Uniform of the Christianity

your son. God, we thank you that we can gather like this. Lift high your name. Lift high in the name of Jesus. God, we ask that as Dwayne preached his word, brethren, that you would know powerfully this morning, our hearts, Holy Spirit, that you bring conviction that we would [music] be quick to hear, quick to listen, quick to obey, and our hearts would be ready to receive. and it would all be for your glory, for the glory of your son.

Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Y'all can go ahead and be seated. We'll go and dismiss our kids to little districts. And because again, the the primary ministries of the church are the preaching of the word and prayer.

Um we can never pray enough. And so we're instituting more member-led prayer uh right before the sermon. And so I've asked Rayanne if she would come up and lead us in a time of prayer before we open up God's word. Father, we just come before you this morning. I think of those words that will sing your praises that will testify to all your goodness and how faithful you are. Lord, I look at a room filled with children this morning.

And I just pray that as we hear and receive and apply the word that we're going to hear this morning that we will walk out of here challenged and our lives will be a testament to this generation that's being raised up. That they will see your faithfulness through the way we walk out your truth that we will be faithful to your word. Your word promises that it won't return void. So, I just ask that you will silence the noise that each of us walked in here with this morning. That our hearts will be open and vulnerable and soften to the words that you put on Wayne's heart to present to us this morning. And that we understand how blessed and rich and honestly spoiled we are to have a leader that is faithful to your word and doesn't lead us astray.

So Lord, I thank you for that gift and our leadership. I thank you for your word and I just give it all to you this morning. Amen. Thank you. You made me emotional with that prayer. [laughter] So um we say I want to say good morning again and um I want you to go ahead and grab your Bibles.

Uh open up to First Peter. We're in chapter 5. Uh we are almost finishing up our series in First Peter. We love to preach through books of the Bible verse by verse. Um and so we've got two weeks left of First Peter. Uh then we will have our anniversary service on August 2nd celebrating 10 years um as a church.

And so that's going to be a wonderful day. We have a guest speaker coming in from uh our harbor network uh Ronnie Martin that'll be leading us in that as well as another one of our networks uh Summit Collaborative. We have one of their pastors coming from Raleigh, North Carolina uh to lead our church in a time of prayer as well. Um because again, preaching God's word and prayer are the two primary ministries of the church. And so, um, what better way to celebrate 10 years of faithful ministry by just centering around praise, preaching, and prayer. And so, um, that's going to be a wonderful Sunday.

Um, that morning things are going to be pretty much normal as far as the anniversary goes that morning. Uh, the party will be that night at 5:00. And, uh, for the most of y'all that know me, um, you know, I love sweets. And so, you know, I could have sweets for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Um, so we always do a pie party. Uh, that's kind of how we celebrate our anniversary every year.

And so five o'clock uh in the evening at Dan Wakefield Park will be our uh 10th annual pie party. Uh, it used to be in the first three or four years just sweet pies. Um, and which was fantastic. And then someone brought a pizza one time and that kind of opened up Pandora's box. And so now it's like anybody that brings anything that's in the pie category, sweet and savory, uh you you never know what you're going to get, but it's a wonderful time that we'll celebrate. That'll be again 5 to 7 on Sunday night, August 2nd, and everybody is invited for that.

Um but two weeks left. First Peter wrapping it up. Peter has really been going hard uh in this passage about what the context of Christianity looks like within a context of a secular world. What the culture of Christians are to function like in a world that is basically preaching and proclaiming everything that's counter uh productive to what Christianity actually is. and and where we're landing at is really the structural relationship that the church has been created to function in, but also the foundation or the uniform that the church wears in order for the roles and functions to actually work. And so what we've seen really through this um in verses 5 through 7 that we'll be covering today is moving into the function of us as a body of Christ.

How we relate to one another, how we serve one another, and really the foundation in which we do that. And so as you are open there to chapter 5, I'm going to read for our verses today 5 through 7 and then uh and then kind of bring you into the greater context of what's going on here. So, starting in verse 5, here's where we're looking at. He says, ' Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. says, "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you."

So what he starts off with in verse 5 is likewise you who are younger. And that word likewise is Peter's bridge from the leaders of the church to the members of the church, the followers of the church, if you will. It signals that the same attitude that he just commanded of elders is now also expected of the younger members of the church. And so the flow that we've been seeing with Peter honestly since chapters 1 and two as he's called the Christians to submit themselves to every human institution that is out there. And there are different institutions that he even calls of them. There's the governing institutions.

There's the institutions within the home. There's the institutions within the workplace. Essentially, he's saying saying to them, play put on humility and submit yourselves to all of those human institutions so that they might turn from their ignorant ways and start following God, following Jesus, and following God's design for their life. He's continuing with that same mentality even when he's looking at the church structure. So when he talks about last week as we looked the role of elders within the church, he says the elders aren't just these these guys that are getting up and that are leading from a doineering way or from an abusive way or from a powerful way. Actually they are humble in submitting to the chief shepherd in their primary role of leading the church in the preaching of the word and of prayer.

And so that role is still it's it's them putting on humility again uh leading willingly, leading humbly, leading sacrificially, not doineering, not by compulsion, not by selfish game, but doing it with humility. And so he's connecting now the likewise saying just what I've commanded of them I'm also commanding of the rest of the church the rest of and specifically the younger believers that are within the church but then at the same time when he moves on to the clothe yourselves as we'll unpack here further he's not also just talking to the members now he's actually just talking to all of the Christians clothe yourselves all of you all of view. So the idea of submission and subjection, the idea of putting on humility is really the uniform for every single person in this room. And when I refer to uniform, I'm really talking about like a uniform that you would wear if you're on a team today. There's going to be I think there's, you know, some match that the world's kind of interested in um when it comes to the World Cup.

No, that's tongue and cheek, but there's a match that the world's going to be watching. uh between Argentina and Spain today. And you're going to be able to tell who's on whose team because of the uniform that they are wearing. Well, what Peter is drawing here is that Christianity, everyone who bears the name of Jesus, they're on team Jesus. And the way that you'll recognize whether or not they're Christians and on team Jesus is whether or not they're humble. And the way that you would recognize whether or not they're not on team Jesus is whether or not they're prideful.

Whether or not they're prideful. And so Peter's leading the church and helping understand what this subjection looks like, what this submission looks like, and ultimately what it means to to actually clothe yourselves. And so his progression here is elders lead humbly, the younger are to follow humbly, but everyone we are to relate with one another humbly with humility. And so the likewise ultimately points beyond the specific command of submission to the shared posture of humility. Humility then becomes again the uniform of Christianity. And I think it's a difficult one, especially given the fact that they have incredibly difficult circumstances going on around them.

When when life gets really hard, what you are tempted to do is take the reigns of your life and try to accomplish things in your own strength, in your own ability. If relationships aren't working out, you want to take the reigns of it and you want to take control of it. If you don't like leadership, you want to take the reigns of it. You want to take control of it. If you don't like what's going on in your marriage, you want to take the reigns of it. You want to take control of it.

Pride then becomes the default by which we want to take control rather than maintaining our posture of submission and humility. And they, this church that he's talking to, these people who are scattered throughout Asia Minor, they are experiencing all kinds of circumstances that are incredibly [snorts] difficult. Incredibly difficult. They're they're experiencing a hostile culture that is basically robbing them of being able to live and function in society in any type of successful way possible. So, it would be natural for us to say, "Well, let's just do things our way to try to improve our circumstances." And what he's ultimately aiming at here is don't do that.

Trust the process. Trust, and we don't necessarily like to use the word hierarchy here, but trust the structural leadership that God has placed within the church and even within society. Trust the leadership that God has placed in the home. Trust the leadership that God has placed in the church. Trust the leadership that God has placed in the government. Trust and know that as you submit to it with humility, God may exalt you.

God may exalt you. and we trust his exaltation of us rather than us taking the reigns ourselves and exalting ourselves because of pride because of pride. And so in this verse five as he goes on to say, "Clothe yourselves all of you with humility toward one another for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." I want to spend a bit of time looking at this idea of pride. Um because if it's something that God opposes, we need to recognize it when it's present. We need to recognize it when it's present because especially in today's culture, pride has all kinds of different meanings.

All kinds of different meanings. I mean, I literally went to a school um in Tennessee where I grew up. I went to a school that like our motto was Blueevil Pride. BDP, Blue Devil Pride. We wore it on our football helmets. We wore it like on our shirts.

I mean, it's everywhere. And so, I grew up with this mindset that pride is confidence. Pride is a good thing. Pride is something that we need in order to conquer and defeat somebody else. And when we are successful in doing that, it's we wear the banner of pride. We're proud to be a part of this.

We're proud to belong to this. And this isn't saying that it's not okay to like I'm proud of the district church. I'm proud of the people that are a part of this church. I'm proud to be able to serve those that we serve with the members that are a part of this church. Like that's okay to say in that regard, but I don't trust in the things that I'm proud of. there's a difference in what I'm actually trusting in and relying on.

And so this pride is a different type of pride because this pride that God opposes, the first thing I want you to see here is that pride is always attempting to steal God's glory. It's always stealing God's glory. Pride says, "I am enough." It says, "I know best." And it says, "I deserve the credit." I mean, when you look out at the world around us, that's constantly what people are longing for.

Like, I'm enough. And I want everyone else to tell me that I'm enough. I also know best. No one else can tell me anything other than that. And when I am successful, I want to make sure that you give me the credit for that. So, pride is on honestly just always tempting to steal God's glory.

But scripture teaches that God alone is the one worthy of glory. He alone is the one worthy of glory. Pride is humanity's attempt to occupy really the throne that only God belongs on. That's what pride is is honestly trying to do. This is why Satan fell. This is why Adam and Eve sinned.

This is why every sin ultimately traces back to a self-exaltation over God's rule of their lives. It's saying, "I don't need God. All I need is myself. I am enough." And so at its core, pride says, "My kingdom, my will, my glory." But humility is the contrast.

Humility says your kingdom, your will, your glory. Pride says, "My will be done, not thine." Humility says, "Thy will be done, not mine." Not mine. The second thing I want you to see here is that pride also rejects dependence upon God. It rejects dependence upon God.

The gospel literally begins with admitting, "I can't save myself. I can't fix myself. I can't solve my problems. I can't I can't get out of my own addictions. And pride comes in and says, "I don't need help. I know what's best.

I can handle life." But humility, humility steps in and says, "I need mercy. I need grace. I need Jesus every single day of my life. God delights in giving grace to people who know they need it. Pride essentially closes the open hand that needs the grace of God to fill it.

Third thing is that pride destroys relationships. When we look in the context of him just talking to the elders and how they are to lead the church, not in a doineering way, not in selfish gain, not uh from compulsion. Well, if an elder is leading that way, that is a prideful way to lead a church and it is only going to wreak havoc and destruction of those in which they are leading. Peter's context of this is the church as he is giving them this this instruction. Proud el elders become doineering. They become but proud younger believers become rebellious.

Proud church members become divisive. Pride makes every relationship about self. And so if you're not serving me, then I'm going to create some situations here. I'm going to create some division. I'm going to create some problems. But humility steps in and it makes every relationship about serving.

Not being served, but serving others. And that's why Peter immediately says to them as they are subjecting themselves to the leadership, he says to them, "Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another." Because if you're clothed in pride, then you see everyone else as a commodity to serve you, which means you're the one placing yourself on the throne to be worshiped. And instead, if you're clothing yourself with humility, what you're actually doing is you're recognizing that God is the one on the throne and that we are all actually entrusting ourselves to the faithful creator as chapter 4 finished up. And then we are entrusting ourselves to one another in the roles that God has established within the church when it comes to elders and members. And we are seeking to consider the interest of others, not our own.

And to serve and help others rather than being self-serving and only helpful to ourselves. And so humility then becomes the fabric that holds a church together. It really does. I've been doing this long enough. This is my 20th year in full-time ministry. I've been doing this long enough to be able to go back at the three different churches that I've served at to be able to see that anytime there was an issue, pride was present and humility was absent almost every single time.

Every single time. And so I think Peter as he's seeing the circumstances that are very difficult for these scattered believers, these scattered Christians, when you get pressed in and hostility comes upon you and difficulties happen in your life, what's on the inside comes out. And what he's saying here is make sure that what's inside you is not pride but humility. And so clothe yourselves with humility. With humility again, one uniform that we all wear, humility. And I think another thing that pride does is it blinds us to reality.

Again, it's just it's thinking too highly of yourself. It's believing a lie. It it forgets that everything you have came from God. Like pride literally makes you forget that everything you have comes from God. I heard someone say one time that your um your lifpan is technically two minutes because you have to take a breath again. Like if you don't breathe, you die.

And that breath is not something that you fabricated. It's not something that you created. It's not something that you went out and manufactured. No. God created oxygen for you to breathe. He gave you two minutes to live and you are dependent upon whether or not he lets the oxygen continue to come in or not.

So if you want to kind of run it as a litmus test to see how God like how godlike you are, just try going without breathing. You're not going to get very far. You're going to see how finite you actually are. But pride, for whatever reason, makes us believe that we can live a life as creation without creator. That we then actually end up becoming our own creator in the process. Creating our own life, creating our own success, creating our own wants and desires, creating the things that we think are going to fulfill those things.

But it forgets that everything you have came from God. It forgets that every gift is grace. Every breath is borrowed. Every accomplishment rests on God's sustaining hand over you. Every gift comes from above. Everything.

Everything. As Paul asks in 1 Corinthians 4:7, "What do you have that you did not receive?" What do you have that you did not receive? The humble person simply sees reality with clarity. Like others are blinded by pride thinking that they can do things on their own and God opposes that because it's essentially saying I don't need you God. I'm rejecting you God.

I can do things my own. And God opposes that. Humility says I can't do anything on my own. I'm not enough. I'm not my own creator. I am completely dependent upon God and I'm completely dependent upon the work of Jesus Christ to reconcile me to a relationship with him and I'm completely dependent upon the Holy Spirit to continue transforming me to become more like Jesus Christ.

I'm completely dependent and therefore with humility I clothe myself in that because I recognize that everything comes from him and that nothing comes from me. And the last thing I want you to see in regards to pride is that it opposes everything that God stands for. It opposes everything that God stands for. The gospel is the story of the infinitely glorious son of God humbling himself and coming to us where pride ultimately says you're weak if you do that. You're weak if you do that. You're weak if you humble yourself and put others before you.

Pride wants to do the opposite. Pride wants to exalt itself over others. That's why it says to the elders, don't be doineering. Pride moves upward. Jesus moves downward. Pride says, "Serve me."

Jesus says, "I came not to be served, but to serve." And so to embrace pride is to move in the opposite direction of Christ himself. And therefore, God is going to oppose that. He's going to oppose that. He opposes the proud. The Greek word pictures someone arranging themselves in battle against another.

So, you don't like like the word used for oppose is a military term. You do not want to be on the other side in a battle against God. like you don't win that fight. You don't win that fight. And so Peter is giving a healthy warning to the Christians saying don't be prideful. Be humble because you don't want to be opposed to God.

You want to be receiving God's grace. Because this is a frightening thought and that's why it's a good warning. That's why we always say the gospel is bittersweet. It always tells us the bad news and then it gives us the good news. The bad news is is if there's pride in you, there's parts of you that then are in opposition to God. But if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, then he might discipline you in order to root out that pride and then command of you to clothe yourself with humility and start walking in the design that he actually has for you that receives his grace.

So sometimes rooting things out again we we've talked about this Peter's talked about this in the the process of refining gold that his grace is like a refining fire in our lives. Well if you were to personify gold and talk to it as the fire is coming on it I don't think in that moment it's going to say it's pleasurable. Like that's a hard process. But once it is refined and the impurities are gone, the gold looks at it and says, "Thank you for the fire." Because now I'm actually fully representing what I was intended to represent. And that's the work of the gospel in our lives is that the circumstances that come, God utilizes those things that are difficult in our lives to refine us and continue rooting out the sin in our lives and making us more into the image of Christ.

That is the actual identity that we bear because as Peter began with in in chapter one, he's caused us to be born again to a living hope. He's given us a new identity in Jesus. We believe in what he's accomplished for us, not in what we accomplished for ourselves. And so in that place, we are then able to receive the grace that he is giving that he is giving. God never withholds grace from those who come with empty hands. He doesn't ask you to impress him.

He invites you to depend on him, to depend on him. And that's all we're doing. That's all we're doing every single day. We're waking up beggars. And we're going around telling other beggars where they can find food, where they can find water that actually satisfies the thirst that we have in our souls. And so God opposes pride because pride competes with his glory.

It rejects his grace. It destroys his people. It distorts reality. It contradicts the gospel of his son. He opposes all of those things. All of those things.

And so it's worth asking the question at least doing a little bit of an internal audit. Are there any things in my life right now where I'm allowing pride to govern? Where I'm allowing pride to creep in? How am I managing, you know, whe if I if I work a career, if I work a job, whatever that looks like, how am I managing it? Is there any pride there in my household, the way that I rel relate with my spouse, the way that I relate with my kids? Is there any pride there?

Because you can take these principles and you can plug and play them into any context because in all context, there's going to be a leader and followers. Literally just about in every single context there's a leader in followers. If you're a leader in a context, are you leading in a doineering way or are you leading in a humble way? If you're a follower, are you rejecting the leadership of someone else because you're prideful or are you receiving the leadership of someone else with humility? With humility. Are they going to lead you at all times?

Is there ever a moment where you should reject it if they are sinning against you or commanding of you to do something that is sinful? Sure, there's a time to reject it, but there's a way to do it that's humble. There's a way to do it that's humble. There's a way to do it that points them to Jesus rather than bucking up against it with pride. With pride. And so then I think he comes to verses six and seven and I really think this is the climax where he says humble yourselves again talking to all of them.

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time at the proper time not your time his time at the proper time he not you he may exalt you may exalt you. casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Because he cares for you. I think one of the main reasons why pride sneaks in is because we we want to make sure that we're taken care of. And if we feel like someone is abusing us, if we feel like, you know, we're not going to get what we think we should get or we're not going to be provided for or taken care of, we the temptation is going to be to take the reigns in order to make sure that you're taken care of. And what Peter is reminding them of here is that you can trust God in the process of humbling yourself to those who are leading because you can rest assure that the creator of all things cares for you.

If God cares for something, do you think God is going to take care of it? Absolutely. Absolutely. And so he's moved from humble elders, humble followers, humble church to the deepest question here. What does humility actually look like before God? And I think in regards to verses six and seven, it's at least two things here.

Submitting yourself under God's mighty hand. And the way in which we submit ourselves under God's mighty hand is submitting ourselves to the structural leadership that he has placed in the people of God. The people of God, it's the way in which he dispenses his care to you. To you. Now I would say in regards to that, does that mean that every church is going to have shepherds and elders who are submitting themselves to the chief shepherd and then leading everyone in a humble way? No.

No. And I think therefore there are times where it's okay and it might be even right to be able to remove yourself from a position like that and find a church in which the leadership is submitting themselves to the chief shepherd. They are undersheperds. They're not the ones running the church. They're not the ones in charge of the church. They're not the ones uh ruling the church.

Jesus is the chief shepherd. He's the chief shepherd. It reminds me of those other stories in the gospels where the master leaves um an investment to several servants and he says, "I'm going to go away and when I come back, I want to see a return of it." Like that's the role of the pastor is we are literally just leading the church that is Jesus's church and how we handle and manage and steward and lead and protect and guide all the things that we talked about last week that Mike led us in. as the elders do that, we're doing it on behalf of Christ and Christ is going to show up one day and he's going to judge the elders based on how they led the church. And so in regards to that, I know Jesus is coming back at some point.

And so ultimately, even though I am accountable to our membership, I am first and foremost accountable to Jesus and he's going to deal with me based on how I lead the church. And so 100% I'm going to make sure and hope that as well that we have others around me to be able to say am I doing it in a way that is humble, in a way that is leading and protecting and guiding and shephering. And the best way I know to do that is by opening up the word of God and by making sure that we're dependent upon him in prayer. those two things. When it gets outside of God's word and it gets outside of the dependence of communicating to God through prayer, then that's where pride steps in. That's where pride steps in.

That's where I'm able to come up here and say, "Hey, I'm going to I'm going to teach a series that is just a collection of thoughts that I've had because I feel like this is going to be some really awesome messages." And every once in a while, we'll maybe throw in some scriptures to make sure that it supports and sounds biblical. But that's just me wanting to just say things that I think are right. A good pastor is going to be one who opens up the word and says, "This is what's right, and this is what's changed my mind over the course of time." Because I can tell you this right now being I'm going to be turning 40 next year and um I can tell you I can look back on messages 20 years ago and say I don't think I had a Bible in my hand on some of the things that I said. But the more that you're in the word of God and knowing what God is teaching and what God is proclaiming to us and what God is calling us to follow, it transforms you over time.

It it it helps you see what is right and what is wrong. And so the day that we stop as a district church, the day that we stop preaching through the word of God expositionally verse by verse exposing what God intended for the original audience to be able to hear and know and understand and follow and then applying that to our context today to make sure as soon as we stop doing that, I'm going to tell you this right now. Find another church. Find another church. As soon as we stop praying, find another church. Because that just means we're depending upon ourselves.

And so, we submit ourselves under God's mighty hand. Because at the end of the day, we understand it's not our mighty hand that we should trust in. It's his mighty hand. [crying] It's a posture of trust. That phrase mighty hand is Old Testament language. It's how Israel described God's sovereign power in delivering them from Egypt.

The hand that rules history is the hand that we're called to submit to today. The same hand that through Moses parts a Red Sea. The same hand that wrote on the wall. The same hand that is constantly moving and providing and stretching out and saving and redeeming is the same hand today that we depend upon that we rely on that we submit to. And what I love in him connecting these two things here because I think some of the root of of our anxieties that we all all have and this the anxieties is a junk drawer term. All right.

Like every person in this room has some level of anxiety, some level of worry. And it's different for everybody. It's different for everybody. But I think he drew on mighty hand, the omnipotence of God and our anxieties and saying, "Make sure that you cast those anxieties into this hand because it's the only thing that can actually care for you. It's the only thing that can actually handle them and deal with them. Because what we want to do with our anxieties again is is is it's either humility or pride.

We either try to solve them ourselves and eradicate them ourselves or we let God do it. And it doesn't mean that it's going to make all the circumstances better. But it does mean that when you're in the hand of God, there is a peace that surpasses all understanding there. There's contentment there. There is satisfaction there. And it steadies the soul of anxiety.

It steadies it. It doesn't mean that it's going to completely eradicate it. I think that's why he uses the present verb here, casting, in the sense that you are to ongoingly cast your anxieties on him until glory. Until glory. I think it's interesting. I was having a conversation back in the sound booth um in regards to the timing of uh first Peter being written as well as Peter and Paul both being imprisoned you know dying right around the same time 62 64 AD right around that time and I just remember in Paul when he's talking to the Corinthians and he's talking about all of his circumstances that happened to him getting shipwrecked three times getting bitten by a snake getting stoned multiple times being left for dead I mean just all of that And then he kind of capsu uh you know caps it off by saying and then there's the the daily anxieties that I have for the churches.

And I could almost imagine like if they if they were ever crossing paths in a jail cell together Paul's just talking about all this and then Peter at the same time saying, "Man, cast those anxieties on the Lord. Cast those anxieties. They're not going away. Cast them on the Lord. He cares for you. He cares for you.

And his mighty hand is enough to govern you and to rule you and to steady you through the process. Does that mean you can never pray for your circumstances to change? No, that's not what I'm saying. But I think there's two ways that God answers at times. I think about the boat and the storm. We got multiple stories of this in the scriptures.

You got one moment where they're in a storm, the boat's capsizing. These are experienced fishermen who know what they're doing and they're terrified for their lives and Jesus steps in and he wakes up from his nap and he calms the sea. So, he helps their circumstance. And then there's another time where Paul's in the boat and the storm's going crazy and he doesn't calm the storm, but in that moment with Paul, he calms the man in the storm and he tells the rest of them, "We're going to get safely to the other side. Not one person is going to perish." When you're trusting in Jesus in the midst of this and you're casting all of your anxieties on him, he might calm the storm or he might calm you in the storm.

But the point is that we humble ourselves. We're not trying to take the steer of the the the the wheel of the boat and steer it to try to get to a safe place. We trust Jesus in what he is doing and how he is shephering us, how he is feeding us, how he is providing for us, how he is protecting us from the wolves outside, and how he's ultimately making sure that we get to those green pastures. Again, pride at the end of the day says, "I'll carry it." But humility says, "Lord, will you will you carry it?" Every worry that you have, I think sometimes I see it as like a check engine light in a car.

I just drove to um I drove a lot of places this week. I went to Nashville, Tennessee to drop my kids off at my parents house for a week and then um stayed there for a couple days. Drove back to Indie for a couple meetings. Then I drove to Knoxville, Tennessee to see an old intern of mine. Um and hung out there for a couple days. Got back around midnight last night.

Um and uh the car I drive has two check two two lights on right now uh on the dash. one because I've got a tire that's got a nail in it that I just keep throwing air in it and, you know, figuring it out uh until I decide to actually humble myself and fix it. Um, but then there's also another one that the old needs to be changed and so there's a light on for that service engine soon. And there's a bit of me that has a bit of anxiety like the fact that I didn't fix the nail before driving to Knoxville and back. like I knew it was there. And so I was like, "All right, just get just get me there and then get me back and I'll fix it once I get back."

And then also just with the oil thing, it's kind of like I mean I just hope the engine doesn't blow up, which is also ironic because for those who know me, they haven't seen my I I'm from Tennessee. You could take the boy out of Tennessee. You can't take Tennessee out of the boy. So I drive like an old square body Chevy from the 80s. Um, but you haven't seen it for a while because the engine blew up. So, you would think I learned my lesson and I would just do things the right way.

But, but those check engine lights, it it that we all have those in our lives when it comes to anxieties. But that's exactly what they are. It's a moment where we can recognize them and instead of just taking the reigns and fixing it ourselves, which would be prideful, and saying, "God, we don't need you." It's moments for us to be able to recognize that we are finite, that we are not perfect, that we are not enough, and that we do need a savior. We do need a chief shepherd. And so, let's go to him when these engine lights come on.

And for every single one of us in the room, you're going to have some anxieties today. You're going to have them tomorrow. You're going to have them the next day. And if you think you get to a point in life where they have steadied, just wait. there's more coming. You're either, as someone once said, you're either um coming into a season of suffering, in a season of suffering, or coming out of a season of suffering to then wait and go back into a season of suffering.

Peter pretty much, that's the theme of all of First Peter is you're going to experience suffering. Don't be surprised by it. But here's what God is doing in utilizing your suffering to refine you and make you more like Jesus [snorts] and actually steady your soul. Trust the process. And in that situation, don't be prideful, be humble, and cast all of your anxieties on him because he ultimately cares for you. Father, I just want to thank you so much this morning for your word.

I want to thank you for your son, Jesus. I want to thank you that Jesus models this perfectly. that Jesus did not come in a prideful posture but he humbled himself by becoming a man. He humbled himself to the the form of a servant. Not to be served, but to come and serve for the sake of bringing us back [music] into relationship with God where we're meant to be. And so, Father, as we think about [music] this idea of pride and humility and the roles within church and society, the roles within our households, our [music] worldly temptation is going to be to take charge.

And I just ask Lord that you intervene in that moment when we have that temptation and help us see that [music] the better choice, the better option is to see Jesus in what he did and follow our chief shepherd and submit [music] to his good design and humble ourselves and take the position of submission, subjection, surrender and serve others. Serve our spouses, serve our [music] church, serve our community, serve our human institutions [music] so that they might see those good deeds and [music] begin glorifying God on the day of visitation. But I'm mindful I'm mindful enough to know that only Jesus can produce this in us. Only the Holy Spirit can help us see this and understand this. And so I pray that he does that work now. And as we come to this table of communion and the Lord's supper, we come to it because [music] we know every single day we are going to have anxieties.

And every single day we're going to be be presented with an I a possibility to to operate [music] out of pride rather than humility. And we come to this table and we see a savior who humbled himself to the point of death on a cross. And that's all the fuel we need to be able to take up our cross daily and follow Jesus. And so, thank you for this reminder that we get to participate in every single week as we proclaim [music] the death of Jesus and remember what he accomplished for us. It's in Jesus name we [music] pray. Amen.

Would y'all go ahead and stand with me as