Introduction:
How Do I Know Jesus Will Come Through In The Clutch?
- Because He's My authority . (1 Pet 5:6)
- Because He Cares . (1 Pet 5:7)
- Because He's Stronger than my opponent . (1 Pet 5:8-9)
Genesis 49:8-10 - "Judah is a lion's cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples."
Revelation 5:5 - And one of the elders said to me, "Weep no more; behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scrolls and its seven seals."
Revelation 20:10 - "and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever."
- Because He Always sees it through . (1 Pet 5:10-11)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Well, good morning. I'm very, very thankful to be up here in front of you all and to have this opportunity.
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Before I start, let me just start with a word of prayer, and then we'll get going this morning.
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Heavenly Father, thank you for what you've been doing in my life, God, to lead me up to this moment.
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God, I thank you that you have led me through this message.
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Lord, I thank you for another opportunity to gather together here today as a church and to hear your word, hear your truth.
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God, I pray that we would hear these things from your word.
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We would apply it directly to our lives and that we would grow closer to you and stronger in our walk with you as well.
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I lift all of these things up in Jesus's name, amen.
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So open up your Bibles with me please to 1 Peter.
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Be in chapter five.
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We'll be going through verses six through 11.
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And a few months ago, my wife, Lexi, and I, we went for a walk, or actually a run, before coming here to church on a Sunday morning.
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Already a weird day, unusual day, because I was up any earlier than I had to be on a weekend.
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Never happens.
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So we came back from this run, and we realized that there was a puddle on the kitchen floor.
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Okay, that's weird.
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It was underneath the dishwasher.
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Maybe it wasn't all that weird because we had had a leak underneath our sink for the last couple of days.
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So we let our landlord, who just happens to be my father-in-law, Joe, he's here today, we let him know the issue and he was set to bring a plumber out in the next coming days, maybe even that next day.
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We thought, you know what, why don't we just shut the water off to the dishwasher so we don't have a puddle every day.
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Okay, so here I go underneath our sink having absolutely no idea what I was doing. Here I come, this is my plumber stance by the way, I get underneath here, open up the door, find a little lever, go to pull it, gives a little bit of resistance, but then it turns. Get up, I don't know what I was really expecting in this moment but thought, "You know what? That can't be it. It's too easy. It's the first lever I saw.
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I pulled it and nothing happened." So there must be another one underneath there, right?
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I go again back underneath the sink. There's a second lever. Looks just like the first one, only it's further back this time. I go to pull that one and it gives a lot of resistance.
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But I think to myself, "Well, it's got to be it. I mean, this is the lever." So I pull on it more, pull on it more, and pull on it more, and then all of a sudden, bang. My hands just drop straight to the ground, and there is a gigantic hole behind our sink, and water is rushing out of it like a waterfall. I mean, straight fire hose.
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And the sound of this water coming out of the wall still haunts me to this day.
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So it's a complete disaster and I'm now in scramble mode.
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First thing I do is I call up my father-in-law, "Where are you?
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Help!
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How do I shut the water off?" And my next question was, "Where are you?
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Can you please help me?" He was 25 minutes away.
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It was gonna be a long shot. He's trying to just talk me through how to shut the water off. I'm running downstairs.
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I'm checking in the garage. Meanwhile, Lexi's upstairs and having no clue what else to do is just underneath the sink with a bucket and just pouring it back into the sink because we've got nothing else left to do. We are on the deck of the Titanic.
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And I remember at one point opening up the garage because that was a potential place where I could shut the water off and looking up at the ceiling and just seeing the water through the ceiling, into the garage, onto our car.
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And in that moment, just thinking, "Oh my gosh, I'm flooding our house.
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I am going to flood our house." So this went on for what felt like five hours, but it was really only a couple of minutes.
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And then finally, at the last minute, right before the water that was all over the kitchen went into the living room, to our hardwood floors, possibly ruining them and warping them forever.
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I went back to a knob that I tried to turn before and just turned it harder.
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And eventually that shut the water off.
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But at the very, very last minute.
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So young and naive I was just those long months ago.
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And if you don't know, Andrew did say in the introduction, I work in sports talk radio.
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So in my mind, a lot of things go back to sports analogies.
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That's just how my mind has been wired.
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And in sports, we like to call this moment of triumph, this moment of victory, coming through in the clutch.
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Just sounds cooler, basically.
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And these moments of triumph and victory in the last seconds are easily recognizable, and they separate some athletes.
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It's like when Ben Roethlisberger threw that touchdown pass in the corner of the end zone to San Antonio Homes and the Super Bowl.
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That was coming up in the clutch.
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When Sidney Crosby scored the golden goal in the Olympics in overtime to defeat Team USA, that's coming through in the clutch.
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It defines these legends, these sports heroes, if you will, as loosely as you can use that term.
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The moments that people remember.
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And I learned some valuable lessons that day with the water put too much pressure on an older skinny plastic pipe and always know how to shut your water off.
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But my shutting off the water is of course far from that glorious moment and was more God giving me grace in that moment. And in saying that I can't help but to think that Jesus Christ is that legend. He's that figure for all of us brothers and sisters in the faith.
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He's capable of coming through in those moments when you feel lost, feel desperate, feel confused, scared like I was with that water. Or in the moments when you've been fighting through something, a sin in your life that you're trying to overcome, a financial hardship, or just any difficult decision that you've had to make that you've been wrestling with, You just need some clarification. Just need some direction. That extra push to get you through it and on to the other side. To get victory over that thing.
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And that's when you can rely on Jesus Christ. That's when He shows you His power and shows He is worthy of all your trust and can come through in the clutch for you. And you may hear that and you think, "Well, that's, I mean, He made up Jesus in the clutch, really awesome, sports, whatever, but how do I know that this is true? How can I know that when I've exhausted myself and my abilities and things are at their worst that Jesus will lead me through? Let's go to his word, as we should all the time in these scenarios and as we should daily as Christians, and let's see for ourselves why we can have that confidence, why that's not just a cute saying. Turn in your Bibles with me please if you haven't to 1st Peter chapter 5 starting in verse 6. This is Peter writing from what he refers to as Babylon which is most likely Rome and he's addressing this to Christians scattered all over including Asia Minor which is now modern day Turkey and he's writing this to encourage them as they are still under Roman control and they're suffering much persecution. So let's read.
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"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 firm in your faith, knowing the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
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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.
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To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
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So how do I know Jesus will come through in the clutch? Well, number one on your outlines, because he's my authority.
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Let's go back to verse 6 here real quickly. It says, "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that the proper time he may exalt you." I love that this passage starts out this way. Why? Because it establishes right away that if you don't get your own pride out of the way, if you don't humble yourself before your Lord and Savior under his mighty hand. If you think you know better and you can do a better job and you know the right moves to make than the one who created you and created everything around you, who knows all your faults, all your weaknesses, who understands the situation that you're going through and on a deeper level than you could even possibly comprehend, then you'll fail. Every time.
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Holding on to your pride will ruin you. And if you want more assurance on that, you can look no further than the verse before this statement in verse 5 in 1 Peter, where it says, "Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders.
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Clove yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." So not only does our pride ruin us, but did you see what else is is added on there, the little cherry on top of your hottie sundae, that God is actually opposed to the proud.
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He's on the other side of you whenever you're too prideful.
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He hates that.
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This brings it to a whole other level.
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This is taking the field, and God Almighty, big, giant God, is on the other side.
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He's looking to go against all your best efforts.
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This is like following a GPS in an area that you've never been before.
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And you're driving along, and all of a sudden, you start to feel pretty confident in yourself.
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Say, hey, that tree looks familiar.
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I think I know where I am right now.
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So all of a sudden, you decide not to follow that GPS anymore.
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And you start to go down roads that maybe the GPS didn't tell you to go down.
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And now somehow every turn that you take, every shortcut that you take, every right turn that you think you're making along the way is somehow leading you farther away from your destination.
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And it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse.
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And you're driving yourself even further away from your goal, from your victory.
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And ultimately in this case, from God.
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It's working against you now.
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So before you can go any further in asking for Jesus to come through for you, it has to start here.
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It has to start with humility.
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With being willing to admit that you don't know the best way out.
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Or the best way forward.
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Be humble so that God can lift you up in due time.
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Be humble so that God can offer you His grace, as it says in verse 6.
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And that word grace being something that is given to us that we don't deserve.
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Stop trying to do it all on your own and in your own strength.
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It's silliness.
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And I've been there before, recently, like this week recently.
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I know what that's like.
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Know that God is your authority.
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We've been called to obey His authority and humbly serve Him with our lives.
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And it's a lot easier to know and accept that God is your authority when number two is also true on your outlines.
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Which is that I know Jesus will come through in the clutch because He cares.
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Let's look at verse 7.
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It says, "Casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you." Our God is not socially distant.
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He didn't just create us, maybe with a mask on, and just walk away.
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That's not what our God did.
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He didn't just place us in the world on this broken earth to just kind of fend for ourselves and figure out the many trials and tribulations of this life and say, "Hey, even through your struggles you just got to find a way to come back to me." No, that's not how it works.
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He's in our every day.
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He knows our emotions.
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What makes us happy, what makes us excited, what makes us angry, what frustrates us to no end, and what we really need to satisfy our souls.
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And as mentioned in verse 7 here, what makes us anxious as well.
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Like whenever we've run out of options and we just kind of throw our hands up and we say, "You know what?
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That's it.
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I've got no other answers left.
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All I can do is just look up." Have you ever been there before?
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That feeling?
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Cast your anxieties on him.
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Why?
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Because he cares.
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Every year my wife Lexi and I go on a trip to the Dominican Republic, except for this year of course because it was canceled.
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And every year we get to see a great example of how caring makes a difference.
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The local leaders there are pouring into the kids that we run the basketball and volleyball camp with.
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And they're taking time out of their every day to pour into those kids and to meet their needs, every one of their needs.
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Physical needs by feeding them meals, their emotional needs by just sitting down and having a conversation with them about what's going on in their lives, what's going on at home.
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those coaches can relate to them very well because they've been through some of the same things.
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And also meet their spiritual needs by having Bible studies with them, by going through Scripture before we start every day at camp. And they show to them that they care about them.
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Here I am investing my time and my energy to you in meeting those needs personally for you.
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And it all comes together, it all means that much more to these kids when somebody shows they care.
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That they aren't just a number. And that's what God is telling us here through Peter.
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And what a statement that is, really, if you think about it. I mean, here God says, "I already know what is making you anxious. I know it. And I love you, and I care for you, and I'm big enough to handle it. So bring it on. Cast all your anxieties, cast all your fears, all your sins, all your failures, everything. Lay it on me, and I can handle it.
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I can lead you through it. I'm inviting you to pass over all your baggage onto me.
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Don't leave anything on the table, because I'll know if you do.
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Bring it all to me so that I can lift you up, so I can come through for you in your most desperate moments. So please come to me in humility, because I care for you.
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So now knowing that God is my authority and that he cares for me, here's another truth of why Jesus will come through in the clutch of my life. And it's number three, because he is stronger than my opponent. Let's look at verse eight. It says, "Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." Now, this is certainly a bit of a change here with the message. Now, all of a sudden, Peter is warning us to stay focused, To stay alert, to stay aware of the things that we're saying, the people that we are spending time with, how we're acting, who we're surrounding ourselves with.
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Why does he say that?
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Well, it's because we have an enemy.
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And our enemy is described here as prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
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That's the adversary.
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And do you get that image?
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I think of just a lion hunched down, maybe in some tall grass somewhere, straight out of like a National Geographic show.
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It's like licking its lips.
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It's looking toward the horizon at a young or injured wildebeest, ready to just pounce on it the minute that the herd turns its back, the minute that it can get it alone.
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And I think that's the picture that's being painted here, that our enemy, Satan, is always prowling around.
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He's always waiting to just pick us off the minute we turn away from God.
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The minute we isolate ourselves, and the minute we're easy to pick off, turn our back on God.
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So hold that thought and hold that image in your head for just a couple minutes.
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You've probably heard many times that Jesus is characterized as a lion in Scripture.
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He's the lion of what? Judah. The tribe of Judah.
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One of the twelve tribes of Israel.
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And the idea of a lion being attached to this tribe goes back to Genesis 49, when Jacob is delivering parting words to each of his twelve sons.
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And when he got to Judah, his fourth, he said in Genesis 49, starting in verse 8, "Judah is a lion's cub. From the prey, my son, you have gone up.
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He stooped down, he crouched as a lion, and as a lioness, who dares rouse him?
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The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him.
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And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples." So here the lion has the imagery of being majestic, of being kingly in nature.
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Like who dares rouse up this lion?
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Who would dare to do something like that?
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And that's significant because this is the tribe that's full of great kings.
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From King David, King Solomon, And ultimately, of course, the King of Kings, the King of Heaven and Earth, King Jesus, comes through this line.
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And the scepter there in Genesis 49 is the staff that kings often have in pictures that you might see.
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It's that symbol of authority, and it says it shall never depart from Judah, meaning Jesus reigns as King and will forever.
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So based off of that, we know for sure that Jesus is a lion.
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Now let's go back to verse 8 in 1 Peter, and let's read this carefully and look at the distinction.
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It says, "Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion." It doesn't say your enemy prowls around as a roaring lion, like he already is.
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but just that he wants to act like one.
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He wants to devour you.
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He wants to control you, to try to be your king, and make you think that he is one.
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But he's not.
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He merely tries to act like one.
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There is a huge difference there.
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And I can't talk lions and kings without getting into one of my favorite movies of all time, One that I requested to watch multiple times per day as reports from my parents as a child.
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Aladdin.
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No, The Lion King.
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Here in The Lion King, we have Mufasa and we have Scar, right?
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Where Mufasa is clearly a real king.
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Where under his rule, the pride is going well, everything's relatively peaceful.
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Clearly he's what's best for the kingdom.
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And then there's Scar.
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Satan, if you will.
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just trying to come in there and mess everything up, to ruin things.
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He even kills his own brother Mufasa and then tells Mufasa's son that it was his fault, making him run away forever so that he can have the kingdom.
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And he takes over the land and he drives it right into misery and despair because of all of his evil intentions, because that's what he wanted to do from the very beginning.
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Scar wasn't a real lion. He wasn't a real king. He just prowled around looking to devour as if he was one.
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He was a fake. And spoiler alert, if you haven't seen the movie that came out in 1993, I believe, he was ultimately defeated.
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And guess what? So Satan has also. We know that for a fact. We can find that answer in God's Word as well. We've seen it twice going back to our study in Revelation that Pastor Jeff led us through. First in Revelation 5.5 where coming on to the scene is one that can only read the scrolls and break the seven seals and take his throne. The only one that can do that. 5.5 says, "And one of the elders said to me, 'Weep no more. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered so that he can open the scrolls and its seven seals.'" And then in Revelation chapter 20, when Satan is thrown into the lake of fire to be tormented forever. And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were.
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They will be tormented day and night forever and ever." There's the victory.
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That's the lion. Point being here, God is stronger than my opponent. God's already won. That mountain in front of you that seems impossible to climb, that that stronghold, that enemy you've been dealing with, doesn't stand a chance.
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There's nothing or no one he can't.
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So we're called to resist Satan, the fake, knowing that we have the power and the Holy Spirit to do so.
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And we do so knowing that we're also not alone, as verse 8 tells us.
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That our brothers and sisters sitting here next to us today, and sisters across the street at Northway, our brothers and sisters in the rest of the Pittsburgh area and the United States, and certainly our brothers and sisters across the world who suffer much persecution for their faith know exactly what we're talking about here. They go through the same temptations and the same sufferings that we've gone through ourselves.
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And that leads me to the fourth reason why I know that Jesus can come through in the clutch in my life and in your life.
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And number four is because He always sees it through.
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Let's look at verses 10 and 11.
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"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 glory forever and ever. Amen. And if I can go back to a sports analogy just for a second, I know. But in 2017, a game that maybe some of us would like to not remember, especially if you're a Steelers fan, maybe a game you would like to remember if you're Taylor Halland, but the New England Patriots played the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl.
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And the first half was just a disaster for New England.
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21-3 they were down at halftime.
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Eventually they got down 28-3 in that game.
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Everything was falling apart.
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New England's defense looked like they were clueless.
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Even the great Tom Brady threw an interception for a touchdown.
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But then if you're a sports fan, you know how the rest of the story goes.
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that New England ended up coming back and they were racing the biggest deficit in Super Bowl history and winning that game in overtime 34 to 28. But I can't help but to think that our suffering can be like that sometimes, right? We go back to that first half, we're the Patriots and our life is just running us over. Just beating us into submission and blowing right past us without us having much to say about it at all. Just being left confused and broken. We feel helpless.
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And whether we're feeling the weight of that directly as a result of our faith, or we're just struggling to keep our faith through this difficult time, it feels like we're fighting insurmountable odds. But in verse 10 it says that after we've suffered a little while, similar to what he was talking about in verse 9 just before this, after you've done so, He will restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. God isn't just in it for the short term, for the first half.
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As Christians, we know we are to share in the sufferings of Christ. We're promised that.
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We're promised to have hardships if we truly live for Jesus. That people will oppose us, They'll persecute us. They'll attack us sometimes.
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Just as they did to Jesus Himself whenever He was walking the earth.
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And if people can do that to the Son of God, God in human form, then they can certainly do it to you while you're here.
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We should expect that.
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But we can't be discouraged by it.
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1st Hen tells us that after we've suffered for the cause of God and for building up His kingdom while He's here on earth, That's when God will strengthen us and truly restore us and make us strong because we're serving him. And so let's take a step back for a moment and let's think about this.
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Let's think about what person we know that can exemplify this the most.
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Who suffered for a little while, greatly actually, and then rose to victory.
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It's Jesus Christ on the cross. The ultimate example of coming through in the clutch, is it not? Jesus comes to this earth knowing what many men did not know yet, and that their real problem was not with the Roman rule or with humans that were persecuting them, but their real enemy was their sin. That was the real problem at hand, and he came to take it and to conquer it. He preached God's Word to his followers. He showed his people the way. He went against many social norms of the time, only to get captured, tortured, and hung on a cross, humiliated in front of everyone.
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But he was supposed to be the Messiah. He was supposed to be the Savior of all mankind and he gets crucified after he professed himself that he was God.
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That's it?
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Really?
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All hope lost? Of course not. In the greatest and most important comeback story of all time, the greatest example of coming through in the clutch, right when it looks like Jesus has been defeated, he couldn't be contained by the tomb. He took over our sins upon himself because he knew no sin himself, and he buried them forever. The stone rolls away and our Savior and Lord overcomes death and sin to bring us victory over our sin, if we believe in Him, and open the gates of heaven for his people to dwell with him forever.
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That's the Lion of Judah. That's the eternal glory in Christ, and that's why we can say in verse 11, "To Him be the power forever and ever. Amen." That's the truth. So Jesus plays the long game.
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We know that because we're free from the bondage of sin because of his work on that cross. And no matter how bad things get, doesn't matter if you feel unreachable or unworthy, Jesus can come through for you in your darkest moments because he's your authority, because he cares for you, because he's stronger than your opponent and your situation no matter what it is. Nothing is too big for Him. And because He's in it for the long haul, He's not going anywhere. And He deserves honor and glory with how you live your life daily and how we live our lives every single day. And to close, I'd like to read from Psalm 139. And you don't have to turn there. In fact, if you would, I'd like you to just close your eyes. And I want you to put everything else you might be thinking about away, and where your mind may have wandered throughout this message. Maybe it's lunch after this or whatever. And I want you to just take in these words from David in Psalm 139. And I hope this is a great encouragement for you as you go about your battles, go about your week, even go about the rest of your today. No matter what you're facing, and maybe it's just an opportunity to rest in His presence in these really strange times in our country.
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Psalm 139 starting in verse 7 says, "Where shall I go from your spirit?
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Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there.
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If I make my bed and shield, you are there.
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If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, 'Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,' even the darkness is not dark to you. The night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. Do you believe that?
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Do you believe that no matter where you go, no matter what you experience, even if you've never experienced it before, and we know that a lot of us have been in that place over the last few months or so, that there isn't a place or a moment when God isn't with you.
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And through 1 Peter chapter 5, we know His power. We know that we can have confidence in Him.
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I'm gonna pray to close us and then we can all sing a song together that was inspired by Psalm 139 as the worship team makes its way up.
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Father God, I thank you for just the truth in your Word.
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I thank you that we can have confidence in you to come through in the moments where we don't have any answers left.
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And I thank you that you are big enough to handle anything that we're going through, that it's not a secret to you, God.
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That you are our authority.
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We can stand firm in that.
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Help us to humble ourselves so that we can seek the help of You.
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And I thank You, Lord, that You care for us, that You're in our every day, You know our thoughts, our emotions, everything that's going on with us on a deeper level than we can even understand ourselves.
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And I thank You that You are stronger and that You prove that through Your Word, that We can go from the beginning of the book to the end of the book, being Your Word, the Bible, and know that You ultimately win.
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God, I thank You that You don't just play in the first half.
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You aren't going to just sit around and give up, that You always see it through, that You're there until the very end.
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I thank you for these truths and I pray that each one of us can take those and apply it to our lives and have confidence and we wouldn't have fear with anything that we are facing in our lives.
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Thank you Lord for your power, your strength and the truth that you reveal to us in your word.
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In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Peter 5:6-11
Are there anxieties in your life that you keep from God? Is there a reason you do that?
What does your adversary “seeking someone to devour” look like in your life?
How would you describe being “firm in your faith” mentioned in 1 Peter 5:9?
What are some ways that we can humble ourselves daily so that God may exalt us?
Is there a time that God came through in the clutch for you?
Breakout
Pray for each other’s anxieties that may be keeping you from your faith in God.