Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 1: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2: Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
Speaker 2: in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message. Now.
Speaker 2: I know this message is for somebody because the devil
Speaker 2: was fighting me to be able to deliver it. So
Speaker 2: let's go forward together now into the word of God.
Speaker 2: Peter has an instruction here. He says, in the same way,
Speaker 2: you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. Everybody
Speaker 2: over fifty say amen. All the parents say amen. This
Speaker 2: is your verse. Peter's a little older now, he's got that.
Speaker 2: He's got that senior citizen discount swag going on in
Speaker 2: this letter that he's writing. He's got that aarp swag. Amen,
Speaker 2: and all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.
Speaker 2: Because God opposes the prow but he shows favor to
Speaker 2: the humble. Humble yourselves. Therefore, under God's mighty hand, that
Speaker 2: he may lift you up in due time, cast all
Speaker 2: your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Speaker 1: Be alert and a sober mind. Your enemy, the devil.
Speaker 2: Prows around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
Speaker 2: But resistant, standing firm in the faith because you know
Speaker 2: that you're not the only one going through something. The
Speaker 2: family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same
Speaker 2: kind of sufferings. Touch somebody, say, you're not a You're
Speaker 2: not alone, You're not the only one.
Speaker 1: You're not the only one. You're not crazy. It's a battle.
Speaker 2: We all must fight, some fears, we all must face
Speaker 2: some things, we all must go through, and we're.
Speaker 1: In this together. Amen.
Speaker 2: And the God of all grace, who called you to
Speaker 2: his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a
Speaker 2: little while, will himself restore you, make you strong, firm
Speaker 2: and steadfast to Him be the power forever and ever
Speaker 2: and ever and ever.
Speaker 1: And ever and ever and ever.
Speaker 2: And let the church say, Amen, Amen, I want to
Speaker 2: speak to you for a few moments today on the
Speaker 2: subject when anxiety attacks? What are you going to do
Speaker 2: when anxiety attacks? Amen, you may be seated in the
Speaker 2: presence of God. Thank you, worship team. Then they do good.
Speaker 1: Following my random little Come on, didn't they do good
Speaker 1: following that little.
Speaker 2: We have the best musicians on the planet at Elevation Church,
Speaker 2: the best volunteers on the planet who.
Speaker 1: Do the technical stuff, the.
Speaker 2: Best cameraman on the planet. Watch these cameramen switch back
Speaker 2: and forth real quick. Go from the yeah, just go
Speaker 2: back and forth a bunch of times. Just watch. Just
Speaker 2: watch this.
Speaker 1: That crazy, not cool.
Speaker 2: They do all this stuff that you don't even know
Speaker 2: about behind the scenes to bless you so you can
Speaker 2: hear the word of God. I appreciate all our volunteers
Speaker 2: back in ekas the parking lot, all of our ushers
Speaker 2: ushing with excellence for the glory of God. Ay Man,
Speaker 2: I just feel grateful today for everybody. Hey, my mom
Speaker 2: and I were texting this morning. We were talking about
Speaker 2: my memory and how I remember weird little things from
Speaker 2: my childhood, and she says that I remember some of
Speaker 2: them incorrectly. But one thing I know I remember was
Speaker 2: around age sixteen at Monk's Corner United Methodist Church when
Speaker 2: Aunt Jackie she was really my aunt, but I called
Speaker 2: her Aunt Jackie because when I was a little boys
Speaker 2: to go over to their house all the time and
Speaker 2: she let me watch dukes of hazard and she pulled
Speaker 2: me aside because I had made a commitment to Jesus
Speaker 2: Christ as a sixteen year old boy, and she could
Speaker 2: see the passion and enthusiasm from my eyes, and she
Speaker 2: had changed my diapers. And she was at that age
Speaker 2: where you can say whatever you want to say, kind
Speaker 2: of like Peter was when he was telling the church
Speaker 2: there the people of God who were under persecution and
Speaker 2: under attack at the hands of the Emperor Nero. And
Speaker 2: Aunt Jackie pulled me aside and she was telling me
Speaker 2: some words of wisdom.
Speaker 1: She said that she believed that.
Speaker 2: God had a plan for me and that God was
Speaker 2: going to use me and do something special for me.
Speaker 2: She said, I even told our committee. She was on
Speaker 2: the committee. The Methodist Church has a lot of committees.
Speaker 2: They have committees on committees. For God so loved the
Speaker 2: world that he did not send a committee, but Aunt
Speaker 2: Jackie was on all the committees, and the Flower committee
Speaker 2: and the Chair committee. She said, I told the committee
Speaker 2: that you wouldn't be here much longer, that this was
Speaker 2: the church that you were raised in, but that God
Speaker 2: was going to use you for other things, and we
Speaker 2: need to let you go when God calls you, because
Speaker 2: he's going to use you, and you're going to speak
Speaker 2: and she was saying all these things to me, and
Speaker 2: again I had been only.
Speaker 1: A Christian for a short time, so I was encouraged
Speaker 1: by it.
Speaker 2: Then she shifted gears and she went into this real
Speaker 2: serious mode and she was like, but the devil, the
Speaker 2: devil doesn't like you, and he wants to use you
Speaker 2: as target practice, bring you down.
Speaker 1: As God he's raising you up. So she told me don't.
Speaker 1: This is the Southern way to say.
Speaker 2: First Peter five six, which says humble yourself under God's
Speaker 2: mighty hands.
Speaker 1: She said, don't get too big for you. It's a
Speaker 1: Charlotte thing.
Speaker 2: You know. We're regional national church now, so I have
Speaker 2: to tell him don't get too big for your breeches
Speaker 2: and keep yourself low so God can raise you up high.
Speaker 1: And she told me that because she said, the devil
Speaker 1: is after you.
Speaker 2: He does not like the passion that you have for God,
Speaker 2: and he's after you.
Speaker 1: And I'm glad she.
Speaker 2: Told me that second part because I don't know if
Speaker 2: a lot of Christians get told that second part. And
Speaker 2: so I thought I would join in with Peter, who
Speaker 2: said you're enemy. The devil roars like a lion looking
Speaker 2: for someone he can eat. Alive, looking for a family,
Speaker 2: he can tear apart. Looking for a future, he can
Speaker 2: ruin before it even has a chance to get started.
Speaker 2: Looking for a church, he can divide, looking for a nation,
Speaker 2: He can divide looking for an addiction.
Speaker 1: He can plant in.
Speaker 2: The heart of a fourteen year old so that they'll
Speaker 2: never live a normal adult life. The devil is busy,
Speaker 2: The devil is active.
Speaker 1: She told me.
Speaker 2: And the interesting thing about it is she was saying
Speaker 2: that to me, I think because she thought God was
Speaker 2: calling me to preach. But you don't have to be
Speaker 2: a preacher to have a bull's eye on your back.
Speaker 2: In fact, I want you to write.
Speaker 1: Something down for me.
Speaker 2: If you care anything at all about your future, your family,
Speaker 2: or your faith, write this down. The birthmark of a
Speaker 2: believer is a bulls eye. Peter is here to teach
Speaker 2: us that we are born again into a living hope.
Speaker 2: But as you are born into a living hope, you
Speaker 2: are also born into an eternal struggle and a very
Speaker 2: real battle.
Speaker 1: The day that you become one with Christ the enemy. Now,
Speaker 1: I want to be careful here because this is what
Speaker 1: we do.
Speaker 2: Sometimes we get way too carried away about all the
Speaker 2: stuff that the devil.
Speaker 1: Does you know.
Speaker 2: Someone will say, well, I've just been under it. Let
Speaker 2: me get my white girl boye on. I've just been
Speaker 2: under attack lately. So like lately, I see like the
Speaker 2: devil's been attacking me and so much, and it's just
Speaker 2: like so Bad's like my mom and my dad and everybody,
Speaker 2: like my teachers and everything.
Speaker 1: And like my iPhone.
Speaker 2: I was charging in it the other day and I've
Speaker 2: charged I know, I charged it overnight, but then I.
Speaker 1: Woke up and it was dead, and it's just the
Speaker 1: devil knows your charger. It wasn't the devil.
Speaker 2: People on my job, they just hate me because I'm
Speaker 2: a Christian.
Speaker 1: I'm just under attack. My boss doesn't like me. I'm
Speaker 1: just under attack.
Speaker 2: Right now, I know you're not under attack, you're underperforming.
Speaker 2: Your boss doesn't like you because you're not doing a
Speaker 2: very good job commensurate with the paycheck, that they haven't
Speaker 2: trusted to you. But yet there are those times, and
Speaker 2: there are those seasons where you just get a sense
Speaker 2: that I feel like I'm under attack.
Speaker 1: And it's something only Christians say. It's not something you
Speaker 1: would say if.
Speaker 2: You didn't believe in God, because you wouldn't believe in
Speaker 2: the devil, so you would just say everything's falling apart
Speaker 2: or whatever. But do you remember when President Bush was
Speaker 2: reading to the elementary school class, and there's a famous
Speaker 2: picture of his chief of staff and to go up
Speaker 2: to him while he's reading a book and say to
Speaker 2: the President, the second plane hit the second tower on
Speaker 2: nine to eleven, and he said America is under attack.
Speaker 2: And he told the President that, according to his account
Speaker 2: and his record after the fact, he said America is underattack.
Speaker 2: Peter is walking up to a church under attack and
Speaker 2: speaking to them on a personal level.
Speaker 1: I want you to know.
Speaker 2: That you're under attack now, just the preacher, because people
Speaker 2: will come up to me all the time and say.
Speaker 1: I'm praying for your preacher. I know the devil wants
Speaker 1: to take you out.
Speaker 2: Well, I look right back at him and say, well,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna pray for you too. Write your name down,
Speaker 2: because he'll take whoever he can get. He's after construction
Speaker 2: workers and sophomores in high school and stay at home
Speaker 2: moms and attorneys, prowling around like a roaring lion looking
Speaker 2: for someone to devour.
Speaker 1: And I wonder, is it you?
Speaker 2: I wonder is that you he's been after with thoughts
Speaker 2: that repeat themselves over and over again in your mind,
Speaker 2: thoughts of worklessness or thoughts of anxiety. This seems to
Speaker 2: be Peter's primary focus is that the attack of the
Speaker 2: enemy often manifests itself in an overwhelming sense of anxiety.
Speaker 2: I know this is the manifestation of the attack, for
Speaker 2: if it were not the manifestation of the attack, Peter
Speaker 2: would not singularly lift it in verse seven as the
Speaker 2: focal point of his admonition to the church under attack.
Speaker 1: I feel like teaching today. Are you ready to learn?
Speaker 2: Give me about thirty minutes, because you're under attack, and
Speaker 2: there are some things you need to know about this attack.
Speaker 2: The good news is it is not an ambush. Peter
Speaker 2: says that the devil is like a roaring lion. That
Speaker 2: means he gives you a warning before the warfare begins.
Speaker 2: And so sometimes we act really surprised by things that
Speaker 2: we go through and ways that we struggle, and we've
Speaker 2: come into situations that are harder than we expected them
Speaker 2: to be, and we ask God to do great things
Speaker 2: in our lives. But the battle begins and we act
Speaker 2: like we weren't warned. No, Peter said, this lion. The
Speaker 2: devil is not silent. He's a rule.
Speaker 1: Come on, give me your best roar. I've never done
Speaker 1: this before.
Speaker 2: I've done a lot of touch your neighbors, but somebody
Speaker 2: roar at your neighbors.
Speaker 1: Saying, devil's all up in your face.
Speaker 2: He'll let you know is coming.
Speaker 1: And what you need to know if you are under attack.
Speaker 1: And I will not have you.
Speaker 2: Raise your hand because perhaps the very people who need
Speaker 2: this message the most would be the most reluctant to
Speaker 2: admit that this is for me. But he said, when
Speaker 2: you find yourself in a season of attack, that roaring
Speaker 2: lion is in your face.
Speaker 1: Now, I'm thinking right here, Peter is gonna.
Speaker 2: Say run, because to me, that's the only reasonable advice
Speaker 2: when you're faced with the roaring lion. Hello, I don't
Speaker 2: even like dogs very much. Holly's scared of rats. Can
Speaker 2: you imagine if she saw a lion. But he doesn't
Speaker 2: say rhyme. Instead, he challenges us to resist. And it's
Speaker 2: a certain type of resistance because he says, to those
Speaker 2: who are under attack, you need to come under the
Speaker 2: mighty hand of God. I want you to see that
Speaker 2: phrase because it touched me so deeply in my study.
Speaker 2: I was hoping to explain it to you for a
Speaker 2: moment today. The three things that the hand of God represents.
Speaker 2: This is verse six. Humble yourself under the mighty hand
Speaker 2: of God, an image that would have been familiar for
Speaker 2: a Jewish audience, for it was with a mighty hand
Speaker 2: and an outstretched arm that God brought his people out
Speaker 2: of Egyptian slavery. And Peter wants him to know that
Speaker 2: same hand of God that has been actively fulfilling his
Speaker 2: purpose throughout human history is still reigning over your life.
Speaker 2: Humble yourself under that mighty hand. The hand of God
Speaker 2: represents his plan. I don't know about you, but I'm
Speaker 2: thankful that God's plan for my life has prevailed, even
Speaker 2: against my own plan that I thought was better Sometimes.
Speaker 2: How many are grateful for the hand of God. If
Speaker 2: you're grateful for the hand of God, just wave your
Speaker 2: hand at me. God's hand is not like your hand.
Speaker 2: It's an invisible hand. You can't see it, but you
Speaker 2: definitely know the effects of it when it moves, because
Speaker 2: after you've lived a little while, Peter said, I saw
Speaker 2: what happens in the hand of God, the plan of God.
Speaker 1: I saw what happens.
Speaker 2: See, Peter is not writing this as advice unsolicited, And
Speaker 2: he's not writing this as advice uninformed. Peter is a
Speaker 2: grown man now, a grown Christian man, now getting a
Speaker 2: little polder about relaying his advice from his experiences. And
Speaker 2: who better to tell us about the hand of God
Speaker 2: than a man who walked with Jesus Christ in the flesh.
Speaker 2: Who better to describe to us the function of the
Speaker 2: hand of God than the one who saw his face.
Speaker 2: Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.
Speaker 2: Peter didn't just trace the hand of God. He saw
Speaker 2: the face of God. And now he says, to those
Speaker 2: who were under attack, up under depression, up under disappointment,
Speaker 2: dealing with failure, hit rock bottom, don't know what's next,
Speaker 2: freaking out, crying yourself to sleep at night, feeling all alone,
Speaker 2: he says, to every believer, You've got the upper hand.
Speaker 2: The hand of God is mighty, the hand of God
Speaker 2: is strong, The hand of God is over your life.
Speaker 1: You will prevail. His purpose will come to pass, for
Speaker 1: I know the plans I have.
Speaker 2: For you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you, not
Speaker 2: to harm your plans to give you hope in a future.
Speaker 2: And if you find yourself under attack today, you need
Speaker 2: to know that the hand of God is guiding you,
Speaker 2: leading you that same hand to split the sea open
Speaker 2: so as people could walk right through it. The hand
Speaker 2: of God will make a way where there is no way.
Speaker 2: The hand of God will bring a rock a water
Speaker 2: out of a rock in.
Speaker 1: A dry place.
Speaker 2: The hand of God is over your life, and he
Speaker 2: has a plan, plan, the plan of God. The hand
Speaker 2: of God represents the plan of God. The hand of
Speaker 2: God represents the provision of God. These all start with
Speaker 2: the letter P because that's what I do, the provision
Speaker 2: of God. And who better to remind the church that
Speaker 2: is under attack or a believer who is under attack
Speaker 2: that the hand of God is the place where bread
Speaker 2: multiplies than the one who saw five thousand fed with
Speaker 2: just a few loads and a few fish. Anytime you
Speaker 2: see seeing a skid snackpack from Captain D's multiplied into
Speaker 2: a buffet, you know something about the provision in the
Speaker 2: hand of God. And Peter was right there, and he
Speaker 2: saw what happened when they put the bread in Jesus' hand,
Speaker 2: and so he knew that at times where you feel
Speaker 2: like you're in a place of lack, that your provision
Speaker 2: is never dependent upon your own ability to provide for
Speaker 2: yourself or your own ability to create resource for yourself.
Speaker 2: But anything you put in the hand of God will multiply.
Speaker 2: Anything you put in the hand of God will multiply.
Speaker 2: Anything you put in the hand of.
Speaker 1: God, it just keeps coming, It just keeps coming. Don't
Speaker 1: have any witnesses.
Speaker 2: You've been through some hard times in your life, but
Speaker 2: hope kept coming. You've been in some tight places, you
Speaker 2: felt like you were running out, you didn't feel like
Speaker 2: you could make it to the next day. But somehow,
Speaker 2: blakeney strength kept coming, surely kept comming. Tomorrow kept coming
Speaker 2: in spite of your past. Because the hand of God
Speaker 2: is a hand of provision, and it's a hand of protection.
Speaker 1: God has me in his grip.
Speaker 2: Who better to help me see that the hand of
Speaker 2: God will protect me than the one who tried to
Speaker 2: walk on water the end of the Bible. Go study
Speaker 2: this story in Matthew chapter fourteen, where Peter got out there.
Speaker 2: He's trying to make his way to Jesus. He's coming
Speaker 2: toward him, and about the time he gets there. Because
Speaker 2: sometimes it's right when you're on the verge that you
Speaker 2: start to sink. I never saw it before. Can I
Speaker 2: take a moment? Okay, I'm gonna take a moment. You
Speaker 2: said I could in Matthew chapter fourteen, because I was
Speaker 2: just gonna mention it. But you act like you came
Speaker 2: to here preaching today. I don't know what's happened at
Speaker 2: University City, but there's some hungry people for the bread
Speaker 2: of life.
Speaker 1: At Valentine.
Speaker 2: It says that Peter in the storm, got out of
Speaker 2: the boat, and when he walked out on the water,
Speaker 2: he did pretty good.
Speaker 1: Watched this. He came toward Jesus.
Speaker 2: Y'all got that scripture of Matthew fourteen. He came toward Jesus,
Speaker 2: but when he saw the wind, he was afraid and
Speaker 2: beginning to sink. Cried out, Lord save me. So he
Speaker 2: cries out before he goes completely under. So he's sinking,
Speaker 2: but he's not sunk. He's going down, but he's not out.
Speaker 2: The lion is prowling, but he has not prevailed. You
Speaker 2: follow me, Watch this, says one I never saw. Verse
Speaker 2: thirty one says that immediately that's the word, Jesus reached.
Speaker 1: Out his.
Speaker 2: Do it again immediately, Jesus reached out his Immediately Jesus
Speaker 2: reached out his hand.
Speaker 1: Noticed the construct of the narrative. Jesus is not walking
Speaker 1: toward Peter. Peter is walking toward Jesus.
Speaker 2: When Jesus sees Peter falling and hears him crying, he
Speaker 2: reaches out his hand, and Peter is close enough for
Speaker 2: Jesus to reach.
Speaker 1: The problem with some of us, isn't.
Speaker 2: That we're sinking, is that we won't stay close enough.
Speaker 2: Come on for God to get us in his grip.
Speaker 1: But I came to.
Speaker 2: Announce to that lion today, that liar the devil, that
Speaker 2: I'm in his script, even when I'm going down, even
Speaker 2: though the winds and the waves are roaring and raging
Speaker 2: in my life, I'm in this script.
Speaker 1: Somebody said, I'm in his script.
Speaker 2: I'm in his gript. God's got me in his grip.
Speaker 2: He's got me in his grip. He's got me in
Speaker 2: the hand of his protection. He might let me suffer
Speaker 2: a little while, but he won't let me stay there.
Speaker 1: He is my God, and I'm in his hand. Humble
Speaker 1: yourself under the mighty hand of God.
Speaker 2: Doesn't matter how well you can walk on water matters
Speaker 2: how close you are to his hand. Doesn't matter about
Speaker 2: your intelligence. It matters about your surrender. It doesn't matter
Speaker 2: about your ability. It matters about your surrender. Humble yourself.
Speaker 2: I'm preaching to somebody. I'm preaching to somebody so straight
Speaker 2: you can't even no. You're trying to hold back tears.
Speaker 2: But God sent a preacher with a message. You might
Speaker 2: as well go ahead and cry out, Lord, save me.
Speaker 2: I can't do this on my own. I am not
Speaker 2: enough by myself.
Speaker 1: Humble yourself.
Speaker 2: Under the mighty hand of God. He'll lift you up
Speaker 2: and do time. He'll get you up. He'll lift you
Speaker 2: up and do time. He'll let you go down low
Speaker 2: enough to know that you need him, and bring you
Speaker 2: up high enough to let the.
Speaker 1: World know that he's with you. Come on, come on,
Speaker 1: come on.
Speaker 2: Verse seven is what I've been trying to practice, that
Speaker 2: I can be under attack and not anxious. Cast all
Speaker 2: your anxiety on him. He cares for you, and trying
Speaker 2: to do that because I felt like after Codorin's revival,
Speaker 2: I felt like I went under an emotional attack, and
Speaker 2: I don't even know that I'm still out of it yet.
Speaker 1: Part of it is probably because.
Speaker 2: Of adrenaline and physiology factors that have to do with
Speaker 2: getting up ten nights in a row, and all of
Speaker 2: the hosting of trying to put up with guests for
Speaker 2: ten nights make them feel special.
Speaker 1: Part of it, though, had to be spiritual.
Speaker 2: And.
Speaker 1: It was like for ten nights.
Speaker 2: If you weren't here in our church, you know you
Speaker 2: basically missed out on life by not coming to Code
Speaker 2: Orange survival. But not only did our city go through
Speaker 2: a shaking after the revival, I went through a shake
Speaker 2: in And I don't want to get up here and
Speaker 2: use you for a counseling appointment because I don't want
Speaker 2: to have to.
Speaker 1: Pay your hourly fear or anything like that.
Speaker 2: And I don't want you to worry about me because
Speaker 2: I promise you I'm good and I love my wife
Speaker 2: and my kids and we're good and everything like that.
Speaker 1: Don't send me these emails. We're praying for you, pastor.
Speaker 2: That's not the reason I'm telling you this, And it'll
Speaker 2: make me feel like you missed the point if you
Speaker 2: send me an email.
Speaker 1: I don't want a cart or anything like that.
Speaker 2: Flowers cookies trying to get me fat on carbohydrates because
Speaker 2: you think I'm struggling.
Speaker 1: I don't want anything. I don't need any of that.
Speaker 1: I just want to say something.
Speaker 2: While we were in here talking about ten nights, ten years,
Speaker 2: celebrating ten years, I felt overwhelmed about do I have
Speaker 2: what it takes for the next ten And it's like,
Speaker 2: once you've gone real high with God as a leader,
Speaker 2: I think you feel a.
Speaker 1: Pressure to go higher.
Speaker 2: But then it's kind of hard because you feel like
Speaker 2: maybe you've gone as high as you can go. And
Speaker 2: maybe you feel that way as a parent, not as
Speaker 2: a preacher. Maybe you feel that way in your business.
Speaker 2: And I don't know I'm preaching to but I'm gonna
Speaker 2: open myself up here a little bit for you today
Speaker 2: if it'll be helpful.
Speaker 1: Because anxiety attacked me and it hit me kind of hard.
Speaker 2: And I wasn't staying in the bed or anything like that,
Speaker 2: but I didn't go get addicted to something, some kind
Speaker 2: of pills or anything like that, but it was a
Speaker 2: thing in my mind.
Speaker 1: You don't have what it takes. I don't have what
Speaker 1: it takes. I can't do you know, I.
Speaker 2: As far as I can take them, I don't know
Speaker 2: if I'm the one to do it.
Speaker 1: And all this stuff that was going through my mind.
Speaker 2: That's how I got over the first Peter chapter five,
Speaker 2: because I know that scripture.
Speaker 1: I love that scripture. That scripture has helped me before.
Speaker 2: And sometimes when you are up against the fight, you
Speaker 2: got to go back to a weapon that you know.
Speaker 2: I can't fight Goliath in this armor. I got to
Speaker 2: get a slingshot. So it was kind of like just
Speaker 2: a well known verse. And I went back in there
Speaker 2: and considered the context of Peter who fell asleep in
Speaker 2: the garden of Gethsemane while he was supposed to be
Speaker 2: watching Jesus back. Jesus came over to him, gave him
Speaker 2: two wake up calls. He hit this snooze button three times?
Speaker 2: Are you still sleeping? And I looked at how Peter
Speaker 2: was telling the church to be alert, which is translated
Speaker 2: elsewhere in the New Testament. Be prayerful, the enemy eats
Speaker 2: Christians who sleep in times of.
Speaker 1: Battle, be alert to what's going on.
Speaker 2: Realize that the birthmark of a believer is a bull's eye.
Speaker 1: The devil doesn't like it one bit. That you're moving
Speaker 1: forward in your relationship with God.
Speaker 2: I started taking the verse apart because the word of
Speaker 2: God really is while I live by, not just while
Speaker 2: I make my living off of So I went into
Speaker 2: verse seven real hard, like I needed an answer. When
Speaker 2: anxiety attacks, it'll drive you to seek God, to seek
Speaker 2: his hand. And I was looking for him because he
Speaker 2: said cast all your anxiety.
Speaker 1: While I was reading it.
Speaker 2: Since I knew Peter wrote it, and he's a fisherman,
Speaker 2: I wondered, was he picturing like casting the nets from
Speaker 2: one side of the boat to the other, just because
Speaker 2: Jesus told him to Sometimes anxiety in our life.
Speaker 1: As a result of our unwillingness to be obedient.
Speaker 2: And when he casts the net to the other side,
Speaker 2: maybe that's a word for somebody. He said, cast all
Speaker 2: your anxiety on him.
Speaker 1: Do it his way. Now, we fished all night and
Speaker 1: caught nothing, Peter.
Speaker 2: Said, But because you say so, I'm gonna cast my
Speaker 2: net on the other side.
Speaker 1: I've been trying to do this my way.
Speaker 2: I've been trying to handle it on my own. But
Speaker 2: ask my net on the other side.
Speaker 1: However, it was in verse five and six that I
Speaker 1: found my answer.
Speaker 2: For In verse five he says, in the same way,
Speaker 2: you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders.
Speaker 1: All of you clothe Greek word tie on, tie on.
Speaker 2: That's not the Greek, that's the translation of the Greek
Speaker 2: word tie it on like a towel, like Jesus did
Speaker 2: when he took on the role of a servant, and
Speaker 2: he got a towel, a servant's towel, and he put
Speaker 2: it around his waist. And when Peter saw him tying
Speaker 2: on that towel, he said, no, you don't tie.
Speaker 1: On the towel, Jesus, you sit on the throne. But
Speaker 1: Jesus tied on the towel.
Speaker 2: And I wonder, as Peter is telling them to clothe
Speaker 2: themselves in humility, is he having a flashback of the
Speaker 2: Savior who laid his riches and glory aside and made
Speaker 2: himself nothing found in the appearance of sinful man, and
Speaker 2: became a humbling himself, even to death on the cross.
Speaker 2: As he tied on the towel and washed Peter's feet,
Speaker 2: Peter's response, no, Lord, you can't wash my feet, Peter said.
Speaker 2: Jesus said, Peter, shut up. That's not the exact conversation,
Speaker 2: but it's the essence of it.
Speaker 1: And he did what he came to do.
Speaker 2: The son of men came not to be served, but
Speaker 2: to serve and to give his life a ransom for men.
Speaker 2: But maybe my biggest problem was the fact that I
Speaker 2: always thought that verse seven put it on the screen
Speaker 2: police was the instruction where you say, cast all your
Speaker 2: cares on him, because he cares for you. Your anxiety's
Speaker 2: on him, because he cares for you. You know, you
Speaker 2: go to the word of God sometimes and you try
Speaker 2: to pluck up these little promises and try to do
Speaker 2: stuff and just by like that verse that verse. But
Speaker 2: back up and catch the essence of the text verse six,
Speaker 2: Humble yourself therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may
Speaker 2: lift you up in due time, cast all your anxiety
Speaker 2: on him.
Speaker 1: He cares for you.
Speaker 2: To really understand the essence and profundity of the connection,
Speaker 2: you need to see a more literal translation of verses
Speaker 2: six and seven, because Peter is writing this letter in
Speaker 2: Cooin a Greek in the Greek language.
Speaker 1: As Peter is writing this letter, as you.
Speaker 2: Will see demonstrated in verses six and seven, these are
Speaker 2: not two separate sentences. It reads like this, humble yourselves
Speaker 2: therefore under the mighty end of God, so that at
Speaker 2: the proper time He may exalt you watch his comma.
Speaker 2: What happens next is predicated on whether or not what
Speaker 2: happens in verse six is applied.
Speaker 1: In Greek. It is one sentence, humble.
Speaker 2: Yourself therefore under God's mighty hand, that he may exalt
Speaker 2: you in due time. Watch this, casting all your anxiety
Speaker 2: on him because he cares for you. See. I've been
Speaker 2: trying to cast my anxieties and keep my pride. But
Speaker 2: the thing about it is you need to know that
Speaker 2: the pride and the anxiety come in the same package.
Speaker 2: So if you insist on doing it your way, then
Speaker 2: expect to feel like.
Speaker 1: The weight of the world is on your shoulders because
Speaker 1: it is.
Speaker 2: You can't just do verse seven because you decide to God.
Speaker 1: Take it off me. God, take it off me. Take
Speaker 1: I'm so worried. God, make me not worried anymore. Or
Speaker 1: don't you care if we perish?
Speaker 2: That's what Peter said one time in the boat.
Speaker 1: Don't you care that we're drowning? Don't you care? Don't
Speaker 1: you God? Don't you?
Speaker 2: You said, cast all my anxieties on you.
Speaker 1: I'm casting them. I'm casting them. This doesn't work.
Speaker 2: See look at the word anxiety, because I'm telling the
Speaker 2: Lord in my in my prayers. I don't know if
Speaker 2: I can do it, and I don't know if I
Speaker 2: can do it, And I just need you to give
Speaker 2: me a sign that I can take the church for
Speaker 2: it in the next ten years.
Speaker 1: And I just need to D D take this anxiety.
Speaker 1: I'm casting it on you, Lord. I am casting it
Speaker 1: on you, all of my anxiety. And after I prayed
Speaker 1: this way for a little while, the Lord spoke to
Speaker 1: me in my heart. Now this is not an out
Speaker 1: loud conversation.
Speaker 2: I want you to think I'm really, really crazy, but
Speaker 2: this is the impression that I got.
Speaker 1: The Lord said, are you done? Now? Shut up, Peter done.
Speaker 2: Now look at the word anxiety. Look at how it's
Speaker 2: spelled in English. Look at what is in the center
Speaker 2: of the word.
Speaker 1: Do you see it?
Speaker 2: Show them on the screen, at the center of your
Speaker 2: anxiety if you really trace it. I'm not talking about
Speaker 2: a medical condition.
Speaker 1: I'm not a pharmacist. I don't know about all that.
Speaker 1: I am not a neurologist. I'm saying spiritually.
Speaker 2: Speaking that the Lord told me, at the center of
Speaker 2: your anxiety is your pride. The reason that you're so
Speaker 2: anxious is because you've got you at the center, and
Speaker 2: you can't sustain it because it's not your throne. I mean,
Speaker 2: even listen to your language. The Lord said, I don't
Speaker 2: know if I have what it takes. I don't know
Speaker 2: if I can do it. I don't know if I
Speaker 2: can make it. If I have, I have, I have,
Speaker 2: I have, I have, I have.
Speaker 1: I ah A A I. You can't spell anxiety without eye.
Speaker 1: It's right in the middle. And you know what other
Speaker 1: word I is in the middle of pride.
Speaker 2: And maybe the reason that you've been carrying carrying anxiety
Speaker 2: that you can't get rid of is because you've been
Speaker 2: bearing weight that you weren't meant to bear. You better
Speaker 2: humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, because if
Speaker 2: you stay weight down with pride, you're going to be
Speaker 2: waved down with anxiety and God can't lift you up.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I have what it takes to
Speaker 2: make it through the next ten years, God said to me,
Speaker 2: did you have what it took to get through the
Speaker 2: first ten?
Speaker 1: Boy?
Speaker 2: You better cast your net on the other side. You
Speaker 2: better call out to me in the time of the
Speaker 2: storm and humble yourself, casting all your anxiety on him.
Speaker 2: See it's not a command to cast your anxiety on him.
Speaker 1: It's a result.
Speaker 2: The command is to humble yourself under His mighty hand,
Speaker 2: and when you do, the anxiety.
Speaker 1: Goes with the pride. If you would get.
Speaker 2: Yourself out of the center and get God on the
Speaker 2: throne and lift your hands to him and say, I
Speaker 2: need you, Lord, I'm a sinful man. Can't step without you,
Speaker 2: can't breathe without you, can't eat without you, can't pray
Speaker 2: without you, can't parent without you, can't preach without you,
Speaker 2: can't work without you, can't live without you.
Speaker 1: No peace without you, no joy without you. God.
Speaker 2: Now I'm ready to lift you up above the wind,
Speaker 2: above the waves, above your pride. My mom lost eighty
Speaker 2: pounds over the course of two years.
Speaker 1: Eighty pounds.
Speaker 2: That's like an Elijah and one fourth of an Abbey.
Speaker 1: Eighty pounds. Eighty pounds. That's about how much you curl
Speaker 1: with one arm. Eighty pounds. But you know what was weird.
Speaker 1: She didn't just lose weight.
Speaker 2: See, my mom had bad knees and a bad back.
Speaker 2: In fact, I wanted to give my mom the house
Speaker 2: that we lived in when we moved into another house,
Speaker 2: but she couldn't take it because it had stairs.
Speaker 1: She said, I can't.
Speaker 2: I would love to live in that house, but the
Speaker 2: bedroom is upstairs and I can't climb the stairs.
Speaker 1: You know what's a weird thing, though, Because she would
Speaker 1: go to the doctor.
Speaker 2: About her knees and the doctor about her back, and
Speaker 2: my back and my knees, I got bad knees and
Speaker 2: got a bad back.
Speaker 1: When the weight came off, the pain went with it.
Speaker 2: I always shook a see her today, she is like
Speaker 2: an Olympic rower.
Speaker 1: Do you remember the social network.
Speaker 2: The Winklevoss When she was she's she rose. How much
Speaker 2: does she roll? Fifteen thousand meters a day?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm making this up, but.
Speaker 2: She rose a lot, and she can climb the stairs,
Speaker 2: and she can dance, and she's lively. It wasn't her knees,
Speaker 2: it was the weight. Is the reason that you're so
Speaker 2: anxious because of your pride? Maybe the anxiety is the
Speaker 2: fruit and the pride is the root. If you would
Speaker 2: pluck it up by the root, the fruit couldn't grow.
Speaker 2: Get yourself out the center. Get yourself out the center.
Speaker 2: Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God.
Speaker 1: Well what if I look stupid?
Speaker 2: Some of you are about to try something right now
Speaker 2: that you never tried before.
Speaker 1: What if I look stupid, I got good news for you.
Speaker 2: Everybody else is thinking about themselves, not you, so they
Speaker 2: won't even notice.
Speaker 1: But if I ay, ay ay ay. Who better to
Speaker 1: teach us about humility than Peter? Huh.
Speaker 2: He was sitting around the table having dinner with Jesus
Speaker 2: one time. Jesus said, all of you are going to
Speaker 2: fall away. Look what Peter said? What's that other verse
Speaker 2: I gave you Mark fourteen? I think I gave that
Speaker 2: to them this morning. Yeah, because the Lord was speaking
Speaker 2: to me. I appreciate this message one time before, but
Speaker 2: the Lord was speaking to me about it for this
Speaker 2: particular group, and he reminded me what Peter.
Speaker 1: Said when Jesus said, you.
Speaker 2: Know, you're all going to hit rock bottle, Because sometimes
Speaker 2: the only way for you to find your foundation is
Speaker 2: to hit rock bottom. Sometimes that's the best place to
Speaker 2: build from. Sometimes that's the best place to lead from.
Speaker 2: Sometimes that's the best place to be a better husband from.
Speaker 2: Is the place of Lord save me. Not call me
Speaker 2: to come and I'll come, but Lord save me. And
Speaker 2: then the hand of God gets involved. But Peter didn't
Speaker 2: know this, and so he sitting around the table.
Speaker 3: He says, Uh, even if all fall away, I will not,
Speaker 3: I will not.
Speaker 2: I will not, Jesus said, before the rooster even gets
Speaker 2: his second crow out of his mouth, You're gonna be
Speaker 2: telling people you don't even know me.
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what happened. And Jesus warned Peter of
Speaker 1: the attack.
Speaker 2: And sometimes we don't listen and we don't hear, so
Speaker 2: we're surprised when it comes and we act like this,
Speaker 2: We act like it's an ambush when it's when it's
Speaker 2: really it's really normal.
Speaker 1: It's normal to be attacked. It's normal, Jesus told Peter.
Speaker 2: Satan has asked for all of you, and specifically, he's
Speaker 2: asked for you to sift you as we to sort
Speaker 2: out what's real from what's not real. But I pray
Speaker 2: for you, Peter. I pray for you, Peter. You're gonna fail, Peter,
Speaker 2: but I'm not. You are shaky at best, Peter, but
Speaker 2: I am a solid rock at the bottom of your failure.
Speaker 1: I pray for you, Peter.
Speaker 2: And now, Peter writes decades later, to a church under attack,
Speaker 2: humble yourself under the mighty hand of God.
Speaker 1: For your enemy the devil. What's he like.
Speaker 2: He's like a roaring lion. He's looking for somebody to devour.
Speaker 2: He's looking for somebody who he can shred to pieces
Speaker 2: with doubt and fear and selfishness.
Speaker 1: He's looking for somebody that he can get to walk away.
Speaker 2: And as a pastor, I'm just sick of having to
Speaker 2: make phone calls and visits for people every week who
Speaker 2: are being devoured by the enemy. So Peter says, this
Speaker 2: is a time for resistance. This is not a time
Speaker 2: for you to run. This is a time for you
Speaker 2: to resist. Yeah, but he's a lion, Okay. He is
Speaker 2: a lion, and he might be licking his lips, and
Speaker 2: his fangs might be sharp, and he might have you
Speaker 2: in his sight, and you might have failed, and you
Speaker 2: might have done it, and you might be going down.
Speaker 1: But you need to know.
Speaker 2: One thing about this lion, Peter says, is that after
Speaker 2: you have suffered a little while, God himself will step
Speaker 2: in and restoy you and make you strong. He's a lion,
Speaker 2: but the lion is on a leash. He can only
Speaker 2: go so far, he can only do so much. He
Speaker 2: can't keep you down forever. Humble yourself under the hand
Speaker 2: of God. And in due time, come on.
Speaker 1: This is somebody's still tied. This is it.
Speaker 2: Anxiety stops here, Depression stops here.
Speaker 1: There stops here.
Speaker 2: In due time, he will lift you up. Feel the
Speaker 2: hand of God reaching down for somebody today you've been
Speaker 2: going down. If it's you, lift your hand. If this
Speaker 2: you lift your hand. If this message was straight to you,
Speaker 2: stand up on your feet.
Speaker 1: Lift both your hands in the air.
Speaker 2: If this message was straight to you, straight to you,
Speaker 2: straight to your heart, straight to what you've been dealing with,
Speaker 2: straight to the battle you've been fighting.
Speaker 1: Lift your hands. God.
Speaker 2: We thank you for your hand of favor, your hand
Speaker 2: of provision, your hand of protection, your hand of power,
Speaker 2: your hand of purpose. We humble ourselves under your hand today.
Speaker 2: We know that the lion is loud, but we know
Speaker 2: that the suffering won't last long. It is not worthy
Speaker 2: to be compared with the glory that will be revealed
Speaker 2: to us.
Speaker 1: So we look it in.
Speaker 2: The face today and we declare the name of Jesus
Speaker 2: is greater. The name of Jesus is higher. You have
Speaker 2: all power in your hand, all authority on heaven and
Speaker 2: an earth has been given to you. Now lift your
Speaker 2: people God, Lift your people. Lift your people, as we
Speaker 2: lift you up in this place. Lift their heads, God,
Speaker 2: lift their heads. Fry their tears, calm their hearts. Speak
Speaker 2: to the storm, and the storm will cease.
Speaker 1: We declare in the name of Jesus, this is our
Speaker 1: due time.
Speaker 2: Trouble won't last always, and the enemies that we're afraid
Speaker 2: of today will be our testimonies in our tomorrow.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say that again. The enemies that you fear today.
Speaker 2: Will be your testimony of triumph in your tomorrow. God said,
Speaker 2: it's just a little while. The God who has called
Speaker 2: you into his eternal glory what lasts forever. After you've
Speaker 2: suffered a little while, he himself will restore you.
Speaker 1: Peter said, I know about it because I've been there.
Speaker 1: I've had me at the center. Was so bad. I
Speaker 1: didn't know if I could ever bounce back.
Speaker 2: I went back to my fishing business because I figured
Speaker 2: God didn't have any more use for me.
Speaker 1: But when I was going down, that's where I found
Speaker 1: his hand. When I was going down, that's when he
Speaker 1: reached out to me.
Speaker 2: Just when it looked like the lion had me in
Speaker 2: his sights, That's when the God of all Grace, the
Speaker 2: God of all provision, the God of all power. Do
Speaker 2: I have a witness that immediately he reached down and
Speaker 2: picked you up.
Speaker 1: Come on, Let's.
Speaker 2: Call on his name, Tonate, Let's call on his name,
Speaker 2: Savior of the world.
Speaker 1: Call on his name, see Jesus, to thank you for
Speaker 1: joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 2: or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
Speaker 2: and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.