Pastor Tim Brown, Calvary Chapel Fremont, Sunday February 21, 2010

Download | Duration: 00:49:16

The Firewall of the Church - Part 3

1 Peter 5:5-7 p3

Four times in three verses Peter speaks of humbling ourselves b4 one another and God.  Humility has great value.  Humility is the firewall of your soul/church– it protects you from spiritual viruses that the world/flesh/devil want to download n2 your soul/church.  

Peter has been instructing us to do a lot of weighty things – 

    * endure suffering w/o developing a desire for revenge
    * persevere through trial w/o complaining
    * submit to one another in humility

Obedience to God doesn’t come naturally – it goes against your grain and you have to discipline yourself to live in obedience to God. Obedience can create its own kind of anxiety.  Since I can’t control/ am not in charge – that means someone else is.  Remember when you got in the passenger seat and took your 15 year old out driving.  We’re afraid that God will drive our lives like our 15 year old drives the car.  “God, look out!”  

V7 is a real high point in this letter.  Peter knows that these responses to God/one another don’t come easily.  He knows that obedience to God can create anxiety/worry – “If I do what God tells me to do I will lose what I have.”  Rich young ruler | Getting van smogged – I was told that I would be after a certain car/another customer pulled in who I thought was going 2b served b4 me – I was anxious.  

Anxiety is the fear that I won’t get everything that’s coming to me.  If I don’t throw my weight around/insist on my own way/promote myself, I’ll be overlooked/passed by/I won’t get what I deserve.  If I don’t look out for me and promote myself and my cause, no one else will.  That’s just good business sense and an essential survival skill.  Do you think I’m going to join a company where the CEO will be thinking about how he can make me successful and advance me through the ranks?  

“If I humble myself, I’m afraid that others will take advantage of me.”  Someone might say, “Shut up and just obey God.  He’s got your back.”  Sometimes, Biblical guidance is presented w/ the assumption that if you just do as ur told, all will be well – that if you just obey what the Bible directs u2 do, all will take care of itself.  Often, Biblical counsel/counselors can appear 2b so clinical/cold.

But Peter knows that he is speaking to flesh/blood.  He knows the emotions that course through the human heart.  He is aware of the cares that can weigh it down and the fear/anxiety that can choke a response of faith.  

Anxiety – a very emotional word that speaks of mind numbing worry.  The medical community tells us that this kind of gut wrenching worry comes w/ physical symptoms - tightness in the muscles/headaches/pain in the back of the neck/shortness of breath/racing heart/abnormal tiredness/sleeplessness. Anxiety is like a big dog barking on the inside/eating you alive.  

Anxiety can disturb sleep/diminish health – disinherit you.

And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.  Matthew 13:22  

Worry can choke out the life of God in you.  Demas

Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap.  Luke 21:34  

Worry can distract you from the signs of the times.  What to do - 

Cast all your anxiety upon him

The word cast is a very strong word - 

Lk. 4:35  Demon threw a boy to the ground.

Mt. 27:5  Judas threw the 30 pieces of silver n2 the temple.

The ancient Greeks tell us that people have tried to drown their cares/worries in love/alcohol.  The implication is that it’s not something I can get rid of, it’s something I have to hold at bay – it’s a sickness 2b managed w/ the medication of alcohol/emotional stimulation.  But Peter tells us that gut wrenching anxiety isn’t something that needs 2b anesthetized – it’s something that can be eliminated.  It’s not something that you have to resign yourself to live w/ and manage - worry/anxiety can be removed.  

You may think that you wouldn’t wish what you’re going through on your worst enemy.  The Bible doesn’t say to cast all your issues/ stuff on someone you don’t like – cast all your anxiety upon Him.  

How do I cast my cares upon God?  Psalm 3

Note the intro to this psalm.  This is a problem that David brought upon himself.  Background - 

    * Husband – adultery w/ Bathsheba
    * King – abused authority - murder
    * Father – exampled wickedness/hid from consequences/passive toward children
          o In committing adultery/murder, David released something n2 his family.
          o By not disciplining Amnon, he released bitterness n2 Absalom.
          o By not confronting Absalom, he released rebellion/violence n2 the kingdom.

David was 100% to blame for his problem.  Ps. 32/51 tell us that this was eating him alive/consuming his thoughts/keeping him awake.  3:4 I was crying to the Lord w/ my voice.  He was casting all his cares upon the Lord.  

The grace of God meets you even when you cause the problem!

Psalm 55:1-8, 16-18; 56:1-11; Romans 4:18-21

God cares for you

Mk. 4:38  Don’t You care if we drown?  “Jesus, are You emotionally indifferent to me?”  Peter says that God cares – emotional investment.  Peter knows that God cares for you because he knows that God cares for him.  And if God can care for him, God can care for anybody.  He cares about what you’re going through/what’s going through you/what weighs you down and wrings you out.  

God cares about the:

    * Sighs you heave/tears you cry/desires you’re afraid to whisper for fear that the sound of them will break your heart
    * Bruised heart/unfulfilled dreams/wounded spirit/battered ego
    * Disappointments/shattered hopes/worries for your children/anger in your marriage/fears for the future
    * Concern for your health/anxiety about money/fear that you won’t get everything you deserve
    * Loneliness/sense of worthlessness/despair that no one will ever love you

B4 you cast your cares upon Him, you have to cast yourself upon Him.