Today's scripture reading is from the book of 1 Peter. If you could, it's in chapter 5, please turn with me to page 12-03 in the Bibles in front of you. We'll be looking at the text, 1 Peter, chapter 5, beginning with verses 5 and ending at 14. Here's now the reading of God's Word. Young men, in the same way, be submissive to those who are older. All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Resist Him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. In the God of all grace who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast? To Him be the power forever and ever, amen. With the help of Silas whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. And fast in it, she who is in Babylon chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark. Greet one another with a kiss of love, peace to all of you who are in Christ. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's go before the Lord in prayer. Lord Jesus may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable and pleasing to your sight. And Father, thank you for the promise that although the grass weather is in the flowers fade, your word, the word of the Lord, stands forever. Thank you for that promise. And also I wanted to pray for Mike right now, as he is baptizing his grandbaby, Talatha. I pray that your presence will be made known and that you'll be with that baptism right now. In Jesus' name, amen. Now today I'll be finishing off the sermon series, Fighting for Joy. And it is the last week, in fact we've been going through it for about 10 weeks now. And just to bring you up to speed, we've been going through the book of first Peter. And Peter is an apostle of Jesus Christ. He's writing to fellow Christians who are undergoing great suffering, temptation, trials, and tribulations. And Peter is writing to these Christians and encouraging them to fight for joy, to seek happiness in Jesus Christ and in Jesus alone and nothing else. Peter's just basically telling them, find happiness in Christ no matter what situation you are facing. So that's what we've been talking about these past 10 weeks. And today I'm going to be wrapping up the series by talking about temptation and how the evil one tempts us every day. And I'm also going to be talking about how we can resist him. Now as I was preparing for this message this week, I couldn't help but think about the average church in America, maybe even across the world, but especially here in the United States. You rarely hear about the evil one. You know, when I grew up, I grew up in the church and I didn't hear a lot about Satan. I didn't hear a lot about the evil one and who he was and the supernatural. I don't know why. I don't know the reasons why, maybe it causes fear in people. I'm not sure. But Peter addresses this very vividly in the text. In fact, he describes Satan as a roaring lion prowling around looking for someone to devour. And Peter reminds us here that Satan is real and he is active. He is alive. He's like this lion who prowls around and he's looking to devour us at any moment. And so I wanted to spend just a few minutes describing who we're dealing with, who this evil one really is. And as you look through the Bible, you begin to see that Satan, really the Hebrew word for Satan is adversary, which means that he is an opponent of God and he is an opponent of God's people. We also know that Satan is described as a fallen angel. In 1 Timothy 3, verse 6, Paul talks about elders in the church and he says that an elder must not be a recent convert or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. This is really about all we know about Satan's origins but we know here that Satan was prideful and as a result, he had fallen under God's judgment. Another name that describes Satan is that of the devil, which means one who brings about false accusations. The devil is a liar, he calls it slander, he's one who brings about false accusations. Other names include destroyer, Timter, Prince of this world, God of this age. He's also described as a lion, a dragon, and a serpent. And Jesus even describes him as the father of lives and a murderer. Now, if you're looking at this right here, you see it and it may cause some panic in your life. You may think of it and think, wow, look at who we're dealing with. This is very intimidating. Looking at it, it is intimidating because Satan is all of these things. But let me give you hope. And that is this. There's a few things that Satan is not. I'm just listing three, but Satan, first off, is not divine. Satan is a created being, he is not divine. So therefore, he does not have the power that Jesus has. In fact, he is not all knowing and he is also not all powerful. I love the passage in 1 John 4 when it says, the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. So my friends, we have hope we can cheer up. Because if you have Jesus Christ, he is in you. We believe that you are united with him. And if he is in you, he is greater than the one who is in this world. And the more I study about Satan, the more I realize that Satan cannot stop the gospel from being proclaimed across the world. There are many of you here that work for a mission agency called Campus Crusade or Wycliffe, Bible translators. And I commend you for it. It's awesome that you're doing this. But you are an example of history. You're an example of seeing the gospel being proclaimed throughout the ends of the earth. Sarah Wilkenning is here this morning and we're going to hear from her later. She is a part of greater mission. And that is to go and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Satan cannot stop that. He can't. And the more we learn about Satan, the more we realize how weak he is compared to Jesus. Remember this passage. The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in this world. We're going to be talking briefly here about how Satan can be resisted. And if you look throughout scripture, you see several examples of how he can be resisted. Think about it in the early chapters of Matthew, where Jesus is tempted by Satan. What does Jesus do? When Satan tempts him three times, Jesus gives him back the word of God. And he puts Satan back in his place. And he basically says, Satan, you're not going to mess with me. I know my stuff and I'm more powerful than you, so leave me. And he even says away from me, Satan, and Satan leaves. Think about the person, Job, and the Old Testament. Here he is, a guy who is undergoing all kinds of stress, all kinds of suffering, Satan even inflicts sores on his body just so that he can deny God. But Job, because he had Jesus in his heart, and he believed in God, he was able to resist Satan. And then also in the book of James, James tells us, as believers, to resist the devil and he will flee from you. So Satan can be resisted. And it's all with the help of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now all of these, as I've talked about, there are many adjectives of Satan, but I really just want to emphasize one today and that is of temptation because we see this in the text this morning. And when you think about temptation, what normally comes to mind when you think about temptation? I think about eating a lot of chocolate. You may see commercials and advertisements of chocolate and Hershey's, and you just want to just eat it and devour it. And I think that could be tempting, where it's good, it tastes good, but if you have a lot of it, it can be harmful to your body. I also think of spending a lot of money. You may see things that are extremely nice and you want it and you desire it, but you don't have it in your budget. But you swipe that credit card because you want it. It's a temptation. I think about lust. Especially if you're single, if you find some of the opposite sex attractive, you may act on that. The idea here is that Satan can disguise evil as good. And so he's very cunning, he's very sly. And so he really can, basically disguise evil as good. He can make it look really good, but deep down, it's extremely evil. And so that's what Satan does when he tempts us. But let me just give you a brief definition of temptation. Temptation from Websters, dictionary says, to make or to try to make, to attract or to appeal strongly to, even to test. So temptation is to appeal strongly to, to test, to make or to do something. I'll give you a practical example. My wife and I have been looking for a home. And we've been looking now for six months. We're going on month six. We're being very cautious and very careful. Many of you here are home buyers and you know just the work that goes into it. There's a lot that goes into a lot of details, a lot to learn. And as a first time home buyer, we have a lot that we didn't know about. And we're learning every single day. But I'll be honest with you, we are tempted in so many ways when we go into these new houses that have upgrades and new appliances and just everything. We go in there and we're tempted to put it in our budget when it's, when it's way above our pay grade, when it's way above our price range. But after we look at it, we go home and we try to fit it in our budget. And if it's more than 35% of our budget, as Dave Ramsey says, we really try to stay below that. But sometimes we're tempted to go up to 40%. At this point, we haven't bought anything yet. I think we finally found a place in winter springs believe or not that we like. And it is in our price range, but I'm just telling you because it is a temptation. And that's what I've been dealing with lately. So let me ask you, I want you to think about it for a second. What kinds of things have been tempting you? What, what things are appealing strongly to you or are testing you? Think about that for a moment. Now I'm going to be dealing with Satan and where he tempts us and where does he tempt us today? He tempts us in all kinds of ways. But I'm really going to be focusing on two ways. Satan tempts us to be arrogant and he tempts us to feel hopeless. Richard Pratt, one of my seminary professors, says it this way. Humans often don't know what to think of ourselves. Some of us are so full of self-importance that they lift up their hands and prays of their own divinity. Others feel so worthless that we can hardly stand to live another minute. One says I am God, another says I am nothing. Which is true. What does it mean to be human? We must look at ourselves as a balanced image of God between a humble image and a dignified image. This is a profound statement because many of us fit in one scenario or another. We either think at times we have control over lives and we are God or we think we're worthless and hopeless and we think we are nothing. I think all of us in here have experienced one of those things. I'm going to give you two phrases this morning. That's it. I'm going to give you two phrases. The first phrase is this. When times are good, there is a temptation to be prideful, which leads to arrogance. Let me say that again. When times are going good, there is a temptation to be prideful, which leads to arrogance. This falls into the person that says I am God. Now, when things are going well, it's so easy to just kind of coast in life and to think that you have control of your own life because things are good. And that might include good health. That might include you have a good nest egg and savings. You may have a great relationship with your family, you know, things are going well and there's a lot of you in here where life is good. But that's when Satan, I think, tempts us the most to lead into arrogance and pride. And I want to remind you of 1 Corinthians 10 verse 12 where Paul says, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. So if things are going well and you think, I'm doing great, I don't need God, I've got all these things I need, that's when Satan can hit you the most. Be careful that you don't fall. You know, we hear stories all the time in the media, don't we? We hear stories about celebrities who have all the fortune and fame. And then all of a sudden, boom, it happens. They either have an affair on their spouse or they embezzle a lot of money. You hear about politicians that do it. I was teaching the joy group this week and they said, we don't trust politicians, about 80% of them seem to be corrupt. And a lot of that is this mentality where we feel that they have this attitude of entitlement that they are above everyone else. I even see it here in the church, not just at UPC, but in the church all around where this happens. Things are going well in life, they don't need God, they have control of their life and then all of a sudden, they fall because they think they're standing firm, but then boom, something happens and temptation comes in. You know, there's a temptation for us to have an attitude of entitlement where it's basically my way or the highway. Whatever I view is right and if this person isn't doing what I'm doing, then they're wrong. And I'm going to tell you a little bit about myself in college. You know, when I was in college, I had this attitude of entitlement. The worries that I had consisted of this in college. It consisted of making sure I showed up to class at my on time at my 10 o'clock class. To be quarterback of a flag football team, to figure out where we were traveling that weekend and to figure out what I was going to eat that night. Those were my decisions to make. Life was good. I had a great time in college. But unfortunately, I had this attitude of entitlement where if people showed up late to class or if they miss class, and that happened a lot in college, or if people didn't come to church one Sunday, I would look at them and say, why aren't they doing that? Why aren't they like me? Here I am working hard and they're not coming to church or they're not showing up on time to things. You know, it was the worst thing that I can remember about myself was, and I tell you this truthfully, I remember looking down on homeless people. You know, they would be downtown and they'd be, I would be driving and I'd be at a stoplight and they would ask for money. And after I'd leave, I would say, why don't those people get an education like I'm doing? Or why don't they work hard like I'm doing? If they did that, they wouldn't be in this situation. See how arrogant that is? I had this attitude of entitlement that people should be like me. Well, there is some truth about working hard and there is some truth about getting a job, not when you're having this kind of attitude. And my paradigm was shifted when I came here to UPC, because I began to serve at the Man of Ministry some and I worked with the homeless, with the homeless and I began to hear their stories. And they were just like me, they were people just like you and me. However, they had had an unfortunate situation happen to them where a loved one disowned them, where they lost their job and just couldn't find another job or they were just struggling with depression and addiction. And then why I heard their stories the more convicted I was about my arrogance and my attitude towards them. I had this attitude of entitlement. You see God opposes the proud but he gives grace to the humble. Peter tells us in this passage to humble yourselves under God's mighty hand and he may lift you up in due time. The proud trust in themselves but the humble they trust in God. But the problem is that our culture considers humility as weakness. If you talk to a non-Christian they may see humility as something as weak. I have an example, who here likes the show Survivor? Does anybody watch Survivor some of you? If you haven't seen last season and you're watching it cover your ears at this moment because I'm going to expose who won. But in Survivor last year it was incredible. It was so exciting because you had two characters. You had Russell and you had Natalie. Russell was a guy who was full of arrogance. He tried to do whatever he could to win the game and that meant lying, cheating, stealing. He would take people's socks and throw it in fire. He would lie constantly about people saying I'm going to be on your side if the vote comes but then he changes his mind last minute. He played an extremely unethical game. On the other hand was this quiet girl from a Southern girl from Alabama, Christian girl. She talked a lot about her faith. She prayed a lot in the show. She was very humble but she just had good strategy. They just both played the game differently. At the end all, as you heard, all the people, all the fuss about Russell, everybody said what will Russell do next? Everybody talked about this guy and the fans loved him because he did whatever it took and he did play a good game but he played it in an unethical way and he was very arrogant. And so at the very end, at the tribal council, they actually had an interview where they interviewed all the other candidates who had been voted off and at the very end, there was a guy named Eric who stands up and he says this. He says, Russell, you played an unethical game. And the crazy thing about it is you're sitting there and I'm standing here. Did you get the right place by behaving the wrong way? You sit there, proud of it. And then he looked over at Natalie and he says this. Natalie, people will call you weak and undeserving. Why are those characteristics any less admirable as lying, cheating, stealing? Reality is reality. You are sitting there and that makes you just as dangerous as any of these guys there. You would say you are the least deserving of the title but maybe just maybe in an environment filled with arrogance and delusional entitlement, maybe the person who thinks she's the least deserving is probably the most. After Eric gave that speech, he was the very last one to give a speech. You could tell the whole jury had changed their mind because everybody seemed to be in favor of Russell but when he gives these powerful words about how weakness is moral strength or how humility, I'm sorry, how humility is moral strength, people began to change their minds and all of a sudden Natalie becomes the winner of survivor. It was amazing. I ended up getting tearful when I watched this. I couldn't believe it. It was a reality show and I'm crying but it was powerful because this is a strong example of our culture. In fact, Russell, all the fans, they voted for Russell as the best survivor and he got a thousand or he got a hundred thousand dollars but the real winner was Natalie and she even said I don't deserve this win. She was very humble but the thing is she ended up winning and finally good prevailed and I thought this is reality. It was a non-Christian TV show and good prevailed, praise the Lord. This is just one example out of many where our culture just values arrogance and they look at it and they praise it. Now how are you going to practice humility? My thought is humility is putting others interest above your own and so if your spouse wants to watch another TV show then you do, then watch it. I might get you in trouble by saying that but watch it. If a friend who really needs to meet with you wants to meet with you but you're busy make time for that friend. If you're working with someone in the office and they have a really good idea to help your company or to help the project you're working on, run with it and give that person the credit. If it's different than your idea, don't worry about it, take their idea. Peter says here that just as we fasten on our clothes in the morning, God calls us to close ourselves with humility and I've told you this before but humility is like underwear. We should have it but not let it show. The thing is we should have it but we shouldn't let it show. You can't sit around and say oh I was humble or oh I did this for my spouse, I'm such a good husband. You can't do that. You can't let it show. The thing about arrogance and about our image of God is that we need to remember that we are humble images of God but we are just that, we are images. We are finite physical representations of Him so that should lead us to humility, right? So when things are going well, remember that you're an image of God, just an image. That leads us to my second phrase. When times are tough, there is a temptation to be fearful which leads to hopelessness. When times are tough, there is a temptation to be fearful which leads to hopelessness and this goes into the person who feels like they are nothing. If you're feeling really hopeless this morning, if you're feeling depressed or just concerned and worried, don't buy into the lie of Satan. Satan is trying to make you feel that way, don't buy into it. You my friends are a dignified image of God. And this leads to my next quote here from Dr. Pratt. He says that human beings are humble creatures but look again at our label. We are images but we are images of God. God did not make Adam and Eve to resemble rocks, trees, or animals. Nothing so common was in His design for us. Instead God carefully shaped the first man and woman so that they were in His likeness. He determined to make us creatures of incomparable dignity. That's a profound statement. Because if you're feeling depressed right now, if you're feeling weak and vulnerable, remember who you are. You are a dignified image of God. You're not a rock, you're not an animal. You're a human being and you're made in His likeness. So therefore you are a dignified image of God. So what do we do when the suffering comes? What do we do if you're worrying right now? If you have a lot of anxiety, what do you do? Well Peter tells us here to cast all of your cares upon Him because He cares for you. Let me define anxiety for you. Anxiety means to be drawn in different directions. Anxiety means it has a negative effect on our lives and results in our loss of confidence and assurance. So when you're drawn in all different directions, you lose a lot of confidence. I feel that way when I'm looking for a house. I have all these options and I'm drawn in all these different directions. And I'm losing confidence on narrowing my focus and making a decision. It makes you indecisive. And I think worry is a form of pride because it involves taking concerns upon yourself and not God. I worry constantly. That's probably one of my weaknesses. If you worry, it is a form of pride because you are taking concerns upon yourself and not God. But when Peter tells us to cast all of your cares upon Him, the word cast literally means to throw. So imagine yourself and Peter wants his audience to imagine this. He's talking to some fishermen. You have a large net and you're throwing your whole body to throw and you're hoping to get a large catch of fish to bring it back in. Now, whatever you're worried about, whatever is tearing you in different directions. What I'm telling you now is to throw all of your weight and throw it on to the cross, throw it on to Christ because He can handle it. He can take whatever is thrown at Him. That's how powerful He is. One friend of my discipleship group said that Jesus can be like a punching bag at times. He can just take it, but He never falls. He just takes it, but He can take it. That's the powerful thing and the beautiful thing of the gospel. Jesus can take whatever you throw at Him. So it's literally like you're throwing a net, you're throwing your care, your worries and you're hoping to get fed by Him. And the thing is you will be fed by Him because that's what He promises. So my friends, if you're, if you're struggling right now, if you're struggling with financial problems, with health problems, with relationship troubles, or even if you're mourning the loss of a loved one, it's okay to wrestle with the Lord. Israel means to wrestle with God. Jacob wrestled with God. It's okay to wrestle with him. He can take it and he wants you to be there. He doesn't want you to leave. So cast, throw all of your cares upon Him because He cares for you. But not only does He care for us, there's two things that Peter encourages us to remember. Peter encourages us to remember that we are not alone in our sufferings. Look with me in verse nine of verse 13. Peter says, to resist Him, the evil one, standing firm in the faith because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And then in verse 13, he says, she who is in Babylon and Babylon means the church of Rome. So he says, she who is the church of Rome chosen together with you sends you her greetings and so does my son Mark. You see what Peter's saying here as he's saying that you're not alone in your sufferings. In fact, there's other people in the world who are experiencing very similar things and you're going through. And so my friends, if you're going through a lot, remember, may I remind you that there's other Christians in the United States, there's other Christians in the world who are experiencing something similar. That should give you some encouragement, some assurance that you're not alone in this battle. The second thing that Peter encourages us to remember is that God is with us in our sufferings. If you look with me in verse 10, Peter says, and the God of all grace who calls you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong firm and steadfast. What Peter is saying here is that God is with us in our suffering. And you see, there is a major contrast between the shortness of human suffering and the eternity of God's glory. So whatever you're facing right now, life is temporary and compare that to the eternal riches that you will receive in glory when you meet Christ face to face for eternal life. There's no comparison. So may I encourage you to hold on to the cross, hold on to the gospel truth, and cast your cares upon him. He says here in verse 10 that he who called you to his eternal glory, do you know what calling means here? It doesn't mean an invitation that a person can just accept or reject as he pleases. It's not an evite that you can say yes, no, or maybe to, or I'll think about it. It's not a Facebook invitation where you can kind of say no at the last minute. This calling is in fact a summons, which means it is a divine royal command, which a receiver cannot refuse and he must obey. So when it says God has called you, it's saying he is commanding you. He desires you. He wants you and you can't refuse it. The Holy Spirit will lead you. So if you're trying to get away from God, you're not going to be able to. If you really believe in him, you see God has commanded us by his grace to unify with Jesus Christ. He wants us in union with Christ. So I wrap all of this up. I've given you a lot of information, but let me remind you here. Satan is on the prowl. He's like a lion looking to devour us. So we must not fear him. We must not give in to his lies. But instead we must stand firm, be alert and watchful, be self-controlled and resist his temptation. He's going to disguise evil as good. Watch out for it. He will try to make us feel arrogant and he will try to make us feel hopeless, but don't buy into this lie. You are a humble image of God, but you're also a dignified image of God. My brothers and sisters in Christ, humble yourselves in the side of the Lord. And he will lift you up and cast all of your cares upon him because he cares for you. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we sang earlier in a mighty fortress in our God that the Prince of Darkness grim. We tremble not for him. His rage we can endure for low, his doom is sure. When little words shall fell him. Lord, we're up against an evil one. We are up against the Prince of the world that is considered the Prince of Darkness grim. But Lord, you remind us that you are with us and that we are not alone in our sufferings. You remind us that we are a dignified image of you. And so there, or we should approach our enemy with confidence and resist him with confidence. Lord, we tremble not for him. For rage we can endure. We know one day you're going to come back and you're going to come back very soon and you're going to put Satan in his place forever. You're going to cast him into hell forever. And we can't wait for that moment because his doom is sure and one little words shall fell him. Lord, when temptation hits us and when it hits us hard, I pray that we will look into your word and memorize Scripture and show Satan what the truth really is and it is your word. And he will flee from us. But may we stand firm and alert and watchful as he approaches us. In Jesus' name, amen.