Amen. Thank you, Alex. Thank you, Kevin, for leading worship today. I love this church very much, and not merely because I work for her.

But because she's a great church I hope you feel the same. If you're new here, you will experience that church. The God's blessing mightily in many ways. We're going to finish out first Peter today in case you're new. Yes. My name is Wade. I normally lead worship. I work here and love working here.

That's pretty much all you need to know. First Peter chapter five. We're finishing out the book before we start in second Peter. And we're going to, I'm going to read the entire text, but then I'm going to focus on merely one or two verses, one sentence. So, let's read together our final passage of 1 Peter 5:6-14.

And then we're going to spend all our time today on verses 6 and 7. Here's God's word. 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. Be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. By Sylvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting, and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it. She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, as does Mark, my son. Greet one another with the kiss of love.

Peace to all of you who are in Christ. Allow me a brief prayer. Father, glorify your Son, please, through the preaching of your Word and through the remainder of our service. Glorify your Son, Jesus Christ. Let him be lifted up and exalted in this place amongst us as we worship, both in this service, the next, in our family meeting, and in our meal.

Glorify yourself, please. It's in Christ's name we ask, amen. Alright, so, pointing back to his instructions in the prior five verses, in the verses that Pastor Michael preached last week, he instructed elders to be humble, and he instructed younger people in the church, or churches that he was writing to, to be humble as well.

Pointing back to those, he now commands us in verses six and seven, where I'm going to be camping out. He commands us all to be humble, to live and think in light of God's mighty hand, His sovereign and controlling hand, and to humble ourselves. You are, you are, Christian, underneath the mighty hand of God.

Underneath the all-powerful hand of the maker and sustainer of the world. And Peter instructs you to humble yourself under that hand. Remind yourself regularly of the power and providence of that all sustaining hand in order to kill. Yourself obsession and your stubbornness and your pride knowing that, in the prior sentence, verse 5, God opposes the proud.

Humble yourself under his mighty hand knowing that he opposes the proud. Nobody in this room wants God to oppose them. You do not want God opposing you. So, humble yourself under his mighty hand. Put your mind and your thoughts and your affections under the mighty hand of God. He wouldn't tell you to do this if it weren't something you couldn't do.

Right? He tells you to do it because it's a command you are to obey. Let me show you our Lord living this way, doing this way. He prays, our Lord, both human and divine natures. Luke 22, verses 39 through 44, the night of his arrest. He perfectly embodies this. Humble acquiescence to the will of God under the mighty hand of God.

Here's what happens in verse 39. Jesus came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down. Our Lord, Sovereign Maker of the Universe, knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. Being in agony, he asked even more earnestly, not my will be done, but yours. Such that drops of blood were falling down to the ground. If our Lord spoke like this, we are to speak like this.

Not my will be done, but your will be done. Father, I'm in your world. I'm breathing your air. You decide whether rain or sunshine. And you decide whether I get to wake up tomorrow to see which one you decide for tomorrow. This is why the Apostle James speaks the way he does. In chapter 4 of his letter, James says this, 13 through 16.

Come now, you who say today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit. Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.

As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. It is evil to proudly assume you are in control. You've never been in control. You've never been in control. His mighty hand has always been in control, so humble yourself under it. If the Lord wills, I'll finish this sermon. If the Lord wills, your heart will continue to beat, and you will be here to hear it.

I'm here to preach and you're here to hear because the Lord willed it. So, let's humble ourselves under that mighty hand. God 16 through 18. To rejoice always, to pray without ceasing, and to give thanks in all circumstances. Why is it logical to do that? Have you ever stopped and thought for a minute?

You're probably familiar with that command or that language. Give thanks in all circumstances, pray without ceasing, rejoice always. Why is it rational to do that? Because He's in control of all things, right? We wouldn't rejoice always if there were times he wasn’t in control. We wouldn't pray without ceasing if there were times he couldn't help.

We wouldn't give thanks for all circumstances if he weren't in control of all circumstances. My kids don't thank me when Dan Monaghan gives them chocolate every Sunday. But they should if I'm the one who ordained and arranged that Dan Monahan was giving them chocolate. And that's what God is doing all the time.

He is working all things, Ephesians says, according to the counsel of his will. He's working all things, Romans says, to the good for his own glory and for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purposes. Humble yourself under the mighty hand that is in control of all circumstances.

Alright, let me give you a distinction here. Because I know some of you are inclined towards self-loathing. And candidly, I'm inclined that way. Humility, what we're called to here in 1 Peter and elsewhere in Scripture, is not self-loathing or self-hatred or pretended or real putting of oneself down. It's not contempt for the you that God made.

The hand that you are humbling yourself under is not there to crush you. And you should not crush yourself. Humility is, first and foremost, a recognition of what is true. He is God and you are not. His hand is mighty and you're to humble yourself under it. But since humility is first and foremost a recognition of what's true, it is not humble, hear me, it is not humble to think of yourself as a mistake, or worthless, or pointless.

There has never been and there will never be an insignificant Christian. There has never been and will never be an insignificant member of Christ's body, or an insignificant son or daughter that he adopts. When you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, you will see yourself properly, not as a bug.

Elders won't stop being elders, and young men won't stop being young men, and that's why Peter doesn't tell them to. He tells them to be humble in those first five verses. To recognize and to love in proper proportion what's true about God, true about others, and true about yourselves. In other words, he does not instruct good elders to call themselves bad elders.

That's not humility. Moses was the most humble man who ever lived. That's what scripture calls him. The meekest or most humble man who ever lived. And Moses did not walk around constantly muttering to himself that anybody, Eliezer, Joshua, Aaron, anybody would be a more fit, a better leader than him. Because humility is a recognition of what is true, and that's not true.

Self-loathing lies are not humility. Moses’ humility was demonstrated in the fact that he was constantly aware of and defending the truth that God's glory mattered. And aware of and defending the truth that God's people mattered. His humility was demonstrated in his worship of God, his adoration of God, and his love for others.

His humility was in his lifestyle of worship of God and concern for others, not in some moody, teenage, hole up in your room and hate yourself kind of way. It's not humble to constantly spit on your reflection in the mirror of your own mind. If you do that, stop. That's not humility. It is actually inverted pride.

It is holding yourself as somehow distinct from the rest of humanity. Somehow, I am uglier or worth less than the rest of humanity. It's not humility, any more than exalting yourself in your own mind is humility. Humility is, here's a good working definition, taking all scripture into account, here's a good working definition of humility.

Humility is a dedicated delight in the glory of God and the good of others. Humility is a dedicated delight in the glory of God and the good of others. So, if right now you're rolling around in self-loathing, lay that monster down. It's not humility. It's not what you're called to. Clothe yourself in actual humility.

Humble yourself under the hand that according to Ephesians, prepare good works beforehand that you should walk in them. You are His workmanship. The Holy Spirit also, notice this, He says, He doesn't say humble yourself because God is big and powerful. He uses imagery. Humble yourself under His mighty hand.

When the Holy Spirit inspires the apostles or the prophets or the biblical authors to use imagery like that, we're supposed to receive something from the imagery. There's a reason he uses that phrase instead of simply humble yourself because God's big and powerful. The world, the unbelieving world, sinners, will be humbled by that hand on the last day in judgment.

But we can humble ourselves under it just like we can humble ourselves under the shadow of God's wings. We're protected by that hand. We're molded by that hand. We're cared for by that hand. You're supposed to know that. Alright, let me give you three ways here that we can be proud. And I mean us in this room.

I thought of our people, of us. If you're a visitor here, I love you. But I don't know you. I was thinking of the people here that are a part of this church as I sort of examined pride, which is the opposite of humility. It's the sinful denial of humility. These are three ways I think we in this room can be proud.

And I want to describe each of them to you in a little bit of detail. First one. Thinking too frequently of yourself. Thinking too frequently of yourself. Making your wants and your needs the central character in every scene, in every setting. So that it's not, how can I glorify and magnify and exalt King Jesus this morning at work?

Or at the breakfast table? Or with my roommates? It's instead ruminating on and dwelling on and constantly considering your own problems and anxieties and frustrations. The most humble people I know, in this church and elsewhere, are the people who ask, when they notice something is wrong with their brother or sister in Christ, what is wrong?

Because they're not merely waiting for the chance to shove their own concerns to the center of the table. That's pride. That's pride. Don't push your distresses, your discomforts, your concerns to the center of every table. The closer a heart is to heaven, the more that it sees itself in relation to God as opposed to merely thinking of itself.

So, I'll give you two examples. Gabriel in Luke 2 when he introduces himself to John. He says, I am Gabriel, I stand in the presence of God. That's his introduction. Paul, in Romans, when he introduces himself, says, I am Paul, a servant or a slave of Christ Jesus. The closer a heart is to heaven, the more it thinks of itself in relation to God.

The healthier and holier a heart, the more it lives and thinks with God at the center of all. That's why we're saved and set apart in the first place, is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. God does not exist for us. We exist for Him. A holy and healthy heart sounds like, I want people to see how beautiful Christ is in this poast, post, or tweet.

Michael instructed me how to spell post correctly if you're a millennial or under. P O A S T? If you want to honor Christ in this tweet or this Facebook post, that's a healthy, holy heart. I want to honor God by praying over my sandwich in this break room. Somebody in our city group this past week told us about how they're reading, he's reading Joshua in his break room, at lunch, at work.

He's thinking about how do I exalt and lift up and glorify God with my lunch at noon, in my workplace. It thinks like, I want to enjoy the holiness of God by singing about it as I drive to the pharmacy. I want to lift up Christ's ways by opposing the murder of a, the murder of babies, which is abortion. I want to delight in Christ's forgiveness when I confess my sins openly to my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Humble, holy hearts are Christ obsessed hearts. Hearts that can't wait to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. Which is what the angels will do. Listen to me. If the idea of singing Christ's praises around his throne sounds boring to you, your heart is not healthy. The angels have never been bored. They are singing to the Lord for eternity, and they delight in it because they are doing what all of us were made to do.

Glorify God by enjoying him forever. Let me show you the meekest man who ever lived again, Moses. Numbers 14: 11-16. This is a startling few verses. To an American, to somebody who was raised, In sort of squishy, sentimental Christianity. These are startling few verses. Numbers 14 verses 11 through 16.

The Lord said to Moses, how long will this people, the people of God, who have been wandering and complaining in Israel, or in the wilderness, the people of Israel. How long will this people despise me? How long will they not believe in me? In spite of all the signs that I've done among them. This is God talking.

Verse 12. God says, I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them. And I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they. And here's the humble answer, the meek answer, the most humble man who ever lived. Moses said to the Lord, here's his argument for don't disinherit, don't destroy, don't kill.

Here's his argument. Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in you might from among them. And they will tell the inhabitants of this land, they've heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people, for you, O Lord, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night.

Now, if you kill this people, you'll be mean. We can't have you being mean. No, that's not his argument. If you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say it's because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give them, that he's killed them in the wilderness.

His visceral, instinctual, deep down reaction to God saying, I'm going to wipe out my people because of their grumbling and complaining. His visceral, instinctual, deep down action is, but then the pagans will mock you. And I don't want pagans to mock you. A humble heart is obsessed with the glory of God.

And if you're not, repent. He loves to forgive you. If you are his son or his daughter in Christ, he loves to forgive you. But if that's not the way your heart is operating right now, if your mind is not orbiting around the glory of God, repent and ask him to help you change. He will. I'll show you one more from our Lord again the night before his arrest, or the night of his arrest, John 17 This is how our Lord, again, truly human nature, truly divine nature, truly man, truly God, he says this in the first five verses of John 17- his high priestly prayer.

The first things coming out of His mouth. He ends up praying for us. He ends up praying for the disciples. But the first things out of His mouth are these. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that the son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh.

To give eternal life to all whom you've given him. And this is eternal life. That they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you've sent. I glorified you on earth having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

How many times does he have to say glory for us to realize that's what the universe exists for. You have a heart and two eyes and two ears and a tongue and everything else you have. Because you are made to glorify God and enjoy him forever. That's the sun that the solar system of your thinking and your living should orbit around.

Second way that we can be proud. Thinking too highly of yourself. Considering your competence and your virtues a bigger deal than they actually are. Stop for a moment and dwell on the mighty hand of God with me. Because that's how Peter instructs you to humble yourself. Do it under his mighty hand.

What's the biggest thing you've ever built? Birdhouse? I haven't. I've built nothing. Not even things that come from Ikea, like this pulpit. Table, swing set. Our God, the Earth has a circumference of 24, 000 miles or so. And when I looked it up, it weighs 13, didn't even know this was a word, a number, 13 septillion pounds.

That's a one with 24 zeros. And he made it by speaking. He made it by talking. I get winded deicing my windshield. And he built the world with a word. He created the cosmos. Everything from beetles to black holes. By talking. What's the, what's the best, holiest, most righteous thing you've ever done? Taking in somebody to your home at great cost to you?

Spent time on the foreign mission field? Look at what this God did in 1 Peter 2:22- 24. I'm just gonna read it to you. He committed no sin. Neither was deceit found in his mouth. You have sinned and deceit has been found in your mouth. He committed no sin and was deceit was not found in his mouth when he was reviled.

He did not revile in return when he suffered. He did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. by his wounds you've been healed, for you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

This perfect God man willingly and silently absorbed the wrath you and I deserve. That's the holiness and graciousness and mercy of God. Humble yourself by dwelling on it. The proud man or the proud woman, his abilities and his virtues are nothing next to his makers. If you are proud in this way, thinking much, thinking highly, too highly, of your strength, or your virtues, repent of it.

Quick diagnostic question before I move on to the third way, to see if this is you. And ask it, honestly. I'm serious. Ask this about yourself because I don't want you to be proud. And I don't want me to be proud. And I don't want anyone in my household to be proud. Pride always leads to bad things.

Diagnostic question. Are the people closest to you, those who live and work with you, are they most impressed with God's might, with His strong, powerful hand governing your life? And using and blessing and sustaining weak and sinful you? Or are they most impressed with you? I didn't ask him, but I'm gonna share an example of a good answer to this diagnostic question.

Eric. It's just the first one that came to mind. He's not the only humble person in church. But Eric is constantly picturing to the world. I only looked at you, Michael, because you know what I'm saying, and you would not. But he's constantly picturing to the world. His frailty, and his weakness, and telling you how good God has been to him despite the fact that he's a sinner.

Despite the fact that he constantly screws up. And so inevitably I leave conversations with him in awe of God's goodness and feeling better about my chances in the world because the same God who did it for him is my Father. If you're proud this way thinking too much of your virtues or your competence, repent.

He loves to forgive you. And he can help you change. Third way. By thinking inaccurately of God. And I do think some of us do this. We think inaccurately of God. Having little awareness or wrong conceptions of the mighty hand and goodness of God. Let me show you a parable that illustrates this. Luke 18. Our Lord tells this parable.

It's a famous one. Verses 9 through 14. Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Two men went up into the temple to pray. One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man, this is our Lord speaking, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. I want you to notice something. It's not merely That the tax collector sees himself rightly and the Pharisee sees himself wrongly. That is true, but that's not all that's going on. It's also that the tax collector sees God rightly.

Humility is always recognizing and conforming yourself to what is true. And the tax collector knew, one, that God was holy. Really holy. Because that's how you act when you know God is holy. You put your head down. If you actually know the holiness of God, you put your eyes down. And he also knows that God was merciful.

You don't ask Fidel Castro or Joseph Stalin to be merciful. God be merciful to me, a sinner. He knew and claimed the character of God. The tax collector had an accurate understanding of God's holiness and his mercifulness. The Pharisee, meanwhile, thought that he was impressive. And nobody who actually knows the holiness of God thinks that he or she is impressive.

Nobody. And he also, clearly, had no expectation that God would be merciful to someone like this tax collector. Thank you for making me not like him. Implication? He's going to the bad place, and I'm going to the good place. He had no expectation that God was merciful. Pharisee expected that God was like himself.

Petty, a scorekeeper. And impressed with mildly religious actions. But the tax collector knew that God was utterly different from himself. And that's why his head was down, and he prayed the way he did. Be like the humble tax collector. You can't if you don't know the character of God. You cannot be like this tax collector if you are not dwelling on and saturating your heart in the actual character of God.

So, if you're proud this way, replace inaccurate thoughts of God with true ones. All right, that's humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Second part of the sentence. So that at the proper time he may exalt you. So that at the proper time he may exalt you. What's the proper time?

Whenever he says. How will he exalt you? However, he says. Let me show you one time he did it. Mark 14:3-9. He exalts a humble woman. Maybe as high as he's ever exalted anyone. Mark 14, 3 through 9. While Jesus was at Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head.

Now there were some who said to themselves indignantly, why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor. And they scolded her. Pause. Humility will always be offensive to hard hearts. And if you are offended by others humility, you have a hard heart.

And if you are being humble, truly humble by God's grace, do not be surprised or discouraged by the fact that it is offensive to hard hearts. They scold her, and that's recorded for all time, by the way. God has a sense of humor. But Jesus said, leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.

For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them, but you will not always have me. She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.

Someday, two thousand and, I don't know, somebody's better at math than me, approximately two thousand years from now, in some city that doesn't even exist yet called Cincinnati, A young man will be preaching, and he will reference this woman. Why? Because she humbled herself at the feet of God. He exalted Mary, the sister of Lazarus, in their presence, and he exalted her for all time.

She is more famous than the Roman emperor at the time. Anybody know his name? Tiberius. You know his hometown? Brother? Sister? You know anything about his life? At the time, he was the most famous man on earth, and you don't know squat about him. Why? Because Mary wants some great battle? No, because the God who governs the affairs of men and who decides who will be brought low and who will be exalted, which is why Mary sings the way she does Mary, the mother of our Lord, in the Magnificat.

He decides who will be brought low and who will be exalted. This Mary is remembered because she humbled herself at the feet of the God who writes history. Listen to me, God is not a sadist. He is not delighting in pushing his children low to the ground just because he likes to see them be low and lick the dust.

He is glorifying himself and is preparing glory for you in your humility. The low will be high, the last will be first. The weak and despised things of the world will, in the end, be mighty and beloved because of his grace. Wherever the gospel is preached, what this woman did will be remembered of her because God chose to exalt her when and how He did.

She did not choose to be in Scripture. She did not wake up that morning and say, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna get myself into the Bible. I don't even know what the Bible is yet. At least the New Testament. But I have a feeling there's gonna be a New Testament someday. I'm gonna sneak in there.

There's my alabaster jar. Let's go do this thing. Not how it worked. She loved the Lord God. She humbled herself at His feet. And He chose to have her remembered for all time. Humble yourself. And at the proper time, He will exalt you. He's not a liar. Alright, the last part of the sentence. Casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you.

Why are these two thoughts connected? What does humbling myself have to do with casting my anxieties on the Lord? If you read slowly, that thought probably occurred to you. If you read it carefully. Because it's not immediately obvious what the two have to do with each other. Humble yourself, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.

Taking into account the structure of the sentence, the preceding passage, the rest of the Bible's teachings on humility and anxiety, here's what I think they have to do with each other. Humility and peace are essentially connected. And pride and anxiety are essentially connected. Humility and peace are organically linked.

And pride and anxiety. Before I explain, let me show you this isn't something I just cooked up in my own head one day in my office. This is 19th century Church of England commentator, John Piper's favorite commentator, I think. At least one of his favorites. His name's Henry Alford. He says on these verses, all anxiety is a contradiction of true humility.

Calvin says this on these verses. As soon as we're convinced that God cares for us, our minds are easily led to patience and humility. Less than the wickedness of men should tempt us to a fierceness of mind, the apostle, here, Peter, prescribes to us a remedy, and also David does in the 37th Psalm, so that having cast our care on God, we may calmly Rest for all those who become not on God's providence, all those who don't lean on God's good sovereignty must necessarily be in constant turmoil and violently assail others.

We ought the more to dwell on this thought. God cares for us. We ought to dwell on that thought. In order first that we may have peace within and secondly that we may be humble and meek towards men. Dwell on God's care for you so that you'll have peace within, so that you'll be humble towards men. How are they essentially connected?

I'm going to use an illustration to try. Let's say a couple of years ago my basement was filled with things that no human being will ever need or want. Boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff that is absolutely worthless. Has no sentimental value, no monetary value, it was just there. It's all mine. And now it's gone.

My wife like cleaned it out one day, or one weekend, I don't know, one month. At some point, it got cleaned out. But let's say it was all still there. And those of you who've been to my house know I've got the three boys in one room, and the three girls in the other room. Let's say that basement was still the way it was and I'm realizing this is not going to work anymore long term to have these three kids, one of whom is almost a teenager, in these two rooms.

I've got to figure out a better way to locate things in the house. And I do what you do. You call your elder, your pastor, you call your older brother in Christ, and I call Michael. Pastor Michael comes over and I'm like, can you just help me figure out how to better situate my house? Because I got a lot of tension here in these two rooms with these three kids in each.

And we walk around the house, and we get to the basement. And he, he sees all of that stuff everywhere, you can't even turn around without knocking something over and almost killing yourself. And he's like, okay, I've got the answer. You need to put one of the oldest ones down here. You need to finish the basement, clearing away all the clutter.

You need to finish this basement, clearing away all the clutter. In other words, doing the one thing involves and requires necessarily the other. Build your home, clearing the land. Clean your room, putting the toys in the toy box. Cook the meal, assembling the ingredients and preheating the oven. Doing the one thing necessarily involves the other.

We put it another way. You will not humble yourself while clutching anxieties. You will not humble yourself while clutching anxieties. You will remain self-focused and proud and self-seeking as long as you clutch and grasp those anxieties. So, humble yourself doing what? Casting all those anxieties on God who cares for you.

We can tend to think of anxiety as a state which only hurts the one who's in it. As though merely, it's got one victim, and that's the person who's anxious. But Peter says what he does in verse 1 about elders humbling themselves. And those elders won't humble themselves for the good of the church without doing what he says in 6 and 7, casting their anxieties on God.

And the young people in the church who he wants to humble themselves and submit to the elders won't do it without casting their anxieties on God who cares for them. Just as Saul, the bad king in 1 Samuel, would not humble himself because he was nursing anxieties about David, your anxiety hurts the people who care for you and who need you because they need you to be humble.

Humility is a necessity. It's a requirement. It's an essential ingredient for any godly relationship. If there isn't humility, there will not be health and godliness in a relationship. Period. I'm going to illustrate it for you in a second from the scriptures in a two verse story, but humility is impossible.

That thing, that oil that I said every engine of relationship needs, it’s impossible when anxieties are held onto, rather than cast on the shoulders of the God who cares for you. I'll show you Mark 9:33-34. It's just a two verse little story, but it illustrates it perfectly. The principle that without humility, you will not have godly relationships.

They came to Capernaum, and when Jesus was in the house, he asked them, what were you discussing on the way? But they kept silent, for on the way They had argued with one another about who was the greatest. That friction, that angst, that discord in the relationship was brought about by their pride, their lack of humility.

The angst and the anxiety and the friction will always be introduced where there is a lack of humility. Okay, so then I'm supposed to cast my anxieties on God so that I can humble myself. What does that even mean? Is there like an ejector seat button in my soul that I push, and they just shoot out of my heart and on to God?

No. I think he tells us, or he gives us the clue about the tool that we're supposed to pick up to do it at the end of the sentence. Cast your anxieties on God for he cares for you. You can place your anxieties at God's feet by kneading into your mind and every crack and crevice of your mind and your heart the truth that God is concerned about you, that he cares for you, that he provides for you.

You can say, what do I have to be anxious about? What do I have to worry about tomorrow? Why am I worried about what I'll eat, or what I'll wear, or what she'll say, or what he'll do, or who will win the election? Why am I so worried about that when God has always provided for me? Today, he's given me his church, and his word, and his spirit, and his son.

That's true for every single one of you. You are sitting right now amidst the saints. That's a gift he's given you. He has not forsaken you. Do you know how He's not forsaken you? I know that He's not forsaken you. I'm looking you in the eye right now. This is a gift that you're here to sing and hear the Word of God and taste the Word of God.

And be around the people of God. Will He be less gracious to you tomorrow? Be less pleased with the son whose righteousness you're clothed in tomorrow? Did He predestine you before the foundation of the world? Just to unadopt you on February 5th, 2024? You know the answer. He will always care for you.

Couple examples. Say there's two women who are neither saying it out loud, but both always trying to be the most excellent mother in front of each other and in front of all of us. And it's constantly eating away at them to prove their competency in motherhood. Humble yourselves. Casting your anxiety about the opinions of others on him because he cares for you.

Or a man who won't ever talk with anyone about sins inside his own heart or inside his household because he wants everybody to think that he's got the most perfect family life, or the most perfect integrity. Humble yourself, casting your anxiety about letting other people see what's really there on him.

He cares for you. A young lady who's distressed about what the future will look like. Whether it's gonna look like she wants it to. She's troubled about tomorrow, and about 2025, and about 2030, and about 2040. Humble yourself under your, under his mighty hand, knowing that he cares for you today and he will care for you in 2025.

And he will care for you in 2030 and he will care for you in 2040. A young man, confident he understands life and the world and how things work and how they're supposed to work. And he's, he's anxious to rise to the top so that he can prove to himself and to the world that he is, the best humble yourself casting your anxieties about the scheme of things and your place in the scheme of things on him because he cares for you, and he knows where he wants you.

I spent almost a decade in a cubicle and now I work here full time. I didn't make that happen. And there are countless saints in this church who could tell you about how they arrived where they are right now, and the answer would not be their own competency or their own virtue. God's mighty hand will put you where he wants you.

Settle in your heart that He cares for you. Resolve in your mind and your souls this truth that He tends to you and that He always considers you. Feed your spirit with thoughts of His mighty hand. Humble yourself by transferring all your anxiety and your angst to His mighty hands. An anxious man, an anxious man is a self-obsessed man.

He's focused too much on his own achievement and his own reputation. An anxious woman is a proud woman. It's a self-obsessed woman. Repent and humble yourself under the mighty hand of God because He cares for you. A man or woman, contrary to that, a man or woman who's dwelling on God's care for him or her will not have room left for anxiety or pride.

You want to be, if this is you, do you want to be free from anxiety? Do you want to be free from pride? Dwell on God's care for you. Leave here and study and think about and pray in light of and sing in light of God's care for you every single second of every day. You've never had a heartbeat that He did not will.

You've never had your lungs expand and contract in such a way that it was apart from his sovereignty. He has ordained every good thing that's happened to you. Trust him, and your pride and your anxiety will wither. Pray with me.

Abba Father, tender, merciful, sovereign, loving Father, there are proud hearts in this room, and there are anxious hearts in this room. And I have been proud, and I have been anxious. And none of that, none of that wicked sin stopped your love and your providence and your grace and your mercy. You have been patient with us. You will never stop being patient with us.

You have washed us in the blood of your Son. And we cannot become stained again eternally because your grace is eternal and sovereign grace. But we don't want to be that way. We don't want to be proud or anxious. We want to trust you.

If we've been this way, Lord, minister to our minds and our hearts through your word and through your Holy Spirit and through the tasting of the elements and the singing of hymns and psalms and spiritual songs. Minister to our minds and our hearts your care for us.

Your hand is mighty. Bring us under it. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.