1 Peter 5:5-7 | Humble Yourself

Introduction: The Call to Humility

All right, friends, take your Bibles and turn to 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 5-7. We're going to look at just a few simple verses today. I've titled my sermon, "Humble Yourself." We're going to look at in this passage two ways that humility can be promoted in the Christian life. I'm going to read for us our passage, verses 5-7 of 1 Peter chapter 5. Then we're going to go ahead into our exposition of God's word. If you're there, give me a hearty amen. If you're not there, say, "Hold up, Micah." Everyone there? All right. Praise the Lord. You guys are nice and alert even through the rain.

In the same way, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you. — 1 Peter 5:5-7 (CSB)

This is the reading of God's word. And God's people say, "Amen." Amen.

The Enduring Importance of Humility

You know, I think every Christian knows that the virtue of humility is important. That's all we talk about as Christians, right? We need to be humble. We need others to be humble for us to have a healthy local church. We need a community that is humble. St. Augustine has a quote about humility and how humility can tie to living for God. He says this: "For those who would learn God's ways, humility is the first thing, humility is the second, and humility is the third." I think Augustine likes humility!

He says to live for God, it's all about humility, humility, humility. And it does seem like an oversimplification to say that Christians need to be humble because we talk about that all the time. I'm sure your pastor talks about it all the time; you know, your pastor is the most humble man in the world, right? And so, he talks about humility to you all the time. And we seem like we push humility all the time, but the Bible does talk about humility. It does emphasize it.

Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God. — Micah 6:8 (CSB)

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. — Matthew 23:12 (CSB)

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. — James 4:10 (CSB)

We've only looked at three passages here that talk about humility, and the Bible is riddled with encouraging believers to live a humble life. And our passage here in 1 Peter is no different. 1 Peter is all about emphasizing the need, or this passage is emphasizing the need, for humility in the Christian life.

And so I want us to leave here on this Lord's day just thinking about the virtue of humility not as an overused cliché, not as something that we talk about constantly as Christians where it is just bland and irrelevant to us and kind of just white noise. But I want us to leave here looking at humility as a core Christian value, as a necessity in our lives as Christians and how we want to live in the local church with one another. I'm not coming before you today as an expert on humility. All right? I was joking about your pastor; he's not the most humble person in the world, okay? Neither am I. No pastor is. No member is.

And so, I'm not here saying I have arrived, and you're not here saying you've arrived in terms of humility. We all struggle with pride. We all struggle with fighting for humility. We have not yet arrived. But as a gospel community, we together can apply the biblical concepts of humility in our lives and in our relationships, and as a church community, all by the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm not here pushing you to apply morals and virtues better. I'm here encouraging you to think about the relevance of the gospel and how that transforms how you look at living your life, and one of those things is humility.

The Context of 1 Peter: Suffering and Leadership

If you look at 1 Peter, the book of 1 Peter, if you're familiar, you've read this book, the book of 1 Peter has this theme: to encourage suffering believers to stand on God's grace in order to live holy lives under heavenly hope. So Peter is writing to these Christians who are facing suffering and persecution. They're really discouraged. Later, historically, some of these people would even fall under the persecution of Nero. And so he's encouraging these people who need encouragement. And so we, thousands of years later, find ourselves in the same place, needing encouragement, needing to stand on God's grace. And so this book is very much relevant to us as Christians today.

Chapters 1-4 talk about Christian salvation. He encourages holy behavior through understanding true Christian salvation, and he also encourages enduring through general suffering. Then we get to our chapter here where our passage is, in chapter 5, where he gives this snapshot picture of leadership. He goes through the first four verses of chapter 5 and he says this is what the picture of a leader looks like: leaders shepherd the flock of God among them. They don't shepherd out of compulsion, but they do it voluntarily. And they don't lord it over people, but they're examples to the flock. Then he gets to verse 4 and he encourages leaders to apply these virtues of leadership because one of the motivations is to receive a future reward for that. He says, "And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory."

So the application of faithful leadership leads to a reward because future rewards impact present performance. Some of the motivations that we have as Christians is because not of the rewards that we see in this life, but we know that we're going to be rewarded in eternity. And so we make sure we serve others and we sacrifice for the sake of Christ, knowing that our reward is in the future. And so he ends this letter with a general exhortation, which is where we get to our verses 5-7. We're going to look at two ways that humility can be promoted in the Christian life.

Humility in Community: Submitting to Elders and Serving One Another

Here is the first way that it's promoted: looking at our humility towards one another. This is found in verse 5. Our humility towards one another is our first point. If you're taking notes, look at verse 5. It says, "You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders and all of you. Clothe yourselves with humility towards one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Look at how he starts off verse 5. He starts by addressing this group of people, the younger men. This is a term that is not just isolated towards men, but generally is a reference to those who are younger, those who are young in faith in contrast to the elders who typically during that time were older, more experienced men of God.

And so he's addressing the young people in general, or even spiritually those who are spiritually young in general, because he's observing that the tendency of youth is to be rebellious. And I know that sounds very harsh, at least towards younger people, right? But we can all relate. All of us—you may not look at yourself as a young person, maybe you do, but you remember everyone was young once, whether you are or you were. I remember being a very rebellious teen; just ask my mom, and she will tell you all the stories! I just hated authority, especially my parents' authority. So when I was a teenager being very rebellious, my mom would say very innocent and very complimentary things. And just because she said something, I said the opposite.

She would say something innocent like, "Hey, son, I really like your shirt today." And it was a shirt that I really liked! And now that she said she liked it, inside my mind I'm like, *I hate this shirt.* Why? Not because I didn't like the shirt, but because my mom said so. And because it's the tendency of the youth to be against authority and to be rebellious. Not all the time, but it's a generalization. And Peter anticipates this and says, "Hey, there are young people in the church that tend to be against authority, and there are people who are young in spirit that tend to be against authority." And so he's trying to encourage the community to be humble. He's saying, "Hey, you younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders."

"In the same way," referring to the attitude that the elders had: not to be proud or do things under compulsion or to lord it over people. He says in the same way that he's calling the elders to be humble, he's saying, "Hey, you young people in the church, you also be humble as well by submitting yourself to your pastors and elders." Now, submission is a very hot topic; it's a four-letter word for some people. And so, we have to define submission. I like Jonathan Leeman's definition in his book on authority. He defines submission as "deferring to another person's judgment and deploying resources to fulfill that judgment."

So deferring and deploying is the way that you apply submission to someone who is in an authoritative position over you. You are leaning on their judgment on a particular issue, and you're also using your resources, energies, and efforts to make sure that that judgment comes to fruition in how you're working together. So it's a voluntary submission. There's an attitude of respect, and in this context, the attitude is towards the elders or the pastors of the church, for their age or their experience. You can broaden the principle to any Christian who is older or more experienced or more mature. Those who are less mature and less experienced, or even lesser in age, should defer to the more mature out of wisdom and for help. That's just wise within a local church, to honor those who are more experienced and mature.

So immediate application is to your elders and to your pastors, but also, as a broader application, to those who are spiritually more mature. Now you're coming to me and saying, "Brother Micah, the pastor that we hired just, what was that, a couple years ago, Steve? He's younger than me, by a lot, right? And so how do we submit to a pastor who is so much younger?" Well, it's funny because even in Psalm 119, where it's all about the word of God, Psalm 119:100 talks about how you can be old or you can get old without aging. The way to do that is by applying God's word. The wisdom of God's word in Psalm 119:100 says he "understands more than the aged because he has observed God's word."

I understand more than the elders because I obey your precepts. — Psalm 119:100 (CSB)

So if you're a young person today, if you want to get old without aging, you apply God's word and wisdom to your life. God's word has the ability to mature someone even without having the years of living under their belt. And so that's how you can even submit to a pastor who is younger than yourself.

So he says, "You younger men likewise be subject to your elders." And then he broadens it out; he doesn't just isolate the younger people. He broadens it out to the rest of the church. He says, "And all of you," this is all members without distinction. In verse 5, he is addressing the church as a whole. Whether you're an elder or an older person in the church, or you're a young person in the church, he says, "All of you do what? Clothe yourselves with humility." Everybody in the church needs to clothe themselves with humility.

The word humility is something we are familiar with. It refers to being of lowly-mindedness, a lowly position to serve others. It's basically just being put in your place and seeing yourself the way that God sees you. And I like how Peter describes applying humility. He uses clothing language; he's talking about humility as if it's a garment to put on. Brian was just asking me about my holidays; I was talking to him about his holidays as well. I'm a Filipino American, and when Filipinos celebrate holidays, we go crazy. We go big! I had four parties to go to. My mom has eight brothers and sisters, so I have eight uncles and aunties for one of my parties. We went to our Christmas Eve party and we went all out. My cousins had a full spread of food. One cousin brought a prime rib, another cousin brought a brisket, and the other cousin brought a big pork pig. Basically, it's called a *lechon*; basically, the whole entire pig was there. It scared the kids, but we ate everything.

And so my cousins were ready to serve everybody, just as they do. All three of them that brought their respective foods put on an apron. And we knew when they put on that apron, they were ready to do what? They were ready to serve the good food for Christmas Eve. What we see here, when Peter is using the word humility in the same way that he talks about clothing, it's just like that concept of putting on an apron as you're ready to serve. He's telling the church that someone is ready to serve within the Christian community when they put on the apron of humility. They're putting on the garment of humility and saying, "Hey, I'm ready to serve others. I'm ready to help and care for and love one another."

And so this humility is a reciprocal, mutual character. You're being humble towards one another. So, it's not a one-sided relationship when it comes to applying humility within the local church. It's a reciprocal idea; it's in relation to one another. You're thinking about other people, their desires, their needs, showing attention to what they need, in ways that they need to be served. And that's the heart of Christ, right? That's what we've seen in Philippians chapter 2 where, in the gospel, Jesus took on human flesh. He lived a perfectly righteous life as the God-man, and He came not to be served but to serve others. He preferred others. He thought of others. And in one sense, He put on the apron of humility when He took on human flesh.

And so as the God-man, He thought of us, His people, not Himself. He thought of us that we would be saved, that we would be forgiven, that we would be cleansed, and that we would be brought into His family. And He died on the cross. He took on the wrath of God. He rose from the grave so that you would be saved. If you're not a Christian here today, we are so happy that you're here. We're happy that you're present. We're happy that you're visiting. But you need to know that Jesus Christ was a real man who came upon this earth 2,000 years ago. And He died on the cross of Calvary so that you would have the opportunity to trust in Him and put your faith and hope in Him and be with God forever. And so God is asking you today if you would be willing to do that. He is calling you to repent and trust in Him. And for you as a Christian, God has given you the ability, if you are saved by the gospel, you can apply that same type of humility in your everyday life.

I like what D. Edmond Hiebert says about relationships and humility in the local church: "Smooth relations in the church can be preserved if the entire congregation adorns itself with humility." He says, "Humility is the oil that allows relationships in the church to run smoothly and lovingly." Think about the relationships that you have right now that have the most friction. Why are you butting heads with that person? Could be your mom, could be your kids, could be the person sitting next to you. Don't look at them right now! Why are you butting heads? It's because one or both of you, or all parties, are accepting, embracing some form of pride. What helps friction in relationships can even be at least one person applying humility in the conflict. Imagine everybody applying humility within the conflict. Can you imagine what that would do for your marriage, for your church relationships, for your job if everybody was constantly applying humility? We would have much healthier relationships.

And so Peter knows this. He knows that this church is struggling with that even in their persecution, in their sufferings, that tensions are high within the local churches here. And he says, "Hey, the key to smooth relationships is humility." And he goes on and he says, "Here's the theological basis for this humility." At the end of verse 5, he says, "For God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble." You see that? That's the end of verse 5. He says, "Here is your basis for putting on humility."

God is against the proud, but He's for the humble. This is a quotation directly from Proverbs 3:34 where God is described as scoffing at the scoffers, where He's literally mocking at arrogant mockers. So it's almost like God is allowing the arrogance and the scoffing that people produce, and He's causing it like a boomerang to come back to them. Here, the language is slightly different. He's saying that God is standing emphatically against these proud people. These people who are showing attitudes of pride—God is not for them. He says it's very general.

He mocks those who mock but gives grace to the humble. — Proverbs 3:34 (CSB)

And what is pride? Well, we know pride to be just a mindset of superiority. Pride has many applications and manifestations. It is self-centeredness. It is a manifestation of self-exaltation over other people. Pride can have different expressions. It shows itself in ignoring your need for God. Pride shows itself in a really unhealthy self-sufficiency or even in ignoring our need for God's people. And so some people show pride by not being part of a local church or being a member of a local church. And so, in these manifestations of pride, the text says God is persistently against this attitude of pride.

And this is important because we have to ask ourselves, "How are we still manifesting pride in our lives?" How are you today? As you're thinking about this, it's the first Sunday of the new year, and you are having all the resolutions for your life and what you want to do this year. I pray that one of those resolutions is to kill your pride, and that we would kill our pride and the way it manifests itself. Are you living in a self-centered way? Are you maybe just self-exalting in your different contexts? Maybe you're living in an isolated way and you don't see your need for others or others in the local church. Maybe you don't want to listen to others or even listen to God and listen to God in His word.

This is the whole point: pride can manifest itself in so many different pictures and illustrations, and we have to see how we are still manifesting that if we want to repent of it and apply humility. God is opposed to that, and the way He opposes is through either correction and discipline, which in one sense is Him being for you because He disciplines those whom He loves, as in Hebrews. But He will humble His people. If you are not living in a way that is humble and you are living in a way that manifests pride constantly, I'm praying that you humble yourself before God humbles you, because God will do something providentially to humble you. It's just a matter of time.

If you're an unbeliever here today, you are living constantly according to your pride, and your pride will lead to eternal consequences. You're living for yourself, for your idols, for your lust, for your own ambitions. Those things could lead to your eternal undoing. God says that doesn't have to be your future. God says that doesn't have to be the case. He says through the gospel, through the hope of Christ, you don't have to live a life of pride. You can submit and be a humble person by acknowledging that you need Christ.

And then he says what? God gives grace to the humble. That's the alternative. The humble are the lowly-minded. They're conscious of their unworthiness before God. They acknowledge their dependence upon God. They acknowledge that they are poor in spirit. That they are sinners in need of a Savior. That is those who are humble. And he says those who are humble, God gives. It's in the present tense continually. He continually bestows grace. He's like an overflowing fountain of grace towards His humble people.

And so in all situations, God is willing to liberally grant you grace because that is what He does. And, oh saints, do we not need grace for our situations of life? You need grace for your marriage. You need grace for how you raise your children. You need grace for your job tomorrow. You need grace for that cancer issue and health concern. You need grace for the next decision for this upcoming year. We need grace for every moment of our life. And I love it because he says He gives continually grace to the humble. Jesus humbly, as a humble servant, went to the cross to bestow grace to His people. And so grace is not just good for your salvation, it is good for everyday life. Grace enriches our life and helps us operate effectively under the stress of suffering and persecution. That is humility towards one another in verse 5.

Humility Before God: Submission and Trust

Secondly, not only do we see humility towards one another, but we see humility towards God. And this is found in verses 6-7. Look with me at verse 6. It says, "Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the proper time." He uses the word "therefore" to make a close connection between the humility towards others that he has just talked about and humility towards God. So, he's done with talking about our humility towards others, but he's making that connection. And he's saying, "Hey, that humility that you express to one another is also connected with the humility towards God that I'm about to talk to you about right now."

So he says, "Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God." He's giving them responsibility for them in particular to be humble. So he's basically saying, "Accept your humiliation from God, be a volunteer to be humiliated by God." That is such a weird way to word it, right? No one ever in the world volunteers to be humiliated, right? We don't see celebrities out there calling up TMZ and the paparazzi, saying, "Hey, come! I want you to take and document every single embarrassing moment and put it in the tabloids." Maybe some do if they're weird, but normally people don't invite the paparazzi and people to publicize their most embarrassing moments. We don't volunteer being humiliated. But this text is not about being humiliated by men; this text is about being humiliated by God.

And praise be to God, the way that God humiliates people is not the same way that men humiliate people. The way that God humiliates is a very sanctified, righteous, and even loving way. Because it's said and described in verse 6 that when we humble ourselves, it's not just for the sake of being humble, but we're humbled in a certain direction: "under the mighty hand of God." The term "under the mighty hand of God" is an Old Testament expression that generally speaks to God's actions in human affairs. So when you talk about God's hand, you can kind of see the picture of God's hand moving in God's people's work.

So you see that if you trace this term through the whole Old Testament, you'll see "being under the mighty hand of God" referring to God subduing His enemies. It refers to Him disciplining His children. It also refers to Him defending or delivering His people, or it even refers to Him exalting His people. All of this is built into this term, "under the mighty hand of God." And so to put this together, when a believer submits "under the mighty hand of God," they are doing this: they are embracing God's dealings with their life. They are submitting to God's program of discipline and purity and maturing. That is what it means to submit under God's mighty hand. You are trusting Him and trusting His plan for your life. That's what it means to submit under His mighty hand.

I just pause and ask you this today as a Christian: Are you submitting under God's mighty hand or are you trying to resist His mighty hand? Because sometimes God will allow painful providences to take place in our life, and certain things will happen in our life that we personally wouldn't choose for ourselves. And God is trying to teach us and tell us and say, "Hey, this is the best route, what gives Me the most glory and what gives you the most good in your life, and you need to trust Me and this plan for your life." And we just don't like it so much that we complain and we resist and we try to run away from God and we try to apply our own solutions to our problems. So, I want to pause and ask you, "Are you submitting to God's will for your life? Are you resisting it?" You know when you're resisting, you know when you're not applying God's word and you're embracing temptation and sinning against God and running away from obeying His commandments. Don't resist His will. Submit to it. Trust Him.

And he says, "This is what will happen." Look at verse 6. If you humble yourself and you humble yourself under His mighty hand, it is "so that he may exalt you at the proper time." This is the beautiful result of embracing God's dealings, saints: His exaltation of His people. The word "exalt" literally means to lift up or to raise something up. It means it's a reference to enhancing an honor or power or position. This just means that God will exalt His children in their testing. He will lift them up. In His infinite wisdom, as He has this plan for your life and He's ordaining all of these difficult providences in your life, He is acting with your true welfare in mind. Meaning, all of it is leading to you being lifted up by God.

It doesn't seem like it, right? Because we're being humbled. We're lowly. We feel like we're being beat down and pressured and burdened every single day. It doesn't feel like we're being lifted up, but everything that is happening providentially in our life is being placed as part of God's plan for our lifting up, but it's not at the time that we want. See, we want to be lifted up now, right? No one wants to stay humble. No one wants to stay lowly and burdened. We want to be lifted up now. When will we be lifted up? Look at the end of verse 6. He may exalt you when? "At the proper time."

"Well, Pastor Micah, when's the proper time?" I don't know. I don't know. It could be in this life. Most likely. It might be just in the eternity to come. But it does promise. It doesn't tell you when. It just says God will exalt you at the right time. It could be to the resolution of your trouble in this life. You might stay humble and you might be struggling with your particular trial until the very end of your life. And I know that's not very encouraging, but it gives you perspective to look ahead to know that the exaltation and the relief will come. But it will not come according to your timetable. It comes according to God's. J. Adams says this: "Part of humility is willingness to patiently wait for things according to God's timetable." That's also the way that you apply humility: by waiting on God. Slow down. Calm down. Don't try to solve your issues with your particular way of thinking, or you think your answer is the way to go. Just wait on God, wait on His timetable.

Then he gets to verse 7, and this also shows humility—ways that we manifest humility—by casting our cares on God. And so, in our humility towards God, he reminds us that He cares for us. He says verse 7, "Casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you."

So through all that he's talked about—as God calls us to be humble towards one another and humbling ourselves under His mighty hand and being sensitive to His exaltation at the right time—as we are waiting for all this, he says, "Here's a practical application of humility: Cast your anxiety on Him. Cast your cares." The word "casting," or this term, kind of combines all of the anxiety and cares and concerns together. I like how one commentator words it; he says Peter "unites all the readers' individual cares and concerns, whether due to memories of the past, pressures of the present, or fears concerning the future, into one burdensome whole."

So Peter's kind of taking a literal, or literary, picture, and he's saying he's balling up all your anxieties in one package together, and he's saying, "Hey, look at it as if you're carrying it all in like one ball, and then decisively place it upon God." That's what he's saying. When you cast something, it's a decisive act of placing something somewhere else. You're throwing it somewhere else, or you're handing it over to someone. I like it because the word was used in Luke chapter 19:34. In Luke chapter 19, it's describing Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. And so, you know how they told Him during that time they had found a colt for Him to sit on to ride into Jerusalem. And so, as the disciples were looking for it, they said, "Hey, the master's in need of the colt." And then it literally says in the passage, "they threw their coats on the colt." That's a tongue twister: "they threw the coats on the colt." In other words, they put their jackets on the donkey. So, they took their jackets and their coats and they literally placed it on top of the donkey. That word "placing" is the same word that we have here, "casting," in verse 7.

You're taking something that you're holding, and you are placing it on something else where that something else is now carrying that object so that you don't have to carry it anymore. And so Peter goes here and he says you can do that with your worries, anxieties, and troubles. You don't have to carry that anymore. You don't have to burden it on your shoulders. You can give it to God because God wants to carry it for you. And I love this because this reminds me so much about that hymn, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus": "Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer."

Friends, you are needlessly carrying something today. What is it that you need to cast upon the Lord today? How can you carry less and depend more upon God? What do you need to cast upon God today? You know, a few months ago, we went to Legoland with a couple of church members, and when we were done with our trip, I was packing all the—I know I have four kids, right? And that comes with a lot of luggage, a lot of heavy luggage, and really random things. We're like, "I don't even know why we need this," but we brought it to the trip.

And so, I'm trying to pack and get us ready for the minivan. I'm carrying all these things. And I didn't realize that my wife had called the bellhop, and he brought the cart over, and he was already ready to help with everything. And he's just watching me try to struggle with all the luggage and everything. And he's a big dude too, bigger muscles than my whole body, right? And so he was just like, "Slow down. Slow down, man. This is my job. Let me do this for you." And my wife is looking at me like, "Are you kidding me? This is why I called him, right?" And I'm just like trying to carry all these things myself. And I realized that I was carrying stuff that I was not supposed to carry. That there was somebody else there whose job it was (which is why we gave him the tip, right?) whose job it was to carry those things for me.

This is what we do as Christians. We look at our lives. We look at the providences. We look at our problem and say, "Hey, I'm going to solve this myself. I'm going to go about it myself. I'm going to carry this myself." Which is why we have anxiety, depression, and sadness. And God is looking at us. He's like, "You don't have to carry that. You need to pray, and you need to give that to Me." He says, "Because My Son died on the cross. He rose from the grave so that I would take care of you. So I would love you and carry your burdens." Not that we don't have responsibility, but that we can trust that God is working and He will help us. So we can cast our anxieties on Him.

Why? Because He cares for us. Look at that. The end of verse 7 says, "because he cares for you." That is the grounds for our action for casting burdens on Him. You know, you don't entrust your deepest, darkest, most intimate thoughts with anybody. You only entrust that with your bestie, right? The person that you text and call all the time, your best friend, the person you've known a long time. All your private information, you don't just broadcast that on social media. You trust that with a very specialized person. Why do you trust that with your best friend? Because you know that your best friend cares for you. You don't entrust anything to anybody. You entrust the deepest things that you have with the people that care about you.

God says that He cares. And He tells these people He cares because maybe they were at a time where they questioned whether or not God cared for them. Especially when you go through suffering, when you go through persecution, when you go through difficult providences, that's when the mind is most prone, or most tempted, to think that God does not care. And Peter has to reiterate for them, "He does care for you." That's why you can entrust these burdens to Him. That's why you can go to Him with your problems. This is what makes Christianity different from all the other religions out there. Did you know that? All other religions in this world, they attempt and try to make God care for them. They try to awaken a sleeping deity through a sacrifice. They try to say a special ritualistic prayer. They try to do a type of religious act to make their lowercase "g" god care for them.

Christianity is different because the Bible says God already cares about you. The Bible says that God loved you before you even loved Him. So the gospel is not about you making God care about you. Jesus died on the cross for our sins already. And when we didn't love Him, He broke our hearts and humbled our hearts that we would be caused to love Him. And because He loves us with our crushing burdens and burning trials, we can entrust all those things to Him because He loves us. That's the hope. We have a resurrected Lord and a resurrected Savior that demonstrates God's love and care for us. But that resurrected hope isn't just good for our entrance into heaven and eternal salvation, it is good for everyday burdens.

Friends, do you believe that God cares about you? Maybe life has gotten so hard where you've doubted God's love for you. I'm here to encourage you and to remind you that God does in fact love you. And maybe your difficult providences and trials are a manifestation of God's love for you because He is waking you up. He is causing you to repent of certain sins. He is drawing you closer to Him. He is showing you that you're not as strong as you think you are. That is a loving God.

Hudson Taylor was a British Protestant missionary in the late 1800s, early 1900s. He's probably one of the most influential missionaries in Christian history. He has this quote on how God can use the humble even though we're nothing. He says this: "I often think that God must have been looking for someone small enough and weak enough for him to use, and that he found me." We are weak. We are small. We are frail. Humility is recognizing who you are in comparison to a great God. This is why our text says to humble ourselves under His mighty hand. And as you humble yourself, cast your cares upon Him because He cares for you.

Conclusion and Prayer

Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for this passage that encourages us in the midst of our difficulties and trials. We pray, Father, that you would bless the members of this church and care for us as we humble ourselves under your mighty hand in the gospel. We pray, Father, that as pride is a great temptation, that we would apply the mindset of Christ. And so help us, Lord, to think upon Christ daily, to think about His humble act of service in taking on human flesh, dying on the cross, rising from the grave, that we sinners who don't deserve it would find abundant grace in the gospel hope. Thank you for your salvation. Thank you for your Son. We're grateful for all of these things and we pray for this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.