Welcome to Day 2414 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Day 2414 – A Formula That Brings Relief – Daily Wisdom

Putnam Church Message – 06/30/2024 Our Fiery Ordeal – A Formula That Brings Relief. 1 Peter 5:5-7 Last week, we focused on those with leadership positions within a local church, which also applies to all of us as we partner to further God’s Kingdom on earth. Today’s passage is 1 Peter 5:5-7, on page 1892 of your Pew Bibles. If we want to grasp what true success is and how to obtain it, we need to tune out the seductive message from the world and tune in to the instructive message from God’s Word. ⁵  In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”^{[a] 6} Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Our society has gorged itself on the pursuit of success. Upward mobility, getting ahead, snagging that promotion—only one direction will do: up ... up … UP! We've stuffed ourselves with money-making schemes and binged on books and seminars teaching us how to make ourselves great. Not long ago, our gluttony for financial success inflated an economy until it exploded. But not to worry! We'll pick up the pieces and start all over again. Bulletin Insert The world tells us that to be satisfied, we need fortune: Make a lot of money—make a boatload of money! Society persuades us that to be significant, we need fame, which means being well-known and well-connected. The culture tries to convince us that to have true success, we need influence: wield power, be in control, and don't take orders—give them! And if this “big three" of success doesn’t do it, the real secret lies in indulgence: fulfilling your wants, desires, and pleasures. The world's methods of achieving these things aren’t complicated. Work hard, or at least harder than everybody else. Push ahead, even if it means stepping on others. Remove all obstacles, such as friends, family, and faith. And promote yourself even if it means exaggerating a bit or trashing somebody else! The great irony of all this is that the more success we have, the more we want. History, experience, religion, psychology, and sociology have all taught us that such purposeless pursuits can never ultimately quench our thirst for true meaning or relieve our hunger for true happiness. Instead of fulfillment, we experience the bloated nausea of disappointment. Ultimately, the all-you-can-eat lifestyle leaves us weighed down in our spirit, nauseated with worry, and let down by life. In an age like ours, the countercultural message of humility is neither popular nor appreciated. At a time when looking good is considered more important than being good, and when a superficial impression makes a bigger splash than solid integrity, who has time for things like submission, dependence, and trust? In our dog-eat-dog, cut-in-line lifestyle, deferring to others looks stupid and sounds silly. In contrast to the world's narcissistic plan for success, Peter outlines in 1 Peter 5:5-7 the essential ingredients for relief. — 5:5 — In 1 Peter 5:1-4, Peter addressed those elders who were in authority as overseers of the flock. They had been given special responsibilities necessary for effective ministry. Those leadership principles go against the typical human tendency to “lord it over" those under authority. So, when Peter turns to the younger disciples, who were under the authority of those older saints, we can anticipate that he will confound our cultural expectations again. Peter begins with the adverb “In the same way" (homoiõ). Just as older leaders are to conduct themselves Christlike, younger leaders must also do so counterculturally. Though the positions may differ, our calling to live in conformity with Christ never changes. Who is Peter addressing in verse 5? The term neos (younger) can mean several things. Our English prefix neo- borrows from this term, which means “new” or “young.” In the New Testament, its most common use is the most general —something new instead of old. It can also refer to a person of physically youthful age in contrast to somebody more mature. It's used once in reference to the “new” identity we have in Christ after salvation (Col. 3:10). It may also generally refer to those under the authority of leaders —that is, servants, disciples, or assistants (Acts 5:6). How does Peter use the term neos in 5:5? Does it refer to younger believers (novices) in the faith or to literal young people? I think a key to understanding this use comes from Jesus' own words, no doubt recalled by Peter in this context. In the previous section on leaders, we saw the echoes of Jesus' warning about the Gentile method of leadership: “In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people.... But among you it will be different.” (Luke 22:25-26). This corresponds to Peter’s call for leaders to reject “lording leadership” and instead set an example of submissive servanthood (1 Pet. 5:3). Similarly, Jesus continued:  Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, (neos) and the leader should be like a servant. (Luke 22:26). So, according to Jesus, the “greatest” in rank contrasted with the “lowest rank” in the same way a leader contrasts with a servant. Peter likely picks up on this contrast. Having called on leaders to serve in 1 Peter 5:1-4, he then gives directions to those under their leadership, the “newer” believers in verses 5-7. This brings us to Peter's exhortation to those under the elders’ teaching authority. Simply put, they are to submit to the elders' teaching authority. What a novel idea in this era that promotes an entrepreneurial,>independent spirit>necessary>for personal success! But Peter doesn't stop there. With another possible allusion to the words and work of Jesus before His crucifixion, he instructs believers to “clothe themselves” with humility (1 Pet. 5:5). It may be that Peter was recalling the last meal in the upper room, when Jesus—the greatest leader of all—girded Himself with a towel and washed the disciples' feet (John 13:4-17). (Towel and Apron Object Lesson) The Master served the servants. The spiritually older stooped down and washed the feet of the spiritually younger. The word Peter used for “clothe yourself" literally means to “put or tie something on oneself.” Wuest notes that this word “speaks of the act of tying or tucking up the long outer garments . . . around the waist as a roll or band or girth.... In its noun form, the word refers to a slave's apron under which the loose outer garments were gathered."! Jesus even looked like their servant. What humility! Peter's main appeal in 5:5 is to submit to (learn from) spiritually wise people. He calls the younger believers under the authority of the elders to listen to their counsel. Be open to their teachings. Watch their lives and follow their good examples. Respect their years of experience and honor their seasoned lives. All of this is included in the call for the younger believers to submit yourselves to your elders. To support his call for humility and submission, Peter quotes Proverbs 3:34, The Lord mocks the mockers but is gracious to the humble. He expresses an idea in various forms throughout the Old and New Testaments. God has demonstrated His ability to humble the proud; He reduces to nothing those world leaders who are puffed up with pride (Isa. 14:4-21; Ezek. 28:1-10; Dan. 4:28-3 7). He also has a penchant for promoting the humble. We see this clearly in the lives of both Joseph and Daniel, two men who suffered unjustly and ended up in slavery. But God used their humble status to raise them up through the ranks to accomplish His purposes. This twin theme is woven through the fabric of the Old and New Testaments. So, the first strong word of counsel for those who want to find genuine satisfaction and true success comes from a whole parade of passages in Holy Scripture—submit yourself to those who are wise instead of flaunting your own authority. God will provide a greater measure of grace to those who genuinely submit with humility. — 5:6 — The second in Peter's series of three commands concerns our attitude. To experience true success in life, we must Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand (5:6). In the Old Testament, God's “hand” was a metaphor for his power displayed in two ways: discipline (Exod. 3:20; Job 30:21; Ps. 32:4) and deliverance (Deut. 9:26; Ezek. 20:34). So, humbling ourselves means we accept whatever comes from God. We follow our sovereign Lord along the smooth highways and the bumpy back roads. In other words, we don't manipulate events or people. We don't hurry things to conform to our timetable. Instead, we allow our God to orchestrate things at His tempo. Only in this way will the promise of 1 Peter 5:6 be fulfilled in us: “that he may lift you up in due time.” Let me illustrate. Let's say you write music and you’re reasonably talented. But you’re just starting and are unknown except in your small church and circle of Christian friends. But you love the Lord and want to serve Him with the talents He's given you. So you have a quandary. Do you push hard to be discovered by the world? How hard? After all, your gifts are only good if you use them, right? What would it mean to humble yourself under God's mighty hand in this situation? We're not left to wonder. King David serves as an excellent biblical example. In 1 Samuel 16, you find a young, homegrown musician who kept his father's sheep. He had never heard the applause of the public. His world was limited to bleating sheep. But he kept playing his music, writing his songs . . . and all the while, he had no idea that one day his original compositions would find their way into the book of Psalms. David didn't pursue fortune and glory with his music. He didn't hire an agent or rent an oxcart to take his songs on the road. Nevertheless, more than any other collection of “hits' David's inspirational psalms have brought glory to God. In God's timing, He found young David. His attitude of humility exalted him and his work to a place he could never have reached on his own. Look at what Psalm 78 says about David: ⁷⁰ He chose his servant David, calling him from the sheep pens. ⁷¹ He took David from tending the ewes and lambs and made him the shepherd of Jacob’s descendants— God’s own people, Israel. ⁷² He cared for them with a true heart and led them with skillful hands. (Ps. 78:70-72) When David humbled himself under God's mighty hand, God exalted Him at the proper time. — 5:7 — I've never been jumped out of airplanes with a parachute on my back or to leap off high bridges strapped to a giant rubber band. But I suppose the feeling of free fall one experiences by skydiving or bungee jumping is similar to how we feel when we've totally submitted to the authority of others and humbled ourselves before God. The feeling of absolute surrender and powerlessness could initially cause us to panic. But when we realize that our lives depend not on a parachute or bungee cord, but on the living God, we'll recognize that we've traded insecurity for true security. We'll discover that we depended on our manufactured devices rather than trusting God's supernatural strength. This leads to Peter's third strategy for true success: Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. (5:7). The term “casting . . . on" (epiriptõ) means “to throw upon.”! (Blanket with signs tied in it?) This represents a decisive action on our part, neither passive nor partial. When Peter tells us to cast all our anxiety on Him, this is how we  Humble ourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand (5:6). We surrender all those anxieties, questions, and concerns. Psalm 55:22 reflects the same thought: Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall. Similarly, Peter accompanies His exhortation of radical surrender with a reminder of the character of God. We can cast everything on Him because He cares for us (5:7). Do you want a simple formula that will enable you to handle whatever success God may bring and provide the relief you need? Peter gives us just such a formula in 1 Peter 5:5-7. It's unpopular and doesn’t conform to the world's advice. I should warn you: When you try to put it into practice, your natural instinct will be to resist it. But it's the raw material of a life lived in hope: Submission to others + Humility before God - Worry of the world = Genuine Relief (Pepto Bismal) (Nausea, Heartburn, Indigestion, Upset Stomach, Diarrhea)     APPLICATION: 1 PETER 5:5-7 True Success If we want to grasp what true success is and how to obtain it, we need to tune out the seductive messages from the world and tune in to the instructive messages from God’s Word. We need to look to Christ as the model of humility and turn away from Satan as an example of hubris. As I see it, our great need for this reorientation involves direction, discipline, and discernment. First, we need direction so we can know to whom we should submit. We aren't called to submit to everybody indiscriminately. But neither are we to follow our own ways in our own wisdom. Peter identifies the ones to whom we must submit: our “elders.” But how do you know they’re trustworthy? One way is to ensure they're pointing to Christ, not themselves. Paul wrote, “And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.” (1 Cor. 11:1). We should also follow those who guide us by the light of God's Word, not their own suggestions and opinions. Psalm 119:105 describes Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. Another indication to determine if an elder is trustworthy, filled with the Holy Spirit, and worth following is whether their lives reflect the ‘Fruit of the Spirit’ as listed in Galatians 5:22-23, ²² But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! If elders meet this 3 step litmus test, we should follow those whom God has placed in authority over us, who are in official church leadership/elders. Hebrews 13:17 says, Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit. Second, we need discipline to restrain our hellish pride. Pride will keep rearing its ugly head. The more successful you are, the more you'll be tempted to chuck God's plan for the world's plan. You’ll start out just dabbling in the world's ways, but before you know it, you’ll find yourself on the wrong road heading in the wrong direction. Paul provided Timothy with a good perspective on this issue: “But have nothing to do with worldly fables. Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead, train yourself to be godly. ⁸ “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come. (1 Tim. 4:7-8). Paul contrasts “worldly fables” and “bodily discipline”>on the one hand |and godliness and future-oriented hope on the other. Our pride will never sit down and stay quiet. It needs strong discipline to keep it in its place. Third, we need discernment so we can spot the beginnings of anxiety. If we don't pounce on our fears the moment they creep in_, they'll soon latch onto our hearts and minds, choking out our joy and peace. Have you ever had some little worry that started to nag you? |You can't get it out of your head. Like a poison, it starts to eat away at your insides, and soon you're paralyzed with fear. It takes discernment to spot that kind of anxiety before it gets out of control. Do you find yourself caught up in the success syndrome, hopelessly running on the treadmill of discontent? Are you still convinced that the world's path to success is the best? Do you find yourself manipulating people and